Snow and Field Trips

Recovering from a vacation seems so weird yet so needed.  Especially with kiddos. It was snowing when we got back from Albuquerque to Durango and it seems to just keep going.  I'm actually not going to complain at all about the snow.  It's beautiful and very much needed so I'll just shovel away and enjoy the scenery.

The highlight of our week was a homeschool field trip to the Durango Police Station. At first Jack didn't think he really needed to go.  He said he already knew what they do there - "catch bad guys and if they don't listen then they taze them"

I thought, great. He's gonna be so bored! 

But as you can see from this picture, by the time the day arrived he was super excited.  He even dressed up for the occasion in his policeman costume. Be still my heart! 

I think the highlight of the trip was visiting with the K-9 Unit.  Meet Uti, the awesome German Shepherd police dog.  He was the most well-behaved spaz I've ever seen!  He sat and smiled for the camera because his trainer was right behind me with his favorite ball :)

The Sargent was super kind and showed us everything! The holding cells, the breathalyzer, the Detective desks, fingerprinting.... We split up the girls and boys for the walking tour so I wasn't able to get Kate being fingerprinted.


We even got to see the inside of the police cars.  It was a really neat tour and I'm so thankful for a group of homeschoolers we can join to do fun things like this!

This week also consisted of lots of snow shoveling, homeschooling, life group, staff meeting and lunch, blogging (I'm working on improving the other blog I run - Growing in Grace), and preparing for the 3rd Annual Marriage Dinner we are hosting at the church next Friday. It's crazy how things go along but then all the last minute details pile up and it feels out of control until it all comes together the day of.  Whew!  Talk about an adventure!

This week will be very similar except we have another birthday to celebrate.  Kate will be 9 on Tuesday!  She's super excited (Jack is not - it's hard to watch his siblings have birthdays so close together).  We have plans to get her a haircut and a manicure the day of.  I'll be posting pictures later. 

Happy snowy Saturday to you!  Out to shovel!

Balance in Homeschooling

I love homeschooling.  I really do.  I've had people say to me "I could never do that."  I actually disagree with them.  When God calls us to do something, He completely equips us to do it.  No matter what parenting decision we make, we are able because He is able.  That doesn't mean this is an easy road, it just means it's a doable road.  One that I can even enjoy and excel in because God is supplying my needs.

With that being said, I feel like one of my biggest struggles as a homeschool mom (although I have several that I can highlight over time) is balance.  The balance I'm referring to is balancing my desires for school and theirs.  

One of the privileges of homeschooling is the ability to do it how we want.  I don't have to teach how other teachers teach.  Nor do I have to teach what they teach.  Similarly the kids don't have to learn how other students learn.  Meaning we don't have to sit at desks for a certain number of hours and all learn the same way.  I am able to teach each kid the best way I can, in the best way they learn.  This can mean reading upside-down, drawing while I'm reading out loud, going over spelling in the car or taking schoolwork into their rooms to work on by themselves.  There is a lot of freedom in how we do this.

Which can also be a problem, hence my issue with balance.  I want to balance them being able to learn the best way they can with what I need them to do and require them to do.  I'm still the teacher and the parent.  There are requirements that I have, needs that I have as the teacher, that aren't optional.  My kids still need to sit still at times, complete schoolwork when it's due, and learn how I can teach best in certain situations.

This can be a struggle at times.  We are all working through what it looks like to have conversations about what we need.  Ways to honor each other in this process.  If I ask them to do something and they really think they can't do it - like doing spelling in the car - then let's talk about it and come up with an alternative.  Don't just tell me no and move on.  The opposite is true as well.  And if I'm a good parent who desires to prepare them for the real world, then they'll need to do what I ask at times, even if they don't think they can do it or don't want to.  How many future bosses will be okay with them doing what they want to when they work?  Not many I would imagine.

So we navigate this narrow road, day-by-day, sometimes moment-by-moment.  We talk about what we need (which can be very difficult, especially if we don’t actually know what we need), we discuss what the Bible says about what it looks like to love and honor each other and we try to remember that love does not demand it’s own way.  A lesson for both the student and the teacher.

Hello?

