Mom vs. the Dot: Making it COUNT!

Do anyone else's group shots look like this?  This is as good as it gets with us.   Not perfect, but better. This is my motto.  At one time in my life, I considered myself a perfectionist.  That was when I was the only person in my life.  I ate a healthy diet, I was in good physical shape, I had a super-healthy devotional life, and enjoyed my work.  I shared an apartment with a college friend, it was always perfectly clean.  My laundry was always done in one or two loads.  I bought a small bag full of groceries and it would last me a whole week.  I went on bike rides and joined a fitness club - I thought that was perfection.  But there was something I didn't know.   I didn't know how empty and lonely life could be when I was by myself.   And how quiet. I may have been teaching a classroom full of kids, but none of them were my own . I lived close to my family, but I didn't have one of my own.  Most of ...

It has been a long time since I've updated you on Art Girl's progress, so it's time! Actually, we had sort of a breakthrough day this past week.  It's all about Raising the Bar. After testing last spring , I decided to just buy the next level of homeschool books and proceed along the same path we had been taking. I was unsatisfied post-testing because we had no diagnosis, but I still knew there were some things about the way she learns that were not addressed.  They were not even a concern on the educational psychologist's radar.  She said to practice writing more and work on spelling.  Well...DUH! (Can I say that?  Is that too 90's?  Well, I was a teen in the 90's, so I'm owning it. I may even throw in a "Holy Cow!") There were also concerns about math, not being able to memorize, not understanding directions, shutting down in the middle of lessons...my list went on and on, but they were not convinced there was a serious enoug...