The best presents are free

Well another birthday has come and gone. We had a wonderful birthday vacation at the mountain house (pics to come later). It was calm and relaxing and gave me plenty of time to think about the second half of the year.

I never realized what a blessing it is having a birthday in the very middle of the year. As a child my birthday never got celebrated at school like the other kids birthdays. I hated that. As an adult it's given way to a new take on goal setting and evaluating how my year is going. The first of the year is always an exciting time. Making resolutions that you will most likely not keep. Thinking about the year ahead and how it's going to be the best year ever!

Then life happens.

I think more has happened to our family in the first half of this year than in any other year combined. My grandmother passed very unexpectedly (and honestly it was kinda traumatically). Then we had to pull J out of school which was also quite unexpected. Finally F was diagnosed with Apraxia and Strabismus. Once again, you guessed it, quite unexpectedly. Really though. In the previous year there were no signs that any of this was going to happen. Then wham!! Life hits you in the face and you never even saw it coming.

BUT! To have a birthday in the middle of the year brings a new sense of hope and optimism with it. The first half didn't work out quite as well as I thought it would, but now I've got the opportunity to reevaluate and regroup and start again. It's a new year of life for me and once again I have the gift of getting re energized and making new resolutions (that I may or may not keep... stay tuned...) and thinking about my new year of life ahead and how it's going to be the best year ever! That's right, you can't stomp my shine ;-)

So back to my actual birthday. I came down in the morning and saw I had a few birthday messages on facebook. While reading them over I also saw people posting their back to school pictures as well. In our area year round school is huge and 3 of the 4 tracks went back to school yesterday. This is a little bittersweet for me. One of the things I've struggled with in taking the kids out of public school is the fear of missing out. This is very stupid I know because also in this area homeschool is huge. Anything a public school student can do, a homeschool student can do. Sports, proms, graduation, you name it, we've got it all and there are a lot of us doing it. None-the-less it still tugs at me every once in a while since this journey is never one I thought we'd be on.

So as I'm looking at all these pics trying not to let my mind go down that road, hubby makes a comment to J that it was time to get back to school. J then turned to hubby and said "but I don't want to go back to that kindergarten school, I want to homeschool". He then came into the living room and asked if we could get back to homeschooling. God never ceases to amaze me. His timing is perfect. Of course it is, it's all in his plan and has been all along. He knew that I needed that affirmation that we're doing the right thing for our family at that exact moment and he gave it to me. I hadn't even mentioned anything to hubby about getting back to homeschooling that day so I don't know where that comment even came from except that the entire exchange was prompted from God, for me. He gifted it to me on my birthday.

If that wasn't enough, the cherry on my sundae came that night. As you know F has Apraxia and can be very difficult to understand at times. Since her very first birthday she has HATED the happy birthday song. When everyone starts singing it she begins screaming like you're hurting her. Always. At every party one of us has to walk away with her a safe distance and she covers her ears because she knows it's coming. At her own last birthday party even she covered her ears and no one sang the song, we all just said happy birthday together. So finally last night we were at my parents house for dinner and they all started to sing the song. Of course as a mom my first reaction was to turn to F and see what she'd do. Then the most amazing thing happened. She not only didn't scream, but she also didn't cover her ears. Then, she began to sing. I'm not even sure if the words were right or if it was just the melody, but what I do know is that my little girl sang me Happy Birthday and that's the best present I could've asked for.

Can I call out??

The one thing about being a mom is the inability to never call out sick. Let me tell you being sick while taking care of three kids is an adventure. Especially when I can't take them to school and have a quiet house to be sick in. Hmmmmmm... Didn't consider that when making the homeschool decision... Might've rethought that decision now... Oh I'm kidding (I think). Anyway, how is it that when you get sick your children decide that's the time they need you most?? Better yet, that's the exact time they decide to assert their independence!

Take F for example. She's three (really nuff said right there). I've been working with her on learning how to dress herself, buckle her own seatbelt (she's in a 5pt harness so it is easier said than done), and not need help after going potty. So naturally she has chosen now as the time to insist that she does all these things. "No mommy I do!!". Great. So I'm left standing there in a fever induced, achy body, stuffed up sick coma watching her sweet little self try and do it, for what seems like, five thousand times the wrong way. She's so proud of herself though I can't help but be happy for her... That is of course until this whole process starts again and then I'm ready to pull my hair out and say "forget independence!! It's overrated! Let mommy do it...". Alas, that's not what happens though... Bless her little heart :-)

Then you've got S. This week she's decided to become mobile. She's finally sitting up and now that she has this new view on life she's setting out to discover it! Enter the baby proofing. I mean this girl's gonna need it. She is everywhere and has already proven (on a couple occasions) that there can't be any tiny piece of anything on the floor or she's getting it. Following in the footsteps of her brother and sister she loooooves books. Of course she's mostly interested in tearing them up and trying to eat them... That reminds me, must get more tape...