Hello.  This is me.  Jill.  Slinking back to my blog that I abandoned 7 months ago.  I didn't set out to abandon it.  It just sort of happened.  Life happened and I stopped blogging about the life that was all consuming.  I have some regrets for stopping and I have some fears about starting again.  For the 3 of you that read this please accept my apologies for being MIA.  My goal is to start writing regularly again.  Part of my reason for this, besides wanting to let my parents know what's happening down here in D-town, is that I joined a writers group a couple months ago and I need to practice writing.  It's something that I think I really enjoy doing but when you haven't done it in forever, you definitely get out of practice.  Like riding a bike.  So I'm getting back on the bike and taking a ride and praying that I can stay on, improve and maybe even say something meaningful!

So let me start with filling you in (briefly!) on the past 7 months.  Since June I have had another lasik surgery to correct my over-corrected right eye (which worked wonderfully and I love being able to see!!), hired new staff, had a birthday and went camping with my love, started all the kids in extra-curricular activities (will share more on that in a moment), went to our denomination's conference in Keystone, Co., stayed an extra few days for vacation with the Palmer side, spoke at our women's retreat about women's identities, started a life group for young adults, went to Denver for a fundraising dinner, did premarital counseling with a couple, went to Golden/Boulder for Thanksgiving, had a crazy 3 weeks of December doing kids programs, women's programs and special services, had our youth pastor step down, hired another one, went back up to Golden/Denver for Christmas and New Years, came back and started a 21 day Daniel fast (only fruits/veggies/beans/nuts), got the flu, took care of Jack who had something nasty and finally got back into school just this past week.  Wow! 

That's not everything of course, but it's a quick overview.

All 3 kids have started extra curricular stuff.  Kale and Jack did Jujitsu for a couple months.  Kale loved it and is still doing it twice a week, Jack was great at it but was bored so we moved him to gymnastics which, so far, he loves.  He's also great at that.  Kate has been doing gymnastics since September and is really excelling and moving through the levels.  Thanks to me, however, she missed this round of classes because I signed her up too late.  Ouch!  She's taking it really well though thankfully!

We spent several weeks doing Occupational Therapy for Kate again.  She was struggling with her SPD and we felt like we needed some extra help.  It was a real blessing and she loved the therapist.  Unfortunately our insurance doesn't cover it so we had to cut it short.  But we got a lot out of it before we had to be done.  

Mark is really thriving in his role as lead pastor.  There are many parts to it that are a struggle for both of us, but God has gracefully surrounded us with amazing people to encourage, support and love us even in our imperfectness.  God is refining us in this role and pouring out tons of vision and hope into Mark for this next season in our church.  New classes.  New beginnings.  New staff.  Everything is new to us! haha!

School, for us, is finally back in session after taking almost a month off for vacation and illness!  All the kids are doing well and even though they don't always enjoy it, they get it done and are able to spend much of the day playing and doing things they love.  I still love to homeschool.  Not every single day but overall I see it as the gift that it is to me and my kids.  

My goals for this year are to learn how to rest and rest well.  
Take time for myself and take care of myself. 
Learn how to do things that I love to do (and frankly discover what that even is!).  
Write more.  
Listen more.  
Read through the Bible.  
Be present.
Print my old blog posts.
Maybe change up how I do this blog.
Upload a couple beautiful family photos that were taken of us this year...stinking blogspot!

Like I said at the beginning of this, I have joined a Christian women's writers group at the encouragement of my husband and another friend. This, by far, is the scariest thing I've done - which is surprising to me since speaking at our women's retreat this past October was nerve-wracking.  But calling myself a writer, actually writing, thinking that I may say something that people may actually want to read in the sea of great writers...terrifying!  But I'm wanting to step out, scare myself a bit, explore this path that God has put me on and see where it goes.  Blogging is going to be a big part of this.  Blogging here as well as my other blog (link in upper right of the page).  So here I go!

Sneaking back onto this page...hoping people will join with me again on this journey of motherhood, marriage and ministry :)

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I hope I have this figured out. All photos taken by one of our favorite photographers (we have a few!) Carol Cardwell. 

Our awesome staff. We have such fun with them! 

