Success!

I mentioned in a few notebooks past that Shannon was struggling with his reading lessons. I decided to keep plugging along but I told myself that as soon as he starts to get frustrated I would just say, "Hey, I think we've done enough. Great job!" and move on. But as soon as I would say that, he would calm down and want to keep going. So after about a week of that, things just started clicking. It is so amazing. He is just reading up a little storm over here. What's interesting is that Chloe, who was quite a bit more comfortable with reading single words than Shannon was, has now fallen a bit behind as she seems to get confused when reading words together in a sentence. Which is totally fine considering she is only three years old! I didn't expect her to learn more then just the letters and maybe some sounds this year.

It is so incredible what shifts can take place in just a matter of weeks. I feel so blessed to be the one who gets to facilitate their learning. If I can remember to get a video of Shannon reading, I will post one. I am the worst at taking pictures. I like to think it is because I am so busy living the moments that I forget to stop and take pictures. Yes . . . that's it.

Motorcycle Fail

So I took a motorcycle safety course with my dad over the weekend. I had never even been a passenger on a motorcycle but it's something I have wanted to do since I was 15 and watched Easy Rider with my dad in our living room. My dad found out the dates for the course and my job was to just call and confirm my registration. I did it pretty quickly amongst a million other things going on at the time. So I was all signed up and just had to buy some boots and wait for the class. When we were finally heading to the course, I think it finally dawned on me that I was going to be riding a motorcycle.

The first evening of class was just classroom instruction so not too scary. But I somehow had failed to grasp the fact that we were going to be tested on this stuff and that if we passed we could do down to the DOL and get our endorsement. Oh yah. So that part got me a bit nervous. The next morning we were geared up and ready to ride at 7:45am. We started out with very basic skills and each exercise built on the one before it. So it was actually okay. By the end of the first day of riding I felt pretty confident. The next day, I seemed to have forgotten the basics and the whole practice just seemed to not be as solid as the day before. By the time the test came I was a nervous wreck and pretty much blew the whole thing. I wasn't really too upset about it, considering I had really just wanted to learn how to ride and get familiar with the sport. My dad, by the way, got 100%. What a show off.

My dad and I have formulated a plan to get some practice time in this summer and retake the course in the fall. I do know there are people on this earth (my friend Laura being one of them) that were able to pass the test on the first try, having never ridden a bike before the course, but I was not one of them. Among all the gifts and natural abilities God has given me, if motorcycle riding is not one of them, I'm okay with that. If it would have been a karaoke test or a make-a-chicken-pot-pie-from-scratch test, I would've schooled all those guys.

The Storm Before the Calm

Last week was nuts and this week even more so. Let's take a look at last week:
Monday - Prepare to make meals, get in a lot of school time because rest of week will be crazy
Tuesday - Go into spokane to pick up chicken, start preparing meals, gymnastics in the evening
Wednesday - Occupational Therapy, Albertsons to score free cereal, more meal prep, teach Childbirth Ed in the evening
Thursday - More meal prep, soccer in the evening
Friday - Fun at the park, get home and prepare to be gone most of the weekend, go to first day of motorcycle safety course in the evening (wanna know how that went? See next post)
Weekend - mototcycle safety course, church, resting

This Week (watching my cousin's daughter Tuesday - Friday):
Monday - More meal prep, coupon class in the evening (had a lot of fun. Pamela rocks)
Tuesday - Last of the meals will be prepped, meet with doula network officers in the evening, stacey will come home early to get Shannon to gymnastics
Wednesday - Occupational therapy, Childbirth Ed in the evening
Thursday - Soccer practice and then meet with NFP instuctor (we have an awesome woman instructing us in the use of the Creighton Method)
Friday - Date with my husband. We're going to Taste for Life, a benefit for Hospice.

And then . . . nothing. Peace. Quiet. A week to prepare ourselves for Easter. Although, most of the things I have scheduled this week are things I will enjoy, I am very much looking forward to the stillness. Next week I do not teach, gymnastics is over, and I don't have any other meetings. Our family will be together every night. A very Holy Week indeed.

Freezer Meals

I was able to score boneless, skinless, chicken breasts for $1.58/lb last week but I had to buy a 40 lb case. So, the weekend before the purchase I planned several meals I could make and freeze and I purchased the remaining ingrediants I needed. The awesome thing it, I had most of the dry and canned ingrediants already in my stock pile. I basically had to purchase about $35 in produce and herbs. I also thawed out 12 lbs of chicken from a previous score (1.88/lb).

