His Mercy is New in the Morning

Yesterday was horrid.

I'm talking, at my Wit's end I caught myself threatening to take my son to an orphanage, awful.  I told him they'd make him eat mashed potatoes and oatmeal...two of his most loathesome foods.  And yes I know, I am a horrid mother and yes I know it is inexcusable.  But when your autistic son shows so much promise one day and the next day is trying to hurt himself, the dog, and you the next, well, sometimes it just feels like too much.

Our computer screen is broken.

It flops over on a whim and at a table I have to hold it up with canning jars...it's a very fancy system.

Emma yesterday decided to be the worst student ever.  Not reading instructions, forgetting how to add 1 plus 1, the works.  Refusing to do her homework, lying.  Ugh.  The night ended with her and Nick screaming at each other, doors slamming, and her in bed crying.

This has been the month that we decided, let's get back from vacation and really hit our budget hard.  Maybe not Dave Ramsey hard, but hard.  Not buy anything extra, get lots paid down, cracking the whip hard.

Ugh.  It all just feels like their own load of bricks and piled one on top of me, well, last night I snapped.  Crying in a ball in the living room, not wanting to live to endure another day, snapped.

I only see things from my perspective, obviously, but in these situations I am imagining Nick next to me, wide eyed and staring at me thinking why did I marry Crazy woman, again?  Anyone remind me???

But as I tried to console my daughter last night in bed I found myself speaking to her the words that I had been needing to hear...God's Mercys are new every morning.  We'll have a fresh day tomorrow, with no mistakes and we'll try again.  It's okay.  We grow from our weaknesses when we give them to God to work with.  

Crazy how God uses something coming out of my own mouth to my seven year old to speak to my own heart.  And it is so true.  God's fresh day was  waiting for me this morning and as I've spoken before sometimes all it takes is a fresh perspective.


Yesterday I took Cal to therapy and was told that it was his last speech therapy session ever.  Ever!!!  Of course we are starting ABA  therapy and all kinds of Autism nonsense which I am just sick over but  after being told at a year he would probably never talk, we have come so far!  I no longer have to use sign language as our primary way of communication and he says words on his own like "automatically" and "realization".  He's doing so great!

Emma had a bad day but is otherwise doing so well.  I am so thankful for such a good girl who is so stinkin' smart and loves learning.  And as much as she complains about her "dopey" brother, she is the best big sister there ever was.

Money, Psh, I feel so silly complaining about my first world problems.  We've never not had money to pay our bills.  We eat like kings, we have fun, we save, and have extra money  and I find myself eyeing Vuitton and Coach and wondering why I can't have more, more more.... but why would I?  I took our financial sacrifice on willingly so we could  have me home with the kiddos and sometimes it's so easy to lose sight of that.   Aside from that I am so thankful for what I have.  We love the Manor and all of it's uniqueness. I have a roomful of clothes and the children have bin upon bin of clothes that won't even fit in their closets...we are so richly blessed, friends.  And sometimes it just takes a new day to be able to see that.  To see how abundantly God has given to us.

So this morning, as I anxiously await the children waking up and am typing this, I hope you can turn the page to a new day if you are going through a hard situation, and find the joy God has blessed us with in your situation.  It's always there, it's always evident but is sometimes blurred by our view.

Happy New Day, friends!

First Day of School Photos

Our first day of school was Monday.  It was...interesting.  While Cal's been around the whole homeschool thing for sometime now, he was in a formal preschool setting so I never pushed him to participate too much as I didn't want to make him go through countless hours of schooling.  This summer he did school with Emma but I had him on a Kindergarten program.  The kid can read and knows numbers and can add and subtract.  Colors, sizes, community helpers, the definition of a noun, the Gettysburg Address, he's got it down.  So I decided he was ready for first grade.  Or some version of that.  We shall see...

Our Kazoo is in third grade!  Age wise she should be in second but she's always been so advanced.  Love her and her passion for learning.  

 How cute is this???

 Emma lost her top tooth last night and when I told her to smile, this is what I got...um, that's not smiling... She is too funny! And speaking of funny....I simply had to show you the progression of Cal's pictures I got...

 Last but not least, finally a smile was in there!  I think we are going to have a super fun school year and I can't wait to see what is ahead for us :)

Mommy's Back to School Shopping

I am so thankful for a husband who believes that the teaching Momma needs supplies too.  So in addition to the crayons, markers, notebooks, and gym shoes, I got some things too!


Nick bought me this cup at the Henry Ford Museum.  I  really do love history so this is the absolute best mug for me.  It was the last one and I was over the moon to be able to snatch it up!  I still can't tell if Nick got it for me to tease me or not, but I love it either way.

He also treated me to these beauties!  They are  Crocs!  So comfy!  I love that I can wear them with jeans and only the toes show and they just look like shoes.  But they are cozy and light enough to just wear around the house.  Perfect for me staying home and running out around town.  Plus they are the navy and pink I love!  

