Review: Spelling You See

When I got word that the Math-U-See geniuses were involved with a new spelling program, I knew we had to review it. Spelling You See uses the same idea as Math-U-See with no grade levels listed so you can start your child where they need to be. After reviewing the general guidelines and placement guide, we chose to begin Terrific T in Spelling You See: Level D (Americana).  They encourage you to not skip the basics and assume good readers are good spellers. Choose the level that they need in spelling, not in reading.


The first thing I noticed is that this is a completely different approach to spelling that we had been doing. Knowing that what we have been doing isn't working, I was very excited to try this different approach. There are no weekly spelling lists and random activities to do each week to prepare for a test on Friday.

Instead, there are three activities you use:

• Chunking - during this segment each day, we look for specific patterns in words - vowel chunks, consonant chunks, bossy r chunks, tricky y guy chunks, endings, and silent letters. Each different chunk is coded in a different color, which stays consistent throughout the course. This helps them get a visual of these patterns. Everyday, they color code certain chunks in a passage that you read aloud with them.

• Copywork - The first three days of the lesson (there are 5 "days" in each lesson), you follow your chunking activity with copy work. They take the same passage they just read and coded, and copy part of it each day. It says to take no more than 10 minutes on this. If they aren't finished at 10 minutes, you stop until the next day. T was pumped about this...but it only took him 4-5 minutes to do the copywork so he didn't get to skip out on anything after all. haha. I am a big fan of copywork in general - the kids do it everyday normally, so this wasn't new or a shock to them. I had Princess P do some of the lessons with us. She could do the chunking and copywork just fine but struggled on the dictation. Next month I'll blog about the spelling I am using for her now. If I had a lower level of this, I'm sure it would have worked great, but she isn't ready for Americana just yet. They then go back and do the chunking again on the copywork section. The kicker is the answers are on the previous page, with faces the copywork. I had them cover the original and then us it to check their work after.

• Dictation - The last two days of the week are used for dictation. They begin as usually, reading and chunking the passage. This is nice and familiar to them by now so they are relaxed and not anxious about dictation. For dictation time, I would read aloud the story again to them, stopping at the end of each sentence. Again, they go for 10 minutes and stop, whether they are finished or not. The first day you do this, you are allowed to answer their questions on spelling and punctuation. At the end, they count how many words they spelled correctly. The last day of the week, you shouldn't help them with spelling but still can with punctuation. Again, at 10 minutes, they stop and count their correct words. 

Every day of the week, they work with the same passage. The repetition is helpful as they picked up quickly on the punctuation and phrasing. By the second dictation day, T was going ahead of me and writing a lot of it from memory! He was self-correcting errors from the previous day's dictation and it really seemed to help his spelling improve.

He really enjoyed this program. He never complained about doing it, which is huge since he complains about most schoolwork. ;o) He liked the stories - all about American history and things that were familiar to him. He liked that he knew it wouldn't take more than 30 minutes, even if he piddled around...which he didn't do. I was impressed with how well he did on the dictation parts and I know the chunking all week really helped that. He was able to visualize the words and quirky patterns that our language is so full of, and have success.

Overall, this is a huge win in our home! There are five levels available so far with two more in the works. For the program, you  need the student books (it's divided into two books), the teacher's book, and colored pencils or highlighters. If you buy the set off the Spelling You See site, all this is included. There are 36 weekly lessons with 5 days in each lesson. On the weeks we have CC on Monday, we did the 5th lesson on Saturday or Sunday. They really do only take about 30 minutes so you can squeeze it in easily.

Like I mentioned before, this isn't divided into grades. Americana says it is "basically" for kids who are over 8 and strong readers, or over 10 and strong readers but struggling spellers. T probably could have done the next level, American Spirit, but I wanted him to have success and to master these "easier" paragraphs before we move on. I'm glad we started here. Him enjoying it really does make a huge difference. We will definitely not go back to our old spelling for a while and continue with this. It is clicking with him so I'm not going to stop!

The price for this fantastic spelling program is $14 for the Instructor’s Handbook  and $30 for the Student Pack.

 Visit them on facebook and twitter here:

https://www.facebook.com/SpellingYouSee
https://twitter.com/spellingyousee

 And go here to see what others had to say about the program:

Almost Wordless Wednesday: While C is away...

This week, Captain C is in Houston with the church youth group "doing love" and working hard. We decided to surprise him and do some love for him. I hope he loves his room makeover!

