Technical difficulties, part 2

Hello again. It's me again. At the library again.

So that means our computer still isn't fixed. It's "sort of" usable, but not on a permanent basis. It has some kind of nasty virus/trojan thingy, we think, and we've been seeing the "blue screen of death" very regularly. (Can you tell how technologically literate we are at our house?) Anyway, we have tried a lot of different things, and I think we're about to completely reformat it, which means we will lose everything. At least we won't lose any pictures, as they've been backed up to CDs fairly recently (thanks, Mom!) and beyond that, I haven't emptied the camera in a really long time. So we shouldn't lose any pictures. Other than that, there will just be a few Word documents lost that I would have liked to save. I think I will print them out, anyway, before we kill the poor thing. Then at least I'll have a hard copy, and I guess I could always retype them if I cared to in the future.

Oh yeah, and Karisa, if you don't mind sending me your weekly schedule chart again, I'll be needing another one. I have NO idea how to make all those little columns. Thanks! Y'all, this weekly schedule has been the best thing ever for me in the organization department (and there's really not much to it, but it's so very helpful). So feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment or etc, if you'd like me to send it to you and I will try...that is, if I can get it back!

Quick recap of our day today:

• This morning, we took the boys to "Construction Junction" at the local fairgrounds. There were all different types of heavy equipment that the kids could climb up into, honk the big air horns, etc. One of the dump truck owners actually let the kids raise and lower the truck bed with him up in the cab - way cool! Home Depot was there, and gave out free orange aprons and woodworking kits to each kid, so they could actually "build" something while they were there, too! Drake got a butterfly house kit and Levi got a fire truck kit. We started getting ready to build them there, but it was really windy, and we decided it would be easier to do at home, so we took them home with us instead. Anyway, we had taken Drake to Construction Junction about 3 years ago - back when Daddy was still a Heavy Equipment Operator, and was actually working there with his unit as a volunteer! Today brought back a lot of memories. The last time we went, our favorite Alaskans were there with us, and Drake and Jaedyn had a great time together. Drake loved it today too. Levi, however, thought it was too "SCAH-ghee" (scary), although he got over his fears a couple of times, at least long enough to go up into some of the cabs. Once he even honked an air horn! The trouble was, whenever he'd sit in one of the machines, he thought it was his own personal backhoe, or whatever. So we heard "mine" a lot. He wasn't a particularly happy camper.

• This afternoon, we worked in the yard. Drake and I weeded the flower beds, and Adam mowed the lawn for the first time since planting the grass seed awhile back, and our lawn looks fantastic! I'm not even kidding...super thick and green and beautiful. I know, I know, there's no way it's going to look that good for long in this lawn-hating climate, but it's pretty nice for right now. It's being watered as we speak...errr, type.

• After we finished the yardwork, we helped Drake make his butterfly house. What a blast! I didn't expect it would be nearly as enjoyable as it was. Adam helped him with the nailing part, and then I helped him paint. He really and truly painted the whole thing by himself - and it turned out great! - but I helped him get the paints ready, showed him how to wash the brushes out, made sure he didn't paint the patio, etc. I took a lot of pictures, so once I get our computer up and running, I'll post some. (Gosh, I have promised a lot of pictures now...baseball and this butterfly house for sure, but I'll have to check over them once I get them off the camera and hope it jogs my memory!)

Well, I'm off to do a couple of other things on the library computer, and then head home to my guys. Happy weekend, everyone!

Technical difficulties

Grrrrr. You're not going to believe this, but I'm actually sitting in the HF library typing this, because our computer crashed last night, and nothing seems to be working to revive it. I needed to send off an e-mail to someone today, so I'm thankful the library offers this service! Libraries are really awesome; we've been using ours a LOT lately.

(By the way, you'd be amazed how much housework got done this afternoon. I don't suppose there's any connection to the inoperable computer...?)

Schooling and misc. updates

I haven't talked about our schooling dilemma since I first brought it up at the beginning of February. We actually made a decision not too long after that, but it took awhile to get all the family notified. (I sound like a newspaper reporting a death, don't I?)

Anyway, not long after that post, we made the decision to homeschool next year. Originally, the decision felt more like the lesser of two evils, but since that time, we've actually become pretty excited about it! We're really looking forward to the opportunity to teach our own children! But, instead of the peaceful feeling of closure I was expecting, well...now we've got a lot more decisions coming up regarding exactly how we're going to do this thing! As many of you are aware (probably moreso than I was a couple of months ago), there are a lot of different methods or "schools of thought" about the process of home education - and even the purpose for it. Then beyond that, there is a giant sea of curriculum choices to wade through.

But, it's actually kinda fun! We're getting a pretty good idea of the basic approach we're planning to take, and starting to narrow down curriculum options. I have been wisely advised that one of the most important qualities in homeschooling is the ability to be flexible - if something just isn't working, try something else! I will try to take that to heart as we begin this journey.

