Don't want to read all my thoughts? Scroll down below for some weekend at the beach pictures.

Do you ever just experience those God gifts? We all do, I must say, or else we wouldn't be homeschooling. But, little-er gift than those. When, you are at your wits end, or almost there, and living there for a while. And He reaches down to you and helps. Oh...that's nice. I know when I don't experience those gifts for a while, it must be because I'm not really open and ready for them.

This morning I had a God gift. My God gift this morning was being awake at seven in the morning. Seven in the morning is really early for me. You have to understand that by the time I got to bed last night it was one in the morning. And, six hours of sleep, is really not very much for me. I'm more like an eight or eight and a half hour sleeper. But, today I'm fine. I know I better not do such a short sleep very many days in a row - or I get wired and it is not a pleasant kind of wired. I've been really having a hard time keeping my house clean this last week. And, have had a hard time directing the kids to have them help keep it clean. I got nearly two hours of cleaning done before the kids woke up. I can't do that at night. I don't have the brain for it then. But, now my house is (mostly) clean. :)

Plus, an idea dropped into my head. This may seem obvious to some, but to me sometimes when I'm in the middle of my frustrations, the obvious things don't seem obvious. My toddler is really impatient with our reading time. She likes to climb on my head, scream loudly, and be generally obnoxious when we are trying to read. She's that way when I try and cook. She's that way when I try and type. She's that way when I try and load the dishes (she thinks thats water play time). So, we have one of those big, round, circular gates. Today, when we were reading I put her in it, along with some toys. She protested loudly for several minutes, but soon settled down and played. And we read...Ahhhh.

Robinson Style Homeschooling

My experiment with having the kids teach themselves more (Art Robinson style) is working great. Really, I swear to you, if this style of learning fits you, it will fit your kids. It will work. Most of our country's founding fathers were largely educated this way. Charlotte Mason says it too. Don't coddle your child. Don't do for them what they can do for themselves. I upped Nat's math level this year and she has been teaching herself from Saxon 4/5 all year...AND LOVING IT. I've been using this approach a bit with Rachey (6) too. I encourage her to read her phonics books out loud to herself! Don't get me wrong I spend time with her reading and listening to her read, but instilling in kids the attitude of "wow I can teach myself" really works. So, like Robinson, we are doing Bible reading followed by 1-2 hours of math, 2-4 hours of reading/writing...Most of that is by themselves. Then my goal is to expand on their education, more Charlotte Mason style, in the afternoon. Nature, Art, Languages, Physical Eduction, that sort of thing.

A Weekend Away

We went to the beach this last weekend. I love the beach. I could just sit on the beach, watch the waves, talk to passers by for days on end, I think. I'm not into crowds, which unfortunately comes with the beach. But, usually, you can avoid them, anyhow. This weekend fell a little short, but was still fun. When that happens I'm always trying to analyze what went wrong. My analytical nature is a blessing and a curse. I have to learn to let go sometimes. Well, one thing that went wrong is my step-daughter got quite sick and didn't want to do anything. Poor thing. That was unavoidable. Secondly, the food I ate in restaurants, it just made me feel ill and spacy. I thought this...why when we go camping do we manage to pack our food and prepare it in the outdoors and I think that's impossible when staying in a hotel, unless there is a kitchen. Even though there was a free breakfast, who says I have to take advantage. Some cereal and milk would have been better. I could have brought hard boiled eggs. Salad mixings and chicken. Fruits and veggies. All I'd have to do is keep it cold. I could manage that.

Here are some pics from the weekend.

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Abigail - don't take my picture.
 

Abigail - pure cute sweetness.
 

Abigail - Yes, I am cute.
 

Yes, Nat, I did want you to look at the lens, but I didn't mean with your mouth open.

That's better.

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I got a hankering to take pictures of bumblebees today. They are real challenging critters to get a picture of. They move around so quickly and to get a good shot I had to get good and close to them. Unlike yellow jackets (which I've never had the hankering to take a picture of), bumblebees seem rather shy. They tend to fly away when you approach them. When I was a little girl, I got stung by I don't know how many bees, including a bumblebee. I think I just must have found them fascinating and wanted to touch them. I worry about that with my little toddler. She went walking right over one today in her sandals, oblivious, but luckily she didn't get stung.

As I was taking pictures of the bumblebees, the sun started getting less strong, and the bumblebees went into hiding. So, I switched over to flowers and fruit. Does anyone know what the fruit is??

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Here are some pics from Nat's Birthday:

Happy Toddler

Eight

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake. I hope I can't gain too much weight all in one day.

Hey!

Oh, man! (My sisters like to play tricks on me.)

Ha. Ha. Ha.

Tired Toddler

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Here are a couple garden pictures. I really should get more pictures of my kids in the garden - we spend so much time there. But, you know, dirt and cameras don't go well together. I'll have to make a special effort anyhow.

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On Saturday, we went on a long trip to an extended family member's pool party. It involved a long trip, but the girls had so much fun, it was worth all the hours in the car.

Here are some pics from the day:

The baby slept on the way there.

Rachel was upset about something and didn't want her picture taken. The girls were trying to get her to turn around.

Natalie has great freckles doesn't she?

Mariah (yawning) and Rachel

Our littlest swimmer all safe in her life jacket. I was still on my toes though!

Here is Abigail again.

Nat

Rachey

x

Riah

I went in with Abigail too, but Abigail really had fun with Jon.

I'm sure she liked being a part of a water fight too.

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Here is another picture for you. We saw these turtles (I think they are turtles - the difference between a turtle and a tortoise still mystifies me - and I just did a google search)...well, we saw them when we went to the bird sanctuary on Saturday. My sweet husband took me there when I was feeling sad about being sick. Really, he said, "do you want to go to a park or something?" And, I said, "yes, how about the bird sanctuary?" I know I'm supposed to stay home when I'm sick - but all the people at the bird sanctuary were in their own cars - so it was good. I hadn't been before and now I'm not afraid to try to find it. When I'm feeling all the way better, I think I'll spend a whole day there with my girls. I don't have a zoom lens right now - so hopefully I will replace or fix my zoom lens before then too.

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Here is a picture I wanted to share with you. This is my husband's obsession. Tilling and re-tilling and planting and manure spreading - getting the grass growing. That is his obsession. I'm glad to have my own outlet, because that definitely isn't my obsession. It sure makes a pretty picture though! :)

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We had fun taking pictures while at soccer today. For more pictures like these head on over to my Photography Blog.

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I just wanted to share a couple of pictures from today.

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