Homeschooling Adventure

We are homeschooling. This was a very tough choice for us to make. My husband and I were 100% ready to send out children to the public school this fall. Although we had prior conversations as to homeschooling being the calling for our family we were choosing to ignore that this fall. After we found out about Butterfly Girl and her diagnosis, homeschooling just seemed to difficult. We knew that we would be spending a lot of time at the doctor, a lot of time doing therapy, and that Butterfly Girl would need a lot of our attention. Public school was the easy way to do things. Send our oldest two to school and help out Butterfly Girl as much as possible. Then something changed. We went on a weekend long family camping trip. On this trip my husband and I got to talking. We discussed our prior plans to home school. We discussed our fears with going along with public school. Most importantly we discussed our calling from our Heavenly Father. We felt as though we were being convicted by God to rethink about our homeschooling plans. It was brought to the for front of our minds that God was not going to call us to home school and then not help us succeed. What he brings us to he will help us through. We truly believe that we have been called to home school. We know there will be trials and tribulations. We know that some days will be better then others. It does bring a great peace among our house knowing that we are following the path God has created for us.

Our homeschooling adventure will be starting in 12 days. We will be starting our schooling year along with most of the other schools here in Michigan. I am excited to get started and I think I am mostly prepared. It will be a challenge I am sure. Our oldest started out her life with some challenges and we behind in speech and motor developments. Now that she is on track we still have Butterfly Girl that is behind. I am sure that this life of homeschooling and managing a special needs child will be difficult, but it is one God has brought us. I am excited to show you some pictures of what our homeschooling area looks like.

Here is our homeschooling wall. The kiddlets will sit at the table in the bottom of the pictures.

 

Below are some books that we are going to use with Monkey Girl, but also with the bigger kiddlets. They have basic shapes, colors, numbers, letters and the like. They also have the Spanish words for everything, along with a pronunciation guide. I am super excited about getting the kids a little Spanish.

 

Here is a picture of what each child gets to keep in their drawers. (below will be a picture of the drawers)

 

Here is a picture of our drawers. I'm pretty excited that everything is all organized and such.

 

 

 

This gives you a wee bit of an idea on how I have things set up. Later I will give you an idea on what we are using curriculum wise and what our supplies look like. I am excited to be able to share our journey with all of you. I can not wait to share in my joys and trails. My lows and my highs.

 

Your prayers are greatly accepted as we travel this path. I know that we are doing the right thing by following the Lords path.

 

Thanks for following our journey.

Wednesday's

Wednesdays are the hardest day of the week. Wednesday's are the day when so much get done, yet I feel like I have accomplished nothing.

You see, we run a not for profit company called Sole Aid. (check them out here: www.soleaid.org) One Wednesday's we do our shoe route. We go to all the local businesses that are collection sights and pick up what they have collected for the week. We leave our house to start the day at 10am. Because we live 15-20 minutes away from any remote civilization (town in this case), we don't get to start our route right away. Also because Wednesday is pay day for the hubs, it usually means a trip to the gas station for some gasoline on the way. We typically don't even touch a shoe until 10:30 am. In the middle of the shoe route we stop by the library. We drop off the books from the week before and get all new ones. The kids love this because then they can read (look) at something new in the car while we finish our route. We then finish up our route. After our route is done we head for the store to pick up the weeks groceries. Once again Wednesday is pay day and by this time each week our cupboards are bare and the kids are complaining there is nothing to eat. So I file all the kids into the store, get what we need, and then we head home. We usually do not arrive home until 1pm. We only arrive before 1pm if we do not go visit my mom and my brothers kids. Today we did just that. We went with them to the farmers market. This means we didn't get home until 4pm. By this time we needed to get the car unloaded, things put away, and about starting dinner.

So my point is this. A lot of stuff gets done because we get groceries, do our shoe route, and go to the library. A lot of stuff also doesn't get done. This such as laundry and other house work related things. I can only imagine Wednesday's will be that much harder when we add schooling into the mix.

