Small Town Homeschool - Homeschool Blogger

New blog for Mountain Mornings Homeschool

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:40:00 -0500

I am back and blogging again, but in a new location! Please visit me HERE!

Sadly leaving...

Mon, 14 May 2007 10:41:00 -0500

Over the last week, we lost our computer due to a virus. After several days, we were able to wipe it out and a computer guy at hubby's work got it back up and running for us. Although it is wonderful to have it back, I realized over those several days how nice it was to NOT have the internet! It freed up so much time to do other things that I had been putting off! I planted a strawberry patch, learned to make bread, sewed my daughter a dress, refinished an old chalkboard that we got for free from a church that was closing down, went yardsaling, did 8 loads of laundry (!!!), played hard with my kids, planned out a space in our yard for chickens and researched buying and taking care of them, took 2 field trips (FUN!), read a couple books, and cleaned my house practically top to bottom! Not to mention the extra time spent with my hubby after the kids went to bed and the hours I spent studying God's Word and praying. A huge change came over me during this time and I realized how I have neglected other things.

It's because of this that I have decided to cancel my internet account, and subsequently close down my HSB blog. This is a sad decision for me, but I realized it's the best decision for myself, my family and my home. I will still be checking email and doing a little browsing at the library, but it will only be once a week due to the distance from my home. I hope to keep in touch with as many of you as I can, I have made some wonderful friendships here over the past year. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers and for allowing me to share my life with you!

Please email me if you would like to stay in touch with me: rsbrbsbush@hotmail.com

I look forward to hearing from you...I can assure you I will still be a frequent visitor to your blogs on HSB!

Sincerely,

Brandi

P.S. If any of you have been following my recent entries and would like an update, here is the latest: We have decided to stay in this home for a little while longer until we feel God's hand clearly guiding us in another direction. DH has some job prospects that he is pursuing. This, of course, makes me very happy! :0)

New Beginnings...

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 11:51:00 -0500

Spring is definitely my favorite time of the year. I wait, usually impatiently, every year for the first morning that I wake up to the sound of birds singing. That morning came this past week and it was the sweetest moment! I also look forward to our owls returning each spring and the buds flowering on the trees. My lilies that my neighbors planted last year are so tall already and they are spreading out and filling my flower beds. How refreshing after a long winter!

This spring brings some sadness, though. The thought of this possibly being the last spring that I spend in this home is so heartbreaking to me. This will truly be a year of new beginnings for me and my family. It's bittersweet.

I'm emotional this morning...We spent last evening with a lot of the families in town cleaning a local park and then roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over an open fire. It's the sort of thing that I love so much about this small town and probably what I'll miss the most. To start over in a new place...again...after falling in love with this home and this town...sometimes it's too much and I have to place my full trust in God. I can't even begin to know the blessings he has for us in another place and I know He'll lead us where we can serve His purposes best.

Please continue to pray for my family and especially my husband as he searches for a job and as he makes some tough decisions. He is feeling the pressure of having to do what is best for his family and he struggles with not knowing where God is leading us. Please pray that we will have the faith and the patience that we need to wait for God's will.

Update and prayer request

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 12:15:00 -0500

Please excuse my absence here of late. As hard as I try to get back to my blog, I've found it difficult to find even a moment in my day to do so. And, much to my dismay, I have not been able to keep up with any of my HSB friends' blogs either.

Things have been a little chaotic, a little crazy, a little confusing. Big changes are happening in my life and I don't think I've been handing it all over to the One who already knows His plans for me and my family. I don't function well when I feel "in-between" and don't have a clear plan for the future.

Recently, we finished our basement and were finally able to "stretch out" a little. We added a den/playroom, an office/sewing room, and an exercise room, not to mention clearing out our laundry room of "stuff" so I can finally get to the dryer without having to step over all of my husbands tools. We moved my son to the attic room, previously the office/junk room and my little girl has his old room that they used to share. Plus, the new den allowed us to clear out the upstairs living room so we now have a great formal living/dining area for guests. It's been so wonderful and I can't imagine a more perfect home! Everything has a place, there's actually room for every activity that we do, and I just love it here more than anywhere else I've ever been (and that's saying a lot considering we have moved 7 times in the last 9 years!).

