Ok, so week 2 of school has come and gone. It was another monumentally crazy week trying to get assignments done. The kids started getting some graded stuff this week. My kids are pretty capable of getting A's and B's, so imagine my surprise when someone got a D and an F on two separate assignments. I was pretty shocked, so I went into "fix it" mode trying to figure out what was going wrong. I'm pretty sure that all of the time being spent with the first grader who cannot read assignments was taking it's toll on the others. I started spending more time with the boys to make sure they were understanding the lessons, etc. As a result, my daughters assignments weren't getting all done. Additionally, we went to the fair on Thursday, and the time counted towards school. Which was great, except that we still had to "make up" the work for that day, which by Friday meant about 5 overdue assignments for my daughter on top of the 4-5 she already had for the day. I spent Thursday evening in a kind of panic trying to figure out how we were going to make this work for us. I was feeling strongly that we should switch back to traditional homeschooling (where we pick our own curriculum and drive our own schedule) but felt bad. My husband said it wasn't a "bad" feeling. He thought I was being convicted in the other direction. I just felt that we didn't give the e-school a fair chance. But honestly, going a few more months and coming to the same conclusion was only going to put more of a strain on learning since we would have to switch curriculum mid-year.
So in the end, we made the decision to switch back. I sent an email to the teachers and the asst principal explaining why we were leaving and initiated the withdrawal from the school. Much to my surprise, all of my angst was for naught. Two of the three teachers replied back with understanding and wished us well on our endeavors. Almost didn't seem like a big deal to them at all. They must have a bunch of first time families that leave within the first few months. That's the only thing I can figure.
So we filled out our notification forms and ordered some curriculum and we'll be well on our way.
Speaking of ordering curriculum... I have some praise reports to announce. Much of the decision for going to an e-school was financially based in the fact that we didn't have any money for curriculum. Then early last week, we were approaching the end of the month and some of our bills were not paid yet for August. My husband has a full time job, but unfortunately that money does not cover all of our necessary living expenses. He does side construction work to make up the balance, but the timing of those payments arriving can be sketchy at best. I had planned in late July for what money I expected to come in and it had still not arrived by early last week.
Additionally, my husband had this job left over from when he was doing construction full time that he had still not received full payment for because the home owner had outstanding issues with the work. I didn't even count on that money because I had already counted on it twice before in June and July and it had not come through.
As I mentioned in my last post, we started a bible study with our family and to end each session we lift up our prayer requests. We have prayed with the kids before and seen answers to prayers, but we wanted to show them more formally on paper that God was indeed providing for our family and answering our prayers. One of the items on our list was for new tires for our 2 vehicles.
I'm sorry I'm bouncing all over the place, but I'm trying to set the stage for the awesomeness of what happened. So many things all came together in this one week it's kind of crazy. So bear with me....
We needed tires for the vehicles last winter and couldn't afford them, so we squeaked by and did not get them. When tax money came (which is how we usually make bigger purchases), winter was practically over and we needed the money for other things. So we didn't buy them then. But we really DID NEED them this year. There wasn't going to be any squeaking by this year. It's been in the back of our heads, but like I mentioned we added them to the list of our prayer requests just two weeks ago.
I also received prayer for the money to come in from a Monday night book study group that I was going to.
On Wednesday, just two days after receiving prayer from the ladies, we got a check for a job that would cover the August month bills. We were also able to pay for swimming lessons for the kids which was also on our prayer list for the fall season. Then on Friday, my husband received his normal paycheck. I mentioned to my father that we would have money for him (we live in their house and pay rent), he acted surprised. I realized that it was not quite September yet, and then realized this was a third paycheck for the month. We budget on two paychecks a month, so a third is always some "extra" money. We always hope for "extra", but it never seems to end up that way, so we hardly ever count on it ahead of time. Well this unexpected surprise ended up allowing us to purchase some curriculum so that we could make this switch in schooling.
Then today... it FINALLY CAME TO AN END!!! Hallelujah! The never-ending job is finished!! We even collected $$$ for it. We lost quite a bit for a number of reasons... but we still walked away with enough. This money will allow us to put tires on one of the vehicles.
We still have one more outstanding invoice, which we were told should be paid early next week. My husband also has 3 jobs lined up for September. We'll have to figure out the best timing and what money should go for what, but it appears as though by the end of Sept we will be able to afford tires for the other vehicle as well. It almost feels to good to be true.
Well there it is... quite a long one. Hopefully you stuck around for the ending. I feel so blessed. Even when things are bad I know that God blesses us and is an awesome God, but it really is easier to say when things are going well.
My favorite line from a song is "Every blessing You pour out, I'll turn back to praise", which come from the story of the 10 lepers cleansed in Luke 17. So I praise Him for every blessing he has poured out!!!
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OK total side note. I think I'm going through puberty again. LOL, okay not really, but seriously... I have had major cramps again... I thought those weren't supposed to come back after having kids?? And my face definitely looks like that of a teenager??? Could this be pre-menopause???? Seriously don't know what's up with that, but I'm considering going to a dermatologist AGAIN!!
Ok enough ranting.... back to praising...
THANK YOU LORD!
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