Six Months.

Pin It It has been six months since the tornadoes in Joplin, Missouri. That means it's been six months since my brother died. It seems like yesterday and also like such a long time.

I hadn't seen Troy since the summer of 2006, when my grandmother died. His health had been bad for the past eight-ish years, something like that.

In 2009, his health took a serious turn for the worse, and we expected that he would not survive. At that time, I had a ton of stuff going on at home. I was a single mother for all intents and purposes because Jim was in Afghanistan. I couldn't just take off and go. Then Troy got better, against the odds. He kind of did that several times.

Then the urgency of going to visit went away. He got better and the "last time" and the "say goodbye" didn't seem as pressing. We talked on the phone a few times, and I have an email from him which still makes me giggle. He knew Jim was gone and told me to let him know if I needed anything. :)

When Jim got back, life kind of took over again and we just didn't make plans to visit. I desperately wish now that we would have.

This last week, I have been remembering silly things. Games we used to play - our house in Nashville had a hall that was completely dark if we closed the doors. We did this silly charades in the dark type game. I remember the BRIGHT red carpet in his bedroom in that house. Last week I got a couple of boxes of old stuff out of my old bedroom at my parents' house and remembered him out there listening to Bill Cosby and Howie Mandel records. I remember him watching Spies Like Us over and over and laughing hysterically through the whole thing. And OH MY HEAVENS, his son Tommy? So many mannerisms of Troy. Things he says and does ... it's a little freaky. And very cool. I would have never remembered Troy singing and dancing (a little strangely) to some old Michael Jackson song until I saw Tommy do it just last weekend. And this is a blessing. :)

And now it's Thanksgiving. Really, I'm not feeling all that thankful. I have regrets for not doing things because the cost to me was perceived to be too high. And then ... to survive all that he did and be killed by a tornado? That doesn't make sense to me. So, I am partly a little angry.

Then again, I am SO thankful. We had a perfect childhood. I have great memories. I see my childhood family somewhat mirrored in my own. I have faith that one day this WILL make sense. So as I sit here in a dark house in the rain, far from home and far from my parents, I'm trying to let the thankful things outweigh the "want to pitch a fit and say this is unfair" things.

And right now? I think that's good enough.

Gratitude Journal - 331 - 340

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Woot!  Two weeks in a row!!

331.  For the oldest finishing her Texas History course!  We are rejoicing much for this class to be done.  She's getting much more out of the Texas history she is doing at our homeschool co-op, and all we were doing at home was basically doing just enough to check the box to say that we did it.  It took up a lot of time, so we are very glad to have it done!

332.  I've probably mentioned this before several times, but I am thankful for white chocolate raspberry creamer.  I have been in coffee bliss.  When the day starts with bliss, well ... everyone is just plain happy about that. When the day starts with bliss AND a clean sink ... well ... doesn't get much better than that!

333.  For watching my oldest get involved in a service project.  I'll post more about this later, because really it deserves a whole post to itself.  I am just thankful to watch her really think about some needs and find a way to help fill those needs. 

334.  For a repair that could have either been a minor fix or financial destruction.  You know how that goes?  It might be something that needs to be cleaned, or it might be the whole darn system needs to be replaced.  Thankfully our repair was of the minor sort, and if it should ever get cold here (ahem ... 4:30 pm on 11/14, and it's 81 degrees right now) we're all set.

335.  For tweaking The Pioneer Woman's chili recipe to just where I want it, and on our cold day last week (giggle ... it's all relative.  It was in the 60's okay?  When you live here, that IS cold!) I made a double batch, so there is perfect chili in the freezer for another day.  It's all in the chili powder/cumin ratio.  Get that right and it's chili bliss.  (So ... start off the day with vanilla coffee with white chocolate raspberry creamer, end it with chili ... the only appropriate word here is bliss.)

336.  For really good dental insurance, as we start the braces process with the middle one tomorrow.  And for the oldest one not needing them. 

337.  For how exciting it is to watch the middle one doing her math.  She really *gets* what she is doing now and is doing her math well and quickly.  And especially I am thankful that she is realizing that she is really doing well and is excited about it herself.  (And while I'm praising her, I'm sitting here with a poem she wrote that she is wanting me to type for her.  She did an excellent job!  Her handwriting is neat, spelling is good, and you can tell she put some effort into it.  Go middle one!)

