Parenting by Phoebe

As a parent, you think you have a lot of responsibility. And you do. But sometimes you think you have more to offer than they need. "They" being The Children obviously.
If only it was this simple:
Phoebe comes to me for help with an issue between she, Ellie, and Jacob involving the Wii. After many years of trying to help sort and fix these types of problems, my answers have come to lean more in the discipline direction than the helping direction. This is just the way of things. So my answer to Phoebe follows along the same lines and goes something like this, " Well, if you guys can't work things out then we will just have to turn the games off, right?"
She stands there looking at me, with quite the look on her face, and then she says,
"Mom. What I need from you is an answer like a yes or a no."


Ohhhhhh , what you need from me is!?  What you need from me is?! Whoa. She doesn't need my speech and preach, she doesn't need me doling out disciplinary action. All she needs is. A yes or a no.

Awesome.
Love it. Things should be a breeze from here on out.

Hi this is Ellie

I got to help my mom out in the kitchen today it was really fun, we made chicken!!!!!!!!

(and here is a pic of Elisha in her new glasses - adorable)

Diary of Our Home-Schooling

School has begun! 

Jacob is in 7th and at the Middle School. He is adjusting well and plowing ahead. He ran for class rep and won! He is participating in Builder's Club(which is the middle school's Key Club) and he is planning to be the volleyball team manager. He also is playing FOOTBALL, #58! :) It is going to be a busy year for him and he knows his grades are first priority. (*prayer appreciated*)
Nate is a sophomore in high school. He is in drivers ed through the middle of November and while in driver's ed, we are supposed to let him drive us around to log his parent supervised 50 hours! 50 hours of a teenager driving us around. Yah. However, he is already improving from the first few when I said to myself, please let us arrive safely and please let me not throw-up from motion sickness. Not really joking with you at all there. :)(prayer appreciated...again) He is also taking piano lessons again and this year we are going to pay him to give the girls their lessons! (...yah, prayer requested there too!)

And the girls! The girls are in 5th and 3rd grade and we are home-schooling this year. It is going wonderfully, we started when school started. And today they helped me at lunch time to get a couple of roasters put in the crockpot for dinner, which I plan on making part of school. Meal planning, cooking, etc. They are already bonding more with each other as we hoped this year would help with and my relationship with them is much improved as well. Last year was a bit of a strain in some ways and my hope was that this time together would strengthen our relationship before the teen years threatened destruction. Only slightly joking there. (and again, prayer appreciated! :)

I am planning to have them post on the blog for you and for fun as well. Different things we do and things they are learning. So hang in there and stay tuned!