What Does One Say?

Wow... I honestly thought I was done with even trying to write on my blog anymore. I have missed it but my priorities don't allow for the freedom these days. I so wanted to do techie classes on here with our Raspberry Pi or to give web site tips but that's not happening. Due to different things in life I've stepped away from teaching outside my own kiddos. I was sad to do that. I was also relieved. Isn't that terrible? Feels terrible sometimes. I'm also (trying... really trying... it's a difficult skill to get away from...) getting away from web design.

Lately my time has been spent pretty close to home with family and friends. I'm getting more involved at our church and I have to say that has been hard! I'm so much better being a wallflower then I am amongst people. People make me nervous. Hehehhe... I feel much safer online in a virtual world because it's easier to avoid the messiness of... I dunno... Life? So sad... I need to not let life scare me away from doing life though right? Yah... I'm trying. Always learning is my thing.

So... There ya have it. I have a new to me tablet that I don't have to share with the kids (that's amazing in itself) and its reawakening old hobbies that I used to enjoy. Like blogging! I went to load up some apps and lookie-lookie, there's my old blogging app waving at me. Hmmmmm... We shall see... I've installed it. It does make it a lot easier try and blog again though. Tablets are more portable. Also more distracting.... Hehehe... It'll be a love-hate relationship. I'm sure.

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Change of Direction

I have written about so many topics on this blog, why not add another one. Right? Lately I have been toying with the idea of teaching a few techie home school classes from my home. I recently taught one in a co-op we are part of. I had a lot of fun with it! I was so impressed at how many of the kids picked up on the information and really ran with it. But I really want to teach a class on the Raspberry Pi. I don't feel I am NOT an expert in this area at all. Actually most of the time I am seriously frustrated because I cannot find the exact information I am looking for.

So my blog... I am going to start compiling my notes and information here. Techie stuff... not just for me to organize my thoughts but so other people can learn too. Maybe. And someday I can have students reference here for their project details too. Maybe...

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Free Snowman Printable Mad Lib

We are trying to break up the monotony of our winter school hours with something a bit different. The kids all worked together to come up with a snowman story. After we all edited it a bit, they went back through and found all the parts of speech they could. (My oldest student and I had to help with the story editing to make sure we could get a good variety of parts of speech.) Then I took the story to the computer and put it together as a Mad Lib. Wooowho! They've had fun and learned things! We hope you enjoy this little Mad Lib game as much as we do!

Snowman Story - Mad Lib Style

Works on Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives

Next time I will have my older students transfer it to the computer instead of me doing all that work. This has been a fun project! I am not the best at grammar/parts of speech so I hope it is okay. Parts of the story are funny to us because of who added the sentence but I hope it makes sense for everyone else too.

Hahaha!

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Free Valentine Copy Work Printable

I put together some copy work sheets for a few of my kiddos so we could break away from the handwriting book for a bit. Sometimes something new can be fun... even if it is the same work. We will tie these in with looking up verses in the Bible and maybe use them as journal prompts too.

There are two different sets of worksheets. One is for K-2 and the other 3-5, but it really depends on your student as to which one you want to use.

Valentine Scripture Copy Work Gr 3-5

Valentine Scripture Copy Work Gr 3-5

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2013 - 2014 Free Lesson Planner!

I have updated my Lesson Planner... actually it has been updated for quite a long time now. I am just now getting around to putting it HERE for everyone else! Ha! I'm so organized. (rolls eyes)

I love my lesson planner. I have it setup to record 3 students now! It has everything that I need to keep on track for the school year. There are planning sheets, areas to keep various records of progress or where improvement is needed, pages for reading lists, etc. I keep it all in a 3 ring binder. The kids know how to use it too so they can get started on a school day without me, if needed.

At any rate, here's the freebie version of the lesson planner. 

Nice and simple! Love simple!
It does not contain all the great planning sheets the full version does, but it's still a really great tool.

If you would like the full version of my Lesson Planner, just click here.

FREE 2013-2014 Homeschool Lesson Planner

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S is for Spreadsheet

Spreadsheets. Love ‘em, hate ‘em but always use ‘em. I have my homeschool lesson planner in a spreadsheet, I tally up coupons using a spreadsheet and right now I am working on an awesome menu planner in a spreadsheet. There are times that I love creating monstrosity formulas just to see them do something. I know that a huge formula isn’t the answer to getting everything done though. They are just fun! The only way I have learned algebra and higher math are with spreadsheets.

