Wowzers where did summer go!?!?!?!?!

Summer has flown right past us & it's time again to start a new school year! Lots of changes are happening in our house: new curriculum, new chore list, new schedule for everyone!

We are super excited about this new school year, since I got the box in the mail 2 weeks ago I have heard nothing but "can we start today" "I wish we would start school" etc! It has been AWESOME!!! We went to the library last week to get the books we'll need for our fist week of school (yea we'll have them for an extra week but that's ok) the girl have been devouring them!!!

We will be starting with VIKINGS, a TIMELINE and a STATE POSTCARD exchange!!! All of which we are really excited to begin!

I've almost got everything ready to go....just need to finish cutting out the timeline pieces & getting them colored :) I'll do a few each week. 

As it's been FOREVER since I've posted LOL (I'm gonna try to be better...new schedule.. We'll see how that works lol) Let's get you caught up on what's been going on here:

Let's start with March/April 2014:
      ~I spent about 5 weeks in the hospital & ended up having corrective surgery on my intestines (I have Chron's disease)  Surgery was on April 9th, came home on the 14th *ouch* almost a 4 hr drive!!! *ouch*
      ~ On March 30th one of our goats (Ariel) had a super cute buckling (Billy the Kid)! (While I was in the hospital :( I missed the whole thing!!!)  

Billy the Kid
(Mom Ariel in the back ground)
May 2014

Billy the Kid
May 2014

     ~ Had a strewn of kittens during April & May

      ~ June was pretty quiet....we did celebrate D-Bugs 6th birthday!!! Yes you read that right SIX!!!!
      ~ Lots of fun in July... Independence Day Celebration, Family Reunion, County Fair!!!! FUNNEL CAKES!!!! YUMMY!!!! And we had TWINS!!!! Yep sure enough TWO BOYS!!!! Flash & Spark were born on July 1st!!!! Our momma goat Liberty did a wonderful job of birthing them in LESS than 20 mins!!! (go figure I ran to the house & the girls wanted a snack, so by time we got back out there the boys were here!!! So YEP I missed it all AGAIN!!! LOL There's always next year!!!!)

Flash & Spark
July 2014

      ~ Ducklings!!!! You may not be able to count them all...but there are 25 ducklings there with momma, there are 2 sets of ducklings: 12 were hatched the end of July & 13 were hatched & given to us the beginning of August
      ~ Here we are in August: K-Dog just celebrated her 8th Birthday!!! I can hardly believe I have an EIGHT year old!!! Crazy!!! I'm NOT that OLD yet!!! LOL 

Well time marches on & I will have to leave you all at that! God bless & have a wonderful day!!!

Where Did Summer Go?

Can you believe that summer is over? I'm having a hard time getting back into routine! I can only imagine it's hard for my girls too! 

We had a great summer! We visited Rolling Hills Zoo & Museum  & played at the NEW park in town! We celebrated D-Bugs birthday in June & K-Dogs birthday in August!

We watched as our chicks that hatched this spring grew & are now running around terrorizing the bugs in the yard! We became "goat herders", as we purchased 4 dairy goats! 

Bandit, our buck (top) & Bandit, our weather

Liberty & Ariel, the ladies 

We should have babies come the new year! I will start milking a couple weeks after the babies are born! My plan, as of now, is to milk in the morning, allowing the babies to nurse all day. I know I won't get as much milk as I would if I would bottle feed the babies, but for this year, this is the plan. :)

We co-held a garage sale & sold MOST of the baby items we had stored in the basement! YAY!!! Only a few more items to go & the basement will be cleared of baby stuff! We are so looking forward to moving the playroom downstairs & the girls having their own rooms again! K-Dog & D-Bug are ready to have their own space, although they say they don't, all I hear is "mom she's in my bubble"! Oh the drama of being a little girl! 

With summer coming to a close, we started our new school year last week! New curriculum & new grades! We are using A Beka Academy this year & with one week down & only a couple more days to go in this week, we are LOVING it!!! 

K-Dog loves that she gets to watch the tv for her lessons (as the tv is rarely on unless the computer is hooked up to it) instead of listening to "boring ol mom". Of course there is lots of "one on one" learning with just me & her, which she is doing so much better with this year than last. I think that has a lot to do with not having to listen to me all day long, she's very stubborn strong willed & I love her anyways!

