Had to start with a tribute to Boston (one of my all time favorite musical groups).
Well....it seems I am way behind on blogging since the last post was October 8th. But hey, Facebook is just too quick and convenient for posting about life, and let's face it, that is where almost all my family and friends are located. Internet is a great way to share life through pictures and posts.
So here is the lowdown on what life has held for us. October was the starting point for the busy activity season with the kids. Our homeschool co-op was in full swing and I was teaching a machine sewing class and working on the costuming for our dance studio production of Nutcracker. Needless to say, i did a ton of sewing this fall. Also, I had 4 kids in dance classes and all five in co-op classes and two in a radio drama. And the youngest boy had four birthday parties to attend and we had Nutcracker to prepare for. It was a wonderful season of activity that we all got involved in.
Schooling was going pretty well, but we are tweaking it over the holidays to be ready for spring. That always seems to happen. It is a good time to re-evaluate and see what needs to change. Speaking of which, we have got to get more PE in the mix each week, and we need to mix in more grading by me and more writing skill for everyone---including writing in math. We talked about signing some up for soccer, but they have changed their minds, so a step up in PE it will be. That is fine. I can easily manage to fit park time in, but precise weekly practice schedules?? Not so easy. And Sonlight for high school....it is a fabulous program, but super heavy on reading which its burning out my kids on reading for pleasure. Not a side effect I enjoy, so I think I am going to do some serious modifications (more than I already did). I am not the biggest fan of core 200 anyway. And especially when my NLD kid arrives in 9th grade, it will HAVE to be severely modified.
In other news, Christmas was yesterday. We had a small Christmas this year in terms of gifts, and it was great. We have the kids draw a sibling name and buy something for them for $15, then we get each kid something from us parents for about $30, and they each get a stocking of food and other small dollar store items and a couple of small gifts from Santa. Jacob got a camera lens coffee mug, a t-shirt, a Teavana insulated mug and 3 flavors of tea, a computer game (Half-Life) and a keychain that is a movie camera with house keys on it. Emily got a backpack, a t-shirt, a portal keychain with house keys, an antique teacup with fruit tea, a Teavana infuser mug and peach tea, and a daily bible. Elizabeth got a peacock pillow, peacock fetather lamp, a -t-shirt, a bible with cover and highlighter, and bath and body items. Jordan got a Halo game, a lava lamp, skateboard, and airsoft pistol and hot wheels pack. Kimberly got a 12 set of my little Pony figures, a stuffed my Little Pony- Cadence, earrings, ceramic tea set, and makeup set from Claire's. We were definitely blessed and had a Christmas Eve prayer before bedtime.
Today I am ready to get rid of all Christmas sweets, go for a run, finish the laundry, and take the kids shopping with the money from Grandma. I think they all got around $40 cash to spend--give or take.
So maybe next year I will have time or take time to post more....or maybe not. We'll see how it plays out. Hope your fall and winter were wonderful.
I will probably do a New year's Eve post next week to wrap it up :)
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