Living and loving life as a homeschooling Army family.

Ohh, he looks kind of upset.... :)

(Just wanted to see how the button looked!! :)

So we're finishing up our How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World lapbook.  We've got most of it done, we just want to do a painting project tomorrow.  :) 

Adisson had Master's Club tonight.  It's pretty similar to AWANA's as far as I know.  Same premise nonetheless.  He goes on Wednesday nights for about an hour and a half.  Last time he was there, he got his vest.  He's been wanting it so badly so I was so excited to pick him up last time and see that he had it! :)  He also got a patch that I waited until the last minute to get sewn on this evening, despite having two weeks to get it done.  When he came home tonight, he had three more patches to put on!  I was so happy for him!  And to make life easier...I sewed them on to his vest this evening.  :)  Master's club comes early next week because of the holiday and I don't  want to be rushed.  :)

I'm so very excited to start Cranberry Thanksgiving tomorrow.  Along with the incredible amount of Thanksgiving crafts I want to get done before next Wednesday.  :)  I'm trying to limit the amount of projects, but there are so many things I want to do!  I think Sunday might be our craft day.  :)  And also the day we start packing for our quick trip to Ohio. 

Adam's supposed to get his tattoo finished up tomorrow afternoon.  And the boys and I are going to the zoo on Friday.  I was hoping Adam would get to go with us, but it looks like he will have to work.  :(  He hasn't worked more than a few hours in the three weeks he's been home and on the one day I make plans with him to go somewhere with us, he's going to have to work a full day.  Kinda disappointing.  I was hoping to go to the art museum after the zoo, but if Adam doesn't go, we'll just come home.

There is no charge for awesomeness

There's a few things I want to blog about before I forget to do so!  We've got some fun school stuff to talk about, too, but I'll write about that later today! :)

First of all, my baby turned 2 yesterday! :)  2 years old already!  He's silly, funny, precious, wonderful and amazing, and just the most wonderful addition to our family.  God has truly blessed me with my boys and I'm grateful for them everyday.  :)

Next up, Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  :)  When Adam and I were together in high school and afterwards, we always spent our Christmas' with our own families....but Thanksgiving, we always spent together.  :)  Of course since we've been married we haven't spent all of our Thanksgivings together, just 2 of the 5.  By the grace of God he is home in time this year, which is truly amazing and wonderful! :)

Five in a Row, the best curriculum ever*, has a great Thanksgiving book to utilize for the holiday and I've been so excited to row it.  But I can't find it.  Now, I have managed to find a few on eBay, but my husband adamantly refuses to spend $30 on a worn out book.  I've been searching for a copy of it for nearly three weeks so at this point, I'd pay A LOT for any copy....but to no avail.  I've ordered it used on a few sites only to have my order cancelled because they really don't have the book they said they had.  I posted briefly about my woes on the Five in a Row message board....about how I cannot get my hands on a copy (oh and my library does not carry it...I've checked....A LOT).  And a wonderful woman said she had an extra copy she'd mail me...for free.  And she lives just in the next state so it shouldn't take too long to get to me.  Ok, no shame in admitting it...I nearly cried.  It was just like God himself had said, I told you I'd get you a copy.  :) 

*Oh, so I'm biased because it's what we use and love.  :)  Besides being the best way for Adisson to learn, the manuals also come with the best author/publisher team ever....that in itself is worth....well, it's priceless really.  :)

Things are going well here.  We've been doing a little life learning lately since Daddy is still home so much.  :)   But since he's at work right now, I really need to get the kitchen cleaned up and laundry done.  I'll be back later with school updates. :) 

I'm a Pirate....ArghhhH!

Yesterday was a weird day.  I'll save our crazy trip to Clarksville for my other blog, but I will share our homeschooling goodies here!

We continued working on our How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World lapbook.  We didn't add much to our lapbook yesterday but we reviewed all of the country information we had made on Monday.  We started a salt and evaporation expirement.  We'll be adding those pages in the lapbook later this week. 

Adisson started working on counting by fives yesterday.  I think I'm going to purchse the counting by five's song by Skip Count Kid on Amazon.com.  You can buy the whole album as MP3's and save over $4.00 over having the cd sent to you.  I might do that instead of purchasing just one song.  That way when it's time to learn how to count by other numbers I already have the songs. 

We continued on with our handwriting exercise this week of writing one nice thing about each family member.  Yesterday it was about Zander.

We were going to make bread yesterday but we ended up shopping last night and didn't get to, so we'll be making the bread today.

