Homeschooling

This whole summer I have been tossing the idea around of homeschooling the older kids. Mainly because my son has a very hard time with the kids at school. They are so mean and vicious to him. His self esteem is completely wiped out and he has crazy behavioral issues due to all of this. Of course, at first I thought no way can I handle them home 24*7, the fighting, the whining, the "I'm hungry" every 5 minutes. UGH am I nuts? Have I completely lost my mind? But since they overheard me talking about it, I have seen a different side of them. They seem more relaxed, happy, and EXCITED about learning. To try to prepare myself, I haven't thought of public school starting back up, I've made myself think they are gonna be home now, and I've become ok with this. We have seem to be growing closer already. I am actually getting very excited about it. I love the fact that my kids will be home with me, I can control what they learn, and we have fun doing it! The flexibility is GREAT too. We have decided that our school year will begin September 7, the day after Labor day. I still am in the schedule planning mode but I have ideas flowing like crazy. I am so fortunate to have such an awesome husband who completely supports this and is encouraging it. I already am getting the run around from other people about it. Of course, completely expected though. I just wish they could witness my daughter currently going through all her "school supplies" right now and labeling and organizing everything.

I am actually very proud to say I am a homeschooling mom now!!!

Slacker

I've been a slacker! OOPS! I have good reasons though....Here is a few why:







I've been mega busy with practice shoots. Loving it too! I feel like with each shoot, I get a little better :) I think I will be posting more photos here, mix it up a bit. Yeah, I like that idea.

Torn

I am so torn on what to do concerning my photography. *I* personally feel like I am not 100% ready to start charging people. Honestly, I know everyone loves what I do, but to the trained eye, I need to learn more and practice more before I start charging. UGH. My goal is to be up and running by January. It may sound crazy but I turn 30 in January and well, I want to start 30 the right way. I just am inexperienced still in alot of the areas of portrait photography that I think I would be cheating someone out of money if I did it. I would feel so much better if I could just "skill build" the next few months then from there. Free sessions and if they want the pics charge for the prints? Give them a disk? I wish I had a mentor close to me. Things would be so much easier. Learning this all on your own is tough.

Been busy!

James left for training at Texas A&M on Sunday and won't be back til Friday evening so I've been rather busy. So far, no serious meltdowns in the Stoehr house, everyone has been really good.

I have 2 that are begging me to homeschool them this year. Ehh, maybe but I have no idea where to even begin! It would be great to know Hunter wasn't being slapped with a label like he is every year. Something to think about for sure.

I haven't had much time to play with my camera. With James being gone, its way to hard. I did have an awesome photo shoot Saturday though! It was for a very fun and outgoing couple. I really hope to get more like them.



Anywho, boring post I know, but nothing "happening" right now.

Hunter and the Homeless Man

So anyone who knows me, knows my 9 yo son, Hunter, is my little trouble maker. He loves to stir up crap, pick on his brothers and sister, and just be very much a boy. He drives me insane at times and has since conception (no lie lol). He has a heart of gold though and today he did something that really touched me. We were in Sams club shopping and picked up some pizza and hot dogs from their little food stand. The lady gives me an extra hot dog by mistake and told me to just keep it and feed my babies. Eerr, my 8 monthd old has no teeth and I rarely let my 2 yo have hot dogs, but I thanked her and we left with hot dog in tote. As we are driving around we spot a homesless man on the side of the road with a sign, yanno the one we normally just brush off and think get a job. Hunter looks at me with his big ole brown eyes and says something about helping him out. I couldn't say no because I want him to learn we should help others in need if we can, even if they are strangers. So I pull over and give Hunter a few bucks and he jumps out with the money and hot dog and gave it to the guy. My heart beamed, I was so proud of him. He was smiling from ear to ear after he got in the car and I made sure I kept telling him how proud I was. What a wonderful deed he had done without even second guessing.

Of course now as I type, he is on a rampage of destruction in the house *sigh*. That's my Hunter.

Breaking in the blog.

Writing is suppose to be theraputic right? I hope so because I finally broke down and decided to blog my tales of raising 4 kids, being a firefighter's wife, and self teaching photography. Each point of this triangle definitely keeps me on my toes. Between two preteens constantly fighting, a 2 yo who screams if the wrong Blue's Clues episode comes on and an 8 month old on the move, mommyhood alone is enough to turn my hair grey. Throw in a wonderful but busy husband who works 2 fire department jobs and is gone from 24-72 hours at a time and teaching myself to"shoot" correctly, it's a madhouse here! But I love every minute of it. So, here is to possibly getting some sanity back!