Today I'm......

• concerned, but laughing at something Kayleigh said yesterday.....she put on some clip on earrinsg and asked if she could wear them to school...her exact words were, "All the boys will want to be around me if I wear earrings". Funny, but disturbing coming from my little girl.
• wondering how I can teach my little girl not to care so much about what other people think and say. Should a five-year old really be concerned that people will make fun of her and say she looks stupid? Ugh.
• remembering this day 10 years ago....a gentle whisper, open arms and the words, "You can always come home".....Thank you, Lord!
• trying to figure out why some pastors feel the need to insert random political commentary into sermons....irritating, especially when has nothing to do with the sermon topic!
• missing Flower Mound...well not really Flower Mound, but the people there. I know it takes time, but I'd like to feel at home again someday!
• taking suggestions on ways our family can serve the community together....we're thinking food pantry, any other ideas?

A recent discussion at the McKinney Diner has me thinking and evaluating my thoughts on the roll my child's school district should play in their lives. Now I'm not talking about teachers, coaches, sponsors, etc.; I'm focusing on the district and its governing body as a whole.

The discussion at the Diner centered around random drug testing (not what his post was about, but ya know how that goes), and, at first, I struggled with the argument against the testing, but then I got to thinking about how it could play out. For instance, right now the testing applies to only those involved in extra-curricular activites, but it probably won't be long before it includes the whole student body, after all the point is not really student-protection, but deterring those who don't partake and catching those who do. I mean, smoking pot while on the chess team isn't putting anyone but yourself in danger.

Take it further along, and now the police are pulling over random motorists for testing...might seem a bit extreme, but it could happen. As it stands right now, police must suspect a driver is under the influence. In other words, the driver must be exhibiting behaviors indicative of drug/alcohol use. I'm not saying driving under the influence isn't reprehensible, but here's the thing....there is a reason police aren't allowed to just pull us over randomly and without cause.

Here's another interesting case....

Keller student faces discipline for posting 'To Die' list on Facebook

I get it....I do. Would I be concerned if my child's name was on the list? Yes, I would! Would I be concerned if my child was the one who wrote the list? Definitely! But this is not an issue for the school district to deal with, this is a parenting issue. The kid likely wrote the list off campus while not representing his school, therefore the school has no business disciplining him for the list. Yeah, it's scary and the kid probably should talk to someone about his feelings, but allowing the district to discipline him opens some doors I'd rather stay shut. Parenting my children is my responsibility not the school districts.

What about parents who don't parent? Well, I've been thinking on that one too. What if instead of telling my kids to stay away from the "bad" kids, I instead encouraged them seek out opportunities to befriend them. What if I opened my doors to these kids whose parents choose to, or life circumstances have caused to, slack in their responsibilities. Yes, I want to protect my children from negative influences, but we are to be light and light shines brightest in darkness. I'm not saying you allow any and all forms of darkness in and we do need to teach our children to be wise in choosing their closet friends. Still, there's a statistic a friend of mine shared a couple weeks ago that keeps rolling around in my head....95% of Christians have never shared their faith with a non-believer. Well, how can you if you only surround yourself with other Christians! I am totally guilty of this...of not seeking out the non-believers around me....of hiding in my little holy huddle and wanting my children to do the same.

Just some thoughts.....

I love FREE YARN!!!!!!


There's been a drought in baby gifts for me to make, so I actually have had the time to finally work on some stuff for me and my kids! Yea! Of course, now it seems that everyone I know is preggo, so the drought is over.....a little jealous of all those round-bellied ladies!

This blanket was mostly made from scrap yarn my Granny gave me. The pattern is from Crochet Today Jan/Feb 2008, but instead of a using one color like the pattern suggests, I decided to randomly place different colored squares. I think it turned out rather nice!

Over the summer, my sister gave me two HUGE bags of yarn from her future grandma-in-law. When I finally had the chance to sort through it, I noticed I had quite a variety of blues and pinks......PERFECT! This is the boy's blanket; pattern is from Crochet Today Nov/Dec 2008. It looks like a lot of work, but I actually finished it in about a week and a half! I think he likes it!

