What a week!

In my life...
I've been working hard at eating right and adding some exercise into my daily routine. That's one.... mediocre in my opinion.  I've also been working hard at cleaning, organizing, and decluttering through the first floor.  I totally cleaned out our laundry room/family closet the other day and it feels so good to walk in there now to wash laundry.

In our homeschool....
I've been SUPER busy trying to juggle three kids with different curriculum and all still in fairly teacher involved stages. Trying to find the best schedule (but you can read more about that in yesterday's post).

My favorite thing this week was seeing Howler write his name so neatly:

A link or picture to share:
Who can resist this cuteness???

Not me that's for sure.  Stinking adorable!

So I'm linking up today so click on the button and check out the other homeschool mother's journals out there in blogland.

A day in the life in the NOT back to school hop

It's the final week of the NOT back to school blog hop and this week's topic is a day in the life.  So ya'll want to know what a day in the life is like (otherwise you wouldn't be here reading this right now right?).  So here it is, the ugly truth.

I am NOT a morning person.  I resemble this:

until about 10am.  Some days even longer (today was one of the longer days).  And caffeine really has no effect on me so I can't even down a pot of yummy coffee for any kind of benefit.  So KOJ is up and out the door at 6:30 on Mon and Fri and 7am on the other three days.  When he leaves he comes and kisses me goodbye and lets me know who's awake and what they're doing.  Princess has been thinking that 6:30-7 is a great time to wake up so I'm not getting much sleeping in time lately.  Usually Sierra and I head downstairs by 7:30.  The last few days I've been doing the shower thing right away followed by breakfast before I even SIT down because if I sit down first I'm a goner till at least 10.  If I do this I'm pretty awake by 9am.

So here's what an "ideal" day looks like (some days this is real and others it just doesn't happen - I have four small children who are completely unpredictable at times).

9am - head upstairs, monkeys monkey around in their room, mama rides her bike for 10 min, does some stretches. (this did NOT happen today)

9:30am - princess down for nap, monkeys and mama downstairs  (this did happen today lol)

9:45am - group time at school - we do our calendar, weather chart, and days of school sticks in plastic cups.  Then we move to the big table in the dining room and we do one or two activities as a group (including Squirrel who mostly has his own curriculum).  I also read a small portion of Squirrel's NIrV translation bible out loud, we talk about what it said, and I pray for our day.  Group time looks kinda like this:

10:30ish sometimes later - I have Squirrel start his math and sometimes his journal page and I take the other two in the playroom and we talk about our letter of the week do their school stuff.

Today it was about 11:30 before Squirrel was ready to move on in school subjects BUT I don't think he started math at 10:30 either, it was definitely later today.

Then I focus on Squirrel and shoo the other two outside or put on a Leapfrog video or both because schooling Squirrel alone can take some time.

Today at 11:30 Squirrel and I started his spelling and Princess woke up from her nap,
at 12 we broke for lunch.
Spider went down for a nap at 12:30 and I did his before FIAR book with him when I tucked him in
At 12:45 we finished spelling which took about 3 minutes and then I had him clean up his spelling supplies.
At 1:20 I finally tossed the cut up veggies and meatballs in the crock pot for dinner and ate a mostly cold lunch of pizza bagels.  Then I zoned out for a bit.
At about 2:30 I did reading with Howler and
at about 2:50 I did grammar with Squirrel.
At about 3:20 I started hunting for my car keys because we had to go to my mom's this afternoon for a while.  At about 3:51 I finally found my keys and went out and headed off.

Normally in the afternoon I do FIAR with the older two while Sawyer is still napping and after I've put Sierra up for her 2nd nap which she usually takes around 2:30/3pm.  But because I knew we were leaving I did not put her down for her 2nd nap and we did not do FIAR today.  I've decided to do FIAR books for two weeks, reading it at least 3 days one week and 2 the other and any other days are gravy.

