The crap just keeps hitting the fan!

Remember when I said I would be glad when the week was over.... Well you wouldn't belive Friday night our van broke down! My husband was on his way home from work and had to take it to a repair garage. The guy said it may be the engine - Yikes! If so, then we will not get it fixed. My son went to pick my husband up, they were looking at cars. I flipped out in my mind because as you know my husband work is not steady, some weeks he only gets three days in. I could NOT imagine adding on a car payment when we are struggling each week as it is. I suggested he ask his boss for the work van, this way they may have him work all week because he will have the equipment - The boss pays half the gas and you have to handle the rest but we would be able to drop our insurance down to one car which will help some on that bill. Of course I am the only one who likes that idea : (
Anyway, Went food shopping, I can't belive the prices - Each week they keep going up. I got enough for three days of meals, my husband was with me and told me to hold off on some things that he was going to repair a roof today (Sunday) and make some money there, so I did. Guess what, This morning he said it's too late now to go do work on the roof I will have to go some day after work... He had no intentions of doing that roof and now I have have no dog food for the dogs or hay for the horses - Yikes! He was just yelling at me because we have no money for the rest of the week - That I should have been more careful of what I spent. I tell you I am crying on the inside..... I was reading over on this one blog "Learning to Be Frugal" how her husband treated her to a wonderful bubble bath. If only I had a husband like that!
The saddest part I think is Kelly said to me, "Mom I think God hates us" : (

Friday..... Glad to see this week end!

I am up a river without a paddle! I have checks bouncing (the bank charges $35.00 for each over draft & $6.00 a day on each bouncing until you pay it up)- I have two checks bouncing and one debit card charge. This all occured when a check I wrote to a person I thought was being held until this Friday was cashed. I know it was my fault for doing this and my husband is livid with me! We don't have money to begin with and now this.....
Then as I mentioned I am interested in getting the BiblioPlan - America and the World: 1850-2000 there was one on ebay I stayed up till after 12pm last night to make sure I won it - Don't you know the last minute someone else jumped in and won it : ( I just hate that! If anyone sees a used copy of this for sale - Please let me know.
Oh well this week is almost over and we start a new one - I sure hope it is better then this one was!!!!!

Monday - June 23rd.

I started off this morning with a swim, the pool was perfect alittle on the chilly side. It was so quiet out there, very serene - just lovely : )
I am finding for my sanity I need some quiet time for myself - Our house right now is very stressful on all angles so it is nice to find some time when there is just no noise.
Things didn't turn out as well as I had hoped yesterday, the man who wanted his house painted has alzheimer's and didn't rememer that he mentioned that he wanted his house painted..... and my in-laws only gave my husband a few bucks not enough for food for this week : (
Kelly just woke up and is in a nasty mood, We all have allergies or something brewing which makes us all get on each others nervous. I was hoping to get some schooling in today - I am really thinking we will need to take a month off so she feels regrouped and ready to hit the books again but of course I am not going to mention that yet to her : )

Wrap Up Of The Week....

What a week we have been having - I am just glad that one is over and a new one is starting : )
You know how I jump around all over the place with our homeschooling curriculum, I find one thing I love and then I find something I think we will love even better.... Well I am at it again! I found BiblioPlan It looks very much like History Odyssey but I think it may be a bit better for us. Has anyone tried either one of these programs? Can you tell I LOVE history.... I seem to toss the other subjects aside and do most of my plannning for history. I must stop doing that!!!!
To wrap up last week, my son is back with his girlfriend (they still seem to be bickering with each other but time will tell), It looks like we will be able to pay the electric bill so at least that won't be turned off but the cable/phone/internet is another story. I won't be able to pay that till next week so that may be turned off a few days - Yikes!
I have to pass on a story of what happened yesterday - I was out walking one of my dogs Spencer. It was raining but the rain was refreshing. With all the troubles we have been having I felt drained, I said out loud "God, I am going to leave these problems in your hands - If you could help us with them I would really appreciate it". All of a sudden there was a clap of lighting and then a booming thunder!!!! It scared the life out of Spencer and myself. I wasn't sure if God was mad at me for not beliving he was already watching over us but I raced home. Then today my husband got a call from his mother saying they have work for him and they know of a neighbor of theirs who wants their house to be painted..... "Ask and you shall receive" : )
Hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday!!!!

