moving right along...

It sure feels good to be moving again!

After pulling out of Larry and Carols, we had nearly a week to get to San Antonio. Since we couldn't think of anything that we really wanted to do on the way there, we decided to just get there. We left Phoenix (south of) on Friday, hitting the Costco in Tucson on our way through to restock groceries. We spent Friday night at the Walmart in Deming, NM with a few other rvs.

Saturday found us driving into...

Yeah!

El Paso is quite a unique experience - the highway takes you along the US/Mexico border for a short time. The difference between the 2 sides of the border is striking. In the photo, you can see the border fence in the bottom part of the picture, and all the buildings are on the Mexican side. There are border patrol vehicles that just sit parked along the fence.watching...

Our goal for the night was Fort Stockton. There is not a whole lot of anything between El Paso and Fort Stockton, so we pulled into a rest area for a restroom break, to stretch our legs, and to make and eat lunch...

It was evening before we pulled in to Fort Stockton. Last year we had driven from Phoenix to Fort Stockton in one very long day. We took 2 days to do it this year, but it was still a long haul for us!

Sunday morning we were the last of the RVs to leave the Walmart parking lot - we awoke to a flat tire on the 5er. Since it was Sunday, there was nowhere to get it fixed, so the guys put the spare on.

Traveling with kids means lots of stops at rest areas to feed Caleb, take potty breaks, get drinks (refill water bottles), snacks (Strawberry ice cream? Oreos in this case), stretching legs and physical exercise...

Sunday we hit the road again, but with a minor change of plans. Our initial destination was San Antonio, and we were going to go straight there, but some other fulltime RVers were nearby in San Angelo, so we detoured up a bit to meet them. On the way, we pulled off the road in a little cowboy town to make lunch. Everyone pitches in when it comes to the kitchen...

(well, except the little girls who were outside throwing rocks into mud puddles!)

We are getting into that lovely Texas Hill Country!!!

Sunday evening we met Kent and Dana Butterfield in San Angelo (Walmart ;)

They used to travel with up to 5 of their kids, but kids have a tendency to grow up, and this is the first year that they are traveling kidless. The rest of us nomads have adopted them as our children's on-the-road grandparents! It was fun for the kids to get a g & g fix - they totally doted on the littles! And we had a nice visit with them! We fed them fattening fried Walmart chicken (we were running really late after the whole flat tire thing), and they fed us fattening brownies (our fav dessert! :). We used their paper towels for napkins, and stole/kept them (oops!); we think of them every time we use their paper towels! LOL!

We had such a nice visit with them, and hope to see them on the road again next year!

Monday we had planned to visit the fort that is in San Angelo, but the wind was howling, so we just hit the road. And drove through little cowboy towns on the minor roads that wind through the Hill Country.

And pulled into the Medina Lake Thousand Trails RV Park.

There isn't much to Medina Lake these days...

It's actually a man-made reservoir for the farmers to pull water from in time of need.

With a drought the last 2 years, there has been a time of need, and Medina Lake is currently more like Medina Creek.

They have several playgrounds, which made the littles quite happy with the park...

And they had a great activity center. We checked out pickleball equipment (we only have one set) and mini golf clubs and balls.

The boys played basketball, and the kids just explored.

There were bins for recycling, so we were able to drop off the 3 bags of soda cans that I had been dragging around to recycle. Made my hubby very happy to get rid of those! LOL!

Medina Lake TT is known for it's wildlife.

The kids loved the ducks that would come and beg for a handout...

The deer weren't quite so bold, but if Molly would have had a handful of corn, she probably could have fed these two (it's doubtless she could contain her excitement and hold still tho!)...

The kids begged some bread from the kitchen (since we didn't have a 100# bag of corn in the back of our suv like the neighbor)...

We had a nice neighbor that saw that we had kids (could he help it??), and he would come over in the mornings and scatter corn around our site so that the kids could see the deer close up.

They are pretty tame...

The does will come in for bread, but it's not good enough for the bucks. LOL!

We spent 2 incredibly peacefull nights at Medina Lake before we moved into San Antonio.

It was a lovely park. Since we were there on Monday and Tuesday, not many activities were going on. That was fine by us since we like to explore, and the kids were busy with the sports courts that they offered. We were busy at the park while we were there, and never did get to Fredricksburg or Kerrville this year.

