So I have decided to keep up on my blog. But it will not only be about bus driving and riding and all the "excitingness" of that, but also about my family, my kids, my insanity....
Bus stuff: started a new adventure of driving bus for our church bus ministry. At first, I wondered what I had gotten myself into. Now, I just enjoy it :). The buses are old. Real old. Really really old. Like over 20 years old. In bus years, that is akin to being about 1000 yrs old. Buses are really well built and completely meant to be driven and used. But, after a certain period of time, parts are just hard to come by. I know the days of the bus I drive are numbered, but God keeps it rolling along. The spiritual rewards are great! But, every time I sit in the seat, I feel like I am back in my dad's 1971 Freightliner. The steering wheel is double the size of my school bus. The fuel gauges don't work (they fill up the buses every Saturday). It is like turning an elephant around when there are cul-de-sacs. But, like I said, the spiritual rewards are great. Plus, I get to hear the captain tell stories of growing up with 3 brothers. Makes me laugh and think of my own brother who now has 3 boys.
School bus stuff: same route, different bus. This year I was gifted with a larger, nicer (in my opinion) bus. It is a transit still (flat nose) with air brakes. My favorite! (what a nerd LOL). I also have an honset to goodness am/fm radio. I won't play it when the kids are on, because, as I tell them, I drive the bus so I drive the radio too. Actually, I don't feel right just putting on a music station and not knowing what is being sung or said. I would be upset for my kids to be singing along to songs that deal with drinking, premarital sex and such. So I won't do it. I mainly use it for the long lonely drive back into town.
**True story*** I was driving the middle school boys track team home one night. They asked for the radio to be turned on. So I turned it on. It was in the middle of a commercial. Blaring out over the loudspeaker "and if you do choose to have sex....." I just started turning the radio dial till I heard what sounded like music. There is no speaker in the driver area, so I didn't know what was being played and nobody complained. Turned out we were listening to Mexican fiesta music all the way home :)
I have another "day don't care" story to tell. But, I will save that for later. I also have discovered that I really like photography. I will also post some of those pictures.
Family stuff: We have embarked on the homeschool journey. Sort of. I have posted before about my daughter Mollie, and her learning issues. After fighting with the schools over holding her back (we wanted to, they did not), we put her into Idaho Virtual Academy. It is an online public charter school so there is no cost to us. At this leval, 3rd grade, most of her work is done offline and I enter her results. Some work and reading is online. She also receives an hour of tutoring and an hour of speech therapy every week. The results have been WONDERFUL!!! I have seen her blossom before my eyes. In traditional school, she was behind, she knew she was behind and because the class had to keep moving forward, she kept falling farther behind. She was learning, but at a much slower pace than her peers. She knew it and that broke my heart. With K12 (the curriculum) She doesn't advance till she shows mastery. Since we put her back into third grade, she moved pretty quickly through the first few months. But there has been hair pulling, silent screaming days (meaning I'm in the laundry room, making screaming motions with no sound coming out). Her ISAT (standarized testing) takes place in April and I'm curious to see how she has improved.
More to follow later. I will post my artsy fartsy bus pictures too....
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