HS: February

Where did February go?!!!  Seriously.  It was like a blink and it was gone!

This month we have continued to plug along with school.  In fact, school has been a huge blessing (and distraction) from some of the other things going on in our life right now.

FAMILY STUDY is amazing.  We are loving it so much and I am so grateful for it.  It is the absolute best way to start our day.  This month we have learned about Christ resisting the temptations of Satan and the beginning of Christ's ministry, Jesus turning water into wine, cleansing the temple, Nicodemus, the woman at the well, the Pharisees accusing Jesus of breaking the Sabbath, the calling of the Twelve Apostles, the Beatitudes, and the Sermon on the Mount.  AMAZING. 

LANGUAGE ARTS is going well.  It is Jacob's probably least enjoyed subject but he is learning so much.  This month we have learned about ER and EST words, poetry, OO words, homophones, nonfiction, EW words, compound words, and soft C and G sounds.  

Jacob also narrated a great story called, "Maxie, the Baby Polar Bear".  He was absolutely giddy about coming up with this.  It was adorable.  

We also did some literature studies with The Hero of Haarlem and discussing Parables.  

PRESCHOOL, is going so well for Sarah.  I have kind of been feeling blah about what we have been doing but I have decided that it's a really good segway to learning and even though I know she could handle more, what we have been doing is good too.  

This month, Sarah finished her unit about squirrels, thankfulness, and the color brown.  And today we finished her seventh unit!  This one was all about pandas, politeness, and the color blue.  

In HISTORY, we finished our unit on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance!  We only had one lesson left this month to finish up.  It was about the faithful French Huguenots.  I honestly don't remember ever learning about the Huguenots and that was so interesting to dive into this unit.  

We then started our third history unit which covers the French and Indian War through the Revolutionary War!  We were so excited to dive into a different period in history.  So far we have learned about New France, young George Washington, the French & Indian War, the reasons for a revolution, the Sons of Liberty, and the Boston Tea Party.  We've also started reading a book called, Martha Washington by Jean Brown Wagoner which we are really enjoying so far.  

In SCIENCE, we also finished our unit about Space!  This unit has been so fun and we have really enjoyed it.  To finish it up this month, we spent several days discussing space exploration and then talked about constellations.  We then wrapped up our unit by going on a field trip to the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake.  

We have now started our third science unit of this year, the human body!  Jacob is SO excited about this unit!  Some days he wants to be a doctor ;)  We've only just begun but so far we did an overview about our bodies and have discussed the skeletal system.  

MATH continues to go really well.  Jacob is just finishing up his third unit in math.  He will have his test next week and has done really well.  We are still focusing on numbers up to 20.  Our lessons this month have been about ordinal numbers to 20, reading and writing 11-20. telling time to the hour, odds and evens to 20, counting by twos to 20, a new fact family, counting by tens, counting by tens with dimes, and taking away from ten.  

HANDWRITING continues to go well and Jacob really has beautiful handwriting (when he wants to).  

For our READ ALOUDS this month, we finished Henry and Bessie: What They Did in the Country by Elizabeth Prentiss.  It was such a sweet book and we loved it.  We also just finished today, Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White.  This was such a fun book and we really enjoyed reading it.  

8th Anniversary

On Tuesday, Mark and I were able to celebrate our eighth anniversary!  It is definitely one of those things with time where it feels like it has just flown by but also when I think of all that we have gone through it seems crazy that it's been only eight!  

It's been so great having Mark home the last couple of weeks (I mean it stinks to not be making any money but we are focusing on the positives).  It's going to be a hard adjustment when he leaves for Wyoming.  

Our day was very normal in most ways but Mark did surprise me with flowers and some new music (WOOT!).  That evening, we loaded the kiddos and headed over to Logan for dinner out.  It was great to go out and relax.  

I am so grateful to have Mark by my side every day.  As with every couple, I am sure, we have been through a lot in our eight years but I am so grateful that our relationship just keeps getting deeper and stronger.  We have gone through some hard things but we know we are so much stronger when we go through them together and I am grateful to truly have a partner and best friend to do that with.  

Love you forever. 

Planetarium

We finished up our science unit on SPACE and decided that a field trip was definitely in order!  Mark had to take his Wyoming Law Exam down in Ogden and so he took that and then we headed to the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake.  

The kids had a blast and it was fun to see so many of the things that we have been learning about.  It was a great way to end our unit!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was filled with love...and excitement!  The kids were crazy excited for Valentine's Day this year.  Honestly, we were on like Christmas-level excitement!  The kiddos had been counting down and could not wait for the day to arrive.  

