Life

I have debated how much I would share with all of you, but I have decided to make this as much of a journal as I can.  I am not whining or being negative, I just simply want to tell you all where I am at in my life at this time.

So much has changed for me over the past year and a half.  Personally, I am tired of the changes.  I want a little steadiness, but a crave different all at the same time.  Even though I am tired, I am ready for an adventure.  Even though I have been on an adventure for the past year, I am ready for another one.  Wait, no I am not! 

See what I mean, this is my life right now.  In a state of confusion.

By the way, I am adding pictures to give more visual to the post, not for symbolism.  Gotta keep your attention!

First, let me tell you that my mind works all the time.  I have a very over active imagination, which causes me to constantly think, over analyze and some times suffer from anxiety.  Which makes my brain go into overload as I try to talk myself down.  It is a blessing and a curse all at the same time.  My overactive thoughts have led me to great confusion as of late.

Last year, when I left my job, it really shook my world. I loved working!  I loved teaching!  And I especially loved all of the middle school kids I taught.  This age often gets a bad rap, but I love them.  They are funny, and I was good at what I did.  Then I was abruptly taken out of this work that defined me for so long, and placed into full time motherhood.  I think that sounds funny.  We are always full time mothers, I just had something to take my mind off of it for a few hours a day.

Since that event, I have been searching for my next calling, my next adventure.  What I have not taken the time to see is that my next calling is here, at home, with my husband and kids.  Why do I feel like it must be out of the home to feel successful?  My only conclusion to this is society.  We are made to feel less than others if we stay home.

I stopped working, went into full time therapy mode with Little Bit, my husband was deployed, I started home schooling, I started my own business and I began writing two blogs.  My husband came home, and we discovered our new found freedom with home schooling, and began to travel with him on all of his trips.  I discovered my adventurous side again.  Man have I missed that side!

During this time, I have realized how I have let others dictate what I need to do, I have been hurt by friends who have not agreed with what I have done, I have lost friends, and I have begun to question this path that I have taken. 

All of the bits of my life work great on their own, they are just not flowing together.  My passions are: Faith, being a wife, mother, family, helping others, travel, writing, bits of the past. 

I am slowly discovering that I need to care less of what others think, and more for them and where they are at in their lives.  I love being a mother and home educator, and I think this was the best choice for my family.  I love being a wife and watching my husband live out some of his dreams, and getting to be a part of that.  I have found a place at church and will be assisting in the start up of a new ministry there. 

All the parts of my new life do actually fit, I just have to accept them.  I have to realize I do not have to search for things, they are in front of me and will stay the same or change depending on life at the time.  When God brings it.  Contentment.  Confidence.  This is what I am learning.

Over the next few weeks, I will be keeping it real with you how I am focusing on the positive.  I will be sharing my mission statement, my passions, and how I have begun to see how they do fit together.  I will focus on adoption, the struggles, the joys.  I will focus on being a wife, mother and home educator.  But most importantly what I have learned from all of it. 

I hope that in some way, I can help another who may be feeling the same way and bring a little humor to my over thinking!  Through doing this I want to see where God has brought me to remind myself how much I have changed, for the better.

By the way, I went to 10 minutes instead of five!  I could not stop thinking!

Love,
Suzy

Disneyland

Oh My Goodness!!!!

My husband and I feel our age right now.  We have just returned from a wonderful trip to Disneyland where we spent at least 10 hours a day.  We had to get our moneys worth, you know.  By Saturday evening we were completely toast, and I was ready to push people down as we were trying to exit the park.  We somehow got caught in the fire work exit crowd, and I simply do not do well with feeling like cattle! 

We had a great time, so let's get to the pictures.  I do have to tell you, we took the old camera, thinking it would be better because it was smaller.  But it stopped working on the second day.  Oh well, we have our memories!

Most of the pictures are from the beach.  Middle Bit desperately wanted to go since he is still deciding on what he wants to be when he grows up: a surfer or a priest.  I think surfer is in the lead after this visit!

As you can tell, the pictures become really blurry towards the end.  Oh well.

We had a blast!  The kids rode their first roller coaster rides and were champs at walking around and not whining!  This was a great trip, and I loved every second of it, but I am glad it is done and we have survived Disneyland.  I love it, but I do not want to return any time soon!

