I've had so many ups and downs with my MS lately that I've had no interest in blogging or even just writing, period.  I don't know whether it's the heat here, which still figures in the 90s daily, or whether it's just that here at home I'm running the whole show during the day!  In Oregon, I had my MIL to help--less housework, practically no cooking. I guess we were also taking a break from school, too, but I don't think that's the straw that's breaking my camel-back.  Homeschooling is just not an option; I don't believe I will ever feel right about sending my kids into the system.  Public, private...it doesn't matter.  It isn't so much about what they're learning as about how they are learning it.  Don't get me wrong---I'm not in favor of public school textbooks and their anti-Christian, anti-family bias, but then, I'm just not in favor of textbooks at all.  It's the system of schooling that I have a problem with.  Kids belong in their home, with their family members, being shepherded out into the world to serve and learn under the care of their parents.  The state didn't give me my child, God did, and the state has no right to him.  Phew.  So there. 

Well, tired or not, we really have been doing school all this time.  There were some days there where I'm not sure what exactly was going on beyond my bedroom doors, but I've been up for most of every day, doing what I can.  Somehow, the house is relatively tidy, the clothes are all clean, and we're all well-fed!  I've even learned to make whole wheat bread in the interim here, and it's the best stuff EVER!  My recipe makes a batch of 6 loaves, which end up lasting us all week, thankfully.

Nessa finished her Ancient World history study notebook, as well as the God's Priceless Woman Bible study.  Both were major projects, but she has done a great job.  She also finished listening to the Diana Waring CDs, read a book on the history of various herbs and their uses, wrote a report on 6 common herb/food plants, and started her Marine Biology class.  She and her friend Jake are the only ones in the class, but they are pretty competitive with one another, and she has a passion for the subject.  Her math finally arrived, and in the first unit, she earned a 100% on the exam.  The second unit is more frustrating, but she seems willing to work away at it as necessary.  For Bible, she has begun a book called The Deadliest Monster, which is really more worldview than Bible study. Since finishing the other projects, we created a unit plan I expect to last at least through the fall, based on nutrition studies.  She will be studying foods of other cultures, historical American food uses, herbs for health, the human digestive system, etc.  I based many of the projects on ideas in FAR, but freely added to the whole thing and adapted as I went.  The hard part has been getting her to actually look at and use her unit project planner---if she doesn't use it, the projects will never get done!  The major "text" of the unit is Sue Gregg's Baking with Whole Grains course, which is absolutely incredible.  Wonderful, wonderful.  Best of all,  the recipes actually taste good!  I was worried when I first came across her recipes several years ago, but we are converted, now! 

Lyle has been finishing reports on the Vikings and grizzly bears, reading about explorers, outdoorsmanship, and missionaries, speeding through his math text, and really enjoying his copywork.  He likes the language arts program for secondary students from Queen that I bought this year, and is also copying 5 maxims each day from George Washington's list of rules for civil behavior.  Some of them are really kind of funny, and it's cool to see Lyle get the humor, with such antiquated language.  For Bible, he's working on an old book called The Boiling Cauldron, by Lettice Bell, which I have as an etext.  It's unique--it's the story of Jeremiah, told in story format, with some words in each paragraph in italics.  The italicized words are taken directly from the KJV, and in the margin it will give you a clue where to find the words, such as "Deuteronomy 17:____"  You have to search your KJV to find the exact verse, and fill in the answer in the margin.  Very cool! Lyle says it's getting interesting and scary for the people of Israel.  He seems pleased this year that he has a planner, and knows the basic plan for each day.  It fits his personality, he likes patterns and things he can count on.  He is also nearly through his first Greek book, which has only been introducing the alphabet, so its ease is pleasing for Lyle.

Lacey finished her Predators of the Deep lapbook, but is still interested in reading about sea life.  She's now working on a sea turtle report, still reading the Burgess seashore book, and finishing the explorers facts book.  She's working in a Queen language arts book too, and is voluntarily working her way through the RL Stevenson poems for copywork each day.  Her notebook is already bulging!  I think we'll have to get her a 3" binder, as she doesn't want to break up her notebook into subjects, just divide the one she has.  We're still in the Miquon green book for math, which she enjoys. It's easy to just do 2 pages a day, but I do have to work alongside her.  Lately, she's also taken up sewing.  She's working through the Dreamspinner book called Sewing Machine Fun, which has her sew things on paper to practice, but she's also completing a doll quilt from 3 fat quarters she picked up in Sisters, Oregon.  The colors turned out pretty cute---orange, pale green, and dark green.  Aislinn's quilt, which I'm sewing for her, is kind of awful, but Ais seems to like it just fine.  Her main print is this pea soup green large floral with pale blue, lime green, and deep pink.  She chose a light/dark  pink to work with it, and a lime green batik for the sashing---yikes.  I had enough of the 9-patch blocks to make matching bed pillows and throw pillows for the dolls.  Lacey is also handsewing a pincushion with a cricket on the front. 

Aislinn and Liam have been working on two project packs:  The Wheels on the Bus and Blueberries for Sal.  Liam can't really do the work on the Blueberries one, but I do make extra copies of the wheels on the bus for Aislinn.  Liam is enjoying watching his notebook, grow, too.  Since adjusting his diet, I do find him easier to talk to, easier to keep busy with various projects.  Aislinn is also working out of the last of her books from Rod and Staff, which ask for a slightly more disciplined approach to table time, so I'm training her to follow directions, work carefully, etc.  I think these are great lessons, and we're careful to keep them short.  We try to do something together every day, no matter what, but sometimes it's just a small project or storytime. 

