Giggly Bangs

The girls had been in the shower for about 10 minutes last night when Jeremy and I heard hysterical shrieks and giggles coming from the bathroom. We found them laughing at themselves, sticking their wet bangs up in the air. They just thought they were so funny!

I am The Great Cornholio!

Okay, this is just wrong, I know. But, I am incredibly thankful for laughter and silliness in my home, so I have to include it here!

My dear, hilarious, intelligent husband has some taste in comedy that I myself do not prefer. One being the old show he would consider a "classic"--Beevis & Butthead. He has been known to quote "The Great Cornholio" on many occasions, sometimes including pulling his shirt up over his head like Beevis in the photo at left. I have to admit, it always makes people laugh!

I don't think Jeremy has taught this to the kids or even demonstrated it in front of them before. So, tonight when I told Caeden to go put his clothes in the bathroom hamper and he came into the room a minute later with his shirt stuck over his head like Cornholio, we instantly cracked up! The kid just naturally has his dad's sense of humor, so of course he was dancing around thinking he was hilarious in his underwear with his shirt on his head!

And, of course...Dad had to join in the fun!

"Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them." - Psalm 126:2

Caeden is liking homeschool pretty well. He tells everyone he sees that he is homeschooled. While I get tired of explaining why we are homeschooling, I am very glad he is enjoying it.
He is definitely learning!

Caeden is already getting better at holding a writing utensil and cutting with scissors, which is major for him. I am trying to find as many ways as possible to help him form his letters, number, and shapes. Today, he made them in shaving cream on a cookie sheet. He definitely loved this!!!


I had waaaaaay too much shaving cream on the sheet and had to keep taking huge handfuls off so he could actually write in it. But, the mess was fun to play in too!





I'm really thankful for the structured one-on-one time homeschooing is giving me with Caeden. I love my sweet little guy!!!

Bouncy Castle

Daddy inflated the bouncy castle in the front yard for the kids this afternoon!

Whooooooohooooooooo!!!!


Our friend Addie got to play for a little bit after her piano lesson!




After they got a little irritated with their game of, "Okay, you guys throw the balls out, and we'll throw them back in!" Annah and Addie decided to collect balls in the box and then "shower" Sylvia and Caeden with them all at once!


Just after Jeremy got the castle inlated, he picked it up on his back, pretending it was heavy. Caeden ran inside to me (in the middle of Addie's piano lesson!) and said, "Mommy, I have to tell you something about Daddy! He lifted the bouncy castle up all by himself like Mr. Incredible lifted the robot!" (We borrowed The Incredibles movie from Addie's family this weekend, and the kids watched it 3 or 4 times.) So, in short, Caeden thought his daddy was as strong as Mr. Incredible the SuperHero!

It's been a busy week for us, I guess. Maybe I should go bullet-point-style...

• Top of our hearts this week has been Jeremy's Uncle Lee. He had a stroke, and upon having an MRI afterwards, a softball-size tumor was found in his brain. He had surgery Thursday, but the tumor has "fingers" into his brain, and not all of it could be removed. We've not received a lot more information, but know that the surgeon apologized to the family present that he wasn't able to do more. They are expecting more paralysis (besides what he has from the stroke) from the surgery, and will be discussing radiation and chemotherapy treatment. Family is visiting him from all over the country and world, and we are hoping to go soon as well. And we pray for his comfort and healing.
  
  
• Sylvia and Caeden have taken turns being sick this week. Sylvia missed 1 1/2 days of school with fever and yucky spots on her throat. We thought it was strep, but it's not. It may be Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease. Caeden came down with it yesterday, but Sylvie is doing much better.
  
  
• My Swimmer's Ear is nearly gone now, thank the Lord! How painful. I still can't hear well though, and am really hoping that will come back soon!
  
  
• Yesterday I spent the morning with a friend who has lived in this area for a much shorter time than we have. I was asking her about places in the area I've never been to, and she had been to all of them. It made me think about how I need to take advantage of all the great places and opportunities near us, and especially expose the kids to them. Our governor is trying to shut down many of the state parks and historical sites in Illinois, and I need to support them and help that not to happen. So, I am beginning a list of places I want to go. Here's the start:

• Genevieve Green Gardens - I would love to take birthday portraits of the kids here soon!
  
