October 21, 2011

• 10,000 +

  It just seems like life grows busier and busier.  I would like to write more, but time just runs away from me.  Lots going on all around me.  I keep busy most days with the business of running a house of ten people while homeschooling a 5th grader, getting a 5 year old appropriately dressed and box-lunched for school, and teaching a toddler all the things she needs to learn (trust me this one is an all day job in itself).  All that and the daily milk runs to the store.  I wish I knew of a way to get milk in larger size than 1 liter.  We go through so many cartons of milk in a week, about 30, that it makes me think about all the paper that goes into making those paper packs.  I take them back to the store to be recycled, so if my store is doing their jobs then all our cartons are turning into toilet tissues and kleenexes.  

  Tonight I head to teach my two pupils.  I love these kids.  I get to share in their growing lives, and their mother asked me to teach them the Bible as well.  This is a privilege for me.  I look forward to my times with these kids.  I am so glad that this family has become a part of our church family.  They like most young families, they are often very busy.  This is a bummer at times.

  From Sunday night our numbers grow to 11 for about a month while a student's parents take a short furlough to the US.  Eleven!

  Gearing up for a couple of fall activities, so that planning and preparation work also keeps us busy.

  Recently for the kids, Skyler has moved up to a green with a white stripe belt (5th kyu) in his karate class.  We are proud of him.  This test Skyler was much more focused and worked on much better form than ever before.  This shows so much growth for him and for those who know my son, know this is huge.  He has shown a fresh desire to grow in karate, and I know this is something that will shape a bit of who he is.  I am so glad that we chose to stick with karate, even in those times that we as parents were ready to give up for him, we still hung in there.  Tomo is working on recognizing his ABC.  He has been copying a lot of writing lately, so I have made the shift to try to teach him reading.  He is a little resistant in wanting to learn, but I think that he is coming around.  His curiosity about what he is writing is starting to get the better of him.  Besides, the promise of being able to read what the i-pod says when he plays a game is appealing too.  Maya is starting to talk up a storm.  Watch out world...here she comes!  We have also put a little bit more emphasis on potty training.  It is going all right, and I know that I have plenty of time to get her through the diaper wearing stage.  Her natural desire to be big and independent like her brothers will be what wins out in the potty training task.  I know that when I work with Tomo on reading, she is always right there.  She is also listening in on Skyler's school time too.  I often hear her singing songs that are little more than singing random letters.  It totally tickles me.  It is like she has taken spelling, phonics, and singing and made her own songs.  I love it!  I suppose at this rate, I might expect her to be the earliest reader of the bunch, but we will have to see what happens.  At the very least, she will be an amazing speller and well versed in phonics.  Homeschooling really intrigues me from the point of view of having a full timer as a 5th grader, and a part timer as a kindergartener.  Before much longer I will have to give some serious thoughts to having a middle schooler, grade schooler, and preschooler all at once!  Aaaggh!  That will be when life gets REALLY interesting.  The one thing that will change is that by that time, we will no longer be caring for the international students any longer.  But more on that some other time.

  Just as a side note, when I changes phones, I also lost my pedometer.  That happened about the same time as we were settling into this house.  I had wondered how that affected my daily step count.  I picked up a pedometer so I could once again pursue my daily 10,000 steps.  I was surprised at what I found out.  This house requires more steps!  In our old house, I could pull off about 6,000 and never leave the house.  In this house, I easily do 10,000 without ever stepping out of the house.  I still walk or bike everywhere, so that adds up.  I am also doing a Zumba workout 2-4 times a week (this is something Maya and I do together because she loves dancing).  On those days, I can score 20,000 steps.  

  On that note, time to go take some more steps (at 3pm I only have taken 11,812 steps today).  To teach English, I go!

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