By the way, only 13 days until we start officially here at the Rus Academy of Family learning. We are super excited. I will have to remember to take pictures of all our supplies and and little learning area and post pictures!

I statements

I really need to start using "I" statements when talking to people, even family. We were at a wedding this weekend, kid free, and we still could not escape talk of Butterfly Girl and her disabilities. It was very frustrating as is every conversation is about her.

See what people don't seem to understand is that we have been to three medical professionals, we see four therapists on a weekly to monthly basis. We have been told the same thing by all of these professional who are working with our sweet girl. Yet people can not seem to fathom her condition. They still say that we must be wrong. The claim that she can see, they claim that we, her parents, are wrong. "She looks at me," they say. How frustrating. I then come on the attack. I say, "You just don't understand. You never will. Unless you spend any amount of time with her you will not truly get what we go through." This in turns make people upset. I am attacking them for their opinion, for their voice, and they do not care for that. I need to change how I react.

From now on I need to start using "I" statements. Things such as "I feel like a bad parent when you think she can see, but medical professionals are saying differently." "I feel hurt when you think we are not being truthful about Butterfly Girl's condition." I know I need to come up with lots more. I am going to try my best to use these types of statements when talking to people. Even family because it is family I want to attack the most when they make such crazy statements.

I think that this new way of addressing people will be great for everyone involved.

Long List, No Answer

Butterfly Girl had her appointment at the Neurodevelopment center. It was hopeless. It left us more frustrated and confused then when we went in. We were given two very long lists. One of these lists were all of the things Butterfly girl was delayed on. Everything that she didn't quite measure up when compared to other babies her age. The second list was all of the possibilities of things that could be wrong. All the diagnosis that she could eventually have. The one thing we still lacked was clarity. We lacked an answer as to why our baby girl is the way she is. It once again left me frustrated beyond belief. Grieving for the life my baby has to life. The unanswered questions. Praying the Lord will shed some light upon this situation soon. I trust and believe that it is all in his timing and that he has the answers. He will reveal them at his time.

To Do Lists

My to do lists are super long the past few days. For me this is a coping technigue. If I have a list as long as the Mississippi River I will never have time to think about Butterfly Girl's up coming appointment. I have always been a bit OCD and have never gone a day without a list, but some days are better for me the others. For the most part I stick to my Daily 15 list. Yes, I have things that I do every day and then fill in whatever else is left with other things until I hit 15 things to do for the day. It keeps my house running smooth, laundry alwasy done, dishes out of the sink, and the house always partial clean. I only say partially clean because I am the mother of four small children in which the house will never be perfectly spotless. Today is different, the list is never ending. I wish I could just enjoy the days leading up to this appointment, but it brings so much anxiety. Instead I fill the day with lots of things to do. Don't for a minute think that I am wasting my time doing all these things and not spending time with my kids. Not true. I just have planned fun things to do with them instead of just enjoying where the moments take us. My kids like the planned activities and it helps me keep the time busy. Oh and not to mention the house is super clean. To do lists are amazing. Lists in general are lives tool for keeping things together. For me at least. If you think I am one crazy momma you may just be right! haha... That is quite alright with me. I take pride in my crazy!

Reflection

This morning I was awaken to MUCH cooler temperatures and a gentle breeze. Shortly after that perfect awaking my mind started racing. It hit me like a ton of bricks that we had just spent hundreds of dollars on a new refrigerator (ours was 62 degrees when we woke up yesterday morning) and that the appointment that I have been dreading for Butterfly Girl is coming up at the end of the week.
I was not about to let the anxiety keep me down. So I started with what I do best, a list. I listed everything that I would like to see get done today and started at it. Keeping myself and my brain busy with what needed to be accomplished today. Soon that didn't help. Part of what needed to be done today was balancing the checkbook, paying bills, and then like. Doing those jobs gives me even more anxiety. Then I stopped. I took a minute. Then two things came to mind.

