WRAD Memories

I can't believe that it's been nearly a year since my last post. Well, actually I can. I suck at this sometimes (a lot of the time?). Anyway, here is something that I'd written in December, but somehow didn't post. There is much to catch up on from the past year and lots that is happening/changing- but this needs to go up first while I work on the rest. So here goes... Ever since I first started toying with the idea of switching to registered homeschooling from our current enrolled status I've been second guessing that decision. (You can read about it  here .) When I talked with our 'school' people- somehow they seemed to make it all sound so easy that this really isn't such a big deal. It almost made me think that I should stay enrolled- mainly so I can get the funding for lessons and such. But there was no peace when I thought about that. It felt like I was trying to ride the fence and play both sides- trying to figure out how to do the minim...

A few days ago I watched a video about distracted moms (by Carol Barnier author of the book "If I'm Diapering a Watermelon, Then Where'd I Leave the Baby?: Help for the Highly Distractible Mom"). I thought to myself, 'yeah, I guess I can get a bit distracted'. Little did I know that probably the next day I would realize just how bad it was. I was trying to explain some math concept to one of the boys and I noticed that his fingernails REALLY needed to be cut. It took EVERY ounce of self control to not interrupt what we were doing and go cut them that very second. I immediately thought back to the video. Yep. I'm a distracted mom. But something in what she said in the video really hit a nerve deep within. At first she thought that she needed to fix this distractability and become the Pinterest perfect home schooling mom. She had charts and list and everything possible to keep herself organized and on task. Only it didn't work because the...

I'm finally trying to get my home school reports in to my support teacher and I'm realizing just how much my kids have not been listening to many of the things that I have been telling them to do. It's almost like they are on a quest to see how little they can do/get away with before I get upset with them. However, I think my frustration level with this is probably linked more to my realization that I'M not doing things that I think God has told ME to do (or told me to stop doing but I'm still doing them). So, I'm reaping what I'm sowing- and I hate it. But I've also realized something else- my heart doesn't really want to change things. My head KNOWS I should, but the 'rubber is not meeting the road' at this point. After all, who really doesn't like being selfish and getting their way and doing whatever they want when they want to do it? Forget about serving others, I want to be served! And yet, it grieves me each night when ...

September was a bit of a blur- which you probably noticed since I really didn't post much of anything during the month. Things and life had me distracted and I couldn't figure out which way was up. My 90 Days Through the Bible is taking longer than I'd hoped- mainly because instead of doing my reading every night I've been doing other things (like creating a Lego scrapbook for the boys. Pointless? Of course! Will they love it and fight over the 1 copy that I ordered? You betcha!). But doing things that I'm not supposed to be doing means that I have to say NO to things that I should be doing. Things that if they don't get done mean that days are really, really rough. Like figuring out a schedule for our school days, or even what we're supposed to be doing for school each day! Thankfully, after meeting with my home support teacher, I have a new plan for the work and I just need to figure out a schedule. And very timely, this post here ( Punching th...

A couple of weeks ago I read this really funny blog post (found here  Worst End of School Year Mom ). It was really quite hilarious and so where I'm at these days. I have grand intentions every time I start something new. Things like school years, diets, exercise regimes, organizational to-do lists, schedules, habits, blog posts, etc. You name it and I'm pretty good at starting it- but finishing it, well, let's just say I'm not too good at that part. Elijah doing his first potato sack race at their school's sports day- he ended up wiping out and not finishing well. Trying not to come in last. For the past week and a bit (it's taken me a while to get this post written and up), I've had God gently nudging me with the scripture from Heb. 12:1-3: the whole thing about persevering right to the very end- putting my whole heart and soul into things until they're finished. Unfortunately, I usually peter out after completing only 5 - 10% of som...

I really should follow through on things that I'm supposed to do (or rather NOT supposed to do). Like not going on Facebook or mindlessly spending hours on the internet ('oh, but I just need to look something up' always takes more time than you think!). It would have saved me a lot of grief this week. See, one of my friends posted this article by someone who (it felt like to me) was bragging about how great they were as a mother because they didn't yell at their kids (anymore, at least). To make matters worse, the friend who posted it has always been held up by another person close to me as being so 'perfect' because THEY don't EVER yell at their kids either. (Anyone sense the sarcasm/frustration level rising here?) Well, confession time. I yell at my kids. Not all the time, mind you (at least I don't think so- although my husband/kids might beg to differ, esp. when I'm hormonal). I REALLY try hard not to yell- most days. And I don't rememb...