We have been moving back to the house that we just moved from, so it has been crazy and I am behind in my posts. Sorry!! (I will post more on that topic later.)

This year we are going to use the Life-Pac curriculum. This is the first year that we have used a (semi) full curriculum, but we are giving it a shot. We went into a new (to us) Christian book store and found that they had several different curriculums available, in the store, which they offered. Around here you can look at books and order but it is rare that you come upon a store that actually has the merchandise there for you to look at and compare. My husband and I looked through them and just really liked the look of this particular set. The graphics are cute and crisp. It is very well laid out as to what you are supposed to do. All of the books come together. You don’t have to purchase a teacher’s manual and work book separate, it is all inclusive. The directions are easy to understand for the children. It is just a really great looking set. I haven’t talked to anyone that has used it and would love to hear from you if you have tried Life-Pac.

The Kindergarten set is really cute and this is Jared’s first year so he will really enjoy this set. I am also using “Handwritting without Tears” and thought that I had all of the components when I purchased it (used) but found out when making out our assignments and so forth that the handbook was not included. Now it is a rush to purchase one or use something else. That is what I get for getting too much in at one time and not looking everything over in great detail.

However, with Life-Pac you can purchase a year behind in math and three years ahead in science if that is what you need instead of having to purchase a complete year that may not fit your individual child. And in my opinion that is one of the biggest reasons to homeschool in the first place, to meet what your children need at that time in their learning experience. In the past we have used many computer games, pintables, and workbooks as well as making one lapbook on the beginning of the Presidential Election this year, all of the beginning candidates and about them. It covered other things like about republicans, democrats and independents; what an electoral vote is and so on. (It was huge!!) I worked in a political office for 9 years and would never want to do that again. I loved my job but not the politics.

There is a math game on the internet for multiplication and Makala really liked doing it. I will post the link when I find it. It puts them on a 60 second time clock and they complete answers to the problems that it generates. It then grades it and you can print a certificate with the child’s name, date and grade, which we did for record keeping sake. You do the numbers separate so there is a certificate of completion for 1’s, 2’s, 3’s, and so on. She really enjoyed beating the clock.

I am sure that we will be using some pintables from the internet, especially on Bible study, and a few computer games to add into the fun aspect of schooling. I don’t want the kids to be bored or get burned out by using one set thing day in and day out. I would also like to incorporate a bit of web design as we go. If anyone has any idea as to how to do this or any products that you think are reasonable and good for youth, please let me know. Makala is really enjoying meeting people on her blog and doesn’t know how to make up new backgrounds and so forth so she meets people that will help her but I would like for her to be able to learn how to do most of it on her own and be able to help others as well. That would give her a greater sense of accomplishment and she is always blown away when she finds someone her age or younger that is willing to share their skills and build her something new or show her something new.

Well that is our plan for now. On a more time to time schedule we are trying this:

My family is made up of my husband of 16 years, Mike, our daughter, Makala – age 13, and our son, Jared – age 5, as well as myself, Vicki. We are Christians and love the Lord. We have been homeschooling for a little over 4 years. Being unhappy with the public school system this was the best and obvious choice. I had actually thought about it since I was pregnant with Makala but was working full time and had a 45 minute drive each way at the time. I quit my job of 9 years to go back to school to become a R.N. in July 2002 and became pregnant with Jared in August 2002. I didn’t make it to the R.N. degree but that did open the door for me to homeschool the two little angels of my life.

We love pets, camping, movies and being together. We have a dachshund names Einstein which turned 2 years old in July, 2 cats – B.J. and Belle, which turned 1 in June, and Belle has 4 kittens that are about 4 weeks old. They are so cute!!

We are in the process of moving at this time. We are purchasing a house built in the late 50’s that has a beautiful backyard. The house is pretty good too but the yard is great. The house is actually in the neighborhood where I grew up and my mother lives just 4 houses down on the other side of the road. Today, at about 3:37 p.m. I went out onto the front porch and saw a fawn just about 50 feet away eating apples in the neighbor’s yard. Makala grabbed my camera and I began taking pictures while she went to tell her dad and brother. By the time they got on the front porch the mother was walking down into our line of sight as well. We have at least 35 pictures but I will have to upload them later. (We have to download to the laptop, save, transfer to thumb drive or disk, take to desktop and upload – what a pain – the desktop quit uploading about 4 months ago!!) Did I mention that we are in town!! Two or three cars drove by, a lady walked by and my husband kept getting closer and closer to get better pictures. They were not that friendly when I was younger.

