Starting School, 2018-2019...

All done with 3rd Grade, age 8

Finished 7th Grade, age 12

Preston and Callen successfully wrapped up their 7th and 3rd grade years in the middle of May.  After just a couple of weeks off, on June 1st, we were right back at it, starting up their 8th and 4th grade years.  Hard to believe, but yep... my big guys are growing quickly!  Since Preston started First Grade, we have used My Father's World as our core curriculum.  It worked well for both boys, we all liked it a lot.  But... this year, because my hands are full chasing two littles, I need the boys to be able to do their work more independently.  We are trying out the free online Christian-based curriculum called Easy Peasy All in One Homeschool.  We are about 10 days in, and so far, so good.  The boys seem to like it, and while there has been a small learning curve (them figuring out how to follow instructions I'm not reading to them, lol), they seem to be doing well.  Did I mention it was free?  Yeah, that's awesome!  Here are a few pix from our first day...

Ready to start a new chapter

Of course, Josie wants in on the action.

Summer 2017 Recap with an Announcement...

Our official summer vacation was pretty short.  The boys finished school mid-May and started back up on July 10th.  In that little window we managed to squeeze in quite a few fun summer activities...

The boys participated in two different Vacation Bible Schools, they went to MRBC's Sports Camp again this year, and had Swim Lessons.  We took part in free Slurpee Day and Cow Appreciation Day.  They played tons of video games and watched way too much Netflix.

Who can say no to a free slurpee?

Entirely FREE meals for looking silly, we're in!

We also were able to sell our Saturn Vue, which lacked A/C, and buy a new-to-us Dodge Grand Caravan!  Which is good, because... turns out, we also need the extra room.  Read on...

Our first ride to church in our van!

It's so pretty!!!

Yep...we are expecting Baby Clark #4 due early December!  Back in April I had been feeling crummy from a cold, but on Easter I realized that I was feeling strange and all of my clothes fit a little funny.  I took a test, and WOW - can you say shocked?!  It took quite a while to get over that feeling (and honestly, we're still a little blown away by it!).  We told our parents that evening.  And announced to the "world" when I was about 9 weeks along - we kept letting it slip, so figured we might as well just tell everyone.  We're not good at secrets.  The exciting thing is several friends are due around the same time as us!  And most of those are complete surprises, too!  Haha.  I had morning (all-day) sickness up until about 16 weeks, and will find out if we're having a boy/girl in just a few days!  So exciting!

Silly Easter Bunny left us a surprise!

Facebook announcement photo.

Her shirt says Little Sis, haha!

End of Summer 2015

I just realized I haven't posted the blog in a while, though I post them often on Instagram.  Here are a few from our summer to get you caught up.  ;)

ECCHO (Ellis County Christian Homeschool Organization) had an end-of-summer reading celebration at a little splash pad/park in Corsicana so we took a bit of a road trip to check it out.

We started Enrichment Classes with ECCHO here in Midlothian.  Preston is taking Scooby-Doo Mysteries, Singing, P.E and Board Games.  Callen is doing Storytime Activities, Scissor Skills, Creative Play and Little Builders.  And so far (after one day), they LOVE it.

I took the boys to the American Airlines/C.R. Smith Museum for the Lego Castle Adventure Exhibit.  We had the place to ourselves for the most part, and the boys had a blast!

The boys have had a great time just being creative and playing.

Our little town was in the spotlight for a little while, when a hate group demanded the local elementary schools take down their dedication plaques because they mentioned God and has the words "Soli Deo Gloria" on them.  There were several prayer rallies and peaceful protests, and, for now, the plaques are back on display.

Michigan Vacation 2014 in a Glimpse...

Click image below to be taken to full slideshow.



A quick recap of our trip to Michigan and back!

Left on Friday, August 1st, as soon as we could after Michael got off work. Drove FOREVER to get to St. Louis, stayed with Sarah and Benjamin for the night, left early.  Arrived in Michigan by dinner time on Saturday.

Sunday was church, lunch at Pekadill's with Aunt Laura, saw Jason, swam in the COLD water at Duck Lake and Lake Michigan, played at a park.

Monday, rested, played outside and at the park, Jill hosted a book party with friends, guys went for mini-golf.

