welcome....

i am trying to understand

how to walk this weary land

make straight the paths that crookedly lie

oh Lord, before these feet of mine

oh Lord, before these feet of mine

the last 2...

i've been in a state testing blur the last 2 months...

while i enjoyed being out of the house and working at the charter school my daughter is schooled through...i'm glad to be back to my stay at home mama / housewife status. 

i found it pretty difficult to keep house, care for the bunnies (have i blogged about those yet?) school cadence, and work full time. but we made it through and today, my first day back as captain mama, has been spent deep cleaning, doing tons of laundry, making kale chips, cleaning the kitchen, making homemade pizza rolls, and going through old mail/papers... or in others words.... making up for everything i lacked while working :)

i shall not stop till everything smells like pine-sol. haha!

but i will be back as i have a bunch of exciting (or exciting to me) stuff to post about. :)

time for learning review....

did 30 days fly by already?! i've been sort of dragging my feet with writing the review. i feel as though i just did not have enough time to truly experience it all . 

when my sister mentioned to me that time for learning was doing this free trail in exchange for review i was super excited as i had heard from a few others that their children loved it and it helped them excel. 

the first day of our trail i was overwhelmed trying to navigate through this new to me program  but i did not let it get me down, as i still had those awesome reviews swirling around my brain. after getting the over all gist of the program i got cadence hooked up to it, picture if you will, an over excited mom with her eyes bugging out over the child's shoulders just waiting for her to love it..... 

after a few clicks and her logging herself in she was off, but it did not take long for her to get frustrated with it and shoot over to me the poor puppy dog eyes asking if she really had to do this. me thinking maybe she just didn't understand the directions i started to explain what she needed to do. then out came the *sigh* followed by "i know mama, it told me the directions at least 105 times, it wont just hush up and let me work!"

...blink blink...

i tried to reassure her to hang in there and maybe as time went on the program would explain the directions less and less. but as time went on the more upset she got with it all. the directions never eased up and the repetitiveness to them really set her up for a sore learning time. i started her out slowly, since her attitude to the program was already not good.... but by day 3 we had full blown feet dragging all the way to the computer chair. even with me allowing her to play in the playground area (playground area = games) 

i was a bit shocked at her true dislike for the program and a bit confused as i've never had this type of reaction to starfall. to be completely fair to time for learning we did started this trail right when i started working doing state testing at the charter school cadence is schooled through. so her reaction could have been a bit of mixed emotions... tired from being woke up so early every morning to go spent the day with grandma or auntie while i spent 9 hours sometimes more a day away from home. she's not use to getting little sleep and not having me home with her. so while cadence did not enjoy or show any improvements with the program i'd be willing to try it again to get a better experience with it.  we are wrapping up the state testing and starting may 3rd i'll once again be a full time stay at home mama and we'll give time for learning  another try, this time paying for a month. after that i'll make my full assessment and write another review. 

time for learning

Free trail! I'm super excited about this!! 

*I've been invited to try Time4Learning's online education program in exchange for an honest review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so come back and read about my experience! For more information, try their lesson demos or find out how to write your own curriculum review.

*Over the next 30 days, I will be reviewing Time4Learning's online education program. It can be used as a homeschool curriculum, an afterschool tutorial or for summer learning. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. You can write your own curriculum review, too!

*Time4Learning has invited me to try their online curriculum for 30 days in exchange for an honest review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so come back and read about my experiences. Visit them for information about lesson plans, homeschool portfolios or writing your own curriculum review.

updated:

***I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning can be used as a homeschool curriculum, for afterschool enrichment and for summer skill sharpening. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.

As always, please feel free to contact us anytime at reviews@time4learning.com.****

please check back in 30days to see my review. i've heard very good things about this program! 

wonky weather

i have the spring itch.

i'm so ready to get soil under my nails. and get a beautiful lush garden planted.

but the weather is not ready for that..

it keeps playing tricks on me,

 bright sunny days, to snow, to rain, to sunny, and all over again.

cadence helped get some of the weeds and old stocks pulled from the garden area, but planting outside will have to wait.

(old sunflower)

so to hold us over we decided to start planting a bit inside.

this is part of our townhouse garden :)

(cadence's valentines day gift)

(hello, awesome. tater pot!)

it's so exciting when things start sprouting!

also in the picture are my green onions.

i heard about this trick through pintertest, and it is amazing!

you can regrow green onions all year round and let me tell you these little buggers grow fast! 

 to regrow green onions simply submerge the white ends in a glass of water and place them in a sunny window. you'll need to watch the water level and about once a week i dump out the old water and add new. 

too bad we can't do this with all our veggies!

we'll see how gardening in oregon turns out. (hopefully better then CA)

and between my sister and i we are taking on a huge garden!

excited! 

on the road again...

california\oregon

once a month i travel to california to take cadence to see her dad 

here's a few things i've learned over these trips

1. ziplock bags are always handy to keep in the car:

because paper bags do not hold throw up well. : x 

2. glow sticks are a kids best friend on night drives:

at least 80% of our trip home is in the dark and it can make cadence go batty, but having the glow sticks gives her just enough light to play but not enough to bother me.

3. i have discovered i have night blindness:

yep, it pretty much sucks! i have a hard time seeing anything when lights are coming towards me. i have to really focus and keep my eyes on the white line to my right.. it's so draining and nerve racking! if you throw rain or snow in the mix you can bet i'm gripping the wheel so tight my knuckles hurt.

4. movies:

yep, i'm one of those moms! especially on the trip home. it's emotional and i'm sure a bit stressful on cadence so i'm ok with letting her check out and just veg.

5. headphones make the movies even better :) :

while i'm ok with the vegging out on long car rides i don't like "hearing" movies over and over, so headphones are awesome and keep cadence's movies in the back seat with her.

6. remember to pack a wide variety of medicine:
upset tummies, leg cramps, car sick, headache...etc.

7. bathroom:
always have her at least try, even when she says "i dont have to" because 5 miles down the road she will have to, and have to right NOW!

8. books on tape:
enough said.

9. bring a wide variety of snacks:
that why we are not stuck buying a bunch of junk at truck stops (although a perk of being a trucker family we do tend to get some of those junk snacks for free)

10. i spy/animal & vegetable:
just play the games with her. it keeps her happy and you awake. even if she answers half the questions wrong.

the new year

well, i think it's time to bring back my little space on the net. 

it's been about 4 months since i've posted.

mountains came be moved in 4 months, ya know.

we have settled well into our new state, and have finally gotten a home of our very own.

it's hard to put in words just how the Lord has been blessing our lives, but He is doing great things. In our lives and inside of us as well. 

the 9 months that we have been in oregon i have seen more fruit from the Lord in my personal life then i ever have in all of my 28 years.

now i'm not saying moving to oregon has fixed all my problems, but i think once i got out of the cloud i allowed myself to be in for years i was able to actually develop a true relationship with Jesus. i was able to actually see the errors in which i was allowing myself to live. i was able to see that i had been negotiating the truth. 

i feel like a completely different person! 

and i've started the year off with a new years resolution like i never have before:

dig deep into what is not negotiable in God's eyes and hold to that standard. as i look back through out my 28 years i notice just how much trouble i got myself into because i let myself fall into negotiating with His truth. the Bible is not negotiable and what better way to prepare myself then studying it everyday.

i'm  very excited to to be reading through the Bible in a year. i've never done this before, i've never even had the desire to read the entire Bible before now!

(for anyone interested check out youversion.com i'm doing the ESV study

 http://m.youversion.com/reading-plans/esv-study-bible)

excited to see all the great things to come in this new year. 

so very thankful