Come check out my new blog. It seems to be much easier to use, and I haven't had any problems loading my pages. HA! :-) Oh, please don't be afraid of my title....it just fits my mentality much better right now. :-) The New Blog Hope to see you there!
I just read tonight that they're building an American Girl Place in Atlanta. Slated to open later this year! Yahoo! I cannot wait to tell my girls in the morning. I took Katie th AGP in New York City for her 9th birthday. We loved it! I told Mikayla I would take her for her 9th birthday, which will be in January. Kind of a yucky time of year to be visiting New York City. So, maybe she'll be happy visiting the Atlanta AGP? HA! :-) It's going to be smaller than the original AGP, but I don't think she'll mind. I can't wait to tell her! :-)
It's been a while since I've blogged, eh? I haven't had very interesting to talk about I suppose. :-) Things are going well. We've settled into some sort of routine since Mike left. School, school and more school. That's about all we're doing these days. We aren't doing much for fun, but I like it that way. The older I get, the more I enjoy staying home. When I was in my early 20s, it drove me nuts staying home all the time. Now, I rather enjoy it. So much so that we skipped park day today!!!!! We played outside at home instead. It was a beautiful day today.
Mike is doing OK. I did get to talk to him on the telephone, which was nice. Except for the fact that he was a grump. lol. We hadn't talked in atleast a couple of weeks. He had tried to call me on Monday, but we couldn't hold a connection, so he gave up. We have IMed a couple of times within the last couple of weeks though. It seems as though there have been lots of black-outs at his FOB. :-( All in all, he's surviving. Terri, he did get the box of books you sent. He was very excited to see an EB Griffen book. heehee. Even though he's only been gone about 6 weeks, it seems like forever already.
We're going to see Disney on Ice tomorrow! We are so excited. We've never been before. Mikayla is already planning to wear her Cinderella dress and shoes she got from Disney World last year. I figure she might as well wear them. The next time we go to Disney, they won't fit! HA! :-) Katie is hoping to see Captain Jack Sparrow. Benjamin thinks Devin will like it when Ariel comes out. heehee. What a silly boy. :-)
Knitting news....there really isn't any. I'm still working on the never-ending shawl. Honestly though, I haven't knitted much. Must be because I can't ride in the car anymore, I have to drive. And, I have no one bugging me to sit and watch TV with them. I am hoping to finish the shawl soon though. I'm a little over half-way done. Maybe I should make a goal to knit 5 rows everyday? I wonder how long it would take to finish if I did that? lol
School is great. We're nearing the end in most subjects. Can I just say how happy I am to have finally finished August Ceasar's World? We've been reading it outloud since November. Yikes. lol. In my defense, we didn't read it everday. It was so interesting that BOTH Benjamin and Liberty fell asleep as we were reading it tonight. heehee. Actually, we rather enjoyed it. But, we're glad it's done. I'm ready to go back to the easy reading of Story of the World again. This is our 3rd year homeschooling. I will admit it has been my most lax year as far as keeping to a schedule goes, but I feel like it's been our best year yet. I've got most of my curriculum for next year already. I still need to buy Sonlight Core 7, but I can wait until October to get that. We wont' finish Core 6 until then. I also need to get the next Apologia book for Devin, but that's it.
I finished my 3rd week of Circuit Training class this week. It's a Monday, Wednesday and Friday class. I hate going, but once I'm there, I'm fine. I can feel myself gaining some endurance, which is nice. I thought I was going to die the first week. lol. Now.....if the fat would only melt away faster. :-) I was feeling pretty encouraged until I talked with Mike on Wednesday. He's been going to the gym like crazy since he's been deployed. He rode the exercise bike. I forgot to ask him for how long. But, wanna know how many calories he burned? 967!!!!!!! I'm so hoping there was a glitch in the system. Good grief. I can barely eat that many calories per day without gaining weight. Until next time...............
My Mom's visit was great! I don't think I cooked but 2 meals the entire time she was here. She cooked a couple, but the rest were eaten out.....at her expense. HA! :-) We shopped, shopped, and shopped some more. Oh, we went to the Montgomery Zoo too. We've been a few times, but it was Mom's first visit. We had perfect weather....not too hot, not too cold. We are zoo members, so we'll probably go a few more times before our membership expires. Can't beat a $40 zoo membership, especially since it gets us into lots of other zoos in the country for free or reduced costs. We've went to Zoo Atlanta for half off, and the Greenville Zoo for free so far! We've spent the rest of this week trying to get back into our normal routines. Problem is, I'm not sure what normal is right now. We did accomplish school this week though. History was sporadic, and science didn't happen, but we did the most important stuff, right? Heehee.
