Happy Easter!

We just got home from a great weekend with family. We were able to see my nephew for the first time in a decade, I got to hang with a couple of beautiful nieces, lots of time with family. So much fun! Believe it or not, we do actually have some pictures. I just need to find time to get them on my computer so I can post a few. :/

Since spring break is done around here, our week will return to normal; soccer, soccer, masters and more soccer. We've enjoyed the little bit of extra time at home in the evenings, but the boys are really looking forward to getting back on the soccer fields.

As far as school goes, they are going to keep plugging away. We are really gearing up for our vacation in a couple of weeks so it's going to be hard to stay on track. For both the boys AND myself, lol.

Bailey has two weeks left in his writing course, so he will just continue to focus on that. Both of the boys are going to work on their vocabulary this week as well. With game play, of course. :) VocabularySpellingCity, the website we use for spelling and vocabulary, has some really good matching vocabulary games. I like MatchIt Definitions because I can use word lists that are grade level appropriate for each of them.

Braeden has made so many noticeable and fantastic improvements this year, but handwriting is still really a very sore subject between us. He hates it. I know it's necessary. And of course I've told him (repeatedly is an understatement) that it's necessary. But sheeeesh, the battles we've had! :( Even though he's 7 and in the 2nd grade, he hasn't yet shown a dominant hand. Not in handwriting, but not in anything else either. He draws, eats, grabs; all with either hand. Just whichever one he feels like using I guess. That being said, I think a huge part of his problem is he simply isn't comfortable holding a pencil. So this week our focus is going to be getting him more comfortable with a pen/pencil. Instead of working specifically on handwriting, we are just going to focus on activities where he can concentrate more on using the pencil and finding a good grip, rather than trying to make sure he's printing correctly. We will do some drawing/tracing and will work on some worksheets (I can print a good printable word search, and do so using some of his spelling lists. Two birds. Go me!)...get him away from the keyboard a little. :)

I hope everyone's Easter weekend was as nice as ours, and I hope your upcoming week is just as good!

Aaaaaand it's April...

And again, I have no idea where the time has gone!

Last week, Tracy and I had a wonderful weekend scrapping. It was some much needed time for myself, and I'm mostly done with all the guilt that came with leaving the boys for the weekend, lol. 

The week went well. Soccer has consumed us, as usual. School is going fine. The boys are getting antsy because it's been a while since they have had an extended break (an official break, anyways). Since it's the beginning of April, we have started our Florida countdown. Less than a month and we are beach bound!!!

Bailey's Time4Writing is still going strong. April 20 will be the last day of this particular eight week course. Even though he isn't quite finished, he has already said that he is looking forward to the next course. Whether it's another mechanics type course, or that blogging course, we don't know yet. We will let him decide that when we get back from vacation.

As far as what the coming week will hold for the boys, they will probably have a light week. It's spring break in the area so they won't have soccer this week, nor will Bailey attend Masters. I don't want them to have a whole week off, but I also would not mind some extra time with them, so we will compromise with a little lighter work load. Bailey has been talking about how much he enjoyed the art curriculum lessons he did in T4L, and would like me to seek out something "artsy" for him to do soon. There is a pottery place in Athens and they do classes/workshops, so that might actually be something all four of us can do.

Braeden will be playing some compound word games this week. He has worked with compound words several times this year and he always enjoys them. Sometimes he gets a little whacked with them, lol, but as long as he's learning, I'm good. He's also going to put a little extra focus on math over the next few days. 

Bailey just returned home from a weekend camping trip with the Scouts. He's sunburned, tired and in * desperate* need of a shower, lol. Once he's all unpacked and cleaned up, we are having a family movie Sunday. The playlist? Hop, the new Muppet movie and the latest episode of Big Bang Theory.

Good times. :D

Do you have a hobby?

I do!!! It's scrapbooking. I never thought I would dig it, but as it turns out...it's my escape. My brain never stops going. Never. Not even when I sleep. And yet...when I scrap, my anxious personality gets a little time off, lol. So I scrap. I do scrap once in a while on my own, but it's always more fun with friends/in a group.

Occasionally Tracy and I will just get together. Sometimes her mom will join us. Sometimes we meet up with friends. Even her sister-in-law has scrapped with us a few times. And she lives in CT (don't forget, I'm in GA)! :)

With the tax thing, there's never really much time for us to catch a scrap-break; not until late spring usually. However, this weekend our favorite scrappy joint, Archivers, is having a special weekend-long event. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Three days. Surrounded by paper, Cricuts and glue. Oh the glue! I have a slight adhesive addiction...

Guess where Tracy and I will be today, and through the weekend?

While I will miss my boys, I know I will have a great time. They will too. They enjoy hanging with dad, and he's got a special surprise for Braeden. He got his training wheels off of his bike this week, and he was promised that as soon as he does that, he will get to pick out a brand new bike. They are going shopping tomorrow!

They've done great with their homeschooling this week, so they won't have to work on anything this weekend. Bailey is making much better progress with his writing course. He's not up to the SAT writing level yet, but I'll give him a little more time (that was a dig at those that constantly ask me what my 12 year old is going to do about college). He's even mentioned taking a blogging course once he's completed this, so he can start his own blog; which I think is great idea.

Braeden also had a good week, giving us very little resistance to those subjects he doesn't like. Which is most of them, lol.

I have no idea what this upcoming week holds for us, as my brain hasn't been able to get past the whole THREE DAYS OF SCRAPBOOKING thing. I'm a teensy bit excited. Monday morning will probably suck more than usual thanks to this, but I'll take it as it comes at me.

Have a super weekend!

A Stage Debut...

The boys have really enjoyed their first year attending Masters Academy; a fine arts program for homeschoolers. Bailey still has a few weeks left at his grade level, but Braeden's year wrapped up this week and he had his end of the year performance yesterday. He was very diligent about practicing his lines, and he did a wonderful job memorizing all of them. I was worried he would be nervous, especially yesterday morning, but he wasn't. It was great! The play went very well, he a fun time and he's looking forward to being on stage again. Here's a little video...hard to hear, but at least it's documented, lol.

Masters is going to have a Young Drama Troupe (sp?) camp over the summer. We are going to check prices and see if it's an option for us. Either way, he is looking forward to next year's program. With homeschool trends on the rise the way they are, I would expect he will not only be returning with his friends from this year, but he will have an opportunity to meet many new ones!

As far as the school week for the boys, it went alright. No major news. They are both just plugging along with what they need to do. I did discover that Braeden's idea of alphabetizing is stopping at the first letter of a word. For instance, there is no further order between the words "shoe" and "score." They start with "S" therefore they just get lumped together. So, we are going to work on that this week with him. As usual, game play seems to produce better results, so he's going to work on some ABC games from SpellingCity.

Other than that, it's going to be soccer, soccer and a little more soccer this week. Bailey is hopefully going to a midnight showing of The Hunger Games on Thursday night/Friday morning. He's never been to a midnight movie before, and he's excited. He hasn't read the books yet, because he's trying to finish up another series of Rick Riordan's he's working on, but he's looking forward to seeing the movie then reading the trilogy. Thanks to Tracy for throwing out the invite, and to Scott for letting him come along with Quentin and Zachary!

Next weekend is a big weekend for Tracy and I...scrapbooking the *whole* weekend. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Archivers is having a special all-weekend-long thing, and we are really looking forward to it!

Alrighty. Going to get off the computer and enjoy this beautiful Sunday with all of my boys. We have a friend down for the weekend, so that means I had to clean the house already...so I have no chores to do today, lol. Yay! ;)

Have a great week!

Daylight Saving Time. Bah.

I know I've already whined about the fact that we are still observing this, but considering that this morning is the morning that I woke up and felt horribly cheated...it was worth another whine. :)

I worked all week last week, and while I'm looking forward to getting the paycheck, I am glad the week is done. After the long work week, we woke up Saturday and headed to the ATL to see my parents and my in-laws. It felt rushed, as it usually does, but we had a really good time and enjoyed the visit with everyone.

This week is going to be just as busy, but in different ways. Soccer officially starts on Tuesday and this is Braeden's last week at Masters. Saturday is his first end of the year performance; of course we are all super excited! We will have more days in Athens, thanks to dress rehearsals and stuff, but it's all good. We are having a friend over for the weekend as well, and hanging with friends is always fun.

As far as school goes, Bailey will continue with his Time4Writing while Braeden concentrates on reading. I'm also throwing in some extra focus on vocabulary this week...both boys will have some root word games and some other vocabulary games to play. Since game play isn't usually a problem with those two, I'm thinking the extra will be alright. Hopefully.

Okey dokey. I know that was short. But I'm drooling all over the place here. Need. Sleep. And an episode or two of Big Bang Theory. :D

Happy Sunday night, errbody! Have an amazing week!

A Plug...

The hubs is one of those creative types; a writer. He has a great post on his site today, Halla Litriocht. He's talking about the dreams he had of being a writer when he was younger...and what, as an adult, being a writer is actually like. There's also some handy dandy tips and info. Go check it out! :)

The Big Lie of Writing

Code Milky Green...

Yeah, kinda gross. But those of you who love Dr. Sheldon Cooper as much as we do will appreciate the funneh.

Week before last, the hubs and Braeden were sick. As the days went by, and the 73,000 mg of Vitamin C that I was consuming continued on, Bailey and I thought we were out of the woods. Turns out, he was but I wasn't. So I have spent the better part of this past week sick. And again with the Dr. Cooper...I don't do sick very well. More whiny than normal, if you can even imagine.

This helps though:  ;)



Other than the sicklies, the week went well. I only had to work at the tax office one day. Braeden is starting to pick out his own word lists from the homeschool spelling curriculum we use (up to now I have been assigning them - we're trying to see if he will challenge himself, or if left to his own devices, picks the PreK lists so he can get finished quicker, lol). He has just about finished his 2nd grade stuff with T4L, so he's spending a more time on SpellingCity than on T4L right now.

Bailey is doing well with everything, and still plugging along with his Time4Writing that he's been working on. We are so relaxed here, as far as schedules and such, that I was worried the additional "school time" would be met with resistance. Turns out, he said he loves the course. Yep, he really said "I love it!" He is enjoying what he's learning, and I would imagine his desire to write creatively helps with his motivation.

Tuesday at work was slow and I spent some time on YouTube. What? YouTube is almost better than Facebook when it comes to ways to kill time. After watching some old favorite clips (like the one where I met Jeff Dunham's Achmed for the first time - SILENCE! I KEEL YOU!) and surfing through some music videos, I started looking for homeschool videos. I initially started out looking for funny little spoofs, to kinda go along with my last post about misconceptions. But I ended up finding this video, 5 Things I Wish I Had Known When I Started Homeschooling. It was funny, and really encouraging...even for someone who has been homeschooling for several years. When I first started, and was completely lost, it would have been nice to have seen something like this. All of the things that I was worried about; turns out they are pretty common concerns of other homeschooling parents too. Anyway, it was good to see, and I would recommend it to any homeschoolers...not just new ones. :)

Today, I'm going to try and do laundry. Try being the operative word there. Also going to watch some movies with the boys. We have Hugo and Moneyball on the playlist for this afternoon.

This week I will be working most of the week, if not the whole week, covering Tracy so she can be with her mom who is undergoing yet another surgery to fix her hip. Sending prayers, happy thoughts and good juju out to her in hopes that this one will finally be the last one and she recovers quickly and without issues!

Hope everyone has a great week. Don't forget that next weekend is Daylight Saving Time. Boo. I'm all over the "fall back." Not a fan of the "spring forward." :/