Last but not least I wore my new necklace Nick bought for me on our Anniversary trip.  It's a bubble necklace and I love it!  The colors are all the jewel tones of fall!  

So those were the things I looked forward to yesterday on our first day of school...it was hard to get up at 4 in the morning!  But it was worth it to get myself around, get dinner in the crockpot, laundry in the machine, and feel ready to go by the time I had to wake the littles.  

2013-2014 Classroom Tour

So the dream we shared in this post of me doing a video tour of our classroom looks like it will not be coming true.  In the past days I've spent countless hours trying to figure out editing, attempting to not look like a cow on the camera, and then when that seemed feasible my camera was not focusing in video mode.  And quite frankly, with school starting today I have lots more ways I should be spending my time.

I'm sure you understand.

Hopefully in the near future I'll be able to do some fab video chat with you all and I will be wickedly saavy in the technology department but until then you'll have to settle for dumb ole' pictures.

This is located directly behind the kiddos desks.  It fits right underneath windows.  If our classroom wasn't on the third floor I would probably make a cushion and make it a little reading area.  But since it is on the third floor...um, no.

Seeing this just makes me squirm.  I am not very good at Chemistry.  So the fact that Emma will be studying it this year definitely puts me out of my comfort zone.  

This is my main area for books.  I've labeled where everything is so you can see how I attempt to organize.  We follow the Classical Curriculum.  If you don't know what that means, basically there are 3 stages of learning and each stage is broken into 4 years.  Each of the 4 years you study different times areas of subjects and then in each stage you repeat your studies.  Does that make sense?  Anyway, because we studied Ancient Egypt in 1st grade and will again in 5th grade, I have everything separated within their own subject by the year we will use it.  That way I'm not rifling through material we aren't even covering right now.  

To me this seems like a ton of books but I guess in the grand scheme of things, this isn't too much for teaching two kiddos.  I should also note that if you are noticing all of my shelves are made for short people, you are right.  Our classroom is in our attic and it has a severe pitch from the roof.  Very angled and very hard to set up, so our shelves are under the roof line.  It's kind of hard to get to if I stand but if I move my desk chair over and sit at the books it's not bad at all.  Sometimes it's a pain but I just feel so blessed to even have a room to call our classroom! 

This is our Calendar area.  Each day the kids will put the day up.  We also have information to learn our address, and phone number, the months of the year, and will add to this as the year goes on, I'm sure.  The tree will be used once we start Awana and I can make notes of what the children have memorized as an encouragement to keep going :)

I'm embarrassed to show you this.  Do you remember on Friends when Monica didn't want anyone to open the closet because it was such a mess and she was such a neatfreak?  That is totally the same as this closet! But in total honesty, here it is.  You can see the chaos.  It's just supplies that really don't fit anywhere else.  If you have any suggestions for organization I am all ears.  These are also things I don't really want the kiddos playing with all of the time (the clock on the second shelf up is SOOO annoying!)  

This is another corner where I have books for the kids to read for fun.  It's on it's own and is super easy for the kiddos to get to.  Emma a lot of times during her afternoon reading time will come up and swap out a read book for a new one.  In the drawers are extra activities for the kiddos...puzzles, fine motor pincers,  blocks, the like.  I'm not a fan of this setup but this was part of Cal's crib and it works for now.  It will soon be replaced by a bookshelf :)

Again, total honesty...this is my desk and how it looks.  It normally looks like this just because I am working on so much to get things ready for them.  See?  You can now feel better about the condition of your desk.  

This is our reading corner.  It is built in behind the built-around around the stairs and is in a dormer.  There really is nothing to do with this area but make it a reading corner.  And it totally helped my linen closet.  The cushion is actually made up of old comforters and bedspreads that I am not ready to throw out but had no room for in our closet.  So I folded them carefully and made them into this.  The top quilt is the bedspread we had when we first got married.  I love the colorfulness and it always makes me happy.  Pillows and blankets make this a cozy area to snuggle and read.  

This is the area that is used the most.  I've labeled what everything is.  I love having the books I need on top of the workboxes so I can throw them in the box I need them to be in or take them out and put them away.  The kiddos sit really close to this so they practically have everything they need at their fingertips.  Nick made this workbox system by following a tutorial from one of my fave bloggers, Laine.  You can check the workboxes out here.    You could buy one from Ikea but they didn't have the exact size I needed and this worked perfectly!  The bins are from Ikea though.  They also have colored bins which would also be helpful for sorting by siblings or subjects. The possibilities are endless.

For a better idea of our room, this is what it looks like where the desks are.  Their workboxes are behind the chalkboard and the long bookshelf is behind my chair.  See?  This is why I need a video, folks.  So confusing.  As I mentioned we live in an old house made in the 1890's.  Our homeschool room is on the third floor.  We have an intercom system because it just feels too massive.  Sometimes I hate the angles and it not being done as much as I want and on and on.  But God gently reminds me (as he's so good at doing) that I am blessed to even have an entire room to teach in and discover things and explore with these blessings of ours.  And when we are done, we are done.  I can shut the door and not have to trip over all of this stuff.  And please know that I think there are tons of ways to homeschool and I am in no means looking down on you if you don't have your own room.  I know moms who only homeschool at the library!

