Les is More

So many say that more is better.  Ha!  Not in my case.  Les is More!  Leslie that is.  She is a great person!  Fun, funny, smart - she has the memory of an elephant.  Cute as a little bug in a rug.  An awesome listener.  Gosh, I might better stop before she sees this post and then none of us will be able to be around her.  She loves horses and crocheting and hanging out with me.  She's always busy with travel ball or horse shows or chatting with friends (especially me).

Here she is!  So I tell you again - Les is More!

These 2 pics explain the lemon on the eye.  We were at a culinary class together.

Lazy me

I know somebody somewhere thinks I sit around watching soap operas all day and that I never get anything done.  Well you know what? They are wrong.  Some days I never get anything done but it isn't because I sit around watching soap operas.  So...here is a little bit of what I do...
These things are not in order of how they were done.  Sometimes in a world of chaos, we just take things as they come, order or no order.

We moved a chicken house. 

I crocheted a few (at least 75) flowers for a wonderful person.

We found a corn snake and put him in a safer place.

I finally learned how to make a "tooth brush" rug.

I found a sunbeam in my yard.

We hiked 3.2 miles and swung on a vine.

We saw a Fox Squirrel on a post.

The dog even helped roll the kids around in the barrel.

We rolled our kids around in a barrel.

We stuffed a kid in a barrel.

Almost 50 pounds of sweet potatoes.

Me and the boys dug some sweet potatoes.

The SWAT bus I drove in the memorial day parade.

I bought the piece to fix the toilet.  I was going to fix it but

 my husband beat me to it.

 

The tiny screen from the cold water for the washing machine.

This is what came out of the screen.

This is what it should look like.  No sediments clogging it up.

I fixed the washing machine while Superman was out of town.  This was to fix the agitator.

Geocaching

Look at what we have started. We really enjoy Geocaching!

I have been wanting to do this like....F-O-R-E-V-E-R!

The boys and I use my "smart phone". Ha ha - All of my phones before must have been dumb.
Now I would like to get the boys a GPS but of course we all know about $$$ - yeah - money. I'll have to see what I can find. Now...I want to get some of my friends involved too. But first things first. I gotta get better at Geocaching!

Yeah! A break!

Nope it isn't my leg or anything like that. We actually took a break today. I met some of the home school group at the springs for a day of sun and fun. I had to leave and go to a meeting and some of the moms kept an eye out for the boys. Once my meeting was over, I picked up the other boys and took them to the springs. I love it when we can take a break like that. Just leave all the studies and responsibilities behind.
I love hanging out with the other moms!

Who woulda guessed?

I have been thinking about blogging again. I came here today and started playing around with the design and thought...I think I will start blogging again. I enjoyed it then and I will enjoy it again. Of course "it" is blogging in this case. Just wanted to make sure you understand. Remember, I live in a house with a bunch of teenagers.

And, besides that...I have a couple of friends that blog and I really want to stay in tune with their blogs.

Field Trips and more

I just noticed the last date that I posted. My gosh! Where has the time gone. I know that being busy can make the time fly by but I really feel like it has been a light year. We have been on a couple of field trips with our homeschool group and WOW...we really enjoyed them.

Instead of me being one with the camera, I decided to just be a kid and enjoy everything.

Alliance Dairy was great and now the kids know that there is not a cow standing in the fridge ready to hand out glasses of milk.

Ocali Days was really cool. I'm not that old but I can remember living in a time when we didn't have so much. Children really have no idea how fortunate they are these days. I think back though and I'm not so sure they are fortunate. Along with gadgets and "the future", come times that I'm not sure I want to be a part of. I really liked it when things were much simpler.

Now...when was it

I get so darn busy sometimes that I just can't think straight. It seems like sometime back, I said I was going to get all of my coupon stuff put on here. I need it all here so I don't have to run all over the internet looking for it. Now I'm studying from my Teachers Guide, no, not coupons but Vacation Bible School. Yes, I'm teaching! I am so excited. Today I found my helper in church. This lady loves to laugh and so do I. Oh it's gonna be a blast.

