New Orleans Bound

The Senior High youth raised $20,000 for their trip to New Orleans in just 1 year!!!! I am so very proud of all them as well as my son The Ark who is going with them. Our cost = $150. and whatever time and donations for dinners or bake sales…..not a bad price. I am so excited for him to be going. Yesterday we had one last meeting and have a tentative schedule for the week although many details are still up in the air. Here is what I know now:

• He leaves on July 14~ time to be determined.
• He arrives in New Orleans on July 15~ it is app. 23 hours of being driven in a bus
• They get there, check in, shower, stretch out, go out for food, devotions, bed by midnight
• July 16~ Continental breakfast, sightseeing~TBD, nap, dinner, evening activities, devotions, bed
• July 17~ same as July 16,
• July 18~ Breakfast at Cafe du Monde, trek to Superdome to re-register for the National Youth Gathering. evening~ Gathering activites: Tailgating, Opening Dome, Community Life, Final Fifteen, back to hotel
• July 19-21: The Ark’s group is listed as purple, and the only thing I know about that is that on Friday they will be practicing Justice, I know that one day is a service project day, when they will be out in the community doing work. Evening events are the same as above.
• July 22~ Closing Worship Ceremony~ board bus for home
• July 23~ arrive home at some time

I still have to get him a few things:

1. A hat
2. Super strong waterproof sunscreen
3. bug spray
4. sunglasses
5. and I have to make him a student id card~ so he can get into tourist stuff with a student discount~ using PEAH for that
6. A waterproof camera~ I can’t afford the nikon coolpix but will get him this
   

Before I know it he will be getting on that bus and I will be requesting prayers for safe travel and for the Ark to come home renewed by the Holy Spirit. He is very excited about going as am I.

Friday~

On Fridays we babysit the granddaughter~ Jelly, I tried to get Renee to let us call her Gigi but she hates that name, so Jelly it is. Daycare is outrageous at $199 a week so Renee is off on Thursdays, and then we get her on Fridays. This cuts down day care to $135. a week which is still not great but definitely better. Oh yes, just a brief pet peeve~ our child support agency is very subjective and only gave my daughter credit for paying $300 dollars in daycare per month. I think that worker should be fired for playing favorites. It is tough in so many ways for a single parent these days.

She woke Renee up at 5am this morning~ so she went to sleep right after a bottle of formula.

Here she is eating an early lunch, she loves her food.
Then she played with the boys for a long time, took another nap and then was grabbing at everything in sight.

We truly enjoy our Fridays with her but let me tell you, it is hard to hold a 20# baby a lot for me anymore. Stupid fibromyalgia~ at least we get a baby fix once a week.
I hope you enjoyed this brief look at Jelly and our day with her. Once Kendra gets home from school Tommy drives them to Renee’s so they can meet the girls when they get off the bus from school.

Possible Summer Schooling Plans~

I am working on summer schooling plans and the kids are making me see red. I know they are tired and probably needing a break but we did very little work for the last two weeks and they need to focus. I have told and then reminded them that if they would just do their work in a timely manner and accurately the first time, they would have more free time. Apparently they are still struggling with that issue and even my study habits that they see me doing for my college classes is not getting through to them. I was so hoping that modeling would be the answer but not yet.

I have also told them that as they finish a subject that they will not get a replacement until the start of the new school year on Aug. 13, 2012. Hoping to make it seem more manageable, and more positive. So far that hasn’t hit home either. The woes of homeschooling while going to college. If you thought to hear a pleasant, loving testimony of homeschooling, then move on, that is not happening today here! This is the reality of day to day homeschooling. Homeschooling is not always fun nor is it easy. I do think of quitting but having had children who have fallen through the cracks in the public school system where we live, quitting is not an option as long as we live here.

On to the summer plans, we have only 38 lessons of history to do, so if we do 2 lessons a day we will be done in 19 days~ I need to finish history before the Ark goes to babysit for Renee this summer as that is a group subject. So history will be a priority for the next 3 weeks. We finally found the Ark’s science test booklet so he will be rewriting his tests into it as it makes it so much easier to take to the teacher, for their evaluations. Someone misplaced the Ark’s math book and I am furious, as he only had 5 weeks left to complete and then he would be done. I hope we find it as he can take it to Renee’s and finish it there.

