Summer’s Close

Summer is wrapping up for us and with the end of summer came the end of our summer reading challenge.  I wasn’t as organized as I usually am about this year’s reading challenge.  I think I was being a little lazy actually and the library changed their program into something ridiculous so that sort of took the wind out my sails too. Thankfully I managed to think of something and it worked to get my kids reading this summer.  I bought them Sonlight’s summer readers.   Strawberry and Chocolate shared a pack, Bubble Gum and Blue-Raspberry got their own.  It worked out really well.  Sonlight packaged them up so nice, it was like they each got a present!

Anyway, the challenge was to get the books read before the end of July and in return I would take them to Nelson’s and buy them an ice-cream cone!  They all finished the challenge earlier then the date I set, so off we went! 

        

It was a magnificent day!  Warm, bright, not muggy!

         

I was a good girl, I didn’t have any ice-cream.  I was too busy wiping up spills and dolling out the wet wipes! 

Afterward, we decided to surprise the little people by taking them to the most adorable park ever created:  Teddy Bear Park.

I love it that my teens will still be in family photos, and go to the park with us.  lol

   

Isn’t that cool?  The whole park is like a squishy Astroturf, it’s really fun to walk on.

We ended our adventure at the Stillwater Farmer’s Market, which was quaint and delightful.  My husband spoke my love language and paid the big bucks for a gallon of pure maple syrup!  I am one blessed woman!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Weekly Wrap-Up #??

It’s been so long since I’ve written one of these that I can’t even figure out what number I’m on.  Well, we are almost done with our 2012/2013 year and that’s all that REALLY matters!

We’ve been doing some interesting things this week…

I put our normal stuff on hold because I found this hidden on my laptop.  My oldest daughter is still VERY much interested in all-things-Irish, so finding this was fun.  Now her little sibs will have something interesting to tell her.

           

Their copy work has been a famous prayer written by St. Patrick and when they finished the tracing and copying portion, I had them highlight all the prepositions, because there were MANY! 

We’ve started our Sonlight History.  I’m not really on any schedule so to speak, but I am going in the order they suggest.  So far the kids LOVE it and during the reading time they are finding interesting things to do.

They took the big markable map and matched up the state pieces from another puzzle.  I didn’t instigate this, they just thought it looked like fun.  This map…for some reason, has become the delight of the school room and somebody is always looking at it or playing with it, or if you are Marshmallow Taffy, rolling up in it like a burrito.

Marshmallow was such a good girl this week.  This is the first week she hasn’t drove me crazy…she was actually content and quiet.  We discovered she can handle dot painting and she LOVED it!  She also discovered she can maneuver the plasma car with great pizazz!

Strawberry Taffy has had a very special week.  My sweet daughter was blessed with a trip to Florida, to see her very best friend. 

Her friend is a snow bird, so she’s only here in the summer and fall.  We don’t normally, or haven’t in the passed let her, or any of our other children do something like this.  When questioned about it by a friend, this is what I said,

I know…it just sort of happened.  I’m so beyond arguing about anything and so desperate to let my children know how much I love them.  Mr. Taffy and I both had peace about it.  Strawberry and Gracie have such a special relationship, it may be a once in a life time opportunity for her.  Gracie’s Dad flew down with her and is flying back up with her too.  I don’t think we would have been okay with it had she been all alone at the airports.  I’m so glad she’s getting a break and having some fun.  She is tireless in her help to me, always cheerful, willing to do anything I ask.  She works so hard at school.  She deserved a GREAT reward.  We even gave her spending money and I bought her some new (Goodwill) clothes too.  We lavished her.  She will not forget this.  She called me Monday night in tears…she NEVER cries.  She’s just not a crier like me…but wow was she having a hard time being away.  She was SO embarrassed to be crying.  She was just homesick.  So sweet.

Obviously I changed some names, but that is what I wrote, and this still pretty much sums up how I feel about it.  She comes home Friday evening.  We can’t wait!  I’ve missed her terribly. She keeps me company during the day.  We are both introverts so we know how to give each other space, but we also know how to be silly and yak, yak, yak and she makes me the BEST smoothies EVERY afternoon!

While she’s been gone we had an epic snowstorm!

School was cancelled for the older two and Mr. Taffy stayed home! Of course, our homeschool went on as usual but they got plenty of time to play out in that delightful white fluff!

I think we got at least a foot of snow.  And, believe it or not, we had our bedroom window open all night during the storm, it was pretty mild out and I KNOW I could smell spring on that back of that storm.  I can still smell it if I breathe deep enough.

