So right now with everyone staying inside and only have virtual communication with the outside world, people are playing this game on Facebook.  The idea is to post 10 things that you don’t really like, but that others do like.  So here is the list for our family.

Mine:

1. coffee
2. snow (I only like watching it from inside while drinking a cup of hot chocolate!)
3. sour things
4. Dr. Pepper
5. tennis
6. shrimp
7. guacamole
8. video games
9. sci fi books and movies
10. ketchup

Zane’s:

1. kiwi
2. gel toothpaste
3. horror movies
4. sleeping in  (WHAT!!  Totally don’t understand this!)
5. milk
6. singing
7. cats
8. sour things
9. mustard
10. cinnamon gum

Gabe’s:

1.  cheese (WHAT!! What kind of children am I raising??)
2. fizzy drinks
3. lemonade
4. strawberries
5. BBQ sauce
6. ferris wheels
7. wearing a belt
8. dancing
9. mint
10. sour things

Emma’s:

1. scary books and movies
2. mustard
3. Reese’s PB cups (Makes me wonder if she really belongs to me!!)
4. pop tarts
5. pretzels
6. cheesecake
7. heights
8. Star Wars
9. getting up early
10. the color  black

Mike’s:

1. watermelon
2. socks with sandals
3. Settlers of Catan
4. Asics shoes
5. turtlenecks and sweaters
6. The Message (translation of the Bible – prefer a more literal translation)
7. Lifetime movies
8. sugar in my coffee
9. Napoleon Dynamite
10. blue pens (Pens should be black!)

The weekly challenge for our blogging challenge this week is about commenting.  The purpose of blogs is to connect and learn from one another.  Good commenting is essential for that.  But what is a good comment?  Click on the prezi presentation to learn more.

If you need to know how to leave comments on my blog, watch this short video that I made.

I love reading comments and connecting with folks.  So try it out.  Leave me a comment!

So, the second part of the blogging challenge this week was to create or update our “about” page.  I rewrote it in a more exciting and interesting way.  So click up on the “About Houston Academy” link to learn more about us.

So I recently found out about a cool-sounding blogging challenge for my kiddos.  It is through Edublogs.  The students have weekly challenges that encourage them to learn to use a blog.  They will be posting each week and also will be commenting on other students blogs.  There are students and classes from twenty different countries and five different continents.  I am hoping the kids really enjoy this challenge and begin to get back into their blogging.

I am also doing the challenges right along side of them.  This week’s challenge was to create our avatar and then write a post about it.

So here is my new avatar.  I used Bitmoji to make my avatar.

I chose to have my long hair up in a ponytail because that is how I usually wear it.  I live overseas in a place where I must wear a scarf to cover my head when I go out.  Ponytails are so much easier with scarves.  Also, as much as I like long hair, it does begin to bug me a bit to have it hanging in my face.  I chose comfy feel-good clothes because I love wearing jeans and t-shirts.  I am very casual.  I chose a bitmoji with a puppy dog.  I have a cute Pekingese dog.  She is about this color.  Her name is Lightning.  She just loves to cuddle and lick.  She is much furrier than the dog in this picture.

Well, we are all looking forward to this challenge and all that we will learn about blogging.  Stay tuned for more posts!

Whoa!  I can’t believe it has been over a month since our last blog post.  I try have us all do a post every week.  Guess we have fallen down on the job.  Well, here’s to hoping we get back into the swing of things.

So in history with Gabe and Emma, we are talking about the Great Depression.  Of course, to fully the Great Depression, one needs to understand the stock market.  So … I have given them both $25,000 to invest in the stock market.  Fictional money, of course.  They had a great time today picking their stocks and recording the purchase price.  We will be watching our stocks for 1-2 weeks to see if we earned or lost money.  Should be interesting to see if Gabe, Emma, or Mom makes the most money.

I love that I can pass on my knowledge to my children.  Sometimes though, I am teaching what I don’t really know much about myself.  That happened with Emma this last month.  I have always been a sewing wanna-be.  I want to learn to sew clothes and other fun things.  Several years ago, I bought a sewing machine in hopes of learning.  However, over the years, the machine has mostly been used for straight sewing – like pillows or curtains.  That is the limit to my sewing expertise.

