Burk Christian Academy - Homeschool Blogger

My How Time Flys!

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:53:00 -0500

Wow! It has been forever since I logged in last! We have been crazy busy around here and things just got busier!

We had Simon Nathaniel on December 29, 2008. He was a whopping 8lbs and 15 ounces and 21.5 inches long! No wonder I was REALLY read to have him! LOL He is now 7 months old and becoming mobile and lughs and plays. He is a blessing to our family and a wonderful gift from GOD!

After we had Simon we just took time to get to know him before we started schooling again. Academics can always be caught up but character and family bonds are much harder to "catch up", in my honest opinion.

I then attempted to start us back on sometime of routine and schooling schedule which worked for a while but I soon-we all did-became overwhelmed. I needed to simplify somewhere so I decided to simpify our academics and extracurricular activities. I now have the oldest DD using SOS for Lang. Arts, Science, and History, Saxon math, and A Beka Health. The next one in line needed to do some tutoring in Math and Reading skills to fill in some gaps so I signed her up for www.mindsprinting.com after which she will use the same curricula as the oldest DD. The third in line is using a mixture of Lifepacs and A Beka for almost everything and Saxon for math. The fourth in line DD is using My Heavenly helper curricula, www.starfall.com, and also enjoys www.nickjr.com for games. The next in line is the 2yo DD who is just doing whatever I can get her to do-she is smart but I do not want to start her so young that she gets burnt out but I will not discourage her from trying either. And lastly, but not least, is Simon who just gets to entertain us troughout the day.

I also picked up a home based business to help out a little finacially but still be home with the children during the day. I am an Independant Consultant for The Pampered Chef. I am now coming up on my 30 day mark really quick. My website is www.pamperedchef.biz/susanburk . If anyone would like to do a catalog show online I would love to work with you to help you earn free and discounted products! The next few months the host specials are: August-60% off 1-2 pieces of cookware, September-60% off 1-2 pieces of Stoneware and metal bakeware, and October-60% off 1-3 pieces of Forged Cutlery! Some great deals in themselves if you need to replace anything!

6 weeks have gone by already! What we've been up to around here

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:45:00 -0600

I can't believe six weeks have gone by already since our newest blessing was born! And since the last time I was on here! Life has been really busy ever since we came home from the hospital. I seem to be on an every 2-3 hour schedule, if you know what I mean! LOL

We are just starting to get some kind of routine going again. Of course every time I say that little Simon changes his feeding time again and we start all over again! It is wonderful having a baby again though, and a boy! His big sisters enjoy getting to hold him and the older two are actually helping with diaper changes. I've only been peed on three times so far. The last time it was in my eye-boy, did that get some laughs!

I am coming to the realization that while teaching multiple children at the same is a good thing, it just isn't working in this season of my life. So I am in the process of figuring out a different approach. I need something that will allow my olders to be more independent learners and so I am able to work with the 6 yr old (currently finishing 1st grade math) and my 3 yr old who loves doing prek work. The two yr old likes to draw and color and can say some numbers and letters. My oldest two are going to be 12 and 10 this year-so 7th and 5th grade. The next one down will be 7 this year and 2nd grade. The 3 yr old will be 4 in June and will continue to do prek/k work and I guess the 2 yr old-just turned 2 in December- might do some prek stuff but I am not pushing it with her.

For school right now we are doing math, Spelling Power-with the older two, spelling and LLATL red-older version- with the 6 yo, and prek stuff with the 3 yo. The older three are also doing notebooks on the United States that I got for free as a download from www.notebookingpages.com a while back. Add in the things they do every day to help with baby and the little girls and the house, feeing the dogs, etc. I would consider that a well rounded education.

We -or shall I say, I- have come to the realization that I cannot be Super Mom. So, I have a friend coming once a week starting next week to help me train my children in certain cleaning areas that we have been lagging in as well as other areas I could need assitance in at any time-cooking, cleaning, etc. Having 6 blessings and keeping the house in running order is no small task. So instead of hiring help to come in, she suggested she could come work with one child each we week and teach them how to do things to help me out. I guess my goal is to have them be able to know how to run the house down the road if needed. My view has always been that we all LIVE in this house 24/7 and we ALL need to be accountable for keeping it in running order.

We went on a field trip Tuesday the 10th to see "Abraham Lincoln" and his wife, Mary Todd at a local college. We headed out at 8 in the morning to pick up some friends on the way. At their house I succeeded at getting my 15 passenger Chevy 3500 stuck in the mud! LOL Boy, was hubby ever pleased with pickle I got myself in that morning! He and a friend got me out and we continued on our way, a half hour behind schedule but we somehow managed to make it up on the road and meet up with the rest of hour group to follow them the rest of the way to the college. After the presentation, we all had lunch in the caffeteria at the college before heading home.

