August 2013

Salem is getting so big, she is now 8 months old and has become proficient at sitting up.

 Cheeks, just love em!

 Smiles

 Beautiful Baby

 I was trying to take Salem's picture sitting up and Aggie kept getting in front of me saying "Cheezzz".

 Shiloh was coordinating her outfit with the fan Mema and Papa got her from Spain.

 I asked the kids to go cheer Aggie up, I was cooking.  This is what they were doing, Hosea was hoping on his ball, Aggie loves this and Shiloh was letting her hop on herself.  Sweet little lady. And it worked. I find this scene often, but in different configurations, it almost always involves someone hoping, jumping or bouncing.

 We have accomplished 2 weeks of school!  Hosea is officially a kindergartener and Shiloh 2nd grader. So far we are all enjoying our new schedule, and chipping away at some great goals along the way.

 This is what our kitchen table looked like one day. I can't say it is a rare occurrence. It really captures this season of life for us. Note the portable Dvd player to distract Aggie while we attempt to get her to eat, the iPad, my laptop, mike's bible, Aggie's Mic-key connector, Salem's puffs, bill binder, random cup, 2 kids smoothies, and 2 baby trays (yellow and white). I think i see Shiloh's schedule cards too(no wonder she can never find them).  It is amazing we manage to eat 3 meals a day at this exact same location, I'm guessing this was a Sunday evening b/c of the smoothies? But may be not?

Classical Conversations End of Year Presentations

The children had an end of year presentation/ceremony and everyone did their timeline song together.  Each class had their own little separate topics also.  Please forgive the poor footage, i was nursing and videoing with one hand, high in the air trying to get around a head that was in front of me.  I ended up not being able to make it though the whole song because 1. my arm hurt. 2.  Salem was done eating and started to fuss. You may be asking where Mike was during this whole ordeal; he was wrestling with Aggie in the back.  She is uncharted parenting territory and we are fish out of water sometimes. Lord give us grace!!! Enjoy the videos.



Hosea doing Latin



Shiloh doing the President Song

Simplifying

As we are in the throws of the new school year I have become very aware of my inability to duplicate myself.  As a result I have had to examine our weekly schedule and see what cuts to make.  We have decided to sign the children up for soccer this Fall, they have been asking about it since last year, and we want them to have a fun activity, and we enjoy watching as well.  The season is relatively short and the cost is fair, so we decided to proceed with this, but as it goes, saying "yes" to one thing means saying "no" to something else. I have been thinking for some time now that Aggie's speech and OT sessions are not necessarily a needed weekly event.  They are great resources, and can give me good ideas to help Aggie, but at this point I have more "good ideas" then time to execute. Additionally Aggie isn't developing at such a rate that we need new ideas every week.  Also she has a home visitor that comes weekly, which is basically a play session for her. So I've decided to cut the 2 therapies to every other week or monthly, and the home visits to monthly.  We will keep PT to weekly as she is really interested in and making strides in this area right now.  This little cut back will save me 10-16 hours a month, that's huge!  My trust is in Christ for Aggie's healing and development, not programs and systems. Though these things can and will be helpful, I ought to keep balance in my home no matter how "good" an activity can be or how rational the time spent can seem.

In the classroom

We started school last week.  Mike has decided he is the math/science man, so he can tag-in if I am unable to get to something.  It is kind-of bittersweet for me. I am so thankful for the back-up help and his desire to be involved, but........ my favorite subjects are math and science :(.  We kicked off the 1st math lesson last Saturday all together so we could be on the same page.

Here is math in action. 

 Math for all my friends.

Science; learning what thunder and lighting are.  Maybe a little beyond their years. But everyone seems to be having fun.

Prayer Answered

I had requested prayer the other day as i was struggling with being anxious about finding someone to care for Aggie while I took the other children to our home-school co-op.  Today was our first co-op meeting for orientation. And God has provided abundantly for our little Aggie.  I have a good friend at our church who is from Bulgaria.  Her mother has come to the US to visit her and her sister through December.  She is a sweet older christian woman who speaks English moderately well. I have to choose my words wisely, but we are able to communicate.  She reads English well. As you can see where this is going. Mrs. Tanya didn't have much to occupy her through the week as the girls are both young working women.  She does not drive, but God has provided transportation opportunities to work out perfectly as well. Every Monday morning Aggie has physical therapy in Pensacola, 50 min. away from our home.  Mrs. Tanya lives in Pensacola, so I pick her up after therapy, she comes and stays the night with us and is here for Tuesday morning when I take the children to co-op.  Then Tuesday afternoon I take Aggie to speech and occupational therapy in Pace, about 30 min. from our home toward Pensacola, Mrs. Tanya's daughter comes and picks her up. Brilliant!! God has been so good to us!! I asked Mrs. Tanya today if she thought our arrangement would work well for her since it was our first round of it, I didn't want it to be to tiresome for her, and her reply was so sweet. "I love being with your family and your children are so sweet." The only potential problem we may have is that Mrs. Tanya wants to hold Aggie too much, when Aggie just wants to play on the floor.  I think it may be a cultural difference, as cleanliness of floors in Bulgaria may be a little different than in our home. Though some days that is debatable. :)

