Two Great Outtings

My preface will be that Braewyn's eyes look great so I'm praying the pink eye is gone for good and Philip seems to be back to his old self so the amoxicillin must be doing its thing. Yeah for a healthy house!

Now, the real reason for this post...

Outing No. 1: Ingles grocery store

Last night Braewyn and I roamed the aisles of our local grocery store while Matthew coached Philip's basketball practice. The store was having triple coupon week so I had BIG plans. My entire married life, I've always thought it to be a good idea to have a family meal menu. And that's exactly what I've always had, just an idea until last night. With the enticement of tripling my coupon value, I scanned through 4 weeks of newspaper coupons, clipping anything we normally used or a coupon $0.50 or less which might make for a good meal. I listed out three weeks of meals based on the coupons I found and felt very accomplished. Braewyn had slept for 2 1/2 hours yesterday afternoon so she made for a very sweet, funny, attention-grabbing (from other shoppers, not me) little shopping partner. To save you any more details (because yes, it was just me shopping for groceries), I'll give you the exciting part.
Total purchase price before discount: $266.09
Price paid after discount: $204.07
Total savings (coupons and store discounts): $62.02!!!

So exciting to save that much and to come home with stuff for real meals instead of just snack food! Yeah!

Outing No. 2: Grandma's Elementary School

With Matthew and I still discussing the decision between home school and public school for Philip next year, I thought it might be helpful to visit a public school kindergarten class. We are blessed to have our own personal contact, Ruth Ann! She has been a kindergarten assistant for 13 years! I asked her when would be a good time to come and she said 8am is when the kids are having their main teaching time with Alison, her lead teacher. To be somewhere at 8am for a stay-at-home mom whose children have not reached school age is a stretch but today it was worth it.

Miraculously, we did arrive at 8am. We observed math lessons, centers time, calendar time, story time, lunch time, and walked with the class to music time. We left the school at 12:10pm but it had been such a full morning I felt like it should be at least 2:30pm! Philip really enjoyed the experience and even answered one of Ruth Ann's questions during calendar time. However, I think he warmed up a tad too much and was called down for running in the hall... by Mommy and Grandma! Braewyn was quite shy for the first hour or so but opened up at centers time. She was quite the homemaker in the housekeeping center. So much so that when Ruth Ann began calendar time, Braewyn continued cleaning much of the room floor (around the centers, not near the children gathered on the floor) with a small broom and dust pan. She didn't miss many scraps of paper no matter how small.

All in all, our field trip to school (yes, we learned "T" this week at home and so our field trip was to visit a Teacher!) was very beneficial. I know that every teacher is different and we probably did witness the best (I'd say that's factual as Alison was awarded "District 2 Teacher of the Year" last year!), today's visit did at least affirm that if we decide to home school, it will not be for the sole reason of keeping our children out of public school. Many friends' children go to that school and others in town and are doing just great. I want to home school (if we choose that route) in order to raise Philip (and Braewyn down the road) to be a godly young man to the best of my ability. Although public school would do a fine job of educating him academically and even socially, it would lack Christ-centered, Scripturally-based learning. Home schooling would also allow Philip and Braewyn more time together allowing for a tighter family dynamic. I feel absolutely blessed by the Lord to be able to stay home with them and to have been given by Him the desire and ability (only through Jesus' strength in me!) to home school Philip this year. I do hope for it to continue.