What we've been up to....

Sometimes I'm really good about keeping up with blogging, and sometimes I'm just really, really not.

Summer is busy and full.

So, for anyone wondering, and for my own memory keeping purposes, here are a few things we've been up to lately:

• We celebrated Jo's 1st birthday! 
• IW and QL went to VBS, which they love more than cholcolate.
• Husband has his resume in for a new job, and I've been working on projects around the house to prepare for a move, just in case.
• We've been doing lessons in between all these other crazy things taking place.  But it's summer time, so I'm being pretty laid back about it.
• I had to take Em to the doctor, and long story short, we are all trying a gluten free diet to try to solve the 'all four of my kids have tummy troubles and I think that's a little fishy' issue.
• Turns out that I have gluten issues.  And dairy issues.   Good times.
• I have spent the last 2 weeks holed up trying to figure out how to feed my family, and myself.  
• I have spent a disgusting amount of hours online/with my nose in books researching celiac disease, gluten issues, and new foods to cook.  My head was seriously swimming with it for about a week. 
• I shopped at the local-ish Whole Foods store for the first time since we moved to the south.  I am so thankful for the awesome variety of gluten free foods they have.  I am not thankful that their gluten free fish sticks cost $10.00 for a box of 24, and I ruined the first 3 I tried to cook, and Jo only ate 1 of the next 3 I cooked.  I will not be buying them again.
• I have been working on scheduling a couple field trips for our homeschool support group.  My perfectionist tendencies have reared their ugly head.
• I am trying to plan a special occasion, involving a lot of people.  I love being an idea person.  I am learning about myself that I don't really enjoy being a point person.  Again, my perfectionist self, along with my 'need to make everyone happy' self finds this very stressful.
• Spending so much focused attention on so many things has left my house in a really bad state.   I don't do well with a house in shambles, and it's starting to affect my family members.  (Husband: "Do you know where my socks and underwear are?"  Me:  "Ummm, yeah.  I guess I need to do some laundry."  : /    No bueno.)  It's time to get my focus back to my most important job:  CEO of my home.

I know I haven't posted in a long while, so I also know I'm forgetting a lot of stuff.  But I think you get the gist.  It's been a little bananas.
And my Google Reader feed has 397 unread posts.  397!!!  Bananas.

Weekly Wrap-up, Is it Friday already?

We got back to doing lessons this week!   (We take breaks pretty much whenever we need them, so a year-roundish schedule works best for us.)


We worked through Week 2, Term 1 of Higher Up Further In.  It was a great week, even with the holiday hub-bub!  The only important thing we didn't get to was a nature walk, but I figure that's not too bad for our 1st week back at it.

A couple of things came to light this week that will be integral to our future homeschooling success:


1) IW is a grumbler.  He just started Life of Fred for math (which I love because it enables him to be a little more independent).  He really seems to enjoy it, or at least that was my impression from his laughing while reading it.  And he has mentioned a few times that it's easy.  So imagine my confusion when he announced that he "hates Life of Fred".  WHAT?!?!  Are you kidding me?  I know some of the early chapters are going to be super easy, but that's just how that goes.  
The next time he did a chapter I sat with him and he giggled and laughed and I said, "It sounds like you really do like this."  "Yeah, I guess I do."
Sheesh.  
He is just a grumbler by nature, and while that grates on me, I am glad to have realized it now instead of later.  I now know that if he's complaining about a part of our homeschool, I need to make sure it's not just his grumbling nature before I go adjusting curriculum.


2) When we're doing lessons, our house turns into a big fat mess, fast.  I don't need a spotless house, but I do need a house that's organized and tidy.  I'm a very visual person, and clutter just shuts me down.  I didn't realize how much time I was spending on keeping the house tidy until that time was allocated to full days of lessons and childcare.  About 3 days in I had to really take stock of the situation.  I just do not function well when surrounded by mess, but I will not let a messy house be the reason we can't homeschool.  SO, I pulled out my copy of Large Family Logistics by Kim Brenneman.  


I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!


I would not necessarily call my family large, though I know other people might.  However, this book is so full of encouragement, wisdom, and ingenious ideas to make our homes run smoother, no matter the size of our families.  
I've spent all the spare time I've had the last few days at the table with this book, a pencil, a notebook, and a stack of sticky pads.  Hopefully this weekend I can begin putting my Home Management Notebook together, get some routines ready to be put into place, and find a way to manage our home while educating our kids.


The other thing I'm beginning to realize is that I'm getting involved in a few things outside of the home, and it's really eating up my time.  Generally speaking, I don't think being involved is a bad thing, but I have to be careful when Husband is traveling.  For example, I'll be gone all day tomorrow, between volunteering for our cover school, and then a meeting for our support group, grocery shopping and getting together stuff for Jo's 1st birthday next week.  I was also supposed to go to a fundraiser picnic, for a really good cause, but I just don't know how to make that happen.  Husband got in tonight after supper, right before the kids went to bed, and he has to be back to work Monday morning, and I don't know when he'll be home again after that.   


*sigh*


Don't sacrifice the best for the good, right?


Now that we're back to doing lessons I'm going to really have to be picky about what I commit to, or I'm never going to see my husband!





Linking up at

Hello there, and a bazillion pictures!

So, I realize I've been gone a while.  Life is crazy, isn't it?

I've been planning on posting some pictures of what we've been up to, so I guess now's as good a time as any.

We've been busy.  Busy visiting friends, going on playdates and mini-vacations, and I went to my first homeschool convention! (WOOT WOOT!)

I am now a member of our homeschool support group's advisory board (how cool is that?!?!), and we've got some exciting things in the works, so that's using up some of my focus.


I've also been spending some of my time and energy mentoring some new-to-homeschooling moms.  

And I've been busy being a friend.

My neighbor and friend has a 16 year old son who is getting ready to have a pretty serious surgery, and she has been on my mind constantly.

And then I have a friend, who is rapidly becoming a dear, dear friend, who is treading the murky waters of a divorce.  And my heart aches for her. every. day.

I am one of those people who feels others' feelings.  I feel your happy.  I rejoice in your joy.  And when your heart is broken, mine is in pieces too.  Sometimes I really wish I was not this way.  It can be exhausting, and confusing to others.  But the older I've gotten, the more I've realized that this ability to empathize has made me a better shoulder and friend.  

And this friend, well.....she's just amazing.  Beautiful.  Smart. Funny.  Godly.   Motivated.  Supportive.  A great mother.  I really could go on and on.  She impresses and inspires me.  And her getting a divorce kind of freaks me out, if I'm telling the truth.

But enough of that.
Here are some cute faces to lighten the mood!  So far this summer (in no particular order, because that's WAY to much work!) we've.......

QL had kindergarten graduation!

Em turned 4!

They're just cute, so they made the cut!

Octonauts Kwazii cake

I discovered Instagram!  : )

We went berry picking with friends!

Jo walked in shoes for the first time!

We took a long drive for a short visit with an old friend!

we played outside!

Sprinkler fun!

Love this girl!

Sisters!

My BFF and her little fella came to visit! (Can you tell a kid took this pic?!?!)

I got a haircut! (plus, I just really like this picture!)

This guy lost BOTH of his front teeth!

the kids all got to ride in a big green tractor!

We visited our friend's property.  Do you see that tree?!?!  *swoon*  I LOVE Spanish moss!

we visited the farm.......

.......and the pond!

we went to the science center

the big kids and I slept in a tent on the back porch

we took turns telling "scary" stories!

Husband and I celebrated 8 years of marriage!

We went and saw animatronic dinosaurs.  Yes, I really am that big of an idiot!

1 part dinosaurs, 3 parts junk to waste your money on!  The kids loved it!

This was my favorite part: the fountain/pond outside the center where they had the dinosaurs!

My family, all in one place at one time.  My heart was happy!

On top of all this fun stuff, I've been sorting and decluttering, planning for our next year of lessons, and addressing heart issues (always!), both theirs and mine.
We're still waiting to see what's going to happen with the job situation, but after a pretty serious episode of anxiety over it, I've laid it at God's feet and honestly I try not to think about it.  
One day at a time, right?

I hope you all are having a great summer!

more ch-ch-ch-changes!

Soooo, I'm feeling a bit humbled at the moment.  

We had planned to school through the summer and actually started our new plan a couple of weeks ago.  As I said, I got sick and actually lost my voice, which put an end to our read alouds for the week.  Then we had QL's kindergarten graduation, which took a bit of prep time and focus from me.  My voice was MIA for most of the next week, but we did manage to finish up our lessons from the week before.  

