Adventures in 2011

It has been a very long time since I posted. Honestly, when I started this blog, I had good intentions of writing often. However, I had no way of knowing what these past six months had in store for me.

I have to say, through it all, God is so good. He is my Rock and my Fortress. He protects me when I am weak. Because of Him, I fear no evil. (all from the Bible I just don't know where, don't judge me.)

I started this blog on New Year's Eve and I haven't posted much on it since!

SO...it is time that I let you know the latest Stuckey journey, which is our recent gear switch in our Homeschooling adventures.

About 2 weeks ago, we set off into our 5th year of homeschooling. I mean, really?! Fifth year?! It doesn't seem that it's been that long, and then at times, I look at my children and how they've grown in the last five years and I am so thankful for homeschooling. I look at our homeschool group and friends (that have become like family) and I absolutely cannot imagine my life without them. To think that it was really only 5 years ago when Angel Girl asked if she could be homeschooled...but it was 10 years ago when God started working on my heart.

Preschool for Angel Girl was a dream, but had it's bumps. So when she said to me two days ago, "Mom, this is the best I've liked school since preschool"...I was floored. I'll tell you more too...all throughout our homeschooling journey, to date, she's been asking to go back to preschool. I have to admit, I was starting to take this a little personally. We tried switching curriculum for Math, we tried a more relaxed approach. We tried JUST reading books over the summer. We tried UNschooling for a while. I LOVE UNschooling a little too much! Ha! But my main challenges were still what to do with my little man while I was trying to school the big kids Then a new and very nice friend of mine introduced me to www.time4learning.com . Can I just tell you? I can barely contain myself about how excited I am to see smiles on their faces, NO tears from A.G., and CONFIDENCE from Tractor Boy, my big 7 year old!

I say "time for school" and they get excited! It is positively refreshing. YES, there is still workbook work, but it's only going to be a page per day. Its like eating a giant cookie, you can't eat the whole thing all at once, just one bite at a time. That's what I tell Angel Girl when she gives me sad eyes about doing her workbook work. She doesn't like it because it is the "old school" and now she is really liking the new school.

I am so grateful for www.time4learning.com . It works out to be a little more than $1 per day for both kids to be subscribed. This is money well spent for sanity well saved in my book. I think that we are finished today with our 2 week trial period with them, and we will be continuing onward!

My days are lighter these last few days. I don't feel as oppressed as I did before. I was dreadfully close to giving up entirely on homeschooling. I didn't want their brains to rot. I was telling myself we could just read books for a whole year and (we still might do that) everything would be okay while Mommy got her sanity back. It was difficult for me to understand how other families, larger families, got it all done in one day, on a tight budget, without checking into a looney bin (no offense). I had put myself under tremendous stress and was comparing myself to others too much. Now, it is as if a weight has been lifted. I feel free. So, not only has this helped my kids gain confidence and a bit of structure to their day, Mom is happy. And you know what they say about when Momma's happy!

Disclaimer Alert!
As a member of Time4Learning, I have been asked to review their online education program and share my experiences. While I was compensated, this review was not written or edited by Time4Learning and my opinion is entirely my own. Write your own curriculum review or learn how to use their curriculum for homeschool, after school study or summer learning.

Peace to All of you!
Love MommaClaire



P.S. www.time4learning.com also has great Support for parents, and I know because I've already needed it! :-)

A Not-So-Brief History of All My Stuckeys

I have been going around and around with myself about starting a blog. What made me finally do it? I couldn't contain my happiness any longer. My blessings are bubbling over and I must share the sweetness that is my family, with all of you!

