An Update on Our Lives

Goodness gracious! It's been a little while since I made a blog post! 

We had a wonderful visit with our family over the Christmas holidays and a pretty uneventful trip home (though we did have a sudden repair we needed to do to our van before we left). And as wonderful as it was to be with our family we were happy to be home with our own things and our animals. I know just about everyone has to agree that there really is "no place like home". The dogs were over the moon that we were home and the friend who watched the animals did an awesome job!

It took a few days to get back into our routine since we really just "decompressed" for a few days. And now we're pretty much back into "the swing of things". However, we have adjusted our weekly schedule to make it so that our "on" days are: Mon., Tues., Wed., Fri., and Sat. And our "off" days are Thurs. and Sun. ...

These really aren't "off" days as Thursday is usually spent in exploring topics that interest us individually and Sundays are spiritual days. Learning is done on both days ... just not text book learning. So far this is pretty much working for us. It means we don't have two days off in a row making Mondays (or whichever day we decide to start on) all the harder to get moving on and it allows for a break in between formal lessons so that none of us overload too much.

We've been enjoying Kentucky weather so very very much! Although it's cold around here right now (it IS winter after all) we've only had a little snow and that was Nov. 1st!!! So, we've had some temperatures that have kept us indoors but not mounds and mounds of snow which we're thouroughly enjoying right now. I LOVE snow ... to look at. I HATE shoveling, frozen gloves and children, wet sopping floors from dogs going in and out, slick roads, etc...

Our 2015 goals are moving along pretty well (they were pretty broad after all)... My crochet orders are coming in, Peanut is learning to use her easy bake oven (and helping Mommy cook) as well as working with play money to "get the hang of it", YCJ has been working on her music, and ECJ grew 1/4 of an inch!!! Our home renovations won't begin until further into the year when the weather warms up some more and we're a long way from getting to the place we want to be by the end of the year.

Are lessons happening every day? Nope. Not. At. All. ... Why not? Um... Why should they? Most days we're "supposed" to do lessons we do break out the books and do our lessons. Some days we break out puzzles and books and work on our states, story telling, reading, or just plain fun. Every single thing we do I could give you at least one aspect of it that we're learning from ... How? Well, we've been doing this awhile now and you start spotting what I call "non-learning/learning methods". By that I mean measuring while cooking, nature shows we get caught up in on PBS, finding items at the library, random questions that lead to research and curiosity, etc...

So, we're on track goal wise and lesson wise (mostly, we still have a bit to catch up on from the move but not much) and since we school year round that's just fine with us.

Now, since Peanut is finally sleeping through the night (first time since the move that I was able to give her melatonin to help her sleep) I'm off to bed myself. Time to rest and spend a few minutes with Daddy then go to sleep for a peaceful night without a six year old putting her knees into my back ;-)

Our Goals for 2015

I could sit here and tell you that we accomplished all of our 2014 goals but we didn't since we forgot half of them...

As for 2015 it's safe to say we have a few goals... 

Home repairs/remodel:
We have at least two rooms to repair flooring. Three - four rooms to paint. Remodel entire back room (living room). And add another building to the property.

Educational:
Finish current grade levels no later than the end of June. Cover pre-algebra with ECJ over the summer so he can begin algebra one in the fall. Look further into what methods and curriculum we'll be using next fall. And join at least one co op.

My crochet business:
I got a good start on it last year, the website and Facebook page are almost ready to go public. Need to increase both sales and stock. Do more craft fairs and get business cards made up.

ECJ:
Wants to grow 3 inches. Find part time work this summer.

YCJ:
Wants to improve music skill, reading, and crochet. Has plans on buying her own dog.

PEANUT:
Wants to have her own diner with her easy bake oven food, where we pay for her food so she can buy more food kits. Says she's going to "master money".

I'm sure there's much more we could plan out... But, I'm happy with these (mainly) generalized goals... It makes at least part, of some of them achievable.