Cullums Under Construction

Happy Advent, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

The year 2010 has brough the Cullums "Under Construction".

September we began building our new house. The house is located on 102nd Ave in Seminole Florida about 5 minutes from our current house and 1 minute from Kyle's parents. It is the same land where Kyle lived with his parents from elementary school through high school. We are trying to do a lot of the work ourselves so we anticipate completion to be around Thanksgiving 2011. It has been an entire family project with Kyle, myself, all 3 of our children, Kyle's parents and Kyle's brother and cousin helping out. Isaac and Eli have loved playing in the dirt and riding on the backhoe with Grandpa Cullum. We are extremely grateful to have this opportunity to build a home that meets our needs and helps us continue with our goals for our family.

Kyle rode a 100 mile bike ride with his brother Sam in October and I am in the process of training for a half marathon on January 8th with my sister in law Amber Cullum. Both the rides and runs have pushed us past our limits but its always good to complete something you never thought you could.

We are so grateful that Florida Electrical Service continues to find work this year. We continue to hear of more and more construction based companies down sizing and closing in PInellas County. Kyle, David and Steve have worked long hours this year in hopes of continuing to find work for the company.

In May I was approached to direct our homeschool community Classical Conversations Largo. I took on the job and have been busy throughout the year making sure our school days run well and the community is healthy. It has been a lot of work and forced me to continue to strengthen my weak areas of leadership. We continue to be so thankful for the Classical Conversations community and how it holds us accountable to academic excellence and has brought great people into our lives.

Prema at 11 years old started middle school in the fall. She is in a self contained special education classroom for students with multiple disabilities. She remains in 2 joining classrooms most of the day and is fully supervised whenever she is mainstreamed with other students. In the mornings her curriculum focuses on academics and in the afternoons she is learning life skills. Prema is loving school this year. The new environment brings some challenges as she is the only deaf student and therefore a full time interpreter is required. On the positive side she is functioning at the same level as her peers so she is able to be instructed in small groups providing her the socialization she craves. Prema started her 2 year braces treatment in January 2010 and got her first set of glasses in September 2010. She is looking very mature.

The boys have kept us very very busy this year with their endless creativity and energy. Isaac at 5 years old continues to do well in his school work. He is really enjoying math this year. He is always leading Eli and other children in complex imaginary play usually pertaining to be Kings and Knights, farming, playing a Rocker baseball game, living in the land of Narnia, etc. Eli at 3 years old loves to join in Isaac's imaginary worlds as the comic relief such as the mascot at baseball games or the wild horse. Eli is still fascinated with living creatures such as bugs, insects, and other animals. He often tells us he wants a pet. He is a very deep thinker and asks us all the hard questions about faith and death.

Even though the letter seems to paint a really "beautiful" picture of our family, our character is constantly "under construction." We have 5 VERY strong willed people living together. We have been tested in our obedience, patience, acceptance, perseverance, compassion, forgiveness, kindness, orderliness, joyfulness, and faith. We pray that through the process we really are becoming beautiful for each other.

We look forward to what 2011 brings.

Blessings,
Michelle for Kyle, Prema, Isaac and Eli

Eli had been helping Kyle fill in the sides of the footer



Sam and Kyle working with the cement pump man and Chuck



Isaac proud he helped pile the wood


Prema pulling cut tree roots from the foundation sand


Eli riding with Grandpa Cullum in the Backhoe


Isaac and Prema riding on the swing in the backyard tree (interesting story we wanted to remove the tree but the city said we'd have to pay them $10,000 to remove the tree. So instead we changed up the house plans and are happier with the tree and house designs now.)



Frog Prema caught. She loves to spend time catching frogs and lizards and tame them to sit on her shoulder or arm.



Dirty faces we see often these days!

Things We've Been Thinking About

We are so busy that I haven't had time to post much the past year. I thought I would post just a few of the things we've been thinking/ discussing/ reading about individually and as a family.

Hot Dogs


Eli loves to make people laugh. One of his most common jokes is "HOT DOG". He uses it as a silly name, punch line, you name it. He doesn't enjoy eating hot dogs so I think he must either like the sound of the words or it reminds him of his other favorite thing, his penis.


Aslan to our Hurray!!


