Last week on the way out of church, we noticed a bird sitting on a nest in a tree, and we even saw a little wing peeking out from underneath her. Yesterday, we walked by the same nest, and were shocked at how much the two baby birds had grown in just a week…they hardly even fit in the nest anymore!
I’m also a little shocked at how fast my children have grown up…time certainly does fly!
10 years ago today, I was admitted to the hospital on bedrest following a routine, weekly pre-natal appointment.
I had no idea on March 13, 2003, that our first child would be born less than a week later, even though his due date was still almost a month away.
I also had no idea that the next 10 years would fly by so quickly, and that I would go from a nervous first-time mother, to a mother of five, seemingly in the blink of an eye.
10 years. In some ways, an eternity, and in others, just a brief moment in time.
Now that we’re in July, 2012 is officially half over. I find this hard to believe, for two very different reasons.
On one hand, I can’t believe we’re only half-way through 2012. So much has happened already this year, that it hardly seems like it could have all taken place in only six months’ time. The most obvious of these happenings is, of course, the birth of Chickadee. But there have been other things, too…a baptism and two confirmations, holidays and birthdays, field trips and fun trips, the end of school years and the beginning of baseball season, special projects and lazy days. It has been a full, busy year, so much so, that if this was the end of the year, I would still consider it a success.
On the other hand, I can’t believe we’re already half-way through the year! How is it possible that Chickadee is already over three months old? How could Turkey and Bunny have finished third grade already? How has Moose finished his time in special education, and is ready to be mainstreamed? How can Ladybug be five already? Can the Fourth of July really be this week? How has the Diamond Jubilee passed by so quickly, and how is already almost time for the London Olympics? Where did the time go?
I guess it’s true that the passage of time is relative. I never really considered that the passage of the same exact time could be relatively different for one person, depending on how she looks at it, but it is. No matter how I look at it, though, it’s been a monumental year, and I fully expect the second half of 2012 to be just as busy, fun, and exciting!
My love for Sonlight is two-sided, I’ve discovered. First of all, and most obviously, I love their curriculum because I don’t have to worry about writing lesson plans. Back in my early childhood ed. days at CURF (am I still allowed to call it that? Or do I have to go with the somewhat irritating, and, in my opinion, horribly inaccurate, CUC?), and even into my DCE studies (you’d be surprised how many lesson plans DCEs in training have to write!) I hated writing lesson plans, unless it was a topic that I was really interested in or passionate about. I just dreaded sitting down and putting in the time and effort (but mostly the time!) it took to make a good lesson. Now, if I taught full-time, or even if I was still working as a DCE, and writing my own Bible studies, I’m sure I would have gotten better, or at least more efficient at it, but still…
As it is, though, I’m glad I don’t have that task to worry about! Sonlight has provided me with fantastic (in my opinion, at least) lesson plans for all my subjects. I just review what we’re going to be doing the week before we do it, and I’m ready to go! Such a burden lifted…I doubt I’d make it as a homeschooling mom if I had to write all my own lessons (or at least I wouldn’t be doing a very good job of it!).
But, the flip-side of that is this–because I’m not bogged down with daily lesson plans for things like history, math, and language arts, I can use my time to create lessons for the extra stuff I actually want to do. Like my Olympics unit, which I basically put together by myself, that we did before school started. Fun holidays, extra topics we want to study, more in-depth religion (and doctrine, if you will–gotta raise those little Lutherans right!), those things I actually enjoy planning lessons for. Yeah, they’re probably not formatted “correctly,” and I’m sure I’m not covering all the things I’m supposed to. But I don’t have to worry about that, because I have 36 weeks of good, solid lesson plans for all the subjects prepared for me, and anything else I add to that is just icing on the cake (good thing we’re inclined toward year-round schooling, because I have a feeling I’m going to be tacking on a month or more of my own lessons!).
Between now and the end of the year, I have a special one-day unit on the Reformation planned (another fantastic thing about Sonlight–because of the way the curriculum is organized, it’s super easy to compress five days worth of lessons into four if you want to or need to–as a matter of fact, if I understand it correctly, I’ll have the option of having four or five days worth of curriculum starting next year. Still planning on using the full five, but it’s nice to have the option…), a three-day Thanksgiving unit (along with an extra five days of Thanksgiving readers in place of our normal Little House readers the week before Thanksgiving), and a five to ten day Christmas unit. (What can I say? I love Christmas, and I have a ton of ideas involving the history of Christmas celebrations, world cultures, and, of course, the birth of Christ. And no Santa! Another plus to homeschooling!)
So, I can love Sonlight both because I don’t have to plan lessons, and because, since they have prepared the lessons for me, I have extra time and I get to plan the fun stuff. The best of both worlds–I love it!
I’m getting more and more nervous about my various Moose-related appointments tomorrow. I’m getting a real bad vibe off the O.T., and I’m not looking forward to meeting with her at all. I’ve talked to her twice today now, and I’m getting the distinct impression that she is not happy with the timing of tomorrow’s evaluation and follow-up meeting.
Look, I get that this was last minute and everything, but it’s not like I scheduled the appointment–I was just grateful that the time the caseworker told me worked out with the other stuff I have scheduled–contrary to popular opinion, I have a life, and my time is important, too! Yeah, yeah, I’m “just” a stay at home mom (as the caseworker pointed out, complete with the word just, and condescending tone, the first time I met with her), but I do have other things to do, and they’re going to have to deal. Yes, I want to get Moose help, but I do have three other children, and interests of my own, so they’re going to have to meet me halfway. Frankly, I think I’ve been plenty accommodating, given that for all three of these evaluations, I was just called and told when they would be taking place. As a matter of fact, the only appointment I really had any say in was the one for the follow-up, and even then, I didn’t get to pick the date, I was just able to give a general time that would work for me.
Given the attitude of the occupational therapist, I’m also concerned because I think she’s the one we’ll be dealing with for the occupational therapy I’m sure they’re going to suggest for Moose. (What does that involve, anyway? He’s only two, and has no occupation. Yeah, I know, that’s not exactly what that means, but that’s what it sounds like. Weird.) If we’re already not hitting it off, and she hasn’t even been here yet, how in the world is she going to help my son? Hopefully, she was just having a bad day today, and she’ll be more pleasant tomorrow. Or maybe she’s just bad on the phone. Or, and this isn’t a great option for me, but would be OK by Moose, maybe she’s one of those adults that is great with children, but can’t really communicate with other adults. Whatever…guess I’ll get a better indication of all this tomorrow.
Anyway, I feel better getting this off my chest. I’ll just be glad when tomorrow is behind me.