I'm sure I've missed some major things here!  It's been so long that I can't remember everything, but then....I can't remember clearly everything I've done since yesterday, either, LOL.  Fat notebooks remind me that we really have been working!  I have a headache AGAIN so I'm signing off.

I was a little off....yesterday was the 23rd, not the 22nd!  I was close, anyway.

Today we met the leader and teacher for the 4H horses group.  What an awesome facility!  I'm really impressed, but the cost for lessons for 4 kids is impressive, too.  There is a price break, since we would be enrolling so many, but we've never done something like this before, and it's a big, GULP, commitment.  Definitely needs to be Lyle's decision, with prayer! However, they're willing to teach the kids in private lessons, first thing in the mornings, so that we would still have the rest of our school day.  That's just incredible, as if afternoons were the only things available, we'd all be out of luck.

After we got home, it was still only 10am, so we all had snack and dispersed to our favorite places to do school.  I know Nessa works at her desk, with books strewn all around her on the floor, her bed, and the desk.  Somehow, at the end of the day, it's all cleaned up again, bless her!  (Well, mostly.  Occasionally the floor remains a special "holding zone" for some reason)  Lyle does a lot of stuff up on his bunk, until Liam lays down for the afternoon.

Liam, the girls, and I put on a Mozart piano concerto CD and danced around for awhile.  I pretended that there were mice watching some little girls dance, and they wanted to join the girls.  Lacey thought it sounded more like a cat sneaking up on some mice, but no matter what, it was fun to dance and pretend.  Earlier this morning we practiced somersaults--Liam has almost got it.  We also tried cross-crawling, but only Lacey really understood how.  Aislinn can only laterally crawl---very interesting.  Liam didn't want to crawl on command, so I'll have to watch him sometime.  I've heard it's awesome therapy for training the brain to cross the midline, and can even aid in learning ability.  Weird.

At the table, Lacey did cursive, Miquon division, began a new copywork poem ("A Good Play," Robert Louis Stevenson), and colored/painted a Dover coral reef picture of octopi.  Liam played on the computer, then colored and cut out roof shapes to put on a house picture.  He also practiced adding and subtracting the centimeter cubes, which Aislinn also did, except that she was making a color-by-number picture we got from The Learning Page.  She also traced our address and filled in today's weather on her weather chart.  After lunch, she did playdough, and Liam played some games from his preschool game book.  He's really antsy today, but Lyle and I can tell he's trying harder to be good.  It's just that he never stops moving.  Yesterday, in about 10 minutes, he managed to put his toy airplanes in the peanut butter, stepped in the popbeads bucket and sent them flying, shoved 8 pop beads in his moth and spit them across the room, and put the small kitchen timer in my broccoli soup so that I could "wash time."  He doesn't mean to be bad, most of the time, he just wants to see what happens if and when.  He'll know more about cause-and-effect when he grows up than any other adult on the planet.  It's time to put him down for nap, actually. He's tormenting Aislinn by sitting too close, putting pillows on her head, touching her leg....on the other hand, I think Aislinn must need a nap, too!  She's howling "stop it" in the most pathetic tone, and all he's doing is putting a finger on her knee. 

Remember all that child psychology stuff that says you should offer your child a choice between just two items, to avoid him arguing?  What do you do if he knows enough to invent a third choice?  Well?!?

Lacey has been helping me in the afternoons by reading stories to Liam at naptime.  Her reading skills are so cool!She even gives the characters different voices, and today when she read her poem before copying it, she knew not to pause at the end of a line when there was no punctuation...in other words, she realizes a poem shouldn't sound sing-songy.  That was exactly what I hated about poetry when I was little, because it sounded silly to me!  However, I think I find her origami skills even more impressive.  She can sit and fold you something while she's talking...she memorizes the folds.  I have no idea how she does that; it must be like memorizing music, a sort of muscle and mind memory.

Oh, better go.  Liam filled a VHS box with toy silverwear and he's dumping it out on Molly the (really patient) dog, saying, "pour shower, pour shower."  Then he shook the box to watch it go "sprinkle all the way."  Oh dear.  The dog's water dish is full of plastic floating food.  See what I get for sitting on the computer??  LOL

I shall now officially accept the fact that I don't write every day, lately.  Frustrating!!  I was doing well at the end of last year, but the beginning of the school year really is kind of wild.  This week, for instance, I've had to run errands nearly every day.  Normally, I don't drive out at all!  Man am I tired.  Add to that another insomnia night last night, but I caught up some today at naptime.

Monday, the girls decided to be spies.  They spent the entire day making dossiers--no kidding, they really used that word---of criminals and evidence.  Mostly, they found their criminals lurking in the pages of evil coloring books, LOL.  The worst criminal of all was Hello Kitty.  They were able to gather a great deal of evidence against this hideous villain.  I let them go at it all day; I was impressed with the dedication and the amount of writing they did.  It was really pretty meticulous, actually.  Of course, Aislinn didn't write anything real, but she had a lot of information that she "read" to me!  How cool.  Lyle mostly read, Nessa baked and worked on history and Bible study, and Liam did his cutout pages some more. 

Tuesday was a mess, as I had to run to our 4H leader's house to pick up Nessa's auction check from last spring.  We ended up staying a little over an hour, as we also worked a bit on planning out the next 4H year.  I want to try to be a project leader again, but Dogs was the wrong one!!  I had to do too much running, and sometimes just wasn't well enough to hold a meeting.  Besides, a lot of families just ended up fading away through the year, and most never finished the obedience series.  Yet, at Fair time, they expected to show....even though I had said early on that we weren't going to show this year.  Whatever.  Anyway, I'm going to try leading a Needlework project, which I can do just once a month, in the evening, in my living room.  Ideal!!  It should go much better, and leave me with less of the haunting guilty feeling I had last year.  After getting home, it was lunch time, and Aislinn had another insect bite reaction problem I had to deal with all through last night and today.  I'm not sure that much in the way of school got done by anyone but the older two, who are able to work independently when the younger ones sleep.  Lacey lays down every afternoon, but she just reads her school and fun books for an hour--she only sleeps when she's sick. 

Today we ran out again, to deliver cookies for a family at church, and to get more homeopathic meds for Aislinn and Nessa.  Aislinn's reaction is better today, but we're still administering the Sabadil (homeopathic allergy tabs by Boiron).  I picked up tabs for Animal Dander and Hay Fever for Nessa, since tomorrow we have to go meet the new 4H Horses leader, to check into joining and leasing horses for the year.  If I can't control Nessa's allergies, she won't be able to ride, so we are really hoping this will work over time to teach her body not to react so strongly.  While at Wild Oats, I also picked up several grains to try in my mill, and to try recipes from the Sue Gregg cookbooks I just got.  I'm anxious to try the Blender Pancakes!  They sound easy and good.  We need to quit eating just cereal in the morning, but I need an easy way to go about it.

School was more productive today, despite the interruptions.  Lacey did her cursive final draft page and colored it, did a "measurement hunt" around the house, baked a "shaker cake" from her Home Ec book, recorded the results of her penny experiment yesterday, finished copying the Island of Lost Socks poem, drew symmetrical ocean shapes on a worksheet, and alphabetized some storm words.  Aislinn made an "All About Me" booklet.  She traced her name, "grade," teacher, school name, and phone number, then drew a picture of herself--as a ballerina, of course!  She glued the pages into a scrapbook paper booklet and decorated the whole thing with a massive number of stickers.  She also started a page to record our storm weather for a full week.  Other than that, she put together a spy bag, looked at library books, listened to a story tape, made a necklace of pop beads, and made her own sandwich at lunch. 

After I napped, I worked with Lyle and Lacey on their lapbooks, but then had to get to making dinner.  My friend Treece told me how to make chicken and dumplings the other day, and I just about drooled on the phone thinking about it.  I had to make it, no choice!  That was what I always ordered at this restaurant we loved when I was little--it was called The Farmhouse, and while you waited in line (it was buffet-style), they had these pretty stained glass windows to look at, and a replica of a parlor, an old black and silver parlor stove, and an actual Sears catalog.  Each day, they turned a page on the catalog, so you could see something different when you went.  The best days were when the catalog showed clothing or toys, but I also loved looking at furniture.  I would pretend to buy it for the house I wished I lived in long ago!

The last book box and backorders arrived today, with the exception of a bar of soap on backorder from Queen---Haley Queen makes the best soap.  I have a kitchen bar at my sink, and Nessa has an oatmeal bar for her shower. 

Oh the end of the week!  We've been really busy here, all week, and today was a treat...we went to Wendy's for lunch, and then to WalMart (same parking lot) for some outdoor toys on sale.  Tomorrow, Lyle and I are headed to Bisbee for a day celebrating our anniversary, so I thought the kids might need something special today.  The outdoor toys are for tomorrow---the watering cans and sand diggers were on sale for 30 cents each!  We also got: a big bouncy ball, sidewalk chalk, and some pop beads to play with indoors.  Sadly, those pop beads were NOT on sale!  But, worth it.  Even Liam can assemble them. 

This week, Lacey continued copying stanzas of "The Island of Lost Socks" poem.  She also colored and painted a picture of octopi from a Dover coloring book, made a cricket out of clay, finished 3 Line Designs pages, wrote and illustrated a paragraph about the Parrotfish, and assembled several booklets for her lapbook on Predators of the Sea.  She's also working in her handwriting book daily, as well as completing 2 pages a day in the Miquon green book.  Since she's not a read one book at a time kind of girl, she's currently reading: The Burgess Seashore Book for Children, The Picture History of Explorers, Life in a Tidal Pool, Cricketology, Early Bird Nature Readers: Manatees, Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg (a novel continuing the adventures of Tinker Bell and a new fairy), and 100 Things You Should Know About Explorers.  She's also reading through an ebook I bought from The Homeschool Estore on crickets.  It's by Enrichment 4 U, and after you read through it, they instruct you on how to make a Chinese-style cricket cage of clay.  Yuck, but oh well.  She just loves the crickets she's currently keeping in a glass jar!

Aislinn colored a picture today from Dover, too: it's a Nature Kaleidoscope of butterflies.  We mounted it on cardstock when she finished, and put it in her notebook.  Really, everyone should subscribe to the free samples from Dover!  Every week, I get the basic samples, the Teacher's sampler, and the Children's sampler.  Today, I also saw that they have an Image sampler, so I added that subscription too!  I'm ending up with a great collection of images downloaded--everything from science to world history and cultures to fine art images.  It's a great way to build a collection of images for Picture Study, too, as they can be printed out full-page for just the cost of your ink.  I'm cheap.  I only print out one for the whole family, but you really could give each child their own if you felt generous!  Just be sure to keep them in page protectors, as the ink will run, otherwise...or spray with a good layer of matte fixative.  Great to keep on the fridge for the week!

Aislinn is beginning to recognize beginning letters and sounds everywhere, so I really do need to start the reading program now, just slowly.  She's pretty averse to long lessons, so we keep it very short.  She's been enjoying her library books, and she and Liam have been playing with the Chocolate Playdough I made on Tuesday morning.  It smells heavenly!  Liam tried to eat some, but will not soon make the same mistake.  It's awfully salty.  He spent several minutes trying to spit the salt taste away!  The recipe for the dough came from Suite101 Kid's Crafts by Belinda Mooney, online. 

Otherwise, neither Aislinn nor Liam have done anything really formal for school this week, except for Aislinn's lapbook projects on The Story of Ping.  I've been trying to think of ways to keep Liam busy during school time. I read recently of one mom who suggested keeping small plastic tubs for each day of the week, M-F, with activities inside.  She had playdough, a spray bottle with water to "clean" with, and so forth.  I know lots of kids get a kick out of washing doll clothes or toy dishes in tubs of soapy and clean water.  I could do that, or just use the sink, but the floor means less chance he'll fall off the stool!!LOL  I also ordered the Joyce Herzog "School in a Box" kit for the older kids to use when they take turns caring for Liam.  Sometimes the Legos and trains just don't suffice, you know? 

He has been very interested lately in doing cut-and-paste pages from our preschool book.  It's a book of reproducible activities I got from Rainbow Resources last year, so I just make a new copy each day.  He colors the pages and shapes, one of us cuts the shapes, and then he glues them on in place.  Yesterday, he wanted a picture of all these Easter eggs, so when he colored them, I drew a basket on another sheet of paper, and then cut out all the eggs.  He glued them and the bunny in the basket.  Very cute!

Lyle works daily on his Horizons math, copywork of George Washington's Rules for Civility (5 a day)---which he finds really funny, reading, and his Horses lapbook projects.  He finished Hatchet, but is still reading Exploring Planet Earth (Tiner), Adventures in Missionary Heroism, and is now reading through the first two Sisters Grimm books. Nessa read them first, so Lyle had to grab and read them, too.  They seem okay, unlike those awful Unfortunate Events books, but I still need to read through one to be sure.  Looking over his shelf, it looks like he also has a new Hank the Cowdog book from the library.  However, it looks like it's time for me to assign a new novel for school!  To help in his horse study, he's looking through a DK book on horses.  I always like the pictures in those, myself!  They're easy to read, as they're mostly made up of captions to photos. 

I'm surprised at how Lyle has taken to the lapbook thing.  I thought he'd hate the idea of little projects, but he's quite proud of what he's done.  He's even proud of the scissorwork he's done, cutting out the shapes---this is always a tough thing for him.  As long as I don't ask him to put stickers on anything, it seems okay! LOL  He's not averse to some coloring, though he used to hate that, too.  He colored a Dover picture of a Tennessee Walking Horse today, and did a nice job of it for his notebook, and is also doing much better this year on Line Designs.

Nessa is completing God's Priceless Woman Bible study--she says she has one lesson to go!--and Remembering God's Awesome Acts, the notebook history study.  That one will take her until the end of August, but she's mostly enjoying it.  The only parts that frustrate her are the lessons that ask her to draw, but she tries anyway, and is discovering that she's not so bad at drawing!  Besides these, she colors a page a day in her Medicinal Plants book, and reads an article each day in the Food and Medicinal Plants book.  Big surprise, both of these are from Dover!  She says that Uncle Eric's Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? is actually entertaining, and understandable.  What a concept.  I never thought anything could make Economics understandable!!  For copywork, she's working through the Girl's Copywork lessons from Queen; I imagine she's mostly through with that, since we bought it last year.  As she impatiently waits for Marine Biology to start at Mrs. Taylor's house, Nessa is reading through Parables from Nature by Mrs. Gatty.  She copied two of these completely this summer, and says they're good reading.

Really, though, for me the most helpful thing she's doing lately is taking on more cooking.  We've set it up as a class, with a place to record dishes she makes, books to read, and expectations for what she needs to learn to do, much the way Barb Shelton describes in her high school book.  I didn't use any of her forms, but found some helpful ones in my Homeschool Form Share group on Yahoo, then modified them a bit to suit our school. 

I think that about sums up our week!  It's always cool to see it on "paper."  It's amazing what the kids have accomplished! 

And now onto the journal for the day!  It was fun talking about writing, but it sort of side-tracked me off my purpose of writing a school journal....

Marvelous! Another distraction!  Now the small ones are irritated with each other because they just got up from napping, and they're stealing each other's blankies.  Legos are also being flung in an attempt to stun the enemy, and Liam is trying to take my bedcovers as he is claiming to be cold.  Right.  In Tucson, in August.

That problem solved, here's what we did today, despite interruptions!

Liam painted on the patio with just water and a paintbrush,which surprisingly was a big hit.  The girls joined him after finishing their chores, giving me a chance to clean up the kitchen and get their books together for the morning.  Aislinn worked in her new Kumon numbers book, which covers acitivities for the numbers 1-70. The puzzles alternate between dot-to-dot and color-by-number.  I'm not going to use a "math curriculum" for kindergarten, as it's too much busywork and I know I'll never be able to sit down for an entire, uninterrupted lesson with her.  She also did 3 pages in her "Get Set for the Code," but I'm beginning to find she doesn't need it.  We may just move on to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons sooner rather than later.  We also pasted pictures into a book called "Alphabet Fun," which I got from Cindy Rushton but can't remember who it's by.  We used the back of the pages to glue magazines cut-outs for each letter. 

Good thing Nessa kept her huge collection of pictures cut from magazines!  It's really coming in handy now.  This activity was a huge success with Aislinn, who loves cutting, gluing, and especially looking at pretty pictures.

