My mother always told me that my ability ~ or lack thereof ~ to communicate is the greatest indicator of my intelligence. My ability to properly use the English language and express myself eloquently would convey to the world my level of intelligence.

So, I have a little pet peeve. It's when people can't use proper grammar, or don't have basic math skills. Like those who don't use your/you're, there/their/they're, or to/too correctly. Or, what about apostrophes? Apostrophe s shows ownership, while just s makes a word plural. And sales clerks? Most can't make change with out the register telling them how much to give back. And forget about having your change counted back to you properly ~ you'll get it in one fistful.

I wonder sometimes why people don't have these basic skills. Basic knowledge they should have learned in school. Kids are graduating without knowing how to communicate properly in our own language, and without basic arithmetic skills. This is a scary trend.

I don't blame the teachers. They do what they can with what they have. They are overworked and underpaid. But, the product they are turning out is by and large not equipped to be the next generation of leadership for our society.

When it came time for my oldest to begin school, I enrolled her in kindergarten. I was excited for her to begin this new journey of making new friends, having new experiences, and gaining all the new knowledge that going to school entailed. She had had two years of preschool and I felt she was ready to hit the ground running, so to speak. Turns out, she was way advanced compared to all her other class mates, and the advantage that she had was gone by the end of first grade. She had gone from being advanced to being average. Not only that, but she began to exhibit undesirable behaviors. She came home almost every day upset about something, and she would keep all her frustrations bottled up and unleash them when she got home on her unsuspecting sisters. Now, I could have accepted that. I could have kept her in school and let her be average, tolerated all the undesirable behaviors, let her continue to bottle up her frustrations, and enroll my two younger daughters when the time came. But, I did not want that for them. I was also not too keen on having other people teach her values and morals, especially when they may not align with the values and morals my husband and I have.

As a parent we have to look at what the future holds, or what we think it may hold, and equip our children as best as we can so that they may be productive members of society ~ not those who expect to be taken care of. For us, this means homeschooling. As a parent, I feel that this is going to give my daughters the best chance to succeed. Do I think that all children who go to public school will not be productive members of society? No. I am sure that there are exceptional public schools out there. However, by homeschooling, we are ensuring that they will be properly educated. They will know how to use their/there/they're properly. But most importantly, we are not shipping them off, day after day, to have other people shape their character. We are taking the ultimate responsibility in their upbringing, and I feel that they will be better for it.

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday ~ the beginning of Lent. 40 days and 40 nights. Not usually the most popular season, as it is full of fasting, abstaining, etc. Our priest, Fr. Paul, gave an interesting insight last year as to what it means to 'give up something for lent'. Most people will give up something, like, say, chocolate, and then on Easter Sunday, have chocolate again to their heart's content and chalk it up as a successful Lenten season. But was it really? Fr. Paul would say no. Rather, he would say that the thing that you give up needs to be something that will make you a better person, that will help you be more Christ-like. And 40 days and 40 nights is enough time to change bad habits into good ones.

We lead a personal finance course, Financial Peace University (by Dave Ramsey), at our church. We meet once a week for 13 weeks, and cover basics such as getting out of debt and budgeting, and other topics such as mortgages, retirement and college planning, etc. Now, Dave has written books with all the same information in them as is in the class. One would argue that just reading the books should be sufficient ~ no extra knowledge is gained by attending class. But there is one major thing that this helps people with ~ changing habits. When people are exposed to this information week after week, they begin to really hear and understand what Financial Peace is all about, and begin to change habits. They begin to budget, they begin to understand why it is so necessary to financial health to be rid of debt, and they begin to make changes in their habits to make this new way of financial living a reality. The class is 13 weeks long because habits don't change overnight, and that much time is needed to form new habits.

I view Lent in much the same way. We are given a time to reflect on and abstain - or *fast* - from certain bad habits. Is a successful Lenten season one where you ate fish every Friday and abstained from desserts? Not really, unless your new habits carry on after Lent is over. See, if your goal is better eating habits, and you continue to eat fish once a week and abstain from sweets, your overall health has improved, and thus you are a better person because you are taking better care of the body that God gave you. Lent is a time to make changes in your behavior to make you a better person for Christ, and to carry on those changes even after Lent is over.

