Thera-gym

 SO for our Christmas gift to the children Jason and I set up more of the basement as a therapy room/gym. We wanted to set up the 3 "swings" so we needed 6 3/4in ring bolts, 6 carabeners,  12 nuts, 12 washers, and 6 2 foot cuts of chain. We also wanted to pad any falls. We found a 5 by 15 foot carpet remnant for $25!

We first had to decide where everything was going. The net swing in the corner for more calm-ness.

Strap swing on the outside then the trapeze.

After Jason drilled holes he place the ring bolt through. There is a washer and nut on each side.

Here is the ring bolt.

It takes two to swing.

Daddy of the year!

Jamie on the strap swing

Elizabeth resting in the net swing.

With the chains we can lower the swing as needed.

Michael on the trapeze. We placed the trampoline behind it so that they can jump, swing then crash on to a crash pad.

All three.

Jamie getting a good swing.

Here is the other corner. In the play house are blankets and pillows for a nice quite hideout.

Jamie jumping onto the beanbag. I will be making a bigger crash pad soon!

All the bolts, chains and such came out to less then $150. The swings came from the "rainy day swing set" and that was $100.  My wonderful Mother-in-Law gave use the play house and slide for free, but you can find them used at yard sales for cheap. The trampoline was $10 from the children's therapist. So the total for this came out under $300! We still need to add some padding to the wall behind the swings and I would like to carpet/pad the rest of the floor, but for now it is good to go.

House sweet house

I say house because in true Army fashion Jason had to stay in TX to finish doing nothing and had to leave his family for a few weeks. Thankfully we are down to 10 more days but those will be a long 10 days. He was able to move most of our household belongings here so that we are not sleeping on the floor. Even that almost didn't happen. His leave form wasn't signed until the day before he was going to leave. Our house was packed in a moving truck, the children were going to sign for the new house the next day so there was no turning back. He only had 4 days to make the trip here unload the truck and get back to TX to hand in the keys of the old house. That left me, myself, and I to unpack everything 7 months pregnant with 3 small children under foot. Sounds like fun right?!
It has now been 2 weeks and the house is almost unpacked and for the most part set up.The basement has been divided and the play room started. I will have to wait for Jason to help with all the fun things we plan on doing because no one wants to see me on a ladder with a power drill 30 weeks along.
The children are enjoying the weather as am I. We have been in the 50-60's and it feels so nice. Jamie and Michael go out without a sweater and Elizabeth screams if she forgets one. It is nice to use all the winter clothes that are in the closet. Back in TX it is 80 so they are in short selves right now.
We should be getting the Christmas stuff up this week so look back for those pictures soon, but for now some pictures of our new place.

Mountains from my backdoor

Sunrise

Our "one butt" kitchen

Living room

Living room/dining room

Nice little fire

children playing

Michael looking at a plane

Such a sweet boy

Jamie collecting pine cones

Putting the pine cones back in the tree

Elizabeth walking George

Are we there yet?!

I know the most parents have heard this more then they would like, but how many have been asked well sitting at home? Michael keeps asking if we are in Colorado yet, and I keep telling him not yet. If we get in the car to go anywhere he asks if we are going to Colorado. It wasn't so bad until the army did what the army does best and changed our plans. We have had to move our dates almost a week later then planed. That may not seem like a big deal but when all the "fun things" are packed and the little people are going stir crazy (so is mommy).
The housing in Colorado has been amazing! They have gotten us a house faster then we could have imagined, and have sent pictures so that we can show the children their new house. The first thing we see in the pictures is the living/dining room with a fireplace. Jason and I look at it and see all the wonderful winter nights spent as a family playing games by the glow of the fire.  Michael on the other hand sees a built in toy box! Now I'm going to have to check the fireplace for matchbox cars before lighting a match. We have also found out the the washer/dryer hook ups are on the main floor not the basement, but also that the basement is a lot smaller then the plan told. It went from 955 sq ft. to 700 sq ft. That is still plenty for play room for the children. We also have to put up a fence at our own expense. With 3 going on 4 children and a dog a fence is a must!
On a side note Miss Elizabeth has been sick and crappy for the last 4 days. I took her to the ER and found out that she has an ear infection and some virus. We got her meds and she is getting better but slowly. I hate to see my babies not feeling well, but it is when there is so much to do and I can't just snuggle with them.
That's it for now!
---Melissa Walker

