Doing Great

I felt that I had to write another post today - second one in a day. Impressive! I haven't written much lately about how we are doing. Of course, we've been pretty busy, hence the not writing! Brenna's birthday was last week and she turned 8 years old. Very hard to believe. I took out her baby scrapbook I made and went down memory lane a bit. Seems like just yesterday that she was a tiny little baby, but then again it seems so long ago too. Funny how things like that happen.
Brendon and I and my parents bought her a trampoline for her birthday and she was so excited about that! She's been wanting one for a long time and finally her birthday wish this year came true. I love that she has yet another thing to do outside, in the sunshine. I absolutely love the sweaty, red faced kid that she becomes after a long time spent outdoors. One of my favorite things to see. :)
It's hard to believe that I've been a stay-at-home mom now for 8 years. I would not change it for the world though. I remember when I found out I was pregnant and Brendon and I were both working at a call center for MSN. I had no intentions of becoming a Mom who stayed home. In fact, I had day care all lined up at a nice Christian school that my aunt worked at. I had planned on taking my 6 weeks (or whatever it was) of maternity leave and sending her off to day care and going back to work.
HA!
Little did I know how much a baby can change you! As soon as she was born and I laid eyes on that sweet little baby all of my plans flew out the window! No way I was going to let a stranger take care of my little baby - that was Momma's job!
It wasn't easy at all. With only a one income household (and it wasn't a lot of income!) we struggled majorly. For a while we did without all the luxuries that most people find a necessity today. No Internet, no cable, no going out to eat, Ramen Noodles and hot dogs for dinner quite often...... We did what we had to do though and if I had to do it again there would be no doubt in my mind that we would. It was completely worth it.
And I'm STILL having such a wonderful time with Brenna 8 years later! I could not even imagine not being with her as much as I am. Homeschooling has become such a lifestyle for us. No homework, no very early mornings, no rushing around at night to get in bed early, no planning our lives around school. It is so, so wonderful to be able to pick up and go do something on a Tuesday! What a fantastic life we have!!
And Brenna is doing great. We are still not doing any kind of curriculum what so ever and it is working better than I could ever imagine. I do get caught up sometimes in worrying about what other kids her age are doing but then something happens that completely eases my mind.
For example, last week in Girl Scout the girls were making friendship scrapbooks. They had blank little books that they were supposed to draw pictures of friends or write something about them. During stuff like that I can't help but pay close attention to what the other girls are doing.
One thing I really noticed was the way the other girls were asking the troop leader about things they could draw and write in their books. It was like they were almost asking permission to do certain things or that they really couldn't come up with their own ideas so they were asking the "teacher" for ideas. This really reminded me of a poem I posted on my blog quite sometime ago. Brenna, on the other hand, just went with it! She heard 'scrapbook' and 'friends' and I could tell that she had a million ideas just going through that brain of hers and she did her own thing.
Another thing that shocked me somewhat was the way that Brenna was helping her peers with spelling! It was UNBELIEVABLE that my kid, who really has had no type of "schooling" at all, was coaching some of these other girls !!! I was floored and I have to admit, it made me feel pretty darn good and really justified what we have been doing.
I wonder how many times something like that is going to have to happen before I figure out that what we are doing WORKS?! I guess as a parent though you'll always wonder if what you are doing is right.
I am extremely proud of what our daughter is becoming and I am honored to be able to witness it and experience it all first hand.