Oct. 1, 2009 - Montana Inn
We did it! We made an offer on the motel, signed the contract, and brought it down to the title company today! In less than 30 days, we will be the new owners of the Montana Inn. No...it's no Hilton, but it's home to us. It's a road side motel, in a small town that has a library, a courthouse, about five restaurants, and a population of just under 2000. It's small town America. There a few other hotels in the town. We are the second to the cheapest. The hotel itself needs work, much of it cosmetic, but with some TLC we can get it so we can charge more than the current owner charges. We're excited about it, although we can't get over the fact that we're actually going to own a motel!
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Sep. 28, 2009 - A new plan...yet again
By now, friends, you know our plan changes daily. We have no idea what we are doing here. Today we are driving 100 miles from Billings to go check out a motel that is for sale. It's within our price range and it may be a good business opportunity. The motel has been in business for 25 years and the newest owner owned it for the past 8 years. He said that he had updated it some but he owns two other businesses in town and would like to sell this one.
If it doesn't turn out, then we're most likely going to make an offer on the house we looked at on Friday. The realtor is supposed to be requesting a disclosure statement on that property today and we want tp get a concrete specialist in to look at its foundation. I'll keep you updated.
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Sep. 25, 2009 - My first CCD class
went amazingly well. We learned about how God gave us our senses so that we may experience his creation. We did a worksheet (which was just to fill time until everyone arrived), painted our handprints on the bulletin board and then played a game where each child had to use different senses to figure out various objects. We ran out of time for the game and only made it around three quarters of the class, so next week, they are looking forward to playing it again.
Kaylah had her first choir practice afterwards, and really enjoyed it. She will be singing at three masses during October, and she's pretty excited about that. While she was at practice, I was able to get my bulletin boards decorated and do my lesson plan for next week. We also found out about Ariella receiving Confirmation. In PA, they do it in 6th grade, here in 2nd, so she missed it. She will be taking RCIC classes in order to be able to receive Confirmation at the Easter Vigil Mass.
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Sep. 25, 2009 - Plan L
So, we've been looking at houses now. We are anxious to get out of here. It's not bad living here, but it's hard to relax when the kids are running around and it's not our house. It's not our table that they are painting on, it's not our floor that they are spilling their cereal on, and it's not even our bedroom that we are sleeping in. We are abandoning our log cabin and 20 acres dream for now (well, postponing any action taken on it at least) and going with a house already built.
I found some on line that we've been looking at. Yesterday, we went to Laurel and looked at some fixer-uppers. For the price that we are willing to pay, they were no good. Any of the cheaper houses had major foundation problems. Last night, I found one that I'm going to call the realtor about this morning so that we can hopefully go take a look at today. With the luck we've been having, it'll probably be another one that just went under contract last night!
Jason's still on the job search. Almost every job that he has applied to called him back with a no. The one that he thought was in the bag (at the nursing home), the second interview didn't go so well. Apparently, Jason's very over-qualified and based on his salary history, the boss doesn't think he would be there long. Which is true...he would be looking for a better job, but it would've been better than nothing! But, I can see it from the company standpoint. Just keep us in your prayers...we're trying here!
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Sep. 17, 2009 - Teaching CCD
Yesterday afternoon, we started CCD. I volunteered to assist in a class and went to the training last week. I had to redo the VIRTUS training, since I couldn't find my certificate or record saying that I took it in PA. So, yesterday, we went and I ended up being the main teacher for kindergarten, and I was the one who had the assistant. Thank goodness it was the first day and there wasn't really anything to plan. Otherwise, it would have been crazy. The class went relatively smooth and the kids made self-portraits to be hung in the main hall, along with the self portraits of all the other classes.
I have 11 kids in my class, two of which I'm gonna have to keep an eye on. All the other kids sat nice and did the craft and two, one boy and one girl, continually were out of their seats, eating snack before it was time, and just constantly moving. But, overall, the class seems like it's going to be a good one. The only difference with now having to teach rather than assist is that now I have to actually plan the lessons.
