The Road Trip! ~ Part 1

Last week, The Kids, Nani K, and I took a road trip aaaallllll the way up to Columbus, OH to visit my aunt. It's quite a long drive, but we broke it in half by stopping in St. Louis to visit my brother, Uncle E. He had to work on the evening that we got there, but the rest of us went up into the arch. The Kids and I have been to St. Louis three times and this was the first time we had gotten to do that, so it was pretty neat. They seemed to like the view.

This picture is somewhat like a Sasquatch sighting because it PROVES that my mom, who doesn't like heights, has indeed been up in the arch!


On Monday we met with Uncle E. for breakfast and a trip to the Turtle Park before we had to hit the second leg of our trip. Luckily, nobody got maimed, but I had a close call!












We got to Ohio on Monday evening and my Aunt Linda had dinner waiting for us. Let me tell you, food has never tasted so good before!!
Gosh, we did SOOOO much stuff in Ohio! We went and ate at the first Wendy's and to visit several parks, as well as the State House. The weather was fantastic and fall-ish, something I've been craving and the trees were all decked out in bee-yoo-ti-ful fall foliage!

One thing that we got to do was go on a tour of a replica of the Santa Maria, which was really interesting. I'm amazed at how small the ship was! There were 40 guys on there and I'll bet they felt like sardines. And this picture? Anyone want to guess what it is?

It's Christopher Columbus toilet paper! They'd step onto a ledge on the outside of the ship, hang onto a rope, let fly, finish up with THIS, and then drop it back into the water to clean it up. (Obviously it was attached to a rope!) Now, they say that women weren't allowed on a ship because it was considered bad luck, but I think it was because they couldn't find a woman to sign up for the rope TP!!

The center picture gives you a pretty good perspective of the size of the ship. You can see the right side of the ship behind my aunt and the left side of the ship was maybe 5 feet behind Deco. The picture on the right is of The Kids sitting on Christopher Columbus's bed! (OK, it wasn't really his actual bed! But it looks like his bed would have looked!)

I'll have to make some other entries for our trip to Amish country up in Berlin, OH and for our apple picking excursion. We had such a fantastic time the whole week! My aunt has such a gift for hospitality and made wonderful food for us and carted us around and made us feel sooo welcomed! It was a great vacation!

My Baby's Growing Up!!

She's losing her teeth!! I was just thinking today, "I should write a blog entry, documenting the fact that Bear has a loost tooth" and had said to Bear, "I bet that if it doesn't fall out before we go on our trip, it'll fall out while we're gone!" Then, while she was having F.O.F*, she comes running out of her room and says "MY TOOTH FELL OUT!!!!"

So I immediately took this picture:

because, really, who can resist all that blood?

She's so proud she can hardly stand it! Tonight the Tooth Momma will come. We don't really "do" the tooth fairy as a real person, but we wanted her to reap the benefit of getting money for her lost teeth! She knows it's us! Hmmm, I'd better check and see what the going rate for a First Lost Tooth is!

Wait a minute...I thought it was finally fall?

I had to laugh when I looked at the title of my previous post because as I sit here and type, it is a whopping 91 degrees outside and I'm left wondering where in the heck fall went! I mean, I've heard of "Indian Summer" but I always thought that having one of those meant that the days got a little warmer (cresting in the high 70's or something) after a short period of actual cool weather....not days that leave you panting for a swimming pool and a nice cool glass of lemonade! I mean, it's like we're back in the middle of summer!!

But, enough griping about the weather...I've done that on my other blog already (just yesterday, in fact!)...this is a homeschooling blog, so that's what I should talk about here, right?

Well, we didn't have school this past Friday because I was getting ready for The Camping Extravaganza - which was fun and perfect and everything! I had intended to have school, but it took so much time to get everything together that I just couldn't do it. I just figured that I'd use my lesson that I had planned for Friday on Monday, but then we didn't end up having school on Monday either! We got home at about 7:30 on Sunday I had forgotten that it takes so much time to get a house back in order after a vacation. So, we took Monday off and I got everything put away and began the laundry and things like that.