I used recipes from my two favorite freezer meal books:
Don't Panic Dinner's in the Freezer and Don't Panic More Dinner's in the Freezer

I bought these books when I was 8 months pregnant with Athena so I could load up our freezer before her birth. So here are the meals I made last week and part of this week:

Chicken Parisienne (crockpot meal) x 3
Chicken Cacciatore (crockpot meal) x 3
Chick Breasts Stuffed with Pesto (oven) x 2
Buttermilk Herb (grill) x 3
Chick Pot Pie (oven) x 6 this one is a family favorite
Grilled Honey Lime Chicken (grill) x 3
Teriyaki Chicken Stirfry (stovetop) x 4


So, I made 24 meals and I believe the cost came out to about $5.25/meal. Not too shabby. Oh, and I should mention, each meal will feed our family for dinner and then Stacey's lunch the next day.

Now I'm hoping to find a deal on pork and repeat the process. I would like to spread these meals out over a 4 - 5 month period. We're not huge beef eaters but if I find a deal, I have recipes for that too.

Notebook: Week of 3/15

Language Arts
100 Easy Lessons: 33 - 35
Mead Handwriting: Letter O
Poetry: Bed In Summer

Math
Review and catch up on past worksheets not completed

Religion
I made an effort to lead the kids in spontaneous prayers of thanks and petition (please God help me to make good choices, etc) in hopes that it will start to become more of a habit.

Other
Gymnastics
Soccer (I was hoping it would not overlap with Gymnastics but only for two weeks)
Occupational Therapy
Many days at the playground

Arts and Crafts
Last week was a busy week so I never got around to creating any planned art projects but on several mornings, I woke up to Shannon sitting at Stacey's desk, arts and crafts bins open, creating masterpieces. He made this card for me one morning:

I also created a card for Shannon but I think he ran off with it before I could get a picture. It's a shame too because it was some of my best work. : )

My Wife Made Me Do It!

It was brought to my attention recently that not every stay-at-home, home educating, catholic wife is as happy as I am. To be honest, I was shocked. Yes, I know that sounds naive but I thought, because we all had similar family situations, it was sunshine and rainbows for all. It seems some of my buddies are not completely satisfied with the amount of time they spend with, and the amount of assistance they get from, their husbands.

I want to make it clear that my friends were not standing around husband bashing. It all started when I mentioned that my husband, let's just call him "awesome Stacey", does the bath, books, and bed routine with the kids every night while I do some evening cleanup, hang out with Athena, or just watch some TV. My friends asked me, "How do you make him do all that?" Stacey and I never actually had a discussion in which we divided up these activities equally. It just kind of happened as he naturally wanted to check in with his kids after being away from them all day. And we probably get at least 30-45 minutes of conversation in between him getting home and going to bed. I am not saying that every family should start doing this or they won't be happy. What I am saying is, if your current routine is not working, have a conversation with you spouse, and make some changes.

I think it may be difficult for some moms to ask for help in these domestic areas because they feel it is their responsibility as their husband works outside the home. But, my fellow moms, if we get burnt out, we can not teach, discipline, clean, or make dinner . . . at all, let alone with a smile on our face and in our hearts. I can honestly say that I love being a mom and I am joyfully living out my calling. When I realize that Athena needs a diaper change, do I shout out with joy? No, that's crazy talk. But while I am changing her, I get to gaze into her adorable eyes and spend a few minutes just being together, stinky diaper and all. And when she's all clean and unstinky, she gets a big smile as if to say, "Thank you, mom. I couldn't have done it without you". Having to discipline my kids is not always super fun but it reminds me how blessed I am that I get to be the one to teach them. But I can not do this 24/7. That's why God gave me a partner in crime. Stacey is the head of this household (uh oh. I think I just heard the sound of a million feminists gasping) but it doesn't mean he comes home and sits on his throne while we all wait on him. Do you think Stacey would be very proud to be head of an unhappy household? In a marriage where his wife resents him and is too tired to be loving? A father who doesn't know a thing about his children and whose children don't know him? Stacey works for the good of his family 24/7, not just when he is at his place of employment. Did I mention that he works 50 - 55 hours a week and still manages to be the best husband/father he can be?

