Still plodding along

I cannot believe that I haven't blogged in so long. Life just is so busy. I'm still trying to figure out how other people do this so often. Oh well. For what it's worth, I'm here today.

I'm going to write today and try to make my format more interesting tomorrow. Maybe I'll even add pictures. I figure if I can get this thing going and make it interesting, then maybe I'll even want to do it more.

Meanwhile, I'm busy praying about next year. We have big decisions to make with curriculum. So far, here's what it looks like:

History - Sonlight
Reading - Sonlight (coordinates with History)
Read Alouds - Sonlight
Bible - Postive Action for Christ
Grammar - Language Lessons for the Elementary Child
Spelling - Sequential Spelling & Spelling Wisdom
Math - Singapore 3A & 3B
Science - ???Sonlight 3 Science & Complete Apologia Flying Creatures of the 5th Day
Spanish - The Easy Spanish
Art - ???

The only thing I am totally committed to at this point is the Positive Action for Christ Bible for 3rd grade. We are doing second grade this year and we LOVE it. Each lesson includes a character trait focus and that's perfect. I really want my children to understand that "good character" really is the fruit of the Spirit and can only be genuine if it flows from the Lord. Anyway, the rest of the options are staying open until our state homeschool exhibition, GHEA. I can't wait to go and actually touch the stuff and look at it!

I'm praying that by the fall our house will be built and we can start fresh there. It would be so great not to have to move again in the middle of a school year. Either way, I've got to start the year with enthusiasm for learning rather than a focus on the house. Last year, I was in the middle of trying to prepare the old house to be sold. We listed it toward the end of August and we closed on the sale at the end of November, so for those 3 months there was a lot of "keeping everything perfectly clean", and a whole lot of loading up the car to leave so that somebody could come in and look. It really interrupted our homeschooling, but we persevered, just not in the way we like. Science experiments had to fall by the way and our other messy ways of learning did too. It won't be that way this time. Since we're renting this house, we aren't going to have to have it ready to show all the time right up until we move. So, even if the house isn't ready when we're ready to start our fall studies again, we can still do things the way we like.

Next time I'm going to post about our summer plans; we never really stop schooling, we just change things up a bit. I'm looking forward to a change of pace!

It's Been A Long Time Coming

Well, it's been a LONG time since I've posted, but we've been VERY busy. We did close on our house on November 28th, and had to be out on the 29th. It was WAY harder than I expected and I expected it to be killer! Does that tell you how it really went. Thankfully, God is faithful and just when I thought I couldn't take another thing, He came through with a sweet blessing.

So, now we are renting my sister-in-law and her husband's house. It has plenty of living space, more than we really need, but is sorely lacking in closets. Also, we went from having a basement to having none. It's a challenge every day. What really keeps us going is that we are getting closer and closer to building. Our contractor is doing all the legwork of getting the well dug and all those things in order in addition to getting final numbers from all the subs. It looks like maybe we'll really get started in March. With God's blessings of good weather, and I am NOT asking for less rain (I'd rather have major delays on the house than that), we could be in the house in August. That would be GREAT. I just don't want another year with a move in the middle, but I'll leave that to God. He knows exactly what I need to make me who He wants me to be.

In the meantime, things have been busy around here with all the Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations and all the treasures of everyday life. I'm determined to get back to posting regularly and sharing what we're doing, so I'll start with that tomorrow. For today, I'm just going to add a link to the picture that is almost identical to the house we've picked out. Looking at it keeps me going.

http://www.wlmartinhomes.com/images/wlhome_main.jpg

Just looking makes me so excited!