Ready Or Not

We are starting our school year on Monday.  I most certainly Am Not Ready.  We entertained the notion of pushing back our start date.  There are plenty of other families and schools not starting until well into September.  But I quickly realized there is no good start date in our near future.  There is always something.  I don't mean that as a jaded I-don't-want-to-be-responsible-so-I've-come-up-with-a-million-excuses self-deprication. (By the way, it is really hard to type hyphens instead of spaces.)
This year we have a construction zone for a living room, a living room for a school room, and a soon to be school room for a dining room.  We also have four major birthday celebrations to be planned and executed, two rounds of delightfully absorbing house guests, and placement testing to complete.  I haven't read through all of our curriculum and meticulously planned the next term. (That's actually my favorite part.  Who'da thunk?!)  And who knows what various obstacles will stand in our way next August.
Herein lies one of the main challenges of home education:  we must supervise our children's education while running our homes.  We cannot stop one for the other.  I cannot stop being a wife, mother, and friend, so I can be a teacher.  We must make it all work as one, which is kind of the whole point of having our kids around day in and day out.  They don't just need an academic education; they need to learn how to live life, how to love, how to rise to the occasion.  Last year I was discussing a similar issue with a dear friend.  Home life was about to get hectic and chaotic, and I was afraid my kids' lessons would be left lacking.  She wisely asked, "What better lesson could they receive than watching you navigate this rocky road with grace?"  I took her wisdom to heart and more or less stumbled over that rocky path.  But grace isn't about me.  It's is about God raising my kids in spite of my stumbling feet.  Most days my hands and knees are bloodied with the effort.  My anger, my worrying, my doubt--they knock me down all the time.  But from my sticky floor I cry out to my Father to have mercy on these little ones and raise them up to love Him.  "And, God, can please make sure they all love to read and don't think I'm completely crazy?"
So no matter how big, I've got to get this ball rolling or else it will roll back on top of me.  I'm not sure what our days are going to look like, or how harried my husband's wife will be every night.  But something tells me we're going to be okay.

A few pictures from last year's education....

collecting cicada shells

painting pottery

catching blue-bellied lizards

singing praises with praise-worthy women

looking a lion in the eye...safely

tearing away the old

small thanks from big hearts

the family that plays together...

the boston tea party--no really. this is where it started!

singing carols to grandparents

dissection

the funnest dad on earth

listening to someone great, painting w/ someone great

nature walk with two awesome mamas and a gaggle of kids

early spring warmth--lessons, lunch...all took place outside

the passover

becoming a man

more painting!

putting the pieces together

with daddy. always.

what? penguins don't dance!?

ice cream in the city

along the shore where grammie was born

babies in our front yard

Learning Curve

Oh, our poor little puppy!  We intend to groom Bruiser all by ourselves, but we've never done this before.  So we're learning.  His hair was getting really long and the Summer heat was not letting up.  Consequently, we decided to give him his first Summer cut.  My Nana and Grandpa gave us some great clippers, but there's no guard.  That combined with Bruisers aversion to ANYTHING coming near his head or face during grooming, and we have a tiny-bodied, big-headed puppy.  Shih Tzu literally means "little lion"; he embodies that definition!  He looks pretty ridiculous, but at least he's not pantingly hot all the time.

In other news B.dawg is still spending every spare moment working on the living room.  It has been quite the challenge!  We planned to simply expose the beautiful ceiling beams, but we knew we'd risk finding unwanted issues.  We had no idea we'd end up redoing pretty much the entire room!
We discovered an ant's nest in one of our exterior beams.  The damage was minimal needing no repair, but work was stalled while we got an exterminator up in here.  The kids were fascinated to observe the ants trying to save the eggs by carrying them out.  Daddy even dissected a few abandoned eggs for them.  Crazy stuff.
On the perpendicular exterior beam we discovered old rot.  I posted a pic of it in my first post about the project.  We found out it was probably from "Powder Post Beetles."  They no longer exist, but you can tell by their name what they did to houses.  The damage just happens to be where the cross beam sits.  B.dawg has tirelessly sought the best solution to that problem, and finally found a way to support the beam and rid us of all worry that our ceiling will cave in at some point.  Yesterday he and a friend tore down all the plaster on the walls, blew in insulation, and hung new drywall.  They tried to update the electrical for the room, but it is a horrible mess.  We'll have to have a professional come and figure it out.
After...
sanding the walls,
cleaning and painting the radiator,
removing the last of the paint on the trim and baseboards,
hanging new trim around the windows, (what was up was not original, and bulky to boot)
and cleaning up all that debris and dust, we'll finally be ready to paint!!
It has been a long, hard project, and B.dawg has done most of it by himself.  I cannot brag on him enough--but I will still try!!
We are very excited to enjoy the finished project!  I will most certainly post pics as soon as there is something worth seeing.

For the Mamas and Papas

For all you Mamas and Papas and Anyone who has cared unconditionally for the needs of little ones....

(For the rest of you: you will be grossed out and not understand how I could let myself do what I do in the following story.)

The kids and I had a wonderful day at the beach last week.  It was cool and overcast with low waves.  The kids had a blast in the sand!  They were covered from head to toe.  At one point I looked over at Li'l Bit and she was literally rolling around like a dog, giggling.  So, as soon as we got home they each took a very thorough shower.

Gizmo was the last to get clean, and I observed most of his showering skills to be quite impressive.  I mean, he washed his feet twice with soap and a rag.  I thought the coast was clear.  When I got him out of the shower and wrapped the towel around him, I pulled a Mom.  A big one.  I ran my finger between his booty cheeks to make sure he'd gotten all the sand out.  And I asked, "Did you get all the sand out of here?"  

His nonchalant response: "Huh. I forgot to wash in there."

I took the next shower.

These are photos from a different beach trip.  They still got all wet and sandy even though they were fully dressed.