Sundays

We have three children who share the same birthday month, which happens to be this month (October).  Two are sons and one is our only daughter.  When they were younger and we lived in North Carolina still, we would rent the local rollerskating rink and have a huge party.  The nice thing about that was we could invite a lot of people without it costing a lot of money - beyond renting the rink, getting the cake and things.

Now they are older (my youngest just turned 12) and we live about 12 hours away from our immediate family.  So we have to try different things.  This year we will be attending church this morning as we always do.  Then we will be having friends over for dinner.  To me there is nothing like spending a Sunday afternoon with family and/or friends.  

I really enjoy cooking, so this gives me a chance to do this for more than just my own immediate family.  Today we are having Bar-b-Que Pork that I am fixing in my Ninja cooking system (I love this machine).  Plus we are going to have ribs cooked on the grill.  We will have a salad, vegetables and some type of potatoes.  Actually I think I am going to have my oldest son and his father make their special oven baked bacon cheesy potatoes.  This is their new creation and it is fantastic!  

So what are you doing special today?  What are you having for dinner?  I look forward to reading what you share!

Pens, Pens and More Pens - I love office supplies Part 2

So as I shared yesterday, I love Planners.  I love everything to do with keeping my family's schedule.  I recently learned about the world of decorating planner pages.  And the possibilities are endless.  But today, I want to concentrate on one of the most important parts of a planner - what to use to write in it.

You study stores with great enthusiasm either online or in person.  You study every planner you see (be it one that belongs to a friend or a stranger).  Then you find the perfect one and you buy it.  You get it home or to your office/place of employment and you open it up.  You are ready to input your life into this wonderful purchase.  But what to use?  You must use the right pen or you will wind up with bleed mark through the pages or smears, or other tragedies from using the wrong writing tool.

Just like I love planners, I also LOVE pens!  I am a pen collector.  When I get a good one, I tend to become very possessive.  The one person who may get me to part with a favorite one is either my mom or my husband.  Although I typically keep mine and just buy them one of their own.  So right now I have some really favorite ones (some are thanks to some wonderful people I have never met other than online).  But their recommendations have been fantastic.

1)  Many years ago, I ran across Pilot Frixion pens and highlighters.  I sort of walked away from them because the original ones seemed to leave something to be desired.  However, after reading so many people talking about how wonderful these pens are, I decided to buy some and try them for myself.  So far I have to say I love them.  One of the things I love the most is that they are erasable, which gains high praise from me.  After all who wants a bunch of scribbles or white out in their planner.

2)  Pilot Precise grip pens are another one of my favorites.  They write smoothly.  the colors are vibrant.  All in all I have to give them high marks.

3)  Pilot G2 pens are another one I really like.  These pens have bright colors and a lot of choices.  They are ones I have used for a number of years.

4)  Papermate Inkjoy pens are one of my newer favorites.  These pens write really well, don't bleed and just look good.

5)  One of my new favorites that I found thanks to some awesome fellow Online Bible Studies ladies are the Foray brand pens from Office Depot.  Now I am not sure I ended up with exactly the ones they meant, but I still love them.  I got two different sets: one are the rollerball pens (I do have one complaint about these - the red one in the particular set I got has a lid that will not stay on - so that does not really make me too happy.  After all who wants a pen that has a cap that randomly shoots off the pen like a projectile).  But I have to say I love the  color choices and the way they write.

The second set I got are the Advanced Ink ballpoint pens.  These are one of my "go-to" pens now.  There is an awesome color selection in the set I got.  They have a rather fine point so they are perfect for writing things in small places (Like a planner can have at times).   The ink seems to be really vibrant.

So these are my five favorite types of pens.  What is your favorite type of pen?  Also what is your favorite Office/School supply?  Share with me!

Today Is Dictionary Day

So today is Dictionary Day in honor of Noah Webster's birthday.  He was born October 16, 1758 and is considered the Father of the American Dictionary.  We happen to have the Noah Webster 1828 dictionary in our home for our homeschool.  I love this dictionary.  It has a beautiful cover.  I love words and love to read them in books.  I want my children to develop a love of words.

Words have a tremendous amount of power and can be such wonderful ways to communicate both ideas and beauty.  In our homeschool, I try to develop a genuine love and appreciation for learning.  Words play a big part in that for our family.  The bigger and richer someone's vocabulary is, the better they will be able to communicate.  I know regardless of what my children choose to do in the future, they will need to use and understand words.  I love to see them learn more words and use them in their vocabulary.

Several years ago, we were attending a special Christmas church service at the Jeanette Assembly of God Church in Jeanette, PA.  As part of the service, the pastor handed out verses to various members of the congregation to read.  My older two were given verses.  My second son came to me because he was unsure of a word.  The word was "zealous".  So we had a discussion about what the word meant.  He then owned the word and he used it with great enthusiasm.  The following year when the pastor passed out the verses, you can believe my second son made sure he got the verse with zealous in it.

He can be quite zealous about things that interest him.  He puts his whole heart into things that fascinate him.  But like all of us, when it is something he does not care for or want to do, there is no zeal to be found.  

Each one of my children are unique.  Each one of them has gifts and talents that God gave them.  I expect them to use our dictionary to enrich their vocabulary, which in turn enriches their speech and their writing.  So happy dictionary day to you all!

Cleaning and Organizing After Moving

One of the fun things about moving is getting to organize everything.  Also, it is an opportunity to clean everything and figure out what to keep and what to get rid of.  So back during the summer, we moved into our current home.  Now this was a local move for us.  We moved from one house to another about 10 miles away.  Due to circumstances, it has taken us a while to get around to working on unpacking and organizing everything.

With my husband being military, he gets all the federal holidays off.  So he has off today for Columbus Day.  We are taking advantage of the day off to work on unpacking and organizing.  As a homeschooling family, we have a lot of books (and I do mean a lot).  Which means we have to have lots of shelves to put them on.  So we are working to get them straightened up.  As our children grow up. some books just need to pass from our hands into other hands.  As much as I would love to be able to keep all the books we have, it is not practical.  So we are in a season of passing things on to others.  My daughter is now considered middle school/junior high, so the elementary books need to go.  How about you, do you have things that you need to either clean, organize or perhaps purge?  If so, I would love to hear from you.  #blogboost

WHAT WE USE FOR OUR HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM

So yesterday I talked about what a day in our life looks like.  Today I want to talk about what we actually use for our homeschool curriculum.  Then tomorrow I will be talking about how I actually choose curriculum.

We have four children:  three sons and a daughter and they are all individuals and are all different.  What works for one child doesn't always work for another child.  Or even sometimes, what works one year for one child doesn't work the following year.

Our oldest son is 18.  This son has had numerous health issues for the past 9 years.  It affected every area of his life and especially his ability to complete schoolwork.  So this summer we evaluated where he was and where he wanted to go.  We agreed that it was best for him to complete another year of homeschool.  So this year all of his curriculum is online.  He is the only child that is using one curriculum for all subjects.  For him, we are using Alpha Omega's Monarch Online curriculum.  I love the flexibility of this program in scheduling assignments.  Also, it is almost completely self grading.  It calculates grades, keep track of days school is completed and such.  While no curriculum is perfect, it does work well at the point we are right now.

Our second son would be considered 10th grade if he was in public school.  This year, he is doing Bible, Math, English, Science, History, Latin and electives.

Our third son would be considered 9th grade in public school.  He does Bible, Math, English, Science, History, Latin and Electives.

Our daughter would be considered a 7th grader by public school standards.  She is doing Bible, English, Math, Science, History, and Electives.

So now to get into more specifics starting with our 2nd son:

Bible:  He uses a variety of items including some of his Dad's resources from his Ministry.

English:  180 Daily Grammar Lessons by Easy Grammar, IEW's Student Writing Intensive Continuation Course; Excellence in Literature's Introduction to Literature; English from the Roots Up; Phonetic Zoo for Spelling

History:  He began the year doing Notgrass' Exploring Government and has now competed that and moved into HSLDA's Generation Joshua's ICitizen course for Civics

Science:  Friendly Chemistry

First Form Latin

Music activities - he pretty much works on what he chooses for this including practicing singing, practicing instruments and working on music theory

Introduction to Criminal Justice

Forensic Science course with Lab

and some electives on Monarch

Son numer 3:
Bible:  He is basically expected to keep up with daily Bible reading.  We are getting ready to jump back into our Advanced Training Institute Wisdom Books, which will help give this more structure.  And the whole family does this.

Math:  Videotext Interactive Online for Algebra

History:  Completed Mystery of History Volume I and now is getting ready to probably start Mystery of History Volume III, but I have to decide what I want him to do.

Science:  Apologia's Exploring Creation with Biology

English:  Daily Grams by Easy Grammar, IEW's Student Writing Intensive Continuation Course; Excellence in Literature's Introduction to Literature; English from the Roots Up; Phonetic Zoo for Spelling

First Form Latin

Practices keyboard

Does Electives through Monarch Online.  He is doing 2 now and will do 2 more in the spring.  

Daughter:

Bible:  Does daily Bible reading and will be resuming the ATI Wisdom Books

Math:  Life of Fred:  Currently has completed Pre-Algebra I and is working on Pre-Algebra II and then will move into Beginning Algebra

English:  Daily Grams, IEW's Student Writing Intensive Continuation Course;  English from the Roots Up; Phonetic Zoo for Spelling

History:  Completed Mystery of History Volume 1 and is now doing History on Monarch Online.

Science:  Doing Science on Monarch Online

Latin: Latina Christiana 

Electives:  On Monarch including American Literature and a couple of others. 

All of the children are expected to do some activities related to art throughout the year.

So that is what we are using this year.  If you homeschool, let us know what you are using this year.  We welcome your comments.

A Day in Our Life as Homeschoolers

So it is Friday and it is also day 10 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge.  Today I want to talk a little more about homeschooling and how how our day goes.  My husband is usually the first one up because he typically leaves around 7:30 in the morning to go to work.  He likes to start his day off by reading his Bible.  So typically he gets up between 6 and 6:30.  Then at almost exactly 7:02 every morning, our daughter bounds into our bedroom to begin her homeschool day.  She works in our room at my desk, which makes life easier - she can show me her work as she completes it.  Plus she doesn't (or should I say I don't) have to lug the books all over the house.  She finishes these subjects and then assumes her duty as the town crier (AKA - the walking, talking, screaming alarm clock) going around to the boys' bedrooms to tell them it is time to get up.  Sometimes the boys do well with this and other times laziness sets in for a while.  She then proceeds downstairs to eat breakfast.  

After eating breakfast, she heads to her bedroom where she does her subjects on her computer.  As she goes to her room, she typically reminds the boys that it is time to get up.  All three boys work in their bedrooms.  Our youngest son will come show me his work as he completes it.  The older two tend to forget this step.  My oldest son does all of his work on the computer.  My second son has a mix of books, workbooks and subjects he does on the computer.  Starting around 12 Noon everyone begins their lunch time routine.  Once lunch is over the younger two typically have recess outside for 30 minutes while the older two have some time to do things they want to do.  Around 1:30 everyone is back to work.  They continue working until they are either finished or Dad gets home from work.  Dad typically gets home anywhere between 3:45 and 4:45 depending on the day.

At 4:30 everyone is supposed to be on the first floor to help with dinner detail.  Some will set the table.  Some may empty the dishwasher.  Still others help Dad or I prepare the meal.  But everyone is supposed to be roughly together.  Once dinner is ready, we all sit down at the table and eat together.  Some of our dinner conversations are quite fascinating while others lend themselves to the disgusting side of life.  We may discuss things they learned about that day or we may talk about things they are simply interested in - it all depends on the day.  After dinner, the four children are tasked with cleaning up the kitchen.  Once that is done, everyone basically has free time.  Sometimes sone of them play games.  Sometimes we may watch a movie.  Other times we have evening activities planned such as church or shopping or other things that need to be done.

Anywhere from 9:30, if it is a school night, to 11 pm is bedtime.  Then the next day we start it all over again.  So I hope you enjoyed taking a peak inside our day.

Never liked English in School So How Did I Get Here?

Alright I need to be honest about something.  All through school English was never my favorite subject.  Oh, for the most part I adored reading (I am a bookaholic), but the rest of it including literature analyses and such I did not necessarily find fun, exciting or interesting.  Initially I went to school to become a teacher, but allowed some well meaning people and a few not so well meaning people to convince me I was on the wrong path.  So I switched majors and colleges to pursue a degree in Business Administration.  This was not my "best yes" by any means.

I graduated from college and despite attending numerous job fairs and interviews through the university,  I did not find a job.  Then I decided to stay in school to complete the courses I needed to get an accounting degree.  After all there would always be a need for accountants.  That first summer, I ended up getting the worst sunburn of my life along with falling through a dock and hurting my knee.  So I ended up not doing well in the courses.  I decided to withdraw.  And because of some other things going on I ended up moving to Jacksonville, NC to live with my finance's sister.  The following August we ended up getting married.

Four years later we had our first son.  Then we had two more sons and while I was working at an Insurance agency as the office manager and enjoyed my job, it was time for a change.  So I interviewed for and accepted a job as a high school math teacher.  I did what is called Lateral-Entry - it means you already have a degree and courses you need to get certified in a particular area and basically just have the education course requirements left.  I worked at the school for two years, the third son was born during that second year.  My husband and I decided it was best for me to pursue being a substitute teacher since we had health insurance through his job.

Two years later we found out we were expecting our daughter and it was in our best interest for me to quit working.  Two years after she was born, my husband went active duty in the Army Reserves and we moved on the military installation.  At that point, I decided to go back to school to finish my education requirements.  During this time, I had a wonderful instructor for one of my courses.  She was an amazing woman.  She was teaching another one of the courses I needed, but it was on the Masters Level.  She offered the opportunity for several of us who already had degrees and were in the current course with her the opportunity to take this Masters Level class.  What an amazing journey it was too!  The entire class revolved around nothing less than writing papers for the entire course and having meaningful discussions about what we learned.  This gave me a passion for writing.

During this time, my husband also went back to school and I had to proofread all his papers for him and much to my amazement I enjoyed it.  I enjoyed taking apart and putting back together theses masterpieces.  And they must have been masterpieces because he wound up with "A's" in the majority of his courses.

I also was homeschooling my children - which you guessed it, involved me teaching English.  So when we moved from eastern NC to western PA it only seemed fitting to begin a blog.  I enjoyed writing this.  I enjoyed writing about our experiences, our dreams, our thoughts and just the general thoughts that came to mind.  So even though I never liked English in school, I am enjoying it now.

Determining my Best Yes!

Right now I am involved in several things simultaneously for different things.  One thing I am involved is the Ultimate Blog Challenge.  My goal is to do one new post for 31 days.  This is day 3 of the challenge.  I am also involved in Proverbs 31 Ministries Online Bible Study for The Best Yes: Making Wise Decisions in the Midst of Endless Demands by Lysa Terkeurst.  This book is all about determining what our "Best Yes" is.  We are just completing week 2 of the study and have finished the first 6 chapters of the book.  And I have to say I love this book.  Lysa has the ability to make me laugh, cry and even relate to everything she is saying.  I stop and think.  She causes me to want to dive deeper into the study and into God's Word to determine what I really should be doing and how I should be living.
A third thing I am doing is a prayer challenge for my husband along with Darlene Schacht.  I have only just begun this challenge, but I love the idea of praying for my husband.  This challenge is in celebration of the release of her new book, Messy Beautiful Life:  Hope and Redemption for Real-Life Marriages.  When I signed up for the challenge, Darlene sent some wonderful freebies to help with the challenge including a study guide and a beautiful set of prayer cards.  I am still in the midst of getting them printed out and set up the way I want them.

