Mistakes

The last blog should have said, "He said he didn't have any friends" not I said . . .
Also there is a Problem with lizzad blog and hopefully you figured out it was lizzards. It is late and I haven't figured how to edit my posts yet so when that button to publish is pushed, I have to just live with it for now.

First Week of School

Okay I don't know what happened with those pictures on Tuesday. I had rotated them but when I actually put them on the blog they somehow went back. Oh well. On Wednesday I had a small problem on my hands. Phillip woke up and decided he did not want to go back to school. I said he didn't have any friends and the kids were not nice to him. He also thought there were too many rules. Welcome to the real world kid! I told him I would take him to school and we would talk to the teacher and just see how it goes. I had to take Nathan to Grandma and then Phillip and I marched into school. I had to push him into his classroom. He was determined he wasn't going. I helped him get settled in and start on his color paper and then I asked him if he would be alright staying with his class if I went to Walmart to return his backpack that broke before he could even use it. He said he guessed it would be alright. I then asked him if he would be alright coming home on the bus and I would meet him back home and he said yes! I was out of there and there were no tears. Phillip has been somewhat of a shy child and has not had an easy time making new friends. This has been a very difficult week for him. Today he said he had a pretty good day except for a little girl in his class whispered, "I don't like you!" to him. I asked him what he had done to make her say that and he says nothing. It was the principal's daughter! They will probably become best of friends. The mom in me wants to protect him from all the mean hurtful things other children say. Tomorrow is another day.

Back to School

There was much excitement around here yesterday and this morning let me tell you. I had the kids get their backpacks ready to go yesterday in anticipation for their first day of school today. As he was getting his ready, Phillip came up to me and gave me a big hug and kiss and told me goodbye. I told him he wasn't going until the next morning and he said he knew but he was going to be pretty busy the next morning and probably wouldn't have time to kiss me goodbye so he was doing it now. When Matt came home from work that evening Phillip did the same to him.

When the bus pulled up this morning Phillip was out the door so fast I couldn't even get a picture so the bus driver told him to get back off the bus so I could get a snapshot. We have a wonderful bus driver. She pulls right into the parking lot that is connected to our driveway making it much safer for the kids getting on and off the bus. She literally picks them up at our front door. They are very blessed to have her.

I went and picked Phillip up from school at noon and just as soon as he got in the car he declared they didn't even do school today. All they did was color some papers, listen to all the rules, took a tour of the school and the teacher read them a story. Can you believe they didn't teach me anything? I told him to try again tomorrow. He said he doesn't need to go back because they don't do anything in Kindergarten. Oh boy. It's going to be a long first week it looks. He was impressed that the teacher had gone and fixed all the labels with his name on it. At Open House Night, we noticed she had spelled Phillip's name with one L. Somehow it was mispelled at the office and handed down to her this way so it wasn't her fault but Phillip noticed this right away and then came home today and said she had already fixed his name. Katlyn came home on the bus at 3pm and Austin will be done with soccor practice at 4:30pm so they each are able to have one on one time to tell me about their day. It worked out real nice.

Encouraged

I teach the 8 year old class at our church and really enjoy doing so. For some time now I have felt burdened to try and teach more scripture through songs and memory games. A few weeks ago I came to class hoping to play a game of review with some verses I was sure everyone already knew. I picked John 3:16 as my first verse and quickly discovered not one child knew this verse! I was shocked. These are 8 year old children. They do not all come on a regular basis but I still thought they would have heard this verse along the way somewhere. I was wrong. Well, I now had a starting point and we spent our memory time learning that verse.

Each week since I have had them repeat that verse and I have refered to that verse more than once through each story telling them God So Loved Them. And He made a way that we could have everlasting life! I told them last week that if they could say that verse they may choose 2 pieces of candy from the basket as the left the room. As they each said the verse I had one child that attempted to say it over and over and the more he tried and failed the more upset he was becoming. I finally took him aside and told him if he could answer the questions I was going to ask him, he could choose 2 candies. I started the verse, "For God
Child - "For God"
Myself - What did God do?
Child - "He loved the world"
Myself - "He so loved the world that He did what?"
Child - " Gave His Son"
Myself - " Who did he give His Son for?"
Child - "Whoever believes in God"
Myself - " Whosoever believeth in Him shall not what?"
Child - "Perish"
Myself - "What does that mean?"
Child - "Die"
Myself- "Will not perish but have what?"
Child - "Everlasting life"
Myself - "And where in the Bible can someone find this verse?"
Child - "John 3:16"

Now this may sound very basic but this child has a learning disability and is diagnosed ADHD. He has a very hard time sitting still in the class but with those helping in the class we try to engage him in as much of the activity as we can because he learns better with full envolvement. For some reason that I do not know, he was simply unable to repeat the verse word for word even though he has had plenty of review and always knows what word comes next. I was very encouraged that he knew the reference and knew the meaning of the verse. I feel like we have taught him John 3:16 even though he can't say it the way most children do.

