Crazy weekend and Mom is still sick

We had a crazy wonderful weekend, Saturday was 2 soccer games and a golf tournament, both Em and Jor played spectacularly in ther games, they both played goalie(or as they tell me, Mom it's called keeper) and did great. A friend of theirs had a golf tournament at the golf course by our house so we were able to watch some of that. Of course I'm still feeling terrible and have lost my voice almost completely. Perfect for work and everything else.

Our Lord's day started out rainy, but by the time we left church it was a beautiful sunny day. and is now a very nice 73 degrees. I like it! Church was fantastic, Jim and I have joined a bible study while the girls are in Sunday school. We all worship together after that. We are very happy with our new church home.

Tomorrow is the last day of co-op for the girls, they are sad, I'm happy, more relaxed Mondays from now on. Both girls are performing in a sign language concert(?) tomorrow afternoon, they are very excited about that. Gym in the late afternoon with our homeschool group from church is always fun, and then off to work for Mom.

Tuesday evening Jim and his bomb partner are giving a bomb and robot presentation for our homeschool group at church. We are all looking forward to that, Jim has been working very diligently on his power point presentation. The Lord has put us with a wonderful group and we are looking forward to meeting even more homeschool families. We have been praying for some more friends close to home and are hoping this is the Lord's answer to that prayer.

God's blessings for a wonderful week......

I learned something today

Today I learned that if I accidentally take nighttime cold medicine in the morning, there is no way I can stay awake. I finally had to take an hour nap and now I am feeling much more awake. However I still am not feeling well. Sore throat, sore ears and a temperature. Thankfully everyone else in the house feels fine.

We are having a productive school day now that I am waking up. Jori is reading for speed in her phonics reader and Em is mapping. Homeschool is such a blessing to us, I was commenting the other day on how much easier our lives our now that we are all home together. God certainly knew what he was doing when he layed homeschooling on Jim's heart. Jim says our lives make more sense now. We still do our share of running around, but there is much less stress to it. Everyone is much more content.

In Christ

Soccer Games

Two soccer games today, Jori's was in the morning, her team won, 3-2. Em's game was this afternoon, her team lost 7-3 or 8-3, not sure, I lost count. Both Em and Jor had a blast, another round starts this week. Wish us luck!

Beautiful Spring Day

Beautiful day today, the sun is shining bright and the temperature is climbing, we are supposed to have a high of 71, that would be wonderful. The girls both have skirts and short sleeves on in anticipation of warm weather.

Yesterdays soccer practices went swimmingly, both girls had a blast, they are very excited for their first games tomorrow. We have one game in the morning and one in the afternoon. High excitement in this house.

History these days is westward expansion, Jori read Wagon Wheels which she loved. Today we will read a book on the Homestead Act.

Science is birds, Em is doing a report on the American Robin and Jori is working on the Cardinal. Our animal of the week is the elephant. They just took a vote and want to study the chipmunk next week. We will also be doing some gardening next week.

Our core continues to hum along, Em is working hard to finish 4th grade math, everything else is 5th grade and Jori is working diligently on 2nd grade math, phonics and penmanship.

Get out and enjoy the beautiful day

In Christ

Live and Learn

We are loving our new schoolroom, however the dry erase board that Jim painted is not working as advertised, bummer after he spent so much time working on it. We can write on the board, however it doesn't erase, and when it does some of the paint comes off. Complete waste of money as well. So plan b is to get a dry erase board and hang it on the wall. We are hoping to do that as cheaply as possible. That will be next weeks project to find one that we can afford. Oh well, not much we can do.

Yesterday we had a meeting about the new co-op that a few families are starting. Looks like we will have 12 families, there are a lot of girls my girls ages. They met some of them yesterday. The pre-readers will do Five in a Row and elementary will do Latin, History and Science. High schoolers with do Latin and Biology. There will be little to no cost as the mom's are doing the teaching. A true co-op as Jim put it.

We will have a new student at the Ruff Christian Academy next fall. We will be homeschooling a first grader as her Mom is not able to homeschool her due to her schedule. We are all looking forward to it. She will go to co-op with us and do the Five in a Row program. School is humming along today, then on to music and soccer.

In Christ......

Icky Yucky Weather

Oh where oh where is spring???? Today is miserable, there is no other word for it, I am freezing, I can't warm up. I'm sure it doesn't help that I am tired from working midnights last night and afternoons today. Sigh......
So no school today, Mom needed to sleep, we will pick up again tomorrow, we always manage to get caught up when we take a day off during the week. This week should be no different.

Em is having trouble with her Latin declensions and conjugatons. So we are learning together. Latin has helped tremendously with grammer. More than I expected, Jori will do Latin as well. I have come to the conclusion Latin is a must to round out the girls education.

We are enjoying doing History with a literature base, it is the highlight of the week when new library books come home!

We are planning a somewhat laid back week this week, so far we are succeeding!

In Christ..........

Beautiful sunny day

We had a great day today. We did some school and then ran out west to garden with friends. The cooperative garden is coming along great. It looks like there will be three families. The weather cooperated and we got the indoor seedlings started. Unfortunately we had to leave midday so I could go to work, the 2 other families were putting in potatos, onions and garlic. We will go over next week to get more in the ground.
We also have our first meeting next week about the new homeschool co-op that is being started in St Charles, we are not sure yet how many families will be involved. I am really looking forward to it, Em can continue her Latin, and we will have hands on science and history. I am praying for this to be the answer for us for next year. We are taking next year off from the co-op we have been attending as there are no classes offered that we needed.
Jim and the girls are off to Adventure Club and I am now at work. Thankfully I have a short night tonight and then off tomorrow.

God's Blessings........

Farming Tomorrow

Tomorrow is our first official day of farming with friends. We have dear friends that have a huge garden that we will be sharing this year. We are very excited as we cannot put a garden in our backyard due to our dogs. It would never work in our yard, so we will share a garden this year. We are really looking forward to it, Jim says we are going out to the farm!
On another note, Em finished her pillow case in her sewing class today, she was thrilled and she did a great job, she makes a book cover next week. I think it may be time to get her a sewing machine, she is dying to sew doll clothes and anything else she can think of.
School went great today and we got a ton done, the classroom is working out great, we are finding we get a lot more done and we get it done quicker as there are no distractions in the classroom. When we schooled in the kitchen we were constantly distracted, I was always looking around anticipating what housework needed to be done. Now I don't worry about it and get to the house before we start and after we finish. The chalkboard and dry erase board will be usable by Friday, they are up and painted, but take a few days to cure.

Blessings as you move about your week.....

Palm Sunday

What a wonderful start to the week. We had an incredible church service praising our Lord and Savior. No better way to start the Easter week.
However before that, Jori announced, "it's Palm Sunday, Robert E Lee surrendered today at Appomattox courthouse!" Proving to me once again that she listens during history lessons. Cool! I love when this homeschool journey proves successful and reminds me why we chose to educate our girls at home.
Tomorrow is a day of co-op, gym class at church and equipping Em for soccer, she needs cleats, a ball and shin guards. Jori has her equipment already, this week is the official start of practices. Both girls are very excited.

Blessings for a wonderul Easter Week, He Reigns!

The Civil War is finally over!

We have been studying the Civil War for the past few weeks and we are finally done. I think we have read every biography of every important person of the war. We read books on all the battles and even some historical fiction. We will now move onto the reconstruction and westward expansion. I was up late the other night requesting all the needed books from our local library. What an incredible resource. We love doing history using literature.
Jori started learning Roman numerals, our curriculum is very heavy on Roman numerals, I have yet to figure out why. Em is just finishing up fractions and moving onto Rules of Divisibility. she isn't feeling so hot and has spending most of her time reading. Between yesterday and today she read 4 books! I love to watch her read, her excitement is contagious and she loves to spout off all the new facts she learns. Never a dull moment here.
In His glorious name........

Classroom pictures

We are all moved in and organized, we have been doing school in our new classroom for a few days. Today Mom found a bookcase at a local resale shop that fit the rest of the books that had been stacked on the floor. It worked out perfectly. I couldn't be happier. There was huge debate over the large green couch that was in here, it was moved out of here today and put down in the family room. We tried another arm chair from the family room in the classroom but it was too large, Jim was very happy to move it up and down two flights of stairs TWICE :(. He has been working super hard over the last few weeks to get this done for us. Unfortunately it is creating some other house projects, sorry honey.....
Next week he will paint the chalkboard and dry erase board on the walls for me and then we can get the posters up that we use daily. We are on the hunt for some kind of comfy floor seating for the girls, such as bean bag chairs or something similar. I'm sure we will find something at some point, but for now we have some confy reading chairs that are working out just fine. I took these pics today, I will post more after the chalkboard and dry erase boards are painted. Enjoy the pics.......