Catch-up with us!

Whew! I can't even begin to express how much I have been looking forward to getting back to our lessons! We have been on a break since July, and it has been a mad house around here! It would make a never-ending  post to document it all along with all of our great photos and such, so I have just decide to give a quick run down of our happenings to bring everyone up to speed as we jump back into our lessons next week!

Heat Wave!
Let me just say that this summer has been HOT! I think we must have brought some heat with us from the south when we moved, because I was looking forward to a little cooler summer weather in our new home! Thank goodness we bought a home five minutes from a wonderful creek and reservoir! So swimming has been our top activity! Unfortunately the dry heat has also brought a lot of fires (as I am sure you have seen in the news or experienced yourself). We have been fortunate so far to only deal with being enclosed in smoke. That isn't the only way the fires have affected us though. It happens to be what keeps my Hubby in a job during the hot season. He is a helicopter mechanic, and the company he works for helps put out wildfires. So he has been one busy guy. His job requires him to drive the fuel truck to wherever the helicopter is needed, so we have seen very little of him the past few months, and it looks like it will be another couple of months before things will settle down. So I have been flying solo....but surviving! 

Gardening!
We have also been really excited to have our first garden this year! Hooray! I will be the first to say that I do NOT have a green thumb. It seems every time I try to plant something it ends badly. So I am super HAPPY  that our small garden has been productive this year! I called it a "test" garden this time and we only did a few things: carrots, spinach, zucchini, cucumbers, peas, pumpkins, green beans, cantaloupe, butternut squash, and some peppers.  The spinach was the first to take off, and was fabulous while it lasted, the peas did okay but I think I need a different variety next year. Now we have the carrots, zucchini and cucumbers producing and are waiting on the others. I feel successful considering my past disappointments! The kiddos have had to help with planting, weeding and watering. They haven't always done it voluntarily, but after working a while they have learned to enjoy it.


Lesson Plans!
I worked the first several weeks of our break lining up our materials for this year. I was really excited to be more organized and look forward to having a better handle on our academics this year. Last year was hectic and not very organized due to all of our big changes with moving. I will share more info about this years plans in another posting!

Cleaning!
Ahh yes, finally some time to spend on cleaning and organizing. When we moved into our home in December, I unpacked as quickly as I could and did a "goodfornow" organizing job. I have now completely re-organized two spaces in our home. One was a down stairs space adjoining our family room. This space originally was set up as a "play room". But it was far from that, I more commonly called it the "mess room". No one played in it, just messed it. This space also houses our piano and handful of other instruments and has a sliding door out to a covered patio and part of the yard. I wanted it to be more usable so...I restricted the toys to being: blocks, puzzles, and dramatic play items. And I moved some books shelves in and organized the kiddos (picture) books, labeling each shelf with a category of books. I also put together a small "train" table that was still hiding in a corner from our move, for use with the puzzles and blocks. Now we refer to this space as the QT (quiet) room, it is a place for quiet activities, unless musical in nature. We have been able to keep it picked up for the most part...at least it is only moderately messy like the rest of the house!
The other space I did, was a spur-of-the-moment thing. In our main upstairs space we had it divided into a dining area and a school/office area. My original plan was to clean the carpets (I can't wait to get rid of them this winter! Carpet in the dining area with 5 kids is a nightmare!). To do that I had to move my large table and benches out on the deck. As I was steaming the carpet I had time to rethink the space and suddenly decided it need a change right then! I am so glad I did! The new space flows so much better! 
Also under this "cleaning" heading I should add that I changed around the way we assign chores, but I will wait for another post to dig into that!

Other things we have done along the way:

