29 August 2012

New school year.....

Well it is a new school year in our home. Unlike many (ok maybe most) homeschool households, this does not mean new school books. Our school years run February to February. Mostly because it is with our tax return that I buy our new school books. Also we tend to just work in a book until it is done, then move on to the next level. Mostly for my sophomore, as she worked very hard this past year and working ahead of the game. Since I do have a bunch of books passed down to her, it works.

This year is a kinda bittersweet year for me. At the end of the year, my oldest will graduate from high school. He really has enough credits, but I want him spending this year review math and working on his paper writing.

So this year I have a senior, sophomore, 7th, 5th, 3rd, 1st and preschooler. I don't do a lot of preschool stuff, but they always seem to want to do school like the older ones, so they get a cheap all in one book from Wal-Mart or such and do that.

Another switch in our school year is change I am thankful for, my husbands hours at work have changed and he will be at work in the day. This will help me because we enjoyed spending time with Daddy in the morning and school would often get pushed back and then Mom would get too busy and we would end up going off doing other things.

21 August 2012

college for me

As each semester comes I find that I am struggling more and more with my work. Right now I am taking 3 classes, all 3 I have failed already once and am close to failing one of them a second time. This has me upset, cause I really really wanted to do better.

I am thankful though that a wonderful young lady from my church came over and spent several hours helping me with my homework. She would have stayed even longer, but it was so late and I wanted to make sure she got home safe. She is planning on coming back and helping.

I have a lot of wonderful young people in my life. I have a young friend that is currently sitting across the table from me working on her own homework. It is kinda nice to have a study buddy. Maybe I will get more work done this way.

18 August 2012

Sharing parts of my past with the teens in my life

Like most families I think there are parts of our past that we have shared with our kids and parts we never have.

One thing that had never really ever come up was about my dating in high school. The other day we had a friend over (she is friends with several of my kids) and I was talking with them, which is something we do often. They all were surprised to find out that I had had several boyfriends in high school. It became a big giggle fest, but in it I was able to share what I had learned and why I have encouraged my girls the way that I have. I think they understood a little why my point of view is what it was.

Unlike these teens in my life now, I was not choosing to live for God. I had come to know Christ as my savior at a young age, but due to pain that I had experienced I had tried to walk away from God. I was living kinda as the world says a teen should live.

I didn't do drugs, I did get drunk once. I had a job that I worked at 5 days a week. I didn't like school, but I wasn't a trouble maker either. We talked about that too.

It was great being able to share this with them and encourage them to continue to look to God.

17 August 2012

simply a mom

Several years ago I picked this as my user name for many websites. There was a good reason for this. On more then one occasion I have been told "Wow, you must be some super mom." Or some sort of variety of that phrase.

There are days though that I struggle with even feeling like an ok mom. The past month I have struggled with feeling more like a failure then a good mom.  I am not sure how exactly to get out of this feeling. I know that I will continue to press on and cling to God.

This world will not drag me down. On the strength of God I will overcome.

Philippians 4:8
 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.