I just started Kayleigh's PINK blanket, plus I have some baby gifts to get crackin' on, so more pictures will be coming.....as long as my wrist and hands don't give out!

If you ever find you have some yarn laying around collecting dust, my yarn closet always has room! Yes, that's right, I have a yarn CLOSET!

• Kayleigh has a little boyfriend. His name is Luke and she likes the way his hair is. They hold hands during recess and spend class-time looking at each other with googly eyes. The googly eyes get bad enough that her teacher has to tell them to stop! It's cute! On the way home from school I ask her who she plays with during the day and the answer is always, with a sheepish grin, "L-U-K-E"...adorable! If you see Kayleigh, just pretend you don't know about Luke....she gets rather annoyed when we mention it to others.

• Justin has successfully bribed William to be "Daddy's boy" instead of my boy :( He's still my buddy, but no longer my boy. Darn Star Wars Legos!

• William's new favorite phrases are: "Seriously, mommy" and "That hav-yor's not a-po-pi-ate". He also knows how to spell his name! Yea!

Thoughts, thoughts, more thoughts, and some questions.....

• On Kayleigh and school........

It has become apparent that I have given birth to a "mini-me"! Kayleigh comes home from school requesting "homework" everyday and is especially excited when her teacher gives her worksheets to complete at home. She walks in the door, pulls out her folder and gets to work without me saying a word. Of course, she rarely has any "homework" from her teacher, so I spend about an hour or so a week finding worksheets for her to do. She is way beyond the curriculum for reading and slightly ahead in math, but I am trying to keep an open mind and see how this year progresses. There are things that concern me: 1. She is having a rough time getting up in the morning, which could be just because she has a body clock like mine, 2. She has brought home a couple worksheets that she has purposefully mark incorrect answers on; I say purposefully because I know she understands the concept on the worksheet and when I ask her about it, she replies "Sometimes I just do things wrong".

She loves the social aspects of school, especially getting invited to birthday parties! At the moment she seems more interested in playing with the boys than the girls, which is totally fine by me.

We started "afterschooling", which is just a fancy word for enrichment, last week. This year we are reading about History from the Creation through the fall of Rome, studying Life Science, beginning piano lessons and dabbling in some art appreciation and drawing. It sounds like a lot, but we don't do everything on the same day. Monday and Wednesday are History, Tuesday and Thursday are Science, and Friday is piano lesson and art. Of course I am beginning to ask myself at what point does enrichment need to turn into full-time homeschooling? In other words, if I am finding myself having to supplement in Math and Reading, and she is loving the History and Science, at what point does it make more sense to bring her home? My one concern with that is her social needs. Kayleigh loves being around other kids and adults, so that would be my one challange in homeschooling her, other than my own selfish desire for a quiet house!

• On our new digs.....

I love our new home, but I am beginning to miss FloMo! Well not really FloMo, but the closeness to our families and friends that are still there. Driving 20 miles doesn't seems like much, but with construction and what not, it's a hassle and not fun! Plus, Little Elm is in the boonies! The closet Payless is 30 minutes away and Kohl's is 20 minutes! We have a Wal-mart and Target nearby, but that's about it. Coming from an area that has just about every kind of shopping you can think of within a 5 mile radius, this stinks! I also miss the Lewisville Library which has a much bigger selection of books that Frisco or Little Elm. The Frisco Library has a coffee and snack shop, so I guess it's ok.

• On the church we are visiting.....

Still not sure. We started visiting right when the pastor was starting a series on Spiritual Disciplines, which has been interesting, but I really want to see how he teaches from a book of the Bible. The pastor's style is not my ideal, but if his content is truth, I'm not really concerned with style. Truth be told I prefer our former senior pastor's style and I miss the way he taught the Word without gimmics and voices and elaborate Power Points; not that all that stuff is bad, it's just not what I prefer.

