May. 16, 2008 - YES! We're Making Progress!

Ok, so last night we got our drain unclogged and our gas leak fixed! Woo hoo! I've been doing laundry and dishes like a mad woman! I decided my back needed a quick break, but I am on my last load of dishes and that last load just got thrown into the washer.

Tonight Gabriella has a ballet rehearsal - tomorrow is her recital. I am going to take the video camera tonight to tape the rehearsal because they don't allow you to tape at the recital. They say it's dangerous because of the lights on the camera (yet it's ok at the rehearsal???). But they are sure to offer us dvd's for $30 - it's ok for that guy to video tape, huh?

Jon and I plan to go garage saling this weekend. There are a few things we really could use - like more book shelves (we have lots of books b/w us and the kids!), a new crib perhaps, and other odds and ends for the house.

We are still waiting on our economic stimulus check which we don't expect until the end of June. Which stinks, but I guess that's life. That's what we're using to buy the curriculum with - which I really need to get, and soon, so I have time to go through it and begin planning. Once I have this baby, things will be very busy. (Not that they aren't already!)

I suppose that's it for now! I'm praying my hubby has a productive day at work today and they get lots of business because it's been slow all week and we need the money!

Have a great weekend everyone!

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May. 13, 2008 - Back Online!

Hey everyone! Thank you so much for your well wishes and rejoicing with us! We are IN our new home and got the internet hooked up today. Yay! Right now we are still working on unpacking, obviously, but once it's done I'll take pics! We have about 1/2 the kitchen done (countertop is new, sink is new and we have our stove in!)  I also got new furniture - a couch and love seat. We put our old one downstairs. We are going to need to buy a new dryer - like today - because the one that's here doesn't work.  I put laundry through the washer and now it's sitting wet in the dryer.

Things are extremely busy around here. Yesterday I spent the day unpacking but today I have cleaning to do because now that we're living here, the crumbs are hitting the floor and the dishes are piling up! (My dishwasher hasn't been installed yet). So.....I'm definately staying busy! Hope you are all doing well! Drop me a line to let me know! :)

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May. 9, 2008 - We're Moving!

The inspection passed this morning so we are moving tomorrow! I can hardly believe it! Silly as it sounds, leaving my mobile home is so bittersweet! I am going to miss it because we have a lot of fond memories here and we bore our children here and everything. Yet, I am grateful for the blessing God has provided us with for our growing family! :)

We are switching from DSL to cable modem simply because they offered us a better deal. The phone company wanted $200 for us to switch it to the new house!  WHATEVER! So we switched! So internet will be up and working tomorrow - not that I'll have time to be on, but incase I need to take a break! :) Thankfully this house has cable hook up in like every room! So if we ever wanted or needed to move the computer around, we could! Even to the basement!

Anyhoo, I just wanted to share my joy with you all and give you the update! Looking forward to sharing before and after pics as we get things done! God bless!

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May. 7, 2008 - Update on the House Progress

Well, today I decided to stay home and get some things done around here. This house is in major need of attention too. I need to seriously start packing up and clean as I go.

So far, all of our "code" work is done and we are just waiting on the inspection Friday. We have some debris to clean up in the yard and I'd like to trim the bushes. As soon as the inspector leaves Friday, we have to work on tearing out part of the kitchen so that we can put our stove/oven in and make the pantry to hold our food. We are supposed to be moving in Saturday and I suppose that will be happening whether that part of the kitchen gets finished or not. It will be nice to relax a bit more and not be in such a rush to get things done. 

So as of now we are just pending an inspection!  We don't have phone service there otherwise I'd take the computer over there!  But we should be doing that soon, I think. We haven't even been here to answer our home phone so we may as well just cancel it. We have cell phones.

We are all pretty tired. The kids (well, the two younger ones) have been napping at the house, but they haven't exactly been full naps. Then we've been getting home really late so they have passed out in the car every night. So they are pretty cranky. The first night we stay in our new home (and for the next week or so after) they will have early bed times.  So, we are almost in! Praise the Lord!!! :))

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Apr. 28, 2008 - The Closing Date is Set!

Woo hooo! Praise Jesus, our closing date has been scheduled for Thursday at 2pm! I am soooo excited!!!! There is a lot to do but at least we'll be doing something and moving forward now! :) Our plan is to move in May 10th, but anything is possible! We do have some work to do on it to bring it to city code before moving in, but it's not anything major. We should be able to get it done this weekend. I can't wait! I'm so excited to be able to go to our house and do work on it. I'd like to finish raking the leaves in the back and maybe even mow the front and back lawn and do some landscaping (trim bushes, plant flowers, etc.) I'm just sooo excited! I finally feel like it's ours and it's really happening! Well, truly it's God's house. We couldn't have done any of this without Him and we intend to use this house for His Glory!

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Apr. 28, 2008 - Schooling Through the Summer?

Not me! LOL

I know some families continue on with formal lessons throughout the summer months, and originally I was going to. But after today, I changed my mind. I am 6 months along in my pregnancy and unfortunately, I'm leaving the 2nd trimester and already my energy is depleting. It's definately going to be a blessing for me and my children if I give them the summer off and just allow for lots of outdoor play.  We'll still do summer reading of course. But again, nothing too "formal".

I'm working with Tapestry of Grace this week and I feel a bit confused by it all. I really need to take some serious time to dig into the website and have some questions answered before I go buying it.  It thoroughly tells me what they want the students to learn, but doesn't tell me how to go about teaching it. There is a "teacher's notes" section that summarizes the things my children will learn, but what I am supposed to do? Read it to them? I don't know yet - I feel like I might be missing something. So I have to do some more research, etc. Otherwise I do really like it - I just don't understand how I'm supposed to go about teaching it, I guess.

