Did it!

I've printed out my Intent to Homeschool form, filled it out, copied my diploma, and wrote up my curriculum. I've emailed my daughter's band teacher. Tomorrow morning I will go and hand over the paperwork, and will go to the school to withdraw my daughter. Although she will be still going and doing Jazz band concerts with the middle school the next two mornings. I will be picking her up as soon as the concerts are over though.
How do I feel? Scared shitless!!!! I know that we can totally do this, and I'm excited about it. She's excited about it. Just when you think of it, I'm going to be in charge of teaching my daughter everything she needs to know. Thank God for support.
I'm so thankful for friends that homeschool and have been so helpful. I don't know what I would have done without them.
It's going to take sometime to get use to having my oldest daughter at home at all times, and I'm sure there are days she will drive me nuts. I know it's the best thing for her though.
Here's to our adventure that starts tomorrow!

Homeschooling

I kept going back and forth on homeschooling my oldest daughter last year. We had a lot of issues with the school. I finally told her that we would give the school one more shot and see how 7th grade went. We've still been having lots of issues, but last week pushed me over the edge.

She went to the nurse to see if she could call me to come pick her up. She told the nurse she was dizzy, coughing, sore throat, and felt like she was burning up. The nurse took her temp and told her to go back to class. She asked once again if she could call me to be picked up. The nurse told her "No, you don't have a temp go back to class". WHAT!!! She went back to class and the teacher was shocked that she was sent back to class, yet when Bella asked if she could use the classroom phone to call me the answer was once again NO!

Why was my child not allowed to call me? It's not the nurses choice on if the child gets to go home or not. If my child says she's sick and needs to go home, then she needs to call me and let me decide if she can't "tough" it out or come home.

Then my daughter tells me her Math teacher (who we've had some issues with anyway) told the class "I don't care if you pass or fail, because I'll still get a check". Nice huh? Bella said he was having a bad day. I don't care what kind of a day you have that's not something you say to a classroom full of kids.

Needless to say that I've started the process of beginning to homeschool. Tomorrow all the paperwork will be sent in to make it offical. We are both excited about this adventure we are getting ready to begin. Her two worries...her friends (of course she's a teenage girl), and getting to play her clarinet. We just bought her clarinet and she's been playing for 1 1/2 years. She loves it! So we will be looking into clarinet. I told her she can still hang out with her friends and will be making more friends.

I'm going to start off with my oldest and go from there. I figure we will see how it goes with the oldest and go from there. Although we've not had any problems with our Elementary school. Although we do plan on moving at some point and time to another state in which I will most likely homeschool in that state.

The ABC's of Me!

The ABC’s Of Me:


{a} Age: 34

{b} Bed Size: King

{c} Chore You Hate: I don't like any chores, but will pick dishes.

{d} Dogs: There ok.

{e} Essential Start To Your Day: Coffee in the winter, iced tea in the summer

{f} Favorite Color: blues and greens

{g} Gold Or Silver: Either

{h} Height: 5’6 1/2"

{i} Instruments You Play: None now, but I've played the trombone and flute

{j} Job Title: Wife,Mommy, child care provider
{k} Kids: I've got 6! Bella 13, Kaelyn 7, Natalie 6, Addison 4, Avery 17 months, Michael 3 1/2 months

{l} Live: Virginia

{m} Mom’s Name: Karin

{n} Nicknames: Jess

{o} Overnight Hospital Stays: Thankfully just for the births of my babies.

{p} Pet Peeve: I've got a few.

{q} Quote From A Movie: I'd have to think about this one and it's still early.

{r} Right- Or Left-Handed: Right

{s} Siblings: I have two older stepbrothers, one younger brother, and two younger sisters.

{t} Time You Wake Up: 7

{u} Underwear: Yes, wear it every day:)

{v} Vegetables You Dislike: Onions is the biggest one

{w} What Makes You Run Late: The kids

{x} X-Rays You’ve Had: teeth and back

{y} Yummy Food You Make: I make lots of yummy foods!

{z} Zoo – Favorite Animal: I love zoo animals so I would have a hard time picking one.

Love and Blessed

I've always loved the relationship that I see between my Grandparents. The love they share. It's one of those marriages that you look at and say "I want a love like that". My Grandparents have been married 52 years (I believe). In this day and age that's not the normal. You here about people getting divorced left and right. My parents were divorced, my husband's parents are divorced. When my husband and I started talking about marriage (no joke on our first date), we both said that when we got married it would be forever. I look at all the couples that have been married for so many years (like my Grandparents) and I think "how"? How do they do it? What are things that make a strong marriage and a marriage that lasts?

I know not every marriage is perfect, and all marriages have ups and downs. A marriage is a lot of work. I don't feel like my marriage is failing, but I just feel like there is always room for improvement. I think one thing we've done this year to improve our marriage is we've added Christ to it. We joined a church and Bible study class. I think that's made us closer.

