Journey to Excellence

This week seemed to zip by. I am certain it was because we had some sunshine and milder temps. That gives everybody more energy and a lot more gets accomplished. Before you know it the day is done. The Past Week in our Regular Life We have awoken from the winter dead. I am starting to dream about planting flowers and gardening. I am planning the painting of the trim of our house and our front porch. I can't wait to get outside and start sprucing things up! The kids and I rode our bikes a couple of afternoons. That felt fantastic! The winner of my last Dial coupon giveaway was Julie @ Smart Savvy Mama . Thanks to all that entered! I will have another giveaway next week so check back! The Schooling Basics Bible  - Our discussions this week were all about Lent. Grammar  - This week we moved onto predicates! Diagramming is so fun! Spelling  - We added the "bossy r" to chunking, copy work and dictation in Spelling U See and memorized "Twinkle Twinkle Lit...

In our regular life this week… I like to think that I am generally good at handling stress. But this week I struggled. It's difficult to have so many things out of your control and to watch so much injustice happen. I caved to the pressure and had a couple of rough days emotionally.  But, I am finding my way back out of the darkness and putting my trust back where it should be. I am sure the cold temperatures and constant snow and ice have not helped matters either. It is so hard to feel motivated to do anything in these temps. And when I feel sluggish physically I feel sluggish emotionally. The greatest news is that the temps will be in the 50's and 60's starting tomorrow. It's already been 30 degrees warmer which has made a huge difference! Hallelujah!!! In our homeschool this week… We had a great week of school. I am grateful for the pleasure of teaching my children and getting to watch them grow and enjoy learning. Bible - We learned all about the maj...

We were homebound all week, beginning last Saturday because of a covering of ice and then about 6 inches of snow. It has been bitterly cold. Dawson was out of school all week; Kyndal was out Tuesday and Wednesday. When they are home all day it is really hard to get any schoolwork done with all of the distractions. We live in a small house and there are only so many places we can all be, especially since we only heat the main living areas during the day. We did do the basics on Monday, some snow play and Yahtzee (that's math, y'all)! and then spent Thursday preparing for an Olympics party we were hosting for the kids' friends. We had an epic party! Today Eli and Brynne are spending the day playing in the snow at their friends' house. To say this week did not go as planned would be an understatement, in more ways than one. My child support trial was continued because my ex-husband was unable to leave his home due to the snow. The delay was certainly an unf...

In our regular life this week… As it was a COLD week, we stayed in the house unless it was absolutely necessary to leave it! I usually love winter. But this year I am just over it. It's probably because heating our house is a challenge. I looked ahead to the 10 day forecast and see more frigid temps and precipitation. Yuck. AND it has already started to ice … so it's possible all of our weekend plans will be cancelled. With the cold weather, we got caught up on some shows we had DVR'd, and I did some reading. Collin came for a mid-week visit. Otherwise, it was a quiet week. Except …. when I heard the dogs outside barking yesterday (nothing new) and went out to shush them, I heard one who sounded in distress. They had gotten into my gardening area and Buck had gotten his head stuck between the chain link fence and the gate. He was trying to pull his head out and crying. The other dogs were frantic and attacking me while I tried to get him out. The gate is padlocked...

In our regular life this week… It's been a glorious week of family and fun! After celebrating Eli's 10th birthday on Sunday, we moved on into our Christmas festivities. We had such a nice time as a family. Then we took down all of the inside Christmas decorations on the 26th and even sorted through all of our tubs to pare down to only the decorations we plan to use in the future. We are keeping it simple from now on. Christmas decorations are festive and fun, but we just prefer regular life. In our homeschool this week… Other than finishing up the final two episodes of Liberty's Kids , building with Legos, and getting in some P.E. by way of bowling league and basketball practice, we haven't touched a school book or worksheet. And we won't until our break concludes on January 13th! Places we’re going and people we’re seeing… We went to "town" yesterday so that Kyndal could give haircuts to Rick, Eli and me. She gave me an awesome hair...

In our regular life this week… My brother Tim, sister-in-law Shawna, and niece Bell, are visiting this week. They have consumed our regular life as we try to squeeze in every second we can with them. We took some family photos while we were all together. Unfortunately we had to gather at night because of school and work schedules, so we didn't get any outside shots with good lighting. We just did the best we could. In our homeschool this week… School is good. Family is better. We did get lots of school work done this week, but we condensed it into shorter amounts of time because we wanted to maximize our time with my brother's family, and we have a special time planned with daddy in Oklahoma this weekend. Spelling -  Best Guess was a success this week. And, both kids got 100% on their Pre-tests so we don't have to take a final test. They learned about the long e sound using e, ea, ee, ei, ie, and y. They had the pleasure of learning the "i before...