Kindergarten

So this is the school year in which Jesse is supposed to start kindergarten. Huh?

I mean, we've discussed what kind of curricula to use for him this fall and all of that home school stuff, but it only hit me this morning that the Commonwealth of Virginia and the county in which we live expect his little body to show up at the local elementary school on September 4.

Um. Wow. I guess it never clicked since we've been schooling him since he was a baby.

Meanwhile, Beau, who is awesome, has been furiously working to learn what we need to do to make it known to the powers that be that Jesse will not, in fact, being attending the local elementary school. Letters are being written, by us and by our friends and clergy (we are claiming the religious exemption) for submission to the school board.

Related, I got home last night and Jesse promptly informed me that he had a full school "day" of devotions, math, letters, and reading. Good job, Daddy and Jesse!

Edyookashun

Before Beau and I were even married, we discussed the blessing of children and what to do with any children with whom God chose to bless us. Interestingly, we both expressed an interest in home schooling. Also interestingly, while concerned with the potential for propaganda being taught (climate change, evolution, self-esteem focus, etc.) and increasingly anti-Christian climate in public schools, our greater concern was the actual stuff our kids would or would not learn from the government run schools. Being a single income household private school was not going to be an option. And we both were interested in a more classical education, so home school has been our plan from before the birth of our little blessings.

Before I go further, let me acknowledge that there are excellent public schools. Our region boasts some of the top school systems in the country, high test scores, and loads of Ivy League-bound graduates. And there are many excellent, caring teachers (I am friends with a few and grateful for their hard work and dedication to their students) who work hard to educate the students who come through their classrooms. Beau and I merely want to have a little more control and flexibility with the education of our kids. We want to teach from a Biblical worldview. We want to give them more than what they may receive in a public school - more focused lessons in their learning style and level, more well-rounded subjects (life is school!), more autonomy in the learning environment (self-teaching is good), less homework (school is work), more field trips, more time to play (kids need play time and lots of it).

Beau has been "teaching" the kids since they were infants. For him every moment is a teachable moment. In the past couple of years he worked on teaching Jesse how to write his letters and now he has him doing some basic math (simple addition and subtraction) most days. He's reading well and increasing his vocabulary pretty much daily. And Molly is learning, too. She counts well and has known her alphabet and numbers for a long time. She has a pretty large vocabulary, too. Having an older brother helps spur her to learn more in order to keep up.

So now that Jesse is 5, it's time to make things official. He's supposed to start kindergarten in the fall. We're making the move to notify the county that we're going to be home schooling. We've been reading up on curricula and methods and it's all very overwhelming. I put out the call for curricula recommendations on Facebook and I got a lot of great recommendations and advice. Based on that I have a long list of curricula that have been tested and approved and some basic advice for the early years. With that, the plan for this year is to keep doing what we've been doing (I say we, but it's mostly Beau) - math and grammar (vocab/reading/writing). To make things easier for Beau, because he is still teaching online courses with Liberty University, we bought a basic math workbook and a grammar book for first grade (we believe that Jesse is mostly at that skill level, but where he's behind we can supplement) and Beau takes the kids to the library regularly where they can stock up on new reading material for Jesse to read or for us to read to both of them.

As to the socialization of the kids, I refer you to this post, which pretty much sums up where we are already. That said, we plan to get Jesse signed up for soccer again in the fall and maybe get Molly into a dancing class (Irish step since she already has the hopping thing going when she dances around the house). Our new neighborhood has a lot of littles for them to play with and there are the kids they meet in their classes at church. And we hope to get involved with a home school co-op or group in our new neighborhood, too. I'm not worried about their social skills.

Seven Years to One Month

Yesterday was the 7th anniversary of the day Beau and I got engaged. We bought a ring and then he taught me to shoot. A good day, indeed.

Today marks one month out from our closing date on our house. I'm getting more anxious - good anxious to be in there and making it our home and bad anxious because it means we have only 6 more weeks to pack up our stuff.