Ace gets to work M-S until June 22, when we will be getting him ready for Camp Mowana. He gets a break from book work but gets some life learning so a nice trade off for him. The Ark on the other hand is close to finishing up with much of his work except for Physical Science but that he will take to Renee’s as well as his Latin which is on dvd. He gets a nice book learning break and real life learning when he goes to New Orleans this summer! He leaves early July 14, comes home late July 23!

The Princess and the Peanut will both be schooling until July 27 when I call it quits irregardless of where they are in the scheme of things! They will need a break by then and so will I!!! Especially since we will spend 7 weeks doing swim team and swim lessons, lots of park/pool time and gardening thrown into the mix.

I did email the teacher about getting them in for their evaluations, I am hoping to take two kids at a time on different days as that makes it so much easier to get them through the evals. They are long and the kids get restless or tired if we do them all on one day. We will see what she says in her reply, it is more complicated now though with the boys going on trips to plan.

Sometime I have to start finishing my planning for the upcoming year but figure I can wait until July for that…..I still need to order books for next year as well! Hopefully I will have an idea by next week just what I am teaching so I can get it in writing for my planner!!!!

The Ark is working on a Language Arts end of year project to show the teacher~ it is going slowly……and he is so frustrated…..writing in not his strong suit but he must improve his skills in that area. I will upload photos of the completed project. I was going to upload the idea behind it but I can’t figure out how to do it in this new wordpress post thing.

Ok, I am done writing for now……soon though I will be posting their plans for 2012-2013.

The long awaited post~ edit

I did get my last A and my GPA is a 3.873, so I am quite happy with that for the moment…….

I was going to wait until my last grade posted but I decided I could just edit this post later Currently, I have 3~A’s and my GPA is a 3.864 so I am pretty happy with that right now. I should get an A in my last class but I never assume if at all possible. I should know by tomorrow sometime. Although I’m mad, I was hoping to hit 3.88 for a GPA but I miscalculated and it should be a 3.873, still good enough to graduate Summa Cum Laude next spring as long as I keep it there. I am taking Biopsychology in the fall, Latin 3, 2 workshops and have contacted a former professor about doing some research with her. I am waiting to see how she wants to go about it, but she remembered me and she likes me, so I am hopeful. I really need more research experience to enhance my odds of getting into graduate school.

Remember when I mentioned weeks ago that I was changing my career plans? Well, it is all Renee’ fault! If you remember, I was honored to be invited to Renee’ birth for Nigella. It was such an awesome experience for me, I had not realized just how much birthing meant to me or how much I missed being a doula. The Lord may very well have given us Nigella to teach me that lesson. The one LD nurse, asked me if I doula’d others or just my own family? The look on her face when I said no was both humbling and telling~ I could see she was disappointed and would have liked to work with me again.  Somewhere in the few days following the birth, I got hit with a brick and finally acknowledged how much birth still meant to me and then somewhere the Lord really worked on my heart and I started looking into clinical health psychology programs, there are a few and then there are a few programs that specialize in pain management, which would be perfect for me to go back into the birthing field and do what I love, as well as do research on better birthing practices since the US has a deplorable maternal/infant mortality rate. I finally feel as if I have some sort of answer, I have been trying to figure out just what/where I wanted to go with a degree in grad school and this feels so ‘right’. I can also do research in maternal/infant health disparities and that is just icing on the cake for me. So for now, I am researching programs and next week I will start studying for the GRE which will be tough, but the better I do on it, the better my chances of getting into grad school.

In other news, the kitchen ceiling is up!!! We still have to sand it and then remud the seams but it looks so much better than before, I’m really excited about how nice it is going to look when it is done. I can’t wait until I can start on the living room as well, then the whole downstairs will be done except for needing carpet in the living room, steps and the upstairs hallway. I even bought new curtains for the living room and they look nice. Just when I am thinking about leaving, the house is coming together…..oh well, it is only a house, there will be others.

