my girl is 9!!!

Aili decorating her cupcakes. It was very important to her that she decorate her own this year.

I bought her a real scrap book this year for her birthday, complete with fancy paper and 3-D stickers. She has been begging for one for months now. She is a crafty girl who is also very sentimental. I might add that she is much better with those goofy jagged scissors than I am.

This girl is not capable of not being a goon during picture time.

I can't believe my silly, creative, unique, independant girl turned 9 years old today. Where do the years go?! I keep getting flashbacks to the ridiculously alert bug eyed newborn we brought home from the hospital with us and countless nights I tried unsuccessfully to convince her we both needed to sleep. Where did that pig tailed little pixie with the impish grin and adorable speech impediment go? I swear she was here a minute ago.

She had a sleep over party planned with a few friends last weekend but unfortunately a sudden 2 day fever caused us to cancel her early party. She handled it with surprising dignity and maturity despite her devastation. Parties are EVERYTHING to this girl. She spent weeks writing down, planning, and dreaming about every detail of her sleep-over schedule. She was feeling great today though.

Her scaled down mid-week party still consisted of all the essentials,....daddy home from the field, grandma and grandpa, a friend and of course cupcakes.

I've heard the saying that with motherhood the days are long but the years are short. So true.

It's strange to think that I already have a child that is nine years old. I vividly remember being that age. I remember being in grade four and moving to the "room 2" the big kid classroom at our 2 room elementary school. I remember feeling so grown up.

I am enjoying my big grown up girl. She has morphed from the "helping" stage (making them do chores because it's good training but you could do it in half the time and make half the mess!)to the really being an asset and a contributing member of our family. It's still feeling like a bit of a novelty to have someone else in the house who is capable of folding laundry and pushing a vacuum (although sometimes...very....slowly....). I don't know how I would keep this show on the road without her. She is my trusty side kick, my little mother in training.

Aili is still a girl who is gifted at consuming my last morsel of patience. She has a wide range of slightly irritating quirks and idiosyncrasies. Those are the things that make her Aili though. She is one of a kind. Beneath my nail biting, disorganized, day dreamer lies a heart of gold.

I'm so proud of my girl!

We have begun our first week of home education and I am enjoying our new routine and structure. There have been moments in the past week when I have severely doubted my wisdom and sanity in choosing this path. The night before the "first day of school" I nearly gave myself a panic attack. I fear that my kids will resent me. I fear they will be missing out on some essential childhood memories. I fear they will end up holding up a cardboard sign on an intersection somewhere that reads "Will work for food...my mom pulled me out of school and now I'm too dumb to get a real job" Self doubt was beginning to cripple me before I had even opened a phonics book.

Our memory verse this week is "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding" Proverbs 3:5

I needed that reminder. I need to be reminded where to lean when the responsibilities I am carrying seem too heavy.

I know this is an investment that will have incalculable benefits in the years to come even if the start of the road is a little daunting.

I admit, within the first five minutes of trying to shake the rust off my kids summer time brains, I was ready to call up their old school and make two last minute enrollments. I'm glad to say that we made it though and are slowly getting the feel of things.

We have started doing only morning schooling because of this crazy busy time of year. We're easing our way into it. It will be a long, cold, dark winter with nothing better to do than spend many hours reading and working ahead in workbooks. I think harvest is going to cause us to postpone schooling for a little while now anyway.

Tomorrow I will be sitting in a combine picking up Canola swaths. The kids will be with my mom while I'm working on their farm (the same family farm my hubby works for). It will be a nice change of pace for a few days.