That is the Question.

No, I'm not talking about my finances.  I'm talking about my blogs.  I have another one at Homesteadblogger.com, and I actually have another one at Blogger.com.  When I think of it, I started a MySpace account to keep in touch with my older girls while they were away at college, and I also registered on Facebook to connect with my nephews and another daughter.  Whew!  No way I can keep all these up to date. 

I started this one first and wanted to have it just for our Home Educating endeavors and so my family can keep up with what we're doing "in school", since they are always asking.  Then when we started planning our move from the city to the country to start our own little homestead, that's when I started a blog on Homesteadblogger.   I wanted to use the one on Blogger.com just for photos.  It's crazy, I know, but I have a tendency to compartmentalize everything, so it all made sense at the time.

But I'm finding that I'm spending more time at one and rarely anytime at the others.  I'm not sure what I want to do.  I don't like the idea of just deleting everything I've done at certain blogs and losing that forever.  Maybe I'm being foolish in thinking that.  I need to consider this and make a decision. 

I know others out there have more than one blog.  I'm curious how they've handled keeping them up to date, or if they've cancelled certain ones, what they did with all their photos or information, if anything. 

As I type this, it comes to mind that I also have another site I started on Myfamily.com just for the purpose of keeping in touch with a certain group of homeschool moms I have known for the past 17yrs. which I don't get to see now that we've moved. 

I'd love to hear from anyone in this situation just to get some input.  :)

We have made our move (well, most of us--my hubby is still in Illinois with my 15yr. old daughter and will be until our house sells, but more about that at my other blogger site), and we have started our studies.  Although, I'm feeling a change coming on. :)

I've been reading more and more about Notebooking and am feeling myself being "pulled" in that direction.  It seems that just about every year our approach to home study has changed as we work to adapt to changes in our family. 

Even though we've technically already begun, things are still somewhat unsettled because of the move, and I still don't have everything unpacked and organized.  We are partially living out of boxes since I have very little storage and our space in general is pretty limited.  (We are living in an unfinished house, built by the previous owner, and there is really only 1 room which is roofed and enclosed, so we do almost everything in that one room.) 

I think I will probably start slowly, implementing the Notebooking in a couple areas of study and see how that goes.  I think my children will love it, since they enjoy writing, and illustrating stories. 

We already do a form of this during our bible study time, with the children drawing what they're thinking and hearing during the reading time.  I had started letting them do that years ago when I realized it helped them to pay attention and stay focused if they were drawing, keeping their hands busy, while they listened and while we reviewed.  It kept them in their chairs and helped them to remember the lesson.  It just never occured to me to make pretty papers for it or to organized their work into Notebooks for keeping.  We just set a pile of scrap paper in the center of the table, along with pencils, crayons, and markers and then some of their papers we kept, but most got thrown away, just because of the sheer volume of books, and papers we have all over the house from home educating 7 children.

Another thing we had been doing was having the children write a composition every day, letting them choose their own topic.   The older girls had to write at least a page, while the younger, less experienced children only had to write a paragraph or two.  They would often draw little pictures in the margins illustrating something they wrote about.  We did give them each their own composition books for these writings, but never printed out cute little decorated Notebooking papers, nor did we slip them into sheet protectors and place them in a binder. 

I don't think I'll be purchasing any of the notebooking papers they offer online at this point, but I'll probably try to make up a few of my own and maybe the kids can even design some as well.

Okay then, Notebooking, here we come! 

Hmm, what will I do with all these textbooks and workbooks?
Sell?  Give away?  Keep for reference?  Put them back into the moving boxes?
Or maybe they'll be useful for pressing dried flowers, or make them into a table by stacking them.  (I saw a photo of that once, it was pretty cool)

Oh well, we shall see what we shall see. :)

Check out this contest:

Wow!  This summer has just flown by and I can't believe we will be "officially" starting back to our studies in a few weeks.  Although, my opinion is that life is learning and the world is our classroom.  So, in that sense, our studies continue on but I have had several months of not specifically concentrating on them.  We have been focused on a move which we are about to make.  One that we've been looking forward to for several years now and it looks as though it is about to actually happen.  Yay!

We're moving from the city to a plot of land in the Ozarks where we expect to be creating and maintaining a little homestead.  I'm so excited!  I'm looking forward to the kids being able to have many more "hands-on" learning experiences there than they've been able to have here in the city.   And I hope to post more regularly so family and friends can keep up with what we're doing. 

