(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Unexpected

On Sunday, we were in Cedar Hill and all of a sudden it started raining!  This cloud was right over our heads, and brought down a sudden downpour or a "gully washer" if you will.  It was completely unexpected as we haven't had rain for soooo long.  And since yesterday we officially hit 110 degrees, and today is calling for 111... I am already looking back on this lovely cloud with longing.  Please come again soon!

Not Back to School Blog Hop: Curriculum Week

While we aren't starting our "school year" until September, I have had our curriculum decided on, purchased and planned since May.  Every time I think about it, I'm all giddy to get started.  But I want Preston to have a nice summer break.  Last year, for Kindergarten, I used several workbooks, random worksheets and activities or lessons found online (I love my homeschool mom bloggers, you guys are amazing - and generous with your free printables, thank you!!!).  While I feel like we covered everything we needed to (or I wanted to anyway), it was rather disjointed and I would find myself taking a good chunk of Sunday evening to figure out what we were going to be doing the next week.  It just wasn't organized enough for me.  

So, for First Grade, I decided I wanted to look into some boxed curricula and see what I could do.  My mind was blown away at the realization of just how many options there are for homeschool curriculum.  Each had their own set of pros and cons, great reviews, terrible reviews and oh, the price tags on some of them!!!  Yikes!!!  The one I kept coming back to was My Father's World.  I liked what I read about.  I liked the samples I could see online.  I liked that it was affordable and complete.  I liked that it was Bible intensive.  I pretty much made up my mind, but I resolved to stay open to possibilities until after the Homeschool Bookfair in Arlington.  I told my husband what I was thinking, but didn't try to persuade him at all.  We sat in on a MFW session at the bookfair, where the woman talked about it and showed it off a bit, answered questions.  And after that, Michael told me he liked it and thought it was the right one.  I was so excited that we were on the same page!!!  We purchased the First Grade Deluxe set right then and there, and it arrived at our home within the week.

I have gone through about the first eight weeks of it, and really planned it out.  Yes, it is already pretty much planned for you, but I'm a little over-the-top... I need to see it, write it out and touch it for myself.  I also wanted to make sure I would be able to fit the lessons into workboxes and add in Hymns for the Kid's Heart and The Complete Book of Spanish.

And, as of now, it all looks like it's going to work out wonderfully.  On paper.  I know that my daydreams of how amazingly perfect it's going to be will probably be thrown out the window the minute we sit down and get started.  But, I'm hopeful and thinking positively about it... and praying that rubs off on Preston.  He is excited about being in First Grade, though I know he will be resistant to some of it.  My plan is to be gentle and fun, and go at a pace he can handle and will enjoy.  Plus, I have Callen to think about as well.  Last year when we were "doing school" he was great about eating breakfast, and then just playing in his high chair for a while, then nap... so he was occupied well.  This year, I have a feeling he's going to be fiesty - so I will definitely have to be coming up up with new things to keep him entertained or at least out of our hair - and hopefully do some fun "school" things with him too!  So, we'll see.  We start Thursday, September 8th!  (MFW suggests starting on a Thursday so that the child only has two days of the first week, and so that our "Exploration Days" fall on Wednesdays.)

Click here to see more of the fun "Curriculum Week" posts for the Not Back to School Blog Hop, hosted by Heart Of the Matter Online.

I am also linking up with Mishmash Maggie's MFW Blogroll 2011-2012.

Tweets to Remember, July 2011

Jul 1st - Hubby made blueberry pancakes, nice to have him home in the mornings! If only for the pancakes! =)

Jul 2nd - Enjoying our a/c, watching Francis The Talking Mule and loving life. Happy Saturday!

Jul 5th - Sad little lonely corner. Oh, the memories! Working All Request @PowerFM http://twitpic.com/5lsv7n

Jul 8th - My 5 yrold has been wearing his brother's shorts that are size 12mth all day long (in public!) & I didn't even notice until just now!

Jul 10th - Every Sunday morning, without fail, tears flow, fits are thrown. It's not funny, Satan, stop it. We're going to church!

Jul 13th - My 7:30am alarm just went off. Funny thing is, I thought it was 7:30 about 45-min ago when I got up.

Jul 15th - Our Friday nites are always so exciting! Oh wait, no... that's not me, nevermind.

Jul 17th - Preston burst into tears of jealousy after seeing the kid get an awesome comic-book inspired #homeschool room on Extreme Home Makeover.

Jul 19th - So, excited! I got the email today from @womenoffaith that I'll be attending the conference (Dallas) as a @booksneeze blogger! #wofott

Jul 22nd - Dear Neighbor, if you don't wanna be seen in your underwear, might wanna go to the trouble of putting on pants before getting your paper.

Jul 23rd - I can finally have bacon flavored coffee! #fb http://twitpic.com/5upva7

Jul 25th - Rawr, rawr, rawr, rawwwwrrrr, rawr. Know what I mean?

Jul 28th - Yeah, head stuck in the bottom part of chair. He's fine now, but geez! http://twitpic.com/5xgf8a

Jul 30th - Saturdays are for being lazy and watching The Monkees on TV. If u r doing anything else, u r doing it wrong.

3 in 30: August 2011

I actually just received something in the mail that is very timely considering I'm joing the 3in30 Challenge this month. As a BzzAgent, I have been doing the Domino Project Campaign, and they sent some of us a copy of Pick Four from Zig Ziglar (curated by Seth Godin).  It is, according to Amazon.com, "an updated version of Zig Ziglar’s legendary goal-setting program, The Performance Planner. Updated, simplified and introduced by Seth Godin, Pick Four, is designed to help anyone achieve his or her goals."  It's a very neat, wire-bound, fill in the blank-type journal that keeps track of your goal progress (and in the beginning helps you narrow down what your true goals are!).  So, see?  Very timely, eh?

I have decided that my three goals for the month of August are:

1) Stick closer to the schedule I created for our mornings.  School-wise, we are trying to make our way through two workbooks before actually starting up First Grade on September 8th.  If we keep on task, we'll be done with those books two weeks before our school year starts, so we need to stay on task and have a bit of a total break from school!  I also need to keep the boys on that schedule so they have their nap/quiet time each day so I can work on my business.  And if that happens, I can get more done in that one chunk, so I don't have to be working here and there and there and here and feel like I'm doing it alllll day long (thereby not spending enough time just playing with the kids).  So, this one is pretty important.  All that to say that my goal is: Stay on schedule!

2)  Continue to keep after the house.  I did the "31 Days to Clean Challenge" in May, and it felt so great to have a clean home!  I want to have that feeling all the time!  I know it's practically impossible with two rambunctious boys, my floor will ALWAYS have crumbs no matter how hard I try.  But I can do a better job at staying after important stuff like dusting, keeping the bathrooms clean, vacuuming, etc.  I want it to be routine, without even having to think about it!  And I certainly don't want my house to get out of control! 

3)  And my last goal is to spend more time with my husband.  He works two jobs.  He's gone all day long most days of the week.  But there is time that we're together, we just usually spend it doing different things in different parts of the house.  I want to spend more quality time with him, and make sure he knows how much I appreciate what he does for our family!  I would like to try to make sure the time that we do spend together is not spent arguing or complaining to each other... I want it to be covered in love, appreciation, respect and honor!

So, those are my three attainable goals for the month of August.  They aren't earth shattering or world changing, but they're a start!  And that's pretty much all I can hope for right now...