I think Adam might have fixed his car, which is wonderful news. I'm trying to remain cautiously optimistic because I don't want to assume it's all ok only to have him tell me later that he needs another part. :)
I have been working on our budget today. We got our tax return this morning and I've been trying to figure out what to pay off when and how to budget money to pay off outstanding debts that we can't pay off right now. It's a blessing to be able to reduce our debt, even if we still have some remaining, so I'm pretty excited about all of it.
I looked back in my check register today to get an idea of what I spent on groceries in January. I've been trying really hard to reduce our grocery budget and also limit quick trips to WalMart. In effort to reduce that monthly expenditure, I've been making my own cleaning solutions including detergent, window cleaner, and all purpose cleaner. I still have dishwashing detergent from a small stockpile I accumulated a few months ago, but when that runs out we'll be using a mix of half store bought detergent, half homemade detergent. I still have store bought floor cleaner as well, but will not be purchasing any more and will instead make my own. Though I will greatly miss the scent of PineSol. :) I also purchase a bulk of my meat from Angel Food Ministries, which has been such a blessing for us in the last several months. As a result, we only spent $350 for the month of January on groceries. I know some people spend less than that, some spend more, but I was pleasantly surprised at the amount. My goal is to lower that to $300 each month and this month, I'll actually track the exact amount on food purchases. :) I'll let you know at the end of February how that has gone!
Since today is payday, I've also worked on menus for the next two weeks. I make a list of the meals that I want to make based on what we have in the freezer and what I'll be purchasing from Angel Food later this month. So I made my grocery list based on that and hopefully I'll be heading to the store tomorrow. I hate shopping on or very close to payday, but it's how we do it...just like nearly every other family.
I suppose I could keep typing, but I'll wrap this up so I can clean up the kitchen. :)
Friday, January 30, 2009
I really don't like difficult weather.
So I think I was trying to make this a mostly homeschooling blog, but there's a lot of other stuff going on with us so I'm just going to go along with blogging about everything. The weather has been crazy here for the last week or so. Our heat pump is having a heck of a time trying to keep up and keep the house warm. I've set the thermostat lower than normal and keep a space heater in the living room to keep the chill off. It's working just fine. Unfortunately, the heat pump is located outside, right beside my bedroom. And when it is cold, it hums. Wait, maybe it groans. Loudly. And the noise makes me nervous and I can't sleep with it groaning directly in my ear. So I am sleeping on the couch. Plus it's much less comfortable than my bed so I'm up all night checking on the temperature in the house and covering the kids back up.
Adam drove his car to work on Monday, only to have it break down. Ugh. I hate cars. At first we thought, wait, he thought it was one thing. Then he talked to his friends and they determined it was another thing...a cheaper thing (PRAISE THE LORD!), but now he has to fix yet another thing........ So the car is still broken down, but it's here in the driveway thanks to amazing soldier friends of Adam's, so that's one less thing to worry about. He got one of the parts he needs for it today. That's a blessing. Tomorrow he's getting more stuff. Woo hoo. Then they'll spend this weekend fixing the car, I hope at least. But that's how it goes so I'm not upset about it. Car repairs are a part of life. An annoying part of life. :)
I have nothing exciting going on this weekend. Definitely need to get groceries in the house. We have plenty of food in the cabinets and freezer, just need a few things for the fridge. I want to be sure we get it this weekend as I think we're facing another winter storm on Monday or Tuesday. It worries me a lot because if we do lose power, I'm not really sure where to go. If the weather is bad here, going up north to Ohio isn't going to make things better...just snowier. Not real sure what we'd do. I'm praying so hard that we don't have to worry about that.
And then after we get through this winter weather, we have to deal with spring weather...here in Tornado Alley. In case it wasn't painfully obvious to you at this point, I have weather issues or weather anxiety if you will. I used to be scared of thunderstorms when I was younger. And I'm not so much scared of them now as an adult, I worry more about storm damage and keeping my kids safe. Or keeping them warm and not in the dark.
Oh dear.