For now, it's pack, pack, pack!  Arkansas, here we come!  :)

Wow!  It's been soo long since I've been on my blog here.  At one point, I could not remember my username or password.  Well, I had an idea of what the username was but I was spelling it incorrectly.  I tried so many different variations of the word and the password, but I was unsuccessful.  And, I could not even remember the email account I had used with this blog so I couldn't even retrieve it that way.

So, after many, many tries I just gave up and figured that I would never see my blog again.  :(

Well, after reading a post on someone else's blog here, I just thought I'd give it another try.  And what do you know?  My first try, I got in!!! YAY! 

So, I'm back.  I'm so glad because I really didn't want to lose all the photos and stuff I had put up on here.  :)

The only thing is that I've noticed that all the pages within my account seem to load very slowly. 

Oh well, at least I was able to log in.  Again, I say...YAY!!!

And boy do I have a lot of updating to do!  :)

My 14yr. old daughter is in a production of the
"Sound of Music". 
She is portraying Louisa.

They have had practices for the last few months.  And tonight is opening night!
There will be 5 performances in all. 
She is very excited.
We are all excited. 

There has been some sickness going through the cast members.
Last night my daughter started feeling ill during their practice.
She came home pale and nauseus.
She slept on the couch and I could hear her moaning in her sleep.
She was concerned.
We were all concerned.

I prayed for her.
Many prayed for her and the others who were sick.
There are no understudies.
It would not be the end of the world if she or others were sick
   and couldn't perform.
But, it would be a great disappointment.
Although, I know there are greater tragedies and disappointments in life which...
   makes this one seem very small, very insignificant.
But, you know, God has answered our prayers.
She woke up this morning feeling great.
She was so happy.
We were all so happy.

God gave us all....a Dolly. :)
(there is a story of a missionary's experience which explains the "Dolly", I'll post that story later.)

Have you ever had so much laundry that half of the washed clothes, which didn't get put away, somehow got knocked on the floor and got mixed in with the dirty clothes pile and you just ended up washing them again?

Yep.

Have your kids ever had to wear mismatched sox because you just couldn't find a matching pair?

Uh-huh.

Has your daughter ever had to wear her brother's pants because you didn't get her laundry finished?

Um...yeah.

Have you ever been so behind in your laundry that you ran to Goodwill to buy clothes before an outing just so your child would have something to wear?

Guilty.

Have you ever had to decline an invitation to go somewhere because your "good" clothes weren't clean? (And you didn't have time to run to Goodwill.)

More than once.

Okay...now this is where it gets really embarrassing.

Has your 5yr. old son ever had to wear his sister's undies because all his were still in the hamper?

Dare I admit to that?

Well, frankly, that's how it goes sometimes when you are raising 7 kids and are homeschooling.  There really isn't enough time to do "everything" accomplished and so I find myself having to pick which things get done each day and which ones don't.  I know I could be more organized, and I'm working on that.  But, it doesn't come naturally for me and I seem to have a one-track mind.  I am not the typical female who can juggle several things at once.  I can focus on two things at a time, maybe three on an exceptional day, but most of the time I tend to only be able to really concentrate on one.  And to top that off, I wasn't trained in the domestic duties of life.  I have this plaque which sums it up.  It pictures this cute cartoon rabbit wearing an apron, holding a paintbrush, and there are paint cans, a drop cloth and art supplies surrounding her.  The quote reads,
"I'm artistic, not domestic."  :)

I grew up with my father who would take me into the garage with him to help him work on the car.  I could scrape and paint the whole garage by myself at the age of 10, but knew nothing about cleaning house and cooking.  And that just continued on into my adulthood and even into my marriage.  My husband is self-employed as a contractor and I've gone with him to work and helped him many, many times over the years.  While working with him I've hung drywall, measured, cut and put up siding, laid tile and linoleum, helped with electrical,  and painted interiors and exteriors.  I've lifted, loaded, and carried more furniture and tools than I care to remember.  I've climbed up and down ladders, dug ditches, cut firewood, limbed trees, used a number of power tools, and worked with him on building a house for our family in the Ozarks, (which is not a completed project at this point).