This past weekend was Em's 4th birthday, and we had company in from out of state that stayed through yesterday.  So, while we should have been beginning Week 3 of our lesson plans this week, we have done no schooling, and had we done any, we would have only been on Week 2! 

(For the record, I don't regret 1 second of missing lessons this week to spend time with my BFF and her son.  Relationships first.  Always.)

I'm still not at 100% health-wise.  I don't know what in the world is going on with me.  Either I have out of control allergies or a nasty cold that won't release it's grip on me.

AAAAANNNNNDDDD, the new job that we have been hoping and praying that Husband would get seems to be right around the corner.  Of course I'm trying hard not to count my chickens before they hatch, but this job has been all but promised to Husband.  There are a total of 3 positions available, all the same, but in 3 different locations.  (The jobs will be officially posted in the next week or so, so keep your fingers crossed for us!)

This job will be a huge blessing for our family.  But it's also going to mean a big move.  And now that this process is finally starting, it seems like maybe the next few weeks need to be spent working on our house, getting it ready to sell, just in case.  Because if Husband does get this job, I want our family to go with him.  I don't want the kids and I to be sitting here in a house that isn't ready to sell while Husband is away working.  The whole point of this new job is to put an end to that! 


So, it seems that after all of my well laid plans, we are going to be taking at least some of the summer off.  The kids are excited, which is nice.  We're still going to work on math and reading because I don't want to lose ground in those areas, and we all do better with some semblance of structure.


While these changes do indeed ruffle my Type-A feathers, I am grateful that God's timing is better than mine, and am excited to see how all of this is going to play out!

Isn't it ironic

Life is full of irony.

My latest dose arrived in the form of a cold, which (as usual) turned into laryngitis.  

This week was supposed to be the first of our new curriculum plan.  Our new literary curriculum plan that is comprised almost exclusively of read alouds.  


Monday went of smashingly.  The kids were feeling a little wimpy on Tuesday, but we got our work done, and everyone was still pretty enthusiastic.  By Wednesday evening I was feeling a little puny myself.  Thursday morning saw all bets called off.  Friday I had half a voice.  Today, Saturday, finds me at just above a whisper, which requires a painful amount of energy.


The last time I had laryngitis (about 6 months ago) it lasted 2 weeks.  


I had this grand plan of working 6 weeks on and taking 1 week off, and part of the reason we started this week was so that we could have off the week of Thanksgiving.  It's only week 1 and we're off track.  And if I don't have a voice next week, we're kind of hosed.


Through all of this I am trying to remember that God's plan is better than mine, and His timing is never wrong.  He's always, always trying to teach me about my control issues.


QL's kindergarten graduation is tomorrow, and next Sunday is Em's 4th birthday.  Having the extra time to focus on these important celebrations really is a blessing!  And if I'm being honest, everyone will probably be blessed by a little less blabber from mom!  : )

Milestones

When you have kids, marking milestones is a natural ordeal.  
"He rolled over!" "Aw, her first steps."  "Did you see him smile???"

I find myself in the very strange position of marking very different milestones.  

Jo is our last baby.  It would take a miracle of God for us to have another.  Not that that can't happen, of course.  But as for our plans, we are done.

Today, Jo joined the other kids for lunch: turkey hot dog and apple.  The big kids' food was presented a little differently, and they had a few other things added to their plates, but for all intents and purposes all 4 of my children ate the same lunch.

It seems that my days of making and/or buying baby food are nearly over.

When Jo celebrated an amazing milestone for herself, her first steps, it was also a milestone for me.  She is the last of my children who will ever do that.  That's a strange thing for me to think about.  My life over the past 7 years has always involved a baby in one stage or another.


Now I have 2 big kids (who seem so much bigger every day), a wildly energetic preschooler, and Jo, my on-the-brink-of-being-a toddler.

These moments are breathtaking.  And I'm so glad I have the presence of mind to recognize that....and them.  But I'd be lying if I said it isn't a little bittersweet.

Mostly sweet though.  Mostly sweet.

Hello, my name is Tasha, and I am an addict....

Sad, but increasingly more true.

I love books.  Love them.  I love the outsides as well as the insides.  Of course I love a good story.  Sometimes I even really enjoy a plain old mediocre story.  But I also love the way a really old book smells.  I love the way a book from the 50s or 60s smells.  And I love the smell of a new textbook.  They're all a little different, ya know.  It's intoxicating. 

