Homeschool

My mom, so graciously offered to take all three of my children for 4 (yes, I said FOUR) days!! She said she has just been missing them and wanted to have them over to play. I was in such a need for a break! I just needed to regroup, to spend some quality time with my husband and to just sit in silence. We've had such a rough year and a half, well almost four years and it was such a nice break! My husband took me out to dinner, twice!! We went to the movies for the first time since The Wedding Date was out in theaters, we stayed up late some nights and went to bed early other nights. Mom took the kids on Thursday, Chuckie was at work and Brit was over but Friday I had the house to myself. I cannot honestly remember the last time I had an entire day to do whatever I wanted to do. My goal was to get the house spotless, it didn't happen. I cleaned out the pantry, I took a nap, I forgot to eat breakfast and lunch, lol. I did some other chores but I mostly just enjoyed the quietness. No TV, no radio, no wining, no fighting...

My mind began to wonder about all those mommies that actually have the day to get everything done. You know the... crazy mornings just to get them to school on time then the hours they have during the day to grocery shop (in my case with only one child) to tidy back up the house to plan dinner, to shower without little ones at your feet, then rush to pick up the kids, eat dinner, do homework, etc, etc. Now don't get me wrong, mommies with children in school experience a lot of stress. I am not under the delusion that they don't but what I can say is that they do get a daily break. They get a little time to regroup, daily. They get to clean the house and it actually stays clean long enough to stand back and admire your work for at least a few hours unlike my attempts. I'll clean the bathroom and turn around and find dirt tracked in from the backyard, a cup full of snails, lol

My mind began to wonder some more. Thinking if homeschooling is the best for all of us? I asked God to please show me what I was supposed to do. Next year I'll have a first grader, a kindergartener and only one child at home. It is so tempting to just put my kids in school but then it happened, I read something and heard some stories from several different parents that made it very clear to me that I have no desire to put my children in 'school'. I don't feel that details are needed but what I will say is that I am confident that next year I will be homeschooling. My goal is to get our school room back in order and start within the next week or two. We are going to have a blast! I had dreams all night long about projects and lessons. Things that first graders can do that kindergartners cannot. I'm excited! I'm excited that I get to pick what my children learn about (picture above) I get to choose this. Not the state but me!
I get to watch them learn on a daily basis! I get to help them understand things that are difficult for them. I get to teach them how to have fun with school!
I get to watch them, very excitedly, toss their daily work into the 'done' drawer at the end of the lesson. I get to see how excited they become when they notice that just a little work every day creates a drawer that is chalk full by the end of the year!
I get to read to them every single day. I get to see them learn through books, relax, laugh and enjoy books and then begin to read them by themselves. There is always time to read to your children when you homeschool! They can sit on my lap, we can lay on our tummies, we can sit out under a tree, it doesn't matter. I'm teaching three children. I can teach them when ever and where ever I choose. I'm not sure any school teacher has that same freedom.
We do crafts (obviously we do way more than this but those angels are my favorite! lol) We play games, we play with blocks, we have tons of fun!! So... these four days brought so much more to me than just a break, it brought back the excitement I had forgotten.

So...thank you mom!! Thank you for the break, thank you for the love you show not only me but also to my family and thank you for your support. Even though I've chosen to do this 'a little out of the ordinary' lol. I love you lots!!

my friends are nuts!

My friends are nuts but I still love them!!! We are all trying to work out to loose a few lbs. I happen to be the oldest in the group. With that 'oldness' comes many perks. I happen to own a house and have children to attend to so... they have to come to me!! We are doing a workout called Physique 57. Lets just say, little movements hurt really really bad. Breyon lets the instructor know how happy she is with her very frequently throughout the video, lol. Anyways... here my friends decided to use their workout balls for 'other purposes!! A baby hug is above.

babies...
I'd say they love those balls!!

the much desired breasts

very sad she only had one...

and finally to our workout. There will not be a picture of me working out since the only pictures taken were of my rear! And yes, those are beans and pumpkin cans!

There was a video that I'd LOVE to share but Yon also has a video/picture of me she threatened to share if I posted it. Needless to say if you want to see the video, you must see it at my house!! lol

couponing

Watch out world, I've entered the land of couponing!! I've been having sooo much fun couponing lately. The thrill, the savings, everything is just exciting to me! Unfortunately we live in the land of 'do not double' so that show "Extreme Couponing" will not ever be the case while we live here in the Central Valley but it is still exciting to watch your receipt fall as your coupons are entered!