• Camp-outs in the yard: We had hoped to get in a "real" camping trip this season, but for now a tent in the yard or blankets on the trampoline has worked very well! 
• Embroidery Lessons: I have taken up embroidery this past year, and my Lyllian (11) has watched and wanted to learn. So I set her up with a hoop, showed her a few basics and handed her the book I have been learning from. She was on her own then and did very well! Seeing her success and enjoyment my HanaRose (7) begged to learn too. So again, I set her up with a hoop and showed her some stitches. She surprised me with how much time she spent on her projects! This girl is my wiggly one that can't stand sitting still...I think we may have found an answer for those times she must be still and wait!
• We purchased a new vehicle! It was a little sooner than expected, but we knew it was coming. Our old suburban took it's last breathe...and my hubby being so busy with fires, had no time to try and fix it to limp down the road a little longer. So we found a nice expedition that suites our needs (plus some). I must admit that I was hesitant to get something so "fancy", but my hubby was insistent, and we are very happy with our purchase (but hope to be car-payment free again as soon as possible!!)
• Goats! We added two Nubian doelings to our family just two weeks ago! We plan to make these girls into milk suppliers in the future!
• Family Reunion Trip! I was really excited this year to be able to make it to my family reunion on my Dad's side of the family! I am one lucky girl to have all of my grandparent's still living! It has been hard for me to live so far away for so long. I was always very close to my grandparent's and spent a lot of summer's with them growing up. It was fun to be able to take my kiddos to spend some time with them, to get to know them. I know that there is most likely not many opportunities for that left and I want them to have memories and put faces to the names on their family tree! It was a great trip!
• Birthdays! Our HanaRose turned 7 (that was actually in June) and Lyllian turned 11 just recently in August! Time flies! We have two more birthdays coming up in September!
• Chill-axin! With all that was going on we also had plenty of time to just relax. Lay in the hammocks we hung from and on the deck, watch movies in our cool basement when it was too hot to play outside, read books, and visit friends and family (especially my new niece!).

And that's our summer break in a nutshell! Lessons resume for us tomorrow and I look forward to the comforts of routine and cooler weather on it's way soon (I hope)!


Happy Day!

Mini-Farm Project

Just a quick update so you can see what is happening besides our regular school lessons.

We have begun some new projects to broaden our learning experiences and get us involved with the community. To document our project I have created a new page tab labeled: Mini-Farm Project. Here is a brief snippet of what is on there so far:

We are so excited to finally have a home and a property where we can raise some animals! What a great learning opportunity for us all! I grew up around dairy farms and all sorts of animals but never had the responsibility of raising them myself. My Hubby grew up with all sorts, and raised sheep for 4-H. This will be a first time experience for our kiddos. They have only seen farm animals from a distance or at the fair.

Our purpose for beginning a small animal farm is to: help us become more self-reliant and to teach our kiddos valuable lessons and skills needed for a fruitful and productive life.



Click on the new page tab to find out more about this project!
Happy Day!

Our Learning Journal * week 1 *

Here we go I think things have settled down enough that I can start posting on a regular basis about our days. I am going to try and review our week every Friday or Saturday. I hope to share more about what we are doing so that I can see that we are working hard (or not).

.....................................Resource Favorites..................................

This week we really enjoyed our History/Geography lessons from The Story of the World. We read chapter three and learned about the first writings in Ancient Egypt. We also colored maps, locating the Nile river, Euphrates River, Tigris River, Egypt, Mesopotamia and Sumer. The Kiddos were very entertained as they learned that hippopotamus means: river horse. This was used to teach them that Mesopotamia means: between two rivers. We are going to do some Hieroglyph and Cuneiform writings of our own before moving on to chapter four (mummies!).

I also introduced HanaRose and Violet to the Walk beside me Preschool Curriculum which you can read about here in an earlier post this week. Violet completed most of the packet, but I used a few of the pages to entertain HanaRose too. They can't wait to do the next letter packet!

.........................................Book of the Week....................................

This months Earth Science focus has been on volcanoes. We all really enjoyed reading The Magic School Bus: Blows it's Top! I read this to them all before we studied the pictures in our other books (one pictured above) from the library and labeled a diagram of the parts of a volcano. 

.................................................Toddler Time........................................

Violet (3) was very involved this week with our learning. She colored along with the others and was happy to have some "work" of her own to do with the A is for Adam packet. 

Evalynn  made a couple of milestones this week as she comes up on her 2nd birthday. One being that she discovered she likes to stack the wood blocks and then knock them down! And the other...sticking a crayon in her nose...she was very proud of herself! 

............................................Star Students..........................................

Making  Chocolate Zucchini  Bread...Yum!

Lyllian (10) did a great job with her math this week. She started off testing on Lesson 7 (Math-U-See Delta) and proceeded to complete and test on Lesson 8 by the end of the week. She is finding that learning division is fun! She has also read through a couple of Ramona books. Doing most of her reading when she goes to bed and in the morning before rising.