And to brighten my day today the FedEx guy just brought my new washing machine pump! Woohoo! The old one has been leaking for about a week now and the carpet in the laundry room is starting to smell. Surely I am not the only semi-large family mommy who has appliance troubles. That washer rarely stops during the week and sometimes goes at night too.

He's Here!!!

Thu, 1 Jan 2009 19:30:00 -0600

Our newest blessing is finally here! Simon Nathaniel was born 12-29-2008 at 3:07 p.m. He weighed in at 8 lbs and 15 ounces and measured in at 21.5 inches long. He is my biggest baby and such a wonderful gift from God.

Pics can be viewed @ http://s81.photobucket.com/albums/j214/aburks6/

You will need guest password: blessedfamily to login to view photos. Edited on 2/12/09.

We are so happy to finally have him in our arms! He is, of course, getting so much attention from his five-mainly four of- big sisters.

I went in for my scheduled induction at 8 a.m. on December 29th. Pitocin was started at 9 a.m. and my water was broken by doctor at 1:30 p.m. At 1:30 p.m. I was dilated to 4cm. Half an hour later I was at 6cm. Around 2:30 I was an 8-9 and the nurses had me start pushing to get past that. Shortly after that I was fully dilated and doctor was there and I pushed back to back until Simon was born at 3:07 p.m.

I wasn't told until the next day that his heart rate wasn't going back up in between pushes as it should which is why I pushed constantly to get him out quickly. The cord was around his neck once-probably the cause of his heart rate not going back up.

We came home December 30 in the evening. I typically opt for a 2 day stay but most I usually have night time births too. Simon is first to be born during the day.

Having baby tomorrow!

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 19:12:00 -0600

Just wanted to share that we are going to be induced tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. We are so excited to finally be having our son! Will share more once I am back online!

35 Weeks Pregnant and Counting!

Wed, 3 Dec 2008 09:43:00 -0600

I am now 35 weeks and 2 days into this pregnancy! I really am excited and ready to have our new little guy! I am starting to be at the point that I want to clean, clean, clean this house up along with a lot of other things I want to get done.

I would like to can some soups, mainly Taco Soup and Chili, so I have some quick back up meals. I also might make and freeze some meals. I am not counting on very many meals from friends considering I will more than likely have the baby close to Christmas as I did with our almost 2 year old, Rachael.

Our refrigerator quit working Monday evening and we had to throw out a lot of things-eggs, milk, meats, etc. I was frustrated to say the very least. We put all of the frozen things in the deep freezer and then unplugged it. DH talked to a repairman who suggested we do this. He thought it sounded like the coils were froze up. After DH got home from work he used the shop vac to vacuum out the under side and inside of the fridge. We left it unplugged while we went to the City of Mount Vernon's Christmas dinner-DH works for the city. We plugged it back in and put thermometers in both sides and then went to bed. We were overjoyed to find it was working again this morning. Lesson learned: clean the dust out of your fridge's underside and internal parts to prevent the blockage of airflow that will cause the coils to freeze over resulting in the loss of lots of $$ in food items.

Well, I'm off to try to make some sense of my messy kitchen from yestday's ordeal.

Recent Photos of our Children

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:10:00 -0500

Brooke, the oldest at 11

Crystal, Second in line at 9 years old

Megan, third daughter, 6 years old

Samantha, our fourth daughter, 3 years old

Rachael, daughter number five, 21 months old (or 1 yr and 10 mon.)

Simon, our first son, still being knit-due Dec. 29

Our Adventurous September

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:25:00 -0500

My how time flies when life keeps you hoppin'!

We had all but finished cleaning and organizing our house when we got some house guests from Louisiana the end of August. My older sister and my 79 yo Grandma live on the Westbank and were evacuated due to Hurricane Gustav. The Tuesday after they arrived, Sept. 2nd, the day I had planned our first day of school, I ended up spending the day in the emergency room with my Grandma who was dehydrated and had stomach flu on top of recovering from gall bladder surgery the week they evacuated. So my sister stayed with the girls and took care of things here as best she could. She literally spent the day in my shoes with them and implemented the lesson plans-thank God I had them planned out well in advance-to the best of her ability. They planned on leaving the 6th or 7th but ended up staying in lieu of Hurricane Ike on the way and forcasted to hit right where Gustav made landfall. So we watched and watched Ike to see what it would do once it entered the Gulf of Mexico. Eventually it became clear that Ike was headed for Texas but was so BIG that they might as well wait until Ike was done. Grandma and Sis left on the 14th at the girls' bedtime. In all this time we accomplished 3-4 days of actual school. The rest I canned green beans and made zuchinni relish and kept up on the house work as well as visited with Grandma-who we hadn't seen since our honeymoon 5 years ago-and my older sister-who had moved back down south and had been gone for two years.

