Daddy's Girls

Daniel left on February 15th of this year to go to school at a 6 month military program at Camp Minden. He has gotten into some trouble before it (but no more than the average 17 year old- not serious stuff) and was not doing great in school and was going through a phase where he didn’t want to be at  his Moms or Dads house so he asked to go. He researched it and had to present his case and convince them of why it was a good idea and I think he was right. Unfortunately Covid messed things up and he only got about 6 weeks in before they sent him home. (Which made no sense because they were quarantined there but... 🤷‍♀️) The 5 months of quarantine proved he was right though. He was getting along with his parents, visiting his grandparents, and got a good job at a window store where he worked in the warehouse and was also learning to install. He’ll go back to that job when he comes home in December (he’ll have his diploma when he does) and he’s considering either joining the military...

Matt had work to get finished at the deer camp so he needed to work part of last weekend before N Louisiana is hit by Hurricane Laura tomorrow (forecasted to still be a hurricane by the time it hits here!- 2020 keeps them coming!) and Lillian wanted to go. He was leaving early Sunday so I told her she had to get Mondays work done on Saturday first and she thought that sounded like a great idea! Getting to spend the day with her Dad made the weekend work worth it.  Katie and I stayed here and spent Sunday playing board games, bike riding, watching movies... It was a good day and we were all glad for some 1 on 1 time and thankful for the schedule flexibility that allowed it. Katie got most of her school work done Monday in the car while we were on the way to get Lilli and we only had math and cursive when we got home. I know it’s only day 10 but she got an A on her first phonics and language test and most importantly she’s learning in Bible class. I’m Impressed she already has this m...

We have finished Day 8 of homeschooling and I still say it’s going well even though we had our first day of tears Friday. The first 20 lessons or so is supposed to be review but by day 4 we were learning new things in Lillian‘s math. I’m honestly a little disappointed that my honor roll child has so much trouble with her multiplication facts. Not disappointed in her of course; she always made A’s so no reason to think she didn’t have it down. But disappointed in the school that we have gotten to 5th grade without knowing them. And now Abeka is multiplying three numbers by three numbers and also starting long division so it makes things hard. Plus they don’t use common core which is all she’s ever known. I’ve decided to teach that subject myself until she catches on because the video teacher goes pretty fast. She cried when I told her we were going to do it that way but by the end she thanked me because it was much less stressful than trying to keep up with the video. Other than math, s...

I’m a day late on my post but Happy Anniversary Matt! What a difference 15 years makes! 15 years, 2 kids, 4 dogs, 3 houses and countless memories later we still love each other. 😉 We had big plans to celebrate early in Mexico in March of this year but that got canceled because of Covid. I was searching through my old photos to try to find a good picture of the two of us to post and realized that, other than our weekend we took in Hot Springs in place of our Mexico trip, we have not had a date night out of the house since our last anniversary.  I managed to find a Valentine’s Day 2019 and Anniversary 2019. I couldn’t figure out how that could be possible but I guess not long after our anniversary last year he was in the hospital that was followed by a couple months recovery. Then it was hunting season and the holidays. By the time that was over we were saving money for Mexico and not going anywhere. And then of course since then we’ve been in quarantine. Funny how a year can go by ...

It may have been 100° with a heat index even higher over the weekend but Matt is thinking about fall. He’s been talking about his garden and getting the spot ready for awhile and he and the girls got them built over the weekend.    They spent about 4 hours Saturday and 3 hours on Sunday but got it done! He went from about 36 ft.² to 178 ft.² of planting space and is super excited to get started. He even showed up with a surprise for me. I’ve been wanting some live plants for inside (although Nana laughs and says like I need anything else to keep alive 🤪) and he found some while he was there. I let them handle the garden beds while I walked and then got those repotted. That third picture is some of the peppers he has been dehydrating to make some rubs. Very very little of our garden has gone to waste. He shared some produce with our next-door neighbor over the summer and that paid off yesterday when he showed up with a bag of head on shrimp that someone had brought him from So...