Isaac LOVES the Chronicles of Narnia. We have the best audio CDs of all the books performed in Radio Theater by Focus on the Family. Isaac has been listening to these CDs for about a year every night before bed and during rest time. He knows them so well that he often speaks in Narnia lingo during regular conversation.

Parenting/ Behavior Management

alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5509457786352139410" />

Love and Logic
Shepherding a Child's Heart
The Learning Parent (Character Training)


Our children keep us on our toes. We learn more about ourselves and are challenged to train/ mold our children into the best that they can be. We pick what works best for our family given Kyle and my personality and the personality and needs of our children from all the resources we come across (books and people).

Education

We are homeschooling Isaac for the second year using the Classical model. We are so grateful to have found Classical Conversations Christian Community. Through CC we have learned so much about how to truly educate the classical way and have support and weekly connection with other families who are also classically educating their children. This is a nation wide organization, check it out in your area!

We also just finished reading The Core by Leigh Bortins the founder of Classical Conversations. It is a wonderful resource for educating classically and also spurs great conversations about American Education.

Largo Middle School
Prema started middle school yesterday. She is in a self contained special education classroom that does academics in the morning and life skills in the afternoon. Prema has known that she is going to a new school for a few months. The anxiety and excitement has resulted in her constantly saying "Largo middle school 6th grade fall me" aka I am going to Largo Middle School in the fall. I will be in 6th grade.

Bungalow Homes

Merry Christmas 2009

Hello to all,

Another busy year has passed for us all. I thought I would take a moment to overview the year.


Kyle and I definitely feel another year older. We're starting to notice the lines on our faces and dark circles under our eyes that never go away. Kyle's head hair keeps transplanting itself on his chest and back. We struggle to hold our fingers straight, I even notice them become more and more stiff making it even more difficult to become speedy and accurate at fingerspelling. But all that aside, we still continue to try and try to change the rest of ourselves a new.

Kyle competed in his first triathlon in July. He started after me and passed me on the last leg about 1 mile into the run. He loved the experience. Regardless of how tired he is, he is very good a consistently running about 3 miles 4 to 5 times a week. He continues to amaze us all with all the new construction skills he acquires. In January he tackled our bathroom renovation which included swapping locations for our AC handler and the toilet. Kyle did an awesome job.

I have learned a ton again this year about parenting and teaching. We began homeschooling Isaac this year. I have learned more than I ever imagined about World History through teaching a 4 year old. I have also learned a lot more about the Bible and training kids to live Godly lives. In July I competed in my second triathlon. It was a struggle for me, as I felt very exhausted but still very enjoyable.

Prema has had quite a few new things this year. She began the fall with 2 new teachers after 2 years with the same teacher. She became a permanent rider in Horses For the Handicap. She rides horses every Saturday for 45 minutes. The horse she rides, Dominic, is the largest horse on the grounds and beautiful. Prema is slowly learning to lead the horse herself through an obstacle course and trotting. She loves it. She also is starting to learn to clean the horse stalls and groom the horses. If you haven't seen Prema;s performance yet at her Holiday Deaf Extravaganza, you'll want to check out her performance. We had lots of laughs.

Isaac started pre-school at home this year. We are a part of local Classical Conversationscommunity. Every Wednesday we meet at a church with the rest of the CC community. During that time Isaac and I are in a classroom with 7 other students and their parents learning the new material for the week. The rest of the week we review all of the material at home. He is studying World History, Latin, English Grammar, Math, Science, music, and art. Each family is responsible for teaching their own child how to read and write and daily math with their own curriculum. Isaac has amazed us with his ability to memorize. Isaac and I both love our CC community and all that we are learning. Isaac has shown us this year his love for teaching and organizing people. He has also become very good a ASL which is a huge help to me when the kids play together. I no longer need to be the interpreter, just the referee.

Eli's character has shown itself a lot more this year. At first you would think Eli is a very shy child, but that is only in new situations and upon meeting new people. After Eli is feeling comfortable any place becomes his stage. He is a performer. He loves music and dancing. He has the moves and the tunes. He is even a performer whenever he is hurt, needs something, doesn't get what he wants or is corrected. Eli still loves to talk in a low rough growl most of the time. His will is almost as strong as Kyle's and mine. However, he still loves to snuggle close and cuddle.

Merry Christmas to you all,
love Kyle, Michelle, Prema, Isaac and Eli

Family Pics at Boca Ciega Park Tower

The Start of Something New