Kindergarten Graduation

Ok so,yes, she was already doing first grade work. But what homeschooled kindergartener isn't?!! Our amazing co-op offered a kindergarten graduation so we jumped right on board! And it was great as expected! Liza felt super special, and we all had fun. (Poor Daddy had to work though.) My favorite memory for this was the class had learnt a song in sign language, and I was mesmerized by their cute, small, chubby, arms, hands, and fingers singing out the words of the song.
And Liza was so excited to walk up and get her diploma, sigh. It's a long way until we do that again for high school, I can wait, no hurries!

Love that baby girl!!

We all have those days

As I sit here and try to catch my blog on our last year, I'm going through all these old pictures and remembering the funny stories that went along with them. They may not be all that funny to others, but they brought laughter into our home and need to be remembered. And that's why I'm playing catch up. Hopefully my kids will read this and remember these funny tales of themselves, and realize why moms is as crazy as she is.

This one particular day Mae was having a difficult time with her math work. Which I completely sympathize with. I've always despised math. The thought of doing it would make me cry as a child. So to try and not pass along those discouraging feelings to my daughter I was trying to make it fun, an Adventure! But no such luck. She had to relearn everything we'd already done.

She started laying her head dramatically on the table and moaning. Oh Boy! I know that feeling so well! So teasingly I started checking for a pulse, asking if she needed me to call math 911!

Carrying the joke on from there she drops to the floor and sticks out a droopy tongue. "Oh No!" I cried, "Math has killed my baby!" Lots of giggling and silly antics ensued. However after the mood had been lightened, she was able to clear her head and finish the work.

A suggestion to all homeschooling moms out there, make it fun. Make it light. Make it happy. The spirit of The Lord is a teaching spirit, and we love to learn. All of us, not only children learn more effectively in a stress free environment. If math stresses you out and makes you want to cry, Pray, laugh, breathe, and try looking at it from a new viewpoint.

My lesson from a silly seven year old. ;)

Joyschool Days

When Eliza was much younger a few of the moms from church came up with the great idea to have their own Joyschool. They invited Liza to join, so I looked more into it. I found out that the Joyschool program is a curriculum you can buy and it's a lot if fun! But my mom friends and I just implemented the basic idea of a once a week 'learning' play date. We've now had Joyschool for two years, Liza for two Timmy has done one.

For Liza it helped fill that social need she has to get together with her friends, to laugh, create, and play imaginary tales. But now that she's older most of those friends are in public school. So we've enrolled in a huge family homeschool co-op.

For Timmy he loved to hear from other teachers than me. But they were Mommies he was familiar with so he was completely comfortable at their houses.

I've dug up some pictures from this last year of Joyschool at our house. So many fun times!

Playing with apps

Yes I'm still a newbie with my iPad. So I've decided to play a bit. I don't think anyone reads my blog anyhow so this is entirely for my benefit. Lol!

I think as soon as I can get my pics from my camera to the iPad, I'll be back in business folks! ;)

On a Roll

Wow I'm on a roll, I've posted once a year for two years!
In my defense we had to turn off our home Internet, and getting to the library to blog with four children in tow is completely unrealistic. However I just got the best Valentines/Birthday/Christmas gift from my sweetie, a new iPad. So I'm back up ad running, sort of. I really need to figure this thing out.
Holding down the vocal search button, while the seven year old walks by complaining she can't find any Socks!, the (Siri?) informs her she can get to the Sox stadium easily but it's "pretty far away". Stunned Mae just replied, "uhhhhh, thanks I guess."
Ahhhh, adventures in technology.
I don't think this post will have many pictures if any, I have no idea how to do that and all my best pics are on my phone. I do have lots of wonderful pictures to catch everyone up on the wonderful things we've been doing this year!

I have to say since I've been homeschooling this has been the most fun year! Not only do I get to do all the fun toddler/pre K things with Timmy and Molly, but Mae and Liza's grade school curriculum has been so fun! We have been making leaps and bounds in our educations around here.