We made it through the first few days of school with no tears! (For them or me, lol) I’ll call that a success. I thought about moving the start date back because our roofers were going to be working all day Wednesday but decided having to work through unexpected things was going to be part of it so we started anyway. I’m so happy with the way the house turned out!  Before we moved in we painted the classroom/office, master bedroom and dining room, Added new floors upstairs, and  Put up a new fence. That was all the stuff we planned when we made the offer. THE DAY we closed, Bossier was hit with a record hail storm and we needed a new roof and paint. That may have not been the plan but it was a blessing in disguise because I LOVE it!  Yaya came by Thursday with pizza for lunch and a pot of spaghetti that they had for dinner and lunch the next day (the girls request) so that she could see how it turned out and hear about school.  (The Andy’s was after we finished our f...

Today started like they have the last few months. There was no mad rush to get ready or first day jitters. I was up early with Katie not far behind and Lilli was up about 7:30. I drank coffee while watching the news and fixed them breakfast before leaving for my walk about 7:45. I got back about 8:40 and took a quick shower and was in the classroom right at 9:00. That’s our plan for start time for the year because we all decided we may as well get that benefit from it! Of course we had to start the day with the obligatory 1st day pics. 😉 When I thought we were done they decided they had to go grab masks and backpacks for one last picture because they didn’t want to be left out of that for this year. Although they may have just been stalling, lol. We start with The Pledge, My Country ‘Tis of Thee, a prayer and Bible lesson everyday. One of the many benefits of this curriculum. I decided to break the first day up over 2 days to ease in to it so we only worked until 11:00. The prerecorde...

After almost exactly 5 months of a break (we can’t count what they did in the spring as “real” school), today is the last day of the most uneventful summer ever. We’re starting homeschooling tomorrow and no one is exactly thrilled. I’ll be honest that I’m looking forward to still having them home with me and not having to set an alarm. But I’m worried about them not seeing me as their teacher. And I also worry about the lack of socialization that Covid has brought but I know that won’t last forever. I’m very hopeful that things will go back to somewhat normal during the school year so that they can experience what being a true homeschooler is like. But we’re thankful to have the cousins to play with and that are going through the same thing.. I really don’t know what we would do without them. Last week we spent Wednesday to Friday nights at the camp hanging out with them. Rachel took the kids to Vivian on Wednesday to go get some stuff to set up the kids classroom at the camp and spend...

The kids had a fun first part of the week at our house. They played in the pool, played Roblox with the cousins on the iPad and just generally enjoyed each other’s company.  On Monday we met Lily Jordan for some Gelati at Happy Belly’s in Shreveport and the cousins got to come too. This is the 5th or 6th week in a row we’ve gotten together for a drive through picnic. We go through a drive-through and then park next to each other and roll down the windows. No one ever gets out of the car but this time Lily and Lillian wanted a picture in their masks. They are the only family I know that is still quarantined and no one has health issues. We’re not able to get within 6 feet because her dad is military so he goes to work and Kelli shops at the commissary but they haven’t been anywhere or gotten together with anyone since March either. It can definitely get hard on the kids so we decided to do this a while back to be sure that the kids still got some face-to-face time. That evening Rach...

We had planned all week to have a picnic with all the cousins and Yaya on Friday but a thunderstorm that decided to hit right at lunch changed our plans. We had some very upset kids because it had been over a week since they had seen anyone so I met Rachel in Plain Dealing after it quit for her to take the girls for the night. They played in the mud and went for some four wheeler rides and then met us the next morning over at Cara and Luke’s. Poor Josie had her tonsils out Wednesday and we stopped by to cheer her up and to bring her some homemade ice cream, a coloring book, and her first LOL doll. From there we all went over to Hailey‘s parents house to sit outside and have our pizza picnic. We were thankful it only had to be delayed one day. Rachel had found these super cute shirts that we ordered a while back that said “Member of the Crazy Cousin Crew” that they all got yesterday. I honestly thought all the kids would have such a hard time social distancing and having to stay in the ...