Hey out there in blogger land!  I'm sorry that I haven't been posting regularly. 

I want to let all my friends know that I am suffering from severe depression and something called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  It hasn't been pretty.

I want to make it perfectly clear that this depression is NOT due to homeschooling.  I get many people who say "put your kids in public school and you'll feel better!"...but what they don't realize is that homeschooling is the best part of my day.  It's hard for people who have never homeschooled to realize that.

Most of you have seen pictures of our home:

We have done much work on it...as you can see here as we laid the sod.  Well, due to hubby being laid off for months, and 2 knee surgeries he had...we are losing our home.  It would take a miracle from the good LORD to change that.  We are supposed to be out in November.  We are trying to work with the bank, but they don't seem willing to work with us.

This has led to a lot of depression and several melt downs from the PTSD.  See, I was homeless 2 other times in my life before my marriage and this is really scary to me.  I don't know what we will do.  Hubby has a job now, but it doesn't pay enough to make our house payments.  We simply cannot keep up with the interest rate right now.

I've also had bronchitis that contributes to depression (I'm on bedrest), also problems with my epilepsy leading me to not drive until this is under complete control.  I am on anti-depressants, and they are helping...but I don't feel like I am being a good enough mom or wife or person.  This is tough to deal with.

If any of you out there suffer from depression, please email me through the site or post (if you feel comfortable) and let me know how you got through it or are getting through it.  I don't have family, so I could really use the support.  My mom died when I was 14 and I have no contact with my brothers.  After foster care we just lost touch.  So my support system is gone.  I could use some words of encouragement right now.

I love you my friends!

LadyPoet33

Okay, so after the wedding and my son leaving on the Lord's errand...

I decided to do another soccer league with the local homeschoolers.  Here are their photos:

Here is one of our 4-7 age teams.

Another 4-7 age teams:

One of the teen teams (I couldn't get them to stop playing long enough to take a picture lol).

One of our 8-10 teams:

My son is in the red on the right.  The other 8-10 team is in this as well...we had red and blue teams.  Some of the parents didn't get the email about the shirts and this was our first day.  So some of the shirts don't match...but the kids had a blast.

This is one guy on our teen team...very handsome...and very determined to win (you may not see it in this picture...but you'll notice it in the next picture):

'

Can you see the determination now?

I told him he would be a star on my blog because of his determination to win the game.  He fell in the mud and kept right on playing.  His mom was a great sport about it.  I LOVE soccer!!!

Okay, just a few pictures of our nature notebooks.  We planted strawberries last year and the little boys and I wanted to paint them:

Here Corbin (10) is in front of our strawberries.

Here is Josh (8) in his bare feet (just like his mom...I can't keep shoes on the kid!  lol).

Here are our paintings:

Now, this is another nature walk we did after my daughter was married and before my son left to preach the Lord's gospel:

This is my 19yos climbing a very tall tree.

And this one is my 16yos climbing the same tree:

We also shot bb guns and identified some plants and flowers we found.  I love nature walks with my family.

Happy Learning!

LadyPoet33

Well our house has been busy over the summer.  So I thought I'd post a few pictures so you can see what has been going on.

First, my 21 year old daughter got married. 

Here she is in the bride's room.

and outside the reception center:

and inside the chapel area:

and with her new husband:

and with her brothers...such a handsome bunch:

and with the flower girls:

We had another event take place this year that is taking quite some adjusting to get used to.  My 19yos decided to serve the Lord for 2 years, preaching the gospel and then he wants to return home and attend med school.  This is his picture at the wedding.

It's been 2 months now and I miss him so badly.  We write a lot but it's not the same.  He is enjoying preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and it comes through in his letters.  But it is tough to let go.  I "lost" 2 children this year.  They grow up so fast...don't let one day be wasted ladies...you can never get them back.  I LOVE homeschooling!  What better way to be able to spend those precious moments with our children?  I lost my mom when I was 14...I treasure those moments and wish I had been able to have more with her.  Don't take these moments for granted.

Happy Learning!

LadyPoet33

I saw a pair of cranes at our local lake about a week ago.  I did not have my camera and so I went back looking for them today. 

I did not find them, but we did find these odd looking white birds.  I thought they looked like a pelican with a fish in it's mouth.  Then we saw the photos and realized that their beaks have bumps on them.