That being said, as soon as we settled in, my dear husband decided he wanted to get out of the military and move back to FL. Now, let me tell you...I'm not real good at the "submission" thing, although I am working on it. I do believe that he will do what is right for our family and that God will lead him. But for the last few weeks, I have been so conflicted! I love it here so much, it has become "home" for me and the kids and I just can't imagine walking out of this house for the last time and driving out of our little town for the last time and knowing that we're not coming back. It breaks my heart and the thought just makes me cry.

To make things worse, he keeps changing his mind. One day he wants to go to FL, the next day it's VA, the next day it's WV, the next day it's FL again, then he wants to stay here, then he wants PA, then it's back to FL, then it's maybe CO?, then it's here again...I'm telling you, each day when I call him at work, I wonder which direction he's headed in today. I can't tell you how difficult this is. To place your life and your future into the hands of someone else, and then not have the slightest idea what he's thinking from moment to moment! It's really heart-wrenching and I have had to pray each morning for the Lord to take the burden.

I admit, I'm strong-willed and I tend to take over. It's definitely one of my biggest flaws, especially when it comes to my marriage. So it's difficult for me to trust, in my husband and in God. I'm making a huge effort to hand it over, to not allow anxiousness to take over, to place this all in the Lord's hands and not allow it to take over. I know that God is already at work in this situation, he already has a job for my husband, a home for us (even if it's not this one), and our entire future is already planned.

Homeschooling has suffered, although "un-schooling" has been amazing and I must say, my son has really taken things into his own hands and has really thrived doing his own thing everyday. It's amazing how children love to learn, even without the structure of a curriculum or schedule.

I have seen God's hand on this. Please say a little prayer for my family if you remember, especially for my husband as he deals with making these major decisions. He only wants to do what's best for us.

Thank you all for still checking in on my blog, even though I haven't been very faithful in keeping it up! I will try to keep you all updated and I hope to find the time to check in on some of you over the next couple of days!

Quick update

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 12:20:00 -0500

Hi! I just thought I would drop in real quick and let anyone who still stops by here know that I am still alove and well! I know it's been awhile, we've just been so busy around here! We're just about done finishing our basement - carpet comes tomorrow and we should be moving furniture this weekend! Plus, my hubby went on a 3 week TDY so I was "single-momming" it for awhile. That's gotta be the hardest job in the world! :0)

Here are the long ago promised pictures of our vacation to Florida in January. Please excuse the mess, they were taken as we were packing and cleaning on the last day...talk about waiting until the last minute! :0)

Living Room with Fireplace

Sunroom facing the ocean

The house, complete with hot tub - we spent many hours on the back porch!

Dining Room - very tropical

Beautiful kitchen - I even had a dishwasher for a week! :0)

There were 4 bedrooms, this was ours - it looked out over the ocean, so we woke up to the sound of waves every morning!

Our PRIVATE pool - just for us!

Our backyard for the week - heavenly!

Beautiful scenery in our yard

That's the sliver of moon in the middle above the tree - the photo just doesn't do justice to the way it really looked that night! Gorgeous!

We had such a wonderful, much needed trip! In the mornings, there was a pod of dolphins that would "fish" right behind our house and we saw a manatee at the marina where my dad works. We got to see my family, my in-laws, my great uncle and his wife and many other people we hadn't seen in ages. It was really an incredible vacation.

Then reality hit and we had to come back home! :0) Oh well, all good things must come to an end sometime, I suppose!

I hope this finds you all doing well! It's about time to wrap up another school year. I'll have to stop by your blogs to see how everyone has been doing! And I hope to not be a stranger around here anymore!

XOXOXO

BRANDI

New pics

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 11:46:00 -0600

Here are a couple of quick new pics of the kids...

Mohawk Baby!