I write the “Organizational” articles for Creative Times Magazine at www.creativetimesmagazine.com  It is a free magazine that you can download six times a year and look at all the great tips and see all of the new writers that we continue to get. Organizational anything, reading, crafts, homeschooling, family note booking and photography are my favorite past times.

Blessings to you all!!

Vicki

I thought that it would be simple to simply put my "Friends" and other categories to the left side, instead of centering them. However, it doesn't seem to be that easy. How do you change this in your template?

Thanks!!

Vicki

Okay, I am not the biggest Star Wars fan but I don't hate it either. I remember watching it in the theater when the first Star Wars came out and thinking that Luke Skywalker was the cutest thing in the galaxy. But my son wanted to see this movie the day it came out. He told everyone that we were going to see it.

It came out on Friday and we went to the Saturday showing at 1:30. There was only one cuss word in the movie which I considered a blessing since it was rated PG. Considering that it was all cartoon based there was violence but it wasn't gory. DH, DD, DS, my niece and I sat through it, on the first row, and watched the whole thing without one question of going to the bathroom or getting something to eat or drink. Come to think of it that was pretty good. My niece usually wants to get up a couple of times to go and walk around, oops so sorry, go to the bathroom. LOL I wouldn't go and see this movie again but the kids really want it when it comes out on DVD. We will just have to wait and see.

Blessings, Vicki

Have you taken a look at this planner? It is awesome and you can win one from Dawn at My Home Sweet Home 

Click on over and enter for your chance to win!!

Good Luck,

Vicki

If I haven't grossed you out already read on..... We have been learning a lot about ringworm lately. The kitten that we took in began having seizures so it had to have steroid shots several different times. This in turn lowered his immune system and he picked up ringworm from somewhere. (Which we found out is a fungus and not a worm at all.)

DH began showing the first sign of a spot then I and the kids started showing our spots (LOL) afterwards. My step-mom told me what it was after I had a few and I decided to go to the doctor for treatment, it itches so badly!!

I went to the doctor and received a cream. It did nothing! It didn't help with itching or anything so we searched the internet, of course, for what to do. After going to Wal-Mart and purchasing a fungus cream that actually helped with itching we felt better. Then the next day began. Within a few days I was beginning to be covered. We all went to the doctor and received a prescription of cream that was a step up from what I had been prescribed. They began to get better, I got worse. I had an appointment with my regular doctor so I asked her what to do because by this time I had over 20 places, most of them on my arms. She prescribed a cream (another step up) and an antibiotic. Come to find out if your immune system is low, in my case diabetic and the kitten having the steroid shots, you have a much harder time being treated. Finally after 2 days I had no more new breakouts.

In the mean time Baby (now nicknames "Fuzz" from Sweet Home Alabama) looks horrible. I had followed the vet’s instructions and given him betadine baths but he was looking so bad, really bad. He had lost all of the hair on top of his head and ears, large patches on his body, all on his stomach and around his tail. He looks so pitiful but still just as playful as can be. And yes, he is outside or contained in a pet carrier. After deciding that it wasn't helping enough we went to the vet and she gave him some liquid antibiotics and it smells so bad. He fights taking it worse than any child I have ever seen. Considering he is only 1.5 pounds he doesn't have to take much but he can spit it right back out time after time. Twice a day is so much fun, not. However, with the baths and the antibiotics his whiskers are beginning to grow back and I believe that some of the hair on his back is as well. His wrinkled little head is still that, dry and wrinkled. I hope that his hair grows back soon. I won't let him out around here because we have also just moved I am afraid that someone will see him and kill him. He is not in misery. He is so funny and loving.

