Checking In

Wow, I can't believe it has been five months since I've updated here. Life is humming along happily here at the Tyson house. We are still in our little house by the bay, and should have about another year and a half here. I am already starting to think about our inevitable move, and it makes me feel mostly sad, but then also a little excited about the possibilities. Hopefully as the transfer time approaches the sadness will fade and the excitement will rise...and hopefully the kids will pick up on that mindset as well. Although I am a military wife, and therefore destined to a life of moving, I truly don't like it. However, it is only the moving I don't like. The goodbyes...the nostalgia....the two weeks of hard hard work. Once we get to our new locale I always perk up. We have been blessed so far to truly enjoy each of Matt's duty stations. Anyway...back to the here and now.

Beth is in third grade this year. She is learning the play the violin at school, and is so pleased with herself. Her first concert is at Christmas time, and I can't wait to see her perform. At AWANAS she moved up to "T&T" which is crazy to me. T&T has the BIG kids...the 3rd-6th graders. How did she end up there, and so quickly? In school she continues to do well. She is having some slight issues in math, which quite frankly I blame on the school's new (common core) curriculum. I went in and looked at it, and it just defies logic. Like they no longer teach the multiplication tables, but just teach the "strategy" of multiplication and then go straight on with long division. So confusing! It's enough to make this mama miss homeschooling. Maybe we'll return to that after we move... Here the kids are just too happy with their school to consider anything else. It truly is a nice little place. At home she continues to love to read, and has read through the Harry Potter series multiple times. I try to get her going with new books, and she'll read them a bit, and then I find her with Harry Potter again.

Mr. Matthew is in second grade this year, and he is really doing well. In school he brings home straight B's. It makes me laugh, because literally every problem he misses in math is because he didn't read the directions for it, or he didn't check his work and just flat out skipped one or two. He always knows how to do the problems, so that's something at least. In reading every problem he misses is because he answers their "thinking questions" with "I know this, because I read it in the story." Not the supporting details they were looking for. Ha! Oh well...B's are good enough, and I think the small issues will resolve as he grows and matures. He never gets in trouble at school, and after raising such a crazy toddler and preschooler I am just flat out impressed. He is still very energetic, but he aims to please, and apparently keeps himself in check enough to get through the day. After school I send him outside to jump on his trampoline and burn off some energy. After that he spends all his time setting his toy cars up into huge patterns of traffic and/or wrecks that he then wants me to come and admire.

Caroline is in kindergarten this year. She is unbelievably cute. Five has got to be one of my favorite ages so far. She is getting so independent, but yet she is still so sweet and loving. She is learning her sight words and her letter sounds at school. She is my free spirit and really just wants to play all day. When I ask her about her day she'll say something like "I went to PE! I played in the sand box with my friends! I sang a song! And then my teacher made me do some work." The work...such a downer in kindergarten. Really though, this kindergarten is less academic than the other two my kids have attended. Even though it's full day I think she gets lots of play time and center time, and that suits her well. She still asks to go back to preschool on occasion though.

Katy Ann started preschool this fall. She goes two mornings a week, so that means I have six kid-free hours each week. First time in YEARS. She is also potty trained now, so that means I am done with diapers after 8 1/2 years straight. And a lot of that time was with more than one kid. Dare I say babyhood is behind us? So sad in a way, but it is fun to see her grow. She still colors on my furniture and on the walls if given the chance, so perhaps "toddlerhood" is not quite gone. Haha! She is a little artist, which is why I can't bring myself to disarm her, despite her repeated infractions with the art supplies. The best I can do is try to keep her using crayons, and hide the markers.