I am not a big fan of combined birthday parties for siblings, but due to the move in July, Kayleigh missed out on a birthday party so we threw her and William one on Sunday. I think the highlight was the wonderful cakes my dear friend Marilee helped me put together! She did most of the work, but I did mix the icing for her and decorate some super cute R2D2 cupcakes that unfortunately didn't get in the pics! Here's some pics...

Princess Leia

If I have to tell you who this is, you are in need of serious help!

My hats off to those who make cakes for a living...it's hard work! Marilee and I slaved away for over five hours and that didn't include baking the cakes!

In other news.....

Kayleigh is loving school! At least I think she is, as she is somewhat closed mouthed when I ask what goes on during the day. I think she is just enjoying have a period of her day that doesn't include an annoying little brother and her mom! She does act like she misses me, so that's comforting! I am still getting used to not knowing what she is up to for 7 hours of the day. Seriously, for five years I knew exactly what she what doing all day, so it's kinda like ripping a band-aid off; it has to be done, but it doesn't exactly feel good!

I now must go wake-up some kiddos and sit in the carpool line!

Here's some pictures! I don't have much time.....will write more later!

Kayleigh at the Wiggles Concert! Quote: "This is the best day of my life!"

A picture of the playroom /school room!

Kayleigh sitting at her desk at SCHOOL!

Doesn't she look so sweet and innocent!

That's more like the Kayleigh I know!

We've Moved.

Still no internet yet, hence lack of posting. But at least we're 98% settled in. It's pretty swell.

We're Moving.....for real this time!

If all goes well, we will be closing on our current house tomorrow and moving to Little Elm on Monday! We looked at at least ten houses in this area, mostly Highland Shores, but the only one we really liked was pulled off the market two days after we offered on it. Stink! We thought about stalking the house and sending menacing letters to the owner to get her to sell, but figured that might not go over too well :). Nothing else in this area really stacked up, so we started looking in Little Elm for two reasons: houses are newer, and the market there isn't so great, so the houses are cheaper. We found the perfect house for our family and are super excited!!! The one feature I really love about the house is the kid area is completely separated from the common areas by a long hallway. The kids also have a large playroom flanked by their bedrooms. Not that I don't want my kids around me, but it will be nice for them to have a place to go (or a place for me to send them to) when we start to grate on each others nerves! The one thing I don't like about the house: no trees! Well, there is one tree out front, but it's small and scrawny. I'm going to miss the trees and the shade at our current house.

I will say I'm a little anxious about the move. I've lived in the FlowerPlex most of my 30 years (lived in Sherman and Fort Worth for a year a piece, that's it). I know where everything is here; I know all the back ways to avoid traffic; I know the places to shop, the places to eat, etc. Little Elm is only 20 miles away from here, but it's still moving somewhere completely foreign to me and that's just a little scary! I told Justin he's going to have to buy me a GPS device so I don't get horribly lost with two children in the car. I already scoped out where the Library is, so we are good on that count at least! It also means finding a new church.

I'm still going to do childcare, at least until William goes to school. Coincidentally (aka God planned it), Justin's mom got a teaching position in Prosper ISD, which is not too far from Little Elm, so I already have a contact for getting childcare clients! In fact, I might already have one or two!

The view from the breakfast room this morning

Massive wind + crappy tree = Reason to bust out the chainsaw!

We are hoping it didn't do any major damage to the roof and are super glad it didn't break any of our windows on that side. We are also grateful that we weren't actually in the house when it happened. We had a showing scheduled from 6:30 to 7:30, so we were at Justin's parents' house when the storm blew through.

Upper/Lower case matching center

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!---Summer '09 Week 1

This week's book is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault, illustrated by Lois Ehlert. A great introducation to the alphabet, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom takes kids on a wonderful letter adventure with silly rhymes and a coconut tree!

Here's a link to Totally Tots Activities: ABC Introduction

Reading:

I made a Chicka Chicka Tot Book for each of the kids. My goal is to have the kids find one picture each week of something beginning with the letter of the week to glue on the Tot Book; this way we can use the book for phonics practice in the future.

All of this is review for Kayleigh, so I am going to challange her to start spelling out words with the letters in her Tot Book. We will also practice writing her name.

