Wasn't what I planned, Still Good

             It took me a while emotionally to write this post. We moved back into our house three weeks ago and  I was not all bubbly and excited or kissing the walls, like I felt I was supposed to be . I was happy to be moving out of the fifth wheel but  I was really overwhelmed and to be honest disappointed. I like to be honest on my blog. If I'm lying on here there really is no point to it so it took me a while to write because I needed some perspective...and the pinterest pin that goes with that is..

      The renters moved out on a weekend which had us slowly moving in all week long. The kids and I started unpacking and it was kind've  like shopping at your favorite garage sale. I say it like that, because a lot of the stuff I saved was sentimental. It's still kind've crap, but its our crap. The toys the kids packed away 3 years ago are more age appropriate for their younger sibling, so that's been pretty convenient. All of our family  portraits are taken Pre Waylon so I haven't hung up any pictures yet. I unpacked my beloved Fiesta ware plates, which I really missed. I discovered how long silverware drawers really are! It is  mind blowing! I found the most enormous Pyrex ever . I think its actually a standard casserole dish 9 x 11 but I forgot how huge they are! I am amazed at how quickly dinner is cooking, and I forget that I can have more than one burner on. It took everyone a while to get use to the ease of lighting the oven, y'all just turn it on? You don't have to get out a lighter ? I had to give the kids instructions. It's like they forgot how to live in a house. It's shocking really . Waylon calls it the green house.( It is by the way green. ) The bathtub has been a huge upgrade for him. My kids seem quieter now that we have more room. They just chill out. I'm trying to teach them how to use a backyard. I keep telling them to go out there. Their response is " and do what?" They have been playing hide and seek inside. Because our 1,000 square feet has all sorts of nooks and crannies to their young eyes. I'm sure you've been waiting for me to tell you that I once again have my very own washer and dryer and it is frickin AMAZING!


On one hand we are all excited to be in a house and on the other hand, the kids are all still in one room, which is not what I wanted. People keep asking me if I am so happy to be back in a house and I am ....but it's still not the amount of space I was dreaming of. When I put stuff away and it's all going in the same spot , I feel like I never left and it's creepy. Twilight zone creepy. Like the past three years were an elaborate dream. I know that sounds crazy....but its true. I really didn't think we would be coming back to the same house. I thought we were going to keep it as a rental. I thought a bigger rental would have popped up sooner for us to move into. I thought housing prices might stay lower and we could buy again. I just thought things would be different once we got to this point. Things are not bad either.  I look around and see so many blessings and the biggest ones are my children's smiley faces but it took me a while to accept that my expectations were not going to happen how I thought they should. How many times on this journey has my life not gone as planned? How long is it going to take me to really stop fighting that,  because I have really been fighting it this year. I think this is a  big moment for me and I'm trying to really accept that God's plan is greater than Kristina's plan. Cuz let me tell you, I got plans.

my new mantra?

     A few things we realized we didn't have packed that we thought we did.... silverware. I guess we brought it all with us. I left it in the fifth wheel for camping so we had to buy more silverware. A toaster. I have been promising my kids a toaster. Looking back I should've put one in the trailer, but it was just one more thing taking up space which was so valuable. I have never seen kids so happy to have bagels and eggo waffles before. I might have actually deprived my children.                A microwave. In our rush to move out of the house, I have no idea what we did with our microwave. A television. We had 2 TVs. One we put in our first trailer and then sold it. The other went to storage. If you have a TV in storage, I have bad news. If it's not a temperature regulated storage, your TV might break. We had a long week without television this summer. I'm sure my kids will start blogging about these conditions we parent them in soon!
    
