Q&A about 2016

C did this on her blog and I really liked it, so I'm stealing it :)

1) What did you do in 2016 that you'd never done before?
I started home schooling my kids, I taught one of my kids how to read, I buzzed all of my hair off (twice, actually) and I made an impromptu trip with just John.

2) Did you keep your new year's resolutions and will you make more for next year?
I didn't keep mine, I'm horrible for that. This year, I have a goal to play more games with my kids and to work toward being healthier (exercise and food).

3) Did anyone close to you give birth?
Not super close, no.

4) Did anyone close to you die?
No, I've had a few years off from that, thankfully.

5) What countries did you visit?
None, we stayed here in Canada. We didn't even leave our province, ha ha.

6) What would you like to have in 2017 that you lacked in 2016?
A healthier lifestyle.

7) What dates from 2016 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
October 25th. That was the day I woke up with pink eye, found out the government had cancelled the accreditation for the boys' home education administration and also found out that John was being moved to 4 day work weeks the next month.
Also, Ty's baptism on November 12th.

8) What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Home educating my kids and prioritizing my health above my wants and commitments.

9) What was your biggest failure?
I don't know that I'd call anything a failure, they were all learning experiences.

10) Did you or someone close suffer illness or injury?
John was diagnosed with diabetes and I had a really tough year mental health-wise.

11) What was the best thing you bought?
My Star Wars laptop. It was the only laptop I could find that had all of the (3) things I wanted out of a laptop. It's been a huge help with home schooling.

12) Where did most of your money go?
Rent and groceries, same as always. Recreation money, most of it went toward stuff for Dungeons and Dragons, which John and I play with our groups about twice per month.

13) What song will always remind you of 2016?
It actually wasn't a stand out year for me with music, so I don't have one.

14) Compared the this time last year are you more happy or more sad?
So much more happy. This time last year was when everything hit a boiling point with Caleb, so I was pretty much a wreck and terrified that we wouldn't find a better solution for him. A year later and he's doing amazing!

15) What do you wish you'd done more of?
More time just playing with my kids and teaching them more life skills, which are a few of the things I'm trying to focus on this year. I also wish I'd blogged more, since it's basically our family journal.

16) What do you wish you'd done less of?
Less eating as a coping mechanism and less time spent on social media.

17) How did you spend Christmas?
We were at home for the morning, went to Church and then had my dad over for supper.

18) What was your favourite TV program?
I enjoyed Psych and Switched at Birth a lot in 2016.

19) What were your favourite books of the year?
2016 was probably my worst year ever for reading since I started reading at the age of 4. Nothing at all is standing out to me.

20) What were your favourite treats/food in 2016?
Miss Vickie's Sea Salt and Malt Vinegar Chips, Egg Roll Bowl and Bacon Cheeseburger Skillet

21) What were your favourite movies of the year?
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Hands down!

22) What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?
I turned 32. We took a break from school that day. Caleb and I binge watched Gilmore Girls together, which was exactly how I'd wanted to spend the day.

23) What one thing would have made your year measurably more satisfying?
Not struggling with severe anxiety for the majority of the year.

24) How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2016?
If it fits and it's comfy then we're good, ha ha.

25) What kept you sane?
Those chips, John, Caleb and home schooling.

26) What was a valuable life lesson you learned in 2016?
It's okay to prioritize your mental health above what you want and things that you've said you would do.
I also learned that if something is the right choice for you and/or your family, Heavenly Father will help you do things you never thought you could do. I am one of the most impatient people I've ever met and thought I'd never be able to home school my kids because of it, but Heavenly Father always gives me what I need to make it work for us.

