An Unexpected ER visit

I can hardly believe that I'm here blogging right now. Our Littlest decided she wanted to wake up at the crack of dawn this morning. Okay, not the crack of dawn, but 6am is a bit early for us, especially her. She usually like to sleep in until 8:30am. I usually have breakfast finished by the time she wakes up, but no today she was my alarm. By the time 10am rolled around, she was quite the fussy little girl. I was planning on trying yet another new recipe, vegetarian chili, so I needed to make a stop at the farmer's market and also the whole food store. I'm talking to my mom on the phone ("in-law" sounds so distant) and BANG!! All I see is my son jump off of one couch aiming for the ottoman, but wayyyy over jumping the landing-he fell straight on his head and immediately screamed out in pain-one hand on his head, the other on his lower spine area. Our first trip to the ER for one of my kids. Thankfully, we were able to drop the girls off a grandma's house and get to the hospital. By the time we got there, he seemed fine. He was moving around fine, but would complain about his back hurting when getting up from a lying down or sitting position, climbing stairs, and jumping. Three hours later we were able to leave, thankfully with a clean bill of health....all except the bruised back that he'll be sporting for a bit. Thank God.

The hectic afternoon turned into a pleasant one with my little man. We stopped at Wal-Mart, Target, Abundance Life Whole Foods, Sprint, and walked the mall a bit. I kept asking him every five minutes about his back. By the end of the day, he was so sick of hearing it lol. I got him a blanket from the car and laid it in a shopping cart so he wouldn't have to walk. He was really loving this treatment. I'm sure he's gonna milk the sore back for a while ;) I'm so thankful that I can joke about it now, because this morning I was so worried, I thought I was gonna puke.

Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart...I have avoided the "back-to-school" aisles for about a month, but today I crumbled. I have to say though, I went only for the deals.

EXCITING!!!!!!

The colorful notebooks in the back left were $.70 each. The Primary Journals were $.50 each. I bought eight for $4.00!!! I also got a spelling test notepad, 1000 craft sticks (we are making our own bird feeders and thought this might come in handy..I'll put our how-to on the blog when we get there), Brain Games Kids Preschool, mini post it notes (you'll see my use for it shortly), Alphabet Bingo ($1 from Target), four learners books ($1 each from Target), a glue gun and glue sticks ($7 from Wal-Mart), Elmer's glue sticks, Foam Learning Clock ($1 at Target), Reusable Dry Erase Pocket-5 Different Templates: Blank Clock Sheet, Alphabet Sheet, Addition and Subtraction Sheet, Multiplication and Division Sheet, and a lined sheet for practicing writing ($1.97 from Wal-Mart), Fasteners for our Work Boxes, Dry Erase Learning Board, and the best for last, I FINALLY found a planner that I love...and I'm totally raving about it here:

So I ripped off the sticker before I remembered to take a picture. All the important stuff is still visible at least!! It's a Mead Five Star Advance from Wal-Mart that I SCORED for $7! Here's a link so you can see what it is in detail, but make sure you go to Wal-Mart to buy because the price difference is ridiculous!! Five Star Advance Academic Weekly/Monthly Student Planner

Here's why I'm so excited to use this planner! I'm very OCD about organization and neatness. I really don't like working on something so hard, making a mistake, then having to scratch it out or white it out. It looks so messy. I know that homeschool will not always be daisies and sunshine. Schedules will change, life happens. So instead of whiting out or crossing out a whole section, I plan on using post-it-notes. I wish I came up with this brilliant idea, but I actually got it from one of the moms on our homeschool co-op group...

I can fit six subjects in one day. I plan to color coordinate everything. One color will be subjects that the kids can do together, such as Bible (in this example, let's say that color is pink noted above). I haven't sorted the kids curriculum so this is just a messy example to show you how I plan on using the post-its. Say something comes up and we don't finish our last (or third) subject on Monday, March 24. I can remove the green post-it and move it over to Tuesday, March 25. Genius!!!! No scratch outs, no mistakes! Simply lift and press and the whole day is changed! My sanity and OCD-ness is spared. How easy is that?!

I have room at the top to the left and right of the date for 1) the number of days in school and 2) attendance. In each corner, there is a perforated line at the top so I can simply fold down the corner to mark which day we are on.

Another wonderful thing about this planner is that....

Each day gets a whole diagonal section, and each week gets two pages! Way more than enough room for me to jot notes and plan everything I need to.

Before each month begins, there is the full month's view. It makes it incredibly easy for marking holidays, excursions, and activities. Even days off. There is even space on the right hand side and beneath the month's calendar for notes!


And as if this thing can't get any better....

A pen holder and spiral guard to make sure this baby lasts all year!!

I can't say I've ever been this excited about a planner! If you knew me, you'd understand...and if you knew how long I was looking for one, you'd understand even more (I was ready to purchase a spiral notebook and draw my own, yes with a ruler lol, and if I made a mistake, you bet the whole page would be thrown away...can you imagine the frustration and time it would take?)!!

I guess that wraps up our homeschool mania of the day!