My mom is nearing retirement age and the closer it gets the more she talks about moving in with us.  We've joked around about it for years, like how I'll keep her in a high turrett where her grandchildren can throw food up to her through the window. 

My mom claims she will be very cranky and a pain to live with because she will be old, tired, and in pain.  She'll be angry that she can't do all the things she wants to do. In one way I can understand that but in another I keep telling her she's just going to have to accept it.  It's a fact of life and I don't know why she has to make all of us miserable to boot.

While Dear Man likes my mom he wonders if he might lose his sanity living with someone who chooses to be a grump. He decided we would be a little house on wheels so when my mom is good we'll park her house next to ours and when she is being a pain we'll park her in the back forty.*

Actually my mom will need to have a house on the ground floor so a two or three story house with ground floor apartment would be best. We could also go with a house that has a ground floor mother-in-law house on the property.  Either of these could be hard to find in our price range and in our neck of the woods. 

So we've been looking to see what kind of houses are out there that we could add to our property. Here are some possibilites.  Some are just fun, some are ugly, and some you just  have to look at because its there.

Tumbleweed Houses - It's a house, it's on wheels, it's cute!
Eco-Pod House - For the bee in your family
Micro Compact Home - It's ugly and one might be called in to social services if you actually housed your mother in it.   
Just a house pod - Might work if we lived in the arctic.
Shell house - Since my mother says she'll be a crab...
Simon's Eco-house - My mom would actually like this even though she doesn't have hairy feet.
ICOSA pods - You could always hope Han Solo might stop by.
A Yurt - You want a reindeer with that?
Loft Cubes - I'd be worried that an alien ship might mistake it for a spare part.**
Pumpkin House - To prevent it from decaying would you have to shellac it?

* I hope you know we are just kidding and that we would take good care of my mom. Maybe.
** I don't believe in aliens but that's what it makes me think of.

Yesterday I had the radio on in the afternoon and there was newsbreak that came on about a country intersection in our area being closed because there was a motorcyle fatality.  This morning, I was utterly and completely saddened to find out that it was a friend of ours.  The father of a local, wonderful homeschool family.

Please pray for the Times family.  The dear wife, LaNelle, is now left 3 fantastic kids and, they just found out a few weeks ago, another sweet baby on the way. 

Forrest was such a great guy - wonderful man of God, loving husband and daddy and ALWAYS smiling.  He will be missed by everyone who knew him.  If you are a local homeschooler to my area, I will be posting service information on the McCHEO blog as soon as I know anything.

Blessings from Ohio, Kim Wolf<><

Wow ! Things have been so busy around here. I had planned to move from eclectic to an Alpha Omega LIFEPAC curriculum. The ol' budget will not allow it right now. Sooooooooooo ... with a big sigh...we will be doing eclectic again. Most of my resources are coming from the internet right now. I have found tons of really cool printables and some interactive websites.  My big project now is to sit and do the daily lesson plan ( or at least weekly). At first I was bummed . I had really looked forward to doing the AO curriculum. Now that I have started finding some resources I have become excited again. 

Vicki 

I took this pic during the birthday pool party. The pic is of my niece who loves hamming it up for the camera. 

Could it be from a full day at Kentucky KIngdom yesterday?

Or possibly shucking, washing, parboiling, cutting off the cob and freezing 150 ears of corn today?

These are cute and fairly easy window hangings you can make with just a few basic supplies.  Here's what you'll need:

Tissue paper

Plastic foodwrap or nonstick foil

Pencil

White glue

Embroidery floss

Glitter

Scissors

Cut the tissue paper and either plastic foodwrap or nonstick foil a few inches larger than the design you plan to make.  Use a pencil to draw a heart (or flower, diamond, circle, etc.) on the piece of tissue paper. 

Lay it on the wrap or foil, then squeeze a line of white glue along the pencil line.

Press a length of thread/floss onto the glue.

At the top of the heart, make a loop with the thread and press the end into the glue.

Brush a thin layer of glue inside the heart, making sure to cover the outline thread.

Then, cut some pieces of thread and press them into the glue, so that they overlap and hang over the edges.

Brush another layer of glue over the top. 

Lightly sprinkle glitter over the shape and leave it until the glue has completely dried.

Carefully peel the tissue paper off the foodwrap or foil and cut around the heart.  Make sure you don't cut off the loop by accident.

Now hang it in the window for all to admire!