Addison Academy: Week 3

In my life this week…
We had yet another strange weather week. We haven't gone much of anywhere. I did go to a meeting Tuesday night with some friends and their little ones. My little ones stayed home with Daddy and it was weird being the only mom without kids! Luckily, my friend Carol's little guy decided I was going to be his buddy and wanted to sit on my lap and play Angry Birds on my phone. I know how to bribe kids. ;)

In our homeschool this week…
We've really been enjoying the new schedule/curriculum change up. I'll have a review/giveaway up sometime next week for WriteShop - I can't wait to tell how it's been going! The History curriculum I got for cheapity cheap on CurriculumShare is working out great too. It's just the right level for Zeke - we learned about maps, compasses and continents this week. Zeke's favorite subject right now seems to be Math - he flies through Math pages and has really been enjoying making up story problems.

I am inspired by…
People helping other people. I was told by my friend Katie about a local family who's dealing with the challenges accompanying a newborn...but not just any newborn, this little guy was born at just 23 weeks! He's doing well and growing but is currently only around 2 pounds. (Can you imagine?! My kiddos were each around 7 pounds and I thought that was tiny.) The family, who also has another young child, are now having to deal with medical bills - on top of their normal bills, making trips back and forth to the local children's hospital, all the expenses that come with traveling like that and I'm sure many other burdens. Katie started a Facebook group and it's amazing to see how people are just stepping up, donating and helping out. I won't be able to attend the benefit they're having for the little guy and his family but for all orders that are placed on my Pink Spa website from now until midnight Sunday, I'll be donating my commission to the family. And my boss is chipping in to double that amount! How cool is that? (If you'd like to order something, you can order it directly from my website. Or if you're local to me, you can just give me your order and I'll place it for you.) I need to stock up on a few items I'm low on so I'll definitely be ordering something. :)

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
We didn't make it to homeschool co-op this week! Sunday evening was filled with pouring rain, insane lightning/thunder and even the chance for tornadoes - isn't it supposed to be January?! We were all up late. Zeke couldn't sleep - he wasn't scared, he just couldn't get to sleep so Daddy ended up making grilled cheese for everyone and then we ended up sleeping in the next morning.

Zeke enjoying a midnight snack

My favorite thing this week was…
We've been using Artistic Pursuits Art curriculum and our lesson this week was about how artists communicate - often without words. One of the activities was to have the kids act out different words and emotions. I mentioned on Facebook that I wish I would have gotten out the video camera - it was hilarious! I showed them how I would act out a few (like sadness, excitement, etc.) and they loved it. They had fun going out in another room, picking a word to act out and then coming back in & having me guess what they were doing.

What’s working/not working for us…
In addition to our regular schoolwork, we also added in a little Angry Birds School - courtesy of 1+1+1=1. My kids LOVE Angry Birds. (Ellie even calls our crazy cardinal, "dat Ang'y Bird.") I'm going to laminate a few of the printables so the kids can continue to play with them. :)

I’m cooking…
Same as last week - still not a whole lot! Hubby is putting me to shame - not that that's really hard to do, though...I am not the world's best cook. ;) He is enjoying getting to cook for us while he's got time to do it and I very much appreciate it! I think he's cooked dinner almost every night for the last two week!

Salmon with a delicious sauce hubby whipped up from scratch, rice and corn!

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

That's what she thinks of you, Boba Fett....

The picture continues to crack me up every time I see it. It's Ellie with Lego guy heads on her fingers, in case you didn't know what it was. :)

It Is Well With My Soul

This post was inspired by the post "Content" at Cooking Up Faith.

The hymn "It Is Well With My Soul" has long been one of my favorites. I know some people aren't fond of hymns and feel that they're old-fashioned but I've really come to enjoy them more over the years...I suppose maybe that just means I'm getting older. Anyway, the story behind the song is incredible.

The song was written by Horatio Spafford, an American lawyer. He and his wife Anna were a well known couple in Chicago in the 1860's. They also were the proud parents of five children, one son and four daughters. Their lives were about to turn upside down though - their only son succumbed to scarlet fever at the age of four and shortly thereafter, the great fire of Chicago swept through the city and all the real estate Horatio had invested in was destroyed. Then just a year or two later, he and his family planned a holiday trip to England. He got busy with work though, and decided to send his wife and girls ahead on the SS Ville du Havre while he finished up. Tragically, the ship was struck and only his wife Anna survived. Once she arrived in England, she sent Horatio a telegram with the heartbreaking message, "Saved alone." He sailed to England soon after, passing over the spot where his daughters died, and during that journey penned this song:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

RefrainIt is well (it is well),
with my soul (with my soul),
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
(Refrain)

My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
(Refrain)

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pain shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
(Refrain)

And Lord haste the day, when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
(Refrain)

I would love to tell you that Horatio's life was easier after that and that he experienced no more tragedy but that's not the case. His wife ended up giving birth to three more children - two daughters and a son - and their son died at just four years old from pneumonia. After that, the family moved to Jerusalem with several other families and founded the American Colony that did philanthropic work and helped the poor. Horatio's life was not an easy one by any means but through it all he still managed to praise God and take courage in knowing that He would give him peace, even through the midst of tragedy and ruin. The hymn may have an older style of language but the message is still the same - regardless of my situation or the trials I face, I can still draw strength and hope from the Lord, and rest in his peace.



