The Kelsey's

Here are a few snapshots of life at the Kelsey homeschool.  We start off with our typical layout.  Everyone is gathered around the table with assignments – diligently working.

Caleb is having a good day at school.

Joshua is clowning around.  All work and no play is just an unacceptable option.

Hannah is filled with thoughts of where her education will lead her in life.  The possibilities are endless.

Nathan is having such fun while the older kids are “chained to their chairs.”  Don’t worry, bub, your day is coming – and sooner than you think.

These were all taken the day I was home sick, Feb. 5, 2008.  Thanks for stopping by.

I have a best friend who lives about 2 hours away from me.  We used to live about 10 minuets away, but she moved away when I was in first grade.  My heart was broken because we did everything together,  from sleepovers to school to birthday parties.  Now, a few years later, we have gotten used to it, found some new people to hang out with (but not to replace each other), and e-mail and write letters to each other.  We are also on a few online clubs that we can get together on.  Today, I was on one of our clubs, when she messaged me to tell me she was on.  I messaged her back and we began to chat.  Then, the subjects went to boys and other teenager things.  I realized almost immediately that my best friend was changing on me.  That’s one disadvantage of being almost 2 years younger than your best friend. That made me feel pretty disappointed.  But I know we will always be Best Friends Forever, no matter how much we change.

This is Hannah Kelsey, the oldest Kelsey kid, and also the only girl. It’s a pretty hard life being the only girl. I mean, I’m not complaining or anything, but sometimes its hard. I still have my mom, and that helps a lot, but sometimes, I just feel really alone. All my best friends live pretty far away, so, as you can imagine, the telephone is my one of my best friends! I use it over time. But, I’m still the oldest! Witch has an advantage. I’m the Queen of three younger brothers. Joshua, the oldest boy, Caleb the middle kid, and Nathan the baby of the family. It’s also hard to be the oldest. Babysitting, changing diapers, dealing with Josh and Caleb teaming up against me, and, of course, setting a good example for them. That is the hardest job in my opinion. One of my gifts seems to be connecting and helping with younger kids. Some really younger, like maybe 1 or 2. And some a little older, like 4 or 5. Once I see a smaller child, I go over, start to play with her, and almost immediately, we start connecting. Hopefully, someday, I will have a little companion with me, to look up to me wherever I go. and with whatever I do.

I now have my account set up so that I can add blog entries as well.  This is really easy.

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While at work the fire alarms went off. Unusual, but not anything to panic over – the assumption is that it’s a drill. So everyone pops out of their cubicles to see if anyone else is going to be the first to head for the exits. We stand around discussing the idea for a moment and as momentum grows and people begin to meander outside – the alarm stops. So maybe it wasn’t a drill, it was a malfunction. I go back and sit down.

Then a voice is heard over the intercom. “There is a fire on the first floor, please wait for instructions on evacuation.” There is a very small second floor, but most of this building is on the first floor. So should we wait until there is an explosion, or flaming men go running past before we take this seriously? After having a good chuckle at the announcement, our boss proceeds to tell us a story about a fire alarm he once participated in during his army days.

He is interrupted by another announcement: “There is a fire on the first floor. Please evacuate.” So out we go into the early September heat. I grabbed all my things just in case we are told we can’t go back in the building – you see, I’ve had some experience with these sorts of things during the great St. Louis power outages of ought six, the summer one – not the winter one.

I put my things in my car and figured while I was out standing around, I’d call my wife to share the adventure with her. She reminds me that this is the 3rd and we still haven’t collected our rent. Now is a good time to call. So I call and ask if this evening is a good time to come by and pick up the rent check.

“I’m not going to pay your rent this month.”
“Why?”
“The rent is to expensive. We’ve liked it here, but we have to move.”
“When?”
“Today.”
“Well what about September’s rent?” You can see I wasn’t quite following.
“You’ll just have to take that out of my deposit, I need this money for my new place.”
“When am I going to get my key back?”
“Well, we’ll move today and the place will still be a little messy. I’d like to clean it up, that will take a couple days.”
“O.K., I’ll call you back on Friday.”

So, not only did my building catch on fire (they let us back in about 20 minutes later), but I lost my renter. It turned out to be a real banner day.

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Last night at dinner there was an exchange worth immortalizing.  I’ll bring you in in the middle, but it’s not hard to catch up with our meal time conversations.

I was looking over at Hannah (who was in Laura’s place – we’ve been playing musical chairs at the dinner table lately.  I think it’s because Laura wants to sit at the end now…)  and Hannah looked back at me.  We had a bit of a staring contest going on, but since it was dinner we stopped to grab a bite to eat.   That’s when I realized I had missed a terrific opportunity to make a funny face.  Those times just don’t come often enough, in my opinion.

So I said, “Hey, can you do this?” And I flared my nostrils a few times in rapid succession.  Hannah just shook her head and looked back down at her plate – she doesn’t really eat, she picks at her food which requires much visual inspection.

Joshua was intrigued and asked, “What are you doing?”  So I showed him and Caleb across the table.  Joshua started pinching his nose to make it move.

“It’s not as easy as it seems – in my mind I have to think: angry, relaxed, angry, relaxed.  It takes some concentration.” I instructed.

Laura interjected, “It is too easy, look.” And she fluttered her nostrils with ease.

I turned to see and replied, “Well, it’s not easy for me.”

At that point I had taken my eye off of Joshua.  He interrupted, “Well I know I can do this!”

I turned to see him burrowing his finger up into his nose.  Not quite past the first knuckle and he got the response he was looking for: An “eww” from Hannah, a giggle from Caleb, and the parental headshake and shrugging glance between Laura and me.

It’s times like that when I realize just how much my boy is just like me.  Why hadn’t I thought of that!