2016 Recap

I'm pretty sure I'm only blogging for myself now, since journaling is not my strong point, ha ha. 2016 was a pretty life-changing year for us. Everything with Caleb came to a boiling point early in January. He was coming home from school more than half of the time either crying or raging. We prayed to know if home schooling was a better option for him and got the strongest revelation we've ever received during our marriage. In early February, he started home schooling. I had to quit doing lunch supervision at the school a month later to help make his days easier, it was 100% worth it. When Caleb met with a psychiatrist later in the year, the psychiatrist told us that switching him to home schooling was probably the best thing we could have done for him. I felt pretty good when I heard that.

Brettley turned 5 and lost his first 2 teeth that day. He lost another a few days before Christmas and has another wiggly one at the moment.

I spent a large portion of the year with a buzz cut. What started as a way of getting really fried hair dealt with ended up being a really big convenience. I'm slowly starting to grow it out a bit now. We also found out that I don't have sleep apnea, after having to do a sleep test.

Caleb ended up with full time glasses. He's still learning to wear them full time but I understand the struggle, I'm still adjusting to wearing mine full time as well.

I did something totally out of character for me. John and I made an impromptu overnight visit to the Calgary area in March. We got to go to a wonderful gaming store, have a delicious dinner and then spend the evening with some family/friends. I'm a planner and don't do well with spontaneity at all, so this was kind of a big deal.

The kids had a lot of dental work done. Ty managed his first filling fine, but then got too stressed out about the extractions, so the extractions and crowns ended up being done under anesthesia. I sincerely pray that we never have to see him like that again. Caleb managed to tough out all of his fillings and his crown with our regular dentist. He was a total rock star!

We decided in March, after more prayer, that Ty and Brettley would home school starting in the fall. We set up a great space for them in the living room, but found pretty quickly that the dining room works a lot better for us, at least while they're this young. Ty was very happy that he could start home schooling since he'd been asking for it since Kindergarten.

Grandpa D built the boys a garden box, and we grew peas, beans, lettuce, spinach and dill. It was great! We're looking forward to planting it again this year. The boys loved snacking out of it.

John taught Caleb, Tyrell and I how to play chess. One of my goals for 2017 is to play more games with the kids.

Brettley started school at home. He grasps things so easily. He is great at math and is learning to read so well. The only two struggles with him are that he hates beating a dead horse (he likes to move on as soon as he's mastered a concept) and that he's still learning to understand structure (that one will come with time). Ty's strongest subject is math. He's improving in Language Arts, but still really struggles with his spelling. Caleb does very well with Social Studies, but is working on improving his Language Arts. We will start our summer vacation early this year, so we're taking that time to focus on strengthening their weaker areas.

I made a goal to participate in the 2017 Relay for Life in Wainwright. My mum and sister are going to participate as well. I'm looking forward to doing this in memory of my amazing father-in-law.

John turned 40. We celebrated by having a gaming session with our Dungeons and Dragons group. It was the perfect way for him to spend the day.

A bit of a sad note about our 2016 is that we tried for another baby and after many months of nothing I had to call it off to focus on my mental health again. On a more positive note, though, I feel more peace about being done having kids than I've ever had before. Maybe that's what I needed to get from the experience.

I was concerned about what to do for school photos, so my mum came and took pictures of the boys. Brettley, grade 1, said he wants to become a firefighter. Tyrell, grade 3, wants to become a scientist. Caleb, grade 5, wants to be an astrophysicist.

Part of school this year was learning how to take care of a home. The boys each have 4 chores to do daily. In the fall we're looking forward to adding cooking lessons in to our school year.

I started watching a friend's son every Thursday. The boys love him, even though I have to keep reminding them that he isn't a toy.

At the end of September, John was diagnosed with diabetes. He's been losing weight again and is currently the lightest that he's been in about 19 years. I'm still learning to eat better, but I'm slowly getting there. I was off of my meds for several months (checking in regularly with my doctor), so food was sort of my way of dealing with anxiety and depression then.

Tyrell turned 8 and started Cubs, which he loves. He was baptized on November 12th and we were blessed to have the man he was named after there to give one of the talks and be one of the witnesses.

