catching up

well, now that I feel like we are back on track and rolling right on down the road, I have time to blog again whooooooo!!!  I have lots of pictures and stories to share :)   So, I just have to say, I am ready for spring break!  no, we are not going anywhere, we are having a good 'ol staycation and Im so ready!! We have been pumping out the lessons here like its nobody's business and as of right now, Jude should be completely done with school in the middle of May!!! We have had so much fun this year, but we are all ready for a break!  I took some pictures the other day I was going to scrap of what the desk looks like on a typical school day :)

sight words- every.day.

a snack of course

The computer, a drink, and some notebooks

Dictation notebook for practice with spelling and handwriting

a look inside- doing pretty good :)

and the little student hard at work ( at the playroom table)

Im in love with this picture :) so precious to me!

Also, I have been ( thanks to pinterest for the idea)

taking Thatcher's picture each month.  The kids wanted in on the fun hehe- they're silly!

They thought this was so cool ;)

 Here is little Thatcher man's newest picture

I think Thatcher is my most spoiled baby yet!! He is a true mama's boy!! He has learned to crawl which has made my life a little easier- I can walk out of the room and he knows that he can come and get me now ;)

He is also, eating like he hasn't eaten for weeks- the boy can really put the food away!! And (thankfully) he is not picky!  Some of his favorites are sweet peas and spinach and carrots, and he also loves bananas and mangoes.  I have been doing a lot of the baby led weaning, giving them the food to pick up on their own and eat, so when I do try to give him jar food or fresh homemade food from a bowl- I HAVE to give him finger foods every few bites or he gets mad!!  His favorite finger foods are grapes ( cut up very small)  steamed carrots or squash, bananas, cheerios, and blackberries

We have tried a lot of finger foods and he loves pretty much everything- one that he was kind of iffy about was avocados which Im fine with b/c I could eat them all day long, so more for me ;)  

We have still slowly been plodding our way to organic/all-natural foods and products.  Thatcher's foods, I buy exclusively organic except for the occasional beechnut fruities in the pouch and that is mostly for convenience b/c those are something very quick that he can do himself if we are on the go. I also buy the Materne brand from Wal-mart that is all-natural, but they only make applesauce, so eh, choosing my battles.  I'm still hooked on my organic chai- but we have become obsessed and our collection has grown!

My kids also have a new food obsession

They could literally eat a cutie for every meal!

and so could Thatcher ;)

one of my favorite organic products so far has been my shampoo and conditioner

My hair has honestly never felt better ( its is in desperate need of a trim though) 

Anyways, I have been doing pretty good on my goals so far.  See the list here

1. read 10 books from the classic literature list- this is the one I haven't made that much progress on b/c I haven't had time to do much more reading than my devotions, but I have come to the conclusion that Im really not a Dickens fan.....sorry.

2. Keep track of all the books I read this year-......well, thats been pretty easy b/c I haven't been reading much

3. Read the Bible through- again, have been reading my Bible, but just my normal devotions ( which I have been doing a psalm a day) hoping to reach this goal!

4. Teach my children the importance of reading classic lit. and reading in general- we have been working on Treasure Island still and this summer I think we will move on to the Little House books

5. Watch less t.v.- this has been going fairly well thanks to the beautiful weather we have been having!

6. Eat better- we have been doing much much better with this- eating much healthier (with one cheat day a week) and trying to really be conscience about what we are putting into our bodies as far as hormones, pesticides and everything that come with processed foods

7. Lose weight- I have really been working at this goal for the past week and a half and have already lost 9 lbs!! This is significant for me and I am already feeling so much more comfortable in my clothes and I am loving the my fitness pal app- so helpful!!

8. Get up to date with memory keeping- besides still being sure that I am taking pictures of everything ( especially just our daily lives) I have completely failed at this one!! I really want to get up to date with things!

9.  Give more- this is a very personal goal and I don't wanna share a whole lot about it, but I'll say I feel the Lord really working in me with this goal!

10. Grow in the Lord- again, a very personal goal- growing daily :)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend as we gear up for Spring Break and the Easter holiday :)

my cute little spring salt and pepper shakers :), okay, Im done for real- have a great weekend!

balance

Sooooo.....its been awhile! I am horrible...HORRIBLE!! at keeping up with blogging!!  But, you know, Im okay with it- I am a mommy of 3 little ones, homeschooling Jude, involved in my church, head of ladies ministry, and a youth pastors wife- shew! I have been working on BALANCE these past few weeks.  It is extremely hard to find balance these days!! I feel overwhelmed alot and like I should be doing a better job in most areas of my life.   Chaotic was the best way to describe how I felt.  I was having a hard time keeping up with everything.  So one day, I just spent all day getting organized. My brother and sister in law took Jude and Elsie to the zoo, so I was running around like a crazy woman doing laundry ( Thatcher sadly, spent most of the day in the exersaucer)  cleaning, organizing, making lists and checking things off- iCal has become one of my best friends!! So, now for about a week, I have felt *big breath* like I can breathe again!! So, thanks to my sweet family and my amazing organizing skilld (ha!! riiiiight....) I feel back on track now- I feel like we have balance again :)  What are some of your best organizing tips and things you do to keep balance?

Goals

Okay, can I tell you that I NEVER make resolutions.  But I read a lot of different blogs and I was inspired to make a few goals for myself this year ( by this blog http://www.jennymeyerson.com/ )  Anyways, she has a HUGE bucket list of things she wants to do, and I thought that would be a great idea, but Im making a goals list for 2012! I love making goals, and especially writing them down and then being able to look back and see what you have accomplished!  Here it goes:

1.Read 10 classic books - from this list http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/1997/june97/list.html

I have already read a few on the list and right now I am working on "A Tale of Two Cities" and "Great Expectations" and also have started "Treasure Island" with the kids :)

2. Keep track of all the books I read this year

3. Read the Bible through ( I have done this twice before)

4.Teach my children the importance of reading classic literature and reading in general

5. Watch less t.v.- I own a television, I don't have channels, but we do have netflix.  This goal is more for my kids, not letting them watch as much t.v.- I limit how much they watch anyways, but I would love to get to the point where they don't watch t.v. at all ( lofty goal, I know!!) 

6. Eat better!! We have been trying to make the transition to more organic/all-natural foods and products in general, but I am our biggest hinderance, b/c I LOVE chocolate!!  I especially love hostess chocolate cupcakes and would devour a whole box a day if I could in good conscience!  

7. Lose weight- see above comment ;)

8. Get up to date with my scrap booking/memory book things.  Ugh, I am soooo far behind- we will see if this happens!

9. Give more- give more of my time, my efforts, money, love- just GIVE more!

10- Grow in the Lord- trying to do this daily- listening to the Holy Spirit, praying and reading more!

These are some of my goals for this year, I will update the progress and tell you about what I am reading and what Im eating ( or wishing I was eating! haha!)  What are some of your resolutions/goals/bucket list items??  Have a great weekend!

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!!!