the girls did have their first day of school yesterday and loved it. i guess there are times that a Carl’s Jr. Guacamole Bacon Burger Combo meal does sound really good. hopefully they don’t tire of greasy fast food too fast. ;-)

they came home and told us all of the new things they did. but since they had both been in public school before they already new “the ropes” so to speak.

anna has Mr. Valnes for 1st grade. i’m glad she was able to get into Mr. Valnes’s class. he attended the church we went to when we were growing up. and although i never had him as a school teacher since he taught in grandview and i went to school in prosser; he was my sunday school teacher, Bible quiz coach, and joined us on many youth trips growing up. i liked and respected him a lot.

danielle has Mrs. Madson for Kindergarden. (i don’t know her) they both had friends that they knew from school before or from church and i was encouraged to find out that they played with each other during recesses as well.

i picked them up after school and we were happily treated to some “after school” snacks that julia and deb had made for us. (cookies!!) after their snacks they were eager to do their homework in their red folders.

all in in all it was a great day and we’re looking forward to many more.

as promised, a little more insight into my decision making process for sending the girls back to public school.

as a little background, deb and i dealt with this decision very differently. after we first talked about it she was on google looking for article/advice to see if there’s ever been any other families that started homeschooling and then quit. she wanted reassurance that it was “ok” to even do that. she wanted to make sure that we were doing the right thing.

most of the articles/blog posts she found when searching for “quit homeschool” were from students that were being homeschooled that wanted to quit but their parents wouldn’t let them. she did find one article by a wife that was struggling to homeschool but her husband wouldn’t let her put their kids in public school. (i said they have a marriage problem, not a homeschooling problem) i did find an insightful article when i searched for “homeschool dropout”.

for me i didn’t really care if others had started and then quit homeschooling. i didn’t care if others thought it was ok to do that. (some of that may be my own personality that doesn’t really care what other people think regardless of the issue and, for good or bad, i don’t make it a habit to try to please people.)

and it’s in that last sentence that i have to look back at my own upbringing. because growing up i cared a lot about what other people thought AND i did go out of my way to change my plans in order to please other people. or there were times that i made decisions because i thought it was what i was “supposed” to do.

some examples:
i only joined one sport in jr. high/high school; cross country. i wasn’t very good at it (i remember coming in last for one race) but i didn’t continue to try out for sports because it was “expected” of me by my father to join him after school in tending to “the ranch”. (we had 10 acres where we raised cattle.)

i did go to an initial football practice where we had to run up lincoln grade before the season started. my dad was supportive of me joining football, because he played when he was younger. but my mom was really worried that i’d get hurt. it didn’t help that my dad told a story about a time he broke his collar bone while playing. i decided not to pursue it because i didn’t want to have my mom worry so much.

and finally, college. my decision to go to college the fall after high school was mostly based on the fact that i thought it was what i was “supposed” to do. upon nearing the end of my high school career i thought i had only 3 options after high school. 1) start a job working, 2) go into the military, 3) go to college. the first to options i thought (at the time) were only for people to dumb to get into college (later while in college i did seriously contemplate joining the marines; i even met with a recruiter). and since i graduated with a 3.7 or 3.8 gpa i figured i was “supposed” to go to college.

when deb and i got married we knew we wanted to have a big family. so we thought we should start having kids soon after marriage. we did decide to wait one year before getting pregnant. but if i had to do it all over again i wouldn’t see the problem in waiting 3-5 years to starting the “kids phase” of our lives. looking back i think i would have loved to have a few more years to just relish in the relationship between deb and i. (so mark and elia, unless you know for sure that you want to start having kids right away i would recommend you wait a few years. there’s no hurry)

and even while in college i chose the major i did because i thought it was what i was supposed to do. i knew i had a call on my life to ministry but i didn’t explore my options. in my narrow minded thinking i thought the only path to ministry was to be on staff at a church as a pastor of some sort.