We had the whole school fiasco that I blogged about a couple of posts ago. It ended up being a positive thing for us. We really like our new home education administration and the options we have with them, but it was one of the most stressful things we've been through.

The boys did swimming lessons in the fall. Tyrell and Caleb both passed their courses, but Brettley didn't quite get there. They are starting another round of lessons at the end of February.

We were told in November that Caleb doesn't have ADHD. The most likely culprit is severe anxiety that he has a difficult time learning how to process. He's continuing to do amazing on his meds and he hardly ever has rage attacks anymore. He is leaps and bounds ahead of where he was this time last year.

We enjoyed a quiet Christmas at home, but we're really looking forward to spending the next one with my family. We haven't gone there for Christmas since Tyrell's first Christmas.

John and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary on New Year's Eve. I am so blessed to be married to him.

Now on to 2017 :)

A More Positive Update

It's been way too long since my last post, and it wasn't a very happy one. Things got sorted out for us with the school stuff. The boys are now with Vermilion Home Schooling, and we are very happy to be there. Our facilitator is great and very happy to help me know exactly what we need to do to keep the boys parent-directed but still have them receive an Alberta Education High School Diploma.

John started his 4 day work weeks. We are very blessed and he has enough vacation and banked time saved up that we are covered for it until mid-June, at least. We were pretty worried that John would have to get a second job, and now he might not have to get one at all.

Last Sunday was our ward's Primary Presentation. Caleb pleasantly surprised us all and decided to take part in it, despite his anxiety about it. He and Ty did wonderful. Brettley was...very wiggly, ha ha. He moved around a lot, but apparently people who aren't his parents found it entertaining, so it's all good.

Not too much else going on here, just excited to start our daily activities that we have planned for December. My mum bought the boys an elf for this year. I tried to fight it for a few years, but I've found him to be a really easy way of getting the boys to do their chores and listen to what they've been told to do, so I'm loving that side of it.

I hope that everyone is doing well! Is anyone still here?

Not the Easiest Week

I apologize in advance. This will probably be a very random post and will, unfortunately, be influenced by the type of week that I've had. On Tuesday morning I woke up with pink eye. It's really sucky when that happens because I'm allergic to the OTC and prescription drops for it, so I always have to just ride it out. Then shortly after lunch my husband called to let me know that starting at the end of November, his office would be switching to 4 day work weeks. I immediately had to decide how to deal with losing 20% of our income. Believe me, I am beyond grateful that in our current economy my husband still has a good job. However, it was still a big stress and I immediately had to go to my problem solving head-space.

Just a couple of hours later, we got the oh so personal robocall that our kids no longer had an accredited school authority due to the immediate cancellation of accreditation of their board. As I've stated on Facebook, I have no desire to have an opinion on the allegations, but my kids were just left out to drown. So I moved on to the next major issue that required the use of my problem solving head-space.

We sent their registrations in to a new board yesterday and I am hope that their paperwork will be processed and that they will be officially accepted early next week.

With all of the news about our previous board becoming very public this week, I've heard a few things that have really upset me. One of the things I heard yesterday was the opinion that taxpayer dollars shouldn't be "wasted" on private schools . Our previous board was a private board. Our anticipated new board is a separate (Catholic) board. So I got information directly from Alberta Education and did the math last night. This year I saved the government (and taxpayers) a minimum of $13,969.57 by home educating my kids. That amount does not include the fact that one of my kids was expected to be coded this year, which would have cost even more. I saved them 73.6%. The only thing that I can logically conclude is that I am helping taxpayers, not wasting their money. Furthermore, we are taxpayers in this house as well. If you feel that your money shouldn't pay for the education of my kids, then why should my money help pay for the education of your's?

I also was told that alternatives to the public system shouldn't be funded when there are "fine public schools already". If you know my family at all, you know that we tried very hard for 4.5 years to make the public system work for us. We even had some very phenomenal teachers in there working very closely with us. It just did not work properly for my kids. Why should we be punished if the public system didn't work for them? How is that fair?