I love ‘em! Do you?
What is your favorite spreadsheet project that you have ever created?

Find all my April Blogging from A to Z Challenge Posts Here

This is Letter S for my #atozchallenge
If you want to see more of the A to Z Blog Hop Challenge, click here!

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Overcoming Mommy Madness

Have you ever heard of it? I am inflicted with it. I have recently found a small amount of relief for it but have also found that it’s still really easy to give into the disease. Mommy madness (to me) is defined as a mom (me) who gets mad either easily or often. When I PMS I am consumed by mommy madness. It is embarrassing and frustrating to me and my entire family. It is not pretty.

I try to make light of my “Mommy Madness” but trust me, it is nothing to make light of. If you have never experienced it before, yeehaw! I am so excited for you and I encourage you to keep it up! If you have experienced the madness of yelling, crying, apologizing and repeating more than you care to admit… well… can I just offer you a hug? A completely non-judgmental hug. We all have our baggage to deal with and I understand that. Let’s support each other and find ways to help each other around that baggage!

I knew I needed to work on things but a major warning bell for me was when my kids were helping me pick out my sessions for the amazing homeschool conference I was able to attend. Several of the sessions they picked while looking over the list had to do with being overwhelmed. What really impressed me though was how lovingly my own children presented it to me. I was brought to tears because they wanted to help me and realizing that they couldn’t/didn’t fully understand how to help me they prompted me to seek help with someone else. Blew my mind. Broke my heart.

How did I start? Before the this conference I had already started by openly discussing my feelings with my kids. I was careful on some details of my feelings because it may have involved their father, grandparents, etc and they didn’t need the gory details. A simple, “Mommy is frustrated with someone else but that gives me no right to take it out on you.” Was all they needed to relate. I soon began to hear my kids say these words! They were recognizing that they were angry but it was at a situation and not the person in front of them. Baby steps….

1. I want MY TIME, to do MY THING, to BE ME. Now, don’t get me wrong “me time” has it’s place but not in the selfish manner I was hunting it down. Constantly hunting for my time made me resent my children. If I resent them, than of course their “interruptions” will make me mad. I seem to struggle with this concept a lot or at least once a year. I need to remember this from my Standing Up Straight post.

(Click the image for full size. Adjust printer settings to landscape for printing on one page.)

2. I need to accept who I am and where I am going. Sounds simple enough but I’ve been fighting my purpose a lot lately. I have chosen a purpose of homeschooling my kids and I need to respect that, not fight it. Homeschooling has been moved up in my priority list. I have always had it pretty high on my list but now it’s even more so. Attending this conference made me see how I’ve let other things take over and how school was creeping into the back seat. I even let myself slide into the idea that I could “send my kids to school” and be okay with that. Wow… I heard the statistic that kids in schools spend 14,000 hours away from there families between kindergarten to high school. I don’t want to miss that much time with my kids. Personally, I didn’t like spending that much time behind a desk as a kid either. Don’t some of us get enough time behind a desk as adults?

3. Sleep! Oh my… I need more sleep! I no longer let myself take my laptop upstairs (except on weekends). I can have my phone and/or tablet but no more laptop. This makes me go to bed earlier and I get more sleep. More sleep equals a much more peaceful momma! This works for me.

4. Family devotions! This is another priority I have let slip away and I am picking it up again and running with it. The kids are enjoying devotions and I am learning a lot about them and myself. Silly to me that I did not do this every day before. Very silly.

5. Turning around being overwhelmed to productive. I attended a session at the GHC conference that was recommended by my kids. They only chose it for the title and at first I thought it would just be basic information that I already knew but it really made a difference! I will write more about it later though with my letter O post in the #atozchallenge. I see the clock and my phone alarm has gone off, I need to get to bed.

I  hope something in this post may have helped you along the way or at least encouraged you in some way!

I don’t have to a mad mommy.

None of us do really.

Find all my April Blogging from A to Z Challenge Posts Here

This is Letter M for my #atozchallenge
If you want to see more of the A to Z Blog Hop Challenge, click here!

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Library - Best Online Tip!

