Memorial Day Weekend

We had very busy unofficial start to summer.  I love holiday weekends because Toby gets to stay home and the whole atmosphere of our home is even more festive.  

On Friday night, Ricky started complaining of his eye hurting and said he felt like he had a headache.  Not a great start to our holiday.  By Saturday his face was swollen and he was stopped up on the right side of his face.  We are taking him to the doctor first thing in the morning.  He is ok as long as he stays on Advil.  We have done the saline nose flush, decongestants, and Advil.  The saline gave some relief, but the Advil works best.  Hate when one of the kids get sick on a holiday weekend.

Saturday was our 17th wedding anniversary.  We did not get to celebrate much with Ricky sick and Kaitlyn having her big orchestra recital that night.  They performed a Disney Spectacular and from what I have seen of the video it was wonderful.  

Kaitlyn and her beloved violin.

One of our dear friends brought Kaitlyn these flowers in honor of her performance.  It was such a sweet thing and the flowers were beautiful.  Could not resist snapping her picture with them.

I didn't get to go to church on Sunday, because of Ricky.  I sure hate when I miss.  Toby went with a missionary that night to the church I grew up attending.  He was gone a lot, so I was tired running up and down waiting on Ricky, chasing Kamryn, and caring for the rest of my crew.  Funny how just one sick child can throw the whole routine out of whack and wear me out.


Yesterday evening  and all day today was spent swimming by the three kiddos that were well and old enough to swim.

They did a little of this......

A little of that.....

And a whole bunch of this and that........

Today we were privileged to entertain a missionary to Asia.  Love when my kids can hear stories of what God is doing.  After the missionary left, we chilled out by the pool and I snapped a few shots of Kamryn and her dad.

All in all we have had a good weekend.  Today I asked my crew what does Memorial Day mean and  one of them had the right answer.

I always want to remember and say thank you to the ones that have fought and died that I can live free.

GOD BLESS AMERICA and THANK YOU TO THOSE THAT SERVE!!!!!!

A New Start

I have been on a blog vacation....

I guess?   

Maybe it is just discouraged or burned out with all the trying to find time to sit down at my computer. 

 I thought about starting another blog....a fresh start.  

I'm not though. 

I will restart here with this post and continue our story.

I have never thought about school curriculum this early.  I normally wait until July and try to figure it all out, but not this year.  

Ricky is the reason.  

This school year has not gone as I had planned.  We are having trouble getting work completed on time. Ricky will have to work all summer to finish up this years work.  It didn't help that we went through a forced two month remodeling project in our home in the months of Dec. and Jan.  The other kids still managed to complete their goals, but for some reason Ricky has seemed to get further behind.  Let me say now, behind for him is not the same as being behind in public school.  He is just behind where I think he should be right now.

 I have tried several things, but not much has worked.  He finds reasons to not get everything completed, turn things in on time, or not be ready for a test.  You may wonder how I can let this happen since he is home and I am the one monitoring him?  Honestly, with 4 kids in school, church work, baby, etc.  there are many ways things can get postponed or fall through the cracks.  I am not proud of that, but it is the truth.

Next year I would like to find a way to set weekly and monthly goals that are easy to track.  Also, I would like to find a curriculum that may be a little more streamlined to daily goals.  Not sure what I will do, but praying that we make the right decisions.  

I do know that I will be starting a home school blog to help record our school days.  I have several friends that do and think this might be a way to help encourage Ricky to perform.  If I post daily what we are doing, then he might want to make sure he IS doing.  Nothing like a little positive pressure.