Projects

 Katie and Noah went to spend some Christmas money this past weekend after our very long Babies R Us outing.  Noah chose a building set...the one above.

Katie picked a cooking set for her American Girl doll.

Here's Katie with some of the baked goodies.

 I wanted to share these pics of the project that Noah built with his kit.

 It's a toolbox.

The kit uses heavy duty foam and sturdy plastic nails and screws, tools, etc.

 He measured, sawed, hammered, and built this toolbox pretty much completely on his own! I was so proud.

 I highly recommend this brand of toy building kits.  It was fun for him and he was so proud!

School Update

 Time for a school update!  

As of next week, we will be finished with our third nine weeks of study for 2010/2011!

I just finished writing out the lesson plans for the final semester.  We are on schedule to finish the week before Easter, right on time!!!! Ruby is expected to arrive less than a month after.  Could it be any more perfect?!

In other exciting school news....

Today I was able to order all the curriculum for next year! As soon as it arrives I can start getting that first nine weeks planned out so we won't delay.  I will have my hands very full this summer, so having everything ready and planned will be a huge help!

I was able to get *every single thing* on my school wish list today! YAY!

 We will be diving into some good history/geography this year with Sonlight History/Geography 1.

This is an introduction to World History.  We will use a timeline and figures along with the studies and will cover things like ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece, Europe, Africa, India, and China.

I had put off really  getting deep into a History curriculum until this coming year on purpose.

I wanted to get the basics of reading/writing down well first.  Sonlight subjects are very heavy as well, so waiting until Noah was more able to listen and pay attention was important.

 Sticking with Math-U-See!

Still totally loving this math program!

Katie is moving on this 9 weeks actually...up to Gamma and the beginning of multiplication.

Gamma is a very heavy year content wise, so I plan on taking plenty of time to master each thing.  It will probably take this next 9 weeks of introduction plus the entire third grade year to get through this one.

Noah will still be working through Beta, which he just began. They are both doing so great with math and I give all credit to this program..it is awesome.

 We ordered the Picture Smart Bible program to use also.  We will most likely use this as an evening devotional learning time as a family.  We've gotten kind of boring with our evening devotion time, so hoping this will mix it up and we will certainly learn a ton!  Check out THIS LINK to see more about it.  Basically you go through the books of the Bible by drawing a master picture that includes basic elements from that book of the Bible...symbols, main verses, etc.  Drawing helps you remember what you learned.  It looks like so much fun.  This was a bonus *wish list* item that I had wanted to get last year, but we finally are able to get it!

 Last year we used the birds, magnets, astronomy units from this science company.  This year we are getting "microscopic explorations, insects, and light" units.  I actually love the science classes offered at the Education Play Station where Katie is now taking Zoology, and Noah is taking a combo science class.  Hopefully they can continue taking classes there, but these units will fill in the gaps of time in between and/or if we aren't able to continue those classes for some reason.

Staying with Abeka for Reading, Language Arts (writing), and Spelling.

Reading/Language is starting to take less time one on one with me, so that's where we get to add in the rich history program.

I can't believe we are going to have a THIRD grader this coming school year!

OH and a very neat thing happened today while I was ordering curriculum.

The teacher's manuals for Abeka are really expensive on their website, and used ones can usually be found in abundance.  It's just sometimes a needle in a haystack to find a current edition.  I have compromised in the past and just had to adjust the schedule in a previous edition to fit the current workbooks.

Well...after ordering from Abeka today I went in search of the Language 3 curriculum on the used websites.

None to be found.

So I put out a "wanted" email on the used Abeka curriculum yahoo group.

FOUR minutes later, someone replied to me!  A brand new edition at an extremely reasonable price!

Ask and you shall receive right?!

I was so happy to have that search over and done.  I really didn't want anything left on my plate to get for next year...searching and looking the rest of the year. YAY!

Well, that pretty much covers it!

I love shopping for school supplies! 

Staring Contests among Catz

Katie loves these kinds of games on her DS.  She has a baby sitting game, and two "taking care of pets" games.
Lately she has been playing this one a lot....where you take care of baby kittens and they grow up, etc.  You have to feed them, play with them, wash them, etc.  She absolutely LOVES it!
This morning I discovered that is has also been a good sex education tool as well.
It has been frustrating her because she kept having kittens and naming them, then they would turn out to be the opposite gender of the name she picked, because it would have kittens, etc.  ha ha.
Well...when the baby kittens are born, they just show the little gender symbol, with the plus or arrow beside them.  She finally put it all together this morning and said, "OH, the little arrow means its a boy and the plus means its a girl!!!!"  Isn't it fun when kids use their brains and experiences to put something together that you didn't teach them? ha.
Well, the best part is coming.....
Noah picks up the game while she is eating breakfast.  He says, "Look Katie, they are having a staring contest!"
Katie jumps up from the table and runs over to him and says, "OH that means they are about to have kittens!!!!!!"
I about died laughing.
Hilarious! 
Staring contest = kittens.
Yeah, we'll go with that for now.

(The game just shows two cats staring at each other, hearts come up between them, then it says, "King and Princess just had a kitten, you can name it now", nothing major, I just thought it was funny that they have dubbed it a staring contest)

E-Mealz

I forgot! I do have something of note to blog about!

We just signed up for E-mealz last week.  So far, we are enjoying it.
I was hesitant for a long time to sign up for anything like this.  For a couple of reasons...
1.  It seems like something that would be so easy to do yourself!
2. We prefer to buy organic/natural foods when possible
3. It seems like something that would be so easy to do yourself!!!!!!!!

The final straw is that I am just not in the mood to eat dinner.  I don't ever care what we have, and it is hard to think of things I want to eat for the next week.  I would honestly eat breakfast for dinner every night right now.  When something is actually made, I can sit down and enjoy it, but my inspiration is ZERO for coming up with creative ideas, making a plan, blah blah blah. It was getting expensive to just come up with things off the top of our heads, or just walk through the store buying whatever looks good at the time.

As much as it hurt my pride to sign up for something that seems like it would be so easy to do yourself, we finally decided to just give it a try.  Another downside to this particular website is that there is no free trial period or introductory rate/price, so we paid for 3 months at once just to try it, which is the only way you can sign up, three months at a time.  I have since found out that there are promo codes which save you $2-$3.  That was sad, because we had already signed up.
Basically, it's $5/month, $15 for 3 months.
You pick a plan.  They have many to choose from.  We chose the family of 4-5, 7 meal plan, Kroger.
You can change your plan once per three months.  They have weight watchers plans, different stores, meals for 2, etc.
Each week a 7 meal plan is posted.  It is based off of the sales going on at Kroger for the week.
It lists all the ingredients for every meal, the staples you need to have on hand (which are minimal), and the prices listed for the week.
The typical grocery bill for the 7 day plan is supposed to be $70-$80.  That was another thing I wasn't sold on because that didn't seem very cheap for me.  But, then, I considered, if we are eating 7 meals at home and not eating out, then that isn't bad for a family of four.  Especially for a good variety of foods, not repeating the same old same old every week.
This past week our grocery bill ended up being $130.  That is a good bit more than what we used to spend when I was couponing like crazy.  But....we eat three meals a day at home!  I know a lot of families who spend more than that and their house sits vacant all day long, so I think we do fairly well for a family who snacks and does all their meals at home most every day.  We probably eat out once a week now on average.
Also, he spent more on several of the items than what was listed because instead of getting one pack of ground chuck, he got a multi bulk pack of ground turkey.  And instead of the boneless pork chops listed he got a bigger pack that was on sale that we quickly split up into 4 more meals.
AND the best part was...we got to try some new recipes that weren't crazy expensive to make, that we had all the ingredients on hand, mostly bought on sale, and that we loved!
We can also substitute natural and organic when we want, so that isn't an issue really.

We will be doing some substitutions here and there for things that just don't sound good to us at all, but throwing in a spaghetti night on occasion is better than starting out with a meal plan of "okay, we'll have spaghetti one night and tacos...what else?"
ha ha.

I say it's a win so far.

Nothing Much....

I haven't posted since the 15th?!? I can't believe it!
Well...there hasn't really been much to post in a while.  We've been fighting all kinds of sicknesses around here.  First pink eye, then colds, then another round of pink eye, and lastly I had the most horrible cough and sore throat EVER which caused severe sleep deprivation.  Thankfully that has finally passed and hopefully we are GOOD now!
I gotta get to working on my scripture memory more.  I have kind of gotten it down, but not totally.
We're breezing through our school days as well.  We're on week 25 out of 36 already! Only two more weeks in our third nine week session.  We will take the week of Valentine's Day off, then dive in for our last nine week semester!
Which will also bring us right up to time for little Ruby Faith to join us.  Our Bradley classes start on the 13th.  We have just 15 more weeks till her birthday.
Lots of countdowns going on.  And so much to accomplish in the meantime.  I am thankful for the ability and means to work on some things and for the chance to take a pre-baby getaway on Valentine's weekend. 
The baby blog has been getting more attention lately I suppose.  You can find me more over there these days.

Scripture Memory: January 15th

Isaiah 43:1-3

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

I have summoned you by name, you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you

and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned.

The flames will not set you ablaze.

Shopping Spree!

 I got a few gift cards for Christmas and though I told myself I would hold onto them for a while, it just didn't happen, ha ha.  I really did need some things.  Like.......

 A great pair of maternity jeans! I had bought some from Target that were working fine, but they were a little too big.  These "secret belly fit" jeans are great!  The panel is tight and thin enough that there is no seam showing through your shirts!

And.....

 two new 3/4 length sleeve tees.  I want to pick up more of these.  3/4 length sleeves are pretty much year round clothes here in GA! ha ha.

 Yes, a spatula/turner.  We needed to stock up on some good coated cooking tools so we don't ruin our new pots and pans.  This one is stainless steal coated with silicone, so it won't scratch!  The reason I ordered it is because I had also picked out some nursing camisoles (only available online! clearance priced!) and I needed $10 more dollars to save $16 worth of shipping.  So there ya go, it was a perfect add on!

And today, I spent the last of my gift card on this:

A new straightening iron.  I have been putting off getting a new one for a while because I just couldn't bear the thought of how much $$$ they cost!  But...I did some research and this brand got great reviews. It's a Remington Damage Therapy Flat Iron. We don't have naturally curly hair, so we don't actually need a crazy expensive one I don't think.  This one was only $39.99 and it has teflon coated plates which is supposed to cut down on breaking/damaging hair, which is a problem I do have with doing mine and Katie's hair.  I hate when they pull my hair out!  It goes up to 440 degrees so it gets really hot for one in this price range!

I just tried it on Katie's hair really quickly and it seemed to work great with just one run through. The only other issue I had was that it would take more than one run through and going slow to work, and this one didn't.  I think it will be a great purchase!

So, my post Christmas shopping money is gone, but I am VERY happy with my purchases.  I got some things that I need now (maternity/nursing stuff) and some stuff to use in the long run! (spatula and straightener)