Post-Memorial Day

     I must say we in the Montgomery household had a pretty fun weekend.  It could have been much worse!  I was so excited to have my parents coming to visit, but Thursday (the day they were supposed to begin said Northward journey) my mother found out she has Shingles.  For those that don't know what that is (like me prior to Thurs) it stems from the Chicken Pox virus and once you've had that, Shingles can occur anytime in your life usually prompted by stress.  Apparently it's really nasty and worse than I remember Chicken Pox being.  Mom also has to take some nasty meds that make her feel bad and keep her from falling asleep.  Sounds like fun right!  Couple that with the fact that she and my dad couldn't come up to see us and she had a pretty sorry weekend.  Poor Mom!  On the bright side my Aunt Gale did get to come up and spend the weekend with us.  It's always nice to have family here and we had a lot of fun.  Jason and I got to go out on a date - we saw the Avengers and really enjoyed it.  I haven't seen the Captain America or Thor movies, but I do believe I'd like to see those now.  ;)
     An amusing tangent - we found out that my Aunt's cocker spaniel loves our guinea pig.  And not in an "I'd like to eat you" way.  He totally wanted to play with the guinea pig everytime we had him out of the cage!  He was also very concerned for Ozzie (the pig) when we were giving him a bath and clipping his toenails.  I think Gale just might have to get Nicholas (the dog) a playmate soon!
     I am both happy and pensive about some homeschool progress.  I turned in the official withdrawal form from Unit 4 schools on Thursday.  I was a bit nervous, I guess because that's the thing that made it real.  The girls have no spot at Bottenfield for next year.  But when I hesitated and the secretary asked me, "Are you sure you want to do this?" I handed it to her quick and skeedaddled out of there.  Yes!  We are finally sure we want to do this!  We have thought and prayed about it for over a year (longer for me) and we are sure this is what is best for our family.  Whew.
     I also found out serendipitously that a co-op in town has opening that would fit all 3 of my girls.  Thanks Jen!   So at first I was like, "Check that off the list!  Yay!"  Then I started looking at their schedule and curriculum and now I'm like, "Wow - I still have more decisions to make about this..."  One of the many reason we had on our "Why should we homeschool list"  was that we feel strange having to tell our girls "Now this is what they believe and they have reasons for that, but we believe  *fill in the blank* and here are our reasons, so don't say anything contrary if *whatever adult is in charge* says this."  So I was a little taken back when I say the 2nd lesson in for kindergarteners was about Noah and Dinosaurs.  I don't know what the curriculum actually says about this, so I could be totally fine with it.  I was just taken back to the day I was in the Bible book store in Orlando looking for a book for Celee and read a book about dinosaurs being what the Bible called dragons and the Parasaurolophus's crest allowed it to shoot fire from it's mouth.  (And yes I did have to look up that dinosaurs' name)  All this to say that the pensiveness is the result of once again being reminded that I'm weird.  My views on things don't fit in the purely academic realm b/c I believe my girls desperately need to be shown a Godly perspective of life.  But I don't fit exactly in the "religious" realm either b/c some of the things that are taken for granted that a bonified "Christian" would think, I don't.  These things are not things that the Bible says that I do not believe, rather these things are things that the Bible is specifically silent on but can be taken for granted as "what the Bible says," when it actually doesn't.  Enough ambiguity!  Let's just say that I am so very thankful for my small group where we have been discussing and studying things that we may think differently on, but we can agree that God is sovereign, He is just, and He gave us His Word to guide us. 
      Changing subjects - Yesterday we all went to Sholem for the first time this year.  They've got a new slide and the girls always find a friend or two to play with when we go so it's always fun.  They've also go a lazy river and a slide that dumps into it that Lyla would do all day if allowed.  While waited to procure tubes for the river, I was reminded how important it is to teach my girls good manners, and what to do when others do not have good manners.  There were 3 sets of adults with children in front of Jason and I waiting to get tubes as people exited the river.  Children kept coming up and just scooting to the front to grab the tubes before the people in line could get them.  This drives me nuts by the way!  I guess most people are hesistant to correct other people's kids (here at least)  because no one was saying anything about it.  But you could tell they were all very frustrated.  So I tapped two kids on the shoulder and told them they were going to have to get behind us because the lady and little girl beside us were here before them and were getting the next tube that came up.  Now, this first attempt of mine to correct this behavior was successful.  The 2 kids quickly complied and moved behind us.  The second attempt was a different story.  Two boys came up and got in front to grab tubes, I got there attention and told them they would have to wait their turn.  These two turned around and moved away from me, but still in front of everyone waiting for tubes.  I moved toward them and said it again with the same results.  I ask you, would you ever have soundly ignored an adult speaking to you when you were little?  Jason and I both think we never would have.  I would have been horrified if an adult other than my family had corrected me at that age.  Now I'm just amazed that other kids would do this.  I thought about his later and realized that now there is always the chance that an irate parent could fuss at me for correcting their child, even when their child was clearly doing something rude.  Thankfully no one fussed at me.  And I am all the more resolute that my kids know that behavior like that is rude!   So I guess Thank you rude boys at Sholem! for providing me a real-life situation to remind my girls of good manners, general thoughtfulness, and how to handle other people's not-so-nice reactions.