Sullivan's Academy - Homeschool Blogger

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 18:24:00 -0500

I am sorry to have to announce this, but I am switching blog pages. I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting all of my friends here at HSB, so I hope you will still visit me on my other blog here . I will still visit!

Thanks and be blessed!

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 11:10:00 -0500

I thought it was time to post a few pictures of my little darlings :)

This is Kyndall - 3 months old already! Isn't her smile beautiful?

And these are my big girls showing off their missing teeth -

And this is Graycie, my very fun 3 year old.

We've had such fun this summer. We've been to the lake, swam almost daily, and gone to many playgrounds. I was telling my family this weekend that having seasons make you appreciate each one that much more. Our pools in Florida were taken for granted since you were able to swim almost 10 months out of the year! I'm so very thankful that the Lord saw fit to bless us with the ability to move here! We've even found a family in our neighborhood that is planning on homeschooling their children. They are a wonderful family who tries very hard to walk with the Lord, and we are amazed at God's goodness that he chose to give us friends such as these.

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 16:40:00 -0500

Tomorrow is my oldest daughter's 8th birthday. It is so hard to believe my baby is that old. The time has gone by so quickly. I am so thankful I still have a baby in the house, or I'd probably be in tears by now remembering her "babydom". She has been a joy these last few weeks helping with her little sisters and just being there. We've started letting her stay up a little later than the others and she usually just wants to spend the time sitting with us. How amazing that is. I pray those moments last through the years. Tonight she is out with her "Meme", my mom, shopping and then we will meet up for dinner. It has turned into a birthday tradition since we've moved up here. The girls feel so grown up riding around in her convertible.

I finally gave in and bought another sewing machine. I needed curtains for one of the kids bedrooms and couldn't find any that fit just right for color or style. I decided that I was going to make them. Astonishly, I did! They turned out just right! I doubt I'd win a blue ribbon at the fair for them, but they look nice to me, and they cover the windows, so therefore, they are perfect! I had some extra fabric so I even made bean bags for a bean bag toss. Isn't that cool?

Happy birthday also to Ryan Daniel. He was born to one of my oldest friends this morning. He is her first baby, so it is going to be fun watching them. I can't wait to share in mommy moments with her!

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:50:00 -0500

Today was a big day in our home. I took all my big girls to their first dentist appointment. Yes, even my 7, almost 8 year old had her FIRST appointment. Am I horrible? Can you tell I have issues with dentist offices? I'm not sure why I have such a phobia of it, because I love going to the regular doctor. I think it is the pain quotient. Anyway, Shayla had 1 cavity, and the two younger girls had none. My darling 3 year old didn't even bite anyone! I call that a good day.

This evening we watched some home movies. They brought back so many fond memories. I am definitely going to start using our camcorder more often. The girls grow so quickly. We laughed so much. My mom even watched a few with us. We have more to watch tomorrow, and I am really excited about it. We've had this wonderful contraption for almost 2 years, and we just took the time to hook it up to our tv. If I would of known how much fun it was going to be, we would of done it much earlier.

The public schools started a couple of days ago around here. Our neighborhood is very peaceful these days. I've missed that. I like having kids come over to play in the afternoons, but right after breakfast can get tiresome.

Our school days are going very well. We are doing a bit of activities in the morning before we have lunch, then Shayla and Cassy do school while the littles nap. I do our read alouds with them before bed. It makes for a more relaxed atmosphere around here. The main reason for the switch was that Graycie, my 3 year old, was so bored while the girls did their book work. This way, she gets to be involved in fun crafts while I still have my energy, instead of being herded off to kill time. I love the moments we are getting to share. We put the baby in the bumbo seat in the middle of our table, then the girls do their crafts around her. It's a family affair!

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 19:13:00 -0500

My little baby is officially a big girl. Last night was her first night in her "big girl" crib in her sister, Shayla's room. It was very traumatizing for me, sleeping in my room without her. I would of kept her in there indefinitely had it not been for my husband having to get ready for work at 2:30am. I didn't want to disturb her sleep schedule quite that much by having her up for an hour at that time. She also giggled for the first time today while sitting in her daddy's lap, (of course).

