Even more to update about

Just so I don't forget to include this, I want to mention that both the girls have really been into fixing hair lately.  Mostly it has been Ailey that really has the fascination with Brea following along because she wants to do what her big sister is doing. ;)  Ailey has been more concerned with her hair looking nice and she has consistently worked on my hair.  Right now, they are each brushing and "fixing" one side of my head of hair each.  Its very interesting trying to type in the process. :)

Okay, on to more happenings in this household.  We basically had a lot of things transition and shift around the same time within the last three months.  Its been a very interesting and challenging time.  Lots of good has come out of it all, for sure, but some of it had the pain of a birthing process.   For a while now we have been a part of a house church located in Round Rock.  It has been completely AMAZING!  We pretty much got adopted and adopted them right back.  They are fantastic peeps and I am soooo blessed to call them family AND friends.  The fellowship and relationship is so rewarding and compelling and it feels like home.  In addition to being part of that, I was also going to a church also located in Round Rock.  Round Rock is a good hour away, so were doing a bunch of driving on Sundays. ;)  The other church, True Life Fellowship, is also completely wonderful!  The atmosphere that they have invited there is also like coming home, but in a larger setting.  God is doing amazing things in both places and being a part of both families has been such a good thing.

Recently Sam shared a desire for a closer place to go and build relationships.  I told him that if he could find something similar with like hearted peeps, I was all in.  I believe Daddy God has a heart to see his kiddos all be like hearted despite having different purposes and callings in life.  I have a dream of sorts that someday, no matter where on earth a family of believers happens to be located, that anyone that is part of the larger family of believers or someone who has never met Jesus can walk into that place and it feels like coming home.  So, he had been introduced to a church through some different people over the course of several years, but it hadn't worked out to visit and this seemed like it was the right time.  We walked in and by the end of it all, it felt like coming home.  We are loving where God is leading and the amazing things He is doing and it is just exciting on a whole new level we didn't even know was possible!  While we won't be able to go to True Life very often, we will still be going to house church on a regular basis.  The cool thing is, I believe we are supposed to be connected to each one of these families for specific reasons and God is making a way for it to happen.

Something else that has been in the works since the beginning of last fall is the process of me going back to college.  I found out that my education benefits had been changed and that I had 5 more years than I had previously.  Much of the framework has been done.  I still have a bit more to get turned in and then will have to wait until registration for the fall semester.  The biggest question was what was the best option for the kids.  There is a Christian school not too far from our house and not too far from the college and seemed like the perfect answer.  In pursuing this option, I knew it would be a bit of an uphill battle because we were so far behind this year in home school.  We started out at a great pace at the beginning of the year, but between holidays and sickness from Thanksgiving on, we were limping along on into March. It felt for a long time that our days were chaotic and ruling us instead of orderly and time being used wisely.  This was also around the time when I got fed up with being tired all the time.

There were two things we had to do before the kids could be enrolled in the school.  We had to come in for a family interview and then there would be a follow up evaluation to place the boys in the appropriate grades.  The girls were no problem because Ailey would be starting Kindergarten and Brea would be in pre-K.  The family interview went well and though I noticed some personality differences, I wasn't overly concerned about anything at that point.  Rather than being concerned with my kids being able to do the learning part of being in a school, I was way more concerned with how they would handle having to sit in a classroom and behave in a very structured system since that really hasn't been their homeschool experience.  They've always done well in their co-op classes and at AWANA and VBS, but I was still a little concerned about that transition.

When we came back for the evaluation, I again informed the person we were meeting with that we were way behind and that we were in the process of catching up.  There was also a rather large difference in curriculum and the way the information is presented.  It all just went downhill from there.  There was definite personality conflict with the evaluator with both the boys and lots of irritation with the boys not being able to do the things she was presenting.  While I did listen to the whole process, I was outside the room and did not interfere.  I wanted to see how the boys would do with someone else instructing them.  Since, I had not had any sort of reference pertaining to dealing with a Christian private school and the whole process, I didn't know what should be normal procedure and what should be a warning flag.

After the evaluation was done, I went in and spoke to the evaluator by myself and it was the first time any sort of irritation and disdain has been aimed at me for homeschooling and not doing it someone else's way.  It was a very surreal situation.  After the person explained to me that the boys were no where near where the kids in the school were, being at least a year to a year and a half ahead of public school kids, that she could not place them in the school.  The girls were still welcome, but the boys would not be.  I asked about tutoring, reminding this person about us being behind in our schedule, as I thought there might be a curriculum presentation difference as well and if we could have someone get the boys familiar with their curriculum it might make a big difference.  That was shot right down with a short statement of, "We don't do tutoring."  It was suggested we might try sylvan learning center, though this person had no experience with them or how they operate.  I was nearly in desperation mode with trying to find some way to make it still work out.  I came home trying not to cry and be completely discouraged and got online and looked up the curriculum they use to see if it would be feasible to maybe switch over to it at the point.  There was also no guarantee that there would be openings in the school for them if we went back in the summer to re-evaluate.  Honestly, I was a bit beside myself and asking God if I had gotten it wrong about me going back to school.