L is for Library! I love that my kids are so into reading now. It took some of them awhile but now I cannot get them to stop reading. The hard part for them is waiting. Waiting to get to the library again for the next book in their series. Well, I'm trying to be the good mom and I try to get their next books put on hold for them so they will be ready when they are done. I love that our library lets us put books on hold and will get them all ready for checkout at any library we choose. Makes me feel more like a super hero mom!

The hardest part about the whole process is figuring out WHAT the next book is in a series. Our library system is awesome but they do not list books in series or post books in order of their series on their website. (insert silent scream) I have one kid reading at least five different series! I can't even keep up with my own passwords, let alone my kids series of books.

Well, I found a gem! I contacted the library and gave them my whole sob story of how I couldn't figure out the next book in this series and needed help. (I need a lot of help! This is just an area that someone could actually help me.) It sounded more like a therapy letter. My letter got forwarded around a bit but someone finally had an answer. I think I should be more embarrassed because of how many people read my letter but it just goes to show that maybe I'm not the only one with this problem.

The gem is ANOTHER library's online catalog that actually figured out how to post a series of books: Take a look at Juvenile Series and Sequels Database.

(insert flashes of light and singing angels)

This library catalog allows you to search by series! You can either look over an expansive list of books or type in the series that you are hunting through. I love that it even gives you a picture of the books too! (Visual person here...)

They have it figured out! If this is your library, can you go and hug the web-master for me? Just tell them the crazy lady on the internet I told you to. I think they will understand. You might want to make sure of any security cameras in the vicinity and locate all your exits first.

Find all my April Blogging from A to Z Challenge Posts Here

This is Letter L for my #atozchallenge
If you want to see more of the A to Z Blog Hop Challenge, click here!

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Homeschool Conference Wrap-up

I attended a homeschool conference last weekend and it was AMAZING! Not like I thought it would be amazing though, MORE amazing than I thought it would be! I learned so much about my kids and myself and what was available for us to learn together. I am still in awe of everything I learned, saw, witnessed and heard! I bought some CD’s to listen to some of the sessions I attended to again and I picked up some other CD’s to use when I start some new curriculum.

What would I do different when planning for a conference like this?
Ummm… now that I know what the parking garages look like, I will avoid the creepy ones! ACK! No way to enter the garage and we were in the basement with all the pipes and rusted doors leading who knows where. Perfect location for some sort of horror show! “Noooo! Don’t open that door you dumb person!!! The bad guy is right there!” Ergh… (The door to the right lead to another not as well marked door that lead to some stairs. Fortunately I was arriving and did not have a lot of books to haul up the stairs.)

I would plan like I did but I would RELAX too. At the end of my planning at home, in a state of being utterly overwhelmed, I said a simple of prayer of “oh my, Lord help me! I can’t do this alone!” WOW! I needed to start there. Even with all the planning I did, I did NOT stick to it all. I changed my mind on which sessions to attend in the middle of walking to one sometimes.

Oh I would so pack a notebook. What was I thinking?! I did not pack a single piece of blank paper for this conference! I saw that Miller Paper was in the exhibit hall, took notes on a corner of my planning sheets for my first sessions and bought a tiny little notebook as soon as the exhibit hall opened. Duh moment! Take a notebook… and paper clips. They come in handy! OH highlighters and page tabber thingies (technical term) are must-have-on-hand items too.

I want my whole family to go next year!!! Everyone can get a little bit of something out of this event and I want them to all come. I can’t wait!!! I may start planning for that now!

READ THE MAP! I was so crazy to not take a physical map of Cincinnati with me. GPS is great, but what if it’s not. DUH! I should have had a map in the car. Would have been very beneficial to me a few times. And if I had read the exhibit hall/session map I would have not walked in a complete circle to find a room too. That was a huge waste of energy! If I didn’t write this here, no one would have known though. HAHA!
 

What would I keep the same?
Planning which booth I really wanted to find in the 1/2 mile long conference hall was one of the BEST things I had done in my preparing for the conference. I did NOT realize how LARGE the exhibit hall would be so going over the list before I got there was a HUGE time saver. I than took the time to transfer my list to the program guide I was given at registration so all my top exhibit booths to visit were highlighted. PLUS! After getting lost several times I realized that writing in the names of certain booths at the entrances would be very beneficial.

I am so glad that I looked over ALL the books, manipulatives, art supplies, etc that we have in stock right now. (The stack to the right is our NEW stack of fun things!) I also went a step further with it and took pictures of it all and put it into Evernote Notebooks. I was saved from many an impulsive purchase because I could look through the pictures and see that I already had 10 of something. I didn’t need to buy it again. Hehehe…

Also I installed my library’s app on my phone. It is SO AWESOME! I could scan ISBN numbers with it and it would pull up the book if it was in our library. Woowho! Another money saver right there! I didn’t buy (too many) things that I could borrow from the library. (Yes, there were a few things I did purchase just because I knew I would love to just keep them in our house.)

Walking around on my own (even if I had my family in tow) is probably my route to go too. I loved the freedom to go where I wanted and get things done on my time schedule at this event. This will be a bit more challenging with my family there but maybe not. Think about it… do they really want to plod around after me as I cruise through all the booths? Probably not… I mostly want them to get what they can from the sessions! After my first round of the hall having someone to discuss which curriculum might be best would be awesome though.

All in all this was a FANTASTIC convention! I have never attended one before like it and I am not sure why I never did until now. I want more!!! I am more excited about our next year than I ever have been before (I am usually excited… but this is different) and I didn’t have to WAIT until next year to start some things now. I like that this all came together before I wrapped up this school year.

Read more about how this homeschool conference helped

 me Overcome Mommy Madness a bit too.

Find all my April Blogging from A to Z Challenge Posts Here

This post is linked up to the Hip Homeschool Hop, The Homeschool Village and
part of the A to Z Blog Challenge ( #atozchallenge )

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Everything About Me

This is EVERYTHING about me. Or at least it's everything you may need to know about me? Okay so I can't tell you everything in one post because it would just take to long. How about the highlights of everything? You would probably be happier NOT knowing everything about me anyway. Need to have some mystery about me still... right?


I am joining up with the Ultimate Blog Hop to introduce Everything about ME and have a bit of a party on the side! I love a good party and 5 Minutes for Mom’s annual Ultimate Blog Party never lets me down in the fun department. As a matter of fact, if you are reading this post during the week of April 5-12, YOU still have time to join the fun too! There will be twitter parties, prizes and more!

Now for those visiting me for the first time a bit of everything about me... I feel so vain with posts like this! And that thought leads me to wanting to watch How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days. Hmmm...

My name is Mom to most of who I know. That tells you right there that I don’t know many people. Heehee! I guess I should say the name I hear most is ‘Mom’. Usually it is more like, “Mooaaahhhm! I can’t find this… I’m hungry… <insert name here> is LOOKING at me… <insert another name here> isn’t doing <insert task here>” Ae you familiar with any of that? Yah… so my name is Mom.Very few people call me Dee. I love my family and wouldn’t have it any other way!

I started this blog back when we were building our home. It was basically a place where I could journal about the madness that is building and moving. Now my blog is an addiction. That's right... I am addicted to blogging. Are you addicted to blogging? It is SO relaxing to me. Blogging with a deadline stresses me out... but that is why my blog has no deadlines. Usually... Sometimes a bit of recreational stress can be good for a person. Right? (Just nod and smile here... humor me...)

Let's see... more about me. I am a bit crazy about gardening. I started my plants late (by my standards) inside this year but they are doing AWESOME! I already have some true leaves on my baby tomatoes and there are gobs of them growing. I hate the thinning part of the growing season. What if I pick the wrong little plant to chop off? Ugh! I agonize over which plant to cut down.

I am still a homeschooling mom. I am actually AT a homeschool conference right now! I have been planning like crazy for this trip and am still a bit overwhelmed. Incredibly excited to be going to a conference would be an understatement. This conference is enormous too! I may need a GPS for the exhibit hall. So much great information and I will get to SEE bits and pieces of the curriculum I am picking out for next year. Feels weird to be thinking of "next year" already. I just got adjusted to working with THIS year. Next year should be further away than it is...

Half baked hobbies used to be my specialty but now I try to make time to get something done. I love sewing! I never used to. A sewing bug must have bit me at some point in time and now I am hooked. Sometimes I am resizing costumes for a little production one of my kids is a part of or resizing a tshirt! I also sell some cute little things in my Etsy Shop. My favorite thing to work on would be my upcycled aprons I make. Love them! I've made a few of those now. Have some more to make yet too!

