Friday, January 30, 2015

This week at the Scott's

  Me

     We've been working on getting healthy again this week. Ok, I've been working on getting healthy again this week. Everyone else is better, but for whatever reason, I can't seem to shake this cough and sore throat. I think it's a pregnancy thing for me, because I remember being sick like this with Dominick and I felt like I had a cold forever.


Baby

     I'm 20 weeks pregnant today!!!! I haven't felt the baby a lot yet, but I have felt it more than last week and Aaron got to feel baby kick! I'm going to schedule my ultrasound hopefully two weeks from now, so we will know soon if baby is Lorelai or Marshall (names subject to change.) I'm so excited!


Dominick


     
         Dominick had a speech appointment this week and he wowed her with his two word phases. This last week, he said, "I'm hungry," "I'm silly," "I'm playing", and "the battery's dead" (referring to the I-Pad). Our next goals are to get him speaking clearly enough that people who don't see him all the time can understand him and to continue to increase his vocabulary. He's doing so good.

Brenda

      For those who don't know, Brenda is in a homeschool program called Classical Conversations. She meets with other kids once a week for three hours and works on memorizing a tremendous amount of information. They also do art and a science experiment every week. Those students who can memorize EVERYTHING by the end of the year without mistake will be called memory masters. This is a lot of information, but I think Brenda can do it or at least come close. Since she is only 4 and actually was born two days after the cutoff date, I'm betting she is one of the youngest CC kids if not the youngest in the country. She has an amazing memory and it would be awesome if she became the youngest memory master. The only thing that would be holding her back is me, because of how sick I've been since November.
       I'm not pregnancy sick anymore and I'm ready to help her achieve this goal. In the fall, we were going week by week and she was remembering everything. We even ended up a week ahead at one point, then I started feeling yucky. We are now several weeks behind. I found a videos online of another 4 year old who achieved memory master last year and they tackled it one subject at a time. I decided to start doing this with Brenda this week. All week, we have been working on Latin. Latin is Brenda's favorite and she picked Latin this week. She has to know 37 vocabulary words English to Latin and Latin to English, 3 grammar rules, and she has to say John 1:1-7 in English and in Latin. We still have 2 more days of Latin before we switch to another subject and I have to say that she is doing amazing. I'm planning on taping her saying the memory verse in Latin and in English hopefully Monday, because she is that awesome. 

Family Fun

Brenda was playing with the camera after Dominick went to bed and Aaron and I decided to have a little fun with pictures, too.  



Our newest member of the family, Kitty Brenda.

Friday, January 23, 2015

Weighing the positives with the negative

I really thought that nothing bad was going to happen this week after I wrote my tithe check and nothing big did.... until today. First, I want to start with the positives from this week.

1. Baby is 19 weeks today! I was concerned that I hadn't felt the baby in a couple weeks, so I went to my midwife to check up on the baby. Baby is good, growing well, and has a heart beat of 155! We think Baby just moved to a spot where I can't feel it a lot right now. I did feel baby once tonight, so yay!

2. Dominick said his first sentence on the 21st. He says "eat" when he's hungry, so he came up to me and said, "eat! eat!". I said, "Are you hungry?" He replied by, "Yeah, I..I...I'm hungry." For an 18 month old little boy who said nothing just three months ago, this is huge! I'm so proud of my little man.

3. We are all finally getting over this horrible sickness. We're not completely better, but I'll take a lingering cough over how we've been feeling any day.

4. My college accepted my appeal and even though I had to take a mini break this semester, I should be able to start classes again under my new major in a month. I'm excited for the new start!

Now for the bad news.

Aaron is getting deployed in May. He won't be here when I give birth to our littlest baby. My heart aches because of this. I know after I get over the magnitude of this news, then everything will be fine and I'll make a plan on how I'm going to take care of a new born and our two small children without my husband. It just may take a couple of days and lots of tears to get to that point. I know deploying is part of his job. The timing is just really bad. I would feel much better about it if he was leaving in July or August, but it is what it is.

Friday, January 16, 2015

Stepping Out in Faith

     Last year was the first year we were really part of a church as a family and I made it my mission to tithe properly to this church. A curious thing happened. Every time we tithed a full 10%, we were attacked. Those were the times where our water went out, our toilets overflowed, our pets died, our electric bill came back as $400, our stove busted, and our oven caught on fire. Like clockwork, I would write a check and the next week disaster would strike. Our oven going out was it for me. I didn't feel like we could afford to tithe with so much extra expenses plaguing our family. The issues stopped.
      I recently received our tax information from the church showing how much we tithed last year. It was more than we ever have before, but it still wasn't the 10% God requires.
      This year, I promised myself to step out in faith and write that check first. I wrote our first check on the first. The day after that, stuff started happening. In the last two weeks $3500 to $4000 worth of disasters have plagued us in five separate events not to mention a week and a half now of us being sick.  We just got paid again and I can't help but to be hesitant on writing my tithe check.
      I heard a man speak last week and something he said on this subject stayed with me. He said, "I hear people say that they can't afford to tithe and I tell them, 'you can't afford not to.'" If those people are anything like my family, I understand. It's not about the 10% for us. When we tithe, Satan attacks. However, I also understand the importance of tithing, so even though I am hesitant, I am stepping out in faith that God will provide and will be putting our check in the offering on Sunday.
    My sweet Brenda said to me the other night, "One day, God will make us all better." She was speaking in regards to us being sick, but this rings truth in every situation in our lives. One day, God will make it all better WITH us properly tithing.

