Wordless Wednesday- Family Pictures

Posted on November 16, 2016 by Sheila

I wanted to share some of our pictures.

The whole gang….

Now some for the kids…the ladder is my FAVORITE!

Everyone loved the Tire swing..

Finally happy middle school girls…

School Update

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Sheila

Zach is currently in first grade. I attended his teacher conference last night and left frustrated beyond belief. Zach is doing extremely well and is well behaved. His teacher was unable to answer a question with either a yes or no. I was also surprise and frustrated to see common core standards in action. Let me start by saying that true and false questions should not be allowed in Math until college. Next if you are going to give examples in questions that can be answered true or false make sure the information itself is correct. Zach needs to learn the spell of 15 sight words and work on punctuation. Matt and I had talked and decided that we should leave Kendall and Zach at their current school until middle school but after this teacher conference I am definitely keeping our options open.

Kendall is in third grade and has an awesome teacher this year. She received all A’s on her report card. Currently, she is working hard on learning multiplication tables. Kendall is an avid reader and can finish a book in less than an hour.

Lily is continuing in the North Carolina K-12 charter school. I am very impressed and pleased with her progress so far. She has been placed in advanced classes and is enjoying a little bit more challenge. I am still uncertain at how she can progress at a faster pace but for the time beginning she is excited and enjoying learning. We have discovered one area that she needs to spend a extra time in, Grammar. Lily has a B in this area so she plans to attend an optional class this quarter to help improve not only her grade but more importantly her understanding of grammar.

Wordless Wednesday-Family Pictures

Posted on November 8, 2016 by Sheila

We had family pictures made on Sunday. I am sure I will be posting more as we get them for here is a sneak peek. The other pictures the kids took while getting dressed!

Happy Halloween 2016

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Sheila

Celebrity Chefs

Trunk or Treat fun at Church

Five Things Friday-10/28/2016

Posted on October 28, 2016 by Sheila

This week has been a really hard week for me. I am think that the stress of the last several months in addition to our crazy busy schedule caught up with me. I have been struggling to just keep my head above water and even lost it several times this week. However, I do see light at the end of the tunnel and God continues to provide blessing big and small on a regular basis. I have decide that I am going to stop “trying to catch up” and enjoy the moment. What this did mean for me was that I shredded all the receipts on my desk that I want to write about. This weekend is not full and should give us all some time to slow down and catch up.
Lily is loving charter school. Even on the days that regular school is out. I am continuing to see progress and hear her working to finish assignments. This is officially the end of the first quarter and I am 100% confident that we made the right decision with NC K-12.
Zach’s last baseball game was Monday of this week. He LOVES baseball which is a huge surprise to me. He is already talking about the spring. He is also growing and will need new cleats and a new uniform. I hope he continue to try different sports, but if baseball is what he loves than guess we will spend more time on the baseball field.
The three little kids all had Dentist appointments on Thursday. We are excited that no one had any cavities. But the even better news is that it was discovered that Kendall had several wires that were continuing to rub against her cheek. She thought this was normal and therefore had not complained. Our orthodontist office was closed and will be closed to Monday morning but the dentist cut the wires. Kendall already is acting much happier and is back to eating regular food.\
The weather here is strange but enjoyable. We were able to turn off the air in mid September and are still not using the heat. Our electric bill for Oct is below $200 and I am hopeful for an even lower bill in November. The other benefit to the weather is that we are still harvesting a few tomatoes and peppers. In fact this is by far the best harvest of pepper that we have ever had. I am so excited to be able to flash freeze and may be able to use for the entire winter! Our first frost is still at least 2 weeks away according to the weather, so I am watering and growing!

Wordless Wednesday

Posted on October 26, 2016 by Sheila

Lily went on a Middle School Beach Retreat last weekend….

Zach had his last baseball game on Monday…

: on 2nd base

Wordless Tuesday- Sweet Potatoes

Posted on October 18, 2016 by Sheila

We still don’t have our first frost in the forecast but at least one of the sweet potato vines has started turning brown. We decided it would be best to go ahead and dig up the potatoes while they are still healthy. This is always fun!

We feed the vines to our neighbor’s goats and bull.

The potatoes were HUGE! Now to enjoy the fruits of our labor! The best part is these potatoes were completely free because I started from potatoes from last year!

5 Things Friday 10-14/2016

Posted on October 14, 2016 by Sheila

This week was suppose to be a slower week but my work had an quick sudden unexpected increase and so it has turned into a long long busy week.
Kendall’s brace are bothering her. I am sure it is not to the extend of some of the folks I have talked to. She is not a complainer in fact she will often say that her mouth is not hurting but takes every suggestion to heart and tries to make it feel better. I am hopeful that by the end of the weekend she will be back to normal. I am also a bit concerned because today, her face appears to be swollen.
My goal for this weekend is to get the sheets all washed and bed smelling wonderful followed by getting all three of the kids rooms really clean.
The weather continues to be on the mild side so we are harvesting a few tomato and peppers still. We are planning to wait until the first frost to harvest sweet potatoes the longest growing period but it is very tempting to want to grab some now.
Lily is learning to cook, this week she made dinner on Thursday night which was a turkey pot pie. She needs a lot of supervision for the chopping but it turned out wonderful.

Thursday Thoughts with Pictures

Posted on October 13, 2016 by Sheila

Kendall received her first set of braces today. Based on her mouth and the way her teeth are coming in way early, this is the best options. She will be wearing this set for 9-12 months and then a second set will go on in high school when all her permanent are in place. She chose blue for her color today. Kendall is excited to change colors several times! We are seeing an orthodontist in High Point, he is very informative and goes out of his way to explain and make everyone comfortable with this process. The office staff was also very willing to work with us on payment. My insurance should cover approximately half the cost of these braces. I made a down payment today and they will wait until January for my remaining portion so that we can use our med flex for next year.

This is Lily completing her science lesson today. She is actually listening to a lecture at the same time. Nothing like multitasking at a young age.

I really was in the mood for Chinese food today. After Kendall’s braces, Matt had a couple of meetings for work so we decided to meet for lunch. This was Matt’s fortune, we needed a reminder that God’s is in control and this is what we are supposed to be doing.