New goals...

Our bible study small group is trying to take on life in a new level, setting SMART goals and we paired off to be accountability partners with another group member.

As I got to thinking about my goals and what I wanted to achieve out of this, several things came to mind:

1. Personal growth in learning the bible and prayer journal ling at least 3 times a week and try to read from the bible every day.

2. Blog here at least 3 times a week. Even if it's just a short note.

3. Kick start the journey that Rei and I are beginning to our 2nd Mini Marathon with walking 2-3 miles 3 times a week and cross training on the wii fit on the off days.

4. I have several financial goals as well- including getting ourselves debt free except the mortgage payment within the next year. We are close- just have to keep at it!

5. Some other little things I wrote down for relationships with my family that I wanted to do as well.

So feel free to give me a shout out if you see I'm slacking on my messages here!


Rei and I are doing well. We've been busy here with kids, school, parent teacher conferences, the birth of a good friend's new baby boy, and a surprise birthday party for another good friend.

The girls have amazed us this year in their growth at school. KT is now reading at a collegiate level and is the top in her High Ability class for reading, at a Lexile of 1357. While it's a good problem, it's a little scary in trying to find materials she's able to read and still be appropriate content wise and still challenge her. Much to my surprise, her teacher says she's a powerhouse all around and is above average even in her class on the math and language skills too. She definitely didn't get that from me. LOL! Her teacher tells us that it's very rare to have a student of her abilities, where she's strong in both the Math and the Languages. Usually the boys get the math, the girls get the language stuff, but she's doing very well in all areas.

MD also had an awesome conference in that she is above average in her class and grade peers in her math scores and has excelled/mastered all of her skills she's to master at this point in the school year. We were surprised when she came home a couple of weeks ago and saying that she's jumped from a Guided Reading level of H to level L. Her teacher explained that the end of the year goal for first grade is to be at level I, so she's doing well there too.

We shared with her teacher too that we were amazed in the changes we've seen in MD's work ethics and abilities, as she's really taken off and is beginning to strive to achieve better, instead of laying low and only doing what she has to in order to get by, which is what seems to be what she's always done in the past. We can see her becoming confident in her ability to do well and striving to reach for more and this really makes us HAPPY! :)

AC on the other hand is downright scaring us in day to day activities. This kid has essentially taught himself how to read and is picking up from both of his sisters every day and trying to keep up with them on all levels. He's jumping on the computer and practicing all the math problems and spelling homework he can get to that MD has worked on and understands and loves it. He finds himself bored if I don't work to challenge him on various things. We are also working on ASL letters and basic signs that we can remember in our day to day activities. We shall see if he goes to school with his sisters or not next fall. If he continues as we foresee, we see him being in the High Ability class starting K next fall- which in turn would mean he'd be at a different school for K & 1st grade. Only time will tell...

Well, it's late and here's to a Blessed weekend to all of you readers! More to come soon!