Liam did some dot-to-dots, haphazardly but happily, then colored some mazes with Lacey.  I got several of the least expesive Dover books for him....at $1.50 each, I don't mind considering them disposable!  He also has a new sticker book featuring pictures of animals, so he did two pages, matching the sticker to the silhouette.  Then he played on the computer until lunch and Reading Rainbow time.

Lacey has a new sticker book for the 4 math operations, but it really irritated me to find that the stickers for addition and subtraction were cut wrong, and they were all sliced in half.  Stink.  At least the multiplication and division stickers were okay. She started her new Miquon green book yesterday, and also did a final draft for her handwriting from Reason for Writing, C. 

Nessa and Lyle worked at the table on copywork, Lyle covered his new copywork book, and Nessa did science reading, and...some other stuff. I'm not sure what!  I'll have to check her logbook tonight!

After lunch and a visit from Kristin, Hannah, and Mandy, Aislinn went to ballet and Liam went to sleep.  Then, I sat with Lacey and Lyle to finish some projects. Lacey covered her new copybook, too.  The kids used scrapbook papers and doodads to cover one of those themebooks, with the sewn-in pages, and then I used clear contact paper to cover the whole thing.  They really look nice!  Lacey then set to work copying in the first stanza of "The Island of Lost Socks."  Lyle copied the first 5 entries fromGeorge Washington's Rules of Civility---it's handy to belong to the Yahoo Copywork group! Lacey also did two pages from Line Designs 2, and colored one of them with gel pens, then went off somewhere to read Nature Friend for the afternoon.  Lyle finished his math lesson, added to the vocabulary in his Horses lapbook (Hands of a Child), and did a fanbook on animals in the Equidae family.  He spent the afternoon reading Exploring Earth, Hatchet, and a book of missionary adventures.

Meanwhile, I went to sleep!  As always.   And tonight is library night, so off I go now to a gourmet eggs, toast, and grapes dinner!   

Last week, I was getting along famously writing a new entry, which I considered pretty snappy, when of course I did a weird something (I think...I accidentally clicked on a web address in my favorites column???) and lost the whole thing.  AARRRGGGHHH.  I was so disheartened that I just couldn't go back and write it again, then managed to find reasons not to write all last week!

It's funny the lengths we go to, to avoid writing, even those of us who profess to love writing.  I remember panicking over every single paper I needed to write in college, in those sad, archaic days of the dot matrix printer.  I had a hulking old computer that only had a word processing program on it.  I think I gave it commands in DOS, to be honest.  To print, I had to take my napkin-sized floppy over to my mother's house.  There was a computer lab at school, but I didn't know how to use it, and the library was sort of a mystery on campus.  I think I only used it twice!  Oh brother.  And I was an English major, if you can believe that. 

Anyhow, before every paper could be written, there was one problem: the blank screen.  And I had no idea how an outline could help--- I just sort of wrote as I went, and hoped that the paper was organized in a way that made sense.  It took me til 8th grade to even figure out, vaguely, what a paragraph was.  I thought you just wrote and wrote, and every now and then you put a break in.  I know teachers tried to teach that stuff, but I probably was drawing or daydreaming during those discussions.  They were just so boring.

Granted...."organic organization" is sort of how we blog, isn't it?!?  I've certainly found my niche!

So, after struggling and hoping and feeling stupid, I became an English teacher, got ahold of the teacher's editions, and still couldn't figure out what they wanted you to do.  It wasn't until I quit teaching school, began homeschooling, and stumbled onto the Institute for Excellence in Writing that anything made sense.  But it does!  This program is a dream.  I continued teaching writing for large and small groups, and individual tutoring students, and discovered that it honestly reaches every student.  Every child can be shown first, what goes in the paper, and second, how to make it sound nice.  There is never, never a reason to sit in front of a blank sheet of paper.  I can't recommend it highly enough.

The problem seems to be that moms get trained, or buy the training program and then watch the DVDs at home, are very enthused, and then leave the program sitting on their shelves while they wonder what to do next.  I guess I can see that, but since I've taught it for so long--maybe 6 years now?--I have tons of lesson ideas for each of the units, I know where the kids stumble, I know where to get your next source material, and so forth. 

Soooooo, I guess I'm really going to have to get to work compiling all that stuff into a book.  I've finished the Charlotte Mason study for the Little House in the Big Woods, and I've finished the add-on games for the Evan-Moore Phonics Centers level A, so I'm all out of excuses!  Except that the Little House study really needs to be nicely formatted....:)

Oh boy, I'm back!  I don't know whether to laugh or to cry....our house STILL hasn't sold, but in this market, I suppose that's no surprise.  It has been up since April, and 5 realtors have come through.  I say "realtors" because, honestly, they haven't all brought clients with them.  It would be awful to be a realtor right now.

So, the weather in Oregon was perfect, our new church home was perfect, and my new friends were perfect.  You know, you sometimes want to say, Hey Lord!  I happen to have a really great plan for my life down here!  Don't you get it?!?  Of course, that's completely nuts.  HIS plan is the only way to go.  Remember the verse about how His ways are not our ways; in fact, they're above our ways?  Well, goodness, sometimes I forget. 

My MS was much better while in OR.  I'm attributing it largely to the cooler temperatures, but it didn't hurt that my MIL was so kind as to cook nearly all the dinners.  I only cooked twice in 8 weeks, took naps daily, and generally loafed about.  It was decadent.  To be honest, though, MS does respond very well to a person's ability to rest.  Now that I'm home, I have to really make a serious effort this year to figure out how to build more rest time into my day.  I think rest time can include reading to the kids, sitting with them during schooltime, planning meals and shopping lists, sewing, reading, writing....maybe more than most moms, I need to prioritize my day.  Besides my time with the Lord, Lyle is first.  I need to keep his home, teach his children, feed him well, and be some sort of fun in the evening!  I can't be much of anything if I speed around doing "stuff" during the day and not resting.  It may sound silly, but I have to nap.  Sometimes, of course, naps come without choice for me!  I have a tendency to drop off at lunchtime while Nessa makes sandwiches and the little guys watch Reading Rainbow.  Even worse?  Sometimes I fall asleep while sitting on the couch as the kids finish working at the table on their schoolwork after breakfast and chores.  Sigh.  I used to be kind of a high-powered person...you know, the sort who painted a room over the weekend, sewed an entire set for the baby's room in a single Saturday, and other annoying habits.  I was also way too busy locating places to show off my great spirituality, such as women's Bible studies, homeschool committees and co-ops, teaching classes, singing at church, etc. 

Funny enough, before my MS ever came about, I began having this nagging feeling that despite all the nice things I did for God, He didn't see them the way I saw them.  I spent a lot of time enecouraging my children to go read their own books, watch a show, or whatever, because I was too tired or busy.  I kept coming across articles about Christian motherhood, what the Bible had to say about a Mom's place in the home, and who God designed a woman to be.  Granted, I still have to tell them to go play a lot.  Tired is my way of life.  However, I think maybe I see things differently now.  Read to them first, then rest.  Tidy the kitchen, then get on the computer.  Ask for help from Nessa at dinnertime.  Let the girls make batches of cookies.  Teach first, sew later, LOL!!!  I see more how our whole day is one long teaching experience.  Everytime I remember what the kids mentioned they were interested in, then go and seek out books at the library, or coloring pages online, or whatever, I'm showing them that I think of them.  Every time I make a dinner Lyle loves, or remember to have the kids tidy the house before he comes home, I'm showing that I know his needs, and desire to make him happy.  These lessons are so important.  For my girls, my life is my only good opportunity to show them how to find fulfillment as a godly woman.  The very things society (everywhere, all the time, really loud) tells a woman are too binding are the things God designed us to do and to be.

I was listening to one of Michael Pearl's messages today from Corinthians, as Lyle and I went out for a breakfast at McDonald's....that fine Scottish establishment. I heard so many things that are right there in plain view, in God's Word, that I think are either glossed over (benefit of the doubt), ignored, or explained away (worst case scenario), even in church.  I heard more truth in twenty minutes than I have heard in years of attending services which covered that portion of scripture.  Just in the last year, we've been getting M.Pearl's sermons.  For me, it's such a relief to hear clearly spoken explanations of truth.  I'm so grateful for the No Greater Joy ministry---as a mom and as a Christian.  Maybe next time I'll try to tell what I feel about Debi Pearl's book.....but there's not enough room just today for it!  Plus, I'm tired.  I keep slumping farther and farther down into my bed, and my laptop is drooping off my lap.  Suffice to say, this book is a miracle for wives.  It's like having a mama, the kind we all need, speak it to you straight so that you can get past your dumb self and just start loving your man.  Even a command man!! LOL Just kidding, I have always loved mine, but now I think I understand the how and why.

Here's what I'm currently taking for my MS, and to stop my brain tumor from regrowing.

For MS:

Effexor--NOT a natural treatment, but this is the last prescription medication I still take.  I'd like to stop taking it when I find something natural.  It's an anti-depressant, in very low dosage for pain control

Omega 3

Evening Primrose Oil

Supermom multivitamin and greenfood supplement

Vitamin D3

Co-Q10

For the tumor:

MiBrain supplement

Excedrin Migraine as needed--again, not natural, but prescription migraine medications make me vomit and pass out for several hours.  Is there something natural I could take?

I tried Japanese Plum, called Mumefural,which is to promote energy, and to alkalinize the body.  It's quite expensive, and I recently read that lemon juice in your drinking water will do the same thing. 

Also good but expensive is Zyflamend, an herbal anti-inflammatory.  Anti-inflammatories are particularly of interest for MS.  Turmeric, rosemary, and oregano are major constituents of this preparation.

I'd like to try the Mannatech products; I believe one is called Ambrotose.  Everything I've read suggests these products are very high-quality and very promising at reversing cell damage of even the chronic illnesses.  However, they are direct-sold and fairly expensive, especially to start and for those who are ill, so it hasn't been possible yet. 

Well, I do believe the idea of a daily journal is the DAILY part!  I suppose sometimes life intervenes, despite the best of intentions.  It seems this has been an emotionally heavy week, but we still managed to do a good amount of school work.

Lacey finished the projects for the mini-lapbook on lions, and should be assembling the folder on Monday.  It was such a pleasure to do something we could finish quickly!  I also thought it was great that every activity had links for the research, since I couldn't get to the library this week. Too hot for driving---for me, anyway.  She also moved ahead several pages in her Miquon math, and I'm still convinced this is the best curriculum for her so far.  As of now, I'm sure I'll continue with it through this next year, and then maybe switch her over to Horizons, which Lyle enjoys so much.  I do need to add in a few drill sheets here and there, for basic facts.  I read of an idea on the lapbooking group this week about making a lapbook of basic math facts, formulas, etc.  This is soooo useful.  Its value would never end, actually, but could be useful for even high schoolers, in notebook form. 