Knitting news....not much going on right now. Still working on that blasted Girlfriend Shrug. Hopefully I'll finish that soon. I would probably finish it faster if I actually knitted, you think? :-) I have lots of sock plans in the near future too. I ordered More Sensational Knitted Socks from Amazon the other day. I'm hoping it comes in Mondays mail.
Mike is doing well. I was able to IM with him yesterday. He's hoping to take R&R in December. As it stands now, he should be able to do that. But, it's still early. :-) December seems sooooooo far away right now. But, we didn't want him to take it too early in case it ends up being an 18 month deployment. I have an address for him, finally. So, if anyone would like to send him a little pick-me-up note or package, let me know and I'll get his address to you. My friend Terri called me tonight to ask if Mike would like a box of books to share with his guys! I'm sure he'll love 'em! :-)
One last thing. I realized tonight, even though I feel like I read to my kids all.the.time, I really don't. I do lots of read-alouds for school, but that's it. We have shelves and shelves of picture books, and I can't even remember the last time I read one of them to Liberty or Benjamin. I remember reading Little Critter to Devin and Katie all the time when they were little. Liberty climbed up in my bed next to me after her bath tonight. I had been leafing through a magazine. She wanted me to read a book. So, I sent her to get one. She comes back with a Music Theory book by Usborne. HA! I quickly sent her to get another. She returned with "Mama Do You Love Me?" I was quickly surrounded by Benjamin and Mikayla. Benjamin brought "I Love You the Purplest" with him. So, I read them both. It was a sweet moment for us....until we got to the last 4 pages in the Purplest book and Katie started yelling "where's the shampoo" from the shower. It was sweet while it lasted. :-) Until next time...........
My Mom is flying in this afternoon! I am so excited. Even though I just saw her in December, I am psyched that she is coming to visit. She picked a perfect time too. Last week was fine. No issues with Mike being gone at all. This week, not so much. lol. So, I really need the distraction of a visitor. I'm picking her up in Atlanta around dinner time, and we're heading to Buford to go to Archivers. She has no scrapbook stores at her house, so she loves to shop at the stores we have here. :-) Thursday, we're headed to the Montgomery Zoo. We've been there a few times, the kids love it, and there's a scrapbook store in Montgomery I've never been to. She plans to his the Scrapbook store here a few times too. heehee. Friday, she's go to co-op with us. Fun for her. :-) She goes back home early Tuesday am. I'll be sad to see her go, but I am not going to think about that right now. :-)
Knitting news......that shrug is taking me forever and a day. I don't think I'll ever do a sweater on size 1 needles again. Whew. lol. I do like the fabric it makes though. I"ll share pics of it after my Mom leaves. Becca and I ordered knew Knitpicks needles. I'm going to show Mom how to do toe-up socks while she's here. I told her she could just pick a sock yarn out of my stash. I think I"ll hide my newest purchases though. heehee.
School news.....school is going. That's about it. It's a short week because of our visitor. I may have the kids do a couple of things tomorrow, but we'll see. It'll be late when we get home, so I may play nice and just let them have the rest of the week off. :-) Benjamin is flying right through the Get Ready for the Code series. He's dying to start his new math book. I'm just not up for it right this second. Maybe in a couple of weeks. :-) I'm not really sure I want him to start it right now, as we're taking the months of July and August off from school to go to NY. So, do I really want him to take a 2 month break from his math book? I almost would rather just start it in September. We'll see.
I've been scrapbooking this week. I really should have been working on a swap, but instead, I decided to work on our Build-A-Bear pages from last month. :-) They're coming out pretty cute, if I do say so myself. Maybe I'll share a page or two soon. :-) Until next time............
