My oldest is 9!  NINE!  When did 9 years of his life fly by?  He was just a baby yesterday dumping baby powder all over his room and looking like something out of Ghost Busters.

God has had such a spirit of protection over his life.  I sit here and think back to all the ways God has protected him.  At 18 months he decided to take a walk out into traffic and everyone saw him and stopped while I ran to scoop him out of harms way.  He once fell backwards off a ladder onto pavement with hardly a scratch when I was expecting a cracked skull.  He fell out of the bedroom window once and landed in the bushes, about a 10 foot fall. 

Yep, the guy is quite adventurous, huh??!

He’s been our hardest child to raise.  God must have known that because he chose Christmas Day for his birth, telling me in the middle of the night that our son was HIS gift to us.  His Gift.  Do you know how that has gotten me through so many of the struggles we’ve had with him? 

God reminds me that it is my honor and privilege to raise him. 

"He is my gift to you, Julie.  That is why I chose Christmas Day, so you would never forget."

How do you argue with that?
You don’t.  You just humbly bow.

"Thank you God for your everlasting hand of protection over my family.  I ask that your hand of protection be over us today and always.  Keep us from the evil one, Lord.  Turn my children’s hearts towards you.  Woe them.  Call them.  Raise them up to be mighty warriors for your kingdom.  Let them stand for what is good and right and noble in your sight.  And may they love you with all that they are."

She is exhausting.

One thing that has emerged quickly this year is my children’s different learning styles.  Some stay on task quite easily.  Some think quietly, some out loud.  Some get up at the crack of dawn to finish first.  Some take most of the morning.  It’s wonderful to be learning them so well. 

One thing that has emerged with my oldest son is his abilty and inability to learn spelling words.  We began the year with Abeka spelling but after just two weeks that’s been put aside.  We have been using AVKO Sequencial Spelling alongside of Abeka but now it’s our only spelling.  It makes sense to him (and to me) where as just memorizing spelling words doesn’t.  I’d recommend it to anyone!

Another thing I discovered this week is what a wonderful tool the dry erase board is for him.  Math has been a challenge when worked out on paper with a pencil but the dry erase board?  MAGIC!!  There’s something about the size of it that seems to grab and hold his attention so much better than a small piece of paper. 

YIPPEE!!

I’ve tried several things because my oldest is very wiggly.  We tried holding silly putty while working.  That didn’t work and took all his attention away from the task at hand.  We tried sitting on a yoga ball so he could bounce while working.  Might be a good idea for some but he was all over the place. 

I’m learning that he needs something to grab his attention, not necessarily allow movement.  Thus, typing works (we’re using AVKO again for that – it’s called Indivualized Keyboarding), the dry erase board works, and we’re doing our AVKO Sequential Spelling at the dry erase board too!  I like that with this particular curriculum you correct misspellings immediately.  Yesterday we were spelling wood, stood etc and then had could, should etc and he said, "Ha!  You almost got me!  I know how to spell that!" 

What a blessing.

So for all you moms with wiggly boys…there is HOPE!

Now, if I could just figure out what to do with that over talkative 4 year old.

Other noteworthy events include our trip to Hollywild Animal Park today.  It was so much fun.  A perfectly warm SC day and lots of cool interactive feeding, touching, and oogling over all the wildlife there.  Plus, I went with one of my very best homeschooling friends…Lisa.  She rocks!!

Here are some snapshots from today…
We stopped to meet my friend Lisa at this cool little joint

It even had one of these parked off to the side for no apparent reason

Oh well….back on the 1.5 hour trail to find our grand destinition…..

The small petting zoo had the sweetest baby goats

Of course all of my gang wanted to know which ones we could take home
My daughter was hitting my for the dear

Our view as we enter the Safari Ride:

The Gang on the bus

I won’t begin to remember all the names of the animals (Lisa would) but I believe these were in Asian Deer, not native to the US at all.  Aren’t they spectacular?

Here’s one of my favorite gentile guys.  He’d like bread right out of your hand and had this HUGE purple tongue…

This mama and baby were so sweet hanging back a bit from the pack wanting to be fed.

This was one of my daughter’s favorites…
the peacock

This fellow was one of the best.  That purple tongue may have been the largest!

These guys sleep from 18 to 20 hours a day and only wake to feed or hunt.  I’m liking that life.  Can you see them under the shade?

I think the Zebra was one of Emma’s favorite animals
And the deer were my daughter’s favoriteAs much as she liked the deer and called them reindeer which I thought was cute, she hated the big ugly chicken pictured below (emu).  Now that really made me chuckle…..

There were camels

And a 6500 pound rhinosorous named Tank.  He’s the actual rhino used in the Land Rover commercials and there’s another commercial that’s on now he’s on too, under a white sheet.  I think it’s advertising allergy meds or something.  He was really neat!!
See him back there? 

We had a blast!!  And closed the park down.  Today was Homeschool Day at the park!  It wasn’t too crowded.
Oh I did find our something else noteworthy.  Lisa and I have a friend who has been pregnant and just found out today that she delivered in her car and her hubbie delivered her.  I don’t know any more details now but WOW!  She’s my hero.

Okay, so who else?

I try to remind myself I can’t do everything but the sneaky spirit continues to creep in.  I want to enjoy my kids, have a grateful spirit, and find joy in my bone-tired body.

I once heard "You know you are over the target when the enemy is firing without ceasing."

That would be me.

I’m over the target all right. 

The call to homeschool four?  Yep, I was right on there.

Learning balance?  Yep.
Learning to leave the school room whether the lesson plans are done or not?  Yep.
Did I say I hate lesson plans?
Oh, yea, I think I did.

So this coming week Monday is a light day.  Friday is a field trip.
School only three days!  Yippee.
Grace?

Oh yea, grace.
Aren’t we supposed to apply that to our own lives?

You know I thought homeschooling was about the kids.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha……ha, ha, ha. 
Kids?
Yea, right!!!

I think God is a lot more concerning with my character right now than he is my kids. 
Eeeek….what have I gotten myself into??  It’s not supposed to be about me is it?