My links have disappeared and I have no idea where they went or why. The other strange thing is the links that are there now I was adding to my Keepers blog, but they are here now. How bizarre is that?
Oh, and this is formatted funky because I'm on Safari, which doesn't like blogs other than iMac. ;) .
All those links, sniff, sniff, are all gone.
Sorry to those of you who were on there. I'll try to get you back on soon. :)
We have a large Silk Oak tree in our backyard that has gone condo. There are various birds co-existing in there raising their new hatchlings to become strong strapping birds. One of the residents is a family of Mockingbirds. I think most people know that Mockingbirds are not to be trifled with.
There is also in residence in the home behind us a family of hawks. We have spent many afternoons watching the hawks ride the thermals and pester the neighborhood birds and most likely rabbits, mice and what ever meets their fancy. They are, afterall, hawks, the top of the food chain in the bird world.
Does anyone see where this is going?
After lunch my 8 yo came running in to say there is a hawk at the top of our silk oak tree and the Mockingbirds are darting at it squawking. We've seen this before and I was able to grab my camera to catch our own Wild Kingdom on film. When I got out there it was evident the hawk had had enough poking and took off. I was able to snap this awesome shot just as he took flight. I love how you can see his feathers spread apart and curled just so to get the lift he (maybe she? I'm not trying to be sexist. :-) ) needed to fly.
If you know anything about Mockingbirds you'll know that the hawk leaving wasn't nearly enough. No, the Mockingbird chased the hawk far, far away swiping at it every chance he (again, maybe it's she ;-) ) got.
I'm sure there's some lesson we can take from this. Something like "Just because you're smaller doesn't mean you can't beat the giant". Or maybe, "Don't give up, even when the odds seem to be against you". Maybe it's something as simple as "Mockingbirds are just big ol' bullies".
Whatever the lesson is, if there is one, it's always fun to watch God's creation in action.
Do you leave comments when you visit blogs? Well, I know that most people who visit my blog don't, so I guess I'll never really know the answer to that question. LOL
I'm one of those that visit blogs but don't leave many comments. There are a few people that I regularly leave a note, but in general, I read, smile, cry, laugh, ponder and move on never reaching out to let that person know they were heard.
So, I thought I'd give visiting blogs on my friends and links list and leaving a message a try. Monday's will be my "reach out and touch a blog friend" day. Not only will I visit and comment on their blog, I'll share the blog addy's of those I visited, so you can meet some new friends as well. :)
My first visit tonight was to my dear friend Jen's blog. Jen always shares what fun they are having in school in great detail. I want to go join their school, they look like they have so much fun. Jen and I met online through FIAR's website. Our kids are close in age and we discovered we have a lot in common (and keep discovering more interests that we share all the time). We finally met last fall in Atlanta. One of the really cool things is our kids hit if off really well and our two oldest girls, whose names are even close, are having fun with their weekly telephone conversations. I'm looking forward to finding a time we can go visit them in AL!
The next blog I went to was Amanda, another "rower". However her blog seems to be gone. So, no comment or link for that one.
Number 3 was, yes, another "rower's" blog. (from this point on just assume they are all rowers (as in Five in a Row(er)) unless I tell you otherwise. It'll just be easier that way. ) This is Christina's blog and as much as I would have loved to have left her a comment, I don't have a blogger account, so I couldn't. (actually I do have an account, I just can't remember my user name or password LOL)
Number 4 was Shauna who always has really interesting things to share on her blog. She gives great book reviews and heads up on good deals. I enjoyed her post on her and her kids Homeschool Support group classes, so that's where I left the comment. :) I enjoyed her post on the political books, I'm just not real political so I didn't think I had much to comment on there. LOL Shauna is the one who told me about using the Mozilla server w/ our Mac so I could start blogging again. You can either thank her or curse her for that, depending on your opinion of my blogging.
My 5th and final blog I visited (going straight down my list on the right) was Jess's blog. However, sigh, this is her old blog. I have her new blog linked further down, so I'll hit that one eventually. ;) Because it was an old blog, I didn't leave a message there either!
Well, that was not a real successful first time out. But it has shown me I need to do a little pruning on my template.
Hope you stop by their blogs and leave a message along the way. (you can leave one on my blog too ;-) ).
It was my Mom's birthday on Friday, the 18th. I called her in the morning to see if she'd like to have lunch at this really neat place in town. While I was talking to her I heard some other noise in the background that sounded like a little kid. Turns out my sister flew in from Dallas with her two boys to surprise my Mom for her birthday.
So, all eleven of us went to have a fabulous lunch at "The Farm".