Laundry, Lessons and Life

I realize it was last month that I blogged but I also realize that's way better than last year! Honestly there are seasons of life that just aren't blog-worthy. So I'll catch you up on things that may, or may not, be interesting to any of you. And I'll include pictures whenever possible. 

Life has been going along. Mark started 2 classes last week. Since he started school he's done 1 8-week class at a time. Due to circumstances this summer, he was unable to finish one of those classes. In order to make it up and graduate on time, he has to take 2 classes for the next 8 weeks. Ya know, right at the start of our busy season. Oh wait, every season is our busy season ;) Mark will be doing two times the amount of reading, posting, responding and paper writing. It's gonna be a crazy 8 weeks! 

Halloween was last week. We don't do a whole lot on Halloween but my kids love costumes and candy! And I love looking at all the adorable kids dressed up in their adorable outfits. We go out the day after halloween and buy costumes half price. The kids love dressing up all year so I say let's pay less one day later!  I didn't get a shot of Kale as a ninja. That will come eventually. 

But here is bat-girl. Stinkin' adorable! 

And Spider-Man. Such a poser. 

In spite of Mark being even busier, he's getting better and better at managing his time. Because he was a rock star this week, we got to go on 2 dates this past weekend! 

One was out to dinner with some good friends. We enjoyed a glass of wine and a 4 hour animated conversation without children interrupting. It was fabulous! 

Saturday night other friends watched our kids so Mark and I could enjoy dinner out together and a great concert. He took me to see A Tribute to John Denver. I realize not everyone might enjoy this as much as Mark and I did but we loved every minute. I said that the best thing about a tribute concert is that they play the greatest hits and not try and sell you a brand new album ;)

Today we're playing catch up. Gotta do all that we didn't do this weekend. 

First dress up the poor dog. He came out of my room with this on and a look that said "save me from your children" 

Kate and Jack like to play school with all their stuffed animals. Makes me smile :)

And this is how we catch up. Laundry and math at the same time. It's gotta be done somehow! 

There ya have it! 

One reason I love homeschool

There are several reasons why I love homeschooling (flexibility, time with my kids, teaching them a biblical worldview etc...) but this has to be up there at the top. Life lessons! 

We had some brown bananas that were begging to be made into banana bread but I wasn't finding time to make it. Then I remembered that making bread covers so many homeschool lessons! Why haven't I done this before?! Having Kale and Kate do it together taught them "group project " skills, Kale (my reader) had to practice giving instruction, leading and sharing, Kate had to follow Kale's instruction and allow him to lead, they both learned about following directions, learned how to make bread AND used up my bananas AND clean up after themselves (which was less thrilling then the project in their eyes for sure). Win win win! 

Instead of a normal recipe card, I wrote out the instructions to help minimize any confusion or skipping steps. 

Kale was totally thrilled about mashing brown bananas as you can tell by the look on his face...

They actually did a great job taking turns adding ingredients and working together. It blessed this mama's heart. 

Teamwork. 

Final product! They decided at the end that it needed some chocolate chips (of course they did). 

And it was delicious! It will be gone after breakfast this morning. They saved some for Mark to try. 

Now I have to think of what they can make next! 

A look at homeschool

We have successfully started my 4th year of homeschooling. Kale is in 4th grade, Kate is in 2nd and Jack is attempting kindergarten. I say attempting because technically he's still only 4. Not old enough to start public school even. But he insisted on doing school with the big kids this year so we may be doing kindergarten twice but who cares? That's the beauty of homeschool.

A typical day (so far) starts with all of us gathering at the table, some still finishing breakfast. We do our bible lesson, memory verse and our character lesson. God challenged me to Matthew 6:33 for my life as well as homeschool. Seek first the kingdom. So we do. Seek Him first thing in our school day. He also reminded me of 2 Peter which says add to your faith goodness and your goodness knowledge. What this spoke to me is that my kids' faith is the most important thing I can teach and share. Goodness (character) is next. And added to all that is knowledge (reading, 'riting, 'rythmatic). So that is the order I have chosen to do school.

