First off – the WEATHER MAY DRIVE ME NUTS. Saturday was a beautiful 88 degrees. Monday? SNOW, people. 

I just don’t even know what to think any more.

But on to our week. 

We celebrated Laurianna’s 17th birthday with our family and a few friends. My brother’s family lives nearby, so cousins were able to be with us too. They love hanging out with our kids and even though there is an age difference, I love seeing our kids interact and grow up together, especially since we didn’t have any cousins nearby while we were growing up. 

The main thing Laurianna wanted was a journaling Bible from Altar’d State. She was so excited and it is so beautiful. :) Other fun things that she loves right now: plants and succulents. Her final paper for her English class last semester was on the benefits of house plants, so my mom gave her several small plants to add to her growing collection. 

I spent a mind-numbing amount of time at the orthopedic doctor this week with my grandmother. You all – the stories I could tell (but don’t) about her – well, they would definitely make you laugh (or cry in sympathy) with me. 

Her ankle is healing well. This week’s hilarity – choosing a new cast color. For those of you who don’t know, my grandmother is legally blind, rather stubborn, and very indecisive. She was rather irritated they didn’t have GLITTER to put on her cast and it took her about 20 minutes to decide on a new cast color. (I wish I were kidding). 

Meanwhile, across town, McKenna waited for me patiently at the orthodontist and received the ALL CLEAR after her braces along with her new retainer. Two kiddos are now finished with braces and (hopefully) only one more to go. 

The fact that we could have purchased a very lovely vehicle with the money we have put into our children’s mouths does not escape me. On the other hand, I do realize our kiddos mouths were in pretty rough shape.

McKenna also had another job interview this week and found out that she received both of the jobs she applied for – yay!! Summer work is on the way and savings for a car will begin! 

Zachary – well, he has a few subjects to still wrap up and at times this past few weeks his motivation has been … lacking … shall we say? We have been consistent in five areas: grammar, writing, math, reading, and history (he has already finished science). He and I have been having fun this week playing with Snapchat and Instagram filters. 

Our current read-aloud, The Hiding Place – well, let’s just say we are about 1/2 way through and already I am getting choked up in parts. Personally I cannot wait until we can visit Corrie ten Boom’s home and shop in the Netherlands in a little less than a month, especially since our family has a history with her. For me, that makes this trip even more special. 

We ended the week with a little boy feeling not quite himself. The boys are gearing up for a camping trip this weekend and at swim practice last night, Kaleb wasn’t feeling great. He decided to stay home from practice and just lay low – and ended up falling asleep about 20 minutes after everyone left. Definitely a rarity.

That’s it for this week! We are gearing up for a homeschool prom for Laurianna this weekend and she is rather excited about that. Hope you all have had a great week – would love to hear how it’s going for you! 

We started the week out with snow and ended with 70+ degrees. Woohoo!!! Finally some warm weather seems to be nosing its way to us! 

Overall, this week has been a bit exhausting both physically and emotionally. It started out with McKenna and I traveling home from Teach Them Diligently in Atlanta (which was fabulous!! – notice our unsocialized kiddos interacting with others). She hung out mainly at the Skrafty booth all weekend and spent time with kids she met last year and has been talking to since – I love that!

It’s always wonderful to connect with other families and share heart-to-hearts with them. (sidenote: I’ll definitely be speaking at several of their venues next year – where is your favorite one??)

After Monday though, the kids had some things come up, but I have to tell you. As hard as it is sometimes as a parent (and as much as you think you have messed up time after time), seeing your kids pull together when they have been disappointed and support each other – well, that’s just enough to make you cry happy tears along with those tears of disappointment. 

You all – it’s hard to see your kids hearts hurting and not being able to fix what’s wrong. 

BUT – the week ended with our house full of laughter and friends, which was a bit of much needed medicine for all the stuff happening earlier in the week. 

Co-op on Tuesday ended up being fairly low-key. Zachary’s group took a field trip to one of those one-hour clue houses where you have to solve a problem in order to escape. His group did it in one minute over – which considering it was three thirteen year olds, it wasn’t too bad at all! 

Meanwhile, the younger class spent the last bit of their time playing games (chess is one of Kaleb’s favorites). Confession – all my kids know how to play chess and I don’t. I really think I need to fix that!

Both boys started working on Teaching Textbooks 3.0 (the online version) this week. We had a blast picking new backgrounds and buddies for the boys and seeing how it worked – you all are going to LOVE it! 

We started a new read aloud this week, The Hiding Place, one I really wanted to squeeze in before we visit the Netherlands and Corrie ten Boom’s home there. During our reading time, the kids have all been working on Paint by Sticker books. They were something I picked up on a whim recently, and they LOVE them. 

Can I tell you a little secret? I’m especially loving them because they are q.u.i.e.t. While I love LEGOs and other hand-on manipulatives, sometimes quiet is my friend. Especially when we are reading together. So, these new books = win-win in my book. I’m especially loving the Masterpieces version because Kaleb and I have been looking at the artwork and artists after he finishes them. 

We wrapped up the week with a MUCH better dissection this week of a starfish. So far this has been our favorite one! 

While it wasn’t officially on the lab list for the year, the starfish was a specimen we had already purchased and it went along with the chapter we were studying this week. The girls are so close to the end of their book – only two more dissections and a few more chapters before we wrap up the year! 

Both girls each had two job interviews this week as well, getting prepped for the summer season. Laurianna is planning to continue lifeguarding but splitting her time between two different pools. McKenna will be lifeguarding for the first time as well and would like to help with the younger kids on swim team. 

That’s it for this week! Hope you all have had a great week – would love to hear how it’s going for you! 