D-Bug is having a blast learning to write in cursive! So far just i's & u's, but she loves it & she is so excited when she gets a sticker for making a great letter! I hear her singing the songs she's learned & counting & saying the sounds of letters, so I know she's enjoying herself too!

Me, well, I love that it's super easy for the girls to follow & SO EASY for me to understand! They have lesson plans written out for every day, no me trying to figure out what we're gonna do that day, it's all there in black & white!!! AMAZING!!!

So far we have only had one day that lasted until 5pm, other wise we are done with schooling by 2/3pm most days! This gives us lots of time to have fun & get things done around the house! 

The girls have even learned to do their own laundry!!! At ages 5 & 7yrs, this is wonderful!!! I help them take their baskets down the stairs & I put in the detergent, but the girls put all the clothes in & push the buttons & when ready switch them over to the dryer, then take them out & hang & put them away! So nice not having to do their laundry on top of mine & DH's.

Well off to finish up supper before DH gets home & we head to church tonight!

Hope there are many New Beginnings in your life this year,
In Christ Love,
MommaSie

Our "Egg" Craft....

This Easter was surrounded with busy BUSY days, both before & after. My Grandma D turned 80 & we went to her birthday party the Sat before Easter, I sang at church Easter day & we began revival! Dinner with Hubby's family, K-dog had her FIRST (& only) public school, Kindergarten program, Both K-dog & D-bug were in a dance recital this last weekend (yea we've been "flying by the seats of our pants" the last couple weeks) . . . . so here I am F . . I . . N . . A . . L . . L . . Y getting around to posting about our craft we did the week before Easter.

How much time I've spent on Pinterest & then thinking "hey we can do that" . . . yea I need to quit . . . it was almost a disaster BUT our eggs turned out really cute, I just have to get over the "mess factor" when doing crafts with kids LOL

Well I had seen these eggs made with balloons & yarn.... they were so cute & easy looking in the pictures! Well I wanted to make a cornstarch paste instead of a sticky glue . . . . so I found one that was just cornstarch & water (I didn't pin or save the web site, so I will have to look for that again) . . . . I made it up, blew up a few balloons & got the girls to the table. I explained what we were doing & showed them how to do it . . . . & then handed them a bowl of "glue" & yarn & a balloon . . . then my OCD kicked in & I literally had to leave the room for a bit why they wrapped the balloons . . . . Here are a few photos . . .  they don't show where K-Dog dropped her whole balloon wrapped in glue on my floor!!! 

 D-Bug & K-Dog studying very hard to get those strings to stay on the balloons!
This was tricky for little hands . . .

 Our finished "eggs" ready to dry
Who knew it would take almost 3 days for them to dry! 

 K-Dog & D-Bug holding their "eggs"!

D-Bug was more interested in picking the excess dried "glue" off.

"Eggs" are "chin holders"!

These really are cute & fun to do, I just think the next time I will try them the girls will be older...I'm thinking 10. . . that gives me 4 years to work on my fear of messes! LOL 

Have a great day & many blessings to New Beginnings!

2012 Looking forward

As we begin 2012 my mind is full of wild & crazy thoughts of how to make our lives better for my children. K-Dog (5) started Kindergarten in August 2011, she has had a rough go & actually dislikes going to school. She asked many times over Christmas break if she could stay home & not have to go back to school where the kids are mean to her. So as I sit here today, on this mild January day, I have been researching homeschooling the girls.
I researched this once before & when I talked to family & friends about it, everyone said they didn't think I could do it. Now that I am reading more & talking to other moms I even have more faith in myself than I did before. Hubby is also behind me with homeschooling & we are looking into finding a KJV Bible based curriculum to teach the girls with.
I am very excited & I can hardly wait for this school year to end so we can start homeschooling this fall!!!
We will allow D-Bug to finish her preschool, as the preschool is Christian based & she does need to learn to NOT be so attached to mom. She will start Kindergarten at home the fall of 2013.
K-Dog will most-likely finish Kindergarten at the public school & start homeschooling with 1st grade.
We have found KJV Bible based curriculum that we think we will be using & we are very excited about this!
There will hopefully be many more post as I begin my "Blogging" into the world of homeschooling!
Praying for God's wisdom to show us the path to take.

~♥~ Momma Sie