A New Adventure

After much thought and prayer over the last year, we have decided that our current home is the "forever" home. We like our low mortgage, land, location, and living in a vintage home. There was only one major problem ~ we needed one more bedroom. We have a unique situation where each of the children needs their own room. Because of Goldilocks' psychological issues, it is not safe for her to share a room with Little Red Riding Hood. Her behaviors are just too unpredictable, and we want both of our dd's to find their bedrooms to be a peaceful, safe place. Goldilocks also sleeps behind an alarmed door for everyone's safety. Furthermore, our disabled 19 year old son will continue to live with us for many years to come. It is important to us, while he needs much support and care, that he also have some independence and a space of his own. So it would not work for him to share a room with his 7 year old brother. That has left our youngest son and daughter sharing a room for a few years. All that said, we decided we had to add a room to our home.

So....the adventure begins. The first indication that something was really going to happen was this showing up in our driveway.

I bet this had any neighbors that we don't know talking up a storm. (We know the neighbors well on either side of us, but cannot seem to get past the waving stage with the folks across the street ~ they keep to themselves but watch us a lot.)

Then changes started inside the house. Bye-bye, bedroom window! This will all be dry walled over after the inspector comes out.


Then this morning the crane came! It was really cold and foggy outside, so the kids only stood outside for a few minutes. I kept telling them how exciting this was but they just kept shivering.






It will be a small railroad room (meaning you have to walk through one room to get to the other), but we are so happy the project is underway. We are also very happy with our contractor, so far. I interviewed a lot of men, but one just stuck out as being really honest, caring, and willing to really look at ways to save us money and build a little bit green. He really is proving to be all that and more. He is very good about safety issues and in giving the kids a safe space to watch and learn. He grew up in a family with 13 kids, so it must come naturally to him to think what the kids need! Also, the men he has hired are very respectful, and I have heard no bad language out of them at all. 

Week one down!  I can't wait to see what next week brings.

Blessings, Dawn

Learning To Tell Time

We are working on learning to tell time this week. We are lucky to have a large clock floor game, and the kids are having so much fun learning with it. This game can be played in several ways. One way is to throw the big dice and then move the hands to the correct positions.




Here is my 5 year old learning with the game. She was very pleased with herself. I never imagined teaching kids to tell time would be so easy and fun. Another way this game can be played is using the kids as the hands of the clock. 


This is such a great way for my hands-on and very physical child to learn. She had down the concept in less than four turns. It will be interesting to see if it sticks in her mind. We will be exploring lots of ways to learn time this week, including good old worksheets. It sure is nice having this game to get them learning with a light and fun attitude. It is called Time Mat by Learning Resources.

Blessings, Dawn

Feed the Family for $75 Challenge ~ Last Week

Well, I did the last of my shopping for this month's challenge. This has been a hard week. We have had doctor and therapy appointments every day. We have eaten out fast food twice with coupons, but I still count this a huge success. 

This week's shopping ~

Sam's Club ~


spinach, strawberries, cherry tomatoes,two heads of lettuce, two containers organic ketchup, big bag of carrots, 10 pound bag of potatoes, big bag of corn chips, red grapes, green grapes, Total ~ $52.12

Ingles ~

big bag of cheese, two jars of spaghetti sauce, bag of dog food, two tubs of Smart Balance margarine with coupons, bananas, two bags of candy corn, Total ~ $28.24

Grand total for this week $80.36

Grand total for the month~ $322.92  Hooray!

Reflections ~ I am very low on food and ideas. Right now I feel like getting through the next 6 days is going to be really hard. Hopefully, I will get some inspiration soon to make the next few days easy going. My savings really came from making my own cleaning supplies and laundry detergent. Also, the kids did not miss juice at all. I was surprised about that. Amazing Savings (dent and scratch store) is very helpful to me, savings-wise, while the local Ingles is not. My "emergency" trip to Ingles produced very little food for almost $30. I will continue shopping this way but will increase the amount to $100 a week so I can take advantage of sales and stock up a bit.

Blessings, Dawn

Outdoor Nature Study ~ Flood

We are doing Outdoor Nature Studies with Barb-Harmony Mom this year. This week we were supposed to go looking for cattails. We did not find any cattails, because it has been raining here for a week and the river is flowing over its banks. For this reason, our nature study turned into learning about the flow of rivers and what it means when a river crests over its banks. We live very close to the river district and went to a park in it near our home. The park is separated by a road. One side was already closed, and the other side will probably be closed in a few hours, especially if it starts to rain again. The predictions are for 4 more days of rain and about 3 to 4 more inches of rain. After very, very strict guidelines were given out about staying near Mommy, we got out of the car and walked around a bit.

All of the area around this path is usually low lands that are sometimes muddy but not under water.

The spot with the bench is one of my kids favorite places to hang out at this park. As you can see, the river has left the banks and is running through here. You can kind of see the speed of the water from the picture under the bridge. It is moving at a very good clip. Luckily, there is very little debris so far.

Water is almost touching this bench, which is usually about 10 feet from the river. 

After checking out the flooding, the kids sat down to journal about their findings.

Happy outdoor adventuring!

