Catch up on some of our Craziness

My goal this week while the kids are out for Thanksgiving break is to get all caught up with the blog so, you may experience some Six Five Four Blog overload (Sorry, not sorry), but I hope you still take a few minutes each day to check them out anyway! Today's blog is a general catch up on almost* everybody in our house. Tomorrow's will be a catch up on specific events and holidays. Tuesday’s will be a full blog about La, Wednesday will be a “Working Wednesday with La.” Thursday I will do a quick Thankful blog, and last but not in any way least Friday’s will be a small business Saturday blog where I get to share a few of my favorite small business as you prepare to holiday shop for Small business Saturday and Cyber Monday sales! It is something very near to my heart to promote and support actual people working hard this time of year!

First Shift

As I mentioned in the “16/14/1” blog, Steve has worked on night Shift (3rd shift) for six years, and he loved it!! He’s always been a night-owl, he went into work when the rest of us were going to be and got off as we were getting up to go to school. It worked for our family. So, when he came to me a few months ago, saying he wanted to try go to day shift (1st) I was in shock and a little resistant! (Side note: I do not like instant changes and not knowing how things will work!) But I knew that if he felt like that’s what we needed to do. It took a few months to get to change shifts, but he has officially been on day shift for over a month now!

I have to admit that I still was resistant some in the beginning and I was a brat at moments when he was messing with my schedule (Thank goodness he loves me even at my worst!!), but once we got through some growing pains, I really am loving him being home at night, and him being awake during the days when he is off. I can feel a change in the whole house, like a rhythm that I did not even realize was missing is coming back!

Me in college:

I think that I have completed two courses since the last time I have checked in, and so far I have been able to make all A’s (which is utterly mind-blowing because I don’t think I have had all A’s since I was in first grade!!!)! They were interesting courses, but I had started feeling a bit discouraged because the classes I have taken so far had not felt like they were preparing me to reach the end goal of Open a retail store…. Until now!!! I started accounting class this week! I am very nervous, I have taken an accounting class in college before- ten years ago- WHEN I GAVE UP AND DROPPED OUT!! I know that my situation was a big part of that: having three kids under 4-years old, childcare hiccups, and the beginning of a few of my “health” issues starting. BUT I still feel a good bit of anxiety about this class. On top of the fact that it goes to the week of Christmas (winter break starts December 24 for the online courses!) I am trying to look at the whole situation as an opportunity, though. Completing this class (and passing it) will be a milestone in correcting my past mistakes; it will be me officially putting my life back on track to make my dreams come true! I will be able to show my girls that even if you fail at something, does not mean you will fail at it the next time you try it! (cheesy I know, but I think the best truths are all cheesy!)

Sissy

Sissy

Marching Band season is officially over! She is participating with a few pep band performances (basketball band), but she is giving all her focus energy to ballet. She recently tried out for a part in the studio's production of Peter Pan. She got two parts: A Neverbird (primary role) and an Indian. If you do not know what a Neverbird is, don’t feel bad; we did not know either! It is a character from the book and has been in the musical and ballets (which I have never seen!) The Never Bird is a pretty prominent character in the book “Peter and Wendy” by J. M. Barrie. Sissy is excited to challenge herself with having a role she doesn’t already have an idea in her head of how they should behave. I cannot wait to see her develop this character throughout the year and watch the production at the end of May!

Lee

As I explained in the back to school blog, Lee went to a different middle school than her sister and is part of a specialty program. I was very nervous about it, but she is doing wonderfully and LOVES IT! In pure Lee form, she is not doing anything her sisters did! So, no band, no chorus! Her schedule is our first experience the rotation schedule. She has taken a P.E. class, business ed (typing class), Photography, and a construction class! I like this because she gets to try everything to see what she is interested in to know what to focus on in the future! Something else that this program does is “Museum”, which a big presentation that each grade presents throughout the year. Their focus this year is literature, and Lee got to be part of the comic book group! SHE IS SOOOO EXCITED! She gets to talk about Marvel superheroes at school!!!!!

Something else new that Lee did was join the Academic Team (even though none of the divas [her best friend group] was not interested in it.) Academic Team reminds me a little bit like a formal game of trivial pursuit! They practice weekly and then competed with the other school in the county throughout the season. Her team did terrific this year! Their coach said that their team this year did much better than last year, even though they had less 8th grader than in the past and less 8th graders than the teams they competed against this year. Now that the Academic Team season is over, she is trying Chess Club!

Lou Home-Schooling

As a former PreK-3 teacher, I had a vision of what homeschooling Lou was going to look like... boy was I wrong! She is not a schedule kid! We do mostly the same things every day, but sometimes to get her to participate I cannot always do the activities in the same order! She does not always want to sing, dance and count first thing in the morning during calendar time. Sometimes she just doesn’t want to color a picture while I make lunch, and she truly believes that we should do school outside every day no matter how cold it is or if it is raining! She has definitely challenged me to think outside the box to help her learn and be prepared to love learning the rest of her life. (Hints, why you have had so many Lou makes blogs). We have done science experiments where she can predict what will happen, observe the progress and compare the outcomes with her predictions! She loves the science part of the day! She also believes that there should be an “artject”( art/project) for every lesson! Thank goodness for Pinterest so I can keep up with her demands! We also use YouTube a good bit for ASL videos and videos with facts about whatever she is learning! I am having a lot of fun getting to be creative with her!