October

Well, from a homeschooling standpoint- I'm glad October is done!!  We had alot of soccer, scout meetings, a scout campout (for Bri and Austin), a church retreat for the boys, an afternoon at the Bird Sanctuary, Brian spent a week in St Louis, I spent a day sick and then we had our normal school stuff!!  Brian and I got to escape reality and go out to dinner with our friends and go see Tim Hawkins- which was great!!  He is hysterical!!  While I felt we started the school year out great we really slacked this month.  We got up late and I was less disciplined about doing things.  I mean, we would read the history lesson, but most days did not do the activity.  We would do math, but not go over flash cards.  So, November we are starting fresh with good attitudes and we're going to be self controlled!!  Of course, November is going to be a challenge.  We're taking off a couple days for the boys upcoming surgeries (tonsillectomy and adeniod-ectomy and Wyatt is having a turbinate reduction) and then Thanksgiving of course.  I'm also going to start babysitting again 1 day a week.  3 year old twins that I babysat last year whom I ADORE!!!  I think it will go well and we really need the added income.  BUT, this weekend is our last for soccer for the fall!!  So, that will slow our lives down signicantly :)
Month in review: 124 hours bringing our total to Wyatt- 331, Austin- 316 (Austin will catch up by the end of the year with scouts...)
Fun books they've read: The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, Darth Paper Strikes Back,  Masters of Disasters, Treasure Island and Lawn Boy.
Goals: Go on a fun field trip, get up and start school by 9, spend more time reading aloud

                                                    HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY AUSTIN!!!

    Lazy Halloween costumes...  They just wore their quad riding gear....  Got lots of candy though!!

(Sappiness alert) My sweet 10 year old...

I meant to write this yesterday and didn't have time!!  Sweet Austin turned 10 years old yesterday :)  I can't believe he's a decade old!!  I remember bringing him home and he was so little!!  Then his first birthday...  Wearing a little Nascar outfit walking out talking about John Deere tractors and excavators and excited about his pedal tractor that was WAY too big!!  LOL  Then as a little preschooler at the Methodist Church walking in with his little backpack with his best friend Paige...  Then he started school and was so excited to be his friends!!  3 years later we've struggled through many things together and I'm so proud of the young man he is!!  Brian and I feel very blessed to have such a caring and funny son :)
Happy 10th Birthday Austin!!!

Yawn...

Well, it's been a busy 2 weeks!!  Brian's brother had their first baby girl 2 weeks ago!!  So we rushed to Columbus to hold her.  She was so sweet and tiny!!  Praise God for a healthy baby and Mommy and a good delivery!!  Then that weekend we took the boys to an amazing program called Kidventure at Pleasant Valley Ranch.  It was setup like we were entering another country where Christianity was not allowed and we were missionaries trying to get in and live there.  It was so pretty there and the boys learned how awesome it is that we live in such a free country that we can worship freely.  Of course, Wyatt had a soccer game Saturday night, so we stayed late Friday and then went home so we could take Wyatt to his game.  He played an awesome game against a very hard team and they won!!  We were very proud of our boys :)  The next week was just as crazy, we took Brian to the airport Monday for a work trip to St Louis and he didn't get home til late Thursday.  Of course in between we had scouts (where I had to collect all the money and finish the stuff for Fall Campout) church (where I signed up to bring dinner to the college students that night, which was fun but busy) and music lessons (Wyatt started guitar lessons this week, so we had to find a guitar (Thanks Amy!!) and then he promptly broke a string so I had to go find a new one).  My phone also broke and I had to go to Polaris to pick up my new one (because that's where I had them send it for some reason).  Ugh.  Then on Friday Brian and Austin left for Cub Scout Fall Campout.  I had NO desire to go so totally used Wyatt's soccer game on Saturday as an excuse to stay home :D  After his game we went to Columbus with our good friends' the Hoam's and spent the day at Buckeye Game Fest, playing games and having fun.  Then they came home on Sunday and I spent the rest of the night doing laundry.
Hit repeat.
Ugh.
How's school going?  Eh.  I'm worn out and tired.  The boys are whiney and have been bickering the last couple days.  We need to get back on track and are heading that way this week.  We are LOVING out Pilgrim's Progress!!  One of our vocab words was Tophet.  Which means Hell or a bad place.  Yesterday during math Wyatt through his book on the floor and said "Doing subtraction problems is like being in tophet!!!"  Great.  At least they're learning something!!  Haha


This is the BEAUTIFUL scenery at Pleasant Valley Ranch

This Wyatt and the Hoam's playing a game at Buckeye Game Fest 

Goodbye GCS

Oh, the lessons we learn...  After much prayer and discussion Brian and I pulled Austin and Wyatt out of the Gilead Christian program.  I'm learning that what we do needs to work for us and be conveniant, and those classes were not.  First, they were about 40 minutes away.  After 3 weeks I was annoyed with that.  Second, the classes were at an awkward time for us.  We had to leave at 11, which only left enough morning time for devotions and math and we didn't get home til after 3, too late for us to be motivated to do anything else.  Third, we decided we could do things more suitable to our family for the money we were spending.  Austin was already doing drum lessons and Wyatt wants to do guitar lessons, so there's our music.  Wyatt already plays a sport every season and we really want the boys to have swim lessons, so there's our gym.  We do activities for both Science and History plus some fun crafty stuff for free time, so there's our art.  Austin never did enjoy it so he was thrilled to not go, and we promised Wyatt he would still see his friends often, plus with the guitar lessons, he was good.  It's a good program, but not for us!! 

My broken kids...

I have terrible social skills.  I talk too much, I talk too loudly, I'm too annoyingly happy, I jump subjects, I make inappropriate comments, I try to be funny too much...  You name it.  And my poor sweet Austin has all the same social issues I have and I feel so bad for him!!  I think of all the embarrassing, WRONG things I did in school and I watch him do them too :(  It breaks my heart :(  One of his main problems is making friends.  He doesn't have many and hasn't learned to value the ones he has.  We've seen a turn around in him since taking him out of public schools, and he's doing better.  So, our CONSTANT prayer for Austin is that his relationship with Christ would grow deeper and with the Holy Spirits help he's be able to grow relationships with other people.
And then there's Wyatt.  Wyatt has my temper and my irrationality (I think that's a word).  At the beginning of soccer season, during practice, Wyatt had a complete asthma attack.  Scared the coaches, him and me.  Well, we got him medicated and inhalers and all that and he's doing somewhat better.  NOW it's a head thing.  He's terrified it's going to happen again!!!  It's so hard to watch him tentatively play soccer and not look like he's trying hard when we're so used to the Wyatt who goes %200 percent and never stops!!  It's even more frustrating that we lose our patience with him and cheer (scream and yell) for him to try harder and to show aggression and then watch him sob because he's too scared too!!  Our prayer for him is that his fear would melt away, NOT because we want him to play better soccer, but because it breaks our hearts to see him so discouraged...
You know, we do our best for our kids, and we do everything we can so they don't make all the mistakes we made.  And then we look at the kids we've created with all the problems we wanted to prevent!!!!!  It's a good thing God loves our kids more than we can ruin them...