So, I took Exploring Creation with Zoology to bed last night to look over before I went to sleep. I.am.impressed. Honestly, I was dreading it. I mean, how long can you possibly spend learning about birds? Obviously much longer than I thought. lol. I think the girls are going to LOVE it. I don't think I'll mind it either. It's broken down into managable lessons, and the experiments are fairly simple as well. We haven't done as much notebooking as I had planned to do by this point. I'm hoping this will really jumpstart the girls on notebooking. I plan to have Benjamin listen and play along too. He does fairly well with read-alouds as long as he has something to do quietly (he loves to color) while I"m reading. I am thinking through the whole notebook thing though. I really, really don't want to use a plain old binder. So, I'm thinking about putting together the pages for each lesson that we'll need and taking it to Kinkos to be spiral bound with a cover. I think the girls would much prefer that over a binder. Let's just say they are horrible about actually putting pages IN their binders. :-) We're actually thinking about starting fairly soon, rather than wait until September. They're already thinking ahead to Zoology II, Ocean Creatures. :-) I'm trying to give the kids more input as to what curriculum they want to do. I spoke with Devin on the way home from our errand this morning. I told him what we've ordered, and what I have left to get. He's fine with everything so far. I asked him if he wants to add a literature program this year. I told him we could, but I didn't want to hear any whining about his increased work load. He agreed. We'll see how well that works. HA! :-) So, I'll be ordering the Lord of the Rings literature study. I'm actually quite excited about it. I did tell him we wouldn't have to do it all 4 school days of the week though, we could just do it 3 days a week if he wants. So, I guess I'll be ordering that soon. :-)
I LOVE surprise phone calls. Rarely do I get them. lol. The only people I talk to regularly are my Mom and Heidi. :-) I wasn't expecting to hear from my husband for a few more days. But, he called my cell on the way home from our errand this afternoon. Since he called from Kuwait, there was no delay! Yahoo! :-) He only had 10 minutes to talk, but he sounded so good. It's amazing how good they sound when they're away from you. lol. He was super excited about Starbucks. Go figure. :-) He drank THREE VENTI frappucinos while he was at the base they draw tanks from. THREE! :-) It's OK.....I know there won't be a Starbucks where he's going. I hope anyway.....we might be even broker than we are now if there is. lol. He's super excited about the brand new trucks they were issued too. His uparmored hum-vee has 44 miles on it. That's it. It's about time he gets some nice equipment. More often than not, he gets the bottom of the barrel stuff. He had to tell his driver to turn down the A/C today. He was cold. Heehee. It's always nice to get a phone call when you aren't expecting it. :-) Until next time......................
I love box day! What is box day you might ask? When we are expecting a delivery of homeschool books.....we call it box day. :-) Here's what we got.........
Lot's of fun stuff, eh? I can't wait to peruse it all after the kids go to bed. We're expecting another box sometime soon. Probably a week or two. I order all of my BJU stuff from www.scripturetruth.com. They offer free shipping over $99, AND they discount BJU. Gotta love a discount. :-) I'm sure I'll have some comments about the new stuff tomorrow. :-) Until next time.......................
Mondays are busy for me. Benjamin has speech therapy in the afternoon, so by time we go there and any errands I have, my day is just about over. Tonight, the girls had an ice-cream social for Girl Scouts. Katie had American Girl night at B&N too, but she opted to not go. Darn. ;-) I"ll be glad when it's Tuesday. :-)
School went well today. We accomplished everything we needed to get done, amazingly. :-) I even read both of our Sonlight books tonight! I've been researching curriculum for next year. I'm trying to get some in-put from the kids. They all said they want to continue with Sonlight for next school year. I'm glad they're enjoying it, but have you seen how $$ Sonlight is? Ugh. :-) Oh well. I want them to like what we're doing, so I'm sure it'll be money well spent. The girls chose Apologia Zoology I. I'm not sure I like that decision, but that's what they chose. The only experience I have with Apologia is 7th grade General Science. That bores me to tears. So, hopefully Zoology won't. heehee. I've still got some decisions to make, but I'm making good progress. Now....to find the $$ to pay for everything. HA! It's funny how researching curriculum gets me fired up about homeschooling again. I needed to be fired up too. lol.