Now...when was it. Oh yeah, almost a week ago I ask you all to stay tuned because links were coming to help you save some money. Well, maybe not really save but spend less and get more. Yeah! I like that.

Ok - check out the side bar for links that will help you get more and spend less. I'm updating them as I go to them and remember them. Eventually they will all be there.

My second trip to Publix

When I first really started figuring out this coupon thing, I was able to buy Campbell's soup for 9 cents a can. I was just all wooohooo about it and had to post about it and brag about it and so on. I am to the point right now that I just want to clip coupons, print coupons and buy all this BOGO (buy one get one free) stuff and show off all the coupons that I printed and the minus sign on my register receipts. Yes, I am fully aware that was a run on sentence. LOL

My second trip to Publix...today. Yes, I went with Lisa. She helps me so much! I need to get all the info I can from her. I'm gonna jump out of the nest one day and do something better than 9 cent soup. LOL

I promise to show the proof later. I have the pictures to prove it and I intend to do just that.

Oh yeah! Today we had dinner on the grounds at church. We do that every 5th Sunday of the month. One of our friends said that they saved lots of money on the coupons too. They went on their own but they did a great job.

My first shopping trip was the best all around. Maybe because I saved the most money. Ha ha ha... But then again - maybe because me and the boys were so excited!

Yes, I'm planning another one!

A Perfect Day

Today was just a perfect day. Warm Hot weather has struck us here in Florida. Oh, it's nothing like it's gonna get! Anyway...This is where we spent our day!


Blue Springs
Levy County

Fun Monday

Karisma over at Karismas Kids has talked me into it again. Ok - not really! ssshh don't tell her
What? I just knew you were going to ask. Well - Karisma is hosting "Fun Monday" this week.

She has even gotten more participants to join in.

Get a load of what she is asking of us...
Your task.........We all know our kids and pets are often a great source of amusement to us at the best of times. I want to hear a funny, silly or just downright cute story about your pets or your children. Have they ever done anything to totally embarrass you in public? Have they done something you thought was outrageous at the time, only to laugh at it later? Have they outwitted you in some devious way, only the way a kid can? Come on, out with it! Lets hear the juicy gossip! For those of you who are too lazy to write, how about posting some funny pictures instead! (Must be of your pets or offspring though!) Have fun with it!

The funny part is that my kids or pets have never embarrassed me. I know - imagine that! But I have come up with some ways that I just may have embarrassed them. When they were doing their silly little things, they had no idea that the pictures and the video that I would take could ever come back to haunt them. But you know what? None of them really read this, so - who cares!

Hold on and be prepared to giggle just a little.

So you have to understand that it just isn't possible for me to get embarrassed. Not living with this crazy gang. I mean look at this. I actually met him at the alter and married him. LOL

But gosh - our kids turned out normal. It's not like they look like the milk man or worse yet, the Easter Bunny!








The one time that I am glad that our preacher wasn't here was the one time that a teeny tiny spring decided to spring to the darkest corner under my husbands desk. I sent the youngest son in armed with a flashlight that is bright enough to land aircraft. He is wadded up under the desk and I ask him if he sees anything. He responds with an extreme serious voice. "Mom, the only thing I see under here is perverts."

He now knows that those are not perverts, they are just dust bunnies.

Snake in the Napkins

Ok - not really. There really isn't a snake in the napkins. I used that to get you interested and so that I wouldn't forget what I wanted to talk about. Pretty smart of me! LOL

Snake - It was AWESOME! Camera? Oh yeah - it was in the house. I have heard a lot about teachable moments. Well today was a teachable moment. I don't even remember what I was doing outside. I walked by our garden and I just happened to see a snake. Of course I called the boys over and we admired it's beauty. I was amazed at myself for remembering the name of it. Oh yes - it was my time to shine! Once we oohhed and aawwed until the snake was tired of us entertaining him, he decided to crawl out of the garden and into the flower bed. I immediately came inside and googled our snake. You are gonna love what I found...

Masticophis flagellum better known as the Eastern Coachwhip and here is another awesome website Coachwhip

I read that the coachwhip snake is very slender bodied and extremely fast. I saw it first hand today. What was the most unique to me was half of it was black and the other half was a light brown color. Interesting indeed!

