Back to Work

This week I started back to work. Not in the traditional since. I have a work from home job. And let me tell you, it is hard to block off time for work when you have kids at home that you are home schooling. There are a thousand distractions.

So today when the kids went for sewing classes, I stayed home to work. I had 1 1/2 hours of no interruptions. It was nice. I now have a completed report to turn in and one underway. I work for our local hospital. They have a foundation that raises money. And I do research for them. It is a nice job. The pay is good and I set my own time. I just have to discipline myself enough to do the work.

Steve and I had a discussion about this and he is helping me out. It is nice to have his help that way the work and the kids are not all on me. We have time set aside during the evenings when the research is to be done. And when the kids are at other functions during the day. So I will have time to squeeze it in.

I know I am doing the Lord's bidding being at home with my kids and teaching them subjects based on truth not theory. But let me tell you this, it is easier to have a job the you "leave" for. That way the beeping of the laundry and the dirty dished in the sink don't pull you away. ;-)
I am learning to adjust. I have placed the Lord in control and I will go from there. He will sustain me and continue to lead me.

Give Away

Pennyraine is giving away a fabulous book. It is called Dine on a Dime cookbok. If you visit her blog at http://pennyraine.com/blog/2009/01/spontaneous-bloggy-giveaway/
You can enter to win too. What a fabulous book to help start the year off right.

Smooth Re-entery

We started back to school today. Things got off to a rough start. Zach has it in his head that things are suppose to a certain way. Well, his agenda sheet varied from what he thought was the schedule so he decided, I don't have to follow it. So he was five minutes late starting school and his room was a mess.

Well he flew through everything today. And got his room picked up before daddy got home. So he saved himself. I was worried.

Shay did good today. She felt a bit overwhelmed and asked if she could carry over some work to tomorrow. Her language class is pretty intense. She is reading Pride & Prejudice and has to take the book apart chapter by chapter, analyze the characters, write a research paper, along with vocab sheets and spelling sheets. She struggled with it today but I told her she could work on some of it tomorrow too.

Tuesdays are our short days. They have sewing for 2 1/2 hours with Grandma Jean. So they oly have math review and penmanship to do on those days. Shay is also going to be taking a Digital photography/journalism class starting Thursday. That will be lots of fun for her. Zach and I will have to figure out something to do at that time.

Well, it is late and I am off to bed. I have been fighting a migraine for a few days now. My FMS is flaring because we are having cool nights and warm days. When the temp rises and falls like that my FMS flares. Not fun at all.

Have a good night all.

Trying new tactics

Well, we have been on vacation for almost two months now. So I decided it is time to start getting back into the swing of things. We are starting with math reviews. Both of the kids are very good in math so they tend to blow it off. So mommy came up with a plan last night.

Starting today my kids have to earn their video games/computer time. Zach hasn't realized that I didn't lump tv time into that. So he is deducting for tv time he wants tonight. Well here is what I am doing. I made up worksheets for Zach and took all of his systematic reviews from his math book and put them in a folder. For every problem he gets right the FIRST time around he gets 1 minute of play time. If he does 3 pages a day that will last us 31 days. Well, today he has completed four pages and got all 100 questions right. So he has 100 minutes of playtime.

I know that seems like alot but he has to save time for rainy days and weekends. Like tomorrow we are having company over and he wants to cash in his time for tomorrow night when his friend is here. I thought that was a good deal. He is learning time management with this.

The same thing goes for Shaylin. But since she is doing Algebra honors review she gets 10 minutes per problem. We figured that was fair since she has less problems per page and they take her longer to do. Zach did 100 problems in the time it took Shay to copy and complete 6 problems. So we are compensating them accordingly.

They are currently out riding their bikes. I know most of you are all freezing up north but it is a beautiful day today. Its about 78 outside. Too warm to have the AC off. But perfect for the kids to be playing outside. Although the AC has hardly kicked on today. So its not costing much to have it on. Its set @ 77 and the house is currently 75. If I open the window the humidity makes the floors sticky. The down side to having wood floors in Florida.

I hope you all and a safe and happy New Year's. We will be having dinner with some friends and watching a movie an maybe sneaking in some Halo. We are pretty boring people. LOL. But Steve and I will be celebrating 9 years of marriage on the 1st. Time sure does fly by!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I just want to take a moment and wish all of you a wonderful and blessed Christmas. We celebrate on Christmas eve so, we get open our gift tonight. You should see the kids. They are just strung out with excitement.

Zach can barely contain himself. He is frantically cleaning his room so he has a place to put all of his gifts. Shay is sick again so she is dragging her feet. We baked 28 dozen cookies between Friday & yesterday.

I hope you all are feeling as blessed as we are. What a wonderful season to celebrate with friends and family!!

Merry Christmas!!

A wonderful evening

Tonight we went to a live Nativity put on by our church. It was so nice. It was held at our youth pastor's home. There was a bonfire, goodies, and lots of fellowship.

The kids had a great time. Zach ran around with some of his friends and Shay bounced from one cluster to the next visiting. What a great way to spend an evening.

It was the perfect weather. Just a bit chilly but a clear night. It was probably around 74 out. Did I mention I had a great time? LOL I love my church. We brought some friends with us and they liked it too. They are kinda searching for a church home. I would love to see them join our church. We have a great youth program that their son loves to visit.

What a great way to start off the Christmas week. May you all be blessed this week.

Linville Falls, NC 11/08

Linville Falls, NC

The kids holding ice from the falls.

Another shot of hte falls from the Gorge outlook.

Zach being the typical boy and breaking the ice puddles. ;-)

Steve & Shay taking pics of the falls from a high outlook.

We had so much fun in North Carolina over Thanksgiving.
This day was cold but fun!! We got to see snow flurries.
The snow was melting as it landed on us and the ground.
The hike was fun. By the time I got to the top I was sweating and taking
off my jacket. We had like three layers on. It was 32 degrees out and the
wind was really blowing.

As you can see the kids had a blast too. Zach had a toy in his pocket
and every time he jumped down from a rock or stepped hard
to would start playing music. It was funny.