So we officially came back to school TODAY, using the lessons from last Friday as well as some of the worksheets that didn't get finished from last Thursday. I've begun to add in some grammar lessons from the Total Reading First Grade book that we use so we've talked recently about "telling sentences" that end in a period and we've from nouns to verbs. Nothing really exciting. I decided to use our spelling list from last week for this week since we didn't have a spelling test on Friday. Bear had fun this morning because I printed out some sentences that I made up with blanks for putting in the spelling words. For example "Do not ________ the door when you go out!" (slam) I think she really enjoyed the puzzle aspect of the game, trying to figure out which words went in the blanks.




Last week (or maybe the week before, I can't remember!) Deco actually wanted to do his very own worksheet! So I picked one out of the Total Preschool book that I had bought for him and he got to work. One sheet was counting to one and the other was finding and coloring all the circles in the picture and, while neither was very hard for him, he seemed to enjoy having his own work to do. He LOVED getting to put it in the Papa Folder and show it to Ched when he got home!

Aaaaah, it's finally FALL!!

It's amazing what having no humidity in the air will do to the temperature! It's 80 degrees, I think, but we've got the windows open and the attic fan on because the breeze feels SO GOOD!

The Kids and I redecorated the schoolroom today. I had gotten a set of leaves and acorns pumpkins and other fall-ish items last week and we stuck them up all over the walls today. I also have a set of fall window clings on the window, so it really gives the room a feeling of autumn. I've been keeping a list of the books that Bear reads by writing them on little pieces of paper shaped like tulips, but I transferred them all over to paper shaped like fall leaves to go with the "theme". It all looks really great.

I've had a couple of good ideas lately, regarding school. One is what we call The Papa Folder. Each thing that we do in school, be it a worksheet or a journal entry or reading lesson, gets put into a special folder. That way, at the end of the day when Ched gets home from work, Bear can just take the folder to him and show him all the things that she's done. She gets to share with him and he gets an idea of what we're working on. It's cute to watch her show off her work.
Another idea just goes hand in hand with my lesson plan that I've been putting together this week, and that is that I remove all the worksheets that we're going to be doing and divide them up into folders marked with the day. That way I'm not shuffling through a bunch of books, trying to find the right page. If we don't do both sides of the page, it gets put back into the book until we need it. I try really hard to put the date at the top of each page to help keep track better.

School today wasn't anything extremely exciting. We've begun our "study" of the human body (we actually started that last week with a lesson on life cycles), so today she made a little booklet of different things that she could do at different ages, along with pictures, and we filled out a little worksheet on how tall she is and how much she weighs and things like that.
We did a lesson on time and clocks, which was super easy for her, but I was glad that I did the lesson anyway. I noticed that she had a little trouble with where to put the minutes and hours on the digital clock, soI used the idea of "place value" to reinforce where the numbers go and she really seemed to grasp the concept. She did an addition facts page that I made (some 0's and 1's, but mostly 2's) and I was very proud of how quickly she got it done.

Her journal prompt was "This Weekend" and she wrote about our backyard campout that we had on Saturday night. We had planned to go camping in a town about 4 hours away, but it was supposed to be raining, so we camped in the backyard which was a lot of fun. I had planned to make s'mores over the grill, but our neighbors have our propane tank, so we made them over the gas stove (tee hee). The funny thing was The Kids both said "These are too messy!" and didn't finish theirs - weirdos! Then we went out and played a game of Chutes and Ladders in the tent before bed. The weather was PERFECT and beautiful and cool and I loved it! We're going "for real" camping this weekend, so that was a great practice run!

Our First Field Trip

I joined a homeschooling group last week called CHEER (Christian Home Educators Encouragement Resource) and we had our first field trip with them today. It was to the zoo, which is something that we do a lot anyway, but it was nice to meet some of the other moms and begin to get to know them. It was our first experience going to the zoo with a big group of people, and it was quite a switch for us since we're used to going with just the three of us (or four, if Ched's along), and the trip seemed a little unorganized at first. We were supposed to meet at 10:00 and we didn't even go into the zoo until 10:30, but once we got in there we had a lot of fun. I look forward to getting to know the other people more!