I also ordered piano lesson materials for Adisson.  It's from Pianimals.  They offer some samples on their website and I printed off those pages to see if Adisson liked them and he did, so I went ahead and got the A Book and the Holiday book.  I know he'll LOVE learning some Christmas songs.  He plays with my Grandma when we visit, as she's the only one with a piano, and he loves being able to show her something he's learned.  So I'm excited that I think I've found something that he enjoys a little better than the stuff we've tried in the past. 

We're also (or just me probably) working on stuff for the boys birthday party that is on the 29th.  Instead of buying a pinata, I think Adisson and I are going to make one, but we'll see.  That might be a little harder than I'm anticipating and I might just buy one instead.  It's a circus themed birthday party.  But I'm also planning a baby shower for my brother and his girlfriend for the same day, so I'm pretty busy with that.  And some volunteering I've got going on this month for the Fisher House. 

Anyway, that's what we're doing for school right now.  I'm still searching endlessly online for a copy of Cranberry Thanksgiving so we can row it next week.  But I'm pretty cheap and just can't justify spending $30 on a book.  I know, it isn't a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, but I usually buy our books for under a dollar...it's just hard to think that I'll be spending that much money on a book that is in "fair" condition. 

I hope your homeschooling adventures are taking you somewhere fun. 

I love days like today!!

So, this is what we did today!!! :)

First of all, we are rowing the book How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman.  We started it today.  It's such a great book!  In case you aren't familiar, it's about gathering up the freshest ingredients from around the world to make an Apple Pie!  We purchased the Fold N Learn from Five in a Row and it has the BEST pictures!  It is soooo worth it!  I'm hoping to add some great pictures of our completed Lapbook at the end of the week.  We still have to do two things to finish up last week's lapbook from The Glorious Flight and I'll hopefully add pictures of that one as well.

We of course did our Math.  Tomorrow we start learning how to count by fives.  He knows how to count by tens really well, so I'm hoping we can learn the fives quickly.  I think we'll be using SkipCountKid to help because Adisson can learn just about anything if you sing it in a song.  :)

Our handwriting this week will culminate into a book.  He is writing a sentence about a family member everyday.  Today his sentence was My Daddy makes me laugh.  Tomorrow he'll be writing a sentence about his brother.  One sentence is just about all I can get from him without too much grumbling.  :) 

Our Bible time lately has been reading through a children's Bible.  The stories are easy for Adisson to read and easy to understand and we love it.  So we read three stories (2 pages each) each day.  It's really great. 

We've stopped doing a weekly spelling list.  It's been very boring and it's too easy.  I've tried making more difficult lists, but it's still tedious and boring.  He'll learn how to spell in due time.  I'm not at all stressed about it now.  :)

We're allllways reading.  He reads all day.  Everything he gets his hands on.  :)  I try to schedule specific books to be read on each day, but he reads so much anyway that it doesn't concern me if he doesn't read that particular book. 

Today we also tried an "Egg"xpirement.  In the book we're working on this week, we're supposed to go to France to get fresh eggs for our pie.  But instead of carrying around an egg through our journey, we're supposed to just bring the chicken, so the egg stays safe.  So we put our egg in a baggie and Adisson was supposed to carry it around with him to see how long it would take to break.  But we kept laying it down and not carrying it around.  So we're going to try again tomorrow. 

In England, we are supposed to bring home a "well mannered" cow.  If we bring home the cow, we can be sure we have the freshest milk.  Once we get home with the cow, we are supposed to milk the cow and churn the milk into butter for our pie.  So today we made our own butter.  I picked up some heavy cream at WalMart.  We put some in cream into clean, empty baby food jars and shook like crazy.  And then we had homemade butter!  We're saving it until tomorrow.  We're hoping to make our own bread.  It doesn't have much to do with making apple pie, but we're learning the process of liquid and dry measurements and how to make things go from ingredients into something yummy.  :)

Today the boys had dentists appointments.  It was Zander's very first appointment.  I was nervous for him.  But he did sooooo good.  His brother did wonderfully as well.  We were super excited to hear that neither of our boys had any cavities!!  I did hear that my baby needs to start working on giving up his pacifier.... :(  but anyway!  We stopped and picked up a gingerbread house to work on tonight after dinner!  None of us had ever decorated a gingerbread house before and we were so excited to work on one tonight.  We all had such a great time!!

So that was our day!  I know, it's a lot and it was fun!  Adam was home from work today...he doesn't work tomorrow either for the holiday.  It's nice to have around so much, the boys will miss him when he's working more during the day.  But it's so nice to have him around a lot right now.  It will likely be that way until next year...which is a blessing!  :)

Ok, I let the kiddos stay up late and it's time for bed!  Enjoy your evening!!

Whoa, it's been awhile!!

Ok, it's been entirely too long since I blogged.   And I miss it.  It just got so busy here.  We went to Ohio for three weeks and then we came home and I was very sick and then we had to get ready for my husband to come home....it was intense.

