Well  I am taking this week to get us ready to start off fresh next week.  I am working on de-cluttering, cleaning, and lesson planning.   We are really in the need of getting things more organized.  I have started in our bedroom.  I feel that if my bedroom is in better shape then we will rest better.

Now for the rest of my to-do list:
- Straighten, organize and de-clutter our bedroom
-Straighten, organize and declutter the computer room/my office
-Straighten, organize and declutter living room and entry room
-Do dining room
- Straighten, organize and declutter children's bedrooms and guest bedroom
-Work on basement

Come next Monday we should be in great shape for starting back to school.  We have also started a new project.  My four children and I have all started working on our own quilts.  My dh was gone this weekend for the army.  My older two were sick so we had to stay in the house.  We wound up starting to quilt.  My younger two are making lap quilts. My second son is making a twin size quilt for his bed.  I am not sure what size project my oldest son is working on.  I am working on a queen size quilt for our bed.  It was really enjoyable.

Well starting last Wednesday afternoon, we had somewhat of a rough weekend.  We received word that Dennis' paternal grandfather had passed away.  We went to Boy Scouts that evening.  Then Thursday, we rushed around getting my mother food and things she needed for our younger two.  Our 9 year old son has a hard time with funerals.  He really took it hard when my grandfather died roughly 4 years ago.  It broke his heart.  Plus we were traveling in rough weather (had snow almost until we reached the NC line traveling from NC.  We left Thursday evening in heavy snow in the dark.  We made it as far as Fredricksburg, VA - where we spent the night.  Our older two sons went with us. 

We arrived in NC on Friday around 1 pm.  We had one or two things to do before we headed out to Grandaddy's house.  Dennis' father, two of fil's brothers and two of three of fil's sisters were all there.  We visited, talked, hugged, laughed and comforted each other.  We stayed for a while.  Then we took the boys to see Grandaddy at the funeral.  I think it was hard on us, but it was good to get a final private moment to say good-bye.  Granddaddy held a special place in my heart. He made me feel like part of the family from the first time I met him.  He encoraged Dennis and I to set our wedding date when Dennis announced he wanted to start standing as a preacher.  He came to see our firstborn son and I after we came home from the hospital.  Two weeks later, he drove up with his generator when we lost power as a result of a hurricane.  He wanted us to have some measure of comfort for Jacob (He left it with us until our power was restored).

That night we stayed with my in-laws.  I helped one of our nieces and one of dh's cousin's son put together boards with pictures of Grandaddy's life.  Then on Saturday morning, dh's two sisters, one bil and one nephew arrived.  A little later his other sister arrived.  We visited together a while, then left for the funeral.  It was held at our church with the visitation before the funeral.  The church was overflowing.  Even though it was a sad occasion it was good to get to see the family.

Sunday morning, Dennis' sister-in-law and her son came to church.  Afterwards, we all ate dinner together at church.  Shortly afterwards, the boys, Dennis and I left for PA.  We drove part of the way on Sunday and came the rest of the way on Monday.  I will really miss Granddaddy.  He was the last one of Dennis' or my grandparents.

Well we had a wonderful Christmas.  It started with several Christmas parties for Scouts and Young Marines.  We started Boo in Missionettes.  It has been a wonderful experience for her.  The first night we attended they invited my children to be in their Christmas program.  Boo and Noodle played Angels.  Jacob played one of the shepherds, while Joseph played a Wise man - including a speaking part.  They had one actual practice for the program scheduled for the Saturday before Christmas.  However, we had really nasty weather move in, the van could not go pick up some of the children because of the snow.  so we ended up having practice Sunday afternoon with the program that evening.  The children really enjoyed participating in it.

Then on Christmas Eve, we went to the candlelight service.  It was so beautiful with scripture readings, Christmas hymms, communion.  Then we participated in a share the light candlelight ceremony.  It was so beautiful.

Christmas morning we had a quiet morning with everyone opening their gifts.  We idd not have to leave the house.  My mom and I managed to get two meals made by 6 pm.  We did not take our turkey out in time, so it was not ready to go into the oven Thursday evening.  We had ham for lunch on Christmas Day and then we had the turkey for dinner.