I heard from Mike this morning. He woke me up with a phone call at 5:30am. Ugh. Good thing I planned ahead and brought the phone to bed with me. :-) They had landed in Germany to re-fuel. I'm certain he's in Kuwait right now, I'm sure he's super busy. Gotta make sure those tanks actually shoot you know. :-) I'm not quite sure it's even hit me that he's gone yet. I've barely cried at all, which isn't like me. I'm a crier. :-) Oh well. Maybe it's just that he's gone so much that it seems normal? Until next time...............
I should be blogging more regularly now. My dh has deployed, so I'll have no one to keep me company at night after the kids go to bed. Should leave me more computer time. lol.
We had a fabulous week. I am so glad, as it's the last memory the kids will have of their Dad for some time. Liberty cried the entire way home. "Daddy, I want Daddy." Poor thing....she doesn't even know what's going on. We drove him to the company and she said, "is this Iraq?" Ummmmm.....no. :-) We'll be fine though. Dh hit the nail on the head....he said, "You'll be just fine. You are capable of running things smoothly while I'm gone, you just don't want to." Right on honey....I don't wanna. :-) Drive on.
Knitting.....well, I ripped out the sleeve to the Girlfriend Shrug for Liberty on Friday. I've made a bit of progress. I have some TV watching to do tonight, so maybe I"ll finish the sleeve. I still need to rip back a couple of rows on the socks I'm making for Mikayla. Two at a time, Magic Loop. Fun, fun. :-) I'm going to do that sometime this week. It won't be a big deal, I just need to take the time to do it.
School news....we've done just the basics for the last few weeks so that we could spend time with Mike before he left. Now that that's over, we need to hit the books hard and heavy. BUT, you knew there was a but, right? :-) My Mom is coming next week for a week. So, I'm not sure how much we'll get done until after she leaves. I'm still contemplating our curriculum choices for next year. Sometimes I wish someone would make the decisions for me, so I wouldn't have to choose. :-)
That's all the excitement for now. I do have some knitting pictures to share, I just need to take the pictures. Speaking of pictures, Mike's camera broke about 10 minutes before he had to be at bag drop. So, I guess I'll be buying him a new one. I was hoping for some Kuwait City pictures this time, but I guess that won't happen. Ugh. I have some new yarn, as well as a pair of finished socks to take pictures of. :-) Until next time...............
So I got some new yarn today. Just 2 hanks, that's all. It.is.so.yummy. I *heart* the Blue-Eyed Brown colorway. I cannot wait to make a pair of socks with it. I'm on the quest to find the perfect pattern. :-) The Purple Medley, I don't love as much as I thought I would. I'm hoping it'll grow on me. I'll still knit with it though. :-)
Well hmph. I would love to share a picture with you, but apparently, I can't. I"ll have to add it later. Please tell me I'm not the only one who is having a ton of trouble with homeschoolblogger since the upgrade? Ugh. Until next time.............
I'm so thankful for the flexibility we have as homeschoolers. My mother-in-law is here.....kind of hard to work on school with an out of town guest who never visits. :-) So, we're taking this week off. We'll do a bit of school on Thursday, but that's it. My husband has a 4 day weekend this weekend. So, we'll take Monday off too. His days with us are short, so we need to spend as much time with him as we can. Flexibility.....it's a good thing. :-)
Knitting news.....I got a new box of knitting supplies today! Another Knitpicks order! Becca and I combined another order to get free shipping. I didn't get anything overly exciting. Size 1 circular needle for magic looping a pair of socks (hopefully), Pallette to make a shrug for Liberty, some pockets to go in my Options binder and another skein of Tweed, since I only ordered one last time. I'm afraid my yarn spending must take a break. So, other than the 2 hanks of sock yarn I ordered over the weekend, that's it.....no more.....not until I use up some of what I have. This doesn't include needles though, as I need some more knitpicks circulars. :-)
We're off to a hockey game tonight. I'm not sure how long we'll be staying, as we'll have Liberty with us. But, we'll see....she has been known to surprise us. :-) Until next time.............
Exciting news......be gentle.....I made my first bobbles. This is my oldest dd modeling for me. :-)
Specs.....
Cable and Bobble Headband from the Winter Issue of Interweave Knits, minus the horrid pom-poms.
Yarn....Cascade 220
Needles....Knit Picks Options....had to try 'em out you know.
Time.....I think I worked on this for two nights. It's really a quick knit. I had done cables before, but not in years and years. So, I basically made this headband to try some new technique. It's not perfect, as Becca was sure to point out at Barnes and Noble. :-) Katie wore it at the Zoo this past weekend. It.was.freezing. Until next time..........
