First week of school 2011/2012 school year

We started our 2011/2012 school year on Monday August 15,2011. This week and next week we won't be doing our actual curriculum that I've chosen for this year (because we haven't received it in the mail yet...due to me procrastinating ordering it). I am just kinda giving them review stuff just to get them in the hang of actually sitting down and doing school. Since we homeschool, our home has been just "our home" for the past few months and now it's also our school..so it takes a little bit of adjustment for them to get into the routine of it all. It takes ME some adjustment time as well. I'm trying to balance all my other duties around the house and trying to not do too much of that other stuff (cleaning, laundry, etc) while its school time. If i take my focus off..even for a moment my kids seem to loose focus as well. (something we are going to be working on the next couple of months though, not to get so distracted and lose focus on their school work. Even if there is lots going on around them).

This is the first year that each of my kids have their own desks. And I must say...wow..I didn't realize how much that is going to make school easier this year. Each child has their own space and they have really taken ownership of "their desk". So it really helps them leave each other alone when they are trying to get something done. Usually when the big kids are working on something, the little ones would try to climb on the table and be right in the middle of it. Now they don't really pay much attention to what the big kids are working on which enables the big kids to focus better. Also, this is our first year we actually have a REAL school room (okay, so we had one a few years ago when we first moved to TN in our temporary house..but that turned out to be a flop...since we had to go outside to get to the school room. IT just didn't work for us and we ended up doing most of school in the main house at the kitchen table.) I had fun making the school room look like a school room and the kids really liked that as well. I still have some work to do on it. I have to get a book shelf and some other things but for now I just used what I had around the house.

I know it's only Thursday but I would say our first week of school was a success! I accomplished all what I wanted to do. Just have fun and start to get into the swing of things. I am really excited to get their new curriculum in the mail and get our school year really rolling. I hope my kids are as excited as I am!

A few changes I've made is that we have decided to NOT have the kids participate in a co-op here. We had actually signed them up for their classes and everything. BUT after much thought and prayer about it. I just didn't feel it was something my kids needed right now. They are involved in many other activities and church and by using our whole day on Friday for these classes we would be using a whole day that was really needed to be spent at home. I'm not worried about my kids needing that for social reasons. They get plenty of that elsewhere. So I felt it was best to skip that for now. Right now we have Jordan in fall baseball, Mason in fall T-ball. Mya is in 2 dance classes. We also have church on Sundays and Wednesdays. I think we are good as far as "activities" go. Sometimes I just want to stay at home and never leave. I don't like making our schedules so busy that we are just running from activity to activity. I like spending time at home as a family and not feeling rushed from place to place every day of the week.

Here's a summary of what we did so far this week:
Jordan -reviewed his math facts; took his English diagnostic test (so I knew exactly what English level to order), worked on some 2nd grade Social studies A.C.E paces. (little workbooks that are used in our new curriculum. I had ordered those awhile back to just see what they were like)
Mya -reviewed writing her alphabet, reviewed phonics, worked on some math bookbooks, took a 1st grade math test that was left over from jordan's 1st grade math curriculum. she got all of the answers correct by the way.
Mason -reviewed his shapes, practiced writing his name, did a lot of playing with gracie with playdough and some learning toys.
Gracie -ate crayons, ate playdough, colored the table, played with toys. But I must add..she did all this sitting at her little table...a step up from her climbing all over the big kids work like she did last school year! :)

All 4 kids are also working on memorizing Psalm 1. We are up to verse 3 now. We have a month for them to learn the whole thing. I'm sure they can do it! They are coming up with all sorts of creative actions to help them memorize it! They will be memorizing a new passage of scripture every month. Some months it's a whole chapter and other months it's just part of a chapter. It goes along with their new curriculum.

So there you have it. What we have been working on. Here are some pictures of our school room.