338.  For snaggle toothed smiles from a six year old who runs up to give me hugs when he sees me at church.

339.  For getting plans together for high school and figuring out a plan there.  It's overwhelming, a little, but both the future high school student and I are excited about it. 

340.  For plans for a relatively easy week this week, then time off next week for Thanksgiving!  And for having much for which to be thankful. I will be linking up with A Holy Experience today. Hop on over and read some other gratitude journals.

Gratitude Journal - 321 - 330

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It's been a while since I've done one of these, and as this has been a *bit* of a challenging day, a little bit of gratitude will likely go a long way!

321. That co-op is over for the day. LOL Today was one of THOSE days; tired kids I think from the time change. Or something.

322. My junior high co-op class. How I love that class! They keep me on my toes and make me giggle. They are a precious group!

323. Coffee bliss. White chocolate raspberry creamer is in my fridge (thanks to friends!!) and it is SO nice to start my day off with a smile and yummy coffee.

324. For a completely fabulous weekend! We got to visit friends, do a little shopping, and visit with my family all within a couple of days.

325. The oldest will finish her Texas history class this week. This class has been okay, she has enjoyed it well enough, but it takes quite a while and we are all looking forward to her school day being a little bit shorter when she switches from Texas history to English grammar. (Plus she enjoys grammar and is looking forward to it herself.)

326. The fact that when, just now, I picked up the little one's milk rather than my tea, and realized it BEFORE putting it in my mouth. Sometimes it's the little things. ;) I have a serious milk aversion and it would not have been pretty had that gone into my mouth. (And yes, I can appreciate the irony of my happiness a second ago over cream. LOL)

327. For cooler weather and a promise of rain in the forecast.

328. For an easy week without a whole lot of extra stuff. One child has an appointment and I think that's it for extras. This makes mama happy. We've had a LOT of going and going lately so it will be nice to have a break.

329. I am delighted with where we are in our homeschool so far this year. The kids are right on track and it's going smoothly. I also found a scheduling method that works even better for me than what we were using. :)

330. I have an easy meal planned for tonight that the kids should enjoy, and it's convenient because we have Upwards basketball evaluations tonight. I didn't plan for the evaluations when I made the menu, so I was glad to see an easy meal on there.

I will be linking up with A Holy Experience today. Hop on over and read some other gratitude journals.

Oh my goodness. Do you know these babies?

Pin It The GOOD thing about using the desktop again? 

Pics like THESE scroll across my screen! 

I can't keep up!

Pin It Wow, my blog has been so neglected lately.  I have great plans and think of blog posts I need to make and then get up in the morning and am pulled 17 different ways before eight o'clock, and that's the QUIET part of my day!  LOL

I was talking with a friend about school this year.  I'm not gonna lie - three kids, three different curriculums, three different Heart of Dakota programs going makes for a BUSY day.  Add in the fact that these little darlings think they should eat at regular intervals and want to wear clean clothes and such, and something has to give a bit.  Apparently that something is blogging. 

I really do enjoy blogging though.  I love to look back through old posts and seeing how the kids have grown and what we were doing a couple of years ago.  I completely dropped off the Project 365 bandwagon.  After Troy died and then having surgery a couple of weeks later, I just couldn't keep up.  I will say - I did P365 for 2009 and 2010, and although it's nice having all of those pictures, it's been nice to take my camera when I want to rather than feeling obligated to come up with some sort of picture for the day.

I do have some fun pictures for a week in review post (um yeah ... I know ... MONTH in review at this point) that include a couple of field trips we've done recently.  They are on my laptop - and that's another blogging hindrance.  The girls use my laptop for a couple of their classes, which means my laptop time is reduced.

(Um.  Retitling this post:  in which Melanie makes a bunch of excuses.)

Hopefully I'll get some laptop time and will be able to do a couple of field trip posts!  Plus we've had a few cute snack days and other fun stuff. 

:)

Week in Review - Weeks 4, 5, 6, 7 ... the little one

Pin It And finally a post for the little one!

He is doing so well with school!  He has figured out his routine pretty well and knows what is expected of him, and most of the time does it.  He's generally a pretty compliant child who is eager to please, so that makes things a little easier.

