Thankful November Part II

Day 7- I am thankful for the beautiful country side! Living in the desert has helped me to really, truly, appreciate the beauty of God's creation. When we go back to visit family on the west side of the state, the color of the trees and shrubs just ignites a color showcase in your eyes! It is so lush, so green, so beautiful! The fall is my most favorite time to witness this color showcase...red, orange, green, yellow. It's magnificent. The drive to the west side is also beautiful when the too extremes collide. You have color sprinkled around the desert landscape. Trees start to slowly fill in the barren land. The farther you go, the lusher it becomes...

 

Day 8- I am thankful for Lincoln's first baseball game. He enjoyed himself so much this summer! I think it was from all the games he attended of his brothers. He really seemed to like it! It was one of the first nights that it wasn't 90° at 9pm at night. It was a very pleasant evening. The kids enjoyed themselves...they ran the field during the 7th inning stretch and were rewarded with free pizza coupons from Pizza Hut...that was the highlight of their evening. :) So here we are at Mr. Linc's first Dust Devils game. 

 Day 9- I am thankful for the Dust Devils! We were able to spend the afternoon watching one of their practices earlier this year. A few of the players were having batting practice when Gabriel asked if we could come in a watch. They said, "Sure, don't see why not!" They were kind and talkative to the kids. The coaches were very nice...there were even coaches from the Colorado Rockies there looking at the players to see which they should pull up to the majors! (THe Dust Devils are a Rockies farm team). They spoke with Ty and Gabe and wanted to make sure they were having a good time watching, and that they were learning from what they saw. It was really quite nice of them. They even gave them a practice ball to take home...the simple things...that's what life is about. 

The boys checking out the practice.

Day 10- As much as I get tired of baseball...I am thankful for our boys opportunities living here. They are a part of a great organization that really has a great thing going. I didn't realize how much so, until I spoke with my friend Diane today and we were discussing the pros and cons of living away from everyone. Well, this is a definite pro on my list. Sports scholarships will most likely be the way our boys get to college. I'm not against an academic scholarship, I just am a realist...our boys are talented. They have a natural ability to learn the game without having to spend every single day doing it through out the year. I remember during the summer, once AllStars was ending, I mentioned to a mom on the team that I couldn't wait to box up ALL the baseball gear and not see it again until next season! Her jaw dropped and she said, "Seriously? Even their gloves?! They won't be playing fall ball, or doing any clinics?" I then lied...I know it's not good...and said, "Oh, well not the gloves!" Seriously...ALL the baseball gear goes away and the boys have time to just detox from the long season. I have always said, "If it's God's will for them to get scholarships, and to be great at something...He'll give them the natural talent." No need to be spending a ton of money and time on clinics and needless things when your kids are 9yrs old. I can see to do those types of things once high school is closing in, but not at this again. It burns a kid out, then they never want to play again, and they have lost all their love for the game. 

Ty and his friend Jayden

Ty's AllStars team took 2nd place in their tourney

Day 11- I am so very thankful for my Secret Sister! I love the fact that I have someone praying for me! We all need prayer, and I for sure always need prayer! It's so fun to receive a card in the mail with a little note from my Secret Sister, saying they are praying for me. My dear Secret Sister also sends out sweet treats, like my caramel apple that was delivered to my door. As well as a Red Robin & Roasters gift cards. Such a sweet thought and treat to get!

The best caramel apple I have ever had! So delish!

Day 12- I am thankful for coffee! I hated coffee, until my friends here drank it so much, that I felt left out not drinking it! lol Definitely an acquired taste. But I do love it now. Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha...blended...hot...whatever way...year round...I LOVE IT! My friend Janice says, "It's a Christmas drink!" Not for Heather...I'll take it all day, any day! A little bit of joy in a cup! ;) Although a blame them for my waist line that has been destroyed! lol {Because I had nothing to do with "picking it up and drinking the liquid deliciousness, with whipped cream and as big as I can buy} ;) hehe

Peppermint White Choc Frapp & Mexican Doughnuts!

