The Before & After-Math

Really, I don't think words will be necessary, but I wanted to let you all know that we are fine! Its been a rough ride, but I cannot complain. Our house came out unscathed by Ike - a sheer miracle considering the large tree in our backyard has been up-rooted and is leaning!!! I live in an older subdivision with huge, old trees, so many people did not come out of this as well as we did. Estimates have Ike's winds blowing at a steady 90-95 mph, with gusts well over 100 mph for hours & hours. We didn't lose power until 3:40AM on Saturday, during the storm, and didn't get our power back until Tuesday evening sometime. I know the exact time the power went out because there were 2 huge explosions that woke Michael & I (and Alex) up. We later found out those were the 2 transformers behind our house! Anyway, we left on Saturday evening (after the storm had come & gone) to stay with our friends in College Station for a few nights, then came back home on Monday afternoon, only to leave and stay with a local family who had power (and hot showers!!!) for another night. We made a stop in College Station for gas & groceries, since both of those items are almost non-existent in the area. Thousands & thousands of homes IN OUR AREA (and 1/2 of our subdivision) are still without power, so please keep these families in your prayers! Its been a very long week, and looks to be even tougher as estimates have power restoration for this part of Houston at Tuesday of NEXT WEEK.

All Glory goes to God for sending His angels and provision for my family!!!

The kiddos went "camping" in our formal living room.
Having them downstairs was important to them (and to me!!!).

These blurry images were taken around 8AM on Saturday morning, while Ike still rained his wrath on Houston! The branch that went through the fence came off our OUR tree located right next to Ian's room, but fell straight down across the neighbor's driveway and onto his roof. Thankfully there was no damage, other than to his gutters!

This would be one of the few "pros" of being without power for days & days - a cleaned out fridge & freezer! Notice the Chick-Fil-A bag and the stiro foam container on the shelf? That would be yesterday's lunch & dinner! Another positive of having no food is that you HAVE to go eat :)

And, by no food in the house to eat, I simply mean that there really isn't anything we would want to eat for dinner! But, should another hurricane care to grace us with his or her presence, we will probably still be prepared as I think we have more than our fair share of canned goods and bread products!!!

I Will Never Forget!

May God Bless America!
May America Bless God!

Run From the Water, Hide From the Wind

This seems to be the mantra around these parts today - I've seen this everywhere, and heard this several times from various sources. So, as we brace ourselves for this storm, let me let you read what one of our news establishments has to say about Hurrican Ike:

The National Hurricane Center foresees a 20-foot surge for a large swath of Texas. Hurricane center meteorologist Dennis Feltgen says Ike’s waves could be 50 feet tall, and some computer models have waves topping out at 70 feet.

So first, rest assured that we are far away from the coast - 80 miles or so. So even though this particular statement won't really affect us, you should still keep those that haven't evacuated in your prayers over the next few days!

Second, we are far outside of the evacuation zones, so we are staying put. Many gas stations are already out of gas (which is why I filled up 2 days ago and my tank still sits on full) and the grocery shelves are now emptying out (at 9AM, things were still good, except for the lanes that took more than 30 minutes to get through at check-out!). But we have lots of water, lots of food (including some chicken, steaks and sausage in the freezer should the need arise to "grill" - you know if we end up without power for a bit), lots of ice and a few coolers to use for keeping perishables cold/cool until the power returns, flashlights and candles, a radio, and lots & lots of batteries (which surprisingly I found today at Target!). I will be shutting my laptop off at some point tomorrow in an effort to conserve the battery, and will also be turning my mobile phone off for the same reason. We spent the evening clearing the backyard of bikes, toys, tables & chairs, and pretty much anything that could blow around/away with the 100mph gusts they have mentioned. And finally, we have renters insurance that would include flood damage, if things get that bad - which I am certainly not anticipating.

We are set, prepared and ready for Ike and all his glory!

But, we would still appreciate your prayers. Stay tuned for a recap of the events - both good & bad - that may transpire over the weekend!

Observations

This morning, while eating breakfast with Ian, we were snuggled up watching an old I Love Lucy episode - all of my kids think that Lucy is hilarious :) So anyway, there we are sitting and eating together when Ricky walks out on stage in a matador's costume. Ian starts laughing hysterically and says, "Hey mom, he looks like Mickey Mouse!". And he was right! The matador's cap/hat he was wearing had 2 black bulges on either side of his head, and when he tilted his head back slightly, they looked like ears!

I started laughing and commended him on his observation skills. I would never have thought that on my own, but leave it to a preschooler to compare a real-life person, in costume, to a cartoon character!

A Day in Our Lives

I don't exactly know what I can say about homeschooling, other than it is like having school, at home! :) I know, its such an epiphany isn't it?? Alex & I are in the beginning stages of figuring this whole thing out - we're doing the trial-and-error method at the moment - but it seems to be working so far!

Our first week went fairly smoothly. I was determined to stay with my lesson plans so as not to throw a kink into our days, but was worried that I may have over-planned to some degree. But, I'm happy to say that I didn't, and things went rather swimmingly. Its taking us longer to get through the lessons then I had hoped, but I figure it will only be a matter of time until we fall into a routine - if there is such a thing with homeschooling?

After getting "little toot" out the door in the morning for her 8:20 bus, Alex & I either run a few errands (with Ian in-tow since his preschool has not yet begun) or get down to business. Either way, we usually have our noses in the books no later than 10AM, which is great. I have been allowing him to pick which subjects he wants to tackle first, and have quickly discovered that he doesn't like math. This particular thorn-in-his-side takes us all of an hour or so to complete, which is painstakingly too slow for me! I always loved math and am doing what I can to help him through each lesson, without doing them for him. I have discovered that if I sit there with him and talk him through each problem (start with the ones column, 4 plus 2 is?, 6 plus 5 is, carry, now add the hundreds - good job!) then he can get through them very quickly. BUT, if I leave him to work a few problems for 10 minutes while I attend to something else, I find he is still staring at the first or 2nd problem when I return - which drives me crazy! So we are alternately getting along very well and working through things, or I'm getting ready to pull his head off of his body because he won't focus or is procrastinating.

I did discover, quite by accident, that he loves to race the clock! I decided to put some of his math work on the grease board I hung on the wall, then instructed him to go to the other side of the room and wait. When I say "go", he runs across the room, answers the problems on the board, then races back to the desk. His best time is less than 1 minute (57 seconds) for 5 2-digit problems, which is great for my little day dreamer. He now asks every day if he can do some board work, and I am happy to oblige, as long as we don't get too hung up on math facts, ignoring some of the other new things he's learning.

But, thankfully these have been the only obstacles we have hit so far, but I feel certain that as we 'get through' each day, we'll figure out ways to conquer the beasts that lay in our path. Its just a matter of time until he figures out that homeschool isn't going to be all fun & games - but for now, I'm happy to let him think that it is :)