But, I can't not say something about this picture.  This is Giggles dancing.  He's decided he needs to pull any torso-covering clothes down to his waste when he wants to dance.  I think he must have some Hawaiian in him......

    ....I signed up for a blogger account.  My new blog will be www.reapingaharvest.blogspot.com.  I chose this new name because of our homeschool's verse:   "Let us not become weary in doing good for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." (Gal. 6:9)   Whether I am homeschooling, planning our homeschool, playing with our kids,  spending time alone, or -- indeed -- blogging, I am in the process of reaping a harvest.  I want to be remembering this as I choose how to spend my time (wisely, with God's help) and how we plan our homeschooling.

So, right now there is nothing at the blogspot site, but eventually I will move start moving stuff over there.  I want to figure out how to work with the html there, as it seems a little bit differnt that the stuff on this site.

     That sweet little boy Parker died last night.  It made me so sad to think about his sisters and parents and the loss that they're going through.  My little Giggles is just a few months younger than Parker was, and the hole that would be left in our family without him is unthinkable.  Only with God could I go through something like that.  It makes me hurt for those who don't know Christ and think about how they might deal with such a loss without relying on Him. 

     A good week was had by all.  We've started a couple "new" behavior plans for the Hugs and Smiley because they were being very grumbly and whiny of late.   So, far, it seems to be working, which means DH and I are being more consistent enforcing the boundaries we've set.

    We had our last swim lesson this week.  Ben is a solid mid-Level 3 (somehow, he go put in a class with a bunch of Level 2s instead of what I'd requested, but I think it was a blessing in the end, because he improved the quality of his skills and is an awesome floater now!).  Luke passed level 1, and will move into Level 2 the next time we sign up for lessons.

     We studied about the Periodic Table this week and made a cool project to learn about organizing information.  Ben organized friends by their name, number of letters in their name, favorite color, number of siblings and age.  Then, we put two of these on a grid and call it The Periodic Table of Friends:    

All the "?" are for "undiscovered" friends, just like Dmitri Mendeleev did when he started the periodic table of elements.

     We studied about Queen Elizabeth this week in SOTW.  I've decided that next week's Shakespeare unit will be the last one for SOTW 2.  The last few chapters of the book contain a lot of information about explorers and the beginnings.

     Other subjects are plugging along.  I'm really, really getting excited for a change in our subjects after the 1st of the year.  

I'm trying to look for God's hand in my day more.  I know He's there, but I'm not very careful at seeing his handiwork in my life, especially during a regular busy day.  So today I saw Him:

I've been using a daily prayer chart for the kids for years -- some times better than others.  Today I prayed for generosity for the boys, which was timely because DH mentioned to me on his way out the door, "Hugs needs to work on not being selfish today."  Tonight, as I was putting Giggles down, he wanted a puppy dog to cuddle.  He doesn't have one.  I started to tell him that we could as Smiley for one, when Hugs runs in with one of his puppies.  Right there!  He just gave one to Giggles.  When I talked with Giggles later on and that I'd prayed for him to be generous, he said, "Hmm, I guess I was twice today.  Once with the puppy, once with Smiley when he wanted to play with one  of my planes."

Life is all about baby steps and I'm thankful for God's presence in this little movement forward. 

     I hate that Christmas Decorations are beginning to be displayed at retail big box stores before the ghouls of Halloween have even said their nighttime prayers.  I hate that when I walked into Walmart looking for some Thanksgiving decorations, they were all on clearance already.   

    But, I am so excited to host my first Girlfriends Christmas Party on Sunday the 18th.  We are just coming up on our first year anniversary in our new house coming off of a 3 year stint of living in The Middle of Nowhere.  Being so far away for so long, I felt that I had led a lot of female relationships slide because it was such a hassle to see my Dear Friends.  And, as I was the only homeschooler in the bunch, it became hard to visit for Bible Studies and such.    So, I am so excited to be close by and near that I decided to invite The Girls over for a first-of-the-season, no-excuse-is-a-good-excuse-except-a-Noreaster Christmas Ornament Yankee Swap Party.

     All the guests are bringing an appetizer-to-die-for, and I'm supplying a pumpkin cheesecake, a yummy sounding Curried Chicken Corn Chowder soup (as soon as I re-find the link, I'll post it) in homemade bread bowls, and a little candy surprise for them to take home.  I'm breaking out all the candlesticks (having 3 boys and projectiles flying in the house at any given moment is a good reason to not have them lying about often), the wine glasses we haven't used since our first year of marriage, and am planning on having a great time.

     Now, every once in a while on of my Girlfriends stops my by blog, so I'm not going to give away the sweet treat recipe, but I'll share it after the party.  I promise you it is to die for.

   Our week started on Sunday the 4th with a temper tantrum.  Mine.  Yes, you read that right, just before we left for church I  had a mini-meltdown.  My darling DH  calmly and patiently said, "I think that you need to have some time away this week.  Why don't you take every night this week and do something for yourself?"

   It was just what I needed.  Some time to do things without the kids.  I am really low maintenance, so this is what I did:  I went to the library by myself to pick out the last set of books we'd need for our history studies before we switch gears to Sonlight.  It was fun to browse through the stacks -- even though I stayed in the Children's Room.  I got a Starbucks coffee (cinnamon dulce - totally the best) (we finally live in a town with a Starbucks.  Please, God, don't move us!).  I went to a Moms In Touch prayer meeting.  It was an incredible experience, and I hope to be able to go about every other week.   We prayed for peace in our homeschools, our children, and ourselves.   I went to Walgreens to buy hair color and came home and colored my hair.  Thursday I tried to stay home and finish my Bible study ("Mom!...Mom!.." says Hugs from outside my room about sixty thousand times in one minutes.  "Hey, close the door and get out.  Pretend I'm not here,"  I say.  It finally works).  Then Friday my Creative Memories consultant calls and says I can come work on my scrapbook.   So, I visit a different Starbucks (two within a 6 mile radius.   Heavenly.) and spend a few hours working on my stuff and watching her and her husband help their daughter's First Lego League with final preparations before their tournament on Saturday.   In all, it was a great week for me.  I do feel a bit refreshed and am so thankful for my wonderful husband. 