I had a sad encounter at the grocery store this week. I had taken all the girls with me since their daddy was trying to catch up on some sleep. We had a great outing, even going out to lunch with my mom. The store was our last stop on the way home. As we were walking down an aisle, I accidently knocked a pack of bagels to the ground. This was no surprise to me, since we usually make at least one mess between the four of us walking. A lady was walking by about the time it happened and I just smiled and shrugged. She then said to me, "Don't worry, they go back to school in 2 weeks". I, of course, told her they do not since they are homeschooled. She kind of shook her head and walked away. It made me so sad! I then had the blessed opportunity of sharing with my children why someone would make such a comment. My girls then proceeded to tell me all the wonderful things they would be missing out on if they went to school! Isn't that just amazing? I just love my girls! The incident did get me to thinking, did I do something to make her think I didn't want to be near my kids? Or, is it simply so odd to see me at the store with 4 children, alone, and they automatically assume I'm losing my mind? Granted, that does happen at times...

We are studying on Phillipians 4:8, "...whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if aything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things." My oldest daughter asked me tonight if I could help her find some verses in the bible that could help with her attitude? I was very happy to oblige, and I was convicted enough to know I should study them as well. We are going to try to dwell on the positive instead of the negative. I'm hoping to use this in my ironing tonight. The good - my hubby will be thankful. :) See how easy that was?!

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:58:00 -0500

Alright, this time I have a very legimate excuse for not blogging in so long. My oldest daughter has a severe case of poison ivy as well as chicken pox. Can you believe the misery this poor child is experiencing? We originally thought it was mosquito bites, since all three girls had spots. Then, the other two girls spots were gone. We were keeping them all inside, so we couldn't figure out what was wrong. We starting thinking fleas since we have a furry cat, but again, no one else was bothered. After the blisters started breaking out we knew it was time to see the professional and let them solve the mystery. Unfortunately, she was supposed to start tennis lessons this monday (in just 3 days) with her 6yo sister. She was very upset by the idea of going out in public looking like this, regardless of if it was contagious. So, that had to be postponed for another week. The odd thing about the "pox" is that she was vaccinated. Evidently, she will only get a mild case (which it is), but the poison ivy is simply terrible. It appears to bother her much more than the spots. Thankfully, she is homeschooled, so she doesn't have to miss any school! Aren't we horrible parents? I almost felt sorry for her, until I thought that sitting around idly would be worse than being occupied with work. She would just sit there and scratch. A pencil in their hand does wonders.

On to other news, hubby has started a job working at 3a.m. Needless to say, I won't be up making him breakfast before work. Actually, horrible wife that I am, I never make breakfast. We are a cereal family. As usual, I have strayed from the point... We are all trying to adjust to this new schedule, which means a much earlier bedtime for all involved. This should be interesting for this house, especially since it doesn't get dark until after 9 o'clock. We are going to aim for no later than 8. Yeah, right. I'm praing for an opportunity to work from home to supplement for a while. I'd love one the chance to make money while being with my family.

I'll share with you one of my completely inept moments. I am a fairly technical person. I am proficient on the computer, love to use kitchen gadgets, and can follow manuals to put most toys together. That being said, when we woke up this morning, our cordless phone gave me an error message that said "cannot connect". I checked the cords, all were hooked properly to the modem (we have digital phone service). My regular phone which was plugged into a splitter in the same jack worked fine. The main issue was that the caller id is on my cordless. This made me crazy all day. It really gets on my nerves when i miss a call and they don't leave a message, therefore peaking my curiosity to know who actually called since I can't check the caller id. The worst part is I'm one of those people who usually hangs up before leaving a message, relying on that persons caller id. I fianlly convinced my wonderfully mecanically inclined hubby to take a look at fixing the contraption before I bought a new one. (That will motivate him to fix anything.) He figured it out in seconds, the power was unplugged. I felt so ridiculous. At least my darling got a good laugh out of it. I just checked the actual phone cord, who would of thought of the power. I even blamed a lightning storm for messing it up. Boy, was I ever wrong.

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 08:32:00 -0500

I just had another moment of blessing with living in a small town. I needed a shot record for my 3yo and when I called the dr.'s office, they told me I could pick it up today after lunch. Where we used to live, it took at least a week! I am so thankful to have this pediatrician. The doctor has been wonderful for our family and very supportive of homeschooling. While I'm thinking about it, HSLDA is doing a series of questions with the 2008 presidential candidates that are quite insightful. They are asking each candidate the same questions regarding homeschooling, marriage and a few others (those are the 2 that interest me most).

We went to the fair again before it left and rode the rides the kids had missed before. We also attended a magic show and my oldest was chosen to be a helper. It was pretty cute, she used a "magic" wand to make a bunny. We didn't think she was ever going to stop petting it and get off that stage. She enjoyed the lime light a bit much for this mom to be comfortable. Who knows what we are in for?! She is already the drama queen of the family, so I should of expected it.

