It's School Time Again!

 So much has been happening around here this year.   But hey, that's just sums up 2020 right?  A whole lot of nothing it seems.. Everybody is busy just trying to keep some sort of sanity about them.  

We ended up starting school later than I would have liked-but that's ok, plans change.  Honestly, the best way for me keep my sanity with homeschooling is to remember to be a little flexible... If I'm too flexible, then things fall apart and we don't get anything done.  So we still have to have our plan.

So what are we doing for school this year?  

Andrew is in 4th grade.. He's doing  a variety of Ace PACES, Answers in Genesis for science, Saxon for math and a homemade state study. 

He loves the PACES.  I love the PACES. I LOVE how there's pretty much no planning involved and it's mostly independent... But we needed some subjects that are a little more reusable for the rest of the kids-making it a little more affordable..  So we dropped ACE PACEs for science.  He really wanted to learn about the human body, so we shopped around online looking at reviews and found one that's Bible based and not teaching him about certain anatomy features he's not quite ready for.    The one we chose was Answers in Genesis.  God's Wondrous Machine. It teaches about the mind, respiratory and circulatory.  I am LOVING this.  Everything was all planned out and pretty much ready for us to start when we got it.  It's written for ages 8-12, and has different levels planned in-you just have look and decide which level is right for your child..  It also makes it easy to use a family study, or as a study more than one child can use the books for at a time.   The Saxon math.... Well, we're getting used to it.  Andrew is getting used to having more word problems and learning how to write and solve equations along with using a text book instead of a workbook.  The state study.. When I was in school, 4th graders learned about the state.. Apparently it's more traditional to wait a few more years around here.  Oh well...  I also found out that when it comes to homeschoolers and state studies, you are on your own.   So I grabbed a couple of our tourist books, found a few great websites and delved in.. We have a section on governors, a section on the history of the state and a section of each region.   I wrote it as an independent study and so far he's having some fun with it.. It will only last about 12 weeks, but that's ok.  I think Andrew's biggest problem this year will be the transition from workbooks to textbooks.

Eva is in 3rd grade.  She is mostly in PACEs, but her science is through Institute for Creation Research. Eva is also finishing up Abeka cursive.  Ok, the science I am regretting a bit... I did as soon as I saw the books..   But we are making the best of it and although it's a little difficult for her, she's doing her best and even enjoying it.  We bought the pack of Guide To Books but left out the Universe and the Human Body.  I had to go through and write a workbook and the tests to these books.  While I love the information given, these were NOT written as curriculum kind of book-at least not for independent study.  But I had spent my budget so we went with what we had.  Next year I'll probably buy something from AiG for an animsl study better fitted to how we do school.  

Grace is in 1st grade.  She is all Abeka and doing great in it.  Grace is learning independent study this year... and keeps having to redo something when she forgets to read instructions.  

Hannah is working her way through the alphabet.  She's insistent she needs to learn to read soon... So she has great motivation to learn her letters and their sounds.  Hannah is 4.

Two year old Elijah is along for the ride.  He has special coloring books just for school along with reusable stickers.  

Baby Dinah makes things interesting. LOL

My biggest fear with homeschooling is that we'll miss something.   That's mostly why we're using a curriculum for hte base subjects..  But even with that, we missed something.  Andrew and Eva do not have a good foundation with addition and subtraction.  Completely my fault as mom/teacher.  So, we are working on flashcards.  I'm fixing the issue with Grace as she starts in addition this year.  I think as an adult I have so much engrained in me (such as basic math) that I forget that it had to be taught to me.   Unfortunately for our older kids, they seem to be the "guinea pigs".   

But I'm just being truthful with them.... Yesterday went something like... Ok guys, we didn't do this right, we need to stop, take a step back and do it right.  I put our flashcards in order (we have Abeka sets for addition and subtraction... honestly debating ordering for multiplication-we have division flashcards) and paid attention to what problems we were on when they started have to pause for longer than a few seconds or started counting on their fingers.  We got pretty far in addition, subtraction wasn't so easy.  But we'll get it.  One day at a time.  I had a friend explain to me the importance of the speed drills-I didn't fully understand then, I understand now... They need to know those addition and subtraction problems without batting an eye to make it once they get to the harder stuff.  

