Testing Time!

Riley has achievement testing for three days this week, so our schedule has been completely different! We are fortunate that our local homeschooling offers achievement testing (Stanford Achievement Tests) for kids from second grade through high school. Riley knows quite a few of the kids there, as well as some of the teachers, so she feels comfortable with it and I think she enjoys the break from our regular schoolwork. :)

Brad and I now strongly believe in having our kids take achievement tests every year or every other year for many reasons. Some of these include having a good benchmark of yearly progress (for our kids AND to see how the parent is doing) and to prepare our children for standardized tests in the future. Not all homeschool parents are fans of testing, and we certainly don't feel it should be mandated, but it works for our family!

I'm getting a lot accomplished each morning since we aren't doing normal schoolwork, as well. :) I've cleaned a lot, caught up on my laundry, and made lots of yummy recipes. :) Plus, I've spent lots of good quality time with my boys! Always important!!

Mother's Day

I love Mother's Day. :) Not because I get great gifts from my kids and husband, or because I get breakfast in bed, or because I don't have to change dirty diapers . . . but because it's a day to remember that I am so blessed to have a great mom and to be a mommy. Growing up, I always knew I wanted kids. I just never knew how much I would enjoy them!

Riley is almost 9 and the time has flown by. Owen is likely our last child, and as he gets older, that is harder for me to swallow. I'd love to have lots and lots more babies. :) My kids are a lot of fun and after having worked full-time during some of their younger years, I am very blessed to be able to stay home with them full-time now. They make me laugh daily and give me more love than I ever could have imagined. Even on a 'bad' day, they still give my hugs at night and say "You're a great mom!" Melts my heart! They forgive easily and are still so innocent. I know it likely won't always be this way, so I'm soaking up as much as I can of them now!

I've been scrapbooking a lot more lately and reflecting on lots of family and childrens' photos. I have a horrible memory, so I am thankful for lots of photos and scrapbooks to remember all the details of our family and their childhoods!

I am also very thankful for my own mom, who taught me how to love well and how to be a great mom to my own kids! I love you, mom. You taught me the importance of spending time with your kids and I have fabulous memories of my childhood. I hope to be able to give my own kids the same thing!

Beautiful Riley

She really is beautiful, our daughter. It's just that for some reason I don't have many photos of her on my blog; I'm not sure why.

I realized this recently when looking through my blog for some photos of our kids (since my computer is *still* being repaired). So, cute girl of mine, you will see lots of photos of yourself here shortly! I just need to get my computer back and then I will put up some recent pictures of our growing, beautiful daughter!

Menu Plan Monday

It's time for Menu Plan Monday hosted my OrgJunkie! Check out her site if you haven't already--lots of great ideas!

We have gotten away (again) from planning our meals which leaves us eating out more--ugh! Yummy, but too costly and not as nutritious. So on Sunday, with the help of my great assistant, Riley (again, insert beautiful photo of Riley here since my computer is still in the shop!), we made meal plans for two weeks! She looked through all of my cookbooks and recipe magazines and suggested lots of good meals. I made the grocery listed and then we shopped together--she is a FANTASTIC assistant! Her mom must have raised her well. :)

Here is one week's worth of dinner meals (though the order may change):

Day 1: Hamburgers on the grill, corn on the cob, strawberries, ice cream sandwiches
Day 2: Sweet & Sour Crockpot Chicken (w/veggies), Rice, Watermelon, Rolls
Day 3: Taco Ring, Chips & Queso, Corn, Peaches
Day 4: Caesar Steak, Crash Potatoes, Green Beans, Applesauce
Day 5: Lemon Herb Chicken, Salad, Jello, Peas
Day 6: Blueberry Pancakes, Bacon, Applesauce
Day 7: Off - leftovers or out

Hope you have a YUMMY week! :)

Funny Little Owen

{insert cute photo of Owen here - my computer is in the shop along with all of my photos!}

He totally cracks me up. His speech has improved greatly with the help of a speech therapist this past year (yay!), but his grammar is still lacking. He doesn't quite get all of the words in a sentence, he uses a wrong word, or he mixes up the order. Any which way, it is still funny! He makes us laugh constantly and always has a ready audience with the other four of us!

