Getting Ready for Fall Activities

Today we got school done, then headed out for a quick trip to the dance studio to get L registered. We get there, sign the forms, and find out classes start next week and we need to be outfitted. No time like the present. We headed out to get L's gear, which caused a little sibling jealousy, so we had to look for K's soccer gear, too.

To find everything we needed we went to Target, another Target, dance store, sporting goods store, back to Target, craft store, then home, which made a long afternoon, but the girls were very cooperative. Of course, that's probably because they had a personal stake in it! K is now the proud owner of a soccer ball, a really cool soccer backpack ($3.98!), socks with shin guards, and a water bottle. L came away with a leotard, tights, ballet shoes, tap shoes, and I'm making her a personalized dance bag since we couldn't find one for less than the $30 the dance store was charging. She is the happiest little ballerina in the world and she can't wait until her class Wednesday. I have a feeling it's going to be a *long* wait for all of us.

For those who like advanced planning, L's recital is June 15, 2008 (aka Father's Day), at 6pm. Just in case you want to plan a trip out this way :-)

Happy Birthday, Angela!

I hope you're having a wonderful day!

And not getting swept away in the floods from Dean. With all that rain, it hardly seems like Texas at all.

Fall Activities

I *think* I've got our fall schedule pinned down with school and extra-curricular activities. I love the staying home part of homeschooling, but I do also have to work to get the girls involved in outside activities. Charlotte, with its large homeschooling community, has a ton of opportunities for homeschoolers with lots of daytime classes and programs. This is good in that there's a lot of choices and it's bad in that there's so much to choose from. Whittling it down to what fits in your schedule, appeals to your child's interest, doesn't cost to much, and meets your family's needs is a tough thing!

So this year it looks like -

Monday - home

Tuesday - K-afternoon soccer clinic

Wednesday - L-morning dance class

Thursday - (1st, 3rd of the month) - K-afternoon Brownies

Friday - home

I may add a morning Bible Study for me on Tuesday or Thursday, when the church has childcare and K can take her seatwork to do. All in all, not too crazy of a schedule. It still leaves K with only 1 activity most weeks, L with only one any week, and they still get some interaction time with other kids their age. It also leaves Monday and Friday free since those are the most popular days for places to schedule special activity days - like nature classes at Chimney Rock Park, Homeschool Days in Wilmington, or math in music with the Charlotte Symphony. One of the cool things about homeschooling is being able to take neat field trips.

Channeling Her Inner Redneck

Everyone in the adoption world says it's amazing how well kids fit into their adoptive families, exhibiting the same traits as biological children as if they shared the same genes and L has certainly shown that she's no exception. Twice now this little girl has cut her own hair and both times it's been into a mullet. (Yes, my roots are showing :-)) Last time it was into kinda a quarter mullet, but since then our preschool curriculum has included lots of cutting practice and she got the *whole* thing today. Everyone had gone to their rooms, but L got a little tired of hers. It seems she went to the kitchen, pulled the scissors out of the junk drawer, trotted off to the bathroom, and tried "to make my hair cute". I found her after she had finished the chop job and gone back to playing. Imagine my horror seeing my own little Chinese redneck staring back at me!

We were supposed to be headed out the door for an appointment with my allergist, but thankfully I had planned to leave really early so we had time for an emergency trip to the hair salon where the only haircut that would work at all (besides the mullet, which wasn't working for me) was a pixie. So L's hair that was *finally* growing out from the last trim job is now very short all over. I'm so glad she has earrings and dresses very girly since it's such a boy haircut. It doesn't look too bad, really, but it's still such a shock. She *does not* like it and gets such a sad look on her face when she sees it in the mirror, so I'm hoping this will finally cure her of cutting her own hair. The scissors will be banned for a time and we'll have to find something else to do in place of her cutting activity each day. I've included some before and after pics, including the bald spot she cut into the back and one of K who got a haircut, too, but *didn't* cut her own hair!

Kathryn's Wish list

Kathryn will be turning 7 soon as has been building a birthday wish list for the past several weeks. I thought I would post it here so any out-of-state relatives who want to see it, can.

* Large, stuffed My Little Pony
* Hello Kitty Backpack (at Target, plaid)
* Bed tent
* Johnny Kapahala - Back on Board (Disney movie)
* High School Musical Shirt - Blue or Red
* Crayola Thermos (pink, looks like a big crayon)
* High School Musical 2 (Disney movie, not sure if it'll be available by then)
* Bike bell
* Computer game
* Bouncy Ball Kit (craft kit she found at Target)
* Time with Dad
* Mario Party 8 for the Wii
* Pink Office Chair (found one at Staples she likes)

In other news, Kathryn has finished her 10th chapter book - woohoo! She has reached her goal and gets to go on a camping trip with Dad. She is so excited about it that she went to the library today and checked out the directory of North American campgrounds, which was so big she could hardly carry it. Having to wait until the weather cools off is going to test her patience terribly.

