Do you pin?

I am on Pinterest.....all.the.time.  I'm addicted! 

Im looking forward to pinning with you!! :)

Williams' Life: Homeschooling

Williams' Life: Homeschooling: Okay, well, I have had some of my relatives and friends ask why I decided to homeschool and how its going. Well, it is going great!! I abso...

Homeschooling

Okay, well, I have had some of my relatives and friends ask why I decided to homeschool and how its going.  Well, it is going great!! I absolutely love it! I love the fact that we can stay in our jammies all day ( which I try not too just b/c it makes me lazy haha!)  we can take breaks as needed and I am so happy with the progress Jude is making.  Here is kind of a breakdown of our day and what we do.  Also, we are using the K12 public school program, but we also incorporate other things.

8-8:30 am- Wake up, brush teeth, get dressed ( usually) 

9- Breakfast (this is usually our biggest meal, but I try to make most of our food ahead, so I don't really cook breakfast) Say any of our memorization from the previous day

9:30- Feed Thatcher and lay him down for a nap, Jude starts school

Bible- We were doing a psalm a day, but we have just recently started John and are only about 1/4 of the way through reading the first chapter.  I am going to start having them memorize the books of the Bible ( but i will talk about that later) As they get older, of course we will start more memorizing of Scriptures, but they do memory verses for Wednesday night Bible study at church, so i don't wanna overload them :) As they get older also, we will start studying the history of the church and Pentacost.

Math- He uses the K12 program Math and right now he is learning estimation and starting subtraction.  We do math problems on the chalkboard for practice and every morning i make Jude count to 100

Language Arts-This is also a K12 program.  He mainly does recalling of stories that I read to him with this program.  Of course we do A LOT of reading at home- my kids LOVE having books read to them and soon we are going to start Treasure Island ( maybe Friday night) .  I want to start reading the classic books to my kids and not just short children's books.

Phonics- Also K12.  I really have liked this phonics program- there is no picture reading ( which I think is silly, b/c the child is not really learning to read, just guessing at the word b/c of the picture shown.)  They really learn to read phonetically and to sound out words and how to break words down.  I am also using Alpha-Phonics A Primer for Beginning Readers by Samuel Blumenfeld.  It really gets down to the nitty gritty of phonetic learning and we love it!!  We do still do sight words and they really help when Jude is reading.

History- This K12 program is only on Wednesdays and Fridays, and this whole first semester, they have learned about maps, globes, all the continents, many of the countries on each continent, north, south,east, west, the equator. This is his favorite subject!! And, this next semester, they start American History- woohoo!! thats my favorite! :)  We have also been working on memorizing the presidents for this next semester.

Social Studies-  This is also a subject provided in the K12 curriculum which we are actually done with for the whole year.  It went over different cultures, families, jobs, laws, rules, and things of that nature.

Memorization-  This is one area that I find extremely important.  I have already mentioned most of the things we are working on memorizing, but here is a short list:

Books of the Bible ( starting this soon)

Presidents

Memory Verses ( their teacher has them doing an alphabet list of memory verses)  

Pledge of Allegiance

Addition problems

Also, I have been saying we, but i don't just mean Jude and myself- Elsie also does most everything with us, even though she isn't able to go to Kindergarten until the 2013 school year b/c of how her birthday falls.  Elsie has been working really hard on handwriting and writing her name :)

This is usually the order we do things during the day.  Thatcher usually wakes from his morning nap around 11-11:30so we usually try to get the main K12 subjects done within that time.  The memorization, chalkboard work, and reading we do whenever we want during the rest of the day :)

12:30- Lunch

And so on, the kids really love schooling at home and I am so grateful that I am able to be home and teach my children!!! 

That brings us to why I decided to homeschool.  Well, I decided to homeschool because:

I wanted to be able to teach my kids from a Biblical worldview and shelter them as much as i can from humanistic worldview

I wanted to save them the heartache of bullying that seems so rampant in our school systems now

I wanted to enjoy re-learning things that i didn't pay much attention to when I was in school :)

I wanted to reinforce the importance of family and our church community

But, when it comes down to it, all these lofty reasonings are great and wonderful, but my main reason I decided to homeschool was because I am a selfish mom....I want my children at home...with me. I want their laughs, their triumphs in learning, their heartaches, their groanings, I want all of it!

  I am so so thankful to the Lord, ( and my sweet hubby) for the opportunity to be home with my children!  

So, thats why I homeschool and will probably continue to do so.  We are obviously still working out kinks and figuring out what works best for us, but I'm having a good 'ol time :) 

game night and vacation

Well, Ive been meaning to post about this for 2 months, just have lots of pics, so I kept putting it off.  We got to go on vacation with my inlaws over Thanksgiving break.  We stayed in Williamsburg Virginia, but did traveling most of the days for sight seeing.  We left the Monday morning before Thanksgiving at 5 a.m. I think?  I was really nervous to travel with Thatcher- I wasnt sure how he would do for a 9-10 hour trip.  He did awesome on the way there ( horrible on the way home, but we made it in one piece!!) Elsie threw up and Jude did wonderful haha! :) Sigh, traveling with little ones can be an adventure!  We got there Monday evening and rested and got settled in.

