Week Ending 10/10/2020

 We've been schooling now for about 6 weeks and for almost 2 of those weeks I was sick (LOL) Issac didn't do much schooling on his own during that time which kind of aggravated me, but again what's a mom to do? (LOL) I can either be upset about it and try to make him make it all up or just reschedule and move on to an updated schedule. I've learned over the years and especially with Issac that when the routine changes forcing work to be make up just doesn't work. He'll get all out of wack and life becomes very unhappy for all of us. That being said we had a good week this week and got everything done that I had planned :)

We started a new co-op last month and we had high hopes for it to be a great fit. I might quite a few great ladies, ones that I'd enjoy doing a mom's night out with, but the classes just weren't a great fit for Issac. They were using the Stargazer's Guide from Masterbooks and wow it seemed to me it was for much older kids.I shared with some friends some of the reading material and they agreed with me. That being said I hadn't heard of any others struggling, so after many long conversations and prayers we decided to stop. Our previous co-op was not really geared on books, but more hands on learning I guess. That seemed to work really well for Issac. For now we just won't attend co-op, but am always keeping my options open :) Just being this year didn't work out for us doesn't mean next year might not. The ladies were great too, really tried to help us make it work, but ultimately I knew it would cause more anxiety for Issac if we continued, so we stopped. So thankful for choices and for those that understand and accept them from us :)

I've been busy reading. The last few months I haven't read that much. I guess it was all the outside work. Now I'm reading a ton and not doing any outside work, so I guess I need to learn a balance :) I'm currently doing a Romans Bible Study through Julie Naturally and I'm really enjoying that. I'll be posting a few review in the next few weeks. I've also got Issac working through the assessment section on aplustutorsoft.com.  I really like the adaptive part of the program because it finds those gaps that your child might have. Issac is currently in 8th grade and I put in his profile that he was in 4th grade. I figured he was around the 4th/5th level. So far most of his testing has come back about 3rd/4th level. We'll be working through the lessons it gives us to hopefully work through some of those problem areas. As usual we've been starting each day reading out loud and some days I think I enjoy it more than he does. I'll be posting soon about the books we've read aloud since we started school. 

Week Ending 5/23/2020

I hope you all have had an amazing week! We had a TON of rain this week and typically that makes most people stay home, but my husband and I seemed to be out every day (LOL) Haven't done any work in the yard and that is going to be a big negative when I weigh in on Monday (LOL) I guess if I hadn't been totally off the Weight Watchers wagon this week I wouldn't be so worried. Then again I didn't gain the wait overnight, so I just have to keep pushing forward :)


This rain has been amazing for most of the plants in our garden, but also for the weeds :( I imagine I'll be weeding for a few days this week :) I was super excited when I went outside and saw the first of the peas as well as the tomatoes. The onions are looking good as well. My green peppers don't look to me like they have grown much at all :( I did some research and saw a mix of water and Epson salt, so I tried that today. The area I planted most of my tomatoes and all my peppers in is not an area I'd usually use for gardening. I wanted to get a garden going asap when we moved, but I knew that clearing space wasn't top priority with all that my husband needed to do. I cleared two small spaces myself to the left and right of the front door. I figured if that's all I had at least I had something. Shortly after that my husband started working on a space for a garden because he felt it was a priority. We worked for weeks clearing the area, digging up roots and whatnot. We still have a small patch to finish, but I'm incredibly proud of us all for the hard work it took to clear those areas. The soil might not be amazing this year, but so far things are looking good. Here is a peak at some of what's growing here :)

Lettuce

Marigolds

Pineapple Sage

Another crop of radish plants

Onions

Collards

 Spinach

Peas

Tomatoes, Lettuce and Cucumber

More Tomatoes and the Green Peppers

I had pot cucumber seeds and started them last week, so we'd hopefully have plenty of cucumbers. This week we found some picking cucumbers at Lowes the other day, so we bought 3 containers. I love to make pickles and have never seen the pickling cucumbers before. I was able to clear a spot and get those planted today. I also planted more lettuce seeds a week or so ago in hopes that "maybe" depending on the heat we can have plenty of lettuce through the summer. I actually planted those in pots, so that I could move them around or even bring them inside :) I also started cauliflower and we'll see how that turns out. I've NEVER grown cauliflower and I think I was a little late starting it, but I figured it never hurts to try :) 

I had posted last week about all the "junk" I mean tile and bricks that we found in our yard (LOL) One of the things we are also finding are pieces of fencing as well as about a half dozen tomato cages. I'm going to try painting them with some spray paint we have sitting around and see if that jazzes them up a bit :) 

I'll be honest that my husband and I have run so much this week that Issac and I haven't done much school :( We've got several great review items we are working on and I can't wait to share our thoughts with you all! I hope you all have a great week. 