Love No Matter What

Little Man is spending the day getting to know his sweet grandparents, who he will be living with soon. That left us with some time to kill. We went shopping and got some birthday gifts for him. Then ran into Sams...because the kids wanted some samples. We were too early for samples - haha - but I found this book and flipped through it.

It's a giant board book that is all about I will love you no matter what. Then I got to the last page, and teared up in Sams.

I had to get it for little man. I pray he always knows that even during the time he couldn't be with his family, he was so very loved.

Here he is with Big Daddy and T, eating breakfast this morning. I snapped this picture so I can remember these little moments...treasure them in my heart.

♥ He's still here ♥

I posted last month that we were in a place of waiting with little man. At that point, they had told us he would likely leave within a week. Then there was a turn and they said no, it would be 3-6 months. We lived with that for a few weeks and now, we know it will be two weeks. Probably. The emotional rollercoaster that foster families face had never crossed my mind.

It isn't just us on this crazy ride...it's the foster child, our children, our friends and family, his family, and Big Daddy and I that are bring strung along. It's such a crazy system that sometimes seems to be for the children, and sometimes seems to forget that they are innocent, precious humans and not just a piece of property.

So, where do we stand now? We are still loving the heck out of this little guy. He's pretty stinking awesome! 

Getting the last Cheerio!

We have met his grandparents, who will be getting him from us, and love them. I've only met them twice and talked to them on the phone once, and already they feel like long lost family. We can speak frankly and laugh together and are both in this for HIM. It is so awesome to meet people who want the best for him, just like we do. The caseworker has been great, and I know she wants what's best too...but it's not quite the same as meeting grandparents (who had never met little man before) and instantly bonding over our love of this little hairy toddler.

They have promised that we can stay in his life, and I believe them...and will hold them to it. haha. He is smitten with them too. Praise Jesus! We are working on transitioning him and I know it won't be easy for him, us, or them honestly, but we are making the best of the situation presented to us.

We will also continue to pray for him and his mom and his future and know that we have done the best we can with him while we had him. It's been a blast have him here for the last 6 months, and I know God is preparing us all for this transition. I'm so thankful that he is staying close and we won't lose touch with him!

TOS Review: Mango Languages

I have heard of Mango Languages before, but had never looked into it much. I always thought it was for older kids and just didn't put much thought into it. I was excited to see it up for review and thrilled to be given a beta version of  Mango Homeschool Edition to review with the kids. It is an online program so you don't have to download anything to start and it will work on PC or Mac.

I intended for Princess P and Terrific T to do Latin, since that is what we are doing in CC. However, once they saw the over 60 languages available, they had other ideas. I love that by having this subscription, you have access to ALL of the languages (including pirate!). This is so great in case your kids are like mine and change their minds a lot, or just want to get a feel for different languages. They are so young that they aren't looking to master a language right now, but find it fun to listen to other languages and throw a phrase out at us to stump us sometimes. And seriously, everyone should know how to say some basic phrases in pirate...you just never know! Argh!

The website itself was a little confusing at first, so plan to spend some time looking around yourself before you start the kids on there. There is so much there to explore - thankfully there are videos and great tutorials to help you navigate the program. Once I had figured out what we needed to do and where things were, I brought the kids in to select their language. They both wanted to do Spanish - yay. That's a practical one in this part of the country. I started them out separately, with their own spaces, but ended up just having them work together. It was nice to be able to talk to each other and help each other along.

Depending on the language chosen, there are different amounts of lessons available. They call them journeys. For Pirate, there is one; for Spanish, there were three. Here is what was covered in the first journey for Spanish:

After 6 weeks, the kids are only a little over half way through this first journey. They could easily get an entire year's Spanish curriculum out of this! For T and P, when they finish journey 1, I'll have them repeat it again before moving on to the next journey to make sure they get these basics down. Each lesson took about 30 minutes. After the first lesson, I didn't sit with them during their lessons...which was good (It's nice to not have to teach them everything) and bad (I have no idea how to speak Spanish so was lost when they were talking to me after!). Thankfully Mango has a course guide that I downloaded that has all the lessons in it. YAY. It was 168 pages so I didn't print it out, but saved it into dropbox so I could look at it when I needed it.

Another cool feature is that each time you log in, it remembers where you were and you can pick right back up there. You can have multiple languages going at once too, which is nice if you just want to sample a few. 

Mango says it is for ages 6 to adult. P is 9 and started out okay, but it quickly got difficult for her. T is 11 and loves it. He could do it on his own and enjoyed throwing random Spanish phrases into our daily conversations. LOL.  I haven't looked into high school foreign language requirements so not sure if this would work, but it is perfect for our elementary kids. I am impressed with what T learned in such a short amount of time. The program would also be fantastic for someone about to travel abroad. The lessons are so easy that you could learn some basics in a short amount of time.

Here is a sample of part of a lesson. They read everything for you, which was great, and you click the right arrow to move forward and left to move back. It was very simple to navigate.

I'm so excited about the improvements coming soon with Mango.  Being able to track and monitor the kids progress will be so helpful as homeschooling parents. As it is, without sitting with them, I had no idea how they were doing. I'm so glad they are working to improve the program. Here is a list they provided with their current and future features:

What is currently available on the site:
Over 60 different languages - Arabic to Yiddish and everything in between
Progress Assessments

Built-in journals, discussions and wikis
Collaborative learning spaces
eNote messaging
/chat rooms

Access to embedded/downloadable content

Support from other community members

Calendars to schedule meetings or study groups

Over the next several months, we'll be introducing other exciting features like:

Enhanced Tracking and Progress Monitoring - including seat time (for students and parents)
Goals and Personal Lesson Plans (both stand-alone and tied into Mango courses)

Resume and Portfolio Builder

They have special introductory pricing right now: 

1 subscription is $18/month or $125/year total 

2 subscriptions is $28/month or $175 /year total

3 subscriptions is $38/month or $225/year total

4 subscriptions is $48/month or $275/year total

5 subscriptions is $58/month or $325/year total

Anything over 6 subscriptions is a special group rate that will depend on the number in the group. 

The homeschool edition is different from the free version you can get through some libraries (Tulsa Library is one). The homeschool edition has at least 20 more languages than the library version and has multiple levels on lessons. The library only offers one level of each language.The homeschool edition also has forums and additional features that are not included with the library version. While the library addition is free, it's obvious that there are so many additional benefits with the paid subscriptions.

Check our more info here:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MangoLanguages
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/mangolanguages/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MangoLanguages

And click below to read more Crew reviews.

Almost Wordless Wednesday: Apology Accepted

I found this on the counter today. P had emptied the dishwasher and washed all the dishes, then left this sitting there for me. I totally teared up. All is forgiven and I love her so much.

Review: ScienceandMath.com ~ Fractions

  Terrific T was excited when I mentioned that ScienceandMath.com was offering their Mastering 5th Grade Math - Volume 1 - Essentials of Fractions for us to review. He's in 5th grade math now and has been exposed to fractions, but was looking forward to learning all about them. This says it's for grades 4-6, but as I'll discuss below, P did some and she is in 3rd, but it got too hard quickly so I think the 4-6th is pretty accurate. We received the physical DVD/CDRom set pictured below that currently retails for $15.99. It contains one instructional DVD and one CD that is full of the worksheets, answer sheets, and mp4s of all of the lessons. You can also get the downloadable version for $14.99.
 

When the set arrived, we put aside our other math curriculum and focused just on this for a few weeks. As with anything that talks (lol), all the kids came in when the video started. Captain C moved on to his own thing, but Princess P stayed put and watched the first lesson with us. I had only intended to use this with T, but figured it wouldn't hurt for her to watch too. She still did her normal math during this time, but added this in because it was fun.

The video lessons are taught by Jason Gibson, who has been making science and math teaching videos since 2004. He knows his stuff and was easy to watch and understand. He breaks everything down, even the basics. This really helped T to learn and understand what he was teaching. The DVD has 16 lessons:

Review of Fraction Concepts, Writing Fractions as Words, Finding Factors of Numbers, Finding the GCF, Finding the GCF of 3 Numbers, Prime Factorization, Equivalent Fractions,Renaming Fractions,Simplifying Fractions Part 1,Simplifying Fractions Part 2, Review of Improper Fractions, Review of Mixed Fractions, Writing Mixed Fractions as Improper Fractions,Writing Improper Fractions as Mixed Fractions, Thinking of Fractions as Division, Writing Whole Numbers as Fractions

Each lesson is roughly 10 minutes long. He introduces the topic, then works several problems to really help the kids understand the concept. He works them all out on the white board for us as he explains it. We watched the videos together, then I printed out the worksheets that came on the 2nd CD in the set. There are 3 sheets for each lesson. In the beginning, we did one sheet out loud together, then T and P each took one of the other 2 sheets to do on their own. The beginning lessons only took about 10 minutes to work out and they really did have it mastered. I was impressed that both kids (grades 5 and 3) could do them.

