Yesterday started off on a bad note. Nathan often decides that he's going to rebel against school when daddy's home. Well, daddy was home yesterday so getting through his morning assignments was like pulling teeth. I can't quite figure out why having daddy home is such a hinderance. He is a bit more lax when it comes to discipline, but we stick together when it comes to punishment. Today I will bribe him a bit with Karate practice if he finishes his work on time.

The rest of the day went really well. We are almost done learning about birds. Today is our last day covering the topic and then it'll be on to reptiles. Nathan did a few worksheets on birds, their life cycle, and the different uses of beaks and feet. Since Nate's also in a science class at our co-op, we did some work for that too. They are studying the human body for this semester. Nathan has to learn 17 bones of the body, so we took a dry erase marker and wrote the bones on his body. It was fun to write all over him and I think he liked it too, although maybe a bit embarrassed when his dad saw him. I then quizzed him throughout the day on the bones.

We started two new books for history. I'm reading Johnny Tremain, and Nathan's reading The Skippack School. We decided to stop reading The Witch of Blackbird Pond halfway through the book because it was a bit over Nathan's head and he wasn't liking it at all. The writing of Johnny Tremain seems a little difficult for him, but I think having a younger male as a lead character may help him enjoy the book. I haven't read The Skippack School but after flipping through a few pages, the writing may be one of the more difficult for Nathan as a reader. He picked it up to read last night before heading to bed, so I haven't had a chance to ask him about it yet.

We then started a documentary on Benjamin Franklin. It's a total of 3.5 hours so we'll be watching it all week. It may be a bit over his head in some areas, but we are also working on some of the cutting and mindless work needed to start his Ben Franklin lapbook while watching the movie. I don't care if he understands all of it because we have about 4 books on Ben Franklin that we are also reading. Actually, Nathan has already read 2 of the books on his own. I think allowing him the opportunity to choose the lapbooks and pick out books from the library helps immensely with his willingness to do the work.

Our Hands and Hearts history kits showed up yesterday. We ordered Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece and Rome to use next year during our study from Creation to Christ. I'll also be ordering Ancient Far East. We also ordered the Early American History kit for this year. These look like the best kits ever! Everyone I know who has used them raves about them. This is what we get to do from our Early American History kit:

~Dip candles

~Make and study from a hornbook

~Craft an apple pomander

~Make and play the Bowl Game

~Prepare and drink black brick tea

~Create a talking feather

~Stitch a lavender sachet

~String a bone cross necklace

~Decorate and play a bamboo flute

~Learn about the importance of beads in early American history

~Create a wonderful keepsake notebook

~Learn timeless language lessons

~Study the geography of early America

~Hide God's Word in his heart

These kits are found at www.handsandhearts.com. If you want to add more hands on activities, you can't beat these kits.

So I finally feel that we are back on track with school. Not that we weren't doing the work. We just weren't enjoying it very much. Finding a balance between Nathan's hands-on learning style and my teaching style has been difficult for us, as I'm sure other parents can attest to. Everything's starting to come together now. Of course once we find a balance, everything's sure to change once again and we'll be searching for our new comfort zone. Well...I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

We finally have a name for our homeschool. Yeah! I couldn't come up with anything and so I went to my son. We wanted something that was Christian based, of course. He came up with Cross Kids Academy, but we wanted something that would last into the high school years. I don't think many high schoolers like to admit that they are still kids. Then I found a website for homeschool Christian karate videos. The company is called Cross Training Karate. So we are now Cross Training Academy. Yeah, we kinda stole the name a bit, but since Nate's going to be using the videos...

I think we are out of our winter slump for now. Right now we are studying Early American History. Nathan just finished reading The Courage of Sarah Noble and has moved on to The Matchlock Gun. He seems to enjoy his reading and has picked up Charlotte's Web at bedtime. I told him that if he reads the entire book, I'll take him to go see the movie. Hopefully he can finish it in time before the movie leaves theaters.

For science, we are studying birds. Nathan seems to enjoy his science books quite a bit, especially The Mysteries and Marvels of Nature. It has some great pictures in it. I also bought a science book with a bunch of reproducibles to add to our learning. On Wednesday, we dissected an owl pellet. For anyone who doesn't know, that is the remains of an owl's meal. He (the owl) eats a rodent or bird whole and what his body can't digest...well...comes back up in a compact pellet. We found out that we definitely have some sort of rodent. Probably a mouse or small rat.