i know now there are thousands of ways to be involved in ministry that have nothing to do with a traditional “pastoral” role. and frankly i think at that age i didn’t know all the options and interests that i had. there’s times even now that i wonder if i should take some college courses part time to get a degree in psychology, or journalism, or some formal education in graphic design or video production/editing. those are all interests that i have now that i didn’t necessarily have when i was coming out of high school.

so what’s my whole point? i want my kids (and deb and i) to feel that it’s OK to just try something. to explore various options and not just do or endure something because it’s expected by someone or they feel like they’re supposed to. of course there are times that you start something and you should finish it. i don’t want them to think they can just live their lives based on their feelings. but it’s okay to make a turn in direction every once in a while. to explore all the options and then make a more informed/educated decision.

so that’s how i feel about homeschooling. we felt that it was the right thing for our family. we tried some different methods: workbooks, self directed, online schooling, etc. but in the end (a year later) we now see that it my not have been the right thing for our family at this time. so we changed direction. even if that means going back to the path we first left. and who knows i probably will end up taking some classes of some sort or the other. (as soon as i can decided on what i want to do. and perhaps once we’re out of debt and i can pay for it in cash)

—————————-
// today i’m thankful for:
1. do overs
2. starting a new
3. warmer weather (for those not in our area we got freezing rain and then seven inches of snow dumped on us last saturday and even canceled church because of it. for those of you in MN; yes, i know that sounds laughable, but we’re not used to that much snow in one day)
4. julia’s funny quotes (yesterday when the older girls were at school she told deborah, “hey mom, you, me and rachel are like the Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything!” and then they started singing the song in a pirate voice.
5. payday today! :-)

we’re homeschool dropouts. we’ve decided to “re-enroll” our kids in public school. i picked up the registration forms today during my lunch break and deb was going to fill them out.

when i asked how soon they would be able to start once we returned the forms the secretary surprised me by saying, “tomorrow, depending on what time you bring them back today.” tomorrow! wow i thought there was a bureaucracy to this kinda stuff and it would take a week or at least a few days. (on further thought i guess the sooner the kids are enrolled the sooner the school gets the federal funding for them)

we decided to homeschool our kids last year. we “un-enrolled” them last december. so what happened? well, our reasons for wanting to homeschool them still apply. we wanted to homeschool them to not simply be able to give them a better education; but to also be the sole/primary influences on our children’s lives. it’s not that we were scared of the teachers or public school system “indoctrinating” them with an anti-god agenda. but it was more the other kids who come from different homes, have different values. it’s the same reason we limit how much tv they can watch saturday mornings on the rare occasions that we do let them watch. (there’s too many commercials for products that they “have to have”)

what did change? nothing, except that we realized that undertaking of homeschooling our two older daughters, giving preschool lessons to our third, and caring for a baby just wasn’t working out according to our best intentions. and all that on top of trying to keep a home and fix meals for everyone.

do we believe that homeschooling is the best option for our kids’ education? yes. but it hasn’t worked out to be a “working option” for our family. in fact we still hope to homeschool our kids once they are all older (no babies), and the older ones are a little more able to be “self driven”. perhaps when they reach middle school age. we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

i think the best way to put it is in terms of food. i think the ideal homeschooling situation for us is like a “steak dinner at the Outback”; public school is like a “a Carl’s Jr. burger combo meal”; our kids’ education this past year has been like a “low ration of Top Ramen noodles”. that’s not to say we didn’t have great times and meaningful teaching this past year. but they were few and far between.

and at this point i’d rather my kids have a steady diet than none at all. i’ve been feeling this way for a while. deb has been trying her best to make it work out. but there’s only so much one lady with four young kids, expecting twins this spring can do during the day. i think it finally hit both of us the reality of our situation the other night when anna heard us contemplating putting them back into public school. deb asked her what she thought about that and she started crying and saying that she would really like that because she’s bored at home and doesn’t learn anything.

the very reason we started homeschooling was so that she wouldn’t be bored and we could give her a better (more challenging) education.

we’re not blind to the challenges that sending our kids to public school will bring: getting the kids up early, ready for school, drop off and pick up, helping with homework, extra curricular activities, dealing with other kids, etc. but after a year of knowing what our intentions were, what the realities were, and what our options are looking forward; we’re ready to deal with all that. (it also doesn’t hurt to think that compared to sarah’s 90 mile trek to and from school; we only live 3 blocks away) :-)

in another post i’ll give a little more background into my personal thought process in this decision, but this post has gone on long enough and i don’t like to mix post topics.