What a teachable moment!

Oh yeah!!! I almost forgot! Napkins
With times the way they are and money kinda tight, we have been cutting back on lots of things. One of those things that I ranted about the other day was the use waste of paper napkins. Use it once and throw it away. Not anymore at our house. I announced to everyone at supper that there would not be anymore paper napkins bought. We will now make our own napkins and not waste another penny on something we are only going to throw away.
In my mind I had this idea about how to make our cloth napkins. I thought hmmm...if I can google a snake, why not google a napkin. So I did and this is what I found.

Molly's Handmade Napkins and Rebecca Writes Cloth Napkins
I really think that you will love the handmade clothe napkins on both of those sites. I know I sure will be doing some sewing in the next couple of days. I have some scrap material stowed away just for such projects.

I Got Em

I got em! I got pictures to share and stories to tell. I have a whole darn camera full of pictures. It's so funny with this new camera I have...I just keep snapping pictures and never get them developed. Ha ha...I don't have to. I just plug in the cable that hooks my camera to my computer and wa la, I have pictures. But now I'm too darn lazy busy to hook up the cable. I'll get it hooked up and before you know it you'll have more pictures than you can shake a stick at.

Gotta run...

A Slacker I Am

Ok - I admit it. I'm a slacker! There! LOL

I really have slacked off on my posting here and keeping you up to date. I guess there isn't too much new to tell you about. Unless you want to hear about my 2 broken fingers. It's really a long story. I just hope that the swelling will eventually go down enough that my wedding band will fit a little more comfortable.

We have been busy with school and with the Boy Scouts. Somehow, I managed to get deeply involved in the Scouts. I really don't mind. But it really does keep me busy.

Oh gosh! I almost forgot! No more dial up - we are now among the fastest of the fast. Yep, we know have high speed internet. I love it! I hope I never, ever have to go back to dial up. Now I can enter my coke rewards points and it doesn't take a whole darn day. LOL I can do a few other things too. I am a gatherer and I love making a few extra spending dollars there. I'm also a boomertowner. I like watching my points build up really fast. That way I'll be able to cash them in for the gift cards.

Let me think. Hmm...
Last week in school we broke away from the book study. We worked on our counting money, drawing, reading aloud, learning our States, doing some word search puzzles and just plain out having fun. Our home school trip was even a break away from the river. We all meet at one of the members houses for some fun time with her horses. It really was just a very nice meeting and a nice break away from the routine. I have some pictures that I will share with you, when I'm not slacking.

Our Outting Today

Our home school group leader, Mrs. Merrilee, sends out an email every Monday giving us all a little heads up for our weekly Thursday meeting. I tried to keep it a secret about what we would be doing. My secret keeping abilities failed last night. In our conversation at supper, I told the boys that we would be visiting an island. An island? Well my goodness, we're gonna need a boat. Imagine that! LOL

I woke up this morning and the boys were all dressed and were modeling their backpacks. Water bottles were all filled up and snacks were packed. Do ya think they were excited?! Yeah, me too. Even Mindy our little Schnauzer was running around barking and carrying on.

Down the road we go. The excitement didn't stop. They were going to get to ride in a boat. They just kept on and on. You know how it is!

Finally! At the river. Now I hear, "Where is the boat?" "Is that it?" And on and on.
The boats in sight and it's time to all load up.

The boat that we all rode in was a canoe. LOL No joke! It was not just an ordinary canoe. It was handmade out of cypress wood with a fiberglass shell. The owner gave us lots of information about the canoe. I sure wish I would have written some of it down. Ok - I now have an F in note taking. Hmm...I think I need to set a better example.
The canoe could only take 3 of us to the island at a time. It took a few minutes to get everyone there but it was well worth it.

Rum Island -
I don't know all of the history about the island, however; what I do know if pretty darn interesting. The history goes something like this: Years and years ago there was a house on the island. Yes - there was a still where they made rum. The island sits in the Santa Fe River with one county on the north side and another county on the south side. The island didn't have to abide by either of the counties laws because it wasn't connected to either county. Both of the counties were dry counties. A dry county is a county that cannot sell any alcohol.

