Happy Easter!

Wishing everyone a joyous Easter season!

Who knew it would be so hard taking pictures of a 13, 9, and (almost)3 year old! The littlest one is my nephew. Pictures taken on Sunday at my parents.

 

Project Snapshot {April}

I'm linking up with Pam @ Everyday Snapshots for her Project Snapshots.

There has been a stray cat at our house. She is very lonely and wanted attention. Tyler spent a lot of time outside with her and finally came in to work on a project and had to sit by the door so that the cat would stop crying. Tyler named her "Zebra" because we always name our "pets" the obvious name of what they look like. I bought a bag of cat food today. Perhaps she isn't a stray anymore.

First Nature Study of Spring {2014}

We ventured out to our favorite place for some nature study, last Friday. The weather was beautiful and even though it was tough getting out of the house, we all had a splendid time once there!

We started out at the lake and decided to take a short walk to find some wild flowers. Not too much was blooming. That walk turned into a longer one and we just kept going until we came upon the "frog pond" and then circled back around to the lake.

After that we enjoyed playing around the lake and then took another walk to a creek before leaving to come home.

I think we could have spent the whole day there had we not needed to be home by a certain time. We were delighted to the sounds of numerous birds.

Here is a photo journey of our day.

The first path we sat out to follow.

May Flowers found in the first field. I remember seeing these in the woods as a child and thinking they were a funny looking plant. These had some damage from frost earlier in the week.

Turtle found on the edge of the path.

This pond is named "Frog Pond" and it needs to be better explored with rubber boots on our feet, one day!

Thank goodness for strong teenage boys to clear the path!

Playing around at the lake. It was nice and full from all the rain we had, but a bit muddy looking.

Tyler can never stop himself from throwing in big rocks.

The shoes came off down by the creek.

The boys were curious to check out this creek since it was pretty full a couple of weeks ago. It had a little bit of water in it this time. It was dry in October.

The walk back required no shoes! According to Caleb, "This is how it use to be done back in the old day."

Wake Robin found on the path to the creek.

Having lots of fun!

Looks like I found a place to take a family photo this fall. I'm sure the trees in the background will be beautiful at that time. I'm sure the field will look nice come summer before it's cut!

A Spring Daybook in April

Outside my window

Lots of birds! Which is good since we are studying birds in science, but bad since we have a missing piece of soffit and the birds are going into my attic! A spring storm blew the piece out and we had to order a replacement piece. This happened a few years ago and the birds built a nest in the attic and several days after we fixed it we had the smell of death (rotten bird eggs) in our house! Poor Scott will be searching the attic high and low for birds and nest after we get it fixed this time. We tried cardboard as a temporary fix but it didn't last long.

I’m thankful for

Warm weather since our propane tank (used to heat the house) is down to single digit of percent filled and we are mostly running on fumes. It hasn't ran in the last few days!

I'm also thankful for a little peace and quiet this morning as it is well needed!

I’m thinking about

This terrible short hair I have now. I'm completely devastated! I know I will get use to it, but I won't like it. I woke up this morning to exactly what my fears predicted it would look like slept on. Please, no one tell me that you like it as it makes it worse! Poor Scott! He was the first one to tell me that he liked it. He certainly wasn't expecting the tears that his words brought on.  ; )

In the schoolroom

It was a mixed week. I got up late Friday and we had errands to run Wednesday which got us off schedule. I also completely forgot an activity I had planned for Thursday afternoon. If we forget about all of that, the week went great, lol! I'm planning on an easy Holy Week. I have lots of books I want us to read and mix in some math and that will be our focus next week. Oh, and maybe their history reading too as I really want to stay on schedule with that. 

I ordered some books for next year and those arrived yesterday. I opened the boxes and that is about as far as I got. Looking forward to digging into the boxes today!

I am working on

More than I want to talk about! It's really nothing exciting but just the daily grind. But, I'll talk about the following. I keep putting off rearranging Tyler's room. It's going to be painful for both of us. It must be done before our garage sale (which is April 25th for those local) as I'm planning on selling his dresser. Tyler is devastated over this! So, this I'm trying to work on!

I'm also HELPING (key word here!) to organize a homeschool group book sale in May (May 8th for those local) and our Cub Scout family camp-out in May.

I am reading

Even though we have this on MP3 recording (which is a pain because it will only play on our laptop!) and I went ahead and bought a paper version of Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome. I highly recommend this series (I think I've mentioned many times before)! I can't read it aloud though. I'm going to put it on the shelf and encourage the boys to read it on their own. I'm hoping to have a few bookmarks in it at once. I'm enjoying it! For those local, our library has the first book on CD which I recommend instead of trying it as a read aloud.

I treated myself to Beatrix Potter: A Journal which is a biography of Beatrix Potter using her journal entries in what looks like a scrapbook. It's very lovely! It's short and now I want more, lol! I had more and checked out Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature from the library and it was very thick and I didn't get very far because it went into great detail of lives other than Beatrix Potter (insert icon of shrugging shoulders and scratching head). I got bored and confused. I'm hoping to find something else to read about her.

I also recently bought Strengthening Your Family: A Catholic Approach to Holiness at Home, but I only read a chapter so far. I'll let you know.

I still have this pile of other books that I started and never finished. I'm craving some fiction too!

I am hearing

peace and quiet!

Clicking around

I'm enjoying a few lovely blog series lately!

Sarah @ Amongst Lovely Things has Teaching From a State of Rest, which is wonderful!

Pam @ Everyday Snapshots has a series on homeschool planning and she has many other wonderful post that you should check out if you haven't yet.

Meredith @ Sweetness and Light has a homeschooling high school series that she has just started and I'm quite excited about! 

Jen @ Wildflowers and Marbles is having a book discussion on The Living Page: Keeping Notebooks with Charlotte Mason which I recommend for all your CM fans! I finished the book and can't wait to start some new notebooks.

Divina @ Beauty of the Picture Book has a monthly series that includes picture book recommendations. I always look forward to these and immediately make a list to take to our next library visit.

Around the house

The basement needs a major overhaul so that we can set up for a garage sale. There are a few repair jobs on the list too, but those are mostly for Scott to do. My carpets really need to be cleaned and that is on the to-do list at the top (under Tyler's room), but it's not done. I re-did the boys chore list last month and that has been going well. I added a load of laundry for each of the them during the week and they have picked that up easily. We are still working on others though.

A picture
of my little turkey hunter home from the woods (no turkey this time).

 

Just Checking in and 7 Quick Takes Friday {April 11, 2014}

 

1) I've looked out my back window (from the master bath) all winter long and I've seen this old wash bucket,that I use to plant flowers in, and it's calling my name! I'm really hoping to fill it up this weekend. It will be making a permanent location where ever I decide to leave it as you can see the bottom is almost completely rusted through. I have a spot picked out. I took this picture late last summer. I'm missing those bare feet, tomatoes, and lots of green too. Things are greening up and things are blooming, including allergies!

2) I've been trying to work on the blog to put some new things on the right side bar and change the pictures of the header. I had to change the background too. Let me know what you think of it and if you have any suggestions. I really don't know what I'm doing! I keep bookmarking links to how to create blogs and perhaps one day I will read them.

3) We were on spring break last week. We should have waited until this week as the weather is much nicer this week than last! Caleb made the choice and he regretted it, lol! In my last post I committed to some cleaning plans for the week. For the most part they got done! I went through all the clothes, bathroom cabinets were cleaned out, and I even cleaned out our bedroom dresser and went through my clothes. I went to the grocery store before getting the frig cleaned out, so that cleaning didn't happen. I still need to go through Tyler's closet.

4) Getting back into the school routine has gone well this week. We are all looking forward to summer break though! I see the boys in a hurry to finish the year. Caleb keeps mentioned that we need to get this or that done because he doesn't want to get behind in school work. Me neither!

5) I've been trying to add to our Morning Basket time and getting everything done that we do together right there first thing. This works well and makes the rest of the day run smoothly. There is one small glitch, getting two active boys to sit still for an hour to an hour and a half! We take a break and we have thinking putty on hand for busy hands. I have to separate the boys as Morning Basket doesn't work if they are sitting next to each other. Sometimes it's a struggle to keep Caleb awake (seriously thinking about adding coffee to his breakfast!) and engaged. Would love some suggestions!

6) I really need a hair cut. It's been four months. I'm thinking about getting eight inches cut off and donating it. But, that is a lot of hair. I'm undecided and want to see how much that is before committing. Otherwise a very short trim and perhaps we will revisit the major hair cut in 2-3 months. I do know that I love having long hair, but I do know I want something shorter for the summer. My hair has gotten very thick over the winter and it will be too hot for summer. Ok, this is what I wrote 2 days ago when I started this post but didn't get to finish! I went and got that cut this evening. I'm in shock! Not the good kind! I was told my length would be at shoulder level and that was my limit and . . . . . that didn't work out in the end. I may want my hair back to make own wig. : (  I'm hoping after a shower it's not as short as it seems or I get use to it really fast. I won't be taking any pictures so just remember me with long hair until it grows out a few more inches. At this point I'm not sure if I'm joking or not . . . . I'll let you know.

