...melts my heart.
Just knowing what we've been dealing with for the past year...
...and knowing that it hasn't been easy on the girls...
...and seeing them able to keep doing what they love even in midst of the uncertainty of right now...
...makes me one happy...and very grateful mama.
...in Ohio! Yep, just call us nomads. Not how we want things to be but this is the way of it right now. When life gives you lemons...
The job search didn't pan out in Texas, so we headed up north to see what would happen. We got to my parents house Wednesday evening and are trying to get settled in. We had a three day road trip and added four more states to our list of states we've been to. It was good family time even though we were in two different cars! I have pics to upload and will attack that at some point after the girls are in bed for the night.
So what's up next? Billie is hard at work on the job search...the three older girls start their ballet and/or gymnastics classes next week...we resume homeschooling on Monday after a week off...and we just keep doing life!
Pics from our mini road trip to come soon!
...done!
We've survived the first four weeks of school! All four girls are in school this year. It's been an adjustment but not as big of one as I was anticipating.
We are in Fort Worth, living with Amy and Allen, since Billie is still looking for a job...so we don't have our normal school setup, but we've managed nicely I think.
Here's a breakdown of our curriculum:
*Math -- ABeka for the three older girls (switched to Saxon just before this post)
*History -- ABeka as a a group
*Geography -- Starting the year with a brief country study each week and we will finish up the year with learning our states and capitals
*Science -- ABeka as a group
*Read Alouds -- Reading different books as a group
*Each girl spends time reading a book of her choice each day
*EG is working through a big preschool book
*Critical Thinking -- The older three are working through Math, Reading and Writing for the Gifted Student
*JK is doing typing lessons online
We have spent time cooking, doing crafts and watching videos about what we are studying. We are at the library frequently as well! This first month has been smooth even though AA had a stomach bug a couple of weeks ago.
We are well into our first attempt at year round homeschooling, and our fall break is just around the corner. We have a good schedule going and the girls are responding well. EG has been a little tough, but I think she's getting herself together enough to realize that she doesn't have a choice!
Here are our first day of school pics and a few questions I asked each girl.
JK -- 9 1/2 yrs old -- 4th grade
* Are you enjoying 4th grade? "Yes I am"
* What are you most excited about for this year? "Learning how to multiply 3 numbers by three numbers." (which she does well now!)
* What are you the most nervous about? "The big test at the end of the year."
* What do you want to be when you grow up? "An inventor of healthy teeth stuff."
* What's your favorite color? "Purple"
* What's your favorite book? "Chronicles of Narnia:The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe"
LB -- 8 years old -- 3rd grade
* Are you enjoying 3rd grade? "Yes"
* What are you most excited about for this year? "I'm excited about Science."
* What are you the most nervous about? "Spelling"
* What do you want to be when you grow up? "A veterinarian"
* What's your favorite color? "Blue and green"
* What's your favorite book? "Fairy books"
AA -- 6 years old -- 1st grade
* Are you enjoying 1st grade? "Yes"
* What are you most excited about for this year? "I'm excited about doing more counting money."
* What are you the most nervous about? "Learning to count by 25s"
* What do you want to be when you grow up? "A gymnastics teacher"
* What's your favorite color? "Pink, purple and yellow"
* What's your favorite book? "American Girl books"
EG -- 4 1/2 years old -- PreK
* Are you enjoying PreK? "Yes"
* What are you most excited about for this year? "When I get bigger I can do monies." (She means she can count money!)
* What are you the most nervous about? "I'm not nervous of nothing."
* What do you want to be when you grow up? "A ballerina"
* What's your favorite color? "Pink and purple"
* What's your favorite book? "My Barbie book"
Here's all four of our girls on the first day of school! They are getting so big that I can hardly believe it sometimes!
I can't believe my 3rd baby is 6 today! I know that I ask this all the time...but where did the time go?!? It seems like just yesterday I was staring at those plump pink cheeks and that fuzzy onion head. And tomorrow that plump-cheeked baby is starting first grade.
AA is such a joy to our family. She's always full of laughter and funny jokes...she has the timing down to an art! She's very tender-hearted but she's tough when she needs to be. AA loves to wrestle with her daddy and snuggle with her momma. She's our little princess and the pea...she's always preferred a super soft place to sleep! She's struggled a bit this last year with not being the baby anymore, but she's risen to the occasion and has turned into quite the big sister and she takes this role seriously! Her big sisters have loved her since the minute they laid eyes on her and that hasn't changed!
We are so blessed to have this sweet girl as a part of our family. We love you so much, AA, and can't wait to see how God uses your life!
As always, May is a busy time for us with LB's gymnastics show and our dancer's recital within a week of each other. Again, I will post videos on Facebook when I have some more time.
This was JK's 4th year of dance and 4th recital...which is hard to believe! She is turning into such a graceful dancer and can't wait to continue. This year was AA's 1st year of dance and she is just the cutest little thing! She had a great first year and though she was nervous about her 1st recital, she did such a good job!
This year's program was Mary Poppins...it was super cute! AA was a toy soldier and JK was a black bird and a star. JK had 3 dances this year which was exciting!
Ready for the onslaught of photos?!? Enjoy!