On another note, Bear had decided that she wants to learn cursive. I have a handwriting book that I got at Sam's (that I originally got for printing practice) but we haven't used it much because her handwriting is pretty good. It has cursive practice in it as well, so I gave it to Bear and told her she could practice all she wanted when she is in F.O.F. (Feet Off the Floor, her "rest" time during Deco's (and Mom's!) nap time) but that we weren't going to officially add it to school. She's had fun practicing and said to me today, "Well, I'm done with 'B' and I'm movin' on to 'C'!" She's so cute!

Have I said that I love the internet?

Well, just in case you were wondering if I'd changed my mind, I still do!

I decided to add spelling to our "Things That We Do In School" because....well....it seemed right. I've gone around and around in my head about it, wondering if we should buy an official curriculum or just learn by "osmosis" - meaning correcting things that she misspells when she writes, etc. etc.) and I could not decide what was best. So I went online (shameless internet plug #1 ) and downloaded the weekly spelling lists from some first grade teachers website in who knows where school and we've been using those. I print out the list on Monday, have Bear write them out, review them daily Tuesday through Thursday, and then have a spelling quiz on Friday. The first week she missed two of the words, so I put them on the list for last week. During the daily review I have her write them in different ways - once it was in shaving cream, she's written them with a pencil in play doh, she'll write them in marker (which is a big deal to her!). THEN, yesterday, I was looking for more ideas of ways to practice the words, and I went online (shameless internet plug #2) and found two fantastic websites. One takes the words and puts them into a crossword puzzle and the other takes the words and puts them into a word find, both of which are activities that Bear loves to do!!

I know, I know, I'm a SOOPER JEENYUS!! OK, not really, I'm sure someone else has done this, but it is SO EXCITING to me when I'm given ideas like that and I make it happen. (I had asked the moms at the homeschooling board at JM for advice)
On another note, my mom and The Kids and I are going to go to Ohio in a couple of weeks to visit my aunt. I'm very excited about the trip, although I'm a little afraid that the drive will kill us!

A Shameless plug for Comments

OK, this seems quite pathetic and sad, but I was wondering.... if there are any people out there who actually read my blog, could you please drop me a comment every once in awhile? Sometimes I feel like I'm writing just to hear myself write and that's even MORE pathetic than talking just to hear yourself talk! Thanks! I appreciate it!

Yet ANOTHER picture of Supey!

I swear, it's like we've gotten a third child! I can't stop myself from taking pictures of him!

(And picking him up to snorgle* him when he walks by.)
I've captioned this picture "Maybe if I stay in here, she'll stop picking me up to snorgle me!"

*snorgle - as defined by CuteOverload.com - "Snort + Snuggle. Summarizes the situation when you moosh your face into a fuzzy wuzzy smoochie wiggle and make googoo noises." Check out the link in my sidebar - you'll be sucked in for HOURS saying "Awwwww!"

Show & Tell and Shaving Cream

This morning I told Bear and Deco to go into their rooms and pick something that was special to them to share for "show and tell" and then asked each of them to tell us why it was special.

Deco picked his Wiggles Guitar, and this is what he said about it, "You know what's special about my piano? Because....I don't know what to say. Since Gram gave it to me it's just really special and it's like a real piano." He says all of this while demonstrating all the buttons that can be pushed. (I chose not to correct him and tell him it's a guitar - life's too short to quibble over instruments!)
Bear chose Sara, her porcelain doll that she got for Christmas. When asked why this was special to her she said, "My doll is special because Uncle E. gave it to me and it's porcelain. Her dress is very beautiful because it's got silk and jewels and little flowers on it. Her hair is very beautiful because you can pull it back in a ponytail like this (demonstrates ponytail) and I like the lace on her dress. My favorite thing about her is that she's porcelain and I have her (with big grin)". I know that show and tell might seem silly since they're always showing things that we've all seen a bajillion times, but they think it's great fun and it's good for a change every once in awhile.













I decided last week to make a weekly list of spelling words for Bear, compiled from several lists I got on the internet from first grade teachers class websites. I introduce the new words on Monday, we review them each day, and then have a quiz on Friday. One day last week I spread PlayDoh on the table and had her write the words with a pencil. Today I broke out the shaving cream and let her write the words with her finger. Needless to say, I think that if the Mom of the Year voting was today, I'd definitely have at least two votes! (OK, four - I think that Ched would vote for me!)