The Gang minus dh and me (I'm taking the picture)
Grandma and Grandpa w/ 7 of their 17 grandchildren
Happy Birthday Mom! We love you and enjoyed spending the day with you. :)
The Goodyear Blimp was in town a week ago. I remember seeing the Goodyear blimp all the time growing up. It's "home" was just out of town. Those days are long gone and now we only see the Goodyear Blimp occassionally.
My oldest has been begging (bugging) me to post these pictures, so here ya go. :)
My girls have created another land in our side yard. Right now, it's the Land of Camila. The characters in Camila change, depending on what toy they can find and that their little brother hasn't taken away. The other day I gave A. some small figurines of Jamestown and the Powhattan Indian tribe. They got right to work creating another world with these new figures.
Unfortunately, this rendition of Camila disappeared very much like Jamestown. The demiss of this installment of Camila was at the hands of Giants, aka the preschool aged siblings of the girls from our Keepers meeting this past Friday. At least this land was preserved in pictures before the destruction. LOL
I love how creative they are and by being home they have the time to let their imaginations soar.
Thank you Lord for allowing me this precious time with my children.
My kids have been asking to go to the park for some time. On Thursday I told them we need to get all of our schooling done and the house cleaned up for our Keepers meeting the next day, then we'd go to the park. My oldest had already finished her school for the week, so she got busy and cleaned the whole house while I finished up school with her siblings. Everything was done by that evening so I told them that we'd go to the park after breakfast on Friday morning. They were very happy and very excited. Thank you Sweet Pea for being so diligent and getting everything done. I appreciate all your hard work.
We decided to go to a new park. Well, the parks not new but it was new to us. This park has a small water park section that the kids had fun climbing around. The slide would be a lot more fun with water in it, but the kids still managed to scoot down on their bottoms. LOL
My little guy climbing up the water slide (sans water)
Wrestling the Alligator
A. Taking a closer look at the Alligators mouth
Another portion of the water park had a "boat" complete w/ wheel and periscope. My 4 yo loved this area, he could play Pirate!
The park also had regular playground equipment that the kids enjoyed playing on as well.
This was the best upclose action shot I could get of R. swinging. I did have quite a few of just the blue poles though thanks to the delay. LOL
J. Swinging like a big boy. Hold on!
You know how some curly slides are kindof slow and disappointing? This one wasn't! Whoosh, down you go.
Every playground needs at least one piece of climbing equipment that makes a mother *gulp*, smile and say "That's great, let me take your picture." Knowing that even though it's scary to see them STANDING on the climbing equipment, it's actually good for them in so many ways. I just have to remember all the crazy things I did on bars and playground equipment as a child and snap the picture.
Our outing wouldn't be complete w/o a little bit of nature study. I snapped some pictures of a few of the trees that were representative of what was in the park. We looked them up to see what their names were, beyond "palm" and "pine" tree. LOL Anyone want to venture a guess as to what these trees are?
close up of the leaves from the above tree.
Closer image of the above tree (different tree, same type)
Overall, this park was fun but it's not one I'd be returning to unless someone wanted to meet us here. The play equipment was to old for my little guy to really enjoy (or for me to really relax) and the cave in the water slide area smells like someone (or animal I hope) uses it as their bathroom.
We had a lot of fun spending the morning at the park and made it home in time to grab some lunch, pick up and await all their friends from Keepers. I told the kids that if we can have our schoolwork done by Thursday, something I strive to do anyways, and the house picked up, we'll go explore different parks every Friday morning. They were very excited.
Composer study is one of those areas that I always have grand plans to incorporate into our day and never quite make it. Last night as I was planning our last 12 weeks of school, I was looking at Ambleside Online's composer for this last term and started hunting around the internet for some samples of the composers music.
I was delighted to find some You Tube videos of performances, some live, some recordings, that I can share with my students. I thought a way that I could remember to actually have my kids listen to the music I'd post the YouTube video of each selection. :) Here's the selection we listened to today.
Saint-Saens Symphony no 3 in C minor. This selection from You Tube is the Rotterdam Orchestra during a rehearsal. It's not the complete work but it is neat to watch an orchestra practicing. I tried to embed this, but it didn't work. Hopefully, I'll figure out how to get that to work again. :) In the meantime, if you're interested, check out the link below.
Just a recap of todays fun. I'll work backwards starting with my 6 yo, then my 8 yo and ending with a snippet from my 10 yo. She hasn't narrated anything to me yet.
A run down on R's school today:
We finished Tree in the Trail by Holling C. Holling and learned about the plaza and the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe. I told R. that she has been there before. She was only 2, so she doesn't remember being there. Here's proof that she actually was at the plaza in Santa Fe, Nov. 2002.
R is sitting on Daddio's lap. I'm pregnant w/ #4 and not enjoying much of this trip.
We also read about heroic Grace Darling who helped rescue sailors who were shipwrecked off the shores of the Farne Islands. It's an amazing, true story which you can read about here.
We also learned about the Saxons defeating the Britons and causing them to retreat to the mountains of present day Wales and Cornwall. Today, the citizens of Wales and Cornwall are descendents of the ancient Briton's and their language is very similar to what was spoken by the Briton's of long ago. With the overthrow of the Saxons, many changes were made. First, the name of Britain was changed to Land of the Angles or Angleland, which became England. The land was divided into 7 Kingdoms, each with their own ruler. The Kingdoms were continually fighting against each other. The Saxon's were also pagans. They torn down the church's and killed the priests. It was many years before England would embrace Christianity again.
Gregory, a Bishop of Rome, had longed to go to England to teach the people about Christianity for years. He was not able to go himself, so he sent Augustine to go and spread the word. Augustine was welcomed by the Saxons and eventually every kingdom embraced Christianity again.
We also learned about Woodpeckers and how they sometimes drum for fun.
A's school day recap:
We learned about the Pilgrim Fathers arriving at Plymouth and how the members of the friendly Indian tribes, namely Chief Massasoit, Samoset and Squanto, helped the pilgrims survive.
We also finished Diane Stanley's book Shakespeare Bard of England today where we learned how some people find it hard to believe a person with such a limited education could have written the such incredibly intelligent plays. They thought that nobles and scholars and maybe even the Queen herself, were the ones who actually penned these plays. However, those people are in the minority. Most who have studied Shakespeare and his life believe that he is the true author of these plays.
We learned about one of the greatest inventions of all times and the man behind the invention, Guttenberg and the printing press. What an amazing tale these inventors have. To hold on to a dream at the expense of losing everything, including family and friends, and to come out the other end with an invention that is still impacting us today. Guttenberg was no exception. He worked hard, toiling long hours, forsaking everything else to come up with the printing press. That invention revolutionized the world by putting books into common peoples hands.
Lastly, we visited with the Beverly family in our story, Children of the New Forest. Edward Beverly has gone off, with the intendents blessings, to join with the Kings Army. Along the way he has met with a man who served under his father. The two men are excited to meet each others acquaintance and are eagerly anticipating joining the fighting to win back the rightful title and position of King James.
For E. Her narrations will come tomorrow. However, we do have some new vocabulary words:
birstle and brae
Anyone want to take a stab at the meanings, without looking up the definitions in a dictionary. I'll give you the source of the words and the sentence where they were used.
They were found in Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped.
birstle: 'Lie here,' says he, 'and birstle'.
brae: Having thus set folks' minds a rest, we came down the brae, and were met at the yard gate (for this place was like a well-doing farm) by a tall, handsome man of more than fifty, who cried out to Alan in the Gaelic.
If you have an answer, make sure to leave it in the comments.
I'm loving my BlendTec Blender. Today I made peanut butter and a green smoothie. Our smoothie today was made with Swiss Chard, non-fat Vanilla yogurt, banana, orange, frozen blueberries and strawberries.
Found on the opposite side of my 8 yo's Math yesterday.
I don't know if you can make it out very well, but there are little drops of water coming off the horse. I also see the beginning's of a little girl in the water, but it looks like she erased it.
In our Keepers Group we worked on Cooking this past Friday. You can see more about our work on this badge on my Keepers Blog as well as the other things we've been working on this year.
There's a lot required in earning the Cooking badge. With three girls going through the program, that's a lot of meal planning, prepping, cooking and cleaning. I didn't want this badge to be like our baking badge, which I'm still working on w/ all of them, I knew I'd need to get to work right away! I had them draw numbers 1 - 3, each number representing a meal. 1. Breakfast, 2. Lunch and 3. Supper. I'm so clever.
With their numbers drawn and meal they are responsible for determined, I sat down with each of them and had them come up with what they wanted to prepare this week for their respective meals. With a little guidance we came up with some good meals. Right now they aren't real daring and creative (we'll be eating a lot of fruit salad ) but they are nutritious and the girls came up with them on their own. The biggest struggle for this will be with R, my 6 year old. She is such a picky eater and really doesn't like to eat anything besides chicken, preferably w/ a nice coating and "sauteed" (we all know it's really fried). Since adding squash puree I don't mind the chicken nuggets so much, but I'm not eating them every night this week!