Blessings, Dawn

The Girl that Cried "Pill" and Our Latest Field Trip

I made the decision this weekend that it was time for my youngest dd to learn how to swallow a pill. She will be six in just a few weeks. I want her to be able to swallow a pill so that she can take a small Cod Liver Oil pill. The children need the extra vitamin D, because we eat very little dairy products. With the fall setting in and the sun's strength depleting, it is important that she gets vitamin D. All of the other children have been taking Cod Liver Oil or Vitamin D pills for months. I knew that getting her to take a pill was going to be hard. However, I did not imagine that it would turn into such an event. There were many tears and spitting the pill out!  
The tears went on for a long time ... long enough to pull out the camera. She actually asked me, "Is this real? Is this really happening to me?" I guess she thought it was a nightmare. LOL.
My goodness! This child can carry on.

And on and on and on!!!

After sucking on several Cod Liver Oil pills which made them split open and spill into her mouth, throwing up once, and throwing three pills in different stages of destruction on the floor, she finally swallowed a pill. 

A teeny tiny pill ... this child is so dramatic! I don't know what to do with her sometimes. I feel better that I stuck with it, though. When she finally swallowed, she giggled and had to admit that it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. She said that the worst part was when it melted in her mouth. Well, duh! That is why you are supposed to swallow it quickly.

On a happier note ~

This weekend, we went on our latest field trip to a small train museum in a small town only about 45 minutes from us. I forgot the camera, but it was lots of fun. Right when we arrived, a large freight train came through the depot. We were able to stand at the fence and watch it lumber by. It was thrilling to see a train so close, and the engineer waved at the kids. They were very excited about that. We were surprised to find the museum having an ice cream social. I love small towns. The kids enjoyed listening to the banjo music and eating ice cream sundaes. I have been teaching them the instruments in the orchestra and they could identify each one in the Bluegrass band. The bass had been difficult to identify when listening to classical music, but this time they were pleased to sit within a few feet of it and really hear the sound of that instrument. Honestly, school happens 24/7 if one just lets it.

We then moved on to the Gateway To The Mountains Museum and enjoyed it as well. Lastly, we watched the river which is really rising and about to spill its banks. It has been raining for 5 days here and is forecasted to rain for 10 more days. The news is predicting sizable flooding coming our way. Our home is on high ground but travel may require some detours in the coming days.

Blessings, Dawn

Feed Your Family for $75 a Week #3

We are now in week 3 of Mary's challenge at Owlhaven. I am going about $5 to $10 over the goal each week and my cupboards are a bit more bare than I like.  Also, I am very low on produce and laundry detergent. I need to get to the Farmer's Market and also make some laundry detergent this weekend. I am pleased with how well it is going over all. Considering that in the past few months I have been spending closer to $700, I can see that there is real room for saving money in the future. I think I will make my goal for next month $100 dollars a week, so I will have more wiggle room. This way, I'll  be motivated to make this a lifestyle change instead of a one month challenge. 

Here is this week's shopping. 

Amazing Savings~

2 packages of organic ground beef, 1 package of cheese, 3 bags of chips, raspberry jam, organic beef bullion, bananas, red pepper, 1 pound cherry tomatoes, 1 tomato,  organic chicken nuggets, orange juice (we were not going to buy juice this month but the price was really good and two kids have the sniffles), Rice Dream, 2 organic packages of gluten-free fish patties (enough for one meal), 1 loaf of bread for dh's lunch, 2 boxes of gluten-free cheddar crackers, 2 bags of gluten-free bagels, 2 packages of organic sausage links, gluten-free pasta, dairy-free ice cream sandwiches, 2 bottles of sparkling strawberry juice (saving for Thanksgiving), 2 packages of hash browns, 1/2 pound organic jelly beans, 1 bag of cereal
Total~ $58.28

Walmart ~

2 pounds of grapes, jar of salsa, 5 ears of corn, 1 dozen eggs, Smart Balance margarine, 2 packages of nitrite-free lunch meat (for our on-the-road days), can of olives, 2 pizza crusts, 2 bags of cheese, gluten-free mac and cheese, 1 jar of spaghetti sauce, corn tortillas Total~$32.88

Grand Total~$81.16

Blessings, Dawn

Timothy Goes to College

Well, he sort of is going to college. Timothy started some continuing education classes today at our local community college. With his special needs and learning challenges, we decided that taking very small steps into the college world was the best choice for him. He will be starting with continuing education classes and then try an audited class or two and then perhaps regular college classes. 

He loved his first class in woodworking and the class was small with only six students. He will be making a little wooden shoe next week. He will also be starting a class in digital photography tomorrow. Everything went just as we had planned and practiced. He got to class just fine and back to our meeting place. 

There was one funny thing, though. Timothy wanted to get a snack while he waited for me. He checked out the vending room and saw that they had a coffee machine. He really wanted some coffee, but did not have a cup to catch the coffee with. It never occurred to him that the machine would provide the cup! I only chuckled a little bit. Really, I am telling the truth. I am not sure if this indicates that he is really sheltered or just raised really earth-friendly. 

Off to his first class!

Blessings, Dawn