January 2013 in review :)

Oh my goodness!!  January is over?  Really?  I think I blinked and missed it!!
The month was super busy and we accomplished tons of school!!  With bible study being on Tuesdays and Gym and Swim on Thursdays we have a new routine of doing the majority of our school on Monday and Wednesdays...  Especially with babysitting Reece everyday now this mama is whipped by bedtime!!
We didn't do anything super exciting this month, just the regular Scouts, Gym and Swim, and music lessons.  Austin, Wyatt, and Brian went on a Boy Scout campout called Klondike for a weekend (Wyatt was NOT impressed) and I got to spend the weekend having fun with friends and scrapbooking!!  Woohoo!!  We also had a Beulah's Mom's meeting where people came over to learn about summer camps (with the hope they would sign up and we would get a huge discount!).  And we had a family night with Hilltop at the YMCA.  Cub Scouts spent a day at The Works in Newark and both boys earned their Scientist Pin.  OK, looks like we did more than I thought!!  LOL

Lizzy helping the boys do their math on the back doors :)

The boys having 'recess' air-softing outside

Brian and the boys building cars at The Works...

We totaled 122 hours this month, bringing Wyatt's total to 810 and Austin's to 790.  Books read this month are Caddie Woodlawn, The Great Wheel, Old Yeller, and The Story of Thomas Alva Edison.  We also started listening to books on CD again and listened to book 1 of Cahills vs Vespers, The Medusa Plot.  I;m very pleased with how much we got done this month, though we will really need to step it up if we want to be done by the end of May!!

Beginning 2013...

Well, this is a rare non school post.  I have so many new things happening that my head is starting to swim a bit...
- We are looking for a new church, which has been very hard.  We have been at NewLife for 12 years and leaving was not an easy decision, but we felt God had made it very plain that we were supposed to.  Our last Sunday was December 23rd, which was also the Christmas service and that evening was two candlelight services so we went out with a bang!  We have many positive things to say about NewLife and if it was not for the pastors and leaders there Brian and I would most likely not still be married and my children would probably be unpleasant brats (well, more so than they already are...)
- I'm starting babysitting again, a sweet little baby boy who is 3 months old :)  This will help provide the little extra money we need, especially since Obamacare raised our taxes $100 a month ;(
- I'm starting a Bible Study with some new friends in Mansfield.  I'm really looking forward to fellowshipping with some sweet women and delving into God's word!
-I've started volunteering at Richland Pregnancy Center.  I'm just going once a week and getting things that need cleaned for the 'Baby Boutique'.  After the past election I realized I was too emotionally wrapped up in who won when I should be following Jesus and caring about people.  Because of homeschooling I'm only able to help in this capacity at this point but hope at some point to be a 'Mentor Mom', someone who meets one on one with young women.
- I've been asked to be the secretary for Wyatt's soccer club Foundations Soccer Club.  This is such a blessing because player's fees are waived for board members!!
- I am helping teach the gym classes at the Mansfield YMCA during the homeschool Gym and Swim program, which is another blessing since I don't have to pay for the boys to attend while I'm helping so the boys get free swim classes!!
- I have started working out again, on a regular basis and with a goal!!  I want to run a 5k on my birthday on March 30th!!  I really don't care if I lose weight, though it would be nice.  I want to feel healthy.  I want to be able to do stuff with my kids and husband like hiking and white water rafting and not die :)

So, lots of new things going on.  But, I've prayed over all of them and feel like I'm the path God is leading!!  I'm excited to see what my family will accomplish in 2013!!

