Van Update

Our Van is now working-Woo-Hoo! Back to civilization. :) Pastor was here until 9:30 monday night helping Matt take out the gas tank, Matt and Ty replaced the fule pump yesterday and it worked! Again, I want to thank our friends,Pastor, and my mom for their help!! Love you all and appreciate it very much!!

Van Broke down AGAIN

My Best Friends husband has been here all day trying to help Matt fix our one and only piece of transportation. I am praying that something works, and it is not costly. I am very grateful to Geoff and Mandy for all of their help! Again. :) Please pray that it works, Matts work requires him to travel. Thank you. :)

On a happy note, we had a wonderful day AT HOME yesterday! lol. Because we were unable to drive anywhere we just made the best of it. It seems that every weekend we are busy going here and there. It was nice to have a quiet Saturday afternoon. Matt played Bball with the kids, went for a walk and watched family movies, and to my horror watched Bre climb a 20 foot tree!!! Matt said she is fine, we did it when we were kids. True, but I still made her wear her helmet. lol. :)

I am SO Blessed

Friday was a super busy day with housework, schooling then afternoon appointments. Ty and Bre had their schoolwork done before 1:30 as has been common, so I left them to their free time while Matt took me to my appointment. Boy was I surprised when I got home. I had reminded them of their few afternoon chores,and that I would like them to be done before I returned. Well, not only did they do their share of chores-they did mine! The did all the laundry- including folding and put into perspective rooms! I love a tidy house and I think I do a pretty good job of keeping it clean, not as well as I used to since the accident, but neat and tidy as can be. One problem I do seem to have is always having at least three loads of laundry to be done on any given day. So, this was a SUPER blessing! Not only did they take care of the laundry, they also cleaned the laundry area in the basement. I am just very excited that this was done without any prompting whats so ever. They worked together and got it done. I am so proud. I still haven't figured out just HOW they got it done that quickly, but I am very happy. :)

SpellQuizzer Review and Giveaway

I was asked to give a review of SpellQuizzer in exchange for a free download. I am also hosting a giveaway to one very lucky commenter. I often give my reviews on books and products and give my honest opinions. As a homeschool mom, I often rely on other like-minded mom's opinions before I make a purchase. With that in mind, I can assure you that I am giving you an honest review.

SpellQuizzer has made our spelling lessons easier on myself and fun for the kids. Breanna whom started 5th grade this year has noticed that her spelling words are more difficult. As you know, we are mostly a CM homeschool, the majority of the spelling words come from our literature. Because we do not read twaddle books, the words are more complex and harder to spell than your typical textbook spelling list. With SpellQuizzer I have the freedom to input my own words and make an audio of them. Breanna then logs on and hears her spelling words that I have recorded, she then types in the word to find out if she was correct or not. She likes it because I record the words in my goofy voice. Remember, we do not like boring. ;)
If you do not like to make your own spelling list, you can use one of theirs. It is virtually an easy to navigate and understand program, to make things more simple for you as well as your child.
You can download the free trial for 30 days to see if it is something you want to use. I think you will be as pleasantly surprised as I was, just how such an uncomplicated tool is so useful. I also use the words that I created for copywork. The one thing I would like to see in this program is a progress report. However, as a Homeschool Mom I can clearly see how well she is doing with the program just as it is. Remember leave me a comment if you would like to participate in the giveaway. I will choose one random commenter SpellQuizzer for the free download on October 1st. Good Luck!

Finally have a surgery date

I finally have a surgery date for my neck. October 16th. I have been waiting for this, for I want to feel at least a little bit like my old self again. Yet, I am very nervous about it. I am meditating on the word and having faith that it will be a successful surgery so that I can be the mom and wife that my family deserves. The things that the kids miss the most is all the fun stuff we used to do: Bike riding, dancing silly around the house, long hiking trips, long car rides to fun places,to just name a few. I feel so bad.
So, the surgery IS a good thing, if I can get some of my life back. I thank God every day for my family and my blessings.
Come unto me, ye who are weary and overburdened, and I will give you rest.Bible, Matthew 11:28

Teaching the Trivium

I have just finished reading Teaching the Trivium a couple of weeks ago. We had a wonderful weekend at a lodge and it was wonderful just to rest and enjoy the end of summer. I absolutely LOVE this book. It is extremely well written and is full of wisdom and inspiration. The chapters fulfilled every desire and it was if it finally "clicked". I have been praying on a different way to homeschool and I love the CM method. Teaching the Trivium has given me ways to incorporate CM and Christian Classical together. Although we are definitely more of a CM homeschool, I will use the suggestions and tools in this book to compliment our techniques and style. I had planned on passing this book to a friend that was admiring it while I was reading it. However, I think this is a lifer. I think I will always use it as a reference. I am going to bless my friend with her very own copy for her shelf. Definitely worth the cost.

