VBS -- Bring it!

This week is VBS at our church. VBS is Vacation Bible School. It's basically a week-long time for kids to come to church, learn about Jesus, play games, make crafts, and wear the adults out. Today was my first day to be there (kids' dental appts kept us away yesterday). And boy am I beat! I'm not sure what it is about VBS that is soooo tiring. But for all the exhaustion I feel right now, it's so worth it.

Once again, I get to be with 4th graders. And they are just so neat! They're old enough to have conversations with, but still young enough to not have attitudes. Not that many of the teenagers at our church do have attitudes. Quite the contrary! But, you know what I'm trying to say, right? And not all of them know about Jesus. Or get the concept of "eternity". Being apart of the light bulb turning on (hopefully) is exciting. I pray that I won't be a stumbling block to these kids!

Honey, We Now Have the Kids Again

Scott and I spent three glorious days in Austin. We:

• played pool at the Union
• ate at Texadelphia, DoubleDave's, and Trudys
• toured the state capitol
• frolicked (well, we walked) in the Botanical Gardens
• shopped at the Co-op
• wandered around campus (we lingered at the LBJ fountain and main mall)
• went to a Round Rock Express game with Hillary Williams

We did quite a bit while we were there! And of course we stayed in the fabulous AT&T Executive Education & Conference Center. The room, service, and view were excellent. We'd definitely stay there again. Although the bathroom area was a little cramped. In order to stand in the bathroom and open the shower door, you had to contort your body in such a way that Cirque de Solei would be proud.

We had just landed at our next hotel destination: Lakeway Spa & Resort. And then we got "the phonecall". Jack wasn't doing well at all and had been in some significant pain all that day. Scott's parents tried administering the enema to Jack but with no success. They were about to take him to the hospital (and in fact were already outside the hospital when they called us), but decided not to after talking with an ER doctor. The doctor informed my in-laws that they couldn't just give Jack an enema without thoroughly checking him out and doing all kinds of tests on him to determine what the problem was. They couldn't just take my in-law's word for it. And who wants to subject their already traumatized child to more medical testing when you know what the problem is?!?

So after being in our new hotel room for 2 hours, we checked out and headed up to Missouri. Graciously, the hotel didn't charge us for using the room for a few hours (it wasn't an hourly establishment, by the way; but we figured they'd at least charge us for that night since we'd already been in the room for a while)

By the time we got up to Missouri, it was 3 AM. But I'm proud to report, now that we're all back home, that Jack is doing well.

I can't lie; these medical issues have been just a little stressful. I'm looking forward to when this is all behind us (no pun intended... really)

Honey, Where are the Kids?

Yesterday, the whole family trekked up to central Oklahoma to meet Scott's parents and hand the kids off to them. Those little dears (my in-laws) are going to have all three kids for an entire week. [insert evil, menacing laugh here]. They don't know what they're getting in to. I thought of them this morning as Scott & I easily and quickly prepared for church. A laughed to myself at the thought of Rick & Lin getting our high-maintenance kids ready for church...

So Scott & I have the week "off" as parents. We are going to Austin for 4 days. Four glorious days. I am so excited, I can hardly stand it. Austin is my home away from home. I really wanted to move there a year or two ago, and we seriously talked about the idea. But in the end, home is where you make it. And this is our home. So Austin will have to wait for weekends and weeks like this one, where we can visit her and relish in her beautiful scenery. God sure did make it pretty there.

We'll first stay at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center for two days. We'll have a tower view that would knock your socks off. Then we'll go for two days to Lakeway Resort & Spa, which is right on Lake Travis. We don't have a whole bunch planned for our trip to Austin. Here are several things we are planning to do:

• visit with Professor Joe Culver (Jack's middle name is Culver, named after one of our favorite professors) and give him a picture of Jack Jack
• go see a Round Rock Express game with Miss Hillary Williams.
• eat at some of our favorite restaurants like Trudys.

This is a much much needed rest and vacation. I am so thankful to God for providing it!

I Think I'm Becoming One of THOSE Moms...

Ever since we decided to homeschool Jack in the Fall, I have been ravenous for material on the subject. I've gone to the library several times, I've ordered a couple of things that I couldn't get at the library, and I've been scanning homeschooling websites. All in all, I"m obsessed.

This sort of things tends to happen when I get introduced to a new subject. My interest gets piqued, and then I'm off to the races. Trying to get my hands on anything and everything about the subject.

So I hope I'm not going to become one of those moms who gush and gush and gush about homeschooling and tell everyone why they should be doing it too. May the Lord keep me humble, graceful, and understanding, please!

All that to say this: if you haven't thought about homeschooling, you should. If you think you can't, I bet you really can.

Now if I can convince myself that I can do this... (that is not a plea for confidence boosting comments. that is just honesty talking!)

You're Gonna What?!?

I've always said that I wouldn't do it. I've always said that I couldn't do it. I admired people that did it. But it wasn't for me. No way could I handle it.

Until now.

Instead of sending Jack to kindergarten this fall (he just turned 5 a few weeks ago), I will be homeschooling him. Homeschooling. Did you hear that? Now pick yourself up off the floor and continue reading.

It's become more and more apparent that our sweet Jack Jack just isn't ready for kindergarten. There's the whole potty training issue (we're still doing a load of laundry a day that is just Jack's wet clothes). But aside from that, he's not emotionally or physically up to speed. We didn't notice it at first, but then as I saw Jack around more 5 year olds, I noticed that he was... different.

The first option I explored was private kindergarten. But due to the potty training issue, I could not find a school that would accept him. Which is totally understandable. But it stunk.

The second option I explored was sending him back to his Mother's Day Out program. The wonderful director there said that they would take him back for another year. But seeing as Jack already knew all of his letters and their sounds before the beginning of last year... well, it would just be a long, boring repeat of stuff he already knew.

The third option, and the only one left really, was homeschooling. I have several good friends that homeschool, and they were very encouraging to me. They moved me from, "There's no way I can do that!" to "Well, maybe I can try it" to "I'm gonna homeschool!".

I still can't believe those words are coming out of my mouth. There are moments when I'm elated that we are going down this road. And there are moments when I wonder what in the world I've gotten myself into.

A Great Jack Pic

I can't take credit for this great picture. The carpenter who worked on a cabinet for us took this and then sent it to me. Love it!