Well, Emma said she wanted to learn to sew.  We had bought new fabric for some curtains in Emma’s room.  I was working on hemming them up.  She asked to learn.  So … curtains it is.  She sat with me and ran the fabric through the machine.  I am glad that I was able to share this with her.  Maybe one day, we can advance to clothes.  Maybe…

Sew, sew, sew!

Threading the needle

So this week was challenging in a different way for our school.  We were having some MAJOR electricity problems.  Some towers were destroyed and it was taking quite a while to get to them to have them fixed.  We were having electricity for only about one hour each day.  Makes online schooling more difficult.  Thankfully, last year we were gifted some money with which we purchased a battery backup system.  So we were able to maintain our school schedules, charge our computers and print and scan the things we needed to.

During my quiet time on one of these non-electricity day (maybe day 3 or 4), I was praying that we would be able to get school done well in spite of the electricity problems.  I was praying that we would not be frustrated or grouchy with each other because of the more challenging situation.  And God brought this verse to mind:

God was reminding me that even in difficult circumstances and frustrating times, I must be joyful.  I must pray continually.  And above all, give thanks – even for those days upon days without electricity days.  I am thankful for our battery backup system.  I am thankful for our generator.  I am thankful for that one hour of electricity.  I am thankful for a bit cooler days since we had no coolers or fans.  Thank you God that even in the storm, there are little blessings.

So I have many jobs as a mother.  The one that seems to keep me most busy is homeschool teacher.  Most of our day is spent in school time.  I enjoy teaching my children.  I have so enjoyed seeing them grow and develop over the years.  I love seeing their strengths and working with them in their weaknesses.

But I’m not going to lie.  Some days are just hard.  They are grouchy.  I am grouchy.  We get frustrated at the work or at each other.  We sometimes just don’t have good days.  Well, last week seemed to be one of those weeks.  A stressful week with super long school days as we tried to finish everything out.  We are doing new online classes for some of our subjects, and we are still getting used to our new teachers, our new computer systems, and our new schedules.  We were all a bit frustrated last week.

I love how God brings us just the encouragement we need at the moment we need it.  So it was during this frustrating week that I was listening to a podcast on the Thankful Homemaker website.  She was giving encouragement to tired moms from Titus.  Well, near the end of the podcast, she said a quote from Elisabeth Elliot.  It was this:

“This job has been given to me to do.  Therefore, it is a gift.  Therefore, it is a privilege.  Therefore, it is an offering I may make to God.  Therefore, it is to be done gladly, if it is done for Him.  Here, not somewhere else, I may learn God’s way.  In this job, not in some other, God looks for faithfulness.”

What a great reminder that – even on those bad days – it is a privilege to spend this special time with my children.  It is a gift to walk them through difficult times.  It is an honor to pour into them.  God has blessed me generously with three lovely blessings.  I don’t have to be a perfect teacher.  They don’t have to be perfect students.  I am just to serve in the role of mother/teacher that God has put me in.  I am to do that gladly.  I am to be faithful in what he has given me and leave the rest up to him.  Thank you God, even for those not-so-hot days.  Help me be faithful.

So I just realized that we are almost two weeks into school, and I have not posted the first day of school pics on our blog.  What am I thinking??  Well, maybe I am just thinking too much about school itself.  With new subjects, new internet classes, trying to find a workable schedule to get everything done in a timely manner – well, I guess it just slipped my mind.  So … here they are.

Pretty handsome and beautiful kids (if I do say so myself!!)

So the kids are getting older and are becoming more independent in their studies.  We have started doing several online classes.  This is changing up our schedule quite a bit.  They are all taking a writing class online and also a language arts class.  The boys are taking a math class and a science class in addition to those.  They are enjoying having new teachers besides just boring old Mom.  Having “classmates” that they can interact with is also a fun experience for them.  I miss teaching them all of their subjects, but believe that it is good for them to be exposed to other teachers, other teaching methods, and other people holding them accountable.    On the good side, it is freeing me up to do a few other things that I need to focus on … like my language learning.