Quiet

Quiet

Oh the sweet sound of Quietness!  In the early morning before the sun is up.  When the lights are low and the coffee is brewing, filling the house with its wonderful aroma.  When the ‘cherubs’ are still blissfully sleeping.

Then the man of the house goes off to work.  The sunshine (some days!) starts sliding in the windows, filling the rooms with warmth and light.  The ‘cherubs’ straggle down the steps – usually not overly happy to be routed from their cozy beds.  I understand.  I don’t care for it either.

Then the cacophony of normal everyday homeschooling life begins.  Do you ever get so overwhelmed with the NOISE that you shout “QUIET!”?? 

The irony is rather humorous – I’m usually making more noise telling them to BE QUIET than the noise they are making. (In my defense I HAVE to make more noise for them to hear me)
For some the blessed Quietness returns as you, with a heartfelt sigh, send them off to the bus or drop them off at school.  I’ve been there – it feels quite niceJ

For me this morning as I pen this it is as the school day begins – here at home.  Earphones on, my two older girls are listening to their online teachers.  Little Sister has fallen back asleep on the couch.  And I bask in the Quiet.

I’m told that someday my house will be mostly Quiet (and clean!)  and that at that point I will not like the Quiet quite so much.  But for now, at this stage of my life, I soak in the Quiet and enjoy every single blessed second of it.  I will deal with ‘someday’ when it arrives.

And now it appears the students have finished their first lessons.  The Quiet has been broken.  So I will rally myself for another day of life.  And look forward to 9pm when I can tuck them all in bed and once more soak in some Quiet.

On a completely unrelated note – my laptop should arrive today.  I will soon be ‘typing’ instead of ‘penning’ when I write blog posts in my warm living room.  And my fingers, toes and nose will no longer freeze when posting.  Hooray!

I have joined the ranks...

...the ranks of the homeschooling Moms! My first box of books for next school year arrived today and I'm so excited. It's hard to put them up so they still look new when August arrives! A year ago I wasn't very excited about this option, but I knew it was very likely going to happen as the cost of the private school we have attended was rising rapidly. With Middle Sister heading to school next fall too, it sounded like a lot of money to continue sending them to school. So by the time Big Sister started school last fall we had decided it would be our last year there and we would attempt the home schooling journey. We went to a Home School convention in Cincinnati, Ohio a week ago and made our decisions on curriculum for this coming year. We had a good weekend, and are very ready to make this change. Seeing the books arriving makes it very real!
Pray we will be able to handle this!

Grandparents Day.

Grandparents Day at Big Sister's school. This is Big Sister's age group singing for their Grandparents.

Yummy snacks provided by some the Mother's.

First Day of School!

Tuesday (yesterday) was the first day of school for Big Sister! She was so excited I didn't even have to wake her up. She was up and ready to go. I'm sure part of it was her very strong desire to wear those new tennis shoes! I wouldn't let her wear them outside before and she really wanted to.

So neat and proper for the photos! But not for long, she was soon running and jumping to excited to sit still for long!

First day went great, and she likes her new teacher!

School!!!!

Can you believe school is just around the corner? For some out there it has already started! We start next Tuesday, so today we went shopping for supplies and shoes. Grandma came over and went with us. We ate lunch at Taco Bell/Pizza Hut and then went shopping. This is what Big Sister picked out. New pencils, new folder, new binder, highlighters, erasers, scissors, twistable crayons, and colored pencils!
The front of her binder had a pocket so I fixed this up for her. She went home with Grandma for a few days before school starts so she hasn't seen this yet. I used a page from a vintage handwriting book and stamped on it. She will probably not be impressed because she says 'vintage is just another word for old and yucky'!! But I had fun doing it and just maybe she will like it!
We always have a problem with shoes for this child. She wore last years new shoes for 2 weeks and decided she didn't like them. This year I took her to try them on instead of ordering them. We got them at The Finish Line and they were not cheap so she HAS to wear them. Hopefully they will work out better than last years!