I felt immediate peace about that and then decided to get some advice from someone who had home schooled and then put their kiddo into Christian private school.  I called my sis-in-law and asked her what she did to get her kiddo ready for that kind of transition.  I ended up explaining what had just happened and instead of giving me a plan of action dealing with curriculum, she informed me that she was very concerned that the evaluator (who also holds a position of authority in the administration as well as being a teacher there) responded to the kids with irritation and impatience as well as being unwilling to work with me at all with any other options.  She said that the school her kids go to wanted her kids there and wanted their family to be a part of the school and they were willing to go to great lengths to support the transition of getting them to where they needed to be.  There are teachers who tutor in the summer months for extra money and there were book lending options to get familiarized with the curriculum and several more things that really made me ponder everything about my experience.  After that, I felt a lot better and instead of wallowing in discouragement and self-pity I decided that things needed to change as far as the way I operated on a daily basis and that though the school I was aiming at for my kids to attend might be completely fantastic for other families, it was just not a good fit for ours.  It was God giving me a definitive no for that place.

Several things happened over the next few days.  I asked God to give me creative ideas of what to do about the kids and school.  I also downloaded an app called Daily Routine and put our entire home school schedule complete with alarms when each subject starts and when it is time for breaks including meal prep and meal time.  I also made a commitment to get myself out of bed an hour earlier with the goal of shifting that to an even earlier time at a later date to begin to mimic how the schedule will be in the fall.  This is also right about the time that I changed how we are eating so I also downloaded a meal planner and am steadily working on incorporating that into daily life.  The routine app has been a wonderful thing!  Because I was able to compartmentalize our day, I have been able to do double days of school and we have done about 7 weeks worth of school in the last 4.  We are almost where we should be and should be done with school mid-June.  Its a relief and I'm loving the orderliness of it all!

The kids are learning a ton and retaining it and for the most part, aside from disliking how regimented it is ;p, they are thriving.  So good.  The most ironic thing is that a good chunk of the things that they didn't know at the evaluation because they hadn't been introduced to it yet in our curriculum was in fact introduced within the next couple of weeks. :)

God also very much answered my plea and gave me the idea of having someone come in and sub for me 2 mornings each week while I have to be in class, so we will still be homeschooling.  We have someone who is praying about taking the job.  It would be a very good fit for our family, but we want to make sure it is a good fit for her as well.  I just know as soon as that was an option, all the craziness just calmed down and there was peace again.  Putting the kids in school would have had new challenges for us and been a lot of work in its own way.  Home schooling while I'm going to school will have its own challenges as well, but we really think its the way to go for our family.

Another idea was putting them in a Christian school that is much farther away.  I called to find out more info and shared what had happened in my earlier experience with the other school.  She said they test using the Stanford Achievement Test and that they do have teachers who tutor in their off months.  She also asked if we would be willing to have the kids repeat their current grade.  At first, my pride took hold and I didn't even want to consider it, but almost immediately I squashed that down because I want what is best for the kids.  Sam and I talked about it and he didn't have a problem with that option.  In the end, I felt I could really get us caught up and it wouldn't even be an issue. While we don't think putting them into this school is right for this next year, it is still an option for future ones if it is a good fit for our family.

The Dyesses: A Series of Interesting Events part 1

 Oh man, so much has happened in a short amount of time! First up on the calendar of special occurrences was the washer that had been given to us by our cousins decided it didn't want to stop filling up anymore.  It had already had a couple of other things go wrong and was pretty old. We knew it was just a matter of time before we would have to replace it, but we were fine using it up to the very last bit of its ability! :)  We had already decided that since we have a ridiculous amount of laundry to be done all.the.time, that when the time came to get a different one, we would invest in a front loader again.  I used to have one before our rv saga and I absolutely LOVED it.  Getting a brand new one was just not necessary as far as I was concerned because there is always a bounty of used goodness on craigslist. ;)