 1. "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11.

This is something I so desperately need to keep my focus on when it comes to Butterfly Girl. I should have it be my focus all the time, I know, but I need to even more so when it comes to her. Her appointments are so draining sometimes. I have a hard time remembering that even in my pain he has a plan. Even in the time of uncertainty in life HE has a plan for my baby. This plan involves CVI, this plan involves developmental delays, this plan involves lots of extra care and work. This is HIS plan for my sweet child. HIS plan for my perfect angel. It is hard, but needs to be done. I have to remind myself of HIS plan for our life. I also have to remember that his plans for our life our his plans and that although we may want to change them we are disobeying when we do.  God is perfect!
2. The lyrics from a song of Chris Tomlin's

Give thanks to the Lord
Our God and King
His love endures forever
For He is good, He is above all things
His love endures forever
Sing praise, sing praise
With a mighty hand
and outstretched arm
His love endures forever
For the life that's been reborn
His love endures forever
Sing praise, sing praise
Sing praise, sing praise

Yeah
Forever God is faithful
Forever God is strong
Forever God is with us
Forever
Forever

From the rising to the setting sun
His love endures forever
By the grace of God
We will carry on
His love endures forever
Sing praise, sing praise
Sing praise, sing praise
Yeah
Forever God is faithful
Forever God is strong
Forever God is with us
Forever
Forever
Forever God is faithful
Forever God is strong
Forever God is with us
Forever
Forever
Forever

His love endures forever
His love endures forever
His love endures forever
Forever
Sing praise, sing praise
Sing praise, sing praise
Yeah
Forever you are faithful
Forever you are strong
Forever you are with us
Forever
And ever
Yeah

Forever you are faithful
Forever you are strong
Forever you are with us
Forever
Forever
You are God.....
Forever
And ever and ever ...

By this song I am reminded that His love endures forever. It reminds me that he is faithful and strong. He is the perfect person to entrust this journey to. He has set this journey before us even before Butterfly Girl was born. I am also reminded that despite the money we had to spend on the fridge, or the TV, or anything else for that matter that HE is faithful.

My husband and I were talking about how true God is to us because every time we get extra money something breaks. And as much as we would love to save that money for fun, God has allowed for things in our house to stay working long enough for us to get extra money. He has never allowed anything to break when we felt like we would have had to make the choice to cut other things in order to buy what was broken. That is a huge answer to prayers. He has the perfect plan in spite of us not always thinking its perfect.

As I continued to give God my worries and anxiety I felt the day get better and better. I have peace of mind knowing that God has plans for our life and that he is faithful. I will still have worries about Butterfly Girl's appointment. I will still sometimes wish we had the extra money still, but that will come and go like the ocean waves.

My list keeps me going, but it is no longer what is driving me today to keep my mind off of things. God has taken care of that. Now I can work on my list without my distracting brain trying to make me think about things to come. What a journey we are on. What a path we have been given. It is surly lit by the light of the Lord.

August 1, 2012

Today is a day in history. Somethings happened at our house that I never thought would. You see we lead a simple life for the most part. Our kids don't have all the techie gadgets, we barely watch TV, and we like to keep things simple. We garden, compost, make our own laundry soap and more. Some people call us cheap, crunchy, and maybe even crazy. Our children do not know how to work an x-box, the Wii, or even the computer very well. So why is today such an important day in the Rus Family history?

We bought a 32 inch LED TV!! We topped off our purchase with a TV antenna. This is big stuff for our little family. First of all we had an old analog 19 inch TV that finally died. It just stopped working all together. The old TV was probably 10 + years old. I never thought we would see a new TV and I really was shocked that it was a BIGGER TV. We still refuse to pay for cable or satellite so we just bought an antenna. We set this all up after the kiddlets were in bed so they will be shocked in the morning. They will be glad that we can start watching Bible Man and Gigi again.

So today is a day in history. May not be a big deal to some people, but it is a big deal here.