Jun. 1, 2009 - Swimming in the Colorado River
Okay, I'm normally very protective of my children, but one time I decided to let loose and let them get wet in their clothes! We spent the day at Colorado Bend State Park in Texas. They had so much fun with some other homeschoolers we met in our area. It was a great relaxing day, but it was so fun to see them learning at the same time. On their own, they studied rocks, plants, insects, tadpoles and frogs. Learning is all around us!
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Apr. 29, 2009 - Living in Oblivion
I was reading a popular women's magazine today and it brought me to tears. I was flipping through and reading about women who are "successful" by the world's standards. For a second, I envied them. They are living their lives and from what I can tell, living them without the Lord. It got me to thinking about all the people that live life, oblivious to our wonderful Creator and Lord. They may even know about Him, but they don't care to acknowledge Him. They just go on their merry way. I then thought about myself. How far I have come and how I can't imagine life without Him. I don't know how anyone can know the Lord and walk away. There was a time in my life when I was not walking the walk, but I never denied my God. I think my problem was immaturity and no one had taught me about a relationship with Him. It was easy to go to church once in awhile and I had my Bible next to my bed so I was "good" with God in my eyes. I missed out on so much and really wasn't enjoying my life. I don't know who I was then. It feels like an eternity ago and I don't know how I missed out on such joy back then. Fast forward to now when every decision I make is based on my relationship with God and I'm better for it. I try to make good choices regarding clothing, entertainment, relationships, raising my children, being a godly wife, etc. There is no way I'd ever turn from Him. It just blows my mind when I hear of people raised in Christian homes that choose the world. I pray for all the lost souls out there, that they could feel what I feel. My life has been transformed. I am still a sinner and I am by no means perfect, but I cherish my journey with God. I won't turn back. I fear Him, respect Him, revere Him and love Him.
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Apr. 27, 2009 - The past few weeks
We've been busy with life. We decided to move to a new house on post. We moved ourselves basically down the street. It is a brand new 2 story, 4 bedroom house. I have always dreamed of having an upstairs and now it is a reality! Yeah! The downstairs is a toy free zone for the most part, so that will help with general housekeeping. We have a large room dedicated to our homeschooling.
On a sad note, my uncle died unexpectedly over Easter. We weren't very close, but it was very hard on my mom, his sister, so I was very sad for her and the rest of the family that was closer to him. My dad did a wonderful sermon at his service and it was nice to hear him speak. He is very motivational! Major Dad was away for training, as he usually is when someone in my family dies. I am glad that he is back now. I don't like grieving alone.
We went on our first field trip with our local homeschool group to a pick your own berry farm last week and it was super fun. The kids really enjoyed the field trip and we were able to meet some other homeschoolers. They got to plant seeds, release ladybugs to eat the aphids on the plants, shoot strawberries at a target and then pick strawberries. They also enjoyed some wonderful homemade strawberry icecream. Great day!
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Apr. 15, 2009 - Why can't I relax?
I felt the call to homeschool long before I ever had children. I knew that I would homeschool our future children and our plan has been to homeschool for as long as the Lord allows us to do so. So why do I feel like I'm in competition with the school system? I feel stressed when one of my children doesn't "get" something. Instead of enjoying the beauty of homeschooling and taking our time, I drill and overwhelm. I think I do it out of fear that my children will be behind if they are ever forced to go into a school setting(like by the government-that's my biggest fear right now) . I want to enjoy our homeschooling experience and I do for the most part, I just wish that I wasn't so worried. If I took out the factor of trying to cover everything, I think our days would be a dream. I love spending time with my children. I love teaching them. I wouldn't have it any other way. I just need to RELAX!
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Apr. 15, 2009 - Our Easter Picture
We should have had more than one take, but this is what we got--M is falling down the steps! We had a great weekend. My parents drove down and spent the weekend with us. We attended an early church service and then enjoyed a wonderful brunch buffet at the "Club" on post.
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Mar. 30, 2009 - Our sweet doggy died this weekend..