I don't feel that our current schedule is very efficient but it's only the 2nd week in and I have three boys at three different grade and skill levels and it's a terribly interesting juggling act.  I figure I'll keep juggling until I finally catch all the balls.  Ideally I'd like to have an hour of free time in the afternoon and I think once I have princess on a one nap a day schedule and she and Spider are napping at the same time that will be attainable but right now it just isn't.  I'm also going to try to plan more crock pot meals and things I can prepare ahead and just pop in the oven so that I'm not trying to rush around prepping dinner after such a long day.

And can I just say that writing and the reading about my own day just gave me a mind numbing headache.  Complete chaos.  Complete, but it's my life, what are ya gonna do?

Check out all the other day in the life blog posts by clicking this:

The first week of school is done

Welcome to another edition of the homeschool mother's journal.  I'm linking up here today so head over and check out the other journal entries shared around the web!

In my life this week:

The weather this week had been nice, hot during the days but cooling off fantastically in the evenings.  LOVE.

Not much other than starting school happened here this week.  KOJ took a promotion at work and so we're getting used to his new even longer drive (which means new longer days for me and the kids).  Tomorrow we're going to take the kids apple picking which I'm pretty excited about.  My life is pretty boring huh?

In our homeschool this week:
We started school this week.  It went very nicely.  I'll say though that if you walk into our home and expect to find a neat and orderly classroom and a neat and orderly class you're going to have to look elsewhere because you won't find that here.  This week I started the main curriculum with the oldest monkey.  He's doing 1st grade this year and I wanted to get into a flow with him.  Next week I'll add in my k-4 monkey's curriculum (this week he and the toddler tot monkey just played different activities and watched leapfrog videos).  I am really happy with Squirrel's curriculum.  It flows nicely with little to no teacher prep and with four small monkeys it's exactly what I NEED!  We spent Thursday at the park this week and made a short trip to the library after naps in the afternoon.

My favorite thing this week was:
Doing school on the couch with Squirrel this morning.  I like that we can do our school wherever we want/need to here at home.

Questions/thoughts I have:

How do I balance it all?  Now that school has begun I'm so focused on that and doing well with it and being consistent that watching my calories in the losing weight process, and menu planning and cleaning and such get kinda ignored or put on the back burner.

A photo/video/link to share:

 This is what school looks like.

This too.  FUN!  And helping each other.

He calls, He equips

 Moses was called to lead the entire nation of Israel out of captivity.  He had a stutter.  He did not have faith that God would equip him to do the job at hand.  Moses pretty much solved the problem himself - by having his brother Aaron speak for him.  Am I the only one who wonders what would have happened if Moses had just trusted that God had a plan to equip him?  Perhaps God planned to cure him of his stutter.  Perhaps.  I don't know, I'm not God, but it is certainly a possibility.

Sometimes I know that I try to do God's job of equipping.  Sometimes, I probably even ignore the call in the first place.  But after a discussion I was recently part of something has become abundantly clear to me.

Those whom HE calls HE will equip.

A quick search of the word equip on biblegateway gave me these three verses (there were others but these were the most applicable - the others were about equipment):

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV) ¹⁶ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷ so that the servant of God^[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

God equips us with His word.  We can be equipped for life by reading and studying and absorbing his word.

Ephesians 4:11-13 (NIrV)  ¹¹ He is the One who gave some the gift to be apostles. He gave some the gift to be prophets. He gave some the gift of preaching the good news. And he gave some the gift to be pastors and teachers. ¹² He did it so that they might prepare God's people to serve. If they do, the body of Christ will be built up.
 ¹³ That will continue until we all become one in the faith and in the knowledge of God's Son. Then we will be grown up in the faith. We will receive everything that Christ has for us.


He has given us all different gifts and He has equipped us each to use our gifts.  We should not be a carbon copy of that other totally awesome blog mom.  We should not be a carbon copy of anyone.  We should rejoice in the uniqueness that God has created in creating us and we should embrace our calling.

Hebrews 13:20-21 (NIV)  ²⁰ Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, ²¹ equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

equip you with EVERYTHING.  What does everything entail?  I don't know.  I think that tends to depend on what you have been called personally to do for the kingdom.  I have been called to be a mom, so for me part of EVERYTHING includes patience, perseverance, wisdom.  Some callings require the equipment of knowledge, some require a large amount of money.

