Fly on our wall…

On homeschool and needing just a little extra time…

We had a pretty chill week this week! Rico Suave and I started it out by visiting a few homeschool co-op schools that offer classes 2 days a week or half days and such. We are praying about the year ahead and knowing we will have a little guy that will have doctor visits and probably physical therapy has us thinking about adding a little somethin’, somethin’ on to give mommy a couple of mornings to be a mommy to the new one while not taking away from their schooling. Thankful we live in a big city where there are SO MANY families who homeschool so there are a bazillion things to look at and consider. Such good stuff–and so thankful for the families who have gone before us. For real.

On letting my kids be kids…

I was talking to a friend, and we were talking about academic success verses thriving in other ways–through character, through experience, through learning to walk deeper with Jesus. Another thing about living in the city is just as there are very grounded, chill making the most of the moment parents–there always seems to be more who are starting profession lessons, crazy competitive sports at 3 years old;)…and folks trying to keep up or get their littles ahead by being in crazy college prep private schools that require so much work and bring so much pressure to these tender hearts. The questions I want to constantly ask are: How is this shaping his/her heart? How is this bringing her closer to the Lord? How is this going to help her be a world changer?

If my kid is gonna get a tennis scholarship to college–then he can do it the way I did…by picking up the game for fun when they are 16. Such a reminder that the Lord is the one that will really shape them, who has already given them the talent they will need for different seasons of their lives and to just let our kids do LIFE fully rather than sitting in practices and this and that all week long. I had to smile thinking about that day I picked up a racket and decided I was gonna take it up–and it was a really fun 2 or 3 years–and how thankful I am that I wasn’t in lessons all the way growing up and instead just climbing trees being a kid. I didn’t take that scholarship–and my parents didn’t care because they hadn’t been paying for lessons since I was 5;). I went on a writing scholarship instead, and I wrote for the university and loved it. And I also stuck at reading AND writing until I was in high school–yep…I was in the special circle in grade school:) I could’ve done without that one thank you very much. It’s so refreshing to me to remind myself to just let my kids be KIDS. To give them TIME where they need it. To not compare to others. To simply ENJOY them…and LOVE them…and watch what real love and pouring in does to their spirits. Our kids will fly when they are ready–and how SWEET it is to just chill out and let them be little when they’re little.

Here are some of my recent favorite iPhone videos of the littles…a little fly on our wall action here…(as you can see my 3 and 4 year olds are the naughty ones!)

We’ve always said this phrase “Our hands are made for loving”–so when a sibling does something not so nice with their hands (like hitting) we talk about what our hands were made for. They can do this as young as 1 or so–and something we’ve always done:) We also do “hug until you love each other”. SO–after we talk about what our hands were made for–we reconcile by hugging until you love each other…which ALWAYS ends with lots of giggles instead of pouts:) The big kids especially love that one now–which usually ends in hugging until you fall on the ground and are laughing hysterically!

Here’s another glimpse of some Young family terminology…

We talk about in every circumstance when conflict of any sort arises–you have 2 choices. You can be a peacemaker or a problem maker. We can be out in public and I sense an arises conflict–and I’ll just say, “Frank, you have 2 choices.” We talk about it so much at home they are able to walk through those choices now on their own and work it out themselves. Isaac on the other hand, thinks its funny to tell me he’s a problem maker when we’re in the car. Little stinker!

Isaac on Football…

Several of our friends have expressed concern that I went to Auburn, Richard went to Georgia–yet all of our children are big Alabama fans. Here is proof of how this is happening…(this is Isaac on the phone with my dad–“Papa”)…

On being a kid with my kids…

We have a steep driveway–and forever we’ve let our kids go fast down on it on their bikes, coaster cars and such. I thought it’d be fun to put the van in neutral and let the kids rock the car to get it to go down. I have to say I was quite impressed with it’s speed. We did this more times this week than you would want to know–and don’t worry…the other kids in the culdasac are schoolers so no worries about any littles playing in the midst of our crazy:) We call this “the mommy van roller coaster”…hard to tell–but it’s actually really fast..

Here’s a few fun pictures from our day…

We started our day by driving 30 minutes to visit a speciality donut shop. I’m sure there’s a homeschool lesson in there some where. BUT we had chapel on the way (listening to and singing our lungs out to 104.7)…

In all seriousness–we drive about an hour every Friday morning for a special phonics tutor session. We are locked into 40 lessons–and we’ve only completed 7–so now you know what we’ll be doing for the next 33 weeks every Friday morning. The Dutch Monkey is a slight detour on the way…but well worth it:)

Loo melts me…

We are still studying Ancient Egypt–and they drew these rocking sketches by learning how to draw with proportions with shapes. They did these on their own watching mommy draw hers step by step–so proud of them!

We also have moments that are NOT picture perfect–so don’t let the blog world fool ya! We have tantrums (some times I’m included)…lots of heart-to-hearts about hard stuff…and some times I beg everyone to read books in their room so I can sneak a nap in on the couch. We have a fun-filled weekend ahead with Loo’s Nutcracker rehearsal and birthday parties…and guessing which kid goes with which invitation. If you ask them all at once who has a friend named Jack–they ALL raise their hands…so hoping I take the right kid to the right parties tomorrow. Can’t imagine how crazy and fun it will be this summer when we have 5 kids 8 and under:) LOVE IT!

Hope you all have a blessed weekend!!!

Oh MY! Forgot to add a very important step in our process! Our home study draft was submitted to our agency!!! A few revisions had to be made but we’ll have our final one in hand next week and off to USCIS it’ll go! Of course I really wanted it to go off the last week of October–but maybe we’ll get a really fast fingerprint date and quick USCIS approval. Still hoping and praying by some miracle we could get to our little boy before his 2nd birthday in May! We’ve decided Laney and Parker WILL TRAVEL with us…so excited to share this with them!!! I think the travel would be too hard on Isaac and Frank…so we’ll just play it by ear but for now we are just planning for the 4 of us to go and to come back as 5. We have a looooooong way to go–but it’s so fun to think about! Blessings y’all!

xoxo!

andrea