Daddy's Girls

We’ve been trying to stay busy this week to make our time away from Matt pass more quickly so we came up with a few fun things to do. I took the kids to the Asbury pumpkin patch before art on Wednesday. It was the first year we’d gone without Yaya and the cousins but still hope to on Halloween. I wanted to go in case it ends up not happening so I called it school picture day. I think we got some good ones! And Thursday morning we had a surprise book fair. Yaya stopped by with a box she had ordered from Etsy and I got some decorations at Dollar Tree the day before while they were at art. They said it was the best thing that had happened at our school this year.  Friday was our off day and they got to stay home alone while I went to a closing. They felt so big and Lilli got her rough draft of a book report done while I was gone. I was proud of them for being so responsible. Only 2 more days until Matt comes home! And these kids are ready, especially Katie. Lillian is a homebody and l...

Back to school today after a nice week off. I’ve always known teachers deserve the break but I can definitely appreciate it even more now. And I only have two kids and only work half a day! But of course when I finish teaching I switch to real estate so it was nice to only have one last week. I got grades together yesterday and was happy with what I saw. Straight A’s for both! (I am using the 10 point scale so it would have been two B’s for Lil with the grading at public school, but I like that Abeka does this for elementary-and still great anyway!) Matt said he was proud of all 3 of us and it made him feel better that they are getting what they need this year. They each got to spend a few dollars in Roblox (the game they play with their cousins every night) as a reward. I also have to introduce the newest member of our family. He wasn’t a reward over grades but the timing worked out on that so we’ll go with it. 😊 Meet “Puff” the bearded dragon. Luke had gotten him for Daniel last yea...

We have so many people that really made an effort to see us during the last 7 months. Both of the girls’ best friends also have amazing Moms that made sure they never went too long without catching up, even if it was from a parking lot or 6 ft apart in a driveway. They understood why we were staying in and made an effort to get together because it was important to them and I’m definitely closer to these people now because of it. We would see Yaya probably close to once a week. My Dad and Jen and Ryan with Piper and Daniel all made the trip up to see us during that time too. There have been daily FaceTime calls with cousins and friends. And of course we had the times we were able to not distance at all from Austin and Josey and Lily Jordan when we all had been staying in and that really helped. So even though we were physically distanced, I didn’t feel socially distant. But even with all of that, there were still plenty of days I cried over missing the “Baton Rouge family.”  It had ...

We were supposed to have Britney and Bella over on Tuesday but Katie’s allergies were so bad that day that she could barely open her eyes so we canceled. We had Lily and Landry planned for today so instead of two separate play dates, we ended up having one big one. It worked out really  well that it was 6 days into fall break and everyone had more or less been home this week.  They were over from 10-1 and we stayed outside but they swam (it was voluntary for Lillian this time, lol), jumped on the trampoline, played on the gymnastics bars that Matt built and we had a ghost hunt I made these from cardstock, filled them with candy and hid them around the yard like Easter eggs. It was a last minute idea I saw on Facebook and was cutting ghosts at 6:30 this morning. 😊 They loved that but I think the biggest hit of the day was the bars. Katie had been asking for them for a long time and Matt had been promising to build them once we were settled in a new house.  So Tuesday and ...

We have officially completed the 1st nine weeks of school and really looking forward to this weeklong break next week. (We’re pretty much following Bossier’s schedule and they are out) We had a family day yesterday after the kids got back and did a little decorating.  Charlie Brown’s pumpkin patch got an upgrade with Capn’s pumpkins (I love the colors!) and I finally got my tiered tray decorated that I’d been wanting.  This morning Lillian and I made a cute pudding dessert for the play date we had this afternoon. Shaleigh was in town because they evacuated from the hurricane to her Grandma’s so we had her and Lily over. It was the first time they had gotten to see each other since March and they were so excited.  We got in our last swim of the year because Lillian made me promise I wouldn’t plan any more pool play dates because it’s been freezing the last few times. 😉 They did get out to try a science experiment I had been wanting to do. They liked it so much they had me...

 Slowly but surely we’re getting back to life and it really feels good. We took an easy week at school and took off Monday and Friday. We doubled up some subjects and did 4 lessons in 3 days and decided we’d take one half day next week during fall break to finish up. Monday we ran some errands and Cara and Josie came over to play and we did some science experiments. Wednesday they went to art class for the first time in 7 months. It was Katie’s first time and she told me no less than 5 times how much she loved it. And Lillian was so happy to be back with Ms. Kathleen. But the biggest news of the week (and the reason we didn’t have school Friday) is that for the first time since March they hugged their Yaya! Not only that, but they got to spend the night with her. I will get them tomorrow and hear all about it but I know they loved every second.  We still aren’t seeing the whole world but now that Matt has been out of the hospital for a year, we have decided grandparents are a ...

When we first moved in here, I went for a walk and saw  cows and chickens on the neighbors property and sent Yaya and Matt a picture saying “you can’t say we don’t live in the country!” Of course they thought I was crazy, but this weekend proved I was right. It started with Matt discovering rabbits are getting in to his garden. I guess I’m married to Mr. McGregor 😉 because he waged war and sat out Friday night with his BB gun.  (On top of that it went in to the fridge. 😳) We had a no killing yard rabbit rule on Brown St. but there was no garden there so I guess it’s out the window now. Later that night, Bella and Gypsy killed a mouse that was apparently a mama because they started playing with the day old babies. Lilli threw them over the back fence for the hawk that has been around. A neighbor killed a coyote last night, this afternoon a deer ran by our back fence and Matt then went on another mission to get rid of the annoying mockingbirds. It was enough wildlife excitemen...

When we made the decision to homeschool I got all excited about all the fun things we would do. I spent hours playing on Pinterest to look at science experiments and crafts. Well, here we are with one week to go in the first nine weeks and we’ve done none of that. When we get done they ARE DONE and ready to wait on their cousins to get out of school to play Roblox, lol. Today is Lily Jordan’s birthday and we’ve had plans all week to go to DixieMaze Farm so we doubled up on a lesson a day all week and finished 5 lessons in 4 days so that today was free.  It really wasn’t bad and we’ve decided this may be our new schedule to free up Fridays for field trips and fun learning. Today we learned about pollination and making butter (although they knew most of the farming stuff from their Daddy already. 😊 ) We were able to do this even with some mid-week play dates with Cara and Josie here and recess at a park with Lily. I think I’m going to to like this and am back on Pinterest to look fo...