According to Kensli

It has been awhile since I shared life with my little spicy girl! Trust me when I say it is never boring. My other 3 sweethearts are amazing but there is something about the way spicy girl looks at life that is hilarious!

Here are some of the things I have heard or conversations I have had with her in the last couple of weeks.


We were having one of those crazy busy days where nothing was going right.......

Kensli: "Mom, things are not going good around here today."
Me: "Really?"
Kensli: "Yes, so we really need to execute my plan!"

Never found out her plan because I was laughing to hard. I am sure whatever it was involved straightening out her siblings.


Conversation with Kensli in a gas station bathroom:

Kensli had said something, so I smiled at her.

Kensli: "Mom, you are so pretty when you smile like that!"
Me: "Thank you so much!"
Kensli: "You're welcome, but you would look even better with a loose tooth!"

Loose teeth are very important to her right now. A few of her friends have them and she wants one so bad. She told me this morning, "Mom, I really wish I had a wiggly tooth so I could make it go in an out!"


Conversation I overheard between her and Nicholas.

Kensli: "I can make a very loud rooster sound to wake you up in the morning. Want to hear it?"
Nicholas: "No, that sound annoys me!"
Kensli: "Well, I can do it medium."
Nicholas: "No, because it annoys me!"
Kensli: "Well, I am so glad I do not share a room with you since you are such an annoying person!"

While we were in Florida, the two youngest enjoyed going to play on a huge jungle gym style playground. After about 45 min. of play, she comes running and crying to where I was sitting on a park bench. She tells me that a little boy punched her in the chest over a climbing rope. After calming her down, I go with her and sure enough there was the little boy not letting anyone play with the rope at all. I asked him if we could borrow it for a few minutes and he handed it over. Kensli climbed it and gave it back to him. Later that evening, Kensli decided to share a little more of what had happened at the climbing rope....

Kensli: "Mom, I think I gave that little boy a bad idea."
Me: "How is that?"
Kensli: "Well, when he wouldn't give me the rope I told him if he didn't I was going to hit him. Then he just punched me! I think next time I won't give little boys bad ideas."

Lesson learned.....

That Time of the Year

It is that time of the year again when I start preparing for the upcoming school year. When I taught public school it was a fun time of the year....a fresh new start....with new notebooks, pencils, crayons, and children. As a home school mom, some of the newness and fresh start is not as apparent. There is another feeling of being comfortable with where you are. Like with an old friend, you settle in for another visit.

I must admit that homeschooling has its fair share of struggles. There are days I wonder what in the world I was thinking and even complain to my husband. Yet, there are so many more days when I am filled with wonder and amazement that it totally outweighs all the frustrations.

This year I am refocused, refreshed, and ready to go. I think the main reason for this feeling is that we took a BREAK! Normally we school formally year round, but this year we took off in May and we are still enjoying our vacation for a few more weeks.

We have:

• been lazy
• slept late
• attended two church camps
• went to Florida
• spent two weeks with cousins
• ate more popsicles than is legal
• swam all day if we wanted
• played games
• read
• watched movies until late in the night
• outran a thunderstorm in a party barge
• caught hermit crabs with a net
• sunburned our noses
• hosted a wedding at our house
• learned a lot more Spanish
• and dreamed about all the things in life we would like to do

Even though it was not formal schooling is was the way learning should be and so much fun!

Home school catalogs started showing up in the mail a couple of weeks ago! R. has had out the Rainbow Resource catalog looking at all the things that he would like to learn. (Love that kid!) Apologia Science has him pumped and he is begging to start! The thirst for knowledge continues in our life of learning!

It is going to be the best year yet! Life is good!

Just Me

LIFE is what you make it, but lately there has been more of LIFE in my life than I can handle. Before I go further, let me say that I say that positively!

After I got caught up with the CSI Haiti Relief project, I began to suffer from a feeling of burnout in dealing with the computer! I didn't want to post or even do anything on the computer at all! I stopped even getting on the computer for some time and spent more time with my family and accomplishing what I thought more important! I still feel tired thinking about it, but I feel that I really need to be recording some of our rather busy life.

Another reason for me not posting is that I have gone through a very paranoid place in life. I am not sure that I am doing the best thing for my kids by letting the whole world see what is going in on in our lives. Struggled with this thought greatly and will try to be more picky about what is posted.

In the months to come, I hope that this blog can become something that I am comfortable with and will be updated regularly! At some point I may even decided to go private to protect us a little more.