2013/2014 Taffy Academy

During my blogging sabbatical, I spent a lot to time rearranging and reorganizing our school room.  Being as I lost two of my students, three actually when I take into account that Strawberry does most of her studies in her room… where it’s quiet, eh hem. I figured it was time for a good old rearrange!

The view looking right.

The view looking left.

I love it.  All the books make me happy.  I would still like to replace my plastic table with a conference table.  Our plastic table wiggles when somebody uses their eraser.  That’s kind of annoying.  Mr. Taffy is also on the look out for a cheap wall TV with a built in DVD player so I can show the kids education movies from time to time without them huddling around the lap top.

My Sonlight Books  and educational DVD’s.

Here’s the fall line up for the children starting with the oldest.

Strawberry Taffy-11th Grade

• Chemistry-Apologia
• Geometry-Teaching Textbooks
• English 3 (American Literature)-Excellence in Literature
• History-Constitution 101 & 102 (Hillsdale College)
• Graphic and Web Design- Team Tree House on-line program (She’s already started this because she’s VERY interested in it.)

I put links in the text if you are interested in learning more about each of her subjects.  I’ve also got an elective planned for her called:  Training in Biblical Womanhood.  I bought her several books that she is going to slowly read and journal her way through.

I found this awesome book holder at a garage sale.  This was on my list to find for our school room!

Blue-Raspberry Taffy- 5th Grade

• 5th Grade Math-Teaching Textbooks
• History-Sonlight Core D & E (combined American History)
• Latin- Song School Latin 2
• Science- Considering God’s Creation
• Language Arts: Sonlight Core D & E (Reading), Easy Grammar, All About Reading Level 4

Strawberry Taffy-3rd Grade

• 3rd Grade Math-Teaching Textbooks
• History-Sonlight Core D & E (American History)
• Latin-Song School Latin 2
• Science-Considering God’s Creation
• Language Arts: Sonlight Core D & E (reading), Easy Grammar & All about Spelling Level 4

You can see Blue-Raspberry and Bubble Gum are pretty much doing the same curriculum, I just have different expectations for each of them.  Bubble Gum read’s terrifically and won’t have any trouble with the reading, Blue-Raspberry reads terrifically too, he just doesn’t enjoy it as much.  (smile)

Laffy Taffy- 1st Grade

I did things differently with Laffy than I did with my other children.  I couldn’t stomach another round of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.  It’s a great book, but it’s SO boring and I’ve been through it 5 times already…ugh.  So I used All About Reading PreReading with him.  Usually my children are reading by the end of Kindergarten, granted he just turned 5 toward the end of kindergarten but still, he’ll be starting 1st grade and he doesn’t know how to read yet.  Though he knows all the letter sounds and how to write them on demand.  This year we’ll put all the pieces together and he’ll be reading like a champ before I know it!

• Reading-All About Reading Level 1
• Spelling- All About Spelling Level 1
• Math-Miquon Math Starting in the Orange book and working our way through them all, I’m not sure how long it will take, might take a couple years, might only take 1.
• History/Literature/Science-Sonlight Core A or K depending on what you’re used too.  I primarily wanted a list of age appropriate reading material, to read to him and to have him start reading to me. 
• Handwriting-Just a work book I got from a friend.

I’m using workboxes for him this year so he can visually see how much he needs to do and consequently know when he’s almost done. 

I read on the Duggar’s Blog that during school hours the children aren’t allowed to talk about anything non-school related.  I am totally considering copying this amazing idea.  So much chatter and so many uninteresting questions and too much redundancy, it really makes me crazy sometimes!

The Tot School Area.

We are starting up August 5th, with a four day a week schedule so we can still enjoy the summer weather and meet our friends at the beach once a week.  Until we start up, I have a BIG issue I have to pray through.  I’ll share that next time.  Here’s a hint:

The Battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy

Where do I start?

