A woman's prerogative...

Okay, remember back when I was talking about my word for the year? Still quite happy with my choice (and a little behind in posting my weekly quotes here). But. I said my first quote was going to be "No great thing is created suddenly." I've changed my mind. I can do that...it's a woman's prerogative, right?;) 

So. My first quote of the week for 2011 is this:

Begin with the end in mind. -Stephen Covey

This was the primary quote I had in mind when I was looking for a word for 2011. I want to go beyond weekly lessons in our homeschooling journey and start focusing on what we want to get out of the entire journey. Don’t get me wrong. I feel very good about where we are right now and how we’ve been doing. We’re establishing a solid foundation and routine, and that’s valuable. But. Before we even started homeschooling, we made a mission statement outlining why we want to homeschool. I think it’s time to frame that and hang it somewhere so I won’t forget and just do the next lesson for the sake of doing the next lesson. 

And, since I'm a bit behind, here's my quote of the week for this week:

Life is not a path of coincidence, happenstance, and luck, but rather an unexplainable, meticulously charted course for one to touch the lives of others and make a difference in the world. -Barbara Dillinham

I watched a movie recently. It really struck a chord. It was called “Charlie St. Cloud” and was about a young man who lost his brother and needed help finding his way back to living a full life rather than dwelling on the past. Basically, the message that I took from the movie was that everything happens for a reason and it’s up to us to find that reason. It’s become somewhat of the backbone of my faith. Throughout the losses and trials of my life, this has helped me through…the need to find meaning and look to the positive…to make a difference through my own actions, be they small or large.

So. That's that. ;) I'll do better about posting my quote of the week each Monday from here out. Probably.

Add on...

Just a few more not so deep thoughts...

...I had an ah-ha moment last night. I realized that my attitude toward cooking actually follows suit to my attitude about much in my life. It's *not* actually that I dislike cooking. It's that I very much more enjoy and appreciate the PLANNING & ORGANIZING portion of things to the actual DOING of things. Somehow I feel better for having recognized this. ;)

...do you suppose it's normal for kindergartners, when asked for a word that starts with the letter "Q", to reply "quantum mechanics"? Yeah. Me neither. I really don't know where Micah gets this stuff. (During the portion of his Options day where he's with the kindergarten class instead of the first graders, his teacher has been going over the letters of the alphabet...showing the kids how to write each letter, asking them for their own ideas of words to add to their group list, etc. On occasion, like yesterday, his teacher will take me aside to note Micah's contribution of the day.) I'm told that Micah's word for "I" was "intimidation" and for "P" was "pomegranate." I kid you not.

...I have hereby resolved to trash all those Lego instruction sets. Tania, I'm almost tempted to take you up on your offer just to show you how crazy you are, lol, but I love you too much. ;) After more contemplation, I realized:

• that the boys never revisit those instructions anyhow (preferring to modify things to their own liking with whatever pieces they find);
• that I'm very unlikely to ever try to gather all the pieces for a particular set (finding them would be a nightmare in the yellow/Lego room...incidentally, the total number of new Lego pieces from Christmas ended up at 5809, meaning that we probably added 20,000 pieces easily between 2009's Christmas, our trip to Legoland, the boys' own purchases, their birthdays and this Christmas); and,
• that most of them are available online anyhow. (Thanks, awesome Lego site!) Whew. 

...Over the weekend I found myself sorting through all my scrapbook albums...finally putting a huge stack of layouts into albums, rearranging/replacing albums and attempting to label them all. As I've mentioned before and as has been evident by my posts, I've pretty much neglected my scrapbooking this past year. Looking through all those layouts has given me pause, though. I love looking through them...the boys love looking through them (and Micah was a bit distraught at not having more recent layouts in his own albums)...and I enjoyed making them. Why is it, then, that I'm so overwhelmed at how much work it will be to "catch up"...to start again? Don't get me wrong, I let go of the notion that I had to scrap every photo years ago. But. I have a system and a number of layouts/stories that I know I want to document. I'm a little worried, though, that getting back into all of this will take my focus from homeschooling, which is why I slowed down/stopped in the first place. I'm still thinking...

Not so deep thoughts...

...why do people say they're going to "sleep like a baby"? Have these people never had babies? It just dawned on me the other day when Nathan said this phrase on his way to bed. I stopped and thought about it. Um, folks, babies (most of them anyhow) don't sleep all that well...or at least not all that long or deep. At least not in my experience. Just sayin'.

...do you suppose I'm insane in that I keep all the boys' Lego instruction booklets? I'm pretty sure we have almost every one of 'em. The box runneth over, though. Will I have seven years of bad luck if I toss them?

...why the freak do stores start displaying all the Valentine's Day stuff immediately after Christmas? I know of no one who does anything about Valentine's Day sooner than a week in advance, at most. Who are these other people?

