A Shameless Plug and other things

First the shameless plug. My husband wants some blog followers. Not that I have many, but if anyone reads this.... :) His blog is www.robertcblake.blogspot.com
He's going to be reviewing books for Crossways I think thats the name.

Second:
We started school today...our FIFTH first day of homeschooling. Hard to believe. Anyway, it was AWESOME! I'm not sure I've EVER used that word to describe a first day of school. But it WAS! Branche was compliant (never happens...he's 13), Roger was a busy body, but stayed in the general vicinity of his seat (which rarely happens...he's ADHD)and knew all the answers (that's not new), and Carter....my sweet sweet boy who is 9 years old and has what they refer to as "Austistic Spectrum Disorder" (they say, no, he's not autistic but insurance still won't cover him because the A word is in his diagnosis)...but Carter today did incredible. His handwriting has improved for lack of use???? How does that work??? I DON'T KNOW! But it did! He only ever writes under duress. Today, when it came to handwriting all of a sudden....he did great. Unbelievable! Then, we did science and the worksheets are always a struggle because there's writing! So, I usually just write. Today, I asked the question, they said the answer, I SPElled the answer and they BOTH WROTE IT! Beautifully!! woot! I was amazed. AND on top of that, Carter wrote "food" faster than I spelled it which means the phonics are kicking in! YAY! Just some praising going on here, that's all! It was amazing! Ok. 'nuff a that! Hope your school dayz went as well! :) Keep on prayin' for tomorrow!

excited

The kids and I are on the brink of beginning our 5th year homeschooling. That is so hard for me to believe. For five years, we have spent hours together reading awesome stories, learning tons of stuff and enjoying getting to know each other. No, not every moment is comment worthy, and yes, there have been lots of moments we'd all just as soon forget. But ya know, every family has moments that are less than fabulous. Every family has those times they'd just as soon forget. Homeschooling doesn't change that...it just gives more opportunities for moments of all kinds! Anyway, I'm excited because BOX DAY is impending once again! Once again, I'll be starting two new cores and reading lots of books (some new to me, some not...ALL new to te kids!!). We have hard work ahead of us...two kids REALLY need to get serious about learning to read for themselves....one is gonna be starting pre-Algebra and I want to cry ;) but....this should be another interesting year. I would like to say as well, that as the years go by I become more and more enamored of our curriculum company. We have used Sonlight all these years. I've added other stuff in but Sonlight has been the backbone of our homeschooling years. They are the MOST awesome homeschool company on the market. Had we chosen any other curriculum to begin with we would have been up a creek the past two years. We have not had the upfront big chunk of money necessary to buy curriculum. Do you know what Sonlight does??? They have payment plans! Yahoo! That we can do! Last year we did the plan where you pay 1/4 down and then make 3 more payments. It was awesome. Now, these payments go on your debit/credit card. If we had enough space on our credit card to just pay we would've, but no....we were irresponsible w/that card a few yrs ago and are still paying it off. Anyway, what it allowed us to do, was to pay the right amount off to have space every 30 days! LOL! Well, two days ago(I think) we went on the Sonlight sight and I was making my "Wish Cart"...you know, everything I'd order if money was no issue....and went to see how much the 1/4 payments would be and discovered they had a 6 month payment plan. Even better. Can you believe there was not even a FEE for this service???? Unbelievable! It's like they CARE!!!! ha. They do. They care a lot. They give so much money away to awesome charity causes...it's incredible. Read about them. Anyway, it's awesome. (If you are interested, I think the six month plan is temporary only til this Monday...so hurry)...but man....I love that company. My coffee cup is empty so I must be done. Have a blessed day and let God's love show thru you and all you do! :)

Yee-haw!!

Well, we made it through the first two days of school!!! YEA! It's really unbelievable. This is our 3rd year homeschooling. Branche is now a 6th grader...eeek! You just don't know how thankful I am that I do not have to even contemplate what this year would hold if he was still in public school. I shudder to think!!! Truly!!! I am so thankful to God that he MADE me homeschool my boys!!! Our first two days have been fantastic in a couple ways and predictably hard in others. First, the hard way...Carter. Being "on the autistic spectrum" he's my special challenge. Mostly he's my special sweetie....in school however, he's not always so sweet! He's spent a LOT of time screaming, but hey....it's truly just the change. He does NOT deal with upheaval and scedual changes well. So, the first week or so will just be torture!!! I know it'll get better. Now, the good stuff!!! Branche was my real challenge the past two years, being that he did NOT want to be homeschooled, hated math, and language arts. THIS year, I made some changes....we discovered "Teaching Textbooks" math program...done on the computer, he LOVES it!!! I don't even have to grade his math...it's on the computer, so it's automatic!!! yahoo! Also, I switched the language arts program to "The Latin Road to English Grammar". Yahoo! He hasn't even gotten mad or yelled about it or asked to skip it! WoohOO! ALSO!!! He loves the new art program I got him, it came with a cool backpack full of supplies...he's in LOVE! ALSO, I love Sonlight...he's so excited about the new books we get to read this year. We're studying the Eastsern Hemisphere and the 10/40 window. Really cool, considering this is the part of the world about which I know the least! Also there's this notebook thingy they invented called "THe Eastern Hemisphere Explorer" . It's directed research that he does primarily with the World Book encyclopedia CDs. WHich by the way, I HIGHLY recommend!!He absolutely loves it. I thought he was gonna complain endlessly about it because every week you pick a special project to work on as well as your normal research stuff....so it seems like "extra" work. That's his favorite part so far!! LOL!!!! MAn, I'm lovin' it this year! I know, I know, we're two days into it. But trust me....it's not always this good even or especially the first week!!! I kid you not!!! My first week of homeschooling ever was a real ordeal. I had a headache every day by lunch. I cried evey afternoon. I just wanted to call the public school and say "Hey, I made a mistake...my religious beliefs definitely include giving you my kids for 12 or 13 yrs.!!!" Ha. Anyway, that's gone. That was for those who may be considering homeschooling or have started it and it hurts.....it'll get better. It would be hard for your first experience to be worse than mine!! HA! ANyway, I need to go to sleep...I'm worn out from all the excitement! HA! J

Finally...

Well, it sure has taken me awhile to get back on here a post again. Being a homeschool family of 5 does take time! My father is currently building a corner cabinet for me (my Christmas present). He's building it here, so having Papa here on a regular basis is making concentration on school hard for the boys! But, despite that, we've actually had one of our most productive weeks in a long time school-wise! My back is very painful, so bending over is like not gonna happen--but I am even doing a fair job keeping up with laundry this week. The new washer and dryer have made a world of difference in my work load. It's shocking what a difference it's made. Not having to wait two days for each load to dry on the line...being able to do half as many loads because the machine is so huge...it's great!!! I highly recommend the Whirlpool (top-loading not front load) Cabrio for anyone who has lots of laundry (big families!). We got the washer and dryer and they are AWESOME!! I used to have to do a load every single day without fail to not get behind, but the problem was, with no dryer the clothes weren't always dry in time (once the weather was cold or if it rained). Now, I can do like 2 or three loads a week and be done! It's truly amazing! Anyway, as some of you may be aware, we are in the process of filling out our formal application for adopting a kid (or kids) from Ukraine. Our initial application was approved, we went to the orientation/info meeting and now the hard work begins! this application requires much introspection, self-evaluation etc. so it is really taking some time to accomplish. Keep us in your prayers in that respect. Also, Rob has started searching for a church. He graduates this spring with a BS in religion from Liberty University, will continue his education there by pursuing a master's degree, but he (we) feel that now is the time to begin the search. We're ready to roll. Prayers also requested for that!!!
The hoards are awaking and are apparently starving...must go! J