July 7th - 27th

In Our Family The Past Three Weeks...

* Dad started The Biggest Loser competition with his company

* Gymnastics and Art for the little ones

* Dad had another Kidney Stone which landed him in the ER

* Mom and the younger kids took an impromptu trip down to Nebraska to visit with Grandma and Grandpa! While there we went to the Children's Museum, had a picnic at the park, went to the splashpad park, daily trips to take advantage of the "Happy Hour" at Sonic and even squeezed in a few garage sales!

* Working on designing page elements for Uncle JR and Grandma's Sight Word App
* Dad had a business trip to SLC
* Older boys went out on splits with the Missionaries
* Dad and Ben went to Scout Camp
* Dad has lost 20 lbs!

 In Our Homeschool...
* Going over school items and curriculum for next year with Grandma
* Praying and deciding upon Lively Letters and the All About Reading and All About Spelling programs for Ben, Nathan and the girls - SUPER EXCITED for these!!
* Scheduled out this years school calendar. We are going to be doing a rotation of 6 weeks on and 1 week off with 3 weeks off for Christmas :)
* Planned, prepped and printed 6 full weeks of Enrichments Lessons + 12 weeks of FHE
* Completed a Unit Study on Lewis and Clark to kick off the school year followed by a field trip to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center (about an hour south of here).
* I also designed up these Scripture Challenge cards to help the kids with their personal scripture study. I'm still working on some "girlie themed" ones, but thought the boys would love these Batman ones!

Spiritually Speaking...

I know I've shared my testimony on personal revelation not too long ago, but this week as I started in on the task of preparing the kids' lesson plans for this upcoming year, I have been so grateful that I could turn to the one who knows them best and knows what they need! I also love how homeschooling really helps me stay close to Heavenly Father and to do what right - since I know I have to be in a "good" spiritual place to receive inspiration on what directions to take. I also know that my weight struggle is a food addiction that can only be overcome on a spiritual basis by relying on Him! I have felt his strength this past week as I turned to him in my moments of weakness.