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Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Living by values

Please don't let yourself forget the values that you hold dear, the foundation rules upon which the rest of your life is built. Just because someone claims your values don't fit your environment, remember that values are adaptive, mesh with their surroundings, not chained by the situations in which they find themselves.

I have found myself in a barren field, no trees or other landmarks. I see my values in the distance, briefly, a glimmer in the wavering skyline. I catch a glance of them now and then, but lately I have left them behind, following the values of others. Without them, my clothes have no color, my skin no light. I might as well blend in with the grass.

I am grabbing hold of them again. With me trying to build up my kids in values that will follow them throughout life, I cannot tell them to stay true to themselves when I know not where my own values hide.

A customer the other day asked me the meaning of life, as a joke, and I didn't have a typical, predetermined quip as a response. Instead I had a mumbling moment. Since then, I tried to remember what my responses were. But I came up with something better, closer to the truth than anything else I've heard.

The meaning of life is to be your experience.

To you, it's your values that matter most. Don't pretend your life is any different. When you can admit you live your life to experience what you want to experience, you've found a purpose more meaningful than anything else, yet it encompasses everything.

So let your life be an experience only you can have.
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Friday, May 27, 2011

School

With only 13 days of school left we're in the home stretch. We have 60 lessons left to complete, 18 Language Arts lessons (4 of which are spelling tests we just need to go back over so Aiden can pass with more than 80%), and 40 Art lessons. Personally, I hate teaching Art, I don't get it. Sure, there are some pretty pictures, and sometimes it amazing to know that it started as a thought in someone's head, but that's about it for me. So I've been putting off Art. I try to make Joe teach as much of it as possible, seeing as he's an actual artist.

I'm so proud of Aiden though. He's grown so much over this last year. Our plan is to knock out a minimum of 4 lessons for each school day that's left, and we'll probably do a couple lessons over the weekends as well just to be safe. He just finished Robin Hood the novel, which he thought was pretty cool.

We are definitely re-enrolling in Washington Virtual Academy (WAVA) next school year. Aiden's hopeful that he'll be able to start fourth grade math in the Fall.

Here's my idea for the older kids during the summer:
Reading: 1 small-medium size chapter book per week (equivalent of Diary of a Wimpy Kid) or 1 medium-large size chapter book every other week.
Writing: a 10 minute journal entry a minimum of 5 days a week (working on spelling, punctuation, grammar, and hand writing skills).
Math: 3-5 lessons a week.

The great part here is that Aiden and Alayna can do everything together. The Math lessons are all 3rd grade level, which about 50% of it will be review for Aiden and a majority of it will be review for Alayna as well, but it'll also help her from loosing anything over the summer before the start of 4th grade.

I'm SO excited to start in the fall though. I will have a MUCH better plan going into this next school year than I did this school year. Now I know what works and what doesn't. I wont be as over whelmed when I see 600+ lessons that need to be done, LOL. Mostly I'm just glad that Aiden's education is going well.
The bus might be public transit, subsidized travel, but it keeps you active.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Field trip

Aiden and I were able to go on a field trip to Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River today with a group of kids from WAVA. Our friends Debbie and Keelen took Aiden and I along with them. It was a lot of fun. We got a full tour of the power house area, and even got to walk on one of the generators. It was really cool. The kids learned how electricity is made at the dam, and how it is transported from the dam to their house.

After that we drove across the Bridge of the Gods to the Oregon side of the dam. We went to the fish hatchery where we had lunch before feeding the fishies. The boys LOVED feeding the fish, and I have to admit, it was pretty cool. I haven't been in SO long, it was great doing that again. We also got to see famous Herman the Sturgeon :) Herman is a whopping 12 feet long and approximately 70 years old!

After that we went to see Multnomah Falls! The pictures aren't that great, they're from my cell phone.

We had a really great time though. The boys were great, and VERY well behaved. So well in fact, that we are even considering taking them out into public again!

Now it's time to make up for all the school work time we missed. We have to get some Language Arts lessons done.
Loving your child means letting them watch flash mob videos with you until they fall asleep drooling on your arm. Then lay them down and walk away. Lovingly.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

So many changes!

There have been so many changes in our lives over the last year.

Alayna will be 11... 11! It's so hard to believe. She's turning into such a smart beautiful young lady. We are so proud of her. She had eye surgery back in January to correct her lazy eye, but that was quick and easy and the recovery went very well. She'll be going into 4th grade in the fall.

Aiden is 8, and so amazingly brilliant! We decided to home school him this school year through the Washington Virtual Academy. He has FLOURISHED in this program! He started this year in second grade, doing a full second grade program. He was able to finish all of the second grade math in March, and started the third grade math program. He plans to start fourth grade math in the fall when he starts the rest of the third grade program. We'll be working on the third grade math program with both him and Alayna over the summer, as well as daily journaling and reading.

Brooklyn is 4 and is one of the most stubborn and independent people I've ever met. She's either a future world leader or dictator, LOL. She's been diagnosed with ADHD, and we're working on that. She's getting better though. We're hopeful that she'll start pre-school through Head Start in the fall.

Bella is 3 and is always trying to keep up with everyone else. She doesn't always like being the youngest and smallest. She's so much like her momma, small with a HUGE temper, LOL.

Joe is still working at Rent-a-Center, he's been promoted to credit manager and seems to like that better.

Me, well, I'm just being a momma. Taking care of the kids, attempting to keep the house in order, and just enjoying it all. I'm working on over coming some obnoxious knee problems that have been plaguing me since I was about 12. I finally have a diagnosis of Patella Femorial Pain Disorder, basically my knee caps grind against my femur, and let me tell you, it SUCKS.

That's pretty much it. We're going to be moving into a bigger place soon. Finally Miss Alayna gets her own room and her own space. She and I are coming up with great ideas on how to decorate it :) Her birthday party will be on Father's day weekend.