10/18/09

Pumpkin Party

0 comments Posted by Kat at 6:32 PM

It was a beautiful day with fall temperatures, a lovely breeze and sun shining through the trees. We loved that so many friends came to help us celebrate both of our birthday kids. I just can't believe that they are already four and six, it seems just like yesterday that I was dressing them in their special outfits to go home from the hospital for the first time. We started off with Benjamin's craft choice of filling pumpkin necklaces with orange and yellow sand, then proceeded to Tiffany's craft choice of painting ceramic pumpkin planters. We played a fun game of Ring the Pumpkin and gave everyone who tried homemade pumpkin necklaces. Then we ate pumpkin cake which I was surprised to learn was actually pretty good. Then we let the kids play at the park and cleaned up. When we got home, we opened our presents and got to hear a number of screams of joy at seeing their wonderful presents. It was a wonderful for all of us and especially the kids. Nothing makes me happier than knowing I was able to give them one wonderful day

 

10/3/09

A is for Apple Pie: First Thoughts of Homeschooling

3 comments Posted by Kat at 9:30 PM


Life's journey sometimes take us places we never thought we would go, at least without putting up a really good fight. That is how my homeschool journey has been. I never thought that there was anything outside of public school with their substandard cafeteria food and slightly maniacal teachers. My experience wasn't good either at school. I had trouble with grades, self-esteem and hung out with the loser druggie crowd so I was picked on often by the totally cool and awesome kids who were only cool and awesome because they had better fashion sense then I did wearing my grandmother's 1920 dresses and my sister's hippie rejects.

Eventually, I escaped the confines of public school and went on to college where I did well in the majority of my classes. I loved being at college. I don't why since I didn't really make friends there but I loved learning, listening to the lectures and getting a different perspective of things. My major was sociology but as I inched closer to graduation, I began to shift my interests to education. Where this came from I have no idea because I knew that I did not want to work with kids. But eventually I saw this as God moving in my life and I reluctantly accepted it. I didn't change my major but I did take some courses on teaching which I enjoyed immensely, even with the crazy media professor teaching us of archaic machines that can help us teach.

After college, when my parenthood began, I would plan out lessons in my head about things I wanted our kids to know. Things like astronomy, art and why the Beatles are historically important (I'll save that for a future blog) among many other random topics swirled about in my mind. I would also buy numerous workbooks ranging from Pre-K basic skills to fourth grade history anytime I saw them on sale. Why would I do this I could never figure out, after all what would I do with them but I bought them all none the less. Then I met a friend who had been homeschooled and planned on homeschooling her own kids. I always respected her choice but I knew that I would never do that because I value my freedom too much and because my kids need socialization. Isn't it funny how we make our plans without consulting the one who made us only to have Him come up and pull the rug out from under our feet and point us in a different direction. That is what happened to me. I kept saying that I would never homeschool for a variety of reasons and then one day I couldn't wait to start homeschooling. Hold on! What happened? Did nobody understand my plan? Incidentally, the same thing happened when I had my second child. There was nothing that could have made me want to endure pregnancy a third time yet here I am nine months pregnant wondering how I got here. Last year I knew that I would never homeschool or have a third pregnancy and now God is looking down smiling at me thinking, 'Never Say Never'. I'm sure that my stubborn nature will say never to God somewhere down the road.

After months of looking at various curriculums, I finally found the one I think will work best for my daughter and myself. When the package came I could not contain my excitement and immediately immersed myself into her school. I also found some things for my son to do to keep him busy figuring that he would rather play than do school work. How wrong I was! My son loves school and doing the worksheets, in fact I often run out of things for him to do but my daughter is another story. These were my expectations - my daughter would love the individual attention coupled with learning to read and my son would color one picture, get bored and run off to play. So she and I have been struggling with attitude, discipline and just getting her work done. Every week we get a little closer to finding a solution and every week I want to hit my head on the wall or just shake her a bit until she stops complaining. But I love hearing her telling daddy about what she has learned in extreme detail which tells me that its working just not the way I imagined it. Every day will get better and soon we will both be having fun.

 

8/25/09

Puddles

0 comments Posted by Kat at 5:03 PM

Yesterday, my sweet boy called me into the bathroom because he needed help (I'll leave the details to your imagination) when I noticed a puddle underneath the footstool. It looked like he couldn't make it to the potty so we had our 'talk' about where we go tee tee at and like the sweet boy he is, he said that he was sorry. So today, when he said that he had to go potty, I gently reminded him that we don't go tee tee on the floor. His response almost caused me to have an accident of my own.

