We almost made it.....

Today, August 11th, was our first day of school for this year. Jacey started 1st grade and Abbey started Kindergarten. The day started out well, with everyone excited. When you home school, I don't think the excitement is quite as grand as when you actual GO to school. I mean, we have new curriculum and stuff, but there's no new teacher, or classroom. No need for new clothes or shoes, pretty much the only thing that changes is the schedule at home and the pace of things.

Here we are ready to begin our exciting new journey....



As for the almost made it part, we made it until 2:25pm without anyone (including me!) crying. I thought we were going to make it the whole day, but I pushed just a little to hard for Abbey to color her drawing of the 3rd day of creation. I should have seen it coming, the pouty face, the whining voice, the "But I can't...", but I ignored ALL the warnings and pressed on. Hopefully, I'll do better tomorrow. I'm really proud we made it that long though!

I have lots more to write about, but I am trying to start something else new and radical here at home. I'm trying to get to bed at a decent hour! I know, it probably won't last for long, but to be honest, I'm exhausted and I don't want to be the one crying tomorrow!

Jacey's Six!!!!

Jacey turned six on August 7th. Her birthDAY has actually turned into a birthWEEK celebration. Here are a few pictures of the happy six-year-old.







On Friday we went to visit Aunt DeDe and Courtney at the campground. We went swimming and had a second celebration - with another cake!



On Saturday, we went to INK. It was a great day because a lot of our friends were there for the used curriculum sale. Here she is playing judge. She did a great job with all those 'bad guys' in the courtroom. When I asked them what role they were playing ALL the little boys were the bad guys!



And later on Saturday evening, we went up to Waters/Dicks creek for some fun splashing in the creek. Our friends the Sharpes went with us and all the kids (even the big kids) had a great,but very chilly time.



As if all THIS celebrating wasn't enough, we are having our Friend's party at the Sprayground this Saturday, and Abbey's birthday is just 3 short weeks away. Oh to be that young again!!

Clogging

The girls went to clogging camp this Summer and had a great time! They are going to be taking clogging lessons beginning next week. They decided to try clogging and give ballet a rest after 2 years. I know this is a VERY biased opinion, but I think they are truly adorable.

If you have a few extra minutes check out their performances from the Barnyard Bonanza recital.

The video is a little hard to see, but if you look closely, they are the two littlest ones. Video 3 showcases their individual dancing and is called a "Rise and Shine", the other two are group dances.

This clogging camp was planned and run by two of the sweetest 13 year olds you could ever meet. They did a great job with all the kids and I'm very proud of all they accomplished!! Great job C and B!!!!! (just in case your parents don't want your name on my blog!)

Where does the time go??

It's been almost a month since I've posted anything! I've meant to post, I've had lots to write about, it just seems that there are never enough hours in the day, days in the month...well, you get the picture. Here are some things that are going on with us.

1)Jacey accepted Christ as her personal savior on April 20th. Well, that's the official date that she went down front at church. She started talking about it on April 13th and I think that's the official date. This is just to important, so I'll have a separate entry about this later.

2)We finished Life School Musical at church. Production date was May 4th and it was FABULOUS!! Again, it is worthy of it's own post, and I will get to that soon hopefully! Thanks to my friend Jenny D. I will be able to put up a clip of Jacey singing her first solo ever. She also danced in the musical, but being technically challenged like I am, I can't figure out how to get the recorded dance out of the recorder and onto the computer. Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated.

3)The girls had their first piano recital on May 10th. I will have pictures in the future, but for now they are in an old-time camera that requires development. Our digital camera broke on our hike up to Anna Ruby Falls. That hike actually deserves it's own post as well, so that makes three things I now need to post about.

4) Soccer season is over YEAH!!!! It was a lackluster season and I'm not sure we'll be playing again in the fall. There are several reasons, but mostly it's the time involved vs. the return on investment. Once ballet is over (end of this month) we probably won't be doing it again in the fall either, mostly for the same reason.

5) Abbey is finishing up her pre-k work and will be ready for Kindergarten in just a few weeks. She's really come along way this year in her number recognition (8 and above) and her ability to write legibly. She doesn't LIKE to write and complains about it a lot, but the hard work is definitely paying off!

6) Jacey is working HARD on her reading and phonics books. She's done with books 1 and 2 and should be done with 3 and 4 by the end of June. We didn't start this program until November which is why she seems a little behind. She's doing great though and she is becoming a really good reader. Her comprehension amazes me. She finished her Kindergarten math (Math-u-see) in March so we've kind of been taking a 'math-break'. She said today though that she wanted to get back to working on math so that's what we'll do.

