40 days of moving while homeschooling…..through the holidays. {Day 35}

 

Monday has arrived.

Ahh….

After the weekend I had not getting too much done in the way of moving or around the house, I declared a cleaning and packing day. 

I decided once a week we would take the day off school (just until we move) and spend the day packing and cleaning our house. 

We did a basic clean.  Actually a pretty good clean.

We spent a big chunk of the day talking on the phone with the real estate agent and a loan officer.   

We began packing some stuff in storage closets.  You know my big closet that often looks like this:

It’s most of the way packed….. or in the get rid of box.

I also began having the kids pack up a few items from their room that they won’t need until after the move. 

We went through boxes much faster than I thought we would.  We had to climb back down in the crawl space to get more boxes.  We did get quite a bit packed and now it feels claustrophobic in my house. However, progress has been made.

Katey had a final dress rehearsal for her play.  So we went to that and the costumes were a huge hit!  YAY!!

I had to go to the grocery store and get some hamburger meat for my meal making that night.

I spent the night making 10 lasagnas.  I have a freezer meal exchange with a group of ladies I know on Wednesday.  We were exchanging 6 meals, but I went ahead and made 10.  We ate one that night and I froze the other 3 for me.  I figured, while I was at it, why not. 

My husband and I discovered the whole Bit Strips app and stayed up too late playing around on that.

The next day I spent like this since I had to work at 6am.

Stay tuned….. it makes me feel better.

40 days of moving while homeschooling….during the holidays. {Day 36}

 

 

Ahhh, Sunday, glorious Sunday.

I woke up early this morning.  My husband had to work early and I just got up when he left. 

I began by cleaning my house some.

I did the dishes, some laundry and just general cleaning.

I then cut out the remaining fabric for the pilgrim costumes and began ironing it before sewing.  My friend and I had agreed that we would meet back at 10 then next morning to finish them up. 

We didn’t actually start until 11am.

We worked clear through until 2:45, which is when I had to leave for work.  But we got all the costumes done.  (Here is a picture from the play)

I worked the rest of the night.

Tomorrow we will get some moving stuff done.  You will see! 

40 days of homeschooling while moving…..through the holidays. {Day 37}

 

Here we are at Saturday….

What happened Saturday? 

I woke up and went grocery shopping.

Then I made a moving checklist.  I searched and searched on Pinterest.  I printed one off but it just didn’t fit my wants.  I decided to just make a moving notebook.

I made a list of a last out first in box. 

I learned after last time to do that.  We moved in and the toilet paper was packed, the soap was packed. The towels and cleaners were packed.  The snacks were packed.  And most disturbing is that the music and speakers were packed.  I don’t know how we were supposed to get anything done with no tunes! 

My older kids were gone down to the city to watch a college football game live.

About 2pm a college football game came on TV.  A different team then the one my kids went to see.

I had a friend come over and help me sew the pilgrim costumes during the football game.  We ended up working for 6 hours straight and had to go to get more fabric once.

That night I went out with a group of friends to do Karaoke, which had been planned for weeks. 

As you can see not much of any thing moving related got done that day.

40 Days of moving while homeschooling…. through the holidays. {Day 38}

 

We went back to the house again today to actually take measurements of the rooms since I was kindly reminded by my husband that I forgot to do.  In my defense, I did measure my couch and table and had the kids make sure they measure whatever they wanted so we could see about furniture placement. 

I know this sounds silly but we are just so crammed in our little house now.  So we are all just so excited to be able to spread out so much more!

I got a few boxes out of our crawl space and we also did regular school on this day as well.

I began sewing the pilgrim costumes.

I had a friend over since both our husbands were gone and we just relaxed and had a good time.

It was nice and much needed for both of us.

40 Days of Moving While Homeschooling….through the Holidays {Day 39}

 

Day 39 is also known as 29 days until the actual moving day!

Crap! 

I have a lot to do!

Obviously I have been extremely busy, or I would have written this post way sooner! 

Here I am writing this 5 days late. 

Oh well, such is life.

Some things I got done on this day are big ones though.  I also want to note that on top of this we also did all of our regular schooling for that day!

I gave our 30 days notice to where we live now and got our move out checklist.

I got out my sewing machine, ya know, to sew those pilgrim costumes!

I actually planned ahead this day and got out freezer meal for dinner.  Whoo hoo!  I am so grateful for freezer meals.

I signed up to do another freezer meal exchange.  This will help me, right? 

I made the grocery list for the 10 lasagnas I plan on making and I also menu planned out 2 and 1/2 weeks worth of dinners using food mostly from my pantry.

I paid bills…… ugghhhh….

I went over to the house and took pictures of every room so I could see the layout as I was packing.  This way I can decide what room what is going to go in as it is getting packed in order to label the boxes correctly.

I also worked that night!

