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!!