On a lighter note…

I love chocolate milk.

There.  I said it.  I feel better now.

How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them…

So today’s blog is a bit serious.  Just some thoughts I’ve had and I guess just some things I believe.  I’m not writing this to convert you to our way of living/thinking – just to merely voice how I feel.  Take it or leave it. 

Jason and I made the decision after much thought and prayer, to put our family size back in God’s hands.  In Psalm 127:3, it tells us that children are a gift from the LORD.  If they are a gift, then why should we reject those gifts, so to speak?  Would we reject $500 if God blessed/gifted us with it?  No, we wouldn’t.  He also told Adam and Eve in the beginning to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”).  Yes, having the typical 2.5 kids is technically multiplying, but is it enough?  I think it’s enough if God says it’s enough.  I truly believe in my heart that we’re not supposed to ask God to control only certain aspects of our life while keeping control of everything else.  Children are a blessing and a gift from God.  We no longer want to reject those gifts.  For my family, birth control of any form is something we’ll never ever use again.  It’s kind of freeing, really.

And let’s be honest, God’s plan for my family may be that we only have three children.  That’s hard on my heart sometimes, though I know in the end; I’ll be okay with it.  I don’t really have a choice, do I?  But, I long for more babies.  Daily.  It’s a constant struggle for me to just let it go.  Now, just to be clear, that doesn’t mean that I don’t count my blessings each and every day.  I have three beautiful, wonderful, helpful, lively, obedient, incredibly intelligent children whom God has so lovingly blessed me with.  But being a mama to three children already, just makes me yearn for many more.  You know my dream is to have this ginormous bus-like van with loads of children.  I do realize, too, that Jason and I aren’t 20 anymore.  The older we get, the less likely it is that we’ll have 50 kids.  But one can dream, can’t she?  Ha ha ha. 

There are a few comforting verses I like to look to when I start to struggle.

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans for welfare and not calamity to give you a future and a hope.”  Isn’t that wonderful?  He has plans for us.  All of us.  The hard part is the application.  The remembering that He has plans for us and no matter how hard life seems or how much it feels like it’s not going our way… rest in the fact that God has plans for you.  He’ll let you know about them when He’s ready.

Matthew 6:31-34 “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’  For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.  So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Emphasis added.)

Anyway – I think I’ve gotten to the point of just blabbering rather than making a lot of sense.  The last thing I’d like to do is quote Psalm 127:3-5.  “Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward.  Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth.  How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; they will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.”

And to end this post – here’s a picture of our wonderful gifts:

*All Scripture was quoted from the New American Standard Bible.

Out With the Old and In With the New

Well, our ‘08/’09 school year is coming to a close.  It was just one of ‘those’ years.  We were SO busy with vacations and moving five million times, it seemed like we were taking breaks like it was nobody’s business.  BUT – by the end of this coming week, we’ll have successfully finished the ‘08/’09 year.

With that said, we’re jumping right into next year.  I’m excited.  I do plan to make school more of a priority.  Well, that sounds like I haven’t made it a priority.  I have.  But – we just had so much going on that it was nearly impossible to keep up with everything.  This year will definitely be slower, I think.  I know, definitely, we’ll be taking two weeks off at the end of August/beginning of September.  Jason’s deploying sometime soon and we want to take a trip to NY to see our old church family and his parents before he goes.

So, let’s talk curriculum.  When we first began our homeschooling endeavor, I used A Beka only.  Nothing else.  I do like A Beka, but found other curriculum to be better in other areas.

Math – we still use A Beka for math for all three kids.  This year Connor will be in 5th grade, Zachary in 4th and Kylie in 2nd.  I just can’t even believe it.  Where has the time gone?  Sigh…  They just grow up too fast.  Anyway – I really do love this math.  I think it follows what’s called a spiral approach.  I think.  There’s A LOT of repetition.  The front of the page typically has a new concept or review of the concept taught the day (or a few days) prior.  The backside typically has review of EVERYTHING.  Multiplication, division, subtraction, addition, time, money, word problems, etc etc.  I think that’s why I love it.  You don’t only do the new concept.  You do that plus continued practice on past concepts. 

Grammar – all three kids will be using Easy Grammar.  I. Love. Easy. Grammar.  There, I said it.  I do.  I just love it.  I think it makes grammar incredibly easy.  The basis of this grammar curriculum is finding the prepositional phrase and crossing it out.  By doing that, you are able to identify the subject and verb more easily.  And then as you get into the meat of the book, you start learning about other parts of speech – but the prepositional phrase still makes it significantly easier to identify those parts.  I love Easy Grammar.   The kids will be doing the same grades in grammar as they are in math. 

Spelling – Sequential Spelling.  This is one of those things I can’t explain.  I just love it.    All three kids are in book 1 and simply love doing spelling. 

Writing – as in stories, poems, etc.  We’re using Easy Writing.  This is by the same author of Easy Grammar.  It’s our first year using it and I’m not sure how it’s going to go.  We’ll see and this could be a new blog post in the future.   I will definitely use this with the boys, and I’m not sure with Kylie yet.  I don’t know that she needs to focus on this in 2nd grade.  We’ll see.

History – we’re using Mystery of History Volume 1:  Creation to Christ.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book.  Love. It.  Seriously.    The lessons are simple.  You don’t HAVE to do everything the book has in it.  Right now, we’re reading the lessons and doing the time line.  Though, our timeline differs from that of the author’s.  She does a ‘real’ timeline w/ die cut people.  We are not doing that.  We’re drawing a picture pertaining to the lesson, writing what the lesson was about and the time frame of when it occurred and making timeline binders.  Here’s the first entry to our timeline binders (click on ‘here’s’).  We will definitely complete all of the volumes of MOH.  The four of us do this together.

Science - Apologia.  I really like Apologia, though we haven’t really stuck it out thus far.  The first part of the year will be spent on Astronomy then starting in January, I hope to begin Botany.  The kids love it.  I love it.  We just need to remember to do it at least a few days out of the week.    This is not age/grade segregated.  The four of us do this together.

Handwriting – we use Handwriting Without Tears.  It’s simple and I love the style of writing it is.  It’s easy for the kids to learn.  Yep – we like HWOT.    Again, they’re doing their grade level (5th, 4th and 2nd) in these books.

Reading – last but not least we have reading.  All three kids are good readers.  Though, I’d like to spend more one on one time with them this year.  I’ll be using the A Beka readers with them.  I just need to order the 5th grade books for Connor.  I’d like to use them as read alouds also.  Not necessarily just for one on one time.  The kids need a little practice in reading aloud in front of people.  Public speaking, you know.

So there you have it.  That is our curriculum for this year.  I have thought on and off about art and foreign language.  I certainly don’t want to overdo it, but I know the kids would love it.  There is a great curriculum for Latin out there and they now have DVDs.  That would certainly make it easier on this non-Latin speaker!    I’ve heard really good things about Memoria Press’ Latin program.  I’m considering it.  As for art, I’m unsure.  I’ll get back to you. 

I hope you enjoyed my little reviews on the curriculum we’ll be using!

A Few Things…

First, and most importantly, I made The. Best. Cake. Ever. a couple days ago.

Oh me, oh my, it’s like biting into heaven.  Yes indeedy.

Secondly, I’d like to just briefly advertise (you know, b/c I have SO MANY readers…) the blogs of two friends of mine from high school that I’ve begun to frequent….  Though, they just started them, so I can’t have frequented them for too long.  Ha ha ha.   Anyhoo, Fit Britt, Environtmental Mama and I all went to school together from like the 8th grade up.  I definitely look forward to more posts from them.  In the meantime, check ‘em out!  You never know… you might actually LEARN something.   Oh, and um Britt?  Do me a favor, hon.  Please completely disregard that cake up there.  It’s just a figment of your imagination.  I promise.  Ha!

Ta ta for now!

The frog on vacation

Kylie has been writing stories for her language lessons for the past several lessons.  I’ve been trying to teach her about complete thoughts, when to end the sentence, etc.  I don’t think she’s getting it.  Ahem.

The frog on vacation.

A frog went on vacat-

ion for two weeks

with her friends they we-

nt camping at parks then went

Home went swimm-

ing at the be-

ach and hiking

in the forest

went on picnics in the back yard

and fishing at

the pond.

You know…  I just love her.  And what I love the most, is that I get to see these stories first and not a teacher.  I really just love homeschooling. 

Daddy, can I help you move the Jeep?

“She Came With the House”

So ten years ago today, my husband and I formed a romantic relationship.  That sounds kinda goofy but oh well.  Anyway.  Ten years ago today, my husband moved into a house w/ two other Marines (whom I was friends with) to rent together.  They were just tired of living in the barracks so decided to go in on a three bedroom home and split the costs.

J and P had already moved in at that point – so the day my Jason was moving in, I was already there hanging out w/ J, P, and some other friends.  When my unsociable husband finished bringing his belongings in, he went to his room and just stayed there by himself while the rest of us hung out and talked in the living room watching something on TV.

So me in all my flirtatious glory, went back to his bedroom and begged and pleaded with him to come hang out with the rest of us.  It took me a while, but I finally won.  That night, we talked for HOURS about everything.  I don’t even remember what exactly we talked about – we just talked.  I just looked in his eyes and was instantly in love with him.

6 months and 2 days later, we were married at the Justice of the Peace.  It wasn’t a big ritzy, glamorous ceremony.  But it was just right for Jason and I.  I love him more now than I did the day we married.

As for the title – well whenever anyone asks how we met, he says, “She came w/ the house.”  LOL!

I love you, Baby!