Back to School

We started back to {home} school yesterday. We had a great start. We usually spent the first day getting back into routine and going over the "schedule". However, because we are completely CM now, the kids jumped right in. We started with our early morning walk, about an hour long. We found the source of our early morning alarm: a family of blue jays! They are so beautiful to watch, albeit loud. Ty has Internet on his phone so we were able to do a bit of research on them and the "noises" they make. When we first moved in, I thought a family with a small child must have an early riser that likes to swing. That is the call of a blue jay.

INTERESTING FACTS
*The Blue Jay's coloration is not derived by pigments, but is the result of light refraction due to the internal structure of the feathers; if a Blue Jay feather is crushed, the blue disappears as the structure is destroyed.
*They will sometimes prey on eggs and nestlings of other birds’ nests.
*Captive jays have been observed using tools and strips of newspaper to rake in food pellets from outside their cages.
*A group of jays has many collective nouns, including a "band", "cast", "party", and "scold" of jays.

After our walk the kids and I made breakfast and started our morning chores. We finished up our lessons around 2:30, then we made yummy peanut butter balls. We finished the afternoon with readalouds while we enjoyed our snack. Overall, we had a delightful day and all work was completed with happy hearts. I could not ask for more.

Today, we started with our morning walk that included daddy and the dogs. We didn't linger long for we started out late, but still had a good 45 minute walk and exploration. We started off strong with morning work and bible study. We are using Mystery of History vol 1, for our bible curriculum. After each lesson is an activity. For today's activity the kids were to make Adam, Eve or animals out of clay. I thought they would spend about a half hour on this. Nada. They became inspired to create clay animations with the video camera and spent 3 hours on it. The finished project was amazing. I will post it later, if I can figure it out. lol. We did get to math and grammar. This is what I love about homeschooling. They were able to work together as a team and be creative, without interruptions of a harried schedule. They still completed their core work, yet were able to enjoy what interested them. Even my techno geek husband was impressed with the finished project. I love homeschooling. It is days like yesterday and today that make all the "other stuff" worth it. I guess I won't be flagging down the yellow bus after all...

Here is a video, this is not the one that took them hours with a tree and stuff, unfortunatley Ty deleted it by accident. You can get the idea though. I will post one they made with Breanna's dolls later. So funny!

Wow! Has it really been THAT long?

I guess it has. A whole summer without blogging. In my defense, it has been a very busy summer indeed! Beginning with a move...yet again. Our "old" house that we loved we found covered in mold in the attic. We found this, after Breanna's asthma was acting up very badly and she became very ill. Only through a process of elimination with her Dr. did we suspect mold. Anyway, we have moved out and settled into our new home. Much smaller, very country-cottagey. We went from almost 3,000 square feet to 1,500 square feet. I also lost a school room. :( I have always had a school room. But, you know what? We all feel so much better, knowing Bre is healthy. I also have somehow, managed to fit all of our homeschool stuff around the house, and it doesn't look to cluttered. At least that is what I tell myself. ;)
I have been getting stuff ready for school and have cluttered up the dining room a bit-but hey, we are a homeschool family after all. I thought I would have had my surgery by now. I really wanted it before school season started. Between insurance and scheduling with specialist, I will not have the surgery until sometime in October. Oh well. something good did come out of it- I completed an entire years worth of lesson plans for Ty and Bre in fear that I was going to have the surgery and not "feel" like planning. I am a way over planner. :)
I have a ton of pictures to upload-hopefully sometime this week. I have to pace myself due to the neck and back injury, but I seem to do ok, if I keep to a schedule and pace myself. I couldn't imagine being in this much pain and managing a household if I had very little ones to take care of. I am a very blessed mom and wife to have such a wonderful family. Well, I am off to make dinner. I will be back soon. I promise. ;)