Ariella and Kaylah both enjoyed their classes and both came out with stories of new friends met. They are both looking forward to next week and the year. More likely than not, we'll be staying in Billings over the winter, since once it snows, Jason says looking for land will be out. Although, I heard that it doesn't really snow that bed here in the Billings area or this part of the state. We'll soon see.
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Sep. 17, 2009 - co-op
Yesterday, the kids and I ran over to the co-op that the lady who owned the Family Book Spot told us about. It wasn't at all like I thought it would be. Not anything like the one we belonged to in PA. This was more like group lessons. I only spoke with the art teacher, since my kids weren't really interested in doing music. Kaylah is doing choir at our church and from the information the art teacher gave me about music, it seemed like that was what music classes were. So, the art class was just some lady (I don't think she even has a degree in art) cherging homeschoolers $100 to teach them. Kaylah, Milana, and Jason cut out construction paper to make a mosaic rainbow. Ariella (and Kaylah who sat in on the second class too) sketched things around the room. Granted, I wasn't expecting a masterpiece, but these two activities are things that I can and do do with the kids.
The reason we want a co-op is to meet other families, but I just am not willing to pay $480 to do so. It's $100 for the lessons and then $20 for the facility fee per child. Insane. I did meet some moms though who informed me about other things going on around the county. I joined our county's yahoo group, where some of the moms who I talked to mentioned about things being posted on that. I want to see if there is any other co-op or anything cheaper than these lessons that I went to yesterday. By definition, a co-op is moms cooperating in the teaching. I just can't understand how people would pay this amount of money when it's something that can be done in a true co-op, instead of paying one teacher to do it all and reap all the monetary benefits. We just can't afford it and evenif we could, I know there has to be a less expensive way to meet other homeschoolers.
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Sep. 12, 2009 - heading back to the mountains
Jason, the kids, and I are taking off to the mountain house for a few days. We found some pieces of land that we want to look at that are closer to that area than here. Hopefully, we're able to get a realtor to bring us out there. There are some pieces that his cousin is going to show us.
Jason got a call for that position he interviewed for (for the director of public works). There was three applicants and the one they hired had 10 years of experience actually working with public works. So, it was meant to be. We're trying to think outside the box anyways as far as income goes. Anywhere we would want to live is a while from a city, so we're trying to figure out a way to bring in income without him having to commute so much everyday.
Keep us in your prayers, because we're trying to do God's will here, we just need to figure out what that is.
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Sep. 7, 2009 - ambleside on-line
I've been looking into Ambleside. I've read the Charlotte Mason Companion and have heard a lot about her methods. I've also been reading a lot about nature journalling and classical education. I printed out year ) and year 1 and year 2 of the ambleside booklists and have decided to give it a try. I was able to locate some of the books (thanks to the Family Book Spot) and most of them have texts on-line. The chapters of the recommended books are short and so, I'm thinking that they would appeal to Ariella who I will have to pull away from her regular reading. It seems that actual book work and writing (copywork) will only take an hour out of the day and I'll space that throughout the day. We already do nature journals and there's some areas nearby that I would like to explore anyways.
Kaylah, I'm going to start with year 0, but will start her on a phonics program. I bought Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, that I'm going to try with her. If I could only get her to sit with me for 15 minutes a day. She's very busy and would rather jump on the trampoline and ride her bike then sit for any length of time. Maybe during lunch time.
Ariella I'm going to start with year 1, just because year 2 contains a lot of continuation of textx and I'd like to start at the beginning of the novels. Plus, after looking through some of the included texts, the works are a little more complex than what she's been reading. She has read some classics and in fact at the moment she's reading Pride and Prejudice but she likes reading the Illustrated Classics, which are a far cry from the original works, which is what Charlotte Mason recommends.
I'll keep you posted on how this plays out, but if it all goes as planned, we will be starting our formal lessons tomorrow. It seems every year, we try to get structured but it never works out. We seem to fall back into the role of relaxed homeschoolers, but who knows? Maybe this program will work for us.
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