Schoolhouse is Open for business!

First Day of homeschool!

Hayden is officially a Kindergartner!

Teacher Mommy and hayden (photo by Jack, age 3)

Jack and Mommy (bedhead and all!) photo by Hayden-mommy looks kinda tired!!

School table- I love this old blue-green canning jar!

Learning new words with scrabble tiles (much cheaper than banana grams. I bought at a garage sale for 50 cents!)

Mama's book of Lesson Plans and Instruction guides (I just can't live with a plain white binder. CAN'T. It says, Learning, Laughing, Loving, Living on it.)

Hayden's binder-He is OBSESSED with riding this quad, so he loves this pic of himself!

I added little tabbed dividers for his worksheets and writing so we can keep it all in one place.

We started school today. It was overall, good. We started our day praying together and reading a Bible story, which I loved. We did some language arts, and worked on some new words. Hayden had fun making -AT words with old scrabble tiles. It was fun to see him put together the concept of changing just one letter makes a whole new word. Last summer I bought this really raggedy scrabble game for 50 cents at a garage sale, knowing I could use those tiles for something! They came in handy for this activity of spelling new words by changing out the first letter.  Then he was able to read me a story about Pat, the Fat Rat :) He was quite proud, and so was I! My baby can read! We did a few other activities, math, history, science, and played at the park. Great day! We tackled school activities during Lucy's naps, which worked well for today. I think the boys will both be fresher in the mornings, but Math + snack was a good combo. They counted marshmallows while doing worksheets and were happy as can be this afternoon. They were a little tired, but that worked well for some quiet read-aloud time of me reading to them.

Cat's out of the bag...

No, I'm not pregnant, THANK THE LORD.

There is two little things I haven't told you. I have hinted at them on facebook, but haven't officially announced them to the world. Mostly, because I'm a weenie.

#1- I'm training for a half marathon. It's scary to even say that out loud. Never EVER did I think I would utter those words. Or that I would even entertain the thought, but here I am. Shortly after returning from Ethiopia with Lucy, and spending most of our days in lockdown, I realized I needed to run. I needed to burn some stress, frusteration, and honestly, some calories. It needed to be something that didn't take long. So, I started running. I have done the Couch to 5K program a couple times, but never really been able to wanted to push past two miles before quitting.

This time was different. I got to 1.75 miles and I wanted to know if I could go further. 35 minutes of time listening to whatever music I wanted, and 35 minutes of nobody touching me, and 35 minutes of nobody  asking me to get them a snack, or anyone pooping their diaper...it was bliss. I decided to just go for 3 miles and see if I could do it. Turns out, I could.

One of my dearest friends, was talking about needing a partner for her long runs for an upcoming half training schedule. Her friend was no longer able to do it...it was crazy to even consider, but I began to wonder, could I do it? And, I wanted to find out. My husband has been so supportive, giving me my time to run and cross train. I'm loving it. I am feeling healthy and strong. I've lost a few pounds and I think a couple inches...my waist is begin to appear. So far, I've had two long runs, a 5 miler and a 6 miler. Both felt FANTASTIC! I never ever thought I could run that far, or that I would ever WANT to. But I do and I did. I can't really think about the 13.1 yet, it's too scary. But, I can think about 7. After that I'll think about 8...you get the picture. I've been kind of afraid to actually say I'm doing it, because what if I fail? What if I CAN'T do it? That would be embarrassing. But..in the words of one of my favorite Glee Soundtrack running songs.."What do you say to taking chances, what do you say to jumping off the edge?" Here I go, right off the edge. I'm going for it and hoping I can hack it. If nothing else, I'm getting some amazing quality time with one of my dearest friends every week and burning some extra calories trying.

#2 - I am going to homeschool this year. AND, I'm really excited about it. I've tossed the idea around for a while now, but there's been a million reasons why NOT to. A big one was the crazy change our family has been through these past few months with bringing Lucy home.

BUT, after being home so much these past two months, and seeing how much good it's done for my family has really inspired me to reconsider. After praying and researching, I am feeling really REALLY good about it. I think it's going to be a great fit for my kiddos this year. We have been through alot of change. Our local kindergarten is all day 5 days a week. I was feeling like Hayden would do fine with that, but Jack, however would not. I think it would be incredibly hard for Jack to have another huge change like that, and lose his best buddy all day, all week. I'm excited to able to spend intentional time with my boys, teaching them and training them in our family values and foundations of our faith. It was really hitting me hard, that if Hayden was suddenly gone from our home for 6+ hours a day, I would be losing a lot of time to influence his heart in the things that matter most to us. I am feeling called to take advantage of this time and this season of our life, in our little nest to build into my kiddos hearts. I'm super excited about it. We are not committing to a lifetime of homeschooling, but this year, it's a good fit for us. (and for the record, I don't say this with ANY judgement for families who put kids in public school, private school, whatever. I'm just saying this is what we feel God's leading us to do this year and that looks different for every family.)

So, there it is. The cat's out of the bag. No more secrets. You can keep me accountable.