• Funks Grove- actually hoping to plan a little field trip here next week with Caeden.
  
• Miller Park Zoo - (Can you believe we've lived here 7 years and never been to the zoo here?!)
• Prairie Aviation Museum - We only drive past the airport almost every time we go to town!
  
• Normal Theater
  
• David Davis Mansion
• Vrooman Mansion

• Homeschooling with Caeden is going well. He loves it, and is already learning a lot. The first 2 weeks we learned about the fact that God created the heavens and the earth, and talked a lot about the Trinity. This week we are learning about how God created light.
  

Rainy Day Fun

On this gray, rainy weekend, the kids are a bit restless staying inside. While talking with Gram on the phone, she suggested they make a "tent." So, Annah did! Such fun!



The dolls the girls have here were given to them this morning by their "Grandma" Sandi, who watches them all every Sunday morning at church while Jeremy and I are in meetings or rehearsals before the service begins. She brings donuts and popcorn every week, and just generally spoils the kids. But, last week a little girl was not sharing her dollies with the girls, and Sandi felt bad for them. So, she bought them these Ty Girlz dolls. They haven't let them out of their sight for a second all day long. Thank you Sandi!

And, thank you Gram, for the fun idea on this rainy day!

a little more drama and a little more thankfulness

As we watch all the hurricanes hit the coastal areas of our country, we can't help feel a bit touched by them today. Jeremy has been pumping water out of our basement with 4 pumps since 7AM, and the basement is still sitting under several inches of water even after 10 hours. It is a pain, and we worry that our furnace, water heater, and washer and dryer will work after it's all dried out. But, I am trying to keep it in perspective, and be thankful that we are not evacuating from out home and losing all our belongings.

I'm also dealing with the "fun" of Swimmer's Ear. I've had ear pain all week, but just thought it was and inner ear infection and that I'd try to wait it out without antibiotics since I'm allergic to all of them and didn't want hives. But the pain kept getting worse and I didn't want to risk my eardrum rupturing, so yesterday I went to the doctor. Apparently, even though I haven't been swimming, I have a mighty bad case of swimmer's ear. It is super painful! I got some antibiotic drops, and I'm hoping it will clear it up quickly!

So, what's going on in your neck of the woods? How is your family? Your home? Your health? I would love to hear from you!! Please leave a comment, or drop me an e-mail or phone call this week!

Grocery Shopping and Tooth Drama

The days of our lives in the Lopshire house are not full of the kind of drama you'd see on a soap opera, but we have our own little kinds of drama...thankfully, so minor in comparison to much of the rest of the world.

Since we live 20+ miles from the nearest city, we limit our trips as much as possible. It's usually 2 weeks or more between my grocery shopping trips. This week, our 'fridge was pret-ty bare...as in we were down to pretty much just condiments. And, our cupboards were lookin' pretty sparse. And not much was left in our freezer either. Not saying that to say we are needy...just that a trip to the store could not be put off any longer! So, today was payday, and Caeden and I were off to the store...

I always pack my cart very strategically as I shop...canned goods on the bottom of the cart, boxes at the end, packed on top of one another, paper products underneath...etc. Today, my cart was packed so full, I couldn't have fit one more thing in. We had to buy laundry and dish detergents, hair products, paper towels, TP, napkins and Pull-Ups...plus a LOT of food, AND a new set of sheets for Jeremy's and my bed because ours got a huge rip in it this week. I was afraid to see the total show up as I re-packed the cart in check-out. It came to $363.61, whew!

No, I don't spend that much every 2 weeks. And, I also didn't buy a single thing that I just "wanted." That should last us longer than 2 weeks. But, I had to commemorate the way that I have to shop these days, and took a couple photos when I got home...
Caeden wanted to be in there with all those groceries... He's my little shopping buddy. (He usually really hates going to the store, but today he was so good he got to pick out a Hot Wheels care in the check-out lane.)


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Tonight we had about an hour of constant drama with Annah and her latest loose tooth. When she first started to pull loose teeth it was fun and exciting. Now, it is loud, screaming, scary, insanity. Seriously. And, I remember being exactly this same way when I was a kid. I know my mom has a photo like the first one below of me...almost identical.