Above is a picture of my loot from Sunday. Sunday was my biggest shopping trip yet! The coupons were fabulous in Sunday's paper and I knew I'd have some help so I decided to take advantage and start growing my stockpile. I shopped at Walgreens, Rite Aid and CVS. Thankfully two are literally right across the street from each other and the other one is just a few streets away. As you can see, I got all brand name stuff. 6 Tide stain release packs, 4 Crest 3D Whitening toothpaste, 2 Crest whitening toothpaste with bonus and $10.00 in extra coupons attached!! 6 Crest ProHealth 1ltr bottles, 1 Sobee lifewater, 1 Ritz crackerfuls (with rain check from last week), 6 Excedrin 8ct, 6 Stride gum, 2 Veet hair remover, 3 Electric Oral-B toothbrushes, 3 replaceable heads for the electric toothbrushes, and 6 Manual/Electric Oral-B toothbrushes. The total retail value for my purchases was $228.02. I paid out of pocket $77.40. Now this is waaaay more than I usually spend but I triple purchased all of my items (since I had 2 other ladies with me and the stores stocks had plenty). The good news is this, I received $78.47 back in rewards!! That means that although I spent a lot, I actually MADE money on the deal!!! $1.07 to be exact!

While shopping on Sunday, I mentioned that I really needed some hand soap. I was beginning to get low and knowing that it must go on sale at some point, I really wanted to wait till I could find a great deal. I misread the label at Rite Aid and didn't realize what a great deal there was until I found it on a blog I was following. They have Dial soap on sale with a B1G1 offer regular price $2.29. Good but not that great of a deal $1.15 is way more than I was willing to spend. Then when you read the little fine print (what I happen to miss the first time) it said that you receive a $2.00 register reward when you purchase two. That's $0.15 a bottle!!!
Since that was such a great deal, I grabbed Brit and we headed down to get more!!

My grocery shopping trip was not as exciting but still showed savings from all my hard work. I saved 62% at Vons and 44% at Savemart. I decided to go to two stores this week only because Vons had given me a rain check for items they ran out of a few weeks back. Plus they had a really great sale on over 3,000 items. Between these already discounted items and my coupons, I was able to get some great deals! Savemart had really cheap cereal (with a coupon, of course), eggs last week plus a few more 'requests' from Chuckie. Plus, it is just around the corner and made for a fast trip.

I also went to Kohls to get a few things for my husband. I bought 5 t-shirts for him and 1 button up shirt for Blake. With coupons and I only paid $5.00 (and change)!!

I hope you all have just as good luck with your coupons this week!!

milestones

For some reason Blogger is insisting on underlining all my words today.

Not sure how or why but... I guess we are going to just deal with it. lol

Abigayle has hit yet another milestone.

She loves to cuddle.

She loves to cuddle so much that she loves to sleep WITH mommy and daddy.

This was cute at first.

Now, I'd really just love to get some good sleep in my bed with just my hubby.

We've been working on getting her in her own bed for just a little bit now.

I've never been a fan of the 'cry it out method' so this has been a slow process

but it is working!!

We've had several nights in a row now that she has slept all night in her very own bed and my husband and I have woken up so far away from each other we had to laugh.

Plus we've had several weeks with dry diapers in the morning.

She has been potty trained during the day since she turned two but nighttime is just a little harder.

I wasn't even trying to get her to potty trained at night but it just happened.

Last night was the first night without a diaper and she woke up with dry panties!!!

EXCITING!!!

Here is just a few pictures of my little cutie!

Playing with mommies makeup.

Tutu and pigtails in New Jersey

Brand new!!

update

I know... it's been a long time. Blogging has been on the bottom of my list these days. Hopefully things will start looking up for us really soon and I'll get back into the swing of blogging again. Chuckie is at a job interview as I type! (please pray!) I know that God is in control and I'm sure all His plans for our family will start unfolding soon, I'm just not really good at waiting...

So, in the meantime, I thought I'd share a few pictures with ya'll. Abigayle and I
I asked my dear husband to shave his goatee and mustache, just to see what he'd look like. He came out looking like this!! HAHA!! We laughed until we almost pee'd our pants, took a bunch of really funny pictures (with girl sunglasses, life vests, police badges, etc) and then laughed even harder when Abigayle was scared of him! The boys crawled in bed the next morning with me and asked who that man was laying next to me!! Hahaha!!
It still makes me giggle!

This is my new crew!

My kids, you know.

Abigayle, Brayden and Blake

but you may not know Breyon (in the orange) and Brit with the dark hair. Breyon is my next door neighbor who tends to wonder to my house most evenings when she is hungry or just looking to hang out. Brit is a friend of hers who has become a friend of mine now and Brayden's super best baseball player friend, lol. They are always over, they help themselves to my food, play with my kids, and now are my exercise buddies! We've become good friends very quickly even though I'm almost 10 years older!

My garden has become something that I LOVE!!

If you visit my house, you must visit my garden!

I have: green beans

Armenian cucumbers (well blooms only)

pumpkin

red tomato

snap peas

zucchini

little red creepy bugs

yellow squash

celery

corn

spring lettuce

and watermelon, cilantro, rosemary, basil, yellow tomato, honeydew, watermelon, jalapeno, bell pepper, garlic chives and red onions. My garden makes me happy! We've only been able to eat the zucchini and lettuce so far but as you can see we will soon be eating more and more!