Then we got to lesson 6 and it started getting a little harder for P. She still watched the videos with us but T was the only one doing the worksheets after that. We also moved from him doing one worksheet a lesson (so doing a lesson a day - well, we did one page orally and he did one page on his own) and slowed down so he really did master the concepts. We hadn't done prime factorization at all yet in his current math curriculum, so we took a few days on this and he did all three worksheet pages this time. The next lesson he got quickly and then we were back to needing all the pages. I like that you can print as many or as few as you need for the kids. If you didn't want to print them, it would be very easy to just copy the problems onto notebook paper and save the ink. My printer acted up midway through the lessons and we did them on the whiteboard until I could get it fixed.

We had about a month for this review and have almost finished the lessons. I think you could easily do the entire volume in 6-8 weeks and really have it mastered. They also have 3 other sets for 5th grade:

1) Mastering 5th Grade Math, Vol 1
(Covers fraction concepts, simplifying fractions, improper fractions, mixed fractions, and more)

2) Mastering 5th Grade Math, Vol 2
(Covers adding and subtracting fractions, mixed numbers, word problems, and more)

3) Mastering 5th Grade Math, Vol 3
(Covers multiplying and dividing fractions, mixed numbers, word problems, and more)

4) Mastering 5th Grade Math, Vol 4
(Covers order of operations, decimals, multiplication, long division, and more)

I am planning to get the 2nd volume to do over the summer with T and depending on how he does on that, we'll grab the next ones too. Fractions are very important to really master before moving to higher level math. The way Jason teaches really got through to T. He didn't complain about watching or doing these lessons, which is a nice change of pace. ;) The price is great for what you get too.

  Find them on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ScienceAndMathCom    

Oily updates...

Another month, another list of successes with my Young Living Essential Oils. We have continued to use the oils as in the past months for daily things like tummy aches or headaches, but here are a few NEW things we have used them for this month that I thought I'd share.

Captain C has a beautiful complexion. No idea where he got that from - lol. But he got a couple of zits right between his eyes this month after wearing his glasses with duct tape holding them together for a few days. Oops. He came down to me one night and asked if there was an oil to help. I looked it up and found that many people had luck with lemon for zits. You have to be careful though because lemon will make your skin photosensitive, so don't use it before going out in the sun for at least 12 hours. Since it was night, we felt ok trying this out. He put lemon straight on each little zit after washing his face. He said it burned. I asked if he wanted me to put coconut oil on it and he didn't. He wanted to tough it out - lol. Not sure I'd recommend that, but he's a teenage boy and you can't tell him anything. He went up to bed after that, but came back down about an hour later to ask me something. I had him look at his zits...they were at least 1/2 the size they had been!! By morning most of the red was out and they were almost completely flat. He did it again the next night and those were gone the following morning. He has done this several times this month since when he gets one popping up. We love Lemon and it's cheap ($11.25 wholesale)! I'm going to get him his own bottle to keep upstairs this month.

Captain C again...this time he hurt his wrist pretty badly at church last Wed night. They were playing touch football and he bent it backwards. It was swelling and he was miserable. We took him in the next morning for x-rays because it was so bad and the dr thought by looks it was broken, but praise the Lord the x-rays showed no break! After seeing the oils work on zits, he was eager for me to try them on his arm. As soon as we got home, we put several different oils on there to help with the inflammation. He didn't want any ibuprofen so I made him a "morphine bomb" that I had read about.

I had earned Copaiba free last month and Balsam Fir free the month before (sweetness!!) so I made this up and he took it and went to bed. The next morning, before we were getting xrays, I had him take ibuprofen b/c I didn't know how much they would manipulate it...and he's my baby and I wanted the pain gone. We got home and that afternoon he was hurting pretty bad again. I asked him if he wanted more Ibuprofen and he said no, he wanted another of those oil pills! He liked the results of that better than the Ibuprofen! YAY! I'm trying to not push them on anyone, even my own kids, or withhold traditional meds when needed. I was thrilled at how well this worked.

We went to the zoo one day last month too and the last two times Terrific T has been to the zoo, he has broken out in an allergic reaction rash. This time, we came armed with Lavender and he swiped it inside his cheeks before going. I brought it in with  me too in case we needed it but we didn't. No allergy problems! YAY!

