I love New Hampshire!

OK, so we have moved, been here a week and a half.  It is so awesome!  People have been great, church has been great, the schools have not been so good, but there will be other opportunities here.  I am especially glad my kids will finally have a decent church experience.  There is a lot to get used to, I'm not used to being included at church, I'm not used to people acting normal and not purposely ignoring me or trying to avoid me.  I've forgotten how it feels to enjoy going to church too.  I feel vindicated in a lot of ways too, the contrast is stark in some respects.  It will take me some time to mull it over, and be ready to process it all.  I have decided to not talk about my past experience with people here, it doesn't do anyone any good and it just reminds me of the pain.  It's just time to look forward.  In time I will be able to compare and contrast and really learn from the whole experience.  But for now I'm just going to enjoy being left alone, being allowed to live my life the way I see fit and not having to expend so much emotional energy just to stay afloat.  Go New Hampshire, I love the "live free or die" state!  I'm sure I'll write more about it some day, but I am looking forward to some good times and meeting and getting to know some nice people and spending some good time with my family.  Life is good!

Learning from Living

We have enjoyed our time off school work, Christmas get togethers, parties and lots of saying good bye.  We spent more time with family and got to see most of our extended family.  My dad's side didn't get together this year, so we missed them, but we saw everybody else.  Everybody was great, there was no drama for us this year.  It was awesome to leave and feel a positive connection with everybody.  It was my favorite Christmas.  It didn't leave us much time for our usual family traditions and that was fine because we know we won't be here next Christmas.  We did have a nice small Christmas with the kids getting most family gifts for the trip,  tablets to be exact to make the 45 hrs. In the car go a little more smoothly.  Anyway, it was all good but very busy with us getting our van fixed up for the trip and packing in all the spare minutes.

The kids were doing well helping and things were running pretty smoothly except our sweet little dog got sick, she was shaking and trembling a lot, so we finally took her to the vet.  He told us it was a neck injury, gave us some medicine for the inflammation and pain and said she'd be fine in 2-3 weeks. She took her medicine that first day and was doing much better, but the following day we couldn't get her to eat or take her medicine, same the next day, she seemed to need to rest a lot and I thought it was just part of her recovery.  But the reality was that she would not eat and then she stopped drinking too.  The kids also found her outside fallen in the snow being looked at by a big black dog.  They carried her in, but she was super scared.  She never complained once or made a sound.  So we don't know exactly what happened, but by the time we realized she wasn't getting better on New Year's Day when we were busy loading all the heavy stuff and our vet clinic was closed, it was too late.  We ran her over to our neighbor who is our vet, but she was already 10% dehydrated.  He also said for her to go downhill so quickly there must have been something else going on or her neck was hurt much worse than we realized.

We were getting ready to take her to the emergency animal hospital, I ran in for my coat, #1 waited with her in the car, and when I came back, she told me the little dog was gone.  She had taken one last breath, stretched out and made a sound, probably her spirit leaving her body.  We drove a little ways because her heart was still beating, but I had to accept she was gone and we returned home, wrapped her in a blanket and our friend, the vet, came and got her.  Everyone was super distraught and very very sad.  It is terrible without her.  We also gave away our cat that day so it was a very emotional sad time.  It is super weird to not have a single animal to care for.  At one point we had goats, chickens, a cat and a dog.  I thought they were kind of a pain even though the kids do most of the taking care, now I realize all that care and work is so worth it.  Those animals are our friends and they are my kids' friends. 

Some of the kids are still having a hard time with her death, so it has given us the opportunity to talk about death and the grieving process.  Life is rough, and animals just don't live as long as people.  So we just have to remember the good parts and we have to think that it was her time to go,  we needed that dog, she was there for us when my husband started his job where he had to commute a lot, she was there for my daughter when all her friends moved away and our ward was crazy and she was so vulnerable.  The dog was there for me when I sent my babies off to public school for the first time and for when I became isolated this year.  In some ways, I think the dog or The Lord knows that happier times are ahead for our whole family and that it was time for us to face the future alone without our beloved dog, especially #1 who was the main caretaker of the dog and had the closest relationship with her and will be starting full time high school in a brand new place.  So for us the New Year is a fresh start in more ways than one.  

For me, Maple was my first dog, I did not understand dogs at all, I had no idea what we were getting into, this dog was sweet and kind and gentle and good with the kids, otherwise, she wouldn't have lasted.  Now that she is gone we all realize how much she meant to us, sometimes you just don't realize it til they're gone.  It is so much of what education is, learning about life and people and how we interact and now how important animals are to us.  I think even in her death, Maple has taught us a lot and we will all be better and stronger.

Will we get more animals when we move?   I would like to, but I also plan on visiting and seeing places and doing things, so it just may have to wait.  But someday, we will get another dog, not to replace our Maple, but because we understand the value of animals and how they show us what unconditional love really is.

