Here's Andy - creating his masterpiece.

Today was nice. Dad, Sherri, Zack and Alyssa came to visit for a while. I had a crockpot full of spaghetti, but Dad wanted to get home to cut his grass this evening, so they didn't stay for dinner. We will have to have a nice, long visit sometime soon. I pray for Dad each day, as I can only imagine what a struggle it must be for him. I have difficulty trying to imagine what it would be like without Jerry, and without the boys too, but just imagining it for a moment feels very lonely.

Sherri has done a terrible/wonderful thing. She has shown me how to use Comcast's photo show feature. Now I'll never get anything done. It's her fault. I made a photo show of Tom and one of Andy, but Tom did some creative editing to Andy's photo show, and now I need to do some editing of my own before it's web-worthy!

I gave Andy the choice of starting school tomorrow or Tuesday, which is when everyone here does - and he chose Tuesday. He's squeezing every last bit of summer out that he can!

On Friday we went to BJs, which is a warehouse club store like Sam's Club. Never go hungry. There are mutant-looking sized boxes of goodies there, and pies that are approximately two feet in diameter. Want croissants? Have a case. Or two. If the rich pastry gives you indigestion, pick up an industrial-sized bottle of Pepto-Bismol. In the past I bought my hair color there because it came in a pack of two (one must always have a spare, you know!), but I wasn't able to this time. They have never offered the full selection of hair color that a Wal-Mart or even a grocery store would carry - that's the nature of a warehouse store - but usually I could find an acceptable shade of brown, anyway. Well, not this time. This time they only had TWO colors available - blonde and black. I decided I could live with my gray a bit longer, rather than going to either of those extremes.

Jerry is installing windows in a house across the street from us, and he has finished now and just took the warranty information over to them, so I guess I'd better get the rest of dinner ready and on the table. He is so tired. He worked all day yesterday with his uncle taking down trees. He enjoys the change of pace from his construction work and has found that he rather enjoys doing tree work - as long as it's his uncle up in the top of the tree and not him!

How Long, Lord?!

What is wrong with people these days? Many, many things, I'm afraid. This story is unbelievable. Sometimes I just wonder, "How long, Lord? How long are you going to put up with this?!"

Andy's math materials came in yesterday. His student book and manipulative blocks were backordered, so what we got was the teacher's book and DVD and his test book. I told him we would just go with that! He failed to see the humor in that. The rest of the materials are expected this week.

It was nice to hear from Mike today. I had sent books to Dad, Sherri and Mike and he said he was already a good way into his copy. The book is Heaven by Randy Alcorn. I have only read a little of mine, but it seemed wonderful and was very highly rated and so in light of all the conversations we had been having after Maggie's passing, I thought they would enjoy the book too. This is from the front cover flap: "What is Heaven really going to be like? What will we look like? What will we do? Won't Heaven get boring after a while? We all have questions about what Heaven will be like, and after twenty-five years of extensive research, Dr. Randy Alcorn has the answers. In the most comprehensive and definitive book on Heaven to date, Randy invites you to picture Heaven the way Scripture describes it - a bright, vibrant and physical New Earth, free from sin, suffering and death, and brimming with Christ's presence, wondrous natural beauty, and the richness of human culture as God intended it. ......And the next time you hear someone say, "We can't begin to imagine what Heaven will be like," you'll be able to tell them, "I can."

It's not an easy read, but definitely a good one. As usual though, I am reading more than one thing at a time. Yesterday a new issue of Countryside magazine arrived. That is always a dangerous thing around here! Reading it always makes me want to just stick a For Sale sign in the yard and run for the mountains.

Jerry has been very busy lately, working 12 to 14-hour days, so we haven't had a chance to look at property. It seems that as soon as people heard that we wanted to move away, everybody wanted something built or done "before you go"! Businesses could use that to boost sales - just tell people you're moving out of state! It's just as well though, because we figured that with Maggie's passing, it's a good thing to stick around here for a while for Dad, and then when He (God - not Dad!) decides it's time for us to move, He'll see to it that "all our paths are made straight". He has never failed us yet when we wait on Him for major decisions.

Now I think I will go and do some reading and get ready for bed. For some reason I have been very tired today. Probably because this old body did more housecleaning this weekend than it has in years! My house (and my old body) didn't know what hit it!