As for me.. I'm learning some Anatomy right along with Andrew.   I am still searching for a planner I like that will fit all the kids-plus more.  I have yet to find it.  This year my planner is basically notebook papers with the days labeled, what week of school we are in.  Everybody is color coded.  Which is helping a lot as I can just glance real quick and see who has to do what.  I have a ton of blank notebook papers in my binder as well, for notes, grades or other miscellaneous things that pop into my head.  Once we're through this calendar year, I'll add my meal and life planner to the same notebook-though this is more monthly than daily.  That way it's all in the same notebook.  Merissa over at Little House Living just shared her planner and I think I need to go play on excel and see what I can make, I loved the layout of hers, but I much prefer a regular notebook size as my eyes aren't so great.  

Andrew and Eva also have planners this year instead of the goal cards like ACE uses.  I loved those goal cards the past few years, but I wanted something I didn't have to remember to print out every few weeks when I did school planning.  So we printed off a calendar.  Next year I will probably just do a full year calendar so they can dates they want to remember even for our days we don't have school-such as birthdays or events at church or whatever.  I'll do a post on our planners, too.  

I'm working on another post about how we are organizing things this year, this one seems to be a bit long as it is. 

I don't get much of a chance to sit down and type anymore...  For instance, this post took me 6 hours,  I'm sitting rocking Dinah in the bouncy chair as I finish typing this.. Supervising home ec (Eva's learning to bake cookies), and grading PACEs as Andrew gets them done... He didn't get done with his school this week so he gets to finish on Saturday...   

Anyway.. I don't get much of a chance anymore, but I'll be here when I can.  

~Tabitha

Starting Life At a "New Normal"

 It seems like everybody is using that phrase lately "new normal"....  

My brother picked up a phrase somewhere when we were growing up "normal is just a setting on a dryer".  Well, it's true.  Your normal is going to be vastly different from my normal.  My husband's normal is different from my normal-simply because his work and school is on the computer and out delivering mail, while my normal is very much attempting to keep up life around the house.   

We are still working on figuring out grocery shopping with the whole mask thing...  The kids can't really go in a grocery store with me, so we're doing what we can through grocery pickup, Schwans and local stores where I can shop more often, then getting big ticket items like baking and meat at Sam's or specialty stores in Sioux Falls so we can buy as much as we can in bulk... Aldi is very much a novelty right now.. I miss it so much, it's so hard to swallow the prices I have to pay at other stores when I know Aldi is cheaper-but I have to do what I can and priority is feeding us all.

We had the baby June 20th..  She came fast and early.  Little girl Dinah is already defying daddy lol.. He kept saying "you can't come on a Saturday, I have to work on Saturdays" (he's a rural mail carrier in the area, is normal days are Saturdays).  Well.. She came at 2:25 AM on a Saturday morning. Poor daddy was tired for work that day.   But she did wait until I had cinnamon rolls in the freezer! LOL  I didn't get many dinner freezer meals, but our church family is awesome and helped out with dinners.  We were able to get back TO church right before Dinah came, so that was a blessing also.  

Dinah is our first colicky baby, it's been a long 8 weeks, but I think we're finally getting the colic and tummy problems under control.  I'm still usually fixing something different for meals for me from everybody else, apparently dairy is a huge a trigger for colic.  Dinah usually lasts about half an hour sitting in the swing or the bouncy seat -or until somebody comes and starts messing with her. lol She doesn't like too much touching and isn't a fan of the baby carrier.  

We have been rearranging the house to try and give me a better pantry along with a shelf that just for school stuff... It's slow going, but we're getting there.  We're also gearing up to start school in a few weeks, just waiting on the rest of our books.  

Our biggest adjustment to this "new normal" is grocery shopping.   It's no longer a straight 4 weeks I can shop for anymore,  I can't take the kids in stores anymore as most of our area stores have a policy of one person per cart or/and masks... Have you tried to keep a mask on 4 kids for 45 minutes? Yeah...not happening...  Without the help of my big kids or my husband shopping for a month at a time isn't happening.  It's also pretty much impossible to soothe a newborn with a mask on.  So I go to Sam's every 8ish weeks,  get as much as my freezer or shelves can accommodate,and stop there.  A week or so later I go to the butcher and get 40 pounds of beef, 20 or so pounds of chicken, bacon out the wazoo-I think around 40 pounds.. and anything else we need.   I fill in with Walmart, Amazon pantry, Aldi and the local store as I'm able or need to.  Thankfully we have Dollar General in town so I can get MOST of my cleaning supplies there.  

