I'm a Better Mom

We have now completed two weeks of homeschooling and something I never thought I would say, I love it. The girls seem to be thriving and my favorite thing is that we start our day in the word, studying what God has to say to us and asking questions and praying then we start our day. There is no formula for a well ran day, but I truly believe the Lord is blessing our time because we honor him with ours.
Here is what else I feel, I'm a better mom. I don't feel anxious all the time with all the have-to's. We have to be home to get homework done, we have to get in the shower, we have to get dinner started, we have to read now...we have to, we have to. It's now, we get to. We get to go outside and play. We get to read a book together, we get to sleep in and have a leisurely morning. We get to start our day in the word. We have time.
Matt, our pastor, was talking this past weekend about a tired that we feel when we go to bed because we honored and worked hard for the Lord doing what he has asked. I must admit, there were many nights before I home schooled that I went to bed tired, exhausted, and dreading the next day and all that had to be done and joy was sucked right out of me. And in hindsight, perhaps all this stuff I was doing, wasn't unto the Lord because he hadn't asked me to do it! I was working on my plan doing my thing.

But when I surrendered to his call to home school (reluctantly at first), I came under his umbrella of obedience. And I go to bed a good kind of tired. I don't dread my day ahead and all the have-to's, I look forward to going to the park to play with the girls, and for all this, I'm a better mom.

Thanks for Thanksgiving

Thanks for Thanksgiving is one of my favorite books. I read it so much each year that it's falling apart. I used that book and some ideas I found on Pinterest and this is what we did today.
I read the book to them then we made thankful-pies (Pumpkin pies, cool whip and all!). We took a paper plate and turned it upside down to trace a brown circle, cut it out, and glued that on the plate. Then we cut a smaller orange circle and cut a piece out and marked out the slices on the brown paper where they put their thanks. We stuck a brad through the center and added a cottonball for the whip cream. They're pretty cute if you ask me.

One day, this won't be sideways. Till I figure it out, sorry!

Abbie wrote what she was thankful for. 

Ellie drew what she was thankful for. 

And ta-da! Our thankful pies are done, whip cream and all!

Day 1 in the Books

Today was our first day of homeschooling. After careful thought I put on my gray comfy pants, house shoes, threw my hair up in bun, and went to work. One great thing was we started our time studying the bible. This week we are studying Pentecost and using the book Old Story New, which are 10-minute devotionals.
Part of our reading curriculum is FIAR and all three girls sat down with me on the floor and we read and did our lesson together. We got all our work done, reading, math, grammar, and handwriting. It worked like a well-oiled machine and I couldn't have asked for today to have gone any better. It was nice to work one on one with each girl in a relaxed environment. To top it off, we finished everything in 2 hours.
We went to Chick-fil-A for lunch, headed to the library to load up on books, and enjoyed having fun after working diligently.
I know every day won't be this seamless (and awesome), we will be adding Explode the Code for both of the older two girls and the oldest will start her writing program twice a week using Writing Strands. But I feel good about this decision and fear I might become one of those, "You have to do this!" kind of person. Oh Lord have mercy!