Adam drove his car to work on Monday, only to have it break down. Ugh. I hate cars. At first we thought, wait, he thought it was one thing. Then he talked to his friends and they determined it was another thing...a cheaper thing (PRAISE THE LORD!), but now he has to fix yet another thing........ So the car is still broken down, but it's here in the driveway thanks to amazing soldier friends of Adam's, so that's one less thing to worry about. He got one of the parts he needs for it today. That's a blessing. Tomorrow he's getting more stuff. Woo hoo. Then they'll spend this weekend fixing the car, I hope at least. But that's how it goes so I'm not upset about it. Car repairs are a part of life. An annoying part of life. :)
I have nothing exciting going on this weekend. Definitely need to get groceries in the house. We have plenty of food in the cabinets and freezer, just need a few things for the fridge. I want to be sure we get it this weekend as I think we're facing another winter storm on Monday or Tuesday. It worries me a lot because if we do lose power, I'm not really sure where to go. If the weather is bad here, going up north to Ohio isn't going to make things better...just snowier. Not real sure what we'd do. I'm praying so hard that we don't have to worry about that.
And then after we get through this winter weather, we have to deal with spring weather...here in Tornado Alley. In case it wasn't painfully obvious to you at this point, I have weather issues or weather anxiety if you will. I used to be scared of thunderstorms when I was younger. And I'm not so much scared of them now as an adult, I worry more about storm damage and keeping my kids safe. Or keeping them warm and not in the dark.
Oh dear.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Batman doesn't have binkies!
Ok, so this week has been moving along. And lemme tell ya, I'm just excited to be getting back on track. Like a real getting-it-done track. I'm lovin' it! I'm a list maker, always have been, can't help it. Even though Adisson's days aren't crammed full of school stuff, I write down everything I want to get done each day. It has just blessed my soul to be able to look at my weekly plan and see it covered in blue highlighter (what I'm using this week to signify completion of a task). I'm excited that each day we are working hard together. I'm doing my job as homeschooling mama and Adisson is doing his job as my little Kindergartener....and it's WONDERFUL! I'm not saying we're building a Roman empire to scale from lego's, we're just doing what I've selected to do in my FIAR Teacher's Manual, some Math, some reading, some writing, and piano playin'. And it's amazing!!
YAY!!! I'm hoping to post pictures this week of what we've been working on. We're rowing "A New Coat for Anna" and it's going over well with Adisson. He's definitely understanding bartering/trading and he's interested in the process of turning sheep wool into clothes.
I'll overview the week when we get to the end of it, but so far so good and I'm a happy mama!
Otherwise things are going ok down here. I'm blessed because we're still warm enough and have electricity. I'm praying hard that we continue to have these "luxuries" because I hate being without them. Adam's got a cold. He's not handling it well. :) Zander is being just who he is....wonderfully cute and busy. I'm trying so hard to embrace his toddlerhood because I know he's our last baby and I don't want to forget what it's like. Toddlers are just something else. One minute you want to pull your hair out in frustration, the next you are in awe of their complete preciousness. :) I'll miss it when he's bigger and I just don't want to lose sight of the fact that time passes so quickly. So tonight when Zander is up until midnight because he took a late nap, I'll cherish every minute of it. :)
YAY!!! I'm hoping to post pictures this week of what we've been working on. We're rowing "A New Coat for Anna" and it's going over well with Adisson. He's definitely understanding bartering/trading and he's interested in the process of turning sheep wool into clothes.
I'll overview the week when we get to the end of it, but so far so good and I'm a happy mama!
Otherwise things are going ok down here. I'm blessed because we're still warm enough and have electricity. I'm praying hard that we continue to have these "luxuries" because I hate being without them. Adam's got a cold. He's not handling it well. :) Zander is being just who he is....wonderfully cute and busy. I'm trying so hard to embrace his toddlerhood because I know he's our last baby and I don't want to forget what it's like. Toddlers are just something else. One minute you want to pull your hair out in frustration, the next you are in awe of their complete preciousness. :) I'll miss it when he's bigger and I just don't want to lose sight of the fact that time passes so quickly. So tonight when Zander is up until midnight because he took a late nap, I'll cherish every minute of it. :)
Sunday, January 25, 2009
The time is now!
So it's been awhile. For a lot of things. Adisson hasn't had a really good week of school since November. Once December rolled around, we were so busy with the holidays. Then we got home from spending two weeks in Ohio, to me spending three weeks being sick. Like really sick. Fortunately, I have had medication that has been working for the past few days so I'm finalllllly feeling better. I'm not 100% yet, but it's a HUGE improvement...even from a week ago.
