Happy Mother's Day!

Wow! I am feeling old! Last Friday, my little Adrianna, who I used to babysit graduated from high school! Adrianna was homeschooled up until high school where she began attending Faith Academy in Marble Falls. Faith Academy is a homeschool based school where the children go to school part-time and homeschool the rest of the time. Adrianna has become a beautiful, smart, well-grounded ADULT. She is my inspiration for homeschooling Sam & Maya. I could only hope that our kids turn out like Adrianna. At her graduation party Saturday, she introduced me as one of her "best friends." This only drew tears the first couple of times. Good Luck, Girl, on your new chapter of life!

We spent the night at my parents' house Saturday evening and woke up to a beautiful Mother's Day morning. Sam had "caught" Maya's cold and got progressively worse throughout the day until he demanded that we went home. Meanwhile, Mom & I finally got to sew the skirt I have been dying to make for months. Mom is an amazing seamstress, and I am not. All I need is one sewing project to remind me that I didn't inherit the "sewing bug" from my mother. I will go back to buying my clothes until the next urge to be creative grabs me again. But we finished the skirt beautifully and had fun spending time together. After raining for some of the afternoon, we all ventured outside to ride the go-kart. It was quite cathartic for me to follow my father's instructions to not let up on the accelerator or brake around the corners. Dad even said I was getting close to lifting two wheels! The grass was very slippery and the mud was slingin'! SO FUN!!

But the fun soon came to an end and for the past two days I have been sick with a cold and now a cough. YUCK! Stephen saved the day yesterday by taking the kids to putt-putt, 2 movies and finally to dinner at Amy's Ice Cream. He can be so good at spoiling them in times of need :-)

We had a quiet evening together. While checking on our van on e-bay and watching the newly released videos of Flight 77 hitting the Pentagon, Stephen casually tells me that he is switching stations! He put in the request to transfer to Station 36 which has a ladder. He wants to be at a station with a ladder while taking the Aerial Drivers Class. 36's is not too far away, and I think he will enjoy being at a more active station and under the direct supervision of his Company Captain. I will miss being under his "watch" while he is working.

As far as our schooling is going, Samuel knows all of his addition facts up to 10 (thanks to the wonderful number balance) and Maya can write 0-10. Samuel keeps telling stories (especially early in the morning as soon as he wakes up) and prefers to practice playing the guitar at home instead of taking classes. They are learning all of the time, and it is so cute to hear Samuel & Maya use their new vocabulary words that they learn throughout the day. I have to request that they wait until a good stopping point while reading a book to ask me what a word means. They more often than not use the words correctly and enjoy being very verbose. We are learning all about Ancient Egypt (and I really mean WE here-did I ever learn this stuff or did I just forget it all?) and just had a fun "Geography Day with Friends" on Mexico. The value of money is a daily learning experience. Samuel "spent all his money again" on a toy dinosaur, and Maya is determined to save all of her money for a new bike! Samuel did want to save a couple of his dollars before going to the toy store, but decided against it when I told him that the toys he wanted cost more than $3. We are changing their allowance from weekly to monthly, in order to help him with saving it up.

Until next time,
Peace and Gratitude.