I can not believe it has been more than a year since I have written on this Blog. Life has been somewhat busy to say the least. In January 2014 (one year ago) we made the decision to start homeschooling our children. At the time, our kids were in 3rd and 5th grade, with a three year old. We had home-schooled our oldest before, when he was in Kindergarten. He had been in public school from first grade through fifth grade.
I get asked all the time, "WHY" did we decide to home-school our children. I keep thinking to myself, I wonder if I just answered with "I got tired of waking up early"..if people would stop asking.. Its really no ones business why we decided to home school. They may sound like I am being rude, but what if every time you turned around someone was asking you "Why" you decided to go to send your kids to Public school, or Private School, or "Why" you decided to go to Publix instead of Kroger? I mean seriously, we get asked ALL the time. The answer is simple. "We just decided it was best for our family, at this time to home school.".
I'm gonna be 100% honest with you.. I HAVE NO MORE PATIENCE than any other parent out there, If you ask me, I have LESS patience that most parents do.. There are days I want to give up. There are days that I want to send my kids BACK to public school. There are days that I don't even know if we are all going to make it through the day with school. There are days that I wonder and question if my kids are learning or if I am letting them down....but then I test them and realize, they KNOW this stuff. But there are also GREAT days.. Days where I can SEE stuff clicking in my kids heads when they finally figure out how to do something they are learning in school. You just can't beat getting to sit and cuddle with your kids, or being told "Mom, your the best mom ever!" because you helped them with something, or for no reason at all. I mean, what parent doesn't want extra cuddles from your kids, or "I love you's?". We have a pretty great life!!
My favorite question is "Do your kids actually get to have "real" friends? " Yah, they do. Just the same as YOU, or I, or your kids do.. The only difference is my kids don't pick their friends based on their ages or grades.(not that there is ANYTHING wrong with that). My kids pick their friends based on what they in common or not in common with others. Let me ask you this.. are ALL your friends the same age as you? I know that Mine are not. IN fact, I have maybe ONE friend who is the exact same age as me.. The rest are older and younger.. BY YEARS.... My kids have no problem sitting in a group of kids that range in age from 3 to 18 and carry on a conversation. My 6th grader will talk to ANYONE, and if you like video games, well, He may NOT leave you alone.... EVER.
My 4th grade daughter will sit and talk to ANYONE as well. It could be a teacher, parent, high school-er, or preschooler. Our FOUR year old.. well she's four.. but LOVES the fact that at any time during the day, she has her brother and sister around.
We also are extremely active in Church.. and our kids go to a co-op, all day once a week with other homeschoolers in our area. They LOVE it. They also ALL dance. Even our son. He's an amazing Hip Hop dancer!
Well that explains what we have been up to since LAST January. If you follow my Bridal line or kids line, you'll see I have posted much on that in the past year. But, its because I had taken a break. It was a good break. As much as I LOVED sewing and designing, sometimes it just gets overwhelming and you just need a sabbatical from it. Mine just happened to last about a year.
Just over Christmas Break, I decided to start back to sewing. I've had a lot fun and I've missed it a TON. The moment I decided to start back, I was asked to participate in a really amazing collaboration. Its top SECRET for now, but its with an AMAZING makeup Artist who I really admire......Its set to go down in April!
Last year, this same amazing Makeup Artist did a photo shoot.. I had taken an old 70s era wedding gown and made it more modern!
Here is what I did:
I took THAT dress above, and cut off the big poofy sleeves, it also had a TON of see through lace that went around the top of the dress,well I TOOK ALL that off as well. I took the ZIPPER out of the back and make it a Corset.
I pintucked the front of the dress, to make it flow better as well.
This was the end results, before it went off to the photo shoot:
Isn't it Amazing!!!!! The model in the photo's is her cousin!!! She is a beautiful young lady!!!
Ok, Well enough about that for now!!!! I'll try really hard to get back over here and update more of what's going on!
You can click on True Bella Makeup Artisty to see more of the amazing Work from the Tennessee Based Ashley of True Bella!
Ever get the feeling that you're not doing enough? Your not good enough? Your not crafty enough?
When is enough, in fact, enough?
I feel this way a gazillion times a day. Growing up, my mother kept the house spotless. When I mean spotless, I'm serious. White Glove Approval. She was the ideal, stay at home mom. She was up before all of us each morning. Normally we had a hot breakfast, unless we chose cereal. Many times we we got home from school, there would be cookies, brownies or something else she had made as an afternoon snack. She drove us to all of our sports practices until we were old enough to drive ourselves. (And there were a lot).
I remember my mom driving me to my much anticipated gymnastics practice 3x a week and during that same time she would be dropping my older brother off at Karate and my other brother had to be across town for Piano Lessons.
As we got older, we all did a multiples of sports. My brothers did track, soccer, golf, wrestling, and I did gymnatics, tennis, track, golf. I bet when I got my liscense, she was able to rest..but nope, She still drove out out to my tennis matches, and drove me and the other tennis girls to our matches across town, out of town, etc. I always wonder if she felt the way I do now..and my kids are are still little. I never remember hearing her complain, unless we were all fighting.
I wish I could be like that. When I think of the Proverbs 31 woman, I always think of my mom. She was up early, stayed up late, drove us around everywhere, Made sure we ate healthy, had our proper checkups at the doctor, made sure my father was highly respected. As we got older she started a small business on the side which kept her busy until after I married. Today, she teaches Children in the Church preschool department on Sundays, and also helps out my father around his business.
I wish on many days I could be half of what she is. I wish I loved to clean (or even liked to clean) a fraction as much as she did. I wish that I didn't feel burdened to take my kids to all their practices. ( I don't always, I actually enjoy it but some days, I feel really stressed). I wish I could have my kids respect me, the way I know me and my brothers respected my parents. It's bitter sweet.
I often wonder if even though my mom always has gone beyond the call of duty, if she ever felt like she didn't do enough? In my opinion she did too much. She didn't have to keep the house extra spotless. She could have put her foot down and said that we were involved in to many sports.. But she never did.
She wanted to have a clean house to show respect to my father who worked many long hours. She wanted him to come home to a clean house with hot food ready to be eaten.
She wanted us involved in any extra curriculuar activity that we wanted because it was "good for us". It taught us responsibility, disipline, and how to be on a team. In her words "Your kids are only young for a small amount of time, let them be kids, enjoy it." While it seems like that "short amount of time" that they are kids is going by so small, I quickly realize my own oldest turns 10 in a few months, and I have not been NEAR the mother he has needed.
Maybe I've been to busy doing what "I" think it important instead of thinking about "what would be good for my kids". They get to do a lot. We take a multitude of family vacations, and yeah, I'll admit it.. Those three kids are pretty spoiled.-But is it enough? Have I been showing them the love of God? Have I been a good example to them? Am I setting a good example to them?
There have been many times where they've walked in the room to me reading my Bible or a devotion, but its not a habit for them. I use to get up early to have a few minutes with my GOD alone before I got them up for school, but then I realized really quickly, that I needed those extra few minutes of sleep. (I'm a certified GROUCH) if I don't get sleep. But am I putting God on the back burner? Yep. I mean, seriously, how can i set a good example and teach my own children about putting God first if I don't even want to give up a few minutes of sleep for him.? Hypocrite much? Yep.
That's why I am doing what I can to slowly change. Trying my hardest to watch what I say. Taking a deep breath when I start getting agitated. Slow changes.....
