I did survive...LOL

Candy commented asking If I survived and I realized I needed to post an update LOL..
I am dealing with a good deal of pain recently and had some xray's that showed the vertabrae above my surgery is now pinching my disc somewhat moderately. But I am not gonna let this get me down! I will Survive with the Grace of God however I have had to focus to get the things done that are the basics around here which has meant I forget to do some of the fun things like Update my blog LOL... Right now I am in the midst of pre-planning for next year and looking at curriculum that may or may not work and deciding if I want to try a package such as My Father's World or just use some of Ambleside Online with some of the other things I do around here.... decisions decisions lol... anyway Also a new job opportunity may/or may not present itself to wonderful hubby please be in prayer for that as he could really use it It is with the same company but would relieve so much stress off of his bad knee that we could really use that to come through for him. We wont really know anything on this for quite some time as the position isnt officially open yet and may not come open until sometime between now and 12 months from now. It would mean travel sometimes being gone for a whole week from home however I just ask that if this is God's plan for hubby then this will work and the feelings I have toward the being gone part will be replaced with Joy and peace with Jesus by my side. I thank you for praying with me over Hubby and my pain. Take care my sisters in Christ I will try and update again soon.... I still am reading blogs even when I dont update making sure you are all doing well! Hugs...

this and that:)

Hi all not much to post right now I am not feeling all that great have a touch of a cold and I think my monthly hormones are flairing up a bit LOL... so today we are unpacking some more and I am going to try and get the homeschool area all organized. We just did a 5th grade math assesment with my son online to see where we were at for what he understands and what we need to work more on and I have to say I am quite pleased for the middle of the 5th grade year he really has a good handle on things and the things we need to work on seem like the harder end of year things. I dont place a lot of weight on these but Oregon does require testing 3rd, 5th, 8th and 10th grade end of these years so I like to make sure we are on our way so to speak:) They test in Math and Language arts...so we will be working on that next. Right now for homeschool we have been a bit lax with the move relying on worksheets and online sites to get us through till we get back on our schedule plus since the curriculum we started with didnt work out then we have kind of found what works for that particular thing that needs to be learned. I am learning too that with homeshool one of the blessings is there is no exact right way or wrong way as long as we are moving forward.. I love homeschooling! No one ever thought I would be a homeschool stay at home mom and I absolutely Love that! God is so great and can change your life so tremendously if we will but let HIM! well I am off take are all and keep growing!

Wednesday...almost moving day...aahhh

Well we are halfway through the week and moving Day is almost here! I am so not 100% ready with all the painting at the new house it has been busy yesterday was errand day and bill day (those still have to get done dont they LOL) and today I am going ot paint at the new house and try to get that almost 100% done but we shall see there is still a lot of painting to be done but if I end up having to do some next week before I unpack that will be fine just easier to do before the big move in of stuff.
I am really excited I have two paid sewing jobs lined up for as soon as I unpack the sewing room which will be a side heated room out in the shop! God is Awesome! I was praying I could bring in some extra just to help a bit offset what we need and He is Providing!
Homeschool in the chaos has been going pretty good! I have a workbook that has tons of subjects in it it is from BrainQuest and I have just pulled about 10 out each day for him to work on while I paint or what have ya And he has been doing wonderfully with the lack of real structure this week. Little princess is not feeling well again so a bit whiny there and clingy but thats ok we will get through it. I am really looking forward to 2 weeks from now when the everything is moved and that is my goal date for getting all unpacked and settled...(praying I can keep this) As I am really looking forward to implementing our homeschool scheduling and get back on track but for now we are managing to get some learnign done daily so that is great!

A big decision has been made we are foregoing the tv cable connection at the new house! Praise God I have been wanting this for a while but we were not both ready if you know what i mean and now we are on the same page:) one more thing I didnt nag about! Praise the Lord for helping me be a better Help meet! Ok I have so much to do I have to run I will Post more right before the move but then I may not have internet for a couple days so I hope to be up and running really soon after that:) God Bless!

A good few days :)

It has been a wonderful few days around here while I have been mia in blogworld. Thursday was just absolutely wonderful. Even though I didnt ask him too Hubby (who loves to cook) helped me in the Kitchen all morning cutting veggies and getting things ready It waas awesome to share that time with him. Then in the middle of the day my family arrived we enjoyed fun time with them and then a wonderful meal I was really tickled with the way everything turned out and my mom was really impressed with things...(that makes me happy) My dad who loves apple pie as does my hubby and grandpa all enjoyed thier treats so it was a most wonderful day and man did the house smell good. Friday I was so exhausted I stayed in my jammies half the day (ooohhh shame on me LOL) Saturday we went shopping with my mom I dont do black friday shopping in person but I did get some great curriculum from CurrClick on Friday! Yay, some great lapbooks and other unit studies all for free it was great. Saturday night we went to chinese food with my parents..yum and no cooking yay! Then yesterday we had a food festival (we dont call them potlucks lol) at church and we had some wonderful fellowship time after service. Hubby Joined us at church yesterday! YAY!!! and may actually go again this coming weekend! some friends of ours are thinking of attending next weekend and encouraged him to be there plus the kids had already asked daddy to come again next weekend! I love it when God works through others and not me and my wants! Its awesome to watch where things are going in regards to Hubby and the Lord... I am just watching and praising... and feel so happy it is unreal!
anyway right now little Prince is working on Mathletics we went ahead an purchased Mathletics after the American Math challenge and I love that he wakes up and wants to Play MATH! Its awesome and you can assign certain curriculm for them to work through before they compete/play online in the challenges so we are actually using that for math right now he picked things up so quickly like area and perimeter that we had been struggling with in the books! Little princess of course now wants her computer play time too so I have some preschool things for her to do when brother is done.
Today is laundry day and overall cleaning day as I take weekends off usually sometimes I do saturday cleaning while hubby is at work but I tend to try and keep up with things during the week so off I go to clean the kitchen and then My room needs some attention and reorganizing we moved some things in that had been floating around the garage and now I need to reorganize and put some things away finding homes for others. Have a blessed day everyone and "see ya" soon!

What day is it?!!

Ahh..been behind on my blogging as I was babysitting a friends 18 month old for the last 6 days...Whew...I am exhausted I dont know how you all do it with larger families! But I think having them as your own children makes a difference as you dont just jump into an 18 month old busy phase (unless adopting of course) you are able to acclimate to the business of them being everywhere!~ It was a lot of fun and I am missing the little one a bit but The kids and I went to a play today and did some grocery shopping yesterday so we are getting back to normal schedules. We saw the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe today preformed by a local art/theatre company and it was a lot of fun even little Princess enjoyed it. We had front row seats I felt like roalty LOL... We attended with the local group ofhomeschoolers then afterward I went to a pizza/play place locally with one of the moms and her 2 kiddos what fun we had. Nice lunch and I stuck to a salad! My new resolve to lose weight stick with me on that we shall see how it goes ever since my back surgery I gained a bunch of weight as exercising was hard with the pain however now I am better pain wise so its time to get moving and watch what I eat more. Tonight will be chicken and salad:) More on this later gotta run and get the kids to Awana Usually I would be teaching as I am also an Awana leader however tonight I stay home. I have been fighting a sore throat and with all the sick little ones at Awana I am going to steer clear of there in hopes of warding off any furthering of the sickies....we shall see Take care and "see" you all soon

Wisk Away Wednesday

LOL...I always like to come up with fun titles and that one stuck this morning, I am wisking away clutter and messes around the house today. Tonight starts a 5 night/day run of babysitting for some friends. I am excited as I will get to see how my house would really run if I had 3...I keep praying that we may adopt some time in the distant or near future. Hubby is not on board with this Idea so I am just praying that God speak to his heart if this is meant to be or speak to my heart to change the yearning for more if it is not his will. Either way I would be fine if in the end I know Gods will is where we are You know what I mean? I cannot physically care any more than my 2 perfect blessings as after my back surgery they said no more but I really feel a tug on my heart to give a youngster that needs a loving christian home a safe place to be. Hubby and I have had long talks on this and for now I am content to babysit and wait on the Lord to answer this one....but I just thought I would share...hehe
So today I will go around and make changes that will help keep little man safe for the next few days as having an almost 5 year old and a 10 yr old is way different than having a 2 yr old around daily:)
Little Princess is still not feeling 100% so please pray for her and for protection for 2 yr old to not get what she and little Prince Had. I think we are on the last legs of the cold and that is all it is as she and little prince did not run a fever much past the first day and that was low grade even still so no high fevers and not severe symptoms just coldish symptoms. She is down to just having sniffles and sneezes and congested head. She wants to feel better it was so sweet when she said "mommy when am I going to feel better" aahhh my heart broke for her and I prayed with her that she would feel better very soon. Well I am off to get things going I am going to try and post my home tour later today if I get time but right now gotta run...
By the way Little Prince is loving the Mathletics challenge ....for elementary aged kids this has been so fun see top of my right sidebar for the link:)

Update on today

Well after this morning's post Little Prince is starting to feel a bit better we relaxed and got things done today and just let him recuperate I actually got a project completed I deep cleaned my bedroom vacuumed the edges and under the bed, fully dusted and got a big pile of stuff...yes I have stuff in piles here and there...oh my! I never claimed to be a really great housekeeper LOL...hence themessymommy.blogspot name lol... I am getting immensely better however with prayer, encouragement from all of you through your blogs and since getting off all the pain killers after my spine surgery I am doing so much better:) Yay! I am working to get each room re-organized and then my goal is to keep up with it through actually using my HMB...I put it together a year ago however whats the old saying..things only work if you use them LOL.. I am kind of bad at that however I have really been talking with God about giving me the right attitude about housework, and it has improved so much. Isn't God amazing I prayed hard for a couple of days for him to re-ignite my soul in some areas and to help me have more energy to go about my days and he provided Praise the Lord.

One prayer request as the day went on a sore throat and fever came for Little princess Please pray for protection as with little prince that this is just a standard cold and not anything more severe. thank you for your prayers and your friendship all those who I communicate with on here and any new visitors:) God bless and I will update all in the morning.

I didn't bake bread today with all the project work and little princess really not feeling well today put this off till tomorrow since I will not be going out of the house as planned. That is one of the things I love about homeschool, sick days dont bring near the stress they did when you know they are falling behind at school and you can just catch up when they feel better, also they can learn when not feeling well with reading and playing educational games on the computer and such. I signed little prince up for the Mathletics challenge this week is practice and next week is the challenge He actually asked to do this today even though it was the dreaded MATH and had fun:) Here is a link American Math Challenge you register on here then when you go back to the main page after registration click on the mathletics link I had to search forever to figure out how to get into the practice session so if you have questions let me know it is aimed for middle elementary grades and up:)

Monday Time to get organized

Well over the last 4 days I have re-organized both my pantry and my laundry room storage areas and yesterday wonderful hubby, little prince and I reorganized and decluttered little prince's entire room I am going to work through the other areas of the house this week and plan on finally doing a tour of my house by the end of the week. This morning I worked on my home management binder schedule section and planned out the timing for homeschool today so I need to get rolling I am already behind a bit lol... Over this week I will be adding to and adjusting my schedule and really trying to get it rolling and organized. Catching up on housework isn't a ton of fun or very exciting but when it is all done doesn't it feel good! Ok all off I go I will post more later about my schedule and hopefully update that I have gotten everything I dream of doing today done LOL...tata..

Tuesday's Plan

Today is going to be a Kitchen day so math will be somewhat measurements and fractions as well as part bookwork. Science today will also be covered partially by this and we are going to start our Moon Lapbook today. The Mystery of History has us working on Creation Booklets which we need to finish up today I will try to post a picture of these when we finish:) Language arts today will be the Well-trained Mind language lesson we did not get this done yesterday I am still trying to figure out if I want to do some things everyday and others alternate or what and how.... I know we do math everyday and I think we need to do language skills of some kind everyday even if it is worksheets to reinforce things. I just got a brainquest workbook at target that has some good reinforcement skills of things he has been learning in all subjects in it. There is even mapping and such in the social studies section and moon things in the science got this at Target~! I was pretty excited LOL... little things right little things bring excitement:) Anyway Well I am off to start the day How do you all do it do you do history and science on seperate days? Math and Language Everyday? And do you all use a specialized spelling program? This is one area I am really still undecided on... Whether to get a special spelling program or do what I did last year and just assign 20 words off of the US Sitton?? Spelling list The words are numbered and there are 1200 on there that are standard words starting in the first grade with words 0-100 or something to that effect last year I assigned words in the 300-400 range and made worksheets off of spellingcity.com it worked rather well but not sure thats how I want to go as he gets older... Any ideas? Have a great Tuesday God Bless

Catching up:)

Hi everyone,
Sorry to have been MIA for so long wherever does the time go? Well last week we had a busy busy week after I finally felt better I spiked a fever last Saturday night and had a low grade temp up to Tuesday. So I hunkered down and stayed in. Then Wed was hubby's day off and those are always fun days but busy busy going places and getting things done:) He was able to go to Awana's with the kids which they really loved. Thursday little princess had a ballet lesson, one of the homeschooled teens in the area is doing preschool/kindergarten age girl lessons for $1 a week! Its awesome and so cute to watch. It is the Christian homeschool group in our area which is rather large and it is great to chat with other Christian moms while the girls learn:) Then Saturday we had my small group with Church this was our day to collect food for our food drive we are doing. My church is handing out bags of groceries and hot soup to people in town on Saturday evening while others are out getting candy. Its our way to be out there sharing the love of Jesus with others on this evening. Many in this town are struggling with being able to provide food for thier families at this time so we are hoping to bless many during this. We met a gentleman during the collection time that is struggling himself financially and is battling cancer however he still gave a couple cans! God is so awesome and we are going to stop back by and take him some groceries to help him out this week:) Also we are all praying for him as he is alone so hopefully we will really be able to help him out in times coming.
It has been a good week for homeschooling we are trying out the Mystery of history for history/creation study and the kids can both do this mostly together so it is seeming to be working. Math I am flucuating between the computer lessons and worksheets to reinforce things. Language arts is an area I havent fully decided what I am doing I think we will finish up the First Language lessons for the Well trained mind 4th level and then go from there with the computer maybe and supplement worksheets. Science...mmmmm well I am working on this the past week for science we built a slinky brand electric motor that I picked up at Bi-mart and also little prince worked in the Garage on Dad's day off giving my suburban a tune-up! Auto shop science this week:) And we studied liquids/solids when we made cookies so we are learning and living. I love that about homeschool. This week I am going to work on getting a better schedule in place and getting things flowing smoothly. I dont feel nearly as flustered since I gave myself permission to find something else since what we thought would work wasn't I think I stressed out more because of that but after all the emails I recieved and reading some things I realized just because I thought i would work and paid money for it doesnt mean I have to fight with it all year when Its not completely working...try something else! What a concept! I want learning to be fun not a struggle at this age now when we get to high-school there will be just buckle down and do it but if we have some fun now maybe it wont be such a fight then. We are going to do a lapbook on the moon for science this week. My main goal this week is to keep learning going, have some fun, and then get a plan laid out on paper for subject goals for the rest of the year. Have a great day all I will try and post more regularly now that I am feeling better:) God bless!

Frustration!

Hi everyone,
I write today in hope that expressing my frustration will enlighten a solution. We have been using a computer program and I absolutely love it for homeschool however what I love is not important as what my son's learning. He is not good at independent study and I struggle to be involved with it as it is not lessons I planned so I am going back through the well-trained mind and my printouts on teaching the trivium I think he did so much better at this. Now the math program on the computer is really working well so I will stick with that however what do you all do for History, Bible and science. I used the Well-trained mind language program last year and it worked however we got it late in the year and did not finished so I think we will resume that. My son learns best from me reading with him, and from reading aloud together and things he can participate in. I want to find something that involves little princess too when she has the patience to sit still, worksheets work well. I need to get more organized as this is 5th grade year for him and pre-k kindergarten for her. Can you tell I am stressed and unfocused today so we finished our history for today and are taking the rest of the day off to regroup any suggestions... I think a packaged curriculum is not working for us so those of you that use a bit of everything or parts of some curriculum how do you organize your lessons, stay on track and make sure you get everything the state needs while keeping the kids on track and learning fun... I dont want the fights anymore I want learning to be fun for them and me:) they are smart kids I just need to find what works. this is only our second year homeschooling and starting after public school has been a challenge. Thanks for any input you can share.

Once again the messy mommy struggles yet

Ok so today I have sat on my rump. I admit it. I was in much pain after our vacation and traveling home yesterday. I had physical therapy today and it increased my pain. However we have someone coming to the house tomorrow night to look again to see if they want to rent-to-own it. We may have the opportunity for my husband who is currently on Disability due to a knee injury we may have found a new job for him in the eastern oregon hemisphere! We are so blessed to have this be a possibility. I pray for guidance from above to know if that is the right move for our little family it is a very remote area but only 70 miles from where my family will land in 11 months when they retire which is where my grandparents currently live. This would be wonderful. My hubby will be released soon and could then go back to work. Money is so tight and I am watching what I do and buy however this is an area I struggle with and get up each morning and Ask God to guide me in this manner. I did wear dresses over the weekend along with the clothing my hubby bought me. I think this served us both well:) Last night I woke in severe pain and ended up out here on the couch for 3 hours from 1:30am to 4am... so I think that has thrown my good intentions for today out the window. I am starting my homeschooling on Monday so the end of this week I need to put my schedule in my HMB together. I am so excited for this as I was blessed with many supplies between st vincents, goodwill, freecycle(Lane county pay it forward) and from Wal-mart for the school supplies as I was there last night so I stocked up on markers, good crayons, paper folders and erasers oh and glue...I need to come up with art projects that arent horrendously messy for 3 yr old to participate but also keep 9yr old ds interested. If anyone has any ideas for art projects that are not expensive please forward to me:) Well I am going to get off my tushy and go clean the kitchen. One step at a time I will get this all done:) One Christian Mom, I missed communicating with you and Bren over the Last few days. Have you read Jane Kirpatrick Books? My church has a library...I will miss them so when we move...but my point was anyone looking for a good novel that has good Christian values and no muck check out Jane's books as I highly recommend them for a good read. Ok...going to tackle the kitchen. If you dont hear from me by tomorrow I fell in send help LOL......till then
Tiffany