We went sofa shopping yesterday. One the one hand it was helpful - we determined that do like the same style but we differ on leather vs. upholstery; on the other hand is was extremely frustrating - two littles who were bored to tears the whole time and weren't shy to express themselves. By the time we got home I was ready to kill someone. No buying yet. We're still sort of trying to decide the placement of our current furniture. Certain pieces will determine whether or not we go for a total color makeover or not.

Either way it will be a fun challenge.

The New 'Hood

So with every day that passes, we're one step closer to home ownership. Closing is June 29.

Beau mentioned several weeks ago that he needed calling cards for the kids to set up play dates. Jesse has mentioned play dates with random people recently. But he often doesn't know the kid's last name, definitely doesn't know the parent's info, and they definitely don't know ours. Hence, the calling card idea.

Now that we're moving to a brand new neighborhood, the calling card idea became a smarter idea. Tooling around Etsy.com I found a lot of cute options. Did we want individual cards for each kid? A card for them together? A family card?

In the end I opted for the family calling card (in lime) since we will all be new to the neighborhood. As we meet people, we can hand them the card that contains each of our names, Beau's and my cell number, our home phone number, and a family email address (which I created today).

What I bought is the digital file. I'll get them printed from GotPrint.com, where I get my business cards printed.

And I'm also looking at change of address cards to mail to family and friends when the time comes.

YouTube of the Day: Parenting Win

This has gone viral and it is awesome. Adult language warning.

On Introversion

Robbo posts about a new book about introverts in business. (book link)

If you have read here (or at the old, now vanished, blog), then you know that I am a super-introvert. I think that Beau leans more to the extrovert side of things, although he's a more quiet and solitary sort of extrovert.

I've been thinking about the introvert vs extrovert thing a lot lately as I see these traits begin to fully manifest in our kids. I am nearly 100% certain that Jesse is an extrovert. And I'm at about 80% certain than Molly is an introvert.

If Jesse doesn't get out, see people, do something, then he becomes unhappy and intemperate enough that I think when puberty hits it'll be full on cranky. I know this is typical of his age, but he talks incessantly and he requires company at all times. He completely wears me out pretty quickly, I'll admit. My introverted personality that really goes into overload with too much noise and chaos, starts to move into cranky after about 30 minutes of what a typical 4-5 year old offers. I pray daily that I have supernatural patience and tolerance for it, because it is very hard to not just snap at him to be quiet and give me a few minutes of peace. Even when he's watching his favorite TV shows, he will call out to one of us to relay some piece of information about the show or run in to wherever we are to say it before running back so as not to miss anything. After an outing, Jesse is jazzed. He bounces off the walls with excitement so extreme at times that it takes several minutes to get him to calm down. In the classic extrovert definition, Jesse gets his energy from being out, with people.

Then there's Molly, who will sit quietly playing with whatever for anywhere from 20-40 minutes without saying a peep to anyone (except the toys, of course). She will watch TV without moving, sucking on her fingers and twirling her hair. She will sit at the kitchen table and quietly scribble or color without saying a word. Not that she doesn't talk - she is a little chatterbox, but only when she has something very important to tell you. She is classic introvert, who gets her energy in quiet and solitude. After an outing, she's ready for a nap. I'm so with her.

Parenting such different kids will be interesting. I'm looking forward to and sort of dreading how the hormonal changes of puberty will impact these aspect of their personalities. Will they be magnified? Mellowed? And will our parenting have any impact on them?

I will say this, knowing this about them will help. It will help to know that Jesse is cranky because he needs to go out. Or Molly is tired because she was just at a large gathering of people. What will help both of them is that they seem to be outgoing, gregarious people - in their own ways, they love to engage with other people, but how they do so will be fun to watch.

Five

This is being posted early because it's been on my mind and I don't want to forget it on the day.

