We're here....

and the weather is fantastic and it is good to see old friends. Of course the kids were in the pool within 5 minutes of checking in. One of my favorite parts of coming here is seeing friends that we have known for 18 + years, but 1 of my favorite moments is the taxi ride from the airport when we come around the bend and see the ocean! It takes my breath away every time and I say the same thing every time, " Thank you God for letting me see this 1 more time!"

Pictures and stuff to come.

13 ~big cheesy grin~

They're Gone....

The dog is gone to be boarded! He was NOT happy and promptly pee'd and poo'd on the floor as soon as he walked into the vet's office. The little kids are gone and started climbing on my lap... I had to get out of there. I suspect that there was great weeping and wailing and snotting. LOL! The little girl kept saying, "Come back and get me at 9 o'clock, kay?" I wrote notes for her, one to open every night before bed.

It is so weird and quiet with just 3 kids!!

Tonight we are having smorgasbord dinner to finish up the perishables. We have in the house:

1. one yogurt
2. 2 Babybel cheeses
3. 2 nutter butter cookies
4. 1 apple
5. enough Kashi Go Lean for 1 bowl of cereal
6. enough milk for 2 LOL
7. 4 hot dogs
8. 1 lunchable
9. 2 bananas
10. half a pack of graham crackers

My 7th grader thinks this is so fun!

Next post will be from the other side!

Peace!

It's Official....

We are packed! I had only wanted to take 2 suitcases, but ended up needing the 3rd one to keep the suitcases under 50 lbs. It is amazing how much stuff weighs and really the bigger suitcases weigh 25 lbs by themselves so trying to pack everything into to 2 big suitcases is less effective than just packing into 4 smaller suitcases. As long as the 5 of us keep it to 5 bags.



We ended school early. I was going to try to keep going until Wednesday...but I was not motivated and could not expect them to be so we packed it up.



We are taking the little kids over to meet the respite care provider tonight. I have written little notes to the 6 year old girl to open at night before bed while we are gone. I hope they will be okay.

Tell Me About Your "Junk Drawer"

This is a re-post from here.

I have a "junk drawer" in my kitchen. It is the drawer that holds coupons, birthday candles, extra twisty ties and a host of ketchup, honey, soy/duck sauce and salt packs. I go through this drawer often to clear it of "junk", but the junk just multiplies. I ask my self every time, "Why do we keep this stuff?" but then when the kids ask me what to do with said junk, I without thought tell them to "put it in the junk drawer." Why? My goal for the end of this year is to re-purpose the junk drawer. I will no longer keep packs of ketchup, mustard and duck sauce (that by the way, no one ever uses). I will keep coupons with the grocery list and will put just enough twisty ties in a zip lock bag and get rid of the rest.So, tell me about your "junk drawer".

**Update**

Yesterday I was looking for the mandolin that goes with my vegetable peeler and looked in the place I avoid and dread...the junk drawer. Imagine my surprise when it was still empty from the last time I cleaned it. I know I had stopped sending condiment packets to it and I guess the kids stopped stuffing things in the drawer and so here we are a year later with a still clean drawer. I still can't find my mandolin, but the not so junky junk drawer was a nice surprise.

We are leaving in 6 days and things are very scattered. Aaaarrrgghh. Trying not to sweat what can't be changed...

Box Tops & Labels

I am back to collecting box tops and labels for one of my little Rotties that attend PS. I am not good at remembering, but we are blessed with a family friend that gave us an envelope full of them this last week. We were able to fill 1 and 1/2 pages. Thanks Ms. Kim!

Counting Down

It's that time of year again where we are counting down, packing up and getting ready to go here...


Respite care has been set up for my 2 little Rotties, but I am not at peace with it. I am just telling myself that they will be okay.

Still not sure how much school we will take with us. I kinda really want a full vacation without teaching, but the task master in me says to keep pushing the train.

14 days

Miners Not Minors*

I am tired! I stayed up too late and woke too early this morning watching the miners being extracted from the mine.