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Apr. 23, 2008 - Curtain Rises on Egypt: Gift of the Nile

Beginning next week, Gabriella will be starting to work on lessons from the curriculum I will be buying her soon. They have 6 weeks worth of free samples on their website. The lessons are from the units: Go to Egypt and Sail to the New World. They offer 3 weeks worth of samples (full lessons) from each Unit. So we will begin with Go to Egypt and if we still haven't received our curriculum by then we will proceed with "Sail to the New World" and complete that before beginning what we've bought. I plan to go at her pace and there is just jam-packed things for her to do. I can't see us running out of things to do - we'd more likely run out of time in the day and have to continue with it the next day, know what I mean?

So I am excited. The curriculum is called Tapestry of Grace and it is a very hands on curriculum. The backbone of Tapestry are the books the children read. It does not contain textbooks or workbooks. Click the link for more information and to see samples!

Also, Benjamin and even Jeremiah in some parts, will be starting a Unit study on "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See". We will make stick puppets, create our own story featuring "Benjamin, Benjamin, what do you see..", read about other bears: polar bears, black bears, grizzly bears, etc....,Well, you get the idea! For more ideas, click the link. The Unit study is FREE! If you come up with ideas of your own, be sure to share them!

I will try to blog as we go and take pics throughout the week. I really want to try and stay off the computer (since we ought to be REALLY busy LEARNING) for most the week, and perhaps share the fruit of our learning (pictures included) by the end of the week! :) So stay tuned......

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Apr. 22, 2008 - The "Mommy, I'm Bored" box

There is a wonderful idea here at Unplug Your Kids on making a "Mommy, I'm Bored" box. Take a peek over there to see more ideas! For now, here is what we did and some of the ideas we came up with. Can you think of any more? :)

Ideas:

• READ A BOOK
• WRITE A LETTER TO GRANDMA
• CREATE A COLLAGE OF MAGAZINE PICTURES DIPICTING YOUR FAVORITE COLOR
• DRAW A PICTURE OF A NEW FOOD YOU HAVE INVENTED
• WRITE A SONG OR POEM ABOUT BROCCOLI
• PLAY GO FISH
• BAKE COOKIES
• COLOR
• PICK UP TOYS
• PLAY DOH
• SCAVANGER HUNT
• WRITE A LETTER TO A FRIEND
• PAINT
• FOLD LAUNDRY
• CLEAN YOUR ROOM
• MAKE COLLAGE OF MAGAZINE PICTURES DIPICTING YOUR FAVORITE SHAPE
• WRITE A STORY ABOUT BIRDS
• WRITE AN ACROSTIC FOR “SPRING”
• READ PSALM 51
• PRACTICE BALLET
• PLAY DRESS UP
• HAVE A TEA PARTY WITH YOUR STUFFED ANIMALS
• READ YOUR BROTHERS A STORY
• LEARN A NEW MEMORY VERSE
• DO AN ACTIVITY WITH SCISSORS
• DO A PUZZLE
• MAKE PAPER FLOWERS
• MAKE A CRAFT WITH CRAFT STICKS
• MAKE STICK PUPPETS AND DO A PUPPET SHOW
• MAKE A BOOK MARK
• MAKE A POSTCARD
• PRAY
• CREATE WITH SCRAPS
• CREATE A NEW TOY
• READ A POEM
• DRAW A PICTURE OF OUR FAMILY AND SEND IT TO A GRANDPARENT
• SING A SONG
• WRITE A POEM
• DRAW A PICTURE FOR DADDY
• WRITE DADDY A LETTER
• WRITE A THANK YOU CARD FOR A TEACHER

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Apr. 18, 2008 - Duck Activity - Unplugged Project

We did a cute duck activity today from a book made for toddlers, yet can be modified for older children as well. Here is a slideshow to share our project!

 www.unplugyourkids.com

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Apr. 17, 2008 - Sibling Rivalry - Solutions?

I've been dealing with some pretty major (at least to me) sibling rivalry around here. I need HELP! lol Any suggestions on what works for you? I have a nearly 6 year old daughter and nearly 3 year old son who are always AT IT - fighting over a toy, a blanket, a place on the couch, to be first, to do the "running" for mom, to bring me a ringing phone, etc, etc. Then my nearly 3 year old likes to follow around and pester my 1 year old. Taking any toy he has in his possession. There have been times of hitting, but no major, physical "fights" (thank you Jesus).

How do I teach them to handle this kind of conflict being so far apart in cognitive development?

Also, there has been a major issue of attitude in my daughter. It's like she ALWAYS has one! I cannot "force" it out of her. I cannot change her heart, only God can do that. But what can I do to aid God in this process?  I can give you a little background on this though: I used to be the same way.  I did best when I was left alone because I was better able to sort through my thoughts and get myself together again. Having people threaten to ground me or spank me only made me more bitter. Do you think there is something to that? Should I use my own experience with it to help her? One thing I have learned: trying to discipline her in the midst of an "attitude problem" only makes it worse. I have to wait until she "comes out of it" and then discipline her (many times the attitude problem turns into a full blown tantrum with kicking feet, and screaming). I certainly don't believe that behavior ought to go undisciplined, yet trying to discipline her during the episode only makes it worse and is of no use. She shows sincere remorse afterwards and feels bad for disobeying Jesus.

Anyhoo...these are some dilemma's I'm facing as a parent. Advice would be great! :) Thank you!

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