What we're doing now

I missed posting on all the kid's birthdays. I didn't even get a yearly Christmas card/ letter out at all this year. Not that I ever do. I think the number of times I have actually sent out Christmas cards can be counted on one hand in the 13 years we have been married. I intended to write a post about each of my kids at the beginning of the year, and here it is the 3rd week into the new year. The fact is, I am not very good about keeping a record of our lives and the things we are doing. I have been way too busy for my liking with the new job and all but it will get better once I get all of my lesson plans and ideas into a system, and the home life into a system. I work so much better when I have a system in place for each area of my life. Maybe I need a system for keeping track of all my systems. ha ha. Anyhow a little about what we are doing now.

Clarence is working at Megadiamond. He is the programmer for the EDM Department. He likes it okay, but I sense that he misses the accomplishment that he felt after a long day of pouring concrete, and turning it into something beautiful. He has found many other ways to find accomplishment however. For instance, this fall and early winter he chopped around 2-3 cords of wood for us to use in our fireplace. We did not turn on our furnace once until mid December when we ran out of all of that wood. McKay has had a valuable education in hard work through this experience for which I am extremely grateful. He has also started many projects throughout our house. (I am crossing my fingers that someday they will all be finished.) Some projects got put on hold because of the basement flooding right before Christmas. The ceiling has to be replaced. Luckily, we saved the carpet. He went fishing with McKay every spare moment during the summer in his new boat, which he named Joy. Overall, he is doing well.

I am trying to keep all of my balls that I am juggling in the air. Sometimes, I feel like I am dropping all of them, but overall things are going well. I am homeschooling Elena full time, and Alexia part time, while trying to get my education as well. Trying to keep up with McKay at school now and all of his extra things, is harder I think. And now to top it all off, I am working 15 hours a week at Liberty academy. Crazy, but I love it. I am really trying to eat healthy, so I have the energy I need to accomplish these seemingly impossible tasks. I do have to say that Elena and Alexia really homeschool themselves, I just try to create the proper environment. Life is good but challenging, just the way I like it.

Mckay is doing great in school. I am very pleased. When I enrolled him, I was really concerned as he hasn't been in public school for 6 years. He is loving it and has wonderful teachers that are pushing him in a way that I was no longer able to do. He has learned so much and is teaching me a lot. I hope he always maintains this hunger for learning that he has exhibited. He struggles in a few classes, but overall loves it. He is in drum lessons and basketball and learning very quickly in both. He absolutely LOVES basketball. It has become his life. He is the deacons quorum president and has a great leader that really keeps him going in Young Men's and scouting. This has been a difficult year for him, but I marvel at his ability to push through challenges and continue to progress. What a great young man.

I finally found some of Elena's loves and motivations this past year. She was really struggling with writing and anything that requires sitting still for long periods of time. She is a ball of energy. We discovered that she LOVES acting. She was in a small play with Liberty Academy and this year is in Shakespeare and Reader's theater, which I am now teaching by the way. Hilarious I know, but it is so much fun. As a result of these inspirations, she has written 2 plays complete with props, cast, stage direction, etc. and made up many songs and poems. She is truly in love with theater. I love Elena. She keeps things FUN and light in our family. She has also become quite the little homemaker thanks to Princess Academy and the Hope Chest Journey. She has hand sewed several little things, learned to embroider, and is currently working on crocheting a hat and making a bag for her babysitting kit. She is also a fantastic babysitter for Oliver.

Alexia. What can I say about Alexia? She has grown leaps and bounds this past year as she has transitioned from being the baby of the family to being a beautiful older sister and young lady. Alexia soaks in information like it's going out of style. She really is the opposite of Elena in many ways. She is happiest doing schoolwork. Reading, writing, busy work, she loves it all. She loves to learn and a public school environment really works best for her because they have a never ending supply of work sheets and busy work. At 7 years old, she has neater handwriting than I do. People sometimes ask me why I would put my younger daughter in school and not the older one and this is why. It really fits her style. She is in a MAP(multi-age programming) class which I feel is more like a combination of public and home school. She gets the busy work but also the freedom to choose the things she learns, and it meets 3 days a week instead of 5.

Oliver is doing great. He is a little ham. He is always doing things to make us laugh and he seems to really enjoy the role of clown. He will do silly little dances, and all sorts of funny faces all in the effort of getting us to laugh. and when we do laugh he breaks into the funniest little chuckle I have ever heard. He loves to throw his dirty diapers in the garbage. Everytime I change him, he picks up his diaper and turns around and waits for everyone in the room to follow him. If there are people in other rooms, he will go find them, look at them with diaper outstretched and wait for them to follow. Once he has enough of an audience, he will run to the garbage pail and throw the diaper in, immediately turning around and clapping at himself. We of course all clap with him. He is a doll. He is also very adventurous. He climbs on anything and everything. The table, counters, the piano. He will gather toys, chairs, anything he can climb on, and push them to where he wants to climb. This early adventurism scares the crap out of me. He has already been off the counter, table, and piano numerous times. He always has a fat lip. I keep the chairs on the table most of the time, but nothing stops him. He is a very determined little boy. No one or no thing is going to stop him from doing what he is determined to do. Wish me luck in raising this little boy. He started walking the week he turned one, in October, and since then life has become very exciting. Oh he also loves to play in the toilet much to my chagrin. My husband says "It was a good thing Oliver came when he did because it takes all 5 of us to keep up with him." This is very true. Some of the things he is saying now are:

Ba-bye
Maria (he says this as clear as a bell)
whoisit (who is it all strung together, he says this when talking on the phone)
daddy
light
hot
this? (he says this when pointing to things especially pictures in books.)
uh-oh (he says this whenever he drops something.)

There may be a few more but these are the ones I can think of right now. I LOVE this little boy. He knows this and very often uses it against me.

We struggle and many times I can't see the progress we are all making, but it sure helps to look back over a year and see how much we have grown and accomplished. It gives me hope to continue to overcome challenges. Life is great.

I hope everyone has a wonderful year full of challenges to overcome and accomplishments to enjoy!