So I'm thinking about how things have been going for us as a homeschooling family and I'm less than impressed. :( Adisson's math has been a little intense for us so we've been taking it slow for the whole year. Now I know we won't finish it up before the summer so I don't know whether to keep schooling or to just pick it back up in September when we start school again. Who knows what will change between now and then so I can't really decide. But this week he's going to be reviewing all the things we've learned so far this year in Math so we can move forward next week.
His handwriting is progressively improving so I'm satisified with his work in that area. His reading is also going well. Even when we aren't schooling a lot, he's always reading. I'm grateful for that.
We tried rowing "The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge" two weeks ago and again last week, but I was so sick some days that we still didn't get everything done I wanted to. I was really hoping to build a bridge and a lighthouse, so I'm disappointed that we didn't get that in. Oh well, we'll just have to row the book again.
This week, however, we're going to do it right. We're rowing "A New Coat for Anna" and it's going to be awesome! We'll be talking about bartering and trading, weaving, sheep, dyeing, all kinds of stuff!! This is going to be the week that goes back to how we're supposed to be homeschooling, how we're supposed to be living, loving, and learning!
I'll let you know how it goes!!
So I'm thinking about how things have been going for us as a homeschooling family and I'm less than impressed. :( Adisson's math has been a little intense for us so we've been taking it slow for the whole year. Now I know we won't finish it up before the summer so I don't know whether to keep schooling or to just pick it back up in September when we start school again. Who knows what will change between now and then so I can't really decide. But this week he's going to be reviewing all the things we've learned so far this year in Math so we can move forward next week.
His handwriting is progressively improving so I'm satisified with his work in that area. His reading is also going well. Even when we aren't schooling a lot, he's always reading. I'm grateful for that.
We tried rowing "The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge" two weeks ago and again last week, but I was so sick some days that we still didn't get everything done I wanted to. I was really hoping to build a bridge and a lighthouse, so I'm disappointed that we didn't get that in. Oh well, we'll just have to row the book again.
This week, however, we're going to do it right. We're rowing "A New Coat for Anna" and it's going to be awesome! We'll be talking about bartering and trading, weaving, sheep, dyeing, all kinds of stuff!! This is going to be the week that goes back to how we're supposed to be homeschooling, how we're supposed to be living, loving, and learning!
I'll let you know how it goes!!
Monday, January 12, 2009
Been awhile....
Finally! We finally got school started back up again today!
I'm still sick...after three weeks...and exhausted. But we could no longer put off starting back up. Fortunately, I have THE BEST curriculum ever so starting slowly is very easy to do and still makes school worthwhile. :) Thank the Lord for Five in a Row.
This week we are rowing the Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge. It's such a great book! We looked at pictures of New York on the internet (pictures I found and pre-approved as safe viewing!), including looking at the lighthouse the book was written about! It was really neat for Adisson to see that the book was written about a lighthouse that truly exists somewhere, even today. It really brought the story to life for him.
He also had math today. Unfortunately, when we stopped doing school work before the holidays, I didn't realize that his next math lesson would be a test. However, he breezed through most of it with little difficulty. :) I was happy and so was he!
His spelling words this week are words I got from the book. He got bored with writing, because he only enjoys writing when it's not for school, so he was allowed to write only half of his words today. Had this not been the first day back to school after a long break, I would have had him finish the list. :)
He also was allowed to pick any book off of the bookshelf for his read aloud book. He chose "But No Elephants!" by Jerry Smath. We both enjoyed the funny book! :)
This week we'll be learning about a few different art techniques, compound words, personification, counting, bridges and lighthouses. We'll also be building our own lighthouse and bridge! That's the topics we'll be covering with Five in a Row. Math will be continuing on with lessons, as we may have to start doing two worksheets a day to finish up the curriculum before the end of the year. Spelling words will be reviewed, with a "test" given on Friday.
Tonight Adisson is out running errands with his dad, Zander is wrapped up in playing with his Veggie Tale pirates, and I am hoping to get the kitchen cleaned up while cooking dinner. Oh and doing laundry. :)
God bless!
I'm still sick...after three weeks...and exhausted. But we could no longer put off starting back up. Fortunately, I have THE BEST curriculum ever so starting slowly is very easy to do and still makes school worthwhile. :) Thank the Lord for Five in a Row.
This week we are rowing the Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge. It's such a great book! We looked at pictures of New York on the internet (pictures I found and pre-approved as safe viewing!), including looking at the lighthouse the book was written about! It was really neat for Adisson to see that the book was written about a lighthouse that truly exists somewhere, even today. It really brought the story to life for him.