Today at church I sat in tears as we prayed during service. I sat in tears as we prayed in Bible study. Happy tears, but tears! I felt overwhelmed with the feeling of being so blessed! You see a couple that we know and love are leaving for China on Thursday morning to pick up the twins they are adopting. They tried for years to have a baby of their own, and have been on the waiting list to adopt for over five years. This is such and huge and wonderful blessing for them. I was overwhelmed with happiness for them. I was overwhelmed by the feeling of how blessed I am.

God has blessed me with 6 wonderful healthy children. Today being one of their birthdays at that. Getting pregnant for me wasn't always easy either. I had 3 losses between my 4th and 5th daughters. At the time I questioned God as to how he could keep taking these babies from me. I didn't understand why he would have me suffer so much. I now understand and have to remember that I thank God for all the good things that happen in my life, but I also need to pray and thank him for the bad things as well. I have to keep in mind that things could always be harder or worse on me. God only gives you what you can handle. I thank him every day for my family!

Today my 3rd daughter turned 6. I started looking through the pictures that I have saved on my computer and remembering all the fun times we've shared. I'm so thankful for those times with my children, and look forward to many more good times with them.

I sit and pray very day for my friends that have trouble having babies, have lost babies, and those that are becoming parents for the first time. It really is such a wonderful blessing. I'm so happy for our friends who are going to meet their children for the first time and I pray all goes well. I hope those sweet baby girls bond quickly with their new mommy and daddy and that all involved know how blessed they are. I know the parents to be feel very blessed and I know the little girls one day will also.

Jess

Differences between kids

Something that happen the other day got me thinking. I was sitting in the room with my 4 year old. She asks me "Mommy, do you still love me"? I say "Yes, I love you very much". In return she says "If you love me, then why do you yell at me"? I told her "I yell because you do things that make me mad". I then had to leave the room because I was about to cry. I run to the bathroom and start crying.

How could my child think that I don't love her? Do I not give her enough attention, hugs, kisses, etc. Do I not let her know daily that I love her? Do I yell at her so much that she thinks I hate her? Why do I yell so much?

I yell so much because sometimes I feel like that's the only way they are going to hear me. It's the only way I can be hear sometimes.

Then it got me thinking about the differences between my children. My oldest is in that stage of not wanting to have much to do with her parents. She's a teenager though so that's to be expected. Although she's pretty good about "hanging out" with her dear old mom. She's always been independent though, never one of those kid you had to play with all the time and needed your full attention. Which is amazing to me because I was a single mom for the time she was about 2 til I married when she was 6 years old. She was an only child for 6 years.

My second child is probably the most like me. She's quiet and shy until she gets to know you. She's loving and loves hugs,kisses,and curling up in your lap just to sit there. She's pretty thoughtful, and wants to be friends with everyone and wants everyone to like her.

My third child is my little tomboy, thoughtful, loving, likes to cuddle as well. Her feeling get hurt very easily. She's a little people person as well.

My fourth child is my 4 yr old that broke my heart. She's my "wild" child, the one that pushes every button she can at every chance she gets. She's not a cuddler, she doesn't like to sit on your lap, rarely gives hugs and kisses. Shy until you get to know her. Good as cold at school, but wild at home. Seems to enjoy talking back to me and pushing my buttons.

My fifth child, well she's 17 months old and stuck to Mommy like glue. She just started giving hugs and kisses.

My sixth child, my one and only little man is only 3 months old. Only time will tell what he is like. Spoiled by his sisters I'm sure.

I guess my point in all of this is how do I show my 4 year old that I love her. My other kids (excep my 13 year old) love the hugs and kisses where as my 4 year old will let you hug and kiss her but it's not a daily thing. The other night I asked her if she wanted to cuddle on my lap and she sat there for about 5 minutes and asked to get up. She's just not a cuddle me, hold me, hug and kiss me kind of kid. It's odd to me that one of my children are like this. I'm a hugger. I love getting and giving hugs. I get it from my Great Grandmother. She loved hugs!

Days and Nights mixed up?

I'm starting to wonder if the baby has his days and nights mixed up. After being so completely wiped out today. Not only did I have the baby waking up, but I had my 17 month old wake me up, and my 4 1/2 year old wake me up. Mommy really needs a nap today!
Little man wakes up every 3 hours at night (sometimes less). Usually he will eat and go right back to sleep. Sometimes like the other night he plays and laughs at you.
This morning he ate at 5am, woke up at 7 and went back to sleep by 8. It's 12:36 now and I stopped the swing and woke him up. So he can go hours without eating, that's not the deal. Why won't the child sleep through the night??
How do I fix this? He is 3 months old, most of my girls were sleeping through the night at this point. Only 2 were not. My 17 month old still wakes up once in awhile in the middle of the night. I love my babies but the first couple of months of their lives are the hardest. I'm one sleepy mommy today!