Surprisingly, J is my easy child right now. Wow. Never thought those words would come out of my mouth. He's great though really. My big helper who I can count on to get me through the day right now. Even if he does create a big mess at least he can clean it up himself. That is gold in my book.

I do need to give a shout out to my awesome husband and parents (my village). I am easily the luckiest person on the planet because my parents live a mile away. When push comes to shove they can be here in two minutes to bail me out and help me with the kids if everything goes upside down (like the time I nearly killed myself in a big mishap with the Excursion while pregnant with S, and dad was there in 2 minutes flat to take the kids until hubby got there, meanwhile I fell to absolute pieces). Yeah, they're good like that.

Hubby is an amazing dad. He can take charge of any situation and get everything done with the kids for me so I can get well. Seriously, without him I'd be lost... And probably extremely grouchy. Thank goodness my village makes a mean cup of coffee and breakfast every morning. I'm not talking cereal either... Eggs, bacon, toast... Mmmmmm... You know I think bed is calling my name. I'll be that much closer to breakfast. Which does get delivered in bed occasionally. Don't be jealous :-)

J's 6th Birthday

As I've said before, this has been a big year for J so I really wanted him to have an extra special birthday. After much thought we decided to rent a bounce house for the yard! The whole thing was almost completely ruined by a tropical storm that came through the day before. Our neighbor lost a tree and there was flooding throughout the area. Fortunately we have a pretty long driveway and was able to relocate the party to the front of the house. It even rained on us a bit as we were getting set up. Then a half hour before the party was to start it was as if God literally turned the water off, parted the clouds and the sun came out in full force. I could not believe it. We dumped out the accumulated water and dried off the tables and raced to get it all together. It was a gorgeous day and the kids (and adults) had a blast!! I know I sound like a broken record at times, but I'm so happy and proud of my little man. He has worked so hard this year, overcome many obstacles, and we couldn't be more happy with how it all came together. Happy Birthday to my sweet J, we love you so much!

By the way, yes I made the cake, helmet and football pinata. I apparently have too much time on my hands. Maybe we should just have another baby since I've got all this time.... hahahahahahaha! Well there's your laugh for the day ;-)

Homeschool... how did we get here??

This is our last official week of kindergarten for J and what a year it has been! The whole homeschool subject is one we're asked about a lot. Why are we doing it, how do we do it, and the best is "You're not going to do it forever are you??". I'm going to go ahead and just try to answer a few of those questions in a nut shell... We started out the year full of excitement and expectations about going to big kid school, and ended up delighted and happy at our brand new homeschool instead. So how did we get here?? Well, that's complicated. I've been struggling for a while as to how much I wanted to say about this subject, if anything at all. It's a very long story and I just don't want to go into to many details, but I also did want to talk about it a little bit for the purpose of encouraging others who may be dealing with some of these issues as well. There are those of you who know a lot and those of you who know little to none so I'll try and keep it short.

J was diagnosed last year with ADHD. His kindergarten class consisted of 24 kids, 1 teacher, and 1 assistant who was only there for half of the day. Three weeks into the school year we were brought in for a conference where the teacher informed us that J was immature for his age and we needed to take him out of school and give him another year. The kicker is she had felt this way since day one but the school would not allow her to talk to us about it until he had been there for three weeks. She called us exactly on the last day to schedule the meeting. Taking J out of school after he had already been there, formed friendships, and told everyone in the world how excited he was to be there was not an option. Not to mention there were about 3 different professionals (of various sort) telling us that holding him back would not be a good idea because of how smart he is. They also didn't agree with the teacher's assessment of his personality.

Things just went downhill from there. I could list all kinds of reasons as to what went wrong, but at the end of the day it really just came down to the school failing to be there for him and refusing to help. I'm in a very lucky position to have the ability to stay at home with the kids. While I never imagined we'd be a homeschool family, I couldn't allow anyone to hold J back from reaching his full potential. After a lot of prayer we came to the decision that this was the best thing for everyone.