40 Days of moving while homeschooling… through the holidays.

 

That’s right.  We are going to move in 30 days. 

I have moved while homeschooling before, but never during the holidays. 

I think.

I might.

Be crazy.

Yea, so, I decided we had better publically document this whole ordeal.

 

First let me share with you what I already have going on.

I homeschool my 4 children.  One is in Pre-K, one is in 3rd grade, one is in 7th grade and one is in 9th grade.

I work anywhere between 20-24 hours per week as a grocery store supervisor at a small local grocery store. 

I have my kids in way too many outside activities, such as plays, and drama club, music class, art class, weight training, women in history, Lego club, and science class.

I teach the science class.

Sometimes I substitute teach in the weight training class.

I volunteered to sew 14 of the pilgrim costumes for the play by Monday the 18th of November.

I am part of a very active mom’s group.

I am part of a monthly book club.

I blog. (sometimes)

I write reviews. After actually using and reviewing the items.  That is very time consuming.

I am a mom.

I am a wife.

My husband works in the oilfield and is gone often.

I am going to move across town in 30 days.

The holidays are coming.

This is the start of my journey.

Is my crazy showing yet?

Our new school area!

One of the best things about our new house is all the storage it came with.  It’s convenient to get stuff in and out of, along with being located well throughout the house. 

 Here is our school closet.  It is a huge double door closet that fits everything.  

I set up our workboxes in there. 








We are still doing them the same, where I put both kids numbers on shared boxes.  Anything bigger they need for the day will go on top of the workbox.




  Katey’s circle time stuff will go on top of hers.  Right now we are working on memorizing The Pledge of Allegiance, by reading this book every morning.

Then we do our “Tell Me About Today” chart.

 
I love being able to store the books and activities right next to the workboxes.  This really enables me to set up school quickly. 

Another fun thing about this closet is that it is adjoined to a small loft area.  So the kids can set up bean bags and clipboards to work or read, if they don’t want to go down to the table or counter.

Our first meal in our new house.

For our first meal in our new house, since we were still unpacking I made some quick Chinese food from the freezer section of the grocery store. 

Our last days

in our old house.   I know this is a little late but we have been busy, well ya know, moving!

I had planned out a short school days for the Monday and Tuesday of “moving week.”  Wednesday was truck loading day so everything had to be gone that day.  Thursday was driving day, and move in day.  The weekend was for unpacking!
These are the last of the workboxes.   I just wrapped them in saran wrap.  I left the books in them, I know it’s a little wear and tear on the boxes, but I wanted the kids to be able to continue with their schoolwork while I was unpacking.

 
Katey went missing for a while and I found her in her closet box spying on us packing.  We have been reading aloud Junie B. Jones and Some Sneaky Peeky Spying .  She has really been into spying lately. 

One other thing I did is pack a special tote full of lactivities for Tyler and Katey.  It had a small TV with a movie.  Coloring books and crayons and picture books, some puzzles and snacks.  While I would always be close by as well as other adults.  It very much helped keep these two busy and out of the way. 


Now I am proud to report that we are completely unpacked and life is back to normal now.  Stay tuned to see how our new “school closet” is organized. And what we have been up to living in a brand new city 200 miles away from anyone or anything we ever knew.

Also the temperature here this morning was 13 below!  Brrrrr.

We have (drum roll please)

MOVED!

Finally we are in our new town, and our new house.  I will be spending this entire weekend unpacking and organizing!  

And hopefully we will have our very own internet connection by Tuesday.  Until then from the library.  (Which by the way, I can't even get a library card at yet, since they need proof of address.  I will have to bring my lease agreement in on Monday, I can NOT live without a library card! 

Homeschooling through a move ~ Part 3

   

Yesterday was move the piano day.  My piano is a family heirloom, with a very rich family history associated to it. 

To give you a little of my family history;

My father is from Canada.  He moved to the United States for schooling and met my mother, they got married.  His family remained in Canada. 

The piano was my Great Grandfathers Grandfathers.  It was built in Calgary, Canada in 1903.  This piano was used as a traveling piano.  They took it around to different parties and played it for dances.

It was then passed to my Great Grandfather, who gave it to my Grandmother, whom I have never met.  I have always heard how wonderful of a piano player she was.  My Uncle learned to play by ear by leaning up against the piano while she played or sometimes he would lay on the ground underneath it. 

 

After my Grandmother died, my Great Grandfather got the piano back, years and years went by and he decided to get rid of it.  He offered it to my dad when I was 3 years old. He told him it had to be gone by the following weekend.  My father felt it was important for me to have.  So he drove up from Salt Lake to Canada that weekend to get it for me. 

I took piano lessons when I was a child and again tried to teach myself when I was an adult, and that is just not my talent. 

 

Now with the move and with it being temporary I decided to see if someone else wanted to use it aka store it for me.  The first person I thought of was my uncle whom learned to play by ear by listening to that very same piano, and I knew that he didn’t already have a piano. 