Thankful November

I have been severely absent from blogging these last months...life has been busy, and I just really haven't wanted to. As much as I love blogging, I just couldn't find the motivation to actually do it...so I have decided to finish the month with daily Thankfulness posts. Nothing makes you focus on the good things like being Thankful! Last year after my month of thankfulness posts, I almost started a new blog specifically for thankfulness. I am easily distracted by the negative life experiences and loose focus on the positive...and yet I have sooo much to be thankful for! 

So here we go...12 Days of Thankfulness over the next two days! 

Day 1- I am thankful for my homeschool group! I love these ladies and their love of homeschooling, learning, and their roles as mommy to so many sweet ones. Such a blessing to plan out our year, and spend it together every other week! Field trips, crafts, and fun! If you don't have a homeschool group, start your own like we did. You won't regret it...you'll find other moms who share your struggles, your accomplishments, and your dreams! Such a sweet blessing! 

 

Our homeschool group at Sacagawea Park for Heritage Days

Lewis and Clark at Heritage Days

Day 2- I am thankful ALL of our puppies that Sophie and Mr. Higgins had, found wonderful homes! 

Miss Addie and the pups: Jasper, Big Daddy, and Jacque Cousteau.

Jacque Cousteau...wasn't he adorable?!

 Day 3- I am thankful for double yokes and a little man who loves them! 

One less egg to crack...and it always makes you smile and say, "Haha, how cool! It's a double yoker!"

Mr. Lincoln loves eggs! 

Day 4- I am thankful for auto save on blogger! I accidentally left my page while I was blogging this, and came back to find all that I had written and uploaded still there! I think I would have cried if it had disappeared. lol No, seriously, I would have. 

Day 5- So thankful for iTunes and the Christmas music that flows from it. Once November hits...Christmas music at least once a day is belting out of our speakers. Bing Crosby, Amy Grant, Michael Bublé, Michael W. Smith, Nat King Cole...Christmas is not Christmas without them. Something wonderful comes from these talented artist singing the songs of old, about our Savior, His birth, the angels, and that heavenly night! Music is powerful! It can evoke something inside you, that you didn't even know was there. Stir emotions in you that bring back memories of specific moments in time, special days with special people, and when done well...can make you feel what heaven might sound like with all the angels worshiping our Lord. So powerful. So comforting. So moving. Oh, I can't wait to hear what it really sounds like above! Can you imagine the power of an angelic song?! If these songs stir so much from the heart and aren't even heavenly beings...can you imagine! Ahh...so exciting to think about! 

Don't mind the stripes in the screen...our computer is dying daily...

 Day 6- I am thankful for Pinterest! Such a material thing to be thankful for...you'll find that to be a reoccurring theme here ;) I LOVE Pinterest. Do you know how many magazines I have been able to discard because of this website? Let's just say...more than you think. I have always saved them with those just perfect ideas. You know the ones that you will for sure, someday do? Well, I'm a bit of a dreamers (that's the understatement of the year). So, my life, my house, has become so much freer being able to carry all those thoughts, ideas, dreams, virtually. What a genius idea! So I guess I could say I am thankful for the person in which created Pinterest! Thank you! :) 

A little snap shot of all of Pinterest's wonderness! 

My Way of Shopping Without The Budget Being Blown!

My Dream Garden Ideas!

 6 more coming tomorrow!

Blessings~Heather

A New School Year

Yesterday was the first official day of our homeschool year! It was a fairly good first day. There are always some kinks to work out, but overall I couldn't have asked for a better start. 

Our whole crew 2012/2013 school year!

                            

Our 4 homeschooling babes on the left...Addison 4yrs, Gabriel 7yrs, Ty 9yrs, Alexis 12yrs. 

                        
Silly faces of the morning...except Lincoln...he was sad. :( 

Everyone received new notebooks, pencils, stickers, and clip boards for their goal charts!