The Ark made his confirmation on Sunday!!! I am so glad that is finally over!!! He was gracious to Doug, who butted into a photo with the Ark, probably just to irk me! But it is all good, since it is over and we can take a break!!! Onto other news, The Ark seems as if he is doing well integrating into the Senior High group! He has gone on 2 retreats with them this year and a few SNL (Sunday Night Lutherans) meetings. I am so proud of him!!! This past Sunday he got to talk to  the lady who came in from the USO, and found out that Cleveland is having a Marine and Navy week, so of course he wants to go. He wants to go into the Navy, I told him he had to go to college and get a degree first. He agreed to that, I am still so hesitant, but it looks as if that God might be leading us down that path, so I will just keep praying for guidance for him.  He is doing a lock-in at the church Friday night with the group that is going to New Orleans with him, and this Sunday is Youth Sunday, so he will be a greeter! He is definitely growing up!!!Oh yes, I almost forgot, the Youth Director said that if he wanted to go earn some money, he could always come down, stay with her and work on her husband’s family farm. They would even teach him how to drive the farm truck!!!! We are seriously thinking of taking her up on that offer next summer.

We signed up The Ark, Ace and The Princess for swim team, Ace, Princess and the Peanut for swim lessons and bought a pool pass! The coach was there and I got a chance to talk to her about my hesitations of having the Princess on swim team because of her severe scoliosis. Hannah was great and reassured me that they would work with her and take good care of her. When I told Hannah that swim team was on Princess’ short term  goal list, Hannah got goose bumps and said I was going to make her cry! I told her not to or I would be crying with her!

School with the kids is still moving along but we are behind as per our usual, but not as bad as I thought, so there is hope that by the time Ace goes to camp at the end of June, they will be somewhat caught up. I am still trying to decide when I will give them a break. I still need to get a plan together, along with writing up syllabi for the Ark for 9th grade…..I have ordered a few books for him. But that is another post!!! The Princess has 3 more weeks of art lessons. We don’t get to do art with her during the summer since it conflicts with swim lessons. I am signing up the three younger ones for sports camp! Ace is doing soccer, the Peanut~ Basketball, and the Princess is doing Cheerleading, of course.

I don’t think I left anything out so now you all should be very caught up in the happenings here. Oh I did promise you photos didn’t I?

Photo slideshow created with Smilebox

Update coming soon!!!!

I will be done with this semester by Friday, and the Ark makes his confirmation on Sunday, May 06, so soon, you will have a real post with photos.

Hmmm

I want to write something for y’all to read but am so lacking inspiration to really write anything at all. I’m stressing about getting into the Honors Program, the competition is fierce and there were at least 40 applicants. They should be saying something by the end of next week. I do have a back up plan though, I have already contacted one of my old professors about doing some research assisting on one of his projects in the fall, he remembered me and said to contact him then. So that is promising.
School is going ok, the kids are doing ok, as well, although they will have to school more this summer than I had wanted to. I should have two of my finals out of the way by April 25, if I can find time to the paper for the one. Then by May 04, the other two should be done. I am very glad this semester is almost over. I have a story to share with you at some point about the Lord changing my career direction but am still researching it. So will tell you soon.
We had a few set backs during spring break~ namely lots of interruptions and illness. I did get the hallway painted except for the wood trim, so that is done and looking nice. The husband gutted the rest of the kitchen, we bought a recessed light for over the sink and a tracking light for the rest of the kitchen. Then came in the problem, the bathroom is over the kitchen and the dumb toilet has never sat flush to the floor, so I had the husband take up the cracking ceramic tile, the subfloor and what did he find? Another layer of 1″ square tiles…..on top of the original subfloor, which was rotting around the toilet. So he replaced the subfloor and put down new vinyl tile. He also decided to replace the heat duct for whatever reason. So before he can put up my ceiling he needs to get the guy out to put in a new one. So last weekend he spent most of the day putting in my new side door! Or at least everything but the trim around it since we had to put in new mortor in the brick work. But hopefully tomorrow he can get up the trim, so we can use the door! We only have 4 weeks to get some of this done before the Ark is confirmed and the husband’s family is coming for lunch *although we are not sure yet how many will be able to come.
There is always so much to do here and I’m just wanting one day to just do what I want to do: like scrapbook, marathon tv watching, going to the mall and looking at everything sans kids or even the husband, maybe taking a long walk by myself. Ok, well it is time to go wash the grey out of my hair, for tomorrow I am dong the crafts for the first communion class and in the evening going to Ronald McDonald house to serve a meal for them. I also have a ton of Latin to get done and a paper to write by Thursday and two articles to read and do discussion questions for. Plus the Ark has to acolyte this sunday!!! I am so surprised to realize that it is already Palm Sunday!!!! I hope you all have a blessed Easter!!!!

