For the love of homeschooling!

I spend a lot of time complaining about how hard homeschooling is and so this week I've been trying my best to count my blessings and think of all the things that I really love about teaching my children at home.

One thing that I really appreciate about homeschooling is not having to get up early.  My 8:00 AM alarm clock is a beautiful thing!  I also like the freedom of letting the children sleep in a little bit longer, though they rarely do! Not having to rush to meet a bus or get to school on time also gives me time to lay in bed and pray for my husband's safety at work, for certain issues that the people I love are struggling with and whatever else is on my heart.  This time is my most essential of the day.

Another thing that I really appreciate about homeschooling is that my children are almost always together.  Now, I must admit that this might also go on my biggest complaint list too!  The other day at our homeschool group one of the other moms pointed out what a blessing this is.  The natural process for many children is to go to school and develop friendships with their classmates.  I know this was true for me growing up.  Not having classmates means that my children are developing friendships with their siblings.  They don't have separate groups of friends that they spend most of their time with and only spend a few hours with their siblings when no one else is around.  Please do not think this means that we discourage our children to make friends or we are sheltering them from having quality friendships with other children. 

I'm also very excited that our kids get to be a part of a ministry to a forgotten people.  This month Papa Dan preaches at a local nursing home.  Before he leaves he takes 3-4 of my turkeys with him.  While they're there they help by singing a few hymns and of course songs like "Father Abraham" and "Jesus Loves Me".  Afterwards the older kids will say hello and talk to a few of the residents.  The younger two tend to hide behind Papa and Nana's legs! 
James 1:27 says:
Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. 
Having our children go to the nursing home brings this verse to life.  God has great pleasure when his children serve widows.  And beyond that I love that Papa gets to be a part of their homeschooling experience. 

This year Nana Susan has retired from working as a Title 1 teacher in the public school.  She now has time to come 2 or 3 times a week to practice piano with Hannah.  Which is huge since I can't read music and am absolutely clueless when it comes to all things musical!  I wish that I would have learned to play an instrument at a young age.  She also takes Benjamin home with her after Hannah and her are done practicing.  While at Nana's house Benjamin gets extra help with phonics, reading and sometimes math on their computer.  It's amazing that he never whines about going over there for extra school!  Maybe because if he works hard Nana gives him M&Ms. ;)  How many other children get to spend their early years learning from their grandparents? If they went to the public school there would be no extra time for grandparents to be actively involved in their education.

Speaking of no extra time... I see so many of our neighbor kids getting home in the afternoon from 8 hours at school and going inside to do their homework right away.  Some of them don't finish before supper and have to finish after they're done with their dinner.  This leaves such a little amount of time for the family.  On the other hand our kids do around 4 hours of school a day (less for the younger ones) and then they're done with their book work.  There are still other opportunities for learning of course, but they're not locked to a desk. 

There are many other things that I actually love about homeschooling and perhaps I'll highlight more items at another time. But, for now I'm going to go read a book about bees to our kids.  Which reminds me... bees!  Bees will be at the top of the list for why I love homeschooling in my next blog!

Hotsauce and I were bestoyed an honor...

My niece tells me that I haven't blogged since Easter and that I need to get on it...
She also told me that she brags to her friends about my blog!  Perhaps she knows that flattery works with me, but seriously, just the fact that she reads my blog is inspiration enough to get back in the swing of things!

Soooooo...

Yesterday I turned 35.  I think of it as the beginning of middle age.  And I have to tell you I kind of like it!  The older I get the more I realize the less I know and the more I want to "figure it all out"... but the less pressure there is to "figure it all out"... 

That probably didn't make a lot of sense, but like my sister says, "There's no other place in life I'd rather be."  And that's exactly where I am!  Life seems to get better with age.

As I was saying, before I started to ramble, yesterday was my birthday.  I don't really have high expectations for birthdays.  Not that I think they're going to all suck, but I'm also not ever expecting a huge surprise party where at the end Hotsauce announces that we're headed to some tropical island where children aren't allowed to keep asking the same question over and over and over and over again.  Though, to be clear, I wouldn't object to said birthday party extravaganza!

To celebrate I was looking forward to going shopping.  I'd been saving up my blow fund and I was ready to get a few new items into my closet.  Our first stop on our shopping journey was Target.  Target was relatively empty on this rainy Tuesday afternoon, but nevertheless when you head out shopping with five children, not matter how they behave, you can expect to draw attention.

