Wordless Wednesday

Homeschooling

I never thought I would call myself a homeschooling mom. Still don't know if I really consider myself that because I'm only homeschooling preschool right now I don't really have any plans of doing more than just that. But I've learned in my life to never say never because you never know where God will lead you.
I don't really have any huge reasons for doing it. When my children were babies I didn't really get to bond with them the way most mothers get to. I was in survival mode. Just needed to get those diapers changed and get the babies fed. Now we are under no kind of schedule as far as having to be somewhere at a certain time and I can just enjoy spending time with them and teaching them the basics.

We only started a short time ago, but the kids are loving it and so am I. I have a curriculum that I ordered and we use that along with practicing writing our letters and numbers. They love to do crafts and games. I know that after this year I will treasure all the memories we made and I'll look back on it with fondness and will never regret taking the time to sit down with them and just enjoy them when they are still young.

Even if you send your children to preschool or any school, don't forget to take a little time out of your day to just enjoy your kids even if you have to schedule it on your calendar. You'll never regret that time even if it means your house is messy or your laundry isn't folded (like mine) or you have grilled cheese for supper instead of a gourmet meal.




I've set up a schedule to have preschool on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I am back to a schedule just like when they were little but I find that a schedule helps us to be consistent and to not put things off. Like I said, we have a curriculum but I try to keep it fun too. So on Tuesdays we do a craft and end up with fun things like colorful painted spiders

and a beautiful basket of flowers. Which both went in the garbage today because now I have pictures to prove that we did them.

We were supposed to go on a little field trip tomorrow with some other Homeschooling Moms to a Dairy Farm. But Isaac has had a pretty bad cough so I didn't want to infect any of the other kids we were going with since there were going to be some pretty young children.

If anyone else teaches their kids preschool I would love to hear your ideas on things you do or crafts, games, anything that you think would be fun to do.

More Blessings

It's been a rough week.

Not that anything horrible has happened, just been one of those weeks where things seem to keep going wrong. The kids have been crabby, I've been crabby. Kids have been fighting a lot, I've been yelling a lot. Kids haven't been feeling 100%. I've been up with coughing kids at night.

One of those weeks where I don't really feel like being thankful and a week that it would be easy to just skip this post. But a week that I need to really look at my life and be thankful because the things that have me crabby are really nothing and God has blessed me and my family with so much!

139 ~ Fall is here!

140~ noticing some trees with leaves starting to change color, a beautiful red!

141~ wind rustling the leaves

142~ a pumpkin scented candle

143~ kids crafts that double is fall decorations

144~ a night out with the family

145~ some time alone to do some leisurely shopping

146~ a trip to the pool store, I showed up after they closed but thankfully the employee was still there to help me so I didn't have to come back the next morning

147~ singing a well-loved hymn in church

148~ a convicting message

149~ a pastor who is passionate about God's word and living it

150~ my son telling me that he needs to love God more than me

151~ Children eager to learn God's word

152~ the love of Christ

153~ God waking me up to start a new day!

Fall is Here!

We started out our Fall by heading to a White Sox game. It was Joshua's second game and Alex, Amanda, and Isaac's first game. Thanks to the Sox Kids Club we were able to get free tickets and even had 2 extra that we were able to share with someone from the kid's soccer team and his dad.
We actually had pretty good seats for being in the upper deck, right behind home plate. After we sat down it took Isaac about 3 whole minutes to ask where the playground was. (The Railcats have a playground.) Overall they said they had fun asked about 200 times if the game was almost over. Actually, Joshua was very excited about the whole game and was sad when we left after the 7th inning. We were treated to some home runs which brings fireworks but we were not treated to a win. I guess you win some and you lose some unfortunately the White Sox have been losing more than some! As the Cub fans say, there is always next year!

Along with fall I usually get the urge to bake. A couple days ago I made some Apple Crisp and it was delicious!!!! Yesterday I put on my list to take out the Fall decorations and then went to locate them and found that I really only have about 5 decorations. Needless to say I was able to cross that off my list fairly quickly! Fall is here and I am excited! My favoritest season of all!

Frugal Friday

You asked for it! Oh no, wait - you didn't ask for it, but you are going to get it anyway! My deal of the week. Wednesday I stopped at Old Navy and saw my favorite sign, "50% off Clearance Prices!" I also walked in armed with a $10 Off Rewards Coupon.

I walked out with these cute dresses for my girls and 3 shirts for myself. Do you know how much I paid? Drum roll please..........................$8.77. That is right! I got home and looked at my receipt and I paid $1.69 each for these dresses. I got a shirt for myself for $1.01, another for $3.04 and a third for a whole whopping $.78!

Thank you for sharing in my excitement! Feel free to share with me any great bargains you got this week, I'd love to be excited with you!

I can't believe I didn't think of this before

My house is usually messy. Toys everywhere. I get so sick of picking up and begging people to pick up after themselves. I started having to be more scheduled with my days and Monday is now my cleaning/laundry day (actually always was) and it is the only day to get it done. If it doesn't get done that day, it most likely won't get done at all.

Last Monday, the first day of my new schedule, I told the kids to pick up all their toys while I was in the shower. It happened to be at the end of the day since I was busy cleaning. I let them know if I came down after my shower and it was still a mess there would be NO TV the next day. This is something that is actually kind of a punishment for me too and I really didn't want to do it. Since my kids don't nap, it gives me a little break in the afternoon. Well, I came downstairs after my shower and although it was picked up some it was not completely clean. As much as I hated to do it I had to enforce what I said. I even wrote "NO TV TUESDAY" on my marker board so I wouldn't forget (not that I'm forgetful or anything).

Let me tell you, since then, my house has had the cleanest week that it has ever seen in over 5 years. If I tell them to clean up, it gets done! Sometimes I don't even have to tell them, they just do it. They actually have conversations in the morning about what they are going to play with because they don't want too big of a mess to clean up.

I'm hoping I never have to pick up another toy again!

Gifts 128-138

128~ Discipline - an opportunity to teach my child about God

129~ my red patio umbrella that brightens up day when I look outside

130~ my kids surprising me by cleaning up the whole house

131~ our health

132~ smell of fall in the air

133~ cool mornings

134~ safety on the roads

135~ when Alex comes running to me and starts a sentence by say "Mom, I have Good News!" and then proceeds to tell me some small little thing that happened to her

136~ Amish Friendship Bread, so delicious!

137~ An article in the newspaper about Christian family and their dependance on God. What a huge witness!

138~ That I have been saved by grace through faith, not of myself but a gift from God! Ephesians 2:8

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