I'm not mentioning all this to brag or credit myself.  I'm just amazed that I could do all those things, and more, without blinking an eye but when it comes to my laundry I feel overwhelmed and defeated.  It's so crazy.

I'm beginning to think I  just need to take an offensive approach instead of a defensive one when it comes to those piles in my basement which I refer to as the "dirty dozen".  I need to attack them full on in an all day war instead of trying to whittle away at them in these mini battles which occur each or every other day, just so my little ones aren't running around the house in their birthday suits, or pajamas.

And yet, for me, the flip side is this...I may have tons of laundry which I don't get done now because I'm busy and preoccupied with the kids.  But, in the long run, I think they will be better off for having had the quality (and quantity) time with me reading, talking, cutting, glueing, game playing, writing, studying, cooking, eating, discussing, and learning together.  Even if today they are doing it all in their swimsuits.  ;)

Oh, by the way, we got tons of laundry done today...yay!

All my kids love to draw.  And as a result, we have a never ending flow of papers making their way through our home--stacked on tables, taped to windows, stuck to the refrigerator, hanging on walls....you name it, and there's paper there.  Pencil sketches colored with marker, crayon, paint, colored pencils, whatever is available.  And even though I love seeing this creativity all around me, I am extremely thankful for computer graphics!  And the kids really enjoy playing with the Paint program on the pc.  And they can use their pictures for screensavers, wallpapers, backgrounds, and even print them out.  So anyway, I'm pulling together a collection of their computer art and am going to post it here, little by little. 

 
Emily-8yrs old.-- This is a picture of our dog Buddy.



Emily's - "Sky"
                                       

I am finally finished playing with my template....for now.   Maybe now I can get on with blogging. 

Thursday afternoon I took the kids on a field trip to  Kline Creek Farm.  It's an 1800's working farm and is part of the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County here in Illinois.  It's a wonderful place to visit.  They have all kinds of educational activities, demonstrations, tours and programs.  It's also nice to just walk around on your own and explore the farm, it's buildings, and it's animals.

Well, we had a delightful afternoon, with practically the whole place to ourselves.  As we walked along the path back to our car, the kids were running in the field and decided to roll down the sides of the road on the grass.  It was great fun!  Everyone was rolling and laughing....and then all of a sudden screams!  Nothing but screaming.  Apparently, my 5yr old son had rolled right over a bees nest in the grass!  In seconds he was covered with bees.  They were all over my two girls too (who are 8 and 9).  My 3yr old boy had a few on him but didn't seemed to be too alarmed.  My 14yr old daughter and I were trying to pull them off and shoo them away.  But these bees were clinging and would not be shoo'd.  Well, there was more screaming and it was getting louder and more frantic. My 8yr old girl was crying and yelling, "Mommy, call 911! Call 911!"   I had grabbed, and swatted, and batted, and swooshed.  And the bees just decided to attack me instead of flying away. 

My son had gotten the worst of it all, and we had to completely strip him of his clothes to get all the bees off of him.  Poor little guy.  There he stood in the middle of the road, completely naked and crying.  Even after we turned all the clothing inside out to make sure all the bees were gone, he did not want to put his clothes back on.  One of the volunteers working there gave us a kitchen towel to wrap around his waist for the ride home.  She felt so bad for us that she gave us all free sarsaparillas from their store. 

The ride home was long and quiet, except for the kids commenting that they were so thankful that none of us were allergic to bee stings. That evening my husband heard everyone's version of the "horrible" event.  He later surprised the kids with, what he called, some "Bee Sting Medicine".  It came in three flavors, chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry.    It sure did seem to "do the trick".  By bedtime all was sweet and peaceful in our home again. 

The beauty of children--their resilience. 

Thank the Lord.

Okay, now where'd everything go?  I just spent a considerable amount of time on  editing my template and finally everything looked the the way I wanted.  I know I saved it, but when I came back a little bit later..."POOF"...it was all gone!  *sigh* 

Well, so far I have just been spending time playing with my template.  It takes such a long time even to get the smallest changes done.  I'm finding myself being a little frustrated trying to find solutions for some of the problems I'm running into.  (Like the bullets turning into these crazy, mixed up characters.) This is supposed to be my blogging spot, not my creative graphic lessons spot.  So I think I need to give up on the template for awhile and just enjoy doing some journaling.