It's 2014 already and we are on a ROLL

Yep, it's that time a year. RESOLUTIONS. GOAL SETTING. HOPE for WONDERFUL things to come.

Here's some of our GOALS this year.

THE COLLABORATION

We sit down once a year and my husband and I come up with goals or resolutions for our family. It's not a formal thing, but it is something we pray about as a family and plan a bit.

IN 2014 WE PLAN

To save more. We've cut 5 of our family vacations back so that we can fund our 16yr old's first study abroad program. She will be going to both Ireland and Denmark this summer. Not to mention I had to take a serious cut in pay at the end of 2013 for a new job.

To 'date' more. Since both my Hubba and I work as well as participate in facilitating our homeschool, we've slacked off a bit on our weekly date nights. We decided to amp them up again to a bi-weekly firm date.

To explore more. In someways our homeschool is working out perfectly. But we do want to explore some other aspects of it by using a 'block schedule' adding in some correspondence courses for both kids and finding some long stay summer camps for the 2 younger kids to get more 'socialized'.

To try out some new church homes. Our kids love our current church. But it's going through some changes and my Hubba and I feel as though our spiritual growth is a bit stunted. However, our kids absolutely love our church and grew up there. I have to admit both Hubba and I are shy about walking into new churches and the thought of doing something new is a bit daunting, but it's time.

NOW for our first week of the YEAR IN REVIEW

School kicked off on Monday, Dec. 30th and we had the holiday off, and even through the week ended in a SNOW DAY for local schools, we had class.

The kids are into a GREAT routine and my 12 year old daughter kicks off her school day independently with her computer-based courses while my 10 year old 4th grader still sleeps in til the final minute.

We just added Time4Writing.com (SAT Essay 8 week course) to Tiger Lilly's week and she slid that in with no problem.

Speed Racer finished his elementary Spanish program and we are starting with Easy Peasy Spanish for Grade 6 which seems rather light for him but he's enjoying it so far.

MY OLDER TWO tackle the CLEP TEST

After 1.5 weeks of intense studying, Education-Portal.com videos, Instantcert.com flash cards, REA sample test and Quizlet flashcards...

My older daughter who's 16yrs old and my 19 year old son took 2 CLEP test. My dd 16yrs old passed 2 of hers (Humanities and US History) after studying for 1.5 weeks so she wouldn't have to take 2 winter courses to graduation. My ds of 19yrs old took the Analyzing Lit CLEP and passed but failed the US History 1 CLEP by just 5 points.So he will be taking the course over the winter.

MY NEW ADVENTURE with a NEW JOB

With homeschooling and starting a new job this week I was a bit frazzled. But it all worked out. The new job proves to have a great engineering team I'll be working with. The work schedule is extremely flexible. I am only a block away from my Hubba's job and the work is exciting! If you didn't know already, by day I am an Engineer, on the weekends I'm a Young Adult Author with some published works and during the week I am a homeschooling mom. Yeah, it's crazy I know, but I'm loving every moment of it.

What are your hopes for 2014?