In Which I Have a Pain in the Neck

Well, actually make that two pains. I will tell you about each one.

1. An ACTUAL pain in my neck. 

Remember I had that horrible headache on Christmas day? well, it was Jan. 2 before I could get myself to my atlas chiropractor. She's so wonderful. I knew my atlas was out of place and I was right. It took 2 trips to get it back in place but my head hasn't hurt since. Headaches are so awful and they can truly be debilitating. I don't know how people live with them. I'm a little worried each time my neck hurts or I start to have a headache but I know there are other reasons for headaches and neck aches. It's not always going to be my atlas. I wouldn't even mind going to the chiropractor that much, but it's pretty far from our house. After having that much pain, I am very thankful to be pain free!

2. Cooking. And planning what to cook. And buying the food to cook. And cleaning up from the food we cooked. And doing it all again in a few hours.

So, some changes at husband's work resulted in some insurance changes, which resulted in us having to pay out of pocket for medicine this year. My husband has Type 2 Diabetes, which means his meds would cost us about $1,300 a month. Clearly, that's not do-able. So ever since New Year's Eve, we have been working on getting him off of some of his meds. 

The way I decided to do this was with Trim Healthy Mama. I know the plan. I know it works (I lost a lot of weight about 3-4 years ago BEFORE my dad died and BEFORE we found out our second-born daughter had food allergies. After that, I concentrated on learning to cook for her allergies and gained a lot back. Sigh) So we started THM and he is already off of his short-acting insulin! We are so happy about that! However, if the cost is not monetary, the cost is time. 

I am fixing THM breakfast and supper each day for him as well as planning and packing snacks and lunch. That's everything he eats, seven days a week. It's a LOT. Big deal you say? Perhaps you do that already. But there is never a time he can just grab some to-go food to give a break or just buy something at the convenience store when he's hungry. There is not a time for me to sleep in, either. This morning he did fix his own scrambled eggs and I got to sleep until just after 7. It was heavenly. 

It affects our lives greatly is what I'm saying. We have to go to bed earlier so we can get up earlier so we can do all the food things. 

The good news is that in comparison to all this meal stuff, homeschool is a breeze! We had our second day back today and its going fine. More on that later. 

I'm going to read a little now before I start cooking the next meal. 

P.S. I'm so busy I don't even post pictures on here! If you want to see what's going on with Project: Family, follow me on Instagram! 

Signing off, 

Labor Day Reset

August is always so busy.

Back to school.

Daughter's birthday.

Wrapping up summer.

I'm thankful that it's Labor Day weekend now. Thankful that husband will have a day off.

We need a re-set around here. Some housework, some planning, some rest...

Hope you all have a very restful Labor Day weekend too!

NOT Back to School

I loved seeing all my friend's pictures yesterday on Facebook of their children all shiny and dressed and ready for school. I love first day of school pictures. My favorite might have been Steve's cousin, who snapped a blurry picture of her 10th grade son riding his bike to school from about 2 houses away. There. She remembered.

Of course, we took our first day of school pictures 2 1/2 weeks ago so the excitement was over for us. I was actually kind of glad. We've already settled into routine a bit and I'm glad we have that many days under our belt.

I realize not every area of the country has gone back to school, but where we live the major districts have all started. And this, my friends, is when the homeschoolers REALLY celebrate!

We love you, public schoolers and private schoolers......but we are profoundly thankful when you start back. Now we have our parks back. Our museums. Our libraries. Our beaches.

Our homeschool group is meeting at the beach this morning for our NOT Back to School Bash. We picked this day on purpose because--no crowds. Summer is exhausting for those of us who are used to having play places to ourselves. I'm sure the preschool moms understand. I bet they are all flocking to Chick-fil-a this week.

But what the Not Back to School Bash is really about, is celebrating the fact that we don't have to send our kids back to school. See, most homeschool moms I know truly WANT to be with their children. They like them. And they like homeschooling. And they like the lifestyle and freedom of it. Many of us have done public school at some point and we're thankful to have our children home with us now. Thankful to not have to worry about being late all the time. Glad to not have so much homework to deal with. Happy to be in charge of our children's education.

So today we celebrate by not getting much school done at all. Makes sense, huh?

Don't worry. We'll be back at it tomorrow--in our dining rooms, our homeschool rooms, our cars, on the couch, on the trampoline in the backyard. There will be math, and reading, and history, and extra things to run to like lessons and sports. Homeschoolers do all that stuff too. We're crazy and run around a lot.

Just not today. Today we celebrate with sand in our cars.

Signing off,

Gearing Up for a New Year

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The beginning of our 12th year of homeschooling is next week. I've been working hard this week trying to get ready. In the past, we've had a homeschool room. We've had several, actually. But with the birth of our youngest daughter 6 years ago, we kind of filled up all our bedrooms to max capacity.

Our homeschool room circa 2011. Now used full-time as a bedroom. 

Another homeschool room we've had over the years. 

 And so, when we re-did our house last year, the dining room because the homeschool room. Again. That's where we started 12 years ago. But THIS time, instead of cheap plastic baskets holding all our school stuff, we got this great used china cabinet.

Isn't it great? It holds everything. Well, mostly.

Sadly, all our actual china is packed up in boxes for the time being. So we can't, you know, get it out and use parts of it twice a year anymore. Everything we currently use for homeschool fits in this cabinet. We have other homeschool books and materials that we aren't using this year stored in a closet. And at the end of the day, we can shut the doors and make our dining room look mostly like a dining room. 

So right now I'm just going through all the curriculum and making a list of school supplies we need to get and any additional materials I need to order or buy. I got our 14 year old's shelf all done. 

Also, I'm planning our first day of school. Do you have special traditions you do each year on the first day? I try to make it special. Some of our traditions are:

1. Special breakfast.

Pancakes a few years ago.

Ask me about the year I didn't have the ingredients I needed for pancakes. 

 They were happy. And I acted like it was all part of the plan! 

2. A treat at their desk. 

Usually I try to get them something they needed anyway. Somehow we moved from stickers and a special pencil the first year, to actual gifts! Who did that nonsense? So Mama had to scale that back a bit. 

This year they are getting Scrunch Maps, which they will need for school. 

3. Back-to-school pictures with the number (or letter) of their grade. 

It started out by seeing a blogger who just had her kids hold up the number of fingers for their grade. Simple. Only, my youngest at the time was starting Kindergarten. Hmm.....so I cut out what they needed and we've done it that way ever since! 

4. Whatever else my crazy head thinks up!

Honestly I have trouble keeping it simple. I love to celebrate and make the first day of school special! Little snacks and treat bag ideas off of Pinterest, First Day of School banners to take pictures by, whatever strikes my fancy. I think it makes good memories for the girls. 

This year's theme is "Looking Forward to a Fantastic Year". You'll have to see what we do with that one next week! 

Signing off,