December in review

I had big plans for schooling in December. HUGE!  This all went down the toilet when Wyatt fell and hit his head and got a pretty ugly concussion on December 7th.  The doctor told us only to do what didn't stress Wyatt out or cause any difficulty...  So, the 2nd week of December we only did math and the 3rd week all we did was Sonlight...  Not how I wanted to finish out the year :(  We are only through week 14 in Sonlight!!  Ugh!
Other than that we had a fun Christmas Scout Pack meeting (I got Wyatt's den nice first aid kits and Wyatt cried because everyone else got better gifts.  Austin got a first aid kit too ???)  and many church Christmas activities.  Of course we had several Christmas' and Wyatt had his TENTH BIRTHDAY!!  Wowza!!  Since it was an even year he got to have a sleepover...
No pictures, we really didn't do much...
Hours- Wyatt had 53, Austin had 54, bringing their totals to Wyatt having 688 and Austin having 668...  The only book we completed this month was Sings Down the Moon.
Ugh!

November :) Woohoo!!!

First off, let me mention that these blog entries are really quite boring :)  Sorry if you were looking for something fascinating and witty...  Not here!
What a fun month!!  Soccer ended so we had a lot of free time, though we managed to stay plenty busy.  The first weekend we had planned a fun weekend up in Cleveland since Wyatt had a soccer tournament, which unfortunately got cancelled because of snow (while I sit here with windows open in the beginning of December!).  Brian still took Friday off and we spent the day at the Great Lakes Science Center.  I barely kept from laughing in the women's face when she informed me we lived 86 miles from the center and they have a rule that you have to be 90 miles away to use our pass.  She said she'd let it slide that time...  Really? over 4 miles???  LOL

The boys and Brian built the arch.

We spent $5 per kid and let them build a robot frog.  They took them apart and they were worthless by the time we made it home...

The next week we started our classes back up at the YMCA Gym and Swim.  They had a different person every week for the gym class and the boys were not always thrilled with them...  We also had an art class at the Mansfield Art Center.  And then we did a nice Thanksgiving get together with our Hilltop friends :)

The boys with their 'Crows in a Wheat Field' paintings.

The dogs watching the boys eat hoping they'd share :)

- Austin enjoyed a Boy Scout campout learning how to lash things together with rope.
- We spent a fun day at The Works with good friends.
- Our Scout group helped at a community Thanksgiving dinner.
- Spent Thanksgiving Day with Brian's family and the Sunday after with my family.
- At our Pack meeting we made cards to send to deployed soldiers for Christmas.  We had a friend visit who was deployed in Iraq and is now a recruiter.  All the boys had a great time asking questions.
- And of course, music lessons, AWANAS, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts and church.  Oy.
- We took a week off school and it was much needed...

Books read for the month: We finished Across Five Aprils, Turn Homeward Hannalee (not a favorite), Bell and the Science of the Telephone, and Shades of Gray (not the adult version!!  LOL)

Hours for the month: Austin- 107 hours, Wyatt- 101 hours.  Total for the year- Austin- 614 hours, Wyatt- 635.  Hours wise we're doing great, but curriculum wise I'm disappointed.  Most of our stuff is 36 weeks and we're only 12 weeks through!!  I wanted to be much farther than this at this point!!!  We never accomplish a ton during December, so if we're lucky we'll be at week 14 :(  Yuck...

October in review

October was a rough month...  The school days got monotonous, boring, and long.  Every day was the same thing and we were starting to get short and grumpy with each other which made the days longer...  Ugh!!  The 4th week we took math out since that was causing the most trouble and the next week was supposed to be a short week anyways so we only did math and music...  We all relaxed and I started the full week of November with some changes (but I'll tell you all about it next month, if it works!!  lol)  Soccer finished up this month...  Both boys had their end of season tournaments and both won!!  Woohoo!!  Unfortunately Wyatt's last tournament with both teams got cancelled so that was it...  We are sad to be done with soccer, though it's nice to have evenings free.  We definitely think State League for Wyatt was a great idea.  He loved his team and learned many new soccer skills!!  We all loved it...  Other fun things?  Wyatt went on his first ever Cub Scout fall camp out!!  LOL  He's always had a soccer game and this is the first year he could go :)  Austin, however, had a soccer game!  HAHA  We did some fun fall things, like going to Garden Gate with friends, carving pumpkins, and a fun painting evening.  And of course we had to celebrate AUSTIN'S 11th BIRTHDAY!!!!  We took him out for a steak dinner and then carved pumpkins and had cake another evening.  I can't believe he is that old, it just seems crazy!!