He also had math today. Unfortunately, when we stopped doing school work before the holidays, I didn't realize that his next math lesson would be a test. However, he breezed through most of it with little difficulty. :) I was happy and so was he!
His spelling words this week are words I got from the book. He got bored with writing, because he only enjoys writing when it's not for school, so he was allowed to write only half of his words today. Had this not been the first day back to school after a long break, I would have had him finish the list. :)
He also was allowed to pick any book off of the bookshelf for his read aloud book. He chose "But No Elephants!" by Jerry Smath. We both enjoyed the funny book! :)
This week we'll be learning about a few different art techniques, compound words, personification, counting, bridges and lighthouses. We'll also be building our own lighthouse and bridge! That's the topics we'll be covering with Five in a Row. Math will be continuing on with lessons, as we may have to start doing two worksheets a day to finish up the curriculum before the end of the year. Spelling words will be reviewed, with a "test" given on Friday.
Tonight Adisson is out running errands with his dad, Zander is wrapped up in playing with his Veggie Tale pirates, and I am hoping to get the kitchen cleaned up while cooking dinner. Oh and doing laundry. :)
God bless!
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Did you know that's a 67% savings??
So it's been awhile since I've posted, but there's not a lot of homeschooling stuff going on here. We're just hanging out for December, enjoying the holidays, each other, and Daddy being off of work until after the new year.
We're reading lots of Christmas books and trying to do some Christmas crafts and activities. It's been a really good few weeks so far.
I'm nearly done Christmas shopping. For my side of the family, on my mom's side, we participate in a gift exchange, although I'm hoping to bring some new ideas for next year. :) We started a gift exchange last year, I think. It works well, though my Grandma is a rebel and rocks to her own beat and still buys for everyone. :) She says she can't help it. I think she has a Christmas giving addiction. And if giving gifts is her love language, then who am I to stop it? :)
We, the adults, each buy for another adult selected by random, or not so much, draw. This year I have aforementioned Grandma and Adam has my cousin's husband Leo, whom he has never met. :)
I'm nearly done shopping for the kids. We set a dollar limit and we've nearly reached that. I think we're going to go with something new for next year, too. A limit of three gifts. I'll be talking to my husband about that, see what he thinks, but I'm pretty sure he'll be all for it.
This year we applied to be in the Heroes at Home Wish Registry through Sears. We were accepted, along with over 30,000 other families. It's been a nice blessing to have and it's been so heartwarming to see the Sears commercials and in-store ads. It's so nice to know others care so much for military families. In addition to the gift card we received, we also received an email gift certificate for $100 worth of Christmas merchandise to decorate our home. So we went last night to shop for Christmas decorations!! It was so much fun! We were so excited to find out that most of their outdoor decorations were 50% off! We got some beautiful things we wouldn't have purchased otherwise. :) I will take a picture when my husband finally gets all of the lights up. :)
I've been wanting to have matching pajamas for all of us for Christmas morning. You'd think that wouldn't be such a difficult task. But for a family of four, two of which being little kids, to get matching pajama pants and a solid color shirt, would be over $40. And that's a little more than I want to spend on pajamas.
So I'm making my own! I've never done it, so I'm a little, or a lot, apprehensive, but I want to give it a shot. Besides, my WalMart is doing away with their fabric department so all of their material is 50% off. I'm excited to be taking advantage, again, of this great deal, but still a little sad that I'll have to drive to downtown Clarksville in the future to get my fabric. Oh well, I'm taking advantage of cheap fabric now!! :)
I will hopefully post pictures when I get them made, but don't hold your breath. :)
Ok, well, I have got to get stuff cleaned up. Adam's on his way home with new tires for his car, that we got for a WONDERFUL price....so I'm hoping to have stuff cleaned up so when he gets here we can go to WalMart, or I can rather, to buy some material. :)
I'll be back....sometime.
We're reading lots of Christmas books and trying to do some Christmas crafts and activities. It's been a really good few weeks so far.
I'm nearly done Christmas shopping. For my side of the family, on my mom's side, we participate in a gift exchange, although I'm hoping to bring some new ideas for next year. :) We started a gift exchange last year, I think. It works well, though my Grandma is a rebel and rocks to her own beat and still buys for everyone. :) She says she can't help it. I think she has a Christmas giving addiction. And if giving gifts is her love language, then who am I to stop it? :)
We, the adults, each buy for another adult selected by random, or not so much, draw. This year I have aforementioned Grandma and Adam has my cousin's husband Leo, whom he has never met. :)
I'm nearly done shopping for the kids. We set a dollar limit and we've nearly reached that. I think we're going to go with something new for next year, too. A limit of three gifts. I'll be talking to my husband about that, see what he thinks, but I'm pretty sure he'll be all for it.
