Summer is quickly coming to an end. For us homeschoolers that means time to plan and prepare for our upcoming school year. I’m a bit overwhelmed this year as normally I am done with this by now, but this year that is not the case. With just 4 weeks left until school starts I am scampering to wrap this up.
I’ll have 7 students this year. This is the most I will probably ever have at a time. (whew!!) I’ll have two highschoolers as Shayden will be in 9th, (How did that happen?) one jr high, and four elementary.
For my high schoolers and jr higher I’m trying something new called Homeschool Tracker. Its taking some work right now to input everything for an entire year but when I don’t have to think twice about lesson plans the rest of the year it will be worth it. It’s not necessary to create lesson plans for the whole school year but I’ve done this for the last several years and found that the amount of work I put into it over the summer pays off when I don’t have to worry about it during the busyness of the school year. Come December I also plan on cuddling a new little one and the last thing I’ll want to think about is lesson plans!
For my younger students I’m still using my binder system. We’ve been doing this for a few years and I love it. It has taken away the dread I used to feel on Sunday nights as I prepared for our new week of school. Now all I do it grab the folder for the month of work they are doing and load binders! Viola!
Hopefully I can get this all completed in the next couple of weeks so I can spend the last week before school starts relaxing with my kiddos! 
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Every 4 – 6 months we rebid chores and make changes to how things are run around here. The last few days we’ve come up with a new dish washing routine and also made changes to our regular chore chart. Shelbie bumped back onto the chore list since she will be home for a while and little Shylie made it to the big leagues and has her name on the chart now!
I’m sure I’m probably the minority here on how excited I get when we redo chores! \
Eleven years ago today I wasn’t worried or thinking about taxes, but I was focusing on breathing thru every contraction and working with my body to birth our third baby boy.
Shadd came right on the feet of his two brothers, weighing in at a whopping 9lbs 15 oz, and evening up the teams, making us the parents of 3 boys and 3 girls and giving us three busy boys under the age of three.
Shadd’s name means “happy go lucky”, and he lives up to that meaning daily! He is sweet boy who’s love language is most definitely physical touch. He loves to give hugs and loves to get them! He is affectionately called “bug boy” as he is always looking for bugs and insects. He spends lots of time catching flies to feed to his frog and loves to read anything that has to do with reptiles or insects.
Shadd also has the most creative mind! We are constantly amazed at the things he invents and creates. Last summer when we went camping he pulled out a boat he had made that ran off batteries! It worked! He drove it all over the river with it attached to his fishing pole so he could reel it back in when it went to far. He also was involved in Science Olympiad this year and worked diligently on creating a mousetrap car. We have no doubt that God has gifted him and he is going to do amazing things when he grows up!
We love you so much Shadd! Thank you for evening up the teams 11 years ago and bring laughter and more love to our home!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHADD!!
Today our third little girl, who is now a young woman, turned 16. Our world became a much happier, gigglier place when Shaylah entered our lives. She was such an easy baby and after she was born we said we would be content with never having boys as we were so in love with our girls!
Shaylah is so amazing and unique. She can dress up and be knock out gorgeous all the while throwing a baseball so fast and hard that it would cause a grown man to duck!
I remember as a young mom being told horror stories of what happens when little girls grow into teenage girls. I am so blessed to say that isn’t at all how it is here! I am so blessed to have my daughters be my best friends! It’s a beautiful gift!
Shaylah lights up our world and we are so blessed and thankful that God gave her to us! Her laughter is contagious and her love for the Lord amazing!
Happy Birthday Shaylah!
Eight years ago today, after 3 little boys, we welcomed the sweetest little girl into our family. Her birth was the first birth that I had totally natural and it was amazing! 
Poppet ~ 5 months
Poppet ~ 8 years old Many years ago Duane and I got tired of battling the crowds on Valentines Day. Instead we opted to stay home with our favorite people in the world! Duane declared this as one of his two dinner nights. (The other being Mother’s Day). This tradition is one that we all look forward to.
The night before I stayed up and hung up some decorations. When I woke the next morning someone or someone’s had been up in the wee hours decorating. Shadd, Poppet, and Lolly had woken up about two in the morning and hung up some sweet decorations and left valentine cards under all our pillows.
Duane made fajitas that we all voted were better than any restaurant! We lingered around the table talking after dinner was done. We all enjoyed the evening and now have another memory to add to the book of memories we are creating.