What a boring weekend. A wonderfully boring weekend! Actually, I did a lot of cleaning this weekend. I actually scrubbed my kitchen floor with a scrub brush - on my hands and knees! That is not how I usually clean the floor (although those who really know me know that I usually don't clean the floor at all!) But we won't mention that. Anyway, it needed a serious cleaning. My knees are very sore, but the floor looks great! Yesterday it was the bathroom. Thoroughly. Ugh. Now the rest of the house still looks like a cyclone went through it, but I'm making some progress.

We got a course booklet from the local college the other day. They are now offering many courses online and devoted a large portion of their catalog to their online course offerings. However, one course in particular caught my eye. It is an online course called Using the Internet. Hmmm.....shouldn't you kind of already know that before taking an online course?!

Andy's history and geography materials came in. I think we are both looking forward to starting school. Now we are waiting for his math to come in, and then I still need to order his foreign language course (he chose Japanese). I wasn't able to order that with everything else and needed to wait for another pay day! Homeschooling is wonderful, but definitely not cheap!

This has been a great day. My floor is clean, there are brownies baking in the oven, and Andy is cleaning his room (without even having been asked!) Life is good!

Boring days - yay!

These past few days have been boring - and I'm glad. I've just been working and working on decluttering. Yes, it's taking me a while.

Andy's science stuff arrived the other day . It looks like it's going to be lots of fun. It was the book he is using (which is Astronomy) plus all the materials he needs to do all the experiments and projects throughout the year. I was happy when, after looking through all the goodies, he asked, "Can we start school whenever we want, or do we have to wait until everyone else does?" We have not started yet, though. All of his other subject materials have not arrived yet.

We were at the used-book store last week and on the bookmark they gave us it says, "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read". This is attributed to Groucho Marx. I think it's a hoot!

WHAT???

BAND PRACTICE IS GOING ON DOWNSTAIRS. HEAVY METAL. WHAT? WHY AM I SHOUTING? HUH? I CAN'T HEAR YOU......

I finally got Tom's birthday pictures off of his camera. These were the only two I could manage as the batteries were low (dead!) and kept cutting off when I tried to take a picture. We gave him an iPod. Once children get older it's hard to get gifts for them. I have to say that I really like his iPod - I may just have to get myself one - well, after I get a decent camera!

I had written to my cousin Lisa last week and she wrote back the other day. Her email had me in stitches. I had written in my letter to her that listening to conversation between her dad and mine (brothers) explained A LOT. She wrote back, "It's genetic. There's no hope. Give up now". She was packing for a trip to Australia the next day! I wish I had gotten her flight information so Andy and I could track her flight. We tracked Sherri's when she flew from New York to come to Maggie's funeral. At various points throughout her flight I jotted down the plane's altitude and speed. It's very interesting - and Sherri didn't realize until I showed her that she was hurtling through the air at 525 mph! The tracking must stop once a plane reaches an altitude of 5000 feet when it's getting ready to land, because we could see the plane steadily descending, then it got to 5000, then it read "altitude 0 - arrived". I'm quite sure the plane didn't just drop from 5000 to 0 in a minute's time! The last flight we tracked was the same way, when Jerry's mom was flying to Ohio. We even got to see that her flight had been delayed twice before taking off. She was supposed to have left at about 8 PM and arrived at around 10 PM. Jerry was at his brother's house and called me at 10 to let me know he was on his way home and he said, "I guess Mom's plane has arrived now". I was seeing on the screen that she was actually still sitting in BWI airport because there had been another delay. I don't get out much - therefore I live vicariously through relatives!

Tom was wearing a Hawaiian lei and decided to drape it around his ears. Don't ask. Here he is unwrapping the iPod that we gave him. That's a neat thing! I want one now!

Tom's birthday cake. Food Lion did this one - not us!

Whatever Happened To Modesty?

I just saw a television commercial for back-to-school clothes. Oh my. In the commercial there is a young pre-teen girl trying on different outfits, all of which cover very little of herself. Why do girls (and women for that matter) need to show so much of themselves? And at school, no less?! Oh, I'm not such a prude that I don't remember wanting clothes like that for myself when I was younger. I was not raised in a home where modesty (or the reasons for it) was really addressed, but then it was also understood that there were just some things we would not wear out of the house, young lady! Today's pre-teens are dressing like the streetwalkers of only a generation or two ago.