Eprhraim (8 next week!) only missed one question on his math test (on Lesson 7 in his Beta book) this week. He was worried because the concept of Regrouping seemed very daunting to him. All of his practice paid off! He was very proud...and so was I.  He is also progressing well in his Sequential Spelling book. He has completed 17 lessons.

HanaRose is listening better this week. We have had no more pencil incidents and she has actually enjoyed writing in her journal. She is working on writing one or two sentences on her own with help only for big words. She has also enjoyed reading some Bobs books that we picked up at the library.

.....................................Field Trips & Other Fun Stuff....................................

Wow! It has been a full week of field trips! We arrived here just in time for canning season with Granny! This has been a great time to learn for all of us! We have canned tomatoes, grape jelly, pickles, relish, & peaches so far. We have a few more peaches, pears, blackberry jam, and apples to do next!

Here we are picking up the peaches at the Orchard:

Here is some of our tomatoes and relish:

Here is Lyllian learning to do dill pickles!

To top of this exciting week....we went to the FAIR! 

There was a Camel in the petting zoo!

Here we are enjoying snow cones and listening to some good 'ol  country music!

The Kiddos were excited to see all of the animals and other events taking place. We even saw the neighbors pumpkin they entered and won first place for largest by weight! I allowed them each 2 rides at the carnival before it was time to go home. This was really their first experience with the Fair, but no their last!

Happy Day!

I think I can....I think I can....I think I can

The Big Yellow Moving Truck that Could

We have packed up and moved 2,000 miles north west from where we were. I am absolutely exhausted. I keep thinking one more good nights sleep is all I need...but I am still dragging today. We have actually only not be transient for three days. So I am trying to go easy on myself. I am so eager to get the kiddos back into a normal schedule and have them settled in here at their grandparent's house. I figure by the time we do, it will be time to move into a new house and start all over....not that I am complaining about moving into our own home...I welcome that event to come A.S.A.P.

Here is an overview of our last couple of weeks:

* My mother-in-law arrived to help pack & drive
* We packed
*My husband arrived (with 4 days off) and we organized a load for him to drive with our truck a trailer...he left after being home for 24 hours and drove the distance in 2 days, unloaded and went back to work the following day.

*We celebrated Lyllian's 10th Birthday!

Yes...that is a sombrero she is wearing...it's a new birthday thing we do.

*We went to Church
*We picked up the 26ft moving truck and dropped off the kiddos at a friends house.
*We loaded up the truck in 103 degree weather that felt like 110....ALL DAY!
*We went out to dinner and then slept on the floor
*We cleaned up our messes and last minute bits and pieces.
*We got in and DROVE as far as we could, and slept.
*Repeat of the above
*We arrived at my brother-in-law's house. The kids played with cousins.

My HanaRose  was so sad to leave. She wouldn't smile for a picture.

*We drove some more and was able to meet up with my hubby where he was working on contract. We slept.
*We drove some more until we arrived at our first destination but not the final. We went swimming in the hotel pool and then went to sleep.
*We UNLOADED the 26ft truck into a storage unit. (Let me just say this was another story all together!).
*We drove all NIGHT(6 hours) and arrived here at my In-laws home that is to be our home until further notice.
*We gave THANKS to God for all of our safe travels!
*I have been attempting to sleep as much as possible. The kiddos have been running and running...anything but sitting!

So now, today I decided to unload the boxes of school books and try to get things organized and prepared. I would like us to get back to school on Monday. One thing I know I needed to do was print out and bind more pages for my planner I created for this year. But as I looked through the things I brought with me...I discovered that I did now but the binding machine in with the items to come here instead of stay in the storage unit. So now.....once again I get to make a WHOLE new planner and put it in a bulky binder. It will all be fine I know. What does it really matter if it is bound with the machine or in a 3 ring binder...the same job gets done.

  CHUGGA. CHUGGA. CHUGGA.

Happy Day!

Let the Packing Begin......

So here we go....time to get everything packed into boxes.

We still haven't sold the house, but we are going to take the next step anyway trusting that God will help us with fitting every piece into the puzzle. I am hoping the house will be easier to sell without us living in it. Meanwhile we get to put our things in storage when we get to our destination and then we will have our "summer" visit with the Grandparents whom thankfully currently have room to accommodate our large family.

