Christmas Parade

The boys go to Awana Club and sing in a kids choir at Justin's grandma's church, so they were able to be in the Greenville Christmas Parade. Their float which was a little train broke down shortly after they started, so they were able to watch most of the parade while the guy who owns it got it back running. They were really happy about that.

One awesome float that we all loved was for the 501st Legion. They are a group of people that do Star Wars appearances. It was awesome. We've seen these guys at Free Comic Book days. So fun. We had a video of them, but I sadly deleted it by accident.

Halloween

We love Halloween around here! I've slightly become obsessed with making the boys costumes. I'm not a huge fan of spending a ton of money on a costume they will only wear one night. Plus I like that they won't be wearing the same thing other kids will be. This year the boys chose to be Charlie Brown and Linus from "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown". One of my favorite things ever! We had a great time assembling these simple costumes.

9 Weeks Down

Aren't they getting so big!?

We wrapped up our first 9 weeks of homeschooling on Friday. Whew! It has gone by so fast. So far we have loved it. We've had a few bumps as I'm still learning the boys learning styles, and we've had to tweak some things here and there. But overall it's been wonderful. I can't imagine not having these boys home with me this year. They are growing by leaps and bounds. I'm excited that I get to be here one on one with them teaching and molding them. They are such smart boys and already I can tell their confidence levels have skyrocketed. They are so excited to start school each day and learn some new things. They tell me often how happy they are we made this decision and how they feel they are learning so much better than the previous year. This of course fills my heart with joy and reminds me often that we made a great choice in choosing to homeschool!

Here are a few pictures. My batteries went out in my camera so I don't have as many as I wish. New batteries are in place so hopefully more pictures will be coming soon.

This is Jacob sitting at our "school" table doing some work.

Elijah loves to sit on the porch to do a lot of his work.

We went to Carowinds for BMW Family Day. We were able to turn it into a school lesson, by talking about roller coasters and how they work. We also came home an researched their history. Such a fun day!

Elijah got glasses a few weeks ago. So cute!

We're doing an Apologia science curriculum this year and right now we're studying Astronomy. This was our first project.  A balloon solar system.

Jacob update

It seems that Jacob may have done a little more damage to his jaw than just the busted chin. We noticed the next morning that he just wasn't talking the same, and the left side of his face looked swollen. We also saw that his bottom two teeth weren't as close together as they were. I took him to the dentist yesterday. According to his dental x-rays his teeth are okay. She said that since the ones there are his only permanent teeth, and they are still growing in there really isn't much to worry about. She did think it best for him to see an oral surgeon to check out his jaw. They can do better x-rays or even a ct scan for the jaw. So we go on  Monday to check and see what if anything is going on. I really don't think it's going to be anything major since he's not having any trouble with eating or talking. I'm hoping he's just bruised a little or he's having a bit of TMJ that will go away once the swelling goes down. Thankfully he's not in any pain anymore. Just dealing with the itchiness of the stitches healing.

Please be in prayer for him. I will update on Monday how he's doing. =)

Stitches

Jacob got his first stitches yesterday. He took a big fall off his bike. He and Elijah were racing, Jacob looked back at Elijah and lost control. I saw the whole thing happen. It was quite terrible. I don't think I've ever ran so fast in my life. When I got to him all I saw was blood pouring from his chin and his mouth. We quickly loaded into the car and rushed to the ER. Jacob was very brave, and only kinda cried once when they put the numbing medicine on it. After some xrays to make sure there was no other damage he was stitched up and we were back home.
He's doing well today, just a little sore. He's having a hard time eating since his teeth got knocked around a little and are sore. In a few days I'm sure he'll be back to normal. We go next Wednesday to get his stitches out and he will then head over to the dentist for us to check on his teeth.
After seeing that fall I'm tempted to invest in a lifetime supply of bubble wrap. Especially for this kid. I'm pretty sure with his track record he'll have many more! Haha!

30

So I turned 30 yesterday. Still not quite sure how I feel about it. I was talking to my sweet grandmother in law last night, and I told her it's funny, when you're younger you always want to be older. I remember thinking I couldn't wait to be 16, at 16 I couldn't wait to be 18 at 18 I couldn't wait to be 25. But once I turned 25 I was no longer excited about being any older. Strange how we think that way isn't?

As I look back over the last 30 years of my life I am in great awe of how the Lord has worked in my life. At 18 I would have never thought he would have me where I am now at 30. I am excited about that.

When I woke yesterday I was reminded of this verse:

forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14

Though I don't necessarily  like the idea of getting older, I am so excited to see what the Lord has in store for me as I do get older.

Sonlight.

After looking through all the options for homeschooling that we could, we've decided to go with Sonlight. Sonlight has always been my first choice, but looking at the website it seemed impossible to do. It's pretty expensive for our budget. So I decided just to do what I could afford. But then a precious friend of mine told me that she uses Sonlight, and hardly pays anything for it. She showed me what to do, and now we are happily heading into the school year with a curriculum we are super excited about. (The only thing I'm not using from Sonlight is Science. I'll post about it later). Now, I will say, I have had to spend more than my friend does, but she's involved in a coop and has been homeschooling longer so she has more options to borrow stuff from others. I have found that it's all in being able to take the time and look for the stuff online and at local used book stores.Yes, it's much easier to just buy the whole lot from Sonlight directly, but if you are on a tight budget like us it's totally worth it!

Here is a picture of everything we have purchased so far.It's all our Language Arts, History, Math, and Science. I'm missing a few things that I don't need just yet, and things I can get from the library. I'm also looking into some kind of Art program for them, and hopefully at some point very soon can get them in piano lessons.

If we were to have bought all of our stuff at retail price we would've paid: $1265.30
But by buying everything used online(ebay,homeschoolclassifieds.com, amazon) and at local used books stores. We've only spent: $421.29 That's a savings of: $844.01!! Awesome!!

Thankful we learned how to do this at a much cheaper cost! We are so excited about this school year!!

Useful and Fruitful

Don't you just love when you read a passage that really encourages you, and it comes up again over the next few days?  I read this on Friday night, then Justin brought it up yesterday, and then at church this morning it was one of our scripture readings. So good.

...applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your  moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness,  and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  2 Peter 1:3-8

The whole passage of 2 Peter 1 is so encouraging. This part specifically spoke to me this week. It's a great reminder that it's not our individual roles that make us useful and fruitful. It's these qualities increasing in us that make the roles we play more useful and fruitful.

Mucha...Vadar?

One of my favorite things about Jacob is his love for wearing costumes. He wears them all the time. I often let him wear them when we go out. I've always loved seeing little kids walking around the grocery store or mall sporting their tutus or super hero capes. This is one thing I will miss when he gets older.

Hello!

I decided to start this blog as a way to journal our adventure with homeschooling this next school year. I also want to use it as a way to document the day to day stuff that goes on in our house.