The island's name is supposedly derived from moonshine and bootlegging operations that was located on the island in the early 1900s. A current sign on the site ironically warns, "Rum Island "No Alcohol Allowed." It has been reported that undercover police stake out the grounds, looking to bust people with open containers.

At some point the house burnt down. I have no idea what happened to the still. Somewhere on the island there is a small part of the foundation of the house. Today we did not find the remains. I would love to explore more on the island and find out more about the history.

Our 3 boys were extremely interested in the island. Their interest is an encouragement for me to take them back and do a little more exploring.

Note to self - next time - take the darn camera.

Something Cool for Home School

WooooHooooo! Thank you Karisma for posting these links on your blog. You know I gotta post them here to share with my friends.

Seagrass Adventures great site for the kids.

Community Environment Network is an alliance of community and environment groups from Lake Macquarie, Wyong and Gosford.

Time On My Hands

Today I found myself with time on my hands. Time for what? What the heck am I supposed to do? I stood in the dining room and I thought - "hmm...now I have nothing to do". LOL Have you ever thought that?
I think I was outta my mind for a brief second, when I thought I found time on my hands.

Yesterday in WW's and JD's Language Arts class, we studied Idioms. Yesterday I thought this would be a neat thing for me to tell you about. Of course I slept last night and when I woke up I had forgotten all about it. Which it doesn't surprise me that I forgot about it. I think that's why people say if you can't make a decision, just sleep on it. By the time you wake up you'll be forgot all about it.

An Idioms is a phrase or phrases that have meanings that cannot be understood from the literal meaning of the words.
Think about how someone that is trying to learn the English language. They hear an idioms and they automatically think of the idioms as a literal term. Time on my hands would probably mean to them that I have a clock on both of my hands. How about bent over backwards - which means have made a great effort to help. Can you just see in someones mind that you literally bent over backwards while trying to help? LOL

So I sat down at the computer this afternoon and thought I would just get you caught up a little. Especially since I haven't talked to you in quiet some time. I've bounced in and out here and there, but that's it. I was going to tell you all about how wonderful the past 3 days has been for me. That was my intent anyway.

I just started rambling here and there and somehow I recognized an idioms. So here we are, talking about a word that I have such a hard time saying. LOL

Can you think of any idioms to share?

The Days Go By

The days go by so fast sometimes. And then again, I sometimes wonder if the day will ever end. Do you have days like that? It seems like the more fun I have, the faster the day goes by. Now if I just happen to be having one of those days. Yeah - you know the kind. LOL It's those days that I wonder if they will ever end.

We have gotten back full force in our home schooling. We work on our regular subjects most of the time, but it's the extra things that I want to do. The extra things are games, cooking, sewing, exploring, discovering and on and on. I think the boys really just wanna throw their books out the window and do the things that I want to do. But we just gotta get that book work done.
B-o-r-i-n-g!

I think tomorrow I will just sleep in a little later than usual.
Or maybe take a nap during the day.
I think tomorrow we may just play one of those games.
It's always educational.
I think tomorrow we just might bake some bread.
Or just get out the flour and play.
I think tomorrow we might play hopscotch in the dirt.
Or find a stick and play fetch with the dog.

That's it! We are gonna throw the darn books out the window and play!

Happy Friday!

Christmas at our House

Christmas at our house - it was our first Christmas with the boys. It was our first chance to let Santa into our house. I told you about going out and selecting our tree. That was a lot of fun and something that we will do every year. We had to buy some new ornaments because we had thrown most of the stuff out a few years back. We did have some homemade ornaments that we used. I love those. We also made some new ornaments. They turned out wonderful and we had a lot of fun making them. The cards that we made with the boys pictures inside were a big hit. Actually, everything that we made was a big hit.

Nana loves here canvas bag the boys made.

Christmas Eve:

Granny K stayed over. That was nice. It gave Superman and I a chance to do what we had to do. Superman read "Twas the Night Before Christmas". The boys were so ready to go to bed when it came bedtime. They were sound asleep almost when their heads hit the pillow. I baked several dozen cookies during the day. Sometimes the boys would help with the cookies but they really just wanted to eat them. Go figure!

Superman had been holding on to the 4 wheeler secret for so long. Just one more day and he can let the cat out of the bag.

Oh yeah - I almost forgot. We made a Santa Clause Landing Zone. We used milk cartons with tea light candles in them. The Santa Clause LZ looked so much better than it does here.

Our tree before Santa had arrived.

Christmas Day:

Our tree after Santa had arrived.

No this is not the Taliban! Talk about pulling the wool over their eyes!

The face of a very surprised and happy child.

Instructions, directions, do and don'ts!

Even do and don'ts from Grandpa.

Of course we have to try them on. They fit well...I know they belong to the boys. Now get off of them.

Oh yeah! Somebodies just gotta get brave!

And Mindy says it all...I've had enough!

I know there no helmets on anyone of us. Superman turned the 4 wheelers down, so they would go really fast. One the boys learn a little more about them and really get the feel of them and learn to respect them, then they will be turned up a little at a time.

Helmets are coming this month. We will not ride them anymore until protective gear can be worn.

It's Almost Here

Christmas is almost here! We are counting the days down. I'm not sure who is more anxious about Tuesday more...Superman, the boys or me. Me - I'm not really anxious, I'm just thinking in my head of how the boys are going to be, how they are going to act and how their little faces will look when they see everything under the tree. Superman - well this is his time of year. All he can do is call me into any room that there isn't a child in and whisper to me about this gift or that gift and what we should do and blah-blah-blah. LOL

The boys - well that is a different story altogether. They stare with complete bliss on their faces as we tote in packages wrapped in beautiful paper. It's almost like they become zombies. I know that Christmas morning is going to be extremely eventful around here.

Now I just have to wonder...What time will they wake me up on Christmas day?

A Fun Day

We started our day out early. Into the big city to take my mom to her doctor's appointment. Traffic wasn't too bad. At one point the boys ask if we were the only one on the roads. I guess for about a mile we didn't see any other vehicles. It was actually kind of spooky. The boys and I sat in the waiting room with my mom for a few minutes. I'm not one that can sit long without something really interesting in front of me. So outside we went.

The boys wanted to play on the bike parking area but I had plans. We walked in the parking lot and I explained how the drainage system worked. The parking lot has big grates in it where the water runs to the sewer. We looked at lots of plants and talked a little about each one. We found some pine cones and we talked about the pine cones. Of course we brought a few pine cones home with us. Right now they are under our Christmas tree. And of course the cats have been playing with them. But that's ok, I'm glad the cats are enjoying them.

On to hopscotch...I won, I won!!! We found a rock and I drew a hopscotch right there in the parking lot in an empty parking space. We each got a piece of bark out of the mulch from around the plants and we started our game. It was really fun! No - not because I won...Silly. It was fun because we played together. It was fun because we laughed and made fun of each other. Ok, because I won!

We made it home by 12:30. Not bad for a trip to the city. And I was able to get one errand done. The boys ate lunch while I checked my emails. JD had a little bit of History and Geography to finish. It just takes him forever (or so it seems) to get a task completed.

I finally managed to get all 15 windows cleaned, but only on the outside. That's a great accomplishment too. I had to move the step ladder from window to window on the back side of the house. On both ends and the front of the house, I had to use the extension ladder. I also started scrubbing our front steps. They get a lot of fungus from the oak tree that's close to the front door. WW and MJ managed to get our big farm truck washed. Actually WW had to wash it twice because he was responsible for the washing and the first washing really lacked. A valuable lesson learned for him.

Now I have to tackle the windows on the inside but that won't be too bad. I want to take down all the ugly blinds and either hang curtains or put up new blinds. Not sure what I'm gonna do with the windows. But I'll keep on thinking on it until I figure it out.

Friday, Superman is planning on taking the boys over to his dad's house to use the wood splitter. I'm supposed to get a few me things done. I'm really considering not doing the me things and just go with them to split wood. I might better sleep on that one and make the decision when I can think a little clearer. I'll let you know what I decide.