To the Golden Shore

A few years ago, the teaching pastor of our church gave a sermon on a man named Adoniram Judson. Our pastor thought so highly of this man that he named his son after him (Judson, as his wife wasn't too keen on the name Adoniram). I remembered only one specific point from that sermon and that was the letter Judson wrote to the father of the woman he wanted to marry. Judson was on his way to become the first American missionary and he was well aware of the dangers he and his wife-to-be, Nancy, could face. His letter asked Nancy's father if he would be willing to part with his daughter forever, knowing that she would be faced with illness, persecution, a desperately hard life, and possibly killed for her work to spread the gospel of Christ. If you were Nancy's father, what answer would you have given?


For Christmas, I bought W a copy of Judson's biography, To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson. I pulled it out recently and read it myself. Frankly, I don't read too many biographies, but this one was amazingly well-written, interesting, and terribly convicting. Judson was a brash young man, forging ahead at any cost to get himself and a few other young men appointed and sent out as missionaries to the far east. He was incredibly intelligent, well-spoken, and persuasive, eventually securing his missionary goal and his wife (her father allowed her to make her own decision in whether or not to marry and become a missionary). He and Nancy ended up in Burma, an incredibly savage kingdom with little interaction with the outside world. Their work was full of hardships, setbacks, death, pain, imprisonment, illness, and separation, but they soldiered on and saw some eventual growth from their efforts.

Eventually, the work claimed the lives of Nancy and their three children. Judson remarried twice, and every time God provided a wife to love and support him exactly as he needed suring that stage of his life. Judson's work included preaching, teaching, discipling, and most importantly, translating the Bible into Burmese and creating an English-Burmese dictionary.

Through the book, you see Judson undergo a metamorphosis from the headstrong young man bent on doing whatever it took to finally leave America as her first missionary to a self-effacing man of wisdom, willing to blend into the background so that God's work might shine on its own. He had come to realize how his first efforts had been for his own honor and prestige and it took a great deal of soul-searching before he could forgive himself and move past his feelings of guilt over it. Truthfully, that was exactly the kind of attitude that was needed to motivate the American churches to start and sustain a missionary program.

Could I put myself in that same position? Leaving my home, knowing that I would probably never see it or any of my family again? Knowing that I was doing it for the glory of God? I wish I could say yes, but it would be such a hard thing. Thankfully, the missionaries of today are not required to give up everything with such bleak prospects for their future on earth. They have extensive training and support and year-long furloughs back home, but I have seen their commitment to their work and it is just as intense as the commitment the Judsons made so long ago. After all, our life on earth is such a momentary thing compared to our eternal life with Christ and those who follow him.

2 Weeks of Homeschool Done!

Since the girls were so excited about getting started with school (and Daddy was going to be out of town for a week), we decided to get started even earlier than our planned early start. For the past two weeks, we've been getting up, getting ready, and *learning*. Just to show you haw excited the girls have been, they've both been dressing up, an entirely un-K thing to do. Even K has been dressing often in dresses and skirts for our morning classes.

Our day starts with the pledge, singing (L is usually dancing as well), memory verses, and Bible story. Even L has been memorizing short verses well. We then all sit at the table where I get L started on some easy worksheets and I teach K phonics, writing, and reading, then K does seatwork while I work with L on the letter of the week and the harder worksheets and art projects that are on the schedule. Then (with a lot of encouragement), L goes to play, while I teach Arithmetic, Spelling, Poetry, reading again, and the daily Activity Time where K does all the other subjects and fun stuff rotated by day.

We've been having a lot of fun, especially with teaching preschool since there are tons of art projects and fun things to do. We've painted and made handprints, glued macaroni, made a tug-of-war game, and next class we get to make an alligator out of clay. K generally gets jealous of all the cool stuff that L gets to do. After all, second grade is a bit more serious, though not always. One day we played a game where K hopped all the way to the apartment office answering flashcards. She took her first test yesterday in phonics and scored a 100. Her reading is fabulous, especially after all the practice she's gotten this summer. Her dad challenged her to read 10 chapter books, after which he would take her camping. She finished #9 last night and it anxious to get to the library for a 10th so she can reach her goal.

9 days down and 171 to go!