This was an ordinary (and not so ordinary) week. We started off the first few days with our typical routine. McKenna is on a bit of a lighter week since she worked ahead on several of her subjects because she knew we would be traveling at the end of the week. 

Kaleb has been working hard on all of his remaining subjects: keyboarding, science, math (almost done!), reading, spelling, and history. 

He has also been playing with Q the Robot quite a bit (speaking of which, if you haven’t entered THIS giveaway, go do it now!). I’ll be sharing a full review of our time with Q soon, but it was a really fun STEM project for him and we are looking forward to the add-ons with Q. 

On Sunday we brought our Wii upstairs from the basement. The last bit it hasn’t been getting a lot of use, but the last few days have been hilarious fun with all the kids. For the record, my feet haven’t been on the Wii Fit for over eight years (that’s what happens when you move and it is sent to the basement). I’m happy to say that in those eight years I’ve managed to keep many of my records and set new ones this week. With it in the living room we’ve been taking short breaks throughout the day and enjoying a little active rest. :)

Both boys took place in our Boy Scout troop’s Court of Honor. Kaleb received the rank of Scout. Over the last few months he has been working on several of his merit badges, but didn’t have all of the steps completed, so next time will be rewarding for him. 

Zachary received the rank of Star. He has REALLY been working hard the last several months as well. By his calculations he could rank to Eagle Scout by age 15 (possibly earlier), but he sat down with me recently and said he wanted to wait a bit and focus on the different badges and helping out some of the younger kids (like Kaleb) in his troop – and be an example for them.

(and this mom’s heart was so proud.)

He received seven merit badges (he says he has a few more he should have gotten as well – but oh well!!) and his leader reminded us all of his very first camping trip where he lost his brand new Scout shirt on the trail. Fortunately for him, a hiker later found it (and since I had actually sewn his troop number patches on) and mailed it back to our troop! 

McKenna and I left late Wednesday afternoon to head to Teach Them Diligently in Atlanta. We made a pit stop at Carisa’s house to pick her up, so we could drive down together. 

And the handy thing about homeschooling? It can become car-schooling just as easily. Although McKenna had finished up a good chunk of her schoolwork, she spent some time in the car taking a biology exam and also a quiz. Next week we’ll be back to dissections!

One thing we have been SO EXCITED ABOUT in our house – Teaching Textbooks now has an online version (version 3.0). We’ve been using it for about a month now with Laurianna and it’s been fabulous!! With her going back and forth to the community college each week, we bought her a Chromebook at the beginning of the year, and that meant she had to work on math on the few days she was home…and it was just getting to be a pain. 

The online version – YOU ALL!! Look at the cute background. New buddies. And it stores all the info online for me. It’s been a complete win-win for us and I can’t wait to share more with you soon. Just suffice it to say, it rocks. :)

Other than that, I’ve been filling out my curriculum shopping list (hint: free printable) and working on what we’ll be using next year for the kiddos and deciding what areas need some changing up. I *think* I have McKenna’s year nailed down, but she and I will be talking more about a few things this weekend when she can see the books in person. 

I’ve already ordered a few things for next year (getting a jump on things), but making sure I have all the subjects covered on paper is always a huge help. 

That’s it for this week! Hope you all have had a great week – would love to hear how it’s going for you! 

Did you all get snow too? 

As far as our entire year goes, this week we had our largest snowfall – on the first day of spring! Welcome, Spring! For us though, that has meant a lot of cozying up inside together, playing games, playing out in the snow, and spending time together. A warm blanket and a cold day also means some reading time for me! I’m finally putting a dent in a few books. :) 

A snow day early in the week meant that McKenna and I missed out on co-op this week. Although the storm hadn’t hit, it was supposed to get nasty out mid-afternoon and we opted to cancel our literature and finance classes. And since we had snow – obligatory snow pictures, right? 

Another added benefit: having Laurianna home. The community college also closed early and she didn’t have to work, so she had an additional two days off from her classes. Unfortunately for her, one of her classes was scheduled to end this week, so it will likely be postponed a bit. 

Her classes are going really well this semester. We are really glad that she dropped her English class early on, because her Human Anatomy class and her psychology class have both kept her busy. She is doing very well in both of them – and most importantly, LOVING them. (And really, that’s what matters the most!)

Zachary has been spending more time on the WordUp Vocabulary program from Compass Classroom and it cracks me up listening to him work through the lessons. If you’ve ever heard the instructor, he cracks the worst jokes – which are right on the level Zachary rather enjoys. 

He is pausing and replaying sections of each lesson and then relaying the humor to me. Just cracks me up. 

Kaleb is also moving along in his All About Reading 4 program and now that the end of the year is in sight, it’s been motivation for him to continue pushing through (even if there are other things he’d rather do). He has made such huge strides the last bit! 

Cold days = time for soup. Believe it or not, until this fall, I’d never made chicken noodle soup before. I have zero idea why, but lately it’s been something the kids have all been enjoying, and I rather like making, especially in the instant pot because it’s really rather simple. 

One *new* and fun thing for me this week – being a part of a Facebook event with two of my friends and doing a LIVE video. Live scares me to death, people. Horribly so. Especially when there are four kids in our house, which typically can translate to a recipe for disaster. :) We are holding a three week event (you can still join us!!) called Oily Kids and sharing different ways we use essential oils with our families. This week we’ve already talked about helping the kiddos (and ourselves) focus and there are some more great topics coming up. Each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we are going live at 1pm EST – and did I mention there are giveaways too? I’ll be sharing on chores and cleaning on Monday – come sit in with me! 

And last is another book I’ve been enjoying, Just Open the Door. Completely not on my reading list for the year, but hospitality has been so much more on my heart the past year or so, and this book is so in line with all those thoughts. So to the top of the pile it goes! 

That’s it for our week – HOW WAS YOURS??