Today I was keeping him company while he sat on the potty before his bath. He stood there for a few minutes (he goes back & forth between sitting or standing), then turned to me and said "Can I touch you eyeballs?" I laughed out loud (a lot!) which made him only continue to repeat it . . . so there I was, with a naked two-year-old who just kept asking me if he could touch my eyeballs! I *think* he meant my eyelids, but who knows with a two-year-old??

(And for the record, NO, he wasn't allowed to touch "me eyeballs!")

Australia

We've been studying Australia all week and are now off to the zoo! It's 11:30 in the morning, schoolwork is done, it's a beautiful day--so we are headed to the the Australian Adventure area of the zoo for only an hour or so. We are so blessed to have such a great children's zoo in our city!! It's a great way to wrap up our week of learning about Australia. They even have a great aquarium there to represent the Great Barrier Reef.

Enjoy your weekend! :)

Blog

You can follow me on my current blog here: HappyGoMommy! I will soon begin blogging from Blogger instead. Watch for changes coming soon!

Clean Sweep!

I am always, always, always trying to find something for Owen to do in the mornings while we get our schoolwork done. I've tried activity boxes, cartoons, activities with the older kids individually, etc . . . without much luck. Who knew that all it would take was a DustBuster??!
My sweet two-year-old has decided that he sees specks of dirt on the floor everywhere (he gets that from me - I love to vacuum and do it constantly). He will start with the little DustBuster at the front of the house and go all through the house using it!

It keeps him entertained for quite awhile . . . he keeps going until the battery completely dies! I love it - he is having a blast and we are able to accomplish some work (though it CAN get a little noisy!).

(Oh, and don't worry - he gets lots of other interaction on a daily basis, too! Reading, playing, walks, games, cuddling, etc! We let him do more than clean our house!)


In the picture to the left, you may not be able to tell, but he is concentrating so hard that he is sticking out his tongue - a common occurrence!

And who knows what he is doing with this face in the last photo??!?! Silly!!

School Plans

If you were wondering, YES, we plan to homeschool again next year. We're just not sure what we are doing with Owen yet. :) A big thanks to those of you who continue to support our decision to homeschool. It is very discouraging when people disapprove or make offensive comments. Homeschooling is a personal choice, and it works well for us and is very rewarding.

This is the time of year we begin planning for next year, so I thought I'd share our curriculum choices for '09-'10. I know this is a subject that interests many homeschoolers, but if you don't homeschool or aren't interested in this post, please feel free to skip it! :) If you do homeschool, I would love to hear your plans for next year!

Bible: Sonlight
Geography: Sonlight
History: Sonlight
Reading: Sonlight
Readalouds: Sonlight
Science: Answers in Genesis (though we started it this the past week!)
Math: Math-U-See
Lang. Arts: Abeka
Music/Art: Co-Op, piano lessons, handbell choir, and possibly the Fort Wayne Children's Choir
For. Lang.: Not sure yet
Phys. Ed: Co-Op

We've made quite a few changes for next year, with the biggest being switching from My Father's World to Sonlight. We are changing for a variety of reasons, but primarily because my kids love reading and we aren't reading enough good books together! We are looking forward to using Sonlight (though it is very expensive!), and I am also planning an entire curriculum for Quinn, whereas before he has usually just tagged along with Riley (other than math and reading). He'll get his own, complete, curriculum next year! (Lucky guy!!)

I am thrilled, also, to have found Answers in Genesis' science curriculum. It teaches science from a creation-based perspective and is a very Biblically-sound, evidence-based, strong science curriculum. We went ahead and started it this past week as I feel our science for this year was too light. The kids have enjoyed the switch so far!

