Life at Oak Grove

This is my prayer for my kids….

This week question for the blog cruise is:
“How do you homeschool during illness or family stress or crisis?”
Ah!   That is a great question.   
Since we started homeschooling about 4 years ago, we never really had anything major happening in our life.    Well that’s not technically true.   We have events but no major illnesses, family crisis or major stress either.
Don’t take me wrong, we have encountered things that disturbed our life.    But with patience, organisation and planning, we went through them.
In 2007, I was expecting our fourth child.   I knew it would be another caesarean which also meant that I needed to plan in advance before the birth so we can relax a bit when I was in limited in our activities.  Jasmine was born on December 19th about three weeks before her due date because this was my fourth caesarean.     The boys were really helpful especially my oldest back then.  He learned how to do the washing and helped me a lot with this task as well as with the vacuuming.    We pursued homeschooling slowly doing basic lessons.   But it was also during the Christmas season and we were blessed to have help from my mom who came to visit for a while.
Another time, I was schedule for surgery on my right foot in 2008.  Yes a year after the birth of our little girl.    Was I crazy to get operated when I had a non-walking little one at home.   More than likely yes but honestly I couldn’t bear the pain on the foot anymore…   I had a bunion that was hurting a lot.    The left foot had been operated when I was in high school.   This one had not bug me until about two-three years ago.   It took two years to have an appointment with the specialist and then another year to have the surgery.   So here you go.   There was no turning back.   I had surgery and was limited in walking.    Ah!   Nuts I tell you.    But I planned in advance and did a big BOOM of homeschool before the surgery.  We also did a bit during the Christmas time to advance more.   I was in a cast for a long time.  
Stress/depression has also been part of my life.   When I feel overwhelmed and can’t seem to function, I take it easy.    It happens more during the winter season.     And since I discovered that vitamin D helps people who have the blues during winter, it happens less.    I am fortunate then when it happened, it didn’t last many days.   It usually happens for a day.   A day I take to relax, pray and seek God while the kids have it easy with coloring, movies and popcorn.  
How do you homeschool during illness or family stress or crisis?   My suggestion is that you take it easy, cover the basics (reading, writing and arithmetic) and think that in a way your kids are learning to deal with it.  It’s life.  It needs to be dealt with.   They can learn in a different way going through these events like how to help, how to trust God, how to deal with doctors/nurses and so on.    Learning happens on a daily basis whether you plan it or not.

Two friends of mine have tagged me in the past two weeks.

I barely had the time to answer the first tag that another one was made.   OUCH!

So now I have two tags to do which are similar as I have to answer questions.

Heidi from Reviews & Reflections wants me to answer these questions:

1. Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?  If so, how close to being finished are you?  I’d like to know your Christmas shopping personality. I must admit that this year I am late.   Crazy late.    But it also was a hard year.    I have received some products that I am keeping away from the kids as it will be their Christmas gifts – things like Wii games, Nintendo DS game, Lego Game, K*Nex, Adventures in Odyssey CD.  
2. Is there a particular field trip destination that you and your kids could (and do) visit over and over again? The Hershey Factory would be on (*grin*) and Disney World as well (which we still have to do but I know the kids will be crazy about it).    We loved Science North this Fall.   We went like four times while we were in Sudbury.    The Children’s Museum in Boston is also wonderful.   I recommend it to anyone I see.    
3. What is your favorite season, and why? Honestly, I like ALL the seasons.    Each of them have something different to enjoy.   Spring makes me thing of renewal and how God gaves life to everything around me.   Summer is nice because of the sunshine and RV season.   Fall is marvelous with all the changing of the colors of the leaves.    And Winter even though it brings the cold is fantastic to build snowmen and have fun in the outdoors.
4. Are you content with your home?  If not, what would you like to change (assuming money is not an issue)? My house is wonderful.  Oh there are things we would like to change – like the floors in the kitchen, fixing the cabinet doors that have been damaged, putting hardwood floor in the dining room, extending the entrance to up the stairs with tiles, having a deck in the backyard.   But it can be done little by little.    Sometimes I dream of more land and living out in the country.   Not sure it is for us though.  Hubby would love to have a house close to a lake with a boat.   
5. Do you have a dream  vacation destination? There are many place I would love to go – Thailand to visit our friends who are missionaries there as well as one of our sponsored child through Compassion, Bolivia to visit another sponsored child through Compassion, Dominican Republic to visit two of our sponsored children through Compassion, France – actually make that Europe with my husband, a cruise in Alaska, Australia which I always wanted to visit, a tour of where Paul went,  and finally a tour where Jesus went.     
6. Do you have a favorite Bible verse? If so, why is it your favorite?  Recently I stumble on a verse that I really love and pray for my kids:  "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love,in faith, and in purity." 1 Timothy 4:12
7. Do you decorate your house for the seasons? If so, do you have a specific treasured ornament or decoration?  I do.  But I didn’t took the time for Thanksgiving this year.    Christmas is always a struggle as I would like to do it in November (late November) but hubby would prefer to wait later.   Fortunately, the kids are excited about Christmas…  *grin*   and are willing to help me!
8. What one thing would you change about yourself if you were able? I know I have to loose more weight.   Working on it slowly.   