  Then we have homeowner problems. The first one is storage. Storage has always been an issue in this house. We have one linen closet, so I'm not sure what to do with all of our bedding. I can always use those Space bags that I used in the trailer but I was really  hoping to leave those behind. I just don't want to see them ever again, is that asking too much? We had to buy shelves. I have no idea how we managed without shelves before or a bookcase. That was remedied this weekend with an Ikea trip. Did you know I have been to Ikea in California, Utah and Colorado. pretty special huh?

the kids game room

         I've had a few great moments in the house so far. On July 3rd Oceanside has an early Independence day  firework show. We were doing our normal stuff. Kids were in the living room, I was washing dishes, when all of a sudden we had an amazing view for the fireworks from our kitchen window. Waylon is under the impression that this is a normal occurrence and has been waiting for more fireworks by the window.      Another really cool thing is a space we have in our garage that Ian made a little room out of. It use to be an office, but  we turned it  into a game room for the kids. Except it is still the most quietest place of the house so I am constantly sneaking down there to nap or read. They usually find me pretty quick. But I love it down there, you can always hear birds chirping.

       We've also had a few mishaps. We were about to  sit down to our 4th of July dinner, when Ian tried to adjust the sinks water pressure. Never mess with plumbing before a meal. The valve broke off in his hand and we had to turn off the water to the house. No big deal for us. We've gone without water right? I think we've been to Home Depot every other day.Some times twice a day.  Then the kids told us that they saw a mouse, twice. I insisted that they were seeing lizards, which we have a lot of.     Nope .     At Tuesday's dinner , our mousey friends made an appearance, which again sent us off to Home Depot. Ian caught two and I could tell he wanted me to be impressed but I really wanted to scream into a pillow. Because EWWWW. Haven't had any since, but still.

          Have you ever heard of the six word memoir challenge?  The idea is to sum up your life in six words, to find the essence of your story. I think mine is something like, "Wasn't what I planned, still good. "   That most certainly might've been stolen from the Internet, because that phrase floats in my head but it doesn't sound like me. There have been so many transitions in our live. Especially  in the past three years and I really just want to be done transitioning. Maybe that's the lesson that I was suppose to be learning. If change is the only constant, maybe learning how to accept the transitions is my life long mission.

this is worth posting twice xo

Looking toward the Future

     

     Who would've thought that having the kids in school keeps us busier than homeschooling! I can't believe it's been about two months since my lasts update  . We're about to have our last week of school and it boggles my mind when I compare our lives to the beginning of this school year. I recall a wasp infestation inside the trailer on the first day is school! Who could forget? Anyway,  Ian got on a job that's about an hour away. He's home at nights and most weekends . He was very excited to be working in his county ! Wrex had a group project this week, it involved him and a buddy making a music video about Julius Cesar. He actually voiced to me that this was something that he had missed when he was homeschooling. To be clear, he missed friends because I assure you, his musical career is a bit dim.  I defensively argued back that I'm sure he also missed the extra hour and a half of sleep that his homeschooling allowed because ...well I am childish! The truth is , I am so happy that he likes Jr High and I'm incredibly shocked that I will have an 8th grader. He also pointed out that most 8th grade boys are taller than me . To that I say Ha Rumph! Houston got his year book yesterday and was amazed to see that he was actually in it! That's got to be a hard working year book staffer, to catch a kid that came in March! We've been involved in his school and went on a mother son orienteering night. Very fun. We also participated in the book fair and guess who is in PTO for next year? Houston likes having me at his school , so that's what I plan on doing. Waylon is less like a baby and more like a full on boy. For the last week, he dug out a Halloween skeleton and has been taking Mr. Skeleton with us everywhere. Even to a very special graduation dinner. I don't know how to fight him on this when he is so clearly my child. So instead we pull up a chair for Mr. Skeleton and we tuck him into bed at night. I have been better than I deserve. This Mothers Day, Wrex bought me a movie ticket to see a chick flick and sent me with money to buy myself a popcorn. Houston bought me red vines and I spent the afternoon by myself at the movies . It sounds odd maybe? Kinda lonely? But actually , I was just so appreciative that they realized I'm a person , with needs of my own. They treated me like they want to be treated  and I call that a victorious day in parenting! Also, my aunt had taken me to a day spa the day before. I was untouchable that weekend!