In the midst of all this, we are still trying to move.  I took a day to mourn and rest, and I let the kids be distracted with media, so we are behind.  It looks like that may be OK with these crazy cold temperatures.  We are going through Memphis and up the Atlantic coast so we'll miss the worst of the temperatures, but it is still abnormally cold, there isn't a lot going on on I-40 so it's probably good we're not on the road right now.  We might be able to get out today, but we'll have to see on the weather, we don't want to get stranded somewhere or have it be so cold our van won't start in the morning.  So we'll see.

Lots of changes, learning from life!

End of the semester and getting ready to move

This semester overall has been pretty good. It is such a relief when your teenagers turn out to be nice people, and they start to really develop their talents and interests. We had he final performances for the Middle school girls. #1 accompanied the women's chorus and was then asked last minute 1 week before the performance if she could also accompany a couple of the other songs for some of the other groups. She did great. I am really appreciative of her choir teacher who took the time to work with her and help her get the songs the way needed to be for the performance. I was very impressed with the choir teacher overall, the kids looked like they were having a good time, they sang very well, the music they sang was really nice and the whole performance was just great to watch. I was a very proud parent, and very relieved since I have been #1's sole piano teacher all this time, the past 3 yrs. though I have just been more of a coach, making sure she practices, she is very talented and has done well, and I am glad I didn't ruin her! She is doing great and has definitely surpassed me on the piano. She also played the piano for jazz band. They did great too, and she had some snazzy, jazzy solos. Very fun, I'm glad she made some good friends there too. For math, I think she is finally getting it. She's much better at focusing and figuring things out, that is a relief too! So far teen years are pretty good! #2 started playing the trumpet this year. She loved her band teachers, they had really funny jokes we would hear about everyday. Her teacher also recommended that she be moved up to the next band class because she really did well on the trumpet, well actually a cornet. Anyway, it was a great experience. She also took art at the school and did well in that class because she loves to draw, a couple of her drawings even got selected to be put on display in the lunch room. She has done well with her at home school work too, academics is definitely a strong point for her. She is definitely growing up too, which is of course as always, good and bad. #3 did so much better with his school work without his little brother around. I taught Greek to the girls together and I was doing my boys together too, but it looks like for them the time I spend with them is more effective with one on one instruction for math and Greek. Having his little brother at school gave him some time to get ahead and gave me some good one on one time with him. It was great! #4 enjoyed school a lot. He made a lot of friends and his teacher really liked him. He really got tired of getting up everyday though. I think that was enough school for him to satisfy his curiosity and know that he could do it. I will be glad to have him home again, we missed him. #5 has been my easiest student so far. Reading has come the easiest to him, I'm sure a lot of it is because I'm more experienced, but this little guy is a quiet smart. He's not loud nor is he a show off, but he just does things and asks questions and reads. It's a little hard being the 3rd boy and always trying to keep up with older brothers, but he does alright. I tell him he's lucky to be in the middle cause he can choose to go with the bigger boys or the little boys, he liked that. For the 4 little boys, I have held singing time and story time so I can make sure to read to them. It is pretty fun. The toddler really likes books. I love having time with them. Not that it's not hard or demanding but it is very fulfilling, and they are sooooo cute! We are packing this week and hoping to get out of here as early as Thursday for New Hampshire. There will be all sorts of new adventures waiting there for us. I am really excited to explore and learn about a new place. I am excited to see what sorts of homeschool groups there are out there. It's looking like #1 will do full time school, the high school has 4 yrs. of Latin and about 15-20 AP classes. Those were 2 big reasons for us to homeschool high school, so we'll see how it goes. I hope she will also be able to participate in sports at least cross country and track. I am so looking forward to this! Oh and the trip out will be awesome too, everybody got a scratch magic book in their stocking and a travel journal. We are going to be on the road for 10 days because we're taking a detour through Memphis and Virginia to visit family. So much to observe along the way, I am just so excited!

Singing Time

I hold singing time for my littles about 3 times a week. What I found with my twins which was not the case with any of the other kids is that whenever we have singing time or recite a scripture or poem, they don't even try to participate. All the other kids would try to sing or say the verse and would demand a turn, not these guys. So I started singing time just for them. One of the twins would sing along, but the other would have nothing to do with it. So then I bought some new stickers, wrote out which songs we would sing and told them they'd get a sticker for every song they sang. It has worked like a champ and they both look forward to singing time. The one twin sings all the songs and he will sing with me and the older brother, but the other twin, the more stubborn and somewhat shy one will only sing by himself or repeating the song after me. This makes singing time take a very LNG time and it ceases to be much fun, but he is singing! Although yesterday he refused, one other time he just cried and ruined it for the other 2 who were really excited so, I learned to just go ahead without him when he doesn't want to, but I told him he couldn't cry and he fell asleep instead. So I think it is working, I think he will eventually join us in singing together instead of a solo all the time. Some of these kids come very very stubborn!

