Update about me

So what have I been up to this fall/winter?  Well, as the picture shows, I did a lot of cooking.  I did enough cooking by the beginning of October that I still have not had to cook a meal...I did a little cooking around the holidays but all our meals I have been getting out of the freezer!  It has been so wonderful with all the other stuff we have been going on.  I have another week or so of freezer meals and then I will be back to either cooking each week or doing another monthly bulk session.  Haven't decided what I will do yet.

At the beginning of November I taught a cooking class at my church on bulk/freezer cooking.  It went really well!  I have been bulking cooking for around 5 years or so and I still swear by it as a way to help out in our busy lives yet still being able to eat well.  This works well for even busy single, widowed, or empty nesters and I proved that with my class.  There were a variety of class attenders of around 50 people! If I get some time in the next couple of days after all my other updates, I will share some things from that class.

I have used many cookbooks including freezer cookbooks, but now I am using a site called "Once a month Mom".  The title is misleading though because anyone can do this.  She has it set up where you put in the number in your family and it adjusts the grocery list, recipes, etc.  It's so awesome to just print out a monthly grocery list and go to the store and get what I need for all my meals for my family.

Other than this and homeschooling, I did a couple of births (as a doula) and just a lot of running around.  Taking Brody to school 3 times a week, going to Awana on Wednesdays, dance on Thursdays, Nutcracker practices (which is now over), MOMS group, and where ever else we all want to go.  I have been watching a little girl here and there also still.  I have been doing a lot of cleaning and organizing as usual and currently we are in the middle of the a remodel to our downstairs bathroom...pics and post to come later on that one.  I re-did a "nook" in our bedroom and also have a new collage on my living room wall!  I love winter for catching up on the inside of our house.

I also took several families photos this fall.  I am not doing the business thing, just like taking photos for people and I have a pretty nice camera and several lenses.  Here are a few families that I took:

This little nook in our bedroom had nothing in it...maybe at one time it had a rocking chair. So I got this chair a few months ago and put certain things on my Christmas list to complete it.  I hope to read up here at some point but it hasn't happened yet.

I had a frame party in October and ordered some new frames for our living room.  My friend and her husband make these and have their own business called One39 Frames.  Not sure they have a website address but you can find them on facebook!  I don't really update the house stuff too much other than what we have to for maintenence, so I was pretty excited to have a new look in here.

I have also been doing some coaching through Beachbody.  I haven't done much with it but wanted the discount on all the work out stuff.  I had been running for 3 years and my body really couldn't handle it anymore and I was bored and burnt out with it.  So I borrowed P90X from a friend over the summer and really liked it.  I wanted more cardio and really loved the shakeology so I joined to get the discount and my neighbor and I split the package and the Turbo Fire workout.  I am loving turbo fire and started week 13 today.  I can't believe I have been doing this over 3 month already!!  So if you ever need anything from Beachbody, let me know!  My coach id is linze2979.

Updates and more

The reason I haven't updated the blog in nearly 3 months is because I have reached my limit of the photos I can upload.  So I had to upgrade my blog so that I would have enough capacity to upload more pictures.  So I have a lot to update!  We have also been sooooo busy with school, nutcracker, tap dance, and Awana.  It's been crazy. 

School has been going well at home still!  I can't believe we are over half way done with Kindergarten.  Reece is up to reading 19 of her books, currently she is reading 4 of those a day.  Each week she starts a new one but I have her review the ones she has already done in the past.  She is also doing around 100 sight words. I was having her do these daily but it was becoming way too much and she was getting frustrated.  So I divided them up and she does half of those along with her 4 to 5 books.  She knows her address, her phone number, and is learning to tell time.  She is learning so much and is so neat to see.  She has also completed over 200 worksheets (this includes science, writing, math, and lanuage arts)!  She has actually completed all the worksheets I had for her for the year (some of these were out of a 1st/2nd grade book)...so I am either going to repeat them again or start with some fun games/crafts that go along with what she has already learned.  I am thinking I will go with the latter because I can tell she thought it would be more fun.  I kind of did too but I think I focus so much with the getting the academic stuff done, that we end up not having time for the fun stuff. 

Based on the rate that we are going, we should be done mid April.  I will still have her continue to do writing, reading, and a few other things through the summer.  We haven't really taken any breaks.  She had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off but we did stuff on the other days - maybe not full curriculum but we still did some stuff.  She is getting ready to start her cursive handwriting book which I think she will really enjoy.  That is about it with the homeschool updates.  All the other updates I will do in separate posts.

Family Photos

About a month ago we had a friend take some photos for us with my camera and then I took some of their family with her camera.  What a bargain.  I am not putting the "Christmas-card-worthy-one" on here but here are some of our other favorites!  It was a little too sunny so there are lots of shadows that I haven't mastered in editing yet...a shady spot was where the best pictures were taken or when the sun started to gow down.

 A little awkard...and a little windy!

 Love these two and their love for one another!

Pumpkin Patch

Fall time brings pumpkin patch fun.  We've been there a handful of times already and it's a lot of fun.

Time to chase the chickens!

Nutcracker

Reece tried out for the Nutcracker this year.  She will be a Sleigh Fairy in the first act and an Angel in the 2nd act.  She was able to walk in the ISU homecoming parade with Twin Cities School of Dance and practices every Saturday.  She gets to do her first fundraiser (and probably only one this year since she isn't in school - BONUS).  She is selling Fannie Mae candy bars for $1.  Let us know if you want some!  She is really loving this experience.  The shows are November 30th, December 1st and December 2nd at Braden auditorium.  It's a professional play/musical costing over $30,000!  I didn't know this.  They use little ones in the mix with the professional dancers that they have. 