"I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength." ~ Philippians 4:11-13

Sources: Christianity.ca, Cyber Hymnal, and Wikipedia

Addison Academy: Weeks 1 & 2

In my life this week…
I'm trying to get caught back up on all the cleaning/organizational things I committed to this year but am getting a {wee}bit overwhelmed. I'm just trying to take it one step at a time. I have a tendency to clean very "popcorn like" - running from one task to another without finishing the first one - and I'm trying to stifle that. I don't mean to...I just keep thinking of other things that need done!
On the 18th you probably couldn't access my blog because it automatically redirected you to a SOPA strike website. I participated in the strike against SOPA and I'm glad to hear that the strike was noticed!
It's been snowy, rainy and icy on and off this week (and cold!) so we haven't gotten out very much at all. My hubby and son went to a college basketball game last night with my husband's grandma - she has season tickets - and it started sleeting/freezing rain while they were there. The county even ended up declaring a "Level One Emergency" or something of that nature but they made it home fine.

In our homeschool this week…
We recently joined a different homeschool co-op and we are loving it! They didn't meet Monday because of MLK Day so we just did a very light amount of work and regular school work throughout the rest of the week. The co-op meets on Mondays from 8:45 - 12 so we usually have a shorter amount of school work that day and I figured we could Monday as well. The co-op is great for social time but Zeke is also taking some classes there as well - Gym, Play-doh Landforms and Food Art. I tweaked some things around in our curriculum but I'll talk about that more below.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…
We took an extended break over Christmas to give everyone a chance to breathe and to regroup. We started back the second week of January and I couldn't be more thrilled. Taking some time to regroup made a world of difference and really helped me to see what was truly important.

I am inspired by…
the #hsmommas group of ladies on Twitter. Although Twitter parties sometimes are all over the place, I like that the party that was held last night had lots of individual conversations branching off about different subjects. There's also a wide variety of different types of homeschooling mommas so you get experience, advice and encouragment. (If you're interested, you can read more about #hsmommas HERE.)

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
As I mentioned above, we didn't really get out much at all this week, other than my step-daughter's basketball game one night this week! That was fun. Ellie didn't enjoy the buzzer that signaled the end of the quarters but other than that the kids had a fine time - and my step-daughter's team won!

My favorite thing this week was…
We've started Raising Arrow's Fruits of the Spirit devotional for kids and I love it. It's easy for them to understand and they loved coloring & cutting out the fruit to put into the bowl. When doing one of the lessons, we talked about God's family and I had a sweet conversation with Zeke, my six year old:

Zeke: Who is in God's family?
Me: Well, anyone who accepts him into their heart and says, "I want to be a part of God's family."
Zeke: (thinks for a moment and then very earnestly says) *I* want to be a part of God's family.
I told him praying would be a great place to start and so we said a nice little prayer together. Made this homeschool momma very proud!

What’s working/not working for us…
During Christmas break, I really took a look at our curriculum and decided how I wanted to plan out our lessons this year. We've received a lot of different curriculum to try through the TOS crew but Zeke has also been struggling with feeling overwhelmed and difficulty learning to read. I am not pressuring him to read and am just taking things slowly. People keep reassuring me that boys are different - some read sooner, some read later and it all works okay...now I just have to LISTEN to that!
Anyway, our curriculum...I made some modifications and here is what we're trying to do each week:

For Reading and Writing, we are reading books together of Zeke's choosing. We're also taking turns with easier books where I'll read aloud a sentence, pointing to the words and then he'll do the same. We started WriteShop's curriculum and we are both really enjoying it. (I don't want to tell you *too* much about it yet though because I have a review & giveaway that will be coming up soon from them!) We're also using The Reading Game, dolch words and some other assorted workbooks/activities from blogs.
For Math, we're using manipulatives and Houghton Mifflin workbooks I got on CurriculumShare. We're now doing  BJU Heritage Studies for History and it's a much better fit than what we had before. I've added Health and Art from Vintage Remedies and Artistic Pursuits to our studies and the Fruits of the Spirit study I mentioned above. (Our Social Studies and Science are still the same - Core Skills and Our Father's World from CLP.)

Questions/thoughts I have…
If anybody wants to shoot any blog posts or articles about preparing for a conference my way, they're more than welcome. The 2:1 Conference I'll be attending in April is my first ever blogging (or homeschooling, for that matter) conference and I'm super excited. I'd love to see what other people's experiences have been going to conferences.

Things I’m working on…
Lots of different things! WriteShop is my sponsor for The 2:1 Conference and I'm working on several different things with them/for them for the next few months - an interview, a review/giveaway and some guest posts.

I’m reading…
I just figured out that I can use my iPhone like a Kindle (I'm probably the last person to figure that out!) so I've been downloading a lot of the free books Amazon offers. I snagged Tsh Oxenreider's Organized Simplicity the other day and am just starting it.

I’m cooking…
nothing! Well, almost nothing. My dearest darling hubby is currently unemployed, which stinks, but it's also good for several reasons - one of which being that he has been cooking for me! And he's a darn good cook. :)

I’m grateful for…
Quiet time in the morning. I've been getting up early with my Hello Morning challenge ladies (Well, not literally! Through Twitter!) and it's definitely a challenge. Getting up early and spending some time in the Word really helps me look at my day in a different light. When I miss out on it, I definitely notice it. And I have to give kudos to my husband who I barked at once or twice this week when he was encouraging me to get out of bed, after I turned the alarm off. Sorry, honey. :)

I’m praying for…
One of my new bloggy friends, Gidget. I haven't known her that long but she is such a sweetheart. She is looking for a sponsor for The 2:1 Conference and I am praying she is able to find one. I'd love to meet her in person at the conference!

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

Ellie is getting quite good at tracing. She loves doing "skoo-work."