Crawling Around

Once again I am on Karly's netbook so no pictures. Just think of my cute baby while I type this. It's really easy. She's so stinkin' cute.
She is all over the place right now. She is crawling, cruising, and even starting to stand up by herself. Yeah. It's crazy. The Doctor said yesterday to watch her because she'll be taking her first steps any time now. I believe that.
She is very spoiled and LOVES to be held. Her second favorite position is down on the floor with NO barriers. She does not like the barriers in the play yard though she is learning to accept them.
It's really easiest for me to put her down in my room while I work on the computer in here or do my walking workout.
To do that I have to make sure the room is safe. I have to close the bathroom door because she loves to crawl in there and EEWW... it's the bathroom. It's clean but it's the bathroom. LOL I have to make sure there is nothing heavy she can pull down on herself. I have to make sure the room is swept and mopped really well.
We have cats so we have lots of cat hair around the house. We also have laminate floors so the dust bunnies try to take over. She loves to chase the cat hair and dust bunnies so we have to make sure they are all up.
Her favorite thing to do is to empty a basket or box of clothes. When I want to keep her occupied in our room I will put a couple of boxes of the clothes I have packed up for her down and she will go to town.
All of our outlets in this room are plugged and we have all the cords out of her reach.
I am working this weekend on moving out some of the other clutter that is in my room so she can roam all over the room. She loves to explore and I plan to put various things she can explore in different parts of the room.
She'll be happy and I will be able to work on some stuff on the computer.
It's fun to watch her. I enjoy making a nice room for her to learn in as she grows.
I have taken some pictures of my room. I will finish up this weekend and take some more to post next week.
Be Blessed!

How many times do I have to go through this?

"I'm done!" "I can't do this anymore!" "I'm just going to send them all back to school!"
The past few months have been filled with these phrases. It's been hard. You all know that. I have whined about it plenty. You also know I am heading out of the slump and into a new day. My love for homeschooling, homemaking, mothering, and all that goes with it is back.
Want to know what I am figuring out?

We ordered the CLE books at the level *I* wanted the children to be at.
Tomorrow we will do the diagnostic testing CLE recommends to figure out where you *should* place your children.
I LOVE CLE so far but I have to face it, my kids are really, really, really far behind where they should be. Did I mention it's been a rough 2 years?
Tomorrow I will take a deep breath and deal with it. That's step one to getting my kids education back on track.



The next step REALLY surprised me. You see, I have gone astray from my original homeschooling goals. I have wandered away from where I found my passion for homeschooling. I decided it was too hard and too much work to follow the plan.
Now, I am swimming upstream and kicking myself.
As I read through the Well Trained Mind boards I realized what I realized back in 2006 when I started this journey.
I LOVE the classical education model. I LOVE The Well Trained Mind. I really do. I love the way they do History. I love the way they do Science. I love the way they teach writing.
As this realization dawned on me I dusted off my copy of TWTM and started to read again.
Yes. YES. YES!! Now I remember!


I don't know what Classical Education and The Well Trained Mind and Teaching The Trivium will look like around here this go round.
I'm still working through that. I know it will include CLE for Math and Grammar. I know it will involve backing my 6th and 5th grader up in the writing department and working through the skills they need to be great writers and communicators. It will mean adding in a writing program for my 3rd graders. It will mean a lot more reading around here. It will mean a lot more writing around here.
It won't look like the first time around when I crashed and burned. I'm going to figure out how our family can be successful. I am not going to worry about content as much as skill.
I am excited to be excited about homeschooling again. I know I have a long road ahead to make up for the years I gave away.

Be Blessed!

P.S. My next post should be a homemaking post. :)

Our family and youth group

From their earliest ages we have kept our children with us in church. We have taught them how to be respectful by listening quietly and sitting still. Yes, during the toddler days we had to take them out a few times to show them we meant business but it was only a few times. We searched the scriptures and could not find any instruction for Children's Church. As a matter of fact all we could find was families being taught together. That sealed the deal for us, since God's word is our instruction manual for life we decided that our children would worship with us.

We were uncomfortable with youth groups as well. We could not find the purpose in them. We prayed and prayed and searched the scriptures some more. Nothing on youth groups. In fact it looked like young men and women were expected to begin acting like adults. Hmm.. we began to think when our oldest was about 10 that we would probably forgo the youth group as well. Around the time we made that decision I read about this guy and his book.

