tim and lisa cocking

While we’re in Michigan, the girls and I are staying with my mom for most of the time (Tim’s down at his parents’, closer to the people he’s meeting with). One really nice thing about this is that my mom is a morning person, a lot like Tim. I’m not. At home, Tim always gets the girls their breakfast and allows me to wake up slowly and not have to face any little people before I’m ready. My mom has been doing the same thing for me here.

I woke up a little early this morning, before the kids were allowed out of their room. At 7:00 (their time of emancipation), I overheard this on the monitor:

(door opening)

Micah: Gwamma’s not up!

Bethany: Is Daddy here?

Micah: No!

Bethany: Uh oh…

Micah: We have to wake somebody up! Somebody has to feed us bweakfwast or we’ll STARVE!

Bethany: We will NOT starve!

I love the fact that none of the girls asked if I was up or even mentioned the possibility. I have them trained well.

We arrive in Detroit this Wednesday, October 29. We will be there until November the 19th. I (Tim) will be on my own for most of the time while Lisa will be in Fenton helping her mom take care of Grandma and continuing the normal schedule of homeschooling. We will all be together, including the kids, for our church visits.

Here are the churches that we will be visiting. We will be at Lake Pointe Bible Church in Plymouth on November 2, and Oak Pointe in Novi on Nov 8th and 9th.

I’ll post more about our schedule as the trip progresses. I have a few visits planned but a lot of open time still. I’d love to see everyone that I can!

The best way to get a hold of me will be by email (tcocking @ gmail.com) You can try my cell phone as well 407-405-4432. Please note that number is only in use for this trip.

Our September newsletter is now available. If you didn’t receive one yet, you can read it here.

In other news: my long, quiet days with the kids at school are over. We’ve decided to go back to homeschooling. We kept Bethany home for kindergarten so this isn’t entirely new to us, just now we’re doing it with two kindergartners and a second grader. We still think our neighborhood school is a good one but it wasn’t working for us. For one thing, can I just say that I think full day kindergarten is utterly insane? That was a big reason why we kept Bethany home two years ago. A typical five-year-old just doesn’t need to be at school for over six hours a day, five days a week. Ellie and Micah were both totally exhausted and had huge meltdowns every day after school. It just seemed like we’d be able to teach them what they needed to learn in a lot less time, and still have time for play and rest. Bethany was having a bit of a hard time with second grade. She’s working well ahead of grade level in most areas, but still gets easily overwhelmed when she’s given a lot of work at once–even if the work is easy for her. She would hold herself together all day at school, then fall apart over her homework when she got home. It was just not fun for any of us. (And by the way, Bethany just came and read this over my shoulder and gave her approval for me to post it.)

We’re now into our second week at home. We’ve ordered a curriculum package that we’re really excited about, and are hoping it will arrive this week. In the meantime we’re all doing lots of reading, work on the computer, math, handwriting (cursive for Bethany, printing for Ellie and Micah) and field trips. Yesterday we went to Sea World and learned about sea turtles and dolphins.

Life has improved greatly since pulling them out of school. We have far fewer tantrums and meltdowns, and everyone is just more relaxed and easygoing. That’s not to say everyone behaves perfectly all the time, but overall we’re all a lot happier. Even me. :-)  The hours of peace while they were at school were not worth the turmoil both before and after.

Our last bit of news (if you haven’t read the newsletter yet) is that Ellie will be having eye surgery next week. She has an extra bit of muscle and tissue under her eyes that causes her lower eyelids to turn in, which means her lower lashes are constantly scratching her eyes. Many Asian kids have and outgrow this condition, but hers is pretty severe and the surgeon says she’s not going to outgrow it. We’d appreciate your prayers for her.

Micah, in the midst of her typical random rambling chatter:

M: Everyone has a birthday. Everyone has a birthday every weekend.

Me: No, you only have a birthday once a year–not every weekend!

M: When is my birthday, what number is it?

Me: You know your birthday! When’s your birthday?

M: August the 8th, but that’s already passed! When’s my next birthday after that?

Me: Not until next August…

M: ?

Me: Your birthday is only once a year, on the same day every year!

M: I did not know that!