Back in the 1800s a man who caught a glimpse of a woman's ankle considered himself fortunate! A woman's shoulders were also considered to be an especially feminine part of herself, perhaps in contrast to a man's broad shoulders, and they also were not shown except to a husband. There used to be some mystique about what were considered feminine parts of a woman's body, such as her upper arms, shoulders, legs, ankles and feet. Doesn't it stand to reason that if a man only sees these things on his wife and not all day, every day, then some of that mystique would remain for him to enjoy? Now there is nothing left to the imagination. Proponents of video game bans claim that too much violence has "hardened" a generation of children and the shock value is no longer there. The same is true of television and movie violence and even sex on TV or in the movies. It's the same as developing a tolerance to a drug - you need more and more for there to be an effect. I view modesty the same way. How can a man ever appreciate a woman's feminine attributes when he sees them everywhere he goes? That makes them everyday and ordinary - not something to be treasured and appreciated because they are not seen often.

My point in all of this rambling is that amidst all the societal ills that we have today, I know modesty will probably never make a comeback, but it sure would be nice if it did. And that's my humble opinion on this Friday!

Another Monday

Today has been interesting. I went to the bank, the board of education, and the grocery store. Mundane things for everyone else, but anxiety-provoking for someone afraid to be on the road. It is confusing how my faith is what lets me even get out there to try to drive somewhere, but I can't seem to get any control over the gut-wrenching (literally!) fear that comes when I see a car approach in an intersection. I can actually start to feel comfortable behind the wheel until I come to an intersection, and then my knees start getting wobbly and my stomach feels most uncomfortable. I wasn't going to write about that, but as with so many other things, this is part of me - who I am, and that's what this blog is about. Writing a blog is kind of like just letting it all hang out - the good, the bad and the ugly! But it's also therapeutic, and that's why I do it, and so when my boys are older they can have this to look back on and see what their ol' mom was all about (which may answer many questions for them!)

I went to the board of education to withdraw Andy from THE SYSTEM. As I suspected, they didn't want to see what materials I was using. I just need to fill out a form stating my intent and that I agree to teach him what he would be learning in school, and that's that. There will be a review in January and in June in which I will need to show his work to the home school coordinator at the board, but that's it. It's kind of funny though - they made it very clear that Andy could not participate in any school activities of any kind, including extracurricular, and could not use any school materials - BUT he sure was welcome to take the state testing when it's given at the schools! I guess he is! - his and other homeschoolers' scores would tend to make the school's scores look very good, which translates into more money in the end. We can't use anything of theirs (even though I still must pay school taxes), but they can use our children with the education that we taught them, to make their school system look good. Puh-leeze. Okay - enough board-bashing. I will say that I am very pleased with the education that Andy got in elementary school, and for that I am grateful. It also helps when you have a smart kid - but then, I'm biased!

A Reason To Behave!

I was reading about people who had near-death experiences. There were several things that they all had in common, but there was one thing that really made me sit up and take notice. They said that they first saw themselves "hovering" above their bodies, then they went through a sort of tunnel. Upon arrival at the end of that tunnel, they saw what was like a movie of their lives. During that movie as they watched themselves interact with others, they felt the feelings that the other person with whom they were interacting felt. One woman said she had stolen her sister's Easter basket when they were small; a fact she didn't even remember as an adult, but in her "movie", she saw this and felt the sadness and anger that her sister felt during that. A man who admitted he had been particularly ruthless in his dealings with people said that he saw all of these things and felt just awful feelings; the feelings of the people he had cheated and betrayed. By contrast, though, the times when the people did good things for other people were also seen, and then they felt the good feelings that they gave other people by being kind and generous. Definitely something to think about as we wander through our days in this society that has become almost completely selfish with an "everything for me" attitude.

We are celebrating Tom's birthday this evening. I will post pictures (if he lets me use his camera - again). I really have to get one of my own one of these days! More blogging later if I get a moment.

It's amazing what a little sleep can do. I'm slowly getting back on some sort of a schedule around here. It has been a tremendously long and hard week and we have all been kind of out of sorts. Being such creatures of routine, I did find it helpful to try to get back into one again. I feel like I've been in a fog and it's just now clearing!

Yesterday was Tom's birthday, but we won't be celebrating it until this weekend.

Sherri called me from Cooperstown Dream Park in New York where Zack is playing baseball this week and I was able to watch him play from my computer! Technology is truly amazing.

Well, time to wrap this up - a nasty storm is quickly approaching and I'm a nervous ninny when it comes to storms and unplugging stuff - especially after lightning hit us once already and fried everything! The wind just knocked over my bamboo plant on the deck. Definitely time to go!

Gone From My Sight

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says, "There, she is gone!"

"Gone where?"

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says, "There, she is gone!", there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, "Here she comes!"

And that is dying.

- Henry Van Dyke


This was included in the program for Maggie's funeral.