So, away my fingers flew on the keyboard and track pad searching through the previously owned offerings.  I was looking at either an LG set or a whirlpool duet set.  I wanted to go ahead and get a matching set since our dryer is the same age as the washer and the sets I was looking at were actually less expensive than some of the single washer ads.  I looked up the reviews on both sets to see if there was anything I should be concerned about with either of the models.  It was interesting to find such a huge amount of dissatisfied consumers of the LG model.  Granted lots of them were about the odor issue many have with front loaders and since I know how to fix that issue and avoid it in future, that wasn't as big of a deal, but there were plenty having to do with the actual mechanical and electronic parts not functioning properly.  I didn't really want to have to do a lot of youtubing how to videos on fixing it and ordering parts and all that, so I was relieved to find that the whirlpool reviews were mostly about the smell and not very many about the machine not functioning properly.

The lady that was selling the whirlpool set was moving and I went to check them out to see if they would work and to make sure there wasn't anything wrong with them.  She was going to need them a couple more days to get all her laundry done, so it was kind of an interesting situation.  We paid a small fraction of what a new set would have cost, actually got them loaded in the van and with much strain on both mine and Sam's part, got them set up in the laundry area.  They can be stacked, so we did that and it freed up quite a bit of space for a new laundry system that will be put into place soon.  Something very similar to this:

   

I will have the six baskets, but it will be all one unit.  I am going to add casters to the bottom and a counter to the top for folding purposes.  I already have the baskets, I just need to have a good chunk of time to cut up some plywood and 1 by whatevers and assemble it all.  I'm hoping this will be a better system than the dirty-clothes-baskets-in-the-closet a.k.a clothes-all-over-the-floor one we've got going on now.

I was loving washing the first couple of loads when I noticed water coming out from under it.  Not a lot, but there was definitely a leak somewhere.  Ugh.  So, I let Sam know about it and started looking up possibilities for the problem.  He said he noticed a small tear in the drum seal and thought that might be it.  I took a look at it and found it, but couldn't tell for sure.  I found a suggestion that it might be the water pump or it could be that the drain filter was clogged.  That one was an easy fix, so I took the front panel off and undid the filter basket.  There was a big wad of lint in it and some coins.  I was hoping this was the problem.   I didn't think the pump was because it wasn't make any non-normal noises.  I cleaned it all out and put it back in and did another load.  I thought it was good until I saw the water coming out again.  Bummer.  At least the panel was still off, so I could see where the leak was.  Sam was right, it was coming from the seal area.  I knew ordering the drum seal would take a while and to be honest, I didn't want to have to pay $70 bucks for one right after we just bought the washer!  So, I had it in my head that there had to be a way to temporarily patch it. ;)  I was thinking possibly one of those pool float patches or something similar.  I actually came across a suggestion of duct tape and thought why not?!  The stuff we have in the garage is the very thin cheapo stuff, but it would just have to do.  I put a little piece on the tear and did another load.  It worked!  Sam was pretty sure it wouldn't hold very well for very long and suggested a stronger tape like Gorilla Tape.  He was right on.  After a couple of loads the leak was back so, I picked some Gorilla Tape up while I was at Lowe's and put a piece over the tear when I got home.  That's been a little over a month ago and its still holding strong.  I'll eventually replace the seal (I've already watched several how-to videos and even found one where I don't have to take all the panels off of the top and front of the machine!), but for now we are good. :)

To Be Continued...

Photography....my journey so far

I have had an interesting time of it so far.  I have had an interest in photography for a very long time.  I used to do photo shoots with my sister and friends growing up.  I had little 35mm cameras along the way that took really pitiful pictures, but that did NOT deter me.  Plus, I really didn't know any better.  I think the first time I really put any kind of effort into taking pictures in a specific way was when I was in 10th grade (I think it was that year...anyone is welcome to correct me if I am wrong!).  It was in Coach Clay's history class.  He gave us the assignment to go and take pics of historical sites and put together a sort of album.  I got to borrow a kodak, the kind that spits out the pictures right then and there.  I was very intentional about angle and view, though I couldn't do anything with lighting and editing.  Anyway, he gave me a very nice complement about the "feel" and scope of the pictures I had taken and it was a nice feeling.  Fast forward a few years and other cameras, still 35mm, came in and out of my life and then my dad gave me his Canon AE-1.


Still a 35mm, but I could adjust all kinds of things on that sucker!  I had a blast with it, until the shutter started acting all wonky and I couldn't justify getting it fixed.  By then, digital cameras were becoming mainstream and I finally bought the Canon PowerShot A80.


