Stennis Space Center

I know I mentioned this in my weekly wrap-up, but this field trip deserves a post all by itself!

#3 told me she had never been on a bus before.  Poor homeschooled child!

When we lived in Houston we lived 30 minutes away from the NASA center.  You know--the one that when you think of Houston you think of NASA being there?  Yeah, that NASA center.  It has a really cool science center attached to it and everything.  In the four years we lived there do you know how many times we visited this wonderful NASA center?  0.  Yep, we never made it there.

#4 driving a space shuttle

So imagine my amusement when I realized that the field trip I signed up for this month without even looking at where it was or what we were doing because we missed all the summer field trips and I wanted to see everyone again was in fact a visit to the NASA center in Mississippi.  I found it quite amusing that we were driving an hour and a half to visit something that was only 30 minutes away for four years.

I was pleasantly surprised when we got there.  Turns out the Stennis Space Center is the second largest NASA center, second only to Kennedy Space Center.  This is actually where they test all the engines for the rockets.  Navy SEALS also train there, there are several military facilities on site, different colleges have buildings there, and many commercial companies use the area to test and build new products.

This picture actually doesn't do the size of this justice.  It is the size of two football fields.  Massive!

Another rocket tester

While there we were also treated to a volunteer who ran us through several different aspects of what an astronaut's life is like while in space.  I learned a lot of new things I had never heard of, but my favorite was how the astronauts eat their food with a spoon.  They literally shovel it in their mouths with the spoons turned vertical.  Awesome visuals!

When there are too many astronauts on the Space Station and not enough beds, the astronauts without a room will sleep in these bags, literally hooked on a wall.  They also wear that strap over their eyes to block out any light and keep their head against the pillow!  Crazy!

They eat with a tray strapped on their leg with velcro tabs to hold their food packets on the tray.

 The three oldest got to ride on a simulator.  I'm not sure exactly what it was of since I didn't go on it with them, but I heard about lava and almost hitting a lot of things.  They loved it!

And of course, the gift shop had astronaut ice cream.  I wanted to try it too so we got mint chocolate chip and chocolate.  If you've ever eaten those freeze dried yogurt bites they have for babies you'll have a sense of the texture of this stuff.  It didn't taste bad, but the texture was just weird!

The only ice cream allowed in the car!

We were also blessed to meet new friends today.  I actually met the Mom at our Mom's Night Out a couple of weeks ago and we knew that we were going to be seeing each other today.  Her three oldest are girls the same age as my oldest three.  I was hoping the six of them would hit it off.  Well, they did more than hit it off.  They immediately paired off with their "same age" friend and it was like they had been friends their entire life.  None of them were shy and once they started talking they didn't stop.  By the time we were ready to leave we had been invited to a birthday party for their third daughter and there was talk of letter writing and sleep overs.  Thankfully the Mom and I also get along well so I look for this family to become good friends for all of us! 

Yay for new friends!

I'm very thankful I finally made it to visit a NASA center, even if I had to drive to MS to do it!

Weekly Wrap-Up, Week 6ish

We actually only did school work for 2 days this week, but it was still week 6 so here we go!

We enjoyed the rest of our weekend with Hubby's brother.  We love the people at the congregation we were at and so that was also fun seeing all of them again.  And Arkansas is beautiful so we enjoyed being in the "country" and seeing the beauty of God's creation.

Sunday afternoon after a lunch and early afternoon service we got packed up and headed to my brother's which we will call The Farm from now on.  I have too many brothers to try to explain which one they are every time I mention them.  The brother and sis-in-law on The Farm are the ones with a daughter that is 6 months younger than #4.  Anyway, my brother raised and butchered a pig that we helped pay for some of the costs so we had a bunch of pork waiting for us there.  I thought it would take us longer to get to their place so we arrived in enough time to go to their evening services.  We weren't planning on attending church again so we were all in our travel clothes, but I think God knew our hearts.  We enjoyed seeing our family, even if it was only for a few hours.  I continue to be thankful that we are close enough to my brother and his family that we are comfortable crashing at their place any time.

