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Closer to Free
Aug. 21, 2009
Ok, it's almost been a year....
Since I have been to this blog to update it. Life happens I guess. We bought a condo, moved for the whole month of January and are still settling in.
I haven't blogged much because I have started a website and it takes most of my attention. I'm here now thanks to a friend from another homeschool site I found... yes there is another site. lol Anyways, they needed some help with adding a new template to their HSB account so I logged in to refresh my memory.
Things are going good in the new place and I at least have the kids homeschool/playroom ready for the school year to come. Now if I could only get ready. I have picked up some workbooks here and there and some math games to play but have been looking into a "new to me" delight directed approach thanks to a member of "the other HS network" that I recently joined. It is conveniently located on the same platform as my website's social network so I am there more than here.
Hopefully once my site gets it's routine down and I make all the tutorials I need to make there (if that is possible) I will have more time to check in here. There is my priority now though since we need another income. Scott lost half his hours at work and I don't want to have to leave the home to help earn money, so home business it is. The Good Lord gave me the talent to design and code layouts and I am hoping to help support the family by using those talents. If you would please, say a little prayer that it is successful!
Till next time! |
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Oct. 13, 2008
House Hunting
We have neglected our blog again. Some things are more important and time consuming for me lately. When the markets began to fall and home prices dropped, I decided to begin the search for our next home. We are currently renting a 3 bedroom townhouse for nearly $1000/mo. and struggling to stretch paycheck to paycheck. I realize this is mostly due to our decision to live on one income, but that decision is very important to us.
Recession hurts some more than others, and we may well be one of the families who can benefit from falling home prices. We began looking at single family homes that were in foreclosure because they were at or below our pre-approval amount. We put in a couple of offers and things didn't work out. The first offer we put in was too low and the second I decided to pull when I realized the house didn't even have gutters. Believe me I have learned much about how the hole we are in was dug.
I have been very thorough in researching each home we have considered. Looking through the register of deeds at each home equity loan and refinance of these homes has revealed much about how things came to be. We put in an offer on one home that was in great shape, when these people took out a home equity loan, they put it into the home. They seem to have been the exception. Most of the other homes were in terrible condition.
The worst of them was a home that was bought cheap from the wife's parents. At the time the home was worth about 100 thousand and they paid about 40 thousand. Immediately they took out a $60,000 home equity loan. They refinanced several times and finally they refinanced for $150,000. I have no idea where these folks spent the money, but it was not on the home, possibly it was in energy costs because in winter their bill was about $550/mo. for gas and electric. Obviously this home had no insulation. It also had old drafty windows, and the inside was far from move in condition. Where did all the money go? How many people used their homes as ATMs? It is so very sad.
What we have currently decided on is a condo. The structure is sound, the price is right, and we will not have to put every cent we save into fixing it. The location is convenient to my husband's workplace and shopping, in fact it is within walking distance of both. It is a nice 4bdrm. 1.5 bath multi-level with a little bit of a yard. There is a basement which we do not currently have, but there is no garage which we do currently enjoy. All in all we will be saving about $100/mo. and that is accounting for taxes, PMI, and condo fees! We put our offer in and are praying that things work out. I'll keep you all posted. |
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Sep. 11, 2008
The Wolves
Sep. 5, 2008
Beaver Goes to the Park
Beaver Goes to the Park
by Alex
A Beaver was riding a bus to the park.
He tried to run to the monkey bars, but he fell.
Then some one said come play with us!
(All the colored words are our spelling words)
Alex Judy August / 2008
Photos found on Photobucket.com
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Sep. 5, 2008
The Fox who Cooks
The Fox who Cooks
by Alex
Once there was a fox who liked to cook.
He cooked potatoes one day.
He put all his potatoes in the pot on top of the hot stove.
Then he put the potato box away and ate his potatoes.
(All the colored words are our spelling words)
Alex Judy August / 2008
Photos found on Photobucket.com
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Sep. 4, 2008
New Test Page for Layouts
I have been teaching myself how to design CSS for web pages. Changing my layouts here has been my latest adventure. You can see what is happening on my test page, just remember it is a test page and could at times be very strange looking! I have also found a way to post these template codes if you have any requests, I can do my best!
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Aug. 29, 2008
New Blog Feature
I just wanted to explain my new blog feature Snap Shots. They are pretty simple, just hover the cursor over one of the external links with a little text bubble next to it and it will give you a snapshot of the web page it is linking to! I found this nifty little feature over at my friend's blog Stepping Heavenward.