Michelle from A Life Better Than I Deserve wants me to answer these questions:

1. What type of gifts do you prefer to give?  Do you prefer home-made, gift certificates, store-bought, etc? I would get either store-bought or gift certificates.   For kids thought it is store-bought.    I did a wreath once for my mother-in-law.    And we give some homemade preserve when we do them.    
2. What type of gifts do you prefer to receive? I love handmade gifts when the person giving the gift has a talent for the making the object and when it is given with love and thoughtfulness. And I am not allergic to it; that tends to make me sad.
3. Do you stock a gift closet, or box, and purchase gifts throughout the year?  Yes we do.   Where it is located is my own closet.    So it is getting crowded sometimes.   I’ve got a basket with anything that is DVD/electronic games related.   Right now, you will find some Dr. Seuss stuff character, books, DVDs, electronic games, Lego game, K*Nexs, princess trunk, and a few other things.     We use the gift stash for birthdays and Christmas not only for my kids but for my nephews and nieces as well.   Sometimes I can dig something for birthday parties we are invited too!  I usually take advantage of sales throughout the year.   This year though I didn’t as much as previous years.   
4. What is your favorite type of music?  Do you have one? I am not picky.   We have a variety of music like Michael Card, praise and worship music, the WOW worship collections, Michael W Smith, Steven Curtiss Chapman, NewsBoys, TobyMac, electronic music, and much more.  It depends on how I feel…
5. Do you like chick-flicks, or not? I do but not too much lovey-lovey.    For example, last week we watched 27 Dresses.   Loved it.   We usually watch sci-fy, action or drama types of movies.     For kids, it would be cartoons and family movies.  
6. Do you have a hobby?  Do you make time for it regularly? I read a lot.    I review books to cover this hobby of mine.   I used to scrapbook but it is harder to do when you homeschool your kids.   I also do cards.   I cook with my husband.   We love doing this.   Actually it is a family event especially when you have 150 lbs of tomatoes or 10 lbs of onions to process.   LOL  As a family, we love rving and discovering new places, meeting new friends and expanding our horizons.
7. What is your favorite thing about where you live?  Every place has its pros and cons.  What are the “pros” about where you live? Lots of activities to do – from walking to visiting museums.     Ottawa is the nation’s capital so there is always something going on.   We have a great community of homeschoolers as well.   In the area we live, every stores is quite far.   We could walk but it would take about 30-40 minutes to get to the Wal-mart and then you need to come back with whatever you buy….   
8. What is your favorite kids cartoon movie? All the Tinker Bell movies!   LOVE them.   Even the kids enjoys them.    Actually all the Disney movies, Veggie Tales, What’s in the Bible are loved in our household.

Apparently, now I have to select people to do it as well.  But I think it would be more interesting if you just take these questions and answer them on your own blog.   So please go ahead, copy and answer on your blog.   And please, leave me a comment that you did so.   I would love to get to know you better!

Today it is Thanksgiving in Canada.   And to celebrate, I want to list how God has blessed me as a mom who homeschool her kids during 2010.

The economy has been hard on every one.   Us included.   The business is okay even though the times were hard.

But we had to cut the expenses – as many of you probably did.   The homeschooling budget was at the minimum which means we would buy Math-U-See, Easy Grammar and a couple of French products but that’s it.

So how did God blessed us?   By pouring his provision on us. 

It all started last Spring when a friend contacted me to come back to the TOS Homeschool Crew for the remaining of the year.  It was a time, where I was wondering what to do with Geography as I knew that I needed to incorporate it in our school.   But buying wasn’t an option.   After praying and debating about the opportunity of embarking the rest of the voyage with the crew, I decided to jump on board.   Well, the first product I had to review was related to Geography!   I was speechless…

Then I went to a meeting held by the homeschool association in town and there were tons of curriculum for free as a school was changing their books and a homeschool family just gave away their old things.    I was able to get a bunch of things from science,    books, languages arts, spelling,  geography and more!   You can read my post about it here.

My older son has expressed is interest for becoming a doctor.   Knowing that it is important to use this interest in our homeschool, I wanted him to get more material on human anatomy.    I had posted some reviews on an homeschool vendor site and as a thank you they gave me a 40$ credit to order anythign on their site.   Wow!   From it, I got two 4D puzzles on human anatomy as well as an interesting book to create the human body.    Another time, we went to a Freecycle event where people would bring their things to give away and you can pick and choose whatever you want.   In the midst of everything, we found an older book which permits to color the human anatomy and learn at the same time.    It is slightly used but my son was excited about it.   Recently, I was bold enough to email a publisher to request the possibility of reviewing their new Human Anatomy and physiology book.    They agreed and even send the two Notebooking books that goes with it.    I was speechless again.

I know the year is not finished.   We still have a few months to go before jumping in 2011.   But just yesterday, we had another free “deal”.    In the basement, I have a little area where I could go and scrapbook or do crafts.   I needed some bookcases – badly as everything is in boxes on the ground.   We had some Canadian Tire money and even waited for a sale to get a bookshelf.   A sale came about two weeks ago but we had not had the time to put the bookcase together yet.    Well, coming back from church yesterday, we were turning on our street when we saw these two bookcases at the curb with a FREE sign on it.   No kidding…  We grabbed them and I need to clean them up a bit but they are perfect.   I don’t mind the scratches and the nicks in them.     Now we will bring back the one we bought and hopefully get our Canadian Tire Money back.  If not, well we will keep the bookcase. 

God is faithful.  His provides for our needs in His timing.   We shouldn’t worry about it - yes I know easier said than done.   But I am learning to trust Him with every aspects of my life.    It is a day-to-day learning as we face new challenges in life.   But He is there.  He knows us and our needs.   He will provide.   I know.   I experienced it.

On this Thanksgiving day my questions are: What are you thankful for?   How did God has blessed you in 2010?