Week 7 ~ Leap of Faith!

On My Mind ~ My mind is a whirlwind!  So much has changed in my life since last Friday.  I have felt for months that October was going to be a very busy month and that I needed to plan our homeschooling accordingly.  Since Tim needs a new pacemaker some time in the next few months, I thought my intuition was that Tim's pacemaker battery would run out in October and we would be told that he needed heart surgery.  However, that is not why October is going to be crazy busy.  To make this story short, because I am very short on time, we made an offer on a house and the offer was accepted!  A house that we have looked at and been interested in for more than 7 years!  A house that we have made offers on before and the owners have turned us down (two different owners).  A house that we are getting for $70,000 less than the previous owner's asking price because it is in foreclosure.  You know those statements you hear ~ "God is in the details" and "It's a God thing", I am totally seeing God's hand in all of this.  Everything is moving so fast and the "doors" are opening very easily so far.  I have much more to tell, but right how I need to do a few projects to list our current home for sale in the next few days and find a home inspector for our future home.  We close on our future home October 26; however Fannie Mae would like to close sooner if we can jump through all the hoops.  Our lender thinks a close date could be as soon as October 12!!!  Both dates hold significance for our family ~ the 12th is our DD's 9th birthday and the 26th is the anniversary of our oldest son's pacemaker surgery in infancy.  I am awestruck by all that is happening.

Photos: (1) The back of the house from about the middle of the back yard.  You can see there is lots of landscaping to do and ivy to pull off the house. (2) See that little outbuilding?  It is already wired for electricity and could be connected to utilities someday in the future.  Maybe it will become our one room school house or the beginnings of that homeschool store I dream of owning someday.

Places We Are Going ~ The kids started their dance and chess classes this week.  Everyone is excited to get our year underway.  Tom Sawyer and Little Red Riding Hood are taking chess this year.   The teacher assessed their skill level and was impressed.  He said they were both smart and that Little Red Riding Hood was a "math head".  They both came away very excited about going back next week.  Dance is going well.  Little Red Riding Hood has a very strict teacher this year.  She is going to really push the kids and demand a much higher level of professionalism than the kids have ever experienced.  I think it will be very good for her.  Little Red is not thrilled with how much bar work there is and how little "fun" (leaps and spins) they get to do.  However, she needs to discover what ballet is really about (practice), since she insists this is what she wants to do with her life.

In Our Homeschool ~ We are definitely in emergency mode around here.  I am so glad that I planned our school year with the expectation that we would be facing interruptions.  We still have to face surgery at some point, and with the move, it is going to be crazy.  Our realtor says we will be showing our current home many times in the first few weeks.  He thinks we will get a bid quickly because we are the only historic Dutch Colonial on the market and in a trendy up and coming neighborhood.  It was not trendy when we moved here almost 12 years ago, though.  From an academic standpoint, we did math, spelling, language arts, geography, literature and finished up our FIAR book, The Gullywasher.  For our FIAR project, we made cheese dip with different hot peppers in it for lunch and dipped bread in the cheese.  Wow -- some of them were really spicy!  We also read a few books about 9/11 and watched the YouTube documentary Boatlift.  This is a wonderful documentary about unsung heroes on 9/11.

From a life skills point of view ~ we are busy learning how to declutter, paint baseboards, learn the steps to buying/selling a house and listing a house for sale.  The kids are also processing feelings of excitement, fear and sadness all at the same time.  Some are more excited than others.  We are only moving about 5 miles, but it seems like a world apart to one child in particular.  They are learning to be appropriate with their behaviors in the midst of dealing with their feelings.

Counting Blessings ~ So many blessings this week ~ Big and Small.  The house is an obvious one.  I am also thankful that we have worked so hard to get out of debt.  It has made it possible to carry two mortgages for a short amount of time (while we sell the first house).  I am so glad we have a realtor and contractor we trust, as well as friends and family who have offered to help in different ways in the coming months.  Well this got longer than I thought.  I better get to work.

I am joining HomeGrown Learners.

Blessings, Dawn