Now we are getting ready to get back ot the normal routine.

Well we are getting ready for Christmas.  My second son is determined to get it all done.  In the meantime our oldest is still really suffering from his medical issues, but we are getting no closer to answers.  It is really frustrating to see him suffer.  I am just not sure what else to do.

Next Thursday we will find out if Dennis received his promotion to master sgt.  If he receives this promotion, we know we will be moving within the next year.  However, we have no idea where we would be moving to at all.  I will be glad to have an answer to what is going to happen in the next year.

Well guess I better finish for right now.

Well here we go again.  We are taking Jacob to see a Gastro-intestinal doctor at Pittsburgh Children's Hospital.  I am praying that we maybe will start to get some additional answers regarding his stomach problems.

The three boys have joined the Young Marines.  They just went to their third meeting and seem to really be enjoying themselves.  Rebecca is looking forward to the day when she can join.  The boys are really enjoying scouts.  Jacob just earned his second class rank.  Joseph had earned it back in the summer.  Now both boys took the training to be den chiefs for the cub scouts.  Jacob is assisting with Nathan's den (Bears), while Joseph is assisting with the wolves.

In other news, we are waiting to hear whether or not Dennis received a promotion to E-8.  IF he did, we will be moving again within the next year.  Also, I have been accepted into an online master's degree program and will be starting my work for that this weekend.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims of the Fort Hood massacre.  It breaks my heart to think of the families left behind.

Last week we had excitement at our house.  Almost two weeks ago on the 13th, Noodle fell while playing outside.  He hurt his arm.  I could not tell if anything was wrong or not.  I have never had a sprain or a broken bone so I don't know what to look for at all.  I called dh who was at work to come home so we could take him to the ER.  This happened around 5 in the evening. (Dh stayed late at work so he could finish his research paper for one of his classes).  He came home and determined it looked okay. 

Well Thursday morning (the 15th), dh left for a weekend drill with his Army unit.  By about lunch time, Noodle was in real pain.  So I called our pediatrician's office and talked to the nurse.  She fit us in the schedule for as soon as we could get there (my mom came with me as well as Rebecca).  Once there, the doctor decided we needed to get x-rays as she believed it was broken.  We had the x-rays taken, went back to the pediatrician's office (the two offices are in the same building) and found it was broken.  Because of the time, we could not get into an orthopedic office that day.  So the pediatrician had us go to the er.  She said if we did not get the arm stabilized in a splint he could do additional damage that would necessitate surgery.

We went to the er and after several hours of Noodle and I waiting in one of the er cubicles while my mom, Rebecca, Jacob and Joseph waited in the waiting room we got the splint put on.  Part of the problem was the er staff not being able to pull up Noodle's x-ray.  But we finally made it home.  The next day I took him to the orthopedic doctor to get a cast put on.  The staff there was wonderful.  Noodle was nervous at all the places mentioned above for fear of pain.  He evidently remembers a lot more than we realized regarding his 5 sets of stitches that he got several years ago. 

We went back yesterday to the orthopedic doctor who said the x-ray showed slight angulation, but it should be okay.  So we go back in a week again to have another x-ray done.  At this point we are not sure when the cast will come off.  It will be around Thanksgiving is about the best guess we have.

Well we are well into our new homeschool year.  My mom is doing school with our children this year.  She actually is doing the same works our four children are doing.  She is loving every minute of it.  My older two are doing one set of curriculum and my younger two are doing another set.  They are having a great time having mom do school with them.

We have taken a trip to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg.  We have also visited a local theme park about 20 minutes from our house.  We had a great summer and are looking forward to a great fall. 

Well I finished our MOTH schedule and am almost done with my home management binder. My dh has finished making our guest room truly a guest room. Now all we need is a queen size mattress set for us so we can move ours into the guest room.

We started school last week and the children did fairly well.  We started out somewhat light.  I will probably go to a more rigorous schedule in about three weeks.  Dh is getting ready to leave for his two week annual training so I expect these next few weeks will be out of sync for us. 

The children seem to like their school materials which is good.  I may have to tweak Boo's a little since some of hers is a bit advanced for where she is rigt now.  We just got the Videotext Algebra Module A in on Friday, so the older two boys will begin using it tomorrow.