Math and Language Arts are moving along at a good pace. We are in our 3rd lesson of Gamma. I purchased some multiplication flashcards and extra practice book to help Nathan learn his multiplication tables. He's now writing complete words in cursive. We have been taking this slowly since he IS a boy and handwriting is not his best subject. He's doing well though.

We decided to add lapbooks to our curriculum this year. I don't have the creativity or time to make my own lapbooks, so we purchased some from Hands of a Child. They are complete books with the information and reproducibles.  Nathan chose "Predators of the Deep" and "Benjamin Franklin" as his first lapbooks.

I haven't quite figured out what to do with Katie during school. She is outgrowing her naps (unfortunately) and wants so desperately to be in the room with us. I'm going to try using the Leapfrog videos and her Leap Pad books to keep her busy. Maybe some puzzles and toys that she can only play with during school time. Any other advice?

Today we set up our table and chairs in my bedroom to use for school. I don't like doing school at our kitchen table because I like to keep the downstairs neat and orderly. My bedroom is quite large, so we set up a good size folding table and three chairs in my room and laid out our books that we use on a regular basis along with our pencils and pens. This is also the room that holds our two bookcases, magazine files, and my seven drawer storage container for those miscellaneous items.

Katie has been wanting to do "classes" with us for a while, so I decided to allow her to skip the nap and remain with us during school. Unfortunately, this didn't work at all. Katie was just being a normal almost 3 year old. She was cutting, coloring, looking at books, drawing Charlotte from Charlotte's Web, and lacing her shapes. She was a bit distracting, no doubt about that. Nathan just couldn't handle the distraction. He kept goofing off and they both received spankings for not obeying. I was frustrated to the max. I finally dragged her into her room kicking and screaming. She fell asleep right away. Nathan was then able to calm down enough to do school with me. Live and learn, I suppose. I named my blog Living and Learning to represent that they can be done simultaneous, but sometimes we learn hard lessons.

From now on, I will school Katie first while Nathan works on chores or his own assignments IN ANOTHER ROOM! Then I will put her down for her nap while Nathan and I school together. Hopefully by the time she is old enough to school full time, they will both exhibit enough self control to school in the same room. Ugh.

Yes, we started the dreaded potty training yesterday. I was planning on waiting until Katie's 3rd birthday to start. Since we are on break from schooling for a week, I decided to give it a try. I wasn't expecting much, since she has never shown any interest at all! She did get very angry if you called her a baby and told her that big girls wear panties. Yesterday morning, Katie woke up with a dry diaper. I asked her if she wanted to go pee-pee on the potty. She said yes and went right away. She wore panties the rest of the day with only one accident. She wore a diaper during nap, but woke up dry. I just purchased about 8 more pair of panties for her so we don't run out. Two of them are waterproof for when we are out and about. I don't know how well they work but I'll give them a try. I also bought another potty seat to fit our toilet downstairs. She can use the potty without the extra seat, but I think it's a bit more comfortable than having to balance to prevent from falling in!

I just wanted to wish all of my fellow homeschoolers a blessed 2007. These are my resolutions for the year~

Read through my 365 day Bible.

Create and use my prayer journal.

Lose weight. UGH!

Get pregnant. Yes, this one is not up to me. I guess I will add this to my prayer journal regularly. Hopefully losing weight will help.

Get organized. I plan on working on organization for 30 minutes a day during the week. Right now my house looks like someone ransacked it. It's REALLY bad right now. Christmas gifts, New Years decorations, and unoccupied children (and husband) are destroying my house!

We are now almost done with our first week without school. My kids are at their grandparents' house, so I have thoroughly enjoyed my time to rest, organize, and did I say rest? I've watched way too much television and have read for hours on end. I love vacation!

The kids are coming home on Saturday, so back to reality. Of course, we will still have another week from schooling, but there will be a lot more cleaning and organizing going on with the kids home. Hopefully I can keep the kids busy with their new toys and games so I can work.

I am missing the schedule that school brings. I am always ready to begin schooling after taking a break. I much prefer many short breaks to one large break. That is why we choose to homeschool during the summer.

