WE MADE IT!!!!!

We finished!!! We are done with the school year. There was cheering and headstands and high fives all around.

We will take about 4 weeks off for summer break before we start summer session. As always, summer session will be a short day (very short, maybe about 1 -2 hours per day) and the focus will be on areas of struggle; reading, math or writing.

We are off for our first camping trip of the season.

Peace!

Great Meats and Amazing Feats

We have had a great day. My 10th grader has always loved cooking and in the last week we have taught him to use the grill and let me just say... that boy is a grill master! He grilled chicken, fish, steak and country style ribs and every thing was so tasty. He was so serious too with all of his tongs, BBQ forks and vinegar and water shaker bottle. My mom added her slama-jamma potato salad, spinach, cabbage, mixed beans and cornbread and finished it off with a blackberry cobbler. Yum-yum!

The kids had a swinging contest to see who could go the highest. I determined that it was a 3-way tie and all were winners.

Last summer, preschool could not even pump his legs to swing himself. Now he is competing with the big kids.

Just hanging around.

Little Rottie Update

Our little foster baby is still with us and he is a sweety. I am praying that a pre-adopt home is found for him in the event that he is unable to go back to his birth parents and so that he can begin bonding to whomever might end up being his parent(s).

Our Garden

Cayenne peppers


green bell peppers


onions


iceberg lettuce


cucumbers


summer squash


3 kinds of tomatoes


bush beans

Free Resources... My Favorites!

We usually have a little ceremony at the end of the year where the children receive certificates of completion, and other awards for citizenship, spelling, etc. I typically make them using some artsy program or micr*s*ft office, but while surfing around I found a neat little site that I think I will use this year. Teacher Planet has a section of free certificates and awards. The only thing is that they are in Adobe and some of them have dates (the year) that cannot (or I just don't know how) be changed. Last year, I only had 2 kids being home schooled. This year with four, we may actually have to hold applause until all names have been called. LOL!

Count Down

8 Days!!

The Lost Kitten by James

Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day Past, 2

About 8 years ago I purchased some property up north that was on a lake. It was purchased at a tax auction and was very affordable. There were no utilities hooked up and it was vacant land. For Mother's Day we decided to camp on our property. It. Was. Cold! My mother's gift that year was a king-sized sleeping bag with a below 40 degree weather rating. It came as a set of 2 that could be opened up and zipped together as one big bag.

At the time I had just the 2 kids and they were still little enough to wear sleeper pajamas. My mom had her sleeping bag and of course, because it was so cold, I gave my kids the other sleeping bag. I just doubled up on blankets for myself. At some point in the night, the temperature dropped big time. My dad got out of the tent and went to sleep in his car. My brother, mother and children were sleeping peacefully and I sat, shivering so bad that I could hardly stay under my covers, staring at my sleeping children, wondering how bad a mother I would be to switch my blankets for that below 40 degree rated sleeping bag! After all...they had on long johns, sleeper pajamas, socks and fleece hats.

I stayed strong and let the little darlings keep the sleeping bag, but needless to say... it was a very long night. The next morning when my mom woke up, she threw back the sleeping bag, and said with breathless delight, "Whew! I was so hot last night I had to get out of my long johns!" GRRRR or BRRRRRR! I never could get warm for the rest of the weekend.

Less than a week later, in the mail arrived my king-sized, below 40 degree rated sleeping bags. I love Ebay...

Mother's Day Past

I shared this story with my friend, Life Adapted and thought I would share it here. I have a couple more that I will post too.

Every year as a family we go camping for Mother's Day. Many years ago I got a promotion to supervisor at an agency that I had worked at for 7 years. I had decided that year that I wanted to get my mother something really big, expensive and extravagant for Mother's Day. It was my 1st year of being a mother and her first year of being a grandmother and I wanted to go all out. I told her to think of something she wanted, but would never splurge on for herself. After a few days she came to me with excitement and said that she had figured out what she wanted. My mother wanted a porta-potty that she could have in the tent with her for camping..... A porta-potty! I took her to G*nder M*untain and bought her a porta-potty and she was so thrilled... smiling the whole time like a kid at Toys R Us.

Since then some of her mother's day gifts have included tarps, fire pit grills and wader boots. I tease her that she was so kind during all of those years when I was giving her sweet little cards and flowers when all she wanted was a can of worms and a rod to drown 'em with!

Spring Pictures

Paragraph by Jordan

My grandma had to move in with us. The reason why I like her here is because we can always see her with out her having to come over. We can just go into her room and there she is. She is always there for me even when I do bad stuff. I really appreciate when she sticks up for me. Now that she is here I need to listen to my mom so that we don't get her upset. Because when my mom gets upset my grandma gets upset and every body gets stressed out. So that's what I can do to help with the stress in the house.