     So school. That went well, and our Flip Flop has continued for the week.  I'm pleased to be able to start our homeschooling day cuddling with Hugs and enjoying some literature, poetry, and Bible reading.  Oh, and history and science, too.  It reminds me of our early days of homeschooling and Ben would get a "whole pile of books" and we'd just hang out on the couch for the morning reading.  This also gets us back to the heart of our homeschooling and one of our reasons for homeschooling, which was to build incredible relationships in our family.

     [Oops, I guess I posted already.  But I have a bit more to report, so here we go....]

      Our history lessons this week were about Galileo and Copernius.  We enjoyed a supplemental book from the library Starry Messenger.  Hugs did a great pre-/ post- Copernian universe drawing for his notebook.

     We also read through a biography of Marie Curie for science.  I really need to kick myself in the behind and do an optional experiment on weeks when there are no scheduled experiments.  So, we're going to make some kind of bouncy blubbery thing with borax this week.  THIS, my friend, is why we're studying chemistry this year -- bouncy, blouncy, blubbery, rubbery things.

     Ben hit a lesson on flats in piano this week, and it seems to have really thrown him for a loop.   I found an online Quia game to help him name his notes, and plan to make some kind of game for him to practice knowing the name of the notes better.  He does an excellent job of memorizing the tune and finger placement of a song, but is struggling with note reading (where I also struggled as well).

     Red Sails to Capri is our read aloud this week, and it is a wonderful adventure story.  I highly recommend it.  It is especially a good boy book, as the main character is a 14 year old boy.

     Our review of Latin was a bit lackluster this week, but I've decided that we're not going to learn a new prayer in Latin, rather we're just going to review our previous learned prayers, the Sanctus, the Doxology, and the table blessing.

    I've also been mooching this week.  I acquired a bunch more books from Bookmooch and PaperbackSwap this week, and I now only have to purchase about 6 books for SL Core 3.  Whoopee!  What a great service this is -- all you do is pay shipping for the books, and you earn credits everytime you give away one of your books.  I'm pleased to have cleared off a small space on my shelves to add in some books I think we're going to love.

     Alright, now I think I'm done with our weekly review.

     I forgot to post this some weeks back, but here's where we are and where we plan to be.   We do homeschool year round, but will take off a week every six weeks or so for refreshment, projects, field trips, etc. 

     I've actually got Sonlight 3 scheduled through Nov. 2008, and if we clip along at that pace, we'd finish our US History 2 year rotation in the middle of 5th grade.  I'm not plussed with that, as I'd really like to restart our ancient study at the beginning of 5th grade, which is the logic phase.  But, I'm not going to worry about it now, because my experience with SL in the past is that we tend to zoom ahead in many of the readings because they are so awesome. 

     I guess I should also throw in the caveat that Latin, while going well now, is becoming low on the priority list right now, especially as I anticipate starting K with Smiles in January.  I truly value the intellectual rigor of Latin, its help in logical reasoning, vocabulary development, and grammar reinforcement.  But, hey, I've got to prioritize. After my meeting with the principle last weekend, I realize I don't have an endless supply of time during the day and there are non-negotiables to our homeschool:  character development, family relationship building, and intellectual curiosity.  I'm not going to sacrifice my relationship with my boys just so I can say they've been studying Latin since 2nd grade.  I do intend to put Latin into our school, but it may be something that we have to hold off on until Hugs is a little older and that will be OK (the italics is for myself as a reminder that it is OK to let some things slide).

    This great quote from Marica Somerville at Tapestry of Grace has helped me come to this realization:

He [God] is with you, and nothing you "drop" in your homeschooling journey will truly HARM you or your kids.  If we are doing our level best, it just humbles us and should make us trun to Him to make it all ok.

     DH and I had a wonderful talk on Sunday, and the results of the talk have transformed our homeschool, so I thought I'd better write about it before I forget.

     I really, really love homeschooling.  However, there are some days that I feel like I'm just not connecting with Hugs -- like all I'm doing is barking orders to do this assignment or do that one.  This is not the vision I have for our homeschool.  We seem to have gotten into a rut, and I could sense we needed a change in something, or else I risked ruining the relationship with my 8 year old.

     So, with DH's approval, I decided to focus on what Hugs loves about school -- reading together on the couch cuddled under a blanket (which we do even in the summer unless it is extremely humid).  Our general routine had been to start the independent assignments first thing after breakfast and do our read alouds (science, history, literature, Bible) mostly after lunch.  For the past three days, we've started our school day with a pile of books, a warm blanket and friendly banter about who gets to sit where on the couch for our reading time.   Right now, we're reading Red Sails to Capri, which is a great, witty boy book full of adventure and mystery.  We are reading some poems (which don't get nearly the loud groans that they used to get -- a positive development, for sure) and some Aesop's Fables ("I really like these, Mom").  Oh, and the Kids Day-by-Day Bible, too. 

     There are two cool effects from this change: (1) I get to start off the day cuddling at least 1 of my boys.  The other two usually play around us, and occasionally Hugs and I get sat upon by one of the others for a few minutes (2) The rest of our schooling for the day has been met with minimal grumbling and complaining.

     I'm filing this under "God Spotting" because this change in the aroma of our homeschool can only come from Him.