The Big Decision

I think we've all heard the saying, "God laughs at our plans"?? Well He's having a good 'ole knee slapper right about now, I think. I used to say that I would home school if I had to; what I really meant was that I'd home school if we found ourselves living in the wilds of Alaska 400 miles away from the nearest public school. I really resisted the idea of home schooling for a long time, but God has been persistent in urging me to look into it. After months of researching, reading many books, praying, and talking with home schooling families, we've decided to home school our kids!

The past month or so I've hunted for home schooling curriculum and checked into a co-op, plus attended a 3-day home schooling conference. There are not only thousands of curriculum choices, but it can be fairly expensive depending on what you go with and how much work you're willing to do on your own. This is a slight concern since Mike's employment has been sporadic since his lay-off last October (another reason home schooling seems like a crazy thing to do. This decision is a huge step of faith!)

All that research led me to a particular curriculum that appeared to meet my criteria, while also taking into consideration my kids' learning styles and my teaching style. To remain true to myself , I had to be completely thorough in my researching, so I also joined a "Yahoo Group" of families who use this curriculum so that I could learn as much as possible from women who were already using it. I began to sense conviction, as well as peace, about this choice of curriculum, even after browsing many other worthy options that had made it onto my short list.

Last week the moderator posted on the curriculum Yahoo Group that there was a full starter set of this particular curriculum available as a gift for anyone in need.....as a matter of fact, she was reposting the notice since no one had come forward to state they had a need. I was practically dancing in my seat as I sent her an email indicating I'd be interested. She forwarded my request to the family that had, 4 years prior, received this set brand new as a gift during a difficult time in their lives, and they were "paying it forward". Pam's situation 4 years ago was so similar to where my family is at right now (her husband was in construction and laid off just like my husband, my Mom is battling cancer and Pam's sister Sheryl was battling cancer, etc.). It's almost eerily similar, but I don't believe in coincidences. When Mike and I stepped out in faith to choose home schooling despite our finances so up in the air, I believed God would provide......but never in my wildest imagination did I think He'd provide a very specific curriculum for us - chosen from hundreds of options - through a stranger's gift. We're not even being asked to pay for shipping.

It would be an understatement to say that God continues to amaze me in how good He is to us, how mindful He is of the little things that concern us, and how He never leads us somewhere without making sure we have what we need for the journey. And if this is how the journey is starting off, I'm sure that my imagination can't even conceive of what an incredible year it's going to be.

There's Nothing Like Mama

Last week we headed down to visit my Mom, who is recovering from her latest cancer treatment. Besides our family of 4, we also went with my brother and niece, so our van was full of people and luggage! We had a nice time visiting, and as always, the time flies by much too fast. Here are a few photos from our trip.

My niece, Lynae

Uncle Tom helps Eric build a spaceship with Legos.

Grandparents are easily impressed by their grandchildren. Charlotte reads a book to her Grandma.

Queen Of The Slackers

My goodness, I can't believe I've allowed about 6 weeks to pass since my last blog update! In my defense, I've been spending much of my computer time researching and reading. Hopefully things will settle down now, and I can continue on with a more regular schedule of blogging, which I miss doing!

Check back later this week! I promise to have something new for you to read!

I'll let you in on a little secret...

....nothing earth shattering, mind you. Perhaps you're unaware of why this happens, so I'm here to tell you why. Ever make deviled eggs (or even egg salad) and wonder why on earth an egg will occasionally peel really nicely and other times (usually when you want to make deviled eggs), the egg has left half of the whites attached to the shell? This is what I'm talking about:



Well I heard somewhere (TV cooking show maybe?) and filed that nugget of information away until today, when I had an opportunity to test their theory. Sure enough, it's true! Old eggs peel nicely and newer eggs look like the one on your right. When I say "old" eggs, I don't mean expired. The smooth eggs don't expire till May 31. However, the really ugly looking eggs were just bought this week and still have a couple weeks left till their expiration date.

So next time you want smoothly peeled eggs, make sure you buy some "older" eggs or buy a couple weeks ahead of when you plan on making them. And sure enough they'll be easy to peel.

Words You Don't Want To Be Greeted With When You Answer The Door

For example, "Hello, is Mike home?" Guy flips up his badge. "I'm from the Attorney General's office." Thud.

If you're on Facebook, you already know the situation about the ticket on the van. Let me rehash in case you didn't catch it. Mike parks his van in the driveway at night. It was over 30' off the street. A couple weeks ago the police left a ticket on his windshield at 2:55 a.m. for not having a village sticker displayed in the window. The following morning he went over to the police department to explain that he had bought the village sticker back in February, but just hadn't put it on the window. The police officer didn't care. Mike questioned why there were on private property at that hour, and the officer basically said that "in a court of law" it would stand up that policemen can see that far in the dark, and so that gave them reason to come onto our property. Nevermind that it was a 2" x 3" sticker this officer supposedly could see. In the dark. From 31' away. So Mike went to the Mayor to complain. The Mayor was quite sympathetic and helpful, actually, and within a couple of hours, someone from the Mayor's office called to say the ticket had been dismissed. Woohoo for the little guy!

So back to the guy from the Attorney General's office standing on my front porch. Mike did happen to be home that day and to make a long story short, it appears Mike unwittingly got caught up in some small town scandal, for crying out loud. The Mayor handled the dismissal of the ticket illegally, along with a slew of other things (nothing we're involved in, just want to make that clear.) The Mayor is in some serious hot water and under investigation. I suppose that would explain why he didn't run for office for more than one term. So the Attorney General guy came to our house three times to talk with Mike about this ticket, how it all went down, who said what, and it just seemed a bit ridiculous over a stupid ticket for a village sticker that we already owned. Doesn't it just seem wrong that on the one hand you have the police doing their job (albeit a bit shifty in my opinion) but they're legal about it. And then you have the Mayor who takes the time to listen to a problem and try to solve it, and it's illegal. I guess it's true what they say: No good deed goes unpunished.

Just A Drop In The Bucket

Before President Obama took office, he said, "We're going to have to bring significant reform not just to our recovery and reinvestment plan, but to the overall budget process, to address both the deficit of dollars and the deficit of trust. We'll have to make tough choices, and we're going to have to break old habits."

To that end, he has requested that his Cabinet make $100 million in cuts in agency operations. When asked if the efficiency saving isn't just a drop in the bucket, Obama replied, "It is. None of these things alone are going to make a difference. But cumulatively, they make an extraordinary difference because they start setting a tone ... $100 million there, $100 million here -- pretty soon, even here in Washington, it adds up to real money."

What do you think?