We pulled out of Medina Lake on Wednesday, and moved in to a RV resort in San Antonio. We have been so busy this past week, that we all feel like Caleb looks. Tired.

But glad to be in San Antonio, glad to be able to do some special activities here, and glad to be together. :)

TOS Review - All About Reading...

I have really been enjoying being a part of The Old Schoolhouse's Review Crew this year! It has given me the chance to review homeschool curriculum (even tho we ROADschool!LOL!) that I might not have otherwise tried, and some that I hadn't even heard of before.

As a crew member, I get the opportunity to apply to review the curriculums that appeal to me; what I think might be a good fit for our family. I have to apply, letting the crew leaders know why I think that they should pick our family to review each product, and then if we are chosen, the books are sent to my sister back home. After they arrive there, she usually calls me to let me know that she got them, and we work out a place for her to forward them - sometimes it's an RV park that we will be staying at, sometimes it's General Delivery to a Post Office in a little town that we will be driving through in a week or so. She is a dear to box up and forward all these extra books to us (in addition to our mail), and I wouldn't be able to review while on the road without my 'Mail Lady'!!! Or without the long review times that TOS has - which is pretty unique! Without the 6 wk - 2 mo review times, I wouldn't have the ability to review items - it is often 3 weeks by the time my sis gets the books, we work out a feasible mail pick up site, and the box arrives from home.
Anyway, it's been a fun experience, one that I am thankful to have despite the mail-forwarding challenges of being on the road!

Recently, we got a new reading curriculum to try out. And I LOVE it!!!
All About Reading is fabulous. I wasn't sure about it when I was checking it out online, but Emma is a beginning reader, so thought it would be perfect practice for her.

I love this curriculum! I have been homeschooling for 17 years (WOW!!!(shock!)), and this curriculum uses so many of the same activities that I have been using to teach my littles to read all along! ~Only much more professional, and a lot less mom/teacher labor!
We recieved the Level 1 kit which contains:
*Teacher Manual -
*Student Packet - includes 'flash cards' and student activity book
*3 quality hardcover beginning reading books:
--Run Bug Run
--The Runt Pig
--Cobweb the Cat
We also recieved the Deluxe Reading Interactive Kit:
*Letter Tiles (with optional magnets)
*Basic Phonograms CD-Rom
*Reading Divider Cards
*Reading Review Box
*Tote Bag
*Star sticker for the student's progress chartI love that this program gets the kids reading quickly! They don't have to know all the letter sounds before having the accomplishment of 'reading' a book.

and the thing that I love the very most about this program are the readers themselves! And actually for a couple of reasons. The first probably isn't a legit reason to love the entire program, but I love that the books are quality hardcovers!!! I have a fetish for hardcover books - I think that if a book is worth buying, it's worth buying hc. even for kids. While that wouldn't be enough to get me to purchase the program, the following would: I love that the books are TRUE beginning readers.

(warning: rabbit-trail to follow: I have this extreem dislike of most 'beginning readers' because they are not true beginning readers. They tend to be full of difficult words - words that are exceptions, words that contain blends before the child has even learned them, books that contain hard sounds before a child had learned the rules for vowel sounds... for those reasons I refuse to ever buy 'beginning readers' from somewhere like Wallyworld because they are not real beginning readers...)

These books are TRUE beginning readers that your child (or mine ;) can read for themselves without a lot of mom/teacher needing to jump in to help them with this or that word exception. Information builds on previous lessons, and there is constant review since the kids are reading right away.

The teacher's manual is very self-explanitory, and does all the work for you (there is a small amount of prep work with cards and tiles, but that is at a kid's ability level - delegated it out here ! ;) Everything is spelled out, easy to follow, and all materials are included. There are no gaps in the curriculum, so you are not picking up the next reading book only to realize that you had to teach them t+h=th before they could read half the words in the book...

I love that the only part of the kit that is consumable is the student activity book, and additional booklets can be purchased individually for $16.95 should you need more than the 1 included in the kit. This is a program that can be used with multiple kids at one time; just order one kit and extra activity books.