...does anyone else find it odd that the setting of Asher's broken arm in the ER was coded in as "surgery"? I asked the gal at the doctor's office about it last week and discovered that anything that deals with stuff under the skin is deemed "surgery"...even injections, she said. Since they had to manipulate the bones (which are obviously and thankfully under his skin), it goes under "surgery." I'm not sure if this is just this particular office or what, but found it odd. Still. Compared to some of the stories I've read on the web about the cost of a broken arm, we'll take it. Very, very thankful that we didn't require actual surgery or pins or anything. 

...am I alone in finding it weirdly appropriate and fitting that the Seahawks were the first ever team to win a division title with a losing record? I'm sure my dad is cheering (and chuckling)...

...is it worth it to keep trying to prevent Asher from leaping off of and over things? Yeah. I didn't think so. Sigh. :)

Quick update...

Asher got the initial cast off this morning. All the healing looks good but isn't quite totally "done." Here's one of the x-rays. You can see that the new bone growth is looking good, particularly along the left sides of both bones...

(Note: Nathan tells me that my earlier post did not actually include a "before" and "after" x-ray. The "after" was just from a different angle (the side) such that it looked "straight" but was still taken before the arm was set. This is an actual "after" x-ray. It was taken this morning. We're told that it's totally normal for kids' bones to still look crooked like this and that, because they're kids, the bones will naturally straighten themselves out as they grow. It's much more critical that bones be set more precisely for adults because our bones are old and not as capable of this, lol.)

Anyhow. He is now the proud owner of a below-the-elbow camouflage cast. It's mostly all good. While we were at the doctor's and his arm was bare, it looked pretty good (and not as crooked as I thought it might) but felt weird to him. ;) I took the opportunity to apply some lotion to help with the itching. He's saving the old cast to add to the little red one he has from when he was two, though these won't be as cute since they have to be cut off. :) (He slipped that little red one right off before so it's still whole.)

(Ash refused to look when Nathan was taking the picture, lol.) In any case, both Asher and I feel safer for having a cast still. (Four weeks just didn't feel long enough to me, lol.) The only downside is that he was partially hoping that he'd be done now and able to resume other activities rather than now having to wait another month. But. At least he can now bend and twist his arm. :) Technically, he got the go ahead to go back to karate (so long as we left out the sparring part) but we'll wait and see how he feels about that. He's still a bit tentative right now but I'm sure that will be short-lived. The boy is obviously on the mend and feeling better than he did for the first part of December. I caught him jumping (leaping!) off the couch again earlier this week. Oy.

This week...

...saw the departure of our second round of house guests in as many weeks. (Had a lovely visit with John & Nancy despite the freezing temperatures...sad to see them leave yesterday.)

...the boys started back to Options. (And were delighted to see their friends again, though they were missing their grandparents.)

...feels eerie. (Because yesterday all three boys decided, after considered deliberation, NOT to register for spring soccer. (The registration started early this morning, btw.) Yup, after seven straight seasons of soccer, it appears we're very probably at an end...)

• Last spring was Noah's last season of rec soccer before many of his friends switched over to competitive teams or changed sports to football or hockey. He'd thought about trying again with a whole new team this spring but has now changed his mind. (At U10, kids have to choose between going to competitive teams or staying with the considerably fewer rec teams (from 22 boys U9 rec teams to 6 boys U10 rec teams). In our efforts to be fair to all three boys, we'd informed them from the start that we'd only do rec soccer...not wanting to commit to the travel and expense involved in the competitive soccer program.)
• Asher would have just this one season before being in the same situation as Noah. Ash was so busy last fall with both soccer and karate, though, that he's opted to focus just on karate (after, of course, he gets the go ahead again from the doctor...cast comes off on Friday!).
• And Micah, hilarious Micah, declared that his only real interest in soccer was in getting to go to at least one end of season party. He reasoned that if at least one brother played, he'd get to go to that party. Upon hearing his brothers' decisions, truly, Micah's face fell. Fortunately, I figured it out right away and have now promised him that we'll have our very own end-of-not-soccer-season party, complete with cupcakes. ;)
• In any case, I'm mostly happy with the boys' decisions. I've loved soccer and think that the boys have definitely benefited from the experience, especially the teamwork aspects. And I must admit that I'm a little sad that they won't get that this spring. But. As a family, we're very much looking forward to free weekends this spring and have resolved to use at least every other one of them to do something special together as a family. 

...will see Micah heading back to karate after taking December off in consideration of Asher's broken arm and the holidays. (Asher will have to wait for the doctor's verdict before he can go back.)

...will hopefully provide the time to get on top of a few projects I'm hoping to tackle in this new year. (May even update my blog header here, lol.)

...will continue to be an "off" week from homeschooling. (Because I'm proudly being realistic and recognized that I'll need this week to get things back in order after the holidays and house guests.)

So. Happy sigh. Feeling pretty darn good about 2011 so far. How about you?