Our "Vacation"

We left to go to Ohio on Friday night, with 3 very excited kids, and a happy toddler. We stopped on Friday night to stay the night in Illinois. Got up Saturday morning, had a nice continental breakfast at the hotel, packed up, and we were back on the road  heading to see family after a very long 3 year absence. Needless to say Grandma and Grandpa Battson had some pretty big plans for us to go do things together. Brian's parents are gracious enough to allow us to stay with them so we can save on the costs of our trip, to make it a little more affordable for us. Thank goodness for loving in-laws!!
We arrived in really good time on Saturday, after a couple stops for lunch, and stretching out our legs, we made it to Ohio by 4:30pm. The kids once again, are VERY excited, one to be out of the car, and two to see Grandma and Grandpa. Saturday night we just kinda hung out with Grandma and Grandpa.

Sunday morning we got up, had breakfast, and headed to church, along with Brian's parents and our nephews from Brian's sister. The afternoon, was spent with family, at a local pizza place called Marions (OMGosh good pizza!) We were at the pizza place for a few hours, and went back to his parents house, and hung out with his siblings. Some of Brian's Aunt's and Uncle's where able to be there as well. We got to talk and catch up on what has been going on for the last 3 years. We had a really nice time hanging out with the family in Ohio. Who we have missed so very much, the last three years. We haven't really had the chance to get to Ohio like we like to, due to finances and other things.
Monday, we found out Brian's brother and his girlfriend were coming back "in town"  from  Cincinnati to hang out and spend the day with us, along with his younger sister and her 3 boys, who live just down the street, and his little sister who came into town from PA. Sunday we met her 2 girls (the youngest who is almost 3) for the first time. The last time we saw her oldest daughter she was still just a baby, so it was like meeting her for the first time as well. Beautiful little girls with SUCH personality! She had to leave just after lunch to make the 4 hour drive home to PA by herself with her two young daughters. The other siblings live a little closer and were able to stay until after dinner.
After dinner we said our good byes, and settled in for what we thought would be a nice relaxing evening. However there were other plans in the works. Patrick our 16 month old started throwing up, and continued to all night long. Finally starting to keep some fluids down around 7am on Tuesday. Justin started getting sick as well a few hours later, so all night we had two kids throwing up. There went our plans to visit the Air Force Musem on Tuesday....as both the boys were still very pale. I will say staying up all night with a sick 16 month lead to some interesting information for me.

FYI:
Did you know, when a person has the stomach flu, once the symptoms are all gone, they are still contagious for 3 to 4 DAYS!!!! Yes you read right, 3 to 4 DAYS!!!! So, keep yourself and those little ones home until you are sure everyone is all healed up!

Well, Wednesday came, and we were supposed to be meeting up and spending the day in Cincinnati, with his older brother and his girlfriend. All of us "Kansas Battson's" were really looking forward to it. However, our plans had to change, thanks to two little boys who still weren't feeling the best, and on a very restricted diet, due to being so sick. So, we spent the day and evening again in the house, watching movies and such. By Wednesday evening it was starting to look like we were in the clear. No one else had gotten sick, and we planned on going to the Air Force Musem finally on Thursday.

Thursday morning we all get up, kids are once again VERY excited to be getting ready to go to the Air Force Museum, we all had breakfast together, and were getting ready to leave..................YEP! You guessed it, another person fell victim to the flu, this time it was Brian's Dad. So Grandma thought it would be best for her to stay home with Grandpa, since he wasn't feeling good, and sent us on our way to the museum. Faith had been complaining some about her tummy hurting, but we figured (hoped) it was nothing, and headed to the museum for a MUCH needed day out of the house and some fun. We did make it most the way though the museum, before Faith told me she was tired and her tummy was hurting again. So we agreed as a family we would go ahead and cut our outing to the musem short, for the two littlest memebers of our family to get a nap.

We stopped at Mc Donald's (Faith's FAVORITE place to eat) and grabbed some lunch to eat on the way to our next destination. Patrick was already asleep, in his much needed nap, and Faith had fallen asleep as well. We tried to wake her up for lunch, but she was tired and just wanted to sleep. About 10 minutes later,our poor little Faith was throwing up in our van, while we were eating lunch. Watching your little 5 year old cry, and beg to go home, is not the way we planned on spending our day. So yep, another day cut short thanks to this wonderful Flu. And yet another night stuck inside with a sick little one, and Grandpa on the mend. It is now nearly 6pm, and Faith is still asleep on the floor, after sleeping most of the day.

