Making A House a Home...

Every so often I get bitten by the #DECLUTTERALLTHETHINGS bug and I'll get on a roll making my house not only livable but pleasing to the eye.  It usually dies off pretty quickly, but I am left feeling somewhat accomplished.  Until it all builds up again.  Endless cycle of getting rid of stuff, bringing in stuff, moving stuff around, etc.

The other day I was lamenting how our tiny bread box was just silly at this point, because it couldn't hold the amount of bread items we regularly have, and it spilled over looking cluttery.  A friend of mine posted a cute wire basket she had just purchased to use for her bread and I was like DANGIT, I want something like that.  I hit up Pinterest for ideas, searched some shopping sites, but just didn't really see what I was looking for.  In the midst of all that, I decided I needed a shelving system to use as a pantry in my kitchen, too.  My cabinets have built in shelves that are incredibly short, so things like cereal boxes, syrup, tall bottles only fit in the ONE cabinet that IS tall enough... over the stove.  This leads to my kids climbing up on the cabinet and over the stove to get their cereal.  Not cool.  Also, the other day I may have expressed envy of my friend's pantry and my husband decided he would "get me a pantry!" Whatever that means.  So, I measured and researched and figured out that for $15 I could get the perfect sized shelf system for our little nook behind the backdoor.  Off to IKEA!

We got our shelves and a plain wooden crate to serve as a bread box, plus had dinner and coffee, too.  I love my new-to-me kitchen and am working to declutter it to have some actual counter space. I also plan to paint the ceiling and walls in the very near future.  Cannot wait to have that project over with!  All this time with the yellow, we are overdue a change!

Anyway, I ended up decluttering the hall cabinet that houses things like medicines, extra towels and random stuff of all kinds, too.  Now I feel the closet in the Littles' room calling me.  Oh, dear.  That's a big job that I've undertaken many times and it finds it's way into a mess so very quickly!  Michael also got inspired to work a little more organization into his tool closet.  So, we'll see where that goes.

We have lived in this house for 4.5 years, and sometimes I wonder why we haven't done certain things sooner.  Time, effort, money, or simply just not even thinking of it!

A Most Eventful Weekend...

On our way to ALR!

Two of my upline and I headed off on a road trip on Thursday (Jan 8th) to Ridgedale, MO (near Branson) for the Advanced Leadership Conference with our company, Usborne Books & More.  Our trip up was nice, trouble-free.  Stephanie and Holly had made the drive the year before in a dense fog and kept joking about how they almost died because they could not see... and there are a lot of high, mountain passes and twisty curves, so, yes... they had been in danger!  Our drive was fine, though.  We made it to the beautiful Big Cedar Lodge and had a wonderful first evening and full day of training the next.  The boys were staying with my parents Thursday evening, and Michael picked them up on Friday after he got off from work. 

Well, very late Friday night Michael started having what he thought were bad heartburn pains, and then coughing up blood.  He called me at 3am saying, "I think I have an emergency."  I tried to calm him down and figure out what was going on, but I'm not good at anything medical, so I didn't know.  When I hung up with Michael after that call, I didn't know what he was going to do... and since I didn't hear back from him, I figured it must have passed and he went back to sleep.  I didn't sleep much myself wondering and worrying, but got a text from him about 7am saying "I'm not dead yet, but at the ER.  Running tests!"  I didn't realize he had driven himself and the boys to the ER (and apparently Callen put up a big mean fuss about being woken up, yikes!)  Thankfully, Michael's parents are down for a two-month long visit and staying relatively near by, so Steve came and got the boys from the ER and brought them back to our house and they went back to bed.  I called my mom and asked her to go to the house and take over for Steve so he could go back up to the hospital to be with Michael.

After going back and forth through text with Michael and Steve, turns out the tests pointed to Michael's gallbladder and it needed to be removed ASAP.  SURGERY!  I was so upset that I wasn't there and was having a really hard time deciding between staying where I was and rushing back to Texas by myself.  Everyone told me to stay where I was, so I listened.  Michael was in good hands at the hospital, his dad was there, my kids were with my mom... there wasn't much I could do.  I tried to continue with a full-day of sitting through training, but I had a difficult time concentrating.  The word spread quickly and everyone was coming up asking questions and offering prayers and and nice words.  I even got a hug and a few words of encouragement from Randall White, our President/CEO.  I remember crying a lot, praying a lot and blowing up my phone with texts and calls all day long.  Michael's surgery kept getting pushed back, till finally about 5pm, he went in.  I could have been there had I left that morning.  The surgery went well, and this gallbladder was full of stones, according to the doctor.  He had 4 holes poked into him.  He stayed over night and was released on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday morning was the day we were supposed to leave Big Cedar Lodge and the girls riding with me agreed we could leave at 6am, so we jumped up and got in the car (in our PJs and all!), intending to miss a storm that was coming in from the Northeast.  Well, turns out we ran smack dab into the middle of one that was in Arkansas.  The main freeway was shut down and there was about a 2 hours standstill reported, so the GPS offered an alternate route, which LOOKED like it bypassed the mountains completely.  That seemed like a good idea at the time.  Well, we soon found out it steadily went right up a mountain and was far less traveled, which is NOT a good combination.  We passed many cars spun off on to the sides of the road and kept going.  Then we got to a part with a sign that read "Steep Slope Ahead."  Uh oh.  Indeed.  The entire highway was a giant sheet of ice, and there was absolutely nothing I could do anymore.... there was no way to accelerate so we just kind of came to a slow stop, and then the car started sliding sideways.  We slid, almost in slow motion, into a guard rail on the side of the road.  It was pretty much a straight drop down the other side of it, but luckily we just struck the guard rail a little.  We tried to get out, but the highway was, as I said, one giant sheet of ice, it was impossible to cross or walk around on.  We didn't see any other civilization, no real houses or businesses.  So, we sat there for a while, charging up our phones, calling 911 to let them know where we were exactly, letting our loved ones know we had a bit of delay, lol. 

Just slowly slid and stopped there.

Solid sheet of ice!

We sat on the side of the road there for about an hour and a half.  We got periodic calls from the 911 dispatch saying they couldn't come to us because all of their resources were stuck, too.  The firetruck had slid off into a ditch, the two sheriff trucks were off the roads, the wrecker was wrecked, etc.  REALLY!  We pretty much made it the farthest up the mountain out of anyone, and no one could come for us!  At one point we saw some hope!  A sand truck was making it's way up and around the corner, but then before our very eyes, it slid off the road, too.  Thankfully, the fireman who had the firetruck off into the ditch a little ways down came to check on that guy, and saw us!  He was able to make his way over to use and ask us if we wanted to come down to where he and a bunch of others were gathered in some warm work trucks.  My car wouldn't start at that point, I had ran the battery down charging the phones and such, oops!  So, we decided to take him up on that.  We gathered some stuff and blankets and headed along the guard rail with him down the mountain.  A little ways down I noticed a house across the street, and having to go to the bathroom pretty badly by then, wondered out loud if those people were home because it'd be nice to use there bathroom!!!  The sweet Fireman, grabbed his phone and goes, "Let me call them!"  We then realized we were in a town of 399 people, everyone knew everyone in Winslow, AR!  Thankfully, they were home and we could come use their bathroom, but we had to figure out how to cross the highway, which was solid ice.  Fireman Shane said he had witnessed a lady walk along on her blanket for traction, so we tried it and worked.  Was a very interesting experience shuffling along across a highway on a blanket (IN MY PJs, mind you!), but it worked. 

These sweet older couple let us into their home and we used their bathroom, they offered us coffee and cookies and said we could stay there as long as we needed.  Stephanie asked if they were football fans and they turned on the Cowboy game for us, lol.  They served us lunch and everything.  We had a wonderful time getting to know these people who saved our lives.  At this point I hadn't told Michael what had happened because I didn't want him worrying about me, so when I found out he was finally home with his mom, I called and told him the story.  We tried so hard to get up early and get home as fast as we could, we ended up with an extra 5-hour delay.  Finally, it rained a bit and warmed up a little, so the sand truck was able to drive backwards, sanding himself up the mountain.  We jump started the car and got it off the guard rail and everything looked fine.  The sweet couple escorted us all the way back down to the mountain and over to the main freeway again.  And we were on our way home at last.  I got home about 9pm on Sunday.

Whew.  What a weekend to remember!  Thankfully, Michael is doing much better now, he is healing very well and back to moving around and working and all that.  The dent in the car popped itself out pretty much, which is awesome.  And good grief, I learned my lesson about Arkansas back roads!

Halloween 2014

We had a pretty easy-going Halloween this year, as I just was not in the mood for much.  I was being a bit of a humbug, and the boys couldn't decide on what they wanted to be.  We purchased a Bilbo Baggins Hobbit costume last year on clearance for Preston to wear this year, only it was STILL too big for him.  And Callen kept saying he wanted to be "a Wolf again, no.. Mario, no... a wolf," etc.

A few hours before our little town's Trick Or Treat Around the Square began, the boys finally decided.  Preston would be Clark Kent - not Superman, mind you.  And Callen would be Fireman Small (one of our favorite books!).  Easy enough!  We had all the stuff to put Preston's costume together, and Callen wore an old costume from when Preston was 3 years old, haha.  And they ended up looking great!

Clark Kent

Fireman Small

Posers.

In front of the firetruck!

Even Daddy got in on the dressing up while working on the yard!

We spent the rest of the evening watching Garfield, Charlie Brown, etc.  Didn't get a single trick or treater at our door this year, even though we were prepared!

Rough Week, But Not Entirely Bad

This has been a strange one, y'all.  Started off with me sleeping on my arm funny and then being in excruciating pain for two days.  Like, can't move my arm without gasping in pain and sobbing.  I cried while trying to wash my hair in the shower.  Never had that issue before.  After some prodding from friends, I went to the AMAZING Dr. Taylor at Crossroads Natural Health in Grand Prairie, and within 12-hours of her magic touch, my arm was 98% better.  I could move without crying... yay!

Preston's skin allergies had a nasty flare up.  We have been having problems with it a lot lately.  We went to the Asthma/Allergy doctor a while back and he was put on two rounds of antibiotics because the doc thought it was infection, possibly staph.  It got a little better... but it would flare up here and there.  Well, on Wednesday night it was so bad Preston could NOT stop scratching at it and crying, and he certainly couldn't sleep.  Michael and I tried everything we could think of to soothe him, but no luck... he finally passed out from exhaustion.  We broke down, and thanks to my parents, purchased some super expensive cream the doc has suggested (and we had used in the past) and we tried it yesterday.  His legs are less itchy, yes, but ... right before dinner, he started throwing up and continued well into the middle of the night.  I mean, really?  I don't know if it's related to his skin allergies, or something completely different.  I am just praying that when he wakes up this morning, we can be done with all of it.

In the middle of all this going on, I found a huge brown tarantula in the bathroom.  Hear that?  IN THE BATHROOM.  Now, I've come to be somewhat at peace with them burrowing their holes into our yard (Michael is NOT at peace with that), but when I find them IN my house, NOPE.  No, no, nuh-uh.

Callen is "rawring" at the approaching storm.

The highlights of the week have been getting to spend some good, quality one-on-one time with my friends Regina and Nadia.  Also, sitting and having a real, uninterrupted conversation with my husband on some serious things we needed to discuss.  Obviously, nothing bad or it wouldn't be a highlight, would it?  And, I dunno... the week wasn't entire wretched besides the overwhelming number of 'gahhhhh' that happened.  Here's hoping now that it's Friday, we can catch a nice break and enjoy the weekend!

Stupid Unknown (Medical Issues)...

"He is an excellent hurler." I actually typed those words out earlier in a comment on my Facebook page, in reference to Preston.  Truly, he is.  He gets it from me.  Poor kid.

This morning he woke up at 7am and got all ready and came in to wake me up because he was so excited about going to a church basketball day-camp.  I sent him back to bed because it was TOO EARLY.  Then, when I woke him up at the right time, he said "I have a headache... and a tummy ache" and ran for the bathroom.  Then he sat in the bathroom floor and cried because, "Why did I have to throw up today?!  WHY????"  I felt so bad for him, and I don't have an answer to his question either.

A very similar episode occurred just last week.  And about a month before that he woke up in the middle of the night with this same problem.  I'm glad he's an excellent hurler, but at the same time, I wish I knew why he had so much experience.  This has been going on for years, but never this close together.  I usually attribute it to simply "something he ate."  But I just don't know anymore.

I can't link it to any specific food, activity or situation at this point.  I don't see a pattern.  Which means I don't know what to avoid or how to fix it.  Stupid 'unknown.'

The 'unknown' already causes Michael's chronic migraines and nerve pain in his back/leg. He has had so many tests and they all come back positive or negative just as they should, no indication of what's causing his ailments.  The doctors just prescribe more tests, and at this point, we can't afford it anymore (nor the ones he's already had that have put us into more debt).  So... unknown, it is.

I just keep praying for complete healing.  Or, at least, a solid answer.

We all have a job...

I saw this image posted on a family-friendly company's facebook page.  And it got me a bit riled up, and instead of posting a crazy long comment on FB, I decided to bring it over to the long-forgotten blog.

I honestly don't know which way the person who created this card intended it to be read, nor do I even know which way the company who posted it intended it to be read.  Or, perhaps, the point was to leave it open for interpretation... because the comments below the post were cuh-razy, y'all.

Some women got all hyped up amen-ing it, reading it as sarcastic.  Like, I do ALLLLL this stuff because my husband has a "job." Look at what all is required of me, isn't that a job?  I deserve more recognition, he just sits at a desk all day while I blah blah...  He gets off easy "going to work" while my job is here 24/7, blah blah. Stupid stereotypical man's work vs. women's work, so old fashioned, blah bah.

I kinda giggled when I read it because I had literally just come in from mowing the rest of the yard after getting home from working most of the day at Power FM.  Now, I don't normally do yard work and I don't normally "go to work" much anymore.  While I DO take out the trash (y'know, man's work, har har), he is great about taking care of the yard stuffs.  Well, yesterday, he came home from a full day of work, and as he was getting out of the car, I was getting in mine to head to work at Power FM for the evening, so there was barely a "hello!" between us.  It's one of THOSE weeks.  So, after getting home from a full day of work, he was suddenly in charge of the children, had to make dinner for them, started mowing the yard and then they had to leave for AWANA across town (daddy chauffeur and chef, hmm).  He didn't finish the yard.  The next day (yesterday) was one of those days where he is gone before the sun comes up and gets home long after it's down, so he wasn't going to be able to finish then either.  He asked me to do it.  I admit, I pouted a tiny bit (that mean 'ole lawnmower hates me), but I did it.  I came home from MY work day, attended the kids, got out there mowed the lawn, made dinner, finished up school with Preston, etc.  And, you know what?  This morning I got out there and used the spreader to lay down bug-b-gone junk.  Boom.

All this to say that a family is a team.  You take on the role you need to.  Single parents have to do it ALL.  There are lots of amazing stay-at-home dads while the wife works and supports the family.  There are families, where (gasp!) BOTH mom and dad work.  What?  Then, there are lots of traditional-looking families where the man works, the wife stays at home and takes care of kids and house.  SO WHAT?!  Why is "tradition" so bad anyway?  If that's the way you and your spouse decide that your family is going to work, ROCK ON!  No one should shame you for being a stay-at-home-mom or a housewife, geez.  Yes, a mom's job is HARD, no one should ever deny that.  A dad's job is just as difficult.  I know my husband feels the pressure of having to provide for his family, and that's why he works 2-3 jobs at at a time.  It isn't ideal.  And it isn't because he WANTS to be away from his family so much.  It's because the economy sucks, and he can't work one job that pays him enough to make ends meet.  And we want to make ends meet, don't we?  His job is to bring in income, and my job is to make that income stretch as far as it can, and occasionally add to it with my little jobs.  We are a team.  He watches the kids while I work and I watch the kids while he does.  We have made the decisions together and we are happy with it.  And while sometimes I wished I was the one who was away from the house ALL DAY LONG (mama needs a break once in a while, right?), I truly love being here with my kids and being the one in charge of their learning and being.  I know that my husband appreciates me and recognizes it for what it is, my job.  And I love and respect him for being willing to do what he does for us so that we can be in this position.  My husband is wonderful, and while it does put extra pressure on me to do a few things that are considered men's work... OH WELL. 

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.  

Happy 11th Anniversary to Us!

Looking through our wedding album.

Michael and I celebrated our 11th Wedding Anniversary on Saturday.  We had a great time together, too.  We dropped the boys off with my parents after lunch, and went to see the Titanic Exhibit at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.  My friend Veronica works there and scored us some discounted tickets, woot woot!

Me and Veronica in front of the "boat."

I have always been interested in the history of the Titanic tragedy.  Michael wasn't terribly thrilled to go, but ended up thinking it was interesting anyway.  We actually TOUCHED a piece of the hull... how cool is that?!  Also, when you start, they give you a "boarding pass" and on the back it has information about one of the real people from the voyage, and at the end you see if you survived or not.  A little morbid, perhaps, but I thought it was pretty neat.  My person was a 34-year-old 2nd class passenger with her kids, 8 and 2 (wow!), and she and the kids survived.  Michael was a 1st class passenger, yet he, his wife and daughter didn't survive (though his 1 yr old son did!).  Crazy, huh?  Anyway, I really enjoyed seeing the artifacts that used to lay beneath the sea for so long. 

After the exhibit, we drove around Fort Worth a bit trying to figure out what to do till dinner... the Titanic exhibit had only lasted about an hour so we had a lot of time to spare.  We explored a little, then headed to Sundance Square.  We visited the Thomas Kinkade gallery, the Barnes & Noble down there (the first one I ever experienced back in the day, haha) and walked around.  For dinner, we went to Pizzeria Uno's.  Mmm!  So good!  The waitstaff there was so funny... this one guy kept busting out in song and getting stuff stuck in my head. 

Ridiculously delicious!

After dinner, we walked around some more and then at 7:30 it was time for our carriage ride.  What?  Haha.  Michael reserved a tour of the square via carriage ride.  So fun!  Lived in Fort Worth almost all of my life, never done THAT before.  Our horse was nicknamed "Lucky" for the weekend (St Patrick's Day weekend) and had sparkly green hooves and everything!  Haha.  Michael picked just the right time for us to take the ride, too... the weather was perfect, the sun was setting.  So romantic!

Giddy up, Luck!

Happy couple!  After all these years!

Despite the construction, it was a fun ride!

After the ride, we reluctantly headed back to pick up the boys and get back to normal life.  Lol.  It was so great to get to spend a fun day with my husband, just the two of us.  It's so rare these days.  But I'm glad we were able to do it on our anniversary!  Thanks, honey!

Homeschool Recap, March 15th (Week 28)...

In my life this week...

It was a gorgeous week, the weather was perfect for Spring Break (other kids were on it, we weren't).  It was really nice that we didn't have anything going on in the evenings... Michael was off from teaching, there was no scouts or Awana.  It was great to have some down time!  We got to hang out with our homeschool group for a meeting on Tuesday and then with some other homeschool moms and kids at the park on Friday.  And I got to have a girl's night out with some friends, even.  Total win.

Enjoying the weather and the backyard.

Chalking.  I drew Perry the Platypus for Callen.

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "W" for Window!  We read a few books having to do with windows, like Sophie's Window, Right Outside My Window, Outside The Window, The Hello Goodbye Window and Ten Dogs in the Window.

My precious three-yr-old enjoying breakfast outside.

Bible:   This week's name of Jesus was "Good Shepherd." Preston's memory verse is John 10:14 and we looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked about Jesus being a shepherd and us being the lambs.  We added to the Names of Jesus branch, which is nearly full!  Wow.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure. Continued with lesson 68-69 in Primary Language Lessons. We started a new read-aloud, which goes along with Jesus the "Good Shepherd."  It's called Mountain Born, and was written by Elizabeth Yates.  To be honest, it is not keeping the kids' attention at all, and I'm stumbling over the language (and big words, lol).  Plus, the first two chapters are pretty depressing/disturbing.  Thankfully this book only takes two weeks... I believe we'll be glad to be done with it.

History: This week Preston continued learning about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.  We read from Red, White & Blue and Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt.

Math: Preston continued Part B of Math Mammoth, Second Grade.  Continued Chapter 9, and worked on adding money and making change. 

Science:  This week's lesson were about energy, forces, hot & cold and gravity, all from The First Encyclopedia of Science.  Preston gets the concepts, but we're still having a hard time notebooking things that he's learned.  He doesn't enjoy writing a few sentences about it, so that has been a big battle this week.  He did enjoy the experiment we did using a bottle and a balloon, with expansion and contraction.  We ran hot water over the bottle, put the balloon over the opening, then stuck the bottle into cold water... the balloon was sucked in.  Then we put the bottle in hot water and it was blown back out.

Music/Art: Our patriotic song this week was "Battle Hymn of the Republic."  We also continued our World's Greatest Artists, Vol 1 unit study, with our sixth artist: Pablo Picasso. This week, we read from Usborne Children's Book of Art and Famous Artists.  Preston colored a picture like Three Musicians. We listened to another track from Tchaikovsky Sleeping Beauty and continued the story.

Spanish: Since we are done with Salsa, and don't have the next disc for Las Clase Divertida... we've slowed down on Spanish work lately.  We used a cheap, little work book on food this week just to review those terms.  We also finished up the pages of First Thousand Words in Spanish, with "La fiero y El Circo."

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, January 18th (Week 21)...

In my life this week...

I think, for the most part, our sicknesses have ended.  There is still a lot of sniffling going around, and Michael's ears are not healed yet... but we are tons better than we have been.  This week flew by, once again.  We had our ups and downs, as usual.  Michael started his class, teaching several nights a week.  He's got a big class this time, compared to last semester's FOUR students.  Praying it goes smoothly for him this time around.  The boys seemed to be having a pretty rough go of it in the behavior department the early part of the week, which made me one tired mama.  The weather warmed up a bit so they've been able to play outside some the last few days and for HOURS today, so I think that helps.  

Places we're going...
Last Sunday we spent time with Michael's parents at their rental place in Dallas... we went to the park down the street and out to dinner to celebrate Jill's birthday. 

Family Shadow Photo at the park.

Our homeschool group took a field trip to one of the fire stations in our town that we've never been to before.  It was neat because they have a fireboat! 

Fire Boat!

Things I'm cooking...
Since the beginning of the year I've been trying hard to make a dinner menu plan for two weeks at a time.. and so far it's working well.  It helps me not have to suddenly think up something, or worse... run and get something... at the last minute.  Trying to keep from having to go to the store every time I want to cook something, too.  Doing my best to stick to the plan. Though, I admit, Monday night the boys didn't want what I had on the list and I didn't much want to cook it, so we had Brinner... but we are back on track now, lol.  Made some yummy roast last night.  The boys only liked the potatoes, but I thought the whole thing was tasty.

Yummy pot roast!

What I'm watching...
Well, our Netflix Streaming trial is about up... I finished Freaks & Geeks and Season 1 of Downton Abbey.  Had to find a place online that offers Season 2, lol.  I still have a few movies in my queue to try to squeeze in if I can, but pretty much watched everything I wanted to.  The boys haven't quite watched all 99 episodes of Phineas & Ferb yet.  I'm caught up on Once Upon a Time, Nashville, Parenthood and Bunheads... so, I'm good.  Haha. 

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "P" for Pencil and other school supplies!  We read a lot of books featuring other writing utensils: The Pencil, The Little Red Pen, The Good-Luck Pencil and Art's Supplies.  Callen is really progressing in his coloring... he seems to really enjoy it, though only in short spurts, of course.  He still throws crayons and unwraps them, sigh.  He is also enjoying is Crayola Dry Erase Activity Center Zany Play a lot.  Oh, and he loves "writing" along in his "America book" while Preston is working on his states and history lessons.  It's really just a $1 Store workbook that has info on all 50 states with dot-to-dots, little puzzles and a place to copy the names of the states.  He scribbles in it, does the puzzles if he can and such... I love it.

Bible:   This week's name of Jesus was The Vine. Preston's memory verse is John 15:5 and we looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked Jesus being the vine and God the gardener. 

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure. Continued with lesson 46-48 in Primary Language Lessons. We continued our read-aloud, On the Banks of Plum Creek, by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I think Preston is enjoying this one a bit more because there's more action happening in every chapter... Laura gets into a lot of mischief and he can relate, lol!

History: 
This week Preston learned about James Watt, who re-engineered the steam engine, and Robert Fulton, who created the paddle/steamboat, reading Watt Got You Started, Mr. Fulton?  We also learned about Indiana and Mississippi, reading A Fourth of July on the Plains, A Placed Called Freedom, Granddaddy's Gift and Freedom School, Yes!

Math: Preston continued Part B of Math Mammoth, Second Grade.  Started Chapter 7 on measuring all different kinds of ways.

Science:  This week's theme was floating and juice from fruit.  We read two pages of First Encyclopedia of Science on why things float.  Then we read through two pages of Science in the Kitchen and talked about how and why there is juice in fruit, and how some fruit juice can be used to dye cloth

Music/Art: Continued practicing "The Star-Spangled Banner."  We also continued our World's Greatest Artists, Vol 1 unit study, with our second artist: Michelangelo. We read a biography by Stanley.  We looked at more his paintings and sculptures, and Preston colored in a printout of The Holy Family. We are also listening to and learning more about Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.  The boys decided to put on "pretty dresses" one day when we were listening.  Haha!

Dancing the Swan Dance.

Spanish: Continued with the next episode of Salsa. Reviewed some of the things we have previously practiced with La Clase Divertida, like A-W, 1-20 and animals.  We reviewed words having to do with "Opposites" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish and went through some review using the Spanish Words & Phrases Flashcards. 


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, January 11th (Week 20)...

In my life this week...

Sickness.  We have been sick for weeeeeeeeks, but I think we're finally seeing an upturn.  I am feeling better, and the boys seem to be better, though they are both still coughing and producing tons of drainage (eww, sorry).  Michael went back to the doctor and got some different meds for labyrinthitis (ummm, ok), so hopefully he will be able to hear soon.  It sucks to work in an audio business and not be able to hear out of one ear.  Plus, he starts teaching his Audio II class next Tuesday... REALLY hoping he gets healed before that!  We had a homeschool support meeting on Tuesday and AWANA on Wednesday, it was so nice to get out of the house and do some normal things!

Other than that, Michael's parents are here so we're getting to see them a bit.  They're here till March, and the boys are eager to really get to spend some time with them while they're here.  

 

And we got back to school!

Back at it after a nice, long break!

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "O" for Ostrich and other African Animals!  We read a lot of books featuring African Animals:  If All the Animals Came Inside, The Water Hole, The Lonely Lioness & The Ostrich Chicks, How the Ostrich Got It's Long Neck, Ten Little Animals, Nanta's Lion, African Animals and Jungle Jack Hanna's Safari Adventure.  We also joined our homeschool group for an interesting activity involving a missionary to Africa.  A young lady who has visited Africa multiple times recorded a video all about the areas she's been to. Then, after the video, we called her on speaker phone and all the kids had a chance to ask her a question.  The kids really enjoyed that!

Bible:   This week's name of Jesus was The Vine. Preston's memory verse is John 15:5 and we looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked Jesus being the vine and God the gardener. 

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure. Continued with lesson 43-45 in Primary Language Lessons. We started our new read-aloud, On the Banks of Plum Creek, by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

History: 
This week Preston learned about the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis & Clark and the War of 1812.  We read from our Story of the U.S. about Thomas Jefferson's deal for the Louisiana Territory, read How We Crossed the West and watched a National Geographic documentary on Lewis & Clark's journey on Netflix and briefly read about the War of 1812 and writing of The Star-Spangled Banner in Red, White & Blue.  We studied about the state of Louisiana and read Four Little Old Men and The Story of Ruby Bridges, plus got some food from Popeye's Chicken.  The boys didn't like the red beans and rice, but I sure do!  Lol.

Yummy lunch!

Math: Preston continued Part B of Math Mammoth, Second Grade.  Finished up Chapter 6 of the book, and taking his chapter review, mixed review and chapter test.  He is zipping right through this stuff.

Science:  This week's theme was plants.  We read two pages of First Encyclopedia of Science.  We were supposed to do a corn kernal growing experiment, but I didn't have any... so we just didn't do it.  Preston read from some other library books on the subject: Start Science: Plants, People Need Plants and Trees, Weeds & Vegetables: So Many Kinds of Plants!

Music/Art: Finished practicing "There are Many Flags" and moved on to "The Star-Spangled Banner" to coincide with the info on the War of 1812 we learned in history.  Preston already knows the first verse, of course.  We also continued our World's Greatest Artists, Vol 1 unit study, with our second artist: Michelangelo. We read about his from Famous Artists and a book called Michelangelo's World.  We looked at some of his paintings and sculptures, including The David, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and The Holy Family.  Preston and Callen colored in a small part of one of his paintings while upside down to see what it was like.

Sistine Chapel puzzle, Callen working on "O"

Coloring upside down is hard!

Spanish: Continued with the next episode of Salsa. Reviewed some of the things we have previously practiced with La Clase Divertida, like A-W, 1-20 and body parts.  We reviewed words having to do with ""Doing Things" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish and went through some review using the Spanish Words & Phrases Flashcards. 


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!]

Christmas 2012 Recap...

My goodness, here it is already January 8th, 2013... oops!  Being off of school for two weeks certainly didn't help me have extra time for anything... weird, huh?  I just realized I haven't blogged our Christmas, shared photos, etc.  Bad me!  I'll try to remember, though a lot of it is a daze because... honestly, we've been sick for the past 3-4 weeks.  Ugh, it's been awful for all four of us in the house.  But, we have had some good times in there, too!

Leading up to Christmas Eve, Preston and I attend some practices with the Children's ministry at GFC.  Preston was part of the production, and it went SO WELL!  The kids all did great, performing to Fred Hammond's "His Name is Jesus." Preston got to run around the whole sanctuary with a huge "Jesus" banner, and it was awesome!

His name is Jesus!  Jesus!

With all the Christmas Eve gifts!

After the Christmas Eve service, we went back to our house with my mom, dad and brother-in-law.  We had delicious food (including my mom's famous tuna sandwiches, lol) and we opened presents.

The boys received some wonderful gifts from Grandpa David and Grandma Darlene that they were very excited about, like Dreamlites!  Preston got the puppy to go with his puppy Pillow Pet and Callen got the giraffe he wanted.  They still go to sleep every night with those things on, they LOVE them... so funny.  Michael and I got coffee mugs and jeans, which were definitely needed!

Then, on Christmas morning, the boys woke up to their Santa gifts...

Santa brought Preston a Lego DS game, some funky notepads that change color when your write on them, cups, ear buds and some other stuff. Callen got a "Mario game" like he wanted (it was Yahtzee, not sure that's REALLY what he wanted, but he was happy with it, lol), and all kinds of little things too. We had breakfast and second breakfast (Michael made corn fritters!). Then Uncle Daniel came over and we opened presents, then went out to play in the snow. So incredible that we actually had a white Christmas... one that was white enough to really throw snowballs and SLED in. Preston was an expert sledder by the end of the day! So much fun!

Even though we were all sick off and on, we did some fun things like visit Mema, walk around the Galleria and see their giant Christmas tree.  We finished up our Advent/Christmas countdown with books.  Not sure I'll attempt that again, the boys fought over who got to unwrap the book every time, not exactly good for family bonding time.  Ha!  On New Year's Eve, we hung out with church friends, playing games and just having fun.  The rest of the time we rested, watched movies/tv, played games and enjoyed each others' company. 

Our Christmas book countdown!

 All in all, it was a great holiday vacation.  Hopefully we can finally get over our many illnesses and get back in the groove!  Happy New Year!

Homeschool Recap, November 30th (Week 17)...

In my life this week...

Ok, so really, I'm posting this on Monday evening... the week and weekend totally got away!  I had a two-day Usborne booth in Keller, so yeah... pure chaos at my house pretty much.  Michael did a fantastic job of taking care of the boys while I was away... they got haircuts, even!  And Preston lost a tooth!  Anyway, I thought I better make sure I get a recap posted, even though it features absolutely NO pictures.  Booooo!

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "L" for Leaf!  We read a lot of fun Fall books: Lucky Leaf, Leaves, Fletcher & The Falling Leaves, Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf and Why Do Leaves Change Color?

Bible:   This week's focus continued with Jesus as "Immanuel."  We continued learning O Come, O Come Emmanuel, the Christmas song.  Preston's memory verse is Matthew 1:23 and we looked up a couple of other verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked God being with us. 

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure.  Continued with lesson 34-36 in Primary Language Lessons. We continued our read-aloud, Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Both boys really enjoy this and ask for it (even Callen asks for it by name, heh).

History: 
This weeks main focus was life during the time of the Wilderness Road and Daniel Boone.  We read a few stories from our books about moving from New England further into Tennessee and Kentucky.  And our state study continued with Kentucky.  We read through Kentucky Facts & Symbols and the storybooks A Regular Rolling Noah and Counting On the Woods.

Math: Preston started his Part B of Math Mammoth, Second Grade.  Working on hundreds and skip counting by different numbers, using addition and subtraction.

Science:  This week's them was weather.  We read two pages of First Encyclopedia of Science on different kinds of weather.  And we talked about wind with our Science with Air book.

Music/Art: Continued learning "America, The Beautiful."  We also started on a World's Greatest Artists, Vol 1 unit study, and our first artist is Leonardo Da Vinci. We read a couple of biography books on him (Leonardo Da Vinci and Da Vinci), and looked at a bunch of his art online.  Next week we'll be trying to recreate some of his art!

Spanish: Continued with the next two episodes of Salsa. Started up La Clase Divertida, Lesson 7 about el cuerpo.  We reviewed words having to do with "El Cuerpo" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish. 


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, November 9th (Week 16)...

In my life this week...

I am posting this recap only, y'know, 4 days late, but who's counting, right?  Hmm.  We had a great school week last week, but a crazy busy weekend.  I had three Usborne booths/events, just one after the other.  That certainly kept us hopping!  Feel like I totally abandoned my family for the whole weekend, but I really did have fun.  And the work I put in helped to further my business and get my recruit to hit her first important sales goal, which in the end, helps me too!  Thankfully, this week we are taking things easy and doing only Thanksgiving studies, and next week we'll be completely off of school to focus on Thanksgiving.  Woo hoo!

Oh, and on Tuesday, we closely watched the results of the election.  I helped Preston keep track of poll results on a map.  We wrote in how many electoral votes each state got and colored in the state as the polls were called.  At first it was great fun for him, but eventually, he was bored and I finished it up for him.  Ha!

Charting the results as the come in.

Finished project.

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "K" for Keys!  It was supposed to include other household items, but we didn't really go into that too much.  We did read a couple of abc/counting books from the library: Little Birds ABC and Anno's Counting House.

Bible:   This week's focus was on Jesus as "Immanuel."  So, of course, we started learning the Christmas song.  I only know the first verse, so we both get to learn as we go!  Preston's memory verse is Matthew 1:23 and we looked up a couple of other verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked God being with us.  We'll continue on this subject after Thanksgiving.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure.  Continued with lesson 31-33 in Primary Language Lessons. We continued our read-aloud, Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Both boys really enjoy this and ask for it (even Callen asks for it by name, heh).

History: 
Rhode Island - Books: Rhode Islands Facts & Symbols and Some of the Adventures of Rhode Island Red (tall tales about a boy the size of an egg and raised by chickens, lol).
Vermont - Books: Vermont Facts & Symbols and The Canada Geese Quilt.  I checked out the book and audio cassette from the library, but, of course, the cassette did not work at all. Sad face.  So, I sat and read the whole book to the boys.. and it's kinda sad, but they sat and listened (while I choked back tears and my voice broke, geez).
Only two states this week, then we studied about Daniel Boone.  We read from our Story of the U.S. and Pioneers book (from MFW), along with a booked called Bewildered for Three Days.  Preston read nearly the entire book outloud to me while I worked one afternoon, he did a great job.  We also did a lapbook on Daniel Boone from here.  It's loaded with info on his life, adventures and legends.  I had a lot of fun doing this with Preston, who seemed to enjoy it as well.  After Daddy got home, he showed it to him and they talked about how our family line is connected to Daniel Boone.

Finished lapbook and Daddy talking about our family tree.

Math: Preston finished up Chapter 5 in our Math Mammoth book, which also finished up the first workbook (there are two).  This last part was over fractions, which he has no problem with besides determining which is bigger when they're really close.  He did a Mixed Review of everything we've covered so far, a chapter review (geometric shapes and fractions) and then the test, making an 83%.

Science:  We went back to our Science with Air book, and talked about how can change the size of something (causing a bottle to expand or collapse on itself when heated or cooled) and how warm air rises.  Did some fun little simple experiments to emphasize those points.

Music/Art: Continued learning "America, The Beautiful" this week, and finished up listening to the CD of "The Nutcracker."  We also watched an online BBC version of the ballet... Callen and I fell asleep, Preston was quite bored.  Haha!  Oh well.  We tried!  We also read The Nutcracker Doll, which is a cute little story about a girl participating in the ballet.

Ninja superhero ballerinas.

Spanish: Continued with the next two episodes of Salsa. We reviewed words having to do with "La Fiesta" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish.  And we didn't do anything from La Clase Divertidas.


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, November 2nd (Week 14)...

In my life this week...

So, we took last week off of school as a bit of a "Fall Break," but also because I worked Wed-Fri at Power FM.  It was great to be back there for a little bit.  I had a blast catching up with everyone, meeting some new folks and just doing something different for a few days.  As soon as that was over, I had an UBAM booth at a Craft Fair in Fort Worth on Saturday all day long, meanwhile Michael went and picked up his dad from the airport... and he stayed with us through Tuesday evening.  We really enjoyed having him here, the kids had a lot of fun with Grandpa.  We had a Scout Meeting and Halloween and just a ton of errands and various things to do.  Felt like we shoulda taken this week off too, as school was definitely a challenge to squeeze into our day, lol. 

Enjoying time with grandpa in the nice weather!

Fun and food!

The boys found their Dorothy, Toto & Lion!

What I'm Watching on TV (well, not really on tv, online!)...
I'm missing SMASH and Bunheads... wondering if they're gonna come back.  And man, I hate waiting for new episodes of Psych, lol.  Right now I'm really only watching Parenthood and Once Upon a Time.  Occasionally I'll watch whatever show Michael is watching (he follows a bunch), like The Mentalist or NCIS.  I watched the first two episodes of Nashville last night.  We'll see. 

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "J" for Jellyfish and Under the Sea Life!  Callen seems to really enjoy all the fun pictures and information about fish and dolphins and whales and octopi and whatnot.  We checked out several tool books from the library, including The World of a Jellyfish, An Octopus is Amazing, A City Under The Sea, Clumsy Crab, Fidgety Fish and Abigale The Happy Whale.  I also found a little United States Workbook that Callen can do while we're working on the states with Preston.  Basically, he just pulled off all the stickers and stuck 'em on one page, but whatever... it's his.  Heh.

Matching Capital and Lower Case letters.

Learning about the States.

Bible:   Preston continued John 14:6.  We looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked Jesus being the only way to God, to heaven.  There are so many!

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure.  Preston stumbled a bit over 'houses' and 'kisses,' but I think he just wasn't focused that day, lol.  Continued with lesson 28-30 in Primary Language Lessons. We continued our read-aloud, Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. 

History: 
New Hampshire - Books: New Hampshire: Facts & Symbols and Ox-Cart Man.
Virginia - Books: Virginia, The Blue Hill Meadows and All Those Secrets of the World.
New York - Books: Journey Around New York From A-Z, The Copper Lady and Mirette and Bellini Cross Niagara Falls.
North Carolina - Books: North Carolina and Soap! Soap! Don't Forget The Soap!
Preston has a notebook page for each state, on the back is a bunch of information and interesting facts about the state, and on the front is a picture of the state, it's motto, state bird and flower, plus the year it came into the U.S.A.  He colors the page, writes the state capital and the state abbreviation.  He also colors in each state on a map of the U.S. as well (I make him hunt down where the state is located).

Working on New York!

Found a mini-version of the Statue of Liberty in Grand Prairie!

Math: Preston continued Chapter 5 of his Math Mammoth workbook this week, which is shapes and geometry.  We cut out and created a cube, cylinder, pyramid and a cone, and talked about things in the world that come in these shapes.

Science:  This week's focus continued to be birds.  While running around doing errands on Monday, Preston read from Birds, Nests & Eggs all about cardinals.  We also watched a video we borrowed from the library based on the book Birdsongs (also had Bees, Snails and Peacock Tails, which went along well with our shape study in math).  We also did the activity from a few weeks back where we made our own Edible Bird Nests!

Twigs, grass and mud bird nest - only not.

Music/Art: Continued learning "America, The Beautiful" this week, and listened to some more of "The Nutcracker."  The boys worked on some artwork involving making models from things around the house (recyclables). 

Spanish: Continued with the next two episodes of Salsa. We reviewed words having to do with "El Hospital" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish.  And we continued with Lesson 6 of La Clase Divertida!.


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!]