...my nephews both have mohawks so my brother decided to try it out on the baby...I think it's a good look for her!

But this is a much sweeter look, I think...her first pigtails!

My son on Pappy's lap...in the Florida beachhouse.

I'll post more pictures of the beachhouse in my next post...it was heavenly!

Yes, it's me...can you believe it?

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 08:29:00 -0600

GOOD MORNING!

Wow, can you believe that I am actually posting on my blog? I feel like a stranger in a strange land! I just haven't had the time...or to be honest, the desire...to blog lately! In fact, I thought about closing this space down, but I just can't bear to do it. In the words of my dear friend Heidi, "It's just too much fun!"

The baby has gone back to bed...for a time, although I don't know how long that will be. In fact, I think I might already hear my son getting her up again. Oh well, I've made a quick appearance. I'll have to try again later!

I have been using bloglines to try to catch up with some of you. I will try to comment on some of your blogs later today.

Please visit Katie's blog at TeamBettendorf and read the recent posts about her little girl, Jillian. She needs immediate and focused prayer! Please add this family to your prayer list!

I am officially removing any and all info on my sidebar pertaining to the My Body, His Temple Weight Loss Challenge. Thank you for all who went along on this journey with me. It was not as successful as I had hoped. I did lose 20 pounds, but with the holidays and a month-long road trip, I have since put about 10 back on! Why is it so hard? Anyway, back to the drawing board. I think in the future I'll stick to short term contests...it really puttered out there in the end! I didn't have any entries at all for the last couple of months. Six months is a long time to committ to something, but I hope it was a little bit of encouragement to those of you who participated!

I'll be back later...hopefully with pictures!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! Kiss your Sweeties today!

BRANDI

Did you think I dropped off the face of the earth?

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 14:14:00 -0600

We've returned from our month on the road and I'm finally caught up enough on everything to spend a few minutes online!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! I need to write back to several of you who have sent me messages. Please be patient with me! I'm going crazy trying to do everything that needs to be done this week, but I promise I'll write to you all before the weekend! :0)

We had an amazing trip. We went to PA first and got to see family and friends that we haven't seen in years! It was really great to get caught up. I'm sorry I didn't get to see all of you, but we ran out of time at the end of our trip and missed out on seeing everyone we wanted to. Hopefully we'll be back again this year!

In Florida, we stayed in an amazing house right on Fort Myers Beach. The water was about 50 feet behind the house and we woke up every morning to the sound of the waves. We had a hot tub under 2 palm trees right by the water and a private pool! We went out on my parents boat, went surf fishing, walked on the beach, and ate out more times than I care to remember! We spent every night on the back porch listening to the water and playing cards. Needless to say, we were spoiled!

I was even able to get the baby sleeping through the night in her own crib! Wow! That was quite a feat during a road trip, and I'm glad to say that it has stuck even after getting back home. Yeah!

My sister's wedding was absolutely perfect! She was so beautiful! I am so proud of her for the choices she has made in her life and I know she and Eric will have an amazing life together! It was so wonderful to be a part of their special day. Thank you, Haley! XOXOX

I'll post a few pics of the trip and the wedding soon. Now it's back to real life! School started back up for us on Monday and things have been going well. We are really focusing each day and getting most of our work done before lunch. It's been wonderful to have the afternoons free!

I hope 2007 has had a good start for all of you! I hope to get back in touch with you all soon, as soon as I figure out how to get bloglines working for me! Is HSB going to give us our friends list back or do we need to rely on an outside source for now on? Just when I figured out what I was doing, they had to change it on me! ;0)

November...what happened?

Wed, 6 Dec 2006 17:18:00 -0600

Wow! I really don't know where the last month went! I have been so busy with other "endeavors" and just haven't been blogging like I want to! My mom must be sooooo anxious for new pictures of the kids! So, here's some for you, Mom!

I thought I'd give a quick update on some things I'm working on. I feel a bit overwhelmed lately...but I like it! I would rather be busy than stagnant...that's when depression sets in for me, so I always have to have something new going on!

