Just when you think you have everything planned out for a minute and starting working towards making that plan reality. This time last week we were finishing up a vacation, talking to the kids about moving to Knoxville and putting that into motion to happen in 6-8 months. Today, all those plans have gone out the window. Yesterday, we found out that my grandpa has stage 4 throat cancer, and with that Daddy and I made the decision to not go anywhere. Honestly, after my grandpa is gone, it will be the rugrats that keep my grandma moving on. I can't take that away from her. Yet at the same time, I feel like we are throwing away a chance at complete and total happiness by not moving. I feel like our lives will be so much richer in a bigger city with more options at different things. But if we leave, I feel like we will have let our family down especially in this time of need. I am not sure exactly where this is going, just needing to get it out somewhere.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Friday, February 24, 2012
Vacation Wrap-Up
So we did it, we finally took a family vacation. Well it was a honeymoon, vacation, big ole field trip all rolled into one. We had a blast, the kids had a blast, and it was just nice to get away. Where did we go? We went to Knoxville. We wanted to take the kids there so they could see it, before we made that definite decision to move. It has been made we will be moved to Knoxville before the end of the year. It was so nice there, and in the week we were there, I met a fellow homeschooling mom and found out where all the cool homeschool kids hang out. Would you believe that it is at the library? :-)
My grandma drove up from Chattanooga for the day on Saturday and we went to the zoo. It was a nice zoo with a variety of animals. Jade loved all the animals and knew most of them by name and had to tell them hello and goodbye all the while never letting go of my grandma's hand. (I enjoyed watching my grandma more than the kids, because it was her first time going to a zoo. The kids were teaching her about the animals instead of the other way around, made me happy and proud)
Then we did a lot of site seeing, there is just a over abundance of stuff to do it that town. They have an awesome book store that sells used books (McKay's of Knoxville, or Chattanooga, or Nashville). I picked up a book full of 3rd grade worksheets for just 10 dollars. Plus a book of brain teasers for 3 dollars. We left with three bags of books and only paid 29 dollars. And most of those books came out of the free bin!!! Free is always awesome.
Next was a trip to the children's museum. Once again, this was a first time trip for Jade who was in love with the life size doll house and cried when it was time to leave. And when I mean cried, the poor thing cried the entire 20 mins it took us to get from the museum to the resturant for lunch. She was pitiful.
Noah and Abigail loved the zoo and the museum but the highlight of their trip was visiting Daddy's friends. Daddy's friends have kids that are around their ages and they were able to go just crazy and act like monkeys that had just escaped the zoo LOL
Daddy and I got a night to ourselves at Books A Million (we both had homework to do and the Wi-Fi at the hotel wasn't cutting it). So we did homework over a cup of coffee!
All in all it was a very productive and relaxing trip, noone wanted to come home when it was time. And we are counting down the days til we get to move there!
Until then, back to the day to day around here!!! WooHoo!!!
My grandma drove up from Chattanooga for the day on Saturday and we went to the zoo. It was a nice zoo with a variety of animals. Jade loved all the animals and knew most of them by name and had to tell them hello and goodbye all the while never letting go of my grandma's hand. (I enjoyed watching my grandma more than the kids, because it was her first time going to a zoo. The kids were teaching her about the animals instead of the other way around, made me happy and proud)
Then we did a lot of site seeing, there is just a over abundance of stuff to do it that town. They have an awesome book store that sells used books (McKay's of Knoxville, or Chattanooga, or Nashville). I picked up a book full of 3rd grade worksheets for just 10 dollars. Plus a book of brain teasers for 3 dollars. We left with three bags of books and only paid 29 dollars. And most of those books came out of the free bin!!! Free is always awesome.
Next was a trip to the children's museum. Once again, this was a first time trip for Jade who was in love with the life size doll house and cried when it was time to leave. And when I mean cried, the poor thing cried the entire 20 mins it took us to get from the museum to the resturant for lunch. She was pitiful.
Noah and Abigail loved the zoo and the museum but the highlight of their trip was visiting Daddy's friends. Daddy's friends have kids that are around their ages and they were able to go just crazy and act like monkeys that had just escaped the zoo LOL
Daddy and I got a night to ourselves at Books A Million (we both had homework to do and the Wi-Fi at the hotel wasn't cutting it). So we did homework over a cup of coffee!
All in all it was a very productive and relaxing trip, noone wanted to come home when it was time. And we are counting down the days til we get to move there!
Until then, back to the day to day around here!!! WooHoo!!!
Monday, February 13, 2012
Valentine's Day
Tomorrow marks another shopping manufactured holiday that everyone is going crazy over. For my family, tomorrow is just another day. We will eventually learn about the actual events surrounding Valentine's Day. Until then, we will probably have crafts and make valentines for the grandparents and maybe their Karate instructor.
So what about Daddy and I? Well we won't get anything special for each other, because our philosophy is we don't need just one day a year to show each other how much we love each other. We do little things through the year to show that. (Whether its him grabbing a cup of coffee for me, or me getting him a Reese's cup lol)
Right now the kids are more interested in when we are going to Knoxville and what we are going to do when we get there. Actually, that is all I am concerned about too. I need to get away from everything. We are taking our spring break from school early and I can't wait.
So what about Daddy and I? Well we won't get anything special for each other, because our philosophy is we don't need just one day a year to show each other how much we love each other. We do little things through the year to show that. (Whether its him grabbing a cup of coffee for me, or me getting him a Reese's cup lol)
Right now the kids are more interested in when we are going to Knoxville and what we are going to do when we get there. Actually, that is all I am concerned about too. I need to get away from everything. We are taking our spring break from school early and I can't wait.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Finding our groove...
It is funny to think that it took me almost a full year of homeschooling to figure out what to do with the kids. I have gotten slightly "lazy" the past couple of weeks and gave up the "formal" schooling approach. We have done school sitting on the couch in the living room with everyone else. We dropped workbooks and just focused on learning what was presented to us that day (we are currently using Connections Academy). Right now there is just so much going on for the kids to hold focus through workbooks, lessons and assessments. But I noticed that they enjoy sitting on the couch, with me and the laptop, we can pull up their textbooks online, so they get to read their stories and see the workbook problems in their math books. We can work on everything and be comfy.
While this works for us right now, it isn't going to be the normal (I don't think so anyways). I am hoping that we find a bigger house in the next couple of months and then we will have an actual formal classroom that isn't in the dining room, with the dining room being in the classroom. I have so many ideas for a classroom and how I want to teach them, but right now, we are so crammed in our little house, that its going to have to wait.
On a different note, right now, we are trying out a trial run of Readingeggs.com. I plan on giving a complete and total review of this in a couple of weeks once we have worked on it some. This is also going along with us planning a trip to Knoxville to see friends. I am working on a very productive itinerary for this too. There are so many things in the area that I want to take in while we are there. Oh did I mention that we are going as job/housing scouts. We are thinking about moving there. I can't wait to get there and enjoy it. I have heard such wonderful things about it. The kids are looking forward to it, they can't wait to go back to play with their friends that they have there.
Oh well, that's us at Largent Learning Academy today. lol
While this works for us right now, it isn't going to be the normal (I don't think so anyways). I am hoping that we find a bigger house in the next couple of months and then we will have an actual formal classroom that isn't in the dining room, with the dining room being in the classroom. I have so many ideas for a classroom and how I want to teach them, but right now, we are so crammed in our little house, that its going to have to wait.
On a different note, right now, we are trying out a trial run of Readingeggs.com. I plan on giving a complete and total review of this in a couple of weeks once we have worked on it some. This is also going along with us planning a trip to Knoxville to see friends. I am working on a very productive itinerary for this too. There are so many things in the area that I want to take in while we are there. Oh did I mention that we are going as job/housing scouts. We are thinking about moving there. I can't wait to get there and enjoy it. I have heard such wonderful things about it. The kids are looking forward to it, they can't wait to go back to play with their friends that they have there.
Oh well, that's us at Largent Learning Academy today. lol
Friday, February 3, 2012
Egypt Here We Come....
Today, I started researching our Egypt unit study for the summer (I can feel the warmth of summer already lol) And I am in amazement at the wealth of information on Egypt and the fun things that I have found in just an hour or so of playing around on Google. I have bookmarked several pages and will be putting together a lesson plan for it all. I am in the process of deciding if I should put it up here for all to see and use. I am a firm believer in sharing with everyone, so I might just share with ya'll :-)
Today, we have finally gotten all of our schoolwork caught up and are now back on track from where Daddy had surgery almost three weeks ago. Speaking of Daddy he is recovering very well and is completely back on his feet! We have also been talking about moving to a more homeschool accepting city and Knoxville keeps coming up. Does anyone live in Knoxville? How is the crowd there? I have never lived there, but Daddy did for a few years and loved it and misses it greatly.
Nothing else going on! Just a quick update!
Today, we have finally gotten all of our schoolwork caught up and are now back on track from where Daddy had surgery almost three weeks ago. Speaking of Daddy he is recovering very well and is completely back on his feet! We have also been talking about moving to a more homeschool accepting city and Knoxville keeps coming up. Does anyone live in Knoxville? How is the crowd there? I have never lived there, but Daddy did for a few years and loved it and misses it greatly.
Nothing else going on! Just a quick update!
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Life Lessons Turned into School Lessons!
This all started last night when a friend called and said "Hey let's go to the tanning bed!" Okay, I'm all for a few minutes of me time away from the kids (what mama isn't?) I didn't take the time remember that it had been almost 10 years since I had stepped into a tanning bed. So I jump in all lathered up in lotion and fall asleep for 15 mins. Great relaxing 15 mins, next time I'm taking my MP3 player with me lol
I felt great until 4 this morning when I rolled over and felt like I had been set on fire. Yep thats right, bright smart intelligent me, is tanning bed burnt.... crispy, like a tomato with hair lol
Now this morning, the kids wake up and start asking questions, like why i am sitting in the deep freezer (not literally) and why my face is so red. So I pull my shirt up and show them my stomach and back. My 8 year old looks at me and says "It wasn't hot yesterday, so why are you sunburnt?" Smart little booger he is. So I had to explain to them vanity (lol) lack of judgement and what a tanning bed really is. I think we are off to a great start this today, as long as I can get out of the freezer.
I felt great until 4 this morning when I rolled over and felt like I had been set on fire. Yep thats right, bright smart intelligent me, is tanning bed burnt.... crispy, like a tomato with hair lol
Now this morning, the kids wake up and start asking questions, like why i am sitting in the deep freezer (not literally) and why my face is so red. So I pull my shirt up and show them my stomach and back. My 8 year old looks at me and says "It wasn't hot yesterday, so why are you sunburnt?" Smart little booger he is. So I had to explain to them vanity (lol) lack of judgement and what a tanning bed really is. I think we are off to a great start this today, as long as I can get out of the freezer.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)