I know, I know

I still have to post pictures. I haven't forgot! Today I had some errands to run. Yes, again! Last week I had to go here and go there and blah, blah, blah. This week is turning out the same way. Tomorrow...I'm taking it easy! Bible study in the am and a picnic with the boys at the springs and then swimming! Yeah!!!

I know, I know! I will get to it. I have a few extra pictures to share because today I stopped by Wal-Mart and I used over $40 worth of coupons. Thank you Lisa!

Rain and thoughts

Rain

Rain and more rain! We have had rain since Monday. In other words - today (Thursday) is our 4th day of rain. And it's supposed to rain tomorrow.

I love it!

We all went back to the springs on the 14th. My sister was down and we all got together and made a picnic of it. It was lots of fun! I don't have a clue why I didn't take my camera but I didn't. The boys swam until they were water logged. Kids just like to do that! LOL

Ok - I've talked about the rain. Now I need to talk about some thoughts.

I was thinking today about blogging. I used to love to work on this blog. I still want to sit and times and tinker around with it. But really, I don't want to be tied to the computer again. I'm gardening and reading and teaching and laughing and playing and praying and on and on....

Don't worry, I'll be here from time to time.

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

Fourth Week of Home School

We are on the last day of our fourth week of home school. It certainly has been a long 4 weeks. We have had our ups and downs but there have been more ups than downs.
WW started out kinda like this was a horrible chore. Now he is wanting to start as soon as he gets up every morning.
JD hates school. He's also defiant. As I said before, I have my hand full with him.
MJ, well he is just excited about everything. He is really zipping through his school work and doing very well.

If I remember correct, yesterday was our 5th home school group meeting. We missed last week but our fearless leader caught us up to date. We meet at Rum Island Springs, it's a county park and a pretty darn neat place. Yesterday we took a walk up the river. We talked about plants, animals, the Florida Aquifer, protecting and respecting our planet. And so much more. The kids were also allowed to swim and enjoy mother nature.

Our little group is really growing. I mentioned to Superman the other day that I had thought about us not going to the meetings anymore because of the drive. I sensed from he that he really didn't think that was a good idea. I am really glad that we discuss things and can communicate so well with each other. Ok, I'm convinced that we will go to the group meetings each week. We all enjoy them very much, it's just that the drive is 40 miles one way. But then I think about all the educational things in the 80 mile round trip ride. And I have something really great for you in just a few minutes. The boys remind me every week that we have our meeting on Thursday. I like that they do that. Our group now has started what we call "Game Days", we will meet on the 3rd Monday of each month for educational games. How can I not want to go when we have so much fun?!

Thursdays Fieldtrip

We met with our Home School group again. Yeppers - back at the springs. I don't remember if I told you the name of the springs or not but anyway, we meet at Rum Island Springs. The kids get to swim and interact with others of all ages, even adults. The park admission is free on Thursdays. We had a great time (as usual). Our coordinator couldn't stay because she had to take her oldest son to the doctor. An email from her today said that her son is fine and on antibiotics.

We had 2 new parents and 3 new children join our group in the last week. Great people! I think the group is really going to grow.

I will tell you all about JD a little later. Ok - I'll tell you now. He was not allowed to swim because of his behavior on Wednesday. He sat at our table and complained about his work. My gosh - he only had 7 questions to answer. It was open book and the answers were on 2 pages. Ok - enough of that for now.