Homeschool

We've been off since Thanksgiving for the holiday break. I like to take 2 months off at the holidays so we can just enjoy things and participate in all the "extras" that seem to pop up all over the place!

We will be officially starting back up again on January 22nd, after we return from a 3 week vacation to the East Coast. I'm going pretty eclectic with our curriculum next year and I've been working on organizing each subject and setting up a schedule. I hope to be a lot more consistent and effective next year!

Homelife

I've been feeling chaotic and unorganized, so I decided to return to using my Control Journal. I decided to revamp it and include more sections, so I've been working on getting that put together. I'll share it all with you when I'm done!

My hubby is getting close to finishing the basement. All the dry wall is up and half of it has been mudded. As soon as he's done with the other half, we can primer, paint, and have carpet put in! I'm so excited! It will give us a den, a school/craft room, a guest room with a huge walk-in storage closet, and a finished laundry room with a food storage closet and eventually, we will also put a bathroom in there! The upsatirs living room will become our formal living and dining. We're going to rip out the carpet and have someone come in and finish the original hardwood floors. We're going to enlarge the current bathroom by knocking out a hall closet and expanding it into that space. The kids will get the two bedrooms on the main level and we will expand the attic room, making it a master suite complete with bathroom, walk-in closet, and sitting area. Plus, we're adding an island into the kitchen with stools on one side and an above the stove microwave (yeah, more counter space!), and we are thinking about knocking out a doorway into the formal living space so that the house flows better.

This started out as a very small house, but it's about to more than double and meet our needs perfectly! Praise God!

The Kids

DS just started a gymnastics class last night. He loved it! The facility is wonderful and his coach is very nice. We are so glad to have a physical outlet for him and he did a great job! She said he is very strong and will catch onto the basics quickly. He is, of course, anxiously awaiting Christmas and is counting down the days with the assistance of a construction paper chain. Every day we get numerous updates as to how many days are left! LOL

DD is growing so fast and doing new things every day. She is 7 months old now, and in the last month, she developed 2 teeth, sat up for the first time, said "Dada" and "Mama", started eating solid food, and started scooting across the floor. Then, 2 days ago, she got her knees up under her and started crawling...she crawled straight over to a box of books and pulled herself up into a standing position!!! What? Isn't there supposed to be a little more time before that happens? I know my son didn't do that this early! She's excited about Christmas, too...well, the presents at least! I can't keep her away from them!

Holidays

Thanksgiving was wonderful! We stayed home, played games with the kids, watched a lot of football, cooked all day long, and then ate, ate, and ate some more!

Now, on to Christmas. I'm not as organized this year as I normally am. I'm almost done with my shopping and wrapping and we have our tree up. But I haven't even started my cards, I don't have boxes packed up and ready to send out, I don't have any baking planned, I haven't made any of our neighbor's gifts, and we don't have any outside lights up yet! Wow, I better get on the ball!

Miscellaneous

I have a very exciting business venture in the works. I am currently working on research and a business plan so I can get financing. I promise I will fill you all in on it as soon as it's a little more concrete. I could really use your prayers in this matter!

I think that's all for now! I hope that catches everyone up a bit. I hope I haven't lost all my friends and readers! If you're still here, thanks for sticking around...can't wait to get caught up with all of you!

Snap out of it!

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 11:43:00 -0600

Could it really be so long since my last post? Wow! What happened to the last 10 days? I think I went on a hiatus...

Anyway, I'm back and it's almost 11:00 am here...where am I?...sitting at my dining room table in my PJ's catching up online...my blinds are down, it's cold outside, and it's just a bleary, dreary day...kind of like the last 10 days!

I can't let the winter blahs take over, already...it's not even Thanksgiving!

Okay...it's time to snap out of it. My son has been sick, but he's feeling better this morning. It's time to open the blinds, let some remnants of light into this house, get dressed, make the bed that I just crawled out of (it was a long, cuddly morning with the kids), and crack the books! Time to get back on track!