7) It's youth Turkey season here this weekend so I will have some hunters in the woods. Turkey scouting hasn't gone well (according to Scott), so I'm not sure if we will be eating fresh turkey this weekend or not. I really would like to grind up some meat up to make burger, so I'm hoping for a better than expected season.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Just checking in {March 31, 2014}

Just a rambling post of plans for this week, school check-in, and some spring dreaming.

The boys decided (last minute) that they wanted to take their spring break this week. Seeing that they told me this late Sunday afternoon, I wasn't prepared for projects that needed to be done while on break. After some pondering while washing dishes this morning, I made some goals. To get ready for our annual garage sale coming up in late April we will go through closets, clothes, and the frig also needs a good cleaning and so do my bathroom cabinets. We have a day and a half of errand running and some site visiting.  Plus a day at the family farm for some nature study and play. I think our week will be full.

I started Caleb on going through his clothes this morning. It actually goes really smooth when they are old enough to do it themselves. Those of you with little ones, have hope! Tyler and I will tackle his clothes this afternoon after some play time outside. This project is a little scary!

Arrival of spring is late in our area (and I assume most everywhere this year). I'm really missing green! I tried to go through my pictures and find some spring flowers and green, but I couldn't find any. I'm sure I could find some in our nature scrapbook! I did find pictures of my Irises from last year. It looked like they bloomed mid-May last year. I assume they will bloom around the same time this year (I think spring was late last year too). This is something to look forward to especially since they didn't all bloom last year due to moving them the previous fall.

Going through my pictures, I found some of the big snow storm we had in 2011. Pictures like these make you thankful for our (hopefully) ending winter weather.

Now onto school stuff. I was sick for over a week. A nasty head cold, but it was weird as I was the same sick for over a week. Typically you are bad a period of time and then gradually get better. I was very sick the whole time and I woke up and was completely better one day.

This has caused Morning Basket not to happen the last two weeks. My voice was not capable of reading out loud for 30 minutes to an hour that morning basket requires. We are behind on that.

I did decide to return the Fix It! form IEW in exchange for the first two books of their updated version. The samples looked great and I like the revised books better. We are still waiting on them to arrive, so that has been put off.

The Student Writing Intensive from IEW that Caleb was working on has been put away (perhaps forever). It is too big of a struggle. I really think this program is worth his efforts, but he disagrees. I finally gave up on it last week when he was (verbally) fighting me about doing it and Tyler got in on the fight too and let me know that he wouldn't be doing that program in the future. Instead we may work on some character training as it is not ok for them to talk to me that way.  \:(  Teaching kids to respond and give feedback without being disrespectful and rude is a challenge at the moment.

Our bird study is going very well and we are enjoying the book What's That Bird. We are also watching a couple of videos from The Happy Scientist and the boys love this guy! We watch the videos for fun too.

Caleb's attitude towards math has changed and he is really pushing forward and making progress. I don't know what changed his attitude, but we will take it.

Planning next year is still weighing heavily on my mind. I'm still undecided about some books and how much to put on Caleb's list. Lots of prayer is going into this! 

We had our first spring storm last week. We didn't get any severe weather but we did get a quick downpour. As you can see from the above picture, we were on the edge of one system and you can see another system further north of us. Both had severe weather but thankfully they missed us. Of course, we really could use some rain!

We discussed what to do during storms and at one time we started to prepare as there were tornado warnings with these systems. The boys were told to locate shoes and put them at the basement door and gather any things they wanted to take with them to the basement. The below picture is what Tyler gathered up. His "babies", a blanket "to cover his eyes" and a DS to play with because "you have to have something to do while you are waiting to be rescued!" Hammy was in his pile to, but didn't make it in the picture.

 

Caleb's New Toy

Caleb has been saving up to purchase a bow since last summer. He raised the funds from doing extra chores for family, monthly allowance, some Christmas cash, and mostly birthday cash. 

He finally had all the funds saved and Scott realized the price of the bow had increased. Scott decided to cover the difference and they went off to purchase it.  

Once at the sporting goods store they ran into some problems (mostly from a salesperson last summer who didn't give out correct information). Yet, they still came home with a bow. 

Caleb has been very pleased with his purchase!