But he's home, finally!  It's been so nice to have him here!  This weekend is a long weekend for him due to Veteran's Day so he's been off since Friday morning and won't be back in to work until Wednesday!  :)  Yay!

For a few weeks, schooling was a little scattered.  We read allll the time and worked on math and played learning games, but the intentional schooling was not as frequent.  But we've gotten back on track now.

Last week we rowed The Glorious Flight.  It was a great story and Adisson loved it.  He enjoyed the activities we worked on.  He especially loves art so he was excited to draw some pictures.  We made a lapbook, as well, and it was great.  Daddy was excited to see what Adisson worked on!

I'll post pictures of our lapbook this week.  I know, I've got to get some pictures of my kiddos up here! 

This week, we are rowing How to Make Apple Pie and See the World.  I really wanted to row Cranberry Thanksgiving next week, but I cannot find it anywhere.  I've borrowed How to Make Apple Pie, but I really want to buy it as my goal is to have all of Volume 1 and Volume 2 books purchased before the end of this year...this school year, not 2008.  :) 

This week in Math Adisson will be learning to count by fives and working on his addition and subtraction facts.  He's doing pretty well in math despite the constant whining about it.  :)  He despises writing so that's a chore.  We've found a great kid's Bible that we are reading out of so that's been so much more pleasant.  And he's nearly finished up his reading program...which was a second grade reading program.  So I'm now on the hunt for more books on his reading level.  I don't want to buy the next part of the program just yet because I don't know if he's really ready for it, but I might be getting it in the Spring, if he continues doing so well.

Ok, well, there is our update.  Things are going really well here and we're getting excited for the boys' birthdays coming up.  Zander turns 2 on the 17th and Adisson turns 6 on the 29th.  We're having a big family party on Adisson's birthday as it's the Saturday after Thanksgiving and we've always had their parties on that weekend.  We'll be purchasing birthday goodies this week!  WOO HOO!

I'll be back soon....I promise!! :)

Here's some "infortation" for you.

Holy smokes!  I'm a tired mom tonight.  So it would stand to make sense that I go to bed at 12:30 in the morning instead of blog, but I'm a chatterbox, er, uh, a typerbox??

Yesterday, I finally (FINALLY!!) got my boys registered with CYS.  What is that you ask?  Well, even if you didn't it is Children and Youth Services.  And it's not like child protective services or anything.  In the Army, if you have dependent children, they have to be registered with the post CYS in order to participate in any sports programs or receive childcare.  We'd like to get tumbling in some gymnastics so we finally got our registration updated.... a year late.  :)  Not that it matters, you don't get in trouble if you don't do it, you just get excluded from participation in activities.

Then last night, which seems so long ago, Adisson went to his first Master's Club meeting.  :)  Which he LOVED!  It's like AWANA's if you are familiar with that.  He's VERY excited to go back next week.  It's at a church we don't attend, because our church doesn't have a children's program that meets during the week due to location issues, but we are getting to know some of the people there as it's where we pick up our food from the Angel Food Ministries.  Which, by the way, I LOVE!!!

Today we had our first Cloverbud meeting.  Cloverbuds is a branch of 4H for younger kids (K-3rd) and the local homeschool group has a homeschool specific Cloverbuds group.  And we went.  I didn't care much for it, as nearly all of the moms knew each other and showed verrrrry little interest in getting to know me.  But Adisson had a great time. :)  So we'll go back.

We did other things today, but I guess I'll talk about my appearance insecurities.

I'm a petite person.  I'm barely five feet tall and weigh under a hundred pounds.  So to start with, I look like I'm getting ready to enter high school....not like I'm approaching my thirties.  And don't say it.  Please don't say "You'll love it when you're forty." because really, I don't care about what I'll love fourteen years from now.  Just once, I wanna go somewhere that I'm not judged because I look so young.  So I had my oldest son when I was 20.  I'm 26 now....clearly that's an adult age.  I just want to be treated like an adult, and not like I'm out with my little brothers.  Sure my dad has kids that are just a little older than my son, and one that's younger than both of them, but I'm not out shopping with my brothers.  These are my children.  I guess I make matters a little more difficult as well.  See, my husband and I, we're a little more contemporary than your run of the mill homeschooling family.  Adam's got like eleven tattoos and gauges out his ears when he's on leave from work.  I have three tattoos, with more planned, I dye my hair black and recently got my lip pierced (uhhhh, Grandma, I think you were there when I called Mom, so I hope this isn't a shock for you!!).  