Five years ago I was living in a hospital room, hugely pregnant and with great anxiety and expectation. I had been on strict bed rest for about 7 weeks at this point.

I had complete placenta previa and when it was first diagnoses at about 16 weeks into my pregnancy, I was told that bed rest was a certainty as well as a c-section since there was no other way for the baby to get out with the placenta blocking the birth canal. Later, my OBs told me that I lasted much longer before I had any bleeding (which indicated that the placenta was tearing away from my uterus - this is bad). Anyway, on the Wednesday after Thanksgiving I experience my first bit of bleeding. I was at 29 weeks. Naively, I headed to the hospital where I was immediately checked in and told that in no uncertain terms was I to get out of bed. For 2 days I lay in that shared room (only for the first couple of days, then I got a room to myself), miserable, stressed (about baby and my job (I had driven myself to the hospital, blithely telling my bosses that I'd "see [them] tomorrow." Ha! Little did I know.)).

Mercifully, one of the peri-natologists relented and allowed me to get up to use the potty. One week after arriving I was sent home with instructions to stay in bed except to use the potty. I was allowed 1-2 showers per week.

My Beau was awesome. He set up a table next to the bed, brought up my computer to the table and I was able to function pretty well there from bed. I did 100% of our Christmas shopping that year online. I hand addressed all of the Christmas cards and I think I may have hand written notes in most of them, too. I even wrapped many of the gifts in bed.

And then I had more bleeding, two weeks after arriving back at home, so into the hospital I went again and this time I was in for the duration. This time I was more prepared for being in the hospital since I already knew what to expect. After a few days I was again able to get up to use the bathroom and shower.

Interestingly, most of my memories are wonderful and fond. I was visited every day. My husband came every day. My mother came several times a week. Our small group friends came frequently - our small group leader is a surgeon so he would visit me almost every morning when he was there to do his rounds. His wife was wonderful to visit often as well. Folks brought me food from outside. I watched a lot of TV, read some, slept a lot.

Beau and I celebrated our first anniversary (New Year's Eve) in Labor & Delivery - I experience my third bleeding that night and we spent 36 scary and uncomfortable hours in L&D. The nurses there were great though. They were cheerful and encouraging and very much doing everything they could to ensure that my baby did not arrive early. I am grateful for their hard work that night. Things settled down and I was sent back to the high risk pregnancy unit to continue my extended stay.

Two more weeks passed. I was now 36 weeks. My docs wanted to get to at least 34 weeks and we had done it. Now they were hoping I could get to 37 weeks. But alas, 36 was the magic number.

It was a Sunday night. Beau and I had watched the Redskins play in a playoff game that evening. I dozed off to sleep, but awoke at about 1am because I was bleeding. And this time it was scary bleeding.

Thinking back on it, it all reminds me of an ER episode. I pressed the call button, telling the nurse I was bleeding. Seconds later 2 nurses came in, took one look and called for reinforcements. I heard one say they were calling my doctor right away. I knew this was it and asked for the phone so that I could call Beau. I can't remember if I called my mom or if he did. The rest is sort of a blur but about 90 minutes passed.

Next thing I remember is being wheeled into the OR and being prepped for the c-section. Beau came in. People were bustling about. My doctor arrived (she was about 5 months pregnant at that time, too. Bless her.) Things had sort of been quiet, so I asked Beau, "Have they started yet?" There was laughter from several people and the nurse at my head said, "Honey, they started about 10 minutes ago. Your baby is about to be pulled out!" Beau looked green and laughed in disbelief - he's a bit squeamish and as he tells it there was a lot of blood where the doctor was working.

Then she pulled out our baby. "It's a boy!" she confirmed what we already knew. The nurses bundled our preemie to the scale and then there were more chuckles. He was a large preemie at 7lb 5 oz. He was 19" long. And we was born right on the dot of 3am on January 16, 2007.

