Life in the Big City

Today was one of those days that just turned out pretty great! We decided to visit the church where Hal and I were married, Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Atlanta. Our favorite pastor, Pastor Weber, has been the interim pastor there for the past year and we just now decided to pay him a visit. In addition to seeing Pastor Weber, we also enjoyed the wonderful worship experience and the joy of being in an old cathedral with a tremendous pipe organ.

After church we decided to try out a restaurant in midtown, Einsteins, which turned out to be a terrific find for us! It was quite eclectic and, living in Sharpsburg, GA, it is good to get to the "big city" and see what that's like. Now, Hal will tell you this is nothing new for him since he works downtown every day. I used to go to grad school downtown and of course lived more in town when we were first married. The kids, however, never really get to experience Atlanta, so it was fun to spend the day there.

We capped off the day with a visit to Trader Joe's. I must say I was underwhelmed by the Trader Joe's experience today! It was crowded and it seemed like a lot of the people there were in a bad mood! The best thing to come out of it was several gourmet pizzas, some cool chocolate chip cookie dunking sticks, and some frozen veggies that looked really good to me.

Once home I decided to spend some time on the homeschool schedule for the week. I am making a detailed schedule for Anna and when I looked at it I really see how much we accomplish in a week! She is check off each task as she completes it, and Hal will check her schedule at night to see that she has accomplished her work for the day. I want to provide accountability similar to public school, but I don't want us to get bogged down by it. I'll let you know how this works. I went to a great site called Chart Jungle to get the schedule form.

We are looking forward to a productive week, and getting to see my sister-in-law and some of my nieces and nephew later in the week. They are here showing their Chows at a dog show in Atlanta and hopefully we will get to go to the show and swim in the indoor pool at their hotel! My brother can't make it - he is the chaplain onboard the USS George W Bush and will be at sea.

Multiplication, Music and More

Look at this poor little doggie.... this is our very tolerant guy, Gizmo. Anna did this to him with a little bit of free (and unsupervised) time she had yesterday! He looked completely dejected when I opened the door to Anna's room and saw him decked out all ready for Mardi Gras! I had to laugh and then take some pictures. Children are so creative!

Now, on to today......

Wednesdays are always the busiest day in our week. After getting Grant to school Anna and I homeschool for the rest of the morning, and then she goes to a homeschool PE class at Home Plate . I love to see her running and having fun with other children... I was worried (unnecessarily so) that she would have a problem with socialization once we began to homeschool. This is perhaps the biggest MYTH about homeschooling there is.

We made a trip to the Peachtree City Library and stocked up on resources for the next week and then headed to church for our Wednesday evening Music and the Master. Right now the children are preparing to go to the Chorister's Guild Festival in Atlanta in February. I am particularly excited about this because a fellow classmate of mine from Southern Methodist University is going to be the guest conductor. If you are a parent, check out his website. He was a talented and creative young man when I first met him, and now he is publishing his own music and working in a large church in Ft. Worth. My kids love his song "Brainfreeze"!

Ahhhh.... on to the multiplication section of this post. Why is it that I never enjoyed math and now I'm afraid my daughter is falling into the same trap? We are working on our times tables now and I'm trying to jazz it up a little to make it more fun. I ordered a CD called "Multiplication Mountain" by Hap Palmer and I'll let you know what it's like.

I must go start the chocolate chip pancakes and sausage we are having for dinner (notice this is not a blog about nutrition!)..... I hope you took some time today to thank God for your blessings and then help someone in need.