We had ballet recital pictures last Friday. While I don't have the pictures back yet, our cousin Stephanie thought to bring her camera to the photo shoot. Here are a few pictures of the princesses. The little girl with Jacey and Abbey is Catherine, she's their cousin.

'Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy

Well Now.... It seems I have your attention! Haha...

No, this post isn't about kissing, or guys, or even kissing guys. This post is about something that I have always enjoyed - misunderstood, misheard, mispronounced or otherwise mangled song lyrics. This has been something I have enjoyed reading about since I was 9 or 10 years old. It was at that time I received a book that has been one of my all time favorites. Misheard lyrics actually have a proper name it's Mondegreens. The term was coined by writer Sylvia Green in The Atlantic in 1954. A mondegreen is a word, phrase, line of poetry or song lyric that you hear incorrectly. Now don't say you didn't learn something today!!

You may be wondering, why in the world is she going on about mondegreens? Well, I'll tell you. Tonight as my beautiful Abbey was playing in the bath, she was singing, this is customary. What truly got my attention and made me laugh out loud was what she was singing. It went like this "Mama's little baby loves short men, short men, mama's little baby loves short men yeah". I didn't have the heart to tell her what the song really said, and besides, her version made just about as much sense! You may be wondering, where a four-year old heard a plantation song, which is titled "Short'nin Bread", it's all Laurie Berkner's fault.

'Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy' is one of the most widely known mondegreens. The song actually says, "'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky". It's a Jimi Hendrix song that was popular in the 60's, but if you've listened to the radio (classic rock)in the last 25 years or so, I'm sure you've heard it.

Here are few more of my all time favorite mondegreens:

You made the rice, I made the gravy.
Actual lyric:You may be right, I may be crazy.
(Billy Joel)

There's a bathroom on the right.
Actual lyric:There's a bad moon on the rise.
(CCR)

The girl with colitis goes by.
Actual lyric:The girl with kaleidoscope eyes.
(Beatles

She's got a chicken to ride.
Actual lyric:She's got a ticket to ride.
(Beatles

Jose can you see?
Actual lyric:O, Say can you see?
(The Star Spangled Banner)

I wanna know
Have you ever seen Loraine?
Actual lyric:I wanna know
Have you ever seen the rain?
(Creedence Clearwater Revival)

I'm noticing a theme here, it seems CCR and the Beatles have a lot of mondegreens. I wonder if that was a sign of the times (the 60's) or if they were just hard to understand?

If you want to read more and laugh til you pee, go here.

Thank you sweet Abbey for the laugh, and for the inspiration for this post.

Words of Five Year Old Wisdom

We had a little incident last week. Abbey lied to me about her dinner, she said she had eaten it, when in fact she had thrown it in the trash. Lying is something that we don't tolerate so the situation was dealt with accordingly. After someone receives punishment, I like to take the time to talk about it after the hurt feelings and DRAMA have died down. Well, as is customary, Abbey and I were discussing her infraction during a calm moment. Jacey happened to be right there with us, listening and taking it all in. When my oldest child opened her mouth to speak, my jaw hit the floor and my eyes filled with tears. She told her younger sister (younger by 12 months and 3 weeks), "The Bible says" (and this is her quoting!) "Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal truthfully are his delight." That's Proverbs 12:22 for those of you reading that might not know.

My sweet, wise-beyond-her-years, God loving child not only quoted scripture to her sister in a biblical way, but she also used it in the correct context AND got the verse right! PRAISE THE LORD for the AWANA program and the teaching children receive there! If you ever have the opportunity to work with this program or put your children in it, please look into it. It's invaluable!

As I've relayed this story to a few friends over the past several days, I find myself tearing up each time. I'm not sure what that's about. I don't think it's pride, because it's nothing I've done, it's all about the Lord. I've been thinking maybe it's jealousy. I don't like to think I'm capable of being jealous of my daughter, but I could be. I find myself wishing that at such a young age, I would have been on the same journey she's on in her personal relationship with God. I didn't even know a personal relationship with God was a possibility until I was in my 30's! I'm still not sure where all the emotions are coming from, but I do know that I thank GOD for her love for Him and I pray it continues to grow as she continues to grow. Thank you Jesus!

Our New Addition

I only wish it were a HUMAN little bundle of joy. But I suppose a puppy is the next best thing (well, maybe...). Our new little guy is Tucker. We got him at the soccer field last Thursday and he's been providing entertainment and a source of constant friction in our home for the last 3 days! Even though he has FOUR legs, Jacey and Abbey don't seem to think he can and/or should walk around. They carry him everywhere or he is constantly being held. Of course there is the obligatory fighting between sister, "She's had him for HOURS!", "I haven't gotten to hold him all day", "Is it my turn to hold Tucker?", I'm sure you're picking up on the theme here. At one point I had heard so much whining, complaining and DRAMA, that they were both put on puppy restriction for an hour. Of course the quite only lasted a short time then the question was, "How much longer until we can hold Tucker?" AUGHHHH!