I listen to two awesome talk radio programs, hosted by the same couple, Dr. Greg Popcak and his wife, Lisa. Just as I was thinking about addressing this topic on my blog, I heard them answer a listener's e-mail on Heart, Mind, and Strength, on this very same topic. The listener expressed her frustration with her husband. She is 6 months pregnant with their 4th baby.  She and her husband have an arrangement where they take turns putting the kids to bed but she usually ends up doing it all, even when it is her husband's turn. She was okay with this until she found herself pregnant with number four, exhausted at the end of the day, and unable to comfortably perform all parental tasks (ie: bedtime routine). She has pleaded with her husband and his reply has been "I do more then the average dad". Her question to The Popcaks: What is reasonable when asking or insisting on help from my husband when he gets home from work?

I loved Greg Popcak's answer. Allow me to paraphrase. First off he is not crazy about couples who try to divide up all of the work equally because this leads to problems almost always. When someone gets sick or is otherwise unable to perform their equal half of the tasks then you end up in this negotiation about one spouse taking the others "shift" and one spouse "owing" the other. Second of all, it is not the wife "making" the husband perform additional tasks. It is the situation that you have created together that is requiring additional tasks to be done. This whole, "My wife is making me do this or that" or "I did my wife a favor and cooked dinner" is a bunch of poo. Stacey and I do what needs to be done according to what the day brings.

For example: I spent all day today at the Spokane Baby Fair working at the Inland Northwest Doula Network booth. This is an event I attend every year. We planned ahead by going to Mass last night. I prepared a dinner that Stacey would just have to pop in the oven. While I was gone, he played with our children in the yard, he fed Athena and put her down for a nap, he made lunch, he washed the dishes, and he did a couple loads of laundry. When I got home, I got down to nursing Athena while Stacey and I shared our adventures. I do not "owe" him a Sunday. He did not do me a huge favor by spending time at home with my kids. I am grateful for the work he put in to our family today just as I am grateful for the work he puts in when he is working outside the home at his place of employment. Our evening went on as it usually does . . . actually it didn't. He did the dishes after dinner because he could tell how completely beat I was. I didn't ask him to. He just did what had to be done to keep this household running smooth. That, my dear friends, is a man of God.

Dr. Popcak also went on to address this "more than the average husband" business. It is not about doing just enough to be considered above average. It's about being the spouse that your wife needs you to be. Not the average husband that the wife down the street needs you to be. I love those Popcaks.

In conclusion, I encourage all of my married friends to seek out arrangements that allow everyone to live joyfully within your awesome families. You are not being a nag by requesting more of your spouse, you are simply helping them to become the fantastic spouse/parent that you know they are capable of being. When each member of the family is working for the good of the entire family, you will truly be able to enjoy changing those stinky diapers and teaching your toddler not to write on the walls.

If you wanna check out the radio show I was referencing, click here. It is called Heart, Mind, and Strength. That particular episode, Friday, March 12th, is not listed on this page but you can also go to itunes and download it for free.

Notebook: Week of 3/8

Reading: 100 Easy Lessons 29 - 32. This week went better so I think we will keep doing 4 lessons a week for now.

Math: Began chapter on Order and Place Value

Poetry: Continued learning "Bed in Summer". First two stanzas are pretty firm.

Handwriting: Worked in Mead books. Shannon seemed to be getting a little bored so I printed out some worksheets from Donna Young's website. (An awesome resource. Free stuff galore!)

Religion: Started working on "The Things I See In Church" lapbooks

Other: Gymnastics & Occupational Therapy

Unfortunately, the weather was pretty poopy all week, so we didn't get to go outside too much. Today, we finally had some good weather so Stacey had the kids outside with him for four hours, working in the yard. We shall all sleep well tonight.

Heart of the Matter Conference

I finally got the links to the MP3s for the conference I virtually attended a few weeks back. I still haven't managed to listen to every session but, to be honest, many of the sessions were rather fluffy. It was good for creating some overall motivation and maybe some cute ideas but not a lot of real beefy content. The entire conference was only $13 so I'm definitely not complaining. If anything, it motivated me to seek out some Catholic home school conferences that I could possibly attend in the future. Some of the sessions got pretty intense, in the way of faith based content, and it didn't quite line up with what I believe, as a Catholic. It was pretty easy to sift through it and get what I wanted out of it so it wasn't a complete disaster or anything. I thought I would give you a run down of my favorite sessions and some links that I found helpful.