    I awoke on Monday at 6:45am and realized I hadn't even bought pencils! Yikes...how do you do school work without pencils?? Good question...you don't! So Miss Shelby and I headed to Walmart at 7:30am and had to do a bit of a scavenger hunt through all the left over bins. Since most normal people do their "school supply" shopping like a month or two ago. :/ Oh well, I scored some great priced supplies. It allowed me to get each kiddo their own supplies, without breaking the bank! They had fun martian, back to school, and animal stickers that were $1.88 for $0.50. And everything else was about $0.50 as well. Each child has their own graphic design pencils (that way there is no arguing over who has whose pencil). Everyone has a fun notebook, a mini clipboard to track their "Goals" for each day, and pad of stickers. And everyone was pleased with Miss Shelby and my choices. :)

  I did make a HUGE change in my curriculum this year! We went with the School of Tomorrow, ACE Paces. Each child has 4-6 subjects per pace. And there are 12 paces for each school level. They are self lead once your child can read, until then you need to be by their side teaching, but for the two older kids, they can for the most part set their daily goals for how many pages they are going to complete, and then just have me check their work when the page prompts them to. Can you say...RELIEF?!?! Ahh, I can!! A Beka was so good, but so detailed that I would have been swallowed up whole and spit out, by the end of the year. 6 hours of school is not my ideal homeschooling experience! It was so traditional that it was almost impossible to complete in the home setting with more than 2 children. This ACE Paces program I am praying is my answer to prayer for the last year. Only time will tell how much we do, or don't like it, but for now the kids are excited, and I am too! I want our children to grow up and desire to homeschool their children as well, and keeping it fun and exciting is one way to help that. If you are dreading getting up and schooling your children, and your children are dreading school work on a daily basis, then I suggest #1. Pray about it. #2. Think about changing your curriculum. You will obviously have good and bad days, but it shouldn't be more bad then good. If you find it is that way, somethings got to change. You will get burned out, your kids will be burned out, and you are failing at the whole point of homeschooling. I was. The entire last year was just "put on a happy face and get it done", and that does nothing but make you crazy, and your kids are more perceptive than you think...they notice. So change it up. Just because you started with one curriculum, doesn't mean you are stuck doing that forever. A change can benefit all involved, occasionally.

So cheers to a wonderful and inspiring homeschool year!

Blessings~Heather

God's Not Dead

Enjoy our family's favorite song~

(Just make sure you scroll down and pause the music below before playing!)

Blessings~Heather

Free Song Download!

  Head on over to KLove Christian Radio and get your FREE download of the beautiful song by Moriah Peters, "I Choose Jesus". It's a great song to add to your iTunes library.

iTunes Code: MMMRFY3WXRXM  Get it before it's gone!

Check out her story while over there: Moriah Peters

I love listening to KLove during the day! It makes it so convenient to listen online on the computer. Usually I come downstairs in the morning and get it pumping through our home...it helps get me moving (I'm not a fan of mornings!) The kids will sometimes sing their favorite songs a the top of their lungs, especially the Newsboys, "God's Not Dead!" It's always a good thing to have praise songs playing in your home...KLove definitely helps that need!

Blessings~Heather

A Time4Learning Review

So today is the day! My review for "A Time4Learning" is due in and here are my thoughts:

Overall, the kids liked it. I found it to be too easy. Maybe I didn't utilize it like I should have...I found it to be a bit confusing on the parent side of things. 

Alexis (11yrs), Ty (9yrs), Gabe (6yrs), Addie (4yrs) enjoyed being able to be on the computer. {We usually don't allow the kids to be on the computer, unless it is for a specific reason, and without it being school related, I don't see a reason for them to be online.} 

Here is Alexis' review: 
   I liked being able to get on the A Time4Learning website anytime of day to access my school. That was a perk! I liked that it was "kind of easier" than my regular school work. I also enjoyed the part in which, if you didn't know something, it would show either a video or it would tell you what it meant. I liked not having books everywhere, everything was online. I really enjoyed all the reading that I needed to do (I like to read!) and how entertaining it was. Some of the characters in the videos were really funny!

Ty's review:
    I liked that it felt like I was playing a game, but I was really learning. The math was fun. Geo (a character) taught other people who didn't know about things like subtraction and teaches a lot about math. He really can teach you a lot of things about math! I didn't like the stories that were wrong in social studies. They were weird stories from China about dragons and other myths. I kind of liked making stories with the language arts. I liked that you can stick your own people in it and take your stories to other place like, the beach, the moon, and a kitchen. But, writing is hard for me...so it was fun, but a bit hard. I almost liked everything about it. 