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Aug. 29, 2008
Horse and Butterfly
Horse and Butterfly
by Alex
Once there was a horse and a butterfly.
They went to Africa where the flowers are.
They played soccer and ate cottage cheese.
Then it was time to go home and go to bed.
(All the colored words are our spelling words)
Alex Judy August / 2008
Photos found on Photobucket.com
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Aug. 29, 2008
Reclaiming our Heritage
Reclaiming our Heritage
by Mom
We took a field trip to a charitable festival in May called Reclaiming our Heritage. This is a military reenactment type event where you can see people dressed in the Military uniforms of different time periods as well as conversing with guests as though they were talking about things that went on in their time period. This was the first time our family attended but we do plan to attend annually now. I learned about it from a friend's HSblog Stepping Heavenward. Later I found out my Uncle would be piping there!
It was a beautiful day and although we missed the parade we did make it in time to see my uncle's piping band play. He plays with the Celtic Nations Pipe Band. We always enjoy seeing them play!
After that we went and got a nice corned beef sandwich at McBob's before we explored the grounds. Gabe and Alex were lucky enough to get the last two hot dogs at the hot dog stand! From there we wandered and took in the sites. From Tee Pees to tents. But Alex's favorite part of all was getting to pet the horses!
We didn't take formal notes this year, mainly we were there to observe and to see what the festival was all about. Next year I plan on doing some studies with the uniforms to see if she can guess their era, but this year we just got our feet wet!
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Aug. 29, 2008
Milestone One
Milestone One
By Mom
I mentioned in an earlier post that we had some real milestones this summer. The first was losing our training wheels. I always thought that confidence was the most important ingredient to success. Sometimes our children are quite capable of taking off the proverbial "training wheels" but they hesitate at times because of fear. What the fear is or where it came from widely differs, but once they succeed they often loose that fear.
Alex was not asking for us to take off her training wheels, but they kept coming loose on her. I suggested that instead of trying to tighten them, why don't we take them off and see what happens? She was hesitant at first, but we told her if it was too hard we would put them back on, she just had to try. So try she did!
Needless to say, the training wheels stayed off and the confidence stayed on! She is doing great riding without her training wheels and I think she has only had one small accident. Yay Alex!
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Aug. 29, 2008
The Dog who Played Hopscotch
The Dog who Played Hopscotch
by Alex
Once there was a dog named Pretty.
She got to play hopscotch.
She threw a rock, it landed on top of five.
She had to hop to get it.
Then she turned around and hopped back.
(All the colored words are our spelling words)
Alex Judy August / 2008
Photos found on Photobucket.com
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Aug. 28, 2008
Back to Blogging!
The Reader's Digest Version of our Summer
by Mom
We had a couple of weeks off this summer here and there and although we still did schoolwork, I abandoned the blog over the summertime. My plan is to begin posting about some of our summer fun, and learning of course! So much to try and remember, thank goodness for cameras!
It was a big summer, we lost our training wheels and our water wings and finished it off with our two front teeth! (She just lost her second front tooth on Tuesday!) We went down to Missouri so Alex could spend some time with her mother and her Memo and Papa. We had a great time with my husband's family over the fourth of July Weekend. Alex really enjoyed her visit.
When she got home from her vacation there were lots of new kids in the neighborhood for her to play with as well as a homeschooling family! It will be nice to have kids for her to play with for recess. As it turns out we had already met their family at a Ron Paul event through Meetup.com. I'm happy to have neighbors with a similar lifestyle!
Summer was fun while it lasted but after a few weeks without structure our little angel begins to get into trouble! Our reason for getting back to school early, not to mention shorter days. I hope to have more details in the days to come!
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Aug. 28, 2008
The Kitty
The Kitty
by Alex
There was a kitty who ate cake.
When she was done, she went to the lake.
Then she went home and had to rake.
(All the colored words are our spelling words)
Alex Judy August / 2008
Photos found on Photobucket.com
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Aug. 28, 2008
Alex's Soccer Game
Alex's Soccer Game
by Alex
I played a game of soccer.
I like to take the ball.
The coach said come here and line up!
I like to make goals, because people clap for me.
(All the colored words are our spelling words)
Alex Judy August / 2008
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Jul. 9, 2008
Alex's Soccer Season
This year's Spring Soccer season went really well. Alex is beginning to use more of the moves she learns in practice and she was very happy to play with children from her old school. During the last game of the year Alex was very happy to get the chance to score the last goal of the season! It was a rough game as she was knocked down, stepped on and nearly tackled. I can only hope we can get her into the fall session.