The boys used their hand prints for this.  I know it's normally done by smaller kids, so I got a big canvas!!

I love that we all read our books during lunch...

Wyatt swinging at Garden Gate and showing the pumpkin he decorated there...

Austin swinging and showing us his pumpkin.

The boys with their trophies after winning the AYSA tournaments (Wyatt U10 and Austin U11)

Austin sitting on the saddle at Texas Roadhouse while we all sang him Happy Birthday!!

With their carved pumpkins...

Hours for the month- Austin at 159 (bringing his total to 417) and Wyatt at 165 (bringing his total to 428).  Books read: The Perilous Road, Lincoln: A Photo Biography, The Great Turkey Walk and Usborne's Electricity and Magnetism for Sonlight.  They read some fun fluffy books from the library and we listened to 39 Clues books 7-10.

I guess for a month that I felt was worthless we got quite a bit done!!  That's why I love typing this all out.  It helps me keep record but it also shows me we are accomplishing something!!

September in review

September was a busy and fun month for the Strong's!!  Soccer has been in full force and there were only a couple days with no games or practices.  Austin has done so wonderful with his team.  He is proof prayer works!!  After being bullied at school for a year he is pretty nervous around kids he doesn't know now but his team has just pulled him right in and his coach is wonderful for him!!  His team plays very well and is undefeated!!  Wyatt's CF team is doing great and is undefeated and his FSC team still needs to work on teamwork and needs to develop a drive and desire to win!!  Wyatt (and us) love his coach and team mates though and we love the club.  Awanas also started back up this month and the boys love being with their friends again.  School wise we really have a routine figured out.  It took us a few weeks to figure out how to do math since they are using the same book but we've got it now.  I was also unimpressed with the English and have ordered First Language Lessons to use (which is what we used last year).  I will be happy when that comes in, though we will have to push to get caught up since we're already on week 6 of school.

Highlights of the month:

- A couple Columbus Crew games, including a homeschool Tech Day at the stadium and The Ohio Village and Historical Society.

- The Tomato Show parade with Cub Scouts followed by the Cub Mobile races.

- The disappointing Renaissance Festival with Auntie Jill

- A day at the Works with a good friend
- Meet You At The Pole prayer time with our homeschool friends at Berean Baptist.

- A fun evening up at Grace Church seeing Tim Hawkins.

Hours for the month are Wyatt: 124 and Austin: 122 bringing the total to Austin: 258 and Wyatt: 263
Books read for the month Diary of an Early American Boy (AWESOME!!), Freedom Train and some fun books.  We have also listened to 39 Clues books 4-6.  We would have listened to more but I couldn't get to the library one week to pick up new ones...

End of August

Well, I'm a little off (no comments please), so here's the end of August...
We got 2 weeks of school in before the end of the month and learned quite a bit!!  The days are much longer now that we're using just Sonlight.  The science and LA are every day instead of 2 or 3 days like last year and we've added in the extra vocab and grammar so if we start at 930 we're still not done til 230-330!!  Long days for us!!  The boys started their music lessons back up and are getting back into that groove.  I have to admit, we didn't do much practicing over the summer, but they've caught back up :)
Fun things we did in the last 2 weeks of August-

A Crew game!!  It was the rescheduled game so our friends the Leach's and Moody's were with us.

With a dentist appointment and a LOT of soccer practice we didn't have time for anything else!!  Wyatt did have his first state games with FSC and lost both but played very well and his first tournament with CF and dominated the field both games :)  Austin is doing so well in practices, I'm very proud of him!!

Books we've read so far- William Wilberforce.  The boys just read some fun books and We've listened to the first 3 39 Clues books as we drive around...

Austin has 136 hours so far and Wyatt has 139 (the extra soccer...)