My kids

Yesterday morning Bekah was playing outside. The grass was wet because we had had some rain the night before. She had slipped on her flip flops before she went out and she came back in shortly and was picking out a different pair of shoes. I asked her what she was doing and she told me "These shoes are the wrong ones. They're getting juice on my feet!" She didn't like her feet getting wet and wanted some different shoes!

Today I was talking with our pastor on the phone. When I got off the phone Brandon asked me if we were getting a pool at church. I told him no and asked him why he would think that. He said, "you were talking on the phone about a pool pit." It took me a minute and then I explained, "Brandon the thing that Pastor Roger stands behind when he preaches is called a pulpit!"

Kids are so funny!

Bekah

Bekah's surgery went very well today. She was very excited about it and not at all scared or worried. A couple of the older ladies at church had bought her a gift to open afterwards so she was excited to have her surgery so she could see what it was! They gave her some medicine before the surgery that made her act drunk, which was a bit entertaining. Then, of course, she was groggy afterwards. She perked up when the nurse offered her a pink popsicle, though! By lunchtime she was ready to eat and acting like her normal self. We praise God that all went well!

The Car

I know you all have been anxiously checking my blog to see the promised picture of Todd's new car. So.....here it is!

Don't forget to set your clocks ahead one hour tonight. This year the time changes earlier in the year which means big issues for computers. So, Todd will be heading into work tonight around 1 AM to be there when the time changes. Hopefully, they have already fixed all the problems that might happen and they will just test everything and then go home. But, if not, he'll be up for a long night at work (which will mean that he won't be at church tomorrow morning). I'm just hoping that my kids start sleeping later in the mornings since it will be daylight later! We'll see....

Surgery

I just wanted everyone to know that Bekah will be having surgery next Monday morning, the 12th. She has had tubes in her ears for almost 3 years. One of them has come out, but the other one doesn't seem to be budging. So, it is time to have it removed. This is minor surgery and should not be any big deal. However, there are always risked involved when being "put to sleep" and of course, the risks to her hearing when cutting on her eardrum. We would covet your prayers that all would go smoothly on Monday. I'll be sure and post afterwards to let you know how it goes.

Lessons Learned From a Gameshow

Have you seen the new gameshow, "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" I've seen it a couple of times in the last couple of weeks. While I don't think the show is all that great, I have learned a lesson from it. In case you don't know, here is how it works. The contestant comes on the show and is asked questions that most kids learn in 1st through 5th grade. There are some 5th graders on the show who can help out the contestant if they don't know the answer to the questions. The questions are like, "How many sides are there on a trapezoid?" or "Who was the only President to be impeached?" or "What color do you get when you mix equal amounts of red and yellow paint?" Well, of course the part that makes the show appealing to watch is the fact that the grown adults have no idea while the students almost always know the correct answers. Thus the adults feel stupid and have to admit "I am not smarter than a fifth grader!"
Okay, so here is what I've learned. Most adults will not remember most of the "facts" they learn in school. Unless it directly pertains to their life or their job or their hobby, the information will likely not be retained. So, (here's the point) as I am homeschooling Brandon (and eventually Bekah) I need to remember that I should not focus my efforts on them retaining the facts that I teach them. Yes, I'll teach them the names of all the Presidents, but I should not concentrate on them memorizing every one. I need to focus my efforts on training them to love God and love others. I need to work on training their character so much more than I need to train them in chemistry. Don't get me wrong, I think it is important to teach them the "facts," but it should not be my primary focus. Thus, these are the benefits of homeschooling. I can teach what I feel is important. In the long run what I teach Brandon about how to treat others, about values, morals, God's word, etc. is what will affect who he is as an adult much more than what color he can make when mixing paint!

New Car

Well, we did it....we traded in Todd's car on a newer one. He chose a 2002 Honda Accord. It is dark green and has about 87,000 miles on it. It's only a 2 door car, but we rarely use his car for all 4 of us to go anywhere. Usually he drives it to work and home and then it just sits there until he goes to work again. So, hopefully this car will be adequate for those needs. The kids can definitely fit in the back seat if we need to use it, it's just a bit more of a hassle to get them back there. The car is an automatic instead of a manual, which Todd would have preferred, but he liked the car enough to sacrifice that. We actually got $600 trade-in for his car, so that was better than we were expecting! Hopefully we can take a picture and post in on here soon. We are very thankful that we didn't have to spend any more money on repairs for his old car before we got rid of it. We found out that we'll get enough money from our tax return to pay off our minivan, and this new car payment will be less per month than what we've been paying for the van. It is so awesome how God just continually provides for all of our needs!