Evaluation

Shiloh had her home-school evaluation Friday, per the state of Florida law.  It went well.  She is at grade level or a little above.  I'm very thankful for that!  It was much like a long show-n-tell for Shiloh.  After the evaluator left Shiloh said "Oh no.... I forgot to tell her some of my favorite things for lunch." She pretty much did show and tell her everything else about her life, to include a variety of favorite toys. :)

Kindergarten

Today Shiloh and I finished her curriculum! So I guess that means we're on summer break? There were days I wasn't sure if this day would come. As the life we lead and a school schedule were not always the best of friends. But alas we made it!

I declared this the "last day of kindergarten challenge". She has been making these flash cards all year. She had to put them in alphabetic order, and then place all the cards that started with that letter underneath the appropriate letter.

Then to celebrate, after dinner Mike took the kids up the road to the gas station and let them pick out a treat of choice.  We got a treat too.

Field Trip

(See the airplane flying under)

One thing we've done while we've been visiting my brothers family is, I took the kids to see the Arch on Friday while the other kiddos where in school. It was a field trip day for us!

Here they are looking out of the top of the Arch.

Here is a little art on the lawn during our picnic, self-initiated by my smart kindergartner.

A little P.E. chasing butterflies.

The Goings On

We've been in school for 2 weeks now.

The kids both love it!

A little art work.

Hosea participates also, he would hate to miss out on something fun. I excuse him when he loses interest.

This is his drawing of "super-hero's".

And for a little P.E. we signed the kids up for soccer this fall. They love there new gear, although we seem to be missing a few pieces. :)

School is in Session

1.Letter of intent to school board-check

2. Join HSLDA-check

3. Join Local Group-check

4. Do Lesson 1- check

What we are up to....... an overview

I sent this update in an e-mail to a friend, and decided I would recycle and post it. I'm so green.




Shiloh continues with school we are on lesson 32 of "teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" we are both enjoying it for the most part and she is reading already, she still has a few sounds to learn, but she can read quite a bit already, I'm so proud of her. I think i"m going to start doing some devo and verses with her school work and incorporate memory and handwriting with it. She already does some handwriting with her reading lessons and she is doing very well. Other than that she is being our little princess, she dresses up most days as someone or something, i'm not sure why we buy cloths? She started ballet last week, i don't like it as much as NB Ballet, I"m not sure how long we'll stick with it? I'm hoping to find some other activity she might enjoy that doesn't involve dressing up to explore other options and exposure to new things. She did great at swim lessons this summer and is basically swimming independently for about 3 or 4 yards, she's so big. But still my little girl. She said the other day "God please make my kid (referring to Aggie) into a big sister so she can grow fast."




Hosea is himself. A big ball of energy with no limits. Ok he still loves to be cuddled by his mommy. I'm told he "talks very well for his age" by countless people, that is probably b/c he is trying to keep up with Shiloh, which is impossible since she rambles on and on about fake stories all day long. Hosea is still in need of potty training after a failed attempt or two. Boys are way more messsy! He is content hanging out in his diaper in the mean time. He loves to play "sword fights" and "shoot guns" with daddy. The rest of the time his dinosaurs and cars spend time attacking and wrecking. I think he's about to kick his nap? We'll see. I gave him the option of quiet room time or nap Sat. and he decided for the nap?

I am adjusting to life with three. Still up through the night, so some days I'm more tired than others, but honestly God just continues to allow me the energy I need to do what he has called me to. I do find that I get behind more frequently on laundry and dishes, but they all get done eventually. I just continue to try and make decisions and priorities that would please the Lord, if it doesn't get done one day I try again the next or the next until it does.

School's in Session!

Both Shiloh and I couldn't be more excited to get started with home-schooling. After reading "The well trained mind" and deciding on a phonics program (Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons), we were ready to get under-way. I know you're probably thinking, it's the middle of "summer break", well........ that is the beauty of home-schooling. The time was right for us. I know that we will have many ups and downs, and this is an endurance race, not a sprint, like many good things in life, but I am excited to kick-it-off and see what the Lord has for us in this. She did beautifully on lesson one, I'm so proud of her, with interruptions and all. We got done and she said "what are we going to do next?"



and............................. since her lessons only require about 20 min. a day there is still plenty of summer fun to be had!!!!