After doing some research; because we don't usually get these kinds of birds here.  I found out they are called American White Pelicans.  Most pelicans dive for fish...but these actually work together to herd fish where they can eat them.

I can't wait to paint these in my nature notebook!

LadyPoet33

We had our homeschool prom today.  My 16yos had a blast.  I went in for awhile to take some photos for him.

Here he is dancing with a girl.

Here are some of the kids doing the bunny hop....the line was way too long to get them all.  It went on forever it seemed.  lol

Here is a couple doing the cha-cha.

Here is my 16yos dancing with another girl...I finally stopped taking pictures...he danced with quite a few girls.  He loves ballroom dancing.

Here a few of the kids doing the tango:

More tango:

Here is my son and a few of his friends.  I promise this isn't a gang sign...lol  They are practicing for a play called "Fiddler on the Roof" and one of the dances and songs is tradition...this is a dance move they do in the play, with thier fingers being held up. 

My son always finds a way to breakdance during these dances:

And another...in this one he lifted himself off the floor and walked on his hands across the floor.

Here he is with one of his best friends after the dance was over.  They were horsing around.  His friend is much taller than him.

And here he is jumping over his head:

The family that put this on has been doing the annual homeschool prom for years.  I sure appreciate their dedication and hard work.  These are the Hopkins and one of their daughters.  They own a store called "Love to Learn".  http://www.lovetolearn.net/ they carry many homeschool materials that I have liked.

Happy Learning!

LadyPoet33

Today was rather warm, so even though we have had colds we put on our flip flops and went for a walk by the river.

We took our nature journals and we all looked for signs of spring.  I ask the kids questions about plants/rocks we find and if they can answer them they get a prize.  I like them to know if the plants are edible or not, and what they are good for.  I also quiz them on birds and see if they can tell me what certain birds are.  It's like a game with us.

Here are our pictures from our day.

Here we are setting out.

And feeding the ducks...

Yes, he does have his stuffed "Moosie" on his head.  lol  He carries that thing everywhere!

I think this is a hawk we saw...he was HUGE!  My husband said he thought it might be an eagle, but it looks like the hawks in my bird books.

Here we are working on our nature journals.  I am letting my 8yos do some narration about his bee's nest he found and painted.

Here are our paintings.  My 8yo son's painting of his bee's nest is on the left, mine is in the middle of a dandilion we found (I showed the different stages) and my 10yo son's is of a clover he found on the right.  As you can see, while we may love to paint we are really not talented.  lol

I've been doing a support group meeting.  Mostly our classes are eclectic, Charlotte Mason, Thomas Jefferson Education, and just eclectic/classical. 

I have been trying to download these pictures for a long time and finally was able to.

Most of you remember the pictures of my boys sitting on our 113 lb pumpkin...

Our speaker this night was Karen Rackliffe author of the book "Wild Days" about nature journals with your children.  She came out to our garden and saw our pumpkin before the class, and she decided to show us how to do a nature notebook and she used our pumpkin as a model.

Here we are all watching her...Karen is the one in the turquois shirt:

I just held these at my house...it wasn't anything formal.

Here is her first rough sketch:

Now she adds some water colors:

At little more:

and this is the finished product:

And then I snapped a picture of one page of her nature journal.  She does these when she takes nature walks with her kids...Her kids each have one too.  They keep their paints, pencils, and paper etc...in a backpack and go on nature hikes several times a week and they do these.  They are amazing...at least to someone like me.  lol

Unfortunately I have had to postpone our support group meetings due to everyone's schedule being so busy and of course I am doing another theater production, a wedding, and too be honest...too many things to list.  lol 

If you want a copy of Karen's book, just google it and you should find it on Barnes and Noble or Amazon or one of the other book places.  I think I bought mine from http://www.pennygardner.com  She is another one of our Charlotte Mason speakers.  I recommend the book to everyone interested in combining art, science and even writing into one activity.  If you use Penny's website just click on the 'nature journaling" button and you'll see it.

Maybe I'll get brave and post some of our nature journal pictures.  ;)

LadyPoet33

I try to throw an annual skating party at CHRISTmas for homeschoolers.  This year was such fun.  We had all kinds of games, trivia questions and prizes.  I enjoyed it. 

We bring in our own ipod so we can control the music, and it is such a fun day.  Our local skating rink usually charges $200 for 2 hours and then we each pay $2 for skating and then it is paid for.  It's a real easy thing to organize with a great turnout.

Here are our photos:

This is one side of the skating rink...

The other side...

This is a picture of my 8yos (in the striped shirt) and his friend by the concession stand.

I HAD to include this cute little girl.  She came dressed so festive with beads in her hair.  She was just so darling I had to include her picture.

The kids bring skooters and some skate, moms sometimes bring a stroller (if they have little children) and skate with the kids.  It's such a fun thing to do on a Friday.

LadyPoet33

My daughter who is 20 years old has been courted for a year by a young man that we know. 

He asked to meet with my husband on New Year's Eve day, and asked for his permission to ask her to marry him.  We knew it was coming and are very happy about it.  He is a nice young man, and treats our daughter with respect and love.

On New Years Day (right after the ball dropped in New York City) he dropped down on one knee and proposed in front of her family and friends (we were having a small party to celebrate the New Year).

We are all excited.  They are set to marry in mid May (we start looking for a reception center tomorrow).  After that we'll know an exact date once we find what is availiable.

She has been homeschooled since 4th grade, and has gone to college and had to take a sabbatical because of her seizures.  Her epilepsy is under control and she will have her driver's license back soon...then she will finish college.

They young man has one year left for his Bachelor's degree...so he is finishing school ASAP.

Here are pictures of the happy couple and the ring:

and the ring:

Happy New Year!

LadyPoet33

We have been enjoying December.  I organized a fieldtrip to the Nutcracker ballet.  We had about 50 kids show up.  Because we went as a school group we paid $5 per person for seats.

Here are some pictures:

This is a picture of my boys (in red) and their friend from our homeschool group in front of the stage.

The above picture is of one of the gingerbread men and the boys.  I think the gingerbread man was getting a bear hug from another girl.  How cute!

Here they are with a couple of the soldiers and a candy cane.  These are all dancers in the ballet.

This is my 10yos with the Sugar Plum Fairy.  She did such a great job with the ballet.

I was so impressed with this group of dancers.  They came down during intermission and interacted with the kids...this makes all the difference to the kids.

Now it's time to hunker down and get focused on the reason for the season...JESUS.  Tonight we went looking at lights and we went to see a full sized nativity with CHRISTmas music playing.  It was beautiful. 

Another elderly gentleman down the street also puts up another  full sized nativity and has lights in all his trees.  We look so forward to the day he puts them up...the whole neighborhood does.

I hope you all have a merry CHRISTmas!

LadyPoet33

Our co-op did a couple of theater productions.  The one I taught was the 4-7 year olds and was "The Emperor's New Clothes"  I didn't have a lot of pictures from it...but I did get this one:

This is at the end, when the kids were taking their bows.  They were so cute!

The older class did "A Christmas Carol" and they did great.  My 10 yo and my 8 yo were both in it.

Here is one of our Scrooge's:

Here are my boys doing a narration part:

Here is my 8yo playing "Old Joe" who the lady brings the bed curtains to to sale them:

Here is my 10yo who played the Ghost of Christmas Future...this is a great picture of his face...NOT!  lol:

They gave me ROSES for being a director!!!  They also gave the other director roses...but I don't have a picture of her...I wish I did.  She is the best!  Her play was much longer than mine and she did much more work than I did. 

And this last picture is of the boy who played the Emperor in my play, and my son.  They are both really good friends.  I just loved the picture!

Happy Learning!

LadyPoet33

Sorry I haven't been on here in a long time. 

My hubby had to have knee surgery, and I found out I have to have a procedure and a surgery as well on my bowels.

I recently found out that I was a victim of identity theft, and the culprits cleaned out my account and took it $400 in the hole.  I was so mad.  I've had to cancel that account, and had to open another one.

I think what happened is that my hard drive crashed and I took it into a big name company to get it fixed, they sent it back East and whomever got it, took my bank account info and used it to create a new card and went wild cleaning out my account.  (sigh)

So, As soon as I get some pictures back on here, and as soon as I have good enough health, I'll be posting again soon.

Thanks for inquiring about my life.  I'm sorry to be so neglectful of my blog.