     Memorial day weekend marked  three years that our family of five has lived in a fifth wheel. Holy crap! How did we survive that? Three years ago I took our kids out of school a little early and we moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. Now we're back in our hometown but still in our fifth wheel. Most of you that I  talk to know how crazy that has made me. The fact that we are not in a house yet, has driven me insane. We're talking about multiple mommy meltdowns. The truth is it has been a major conflict over here. Coming home  did not go as planned . We thought Ian getting to work would happen faster. I thought a dream rental would be waiting for me . I wondered if we might  buy another house...The reality that I was faced with was work was slow in January. Rentals were scarce and kinda yucky and   prices were going up. My family and I only wanted to stay in selective  areas and that made it tough to find what we wanted. Also,  my husband and I had different ideas about how the next part of our lives would start. He thought of being more conservative. Living modestly, pile up a large amount of savings and then make a plan. I want something now. We've already been sacrificing , let's see the payoff now. I want a house so big , I can't hear the kids when I'm in the bathroom . That sounds amazing to me!  Ian has been gone longer than the boys and I. He really just wanted to go back to our house  and feel like he came home. I just wanted a big house where everyone could scatter. Neither of these ideas were realistic. Our home is a quaint beach bungalow that's two bedrooms one bath on a large quarter acre. It's a half-mile away from the beach and Ian has put his blood sweat and tears  into that house.  I didn't write about this sooner because it was a very hot button of mine. I never really even considered going back to the house because of when the lease ended. I had no intention of staying in our fifth wheel any longer than necessary. We recently had to move RV parks. That was so disappointing. I thought I had parked in my last RV park . We've just covered the house topic from top to bottom. Our friends and kids are sick of hearing about it. The facts are: nothing very tempting has come up to rent and rentals go like hot cakes around here. So I can finally tell you , we're going home. The renters have their 60 day notice to vacate the property . We are working with a contractor and will be adding on a master bedroom and bath sometime in August. If everything goes well. I'm excited for the next season of our lives to start. It could be just the start of summer, but I feel excitement  for all of these  changes to finally begin . Now that I can accept that things aren't the way I thought they should be , I can really start to appreciate and feel excited for how they actually are. I'll keep you posted on our progress . I realize my blog has been about , traveling , homeschooling, running and now about remodeling. I would apologize but it sounds just as scatterbrained as I am . So thanks for following me living this life on the road. 

Hey Remember me?

Hey ! Remember me? That's been my phrase lately. Our family has slowly been entering back into our old lives and it feels like so much has changed and then there's all the stuff that hasn't . I wonder if people will remember us and then I realize I don't want to stand out . My mom keeps reminding me that I haven't put out an update in a while and I told her, "I just don't know what to say." She said "tell them, you're not alone. " And I know what she means, it's just I never was alone , anywhere I went . God always provided a special person to keep me company and I'll never forget that. 

  About a month ago , Ian got called to a job 4 hours away. He was so happy to get back to work but our family didn't follow him on this job. We started to put down roots here in Oceanside , our hometown and we just couldn't leave again. So that's been difficult . He comes home on the weekends, sometimes when he's not working overtime . It feels counter intuitive since we spent the past few years trying to stick together.  Then there's still the fact that the boys and I are in the fifth wheel. It's all good and fun to be in a fifth wheel when you're moving from town to town but when you're in your own neighborhood, being in a trailer feels weird! Our house is rented out and I don't know if we should get a rental or what, so that's just its own strangeness. But I gotta tell you, I am so anxious to get out of the fifth wheel! 

