Things ....

So just some things going on in our house right now ...

1. We have taken a break from school. I just haven't figured out the route I want to take this year 100%. We have time to take this break, so we are and we are enjoying it for the most part. It does feel wierd to completely stop "school" as it would be such a no-no were we not homeschooling, but I think it's doing us a world of good around the house. I imagine we will be on this break until after Thanksgiving at this point and I am okay with that.

2. I made an appointment to get a "fitness consultation" at the YMCA for Friday. So hopefully I can get something started and actually follow through. That follow through part will be the hardest part of it for sure. But I will go Friday. They will get a brief medical history (to make sure I'm okay to use machines) and then teach me 3-4 cardio machines. Then in one week I will go back and learn the basic weight machines. Then a week after that I will return to learn more of th e weight machines and design a program to keep me good for several months. How fun. I am actually excited. But mostly because this stomach flab has got to go.

3. I am trying to find out my middle child's passion. So far I haven't struck a chord with her, but I am determined there has to at least one thing in this world that excites her and we need to find that. Because maybe if she finds something that is so fun she can't stand it, it will allow us to break through whatever is going on in her unique little self. We'll see where this takes us ... so far we keep traveling down dead ends, but pretty soon I know we will make it to that highway!

4. My oldest dd is not digging Awana Sparks this year like she did last year. I blame this on the girl who listens to her recite her Bible verses each week.
[For those who don't know, Awana is a club to learn about God and the Bible and all that jazz. This year she can earn 4 red jewels and 4 green jewels.]
Several weeks ago my dd earned green jewel 1 and was so proud. The girl listening to her recite them passed her (which she should have since she knew them all) but then told her she did it all wrong and that she needed to go home and learn the red jewels first because it was the right way to do it. It clearly states in the book that it does not matter if you learn the red or the green ones first, that you can learn them at the same time or switch back and forth between them - the onle "rule" is that for the red jewels you must go in numeric order - red jewel one first, red jewel 2 second, etc, etc ... but aside from that there was no order requirement. We did double check with someone else who had no clue why my dd was told she had to complete all the reds first, but we decided to switch to the red jewel. So she finished red jewel 1, then did green jewel 4 and began red jewel 2. 2 weeks ago she didn't learn any verses - we were busy and she is ahead. She got yelled at again for not having any done. She came home crying about it (and also because she was hungry and another child there hit her a couple of times so really it was a bad night all around). And was told she needed to learn at least 2 verses for the next night. So she worked on her two verses and went to Awana last week. The girl passed her on 6 verses. Because she read them once and my dd repeated them instantly. By the time she returned home she couldn't remember the last 4, but she passed them there and earned red jewel 2. She now has half the book done and we are in November only. So this week she told me she didn't need to practice too hard that she was sure she can pass a bunch just like last week. I for one, do not think remembering soemthing for one minute equates memorizing, but now I think she does. We did manage to practice 2 here and she has them down pretty good. But she was so excited ... for the first few weeks she was learning 4 verses or so a week, and now the spark just isn't there for it. Let's hope she is in a lull and will bounce back soon because she used to love it, love learning the verses and saying them! I want to see that again, especially since if we move this may be her last year with Awana, and how sad to end on a not good note!

5. Since I talked about the other two, babyboy is doing well. He "talks" to us all the time! It's so funny. Who knows what he is saying but he just babbles and babbles away all the time. He also climbs almost all the time. The climbing is no where as cute as the babbling. I keep waiting to a big spill to happen, but so far we have been lucky. But he is all over the place - up, down, over, under, climbing, sliding down, and just on the go!

Okay, I think that sums up life here!