Thursday, July 31, 2014

something to add to your music program- free scared music study.

My friend Maureen sent out this link earlier today! I signed us up! If you are in need or just want something different to do with music in your home check it out. It starts in September. Have you figured out when schools starts up yet? I can't wait! Funny how excited I am to get back to normal again around here- although we haven't been "normal here" since we just moved. My kids are looking forward to it too. We just need routine and this house settled..period.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

update on book organization

  MY KIDS LOVE having their own special colored sticker on their book. Tonight at story time, I said grab a pink and green or yellow book off the shelf (I digress- seriously- have you thought about the reading list on MODG for 1st grade? I hope some of the books are on tape, I am not so sure I can read them all out loud in time- we are getting an early start).
  They fussed over which books were "theirs" for the year and were excited to see their own little shelf. It was awesome!! I recommend labeling your books somehow- research other's ideas, maybe something will work for you. I say it's successful already!

Monday, July 28, 2014

getting ready for the school year and our Marian Grotto

  Last week I finally unpacked the remaining boxes and got my homeschool room cleared of the junk and things are looking good! This last week we had a broken door replaced, soon busted concrete in the driveway will be getting done too. Thank goodness, I am tired of seeing my little one trip over the cracks every day.


  Like I posted before I inherited a large amount of "junk aka trash" from the previous homeowner. One of the only things I kept was this nice little black book shelf that matches my bigger black Expedit book shelves. I decided to put our required reading books from our syllabus on it. As we knock those out this year that shelf will empty ** it's still a work in progress as you can see.


  I am labeling our required reading books with stickers by grade level- much easier to keep track of that way. I have seen so many homeschool libraries with dewey decimal system or alphabetical order, or the colored sticker/paper and tape method- which is definitely the easiest for kids. But they go all out and do their entire collection. Our shelves stay pretty neat and I don't need extra work really. My kids do well keeping their books where they belong. I think this is what works best for our situation and quick reference for our syllabus.









   We also are getting our grotto planned along with our yard landscaping. We had a nice time mulling over statues at the concrete statuary store. It was a lot of fun! Lucky we got an overcast day too, not too hot at all this time of year for once! I can't wait till it's finished!

  I am also getting supplies rounded up for the Schultütes I give to the kids. Knox is really looking forward to getting one. I think it was so cute how the kids fussed over them last year. They often asked if they get schultutes again or if it was just one time for starting their school life...funny!


The end of this week brings fun! It's the Midwest Catholic Family Conference! L'Angelus is performing, we are very excited to see them again! Hope we see you there!

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

The summer is getting away- so much left to do.

   I haven't done anything with my kids since Cheryl's April 27th Pope Party as far as feast day parties (other than baptism and birthdays). Oh it was frustrating for me the other day as I sat down to email my friend and I explained how I felt and my "sort of regrets". I had all this missed feast days May, June and July- so far we are not that far in July. But I had all these great ideas lined up and obviously packing and moving prevented us from having them.
  This past weekend the previous owner finally came back and she had two friends remove her stuff from our garage and basement storage room. Yes, she left a lot behind. We painted and epoxied half the garage floor Saturday and did our remaining 5 loads from our storage unit. And my husband finally got to really clean the storage room up good- lots of spiders. I also attacked the poison ivy growing along the fence- oh my does Ortho Poison Ivy killer work well. I sprayed 2x and in two weeks time it was all dead. I had long sleeves and gloves and pants of course, but I cut down all the dead and then doused the remaining "stumps" and pulled up whatever roots I could. Poison Ivy becomes a viney bush or small tree if left alone to flourish...fyi.
  Then the other night the kids and I went through their toys again and got rid of three big boxes of toys- I had enough stuff to have a big garage sale, but sometimes donating is just easier and trumps all other reasons. Moving is a blessing because it forces you to clean up and clean out. I would never advise anyone to move who has more than 1 kid. It's just a bad idea. Just stay put- you will be okay ;) OKAY, I don't  really mean that..lol  Finally tonight I am catching up bills.
   So I can turn my focus on the last remaining boxes really and my homeschool room. The hubs can handle the rest I think. I need to figure out when school starts again though- I am glad I kept good records and will probably just go off last years schedule.
   So the next big project I want to do around the yard- besides plant grass- because there is none and do a sprinkler system...lol and landscaping- I digress sorry... is to build a grotto somewhere back there. We are definitely inspired by our trip to Florida and the Ave Maria Grotto and the beautiful churches we stopped at and the kids are very excited.
  On a side note- did anyone happen to also order CCC's movies from their sale? WOW! 2 movies including shipping for $17-$18!
  Hope your week goes well, keep my hands/arms in your prayers- I have terrible numbness throughout the day- hopefully it's something I can take care of without surgery. I see the doctor next week.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

HELLLLLOOO out there! I am still here! New house..wuwho!