I've posted about adoption here on my blog before.  I've recently been saddened by some outlooks on adoption - international adoption specifically.  

James 1:26-27 ²⁶ Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. ²⁷ Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

To be more clear here are the verses in the MESSAGE: ^26-27Anyone who sets himself up as "religious" by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.

I think that we often - like Moses - deceive ourselves with thinking that we can't do what God has called us to because we don't have enough time, talent, or money.  But it's a LIE.  If God has called us He has equipped us.  He calls some to adopt, He calls others to give financially towards bringing these homeless and loveless children into warm and loving homes and others He calls to neither adopt nor give but to pray - a gift above measure.  But, to ignore or to judge those who are willing to open themselves up, their homes up, to ask for the community of believers around them to aid in the endeavor to bring the homeless and loveless home? That is nobody's calling.

Let me close with this: sometimes what God calls people to do doesn't make sense to the world's sensibilities. When we get to a point where we care more about the world's sensibilities than obeying what we believe God has called us to do then we have gone terribly, horribly wrong and my heart grieves for that.

Not Back to school pictures!

We are joining in the Not back to school hop once again.  This week is school picture week.  So I snapped some pics of my boys over the last two days of school.

 Squirrel being a silly guy!

 Spider monkey

 Squirrel has been in a silly mood lately.  Princess watches on.

 My big little first grader: Kayden, 5yrs old

 My precious K-4 studen: Colton, 4yrs old

 Brothers.  This is what school is made of people.

 Howler - he's always happy.  It took one shot to get a nice smile from him.

Toddler Tot - Sawyer, 2.5yrs old

Teeny Tot - Sierra, 13 mo (and such a helper haha)

One more pic of the precious princess.

Make sure to stop over to the blog hop and check out the other great student photos.

Blog Hop

Muffin Tin Monday returns!

It's back to school day for us today and in celebration I brought back our Muffin Tin meals!  Today we had a breakfast muffin tin and I'm glad we did because it took me nearly an hour to make the food and put it all together.  Eek.  So here it is:

 Letters, and shapes cut out of sweet potato pancakes, numbers cut out of egg, and bacon made into an = sign and in the tins below a + sign.  The banana circles, frog filled with syrup, and the last three have the scraps from the pancakes and eggs.  The kids pretty much devoured it so at least it didn't go to waste.

 Yum!

Even Princess girl chowed down on some pancakes, eggs, and bacon.  She ate her banana while I cooked.

And that is our Back to School Muffin Tin.  Head over to Muffin Tin Mom and check out the other great Muffin Tins today!

Preview of the coming week

It's the night before the first day of school here in our home and mama's got the jitters.  Of course that also means that the teacher has the jitters.  I'm super excited to start school tomorrow and can't wait to see how things go.  I will spend the next hour or two finishing up getting ready for the week.  This week I've decided to focus on getting into a routine with Squirrel and his first grade curriculum before setting in to get Howler started on his official K-4 stuff.  I'm a little nervous about teaching 1st grade and I'm a little nervous about teaching Howler to read.  I'm not at all nervous and couldn't be more excited about starting our Five in a Row adventures this week with Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel!

So coming up this week on the blog:
Monday - Muffin Tins are returning tomorrow with a special back to school muffin tin breakfast!
Tuesday - School pictures!  (Done by me of course, lol)
Friday - I plan to join back up with the Homeschooling Mother's journal blog hop


Oh and we went yard sale shopping this weekend!  We had a blast.  The kids scored some hot wheels cars (like they needed more, lol) from the early/mid 1990's!  KOJ was super pleased to score a Discovery Toys marble works set complete in almost brand new condition, he and the boys have played almost non stop with it for the past two days.  I'll be hearing the marbles rolling in my sleep!  I scored some great Eric Carle and Richard Scary books at great prices.  I also scored some furniture - shelves - to replace the futon we have sitting in the entrance to our home.  As soon as I get the futon gone and the shelves in place I'll be posting about it, I promise, because I cannot wait to share!

So make sure you come back tomorrow and check out our muffin tins!