At this point, Libby hasn't yet gotten it, and on Wednesday, Brian and I had some nausea, but we figured, it was just being around all the sickness that was going around. We are thinking/hoping that we had a light case of the flu going around. I hope on top of hope, and pray, that we are done with this as a family, so we can enjoy our last day of "vacation" as a non-throwing up family, out of the house doing something..........ANYTHING! I am also hoping and praying that it is done, since we still have a 12 hour drive home on Saturday. To be honest with you, I am somewhat fearful of our drive home. What happens if one of us gets sick while out on the road, that could make for a terrible/horrible/nightmarish drive home.
Needless to say I am frustrated, pissed off, tired, and what ever other emotion you can imagine at this point. This was supposed to be our family vacation time, time to spend with Brian's parents, having fun, hanging out, and enjoying each others company. Unfortunately it has been exactly the oppisite. Don't get me wrong, Brian's parents have been wonderful about the whole thing, and we are coping with this mess the best we can, and making the best of it we can. But seriously, enough is enough!

Thank God, truly, thank God for Brian's parents....what a great set of in-laws I have been blessed with!
Maybe our next "vacation" to Ohio will be much better...........

It's been a while!

I have been sitting here at the computer most of the day (when not holding Patrick), typing out lesson plans, and quizzes the kids need for tomorrow. Some of the questions or assignments they need to do are listed in the parents lesson plans, and not in the books. Such as discussion questions, diagramming sentences, and questions about stories they read this week in the Bible.

I  realized it's been a long time since I have blogged or given any updates, so here it is:

It's been an interesting couple of months since I last blogged:

We found out we are expecting our 5th child (6th pregnancy) in early July. While this has been a wonderful surprise, it has also thrown our schedule for a loop! Mostly because of the exhaustion I have felt over the last few months. part of that is due to anemia, and part of it is, I am a pregnant mother of 4 kids whom I homeschool. 

While I hate to admit, I am going to anyway. In my last blog I mentioned I was going to have the kids start grading some of their own work, and the first few weeks of that went great..........then the nausea took up residence, along with the anemia, and I got well....LAZY.  I didn't stay on top of the kids with them grading their own work, like I should have. When I first started them on the grading their own work, they were doing GREAT! I was able to trust them, and only spot check their work about twice a week. Well in my laziness  I hadn't checked up on them in a few weeks, because they had done SO well.................BIG mistake!! 

When I did finally start getting some energy back, I started on all the grading that I was behind on. Let me tell you, what I found was a huge eye opener! Libby was struggling with her English, and when she didn't understand something, instead of coming to me to ask, she would simply put "Ask mommy or daddy" and move on. Justin thought it would be okay on his math, to put -48(!) instead of doing his math work.....I couldn't believe it!! Both of them did this on several pages in these two subjects.

Well, after some mighty long talks about responsibility and some apologies from me as well.....I don't think this will be an issue ever again. I think all of us learned from this very hard lesson! The good news is, while this did set us back a little bit (due to needing to go back and complete these assignments), we are still on a pretty decent track. I think I had mentioned in and earlier blog, we were set to finish up school in late April. Now it is looking more like the end of May, but keep in mind we are planning a vacation in there as well to Ohio to visit with Brian's parents and family. We haven't been back "home" since Faith was 2 years old, yep, it's been 3 years since we have been out to visit the Battson side of the family. Brian's parents are the only ones who have met Patrick, and that was when he was just a few months old! I think it's about time we head that way to see them! No we will not be taking school with us on this trip.

So, there you have it..........it's not pretty, but it's honest, and for those of you out there wondering what we have been up to, now you know. This has definitely been a learning year for all of us, as we adjust to this new way of life. We have no regrets at all to the choices we have made as a family and for our family. I still firmly believe this was the best choice for us. Does that mean it's right for you?? No. That is up to you and our Heavenly Father to decide. If you are thinking about trying homeschooling, my advice at this point would be spend lots of time in prayer asking God if this is where he is leading your family. It took 2 years of prayer and research, and more prayer, and asking advice from homeschooling families, as well as close friends, for us to make the leap into homeschooling. 

Blessings and love to all of you in 2013!