Drake will finish out the year at his current elementary school, and we'll officially begin our homeschool in the fall. But we've already started working on some reading curriculum at home that's more specific to our own approach, and plan to do the same with handwriting before the year is out. We hope to continue both of those throughout the summer, and then begin the rest of the subjects in August. Drake also wants to learn to play the piano "for real" - so that's another summertime aspiration, to begin some official piano lessons (from me, to start with).

So those are our plans...but I must keep that flexibility thing in mind. (It's all subject to change!) I just wanted to give an update on what's been going on in the "schooling" arena, since I left you all hanging.

And I want to put this out there right now, too, since I'm thinking about it: I refuse to become a "snobby" homeschooler. I have been frustrated and hurt in the past, as a public school mommy, by certain homeschoolers who have implied that their choice was superior to mine, or that I somehow care less about my children than they do. I vow to never act that way. I do not believe that homeschooling is right for everyone. I do not believe that the way we do decide to do anything at our house is the only "right" way. I want to be a defender of anyone who has labored over their schooling options for their children (and of those who don't really have options), no matter what decision they make. Each individual and each family has a unique purpose and mission and place in the body of Christ and in reaching the world.

Okay, on a little lighter note! These some other needed updates, since I've been such a bad blogger lately:

• Baseball practice has started for Drake, and he's loving it! I'll try to post some pictures of that soon.
• Levi had his 24-month appointment (finally) and he has been officially approved a healthy two-year-old...he doesn't have to go back for another check-up until he's three! This is really a blessing for us, as he's been in to the clinic for check-ups every one to three months since he was about nine months old, because of slow weight gain and slower-than-average crawling/walking. But he is progressing at his own "normal"- and he is perfect just the way God made him!
• Drake's AWANA Games were today (kinda like AWANA Olympics or something), and it was a lot of fun to watch. Drake's group placed second, and he was very excited about it! Unfortunately, I forgot our camera. But I was able to borrow a friend's camera for a picture of all the kids at the end, so I'm happy about that...even though I tripped and fell on this weird lip around the gym floor when I was trying to take the picture! It was very graceful, let me tell you. I was glad the borrowed camera survived the fall!
• Ummmm...I think that's it. My sweet Levi is waking up from his nap now, so I'm signing off. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Levi in Levi's

A couple of weeks ago, we had Levi's 2-year portraits done. He was fairly cooperative, and I'm happy with how they turned out. He got this adorable "Levi's Jeans" shirt from my friend Dorla, and some hand-me-down actual Levi's jeans from my friend Jenn!

This boy is pretty darned cute if you ask his mama!

An exciting morning

Nothing like a little panic to get the morning off to a good start.

Let me explain. Remember when I talked about my new adventure in scheduling back in December? Well, there were a few (major!) hiccups with it around Christmastime and in January when we were all so sick, but I've been back at it now for the past month or so. And life is so much better because of it. I'm totally not (naturally) a scheduled kinda girl, so mine is really minimal so far, and consists of a list of activities for each day. So you could really think of it more like a to-do list, if you prefer. The items are just repetitive on a daily or weekly basis.

Anyway, all this has very little to do with my story, except to say that Monday is the day to change sheets.

So, after Drake got on the bus this morning, Levi and I went upstairs to change everybody's bedding...and put away some mountainous piles of clean laundry that had accumulated, and declutter and vacuum upstairs...you get the idea. I took the sheets off our bed and was putting the clean ones on when I heard Levi playing in our bathroom (directly connected to the bedroom). When I turned around, I discovered he had locked himself in! And I quickly discovered the doorknob was completely smooth on the outside - no little hole or line or anything at all to stick a screwdriver into. Completely smooth.

What were they thinking when they installed that kind of doorknob in base housing? I guess they were thinking that they want to get calls from distraught mothers when their toddlers lock themselves inside bathrooms, and that's exactly what happened. Well, actually, I wasn't all that distraught about Levi being stuck in the bathroom. He wanted out, so I knew he'd be hanging out near the door and not drowning in the toilet or something. You know what I was more distraught about? The fact that some housing maintenance guy was making an emergency trip to my house that very moment, and not just to fix a leaky kitchen faucet, either. He was going up to my bedroom to get my kid out of my bathroom. Oh yikes. I had a couple of minutes, and you should have seen the stashing and dashing going on. Putting my clean underwear away was my first priority.

It only took him a couple of minutes to show up, and he rescued Levi with a big putty-knife looking thing that he jammed into the crack between the door and the frame. He got some serious crowbar-type action going on, and I thought the door frame was going to be really messed up when he was done. (It didn't turn out too bad.)

So after thanking him profusely for releasing my baby, I decided to make an inspection and see if there were any more doorknobs like that one throughout the house. And I found that the rest of them are different. (Levi has locked himself countless times in the downstairs bathroom, but it just takes a screwdriver to open - no big deal.) But because of that one weird one, we might be making a run to Walmart or Lowe's in the near future to do some doorknob shopping...