"But mommy, I didn't go tee tee on the floor . . . I went tee tee in the footstool".

He said it with so much pride that I couldn't even get mad at the intentionality of his naughty behavior. Boys!

 

8/24/09

Excited Ballet Dancers

1 comments Posted by Kat at 7:53 PM

Our future ballerina has been so excited because she has moved up a grade in ballet. She is now in the big classroom with older girls and couldn't be happier. She learned some new moves that she says are hard but with practice she will get good at them.

Our newest ballet dancer (I don't think we should call him a ballerina) was excited before we left our house and even more excited after he was done. His over exuberance in telling me about his class and teachers brought tears to my eyes. He was so happy. Even the moms next to me said that based on his excitement they couldn't wait to see the performance.
My sweet little ballet boy.


Here are some of the dancers together.




Here are three short videos of the ballet boy.
He did really good considering this was his first time.



This is a short video of our sweet girl with the bigger kids.
Its brief but she really arches her feet well.


 

8/12/09

Thankful

1 comments Posted by Kat at 6:00 PM

This year has been most difficult. So many things have happened that could tear apart any family but we have worked together and held on to this wild ride. The year started with a paycut, followed by months of debilitating morning sickness, the loss of a job, insurance difficulties, health issues for both momma and baby and lots of uncertainty for our family's future. This is happening to so many families who have suffered more greatly than I can imagine during this time of our country's financial situation. But we are surviving one day at a time. Things have begun to look up just not the way we imagined. So I thought it was time to reflect on all that we have to be thankful for.

  1. We are all thankful that we get to welcome a new baby to the family in a few short weeks.
  2. I am thankful that I have had some time to spend with my husband during his 'vacation'.
  3. The kids are thankful to have spent so much time with Daddy.
  4. We are thankful that our baby does not have cysts on her brain anymore.
  5. I am thankful that my heart is slowing down.
  6. I am so very thankful that my morning sickness is so mild.
  7. Tim and I are thankful to see our children learning through our homeschool experience.
  8. Tiffany is thankful that she is getting her baby sister.
  9. Benjamin is thankful for ants who have 6 legs.
  10. We are all thankful that Daddy now has a job.

This job isn't the big thrill that Tim was hoping for. It means a huge cut in pay and an even larger step back in his career. I honestly cannot relate to his situation. I worked in the restaurant industry for many years and know the stresses and drama of working in this business. But I have never had to let go of my dream job only to find myself back in the trenches of restaurant work. I can only imagine of what he is going through. But I truly believe that this will be a great job for our family once he gets settled in. After all, he will be working less hours even if they are late into the night and since we are homeschooling, his time with the kids won't be interrupted. I also think that we could take more trips because traveling during the week is much cheaper than the weekends anyway. I could go on but needless to say I think this will be will a fun new adventure and I am glad that we get to take it together. Go Smith Family!!!

 

7/30/09

Relating, Sort Of

0 comments Posted by Kat at 7:20 PM

I think we have all had these days and can completely relate but at the same time its sad to see someone so young singing I hate everyone. Hmmm . . .

 

7/15/09

Complaining

3 comments Posted by Kat at 1:50 PM


I am just one of your typical, irritated pregnant moms. Well, maybe not so typical. We all have issues when we are pregnant but lately its seems that I keep getting challenge after challenge with this sweet girl growing inside. It began with morning sickness, which naturally lasts all day and all nine months. This was no surprise since I did the same thing with the other two. Next we move on to tachycardia (rapid heart rate) which thankfully is not life threatening but just frustrating for an active person who is being told to sit down and take easy. I don't want to take it freaking easy! I want to swim during the summer not sit on the side to watch everyone else having fun. Moving on. In addition to this, I am having braxton-hicks contractions a few times a day. Again no big deal, just lay down and rest. Crap! Now we get to add two new issues to the ever growing list. It seems that my iron is low so onto supplements I go. Normally, I wouldn't complain about this but iron has the tendency to encourage constipation. Did I mention that I am constipated already from the medicine I take for my morning sickness? This is starting to suck! The next new issue is sugar. My glucose test came back abnormal which means I have to wake up early, not eat or drink anything, have a nasty orange glucose drink and get poked with a needle four times to see if I am experiencing gestational diabetes. Did you know that the best way to combat morning sickness is to eat small frequent meals and stay away from lots of sugar? Great, so I don't get to consume anything but a large dose of sugar first thing in the morning. I hope they have a trash can handy. I think I have got most of it out of my system, so thank you for reading and please pray that I don't have any problems with this irritating glucose test tomorrow.

 

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