Weeks 2-6 in Review!

It has been busy around here the past month! Since my plan to give a re-cap of each school week has failed for the last 5 weeks, you will just get the nutshell version that you probably wanted anyway! It is hard to believe that we have begun our 7th week of school. It has truly flown by and I can only imagine that in a whirlwind, our school days will be over. But, for now, I will cherish every moment of it (most of the time, anyway).

I had a momentary flash of *brilliancy* (don't worry...that doesn't happen very often!) during the 2nd week that helped me formulate a plan for the year. Since I have only purchased the first volume of Five in a Row and wanted to wait to see how it works out before investing in the other 3 volumes, I had to find a way to fill the rest of the year with unit studies. Volume one includes lessons for 19 weeks of the year, which leaves 26 weeks to do units on each letter of the alphabet!! We're doing 4 days a week and when you do the math, you get a perfect number of 180 school days (what the state of FL requires). All right, so you may not be as excited as I am, but I tell you, the idea came to me at midnight one night and I had to jump out of bed and write it down! So, I've done some looking around (using this blog for inspiration) and there are so many free unit studies out there that it will be easy for me to find units that correspond to each letter. And, I will be able to use the wonderful ideas at ABC, I Believe for the ABC weeks as well!

Oh, and one more revelation I had was that we were doing WAY too much each day. I have scaled things back a bit and I think we've found our niche.

Ok, now the good stuff. Keep in mind that along with the things listed here, we are doing daily Bible, math, and reading lessons.

WEEK 2 - FIAR book:



* We did a lot with bees this week, as part of our ABC, I Believe lesson. I found a great link where you can find clips of classical music. We listened to part of "The Flight of the Bumblebee".
* In science, we learned about clouds and made Rainy Sky Jello.

WEEK 3 - The Letter "B"
(We will go back and do "A" later)
* More bees!!!
* We started making some nice progress in reading.

WEEK 4 - FIAR book:



* Ella's favorite part of this week was this game, which reviewed the facts from the story.
* We studied Mark Shasha's illustrations in the book, then painted our own version of an ocean scene.
* Ella made a paper plate jellyfish.
* We learned the difference between moon jellyfish and the "moonjellies" from the book (actually comb jellies).

WEEK 5 - The Letter "C"
* "C" stands for "coins", "cents", "calendar", "cows" and "Costa Rica".
* We read lots of books about cows and made purple cows (yum!) for snack one day.

WEEK 6 - FIAR book:



* We learned a bit about architecture, based on Tomie de Paola's illustrations. Ella is still pointing out arches that she sees on buildings.
* We learned how rainbows are formed. We were able to make our own rainbow by allowing light to flow through a jar full of water.
* Despite my fear of clowns, we made a cute paper plate clown!

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Whew! I think I will go now and save some words for my next post! ;)

Disney's Plan to Save the Environment...One couch-potato at a time!

So, Disney has hit an all-time low. They've launched a new campaign for this week, calling it "Stay at Home and Watch TV Week". This is supposed to help us save the environment by making us stay home and conserve energy. Hmmm...what's wrong with that idea?? Here's the link, just in case you think (as I did when reading other blogs about it), "nah, that can't possibly be true!!"

National Stay at Home Week

Here is a call to action from tvturnoff.org: September Turnoff Week

Now, we may not be able to keep the tv off in the evenings (DH + Me = TV addicts), but I can keep Ella from watching tv during the day. We prefer movies around here these days anyway. Which reminds me, I'd like to recommend the movie, "The Adventures of Ociee Nash", especially for you moms of girls. Great family flick! I checked it out from the library for Ella thinking it wouldn't interest me much. I wound up watching most of it with her yesterday! She loved it so much she watched it again this morning and has said she wants to watch it everyday til we turn it in. ;) (Ok, so we've raised a bit of an addict as well...we do limit her screen-time, I promise!!)

Reflections

Every September, I find myself reflecting on the past. God has singled out this month for us and filled it with life-altering events. I wrote about these events last year on my old blog and you can read about them here. This year marks the 7th year that titanium rods have literally held me upright. Though some of the pain has resurfaced, I have to continually praise my God for the way He healed me so that I could walk without my legs caving underneath me, sit and stand for long periods of time without my nerves constantly haunting me, and so that I could carry and deliver a beautiful, brilliant baby girl 5 years ago today.

Ella was born on September 18, 2003, at 9:55pm. She weighed 8 lbs., 3 oz. and was 21 inches long. After a long labor at home (around 19 hours!), I headed to the hospital somewhere around 1pm. When I went in, I was 4cm dilated, but after waiting around for an hour, my water started leaking and I was up to a 5 - ready to be officially admitted! I continued to have strong contractions for a few more hours. Because of the instrumentation in my spine and my "wacky" anatomy, I wasn't allowing an epidural anywhere near me. I did have something to take the edge off, which helped me sleep off and on through some of the contractions. At around 8, I was getting close to being ready to push. That's when things went awry. Ella was sunny-side up and after some not-so-fun "interventions" by the doctor, and pushing for an hour & 1/2, I was screaming for a C-section. Again, because I couldn't have an epidural, I was put completely under and Paul was not allowed to come in with me. Half an hour later, Ella came into the world. I hated not being able to hold her right away, but was so thankful that she and I had both made it out alive! ;) She was born on the 2nd anniversary of my 2nd major back surgery (the very thing that God had used to prepare my body for this miracle!!).