Maybe I bring it on myself.  Maybe I should try to look more like the soccer mom you know that drives a minivan (I'm also a soccer mom that drives a minivan).  But instead of being secure with who I am, I feel like I have to defend myself.  I'm a pretty good mom.  Sure, it gets a little hairy around here when Dad's been gone for eleven months.  I am quicker to anger, quicker to yell, but it's incredibly stressful to be an Army family when Daddy's in Iraq.  Although I shouldn't make excuses.    But I love my boys.  I love them so very much.  I love them so much I feel like I am doing the best I can by ensuring the best education I think they can receive by homeschooling them.   I love them so much that I do all that I can to be sure that they are happy, healthy, and know that every single day, they have two parents that would, and do, everything we can to show them how much we love them. 

Even though I shouldn't concern myself with the ignorance of strangers, the remarks, the stares, the avoidance, the blatant disregard....it's hurtful.  I'm a mom, too.  Just trying to be the best mom I can to the most amazing children God could have given me.  Even if I look like I'm 14.  

What's up, Doc?

The boys and I have been going to church for the last six weeks or so.   Adisson seems to like it, Zander not so much.  But I love it, so we keep going.  It has been a very very long time since I have been a regular church attender, and it certainly hasn't been since I've been a mother.  But if I don't tell my boys about God and what it means to love Him, who is? 

Today was the church's first birthday (WOOO HOO!!) and as we left, we grabbed a piece of cake (well, 2) and shared them in the van.  So really, what's better than church and cake?

This week, Adisson is going to try out the Master's Club at another church (where we pick up our Angel Food Ministries food).  He's a quiet little guy, except in a much smaller group of his close friends, but my husband shared with me today that he was like that for awhile when he was younger.  And I guess I remember being shy until you got to know me, then I couldn't shut up.  Come to think about it, Adisson is very much the same way.  :)  But I want him to try stepping out of his comfort zone sometimes to find that there are really fun things out there. 

Also this week, Adisson will be joining a local homeschool 4H group.  It's not animal related (much to the delight of my husband) as it's for the younger 4H crowd.  I'm pretty excited, it sounds like a lot of fun.  I know Adisson's been talking about swimming lessons so we might give that a try after the first of the year.  We have a lot going on this year already.

So that's our week at a glance.  :)

It's been far too long!!

I can't believe I haven't been here in a few weeks.  We've been busy, I guess.

My mother-in-law came for a visit last weekend.  My father-in-law was away at a big Harley Davidson thing, and due to Labor  Day, she had an extra day off of work so she came to visit.  On Friday afternoon, we went to Chuck E. Cheese.  We had such a good time!  And Adisson won 100 tickets all by himself and he's been talking about it since!  We then went down to Nashville and stayed that the Opryland hotel...something the two of us have always wanted to do but the husbands weren't as impressed! :)  So the boys and Memaw and I went to Nashville.  On Saturday morning we got ready to go A Day Out With Thomas the Train.  It was interesting and hot.  The train ride was great...coulda passed on the rest.  :)  Came home, went to Cracker Barrel for dinner, and watched Arthur and the Invisibles afterwards.  Got up Sunday, took my mother-in-law to church (I don't know the last time she's gone, but I think decades is a true statement) where we heard a great message, amazing music (as usual) and then left to grab some Taco Bell.  Then we took the boys bowling.  It was so much fun to watch each of them enjoy their games.  :)  Then we came home and it was time for Memaw to leave.  And I was sad to see her go, but grateful for a nap....she wore us out!!!

It's hard to remember what it's like to have two adults around.  Adam's been gone now for 10 months, 2 weeks, and five days.  When the boys and I get together with friends, there's many more kids than adults...so no one can help another mommy with her little monkeys because she's busy with her own.  But with Memaw around, there was 2 adults and 2 kids....the whole time.  And I truly forgot what a blessing that is.  And I remembered again just how much I miss him. 

At 26, I'm not a young army wife.  Most of these ladies are just barely over 18.  Sometimes with kids, sometimes not.  Sometimes brand new to the life, sometimes they've been around for awhile.  At 26, with five and a half years of army life under my belt, I'm not a newbie anymore.  And in the store I see these girls, just 18 or 19, with a little toddler in the cart and you can tell right away that she's holding it down by herself....that her husband is gone too.  And there's a good chance she's miles and miles away from her family as well.  And I sometimes wonder how they've grown up so fast.  I don't know if I could do what I'm doing now at 18.  Adam left for Korea for a year when I was 22.  Left for Iraq, for a year, the first time when I was 23 and left again when I was 25.  And some days I'm barely treading water.  It just makes me appreciate an Army wife even more.  Moreso the young than the older, I guess.  :)

In other Army news, I'd like to ask for this deployment to end already!! :)  Because I miss my husband tremendously.  :) 

On the school front, this week we've learned an odd assortment of things as I've followed Adisson's interests.  We learned about volcanoes and origami.  Along with reading, writing, math, spelling, and bible stuff.  I haven't done much art (oops!) and we're still waiting to start KinderBach music lessons until we get a keyboard, but there's always tomorrow. :)

There's more going on, but I've got to get some cleaning done and get to bed.  I'll be back sooner this time!