I will try to update more as soon as I can along with uploading some photos.

Well we are officially part of our boy scout troop now.  Dh is going to be the Chaplain advisor and I am the assistant committee chair.  Our second son is going before the board of review tonight for his tenderfoot and second class badges.  He had a great time at summer camp along with our oldest.  They had a lot of fun and we got to go visit for the  parent night. 

Dh is working on our basement.  We are getting ready to make some changes there to turn it into a bedroom for the boys.  Then we will take the third floor and turn it into our homeschool classroom.  When we are finished I will try to post pictures. 

I am in the process of doing a new MOTH schedule for us.  I am in the final stages of completing the master schedule.  We planned on beginning school last week, but we have postponed that.  We will probably begin either this coming Monday or the following Monday. 

I will try keeping this up to date more for this school year.

Well we are getting ready to start our new year of school.  We are using Landmark Freedom, Spelling Power, Institute for Excellence in Writing, Calirobics, guitar lessons (we bought a program for this and dh is going to help teach), Queen Homeschool materials and some things from Geography Matters.  I am looking forward to them starting.  Dh may be leaving on Friday for 29 days for the Army Reserves, so I figure this will be a good distraction.  I am working on getting my new MOTH schedule in place, our home managment Binder completed and planning for at least the first nine weeks of school.

It should be interesting to see how well things go for us.  The older two boys went to summer camp for Boy scouts.  Dh and I have become part of the Boy Scout Troop Committee.  So this year ought to be interesting.

Well we are finished with school for the year.  We had our evaluation which went wonderful.  It was such a painless process.  It is exciting to have that out of the way.  Then on Thursday we got our standardized test results back.  Technically none of my children had to take the tests.  But being military, I thought it was best if they continue taking them.  That way if we move to a state that requires them to take tests they will be used to taking them. 

The exciting part was they did really great on the tests.  We did the IOWA tests.  Everyone was performing above grade level.  It reaffirms that what I am doing must be working.  Even though it seems at times that my older two don't understand about grammar, maybe a little is sticking in their heads after all.

Now all I have to do is turn in the portfolios and evaluations. 

We have recevied just about all of our new curriculum for next year.  My dh put up some new bookcases and shelves for me.  I have most of the books put away in the shelves.  Now it is just a matter of me getting their planners put together so we are ready to start the next school year. 

The boys leave a week from this Sunday to go to Boy Scout camp (well the older two anyhow).  It is the velcro kitty's first time at camp and the third camp for our grape ape.  While they are gone I plan on doing some of Noodle's Bear requirements with him.  I will probably do some things from Keepers of the Faith with BooBoo. 

Well, we have finished the school year.  We did our evaluations on Saturday.  My children were really uncertain about this, but ended up enjoying themselves.  Our evaluator was fantastic.  He was so easy to talk to and to work with.  It was such a blessing.  My children had a fantastic time talking and playing with their children.   Now we are just waiting on our standardized test scores to come back.

We spent the last month traveling for the most part.  We went to the Pennsylvania homeschool convention and had a wonderful time.  We found lots of good curriculum and got to talk to a lot of nice people.  Then we came home for a few days.  After that we went to NC to visit dh's family.  We had a wonderful visit.  From there we headed to Winston-Salem for the North Carolina homeschool - we found even more great curriculum there.  So now all this curriculum is coming in -(some we mailed to ourselves in NC, and some of it was mailed to us by the companies).  There is nothing like the feeling of getting all the new books in the mail.  I love it.  Dh spent part of Saturday and part of yesterday putting together bookcases for me in my computer/office room.  It is really coming together nicely.  He did such a wonderful job.  Now I am just trying to get all the books organized and put away.

Well guess I better get back to work.

Well we are done with our standardized testing finally!  What a blessing that is.  Hopefully the children all did well.  We are now working on getting ready to go to the Pennsylvania homeschool convention this coming week.  Then the following Thursday, we leave for North Carolina.  We will get to see family and then will go to the North Carolina homeschool convention. I am really looking forward to these.