Then Tuesday we made our way to Jamestown- it was so awesome! I really enjoy history, so this was right up my alley! The kids loved seeing the ferries out on the water and they loved the reenactments :)

We had such a good time and it was so neat to see the original Jamestown settlement where everything started!  

Then on Wednesday, we stayed in the condo for the morning and afternoon just hanging out and ventured out to Virginia Beach that evening.  We wanted to take the kids to see the ocean, they have only drove by it, never gone on the beach.  So we got there and it was ridiculously windy and cold- one of the only evenings it was like that while we were there!! But the kids loved it and the beach looked so crazy with the wind and fog!!  They also had big light displays all down the boardwalk for Christmas- really cool :)  All the pics are on Thad's phone :( Then after we left the beach, we met some of our good friends for dinner and shopping at Target haha! It was so fun to hang out with you Jimmy and Selina- thanks for meeting up with us!

Thursday ( thanksgiving day) we decided to head up to D.C.  Well, we got out to start walking around and I was putting Jude's coat on and reached into his pocket and he had a fake plastic army knife in there!!! Geesh, of all things I could have found in his pocket!! Ha! So as we were walking Steve threw it in the trash! Lands sakes!! Anyways, this was my favorite day!! We didn't get to go in alot of the museums and things i really wanted the kids to see b/c it was a holiday, but I hadn't seen the new WWII monument and it was impressive! Also, the reflecting pool is being dug up so the kids didn't get to see that, but they loved the Lincoln Memorial and counting the steps as they walked up :)

So awesome to bring my kids here- obviously they didn't appreciate it as much as they would if they were older, so we will probably come back some other time and see the smithsonian and all that with the kids!!

The last day- Friday, we headed over to Busch Gardens b/c it was their first day of the Christmas lights display.  It was PACKED!!! The lights were amazing though and totally made it worth it!! We got the kids these obnoxious strobe light necklace and wand toys ( that they promptly broke on the trip home, of course.) and got some snacks- they were tasty!! And the kids watched the sesame street christmas show. We ended up not staying for too much longer b/c it was getting cold, and the kids were restless.  We got back to the condo and started packing up ( which really means, I started packing up while Thad and the kids played!)

We headed out at around 8 that next morning for probably the longest car ride of my life!! It took us about 13 hrs to get home b/c we had to keep stopping for little Thatcher- he was so tired of being in his carseat! But we got home at around 9 that night and brought our stuff in and crashed!!! We had such a good time and are so thankful to have family that will let us come along on vacation and put up with us for the week- thanks so much Steve and Mendy!! We love you guys and had a wonderful time!

Okay, switching gears- we have game night after dinner on Tuesdays at our house.  We were playing mousetrap or operation for a long time, but then daddy pulled out a game we have had for awhile, but the kids had never played- they loves it and we have played it alot since then.  

We picked up this game at the thrift store where we lived when we first got married.  It is a building game- basically you pick your teammates pieces and they have to build a tower on their block without it falling over- the last tower standing is the winner! They love this game and love trying to pick out the hard pieces for us ;)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and enjoy your family!!!

becoming mobile and marshies

 I told Thatcher the other day that I really did not want to carry my overloaded laundry baskets upstairs, but daddy wouldn't be home for awhile, so i better go ahead and do it myself- well, I think he felt sorry for me b/c he has been working out ever since ;) It does look like he's doing pushups in this picture though!  Poor little guy- he sure is trying so hard to go somewhere, but inevitably, only moves backward!  Hehe!! Also, sorry for the bad photo quality in most of my posts- i really take most of my pictures with my phone, b/c its just easy and convenient! 

We also finally got some snow this week ( but i bet it will be 80 tomorrow ha!)

So for breakfast I had some oatmeal and some of my organic chai!! So yummy and such a good cold weather meal :)

The oatmeal is in one of the kids' big cupcake liner bowls- I got them last year at the Dollar General for like 20 cents a piece!! I just think they're cute :)

Thad has been working on our upstairs bathroom, and I was upstairs checking on the progress- meanwhile I let Jude have the bag of marshmallows thinking he would eat one and be done ( he loves mini marshmallows, but i had the peppermint ones, the huge campfire ones, and then the minis ) Well, he came upstairs and showed us his marshmallow man

Anyways, I stayed up there a little too long i guess b/c I came back downstairs and Jude had eaten all but 2 of the campfire marshmallows and most of the peppermint!!!!  Thankfully he still konked out at bedtime, but i wouldn't be surprised if he woke up with a bellyache from all the marshies sticking to his guts!!  Crazy boy!

Hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend, happy MLK day!!