Sinful blueberry pancakes

So today was a good crazy day.  First of all, we heard from our superhero today.  Adam doesn't call home much, once every three months or so, and today was the day he called for this quarter.  :) 

I forgot how much it takes my breath away to hear his voice, to talk to him, to laugh, to tell him how much I miss him.  It was nice.....soooo nice.  Adisson was thrilled, of course.  He talked about it all day.  :)  Of course lately, his dad is about the only thing he talks about. 

Adisson had his first math test today.  We use A Beka, first grade.  He was actually super excited.  :)  And of course, did really well.  He was pretty happy about that.  Then we had to get to the dentist.  Adisson loves his dentist because he has a waiting room full of free arcade games.  There's a racing game and then several pac man type games.  He loves to play.   I was VERY excited to learn that his good brushing habits had paid off as he had NO CAVITIES!!!  :)  WOO HOO Adisson!

We stopped by Goodwill on the way home and I scored an used lesson plan/curriculum for A Beka arithmetic for 2nd grade.  For $1.49.  I am thrilled!!

Tomorrow is sitter interviews.  Kinda nervous.  :)  I hope things go well.  I've been praying about it and I'll continue to do so. 

I know I've promised pictures...I will get around to it.  Just give me a little bit.  :)

You'll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle built for two.

So last week was a mess.  A big hot mess.  We came down with colds and everyone was grumpy.  And it's starting to be that time for us.  That time of the deployment where you just feel like you're done...that you've given it all you've got and it's time to be over.  Adam's been gone 10 months now.  I know the end is in sight, I know it will be soon.....but it's not as good as it being now. 

I've been praying a lot that God gives us the strength to pull through these last few months...that we can do this, that we're strong enough for this, that we've done it before and we'll pull through it again.  I know that we will, really, it's just ...... I'm past the breaking point....I'm just broken.  And so is my dear sweet five year old.  I know he struggles so much with his Dad being gone, I know it weighs heavy on him.  But I can't really tell him how much longer we have.  Partly because I truly don't know and partly because he's five and the concept will elude him. 

So this week, we've got to get back on track.  And we are.  Tomorrow Adisson has a dentist appointment, which I really hope goes well.  Adisson's had many dental issues in the last few years.  But in his defense, tooth genes on both sides...not so great.  As a matter of fact, downright cruddy tooth genes from me and Dad.  :)  So I hope tomorrow goes well.  He doesn't mind going.  He has the most amazing dentist.  I just love him...will miss him if/when we leave here.  :)

Wednesday I'm interviewing babysitters.  It's about time.  I'm still VERY apprehensive for my children's safety.  It's hard to leave my kids with someone other than family.  I pray that God helps me choose the right person.

I'll have pics up soon.  I'm just a little crazy right now with all that's going on.  And the colds that we had aren't quite going away, especially for Mama.  :)

Boys, don't put your feet in the dishwasher!

Well, today could have gone better in the area of getting school work done.  Unfortunately, my impatience and Adisson's fidgeting just made me stop before we were finished so we didn't get frustrated and angry.  I was a little disappointed as we were going to start our Olympic lapbook today.  But we'll get to it tomorrow and work on it this week.

Adisson's been pretty excited about the Olympics.  He gets very excited when anyone does well and then yells when the United States does good.  He made a few signs to wave around to cheer people on.  It was then that I decided we should talk more about the Olympics.  I don't know why I didn't plan a lapbook for the Olympics, it completely sounds like something he'd be interested in, but I guess it's not a big deal now as I've got everything ready for one now.  :)

This weekend was nice.  On Saturday we went with friends of ours to a farm...or someone's house with some animals in their backyard.  Wasn't worth the $16 we had to pay but the boys had fun and I got to stop at fruit and veggie stand on the way home.  I took pics of them and their friends but you'll have to wait until I have a second to get them up. 

Yesterday we went again to the church we tried out last week.  I reallllly like it.  Adisson says he likes it.  I wish I knew more of what they were doing in his class though as it seems like not much is going on.  But he enjoys it so that's important.  It's great and I hope to keep going.  Last week, I invited my neighbor a few houses down and she went then and yesterday as well.  She really likes it too and it's nice to have someone to sit with! :)  She, well, her name is Magen, came over last night for a little while.  Makes me clean up the house a little bit more when I know I am having company so I'm hoping to work on that. 