Math:

Shape Coconut Trees--using a rectangle and trapezoid for the trunk, diamonds for the leaves, and circles for the coconuts. Decorate with letter stickers for more alphabet reinforcement.

William will be working on numeral recognition and counting for number 1-5. I am going to have him color a coconut tree and use buttons as coconuts for his counting practice.

Kayleigh will be working on addition using a coconut tree mat and buttons.

Memory Verse: EXODUS 20:12 "Honor your father and your mother."

Fun Pre-School Stuff!

If you have toddlers, you need to check out this website: Totally Tots! I wish I could come up with this stuff on my own, but I can't and I am so glad someone else can!

We are going to use their ABC, Memory Verse, and Book Ideas over the summer, along with The Frances Study Guide. Kayleigh fell in love with the Frances books by Russell Hoban right around her third brithday. She is Frances, made up songs and all!

My goal is to do one letter and book a week and a memory verse every two weeks. We have been negligent in the memory verse department since I switched to boxed curriculum. I'm not going actually plan out anything, since our time for school will be hit or miss while the move (or moves) is going on.

I don't think we will be continuing with the box stuff; too many activities assumed a large class and there really wasn't much learning going on, at least that was my opinion. The crafts were fun, so was the music, but I can figure those out on my own and save $40 a month.

WE'RE MOVING!!!!!

Yes, that's right. Despite the "buyers" market, we have a contract on our house and got more than anyone thought we could! Whoopi!

One problem....we don't know where we are moving to! Yes, I know, we have a contract on a brand new home in Frisco, which would be quite lovely, except that it's in Frisco. Once we got the contract on our current house, we decided to check out some homes in Highland Village just to be sure Frisco is what we wanted, and now Frisco is more the back-up plan.

Here's a little background.....

2003--We decide it's time to buy a home. We find a development out in Aubrey and start making some plans to buy there. We end up deciding to buy in Lewisville.

2006---We find a development in McKinney. Our first house goes on the market and sells in a month. We decide with two kiddos it would be nice to live close to family and we buy our current house.

Fast forward to a month ago. We decide now is a good time to move up in house/neighborhood with interest rates being so low. Find development out in Frisco and this time we actually enter a contract and pick out all the fun stuff (although for our budget, there really wasn't much picking).

So the trend seems to be: we want to buy a new home, but can't afford that here, so we look elsewhere. We then decide that new isn't as important as proximity to our families and our church home....we really don't want to leave our church right now, there's too much at stake.

We have a couple possiblities out in Highland Shores and few more in other parts of Highland Village. Coincidentally (and I really don't believe in coincidences), the house two doors down from Justin's parents is back on the market. It was for sale back in 2006, but priced a little out of our budget.....everytime we drive by one of us says, "Gee, wouldn't it be cool if that house came back on the market" and now it is.....eerie.

So here we are in limbo land, a place neither one of us enjoys! The inspection for our current house is tomorrow and hopefully nothing huge will come up and break the deal. Then I have four, yes, four weeks to pack up this house. Should be fun!

Happenings! (a.k.a. why there is a serious lack of blogging)

• Hopefully selling our house in the next month or so! We are super procrastinators and don't do any decor or landscaping until we want to sell :); it has been a busy four weeks or so. We found a new neighborhood in Frisco we really like and have a contract to build. It's exciting! Still, if our current house doesn't sell for what we want, we are totally fine with staying put. We really don't care either way.....it is a good opportunity for us to get closer to Justin's work and buy new, which is why we decided to go for it.
• End of the school semester is next week. Enough said.
• Trying out some of those boxed preschool curriculums. So far I have sampled curriculum from The Learning Box Preschool and Adventures in Learning. The Learning Box is heavy on crafts-- I'm not a big craft person, so it was a little annoying for me, but the kids loved it. Adventures in Learning is a little less craft intensive---usually one craft for the day, whereas The Learning Box would have two, sometimes three. The one big perk in my book is that the company gives you all the craft supplies and packages them by the day. Huge time-saver! And yes, I am willing to pay a little extra if it saves me the time of shopping for all those things! If I had to choose right now, I would stick with Adventures in Learning; it is less time-intensive and I would have the option of adding more to it if needed, i.e. a phonics curriculum and activity centers.