There are several different parts to the All About Reading Curriculum, and they cater to different learning styles. The CD-Rom is great for auditory learners as you load it into your computer/laptop, and the kids can click on letters and letter combinations to hear the sounds that letter(s) makes. The tiles (optionally magnetic) are great for sensory learners as the kids manipulate them to spell simple words or just practice matching sounds and letters. With flash cards for visual learners, and a student book that includes activities for all kinds of learners, the kids really retain what they are learning because they are getting the information through so many senses. The company, All About Learning Press, also offers spelling programs that coorelate with the reading programs - the reading texts work for both so you don't have to buy extra books!

All About Reading Level 1 is geared towards beginning readers. Teaching letter sounds, and containing simple words, it gets the student reading quickly to retain interest and build excitement for their accomplishments. We have been impressed with the ease of having a reading program so well laid out, and of such high quality.

The basic Level 1 kit is currently on sale for $99.95, with the add-ons being $24.95 for a basic kit or $48.95 for a deluxe interactive kit.

Would I purchase this program? Now that I have seen it in person, the answer is a resounding YES! It is worth the money soley for the amount of teacher work it has saved me, yet it provides all sorts of fun, well-laid out activities for Emma and Savanna. The quality qualifies it as an investment that will be used for multiple kids, and the fun factor ensures that it will be a curriculum that gets completed. I wish All About Reading would have been around when I first started homeschooling!

If you are interested in learning more about whether All About Reading (or All About Spelling) might be a good fit for your family, you can check out the following links:

All About Learning Press website

All About Reading Level 1 kit

other TOS reviews of All About Reading

*Disclaimer: I received the All About Reading Level 1 kit and the Deluxe Reading Interactive Kit free in exchange for my honest review of the product. All opinions are entirely my own, and based on our families experiences with the product. :)

Tomorrow's Fun (well, one of them)...

One of the ways that our sightly-larger-than-average family can do so many fun things while we travel is thanks to Daily Deal sites like Groupon! Groupon offers 'local' experiences at a discount (usually 50%!).
It's super easy to sign up for an account, and when you do, you get to specify which cities you would like to receive deals for via email; our family gets Phoenix, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi because we know that we will be heading to these places each year. Of course you can look at and buy deals from any city across the US.

I thought I would share the groupon for San Antonio that we bought this morning (and will be using tomorrow :)
Admission for 2 to TOWER OF AMERICA for $11 (half off! :)
Tower of America is a 750 foot tower in downtown San Antonio - the admission includes unlimited (for 1 day) entrance to the Flags Over Texas observation deck (accesed via outside elevator), the history exhibits, and the 4-D movie ride. If you want to check out the deal for yourself, you can find it here: Tower of America Groupon Deal

(the link is my affiliate link - if you sign up through it, and you then buy a groupon now or 'down the road', it will give us a $10 Groupon credit. If you don't feel comfortable using my link, you can always just go to groupon.com :)

We have been walking past the Tower every day for the last 4 days, and wondered what the hoopla was about, but weren't willing to pay $11 per person to find out (under 4 is free, so it would have been $110 for our fam! ouch!). Because I had some Groupon credit, it cost us $25 for the 12 of us to visit - that I can handle! LOL! :)

Anyway, check out Groupon for yourself - who knows what kind of fun things you will find to do with your family!

TOS Review - Aplogia: Who am I? ~and what am I doing here?...

First off, I will come clean and admit that I am biased when it comes to Apologia Science and Press texts. I LOVE their books; I have yet to find any that I do not think are exceptional. So when the opportunity for a review came along, I was praying that I would be able to 'review' it. :) The Lord has really blessed us with some wonderful, fun, new school books to try out! And this has been such a blessing because I very seldom buy new curriculum without seeing it in person. That usually happens at a homeschool convention, but being on the road has made it difficult to attend one these last few years; we always seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And we won't even be able to attend the convention that will be in our hometown this year because it is in March. I am so NOT going home in March - it's still the fridged tundra there, and fridged tundras and RVs do not mix well.

All that being said, I was super excited to get the second text (and cooresponding goodies) in Apologia's Biblical Worldview series; Who Am I? and what am I doing here? ( the other 2 titles are: Vol.1: Who is God?, and Vol.3: Who is My Neighbor?). I suppose that now would be a good time to mention that I have never purchased/done a worldview text before! I should also note that had I known how wonderful this was going to be, I would have ordered it a long time ago (well, a year and a half ago when it first came out! LOL!)

Everyone has a worldview... the 'personal perspective' from which we analyze and process every bit of information that we receive, based on our beliefs. It is the good or evil values that we hold that determine how we process the world around us and make up the framework of our worldview.

As a believer in Christ, my 'worldview' should be one that filters every action, every decision, every reaction, through the Word of God; a biblical worldview. And I want my children to understand what a worldview is and how it affects our decisions and the lives we lead.

Having kids of all ages, I was hoping that this would be a good fit for several of my kiddos. Apologia's Biblical Worldview curriculum, What We Believe, is geared towards ages 6-14. I personally think that it can be used for the whole family - especially as a 'unit study' of sorts, which is what the kids and I are doing. The text is written directly to the student and is very personal and engaging, not at all preachy or dry.

This set of lessons includes 8 subjects:
1. What are We Doing Here?
2. What will You Make Today?
3. What's on Your Mind?
4. Can You Trust your Feelings?
5. Will you Choose Wisely?
6. How Will You Run the Race?
7. What Kind of Fruit are You Growing?
8. Who do You Think You Are?
- each of these lessons are broken into 15-17 components.

There are 4 different products that make up each What We Believe unit. The Who Am I? materials that we received were:
*Who Am I? text book - is a high quality hardcover text of 262 color pages. Retails for $39.
*Audio MP3 - this is an audio copy of the text. We personally won't use this much, and is not something that I would purchase, but it would be great for delayed readers or visually impared students (or auditory learners ;) Retail $19.
*Notebooking Journal - specific to each text, the notebooking journal is a (big - 248 pg) spiral bound collection of notebooking activities and also includes things like word puzzles and mini books. It also includes lesson plans. I love the notebooking journal. Retail $24 (worth it - unless you would like $200 worth! LOL!!!)
*Coloring book - love the 64 pg. coloring book! So much of the information that we are covering in the Who Am I? curriculum is appropriate for Emma and Savanna, but the work is too advanced; Emma writes, but not enough to notebook what is required in the text, and Savanna is not much of a writer yet, but she will color, so this is a great option for them - they get to do some 'schoolwork' for what we are learning through the text, but this is much more their speed than intensive notebooking. Retail $8
(when I purchase the other 2 volumes, I will get the text and the coloring book, and probably one notebook to reference).

The lesson plans detail a 48 lesson schedule, but this curriculum is meant to be used over several months, not a lesson a day; it is designed to be completed in anywhere from 4 to 9 months. We are doing it 2 to 3 times a week since the kids spread out the work between 2 days. And we are really enjoying using this curriculum - it is a fantastic catalist for incredible conversations about how we process information about the world around us. I love how it can be used as either a parent/teacher led class where you do everything together/as a group, or it can be an individual subject where the student works on it individually.
Apologia's Biblical Worldview curriculum, Who Am I?, is one of those rare homeschool gems that gets me all excited about school once again :)
Disclaimer: I received the Who Am I? text, audio, notebook, and coloring book free in exchange for my honest review of the product. No other compensation was received.
If you would like to check out what other Blog Crew Members had to say about Who Am I? also, you can check out their reviews here.

cuz Hubby loves doing mods for me... ;)

My hubby groans when I start a sentence out with,"You know, I was thinking..."

because he knows that it means a modification/remodel coming on!

And my man did a few mods for me while we were parked at Larry and Carol's house.

They were just small projects that would have been done back in our hometown before we left in the fall, had our 5er not been in the shop for 3 months, but since we didn't have our rv before we left, we had to do them on the road!

The first one was to 'fix' the little girls bunks. Vaughn had built them as I had initially asked, but then I decided that I wanted them in a different area in the 'garage' of our toy hauler (he loves it when I do that!). I wanted to put them along the back wall, but our toy hauler has a 'beaver tail', which is a slight angle coming into the toy hauler off of the ramp - makes it so the ramp isn't such a steep grade when down, buy lowering the entrance height by about 6 inches.