I may have Nessa make one of these over the summer, and then continue to add to it through next year in her consumer math course.  Nessa worked a third day at the Willinghams, cleaning and painting, and we got fresh eggs as thanks!!!!  We love fresh eggs!  Lacey was particularly excited that they were brown.  Other than working this week, I think Nessa mostly just did Bible and history assignments.  She has begun God's Awesome Acts, and enjoys it.  We'll use it as an informal history course, to add to what she did this year.

Lyle and Nessa both worked on editing their research papers; we had writing class on Thursday, but it was only about fifteen minutes of writing, and two hours of playing!  It was a nice end-of-the-year day, with donuts!

Aislinn is mostly through the first Code book, so I think she'll speed along fairly well and be ready to start really trying to read in another month or so.  Liam, I noticed, recognized his name embroidered on his towel today!  We went to the library for books and movies, and danced after dinner today to The Lawrence Welk show!  I think it's really funny that the show can still be seen on PBS! We also watched the Faerytale Theater version of Cinderella.

Mostly, I've been working on the Little House book in bits and pieces, as I can.  I've finished most of the first chapter, and today designed about 25 notebooking pages.  They look really awesome!  I want to do them!  I'm going to try to upload some of these, and some of my IEW forms tomorrow to the new Homeschool FormShare group I joined this week.  What a great group!  I probably shouldn't upload everything, but it's fun to share. 

I don't think we've had this many friends over to play in....well, ever?  As the public and private schools close for the summer, everyone wants to come over, and we're leaving soon, so I don't want to turn them away.  Today Sean and Sarah are over for the afternoon and evening. 

I hope they will eat chili!  I feel proud of myself...when I had energy in the morning, I took advantage of it and made chili in the crockpot.  The recipe name is so funny: "It's Chili by George!"  Nessa loves that, and says it repeatedly.  Then it isn't so funny anymore, but what can you do?   Could be worse! 

The recipe comes from www.allrecipes.com, and has a 5 star rating, with 304 ratings.  That sounded like a winner, but we'll see!  Of course, I did NOT put green bell peppers in it.  Ick. 

Nessa worked all day at the Willinghams' house again, and they hope to move into their guest house today while the property is up for sale. 

Lacey worked on handwriting and we started the lions mini-lapbook we got for free from the www.inthehandsofachild.com.  I think we'll order more from them for a summer project up in Oregon.  Yesterday, Lacey and I were able to assemble her entire cats lapbook, using three turquoise file folders, then adding stickers into every available inch of open space!!!  She loves it, and sits reading it all the time.  I'm sooooo glad we did this; I feel like we have finally caught her. 

She finished reading Little House in the Big Woods in just a few days, and is now onto Little House on the Prairie.  I'll never be able to make study guides fast enough for her!  That's okay, she can breeze ahead and then we'll go back and do all the projects together! 

Lyle finished more books, but I can't remember which ones.  He's going to read The Story of Inventions until we leave for vacation for science, and has agreed to write a summary paragraph about each inventor as he finishes a section.  This afternoon, however, he managed to finish math just before Sean came over, and then I lost him to the world of StarWars computer games!! 

Aislinn is making cards for Hannah, Sarah, and for me, using stickers and stamps and other scrapbook supplies.  It's a mess, but she's very happy, and every bit of her hands is stained pink.  Hope it's not dye ink!

A bit more arguing than usual among the little ones, but overall a good deal was accomplished today. 

Lyle finished reading his Mummified Pigs book, and is mostly done with The Last Battle.  He worked steadily on school until time to go to Sean's, and Kristin's boys are visiting this evening, so I'll call it done for the day.  It's hard to keep up any kind of schedule when we're leaving so soon, and then all the kids around us are on summer break. 

Nessa spent the day helping the Willinghams pack and paint. 

Liam wanted to do so much work in one of his little workbooks that he just about finished it!  There are only two pages left. Aislinn, on the other hand, wanted to wander around and pout, instead of coloring her animal habitats page.  The only things she really did with any enthusiasm today were two pages in Get Ready for the Code, but that's good enough.  She is napping long and hard today---I think the allergy problem from yesterday is still with her? 

Lacey is almost finished with her lapbook project on Cats.  It has been a lot of fun to do the project, since everything is so neatly put together for you with the Live and Learn product.  I've just been printing out the booklets as we go.  Since we are using the packet that's a generic study on any animal, we've had to customize the graphics as we go. 

I haven't done anything fancy, just covered over the existing graphic with photos cut from magazines, or cat stickers, images from the internet, or color copies we made from the books we read.  The results are really fantastic!  We've got two booklets to go, and then we'll assemble the folders to take with us to show Grandma.  Lacey said we have to keep it forever!

Other than the booklets, the only other school we did was to finish the last multiplication game folder, for the 12's times table.  It feels good to finish projects! 

Today was one of those wonderful migraine days.  It started yesterday, and I ended up taking so much migraine medication (Excedrin) that I was up all night.  Which makes it worse! 

Kristin took Aislinn to play with Hannah---this was her first day to go play with a friend by herself!  All went well until just after lunch, when Aislinn had an allergy attack, her eye swelled shut, and she started to cry.  Happily it's a 5 minute drive home!  I spent the day in bed, with pain meds.  I was in and out, but Nessa and Lyle managed well.  I'm so glad this doesn't happen too often...at least not weekly, anyway! 

Liam came in to do a coloring page about sea lions, then Lacey came in to do math and a science comparison page on lions and Bengal tigers.  She did handwriting on her own---she LOVES her new Reason for Writing book.  She spent the afternoon practicing drawing cats and reading Little House in the Big Woods. 