Thursday we just had family pictures taken for the first time in about 2 years.  I ended up buying quite a few as well as the cd.  Now I need to get busy scrapbooking so the children have these pictures in their albums.

Here is a link to the album if you want to see them.

photo album

Hope you enjoy!

We are at the end of our year as far as the number of required days is concerned.  We have met our 180 days.  So now I am trying to get organized for next year.  I am making up my list of curriculum for next year.   Next month, our family will be attending two different homeschool conventions - 1 in NC and 1 in PA.

We will be continuing to work however for the next several weeks.  Some subjects we changed books for, so the children need to finish them.

I am looking forward to our next year.  I am really working to get more organized for it.  The requirements for NC and PA are really different so it has been a real learning experience for us.

Well we have decided to wait another week to resume homeschooling.  We are still trying to get unpacked from our move to Pennsylvania.  I need to straighten out our homeschooling materials.  Plus we need to get clothes put away and so forth.

It seems as though we will never get through the entire 360 boxes.  But I know it is substantially less than that now.  Dennis started back to work for real this week and has drills this weekend.  So life is slowly getting back to normal for us.  We have found two churches we like.  One has youth programs, AWANAS, homeschooling families and such.  The other is located directly beside our house.  The one beside our house is a small church with no chidren or activities.  However it is the perfect match for my dh since we can't find a Primitive Baptist church in the area.  So for the time being we will attend two different churches - 1 for my 3 youngest and me and the other for my oldest and my dh.

Well I guess I better get back to work now.

Well we have been homeowners for a little over a month.  We spent most of that month on trips to and from NC.  My dh has his first full week of work starting tomorrow.  However, he will actually work 11 days straight since he has drills next weekend.  It appears we have found a church for the children and me to attend.  There are several women there who homeschool which will be nice for me.  They also seem to have a fairly active women's group.

We will be starting back to school tomorrow.  I am treating it as though it was a new school year since PA is so different from NC requirements.  Noodle (our third son) has his second ot appointment tomorrow. 

We are trying to get boxes unpacked.  It is going slow, but dh has basically been off the majority of December.  He has been a huge help to me.

Well we are counting down the days until we move from NC to PA.  The packers come on November 17 to begin packing us.  Then we leave NC on the 20th.  We will drive to Fredricksburg, VA and will spend the night, then we will drive the rest of the way to Greensburg on Friday.  WE have closing on our house on Friday and hopefully, our belongings will be to us that Tuesday.

So if all goes well, we will be living in our new house by Thanksgiving Day.  It is so exciting to know this house will actually be ours.  If we want to paint or do anything else we can.

Also, my children are really looking forward to living where we can actually see snow in person rather than just on tv.

Our weather is not very nice today!  There is a low pressure system of our coast.  It is causing cloudy conditions along with decent wind.  We have the potential for tornadoes.

So far today the children are doing fairly well with their schoolwork.  Our oldest hasn't done any school today because his stomach hurts.  we take him back Chapel Hill in 2 weeks.  Hopefully, they will be able to help with this.

This is one of those days that moving has really been on my mind.  I am wondering how the children will do in a new state.  I am really looking forward to being able to decorate and everything the way I want to do. 

I found out something interesting yesterday.  One of the houses we are considering is currently owned by a homeschooling family with four children.  Plus the husband is a minister.  They are moving somewhere south.  The home sounds like it would be perfect for our family.  We plan on going to PA in about 3 weeks.  Hopefully, it will still be on the market when we go.  We will hopefully be able to actually begin the paperwork then to maket the house ours.  It is going to be so exciting to be handed keys and know the house is now our home!

Oh what a blessing!  we are going to be able to buy a home for cash in Pennsylvania.  We will be going up in about 3 weeks to look around.  We are planning on actually moving the week of Thanksgiving - well the children and I.  Dh has to stay probably until after Christmas because of work.  I can't wait to have my own home that I can do what I want to the area that will be our classroom.  No more worrying about every little thing because we have landlords.  (Don't get me wrong - our current landlords are everything a person could hope for).  It's just not our house! 

I can't wait to set up the book shelves, maybe get either a chalkboard or whiteboard, and everything else to put our mark on the house. 

Plus maybe it will help the children to know the house is ours!