When Do I Start?

Well I had planned on starting school today. You see I have one MAJOR problem, we moved and I still have stuff in boxes and not sure where everything is. Not to mention, I need to plan for school also. So the beauty of homeschooling is we can start when we want, take breaks when we want, and end once we have our required amount of days in.

So I am unpacking more boxes today, doing some much needed planning, and then going for a much needed hair cut and color. We will either start next week or the week after. For now we are enjoying our summer and updating our school room.

New School Year: 4th Grade, 1st grade, and a toddler

That is what this year will be made off. We will be using My Father's World as our main curriculum this year. It is a great curriculum and we enjoyed it last year. This year for the 4th grader we are studying Creation to the Greeks, this includes Bible, History, Science, Art and Music. She will be using Math U See, Total Language Plus, and Latin for Children.

My first grader will also be using My Father's World first grade and sit in with her big sister when she wants too. She has her own set of student sheets and art cards for the Bible, History, and Art. She will have enough with the first grade but I learned last year that sometimes she likes to be included with the other activities. She will also do Math U See and a Phonics program for right brained children. She is my very creative soul.

For our busy toddler. She will have her own box of activities. When I work with one of the older girls the other girl gets to play with her sister and do these fun activities with her. When I get her box situated I will do a post specifically for that with fun pictures for you all to see.

She is 9

My oldest girl turned 9 in June (the one in maroon) I know I am slow to post these things but I want to post every year about my girls because it will be something we enjoy later I am sure. Cool facts

1. She loves Jesus and wants to be a missionary.
2. She loves dance.
3. She got her pointe shoes this summer. BIG DEAL! (pic below)
4. Yellow has ALWAYS been her favorite color.
5. She cares about others and has a heart for her friends.
6. This year has gotten particular about fashion and what she wears.
7. Her favorite food: black olives.
8. Can be bossy and I have to remind her that she is the kid.
9. Loves her little sisters and is a HUGE help with them.
10. Loves learning.
11. Just like her mama in many ways. ;)
12. My social bug, always wants to have someone over or go to someones house.
13. Disciplining her is hard, she is really obedient most of the time.
14. She is becoming very beautiful to others around her especially her parents.
15. Has great self confidence (one area she is different from her mama).

Here is another picture of her feet that her teacher is working with while dancing. Her teacher Ms. Jaime means so much to her and has a great impact on her love for dancing and her passion for it.



Disclamer: These pictures are from her first day en pointe. Technique and ballet technique is of HUGE importance for Ms. Jaime but I am no dance teacher. I just loved these pictures b/c they are my daughter and Ms. Jaime helping her.

Coming Soon: She is 9

My oldest turned 9 in June and I am a little late posting but I will post it soon. I am so proud of the beautiful young lady she is becoming.

She Is 6

OK so it has been a while and time has been flying by because of our busy schedule. During the time away my sweet middle girl turned 6. I can't believe it. She is such an amazing blessing to our family. I think I will do some cool facts about her...

1. She is amazingly creative.
2. She is a good drawer (creative again)
3. She loves to catch lizards and frogs but needs to do this in a princess dress.
4. Her favorite color is pink.
5. She is extremely emotional and passionate. She loves people deeply.
6. She is our only blonde.
7. She enjoys dancing.
8. Her favorite food is mac and cheese.
9. She still sleeps with her blanket.
10. Lots of friends overwhelm her and she loves her one or two greatly.
11. She talks non stop at home.
12. She is EXTREMELY funny without trying to be.
13. She doesn't care for school a whole lot but in 15 minute spurts she complies.
14. She is asking lots of questions about Jesus right now and what it means to have him in her heart.
15. She LOVES her sisters. They really are her best friends.
16. She doesn't like to leave home. My little homebody.

We love you so much and are so proud of the girl you are becoming. There is nothing I love more than pretending with you!

A Lasting Legacy: My Grandmother

I am learning a lot lately about what is important in my life and what to hang onto. The Lord continues to remind me that my husband and I are one and we are a WHOLE unit together. I am grateful for him and his love for me and our family.

With that said this is a post about my grandparents, mainly my grandmother who have taught me the most about that. My grandmother passed away last Sunday. It was a happy and sad day for us. Happy because she met Jesus face to face and what an amazing day for her that must have been. Sad for us because she lived 92 years and we will miss her.

Both of their daughters and one husband is walking with the Lord, all 5 of their grandchildren and spouses are walking with the Lord, and some of the great grandchildren are walking with the Lord. The greats that aren't are to young at this point and we are raising them in Godly environments. There is a WHOLE lot to praise Jesus about when it comes to this legacy that is being left behind.

