Goings On

It was a long week. Sean being gone was hard and Valentine’s Day went by without much fanfare. Not that I need something on a retail holiday like that because Sean shows me he loves me every day, but I did feel bad that I wasn’t able to put something together for the boys. Some of their friends sent them Valentines in the mail and I felt like a heel for not planning better pre-surgery. We got a wonderful surprise the night before Valentines Day though. Snow! The weatherpeople didn’t call for it so it was a shock when I got a call telling me to look out the window around 9pm that night. The boys were so excited!! We got about 2.5 inches, which here may as well be a foot, and the boys made a plan to get up and play in it first thing. They did and had a ball. I even snuck out to the porch a snapped a couple of shots of the snow:

I didn’t stay out long and didn’t wander off the porch because I was terrified of slipping and falling down the stairs. It was really lovely though.

Later that day, my wonderful brother-in-law brought a pizza for me and the boys for dinner because my mom wasn’t staying with me that night. It didn’t feel right asking her to stay with me on Valentine’s Day when she had been with me so many nights already. Anyway, when I opened the door to let my BIL in, he was standing there with the pizza and on top of the box was a beautiful red rose, snuggled up to some baby’s breath, just for me! It made me cry…he’s so sweet and thoughtful.

Let me backtrack for a moment. Sean and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on February 7th – the day I had surgery. For that anniversary, Sean gave me a new lens for my camera. A 105mm macro lens. It was pretty cool but I had some trouble adjusting to using it. Here are some shots I took with it:

Not only are macros great for upclose photos but they take nice portraits, too.

Not sure why Ryan had such a frownie face because he actually asked me to take his photo!

Holy Jeans, Batman!

I had Sean return the lens yesterday because I wasn’t wild about that particular brand’s auto focus. It was really slow and if using it for shooting portaits that wouldn’t work too well. I have read that Canon’s 60mm macro is much faster so I think I’m going to order that instead. I’d be happy to take some pointers from anyone who has an opinion on the best macro lens to buy in the $400 range for a Canon Rebel XTi.

On the unschooling front, I’ve been having some of those nagging doubts that come up from time to time. It’s so unsettling to be here, feeling decrepit, and then feeling like I’m not doing right by my kids as the same time. Uncannily though, it’s at these times, that some force, whatever power there is out there, allows me to see that my children really do learn through this organic method we’ve chosen. Ryan was sitting at the table, eating dinner, when he announced, “Momma, 2+2=4!” I looked up from my spot on the sofa and said, “That’s right! How did you know that?” He held up his hands, two fingers up on each the rest tucked away and showed me. Two fingers next to two fingers equals four. Unschooling math. Hello!

Then there’s Iain. I think it’s much harder to feel completely at ease with unschooling Iain for several reasons. He’s my firstborn for one thing and being the oldest I feel this pressure from external sources that he “should” be at a certain level. He attended school also and it has been really hard to get out of that mentality. Sean kind of gives me the tiniest bit of grief for telling Iain how to spell things or reading something for him. Everything I’ve read in my research though says that it’s ok to do that. That they will eventually “get” it. I was beginning to doubt it then Iain showed me that he does know what he’s doing. He wanted to make a birthday list, nevermind that his birthday is months from now, so he grabbed a piece of paper and a crayon and got started. The first thing is a Harry Potter game for the Wii and when he asked me to spell Harry he said, “I already have the H.” I was about to spell it for him but stopped and said, “Iain, what do you think comes next?” He proceeded to correctly spell the word on his own and did the same for most of the things on his list. He was so proud of himself! I was surprised but I realize that by spelling things and reading to him, it gave him the time he needed to develop the necessary skills to read and spell on his own. I wish I would quit having the doubts and could just settle down!

On the ordinary front, I’m hoping to go to the grocery store today but I’m afraid that might be overdoing it. I went with my sister last night and we only got a couple of things but it really wore me out. I was surprised at how incredibly tired I was after that. But it was REALLY nice to be out of the house. I think I’m going to take a nap and then see how I feel about it then.

Well, I hope everyone’s doing well! I’ve been by trying to check up on my blog reading and have been enjoying it all so far. I feel so out of the loop now!