I have had some extra time to talk to family and friends that do not homeschool. They are all stressing over their children being home for the Christmas break and are ready to send them back to regain peace in their lives. I have a hard time relating. I definitely love it when my parents have my children for a week. I don't send them both away on a regular basis, so it's a big treat. But I don't see my children as a disruption to my peaceful life. I see them as one of the main components of my life. I can understand where my friends are coming from though. I once was a public school parent. I remember what it was like for my son to be home all of a sudden for long periods and not knowing how to handle it. My son didn't know how to just "be" at home. He was so used to people telling him what to do every second of the day. Sit here. Wait in line here. Raise your hand. Work on math now. Stop and read a book. He didn't have time to discover his creativity and imagination. Now Nathan is fully capable of entertaining himself. Even though we often have to take screen time away for overuse, he is still so much better. When we took him out of 2nd grade, he needed me to entertain constantly. He didn't know how to get along with his sister. Now it is much more peaceful.

So as much as I'm enjoying my time or respite, I'll be ready to get back on the bandwagon for the 2nd semester. Can you believe this school year is half over??

Nathan wrote a special book for everyone on Christmas morning. He also made a large banner with different verses and such. I thought I'd publish them here for all to read.

The Story of Jesus

Mary brought forth her first born baby. Mary called him Jesus! Jesus grew up to be tall. His Father loved Him very much.

Jesus was really perfect. He pleased the Lord. He did not brag. He just walked by.

He is the son of the Creator. Jesus died on the cross. Someday He will come back to Earth.

Jesus followed all of the commandments! God was very proud. Jesus healed many people.

The End

Next was a banner that he hung in the dining room for all to read. He made it by taping several sheets of paper together. Each page had a picture, verse, etc. on it.

~Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight.

~Happy Holidays! (with a beautiful Christmas scene)

~(A picture of Jesus in the manger.)

~Happy Christmas day Grandma, Grandpa, Katie, Mom, and Dad and Happy Birthday Jesus!

~Isaiah 49:2-3 He made my words like a sharp sword. He hid me in the palm of his hand. He made me into a sharpened arrow. He took good care of me and kept me safe. He said to me, "You are my true servant Israel. I will show my glory through you."

~Psalm 135:1  Praise the Lord.  Praise the name of the Lord.  You who serve the Lord, praise him.

~Psalm 133:1 How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in peace!

~Psalm 134:3 May the Lord bless you from Zion. He is the Maker of heaven and earth.

~Isaiah 40:28 Don't you know who made everything? Haven't you heard about him?  The Lord is the God who lives forever.  He created everything on earth. He won't become worn out or get tired. No one will ever know how great his understanding is.

~(A picture of the world and space.)

~God gave me a house. (picture of our house)

~God gave me a bed. (picture of his bed)

All in all, it was a great Christmas. We enjoyed our time with our family and are ready for some well deserved rest!

With HSB being so terribly slow and my life so terribly frantic, I haven't had a chance to update my blog recently. Well, I'm not that frantic but just plain busy with Christmas plans, school, work, and all the rest of life.

Ken had an interview for an underwriter position at his current place of employment yesterday. It wouldn't mean more money right away. In fact, we may end up making less for about 3-6 months because they work less hours. After that time frame, the pay goes up and it can be substantial. We are praying that if this is what the Lord wills for us, he will get the position.

Nathan and Katie are both doing fine. Nate has finished his Beta math book and I just ordered Gamma. He's been practicing his multiplication tables and is doing well for just starting. He is definitely math minded like his momma.  We just finished school for the rest of the year and will restart the second week of January. That gives me a few weeks to prepare my lessons. We're kinda all over the place with Sonlight, so I'm going to try to get us all on one week again. Nathan also decided that he wants to be graded to help stay accountable. I purchased his report card for this next semester yesterday. I never thought a kid would be excited about a report card, but the concrete numbers help motivate him. He also began a spelling program online at www.spellingtime.com. He's really enjoying it and since spelling is not a difficult subject for him, I have no problem letting him go at it alone. His spelling test results are emailed to me and there's some games on the site that he gets to play after completing his assignments. Did I mention it's FREE? The owner of the site was very helpful too when I had a problem. We have found some other educational sites where he can play games and take quizzes. He loves it even when he's learning since he doesn't get much video game time. We don't have any of the video game systems except a gameboy which is only allowed about once a week.

Katie's been busy getting into trouble. She is a two year old terror on the loose. Her favorite activities are cleaning the carpet with Windex, drinking toilet water from her tea cups, and saying "but Mom..." to me after every request. She still has no interest in potty training. In fact, she's quite content with sitting in a dirty diaper for hours if I don't notice the smell right away. When she's not getting into everything and being a complete brat, she's lots of fun and quite adorable. She recognizes about half of her letters and is doing better with shapes and colors. We are using and enjoying the Brighter Vision materials that come to our house once a month. I also purchased Get ready, Get set, and Go for the Code for her to use. We won't start until the summer or later if necessary. Oh yeah, I finally ordered the Leapfrog Letter Factory and Leapfrog Math DVD. I've heard such good things about these DVD's. I was going to make it a Christmas present for Katie, but everywhere I went, they were sold out. Finally I ordered them online along with Schoolhouse Rock. Yeah, the one we all grew up on is out on DVD with the 46 original songs and lots of extras for less than 15 dollars. I was so excited listening to clips of songs with Nathan that we had to order it.

The Lord has blessed us recently with some extra money which has been put to good use. We were able to have gifts for the kiddos, pay down some bills, and I was able to buy some of next year's curriculum. I know that seems way too early to buy, but I have to do it slowly so since we had the money that is what we decided to do.

So everything here is going well. It's odd to have almost 60 degree weather the week of Christmas. We've had one bad snow so far this winter and the rest of the weather has been pretty mild. This week was quite rainy, so I was thankful that the temps were all above freezing so that we didn't have to deal with the snow and ice. Although I wouldn't mind a white Christmas, I really would prefer the weather being nice for my job.

I pray that everyone has a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Last Friday, I told Nathan that there was no Santa Claus. Now, of course I told him in a way that was loving, and I tried to respect his emotions. We read through the story of St. Nicholas. I explained how legends are created as stories are passed down from generation to generation. He seemed to understand what I was saying, but when I told him that Santa was a created character based on St. Nick, he just closed down. He said that he believes that Santa is real. I was ready to drop it right then, but I could tell that he was frustrated and confused. I couldn't leave him in that state of mind. I explained that the gifts given in the name of Santa were really from mom and dad. We were giving anonymously just as Saint Nicholas did in the 3rd century. This is when Nathan became excited. He said, "So you and dad bought me my gameboy last year? And the basketball hoop in my room?" He kept going on and on about all of the many gifts we've given over the years. He said, "Wow, those things are EXPENSIVE! Thanks!" He realized that the parents who love him are just as great as Santa. I then added that this year he gets to be Santa Claus to some needy children too. We're going to buying books for a local homeless shelter, and Nathan is going to buy a present to take to the local firehouse that collects gifts for needy children. He knows that this will be giving anonymously like Saint Nicholas did. He's excited to help other kids, but I think he's a bit more excited about going to the firehouse.

I'm a huge Christmas fanatic. I just love celebrating the birth of our Saviour and building memories with my family. Yesterday we put up our tree. Nathan helped pull apart the branches (artificial, of course) and he put the entire tree together. He also helped put the lights on. I then added the garland and Ken put the angel on. We played Christmas music while decorating and had a great time. I served Christmas cookies and punch to all those who helped. Of course, everyone helped so we had a nice treat afterward. This morning, I added the glass bulbs and Nathan put most of the special ornaments on the tree.

My parents came to visit today. Mom and I picked up The Adventure of Christmas by Lisa Welchel. I haven't had a chance to check it out too much, but it gives reading for each day of Advent and different activity ideas. Nathan left to spend the week with my parents, so we won't be able to begin until he gets home. We also bought an Advent calendar with chocolate inside. The kids will take turns each day getting a piece of candy. They also had the Stephen Curtis Chapman Christmas CD on sale for $5, so I picked that up too.

Now that Nathan is gone, I'm going to spend the week deep cleaning my house. Tonight will be spent making 900 copies of my Christmas card to go out to my newspaper customers. Katie is spending the night with her Aunt June and cousins and Ken is going to work with me tonight. He's not very excited about it, but is willing to help me since I wouldn't finish on time otherwise, and our Christmas tips pay for all of our Christmas gifts and help us to catch up on bills.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and meaningful Christmas season.

Right now as the holidays are upon us, we will be switching directions for a while. We are trying to finish up on our assignments that we are slightly behind on this week. This includes some science experiments and one of our read alouds. Although we kept up on school quite a bit while I was sick, I couldn't read aloud well when I was coughing up a lung and didn't want to get out of bed to do experiments with plants when I was so ill.

Next week, Nathan is heading to my parent's house for the week. He will be working on language arts, science, and will be doing read alouds with his grandparents on the Sioux Indians. Since we're ahead in math, he'll have the week off.

When Nathan comes back home, we will begin our Christmas unit. We will be reading from a book of short stories on Christmas. This is a Christian book and the stories are all very heartwarming. Just something to enjoy together and get us in the correct frame of mind during this busy season. We will also be making ornaments and decorating the house. Most of the ornaments on the tree will be homemade this year. We are also studying Christmas around the world. We have two small books that teach a bit about how Christmas is celebrated in up to 30 different countries. One is a coloring book too. We will be learning about St. Nicholas and the historical significance of this man. We will learn about how Santa came to be and concentrate on the real meaning of Christmas.

Nathan is also working at my job helping me and others bag their papers and stuff their inserts. He's earning money to help his grandparents buy a new computer. This is something that he thought up on his own. He decided that he wanted to help them however he could. I talked to some people at my job who offered him some work to help earn money. This is a busy time at my job because of the number of ads that go out in the paper. His help will be appreciated.

So when the new year begins, we'll be getting back on track. We'll begin a new math book (Gamma) and start some new books. Nathan and I have also decided to keep grades for him. We both think it will be beneficial in keeping him accountable for his work.

So right now I'm still trying to get better. I'm feeling about 95% right now, so I'm resting when I can and trying to catch up on housework when I can. I'll try to blog on our weekend at the zoo and our Thanksgiving later.

This is a fairly new concept for me. I never liked to read while growing up. I believe it was due to a lack of interesting books tossed my way added to my ADD tendencies. Now as an adult, I still struggle with reading. I'm a good reader, but I'm not a GREAT reader. I consider myself a slow reader. I'm quite envious of people who can read through a novel in one day. I just can't. It takes me a good week to read a book. This is not just due to time constraints. It's more due to attention constraints.

Anyway, I desperately want my children to enjoy reading for fun. I try to set a good example by reading regularly. We also read a book together for school. Right now, it's The Sign of the Beaver. My son is assigned a book to read for school too. He is currently reading Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims. I read all of the books that I assign him to read. That way, we can discuss them in detail. I also like it because I get to enjoy some books that I missed out on as a child.

Yesterday was not the best school day. Nathan worked on math, language arts, and finished his Bible and reading assignment. We didn't do anything together during school time due to my being very sick. I felt bad for not doing more together so when I felt a little better, I asked Nathan if he wanted to snuggle in bed with me while I read. I read one chapter from The Sign of the Beaver. Then Nathan asked to read a chapter. This book is a 5th grade book, but he had no problems at all with it. I think I helped with about 2 words. I could tell that he was tired of reading after one chapter. I asked him if he wanted me to continue. He said no. He wanted to go finish Squanto. He ran off and I let him finish his book last night. He stayed up a bit late, but he finished his book. He had the rest of the week to do it, but I knew he felt proud of himself for finishing early. I felt proud as I watched him enjoy a book for fun. I'm looking forward to our conversation today as we discuss the book. We also plan on finishing The Sign of the Beaver today.

I haven't blogged lately because life around here is just plain boring. I've come down with something once again. Sore throat, body aches, cough, congestion, nausea. So far, Nathan has had a mild case of whatever it is that I have. Katie hasn't caught it yet, but she just doesn't understand why she can't kiss me on the lips.

School has been going pretty well. We are not going as fast as the Sonlight Instructor Guide would have us go. We're not too far behind though. We're reading Sign of the Beaver as our read aloud, and it's a pretty good book so far. Nathan is reading Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims and seems to be enjoying it. One of our science books that was on backorder just came in as well. The pictures are so great in this book, Nathan flipped through the whole thing but promised not to read it since he didn't want to spoil it for us later. We are also growing our radishes right now for science as well. They are turning out nice, but we aren't doing all of the experiments suggested. It's very time demanding and since it's for grades 3-8, I'm sure Nathan is getting enough for 3rd grade.

Katie's doing well too. We're not doing much for preschool yet. I bought a preschool kit through Berry Best Preschool. I'm not crazy about it. It's supposed to be a month's worth of activities and crafts. It will probably take us 6 months to do it since we only do about one a week instead of one a day. She's so young though. She definitely doesn't need any formal work yet. We still read almost daily and she's getting pretty good at drawing and writing lines and stuff like that. Her fine motor skills are either advanced, or I'm just used to the natural delay of boys in the fine motor skills department. If my scanner was working, I'd show you the picture of a lion that she drew the other day. It actually looks like a lion. Not bad for a 2 year old.

Everything has been pretty much the same here with Ken and I. Ken's been going to the gym a lot lately. He takes the kids with him about 2 times a week, which Katie especially enjoys. Nathan's getting a little too big for it, but they have some decent video games that he likes to play. Everything with Ken's job is pretty much status quo. Although we would always like for him to be able to move into a higher paying position, he does like where he's at. He's thinking of going back to school either in the summer or next fall to get a business degree.

Besides my being sick, I'm doing well. I'm definitely looking forward to the holidays. Thanksgiving is being held at my in-laws' house. My MIL is a great cook and they live rather close, so I'm pretty happy about it. Christmas eve will be at my in-laws' as well and Christmas at my house with my parents. I just purchased my first two gifts for the kids. I'm also getting my Christmas unit ready for the month of December. So far, I have two books for Christmas around the world. One is actually a coloring book. I have a book of great Christmas stories from the Christian book store. A few other Christian Christmas books. We are waiting for our advent book to arrive. We also have some Christmas music that we are going to learn and sing on Christmas. The only things I have left to prepare are the ornaments that we will make and I'm having a hard time finding a book about St. Nicholas. Maybe I'll just find the story of St. Nick online.

My quick update turned out to be longer than expected. I need to go rest my weary body.

Here's a bunch of pictures I've taken over the past month or so. Many of them are the kids in their costumes. We have quite a few from Boo at the Zoo. Also, lots of Katie being a two year old. They are so cute at that age and do the silliest things.

My little bruiser with her fat lip.                     

Simba and Nala.

Grandpa with the kiddos. Notice                   

the lion in the background.

Nathan and the gigantic pumpkin.

The kids in the dolphin area. Nathan at 4.5 feet and Katie just a bit over 3 feet tall.

The kids and me marching in the costume parade.                                                    

Another picture of the kids at Boo at the Zoo.

Nathan climbing the rocks outside of               My little joeys!

the fragile desert.

Katie was coloring, but decided to build          Katie on the potty. This only lasted

with the crayons instead.                                           about an hour!

Nathan as a jester for our Medieval           This is what my beautiful Katie looks like

unit study. Katie just hanging out with         when she first wakes up.

him.

The children once again destroying the  house while playing in my couch.     

My ballerina dressed up in her tinkerbell costume.

I found the baby doll's pack 'n play with the blankets over it. When I pulled them back, this is what I found.

We had sooo much fun yesterday at Boo At The Zoo! The kids dressed up in the Halloween costumes and we met Grandpa there. First, we went to the Fragile Desert, which was one of our favorites for the day. Then we saw the lion who walked right toward us and was staring us down. He let out a great roar and Katie quickly roared back in her lioness costume. What a beautiful creature of the Lord! We saw the bears, other big cats, and then off to the Fragile Rainforest. The python was of course another big hit. We also saw the sea lions, walruses, seals, and dolphins.

Next was lunch time. After the kids ate, Grandpa took them to play on the playground and then they went to watch the magician. Next, we all went to the beginning of the parade. The kids and I walked in the parade but halfway through, Nathan saw the children's museum and asked if we could ditch the parade to go play. We hung out at the children's play zoo for a while where Nathan checked out the Nature Swap and Katie went missing. Thankfully we quickly recovered the roaming lion.

Next, we stopped for ice cream sandwiches and popcorn. Just what we needed in the 48 degree weather! Next off to the Living Coast to see the penguins, vampire bats, fish, sharks, and the great wave which frightened Katie out of her wits! At this point, Nathan was getting a little wild and I had to punish him. Finally, he calmed down and we saw Ibex mountain and Baboon mountain.

We were starting to slow down a bit. Katie was getting tired and we were a bit frustrated with Nathan's earlier behavior. Then we went to the Pachyderm house which turned out to be another hit. We saw quite a few hippos and rhinos. The zookeepers were bringing them inside to clean the outside area. I think we spent 30 minutes just looking at the 8 or so animals in this house. The big hit was the 51 year old Nile Hippo, although he smelled horrible.  While we were there, a lady asked to take Nathan's picture with her one year old son. This boy was dressed up like Jack Jack, the Incredibles baby boy. Nathan was Dash, the older son from the Incredibles. They looked so cute together! I took a picture too.

