Morning musings......

if that's how you spell the word?  

Last night Malachi had his interview with the Bishop for turning 12.  I guess he passed, YEA!!!!!!!!!! so on Sunday he will be ordained to be a Deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood and will be able to pass the Sacrament this Sunday!  Wow, I'm starting to feel old here. That's two in Young Mens now.  We also had a sit down with the Bishop and he asked a lot of questions.  Mostly, how long have you been members, are you active members, what kind of callings, blah, blah, blah.........  I guess with everything they have going on with this ward, he has some important areas to fill.  The ward has a lot of new members so there is a lot of growing and learning that needs to be done, but since we are only here for the next 6 months, I  feel we should be used more in a supportive callings.  Primary is struggling, the Elder's Quorum President doesn't even live in this stake anymore, and just support for the members in general is a big thing for right now.  The missionary couple who is in this ward are just so excited that we moved in. I guess every Wednesday night, besides being youth night, the ward holds a scripture study class for the adult members or for anyone who wants to show up really. We spent the hour before class last night driving around picking members up who don't have a vehicle, which is also a huge problem in this ward, and then shuttling everyone home afterwards.  We told the missionaries that we could also help on Sundays since the couple missionaries have been picking up most of the members by themselves. Since church doesn't start until 10am and I am hoping to teach piano to anyone interested in the morning before church, Shel will drop us off early at the church and go around and help pick up families who want to come to church.  Between the two cars we hope it will help a bit.  Since my driving has cut down considerably since moving here, we feel we can do that without an extra strain on us.  

I also talked with the Bishop about cub scouts and said that I needed to get DJ done with his bear requirements before his next birthday, so I would come on Wednesdays and hold cub scouts and if any of the other kids wanted to join along we could get that going.  The Bishop excited to get this going and said the stake had been pushing him to get something going in the ward as well, so Sheldon will work with the Webelo  age boys, and I will do the wolf  and bears.  He told us that he would make it an official calling on Sunday, but I don't think that this will be the only calling we will be getting in this ward? He needs teachers, ward missionaries ect, ect, ect........... the list goes on.    

I kind of feel like I'm on my mission again.  I worked in some area's that was a lot like here.  I can say that this has really brought home the true need the church has for couple missionaries and the great benefit they are to struggling areas, even here in the states. I always thought that it would be fun to go to a foreign mission as a couple, but I can see us wanting to come back here and work too.  The ward members have been so open to us here and have made us feel welcomed and wanted.  We truly have felt blessed.  

Just a comment......

It's been almost one week since I wrote on here.  Things have been slowly coming into place with school and other things in the house.  We still have so much to do with going through boxes an things.  I need to set a goal for one box a day until we are in full swing with this homeschooling.  After Monday's stressful start  I started wondering if Malachi would be able to pull off doing a full years work in just a few months.  Today went a lot smoother so I'm  thinking he won't have to much of a problem with his math, science, history and spelling.  It's the writing that will be the beast.  Hopefully, we can tackle the beast with as little frustration as possible.

I am learning that DJ is a lot smarter than he lets off.  I don't know if he just gets a little bored with school, or just has to have some down time, but the things he remembers and the answers he comes up with is surprising to say the least.  It's really sad that a 4th grader is better at grammar than his adult mother;(  I guess homeschooling will be a good for me too.  We have been reviewing a few areas in grammar and will add some math review and spelling this next week.  I have to say I am mentally exhausted at the end of each day and can't wait to crawl into bed.  I went to sleep early last night and I'm thinking it will be an early night tonight too.

Tomorrow we are to meet with the Bishop in our new ward.  Malachi will also have his 12 yr old interview with him too.   Wednesday night is the night scheduled for youth night and the missionaries schedule that night for the adults to come and study the scriptures while they wait for their kids.  They also are starting up a choir but that will met on SUndays as usual.  I guess they have done a lot of negro spirituals in the past, but are trying to follow the church approved guidelines that the church has stated in the church handbook and are looking for more Sunday appropriate music so I need to look through at what I have so far. They are really trying hard to follow the handbook here. I commend this small struggling ward.  It will be a wonderful experience to work with members who are more concerned in building up the kingdom of God, than promoting their own personal agendas or spend all their time gossiping and tearing down others.   

Sheldon and I have felt that this will be a great experience for us as well as the two younger boys.  They have taken all this change in stride and are have not complained once about the move.  In fact on Sunday DJ was being his typical self and was talking to me about, well mainly nothing important as usual, while we were waiting for Sacrament Meeting to start he placed his arm next to mine and said, "it's funny how I'm the darkest here, then he stopped, paused and corrected himself saying, well, I'm not the darkest "HERE" as he looked around a bit, but I'm the darkest in my family and the youngest too."  I had to chuckle.  so, I guess he has noticed that he is the only white 9 year old in primary right now.  

It snowed today.  We probably got about 2-3 inches in all,  The kids played all afternoon with all the neighborhood kids and had a lot of fun.  There's some great kids in the area and everyone plays well together with no problems.  This afternoon they were all out having a massive snowball fight and trying to find ways to build a mound for sleds.  It's nice to have a group of kids for my boys to play with right out the back door.  Don't get me wrong, we had a neighbors at our last place, but it seems like everyone here is more into playing and getting along with one another than teasing younger kids.  All in all, we've had a great experience here so far and it's nice to just not have to worry about any negative stuff.  It's a nice change.