Kale and Kate are doing much of their school together. They have the same curriculum for art, science, history, Latin (yes they are learning Latin vocabulary!). They start on one of those and do their chores while I "do" school with Jack. Jack and I sit down and go over letters and their sounds and basic understanding of school. Then he happily goes to school on the computer. I invested in ABCmouse.com. It's a younger kids online curriculum. Games, books, songs etc...he loves it! And it keeps him occupied while I do school with the bigger two.

The older two have been doing pretty well working together. 

Separately we do spelling, English and math.

While I work with one kid the other one will either do a computer lesson (Jack gets booted)

and learn Spanish or typing, or they will do book time and spend alone time reading or looking through books. 

School takes up a lot more time than it used to. Even different from last year. But time flies. We move quickly from thing to thing and we're actually having a good time with the variety. We can spend close to four solid hours. 

And we are loving it. More than I have before! I believe it's because of God's challenge to me to be better focused and disciplined about all of it. And because we are seeking Him first and that helps set the tone for the day. 

He sustained me!

The past few days have been emotionally exhausting. It was so, so good and now I'm ready for bed! God sustained me and I made it through! 

On Thursday I got to have lunch with the church staff ladies and then we got to meet the newest, tiniest member of our staff (one of our awesome ladies just had a baby boy). Time with them was wonderful. I always enjoy them. 

On Friday I got to reconnect with my dear  college friend Lori.  I wish I had taken a picture. She hasn't changed a bit! This awesome lady had a profound affect on my life in college. She is the one who led me to The Lord. She showed me unconditional love and discipled me. Such a gift! We had a great time catching up. Even ran out of time! 

Friday night and all day Saturday we hosted a conference at our church. It was called His Creative Presence and it was such a sweet and beautiful time. We had worship and teaching and ministry and prayer and fellowship...God spoke so much to Mark and I through the teaching and prophetic words. Words that confirmed things in our hearts and challenged us as well. 

We also squeezed in a wedding rehearsal Saturday afternoon! The wedding was today and it was very sweet. Mark did amazing as usual. 

This is a picture from the ranch where the wedding was held. Beautiful isn't it? 

Right now we are just flopped on the couch and the floor watching Charlie Brown. Exhausted. Blessed. Resting. 

We are supposed to start homeschool tomorrow. The kids have been begging me to start since last week. We'll see how long that lasts. I spent part of Friday putting together my plan to teach all three. It should be interesting! 

I'll be blogging again soon with testimonies of good things God is doing with our women's retreat as well as a couple messages/revelations He's shown me lately. He's certainly pouring out in my life right now! 

He's back!

After a long and eventful 12 days Mark has returned! 

Here are the kids on the way to the airport to pick him up. Tad excited. Me too :)

Here's what we did while waiting for his arrival. 

Jack insisted on getting his picture taken with the bear. 

And here is their sweet reunion. 

Kate is already showing him her new shoes. I'm pretty sure the kids did not stop talking until they were sent to bed. They had so much to fill him in on! 

Mark had a great time in Texas and California. He said that the Texas retreat was life changing. It was wonderful hearing his stories of healing. 

Even California was great because God has given him a new perspective and enthusiasm for school. It's gonna be a tough year but God is working on us to improve life with school. He's challenged us to be more intentional.  Last year we sort of just existed. We did whatever came up whenever it came up. As a result we were exhausted and didn't feel like we'd accomplished much. So our approach this year is to have scheduled focused time on the things God is calling us to do and to greatly reduce and sometimes eliminate the things He isn't requiring us to do. 

For Mark it means family, pastoring, school and rest. Those 4 things need scheduled focus. Other things need to be scaled way back. Not always eliminated but certainly shouldn't be consuming his time. 

For me it's family/household, homeschooling, women's ministry and rest. Notice we have to be intentional about resting or, as we've discovered, it doesn't happen. I need to consolidate and really protect my focused times on these things. Right now it feels like everything is running through my mind all the time and nothing is getting done well. It's all just leaking out and consuming brain power and energy. So not good. 

This year we will be intentional about what God has for us and frankly I'm super excited to be more focused. I can see so much more being accomplished! 

And it starts this next week...August is on the crazy side. Grace for the moment! 

February is Flying!

My goal was to blog at least once, hopefully twice, in February.  I still have time.  That's what I keep telling myself.