Breathing Deeply,

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

Budgeting

Do you have a budget?  A few times through our almost 20 years of marriage we’ve had a budget.  We could never do anything like Larry Burket or Dave Ramsey because we just didn’t even make enough money to do it.  We had various financial trials throughout our marriage too, but I look back on the times of budgeting as a blessing.  Sometimes my husband was paid on commission, or monthly or weekly, it seems our finances are always changing, unpredictable.  Those times were hard to make a budget for as well.

My husband has turned in his resignation at his permanent position at a Bank here in the Twin Cities.  He had a VP title, health insurance, 5 weeks of paid vacation.  But at the end of the day he was miserable.  The commute is awful.  The environment…I’ve never worked in an office environment but the times I’ve gone to his work, I can’t believe how quiet and dull it is.  I would be asleep in 5 minutes! The hours were long, the work thankless. He was offered at contracted position at another bank in the Twin Cities, one closer to home, one with set hours and an hourly wage, no more health insurance but more freedom.  He’s worked there before and got the job without a formal interview.  He’ll be getting paid more money and will be able to work less hours.  With this new job we’ll be getting paid every week.  It’s predictable. So we decided to make a budget.

We went out to breakfast one Saturday morning, took the laptop and a note book, the bills folder and our thinking caps.  It was a wonderfully productive meeting.  The best earthly feeling, in my opinion, is being on the same page as your spouse!  I love to have a unified goal.  Love it!

Our categories look like this:

• Mortgage
• Food
• Bills (Includes: water, trash, cell phones, our Compassion Child, etc.)
• Consumable Household (Includes: toilet paper, napkins, toothbrushes, Goodnights, etc.)
• Non-Consumable Household (Includes: Printer ink, laundry baskets, brooms, photo prints, car keys, rugs, paint, stamps, etc.)
• Auto (Includes: gas, insurance, maintenance)
• Medical (Includes vitamins and Minute Clinic Visits, Dentist appt.)
• Clothes (Broke down per person, per week)
• Education (For homeschool stuff and fees for classes and tests for the teens)
• Savings (This is just a general savings for agreed upon family things.  i.e. Vacations, large car repairs, large medical bills, minor emergencies and Offerings, snow blower, etc.)
• Fun (This includes eating out)

We will also have another savings account that will hold all the money that goes beyond what we’ve allocated into these categories.  It’s complicated how we figured out the base amount, but he should be getting quite a bit more than what we budgeted for, that extra will go into a separate savings account, to be saved for emergencies or when we need a new car or sending Chocolate off to college or whatever, we want this account to keep growing.

Some of the numbers in the different categories are pretty small.  For instance, our clothing category.  It looks like this:

• Mr. Taffy- $25 a month
• Mrs. Taffy –$25 a month
• Banana Taffy- $15 a month
• Chocolate Taffy-$15 a month
• Strawberry Taffy-$10 a month

And down it goes, $10 a month per child.  That’s not much.  Mr. Taffy’s has more because he really needs some new work pants, mine is more so I can get a pretty dress for the boy’s graduation, the boys is more because we want to buy them each a suit for their graduation gift.  Could you spend $10 a month on clothes?  It’s going to be a stretch.  But like I was just telling Strawberry, “If you save all that money until May, you’ll have $50 to spend at garage sales.  You can get a LOT of clothes at garage sales for $50!!”  Some of numbers might be too aggressive.  We may have to re-evaluate in a month or two, but for now we are going to give it our best.  The kids can always use their own money if they want something new too.  They have no lack, trust me. 

Mr. Taffy has a LOT of experience in building data bases so he is working to build us our own to keep track of our purchases.  I’m going to teach Strawberry how to enter our purchases into each category.  I want her to learn how to itemize and organize.  She loves to find coupons and good deals, so this will turn into a nice .5 credit economics/accounting elective for her. 

One thing I’m doing to help me not be tempted to buy extra things is unsubscribing to all the email lists that send me wonderful amazing deals practically everyday!  Hello Gymboree?  Bye bye!  Good riddance!  I’ve given you enough money!  lol  Very Jane.  Sniff sniff…that one will be a little harder. 

It is a challenge living on one-income.  It’s even a bigger challenge when you consider how the price of food is increasing every day and how it looks like our taxes are going to be raised again.  It can be overwhelming.  I’ve been tempted to open a day-care in our home.  But God is in control and we are purposed to be good stewards of what He’s given us.  Mr. Taffy does NOT want me have a day care in our home (me either really), so we will do what we need to do and if that means we don’t get to eat out whenever we want too or if I have to spend more time in the kitchen because I’m cooking all the time, well so be it.  It’s a fair exchange to be home for my family!

What’s the hardest thing about budgeting to you?

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Weekly Wrap-up 16

I didn’t make a collage of all the food I cooked this  week, I didn’t really make anything note worthy.  But I did some special cooking with the children, you’ll see that in a bit.

