Spring Turns into Summer...

Well, we're on break from school.  You'd think I'd have more time to blog... but not really.  I still need to upload the pix from my real camera of our camping trip several weeks ago.  Oops.  And lots of other this and that's on my to-do list as well.

We are busy getting ready for a garage sale this weekend.  Trying to de-clutter the house.  Why?  Well, I'm sick of the clutter and everything collecting dust.  No more "maybe I'll need this someday..."  Ugh, no, get rid of it!  But, also because we are planning to put our house on the market and move.  Like soon.  CRAZY.  We've been here over 10 years.  And it's just time to get out from under it... find a bigger place in a different area and start over a bit.  Obviously, we don't want to go too far.  We are very connected to our church near here, our friends and my parents... obviously, can't wander off to far from them.   So, we're in full-swing to make this happen this time.  Talking and meeting with realtors, seeing what our options are, having a foundation company come out and fix what they can.  It's overwhelming, and honestly... terrifying.  But exciting as well.  Just praying that we are truly guided by God in all of our decisions with this.  Both of us really feel it's time to move, so... we're doing what we can to get that ball rolling.


The kids are going through their phases.  Callen is still in his "terrible two" mode despite having turned three in March.  He is challenging, and it's just a real good thing he's so darn cute.  Sheesh.  Preston pesters him like crazy and often completely lacks common sense, so he has his share of trouble.  I'm doing my best, but I often feel like such a huge parental failure with them so far.  Preston cries about everything.  Callen destroys everything.  I'm sure that most kids their age are like this, and I'm expecting too much on them and myself.  It's just hard sometimes to see the same mistakes day after day, and no real sense of them "learning" the right way to act/react.  I keep looking at myself and realizing that I'm the same exact way, though.  God must face-palm Himself a lot regarding my actions, too.  Lol. On a positive note, the boys and I have met a new family in our area that we have just fallen in love with.  They travel a lot so we have to take advantage of them when they're around, but The Stauffers have been a great addition to our friend circle in the short time we've known them.  April and I get along really well, as do Preston and her son, who is 8.  They have two girls, too... and Callen enjoys all of them! Another random, but positive, note is that the boys and I have enjoyed having smoothies lately.  Getting in our veggies where we can.  The boys have loved them all, so it's really easy to make us a quick drinkable lunch packed with fruits and veggies (spinach!).  I am loving having that option instead of always trying to come up with a lunch that they'll actually eat.  Whew!

Michael finished up his teaching semester yesterday and won't be taking on a Summer class since they wouldn't fit his regular full-time job schedule.  Hopefully he'll get to return in the Fall.  His full-time job seems to be going along just fine, no real news to report there apparently.  Other side things are going ok, and he only does pizza every once in a while when they need an extra hand and he's able.  His earache, migraine, hip/leg pains are all still present and bothersome.  As are the many medical bills arriving constantly for the things we've tried to do for those particular ailments.  I just want him to feel good again.  Is that too much to ask?  He works so hard to provide for his family, it just isn't fair that he always has to be so miserable.  The boys have enjoyed utilizing Netflix with him and they watch episode after episode of superhero cartoons.  I'm glad that Michael is good at deciding which ones are appropriate for their ages, 'cuz I have no idea.  But they're quickly becoming experts on all things superhero and comic books, haha.

I was able to accomplish this year's Connect4Challenge with my Usborne Books & More business.  I am going to convention in June for FREE!  That'll be such a blessing.  A chance to get away, learn more about making my business successful, meeting a bunch of people I only know via Facebook.  I'm really looking forward to it!  After the last four months of steady action, taking a bit of a break in May and then I have a bunch of events lined up for June to hopefully get right back into the swing of things.  Getting the commission checks for those months was definitely a nice thing, plus... now I don't have to spend out-of-pocket money and feel guilty about going to convention!  Woo hoo!

That's about all I can muster at the moment, as far as an update goes.  I do have several things on my to-do list that need to get knocked out over the next few months, so... prayers that those get taken care of easily.  And prayers that this moving business is a smooth transition for all of us.  I'm a natural worrier and get extremely stressed out with big change like this.  I'm TRYING to take it easy and go with the flow, but that is just not how I'm wired.  

