update

Well hopefully this post, with much typos I am sure as I am doing this in a hurry.

I have tried to post pictures of Christmas but for some reason this blog is experiencing some
"technical difficulty"

I have to blog these little things or I will forget, this blog is kept for my kids and my husband so that he can keep up with us.

Nettie came to me the other day in her angel dress up clothes, a cute white costume with wings on the back. She asked me to please put batteries in it so that she could fly around the house. I laughed so hard. She was serious as she could be and couldn't understand how batteries wouldn't make her fly.

I like homeschool for many reasons. The biggest is that I can instill values in the children with the time I am blessed to have. I want them to exercise compassion and mercy and to learn that Jesus loves us all from the inside out, not the other way around. So this morning we made caramel apples for breakfast and had a good long talk about life. It was so nice to just sit and talk with them listening. It could have been the caramel that practically glued their mouths shut but hey it worked.

I spoke to them of times I was able to show mercy to people who were "different" and to always stand up for the hurt and the broken and the beat down even if it meant you were going to be teased. My mom taught this to me and I am passing this down to them. I told them the same stories my mom told me as a child when she stuck up for kids who were the "underdog" and I was able to add my own life experience as well. This was all based on the fact that Abby was the target of an insecure child's remarks and I could tell it confused her. She is not used to girls acting that way, most of her friends are boys and she has never been in school. I was able to carve out a good chunk of our morning addressing these issues and before any "mean" kids could steal these lessons away it is my hope that they will be confident before they are "thrown into the lions den" They will go to the lions den and they will be teased but it is my hope that they will be in the world and not part of it. It is my hope that they will have the character from a young age and the protection to grow character so that when the world hurls ugliness at them they can respond with confidence and love.

All of this to be said because I must say that after 6 months Nettie really is understanding our conversations. She told me that with the most serious looks that she remembers when she was blind, and she had no legs or arms and she was cut on her stomach, and that someone kicked her in the (boys private part) which I thought was amazing because she doesn't have one of those! and she couldn't work and had nothing. I held back laughter at her dramatic nature. She proceeded to tell me that kids were laughing at her and that "nini" (her grandmother) came to her and said "Oh Nettie what has happened to this life?" and she imitated how she responded and said in her most feeble voice "Oh who is there?" she proceeded to reach in front of her, feeling the air and said "I cannot see who is there?" I busted up laughing at the sheer drama of the whole thing. This little girl has the potential to be an Oscar winner. Everything she does is dramatic!

So that is what I am dealing with today. Friday. Gary is surfing in Hawaii, going to breakfast after he goes to the gym and then he is having dinner with an old friend of his. I am still in my PJ's, it is noon and the thought of making lunch and dinner is daunting, never mind all the homeschool I have to do today. The house is a mess and there is laundry piled to the ceiling. La vida loca.