I seriously loved this camera.  We bought it right before Braden was born because I knew I was going to take a bazillion pictures of my first baby!!  And I did. :)  As anyone can tell, I am a Canon fan.  I'm very familiar with this brand and I really like the way they feel in-hand.  I've played around with Nikons and Sonys and other brands, but for me, nothing beats a Canon.  One thing I really liked about this camera, aside from the pretty good pics it took for its size and built-in lens, was the ability to play around with manual settings.  I could also take a pic in black and white, sepia or a number of other settings on the camera itself before any editing had to be done.  I thought it was a fabulous all-around camera.  I miss it from time to time even now.

A few years back, around four or five now, I think, I decided I was going to get a degree in photography from Academy of Art University in San Francisco, CA.  They have an accredited online program that enables you to get up to a Master's degree in Photography.  I was pumped!  Sam was very encouraging of the whole scheme and it wouldn't cost us any money because of my GI Bill.  So, I got registered and enrolled and bought our fabulous IMac and was in process of buying the Canon 40D and the Adobe Photoshop professional version (whichever that was at the time), when everything kind of hit like a ton of bricks.  That's what happens when I don't ask God whether or not I should be doing something. :)  I got to looking at how much time I was going to actually have to carve out for doing assignments and studying and all that jazz and well, it was definitely going to be more than the 9 hours worth of credits I was going to do per week.  Not to mention, we were still living in the motor home and I had Braden and Zekey to attend to, soon to be pregnant with Ailey, though I didn't know it at the time. ;)  Anyway, right about then, I decided the whole process was a no-go, so instead of getting the 40D, which Sam was still all for, I decided to get the digital Rebel.  It was less expensive, would still take great pics and I could still manipulate as I went along.

In those years since I got the camera, I have had seasons of intense interest and photo taking and plenty of seasons of I-don't-have-time-for-this.  I used to edit pictures when I had my little PowerShot because I had some editing software I really liked.




Now, of course, it is no more. :(  Oh, well!  So, for a very loooooong time, I did no editing.


So, I was puttering along mostly taking pics of my own family and then all of a sudden, I seem to have gotten launched into taking pics for other people's family.  I also started editing a lot more.  I found some stuff online and downloaded it and I have been having fun ever since!  I am learning a bunch and I am getting new opportunities to improve.  God knows I like photography.  I believe He placed that desire in me.  Right now, though, I'm trying to find the balance in all of it.  My family is my first priority and I have a tendency to get very focused on something and let everything else hang out on the sidelines until I wear myself out and back off from that thing.  I believe God is teaching me how to prioritize and ask Him if this is something I should be doing and if so, how much and on and on....Its been an interesting ride so far.  I also am not in a place of thinking about this long-term, because it may not be.  It may be just for a season, only God really knows!  I think I'll let Him handle all those details.  So, I stay scheduled with shoots that work out for my and my family's schedule and its not the main thing, which is how it should be for me.

I wanna do that!

So, I was in hot pursuit of a shaker like we had when I was part of the worship team at Vinyard of San Antonio many, many, many moons ago.  As a matter of fact they still have it.  I caught a glimpse of it on our last visit there. :)  It looks a lot like this, only I think its actually a gourd or fruit or something from some other country:



This one is plastic, but the right size.  Anyway, its rather difficult to order just this one as it tends to come in a group of fruit shakers for upwards of $70+.  Not really wanting that.
So, I started looking online to see how others had made their own.  I came across this guy, Hal Walker.  He's all into what are called bana kula.  Here he is doing his thang:



Well, as I went along, I came across all these other names for the same instrument. For instance, kashaka, kosika, banakula, kass kass, patica, and asalato and there's more!  Its African in origin, but in different parts of West Africa, it is used in different ways and for different purposes.  Its very interesting. Here's an interesting article on it.  Anyway, apparently, these instruments have been of great interest in Japan and it has really exploded.  Here, let me show you some amazing, talented individuals:









There are lots more videos on youtube.

After an extensive search, trying to find some of these, I finally found them on Amazon. I will be ordering some soon.  I seriously doubt I will ever be able to do what these guys do, but I do think it will be fun to try!  I did try Hal Walkers homemade bana kulas and didn't quite succeed.  I just kept the balls separate and filled the holes with hot glue and they are pretty good little shakers.  I now have 4 and intend to make more!  You wanna see?  Oh, good, I knew you would!  Here:

Along the same lines, we have had a small African djembe that I ordered online about 9 or 10 years ago, just hanging around getting the occasional beating from the kiddos.  I found these videos on youtube and am now trying to learn how to play this sucker!  I really like how this guy explains every little detail.  He's putting up a lesson each week and so far there are three:



So, there ya go.  Your rhythm and groove session for today. :)