Happy Birthday Gracie Ann

I can not believe our little baby, our youngest is TWO YEARS OLD today. Where has the time gone? (Click here for her birth story) I still think of Gracie Ann as our little infant..but then she quickly reminds me that she is far from an infant. She has NO trouble keeping up with her 3 older siblings. She is our little firecracker. A little ball of energy. She keeps us on our toes. If Gracie isn't in the room with us, that is a very scary thing. Who knows what she is getting into. I watch her like a hawk yet she STILL seems to get into all sorts of messes. Some of those messes scared the living daylights out of me and had me running to call poison control.

She loves girly things like dolls, barbies and make-up. I think she gets confused as to what is actually make up. She once thought white out was eye makeup and rubbed it all over her eye lids! (For the record..you can use baby soap to wash it off but it doens't come off of the eyelashes. It wears off of eyelashes on its own in about 4 days!) She looks girly dressed in her dresses with her bouncy curls, but don't let the bright blue eyes and blond curls fool you!! She is definetly a tom boy! She loves bugs and dirt. Her big brother Mason and her make quite a pair when it comes to getting dirty! You will also find her in the middle of a wrestling match between her two brothers. She holds her own and has quite the moves! (I think the boys are secretly scared of her when she starts in on their wrestling matches!)

Also, I am believeing she is an artist in the making. Give that child a pen, pencil, crayon or marker and she will give you a BEAUTIFUL drawing. WARNING: it may be on the walls, carpet or furniture. (also for the record, using hair spray and Mr. Clean Magic eraser will get ANY pen marks or even permanent marker off of the walls)

Gracie is also an animal lover. She LOVES dogs and meows (cats...but she just calls them meows). There are some neighborhood cats that roam around and if she sees one she will follow them everywhere! And horses...she LOVES "or-eees" as she calls them. I wish I could just buy her a real pony!

She is independent. She has potty trained herself. (well, we are in the middle of it now...but during the day if we are home she just goes by herself and then comes and tells me!) This is amazing to me as you may recall I had issues potty training my other children (click here to read the post). Mason had just finished getting potty trained about 6 months ago (he turned 3 in Dec)but every now and then he will have an accident and Gracie will be the first one to tell him that he needs to go on the potty and that it's yucky to have an accident. She also praises our ENTIRE family when they use the potty. "Good Job Mommy...you pee peed in the potty! Give me FIVE!" That is usually what she tells me!

She is tender hearted. She will always ask "you okay?" if someone gets hurt or seems sad. And if anyone raises their voice to her she busts out in tears. She gets her feelings hurt so easily. On the otherhand, this girl could fall down hard or bump her head and get right back up without a single tear, but hurt her feelings and she'll sob and sob.

God has blessed me greatly with another beautiful, precious daughter and I couldn't be more greatful for her. I am excited to continue to watch her grow into the beautiful girl God has planned for her to be. I love you Gracie Ann! Happy 2nd Birthday!
From this:

To This:

Blessed!

This past month has been filled with some unexpected blessings. They aren't anything HUGE or anything, but just simple things that shows God cares about the small things too.

Blessing #1: (this one actually took place quite a few months ago)We were given a bed frame for Mya. It's not just your typical twin bed. This bed is a few feet off the ground. It has a wooden SLIDE and underneath it has a tent thing that makes it look like a princess castle! It looks brand new! It's a little girls DREAM bed! We didn't need that bed yet (mya does have a twin bed right now but soon we will need two as gracie gets ready for a big bed). We don't even know the people that gave it to us! They gave it to my sister in law and told her to give it to US. What a blessing!