Happy birthday my precious boy. Thank you for the joy, giggles, kisses, and hugs you gift us with every day. Every moment of every day I am grateful that God chose to gift us with you. I love you.

Monday Random

1. Jesse's first soccer game of the fall season was Saturday. What a difference 6 months and a good coach makes. The team actually looked like they sort of knew what they're doing and Jesse scored a goal! It was a fun morning.

2. We had Chick-Fil-A for lunch post-game. Man, I love that place.

3. Pumpkin Spice Chai is my new fall go-to on the commute. So yummy. Brew with half milk/half water for 10 minutes on low-medium heat. Strain into your mug and you have lovely deliciousness.

I have nothing much else to share. God is good, therefore, life is good.

The Boy's Room Redo

A couple of weeks ago, Jesse reluctantly went into his room (after jumping on Molly's bed with her) for bed time. As he climbed into bed he said, "Mama, I hate my room!" I asked why, to which he replied, "It isn't special. Will you paint my room red?"

So out of left field, the things our children say sometimes, right? Although, really his request was not too far out of left field. He's expressed his love for Molly's room before - it's painted green with all of the finishing touches that make it complete. His room was not complete - the mirror that goes with the dresser was still on the floor leaning against the wall.

We had a brief chat about his room in that moment and I offered to paint one wall, but not red. Some conversations on FB about it resulted in my sister offering her son's last bedding set - it's a patchwork quilt of light blue and red plaid, stripes, and denim. What's great about it is that it isn't childish, so it can be used for a long time with different motifs through the years to come (unless he decides he wants an orange room someday). And I have sheets to go with it already, too, so that saves the budget.

I'm going to paint the long wall where his bed goes a pale blue and do a red chair-rail stripe with a thinner red stripe about 2" above it. That way he gets the red, but not a whole wall. And he gets some wall color, but Mama doesn't need to move furniture out of the room to do it (his room is tiny and there's no way to remove the pieces in order to get access to all walls. Moving his bed is the easiest thing.

I had the thought to get some superhero posters - Spider-man (of course), Superman, Iron Man, etc. - to hang on the painted wall. He liked that idea a lot. The picture is one of the posters I found for him - in all there will be 5 - Spider-man, Batman, Superman, Captain America, and Iron Man.

And then I remembered this little shelving unit that I had found at a yard sale years ago - it's blue (slightly darker than the intended wall color) and perfect to hang on his wall. So that will get hung, too.

The last thing is his ceiling lamp, which is one of those DIY hanging lamps made from the cord kit and a lampshade. The shade is plain right now, but I'm thinking to paint the edges in a darker blue.

I'll take before and after pictures and post them on Monday. This is a full weekend project, I think. And now it's time to head to Walmart to buy paint.

The First Movie: Winnie the Pooh

We took the kids to see their very first movie in the theater this morning: Winnie the Pooh.

Jesse found me in the basement at 6am this morning, "I'm ready to go to the movie!" He was just a little excited. Molly was excited about the popcorn.

We got to the theater, bought our requisite jumbo bucket of popcorn (the gal behind the counter gave us little trays, "I've worked with kids, you'll need these." Awesome! I got one for me, too), Twizzlers and a too large soda for Beau and I to share.

We wondered how full/empty the theater would be for the first showing of the day. Turns out it filled up to about 3/4 full. We were in one of the smaller theaters in the multiplex, though. I'm sure the larger rooms were all Harry Potter-ed.

We saw a few cute trailers and then the magic happened. The movie started and Jesse moved to the edge of his seat, where he stayed for most of the short movie. Molly was enthralled for longer than I expected given that she's only 2. I think she matched Beau for popcorn consumption, too. That girl loves popcorn.

As for the movie, it was the ultimate in sweet and perfect for the littles. I love that it was true to the books in look and spirit. The voices were perfect. The musical numbers were fun. Judging from the reaction of the other kids in the theater, I think they enjoyed it. I know that my kids did.

