sigh...

So this is the second sunday in a row that we have had to miss church. We have so much illness here! Three of the kids have pink eye, Alexis and Z have double ear infections, Matthew has a lung infection, and I am just sick as a dog. Andrea is the only one not sick...yet. Pretty sure her turn will come but I am hoping that it is not on her birthday or over Thanksgiving day again! I would like to make it to the get togethers again someday.
In addition to the sickness Matthew's truck died this morning after he limped it all the way home from working in Fennville. SO, he is purchasing a truck today or tomorrow.

I know I am complaining like crazy and that is not becoming but seriously why does sickness and money issues always come up right around birthdays and holidays? Seems to happen every year. I am ready for a little bit of peace.

This is Kayla and her second day riding a two wheeler! She was soooo excited that she didn't stop riding for weeks. Now it is still one of her favorite things but she is sort of over the initial shock of being able to ride. Her source of inspiration...Dani the neighbor girl is only four and can ride a bike with out training wheels. Kayla then said it was embarrassing to have them and begged for them to be removed. Third time is the charm for her and this time when Matthew took them off they stayed off! :)

School and colds

Well, we had a rough week here. We all came down with colds and that ofcourse has been affecting our school and home life attitudes. The girls have been hard to deal with for school, and they have not been listening the greatest during the rest of the days either. We had a bunch of neighbor girl drama (oh the joy!!!) this week and so tonight is early bed time (they have no idea about that yet) and I think it should do us all good. I am weary and have atleast once this week threatened, seriously threatened, to enroll the kids in school. A sort of envy rolled over me the other day as I was driving past the elementary school and I got to thinking..."wow, the frustration that place might save me, and the things I could accomplish during my days if the older kids were not fighting me tooth and nail"....yup, so I think Matthew was relieved when they straightened out and I felt ok about it again. I know in reality I do not envy the other parents. They don't get to see the accomplishments in the same way I do. They don't get to see the initial look of triumph as their child reads their first word, or the grin after they ace a spelling test. They don't get to hear the giggles and see the smiles through the morning. They have cleaner houses, maybe , and they have more "me" time for sure, but I know in the end that all my frustration of the bad days are outweighed by the great joy of the good days. Guess I just get wound up when there are a few bad days in a row and no promise of an end to them in sight.
Speaking of school, my focus has been on finding some fun but age spanning curriculum. We are really loving life science through Ken Ham's site http://www.answersingenesis.org/ we have an older version the second edition and I have to say that I am pleased with that as well. I didn't need a teachers guide because the second edition is an all included edition. The girls and I have found so much to do with it to add the fun hands on stuff and are so excited to do that subject each day. We have chosen to do it everyday but not from the book. I was given a stack of "My Big BackYard" magazines and so we have been going through those on off days as well as reading other books I bought and watching documentaries. I want to buy the recommended dvds from the back of the textbook. Those would be very fun I think.
I am also thrilled with the switch to Horizons this year. It is through the alpha omega publications and I have been loving the format and the teachers instruction guides. I think that Bob Jones is an excellent curriculum but I think this definately fits us better. I have looked into the kindergarten program they have as well and ended up selling my BJU materials so that I can purchase the Horizons one later for Alexis, Z and baby girl. We are currently only doing phonic/reading, and Math through Horizons. I am doing spelling through BJU until the end of the year and handwriting is still the memory verses for Wed night kids connection and letter writing. I am doing history through reading the "If you..." series. We will be starting the second semester with the "If you sailed on the mayflower" book by Ann McGovern. If you are interested you can see sample pages on http://www.cbd.com/. Then we will move on to the colonial days, and the revolution, the constitution, and then I am not sure. I did ebay to get them so I will also have the book on George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Maybe an impromtu study of presidents? I also am intrigued, but will not buy it yet, with "The story of the world" history through reading. It is supposed to be able to age span as well. It is kind of between that one and one that I found through Christian Liberty Press called "our nation under God" it is a little more formal but I liked the concepts that it had presented (also visible on cbd site) They are cost effective as well :) Extras this year are gym and art class through our new Lighthouse Homeschool group, and piano. So far I think we are well rounded but am also thinking of a map class for the kids. I found workbooks that look fun and will help them with simple geography.

Ok enough about school though that seems to be my life these days, atleast until noon. We did get the curtains and rods and I got them up and am very pleased. Matthew installed the door in the lower hallway so that I could get the boxes out of the living areas. Now I just have to complete that task and come up with some organization of sorts for it. I think he will be installing a light in there as well as a header for under the landing area of the steps so that I can use that space as well. I bought paint for the second coat in the hallway although I have not gotten around to that project yet. Maybe this weekend. Being sick has made me lose a ton of motivation for working around here. Speaking of which the sofa is calling my name....

Quick update and then bed

So this month has brought several changes to our lives. School has started and yet again I am still doing an impromptu study with the kids due to not having all my curriculum yet. I am almost there but it is coming together slowly. I have been utilizing the new library here alot and they have a great selection of easy readers. We also went to the cabin for Matthew's bear hunt. It was a long time without him and not having anyother adult company but the kids and I did alot of science work and some reading and math as well as field trips. We went to seney wildlife reserve for our "fur/hair analysis" since we are studying life science on animals right now. We had a great time exploring the different types of pelts that they had. I found a few great books for them as well so they had great fun reading about how awesome God is and what He did that made each animal a special creature. We also went to the Zoo and had a great time there as well. The Oswalde Bear ranch was a favorite as well since "dad" was gone all week and he got to come with us and see the bears as well. Overall it was a fun trip and we all had a good time...even the bears...yup you guessed it they only came to get the bait after dark so poor Matthew didn't get one this time. We go back in October for a last ditch effort to get him one.
We are finally done moving all our stuff over and had our garage sale. It was very successful though I wish we had had less to donate in the end. We did however get rid of tons and tons of stuff! It will afford us our curtains finally! and a closet unit and a closet door that will allow us to access a storage area that we were unable to get to before. So, hopefully we will have the house in tip top shape by the holidays and the new baby.
We did pick a name BUT we are not announcing it until she is born. We have not even told the kids yet. They are persistant and continue to ask what we are naming her....
Um....yeah I think that is it for now.  I will upload some pics and video later. Good night everyone!

testing...testing...let me know what you see!

Things I forgot to mention but spontaneously remembered before I signed out

How could I forget!!! We had our ultrasounds and our precious butterfly is doing great! We don't have a name for her yet but we are working on it.

Kayla learned to ride her two wheeler today with out training wheels and again if I can figure out how to upload video that is going on here as well :)

OK that is all for tonight.

July/August update

Wow! I am a pathetic blogger! Ok well if I must try I think I can manage to remember some of the month of July. We started it off the same way we have started the last three July's and that is with Alexis' birthday! She is now Three years old and is so much fun and has so much personality. We travelled on her birthday this year to the cabin so we made it special by having her birthday party at breakfast and then stopping at Mcdonalds for lunch (normally I throw sandwiches at them while we drive) That trip we shared with friends from our church,Tim and Laura Bedell and kids (5). I  do not recall other than parades going and doing anything out of the ordinary...

We then came home for the rest of July to move into our new house. It is a little crowded with stuff at the moment that we are still trying to find a place for or unpack because frankly we were not very organized and have taken our sweet time until this week. We have been sleeping and "in" our house since the 19th of July so that is part of why I was MIA for so long. No internet access until the first friday in August and then we went up to the cabin right away. Anywho, It has been an overly busy and tiring two months. We were at the cabin the second week in August with my family. It was as always a fun time and we even checked out some waterfalls.

Then we came home so that Matthew could work...and I mean work pretty much the whole time! I was so grateful at that point that we were in the new house because some of the shifts were pagers that he was able to come home and be with us between calls. It helps too when he works with his good buddy Joe and they can come hang out even on duty truck.

The last trip to the cabin was with my cousin Jake and his wife and kids. We also did a water fall but it rained a lot during the time that we were up there, and the kids (I think because of the rain keeping them inside) did not get along terribly well. Here is a few pics from the waterfall trip we took.

The gang; Rylie, Andrea, Sierra, Carrie&Hunter, Jake and Jalyn, and Kayla is in there somewhere

We took a few family photos of other people so one of them was nice enough to take one of all of us. The older girls look just thrilled don't they!

Alexis humoring me and "smiling" for the camera

My guys! All smiles in the great out of doors

Ok had to put in two because those boys are just too cute!

Well I am playing with the video camera so if I can figure out how to post videos then I will post some of the fun that the kids have had this summer. Love to all!