Selling Little Red & Buying A New Truck!

Washing Michael red car gave us an excuse to get out of the house during our first week of homeschooling, but it also gave me motivation to get it all cleaned up and ready to sell. We weren't planning on selling it until at least May since we would need it to drive to Michael's work conference in the Tri-Cities in April, but since that got cancelled I didn't see any reason in keeping it around. Plus the weather was so nice it felt great to be outside working. I spent at least 3 hours deep cleaning the car. It had been parked down at the bottom of our easement under a tree so you can imagine all the pine needles and moss that was on the windows and in all the little crevasses. 

Little Red sure cleaned up nice! 

After getting the car all washed up I took pictures and posted them online on Facebook and Offer Up. I was really hoping that we could sell the car to friends since I really get creeped out by people coming to the house especially to take a test drive of a car. I don't mind buying things or selling things where it's just an exchange of money and product, but a car is different. I don't know maybe I'm weird. 

A couple hours after I posted the car online I got a message from a friend at church asking if I thought the car would be good for her teenage daughter. YES!!! This was actually what I had been hoping would happen. I knew this car would be great for a first time driver or a college age student. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles, but it's in really great shape. It's not a super sporty fast car, but it's also not ugly or a gutless wonder. I had a few other people contact me, but I told them I already had someone interested in it. Our friends came over that Saturday, test drove the car and then their daughter bought it from us. She had been saving for awhile so she was able to pay for it in full. I was so proud and happy for her!!! It just all worked out perfectly! I love how God takes care of us! 

It seems like we've been saving for a truck for years....it actually has been years! Our plan this year was to buy the truck. We were looking to purchase it around June, but once we sold the car I told Michael we should start looking. It's not like we are going to find the exact truck we want on the first day we start looking. Who knows we might find a really great deal that's less money than we were planning on thus enabling us to buy a truck earlier. 

We both spent some time on the computer that night checking things out. Michael ended up finding two trucks that he wanted to go look at the next day. They were both at Advantage Auto Direct in Kent. They are only open until 6pm so once Michael got home we left the kids and went to check it out. 

The guy that helped us wasn't the most knowledgeable and I don't know there was just something about him I didn't really like. We took the one truck out for a drive and by the time we got back the other truck we had wanted to test drive was already blocked in by other trucks. It has started to rain so I went back to the van and Michael went over to check it out. He came back and said that the second truck had more wear and tear on the inside than he liked. We headed home after that. 

The nice thing about that first test drive was it helped us figure out what we really wanted in a truck. Prior to this we only knew that we wanted a Ford F-150 that could seat 6 people and was younger than a 2012. After test driving that first truck we knew that we wanted a Ford F-150 that was no older that 2014, could seat 6 people, had a bed that was longer than 5 1/2 ft, had trailer breaks, power driver seat and running boards. 

With that knowledge when we got home I went back to their website and started looking around. I found another truck that looked really promising and I sent the guy an email saying we could come down and check it out the next night if they were going to be open. By this point the governor had said that we would be closing everything down, but thankfully he gave us a couple days before that went into effect. 

On Tuesday we headed down to check it out. Thankfully that guy was heading home so another sales rep helped us out. Tawnya was AWESOME! When I was looking at Advantage Auto Direct's reviews I saw her name a ton and people were always saying how awesome she was. We went out for a test drive and fell in love with this truck. I knew that we might not be able to get it, but it still felt good knowing exactly what truck we wanted. Keeping our Dave Ramsey faces on we went in to the office to find out how much the truck would be including all the taxes and licensing. Of course it was about $2000 too expensive for us. We asked if they could take the price down at all. She went and talked to her manager, but she couldn't get the price down. The thing with this place is they've only been selling to the public for a little over a year. They used to only sell to dealerships. There slogan is Buy Like A Dealer. Michael and I told her thanks, but we'll have to pass. We told her we'd be back...they have so many trucks we knew we'd eventually find one for the right price. We weren't in a hurry really. 

On the way home we got a text from Tawnya asking us exactly what we were looking for in a truck so she could be on the look out for us. Michael texted her back and told her that the truck we just drove had everything we wanted and if she could get the price down $2000 we could come in the next day with a check for the full price. She apologized for not being able to get the price down and said she'd keep looking for us. The next day she texted me a couple trucks to look at. One of them we'd already looked at and the other was a Dodge Ram...I really had my heart set on a Ford F-150. She apologized again for not being able to get the price down. 

The night before Michael was telling me that we would be getting a call the next day and they would want to make a deal to sell the truck. See the dealership was going to be closing for a minimum of 2 weeks and they had a shipment of 80 vehicles coming in. They needed to move some cars. After getting that text from Tawnya I was sure we weren't going to get a call, but lo and behold around 3ish in the afternoon I got a call saying she was finally able to talk her boss down by $1500. I told her I needed to talk to Michael. Of course he said yes, but I didn't call back right away....I made her wait a bit before I called back and said we'd buy the truck! :) 

 Once Michael got home we drove down to the dealership to get our truck. Since we were paying with a check it was so fast. I think it took us an hour, but most of that was waiting for the manager to be ready with the paperwork. I think we signed papers for about 5 - 7 minutes. Tawnya also took all the stickers off the truck and even hooked us up with Siruis XM Radio. It was such any easy experience. I would honestly recommend them if you need to buy a vehicle...just ask for Tawnya!