I give Winnie the Pooh 5 stars out of 5.

Reading with Jesse: The Hobbit

Now that Jesse is closer to 5 years old than 4 years old and starting to learn how to read, I thought maybe it was time to try reading a chapter book to him at bedtime. A friend posted on FB that she's been reading The Hobbit to her daughters (who I think are ages 6 and 4) and that they were loving it.

I had already downloaded the Kindle version some time ago, so a few nights I ago after getting Jesse into bed I went to get my Kindle and sat down to read. I explained that I was going to read a book that has no pictures and he said OK. That particular night he was very tired, so I attributed his quiet while I read to that. However, in the nights since his quiet when I read the story of Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf the wizard, and the 13 dwarves has been remarkable. Usually he fidgets and mutters, playing with some toy or his blanket while a story is read. But with this story, even with the lofty prose and poetry, he seems fully engaged.

I knew he was hooked when he asked me to read "the goblin story" to him last night after he finished brushing his teeth. I almost ran to get my Kindle in my excitement.

I'm so looking forward to enjoying Bilbo's adventure with Jesse, to revisit this great story through the eyes and imagination of my son.

Parenting: The Toilet Edition

Incident #1: Molly decided that playing with the powder room toilet would be fun. She took the shape blocks and tossed them in. You know that bucket with the lid with the shaped cut outs? Yeah, those blocks got baths. I noticed there were a bunch of those blocks in the sink and asked Jesse why they were there. He mumbled something about Molly playing with them in the toilet.

I also noticed that one of the hand towels was missing. Jesse has been filling up the sink in there to play with a water toy he got from Burger King (evil kid's meal), so I figured it got soaked and Beau tossed it down the basement for the weekend laundry. Little did I know - she put that into the toilet, too.

So before bedtime, Jesse decided to use the powder room potty before heading upstairs. He flushed and then called to me, "Mama, the water isn't going down!" I went to investigate and help him wash his hands and found the water was not flushing. I made a mental note to ask Beau about the toilet playing and to take the plunger down (it gets stored in my bathroom).

Beau got home from his small group and I woke up long enough to tell him about the toilet. That's when he informed me about the towel going in there. I told him I'd try plunging the toilet in the morning and went back to sleep.

This morning I remembered to take the plunger down. With the first flush and plunge, I managed to bring up two more blocks (red triangle and blue circle). I grabbed the triangle, but couldn't get the circle before it went back down the hole. I plunged a second time and didn't see the circle. Plunged a third time and it didn't seem to be working. Plunged a fourth time and the circle shot out of the plunger. I grabbed it. By that time the water had finished the cycle so I flushed and plunged again. It still ran slow, but it did go down some. Nothing plunged out. At that point I gave up and washed my hands.

Beau tried when he got up and managed to get out another block and the water shot down the hole. His and Jesse's mission is to keep Molly out of that bathroom without supervision by Daddy.

Incident #2: We had an intentional diaper breach this morning. Molly must have needed to go potty when she woke up. She pulled the changing pad off of the dresser, took off her diaper, and we think she then pooped in the corner behind the door (that's where we found the poop). When Beau got up there, she was laying on the changing pad and trying to clean up with wipes. Fortunately, she didn't seem interested in the finger painting that her brother did when he pulled off his diapers at this age.

I guess it's time to stop playing at potty training and to get to the intensive work of getting that girl to go on the potty. She seems more than interested. Oy.

QotD: Godly Parenting Edition

I think I'm going to have to get this book:

‎"We are not, nor can we be, the saviors of our children. He is the Savior. When we forget this, our parenting will be pockmarked by fear, severity, and exhaustion." - Elyse Fitzpatrick, Give Them Grace

As my mother commented to my posting of this on Facebook, "Psalm 78:1-8 should be emblazoned on the hearts of all parents." Amen.

[Via Jared on FB]