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...

That is how we felt a few days this week. Like mush. And we have very few pictures to show because of it. Brynne was sick midweek so we just did the basics on clipboards on the couch and spent the rest of the time watching videos and resting, trying to get Brynne healthy again and preventing the rest of us from getting her virus. It was a steady week, but just not very exciting from a blogging perspective. The Past Week in our Regular Life We had SUCH a fun weekend the past two weekends watching Brynne play basketball. She has played so great and has really gotten aggressive in her play! That's her shooting, in the white headband. Look at that form! Eli also had two great weeks of bowling with an average last Saturday of 70 and an average yesterday of 91! He is working hard to get ready for the state tournament at the end of April. Kyndal passed her yucky virus right on to Brynne, so Brynne was running a fever with a bad sore throat and clogged ears for a couple...

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...

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… The beginning of this week was BUSY! After a busy weekend in Tulsa and then our children's Christmas program at church on Sunday, we were beat on Monday! I spent the majority of the day getting my Business Law class loaded for the class start date of Tuesday. Then Tuesday morning it was time to deliver all of the gifts and food baskets for W. Children's Christmas Fund. We kept it quiet the rest of the week. In our homeschool this week… We basically just spent the week wrapping up a few things. The good news is that we have completed 500 hours of school this first semester, so we are now free to take our Christmas break! I have calculated our proposed days of school for the Spring semester and decided we are safe to take a break from school until January 13th. So we are on an extended Christmas break! Yay!!! Other than little organizing projects, this is what I am planning to do: Places we’re going and people we’re seeing… ...

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...