The first day of spring break

Went ok, the husband has been working on the kitchen, I did schoolwork with the kids and have been working on my essay to apply to the Honors Program in Psychology. It is rough going, while my writing is improving, I am still far from where I want to be in that area.

I have found curtains that I like for the living room and if they look as good in real life, I will be able to get paint for the kitchen to match them and hopefully the colors will all tie together downstairs.

I am working on improving my health, which is something I hate working on. drinking water and eating veggies is not my idea of fun, but I have been getting sick with multiple viruses/bacterias and am heartily sick of it. So some changes need to be made.

I have papers to write while on spring break and Latin to study and reading to do. The papers are the hardest. I also have a big project in my psy. of hate class that I’m dreading working on but maybe Sunday….If I can get the papers written and the project done, it will make my life a little easier after spring break.

I tried to make banana almond pancakes this morning, but the husband moved the griddle for the kitchen renovations and we couldn’t find it!!! So I will cook them tomorrow morning. Oh yeah, I know that the newer Greek yogurts are supposed to be better for you BUT I do not like them at all! Do not suggest that  I make my own like Melanie, either!!! I have no time for that at the moment, but maybe during the summer. So I will suck it up and eat Chobani, I even tried the kids ones and find them horrid.

I have no idea what’s for dinner tonight as I am not cooking in that dirty/dusty kitchen. I wonder if I can convince the husband to bring home my favorite Chinese food? ok, well I just called him and he read my mind He is stopping at Dragon Gate and bringing me home food!!! I love when he does that.

Well, I guess I will at least go print out the stuff I need to get started on one of those papers. Check back for a post early next week with photos. I’m trying to be optimistic that we will get a lot done this week.

 

Disappointed

We were hoping to go to Sarasota, Fl during my spring break on March 09 and then come back on the 17th. Sadly the money I was going to use for gas down and back will now be going to replace my hot water tank. I’m so sad and perimenopausal hormones are not helping the situation at all. We also need to replace the side door and as well as the screen door, which was the food money. So not only do I not get a vacation which I so desperately needed but I don’t get to see Jasmine, who went back to Fl and is going to school there. Did I say that I was devastated? It is so hard to coordinate my school schedule with the husband’s work schedule for 8 days off in a row, that I have no idea of when I might be able to try this again.

So my break/the husbands vacation will be spent working on the house and I’ll probably work on writing some extra credit papers for my one class as well as work on the final paper for that class, which will put me a bit ahead of the game but I would have rather gone to Fl. Sometimes I truly hate home ownership.

I’m planning on going to the Rain Forest as we haven’t been there for awhile now and thought of going to the history museum but the Ark is saying he doesn’t want to, so I’m trying to decide if I should force him or just leave him at home and let him miss out on a good time.

On a positive note we will be able to work on the kitchen without too much interruption. The husband and the boys have been stripping off wallpaper this past week, and will be taking down the rest of the ceiling to get ready to put up the new drywall. Then we can prime and paint the whole thing. So at least it will be nice looking for the lunch we are having for the Ark’s confirmation on May 06.

I”m truly looking forward to this semester being over, so I can work on studying for the GRE and making final decisions on which grad schools I”m applying to. Plus, I’m going to do some volunteer work. Trying to decide if I’m going to apply for the suicide or rape crisis hotline or if I’m going to volunteer at the crisis pregnancy center. So many decisions and so little time to get it together.

The Ark wrote his faith statement and we only have to finish his stole and then he has to write about why he choose to use the symbols he did!!! I can’t believe we made it through confirmation with the pastor we have……

The Princess Artist is doing great at her art classes, her teacher loves her and says she is finally getting the hand/eye coordination down to draw what she sees, we are very excited to see her skills growing. This painting she did a few weeks ago with out using any templates. It is a fur seal, not a polar bear. Which reminds me I owe a friend a framed picture that the artist did…..the friend promised to hang it up in her house

It has been much warmer this winter but I’m still very ready for lots of sunshine and warm temperatures.