You know how sometimes it's hard to pick out a name for a puppy, and then you wonder if you've named him the right thing? Well, our list of possible names was a short one, they included; Tucker, Clancy, Huck, and Dylan(that was Jacey's suggestion). We settled on Tucker and it has turned out to be the PERFECT name. He is ALWAYS TUCKERed out from being played with, held, drug around and loved on so much. Below are some pictures of him in one of his two states of being, in someones arms or asleep.

I'm a Question Mark...

You Are a Question Mark

You seek knowledge and insight in every form possible. You love learning. And while you know a lot, you don't act like a know it all. You're open to learning you're wrong. You ask a lot of questions, collect a lot of data, and always dig deep to find out more. You're naturally curious and inquisitive. You jump to ask a question when the opportunity arises. Your friends see you as interesting, insightful, and thought provoking. (But they're not always up for the intense inquisitions that you love!) You excel in: Higher education You get along best with: The Comma

http://www.blogthings.com/whatpunctuationmarkareyouquiz/">What Punctuation Mark Are You?

More Nature Study Picture

I'm not going to write much, but I did want you to have the pleasure of seeing Jacey's rendition of the creek

Also, some really cool pictures I took of a fern. I had never seen a fern that hadn't bloomed (is that the right word?) but here it is. All those squiggly light green things are actually fern fronds. My 4 year old said the completely shut ones looked like seahorses, I think she's right!

And a picture of a new fern, just beinging to uncurl. God is SO amazing!

Our First Nature Study

OK, I'll admit it, I'm really not an outdoors kind of girl. I don't enjoy the bugs, or the hot, or the cold, or the dirt, but I do enjoy seeing the things our loving God has created, which is going to require me to spend more time outside and 'become one with nature' (not really!).

I am going to work really hard though on trying to get out more, at least once a week, and to teach the girls a lot about God, life and science through being in the great outdoors. One of the foundational thoughts of teaching with the Charlotte Mason method is "Out of door nature study lays the foundation for science". (Vol.3 p.281). So out the door we went. We carried along our sketch books, field guides and water color pencils, all in our handy-dandy waterproof bag. As we walked into the woods, I explained to the girls some of the rules of nature. 1st, don't EVER go in the woods by yourself. (You see where we live, we have woods on all sides of us, so I'm basically saying, don't leave the grass). 2nd, before you step over a log, look on the other side to make sure there isn't a snake laying there and 3rd, watch out for briers! That's about all I could remember from all those years in girl scouts. I'll put that on my to-do list, look up safety tips for woodland adventures!

As we walked, we saw many neat things. A lot of trees had fallen and we got to see a really large one with all the roots showing as well as the big hole it had left behind. As we trekked further down the hill and into the wood, we came to the creek. You would have thought I had taken them to Angel Falls in Venezuela. They were so excited. If course the first thing they wanted to do was get in it. Being the good mother that I am, I said "No, it's to chilly to be in the water" then remembering what a drag that was to hear all my childhood, I changed my mind and said "OK, but just walk across on the rocks and try not to get your clothes wet. Jacey made it across first.

Then Abbey made it across (and she didn't for get her sassiness!)

Of course, children being children, it wasn't long before both of them had fallen in the water (I think Abbey fell first), but they were having to much fun for me to stop them, and besides everyone knows colds come from germs, not wet feet in April! (right??)

Here's a picture of them together in the creek

After I felt they had gotten wet enough, and they had started pushing the limit just a little to far, we all sat down on the bank and looked around for something to draw. The story and picture of Abbey's drawing is on the previous perfectionist post. Jacey decided to draw the creek, a water bug we saw and the weeds and briers growing on the bank of the other side of the creek. I'll upload her drawing on a separate post as I think this one may have to many pictures.

We had a great time on our first nature study and I plan to do it much more often (unless it's hot, wet, humid, dirty, sticky, sunny, or cloudy outside!) (Just kidding!)

Are Perfectionists Born or Created By Their Environment?

First, let me start off by saying that I don't know the answer to this question, which is why I ask it. If you would have asked me five years ago, before I had children, I would have told you they were created by their environment, and that it was ALL my mother's fault that I am the perfectionist that I am. However, having children has changed that perspective (and some others as well!). Maybe perfectionism is inherited, I think some fancy science department needs to do a study on that, or maybe they already have. I have 2 dd's. The 5 year old has perfectionist tendancies, but is not over come to the point of paralysis by it. My 4 year old however, is a perfectionist through and through. I have noticed it more recently in the past 6 months or so, everything from piano playing, to writing her alphabet, to the way her shoes fit has to be just perfect or we enter melt-down mode.

