Does anyone want any postcards from Japan?  We will gladly send them out to you.  PLease let me know via email and we'll work on getting them out to you.

Michelle

subbie1@juno.com

its been a while since I posted.  Its been crazy busy here.  We're trying to finish up some projects before daddy comes home later this week.  We're taking the four days off while he's home.  And I"m steering him and the kiddos outta the house for a few hours each day for some much needed mommy time!!

Here's what's been going on around here:

We're working on Apologia's Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day and we absolutely love it.  Here's the kiddos painting their dolphins to put in their diarama boxes.  I still have to put the paper in the box, which I'm planning to get done while daddy's home.

Here's Courtnee  mixing all of the paint together, into one really nice yucky color!

Caterpillars are literally falling outta trees right now around here.  Here's a couple we grabbed and put into our bug catcher.

This little guy was caught by our friend's son.  Any idea what this spikey tail thing is?  Or what kind of caterpillar it is?

Here's some beautiful flowers hubby had sent for our anniversary!

Here's myself and a few friends that night before my birthday.  They came over to scrapbook and surprised me with a cake and gifts!  I'm so blessed!

Here's the cupcakes the kids made for my birthday breakfast, as is tradition in our house!  My other friend blessed me and surprised me with these!

They look yummy don't they?  And last, but not least, here's Kailyn playing with some toys!

She loves it when Trey stacks blocks for her to knock down!

Sorry for the long post and lots of photos.  Hopefully, we'll be better on track this week!!  Take care everyone and have a blessed week!

So, we officially have orders in hand now.  We leave here March 1st and head off to visit family for 40 days and then Kevin goes to school for six weeks.  This leaves us homeless during this time.  Once he finishes school in May we have six days to drive across the country and find us a home.  I think the kiddos are I might make our way as far across as we can and have him fly to meet us.  That sounds like a better plan to me.

So, is your house open for visitors?  One adult, four kiddos, and one very large dog?

hehe

Well, the other day I turned yet another year older.  I wasn't expecting much, some cards from the kids, out to lunch with them, a nice relaxing day. 

I am blessed to have some very sweet friends who were at my house the night before scrapbooking and dropped off some beautiful gifts.  Another friend dragged the kids to her house to decorate her kitchen floor, er, cupcakes with frosting and sprinkles-for our birthday tradition of cupcakes for breakfast. 

The big day arrived.  I got up extra early because Kailyn decided at six am it was time to get up.  Cleaned a little, started laundry, then the kiddos got up and we had cupcakes. 

From there it went downhill, fast, running, screaming, downhill.

The kids fought, screamed, the oldest try to back talk a little, one of the girls threw a temper tantrum and we couldn't go to lunch, and the playroom was literally destroyed by typhoon Subbie that ran through the room.

I yelled alot and by the end of the day was physically and emotionally exhausted.

It was an awful day.  AND my friends had spread the word, so all day people kept stopping by with well wishes and such.  I didn't want to talk to anyone.  It was a miserable day, y'know how it is when you just don't want to have a nice conversation with anyone?  Well, that was me.

Finally, got the kids in bed.  Collapsed exhausted into my bed.

I'm not pushing the do-over button.  Don't want to do that again. 

Side note-much better since then.  I'm not nearly as crazed and I don' t need the key to the rubber room!!

Well, we have the first few weeks of school under out belts.  Doing pretty good at staying on schedule.  We absolutely LOVE the Mystery of History.  The kids and I are soooo enjoying it, although I do need to buy a blank timeline book because a wall thing won't work for us.  I'm afraid when we move, it will get destroyed.  So, after I finish this, I"m off to search for one.

Here's some photos of our creatures that we made for one of our first lessons.  We discussed how Adam and Eve had to name all the creatures God made.  The kids had to make a clay creature and then name it.

Really, I have no idea, but she was excited with it.

Hallie had some turtle looking thing with wheels (yep, you read that correctly) and a spot for a person to ride on top.

Trey, the budding paleontologist, built a tri-rannosaurus-a mix of Triceratops and TRex.

And here's the little mess maker outside cruising along anything she can hold onto.  Its a matter of time before she takes off and I'm so in trouble then!

We are also enjoying the Trail Guide to US Geography.  They have a bible geography and World Geography also.  I highly recommend these curriculums.  They're wonderful.  By the disk with all the papers on it, its much easier.  One of the things that I love is that there are three paths or levels for the kids to take.  I decided we'd all do the primary level for now, although Trey could do the next level.  This way, we can actually work through the programs three times. 

I'll be posting more pictures later of our swimming creatures from Apologia's swimming creatures of the Fifth day.  We are sooo loving that!  I'm learning alot that I didn't know!

Have a wonderful day!

I have to admit that I am extremely sarcastic.  So, much so, I have to tone it down alot.  Having children has helped alot with my struggle, but there are still times......

You homeschool?  ALL of your children? (side note here, I have four; which apparently is pretty close to a dozen children)

Yes, I do homeschool.  Its a wonderful experience and opportunity.  The kids and I can also take time off when daddy's home, which isn't often.

Wow, you must have alot of patience.

Yes. (seething through gritted teeth)

I couldn't stand to be with my kids all day long.

Ya'know, I should see that one coming.  I hear it all the time.  It still floors me that a person could want and love a child but not stand to be around them.  I open my mouth and pray that nothing bad comes out.

Usually I stand, look at them and clench my teeth and PRAY.  Its the only way I can keep the evil comments from popping out.

We have completed our first week of school.  It went very well. 

I have to tell you that I was very worried last week.  We started a few subjects last week to ease into school.  One was handwriting.  Trey's first assignment was to copy a paragraph over in cursive.  It literally took one and a half hours.  AND he wasn't done with it.  He had to finish later that day. 

I was ready to run into oncoming traffic on the highway to put me out of my misery.

He was squirming, rubbing his eyes, nose, mouth, had to go to the bathroom, it was TTOOOO  HARRRRDDD to copy that paragraph over.  The entire time, he complained and whined. 

It was literally 35 words. 

Not really torture I'd say.  I wasn't subjecting him to child labor.  He didn't have to write a twelve page report about pasteurization.  Not a single calculus problem. 

I was worried, very worried.  How would he handle a full day?

Wonderfully!!  He did great.  I think having the kids work together on some subjects helped him out.  I think he has enjoyed helping Courtnee with her math work and playing games to help her learn the alphabet.  He's been anxious to get his work done and has completed it by one pm everyday. 

I'm amazed, I'm thrilled.  And yesterday, he gave me a kiss on the cheek and said, "Thanks for homeschooling me Mom!"

I'm soooo excited.  It is about six months before we move, and we actually know where we're going!! 

We were hoping for the east coast or really the mid-west, but that didn't happen.  My mom's in NY, dad's in VA, and hubby's family is in IA.

Well, we are going to Washington!!  I'm very excited!!  Its supposed to be beautiful and as long is its not as hot and dry as Lemoore, CA, I don't really care.  Lemoore was like living on the face of the sun, well, maybe not the sun, perhaps just Mercury.  The air quality is about the same as Mercury too.  Awful!!  And the fog.  If by chance, it gets below 100 degrees, the fog rolls in and then you can't see your car parked in the driveway.  Its literally thick enough to cut with a knife.

I'm so excited.  Forests, mountains, wildlife, ocean, whales!!  Yeah!!

So, send me your address, cause I'm going to pop into your house on my cross country trip to visit my family!

Well, the first "official" school day was today and it went very well.  The kids really enjoyed the Mystery of History and Apologia's Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day.  We're kinda going with a consistant schedule on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays-with Tuesdays and Thursdays following another schedule.  It just worked out that way for us.

Here's an example:

MWF

Science 1hour all kids

Geography 1/2 hour all kids

Break for 15 minutes

Spelling, Handwriting, and Reading individually for 1 hour and 45 minutes

Lunch 1/2 hour

Math 1 hour individual lessons

History 1 hour all kids

Grammer 30 minutes individual

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, our schedule looks like this:

Spanish 30 minutes all kids

History 30 minutes all kids

Geography 30 minutes all kids

Break 15 minutes

Spelling, Handwriting, and Reading 1 hour and 45 minutes individual lessons

Lunch 30 minutes

Math 1 hour individual lessons

Grammer 30 minutes individual lessons

Lapbook 1 hour all kids

.

I'm praying that the rest of our week goes just as smoothly.  I'll keep you posted!

Sorry for not posting much, we've been busy getting ready for school.  I finally have all the rooms and closets cleaned out, only to find that they could probably be cleaned out again.  And the dirty laundy pile, er I mean mountain, still needs to be tamed, but that's okay.

.

Pencils are sharpened, books are all ready, everything's all set and ready to go.  Countdown-three days and school starts!