So, I've been busy. Dh came home a little over a week ago, so we've been spending lots of time together. Saturday, we ventured to Atlanta for a day at the zoo and Build-A-Bear. It was cold, so hardly any animals were on exhibit. I"ll post some pics later. I still need to upload them to the computer. My mother-in-law is coming for a visit on Monday. She'll only be here two nights. :-) How lucky am I, eh? I often have to remind myself if it weren't for my mil, I wouldn't have my husband. There aren't many more good things about her other than that. :-) Anyway, this is the first time she has ever visited us the entire time we've been in the Army. Nice, eh? She'll be going with us on a field trip next week. Becca, you might want to rethink going. lol
I've been kntting. I finally cast on for the second baby cable sock, and actually made a bit of progress on the foot! I'm nearly done with fetching. I need to finish the five rows on the thumb. That's it. I have had the itch to buy new yarn so bad, thanks to Becca, but I'm resisting. I"ll be needing some retail therapy next month, so I am trying to wait until them to buy.
School is going well. I'm thinking about curriculum for next year. I haven't made any major decisions yet though.
My dh is deploying very soon, so blog updates will be hit and miss until then. Until next time............
I have been so excited for this new Knitpicks order to come. It.has.taken.forever. It sat in the Atlanta Sortation Facility all week! It finally left yesterday and was delivered to me today! Yee-haw! Can you see my new Options needles? I can't wait to check 'em out. I made myself wait until I accomplished some chores first. Yuck. :-) Starting at the top, you'll see Andian Silk in Sangria. I plan to make Fetching. I may even cast-on tonight. I need to see if I have the right size needles. Next, you'll see Gloss in Woodland Sage. I can't remember what I planned to use this for, maybe just a stash builder? It feels so soft. Above Gloss, you'll see one skein of Essential Tweed in Plum. I can't believe I only ordered one. How dumb is that? I was supposed to order two so I can make a pair of Aran Braided socks. .Next, you'll see a boatload of Pallette. Any guesses what I plan to do with this? Knitted Babes. I hope they're as fun as they look! :-) So, I have a bunch of fun stuff to play with tonight. I did finish a dishcloth last night. Very easy and quick. I need to make a match, then I'll post a picture. I need to mail these by Tuesday or Wednesday, so stay tuned. :-)
The Well-Trained Mind. Sometimes it's information over-load, but I have enjoyed it and reference it often.
2. ONE SOURCE YOU WOULDN'T BE WITHOUT:
The internet. I don't know how people schooled without it. I search for reviews, ask questions on message boards, peruse knitting patterns. Oops. That's not school. :-)
3. ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH YOU HAD NEVER BOUGHT:
Hmmmmm....I'm not sure I can think of anything right this moment. We have used most of what we bought. We might not always use it to it's fullest potential, but we do use it.
4. ONE RESOURCE YOU ENJOYED LAST YEAR:
Last year wasn't a normal school year for us, as we were in NY for a good portion of it. So, I'll leave this question unanswered.
5. ONE RESOURCE YOU'LL BE USING NEXT YEAR:
Saxon 5/6 with Katie. Along with the DIVE CDs. I'm thinking about switching Devin over to Saxon too. Currently we're using Bob Jones. I have no issues with BJ except for the fact that there isn't enough review. So, we will see.
6. ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULD LIKE TO BUY:
A keyboard. Becca, when you buy that one from Sam's, wanna sell us your old one? heehee
7. ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH EXISTED:
The perfect lesson plan software. Or actually, maybe I just want someone who can make the plans for me?
8, ONE HOMESCHOOL CATALOG YOU ENJOY READING:
Definitely Sonlight. I love to look at the reading lists.
9. ONE WEBSITE YOU USE REGULARLY:
Google. It is my preferred seach engine. I use it daily. The kids even google. What they didn't know, is I can follow their tracks. lol
I typed up a long post a couple of days ago, clicked "add new entry" and POOF....it was gone. I was not a happy camper. So, let's try this again. :-) I spent late Saturday night/early Sunday morning waiting in line at Wal-mart. For what you might ask? A Nintendo Wii. Quite possibly the hottest gaming system that came out just before Christmas. A guy who works on the electronics department at Wal-mart tipped us off Friday afternoon. He said they have some in stock, but couldn't sell them until midnight on the 28th. So, I got there about 10pm on the 27th to wait in line. I waited, waited, and waited some more. Not so suprisingly, they didn't hand them out until nearly 1am. I was so tired of waiting. I picked up an extra controller and a few games too. The kids are thrilled. They've had so much fun playing together. It's so fun to watch them bowl, play tennis, box, etc. It was worth the ungodly amount of $$ we spent, and I guess it was worth waiting in line for. :-)
Let me just tell you what happened last night. Or should I say this morning? I tried to get to bed earlier last night. I think I went up about 12:30. I let both of our dogs out just before I went to bed. I woke up to hear a dog barking about 1:20 or so. It.barked.forever. Finally, I got out of bed and looked out the window in our stairwell. The neighbor was sitting on her front stoop smoking, something she does seemingly all day long. I opened the window and asked her if she knew whos dog it was. It seems like she used a whole lot of words to tell me, "not really." She thought he might belong to someone at the end of the court, but wasn't sure. Then she casually mentioned to me that the dog was inside my fence!!!!!!!! I was not happy about that. Oh, I should mention, it was a Chihuaha (I know it's spelled wrong, but I'm too lazy to look it up right now). So, upstairs I go to get dressed. I went around back. I just have to say, it was freezing out there. I opened the gate to let the dog out, but he wouldn't come! In the mean time, my dogs are inside barking their fool heads off. They wouldnt' shut up. I really could have used my husband, as he could have been the one to go outside and freeze while I stayed in to keep the dogs quiet. :-) I ended up coming back in the house, thinking the dog would leave if I was'nt out there. Wrong. I looked out the window, and he was laying on my patio! Just made himself right to home! Ugh. So, I called the MPs. They were rather prompt, which I was pretty surprised about. They finally caught him, though they did have a bit of trouble, so I was able to go back to bed. So, that was my eventful night. :-)
School news.....not doing too bad this week. They are working hard today. They want to go skating. :-) Mikayla has finally got the hang of renaming, Hallelujah!!!!
Knitting news.....I'm still waiting on my Options needles. They'lll be here this week. I have started the calf on my sock, but I'm short a stitch. I discovered that while Benjamin and I were at speech yesterday. I think I just need to take out the row I'm working on to fix it. I wasn't short the last round. :-) I'm dying to cast of for fetching. I'm waiting on the yarn from Knitpicks. I should knit a couple of dishcloths. I am participating in a secret valentine swap on a message board I'm involved in, and would like to whip up a couple for that.
It seems like my dh has been gone forever. It's been barely over 2 weeks. He did call last night though, which was nice. He had to tell me about some award he got. I can't remember exactly what he got it for, but basically he was the hero of their war game yesterday. :-) I told him being a hero is fine if they're just playing war. However, he doesn't need to be a hero in real time war. He's already my hero. That's enough. lol. Thing good thoughts for him.....the E-7 board convened yesterday. It's a long shot, as he's in the secondary zone, but you never know! :-) Until next time............