Homeschool Recap, May 3rd (Week 34) DONE!

In our lives this week...
Just gotta say, so glad to be DONE for a little while.  We've got some crazy stuff up in the air, and I need a break to focus energies elsewhere.  However, the boys NEED activity, so can't sit still for long.  We'll see what can be done with our brief time out.

Even at 7, still an adorable sleeper!

In our Homeschool this week...

Tot School: What tot school?  ;)

Enjoying a good book and some sunshine.

Bible:   This week's name of Jesus was "The Alpha & Omega" and Preston's memory verse is Revelation 21:6. We looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that explained how Jesus is the first and the last!  Put our final picture up on the branch.  Isn't it awesome?

Names of Jesus Branch

Reading/Writing: We finished Spelling by Sound & Structure. Did a few final reviews/tests of words Preston has struggled with over the year. 

History: This week Preston learned about Alaska (read and watched the movie Balto) and Hawaii (read The Island-Below-The-Star) to close out the 50 states.  The boys enjoyed listening to the audio book The Scrambled States of America.  We also learned about the White House, and wrote a letter to the President and finished out our wall time line.  Reviewed some of the things in the History Notebook.

Working on White House facts and worksheets.

Math: Preston is finished going through comprehensive reviews of each chapter using Math Mammoth worksheets, and took his year-end test.  He did great.  Really, the only questions he missed was because he didn't read the instructions and/or pay close enough attention to the signs. 

Science:  This week's we learned about a few more birds in Birds, Nests & Eggs. And used First Encyclopedia to talk about electricity and computers.

Music/Art: Done.

Spanish: Did a Spanish alphabet review and read a few easy reader books in Spanish.

We did it.  ALL DONE with 2nd Grade!!!

We are using Adventures in My Father's World. See our curriculum here.



[This post contains affiliate links for Usborne Books & More and Amazon.com.  By clicking on those links and purchasing items, you are helping me continue to be a SAHM so that I can focus on homeschooling my children!  Thank you!]

Homeschool Recap, April 26th (Week 33)...

In our lives this week...
I worked Share-A-Thon at Power FM three days this week while the boys stayed with grandma... so, needless to say, schooling took a backseat a good chunk of the week.  However, it was our second-to-last week of school, and I didn't want to get off track so we can officially end next Friday!  We squeezed lessons in where we could and finished it up on Saturday morning.  Whew.

A picture to share...

Preston aced the STAAR tests!

Everyone was posting about how stressed they and their kids were regarding the STAAR tests this week.  I had to rub it in a little that we don't have such silly things.  Lol.

It's beautiful!  Don't touch it!!!

I have the best mom ever.  She not only watches my kids for me, but organized my nightmare of a tupperware cabinet.  Seriously, the best mom ever.

People we're seeing...
On Monday, we met up with a couple of other ladies (April and Jessica) and their kids from our homeschool group to play at the park.  Then, on Tuesday, I invited April and her kids over for a movie night.  The kids wanted to watch Kronk's New Groove, lol.  It's so awesome having a new friend who homeschools, has kids around the same age as mine and lives nearly around the corner!  Thank you, Lord, for this awesome new friendship!  Oh, and thanks to Eddie for introducing us... he knew we'd hit it off!  Then, of course, it was nice to see all my Power FM peeps the rest of the week.  Love that crew, they still feel like family even after I've been gone so long.


In our Homeschool this week...

Tot School: Pretty much nothing formal in the way of schooling for Callen this week.  We did read If You Give a Pig a Pancake (several times) and Frederick by Lionni.

Bible:   This week's name of Jesus was "The Word" and Preston's memory verse is John 1:1. We looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that explained how important The Word is, and words, in general, are too.  We talked about the use of words, and read about Helen Keller.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure. We finished with In Grandma's Attic, our last read-aloud, and Preston wrote a brief summary of the book.  This one was fun, it was all about how much trouble "Grandma" used to get in as a little girl and the lessons she learned from her mischief.  Pretty sure Preston could relate.  Lol.