We started to take a fresh loaf of bread to our neighbor yesterday as a thank you for mowing our grass last week and he wasn't home.  I plan on taking it to him tomorrow although I was hoping it would have been nice and hot when we delivered it!  Oh well.  :)

I want to put some pictures up but I really need to get the kitchen cleaned up instead of hanging out online.  I hope your weekend was nice and I hope your week of homeschooling or whatever you may be doing is wonderful as well.

God bless!

Chipmunks are good singers....

Today was a good day!  The weather was so beautiful here on the Kentucky/Tennessee border.  Had we not had plans today, we would have utilized our zoo membership and headed down there, but maybe next week.

Well our first week of school has come to a close.   It was good.  Really good.  I'm pretty excited about that.  Adisson did soooo good with his reading this week, exceeding what I had thought he'd be able to get done.  His math is going well and his handwriting is going pretty good.  I'm a little nervous that the A Beka books that we have for Science, Social Studies, and Health won't be fulfilling enough for him this year.  He's technically in K, but we're using all first grade material and even that doesn't seem to be enough to leave him feeling full of learning.  I've got some ideas I'm working on as to what to do about the situation, but I guess we'll just wait and see.  We're going to let this month kind of work itself out and reassess what to do next.

The boys had their pictures taken today.  Paige Kimball is a local photographer that I found on craigslist.  She is reasonably priced and soooo good with the boys.  :)  Just really was nice and sweet to them, they just had a GREAT time.  :)  How people treat my boys is  very important to me and I wasn't surprised at how she worked with them, but very happy.  I'll be so anxious to see the shots!

I'm really overflowing with the things in my head lately.  Which support group do I join (for homeschoolers), which co-op do we try out, what other activities should we commit to?  I'm so very thankful that we have so many options that I'm having a hard time narrowing it down, but I really need to decide what we are going to do, weighing all the options for us.  It's just a tough choice.  :)

And of course, this is going to be an insanely busy time for us, the last four months of this year.  We're heading to Ohio for a few weeks starting in September, I'm planning a baby shower for the end of September, planning a big birthday party for the boys in November, planning another baby shower for November, heading to Ohio for the holidays, getting reallllly busy here at home with a lot of redeployment activities, writing the newsletter for the Fisher House and my battery FRG, planning our vow renewal ceremony (which will take place next May)....oh, and I'm working on a family cookbook for my loved ones.  :)  Hoping to have it done by Christmas, which shouldn't be a problem....but see the previously mentioned list of things I also have going on. 

Our God is an amazing God.  And today after leaving the park having the boys all goofy from smiling so much, I was again reminded that nothing is too big for Him and nothing is too small, either.  And I'm just going to keep praying and thanking Him for always reminding me of that.  :)

God bless your weekend!

The Amazing Adisson and Zany Zander Show

So we finally got the van door fixed today!  I guess I didn't realize how much I was used to having power sliding doors until one didn't work.  And no, I'm not opposed to doing them manually, but they are heavier than other doors.  It almost always took me twice to get the door closed. 

School went well today, too.  Yay!  Adisson is a little more annoyed about the lack of more stuff to do.  I keep telling him that there will be more.  I worry a little, though, that we're going to end up going through these books pretty quickly and I'm apprehensive about starting 2nd grade level books when this is supposed to be his Kindergarten year.  Today we did an art project.  We do them more than just today.  Adisson is very crafty, even moreso than his mom, so he's always doing something artsy.  Today, though, it was a more involved project.  It was a sunset silhouette.  He painted a picture with watercolors and then drew out a scene on black construction paper and cut it out and glued it on the painted page.  See results below.

It was a good day.  I hate the feeling, though, that when things go well, that I'm on guard, waiting for the other shoe to drop.  As an Army family, you take good news so lightly, regardless of what that news is.  As a result, any time there's a good day, good news, whatever, in any aspect of your life, sometimes you just brace yourself for what's next.   When Adam's home, he'll get home from work and say "We're heading to the field for a week."  (Field exercise=camping for soldiers)  Then the next day it's "No, we're not."  The day after that "Yes we are, but it's two weeks now."  Et cetera, et cetera.  Just always has me on guard.

The boys get haircuts tomorrow as they are getting their pictures taken on Friday.  It's the first time we're doing outdoor shots.  We've always done pictures at a store that has a portrait studio.  We're trying something new this time and I'm excited!  We also have an FRG meeting tomorrow night.  It's the first one we've had all summer,  but will be the first one we make it to since January's meeting (they are every other month, sorta).  I'm excited because it's getting to be that time, when this deployment is winding down and the buzz is in the air....just a few months left without our soldiers!! 