We lost our sweet Sabot to cancer on Saturday night. We didn't even know he had it until Friday night. The week before, he had started coughing and having a hard time with his breathing. They thought it was pneumonia at first. On Friday, he was given 2-7 days to live. We spent Saturday with him at a park where he could enjoy the fresh air. Major Dad had to go into work for a field exercise on Sat. night and after he left, I could tell that Sabot's breathing was getting harder. He suddenly couldn't even stand up. M laid next to him on our bedroom floor and that is where he took his last breaths with her. She was devastated. She has such a soft heart for animals and I think it was fitting that she was right with him when he left us. We had a great 9 years with our precious guy. He was always my buddy when Major Dad was deployed. We still have 2 other dogs at home. Below is a picture of him in better days when M was 2. I love this picture. Also a good pic with C when he was a little guy.
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Mar. 14, 2009 - The Best Dinner Ever!
"Make this every week, Mom!" Music to my ears!!! It all started yesterday when I had nothing planned for dinner and there was very little in the house to use. I was not going to the commissary on payday. No, sirree! I scoured the pantry and freezer and this is what I came up with:
a bag of boil in bag Success Rice
2 cans of 98% fat free cream of celery soup
a bag of Steamfresh broccoli florets
a package of chicken tenderloins
a few slices of Kraft 2% milk singles
I decided that I had the fixins for a casserole. So I boiled the rice, boiled the chicken, nuked the broccoli and mixed it all with the soup and a bit of milk., a few dashes of onion flakes and some salt and pepper. I topped it off with the cheese slices and as I was about to pop it into the oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees, my dear, sweet Major Dad showed up with a tantalizing pan pizza from Pizza Hut!!! So, I stuck the whole thing in the fridge and cooked it up today! There were oohs and ahs from my normally picky daughter! She ate her dinner, asked to be excused and returned with 41 cents. She handed it to me and said "Thank you for making such a tasty dinner! She really made my day! So the lesson to me was that I don't have to be a gourmet cook to please and nourish my family! I think it might have been semi-healthy too! I am feeling a little bad that none of my other well planned meals have gotten this amount of fanfare, though!
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Mar. 3, 2009 - Poor neglected blog
With the move and adjusting, I just have not had time to update this blog. Here are a few pics of what we've been up to the past few months!
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Feb. 5, 2009 - New plan
We are finally moved to our new home at Fort Hood, TX. We are still settling in, but we have a wondeful little home on post(base).
So after much prayer and consideration, I have decided to change our direction for school right now. I felt like I was pushing the academics too hard. We are going to slow down and ENJOY our time. I have owned Five in a Row for awhile now, but I've resisted it. Today is a new day and I am going to embrace it. We rowed Katy and the Big Snow last week. M and I were working on some notebooking pages for it on a Sunday evening. She looked over at me and asked,"Is this school, mama?" I said, "Yes, this is part of our new curriculum." To which she replied, "It doesn't feel like school, it's too much fun!". She learned tons last week as we went through Katy. Of course, we still have our battles with phonics and math, but I've taken a much more relaxed approach. More on math later. With C tagging along too, I think this will be a perfect fit. We will also add in First Language Lessons and Wrting with Ease a few times a week because I think it is important to add in grammar and copywork. We will also continue with our Bible lessons. Currently we are using Big Truths for Little Kids and Bible Study Guide for all ages. We will also add in science and history with living books and experiments, but right now it will be delight driven. M is very into science so I'm sure we'll keep busy with that. I'd like for them to have a good foundation in American History, as well, but we will get that through read alouds. I'm thinking of setting aside Saturday mornings to focus on geography. We'll make it more of a family event than a school type thing--country of the week and maybe cook some food together, etc. So anyway, that's the new plan. This week we are rowing Owl Moon and it has been a big hit.
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Nov. 29, 2008 - Coming changes...
I've been so busy these past few weeks! November just flew by! Soon, it will be time for our move to Ft. Hood! We have about 7 weeks left to go, but I know it will speed by with Christmas on it's way in just a few weeks. A dear friend of mine that I made while stationed at Ft. Campbell, will be visiting us next weekend from Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, with her 3 little ones. I'm really looking forward to her visit and helping her to get through her first weekend with her husband deployed for his 3rd time. We plan to go to a wonderful living nativity(it's Bethlehem recreated) and also to the Ft. Worth zoo with them. I know this week will go by quickly as I get ready for her. I always like to make sure the house is welcoming for company, but I sometimes stress myself out about it. Today we put up all of our Christmas decorations. Not much else going on. I'm rethinking all of my curriculum and we're making some decisions regarding what we will do after we move. M is almost finished with MFW 1st grade and C is turning 5 in Feb. so I'd like to be doing a bit more with him. We move in January, soon after our Christmas break, so I will need to keep things light until we are settled in. I will try to keep the essentials going, hopefully. Then dh will be deploying the summer so I have to account for a family vacation, possible visits from my inlaws and then adjusting after he leaves. I do want to school year round, but I'm going to have to keep it a lot lighter this summer. Anyway, I will hopefully have things figured out in the next few weeks and will post again. I will say that I'm leaning more toward a literature based approach. More later!