Maggie's funeral was yesterday. There wasn't a dry eye in the house, either, especially when Dad got up to speak. Quite a few people told him that he could have a second career as a preacher! Even Rev. Ticknor told me that later. Dad told everyone that every day you should thank God for having someone you love in your life. If you have silly arguments, or say things you really don't mean, if something happened and you never saw that loved one again, would that be the last thing you wanted them to have heard? He said when you go to bed at night to pray and thank God that he gave you that day with people you love. In the morning if you wake up and that person is still with you, he said to thank God again for giving you another day with them. He said that even though he was in Delaware during the week, he and Maggie called each other at night to talk about their day and to say goodnight. Dad said he is comforted by the fact that the last thing he said to her was "I love you", and "Goodnight". While he was saying this, the lights in the church flickered. They flickered again when Maggie's best friend Julie stood up to speak. After the service Dad had wanted some private time with Rev. Ticknor to talk and he told me that during that time he asked about the lights, and Rev. Ticknor told him that he noticed it, also, and that it had never happened before. Something to think about!

On a table in the reception hall there was a display of pictures of Maggie and three photo albums of pictures. There was also a basket of shells that Maggie had collected over the years and everyone was told that they could take a shell if they wanted to. At the front of the church during the funeral Dad had put a picture of Maggie in which she was standing on a beach all by herself, with the wind blowing her hair, her arms thrown wide open, and a huge smile on her face. Dad said that this was a favorite picture and that it showed just how Maggie embraced life. People talked about how she would randomly send them cartoons, articles, books, or something that she came across that she thought they might like. One day as I was sitting here working, the phone rang and I saw on caller ID that it was Dad's and Maggie's number. All I had time to do was say "Hello?" and Maggie said, "TurnonDr.Philrightnowhe'stalkingaboutfearofdrivingbye!", and hung up. I was laughing, but managed to get the television turned on to the right channel!

Rev. Ticknor said at the funeral that many years ago his wife had left him, and he was left with two children ages 2 and 4 to raise. He said that he and Maggie had even dated a few times after his wife left him! I talked with him after the service and told him how I had attended St. John's Church. It turns out that he knew that church very well, and as a matter of fact had just seen Father Wingert, who was there while we attended and who did our marriage ceremony, a month ago! He said that St. John's closed a number of years ago and that several items from the church were stored in his church now. He said that after standing empty for many years, the Diocese sold St. John's and now it is an African-American church and he said he was glad to see it, too, because now that church had more spirit than it ever had! He said that the priest who took over after Father Wingert retired died just a few years after that at the age of 42. He was Father Robey. He had taken over St. John's by the time of our wedding but we had asked Father Wingert to perform our marriage ceremony since he was the one who had been in the church while I was growing up, which he was kind enough to do. It was certainly a sad day, but Maggie had a lot of friends and Dad told everyone that Maggie would want everyone to laugh again and he said that rather than mourn what seems like an untimely death, that we should celebrate having her in our lives for 22 years, as he did. I do believe that Dad could be a preacher!

It was nice seeing my cousin Lisa again. She came with her husband, Uncle Jim and Aunt Nancy. We caught up on things and exchanged email addresses. Every year Uncle Jim and Aunt Nancy (isn't it funny that at my age I still call them that? Just calling them Jim and Nancy somehow seems disrespectful!) have a bluegrass festival at their house in West Virginia. Dad has told me in previous years how great it is but we never went. I think we'll be going this year, not only because it will be good to get together with everyone, but because Aunt Nancy said this is the last year they are having it!

Well, I am truly tired and need to get some work done before I can even think about taking a nap. I am still fighting back tears now and again, and I guess I will be for a while. I keep choking up thinking about watching Dad carry the box with Maggie's ashes out to his van to leave the church yesterday. He suddenly looked so tired and old. He didn't want her ashes put in just anything; he chose a box that she had particularly loved and that had been in his library/study at the house. Oh, now I'm going to cry AGAIN. I need to go switch gears and work or clean house, or do something! I asked Rev. Ticknor to please keep Dad in his prayers and he assured me that not only would he, but that he would make a prayer request at the church as well. Dad had said not to pray for him, but to pray for Maggie, but I told him that Maggie was already Home, and now Dad needed prayers for strength and peace for each day to come. Okay - enough now! Back to work! Or cleaning. Or napping.