Some things I've learned today:
1.  It really makes someone feel good when you apologize for something you've done.  Sometimes, it's easy to just forget it and move on, but when someone says, "I'm sorry." for something they said or overreacted to, it's nice to hear.  And I hope I can practice that a lot with  my husband when he gets home.  I try to be sure that I'm apologizing when I'm wrong, especially to my kids, but I want to be SURE that is the case.

2. I was talking to my friend tonight about praying.  It's something I would like to read more about, not praying necessarily, I pray.  A lot.  God hears me rambling away to him all day long.  But I want to pray with purpose and I hope I can do a better job of that. 

I have to mop the floor in the kitchen and get to bed.  :)  Enjoy my cuties below.  A few more of Zander since he's usually sleeping when Adisson's doing school work and getting his picture taken. :)

   Adisson's art picture.

Playing in the elmo sprinkler, although Zander wasn't having anything to do with it.

 Being a tough guy like his Daddy.

And chatty like his Mommy.  :)

Reading and thinking...

So I can't quite get to sleep tonight.  First of all, my TOS magazine came today and I've been eyeing it all evening.  I finally picked it up for a quick read....an hour later and I've barely gottne through 25% of it.  And that's just looking at the pictures, saying "Ohhhh, I definitely want to read that..."  :)  It's hard to go through it when the boys are running around...I get so lost in the vast  wealth of amazing information.  :)  LOVE IT!

And tonight my husband is heavy on my mind.  I talked to him online today for a few minutes.  While he's there, we usually talk online everyday via messenger.  When we're busy, we leave messages for each other.  And he was busy for the past few days, so when I finally got to talk to him today, I was aggravated that I had made plans and had to cut our conversation short. 

Some days it's not so bad, him being gone.  I don't want to sound flippant, but some days are easier to handle. Lately, though, our oldest son has been acting up like crazy and I know that his heart is heavy with thoughts of his Daddy.  And those days are the hardest on me, and him of course.  Hardest because I'm driven to the brink by the time bedtime rolls around and the hardest because I know he hurts and he misses his Daddy as much as I miss my husband.  And my heart just breaks for him, and his little brother.

I know this deployment is eventually going to end.  He's been gone two weeks shy of ten months.  But some days, I ache for him to be home with us so much that it hurts. 

(long pause, heavy sigh.....)

So, I should go to bed.  :)  We have to be at the car dealership for van repair in the morning. 

We miss you, Adam.  And he talks about you all the time.  They both do.  Stay safe, we'll see you when it's time.  xoxoxo

Take Two

Today was the last day of the Summer Film Festival at the theater we like.  So we saw Horton Hears a Who with some of our friends.  We've gone to several movies with them in the last few weeks, but wanted to make a point to go today as one of the boys starts school tomorrow.  He's public schooled and today she told me if he was taking the bus to school it would pick him up at 6:25.  I thought my eyes were going to fall right out of my head!!!  Utter disbelief I guess. 

School isn't taking us long to do.  About an hour, to an hour and 15 minutes.  Which is what I expected.  Adisson is a bit annoyed, however, as he'd like to do some more stuff.  I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, though.  I'd like to go a little slower for now and we'll get busier in a week or two.  Besides, I know the day will quickly come when he's not wanting to do any work at all. 

We're going to play at the playground with friends tonight.  It's much easier to go at 7:00 or so than it is to play in the afternoon.  It's toooo hot right now. 

We've got enough other stuff going on this week as well.  The van needs fixed (one of the sliding doors isn't working and a part had to be ordered) , we have an FRG meeting, the boy's have an appointment to have their pictures taken, and really there's a whole list of other things that need done, but y'all know the life.  :)

If you don't mind praying for us, I've been requesting prayers from many to keep my husband safe while he's overseas and for a timely return.  More specifically, it would be nice to have him home by Christmas. 

Gratefully, there isn't much else going on.  I appreciate the ordinary days because sometimes the excitement of a bad day far outweighs the joy in a good day.  Yesterday was not such a good day.  :)  Today though, ....... today I don't want to mail them to their Dad.  :)

First day of school!!

Our First Day of School!! 

Well, the day arrived.  Adisson's first Official day of Kindergarten.  It was supposed to start with a breakfast at IHOP, but that got the boot after Zander stayed up until three this morning not feeling so well.  I did tell Adisson we could go to Sonic for ice cream tonight to make up for that, but that also did not happen.  Our first day of school went wonderfully.   The rest of the day however, was horrible.  But that's not the point, at least not today.

We are using Explorer's Bible Study and began our day with that.  We then moved into our Hooked on Phonics.  (On a side note, I know HOP is like admitting to the homeschool world that I have the ebola virus or something, but it's great, it works, and we've been using it, so I love it!).  Afterwards we did our A Beka Health and Math and a little bit of writing with Draw Write Now. 

Adisson was good.  He was excited.  He had no desire to stop learning things and just really had a good time.  I was thrilled.  :)

I did take pics so here ya go!!

My little monkey.  I took some other pictures of him, but this is cute!  Oh and the date stamp is wrong and I've  since removed that as an option on the pictures.

Getting ready to get started!!

Working on his handwriting.  :)

How we managed to get everything done, undisturbed.  :)  So sweet.

Hope you like the pictures, Daddy!  WE MISS YOU!!  Stay safe, we can't wait until you are home!!!! xoxoxoxo 

Just a little over a week to gooooooo!

Seriously, I've always loved school.  I was private schooled for K and 1st grade and then public schooled from then on.  Excluding Jr. High, I just loved school.  It wasn't the school, the kids, the recess, the games, the sports, it wasn't that (although I did meet my husband in high school so I'm grateful for that).  I loved the pencils, the brand new crayons, clean paper, the smell of books, the excitement of new material to be learned, new books to be read, new papers to write.  As a matter of fact, one of my biggest goals is to earn a college degree, when the time is right for that. 

So it should come as no surprise to me that I'm so over the moon excited for school to start with Adisson.  I worry a little because he's pretty disappointed that he's not going to public school.  But my husband and I truly feel that this is the best decision for him and our family.   But I'm soooo excited for school to start. 

I'm trying hard to come up with some extra special ways to make the start of school special for him.  I'll let you know with the ideas I come up with! 

You paid how much?

So while shopping at the mall last night, I ran in to Old Navy.  Generally, I buy a majority of the kids clothes there.  They are a fair price and look nice so we do a lot of shopping for the boys there.  When I walked in the saleslady said that all clearance items were half off.... :) nice!

Well, the boys don't really need any summer clothes right now and of course, that's what was on sale, but then I saw the prices.  T-shirts for $2.24 and $1.49.  Seriously??

I started stocking up a little for next summer.  I bought 23 shirts on Friday night and 23 items on Saturday night! :)  Now, I did buy four pieces tonight for gifts, but the rest are for the boys.  For next summer and the summer following.  I'm still so excited!

I ended up getting $384 worth of clothes for $86, not including the gifts I purchased, but were also on clearance (about $10 purchase and I think a $40 savings, just on the gift purchases).  YAY!  I love shopping!

All caught up....

So, the boys got some vaccinations today.  Adisson is five and got his 4-6 year shots.  Zander got caught up on his shots (it takes forever to get an appointment at the hospital...then they tell me today that you don't need an appointment for immunizations).  It was a difficult time for Adisson.  He hasn't had shots for several years and I knew it was going to be difficult for him and it was.  Which was difficult to watch.  I tried to make up for it by having treats at home when we got back, like special cupcakes and a rented movie.  It seemed to help a little.  He was feeling better before we left the hospital, though.  :)  My little soldiers. 

I finally got the last sets of flashcards that I need from Abeka.  I still have a list of school supplies to get and lots of things to organize, but we're still doing good on time, so I'm not too worried about it.  I have the first nine weeks planned and some monthly and yearly goals written down.  I hoping the better prepared I can be, the smoother things will go for us when we get started up. 

I've been trying to use Motivated Moms to stay on top of the endless amount of the things that need to get done around the house.  It's a little tricky.  I'm very much a box checker in some regards (such as cleaning) so it's hard when I can't get everything finished or when I clean on a different schedule.  But I'm hoping we can work on getting things a little more organized and scheduled as it will be easier when we're schooling and I'd like to have it done before my husband comes home.  :)

Here's a picture of the boys, still at Young's Dairy.  I don't have a lot of very recent pictures that are of the both of them, so I picked this one.  But I like it.  :)

We're getting closer!

Well, we're one week closer to school starting.  Last night while thinking of some different ways to organize our school room/playroom, I came up with a few more ideas on how to make things work a little better for us so I'm excited to have the time to put those ideas into actions. 

I have a few more things to buy.  I have an order for Rainbow Resource, A Beka, Five in a Row, and some place I found online that will make some personalized pencils for me for a good price.  Adisson's been disappointed lately when he can't find any school supplies with his name on them.  So I'm going to get him some pencils. 

I've just about got the first few months planned, but I have a general plan for the whole year as well.  It's exciting to have a plan! :)  I'm hoping we can get involved in some local co-ops so we can make friends with other homeschoolers.  Adisson's feeling a little left out because two of his closest friends both go to public school.  It would be very helpful for him, and myself, to find some homeschooling friends. 

We're also hoping to take advantage of the Nashville Zoo's Homeschool afternoons.  They seem to be very friendly to the needs of homeschooling families and I hope that's the case.  I'll gladly report back after we've started attending the monthly sessions.