School days

We have started our school year; in fact we have been at it for a month already.  I didn't get any "1st day of school" pictures yet, but maybe one day soon, I will.  It's been rough settling into a routine this year.  Most of the difficulty stems from my one-year-old, who either screams at me most of the morning, regularly injures himself because of his obsession to climb everything, harasses the brother I am trying to school, or gets into; colors on; *fill in the blank*; everything in sight.

He reminds me a lot of Marcus, who was also very destructive and regularly had me in tears.  Ah, those were the days.  I don't cry much about the very colorful, broken, chaotic mess that my house is now, but this kind of curious kid makes for a hectic attempt at education for sure.

Thankfully, the addition of a gate to keep him out of the dining room and hence off of the table, and a school room with a door have been lifesavers!  I generally have to work with one of my kiddos at a time, with the door to the school room closed, so the others can entertain and keep my 1-year-old occupied.  He does stand outside the door and scream sometimes, but I have to say my older kids are really bringing some sanity to school time.

Their favorite game to play is "tear apart the couches".  Yes, it is as it sounds.  I fought this game for awhile because I actually like to sit on my couches, and I had this idea that I could keep something "nice" in my house.  But, as they say; that was so yesterday!  Conrad likes to play in the forts and tunnels his brothers build, and the ones who are on break from school really enjoy the creativity that comes from this game.

There is so much about motherhood that involves letting go, relaxing, letting go....did I mention not holding on so tightly?  This season forces me to embrace contentment at a whole new level, and to be honest, it is liberating.  I don't really have much "me time", or many "nice things" right now.  And I'm truly okay with that.  God is teaching me to rest and to be content, and while it can be a hard lesson to learn, and one that my flesh fights, I'm glad He's working in my heart.  My kids will only be little once.  I'm trying to remember that in this season.

 

This is how I'd prefer to shop, too!

Homeschool Co-op Mom

I believe that God gives us our children very specifically, and I am convinced that two of the reasons he gave me my firstborn are to help me to grow out of my shy shell, and to be more social.  I tend toward shyness, and I am most at peace alone, or with a few close friends.  Crowds often intimidate and exhaust me.  Since I began homeschooling Sam, he has regularly asked me to put him into public school.  He thrives on social interactions, and crowds, and the bus ride with crowds of kids appeals to him.  He is energized by people and especially his friends.  This year we compromised and joined a homeschool co-op.  It's a newer, smaller group, and it seemed like a good fit for us.  I was, naturally, slightly intimidated, but after week one, I can honestly say, this was a good move for us.  Sam is loving our Friday co-op and soccer day.  It's nice to have other moms come along side me in instructing my kids, and it's fun to be able to teach a little myself.   Even my shy second born really enjoyed his first day at co-op, and my 3 year old had a blast as well.

My littlest one didn't really like the co-op, but I'm not surprised.  He prefers to play like this:

Baby boy is working on some teeth!

We officially started school last Monday, but I don't have any picture proof yet.  It's been a wild ride trying to settle my free spirited boys into a little bit more of a routine.  Hopefully things will smooth out over the coming weeks, but I have also learned to keep my expectations fairly low, and just try and get the work completed each day to the best of my ability.  My youngest has been especially fussy for the last several weeks as he works on some teeth.  Some of my kids handle teeth easily, and some of them, not so much.  He's falling into the, "not so much" category.  He doesn't enjoy the time I spend working with his brothers on school either.  He lets us know by climbing on the table, crying at my feet most of the morning, and creating general mayhem. I do feel like I handle the chaos better as the school years begin to pass by, but it can be hard for me to keep calm in the moment.

This morning baby was his usual fussy self.  I was trying to get us ready to go out the door for a picnic at the park, and he was spending the morning crying at my feet if I even tried to put him down.  I decided to use the bathroom, slap on a little makeup, and straighten my frizzy hair, (I can do all of these things in about 5 to 7 minutes.)  Baby boy stood outside the bathroom door and screamed at me the entire time!  At first I was feeling really stressed.  Then I remembered to pray about the situation; silly and unimportant as it may seem to someone reading this.  Thankfully, the Lord helped me to calm my nerves, and by the time I came out, I was able to find some humor in the situation and feel sympathy for my little one.

I'm thankful for God's grace to me which in turn helps me to give grace to my kiddo.

Compost

Last year, Sam picked up a DVD of PBS Curious George episodes.  The one he happened to grab was all about Curious George going "green".  Sam latched onto the episode about composting and took it upon himself to get us composting.  He oversaw the purchase of the black trash can, he had his dad show him how to drill holes in it, and faithfully drilled until the job was done.  Over the summer he has been helping me to layer food scraps and brown yard waste, and amazingly, we have successfully composted, in town, in a black trash can.   Soon we will empty the completed compost into the garden and see if we can keep those eating the compost alive for the winter!

It has been fascinating, and I really like putting my vegetable and fruit waste here rather than in the trash.  The most fascinating aspect of this has been the discovery of the crazy larva that have come to feast on our compost.  I had never heard of these guys before, but we have really enjoyed learning about them.  They are the larvae of a black soldier fly, and man do they ever like to eat!  Apparently once they become flies, they only live for a few days because they don't have a mouth!  As larvae they eat like crazy!  This picture is a little gross, but it's also a fascinating part of this process.

So if you've been thinking about composting, go for it!  This has been so simple.  I literally layer vegetable and fruit waste with brown dried leave, weeds and grass.  You can even put coffee grounds in there which help balance out and control odors.  I have tried to mix the compost, but I haven't been as faithful to do that as I would have liked.  If you get a trash can with a lid that doesn't pop off, (like ours does) you cal literally just roll it a few times per week.