This year we applied to be in the Heroes at Home Wish Registry through Sears. We were accepted, along with over 30,000 other families. It's been a nice blessing to have and it's been so heartwarming to see the Sears commercials and in-store ads. It's so nice to know others care so much for military families. In addition to the gift card we received, we also received an email gift certificate for $100 worth of Christmas merchandise to decorate our home. So we went last night to shop for Christmas decorations!! It was so much fun! We were so excited to find out that most of their outdoor decorations were 50% off! We got some beautiful things we wouldn't have purchased otherwise. :) I will take a picture when my husband finally gets all of the lights up. :)
I've been wanting to have matching pajamas for all of us for Christmas morning. You'd think that wouldn't be such a difficult task. But for a family of four, two of which being little kids, to get matching pajama pants and a solid color shirt, would be over $40. And that's a little more than I want to spend on pajamas.
So I'm making my own! I've never done it, so I'm a little, or a lot, apprehensive, but I want to give it a shot. Besides, my WalMart is doing away with their fabric department so all of their material is 50% off. I'm excited to be taking advantage, again, of this great deal, but still a little sad that I'll have to drive to downtown Clarksville in the future to get my fabric. Oh well, I'm taking advantage of cheap fabric now!! :)
I will hopefully post pictures when I get them made, but don't hold your breath. :)
Ok, well, I have got to get stuff cleaned up. Adam's on his way home with new tires for his car, that we got for a WONDERFUL price....so I'm hoping to have stuff cleaned up so when he gets here we can go to WalMart, or I can rather, to buy some material. :)
I'll be back....sometime.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Happy Early Thanksgiving
I haven't posted in a few days and now there's a lot I'd like to post about and I'm sure I'll forget most of it. :)
We're leaving tomorrow to go to Ohio for Thanksgiving. I think I have about half of the things done that I wanted to get done. We're nearly all packed....which means, I have managed to get all the boys packed up but can't decide what I want to take to wear. :)
Last week we finished up our How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World lapbook. :) Thanks to a wonderful woman named Robin, we were able to start Cranberry Thanksgiving. First of all, that is one of my favorite FIAR books so far. I haven't read too many of them yet, we're still working our way through Volume 1, but I love it. We didn't do too much with it because I didn't want to stress out with getting a lot done due to the short week this week. I did find this great link on Scholastic.com that talks about the first Thanksgiving. It had a lot of great info and really helped my little guy who didn't know how Thanksgiving started. I'll try to find the link and post it here. :)
Adisson is doing very well skip counting by fives. :) He's very excited to learn to skip count by two's. I'm excited to work on that with him next month.
Adisson's also been enjoying his Master's Club A LOT! Last week he came home with three new badges! Tonight he had a little gift bag from his teacher's because his birthday is on Saturday. I really appreciate how great they are to him, and well, all the kids that go. :) What a blessing!
I guess I don't talk much about Zander, since most of my rambling is about school. Zander is getting more and more verbal. He has the BEST manners in the house. :) There's something especially rewarding as a parent when you have conversations with your toddler that go like this ..... I sneeze and say "Excuse me." Zander says "Bless you." I say "Thank you, honey!" and he responds with "Allcome!" Or if we're walking down the hall and pass each other, he says "Excuse me." :) He's very concerned with other people, too. If someone hurts themself, like is getting clothes from the washer and putting them in the dryer (we have a stackable unit) and hits her head on the dryer door and he says "Are you ok?" And if he does something silly and hurts himself we ask him if he's ok and he always says "Ohh, I'm fine, I'm fine." He's just a delight to be around. He's always making us laugh and we just enjoy being around him. He has a crazy temper and screams quickly, but that's just how it is to be two sometimes. Heck, I feel that way some days myself. :) I'm just so blessed and so grateful.
Last week we went to the zoo for our homeschooling class. I love the class. It's really great. Last week they touched a skunk (descented) and a boa constrictor and looked at a scorpion's exoskeleton under a black light. :) Then we hung out in the zoo for about an hour. It was unseasonably cold and I forgot my coat at home, but it didn't make much of a difference since most of the animals said they'd rather be inside, too and we didn't get to see them.
