So check THIS out. I had completely forgotten I had a blog! How about that? Oops. Lots of changes in the almost 3 years since I last updated this thing.
1. I am a nurse now! Yay! I survived nursing school!!! Someone thought I was qualified to medically treat people. Funny enough, I HATED being a hospital nurse. I am now an RN that oversees the healthcare needs of individuals with mental and intellectual disabilities. Yup, call me Nurse Ratched. (BEST.NURSE.EVER! I'm just glad I don't have to wear that hat. HA!)
2. TEXAS! We've been trying to figure out to get back here for over a decade. YAY! We now live in a great little city, with great people, and LOTS to do. If you're bored here, it's your own danged fault.
3. Homeschool. Yes. Really. I became one of THOSE parents. Don't worry, it's a recent thing, so we're not to weird, YET. I have to say I love it so far though. Jackson has been struggling with Math since schools here incorporated Common Core standards. I know what you're going to say, "Texas doesn't USE CCSS!" Technically, you are correct. However, it is used here, they just call it by a different name to fool us. HA! I sent my boy to a Catholic school hoping it would be better. It kind of was, except there's this Math thing AGAIN. It got a little better, but at the beginning of the year, my third grader was struggling HARD with trying to add how his teacher wanted him to do it. NO DEVIATIONS ALLOWED. I talked to her, many times. She talked to me, MANY times. No go. Plus, she didn't hide too well that she had NO appreciation for "Jake." (Come on, I get it, 23 kids in the class, but after 6 weeks you really don't know his name???) After a lot of prayer and discussion with the husband, I pulled Jack (aka Jake) out of school. I made a VERY clear point to let the principal, the school committee, and our parish priest know EXACTLY why I took him out. The people at the school, for the most part, are absolutely terrific. Wouldn't change them for the world. The cirriculum stinks. I'm thinking maybe I ought to contact the Archdiocese of San Antonio and tell them to stop it with the crummy lessons and go back to good old fashioned Catholic education.
Here is an interesting tidbit about homeschooling Jack. I have my happy kid back. He is now excelling at Math. Hmmm...imagine that. We took some time and figured out what works with his little brain, found something (actually a few things), and RAN like hell with it. He will still gladly whine about having to do Math, but I also let him have FUN with it, so he doesn't whine too long. Before you ask, yeah no, I'm not totally doing it on my own. Anyone who really knows me will vouch for the fact that I am not with it enough to do that whole unschooling thing that is quite popular among the homeschool crowd. After some research, I decided on using Seton Catholic Homeschool. I still get to be his teacher, but everything is all laid out for me in a nice binder with lots of nice books to go with it. YAY! (If you're wanting a good Catholic education for your child(ren) THIS IS THE WAY TO GO!!! Everything is filled with lessons about the church. EVERYTHING. (Meaning if you want a secular education, don't bother. We obviously didn't want that.)
So Jack is also involved with Cub Scouts, which by default means that *I* am involved with Cub Scouts. (Note to self: NEVER, EVER volunteer to do the popcorn fundraiser again. NEVER. DO YOUR HEAR ME? NEVER!!! Meaning I will probably do it again next year if our summer fundraiser doesn't do well enough.) It has been a TON of fun so far. He is currently a Bear, and they are doing so much fun stuff. This really makes me look forward to his Webelo years, and his Boy Scout years to follow when they REALLY get to go do a lot of cool outdoorsy type stuff. So that is it in a nutshell for now.
Hopefully I'll be better at this blogging thing and figure out how to make it look more professional, and even update it on a regular basis.
In the meantime, I will leave you with this. If your child is like mine, and LOOOOVES some Minecraft, and you happen to have the PC version (seriously, GET THE PC/MAC VERSION!) go check out http://whenyouriseup.com. It's geared toward homeschoolers, but it's a completely safe environment for your children to play with others on. Heavily moderated by other parents. Plus, there are classes you can purchase that they actually LEARN something while playing their favorite game! Check it out!!! (Totally unbiased opinion here, I get NOTHING for referring you to them.) FYI, they are having a free Advent lesson going on now, which is a great way to get your kid started with it.
GOD BLESS!!!
PS- in case you're wondering, because I know you are, my 8 year old boy still loves and adores Nemo. Please pray for me when Finding Dory is released.
