May. 14, 2008 - IRS Check

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Dec. 16, 2007 - Homeschool Family video

This is quite funny!   Had me crackin' up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8TyyAXzwF4

Are these 10 kids really all theirs!?  The oldest doesn't even look much over 10 years old.  And she looks pregnant!   Anyway, this family is hilarious!

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Oct. 4, 2007 - No School!

No school today.  I have declared it a work day instead.  Actually, I call it "teamwork".  Teamwork better describes what it really is.  The project that needs to be tackled is the changing of the wardrobes.  Has anyone figured out a good system for this?  I greatly dread this every spring and fall.

Here's the basement stockpile.  All the boxes are labeled by size and boy or girl.  Even still, it seems like such a major undertaking to pack away the summer clothes and pull out the winter.  The summer clothes never seem to fit back in the tubs and I'm out buying yet more tubs.  I pull out the tub size that one of the kids should be wearing only to find that, because their body is built differently than the older sibling, some of the clothes are too big or too small and I'm opening more tubs in my quest to find clothes to fit the child.

I want more children.  But one thing I will be glad to see come to an end is the storage of clothes.  I should be rolling in the dough when I sell this stockpile of clothes!

The changing of the wardrobe always ends up in one big overwhelming mess!  Is there a better way?

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Sep. 28, 2007 - Downy Woodpecker

My 4 year olds, Zak and Willow, came bursting into the house with great excitement.  "Mommy!  There's a woodpecker in the tree!"

I checked it out for myself.  Yes, it looks like a woodpecker. But I'm not sure that I've ever seen one to know.  So I pulled out my bird book.  She's a Downy Woodpecker.  She's looking for bugs.  Did you know their eggs are the size of a penny? And when the babies first start eating, the parents have to feed them as often as once a minute! 

I told my kids that I could see some parallel between them and the baby woodpeckers!

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Jul. 20, 2007 - Praying Mantis

My daughter received a praying mantis habitat for her birthday.  It was very fun to see!

The walnut shape you see hanging from the branch is the shell that houses the eggs.  Ours hatched between 100 to 200 praying mantises about 2 1/2 weeks after we received it.  All of the sudden, during our breakfast one morning, we looked over and saw the first little hatchling push it's way out the bottom of the shell.

The praying mantises would hang upside down for a couple of minutes before walking away. They are about 3/4 inch at this point. The process for all the hatchlings (100-200) to emerge took about 1 hour.

It's difficult to see them, but the praying mantises are on all sides of the habitat.

What I found interesting was that they spent most of their time not moving.  But then they would go through a period of time where they were busy walking all over the place.  They all did the same thing at the same time - following the same schedule!

We were to catch small insects and fruit flies to feed to them.  They require 2-3 insects per day per praying mantis!  We couldn't seem to gather enough to feed even 1 praying mantis.  Since they can turn canibalistic rather quickly, we decided to release them in various places around our yard.

We occasionally see them around on our plants and trees.  Here's one we found on the house yesterday.  It's about 2 inches long now.  I can't find my log but I think it has been about 3 weeks since they hatched.

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Jul. 9, 2007 - Where Have I Been?

I've been gone for quite some time!  Of course, you did notice I was gone, right?!

Well, I was off visiting Tracy over in Australia.  Oh what a time we had!   This is what you see as you enter her backyard.

She let me bring along a bunch of my friends for a picnic.

She took us to see some prairie dogs.

 And some more prairie dogs.....

We saw polar bears.

Before we left, we also saw sea otters, tigers, lions, bears, camels, gorillas, and so much more!

And most amazing, it only took 30 minutes to get there from my house!

Thanks, Tracy, I can't wait to come back to visit you again sometime!

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Jun. 8, 2007 - Our Little Jackpot

A small local Christian school had to close it's doors for lack of finances.  A couple weekends ago they had a yard sale to sell all of their "stuff".  Unfortunately, for the school, the sale was not a success.  But for me.....well.....I feel as though I hit a jackpot!

I bought their entire children's library along with a couple of bookshelves and a table.  I think there are about 500 books that I purchased.  I set up a little "library" for the kids in the basement. I'm thinking I will charge the kids late fees when they don't put the books back!  Hee Hee!   I'll try to post photos sometime.

I also bought 4 antique children's desks for $.50 each!  My husband will refinish them.  Then we will either keep them or sell them at a garage sale later this summer.

For our backyard family fun I bought some of their sports equipment which included the following, plus base plates, brand new basketball, softball, baseball, and several aluminum bats:

Here's Chloe at bat with her new batter's helmet:

Zak at bat and Chloe catching sitting!

Willow never likes to play much of anything outdoors.  She was pleased to be the cheerleader!

Willow was also our score keepeer.  The "guest" team is always our neighbor boys.  They always win!

Willow decided she wanted to be more "in the game".  She moved the score board directly behind me, the pitcher.   I had her wear a helmet for her protection.  Those neighbor boys sure wail on the ball!  I just didn't want them taking out my daughter!

So....all of the books, shelves, desks, and sports equipment cost me a total of $60.

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