Blessing #2: I've been wanting a new VCR (you know, those ancient things that they had before DVD players..lol). We had one that we bought 8 yrs ago and almost a year ago it would NOT eject the tape. I thought maybe a motor died in it or something (but what do I know...nothing about VCRs or other electronics that's for sure!) So the VCR sat hidden away. I wanted to buy another one recently because we were given TONS of Disney movies for our kids (Little Mermaid, Snow White, Aladdin, etc. TONS of those disney movies as well as veggie tales videos). I know it's not THAT big of a deal if my kids watch those movies but most they have NEVER seen and they really do enjoy movies. So I wanted them to be able to watch these when we had movie nights. Then a few weeks ago we were blessed with some MORE disney videos. Jordan asked if he could take a look at our VCR..i let him since I figured we just needed to throw it away anyway. Well, he unscrewed it and when he opened it up he found a toy fork and a lego! THAT is ALL that was wrong with it. With those toys removed it works PERFECTLY! WOW! I was SO happy. I know it's not a big deal but to me it was. A few days before that I actually prayed that we would find a cheap VCR or that we would even be given one. Silly, I know but God TRULY does care about the small stuff. I would have been JUST as happy without one but I would have just liked to have one for the kids.

Blessing #3: If you were to surprise me and come over unexpectedly anytime after dinner you would probably find me in my pajama pants. They are JUST so comfy. I just love pajama pants. I go thru pajama pants like CRAZY. I guess its' because they get worn so much and washed so much (with 4 kids and 2 dogs...i change clothes often in one day! LOL). I had a pair I loved that I had just a little over a year and they just got this huge hold right above the knee and the hole grew and grew until I had to sadly throw them in the trash. Well, out of no where I was blessed with not one, not two but THREE pairs of pajama pants (along with tops). They are like brand new! I was so excited! Nothing big, and they weren't something I needed desperatly..but just wanted more of them. I was so thankful for my new comfy pajama pants.

Blessing #4: Our boys slept on a full sized mattress on their bedroom floor for almost a year now. They desperatly needed twin beds. (The full bed wouldn't have been so bad for them to share..but it was SUPER old and so worn out and so uncomfortable). We were given TWO twin beds and TWO mattresses a few weeks ago! WHAT A BLESSING FROM GOD! We also got quite a few sheet sets and quilts for both beds! This one brought tears to my eyes. Our boys really did need this. (I have to add that the first night they slept on their new beds they were squealing with delight and I asked Jordan what he was doing and he said he was JUST SOO happy, he couldn't stop smiling because this bed was SOOOO comfortable!--that right there made me smile!)

THANK YOU God for the many blessings in my life. Both BIG and small.

Gracie's Birthday Pics

One Year Ago

One year ago my baby girl was born! I can't believe she's no longer an infant but a toddler ready to explore this great big world! She's walking, and talking (well, her favorite word right now is "doh" not sure what that means but she says it when she points at stuff! LOL). She now climbs onto the dining room table, climbs up on the bed, and chases after her brothers and sister! She's growing up WAY TOO FAST! Happy Birthday Gracie Ann! Click here for my post of her birth story.

The most photographed 4th child.....

I swear Gracie is the most photographed 4th child ever! LOL! Well, I'm sure she isn't but I hear people all the time say how they have so many pictures of their 1st child but hardly any of any children after the first. That is NOT the case with me at all. I took TONS of pictures of my 1st, even more of my 2nd, even MORE of my 3rd and now an insane amount of pictures of my 4th!! I have a slight obsession with capturing EVERY moment with my camara. I know my husband finds it annoying at times, that I have to pull the camera out at the most random times and try to get pictures. I know someday they won't be little and I want to capture every precious moment. My camera has actually been acting up for over a year now. It still takes GREAT pictures but sometimes when I go to snap the picture it won't do ANYTHING. So frustrating when you are about the capture a sweet moment on camera and then it doesn't take the picture. It dropped off my shoulder about a year and half ago (remember Denise? I was with you at Fun City Pizza!) I need to take it in to get fixed HOWEVER I can't bear the thought to be without my camera while it gets fixed! So I'm just dealing with my dysfunctional camera for the time being. I have a Nikon D50. I want to get a new lens for it and expand my photo taking skills. I have SO much to learn and my camera is capable of doing so much more than I do with it. You think I take a lot of pictures right now? Just wait until I learn how to take more creative pictures! Here are some ADORABLE pictures of my over-photographed 4th child.