LadyPoet33

Well, we decided to take up rock climbing.  We took lessons on a rock wall from a fellow homeschooler, then the following week we took our first lesson on a real cliff.  This was awesome.  Here are some pictures from our outing.

My 7yos climbing.

Coming down.

My 9yos climbing.

My 15yos getting ready to climb.

Here he is climbing up and a jet flew overhead.  It was cool.

Dad had his turn.

Now me:

When I reached the top, I found a small catnip plant and decided to sit a spell and chew on some catnip.

I was waving down telling them what I found at the top, growing out of a rock...catnip.  lol

And then down.  We are planning another repelling lesson on Wednesday.  I am excited about it.

Here is the view from where we were climbing.

Afterwards I went to my sister-in-laws to visit, and her son (who just began homeschooling) asked me why we homeschool and I said "because I can go rock climbing on a Friday afternoon and not have to answer to anybody for it."  lol  It's so true though.  My kids learned a lot about plants, bugs (we caught a huge beetle) and of course we learned about rock climbing.  It was a fun day.

LadyPoet33

We are planning a trip to Disneyland during SHEA's Not Back To School Week.  We will attend a dinner and dance for homeschoolers at Disneyland. 

http://www.southwest-home-education.com/

We don't have a big budget.  We bought our annual tickets to Disneyland when we sold a property months ago, and I am providing music for the dance and my 15yo son will give some dance lessons to the youth before the dance in order for us to attend the dinner...otherwise we wouldn't be able to afford to bring our large family.  lol

If anyone else is going, please come up and say "Hi!"  I'd love to meet you!

LadyPoet33

My husband and I started a homeschool Soccer League and we were surprised at the turnout.  Here are some of the pictures.  We have a few students missing, because they were on vacation and a couple of teams still aren't photographed yet. 

Here are two of our teams in action...orange and red teams.

Here are all but two of our teams:

This is my hubby's team, our 15yos is on this team...the tallest one that isn't bald.  lol

Here is the other teen team.  We had enough for two teams.  A few of the kids are missing, but they sure like to play one another.

Here are our other teams.  My 7yo son is on the back row on the right.

Our red team ages 4-7

Light blue team 8-10

Our green team 8-10

Another light blue team 4-7 (the boys and girls elected to be on different teams).

This team combined two teams together, because not enough showed up that day.

Aren't they just so cute?  I know I can hear my 15yos groaning when he reads this.  lol  But they are having such fun and they are so cute!

I hope to see homeschool soccer leagues all over the nation someday.

LadyPoet33

The first thing I should probably mention is that I got into a fight with and apricot tree...and the tree won!  lol  I was picking apricots and fell out of the tree head first.  I ended up in the hospital.  Here are a few of my wounds.

I mentioned in passing that we planted a garden this year.  I had NO IDEA how much an 8th of an acre would produce.  I am overwhelmed with produce.  lol

This is one days worth of pickings.  We get this every day!

and...

and...

The first is a box of zuchini an squash.  Yes, the is only one days worth.  I only planted 2 of each plant.  UGH!

The next is a basket of pickling cucumbers.  I have been making pickles...and will continue for another month or so.

The last picture is salad cucumbers.  They are great to eat...but we have too many!!!  lol

We are on a half acre, and I planted along the entire back of our property, and along the sides of the house as well.

Here is one half of my garden:

Here is the other half...

I had to use two photos, because it is so large.  lol

We have zuchini, squash, grapevines, cucumbers (both pickling and salad), tomatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon, mini pumpkins, white pumpkins, large orange pumpkins, spaghetti squash and corn.

Here is my front garden with mint and rosemary growing.  My lavendar isn't doing to well.  This is after I hacked down the mint.  It was 3 times as tall before.

Here is the view from my backyard of our mountains:

We have quite a bit of grass in, but as you can see we are still working on it.

I will be posting photos of our soccer games as soon as I figure out how to download them.  ;)

LadyPoet33

I have spent the last month and a half not only recovering from bronchitis (again...a whole other story in itself) but while I was sick, I was putting together a homeschool soccer team for the kids in our area. 

I have 3 pages of kids signed up for our soccer teams.  Roughly well over a hundred kids.

We have 2 teen teams, and they are so excited to start the soccer games.

I had the parents pay a small fee so I could get supplies, and hubby has promised to help me pick them out this weekend.  lol 

My hubby is also coaching one of the teen soccer teams (my son's team).  I think he is just as excited as the kids are for this.  lol

I am planning to purchase some kind of awards for the kids.  If anyone knows of a good place to get them for cheap, let me know.  :)

The kids are going to wear plain t-shirts in their teams color, and we have a homeschool dad who is a professional photographer, who has offered to do their team photos for just the cost of the photos. 

I will post pictures of our first day.  Our first practice is August 1st. 

So, that is what LadyPoet33 has been so busy doing lately.

My in-laws got home from Australia this week, and I missed them so badly.  We've spent much of this week with them.  They served a mission to the aboriginals, teaching them to read and teaching them about Jesus, they said they also learned so much about spirituality from these humble followers of Christ.  My father-in-law is putting together a slide show of their experiences.  I can't wait to see it.

Needless to say, it has been a busy week.  ;)

LadyPoet33

I am finally getting around to posting our Prom pictures.  I've been busy.

Here is my 15yos with his friends (showing off muscles and pretty faces).

We had a limbo contest and started out with many homeschoolers...

By the end of the limbo contest this young man (the one going under the stick) won...I think you can see why.  Hubby and I held the stick...(boy...I need to lose a few pounds!  lol).  It was amazing to see how limber these kids were...not many left at this point.

We had lots of ballroom dancing.  There was instruction before the dance (my son taught the class).  Here are a couple of our homeschoolers practicing the waltz...don't they look elegant?

We had several contests.  This one is for best costume.  The youth had to where costumes that represented a decade of the last one hundered years.  My 15yos won...he had on a 1920's costume...but he wore tennis shoes, because he said his sunday shoes weren't good for dancing.  lol  He won a cd player and he loves it!  He is on the end in the black suit with red tie.

Again I express my gratitude to Calvary Chapel for letting us use their facilities for this dance.  Not many places allow homeschoolers to use their facilities, and this church has been very kind to us in letting us use their facilities.

The gals who put this prom on did a great job!  Thanks for all your time and talents!

LadyPoet33

I apologize for not posting sooner.  We have been working extra hard on putting in our grass.  I got half of my garden in (and it is a very big garden...about 1/8 acre).  I will be canning like a crazy woman this year.  lol

I will post photos soon.

My son did a ballroom dancing class for our homeschool PROM put on by UHEA.  It was such fun!  Hubby and I went with him and really enjoyed it.  My son won the best costume contest and won a cd player. 

The  gals that put this on really went all out.  We also appreciate the church that allowed us to use their facilities for our dance.  They have been really good to homeschoolers.  The name of the church is Calvary Chapel, and they also allow us to hold graduation ceremonies there.  I am not a member of their church, but I really appreciate what they have done to allow homeschoolers to use their facilities.

LadyPoet33

We went on a nature hike again.  Now that the weather is at least tolearable, our family is taking off our shoes and running around barefoot at the parks again.  lol

On Thursday, I invited other homeschoolers to join us at one of our favorite parks.  It has a pond with guppies in it, and we like to catch them and look at them.

It also has a walk way through a wetland, and you can catch bugs, identify plantlife and ask the kids if it is edible or not.  I love to quiz my kids on this kind of stuff.  My mother used to do that to my brother and I all the time, and I can still recognize many of the plants, and have added many more to my list through study.

We caught lots of bugs, dragonflies and butterflies.  No snakes this time...too early.  ;)  Mom was happy!

Here are the pictures:

Josh with his bottle of bugs.  He is our resident bug hunter...he loves this time of year. 

Here are my two youngest with the bug net:

Nothing beats an underdog from big brother:

Now, dad has been framing up the fire pit in the back yard.  His uncle (who drives a cement truck) came to help him.  He has been a great help to us as we did our cement work.  I need to make him a batch of cookies or something. 

Here they are smoothing out the cement:

One thing I should add, the fire pit itself, is a piece of a rock crusher (not sure the scientific term) that my husband's uncle got for us.  It was broken, and he just brought the piece we needed here for us.  Now we have to wait 2 weeks to build a fire in it.

I am so excited to see my yard coming together.  I can't wait to finish the garden and the grass in the back.

LadyPoet33