Weekly Update

Oh what a week it has been! We finally made it back to church this past Sunday after about four months of not attending! It as so incredible to finally be in the House of the Lord with fellow believers and praise our Creator and Savior! The kids were so excited about going that we were done in record timing and were there early :) As long as things are good tonight, we will be heading back there tomorrow :) That evening, however, S fell on her head - twice. The first time, her older brother L pulled a blanket from under her feet :( The second time, she had stood up on the couch and her leg gave out and down she went. She fell down the steps on Monday due to her legs giving out, and again on Thursday. The neurologist has decided that it would be best if we do not let her go up and down the stairs on her own - so now we get the joy of untraining her :( We had spent so much time teaching her to walk independently up and down the steps again, that it is quite frustrating to have to prohibit it now. On a really good note, it seems that her fevers have subsided. We are wondering if it has to do with the fact that we have become incredibly strict on not allowing her to eat anything with gluten! We had become more relaxed with this when she was hospitalized and afterwards, due to the constant driving to and from appointments. This possible connection will be addressed with either her neurologist or rheumotologist here soon!

This week wasn't too bad for appointments, thankfully. Monday S had her initial evaluation with the speech therapist. It went really well and S seemed to work really well with her. We also had our chiropractor appointment - oh how we love going to see her!!! Then on Tuesday we got to stay home and go nowhere - hallelujah!!! LOVE days like that, especially when they are so incredibly infrequent! Wednesday, on the other hand was seriously busy! We had a 9 AM chiropractor appointment, then an 11 AM occupational therapy appointment. At 2 PM I had an OB appointment. I got to see my favorite of the OBs in the clinic and he reassured me that I can have a natural VBAC :) After the appointment, I had to do the hour long glucose tolerance test - bleck! Thursday was S's physical therapy appointment. Also that day, however, dh went back to the neurosurgeon. He wants to do a disc removal to his back - to where they would remove part of the herniated disc, along with part of the vertebrae... sooooo.... we are going to get a second opinion! Then on Friday we went and saw the chiropractor again.

Also on Friday, we went shopping at Earth Fare. Oh my goodness were we excited!!! They give a 10% military discount!!! This is HUGE for us, as our grocery budget is so high! They also give a 10% discount if you buy a case of chicken breasts, so on our chicken, we actually ended up getting a 20% discount! That evening we had company over for dinner. About thirty minutes before they got here, I had to take L to urgent care. W had went to hit K with a lid to one of the containers that slide under the bed, but instead hit L in the face, busting the top of his nose open. After not being able to get is to stop bleeding, and seeing how deep it was, I took him in. Two stitches later, we were good to go. I was so incredibly proud of how well L stayed still for them to stitch him!!! By the time we got home, our company was already here. What a great night of fellowship that followed! We did learn some hard to digest news, but we are leaving that in God's hands!

Today we worked on our garage. We only have a one-car garage and it is basically used as a storage unit. We borrowed a friend's truck and took a load of stuff to the ReStore store and then the rest to Goodwill. Then there was a load to the dump. We headed over to Home Depot and bought an almost 15 cu.ft. freezer. Hoping to pick up our chicken order next weekend :) The only down side of everything we did today is that now I am having some MAJOR MAJOR contractions! So now I am trying to "chill" and get them to subside!

If all goes well, I'll post again tomorrow of our week's plans for school :)

Starting Again - An Update

It has been over a year since I have written anything. Wow! So much has happened over the year!!! I was debating trying to recap the last year, but honestly I think I am better off just moving forward. I'm not sure how often I am actually going to get on here and blog, but it has to be better/more than what I did last year. I figured this may be a good way to keep track of what we do for home school as well, especially as a way to keep track for future years for the kiddos :) We shall see how it goes, though, as I seem to get side-tracked by other things. It would be nice, though, to be able to journal our experiences as a growing family, that home schools our children. We have different beliefs and values than many, but we live our life to please God rather than man...

As a quick update from today, we actually made it back to church, praise God! Our youngest daughter was hospitalized the end of October for a little over two weeks and is still having issues. It was so wonderful to be in God's House with other believers!!! We debated going back for tonight's services, but think we should probably take it slow to make sure her immune system can handle it! Instead, I think I am going to work on planning out next year's schooling for the kiddos :) Yes, we are already planning it!!!

Due to wanting to give the children 5-6 weeks off for Thanksgiving and Christmas from their normal studies, the kids' school year is starting July 11th. This means not much of a summer break, but with hubby's work schedule, it doesn't really matter much. We are going to do school through November 18th. Then we will have a six week break (Thanksgiving, Advent, and week after Christmas). We'll start back up on January 2nd and go until May or June, with a week off for Easter. We switched up some of the curriculum and how we will be doing things. For one thing, we will be using workboxes of sorts. We actually have already started implementing them this year and they are working fabulously well. Each of the children will actually have one, with exception of B. Oh - for those who do not know - B is due the end of May :)

In S's boxes (age 2) will be puzzles, lacing beads, stacking cups, etc. for her to work on her gross motor and fine motor skills. W's boxes (he will be 4 in May) will consist of his paces for ACE, along with games to reinforce what he is learning. He will be using their kindergarten curriculum to get him started in PreK4. L's boxes (age 5 - grade K) will be using ACE's first grade curriculum. Each of the paces will be in a different box, and then the others will be filled with games and/or crafts to reinforce what he is learning. K's boxes will be primarily filled with curriculum, with some games and/or crafts. She will be 8 and going into the third grade. I guess it is easiest to just explain her curriculum for each subject.

Science: Apologia - Botany (I have heard a lot of mixed reviews on this curriculum, but am determined to try it - she is actually quite excited about it!)
History - Mystery of History Volume II (we are doing Volume I this year and love it!)
Math - Math-U-See (this has worked wonderfully well for her!)
English - Shurley English (continuing what she has worked with this year)
Handwriting - A Reason for Writing
Spelling - Sequential Spelling
Bible - Veritas Press' curriculum
Geography - My Father's World ECC curriculum, spread out over about a two year time span
Health - we are going to try Alpha Omega's Lifepac series (it HAS to be better than what we used this year!)
Reading - We are using a lot of Veritas Press' comprehension guides and seeing where we get to. We have: Charlotte's Web, Chronicles of Narnia, Fairy Tales of Brothers Grimm, Misty of Chincoteague, Homer Price, The Story of the Treasure Seekers, Stuart Little, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Black Ships Before Troy.

Looking forward to a great year!!!