Hello Again World!

Well, it appears I have taken a rather prolonged siesta from my blogging. Wow, five months since I’ve written anything here. A lot has happened in between. We have sold the house you see in the below post, and have decided to build the house I had mentioned in a previous post. So I have been rather waylaid to say the least.

I am still homeschooling, and my kiddos have now entered the 5th and 7th grades. It has been a little tougher to set my teeth into another year of homeschooling this year, but more on that later. What I find amazing is my reader levels haven’t dropped off. So in honor of all you folks who drop by now and then to see what this homeschooling stuff is all about, I will endeavor to keep new material on the ins and outs of our homeschool journey on this blog.

It’s been pouring buckets on our island here, so the weather has provided us with lots of time to really dig into our subjects. I’ll make sure I fill you in on what some of those subjects are in future posts. For now, I’ll leave you with a photo of what usually happens around these parts when the sky parts and brings forth its rain….a rainbow!

What Kind of Shoe are you?

I came across this on Coffee Mom’s web site – and just for fun I had to take the test!

You Are Sneakers

You are creative, funky, and forward thinking. You are cool, but you are still approachable.You are stylish and edgy, but you aren’t a slave to fashion. You tend to put your own spin on trends. You tend to have a fast paced, busy lifestyle. Not a lot of people can keep up with you! You should live: Near nature You should work: In a job that keeps you on the go

What Kind of Shoe Are You?

A Day in the Life of…….

Welcome to the first ever Heart of the Matter Online Magazine meme. Every Friday they will feature a different topic for our meme. So make sure to go to The Heart of the Matter each Friday and join us!

A typical homeschool day in our house is usually quite varied and subjects are split up throughout the week. So, without further ado here’s mine from yesterday (because alas, today isn’t over yet…..)

7:00 am: My hubby’s alarm goes off – nobody responds and a wailing arm hits the snooze button.

7:15 am: Same as above (as a matter of fact you can repeat the above pattern for the next 30 minutes)

8:00 am: Hubby arises and is off to the shower.

8:00 am: I open my eyes, and wait for the shower to stop (this is my cue to get up). I think about nothing.

8:30 am: I am dressed and drinking my first cup of coffee, I check my email and blogs. (the kids are up – getting dressed & their breakfast)

9:00 am: Hubby leaves for work and the rest of us sit on the couch to read the Bible and pray. I’m reading the rest of Esther today. My girls love this story.

9:30 am: We are done the story, and spend the next half hour talking about things of God (they always have soooo many questions).

10:00 am: We practice our memory work from James. The girls take turns reciting (and Mom too) James 1:1-12, and are working on the next verse.

10:15 am: The girls are reading in the living room. The 5th grader is reading Heidi, and the third grader is reading The Trumpet of the Swan. I am writing yesterdays blog post and listening to the rain.

10:45 am: We start our math. My 3rd grader is using MUS Gamma and is done in close to 20 minutes, my fifth grader is using Saxon 6/5 and takes about an hour. I usually sit with her to help her stay focused and we often mark as we go.

11:45 am: My oldest starts her Spanish. She does this by herself, while I help my little one with her cursive practice.

12:00 pm: My oldest does her grammar lesson by herself, while my youngest practices her multiplication skills on a self correcting web site.

12:30 pm: LUNCH! My oldest daughter makes the sandwiches while the younger one becomes her slave assistant. After lunch is FREE TIME. The kids go play outside, I do a bit of house work.

1:30 pm: We finish up our school work. I help my youngest one with her writing (she is writing a short story based on a story web that she created herself) while my oldest one works on her Geography.

2:00 pm: I do social studies with my youngest – we are having a pretend interview. She is the reporter and I am one of the mayor’s councillors. Every now and then I throw in a funny word in the sentence just to see if she catches it. This usually causes much laughter and silliness.  🙂

My kitchen table on school work duty: 

2: 30 pm: We are done for today! My oldest daughter finishes off the decorations she is making for her birthday party that she planned by herself (when did that happen?), and enlists the help of her 8 yo slave assistant.

3:00 pm: I do some dishes, put on a load of laundry and start thawing the meat for supper.

3:30 pm: I enlist the help of my oldest slave assistant, in the dinner preparations. I dump all the ingredients in bowl, and my daughter mixes them and forms the meatballs for supper.

