This year I finally figured out how to set up a website to post my music to. It’s fun to be able to share my music. I also have a facebook page. I am definitely still learning the ropes of things, and trying to find time to spend on it is sometimes nearly impossible, but I am grateful that at least I have something now. I am staying incredibly busy now with home-schooling one of my children, (you can read about that later), playing the piano for the intermediate school choir every day, teaching two music classes at the elementary school, teaching 6 piano lessons (not including my own children), help Blaine in cub scouts, lead the church choir, over 2 hours of homework with the other kids every night, and still have to keep up with all the regular duties. At first I was going a little crazy, (well actually a lot) but I am starting to get the hang of things now. . . I think . . . knock on wood.
Big Blaine has had a pretty crazy year with sequestrations for several months and then the shut down. He is grateful to have a job, but he is still looking elsewhere just in case something better out there opens up. Things are getting pretty stressful. Who knows what will happen next. He still dreams of his farm in Idaho.
Serena has several friends this year which has helped make school a little easier for her. She seems happier, (as long as I don’t ask her to go anywhere, or do anything out of the ordinary.) She’s an interesting one I can tell you that. I don’t think I have this dealing with teenagers thing down yet. All she does when she is home and has completed her daily duties is read, read, and more reading. I guess normal life is just not interesting enough or something.
Ralph made an amazing friend this year that has helped make things so much better. And along with this friend came quite a few other friends. My heart is full thinking about how things have played out for him. The other day though, Ralph decided to take his math test home because he didn’t finish it in class, and when I pulled it out of his folder, I didn’t take the time to look to see what it was, just saw that it was math and thinking it was homework had his dad sit down with him to finish it. Oops. When I found out that night, I felt awful. Thankfully Ralph told the teacher the truth before I had to go and explain things to her. (She is the same person I work with in the intermediate school choir and I was dreading having to tell her that we helped him finish his TEST.) This summer he has found a love of hiking. He wants to hike every moment he possibly can. And because we don’t hike enough for him, he has taken to making “mountains” for his little rolly polly pets. He spends hours outside building his mountains complete with rock slides and all. He has also really gotten into pine trees. He loves them. Whenever we are driving home from school, he always tells me to slow down (on a 30 mile and hour road) because the trees are passing by too fast for him to be able to really look at them.
At the end of last years school, I started getting the feeling like something needed to change for little Blaine. After getting the reports back from all of the end of the year testing and seeing how little progress he had made all year, I KNEW something really needed to change. After a lot of prayer, we decided to home-school him through an online school called Utah Online. He has been making leaps and bounds. He has progressed 1 ½ years already. It takes a massive amount of time, but it is time well spent. I do hope to get him back in school as soon as possible though. We shall see how this year goes and just play it year by year, but more importantly, prayer by prayer. He has taken to collecting “pets”. (They are not stuffed animals, they are real to him.) When I told him I wanted to take a picture of all of his pets, it took him a good 15 minutes to get them all together and situated just right. And he loves each and every one of them, especially his polar bear. (You will see it in almost every picture he is in.)
Matthew is going crazy with his engineering desires. The other day in his classroom, the water faucet got stuck on and his teacher couldn’t figure out how to get it to stop, so she went to get the janitor. While she was gone, he went over, looked at it for a bit, saw the problem, popped it back in place and fixed it before the teacher ever got back. He loves to pull broken things apart and make new things. He is amazing to say the least. He tries to bring things to me so that I can help him figure things out and I just look at him and tell him its way over me.
Alysha is just plain fun. She loves to clog and dance. She loves just about anything she puts her mind to learning. She still plays the piano some, just not as much as I want her to. All of my other children have struggled in school, but she is doing amazing, both socially and academically. It is so nice to have one child that I don’t have to worry about much. She can usually do her homework on her own which helps out a TON. She is just all around fun and I am so incredibly grateful to have her in our family, our little caboose. She also is incredibly clean and organized. The last few days, she has helped to clean Serena's room, Matthew and Blaine's room and even tried to help Ralph, but he is pretty hard to work with. The only room she needs to clean now is her own!!!
I hope all is going well for all of you. I am grateful for all the friendship and support we have received. I am grateful for this time of year that we have to reflect on the years happenings and especially on the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ whom I love dearly.. From our family to yours, we wish you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS.
The Spotten family