With the tasks at hand...I have encouraged my Kiddos to entertain themselves either outside or in their rooms. My older ones help with packing a box here and there, and when the desperate moments come.... I turn on the television. This will be our basic everyday routine until moving day arrives.

I have not narrowed the exact date down, but I do know it will land around the middle of August...which gives us about 4 weeks to prepare. Luckily I have already done lots of prep work by going through all of the rooms and closets getting rid of the things that will not being going with. So packing should be mostly uncomplicated.  Once we have the date set, I will need to reserve the enormous moving truck needed to transport our belongings 2,000 miles NW. After that is the challenge of lining up some extra drivers. We have 3 vehicles (including the moving truck) that will be traveling in the convoy. I of course will be in our suburban with the Kiddos....and possible a dog or two.  We also need a driver for our truck that will be pulling our flat bed trailer full of motorcycles, bicycles and riding lawnmower, I also hope to at least put one of our large dogs in the back of the truck, then of course we need someone to drive the moving truck.  We do have some volunteers already...the challenge will just be the time frame.....most of those available (including my husband) are busy fighting fires in the summer and they work 12 days on with 2 days off.  I am not too worried though, this is not our first rodeo. We have done this a few times before and everything always seems to come together, even if at the last minute!

Well break time is over......

Happy Day!

What have we been up to?

I guess the real question should probably be :"What haven't we been up to?" It feels as if we have been doing everything all at once. 

Here came.......July......and there it goes!

There have been fevers, and coughs for most of my Kiddos, plus a cranky teether, and sinus infections for me, runs to the grocery store, and doctor. 

We helped a good friend move, and gave her and her baby refuge afterwards when there was a problem with the electricity so she couldn't have any air from the A/C in this 100 degree weather. 

The hot weather has made it hard to play outside...we used the pool a couple of times.

Mixed in with that we have slipped in some Spelling, Math, Reading, and Scripture study here and there. We have even gotten in a few art projects...most of which my Kiddos inspired themselves to do. I attempted to plan some trips to the Library for some of their summer programs, but have yet to make it. It seems a fever pops up every time we have an outing planned. So we have mostly been staying busy at home.  

My Hubby and I also celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary on the 8th of this month. He was a good husband and had roses and chocolate sent to me! I was very happy to receive the show of affection since we have been apart for over a month now. 

Of course I have also been trying to keep up with the laundry, household cleaning, and yard maintenance.

We are working on a neat sewing project that is just about completed. I won't give it away yet though....I'll save that for another post when it has been completed.

Now  I am off to fix lunch, clean the kitchen and the living room before picking up my Hubby from the airport for his 2-day visit! 

Happy Day!

Happy 4th!

We had a great time yesterday. There were no BBQ's for us to attend or grand fireworks shows, but we had fun creating our own celebration of our Nations Birthday.

We decorated our bikes (and stroller) with patriotic items and went parading around our neighborhood while songs from the cd Wee Sing America blasted from my Ipod speakers. It was a lot of fun, and got us into the spirit. We also stuck a bunch of little flags all over our front yard, and made smores.

After our parade Hanarose asked me to take off her training wheels! She tried a few times before she lost her nerve for the night. I am positive she will get it soon.

Once it was dark we watched the neighborhood light up with fireworks and bangs.

All in all it was a  very Happy Day!  Hope yours was too!

I SCREAM you SCREAM we all SCREAM for ICE CREAM!

We had a fantastic Happy Day today! We decided it was time to drag the ice cream maker out of the closet. Lyllian had a friend over to play so this was a great activity to keep us all entertain.

First we had to scald the milk, and mix in the rest of the ingredients.

Lyllian and her friend

It's ready to chill out in the fridge!

Tick*Tock*Tick*Tock*Tick*TockTick*Tock*Tick*Tock*Tick*Tock

After 30 minutes it was time to put it in the maker and pack in the ice and salt!

Everyone took turns pouring in ice and rock salt. 

Tick*Tock*Tick*Tock*Tick*TockTick*Tock*Tick*Tock*Tick*Tock

Is it done yet?

ICE CREAM!!!

Did you have a Happy Day?