Packing up

We have all been holding our breath until this last week. Jason was waiting on his orders telling him that he would be moved to Ft. Carson, CO and when he was to report. Everything was waiting on theses orders. We couldn't start looking for a house until they came in. Until we had a house we couldn't start packing, or set up for movers to get our things, or set a move out date for the house we are in now. I was going mad looking at all that I needed to do yet couldn't do yet. I went to sleep every night wondering what our new house would be like and how I could make it a home. I wanted to answer all the questions the children had but how could I when I no real answers myself.
Well all that ended just a few days ago and it is like the dam broke! We now have boxes and packing paper every were! There is not one room that I have not started on. As soon as I got Jason orders in my hand I sent them off to the housing office to start our time on the wait list for the house we needed. I got a call just hours after sending it all in asking for 4 more forms and that they had a house already "in mind" for us. What a blessing! Jason came home and got what they asked for and I sent it off. By that night we were looking at the floor plan of our new house. I have to say that at first I was shocked at how "small" it was. My pregnancy hormones to over and I was almost in tears. With the love and help of Jason we measured every large item we have then I drew out the floor plan and big items to scale. Once I could put everything in the house on paper I was okay. I have to say though I was having a very selfish moment. There are many other families that would love to have the house we are getting. I asked God to forgive me and to change my heart to see the blessing He had given.
The next on the list was to set up the movers. Jason did the forms online but when it came time to list how many pounds of household goods we have we were over by 2,000 pounds! It wasn't until our neighbor reminded us about DITY (do it yourself) moves that we knew what to do. Once we made to change in plans a sweet peace came over our home. A DITY move means that we have to pack, load, and unload everything our self. With me being 6 months along now it really meant that Jason is left on his own. Yet again God has blessed with people offering to come help pack and load the truck on this end and other to help unload on the other end.
That brings us to where we are now. Just two weeks away from our move in date and me trying to do everything I can and asking others to do the rest. The children are doing well. Every now and again I find something that I had already packed laying on the floor, but that is getting better. I had better get off this computer and get some sleep before another day of packing.

Coming up for air.

Wow! It has been a crazy and wonderful three weeks of school so far. I have had a few days that were harder to get going in the morning, but over all our routine has worked. That is saying a lot for our family. With Jason in the Army his work hours are very apt to change. Like right now he works 3 days on, 2 off, 2 days on, 3 days off and from 8:30am to 9 pm. That means that some of his "weekends" land on school days. It is very hard for me to do school when all I want is to spend time catching up with my hubby. His hours also mean that the children are staying up later then normal to see Daddy before bed (and  that mean later bedtime for mommy). Even with all those things it is such a blessing to have Jason home in the morning to eat breakfast and read bible devotions with us. I'll give you a look at our routine as we have it now.