 

Well hello out there!  Is it okay if I start blogging again?  So much has happened, so much I want to share.  I have some significant things to share and some not-so-significant things to share.  Where in the world do I start? 

I’ve been purging and cleaning like a crazy person. My husband (and the rest of my family) is starting to get a little annoyed with the things they find in the garbage and in the trunk to be taken to Goodwill.  I can’t help it. I’m compelled to PURGE!  I’ve even been purging and cleaning my laptop.  Yesterday I deleted 200 files!  Most of them were  blog images that I have made over the years and different reviews of things that I don’t need to keep a rough draft of.  Some were funny things the kids have typed up or created on the computer, I found a funny ad for dog food that one of the kids had made either just for fun or a business idea.  It was cute.

            

I’ve also been filing, filing at home and on my laptop.  I made new folders to keep track of my writings and my homeschool things.  We’ve had so many computers over the years and I’ve downloaded so many fun things for our homeschool that I just can’t find what I’m looking for anymore.  I think I fixed all that.  My desktop only has 10 icons now and only about 6 of those are mine, I wouldn’t dare delete anything that looks like my husband’s.  I have no idea if it’s important or not!  I use to have about 30 files stored on my desktop.  It’s much less cluttered now.

This morning I’ve been going through my picture files and deleting non-important images.  You know, like all the images of the food I eat!  lol  Books I’m selling, stuff like that.

It feels great to get rid of the clutter.

My goals for this year are: Simplify. Trust. Pray.

That’s it.  Those are the words burning in my soul. Maybe I will share how I’m tangibly trying to obtain those goals.

Thanks for hanging with me.

The battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy

When winter gets long…

This is the weather graphic is for my suburb.  Today the high is 9.  Yeah.  We are about halfway through this winter and sometimes at this point we start to get a little stir crazy.  See that sunshine there, well it looks warm and inviting outside, but it’s not really and the sunshine just makes us want to go out there all the more!  So what do we do?  How do we cope with the endless winter weather? 

We plan!

We get out all our seeds and take inventory!

              We get out our garden notebook and draw!

We get on the computer and visit the land of the living, living things that is.  Seeds. Plants.  What can we grow?  What can we plant?  Show me some GREEEN!

We figure out where everything goes.  What can we plant here, how about here?  We use post-it-notes so we can change our mind.

We ordered organic seeds and 10 (yeah 10, my husband doesn’t do anything small) elderberry bushes.  Still not sure where all those are going to go, but who cares!  They are coming!  My husband also bought worms of all things, and they are happily munching away in a container on the counter in the kitchen.  That right there is love in action.

Here’s my garden pin board if you want to see some more inspiration:  http://pinterest.com/mrstaffy/garden-backyard/

We want to try the potato towers and the sunflower fort, do you think the neighbors would mind if we put the sunflower fort in the front yard?  Our backyard is pretty full!  ha!  An outside chalkboard for the kids and gutter gardens on my little deck to keep the spinach safe from the bunnies.  So much inspiration! 

I wonder how many other people have spent a long winter’s Saturday planning for the time when the earth warms up and the worms wake up and life springs forth!  Probably more than we can imagine!

The Battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy

Bonker-tines Day

I think I went a little bonkers this Valentine’s Day.  I didn’t plan on it, it just sort of happened.  I am glad it did though because the result was a houseful of people that KNOW they are loved, by me.

I started out the morning by making cinnamon rolls.  It’s been at least 6 months since I’ve made cinnamon rolls, possibly longer. 

The best thing about this was the quiet that was heard during breakfast.  Not a word was uttered, only sighs of contentment, moans of delight, even the baby, which is AHHH-MAZING!

For lunch I made them Toad in a Hole’s but decided to use a heart shaped cookie cutter instead of my biscuit cutter.  Toast tastes better shaped like a heart, or so I’m told.

Then later in the day, for snack time, after our beloved quiet time, I made them a little party.  I just spent about $4.00 at Wal-Mart for the decorations.  But the impact, it was priceless!

