Logging in so this blog doesn't get deleted. Still homeschooling. Planning Prairie Primer for next year. Conference tomorrow. Fun. Flooded basement, kid will speech therapy and a cut foot, one allergy kid with reading problems and one gymnast that needs a part time job. That's it in a nutshell. Oh and I usually blog at subtlycatty dot blogspot dot com. Come over and say HOLA!

Just a quick note to let my cyberfriends know we are still alive! School is going well, house construction is going slowly and we ate way too much stuffing yesterday! Hope each of you have a wonderful holiday season!

Please visit my evil step-daughter of a blog, SubtlyCatty. Warning: it's *my* blog and not a quote-unquote, air quotes "HOMESCHOOL" blog so there may or may not be things that shock and amazing you. You've been warned. :)

September Field Trip Pictures----> HERE

Have a good weekend!

It was cool and rainy here today. We all just kinda laid around like dogs. The day was filled with snacking, napping, football, Legos and otherwise just vegging out.

Looking forward to starting this week out, organized and ready. Also, we have a special afternoon planned on Thursday. Tune in to see if my blogging friend is for real or really a sweet looking axe murderer that plans on wooing me to the woods. :D

1.) If you are a 40 year old woman and still don't know how to work a computer or delete other people's emails from FORWARDS, I am done feeling sorry for you. Now I just think you are stupid. And, for your information, I did NOT get my secret wish 33 minutes after I read your email.....my secret wish was that Mike Rowe would show up with Alton Brown, John Elway and Jon Bonjovi. Mike would clean the house, Alton would make dinner, John would take the boys to play football in the park and Jon took me out for lunch.

2.) If you move into a ginormous house in very historic district in the middle of the Midwest----please know that there are rules about what you can do as far as zoning. These laws are for the town. Do not expect that you are special and can turn your home into zoo in the middle of town.

3.) Spelin iz impportent. If you don't know how to spell, people assume you are ignorant.

4.) Just because I stay at home with my three children all day long does not mean we are rich or I am too stupid to get a "real" job. If you assume either of these things, it makes it hard to be my friend.

5.) I school my way, you school your way and we all live happily ever after.

Okay, I think that should do it for a few days.

Special note is my friend *****KAREN********* today: Come see the dirt for yourself. I miss you and pictures don't do the work justice!

Just a short blip for my new endeavor: I signed on this summer to sell Usborne Books. I've always liked the selection from them and some of our most treasured titles here are Usborne books. Take a minute to peek in at all the great titles by using my link to the right. There are TONS of history and science books that fit wonderfully into homeschooling unit studies or as supplemental books for those subjects. And whether we like it or not, Christmas is coming! Books make a perfect gift. They are educational and take up less space than more small, brick shaped, plastic toys that you KNOW will end up on the floor!

I can also set up an e-show for you online. Have way, you can get FREE books! (And, honestly, are there many more things in life better than FREE BOOKS?!)

Check it out! And tune in tomorrow when I show you what 100 tons of dirt looks like in my backyard! : )

Trying to stay on schedule for school. Have another vacation photo:

So far we are on schedule. (of course we started at 9 am this morning and it's now 10;13 am. That's called, "I need Thee every hour.")

Also, I was struck by my unorthodox homeschooling uniform this morning. No denim jumper here....I had have on jean shorts and an REM shirt. Methinks I don't belong. : )

One more blurb before I have to go to History with the boys....GO HERE and take a tissue. Hat tip to lori-in-tx.

So we're done with Week II of Homeschool 0708. I can honestly say that this week was one of the toughest I think I've ever had as a mother. I sit here on a Friday evening, finally alone with my thoughts and I am exhausted.

There have many times this week when I have wanted to give in. School started back up this week at the private school that many of my childrens' friends attend. All of those mothers were breathing big sighs of relief about school being back in session. While I sat at home, feeling like a noose around my neck was tightening each hour. Self-pity, self-doubt, worry, stress, anger.....each emotion raging through my body. Can I really teach my children at home? Will they see at the end of this road that I did the best I could? Will they still love me after spending each day with me for umpteen years?

My worst fears came true this week. My sons realized that I am a sinner. That I struggle with the same ugly sins that I have accused them of in the past. Why I am surprised that no one wants to do their Math here? I certainly don't care to do the laundry or the dishes. I whine and complain about my chores. If not vocally, certainly in my attitudes of, "Let Mommy sleep for just a few more minutes," or "Please can we eat out tonight...I don't feel like cooking and doing dishes."

There was a point this week that I felt more alone in choosing to homeschool three rowdy children than I ever thought possible. I literally had to go to my room and cry out to the Lord. "Please give me patience. Please give me strength. Please grant me mercy so that I can show that to them." I felt like everyone else in the whole world was happily plugging along, hour after hour of perfect darlings, sitting in thier organized school rooms. (I still am reasonably sure that I am the only mother to bang the messy kitchen table and yell at her children to USE YOUR BRAINS SO WE CAN BE DONE FOR TODAY!)

Alas, there was no joy in Mudville this week at Cardinal Grove Homeschool. Still feeling puny, I decided to ask for prayers online from a group of encouraging women. I got advice, hugs, book recommends. It was all helpful. But what helped the most was this blog. I don't even know how I ended up there. But the thought of that mom taking her baby to college was the straw that broke the camel's back here. I am crying again just linking it. Over and over, women tell me that I will miss these days. And that homeschooling my children is the best thing for them. And Jesus reminded me this week that HIS burden is light! Well, Jesus, I plan on doing this school year for you and this week, it was a burden.

In other news, I pulled myself out of my own miry pit and we made a volcano. It erupted this morning at 7:30 am: