Week 1: Kindergarten

We started our home-school journey one week ago! Elisha started Kindergarten! I've known we would home-school since before we had children. It was something Matt and I both agreed on. Although, last summer when I was pregnant with Eisely we realized we had a year before Elisha would be Kindergarten bound, and we started to consider public school. I thought I would be too overwhelmed, I had lot of self doubt and honestly I was starting to chicken out. I had one year to make up my mind and the decision was was making me ill. I didn't want to make the wrong choice and ruin my kid. I know it's just Kindergarten, but I kind of want us to stick with whatever decision we make and not have our kids weaving in and out of public school and homeschool. I realize some families face that situation and it works for them, but I wanted to avoid it as much as possible. I prayed about it and I consulted family and friends to gain some insight and wisdom on what to do. Finally I decided we would send him to public school...but I had no peace with the decision! So, my husband works with a man who home-schools his children with his wife. They invited us over to talk and look at their curriculum. That really helped me to reconsider our decision. When I changed my mind to home-school again the peace was there again. I let doubting myself and fear of the unknown influence my decision! Little did I know at the time that bravery would be a huge theme in my life this year (more on that later). Anyway, I'm really glad we made this decision!


  We use My Father's World for Kindergarten. It's a Biblical based curriculum with Charlotte Mason philosophies on education. LOTS of nature study. We supplement with other materials if I feel that Elisha needs more of a challenge. So far, I have supplemented the Language Arts with a program called Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. So far it's going well. Just the right amount of challenge that Elisha needed and I'm confident he will be a good reader in just a few months!

Our lessons that come with the curriculum only take us a little over an hour to complete and I add in a few other activities. But we still have a lot of the day left to play and explore other things. I also make sure that screen time is very limited so he must play with toys, blocks, board games/card games, go outside or read together for entertainment. Sometimes a few of our education resources are on the iPad and I don't usually count that against his recreational screen time.

 

 On our first day of lessons we finished up our work in time for me to work a MOPS booth at the Organizational Fair at the college in town. This firetruck was parked right in front of our booth so and the friendly firemen gladly let Elisha take a tour and try on different gear. Elisha was intrigued. Then on Wednesday while visiting Matt at work a firetruck was parked out front because of a fire safety class taking place that morning. A fireman saw Elisha and asked if he wanted to take a ride in the firetruck and of course Elisha agreed. I really thinking that things like this will be one of my favorite parts of homeschooling- all of the spontaneous learning moments and explorations that can come about because we aren't stuck in a classroom and we are learning while living our daily lives.

Eisley is pretty good about entertaining herself for the most part while Elisha and I go over his lessons. I make sure she has plenty of board books, puzzles and of course things that are not toys like broken remotes and wooden spoons.

 Elisha is getting SO good at using scissors! I didn't realize how much progress he was making with scissors until this week. Earlier this year he was still using the scissor as a way to rip the paper, he couldn't quite get it to cut right. I did have him practice with play doh scissors and play doh to help build those fine motor skills/muscles, but had no idea I would being seeing this kind of progress right now.                                                                             This week we started going over the beginning of Creation. This theme is incorporated into our math, reading/ language arts, science, art/music and of course Bible study. After the 7 days of creation we will move on to other themes that will be incorporated into all of our subjects and it will always have a Bible lesson to go along with it as well. Getting to learn more about Christ along with his educational studies is just another perk to home-schooling!

We made a parking garage out of old boxes. He loved it!

One of my favorite things about homeschooling is watching Elisha learn things and see a new concept click. If we had put Elisha in public school I knew I would get so jealous of his teachers being the ones to watch the initial turning of the gears and the pride he would feel when he finally mastered something. I didn't want to hear about it second hand, I wanted to be a part of his experience.  I also like that I am with him all day. Don't get me wrong sometimes I would like a little break, but I always think about how I only have these little people in my home for a short while, then they will be grown and my break will come sooner than I'm ready for. I know there is a stigma with homeschooling and socialization, but I'm not at all concerned about it. Elisha is extremely social!

 In fact, between MOPS, church/AWANA and the library Elisha has made quite a few friends with whom we take a few times each week to play with whether it be in a church class, a play date, MOPS meetings or story hour. We also joined a local home school group, which I'm SO excited about! It's up there on my list of happy places which includes MOPS. Last week was also our first home school group play date in the park. Elisha saw old friends and made new ones. He had a lot of fun and  didn't even care that it was 90 degrees outside.

And for the record I have no problem with public school in general or people that send their kids to public school. There are some things that have changed since I was in school that I don't necessarily agree with. I do appreciate people in the education field so much, I have several friends that are excellent teachers. It's a thankless job and can be very stressful. Families have to make these decisions based on what works for their family, and I really do not think one way is better than another, however I think this is best for US.  I think our town has good public schools, but this was just a personal choice for our family. After weighing the pros and cons, shadowing home-school families, researching  and accepting the huge commitment of it we made this decision and it wasn't made lightly.  Anyway, I just thought I would throw that out there just in case my enthusiasm for our home-school journey is mistaken for educational snobby-ness ;)

Well, that pretty much wraps up our first week of Kindergarten! :)

So, What's New?

It's been a while. Like, well over a year since I have posted anything. I mean, I was still growing a tiny human inside me the last time I posted. That tiny human is now a 19 lb, 9 month old! The reason for the unintentional  hiatus started out by being busy getting everything ready for the new baby. And then she was here! And man, no one prepared me for how difficult it would be to adjust to having two kids. There is 4.5 years between my kids, but I hadn't had a baby in the house in 4 years and I was used to taking care of ONE child, whom at this point is pretty independent. I got a touch of the baby blues and my spare time was spent nursing and napping. I'm not sure exactly why I was having a hard time adjusting. Eisley's birth was absolutely perfect and natural (unlike the terrifying experience of her big bro's birth). She had no problem getting the breastfeeding thing down. When we brought her home she only woke up 2 times max in the night to eat; I was easily getting 4 consecutive hours of sleep between feedings (most moms are lucky to get 2 hours!). The "catch" was she would scream every night between 9pm and 1am. She was inconsolable. I would usually end up crying as well. That all finally ended when she was about 4 months old. I kind of feel like I'm getting the hang of it all now.

I have found our local MOPS group to be a major help. When Eisley was 3 weeks old I started attending MOPS. It took me a few meetings to make new mom friends, and once I did I really started looking forward to our meetings and being able to get out of the house and chat with other moms. This summer I ended up joining the MOPS leadership, helping with publicity- so on that note, if your a mom of preschool age kids or pregnant, I want to invite you to MOPS of Green Hills (if you're in our neck of the woods, if not, try to find a group near you-you'll love it!). I will include some more info on that below that you can click on. :)

 Let's see...what else is new? Oh, in February I signed up with Young Living Essential Oils. If you know me, I am excited about this stuff. I'm always looking for healthy and natural alternatives for health. It's been another good outlet for me also. Not only do I love using the oils and have a lot of success with using them, I also have enjoyed working the business aspect as well.

So, between MOPS, Young Living, trying to keep our house in order, enjoying my babies,  and getting ready to home school our 5 year old son this year, I've been keeping pretty busy-- and it's not about to slow down. AWANA will be starting up at our church soon and I'm looking forward to helping out with that. Hopefully, I will be able to keep up with posting on here as well... :)

It's a...

Our 25 week check up was today and they ended up doing another anatomy scan since they didn't get all the info they wanted the first time a month ago. Our little GIRL finally decided to reveal her gender to us! She was curled up in a little ball with her hands and feet covering her face most of the time. When we told Elisha we were having a girl, he asked, "does that mean it's a sister?!" He is very proud to be the big brother to a little sister and Matt and I are thrilled to add a daughter to our family! :)

A Busy May and Our Gender Reveal!

I know I always say this, but I really am NOT the best as keeping up with my blog. I post so much on my Instagram that I just forget to document anything here. Well, this post is a playing- catch -up -type of post from May. It didn't feel like May was too busy until I started going through some of my Instagram photos- I almost forgot about all the stuff we did!

First of all, May 1st my little man turned 4! Time has just flown! I can't believe my little boy is growing so fast! We had a nice little party with close family and friends. It was a combo Mario and Lego theme- two of his fave things right now!

The weekend following his birthday, we took Elisha to Legoland! It was really cool and Elisha had a blast! Of course we met up with my cousin and her family and they came with us!

We got to watch a cool 4D Lego show. We actually got sprayed with water during water scenes and could feel fans blowing on us during windy scenes. The kiddos LOVED it!

Matty had a great time too!

Lego replica of KC-really neat!

Lego Wizard of Oz was awesome!

Of course you can't leave Crown Center without stopping at Sheridan's for some yummy custard:)

 Later that evening after Legoland we attended a Royals game! I love going to baseball games and the Royals actually won!!

It was a bit chilly, but a super good time!

The kids loved hanging with Slugger:)

Our friends Maerissa and Micah paid us a visit one weekend too!

 Last week my cousin's kids came to stay for the week! They are some of Elisha's most favorite people on earth. He just loves playing with these kids, so he was ecstatic to have them stay over for a few days!

So May was pretty busy and fun for us, except for all the rain. I could have done without so much of that. And the one day it snowed-that was weird. It's June now! I'm looking forward to warmth and sunshine!
Also, I just recently reached my 20th week of pregnancy with baby Arthaud #2! Half way mark! I'm starting to feel little kicks and flutters--my absolute favorite part of pregnancy! I'm glad that the morning sickness and most of the fatigue has subsided. I'm thankful for another normal and healthy pregnancy thus far. I am just so excited about our growing family. I just feel so blessed and overjoyed to have another little person to love on.

Today was my 20 week check up plus our anatomy scan ultrasound! So, this was the scan where they can tell us what gender our baby is. Matt and I had decided that we wanted to know what we were having. We had found out with Elisha too. We decided that if it was a girl this time, then maybe we won't mind being surprised with our third child (Lord willing we have a third) since we will have a stash of boy stuff and girl stuff by then. Well, here is what we found out!:

We still don't know!!! The little person had it's legs crossed. Even after the ultrasound tech was finished we gave it about half and hour, drank some sweet tea and had my OB take a look and the baby was even more pretzled up with the umbilical cord between it's legs! SO, we have decided that if we happen to find out next month, then we find out, and if we don't, we don't! In fact the surprise thing is kind of sounding more and more appealing. I think I am just going to pull out a few of the newborn things Elisha had that were more gender neutral and just be ready to go shopping if we need to after our little bundle arrives. I know I am going to be super thrilled with whatever the Lord gives us anyway!

Spring Is FINALLY Here!

I am so glad that winter FINALLY seems to be over and Spring is here! I actually am a fan of all the seasons, except winter. I can only tolerate it about a week and half. It's fun and festive around Christmas and New Year's, but  After January 2, I'm pretty much over it.

 I tend to get the winter blues, which is why I really kick up my work out routine during that time to keep the endorphins flowing so I can ward off depression. This year, we found out we were expecting around the first week of Februrary and so I cut out caffeine (another mood booster of mine) and then it was not long and the morning sickness set in and my working out came to a halt. So other than being ecstatic about the pregnancy, I realized that the mixture of feeling sick/fatigued, no caffeine, no exercise and the extra long winter was really dragging me down. There is just something about the sunshine, warm breezes through open windows, blossoming flowers, grilling out on the deck, yard work and kids playing outside that is so therapeutic. I absolutely love it.

This past week as been AWESOME! I have even enjoyed waking up to thunder and rain in the middle of the night. I can tell my mood as improved dramatically. It does help that my morning sickness has ceased. And even though my fatigue has stuck around, it's nothing a nice afternoon nap in the warm sun can't fix. I've spent as much time as I possibly can just being outside. It took me until today to actually do something productive though (I had just been sitting out on the deck, enjoying the warm breeze and watching Elisha play).

Today Elisha and I worked on cleaning up the landscaping in the front of our house. He helped me rake up all the leaves and dead stuff we had pulled.

Yesterday we had painted a plant pot for a fun little spring art project:

Today we planted some flower seeds in the planter pot:

Then of course, we had a great time just playing and enjoying the warm weather:

This week have been reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar almost every night at Elisha's request, so I decided to turn it into a sort of theme for the week. We read the book outside this afternoon. Then I had Elisha find 4 rocks and then we painted them the colors of the caterpillar in the story. I hot glued them and fashioned them into a caterpillar pet rock complete with googly eyes. Elisha loved it! I also had him paint a butterfly on some paper since the caterpillar turns into a beautiful butterfly. When we were playing with chalk a little later he decided he wanted to draw the Hungry Caterpillar.

 

It has seriously been one of the best days. Plus the yard work provided me with a pretty good workout for the day! I'm looking forward to tackling more projects on my list  this spring and summer including cleaning out the garage, organizing it, pulling out some of Elisha's old baby stuff and getting the nursery set up!

Speaking of nursery, here is the latest ultrasound photo of our new little one!:

Baby is growing strong and healthy at 12 weeks! The top photo is a great side profile and the bottom one is one that looks like the baby is praying-it actually had the hiccups and kept hitting its head with its hands every time it hiccuped!

Happy Spring!

9 Years and Growing

Once upon a time in January of 2004 my best friend, Jenny and I were looking for a drummer for our band. Little did I know that the guy that would fill the position in our band would also play such a huge part in my life. I didn't realize that when we were praying for our drummer that I was also praying for my future husband.

Matt joined our band that January in 2004. We spent a lot of time together playing music and hanging out. It didn't take him too long to steal my heart. His heart for God was apparent from the start and he was funny and smart. I had never met a guy like him before. I remember getting so excited to see his screen name pop up on MSN messenger and getting to chat with him after school on days that we didn't have band practice. We began to hang out more outside of band stuff and on March 13, 2004 he asked me to be his girlfriend. 9 years ago from tomorrow. It's so crazy to think that was 9 years ago!

 

9 years ago. Matt couldn't take a serious picture then either.

I am writing this post because I was just thinking about how much my life has changed in the last 9 years. Normal changes like growing up, getting married and having a family. And to think that this journey started 9 years ago when I met my love at the age of 17. It's all I've ever really wanted; to be happily married and have a family.

Matt and I were engaged later that summer in Aug. 2004.

We were married a year later on June 11, 2005. We were 18 years old and had just graduated high school.

After we got married in 2005 we spent a few years just enjoying the married life and working on our educations (Matt still continues doing school stuff).

In July of 2008 Matt got his LPN. He is now currently a Wound Nurse, Licensed Massage therapist and is working on a B.S. in Pshycology and is also working on getting his RN as well.

Soon after Matt graduated from LPN school we got the exciting news that we were expecting our first child! We were super thrilled! If there was anything that I wanted more than being married, it was to be a mama.

We found out we were pregnant Sept. 1, 2008 and our sweet little boy was born exactly 8 months later on May 1, 2009.

We have so enjoyed our little family. Over the last few years we have moved a couple of times and saw a few minor job changes.

Last summer we were super blessed with the opportunity to buy our first home. We have had a lot of fun making the house our home and adding our own personal touches. 

Our home:)

A current photo of our family taken in November 2012.

I just feel super blessed looking back on the last 9 years. God has brought me major joy in the man he gave me to be my husband 9 years ago and the growing family he has given us...

Baby Arthaud #2!:)

The awesome announcement photos are courtesy of my sister, Sarah Johnston (Sarie's Photography)!

Basement Makeover!

I didn't post anything on here last month, however it was a pretty busy month. For one, I wasn't feeling so great the last few weeks and still feel a bit icky- just couldn't muster the energy to sit and look at a screen and type. Nonetheless, I did manage to finish our basement makeover!

When we bought our house last summer, a friend and myself painted the whole upstairs in 2 days. Up until earlier last month I couldn't even think about painting anymore of this house. Painting is such a chore and hassle. But, I got sick of looking at the buttercream-yellow on the basement walls and wanted a more cozy feel for the basement.

 Here is what the basement looked like when we first bought our house:

 

We started by painting the walls Earl Grey, adding this cute vinyl quote and moving in a couch my sis gave me.

Then I decided to paint the foyer a different color. I had left the "foyer type area" the yellowish and at first decided a cool orange would go well with the earl grey: WRONG! Epic fail. The orange looked so different in that lighting than what i thought t would. So then I pulled out some dry sage green that the previous owners left in the garage and it looks SOOO MUCH better!!

After the painting was finished we moved Matt's drum set to the office to make more space since we ended up getting rid of the leather sofa and getting a sectional (second hand deal!) The space is SO cozy now and a great place to relax or entertain. :D