Heart of Wisdom Academy

When I was first married, I knew that I knew nothing about homemaking so I went to my local Barnes and Noble and bought More Hours in My Day by Emelie Barnes. I learned how to clean and organize. But the single greatest help to me was Candy at Keeping the Home.com When I first found her website I printed out her whole blog. I followed her schedule Mon-Fri. It was a great encouragement to me. It was like having a wise Titus 2 woman in my home teaching me how to love my husband, children, and how to be a keeper at home.

I needed that schedule in the beginning, but now I have learned how to make schedules of my own and follow routines. There were times in my life where I followed a rigid schedule, hour by hour, and I needed that. But now, I just follow a routine.

Morning:
Wake up
Listen to a sermon while I do all this other stuff.
Work on my school
Computer Time
Put laundry in the wash
Nurse baby and bathe
Brush teeth
Get dressed
Breakfast and cleaning
Quiet Time
Homeschool

Afternoon:
Lunch and cleaning
History/Science
Free reading
Kids have free play
I work on projects(kids school stuff, deep cleaning, etc.)


Nightime:
Usually church or fellowship
Read
Put on the Bible on Tape(my oldest has memorized large passages of scripture just by listening every night. I love the Little Kids Adventure Bible on CD its 6 Cd's for the New Testament. We're getting the Old Testament this year.
Date nights with G
Finish up projects
Finish my homework
Sleep

This is mostly how my days go, but not always. Sometimes we have guests or go out, but when we're home this is generally how it goes for now. I no longer make myself get up at a certain time. I nurse a baby all night and I need my sleep. I generally wake up at 6:30, but if I can sleep until 8am I count it as a blessing and I don't feel any condemnation about it. I don't ususally nap, but when I have the opportunity I do. It has been a blessing to me over the years for people to posts their schedules and routines, in fact I have a binder specifically with schedules that I have printed out, so that when I lose my way, I can find it again.
This is my laundry room in the Kitchen.

I found this at the Thrift Store it was $25.00 but went down to $6.00. It is a print of an Amish farm. I love this picture. It is so serene. I love the Amish way of life.

I'm happy to report that Kasey is much better. Poor thing had steriod overload. He is back to being my happy, calm, peaceful baby. Thank God.

Kason was admitted to the hospital on Sunday with trouble breathing. His respiratory rate was 86 he was retracting and wheezing. We came home Tuesday. I love being home. So many people talk about writing being therapeutic, but it isn’t for me, it just feeds the frustration I’ve been praying to suppress. At any rate…not much was really done and I told them I was tired of going to the hospital. I’m tired of being sent to the hospital if they’re not going to do anything about it. So anyway, they’re treating him for some sort of unidentified lung disease. They gave a million and one reasons why he may be having trouble breathing, but it all boils down to he is a very happy baby who is happy to breath fast and hard so it’s okay. I’m unhappy to report that he is uncharacteristically unhappy, maybe from the meds, but I really don’t know. They gave him large doses of steroids which did help to open his airway and his breathing was in the 30’s most of the time we’re at the hospital. We’ll continue oral steroids until tomorrow, and inhaled steroids and heart meds indefinitely. I talked to a friend today that is going through seriously unimaginable health and financial trials, for weeks I have been praying for God to have pity on their family. Today she encouraged me to trust God and have great faith, not to trust in man. I need to pray for so much faith; I keep thinking when Jesus returns will he find faith left on the earth?

In other news...I used to read about "mothers helpers" in homeschool magazines. Where do those angels come from and where do they live? I never ever thought I would be lucky enough to find one, but God has blessed me this summer with my 11 year old niece and my friends two daughters. To say that I am elated, would be an understatement!

Its actually 2am. I'm almost never up at 2am, but my baby isn't acting like himself. I just got done researching about steroids. Side Effect: Insomnia and mania...That about sums it up. Tomorrow is the last day of this med, but I'll sure call in the morning to see if I can stop it immediately. Yeah the Doctor called me this morning to see how things were going and he said I could stop. Yeah!

Unrelated, but so cute.


I love my Kaden. He has such a neat personality. He is a naturally content child. He likes to work hard and play hard. He is genuinely sweet and is all about what is fair, in fact I don't think I've ever met a child so in tune with justice.

I haven't gotten around to taking a lot of pictures of the house. Now that I have batteries I'll take more pics.

Kason started having breathing trouble Thur. I started albuterol treatments and added pulmicort on Sat. he wasn't responding to treatment so we took him to CHKD yesterday. He has some collapses in his right lung that should heal on it's own, but he's had the collapse for months now so I think we'll see a pulmanory specialist soon. Otherwise he is still doing treatments at home, his breathing is still fast and hard but he is tolerating it. We want to keep him out of the hospital so he doesn't catch anything else.



So we were on our way to church but daddy said he could not let the boy out looking like a flower.


Does this look like a plea for help?

The Living Room is easily my favorite room, although I must say I love every single inch on my new home. This room has a huge window and a cool breeze, a fire place and no TV.

I miss the computer, but I'm enjoying my new domestic duties. Everyday is something new. I finally got a new vacuum today, and swiffer and dust mop. There is so much to do. I'm in the middle of doing several projects for the kids. I want to make sandpaper letters, sentence blocks, and other educational games for the kids. We're also in the middle of making a lapbook on Hudson Taylor the missionary to China.I am in the middle of writing two papers for class. Well I'm not really in the middle. They're do next week and I haven't started, although I did secure my research books I just have to write.

I have been so inspired by this website that my friend lead me to, but oh the weight of condemnation. I partly leave the website feeling like I learned so much, and I partly leave feeling like a failure what have I been doing all these years! I'm starting to attribute some of my older sons weaknesses to shear teacher error. I know he won't be good at all things, but some of his weaknesses aren't true weaknesses but just the result of teacher error (me). That's the downside to homeschooling, there is really no one to blame but you. There are many things that I underestimated that have been a hindrance to him. Not major, like he can't get into college stuff, but little stuff. Like...
I should have let him play with clay, scissors, puzzles, manipulative's, etc when he was really little. His fine motor skills have been so slow to develop. I underestimated the true value in seemingly ridiculous tasks like putting macaroni on a string and learning to color... so we never did them. It took me years to decide on what writing style I wanted to use so he literally learned parts of three before I finally decided on one. It would have been so much easier to start with the right one from the start. It has taken me a while to learn how to teach math. I need to spend a lot more time teaching. I realize that I have been giving too much independent work and I haven't been teaching enough especially with math. I think that has been my biggest realization this week, I need to teach much more.

So...I feel better now, I'm not as melancholoy as I sound. I'm grateful for the gift of homeschooling, I'm thankful to be humbled, I have hope and wisdom for the future. God is so liberal in pouring out wisdom, I've been praying and begging God for more wisdom everyday, I know he will be faithful.

So I asked my husband if he ever feels under condemnation. He said, "No, I pretty much know what I'm good at and what I'm not". And he adds, "I'm not prideful, I'm just confident." Spoken like a true humble person, he makes me laugh!

In other news...I can't wait to post pics. I have the cutest pics of all my little treasures. God has given me an amazing family, I am blessed far more than I deserve.

We're all moved in!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah. I don't have batteries so I can't take pics. God must have made this house perfectly for us, I am so thankful. We're busy unpacking and doing yard work, but all is well and I praise God for it.