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Hope everyone had a wonderful blessed Thanksgiving. I know we did. We have soo much to be thankful for! |
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Been busy here on the homefront. Now that the weather is cooler it has me in the baking mood. Busy baking pumpkin, zucchini and banana bread. Soups and stew have been on the menu too ;) I have been helping my mom start her dream business of selling her homemade fudge and jellies. We have been taking orders and going around to local farmer's markets. So far so good :) Here is our menu if anyone is interested just let me know ;)
· Choc. Cherry · Choc. Orange · Choc. Mint · Choc. Raspberry · Choc. Coffee · Choc. Black Walnut · Peanut butter · Cookies n cream · Orange chocolate (3) · Chocolate peanut butter balls (4) · Chocolate Coconut balls (4) · Turtles (3) · Pralines (3) · Cinnamon hard candy · Lemon hard candy · Butter rum hard candy · Root beer hard candy · *Divinity upon request (black walnut, cinnamon, vanilla). v Peach Honey, Pear Honey and Caramel Apple Butter $4.50 a pint. All handmade from Grannie’s Cookin in Bakersfield, Mo. |
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Well after a very busy summer without an actual "vacation" anywhere...we have started school back up. Last week was our first full week and it went well. My 9th grader is using SOS and loves it! My kindergartener is a mixture of Bob Jones videos and Abeka and my 4th grader is a little of everything. He is very jealous of his older brother using SOS. Hopefully next year I can afford it for him too. He has been on www.Iknowthat.com alot and really enjoys that site. I started my job at the preschool this Monday and it is going well. I'm a bit disappointed as hubby actually has these 2 and only 2 weeks off from school before he starts back up again and I am working. He took the lil ones bowling yesterday. I believe I feel a sore throat coming on. That time of year to get my cold remedies together especially now that I am working with wee ones everyday. Has anyone else started school back up yet? What did ya'll do over the summer?
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Ok so I envisioned summer break with me out in the garden, or lazin around in the sun with a book and sweet tea, and some swimming from time to time. We have been busier than our normal school year. Oldest ds has been off to worship camp already, staying over a friends house for days and getting ready to leave again for Dallas next month! We have been working VBS this week at our church in the evenings and attending classes at our local library during the afternoons. Dh has his nose burried in his books from the time he gets home from work till he finally goes to bed. He has a summer semester which consists of two classes crammed into 2 months! So this leaves me running all the errands in town since I am spending pretty much everyday there anyways...... So when will we have time to go swimming or even stop to smell the roses??? Oh summer "break" ya gotta love it! Thank you Lord for all your blessings :) |
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Our baby bunnies are 4 weeks old now. They are sooo cute and sweet. We can't believe how quickly they are growing!! We are finished with school for the summer.....YAAAY!! =) The dc will still do math drills and reading throughout though of course. Dh has started his summer semester. His classes are all online so atleast he won't be traveling to town. I signed ds 9 up for summer classes at our local library. They include art, butterfly gardening and a wood building class. He really wanted to attend the golf classes but he was put on a waiting list due to it filling up before I was able to register him. Maybe he will get called and be able to attend. I am hoping dd 5 will be able to attend the science class, she too was put on a waiting list. Oldest ds 14 left today for a church camp. He and the youth band will be performing for it all week. This is their first official road gig and they are VERY excited! I am sure they will have a fun time. Praying they will shine for Jesus!! Here are some pics. of our bunnies!
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We decided to take the children on a hike on a new nature trail that has opened in the state park. Here are a few of the things I found.
Life among the dead......
My three precious blessings!
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Dogwood in full bloom
Morels are up everywhere 
Does moss REALLY grow on the north side? I have heard it's not true, as this grew all the way around the trunk.
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We have been having beautiful weather that has led to schooling outdoors on the picnic table Ds 9 had his birthday on the 19. We had gone out of town a couple days before as dh had some school business. We had told the dc once they were well....which they pretty much are, not 100 % yet but close enough thank you God!!! We would take them to Chuckie Cheese. They had a wonderful time and it was part of ds's birthday gift. Grannie bought two bunnies about 6 mos. old, a male and female for him. So now we are going to try to raise rabbits! I had rabbits as a child but never two at a time so this may be a challenge. We found a nice hutch for a great deal and the man even delivered it for us. The dc are very excited about having baby rabbits....I on the other hand am a bit nervous. I know they will eat their young if they are spooked and you have to seperate the male from them...which I don't know where I would put him right now...we are hoping to get another hutch or build one ourselves. So I need to research a bit and hopefully we will be able to do this. I am wanting to put the young ones in the freezer but I have never butchered anything....so we shall see how this goes The dc are still prepping for the state tests. We have been going over their week areas with worksheets. We are still studying Shakespeare and now adding rabbits to our home ec and science for my 3rd grader. Dd 5 is reading right along in her Pathway reader...I must say I do love those books! I am working on lapbooks with her also and math....still has problems writing some numbers. Other than that Spring is here which puts me in the garden most of the time. I am thankful to have veggies growing already! Springbreak is here for the public school and dh so I think we will be out and about this week, hopefully get a few hikes in along the lake! |
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I think the kids have just about beat this whooping cough. We are back on a normal schedule....Yea!!!! Still working on test prep. These past 2 weeks we have been working on Lent. Will start on Easter lapbooking soon. Oldest son grade 8 is working on Geometry. I sorta skipped toward the back of his pre-algebra book. I know this geometry stuff will be on the state tests. Spring is in the air. The temps have been in the upper 70's. We attempted school outside today but it is tooooo windy! :) Everything is starting to bloom! Have my garden turned over and a few things planted :) Deciding on what I will be using for next years curriculum. Haven't purchased anything yet, still just looking thorugh catalogs and such. Am wanting an online academy for my oldest as he will be entering 9th grade. I am worried about not having the time to keep up with all his records. |
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My youngest two have whooping cough. It has really hit my youngest very hard. It will be a bit before I can get back on here. We thank you for all prayers. |
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We had a devastating ice storm hit here the evening of Jan. 26. The kids and I packed up and headed to my folks in Missouri. The weathermen predicted about an inch and a half of ice and power outages. This mobile home is all electric, mom and dad have a wood stove and propane. Hubby stayed behind to work. The power went off Tuesday the 27th. There was not one tree or power pole that wasn't broken in over a 600 mile radius!! Never in my life have I seen something like this! Hubby ended up going to a shelter as the trees were falling everywhere...he wasnt taking any chances staying in here. It sounded like bombs going off. It was cold and dark. Every few seconds you would hear a loud crack then a boom as the limb would come crashing down on the icy ground, roof or whatever below. It was scary and horrible. Hubby ended up joinging us the weekend and stayed with us the next week and drove back and forth to work everyday about an hours trip. He would check on our place twice a day. Thankfully the only damage we had was our fence got demolished. Tress and limbs are everywhere in our yard......still a big one on our roof. We lost all food in our fridge and deep freeze. Our power was off for 15 days!!!! We were able to return back home from my folks on Tuesday, Feb 10. What a long two weeks ithas been. I think I have felt every emotion at least twice!! So gald to be back home and online. Back to a normal schedule with no damages...thank you Lord!!! I will post pictures as soon as I get settled and some extra time :)
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This week went rather well....I'm thinking perhaps the new video game systems were incentive enough ;) We added spectrum testing books to the workload. This will be my third grader's first year of testing. My oldest is reading Twenty Thousand Legues Under the Sea. My middle will be reading and doing a unit study on The Ragcoat. This weeks school looked like this: Kindergarten 4:
3rd grade:
8th grade:
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Well after a wonderful Christmas and the beginning of a new year, it is time to start school back up WIth two trips to Branson and Silver Dollar City (one time with friends) all the wonderful baking and food, shopping and gifts, time with loved ones and friends, sleepovers, shopping, road trips, and did I mention shopping...I DON'T want it to end!!! I loved lounging around here watching movies with the children, sipping on hot chocolate and nibbling on cookies. But alas alll the weight gained from that HAS to come off!!! So we are throwing out the leftover bags of candies and cookies from the never ending supply of sweets and getting back to healthy eating. Exercising and working out time has begun School starts back up for us tomorrow. I have spent the evening writing out lesson plans. The children are in bed before 10 pm for the first time in about a month and I am writing cause there is actual silence in the house right now Yep it's time to gear up for state testing. ... Happy 2009 everyone!!! |
. I must say I don't look forward to it. We had such a wonderful, blessed vacation...I don't want it to end.