If all that were not enough, we of course still have homeschooling.  I still have to feed the family.  I still have to clean the house and do laundry.  So there is a lot on my plate.  A little more than a year ago, I started a website about our family, but have not devoted the time and resources to it that I wanted to so that is one of my goals to complete.  

Also, I walked into saying my best yes and that resulted in me starting a new group on Facebook.  So I have been working on that including starting to create original content yesterday.  I need to create guidelines and welcome documents along with a Member list for the group as well.  But I am so excited for the challenge.  Not to mention, the ladies that have joined the group seem to be really exciting.  So that is what a typical day in my life entails.

Life of a Mom of 4 - Day 2 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge

So I am participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge and today I want to talk about life for me as the mom of 4.  I am a wife and a mother.  I also homeschool our 4 children.  Obviously I have held the title of wife longer than mother or homeschooler.  Life is never dull being the wife of a military service member, nor is it dull with 4 children in the house.

Our oldest turned 18 back in June.  He has been our interesting child.  Since the day he was born, he has never let us have a dull moment.  From breaking our crib to driving our van into a fence at 4 years old (although our 2nd son was his cohort in crime for that little excursion).  He keeps life exciting.  He is the protector of his little sister and achieved the rank of Eagle Scout.  He is the reason we got into homeschooling in the first place.  At 18 he still gives me tons of hugs and kisses along with saying he loves me.  He even does this in front of his friends (much to the friends' dismay and the friends' mothers disappointment that their sons don't).

Then along came number 2.  He's my one that arrived in the world before nurses or doctor were ready - or even the aunt who was my coach.  He  has a smile that lights up a room.  Although he quietly goes around stirring up trouble and leaving excitement in his wake.  I quickly learned to find him when things happened at our house.  This was also the child that at 2 years old assisted in the great minivan fence fiasco.  He is also an Eagle Scout and was the youngest scout in our troop at that time to have earned the rank.  He sets goals and achieves them!  He and his older brother earned their ranks of Eagle Scout on the same day and we had one fantastic Eagle ceremony, where their younger brother served as Master of Ceremonies.

Then came number 3 who took anything we might have thought we learned from 1 and 2 and made us throw it out the window.  This child had no fear - I repeat no fear!  He would jump into pools even if mom and dad were on the other side of the pool.  Because he knew we would race to the other side to get him.  At Busch Gardens Williamsburg, he went up and down the ropes area for kids and race down the slides only to jump up and race back to the top - sure that Daddy would catch back up with him before he reached the point where the attendants might make him stop.  And this was all because Mom couldn't keep up seeing how she was about 7 months pregnant at the time.  He's had the most stitches of our children- approximately 7 sets with the majority being in his head within a one year period.  We quickly discovered the only thing wrong was motor skill issues.  Fortunately we were able to take him to an amazing physical therapy office in NC. He was the only one to fracture a bone and other adventures as well.

Then along came his cohort in crime.  They are the dynamic duo and the Bobbsey Twins and quite a few other things rolled in one.  Our little girl quietly entered the scene and took everything in.  She moved with stealthiness that is hard to come by.  She is defended by her three big brothers.  She grew up with three brothers plus being surrounded by loads of boys thanks to Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts.  She has no fear either.  Anything the boys can do, I assure you she will say she can do better.  She is my little doll.  She is my sunshine.  

So needless to say, my life is never boring they keep me on my toes and I love every minute of it.  Often people tell me, "Oh I couldn't homeschool my children".  Well I say don't say you will never do something, because God has an amazing sense of humor.  So you might be surprised what you find yourself doing.  And #blogboost - 2 days down and 29 days to go!