Thursday, October 8, 2009

Random Pictures

I thought I would try and get caught up on pictures before Hannah's birthday. I haven't taken that many pictures, considering the busyness. The picture above is kind of strange, but to me it's interesting. We have been getting a ton of rain here. This is a picture of the ants trying to escape the water. What looks like dirt on the wall, is a solid mass of ants moving up the wall. They looked like they were going into the attic - yuck!!
Here is a picture of our first day of school. Everyone is going to school this year, including mom. As I've mentioned before, Jonah has been attending Forerunner Christian Academy, a university-model school. This year, I am teaching third grade. It's a wonderful schedule - I teach Mondays and Wednesdays until 1:30 and then Fridays until 11:30. Caleb and Hannah are in the preschool there at the school, except for on Fridays, when they stay home with Dad (it's his day-off).
It has definitely been an adjustment getting used to making weekly lesson plans for my third grade class, homeschooling Jonah on Tuesdays and Thursdays (while finding activities for Hannah and Caleb), trying to find time to grade papers and make sure my at-home lesson plans make sense to the parents, and still trying to keep my house clean and church duties fulfilled...I absolutely love teaching, I love homeschooling on Tue/Thur , I love my 5 students in my class, I know this is where the Lord wants me - I have no doubt about that. But I am EXHAUSTED! I really would like to go to bed at 7:30 every night! I'm starting to get in a rhythm on some things, the trick is to never get behind on anything! Which is virtually impossible, but I just keep telling myself to take it one thing at a time. It's okay if sometimes the dishes are still dirty when I go to bed, and my children's clothes are not perfectly ironed, and we eat pizza a couple of nights a week, and the laundry gets piled up...I could probably go on and on. Prioritize and live life as it comes! ---- I'll have to give more details about my wonderful class later!

SEEEWWWEEY!!! This is our friend Mark (who is the music minister at our church). Well, that's not him - that's the pig - but you get the idea! This is his new little piglets, they are only two days old in the picture. We took a little field trip to his farm to meet the new little babies. The momma pig was not too happy that he was picking up one of her little ones - I don't blame her.

All the kids loved the piglets. Hannah was especially fascinated. Look at her face in this picture. That's Elizabeth, Mark's daughter, standing next to us. Hannah just kept laughing and squealing, she was so excited! We were surprised that she noticed them so much - she couldn't keep her eyes of of them. She loved watching the goats too! I think we have our animal-lover!
Okay, I just have to say that I had an almost 30 year old moment the other day. I was picking up some food that Adam had ordered (in person). The teenage girl asked me "What did your son want on his hamburger?"....Did you catch that - she thought I was his mom!!! She said it a couple of more times too! Not the best of experiences for someone who will only be 29 for about a week more!....watch out, I might be wearing leather and sporting a new Harley on the next picture on the blog!!!!!



3 comments:

Erin said...

I love these posts! Way to go! Your kiddos are so sweet. I'm glad you are feeling a little more adjusted to your new (very busy) schedule. You can do it!

Barbara said...

Such great pictures! I think you do a great job of staying organized, Mandy. You have it down in prioritizing what you need to do. The laundry will still be there tomorrow and so will other things. I learned that lesson the hard way, thinking I had to do everything perfect until a friend told me one day, "Barbara, the boys would actually enjoy a hotdog every once in awhile." It made me stop and think about what I was doing and I wasn't quite as tired.

God blessed us with children at a young age, so that we would survive it. You do a wonderful job, Mandy.

Barbara said...

Mandy,
Adam probably told the girl at the Pizza place "his son" wanted so and so on his hamburger and another son wanted something else. No way could she possibly think you are Adam's mom, that's impossible unless she really needs glasses.

As tired as you are I am sure that didn't make you feel great, but trust me, there is no way she could possibly be thinking that.


Love you,
Barbara