When we left the springs and went into Gainesville because as usual, I try to save time and gas and get everything done while I am out and about. We stopped by The Learning Path and the boys loved the store. I thought it was ok - well better than ok but I think it is more focused on Public School than Home School. There really are some wonderful things for the classroom, if you are into that sorta stuff. Once we left there we drudged across town and into the University traffic. Yeah - what a blast that was. LOL Barnes and Noble bookstore. One of my very favorite stores. The boys had read some books during the summer and for every 8 books that they read, they could get a free book. WW and JD was able to get 2 free books and MJ was able to get 1 free book. Pretty darn neat idea! I had 2 gift cards, one from Mothers Day and one from my birthday that I wanted to use to get me a couple of new books. I walked around and around and I looked and looked - no books for me. I know - how can I not find a book for me in a darn book store? Because I shop the bargain books. I generally buy my favorite author's hardback books for less than $10. That way I can get more bang for my bucks. Or more books for my bucks! I love a bargain! I did manage to find 2 wonderful wall maps for our classroom - one is a World map and the other one is the United States. I managed to get them for $6 and that was with my 20% Teachers Discount (more about this in a minute). As I was walking around looking for my books, I found a table with some school info on it. There was an application for a 20% Teachers Discount - It includes Home School. I'm all signed up for my Teachers Discount! Yee Haw! You really need to check it out!

5 O'clock traffic! Oh no! And to top all the traffic off, WW started screaming like a little girl! And crawling across the back seat and coming out of the shoulder harness of his seat belt. A teeny, tiny spider was on his seat belt. Boy, oh boy - You would have sworn that a giant man eater had jumped in the car with us. I had to stop the car and have a talk to him about spiders and they are not man eaters. It certainly made an interesting topic at supper.

Ok - now will you please pass the Xanax!

ps - JD finally finished his school work and the munchkin made a 100!

We Survived

We survived the first day of home school. Maybe I should say "I survived". Actually we all had a wonderful time. We talked and expressed ourselves, gave ideas and ask questions, we drew and we added, we talked about fractions, we talked about fish and water. We spent the first hour in class without any of us realizing that an hour had went by. For our first break we played Frisbee. I even showed the boys that their mom had a few moves when it came to Frisbee. I still got it! LOL
Once we returned to the classroom the next 2 hours went by extremely fast too. We went over our LifePac books and a few of our lessons. The last 30 minutes the boys reviewed their books quietly while I did a few things. They worked independently and quietly. Can you belief it?! Neither can I. LOL

I was certainly surprised that the boys did so well on their first day. Very little back talk - almost no back talk. A huge improvement from our (now) 12 year old (JD). He was very, very helpful in class. We completed class today at 12 noon and off ran the boys to play or to eat lunch. I ran to the bedroom for a little nap. I ask the boys to wake me up at 1:30 and we would head to the springs.

At the springs we worked on our diving, back flips, taking turns and snorkeling. I think we snorkeled more than anything else. We saw Gar Fish, Bream and Snapping Turtles. They all suggested that we learn more about the fish and the turtles. What a great idea!

When we finished swimming and headed home the boys were all talking about how cool home school is. They talked amongst themselves and I heard each one of them say that they never wanted to go back to public school. I hope they keep that attitude once we get involved in the books more. We won't go swimming every day that is for sure, but there is no reason that we can't end on a positive note. I kinda look at it compared to the time I was horse training and take a few training lessons. Always end on a positive note.

My First Home School Meeting

I am so excited! Me and the boys went to our first home school meeting today. It was great! The people were wonderful! We met at one of the Springs here in North Central Florida. Our group is the "Tri-River Home school Group" We meet every Thursday from 10am til 12pm. When we first got to the meeting, we had informal introductions, then all the kids ran off to play and swim. The adults kinda just walked around and watched the kids or went swimming. Me - I waded in the water, kidded around with the kids (all of them) and talked to a couple of other homeschoolers and non-homeschoolers. A very relaxing atmosphere. Merrillee (the group leader) called us all up to the table and we had a more formal introduction, she talked to everyone (kids and parents), just letting us know what to expect. That lasted about 20 minutes and then we were all off to play, swim, mingle and do our own thing.

While Merrillee was talking to everyone, MJ tapped me on the arm, so I bent down to hear his little whisper, He said "Momma, I think I am really gonna like this group". I think all of my boys are excited about being home schooled now more than ever. Even JD seems more excited about it.