So... There is more about me but this little bit of EVERYTHING about me but this is just a sneak peek. I don't want to scare everyone off too quickly with everything, ya know?

If you are part of the Ultimate Blog Hop be sure to leave me a quick comment below!

I'd be happy to hop on by and learn a bit of
EVERYTHING about you too!

Take care and thanks for stopping by!
Dee

Find all my April Blogging from A to Z Challenge Posts Here

This is Letter E for my #atozchallenge
If you want to see more of the A to Z Blog Hop Challenge, click here!

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Low Down on Dirt

I saw this nifty little experiment to check our gardens dirt and I knew we would have to try it out! I needed to know what was going on in my garden with the dirt anyway. Turning this all into a homeschool project for the kids was just an added bonus.

Basically you scoop up dirt, add water and than either add baking soda or vinegar for the test. Woowho! Easy enough right? (Click on the image to the right here for more information about how you can perform this test.)

The kids had to figure out how to tell the difference between their soil samples, make sure they picked up samples from the same location and use the same amount of water/baking soda/vinegar on each sample. Eh… piece of cake!

It was fun to try this out and I’m glad we did. Apparently all my garden dirt is acidic. Now to amend that before my little seeding lovelies get kicked outside this year.


We did NOT do full mason jars for our experiment but we did adjust down amounts used for our tiny little samples (as best we could). We also used bottled water so that anything in our water wasn’t as prominent in the testing. We should run the test twice just to make sure it is true but from what I’ve read about acidic dirt in the garden, it seems spot on.

Find all my April Blogging from A to Z Challenge Posts Here

This is Letter D for my #atozchallenge
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Amazing

I am going to start out my A to Z Blog Hop with a bang and probably scare off half the people who intend to visit me here. I just have to share something AMAZING! I should have done something about April Fools day, but I am no good at that kind of stuff.

I am a homeschool mom (which can be considered amazing in itself!) and I try my hardest to pick out quality curriculum that fits the needs of each of my kids. Every year I start pouring over catalogs, websites and lists to see what we have, what we need and what we may NOT need for the next year (sometimes the direction I want to go is not the direction we need to go). I love to try and get to conferences for homeschool to get more information and get recharged, but that is not always possible.

This year the most AMAZING thing has happened! Not only am I going to a conference but I am going to HUGE conference and I will be on my own!! Well... with a friend but without kids in tow to drag around to each booth. (Poor things! They tolerate so much but they are not thrilled about the planning part of homeschooling. They like to oogle over all there new stuff from the comfort of their home.) And all of this AFTER all the agony of our furnace even! (Which I wish had just been an early April Fools joke!)

This is totally a God thing to have so many details fall into place in such a short period of time!

Granted this amazing opportunity has left me with my brain spinning. I am currently wading through the list of sessions available that I can attend and choosing the ones that most interest me and meet our needs. So many choices!!! I have also been going over all the books, experiments, manipulative-s, etc we have in our home right now so that I don't make any impulse buys and get something we already have. This in itself is a huge task! I have four different grades to cover so there are mountains of books to work through. I think this is how people feel heading out to blog conferences? I know it must be how they feel to sponsored to an event. It's just family but I am still sponsored. Hehe....

This amazing weekend all started with a simple tweet from a twitter buddy. All she said was that she was going, was anyone else and would they like to have dinner. I made a pity party response which started an avalanche of ideas and suddenly I am going!

God has so blessed me!

Find all my April Blogging from A to Z Challenge Posts Here

This is Letter A for my #atozchallenge
If you want to see more of the A to Z Blog Hop Challenge, click here!

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Homeschooling Means WHAT?

I’ve been (trying) to read more supportive books, magazines, blogs, emails, etc for homeschooling. I know I need it. (ALL the time) I put too much in expectations on myself and when I fail, I hit hard. Lately though I’m wondering.

What does homeschooling mean?

I’ve read about the who cares about anything homeschool style, the scheduled to a T and even preschoolers wear a uniform to the dining room table style and then I believe there is somewhere in between. I have noticed and can relate to the idea that something has to give to homeschool. Meaning I can homeschool or have a life? Okay… maybe not that extreme. It’s more like I can homeschool and have a clean house? Serve meals? What’s up with this?! Why should I have to choose??! No… I can’t handle that. I love my kids and family. I want to homeschool. I also want to have a clean house and resemble more than a backyard scarecrow. I have LOTS of reasons for homeschooling… here’s some:

- I love the AHA moments of when my kids get it. It’s so cool! It’s exciting! It’s also very addicting… I want more of those moments… hehe…

- The school system here is (ahem) overwhelmed and we cannot afford private education.

- I am shocked at what I did not learn in school or how the way I learned did not go with my learning style and basically led me to think I was just plain dumb.

- I am more shocked by WHAT was taught in schools. I learned about sex, drugs and much more at much too young an age and it seems that the age has even lowered MORE now. Just the other day I sat in a conversation with two mom’s who were discussing how their daughters learned how to give hic-kee’s (yah, I can’t even SPELL that one) on their forearms during recess. Their daughters were 8 and 9. SERIOUSLY?! Granted these were their peers teaching them this… but wow…

So I am deciding again.

I will homeschool!

I will have a mostly clean house.
I and my children will wear clothing that matches and forms a respectable outfit.
We will all comb our hair and brush our teeth at least once a day.
We will have fun throughout the day... Maybe even if we don't want to.
I will try to lesson plan but relax if it gets all messed up. (gasp!)
My kids will learn various things throughout the year in sometimes unconventional ways.
I will stop comparing what they have learned to other kids. (phew!)
Laundry will sit around the house in baskets but the sink will be clean.
Bathrooms will be cleaned at least once a week but showers might only see a cleaning once a month.
I will start my business again even while all this homeschooling madness is happening
(mainly to hire my housekeeper back to clean my showers more often. HA!)
I will panic each time I am running late and still need to get 4 kids out the door but will continue to go!
I (sadly) will loose it at times about all this pressure but try to remember that
I need to slow down, look around and take a moment to CHILL…
so hard to remember that too.
But…

I will homeschool. Yes… I will.

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Kentucky Horse Park

FIELD TRIP!

We love field trips! The kids look at it as all fun, I look at it as a way to learn outside the home. If you have anyone in your family that loves horses, this is the park to visit! We were there off season so we missed seeing a lot of the shows and events they have throughout the year, but it was still a blast!

First thing we decided to do was grab the carriage tour. Horses with feet the size of your head pull a wagon around while someone tells you more about the park. Tip: Sit close to the front. There’s no speakers (for good reason… I imagine microphone feedback and horses do not mix well) in the wagon, it was windy when we were at the park and it was close to closing time so I think our guide was tired. It was really cool to get a quick history of the park and what every barn was right away though! Big help in our exploring.

These horses were awesome! We found them in the barn designated for world breed's. Marwari’s are very rare horses. I recommend you do a little research on these guys. They are tuff and TALL! Their ears touch together at the top of their head. This guy was incredibly interested in what was going on outside his stall but did visit with us briefly. All the people working that we came across were super sweet to the animals.

 

 The history lesson began in the museum. Paul Revere, Comanche and horses use in the World Wars were just some of the information we gleaned. It was really neat to see so much information about horses, breeds and how they have interacted with humans throughout the years. 

We loved seeing all the Secretariat memorabilia and the kids loved the Black Stallion section of the museum.

The museum is HUGE though! We did find ourselves not reading everything and hurrying through at the end. It was a lot to take in!

The Arabian area had a neat program to engage the kids though and they could “take a horse” through the displays with them creating a scrapbook page to email to themselves for later. It was the highlight of the museum for one of our kids.

All in all the museum and grounds were beautiful, fun to explore and a perfect place to use up several hours of your afternoon. Definitely check out the children’s barns! We had it all to ourselves and the kids loved just racing around in it and pretending they were horses over the little jumps even. We enjoyed our visit!

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The Groove

I have broken so many grooves and gotten into so many ruts it's just insane! I am working on a NEW groove though. How long does it take to settle into a groove? Isn't it a rule of thumb that it's a few months for new habits to set in but just a few days for the bad ones? HAHA! I am stuck in bad habits. Well not like BAD, bad habits. Things like staying up too late bad habits or taking on more than I can finish in a day and than getting mad at myself for not finishing it. The usual "mom" bad habits.