I love how we have made this day not so much about romantic love but about love in all its forms.  My favorite tradition with this holiday BY FAR is our love notes to one another.  The kids had so much fun making giant envelopes for their doors (and for all of their stuffed animal friends).  They made multiple love notes for everyone and they were so special.  

The last several weeks I have had such an overpowering feeling of love for my family.  This transition time we are in is stressful but I am constantly reminded that our little family is so strong and I am so grateful.  And at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter where we are, because we are together.  As corny as that may sound, it is truly how I feel.  And there is no one I love more than these five (yep, I am including you too, baby sister!).  

Recital

Last Saturday, Jacob had his first formal recital.  They kind of had a laid back one over Christmas at an assisted living place in Montpelier but this was more the real deal!  I grew up going to many recitals and this was unlike ANY recital I have ever been in!  To be honest, I still can't quite decide how I felt about it.  It was pretty theatrical and maybe I just like the good ole' fashioned "stuffy" ones but it was fun to watch Jacob and to see his hard work pay off.  

He played two songs in the recital: 

Mr. Machine

and

Party Cat

Good job, bud.  

BYU Basketball

Several weeks ago Mark and Jacob headed down to Provo for a BYU Basketball game!  Jacob was SO excited!!!  This was his present to Mark for Christmas and he was thrilled to get some one-on-one Daddy time. 

The boys made a pit stop at the Bean Museum, grabbed some dinner and then headed to the game.  They got there a little early...;)  Can you tell they are excited?!

HS: January

Seriously, sometimes I don't know why I make plans.  School in January went well but we did take some time off to prepare the house and get some things organized.  It was unexpected but we just roll with it.  It makes me really glad that we plan on schooling year round so I don't really stress too much about it.  Although, I was hoping to wrap things up before baby sister gets here.  We will see what happens!

The GREATEST thing by far this month has been our FAMILY STUDY.  This is how we are implementing the new Come, Follow Me curriculum in our family.  Mark and I read and study the lesson out the week before.  Then we sit down together and discuss what we want to do as a family.  On Sunday afternoons, while Benji is taking his nap, we go in and do our family study.  Mark leads mostly on Sundays since I do the rest of the week.  It's been so wonderful.  It is rocking our world in ALL the right ways!  

Monday through Friday we continue to meet together to read the Book of Mormon as a family and then do family prayer before Mark leaves for work.  Then as soon as he leaves, we head upstairs and begin our day with our family study.  We then dive deeper into different stories and other activities that reinforce whatever we are learning that week.  It has been amazing.  Seriously amazing.  This month we have talked about the Parable of the Sower, Elisabeth and Zacharias, Mary and Joseph, Jesus' Birth and Childhood, John the Baptism, and the Baptism of Jesus Christ.  

We are still in our third unit in MATH.  We studied three new fact families, Native American patterns, taking away five, the cylinder and cone, pictographs, making ten, the dime, and numbers 11-20.  

In PRESCHOOL, we finished our unit on lions, sharing and the color green and just began our new unit about squirrels, thankfulness, and the color brown.  

We are almost done with our unit about the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in HISTORY.  We only have one more lesson!  This month we learned about William the Conqueror, life in the Middle Ages, the Age of Chivalry, we took a lot of time to talk about Joan of Arc (she is AMAZING!), the Black Death, the Renaissance, and the Scientific Revolution.  We have also been reading Huguenot Garden by Douglas M. Jones III to go along with our unit and just finished it and loved it!

In SCIENCE we are continuing to talk about Space Science.  This month we discussed asteroids, comets, meteors, and meteoroids.  We also finished up talking about the planets, the gas giants: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.  We've also been learning about the history of astronomy and Galileo.  

Jacob continues to do well in LANGUAGE ARTS.  We have been learning about homophones, comas in a series, doing some art appreciation, EA words, discussing the four types of sentences (statements, commands, exclamation, question), AW and AU words, and decoding challenging words.  We also hit our halfway mark in our coursebook!  WOOT!  

Jacob memorized another POEM this month!  We have been really working on his presentation (keeping his hands down, talking in a smooth way, etc).  He is doing a lot better!

The Bird's Nest

By Unknown

Here upon the leaves at rest

A little bird has built her nest.

Two tiny eggs within she's laid,

And many days beside them stayed.

Now she's happy; listen well!

Two baby birds break through the shell.

Don't you hear them? "Peep! Peep! Peep!

We love you, Mother. Cheep! Cheep! Cheep!"

HANDWRITING is also going well.  Jacob also reached his half way point in this book as well.  He is now progressing to more complicated copywriting and is really enjoying it.  

