LIfe

Well, we finished week 2. Everything went pretty well, with a few exceptions. Garret is still having some concentration issues. He struggled quite a bit with Math this week, and I think it is because he is bored. I'll have him look at a new type of book next week and see if maybe he does better with that curriculum. I pulled Aleah completely off of Math-U-See. I doubt she will use it at all, but for now she is just too young. I think this may be the biggest problem with Math-u-See. It's not set up for young kids that are smart enough to do the math but not mature enough to the "boring" work.... I think that's the biggest thing with Garret right now too. He's really smart enough to be flying through this part of the curriculum, but Math-u-see doesnt really allow for you to move that fast through it. Maybe I'm just doing it wrong, I dunno LOL But for now, I am going back to a "pre-school" math curriculum for the paper part of the work, (because it is what I have on hand) then working with her verbally on addition and subtraction.

Today is the Fairest of the Fair pageant at SE Tennessee Regional Fair in Athens, TN. I'm really hoping it doesn't rain. For now radar is clear, but forecast is 30% chance. We decided to go more casual this year for two reasons. One, Erik has to work. This saddens me, but I know it is a fact of life. Aleah seems to be taking it in stride though. However, I cannot handle everything. I cannot take care of all three kids and get Aleah all dolled up formally. So we are going with "Sunday Dress" for this one. We tried everything out yesterday and she really does look cute :) She will be wearing a pink flower sun-dress and have her hair in pig-tails and ribbons and wear some really cute sandals. This will be much easier on her and myself. Less stress means she will have more fun, which is what counts. My sister and her husband, Eric, will be coming. They have grand plans of a picnic with Arby's sandwiches (the ruffians favorite) and fruit and lemonade. I just hope the weather holds long enough. If not, I'm sure we will find something to do :) The kids love to spend time with Aunt Jenny. BTW. "The ruffians' is what my mother and everyone at her work calls my kids. Not sure why, it has just stuck.

Well, I'm off to get some breakfast and start my day. Hope everyone has a good one!

1 week down, many many more to go.

OK, so our first full week of homeschooling is OVER :) and I must say it went pretty well. We had a bit of tears from Garret, and only minimal whining from Nathaniel. I need to adjust our math curriculum though. The kids seem to be bored with Math-u-see. I am thinking of going with Singapore math, as it seems to be more varied. May still give it another week though. We've been doing math since early in the summer, so really it's not something new to them, but I want to make sure.

Everything else they seemed to enjoy, though I must admit, I'll be glad to be able to get some set curriculum. I'm not looking forward to searching down writing and reading assignments for Nathaniel for the upcoming week. For Garret and Aleah I was able to find some good workbooks cheap at Walgreens (The School Zone) to get them through for right now. I also took Creative Writing out of Garret's curriculum for now. He was stressing big time with what he already had to do and it was just too much. I may start adding in one assignment a week on an "easy" day.

Tomorrow we are going to go enter the kids art projects into the local fair. Nathaniel drew a castle, Garret painted a wooden castle bird feeder and Aleah painted a castle on canvas.... hm... can u tell my kids like castles??? They are each very original though.. Aleah's is of course, pink and purple and glittery. Garret's is rainbow colored with stars and hot wheels flame stickers and glitter. Nathaniel's is a simple pencil drawing with bad guys running up to it and the lookouts in the lookout towers shooting crossbows at them. Yea, my kids like the same things, but they still have their individuality.

Oh my GRACIOUS! you really CAN homeschool for free!

And I proved it today! I started out the day simply wanting to lay out a plan for my kids school binders. We are just getting started with homeschooling full time, so I am taking it kind of slow. Not to mention the fact that we really haven't had the money to get everything I *wanted* to get for this year, so I had resigned myself to making due until we could. I had the basics covered, sort of, LOL I have our math curriculum (unless I change it :D) and I had a basic idea of working on handwriting with them. That left reading, which for now was simply going to be reading aloud daily with the kiddos. I am waiting on the Explode The Code placement test, to figure out if/where I need to start them in those books. Thanks to some very dear friends, art, geography, and science are taken care of.


SO ANYWAY... lol... bear with me, I'm worn out LOL

All I planned to do today was to get a rough schedule down for the kids' school day and maybe set up their binders. Somewhere along the line I decided to see what kind of curriculum I could find on the internet just to "kill time" until I could get the other books I wanted for writing, spelling, and language arts. Let me tell you... I thought I had searched extensively before but OH MY GRAVY, I found a TON more things. I literally spent ALLL DAY searching, creating, printing and yelling at my printer LOL This is what I came up with:

For all three kids:

Handwriting
Reading
Math (using Math-U-see) actually, but found several worksheet creators for extra practice
Language Arts
Spelling/vocabulary
Creative writing

For the younger kids, I did have a few workbooks that I was able to pick and choose pages from for a couple of the subjects, but for Nathaniel (3rd grade) all I had was his math. Let's see if I can lay this out for you....