The first meeting in September will be more formal and less play time. However, there will still be play time and swim time. We will attend as many meetings as possible and we all look forward to the lessons that we all will learn. There will be Park Rangers, Bread Makers and many other speakers for our group. We will take nature walks and learn lots and lots about nature. I am really glad that the boys are going to be in that first hand. And Merrillee is an artist and she will teach us all Art. How wonderful is that?!

Rabies

"Mom, he's gonna get rabies if he puts that hook in his mouth." I'm at the barn feeding the horses and that's what I hear coming from the back steps. I listen a little bit and chuckle to myself because the next thing I hear is "MJ if you keep doing that, your gonna get dead".
Personally, I have never heard of getting rabies from a hook. Gonna get dead...Well that's something else totally different. I guess it goes right along with DRT which is Dead Right There. Superman is always coming up with initials like that, and of course they are rubbing off on the boys. When you hide around the corner, you'll hear all kinds of things that you've said in front of the kids. Just chuckle to yourself and keep on going. It's pretty darn silly around here sometimes.

Now let me think, what was all the talk last night at supper? Oh yeah - it was about how the boy's were gonna have sisters and Superman was going to teach the girls to be mean. It was all in fun and every one's cheeks hurt from laughing so hard. The girls were all gonna be dressed up in camouflage and hiding in the woods to ambush their brothers. The boys would be swimming in the pond and the girls would all drop in from a zip line, shooting the boys with paint ball guns and taking them as hostages. Once again, you can blame it all on Superman who has a wild imagination and loves to make up stories. The boys followed suit and made up their own stories of what they were going to do to their sisters. Sometimes I have no clue where all this stuff comes from but I love the laughter and the freedom that we bring to each other to be ourselves.

Swimming In The Heat

It's getting hot down here. I should have said HOT! The temperature at 11:30am today was 93 degrees. The heat index is in the triple digits. I mean around 105 degrees and above. It kinda seems like the first day of August arrived and so did the heat. What I want to know, is who left the oven on?!

We are fortunate enough to have a springs near by, actually within a 15 minute drive. And yes, we went swimming at the springs again today. I had one errand to do before we went, only to drive 22 miles and then get told that it had to be in Gainesville, which is another 25 miles in the opposite direction from my home. Ok that will just have to wait until another day. I'm not one to just run all over the place. I try to plan things and do everything while I am out and about and all in the same direction.

There wasn't many people at the springs today and that always makes it nice. There were 2 very nice kids (boys, whatever you wanna call em) maybe 15 or 16 years old, that helped my boys with their diving and back flips and front flips. WW said that he would never try a back flip again because he did a back flop - kinda like a belly flop but on his back. Now MJ on the other hand - well he was doing back flips and front flips until he looked like a pro. At first I had to sit on the dock and have him stand on my feet before he would try it. But once again, like jumping off the dock, he had to try it before he would jump off the dock. It really made great conversation at suppertime. I can't wait until Superman gets to see his flips and how his swimming has improved. JD is fine with jumping in feet first or doing his famous cannon ball. He isn't much for the diving and flipping stuff. But that's ok, when and if he does them, I will be fine with that. Here is a link so that you can look at some of the springs not far from us. The one we go to is Bronson Blue Springs.

There are lots of things that we want to do tomorrow - such as - mow my moms grass and set up for a yard sale. In order for us to mow her yard, we have to get a bunch of buckets off of the lawn trailer and put them away. Yeppers, they needed moving today and yesterday too. Nothing like planning ahead. LOL Then hook up the trailer, load the mower and so on and so on. I'm just not sure that I have the energy. I know I need to clean the windows on the outside of the house but darn it. They have been dirty for this long, what's another day or 2 gonna hurt. Oh just listen to me, I sound like I'm complaining. Blah, Blah, Blah!

Superman ask me to pick up a movie tonight and he requested Premonition with Sandra Bullock. I saw it while he was out of town and I recommended that he see it. I know I really enjoyed it when I watched it. So sat down tonight and I watched it again with him. I enjoyed it again and he enjoyed it also. We are just big Sandra Bullock fans.