On my mind........

This past month has been a bit of a whirl-wind as I may have mentioned, but full of good things. My mind has been a bit occupied with some very specific topics.
1. Home-schooling. I started reading "The well-trained mind" about a month ago, what a great resource. What I'm learning there are many great resources/theories/particulars that I need to sort through. My mind feels bombarded with options. So I'm trying to do as much research as I can stand and expand my knowledge base as much as possiable so that I can make wise choices for what roads we take on this adventure. I do realize that there may need to be and can be changes after we head a certain direction, but wow which way to go?
2. Potty-training. Mike started the adventure of potty-training Hosea last night while I was at bible study, which is fine. So naturally I felt compelled to continue today while he was at work. Since we are staying home b/c of sickness, there really is no reason not to, and he seems to have the ability and understanding to handle it. He is doing well considering it has been the first 24 hours, and he's been using a diaper to do his business for the last 2 years and 4 months. We've had some messes here and there, but we've also had some successes which is commendable, and where we focus our attention. He has been very good at confessing his accidents, as I do not feel compelled to watch him the whole time. One early accident he told Mike "i made a bad choice", then another time he got out the toy cleaning supplies and said "mommy I cleaning". We also are planning to night train Shiloh if possible, less progress has been made on this one, but I haven't thrown the towel in yet.
3. O-yeah......I'm going to have a baby. As I've been told happens #3 has been sort of an after thought, which in some ways is good. I don't want to dwell too much on the random discomforts of pregnancy and slight inconveniences, but rather be thankful for the gift that it is. Staying occupied with my other work/tasks/children has allowed just that to happen most of the time. I noticed my count down was under 100 day not to long ago, I just checked it and it says 88 days left, where does the time go? I decided to start sorting and washing a few baby items to get ready, I love the smell of Dreft, it say's "new baby" all over the place.
These are the main topics of consideration, Shiloh still has a very rough sounding cough and requires her inhaler every 4 hours for ease of breathing. Hosea is starting to cough, we will probably need to stay home this weekend, into next week, which is perfect for previous mentioned #1 (potty training).

"The well-trained mind"

I've recently dove into this book, my friend Cynthia mentioned it being an excellent home-school resource. The Author is Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer, in case you wanted that info. Any way, it has been so good for me. As I suspected, I do not have a well trained mind, in fact I am prone to mental laziness. The book didn't define that for me, but in desiring for my children to have what the book is describing, it was clear to see where I was lacking, and the Holy Spirit convicted me of such mental laziness. It has been so good to have such a conviction. Our pastor used a quote recently about conviction, I must share it.

“What is conviction of sin? It is not an oppressive spirit of uncertainty or paralyzing guilt feelings. Conviction of sin is the lance of the divine Surgeon piercing the infected soul, releasing the pressure, letting the infection pour out. Conviction of sin is a health-giving injury. Conviction of sin is the Holy Spirit being kind to us by confronting us with the light we don’t want to see and the truth we’re afraid to admit and the guilt we prefer to ignore. Conviction of sin is the severe love of God overruling our compulsive dishonesty, our willful blindness, our favorite excuses. Conviction of sin is the violent sweetness of God opposing the sins lying comfortably undisturbed in our lives. Conviction of sin is the merciful God declaring war on the false peace we settle for. Conviction of sin is our escape from malaise to joy, from attending church to worship, from faking to authenticity. Conviction of sin, with the forgiveness of Jesus over our wounds, is life.” Ray Ortlund, Jr – Commentary on Isaiah

Isn't that great!!

So back to what I was saying, I am a "hard worker" by definition. I can't think of anyone who knows me that would be even tempted to say "That Appollo Schloss, she's lazy!" B/c my physical work ethic is "well-trained" and has been for most of my life. God used my parents who are hard workers to spur this in me and other physically demanding activities such as athletics to train me. Not to mention being the wife of a military man, filling Mike's shoes in his absence however short or long is not an easy task. But I can't say so much for my mental life. B/c I'm the only one who knows of it, I'm the only one I'm accountable to. I started bad habits for this early in my life, being perceptive enough to know exactly what I needed to do just to get by in school, and other activities. Leaving this area unchallenged for much of my life. I can tell taking on the project of home-schooling is not going to allow for such sluggish mental behavior. And why should it? If I am expecting my children to perform in such a manner, why shouldn't I lead by example. So please pray for me as I am newly aware of this need for change in my life, and not exactly sure where to start implementing changes, as I see such a great need in many areas. I know God's grace is sufficient and He will supply my every need. He is so kind like that!