It has been a great weekend. We managed to make some good headway on the clutter in our home. It had gotten pretty bad after we came back from vacation with tons of new things. We also got to watch the boys perform as farm animals in the church's annual Epiphany Pageant. And we spent some time at a new park. The weather has been incredible. Incredibly warm and incredibly humid. But it's a great reason to get outside and get some wood chips in your shoes.
Now that the weekend has passed, we have our sights set on the week to come.
One exciting thing to look forward to is the BCS Championship game between LSU and Alabama. I know that many people don't care. They either don't care about college ball or they don't like the BCS system. Some people don't like the idea of watching a rematch between the teams. Me? I'm excited. I love college football. I love LSU football. And I'm going to watch this game and whoop and holler as if it were the first time in history that these teams played each other. My kids will probably tell me to quiet down. My husband will probably hang his head in shame when he sees my victory dance for the millionth time. And if not for that, he will definitely hang his head in shame when I point and laugh at all the crying Bama fans as the Tigers hand their you-know-whats back to them. Yeah, I'm excited. But as excited as I am, it pales in comparison to another event that is officially starting. Homeschooling.
We've made the switch. We've taken the plunge. And there's no going back. Well, not this school year, anyway. Long story short, we weren't 100% happy with the school district we are in. The class was overcrowded. He spent too much time waiting around. He came home acting like a zombie who didn't want to talk about school and didn't want to do homework. So we're changing all that. And so far, the results have been good. The first day I asked him to tell me what he would like to learn as far as math and science go. He's interested in multiplication and learning about space. After doing a lesson on the Sun, he was so talkative that Troy and I were just shocked that we were looking at the same boy who, for 78 days, wouldn't tell us anything about what he learned at school. And after a couple of days of multiplication, he wants to move on to division. A new boy, I tell you.
We are still looking for a curriculum to get and follow to help make things more manageable for me. It's a lot of work putting all that stuff together! But it's loads of fun. And it's great spending so much time with him again. He's a really helpful boy and a lot of fun to be with. It's an exciting time in the TX Becker household.
Houston is a big city. The Land of Plenty. On any given day, there are handfuls of things to do. Yesterday was a prime example.
HMNS had a dino day going on. There was a farmer's market, an International Festival, a British Festival, a couple of movies playing at different outdoor venues, and the AHA Houston Heart Walk.
There was no way that we could have done all those things. Let's not forget that weekends are a chance for finishing that long list of things that should have been done during the week. Like recycling, grocery shopping, and buying new shoes. So we could really only choose one special thing to do.
Lucky for us, the choice was easy. We had a few filters that the event had to pass through in order to be chosen. Firstly, we wanted to do something on the southwest side of town. We wanted to meet up with some lovely friends in that neck of the woods, so that narrowed it down to two things: the farmers' market and the International Festival. Secondly, it had to be cost effective (i.e. free). The International Festival was free. The farmers' market was technically free, but you know that we would have spent money on ugly tomatoes and local honey. And finally, it had to be kid friendly. The International Festival won since it was put on by the Fort Bend ISD and meant to educate children and showcase the diversity of the school system and community.
The kids had a great time. They had "passports" and collected stamps. They collected little knick knacks (which are knick-knacking up my house as we speak...) from various countries. We even squeezed in some arts and crafts before we had to move along on to the next tasks.
Recycling was next. And then the kiddos finally got to meet little Miles. And lastly, I managed to get our grocery shopping for the week done.
But we never could have packed our day clear full. Nope, not this last Saturday. There was no way that we were going to miss the LSU/Alabama football game. And boy, are we happy that we didn't! Troy and I just love a good football game. We especially love a good LSU football game. And hopefully our kids will love LSU football as much as we do. And according to this article, they are likely to.
So we donned our purple and gold, and we got our shoutin' voices ready. We were ready for the fight. I'm sure that if you watched the game and weren't invested in the team like we were, you probably would have found it to be a little boring. There were no touchdowns and the score stayed tied for most of the game. But me, I'm invested. At various times throughout the game I was holding my breath and wincing. At other times I was jumping and screaming. During overtime, I was doing all of the above. My kids were trying to sleep and pleading with me to stop yelling. Oops. But in the end, we won by 3 points. Not much, but it was plenty enough for me.
Geaux Tigers! #1!!!
I can't wait for next week. I don't know what's in store, but I'm pretty sure that we'll find something to do!
