Adjustments

I haven't been precisely busy as of late, just adjusting to a lot of change.

Top on my list of change is my job. I picked up my last check at Target yesterday, a whole $68. As I picked it up, I waved hello to some of my fellow cashiers and was on my way back home, so grateful to be going home to be with my family rather than working on a holiday.

I did not get a call for substitute teaching today, but I did get my first check for the 4 1/2 hours that I worked in the two week pay cycle. Not tons of money coming in right now, but really hoping it will pick up SOON! The stress of money issues weighs heavily.

The kids brought home their report cards for the first half of school. Keri Lynn, not surprisingly, brought home all A's. Kristofer got one A and three B's. Kathleen got a B in math and the rest were A's. I think I was most pleased with the little kids' report cards. The important part of it being that they showed marked improvement from the first quarter to the second. The little kids each had a party at school celebrating the 100th day of school which I thought was really cute! It is a milestone, and to be honest at about this time each year in our homeschooling, I was always behind in our goals. We never once finished a grade course!

Keva did fine, too, in each of her goals. She's learning color matching and shapes and stuff like that. I don't know if she watches much TV at school, but to keep her out of trouble I put on PBS kids' shows when she gets off the bus. She plops down on the floor in front of the TV and becomes a TV vegetable -- enough to make any mother proud! Well, okay, not proud exactly, more like RELIEVED because she's not removing items off of the kitchen counter or pulling on the dog's tail.

(Now I will pretend to be Roger Ebert) We've rented several DVD's lately that we've really enjoyed. One is Meet the Robinsons -- this one made me cry just for the sweet joy of it. We also watched Amazing Grace -- a movie that shows just what can be accomplished when men aspire to do great things. I was disappointed, though, in the newest Pixar movie, Ratatouille. I had been waiting so long to finally see it, but it just didn't pull at my heartstrings the way other Pixar movies have. It might have something to do with all of those rats crawling all over everything. Ewwwwww!

I will be posting pictures of New Year's Eve fireworks, Konner's birthday party, and . . . (drum roll please!) . . . SNOW! That's right, we've had snow twice now. The first day, last Wednesday, we got about a half inch. The kids were ecstatic. But they hadn't seen anything yet. On Saturday, it snowed and snowed for hours. We eventually got about two inches, more than this part of Georgia has seen in years. There was enough snow to make snowmen, snow angels, and have snowball fights. A kid's paradise.

I'd also like to send out belated birthday wishes to my sister Beth, to my Mom's husband, Rich and to my grandmother who turned 91! Wish we could have celebrated with you! Know that you're all in our thoughts and prayers!

One more thing, if you don't tune into Focus on the Family regularly, make sure you tune in tomorrow for our friend Scott Klusendorf. He attends our church, and -- get this -- actually invited our family to his home for dinner a few weeks ago! First of all, we never get invited to people's houses for dinner (unless they're very brave or very ignorant or very stupid.) I'm kind of thinking that the Klusendorfs fall under the very brave category.

If Scott's name isn't familiar to you right off the bat but sounds a little familiar, it's because you might have heard him on (Ahem, I feel like I'm name dropping here) Focus on the Family, The Bible Answer Man and -- my very favorite -- Stand to Reason. He heads up Life Training Institute, educating us on how to stand up for the unborn. Very articulate. As far as I'm concerned, he's kind of like a rock star, or so I told his wife, who laughed! Anyway, he's scheduled to be on Focus on the Family later this week, January 24-25, Reaching Hearts on Abortion.

Oooo, just got a call for a two day gig at the high school substituting for a social studies teacher. Yay!

Dinner now calls . . .