I hope my photos have helped explain things...I get tons of questions about how I do things, where things are, what we have, etc.  If you have any unanswered questions let me know and I'll try to answer.

We are starting school today so hopefully everything goes well...praying for a great year for you all too!

A Saturday Morning Retreat

Happy Labor Day to you all!  

We are camping the great wide unknown of Michigan this week.  Hope you all are enjoying time with your family!  

This past weekend I had to get ready for camping.  Camping for my first time to be more precise.  It was Cray-Z-ness!  

Saturday morning I was knee deep in about 8 loads of laundry, trying to make lists of items we would need, and suddenly I realized that the Pioneer Woman was about to come on.  

Screech to a halt the madness.  

I needed this.  

 So I ran upstairs to my haven...our bedroom...doesn't it look serene?

 I got some iced coffee...

 And scrounged around for the muffin I had gotten in Nashville, Indiana the week before and had managed to hide from the masses...

And sat in front of our teeny-tiny television to watch the show...

Ahh, heaven.  I was alone for an entire half hour while the children were downstairs doing their thing.  I don't think they even knew I was gone :)

May you find a soft place to hide and rest and destress amidst the craziness of life, sweet friends!

West Baden

 So as I mentioned in my last post , we visited lots of places in Southern Indiana on our Anniversary trip.  One of those places was West Baden.  West Baden Springs was a hotel back in the day.  After it changed hands a number of times it fell empty and into disrepair.  You can read the entire picture here.

 Thankfully it was restored to it's former glory and it is such a gorgeous place to visit.  So neat.  I can only imagine what it would have been like back in the day.  And so many celebrities came here, it's just incredible.  A huge group of investors came together to make the renovation possible (Donald Trump's group among them).  It is breath taking. Of course none of this will be as neat as being there and experiencing it but here are some photos for you.

 Going down the entrance lane

 The Piazza of the hotel

 All of the rooms are around this huge dome.  The sound and the feeling of the place is so still.  When it was built it was dubbed the 8th wonder of the world.  The planters in this picture: you can't tell from this picture but they were as tall as Nick.  He's 6'3" in case you were wondering :)

 Details...

 The middle of the dome

 View from upstairs...so neat! You just have to go :)

 lights

 We ate lunch under the dome at the restuarant...my lunch compainion.  Good thing I like him because the service was so slow, lunch took FOREVER!!!

 After lunch we went outside to the grounds...

 I took these mainly for the kids but I love the small details...Frogs spitting, kids!

 Turtles spitting back...

 Here I am.  I was inside a springs building.  It was popular due to the mineral springs that people could soak in for medicinal purposes.  One of the owners had all of the spring tubs filled with concrete.  It's really sad.  It said on a plaque that each tile that had been there had been about $100 and they were just poof, destroyed.  I can't even imagine how awesome it would have looked back then.  I think there were 4 spring houses, all fiilled.

 Towering flowers...

 Another Springs bath location, now just a slab of concrete in there.

 This was the original entrance to the hotel.  I'd follow that boy in the pink shirt anywhere :)

 Here he is waiting for me to join him on our green couch of love :)  By the way, do you like his new kicks?  Finally convinced him to buy Sperry's and he L.O.V.E.S. them!  See?  I use my powers for good!

 Our view from the green couch of love...

 Here I am...hi world!  Hi blogging friends! Seriously, so comfortable.  We both kind of fell asleep.  Yep, tenth anniversary vacations you go away to sleep...it's all very scandalous here.

 Bye hotel :(    Well after the West Baden and before we moved on we decided to visit the other hotel in the area that is owned by the same people, the French Lick Hotel...

 Here's the foyer of the hotel...very nice.  Very different from West Baden but amazing.  The Indiana Democratic Convention was going on at this hotel...we didn't stay at this one and that kind of shortened our stay.  People standing around arguing...they should have had wigs on or something in this setting :)

 Ceiling..

 Chandelier...

 The upstairs hall...  I kept telling Nick in this hotel that I felt like I was on the Titanic or something

 More ceiling :)

 The hotels are owned by the same umbrella...pool time in the indoor pool...

 And the outdoor pool...

 To get to the bowling alley we had to go through this hallway which was pretty neat.  They had to carve everything out of limestone and this hall they just left as limestone.  Wit's looking at the pictures on the wall that explain how they had to do the excavating with hand shovels.

Last picture's a little dark but I had to take it for Emma...on our way to the car there were these HUGE windows.  Like in Cinderella!  So I had to take a picture for Emma...otherwise she might not have believed me, yo'!

So that was our trip to West Baden. You should really go!  It is out in the middle of no where and rooms are pricey but worth it for a new adventure :)