Today was a prime example of perfectionism in action. We went on our first nature hike for school. With all the supplies collected and in our water-proof bag, we set off into the woods and down to the creek (see next post for details and picture!). After checking out some of the scenery and God's creations, we sat down on the creek bank to draw. My Abbey couldn't get anything to go on the paper. She whined and fussed about how she couldn't draw this and she wouldn't be able to draw that. Everything I suggested was met with some sort of objection, which is what brought me to the question above. I don't understand what makes her think she CAN'T do anything. To my knowledge no one has ever critized her drawing or any other ability, so I don't know where it comes from. Is it part of nature, nurture or is it just heredity?

We talked about the only perfect person in all the world, Jesus. We also talked about how much Jesus loves us no matter what we look like, or how we play piano or how well we draw. I'm not sure if the message actually got through, but I pray it did. I really don't want a life of paralyzing perfectionism for either of my girls. For the record, she did finally decide to draw a water bug we saw floating down the creek - here it is for your viewing enjoyment.

Sewing anyone??

One of the things I learned at the Simply Charlotte Mason seminar (check out http://www.simplycharlottemason.com/) was that she believed that children needed to be doing handicrafts as often as possible. In addition to doing handicrafts, it would be ideal if they were also learning a life skill at the same time. So, what did we do Monday morning? We loaded up for an hour+ trip to Joanne's (http://www.joanne.com/). We had the usual craft stuff here, paints, paper, sisscors, glue, markers and crayons, but I wanted something different and exciting for the girls to do.

When we got there we had so many things to choose from, we couldn't make a choice so we ended up with several things; beginner cross-stitch kits, latch hook rugs, stained glass paint, foam art pictures and several felt type sewing projects. As we've tried things out this week, I've discovered that even though the box my say it's for 5 year olds, that doesn't mean that 5 year olds can produce said craft with ease, and it only gets harder for 4 year olds. Tonight, they wanted to try another new craft so we open the box titled Sew a Bunny (http://www.colorbok.com/). Being the thrifty mom I am (not really) I chose this craft because it actually had two projects for the price of one. After a heated debate on who got the bunny and who got the flower, we all got down to work. The extra-large plastic needle was ideal for little hands and the pre-cut, pre-punched felt shapes were really cool. After re-threading their needles more times than I can count, we ended up with these.

Jacey was so proud she called her Nana to tell her she had just sewed a bunny. She wanted Nana to come right then to see it. We're looking forward to showing it to Daddy when he gets home in the morning.

Abbey is reading!!!

Now this may not seem like news that deserves 3 exclamation points, but let me give you the details - First, Abbey is only 4.5 AND second, one of my biggest fears when I was considering home schooling was that I wouldn't be able to teach the girls to read. That fear has been conquered (THANK YOU JESUS!!) and success has been achieved. Now I have two little readers and I couldn't be more thrilled or proud. So far this week, she has read all the books you see (granted they're only 6-8 pages long, but that's not what's important). The coolest thing of all is that she WANTS to read and asks me to sit down and read with her. I'm in a "pinch me I must be dreaming' state. It's just to good to be true. I pray that with God's help I can continue to develop a love of learning in both my girls. For now though, I will bask in the glow of having two children who know how to read! What a delight!

Charlotte Mason and a trip to the bowling alley

Last Saturday, I had a divine appointment. I know it was ordained by God and I was exactly where I was supposed to be from 9am-4pm. I went to a Charlotte Mason seminar. If you don't know who Charlotte Mason was, please check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Mason. I'll blog more about her and how she's changed our homeschool later.

A previous planned Sunday school social was also scheduled for last Saturday afternoon. Being that I can't be in two places at once (no matter how hard I try!) my dear husband was going to take the girls bowling and then I was going to meet them for dinner afterwards. Not wanting to give to many instructions and appear as though I didn't think he could handle it, my only instruction was, let them pick out what they want to wear, just make sure they have socks for bowling. Well, when I got to the restaurant here is what I saw:

I guess next time I should be more specific about coordinating seasons and not wearing tights with sandals. Or maybe I should just let it be, no one seemed to mind but me!

Third time's a charm?

OK, I'm quickly becoming exasperated! This is my third time trying to post the same message. However, it's my first time on blogger.com so I'll hope it will work better here. The other blog site I was using was just to hard to figure out and if I'm going to do this, it's going to have to be quick and painless! All I want to do is get my thoughts out, share our homeschooling with friends and family (and anyone else interested enough to read) and tell the world some of the hilarious things my children say and do! OK, this seems to be going well. I especially like the auto save and spell check features. Hopefully, I've found a blogging home!