Week Ending 4/25/2020

I hope you all have had an amazing week!! The days seem to run together for me and I've heard many others say the same. If I didn't look at the computer or my phone I'm not sure I'd know where we were in the month (LOL) Well, actually recently I have known the days because my youngest talks to me every day about how many more days until his birthday (LOL) He'll be 13 on May 1st and he's so super excited! He's very upset that he can't spend it with friends, but he's excited for the gifts he hopes to receive :)

This week has been me trying to get school done, but not being as productive as I need us to be at this point. Our school year is quickly coming to an end, but with the move we are not where I'd like us to be at this stage. I plan to work some this summer, but my son always complains about that. I understand him wanting to just have his summer, but if we don't do some review back to school times are a struggle.  My daughter is also set to graduate on May 16th, but that is still up in the air at this time. She's taking a massage therapy class through the community college and that has been very hard with all the changes from the virus. They are doing bookwork online, but they are missing out on the hands on part which is really what she enjoys. It's difficult to understand all that is going on right now and even harder to explain it to the children.  I see lots of posts, mostly on Facebook, and sometimes I click like, rarely do I comment and more often I just scroll on by them. I may agree or disagree, but sometimes it gets to be too much. It's almost like that's all anyone talks about. Mentally I've been good through all this, but this past week has been a little struggle for me. I don't really know why, but it has. I think it's been a struggle for most of us at some point. I just pray for us all to be strong, stand up for what we think is right and continue to look out for our family and friends. 

We did get a good amount of work done outside this week. We burned several truckloads full of wood/plant debris that we had cut down. This property is so overgrown and the roots are so insane, but we are just continuing to push on through them.  We've got lots of things blooming, but I have to figure out what some are and what I want to keep :) I'll be glad when my mom can visit because she's great with gardening and can give me some ideas. 

Some of the fun things from the week are that we had a drive up visitor or I should say visitors (LOL) A family from the co-op we used to attend drove around and said hi to friends.  They brought cute signs and snacks too. Issac had a blast hanging out for a bit and I'll admit it did my heart wonders too :) My husband was pulling a tree through the yard and ripped up the internet line. This is the second time he's damaged the line (LOL) The first time he ran it over with the lawnmower ;) Spectrum was fantastic about it and was out in less than 2 hours. I hadn't expected service that quick, but was happy to receive it. One of our cats, Junie, kept trying to get in the technician's van (LOL) If he hadn't seen her she might have ended up at his next stop. These crazy cats keep me laughing daily :)

I hope that you are all safe and well. Hugging and kissing on those kiddos and checking in on your friends. If I can help in anyway please reach out to me! I can listen, pray, send chocolate etc :)

Week Ending 4/11/2020

I hope you all had a great week! I know that life seems crazy right now with the constant virus talk, but somehow I continue to feel that it's not affecting my family. I'm thankful that none of us are sick, but it seems like life just keeps going on each day. When I go out I see some wearing masks and others are not. Some seem to look at everyone as if they wonder if they are sick and others seem to go about their business. I'm still just trying to make it through each day (LOL) My goal is to get my Bible readings done, school with the youngest and some type of work done on the house. My life seems to be centered on not much else. I see so many people posting and offering help to others, doing more activities with their families, getting outside in their yards and it warms my heart. I hope at the end of the day we can all come out of this as better parents, friends, neighbors etc. 😁

This week I got almost all my little plants into the ground. Of course that night we had torrential rains that I didn't expect, but they all seemed to fair well. I still have some tomato plants that I started from seeds and I'm hoping they'll grow quick enough to provide me with plenty of tomatoes to freeze for sauce.  So far I planted peas, beans, tomatoes, squash, a few cucumbers, green peppers, Italian parsley, chives, rue and basil.  

Didn't do much reading this week.  It sounds crazy to say, but I just wasn't in the mood.  I did finish Follow Me by Sara Shepard and read Changing Roles, Changing Lives-Stories of Women During the Industrial Revolution.  Issac and I have had fun working on some new art programs, reading great history books and working on our math and language arts. We also finished The Winged Watchman I have lots of reviews coming up this week.  We've been working on Chinese Brush Painting, Beyond the Stick Figure Drawing, Time4Learning and much more. Can't wait to share my thoughts with you all. Have a great weekend and a blessed Easter!

