Several people have commented to me (in real life) about my comments about the public school system. I wanted to clear some things up:) Although I STILL do not care for the public school system at all, I want everyone who uses it to understand that I in NO way judge them for this. I seriously wonder if Christians should be using the PS system at all, but I'm no guru. God's word has not told me what He wants for other families and I recognize that. That doesn't mean I don't have my own opinions of what *I* believe God wants for Christian families, I do. But I don't pretend to know for sure what God's will is in this area for other families.
And while I'm at it, I'm not anti-teacher either. Quite the contrary, I wish we had MORE Christians in the public school system teaching. I respect most teachers for the job they do. Some I respect simply because God tells me to. Most teachers are the kind of people I like:) And in fact, if I were to go back to school today to get a new career (instead of being a "professional mom", being a teacher would be at the top of my list...but not kindergartners, lol. As much as I love MY kindergartners, I find the older I get the less fond of OTHER people's kindergartners I'm becoming, lol. My husband is seriously considering a career change right now and teaching is something he's considering.
I'm still anti-PS system. Sorry folks. You'll just have to scream at the screen. I'm just to pro family and parental authority to respect a system that undermines both.
Today has been a good day. The kids seem to be settling into our home every day a little more, slowly becoming more and more a part of our family. Jasmine is now telling me pretty frequently that she doesn't want to live with her mommy. She still mentions missing her occassionally, but she makes it clear that she wants to be here, most of the time. She told me tonight that if she stays here forever, she's going to sleep with Sarah and me. She's so darned cute.
Sarah is just a sweetheart:) She went to bed just because Jasmine ask her to, and then prayed with Jasmine. She's turning into quite the big sister...and between you and me, I think Jasmine is starting to grown on her:) She still gets irritated with her...this is/was a big change for her. She cried right after they got here saying, "I used to be the only girl...now I'm not. And I used to be the baby...now I'm not." So I baby her a lot. I take her off with just me and we get a milkshake together. Of all my biological children, this has been hardest on her. She never reacted this way with our other foster children, including Johnny and Jonathan. She got tired of those 2 after a long while of putting up with their antics, but it was very different. She was crying the 2nd day Mando, Jasmine, and Josie were here. She knew THIS was supposed to be forever. But she's starting to redefine herself as "big sister" rather than "only girl" and "baby" of the family. She's still the princess:)
Mando is doing well also. I asked him tonight if he missed his mommy and of course he said yes. So I ask if he missed her a little or a lot and he said, "Just a little". He was telling me what he wanted for his birthday which is not till November and I reminded him that until the caseworker and the judge tells us that he can stay here forever, I don't know if he'll be here on his birthday. Truth is I don't think he'd be home that soon, even IF the judge didn't grant TPR, however, I want Mando to remember I don't know. I asked him if he'd like it if he got to go home and he said yes. Later I asked if he'd rather live here with us and just have visits with his mommy or live at home and he said he'd like to live here and have visits. This is a step in the right direction. He's doing well in school and has had all "smiley" faces on his agenda. He's very smart and learning quite a bit! I'm irritated at the school...again. Somebody who works at the school told us that Mando was starting speech therapy but the school has YET to tell me about it or send home any information. I don't think they understand....as long as this child is in my home he's MY CHILD and I expect to be informed about everything pretty much. I'm going to have to have a talk to make it clear about what I expect from them. No accidents for Mando since Thursday! We called the caseworker today and told him about Mando's latest boo-boo. We also told her he is very accident prone! She said she'd document his latest accident and she knew we wouldn't do anything to hurt him. She didn't mention how the drug test came back last week. It might not have come back yet for all we know. We did ask if the social worker who supervises the visit will end the visit if birth mom seems high and she said yes. That's a relief.
For our home education, we are not doing a full workload yet. Today, we did a LOT of history. We learned about navigation tools for sailors and finished up or started a bunch of new projects. Michael is STILL not finished with Algebra. It's looking like he will not finish it before his projected start date for his 10th grade school year, which is September 8th. So be it. I remind him frequently that I can not force him to do this...only he can find the motivation to do it. Ronnie and I were teasing him tonight telling him that he'll be the smartest "burger flipper" at McDonalds at the rate he's going, lol. This child's composite score on his standardized testing was in the 90%....and it would have been much higher probably (considering he was in the 99% on most areas) but he scored low in like 2 areas (by low I mean 50% in one and like 70% in the other). Anyhow, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink...or do algebra.
Here lately Timmy has earned LOTS of chores. My house is getting quite clean thanks to him. I had to remind him today that he CHOSE chores by his own behavior/actions. He did not finish several assignments in the past 3 weeks, so each week he gets another chore that's his for the week. He's expected to finish the past assinments by Friday AND his NEW assignment. This was in Bible, which I consider to be our most important subject. I've had to talk to him today about how our rules...not just about the assignments but about our home rules...like attitude, obedience with a smile, not calling names, talking out your differences with other's, not irritating other's (and then calling it "playing" with them), etc. I reminded him that when he chooses wrong behavior that he is choosing consequences as well, such as chores or restriction. I think I'm going to keep having this conversation a LOT more often. However, he's still so much fun. I do enjoy him when he's behaving. He's my blue-eyed terror, lol.
Stephen is still my right arm and such a sweet kid! He's got all the hormones of a teen and a teen attitude sometimes but overall, he's just a joy. He's doing well in school and he also did great on his testing. He was in the 85%. Again, one or two areas pulled his composite score down. Over all he was well above average. Very well rounded kid. And I really need to get him to read Joshua Harris' book I Kissed Dating Goodbye though. He loves the girls and the girls love him.
I'm so excited because I got a new-to-me washing machine! A nice lady in our co-op group was giving it away because she upgraded to a larger one for her growing family. Since our 3 new additions, our family has grown from a family of 6 to a family of 9...and laundry is always needed to be done. There are times when I just don't have time to do laundry, due to homeschooling, appointments, etc. So when I DO have time, I often have wished that I have 2 washers that I can run simutaneously. We're not quite the Duggar family, with their in-home laundry mat, but I sure am grateful for this second washer. We actually put it on the back porch for now. ....I know, I know. It's very "redneckish". It'll have to do for now. My plans are to eventually get an upright freezer to replace our deep freezer, and then put the second washer next to the upright freezer, which is in our laundry room. That being said, we are also considering buying a new washer and dryer. It takes our dryer over an hour to dry most loads, even with our high end front loader that spins soooo much of the water out. It shouldn't take long to dry...according to the salesman. He said the longest it takes for a load of his clothes to dry is 30 minutes. I always put ours on 70 minutes and I sometimes have to run it longer, if I'm drying lots of jeans. Our front loader is an ongoing problem. It was supposed to wash the clothes better...it doesn't. It's supposed to save water...it doesn't because I have to wash every load three times. It's supposed to wash larger loads...it doesn't. The clothes usually go in smelling like normal dirty clothes and come out smelling like mildew. After talking to an appliance salesman at Home Depot the other day, we found out that there was a class action lawsuit against Maytag over their Neptune washers. Unfortunately, I think we're past the deadline for filing a claim to help recoop or replace this washer.
Oh, well. At least we have another washer now. Maybe that will enable me to actually wash our sheets occassionally! Currently, if you don't have pee on your sheets, your sheets probably haven't been washed in...quite some time. I'm too embarrassed to tell you how long.
I'm sure I've bored you all to death now. Perhaps tomorrow, I'll blog about my callus, lol.
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