—————————-
// today i’m thankful for:
1. not having to get a new muffler for our van
2. the heater in our van works
3. having babysitters family close by
4. being able to go home for lunch
5. hearing rachel’s babblings

if your computer can handle this amount of cuteness on your screen at one time you can head on over to the “gallery”. i added about another 40 or so pics to the “2008 family portraits” album.

there’s some of the other “good” ones as well as some of the out takes and down right “what-were-they-thinking?” pics.

enjoy.

—————————-
// today i’m thankful for:
1. a snow day from school!
2. being able to stay warm on this snow day
3. our prints of the family pics arriving in the mail
4. hot chocolate
5. homemade whole wheat chocolate chip cookies

i’ve created a new page for the web gallery. you can get to it from the link at the top of the page or by clicking on the “recent items” photos on the right side of the home page. before the links to the gallery would open a new window or tab. now it simply takes you to another page within theacousticlife.com site.

i’ve heard that users have experience problems using some browsers. (internet explorer in particular). if that’s the case try using a different browser like Safari or Firefox. although i have heard that it seems to “hang” up on load up for some users of firefox. but that it if you simply click inside the window it loads up.

let me know if you encounter any problems of if it looks just fine with your browser/computer setup.

if all else fails you can go back and use the external gallery site again.

–
i guess the “presidential” ramblings weren’t interesting to anyone else but me. i even found out later that the “friend” commenter was deb. and she was just leaving a comment to humor me.

oh and my sister says that mark didn’t cringe. but that was mostly because he was too busy playing the wii when she was telling him about my post.

—————————-
// today i’m thankful for:
1. being done with the church website redesign
2. getting the heater in our van working
3. not having credit card to buy one of these
4. sunny days in winter
5. a clean house

ok, so i’ve found myself being MUCH more interested in the presidential process this time around than i ever have before.

i watched a couple of the debate clips, i read “the note”, i visited most of the major candidates websites, i watch news and news websites for primary election results and commentary.

in previous years, (this is going to make mark cringe) i used wait until voting day to just read the “voter’s pamphlet” that came in the mail or newspaper to decide about the issues or candidates. or worse i’d just base my opinions on what “the commercials” said.

maybe it’s the fact that i knew mark, my new brother in law, would be coming the week before the iowa caucuses. and he’s very politically active, so i thought it’d be good for me to at least half way know what i’m talking about.

but i still don’t know too much about any candidate really. doing a google search for “compare candidates” brings up plenty of sites that’ll do just that. i think i’ll take the time to review those sites later today. it’s interesting even visiting some of those sites because depending on who is publishing them gives you an indication of which way the site itself is leaning.

such as on the issue of abortion a “left” leaning site will show a candidate as “Pro-Choice” or “Anti-Choice”. where as a “right” leaning site will show those same candidates as “Anti-Life” and “Pro-Life”.

so i know it’s a can of worms, but i’m willing to open it up. who are you supporting this time around? are you caught up in the election? are you really for a particular candidate? or are you trying to put it off since it’s not for another 287 days? or are you interested but have you not made up your mind yet? what issues are most important to you this election season? are there any issues that “litmus test” issues for you when choosing a candidate?

oh and btw, i’m not supporting Obama or Hillary. i just thought it was a great picture.

update: added link to more of the pics
—————————-

blatantly stealing and idea from our good friend in minnesota to hang up a bed sheet for family pics we decided to take some pictures yesterday.

