So, we've decided to try homeschooling our daughter this year. This is one of those things that sounds so much fun when you conceptualize it, but the reality is much more, well, reality. I love my kiddo. She's smart, fun to be with, incredibly sweet, and very creative. But she's alot like her mommy (no surprise there) and when she has a hard time with something, she REALLY digs her heels in! And unfortunately, the thing she's having a hard time with is handwriting, and handwriting is part of EVERYTHING when it comes to school! It's not so much math that she doesn't like, it's writing the numbers. And it's not that she doesn't like phonics, she doesn't like writing the letters. And I have to drag her kicking and screaming through handwriting itself. Sigh...and this is only the first week! Now, I know, there's transition time that I have to take into consideration, and getting on a schedule that helps her be rested and ready to learn, but really, if it was just that, then I would think we'd have a hard time with all kinds of learning. But she can sit for hours and let me read book after book. She likes phonics and math, until she has to write. So we're going to go over to school early today (I'm a school bus driver, if I hadn't mentioned that before) and see if the school has the Handwriting Without Tears program. And I might even pop in to talk to the teacher she was supposed to have, who has generously offered to help any time we need it.
I have to say, one stroke of genius I had today was that when I'm in teacher-mode, I put on my glasses (that I don't REALLY need) and asked my dd to call me "Mrs. Mommy". Later, after I sent her upstairs to lay down after a handwriting meltdown, I took off my glasses and followed her up with our kids Bible to read and pray, and she started telling me how her teacher had been mean to her today, and we talked about it as if Mrs. Mommy was a different person. We'll see if this works for long, or if it's just novel and she's having fun with it, but maybe it will help her clarify when we are in school mode. It was good to really open up the communication about how things are going though!
So, I needed to start with the challenges we're facing because I'm really feeling it today. But maybe I can get on soon and post about some of the fun and success we've had this first week too! I think I've finally found something worth putting in the effort of writing about regularly.
Have a great day, and enjoy learning something new!
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Do you believe it? Two posts in the same year!!!
Anyway, we're in the middle of a maelstrom in our house. We've decided that 8 years in a 200+ year-old farmhouse is enough. It's beautiful, but it's too big for three people (2400 sq ft), it's expensive to heat (we keep it at 55 degrees all winter...no wonder I get nothing done!), and we'd like something square! ;) And though we love our little Vermont town, we'd like to live closer to our best friends, so we're looking in a couple of other beautiful little Vermont towns. We pay for living here though. It's April 2 and we just had snow yesterday. Sigh... But summer is glorious, and I'm learning to enjoy winter too!
So the house...we're renovating the upstairs bathroom, finally. It started as all old house projects do...I got sick of the wallpaper. I ripped it off the walls, but whoever put it up thought it would be a good idea to put the wallpaper behind the sink, the toilet and the molding around the floor, the window and the door. Once we had removed all of those, my husband thought it would be a good time to replace the old plumbing, then the laundry closet wall came down, and, well, the rest, as they say, is history. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, in that bathroom is now new. New paint, new floor (to protect the beautiful old 2 foot wide pine floors), new sink, tub and toilet and new washer and dryer. It's kind of nice, but now we've spent more than we should have. Gotta love renovations! We're learning as we go, so it's taking a while to get it all done, but we're hoping to install the tub today!
We're also moving our bedroom from the back of the house to the front, which is a challenge, just because we have a queen bed in the back room, a futon in the front room and a cast iron bathtub in the room in between! It's kind of like a slidey puzzle or a game of chess. We have to think about 4 moves ahead to make sure we don't get stuck in the middle! We're almost done with the move; only our bed and the futon are left to swap. We'll do that today, then I'll get the back room set up, since the realtor comes on Monday. Our hope is that she'll tell us we don't have to do much more than clean, purge and do a little painting and that she'll be able to sell our house quickly and for what we'd like to get for it! Haha!!! Hope is a good thing! :)
We're excited for spring to come, and I love that, in spite of the snow, our daffodils and day lilies are sprouting up with a vengence! The containers for our veggies are just about thawed, so I might move them to a sheltered spot and try to get some of the cold weather veggies in. This year's big garden project is to dig up the strawberry bed and sort the berry plants from the weeds. The grass got so firmly established last year that we could barely see the strawberry plants. We got very few berries, and no one looking to buy our house would be impressed by that! I also need to dig the grass out of the asparagus bed. But I WILL invest in mulch hay this year. I love gardening, but digging out huge clumps of grass is pretty low on my "this is so much fun" list.
Enjoy your Saturday and the coming spring! Maybe I'll get some pictures together so you can see the bathroom progression...
Anyway, we're in the middle of a maelstrom in our house. We've decided that 8 years in a 200+ year-old farmhouse is enough. It's beautiful, but it's too big for three people (2400 sq ft), it's expensive to heat (we keep it at 55 degrees all winter...no wonder I get nothing done!), and we'd like something square! ;) And though we love our little Vermont town, we'd like to live closer to our best friends, so we're looking in a couple of other beautiful little Vermont towns. We pay for living here though. It's April 2 and we just had snow yesterday. Sigh... But summer is glorious, and I'm learning to enjoy winter too!