September 11th, 2006

This morning we began school with prayers, just as we always do, and I said a prayer for the families who were remembering their loved ones lost on this date, 5 years ago. When we were done, Bear asked me if this was a "special" day, and it lead into a very great discussion of the events of Septeber 11th, 2001. I got out a book that we have that is published by LIFE and which is called One Nation: America Remembers September 11th, 2001 and showed her some pictures of what the towers looked like before the attacks and we talked about what happened and where I was when everything began. It's hard to try and explain the concept of true evil to a 6-year-old, but I think that I did a good job of helping her to understand, on her level, this bit of history. When she was looking at the pictures in the book of the planes hitting the towers, she said, "That was a dumb, dumb thing to do." and I just agreed with her. It was a dumb, dumb thing to do. Later on, when we were at lunch with my mom, Deco said the prayer over lunch and Bear asked if she could add something. She then went on to lift up prayers of her own on behalf of the victims and their families, which was quite touching and heartwarming.

I LOVE the internet!

Honestly, I don't know how people homeschooled before the invention of the internet! We have been using Madeline this week for our Five in a Row. Today, our activity was to compare the drawings of places in the book with photos of the real sites in Paris. So what did I do? I was able to google the names of every single site and find at least one, if not many, good pictures to compare! It was GREAT!!
This week we also talked about compassion and ways that we could show others compassion. It was an interesting discussion, really, making the distinction between compassion and helpfulness. Bear also wrote a poem because on Thursday we talked about how Madeline is written in rhyme.

She wrote:
"The man was up high in a tree.
He saw something that looked like a pig.
But then he realized that it was a bee.
And the man started to jig.
The man started to fall out of the tree.
But he landed on his feet.
He said, "Yippee!
That was sweet!"

I helped her a little bit by throwing out some rhyming words and things like that, but the bulk of the poem is all her!
On Wednesday, we got a special treat in that my mom was off work! We decided that it was a perfect day for a field trip to the planetaruim to see a "movie" about the stars. They're currently showing a kid-oriented animated movie and, while I found it a bit cheezy, The Kids loved it! My favorite part was when the man showed all of the constellations that could currently be seen in the sky; I never realized there were SO MANY constellations! Did you know that there's a GIRAFFE constellation? Neither did I!

So, here they are, first preparing for the Big Show, and then completely engrossed in the Big Show. I was glad that we were the only people in the theatre because otherwise, my flash would have been REALLY annoying!

At the Water Park and Finishing "Ping"

Well, here we are, at the water park! (OK, you're right - obviously I'm not in the picture) Bear was SOOO excited that we finally got to go there - she's been wanting to for ages.! She loved the wave pool and the big slides. I was amazed that she liked the slides because they were REALLY fast and she had to go down in an innertube that was su huge that she could barely hold onto it. If it hadn't been for her old, party pooper parents who got tired of climbing up 5 million steps to GET to the slides, she would have been happy to go on those all day long! Deco really liked the kids pool with the toys, which is where this picture was taken. That place was nice for US because we could sit on the sidelines and watch The Kids play, which was a welcome break after jumping the waves in the wave pool. I think we're getting old!

To finish up our Five in a Row study of Ping on Friday, Bear took a "quiz" all about China at EnchantedLearning.com. This website is great, and the quiz that she took was called the "China Find-It" quiz. One example of a question is "This word starts with the letter A. It is the name of the continent in which China can be found" and then Bear would go to the "a" section of their online picture dictionary and find the word. She loved it! (That's what she's doing in the far left picture. Gotta LOVE the laptop!) Then she learned how a Chinese person would right the numbers 1 through 10, another activity from EnchantedLearning. We wrote in crayon first (yes, I participated!) and then I got out black paint and vellum and we wrote with paint brushes.

We topped off the night with a "real homemade" Chinese dinner of chicken stir-fry, fried rice, won tons, egg rolls, and spring rolls. (Only the stir fry was actually homemade - the rest I "made appear"!)