This was it, everything I wanted to say but could not find the words for. When DH read it he asked if Pastor Baucham had a recording device in our room listening to our words of late. He'd echoed so many of our thoughts.

Recently in our church a new youth group began. My oldest is 13 and in 6th grade now. We were approached a few times with encouragement for her to attend. We really, really thought about letting her try because we trust the leaders. In the end we were not comfortable with it. Then we saw this video. I also had a conversation with a mother who'd homeschooled and let her kids go to youth group. She said her kids were strong in their faith and growing so much that she let them go to the church youth group. She said her youngest who just graduated is the only one still living a life of faith and going to church. She said by the time she saw the damage in her older children she only had time to pull her youngest out for the last few years. Once again our conviction was confirmed.

No, I don't think every child who goes to youth group will wander away. I did not. The argument that slays me is when people tell me that because my kids are not in youth group/children's church they will probably rebel. Really? So, if my kids are in these programs you promise they won't rebel? Sorry, I don't buy that.

If God does not instruct us in youth group why do we think we need to rework God's plan. Plan A (God's plan) so let's revamp it and call it Plan B (Youth Group). We know kids today and they need this.

Not my kids.

Be Blessed!

Cleaning up

I have been thinking for awhile of cleaning my blog up some. I have been blogging for awhile. I love looking back and seeing how I have grown and changed. It's also been a source of serious conviction in some areas. This past winter as I was dealing with being allergic to winter I read through some posts and realized that what was missing in my life was my passion. I used to be so passionate about my duties here at home.
I feel that passion coming back and I am so excited!
I don't yet know what I'll be changing around here.
I guess we'll all just have to wait and see!

Be Blessed!

Excitement

I am using my daughter's notebook computer to type up this post and I don't have any pictures on it, so a picture free post. I do have some cute ones to share if I can ever talk my DH into giving me back my computer. ;)

I have had a feeling welling up inside of me for the past few days. I was not sure what it was until today. I am excited again. Excited about homeschooling, excited about being a mom, excited about being a homemaker... just excited.
I love winter so this is going to be hard for me to say, but I think I may be allergic to winter. Ever since the sunshine started showing her sweet face again and the flowers started to bloom I have felt so much better. I know there is a technical name for being allergic to winter, but it's just so S.A.D. ;0).
Maybe it has to do with getting our new curriculum. We are using Christian Light Publications LightUnits now.
I used to be totally against the "boxed curriculum" for my family, but with everything going on school was falling behind. This is my solution. It's saving all of our behinds. LOL

I am working on getting my house into shape again. This also means making this house work for me. Yes, we still have plans to move, but with the unemployment and the housing market I don't know when that will be. So, I am working smarter. Starting with getting rid of anything that will not fit into this house. I used to love decorating my house but when the house started getting cramped I removed a lot of my decorative stuff and began boxing it up to use again someday. Well, someday might be a long time from now. I took inventory of what I have and really I don't have anything I can't replace one day. So out it's going.
We are moving our school room and play room into the great room. The kids are the majority in this house so it would just make sense that we make that their main room. I am thinking even of really decluttering my kitchen to the barest essentials and making room for us to eat in there freeing up our dining room for something more.
Once the school room/playroom is finished I will take some pictures and post them.

A few weeks ago we went to a church 4 hours away to see Pastor Voddie Baucham. He is such an inspiration to me and I am thrilled to say that as much as my husband enjoyed his books hearing the man in person sealed the deal. For almost 3 weeks straight we have had family worship almost every day. He's leading it and initiating it. He's always believed it but I think it overwhelmed him. Pastor Baucham laid it out step by step and my husband took it and ran with it! AMAZING. Pastor Baucham even stopped to admire my sweet baby. Missing his own baby girl I am sure. :)

Well, after all the hum drum posts I have put up I just could not wait to put up a positive post! Thanks for hanging with me. I'm hoping this will last. :)
Be Blessed!

The Ground Beef Post

This week we are a little short on cash but we have a freezer full of ground beef. I sat down and thought of cheap meals we could have out of the pantry.

Here is the list I came up with:

Spaghetti: I buy tomato sauce and stewed and diced tomatoes at Costco by the case so we always have enough on hand to make pasta sauce. Spices and brown sugar finished off the sauce. Last time we were at Costco they had Whole Wheat pasta by the case so I picked up three cases.