Reece and her little friend Eliana dressed as Mice for the parade.

 At the tryouts with some of her friends..she was number 1.

Homeschool progress

We are finishing our 9th week of homeschooling in most subjects.  Some subjects we are far ahead in and others we are minimally behind in.  Since Reece is not getting report cards/progress reports, this is my update on her progress that we can always go back and look at. 

• She is reading 8 short stories on her own.  (this part of our curriculum we weren't suppose to start until week 10 - which is next week.  So we are 9 weeks ahead on this part.  I knew she was ready to read, so I started it right away).
• We have read 4 chapter books together that she has to listen and answer questions on- Box Car Children, The Apple and the Arrow, My Fathers Dragon, and Hundred Dresses.  Those are just the ones that are part of our curriculum.  We have read more from the library.  We also read a bible story a day and are through Deuteronomy.
• She knows 50+ sight words.  This is not part of our curriculum but knew that I needed to add it in so I printed some off of some websites including:  www.education.com and http://www.thesmilingteacher.com/sight_words_kindergarten.htm
• Also separate of our curriculum, I taught her how to tie her shoes and we are working on her phone number and address.
• She knows 9 verses in song (we focus on one each week) from sing the word A to Z.  This is part of our curriculum but you can buy it here. (Many of you have asked me about this).  All the songs are sang to famaliar tunes and help them hid God's words in our hearts.  It has helped me remember references as well.
• For Science, we have mainly been looking at trees and plant life.  It has been so neat to see it all in action as we have been having trees planted from the storm. 
• For History and Geography we have mainly been looking at the different continents.  She knows all 7 and where to find them on the map.
• For math, we mainly focus on the calendar and patterns.  We are doing some addition, as well as counting and writing numbers.
• She has completed around 150 worksheets in 9 weeks - these are writing exercises, math problems, language art, etc type worksheets. (that equals to about 3 worksheets a day).

So that is about it for us in the kindergarten world.  Things have been going so smoothly and it feels so right!  I love watching her learn and although hard sometimes...working through her frustrations with her is nice.  We have all grown closer as a family because of this!  We are all learning so much from this.  I can't believe how much I have forgetten when it comes to things like geography. 

I am surprised at how much God has even changed Brock's heart on it.  I have even heard him bragging to his friends and he has thanked me several times for my efforts!  Its amazing to see God at work through obeying Him even when it was hard.  It's hard now but I think in the long run, the blessings we receive from this experience will be well worth it.  To me, this was a big decision but God has showed me how small it really is in the scheme of other things He has been calling us to do.  I think He wanted us to obey and trust Him in this small thing so we would know to trust Him in some bigger things.  If we can receive such blessings from this small act of obedience, what can He do in bigger things?!  I know it will be an amazing ride and am looking forward to sharing it all with anyone who is reading.  The joy I have in sharing it with others totally outweighs not sharing it, because it brings glory to God in all He is doing in my small life.  Imagine what He is doing in the rest of the big world?

Brody is 4!

Our little Brody boy turned four a week and half ago!  He is such a blessing in our lives.  He has such a tender spirit and is so loving.  He always has a smile on his face and the little bounce in his step makes me smile.  He is quite the character always saying things that blow me away...how his little mind works.  Things like "mom, come look at my turd...it looks like a little snake curled up on his blanket".  Or "you look adorable"...Or "ladies don't toot".  He always has me in stitches.

He is "mostly" all boy...he loves his tractors, trucks, and anything that moves but since he has an older sister who he adores, he loves to play dolls with her and often chooses pink as a color for things.  He is not ashamed to eat from a princess plate!  My favorite thing has been watching him head off to school.  Every day he walks half way down the side walk, turns around suddenly and says "Wait, mom, I forgot to give you a hug and kiss!".  He sprints back to me and gives me my owed kiss and hug and runs back to the door with his school friends...which might I add is 3 girls and 13 boys!  Since when am I called "Mom" anyway?  My vote is still mommy!!!  If I could freeze him at this age, I would!  He's independent yet still loves to cuddle up with his "mom".  Here are some pictures of the big 4 year old.  This year we had a vintage truck party!

Daddy's truck is almost finished...

Invite...had the wrong date on it, but you get the drift.

His cake

Kid table complete with boxed dinners and an old vintage truck seat which will go in the old truck...

Present time - every time he opened a present he would shout "this is what I wanted my whole life!"

Birthday boy and his cake.

Enjoying some new jammies and a new toy.

Cheering the Reds on in playoff game that daddy got to go to.

1st day of pre-k...

 He started to get all teary eyed...He said it's cuze I bonked him on the head with my camera but I really think he realized he would miss his momma.

Hes a sweety...even with his shoes on the wrong feet!

One last thing...he is still wearing pull ups at night...he just can't stay dry on a consistent basis over night (he has been trained for 2 years).  Brock told him he'd give him suprise if he could stay dry at night for 7 days.  We were thinking that maybe he was just lazy and wouldn't get up at night to go.  He came down the next morning, looked down at his pull up and said "Welp...I guess I don't get a surprise".  What a memory!  He still prays for great grandpa every night and says he hopes he is being good in Heaven.  His mind is constantly moving!