We had a nice weekend. Nothing crazy, but I'm happy about that. :) On Saturday, we went to a friend's house for dinner. We ate then the boys played while we played a board game. Nothing too thrilling (we were home by 8:30!) but I was happy just to spend time with them as they are moving in two months. I haven't said much about it, or thought much about it, but I'm definitely sad they are leaving. I know that's what military families do, but Adisson is pretty close to the boys and Laurissa is my closest friend down here. I keep praying for another family for us to get to spend time with, and oh my goodness, I'd love one that homeschooled, but so far, nothing.

On Sunday we went to church. I love it! And Zander just gets better and better about going to his little class. It's so sweet! He used to cry and scream. Now he plays with the kids. Not a lot, but there's no crying...so that THRILLS me!!! :)

Today was good. Zander started on some Letter of the Week stuff (www.letteroftheweek.com), though he wasn't too interested in it. Though, I did manage to get him to "mooooooo" really well for me! Adisson is working on "Three Names" with his Five in a Row. I had him watch a little bit of Little House on the Prairie. He wasn't too impressed, but I was just happy that he watched with little complaint. :) We looked at pictures of a one room schoolhouse online...still hoping to find one to put in his notebook. Tomorrow will be more involved, we're going over a lot of language arts goodies!! :) He did so well on his math today! We started several new topics today (including even/odd numbers, measuring with a ruler, and telling time) and he did WONDERFUL and it made me so happy!! :) He's also doing well with his Pianimals (www.pianimals.com) music lessons. He enjoys learning new stuff, though I can tell he gets his Type A personality from me. :)

It's good, it's great, and I'm loving it!

Praise the Lord!!

Sooooo, last weekend we finally made it up to Ohio to see my brand new nephew! And oh my gosh is he a cutie! The first time I held him, I started to think about wanting another. Ok, I'll be honest, the day he was born I started thinking that I wanted another one, holding him just made it a stronger feeling. I've been trying to convince my husband that we need another baby. His answer is absolutely a no, which has been the same feeling I've had since we had Zander. I love my boys...more than anything.....but my pregnancies and deliveries were VERY difficult. It's just not something Adam and I want to go through again. By the end of the weekend, I realized why we were certain we were done having children. Two is just a good number for us. Don't get me wrong, I feel the number of children a family decides to have it a personal choice and I think large families are amazing and wonderful. My best friend has four kids, which is large by some standards, small by others....and I L-O-V-E the Duggars!!! But for us, two is good. I still hold out some hope that Adam will have a change of heart in a few years and we can adopt, but I'm not sure my body can handle another baby and I'm fairly certain that Adam and I don't want to take that chance.

But my nephews are so very precious! :) I'm such a lucky aunt!!

This week has been a pretty average week. Nothing much going on. It's been cold here in Kintuck so we haven't been out much. Adisson's been enjoying a fun week of school. His reading is getting better and better. He still sometimes forgets what he's supposed to do when he gets to the end of a sentence....like a period....he doesn't always stop long enough before moving on to the next sentence so they kind of run on. Don't know where he gets that.... :) but we're working on it. School is usually pretty light for us most days. Technically Adisson is supposed to be in Kindergarten, though he's definitely on a first grade level in nearly everything, and he can read at a third grade level, but we still say Kindergarten. Sometimes I feel like I should push him harder, other times I feel like we should just take it easy and enjoy being a little kid....he'll have plenty of time to learn more when he's a little older....but I'm not sure what path I should be following. So in the meantime, we take it easy. :)

Today we're going to be doing a few science expirements, because Adisson loves science. I don't really because I don't understand it usually (not that bright when it comes to science). He got some really neat science kits for Christmas and I'd like to do some of those expirements today, hopefully every Friday.

This week I also decided to kick my Mt. Dew habit. Cold turkey. I don't mean I'll never drink Mt. Dew again, but I was drinking it all day, everyday. Seriously. That's all I had. So now I'm having juice and tea. I'm on Day Three of No Dew. :) It's going fine. Yesterday I was pretty exhausted. Mt. Dew has like more caffieine than any other regular soft drink so the crash coming down off of that was a big one! :) Last night the boys were being a handful as they were going to bed so I was getting a little short with them, all the while thinking...."Oh, I want a soda!!" :) But so far so good. :) Besides, Iced Tea is yummy! And still has caffeine! :)

I've gotta fold clothes and get the table set up for science. Later!