This really is going to be a short post. I am really tired and feeling sort of at loose ends today. Maggie passed away at 9:10 last night. Dad wanted to be at home alone last night which we were worried about, but he kept insisting that this is what he wanted. I called him this morning and he sounded tired, as expected, but he said he was okay. He said he was walking through the house looking at everything. Maggie has always put little touches here and there and the total effect was beautiful and looked like something from a magazine. Once when I was there I noticed some lemons and limes placed on a cutting board on the counter. After being there for a while and the fruit not getting used, I asked about them and Maggie said that she just thought when she saw them that they were beautiful pieces of fruit and that they happened to match the cutting board and so were just a little arrangement there in the kitchen. There were things like that everywhere. She found beauty and humor in everyday things. Once when I was there I noticed something hanging on the door in the kitchen and went to see what it was. It was an old actual photograph of a train wreck where the train had derailed and was quite crumpled with pieces scattered around. Underneath the picture in the margin Maggie had written "6000 Parker Drive" which is their address! She had been recovering from her lung infection and said that this was basically what her house had become since she hadn't been able to get up to do anything - a train wreck! Only Maggie would have thought of just putting something up like that. This morning while talking with Dad about these little things that she did, I told him that Maggie put Martha Stewart to shame. He agreed and said that Maggie even had one up on Martha Stewart - Maggie wasn't a roaring witch! Oh, dear. I've done it again with the short post. Maybe I'll start with the intention of writing a long post and see what happens.

Just a short update on things. Uh oh - I said short. We'll see. Anyway, Dad called to tell me that Maggie is still hanging on. Everyone had been so sure that yesterday would be the day she went Home. He said that she always did have the last say in everything! He said she didn't go when he was ready; she would go when she was ready, and that was that! Dad is getting better day by day. I know there will be ups and downs and some days will be better than others over the next days, weeks and months, but he is doing better. I believe that God is allowing Maggie to be around this long because it has helped provide healing for Dad and anyone who may have been questioning removing her from life support, which, even though that was her wish that she had made known before all of this, was still a terribly hard decision to make. Instead of passing suddenly, everyone has been able to say goodbye to her. Yes, I know what the doctors say - that she can't hear, or think, or know that we're there, but I'm not convinced. And besides - how exactly can they know this? As far as I know, no one has ever returned from the other side to tell them.

Maggie's memorial service is scheduled tentatively for Sunday. It is going to be at the church where Dad and Maggie were married. I'm sure that it will be a packed place. I don't think there's anybody in the county who didn't know Maggie. Dad has been camping at the hospital for a week now. He has only recently started running home long enough to shower and change and then goes right back.

It's odd how things can seem so upside-down in situations like this. For instance, two days ago Dad said that the insurance company said that Maggie needed to be taken out of intensive care and put into a regular room because she no longer required intensive care. For anybody else who was recuperating from something, that would be very good news, indeed. But in Maggie's case, it was because there was nothing left to do anymore and because she hadn't passed away, the insurance company wouldn't pay for an ICU bed any longer. Then Dad asked the nurse about leaving for a short while to run home and shower and change, and the nurse told him to go ahead, that Maggie had "stabilized". Again, ordinarily a patient stabilizing would be a good thing, but in Maggie's case it meant that nothing had changed.

So many issues being brought to mind, challenged, and definitely lots of food for thought these days.

This is going to be a short post. I am exhausted and am only writing because I have some things to get off my mind. Thursday night Dad found Maggie unconscious and she was brought to the hospital unresponsive. They determined that she was brain dead. She and Dad had already talked about this before, so Dad knew her wishes, which were not to be on life support. Dad prayed for a miracle as did everyone else, but I guess God's will was for this situation to be just as it was. Yesterday at noon Dad had her support taken off. It is now 4:30 PM the next day and Maggie is still with us. It is so difficult and I am really struggling with some things. I have been at the hospital the last couple of days and when Sherri and I went in to see her yesterday evening, when we would talk to her we noticed that her respiratory rate and blood pressure would rise. We decided not to say anything about it, as Dad has been on enough of a rollercoaster ride as it is. But when we were back out in the waiting room, two of Maggie's friends who had been back to see her for a long time said how they noticed that when they talked to her that her blood pressure and respiratory rate rose! They had asked the doctor about it and were told that there was some response probably because the voices were familiar but nothing that could be cognitively processed and that the brain wasn't actually comprehending anything. I am having a hard time with this. Well, I talked to her as if she could hear me anyway, because who can know for sure? It is very difficult because for someone who had asthma and who had a very serious lung infection a year ago, she sure is holding her own. Dad had such hope at first and his hopes were bolstered by some encouraging information the first day, but then the doctors dashed that and said that there was no chance of recovery. I think this was worse than if it had been that way from the start when she was brought in. Anyway, now that Dad has accepted this as best as he can right now, it is heartbreaking to see him holding her hands and telling her that it's okay to let go now. I am getting teary AGAIN writing this. I didn't think I had any more tears left after the past couple of days, but I was wrong. This morning Jerry's brother called to let him know that a neighbor of Jerry's mom died in his sleep last night. These are folks that Jerry grew up with and they have been a big part of Jerry's life. I didn't think Jerry had any more tears left, either, but I was wrong about that too. So now there will be a funeral for Mr. Crandell on Thursday, and Maggie's possibly Friday. It's been a long week already, and it's only Monday. I will keep on praying for peace for everyone, because I do have faith, and I know that what He is allowing to happen is all for a reason, even though we don't understand that right now, but He promises us that "All things work together for good for those who believe in Me". Amen to that. Did I say this was going to be a short post?!