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May. 12, 2008
So Starts Another Week Down the Unmapped Path
It sure has been a while since I have made any posts. I got real sick for a week and it has taken me some time to return to normal. The house went to the kids for a week, and I thought I was never caught up before. So I am glad to be here to catch up with myself.
I have been reading when I get the chance. My favorite book that I am reading is A RETURN TO MODESTY: Discovering the Lost Virtue by Wendy Shalit. It is one of those perspective changing books if you know what I mean. I will be a better person and mother for what I am reading right now. I pick up The Revolution: A Manifesto by Ron Paul now and then , but I am determined to get done with my other books as well. I think I like to tackle too much sometimes.
Alex has returned to soccer and should be posting about that by tomorrow. She has been working on short writing entries, she writes them out by hand guessing at the spelling. Then I go through and edit her work. I pick out the misspelled words and we use them for spelling practice. Her soccer entry is ready to be typed and her photo posted. She is much more confident and willing to steal the ball from the other team. Once you can get it away from Mom and Dad, those other kids aren't so scary anymore.
We are plugging away at math worksheets much of which is review, but we are now mastering it. Taking our time to learn the concept as we go. Review may be a bit boring or redundant, but she gains confidence once she can complete it with ease on her own.
We are doing the human body for science this week. This is in preparation to a museum field trip we have planned for next weekend. The Milwaukee Public Museum has an exhibit right now called Body Worlds 1 from Germany. My husband and I went to see it on our honeymoon in Chicago. It is truly amazing. She has looked through the picture book from that exhibit in Chicago and seemed fascinated. So we will do some studying and she will get to take a good look at what an awesome job God did when he created humans.
Alex is doing wonderful with her reading. She is reading books labeled for third grade without much help. I haven't updated her books in the margin in the past month, but it has been many. Reading is a great time because it can also include learning different subjects. Social Studies and reading fit hand in hand. She learned about Crazy Horse last week, and has been listening to the Little House series on CD. I could only find the audio of some of the stories. We love the library, even Gabe.
So starts another week down the unmapped path. |
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Apr. 1, 2008
Missouri
Hi! Guess what me and my family went to Missouri. But I just got to stay 2 days. Me and Memo played checkers and Jenga. Memo knocked it down, I won. Gabe got a car and a train set. I got a bubble stick and we got to go on Jesse's pony and the pony's name is Pedro.
Alex
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Mar. 29, 2008
New Doopa's
I posted the below picture last night so a friend could see a diaper that I made for a friend's baby shower. I wanted her to see the difference in size so I posted one of my son's diapers.
Right now I am working on a full set for my son, but I have made some as gifts for friends. If you like them please let me know, I would consider making them for others.
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Mar. 17, 2008
The School for Animals
I was browsing through blogs tonight and loved this so much I had to share it with family and friends. Thanks Boys 'R' Us!
The School for Animals
An old story tells of the creation of a school for the animals. To make it easier to administer the curriculum, all the animals took all the subjects: flying, swimming, climbing, and running. Among the students were a duck, a flying squirrel, a fox, and an elephant. These four were highly motivated, and wanted to get good grades, so they all tried very hard.
The duck did fantastically well in swimming and flying, but he lagged behind his classmates in climbing and running, so focused special attention on those two subjects. However, his feet became so sore from trying to run and his wings were so bedraggled from trying to climb that by the end of the year he not only failed both those subjects, but made C’s in swimming and flying, which had once been his two best subjects.
At the beginning of the school year, the squirrel was first in his class in climbing and running and was second only to the duck at flying. But as the months wore on, he missed so much school from catching pneumonia in his swimming class that he failed everything.
To make matters even worse, because the squirrel constantly squirmed and chattered in class, and had difficulty paying attention, he was diagnosed with a learning disorder. The squirrel eventually was placed in remedial classes and had to be medicated in order to continue with his school work.
The fox was a natural in his running class and scored well in climbing and swimming, but became so frustrated at his inability to get good grades in flying that he began assaulting his classmates. He even tried to eat the duck. His behavior was so disruptive he was expelled from school. He fell in with a rough crowd and eventually wound up in a center for animal delinquents.
The elephant, meanwhile, developed low self-esteem because he couldn’t do well in any of the subjects. When he sank into clinical depression, his therapist persuaded him to try a different school that focused on subjects such as lifting and carrying. The elephant was disappointed, because careers in lifting and carrying were not as prestigious as careers in flying, swimming, climbing, or running. Even though he always felt inferior, he managed to make a decent living and support his family.
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Mar. 15, 2008
Doopa Diapers
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