time flies!!

ok. i didn't realize that it had been so long since i posted something!

we have been schooling. honest!

just not doing too much blog documentation (insert sheepish grin)

life is definitely on fast forward.

tic tac is turning 8 in a week

bonobo is just as crazy as ever

stinkerbell has way too much attitude!

and jd has learned to crawl, sit up , and this morning we noted two (!) new teeth popping through

work is keeping me super busy with new training and getting up to speed on the darn computer charting

hubby's business has 2 (yipee!!) paying clients (insert happy dance here)

all in all, a good few months. but this little blog has been neglected. *gulp*

i want to do better, really, i do. i long to be one of those mommies who can put it all together and still look awesome if you just pop in for a visit...

alas, i am not one of them (and really, i think they might only exist on the internet, anyway!)

i am messy and less than organized, and lose my temper and all that jazz. oh, well. God loves me, my hubby loves me, and my kids... well, they like me most of the time ;-)

here are some pics from the last several weeks. maybe, just maybe, i will get it together and tell you about what we have been doing :)

science lesson: how to get a big enough pile to jump in. we used all sorts of different tools to gather leaves... hands, dustpans, shovels, etc.

forming our letters with homemade playdough :)

another science lesson combined with a little life lesson. do not suction cup your forehead whilst sitting on the toilet.

cooking 101: how to clean off the beaters properly!


catching and releasing a ginormous grasshopper!

C is for Centennial

alright, i know the image is small. but if you go here, you can see it a bit larger on amazon and look at some sample pages.

this is what we are going through for school right now. these books are put out by Sleeping Bear Press, and they go through each of the 50 states using the alphabet to explore different historical, geographical and just neat facts about the state. since we are 'loosely' schooling in prep for our move, i thought it would be fun to learn about our new state! i have a list of them saved on my library account (they had over 70 books published available on their shelves) so that when i want something specific, i can request them without having to search for them myself :) a nifty resource that most libraries provide. i LOVE it!!

in addition to the states, they also had A is for America, Z is for Zookeeper, P is for Passport, and lots of others. the Sleeping Bear Press page also has a link to the Teacher's Guides PDF which is a neat resource.

we are planning on getting the C is for Centennial book and visiting some of the places mentioned. it would be neat to put together a scrapbook for all of the field trips that the book inspires!!

happy exploring!

lesson on the fly...

...ing bird, that is!

as we are preparing to move, i am emptying out our freezer. we had a 10 lb turkey hanging around from last Christmas just waiting for a good time to be roasted, and yesterday was the day!

after dinner, tic tac hung around the table, begging scraps of dark meat and watching me clean the meat off the bones. i usually loathe this task, even though it is so necessary to get all the really sweet meat off the bones. but on this night, it turned into school!

we dissected the bones, from legs, to wings, to breast bone and talked about tendons, ligaments and the (ick) veins running through everything. tic tacs favorite find though was the ...

spinal cord!

yep. we found several lengths of the spinal cord sticking out of the vertebrae, and he was entranced by them! we were able to get one segment about 3 inches long out of the neck, and it still had the nerves attached!!!

i thought it was pretty cool, too (must be the RN in me).

daddy...

well, let's just say, he stayed in the other room! he wouldn't come in to take pics for me, either... bummer. my hands were way too greasy to go near the camera!

life is going to get crazy

well, we are embarking on a new journey. one i never thought i would take again during these tender years of our children's lives.

as we experience the economy in its full fury, we are having to adjust our lives a bit.

i am going back to work full-time.

*gulp*

i had just gotten really content with being a full-time Stay At Home Mom. i was enjoying this role, and no longer had a desire to have my identity in being an RN. finally.

i really don't know how this is going to work.

God has been gracious to me in providing a job very quickly. i will be returning to a previous employer in a full-time capacity. 3- 12 hour shifts per/week, from 3pm-3am. every other weekend is required (fri-sat-sun). the other 3 days are of my choosing, and dependent on the other RN working the 3-3 shift. then 2 days will be up for grabs (and overtime).

this is the exact shift we wanted. at least i won't have to miss out on my children's entire day like i would during day shift. or chunks of time spanning 2- 3 days if i were on nights. the 3-3 shift will actually allow me to participate in their day, and to continue homeschooling with relatively few hiccoughs. and hopefully enough sleep.

i hope.

this blog may take on a whole new meaning as i try to juggle being a wife, mom and RN as well as maintaining a home and homeschooling my children. my husband will certainly help, he always does. but he has to spend the majority of his time building his CFO business.

do you work full-time outside the home and homeschool? i would love to hear your thoughts and how you organize things if you do. maybe there are a lot of us who need encouraging along the way.