This week we wrapped up our Thanksgiving Unit.  We had a such a great time, all of us!

They had a lot of fun gluing in the all the lapbooks and decorating the cover.

The Fronts.

The insides!

Along with finishing up their lapbooks we also did lots of reading.  I read them most of the books I got from the library.  One book, An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott, had a recipe in the back.  In a moment of inspiration I suggested we make the recipe.  Wow, you should have heard the squeals of delight!

It was delicious, they did a GREAT job!

My original plan was to let them make soft pretzels as a closing activity for our Thanksgiving study.  Pretzels hold no significance, I just thought it would be fun.  And thankfully it WAS fun!

On the highschool front…

Banana Taffy and Chocolate Taffy got fitted for their graduation cap and gowns this week.  So exciting!

Strawberry was supposed to take the PLAN test this week.  I totally screwed that up.  I had the time down wrong…we were a half hour late, the test already started.  I’m out the money, which is disappointing but not tragic. I’m more frustrated with myself for getting the timing wrong.  I tried so hard to make that happen.  Ah well…can’t do anything about it now. I guess I just have to find another test for her to take.  On a happier note, she is so excited to have 2 weeks off from school.  She was pretty much giddy all day!

Are you taking next week off?  Enjoy the time you’ve dedicated to being Thankful!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Weekly Wrap-up Week 14

I just decided to keep this running theme of showcasing some of the different things we ate this week.  It really does help me in some strange way.  The pictures aren’t brilliant because I just took them with my phone, but I think they look pretty tasty still, even if my tortillas aren’t round, I am getting better at being consistent with their shape though.  (grin)

Okay, on to the children…

Tot School~

     

Coloring and Stamping.  She’s claimed this seat at the little table for her own.  All of Bubble Gum’s papers have little baby scribbles on them, at least it’s peaceful this way!

Watching an intense game of Chess.  She climbed up on the table all by herself and just sat down and watched like she knew what was going on.  It’s amazing watching her transition from being a baby to being an active member of the family, participating in things, expressing her opinion, wanting to be involved, clearly communicating.  She is approaching my favorite age (2) and I find myself delighting in her more every day!

Kindergarten~

A little Cowboy joined us one day…working on his Song School Latin Coloring Pages…

    

Matching up Lowercase and Capital Letters in his pocket chart and showing off his final page of this Linking Cubes book.  He finished it this week and was VERY pleased with himself.  I’ve had this book for years, since Banana Taffy was 4, love it!

2nd & 4th Grade~

     

Blue-Raspberry wrote a poem about the weather in his Write Shop book and illustrated it .  He did such a nice job that we thought it deserved a special piece of paper and his best cursive handwriting.  We made a copy of it and sent it to Grandma Judy.  Surprise Mom! 

Bubble Gum finished level 2 of All about Spelling.  So proud of her!!  We hung her certificate up in the school room so she can feel good about her accomplishment.

Okay, so this was really fun.  Erica provided the skeleton printable, I laminated the different bones and stuck magnets on the back, the kids worked on putting the bones in the correct places.  They really enjoyed this activity. 

Highschool~

This is my daily view of Strawberry Taffy.  She’s such a focused student.  She worked extra hard this week so she could take Friday off.  She’s about to finish her first history book and has finished her first logic book.  I’m giving her a break from both subjects until after Christmas break.  She’ll read the second history book then and start the second half of logic.  She’s taking the Plan test in a couple weeks to get ready for PSEO. She’s also studying to take the Biology CLEP.

She got inspired to make sugar cookies, she was so ambitious that she made a double batch including fall and Christmas cut-outs!  Yay Strawberry!

We had a big week for my high school seniors.  It started out with me making their official transcripts and getting a plan in place for their final semester of high school and their 4th semester of college.

My planning mess…

The all important file box that holds every important piece of paper for their education. 

Here they are, I actually got a picture of them this week.  Here we are waiting for an appointment with a Guidance Counselor at a University that they boys will (if they get accepted) be taking their final semester at.  This is the school that Banana will be able to get his Law Enforcement Degree from and it’s the school that has the science classes that Chocolate needs for his Mechanical Engineering Degree.  I had to take the two littlest ones with me, but they were very good and this was a very proactive and out-of-my-comfort zone thing to do!  lol  I’m experiencing a HUGE learning curve here.  Phew.  Good thing my sons are so patient with me. 

Another big thing week was the meeting regarding graduation.  They have to apply to graduate with the group that hosts their PSEO classes.  We went to a informational meeting and turned in applications.  We’ll find out next week if they get to graduate with their friends.  I hope they do, I’m so excited for them to have this experience!

I could say more, we had a pretty big week, but I have limited space left for photos on blogger, so I’ll stop now. 

Thanking God for the ability to homeschool and be involved in all these little details!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy