We're Here!

We moved on the 12th, as planned, cut and put up a Christmas tree on the 13th, and were almost unpacked before Christmas.

Now we have to get ready for our 9th annual New Year's Eve Party :) Anyone want to come?

We're moving!

We're buying a house--the closing date is December 11th (next Friday!) and it looks like we are going to close on time :) If we do, we are moving on the 12th. We want to get moved quickly so that we can get Christmas going.

So...We've been packing. Jessi, Sarah and I packed her room and took 5 kitchen garbage bags of clothes to Salvation Army. We packed the family room and took another 5 bags to the Thrift Store. We just did this (culled and moved) 6 months ago. I didn't think we would have so much stuff to get rid of but that's ok. The more we get rid of, the less we have to move.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posting twice a year...might not be too good. I'll try to be more consistent. I promise. Really.

We are sitting around the house wearing whatever we want, doing whatever we want, and dinner will be ready whenever. A very relaxing day :)

Update

Easter was relaxing. The Easter bunny came and brought wonderful stuff. We went to church, and by the end of primary my CTR 5 kids all knew the Easter story well enough to tell it to their parents. We came home and then started cooking dinner. While the ham was cooking, the kids played badminton and got sunburned. (Love warm days ;)

Wednesday was my last day of work--yeah! Thursday we relaxed. Today we started getting ready to go to Utah :) Stan's little brother Josh is graduating next Friday from BYU so the kids and I are headed out on Sunday to visit and Stan will meet us there on Friday morning.

A couple of days a little over 60...

And we have to have a foot of snow. That's what I woke up to this morning. It took 20 minutes just to dig out the Suburban so we could go to the library.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

It was up over 60 today for the second day in a row :)

I started using e-mealz last week. They have a menu to download each week with 7 meals (dinner) on it. It lists the ingredients and directions next to the name of each meal and on a second page has a grocery list with the meal number next to each item in case you aren't going to make that meal this week. It costs $15 for three months worth of menus, but I used coupon code "dave" to get $2.50 off --as in Dave Ramesy.

We tried 4 meals last week and used family favorites for the other days. It worked well, and made my grocery list making so much easier. The meals we tried were all simple to prepare and included side dishes. I was worried when I looked at the menu that it would cost more than what we were already spending, but it was about the same. I think it would cost more if we did all 7 meals, but we didn't and probably won't ever do that. The kids will always want some of their favorites.

So...this morning I printed out the menu/grocery list, had the kids pick a meal (they've been each cooking one night a week), and marked off what we weren't cooking that week. I then marked off ingredients that we already have, and added things for dinner meals that aren't on that menu and for lunches and breakfasts. It didn't take much time to be ready to go shopping for the week :)

After shopping, we all went to the duck pond at MSU and fed the ducks barley that was going to be thrown out. It certainly was a beautiful day :)

Update

Well, work has slowed considerably for the last month or so. With H&R Block's contract, I only make money (over all) when I have a client in front of me. At least with my current office manager, she only has me come in if I have a client :) I've been home recuperating from working full time and hsing full time for the first 6 or 7 weeks of the year.

We are planning to hs May through December this year so that we can take time off during tax season next year. Because of this, I have already gotten all my supplies ready for next school year and am eager (not to be confused with ready :) to move on from this year.

The older kids will be doing Biology (either this one or this one--I bought both, but haven't decided which to use), a study of the Constitution/Government, American Literature/Language Arts, and math at their level. The younger kids will be doing Biology, American History for Young People I, Learning Language Arts Through Literature (this one and this one), and Singapore Math at their level.

A group of us (hsers) from gym day have decided to start a co-op :) The first day will be April 6 and we will meet once a week for 8 week sessions. The classes for this session will be Health, Sign Language, Art, and Creative Writing for the older kids and Cooking, Sign Language, Creative Arts (music, art, writing...), and...um...something else...for the younger kids. Can't quite remember what.

We have moms that are artists (that actually sell their artwork) teaching the art classes, a mom that has a degree in sign language teaching that, and a dad that is a chiropractor teaching the Health class. Some of us at this house are really excited :) Others were told they had to try it for the first couple of weeks before they said no.

What a Day! (at work)

Jacob is a Deacon! I only have one more to go...boy I'm getting old :)

I have been working at H&R Block for tax season preparing taxes. As a preparer, I am payed 100% commission but take a draw on my commission per hour so that I get some pay before the end of season. I've been keeping a daily total and figuring my hourly commission--today I made $50.60 per hour! If I could just keep that up for three months :) Unfortunately it slows down considerably in another couple of weeks.

Quote

Doesn't my new quote (below the blog name) just fit Montana? The snow here hasn't completely melted since...November? I think?

This week...

The kids did great in the performance of Hansel and Gretal--but we forgot the camera. Stephen and Jacob sang more loudly and clearly than I have ever heard them sing (a good thing to do with solos). Stephen has a beautiful bass voice. Getting ready for this took all my free time for the week. I wasn't told that we would have to find our own costumes until about a week and a half ago, so we were still tracking down stuff.

Jacob had his Primary President interview to move out of primary and will be having his Bishop's interview on Wednesday to become a Deacon. He turns 12 on Friday. He is so excited to move on from Primary. In this ward the 12 year olds move out of Primary completely on their birthday--Sunday School and everything. If we move again when our lease is up, he will probably have to go back to Primary for an hour each Sunday in our new ward until January. He will not be happy.

Saturday's Events

Stan and I have been looking at a house to buy in Belgrade (that probably won't even be there by May--that's when we get out of the lease here) and decided to go to the home show to look at a few things we would like to buy.

The first thing was a new furnace. The one in the house is rattly and obviously old. We talked to a guy about a heat pump and another about a furnace. The heat pump costs about the same as the furnace (more than we want to spend) but looks like a nice thing to have. It cuts heating costs by about half, but only works if the temps are over 35 degrees (maybe half the winter). It is also an air conditioning unit. Might be nice, but the furnace would have to be replaced first, then this is added on.

The furnace guy tried to talk us into switching to a natural gas furnace. Right now most people with natural gas have about the same bills as the people heating with electric. Not sure it's worth the price to switch.

The other thing that we were really interested in was an instant water heater. We knew that they cost quite a bit more, but last longer than a regular water heater. What we didn't know was that if you have mineral rich water or a lot of chlorine in the water you have to buy a water purifier to put before the water heater. The minerals and chemicals solidify at the point of heating. We just wanted hot showers even on the eighth one. Totally tired of cold showers. Once again probably not worth the money now. Oh, well.

For the afternoon, Stephen, Jessica, Jacob, Sarah, and Joseph went to Science Saturdays at MSU and learned about Bio-Materials. It's for kids 10-15, but younger kids can go with an adult. Stephen went as our adult...he really wanted to go too anyway. They learned how nature has inspired science and came home with that slime you play with. I know they did other things, but I'm not sure what...

Hansel and Gretel

Stephen, Jacob, Jessica and Sarah have been attending a homeschool choir this fall. They performed a couple of places just before Christmas and this month they are doing an operetta.

They are doing Hansel and Gretel. The performance will be next Saturday at 1pm at the Bozeman Library in the big meeting room. The older three will be doing some solos--Stephen is the father, Jessica is the dew fairy, Jacob is the huntsman and Sarah is an angel. They've had lots of fun with this group. We'll have to join again next year.

Sarah's schoolwork...

I keep waiting to post until I get pictures loaded up...I think I need to stop waiting. It's not getting done :\

Sarah's Language Arts today was talking about cause and effect. We read the story about Jesus walking on water from the Bible and talked about possible causes and from some effects. We discussed possible causes of Peter sinking in the water. Then I asked her what she thought the cause was of the storm stopping when Jesus stepped on the boat. She said "Jesus stopped it." I asked her if she really thought that He could do that. She said (while rolling her eyes) "Mom...He made the world." :)

The next part of this assignment was to write three sentences telling about a situation that made her worry, then one sentence telling how the situation turned out. She couldn't think of anything that made her worry except having to write these sentences. Here's what she wrote:

Mom's making me write.
I don't want to write.
It's no fun.
Hurray! I'm finally done!

She cracks me up :)