Weekly Wrap-Up: Getting Ready for our new Homeschooling Year!

Well, I thought things were going to start slowing down this week, and I’d have a little more time to breathe. I was hoping to have more time to start pulling together more for Deals of Sweetness as well. Although it has been much slower than it was for the past 4-6 weeks, I was still rather busy! It looks like my calendar will stay pretty steady, too. Hopefully with the exception of today, though, I will go back to taking Sundays completely off (and schedule or posts these Weekly Wrap-Ups on Saturdays). I actually didn’t do much yesterday, though, because we had errands to run, so that was my “day off,” and I need to catch up on a few things today!
One of the biggest things I have been preparing for this week is the start of our new homeschooling year tomorrow! Although I decided we’d end our previous school year right before Thanksgiving and break until tomorrow, we still did a few things here and there to keep things “fresh.” Plus I’ll admit we kind of get bored without it! Tomorrow, though, we’ll start a full load again! Our oldest two kiddos will be doing mostly 2nd Grade work while continuing at a lower level for reading and writing as that is a challenge for both. That’s the great thing about homeschooling, though! I don’t have to hold them back in everything else because they have a challenge with a particular subject.
Our six year old may also do more math at a 1st Grade Level depending on how everything goes. She was totally ready to move on, but had a rough last couple of weeks of school. I think it was due to the stress of moving, which is why I’m tentatively going to still teach them at the same level and play it by ear. If I need to change and adapt I can!
Our little guy (age 3 1/2) will be doing more preschool this year. I can already tell he will be much more open to it. It’s like a switch went off where he is just eager to learn and discover – and tell us all about what he’s learning! I’m really excited to see what he will learn and what excites him this year!
I admit, even though I’ve been preparing, I still don’t have EVERYTHING ready for tomorrow. It’s enough that we can start, but I still hope to find a couple of things I’m missing before the week is over. We still haven’t gotten completely unpacked, which is really getting annoying at this point, but I have to remind myself we just have to keep working at it! We’ve gotten so caught up in the holiday craziness and now we’re still caught in the middle of the “not receiving pay” madness and had to do more research, requests for help, paperwork, etc. It’s been challenging, but as I mentioned in my Word for 2014 I know these experiences will refine us. Everything is going to turn out OK, and we will be stronger for it. I pray we’re able to use everything we learn through this process to help others as some have extended help to us!

OK, let’s wrap it up!

Highlights in Our Life:

• Our daughter is learning to ride her bike without training wheels! This is HUGE because she has bilateral coordination challenges and had a hard time learning to ride a bike with training wheels even. It was something they had been working on in her Occupational Therapy sessions before we moved, and I am so excited for her! All of our kids have this challenge, in fact. Our oldest still has challenges even with training wheels, but even he is doing better!
• We could definitely still use prayers for this hard financial situation that we are able to pay all our bills or they will offer a grace period due to our situation. We discovered this period may be longer due to some lost paperwork on the Army’s end, so continued prayers are appreciate. I am SO grateful for your support and prayers!

Homeschool Highlights:

• I covered most of it above – we’re starting our new homeschooling year tomorrow! Woo hoo!

Blog Highlights:

• I’m still catching up on emails! lol Things are starting to feel more “normal” again, though.
• I posted a new Blogger Opp and have more coming up! I will send another Blogger Opps newsletter out by the end of the week as well! If you’re not signed up to receive the Blogger Opps newsletter but would like to be – sign up here. Be sure to select “Blogger Opps” to be added to the list! Even the Blogger Opps from Deals of Sweetness will be included.
• I moved some things from my footer to the side bar and had to do some rearranging so I wouldn’t have any “whitespace” on the home page from the bottom of the posts to the footer. It took me a while to figure out the best arrangement, but I got it!
• I added a lot of great blogs to my Blogs I Love page! Well, it’s still called “Blog Roll,” but I’ll be changing the name within the next couple of days so it’s less ambiguous.
• I completed the About Us page on Deals of Sweetness! I’m posting the updates from there on here, too, because well, it’s part of what I do!

Goals This Week:

• Clear out my email inbox! I’m still not there yet.
• Make a header for Deals of Sweetness and some of the other needed pages like “PR,” “Contact,” etc.
• Start planning Weekly Wrap-Ups for Deals of Sweetness. Since it’s growing, I might as well start doing them there, too, right? I’ll still share goals for both since my goals encompass everything!
• Print out blog planners.
• Start putting together ideas for printables.
• Finish living and dining areas.

How was your week? Are you prepared for the crazy cold front?