Life At The Circus

I like to think of myself as a woman who can hold her own.  I’m not a girly girl.  I can follow a football game and I am currently 3-0 in my fantasy league.  I love camping.  Power outages don’t send me packing for the nearest Hilton.  And I will happily kill and remove any bug that comes my way without even a squeal. However, this “tough girl” fantasy that I have of myself falls apart rather quickly when confronted with my own personal kryptonite. 2 forms actually mice and snakes Nothing sends me squealing bloody murder and jumping for the nearest stool to stand on like mouse droppings or snake sightings. And I’ve encountered BOTH this week.  At MY OWN HOME! Saturday morning I went to let Maggie out from our downstairs rec room and as I went to close the door, I spotted a black snake hanging down from the side of the railing.  It took me a minute to process what I was staring at before I slammed the door shut, ran into the middle of the ...

We are three weeks in to our new school year.  I think I FINALLY have all the kids correct curriculum (missed a few things I when I ordered it this summer) and their books organized in a way that works for them, me, and their tutors at the tutorial.  I’ve done things a little differently this year, and SO FAR, it has helped our days to run more smoothly.  First of all, I’ve committed to waking up before the kids every day.  I’ve tried this in the past, but truthfully, what I did was sleep in as late as possible on “school at the building days” resulting in a rushed and flustered Momma trying to hustle the kids out the door in the morning.  Resulting in crabby and late kids and Momma.    On school at home days, I would just sleep till the first kid woke me and let the kiddos sleep in till they woke, with the aim of starting school right after breakfast.  I’ll be honest.  It didn’t work great for us.   For many reasons....

Lately, I’ve been asked several times what I do with my 2 year old while I am teaching the older 3.  Here’s your answer.  Yes, that would be pen mark up and down the corner of the walls in my dining room.    Yes, he did that yesterday morning while I was working with the big kids in the other room and thought that scraping sound was the sound of him scraping oatmeal of his cereal bowl with a spoon. 

There are lots of things that I truly appreciate about our new house.  Among the top is the location.  This came as a surprise to many of our friends, because at first glance the location seems less than ideal.   A large majority of our life is centered 20-25 minutes away from our house… our church, our tutorial, gymnastics, and many of our friends.  However, one of the most important and integral parts of our family life is located a mere 2 miles away. Daddy Before you raise your eyebrows in confusion, No, Scott doesn’t live 2 miles away.  He lives here with us.  However, his work is a a mere 2 miles away.  And the effect this has on our family life can not be overstated.  Scott is able to eat breakfast with us every single morning.  In fact, this week for our “school at home days” we began our school day with Daddy praying and holding the flag for the Pledge of Allegiance.  Then he went out the door to work and we sat at t...

The morning was going well… kids on time for tutorial, load of laundry in the washer and dryer, even took the van to the garage for some repairs. And then, because things can’t go THAT smoothly…..   Yea… turns out even the otterbox can’t protect your phone when it’s  been thrown off the side of a van and run over on the side of a highway.  And, no, this had NOTHING to do with the new iphone 5 coming out today.  After Scott dropped me off to pick up the van, I brought the car seat, the 2 yr old, and my 3 other bags over to the van.  Scott helped me strap in the car seat and we were all set.  As he started to pull away, I realized I didn’t know where my phone was so I stopped him to check and see if it was in his car.  It wasn’t.  He called my phone and I could hear it faintly in the van… though it sounded muffled, but since I heard it, I figured the volume had been turned down and it was in one of the bags.  Away I drove.  ...

Scott commented the other day that he feels the passage of time more noticeably at the beginning of the school year, rather than on the kids birthdays.  I think he’s right. Especially this year, when I packed up three backpacks and three lunch boxes and lined up 3 kids for pictures at the front door.  We have our Kindergartener, on her very first day of school ever.  Followed by our first grader. And, then our third grader. They were all eager to go to “school at the building” today at their tutorial.  I wonder if they’ll be as excited tomorrow for “school at the kitchen table.” I think, by far, the most excited was my 5 year old… she’s been eagerly waiting for her turn for several years now.  I hope and pray that it is a good school year for all of us. 

Just one day over 2 weeks from shipping her off to the doll hospital, Kit arrived on our door step during lunch today. Her arm has been reattached and they even sent her home in a pretty hospital gown, with new socks, and her hair pulled up in a bow.  It just so happened that Daddy popped home for lunch today and she eagerly greeting him on the steps to tell him the good news.   She was so happy to have her back, fully healed, and in time for her to come to Kindergarten with her on Monday. 

When I started home schooling 4 years ago, I stepped back from most of my other responsibilities.  I wanted time to figure out the ropes of homeschooling in addition to taking care of my family.   But last spring, I started to feel a tug.  I was ready to serve again.  I wasn’t sure where or how, but I knew I wanted to serve in some capacity.  (Keep in mind this is not because after 3 years of homeschooling I suddenly had the homeschool thing mastered… truthfully this year more than ever I feel more nervous about our school year…. it’s because I think I realized that I didn’t want to wait till I had mastered it b/c truthfully I never will…) So anyway, last spring I started to talking to Scott about my desire to get involved and serve the Lord.  He supported it.  Still I wondered where, how? And then I got a letter from our youth pastor seeking helpers for the youth group. This is not the first time such a letter has arrived in our mailbox....

This weekend marked an anniversary of a life changing event in my life.  In fact, one could say that my life is very, very different as a result of it. 2 years ago while on our annual Labor Day cabin trip I did something I had never done before.  I finished a cup of coffee. Sure, I had had a sip once or twice, hoping to like it like my friends… but I never really cared for it. And so I gave up, b/c ignorance is bliss.  But I found myself begging my husband to become a coffee drinker just so our house could have that wonderful aroma of coffee brewing each morning. He wasn’t interested in “becoming addicted to a drug,” as he put it. I don’t know what changed 2 years ago… maybe it was the hormones from child number 4, maybe it was that I finally tasted good coffee (the bolder and stronger the better in my book), but I fell in love 2 years ago and there is no going back. I drink a good 4-6 cups a day.  I love the smell, I love the taste, I love the warmth, ...

Take 2 missing teeth, plus a few inches chopped off at the salon, and throw in a brand new pair of glasses, and you get yourself a brand new look for first grade!