Week Ending 4/4/2020

I hope that you all have had a great week and are enjoying your weekend. I for one will say that I'm trying to stay away from watching the news or reading about it. That may not seem smart because then I'm not so informed, but I honestly don't want to hear it. It just seems to be all negative and I want positivity in life ;) 

We've had a somewhat good week of school. School is kind of playing a backseat to working on stuff at the house, so I'm trying to be ok and happy with that for now.  We've been working on Time4learning which is a review item for us, so I'll be giving all my thoughts about that in a few weeks.  We have several other book and art items we are working on, so I think we are in for some fun in the next few weeks. 

Our local thrift was doing some online sales when they first started recommending we distance ourself. Several days they did 50% off before they shut down completely.  I saw a set of gold clubs that I thought might be great for my 12 year old. He's got a heart condition, so physical activitiy that he'd like to do is often limited. I figured if nothing else he could hit the ball around the yard. I got the set for $3!! Yesterday he had me outside hitting balls with him and told me I was his caddy! Yep, my son told me that so I responded with I expect to be tipped. He told me he's not Tiger Woods, so he can't tip me (LOL) This kid..... Today he and his dad threw the football, played pool and worked on a quad. Now my husband is riding the quad around and I'm thinking we might all be in trouble now ;)

** He caught me taking the picture (LOL) 

** I hope they aren't going to race the lawnmower against the quad! (LOL)

We are hoping to do more yardwork and gardening tomorrow. It's so nice seeing all the overgrowth cut down and see space. Makes me worry a little less about snakes. I'm hoping I don't see any or I might really quarantine myself inside.  

I hope you all have a great week!

March Update on Our Family

We have officially been in our home now since the beginning of February. The other day I posted March and my soon-to-be 13 year old quickly pointed out how wrong I was (LOL) There was so much work to be done on this house when we bought it and then circumstances arose with my husband that made getting the work done very, very slow.  We had been renting from our nephew and he had been so great to us as each month my husband said I should be done this month and he wasn't. Finally our nephew nicely said it's time to go and you know it was the right thing. Even with still having no kitchen sink here it feels like home.  The running back and forth before was very stressful.  At one point there were 3 of us sharing a car and when hubby wants to be at the other house, I need to run errands, the daughter needs to get to work it's stressful.


We had set down and made a list, room-by-room of what needed to be done, but guess what?? I lost the list (LOL) My husband has been doing stuff inside and I'm doing inside stuff, outside stuff, still trying to homeschool, etc.  Last week I suggested that we make one weekend day "family work outside day" and therefore we might be more productive if the four of us all tackle the same project.  This week was suppose to be finishing up the garden area to plant, but that didn't happen. We found a bed frame for our son and it took way longer to get, put together, etc.  We had already gotten our plants Thursday and after the heat we had Saturday they were looking a little rough Sunday. Since I didn't know when we'd be able to work on the garden area I decided to plant the veggies where I had cleaned out for flowers.  Are they where I wanted them? No, but they are in the ground and I won't worry about losing the plants.  We found a great nursery that is local and we'll probably hit her up for a few more things. The area they are planted is to the left and right of the front door and that's ok :) This house has lots of "weird" things about it and one is that they put a door into the dining room. That's the first door you see, so I don't expect many people to even go to the front door. Either way, right now I'm just happy to see my plants in the ground.  I had started radishes and lettuce from seeds, so those are in the ground along with tomatoes, green peppers and squash.  My peas that I started are ready to go in, but I need to figure out where they'll go now.  My husband worked on the garden area some last night, so I expect if I get out there this week I can plant anything else in the garden area in the next week or so.

This house is almost 6 acres, but of course lots of it's wooded. Priority has been fixing the inside and I've worked outside, but there is so much more to be done. Ideally I'd love a very large garden area, but that may be another year or so :) It's nice though sitting here typing while looking outside and knowing that we are home :)

We have a fairly large closet, but again the way they hung rods is a little weird. Down the road we might change it, but for now I'm just organizing the best I can. Hubby finally got around today to cutting two pieces of wood to sit on top of two of the rods. Now I'm able to store all the blankets and winter clothing in there neatly.  I also decided to go through all my clothing hanging up again even though I did it when I picked and unpacked. I also put all my hangers on backwards, so that I can see what items I'm truly wearing. I know I have stuff that I'll say when I lose weight or I love it and just didn't get around to wearing it this year. I'll probably get rid of anything not turned around that was spring/summer type clothing when winter hits this year and then do the winter stuff when summer hits. We'll see how that goes :)