 Michael drove the truck home and I followed in the van! 

Isn't it pretty!!!! 

We were so excited to show the kids! 

We came home, picked them up and headed out for a drive. 

I had ordered Chinese at our favorite place, but we needed to kill some times so we drove around. 

We video called Ga-Ga & Pa to tell them the good news. 

We also stopped to put some gas in the tank and then I got to drive. 

We picked up the food and headed home. 

This is the only part of the truck that Michael doesn't like. The bed doesn't have a spray in bed liner so eventually we will have that taken care of. Overall it's in awesome shape! It's a 2014 Ford F-150 with 48K miles on it, trailer breaks, power driver seat, running boards and a 6 1/2 ft bed. 

We can't wait to pull the trailer with the truck instead of the van. Now the State Parks just have to open up!

I'm just amazed at how everything worked out timing wise. God is in the details! 

Homeschooling - Week 1

For our first week of Homeschooling my main goal was to stick to the schedule. I really felt like this was going to be the foundation for the whole 6 weeks. If we didn't get this first week right it would be all messed up. I don't put any pressure on myself at all do I!?!?! 

Thankfully my children are just like their mother and they thrive on a schedule! 

The first thing we do everyday is our Bible Reading...we had already finished the book of Acts and we had move onto the book of Genesis. It's so wonderful that my kids are now at the age where we can read God's Word rather than a Kids Bible. I still love those and we do use a Kids Devotional at night, but to actual dive in and read God's Word is so nice. 

After Bible Reading we do the Pledge of Allegiance...we pledge to the wooden flag I made last year and hung on the deck. Didn't know that would be coming in handy like this when I built it last summer! 

The schedule has changed so much over the weeks that it's hard to remember back to that first week. My main goal was to focus on reading, writing and math. Since we have 2 computers...Michael's desktop and my MacBook I knew that we'd have to schedule around that. I've pretty much split up the older two to work on the computer at the same time while the younger two do their workbooks and then switch. 

For writing journal for the first week I had the kids working on creating their own super hero or villain. Each day they had to work on a different part. For instance the first day was just brainstorming different ideas. The second day was to take bits and pieces from their brainstorming session and get a more concrete idea of what their character was going to be like. The third day was to create a backstory/motivation for their character. The fourth day was to create a cover for their book and start writing their short story. The fifth day was to finish writing their short story and share it with everyone. 

Ella is working on her vocab words! 

Last summer I got the kids these awesome Brain Quest books that help you retain what you've learned during the summer going from one grade to the next. Zeke has loved his. He ended up finishing his one from summer that first week so I order him the one that is supposed to be used for 2nd grade. 

My cute Jackson with his way too long hair. Thankfully I'm the one that cuts everyones hair so we haven't suffered in regards to hair cuts. 

I make sure that the kids get outdoor play at least once a day. On this particular day the kids finished playing, but I still wanted them to be outside so they all got books and read out on the deck. 

A couple days into home schooling I needed to reevaluate things. One of those was in regard to having the kids read to me. Ella and Zeke are very close to each other in reading level. Zeke is a little bit higher than Ella right now so I actually thought it would be helpful for her to have him read to her.  It has been helpful, but at the same time there have been some frustrating times for Ella since Zeke will try to help her or will correct her and what older sister likes to be corrected by her younger sibling. In all though Ella's reading has improved greatly this year. Of course her sessions with Ms. April have been put on hold. It will be nice once she can start back up with those. 

The middle school boys have had some form of electronic schooling this whole time. Their math is always online and their teachers have also made videos for them and sent them links to videos to watch on certain subjects. 

The nice thing about their online math is it's graded right then so they know if they've done something wrong or not. 

Of course reading is a HUGE thing for my kids...they all love books and I'm so grateful for that. In fact Ella's love of books has really picked up. She loves having me read Berenstain Bear Books to her. Every day during snack time I have been reading to the kids. The first book we read was Wonder and now we are reading Call of the Wild. 

During the very first day of home schooling I ended up taking Zeke to see the Dermatologist. His poor face looked so scaly and dry. It's was all around his eyes so I was worried about putting any steroid cream on them. The Dr. said it was eczema that was brought on by it being so dry right now. His recommendation was to have Zeke lay down a few times a day with a warm wet washcloth over his eyes, put hydrocortisone ointment around his eyes and then put a humidifier in his room. Doing those things has helped a ton. Unfortunately once his eyes look better then I forget to have him do these things and then it comes back. Thankfully it's not harmful he just looks a little rough...hopefully once the weather warms up it will go away for good. 

One thing we did during the first few weeks of home school was watch Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems. It was so much fun...even for me. There was one particular day that he touch on a subject that doesn't align with things we teach our kids, but it gave us an opportunity to talk about it. 

Mo Willems is probably most known for Elephant and Piggy books or the Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus books. On the first day of Lunch Doodles we learned how to draw Gerald AKA Elephant. 