Determination...

i am struggling right now with all that is going on in our lives. so many changes afoot, and i have yet to process through them. we went to our small group the other night and i got some fresh perspective on the whole "move." our pastor has been leading our group and he said some very encouraging things. one of which was (paraphrased, of course):

now that the decision has been made to move, embrace it fully and look forward to what God is going to do with you in your next season.

hmmm. good advice.

i have been wallowing in the loss. the loss of friendships that have taken time to forge. the loss of a phenomenal church body who has rallied around us like nobodies business. the loss of job. the loss of my SAHM status (i was really beginning to love that status!). just, the loss.

what i need to do is refocus on what HE has in store for us. new jobs, new (old) home, new (old) friendships, new schedules, new (old) bible studies.

renewed strength. renewed faith.

i am still at a loss for how i am going to manage homeschooling and a full-time job. three nights a week, sleep time, and managing a home are pretty much going to wipe me out. my KISA is awesome at helping out, but he has to work, too. this juggling act is going to feel like i am tossing up too many torches and if i drop one it is going to burn like the dickens.

but, i am determined.

determined that i will meet this season head-on. that we will continue homeschooling because it is our only choice. public school is NOT an option for us. it may not always be pretty. and we may not get out to do all the fun field trips that we wanted to do. and we may not get to do all the crafts and hands-on stuff we want to do. but we will do it. because i can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

it doesn't say 'some' things. it says all things. and i believe our family has been called to be a home-educated family. so He will help me do this.

i am determined.

i just don't know what it is going to look like.

half-schedule still in effect

with the upcoming move, our school schedule has had to stay at half-time. we are still working through our Story of the World, and are FINALLY out of Egypt! i feel like i have been there forever. first with Sonlight two years ago, and then last year with Tapestry of Grace. i know a LOT about mummies and pyramids. more than i cared to know! and tic tac now has the aspiration to become the "guy who pulls out the brains with that long hook." lovely.

we are progressing through Math U See pretty quickly. although i know that the boys will be more challenged as we finish up the next couple of sections.

rowing this week and next is to be Three Names. i really like this story. my kids have a grandpa who likes to exaggerate his stories, too! i love the artwork and may have to dig out the craft supplies from their packing box so that we can do some prairie scenes.

HWT will have to wait a while to start. my MIL is here and i don't feel comfortable breaking out in song around her. call me crazy.

Galloping the Globe will also be on hold til we get settled. i just cannot wrap my head around it right now. too much grey matter is being used on getting ready to leave and on being sad.

as the move gets closer (tic tac has a countdown: 41 days to go) the schooling will probably get shorter or even nonexistent. then who knows how long it will take us to get started on the other end.

i hate packing.

i hate unpacking even more.

at least i will have a school room there :) one with lots of light, right off the kitchen :)

school has started!!

well, we started school! albeit only a half-schedule, but we started :)

we have been reading from our Story of the World Vol 1 and are exploring Egypt in lots of fun ways! the boys really enjoy doing their map work. i have taken to letting them color their coloring pages while i am reading/reviewing the chapter to them. i really like the way the material is broken down into manageable chunks, so if we want to bunny trail, we can do so without compromising too much of the day. some of our read-a-longs were Croco'nile, Bill and Pete Go Down the Nile, One Small Blue Bead, and (tic tac's fave) It's Gross and We Ate It. my favorite was One Small Blue Bead. the kids picked right up on the rhyming and we got to talk about what it would be like to not have any neighbors and wonder if you were the only people in the world. there were some crazy ideas tossed around with that one, and lots of pretending/play acting!

tic tac finally finished his Horizons math workbook. man, was it a loooonnnnggggg road with it. we had to take several breaks along the way when he would get bored or frustrated with it. i will be getting his new Math U See curriculum this weekend. i introduced him to the manipulatives that go along with it just yesterday, and he had loads of fun playing with them. when i told him we were going to use them for his new math books, he was super excited!

bonobo has kept up with tic tac in all the activities and narration. he is more into coloring and being precise with his crafts than tic tac is, which surprises me. it also causes a LOT of frustrated moments for him when it doesn't go as planned. we started Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy lessons, but just yesterday he told me it is too hard and he doesn't want to keep going. we were only at lesson 8! but the last few lessons have been difficult: he doesn't want to sit through them, he doesn't want to rhyme or put his finger on the dot, etc. so i told him we would put it on the shelf for a month or so and then see how he feels about it.

stinkerbell is mostly in the way during school time, so i am trying to get creative with her before we start school, or just move school to when she is lying down in the afternoon. it has meant a LOT of playdoh time, but that will only last so long.

we also rowed The Giraffe Who Walked to Paris, which we got through our ILL system. what an awesome book! and it fit right in with our Egyptian week. the kids really loved doing the math to see just how far she traveled. we read Zarafa, the Giraffe who Walked to the King as a go along for a different perspective, and the kids like the illustrations in that one better.

all in all, i like the way our schedule has been working. and, of course, since i like it, something has to come along and mess with it, right? of course.

i will leave that one hanging for now. but we are making some pretty significant decisions in the next two weeks, so i would appreciate your prayers for wisdom and peace :)