I once again feel this need to update you.  And then maybe I'll share some of my spiritual journey on the 2nd one I do this month :)

We are one week back from a 12 day trip to Denver.  It started with us going to Denver for the funeral of Mark's grandmother.  A bittersweet time for sure.  We have no doubt that she's in heaven, healed and whole, but we are sad for those left here.  It's a new place to be for Mark.  He remarked that he's 38 - almost 39 - and this will be the first time in his life that he hasn't had grandparents.  What a blessing to have had them in his life for as long as he did.  And still such a change when they are gone.  

Mark stayed up for two more days for district meetings then drove back home.  The kids and I stayed up the extra week because we had my sister Kelly's baby shower to go to (something we had already planned on doing).  My broken booty said it was easier to stay up rather than drive up and back twice.  It also gave us another opportunity to visit the therapist we've seen with Kate.






So it worked out.  Honestly I was nervous about how it would be.  I was worried we'd overwhelm my generous parents for letting us stay.  I was worried I'd lose my mind single parenting all week.  But my worrying was, of course, for nothing.  Yes there were challenges but it went very well.  

We did a couple field trips.  One to the Denver Mint and one to the Museum of Nature and Science.  If I could homeschool in Denver it'd be awesome.  So much stuff to do and see!  We'd have a blast.  We'd be broke but it'd be fun!  For now we just do what we can while we're up there.

I went to an Avalanche game with my dad.  One that my children turned down.  Let's just say they aren't likely to do again :)

Kale turned 9! And he soaked it all up.  He requested Red Robin for lunch and a Dairy Queen ice cream cake.  Daddy would've been pleased with RR.  I was thrilled with the ice cream cake.  Win win!

You wouldn't know this because once you read this you just toodle along reading all I've written, but I just sat here for like 10 minutes trying to get my thoughts together to write this.  I was on the verge of frustration and I realized that this is probably why blogging has been so difficult for me for the past 6 or 7 months.

Back in August when I went to doctors to see what my deal was, my general practitioner said I was dealing with the physical side effects of stress.  Made total sense to me.  I had been uber stressed!  But a couple months ago I looked up the symptoms of clinical depression.  I was shocked at how many symptoms I had.  And I came to a greater realization that this was more than I thought.

I've always been a buck up and move on kind of person.  Not that I skip hard things but that I can always do something to change it.  This time I couldn't.  This time has been so frustrating because of my lack of ability to think, focus, concentrate, stay awake... My grace tank is empty and that's not fun for me, Mark or my kids.

I finally decided - and was persuaded - to go visit Kate's therapist and see what she could do for me.  I was honestly amazed at what she shared with me and how she wanted to help get me off medication (which really wasn't helping all that much) and see change.  I was able to see her twice and in just two visits I can already tell a difference.  I'm not out of the tunnel but I can clearly see the light at the end.  Helplessness (another symptom) is slowly leaving and hopefulness is taking over.  I can't tell you how thankful I am for that.  I have learned a lot, and continue to learn a lot, and am learning more compassion and understanding.  Blessings come from raindrops.  It's a journey for sure.

In church land (just to switch up gears on ya - welcome to my new world), we are still in the process of finding a new youth pastor.  It's been a crazy process and it hasn't been without learning curve bumps in the road of new pastors.  But overall it's been fun and exciting to see what God has in store for a generation He loves so very much.  We are this close to filling the position and I'll fill you in when it happens.  This has definitely been a year of crazy firsts for us!

At this moment Mark is at the church working on another paper for school.  This class has been the hardest for him.  By far.  God is stretching him in so many ways.  Not always a fun time.  But he's doing such an amazing job - far better than he thought he could.  Funny how God knows and we catch up :)

This is about all I can muster out into words at the moment.  I really hope to be able to share what we're doing in the upcoming month and all the lessons God is teaching me.  That's more brain power then I have at the moment. Thanks for hanging in there with me!
 

2 in a Week?!

2 times in one week?  Watch out.  I may be back....nah.  I just can't commit fully yet :)

I figured I'd update a few more things.  I forgot to mention in the last post that my children are phenomenal at swallowing vitamins now, which really opens up a whole new world of medication and allergy meds (no more grape flavored chewable or drinkable expensive gunk!).  They can be super slow in swallowing the hand-full of vitamins they are currently taking BUT they get swallowed eventually.  I consider that a win.