7:00Am Mommy wake up time/ pray
7:30Am Breakfast (we read the bible at the table and write down the things that we feel God is laying on our hearts that morning. Jamie is 5 and will copy the first verse of that days Proverb)
8:00Am Quick clean! I try to get the kitchen and dining rooms done at this time. Jamie empties the dish washer and puts breakfast dishes in. The little ones will work on puzzles at the table.
8:30Am School starts.
          We start our day with the pledge to the U.S.A. flag and to the bible then move on to memory verses.
          Next the little ones (Michael, 3 and Elizabeth 2) get to go play in the playroom and Jamie starts with phonics/reading/writing. We are doing cursive this year so we are starting all over with writing.
          I then call out the little ones to do preschool work as Jamie gets her seatwork done.
          The littles then get to play some more and Jamie moves on to math.
          Once math is done we all do health/science/history/geography together
12:00 noon Lunch Time (we also read from the bible at this time)
1Pm  Nap time. We have just started putting on the bible on CD on for Jamie and Michael to lesson to as they rest on the sofas. Elizabeth still gets naps in her bed.
3:00Pm now that every one is up from nap it is time to clean up the house. It is amazing what 3 children can do to a home! Jamie is my big helper. I can give her a task to do and she comes back to me when it is done. Michael is my runner. He will take things to the room I tell him (most of the time). Elizabeth is my shadow. I ask her to help with little things like picking up something I have dropped but she mostly watches everyone else work.
4:30Pm or so is time to let the children play and to start dinner. I have a few story books on DVD that I put on if the mood strikes.
6:00Pm is when I would like to have dinner on the table. With Jason not home until 9 o'clock on workdays I some time move it out so that the children are still up to see daddy.
Daddy's home! Once Jason gets home it is Bible time and then to bed. I get Jason his dinner as he puts the Blessings to bed, then it is down time. We try to get to bed by 10:00 but that has yet to happen as there is always something that pops up last second.

Now you can see why I have taken so long to write. We only do school Monday through Thursday. Friday is our "home blessing day". That is the day we catch up on all the chores that slipped through the cracks during the week. This is also the day I write out our school plans for the next week.
I hope you can use this as a help for your home if routine just seems out of reach. It can be done!

School days start!

This week was the first week of our new school year. We homeschool all year, but we just moved up a grade this week. Jamie is now in first grade and Michael an Elizabeth are doing preschool. We use ABeka for our school work and love it. When I started looking at homeschool programs for Jamie 3 years ago ABeka was the only one I found that went pasted colors and shapes and taught reading early on. That has served our family very well and we have used it every year now.You can look at their site and see how well everything is put together ( abeka.com ).
It has been a wonderful first week! As most everyone I know sends their children off for the day, I get to sit around the table reading the bible. Unlike the children in the school down the street my children get to do their work at their own pace. It is wonderful when Jamie asks to do more math because she is enjoying it so much. I love that we can change the subject when something sparks a child's interest. Homeschool affords the family so much freedom and I truly enjoy that.
I just make the plan for next week and it will get more intense, but it is nothing that we can't handle with  the grace of God.

Morning, Noon, and Night sickness!

Sorry I haven't posted in a few weeks, but this new little life is make it hard. As with all my other babies I have been sick, but this one is already trying to out do its siblings. I have heard that staying busy helps but when the smell of soap, body wash, cleaners, and even deodorant makes me gag, there is not much left to do but watch movies all day. It has been nice to slow my life down and just enjoy the 3 wonderful children I have here. I have been using flashcards, coloring and workbooks to get homeschool done. I have not been very good about making sure it is done everyday but I'm fine with that for now.
We have had a few doctors visits and so far everything is looking good. At the last visit we had an ultrasound done so that Jason and Jamie could see the baby. It means a lot to me that the doctor was so willing to do this so that Jamie could bond with her new sibling. Just telling a 5 year old that there is a baby in Mommy's tummy dose not make it really for her. As the picture came up Jamie jumped out of her seat to see and watched in amazement as all the body parts were pointed out. Baby Z had its hand on its forehead and very long legs. At first s/he was "sleeping" but with a little prompting it moved a round a bit. I got to see my unborn child open its mouth and swallow, kick it legs and arch its back before going back to sleep. A measurement was done and it came out as 11 weeks and 4 days. That is 4 days big! (remember Jason came home so we know the date).
We won't be getting the ultrasound to find out the gender for another 8 weeks. I have seen some at home tests and I may do one just for fun and see if it's right. Until then will will just call it Baby Z, as both the girl and boy name we have chosen start with z.
Well motherhood is calling, as I hear the "big kids" jumping on the bed. Don't forget to leave room for life to get in the way!