Taking The Bus!

Tom and his friends are chartering a bus - the same one I showed a picture of in a previous post which took Andy's class to the boat trip. A few weeks ago Tom and his drummer friend were talking about going to Ozzfest again this year, which is a huge, outdoor, all-day rock concert (think Woodstock - minus the LSD). Last year Billy had his Explorer but it has since been wrecked - again a previous post! - and now he has a small pickup truck. Several friends of theirs are going but this year transportation would be a little difficult and would require several cars. The concert is at Nissan Pavilion in Virginia and it's kind of far from here, so the logistics of getting a bunch of people there by 9 a.m. and everyone staying together and coming back together at sometime after midnight were a little daunting, to say the least. I suggested to find out how much it would be to charter the bus that had been used for Andy's trip because I had heard from the people at school who chartered it for the fifth grade class how nice the service was and I had seen first-hand how nice the buses were. I called them and they gave me a price - plus a discount since I said that I had been on one of their buses before and was really impressed. Broken down among several people, it was actually quite reasonable, and it made a bunch of people very happy to know that they could all ride together and not have to juggle parking and finding everybody once they got there. I have been put in charge of collecting the money and reserving the bus (which I did yesterday). I am so glad that this worked out for them as I always worry about Tom and his friends driving long distances anyway, but I knew after a day of concerts that everyone would be very tired which made the drive home very worrisome for this mom! Tom and Billy asked if I wanted to go since I was arranging the bus. I know they were only asking out of courtesy - it was amusing to watch them cringe at the thought that I might actually go! I politely passed on that one. Ozzie Osbourne isn't quite my style! More blogging later if I get a chance. Right now I gotta go flip a funnel cake that Andy and I are making. Yum!

Still Kickin'

Whew! I have been very busy working the last few days to try to make extra in order to buy the books and things we will need to homeschool Andy. It shocked me when I saw the calendar and realized I only had two more pay periods before I needed the supplies, so I figured I'd better put it into high gear. Here in our county we are required to register with the board of education no later than 15 days before the first day of public school in order to homeschool. That puts us roughly in the beginning of August. With Tom, I had gone through the church that we were attending at the time and they served as my "approval" for what I was teaching, which was then approved by the school board. Now I'm on my own and I'm not sure if they are going to want to see what materials I intend to use or not. Probably not. I truly do not think this county cares much about this. I have very little faith in our local board of education, and have been very disillusioned that they are acting in the best interests of our children. It's surprising how much my thinking has changed in that regard. With Tom I was very scared and thinking that THE BOARD KNEW ALL, and wondering if I would do it right. Now I realize that THE BOARD knows very little, and I am confident in my ability to teach my child, and furthermore believe that he will get a much better education this way.

I have spent about three years looking at and comparing curriculum for Andy. I think I have made good choices, but we'll have to see when we begin. Nothing is written in stone, and I'm obviously not going to continue with something that just isn't working for us, but right now I feel good about what I have chosen for him. With Tom, because I really felt like I didn't know what I was doing, I bought a pre-packaged curriculum for the entire year that was basically all workbooks for each subject. BORING!!!!! I have a little bit of this and a little bit of that in store for Andy. Tom's curriculum package was what was used in Christian schools. Andy's isn't overtly Christian like Tom's was and is quite a mix. I did, however, choose a science curriculum that assumes that you are teaching that God created the earth, and not some random cosmic explosion! At least he will get both viewpoints this way, which is more than the public school science teaches.

I figured I should probably update my blog just to let anyone who may read it know that I'm still kickin'! Busy, but still kickin'!