He finished his math program.  The math program I expected to last all year.  (Do I have a mathy child?  Could it be?  Please say yes.)  After some searching and scrambling, we decided to go to Singapore Math 1B.  Hopefully it will be here the first part of the week and we can run with it.

He is using Bob Jones Kindergarten Beginnings and now sings along with Hopscotch on the DVDs.  He is doing amazingly well with his sight words and getting there with his word families and blends.  Some days he can get them right away and then other days he looks at us like we're speaking a foreign language.  Which, I guess if you're just learning, is pretty accurate.  :)

We are still really enjoying Heart of Dakota Little Hearts for His Glory.  His favorite part of the day is when it's time to read about Reddy Fox.  Even though we finished the Reddy Fox book and are now on to Peter Rabbit, he still calls it Reddy Fox.  I love snuggling up with him and reading to him. 

In history, he has gone from Creation to Sampson so far.  It is absolutely amazing to me how many of these stories he already knows - from either Mrs. Russell's class, Sunday school, AWANA, or Veggie Tales.  LOL  When I start to read a story and he finishes it for me and I ask him how he learned that story, I never know what the answer is going to be.

In science, we're talking about plants, and if I were a good mom, I would have had him plant something.  ;)  Maybe I'll get to that soon.

We are doing a mix of the Bible study recommended in the HOD guide and his AWANA verses for Bible, and he is doing very well with that.  He gets SO EXCITED when he has a verse memorized and can't wait to go share it with his teachers.  GO my little one!

I have to say though - his favorite part of all of his schoolwork is snack time.  About once or twice a week, it's Snack Day with Hopscotch.  They are cute and clever snacks that he makes himself.  This means there is usually peanut butter all over his desk.  Here's one snack day treat:

Can you tell it's a mouth?  Apple slices with peanut butter and marshmallows for teeth.

Usually the sisters get in on the snack day action:

These are traffic lights.  (Did I already post this picture?  I went to find the mouth picture and this one was next to it.  The bed was still in the family room though, so this may have been from one of the other weeks I blogged!)

And I think that's it for our weekly (or monthly!) review!  We have several field trips coming up in the next couple of weeks.  We are very happy to get out of the house a little!  

Week in Review - Weeks 4, 5, 6, 7 ... the Middle One

Pin It Because I'm combining four weeks on my Week In Review post, I decided to separate it by child so I'm not ending up with humongous long blog posts.  :)

The middle one! 
Can I just say that I really like fifth grade?  It seems like some kind of groove kicks in at about that time, and school just kind of rocks along.  I love it!

She is moving right along with Bob Jones Reading 5 and English 5, and with Teaching Textbooks math 5.  I have to brag on her a little - we talked about neatness when doing math problems, and from that moment on, her notebook where she works out math problems has been perfectly neat and easy to follow.  She has also done a lot better on her big multiplication problems.  Wonder if these things could be related ... ;)

She really enjoyed the unit in Reading about puppets and made several rather interesting puppets that her brother destroyed before I pictured.  :(  I need to get her to make another one, especially the one with the grocery bags!  It was darling!

She is writing a business letter in English, and her letter is going to be written to Dairy Queen requesting that they add a nutella blizzard to their menu.  Awesome!

In her Heart of Dakota, I have to say that we are LOVING the book Tirzah!

It is offering a perspective about the Israelites fleeing Egypt that I hadn't thought of before.  I love it when authors really draw the readers into a story.  We are both anxious to see what happens next!

Also, she is really enjoying Usborne Internet Linked Ancient World, and looks forward to pulling it out and telling me all about it.

In history, she in in the middle of the desert.  ha!  She has fled Pharoah and Egypt but not made it to the Promised Land yet.

When I take pics of the oldest's notebook, I will take pics of the middle one's history notebook.  Both girls have projects from various Draw and Write through History guides, and let me tell you - these are TREASURES!  The middle one did frogs this week (from one of the plagues in Egypt).  Fabulous!

In Science, she has gone from the Arctic Tundra to the Cactus Desert.  She is enjoying the One Small Square books and the science she is learning.

For Bible, she is mainly doing her AWANA guide.  There is Bible entwined with both her history and science, and we are pleased with that. 

Okay, I think that's it for the middle one these past few weeks.  I'll write up a post for the little one in a bit.  :)