I'd been trying to get her to pull this tooth for at least 3 weeks. Tonight, Jeremy discovered that the adult tooth was already partially in behind the baby tooth, and he decided the baby tooth was coming out NOW! Annah tried pulling....I tried pulling...she screamed and wailed and cried...And, after an hour of intense drama she finally let Daddy try pulling--and it came out! Whew! Thank the Lord!


She was so relieved! The Tooth Fairy brought her $2 in quarters! She decided to put $1 in her Alabaster box. Now, she is happy she can chew with her front teeth! Who knew pulling teeth could be such a huge deal? (Okay, I did!)

School Open House Night

Annah and Sylvia were very excited to have us all attend their school's Open House this evening, and we all enjoyed the experience.

First we visited Annah's class. She told us she wasn't going to show us her desk; we'd have to find it, and there were several clues for us. The kids had drawn pictuers of themselves with clues about them written on their picture. Jeremy found Annah's right away. Some of her clues were:
-I have one sister and one brother.
-I have golden hair. (That one confused me, but I guess she thinks she has golden hair.)
-I love school.
-I live in Arrowsmith.

Here, Annah is by her desk, showing us her Reading book, and the fact that there are lots more on top of a cabinet in the corner...hence the pointing.


This is Annah and her 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Birt. It was Jeremy's and my first time meeting her. She is very pleasant, and Annah likes her very much.


Mrs. Birt encouraged Annah to demonstrate the ActivBoard in the classroom. Annah's class is one of 3 in the entire K-12 school to have this amazing tool. I asked Mrs. Birt how she was so blessed to get one, and she said she did a lot of work to write up a proposal and apply for it. She uses it a lot, especially for Math. Here, Annah is showing us how she and her classmates select whether they are having hot or cold lunch each morning.


Caeden boldly asked Mrs. Birt if he could try the ActivBoard. She helped him do a few dot-to-dots, and he was highly satisfied!



Next, we visited Sylvia's classroom and her teacher, Mrs. Beard.


Mrs. Beard had a list of things for Sylvia to show us. First, she was to read 2 books for us that she'd made in class.


Mrs. Beard shared with us that Sylvia is making friends very easily, and her two buddies in class are Isabella and Ashley--names which we have heard at home as well.
She also told us that Sylvia hates to draw, which didn't seem quite right to me, as she draws constantly at home. She told us about a meltdown Sylvia had yesterday when she was asked to draw a dog. Sylvia refused, and when Mrs. Beard showed her a simple way to draw a dog with an oval and a circle, she erased it after she drew it and didn't think it was good enough.
We also knew she had been struggling with something about Computer Lab, but hadn't been able to tell exactly what it is. She mentioned being shy of the teacher, and not wanting to wear the headphones because a classmate (who is also in her class this year) had made fun of her in preschool. She told me she always cries for me in Computer Lab. But, Mrs. Beard told us she refused to participate yesterday in Computer Lab and spent the whole time sitting on the floor by herself.
We discussed all this some more, and the fact that Sylvia is obviously having trouble with trying new things. Obviously, some discussions and encouraging talks are needed, and have already begun.
Despite those instances, Sylvia is doing great with school.

Sylvia showed us around her classroom. This is the calendar area.


After the Open House, we all attended the high school football game! It was a perfectly beautiful night, and the kids had their friends sit with us. Daddy bought them all hot chocolate and Laffy Taffy from the concession stand, and they were in heaven. They cheered and clapped and stomped for the Mustangs, but they were beaten 49-8. It was unfortunate, but we did enjoy the evening together as a family. Caeden even entertained those around us by jumping up and shouting, "GO Mustangs! Go Mustangs! Go Mustangs!" over and over. He was serious too.

Caeden's 1st Day of Preschool (& Mommy's 1st Day of Homeschooling)

Today was Caeden's first day of preschool! It seems so different than the girls' first days of preschool, since we are doing homeschool. But, it was definitely just as exciting!

