My book is FINALLY available to purchase!!! It's been two years since I was contacted by the publisher and now it's finally here.

I feel like a 10,000 pound weight has been lifted off my shoulders. The first person I've let have the tiniest sneak peek of my book loved it. I believe having chills reading one of the entries was mentioned as well. Just the motivation I needed to finishing typing it all up and send to the publisher this weekend. This project has been brutal on me emotionally and spiritually. There's nothing like leaving your heart and soul on pages for everyone to dissect. It's like my own perso...

Ahhh...little Memoria Press gift card how you tempt me to order something I don't really need just to use you.

Spending the day planning our Holiday Homeschool for the month of December and decorating the house for Christmas. My favorite time of year!

My husband is a cleaning machine!!! His day off was yesterday and he went to work on our house. He did all the dishes, minimalized our counter tops (thanks to the Hive thread!), cleaned the kids' bedroom, swept and mopped the kitchen and dining room, and did about 5 loads of laundry. Sexiest thing he's done in a while!!!

I love when announcements like this come over the "intercom": It's officially a Sun Day at Olive Street School (our homeschool name). Kids and teachers are not required to attend classes today due to the beautiful weather. The principal has learned that an arctic air mass is heading into the area tomorrow, so warm, sunny days will be but a distant memory for the next two weeks. Get outside, take some good books to read out loud, and go play. Classes will officially resume tomorrow.

So the doctor called in a bottle of antibiotic that cost $170 for Grace. Yeah, that's not happening. Not sure what to do now. Can I call the doctor's office tomorrow and say, "Apparently you read the last name on her chart wrong. It's not Walton, Hilton, Trump, or Gates. We need poor folk antibiotics."

Tonight Levi was wearing a pair of shorts that were a little too big for him so they kept falling down. I was teasing him and kept saying, "I see a full moon!" He caught on pretty quickly to what I was implying because about an hour later I said, "Levi, is there a full moon coming out under those shorts?" He turned around and looked down at his backside, then looked up at me and said, "Nope. Just a few stars in the sky right now." LOL!

After three months of work, we finally finished the chapter on fractions in Grace's math book. She struggled so much with understanding and manipulating fractions. She made a 76% on the test. She was upset; I was like, "Thank God, we're done with fractions!!!"

So many times as parents we worry about training our children to be polite, sit quiet in worship services, etc. However, I have added another training success to the list. My kids have helped me clean the house to 80's hair band music so many times that all I have to say is "Guitar solo!" and whoever is holding the broom immediately flips it sideways and jams out complete with sliding on their knees across the floor. That is what you call successful parenting.

I made the best hot chocolate today for our afternoon snack! I don't even like hot chocolate usually, but it was like drinking a melted chocolate bar!

Decided to throw in a mini study (7 lessons) of Washington Irving and three of his short stories for my 4th grader. Trying to come up with some good discussion questions and compare/contrast between the three stories when I stumble across an entire lesson plan for Irving and his short stories geared toward 4th graders!!! How did people homeschool before Google searches and the internet?!?

My holiday spirit level is at zero and I still have so much to DO! :(

We're watching our first holiday movie tonight with Frosty the Snowman and kicking off Holiday Homeschool 2013 tomorrow. So much fun, gift-making, and service projects planned for the next two weeks!!!

You know you have too much homeschool curriculum when you can't remember what you've already purchased! Almost made a double buy error.

It's like Whack-A-Mole around here tonight. One kid up, back down. Another one pops up, back down. Two up at once, get both of them back down. Worst part? We're not even getting tickets that we can turn in for candy and really cheap plastic toys!

During our studies of Germany for our homeschool, I've been reading quite a few picture books based on true stories of the German occupation during WWII. It has deeply affected my oldest and her sense of fairness and compassion, reading stories of people that were rounded up and systematically annihilated for no other reason than their religion and heritage. It should still make us sick. It should still make us weep. We should never forget. ~Holocaust Remembrance Day

My "baby" turned three today. We turned his crib into a toddler bed which made me realize that for the first time in 9 years I don't have a new baby to put in the crib. It makes me so sad. I love having a baby in the house. :(

Starting a new requested blog series tonight about cooking for your family. I'll be talking budgets, menu planning, and managing the little ones while trying to cook. I'm super excited!

Planting our first raised bed garden today! We've never tried gardening this way, so I'm hoping it works!

I think my almost three year old is dropping his nap. My afternoon productivity is over.

Today I helped my kids build a balance beam obstacle course in the back yard. My oldest said, "Mom, I'm glad you grew up when there wasn't TV or internet so you know how to do this stuff."

I'm breaking out the laminator tonight. My favorite homeschool chore!

Listening to Coldplay this morning and getting my clean on!

I hate to admit, but my family just discovered Legos, the little Legos that you follow the instructions and build things. My two girls are now addicted and built all afternoon! Thanks Santa for bringing something that nobody knew they wanted!