in the gallery you can see the “top 7” out of 553!! that’s what happens with digital cameras that you don’t have to pay for film. and the fact that my camera has a “drive mode” in which you just hold the button down and it takes a picture every 1/2 second or so. (i’ll probably post some of the other “out takes” or some of the more goofy pics in a future post)

and that’s the way i caught the picture shown here. the sheet is draping over our entertainment center and then also tacked up on the wall. i had put that green clay pot (full of thumb tacks) on the top center to hold the sheet up. but as the girls walked behind the chairs they stepped on the sheet which brought the clay pot smashing down on danielle’s head. you can see a little movie clip of the pics right before and after the crash on the right.

all in all it was well over due. the last time we gathered around to take family pics was last may and rachel couldn’t even sit up on her own and now she’s walking! so deb thought it’d be a good idea to take some pics of her in this stage.

you can view a couple more of the pics on the “who i am” page.

—————————-
// today i’m thankful for:
1. “drive mode” digital cameras
2. all my princesses
3. having monday off
4. being in my thirties
5. looking like i’m in my twenties :-)

hi friends!

according to the ultrasound technician . . . we’re having two more girls! you can see the face and hand of one of them above.

i guess i’ll have to update my post from a couple weeks ago.

—————————-
// today i’m thankful for:
1. refunds
2. ultrasounds
3. extra couch pillows
4. cool whip
5. baby monitors

it’s kinda bittersweet working at a school. the sweet part being that i get all these “breaks” (thanksgiving break, christmas break, spring break, summer break). the bitter part being that once the break is over and you’ve really gotten used to being on break; you gotta go back to work.

so i’m back at work now. the good news being that now i have time to blog again. during the break i had lots of time, but not enough that i wanted to pull away from “family” time to blog. anyways, i’ll try to recap how the last 2 weeks have been.

we started out finishing up our last minute Christmas “things”. mainly that was getting the girl’s princess room all decorated and ready. (thanks mag for having the girls over for “jeremiah’s birthday”)

then Christmas eve at my in-laws, and then a delicious roast at my sister’s house Christmas day. as a side note my favorite Christmas present of the season was getting all new bathroom decor from my sister-in-law. i’ve also enjoyed my “in-ear” earbuds, and the “running sweats” i got with a gift card i got from my sister. and although i haven’t used it as much yet i really appreciate the capo that deb got for me.

the days following Christmas were pretty laid back, until saturday. saturday and sunday we were getting ready for a new format “family service” that we were going to have sunday evening (12/30). the service overall was a lot of fun,

then on monday my sister and brother-in-law flew in from minnesota. so we had “Christmas part 2”. and then we took advantage of the babysitters at our house and took off for our anniversary; which was the 2nd. we hopped on to hotwire.com a few days before and booked a great room at a great price for the night of the 1st in the tri-cities (1/2 hour from where we live). and then we used a gift certificate that we had received from our church to a bed and breakfast for the night of the 2nd in sunnyside (10 min from our house).

when we got up the next morning my sister sent me an iChat to say that rachel was sick with a fever. so we told her we’d be home before noon. well as it turns out when we went to be served breakfast the owner of the inn told us that they had given their housekeeper a few days off and if we wanted to stay a second night for free we could. it was a great offer but we couldn’t see ourselves staying away yet another night from our kids especially since the youngest was sick.

but then i asked if it would be okay if we brought our kids, and they said it would be perfectly fine. so we didn’t tell our kids till later that evening after a farewell dinner for my sister and brother-in-law (they would be heading back to MN the next day). we loaded them up in the van and headed for the bed and breakfast. the girls were SO excited to get to spend the night in such a big room with such a big tub (jacuzzi no less) and such a big TV and such a big soft bed.

so then we finally came back home friday in time to say goodbye to my sister. and then we had a few days to recover from our vacation before school started back up.

oh and i got to exercise (walk/run) quite a bit during my vacation. and i’m almost half way through Leviticus in my Bible “listening”. and i added a permanent link to the free audio bible on the right hand of the main page.

—————————-
// today i’m thankful for:
1. knowing what’s going on in the elections
2. new snow today
3. my dad’s boots
4. little girls in pajamas
5. deb’s scheduled ultrasound today! (we’re not sure if we’ll find out what they are or not, and/or if we’ll tell people the gender if we do find out) :-)