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Nov. 16, 2008 - Heart of the Matter Meme-What makes our family unique?
I'm not sure what experiences I can offer to others, but here is a little about our family.
We are an army family that has weathered 2 deployments to Iraq and many, many other absences of dad. We're awaiting deployment #3.
We have 2 children. Our 6 y/o daughter is biological(after infertility treatment) and our 4 1/2 y/o son was adopted from Guatemala at 6 months old. Our son also has sensory integration dysfunction which can sometimes be a daily challenge. He is also delayed in several developmental areas and he is very quirky. M, our daughter loves bugs, is very athletic and is a budding naturalist. C, our son loves to watch cooking shows and makes pretend food every morning when he wakes up. He also holds daily birthday parties for his stuffed animals! We also have 3 dogs, an overweight 11 year old chihuahua, a 10 year old Italian greyhound and a 9 year old chocolate lab.
I have a degree in cultural geography from Texas A&M. I also got my teaching certification in special education and taught for awhile. I am the daughter of a school district superintendant and he's very supportive of our homeschooling! My husband is an expert on breeding fish! Really--he has a degree in it. Good thing he joined the army. : )
We've spent most of our army life in Kentucky and Texas. Not very exciting travels for us.
My dh(Major Dad) comes from a nominal Catholic home and I came from a Christian home, but was never really taught how to be a Christian. We seek to give our kids what we did not get growing up and want to create a new heritage for them to follow.
We just took up camping and hope to continue that as a family activity. We also enjoy taking hikes together. I like to workout, but I haven't done much of that lately. I'm very well read in methods of exercise and nutrition though! I'm addicted to Eggo Nutrigrain Blueberry waffles and diet Dr. Pepper. Hmm...I guess that's about all I can think of right now.
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Nov. 6, 2008 - Cracker Barrel dress up fun...
As I stated in an earlier post, we don't celebrate Halloween, but we do allow the kids to dress up. Our new tradition is to take them out to eat. This year we went to Cracker Barrel. To me, nothing feels more fallish than going to Cracker Barrel! Here's the little Renaissance lady and pirate(he was supposed to be an Army soldier, but he changed his mind at the last minute.)
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Nov. 6, 2008 - He looks sweet doesn't he?
This is our 10 year old Italian Greyhound, Mocha. I love him dearly, but he has been trying my patience!!! For the past month, I have not gotten a full night's sleep. He has decided to scratch on the bathroom door at least 5 times per night. We have no idea what he wants! We've given him water, food, let him outside and nothing seems to do the trick. We crated him last night and it was fine until about 2 a.m. when I heard his screeching wails and his nails hitting the metal door. I don't know when I'll get rest! I have no energy and I've got the circles under my eyes to prove it. This is not healthy! Major dad does help sometimes, but I think he pretends not to hear him so that he doesn't have to be the one to get up! Anyway, I'm praying that this stops soon!
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Oct. 31, 2008 - Norwegian Kringlas
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Oct. 31, 2008 - HOTM Friday Meme--Halloween, Harvest or what?
We do not make a big emphasis on Halloween. I try to just call it Harvest time, but my kids have been inundated with the word Halloween. In the past we have gone to Harvest Carnivals at our church, but it was canceled this year. The kids do get to dress up and we do carve pumpkins. We also read The Pumpkin Patch Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs. On M's first Oct. 31st, we dressed her up and went out for Chinese food. We have decided to make this our new tradition--dress up and go out to eat. So tonight, our Renaissance lady and our Army soldier will be heading out to Cracker Barrel! Check out HOTM to link up to see what other folks do! Pictures to follow!
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