My meal planning, baking and cooking has changed...  Before Dinah came I was making most everything from scratch, it was really fun learning new techniques and the food was amazing..  But let's face it, there's only so much time with a newborn... So I have to start slow again.  Cinnamon rolls are my first thing to get back into... Noodles will be the next, homemade spaghetti noodles are the best.  I had been frying our own tostadas and chips, but that's been difficult with the baby so I'll try baking them I saw instructions on Pinterest, I just have to find them again. 

This go round is really the first time since April I've been able to plan meals ahead of time..  Most of the summer was spent blindly shopping, then planning from what I bought. Because of the sporadic shopping I'm able to do, I'm planning for 7 weeks...  When I get low on flour, we'll go back to Sam's...  and fill in everywhere else as needed.  

Right now, it's super important I keep up with exactly what is in my pantry and freezers.. So making those detailed lists will come this week sometime.  

One thing at a time, one day at a time.  God will help us through.  

Ecclesiastes 3:1  To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heaven.  

~Tabitha

Homemade Corn Tortilla Chips

Nachos are yummy. 

Homemade tortilla chips are yummy.

Nachos with homemade tortillas chips? Perfection. 

I don't know about y'all, but food is getting hard to find at our little grocery store and the stores in the city have a lot of social distancing rules going on making it near impossible for me at 29 weeks pregnant to get the food we need. 

So I'm getting inventive. 

I've tried homemade tostadas before and they just haven't turned out right.  But when I couldn't find tortilla chips but I could find corn tortillas, I decided to give it another try. 

I initially bought a package of 80 corn tortillas for $3.  Every time I made chips, I used 2 cups of coconut oil (we buy it in bulk from Bulk Apothecary), 20 tortillas and a bit of salt.  20 tortillas gave me about 160 chips. 

So how do you do it?  Pull out a skillet and put your oil in, heat your oil until it's sizzling... While it's heating, get your tortillas cut-I cut the stack in 6-8 pieces depending on how big you like your chips, I do 8.  Lay out a sheet pan with paper towels for draining the oil off.  Once your oil is hot enough, start adding your chips.  I put a few in at a time until I know the oil is hot enough, then I do enough at a time to fill up the pan. 
Now, I don't have a thermometer to keep the oil at the perfect temperature, so I just pay close attention, remember the longer your oil is on the hot burner, the hotter it's going to get, so you may need to adjust the burner temperature.  It takes me about 20 minutes to get through the batch.

Don't mind the dirty stove... It needs a good scrubbing again. 
I let the tortillas stay on one side until I can either see a bit of brown around the edges or until it stops sizzling as much-you'll hear the difference.. then flip them and do it over again.  How long you leave them in also depends on how done you like your chips.  I usually end up burning the last few pan fulls in the batch, but they still taste scrumptious. 

After I get a few batches on the sheet pan I'll put some salt on and just toss after they cool off enough to handle.  I was putting salt on each batch as they were fresh from the pan, but they were too salty for us. 

To make tostada shells, just do the same thing, except don't cut your tortillas, put them in the pan whole. 

That's it, you're done.  Easy peasy. 

Sit down and enjoy the chips of your labor... Unless of course your kids eat them all.. In which case, gobble them up while you can.

~Tabitha

What To Do When We're Stuck

I think most everybody in the States is mostly stuck at home right now.. Whether it's self quarantine or government quarantine.. We're pretty much stuck..

Now, staying home the majority of the time is not new to us.. But there's something psychological when you choose to stay home versus being told "you HAVE to stay home"...  Honestly for us, this stuff hit at the end of the month and got bad RIGHT before grocery shopping... I had planned on going a little earlier so we had a month of groceries, no problem... then the city issued a plan to keep the kids  at home, germs at bay and only essential outings needed.

Let me tell you something about our monthly shopping trips.  I NEED help.  It's not negotiable.  Typically my help is my kids as we go when hubby is working...  I cannot do a month of shopping by myself because two of the three stores I NEED two carts.   I'm also 25 weeks pregnant.. so pushing one cart is hard on me and baby by the end of the store, but two.. Nope I can't do it.  I can't the pull and pick up options because everybody is booked out a month at least in advance... SO... we are shopping the sales ads from our local store weekly.. The problem with that? The supplier has put a limit on how many pounds of food they can order.  WHY? I HAVE NO IDEA.  So, they are only getting essentials that are needed and those are now limited.  Our fresh veggies are getting low.   EEEK.   I'm hoping we can make it to a bigger store and to get honey before the governor issues a shelter in place order...  Then I'm relying on the local store only.   And when I say we, I mean Dennis and the kids in the van with me going into the store to get what's needed for the week-with extra peppers and onions, because those are freezable.