  Quite a few things have changed around here. About the same time Ian took his job, Wrex started at the local Jr. High. I never intended to home school the kids forever. We did that when it worked for us . However , since we didn't see us uprooting any time soon and 7th grade math is hard...we enrolled him into the local jr high. I was a nervous wreck . My 7th grade son is pretty innocent and nerdy, which I hear is cool now .Lucky him. He ended up knowing a lot of kids from the years he attended Oceanside schools. The fact that I couldn't help with his math homework the first week was proof that he's right where he needs to be . He doesn't like his PE tracher and he thinks his science class is too loud . Common core math is tough . Part of me wants to fix these issues but a wise woman shared with me something that really helped " Will there be bullies, possibly. Will teachers be unfair? They could be. Is he going to struggle with the common core? Probably at first. But these things will teach him how to handle adversity in life , because life is not perfect." Wrex and I also toured the Jr High together before he started  and I have the utmost confidence in the administrators. 

    A few weeks after Wrex started, Houston became more willing to go back to school . He was lucky enough to be able to attend the same school he went to for Kindergarten.The first week or so he sat alone at lunch. I would put notes in his lunchbox and he said they were the best part of his day . He'd check before he left to make sure my note was in there.

 Last week I dragged him to a PTO meeting. I sat there thinking that I had no business being in a PTO meeting 3/4 through the school year. I'm torn between trying to participate and feeling really out of place . But yknow? You suit up and show up right? Well as it turned out , Houston came home a few days later and said " mom , that lady from the PTO meeting saw me and introduced me to a lot of people." Ahh sweet relief, I think it's going to be ok. His school had a car show this weekend and Houston and I went and had a blast . 

  Lastly , when we got back to town, I was approached by a friend to do some bookkeeping. It was not my intention to go back to work but it sounded like a good gig for me as part time work so I took that opportunity . Waylon started preschool two days a week. So life is pretty full. Ian has been working lots of overtime but he's enjoying it. He feels good about his career. The boys and I go to Church with my mother in law on Sunday's and Monday through Friday we have school,  work and youth group.  I'm reconnecting with friends and acquaintances .  Sometimes, I feel awkward reconnecting with people because I  think "they're not going to remember me." And then thinking , "Oh crap! Maybe they've been reading my blog and know how crazy I am." But y'know that's me, I am a little crazy but kinda introverted . So for all 35 of you reading this ... I'm here , we're back. I still feel like I'm constantly transitioning and some things are not happening as fast as I'd like. Do I keep writing now that we're not traveling? I don't know . If you have an opinion on that , leave me a comment . Ok mom ? 

Tourist in our hometown

I've started writing this blog three times. I keep changing my mind about what I want to say. What I keep coming back to, is how grateful I feel. Everyone should move away from home and come back as a tourist! I have a whole new perspective and I feel so lucky to be me. 

    Three weeks ago, Ian passed his journeyman lineman exam. It was a rough week leading up to it. Our kids got the flu. One . By. One.   I told Ian he should stay in a hotel. I was so worried he would get sick on his test date and this years stomach flu was a doozy. But he didn't catch it and he passed. Instead of partying it up all weekend, we took care of sick kids. On Monday he went to work and worked 36 hours and then he said " that's it, I'm done, screw this weather, we're going home." So we did. We drove back to California with our trailer in two days. Two days that I had that cruddy, sinus congestion, cough thing that everyone's been having. We made in to weather in the 60s and the nicest RV Park, I've ever stayed in. 

Now it feels like the whole apprenticeship was a dream. We spent our holidays with a different family member or friend every night. We took our kids to the beach. While California's temperatures dropped into the 30s and 40s , we marveled how we could still go outside! Then we went to the beach again , and went in the water with all the other tourists. Things that I took for granted before are so special to me right now. I went to a church that I've been listening to online  and I loved it and my kids liked it too!

   There are still so many uncertainties. Ian hasn't started working yet  and we're still in our trailer but we are having a great time . We're spending time as a family just hanging out. I get to see family and friends almost every day. But most importantly, I feel like I invested these past years into my family and I'm proud of that. I feel like I do have something to show for it. Maybe not physically but I am so proud of what we have accomplished as a family in the past 2 1/2 years. 

That's pretty much all for now. Not a whole lot of New Years resolutions over here. I think it's going to be an exciting year . I'm looking forward to getting back into a house, even though I don't know when that's happening. For 2015 my goal is to relax more. These past few years have been a lot of work. I'm really enjoying being a tourist in my hometown. As one of my favorite bloggers says " I've got a new pair or perspectacles on." And life is good.

A Home for the Holidays

  Good Morning Lovelies! You'll never believe how crazy last week was. We heard from our insurance adjuster and he told us to get the fifth wheel "dried out" as soon as possible. We started calling around and the mobile techs told us that it would take a while to dry out the underbelly of our rig and it wasn't ideal to have the insulation removed from the kids room, while it dried out . Our weather in Golden last week was mainly a high of 40. This is exactly what we had predicted. While I don't think the damage is too severe, we want it to be taken care of to prevent any warping or rotting of the floor. Meanwhile we can't leave the bottom of the flooring exposed to the outside and expect our kiddos to stay toasty warm....so we're spending Thanksgiving in a house! YAY! Take a moment for a happy dance....
            The fact that we were even able to secure a house this close to Thanksgiving was a miracle. I started looking last Wednesday and the last one I could find on vacation rental by owner was taken that very day. I was trying to stay out of a hotel, because I still wanted to cook and I was really excited about the idea of spreading out for a few days. The insurance told us our housing allowance set in our insurance coverage and said we could use it however we wanted. A friend told me about www.airbnb.com You have to check it out! It's basically a site, where people rent out part or even their whole house to you. So this house is completely furnished and we have it for 2 weeks. You guys, we were so flipping excited. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms ( a bathtub...say what???) laundry inside , a dishwasher...my head was spinning. So we moved in on Friday. We immediately started breaking things (mainly Waylon) ok , just a pantry door and I melted a knife in the dishwasher so far, whoops! Just having space has been amazing. The house has wifi so Wrex has connected his ipod to it and has been face timing family members. Did you know  you could do that? Our wifi in the trailer is expensive, so this is a whole new privilege fore him. He is constantly texting Grandma and walking around the house on facetime. It gives us a glimpse of our future.  Houston is obsessed with the fire pit outside. He really wants to have a bonfire and make smores. Waylon loves the bathtub and tells me that he doesn't take showers anymore. He only takes baths.  I was on the phone with my bestie yesterday  picking apart the house and all of its details. The pictures online are gorgeous and in real life, it actually reminds me of home. It's just those "do it yourself" imperfections that my eyes are so keen on. Just to be in a house, with all of it's imperfections and noises is such a comfort right now . It is fricking windy out there this morning! I have a lot to be thankful for. Today the boys and I are going to drive up to Boulder to fill the freezer with Trader Jo's goodness. Usually we have to be so choosy in what we can fit in our freezer, we plan on going all out. I'm going to bake up a storm this week and enjoy that big kitchen. We have the house for two weeks. I'm pretty confident our trailer will be dry by then. If not....we'll cross that bridge when it comes. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

Here's a few pics of our home for the next 2 weeks...

The Wintertime Blues

     

    Hello my dear readers. Whoever you may be. It always surprises me when I check in behind the scenes and see people have been reading when I haven't been writing. Here's a little secret, I don't write when I can't write honestly. When all I have is complaints, or frustration and I feel like

everything is swallowing me up, I don't write. I make phone calls and I pray. My family and friends that I call, they know the real me . See, I've always wanted to be like Drew Barrymore. She's so free and adventurous and she goes with the flow. Drew Barrymore can make sunshine out of dog poop. I want to be like that. I'm still looking for a fictional character as neurotic as I am, but my old friends once told me I am like Monica from friends. I love order. I love a good plan or itinerary. Give me something to look forward to. I need a meal plan or a lesson plan or a guide. Order gives me peace and it creates new chaos at the same time. I love order but when it doesn't go as planned, Kristina has melt downs. Guess what? Things have not been going as planned. We are so close to the end of my husbands apprenticeship and that should be so exciting. We've all sacrificed for the past three years towards this common goal. What's killing my buzz is that I don't know what comes next. Where do we go, where do we live, can we get out of this God forsaken fifth wheel?     We don't know.   Wintertime comes and  work slows down in this trade and we have to be in a place that there is work.  The suspense is killing me and also making me a lunatic. Here is a glimpse of some of my craziness that I haven't written about.