Gabe's review:
   I liked the "Under the Sea" where you put gold and silver coins in the treasure boxes. We practiced sorting. I liked the "Letters & Sounds" part. I enjoyed the story book parts. I didn't like that pink rhino that has a yellow horn and a red stop sign. I liked how much funner it was than real school. 


Addie's review:
   I loved the whole thing! I loved the snake that took a bite of the cake. It was my favorite part. I just loved the whole thing!!! Ok, I'm done.


I enjoyed the time that A Time4Learning freed up for me. I wasn't working directly with the kids for hours at a time. I felt like it lightened my load for sure! I found it mainly entertaining for the children. I know they really liked feeling like it wasn't "real school" as they say. The girls seemed to be excited to do their schooling online (Addie would actually beg to do it 7 days a week), the boys overall enjoyed it, but it was definitely more of a struggle to get them to sit in front of a computer screen and work for a long period of time. They would often say, "I'm bored, do I have to do much more?" Which is a given in most stationary things for boys anyways. 


What I didn't like about it was the fact that I didn't have any say in what was being taught to the kids overall. I never really knew exactly what they were supposed to be on (I'm sure this is my own fault...I was confused as to how the parent end of it worked). I also don't think it is very good for them to be sitting in front of a screen for long periods of time. Not holding an actual book in their hands and always being entertained. (I do know that this is how society is raising kids now a days, but that is one of the many reasons we chose to homeschool, right?) I found it hard to have one computer for all 4 kids to use. It took ALL DAY to do school. So, if we wanted to go somewhere, I couldn't quickly have all of them sit down, crack out their work, and get on the road. We had to either skip a kids work that day, or do it late into the evening. Usually we ended up just skipping it (not a good thing!).


I would recommend A Time4Learning for a supplement to your chosen curriculum for sure! It was entertaining and enjoyable learning for the kids. I wouldn't use it as a core curriculum. I would be more apt to use it for preschool age children. I know our 4 yr old loved it! It would be a good alternative to watching a movie while trying to school the older children. I don't do preschool with our children, so it would be something I would consider for them (and at that age level, it isn't long periods of screen time anyways). 

It was fun for the month that we had to use it, but I think I will dive back into real books and spending that time with my children...teaching them...that is why I homeschool! 


Blessings~Heather

{Peep Wars!}

"{Peep Wars}" were created I believe by my mother. :) One Easter we had a bunch of peeps and being the competitive family we are, we decided to have "{Peep Wars}"! 

We decided to continue the tradition yearly. This year we did it the day after Easter (yesterday). So our morning began with a Peep Off. 

The game of "{Peep Wars}" is fairly simple: 

1: You must name your Peep.
2: You need at least 2 people to challenge.
3: You may use different types of Peeps; i.e. bunnies, chicks, snowmen, etc.
4: You need a permanent marker.
5: You need a paper towel or two or three...
6: You MUST have a microwave!
7: A prize...we don't give a prize, we just enjoy the fact that we won! (We are a bit competitive!) ;)


Here are the pics from our "{Peep Wars}"

The Gang getting their positions.

The cheering begins..."Peep Wars! Peep Wars!"

Our first contestants...the peep that grows the tallest wins!

Jonas & Princess (Gabe & Addie)

Our Logo! lol

Set the timer for 1:00 min...stop it around 30 seconds before they explode.

The watchful audience.

Cheering for their favorite!

Around they go...

 

Jonas takes the win.

Proud winner! That would be Addie, the sore loser in the background.

Bob Wallace & Phil Davis go next (Alexis & Ty)

Phil just couldn't handle it...

Proud winner!

Abe Lincoln & Shelby (Lincoln & Shelby)

Who's it going to be???

President Lincoln takes the win!

Proud winner, he'd rather eat it than cheer!

Wilbur & Cookie (Me & Nana)

Cookie takes it!

Proud winner, Nana!

The Peep Off...

Intermission...

Bob Wallace wins!

Proud winner!

Losers bracket!

Princess wins!

Proud winner, Addie!

The  winner is....

Bob Wallace!

Alexis takes the win! Way to go Lexi!!

All in all, it is much fun and the kids get a kick out of it! AND YES, I know standing in front of the microwave is a HORRIBLE idea, but we are will to take the risk for a few laughs. 


Blessings~Heather