Lyle and Nessa listened to Diana Waring and to Michael Pearl, then Nessa finished watching Red Fury.  Together, they typed up, edited, and printed their paragraphs on the history of papermaking.  Lyle read in Mummified Pigs, The Hobbit, Smoky the Cowhorse, and The Last Battle.  Nessa mostly managed the house, did vacuuming and laundry, and made lunches. 

Tomorrow Lyle is going to play in the afternoon, and Nessa is going to help the Willinghams pack for their move.   It should be fairly quiet, so I hope to finish up most of the lapbooks in Lacey's cat report...well, with Lacey's help, of course!  Aislinn will finish her animal habitat page tomorrow for her notebook, and add in the math page she did today.  Learning Page is a huge help when I'm down and need something easy, as is Enchanted Learning! 

I finished the opening chapter of my game book, and worked with Lyle tonight on formatting the templates I needed scanned in.  I still have to figure out how to put everything in PDF format, then load it all onto CDs.  I still like my CD cover design, though. 

I'm glad Kristin will be working with me on the Little House Charlotte Mason guides.  I think I need the help!

Woops.  Let's try this again. 

Note:  Don't blog in bed with the 3 year old!  He's very jiggly.  I'm not sure what happened to the lovely, long post I was writing; it is now currently in cyber-nowhere!

I've been thinking of starting a blog for a long time, but it seemed kind of scary---maybe like rocket science or calculus.  But if over 6000 other people are here, I figured it must be a doable thing!  Plus, I gotta write.  It's just who I am!

I'm hoping to figure out how to post in different categories.  One will be my school journal, but I'd like to have another place to talk about natural pet care, herbal remedies for families, dollmaking, copywork, favorite verses, study guides I'm writing....and so on!  But first, I have to find my way around this "town!"

I'm glad to meet you!  I'm a homeschooling mom of 5: Monessa, 15; Lyle II, 11; Lacey, 8; Aislinn, 4; and Liam, 3.  I've been married to Lyle for 13 years; we met at college in an Early American Lit class.  He was impressed that I was putting myself through school, with a baby!  We were raised nominally Christian, but finally understood what a commitment to Jesus meant during the first year after we were married.  I was a classroom English teacher before coming home to my very own best bunch of students ever, so I've had a lot to learn and un-learn. 

At first, I just wanted to have someone hand me a teacher's manual and a set of workbooks....and don't forget the scope and sequence!  Lyle and I were very concerned that our kids "keep up" with what the public schools were doing.  After all, real teachers have all the secrets, right?  I've learned more educational theory while homeschooling than I did while earning my teaching certificate, and I've definitely enjoyed the freedom to choose methods that suit my family and beliefs.  Nothing beats being able to teach to suit each individual child!  Nothing beats asking God to show you a path for each dear heart!

Nowadays, we're far removed from our original ideas of school.  We enjoy Charlotte Mason's methods, notebooking, reading great books, lapbooks, projects, and just spending time together as a family.  We play outside a lot, weather permitting...as of yesterday, the 100degree-plus weather has begun, so we're just as stuck as on a snow day elsewhere. 

I read constantly, and spend most of my free time finding new sites and projects and things for our lessons.  Lyle and I especially love: Charlotte Mason, Cindy Rushton (my new mommy friend!!), Michael and Debi Pearl, Ruth Beechick, and Karen Andreola.  I have several books I just re-read every year, such as Ruth Beechick's 3R's set, her older children book, and Karen Andreola's Charlotte Mason Companion. 

When I'm not teaching, I'm usually.....sleeping.  No kidding.  Actually, I have MS, so another spot on this blog will be for talking about homeschooling with disabilities.  It can be done!  God is so awesome that way!  I was diagnosed with MS and a brain tumor about 3 years ago, the day before my birthday.  When Liam was just over a year, I had the tumor removed, but there are residual problems from the surgery---mostly weakness and migraines.  I have learned so much about the value of every minute with my family!  I've learned how to be flexible in my hopes for what we can accomplish in a given day.  Some days we can do more, and some days less, but many lessons happen every day, even without planning.  My children are learning compassion, and the hard work it takes to run a household!  I have always said a mom should be home, and now....I don't really have any other choice!  I love being where God has placed me.  Today, that's my bed, but tomorrow I may be able to be up and about more.  Lyle has given me a laptop computer so that I can work and be comfortable wherever I need to.  Can you believe that kind of loving luxury?  :)

Actually, I do have other hobbies.  I do a lot of sewing, when I can get up and down, and a lot of handsewing when I can't.  I make small historical costume dolls, and handsew all their clothing.  I finally got my first piece of real silk to sew a tiny ball gown!  What a joy!!!  I even make the cutest corsets you've ever seen.  They're hidden under the gowns, but sometimes I wish I could keep them out for people to see.  I think they're my favorite parts of the costume!  I love history, so this is how it plays out for me.

I also have begun writing again.  Before the tumor was removed, I was less and less able to speak or write anymore.  I would stand in a room and know what I wanted to tell the kids....but couldn't get the words out.  It was like they got stuck between my brain and my mouth.  I didn't know about the tumor, so I just thought it was a natural consequence of having too many kids!!!  LOL!!!  Now, with joy, I have found that the words have returned.  I used to write for the glory of myself.  I wrote lots of poetry, and worked for campus literary magazines.  I was really something.  I think God allowed me a break from the words so that I could learn of Him.  And now the words are His!  He gave them back to me, so they are all for HIS glory, not mine!  I write to encourage fellow homeschoolers, to tell of His goodness and mercy, and to share my fun school ideas.  And more on that, later!

So hello and good morning!  Praise the Lord for this brand new day!