Mommy of Many®

I dance my way through each day and because of this I’ve become a pretty, darn-good dancer. There are those times, though, that I miss a step and even stumble. Take this story;

As the end of last school year approached, we did a lot of talking about whether Kateri would return to school or come back home and do a year at a local school. One of the biggest issues was financial. We just weren’t sure it would or could come together and we didn’t want her taking out a loan for the year. As we neared the last couple weeks of school, we really got our heads around the idea that she would be coming home. Then, out of the blue, a Student Success Counselor stepped in and took an interest in her and her story. He was particularly touched by the fact that she was the oldest child of a large family, who’s father was currently deployed. In only 3 days we went from her coming home to having nearly ALL the $$ for the year AND a place, off-campus, for her to live. He really jumped in with both feet and made it all happen! We spent the summer talking about how awesome he was and what a great job he did. So, when school started again, we decided to send him a gift basket to say “thank you”, for his great work. I got online and chose a basket that I thought suited the situation and sent it on it’s way. It wasn’t until a day or two later, that I realized I never sent a personal message with it! That’s right, a random gift basket was going to show up at his office from virtually nowhere. I had to laugh at the fact that I was on-the-ball enough to get it sent but tripped over my feet when it came to the actual details!

Today I made a call to his office and left a voice msg. explaining the situation. I received a call-back a couple of hours later and we both had a good laugh. He and his wife had been enjoying the basket, but really didn’t know why it had shown up.

Such is my life! Dancing, dancing……sometimes with grace and sometimes looking tipsy………

Have a great day~

I’ve spent the last month observing the differences between the private school system, that we spent the last 8 years in and the public school system that my boys are now in. After a month of schooling the conclusion I came to is that I needed to buy some workbooks and sit them down each night to supplement what they are getting at school. The problem is that they get home and have nothing to do. We are used to the routine of;

Get home, have an after school snack, do your chores, do your homework, dinner and bed.

Suddenly, there’s a big chunk missing because Tristan has only a packet of homework that consists of 5 pages and it’s due on Friday and Max has NO homework. So, I started the workbooks on Monday and found that Max (and Gabi) was REALLY eager to be doing and learning in his after school time. I also discovered……HE CAN READ! Seriously, I was floored! He did several workbook pages of opposites, last night and each one had only one word describing the action or object on the page. At first I thought he was just noticing the pictures and making a good guess for each word. Then he sounded out “empty” and I knew he was truly reading. I tested him on other words and, sure thing……reading!

Go Max!

Have a great day~