So the house...we're renovating the upstairs bathroom, finally. It started as all old house projects do...I got sick of the wallpaper. I ripped it off the walls, but whoever put it up thought it would be a good idea to put the wallpaper behind the sink, the toilet and the molding around the floor, the window and the door. Once we had removed all of those, my husband thought it would be a good time to replace the old plumbing, then the laundry closet wall came down, and, well, the rest, as they say, is history. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, in that bathroom is now new. New paint, new floor (to protect the beautiful old 2 foot wide pine floors), new sink, tub and toilet and new washer and dryer. It's kind of nice, but now we've spent more than we should have. Gotta love renovations! We're learning as we go, so it's taking a while to get it all done, but we're hoping to install the tub today!
We're also moving our bedroom from the back of the house to the front, which is a challenge, just because we have a queen bed in the back room, a futon in the front room and a cast iron bathtub in the room in between! It's kind of like a slidey puzzle or a game of chess. We have to think about 4 moves ahead to make sure we don't get stuck in the middle! We're almost done with the move; only our bed and the futon are left to swap. We'll do that today, then I'll get the back room set up, since the realtor comes on Monday. Our hope is that she'll tell us we don't have to do much more than clean, purge and do a little painting and that she'll be able to sell our house quickly and for what we'd like to get for it! Haha!!! Hope is a good thing! :)
We're excited for spring to come, and I love that, in spite of the snow, our daffodils and day lilies are sprouting up with a vengence! The containers for our veggies are just about thawed, so I might move them to a sheltered spot and try to get some of the cold weather veggies in. This year's big garden project is to dig up the strawberry bed and sort the berry plants from the weeds. The grass got so firmly established last year that we could barely see the strawberry plants. We got very few berries, and no one looking to buy our house would be impressed by that! I also need to dig the grass out of the asparagus bed. But I WILL invest in mulch hay this year. I love gardening, but digging out huge clumps of grass is pretty low on my "this is so much fun" list.
Enjoy your Saturday and the coming spring! Maybe I'll get some pictures together so you can see the bathroom progression...
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Only a year this time...or so...
So yeah, it's been, like, a million years since I last posted anything. I'm just not a good blogger! But I figured today might be a good day to write since I'm stuck at home, in bed, with the flu. I'm getting sick of being sick, gotta say! It's been a month now of cycling through different viruses. I finally got antibiotics yesterday and am heading to the doctor in a bit to make sure I don't have pneumonia or anything else on top of what we already suspect. Sigh. Cooties BEGONE!
So to catch up on our lives...
Adara is in kindergarten now, and loving it! She has her challenges, like everyone, but is doing well for the most part. Interestingly, she struggles with many of the same things I did in school. She's nowhere near as shy as I was as a kid, so she's much more vocal about her emotional outbursts in school, but I can relate to her struggles with daydreaming and difficulty completing tasks. I'm going to have to do a little research to see what I can find to help her. Any suggestions are welcome!
We have decided that our house, while beautiful and full of character, is too big for us. There are more bedrooms than people! So we're doing some work to get it ready to put on the market, ideally this spring. The bathrooms are the biggest issue right now. We've gutted the upstairs bath and Rob has done a lot of work, replaced plumbing, put in a new subfloor, and we're waiting on new flooring and then for a new tub! Maybe once I get better I can get the thing painted. Green, I think...
I'm challenged by my friend Jenny. She's decided to be a full-time stay at home mom and is putting first things first. I have let my relationship with God take a backseat, and have replaced Bible study time with mediocre substitutes. But I need His help to do the things around here that I'm overwhelmed by, and He has to fill me up so that I can take care of others. Without being filled up by God's spirit, I don't have much to give to other people. I bet if I can get that on straight, I'll be more of the wife, mother and friend that I hope to be!
In spite of being sick, today's sunshine is motivating me to get up and be productive! We get so little of it here, in the winter, that even when I'm ill, it gets me moving!
Eagerly awaiting spring...
So to catch up on our lives...
Adara is in kindergarten now, and loving it! She has her challenges, like everyone, but is doing well for the most part. Interestingly, she struggles with many of the same things I did in school. She's nowhere near as shy as I was as a kid, so she's much more vocal about her emotional outbursts in school, but I can relate to her struggles with daydreaming and difficulty completing tasks. I'm going to have to do a little research to see what I can find to help her. Any suggestions are welcome!
We have decided that our house, while beautiful and full of character, is too big for us. There are more bedrooms than people! So we're doing some work to get it ready to put on the market, ideally this spring. The bathrooms are the biggest issue right now. We've gutted the upstairs bath and Rob has done a lot of work, replaced plumbing, put in a new subfloor, and we're waiting on new flooring and then for a new tub! Maybe once I get better I can get the thing painted. Green, I think...
I'm challenged by my friend Jenny. She's decided to be a full-time stay at home mom and is putting first things first. I have let my relationship with God take a backseat, and have replaced Bible study time with mediocre substitutes. But I need His help to do the things around here that I'm overwhelmed by, and He has to fill me up so that I can take care of others. Without being filled up by God's spirit, I don't have much to give to other people. I bet if I can get that on straight, I'll be more of the wife, mother and friend that I hope to be!
In spite of being sick, today's sunshine is motivating me to get up and be productive! We get so little of it here, in the winter, that even when I'm ill, it gets me moving!
Eagerly awaiting spring...
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