We used the "bomb" again yesterday. Big Daddy, Princess P, and Captain C all caught a nasty bug that left them weak and with headaches after a day of puking and more. It was a violent bug that wore them flat out. P and C asked for oils all the time - even smelling peppermint was helping them to not throw up. Every time he threw up, C would ask for more Di Gize and Peppermint on his belly. He got it the least of any of them  with only about 4 hours of sick time and then resting the next day. Big Daddy allows me to oil up, but I don't think is 100% sold so didn't do anything. I diffused Thieves in their rooms, but that's about it (and all us well peeps put it on our feet and diffused it by us too!). Yesterday, he had a headache that was just miserable and he couldn't shake. He took 3 Ibuprofen, then 2 hours later 2 more, then 2 hours later Aleeve. He said he has never had a headache that meds just wouldn't touch at all. A few more hours of suffering and he "gave in" and asked for one of those morphine bombs. lol. He came out a bit later and was shocked. It didn't take it all the way away, but almost. It was the first thing to even touch the pain, and it did more than just touch it...almost wiped it out. We could have done a second one but he didn't need it. Praise the Lord. He was impressed!

I still continue to be amazed at the results of using Progessence Plus. Literally changed my life and each month keeps getting better. I won't go into details here but you have any issues with your cycle, check this out. It might be the "fix" you need without surgery!

I have had story after story of friends that are trying Young Living and having great successes of their own. Husband off blood pressure meds, friend able to move out of depression and anxiety after losing a parent, etc. Really, until you try it yourself, it's hard to believe it works as well as it does. Try it, Mikey, you'll like it!

So, what's in my cart for this month? Let's see...I have a few things to restock that I use a ton of - Lavender, Lemon, and Peppermint. I'm also going to get a 15ml Balsam Fir (got the 5ml free and don't want to run out now that we know how well the morphine bomb works!). I've been battling Rosacea for years and have decided to work on it this month. I have read that Essential Beauty Serum helps, as well as Lavender, so I'm picking up some of that this month and will let you know next month how it works. I tried Vetiver this month to help T with his moods and focus - I really am not seeing as much difference with that as I do with Cedarwood so I'm going to restock our Cedarwood and call it good. P has been having a hard time getting her hair all the way rinsed and is dealing with some buildup. I'm going to try some YL shampoo this month and see if it helps. I haven't decided between the KidScents or Lavender. Have you tried either? Any opinions?

As always, if you want to order anything, I order on the 8th of each month (need to have your order by the 7th to get it in) and am happy to add it in if you are local, and will gladly pass along my wholesale discount (24% off!). You can also sign up as a customer or as a wholesale member and get all the perks for yourself. You only have to order $50 a year to stay "active," but I know you will be hooked and want more. Let me know any questions you have or if you are interested in ordering or enrolling. If you use my link, it puts you on the same "team" as me and I can add you to private facebook pages and such to chat with people who have done this a lot longer than I have!

One last little disclaimer...I'm not a doctor and don't even play one on TV. I'm only sharing my personal experiences with the hope that they will help you with options of how to help yourself be more healthy. Do your research. I did and continue to do that. For our family, we have found that these oils work better than traditional meds for most things and without putting chemicals and junk in our bodies. :)

Review: Motivated Moms {chore schedule}

I was super excited to get to do a review for Motivated Moms as I have heard about their "chore charts" for years. I had downloaded their free version of their app a few months ago so knew I liked the system, but wanted to learn more. For this review, I was graciously sent my choice of any of their Motivated Moms Ebooks. There are 16 different designs to choose from and I choose the full page chore planner with Bible readings.

I can do a lot of things, but for some reason keeping a clean house eludes me. I've tried several other systems but always fail. Maybe it's the creative side of me, but with Big Daddy traveling more, I needed some major help around here.

Enter Motivated Moms. This is brilliant. It essentially takes the list making out of list making! They have broken down all the things that need to be done around the house and listed them as chores and tasks. Chores are things that need to be done daily and tasks are those extra things that if you don't do them, add up, but you don't notice until you are behind on them. Dishes we can see that they need to be done daily, but things like cleaning the top shelf of the fridge get missed until you can't take it anymore...or are having guests come stay... or DHS pops by the house.

I received a PDF of 2014 with one full page per week. It is 55 pages long and includes a blank menu plan at the end. I have been printing the weeks off, a few weeks at a time, and putting them on the fridge where I can't miss it each day! I've heard of others printing them all up and binding them or putting them in a folder, but with my luck (and organization), I'd end up losing the binder. haha. I can't lose the fridge! You could also save printing and just view them on your computer or ipad (save them to dropbox or something like that first) but then you couldn't mark them off.  I also chose the one with daily Bible readings on it. It follows the "read the Bible in a year" method and breaks it down day by day. I was doing great with that for the first few weeks, then got behind. Now I use one of the blank lines on the chore list and just mark off after I've read anything in the Bible...not the assigned readings.

