Yes, it has actually been a very quiet month in our home....in everyday life, if not in volume. I have been home~not out of town~since Dec. 20th. That is the longest stretch for me since April of last year! We have spent this month, just being. : ) And, actually, I gave my body a rest at one point, and did not leave my house for 15 days!!! Can you believe it? It was terrific!
In our home school, we are plugging along quite well. Daniella is whizzing through math, and loves it. She is still struggling with reading. The phonics thing is just not clicking, at least yet. I am not worried, but she gets frustrated because she wants to read so much. Most of the words that she can read at this point are words that she has just memorized their spelling. She can sound out words, but it is extremely laborious, and it never gets much better. Marissa could never read by phonics, so we may be taking that path with Daniella. We have finally reached a change, that I hope is permanent, in Marissa's attitude toward math. She struggles with it, therefore, she hates it. That part has not changed, but her willingness to sit down and just get the work done has changed for the better....much better. We are also enjoying a lapbook on the human body, especially Marissa. She finds it fascinating.
They both started piano lessons~ Daniella in Sept. and Marissa in Dec. We were quite surprised Marissa wanted to take, but so far she is persevering. We are also seeing the connection between being good at math and being good in music that we have always heard about.
James is in the midst of repainting a great deal of the inside of our house. Yay!! Nothing exciting. Just freshening it up, and getting rid of a wallpaper border in my living/dining area that was ancient. We are going to choose a new color, perhaps a smoky gray/blue for the foyer. We are also going to paint Briana's old bedroom, as we get rid of the little girl, and turn it into a guest room. sigh! : ) This past week, we went to Big Lots and bought a solid wood bed for that room for $150! The one in there is a rickety, old, worn out brass bed that she has had since she was three. We are all glad to see it go. : ) She bought her bed for her apt. at Big Lots, and has been thrilled with it. The quality is very good, and it is a beautiful sleigh bed, so we think we will like this new one. Ashley and I packed up a lot of the things Briana had left here and cleaned out her closet last week, too. AND! while we were at Big Lots, we used Christmas money from James' mother and bought a couch and love seat by Ashley Furniture for our den. I am so thankful to be rid of that 14 year old, green sectional! Well, almost rid of it. We have to get someone to help James haul it off, so right now both of them are in the den. Between that mess and the mess of all the moved furniture in the living/dining room because of painting, my house is quite the disaster area. I'm ready for furniture to start crawling back into it's place.
Ashley found out last week that a magazine article that she submitted to TOS is being published in the Spring issue! Very exciting for her....well, all of us! I was as excited as she was. She is absolutely loving her job at camp, and is so excited about the spring events and summer camps. It will be new to her, being in the roll of staff, and she's a little nervous, but it is going to be great. She loves her bosses, and they love her.
Briana will be opening in Annie next Friday night. We will be traveling over on Wed. so that James can take dress rehearsal pics on Wed. and Thurs., then we'll come home on Sun. afternoon. Can't wait to see it. Also, this week, she was ASKED to audition for a small cast show opening in March. This is a big deal to be asked to audition. This play is mostly professional actors. There will only be one or 2 in the cast of 9, who will not be professionals. She could be one of them! : ) The audition was today. There were 6 girls/women today auditioning for one role, and she was among the 3 who got called in for a 2nd reading!! Later, they texted her, and told her to come back Tues. for a call back. Whether she makes it or not (which would be so thrilling!), it was a super great experience for her today going through this different type of audition and doing cold readings of the part with these professionals. Plus, great that she was asked to audition and called back.
As for me, I started a Beth Moore Bible study a couple of weeks ago on Esther, and I have picked back up on my scrapbooking. I am working on a scrapbook of Briana's shows. I got Shenandoah finished, and am now tackling Hairspray. Talking about picture overload. Too many to choose from! It's fun, though.
Thank you to those who checked on me. Life has been full of God's presence, God's teachings, God's training, my stumbling, my learning, my leaning. We are still going through some spiritual trials with a loved one (not in my immediate family), and it keeps me on my knees...and on my face ....before the Lord. He has made us great and precious promises, and He is teaching me, in even a deeper way, to hang onto those and not take my eyes off of them or Him.
No comments:
Post a Comment