~Sigh~


*One of my favorite lines from the movie "Gal *xy Qu* st"

A Glimpse of Our Handbook

When I first started homeschooling 6 yrs ago, my 1 and only student was the kind of kid that needed a very structured atmosphere. We actually ended up doing "school at home" for him. At the beginning, I created a handbook that listed expectations and school rules. We also kept using school uniforms as I had just spent hundreds of dollars on school uniforms for my then 6th grader and was not going to let them go to waste. I found that it offered a nice way to distinguish between school time and home time.

Over the years we have changed and in the last 2 years I have been able to relax quite a bit, but I still offer the handbook so that everyone has a written copy of school rules and expectations.

Front Cover

Impromptu Field Trip

Today was supposed to be our “Friday Y Day” and we were all dressed to go shoot some hoops when there was a knock at the door. It was a young man telling me he was from the tree cutting company to cut my neighbors tree and they wanted me to move my car to keep it safe from falling limbs. This somewhat perplexed me as my driveway is right next to my house and the same limbs that could fall on my car would only have 2 feet to fall on my house, but I moved the car. I must admit, I was concerned about leaving the house and decided to stick around a bit to see what safeguards this company would take to protect my house.

IT WAS SO FASCINATING!!

We actually moved our chairs out in the front yard (under the protection of our very large pine tree) and watched them take the tree down. They were very skilled and in fact, my kids actually applauded a couple of times as there was some impressive bouts of team work to be seen. We learned that the tree was a Silver Maple and it had very heavy limbs that someone had years ago put chains around to keep the limbs from falling. Well those chains had grown through the tree making the limbs very week. We ended up watching for the whole thing; actually made sandwiches and ate outside when the guys took their lunch break.

I was very impressed with this tree company. The owner was on site and actually did the tree climbing and cutting. The guys did not use fowl language at all and it was not that they had to censor themselves… They just didn’t. In fact, they shouted such great words of encouragement and praise to each other that it was a teachable moment for the kids. They owner came over to talk to us to tell us about the tree and how he got started in the business. The guys offered us free wood and cut it up into perfect size pieces for us.

I took over 60 pictures and about 5 videos. I will share just a few here.

We will miss that old tree, the shade it provided and the shelter if offered to birds and squirrels. I do however feel safer knowing that the next ice storm will not invite that big ole maple into my living room.

The Human Metronome

This morning 7th grade has guitar lesson and I had the metronome on to help her with a new piece. The 2 year old is walking around, clicking his tongue with perfect tempo! LOL!

Ending With Fun!

For review sake:

Kindergarten is able to count ordinal numbers up to the thirty-first consistently and seems to understand it. He can spell and write the days of the week and write his numbers up to 100. He has completely learned the Pre-Primer list of Dolch words so I have moved him to the Primer list. We are moving slower in Science and Social Studies as the lessons are very short and I am trying to figure out how to bump it up some.

Third Grade has completed several of his test with scores in the high 90's. He is struggling with mental math that includes carrying so we are doing some math drill sheets to help him with the basic addition part so that it takes some of the work out for him. James is a child that does well with memorization, but struggles with transferring information to other situations. He picked up some books about cheetahs from the library and really enjoys reading anything about animals. His school behavior has really improved in that he stays very focused and on task.

Seventh Grade is ahead in all of her subjects. She has several essays that she is working on at the same time for 3 different classes. I may have to delete some of them as it seems to be too much ( and I think so as the person who has to read and grade them.) Her music and guitar class is going well... I broke her E string this week and when we went to go have it replaced, the guy tuned and then played a real fancy song on her guitar. She and I both cracked up and said we did not know that guitar could sing like that. LOL! I read a blog by Christie and she was describing a research project called a "delight directed" project. I totally stole (err I mean borrowed) the idea and Jordan is doing her project on the history and making of French Toast. I can't wait to taste/grade her project. ~Smile~

We went out for a ride in the country yesterday and stopped at one of the local small farms to get pumpkins and gourds. We are looking forward to making some pumpkin muffins, pancakes and toasting the seeds. Not sure what we will do with the gourds.

Today we went to the YMCA and it was pretty quiet there. Had the pool to ourselves.

This weekend is the changing of summer to winter clothes bonanza. Woo Hoo!! Fun times...