So what are we doing?  Impatiently waiting for the weather to warm enough to work outside and in the garage...  I have many projects waiting and going on.

We've also decided we need to be serious about eating healthier... and that means looking at all the labels and figuring out what all of those scientific names are-because some of those names are vitamins.   So.... we're starting with breakfast, pasta and breads.   Now, I wasn't planning on going into ALL the breads...then I went grocery shopping.  Guess I'm making tortillas.

So what's changing with breakfast?  Mostly the cereal..  Everything else we eat for breakfast is already real food.  Which is pretty awesome.  So I'll be making granola so we have some easy breakfast around.. But my PLAN is to just start making the kids' breakfast-whether it's hot oatmeal, baked oatmeal, coffee cake.. You get the idea?  I can't just do eggs and bacon and toast because one of our girls can't eat eggs... SO it has to be other things. 

Pasta.  The pasta sauce we buy is actually pretty basic as it is.   (Prego, Bertolli and sometimes Rinaldi.)  Dennis bought me a pasta roller and cutter when he bought me the kitchen aid mixer.  That thing is awesome.  I finally found a YouTube video on how to make pasta successfully.  Flour it until you think it's too much, then you're good.  This last batch of pasta turned out great.  My next experimental pasta is going to be farfalle and ravioli.  The kids eat macaroni and cheese a lot, so that's a meal that needs changed.   I don't have the fancy farfalle and ravioli cutters-but I have read a knife or pizza wheel works just fine, just seal your ravioli.

Bread.. Hoagie rolls, garlic bread, bagels...  We're using the hoagie rolls for the garlic bread.  Bagels were actually pretty easy, though they didn't come out very uniform in size, but I'll figure it out.  Apparently I'm making tortillas..because the store was wiped out.

Hoagie Rolls

Bagels

Corn chips! 

Cinnamon Sugar Donuts

This week I made granola and German pancakes...  The German pancakes didn't go over that well.. But it's a great protein for this mama so I'll make a single batch at a time after this.  They are eating the granola this morning..  Elijah isn't sure about it, but I've seen him eat the crunchy granola bars no problem, so he'll eat it.  It smelled pretty awesome-too much sugar for this momma. 

This weekend is my pasta experiment weekend.  We'll see how it turns out.  I'm also going to try French bread instead of hoagie rolls for the garlic bread... 
I also attempted homemade corn dogs.. that didn't turn out well... Apparently the hot dogs (or in our case, brats) have to be room temperature if not warmed up a little to get the batter to stick.... So.. we'll try again..  At least the batter could be used as corn bread muffins. 

Now, if you need help with preserving any excess groceries you might be able to pick up and are worried about spoiling, check out Jammerill's vlog.  She's freezing things I haven't heard of freezing before and I'll definitely keep them in mind.    Yes, I realize the length might be a little intimidating, but the awesome thing about Jammerill and her vlogging, she explains EVERYTHING so you don't have to watch, I usually turn it on while I'm lesson planning, folding laundry, sewing...  Might as well learn something while I'm doing housework, right? 

Be safe.  Don't forget to give time to God.  His peace passes all understanding, it's unexplainable.

~Tabitha

Getting Ready For Baby 2020

Yep, you read that right. We're expecting again.

Things are a little different this time.  Dennis is home more and I am extra thankful for it as this pregnancy has had it's difficulties.  He's my clear head when my hormones are going wacky and I can't think straight. He also helps keep me doing the day to day things when I just don't feel good.  It's so easy to say "ok, no school, no chores" when you are sick and don't feel like moving, but we have to keep looking at the end result (in this particular case, summer break) because the sooner we get done, the sooner we get summer break.

I've been having blood sugar issues this time around. It's been high.. Which is a little concerning for me because my numbers are usually really LOW.   We decided we couldn't do this pregnancy on our own like we have Hannah and Elijah...  That in itself has us both reeling a bit but knowing I have a midwife has taken a bit of the stress off of me.  A bit, not much...  I was told to eat a high protein diet, try to stay away from simple sugars.. Which has actually been surprisingly easy since sugar of any sort has been making me sick since I got pregnant.

The past two weeks of what seems like constant doctor visits has us all a bit crazy and the kids a bit behind in school.  But that's ok.  We'll still get done before June.  😆

Once I started testing my blood sugars, I realized the numbers were near the cutoff of gestational diabetes..  So I changed my diet the best I could- but honestly, with morning sickness it's that much harder.  The numbers weren't getting better so we went to a midwife.

