We took our second trip to the Little Rock Zoo (in 9 months) this week. Compared to the Memphis Zoo (which we visited at least 2-3 times a month while we lived in Memphis), it is a big disappointment; however, the visiting bird show was almost worth the price of admission. I’ll admit, the kids and I were both awed and terrified of the hawks and vultures that tapped our ears with the tips of their wings as they flew past our heads.

We didn’t sleep in as much as I wanted this summer, but we definitely visited the neighborhood pool more times than I can count. This may be the first time I’ve had an authentic (read non-tanning bed and non-tanning cream) tan since I was in middle school. The highlight of the summer for me came when Phillip learned to swim by himself (with his lifesaving vest), so that I could move from wrestling with him IN the pool to sitting on the side of the pool, thereby allowing my legs to see the light of day (at least from the knee up).

I am looking forward to starting our third (!) year of homeschooling on Monday, but I will miss the easy pace of summer. We’ve all gotten bored a time or two, but it has been a nice change.

We are settling into Little Rock.  It seems a little easier since we moved so recently.  We know what to do, or more importantly, what not to do.  The kids were so isolated when we first moved to Memphis, so I started trying to get them into homeschool groups before we even moved this time around.  They are going to enrichment classes (art, music, creative writing, etc.) one day a week at a place called the Homeschool Academy.  They are also taking P.E. classes at Arkansas Baptist through a satellite group.  Elizabeth seems satisfied with the number of new friends she’s made, so I’m happy with the arrangement.

The only thing we haven’t been able to jump-start is finding a church.  Looking for a church is a long and tedious process– I’ll never enjoy being a visitor.  We’ve visited five churches in the West Little Rock area so far, and I think we have one more to try tomorrow.  We definitely have a “type.”  Lannie (in particular) prefers a modern worship style, and a well-organized children’s program is important to me.  I also like a great missions outreach (local and international).  At this point, one church is definitely our favorite.  The only problem? It’s not a Baptist church.  This is really only a problem for the daughter of a Baptist preacher (who now works for a Baptist seminary).

One thing that has really suprised me since we’ve moved here is how easy it has been to re-connect with old friends from high school and college.  Facebook makes it so effortless!  I’ve messaged with friends and set up get-togethers without even having a phone number.  I’ve actually been out to eat with three friends in just a couple of weeks.  That has done so much to keep me from feeling lonely.

I’ll try to do better about keeping up with my blog.  The kids have said some really funny things in the past month.  Hopefully, I can remember what they said!

In an odd twist of events, this is the same job that he accepted at UAMS last fall, then he backed out of the deal to go to the Commercial Appeal in Memphis.  He left on good terms, though (obviously) because they called a few months ago to ask him to consider coming back.

I won’t get into everything that happened at the Commercial Appeal to lead to Lannie’s departure, but needless to say, a lot changed in the last couple of months and he wasn’t happy with the situation.  We were also in a good position to move, since we had not bought a house here.

Over the past couple of weeks, we decided to move, Lannie finished his last 2 weeks at the CA, and we signed a contract on a house in Little Rock.  Lannie will start his new job on Monday, but the kids and I will have to wait until we close on the house to move in mid-December.

My head is still spinning a little at how quickly all of this has happened.  In the midst of all of these other decisions, we have also decided to homeschool Elizabeth again.  She’s a little unhappy about that, even though her semester at public school has been less than ideal.  I’m hoping to find some active homeschool groups in Little Rock to ease her transition a little.  I think she would be happy with a weekly program, similar to the program that Caleb has attended this fall.

I’m not looking forward to waiting three or four weeks to move while Lannie is in Little Rock, but I know it could be a lot worse.  I’ve been thinking a lot of my friends who are military wives, some of whom have had to be alone with their kids for ten months to a year at a time without seeing their husbands.  I am so glad this will only be for three or four weeks!  Plus, he will be home for a couple of days for Thanksgiving, so that will break up the monotony a lot.

I rarely get comments about my husband’s job as a journalist, although I have a feeling some of our more conservative friends think it’s an unsavory job.  Kind of like lobbyist or community organizer.

On Monday, the boys and I attended a homeschooling function, and Caleb immediately gravitated toward a group of boys that he knows from his bowling league.  I had a suspicion that some of these families were a little redneck (after all, their kids are in a bowling league), but we had never really talked about anything other than homeschooling and kids.

After a few minutes, two of the moms cornered me and started questioning me about something my husband published in his paper (yeah, because he’s the publisher, snort).  There was an article in the paper (picked up by AP) about a 106-year-old woman who voted for the first time in her life.  She is an African American, and she voted for Obama because, “She never thought she would see a black candidate for president.”

The women from the homeschool group were upset with the voter (and the newspaper and subsequently, me) for two reasons: (1) they didn’t understand why “all black people think they have to vote for Obama” and (2) they didn’t think “this woman had any business voting since she had never voted before.”  I’m serious.  They actually said she didn’t have any business voting.

The whole conversation about why blacks (whispered) vote for Obama was prefaced with the typical statement, “I’m not a racist, but…”  Then they launched into a racist diatribe about everything from why black Obama supporters have so many signs and bumper stickers to why their sons won’t be able to get jobs because white males don’t have any rights in this country (again, I’m serious).

At first, I tried to reasonably argue that I perfectly understood why a 106-year-old black lady would be excited about voting for Obama.  I’m sure she had lived her entire life thinking that there were some things that African Americans would never be able to do in this country because of racial stereotypes.  She grew up as a sharecropper in Mississippi and later worked as a seamstress in Memphis.  She had been oppressed by racism in ways these women (and I, for that matter) could never imagine.

After a few minutes, I realized that they weren’t interested in talking reasonably, so I started trying to back out of the conversation.  Then I realized that these women teach their children at home.  They are passing on their values to their sons, and their sons play with my son.  So I opened my mouth one last time.

“You know,” I said, “I already voted for John McCain last week.”  Tennessee has early voting.  “But if I was on the fence about who to vote for, listening to you would make me vote for Obama.  I don’t want to be identified with you or your politics.”

I voted for McCain because I am a social conservative, especially when it comes to abortion.  I also think his economic policies are more viable than Obama’s, although the part of me that knows Christians should care more about those who are poor and suffering than they should about their own wealth makes me question whether either candidate is a great Biblical model.

The bottom line is that there are good reasons to vote for John McCain that have nothing to do with voting against Obama.  I didn’t hear one word from either of these women about how much they liked McCain.  His name didn’t even come up.  This election has become all about voting for or against Obama, and that makes me sad.

We have also really enjoyed his science and history curriculums that we picked out together.  Both of them are so hands-on.  He was so proud of the lapbook that he finished on Thursday for astronomy.  It was an accumulation of everything he learned about the sun, the moon, the earth, Mercury, and Venus– the first half of his book.  It was like a massive nine weeks’ test, but with a creative and kinetic element.  We both loved it!

I was hesitant about continuing with homeschooling this year, but I am so glad that we did.  We would have missed out on a lot if we had decided not to do it.  My only regret is that Elizabeth is not joining us, but I know the one-on-one time will be good for our relationship, especially as he gets into the preteen years.  Hopefully, Elizabeth and I will get the chance to do something similar for a year or two.  I think she would flourish under the one-on-one instruction (without competition from Caleb).

To bring you up to speed, she had to change teachers after the first week of school because her teacher was moved to third grade.  The explanation offered by the school was that there were not enough second graders registered to warrant the number of second grade classrooms at her school.

Teacher number two turned out to be kind of flaky.  He was in his second year of teaching, and Elizabeth was unhappy with the number of rules he had and how difficult it was to follow the rules.  In fact, she spent so much time trying to follow the rules that we worried about whether or not she was really trying to keep up with her schoolwork as well.

My mom visited Elizabeth’s classroom to read while she was here for the Hurricane Gustav evacuation.  She is usually not critical of people, but she told me when she came home, “There’s something wrong with him.”  She thought at first he might have some kind of disability, but later she thought maybe he was just very socially awkward.

That day turned out to be his last day in Elizabeth’s class.

For the past two weeks, she has had a subsitute teacher– actually, several different substitute teachers.  She cried Monday and Tuesday of this week because she didn’t know who her teacher would be.  I called the school on Wednesday and spoke with the assistant principal who is over her grade.  I was told that Elizabeth’s teacher had taken a leave of absence, and they didn’t know when or if he would be back.  In the meantime, the school had hired a permanent substitute who began teaching on Wednesday.

This makes Elizabeth’s third teacher of the school year– a school year that began six weeks ago!  She’s seriously regretting the decision to quit homeschooling and go to public school, and so am I!

She had a great first week at school, but unfortunately, we received a call last Friday from the assistant principal saying that the school did not have enough second graders, so Elizabeth’s teacher was going to be moved to third grade. This meant that Elizabeth would be moved to a different teacher after the first week of school.

Elizabeth’s first teacher had been a 25 year veteran, who had spent 12 years teaching second grade at that school. I was shocked that they moved her. Elizabeth’s new teacher is a man who has been teaching for 2 years. Big difference!

She had a rough first few days, but she seems to be doing better. She told me the second day that there were a lot of new rules, and she was having trouble keeping up with them all. By yesterday, though, she told me she was able to relax a little and have fun. So, things are looking up!

Caleb is having a great start to his year. He is tackling a lot of difficult subjects this year–particularly Latin, which he wanted to take–and I am pushing him in math and language arts. He’s not happy with me this week, because I am making him read Alice in Wonderland, and he is struggling through it. Once he finishes this book, I think his attitude will improve!

Caleb is also taking some new classes in Germantown this year. Their homeschool group has weekly classes, so he is taking Creative Writing, geography, and karate. I’m involved in a Bible study during his classes. He loves the classes, and I love the weekly interaction with other adults.

I feel bad that Ellie’s school year is not going as well as Caleb’s. I could be made to feel guilty about it, I guess, but I also think it was her decision to go back to public school. She is adjusting, and I think she will be fine by Labor Day.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, cried at least two or three times a week about how much she hated homeschooling. If she had decided to enjoy it, I think we could have had a good time, but she was determined to hate it for the entire semester. Her main beef (besides having me for a teacher) was that it was so hard for her to make new friends here when she didn’t go to school with them. She was also closed and withdrawn whenever we went on an outing with other homeschooling kids, so I think she was determined not to make any friends there.

She and I visited the public school she will attend, and we both felt good about it. The school is K-5, which will be different for her (she is used to PreK-1 only), but the principals were nice, and we liked the facilities. She will also attend school with other kids in our neighborhood, which I think will help her sense of “belonging.” She has continuted to call Perritt (in Arkadelphia) “her school,” which hasn’t really helped the transition process for her.

Caleb is thrilled that he will be homeschooling again, and the fact that it will be WITHOUT his sister is just gravy. He loves all of the zoo classes and Pink Palace Science Museum classes that we do throughout the year, and he’s already made a few good friends who homeschool in our area. He wants to sign up for a bowling league and a swim team with other homeschoolers as well.

I’ve taken some flack from both sides of the aisle for straddling the fence on this issue. Some other homeschooling moms (and my parents) think I’m not committed enough to homeschooling. Others, including a public school teacher in my Sunday school class, think I’m doing them a disservice by homeschooling at all. I think the decision that we’ve made will probably irritate people on both sides of this issue, but after much prayer I’ve decided it doesn’t matter as long as my kids are happy.

Elizabeth: I have to write a sentence about what my mom does. What does mom do? Is she a teacher?
Caleb: No, she’s a homewrecker.
Me: Do you mean homemaker?
Caleb: Yeah. Or you could say housemaid.

Close enough.