UGGHHH!!!!

I have a great family. I love them all very much and am very thankful for them all. There is my disclaimer.

Now for the topic at hand. Every now and then I just want to throw my hands up and say Enough, I give up, I quit, I can't do it anymore, it isn't working anyway! Well, today is one of those days.

I have been saying things all day that I know I must have said a thousand times before. Will they ever listen? Will everything always go in one ear and out the other?

~Clean your messes.

~Pick up after yourself as you go.

~Don't start the next thing until you've cleaned up the last.

~Did you finish your chores? Then why did you quit and go upstairs and play?

~Are you finished with your schoolwork? You can't find your book. That's not an excuse to call it quits and go play. Find your book!

~Don't step on that, pick it up and put it away.

~Don't ask me ten questions while I'm reading something or helping someone else. Go on to the next thing that you can do without me and I will help you when I'm finished with this.

~Don't tell me you don't know unless you've actually thought about it first!

And the list goes on and on and on.......(Picture me pulling my hair out and running around the house screaming at the top of my lungs, not physically mind you, but definitely mentally.) (Okay, truthfully I did just yell "STOP IT" to the kid who was singing Amazing Grace at the top of his lungs into the fan!)

So, I guess it's time for a family overhaul. The plan at the moment is to redo our schedule and make it a rigid one until everyone is making a consistent effort and assigning punishment chores. I'll let you know how it works. Guess there will be a family pow-pow in the Wetzel household this evening.

I do feel better now that I have vented, though.

Catching Up

Well, things have been a little crazy around here lately. It seems that the more I want to slow down and live a more simple peace filled life, the more chaos and conflict find there way into disrupting our peace. It's hard sometimes to remember that I need to trust the Lord to handle the craziness and learn whatever I can from each situation. Worrying about things sure doesn't help.

Anyway, we have been schooling pretty heavily lately. For various reasons we have gotten behind and now that the girls are about to start 5th grade, it is panicking me a little. So we've schooled through most of the summer. Doing several lessons in Phonics, Math, Handwriting, Spelling, Grammar and Writing each day. The girls are moving at a pretty fast pace. So, I anticipate catching up pretty quickly.

In the meantime we are gearing up for lots of fun stuff. The kids and I will be at church camp for 5 days this week and shortly after we return home our church will be having a night of worship at an outdoor amphitheatre in the area. We would love prayers for the following things:
1. That the children from our church would really bond as a group while they are at camp.
2. That they children at camp would experience the Lord in a whole new way.
3. For safety while at camp.
4. That the many from our city would show up for our worship event and be radically changed.
5. For our worship team, several of which have been under attack as this event has drawn nearer.
6. That anyone who visits our church as a result of this event will feel the love of the Savior through our church body.

Thanks for the prayers. I'll try to do better about posting.
Be Blessed!

(Oh, and as a side note my SIL had another Dr.'s appt. this week and got to hear their babies heartbeat very well. Yea! She's almost 14 weeks. I'm so excited!!!)

July

Apparently, since I homeschool and July is the month before we begin a new school year, July has become my end of the year. It seems that every year in July I rehash with myself everything I think I should have done differently with our schooling. Then I panic trying to figure out how I can fix all of my mistakes in the month before school starts. I also seem to examine everything I dislike about myself and become frustrated that I didn't change more throughout the year.

It's nuts. I have got to figure out a way to let these things go. To just do the best that I can throughout the year and trust that everything is going to be ok.

If there weren't kids in the house who's lives I could be messing up with all of my shortcomings, maybe it wouldn't stress me out so.

Anyway, I know it sounds dumb, but that's just where I am and hopefully very soon I'll be out of this slump. Prayers would help!

Be Blessed!

2008-2009 School Year

Just thought I would share what we are planning on doing this year in school.
The girls will be in 5th grade and my son will be in 1st.

Math - Modern Curriculum Press Workbooks supplemented with Math-U-See
Computer Supplement for Drillwork - Math Compass (Free Download)
The kids all enjoy MCP's workbooks. The Math-U-See I bought used and really like, but it's a little to much daily prep for me, so we will use it when we are struggling with a concept and need more hands on.

Phonics - Modern Curriculum Press Plaid Phonics and Word Study

Spelling - Modern Curriculum Press Spelling Workout

Writing and Grammar - First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind
Possibly - Simply Grammar
Scott Foresman's Grammar and Writing Handbook (This is a free online PDF workbook. We have been using it this summer and have had very good results so far and you sure can't beat free!)

History - Mystery of History Vol. I

Science - Exploring Creation with Botany or Great Science Adventures : The World of Space
(I already have both of these. I just have to decide which one will work best for our multiple grade levels.)

For History and Science we will be using curriculum that is easy to adapt to multiple grade levels, so we can all do these subjects together.

At one point I tried to get away from using so many workbooks, but have found that my children missed doing them and they fit our lifestyle much better.

Over the years I have bought a lot of our curriculum for Rainbow Resource. I highly recommend that you order one of their catalogs. They review most of the things that they sell and I have found the reviews very helpful in choosing what to use. This is a very extensive catalog.

Lately I have been getting most of my materials from a nearby store (Wisescrappers) that a couple of my friends own together. If they do not have something in the store they will order it for me, usually with free shipping.

Be sure to click on the Blue names for more info.