We stopped attending the co-op we had attended for many years and then moved shortly after.  We also stopped ABA therapy at the same time. All of a sudden it seemed we had nowhere to go and nobody needing to come here. We could focus totally on school, the house, etc. Then all the virus stuff started and at first I was thinking it's a bunch of junk. As time went on I realized it almost seemed like we weren't even living the same life as others. My husband is disabled, all the stuff I mentioned had stopped, so the only thing still going on was that my daughter had to work. We've just been staying home, going to the store when needed, but just living this lifestyle that I almost feel will be hard to stop once things change.  I've lost track of time, days, etc. (LOL) Been reading lots of books, chilling with the family and just hanging out. I did get blocked from Instagram this past week and that was crazy! I posted pictures of items we got in the mail to review and Instagram didn't like something I wrote. It was a very long few days :)


I hope that you all are staying safe and trying to relax and just focus on family right now :) I think quite a bit about my mom as well as the kids/grandkids that are in Texas.  Everyone is happy and healthy and that's what we are focusing on for now :)

Week Ending 2-29-20

I had planned to post this last night, but when are moving you tend to lose track of time :) We purchased this house about 18 months ago and we knew it had tons of work to do. The same month we bought the house my husband was in a head on collision.  That accident gave him horrible headaches or what he called one never ending headache for over a year. He was basically suffering bad concussion symptoms for over a year. We finally got him some help and relief, but the house was put on hold pretty much. He's been working on it sense, but his memory has suffered from the accident, so he often forgets what he's working on, where his tools are, what he was doing etc. We have been renting from his nephew and he's been so very generous and patient with us. I found out the first week of February that we needed to be out at the end of the month. It wasn't my husband saying we need too, but it was we have to whether the house is ready or not. We have working hard this month and there is still is so much to do. I'm sitting in what will be the "office", but there is no floor and the walls aren't painted. That's the least of the problems here, but even looking around at all that still needs to be done it feels good to be here. We slept here Friday evening and I woke up yesterday morning and it just felt natural like we've been here forever. I'll be honest that I don't even have a stove yet and can't use the main bathroom or the Livingroom, but I'm still focusing on the good part that we are here and all together.

As well as the move this week I made a big decision that has weighed heavy on me for a while. We had started ABA Therapy back in August and I was hanging lost of hopes and dreams on this for our youngest. It started off a little unorganized, but I ignored that. A few months ago our ABA's supervisor left and things seemed to go downhill. The new supervisor came out once and even said we live too far for her to come weekly like the other one did. Almost daily our ABA looks at me and says she doesn't know what's going on with my son. I've told her well, that's why we started ABA because they told me you guys were the ones to figure it out. I had been told that we were approved for 1 year and could easily get a 2nd year if we needed it. I'll be honest when I heard that all I could think about was I don't want to go through this for 2 years. Today the decision was made to stop ABA. I will probably always wonder if we should have continued or if this was the right decision and I'll probably never know. After our therapist being out sick a few weeks ago and this week  off due to the move it just felt so good not having someone come 3 or 4 days a week. My son still struggles with the same things he did before we started ABA and I pray I can figure out how to help him and we can all work together. I've been told for so long that ABA is what he needed and if he'd had it younger things would be so different. I have no idea, but hope and pray the right decision was made :)

As for now I'm going to go read my book for a few minutes and just enjoy sitting in my new bedroom :) We cleaned the other house today and I think everyone is pretty beat. I hope you all have a blessed Sunday!

Week Ending 2/21/2020

Happy Saturday!! The last few weeks have been super busy and next week will be even busier! We are suppose to be moving at the end of the week and there is still so much to be done for us to move. We will be living there for quite some time with many projects still to finish, but at least we'll be in and no longer going back and forth. I was able to polyurethane our bedroom floor this week and today I got the walls painted. My husband was working on the kitchen tile when I left and I imagine he was going to have a long night ahead of him. One of the hardest parts of this situation has been how our youngest deals with it. I think he's scared to move because this is the only home he's really known. He doesn't seem to be able to communicate that therefore he calls the house stupid, says he doesn't want to move there, we are all mean to him etc. It makes for a stressful situation even harder. I did manage to finish up some books this week :)


The Network by L.C. Shaw




Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory





Where Courage Calls




Issac and have been reading several books in our schooling that we'll be reviewing soon as well. School right now is kind of hit or miss. We take it with us and he might get to work on it and he might not. At this point any reading that we do or anything he helps with at the house is all schooling in my mind :) Have a great week!