The last comment that really frustrated me was that someone didn't agree with home schooling because they'd seen it go so far wrong. Let's be real here. Both home education and public education have been known to go so far wrong and have also been known to go very well. I don't ever say that I don't agree with public school, let alone for the reason that I have seen (far more often) that it has gone so far wrong in some cases. I simply say that it didn't fit the needs of my kids and that home education works much better for them.

Again, I apologize for the negative tone of this post. I just wanted it to be real and to also get some things off of my chest so that they didn't keep festering there. So I'll end the post on a happier note now.

The boys finished their swimming lessons yesterday. Although Brettley didn't pass his class, he made great progress and didn't have much that he wasn't able to pass off. Caleb and Tyrell both passed their classes and are looking forward to their next levels in the new year. They loved swimming and all made a lot of progress. We have really learned to be better supports for one another this week and it has helped us to grow closer as a family, which is always a wonderful thing.

Swimming and School

The boys started their swimming lessons last week. They all have the same teacher, and we are at the pool for a long time (over 2 hours), but it's worth it. Caleb and Brettley have also had colds, but Caleb's is gone now and Brettley is improving.

Brettley's attitude about school has gotten much better in the past week (except for one day that he was the most sick). Tyrell has had a rough few days with staying focused and not giving up if something is difficult. Caleb is doing awesome. It helps that he is used to this routine. He is currently doing his novel study of Underground to Canada and he is reading way ahead of schedule because he's so interested in it.

Caleb also has started Cubs for the year. Tyrell is really excited to start it at the end of October.

Yesterday we went out and delivered flyers for the food drive we participate in annually. The boys love it and look forward to it. On Saturday we do pick up. They are curious to see how well we do this year.

Not too much else is new around here. Just still trying to find our groove for the school routine. Hopefully we'll get there in the next couple of weeks.

Home School Has Started

Yesterday we took the kids on their first field trip of the school year to the John Janzen Nature Centre. The boys loved it there. It was very interactive. Some of the things they got to do were touch a salamander, see honeybees about their every day life and do a nature walk. It was definitely a hit. We did the shorter trail, but Caleb asked if we can try the longer one next year. Definitely something to think about.





Today was our first full day of the school year. The boys have their subjects broken down into 9 blocks. After 3 blocks, they take a break to do 2 chores and have a snack. Same thing after the next 3 blocks. Today Caleb and Tyrell were done very quickly. Brettley took the longest at 3.75 hours, and that was because he was fussing about doing his English for a good 30 minutes. I guess it will take him a while to get used to a school routine. Their blocks are:
Prayer & Spiritual Thought
Reading
Math
English Language Arts
Social Studies
Science
Spelling
Health and Computers
Creative Time

Starting in the middle of the month, they will also be doing music on Fridays. Caleb's former piano teacher has offered to do music class for them once per week, which is a huge blessing for our family. They don't do an official gym class, but they start their weekly swimming lessons this week, which is for September and October. We'll take a couple of months off, and then do another round of swimming lessons in the new year. They get free outside time, and they're content with that.
 

 

Horray for Bretts

Hey! Not a huge update because I'm pretty tired at the moment, but I wanted to share a bit of exciting news. We had planned for Brettley to be doing Kindergarten level work next year because we figured he'd take a long to time learning how to read. However, he is excelling in that area and will be able to do grade 1 level work in the fall, so he gets to skip right by Kindergarten. We're so impressed with how quickly he is progressing.

Also, we had a celebration last week in our family as all 3 kids are now officially home schooled. They were so excited to set off a pop rocket, have a silly string fight, eat DQ ice cream cake and get their certificates welcoming them as students for the 2016-2017 school year. The next day, on Canada Day, we had a fun family water fight, which was a blast.

Anyway, hopefully I'll update better in a couple of weeks. I have a hard time remembering to go on to the laptop to update this.