As far as how we do it... I am very lucky to have a husband who is supportive of homeschool. Both parents having a passion for homeschooling is critical in my opinion. Living where we do has also been a huge help to me. I didn't know it before, but homeschooling is actually quite large in this area. The homeschool groups, co-ops, and resources are amazing.

Although we are getting ready to finish our year, I am already getting ready for next year. We've got a great homeschool group that we've joined, a few field trips already planned, and curriculums picked out and ready to go. I am so excited to connect with new people, visit some new places, and see all that is in store for us in the next year!

As for the question pertaining to how long we intend to homeschool, the short answer is I don't know. We never intended on being a homeschool family in the first place so I can't tell you how long we plan on doing it. All I can tell you is that as of right now we have no intention of stopping. If that takes us all the way through high school then so be it. We believe that God has put us in this place and he will direct us in the path we will take when that time comes. For now, we will continue enjoying every minute (well, almost every minute, haha)!

All about us

So more about us for those that aren't family... I was born and raised in Florida. I love it there, especially Sarasota which is where we lived through my teen years. It feels wonderful when I get to go back and visit. The sun, the salt in the air, the radio stations which are infinitely better than ours... ahhhh I could go right now. Somehow or another I got talked into moving to North Carolina with my sister and her husband and their brand new baby after highschool though. It sounded like a great change and adventure. It only took 9 months of living here before I met my soulmate and we've been inseparable ever since. It started off as an innocent ride on motorcycles (sorry mom and dad) and ended up with 3 kids, 2 dogs , 1 cat and a mortgage. Since moving here I've discovered I can definitely feel my families mountain roots in my blood and could never imagine moving away from the mountains. How lucky am I that my husbands family has a home in the mountains for us to escape to as often as possible :-)

Our children are amazing. Our oldest and only boy, J, is full of life and energy and is smarter than I'll ever be. He keeps me on my toes and is ALL boy. Our middle and oldest girl, F, is such a sweet princess. She's caring and bright and we call her our little mommy. She loves all things girly and pink. Our baby girl, S, is a little young yet but I can already tell you she's our sunshine. Countless smiles and love just radiate from her sweet little face. We are such blessed parents.

I'll also tell you that we are a homeschooling family as well. Everyone has a reason or story as to what has brought them to the decision to homeschool. At this point in time I'm going to hang on to our reasons as to why we're a homeschooling family, but I will tell you that I never (and I mean NEVER) thought we'd be one. You'd be amazed at how you can change for the well being of your children though. I have to tell you that so far we are loving it!! That's definitely not say there haven't been challenging days where I've wondered "what the heck have I gotten myself into", but I would still wouldn't change a thing.

Finally, I can tell you that we would not be where we are today if it weren't for our devotion and faith in God and that he is in full control of our lives.

So that's about enough info about us. I hope you enjoy all the updates and I myself can't wait to see what adventures are in store for us! Till next time...

Welcome to my little corner of the web

I've been mulling over starting a blog for a couple years now but never got started because of two things. First, I wasn't sure what exactly I wanted to talk about, and second I could never decide on a name! A few days ago it finally came to me when I was listening to Bob Marley (of all things). If you haven't guessed, or have been living under a rock, I'm referring to Three Little Birds (I'll fill you in on why in a second).

First of all I just want to say that I went to school for marketing. I'm not a writer. I know several people that are writers and I'm not nearly as eloquent as they are, nor do I have the large vocabulary that they do. I'm a simple girl and will most definitely have numerous spelling and gramatical errors. If you can make it through all of my mistakes and still want to read then welcome to my little corner of the web :-)

So, here it goes...

The decision to start a blog mostly came out of necessity. There's a whole side of my family that's not on facebook (you know who you are...) and are always asking for the pictures and updates that I post on facebook. Since I don't have enough hours in my day to send all these updates to all the different people in our large family I've just decided to streamline the process and put it on a blog.

As for the name "Three Little Birds", obviously it's a reference to the fact that we have 3 children but it's so much more than that. The past few years have been a roller coaster for our family for a lot of reasons but our one constant is the love and joy that our little ones bring to our lives. Every morning they come running into our rooms with vigor and excitement for life. At the end of the day after everything is said and done, no matter what life throws at us, I know that as long as we have each other every little thing is going to be alright... a little cheesy right?? I thought so ;-)