20 Books!!

We told Bear, at the beginning of the summer, that if she read 20 books out loud we would take her to a water park here in town. Well, yesterday, she completed her 20th book! (It only took 3 months! Tee hee!) She is SO excited that she can hardly STAND it! Unfortunately, there is a 40% chance of rain today and the high is only supposed to be 82, so I'M not looking forward to going swimming too much! BUT, I'm game to going because I'm very proud of her. She can be kind of hard to motivate because she mainly wants to do things in her own time frame, on her own terms, so saying, "If you do X you'll get Y" sometimes doesn't work.

So, off to the water park we go! Unless it's actively raining, in which case we'll go to Plan C (I refuse to say Plan B - that phrase is ruined!)....

now I just have to figure out an "acceptable" Plan C!

Supey and the Science Experiment

"Can we see if I'll float or sink? Can we? Can we? Huh? Can we?"

"Awww, forget it!"

It's SOOO much easier!

I've got to say...and feel free to insert a big here, I won't mind....that this week has been MUCH easier with the aid of the lesson plan that I wrote on Sunday!
Go on....say it....you know you want to....

We've had a couple of times where Bear has had to go to her room and "get un-frustrated", but doing that beats the heck out of us both getting frustrated!

Science Experiments...that WORK!

We've been using Five in a Row this week for a lot of our school. I decided to start with A Story About Ping (mainly because it's the first one in the manuel!), so we've been learning a lot about China this week. On Monday we looked up a lot of sites about the Yangtze river and Chinese junk boats and yesterday, Bear made a Chinese Flag and we watched a video about Chinese culture. Today we had a little science lesson about bouyancy because there is a part in the book where Ping meets a little boy who has a barrel tied onto his back so he won't sink. (Subsequently, Ping almost gets turned into dinner for the boy and his family, but The Boy has piy on him and lets him go...oops, did I give away too much of the suspense for you?)

I had Bear go and find things that she thought would sink and things she thought would float and we tested them in a big bucket of water. Surprisingly, two of the things that she thought would float did not, so we had some good discussion about why they might have sunk instead. Then we tied a string connecting the object to a small plastic bottle to see if it could be held afloat like The Boy in the story. Bear had a lot of fun with this activity! She just LOVES anything that is hands on!



P.S. The picture in the middle of the page is Ping on his junk boat with the "wise eyes". And where is Deco through all of this? He was playing at the neighbors house! God bless the neighbors!!

*Sigh*

Well, all I'm going to say about today is....

no comment.

It was a really hard day.

But...I called Ched, he made me feel better, and we had a long talk when he got home. There are some things we're going to change about how Bear and I have school, and I think it will make a huge difference.
He did her math work with her right before dinner and I think they both enjoyed the time spent together. It was probably a relief for her to have a new "teacher", if only for a little while!

He's such a great Papa!

We're Baaaack!

Yesterday was the first day of school here at MorningStar!

We started off the day with Mickey Mouse head pancakes...what first day of school would be complete without those? And, while this doesn't sound like it would be a big deal, it was for them because I only get the Mickey Mouse waffle iron out about every 3 years!

I've changed the decorations in the school room a little bit - nothing major, but I wanted it to be different from last year. I put a new border on the bulletin boards and made new "days of the week" to be put up. I also got some things to decorate the walls and the windows.

We started out with a prayer, which we do every morning, and then Bear put the day of the week and the weather up on the calendar. After that, we mainly did review of things from last year. She did some writing and we reviewed skip counting by 5's and 10's. I want to make sure that we haven't lost everything that was done last year!

The most fun thing that we did was after lunch. We made GUM! I had purchased a kit from Love To Learn and it contained all the things that we needed to make our own gum and The Kids had a great time. We started by heating the chicle (which is the gum part of gum!) in the microwave until it was gooey and then added corn syrup and powdered sugar. You knead that and knead it until it gets a bit harder and divide it into two parts ao that you can add the peppermint flavoring to one half and the tutti frutti flavoring to the other part. This was a neat exercise because not only did we get to make gum (who wouldn't love that?) but we also learned about where chicle came from and how, if only companies would use real chicle in their gum instead of synthetic, we could help little Eduardo from the rainforest buy food and clothe his family. (The literature that came with the gum was a little but tree-huggy for my taste but, oh well, Bear and Deco liked it) It was a good day and we topped it off with homemade chocolate icecream made by my own two hands!