Ok, I'm just rambling now and I really need to get to bed as I have several hours worth of stuff to get done tomorrow.
Happy Thanksgiving!
We're leaving tomorrow to go to Ohio for Thanksgiving. I think I have about half of the things done that I wanted to get done. We're nearly all packed....which means, I have managed to get all the boys packed up but can't decide what I want to take to wear. :)
Last week we finished up our How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World lapbook. :) Thanks to a wonderful woman named Robin, we were able to start Cranberry Thanksgiving. First of all, that is one of my favorite FIAR books so far. I haven't read too many of them yet, we're still working our way through Volume 1, but I love it. We didn't do too much with it because I didn't want to stress out with getting a lot done due to the short week this week. I did find this great link on Scholastic.com that talks about the first Thanksgiving. It had a lot of great info and really helped my little guy who didn't know how Thanksgiving started. I'll try to find the link and post it here. :)
Adisson is doing very well skip counting by fives. :) He's very excited to learn to skip count by two's. I'm excited to work on that with him next month.
Adisson's also been enjoying his Master's Club A LOT! Last week he came home with three new badges! Tonight he had a little gift bag from his teacher's because his birthday is on Saturday. I really appreciate how great they are to him, and well, all the kids that go. :) What a blessing!
I guess I don't talk much about Zander, since most of my rambling is about school. Zander is getting more and more verbal. He has the BEST manners in the house. :) There's something especially rewarding as a parent when you have conversations with your toddler that go like this ..... I sneeze and say "Excuse me." Zander says "Bless you." I say "Thank you, honey!" and he responds with "Allcome!" Or if we're walking down the hall and pass each other, he says "Excuse me." :) He's very concerned with other people, too. If someone hurts themself, like is getting clothes from the washer and putting them in the dryer (we have a stackable unit) and hits her head on the dryer door and he says "Are you ok?" And if he does something silly and hurts himself we ask him if he's ok and he always says "Ohh, I'm fine, I'm fine." He's just a delight to be around. He's always making us laugh and we just enjoy being around him. He has a crazy temper and screams quickly, but that's just how it is to be two sometimes. Heck, I feel that way some days myself. :) I'm just so blessed and so grateful.
Last week we went to the zoo for our homeschooling class. I love the class. It's really great. Last week they touched a skunk (descented) and a boa constrictor and looked at a scorpion's exoskeleton under a black light. :) Then we hung out in the zoo for about an hour. It was unseasonably cold and I forgot my coat at home, but it didn't make much of a difference since most of the animals said they'd rather be inside, too and we didn't get to see them.
Ok, I'm just rambling now and I really need to get to bed as I have several hours worth of stuff to get done tomorrow.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Ohh, he looks kind of upset.... :)
So we're finishing up our How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World lapbook. We've got most of it done, we just want to do a painting project tomorrow. :)
Adisson had Master's Club tonight. It's pretty similar to AWANA's as far as I know. Same premise nonetheless. He goes on Wednesday nights for about an hour and a half. Last time he was there, he got his vest. He's been wanting it so badly so I was so excited to pick him up last time and see that he had it! :) He also got a patch that I waited until the last minute to get sewn on this evening, despite having two weeks to get it done. When he came home tonight, he had three more patches to put on! I was so happy for him! And to make life easier...I sewed them on to his vest this evening. :) Master's club comes early next week because of the holiday and I don't want to be rushed. :)
I'm so very excited to start Cranberry Thanksgiving tomorrow. Along with the incredible amount of Thanksgiving crafts I want to get done before next Wednesday. :) I'm trying to limit the amount of projects, but there are so many things I want to do! I think Sunday might be our craft day. :) And also the day we start packing for our quick trip to Ohio.
Adam's supposed to get his tattoo finished up tomorrow afternoon. And the boys and I are going to the zoo on Friday. I was hoping Adam would get to go with us, but it looks like he will have to work. :( He hasn't worked more than a few hours in the three weeks he's been home and on the one day I make plans with him to go somewhere with us, he's going to have to work a full day. Kinda disappointing. I was hoping to go to the art museum after the zoo, but if Adam doesn't go, we'll just come home.
