Busy Summer Full of FUN!

This summer has for sure been busier than any before looking at our calendar it seems like every week is full of trips, parties, camps, and of course lots of appointments. Looking back on what we have done already this summer I am amazed by God's Hand working in all of it. His love and guidance has been seen over and over again and I am in aww of our Creator and Savior!

So what have we been up to these last few months... to start we decided to take our first family vacation!!! OBX and Virginia Beach were our 2 main destinations. Driving 11 1/2 hours in a van with 4 children ages 6 and under some would say is CRAZY, I would completely agree! We started our trip at 3am in the morning just so the children would likely sleep half of it only to have 3 out of 4 sleeping with our oldest getting car sick 3 times, thankfully God helped me plan ahead and I remembered a bucket for this purpose just in case. Overall traveling with the children wasn't as bad as I thought it would have been. We were able to visit the ocean, swim, see the sand dunes, visit the Aquariums in OBX and VB and just have a great time. I think deciding where we would have dinner was one of the hardest parts! It was also such a blessing to be able to stay with Matt's Aunt Jenni and Uncle Dave and their girls in VB. What fun we all had sharing stories and going to the beach with the children. It was so relaxing and welcoming staying at their home, we are very thankful for such great hosts. Love you guys! Driving home we decided to make it a little easier on ourselves so instead of driving straight through we ended up splitting up the trip some by staying near Washington DC for a night, we were able to do some sight seeing there and visit the air and space museum. The boys loved it and what an awesome addition to our trip!
It's funny though how a vacation like Matt's says "makes you even more thankful for where you live." We had a great time but it was great to be home, sleeping in our own beds and just getting back into our own life.
Shortly after getting home we kept busy planning and preparing for our huge yard sale for Down Syndrome Awareness. Again it is amazing to see how God worked things out for the better,by putting it all in His Hands He turned it into a huge success. We are so thankful for all of the donations that were poured on us they were such a blessing and meant alot to us. To have support from friends and family that believe raising awareness for Down Syndrome is important was great! We actually were planning on having a yard sale for 2 days and an auction the 3rd day to get rid of the rest of the stuff, but God had different plans. I put tons of effort and time into advertising and planning, making signs and sharing the details. Even to the point of calling radio stations and TV stations only to have it all change in the end. The yard sale did great the first 2 days Saturday came along though and we set out the food tables and put up the AUCTION signs, prayed that God would do something amazing and waited until 1pm when the auction was to start. 12:30 came and went with noone here for an auction 1pm came and went with noone here by 1:30pm there was only 2 families signed up for an auction and dad said it was a no go. My heart hurt my eyes welled up with tears and I felt like such a failure. If I only would have advertised more or done this or that it would have worked out. Just a little earlier at 12:45 I went in my room, closed the door and prayed... I had tears running down my face as I held my pillow and prayed Lord PLEASE let this work out I have worked so hard for this cause, it's all for Your honor and glory, let Your Will be done. We planned for around 200 people only to have about 6 here at the time of the auction but as soon as we changed the signs back to yard sale the people came flooding in. We ended up selling more than if we would have had the auction plus we were able to donate the unsold baby items to the pregnancy center. Altogether we raised as total for $1200.20! God is good and even when I felt like such a fool and a let down God picked me up and worked things out and made it even better than I ever expected. Why did I ever think anything different,.. Pastor Rod preached one Sunday and say something that has really stuck with me he said "our will would be God's Will if we knew all the facts." How true is that!

This past weekend we also had a chance to take a trip to Niagara Falls and the Buffalo Zoo. How awesome that was to see more of God's powerful creation. Looking at the falls during our walk on the cave of the winds I couldn't help but think of the power of these waterfalls but how it doesn't compare to God's overall power. What a reminder of how He is the Almighty one.

Now as I write this our oldest 2 boys are at VBS at our church having tons of fun learning even more about our Lord. Next week Logan will also get a chance to go to a Kamp 4 Kids where he will be surrounded by even more children and adults praising the Lord. We may be busy this summer but what we are busying ourselves with is so worth the time. We are investing in our children, our family, our community, and our future home in heaven. Sharing God's love and greatness and being thankful for each day He gives us!

How we keep organized and fun things that help!

Even though we have only homeschooled for a couple of years I have learned so much and found some things very useful. Here I thought I would share them and how they make my life a little more organized! haha As much as it can be with 4 young children.

1) First off I use the workboxes or schoolboxes system some may call them. For ours we use 2) 5 section plastic stoarge units on the outside of each drawer I have placed the name of each day of the week Monday-Friday. Also in the bottom corner I have a velcro square this is were I place pre-made titles of special events that may take place that day for example if we are going to go on a field trip I will put the velcro title field trip in this corner that way my children know what to expect for the next 2 weeks. Other titles may be our children's birthdays or holidays, visits from friends, dr. appts. ect. In the middle of the top drawer on each storage unit I also have a velcro square where I place the week number. Every 2 weeks I fill the drawers with the materials we will be using in the day bin we will need them. This makes my life so much easier all we have to do is go down to the classroom pull out the bin for that day and all of our materials are there, no stopping in the middle of a lesson to gather materials. If there is something we will be using everyday I have another container on top of each storage unit that I place there items in. The children are responiable for making sure they are put back in this container at the end of the day.