As I think about it I'll post pictures of the meals and my chefs as they are creating their masterpieces.
Here's R last night at dinner:
Our menu included Pork Tenderloin (daddy helped with the grilling), rice, pineapple and carrots. Yum.
This morning E, who is in charge of breakfast this week decided to make Buttermilk Scones. We found a simple recipe on AllRecipes that she followed. We need to work on her mixing the dry ingredients a little better (we were supposed to sift them, but I can't find my sifter) as there were pockets of salt and baking powder. Despite that, they were still yummy. She served them w/ Strawberry Preserves and orange juice.
Mixing the batter.
I didn't get a picture of the finished product, they went fast!
Adding in lunch for today. A's job is to take care of lunches for the week. On today's menu, PB&J on whole wheat bread, oranges and milk.
It's now time for another delightful tale from Greek Mythology. Our narrator and artist today is, once again, E.
Pygmalion didn't like any women. So he made a "perfect" woman out of ivory. She was so lifelike he did everything for her that he would do for a real woman.
Pygmalion making a perfect woman
At the Festival of Venus, Pygmalion was praying to Venus. He was about to say "Please make my ivory statue alive." Afraid to verbalize his desires, he instead said, "Please give me a woman like my statue." Venus heard what he said, and also read his mind, knowing what his deepest wish was.
Venus lighting the fire and granting Pygmalion's wish
When Pygmalion came home, he kissed his ivory statue and felt that she was warm. At first he didn't know what was going on, but once he figured out she was alive, he was quite excited and married her at once.
Pygmalion and Wife
Venus blessed their marriage and they lived happily ever after. Which as you know for Greek stories, doesn't happen very often.
*My take on this story. This story I think is probably the most "troublesome" one we've read so far as far as content. I haven't read the full version of Pygmalion, but I get the impression that this was heavily edited for content. I think they did a pretty good job keeping it "G" and still giving an accurate account of the story. One other element in this story that was more on the troublesome spectrum was the worship of Venus. E. is aware that they worshiped gods, but this was the first actual "in the temple worship" story she read. At first I was a little hesitant but after talking it over with Daddio, we decided to go ahead with this story. He felt that she has a very deep understanding of the One True God and salvation through Jesus. She also understands that the worship of gods is not only sinning, but that it also grieves our Father's heart. This story gave me a great way to talk through some of these issues w/ E. and turned an otherwise borderline questionable story, for our family, into a really positive experience.
Flowers Petals Hawks
(hawks are not that uncommon here. What made this a sign of spring was that there were three hawks "playing". I thought there was probably 2 males and 1 female. I'll leave it to you to figure out why that is a sign of spring. )
Again, we have rabbits all over the place. I just like the way the rabbits eye is glowing.
Spring in the desert is barely discernible from winter and is short lived. In the words of Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop to look around, you just might miss it."
Bible Currently reading through Revelations Finished
Beyond Book -- George Washington Carver
E's Free Reading
Black Beauty -- Finished
Pollyanna -- Finished
The Secret Garden -- Finished
The Railway Children -- Finished
A Book of Golden Deeds
Bambi -- Finished
The Chronicles of Narnia -- Finished
Little Britches
The Borrowers -- Finished
Lassie Come Home
Gentle Ben -- Finished
Gone Away Lake -- Finished
Thimble Summer -- Finished
Return to Gone Away -- Finished
The Complete Peterkin Papers
Calico Captive
Johnny Tremain -- Currently reading
The Sign of the Beaver -- Finished
Tree of Freedom -- Finished
Amos Fortune, Free Man -- Finished
The Reb and the Redcoats
Justin Morgan had a Horse -- Finished
E's Ambleside List
This Country of Ours Chapters 29-63
An Island Story Chapters 95-96
George Washington's World by Genevieve Foster
Trial and Triumph
Poor Richard -- Finished
Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution
Madam How and Lady Why
It Couldn't Just Happen
The Age of Fable Preface - Chapter 14
The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe --Finished!!
