On My Own!

We took this photo 2 weeks ago now. Elsie was holding Noah first and you can see she didn't like giving him up to Grace. This is one of the only photos we have of Weston and Grace where they aren't doing their fakey smiles.
In the photo below Weston is enjoying some Noah time :) So far, it seems like Noah looks like a mix of Weston and Grace.

Well, here I go! Tomorrow I will officially be on my own with the four kiddos. Needless to say I probably won't be doing much blogging this week :)

In anticipation of the week ahead I realized I'd need to plan a few things out. First of all, I decided I need to get up ahead of the kids no matter how tired I am. I plan to get up by 7:15 (the kids get up at 8:30), get myself ready, make my coffee and settle in for some time in God's Word. Lately I've been pretty cranky as I've neglected getting my spiritual cup filled. When I spend time with God in the morning by reading my Bible it's amazing how much more patient and loving I can be with the kids and my husband. I sure don't have patience and love in me naturally! God has to give it to me first before I can dish it out at home ;) I printed out a new Bible reading plan to do the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs in about 3 months.

I have also realized that to be successful at homeschooling Weston I need to teach him how HE needs to be taught, not how it's easiest for ME to teach. My son is showing signs of type A personality with a bit of perfectionism thrown in. He does best at homeschooling when it's more structured and he knows what to expect. He now knows, and we practiced last week, that we start homeschool at 10 o'clock every day and go until about 11:30. Of course, since he's only in kindergarten, our "school" time is pretty low-key and relaxed (lots of me reading fun books to him and a little of the other subjects). I want to make sure not to make him hate school when we've only just begun! Grace and Elsie also do homeschool with us. Grace has a few preschool workbooks she does and Elsie does her homeschool by coloring in her coloring books :) We did start homeschool back in July knowing we'd be a little "hit and miss" with having the new baby :)

Well, now that I've shared a few of my plans for the week, can I ask that you pray for me? I know it's a lot easier to plan than it is to actually accomplish the plans. When the kids are fighting, the laundry's undone, the babies have dirty diapers, Noah needs nursed and the house is a mess I need an extra large dose of God's grace in order to speak kindly and lovingly to my kids.