I thought I'd fill everybody in...

We are still watching Hurricane Ike's path closely, and hoping it'll keep heading West (not that we want anyone to be hit by it -but, personally, I'd like to NOT evacuate again!). We have just been so busy this month, I haven't gotten to fill in the blogging gaps between the deployment and natural disasters!!!

Good news for the day - I heard from Bill and he has landed safely in Iraq. He sounds happy, but missing home, and may have some form of video cam soon, so we can eventually "see" him! I can't imagine how separated families must have felt during times of war before video and email were around. Just waiting for weeks or months for a letter from a loved one... we have a lot to be thankful for.

OK, so many of you have asked WHY we took Ivan out of school. There were a few different reasons, but the major one was that he was just really having a hard time, emotionally. He was getting in trouble (just talking, being silly kind of stuff) and would come home upset every day. One day, he said, "Mom, I get in trouble every day here. I only got in trouble one time in all of kindergarten!" We gave it a week and a half... and after much discussion, prayer, and talks with friends and teachers... decided that he would do better staying in kindergarten for one more year. Ivan's birthday is August 29th - right at the cut off. He was the youngest in his class, and I think that if he gets one more year under his belt, first grade will be a breeze. We talked with him about it, and gave him the choice (because of his special birthday!) - he chose kindergarten... and said, "And Mom? I really want to homeschool." My first impulse was to run away, but I stayed. ; ) I looked at Bill and he said, "That is up to you." I looked at Ivan and said, "OK."

So, after the educational roller coaster came to a stop... we decided to keep Grant at home as well (pre-K). Have I regretted this decision? Not for a minute. Although, when all of my friends' children are off to school, and they have free time for themselves for seven hours a day, yeah, it's crossed my mind. But, to be honest, it's going great. Both boys are pretty open to it, and I've been keeping Ivan up on some of the first grade math and reading anyway - to give him a boost for the following year.

It's taken some time for us to get into a routine, and not every day goes as planned (at all sometimes!), but I really feel good about this decision (and many of you DO know what kind of roller coaster "mommy" was on to come to this decision!). And this week, with Bill's deployment and the hurricanes, etc... I feel like it has been really good for all of us just to be together. Ivan was not emotionally ready to be away all day long, and I think he would have been completely stressed having his daddy gone on top of it all.

The boys begin soccer tomorrow, and Awana on Sunday, and a homeschooling Co-Op (once a week) through our church the following Tuesday. We'll be busy enough as it is, and it's been fun to set our own routine. Besides getting more quality time with all three of my kids, Mary gets to take her nap at her normal time of day as well. I like that. So far, so good!