Hello again!

Hey all. Sorry its been so long since my last post. Frankly, I have let fear get the better of me. I have been sort of busy the past little while and well struggling with what to write. I promise to be more diligent with keeping the posts current. Please forgive me.

Things have changed around here somewhat. I am now a SAHM (stay at home mom, just in case you didnt know what the acronym stood for) and loving it. (Well most days.)
My husband and I have decided that since we have such a great need to fill, especially in these tough times, that it would make more sense to give our business a real shot in the arm and run with it. At one point in the spring, I had two part time jobs which were good for the most part. I still wanted to be at home, but since being laid off in January at my last full time job my income has gone down considerably. So, we needed to have an extra income. Anyway, I will be the administrator for the business and we have an actual name now! Yey! It's called Blessed Financial and I am so proud of my honey. He is really focusing and making plans and I think there will be no need to have me work out of the home anymore. That will be so nice.

Since I am staying at home now, we have decided to home school our daughter. She is currently in the local Catholic school system and its a good school with great staff from what we have seen. Madison however is not happy with the lifestyle we led last year. Obviously, she has never said that in so many words. But the attitude we've seen from her is enough to make us want to rethink our decision. We, rather I looked into it first when she was a toddler and liked the idea. However you may think of it, is ok with me. We never got serious about it but researched on the internet and subscribed to a provincial home schooling magazine but that was about it. Then when she was getting closer to becoming school age we really needed me to get a full time job outside of the home. So, we put her into a Catholic french immersion program and it took some adjustments on all our parts that first year.

The past year, it was brutal. My husband took a part time job that started really early in the morning and we got bright and early and got her ready to go to the daycare at 6:30 am, where they'd drop her off at school at about 8:30. She hated that with a passion. We decided to change her program from French immersion to an English program that seemed to be a little better. Although she didnt seem to have as many friends as before. Sad little thing. Plus, she has had some health issues as of late and think that it would help with her functioning properly. More on that at another time. So now its summer. Hallelujah on that! Will has been hinting that maybe we should take another look at it and go from there.

He even went and picked up some textbooks and supplies from a family that didnt need them anymore. So that was a blessing for sure. Since that spark of enthusiasm came into the house, I have been doing lots of research. Thankfully, the lady had some books for the parent to read and one of them is about a pioneer called Charlotte Mason who has an interesting and surprisingly similar approach to what I would do as a homeschooler. (Look her up on Google and you'll find a bunch of stuff about her. )Not sure about it yet. I would like to use what we were given. There are lots of textbooks from geography and science, history, language arts and arts. I have also learned about unit studies and what that entails. Now THAT I would sink my teeth into! It takes the idea that learning should be fun. You pick a subject matter that is interesting to you and your child and study it from a wholistic point of view. For example, lets say that you want to study horses. You would look at the anatomy of a horse, which would be the science portion. Then you go horseback riding, that would be phys ed. Then you would study the different breeds and where they come from and how that place uses them or used them in the past. Geography and history and or culture. Get my point? Interesting right? Then the child writes an essay on what they've learned or something along those lines. Or draws a picture of the horse. It seems easy enough to do. Just wondering of course now how to incorporate the schedule, prep, planning and which school board we are going to register with. We are going to a park here to meet some local home schoolers and hopefully get guidance there too. I have so many questions! (Hope I don't bore them or make them run away!)

But then my human fleshy side starts to kick in. How in the world am I going to accomplish all that this will require of me? I will be taking care of my family, a house full of chores, budgeting, a business, and homeschooling too? Yikes. Thats enough to make me want to hide under the covers and not come up for air in days because of being so overwhelmed! I will be ok I think because it seems Holy Spirit led and where He guides, He provides.