And we have a decision.....

With next fall creeping closer and closer, the schooling decision has been keeping me up at night. What is best for our kids? What is best for our family? Is there really a right and wrong answer? A couple weeks ago, after much introspection, observation and evaluation, I came to the conclusion that full-time homeschooling is just not an option for us. It would not be what is best for our children, nor what is best for our family for many reasons; the main one being the dynamic my relationship with Kayleigh. I'm not ashamed to admit we just need some space.

After I reached that conclusion, I began researching other options, two specifically: Coram Deo Academy and Liberty Christian School. I have a dear friend who works at Liberty and thought I could get a job there quite easily, allowing the kiddos to go there and me to make some money. While I liked that option, I really preferred Coram Deo, since it offered the chance for Kayleigh to "go" to school and to also homeschool part-time. To pay for Coram Deo, I would need to continue with childcare; two childcare kiddos would pay for both my kiddos' tuition and supplies, so if we wanted/needed extra money, I would need to keep more. In essence, either option would require me to work 40-50 hours a week, which is something we do not desire for me to have to do--want to do, ok, but not have to do.

So, we talked about it all a couple nights ago...at 10:30 pm, which must be the magic time for good conversations! We came to the opinion that while a private school education might be different than public school, it is not necessarily better, especially in this area where we have some pretty darn good public schools. Therefore, at least for us, the cost of private school, both monetary and family (i.e. me having to work full-time), is just not worth the different educational experience. We also believe that having involved, committed, Christ-following parents can compensate for the negative aspects of public school.

That being said.....Kayleigh will be starting Kindergarten at public school in the fall! We do plan to "afterschool" in history, science, and Latin to start out, and she'll go to the kid's program at church for Bible. I really want to find an American Sigh Language class for kids her age; she talks with her hand all the time and even makes up signs, so I'm thinking this could be an interest of hers.

I'm going to continue doing childcare until William is in school, and after that we are planning on me working part-time. This way I can have the flexibility to be a room mom, go on field trips, etc., and be the keeper of our home.

Of course, this is not a forever decision as we will be re-evaluating periodically, perhaps transferring to private school later on, but for now I feel at peace about the decision and am sleeping much better!

Isn't he just the cutest little boy you've ever seen?!

Same smile!

Some dear friends found some pics of Miss Kayleigh from Dec 2004....was she really this little? Looking at her now, it's kinda hard to believe! I love this smile!

So, I read the new this morning....I shouldn't read the news...it's not good for my blood pressure!

Two articles stand out to me:

This one--http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nationworld/stories/030908dnnatstemcell.1a06e392.html

It's about embryonic stem cell research. Apparently, it's not ok to clone for human reproduction, but it could be ok to clone human embryos in order to harvest their stem cells...a particular scene from the Matrix pops into my mind. My question is....why does the scientific/political community insists on exploring this possibility, when research has found adult stem cells and cord blood stem cells to be just as effective?

And this one--http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/education/stories/031209dnmetschoolsintrouble.3d77079.html

It's about education. DISD is looking at lengthen the school year for some of it's lowest performing schools and offering significant bonuses to bring highly-qualified teachers to those schools. Noble plan, but the sad truth is if the parents of these children refuse to be involved and make education a priority, no amount of extra time and great teaching will change anything. Lengthening the school year could actual increase the drop-out rate--who wants to go to more school when you already are apathetic about the amount of time you currently spend there? Then there's this quote:

President Barack Obama said this week that he wants kids to spend more time in school with longer school days and school years. He said the "challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."

I get it...in a high-tech global economy its hard to keep in front of the pack, but there is more to life than academics. If you ever get a chance, read Nation of Wimps by Hara Estroff Marano--here's a link to the article that inspired the book: http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20041112-000010.html. Why do we insist on pushing our children to be the best and the brightest? According to Marano, we feel inadequate in today's market and fear our children falling behind and having a lower standard of living than we currently experience. We want them to have a bigger house, better car, cooler job than we do. Therefore, we push, not realizing our concern for our children is actually concern for ourselves, our image, our peace of mind. Kids don't worry about this stuff, at least they don't until we tell them they should.