Adisson had Master's Club tonight. It's pretty similar to AWANA's as far as I know. Same premise nonetheless. He goes on Wednesday nights for about an hour and a half. Last time he was there, he got his vest. He's been wanting it so badly so I was so excited to pick him up last time and see that he had it! :) He also got a patch that I waited until the last minute to get sewn on this evening, despite having two weeks to get it done. When he came home tonight, he had three more patches to put on! I was so happy for him! And to make life easier...I sewed them on to his vest this evening. :) Master's club comes early next week because of the holiday and I don't want to be rushed. :)
I'm so very excited to start Cranberry Thanksgiving tomorrow. Along with the incredible amount of Thanksgiving crafts I want to get done before next Wednesday. :) I'm trying to limit the amount of projects, but there are so many things I want to do! I think Sunday might be our craft day. :) And also the day we start packing for our quick trip to Ohio.
Adam's supposed to get his tattoo finished up tomorrow afternoon. And the boys and I are going to the zoo on Friday. I was hoping Adam would get to go with us, but it looks like he will have to work. :( He hasn't worked more than a few hours in the three weeks he's been home and on the one day I make plans with him to go somewhere with us, he's going to have to work a full day. Kinda disappointing. I was hoping to go to the art museum after the zoo, but if Adam doesn't go, we'll just come home.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
There is no charge for awesomeness
There's a few things I want to blog about before I forget to do so! We've got some fun school stuff to talk about, too, but I'll write about that later today! :)
First of all, my baby turned 2 yesterday! :) 2 years old already! He's silly, funny, precious, wonderful and amazing, and just the most wonderful addition to our family. God has truly blessed me with my boys and I'm grateful for them everyday. :)
Next up, Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. :) When Adam and I were together in high school and afterwards, we always spent our Christmas' with our own families....but Thanksgiving, we always spent together. :) Of course since we've been married we haven't spent all of our Thanksgivings together, just 2 of the 5. By the grace of God he is home in time this year, which is truly amazing and wonderful! :)
Five in a Row, the best curriculum ever*, has a great Thanksgiving book to utilize for the holiday and I've been so excited to row it. But I can't find it. Now, I have managed to find a few on eBay, but my husband adamantly refuses to spend $30 on a worn out book. I've been searching for a copy of it for nearly three weeks so at this point, I'd pay A LOT for any copy....but to no avail. I've ordered it used on a few sites only to have my order cancelled because they really don't have the book they said they had. I posted briefly about my woes on the Five in a Row message board....about how I cannot get my hands on a copy (oh and my library does not carry it...I've checked....A LOT). And a wonderful woman said she had an extra copy she'd mail me...for free. And she lives just in the next state so it shouldn't take too long to get to me. Ok, no shame in admitting it...I nearly cried. It was just like God himself had said, I told you I'd get you a copy. :)
*Oh, so I'm biased because it's what we use and love. :) Besides being the best way for Adisson to learn, the manuals also come with the best author/publisher team ever....that in itself is worth....well, it's priceless really. :)
Things are going well here. We've been doing a little life learning lately since Daddy is still home so much. :) But since he's at work right now, I really need to get the kitchen cleaned up and laundry done. I'll be back later with school updates. :)
First of all, my baby turned 2 yesterday! :) 2 years old already! He's silly, funny, precious, wonderful and amazing, and just the most wonderful addition to our family. God has truly blessed me with my boys and I'm grateful for them everyday. :)
Next up, Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. :) When Adam and I were together in high school and afterwards, we always spent our Christmas' with our own families....but Thanksgiving, we always spent together. :) Of course since we've been married we haven't spent all of our Thanksgivings together, just 2 of the 5. By the grace of God he is home in time this year, which is truly amazing and wonderful! :)
Five in a Row, the best curriculum ever*, has a great Thanksgiving book to utilize for the holiday and I've been so excited to row it. But I can't find it. Now, I have managed to find a few on eBay, but my husband adamantly refuses to spend $30 on a worn out book. I've been searching for a copy of it for nearly three weeks so at this point, I'd pay A LOT for any copy....but to no avail. I've ordered it used on a few sites only to have my order cancelled because they really don't have the book they said they had. I posted briefly about my woes on the Five in a Row message board....about how I cannot get my hands on a copy (oh and my library does not carry it...I've checked....A LOT). And a wonderful woman said she had an extra copy she'd mail me...for free. And she lives just in the next state so it shouldn't take too long to get to me. Ok, no shame in admitting it...I nearly cried. It was just like God himself had said, I told you I'd get you a copy. :)
*Oh, so I'm biased because it's what we use and love. :) Besides being the best way for Adisson to learn, the manuals also come with the best author/publisher team ever....that in itself is worth....well, it's priceless really. :)
Things are going well here. We've been doing a little life learning lately since Daddy is still home so much. :) But since he's at work right now, I really need to get the kitchen cleaned up and laundry done. I'll be back later with school updates. :)
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
I'm a Pirate....ArghhhH!