History: This week Preston learned about inventors like Thomas Edison, The Wright Brothers and Henry Ford, as well as four states: Utah, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona.  My parents just returned from a vacation in Arizona at the Grand Canyon so it was fun to learn about the state they told us all about.  Books we read this week included: Leah's Pony, A Wizard From the Start (about Thomas Edison), First Flight and Welcome to the Sea of Sand (poem about an Arizona desert).

Math: Preston is going through comprehensive reviews of each chapter using Math Mammoth worksheets, trying to see what we still need help on.  He seems to have a good grasp on what we've reviewed so far!

Science:  This week's we learned about a few more birds in Birds, Nests & Eggs. And used Science with Air to learn about air's movement and how planes fly.

Music/Art: We sang through the "Armed Services Medley" one last time.

Spanish: Pretty much just quit with Spanish for the year.  =)

We are using Adventures in My Father's World. See our curriculum here.



[This post contains affiliate links for Usborne Books & More and Amazon.com.  By clicking on those links and purchasing items, you are helping me continue to be a SAHM so that I can focus on homeschooling my children!  Thank you!]

Homeschool Recap, April 19th (Week 32)...

It wasn't even that hot outside!

In our lives this week...

Three weeks ago, we had our A/C company come out to do a routine inspection/tune-up so that when warm weather got here we wouldn't suddenly find out it was broken (like we have several years in a row!).  He came out, said everything was fine.  Then, on Sunday, a few hours after we turned the system on because it was warm and humid, water began leaking through our garage cieling.  Yep... out they came again to fix a PVC pipe that had come unsealed.  And then, on Tuesday, after we returned home from the dentist (Preston had to get a cavity-filled), I turned the A/C back on and several hours later, I realized it wasn't very cool in the house.  I looked and, sure enough, the unit was not cooling to the temperature it was supposed to.  Waited till about 11:30 at night, and the guys finally showed up, said it was a solid block of ice and it looked like the refrigerant was used up.  Um, shouldn't the guy have noticed it was low either Sunday or three weeks ago?  Sigh.  They didn't have any and couldn't do anything with it all frozen, anyway, so we were put on "priority" for first thing in the morning.  Annnnnd, we didn't see the guy until after 4pm that next day (priority, eh?).  He said the refrigerant was fine, it just wasn't getting released as it should so he fixed that.  Thankfully, it's been fine since then.  But man, I am so tired of trouble with our still-new, not-yet-paid-for unit. Hopefully, this will be the only trouble we have this year and we can get through the summer just fine?!?!  Praying so!

In our Homeschool this week...

Tot School: Since we're done with our A-Z stuff, Callen didn't do much "school" this week.  He did some doodling in the Wipe-Clean First Letters book and a few other dry-erase books he has, as well as coloring books.

Bible:   This week's name of Jesus was "The Word" and Preston's memory verse is John 1:1. We looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked about Jesus being The Word.  Preston did his copywork and we added the verse to our Names of Jesus branch on the wall.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure. Finished with lessons 79-82 in Primary Language Lessons. That's all of that for the year!  We continued with In Grandma's Attic, our last read-aloud. 

My happy readers!

History: This week Preston learned about inventors, as well as four states: Montana, Washington, Idaho and Wyoming.  Books we read included: Volcano: Eruption & Healing of Mt. St. Helens, Mailing Mae and Potato: A Tale from the Great Depression.

Math: Preston finished Part B of Math Mammoth, Second Grade!  Completed a mixed review, a chapter review and the Chapter 10 test.  All that's left is a few more reviews and an end of the year test next week!

Preston with his multiplication tables card from Phoenix Trading.

Science:  This week's lessons were about Sound.  Did a couple of pages from The First Encyclopedia of Science. And used some info out of Science with Air about how air affects sound, as well.

Music/Art: Our patriotic song this week was "Armed Services Medley." We finished our World's Greatest Artists, Vol 1 unit study by constructing a lapbook portfolio of all that we learned and Preston's artwork.  Can't wait to show it off!

Spanish: Pretty much just quit with Spanish for the year.  =)

We are using Adventures in My Father's World. See our curriculum here.



[This post contains affiliate links for Usborne Books & More and Amazon.com.  By clicking on those links and purchasing items, you are helping me continue to be a SAHM so that I can focus on homeschooling my children!  Thank you!]