We finished The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum this month.  We all LOVED it!  The kiddos were all excited to watch the movie afterwards to compare.  We all decided we liked the book better but it was fun to compare!  We are now reading Henry and Bessie: What They Did in the Country by Elizabeth Prentiss and it is adorable.  We are all really enjoying it.  

Jesus Christ is my Light

Sarah gave her first talk in Primary this last Sunday and she did a fabulous job!  I am so proud of her and who she is becoming.

"In the scriptures it says, 

"In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 

That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world"

(John 1:4, 9)

Many people do not know that they are children of God, or that they used to live with Heavenly Father, or what comes after this life.  That would be scary - kind of like darkness.  

It is hard to do things in the dark.  At night, I have a nightlight in my room to help me.  The light helps me to feel safe.  It helps me to know where to go. 

Jesus is like a light to each of us.  He help us to feel safe and know where to do.  He has given us scriptures, prophets, and families to help us.  

I know that Jesus lives and that He will help us. 

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Baby Girl

Days after we found out about Mark's job we were able to have our big ultrasound for our growing little baby.  This was great timing to give us a big pick-me-up!

My parents had come up to help me clean and finish up some projects around the house (so we could put our house up for sale).  Mark couldn't get the time off and so I was just planning on going to my appointment alone while my parents watched the kiddos.  But my Mom asked if she could go and it was actually really neat to have her there.  

We are so excited to be having a healthy, baby GIRL!  

She is growing and developing just as she should be.  We did hit a first with our little miss as she is measuring small.  With all of my other pregnancies, at this stage, I have been measuring anywhere from a week to 10 days ahead of schedule.  This little girl is actually measuring a little small (which I am hoping doesn't mean I will be late!).  But she is doing great and we are thrilled to have another little girl join our family.  It feels just perfect.  

There was honestly not a SINGLE person who thought we were having a boy.  Everyone thought we were having a girl - so luckily there was no disappointment.  When I got home I sat Jacob and Sarah down to tell them.  Sarah has been DEFINITE that we were having a girl.  She wouldn't even entertain the thought of it possibly being a boy beforehand.  I kept trying to tell her that it could be a boy, and she was adamant that it wasn't.  When I told Jacob and Sarah I thought there would be some big positive reaction from Sarah and...nope.  NOTHING.  She just continued cutting the paper she was cutting and just said, "yep" in the most casual voice ever.  I guess she just knew ;)

We cannot wait to have this little girl join our family.  She is so loved already.  Her siblings have BIG plans for her...I hope she is ready for them!!!

We love you, baby sister.  

Moving

Our 2019 year started off really well!  Mark and I sat down and made some really great goals individually, as a couple and as a family.  We made a lot of smaller specific goals to help us reach our bigger goals and we were really happy with how things were going.  

Then...as life seems to go...we were thrown a curve ball.  The week after New Years, Mark had a meeting with the CEO of the company that he works for.  They discussed the clinic that Mark works at and the struggles that it has been experiencing.  Mark was informed of the decision to make the pharmacy a telepharmacy and therefore his position would no longer be needed (as they would have another pharmacist from another clinic cover both pharmacies).  

This was a huge, unexpected blow.  

It was very discouraging and there was a lot of emotions to work through, for Mark especially.  We will keep the bulk of those emotions private but we were both really sad about it and what it meant for our future.  

For those that are unfamiliar with the area that we live in...it is rural.  Very rural.  There is really only one option for us to live here and for Mark to continue working and that was taken away from us.  We knew we had to move (yet again) and find a new job.  

There are some things we have experienced the last three weeks that I am fine forgetting.  BUT there have also been some amazing growth experiences as well.  We are not new to this situation as far as looking for employment and a place for our family to live...aka 2015.  

2015 I can easily say was the hardest year of my life.  I hit lows that year that I had never had before and luckily have never had to experience since.  I don't really like to think of that year because I really don't like how I was that year.  I was a giant bubble of negativity.  Anger and then guilt about being angry pretty much sums up my feelings at the time.

As much as I don't like to think back on that time, it has been really amazing going through somethings similar (obviously, there are some differences but a lot is also the same) and see how much I have grown from that place.  After Mark told me the news I almost immediately went to the Lord and He has been with us every. single. step.  A big part of that is our willingness to just say "okay".  