The daily chores are basically the things needed to keep the house running smoothly: make beds, feed pets, cook, laundry, trash out, etc. These are the basics that are the same week after week.

The tasks run the gamut of dusting your fans, room by room, to cleaning out your purse and restocking toilet paper. These are just little things, that don't take very long to do each day, but help you get ahead in your housework and not just stay afloat. The thing I love about these is if you miss one, it's ok. If you miss a whole day, it's ok. They will come back up in a few week or months, depending on the task. Clipping the kids nails and changing bathroom towels come up weekly but some others aren't needed that often. Motivated Moms really took the thinking out of cleaning!

I love that the tasks change each day so we don't get bored or forgetful. I also love that this is dated so if we miss a day, we pick up the next day. Or if we miss 4 or 5 days, we pick up then too (rough month, guys!). The dates keep us moving along and not getting stuck.

Instead of assigning the tasks to the kids, I like to let them pick which one they want. First one done with school gets to pick first (bribe? whatever).  They can also pick one from any day of the week. It doesn't matter to me who does what or when, as long as it gets done!

There were some chores/tasks listed that didn't relate to us. I would love to see this as an editable document so we could add and take away things to personalize it for our family. This chore system is designed for moms, but I would LOVE if they came out with a kid's one too. *hint, hint*

The planners are very reasonably priced at $8 for the year's ebook. I think this is totally worth the cost to not have to think through what needs to be done and for the kids to have a concrete list sitting there to use.

Have you used Motivated Moms before? The app or ebook? Or how do you keep up with daily and weekly housekeeping? If you are just naturally neat, please stick around and rub off on me, but know that I'm secretly cursing you right now. ;o)




Check them out on facebook and twitter also: https://www.facebook.com/motivated.moms and https://twitter.com/momoplanner

love.

I have been doing some design work for my sister, who happens to sell Origami Owl. She sent me this awesome bracelet as a thank you. I picked this and will keep adding in the birthstones of our foster kiddos as a reminder to pray for them. Hearts for girls and circles for boys. Just two so far. It's perfect.

 

She also sent Princess P this awesome necklace for her birthday last month.  It's hard to see with these phone pics but it has ballet slippers and a pink crown in it. She adores it!

Three years ago, before we knew about Origami Owl, Big Daddy had surprised me with a locket necklace like this at a little mom and pop place in IL. It is still one of my favorite things he has ever bought me.

I love personalized things. Things that might only matter to me, but I know what they mean. If you need a gift (for yourself or others), check these out. I'm very impressed with the quality. She didn't ask me to blog about this (and doesn't even know I am doing it actually) but I just wanted to share how great they are. And say Thanks, SJ. We love them!

Out with the old...

Big Daddy and I are rather ... well ... frugal. Most of our furniture was either made by family, handed down, or bought at garage sales. We just have a very hard time spending large amounts of money on things.

We started years ago paying cash for everything...cars, campers, furniture, etc. So when it comes to upgrading, we usually think and over think about everything and end up deciding that what we have is perfectly functional so don't buy anything at all. Vacations are our big splurges. We still pay cash and shop around, but we don't wait for years to buy and go. Making memories with the kids at each stage of their lives is important to us. 

Anyway, we have been using this $30 garage sale beauty for the past about seven years. Really. We broke one chair a few years back and my sister in law gave us another...that doesn't match but is close enough. Can you spy the different one? ;o)

I decided I was ready to be a grown up and buy something new. We started looking around and decided to buy local. I found a table that I loved that a couple here in town makes in their garage. I ordered it last month and with the weather it took a little while, but I was happy to wait to get it done right. No need to rush anyway when we have a perfectly good table to use - lol.

Yesterday I posted our beauty on Facebook and sold it (May the new family have as many good years with it as we did!) and today our table was ready. WAHOOOO.

Out with the old and in with the new. We liked the benches because they can seat several additional peeps. As it was, we filled our table at each meal which made it tight when the kids have friends over. I also brought a couple of chairs for them to paint to match. Oh and had her distress them all so it will look like it's on purpose when we ding it up. Lol.

A bonus was getting the floor mopped and shiny while the room was empty. We moved the bookcases out and cleaned it good (with Thieves cleaner so it smells nice too) before bringing everything back in.  I love it all!!