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The dc and I have been doing an advent unit study. This week we studied Zecchariah and Elizabeth, the angel and Mary and her song of praise to the Lord. Oh how I long to have a heart like Mary's. Today we started lapbooking. The boys are doing the 12 days of Christmas (Christian version). It is broken down like this: Meanings of the Twelve Days DD4 is doing a lapbook on "The Legend of the Candy Cane" I will hopefully be able to post pictures of the finished lapbooks :) We have been very busy with sewing, baking and making alot of gifts for my extended family. So far I have baked 13 kinds of cookies, 2 kinds of candies, sewed hot/cold packs, mixed up some lavender scented bath salts, layered in jars... cake mixes, cocoa mixes and coffee mixes, the boys made pillows, I sewed the children pillow cases, made a doll quilt with dd and mailed out Christmas cards with family pictures and a Christmas letter. Whew....hubby finished his last test in college today and is off for a month and so we shall be too :) Merry CHRISTmas everyone!!!! |
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Outside my window: pitch black I am thinking: about Christmas projects, and still about how much fun I had at the Third Day concert last week with my oldest son. From the kitchen: opened face turkey sandwiches, chocolate mint cookies, eggnog stars Schooling: Pilgrim unit study last week...nothing this week I am reading: Love Dare I am hearing: Lord of the Rings and the whirring of the rotating light thingy on the Christmas tree Around the house: put up the tree and decorated the house I am looking forward to: Christmas!! One of my favorite things: our christmas tree |
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We had a nice Thanksgiving here, just the five of us. I made the turkey and all the trimmings. We have sooo many blessings to be thankful for. School the past two weeks have consisted of a Thanksgiving unit study. We studied the coming over of the Pilgrims, the Indians and the church of England. I rented several movies from the library about the Pilgrims and the Plymouth Colony to go along with our study. The next month we wil focus on Christ and his lineage. May do the Jesse Tree again, not sure. I make sure the boys keep up on their math and english as we do our holiday studies and projects. We have been baking cookies and making gifts. Me and the little ones are sewing. My dd and I are making a doll quilt. My ds 8 is sewing a pillow. I received a bag of Christmas appliques....what a blessing that was....so we are making projects/gifts out of them :) Plan on making most of our gifts this year instead of buying them. As this hasn't been a good year financially for us. What ever happened to good ol fashioned homemade gifts anyway????? I plan on making pillows, scented hot pads, heat/cold packs and various jar mixes, along with the cookies and candies I always make. So this month we wil be busy on projects.
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Ds8 did a lapbook on corn.
DD4 and mommy made this pumpkin lapbook based off a Cinderella pumpkin theme. She loved the "What a Princess is" flower above. We had so much fun making this. She kept repeating the Peter Pumpkin Eater nursery rhyme while working on it LOL.
Bat jokes :) Nocturnal and Diurnal animals
Ds8 loved putting this bat lapbook together. We really learned alot about bats! |
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It has been very cold here today. The low is 28 tonight... brrrr! Cold weather and shorter days will bring more time for lapbooking :) The past week we have worked on bats and pumpkins. We are having a wonderful time with these lapbooks! We took Friday off due to me not feeling well. Today the public school had off but with me being healed we did school today...of course the dc weren't happy (the neighbor boy was outside all day playing basketball lol). I have noticed it getting darker earlier so now the dc don't have much time to play with him in the afternoons anymore. I enjoy the cuddling with the kiddos on the couch with a book and a snack of hot cocoa and popcorn....ahhh learning at it's best :) Oldest ds is starting to slack in his studies....especially math..did not do too well on his last 2 math quizzes so now we are buckling down. I spend an hour and a half with him in the mornings and then more time with him in the evenings after supper till he is ready to go to bed. We have taken his guitar from him for a month until he proves to us he has changed his attitude about his schoolwork and improves his grades. See before he was rushing through his lessons so he could get to his guitar playing, then computer and texting...not anymore. He lost the computer for a week due to his constant picking on and teasing of his younger brother. He spent the weekend with his youth group at a resort in the Ozarks. A retreat where the topic was dating and what God says about it. He really enjoyed his time there; paintball, hanging out with his friends and doing boy things. I tend to think he had too much fun...I saw the pictures LOL. Well now fun and games are done for a bit and he really needs to focus on his studies. We school through the summer and let the kids have their vacation time in the fall and he has had that time so now back to work :) Will keep updates on his progress . Please pray for us. Thanks! |
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Yep, we are hooked on lapbooking. I have been wanting to try it for a couple of years now but just thought it was too time consuming. Well after finding homeschoolshare and Currclick it has made it very quick and simple! My youngest two love them! So far ds 8 has done one on tornadoes, tarantulas, corn and next will be bats and pumpkins. I will try to get pictures posted of them all. Homeschool share is an awesome free resource site for lapbooking. So if you have never tried lapbooking I suggest you do and go on over to homeschoolshare, it's a great place to get started!
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We took a much needed vacation to Branson. We take our vacations in the fall after public school starts back up, less crowds that way :) Some dear friends of ours let us stay in their timeshare on Table Rock Lake. It was sooo beautiful! What a blessing!!! We went to Silver Dollar City as usual and with the hotel money we saved we went to the Butterfly Palace. It was a really neat experience. Dh said it was the best 3D movie he had ever seen and I had to agree. The dc really enjoyed the rainforest where live butterflies were flying all around, some even landed on dh and the dc. I have photos and will post on my slideshow. The weather has been perfect here. The leaves are changing colors. It has been sunny, blue sky days except today we had some rain. I still have a few things growing in my garden. We took last week off from school, we started back up today. It is always hard getting the dc back into the swing of things after we have had a few days off. Today went pretty well :) I am doing a fall harvest theme from CurrClick's Teacher Bookbag for my youngest two. We have studied scarecrows and their origin and today we learned about fruits and veggies, the five a day challenge.
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