Carol Barnier: "What Are You Thinking? Learning Style and Beyond"

This session stood out, ironically, because the learning style topic is talked about over and over in homeschool books, web sites, etc. Carol addressed this up front. She talked about how, as a homeschooling mom, we are told to identify our child's learning style and then teach to that. "If your child is a visual learner, teach visually" and then we are left to our own devices. She has written a book called "The Big What Now Book of Learning Styles" which is supposed to give us methods of teaching all sorts of subjects to each of the different learning styles. Unfortunately amazon doesn't have an option to "look inside" the book. Boooo. I always like to read the table of contents to get a feel for a book and if it is right for me. Her hour long presentation was pretty interesting and gave a lot of ideas. I actually listened to that one live so I plan on giving it another listen and taking some notes.


Katie Kubesh: "Beginning Lapbooking"

Somehow, I had never even heard of lapbooking until I listened to this session. After it was described, I then turned around and explained it to my husband. I kinda think of the lapbook as a miniature version of those big awkward foam board projects I was made to do in middle school. I did one in sixth grade on Paul Revere and then one in seventh on Joan of Arc. Basically, you pick a topic, your child does little mini book and different projects around this topic and puts all of the new found knowledge into a lapbook. It's kinda awesome because I am, naturally, not very artsy and crafty but I want to be for my kids. The lapbook really speaks to my crazy organizational side. You get to research a topic and then organize all of it in these adorable and crafty lapbooks. And then you can reference the lapbook over and over. And you can store them pretty easily because they don't take up much space. I was pretty impressed. Katie explains in her session how to create your own topic and come up with the minibooks and such for the lapbook or you can let her do all the prep for you. She has a company, Hands of a Child, that creates the outline for the project for you. It's really hard to explain so you'll just have to check out the site. The kids and I always seem to do our craft projects based around whatever we're studying in religion or coinciding with the liturgical year so I wanted to find something more Catholic specific. I found Lapbooks for Catholics and purchased "The Things I See In Church" lapbook. We just started working on it today. I was getting a little bored with the Who Am I? curriculum that we've been working through this year so I thought we would take a break and work on this instead.

Jim Mueller: "Essential Science"

This guy loves him some physics! You must check out his web site. He was very captivating. He basically talked about ways to engage kids in learning about physics. What I found pretty interesting is he made it clear that you don't need to do a whole bunch of math to study and enjoy physics. He has a bunch of his own curricula for sale on his site and he actually teaches classes for a really reasonable price that your child can attend via the internet. I dare your kid to fall asleep. He totally reminds me of Bill Nye the Science Guy. I just find science nerds (ie: my husband) adorable. He mentioned that kids don't really need any formal teaching, involving experiments and whatnot, until they reach the age of 8 or 9. Up until that point, it's just about observing and learning about the world we live in. This totally falls in line with the classical model of education, which we use, so I do think I will revisit his materials when it comes time to find a science curriculum in a few years.

There was also a session that addressed teaching kids with Sensory Processing Disorder (presented by Heather Laurie) so, of course, I was interested. But, because I have already read a million books on the subject and been seeing an occupational therapist, I was already pretty familiar with the material that was presented. Still a good listen though.

Here's the site for the conference, if you wanna give it a look.

Notebook: Week of 3/1

Wow! This week was a little crazy. While our house was turned upside down for the basement renovation, we tried to do as many out of the house activites as possible. And, as many home educating moms know, even when we take a week off from formal schooling, the kids just keep learning despite my greatest effort to mess it up.

On Monday the kids spent ther entire day with Granny (my dad's mom) while I stayed home and painted. Oh. My. Gosh. I was soooooo sore. But the kids had a blast. They love being with their Granny.

On Tuesday we went to Alton's to get our brakes, which have been grinding for a few weeks now, done. I knew it would take a little while but when we were quoted 3 hours, I must admit I was in a bit of a panic. But we actually enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. Luckily, I had prepared and brought the stroller and hats and gloves. We walked over to Jack in the Box and had lunch and then walked to Starbucks for some hot cocoa. Then we walked over to Walmart and Shannon and Chloe helped me look at possible birthday gifts for Athena's big First Birthday coming up in April. After we picked the car up, we went to the park to further enjoy the nice weather. After dinner we were off to gymnastics where Shannon showed the signs of sensory wackiness. I call it "crazy eyes" when I talk to his occupational therapist. I'm not really sure what triggered this episode but I can guess he was over stimulated by the day's events. He tried to get the sensory input he needed to calm himself by throwing himself onto the mats and rolling on the floor. I knew right away what was happening and eventually, like 2 hours later, he was able to settle down.