Not only that but family life has had a lot of goings on as well.
Tim is starting college again soon.
Mae's about to be baptized.
Liza is getting so beautiful, and prove me wrong day by day. Lol.
Timmy has turned full fledged boy, and is crazy about super heros, particularly batman and Larryboy.
Molly has had her first birthday and I have a TON of things to catch up on about her.


I have one little brother that moved home and I hadn't realized how much I'd missed him until he came back. Now I don't want him to leave again. Lol.
Another little brother come home from his mission and get married! So I have another sister! That's an entire blog post right there, fun stuff!
Another little brother who has left for his mission to Ohio.
Another little brother who is about to get his Eagle.
My sister is now going to college, and taking care of my sweet niece, such a brave gal!

So you see I have quite a bit to write about. I just have to figure out how to use this thing and find the time to do it!
My cup runneth over. What on earth am I going to do when life gets boring?

Catching Up

Well considering my last post was JULY of last year, (holy cow), I'll do a sum up of catch-up. You see how horrible my journaling is!

I had a pretty ucky pregnancy. I was constantly sick and I never had energy to do anything. I had some wonderful things to look forward to however so I just muddled my way through.
There were some bright spots and blessings throughout the pregnancy.

1) I had the blessing of a terrific midwife and her nurses. And I had my mother around a lot more than other pregnancies, which I loved. In so many words, I had a wonderful support group.

2)There was one point where I thought I wasn't going to be able to afford dance for the girls this year but because their dance teachers love them so much, they made it possible for us to enjoy dance for another year.

3)Tim and I were able to attend Hypnobirthing classes. That prepared us for a natural birth. So many new things we learned! It was amazing.

4)Tim had the opportunity to star as John the Baptist in the play Godspell at our community theater. We've always loved theater ever since we were teenagers, so this was something he had a lot of fun doing. I think however that now that he's back in school he wont have too much time for playacting.

5)This is not so much a bright spot, but I'm looking for blessings in all the the things that happened while I was pregnant. A big thing that happened was that my Grandmother passed away. And my Grandfather is having a hard time coping. However things we have gained from this have been that my Grandfather now lives closer and we get to see him more. And my brother who is an MP was able to get some leave time to come visit. (Unfortunately, his wife couldn't get leave and she was sorely missed.)

6) I was able to have the labor and delivery I asked for. No it didn't go the way I'd imagined in my mind, but when does it ever? :)
I will make a post on my birth story, but I keep getting interrupted by children so I'm trying to go fast.

7)The girls were in another of Mrs. Fain's dance recitals. They loved it of course! And when it was time to start dance again this school year I didnt think I could afford it but we were really blessed and found a way! whew!

8)We (I) have been keeping up with school REALLY well! I'm so proud of us! There will be days that its a struggle for me to let the laundry and dishes sit for awhile so I can go do school with the kids. and I can tell they LOVE that!
They pick school over chores any day. I suppose I've done a good job making school feel like fun/play, whereas cleaning is defined as work. DuM Du DuM!

9)I got to meet one of my favorite authors, Michelle Duggar. I went to a political rally where she was speaking and I only was able to talk to her for a moment but she was very sweet, signed my book and gave me a hug. I was very excited about that, and then I saw that someone making a video of the rally got a shot of Mae clapping to the music! lol! When I asked her why she wasn't smiling she said she didnt know they were filming her!


10) I had to go back and add this one in, I had the coolest blessingways AND a shower for Molly! So many women get just one or the other, I have such awesome friends I was able to enjoy them all at both! A lot of these same women threw my shower for me when I was preggo w/ Timmy. I am surrounded by the best women! :)


Last but not least, after my Molly Girl was born, my younger brother David came home from his two year mission to California. I am SO proud of him. He's grown so much in two years, I cant wait to see what he's going to conquer next!

I have a long list of things I want to blog about, mostly so I wont forget about them later in life. But for now uploading some recent pictures will do. Thank you to any friends who patiently read my blog when I have the time to write. Its a very public journal, but I like it that way. I think I watch what I say better. hehe. ;p

Be patient with me friends, I have FOUR kids now! That may not be a lot to some people, but for me I have to pick and choose what I'm focusing on, and blogging may not make the cut all the time LOL!