Handwriting -
http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/ Pretty good for creating your own.
http://www.handwritingforkids.com/
www.kidzone.ws/cursive/index.htm VERY Awesome site :)

Reading -
Now, first and foremost I LOVE http://www.starfall.com/ great for online practice when the young ones want to play on the computer. My kids cannot get enough of this site! I also printed off a couple of readers for the younger two for the week.
For the older ones http://www.abcteach.com/ is a great site for reading comprehension worksheets.

Math
http://www.mathusee.com/ has a worksheet generator. It's good, but not much variety really.
http://www.mathworksheetwizard.com/ literally 1000's of worksheets
http://themathworksheetsite.com/ a great generator, but some is subscription based.

Language Arts
www.education.com/worksheets - This is the only site I used for Nathaniel's Language arts - English - Grammar exercises REALLY great resources, not just for language arts either.. they have many grades and many subjects
http://www.abcteach.com/
www.superteacherworksheets.com/grammar excellent!

Spelling/vocabulary

www.superteacherworksheets.com/spellinglevelc.html This link will take you to the third grade spelling curriculum but they have grade 1-4 REALLY great resource
www.mrsperkins.com/dolch.htm This has all the Dolch word lists, phrases, and worksheets. really good for preparing for spelling bees, etc.

Creative Writing
Again...
www.superteacherworksheets.com/writingideas.com this is more for writing prompts but still good.
http://www.rhymer.com/ this is a rhyming dictionary.. pretty neat for those that get writers block just trying to rhyme.
http://www.abcteach.com/ has lots of great writing prompt worksheets as well as writing paper.




So I guess overall, my favorite websites are http://www.abcteach.com/ and http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/ Both of these also have custom worksheet generators.

SO, it is doable. That is, You CAN HOMESCHOOL, essentially, for FREE. However, you do need money for printer ink and lots of paper! Most of the pages I found printed fairly well in black and white, which was good considering I had no color ink :)

Please feel free to share this with anyone you like, but please do also include a link back to my blog.

Thanks :) and Happy Homeschooling!

Fun and Frugal

Hey everyone! www.funandfrugal.com is giving away an amazing prize package right now! go check it out!

life.... it's not really a box of chocolates....

it's a whirlwind of a roller coaster that you've never been on before and you can't see what's ahead because you are wearing blinders!

This is how I've felt lately. I have very little control over my life and even less of a vision as to where my life is going from here. I'm pretty sure I'm on the right track, that is assuming I have a choice of more than one track. But what if I don't? What if I have no choice but to ride this track until it ends or I fly off into oblivion? I know I want to be here, with my family and friends. But why does it all have to be so hard? Am I destined to be someone who never quite gets all that I want? Am I destined to live a life that is just a bit less than I want for myself and my family? I go from being all pumped up that things are gonna go my way, then I get thrown off track once again, a bump in the framework that i took going just a bit too fast perhaps. What then? Am I then on a different track, one that isnt meant for me? How do I get back to where I'm supposed to be? But then, maybe I am where I'm supposed to be, and the original track wasn't mine at all?

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I'm feeling a bit pensive right now. I should probably feel sad, or upset, or even angry, but amazingly, I don't. I feel very relieved. I feel like I am at a point in my life where things are changing quickly. All the things that have held me back for soooo long seem to be slipping away. This really has nothing to do with why I should be sad, just part of what makes me pensive I suppose LOL

I want to start crocheting again. It's been so long! I will have to dig into my stash and find some nice cotton to work something quick with so that I can get back into the hang of things. I used to do pretty well with it, so maybe I could start and etsy store :) Hey, it's not too late to start planning some Christmas gifts either!

I need to catch up on schoolwork though, honestly. My school work has suffered in the past because of me not being able to say NO. Now that the page has turned it's time to get back on track. Time to settle into a new routine and figure out whats what.

Aleah has 3 weeks off of gymnastics, then it's time for a new class for her. Thank goodness its on a different day! We are back to having class on Thursdays, which will be good because it keeps me from having to take the van two days in a row. I'm very thankful for this, since Tuesdays are going to be very busy this fall! Thanks to my good friend Jan, the kids will have Science, Geography, and PE on Tuesdays so that has made my first year homeschooling MUCH easier to prepare for!

I'm so glad I have decided to homeschool this year. Not only has it been very good for the kids already, but it has changed my life and we really havent gotten into it full swing yet! I have met a wonderful bunch of people that already mean the world to me! They have accepted me and taken me for what I am, not as they wish me to be. They already know many of my faults but still they care :) I've learned what friendship can really be like.

My schoolwork needs help right now. I've got two classes that are really kicking my hiney. Sociology and Intermediate Accounting 3. They require much more reading and work than I have been able to commit lately. That will change today. Today is the first day of the rest of the semester! LOL I am going to sit down today, and, after spending lots of time getting caught up, I'm going to look at my day and get back to a schedule. So many things have changed over the last year, I need to redo my control journal too. Hey, maybe I will rejoin Flylady. But not today. today is for getting caught up, not putting off.

I also need to workout today. I'm trying to decide if I want to start another 30 day challenge or if I just want to do a custom workout. I know this system works, and I know I can do it! For the first time in my life I actually KNOW i can do this LOL

Well, now that I've once again written a book, time to start the rest of my day. BTW this is what I'd call a "randomness" post. LOL Every now and then I get so overwhelmed with everything that is going on that I need to get it all out at once and there really is no rhyme or reason to it. I just randomly write about what I think of as I think it. You should try it sometime, even if you don't blog. It really does work to help you gain perspective.

TTFN :)

Girlz night.........a turning point?

OK, so last night was girls night out :) The Comedy Catch in Chattanooga sent me 8 free tickets to go see Henry Cho perform. Let me tell you HE WAS AWESOME :D Very funny, would certainly go see him again soon!

Thanks to all my girlyz who came and celebrated my birthday with me! Thanks for all the wonderful gifts too :)

Just for the record, my birthday isn't until the 10th. But this was the best night for us all to get together, so it worked :)

Anyway, after the show, Jan, Carol, and I went to the Awful Waffle and hung out for a while. Always lots of laughs when Carol is around. That girl is quicker than most comedians when you get her going. I'll be glad when she gets her break on stage :)

After Jan left Carol and I got to talking and found we have a few unexpected things in common. Part of our pasts cross at different points. lol That was certainly an interesting conversation not to be broadcasted over the general internet :) However, it did lead to a really great blast from the past. I got to speak with someone who I honestly didn't think REALLY knew I existed. Oh, yea, he's on my facebook, but well, that's a different story.

It's amazing how each person remembers things completely different than the other people involved. You get this vision of yourself and you develop opinions about what others see you as, and well, its a "knock in the head" :P when you find out that you were completely wrong. I'm finding myself looking back on a very strange period in my life and realizing that maybe it wasn't quite as bad as I thought it was. Not quite so strange, maybe. We all go through warps in reality from time to time as we try to find ourselves. I look back and am thankful for what I went through during that time, because, honestly, it helped me to make the decisions I made later on. I knew what I wanted when it was time. I may not have known all along, but when it really mattered, I knew. I didn't have to guess. I didn't have to play any more games, or feel desperate or needy. I knew what I wanted and I got it. Not many people can say that. Of course, not many people get the chance to be as uncharacteristic as I did. The funny thing is, I did this twice in my life. Once when I was a senior in high school (no, I wasn't the goody goody everyone thought I was) and then once again after leaving the druggie I was with for 7 years.

I went wild, I had fun. I did things that I never thought I would ever do. NO I wasn't a drug addict or an alcoholic. I still didnt smoke. Good gods if I ever were to get hooked on something like that the world would be in certain trouble. I get high on life, and that's the only high I need LOL

But more than that, during these times I was very desperate. I needed something. I was looking for something. I have no clue really what, but I was clinging to the idea of someone to love. someone to love me. I didn't go about it in the right way. I had no clue. I developed strong crushes at the first sign of affection. I was so used to being "unloveable" that I latched on to that first hint, that first possibility.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not looking for pity here or anything like that. I'm not sure what Im looking for except maybe a way to sort this all out. During both periods in my life, I developed an infatuation with unavailable men. I'm not sure why or if I even knew it at the time, honestly. But in some form or fashion they were all unavailable. As I look back on it now, it doesnt make any more sense, but it is more clearly explained.

I recieved an apology from that blast from the past last night. This meant a lot to me, because, seriously, I really felt like I had meant nothing to any of these people over the years. I'm not going to say I regret what happened, or blame any of them, because I don't. I wasn't someone that could have been dealt with rationally anyway, so it was completely acceptable for things to turn out the way they did.

Honestly, I thank everyone that I was involved with at these times. They have made it possible for me to be in a wonderful, loving, passionate relationship with my soulmate and never wonder "what if". Many women I know right now cannot say that. Even if they don't doubt their loves, they still can't say that they had every possibility to be with someone else. They don't necessarily know that there isn't another soul out there for them. I do. When I first realized my husband was my soulmate it was like a breath of fresh air. When I realized that all those things I had been through really didnt matter anymore, I felt like a weight was lifted off of me and I was free to be who I really wanted to be, no matter what.

I love my husband with all my heart and soul and he loves me. I trust him and he trusts me. I don't have to worry where he is, and he knows where I am. He holds my heart and I hold his. Without him, I would not be whole.

I feel my world is changing and I am so thankful to have people in my life who are ready to change with me, for better or worse. My husband has a quote for his tagline of his email:

"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely, in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting... WOW, what a ride!"--author unknown.

This is quickly becoming my philosophy. I can feel the adventure starting to heat up, starting to quicken the pace. I'm not sure I'm ready for it, but with my love and my friends by my side I will be able to handle it all!