What I've been up to....well, besides running after kids and reading books for class....

• Rearranging the living room, which now functions as the playroom; the playroom is now only used for school purposes. This ensures all the kids are in one room, making it much easier on me to interact with/keep an eye on them!
  
• Getting all the tax info for my business together...yuck! I think I need to change my system.
  
• Jumping for joy because Coram Deo is now offering an "At Home" option for $1200 a year as opposed to $4000 a year to go to campus 2 days a week! This is an answer to prayer! I was wavering back and forth on the homeschool decision; not really wanting to send Kayleigh off to kindergarten, but feeling like I/we really couldn't homeschool. (I am not a curriculum planner, don't like it, not one bit) Well, I will gladly pay $1200 a year for curriculum, schedules, records, accountability and assistance offered by Coram Deo, at least through elementary. They only offer grades 1-8 at home, so we'll have to wait until next year to try it, but I'm optimistic!
• Attending a Pure Romance party--look it up---interesting!
• Starting William on the potty-training journey, woo hoo! Here's to a diaper free house by August! So far, he has actually done #2 at least five times on the potty, score!
• Cleaning off the picnic table outside, instead of buying a activity table for schooling.
• Making plans to attend the Homeschool Book Fair in Arlington for the first time!
• Realizing I don't spend near enough time dreaming with my hubby.
• Planning a vacation to who knows where---something tropical maybe?
• Getting excited about maybe, just maybe participating in MOPS or JOY(if it's still called that) next year, even if I have five kiddos in tow!
  

Is it something or it is nothing?

Lately, I have felt this weird desire to pack up and move somewhere, somewhere different, somewhere colder, somewhere I've never been. It's weird because I am not an adventurous person by any definition of the word, nor do I like cold weather, especially snow. Yeah, it's pretty, but boy can it be messy!

The really weird thing is Justin is feeling the same way; wanting a change, wanting an adventure, wanting to make sure we can parent ourselves without having the awesome luxury of family nearby (and by nearby means 3 miles or less). Not that we feel tied down or wish to get away from anyone here. It's hard to explain....for me, it's a desire not have lived in the same area MY WHOLE LIFE!! It's also seeing pictures of other parts of the country and thinking, "The kids would love this, heck I would love this". There's also a sense that we have it too easy with all the family we have around. I hear stories from families that have done this...they talk about how the experience brought them closer, how they had to get out of comfort zones, how they discovered themselves, etc.

Then I think....is it really about location? Or is it something deeper? Couldn't we have an adventure here, in Flowerplex? I don't know what we'll do, if anything. But it doesn't hurt to dream a little!

WARNING: Blog posting may take a serious hit due to current class requirements! This class is going to kick my tush! I need another 2 hours in a day; hopefully things will calm down once Justin starts class next week. He has class two nights a week, so that'll give me some extra time once I get the kids in bed.

The latest questions fielded from Kayleigh:

• Why is it cold sometimes and hot sometimes?
• Why does the earth go around the sun?
• What does guilty mean?
  
• Why did Jesus have to die?
• What is sin?
• Do I sin? Do you sin? Does Daddy sin?

Something tells me she coming very close to accepting Christ. She told Emma today that she could pray to Jesus and tell Him that she trusts in Him. Don't know where this is coming from....it's not like I've beefed up Bible teaching around here...I'm a little perplexed, but excited!

Not to be left out.....William's new favorite phrase is "No, I do it", shortly followed by "I need help"! At least he knows when to ask for help, unlike most men I know!

Introducing.......

Life is Learning, Learning is Life

So, now all things homeschool/preschool have their place, though I can't promise it won't seep into this blog....after all life is learning! I really set this to keep my childcare parents informed of what we are learning about from day to day, but it just might evolve into something else...who knows!

It's time to start researching school plans for next year!