There are countless lessons I learned from 2015, but one big one was that there is no point in me asking or contemplating "WHY".  I can ask and cry and say it's not fair all day long but at the end of the day, it's not going to change anything with our circumstances - all it is going to do is make me feel angry and defeated.  And I don't think it's because our Heavenly Father doesn't want us to understand - He just knows that we can't understand now.  I didn't understand a lot of the "whys" about 2015 but I'll tell you what, I understand them now.  It wouldn't have made sense to me then but it does now.  And I KNOW that someday I will understand why we are going through our present circumstance.  I have zero doubt about it.

I didn't want to let myself go back to that dark place.  And I am so grateful because I haven't.  Instead of being filled with anger or bitterness I have been absolutely filled with faith.  As time goes on, I find myself needing to pray for this more and more but I always feel filled with it when I ask.  Again, I don't know how it will work out but I know that it will.  

Even though I wouldn't wish this circumstance on us as a family (and especially on Mark) I am grateful to really see the growth that we have made and that we have really changed with how we deal with trials.  I believe there is more that we are supposed to learn and I hope that we are doing that too.  

It's amazing how our loving Father in Heaven puts things into our life to help us.  The week we found out about all of this was also the week that we were studying about Elisabeth and Zachariah and finding out they were going to have a child (John the Baptist) and about Mary and Joseph finding out that they were going to have a child (Christ).  I have thought of Elisabeth and Mary frequently through all of this.  Neither of them questioned these amazing events that were happening in their lives.  They accepted and moved forward with faith.  They have given me a lot of faith and strength in all of this as well.

So, here we sit, three weeks later and our situation hasn't changed a lot.  Mark has one more week at work and then we will begin a new path.  We still don't know where that is taking us but we know that wherever it is - is where we are supposed to be right now.  

HS: December

Remember when I said I had all of these great plans for December and then they kind of flopped.  Well, that was sadly also true when it came to our homeschooling.  I had some really fun ideas put together for some "Christmas school" and it just never happened.  <insert crying here>  I was really bummed about it and just reminding myself that we have years and years for these things to happen and am trying to give myself some grace for my pregnancy sickies and exhaustion.  

We DID do a decent amount of schooling though!

We worked hard and finished up our study of the DOCTRINE & COVENANTS.  This was definitely a lot more rushed because we were wanting to finish by January.  I am really glad that we did.  We had so many neat discussions.  We finished up in between Christmas and New Years and we watched a beautiful movie about the life of Joseph Smith.  I think it left a really big impact on all of us.  We CAN'T wait to start the new Come, Follow Me curriculum!!!

In MATH, we started our third unit.  This unit focuses on numbers up to 20.  Jacob LOVES math!  It is easily our smoothest lesson every day!  This year has been lots of review but there has also been a lot of new things sprinkled in and he has such a good number sense.  I know it is setting him up to be really successful.  We practiced adding on to five, five plus, comparing 2D vs 3D shapes, penny practice, cube and sphere, making seven and taking away from seven.  

Sarah and I jumped back into PRESCHOOL.  This is really where I had planned lots of fun Christmas-y things that just never happened.  We did finish our units about kittens, kindness and the color purple.  We then moved on to our lion unit which is all about sharing and the color green.  

In HISTORY we started to really dive into our unit about the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.  We discussed the spread of Christianity in Ireland, St. Patrick, did a great review of our Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), the spread of Christianity in England, and King Alfred the Great.  

We also really got into our Space Science unit in SCIENCE.  We discussed the terrestrial planets - Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, the moon and its phases and gravity and the tides.  

Jacob continues to progress nicely in LANGUAGE ARTS.  He is doing well with his phonics cards, sight word ladders and spelling charts.  We discussed adjectives, WH and WR words, English words cannot end in V rule, we read about Aesop's Fables, discussed how a sentence needs three things, did some poetry, and discussed the other sounds of OW and OU.  

HANDWRITING continues to go well - the same but good!

This month we have been reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.  It has been so fun!

Overall, it really was a great month for learning!  We are slowly getting mostly back into our groove with school.  Here's hoping January goes even better!

Christmas

I love how Christmas fell on the calendar this year.  It was so nice to have the weekend and then roll right into Christmas bliss.  It was great to have Mark home for such a long stretch and be our little family together.

We made Christmas sugar cookies for Santa, played some games, and talked about baby Jesus.  

Christmas Eve was great and relaxing and just felt homey.  I loved it.  

I love how we have done Christmas mornings.  Mark and I get up first and slowly turn up Christmas music until all of the kiddos wake up.  It is so fun to see them rubbing little eyes as they come down with pure excitement!

We spent the rest of the day opening and playing with toys until about mid afternoon when we headed down to North Ogden to spend some time with the Bernings.  It was awesome to relax and catch up with Gus and Darlene, Grant and Kristen and their family, Brian, and Daniel and Teresa and their family.  The kiddos opened more presents and had a great time playing!