                                                 --Potty training in a fifth wheel sucks. Poop poop everywhere eww. If I

okay sometimes he uses the big potty but ....ugh!

have to look at that tiny gross toilet any longer.....
--My  car broke down. After I had dropped Waylon off at preschool. Preschool is only 1.5 miles away.  I can handle that right? Y'all, it started to rain and I don't have a jogging stroller. I have a target umbrella stroller. Running and holding an umbrella stroller  in the rain....not a good day.
--We went to the pumpkin patch and my older boys did flips, literally flips down an inflatable slide. They nearly clobbered a class of kindergarteners.  I was so mortified we left without pumpkins.
--We've brought in our truck to the mechanic over 6 times this summer. That darn truck has literally drained our savings.
--This week our water froze on Monday. When our water freezes, for some reason that master bath usually still has water, but the kitchen and boys room don't have water. So to do the dishes, I boil water from the bathroom sink and soak the dishes. After soaking them, I scrub them off and rinse my dishes in the bathroom sink. It's been a long week.  We stayed at home all week. Ian came home from work early Wednesday and chauffeured us around. We had to get groceries and more propane. Other than that we have been on lock down. I don't drive in the snow if I can help it. I don't have 4 wheel drive and getting stuck or in a wreck with the kids is my nightmare. So finally on Friday, we braved the mostly clear roads and went to the movies. Two hours, that's how long I was gone for. The water lines finally thawed, thank you Jesus...but one of the boys had left a sink handle in the on position. They probably went to wash their hands, saw no water coming out of the sink and walked away. When the water came on, it ran and ran, it  filled up the black tank, came up overflowing their bathroom sink and continued to run. There was easily 2 inches of water in their bathroom when we came home from our lovely jaunt in the snow. The carpets were soaked, the water ran into the kitchen that shares a wall with the bathroom. We grabbed all of our towels. we own probably 9 because who has the space in a fifth wheel . After those were soaked, I went and put them in the dryer which takes hours to dry.  I started hyperventilating. After making phone calls to everyone I knew and sobbing, I rented a carpet cleaner. Ian came home and we spent the evening sopping up water in cabinets and in our vents. Our good friends the Duncan's dropped off a dehumidifier that we ran all night long . Then they ordered us a pizza. Our friends are the best.

      So what has been getting me through all this chaos? The good stuff, sprinkled in between. Halloween was a blast and Waylon is still talking about trick or treating. We went to a friends  house that had an amazing neighborhood. We let the older boys run ahead with their friends and Waylon stole the hearts and candy from everyone he met.

  

Wrex turned 12. He has been wanting a Mohawk and really who the heck are you trying to impress when you're homeschooled living in a trailer park, right? So we let him get a Mohawk for his birthday.  We went to lasertag with some of his buddies and he bought himself and ipod touch with his birthday money.


      I ran the rock-n- roll Denver half marathon and all my boys came to cheer me on. That was a great day for me.

Super early in Downtown Denver with my boys before the race

  We have awesome friends. I have a group of girls on Facebook that 's called "trampwives. "We have all lived in trailers at one point or another and encourage each other and listen to each others complaints. We've made great friends here that I can call in an emergency and they come to my aid. I have great friends in California that cant wait for us to come home. I have a supportive family scattered all over the country . What else could I need?

      It feels like the winds are changing for us . Either way changes will be happening in our household. I always have this nagging feeling like I'm doing it all wrong. My kids are going to figure out any moment how clueless I am. My hope is just to be honest with you, maybe you don't have it all figured out either but we can at least be honest with each other, right?

Keeping it Real...How home schooling is REALLY going!

   

     Hey all! I've been wanting to update you on how school is going but I've had a hard time finding a moments rest. The first day of school started with a bang! We sat down to begin and soon realized that we had some visitors. Wasps had made a nest inside one of our slide outs in our trailer . I killed as many as I could swat,  maybe 5 or so and I got the kids in the car and drove to Home Desperate, I mean Home Depot. We bought the most expensive wasp spray ( hoping that if I spent enough the problem would go away) and made a B- line for home . I kept the kids in the car and ran inside to face our new nemesis. They were mainly in the master bedroom so I sprayed as many little buggers and we vacated the premesis. We played at the park and went out to lunch before returning . I only found 2 after that and Ian killed the nest when he got home. It was an extraordinary first day of school. Not at all as I had planned , which has been a theme this year .

First day of School!

      It was an adjustment for my oldest to homeschool out of books.  He has been accustomed to work on a computer . His early weeks were very long school days. Math was taking us for.....ev....er. My magical Algebra book that I was so hyped on, didn't work for us. Turns out we weren't ready for Pre- Algebra. The curriculum magazine told me we were but that was a lie! It was hard for me to accept at first. I thought maybe he had forgotten things over summer, or he was just trying to torture me. I finally found a free placement test online for Saxon math.
 http://www.sonlight.com/saxon-placement-tests.html
        I was able to get him a new math program a few weeks into our school year. I was bummed that it didn't work out with that other curriculum  but I am really happy with how he's doing now in Saxon Math. It still is the subject that takes him the longest but it has gotten so much better. Latin has turned out to be his favorite subject. Which has given us an opportunity to learn how to make flashcards . That's one of my favorite parts about homeschooling. Finding practical things to teach my kids, like study skills. 

     Teaching two kids out of books is still hard for me. I feel constantly torn between the boys but something that has helped immensely is coming up with a lesson plan for the week and giving it to the boys Monday morning. It has helped them to be more self sufficient . Another homeschooling momma gave me this idea. So they know what pages they have to complete this week and when their test will be. They can get ahead if they're feeling ambitious and they don't have to keep asking me "what's next?" Also, they color in the box when the assignment is complete. I think that's actually their favorite part of the lesson plan.

 

  I think we're definately in a groove now . But there are moments when I want to tear out my hair . Things I have to repeat constantly are " Yes you have to write in complete sentences." Or " Yes you have to do all the exercises ." or " Why did you skip this?" or " Capitalize you're sentences." or "Where is the period?" My favorite answer that has come up so far in the school year is this one.......

See the 4th question down. Poor kid even spelled butt wrong

      Then there was the devastating day when my son got a 60% on his English test. He didn't even attempt to study. If your grades fall below an 80% average in this house, video games are off limits. We were headed to a friends house for a Friday - homeschoolers video game day. Oh he was so upset. Tried to strike a bargain with me, pleading and begging. No luck,, he missed out that day and his friends were just as disappointed as he was. You better believe he studies for his English tests now. How do we figure out grades? I'm glad you asked! Around here, we do a lot of bookwork. All work is checked and corrected immidiately. So they can't just slop answers down or they will be redoing it all day long. Since they put so much time into their bookwork, they are graded on classwork and then I average their test scores in with their or daily work score. 

  On top of this school mania we have started soccer 3x a week and fall baseball once a week. Then we started up guitar lessons because I have been thinking about it for 2 years. So we finally  signed up for that too.  Of course Awanas has started back up  on Wednesday nights and we have to do that because it's date night and we parents love our date night! We've even squeezed in a field trip to the Denver zoo. So that in itself has kept us off our rockers , busy.

Linewives at the Denver Zoo

 

     We were hoping to leave Denver at the beginning of November but it looks like we'll be here a bit longer. So we signed up Waylon for preschool . It's only a few hours, twice a week, but he loved it. That one day he got to go before catching some sort of sickness from preschool. Oh well. We look forward to the time that he goes . We got so much done those 3 hours that one day. Cuz in the end, I'm not anti-school . I'm pro- happy kids and whatever it takes to make your children happy with their learning career. I'd do it.

Running into Preschool as fast as he can