We are sticking with Math-U-See for the fourth year in a row. It is working great for our family, and Riley usually wants to start with math first every day! She is now in the Delta
book, and Quinn will begin with the Alpha book this coming fall. We are big fans of MUS and love their teaching methods!

We are also planning to be involved in a local co-op for the fourth year in a row! This year, the kids will be focusing on critical thinking, drama, health/anatomy, and music/art. Our co-op meets once a week for two hours and each parent takes a turn teaching and planning lessons every month. I get to teach with one of my favorite friends, Joy, and we are teaching health & anatomy to kids in K-2nd grade. With her physical education/teaching degree and my health sciences/athletic training degree, we are both well versed in that area and looking forward to it!

Catching Up with a Quick Recap

I'm sure some of you are shocked to see a new post here!! (If you are still even checking my blog!) I realize I've been MIA for awhile now - I'm sorry!! Thanks to those of you who have emailed or called (or stopped me while I was driving - Sue!!) to let me know that you miss my blogging! I enjoy blogging and writing, but don't always get to it as often as I would like. But now I am back at it. The photo to the left is from EPCOT when we were there about a month ago. More on our trip soon....!

For now, here's a quick, brief recap of everything that's happened since I last blogged:

• We celebrated Quinn's 6th birthday!
• We had both cars repaired at least twice (three times for the van)...ugh!
• Still plugging away at my 12-week, online scrapbooking class.
• I spent a lot of time getting ready for and helping run our church's children's clothing resale. Lots of fun...a ton of work!!
• Loved on my husband. :) He's a cutie. He starts softball soon and has been doing a parenting study at church on how to raise boys.
• Went to South Bend for a night to celebrate a great friend's 40th birthday - love you, Chris!!!
• Helped my kids with their Geography Fair projects and learned a lot about Ukraine and Madagascar. Tried lots of new foods at the Geography Fair! The kids are trying to decide now on their countries for next year already! Any suggestions??
• Homeschooled my kids almost every day - we are now only 6 weeks away from the end of the school year! Riley has moved into division for math, Quinn has almost mastered learning time & money, and I am still undecided about sending O to preschool in the fall. Any thoughts on whether I should or not?
• Went to Disney World with my entire family for a week - there were 11 of us - it was FABULOUS!!! Lots more on this later, but suffice to say - we had an awesome time and I loved being able to see the parks (we went to all 4) through my kids' eyes.
• Enjoyed a few moms' nights outs with my girlfriends - always a good time!
• Celebrated Easter with my family, parents, and grandma.
• Took my kids to a "Jump with Jill" concert - lots of fun. Check out her website for video clips. If you ever have the opportunity to see her, go for it!
• Made lots of food in one afternoon - only to have my entire range break that same afternoon when I was halfway through! After a week of microwave meals and eating out, it's now hot - yay!
• Went to the Midwest Homeschool Convention with some girlfriends. Learned a lot, was convinced, once again, that we are doing the right thing by homeschooling our kids. Had FUN with my friends - eating out, texting each other, chatting, shopping at IKEA, and watching people ride a mechanical bull. :) (Hey Karen & Beth - it brought back great memories of Gilley's in Dallas many years ago!!)
• Shopped for bunk beds for our boys - we need to get their room redone and GET RID of our crib!!!
• Found a FREE piano for Riley! What an awesome blessing from God. We had been looking for a few months, and we were able to find a man donating a FREE piano to a good home. It is in great condition and Riley has been playing and practicing even more. I love to hear the sound of her playing fill our home.
• Went to the Dave Ramsey live simulcast with Brad at a local church. I always enjoy hearing him speak.
• Scheduled some summer activities for our family - VBS, golf, soccer, zoo camp, and possibly a vacation.
• Had the outside of our home sprayed for ants so hopefully we don't get any this year (you do know I have a phobia of ants, right?!?).

So there you have it!! Lots more coming soon - as well as photos!!