My Crazy House of Home Schoolers!!!

So I realize my title to this post is a bit....silly....
But, this year of homeschooling so far has been just that...CRAZY!
Lets start with this picture. It really says it all.

I like to title it..."Monkey On My Back"
She is everywhere and on everything.....AND she doesn't like sleep. At least not like I do! ;)

Our home school has definitely changed this year. Teaching Kindergarten, Second, and Third grade have definitely been challenging. I have questioned myself and what in the world I'm doing every day......
We have good days and bad days. Boring days and fun days. Hard days and easy days.

I definitely have to stop my mind from wandering the what if trail...."what if I'm doing it wrong?", "what if they should go to school somewhere else??" " what if I mess them up????"

Oh how I hate those thoughts.

Anyway, God reminded me of what He has called me to do. Not everyone has the same calling. I believe God has unique plans for everyone.

For me it's to  home school my girls. Monkeys on the back and all. It's to go through the easy days and falling on my knees thanking Him for His Grace to make it through the hard ones.....
I'm not perfect. I think I ask my kids for forgiveness at least 20 times a day!!

It's having a messy house and letting it go, having a mound of clean clothes on your bed and in your dryer at all times because for some reason we own like a million pieces of clothing that I can never get put away....whew...I hate laundry!!

It's laughing with my children, crying with them, playing with them, trying to humbly serve my family without complaining and asking for forgiveness when I fail to do that.....which happens daily in this house!  My poor husband!! haha

The life of a mother and wife are not easy. I'm reminded after a hard morning that God has a calling for me and He never said it would be easy.

These are my favorite verse to go to on days like today....



"For I know the plans I have for you, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you future and a hope." Jer 29:11

"For my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." 2 Cor 12:9

I really do enjoy home schooling my girls. I'm thankful for the privilege and freedom to do it.

 Here is another picture of the "monkey's work" Yeah, Emma wasn't so happy about it either. :)

 The "Monkey" is at it again....she's cute.

 and she knows it! :)

 So for now we will continue to give her soda because.....it calms her.....right?!?
Who knows. If only I had her energy and ability to climb anything and everything. Oh what I could do in a day!! I would definitely be Super Mom then!! haha

 

Here's a music video from Selah....I love this song..."Faithful One". how true is that!

Catching up on life

We've been busy over this last year and a half since I've blogged!!

One thing I've noticed after looking back is that my older three girls are growing up!! I can't believe how much they've grown! 

 Leah is now in the 3rd grade, Emma 2nd grade, and Madelyn is a Kindergartner!! Wow can't believe I've been homeschooling for 5 years now!! It's only by God's Grace that we've made it this far!! :)

 The future Artist

 The future Teacher

The future Chef... 

I would say that I have it made ;)

We've celebrated lots of birthdays!!!

 Mady turned 5 on January 8th and Lillian turned one!

 Leah celebrated her 8th birthday and Emma her 7th..

Mit turned 36 this year.....I had to remind him of how old he is...

I celebrated my 29th plus 2 birthday this year!! ;)

Sweet Delilah hit double digits this year!! She turned 10 in May! I love this old lady!

 I ran my first 5k back in April with my friends!! It was very interesting.....colorful!! :) Maybe I'll do another one next year with Leah. She loves to run with me at home.

 This girl is so busy!!! She is every where and climbs everything!!! I don't kno how we do all that we do.....we love her!!

We took a family vacation to Boone, NC this year!! We loved it!! the mountains are so beautiful!! I want to move there now!! haha

 Beautiful view from Grandfathers Mountain

 Our Cabin

 Lils...she's so tiny!!

 My sweet older girls

View from our cabin! <3

It's been such a busy season of life for us. I'm hoping to get back into blogging so I can treasure these precious memories when my girls grow up.

Getting ready.....

We've been busy with school and getting ready for Lillian to arrive! We are excited! I have felt like a total beached whale who can't move! Lol....my wonderful family has graciously jumped in to help Mommy out....Emma is an excellent towel folder! :)

Mady started some kindergarten! We've been working on reading and writing. She is doing so well and loving every minute of it.
Emma's been learning about coins this past week. She loves to count money! She's so funny.

We celebrated Madelyn's 4th birthday on the 8th. She got her favorite character, Mario pajamas! She's so cute! I've had to wash them everyday so she can wear them every night!


Leah's parakeet, Reuben, died a couple weeks ago. She was so sad when he died, we bought her a new one. Softies, I know. :)
His name is Jack the Sparrow. :) he is a green and yellow parakeet about 6 months old. She loves him!

We are finishing up school this week, then taking about three weeks off for Lillian's birth.....only nine more days! Yay!

What we've been up to in the last four months!

We found out in september that we were having another girl! The girls were so funny...they took a vote on what they wanted. Emma and Mady won! : )...they are all really excited to have a new little sister. We are naming her Lillian Michelle. We cant wait for her to join our family in just a couple of weeks! We've been getting ready for Lillian by painting the room!
Mady will share a room with Lillie once she is sleeping through the night well. So Mady got to choose the colors! She wanted pink with pokadots! It's still not finished, Tim is going to put up chair rail and some crown molding.

We've been working hard in school! They've learned so much! Leah is reading on second grade level, and Emma is doing very well too!
We were really looking forward to our Christmas break! When Leah wrote Lame on her paper for her name, I knew it was time for a much needed break! Lol


First we went to a local Christmas tree farm and cut down our own tree! It was a lot of fun!

Then we made cookies, and ate them....:) then we made some more!
We had some fancy dinners just for us!
Played lots of Wii games! We even played early morning Jinga! I don't recommend that unless you consume at least two cups of coffee first! : )

The girls had their children's Christmas play at our church! They all sang so well! I loved watching them.
Tim and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary! God has blessed me with a wonderful husband. I cant believe its been nine years! I can't wait to see what The Lord has planned for us in the next nine years. : )


Well that pretty much sums up the last four months! We've enjoyed everyday! Now we are getting ready to start school again on Wednesday. We will go full force for the next two and a half weeks, then Lillian is scheduled for her c-section on January 25 @ 9:30 in the morning!!!!.....we can't wait! Let the new chaos begin! We are so blessed with all The Lord has given and provided for us in 2012! We can't wait to see what He has in store for us in 2013!
I'm hoping to be better at blogging again. I've really slacked off this fall :(
May God bless you all in the new year!