The first week of school. Yeah!
I woke up sick yesterday, so very thankful that I had just planned tests for the day. I ended up losing my voice before I could give Connor his spelling test, so Aaron did it when he got home.
I think it went really really well. We've incorperated their Awana stuff in the mornings during Bible time. So hopefully that will help them do well. Question for those of you with kids in Awana- do you/will you set a limit on their sections? When Sadie was in Awana before she would just fly through her sections- she memorizes so easily. Its always something that I struggled with, so I was good to say one to two sections a night.
Aaron just left to take Sadie to the church to practice for tomorrow. She is singing "Voice of Truth" in big church. :) Yes I'll take pics. lol
We are going to do some cleaning, re-organizing in the kids' rooms and try to make it down to the Habitat Re-Store to price some things. I'll also be painting our room today. I picked up the paint last night, and I love the color, I just hope I love it when everything is put back together.
I want to get matching night tables, and an entertainment armoir for our room. Wal Mart has some really really nice ones, like exactly what I had pictured- but they are on clearance. I don't think I can save the money for them before they are all sold out. :( Drat.
Um, I think thats about it for right now. :) I'll post pictures of the completed bedroom soon. I may wait until we get our bedding. :) We're re-doing our bedroom as a birthday gift to ourselves. lol Yes, I will be the ripe old age of 26 and my hubby will be celebrating 31 in 11 and 8 days respectivly. :) Happy birthday to us. If anyone asks, I want hobby lobby shopping money. lol Unless of course someone wants to buy us our bedroom furniture. lol Anyone? No one? Oh well, can't blame a girl for trying ;) Happy Saturday all!
Today was a bit more different than yesterday when it came to school.
Connor had one of his now-familiar melt downs, and I think I handled it ok as far as schooling goes. Instead of arguing with him, and pleading with him to finish so we coudl move on, I just moved on. He was left having to finish his Math work before he could move on. Sadie flew through the next three subjects, and once he finally realized that his attitude wasn't holding anyone back but himself he had it done and was compltetly caught up before break. *sigh*
We've taken a break now and will finish language arts when Matthew lays down for his long afternoon nap in about an hour or so.
These next few days before school starts will be a little hectic. Today I am working on laundry.
Tomorrow I have to be at the paper to have my pic taken at 10, then Connor has an appt at 11:30, I am also shopping for first day of school outfits for Connor and Sadie. I know, they are going to be homeschooled, and its pointless, but last year they were in uniforms, and didn't get the joy of first day of school clothes- and I'm going to make them dress down to the shoes anyway, so why not a fun new outfit?
Friday night we have a movie and ice cream night at church, Saturday, Aaron is taking all of the kids to Jefferson so I can have several hours of peace and quiet to plan lessons. Saturday night is homegroup, Sunday church, and Sunday night I am taking my sister Caroline, and Sadie to see Nancy Drew at the $1 theatre.
Monday is our first day of school. Woohoo! I think the kids are really looking forward to it, and we really are going to have a lot of fun. We have a lot of neat things planned. :) Including a field trip two weeks after school starts. lol :)
Monday night I have a tea with the homeschool group. So crazy days ahead, so I wanted to check in and let you know I may be MIA for a while.
This is my one-hundreth post on this blog! Woohoo! :) If you are a reader out there but don't comment, now might be the time to leave a comment. Ya know, just giving me your kuddos and all for sticking with something :)
I have a lot going on in my brain this morning. So bear with me if its all jumbled and runs together.
School starts in 10 days. I considered pushing it back, but then changed my mind. I really want to get a full two weeks of school in for the kids before we go on our field trip to Sci-Port on Labor Day. I feel ready on one hand, but then on the other I feel like I will never be ready.
My friend Lisa is in the air as we speak. Keep her in your prayers this week, she is flying out to Cali to be with her sister for a week. She left the kids behind with her hubby, and was having a very hard time with the thought of being away from them for so long. So if you remember, say a few prayers for her while she's away.
I started scrapbooking last night, and I think its safe to say, I'm addicted! Hobby Lobby had a bunch of stuff half off, and then I used a 40% off coupon for a kit, that had a bunch of stuff in it. I did pay full price for some papers, and then some of the 3d stickers that I just had to have.
I can tell I have a lot of learning to do, but I don't think my first layouts are to bad. I might have to snap some pics of them later so you can see them. But I'm already thinking about my next shopping trip and what else I want. :) I am going to take on organizing some more of these digigal pictures for scrapbooking later today.
Hmmm, I know I had more I wanted to say, but it all escapes me at the moment. So I guess thats it. Happy 100th post to me!
Wow four whole days without blogging. I'm impressed!
Saturday we went to the VOW marriage conference. The speakers were Bill and Pam Ferrell. They were SO good. They spoke from their book Men are like waffles Women are like spaghetti.