Wednesday morning we were off to Occupational Therapy. And then I spent the day returning e-mails for Engaged Encounter and preparing to teach childbirth ed for Catholic Charities. The kids played outside and watched a few movies on my laptop.

Thursday was the big carpet install. After the installer left, the kids were so excited to run around the basement. We spent the rest of the day putting some of the toys downstairs and getting some things back where they belong.

Friday we went to our home school group.  The group decided to have the kids do some sort of presentation related to Lent. Shannon and Chloe brought their rosaries and told the group how they pray with Daddy every night. And they recited the Hail Mary as well. Super cute.

Throughout the days and nights, the kids would often open up their 100 Lessons book and read words to each other. They would also ask me how to spell things or play with the magnetic letters on the fridge. We still did our reading at bedtime and math is just unavoidable in everyday life so that was taken care of. And we recited our poetry throughout the week as well. I felt pretty bad about taking yet another week off from school but now that I've reflected on our past week, I realize we did a lot more than I thought. 

I was also off my game a little bit last week because Athena started having a lot of trouble sleeping starting Wednesday night. I finally took her in to the doc today and she has an ear infection and the infant equivalent of a sinus infection. -sigh- The poor thing. So we got her on some antibiotics and she's on the road to recovery. And I am really looking forward to getting a decent night of rest before we hit the grind tomorrow.

Couponing is soooo in right now

My name is Stephanie and I am a coupon-a-holic. Hey, I could think of worse things to be. So about 6 weeks ago, I went to a doula network meeting, and found out one of my doula pals teaches a free class at her home about couponing. Couponing??!!  She told me that she spends $400 a month on groceries and birthday gifts for her family of 10! I was spending more then that on my family of five just on food. I went home and started doing my own reserach and found tons of blogs all about couponing and how to get stuff for free and cheap and just basically about being frugal. I have cut our spending by about 25% so far. I am hoping to get it down to $50-$75/week as I get better at it. I have decided not to make my blog about couponing bcause there are already a lot of great resources available. And here are my favorites:

www.thekrazycouponlady.com
click on her the tab "KCL 101" and then "10 days to become a KCL"

www.hip2save.com
she posts a lot about Walgreens and links to free stuff

In fact just today I got a sample of 3 free pampers that came with $12 in coupons that I signed up to receive a couple of weeks ago . . . for free. I don't have time to click on every single link that she posts but I do what I can.

Both of these sites will post when the new weekly ads come out for various stores (walgreens, safeway, albertsons, target, rite aid, fred meyer, etc) and will tell you what coupons match up with the sale items. Pretty sweet.

So basically how it works is, you wait for something to hit rock bottom price and you stock up. My husband and I put an extra set of shelves in our utility room for precisely this reason. And we already had a small chest freezer so that works out awesome. So about a month ago Albertsons had this insane Quaker sale where everything was $1. I also ordered 10 coupons on ebay for $3 off 5 Quaker products. I think the coupons costs me $4 for all 10. So I went to Albertsons and loaded my cart with 50 various Quaker items (life cereal, rolled oats, pancake mix, captain crunch, instant oatmeal, etc). So that's $50 - $30 in coupons = $20 or $0.40 an item. That's pretty Krazy considering you can usually only get 5 or 6 boxes of cereal for $20.

I must admit, my spending was getting a little out of control before this whole couponing thing. I just always thought we needed something for the house or the kids needed this or that. The amazing thing about becoming a krazy coupon lady is it has seeped over in other areas of our life. I am now very careful about what I am spending our money on. And we are hoping this will allow us to reach 2 goals: move to a bigger place in 3 years and be able to give more. Stacey told me that when he was staying in a hotel in DC a few weeks ago, he noticed a charge for $17 he was pretty sure he was not responsible for. He admits that a few months ago he wouldn't have bothered but he channeled my frugalness and disputed the charge. Sure enough, it was not his signature on the room service slip. $17 saved!!!