It was a great Christmas day!

Christmas Recital

Jacob had his first recital for piano and he did awesome!  He was supposed to have one in November but it keeps getting pushed back (they are saying February now, we shall see).  But this was an optional, informal Christmas program that the kiddos put on for a local nursing home.  Jacob was really nervous once we got there.  I talked to him a lot beforehand but I just don't think he understood.  

He decided he wanted to play, We Three Kings, and he did great.  Basically his teacher was at the front of this very large room and the kids just came up and played whenever they wanted to.  Jacob stood in the very back of the room and did not want to go and play.  Finally, when the numbers started dwindling I knew I would have to walk him up there.  He was going to be the very last student but then at the last minute, his teacher noticed him and told him to come up.  Even though it was long standing there for almost two hours with my little crew, it was probably really good for Jacob to watch the other kids go and also to have a much smaller crowd to play to.  

I was so proud of him for being brave.  He was definitely out of his comfort zone but he DID IT! 

I took a video (no pictures) but it's kind of long so you will just have to take my word for it - he did great!

Christmas in Draper

So...my feelings about the blog are blah right now.  I don't know why but I am just feeling weighed down by it.  Everyday I notice I am getting more and more...and MORE behind and I am not loving it.  Mark and I made a goal to be a lot more present in our family relationships and it has been great.  A big part of that is spending less time on the computer/phone because it is (not ALL of it - but a good chunk) a time waster.  

The less time I spend on the computer every day the better the day goes...every time!  It's crazy and yet I still find myself falling into computer traps.  Which is incredibly annoying to me.  Anyway, so I am trying to figure out a time where I just make a commitment to blog for the week and then shut off.  BECAUSE, in actuality, I love our blog.  Every Christmas I make a year scrapbook for us as a family and make each of the kiddos their own individual scrapbooks.  By far, most of the stories and material for that comes from the blog.  And I LOVE these scrapbooks.  So...that is my inner frustration (which is now an outer frustration) about why I am (and have been) so behind in blogging.  Must work on it!

ANYWAY, moving on...

December seemed long and short and crazy all at the same time.  Looking back it was all a giant whirlwind that just came and went in a blink.  It felt more stressful this year and less meaningful which was a bit disappointing.  All of that was completely my own fault.  I had expectations for things I wanted to do, as a family, with the kids, personally and it just felt like almost none of it happened.  And then I felt guilt about it now happening.  Can I blame that on pregnancy hormones?  I am going to.  As I side note - this pregnancy is rocking my world.  It has been so rough emotionally.  I am a total wreck...all the time.  Am I growing the world's greatest diva?  I don't know, but the emotions are way real.  

Okay, I promise I will stop going off on tangents.  Seriously...I am going crazy.  

We made a fun trip down to Draper to visit family and to take in some of the Salt Lake Christmas goodness.  The kiddos and I ended up coming down early to avoid a storm that was coming.  We came down Tuesday morning and got to spend LOTS of time with family.  The kiddos made a snowman with Gramps and Aunt Melina.  There was lots of playtime and holiday baking.  

Wednesday night we had our first "official" Clegg Family Christmas Party.  My Mom is trying to start some new traditions and I think this one is going to be great!  She made such a yummy dinner and it was fun to connect with everyone.  

THEN after dinner, we sent Gramps downstairs with all of the kiddos while us girls (and Benjamin) did an "our favorite things" exchange.  It was so fun to see what each of us brought to share!  

Thursday afternoon/evening my parents and I (with the kiddos) headed up to Salt Lake to see the lights on Temple Square.  We walked around City Creek a little bit, grabbed some dinner, and then saw the lights!  The kiddos were a little...whiny...but it was beautiful.  

Mark drove down late Thursday night and joined us - WOOT!

Friday morning Mark, Benjamin and I did some Christmas shopping.  Then we came back and got ready for our date!  Mark and I were invited by some of our friends to go to the Tabernacle Choir's Christmas Concert with Kristen Chenowith.  We ate dinner before at Buca di Beppo and then RAN over to the Conference Center for the concert.  The concert was beautiful and amazing and I loved it.  I laughed, I cried, what more can you ask for?!

Saturday morning we had breakfast, packed up, and headed back home (but not before making a Costco stop!).  It's great that we are close enough to family to be able to share memories and time with them - especially around the holidays.

***Also, I am still having a hard time with my pictures getting uploaded to the computer!  Must figure out this problem!!!***