Yesterday, while doing schoolwork, my girls and I had a discussion about the meaning of Lent. Hannah said that some kids in her Religious Ed class said that on Fridays during Lent they have to take their lunch because the school does not serve fish. I told her that Lent is not really about just eating fish on Friday. She gave me a puzzled look. To her, that is what Lent was. And, I have to say, it was for me, too, for a long time ~ until last year. I do not like to eat fish. I cannot stand the fishy taste and almost never make it unless it is during Lent. For years, our standard Friday dinner was fried fish and homemade macaroni and cheese. But, I explained, Lent is about changing your behavior to be more Christ-like. After a bit more explaining, light bulbs began to go off. Oh.... Okay... So Hannah is going to do all her school assignments completely (she has a bad habit of not completing every section or skipping a subject entirely) and she will not lie (we'll see on that one!). Hayleigh (who is always up for a good debate) is going to stop arguing with me. Hope is undecided at this point, although a cease fire (so to speak) with her sisters was in the lead. And the interesting thing... they all came up with these ideas themselves. They all see - no matter how young - how they can be more Christ-like.

I have not really decided what my focus will be this Lenten season, although I think that I will probably focus on running a better household ~ there's always room for improvement!

What will you do with your 40 days and 40 nights?

February 16, 2010

Well, we've had a very busy few weeks. We have been getting lots of school work done - buckling down now that the holidays are over. Classes at our co-op have started up again. Hannah is taking a gym class, Hope is taking Weather Watchers, and Hayleigh is learning sign language. Wednesdays are our busiest days by far. We go to the co-op, meet my mom for lunch, go to the library, and run other errands and sometimes stop off for a visit with my Grandma Bigler.

Our frog is doing well, but he has created a hole that he stays in pretty much all the time. We have to drop his crickets into the hole for him to eat, because he doesn't come out to get them. Maybe once the weather warms up he will. We may give the tadpole thing another try this spring. Still not sure on that one.

We started some seedlings and they have been growing very well. I bought a plant light so they are getting lots of the kind of light they need, so I think that I will be starting more very soon.

Not a very exciting update, but an update none the less. We will be going on a field trip to the Denver Mint in a few weeks, so I will post about that. They do not allow cameras, though, so no pics to publish.

January 7, 2010

Well, thanks to my sister in law, I am getting better about posting to this! (Thanks, Jen!) Guess I just needed a little motivation!

Nothing much is happening here... a quiet start to the New Year! We are slowly getting back into the school routine. We registered for classes at our co-op today. I was surprised that we were able to get classes that the girls wanted because I forgot to call for a registration appointment and we did not register until day 3 of registration, and that usually means that all the good classes are full by then. In a way, I was kind of hoping that there would not be any classes so we could have a rest from that, but when I suggested that to Hannah, she broke into tears and stomped into her room (ahhh, 11 year old drama) so I figured that would not happen unless there were no classes.

This year I am striving to become more organized... that is my goal for 2010. I am going to do it in steps, instead of trying to overhaul everything at once. Maybe if I attack it that way, I will be more successful.

The first step I am taking is to become more organized in meal planning and preparation. I absolutely hate it when my husband comes home from work and wonders what is for dinner, and I have absolutely no idea because I got so wrapped up in school or chores that I completely lose track of time. I would love to find a software program that would help with that... I have an ancient recipe program that my mom gave to me years ago, but all it does is store recipes. I guess that I will just have to figure out my own system.

I intend to use my crock pot more often, like several times each week. I have checked out several crock pot books from the library and borrowed some from a friend, and received one as a gift at Christmas - but my favorite so far is 'Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook' - I borrowed that one from a friend. That one I will have to go buy. The main problem I come across is that most recipes that are out there for slow cookers use canned condensed soups as ingredients. Not only can't I eat them because of my allergies, but after all that I have read on how processed foods are prepared and what goes in to them, I would not want to, either.