Since the floor by the ramp which makes up the back wall, and the floor 2' into the garage were different heights, Vaughn and the boys built new legs on the girls bunks to compensate for the beaver tail - so now the girls bunks have legs that are 6 inches longer in the back than the front, but the bunks sit level on the floor. The guys also raised the bunks up off the floor so that we could store their guitars and Vaughn's range bag under the bunk beds.

The guys also hung a shelf under Daniel's bunk for me - it is a coated wire closet shelf that the keyboard fits in just perfectly - now we don't have to worry about the kids stepping on the keyboard or guitars, or them falling over when we are driving. And it is wonderful to have the floorspace open that they were previously taking up!!!

(Eli's guitar is in the picture, but it is now stored under the bed, and hid from view with the bedskirt)

AND, while we were parked, Vaughn and Eli did the mod that I had REALLY wanted...

12 people + 1 very small living room = disgustingly dirty carpet.

So, I picked out some faux wood flooring (couldn't do real because of the height needed for the slides to work correctly), and my guys spent a couple of hours ripping out the old carpet, vacuuming up sand (from all over the United States :) and dirt that was under the carpet, and putting down new flooring... (and it was really interesting to see the ways that Gulf Stream had cut corners, which had been previously hidden under the floor coverings...)

I really like the new floor - I love that it's cleaner - but I don't love that it doesn't mask the dirt for me anymore! LOL!

and it was installed just in time - a few days later Emma was sick and didn't make it all the way to the bathroom. :( We would have HAD to replace the carpet had it still been in...

Since I'm married to a carpenter, the trim still needs to be done (you know, like it's the plumber that always has the dripping faucets...), but that will have to wait till we get back home to Vaughn's trim tools.

I love the new floor! and since one remodel project usually leads to another...

Never mind,...Eli suggested that I save the next, "You know, I was thinking..."

until after this weekend, at least, so they can enjoy our next adventure without thinking about 'work'.

I guess our closet redo can wait for a few days... ;)

Just everyday...

while we were in AZ.

Bethy and Aunt Carol made cake balls... they are made from cake, frosting, and chocolate. Yummy!!! These ones were carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Bethy now has a rainbow chip cake mix and frosting that she is going to make cake balls for us with. Can't wait!

We sat around and visited :)

Eli with Uncle Larry and Uncle Eldon... (Uncle Larry LOVES having his picture taken. ~and he has a whole year to get over being mad at me for putting it on here :)

our way-too-big baby...

We celebrated Daddy's birthday... (he got a new guitar case since the little girls had trashed the last one using it as a step to get up on our bed! )

...Caleb was still too little for German Chocolate cake and ice cream... :(

And we celebrated Valentine's Day. late.

At our house, we have always celebrated Valentine's Day on the day after Valentine's Day. We have our own special V day on the 14th! It is Vaughn's birthday. So, when we were a young family, and couldn't spare the $5 per child to buy them each a disgustingly overpriced tiny cardboard heart box with 3 chocolates in it, I took the kids aside and we 'decided' ;) that we did not want daddy to have to share his birthday with Valentine's Day. And since we certainly didn't want daddy to have to wait for his birthday, we would have dad's b-day on the 14th and have Valentine's Day the day after. And then, on the 15th, the day AFTER Valentine's Day, when daddy would be coming home from work, he would stop at the store and pick up some Valentine's Day chocolate for the kids; because at half price those cardboard heart boxes with 3 pieces of chocolate were not quite SO overpriced.

The kids have long since figured out mom's cheap valentine's trick, but celebrating V.D. on the 15th is now tradition in this house, and the kids wouldn't have it any other way. Daddy could care less if he has to share his birthday with Valentine's Day, but the rest of us do! LOL!

So, the morning after daddy's birthday, Bethy and I drove the 3 miles to Walmart to pick up those half price Valentines ;) and the little kids spent the morning making valentines; we now have a plethora of Cars2 pencils, kitten stickers, and paper airlplanes flying around the house.

For V.D., Vaughn and I went out to eat at the Asian Buffet that is near Larry and Carol's house; best buffet ever! <3 That night the kids stayed home and opened their valentines from each other, and ate too much chocolate after their dinner of ramen noodles (which they think is a treat because they only get to make it if mom is gone since she thinks it is nasty! LOL!)