Unless I can think of anything else to blah, blah, blah about tonight, I am off to go through my material tub again. I am ready to start cutting some material, just so I can sew it back together again.

Some Days

Some days are certainly better than others. Have you ever had one of those days? I have, and today was one of them. I think everyone just got up on the wrong side of the bed. My mom used to ask us when we were grouchy, "did you get up on the wrong side of the bed?". Really I think it may be because the boys are just not getting enough sleep. Since there isn't any school right now, I have been pretty much just letting them stay up late. I think it may be catching up with them. Well after the day we had today with tempers flaring up, Superman and I thought we may just need to put them all to bed a little earlier every night. Maybe we can give them a Friday or Saturday night of staying up later. I am sure this will help with the approaching of school time.

We did manage to go to the springs today. While we were at the springs there wasn't any trouble at all. They all 3 had a wonderful time jumping off of the dock and then swimming around to the ladder, climbing back up, only to jump off again. I have to admit, it really is fun. MJ would not jump off the dock at first, so I finally got him to walk out to the edge with me. We stood there for a minute or two (long enough for me to pry him off of me). He kept saying that there was no way that he was going to jump. I kept talking to him and asking why not. I explained that he swings on the rope swing at the river, but for some reason he was not going to jump. Finally, I have him pried off of me and he is standing in front of me, we take little baby steps up to the edge and wa la - I push him. I know, how horrible of me. Yeah right! He hits the water and once his head pops up he says, "That was fun, I'm gonna do that again!". Now a team of wild horses couldn't drag him off the dock. Silly little thing - it's always the first step.

Once we got back home from swimming, the trouble with the boys started all over again. Picking on each other and just irritable in general. Tonight we started the earlier bed times. Hopefully tomorrow will be much better.

Summer Is Almost Over

Or so they say. Here in Florida in the month of August, we break a sweat just thinking about going outside. Seriously, we do. And it's a good thing that we have cloth seats in our SUV, if we had leather or vinyl...we would have fried thigh. LOL Funny how our hottest month is almost the end of summer. We swim up until the weather gets cold though and that could be until Christmas. And to think that Christmas is just around the corner too. Wow, I haven't even mentioned school starting again either. Yes, school is almost here too.
Do you have any big plans for the last days of summer? Anything up your sleeve for the few days left before school starts? We have more swimming days planned. We didn't get much swimming in last week because of all the rainy days. I mean every day it rained and rained and rained. We need the rain though.

The boys were supposed to go to camp this week. JD didn't want to go today because of issues with 2 or 3 kids that keep picking on the other kids. It was his choice whether to go or not. And today when JD and I picked up WW and MJ, we heard all about all of the picking on the other kids is still going on. This is 4-H camp! How can this be happening?! And it is the same 2 or 3 kids that keep causing trouble with the other kids. It has to stop. At this point I am considering writing a letter. Superman is not happy with it either. WW and MJ said that they don't want to go back to camp this week. I will not make them go and be uncomfortable and submit them to being picked on and talked down to.

I did a little more sewing today. I made some really cool curtains for our den. The only thing is - I can't seem to get the bottom material to match. In other words the curtains are kinda like cafe curtains. A curtain at the top and one at the bottom. I am thinking about buying some crocker sack material and seeing if that will match. My batteries for my camera are on charge right now, so hopefully I will be able to get some pictures and show them to you in the next couple of days.

Tomorrow I have a swimming trip planned to the springs. The boys are all excited about going to the springs. They have even ask Granny Karen to go and she said yes. I think the boys finally got their job done for her. WW and JD came home yesterday with a 100 dollar bill. I had to go to the bank today and get it changed for them, but I got 2 fifties and gave them each their money. Now they want to start a savings account. Well I am off to do a little more research because I just came across an awesome homeschool website.