Tuesday, we hit three lighthouses on the West Michigan lighthouse tour (Silverlake, White River Light Station and Little Sable).

Wednesday was Michael's birthday. We hit the farmer's market, boys went out on the fishing boat, Jill and I went shopping, met up with Laura and Sarah, had tacos and birthday cake.

Thursday we went back out to finish the lighthouse tour with Big Sable Lighthouse, visited Pentwater and Hart for actual "authentic" Mexican food. Amazing!

Friday, blueberry picking, visited Grandma Kathy, Michael and I went to Unity Fest (saw Hawk Nelson, Britt Nicole and Matthew West), the boys spent time with Grandma and Grandpa.

Saturday we had breakfast with Brittany, Michael's neice, had lunch with Grandma Kathy and Aunt Laura, visited some of the old parts of town, including the cemetary. I stayed with the boys to prepare for our departure, while Michael went with his parents to see Phil Keaggy in concert.

Sunday, we left early morning and drove to Regina & Kevin's house, had dinner, met Layne Rogers for ice cream, slept. Got up and returned home on Monday evening!

Whew. I'm tired all over again just recapping that adventure!

First Week of School 2014...

Last week kicked of our first official week back in school.  At least for Preston.  We started My Father's World Creation to the Greeks, aka "4th Grade."  Callen will start doing more preschool type stuff once we get back from vacation in a few weeks.  All in all, the week went pretty smoothly, and Preston seemed to enjoy it.  As did I. 

We were blessed with unseasonably cool weather.  Like, we went outside, in the middle of the day, in July... and didn't die.  It was cuh-razy, but awesome!  We also learned about celebrating the Sabbath and what that entails, and tried our hand at having a special Sabbath dinner together on Friday night.  Because of our crazy busy schedule, it ended up being Hot 'n' Ready pizzas and crazy bread, but... the idea got across just fine.  It was a neat experience.  I hope we are able to do more of these feast celebrations as the year progresses!

Here are a bunch of pictures of the week...

All ready to go the night before!

Preston is a 4th Grader!

Keeping Callen busy!

Art, a lesson in frustration!

Chalking outside in the middle of the day, in July!

A google.

Worn out.

A puppet show at the library on Friday.

Sabbath dinner on Friday evening.

Flowers from my front garden bed for our center piece.

Celebrating 25 Years of UBAM, National Convention 2014...

I spent this past weekend with my Usborne Buddies in Paradise (aka Tulsa, OK) for National Convention.  Usborne Books & More celebrated it's 25th Anniversary this year and they went CRAZY for convention.  It was so much fun.  Despite hotel issues (which were themselves cray-cray), the whole experience was just what I hoped.  I was able to further bond with some of my teammates, including new ones!  We got great training, received a bunch of new titles and just had a pure blast! I am definitely motivated to promote to Team Leader in the VERY near future and am definitely gonna work towards earning a trip to IRELAND!  Oh yes, bring it on!

Roommates!

President/CEO of UBAM, Randall White

5 generations of our team!

About 100 new titles are available today and they are AMAZING.  You definitely want to check them out at www.HeyJadeBooks.com.  Also, they rolled out a new kit special.  You can start your own Usborne Business for only $69 now through July 31st.  What a great offer!  Plus, hosting a party in July gets you Double FREE Books, our best hostess benefit.  JULY is already off to a great start and it's not even here yet!

Homeschool Recap, Year 2013-2014

So, we are officially done with school for this 'year.'  Preston finished 3rd Grade and Callen did a few preschooler type stuff, but mostly he just played and tagged along with brother's stuff.  This school year did not go at all as I wanted it to, but we tried to make the best of it.  And all in all, we accomplished what we needed to. 

It was off to a rocky start because I didn't start us when I normally would have since our house was on the market.  We hoped it would be a quick sale, so I kept hoping we would be able to start when we were moved and settled.  But it wasn't, and we didn't.  And then, since we got a later start than I wanted, I felt like the rest of the year was rushed.  I didn't HAVE to do it this way, but I did.  Because I wanted to get back on track with the next 'school year.'  Anyway, we survived, and truthfully, that's what matters, right?  Lol.

