Homeschooler off to a start too....

Doesn't Colton look thrilled??!! He is studying Bible, Geometry, English 3, Chemistry, History and Spanish this year. Colton loves humorous books and is reading Dave Barry and Patrick McManus currently.

First Day of School...

School started one-half hour late this morning (8:45). Katie was up bright and early and anxious to go. I walked the girls to school and left them in the gym with their classes. I hope they have a good day!

Map

Some maps of Georgia, just in case you're planning a trip....when the region stabilizes of course!

World History Lesson...where is Georgia?

Georgia is a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and partially in Southwest Asia in the Caucasus region. It is bordered to the north by the Russian Federation, to the east by Azerbaijan, to the west across the Black Sea by Ukraine, to the south by Armenia and to the southwest by Turkey.^[2] The territory of Georgia covers 69,700 km² and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Georgia’s population is 4.4 million in the territories controlled by the central government of Georgia, nearly 84% of whom are ethnic Georgians.<sup>[3] Thanks Wikipedia!!

To put it simply, it is this little country south of Russia that used to be a part of the Mother country. Why is Russia so interested in Georgia? Some analysts say the oil pipelines, some say the ports, some say Russia just wants to expand her empire again?


On another note, did you know more Georgians live to the age of 100 than in any other country?</sup>

School begins...

I have a mix of students again this year. Alicia and Katie start public school tomorrow at the little Elementary school in town. Alicia is in 5th grade and Katie, 2nd. They are both extremely excited. We got to see their classrooms and meet their teachers tonight. Katie looked around at the desks with names on them to see if their were any other "Katies" in the class. She found 2 Kaitlyns and 2 Emilys but no other Katie. Her friend Maddie is also in her class. Garrett will start preschool on August 25th. He will go 3 days per week. The older students are home again this year. Colton is a junior, Carlina a freshman and Julia in 7th grade. We are going to start tomorrow too but with some interruptions, doctor, dentist appts that we didn't get done during the summer. The girls went swimming today for probably one of the last times. The pool does stay open in the evenings now until Aug 23rd.

On another note, I dropped out of the Bible study that I had signed up for at the church. I had only been one time but it was just too hard to leave in the evenings, esp with Jesse having to help Jim sometimes and Carlina not feeling good. I want to do AWANA this Fall and being out 2 nights might be too hard. I would have loved the study and fellowship but sometimes you just can't do it all.

Jesse is meeting with a home-health care provider tonight, along with his sister, to see if they can work something out for his dad. I hope he is cooperative, but he wasn't keen on anyone coming in to help.

Depression

I hate that evil word. Depression brought me so much pain but through that pain came so much gain. I actually felt the hand of the Lord so many times and learned so much about my identity in Him going through those terrible times. Now Carlina struggles with it. It seems to happen especially around her period. She gets very anxious, can't sleep and has bad thoughts. Carlina is an amazing person. She is so smart and funny, but so shy. She doesn't make friends easily because she is so quiet. I wish that people could see the real girl. Her stories are incredible, her sense of humor wonderful. I learned the importance of meditating on the truth during those times and have tried to help her. The Bondage Breaker for Teens is a wonderful book and I think has helped her. Joyce Meyer also has a good book for teens. Depression can seem like such a deep, dark, empty pit. I have never been through anything so difficult and I wish I could help her. All I can do is talk to her and pray for her. I am going to try to find her a Christian counselor. I am not sure about medication for teens; she was on an anti-depressant for awhile but not sure it helped. We will keep doing what we can do.

Names...

We are having a hard time with names. We had a boys name picked out as of late...Justice. Such a cool name, but alas, no boy, lol. Girls names are harder. Carlina's name was picked out a day after she was born, sort of on a whim. I wanted Katrina but Jesse vetoed it and Carlina was chosen. Julia was going to be Courtney almost right up until the end when I suddenly changed my mind. I had Alicia picked out for my firstborn (who happened to be a boy) but didn't use it again right away for some reason. That was the name of a childhood bestfriend. Katie was picked out by daddy...she is actually Katherine, but he wanted a Katie. So that nickname stuck.

Now for number 8....the girls and I loved Charlotte but daddy did not. He likes Elizabeth and Anna. Julia and Alicia desperately want me to name her Emma Rose. Which is very pretty. I personally love Josephine and would call her Josie, but noone else except for Carlina seems to like that.......more deliberating!