I want to drill them in as much scripture as I possibly can. If anyone has ideas on review games to help them learn scripture I would love to hear from you. My favorite way to teach them is through song so I would also like any scripture choruses you might know as well.

Lizzad troubles

One of Austin's lizzards seemed to be having trouble eating so Austin decided to help it by feeding it by hand. This lizzard wasn't moving very fast and the other lizzard seems to be getting to the food first leaving none for the other one. Austin currently has 2 anoles and has caught most of their food for them. We still have to buy mealworms every now and then. If I can get the camera to work I will show you a picture of our 15 year old fish that apparently is feeling his age and spends most of his days "laying" on the bottom of our fish tank. He's been acting pretty silly lately and we figure it's because he's so old and tired.

Austin is bouncing back slowly

Austin is trying to play soccor this fall. Hopefully he will be able to do this after having to spend most of his summer vacation tied down in bed. The doctor said he could try to play soccor. He is wanting to get some training in this year so he can play better next year. He is in 6th grade and usually they start in 7th but they are letting a couple of 6th graders join in. Please pray for the kids as they go back to school. Phillip is very nervous about starting Kindergarten.

I Just Love School!

Is it time for school to start again? I am soooo ready. I love my kids but they are constantly wanting to spend time with this friend and that friend and go here and there. Once school starts they are so busy all of this other slows down a tiny bit. I will only have Nate at home this year and I'm thinking about signing up to substitute . I haven't done that in a couple of years but I like to keep in the swing of things so I might work some part time. The other three will be back at Lebanon Christian Academy which we have really loved. They really take time with the children and I have felt like the student body is like a family looking out for each other. This year will be quite a bit more as we will have 3 in school now but we feel this is a worthwhile investment in our children's future.
By the way, the ponies are doing great. We have now fenced in the majority of the back yard and they love it. Matt put the fence up in the pouring down rain and I felt bad about him being out there by himself so I went out with a baby blanket over my head and stood there while he dug a few post holes. Of course umbrellas are no where to be found except when it's NOT raining.

My Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day!

I feel like I am spinning in circles. Matt has been out of town for almost 2 weeks and just got home last night around 11pm. Trying to keep track of 4 busy children has been a challenge. It is almost a full time job just keeping Austin from doing the things he isn't suppose to do while on his treatment for Lyme. He is to have the PIC line pulled tomorrow and we are all happy about that. I was doing some cleaning yesterday morning and had the kids all cleaning in different rooms and I thought I would push the self clean button on my oven and get that done while I was mopping the floor. As it got further into the cleaning I noticed the air was getting smoky and it really smelled terrible. I finally had to go to another room it was now burning my eyes.

Austin's nurse came to change the dressing on his PIC line and I told her we would have to do it on the porch because of the oven and she went in the kitchen to wash her hands and thought the oven was on fire. I wasn't sure but asked her if she would hit the cancel button which she did. By the time she was done with everything we went back into the kitchen and opened the oven and indeed something had been on fire. I had left a casserole in the oven the night before to keep warm for Austin who hadn't eaten with the rest of us and forgot about it. I had to throw away the dish and everything! We left and went out for lunch leaving the windows all open to air out. I was having a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Right here in Manheim.

An AWESOME concert

We were able to hear The Collingsworth Family friday night and they did an outstanding job. They sang for the Lord and you could see it on their faces. They know what they are singing about! It made me excited about Heaven and encouraged me by reminding me God knows exactly where I am and what I'm going through and He alone is all I need to carry me through. We enjoyed ourselves and Kaitlyn Ebersole went along and had a great time as well. She is to the right of Phil Collingsworth and Matt and Austin. Austin was exhausted but enjoyed the service very much. He is such a trooper through this Lyme Menengitis! We have one more week of treatment and then the ordeal should be over. Thanks so much for all of your prayers. The doctor told Austin that it was the prayers and medication that helped him to recover this quickly. He has regained his facial movement and we are so glad. We didn't realize that when he couldn't close his eye he had a possibility of blindness if his retina wasn't kept moist. They had given him a thick liquid to put in his eye but he didn't like it and didn't want to do it. They told him why it was so important and that he could go blind if he didn't do as they told and that made it alot easier to get it into his eye. Fortunately he is blinking now and doesn't need it. I say PRAISE THE LORD. I have so many questions and problems that I put before the Lord each day and sometimes I wish I could just put all of that aside and focus only on the blessings which are many in our family. It has been so hard for me this year to TRUST JESUS for EVERY part of my life. Pray for us.