Mid- Week

Well, it's hump day today, and I am looking forward to the weekend already.  Sheldon worked really hard this past 4 day weekend and got all the boxes in the rooms dealt with.  Not to say everything is put away, our room looks as if a tornado went through it, but you can actually walk in there without trying to kill yourself.  The play room looks great and it is clear of boxes.  Some of the neighborhood kids came over last night and they were like "whooo, where did everything go?"  They were finally excited about getting in there and playing.  Not to say they didn't play when there were boxes everywhere, but now they can comfortably play and site and enjoy their time.   Malachi has befriended a boy who moved into the neighborhood a week after us.  He is 14, but he acts like Kai.  They seem to get along just fine, and they have been riding  around the place.  Kai, got a ripstick for his birthday, so he has been on that.  He can't walk anywhere.  He uses the ripstick to do everything.  He was putting some boxes out for the recycling bin and riding his stick as he took the boxes.  Of coarse it took almost 3 times as long to get the boxes out, but at least he had fun doing it;)

We heard from Calvert school today about the boys tests.  I guess I am going to go with them instead of the church teaching one.  A frind of mine told me that her SIL used them and her kids ended up being so far behind it was horrible.  After looking everything over, I just don't feel good about it.  Love the gospel centered teaching, just not crazy about the rest of the curriculum.  After talking with Calvert today, found out the the CA schools are about 2 years behind.  THe interesting thing about this is that DJ will be able to start at the middle of the 4th grade course in all his subjects with just some review in a handful of areas.  Kai on the other hand has to start from the very beginning of the year for the 6th grade course.  His math is on par and he will start mid course there, but all the grammar and English stuff we'll have to start at the beginning:(  She said that he tested almost 2 yrs behind, but felt if we started at the beginning of the year some of it being like a review that he should be able to get through the first half pretty fast and it could only help him with his test for the end of the year.  Since he is to be going to Jr High next year over seas we figure it is best to go that route.  So I'm hoping that he will be done with school by the time we head to Europe.  You have to wonder what happens between 4th  to 6th grade in the classrooms so that I will have to start him over.  Scary!  At least a lot of it he can work on by himself,  and since there isn't a classroom full of kids, that means we can really focus on him and get this done.  

Well, my goal tonight is to get the piano room totally organized so it looks pretty.  I have two more days before the books get here so I'm sure this weekend I'll be studying everything to get an idea how to work everything and setting up my schedule for the day.  Fun for me!

It's the Weekend!

I can't believe it's Friday already.  This week has really flown by.  Sheldon has a 4 day weekend with the inauguration so we are hoping to get a lot of boxes taken care of this weekend.  At least we want to get the bedrooms all done and organized.  

The boys are in bed tonight already.  They went out to play and forgot to tell me what they were up too and I had to go out looking for them after dark.  I found them finally and sent them to bed without dinner.  I hope this will remind them that the next time they will tell me what they are up too.  It's so cold I was afraid that something  could have happened to them and they could have been laying outside in this freezing cold weather and and me not knowing about it.  

I think we are going to end up going through the Karl G. Maeser Academy for the boys school.  I don't have the patience to wait for Calvert school to finish with the boys tests I sent them, and I really need the boys starting school this Tuesday.  With us using the academy they use gospel principle to teach some of the subjects and that could only help the boys with knowing more about gospel principles.  When we go to the Netherlands there will be a lot they will miss because of the language barrier.  I have a lot to do to get everything ready this weekend for school starting and I need to get physicals for them so they can go to PE at the youth center.  I can't wait to get some time to just do nothing one day.

Well, I guess I should get some other stuff done and stop stalling on this computer.

Still unpacking...........

Yes, we are in DC and yes we're still unpacking boxes.  We pretty much have the living room, dining room and kitchen done.  The beds are up in the bedrooms, but we still have boxes to go through.  We told the boys since they have small closet's we will only have a container that will fit in there and what fits inside the container will stay and everything else will have to go.  It seems that as they get older, the toys get more expensive but smaller, so that does seem to work in our favor.  

With Christian staying in CA, we will have a play room and we will keep video games and a TV in there.  We have only two TV's hooked up with cable, so if they want to watch something, they can watch on our bed.  They have to ask, so it's well monitored.

Malachi and DJ have spent the last two days taking test for their homeschooling placement, and they have gotten some individual reading done too.  Tomorrow I will get the 36 plus pages each they both have worked on and send them to the school.  I'm hoping that the test's will benefit them in the long run.  It will come down that if they are needing advanced work for their grade we will go through one program, but if they are just at grade level, then we will go with another group that will let me pay for just the last half of the year.  Dealing with the writing portion today with both boys, I have to step back and remember what is acceptable for their age and let everything else go.

 

Both boys have worked really hard on their test and around the house so we took them out to Golden Corral for dinner tonight.  I just didn't have the energy to cook.  I also was needing some supplies to get ready for school, and just wanted to get this shopping out of the way.  

I guess I will get off and get some things done before I go to bed tonight.  I still have to write my responses on the papers that I need to send back to the school.  Mom has homework too:(  I really am looking forward to summer already;)

Up and running............

Well, t least the computer is now finally up and running.  We still have a lot of boxes to go through and I have to figure out what I'm going to do about the boys schooling by tomorrow night.  So, I don't have a lot of time but to say that we are alive, and we are slowly getting our house set up!  Hopefully I'll be back soon to tell you about the adventures of getting here.