What I learned this year:

• I need to stop worrying about challenging Kayleigh and have some fun with her!
• It is possible to "do school" with a toddlers in the house--that's what pack-n-plays are for! William and Gracie are old enough to entertain themselves with markers and crayons, but Abbi gets to play in the pack-n-play for about 30-45 minutes while we have preschool.
• My desire to keep Kayleigh advancing is simply that, MY desire and totally a pride thing. She's cool with just the preschool that we do and reading her books at rest time.
  
• William just might be reading by the end of next year...I truly thought he would be closer to five or even six, but he might surprise me....not that I intend to teach him to read by the end of next year, just keeping an open mind.
  
• I would love to find a couple homeschooling families to get together with on a weekly or biweekly basis. Kayleigh loves being around older kids, especially boys, plus it would give us adults some grown-up time and people to bounce ideas off of.
• I can plan curriculum, I just really don't want to need to.
• There's more, I just can't think of it right now!

With these things in mind, I think I have decided on the PLAN for next year. Notice the word "plan"; while, I intend to do the following, things beyond my control could arise to change said plan...nothing is set in stone till the purchases are made, and even then there's some wiggle room!

Right now, I am still planning to homeschool Kayleigh for kindergarten and will use My Father's World Kindergarten (MFWK) program along with Five in a Row. I struggled with the MFWK choice because the reading instruction is way below Kayleigh's current reading level, but I am realizing that while she reads at a 2nd grade level, she's not developmentally ready for 1st or 2nd grade Language Art materials, and I have noticed some gaps in certain skill sets. Plus, there are things outside of academics that I would like to have the time to focus on, like piano lessons and everyday life skills, so if next year is review for her, I'm okay with that.

As it looks right now, I will have my two kids plus two, possible three others. I need to check with one of my families to see what their plans are for next year. If it goes like I think it will, I'll have Kayleigh and Tre (both 5 by the end of Oct), and William and one other (either a 2 or 3 year old). MFWK will be perfect, since Kayleigh and Tre can do the full program together and William and the other will be able to join in on some of the activities. Not to mention, I'll be able to buy all that I need, including the Pre-K set from MFW for under $400, and that's if I buy new.

Well, this long and probably not very interesting to most of you!

Whew! What a Christmas Break we had! I felt like we go, go, go the whole time. It's nice to be back and in the same old routines again.

Lately, Kayleigh is asking many question about dying. Here's how the conversation goes...

K: Mommy, why do we die?

Me: We die because our bodies are not meant to last forever.

K: Well, when will we die? Are you going to die soon?

Me: I don't know when we will die, but God knows.

K: Will I die soon?

Me: I hope not, I would be sad if you died soon.

K: Do you want me to die?

Me: No, Kayleigh, of course I don't want you to die, it would make me so sad. But did you know that if you believe and trust in Jesus, you get to go live with Him in heaven after your body dies here on earth?

K: Grandpa is with Jesus in heaven, did he believe in Jesus?

Me: Yes, he did. Do you believe in Jesus?

K: Yep! Do you?

Me: Yes!

K: Does Daddy?

Me: Yes!

K: And William?

Me: Yes, as much as a 2 year old can.

K: And Ame and Abba? And Granny and Papa? What about Tre and Emma?

Me: I'm pretty sure they do, but you can ask them yourself the next time you see them.

I'm not exactly sure what got her started on the topic of death, but it's pretty neat to see her growing in her understanding of God. She's starting to pray on her own about things, like splinters and being afraid at night. She even evangelized to Emma this weeks...telling her that if she believes in Jesus she gets to live with Him forever in heaven. That same day, Emma got a splinter from the playset and was really upset about the prospect of having it removed. Over the break, Kayleigh got a little piece of a sticker in her foot and refused to allow us to remove it, she said she would pray to Jesus and He would heal it. The next morning, she woke up exclaiming, "Jesus healed my sticker!", and He must have because that was the last I heard about it. Well, after Emma got her splinter, Kayleigh told her about Jesus healing her foot, and right there prayed to Jesus for Emma's splinter to be healed. It was so cool sitting there watching it all happen!