This isn't a great picture, but atleast you can see what I finished. :-) The lighting in my living room is awful. I knitted this hat with some el'cheap'o Red Heart Soft yarn. It knits up suprisingly well though! Katie and Liberty have since asked for hats. lol. I finished one of the American Girls socks last night. They are so tiny. I'm in the middle of a short-row heel on another pair of socks fromSensational Knitted Socks. I LOVE this book. It makes sock knitting seem so much easier! I've got some new knitting needles in my Knitpicks cart right now. The Options set. I'm just about ready to click submit order. I've wanted them since they first came out. I have some $$ from something of mine that I sold on e-bay. So, I'm thinking I'll splurge and get them. :-) I just got some new knitting books too. One of them is Knitted Babes. I've wanted to make these since I first saw the babes that Faith made. Looks like she's making more. Unfortunately, I don't know if I have any yarn in my stash suitable for a babe body. :-) If not, I'm going shopping on Friday. I'm sure I could get some. I really am going to post a list of projects I want to knit this year. Really, I am. :-) Oh, thanks to Becca for telling me how to include links in my blog entries! :-)
School news.....I'm having a week where I wonder why on earth I am attempting to homeschool my kids? Let's just say that Devin is STILL doing school today. Did you know it's nearly 7pm? Do I feel bad for him? Not one little bit. He's done it to himself. He's currently getting sucked into a game of Spongebob Life.....did I mention he's sitll working on math? Ugh. Mikayla is attempting to learn subtraction with renaming. Can I just bang my head against a wall right now? I don't know how I'm going to survive the next year when my dh is deployed. I'm remember why I got cold feet last time and decided to move to NY with my parents at the last minute. But, I'm not doing that again. I need to just suck it up and deal with it. Easier said than done. On a positive note, Benjamin is going through the Get Ready for the Code books. He's doing GREAT! He's not real keen on handwriting, but he's barely 5, so I'm not pusing it. I really think we're going to try Handwriting Without Tears in the fall. Hmph....I should have inserted a link, eh? Sorry....google is your friend! :-)
Here's my little joy for the day......a new mouse! My old mouse was very, very wonky yesterday. Would move the cursor up, down and to the right, but not to the left. Very frustrating. So, off I went to the PX (by myself I might add) to get a new mouse. I wanted a cheap mouse. They had ONE for $14.95. I quickly picked it up before anyone else tried to get it. :-) Worls like a charm! Who knew that the modern mouse doesn't even use a ball! Huh! Until next time...........
It's tax time. That means one thing. I'm pondering next years curriculum. :-) I'm pretty certain we're going to stick with Sonlight for history. We'll do Core 7. We're only on week 14 of Core 6. Whew....it's a TON of reading for ME! So, I don't think I"ll order it right away. I'll just stick the money away so it's there when I need it. Sonlight is $$$! For English, we'll stick with Bob Jones. We're really liking that this year. I guess I should say "I" am really liking that. My kids don't appreciate grammar/writing yet. Sticking with the same for Science, Apologia and possible My World Science again. The only thing I'm really up in the air about is Math. Currently, we're doing Bob Jones. This is our third year using it. It's working great for Devin. I rarely have to teach him a lesson anymore. He's getting pretty good about just opening his book, reading the instruction page and doing his work. Mikayla is doing well with her BJ math too. Katie??? She has decided that she hates math. She's never had any problems with math before. So, I'm not sure why she is this year. Perhaps 5th grade math is more difficult? So, I'm considering looking at Saxon for her. The only issue is, I already have BJ math stuff for 6th grade. I like not having to buy new stuff every year. I like leftovers. :-) But, if it's not working for her, I really can't do it. I would like to go the homeschool convention in Atlanta in May. BUT, Mike will be deployed. So, I'll have to find somewhere to leave atleast a couple of kids. Easier said than done. So, we will see what I end up with.
Knitting news.....I've been scrapbooking. That means I'm doing very little knitting. I've scrapped 4 pages. Two are for Mike's Iraq album. He'll be pleased to see them when he gets home. He's been bugging me since he got home to work on it. :-) I have a few swaps and a couple of other lay-outs planned too. I did work on a hat for Mikayla a little bit last night. I think I knit less when Mike is gone. I can't knit in the truck when I have to drive. :-) I need to kitchener off the American Girl sock I'm working on too. Then, I can start the second sock. They're tiny, so they are quick. A kid is calling me for something......until next time. Oh, am I the only one who can't get into homeschoolblogger atleast once a day? It is seriously bugging me.
My Monday afternoons are spent at speech therapy with Benjamin. Well, really only 30 minutes of it, but it seems like forever. :-) I must admit, I was not overly impressed with the fact that Benjamin needs therapy. And, I'm not even convinced it's worth my time. He's been going since summer, and I'm not seeing any improvement. BUT, we'll trudge on. :-) One positive thing has come from this though. I get to spend some quality time alone with my 5 year old son. With five kids, one-on-one time doesn't happen often. He is such a sweet little boy. He's a quiet child, much different than his older brother. Often times, if I have errands to run, Benjamin and I will do it after speech. Sometmes, if he works especially hard, we'll go out for a little treat. Usually just a hot fudge sundae off the dollar menu at McDonalds. His favorite treat? A chocolate cupcake from the Starbucks inside Barnes and Nobles. Today he tried a brownie, but decided he like the cupcakes better. :-) So, today, as I was dreading the outing to speech, I came to the realization that I need to consider this a blessing. Before I know it, my sweet ilttle boy will be all grown up. There will come a time when he wouldn't be caught dead sharing a cupcake with Mom at Starbucks. :-) Until next time...........