Kidnapped -- Finished
The Incredible Journey
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Paul Revere's Ride
Rip Van Winkle
Shakespeare Twelfth Night -finished
Shakespeare Measure for Measure -- Finished
Shakespeare As You Like It
Plutarch Aristides -- Finished
Plutarch Themistocles --Finished
Plutarch Cato the Censor
E's Poetry List
Alfred Lord Tennyson -- Finished
Emily Dickinson
William Wordsworth
A's Reading List
Bible Reading through Revelations -- Finished
FIAR Book -- Andy and the Circus
A's Free Reading
A Little Princess --Finished
The Water Babies
At the Back of the North Wind
Men of Iron
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland currently reading
Through the Looking Glass
The Bears of Blue River -- Finished
Swallows and Amazons
Unknown to History: Captivityof Mary of Scotland
Caddie Woodlawn
On the Banks of Plum Creek -- finished
The Little White Horse
The Saturdays
English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs
King of the Wind -- Finished
the Four Story Mistake
Then There Were Five -- Finished
The Wheel on the School
A's Ambleside List
An Island Story Chapters 62-94
This Country of Ours Chapters 6-28
Trial and Triumph
Michaelangelo by Diane Stanley -- Finished
Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare -- Finished
Landing of the Pilgrims
Minn of the Mississippi -- Finished
Secrets of the Woods
Science Lab in a Supermarket
Parables of Nature
Tales from Shakespeare
The Heroes
Pilgrim's Progress -- Finished
The Princess and the Goblin -- Finished
Children of the New Forest -- Finished
The Jungle Book books 1-- Finished and 2
American Tall Tales -- Finished
A's Poetry List
William Blake - Finished
Sara Teasdale -- Finished
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
R's Reading List
Bible reading through Genesis
FIAR Book -- Andy and the Circus
R's Free Reading List
Charlotte's Web -- Finished
King of the Golden River -- Finished
Peter Pan -- Currently reading
Pinocchio -- Finished
The Red Fairy Book
St. George and the Dragon -- Finsihed
The Velveteen Rabbit -- Finished
Little House in the Big Woods
Pocahontas -- Finished
R's Ambleside List
Trial and Triumph
An Island Story Chapters 1-21
Fifty Famous Stories Retold
Viking Tales
Benjamin Franklin by D'Aulaire -- Finished
George Washington by D'Aulaire -- Finished
Buffalo Bill by D'Aulaire -- Finished
Paddle to the Sea --Finished
Tree in the Trail -- Finished
James Herriot's Treasury for Children
The Burgess Bird Book for Children
The Aesop for Children
Tales From Shakespeare
The Blue Fairy Book
Just So Stories
Parables from Nature
R's Poetry List
A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson - Finished
Now We Are Six/When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne
Oxford Book of Children's Verse edited by Iona and Peter Opie
My Reading List
The Shack by William Young -- Finished
The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd -- Finished
Irresistible Revolution -- Finsihed
Quaker Summer by Lisa Samsom-- Finsihed
The Inn Keeper by John Piper -- Finished
Too Wise to Be Mistaken,Too Good to be Unkind by Cathy Steere
So Far from the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins--Finished
HomeSchooling at the Speed of Life by Marilyn Rockett
Lord Foulgrin's Letters by Randy Alcorn -- Finished
Kids in the Syndrome Mix by Martin L. Kutscher MD
The Gift of Dyslexia by Ronald D. Davis
Love and Logic Solutions for Kids with Special Needs by David Funk
The Out of Sync Child Has Fun by Carol Stock Kranowitz
So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore by Jake Colsen -- Finished
Do You Think I'm Beautiful?
Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
I'm looking forward to finding a time we can go visit them in AL! 
) This is 
The blur is the hummingbird LOL
Can you find the hummingbird in this and the following pictures?
Baby Praying Mantis
Grapefruit Anyone?
The Gang minus dh and me (I'm taking the picture)
Grandma and Grandpa w/ 7 of their 17 grandchildren
Wrestling the Alligator
A. Taking a closer look at the Alligators mouth
Another portion of the water park had a "boat" complete w/ wheel and periscope. My 4 yo loved this area, he could play Pirate!
This was the best upclose action shot I could get of R. swinging. I did have quite a few of just the blue poles though thanks to the delay. LOL
J. Swinging like a big boy. Hold on!
Every playground needs at least one piece of climbing equipment that makes a mother *gulp*, smile and say "That's great, let me take your picture." Knowing that even though it's scary to see them STANDING on the climbing equipment, it's actually good for them in so many ways. I just have to remember all the crazy things I did on bars and playground equipment as a child and snap the picture.
close up of the leaves from the above tree.
Closer image of the above tree (different tree, same type)
R is sitting on Daddio's lap. I'm pregnant w/ #4 and not enjoying much of this trip. 
Just finished shelling the peanuts
In the Blender
Blending
Yum!
Green smoothie
Yum!
Mixing the batter.
Pygmalion making a perfect woman
Venus lighting the fire and granting Pygmalion's wish
Pygmalion and Wife
Buds
Flowers
Petals
Hawks 
Again, we have rabbits all over the place. I just like the way the rabbits eye is glowing.