We are chugging along in school.  Both kids are doing better and better.  There is less fighting me than before.  I also consider that a win.  There is still fighting, to be sure, just less of it.  I changed math curriculum to something called Making Math Meaningful.  It helps them to not only understand math equations but also math concepts (something I'm getting a ton out of myself!).  I think it'll be good in the long run even though they are having to get used to doing a bit more work.  Kale has moved on from studying just the U.S. to now studying different countries.  He and I are currently playing a geography game of North America.  Seriously I've never known more geography in my life.  Sad!  Kate is steadily reading more and more and doing amazingly well.  So proud of her!

On that note, her eyes have improved since starting therapy and we had them rechecked by the eye doctor.  He approved of her going from the bifocals back to just one lens.  We were super excited to see serious progress and we put the new lenses in right away.  Unfortunately she couldn't focus up close on her schoolwork and it frustrated her (and me) so we had to change back to her bifocals.  Bummer.  But we'll keep on trying!

Mark and I went to Branson, MO. at the beginning of October for a pastor's conference.  It was the first time in a long time that we've been away from our kids.  I loved it.  I was so desperate for a break and it turned out to be such a nice time.  We went with our associate pastors, the Quisenberrys, and had a great time getting to know them better as well.  The kids shared their time away with us with both sets of grandparents.  It was so nice to be able to leave them with family.  

On that note, Mark is doing an amazing job as lead pastor.  Honestly I couldn't be more proud of him.  He works hard, loves people, seeks God and has just blown my mind on his capacity to minister!  He's also going to school and working hard reading textbooks and writing papers.  On top of that he has dealt with our issues with Kate as well as my struggles.  He's been a rock and a help and support and I'm super blessed to be married to this man.  I don't normally gush but just when I start thinking about all he's had to do and deal with in the last few months, I'm blown away at how God has faithfully used him.  So awesome.

Two weeks ago I helped lead my first women's retreat as lead pastor's wife.  Overall it was a huge success thanks to the amazing ladies who helped put it all together.  So much of the original planning was done when my mind couldn't focus.  It was so strange to me to not be able to concentrate and make decisions.  Normally I know just what I want to do ;).  But I struggled with reading the curriculum we were using and putting it all together.  The ladies on my team stepped up and took over much to my great delight.  My mind has been coming back and was much better at the time of the retreat.  Honestly the few glitches we had were in areas I was in charge of. We had 55 women come (way more than I thought would come) and my overall goal to have women get to know each other and just have fun together was reached.  It was thrilling.  There was even a ropes course there and we had a blast going down the zip line and trying out different elements on the high ropes course.  I told people that God just filled in all our cracks and the retreat was successful!

Wow.  I don't think I even shared about our trip to Breckenridge over Labor Day weekend.  Sadly I need to get going so I'll have to save that for another post.  That just means there's another one coming!

Snapshots

I have a few random pictures I wanted to post. Just a couple snapshots of my glamorous life.

Mishka with his gigantic bone the kids wanted to get him. I think he has no idea how to even begin chewing on it...

The boys said they were dressed like twins and wanted a "cool dude" picture.

And Jack playing the part of the injured man in the story of the Good Samaritan at church.

We took the kids to the Top That frozen yogurt shop that just opened downtown. De-lish! Only here can you put Fruit Loops, Coco Krispies, Fruity Pebbles, anything chocolate or fruit, on yogurt.I don't have pictures but I thought I'd also share that as of this week, all the kids are in classes in town. Jack has been doing a little science/exploration class with his buddy Norah at the Discovery museum every Monday. They are learning about their senses and he's having a great time. Of course we have to drag out the story of what they did that day in class (quite opposite of his friend Norah - he's such a boy).

Kale and Kate are doing a homeschool art class that just started and is 8 weeks long. We really wanted to expose them to art stuff that I knew I wasn't going to be able to do with them. Things like pottery. Their first class they got to sculpt clay and even do a pot on the wheel. They had a blast. Hopefully I'll get some pictures of all my little students at their classes.

And that's about all I got for this one!