I wrote this yesterday and had to leave so I put it in as a draft. Now I can't find Fuzz. We left him out to run around and play as usual and he has disappeared. I had hoped that this morning when I opened the door he would be there and ready to come in for some TLC and medicine. He has probably followed a cat into the woods; I hope that he returns today for his treatments. He is so loving and cute, with his hair. But a word of advice for anyone that picks this up, if you have a lowered immune system….make them give you antibiotics the first time!!

We have so many stray cats around our house and 2 of them have had kittens recently. One of them had 4 in our attic right above our bathroom. (They are about 7 weeks old now.)  I heard them and had my husband get the ladder and get them down; it was over 100 degrees up there. We set up the pet carrier on our 2nd floor bedroom balcony with extra precautions so that they would be safe. The momma cat climbs up the post of the front porch and up and over the railing on the top floor. One of the kittens became really sick early so we tried to nurse it. After camping for 2 days we came back and it was worse so we tried to take it to the vet and didn't make it out of the drive, it passed. My daughter was so upset!! We are such animal lovers. Well a few weeks later another began to get pretty sick, it was late so I decided the first thing in the morning we would visit Cheryl, our vet. The next morning I woke up and went to check on it and it was no where to be found. The other 2 were walking around. I ran downstairs and here it came when I called on the front porch from under a chair. It had fallen!!! It's nose was completely stopped up as well as it's eyes so off to the vet we went, after a brief clean up of the kitten.

Cheryl gave him a steroid shot and antibiotics as well as medication for his eyes and told me to keep him in and bottle feed him. So I did. He was 9 ounces that day. So we are a week and a half later and we decide to go camping again (for a week), we take "Baby" with us and he does very well in the camper. I let him out and fed him then he ran around and played with hubby's shoes and attacked his legs. We put him in his carrier and went swimming. We came back about 1 1/2 hours later and he was in an odd position sleeping. I had everyone look and laughed, thinking he was exhausted and fell asleep in this peculiar way. I picked him up and he began to act excessively odd. I sat him down on the bed and petted him, thinking I had scared him when I woke him up. He continued to act odd. I sat him down on the floor and he took a few steps and lay on the floor and rolled his head over on the right side. He did this several times and I was off to see Cheryl again!! (In tears by the time I arrived!) He is my "Baby" now. She isn't sure what is going on but he is all of a sudden blind and apparently has swelling on the brain. WHAT!!! He was fine less than 90 minutes ago!! She gives him another steroid shot with something special for the brain function in it as well as a pain shot that she said should knock him out for 4-6 hours so that the other can take effect. We take him back to the camper and watch him very closely. Within 2 1/2 hours he is up and running, hungry and back to normal. I have NO idea of what was wrong. I just am praying that he is okay now. My hubby is calling him my $100 kitty and keeps teasing me that I am going to get upset when it is time to put him outside. Yeah, like that is going to happen!! (He is attached to the little booger as well.)

We are back at our house and I let him run around all night with our other pets. He was so quite this morning, must have had fun all night. He was asleep at 6:40 when I came down instead of crying and waking me up at 6:00, or before, for his feeding. ((Oh yeah, in the camper he would use the litter if he was in his crate or go and use the dogs pee pad if he was up and running around. I had never seen a cat use a pee pad!!))

Isn't it amazing how attached to pets that we get and so quickly. My big 12 pounder whopper of a cat (that is only 1) is lying asleep by my desk now. I have to get onto him frequently due to playing too ruff with Baby. Einstein (our dachshund) isn't interested in him since our camping trip. Hubby was holding Einstein and Baby were playing and he didn't like it so he has decided to stay in the other direction from him.

Well my son is playing in a box and Baby has decided to take a bath and go back into his carrier by himself. He is so cute. I have pictures but not downloaded. I will download and post in the next day or so. I hope everyone has a great day and God bless you all!!

Vicki

Can someone tell me what code to add and where to get the paragraphs to seperate.

I just noticed that they are together. I have a blank line between them on the "Add New Entry" page but it doesn't carry over. I imagine it is something in the new template.  There is also a very large space between the title and post.

Please let me know how to correct this.

Thanks again and God Bless you all.

Vicki