I’m going to miss it when all my children are grown and off enjoying Valentine’s Day with their spouses. Maybe we’ll be lingering around the table with grandchildren instead.
Yay, Lolly!!
Today our sweet Lolly turns 6 years old. Her morning started with Shannen making her muffins to go with our breakfast and everyone singing Happy Birthday to her. We are heading out to go bowling, then she will have lunch with Daddy and Mama, (she chose Panda Express for lunch) then home to swim, hit her piñata, and tonight we will go to the Nuts game. It will be a fun filled day. The only thing she said that would make it better would be having Shelbie here. (only 18 days to go!)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOLLY!
Yesterday was a rough day in Neyville. The day started out like any other but quickly went bad. The girls asked to eat outside on the picnic table for lunch. A few minutes into their meal Shylie girl fell backwards off the bench onto the brick patio. Shannen ran out and grabbed her and as soon as I had her in my arms I realized it was serious. She was crying, but not like you would think after the hit she took. The cry was almost as if she was to hurt to cry. We quickly started our normal routine with head bumps. Usually 5 doses of homeopathic Nat Sulph will pull the child out of it within 15 minutes. Not this time. When I realized that didn’t work I tried Arnica. One of the basic rules with homeopathy is if one remedy doesn’t work it’s not the right one and you need to try a different one.
The arnica didn’t seem to help either. She laid sleeping in my arms but you could tell she was hurting. Then all of a sudden she started throwing up. I’ve dealt with other head injuries before that involved throwing up so I didn’t panic over this. I prayed over what to do and called Duane. After years of playing sports, seeing and also having concussions he said to watch her and wake her every 30 minutes or so. We don’t usually run to the doctor without really praying over it and asking ourselves what they would they do. In this case we knew they would do x-rays or cat scan and then just watch her. We decided to watch her here and continue treating her here.
She laid on the couch looking very pale and threw up a few more times. I put a call into our naturopath, but there was no answer. Two hours had passed and I was very concerned. I texted Duane asking if he was on his way home because I wanted him to assess the situation. I was ready to go in.
I sat by her praying and praying and then it suddenly occurred to me that I really spend more time in prayer asking for things instead of offering up thanks. I really wanted to continue to just pray for healing but felt in my spirit I needed to give thanks instead. I started thanking the Lord that Shylie was fearfully and wonderfully made. I thanked him that He held her in the palm of His hand, thanked Him that He died on the cross of Calvary and took all of our sickness and disease on His body. I sat there and continue thanking Him for all He is, all He does, and for the grace He freely gives.
I went to use the bathroom and asked Him for wisdom on what to do. I didn’t want to make any decisions based on fear. As I walked out of the bathroom Shaylah met me in the hallway and said it was our naturopath. I filled her in on what was going on and she told me some things to try then I was to call her back in an hour. We still didn’t see a turn around but I had a peace about staying home, at least for the moment. An hour later she had us start a different remedy. 20 minutes later she threw up again, then promptly dozed back off. About 30 minutes later she opened her eyes and asked for water. After that she said she was hungry.
That was one of the longest 6 hours in my life watching her lay there and feeling so helpless. I had to completely surrender her to the Lord and moment by moment seek Him as what to do. Today as I have spent the day telling her to stop running, no climbing, and having the kids rotate reading to her and keeping her calm I am once again marveling at the Lord’s goodness. We are continuing with the remedies for 3 more days for good measure, but besides a small headache off and on she is doing great. I am so thankful I didn’t react based on fear, but rather I responded and sought the Lord.
I am also once again in awe at how the Lord designed the human body and how amazing it is that He has provided plants and herbs that can be used to heal the body. Normally with concussions you just watch and wait. I am so grateful that we could give her something to allow her body to heal. It truly is amazing!
This evening Shylie was sitting in the doorway to the back patio blowing bubbles and she stopped and had her little head bowed so sweetly. My mom motioned for me to snap a picture because of how sweet she looked. I asked her what she was doing to which she replied, “I’m pwaying for Shelbie in Afwica!”
Last week we celebrated Shiro and Bodey’s first birthday. It has been an incredible year with these sweet little guys in our lives. They are so fun and keep us laughing. We have enjoyed this year with them so much! 
What started out as a discussion on how strange the new “planking” fad was turned into my strange kids “planking” their way through Discovery Kingdom.