Getting to eat some of that Valentine's Day candy made some of the kids very happy...

and getting to eat SOME of that Valentine's Day candy made some people NOT very happy...

as in, what do you mean I can't eat ALL of it... :( LOL!

I can't tell you what I love the most about my family. Maybe it's just that they are MY family.

We don't have it all together, but together we have it all. :)

Lots of Valentine Love from our family to yours <3 (which is not technically late since I am blogging VD just now, right???)

Labor of love...

We have been coming to the southeast Phoenix area for 3 years now. The first year we started out staying at Picacho Peak state park while we drove up to visit family. Then, one of Vaughn's cousins, that lives in Texas, bought a house here; we parked in their driveway until they came up for their first 'snowbirding' season a month later. When they got here, we were able to help them with some work that needed to be done to the house. We got to know family that none of us, except Vaughn, had ever met, and we totally adopted them (like it or not! LOL!)
Last year, we stayed for a month and helped them landscape the front yard of their house, and promised to be back next (this) year to do the back.

So, having given our word (and that fact that our time in AZ would not be complete without a long visit to Larry and Carol's (and seeing the rest of our AZ fam!)), we have been parked in their driveway for the last month!
And we enjoyed keeping our word...

Larry and Carol (the kids call them Uncle and Aunt), wanted a patio with a small wall and firepit out the back door...

The guys dug down and leveled the area, brought in sand and leveled that, staked out the patio area, and began to lay pavers... (with a little help from little girls!)...

not sure how much 'help' they were, but they tried...

One day Vaughn went to look at a set of ceiling fans with another cousin (5 houses down) that had just bought their house here. While Vaughn was gone, the boys took over...

and laid about half of it before their dad got back. :) 'Uncle' Larry said that Vaughn should have just stayed gone longer - the boys were doing just fine without him! hehehe! 'Uncle' Larry and 'Aunt' Carol are more like an extra set of grandparents! LOL!

Once the main patio area was laid out, they began work on the 3 sidewalks...

While we have been here, we have been going to a family integrated church in Gilbert. (course, we make our own family integrated church wherever we go - our kids always stay with us in the services) One of the guys from the church came out and helped my guys, for a whole day, cut and lay the pavers to fill in the gaps in the pattern.

(Luke is on the right. ~Thanks so much Luke, we loved our day of fellowship with you !!!)

Then, when the guys called it a day, Luke had a fun science project for the kids; it involved an empty 2 ltr. soda bottle, water, and the air compressor... :)

One of the things with laying pavers is that you set them with sand (I don't know what the correct term is)- settling it down in the cracks between pavers. Bags and bags and bags of sand were sprinkled on, swept over the patio, and were then sifted down between the pavers by tapping on the pavers with a rubber mallet. The jarring of the bricks makes the sand settle down and pack between the pavers.

Peanut was really good at pounding on those pavers...

~and it didn't take the boys long to figure out that bouncing a basketball on the patio had the same effect as the mallet. The basketball was their choice of method for packing sand. LOL!

They were pretty good at sweeping around the sand for each other too...

Didn't get pictures of setting the wall, or even the firepit (I've been really lame about taking pics this trip!).

But, we already tried out the finished project...

Carole and Eldon came up from their house, and of course the rest of us, all spent the night around the fire pit Thursday night. Roasted hot dogs and made s'mores and gabbed, because, with the projects around here done, that means it's time to hit the road for us...

It was a nice final night at one of our favorite places in the whole country, but saying good-bye the next day was a bummer :(

I still have a few posts to catch up on of our time in AZ, but tonight finds us in Texas!

At a Walmart. With our slides out (gasp!). It's a bit of a story, but 2 years ago we camped at this same, busy WalMart, and made the news. Well, not the real news, but had our own thread on rv.net about inconsiderate Wallydockers! LOL! Apparently it's not kosher to put your slides out in a parking lot.?.even if you are within the designated parking sites.?. Anyway, this year, we pulled in and found quite a few other rvs here; and 2 very nice Class As with their slides out too! (phew!) LOL! Anyway, I'll keep you posted if we find that we have broken any other Wallyworld camping etiquitte. hehehe! I'll be lurking on rv.net to find out ;)

Tomorrow we are taking a bit of a detour from our original plans (we aren't very detailed planners!).

We're pretty excited what the next week and a half hold for us!!!