Memommy I love you and will miss you. You are with Jesus and Gege and I praise the Lord that I know that.

Oops...It Has Been To Long

Honestly I don't have a lot of time to post today. I just wanted to jump on here and let you know I didn't forget. Had a great weekend spending some special time with my oldest daughter. Hopefully going this week to get my toes and nails done with my middle daughter. I will post pictures from this weekend in a minute.

In The Mood For Spring: New Design

One day I will have a professional design my blog but she is in school right now and that keeps her very busy. Until then I will use fun free layouts on the web. I was in the mood for something new. I wanted to go springy and so here we go. I hope you enjoy the different look.

Mount Washmore!!!!!!!!!

Does laundry ever end? I can't seem to get a handle on it. Well yes today I am tackling Mt. Washmore. The problem with the washing is that my washer is on the blink and my husband is the only one who can seem to get the thing to work correctly. So here I sit with lots to fold b/c he will wash when he come home in the evening and I will fold during the day when the girls are working on school work. *sigh* The beautiful thing is we have enough, enough to wear and are not without in this house. I am thankful that I have clothes for the family to fold. I guess I need to go through them and get rid of some though. There is obviously an abundance.

Some Of My Favorite Things

I thought it might be fun to post some of my most favorite things. Some of you know me well and some of you not at all.



Pink I love all things Pink.

Jewelry, I LOVE jewelry.



Fabric. Yummy Fabrics. These are from Amy Butler! What is not to love?



Dresses. Sweet, girly dresses.



Shoes



iPad (we took my one back that I had for less than 2 weeks because we heard about the new release of one. Glad I waited. I will be getting the new one on the 11th.)



These two people.



And this little person.

I don't have an updated photo but my husband is one of the people I love most too.

Sick!!!!!

Yep mommy's don't get sick days. My kids are hanging out and I am laying around with a head that feels 300 pounds, ear hurting, throat hurting, and fever all last night. I will move forward best as I can today and do what I have to do to get through. I am thankful to have a sweet 8 year old so willing to help.

It's Been a Week!

Wow! I have been much better about blogging lately but a week is a long time to wait. Well we had a wild week. My poor oldest child ended up allergic to some soap she used and had hives starting Sunday night and they finally went away Thursday after getting steroids to give her. She was miserable and I think for 3 nights we got maybe 4 hours of sleep each night. Well I can't function on that little sleep. This girls LOVES her sleep. Not to mention my poor girl was functioning on very little sleep herself. She is fine now and we have to use free detergent and soap for her now. Not willing to take a chance of that happening again.

Pictures From The Weekend

Nancy Serving


Precious Pearl and Leader of the Weekend



Girl Talk

What A Weekend

I don't know if I have discussed this on here or not but I LOVE teenagers. When I became a Christian at 19 the Lord gave me a heart to work with teens not long after that. I think because I was such a conflicted one myself. So after college I worked at a church with the youth there and loved it. It is a story that I will share later. Fast forward to now. I serve at our church with the youth group. I was honored when One of our teens asked me if I would help her lead a purity retreat. WOW what a responsibility. Remember I became a Christian at 19. ;) Well, the time spent with these girls was amazing. I have pictures to share in a little bit. I can't share to much as we promised we wouldn't share what we talked about. I will just say that my heart is full.

Quote of the Day: Middle Child's Musings

So today the oldest has been doing some research on the countries that she has been studying to make lapbooks with . Well the baby has pulled the papers off the ottoman about 3 times now. Biggest sister finally got mad and started yelling in frustration at the baby. Middle child chimes in and says, "Chill out, she is just a baby!" Bwahaha! I couldn't help but bust out laughing.

Let me clear this up...

It was made clear that this wasn't a Valentine's Day gift. It was something we both have saved for because I really wanted it. So he came home Friday and surprised me with an iPad. I am in love! It is helping me get my life somewhat organized and hopefully help organize my home. If any of u have any good apps I would love to hear about them.

Valentine's Day

Yes today is Valentine's Day. Honestly a way over commercialized "holiday". For some it can cause great pain, for others they love it. I have mixed feelings about it. See I have been very spoiled in the past. When Mark and I dated he never went without overdoing it for every occasion. Well, that made for great expectations on my part. Well imagine my surprise when he "forgot" to get me something. Yep, I acted like a spoiled brat. So in my desire to really let go of this aspect of myself I said to Mark, "You have been working so hard and are such a good provider for our family that I am letting you off the hook. Please don't feel like you have to get me something. ". I meant it, I really did. Well he ignored me.....(to be continued)

New Favorite Verses

I have some new verses that are really ministering to me right now. I have s feeling I am not the only one.


Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have summoned you and called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters I will be with you, and when you pass through the rivers they will not sweep over you. And when you walk through the fire you will not be burned, the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.


Isaiah 43:1-4

The Lord Speaks:

Psalm 13:4-5

5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.

An "average" day...

A lot of people wonder what an "average" day for us looks like so I thought I would post our schedule here.

We get up and eat breakfast (at least the kids do I am not much for breakfast).
We will play with the baby for a little bit.
We do Bible first and pray for a people group from the region we are studying about.
Then Abby will get started on her Language Arts, Math, and Latin if she doesn't need help with it.
While Abby is working on her LA and Math I will work with Anna on reading/phonics and her Math.
Normally sometime during that time I will lay the baby down for her morning nap.
Then we all do geography, science, and reading together.
If we have a craft or something like that we will work on that together.
They both usually have a writing practice to do. Anna working on nice handwriting and Abby working on learning to write papers.

That is our day. Then it is usually lunch time and rest time. Everyone has to rest. Addi Ruth is awake by the "craft" time and we will play with her until afternoon nap time. During afternoon nap time Anna and Addi Ruth usually still nap. Abby reads and I will get things done around here or sometimes nap myself.

One Year Pictures Today

So today we took Addi Ruth and had her one year pictures made. My sweet friend Brandi with Three E Photography took them. I am excited to see what all we got from these. She is wearing a pettiskirt in some, a cute outfit with hat in some, and some are diaper cover/hat/cupcake/necklace. Yep they are going to be cute! We had a fun time today as she was in a good mood and loved it when we all clapped and got excited. Yep looks like she is going to be a ham. Now if she would just sit still it would make things a whole heck of a lot easier.

Sewing Class

OK so I took some pictures of the families taking my sewing class. Next week they will get to show you their first completed project. They began this week working on sewing straight stitches. With that comes fun tic-tac-toe boards. I forgot to take a picture of Abby and myself so I will post one next week. (I am in sweats today anyway with no make-up and you don't want to see that.)



This is one mom and daughter. They are having a blast and learning lots. They have a farm and this is their blog if you wanna see a cute baby goat go here now!Sweetland Farms



This is a mom, daughter, and son team that is also having lots of fun and learning lots. This is a brave mama taking on teaching both the kids at the same time. She is OK with that because she gets to learn the projects 3 times. Yes the mama's get to make their own tic-tac-toe boards if they so choose.

Last Day of Chemo for my Mother In Law

Today is the last day of chemo for my mother in law. Hopefully when we pick her up in a little bit she will feel like celebrating. If not we will save it for another day. Please pray for her continued treatment as she has to also have radiation. We are thankful the prognosis is a great one! Breast Cancer STINKS!

Funny Things From my 5 year old

We have a certain name for them but because this is a public blog I don't posts my girls names on here. So with that said, my middle child is very "shoot of the hip" funny. She always has something to say and I feel like I need to record some of her latest funnies.

During our sickness in December she finally got up after laying in bed for a day and a half and said, "My knees are dizzy." We just laughed at her b/c it was so funny.

This morning she got up and was getting ready for tryout for our spring ballet. She said, "I like to smile in my dance class because I like it but I think I am all out of smiles for the day."

An AWESOME Blog Post

I love this blog and her post for today. I am going to try it.

Women Living Well

Homeschooling: How is it going?

I get asked this A LOT! An my honest answer is that we are LOVING it. I will be honest with you. I couldn't have asked for it to be better than it is. Are there days I want to give up? Yep, sure there are and sometimes I do. Are there days I just don't want to do it? Yep, there are but we push through. I have to say that 95% of the time though we are having a blast. I LOVE having the girls home with me all the time. I love that the relationship as sisters has grown so close that they cry when the other one goes to spend the night away. I love most of all that they are learning about the love of Jesus from their parents and of course God's word. The biggest big for us around here is that I am teaching my 5 year old to read. HUGE FEAR of mine. I was afraid I was going to fail her.



We have also gone on some really cool field trips. The one above was at the zoo where we went behind the scenes. They showed us some neat animals and even let us pet them.

So I am excited about the rest of the year with the girls and next year also.

Our Special Day

I love the kid in the picture above. You see she is my oldest child and the one who made me a mommy. Saturday we had a special day together. She has saved her money and wanted to go shopping. So it is rare that she doesn't have dance on a Saturday and we took the day and off we went. Shopping first to Justice where she bought a jogging suit and jean jacket. Then we went to get her fitted for pre-pointe shoes. Yep you guessed it, they didn't have any to fit her. That is OK though b/c the shank will be removed out of a pair of pointe shoes we found. Then we went to see my best friend Stephanie and her new baby Spencer. He is such a sweet little thing. Abby and I left from there and had to go pick up her sisters. What a special day it was for the both of us. She is an amazing big sister and such a huge help to them and to me.

Tomorrow is a big day for her. Three years ago tomorrow she gave her life to Jesus. We will celebrate with cupcakes at small group. I will tell you she LOVES Jesus!

House Cleaning: Not My Strong Suit

OK so when it comes to cleaning house I am not that great at it. I really stink to be honest. I do it because it makes my husband happy to come home to a clean house and well it is part of my responsibility during the day. I have done a pretty good job staying on top of it since we moved. Well I was gone working for a week and the house looked like a bomb went off in it. YEP! It was a mess and I was overwhelmed. When I am overwhelmed I get paralyzed. So my sweet, dear friend Mandy at Controlled Chaos came to help me. It was no small task. She knows I HATE to clean the kitchen so she cleaned the kitchen and helped me finish the living room. Now I can have people over. Thanks girl! It means bunches to me!

Mother/Daughter Sewing Class

Tomorrow I will begin teaching a Mother/Daughter sewing class. I am "sew" excited about doing this class with my daughter. I have been wanting to teach her for sometime now and was talking with my friend Joann and she suggested that I let her and Caroline come also. So the class was born. On Friday from 1-2 or 3 depending on how long it takes us I will be teaching sewing to my daughter, Joann and her daughter, my friend Amber and her daughter. What fun memories we will make together and treasures to keep for a lifetime.

Trade Show = Exhausted

I have had the opportunity to have this amazing part time job where I work about every other month. It is a fun job because I work at the Mart in Atlanta and see all kinds of super cool things. So the past week I worked a show and it was a fun exhausting week. The week for me started Wednesday when I battled the snice (snow/ice) to get downtown and set up the wall. Thursday was spent putting the jewelry on the display so that others could buy it. I work for Pink House Imports and we sell beautiful jewelry made in Indonesia. It has really been the perfect job for me as a homeschooling mom.

Tackle It Tuesday

I am going to start doing this on Tuesdays b/c I like the idea. I am going to work on our laundry today. I am really bad about folding and putting our laundry away today. So today I am going to reorganize my closet, fold and put away all the clean laundry for our family. I will post before and after pictures later today when I complete the task.

Snow in a house full of girls...

In a house full of girls daddy's have to ride pink 4-wheelers..



He loves his girls and has embraced all things pink and girly.

No Snow Days....

Yep in this house we don't have snow days. That is the beauty of homeschooling is that we can save the day for when it is nice and warm outside. So instead my girls will be reading out of Matthew 7, memorizing Matthew 5:16, Reading about Nate Saints life (amazing man of God he is), studying the rain forest, and writing a paper on a spider monkey. Now all of that won't happen tomorrow but we will begin tomorrow. Oh and Anna will be working on her reading skills.

I am really not that mean. I will let them play in the snow and we will complete our school work in the breaks they take to get warm. Pictures of the snow fall to come!

All About Her...She is 1

I really can't believe that our baby is 1. She is such a fun little person and love bug. God knew what he was doing when he gave us her and blessed our family with her. As if I ever doubted his plan when it comes to her. She LOVES being a part of the girls schooling and plays with toys while we are reading out loud and even listens. Some more fun things about her.

She isn't real interested in walking, crawls all over the place though.
She loves to talk, squeal, and laugh.
Words she says, Abby, Dada, Mama, Thank you (more sounded), lily (our dog), bye bye, night night, and there are others.
She uses the signs for all done, more, please, eat, and thank you we are working on.
She also does her hand in front of her nose when you say "Shew wee!"
She has TONS of hair and it is hard to tame at times.
She doesn't meet a stranger.
Everyone LOVES her and loves to be around her when they meet her.
Dances all the time, if music is on she dances.
She loves her ball popper and if she is fussing we can turn that on and she will stop immediately and start dancing. That makes us all laugh.

Her sisters love her so much and spoil her rotten along with many others in her life.

Oh and she is my first child that I haven't insisted on having a sippy cup at 1. Yes she still takes a bottle. I gotta remember how to switch her over, I don't remember it being this hard.

The Baby Turned 1

Yes she turned one December 16th. I will post a good post all about her and her first year this week. She is such a blessing to our family and so much fun, can't wait to share more about her with you all.