By the time I get to the end of a semester and get the portfolio done, I need a break (or so I tell myself). This means that we usually loose a bit of momentum and have to get back into the grove of things.
Unfortunately, I felt like I was still trying to find that groove again for most of the rest of the year.
In term two, I also don't worry about how much we're getting done until at least February- when I need to start thinking about getting my portfolios together for the second semester. Then I begin to slightly panic.
An interesting thing that happened this semester was finally getting Jeremiah in for testing for some possible learning issues.
There never really was one glaring thing that made me go, 'he's got problems that we need to deal with'. It was more of a few dozen little things over the years that made me stop and go 'hm, that's odd, isn't it- do you think it might be something bigger or is it just a bad attitude that needs to be overcome?'.
I had brought it up EVERY year so far with our home support teachers (we're on our second one, since by mutual agreement we realized that our approaches to learning were too different with the first teacher to really keep all of us happy), but was always told that he seemed to be doing fine.
This year I finally put my foot down and said that I wanted it investigated- to either say yes he does need extra help or no he doesn't (that he's just a typical boy with the usual hatred for school).
Well, it turns out that there is in fact some learning issues there. Yet having said that, in other ways he's VERY smart (testing into the 15 - 17 year age range, even though he was only 9 3/4 at the time).
Now that we know that, we begin the dance of how far do we push him and where do we need to back off? I don't want to let this be a ticket to lower expectations when he really can keep up more than he lets on.
At this point they think that it's a temporary problem that, with some extra work, will catch up and be back to 'normal' fairly quickly.
Anyway, some of the things we did included:
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| Going for walks at Mill Lake- and seeing eagles |
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| A field trip to UBC's Museum of Anthropology |
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Where we saw the world's smallest
Totem Pole- the size of a toothpick |
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| Made mock battles with our stash of army guys |
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| Participated in our church's Christmas services |
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Made Mission Aviation Fellowship planes as we learned
about Nate Saint and his ministry to the Waodani people |
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| Sledded/'snowboarded' down the front lawn |
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| Had a hayride at their dad's work Christmas party |
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| Made homemade ice cream in their new ice cream maker |
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Introduced the kids to 'All Creatures'-
only to realize that it really doesn't have
the greatest entertainment value
(the characters repeatedly get drunk!) |
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| Spent time with their Great-grandma |
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| My Great- grandma (centre) with her older sister |
And that was just December's highlights!
For January, things were a bit crazy with:
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Horse Camp! Every Monday the older
two boys went to the Timberline
Home school Camp |
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Needless to say, there was no school
for anyone on Mondays! |
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Unfortunately, regular school proved to be MUCH more
boring the rest of the week (except for Thursdays'
Community classes, of course!) |
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| Daddy's decided to learn how to cook/bake |
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| The annual Robbie Burns Supper |
Then in February we had:
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| Noah's Community Class- Term 2 presentation |
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| Samuel's Community class- Term 2 presentation |
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| Elijah's Comm. Class- Term 2 presentation |
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| At Harrison Mills with friends- checking out the dead fish |
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| One of our few family photos |
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And a lesson in humility for me- need to
remember not to comment about what
other peoples' kids do, since mine will
shortly thereafter do the same thing! |
Unfortunately, March was a bit of a wash. My Grandmother (the one in the pictures above) had a milestone birthday- 85 years young!
Back in January, I realized that it was a milestone birthday and so I decided to get our family history put together in a digital scrapbook to give to her for her birthday.
Unfortunately, like everything in life, my goals of what I want to accomplish don't always match up with reality. I scanned over 500 pictures and slides and did MANY hours of research and writing and design layout- but did NOT get it finished.
I REALLY tried hard for the first two weeks of March (we called it our Spring break), but only got about 30 pages done. She absolutely LOVED them- and showed them off to everyone at her surprise birthday parties, but I'm still working on it (hundreds of hours later).
One other cool thing that came out of it, though, was that we also were on to studying about Germany at the time (where my grandparents lived after they fled Russia during WWII), so we were able to have some really good talks about the wars and how things happened back then.
One hilarious thing about it was the kids seeing pictures of me when I was their ages and then pictures of my parents and grandparents at the age I am now! They were SHOCKED to discover that I had at one point in my life been a kid like them!
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Some of the family at the kid/grandkid/great-grandkid
surprise birthday party
We have 5 birthdays in 12 days in March |
Another cool thing was that Elijah and Samuel started violin lessons at my in-law's church (group lessons). The teacher, Jo Blaak, is amazing and they were up and playing within two weeks! And it actually sounded like something.
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| Winter semester recital |
All in all, it was a busy semester.
Which has got me pondering the wisdom in all the business. Questioning the purpose of everything that I'm doing and that I'm involved in.
What is the eternal value or purpose? Is there any? If not, is it really worth my time (or rather the Lord's gift of time to me)?
I'm really struggling with those questions, because they're bigger than just looking at this semester.
These are 'game changer' kinds of questions (at least I think they are).
I try to imagine if the disciples or people in the early church had hobbies. They say that they had jobs, but for some reason I just always imagined them as being all work and no play.
And, I wonder if their faith work just gave them such joy that they didn't need hobbies- since they spent ALL their time from dawn-to-dusk doing it?!?
Or, is it that they were so poor that they couldn't have hobbies or they did but they just weren't mentioned?
I'm not sure yet what to make of it all- I think it needs some more pondering.
Anyway, what are your thoughts on this? Have we taken things too far and don't spend enough time serving God because we're too busy pursuing our own lives and hobbies?
For now,
Keeping it real, by the grace of God...
Tammy
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