Life's Up's & Down's

The days have just been flying by.... I can't belive it's Wed. already - Where did Monday & Tuesday go! I think I know where... I was ingrossed in a book : ) I had picked up some of the extra reading books for Kelly's History Odyssey, one of the books "Shiva's Fire" I picked up and once I started it, I just could not put it down (I love books that are like that). I will read it again with Kelly, I hope she enjoyes it as much as I did. That is one thing I am very sad about neither one of my kids enjoy reading! They don't know the pleasure of getting involved in a book and letting it take you place like in this book India.... I think it is a real shame : ( I keep introducing her to all kinds of books in hopes that something will lite a spark for her (the only time I saw a little spark from my son was the Harry Potter books).

Anyway, Things have not been very smooth here - My son & his girlfriend are riding a rocky road right now and she broke up with him. It is so sad to see a young man with tears in his eyes! I have tried to tell him that at 18 they are just now seeing the world for the first time and things may be different from here on out.... who knows they may patch things up but if not things will work out okay.
Also, He is still having trouble with the "TABE" test his took. They set up classes for him but he feels he just wants to take the test over again and see what he gets this time. As I had said they told him he passed and then the gal refreshed her computer and then he failed so I think he thinks they are just trying to get their classes filled ($70.00 a class). I called today to make sure he can take the test again without finishing the classes and the gal was such a crank pot on the phone. I can see why he comes home and complains about her. She was rude and talked to me like I was so below her, she then told me to talk to his guidence counsler - I told her I doubt my son has that number and she said "I am sure he DOES". I see now what he has been saying he is up against there.

It sure is scary with all the reports of how corn is going to skyrocket in price & along with gas prices making food prices go way up. I really hate to invision where all this is leading us. But I do have to say, I haven't seen anyone around here slowing down to say 55 miles per hour to save gas! They still all rush around and have to pass like idiots, times I just wonder where they are all getting the money to buy that much gas they are waisting.

I read over on my blogging buddy Homes School Home how her friend just passed away at age 40 leaving behind two small children.... Now doesn't that just put life into prespective!

Friday the 13th......

It's funny how much joy I got out of getting the "History Odyssey" Modern Times Study Guide in the mail..... I like it : ) You do need to get about 5 other reading books to go with it, my library has a couple but others will have to be a interlibrary loan. Now a days I don't know which way to go about getting the books (with gas at $4.09 and going up), and with our library pretty far away for me to drive (a good 30 minutes or so). I have to figure out is it cheaper to spend the money on gas to go up there and back twice or just order them from a low cost site ex. amazon has the books for .01 cent but shipping is $3.99 each book? I have been reading again Amy Dacyczyn's Tightwad book and she figures everything out so she know which way is most cost affective. I am leaning towards just ordering the books - What do you think?
Now that I have the study guide I am bitting at the bit to get back to school work : ) But guess who isn't.....? Kelly says she wants a vacation, I said "What has the past two weeks been"? But she feels since we didn't offically call it our vacation time it didn't have the vacation feel. I kinda know what she is saying, Since we have no money to go places and we spend soooo much time here on a regular basis to make if feel like "Vacation" time here is very hard. Any ideas?
My husband is home again..... no work yesterday and today. He went and picked up his check from last week (a four day pay check), At least that will pay the electric bill. It really is so hard not kowing from one week to the next how much you will have to work with. They told him that they will have work for Monday but I am worried that they may just lay him off and then we are back to that again - Yikes!
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

The Little Things....

It's funny how the littlest things can make me sad. When my Dad was alive he was collecting those state quarters for a map he had going for Kelly & my son was working on his map at our house (After my Dad died my brother went through his house and took anything that had money value including the map for Kelly, so we don't have that one). Well yesterday I found a South Dakota quarter in my pocket, I ran it into my son to see if needed it for his map. He said to me "Mom I have used the quarters, I'm not collecting any more". I left the room feeling so sad, It ment so much to me to remember all the times he and my father worked on their maps together seeing who need what. I really felt we needed to finish Kris'es map to complete it for my Dad..... then to hear that he had used the quarters just kinda deflated me. It's funny how something that means so much to one person means so little to another. One time a wonderful lady we knew gave Kelly her teddy bear from when she was a girl. This bear was well worned but in nice shape still, We were very careless with this bear and our dog got it and used it as a chew toy. Here this lady had this toy from when she was a little girl over 80 years ago and had kept it all those years (I think it was one of the first teddy bears ever made) which she treasured and we had it maybe a week and it was gone forever.... The little things in life I think are sometimes so over looked.

Happy Monday To You All!

Well it's 11:44 am and we still haven't started school work..... Kelly & I both promised each other we would buckle down and try and get some work done today but as it looks now it will be another no school work day. I just can't seem to get down to business lately, It is soooo hot here that I can't concentrate even inside with the air conditioner running. We are still in the process of filling up the pool (I am sooo afraid we are going to run out well dry), our well water is pretty bad looking but Kelly is in there swimming away already with Reba her dog. Reba rides on a boogie board it really is the cutest, when the water clear up a bit I will post a picture of them.

Good Sunday Morning : )

I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far! We saw the Good Year blimp go over our house the other day, It sure is something to see. Even Chance our horse was amazed by it : )
I have to say it sure is HOT here in Florida, I know you are saying "You live in FLORIDA what do you expect" but it just seems so much hotter then usual to me, I can't go outside for even a few minutes without sweating.... So needless to say even with all our work/money problems my husband went out and bought a pool. My son chipped in his graduation money to help with the cost of it. I hated to spend the money but I think we all know how much that pool will come in handy in the up-coming months.
I enjoyed reading over on my blogging buddy Bunny's site about Homeschool Schedules. I have to laugh at myself after reading a few on the blogs some of the gals mentioned that they are using Sonlight for their curriculum, off I went to check it out.... I think that is what is wrong with me, I am always searching for the BEST thing instead of sticking with what we are using.

Test After Test

My son has to take two test to be able to attend the Police Academy: the TABE (Test of Adult Basic Education) & CJ-BAT (Criminal Justice-Basic Abilities Test. Yesterday he went and took the free TABE test and failed two sections of it, the reading and language. Here this kid just graduated high school with A's & B's and passed the FCAT but can't pass a basic adult education test.... He has to wait 21 days before he can take the test again. They do offer some kind of class to help you pass this test which I am looking into., the classes cost $70.00 but the first gal I talked to said they do have vouchers to make it free (thank goodness). I asked him what kind of problems gave him a hard time and he said they give you choices to pick from and you have to pick the sentence that has the comma & parenthesis in the correct spot, he said they all look very simular and he could not figure out which one was right.
I found a practice test type thing at the college website, Oh my gosh It is horrible to say but I really couldn't pass it either!

One Day To The Next.....

It really is harder then I thought to homeschool now that my son has graduated and is home all the time! It seems like one thing after another pops up and school work just doesn't get done : (
We did get the $900.00 incentive check, It was fun to pay some of the bills Geico & the vet, then I went food shopping and spent another $90.00 - the money sure is going fast down to $530.00 and we still have a number of bills to pay. I really have to look at instead of being upset that we didn't get the $1,500 be happy we got something to help with the bills.....
My son has been filling out all the applications he can find on the computer for the new stores that are opening up in our area so hopefully we can get him a job at one of them soon! I do have to say one thing though - I know when I graduated high school it seemed to me like the world was at my feet, It seems so different now.... people are struggling to just find a minumum wage job, no job is secure you have to worry from one day to the next if the compnay is down sizing to high cost ect., there just doesn't seem to be many opportunities for the kids as there were even just a few years ago : (
Back to homeschooling, I did order the History Odyssey: Modern Times, They only had level one but it will be a good start anyway. I think I am done buying books (except for the required reading books that go with History Odyssey), Now we just have to get down to business!