There's more than one answer to these questions, pointing me in a crooked line... http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/closertofree/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:29:01 -0500 Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:29:01 -0500 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! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/closertofree/719493/ Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:29:01 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/closertofree/719493/ 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. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/closertofree/604173/ Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:54:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/closertofree/604173/ The Wolves by Alex One day a wolf saw a deer.  The wolves chased it and they ate it.  Then they went swimming.  They dried off and went home to bed. (All the colored words are our spelling words) Alex Judy August / 2008 Photos found on Photobucket.com http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/closertofree/588527/ Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:16:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/closertofree/588527/ 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 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/closertofree/585678/ Fri, 5 Sep 2008 15:56:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/closertofree/585678/ 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 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/closertofree/585647/ Fri, 5 Sep 2008 14:40:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/closertofree/585647/ 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! AnGella's Drawing Board http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/closertofree/584883/ Thu, 4 Sep 2008 01:20:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/closertofree/584883/ 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. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/closertofree/582388/ Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:34:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/closertofree/582388/ 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 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/closertofree/582296/ Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:03:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/closertofree/582296/ 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!   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/closertofree/582213/ Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:44:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/closertofree/582213/ 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! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/closertofree/582130/ Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:07:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/closertofree/582130/