Time4Learning update

So today was the first day our 7 year old has used time4learning. So far he really likes it, especially the Space stuff on the 2nd grade science. For the first time in weeks it's not a battle to get this child to do some school work!! Can't wait to see how this goes over the next few weeks!!

Time4Learning

Over the next 30 days, I will be reviewing Time4Learning's online education program. It can be used as a homeschool curriculum, an afterschool tutorial or for summer learning. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. You can write your own curriculum review, too!

What do you do on a nice winter day in Northern AZ?

Go play in Oak Creek of course!!!
Yep my crazy kids went playing in the creek today and had a BLAST!!!

Yes, C is in the water and B is on his way back in!

B fell in and his bottom is all wet, crazy kid!!

Why I LOVE Oak Creek Canyon!!!

One of me

Is this just so cool??

a beaver dam

Meet our class pets....

Mr Snowy

Miss Lily

Miss Lily close up

Snowy, Molly and Jitters

Will have to hunt down a picture of Yoshi.

My take on the mail box and household binder system...

I started off hunting on Pinterest for ideas and found two I really liked! One was on The Nest Effect and another was on Lovely Crafty Home then I found ideas for the household binder on pinterest too.

So here is what I came up with...
First the Box..

My Box, I used a clear plastic file box. The calendars were printed off Google.

My dividers, Mail in, mail out, to file, my 2 kids in public school each have a folder, store ads, coupons, recipes, receipts and my cleaning folder.

My cleaning folder- I am planning to start Fly Lady again.

Our Homeschool Binder, it will hold our Sonlight lesson plans.

My Organizher binder I got on clearance at Target last year!

The last section of my binder, I plan to keep our daily homeschool schedule in here, I just copied the page from my Well Planned Day planner.

Curriculum Planner pages I found online Donna Young

I put a business card holder at the front to hold all those cards you get from doctors and businesses.

Here is what my meal planner pages look like, they are from The Homeschool Mom

Page that lists everything that is in my binder.

My pen/pencil holder.

The operation organize the Shearer house continues......

 So the fridge door is a giant dry erase board now :D Yep the to do list is staring at me ALL the time now.

 The kids chore charts are now on the side of the bookcase in the livingroom.

 The school stuff organized on the shelves. Not sure if you can see but the shelves are labeled.

 Close up of one of the shelves this one holds some Sonlight books that didn't fit on the shelf above and science books.

 Top shelf holds world history books, bottom is US history.

our attempt at workboxes!

Since we live in a small house I don't have the space to use traditional workboxes so we are making use of plastic hanging file boxes. They work better for us since they are portable.

First off I hunted pinterest for the tags :D HEy why re invent the wheel if someone else has done it before right? Then I picked 4 colors for my kids and we even have matching color dot stickers for their books that I will eventually get color coded! So since I am only homeschooling 2 I started with work boxes for them. WIsh I could have found the file boxes in the matching colors but I couldn't so I picked up 2 on clearance for walmart $5 each.

Top 20 Reasons Moms of Kids With Special Needs ROCK

Saw this on a friend's blog and had to share!!

Top 20 Reasons Moms of Kids With Special Needs ROCK

1) Because we never thought that "doing it all" would mean doing this much. But we do do it all -- and then some.

2) Because we've discovered patience we never knew we had.

3) Because we are willing to do something 10 times, 100 times or 1,000 times if that's what it takes for our kids to learn something new.

4) Because we have heard doctors tell us the worst, and we've refused to believe them. Take THAT, naysaying doctors of the world!

5) Because we have bad days and breakdowns and bawl-fests, and then we pick ourselves up and keep right on going.

6) Because we gracefully handle the stares, the comments, the rude remarks. (Well, mostly gracefully.)

7) Because we manage to get ourselves together and get out the door looking pretty damn good. Heck, we even make sweatpants look good!

8) Because we are strong. Man, are we strong. Who knew we could be this strong?

9) Because we aren't just moms, wives, cooks, cleaners, chauffeurs and women who work. We are moms, wives, cooks, cleaners, chauffeurs, women who work, physical therapists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, teachers, researchers, nurses, coaches and cheerleaders. Whew!

10) Because we work overtime every single day.

11) Because we also worry overtime, but we work it through. Or we eat chocolate or Pirate's Booty or gourmet cheese (which aren't reimbursable by insurance as mental-health necessities, but should be).

12) Because we are more selfless than other moms. Our kids need us more.

13) Because we give our kids with special needs endless love, and then we still have so much love left for our other kids, our husbands, our families. And our hairstylists, of course.

14) Because we inspire one another in this crazy blogosphere every single day.

15) Because we understand our kids better than anyone else -- even if they can't talk; even if they can't gesture; even if they can't look us in the eye. We know. We just know.

16) Because we never stop pushing for our kids.

17) Because we never stop hoping for them, either.

18) Because just when it seems like things are going OK, they're suddenly not OK, but we deal. Somehow, we always deal -- even when it seems like our heads or hearts might explode.

19) Because when we look at our kids, we just see great kids -- not kids with cerebral palsy/autism/Down syndrome/developmental delays/whatever.

