Happy Birthday Nate!

Another Birthday! Don't have too many pics on at the moment, but when I do I'll post more..

One of the activities we did for Nate's 3rd Birthday (really?? I have all kids now...not babies, not toddlers, just kids...wow) was an evening at "Pump It Up" an inflatable playground. Uncle Seth and Auntie Emily joined us for some bouncy fun!

Faith and Sam in the shooting thing...


Nate spent some time in the shooty thing too....


But his FAVORITE was this MASSIVE SLIDE! So fun, and SO FAST!!!


We spent pretty much a full week celebrating...

More birthday pics to come!

SPARTAN RACE

So if you look a few posts back, you will see one talking about the Spartan Race Jake participated in in Malibu. The one in Malibu was a 3 mile run involving trail running, obstacles, hills, and lots of MUD!

The race we did yesterday was an 8 mile run. YIKES! Not something I would want to do!

Here are Jake and his brother Seth before the race. After the race was done, they both proclaimed that they would NEVER do that again! haha. Jake was on the course for nearly 2 1/2 hours. That is a LONG time to be doing all the torture obstacles!


We entered the kids into the Childrens race. A 1/4 mile run with balance beams, crawling in nets, climbing mini walls, and of course climbing through a mud trench!

This is Faith and Sam at completion. Faith is all mud arms down from tripping in the mud trench..so she is rather upset and ready to change!

Ahh, all better now that we are cleaned up!

We were running behind and actully missed the kids race. But the people were so great and the kids ran the course all by themselves. Because of this, Nate was able to participate! The competition is ages 5 and up, so if the kids made their race, Nate would have had to just watch. So this was a super huge blessing because Nate wanted to race so so badly!

Here he is at completion. He was not bothered by the mud. Typical to Nate's nature, he dove right into the mud and loved it!

So I think for now we are done with the Spartan Race. We may do another 3 mile course next year, but for now, Jake and Seth are letting their bodies recover!

Why Did I Choose to Homeschool?

As I am attending more Home School group functions, and meeting more families in the Home School community, I often find myself answering the question "What made you decide to homeschool?"

Of course, my number one reason is that the Bible says we are to teach and train up our children in the ways of the Lord. I believe this is relevent to education, as well as your typical child rearing. That right there is reason enough really.

A lot of the Momma's in my current home school group are not Christians, so they would not really get my number one reason. So to them, I also mention my other reasons.

In the beginning, I was fully on board to public school education. Faith did 2 years of preschool and Kindergarten in the public school system. The day I "really really" began to considered homeschool was my first parent teacher meeting when Faith was in Kindergarten.

Faith had an AMAZING teacher. Mrs. Osborne. Lovely woman of faith who treated the kids with so much kindness and love. I was very involved with the class and was a parent helper once a week, so I developed a great relationship with Mrs. Osborne.

Mrs. Osborne made a comment that made my stomach turn...put a huge knot in it...made the "red flag" wave all around in front of my face...her comment was this:

"I feel for the Faith's of the world. The nice quiet children who obey and don't cause trouble, that are not at the top of the class, and not at the bottom of the class. She is a student that does very well, but is lost in the crowd."

No no no....Faith is too special to be "lost in the crowd" The thought of sending my child to school for 6 hours a day so she could be looked over is just not right. And with class sizes as massive as they are, I knew the problem would only carry on to the later grades.

More reasons are simple...class sizes in California are massive. We center our live on God, so that means our education is also to be God centered. Faith loves art, Sam loves music. I want a lot of focus on their personal interests and gifts. We are a family that loves to do fun things. If Jake gets an afternoon off, we can take off and have fun...not wait for school to get out to pick up Faith. So much more flexability.

So instead I decided to take on the education myself, with a lot of help from above! :) Because Faith, Sam and Nate deserve to be in the limelight. There education and character development is too important to send them off to an overcrowded school system where they are just a number.

Plus, I must say I have the cutest class around! :)

Stop and Enjoy the Blessing...

Don't you love it when your child reminds you to just stop and enjoy all that God has blessed you with??

I am a person who puts a lot of pressure on myself. I want to be the perfect Momma...I want my children to have an amazing childhood filled with lots of love, laughter, and good times. But with wanting to be a perfect Momma, and putting so much pressure on myself, it also causes me to stress out, and become frustrated over things that really don't matter at the end of the day.

Today was a day that was not going well. Faith and I have hit a bit of a wall in homeschooling. I am trying to keep up with cirriculum and lesson plans, and in the process I have overwhealmed my girl who needs to go a little slower in areas like reading and writing.

So now here I am revamping those areas of school, going back to where she is comfortable and taking it slow from there, on the computer, emailing my homeschool failure feelings to my dear friend who also homeschools so she gets it, and gives me wonderful advice and encouragement. Thank you Jesus for those people in my life!

So yes, picture me at my computer, working on how to be a better teacher, mother, all the rest.

Then enters this guy...who reminds me why I love being a stay at home Momma and homeschooling Momma in the first place.


Nate is turning 3 in a few short days. But he is a little guy, and can climb up onto my lap and fit perfectly...as he did today. I'm at my desk, he climbs on my lap, grabs my face and turns it away from the computer screen...he then burries his head into my neck and giggles. And that's all he did...he stayed in that spot, holding my head in his hands, fingers running through my hair. And he kept giggling.

And I just stopped. Stopped stressing, stopped feeling upset, stopped trying to be perfect and just hugged that little guy back. And thanked God for the blessings He has given me.