My love of books has been a little overwhelming to Husband for a while now.  I reconciled this to myself that he isn't really a reader, so he doesn't "get it".   But things have gotten to a point now that even I get a little tight chested when I walk into our "schoolroom".  There are stacks upon stacks upon stacks of books.  A major contributor to this is the fact that we've made some changes in our curriculum, and I needed to sort our books accordingly.  Sorting happened.  Re-shelving, not so much.


Seeing as we ascribe to a literary education in our homeschool, having a lot of books is kind of par for the course (unless, of course, you use the heck out of your library, which I'm trying to get better at).  I have been building our home library for a few years now, and I snatch up great finds from used book shops and thrift stores when I can.  I don't feel bad about owning these books; they are an investment in my children.  I just really need a better way to organize and keep track of what we've got.  And right now, looking at these stacks upon stacks upon stacks, I have an overwhelming urge to just chuck them all and start over!


I think instead, I'll put on my big girl pants, go down there and do the work.


And put a freeze on the book budget for a while.

Our new curriculum plan, in time for a curriculum fair!

Simple Homeschool is holding a curriculum fair again this year!  When they ran the series last year I was IN LOVE!  Being that our tiny people are still, well....tiny, I love to see what more experienced homeschoolers are using to educate their kids.

They're inviting readers to link up this Friday and tell what they're using, and I figured that since we just made a big change in how we're doing things around here, it would be a perfect time to write that post!

As for the changes, after much ado, Husband and I decided that instead of waiting til fall, we ought to just go ahead and move forward with our new plans.  So, we have stopped using Beyond Little Hearts For His Glory, and are forging ahead.

As for why we're starting a new curriculum plan when most other families are putting their books away for the summer: we school year round-ish.  With all the comings and goings that Husband does with his job, and adding Jo to the mix last summer, we require (and enjoy) a lot of flexibility in our schooling schedule.  Also (and maybe more importantly), I have found that with these young ages, my kids go BANANAS if they don't have some kind of structure going on.  Three months of no lessons seems like hell to me.  Too much free time for the kids while mom is busy doing the tons of work that it takes to care for house and home = kids getting themselves into trouble, a lot.  We take short breaks when we need to.  Keepin on keepin on keeps us sane and peaceful.

Reason enough for me.

Soooo, on to our new curriculum plan!!!!!

(Drum roll, please!)

We are now (FINALLY!) using Year 1 of the Higher Up and Further In curriculum from Lindafay at charlottemasonhelp.com!

I have been looking at this website for a couple of years, and now that the big kids are 7.5 and 6, I feel more than confident that we're ready to go full-on Charlotte Mason.  I feel kinda rogue!  

I recently read a blog of another HUFI user, and the author described it as more user friendly than Ambleside Online, and I could not agree more.  That is exactly it.  So if you want to move ahead with Charlotte Mason, but Ambleside is a little too.... intense for you, as it is for me, Higher Up Further In (charlottemasonhelp.com) might be a good choice!  The cmhelp website is a treasure trove of information to get you started, and it is quite obvious that Lindafay put a lot of time and love into it.  There is also a Yahoo group for her curriculum, and she is very active and available to address your questions.

Since everything is spelled out at the website, I'll not regurgitate it all here.  But I will tell you how we're making it work for our family:

We do all subjects together except reading, writing, and math and I love that.  We have things to talk about over dinner.  The kids make up games that follow the story lines of the books we're reading.  My sanity is saved by only doing one year.

For habit training, we're going to finish up what we were doing before we start using HUFI's plan.  

We've been going through Ruth Yount's book, Get Wisdom! along with Achieving True Success.  This takes about 5 minutes each morning and seems to be effective.  The kids have really enjoyed it!  We also use some cards called Mind Your Manners Language Cards, which I found at a local school supply store, and we love these!  On one side of the card is a picture of someone doing something rude or ill-mannered, which I show.  We discuss what the offender is doing, and what they should have done instead.  Then we flip the card over to reveal the polite behavior.  We do one card a day, and I think it's the kids' favorite part of the day, even my 4 year old!  

For math we are using Singapore, which came with BLHFHG.  The kids are doing well with this and seem to enjoy it.  It does move a little fast for QL right now, so we're taking a break and working on addition facts. We have Math U See Alpha, so I'm going to go back and have her work a little bit through that (which is what IW started on before going to Singapore).