After that, we saw the kangaroos, wild boars, and emus. Then the boys went to the Austrailia house while Katie and I bought a ticket to ride the carousel. The boys made it back in time for Nathan to ride also. The kids were reenergized, but Grandpa and I were ready to leave. We took the kids to McDonalds to eat and rid themselves of any remaining energy. Then we headed home. It was a wonderful day. I'm looking forward to going back in Novemeber for their tree trimming. Different organizations can sign up to trim a tree for their "Holiday Magic." I found an organization to join called Homeschoolers for Jesus. Let's pray that the weather is not too nasty for this activity.

Seriously, it has overtaken my home. I don't know when it happened, but I'm frightened. Right now I'm trying to make a plan to capture it and quickly destroy it, but I think it knows my own thoughts and is mocking me. The clutter monster has a few accomplices. The dust bunnies are planning an attack on all flat surfaces. Soap scum and hair balls have turned my once beautiful bathrooms into war zones. Dirty dishes overflowing in the sink, paper piles piling up, toys placed like land mines throughout the entire house, and of course the ever growing laundry monster is quite frightening.

So what's a working, homeschooling, exhausted mom to do? My gut reaction is to call Clean Sweep to have them make an emergency visit to my home. After realizing that I am being irrational, I decide to call a cleaning company. One woman cannot possibly handle this mess. Okay, okay, I am poor! Not an option. Now what? First things first...join Flylady! Isn't that what every respectable American woman does? Of course, I'd much prefer if Flylady would just make a visit to my home and wave her magic wand.

So here's the plan. I MUST make room for my car in the garage before snow hits. I MUST organize my bedroom so that I have a larger path from the doorway to my bed. I MUST rid the house of unused, broken, and outgrown toys before Christmas. I must kill all forms of dirt, dust, and filth in an orderly manner. I MUST train my children how to attack these nasty monsters.

Please pray for me. I can't let the monsters take over any longer. I must make my home a sanctuary for myself and my family.

Okay, remind me that I said that when I have a bad week. We just had a wonderful week this week. We kept up on most of our work on top of our added activities. The only project that we didn't get to was the gourd rattles. I bought the gourds, but I admit that they intimidate me. We plan on doing those next week. I'm also going to make some corn husk dolls for Katie. If Nathan wants one, I'll make him a boy doll.

We finished two of our books for Sonlight. The first was Walk the World's Rim. A lot of other Sonlighters said that they cried at the end of this book. I got to the sad part of the book and was proud that I didn't cry. Then it hit me when I had two pages left. Nathan thought I was nutty. We also finished Pedro's Journal. It was a good and easy read, but not my favorite.

Right now we are making our Indian feast. We definitely made too much food. This is our menu for the night:

Beans~navy, great northern, and pinto with bacon and veggies

Hominy casserole

Corn on the cob

Baked butternut squash

Indian candy corn for dessert!

Hopefully it all turns out well. It sure does smell good.

We are also working hard on our Tops experiments that are a part of our science curriculum with Sonlight. We are doing experiments with radish seeds. Right now, we have four different experiments going, so it is taking up plenty of counter space. I'm just so happy that the seeds are sprouting. A lot of people have complained that their seeds don't sprout, but all of mine have been just fine.

Tomorrow we are going to Boo at the Zoo! Grandpa is going to meet us there. I'm so happy that we have a membership +1. We always get one person in free with us. The only thing we will be paying for is our drinks and the motor safari. We'll be bringing a lunch with us, so it will be a cheap and super fun day. They have a costume parade, special zoo chats with different creepy animals, scarecrow crafts and games, professional pumpkin carvers, and goodie bags.

Katie is excited to see the lions, giraffes, and dolphins. We decided not to spend the money to see the dolphins again, so I told her that they were not at the zoo right now. Nathan wants to see the penguins and vampire bats. They also have a snake for the kids to touch. I hope it's a big one!

So we're having lots of fun during the fall season. This is definitely my favorite time of year. I'm excited that our school schedule just happens to be discussing Thanksgiving right at Thanksgiving time. Then we will take the month of December to do a Christmas unit.