It was messy, it was sticky, but it was a lot of fun!

Why we do it...

There was a debate on homeschooling over at JustMommies, and I shared my 2 cents as to why we homeschool. I wanted to paste my answer here so that I can look back on it and re-fuel my convictions when things look low!

"We choose to homeschool because we believe that our children will get a better education than if they were in a public school. No, I am not a licensed teacher, but, unlike the licensed teachers that they would have in PS, I can take the time to actually TEACH them the subjects that we're working on, not just feed them enough information so that they can pass the standardized tests and make the school system appear to look good.

We also choose to homeschool because we want to be in control of what they are learning. Frankly, there are things that are taught in government-run schools that we don't agree with - such as evolution being taught as a fact and creationism being completely left out of any type of curriculum because it's too "religious". I want them to learn reading and writing skills, math, science, and history - things which are slowly being pushed to the side in public school to make more room for teaching about tolerance and sex ed and how to put on a condom.

My kids are safer at home. Period. In my house, there is no pressure to try drugs or alcohol, there is no pressure to have sex, there are no kids taunting them about wearing the wrong clothes or shoes, and there's slim to no danger of someone bursting in with a gun and shooting us. (I make sure to keep the doors locked! ) It seems that in every instance of school shootings, there is someone saying, "We never thought it would happen in OUR school" and I don't want to be that mom. If my kids aren't there, they can't be shot. We have no need for metal detectors, armed guards, or drug-sniffing dogs because our house is safe.

And think about this....everyone says, "Oh, kids grow up so fast" and we all know it's true. So, frankly, I'd rather be there for those 12,500 hours that they would spend in public school. As for the socialization thing? Realizing that this is an issue, I make concerted effort to have my kids in situations where they are socializing with other people. Not just other kids in their age group, mind you, but other people. Why has it become the greatest thing since sliced bread to put a bunch kids of the same age in a room or on a playground and call it socialization? I just don't understand. Talk about not preparing them for the "real" world! In the "real" world, you interact with people of all different ages."

So, in a nutshell, that's why we do it!

Aaah, how the time flies!

We're going back to school two weeks from this Wednesday...is the summer over already? I can't believe it. I didn't end up doing school in July, like I had planned. June just wasn't long enough, you know? I know that, "Thirty days hath September, April, JUNE, and November" but I'm of the opinion that June should have had at LEAST 57 days in it!
Actually, I'm getting pretty jazzed up about returning to school. And, believe it or not, so is Bear! In fact, both today and yesterday she REQUESTED to do "just a little bit of school". After I picked up my jaw from the floor and took her temperature to make sure she wasn't suffering from a fever, AND gave her some water to make sure she wasn't suffering from dehydration-induced dementia, I happily obliged and got out a couple of her workbooks from last year.

And here's what's amazing to me:

there was a page with a list of about 15 color words and

she. read. ALL. of. them.

*jaw drops again*

Now, I don't mean sounded-them-out reading,

I mean just looked at the word and READ them.....WOW!!

So, two weeks and two days from now, we commence with first grade! I got both Bear and Deco some personalized pencils from Lillian Vernon, which is going to be a back-to-school surprise. They went to a Kids Build It workshop at Home Depot with Ched this past weekend and made wooden pencil boxes, so I thought this would be a good treat to put in them.

Our new family member!

I'd like to introduce....*drumroll* SUPERCAT! We call him Supey for short. He's a 10 week old kitty that we adopted from the Animal Shelter last Saturday. The Kids, mainly Bear, are thrilled to have a kitty, and I don't think his feet have hardly touched the floor since we got him. He has slept on Bear's pillow for the last two nights, hardly moving a muscle, and is just about the cutest thing on four feet. Holly and JoJo hardly notice him anymore, although Supey still feels the need to go into "big cat" mode if he gets startled by one of the dogs. It's so funny to see this teeny-tiny kitty with his back all arched up, trying to look mean!

Tag! I'm it!

According to my "sister" Scooby, that is!

So, here goes!