Starting with Callen... I intended to do Before Five In A Row with him for the whole year.  But, we really only ever got through about three books (Yellow Ball, My Blue Boat and Jessie Bear What Will You Wear?), and he just wasn't ready to sit and have his own projects.  His 'school' became coloring and sticker books and watching PBS Kids most of the time.  He did learn about the continents a bit since he was around while I was teaching Preston, and he really enjoyed working on the big felt world map, moving the animals around and such.  He recognizes all of his letters and numbers, he knows what most of the letters sound like, can spell his name or recognize it when it's written on something, he has a great vocabulary and uses big words in sentences correctly.  And he finally learned how to pronounce his c's and g's, that was a major breakthrough right after his 4th birthday in March!

Coloring a continent!

On to Preston... we used My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures and we (I say we because I was learning geography right along with him!) learned about a lot of countries in the world.  While I don't expect him to have them all memorized and tons of details about each one, he got pretty good with the Geography Game, so I call that a win!  He got good grades in math was we went over multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, and more.  He learned how to form letters in cursive and they look great (while often his print is horrendous!).  We read a bunch of missionary stories and learned that so many other places and people in this world need prayer!  We also learned about animals from different countries and ecosystems in various part of the world, too. 

All done with 3rd Grade!

 Even though we're done with school, in June we are doing a lapbook as we read through the easy version of Treasure Island.  And we will start up our new school year in July!  We will be doing My Father's World Creation to Greeks, and I will once again try out Before Five In a Row with Callen.  Looking forward to getting back on our year-round schedule so we can take plenty of breaks during the year and not get burnt out!

House Update, We're Moving!

Thursday, 9/19 Let it Begin: I can only hope and pray that this second contract on our house is the final contract we'll need.  The family came by yesterday to look at the house again.  They made an offer, we countered, they accepted and the contract was signed today.  So... we're back in this!  Now, off to find the house of our dreams...

x

Monday, 9/23 Update: We found a house we really like Midlothian and put in an offer yesterday.  So, waiting to hear how the inspection panned out for our own house and to hear if the sellers of the other house accept our offer or not.  Eep!

x

Friday, 9/27 Update:  It's been an emotional couple of days, y'all.  The inspection came back on our house and the buyers only asked for a few simple repairs.  No problem!  Their option period ended yesterday, so it appears we are full steam ahead on the selling of our house!  And we were proceeding just fine with the Midlo house, the sellers countered, we re-countered and they accepted.  Woo hoo, everything was falling into place beautifully.  But then, all of a sudden, we found out that Midlothian was being kicked off the USDA land list as of October 1st.  That didn't give us enough time to get everything submitted and close and all that.  So, we can't use the 0-down-payment financing that was our plan.  Y'know, the whole reason we were looking outside the "metroplex" in the first place, so we didn't have to come up with a down payment from out of nowhere (we are simply breaking even on the selling of our house, not earning anything in that transaction). But, after much prayer and conversation with a number of people (and each other), we have decided to continue pursuing that house with regular financing, and we'll come up with a down payment somehow.  It's scary, but we feel confident that this is right, so we're pressing on.  We have sent in our option fee, our earnest money and we have an inspector scheduled for Sunday afternoon.  Please continue to pray for us in this quest... I know that God can and will provide, but my logical side is terrified at all the 'what ifs' that go into selling and buying a house.

x

Monday, 9/30 Update: Ok, so the roller coaster ride continues!  Late Friday night we received an email from our lender saying that our prayers are working because the USDA decided to postpone their changes, meaning we can still get Midlothian with the USDA financing.  Crazy!  Thank you, Jesus!!!  Michael and I did a little jumping for joy, I must say!  So, Sunday we had the Midlo house inspected, and it looks good.  A few things are simply due to the house being built in the 1940's and the rules being different then, but nothing major surfaced.  Woot.  We drove around the town with the boys and checked things out.  We played at the park right by our 'new' house.  It was great.  I believe we are gonna like it a lot!  So, we will recap with our peeps today and see what the next step is... we gotta get both houses appraised still.  Looks like our biggest concern at this point is closing at the same time so that we don't end up homeless for a while.  Yikes!  We are scheduling or working on the little things that our buyers asked for, and hopefully those will be finished out this week.  Moving right along!