Now, anyone with a larger family will have stories about comments people have made ... usually well intended, sometimes offensive, and for us almost always encouraging.  But, I'm pretty sure our Target outing yesterday has topped the rest of our experiences.

You can imagine how thrilled Ben and the turkeys were to spend their afternoon shopping exclusively for me... they were all giggles and grins and some other adjective that starts with "g"... I don't know... I'm middle aged and the brain is failing... 

I think out of shear excitement one of the kids exclaimed that they had to go to the bathroom.  Since I was looking at a few shirts, Hotsauce decides to take the kid with him.  Soon others children were volunteering to go to the bathroom too.  You know, public restrooms are the single most wonderful places in all of shopping centers...

I notice a lady is kind of smirking as the majority of the turkeys realize they need to go to the potty all at the same time.  Not thinking much of it I continue my shopping in earnest knowing that they won't be gone for long!  When Ben returns the "Smirky" Lady mentions how well behaved our kids are being.  Ben graciously thanks her.

She presses on. "No, really, they are very well behaved children."
Ben responds with another thank you.

A few seconds pass and she says to him again, "They are really great kids."
My Spidey senses are telling me that he's a little uncomfortable and he responds back, "Thank you.  They're for sale if you want any of them."

They both laugh.  I look up from my shirt hunting and smile nicely at her, acknowledging that I have heard her compliments and assume that we are moving in our separate directions now.

Another child decides they have to use the restroom.  I believe this child was in the original group of potty goers and barely 3 minutes have passed since they've returned.  On a normal day this would greatly annoy Ben, but I think believe he saw his way out of an awkward situation and took off with all of the kids except for Hannah who continues to shop with me.

Some time passes and I hear Smirky Compliment Lady telling another shopper that we have really good kids and before long she says, "And then he says, 'They're for sale!!!'"  And her and the other lady have a laugh together.

Upon the group of restroom warriors return the Smirky Compliment Lady is beaming.  She again tells Ben that the kids are so so so goooooood!  To which he says, "Honestly they're very easy kids to parent."  This answer seems unacceptable to the lady and she replies back, "Oh, no, they've got great parents!"  He nods and thanks her again.   I'm not exactly sure where he heads to at this point, but seeing that she's headed in my direction he pretends to look at something else for a bit.

I think about running, but can tell that she has me in her sights.  I also feel Hannah's hesitation and she takes a step behind me. 

"I don't know if you heard me telling your husband this, but I think you should know, you have the best kids on the planet!!"

Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but my immediate reaction is... On the planet???  Of course, I don't know this lady, but I think I can assume that she doesn't know every child on the planet.  After all, there are a lot of children in... I don't know... say China, or India, or Africa, or heck the U.S. of A. 

But, it does seem legit.  She has observed their behavior for the last 15 minutes, 7.5 of those minutes they were in the bathroom, but still she's probably nailed this.

Not really knowing how to respond, I say to Hannah, "Hear that?  You're one of the best kids on the planet!"  I emphasised "on the planet" too.  I couldn't help myself.  But, this was quite the honor for my eldest daughter... what being in the Top 5 Best Children On The Planet!!

Poor Hannah just shakes her head no and sinks further back behind me. 

Miss Smirks A Lot keeps at it.  "Well you are!  And you should know that people are thinking it! I was just telling that other lady that was shopping by us that you kids are the best kids I've ever seen."

So, wait, not only are you repeatedly stopping us your also dragging other unsuspecting shoppers into this weirdness??

"And you know why you're one of the best kids on the planet???"

Hannah shakes her head no and is silently begging me to get her away from this overly nice lady.

"Because you have the BEST PARENTS ON THE PLANET!!!"

And there you have it! 
The boldest, most ridiculous, comment we have ever received while out in public with our children.

I'm sure that many of you with children will probably cry yourself to sleep tonight.  What with falling short of our parenting genius smacking you in the face every time we go out into public and all, but I want you to know that there's room for you to become 1st Runners Up On The Planet. That's nothing to be ashamed of and you know what they say, "Shoot for the moon, if you miss you'll still be among the stars."

But, you'll never be us... said the best mother on the planet. ;)