Life is crazy. Just in the last week, so many events have occurred about which I should have blogged, but like I said, life is crazy. Honestly, I'm about written out. I've been occupying my spare time (spare time?!) with writing my curriculum. Surprisingly, I've had current students' moms asking me about it and past students' moms asking me about it, so I figured I ought to get it revised, expanded, and up on a decent website (as opposed to my current one which isn't even worthy of a link). So...that and educating my children has been my life.
As I mentioned, there have been many important occasions in between my teaching and writing: there was a day of jumping, there was a birthday, and there were more basketball games. Of course my blogger head has composed entries on each topic, but it's just too time-consuming to create separate posts for each, so this'll hafta do:
On to the Next Phase
On Valentine's Day, we had a little homeschooling Valentine's Day party at Jungle Jump. We figured that since the public school kids were busy partying in their classrooms, we could party homeschool style...wherever we wanted! What was different about this jumping session from any other is that I spent almost the entire time enjoying conversation with another mom. Imagine: 3 hours of adult conversation! With nary an interruption. I don't think I saw the older three...unless you count the tops of their heads I saw bouncing here and sliding down there. Even Audrey was having too much fun to need me at all. She did occasionally require a boost up on to an inflatable, but she independently enlisted the help of a sibling or friend. It was completely enjoyable. A tender moment, though, as I considered the fact that they just get more independent from here on out. Of course, to be quite honest, since I still get to hug them as tight as I want whenever I want, the tender moment passed more quickly than I am passing on into this new phase of independence from the children (there's still the potty training of one, young princess to go for this phase to be considered officially over!).
Happy Birthday, Michael!
He's 7. Can you believe it? My "little", almost-10-pounder baby is 7! My little boy who cried for the first 4 months of his life is 7! 'Course he's still fairly loud, but the impish grin and sparkly eyes always accompany the volume, so it's all good. Michael had a few birthday parties, which seems to be tradition in this family. He got to celebrate with his friends after the Valentine's Day party. Everyone came to the house to enjoy more playtime as well as a Power Rangers cake. The next day, we as a family celebrated with presents, his favorite part (obviously!). I was quite sneaky and got him to do some reading work on his birthday as we sent him on a scavenger hunt to find one of his gifts. On Saturday, Michael brought cupcakes to share with his basketball teammates after the game. And he got to pick where we ate lunch after the game. Had I known he would pick McDonald's, I would have done some serious restaurant name-dropping prior to our asking him. I'm so McDonald's-out, I can hardly make myself bite into one of their greasy hamburgers, but he's the birthday boy after all, and what better present than a Kids' Meal toy?
Keeping Score (or Not)
I always wondered what it would be like to be the one who is picked last. I'm not bragging, but I just wasn't ever picked last. However, now my little Mommy heart is breaking because watching Michael play basketball feels like watching him get picked last. I think Michael could be good at basketball if he was interested in it and if he focused. Focus, however, is not his strong suit unless it is focus on something he truly is interested in (and, no, school is NOT one of the things in which he is interested either).
Michael's teammates do not pass him the ball because they lack confidence in him to handle it well from there. And their lack of confidence is well-founded; however, it's all kind of a vicious circle: he isn't improving because he never gets the ball, and he never gets the ball because he isn't improving. There's one little boy who really has an attitude about passing the ball to him. The other night at practice during a scrimmage, his mom was yelling, "Pass it to Michael. He's open." The boy made some smart remark I didn't quite hear, and his mom promptly benched him for the remainder of the game! Thankfully, all of this goes completely unnoticed by Michael, so he continues to have fun out on the court--not necessarily fun playing basketball, but fun playing tag with whomever he is supposed to be guarding. Or fun keeping an eye on the scoreboard so he can cover his ears before the buzzer sounds. The little guy is adorable out there!
As for Alex, she has improved so much in basketball! One advantage she has is that she is on a team of 4 girls (as opposed to the 8 on Michael's team), so she has had a lot of hands-on practice just by default. In the beginning, she was the girl to whom her teammates didn't want to pass the ball. Now she is often the top scorer of the game. She is becoming less and less timid and has really figured out the game.
So there are a few moments now captured. And, oh, that I could actually capture some spare moments to return this house to some semblance of order. To obtain more progress to my writing. To add some more to the academic plans for the remainder of this year...and, yes, next year (already!). I would say the night is still young, but to this almost-mid-30-year-old, all-nighters no longer fly. And it has been a full night already...we had dinner down at the airport with some friends who are headed out tomorrow on a trip that will eventually land them out on the mission field. With our lives as missionary kids, we often have old friends cross our paths. It's great to be able to just pick up right where we left off; moments don't seem to have passed with old friends!
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