Boy am I slacking!

I had planned to try and post at least 1-2 x a week, just to update things and let anyone who reads know how we're doing. Ha! Hasn't happened!
I've been trying to post at my other blog, as often as I remember to. That's gone a little better.

Right now I have a LOT of things going.
1) Trying to start saving for the eventuality of buying our own house. We have at least 2, maybe 3 years, to get this done. We've figured that we'll need a minimum (with fees, closing, and down payment) of $10,000. And with the way our luck is, it will take at least that long to save lol.

2) We are currently homeschooling 4 kids (or rather I am), 3 of which need extra academic help in reading and spelling areas. Fun! Always an adventure. Gabe is the hard one, with him functioning at such a low level, he has a hard time keeping his attention on things for long. So, I'm doing things in 5-15 minute spurts throughout the day.

3) I keep de-cluttering on weekends. And I do mean every weekend! Today was toys, and I have 2-30 gallon trash bags full to go to goodwill. Next weekend is clothes (again, we did this a few weeks ago, and I found more stuff when I was doing laundry that needs to go), and maybe books/papers.

4) We are doing "Life Skills" with the kids. This consists of them learning about the many different jobs that are included in running the household, looking for work(though too young for a job yet), and cooking. Right now, the kids (besides Gabe) take turns helping with dinner, and doing dishes and some of the chores in the house(ie pick up bathroom and bedrooms, or vacuum, learning to do laundry, etc.). Mike and I still do a majority of the stuff around here, but the kids get chores to do every week, and that's how they earn money, toys, games, etc.

5) Mike is working full time still at Tyson, but they have started cutting back some hours. He no longer works most Saturdays, and I'm sure that there are going to be days in the future that he comes home early. We are hoping and praying that things continue to go well for his job, and that there are no layoffs in his future.

6) I'm working on some personal struggles in my life as well. I'm not going to post about them right now, but suffice to say, if I need help (or prayers) I will post that as well. I'm also working on making my yes mean yes and my no mean no. It's a hard one for me, because many times I've told the kids, "no you can't do this" and then just to shut them up or busy them for a bit, I give in and let them.

That's pretty much what's going on here in a nutshell. Feel free to comment or give advice or ideas! I could use some constructive criticism.

Closings...

Cub Foods in Beloit will be closing March 13. With the economy the way it is, I think it's time to take a good look at what we can do to try and minimize the impact of the crap that's already hit the fan, and try to bring ourselves back around.

We've already had the multi-billion dollar bailouts for the car companies, mortgage companies, and banks. Where's our share? We need to get something working here to save the mom and pop places, and the places that keep our cities running, our kids fed and bills paid.

It's gotta turn around sometime. We just need to push to make it sooner than later.

Anyway...

There's been so much going on here. To start with, Gabe, who's almost 8 now, is almost potty trained! Not at night yet, but he does wear undies during the day! We are homeschooling now, and with his present level, we are working on Kindergarten and some areas of pre-k (letters, numbers). He knows all his colors and shapes, and we're learning to count.

The twins are finishing out a 2nd grade curriculum, both are doing well, Caleb needs more help than her in reading and spelling, so we've been working on getting him interested in what he's reading about (snakes, spiders, reptiles).
James is working on finishing a 3rd grade curriculum, and wants to try an accelerated program next year to get caught up.

We've had a better year so far than last year. This time last year, we had just moved, and been foreclosed on, and then had to move again. Mike was off for a couple of months when Tyson flooded this summer, but thankfully he qualified for unemployment so we were able to get by.
I had to get rid of all the birds, except 1, that I had been breeding for extra income. We had to find a new home for our beagle, because where we moved we could only have 1 dog.
1 week into school, the kids had to change schools, because of us having to move. That was a major factor in us choosing to homeschool.
Well, this is long enough for now, I'll try to post more later.

Been AWOL for a while!

Well, since I last posted a LOT has happened.
1) Mom got married
2) We moved
3) Baby sis and her family moved to Missouri
4) We pulled the kids to homeschool
5) I lost my password to my blog (lol) and couldnt retrieve it because I didn't have access to the email addy it went to.
6) Because of the previous, I started a new blog! The new blog is at www.mylifeslittlesurprises.blogspot.com

Check it out! Now that I've got all this straightened out, I'll try to post regularly on both.