Seas the Day

More than once, when Eliza has been looking thoughtful and I've asked her what is on her mind she has said she was thinking about the beach. The last time we've been to the beach was when she was a baby, so it surprised me that she would spend so much time thinking about it. Nathan's always wondered what it would be like to visit the Oregon Coast, so I started looking up rental houses. I found a cute one, that would actually fit our family, in Depoe Bay which is just between Lincoln City and Newport. http://vacasarentals.com/unit.php?UnitID=189 If we went during the week in the off season, the price per night would be less than a hotel room.

Eliza has especially been looking forward to going and has been counting down for the last week. She woke us up early on the day we were leaving. I hadn't even bothered to set the alarm. I knew we wouldn't need it because the kids were so excited.

Trips are such an awesome break from day-to-day living. It is just what our family needed. Sometimes it feels like all we ever do is clean the house and yard work! Everything is different on a trip. Little things seem adventurous - like our lunch time picnic in the rain yesterday. We found a state park with enough trees to semi-cove a picnic table and protect us from the sprinkling. While we were there, Derek asked who took care of the park and I got to explain to him about taxes and how they benefit everyone.

Earlier we stopped at Multinomah Falls and were crossing under the freeway just as a train was going by. We hurried to the path under the train bridge and got to see and hear the train pass over us.

It was a beautiful, but long drive here. I hadn't wanted Eliza to be disappointed because she wouldn't  be wearing her swimsuit running through the waves, so I had explained to her the beach close to our house was a cold beach. On the drive she reminded me a few times that I had said the beach was close to our house. It was all worth it when we got there. Eliza was the first one in and ran to find "her flower bed" that she had picked out from the website. It is actually located inside the walk in closet in the room Nathan and I are staying in so it is a perfect location. After we had been here for a while she told me she was going to be up in her room. It is probably the only time in her life she will have her own room! This morning, early again, she came into our room to wake us up. The first thing she told me was that she had made her bed.

Eliza's Flower Bed

Last night be barbecued and then Nate and the kids spend time in the hot tub. I had been looking forward to seeing the eclipse, but it was so cloudy. I did get to kind of see a little through the heavy clouds.

The rental house has a loft bedroom that is over the garage and is only accessible by outside stairs. It has a queen bed and its own television. I wasn't sure if we would use it since it isn't connected to the rest of the house, but because of Michael's independent character, it didn't surprise me when he excitedly offered to stay there. During the afternoon the kids would say, I'm going to Michael's and then go watch T.V. with him. It's like he had his own bachelor's pad. Originality, Derek was going to stay with him, but changed his mind at night. When I went to tuck Michael in, I expected him to be watching something,  but he was reading instead

Michael's Man Cave

Emma's and Merian's beds

Derek an Megan's room

It's kind of silly to put the pictures in here, but I thought the kids might like to remember what their rooms looked like.

Today we are heading off to Newport Aquarium. I checked out the prices online and found, with a family our size, a year membership is cheaper than admission. I'm thinking we can come again next year and visit for free! Hopefully the rain will let up enough and we can go to the beach.

Mike is doing a Little Mermaid pose.

Mike finished tennis this week. I am proud of his good attitude and the stick-to-it-ness he displayed this season. I'm glad he was able to double with his friend Jacob and even though they didn't do as well as they would have liked, they were on the varsity team, so they had good competition. I hope they'll practice throughout the summer. I was happy when Mike asked if he could be on the tennis team again next year.

Megan gets her braces off tomorrow! She looks forward to eating an apple without cutting it up. She has also started a fictional blog: http://littlemissfuturedictator.blogspot.com/ It perfectly demonstrates her sense of humor and why being the mother of a teenager is never boring.  She is the second mother in our house - a lot of times stricter than I am. I'm so busy running the kids places, Norah doesn't care if I'm home or not, but if Megan leaves she crumples to the floor and cries, "Megan, come back!"

I love listening to Emma practice the piano and I can't wait to see her at her recital. She is playing the main theme from Swan Lake. She has been doubling up on her school lessons and is done with a few subjects. Like utilizing a "debt snowball", she utilizes that time to do more lessons in her other subjects and will soon be enjoying an early summer vacation.

I'll catch up on the rest of the kids next time. It's way too late for me!

And it was good

After I had Derek I would go to bed each night feeling guilty. Either the house would be a mess or I would feel like I didn't spend enough time with the kids. I'm a to-do list person and it was depressing to see how little I would get crossed off by the end of the day. That's when I decided my mind set needed to change. I thought about how when Heavenly Father created the world, at the end of the day He would say it was good. He didn't say, "sure I created the water, but I didn't get to the plants and there's still those animals....UG!" So instead of writing to-do lists in the morning I started mentally making got-done lists at the end of each day. Sometimes it was pretty lame the pitiful amount of stuff I got done, but it was better to think positively at what I did do instead of what I didn't. I still write to-do lists, but at that time I needed the break.