We've done some rescheduling of our school day to make my mornings a little less chaotic. The girls now do their reading first, then math and handwriting, then I do our read-alouds. We made prayer journals a couple of days ago to show the girls how faithful God is in answering our prayers. I need to make one for myself as well. I'm hoping to be more accountable in our prayer life (and every other aspect). We've also started letting the older girls do math and typing drills on the computer. Our 3yo is doing alphabet drills on it during her turn. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of free programs available on the internet.

Our big girls will be starting tennis lessons in a couple of weeks. I may be more excited than they are! I remember taking lessons each summer when I was a child. Maybe they'll actually learn something and stick with it, unlike their mother! :) There is a huge playground next to the courts, so I'm sure my 3yo will be adequately entertained as well. I just love our new town! There are so many neat things to do! I've never seen so many wonderful playgrounds. I mean, huge, nice rubber mat playgrounds. Anyone ready for a visit? We need some friends to share it with, and it would be even better!

Sat, 7 Jul 2007 08:03:00 -0500

We attended our county fair last night. Although it was extremely hot, we thoroughly enjoyed it. We went and looked at the animals exhibits first, which is always my favorite part. I just love those huge pigs and adorable little lop eared bunnies. The girls were able to go on 4 rides of their choice. After that we browsed the exhibit halls. It was a neat way to get to know more about our community. There was even an Usborne book display. Unfortunately, it was right next to the Pampered Chef display. Such temptations! I was brave enough to grab a catalog from each booth, I should probably throw them away before I even look at them. There is a local magician that we've spoken to a few times at restaurants who had a booth as well, and he is doing a big show on Wednesday night, so we are going back for that. We'll also let the girls ride some more. They are really looking forward to the ferris wheel and big slide.

We have been so blessed this summer to have lots of company. It seems like every week there has been someone new. I suppose that is one of the bonuses of living away from everyone, you get to have fun visits!

Thu, 5 Jul 2007 08:18:00 -0500

I hope everyone had a wonderful, safe Independence Day. We went to see the fireworks on Tuesday night and had a wonderful, relaxing evening. Until we were stuck in traffic for an hour. It was still worth the effort. The baby slept through the entire show! i expected her to be upset over the loud noises, evidently I worried needlessly (as usual).

Last night we just stayed home and I let the girls have sparklers on our front porch. The neighbors did shoot some fairly large fireworks, but it was raining, so there were very few. We also did a small study on the origins of the "Pledge of Alliegance" as well as our flag. I printed some coloring pages as well, nothing too exciting.

We finally bought rocking chairs for our front porch! I've been wanting some for years, and last night my mom called and said they were on sale for only $27! What joy!

I am going to start "pre-school" with my 3 year old next week. I've been holding off as long as I could, but my hubby mentioned yesterday that it was time. He is right, but I'm somewhat nervous. She tends to be a bit independent, which means I'm going to have to be a bit more creative with her than I was with her older sisters. I'm going to start by doing the letter of the week activities as well as counting.

Our county fair starts on Friday! Our big girls can barely contain themselves. It doesn't help matters that the fairgrounds are less than a mile away and we pass them every time we head to town. I am simply anticipating that delicious funnel cake. I wait all year for it. They never taste quite as good anywhere else.

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 12:13:00 -0500

I finally changed my avatar to show our new little bundle with her sisters. She looks so long! She is getting chubby little thighs too. Funny how we like our babies to be chubby, but the thought of us having chubbiness (is that a real word) anywhere is appalling :)

We've had a ton of rain here the last few days, and what a blessing it has been. When we first returned from our vacation the grass was brown and prickly feeling, now, it has turned to it's beautiful shade of green and is a joy to walk on again. Isn't it amazing how quickly the rain can change the appearance of our landscape. God planned so well for our earth.

We all went to a minor league baseball game last weekend. The girls just loved it. And most surprisingly, I did too. I normally have an attention span of approximately 3 innings. Once we got to the 7th inning stretch I found I was still enjoying it. Shocking! It was almost like hubby and I were on a date again, except we had our 4 kids, 2 friends children, and my mom with us. I guess that is as close as we've been to a date in months, years even.

We've been doing great with keeping on track with our school work. The only complication is when the little girl that lives next knocks every hour wanting to play. What slave drivers to make our children school in the summer! I'm thinking of posting a note saying that they girls cannot have friends over until at least 4pm. That way we get to have some family play time before losing them to their peers. This is the negative of living in a neighborhood. You can't play in your yard without the neighbors coming over. I originally thought this would be a positive, and at times it is. Such as during the public school year when the kids drop by after they finish their homework. Then, we are ready for company! Such changes it brings when moving from the boonies.

Yay, our friendly UPS man just dropped a package! Have a blessed day!