Four is Crazy, Five will be Awesome!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Schooling made fun

Lately we have been in a rut with school. Therefore today Wondertwin C decided to read to the dog rather than to me. Apparently, Tosha really likes Green Eggs and Ham. Also, Wondertwin A has been struggling with motivation to do her Math. Today and yesterday, I added an activity to each answer. She is reviewing one digit subtraction, so 9-7=2, do 2 jumping jacks, or tell 2 sisters that you love them.

Monday, February 6, 2012

American Heritage Girls

As many of you know, when we moved we decided to not put the girls in Girl Scouts. There are many reasons for this, one being that GSUSA chose to use an anti-Catholic play as an example in one of Journeys. This was not okay with me!

In our new home we discovered American Heritage Girls. AHG is a wonderful Christian scouting program for girls, with a strong service component. Our troop is sponsored by a local Catholic church, therefore there is a strong Catholic feeling to it. Our girls pray Catholic prayers and learn about Catholic customs. They also perform service for others (and are rewarded with stars), work on various badges (Curly Girls has earn many already, including ones for: sewing, stamp collecting, home decorating, money management, and more!). All of the girls have earned multiple patches and service stars.

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments and I will update this post with the answers.

Some picture from our local Right to Life March Chili luncheon, the AHG troop helped to serve the chilli.

Wondertwin C and A

Curly Girl on the right

Diva on the right

New Chapters

So, the Crazy family is starting some new chapters in our already crazy life. We hope and pray that these changes will be for the betterment of all of us.

Next year Diva will attend middle school at a local Catholic Middle School. Many things led us to this decision. First of all, it is an amazing middle school, and a perfect match for Diva. She will have opportunities to get her Diva-ness out in an appropriate way (aka, she will be performing LOL). They have small classes, and they keep the 6th graders away from the 7th and 8th graders as much as possible. Diva's favorite things about the school are that she already has a friend there (from American Heritage Girls) and the school is implementing 1 to 1 computers (aka she will have her own laptop).

Another change in our lives is that Mom (me) is trying to stay off of facebook. It started as a sort of protests, I did not want to keep reading about how great the Obamacare plan is for America. I realize that people have difference of oppinion, and I am okay with that, it is the bashing that was getting to me. Being off of facebook is challenging for me, I use facebook more than I should. I am hoping that this allows me to break the habit.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Weird Phase of Life

Have you ever gone through a phase of life where it seems like life moves on without you? I am feeling that way lately. I know that most of it is because we moved, and therefore life in IL is moving on without us, as it should. It still makes me a little sad that my friends' lives are moving on, their children are growing up, without us. I also realize that we are growing, changing, making new friends here, without our old friends.

I wish I knew how to ensure that the girls and their IL friends, and me and mine, all remain friends despite the distance.

With the consideration of middle school for Diva, I wish for my old support group so that I could discuss it with them. I know there is the phone/facebook/email, but alas, my friends are busy and not able to chat with me about it. Wow! That sounded whiney, and I really do not mean it to.

Reacting to change is difficult....for all of us.
God Bless

Friday, January 20, 2012

Homeschool or Catholic School?

Where should Diva attend middle school...that is the question. We are close to making a decision, but really want to know that we are following God's chosen path for our little family.

1) - homeschool: easy enough, keeping the status quo, can challenge her when necessary, more one on one, ability to follow her lead, we LOVE using Seton, more time with Mom

2) - Catholic Middle School - we always planned to send them to middle school, more opportunties, more independence, great curriculum, school is able to deal with her individual needs, she wants to attend

There are many more reasons for both choices, right now we are close to a decision. She will attend the middle school next Tuesday as a 6th grader for a day. She is very excited! In the morning, Hubby and I (and 3 little girls) will have a meeting with the principal answer some final questions.

Please pray that we make the right decision for Diva, for our family, and in obedience to His Will.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

New outlook on being a woman of God

As most of you know, I am a very short tempered, quick to yell, mother. Obviously, I would like to change this about myself. I have recently realized that there are factors which make my attitude worse.

1) poor nutrition

2) not taking my vitamins

3) messy house

4) not exercising

5) doing it ALL myself

So, I have also come up with some steps to help.

Obviously eat better, exercise, and take my vitamins.

Also, when I fold laundry, I lay each pile by the child's place at the table. They cannot eat until they put away their clothes. I have a schedule of who cooks and cleans up, but struggle to stick with it. I am selling a bunch of stuff. This house is so small that we cannot put everything away, so I am selling off a bunch of things. My goal is to have them listed on eBay or Craigslist before bed on Sunday night. Lastly, to bring myself closer to God, I try to pray for the person whose clothes, toys, school work, etc that I am putting away. It is really difficult to yell while praying ;)