These days

Christmas is less than ten days away! And this is our last week in public school for awhile, too. And my house is just barely coming together. Time for an update? I think so.

House:
Remember that time when our house had a 20 foot trench in the middle of it? Trenchy? We had all of that plumbing and foundation work done, and then had to just sit around and wait for everything to settle before we could put everything back together. Well, that was over a year ago, and in October we started the process with the siding/windows/doors, which made the outside (excepting the lawn/weed pit) look great. Unfortunately, the inside was still seriously lacking. Thankfully we have some friends who own a painting franchise, Five Star Painting. They happen to be awesome, and they've been helping us with the work on our house. The worst part was in our living room where, over time, our ceiling had started to look like this

And our fireplace had an enormous crack running down the center

 

But NOW? Things are really looking up. We still need to texture the walls, fix a few more cracks and paint, but we're getting so close I can feel it.

 

LOVE these people.

 

Kids:

(Chase was not supposed to be in this picture, but Haley wasn't

going down without a fight. Classic.)

We are going to be homeschoolers as of January, 2013. This week I have to go in and sign the withdrawal papers and get it all legit. There are a million reasons that we are making this decision, but it comes down to this: It's the right time, and right thing for our family. I can feel it in my bones, and it seems to be the answer to our prayers.
In case you're concerned that my kids are now going to be ignorant, let me ease your worried mind! I've studied and researched like crazy and we have a solid curriculum set up. I've cobbled together several different things from all over the place, but may switch to an all-in-one curriculum in the fall if I feel like we need something different. I've got homeschooling friends in the area, and we'll continue with our regular extracurricular activities (swimming and cub scouts among other things...). So don't worry that they won't be socialized. They're as social as it comes.
Will we homeschool forever? I don't know. I know we need to do it right now to address some pressing issues, but maybe we'll be back to public school soon! Maybe later. Maybe never. I'm open to whatever works best for my kiddos.

Us:
We try to sleep every now and then. That's the only hobby I can think of that either of us are currently working on.

Merry Christmas!