Seasons do change....

Well winter has finally come to the Poconos. After and incredibly mild October, November and December, we finally began to get some snow. It started in late January, but the temperatures have allowed it to hang around for awhile. We got a bit more last week so I would estimate about five inches on the ground. Did I mention cold temperatures?? It’s frigid cold…like so cold the salt doesn’t even melt the ice on the roads. It is beautiful though, especially before the wind blows all the snow from the branches. I also love seeing all the animal tracks. I know they are all there during the “non snow” days, but what a fun reminder that we live in the midst of wildlife. Even the birds are leaving little tracks under the feeders. I do love snow.

Another change in seasons is our schooling. After months of praying and discussing “life”, we came to the decision last week to put the kids back in school. This was such a difficult decision. Since last fall the Lord has really been working on us, particularly in the area of fear and faith. Said simply, “best” has more than one meaning depending on perspective.

We met with the special education team last Tuesday to discuss Jot’s placement and give approval for a new evaluation. Technically he should not start until his eval and IEP are complete, but because they know us and have worked with us before, the team agreed to get him a temporary placement with some support until all the other stuff can be completed. It will still be a couple of weeks before his placement, so the girls will start before him. I’ll continue to work on Math and Phonics with Jot at home in the meantime. He is rather middle-of-the-road as far as opinions on the matter. He likes being home because there are more breaks, says he. We’ve come to so many brick walls with him academically at home recently, that the change of scenery may be just what he needs. We pray his placement is a good fit. Right now they want to try inclusion again with an in-class special ed teacher and pull out for math and reading. Tim and I are not confident inclusion will work for him and hasn’t in the past, but we are willing to give it a try and make adjustments as necessary. I expect his evaluation to show that a resource room situation will be a better fit, but we will see. Maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised. Actual registration was last Thursday and Hannah and Emma begin tomorrow. I might be more nervous than they are.

Emma is very excited to go to school, but a bit anxious about such a big building and not really knowing anyone yet. She actually will know a couple of kids from her Sunday School class, but to her it is all new and a bit scary. I’m confident she will do fine though. She makes friends easily and works hard. She’ll have a great time. As we expected. At the other extreme, as we expected is Hannah. She realized that a change is needed for the benefit of the entire family, but she is very nervous about returning to public school. She, rightly so, is concerned that she doesn’t know anyone and won’t fit in. This is a hard thing to parent through honestly… because on the one hand, as Christians, we never fully “fit in” with the culture, but as a teenager, she obviously wants friends. She has lots of friends in Philadelphia and she does things with them through youth group and whatnot, but up here, she only has a couple of friends. One is a grade younger and one is in the other building. We’ve been talking with her and working through some of the fears she has. I really think she is going to do well and enjoy the freedom of changing classes and electives.

Another great thing that we hope will help Hannah meet some new friends is the drama production. Sort of on a whim, she auditioned for The Wizard of Oz last Saturday. Auditions were open for Kindergarten through high school (they needed Munchkins *Ü*). She had to read, sing and dance. She was number 24 out of about 80 or so that showed up. For her first experience with a real audition, I think she did well considering she got a part! She will be playing one of the citizens of the Emerald City… singing and dancing. I’m sure future entries will rave on the performance of this 7^th grader!

And we cannot forget the change of seasons from “tween” to “teen”. Yes, on Sunday, Hannah turned 13. We had steak and French fries for dinner (her choice), confetti cake and ice cream. Hannah got a bunch of clothes (that she and I went shopping for on Saturday and I wrapped up), an Adventures in Odyssey CD set, Narnias 4-disc set and cold hard cash. She decided tonight to use the cash to buy herself and iPod… she chose green :) We also discussed getting her a cell phone. I never thought I’d agree to a cell phone for a 13 year old, but with us not having a land line, the play and her going back to school it seems like a sensible thing to get. We can add her to our family plan for around $10 a month. It seems worth it, but we’ll make the final decision later this week. The fact that she is currently talking on MY phone right now is quite a persuasive component as well!

And as a bonus picture, here is Quin at 11 months! No, he isn't smiling crooked, he still has lopsided teeth on the bottom... two in the middle and one on his left. The right one finally poked through, but still isn't in enough to even things out *Ü*