school

March Family Update {Thoughts From Me}

March 5, 2012 by Dana

Wow, life has been so busy lately! I’m already in my second trimester. My babies have all had birthdays, except my littlest and hers is next month. I’ve got reviews to do out my wazoo. But you know what. It is all worth it to me.

In the past there were days when I had nothing to do. The kids and I would both end up bored wishing for somewhere to go. Now we have a guarantee that every Tuesday we will have therapy for both girls. They really enjoy that time. And usually right after we go by our library to find fun books to read for the week. Sometimes we go every two weeks just because we can’t manage to read them fast enough!!

And weekends that aren’t raining bring loads of outdoor fun, like our recent zoo trip and our upcoming beach visit. Weekends that are raining bring spring cleaning and house organization that is much needed too!! Though I must admit that is everyone’s least favorite part of the week.

In school, we are learning about America’s beginnings, particularly in relation to Georgetown where we now live. There is so much history to be found here. It’s really a never-ending school day with all the lessons we can find in this area.

We also have two desktop computers now for Winston and Emmalee to do schoolwork and have a little fun too. One for girls, one for boys. It will be nice to have them get on with only a little arguing! Plus they can both work on school programs at the same time. Bonus for me!!

I have some upcoming reviews and giveaways. A few movies and books. I’m really behind in reading and reviewing them though. Pregnancy has left me tired and nauseous, not wanting to do a lot of anything. But I’m trying to do my best to stay on top of everything I need to do!

My little bean is now 13 weeks. Second trimester! I’m so thrilled. I feel the baby kick, though no one else can. Usually late at night. Nausea is getting a tiny bit better but some days are much worse than others. I’m still working on choosing a name and figure that will come after we find out if it’s a boy or girl – at the end of the month or sometime in April. Right now we are just all excited to be expecting another sweet angel to add to our beautiful family.

I have a few things I’ve been wanting to write about but nothing I have managed to get written here. I just have too much keeping me busy. Hopefully, I can get them out soon though. I know I’m being directed to.

So that’s pretty much it. This is our busy, hectic life right now. The kids and I are trudging along somewhat happily and very much enjoying the breaks when we get them – like today where we are just lounging around.

Hope you are all finding the busy-ness of life worth the journey as we are!

Fall Makeover {Homeschooling}

August 25, 2011 by Dana

You probably noticed that Luv’N Lambert Life has gotten a fall makeover. I’m pretty proud of it. I created the header myself, matched colors and fonts, and picked out a blogger background of leaves. I think it looks great and it really wasn’t hard to put together on my own. So the blog is officially ready for fall!

My week has been spent cleaning out my house. My Mom has revamped the kids rooms (I’m so thankful!) and I have worked on the living room and other areas of my home. I still have much to do but it’s so much easier with her help.

Today I sorted and matched socks. I didn’t count them but between five people I’m sure there were well over a hundred pair. I matched an appropriate amount and I tossed all the rest. Three Walmart bags FULL of socks went into my trash! I’m soooo thrilled to be relieved of those things. And I sorted them all while watching Gone With The Wind, the movie my Mother was named for.

We did a ton of other stuff today but the socks topped my Whoo-hoo list! I can hardly wait to see what I manage to clean out tomorrow. I feel a fall clean coming on!

Speaking of fall, September 1st is right around the corner. The first day of hunting season means lots of deer meat and filling the freezer!

Speaking of filling the freezer, I’ve had to clear it out so that can happen – just in case. I’ve been planning meals around the meats that are currently stocked in the freezer, making room for my favorite meat: venison, or deer. We absolutely love it at our house.

Fall means lots of time to do school. It’s the perfect way to stay busy. Plus cooler temperatures allow us to do more outdoor activities for school and offer the perfect opportunity to observe nature as it changes. It’s the time of year we most love!

I’m hoping to have curriculum plans complete and in order soon so that we can begin formal schoolwork. This will allow time to work through until Christmas, taking a few days off for the holiday and Winston’s birthday. I’m partially there.

So that’s what we are up to right now. Everyday we are Luv’N Lambert Life a little bit more!