Monday morning we headed home.  Once we were home and got the car unpacked we immediately piled back in the car to go shopping for a new washer.  I had done the research and knew which one I wanted, but I wanted to look at it first and make sure.  It was everything I thought it would be so we went ahead and bought it.  I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I wasn't prepared for it to take several days for the washer to come in.  Regardless, it didn't come in until Thursday.  Hubby got it all hooked up and I started washing clothes immediately.  Two weeks without doing laundry meant we were all getting low on the pants we had left to wear!  Ha!

Out with the old

In with the new

Tuesday was a cloudy, rainy day and I did not want to do school at all!  But I pushed through and we got everything done.  Since I knew that we were only doing school work for two days I didn't attempt IEW and just did language arts with the older two again.  We started in the middle of the IEW book with #2 this year so I think I'm going to start back up with #1 on her IEW book next week even though that makes about 4 weeks between papers for #2.  She has less to get through than #1.  I continue to be impressed with #1 and #2 and how they are getting their independent work done.  They are still getting done by Wednesday with everything usually.  #2 is more apt to stop working about an hour before lunch, but she sits down in the afternoon to finish what she needs to get done.  And now that we're 6 weeks in, they have taken several tests and proven that they are retaining the knowledge of what they are working on by themselves.  Very proud of them!  #3 seems to having a problem grasping the concept of reading to herself.  She is so used to reading to me that when I mention reading on her own she looks like she doesn't understand what I'm asking!  We're starting the Book-It program next month though and I'm hoping that will prompt her to read on her own since I won't be letting her count the books that she reads to me.  Mainly so that she'll have to read on her own!

Random sculpture outside of Stennis Space Center

Thursday we went on a field trip--our first one since May.  We had a lot of fun.  So much so that I'll have an entire post just about the trip!  And #3 lost another tooth.  I don't know how many she's lost.  Hubby tried to convince her that she only got 50 cents for her tooth since she's lost so many, but she was having none of that.  $1 it is!

Today was spent shopping and cleaning.  We're having about 35 people from church over here tomorrow for a Mystery Dinner.  More about that next time.  I don't want to give anything away!  Right now we're getting ready for family movie night.  Dessert is this--caramel covered chex.  It is really good!

Hope you all have a blessed weekend!

Weekly Wrap-up: Week 5

So this is going to be a little shorter since I'm at my brother-in-law's house with no laptop. Hubby's tablet is better than my phone, but it still takes way too long to type anything!

This week was a short school week since we left yesterday to come up to Arkansas.   So what does a short week look like for us? Not much different than a normal week really. I did language arts with both the older girls and didn't do any IEW since I knew three days wasn't going to be enough time to get an entire lesson done. I don't plan out our school year on more than a weekly basis so I can change stuff up like that without having to go back and change our entire schedule.  Since we don't ever know what our travel plans are when I plan our school year, not planning specific lessons to be done on certain weeks means we can be flexible in our schedule.  So when I plan our start and stop dates I just plan for the amount of time I know we'll probably take off and go from there. Much more freeing!

See, we do work!

As for life outside of school, on Monday I did my monthly, "there are a deals at 5 different stores that I want to get to, therefore we are going to hit all 5 stores in a single afternoon because having to go out for errands more than once a week is unacceptable" bit, and so we were out all afternoon on Monday. The girls all do really well on these trips, for which I'm thankful! And I'm teaching my girls how to shop smart--just another bonus!

The big event of the week was on Tuesday when our washer finally bit the dust. We've been having issues with it for a couple  of months that have just steadily gotten worse. It finally quit completely. Unfortunately, it had a full load of laundry and a tub full of water that wouldn't drain. So I ended up wringing out the clothes by hand to put them in the dryer. Since I couldn't get them very dry I had to do three loads in the dryer so I wouldn't burn out the dryer as well. Hubby took care of the water left in the washer and checked it out to see if there was something obviously wrong to be fixed. There wasn't. We decided that since it was 14 years old that we would be better off getting a new one than trying to get this one fixed. So I spent several hours online researching washers. I have to say, it really kills me to buy something this big without it being on sale! We looked at a couple of dent and ding places, but didn't find any that I wanted. So when we get home we're heading to Sears to get a new washer. Thankfully, a man at church has a truck and is willing to help Hubby get it home so we won't have to pay to get it delivered. And praise the Lord, for the first time in several years we have money in savings that we can use for this purchase!  I have to give a shout out again for Dave Ramsey's envelope system--it works!

We were early, so obviously we stopped for ice cream!

Now we're in Arkansas and Hubby starts a meeting tonight. The trip yesterday was actually a nice drive and we're enjoying spending time with Hubby's brother.  And Hubby is excited about eating at Hardees/Carl's Jr. for lunch! After the meeting we're going by my brother's place and picking up our half of the pig he raised and butchered. I'm looking forward to finding lots of new recipes for pork!

Weekley Wrap-up, Week 4

I read another blog who has a weekly wrap-up each week, just going over what they did that week in school and with their family.  I like that idea.  A lot of things happen during the week that I want to remember, but don't want to do an entire post about it.  So I'm taking the idea and running with it!

We have now finished our 4th week of school without missing a day.  WooHoo!  For some reason saying 4 weeks down, 32 to go makes it seem like we haven't accomplished anything, so I'm sticking with just 4 weeks down! 

We've finally found our groove as far as our flow chart/schedule goes.  Because #1's math takes longer to teach and complete she usually ends up sitting at the table doing different work without any breaks until about 11.  I explained that the reason that I do it that way is so that she can do math first and get it out of the way.  I could change it to where she has open time to work on her other subjects at the beginning, but then she would end up having to work until lunch.  She agreed that doing math first is the way she wants to do it, so we're sticking with that.  She usually ends up working for about an hour after lunch, but that is just so she can get all her work alone stuff done by Wednesday.  We can't have her little sister getting done before she does!

I've also switched it to where I do IEW with the girls on different weeks.  I was already teaching them out of separate books.  Because IEW takes longer to do than their language arts curriculum, having it where I was doing IEW with both of them the same week made for really long days, and then the week that we would do language arts we would be done with everything by 11.  Switching it up makes the weeks about even as far as how long it takes to get everything done. 

This week was my week to provide the meal before services Wednesday night.  We switch off to where someone brings food for everyone else to eat each week.  I end up bringing food about once every 6 weeks.  Expense wise it ends up being about the same to bring food for 20-30 people every 6 weeks as opposed to eating at home each week.  But I love not having to fix food on Wednesday night before church.  I don't have to try to come up with quick fix meals that we have to eat and clean up before leaving for church.  It is really nice!  This week was the first week I brought a non-Mexican dish.  What can I say?  Finding something to make that you bring from home without having a kitchen to do anything in at the church severely limits what I can bring and Mexican is what I do best!

The best part of this week happened Tuesday morning though.  I hadn't fallen asleep till about 3 Monday night and Hubby knew it so he turned my alarm off Tuesday morning without me knowing it.  I woke up at 9:20.  School is supposed to start at 9.  After looking at my phone trying to figure out how I had turned my alarm off, I jumped out of bed trying to get my brain to figure out what subjects I was going to cancel that day.  After I showered quickly I came out to the living room to find #1 and #2 working at the school table.  They told me that Hubby had told them to work on whatever school work they could because he had turned off my alarm.  They had done their Bible, gave each other their spelling tests, and #1 had gone through #2's language arts lesson with her.  I was super impressed that they had figured out what they could do together and so proud of them for working together.  It was also a moment of, "YES!  It's working!  I'm raising independent workers!"  This isn't something I would ever want them to have to do on their own right now, but it's nice knowing that if they had to they could. 

Is That You God?

Do y'all struggle with wondering if something happens in your life because God is speaking to you and trying to show you the path He wants you to take or if things just happen because they happen?  Hubby and I have always believed that when we pray about something God will show us the way He wants us to go.  But this wasn't something we were asking direction about, and it took me a while to catch on.

When we were in Houston we were a part of a Performing Arts Co-op, and we loved it.  #1 played the violin and was in choir, #2 played the recorder and was in choir, and #3 was in the little kids choir.  Of all the things I have always been sad about my children missing out on not going to public school, choir was definitely the one that I knew I would miss the most.  The Co-op filled that want perfectly. 

Then we moved.  And there was no performing arts co-op.  I did find a choir that met once a week in the evenings.  It wasn't a homeschool choir, but that wasn't necessarily what I was looking for.  I just wanted my girls to be in a choir.  We moved too late in the year last year for the girls to be involved, but I was waiting expectantly for the new school year so they could join. We eventually decided that just #1 would be in the choir this year.  So these are the events that happened that made us stop and think.

1.  The website hadn't been updated since their Christmas program last year.  I couldn't get any information off the website and was relying solely on getting emails from the director for information.

2.  I got an initial email from the director that was sent to anyone she had gotten any interest from about joining the choir at the beginning of August stating that they were still looking for a venue to hold auditions, but that they were expecting them to be held anywhere between the middle and end of August. 

3.  I kept my tendency to be in control of everything in check and did not contact the director on the 15th asking why I hadn't heard anything about the auditions.  I assumed they were having trouble finding a place to hold the auditions and I didn't want to be one of the parents bombarding her with emails. 

4.  When the end of August came and I still hadn't heard anything I decided to send an email making sure the auditions were still going to happen.  She wrote back saying we had missed the auditions by a week.  I never got the second email she sent out about when the auditions were going to be.

5.  The director stated that she was willing to let #1 audition for her as long as we were willing to come to her home.  However, she was having knee surgery the next day so I needed to wait a week and then call her to set up a time.  #1 was going to end up auditioning on Wednesday or Thursday and the choir started that Thursday night.  We had something going on Thursday afternoon, but I didn't think it would be a problem.  I never got to talk to the director.  She never answered her phone.  I was always leaving voice mails and then getting an email back after a couple of days.

6.  I told several people about #1 being a part of the choir and had reminded myself several times about needing to call the director on the exact day she said to.  That day came and went and I never thought about calling even one time.  This is not normal for me.  When I finally did think about it, around 7 that night, I was horrified that I had forgotten.  It's just not something that I do.  So I tried to call the director immediately.  Her phone rang several times, but never went to voice mail.  I sent her an email but hadn't heard anything from her by the next morning.   

At this point, I finally started to catch on that there were certainly a lot of road blocks being put up about #1 joining this choir.  It didn't make sense to me.  Why would God not want her to be a part of a choir?  But the more I prayed about it the more I became certain that that was indeed what God was trying to show us.  I talked with Hubby about it when he came home for lunch and we were in agreement that God was showing us that this wasn't the way He wanted us to go. 

Which is easy to establish in our own hearts and minds.  Not so easy to explain to our 11 year old who had been looking forward to this for a year.  I'm so thankful for her attitude about it.  She was upset, but she didn't question why we had made the decision after we explained it to her.  It didn't make it any easier to watch her cry though. 

Once I finally came to the realization that God wanted us to close this particular door I became aware of some things that had happened that might be pointing towards another door being opened, but that's for another post! 

Out of Nowhere--Again

I feel the need to state again that I don't post about my grief process to garner sympathy or to bring attention to myself.  I am also fully aware that losing my Grandma doesn't compare to losing a spouse, parent, or child.   I can not fathom that pain.  But I do want to put down these emotions and feelings and thoughts so that I can look back and remember the different stages I went through.  I also know that grief in someone else is something that a lot of people find hard to deal with.  If I can help someone know how to help someone who is grieving that's even better. 

For the past month or so I noticed that I was getting a lot more emotional whenever I would think about Grandma.  I had gotten to the point that I didn't feel like crying every time I thought about her, but I felt like I was beginning to go backwards.  Every time I thought about her I would get choked up.  Random songs we sang in church would make me cry.  There was no rhyme or reason.  Nothing I was doing would remind me specifically of Grandma.  The songs we sang didn't hold any special meaning necessarily.  I grew up going to church with Grandma so really any song could hold a memory of her singing if I let it.  But the instances were becoming more frequent when I would think about her and not be able to help crying. 

I asked Hubby last Sunday if he knew why I might be getting more emotional again.  I didn't know if there was part of the grief process that you start to feel this way for no particular reason.  Me being me would have felt better if I knew there was a specific reason I felt this way.  He was not helpful when he said that it is just normal to go through "waves" of grief.  (I say that very lovingly--Hubby has been an amazing support through this whole process.)  But it wasn't helpful in that I didn't have any reason other than "it's normal". 

Tuesday morning was a normal morning.  We finished everything we needed to for school, ate lunch, got things accomplished around the house.  Then about 3 in the afternoon I was reading and I had a fleeting thought about how much Grandma liked to read and I found myself unable to stop crying.  It wasn't an all-out sobbing or anything, more like the tears never really stopped.  I kept to myself in my room, mainly because my girls are very sensitive and seeing me cry makes them cry and I knew I wasn't able to handle that emotionally.  When Hubby got home and I told him how I was feeling he took over all parenting duties and left me alone.  Which was just what I needed.  I didn't want to talk about anything, I just needed time to myself.  So I tried to keep my mind busy, but occasionally thoughts of Grandma would slip in and I would cry for a while and then stop and then start again.  Nothing dramatic, I just felt like crying the whole night.  I didn't sleep well that night either.  I just couldn't turn my brain off. 