x

Thursday, 10/04 Update: And then... the government shut itself down.  Seriously, between last update and this, nothing has happened.  NOTHING.  As in, NOT moving right along.  The government can't get itself together and it's just decided to quit, apparently.  Meaning we can't submit our USDA loan... so it's not processing or getting approved.  We were already worried about not closing in time and being homeless for a while, and now... well, it's pretty much guaranteed that we won't be able to move into Midlo any time soon.  We are trying to negotiated a lease-back, and hoping the buyer of our house will cooperate and let us stay here till we CAN move, but we can't even give an estimate as to when that would be.  There have still been no appraisals on either house, not sure what's up with that.  Oh, this roller coaster ride is NOT the fun kind.  I gave up the house situation to the Lord a long time ago now, so ... :::throws hands up::: whatever will be will be, right?  God's got this.  I'm just along for the (nauseating) ride.  Massive prayers appreciated.  I know this government shut down is affecting a lot of people in a wide variety of ways, so prayers for our entire messed up country.

x

Monday, 10/07 Update: So, after hearing nothing for nearly a week, some stuff is finally moving forward.  The government is still shut down so we have just given up hope on the USDA and are just going ahead with an FHA loan.  It sucks for a lot of reasons, because the whole point of finding a home outside the Metroplex was to get use 0% down through USDA.  NOW, we have to come up with a down payment, have PMI and all sorts of other things that are going to cost us more in the long run.  And it sucks, because, frankly, we just don't have any more money to use towards all this.  But, God will provide, and we have fallen in love with that Midlothian house and area and truly want to move there.  So, anyway, we'll find a way... we truly believe that God has ordained this and it will work.  Both houses were appraised today, and Michael has been answering questions from various sources (realtors, lenders, etc) all day long and hopefully we have everything together that needs to be together to get this ball rolling.  The buyers of our house are going to let us stay here several days after closing so that we HOPEFULLY won't be homeless between closings.   We just have to see how quickly we can get closed on Midlo now that we are finally working on the right loan.  I am very sorely disappointed that the USDA thing didn't work out, especially after the roller coaster ride we had with it last week of not being an option, then yes being an option, and now we have a big fat no again.  But... again, God's plan, not ours.  He knows better than me, that's for sure.  Carry on.

x

Thursday, 10/10 Update:  Wow... the story continues.  We received word yesterday that the appraisal on our home came in under our selling price.  Lame sauce.  The appraiser was here for all of 7 minutes, no way he really LOOKED at the place.  So, to my understanding, we have to come up with the difference between the appraisal price and the selling price, which means... we have to come up with more money that doesn't exist.  Yay, magic tricks!  No... we are just relying on the Lord to give us opportunities to come up with AT LEAST $2000 in the next 10 days!  Not magic tricks... MIRACLES.   Our realtor and lender are working really hard to negotiate things and crunch numbers so that we can make all of this work, but wow... the things being thrown at us lately, mind boggling.  I am still confident that this is right, and we should move forward.  I choose to believe that it's just the devil doing his nasty work because what we are doing is right.  But he will not win, we will prevail with God's help.  Lord, Jesus, MOVE THAT MOUNTAIN!!!

x

Thursday, 10/17 Update: Fast forward a whole week and I've been a packing maniac.  Today we finally made some headway and got some news on the status of our transactions.  The buyer of our current home is signing papers tomorrow, we shall sign and close on the Midlo house on Monday morning.  It LOOKS like we won't have to come to the table with anything for selling our house, praise God.  We certainly aren't coming out ahead with it, but at least we aren't having to pour more money into it just to get it sold.  Praise God if that does truly work out.  They are supposed to give us final numbers tomorrow as to what our down payment will come out to be and all that.  So we are in prayer that the number they give us will be within reason and we can make this happen.  Ok, HE is totally making this happen, but you know what I mean.  So, numbers tomorrow so we can prepare for all that.  Then the owners of the Midlo house won't be out until next Thursday.  So, we'll get some of Thursday and Friday until 11:59pm to be out of Grand Prairie.  Crazy!!!  I feel like we're pretty much ready to be out of here, though I there are some areas I haven't packed up yet... but now, I have a whole week to do it.  I've been a frantic mess for the past few days thinking come Monday we'd be shoving our stuff in a truck, lol.  So, there's good and bad to that.  But, yes... still pressing on and praying hard!

x

Monday, 10/21 Update: We officially signed next to every 'x' and have closed on both properties.  Woo hoo!!!  While we are official, we can't move into our new place until Thursday, when the sellers get out, and we have to be out of our current house by 11:59pm on Friday so the new buyers can take over.  CRAZY!  We are mostly packed but still have some work to do over the next few days.  But, but the end of the week, we shall officially be residents of Midlothian, TX!