On Wednesday I made Raspberry-Nut Valentine Cookies and hid them.  I wrapped some up in saran wrap with a big red bow and stuck them in the big guy’s lunches and then saved the rest for our Valentine’s Day snack time.

Just one each, with a little almond milk with pink milk ice cubes.  Bonkers…I told you!

Just look at these happy faces!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If that wasn’t enough, we watched the Mickey Mouse version of the 3 Musketeers, which is surprisingly appropriate for Valentine’s Day.  So much love!  haha!

After the movie, my teens went up to Papa Murphy’s and bought a couple pizza’s.  A heart-shaped pizza.  Yup.  Bonkers.

There was more actually, but I guess I forgot to take a picture of it.  I made the mock version of Starbuck’s Cranberry Bliss Bars and dyed the frosting pink and used a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut them out.  More love and pink and deliciousness for dinner!

This is the buffet in our dining room.  Look at all those Valentines!  Some came in the mail, some are from the kids, some from my husband, some too him.  He bought me roses and M & M’s, well and meat. (smile)  I gave him season 1 of Duck Dynasty. We were told it would bring more laughter into our marriage.  (smile)  Sounds good to me!

It was such a fun day!  I didn’t mean for it to be so “much.”  But it wasn’t stressful or anything, it just worked out.  It was gorgeous outside and cozy and sweet inside.

I hope you had a day filled with love and smiles too!

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:18

The Battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy

Thrifty Finds

Even though garage sale season is in hibernation, I still frequent my favorite thrift shops.  And since going the way of a budget it’s been even more fun finding good deals. 

I can’t take the credit for this find, Strawberry found it, but I did pay for it.  It’s a Longaberger Christmas Mug, nice quality like my Polish Pottery.  .99  LOVE IT!

      

I found this cast iron plate holder at Goodwill for $1.99, I was hoping I could use it to hold my cast iron pan.  It worked perfectly!  I have more pans to hang so I’m going to keep my eyes open for more of these plate holders.

This just made me smile.  $1.99  It’s a nice conversation starter as well. 

Another rooster for my collection.  This one is made of wood, I like the height it adds to my display.  Here’s a shot of the whole scene.

I’ve also been gathering up a nice supply of jeans for my 5 year old.  He’s been blowing through the ones I found at garage sales over the summer.  I’ve been able to get his jeans between $1.50 and $3.00 each.  That makes me happy and fits nicely into our budget.

Have you been thriting lately?  Find any treasures?

The battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy

December 2012

December was a full month, and even though there were emotionally exhausting times, when I look back over the photos on my phone I can see moments of joy too.  I like to focus on the joy.  Here’s a run down of December.

     

Chocolate Taffy got his wisdom teeth out. This might have actually been the end of November.

We got to go to a Christmas Orchestra Performance. (yeah we got there early…what can I say?)

Breakfast at Panera.

Marshmallow got her very own name plaque.  I took my time getting this, I was just procrastinating to find the perfect scripture.

    

We had the tummy flu…over Christmas.  Sad.

Blue-Raspberry turned 10!!  The ice-cream cake that I made melted in our subzero garage, I still can’t figure out how that happened.  Thankfully there is a Dairy Queen very close by!  Happy birthday son!

I got a new hat for Christmas.  Strawberry and I wore our BRIGHTEST hats to the Children’s Museum and EVERYBODY was starting at us.  lol

     

  

We ended the month with a visit to the Children’s Museum.  A happy day that ended with more sadness as our oldest son is going through a really hard time.

The good thing about hard times is that it makes us rely so much more on the Lord.  I can’t do this alone.  I can’t carry the weight of a rebellious child and a struggling relationship.  Thankfully I don’t have too.  This is my faith.  God is in control.  Ultimately it is His fight.  He loves my son even more than I do.  Focus on the joy.

The battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy