Soooo, here we are, me and my little guys, embarking on yet another adventure together. We live in Kentucky on the Kentucky/Tennessee state line. My husband and I have been married for over five years and together we have 2 amazing sons, Adisson, age 5 and Zander, age 1. Currently, Adam is serving in the US Army in the middle east where he has been for several months and with many more months to come. This is our second year of homeschooling. I homeschooled Adisson last year for Kindergarten, but this is the first year he's required to be in school. We hope our blog can help keep Daddy up to date on what's going on with us and our school work. We miss you Daddy! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/armyfamilyof4/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:17:00 -0600 Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:17:00 -0600 <a href="http://www.fiarhq.com"><img border="0" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3253/2916536338_5d1d9275d0_o.png"/></a> (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.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/armyfamilyof4/621719/ Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:17:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/armyfamilyof4/621719/ 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. :)    http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/armyfamilyof4/620857/ Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:49:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/armyfamilyof4/620857/ 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.    http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/armyfamilyof4/618146/ Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:28:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/armyfamilyof4/618146/ 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!!   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/armyfamilyof4/617451/ Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:49:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/armyfamilyof4/617451/ 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!! :)   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/armyfamilyof4/616706/ Sun, 9 Nov 2008 08:29:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/armyfamilyof4/616706/ 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.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/armyfamilyof4/588866/ Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:20:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/armyfamilyof4/588866/ 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.  :) http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/armyfamilyof4/586501/ Sun, 7 Sep 2008 17:11:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/armyfamilyof4/586501/ 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!   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/armyfamilyof4/585398/ Thu, 4 Sep 2008 22:41:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/armyfamilyof4/585398/ 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.  :) http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/armyfamilyof4/577534/ Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:25:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/armyfamilyof4/577534/ 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.  :) http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/armyfamilyof4/577008/ Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:24:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/armyfamilyof4/577008/