Good Ole' Costa Rica

There are many, many things that I love about Costa Rica. I love the weather here, I love the beautiful greenery, I love the beaches, I love the mountains, I love most of the people.

But just like the U.S. at this time, I hate the politics. I hate the government control over all the people and I especially hate it when they try to reach out their hairy arms and control me or mine.

Two months ago we took baby out of the local public school so that we could home school her. She was having problems with her teacher and some of the other students in her class. We have been home schooling her and she is now reading and almost done with her first math book.

She has done very well at home and no longer gets the headaches and stomach aches that she was getting when she was in school. A couple of weeks ago two ladies from the school she had attended came by to talk to us. They made it clear that she needed to be enrolled in a school somewhere and would be in touch with us.

Today we got a call from their version of family services telling us that if we did not have her to school tomorrow they would be taking her from our family. Yes they told us that it does not matter if she is a U.S. citizen, or that we are home schooling, the law in Costa Rica says that if you are here and are between the ages of six and sixteen you will be enrolled in school.

Evidently our five year plan has just become a four year plan. Oh well it has been a great learning experience and we have certainly enjoyed our time in Costa Rica. We do hope that we will still be able to return here and teach our classes to keep them going, we will see how that goes.

Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed that Spirit Air will work out their problems and that we will actually have a way to get out of here!

Complacent vs. Content

I have always prided myself on being "content" with my life. When I had six young children and was home schooling, and not taking care of myself, I considered myself content. When I was doing massage over twenty hours a week with 13 people living in our small house, I considered myself content. When I got married at 17 and people said I had no idea what I was doing once again I considered myself content.

Well as they say, hind sight is 20/20, and boy are they right. I made the mistake of reading old journals and really taking a hard look at my life thus far. I have made a very sad mistake. I have been "complacent" not "content".

Definitions:
Complacent- pleased especially with oneself or one's merits, advantages, situation, etc., without awareness of some potential danger or defect; self-satisfied
Content- satisfied with what one is or has: not wanting more or anything else.

What better time to change things up than the "year of the tiger"? It will be a year of lots of commotion and movement. Time for me to get out of complacent mode and wake up. Maybe I have too much time on my hands, but I like to think it is a gift for the last half of my life!!!

Lice

When we adopted baby from China we had to check her for scabies and lice. She was clean of both and we were very relieved. Unfortunately a couple of months ago we were not so lucky. The kids here pass lice around pretty regularly, as I suppose anywhere, and now we are fighting a losing battle. I do threaten to shave her head off if she does not let me check her, for hours on end I might add.

The problem right now is she is passing them back and forth with her niece, so we are having to fight two houses and two sets of clothes as well as two heads. One with a ton of luxurious hair and another with wavy brown hair. Both equally hard to get rid of the little nits in.

Today I went on the almighty google search to try and find out what we were doing wrong with the pesky critters. There was site where they sell the shampoo, conditioner, comb and get this, for $70.00 per hour they will come to your home and pick the nits on your kid! That was a scream for me. I can't imagine someone paying somebody else that money to pick nits.

Now it is just part of our home school regime. We finish the school work, check the hair for nits and then we are done. Our school room is outside, so it has plenty of light and I am actually able to see out there. We will keep working on it and hopefully not have to clip babies beautiful locks.

By the way of news, did you know that lice are actually an epidemic in England?

Grandkids and schooling

Today I received in the mail a irreplaceable gift. A picture book of my Costa Rica grandkids. Even though I see them often I highly value hard copy, old fashioned pictures. My daughter did it online and we received it today in the mail. It is soooo cool! My favorite gift yet for sure.

Another gift I received today was that my 6 year old finally got it! I mean it finally clicked and she started putting the sounds together to read words, yahoooo! I am really excited and maybe tomorrow she will forget, but just for today I will enjoy the feeling of success that at least thinking she got it is giving me!

I have taught all six of my other children to read and would never let anyone else enjoy the great sense of joy that we both discover together when we accomplish this goal. There are days, like the past post that I really believe it is never going to click. And then one day they just get this little sparkle in their eye and wallah, they get it. That was our reading day today and I am so excited to get moving with her now. I have a feeling she is really going to take off now that she is reading. Harvard or Yale here we come!!!!

Schoolin'

We started school yesterday. You know the first day is always the best, and then it quickly declines from there. Yesterday both girls were excited to dive in and learn to read and finish up some books. But alas today the reality of how much work it was going to take sunk in and my girlies wilted. I mean like melt down. Baby has a photographic memory which is great unless you are trying to teach her to read phonetically. So she will look at a word and spend about 15 minutes trying to see if she has had it before, guessing and finally she will sound it out. At that point she is done with that word and I have to get some new ones.

The part that really drives me to distraction is the guessing part. For example the word "live". We discuss the l sound and the short i and the v. Now we try to put them all together. We get like, love, and every other l word in the school room. Then she finally really looks at the word and tries to sound it out. Of course it does not help to have your teenage sister glaring at you across the room, just because you are getting on her nerves!

So now I am wondering how in the heck did I teach 6 other kids to read? I do have to admit some were easier than others, but we did it and I'm sure we can do it one more time. She does have a deadline to learn to read in English before school starts in Feb. I told her if she does not know how to read she can't go to school until she learns how. Don't know if I will last that long.

Then of course is the teenager wanting to just leave and go for a run, eat lunch, anything but stay there and get that darn math book done! O.k. mom just breath and know that they are not going anywhere and there is no hurry for them to learn these thing.

On a fun note I did my first swim today and got in a good 800 before I felt like my arms were going to fall off. It felt great and I think sure enough the time was about the same as when I quit swimming eight years ago, how sad ha?

Reflections

We just took down the Christmas decorations in record time. There are some years you are just a little too anxious to see depart. This would be one of them. You would think that being an ox I would have enjoyed the past year of the ox. But I have to admit working so hard at tasks that seem to have no production gets very frustrating.

In reflecting on why I feel so exhausted by 09 I have decided it is all my mind set. I have got to be more positive. Reading over old journals did not help either. I think sometimes that I have PTss from the child bearing years of having, nursing and homeschooling kids for 15 years, with no outside input or stimulation.

At any rate I digress into the past and not just the past year. The past year was fun on one level. I had a great, very awareness promoting trip to my moms house. Note to self four weeks is too long to be away from home. I enjoyed working at massage again and realized that I still love massage and look forward to sharing it with many more students.

I also got to be at Micah's last update hearing and hear his sentence with his plea read. I also got to tell the victims family that I was sorry for their loss. I am and that was a good thing for me to be able to tell them that.

I also got to visit my brother in Texas and his girls and meet his new woman. That was fun and I am really thankful for so many brothers. I don't get to talk to them much and see them even less, but they are a great influence in my life. And they are also a great motivator.

It has been great to see my older kids start making life decisions and get the ball rolling in their direction. My oldest is a changed person, as well as his family and I have sure enjoyed watching their growth. Bekah is awesome and has completed two years of college, worked full-time and taken care of the two kiddos. Jesse finally got the web site up and is doing more art work. Jake is figuring things out, and I am thankful to have one of my boys here with me. Hannah is doing so much growing up and learning, just wish I had a box to put her in to keep it a little safer while she grows up. Baby is getting ready for kinder and learning to read, too fun.

All in all I guess it really has been a great year once I see it in writing. We have had some awesome students, hubby returned to school to finish his degree and I have a garden growing in leaps and bounds.

Man the longer I write the more thankful and happy I feel about 09, I guess there is some merit to writing things down. Now if we can all survive the year of the tiger, which is upheavel and movement, we will be thrilled. Happy New Year all!