So, now I am off to our church to pick up the materials I ordered for our new Financial Peace University class that begins tonight ( #7!). I also have to make copies of the syllabus for this class and then make up our class roster. I was going to do that this morning, but received another registration, so I figured I would do it this afternoon so if any more come in last minute I can include them. Then it's dinner time and off to class!

December 29, 2009

Today started with errand running. We went to the church to make sure it was okay to order the kits for our upcoming class and had a nice chat with Fr. Paul. We are so blessed that he is our priest, he has so much wisdom and insight into things... We then went to Wally World to pick up a few groceries, and Hannah used her Christmas money ( augmented with some of her sisters' money) to buy a new Wii game. For dinner, we went to Red Lobster because my brother John and his wife Jenny are here for Christmas with their four kids: Erin, Jack, AJ and Luke. Tomorrow we will have a cookie baking day at my mom's house for all the kids. Should be fun!

December 28, 2009

Haven't posted for a while... been busy with birthdays in October, Thanksgiving, getting ready for Christmas, and then trying to squeeze school in to boot... Whew! So... here is what has been happening since our trip.

In October we had Hope's 8th birthday and Hannah's 11th birthday. James was out of town in Burlington trying to finish up surveying before the ground froze too badly. We went to Itz on Hope's birthday with Grandma and Grandpa John and Gran (Nee Nee). I brought along cupcakes and we spent so much time playing that we ended up having them outside after they closed! Hope's friend party wasn't until November since she got sick and we had to postpone it. She had fun with her friends Alyssa and Micah.

On Hannah's birthday, we went to Itz again, but I brought brownies instead, and we made a point of eating them before we went to play. Hannah had her usual Halloween themed sleepover party with her friends Heather, Megan, Madison, and her cousin Sara.

High Country ended in November, which always brings mixed feelings... The kids are sad, because they love their classes and seeing their friends, and moms are both glad and sad - sad that Mom's group is ending, but glad that there is a rest from going each week.

Our 6th Financial Peace University class ended the week after Thanksgiving. We saw the usual dwindling of attendance, and only graduated 2 couples, but the others are planning to return in January so that is good.

December started with birthdays - my Grandma's, then mine, then my Mom's. My cousin's mother (my first cousin once removed) had a heart attack, and at first it did not look very good for her, but through God's grace she is recovering and doing better each day. We decorated the house, and the girls had lots of fun putting out the Christmas villages that we have and arranging all the figurines that go with them. Saturday mornings were spent at church for the childrens' choir rehersals. On Christmas Eve, we went to Mass, where Hannah and Hope sang in the Children's Choir. We came home and had a nice dinner and baked cookies for Santa. On Christmas day, Grandma and Grandpa John and NeeNee came over and we had a nice brunch and played with the Wii that Santa left for us. Then they left to go pick up my brother John and his wife Jenny and their kids. The next day, I spent the day finishing up Christmas gifts and then we went to my Mom's for a nice Christmas dinner and package opening. The following day, we went to see my Dad and Grandma Bigler for package opening. My Dad, Sandy, Grandma, Uncle Randy and Aunt Marva, Aunt Meredith, Sandy's daughter Carrie and her son Cody, my cousins Meredith Dawn and her husband Andy, James, Sean, Rebecca, and Mariah, and my brother John, Jenny, Erin, Jack, AJ and Luke were all there. It was great to catch up with everyone.

Today we are going ice skating and then maybe out to lunch with my Mom and John, brother John and Jenny and all the kids - 6 in all! Should be a fun day!

Day 4 of our trip

Today we woke up to about 6" of snow. We decided to do something inside - well, relatively inside - and go to Jewel Cave National Monument. Jewel cave is the 2nd largest cave, and new caverns are being discovered all the time. We took the tour, which started above ground and we went down by elevator deep into the cave. We only toured a small portion of the enourmous cave and learned a lot about its interesting history - not just geological but also involving humans.