Have a great day everyone!
Love,
Suzy

School Days

Well, if you were wondering what we have been doing in school lately, I will tell you.

We have been learning about seed, flowers and how things grow in science.  What a perfect time to learn about this subject.  Everything is sprouting up, we are planting seeds in our garden and planting flowers.  The kids have been loving the hands on experience and discovery.

An experiment that we did was called scattering seeds.  I used to do this experiment in my classroom for older kids, so I made it suitable for three different age groups.  We took three different sizes of seeds, a fan, a long piece of butcher paper, tape measure and pen and paper.  We did this more systematically than what I am about to tell you.  We did write out the steps to the scientific method and work through it, but I do not want to go through all of the details.  Basically we threw the seeds in front of the fan and watched the wind scatter them.  We found that how they were scattered was affected by their weight, shape and how strong the wind was.  Pretty cool way for them to see how the seeds can be scattered by elements.

We also did the old put white flower in food coloring and watch it change colors. Another great visual for the kids to see how the water goes up the stem and is distributed throughout the entire flower.

We took those flowers and dissected them.  This was really cool to watch how each one did it.  Little Bit watched me and then she drew a picture of a flower.

She was more concerned with drawing than seeing all the parts.  But art is her thing.

Middle Bit Took his time!! He is definitely one who likes to look closely and discover everything he can.  He separated all the parts, put them in viles, and wanted to see it all under the microscope. 

He kept wanting to call the parts the thingy.  So I had him practice looking at his diagram, and calling what he found by name.  It was cool to watch him learn.

Oldest Bit, got it, understood it, then finished as quickly as possible because I had an assignment that would interest him much more.

The assignments that was more intriguing? 

As a family we are going to write a monthly newsletter and send it out to our subscribers!

Who are our subscribers?  Anyone who emails me at bitsofthepast@hotmail.com or my other one if you know what it is!

How much? Free for now, but we may start incorporating math into it.  The funds would strictly go to distribution, but I think it would be great for them to learn how to manage funds, send out the newsletter, address letters, write articles in a fun educational way.

How does our newsletter work?

I will be working with Little Bit to write her articles.

The boys will each have two articles, take pictures etc.

Oldest Bit will design the newsletter.

Mr. Bits and I will edit and make sure it is all ready to send out.

The jobs are almost entirely done by the kids, and as they get older, the newsletter will get more involved.  Are you interested or know someone who is, but does not have access to a computer?  Email me at the address above.

They have already brainstormed and are ready to start! 

More details to come later.


Oh and finally, tomorrow we leave for the Happiest Place on Earth.



The excitement in the house is unbelievable!


Talk to you all soon!
Suzy

Let's Play Cach Up

Since it has been a while, I thought I would post some pics to catch you up on our lives.

Here we go.

Easter was a busy time with the Baptism and making all the food.  But we did have time to decorate eggs!  First my kids used crayons, then stuck them in the dye.  I used food coloring for the dye by the way.  Way easier and less expensive.  I have seen some of the most beautifully decorated eggs on blogs and pinterest, but I must admit, I prefer these eggs.  Truly, creative.

Our Little Bit was baptized, which was such a joyful time. 

Oldest Bit did some extensive research on creating dioramas.  He created this one with napkins, modge podge, paint, Brillo pads and who knows what else.  He made this into a scene from WWII.  Creative?  I think so.

We learned about static electricity.  I used to teach this unit in middle school, and always had fun watching the students work with balloons!  I thought I would try it with my kids, and I was entertained!

We made a collage about who we are.  Middle Bits made me laugh.  He filled both sides!  One side has a cat needed to go to the bathroom and a kangaroo family.  I still do not know what this has to do with who he is!  This boy is just plain imaginative!

Flowers in food coloring!  Great lesson for plant unit, and a great way to prepare for flower dissection!

We got a ton of work done on our patio!

And enjoyed watching our dog Happy chase sparks flying out of the fire.  She was even foaming at the mouth for them!  Strangest thing I ever saw!

Well, that brings us up to date on all of our adventures!

have a great day everyone!
Love,
Suzy