I was hoping that by Wednesday morning I would feel like myself again, but I knew as soon as I woke up that I actually felt worse.  The term "weighed down with grief" suddenly made perfect sense.  I literally felt like my entire body was weighed down.  My head felt too heavy for my neck, it required effort to lift my arms, I shuffled instead of walked because my legs didn't feel like they were working right.  My eyelids were heavy and my tongue even felt thicker.  I went ahead and did school with the girls, although we cut a couple of subjects.  My brain didn't feel like it was working and I just didn't feel like I could handle Mommy duties.  I crawled back in bed about 11 and I didn't really get out of it for the rest of the day.  Hubby came home for lunch and then I just let the girls watch movies for the rest of the afternoon.  Strangely enough, I wasn't weepy on Wednesday.  I'm not sure I cried at all that day.  But I never did feel any better.  I didn't even attempt church.  One because I didn't feel like getting ready and being around people, and two because I felt like I would just spend the entire time crying. 

I did sleep fairly well that night and when I woke up on Thursday I felt like myself again.  And I have ever since.  I'm not weepy.  I can think about Grandma again without crying.  I don't understand why it happened and apparently I'm not going to.  Although, if it does happens again I feel better prepared to handle it. 

Hubby was amazing through those two days.  He gave me space, which was exactly what I needed.  I didn't want to talk about anything and I didn't need his shoulder to cry on this time.  I just needed to be left alone until I had gotten it all out of my system.  I do wonder how I'll know if someone just needs space like I did.  I was able to tell Hubby without worrying about hurting his feelings, but I know when someone is well-meaning and wants to "do" something for someone it's not easy to tell them that you just want to be left alone.  I guess I can just hope that I can be the type of friend that if someone who is grieving wants to be left alone they feel like they can tell me without worrying about hurting my feelings.  They have enough to deal with without worrying about offending me. 

An Unexpected Blessing

Do you ever start out your day thinking it is going to be just a normal day and then by the end of the day have something unexpected happen that was a surprise and a blessing for your or your family?  I had that happen a couple of weeks ago.

It was actually after our overnight camping trip we took before school started.  We were there Thursday night and went to the waterfalls on Friday, but there was a church in town that was having a singing Friday night that we wanted to be back for.  Now, I've had my moments of not being happy about having to attend a church function or two, but I'm pretty sure I haven't ever felt that way about anything having to do with singing.  I'm a dork, I get it.  Hubby and the girls are the same as me though, we all love to sing.  So we were all looking forward to going to the singing. 

We made it home with just enough time to shower and eat some dinner and then we headed out.  I know this will be a shocker for you, but I don't actually love going in to a situation where I don't know people.  It's always awkward meeting new people and knowing what to say and when to stop talking and try to find a seat that hopefully isn't a pew that a family has been sitting in for 10 generations.  But we found a pew that looked relatively unlived in.  Translation: there were no worn personal Bibles, toys, books or papers on the pew.

The singing started right at 7 and we sang for two hours straight.  Let me say again, our family loves to sing.  But by the time we had sung for two hours we were ready to be done!  At the very least we needed some water! 

That is the point that I met the lady and her husband and their boys that had been sitting behind us.  Not only had I enjoyed their singing, I had gathered that he was also a preacher.  We chatted for a little bit and then went to check on our respective children who just happened to be sitting together.  So we chatted some more and it turns out that we have a lot in common.  Preacher's wife with young children who homeschools.  Awesome!  But you want to know when I knew I had found someone who was bound to be a friend?  When she said that she was glad to have met me because she was always looking for other families with girls for perspective mates for her boys.  Yep--this lady speaks my language! 

And that was my unexpected blessing for the day.  I don't know how often we'll get to see this new family, they live about 2 hours away, but even if we don't see each other a lot I made a new friend that night.  One whom I have a lot in common and liked within just a few minutes of talking with her.  And that is a true blessing!