What were you doing 10 years ago?
I was working as a tech on a head injury "rehab" unit at a small hospital here in town and going into my first year of school to become a physical therapist assistant. I was also getting ready to get MARRIED!! August 10th will be my 10th anniversary!

What were you doing a year ago?
We were getting ready to start HOMESCHOOLING!! About this time, I was having a heart attack and trying to figure out what I was going to teach!

5 Snacks that you enjoy:

1. bananas and melted chocolate chips - mmmm!
2. pistacios
3. popcorn
4. nectarines when they're in season
5. SnapPea Crisps
   

5 Songs you know all the words to:
Actually, I know all the words to so many songs that it's ridiculous, so I'm not going to try to narrow it down!

5 Things you would do if you were a millionaire:

1. Pay off my debt
2. Travel, both with my whole family and just with Ched
3. Buy a RELIABLE car
4. Completely outfit our business with new equipment and let Ched choose all of it since he's the one who knows what to buy!
5. Donate the rest to my church

5 bad habits:

1. Procrastinating
2. Raising my voice
3. Being sarcastic when I'm mad
4. Leaving my shoes in front of the closet instead of in the closet
5. Leaving laundry in the washer until it sours and I have to wash it again!
   

5 Things you like doing:

1. Reading
2. Watching movies
3. Going on dates with Ched
4. Playing with my kids
5. Giving presents

5 Things you would never wear again:

1. A wedding dress, unless it's when we renew our vows on our 50th anniversary! (I stole part of that from Scooby 'cuz I liked it!)
2. Big dangly earrings like I used to wear in the 80's
3. A bikini
4. A size 4! (although I'd like to!)
5. Leggings and high tops (at the same time, that is!)
   

5 Favorite toys:

1. My kids
2. Our Magic Sand - a great combination of fine sand and wax that makes it really moldable
3. My laptop
4. The really cool paint program on Ched's lapop!
5. Our new kitty, Supey! (Short for Supercat)

Who am I tagging? Well, I don't know many other people who blog, so I'll tag Sherri!

Old...

Yesterday, Deco was talking to me, in his little boy way, and saying something about how he was going to grow up and move out of the house. I wish he could remember exactly what he said, but I can't, except the last part where he said, "And you guys (meaning me and Ched, obviously) will be weally, weally OLD!" I love that little guy!

Summer Fun

Can watching a silly kids show about simple machines count as school?

I THINK SO!!

The Kids asked me if they could watch "Real Wheels" on PBS this morning (and bugged me and bugged me with questions of "What time is it? Is it time yet?" all morning long!) But, when we turned it on at 10:30, there was a different show on called "Zoola Patrol" which stars space creatures and, today, talked about simple machines like wedges and pulleys. Anyway, they really seemed to enjoy it and I thought, "Hmmmm, I think they learned something!" Of course, now they're watching "The Big Comfy Couch" which is a little annoying - although I'm wjnoying making up lines in my head along with the characters. For example, Loonette was just telling Granny Garbanzo how she woke up grumpy and then got silly, to which Granny responded, "Frowning one minute, laughing the next?" and I added, in my mind, "Loonette, I think you're bipolar. Let's get you on some medication!" Tee hee!


The Kids asked me if they could do Bear's "warm-up beads" - the ones where you put the plastic beads on little posts and then iron them so they smoosh together - earlier, so I got them started. Bear was making a butterfly and Deco was making a star. I had visions of taking a picture of their finished projects, but the whole activity only held their interest for about...10 minutes or so! So, no finished pictures, but they killed some time anyway!

Wow, a whole month...

...has gone by since my last post! What HAVE I been

doing with myself? And The Kids, for that matter?

Well, we've tried to keep pretty busy, although I don't know that ANY state of busy-ness is busy enough for those two! We took a trip to Memphis in mid-June, celebrating Bear's birthday there with Ched's mom and stepdad. That was a fun, relaxing trip. We went to the Zoo to see the Pandas and to the Peabody to see the ducks march to the elevator. The Kids loved that! Plus we spent a lot of time just hanging out and relaxing - much needed, I might add! And. of course, we had to go eat the best ribs in the WORLD at Corky's, so our trip was complete!