Yesterday was a weird day. I'll save our crazy trip to Clarksville for my other blog, but I will share our homeschooling goodies here!
We continued working on our How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World lapbook. We didn't add much to our lapbook yesterday but we reviewed all of the country information we had made on Monday. We started a salt and evaporation expirement. We'll be adding those pages in the lapbook later this week.
Adisson started working on counting by fives yesterday. I think I'm going to purchse the counting by five's song by Skip Count Kid on Amazon.com. You can buy the whole album as MP3's and save over $4.00 over having the cd sent to you. I might do that instead of purchasing just one song. That way when it's time to learn how to count by other numbers I already have the songs.
We continued on with our handwriting exercise this week of writing one nice thing about each family member. Yesterday it was about Zander.
We were going to make bread yesterday but we ended up shopping last night and didn't get to, so we'll be making the bread today.
I also ordered piano lesson materials for Adisson. It's from Pianimals. They offer some samples on their website and I printed off those pages to see if Adisson liked them and he did, so I went ahead and got the A Book and the Holiday book. I know he'll LOVE learning some Christmas songs. He plays with my Grandma when we visit, as she's the only one with a piano, and he loves being able to show her something he's learned. So I'm excited that I think I've found something that he enjoys a little better than the stuff we've tried in the past.
We're also (or just me probably) working on stuff for the boys birthday party that is on the 29th. Instead of buying a pinata, I think Adisson and I are going to make one, but we'll see. That might be a little harder than I'm anticipating and I might just buy one instead. It's a circus themed birthday party. But I'm also planning a baby shower for my brother and his girlfriend for the same day, so I'm pretty busy with that. And some volunteering I've got going on this month for the Fisher House.
Anyway, that's what we're doing for school right now. I'm still searching endlessly online for a copy of Cranberry Thanksgiving so we can row it next week. But I'm pretty cheap and just can't justify spending $30 on a book. I know, it isn't a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, but I usually buy our books for under a dollar...it's just hard to think that I'll be spending that much money on a book that is in "fair" condition.
I hope your homeschooling adventures are taking you somewhere fun.
We continued working on our How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World lapbook. We didn't add much to our lapbook yesterday but we reviewed all of the country information we had made on Monday. We started a salt and evaporation expirement. We'll be adding those pages in the lapbook later this week.
Adisson started working on counting by fives yesterday. I think I'm going to purchse the counting by five's song by Skip Count Kid on Amazon.com. You can buy the whole album as MP3's and save over $4.00 over having the cd sent to you. I might do that instead of purchasing just one song. That way when it's time to learn how to count by other numbers I already have the songs.
We continued on with our handwriting exercise this week of writing one nice thing about each family member. Yesterday it was about Zander.
We were going to make bread yesterday but we ended up shopping last night and didn't get to, so we'll be making the bread today.
I also ordered piano lesson materials for Adisson. It's from Pianimals. They offer some samples on their website and I printed off those pages to see if Adisson liked them and he did, so I went ahead and got the A Book and the Holiday book. I know he'll LOVE learning some Christmas songs. He plays with my Grandma when we visit, as she's the only one with a piano, and he loves being able to show her something he's learned. So I'm excited that I think I've found something that he enjoys a little better than the stuff we've tried in the past.
We're also (or just me probably) working on stuff for the boys birthday party that is on the 29th. Instead of buying a pinata, I think Adisson and I are going to make one, but we'll see. That might be a little harder than I'm anticipating and I might just buy one instead. It's a circus themed birthday party. But I'm also planning a baby shower for my brother and his girlfriend for the same day, so I'm pretty busy with that. And some volunteering I've got going on this month for the Fisher House.
Anyway, that's what we're doing for school right now. I'm still searching endlessly online for a copy of Cranberry Thanksgiving so we can row it next week. But I'm pretty cheap and just can't justify spending $30 on a book. I know, it isn't a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, but I usually buy our books for under a dollar...it's just hard to think that I'll be spending that much money on a book that is in "fair" condition.
I hope your homeschooling adventures are taking you somewhere fun.
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