Greek Myths CD

I was so lucky this week to receive a new CD that tells the stories of some of the Greek myths through story and song. It happened to be a bit of a harder day for me, and I was the only one in the kitchen making dinner which actually doesn't happen that often, when the cd came so I went ahead and put it in the CD player. I LOVED it! It made me so happy. I really like Helen Slater's approach to the myths, in the beginning she talks about why the Greeks had these myths and how the myths helped them to understand the world around them and explain so many things. Her explanation is set to happy, uplifting music, and then after each story or part of a story she sings a song to go along with it and it was just so refreshing and fun. My spirits were instantly lifted, and it makes me happy just thinking about the songs now. My husband and kids all wanted to know what it was and we all enjoyed it and have listened to it a few times. I have a greater appreciation for the Greek myths now and I feel like I understand them a little better because of the CD. One of the songs is called "It's Never Nice to be Mean", and it goes along with the story of Echo and Narcissus when Narcissus was so mean to Echo and then Nemesis sings this song to Narcissus. One of the most valuable things I think I can teach my children is to always be kind, and apparently the Greeks also thought that was a good lesson to learn, but I didn't really realize that lesson was there in the myths until this CD. So I even incorporated this particular story and song into our family home evening lesson this week which was on kindness. It's nice to have different ways to share the stories, I am going to have to buy another D'Laires Greek myths book for the kids and brush up on it ( our first book was very loved and pretty much in pieces now). Very fun and very fun to be learning Greek along with it, really a fresh approach to the old myths. A big thumbs up from me! Here is the website if you'd like more info!: http://helenslater.com/moag/

Events Website -- happen.io

So this post is just to let you know that there is a great brand new website out there where you can post your own events to the public or make them private, you can even make your own group for whoever you want to join, it's easy to communicate through the comments and it's easy to use and search. It is brand new, been out about a week, so most of the public events so far are in Utah, so definitely if you are in Utah, go check it out! Http://happen.io

Happenings-- #4 goes to school and other stuff

#4 was disappointed when his older siblings went to public school last year, at the girls' concerts as we were walking out of the building he said how he wanted to go to school. We told him he would get a chance. Then the following Friday he ran over to the park near our house because he saw some friends there, but they all left when he got there and never said hi. He told me he thought it was because he wears glasses. I assured him it wasn't. But he told me how much he wishes he had friends. Later when I talked to my husband about it, he said, well, let's send him to school. I of course don't like sending my babies off not to mention getting up super early every day, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it probably is the best thing for him. He is super smart although short for his age. His eyes are working pretty much normally now and his reading is consequentially better because of it too. He is ahead in all his school work and very conscientious about everything, so it did seem that it is time to let him grow socially and have fun at school. Our school and the teachers have been outstanding, so on Monday I got all the paperwork ready, and on Tuesday, he went to school for the first time. So far he is loving it. There were four boys in his class that he already knew and his teacher seems really nice. The only problem he had is that he was supposed to ride home on the train bus, but he forgot his lunch bag and thus got separated from his classmates after school and could not find a bus that looked anything like a train. Fortunately he had his cell phone and called home, but his sister answered and by the time I got there he had started walking home. But all's well that ends well. I do miss him, but he doesn't miss me and I am proud of him. It is also giving me some extra time with his older brother who got a little behind academically when he went to school last year and was getting frustrated that his younger brother could memorize faster and easier and may soon overtake him in Greek. So that has been nice. He doesn't have anyone to compare himself to anymore and he can feel good about learning and persevering which is what I try to emphasize. That boy is incredibly stubborn, but he will do just about anything to play screens, so it ends up working out fine. I also set the timer for him and tell him I need his undivided focused attention for the set number of minutes and he actually gets through his work pretty well that way with the promise of it only lasting a set time with an instant reward when he's done. It's also nice to have one less student to worry about, although #4 was pretty self motivated and easy, every little break helps. I bought the whole collection of Roald Dahl books at Costco the other day. All my readers love them and my new reader even read his first chapter book by himself that way! He is reading everything now it's great. My girls are enjoying part time school, but have expressed the desire to take more classes. I looked at the classes to see if it would be worthwhile for them to at least stay one whole day instead of one half day, but they just didn't appeal to me. Finally yesterday for the first time this year, they both got their school work done early and spent some time working on other projects. This whole year, they have just kind of lazed around and barely get their stuff done. The oldest spent a bunch of time adding music and special effects I to a movie the kids made last year. That's what I hoped my homeschooled kids would do eventually, I swear they don't appreciate the freedom they have, but maybe just maybe they are finally going to take advantage of it. It does help that we are more settled with the baby turning into a boy-- sad, but good. The twins are really into coloring. I bought a subscription to www.education.com, they sent me a discount email and I signed up. I'm so glad I did. I love their coloring pages and their online workbooks. I am also using their state maps for geography. It helps that I am feeling better, I was sick last week and we didn't do hardly anything beyond the basics. I really love homeschooling even though it is dang hard sometimes, days and weeks like we've had this week make it all worth it. I hope it continues this week!