Oh the joy of unpacking- this is will be the new homeschool class room eventually.

   Bet you all have been wondering what happened huh?  OH well, after our long road trip to Florida- we moved and my husband transferred jobs. We got an offer on our house like the 5th day into our vacation. It was exciting and stressful, we wanted to be home but obviously we couldn't be. Then all the houses we liked and would have liked to consider- that had been for sale forever had disappeared.
  So we had no control over looking at homes and making an offer till we got home again. PLUS the closing date was really short and it was a weird loan (I will only accept conventional now that I know these things for future home sales).
  Anyway, so that phone call for the offer on our house lead to 3 weeks of negotiations...very annoying. Are we moving? No we aren't, oh wait yes we are now...do I pack or leave things out? Just a very long process to get to an agreement.
  Then also while we were in Florida my husband was happy to hear he was accepted into the airport police department. He is a 14 year? vet of WPD, and is currently in a fire academy to get part of his training done for his new job for the airport police (they do everything, fire, rescue and police).
  So while all this transitioning has been going on, I packed up our house- literally alone- since my husband was constantly working overtime for the River Fest and other call outs (it's warm now and the criminals eh hem...bangers are out when it's warm).
  Then we had all sorts of things to figure out with our move- like where we were going to put our stuff before the closing. The lady who lived in the house we bought wasn't planning on moving her stuff to Texas till 2 days before our closing. She said it would be okay to move in the day before with big stuff but she would still be in the house. So it left us with little choice but to put stuff and storage and move twice. Her movers failed to show up Saturday so finally Sunday around 4 pm she allowed us to move our big stuff in the night before our walk through- which never happened.  She apparently is a procrastinator ;) She left us an entire storage room, living room and two bedroom sets and mattresses to move out to the garage. IT was a mess, she drove a U haul to Texas alone and had to be back by a certain date to turn the truck in. But we all were kind and patient and it's working out fine. We moved her stuff to the garage and she is returning this week to finish getting it. (in her defense her husband left her a few months ago and she had moved her a year ago to marry him and hadn't made any friends yet- so she had no one really).

her stuff and there is still some in the basement. (Thank goodness we haven't had severe weather in a week- my poor van is outside).

random abandoned stuff from the storage room of doom- free on craigslist ;)

  Anyway, we have been here a week today, I am still unpacking. Cox communications is a terrible service provider- I am pretty sure we had called them over 20 times and been on hold more than 8 hours in the past week and got nothing accomplished. I am going to drop them once I figure out what else is out there.
  Our washer broke in the moving process somehow. I think it was just old and probably a part which was worn out just broke. I know they were careful with it but I made my husband cough up the money for a new jumbo set of machines ;) And yes momma is happy! It pained him since it didn't involve a toy for him..but in the long run if it makes me happy- he will be happy ;) and his clothes will continue to be clean ;)

I am thankful for many things this week in no particular order. 

1) our friends and family who dove in a the last minute when things hit the fan two Sundays ago late at 4 pm

2) this beautiful house and the trees and wildlife 

3) my parents who helped us out tremendously by allowing my kids to stay with them for 4 days. As well as let us spend the night. (we are only 7 mins from them now)

4) for my new washer and dryer- although they delivered Kenmores and not my LG's, they are exchanging them out in another day. I still love the Kenmores- I get to use them for now.


5) Thankful for my husband's determination to get through the training he had to jump into immediately.

6) this quiet cul-de-sac we are now residing on.

7) my brother who we saw on the 4th of July and the new Sacred Heart of Jesus statue he got me for $20!


concrete $20!

8) we are less than 5 mins from our Church. 

9) I still got to go to the KC Catholic Homeschool Conference. I heard Dr. Ray talk! He allowed his talks to be recorded, and I got all three talks on CD! Plus all the cool "souvenirs" you find at conferences.

10) For my religious freedom in our country and for those who serve and have served (my husband being an Army vet).

11) for my kids who have helped me so much with no complaining, the happily pack and unpack and move things with out complaining. 

12) Brenden is talking English now and not just babbling, just a few words, but I am thankful he is transitioning!

13) that none of my religious items were broken during the move ;)