A Quick Update: July 11, 2011 {Thoughts from Me}

July 12, 2011 by Dana

I know I haven’t been posting a lot lately but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing. I think I have a half dozen or more posts just waiting to be finished. I manage to get half-way through before becoming unable to finish because of children needing me or writers block on how to end the post and idea.

There is so much that I want to write about and say that it sometimes becomes a jumbled mess. I am wondering if becoming a public reviewer was a good idea for me after all and I find it affects a lot of my thinking. I know I’m going to love it in the end but I want to write things that my readers enjoy and get something from. I don’t always feel I do a good job of that. My decision to review publicly has left me thinking a lot about that. I will say that I, like all new reviewers, am anxious to get started and I am thankful for the opportunity to share my opinion with others on what I use and read. I just pray my readers are able to get something from my reviews, to walk away wanting to try that product and find my opinions useful to their final decisions.

There are a LOT of life changes coming our way that I cannot talk about right now but they will majorly affect how we live now, how we go through our days and weeks. One of them is reviewing materials. Another is anxiously awaited and exciting our whole family. One is changing how we learn, grow and share with each other.

The kids have started using their newest bible addition and are really enjoying that time during our day, though they don’t always want to listen – typical them. Laycie is LOVING doing “kool” herself. She wants to learn numbers and say sounds. She does NOT want to learn letters and say numbers. She is so sweet and has a mind totally of her own.

Winston is going back to 100 Easy Lessons and enjoying it this time. I used it years ago and it did nothing for him but now he’s really liking it a lot and is flying through the lessons pretty quickly. My plan is to let him get at least 1/4 of the way through the book, then start him on the Funnix program again (which coincides with 100 Easy Lessons) for “extra” practice in reading. He already has much of the needed concepts, he just struggles with his secureness in them. I’m hoping working through this program will give him the confidence he needs to take off in his reading.

He and Emmalee will both continue using Pathway Readers as their reading curriculum this year. Emmalee is secure enough in reading that she will fly through it. I’m hoping with the 100 Easy Lessons/Funnix instruction Winston will follow right along with her.

They are both helping to instruct baby sister in her daily lessons, teaching her the Alphabet and it’s sounds as well as counting, adding and subtracting. She absolutely loves the attention from them and it is helping them to become stronger in their own skills. Its a beautiful thing to watch your children learn and teach one another!

There is much to come for us. For now though, we must remain patient and let God continue his work in our life. Soon I will finish those half-written posts. Soon there will be many reviews coming from me from various places. For now though, we are just enjoying our Lambert Life.

An Ouchie and a Wait

August 26, 2010 by Dana

I haven’t been writing much later because I sprained (or jammed) my middle finger on my dominate hand. It’s healing fairly quickly but it has been a lot of pain!

Currently, I’m sitting in my room waiting for our storage building to arrive (Finally and Thankfully!). It will be nice to have a place to store all the extra clutter consuming our home, to be able to turn it into a normal house again.

Waiting on something to arrive often leaves much time to think and that’s what I’ve been doing today. I’ve been thinking about the past, present and the future.

I was looking at photos on one of my slideshows a few minutes ago, looking and noticing HOW much my children have grown, how much they have changed in the past 6 months. My baby girl has gone from a sweet cherub faced 1 yr old to a strong-willed, intellegent 2 yr old. My oldest daughter has gone from a whiny brat (for lack of a better word! LOL) to a loving, caring, artistic, sweet girl. My son has gone from a needy, unsure boy to a strong, take-charge, though still a little unsure, young man. My world is changing daily for the better and I could NOT ask for more.

This year we will begin our first year of truly structured homeschooling. We worked on this last year but not to the extent I have planned for them this year. Previous years we have ho-humed, flitted along, barely learning but enjoying being a family and allowing them to enjoy being children. This year our goals we are to learn to become structured, learn to balance our daily lives, repair our reading inadaquacies, work our way up to level in both reading and math, but enjoy ourselves along the way. I think we can do this (as the little train says!). I look forward to doing this, to enjoying this road we are traveling on and to loving my children and teaching them to love life and learning too. NOTHING is better than that and I could not ask for more. I’m thankful for these blessings God has given to me, thankful to Him for leading us to homeschooling and thankful for the impact this choice has made in my life and the lives of my beautiful children.

Now, time to get busy getting ready for school and for my soon-to-be-here storage building!