To Home School or Not To Home School

That is the question...

I have done a 180 in my thinking as a parent.  Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Tobie is inching closer and closer to my height, (not hard to do with my 5'2" frame, but still) or the fact that my little buddy, Hannah will be starting Kindergarten this fall or maybe the rash of scary public events.... Whatever it is my thinking has changed and I want my kids around me.

I used to say I had kids at an early age and had them all close in age so that I will still be young when my youngest is old enough to be kicked out of the house, which I think is still a good plan, but what I'm realizing is that is going to be sooner than later.  All the hard nights of baby feedings are over, my older kids are getting more and more independent therefore demanding less of me physically.  I'm a year away from not having to change anymore diapers, after 12 straight years of changing diapers it is finally coming to an end.  But instead of celebrating and counting down the days when I can send the baby out the door to public school I find myself missing my children and dreading the day when the younger two will be out of the house.

I've been doing a lot of research lately into it, and I've been talking to my friends that homeschool.  I've joined some local homeschool groups trying to make local connections for support.  But I still can't seem to make a definitive decision to actually keep them home.  I know it stems from being afraid that I won't be able to do it.  Will I be able to keep up with my 6th graders school work?  Can I teach him the math skills he needs?  Will it be stimulating enough for my 3rd grader who already devours books and has found a love with the piano?  Will my new Kindergartener have fun and will I be able to teach her the fundamentals of reading?  And then there's Emma, my soon to be 1st grader.  She's having some issues that has sparked several teacher/parent conferences.

She's really good in class, her conduct can't be criticized although I wish she would act that way at home.  Her teacher tells me that she seems to have good comprehension and math is one of her favorite subjects.  But for some reason she is unable to retain letter names and sounds, she even turns around, saying POT instead of TOP.  I suspect dyslexia, but in the last month or so she seems to be coming around and starting to read much better.  I think she may be starting to get the hang of it, so it leads me to believe that she is just learning at a different pace than her peers.  But the other challenge with her is her explosive tantrums.  She is constantly combative with Theo and I.  For example, the other night we got 3 different flavors of Italian Ice from Rita's but we told the kids they only get one flavor.  The other kids accepted that, but Emma flipped!  She was rolling on the floor screaming, so I sent her to her room where she continued her ranting.  This is normal behavior for her which is why I'm nervous about having her home for school.  Wednesday I had another meeting with the teacher, teacher aid, Counselor, Nurse and another Teachers aid that I'm not really sure why she was in there.  I started sharing my tantrum woes with Emma, and the ladies started to give me advice, which I understand they are just trying to help, but most of their advice was stuff I already had heard of and tried.  I had mentioned to her teacher I was contemplating home school, so she asks me in front of the other ladies if I was still considering it.  I told her I was and that set the other teachers off asking 'why?'.  I told them we are just too stressed!  We get up in the morning and I rush my sleep deprived kids out the door, then the next time I see them we are rushing around to piano, sports, girl scouts and boy scouts.  I feel like the time I spend with my kids is rushed and stressed.  The nurse just seemed flabbergasted and was like, "Why don't you just cut back on after school activities?" and I feel why do I have to sacrifice the fun stuff that my kids WANT to do?  They love those after school activities, what I need to cut out is the time spent at school!  Then they asked, "Do you think Emma will listen to you at home?".  I felt insulted, yes she is difficult and we clash, but I'm her mother, she will listen to me!  It sounded like they were insinuating that she only listens to them.  Then I had a little epiphany, they used the phrase, "she's trying to get your attention" a lot and I realized that she only gets stressed out Mommy.  I'm stressed when I send her to school, and I'm stressed in the evening and all she wants is my time.  But while they are in school I have NO time!  But if I keep them home I can be the one to teach them and nurture them in a stress free zone.

I'm feeling committed to the idea now thanks to this meeting, even a little excited about the idea.  I really hope that I will be able to do this, I know it will be hard and a lot of work, but I want to spend more time with my kids.  Everyone tells me to cherish this time because it goes by so fast, I don't want to miss my kids' childhood because we were too busy with school.  If it doesn't work out I can always send them back to school and we will have to find other ways to de-stress, but if I don't at least give this a try I'm going to be always wondering what if.  Pray for me guys!  

Pioneer Woman's Thai Chicken Pizza

 I went perusing through the Pioneer Woman's cook book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks and noticed a whole pizza section.  I was wanting to try something different other than our too often Supreme.  I came across this option and decided to give it a try.  I've never made Peanut sauce, but I'm a sucker for anything that calls for Peanut butter AND cilantro!  Here is the recipe but I did make some tweaks, those are in RED.

Thai Chicken Pizza

2 garlic cloves, peeled

2 Tablespoons minced fresh ginger (I made it with dry ground ginger)

¼ cup soy sauce

3 teaspoons sesame oil

½ teaspoon fish sauce

1 ½ cups smooth peanut butter

1/2 cup very warm water

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (Call me weird, but I actually prefer canned chicken when it comes to pizza toppings)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 recipe Pizza Dough

Olive oil, for drizzling

4 Tablespoons Thai sweet chili sauce (sold in the Asian foods aisle)

12 oz. fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced

1 cup alfalfa or bean sprouts

2 cups shredded carrots

2 cups cilantro leaves

¼ cup chopped peanuts

First, make the peanut sauce.  To the bowl of a food processor or blender, add the garlic and ginger.  Then add the Soy sauce, sesame oil, fish sauce, and the peanut butter.  And the water but blend as you are pouring in.  Check the consistency, give it a taste, and add a little more of whatever it needs! (This is something that threw me off a little because I don't think I have ever had Peanut sauce so I didn't know what it was supposed to taste like, but from what I tasted it needed more ginger and fish sauce.) Add more warm water if it needs thinning.(This was another thing that I needed to change, the recipe called for 1/2 cup of warm water, to get it to a really runny saucey consistency I ended up adding more like 1 cup of warm water if not more)  

Add chili paste to your prepared pizza crust.  (I'm sure I used WAY more than the 4 tbsp of the Thai sweet chili sauce, once I got a whiff of that stuff I knew it was going to be good, and if a little is good then a lot must be even better right?!  And heck ya, it was!)
Next, sprinkle the chicken breasts with salt and pepper, and grill them on both sides until done. Remove from the grill and slice thin.  (You can sauté in a skillet if you prefer.) (Or skip this all together and use the canned chicken)Lay on the mozzarella slices, then the chicken slices. ( I just used shredded mozzarella)
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the crust is golden and the cheese is bubbly. Throw on as many sprouts as you’d like.
Next, add the shredded carrots and cilantro leaves.
Drizzle with peanut sauce all over the top of the pizza.
End with a sprinkling of chopped peanuts.

Seriously so good!  

Jersey-isms Part 4

You see this?  I thought I had gotten myself pretty acclimated around here, but it's stuff like this that really throws me off!  Two Tilton Rd.'s right by each other!  This is actually a mistake that I took when we first got here. Luckily I was meeting a friend to go running and she was very forgiving when I showed up late because I turned down the WRONG Tilton. 

But today it actually got the better of me.  I had a doctor's appointment on a road called Black Horse Pike.  I had never been to this doctors office before so I looked up the address and typed it in my Google maps app, building number and all!  Remember that, it's important.  So I'm coming up on the place it tells me my destination is, but as I pull into the parking lot I see a sign for Spencer's, like the risque store in the mall.  Maybe it's their outlet store, this place was big, but definitely NOT where my doctor's appointment was.  So I plug the address in maps again and notice two options pop up under the same building number, same street, just different towns!  It's on the same road!  How can they have the same building number???  I had to call the doctors and tell them I was across town, but I'll be there in 12 minutes, more like 15...nuance...

Seriously? What is that about?  I just thought it was a fluke thing when I came across two Tilton's but I'm finding other streets that have the same names.  This definitely took the cake though, having the same building number on the same street.  Is that even legal?  Oh well, I got it figured out and I have learned my lesson, check the town!!

Disney Cake

I've decided to start advertizing my cakes here in Jersey.  It's taken me awhile to commit to it considering my kitchen is the size of a shoe box.  And we're not talking Michael Jordan size, not even boots, more like a box of flats for my 4 year old small.  But I've been feeling like my creative juices are needing an outlet and I miss making cakes, so I took the plunge and posted on the Coast Guard Spouses Club that I do cakes and I got my first order that day!  I was really excited and of course nervous, I always get a little nervous that my clients will like the cake I make them.

She wanted a Disney inspired cake and sent me some pictures, it seemed pretty simple but it was a lot of red and black fondant.  That intimidated me at first, because red and black are the hardest to home make, but I didn't want to spend money on store bought fondant just for the colors.  For one, they don't taste as good as my marshmallow fondant and two, it's $20 for just one tub and I was only charging $30 for the whole thing!  So even though I wasn't sure how it would come out I decided to make the colors myself.  I'd have to say that I'm pretty proud at the way it turned out.

Hopefully I'll get some more business soon.  It was a little difficult navigating the space but it was so nice getting to do what I really like to do.

Easter 2013

 We have a really good Coast Guard group here in that they like to throw parties for the holidays.  They had an Easter Egg Hunt on the Saturday before the Saturday before Easter.  The kids loved seeing the Bunny, in fact Charlotte probably loved him the most, she kept going up to him and getting in other people's shots!  Another Coast Guard friend took this picture for us, isn't the helicopter a cool back drop?!

The Ward Primary Easter party almost didn't happen.  They usually have the YW put on a Spring Fling party that includes an egg hunt, but for some reason this year it's 2 weeks after Easter, so instead of canceling the Primary egg hunt I stepped up and volunteered to plan it.  It was a lot of work, but I have awesome help from the Primary President, 2nd Counselor, Secretary and other very eager volunteers.  If it wasn't for all these people there would have been no way I could have created something so much fun!

 This is the spot for the Easter Bunny to sit.  Not as cool as the helicopter, but I couldn't fit that into the gym.

 We had a cookie station for the kids so they could decorate Easter themed cookies.  I made all the icing, but I had lots of help with people donating cookies.

 This was another station where they did all kinds of crafts.  They made a funny bunny hat (scroll down to see Miriam modeling her creation), a hanging Easter accordion egg, a cute chicky plate and coloring pages.

 This is actually where we had the hunt.  At our church building there is no back yard area, it's just all parking area.  Then in the front is a busy road, so no outside area for a decent egg hunt.  So I just created one in the hallway of our church.  This is before the eggs were placed, but imagine a ton of eggs on chairs, on door handles, in the hallway...everywhere!!

 We also had a guess how many jelly beans are in the jar contest.  Can you believe that there was actually a girl who got the exact number right!!  The prize was the jelly bean jar!

 We did the hunt in waves.  First the Sunbeams and Nursery got to go, then we reset and let the Valiants go, then reset for the last time and let the CTR's go. 

 Charlotte wasn't really getting the concept yet, she kept grabbing the eggs and putting them in other peoples baskets!  She was content with the ones she could hold, but didn't concern herself with filling up her own basket.

 This is down the other side of the hall.  Hannah with her friend Lilia are combing the place to make sure they got them all.

 This is the funny bunny hat I went with.  I think it's hilarious!  And it's different than the plain bunny ears one, thanks Pinterest!

 That is one happy Bunny!!  I wonder who that could be?

 Oh right, it's Theo!  LOL!!  Of course since I'm in charge of it I assigned the costume wearing to my husband.  He loved it though, and did an awesome jig for the kids, seriously it was so funny I almost wet myself...

Our lovely family photo, except Charlotte had already had her fill of Mister Bunny so she wasn't cooperating.  But it was a super fun day and I was so happy I got to head it up.

 Of course I had to include a picture of the kids in their Easter Sunday best.  Aren't they just too adorable!

I had to include this one also, I have no idea what was so funny but they are so cute.  I really was a great Easter season, I hope everyone else had a good Easter as well!

He Is Risen!

This is actually a hard post for me to admit, but over 10 years ago I was going to college and in one of my History classes the teacher found out that I am a Mormon.  She seemed fascinated that she had a Mormon student and questioned me whenever she could.  She would make a point in her lecture, then stop, look around the room and say, "Where's my Mormon student?" before asking me a question.
One day she asked me a question that I knew the answer to, but she answered her own question before letting me respond and in a different way that I would have. So I was shocked by being put on the spot and the answer that she gave threw me off that I never got to give my answer and it still haunts me today thinking about my missed opportunity.  The question she asked was, "Why don't Mormons use the cross in their worship?".  I took poise to answer her right before she went into her own answer that some missionaries had shared with her.  Apparently this young man told her that it's like idolizing how Christ died, like if your mom was shot and killed you wouldn't have a picture of her and a gun.  I was so taken back by this answer, and she didn't give me the opportunity to contradict her, that I sat there as the lesson progressed not saying anything. I still feel like I lost the chance to not only change her thought, but now everyone in the classroom thinks this is the reason.  Well I may be over 10 years late, but I think Easter is a good time to set the record straight.

When Christ died for us that was just a piece of his wonderful gift to us.  He lived his life as the perfect example, he walked on water, he healed the sick and raised the dead!  He bled from every pore at the Garden of Gethsemane, each drop of blood representing our sins.  And then three days after he died he rose from the tomb, He lives again!  We worship the Living Christ, He is our Savior because he lives!  His dying was a part of the big picture and because of that we focus on ALL of Him...Life-Death-Resurrection.

If I could go back in time, this is what I would change my answer to.  I would have stopped the class just so I could clarify what we believe and the real reason we don't have the cross.  The cross represents His death, but He lives and that is why we don't use it. I understand why religions use this to symbolize Jesus Christ, this is my explanation as to why we don't, not because we don't worship Jesus, but because we embrace everything about Him.  He lives!

Winter Wonderland

 This isn't what it looks like right now, but this wasn't too long ago.  This is what has confined me to the hamster wheel in my basement.  It sure was cool when it first fell, especially when the snow covered everything, but after the novelty wore off...and the slush, we are all done with the cold weather.  There is supposed to be snow tonight, in fact we've already seen a few flurries, but I doubt it will be as thick as it was this day.  But you do have to admit, it sure is purdy!

A look at the backyard, I half expected to see a deer peeking through the trees.  Can't you just imagine a little Bambi action in those woods! So picturesque! The snow has been nice and a neat experience for the kids so I try not to complain too much in front of them.  They've wanted to live near snow for a long time, even though I'm getting the summer itch I try to enjoy this moment with my kids.  There's trade offs for everything in life.