Though I am eternally grateful for what I consider to be one of God's greatest gifts to me, tonight I find myself a bit sad to have reached this milestone with her. Turning five just seems so grown up all of a sudden. It's that stage when she's much less baby and much more "kid". Her personality is so well-developed by now, I feel as if I'm seeing glimpses of who she will be when she's 15, 20, and 25. She's so very independent, so spirited and funny. She mulls things around and makes such interesting observations. Ella is sensitive and compassionate. Stubborn and intense, yet soft and silly. Always the entertainer, her number one goal is to make everyone laugh. When she was born, I never would have imagined this firecracker that she would become...this ray of sunshine. I pray that she will not lose these wonderful qualities, but that God would help us to cultivate her strengths so that she will become a young woman of integrity and great character. I pray that while we teach her to come into her own that she will not lose her fierce love for us and her family. I pray most of all that God would draw her to Himself, as I already see Him doing in all of her questions and curiosity about Him. Thank you, Lord, for this dear, sweet treasure that you entrusted to me five years ago.



The sadness over her birthday stems also from the feeling that this is it for us. She may very well be our one and only. God has brought me leaps and bounds beyond the days when He first began working on my heart regarding this issue. However, part of me is still grieving and days like today dredge back up those hurt feelings. This could perhaps be the reason that I couldn't stop crying on Tuesday after I took cupcakes to her Mother's Day Out class and was told the class couldn't eat them (since I didn't notify them ahead of time), but they'd be happy to send them home. I was so sure that those homemade cupcakes I'd spent so much time preparing would just be thrown in the trash when the kids got home. But, the underlying emotion that day was that this is the last time I will have a child that turns 5. This is the last time I will ever take cupcakes to a class (she will be too old for MDO next year and I plan to homeschool til one of us dies, lol!). She is the last child I will raise from tiny infant to "big girl". So many "lasts" encapsulated in this one day. Yes, God continues to heal my heart, but He hasn't taken all the pain away. One of the toughest bits of this for me is worrying that Ella will be lonely. My prayer today is that Ella will be able to cultivate friendships (and family relationships) that will become surrogate siblings to her. I also pray I will continue to trust in His Sovereignty in this matter. I'm so grateful He hasn't given me a full-picture view of life. I gladly surrender such difficult things to the One Who knows the rest of the story!!

Thank you all for allowing me the indulgence of my memories. Next week, I should be able to post some updates on school and all the other goings on around here.

Compelled

I am not a political person. I vote on the conservative side and I usually leave it at that. I have been very reluctant to get behind either one of the presidential candidates this time around because neither of their records line up well with my beliefs. When Palin came on the scene recently, I found a bit of hope that maybe, just maybe the tide will turn and our country can get back to its foundations. She is the sole reason that I will vote for McCain for president. On the other side, I have absolutely no desire for Obama to run our country. Every day, I find new reasons to vote against him. Tonight, I feel overwhelmingly compelled to post these links to try to get the truth about Obama's views on abortion out in the open. Please take a look and very carefully and prayerfully consider your vote in the November election. We've been playing games with this issue for too long. How long will God let us continue to practice infanticide in this nation without bringing down His wrath?

Please read Jill Stanek's bio here and search her site for more info on Obama's record on abortion.

Also visit the site below for the testimony of a woman who was born alive after being aborted.

Seeking Direction

It's late, I know, but I am up as usual. Though the quality of my sleep seems to be getting better, it is still hard to fall asleep, so I try to stay busy til I literally drop! Thus, the 12 AM blog...

I am up tonight struggling with God over where and how to spend my time. This is nothing new to the Christian life - there must be hundreds of books written on the subject of priorities, time management, putting God first, etc. Because God is God, He gives us free will. It's hard to understand sometimes. As a parent of a young child, I am the one who mostly dictates how she spends her time. I take her places I need to go or places I believe she should go. I force her to get involved in activities I know will benefit her. I decide when it's time for school, meals, tv, play, books, and all the other countless parts of her day. That's all well and good for right now, but I do know that one day (sooner rather than later), she will have to choose how to spend her minutes, hours, and days. I will have to let go and trust that I have raised her well enough to do good things with her time. Of course, this is not exactly the way it is with God, is it? He has never been a dictator over me and has never forced me to spend my time well. He has always allowed me to make choices in my life, guiding me with His Hand, not pushing me one way or another. At times I wish He would shove me in the direction of His perfect path for me (oh, there are times He does give me a hardy tug!) instead of giving me this freedom. But, if the freedom were gone, there would be no love for my Master, no sacrifice of self, no desire for truth. If life were just handed to me on a silver platter with a perfect schedule all made out, there would be no need for a daily walk with Him - I could go it alone, knowing each step was laid out ahead of me, not needing a Savior to rescue me, to hold me up, to carry me when I fall. So, where is this all leading, you may ask? Well, as you see, I am having a difficult time determining the activities/ministries/missions that are in His plan for me. I definitely believe He has a way for me that is a perfect path, but He does not force it upon me. As I go along, I make choices and may flounder off the path for a while or may take a detour here and there. All along, He is there, desiring His best for me and when I seek Him, I find it and get right back on that path. What do you do when He has laid out many wonderful choices in front of you? I know full well that He does not want me to say "yes" to each and every opportunity (been there, done that...was left with piercing pain in my stomach until I said "no"). But, how can I know the BEST choice? The one that leads to peace and blessings from Him. The one through which He will be most highly glorified. If I knew the answer, I would not be up rambling on so. I do know that getting into His Word is the very best thing to do in times like this and should probably be doing that instead of blogging right now. I also know that fervent prayer and close relationship with Him are my only hope for knowing His Voice. I pray that He will reveal to me the next steps for me to take and that I will not allow my flesh to get in the way. I don't want to let chronic pain be my easy way out of walking the road He has for me! And I certainly don't want to choose ministries based on the approval of other people (this is such a biggie for me...I want people to like me!!). Do any of you have the same struggles with your time? How has God led you to those things that are His best for you?