I'm now big enough to swing with Britt at the park. I like swinging outside even better than I like my swinger in the house. I like the wind and the trees and all the sunshine. Britt and I have lots of fun swinging together. When Ahna and Grumps where here, I took a break in the middle to play with my rattle with Ahna. It was a fun game. I would play and then drop it, and she would fetch it EVERY time. Then I would take it back and grin at her, and we would do it all over again. While we were at the park, Daddy also taught me to play chicken. I'm not sure who had more fun doing that Daddy or Grumps, they were both laughing so much. Britt and I were trying to out squeal the other one. It was a great day.

Updating the prayer request list tonight, we have added Sis. Janice the mother of Sis. Sherry Crawford. They found cancer and did surgery on her foot a few weeks back to remove it. The site where they did surgery appears to be healing well, and the skin graft seem to have taken. However, testing returned the news that the cancer had already spread to other parts of the body. they will be meeting with Doctors again this week to determine a course of action, and believe the will be removing more lymph nodes soon. They are a dear family, loving servants of Christ, and have been so wonderful to welcome, comfort and pray for our little family since moving up here and attending MacClenny Church. Please pray for Sis. Janice.

I've recently started sticking Ruth in the bathtub with Britt, now that she is big enough to balance well, even with Britt as rowdy as he is. The relationship the two of them seem to have, warms my heart. Britt is forever trying to take care of Ruth. He brings her endless amounts of toys, and pets her hair, and is forever trying to hold her. Now that she is in the bathtub with him, he feels it's his duty to help with her bath. He "scrubbies" her hair, but far more gently than he washes his own, and especially loves to wash her feet. He talks and talks to her and laughs and shares his rubber duckies, and she grins and kicks and babbles back. I hope they are able to retain the joy they seem to have together for a long time, and not become siblings who can't stand to be in the other's presence.

The last weekend in March, we traveled over to Panama City, FL to attend the Gulf Coast Fellowship Meeting at St. Andrew Church. Me and the kids rode over with my grandparents on Thursday, and Gary caught up with us Friday evening. We heard alot of good sermons by many different men.

Grandmother and Granddaddy came down for a couple of weeks ago now. We hadn't seen any of my family since Christmas, so it was nice to have them come and visit. Britt had a great time with Grandmother making her read to him all day every day. I don't know how many times they read "Duck, Duck, Moose" and "A Mother for Choco" but I'm sure Grandmother has them memorized by now.

We have been on the go a lot lately. I was sure that things would slow down after Christmas, but it's been just as busy if not more. We have traveled down to Plant City every weekend this year but 4, and one of those we went over to Panama City. Needless to say, I'm a bit behind on the blogging.

Britt was sharing his love for Allison Krause and all things bluegrass today with Ruth. He was sure to point out each "ben-jo", "tar-tar", "till tar-tar", "will tar-tar" and "be bass". (That being interrepted would be each banjo, guitar, steel guitar or dobro, mandolin or what Britt thinks is a little guitar, and a big bass.)

Ruth,

Last night I filled this year's quota for cooking supper. See around our house, Gary does all the cooking. He's a great cook, and what's more he loves to cook and experiment in the kitchen. Me on the other hand, I really hate cooking. Most of food doesn't turn out very good, I don't like to experiment and even when things turn out well, I can't really enjoy cooking when it means you spend a couple of hours prepping and cooking a meal that takes 20 mins to eat.

The next thing that Mrs. Rivero suggests in her book, “The Homeschooling Option: How to Decide When It’s Right for Your Family” is to lay out your concerns and fears about homeschooling. This way you can look at the pros and cons and decide if you think you can over come the obstacles or not, and if the decision is worth it for your family.

Do I know enough to teach my child? While, I’ve been through college and took some education classes, and have always planned to teach, I still have this doubt. I planned to teach high school history, I don’t have the foggiest idea about how you would teach a child to read. I don’t really even remember learning to read, I’ve just been doing it, seemingly, forever. While, Gary is more draw to the initial benefits of homeschooling, I am more interested in the benefits for high school aged kids. As a result, I wonder how in the world am I suppose to be able to provide my children with adequate math and science skills? It’s been awhile since I did that, and I never was able to teach myself math. While I did well in it, I mostly attribute that to Daddy’s patience and Mr. Henderson’s skill as a teacher. I still didn’t like the subject and I’m not sure how much I’ve retained. I strongly believe that in this day and age you need a good foundation in science, math, and computer skills to get a good job. I feel this is especially important for boys if they have a desire to be the sole provider for their household. While I know there are homeschooling groups and co-ops out there is it wrong for me to consider homeschooling knowing that I can’t provide a chemistry lab?

Finances are my biggest concern for me. I’ve told Gary if we were to do this I would want to do it right. If you can’t go to any of the places you are studying about, then you might as well do the public school thing and get your 3 or 4 field trips a year. When we study the civil war, lets then head up to see my folks, and take a day trip over to Shiloh. Oh when we are doing biology lets go out to one of the gazillion nature reserves or state parks around us. If we go the curriculum route, you are looking at anywhere from $300 to $1000 a year per child. I don’t know what job Gary might get, but I know that it won’t make that possible. Even if I build my own curriculum, borrow extensively from a library, and buy books second hand, it’s a real expense. If we can’t afford to give our kids a great education, I think it would be far better to put them in the school system, and supplement that at home, the way my parents did for us.

I wonder too if my kids will respect me as a teacher, when I am also Momma. Once again, from my own experience, while I asked Mother once to homeschool me, I don’t think it would have ever worked. We didn’t have much mutual respect, especially on my part. And I don’t see how you can learn from someone that you won’t listen to. I mean seriously, the kids drive me crazy now. Imagine how crazy I’ll be after homeschooling several for 12+ years.

I know I shouldn’t care, if it’s the right decision, but I can’t help but wonder what my parents and grandparents will think. As I’ve mentioned before, we are a seriously strong public school family. And while I loved going to school in many respects, and I’m not making any statement about they way I was raised, my homeschooling parents say that their parents felt like their decision to homeschool was a slap in the face, criticizing the way they raised their children. I’m sure they will be disappointed at least or think that I’m crazy and shortchanging their grandkids future. And I can’t blame them for that, I wonder it as well. Will they really be prepared for college? What if I completely end up screwing up their future? What happens if Britt is bright and interested in nuclear physics and astronomy, and when he leaves home to pursue those dreams, I’ve failed to provide a good enough base in math and science for him to reach those goals. What if I rob him of the chance to do something truly great with his life, go to the moon, and bring Grumps back a moon rock? I know if we were to start and realize that for us it’s a mistake that they could then be tested and enrolled in public school, but what if I don’t find out it’s been a mistake until Britt is 20 and can’t make a go of it in college?

On another level, I wonder if homeschooling would be robbing my child of some of the joys of childhood. Going to buy that brand new Strawberry Shortcake book bag before kindergarten, and I still remember picking out that purple Beauty and the Beast lunch box before second grade. I remember my epic fail in second grade of spelling face “f-a-s-e” that year in the spelling bee. I remember going to my first football game in 2^nd or 3^rd grade and being all decked out in black and gold. What about in 4^th grade when we all rode the school bus down to Montgomery to spend the day at the state capital with my best friends and those teachers I adored. I remember having silent lunch several times because our class wouldn’t behave so me and Brock made up stories, and then talked about the stories on the playground, and drew the characters. What about the spirit stick and pep rallies, and homecoming in high school? What about the junior/senior prom? There were a lot of moments that I wouldn’t want to relive about high school, but there were a lot of good times too. Is what we would gain from homeschooling worth what they lose in a public school?

The final downside is personal. I want to teach, I’ve always wanted to teach. While this would give me that ability to do some teaching since Gary strongly prefers me to be a stay at home mom, what I really want to do is finish my masters and get my doctorate and teach and research as a college professor. If we homeschool, I can’t think about going back to school when the kids get into school. And I doubt that after they are grown that I can think about having a real career. Instead, I would be spending a lot of time and effort to do something myself that could be done just as well through the public school system. Quite frankly I don’t know that I want to do this.

Britt is constantly trying to pick up older women on campus. Every couple of weeks I like to pick a day when Gary only has a one hour class, and I keep the car. Sometimes we go run errands in town first, but last Wednesday we just walked with Gary toward class. Gary's classes are in the McCarty building, and out in front of McCarty is a nice grassy area surrounded by several other buildings. This is important, because I can throw down a blanket and Britt can run around and I don't have to worry about him getting into the road and getting run over. Though from time to time there is the crazy speed demon on what must be a 50 speed bike, or then again that might be exaggerating a little.

Hello everyone, Momma has finally decided that I am old enough to blog. I won't be writing every week because we have so much to do, but I will from time to time post on Wednesdays, after all someone has to set things straight that Britt messes up on Tuesdays. Like yesterday, he failed to tell you the whole story about the beach. For example, I was having a nice time on the blanket watching everything, and Momma was trying to read her book, but she kept having to run after him, until finally she gave up and carried us all in the house. I mean come on, why was I punished for his bad behavior?

This past weekend I went to the beach. I didn't go all by myself though. Daddy drove me and Momma and Ruth down on Friday. Then he helped "Gren-dy" (Granddaddy) Garland work on the beach house, while Momma took me and Ruth out in the sand and the water. I played in the sand just a little and then the waves washed over my feet and it was so cold, that I ran screaming all the way back to the house. I was telling them that no one in their right mind goes to the beach in February, but Momma said that she doesn't understand me, that I should learn to speak English. On Saturday, I went back out, but only because Me-Maw brought me some friends to get into trouble with. Me-Maw and Moot (Mister) brought Lilli, "Ju-Ju" (Julia), and "Bwy-le" (Brystal). We had all sorts of fun running all over the beach and climbing on the wall. We kept making Mister take us down to the water, and we all brought buckets of water back to dump in the sand. I didn't want to get the waves to touch me at all, but I loved it when Mister dumped water all over me. In fact, he was using a big bucket to fill up everyone's little bucket, and I kept running up to him and making him spill it all over me. The only thing funnier, is when Brystal snuck up behind him and threw that really cold salt water all over his back. I sure wish Me-Maw had caught that on film. We had a good time.

I've done a terrible job of blogging lately. We've been on the go so much that I hardly have time to do laundry and pack again, let alone blog about all the happenings. Two weekends ago now, we were able to travel down to Vero Beach for the Florida Fellowship Meeting. There were several elders who had promised to be there, but came down with the flu and couldn't be with us, but we had a wonderful time, and heard many great sermons. Friday morning started off with Elder. Michael Gowens preaching on names, and telling us that when God gave someone a name in the Bible it had great meaning. He primarily talked about Jacob and the change that he underwent and the Lord changing his name to Isreal. He was followed by Elder J. C. Stanaland who preached about when we were overwhelmed that we should go to God in prayer. It was a wonderful start to the meeting. Friday afternoon Bro. Bobby Willis preached about the Mount of Transfiguration, and brought out some points I hadn't considered before. The Elder. Michael Gowens preached again from Joshua about the battle of Jerico and used it to tell us Four Things He Knows about Tomorrow. I especially liked that sermon. Especially since I tend to worry and fret, it was an encouraging and comforting message.