Fortunately I passed the sugar tests!  I have been put on a high protein, low to no sugar diet...  I'm having sugar withdrawals.  But I'm finding fruit and whipped cream on top of waffles and cinnamon rolls is actually pretty good. 

This coronavirus crud is messing with my midwife appointments.     The nurse was kind enough to explain to me what to look for in case I need to reschedule... which I did.. And now grocery shopping is a bit in the air...  Has me a bit nervous to go, but that's a whole different story.  I was told to watch for cold symptoms with a fever... The problem?  Every time Elijah teeths, he has cold symptoms with a low grade fever... Guess what 20 month olds do? TEETH.  UUUGGGHHHH. 

Ok, ok.. Back to the baby.  What am I sewing this time?  A quilt, of course.. I'm trying my first hexagon quilt.  It's turning out super cute.  I sewed a lot of nursing pads (I'm collecting pictures or you can check out my Pinterest Sewing boards.)   I'm hoping to be able to not buy nursing pads this time, so I spent the money on water proofing material.   I need nursing covers, yes more than one.. That way I can keep one in the diaper bag at all times.. and have a few extra for when baby spits up on them-because it's gonna happen.   I'm really liking the full coverage ones.. so I'm going to attempt with some recycled fabric before I try with my brand new fabric I picked up.  I would love to make some baby in a bags that are summer weather friendly-we'll see how much time we have.. And our diaper bag is in major need of going away... But again, we'll see how much time we have. 

Right now I'm in the middle of the quilt.. I have to pause to make Hannah's birthday present (she outgrew her Miami Dolphin clothes) and Elijah is in major need of pants... Thankfully I found a ton of material when I digging out the batting for the quilt so I don't need to buy pants and pants are really easy to make. 

Add all of this to the normal craziness and trying to remember to keep the diffuser going with an immune boosting blend... Yep.  Life is crazy. 


~Tabitha

Having God in My Heart.... What Does It Mean To Me?

I can remember when I was younger my mom always finding new Bible studies. Always searching for somebody to explain the Bible to her. 

Something about that always made me wonder why.  Now, I can’t say some of those studies weren’t interesting.  I remember a study on the book of Daniel that was very intriguing. 

But any questions were always answered with “because”.  No  explanation, no showing me in scripture, no pointing me to scripture. 

I’m not saying that kids need to question when they are given instruction.  I firmly believe we need to teach our kids to follow instructions without question.  But to learn, they need to know they can ask questions and get an answer, or they will look in places we don’t want them looking. 

Our pastor pointed something out in a sermon.. We need to yearn for the word of God as we yearn for food.  Reading the Bible is our spiritual food, if we aren’t being fed spiritually, our relationship with God will starve and whither away.   We wouldn’t eat food that’s already been chewed, why would we read Bible passages that have already been chewed?  Why would we go find a book that somebody else has written about the Bible when we have the Bible? 

The only way to get to know God is to study the Bible. Really STUDY.  Not just read through, not try to beat somebody else to read through a book or the entire Bible.  Sit down and chew on the word.  Take your time, UNDERSTAND it.  God will show me what he wants me to see. 

I had thoughts for a bit to have a blog about my Bible time.  To write out what I’ve been reading and then what I think on it.  I see now that that is not my place.  For one, I’m a woman.  While God says that’s perfectly ok for me to teach my children, younger children and younger women.. I cannot guarantee that’s it’s just women that read my blog.  It’s not my place to be a pastor.  I’m a woman, women are not meant to be a head in the church. 

So if you disagree with that, you might as well stop reading this blog here and now. 

My job, as a Christian, a wife, a mom… is to fear God. To Love God. To Obey God.  To Follow God. To obey my husband.  To Love my husband. To SUBMIT to my husband.  To follow my husband wherever and in whatever he does-as long as he doesn’t go against God.  To take care of my children. To love my children. To  teach them that to  be a Christian is a wonderful, though hard, thing to do.  But it’s got the greatest reward we could ever have.  Heaven! 

I know that I cannot be a teacher on my blog.   But I also know that I cannot write another blog without intertwining God with it.  I cannot-and I will not-separate God from any part of my life again. 

Being a Christian is a lifestyle.  It’s not just a culture and it’s not just a religion. It’s my life.  My WHOLE life.  Everything I do needs to be centered around God. 

That doesn’t mean I’m perfect. That doesn’t mean I won’t sin.  That simply means I am striving to do my best to follow God in what I do. 