Chili: I buy bags of beans and cook and freeze them all the time. So we have kidney beans in the freezer. The cases of Tomatoes and sauce come in handy here as well. Just add the ground beef and spices and top with a little cheese, that we also buy in bulk and the it's dinner time. I have cornmeal so I will probably make corn muffins to go with the chili.

Shepherd's Pie: Frozen mixed vegetables, some BBQ sauce, ground beef, mashed potatoes, and cheese.

Poor Man's Stroganoff and frozen broccoli: Whatever noodles I have on hand, ground beef, sour cream, mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese. It's much better than it sounds. :)

Hamburgers and baked beans: ground beef, dried onions, garlic powder, Worcester sauce mixed together and made into a patty. Topped with cheese and tomato on a hamburger bun.

"Hamburger Helper" and frozen corn: my own mix. Diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, some spices, ground beef, and shredded cheddar all mixed together with whatever noodles I have on hand.

Of course if we get tired of eating off of our ground beef stash I also have lentils and black beans and rice that I could make.

We go to Costco about every two-three months and stock up on meat, cheese, and tomato products. Sometimes we get other stuff but so far those are the things that seem to be the cheapest at Costco. It's amazing with those three things on hand how many meals I can make.
I get our rice and pasta there sometimes. I love their frozen broccoli and we get a few bags of that, but we don't really like a lot of the other frozen veggies there.

At the store yesterday all I had to buy was frozen veggies, two packs of lentils, sour cream, eggs, a couple of tomatoes, flour, grits, tortillas, hamburger buns, and bread.

I have not gotten back into making our bread yet so I still buy the best I can at the grocery store.

Just a little peek into our menu for the week. :)

Be Blessed!

So much to say

I have a few quiet minutes and I have so much to cram into this time of blogging.

First I do want to follow through on the grocery post but we have not done a lot of grocery shopping the last couple of weeks. Just eating out of the freezer/pantry.

I will try to work through it and figure something out. :)

DH is still unemployed so we are doing all we can to make our money stretch. In March it will be 2 years. It's really taught us a lot about trusting God.


I am working through a Bible study book called Becoming More Than a Good Bible Study Girl by Lysa TerKeurst. It's been a real blessing in helping me to get back on track. One thing I read that just blew my socks off was that there is a battle going on for you and your affections everyday. Of course the devil does not want you to spend quiet/quality time with God so he will fight for your time. When I read this I thought, hmm, who do I want to see win? Do I want to see the devil have ANY victory? It has really helped me to be more committed to my time with God.

We are still in limbo with homeschooling. Finally I decided I had to switch some stuff up. I thought we were going with Math U See, and we still might, but in researching I found Christian Light Education. Someone from the Well Trained Mind message board said she used it for Math and Language Arts and I thought, YES! I have tried so hard to stay away from workbook type curriculum that it never occurred to me to use them for the necessary and not so fun subjects. It will really free me up to spend more time with the fun stuff like History and Science. Also CLE really fosters independence which I so very much need from my older kids right now.

I might even order the Science books so I can make sure they are getting science and then add in more living books and hands on stuff as I get the chance. As soon as we have a little more money I am going to order the next set of God's Design For Science. I really enjoy those books for Science. For history the younger kids are using Story of the World while my 6th grader is using Mystery of History.

For writing my 6th grader is using Writing Strands. My 5th grader is doing copy work and my 3rd graders are using A Reason For Handwriting the transition book.

Lily is growing so much. She is crawling and standing and even doing a bit of cruising. She is 8m old today. I was pushing a cart around the children's museum the other day and she was holding on to the back and taking a few steps. I can't believe that it's already been 8 months! I feel like I was just having her yesterday. Last night we found her very first tooth poking through. What am I going to do with this baby?

She only weighs about 14 pounds and she is so short that her 3-6m clothes all still fit her perfectly. It's a good thing because when I looked at the 6-9m box the other day it was a pretty empty. I have some clothes but it looks like a trip to the consignment store will be in order. I love it there so it's no hard thing for me. :) I can get the cutest outfits for $2 and $3. A little more pricey than the thrift store but I know the clothes are clean and intact.

Well my quiet time is coming to an end as I hear little people stirring. I had fun sharing what is going on with us. I do love to blog.

Be Blessed!