Just what have I been doing.

I almost feel silly even trying to write anymore.  But I guess the "better late than never" mantra comes to mind.  I guess I don't feel so bad as I'm quickly reminded why this IS so hard.  Ella always wants to help me "check" my mail.  So, thus far, I have already deleted several of her additions.  Thanks Ella.  Not to mention the fact that I have been busy schooling Will, doing the extras with Jack that the school just can't manage to teach him.  Really, its a school, but anyway.

So I guess that kind of introduces the last several months.  Thanksgiving and Christmas were stuck somewhere in the middle and the winter that wasn't.  We have been enjoying an amazingly beautiful season, very little snow and way above average temps.  We get disappointed if the high isn't above freezing.  So strange.

I'll start off with our little princess.  She has begun to declare she is the "dancing princess".  She sings a lot in there too, she adores singing.  She will do it everywhere, and she has to make sure everyone can hear her.  She loves the spotlight, and luckily for her, she has an audience. 

Just before Thanksgiving Ella decided she would potty train herself.  I made sure it was all her decision and gave her lots of choices during the process.  "Do you want to wear a pull up or underwear?" or "Do you want to use the little potty or the big potty?"  Pretty much anytime I could offer a choice, I did.  After a while, I had realized that she had been dry for four days!  Wow, I LOVE girls!



Will has been busy learning all I can teach him.  This kid is a sponge.  I'm really quite jealous that I can't remember things as well as he can.  But we each have our own gifts.  I don't want to brag, but I'm pretty proud of him.

We thought really hard about homeschooling him so he would stay challenged, but the school assured us that they would place him at any grade level he was performing at.  We'll give it a whirl, he is so excited to be in school with Jack, and I think the daily interaction with friends will be a lot of fun for him.  He likes to be social, and its hard to get it in as often as I should. 


Jack has apparently become the "cool kid" in his class.  I'm not sure how this happened since I was the one hiding under the slide at my school.  But I'm more than happy that he has friends and is confident enough to talk to girls.  I don't think its by coincidence, I pray daily for his friendships and the favor of the Lord to be over my kids.  Thank you Lord for answering prayers. We do talk about how this position of favor allows him to encourage and include all kids and not single certain kids out and how God would want us to use our status in society, not to abuse it. 

There are always tears in the midst of rejoicing.  And we have had our own struggles with Jack.  He has always had trouble reading, and the issue has only gotten worse; despite the schools extra help last year, and our time at home.  We went around and around with the school, trying to find help for him, contemplating homeschooling, and finally settling on an amazing tutor who is offering her services free of charge.  Yup, free.  Another answered prayer, other tutors were thousands of dollars!  Um, yeah, how is that going to work out?  No need to worry, God has it figured out. 

He has been disappointed with the weather.  There are plenty of sidewalks for skateboarding, but no snow for his new snowboard.  Just another chance to try to look at the silver lining, something we are trying to focus on.

Lewis has been plugging away on his hot rod project.  If you are interested in more details on that you can check out here.  As for me, well, those previously listed have kept me pretty busy, and I'm loving it.  Most days :)