I feel like it’s been ages since I last wrote a post. I believe it’s actually been one month today. HOLY COW!? I can’t believe it’s been a month. Well it certainly hasn’t been that long because of a lack of things to write about! I’ve really been battling with myself this summer about the amount of time my family spends in front of “the screen”. Whether it be a computer screen, a television screen, the little screens on the boys’ DS…you get the point. As a result, we decided to cancel cable altogether and drastically limit their screen time on the computer and DS. Another result of that has been a huge reduction on how much time I spend in front of the computer. Not much facebook these days. I pretty much only get on the computer once a day to check my email or do online banking. I have to admit, it’s been pretty nice not feeling like a slave to the computer, wasting countless hours in front of facebook, reading about other people’s productivity! I know…pathetic!
Anyways, a lot has been going on since my last post. After MUCH prayerful consideration, we’ve decided to continue homeschooling Joshua and he will begin first grade in a few weeks…right here at home. On the other hand, we feel Jesse will really benefit from a year in a “real school”. Joshua had a year of “real school” in pre-k and LOVED it. Jesse’s personality is so completely different from Joshua’s and aside from feeling stuck in the middle of his two other brothers, I think it will be great for Jesse to have daily structure in his learning environment that Joshua hasn’t really needed being at home. The greatest part is, he’ll be going to the private, christian school where my husband and I both graduated and my mother-in-law has been the director of school activities for twenty years!  To be honest, I was debating putting them BOTH in school next month, but when I told Joshua about my ‘idea’, he burst into tears and said, “But Mommy, I thought you wanted to spend time with me? I love homeschooling.” I know, talk about breaking my heart! Later that day, after discussing his response with my husband, I told Joshua that I will continue to homeschool. The look on his face was as if I’d lifted a weight from his shoulders. Like someone had told him he was going to die and then came back and said, “nevermind, we were wrong, you’re fine!” My heart melted as the joy returned to his face and we’ve been planning his academic year ever since.
My whole family is oozing with excitement and anticipation at what the next month will bring. We’re going camping with my parents this weekend in South Carolina. Jesse has open house for kindergarten in three and a half weeks, he starts school in four weeks, and we should be receiving our two newest members of our family any week now. The fostering process is complete, we’re just waiting on the homestudy to come back from Atlanta where everything is being put on record for the state of Georgia. It’s all very exciting!
In the last month, Owen turned two and Jesse turned five. We had an absolutely WONDERFUL birthday party for them together at my parents’ house in Greenwood, SC. I’ll post pictures later. In fact, I have lots of pictures that I need to post in the next week or so. We spent last weekend at the lake as a family and it was a nice time of relaxation and fun.
I can’t believe we’re looking at the final four weeks of summer already. Everything within me wants to pack it full of fun, creative outings and experiences for the kids, but I know that will only make it pass by that much faster. I long for the simple life, when you don’t have to leave your house for days at a time unless you just want to. When neighbors stopped by to play cards and have a glass of tea. When deciding what was for dinner was as easy as stepping into your backyard garden and seeing which veggies were ripe for the picking. I love the old days. If only I had been born in the thirties or forties. I’ve been reading a lot about the time surrounding the Great Depression. It has been very interesting to see how everything unfolded in that day and age and then compare it to the times we’re in now…. Well, I suppose that’s an entirely different post in itself.
Good Night… until next time.
~audrey

This entry was posted on Monday, July 13th, 2009 at 9:18 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.