The morning after Grandma and Sis left I discovered just how tired my preggy body was and didn't get anything done but the bare minimum. We are slowly getting caught back up on our lessons-doing only the Konos activities that will drive home the concepts so we can get back on track and math, english, and phonics. We are just about caught up with Konos but will take a bit more to get caught up with the three R's.

Here it is October already and I am still playing catch up and feeling quite overwhelmed and well, frazzled. In just 2 and 1/2 months we'll be expecting baby Simon to make his debut anytime and we really need to have everything-schooling and house work-complete and ready to go before that. In the midst of my hurried, stressful days our pastor's wife announced a new Bible study she wanted to host at her home called The Frazzled Female. Of course, I jumped on board-feeling led to-feeling I could really benefit from this Bible study. I am having a blast doing this study and letting God work on me and change from the inside out. I am slowly getting control of my life again with God's help and the encouragement of the wonderful ladies in our group.

Our almost 3 1/2 yo is finally potty training! I am so excited! Sad to say but Dad did the other three so #4 DD is the first one that I have been hands on with. We ran out of Pull-Ups so I resorted to the underwear and plastic pants method and it is working really well! She has some accidents-we started last Wednesday-but mostly goes on the potty. One of my "to have done before baby is born" items was to her potty trained fully and she is well on her way.

Guess that's it for now. Hope everyone else is having a great school year so far! Ours has been quite the adventure and it's only been a month since day 1!

Cleaning and Organizing

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:51:00 -0500

We've been busy around here getting our house cleaned and organized all week. We are doing the last two rooms today. Then I should take pics to print and hang so they can remember what the rooms should look like. I am really excited about the progress we have made so far. My goal is to have the whole house done before we start school on Tuesday-which is fast approaching.

I have salsa to finish making and to can tonight and green beans that need to be snapped, cut and canned as well tonight. We also need to check our garden for produce that is ready. Our acorn squash are starting to get the right size and we more than likely have more zuchinni and yellow squash ready and need to check the green beans as well. We are going to be really busy around here all evening. Tomorrow I am hoping to help DH get outside work caught up. I can use the riding mower and he can weed eat. The girls can pick up toys, etc. off the ground. I see a long, long nap in my future somewhere this weekend. Sunday and Monday sound like good days!

Well, back to the rooms that need to get finished and then on to washing jars and canning.

Making Progress...A Little at a Time

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:29:00 -0500

So far my planning is going well. I have through mid-March planned out. I have our tentavive school schedule planned-which I have no doubt will need tweaking as we work through our first week or so back. I have our books ordered from the library for our first two weeks of lessons as well.

Preggy number 6 is going okay. I am just now starting to have heartburn. I am beginning to feel baby move a bit. Being preggy with a boy has been different in some ways that I never experienced with the girls. In the beginning there were migraines and lightheadedness. Those are gone and have been replaced with extreme cranky mood swings. My poor family.

I am going to our HS group's first mom's night out of the year tonight! I am looking forward to it so much. I even made some Granola Fruit Bars to bring along.

Exciting news to share..

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:05:00 -0500

We recently found out that we are having a BOY!! After all girls, it was quite a shock! We are so thankful to God for such a blessing though! Now, if we can just settle on a name for this little one...

Our garden is finally producing in bits and pieces-we got ours out later than expected. We are getting green beans, yellow squash, crookneck squash, zuchinni, cucumbers, and jalapenos. Our corn should be ready in a few weeks, as well as the tomatoes.

I am still working on our school planning. I am trying to combine some MOTH scheduling tips along with the suggested schedule for Konos in the Konos manual to simplify the year and have a plan in place for each day. I am going to purchase some portable timers for the girls to help us keep track of time for each lesson. Brooke is pretty much self directed-all I have to do is provide her with ample direction for her morning lessons. Crystal and Megan will move from one thing to the other at the same time. Samantha and Rachael will move from one activity to the next together as well. I am finding it more and more necessary to plan and schedule things as our "little" family continues to grow. I have become far to lax this summer though and am afraid I will pay for it later on when we begin our school year. I have planned to start school on September 2nd and do five day weeks this year.

Well, I need to get back to my "To Do List." Until next time..thanks for stopping by!