MyHubbys birthday :)

No, hes not Japanese, no, hes not an eskimo- he just likes winter backpacking and pretending he's a samurai.  I also have to say how hard it was for me to find a picture of him by himself where he wasnt holding some kind of bug.....yeah, i really really like this guy, even maybe love him alot too :)  Happy Birthday old man babe, I love you :)

sweet babies, Christmas, and random

These silly kiddos are my heart :) I love them from their core to mine!!  I always struggle with what to blog about, or who even reads this, but I try keeping this blog up for any of my family that I don't get to see regularly and wants to keep up with my little family.  That being said, I guess I don't think about people who don't know me, or know my beliefs reading this ( which should really be foremost in my mind i suppose, just don't think it happens too often)  I wanted to clarify somethings from my last post, in case anyone thought I went off my rocker there for a minute ;) I am a very laid back person, granted I have opinions, but typically don''t get too riled up about much ( except faith and politics- imagine that!! ha! )  I had just been thinking and praying alot about my ladies ministry and what I could do differently to be more effective.  I want to have a ministry that is effective in not only reaching out to ppl but showing them Christ and their need for Him in their lives.  I just kept coming back to how I never want to turn someone away, or make quick judgement calls bc of how someone looks, acts, or talks.  I want everyone to be saved, but until then we can be waiting, in love, with the Good News!!

Back to my kids- boy oh boy!!  Thatcher is 5 months ( 6 months in about 2 weeks) and still NOT SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!! ugh!! I never had this issue with the older two- I quickly trained them into good sleepers, but little man is not having the sleeping all night stuff- he wakes up every three hours to eat!   They are all in bed at 8, so that means I am feeding him again usually around 11, then somewhere around 2 in the morning and then again at around 5-6 a.m.  so really only two late night feedings, but still interrupted sleep, and its taking its toll!  Are any of you moms the kind of moms that can nap?  I cant! I literally just cant bc I have a 5 month old, but i just physically cant do it- I am on the go from the time I wake up until after i feed him at 11. These last couple of days though, I have been kind of dragging at breakfast ( and a grump, my kids would tell you)  But, I have been trying to motivate     myself with one of these tasty teas :)

as you can tell, Organic Chai is my favorite :) I have tried the other two, but just out of Thad''s mug, bc I always grab the chai- soooo good!! This tea is not much more expensive than any of the other store brands, but tastes sooo much better ( and prettier looking;) ) My brother got me the chai for Christmas, and got Thad some organic decaf coffee- such a good flavor also, and I even like it black- thats saying something bc usually I like a little coffee with my creamer ;) Speaking of Christmas- we had a wonderful one! We many lots of visits and trips to different places, but it was so good to see all of our families!  We decided this year to not get our kids any toys ( Daddy did sneak some HotWheels squinkies in for Jude though!) But, instead we decided to completely redo their playroom for them!! They love anything artsy or crafty, so we figured this would be perfect! I got a few before and after shots

 before:

After:

they are both rocking some bed head in that one ;)

We are so happy with how it turned out- and the kids really love it!!  for under the tree, they got crafts, paints, chalk, and they each also got a lite brite :) Thatcher enjoyed his first Christmas and after a couple houses, got the hang of ripping wrapping paper!  Thanks to all our families for hosting us through all the get togethers- we love you!  

Thad and I also decided to get each other something that we could do together this year- we both have been interested in bow hunting, and a good friend of ours gave Thad a really nice bow, so I got him arrows and some other accessories for Christmas.  I also got a bow from my brother ( completely decked out already) so we are excited to start learning how to shoot and eventually go hunting this September! I also got the Hunger Games series- the real books, bc I have them downloaded on my nook and a pair of Toms- that was the one thing I told Thad I really wanted :)

one of the most comfortable pair of shoes I have ever owned!! I love them!

Okay, a few more things and I promise Im done- Thatcher is slowly making his way into the world of food- we tried some baby cereal while on vacation and he did not handle it well ( he devoured it though, just didn''t digest it well)  so after researching and waiting another month and a half, we are skipping cereal period and just going straight to homemade veggies- he has had sweet potatoes so far and has really loved them and tolerated them very well- I also have given him some over-steamed pieces of carrots and he liked those too.  I think Im leaning more towards whats called baby led weaning bc, although he has no teeth yet, he knows how to "chew" and I think he would really enjoy actual pieces of food rather than the pureed.  

Speaking of food- I found something I really like the other day while grocery shopping- not organic, but really cheap and so tasty!  I used on some tilapia and it was so good- Im not a big fish fan unless its very mild, so I always look for different ways to hide even a little bit of fishy flavor, well this worked great!!

I found it in the cheese aisle, and it was only a little over $2- and i could have done all the pieces of fish I had, but I only did 4 pieces and i had plenty left over ( i did not put the fish in the bag it comes with to coat it- i just kind of sprinkled it on, that way I could use the rest of the mixture for chicken another night)  

And last, Jude is still doing great with homeschooling, and I still love it!! He had Spirit Week this week, and did crazy hat day :)

 And Elsie has been "helping" me with dinner- the other night I let her "cook" it for me- the menu was, salad, chips, oyster crackers and cupcakes! Haha! She also loves being on our countertops!

She kept moving around and not letting me get a clear picture of her face, so this is the best I got! Okay, Im off, I will leave you with a few pictures that will speak for themselves :) I gotta go kiss some sweet baby lips!! 

Have a good week!