~Tabitha

Restarting A Blog...

To start a blog, you need a plan.

We plan…I’m still convinced that sometimes when we plan, God laughs.

So what’s my plan?  Great question.

A friend once told me I needed to have a set day to publish a blog every time, that way my readers know when new content is available.   So that’s a first plan.  But I don’t have a plan, because my first job is mom and sometimes “moming” interrupts plans… So I am not going to promise when I’ll get blogs out.   The next plan is make a list of blog topics-that one’s hard for me, because first I need to establish what it is I will be writing about. 

I could do many different topics, in fact, this  blog started off as a money saving blog….  Well, that severely limited the content I felt like I could put on my blog.  So… I think this time I’ll just do a blog about me.   Apparently I’m a really interesting person. 

Huh. Who knew?

So.. About me, Tabitha. 

I’m a Christian.  So many people don’t know what that even means anymore..  So what does it mean? That means that I am a born again, baptized, accepted Christ into my heart to live a new life to the best of my human ability.  Does that mean I’m perfect?  Ha. No (excuse me while I pick myself up off the floor laughing).   I’m so thankful that God is patient with me and gives me His word to learn to live like him.  I’m also thankful that we found a Bible-believing church whose other members are also patient and understand that we all mess up.

I’m a wife.  My husband’s pretty awesome, if I do say so myself-though I might be a little prejudice in that opinion. Lol   He loves God, he loves me, he loves our kids.  He takes care of us, he does his best to treat me like a princess like I don’t deserve.   Who could ask for anything more (now, if you sang that, you get bonus points.. no the points aren’t good for anything)?  The Bible tells me that God comes first, then my husband.  That’s often a struggle for me.  To be anything to anybody,  I HAVE to put God first, otherwise everything else crumbles.  To be the wife my husband needs, I have to learn what kind of wife God wants me to be.  Dennis (my hubby), knows that and reminds me when I’m not honoring God first.. From my attitude to my sewing creations lol.   To some of you, that may sound weird, condescending… patriarchal even..  But you know what?  I’m good.  Dennis isn’t condescending, he honors God in what he does and what he says. 

I’m a stay at home mom.  So many people think that’s a detriment.  It’s not.  I have the great honor and privilege of being blessed with our kids and being blessed to able to stay home with them.  No, it’s not all fun and games.  Yes, most days are crazy.. and a little aggravating.  I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

I’m sarcastic.  Have you picked up on that?... lol  I cook from scratch to the best of my ability, I am learning to sew and crochet.  Things get interesting around here.  I’m also learning to garden. 

We homeschool.  I do mean WE.  My hubby helps.  Now granted, sometimes that help is the kids see daddy doing his school and know it’s not just them getting tortured.  Lol Seriously though, our kids love school-they go a little crazy when we get more than a week off.   5 or 6 years ago I was bound and determined that I could everything for free.  If you know exactly what the kids should be learning and you can get every. Single. Subject.  I’m sure you can, but I cannot.  After listening to a sermon on the benefits of homeschooling, the pastor made a comment about needing to pick a curriculum and stick to it.  After talking to an experienced (and now “Retired”-all her kids have graduated) homeschool mom,  I learned that it’s best to give a curriculum at least 2 years.  Not only would we be getting used to a routine that was new to us, but I would be fitting something made somebody else into a way that I do something-probably completely different.   A 2 year trial is a good thing.. We started off with Abeka.  Now, I love Abeka, but it’s just not for us past kindergarten-maybe first grade…  I love their cursive programs, the kids love their books, I also like their phonics program… And that’s about where it ends.  So now we have a mix, Abeka and ACE PACE and still working with some freebies (thank you homeschool mom bloggers who put out free resources, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your hard work!).  The kids are LOVING ACE PACEs. 

Now for the monkeys.  I mean the kids. Monkeys? They do climb a lot…. I digress

I have a 14 year old.  You won’t hear about her, though… She has chosen not to be part of our lives.  So we pray for her… and I cry thinking about her.  That’s all I can do.

Dennis and I have (for now) 5 kids… Under 10.   Yep. 5. In a 1800 square foot house.  3 bedrooms.  Don’t mind me, it’s still a little unbelievable.

Andrew is 9, Eva is 7, Grace is 5, Hannah is 3, Elijah is 1. 

Our hands and our hearts are full.

We live in South Dakota where the summers are unbelievably hot and the winters are unbelievably cold.  

~Tabitha