 At any rate, I see so much that I want to do but I am also trying to clear my plate so that I can get to that new stuff. I hate leaving projects unfinished. Drives me a bit nuts. Maybe I am OCD about that? I should blog more because of that shouldn't I? (Whoops! Did I just call myself out on the lack of blogging?) I have a few web sites that I am finishing up for some other people. They are fun jobs and not really stressful but the people I am doing them for have not been pushing to get them finished either. I want them done though so I will do that. I am having fun learning more about photography. I have a TON of things to post in my Etsy shop but I need to bring in a bit more income before I can warrant the fee of selling online. (Kind of stuck in a Catch 22 there!) I have some parties booked for my little direct sales business that I love. (That's where I intend to get a bit of my cash for the Etsy.) Still plugging away at homeschool with the kiddos. They are learning in leaps and bounds right now! Never fails that I feel I should be getting new curriculum in the winter to keep up with them instead of in the fall. (Hey! That might not be a bad idea for planning next year!)

And right at this very moment... it's lunch time. Getting three meals a day on the table is not my fav chore in the world. I like cooking and I can plan meals without an issue but actually getting into the kitchen to make them. Ugh... It's worse than doing the more mundane chore of dishes. Wait... making food makes dirty dishes. Vicious cycle!

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Free Halloween Printable

I do not like halloween. Do you? It's just not my favorite holiday. When my Hubby and I got married I already knew that he and his family LOVED halloween. It's a major holiday for them! And it's not because it's spooky and scarey and all that. It's just fun for them. When we started planning babies though I started talking to Hubby about halloween and what we would do about it. (To tell you the truth I only remember trick or treating once! I may have gone a few other times, but I don't remember. And the one time I went was my parents driving us to our grandparents. That is it.)

We made a few compromises and I'm happy with the holiday now. It is fun for the kids and they love planning and/or making up their costumes each year. We don't permit anything gruesome, dead or dying. Only animal, plant, mineral, cartoon or real person costumes are permitted. No weapons are allowed. And my final push on the whole, "lets see how much candy we can take from everyone" was to give thank you notes back to the doors we stop at and limiting the amount of houses we stop at.

Each year what do the kids look forward to the most and fight over at each door? Not the candy being handed out. No... the honor of handing back one of our thank you note postcards that they have each decorated. We only give one at each door. Each kid decorates between 5 or 10 cards (depending on age and other factors... one year a few kids were sick so the others picked up the slack of decorating). Everyone who receives our thank you notes back loves them! Some houses that we visit tell us they still have the other card we gave them last year!

So now I would like to share with you our thank you cards for you to make with your kids! Click the image below, print on card stock, cut on the dotted lines and decorate! It's fun to use glitter glues, paint, crayon, marker and more. For us it depends on what we have time to work on. This year, I didn't have time for drying things so no glue and paint. The thank you cards really do add a twist to this holiday. Enjoy!

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Sick to My Stomach

I should not be sitting in front of my computer and typing right now. We have an insane day yet and it's me with 4 kids against the world. Doc appts, sporting events, groceries, the whole 9 yards. I am not ready for this. I am scrambling to leave a note for my husband, pack sandwiches for dinner and pay some last minute bills. The kids are on the Wii. Yes... we are supposed to be getting ready and I don't want to. They are on the Wii. I am going to get as much ready without them before I get them off too because they already dressed younger siblings, cleaned kitty litter, cleaned bathrooms, made lunch and fed the dogs! Geeeeesh! What would I do without these guys? First I wouldn't be so busy, but without their help none of this would get done. I always worry  I am overworking them too.

Welp... enough of this break... looking at all we already got done today and how close I am to having us ready makes me feel better. I think we can do this. My stomach won't relax until I get them home and in bed though.

PS- We are on a modified fall break. I knew today was going to be swamped so I didn't add the additional pressure to school work today.

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FREE Homeschool Lesson Planner

I love my lesson planner! I have adapted it, added to it and even removed things that I first thought I couldn't live without. I now use my lesson planner on my computer and IPad so that I save on printing and binding! It's perfect for me!!! I had my FREE lesson planner available with signups to my blog newsletter, but there is something seriously wacky going on with feedburner right now. Sooooo... I decided to change all of that. Would you like my Free Lesson Planner without having to signup? Of course you would... who doesn't like free?

I would like to note that the Free Lesson Planner version that I have here is not the full version. I do have the full version with extra pages like four year planning guides, attendance, grade sheet, quarterly log journal pages and so much more! The Table of Contents in the Free Version will show you a listing of all the pages available in the Full Version of the Lesson Planner. If you would like the Full Version of my Lesson Planner, just click here.

I recently updated my Lesson Planner from plan old green and white to pretty with flowers and all sorts of fun colors! I love the new design of it. I recommend that if you are printing and want to save the color in your printer that you change the printing properties to black and white. This lesson planner has space for one student (maybe more) and has dates filled in for Aug 2012-July 2013.

I hope you enjoy this planner and that it fits your homeschool needs!

FREE Homeschool Lesson Planner

For a new updated 2013-2014 Lesson Planner - Click Here!

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Bug Station

Do you have bugs? In your house? Do you have kids? Well.. if you have kids I am sure at some point in time you have had or will have bugs in your house. The kids will bring them in. They either want to share their new found friends with you or they have “fallen in love with this bug and can’t bear to leave it outside where it belongs.” So…. again… do you have bugs? We do!
I have several jars and containers of bugs right now.


This picture is missing a plastic jar full of Roly-Poly’s too. They are my 3rd child’s favorite bug at this time. I call it, ‘The Bug of the Month’. I’ve challenged this kid to count their legs. (snicker)


Here we have Creepy Spider. (shudders) The kids are keeping this spider well fed with whatever bug they find. This spider does not discriminate on which bugs it likes to eat either. Great example of how to NOT be picky at the dinner table. (ugh) I have tried to leave some Roly-Poly bugs in this jar to clean up the scraps of this spiders meal but he eats them too. (ick)


The noisy bugs of the bunch is the cricket jar. We have one male and two females in there. The like fresh fruit to munch on best. The male will break out in song whenever he wants some company and my kids are finally starting to show that they are wearing thin of his racket. I have considered moving them into a kids room at night. Maybe these little crickets would be let go faster. (grin)


Somebody help me, we have baby mosquitoes too. I know! I know! What was I thinking? It’s all in the name of science here folks. We had to collect these nasty little squiggles from our disgusting dog water bowl.


No the dogs did NOT actually drink this water. (yuk) We had not been able to play in the backyard much due to rain and the dogs were drinking from their clean bowls in the garage. And NO I did not keep that syringe. (yuk! yuk!) It was a medicine syringe used to dose out a few prescriptions. We have a zillion of them so they are disposable to me.

The water bowl was the perfect collection site for baby mosquitoes. I even picked up an egg sack of them and we had a ton of babies everywhere. I am about as good at keeping baby mosquitoes alive (they eat algae!) as I am at keeping sea monkeys. The jar the babies are in is sealed and will not be opened until they are all… ahem… dead. Sorry! There are some bugs that will never make it back out in the wild from our home.

So… do you have any bugs?
I have plenty to share!
Want some? (snicker)

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Homeschool Glimpse

I am so worn out from taking care of sick kiddos. (Not mad at them at all!) They are officially on the mend though! (YAY!) At least from their colds. That's a good thing... I am hoping for a full nights sleep tonight and that I do not catch all that they have had. We will see...

I just thought I'd share a fun little added book to our science program. I saw these at Cracker Barrel and while there are bits of information in the book I don't agree with, I've found this book to be quite fun!

  

I love how easy it is for the kids to read and there's always something for them to do with it. Even sick my one kiddo has hauled this book to their room, opened their window and worked on a section of it. (There own choice... boredom gets to sick kiddos.) Even the few items I question have encouraged questions from the kids too. So that's all good to me. I mean, I want to help my children learn and I do (try to) keep us in a God based learning environment, but we can't live under a rock. If everyone else is still learning science based theories as truth we should at least understand them and pick the way we want to go. Such a fine line to walk....

At any rate, we use this little book on the side of our regular Exploring Creation Zoology series that I ADORE! I only wish I had had the chance to learn science the way my kids do.

Just a little glimpse at some of what we do in our homeschool. The link above is an affiliate link too. Now it's time for me to work with someone on Math. yay. i love math. (Dripping sarcasm there!) I have to work REALLY hard to not let me kids fall into the, "I hate math" slump that I have.

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