The basic point was that men compartmentalize their life. Each section of their life is in a little box, like a waffle. They can only be in one box at a time. When they are at work, they are at work. When they are working in the yard they are working in the yard. Etc. Women on the other hand are like a plate of spaghetti. Every noodle touches another one. Every aspect of our lives touches and is intertwined with each other. We tend to be multi-taskers. We can be making supper, talking on the phone with our friend, making a grocery list, letting the dog out, using sign language to tell the kids to get-out-of-here-and-be-quiet, all while opening and closing the fridge with our feet. When a large stressor hits our life its like a giant meatball landing in a plate of pasta. Noodles everywhere. Men just go to an easy box and park it. There was so much more info- but if you can I'd definately recommend getting the book. SO worth it.
Sunday was busy day, we had church etc. And just didn't stop moving all day. Today Carline and the boys were here. We played a math bingo game I got at Target in the $ bin. It was fun- and I think we'll have fun with it during school this year.
Aaron is working at Eden apartments again, he was there until 3am on Friday- it *shouldn't be to late tonight, but it was only supposed to be an hour friday night so who knows.
Tomorrow night is a homeschool meeting at the library. I'm looking forward to that, Aaron gets to go with me which is exciting. Carly is watching the older kids, Matty is going with us.
17 days till Rotan!!!!!!!
In the process of converting our back room into a school room, we've had to downsize some furniture. I recently started a cheapcycle group (like freecycle only money is involved) We sold our extra couch, and I had listed our big chair and footstool. It was just to big to fit into the small front room, and just so bulky. Well as God would have it- the person who was interested in the chair was a mom who had homeschooled for 16 years. She had boxes (and I mean boxes!) of first readers, workbooks etc. She also had a Saxon 1st grade math book and a language arts curriculum. When her and her daughter came to look at the chair, she left the boxes of books for me to sort through. I picked out what I wanted/needed and the total came to $36. Now granted, I got a lot for that, but that is still a lot of money to us.
Now let me back up by saying, I have been praying about the homeschooling for a while- and have a peace, however I was concerned with the cost and how we would afford materials. I decided to give it to God, and knew he would just provide in his time.
Back to the present, I lay in bed that night, thinking about the books, and prayed about it. I had other things listed on cheapcycle, and in the paper to sell. The next day I emailed the lady, told her what my total was, and asked if I could split the cost into two payments. She emailed back and said her daughter had decided she wanted the chair (she is setting up an apartment with a room mate- going to college) and said we would work something out with the books when she got here. They showed up, and she had a HUGE bag full of more books, these were more textbook type books, art books, science, bible readers. Blank spiral notebooks and index cards. She said she knew I'd need the supplies at some point, and just wanted to give them to me. And then asked if it was ok that we did an even trade chair for books. :) It really is awesome, and we got the better end of the deal. We were only asking $25 for the chair, as it was showing some wear and tear. But her daughter and friend were so thrilled to be getting it, they loved it so much. And we are equally thrilled about the books. It gives us such a good start on books, and strengthens my resolve that we are doing the right thing by keeping the kids home.
Thank you GOD! :)
As if I could just fall back asleep. I have toothpicks here holding my eyelids open. *yawn*
Caroline ended up staying the night last night- so we plan on doing some more home organization today. We did a lot yesterday- got the entertainment center moved, couch moved, book case moved, everything dusted, and vacuumed. Today we want to clean out the kitchen cabinets and reorganize them, and catch up on laundry. :)
Right now I want to climb back in bed.
As I sat last night and watch television, I was happy that we moved the living room into our front room. Its smaller, yes, but its so cozy. Carly and I curled up on the couch with throws and hot cocoa and watched Supernanny. ;) It was really quite comfortable.
I am trying to decide on curriculum for this fall. I don't know if I mentioned we've decided to homeschool the kids for at least this fall. We have several reasons- one we've decided to stay here in this house for the time being. And since I was so sick at the end of my pregnancy I was unable to get the transfer application to put them back into the school they were in last year. We will not put them in our district elementary school. So home it is.
Two- Them being in public school was a strain-financially, emotionally, and a strain on our calendar. It was one thing after another fund raisers, field trips etc. And where we just have the van, and they aren't bus riders- having to make sure someone else would be able to pick them up from school- it was a hassle.
So curriculum- I know that I want to use Saxon math. Its expensive, but I am familiar with it and feel most comfortable teaching it. I have an idea for Social Studies that doesn't use a formal curriculum, but I think it will be good. So I have to pick a language arts study, science, and I think we will wing handwriting. I can probably print some stuff off the Internet for them.
I plan on joining a homeschool group- I really want to network with some other homeschooling moms- especially some long time homeschooling moms. I'm sure I'll have lots of questions.
We're going to allow the girls to dance, and are looking for a sport or something for Connor to be involved in. I'm excited, yet scared at the same time about undertaking all this.
I think one of my biggest challenges will be juggling house and homeschooling, dinner and all that stuff. That is one of my goals for the summer is to get into a good routine as far as housework goes, so that it will be easier in the fall. So if anyone out there in blogland has hints for getting started be sure to leave me a comment. :)