I'm not sure Caeden really knew what to expect. He definitely expected more play time! But, I think school ended up being shorter than he expected too. (It took us about 2 hours today.)


I spent much of the weekend getting Caeden's room cleaned, rearranged, and organized for school, as well as shopping for supplies. We still have a few important things to get (like a perpetual calendar...going hunting for that tonight at the local teacher store), but he has quite enough space for our little classroom area. The kids all think his room is super-cool now!


There was one short little time-out today. Caeden is a talker like his parents, and needs to work on his listening skills. He was so excited today though, I thought he did very well.


So many have asked how we arrived at the decision to homeschool Caeden, so I thought I would try to explain a bit. It was definitely not our first choice, or even a consideration! In fact, it might even be safe to say that we have really not liked the idea until we were forced to consider it.

We strongly believe in the benefits of preschool for our children. Annah and Sylvia both went to preschool for 2 years before starting kindergarten at our local public school. It was a small, private preschool, in a neighboring village about 8 miles from our house. I was on the Board of Directors there for 4 years, and Jeremy the past school year. We did our best to help run and support the school, greatly appreciated the great start it gave our girls, and felt it was a great benefit them socially, academically, and a benefit to our community in general.

Over the past several years that preschool struggled to maintain enrollment enough to cover costs of operating the school. Then the local public school received a grant and increased the size their program, and many local families began sending their children there because it was free and included busing. We live in a small rural area, and not many families feel "able" to send their kids to a private preschool with even a minimal tuition. So, as a board, we began to brainstorm ideas and options for the preschool and how to maintain it with such low enrollment.

To make a long story shorter, as we began to see that there really was no way to keep our preschool's doors open, the teacher and her aide devised a plan move the preschool to a different neighboring community. The board knew that community also needed more preschool options and encouraged the teachers to pursue this route. However, the teacher and aide went about it in a very underhanded way, including doing some things that were actually illegal. They ended up deciding to just start a new school in that other community, but not tell the board of their intent not to come back (to our school) for this next school year. There were many nasty rumors flying around the various communities, feelings hurt, untruths spread, verbal fights, children neglected, and other such ugliness. It was a terrible mess. The board would have completely supported the teachers, but at some point they decided they didn't want our support. And in the end, we had to close down the preschool (after 25+ years in the community), and tried to do so with as much dignity as possible. It was a really rough end to the school year, and even with apologies offered and accepted, it still left a painful spot in our hearts. (In fact, Jeremy is still dealing with the financial issues of it all!)

So! Back to how we ended up homeschooling... Obviously, the closing of the preschool we'd been sending our kids to for 4 years left us without that option for Caeden. There aren't a lot of other preschools to choose from in our area, so we looked into church-run preschools in Bloomington-Normal, which is about 25 miles from our house. We enrolled Caeden in one that we were very excited about, but as gas prices rose continuously, we realized we could not afford that much higher tuition plus three more trips to town each week. So that was no longer an option for us.

We took Caeden to the screening at the local public school's preschool last spring, and were told that he was put on the waiting list. It is a partly special-needs program and partly need-based, as well as many other considerations. So, we weren't really sure what being on the waiting list meant, except that it would be last-minute when we found out if he was accepted into the program or not.

That was when Jeremy asked me out of the blue one day if I would consider homeschooling Caeden if he didn't get a spot in the public school program. My immediate reaction was yuck, no. We really feel it is important for our kids to be in a classroom setting, especially for the social aspect! And, I'm no teacher! But, I began praying about it, and decided that if Caeden didn't get in to the public school program, we would forfeit his spot in the church-run preschool and I would homeschool him.

We have friends in our Life Group who recently started homeschooling, and have been doing well with it. She showed me the curriculum she uses with her son who is Caeden's age, and that is what we're using. The lesson plan is there for me almost word-for-word, and the resources are great. I love that it's Biblical too. I am still hoping Caeden will be able to be in a classroom setting for his second year of preschool. Also, he is in a classroom situation at church twice a week, plus there are 20 kids in our Life Group that meets each week--so that's almost a 3rd "classtime" for him.

That was a big explanation there! I do feel like we made the decision God put before us, and I know it will be great. I'm thankful to have this one-on-one time with Caeden too!