Well the weather was so nice for a few days, so I knew right away what was coming next, the rain and the storms. I really dislike storms. I hated them when I was growing up and I was terrified of them. Fortunately, it's not the storm itself that terrifies me, it's the fear of home damage. I'm not sure why I'm so worried, we have homeowner's insurance, but it what it is....storms make me nervous. In any case, it's raining today. :)

This week we are working on our Valentine's Day gifts and our Valentine's Day Fold N Learn from Five in a Row. Last night the boys made valentines for our family members using a stamp we made from a potato. :) They turned out wonderfully. I wrote Happy Valentine's Day on the inside and Adisson will sign them for himself and Zander. Sure I could have had him write Happy Valentine's Day in all of them, but that would have meant that only one card would have been completed as he would have quickly grown bored with the project.

I've got goodies for my nephews and niece, well, for the most part. I still need to pick up something for the babies and I still don't have the boys' gifts. I don't give candy, because I hate candy. That's not necessarily true....the problem is that I love candy. And I have given birth to a child that can smell chocolate from about 3.9 miles away. So I don't give candy. I would love it if no one gave us candy, but telling that to the Grandma's is like telling the sun not to set.

I don't have a gift for Adam, but I told him that I just wanted to exchange cards. We don't need anything. :) I'm also hoping that we could have a dinner with my brothers and their girlfriends but the girls don't really care for each other and we don't have a babysitter for the boys. I wanted to watch Fireproof with them. I'd still like to get the book The Love Dare for one of my brothers. I sincerely doubt he would do it, but I guess it's worth the $9.00 if there's a chance he might follow through.

Ok, I have to get laundry done today as the house has to be clean before we leave for Ohio on Thursday or Friday.

Be back soon!

So I didn't make it to Goodwill yesterday. It took Adam over ten hours to work on his car. The bad news is, it's still not fixed. He knows what the problem is....it's a tiny $3 piece of plastic!! Isn't that crazy?!?! :) Anyway, he'll work on it this week or when we get back from Ohio. Praise the Lord that we have two vehicles!! :) It means that we can't go anywhere during the day because Adam has the van, but that doesn't really bother me at all.

I didn't know if we'd get to church this morning, but we did. And I'm so glad. :D It's like God came to church and said "Nicole, this is what you gotta do...." It was wonderful. Unfortunately, God said I need to quiet down and wait for an answer. :) Those who know me, know there are a few things that I find difficult with that. I lack patience. And I hate knowing there is an answer and I don't know what it is. :)

An answer to what? Oh, well, without giving you an explanation as long as my arm, it's time for us to decide whether Adam gets out of the Army or stays in. And we don't know what to do. We have a plan for either scenario, well, for the most part. But we want to do what God wants us to do. We just don't know what that is, yet. Adam says "Then we wait." And I say "WHAT?!!" :D He sides with God. That's a smart move, but it still doesn't give me a decision!! :) But I was reminded today that God is faithful. And I know that, and He has proven that to me time and time again. And I'm faithful that He will answer me again. I just don't know why I can't accept that my time is NOT His time. I'm trying. I'm trying so hard!! :)

I was also reminded today how truly blessed I am in the boys that God has given me. My best friend had a daughter in October. My brother had another son last month. I escaped it last year, but last month it caught me. Baby fever. Despite my difficult pregnancies and deliveries, I want another baby. Unfortunately, Adam absolutely does not. And I'm guessing he's going to win that battle. And it's not that I'm not thankful for my boys because I am truly, undoubtedly, endlessly grateful. It's just a little hard sometimes to not have the daughter I was hoping for. On one hand, the idea of being done with diapers soon (not too soon, never soon enough!), to get to go somewhere without a stroller and a diaper bag, to not have binkies and sippy cups stashed everywhere....seems pretty enticing! But on the other, it's hard to accept that we truly are done having kids. But I'm still very happy with my family. Over the moon happy. Zander is the absolute sunshine in my every single day and Adisson is energy that propels our household. :)

Sometimes they drive me a little crazy, but that is their purpose in life right now. :) Today, Adisson has forgotten that the bottoms of his feet are not meant to be on furniture. He's been scolded several times for standing and bouncing. It's even more frustrating because he's six...HE KNOWS BETTER!!! :) And my little pumpkin....well, this evening he asked me to open his bottle of water. It was his brothers and only had about three ounces left in it, so I let him have it. If he spilled it, it wouldn't matter. I turned away and he said "TA-DA!" and I turned to him. He had taken his bottle of water and emptied it into my newly opened, ice cold Mt. Dew. :D Gotta love 2 year olds.

I guess I'm just rambling. That happens when I haven't gotten to talk to my best friend for awhile and we don't get to talk on the weekends.....so there ya have it. :)

I'll be back tomorrow with details of our Valentine's Day Lapbook!

Not much going on here in Kentucky, but trust me, I welcome the mundane. When Adam is home, it's so nice when things are boring and uneventful. It gives me the chance to revel in the wonderfulness that is having him here everyday. When he's gone, the silence of his absence is deafening and daily life is depressing. I do cherish every minute I have with my children and love all the blessings they bring to my life, but when Daddy is gone, life is hard.



