2014

This year has really seemed to fly by. It definitely was not a year of blogging for me, but I know 2014 will be a completely different story. It's unheard of for me to still have my Easter design up in October. I am actually fixing to change it over to Christmas and let it stay that way through the end of the year. As the end of the year draws closer and closer I find myself getting so excited. I have big plans for 2014 and I am ready to get going with those plans. I am still in a hurry and wait phase. I want to do this and that, but I can't because we just aren't there yet. One thing that is going to happen is I will be un-enrolling Maddy from daycare at the end of the year. I am actually ready to do it now to save the money, but I need her to go through the first week of November at least so I can get my Christmas shopping done if you know what I mean ;) It's actually harder on me to take her to school than it will be for her to stay home. I will get two hours back of my time, so in the end I might actually get to play with her on some days. I will also be responsible for her learning, but that's the whole point of homeschool. We will have a couple of weeks or so before I get her preschool curriculum ordered, but I am so excited to begin this process. Maddy is beyond excited to begin this process. If it were up to her she would have been staying home a long time ago. I still struggle a little bit with the decision. I worry about her happiness and whether she will be really be ok spending all her time at home with mommy, instead of with her friends. She really enjoys her friends, but she just doesn't like the teachers and honestly I can't say that I blame her. She's involved in church thank goodness, but it's such a struggle to get her to go. I really don't know how to get past this stage. She would be fine if I could stay with her, but if I stay with her she would not interact with the kids and I just don't think that would be a good decision. Once I leave she is completely fine. I always wanted to be a teacher and now I get that chance. I found a great website that is free that will be good for preschool and pinterest always has creative things to do with kids. I will have a hard time not spending ALL my time doing fun things with her. I've always dreamed of being a SAHM and this will feel like my dream come true, except I still have to work lol. I know I have rambled on and on about this homeschool thing, but in case you couldn't tell I'm a wee bit excited. Again, I know there will be challenges with this and it's definitely going to be hard work, but it will be so worth it.

Provided nothing major changes in my life, I have an exciting vacation planned for 2014. I can't share any details yet, but I have some posts scheduled that will publish on certain dates. Apparently 2013 is a secretive year for me lol. No, unfortunately it's just privacy issues I have had to deal with that I decided to put a stop to.

I thought Maddy would be starting Kindergarten in August of 2014, but right before I went to daycare to tell them how it is, my gut told me I better check kindergarten start dates one more time before I made a fool of myself. Boy was I glad I listened lol. In my state the new cut off date is August 15 for the 2014 school year. This year it was August 31. Talk about a mad mom. Maddy would be beyond ready for Kindergarten next year. She is extremely smart and learns fast. She will basically be 6 years old before starting school and will probably be graduating at 19...that doesn't seem right to me. I wish they would have left the dates alone and let it be up to the parents to decide whether or not their child is ready for school. That's the main reason for pulling her out of daycare. I am financially strapped right now and I saw the light at the end of the tunnel lol. Maddy still has one more class to go. She will be in her current class for a year and then will transition to the very last class. That's why I was fixing to go have words with her daycare. In my mind I was thinking maybe they would transition her to the last class after 6 months of this class, but that just didn't make sense because 6 months is not a lot of time to learn to read and write. I planned our vacation around not having daycare expenses and when I realized she would actually be in daycare another 2 years really, I decided I would go ahead and pull her and get us a routine down so when she does start kindergarten we will be a pro at our schedule. Plus I did NOT want to cancel our vacation plans lol. I just reread what I wrote...I really am terrible with words lol. I don't want to make it seem like this is about money because it's not. I've made daycare work the last 3 years and I would do it more if I felt that is what needed to be done. I have spent a lot of time in prayer over this homeschool situation because I want to be in God's will. It became so evident to me that I needed to go ahead and pull her out of daycare now. I actually felt I needed to pull her out the minute I decided we were for sure homeschooling. I have been scared to. I'm still scared maybe I'm doing what I want and not what God wants. I'm scared because I had visions of walking out of her daycare doors for the very last time as a prekindergarten graduate. I'm scared because I had dreams of getting to see her prekindergarten pictures they take with cap and gown and of coarse the prekindergarten graduation. I've waited 3 years for this lol. Luckily my uncle is a photographer and I can order a diploma and fill it in myself and we can recreate a graduation, but it's just not quite the same to me. Notice how most of my fears are selfish ones? That's what let me know that the devil is trying to distract me and get me off the path the Lord showed me. It has been amazing to see God work in our lives. I look back on life a year ago from now and just stand in amazement at all the Lord has done for us. He provides our every need even though sometimes it feels like He almost didn't make it in time lol. Nothing we have has been accomplished on our own...it has ALL been accomplished because of God. God has even worked in Manny's life. I was so upset when Manny was so sick. The vet really didn't expect a good turnout with him, but I felt like he was willing to try because I stood there bawling my eyes out. I spent my time in prayer and begged God to put his healing hands on Manny. Manny has made a miraculous turn around. The last time we went to the vets I really felt like he was shocked with how much better his numbers were once he came home. He is probably not at those same numbers anymore because he looks a little more sickly, but I continually pray over him and ask God to please let him live as long as possible. This December will be the first year down since we got the kidney failure diagnosis. According to the vet he has a maximum of two more years. I don't know how much time he has left, but I know with God NOTHING is impossible!

As I've said in many posts before as I can I will write specifics to some of these so called secrets and I will continue to update our home school process. I will probably turn our two week notice in at daycare the second week of December, so definitely look for an update around then :)