Homeschool Recap, Weeks 1 and 2...

Alright, in previous years I have managed to post a detailed, weekly recap.  Well, I have a feeling that's not gonna happen this year.  So, maybe, just maybe I can shoot for every two weeks, and go easy on the details as well.  Plus, our themes are about two weeks long, so it kinda makes sense anyway.  We have finished our first two weeks of school for the year.  Woo hoo!  It went smoothly.  Just a few whines, grumbles (from Preston) and shenanigans (from Callen). 

Callen (Preschool):  Callen is doing a laid-back version of Before Five in a Row and tagging along with us through some parts of MFW ECC.  Our first book to row has been Molly Bang's Yellow Ball.  The first time I read it to Callen, I wasn't sure he'd be interested in reading it more than once, but I was wrong.  He asks for it by name and gets excited when it's time to read it again.  There are only a handful of words in the book, and he seems determined to memorize them.  He points to the word "What's this say?"  So far we have played catch, throw and roll the ball, used punch balls, done a few of the lapbook type activities I found online emphasizing 'y' and yellow, above/below/high/low, and Callen stamped some yellow balls in the big, blue sea using a bottle cap and toilet paper roll printing.  He also colored a bunch of worksheets of the continents since that's what we're going over with Preston.

Callen's handprint

Coloring Yellow Balls

Playing Topple with me.

Preston (3rd Grade): Preston officially started My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures.  We are learning about maps and continents these first two weeks.  Plus, some of the main religious groups in the world.  We had a worm niche to observe how they churn up the ground for a week, ewww!  He is doing great at getting the concept of multiplication down using Math Mammoth.  His Spelling Power work is going well, we started on the last few groups in Level B. 

Observing a section of our backyard habitat.

Learning about animals, like frogs.  Eww!

Worm niche.  Eww, again!

Lots of reading time!

Working on a detailed map.

Map from our house to church.

One of the fun things about homeschooling is getting to school wherever we want.  We had a house showing from 10-11am on Thursday, plus a homeschool group lunch/playtime at 1130, so we needed to be out of the house for a while.  We were going to go to the library to do school, but I forgot they didn't open till 1pm.  We ended up Starbucks and got our schoolwork done there!

Taking school on the road.

Preston concentrating on spelling, Callen enjoying a treat.

All in all, I have to say that the first two weeks went well!  As well as I could hope with the distractions of a 3-yr-old and having to be in and out of our house because of the showings and other activities.

Preston got a bug/spider bite this week that got infected, just like mine.  Took him to the doctor and had her drain it and get him on antibiotics.  Poor guy, it's right on the back of his leg so when he sits, it rubs and hurts.  Dunno what's getting us, but it ain't nice!  Hoping his heals a lot faster and easier than mine since we caught it earlier.  Mine is still in the process of healing.  Blech. 

Also, we have a contract on our house again, so we will be launching into hunting mode this weekend, gotta find US a house now, pronto!  But first, Preston and Callen are going to spend the night with my folks and Michael and I are having a date night.  We're going to see Five Iron Frenzy, House of Heroes and Mike Herrera in concert.  What?!  I know, right?  So excited for tonight!

The Frustrations of Trying to Sell Your House (regarding showings and keeping it staged)...

Our house has been on the market for about 110 days now.  That's 110 days of trying to live in this de-cluttered, staged home.  I have two young, wild and rowdy boys who are home with me 24/7.  That pretty much sums it up, but just for memory's sake...