This weekend doesn't seem too busy, either. Tomorrow is half off day at my local Goodwill, so I'm getting up early to head down there. And it is a MAD HOUSE on half off Saturday. Oh my goodness is it crazy. First of all, Clarksville, TN is a pretty big city, in my little world anyway. The population is 120,000+ and there are two Goodwill's...one just below North Clarksville and one waaaay down in southern Clarksville. I've never been to the southern Goodwill as it's easily 1/2 hour away. So the Goodwill I go to gets so busy on half off day that the line to each register goes all the way down clothing racks. So I have to get in the line that has the clothes that I want to look at, but it doesn't bother me as it's the few moments I get to myself. And I LOVE getting to scour the place for a bargain.



Adam has to fix his car. He's had a few problems with it for the last few weeks so he's been working on getting all that repaired. I'm so grateful that he's a good mechanic, and what he can't repair, his friends (mechanics in the Army) are usually pretty helpful with fixing. It's such a blessing to not have to pay repair costs at a garage. So he'll be busy with that allllll day tomorrow as it's a pretty big job to fix this latest thing.



Sunday we'll be at church. Then I think we'll be going through the house making a list of allllll the things that need repaired or replaced. We might be selling the house in a few months. Or we might not. It's hard to say. I'm praying a lot this week that God gives us some guidance on the best decision to make. I'm thinking we're going to have to decide this in about a week or so and I want to be sure that we're making the right decision. ........... anyway........

I've got to clean up the kitchen and head to bed. Adam and I are going to a military ball at the end of this month and I have been searching for a formal dress to wear. In the interest of saving money, and to be sure that I'm not wearing the same dress as anyone else, I'm thinking of giving a dress I already own a little makeover. So I'll be checking at Goodwill tomorrow for anything that might be able to help me along! :)

My sweet husband ended up having the day off yesterday. The good thing about the Army is that there are often days off for no reason. Of course the bad thing about the Army is that the days off are trumped exponetially by year long deployments. But when Daddy is home, school doesn't get done quite the same way. :) It's not a bad thing, it just is what it is. :)

We did get a lot more stuff done today. We're rowing Miss Rumphius this week. It's ok, just not a book that Adisson loves. We are also plugging away at his math. He does well and I know he's understanding it, he just HATES drilling addition and subtraction facts. And I don't blame him...ugh.

We were doing spelling lists, though mostly to work on his handwriting, not so much because I expect him to be an amazing speller at six. This week, however, we are trying some "journal" writing in a neat little notebook I picked up for him at Target a year ago. I don't know if we'll stick with that or go back to spelling lists. I'll see what he likes at the end of this week.

We've also gone back to his Explorer Bible Study of the Old Testament. I like the format and I like the stories. Adisson seems to enjoy it as well, which is always a plus. I am wanting to add in some verse memorization too, but I don't think this week will work since we lost a day yesterday. We'll work on that next week.

As far as reading, he can already read really well so we just work on reading chapter books that are a teensy bit difficult. We have some really great books that are five chapters long and set up to be read in a week so he's working his way through those books for now. After he's through with those, we'll see what we need to get next.

Now, on to other things. :) Yesterday we went shopping at Sam's Club. We don't buy too much there. We get diapers because it's really nice to have a pile of clean diapers ready for Mr. Stinky and not having to worry about running out to the store because we're down to our last diaper. Because then you get to the store and start picking up other things as well. :) We grabbed some wipes, some popcorn, an ENORMOUS bag of dog food, the movie Fireproof (WOO HOO!!) and Dave Ramsey's book "The Total Money Makeover" which I have been wanting. I read through all of it last night and LOVE IT! Adam and I are definitely on board with the principle's and ideas. I'm hoping we can definitely put the plan in motion and achieve our goals.

I already utilize several money saving ideas and strategies. :) I make our own detergent and household cleaners. I create menus for each pay period and write each night's meal on a calendar in the kitchen so there is no surprise at what's for dinner each night. I also buy a majority of my meat from Angel Food Ministries, which is more than just a money saving blessing, but also introduces us to recipes and meals I might not otherwise make.

Here's our menus for this week: (including what I've made already this week)
Sunday: Tacos and spanish rice
Monday: Tuna Noodle Casserole (what my family calls Toony Roony Casserole)
Tuesday: Steak, potatoes, and baked beans
Wednesday: Chicken and rice
Thursday: Pork riblets and something I haven't decided on yet. :)
Friday: Shepherd's Pie
Saturday: Chicken wings and cheese sticks

That's about I have for tonight. I've got to get the kiddos ready for bed. If they happen to get to sleep sometime soon, Adam and I might have a chance to watch our movie!!

Grocery budgets and what not

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. :)

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.

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. :)

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!!