20) Because ... well, you tell me.

Wow it's been a long time once again!!

I really need to keep this blog more updated!! I have spent this weekend working on setting up workboxes for my 2 homeschoolers. I will post pictures when I am done. I hope this is the answer to us staying on top of school work and the kids knowing what they should be doing when. I am using file folder boxes and hanging files instead of boxes so it takes up less space and it's portable since we are a family on the go.

A family update- For those that don't know our DD #2 has become a medical mystery to the doctors at this point. A year ago we started seeing specialist at CRS Flagstaff. We saw the Neurologist and he wanted her tested for Muscular Dystrophy so when she had the last surgery on her feet in January 2011 they also did a muscle biopsy to test for MD. That came back clear, she also had a brain MRI and that came back inconclusive. Next step was seeing a Genetic Specialist. So last month we saw Dr Amato at CRS Phoenix and had genetic testing done. We are now waiting for results. So at this point in time she has mild cerebral palsy but we aren't sure why. The doctors really want to know WHY she has all the issues she has and to be honest we would like answers too.

It's been a LONG 10 year road starting with the club feet at birth and weekly cast changes. Then the doctors originally telling me ohhh she's just behind because of everything going on with her feet. To then when FUSD did testing on her to go into K we were told she was mild mentally retarded. Then to be told oh no it's not that she has a severe language disorder both expressive and receptive and she has mild cerebral palsy. To last year being told we think your daughter has Muscular Dystrophy. Now being told yes it's CP but we don't know why.  I have certainly learned to just turn my fears over to God because he's in control anyway.

another week of deals!

So the deals this week weren't as great as last week. I got cap'n crunch for $1.77, Poore brother chips for $1.77(hubby's favorite& usually $2.99 each), not in pic but banquet dinners 88 cents each(Kat and Ben like these for lunch), ragu for 99 cents each(reg price is 1.99 each), Pam cooking spray 99 cents each(reg price is $4.29 each), Chris had to have the mac n cheese it was $1 each but makes for a quick portable lunch, apple juice for $1.29 each, canned veggies 17 cents each(I bought 18 cans & they are reg price $1.59 EACH) and cat litter 20 lbs for $4.99 each(instead of the $12.99 sale price for 40 lbs I paid earlier this month).

So far this month I have saved $52 in coupons since I started using coupons again 8/29 and they are just from ONE set of Sunday papers and ones I have printed off the internet, sure I bought 6 papers but they have been worth EVERY penny!!! I have also saved $295.37 from in store savings(sales and clearance items). I have saved an average of 56% on my groceries so far this month. This doesn't count what I have bought at Sam's club but that has been very little this month.

WOW I have scored the deals this week!!

I scored some awesome deals this week!! Cap'n crunch cereal 15 oz boxes for $1.27 each after coupons, 1 liter sparking Arrowhead water FREE after coupons, travel size tide FREE after coupons, pace salsa for $1.17 each after coupons. I went to Alberstons and spent $11.39 and saved 31.40!! Then at Frys first trip I spent $19.14 and saved $17.27, 2nd trip I spent $26.37 and saved $16.98(not as many deals and coupons this trip). At Bashas I spent $4.38 and saved $23.50!! Today at Target I spent $10.22 but I saved$11.24(not counting the savings on the dishwasher detergent that was on clearance). So far from the 8/29 newspaper I have now saved $34 in coupons for a net savings of $21.07 after what I paid for the newspapers.

So starts a new way to budget...

I was looking online at crown financial and decided it's time to get the debt paid off. So that led to trying to figure out how to control our monthly spending. Using the cash envelopes isn't an option for us because we use Amex and pay it off monthly. So I came up with dividing what we have budgeted for the Amex into different categories.

I am using a coupon file pocket and have my budget divided into eating out, groceries/household, cat stuff, gas, school stuff/field trips, fast food(those days we are just too busy to eat at home), misc, newspaper and clothing/medical(since this is a category that isn't always the same each month I combined the two).

I gave myself a budget for each category and each category has a pocket and sticky note to keep a running total of what I have left in each category. I also keep all my receipts for the month so we can see what we are spending our money on.

I also went thru Sam's club the other day and wrote down the prices and sizes of the things we usually buy there so I can compare it to sale prices at the grocery stores and see if sales + coupons= a better deal than Sam's.

Coupon Binder

So after looking around at different ways to organize coupons I decided to go with the Coupon Binder idea. So here is what I came up with I used The Krazy Coupon Lady as my starting point. So here is the pile I started with, a binder, sheet protectors, dividers and the 9 card protector pages.

The inside of my binder, yes it's actually 2 separate three ring binders inside, thinking this will make it easier to find coupons I HOPE!!!

The left side of the binder where I will keep the current weekly ads.

How I have my coupons organized. Yes no coupons yet I just started up again and haven't had a chance to get a Sunday paper yet:) by Sunday night this will actually have coupons in it. I have 36 different categories

Page with all my frequent shopper cards :)

I print my weekly lists from www.practicalsaver.com So each store goes in a page protector with the coupons for that store. I also highlight the items I plan to buy.