• As I clean, those children follow in my wake leaving a path of destruction. (I vacuumed the bedroom carpet, and not 2 minutes later Callen crushed goldfish crackers into the carpet.)
• Realtors don't always lock the door when they leave.  Um... not cool, y'all.
• Some potential buyers apparently don't care that they track in sticky stuff or mud.
• Making my bed.
• Realtors who schedule a showing for 8:30 in the morning, I get my boys up and out (no small task around here, especially that early), we stay gone doing pointless stuff for the hour we're supposed to and come back, then that realtor rings the door bell half an hour later, stands there with their clients and says "Oh no, we rescheduled, didn't they tell you?"  I'm not a natural curser, but that wanted me to exclaim some profanity real bad. 
• A realtor who schedules a showing for 8:30 in the morning, period.
• Potential buyers whose feed back simply states "too small."  Um, read the freaking description and dimensions, y'all.  You are wasting my precious time.
• Having to make my stupid bed.  And Preston's stupid bed.  And Callen's stupid bed. And then mine AGAIN because the boys have played in it.
• Investors who put a contract on the house, but bails out on the last day of the option period leaving you back at square one.
• People who submit ridiculously low bids to see how desperate you are.  We're not that desperate.
• Having your closets and garage packed full of stuff that you occasionally need to get to but can't.
• Leaving the lights on and the A/C down, using more electricity than normal and running up our bill (especially in the summer).
• Having to pack up and put away homeschool stuff constantly instead of having it in a convenient place.
• Have I mentioned how much I hate making my bed?  Well, I do.
• Having strangers milling around my house.  It's creepy.
• Realtors who ask for 2 hours of showing time, but only spend 3 minutes actually in my house.
• Potential buyers who complain about the door in the back bedroom.  That is clearly noted AND pictured in the listing.  Don't be stupid.
• Needing to sell this house at the price we're asking and not being able to budge just to get it done.  That sucks.

I'm sure I'll continue to add to this list.  But I hope I don't have to.  I would like to be done with this now.

First Day of School 2013

Today was the official kick off for our 2013-2014 school year!  Last night we took a few photos because the boys were still in their "nice" clothes from church.

Preston, 3rd Grade, 7 years old

Callen, Preschool, 3 years old

Teacher with her students.  Haha.

Yep, they are a hand full.

As far as today, it went quite smoothly!  I woke up, grabbed a quick shower and breakfast so that I would be ahead of them.  I had their school stuff ready and waiting:

Mobile school since our house is still 'staged.'

Preston was the first to wake up, so he ate his dry cereal as we got started (taking advantage of Callen not being a distraction, lol).  We started off with his beginning of the year questionnaire we have done for the last several years.  

Use your best handwriting!

It asks things like favorite food, favorite tv show, what do you want to be when you grow up, etc.  It's funny looking back at these over the years to see how answers have changed... or not changed.  Then we quickly jumped into the various tasks ahead of us and got A LOT accomplished in that hour that Callen slept in (he never does that, it was awesome!).  We used a bunch of the My Father's World ECC books so that Preston would be familiar with them from here on out.  Callen woke up and demanded breakfast and then did some coloring while we finished up the work.  I didn't start with his stuff today, just wanted to ease into a routine this week.  

We needed to run some errands (bank, post office, take movies back to the video store) so I gave the boys their Travel Notebooks.  

Looks like fun, Mom!

These are for when we are running around, they can write or draw about what they see on the way.  It worked for a while as we out and about, then Callen threw his notebook and pencil at Preston and that was the end of that.  Sigh.  I should know better.  Anyway, after our errand we came home and had lunch and then the boys were getting rowdy, so I sent them in the backyard to play in the sprinkler.

Sprinkler fun in the backyard.

After that, they played inside a while, then we had quiet time.  It was SUPPOSED to be nap time, but SOMEONE (ahem, Callen) wouldn't nap for anything.  Ok, it was PROBABLY because he slept in so much this morning.  Oops.  Oh well.  While he played, not so quietly, in his room, Preston took his Chapter 1 Math Mammoth test over the lessons we just finished up.  He got an 88%... mostly because he just didn't read the directions or pay attention to the signs (both of which I reminded him of before he started, lol).  The boys played, built forts and things with the couch cushions, then played outside some more in the front and the back after dinner because they were just crazy bundles of energy.  They were TV-free till 8pm, and Callen only even asked ONCE if he could watch TV and didn't put up a fuss when I said no... but I had a training call to do, so I let them watch some cartoons for a while.  Let's hope they got all that energy out and fall asleep easily tonight and that tomorrow's school is just as smooth!