Now we have been homeschooling for three years (if you don't count the year I only taught Mike) and it is starting to feel routine. I don't think it's odd that we do it, it's just a part of our life. The kids are doing well, but I am a perfectionist and I'm always wondering what I can change, what better curriculum is out there, etc. I think since I'll be teaching Derek and Eliza I need to say that the older kids regime is good and focus on the younger kids.

Confessions of a Homeschooling Mother

I've been meaning to write some thoughts about homeschooling for a while. At the beginning of this year I decided it was our do or die year. I was going to decide to make it work or give up, but I wasn't going to have constant second thoughts anymore. I re-read the "Happy Homeschooling" book that Tallia gave me and remembered all the reasons why we wanted to home school. It gave me the motivation I needed to do what it took to make things work, including staying up until 3:00 in the morning on several occasions researching curriculum, organizing lesson schedules and creating a Mario Kart race course to motivate my kids to complete their daily work. At the time I felt totally swamped and over my head. I wondered if I would ever get a full night's sleep again. But it has all paid off and I can honestly say that home school is so easy now, I feel guilty!  

At the end of October, I brought Merian home. This year elementary school did not get out until 3:40 and even though she was not riding the bus, she wouldn't get home until 4:00. It might be totally selfish, but the main reason why she started homeschooling this year was because I missed her. (Of course she was completely in favor of the decision.) I miss Derek now that he is in Kindergarten and I hate thinking about him being gone all day next year, so I've decided to home school him and Eliza. I know I'm taking on a lot more responsibility, especially with a new baby coming in September, but I feel good about it and I hope I'm up to it.

To help me remember why all this work is worth it, I thought I'd record some of the blessings/things I enjoy about homeschooling.

Again, this is selfish, but I like having my kids home all day. I like learning about the things they are learning. I like having lunch with them. I like having our family together and on the same schedule. I like seeing my kids help each other with their schoolwork and joking around with each other or sharing what they are learning with each other. They are growing up so close. When we were all sick, Michael make Megan breakfast in bed and Eliza exercises with Megan on most days. There is nothing cuter than to hear a four-year-old say "Let's do Eight Minute Abs!"

I like being involved in their education. When they were in public school I had no idea what they were learning about. Now I can quiz them all the time. :)

I see that my kids are becoming responsible, self-motivated workers. Emma makes me so proud how she makes sure she is learning the material and not just getting the work done. She always does good quality work. Merian is as steady as a train; always on track just chugging along happily through her work. She never complains and I never have to worry about if she is on task. Of course Megan is doing great. She makes sure her grades are always in the high 90%'s. I LOVE WAVA!!! She has great teachers, a wonderful curriculum, is taking honors classes, getting high school credit and I don't have to do anything but look over her work when she asks! Michael has grown a lot this year. I don't have to constantly monitor him to make sure he's doing his work instead of playing solitaire. He's learned that it really isn't that bad to get it done and he's proud of himself. He's remarked he can't believe he used to spend all day just on math and now he can get all his school work done before lunch and have the rest of the day free.

That's another good thing about homeschooling. The kids have lots of time to develop their talents. Several times I've found my girls in their room drawing together with the art sets they got for Christmas. When we were in public school they would be gone all day, we'd have dinner and then they would have homework. It would get really stressful when we would have ballet or sports. I felt like we never got to be together as a family and life was just running from one activity to another. 

I still have to be careful not to overbook us. I want to make sure my kids have opportunities to get out and experience working in groups and being with people outside or family, but I have to be careful to balance that with not spending all my time running kids to their activities. 

My laptop battery is running out! Maybe I'll write more later.

When we were at Disneyland I was asked to take part in a survey. I was finally sent the link yesterday. When I was completing it I was surprised one of the questions asked if I had a tattoo, nose piercing, naval piercing or any other body piercing. I wondered out loud why they would ask that and Emma immediately answered so they knew if they could take my opinions seriously.

The Power of a Positive Attitude - or Ketchup

Every once and a while Norah will wake up screaming and will not be consoled. Nathan figured out to keep asking her questions until she answers positively. After that she immediately lays down and goes back to sleep. This is how it goes:

Norah, do you like ice cream?
Nooooooooo!
Do you like butterflies?
Nooooooooo!
And it keeps going for ten to 20 questions.
Do you like to play outside?
Uh-huh. (Lays down and immediately falls asleep.)

The other night was kind of strange:
Do you like princesses?
Nooooooo!
Do you like ketchup?
Uh-huh. (Back to sleep)

Ketchup? Really? After all the other fun things? I think it's funny that Nathan even thought to ask her that. Come to think of it, when ever the kids don't eat their dinner, he brings out the ketchup and then they will eat it.

See Derek Dance. Dance, Derek, Dance.