Reading has been a subject that has come quite naturally and easy thus far in our house.  We've stopped doing formal phonics with QL and are now just reading and addressing problems as we come to them (which was all I ever did with IW, who reads well above grade level).  For the most part I let the kids pick what they want to read to me each day, and it is usually a Magic Treehouse book.  Lindafay at HUFI considers these books to be twaddle, but honestly, we really like them.  And IW is excited to read them, so that works for me.  I think the books are very informative, and as far as the element of magic, I find a lot of that in the tales and literature selections in the curriculum and don't really see the difference.  We read and discuss these books together, so I'm comfortable.  

In my former life I was a Spanish major, so I am choosing 4-6 new words/phrases for the kids to learn each week.  I figure this will be enough foreign language for now.

Instead of doing a full-on artist study, we are going to work our way through some of the Come Look With Me books since we already own them. 

We are going to follow the Handbook of Nature Study blog for nature study.  This week will be our first (assuming the kids are no longer sick this Friday!) and we are going to start at the beginning with challenge #1.  I'm so excited about this I can't even say!

As for the rest of the curriculum, we are doing everything as written. 

*I think* the only thing I've added is P.E.  We purchased the online version of Family Time Fitness.  Husband and I both thought it would be a good idea to add some structured physical activity to our days since we just aren't able to participate in organized sports during this season of our lives.  And the kids are kind of over running around the backyard everyday.  The pdf that they send includes links to YouTube videos demonstrating all of the activities, so anyone can teach P.E. using Family Time Fitness.  Adding P.E. will, hopefully, add some new moves to our playtime repertoire.  And since it's already gotten up to some rather high temps here in the deep south, I'm hoping this will help burn some of their pent up energy this summer when it's too hot to be outside for long.  Although we've only just started this, it seems to be a big hit with the kiddos. 

****I forgot, we're also adding Apologia's elementary Zoology 1 for science.  We're going to do the junior notebook.*****

In a couple of years when Em joins the mix, I imagine he'll be in his own year.  Until then he's enjoying puzzles, books, playdoh, and playing with his toys.  He's picking up all of his "preschool skills" on the fly, so I don't feel any need to do a preschool program with him.  That feels very contrived, and he's learning everything he needs to know by just living his life.  So that's our preschool plan: life.

I am so, so, so excited to read what everyone else is doing with their kiddos, and how many other families are choosing to school year round-ish! 

You want MY advice?!?! Are you CRAZY?

Over the last few weeks I have twice been asked to speak, and give advice, about how we live our lives.  Once was to new homeschoolers, and then today, in the middle of the grocery store, a checkout clerk that I’ve seen a few times asked me to explain to her what techniques I use in raising my children.  Both times I was shocked that these people were asking ME for advice.  I mean, seriously?!?!?!  Most of the time I feel like a chicken with my head cut-off.  But apparently they think that I have something to offer.  It occurred to me today that there is a disconnect somewhere.  Either their view is skewed, or mine is.

The truth is, of course, a little bit of both.  

Although the check-out lady has seen my kids behave like total hooligans, I’m guessing I’ve responded with a whole lot more grace in the middle of Wal-Mart than I would have at home!  And as for the homeschooling, while I have admitted my frustrations and fears, I’ve come to realize that these are only completely normal, which is probably why I was asked to speak to first year homeschoolers.  Because they are probably going to be frustrated and afraid, if they aren’t already.

And maybe, just maybe, I don’t give our family quite enough credit.  We’re all a work in progress, but we’re trying hard to get it right.

I’ve always tried to remember that I am the salt and the light, inside my home and out.  When asked about any aspect of what we do and/or how we do it, I always try to answer gracefully, and always, always, always give thanks to God, who is the only reason I would ever be able to raise these kids with any ounce of success, let alone educate them at home.

Anyway, these ladies have gotten me thinking about what I would say, in more depth, to their questions, so if you see some posts along those lines, you’ll know why!  ; )

I hope you all are having a great week!

Our week, in pictures

Itty bitty baby turtle that IW found.  He named him Nick.

After looking things up in The Handbook of Nature Study and on the internet......

I think he's a map turtle

the lizard that IW caught

: )  Kickin butt.  Takin names.

she lost another one!!!

"Who you lookin' at???"

the frog we found while playing at a friend's house.  IW said it must be the week for creatures!  Agree.

These last 3 are not technically from THIS week, but I didn't want to leave anybody out!

Have a blessed weekend!