3:35 pm: Daddy calls from work to tell me he’s not hungry.

4:00 pm: I let my slave assistant go off to play and I finish the supper – prepare the sauce, cut the broccoli, fix the rice.

4:30 pm: I put the meatballs in the oven, then sit for about 30 minutes or so.

5:00 pm: The kids set the table, and we get ready to eat.

5:15 pm: DINNER! The girls and I have dinner without Daddy – because he isn’t hungry.

5:30 pm: The girls clear the table, they go play while I do the dishes – I light the candles, and set the table for one – because I know him.

5:44 pm: Daddy comes home, investigates the dinner and decides he’s a little bit hungry after all.  🙂

5:50 pm: The Mama smiles.

Head on over to Heart of the Matter for more of A Day in the Life of, and make sure you fill out the Mr. Linky their to link back to your own Day in the Life of post.

Quotes on Friday

Home schoolers bring certain skills-motivation, curiosity, the capacity to be responsible for their education-that high schools don’t induce very well,” a Stanford University admissions officer told The Wall Street Journal (“An A for Home Schooling,” Brian C. Anderson, City Journal, Summer 2000)

Look What I Got!

The wonderful folks over at The Homeschool Blog Awards (HSBA)organized an HSBA gift swap. The gift swap is an opportunity to get to know and encourage another Homeschool Blogging friend. If your interested in signing up, the next swap sign up will be November 10 – 14th.

Yesterday, My HSBA gift came from BChsMamaof3 from Huber Hof Academy! Since she was aware of my addiction attraction to anything scrap-booking, she took the time to indulge my interests with this nifty little scrap-booking kit. I look forward to any precious time when I can sneak away in the evening and be creative.

So, thank you BChsMamaof3!

Pumpkins Unplugged!

Unplug your Kids is making Monday an, Unplugged Project Day. This weeks project was Painting Pumpkins. We’ve been kinda busy over here working on projects for writing and art exhibitions (a later post), but I thought we could at least draw our faces on our pumpkins before we carve them. Okay, so it’s Tuesday and not Monday, but hey, better late than never!

My kids have been into black sharpies lately, so I let them go at it. This was the end result. I can’t wait to see them carved.

Just for fun we though we’d try to make a few goodies for a Halloween Bonfire we’re going to tommorrow night. Here’s a quick easy idea for Spooky Spider Cookies:

* Oreo Cookies (for the bodies), Shoestring Licorice (for the legs), Decorator Icing (for the eyes), & chocolate chips (for the eyes).

Techincal Difficulties!

My computer died and I am using a temporary one a friend has graciously let me borrow for the time being. Unfortunately I’m unable to successfully blog and uploading pictures has become a problem (my bonfire pics have mysteriously changed to boating pics) and I often lose most of my posts while writing them. This is just an FYI in case you’re wondering why I’m no longer posting. Further delays are to be expected for another 2 – 3 weeks.

Thanks for your patience.

8 Random Things About Myself

I have been tagged by Mom Unplugged from Unplug Your Kids to write “Eight Random Things About Myself” meme. So, without further ado….here you go.

1. I have flown to DisneyLand, four islands of Hawaii, San Francisco, and Orlando, Florida all before I was eight years old.
2. I wish I had more children.
3. My first job was at Expo 86
4. I love to see my husband’s smile.
5. I am allergic to cats.

6. I made bread from scratch for the first time yesterday. It was less than remarkable, but everybody ate it and told me it was great. I love them all.

   7. I am teaching myself web language (Html and CSS)

   8. I smell my food before I eat it. I always have and I always will.

This was my first Meme, so I’m not sure who to tag, but I will choose FiddleDeeDee from It Coulda’ Been Worse.

In Which Century Were You Supposed To live?

Okay folks. Try this out. It’s kinda fun. This is for my commune wanna be friends who are attracted to the idea old fashioned community values and lifestyles (but won’t give up their jewlery). Apparently, I fit in too… although I did answer “No” to the “Hard Work is Fun” category. Give it a try and post your results in the comments section of this post.

You scored as 17th, You’re a true romantic, you’re an esthete and you are snowed in with the wonderful clothes and living in the 17th century. 17th 95% 19th 70% -15th 50% Cyber Century 40% 20th 25% In which century were you supposed to live? created with QuizFarm.com