 

I called and asked him if he wanted to enjoy the piano.  He was ecstatic.    It made me know that this was the absolute right decision.  While the piano means alot to me and my family, I wasn’t getting the use out of it, by playing it, and he truly will be.  It means just as much, if not more to him as well.  

 

I also got almost the entire basement packed, just a few odds and ends left. 

And Tommy’s team won his basketball game. 

 

Oh, as for schooling we didn’t do much formal schooling.  The entire family took part in the piano moving.  (We did learn some about our family history.)  Tommy helped take a load to the dump, loading and unloading (P.E., right).  We did do our science experiment. 

Homeschooling through a move part 2

 

Well remember yesterday, I told you my to do list, it looked something like this.

 

Thursday 1/20 – plumber scheduled to come look at a slow drain.   -Normal schooling – pack basement (must be done by Friday) includes kids rooms, storage rooms, and laundry room.  Paul and my brother will be going through the garage and shed. –Turkey enchiladas for dinner

Friday 1/21 – pack my bedroom and all knick knacks and decorations through out the house.  - Normal Schooling  - Basketball game 7pm -

 

 

Well today here is what actually got done:

The plumber did come out.  However, he wasn’t able to fix our drain.  (He is family, and we need to call a plumber that specializes in clogs, not new piping.) 

We got through almost all of schooling.  We have a little bit of history reading that will have to be completed tomorrow, as well as our science experiments. 

I did get two of my four kids bedrooms packed.  YEAH!  The laundry room and storage room are almost all the way done, and as long as I stay on task, they will get done.  Tomorrow I will be taking some more kids clothes over to the consignment store. 

 

My brother ended up leaving early, but nonetheless Paul was able to get the entire garage and shed cleaned out, and packed.  (I am embarrassed about how much junk we actually have)  We now have to take a truck load of stuff to the dump,  That’s right, THE DUMP.  And even more loads to the thrift store.  YIKES!  It feels so great to get rid of it all!

 

Oh yeah, and the Turkey Enchiladas were great!

 

I almost forgot Friday is PIANO moving day!

Tomorrow we are getting up bright and early to move my Piano over to my uncles house, he loves to play and I am grateful to be able to give him the opportunity to have a piano.    We are going to do a full day of school tomorrow.  I am still going to pack the rest of the basement and my bedroom, and all decorations and go to my sons basketball game. 

 

Well I better get to bed.  I have a very full day tomorrow!

 

Good night all!

Homeschooling through a move part 1

 

 

Let me start with what we/I did before today. 

 

Paul went to the local grocery store at 4am to get boxes.   

 

I had went through all the kids clothes and toys.  I got rid of any that are too small, ripped, stained, or if they just don’t wear them or play with them anymore.  I sold what I could to consignment stores etc.  The rest I just gave to thrift stores. 

 

It honestly feels so great to have gotten rid of so much. 

 

I also went through our food storage and assessed what we have and what will be expiring soon.   

 

I created a moving day schedule/checklist.

 

Thursday 1/20 – plumber scheduled to come look at a slow drain.   -Normal schooling – pack basement (must be done by Friday) includes kids rooms, storage rooms, and laundry room.  Paul and my brother will be going through the garage and shed. –Turkey enchiladas for dinner

 

Friday 1/21 – pack my bedroom and all knick knacks and decorations through out the house.  - Normal Schooling  - Basketball game 7pm -

 

Saturday 1/22 – pack books other than the ones needed for school the following week.  - pack movies

 

Sunday 1/23 – Pack bathroom and misc.  Plan weeks menu. 

 

Moving day is on Thursday 1/27, and I am going to try to school clear up to Wednesday 1/26.  We are only going to take Thursday and Friday off. 

 

Whew, I will be keeping you all posted on our progress.

Homeschooling through a move.

 

 

That’s right we are moving.  My husband has accepted a job offer in another city, 220 miles away.  We live in quite a small town now, however it is surrounded by many other cities.  And it is 15 miles from downtown Salt Lake.  Even though we love it here, we have always talked about moving to a more remote type town.  We are very excited!

 

My husband got laid off from his previous job a few weeks ago.   He then took the opportunity to apply for a job in another city. And he got it.  So we are packing up the family and moving. 

 

This will definitely be a life change for us.  We are moving far away from everything we know, everyone we know and to top it off, my husband will be traveling often.  We are very much excited and scared for the change. 

 

We are going to rent our current house out to some family members, and rent a house in the new town.  I am not ready to make the commitment to purchase in the new town just yet. 

I have planned out the next 10 days packing plans, school plans, menu plans, and a to do list.  

I am going to try to blog through this time. 

So stay tuned for a short blog series.

Count down to moving day.

15 days of moving while homeschooling.