Friday, January 9, 2015

First week of school for 2015 and sickness

*Brenda*
      Homeschooling started in our house again on Monday. Monday and Tuesday was really great. Brenda finished her first kindergarten math book, we worked on reading, and memory work. She likes Dominick's school much more than her own. Of course she does! It's super easy for her and a lot more hands on. 
      Brenda has been sick the rest of the week. I thought she was over it this morning, but her fever came back around lunch time. 

     

*Dominick*

     I started a new curriculum with Dominick. This week we learned that the Bible is God's treasure. The kids went on a treasure hunt to find a treasure box with an Adventure Bible in it.

X marks the spot
We then decorated the treasure box and are storing our supplies for Dominick's school in it.




We also made a treasure map, made binoculars, studied the letter X and learned the song "The B-I-B-L-E".

Since we only did half a week of the lesson, we will be continuing the letter X next week. I'm hoping Brenda's all better soon, and the weather warms up, because I was looking forward to our field trip. We are going on an exploration in the back yard with magnifying glasses.

*My Second June Bug*

     I'm 17 weeks today! I bought Baby it's first new outfit this week and blanket. I couldn't resist. It's a girl outfit, because I think we're having a girl. I figured it was safe to buy since I have a few friends who are also pregnant and they are all having girls, so if Baby is a boy then I have presents for my friends. 
     I felt the baby a lot on Monday. It was awesome. That has to be the coolest feeling in the world! Unfortunately, I haven't felt her/him much since. Once to be exact. I know it's still early (I didn't feel Brenda until 20 weeks), but I wish baby would kick me just once today, so that I know everything is alright. If nausea is any predictor, than she/he is fine. I seem to be ok in the morning, but afternoon kills me. This baby is official my second june bug. I pray next week will be better heath wise for us.

*My Husband*

     One of my new year's resolutions is to get closer to my husband. We have been doing a challenge/activity together every day off a relationship calendar I found online and so far we both love it. I can't wait for our date tonight. We are going to take a quiz together. Ok, I know that sounds lame, but I love quizzes and Aaron is humoring me, because there are other days that have things he is more interested in for us to do like flirt with each other. How do you even do that?! I don't think I've ever flirted in my life, but I will humor him and I'm sure he will find my attempt more humorous than anything. 
     I'm also very proud of him. He won an award at work yesterday! Volunteer of the year! He has spent many weekends away this year training for the ministry he has at our church and working with the boys. It is a much deserved award for his commitment. 

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Why I got off facebook and what we're doing with all the free time.

             Making the decision to leave facebook was not an easy one. I have spent the majority of the last eight years of my life consumed in writing down my every move and my kids every moves for the enjoyment of my family and friends who live far away. I think some updates are good. That is why I'm going to try to update this blog more. I want my faraway friends to feel like they are still a part of our lives.
            The negative side of facebook came to me in the form of addiction. I realized that even the days I tried my best to avoid it, facebook would creep onto my computer and take over a majority of my day. I don't want  to spend my days consumed by looking over facebook feeds, reading crazy news articles, and taking ridiculous quizzes. Those things are all well and good, but I felt like that was all I was doing. I was also letting little things that complete strangers said affect days of my life. I would dwell over their words and allow them to put me in a bad mood. Other areas of my life were being affected because of the time and energy I was putting into updating my facebook feed. No longer am I going to be a slave to facebook.
            What am I doing instead? Well, I have a huge list of New Year's resolutions that are mainly based on spending my time with God, with my family, getting A's in college, and trying to feel good during the rest of my pregnancy.
           Part of my spending time with family is of course my kids. I'm really excited about what I'm going to be doing with my kids this week. Brenda is continuing with math, reading, memorization, and bible studies. Dominick will be starting something new. Three years ago, I went through the alphabet with Brenda when she was 18 months old. This included a letter a week and a field trip focusing on each letter. I think we all had a lot of fun with this and I am bringing this back for Dominick. This time around, I'm using a bible curriculum that is for very young kids that focuses on a letter each week, but not in alphabetical order. This week's letter is X and we will be learning that the bible is a treasure. I think Brenda will get a kick out of the activities, too and I can't wait to see her teach Dominick all that she knows.