I am 35.
I am conservative (politically) and vote as such.
I am Catholic (and PROUD of it!).
I am married to a sweet, hard-working man, who will be referred to as Daddy. We were married on 2/20/1999! We met as freshmen in college in 1993.
I have three adorable earthly children, Lulu (aka...AngelGirl born 2002), BeeBop (aka...Tractor Man born 2004), and Juju (aka...Danger born 2009).
I drive a minivan.
I'm not good at gardening but I am composting.
I'm overweight but working on losing it.
My parents are still married and I have 2 sisters. One is married and has a boy and a girl that I LOVE! The other sister is working hard at an awesome career in environmental education.
I love reading, knitting, writing, crocheting, cross-stitching...but pretty much just get time for reading and writing.
My husband's parents are still married and live in "the country" on family land. We love to go out there and ride tractors, hunt, fish, play hard and relax.
We are omnivores, but are increasingly going organic.
We currently live in a dream house that we are renting but hope to buy one day.
We have been through the desert and are on the other side of it.
My husband and I are the co-coordinators for the Houston Retrouvaille community. When we were in the desert, Retrouvaille was our lifeline and it is through Retrouvaille that we are still married. We wouldn't have had Juju if it weren't for our commitment to Retrouvaille's program and working on making our marriage stronger over the last 5 years.
I have homeschooled Lulu since Kindergarten. She and Beebop both attended preschool, but the cost was too great and the logistics too complicated to continue to send them to school, and so, our homeschool is now in it's 4th year. We have our good days and our not-so-good days, but we persevere knowing that the rewards are great and the struggles are worth it.
I love our homeschool group. Such an amazing group of families and the support is incredible. Most of my friends are in this group.

People usually say to me "How do you really feel about that?!" because I don't mince words. Sometimes that comes off as rude, sometimes people think it's funny. If I hold it in, I feel as though I'm not being true to myself. But I do hold it in as social mores dictate and for the most part I do not blurt out my observations as if I had a disorder. If I have a problem with something that's happening, it eats away at me until I let it out...I have difficulty explaining why this happens. I usually have to sleep on things and formulate my response (with the help of prayer and The Holy Spirit) before I can respond to certain things. But I believe it is necessary to explain this because occasionally I may rant or exclaim my displeasure in other ways and I judge you need to understand that it's for my own good.

I often look at this world and I'm amazed at how rude people are, how selfish people can be, and I marvel at the politeness I see, the charity and chivalry that is still out there in a society that is increasingly ego-centric and self-serving.

Sometimes I may contradict myself.

Sometimes I mess up BIG.

Sometimes I just mess up.

Sometimes I make a mess before I can clean it up.

I have discovered that life is messy and I shouldn't apologize for my messes so much.

I have a BFA in Theatre (and an English minor) from Sam Houston State University. I graduated in 1997.
I wrote a book during NaNoWriMo 2008 and haven't done a thing with it.
I love taking pictures and don't do much with them but wish to find more time for scrapbooking because I miss it.
Sometimes I feel as if I cannot do it all, I can't pay attention to my kids, make their food, clean the house, do the laundry, keep things picked up, sweep the floor, take Beebop to therapy, manage his doctor appointments; but I do have a calendar and an ipad to help me stay organized. Some days are much better than others and on the days that are not better, I remind myself how good I really have it. I am blessed to be able to stay home and homeschool these sweethearts and I am so thankful. But SOMETIMES, I feel overwhelmed. Just sometimes. Please don't worry about me. I do my VERY BEST to focus on the positive. "Pollyanna" is STILL one of my favorite movies.

I manage a carepage for BeeBop and I hope to transition it to this blog so that I can feel more free to gush about everyone's accomplishments and cuteness without limits. I have not been good at managing the carepage in the last 18 months.

Having Juju has switched time into hyper-speed. It seems like yesterday that we were celebrating his 1st birthday and in 2 days Juju will be TWO! I just don't know where this year went, but it's certainly been very eventful.

I hope that through this blog I can get my thoughts out of my head, share the joys and trials of homeschooling in an honest and charitable fashion, share the cuteness and hilarity that is my kids and family, but mostly offer hope that there is more to life than working 12 hour days, that there is hope in faith, 24/7 motherhood, and tradition marriage.

And so it begins...

May God Bless you abundantly as He has me and my family.