Well, I really need to go write a paper and that is not easy when you really aren’t feeling like doing it at all.

We are alive….

We are so swamped, it is insane…..the husband is finally working on getting things ready to work on the ceiling…..I’m so stressed about my classes, next week I have a paper to write and 3 exams all by weds. Kids are slowly progressing through their work but not fast enough for me. I just want a break now. The Ark finished his faith statement, and that is a wonderful thing, I still have to him write about the symbols on his stole, and get them glued onto his stole by April 29, he needs a suit as well. We decided to do a small lunch here at the house for the inlaws after his confirmation. Thankfully, it will be the sunday after finals week.
Tomorrow is Ash weds. and we will have to go to church. ick, I have so much to do that weds night services is not appealing right now.
Ok, I must get back to studying for those exams…..

Well,

Well what you ask? I don’t know really but thought I should let you all know that I am alive and surviving this semester. We have been steadily working on school but I did slack with the littles this week and they won’t do school with their father. So now I will have to crack the proverbial whip but am wondering who should be whipped: the children who aren’t listening or the father who isn’t helping me out here. Probably the father, he is supposed to be the adult after all

I sent off an email this week to the professor who helps run the Honors Program in Psychology. To talk about applying for the program. I met with him on Thursday. I thought it went ok, but had a few hesitations on it but my friend from UA, said that because he walked me down the hall still talking and asking questions, he liked me. So that is a good thing. So now I wait until I get an email asking me to apply. Probably late February….I hate waiting……

I took two exams this week, got an 81% on my latin exam but that is ok for the moment and better than I thought I would do since we covered most of the information last semester. I am hoping I did as well on my Clinical 2 exam as I think I might have, it seemed fairly straight forward and that made me happy. I also picked my topic for my paper I have to write by Spring Break: Sensory Integration Theory, a treatment for Autism. I started pulling articles so I can work on the bibliography as well. I have a quiz in Suicidology on Monday and 3 articles to read and write a discussion question for. I need to study my latin as well so I don’t get behind. I did all of chapter 18 exercises but need to do a worksheet and write some third declension neuter nouns down by Monday as well. Not to mention the studying I need to do for Clinical 2. Oh the joys of being a homeschooling college going mom.

On a side note: a friend of mine is over stepping her boundaries and I would love to blast her but it would take too much energy and I seriously have not time for that kind of thing right now. She can be so draining and then can be nasty when she is angry.

Oh yes, I forgot to tell you all the ceiling story from Sunday night……

Remember when we bought the house? It was a bank repo and needed work which we have been doing as we have the money. The kitchen ceiling needs to be replaced but I’ve held off since I was hoping to replace the plumbing and the one section of the roof over the kitchen leaks if ice builds up in the winter. So long story short we haven’t replaced it…..

here’s a photo from when we moved in for you

Over the last 3 years the ceiling has been steadily coming down in bits and pieces due to the leaking roof. So some of it was just being held up by a couple of nails. Well, those nails gave away Sunday night and came crashing to the floor. It scared the heck out of us.

So now I”m hoping the husband will get a bit motivated to take the rest of it down before it comes crashing, do the minor plumbing ourselves and then get the ceiling up. I told Tristan I needed help getting the new drywall up and he said he would get a couple of his friends over when we are ready since he just helped one of them do his basement ceiling. We won’t be able to fix the one section yet, but getting most of the ceiling up would be great, because then I could tear down the ugly wallpaper and then paint my kitchen. Making our house look a whole heck of a lot better and easier to consider selling if we need to for grad school.

On the note of grad school, someone recently asked me about it and I panicked when I realized that I will be applying to schools THIS FALL!!!! Oh my gosh, I am almost done with my bachelor’s and grad school!!!! Do you know how terrified I am? What if I don’t get in? What if I do? Holy cow!!! So much stress for me. It is so much easier not thinking about the future.

Ok, I’m beyond tired, so I’m going to close this for now.