So, my dh is at NTC. That's the National Training Center in Ft. Irwin, CA for those of you who don't know. :-) They go there in preparation for deploying to Iraq. It's all over the news now....he's not deploying in May, he's leaving in March. If he is here that long. We will see. I'll not say anything more about this right now, as I don't want to violate any op-set stuff. :-) I hate being a single parent, but it comes with Army life I suppose.
Devin went paintballing with a group of kids from our homeschool group today. He had a BLAST! Thankfully, I didn't have to drive him there and wait for him to be done. My friend Becca's husband drove the boys to the paintball park, and the rest of the kids and I hung out at Becca's. For quite some time. lol. I think my kids overwhelmed her. I'm quite sure she is thankful that she only has 2 kids right now. :-) Liberty is a handful, and that is putting it mildly. Becca's dog is named Josey. Liberty insisted on calling her Joseph. It was pretty funny. :-) After the boys returned, they played on the trampoline for a bit and chased some glo-sticks that miraculously appeared in the yard. :-) I must say, I feel much more confident in my ability to cope with this deployment a bit better because I have friends who I know will be there for me if I need them. :-)
I am whooped. I have stayed up way past my bedtime. Katie went to bed not feeling well, so I'm rather certain we won't be going to church. I was sick last weekend, so it only makes sense that atleast one of the kids would get it. I've been busily printing pictures. From our vacation to Disney last February. Shhhhhhh.....don't tell......I think we're going again this February. To SeaWorld and Magic Kingdom. Same thing we did last time, but we had so much fun.
School news.....we did pretty well this last week on our school work. Mikayla scored a 100 on her spelling test. She's up to 10 words in Spelling Workout B now. May not seem like much for a 2nd grader, but let me just tell you she has progressed so much already this year. I can't wait to see how she's doing by the end of the school year. :-) Devin learned some fun stuff in science this week. We'll see how he does on his test next week. lol. Katie wrote a great journal entry about her favorite vacation we've taken. I always love reading the kids journal entries. I'm not sure how well this week will go, since Mike is gone. It will require great patience on my part to get through the week, and I often times lack in the department. So, pray for me, OK? :-) Until next time........
So, I finished my first week of my new healthy life style. I must say, it isn't much fun. BUT, I lost 4 pounds. So, I was encouraged by that. :-) Eating used to be fun for me. Not so much now. I have to learn not to eat for fun (and not because it tastes good), but just to eat to nourish my body. Easier said than done. Ugh. :-)
So, dh is deploying early. I can't say exactly when (never know who could be lurking HA!), but it's earlier than May. Quite a bit earlier. I.am.not.happy.about.that. He's leaving for CA this weekend to go to NTC for a month. I'm sure it'll be as much fun for his as it will be for me. Actually, he's a bit excited. His best friend Brian moved there in March. So, they'll get to hook up again! Yippee! He's hoping he'll be able to go to Brian's house to hang out for a bit and see his kids, but who knows. :-) So, dh gets a 4 day weekend on February 16-19. Where should we go? I informed him yesterday he's taking me somewhere fun since he's deploying so early. I'm thinking a day at MGM and SeaWorld? Watcha think? He wasn't impressed. lol. Especially since it's presidents day weekend. Both of those places will be mobbed. I'm seriously considering it though. We went to Magic Kingdom last year, so MGM would be fun this time, right? We can only afford one park at a time. lol.
Oh, did I tell you the President is coming to Ft. Benning on Thursday? A day after he announces his new Iraq plan? Gee.....I wonder why he's coming? :-) We're hoping to go see him, but I don't know the details yet. That would be a great field trip for the kids, eh? :-)
Knitting news....I am working on the foot of an American Girl sock. I hope it fits. The pattern calls for a size of double pointed needles that either I don't have or I just can't find. So, I went down a size. Whew.....they're tiny. :-) I'll probably finish the foot today, so I'll know if I can knit the match or if I need to just rip it out. I need to make a list of must-knits this year. Watch for that soon. :-) Until next time........