Week Ending 2/15/2020

This week has been hard, hectic, tiring and I'm glad it's over! We are suppose to be moving within the next two weeks and the house we are moving into still has much work to be done! Issac typically has ABA Therapy three days a week, but his therapist was sick this week. I felt bad for her, but it helped us by allowing us all to go to the other house each day to try and help my husband. Issac mostly played outside and tried to stay away from the work, but that is ok because he is struggling with the move. This is the only home he's known and the move has been so long coming that he has struggled with it all. I think once we are settled he'll be happy, but for now he's still struggling. I worked on unpacking any boxes that I could for the closets and just relooking through boxes of school stuff to see if I want to keep it all still :)


One thing that happened this week that was very hard was that our daughter had a car accident on the way home from class. Thankfully nobody was injured, her car was the only one involved, but her vehicle is totaled :( Right now that is not what we needed, but then again it never is for families. Her school schedule, her work schedule our schedule with the move etc. makes it hard to share a car. This is just one of those times to be thankful that she is fine and figure out how to move forward :)

                           

I didn't get hardly anytime to read this week, but did manage to finish a few books I had started.  I've been trying to work on my Goodreads list and working from those books I added when I first started using the site back in 2011. I love my library and that's about the only way I get books to read unless it's something I receive to review.  If my library doesn't have it I move on to the next book on the list. I guess I'll eventually take the books off my list that the library doesn't have because I struggle to pay full price for books not knowing if I'll even remotely like them (LOL) One of the books on my list was 30 Ways in 30 Days to Save Your Family I'm not exactly why I had this book on my list. When it arrived from the library I thought it said 30 ways to save $30!! (LOL) I skimmed this book and decided I didn't have any interest in reading it, so put it back in the library bad and removed it from my Goodreads pile. I've gotten to a point in my life where I'm not going to push through a book if I'm just not getting some type of joy from it.  I did push through Caleb's Crossing and am not sure I'm glad if I did or not. There was something about the book that kept me reading, but in the end I wasn't a huge fan of it.  I also finished Defeating the Child Obesity Epidemic and felt that was a good book. Our kids aren't as active as they could be and especially when you have a child that deals with any special needs they often seem to struggle with weight even more. I finally finished The Shack and found it interesting to hear what everyone else had thought about it. I had forgotten there was lots of controversy surrounding this book when it first came out.  I also received two NEW books in the mail this week to read and review.  daring to live and Praying Women Both looks to be great books and I've excited to read them. I have several books that need to be read and reviews written, but I also got such a huge pile from that library that I'm struggling to read them all. I guess there could be worse problems in my world ;)

                                                                       

Week Ending 1-25-2020

I have to admit that I'm very thankful this week is over. Some weeks go by so smoothly and others just don't (LOL) I think this week was extra long because we were without internet.  I'm like everyone else and miss internet when it's out, but this week it affected our schooling. That's when it frustrates me more than anything :( My daughter wasn't able to do her English and my son struggled with his Math because of it. Thankfully they were able to finally get here Friday and we were quickly back in business ;) As for me dealing with no internet I did what I do best.  I worked on my library pile (LOL) I've had a book sitting in my pile since before Christmas that a friend lent me. For some reason I thought it was one of those books I really needed to "focus" on when reading and therefore I kept putting it off (LOL) I picked it up this week and it was AMAZING!! I highly recommend Educated by Tara Westover to everyone. I'm even going to try and convince my daughter to read it! It's truly an amazing story and touched me personally as we homeschool.  I also started and finished Jigsaw by Ted Miller Brogden.  I struggled a bit in the early parts of this book, but the description on the back kept pulling me back in to the book. I'm glad that I pushed through and read it because I did enjoy the story.  I also checked out some great recipes in Skinny Italian by Teresa Giudice. She's got some really good recipes in there and lots of tips about whether you should use fresh or dry herbs.  Last but not least I started The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie I LOVED Little House as a girl and I have to admit even now still enjoy the books. As hard as I tried my daughter had NO interest in them and it broke my heart :( Maybe one day I'll be able to read them with my grandchildren and they'll have the same interest I always have had.

I had big plans for today in cleaning, laundry, etc. I went to the library and then came home and got caught up in all the new books that I picked out.  I did manage two loads of laundry, but that's about it. Sometimes you just need coffee and a good book to get over the rough week.