Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Parenting

Parenting is hard work!!! I find that I have more sympathy for my parents at school now that I have my own school age children. No matter how you do it, raising children is tough especially if you want them to have good character and know how to behave in a way that is respectful to others and to each other. Listening tends to be a constant correction in our house. I am tired of saying things over and over SO today I came home and created this....

Now in all honesty I don't like the winner part and that may change. I want this to be about making them better. For right now though it is a start. (BTW, the winner gets to decide what we will eat for dinner one night that week) I paired this chart with this verse from the Bible. I think this will be want we learn from it all. I used the pictures to help the non readers remember what the words say. I'll let you know how it goes after a few weeks.

Monday, September 27, 2010

A Rare Moment

This Sunday our family experienced a moment that comes few and far between. All boys were involved in an activity that did not involve loud noises or bodily harm. What were they doing? They were coloring. (of course it quickly became a competition to see who could do it better, but I am choosing to ignore that for right now). Our daddy was gone and I was holding the fort down. #2 on his own went and grabbed a book with some markers. #3 (because he is becoming #2's clone) decided to get some as well. #1 not wanting to be left out of a good idea went and got his own stuff too.
I love to see them getting their artist hats on.

Since #4 is not allowed to use anything that might make a mark because well....he can't be trusted and he will most likely use it as a chew toy. He enjoyed his time being contained in his jumper. What was I doing? Eating bonbons...reading a book....drinking a passion iced tea lemonade from Starbucks....scrapbooking.....watching a movie that only I would enjoy?Oh no....I was attempting to work my way through the mountain of laundry that had taken over one of our couches. (BTW there was still more to do after this mountain....I am still not done)

Friday, September 10, 2010

Journey

I read something recently that said to blog whether you have something interesting or not. To keep at it and continue even if you think no one really would care. So here I am....We are finishing week 3 of school and I can honestly say that I have felt peace, anger, frustration, happiness, joy, love, and madness. Seriously in the first few weeks all those emotions have been there. It has been a challenge because I have a new position, but I am still in the classroom at least half my day. The students I encounter on a daily basis are the lowest of the low. They are the struggling readers. I am loving it, yet it is providing to be a great task. First, they have learned coping skills for many years on how to get out of doing work. They couldn't do it so they needed to hide or somehow draw the attention away from the work. How does this translate to my class? I have students who yell out, who lead us on "wild goose chases", and some who just won't even speak out loud when asked because they are too scared that what they have is not right. Please pray with me for these students. I really do like them...a lot.... God has given me compassion to see them through a different pair of eyes.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Vacation

I feel like I haven't shared enough pictures from our grand adventure up north. Here are some of the views.
Can you tell this was formed by a glacier?
One of the few rare pictures of Adam and I.
#3 would see these types of falls and say "another waterfall" They were everywhere and he loved every one.
My attempt to get the reflection on the water.
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