Change can be good...

I think I'll take the next few days to elaborate a little on the only different part of our "same-same" life that I mentioned yesterday so you know where we are now.

I'll start with homeschooling these cuties.

 Many have asked what we are doing this year so here's a nutshell version:

We are in our 10th year of homeschooling. Woah! A decade of this? Who'd have thought?!

Like I mentioned yesterday, we decided as a family to change up our homeschooling this year. It was a huge decision for our family and we didn't make it lightly. Caleb was just over what we were currently doing and it wasn't worth the fight and risking our relationship to force him to do something he hated each week. We could have. And he would have. But it wasn't worth it to us as there is more than one way to skin a cat, as they say. ;)

We sat down and talked about what we wanted to get out of the year and where we wanted to be when the kids finished their Junior, 8th grade, and 6th grade year of school. We had also homeschooled our foster daughter from Jan-May 2016 and got her caught up and ready to take on 1st grade in public school and really, I was just tired.

The last 7 years, I had been so busy doing "good" things (fostering toddlers, fostering and homeschooling a 6 year old who had been in 4 kindergartens already, directing CC, etc) that I was neglecting my family, my home, and myself. So we decided to just stop. Keep all three kids home and give them my full attention - divided by 3, I guess...so giving them each 33% of my attention? ha. It's still better than the approximately .05% of my attention that they were getting! And they needed it.We all needed it. Taking this time to slow down and just focus on the kids has been so beneficial for all of us. I'm LOVING this year!!

We meet up with another like-minded (hope I didn't just insult them!) family each week to keep each other rolling on this crazy journey and help each other where one is weaker. I can teach English and Writing in my sleep thanks to teaching Essentials for 5 years (please ignore that I don't like to take time to proofread my blog posts and use ellipsis way...too...much. I could be proper if I wanted to be, but wouldn't that be dreadfully boring?) Then there's Advanced Math. I'm so thankful that friend is willing to teach Caleb that for me bc I was considering just putting him back in PreAlgebra because I pretty much rock that. ha. Sharing the load has been great, and fun too.

Caleb also is taking Spanish with a local co-op where Trenton is taking guitar and Paige is in choir. Paige is also still dancing, Trenton is active in Civil Air Patrol, and Caleb loved playing football again this year and is at the gym everyday working out. They really don't just sit home and enjoy the 33% of mom that is available to them. Although some people probably think we disappeared, we are still venturing out, and quite often. ;)

CC was exactly what we needed when we needed it and I'm thankful for those years. After so many years of CC, it has been a huge change, but I can honestly say that I haven't regretted our decision to pull in closer as a family for a second. We have all grown and are all enjoying school again. We no longer fight every Sunday night when we realize that I hadn't checked in with the kids in days and they weren't going to be ready for Monday. Now, I'm with them all day and call them out when they try to slack off AS they try to slack off on it. Our bonus kiddo is thriving in school and it gives us the time without a young one around to focus hard on school and be done when she gets home so we can enjoy our evenings together.

So, while change is never easy, it can be good. And for us, this year has been very good. I'm thankful.