A few pics from dress rehearsal, our Thursday dance crew, and backstage with good friends before the recital:
AA's ballet routine:
And her tap number:
JK being presented as a 4th year student:
JK tapping away:
Pretty ballerina:
Jazzy little thing:
And the finale:
I can't believe we didn't get a single family pic of the 6 of us...what craziness!
As you can tell...it was a very busy, very long day...but so much fun! I love watching my girls do what they love!
Another end of the year show come and gone. LB continues to love gymnastics and wants to go as far with it as she can. She continues to amaze us with how well she is doing when she's only been doing this for two years! The girl has no fear, so I'm sure that helps some! Here are some collages of her show. I will post videos on Facebook as soon as I can...it's hard to look at pics and tell how well she does! So enjoy these for now!
Our girl before the show:
Back handspring on the balance beam:
More beam work and uneven bars:
Front walkover:
More back handsprings (she's soooo close!):
Back walkovers (she did two of these in a row):
LB, we are so proud of you and all that you've accomplished these last two years in gymnastics! Keep working hard and trust the Lord for your future! We love you!
...to our new life in Fort Worth! So much has gone on in the past 6 months. And the last month...wow...has been nuts! I will share more as time permits and will start working on getting some pics of the girls up soon. But we are still here...just adjusting and doing life together!
Stay tuned!
...and we're done with school for the day. Yep. Done. Well, except for our read-alouds, which we'll do after lunch.
I implemented a new system for school this week and it's worked beautifully. I've been trying for years (4 to be exact) for a way to really stay organized with school work. I think I've found what will help me stay organized and help us get everything done on a daily basis.
The workbox system was created by Sue Patrick. I haven't read her book and to be honest, I don't plan to...but the idea is genious. So how did I figure this thing out? I Googled. I spent several hours reading blogs of homeschool moms that use this system. And I'm hooked.
On Sunday night, I bought two boxes of gallon zip-lock bags just to try it out before I spent money on something that may or may not work for us. Each bag was filled with one subject or activity (including pencils and whatever else was needed) and each bag was in a particular order to complete. Once one bag was finished, the work went into a basket to be graded, and each girl moved on to the next bag...and so on.
Let me tell you how much they LOVED our version of the workbox system. So now that's what we do. On Monday, I bought each girl an accordian file. There are 13 pockets...more than enough room. If something is too big for the pocket (like whatever book they are reading) it goes into a separate basket and they just grab it when it's time.
In addition to their daily work, I add in 2 extra "fun" things to mix things up a bit. For example, today each girl got 5 minutes to swing, and also 15 minutes to play on the computer. Yesterday they each had 10 minutes to play on the Wii and the day before was a special time to play a game with mommy by themselves. I'm working on coming up with some different small activities to throw in, but I think we're off to a good start.
This does require some prep time each day...but it's so worth it. I would love to have time in the afternoons to get the folders ready for the next day, but that hasn't worked out yet this week. So I just take time every night after the girls are in bed to grade, make notes of what needs review, and get ready for the next day.
So here we are...time for lunch...and school is finished. JK and LB each completed math, language, cursive, reading, Bible study, and 1 page in their critical thinking book. AA completed math, reading, Five In a Row, handwriting and a coloring sheet. They love knowing what comes next and being surprised with the extras. And I love not having to run back and forth from the bookshelf to the table with each new subject.
Here's our workbox system and a few examples of the "fun" stuff:
Yesterday was our 1 year home celebration with EG...hard to believe how fast this first year went by!
I put together a little video montage of our adoption journey. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed making it!
...to look back. Here I am, a day late again! But I guess that doesn't really matter. I'm not going to stress about it too much. I've truly enjoyed looking back over posts that were made a year ago, in our anticipation of EG's homecoming!
Here's the post from March 8, 2010.
It's hard to believe that next week marks a year of our family of 5 changing to a family of 6! It's been an amazing year too...I wouldn't trade it for anything.
...but hardly a dollar short!
I'm enjoying reminiscing about the weeks leading up to the arrival of our 4th princess.
This was the post from February 27, 2010.
I honestly can't believe it's been almost a year...
Trying to reminisce for the next few weeks as we anticipate the 1 year mark of our EG being home!
Here's a post from (almost) 1 year ago:
I just realized that I completely forgot to post about JK and AA's Christmas dance show. Shame on me! I'll get to it soon, I promise!
BTW...this is going to be a long post. Just consider yourself warned!
We headed back to Disney World on the 8th of January. Yes, folks, it's official. We are Disney people. We love Disney World and can't wait to go back! This will be an every 3 year thing or so, as we want the girls to know that there is more in this country to see than just Disney!
Disney Day 1:
We drove down in the morning and went straight to Downtown Disney. Shopping is always on the girls' radar, so we spent some time in the World of Disney store. $45 later, we walked to the T-Rex restaurant for dinner. This place was amazing! We sat in the "Ice Age" room and enjoyed a meteor shower while we ate.
After dinner, we went to check in at our "we are only staying here for one night so I don't mind paying only $35 for the room" hotel. Boy, oh, boy. Let's just say that we ended up spending another $150 for a room at the Holiday Inn in the Downtown Disney area. I didn't see the room for myself, but if my husband will walk away from money then it had to be bad!
A good night's sleep was had by all, and we were ready for our first full day at the park!