Jack & Gerald

Zeke & Gerald

My Gerald

One of the fun things Mo would do everyday was write out the date in number form and then turn that into something else. Like this 17 got turned into a fire truck. It was quite clever! 

I had never really let the kids use my MacBook before, but desperate times right!

At the beginning of the schools closing there was SO much information coming out about free apps or free memberships to this or that online program. It was quite overwhelming. I decided to let the kids use things they were already familiar with such as Cool Math Games, Prodigy & i-Ready. I did also give them access to Dreamscapes and ABC Mouse for the younger two. 

The Friday that school finished up was also the last day the library was going to be open. We love books so I knew we needed to run down and get as many as we could. We ended up filling up two reusable grocery bags with books. I normally use the basket on top for all our library books, but that wasn't going to cut it. I had this crate that Michael brought home for me so I used that as another bookshelf. It's worked out pretty good! 

3 days into homeschooling I decided we should get out of the house. We went on a field trip to the car wash! 

We very rarely get our cars washed, but since the boys needed to sell car wash tickets in order to go to camp last year we have loads of those that need to be used. 

We took Michael's red car to get washed, stopped at 7-11 for Slurpees, went to the Auto Zone to get a steering wheel cover and wheel covers for the red car and then....

we got MCD's for lunch. It was nice to get out for a bit!

On Friday Owen read his story about his villain Dr. Boom...which was a character that he wrote about last year at school. I was a little disappointed that he chose to write about a character that he had already developed, but I decided to pick my battles. 

Jack read about his hero ChillFire. 

Ella read about her villain, but neither of us can remember what it was about and we put it in the recycle bin because she didn't want to keep it. 

The last day of our first homeschool week I made banana pancakes for lunch. They are so yummy to eat with Nutella, but SO filling!  

My favorite thing to do during this whole homeschool period has been to get outside, get some sun and read!!! It's been my saving grace! 

First Sunday Of Online Church!

March 15th was the first Sunday for online home church. We treated it just like any other Sunday...I made Cinnibuns for the kids for breakfast, took a shower and then we "went" to church at 10:45am. 

Here we are gathered for church getting ready to sing praises to the Lord. 

At first it felt weird standing in our living room singing to our TV screen, but now it feels pretty normal. Almost every week we have to deal with Zeke moaning and whining about being too tired to stand up for 3 or 4 songs. Lazy bones! 

After we sing worship songs the kids go into the dining room to watch the Kids Church message. They also have fun worship songs to sing as well. 

Ella got to sit in the comfy chair for church. 

Every week our Kids church program has a theme. The last Sunday we had church at the building they said that the next Sunday's theme would be Lucky Charms since it was only a couple days prior to St. Patrick's Day. Even though we weren't going to be at church I thought it would still be fun to dress up. Ella and Jack had fun making crowns and dressing festive in rainbows and the color green. 

At the end of the adult service we gathered together to take communion. Our home church communion consisted of Ritz crackers and cranberry juice. 

It was weird not to be congregating together with the other members of our church, but I'm so thankful for the technology that makes it possible for us to stay connected and still be led by our Pastor and the worship team! 

Homemade Book Boxes!

When I first found out that the school was closing for at least 6 weeks I thought that we might use that first week like an early Spring Break. I thought it might be nice for the kids to have a break and also to give the school district time to get organized. Of course...I'm not that kind of person. I'm the jump in feet first kind of person. I started looking up all sorts of things on you guessed it...Pinterest. 

When the kids got home from that last day of school I had them empty their backpacks so I would know what material they were sent home with. It became very clear that we needed a place to put all that material or it was going to get very unorganized and if you know me you know I can't stand being unorganized. 

I found a post online for how to make homemade book boxes. I found a couple boxes in our pantry and then I texted my neighbor Rachael to ask her if she had any cereal boxes she'd give me. She had two of the bigger sized boxes which was perfect since I had two as well. 

First thing I did was cut them into the correct shape. At first I was going to have the kids help with this step, but since this was the actual "bones" of the book boxes I decided I wanted them to be really precise. 

Next up was the crafty portion. It's been fun getting into my craft stash and seeing what I have to use. 

I love to get the kids involved in an activity prior to something happening to them. For instance when we went on a big road trip I had them decorate their snack containers for the trip. It really helps the kids to feel included in the planning process and they can feel that sense of pride and ownership that comes when you create something. 

I was actually surprised that each of the kids were all about this craft. I have my normally crafty kids and then I have my no so crafty kids. 

Some kids definitely put more effort into their box than others, but that's okay....some people just have a more minimalist style. 

I had each of the kids write their names on the front of the boxes. Some of the kids wrote their name on all of the sides. 

We used up lots of glue sticks...thank goodness I had a bunch left over from all the school supply shopping.

Jackson even took the time to color his paper. Everything has to have red in his opinion! 

I put the book boxes on the counter of our built-in desk in the office and then put all their papers from school and some of the workbooks that I had here at home. 

As well as being organized with papers I am also supremely organized with my time. In order to keep myself sane I had to create a schedule for the kids. This schedule ended up changing over and over again, but we had to start somewhere right!?!?!