I have found some other interesting couponing topic as I've cruised the web but unfortunately I don't remember exactly where I found them. Such topics as "Why it does not pay to buy generic" and "Walmart is not the cheapest place to buy stuff" and whatnot. I liked the one about buying generic because when you first start couponing it can be very time consuming and it might also seem like it isn't worth it when you see the prices of generic products and think, "Why don't I just buy the off brand and save myself the hassle" Because, my friends, off brand diapers suck! and so do many other off brand products. So why settle for poor quality when you can get the good stuff for less without being unethical.

Other then this post, I plan on posting my super awesome coupon scores on Sundays but that's about it. Like I said, I think you will find a lot of great resources out there for couponing if you are interested in trying it yourself. I have also found a lot of links to blogs about organizing from the coupon sites and I think it's because to be frugal you have to be organized and you have to think ahead. Buy everything before you need it or you will be stuck paying full price. Noooooooooo!!! Not full price!!!!! In my family, we hardly ever need medicine like Tylenol and whatnot. We're tough like that. But on the rare occasion that we do, I end up running down to safeway and paying $7 or something. Well, I got some at Walgreens for like $1.50 (and you can usually get it even cheaper) and about 3 weeks later my family came down with the plague. Shannon got an ear infection and it was a whole scene. Luckily I had my super cheap Tylenol. I also currently have about 3 months of Huggies (that I purchased for between $2 - $5 per jumbo pack) and like 4 months worth of toilet paper (average .20/double roll). And don't get me started on my freezer full of chicken and my years supply of deoderant/body wash/razers.

Hmmmm, have I covered everything? I think so. If I have forgotten something, I'll just post an update. But I think you get the picture and you can learn all about the particulars at Krazy Coupon Lady. Like where to get coupons (I buy 5 Sunday papers every week. My friend with the 10 kids said one paper per family member is her rule of thumb).

Happy couponing!

Renovation station

Just as I was loving my awesome new focus clipboard and my new lists and my overall organization, we decided it would be super fun to renovate our basement. We actually decided a while ago that we would use our tax return to finally finish our basement, which has been a work in progress since we moved in nearly 5 years ago. We just weren't sure when, exactly, each piece would fall into place. Two Saturdays ago my mom and dad came over and put all of the electrical in place in the soon-to-be guest room. We had already done the other rooms as parts of previous projects. Last week, we had the drywallers in. I was actually able to keep on task during that time because the kids' play room had already been done a couple years ago (still no carpet) so they were able to play and we didn't have to move any of their stuff. On Sunday, we had to move everything out of every room to prepare for painting and carpet. So, all of the kids toys and shelving, all of the crap we used to keep in the spare room, our TV and other electronics from the family room are now occupying our living room, office, and bedrooms. In short, this place is a mess and I don't even know where half our stuff is. As I type, there is a man in our basement installing the carpet. I keep watching the clock, peeking downstairs, pacing. I am itching to put everything back where it belongs. I can not live in this disorder any longer! Needless to say, school took a back seat this week. But, the kids have been doing crafts like crazy. I've just been leaving all of the supplies out and they dig in.

I am comforted by that fact that the disorder in the house has effected my children as well (because I know I am not the only one). Shannon and Chloe have been at each others throats. I am trying so hard to teach them loving and effective ways to sort out their conflicts. They are very good at asking forgiveness so we've got that going for us. And Shannon does not do well with change. We have all heard that kids crave consistency, but him even more so. He is so lost right now. He spent the first few days pointing out, over and over, all of the things that were out of place.

I have realized over the years that I become visually overstimulated very easily. For instance, when the living room is cluttered and the kids run through, tripping on stuff, I can feel my heart beating faster and faster and I feel as though I may blow. Also, I crave light. Sitting in a dimly lit room is possibly the must unnerving thing in the world. Great, now everyone knows I'm a spaz. My point is, this renovation is really taking a toll. I just feel out of whack (is that a medical term?) and nervous. What is truly exhausting, is having to hold Athena all the time. There are very few safe places for a baby to roam right now. Okay enough of my wining! When it's all over our basement will be beautiful, the kids will finally have a finished playroom, our family room will actually be a place the family wants to be, and we'll have a comfortable place for guests to sleep (when we get a bed that is).

My plan is to do a bit of school this weekend while Stacey is at guard. I think my folks may come over to help me with some finishing touches on the basement but other than that, we don't have any plans. We did get to go on some adventures this week as an attempt to stay away from my stressful house so I'll put those in our notebook this week.

Posts to come:
Review of virtual conference sessions
Notebook: Week of 3/1/10
Lenten update
Pictures of awesome basement!