2) File folders these are great for keeping items with may pieces together! Each folder has a pocket to help organize games, pictures or even papers that are all on the same certain topics.

3) Filing Cabinet is a MUST for us. We have 2 nice sized filing cabinets in our classroom for the most part these can be a great space saver plus they can hold a ton of stuff! I put extra books and materials we will may need in these. Plus I have a section that is labled for the next school year. In this section I have 40 folders each labled by week. I have a sheet of paper attached to each folder with general information about what we will be going over that week with a book list and materials needed section on it. This is very helpful since while looking through resouces if I come across a book that would work great later on  in another weeks lesson I can write it down on the list or place it behind that weeks file. Also if I am surfing the web and come across any free worksheets, experiments or activities that will go with a certain lesson instead of trying to find it again I can print it out and put it in the week we will use it. This saves time in filling the schoolboxes as well since I already have half of my materials in this section of my filing cabinet I just need to move it over to my schoolboxes. =0)

4) Chore Packs this works good for us since our children are younger with older ones something like it may work well. I made up small charts that have the days of the week on them and a list of 2-3 things my children must do that day. It could be take out the trash or help set the table for lunch. These little things add up and is alot for us mamas have to take the whole load on ourselves. Giving the children responiblities is good for them and helps them appreiate what others do for them. I have about 4-5 charts that I change around between each week that way I don't have to make up new chart each week just put one of the already made charts in their plasitic bag with the name on it. On the backside of each chart is a list of things each children must do each day like make their bed, take care of pets or put the breakfast dishes away.

5) For Bible Verse Memory Work I came up with something that my boys just LOVE. Matthew 6:21 says For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So what I decided to do was make a treasure chest with small prizes and such in it. The way the children get something out of the chest is with the money they earn by memorizing Bible Verses. For each verse they can tell me I give them a either a penny, nickle, dime or quarter, they put it in their own contanier with their name on it and every other Friday we count up their treasure to get something out of the treasure chest. We explain to them by storaging up treasure in our hearts (God's Word) they also get a special treat. Helps them to learn true treasure God's Word, money values, how to save for things they really want and even how to spend it wisely.

6) Quite time: this is a must for any mother if your children are newborn - 18 just a few moments to ourself to regroup and rethink the day. My children ages 6, 4, 2, and 9 months still have a (nap time) after lunch all 4 of them go down for a "nap" or time of rest. The youngest 2 this is their regular naps but for the older ones some days they just don't need a nap but their bodies still must rest so I let them take a few books into their beds and read to themselves. I always say if you get tired feel free to take a nap but just enjoy a little quite rest time and we will have some more fun once you get up in a little bit.

7) Keep empty plastic containers, toilet paper tubes and old magizines for craft use. This has saved us alot of money and the children just love creating with a mixed varitiy of items.

8) Independant work: There are certain subjects or activities that I have the children do completely on their own. I find this helps me get my morning route done around the house and with a baby, helps them learn time management also and plus they get part of their work done even before we start together. Things like penmanship, practicing Bible verses, taking care of the calendar and typing are a few of the things I just send my son down to the classroom to do on his own.

9) Plan each day BUT be flexable! This past year I planned out each day of the school year, wrote down everything we would be doing and every lesson we would do in each subject. Knowing we would be having a baby within the first few months of school I had to plan ahead. I am so thankful I did. It was great just going down to the classroom and grabbing my lesson book and starting the day somedays we didn't get everything done that was listed others we would get more than listed but it all worked out.

10) Meal planning: during the school year this is something that helps me a ton as well. Having a list of what we will be making for lunch and dinner each week is one less thing I have to think about and make a decision about last minute. I'm sure this has saves us money with groceries and not having to order pizza for another night because mom couldn't think of something to cook. I have also learned to cook bigger servings this way you can freeze leftovers or eat them for lunches the next day. Or if you are making a meal with chicken and have to boil it why not boil the whole pack and put half away for another meal.

11) Appointments: I have tried to stick to having doctor appts. only schleduled on certain days of the week, for example Tuesdays are the days I try to get every doctors appt. on. This way it is easier for me to plan other things like playdates or other appts. I know just to stay clear of Tuesdays.

12) BUY USED or on clearance ahead of time: I am the kind of person that LOVES a good deal! I will hunt for savings haha! It's funny how I stock up on shampoo and tooth paste or have jeans for my boys 2 sizes too big because they were on sale or clearance. As most of you know those 2 sizes too big will actually soon be too small on our ever growing children! I would much rather pay $5 for a pair of jeans that are too big than wait until they need that size only to pay $20 or more! Same goes for winter coats and boots. You can always find these items after season on clearance. Same goes for homeschool materials and curriculum. I love searching the web for things that would be useful for our classroom. Alot of times you can find things on ebay or homeschool classiflieds alot cheaper. Sometimes there are even great deals on CBD or learning resources in their clearance sales. Buy in lots sometimes is great way to save as well.

Well here are some of my helpful hints hope they are useful to you as well! Be blessed and always remember to enjoy what God has given you! =0)