The Austell Family

This year I found this awesome e-book to do with the kids for Advent. This is really the first year that I am doing a full Advent lesson with them. Until about 5 years ago I had never paid much attention to Advent so when it comes to teaching my kids about it I wouldn't even know where to start. That is what makes Truth in the Tinsel such a great book; Amanda gives you scripture, a quick devotional and an ornament craft to do to help the kids remember and apply the lesson. We have completed two days worth and the kids are really loving it and I am excited that they are learning about what Christmas is really all about. This book is well worth the $4.99 for all the well prepared lessons. Most of the items needed are from around the house (unless your house is like mine and you don't have a ton of kids craft things...then the dollar tree carried what I didn't have)

I am also using Mama-Jen's Advent Christmas Countdown that she created to go along with Truth in the Tinsel. It has fun clues that go along with the daily theme. I happened to grab a few of the Target dollar section schedule holders as well so I set mine up just like she did. The girls love trying to figure out the clue and searching the house for the answer.

We have completed day 1 and 2 from the book and tonight we will do day three. Amanda includes templates for items that need to be cut out. The first day I was feeling lazy so I created my candle image in Cricut DesignStudio the same size and way that was in the template I just didn't have to do the cutting. I like the way they turned out. Day two I painted the crowns the night before so they were ready for the kids to decorate. I was going to paint them yellow but it wasn't going to work out as it was too transparent. We are happy with the way they turned out and once we get our tree up then we will have them hanging up on display!

What are you doing for Advent this year? If you don't have something you are using I highly recommend you heading over and grabbing this book it is awesome and for the price who could ask for more!

I just had to take a moment to brag on how awesome God is. In my last post I briefly mentioned some things that I would love to be able to do. One of which I'd buy my kids Christmas presents.

We'll this weekend at church some dear friends hand me a card with cash to buy Christmas presents for the kids.

I am so thankful for God's love and continued care for our family!

I just found this place mat on Pinterest and had to share. This is going to be perfect for our Thanksgiving where we will have 15-20 kids that will need something to do. I just need to find some paper big enough to print these. The place mat is free but you will have to email the creator for it.

 
You can find this place mat and other printables at Whatever Dee-Dee wants.

This is why I haven't been around much lately. Although I haven't been sick I have been super busy with homeschooling, caring for the kids, and the everyday stuff.

We are still praying for God's provision for our family. Which of course should be our daily prayer if you have no job, a secure job, have no money, or all the money you could ever need. Through this process I have learned that God can do anything, He has so many more sources of provision that we may know. He has provided for us through people giving us money, groceries, gift cards, through unforeseen bookings for Jacob, bills that don't have payments for the month and more that I can't remember. Although I pray for a job for Jacob I know that isn't God's only source of provision.

I know that God is our provider but it is also hard to remember in the moment at times. Jacob and I get weary. How I would love to know that I will be able to buy groceries every week; that we will have gas in the car to get to church, Life Groups, Renee's dance, the doctors. I would like to know that I will have money to give our kids a Christmas gift. To not have to tell the kids we don't have money for whatever they are asking me for (a little toy, a bag of cookies, etc.). To be able to buy the kids things that they need like clothes and shoes. To be able to go out to dinner once in a while just to get out of the house. BUT I know that God will provide for these things and even though I may know see it coming or know how it will be IT WILL BE.

My hope once we are in a secure place is that we don't forget to only rely on God for our provision. The job is a gift and a means that God uses to provide He is still the source. Although I don't know when the time will come I do know that it will come.

Back to the baby I quickly mentioned at the beginning. I am due May 27, 2012 which makes me currently 13 weeks (on Sunday). The girls are very excited. Nate doesn't really know what he thinks. Rozi says it is a girl; Renee wants it to be a boy so things are even. Jacob and I are just blessed to have another child. We are praying to have another VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section) without complication or need for induction.



All else is going well. I will update the kids blogs (Renee, Rozlynn, Nate) so you can see what is going on with them. You can see what Jacob has been working on at his blog or his Facebook fan page (if you don't already be sure to 'Like' his page we are doing a giveaway when we reach 300 likes and it is a great place to read about our specials).

I am hoping to post more regularly but I can't make any promises.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Valerie from The Crafty Classroom has give a review of We Choose Virtues and is offering a free set to those who enter to win! Looking over the program it seems like it would be perfect for our family in teaching the little ones virtues that matter like forgiveness, self-control, obedience, patience, and more.

So head on over to The Crafty Classroom to enter for your chance to win!

We have successfully completed four days of school! And so far we are all happy. Things have been pretty easy so far being that I don't have my curriculum yet (and wont for a few more weeks). I have been coming up with things to do for all Renee's subjects (language arts, math, science, social studies, and PE). For the most part I don't have a problem finding a plethora of lessons to teach except for Social Studies I can't find very much at all. So I am working on trying to figure that out with the info I can find.

Since I am formally homeschool Renee now versus our un-formal preschool I created a calendar area where we go over several different items every morning. Here is a picture of our areas.

This is the monthly calendar. Everyday Renee puts the 'today's' date in it's square and says the full date (Monday, August 21, 2011). I got all of these from the Dollar Tree (2 calendars, 2 sets of numbers, and the months each $1). I punched wholes in them and used straight pins to hang them on.



This is our 'Calendar Time' wall. We go over most of these things every morning as we start school.

Here is a close up of the bulletin board:
So that is what we do every morning. Then go into our daily studies. I will share more of that once I get all my curriculum! Have a great day.

We have had so many thing going on it is hard to keep track of everything. The summer has been a pretty lazy one as we have been home most week days but our weekends are jam packed with much going on. Last week we completed a great week of VBS. It is a very busy week for us but well worth the fun and excitement.

The biggest thing going on these last few weeks is that I am now going to be homeschooling Renee. This was a very quick transition. I will try to keep this as brief as possible. Since we moved into our current location I had hoped not to send Renee to the school we live across from as it is not a well rated school and I wanted Renee to be challenged in the skills she already knows. I applied for a charter school in the Spring but hadn't heard anything from them so I enrolled Renee in the school and just planned on supplementing with more training at home. In June I heard that I was put on the waiting list and would hear from an Educational Specialist (ES) if there was an opening. As time went on I kept Renee in the public school and started making plans for her to enter school at the beginning of September. Then on Friday August 5th I got a call from an ES (happens to be a gal I go to church with too) letting me know that we were accepted. This came as such a huge surprise so we scheduled a meeting for the following Tuesday to discuss everything and make a final decision. As Renee had already been planning on attending the school across the street we let her make the final decision on where she wanted to go after weighing the pros & cons for each place. In the end she choose to be home-schooled. All that said we are starting school tomorrow!

Because I was accepted so close to the first day of school I wont have my curriculum so I have been scouring the web this week looking for some lessons to start Renee on until we get the curriculum in. Once it arrives we will be learning:

Language Arts: All About Spelling and All About Reading
Writing: Handwriting Without Tears
Math: Saxon Math K
Science: Real Science-4-Kids - Biology
History/Geography: Cantering the Country along with Eat Your Way Through the USA

I will be doing a little schooling with Rozi too but pretty casual right now maybe a little more into the year we will start working more formally on the Raising Rock Star Preschool curriculum that I did with Renee. It is a great FREE curriculum for teaching letters, Bible verses, colors, numbers, and beginning writing.

I am a little anxious but excited to see how things go tomorrow. The first day will be pretty easy just learning the routine of things and getting into the idea of school at home again. I will let you know how things go!

Just to catch you up on Nate... he got his first tooth in the middle of VBS last week and he is working on the second one right now too. So needless to say he is a little cranky. He is walking along everything (or pushing what he can) he will let go and balance for a few seconds too. I am sure he will be walking fairly soon. That is a quick update on him you can read more about him on his blog .

Rozlynn has been causally working on potty training too. It is something she has pursued more than me right now and she does really well on the days she wants to and other days she uses a diaper. So I will start to "formally" potty train her in the coming days and get her out of diapers quickly! You can check up on Rozi at her blog.