FOR TODAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2009

Outside my window...the sun is shining and it's actually fairly warm for this time of year!!!

I am thinking...about what to make for dinner tonight.

I am thankful for...all the produce I was able to can from our garden this year

From the kitchen...still trying to figure out what's going to come out of the kitchen today

I am wearing...jeans and my red WI sweatshirt

I am creating...a "Little House on the Prairie" dress for my daughter

I am going...to teach Spanish in a couple of hours

I am hoping...we all continue to avoid all the flu bugs going around here

I am hearing...a variety of tractor/bulldozer type noises as we're getting ready to start building a new barn

Around the house...it's quiet. Almost too quiet for my house :)

A few plans for the rest of the week: Christmas program practice starts this week

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...co-op art class from last week

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FOR TODAY, OCTOBER 26, 2009

Outside my window...it is cloudy and rainy and gray, again

I am thinking...about all the things I need to get done today. Don't think there's enough hours.

I am thankful for...a good birthday for my dd even though her party had to be postponed

From the learning rooms...Spanish and Art at our co-op, plus music lessons

From the kitchen...pumpkin bread

I am wearing...sweat pants and t-shirt, waiting for the clothes dryer

I am creating...writing the children's Christmas program for my church

I am going...to the co-op and then shopping

I am reading...the Book of Psalms

I am hoping...the weather is nice for my daughter's re-scheduled party on Saturday

I am hearing...tractor outside and kids complaining about having to get up

Around the house...way too messy. I need to get some cleaning done

A few plans for the rest of the week: a fairly normal week for us, whatever that is :)

Here is picture for thought I am sharing--my daughter's birthday, she had a friend over and opened gifts

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FOR TODAY, OCTOBER 19, 2009

Outside my window...sunshine!!! It's been a cloudy week, so I love the sunshine!

I am thinking...about the lesson I have planned for the Prairie Primer co-op today

I am thankful for...a great Sunday yesterday!

From the learning rooms...Co-op day. We're learning about Indians in the Praire Primer

From the kitchen...I'm planning swiss steak in the crock pot for today

I am wearing...jeans and a turtleneck

I am creating...motions to go with the new children's choir song

I am reading..."The Missing" by Beverly Lewis

I am hearing...coughing from kids with colds

Around the house...time to dig up the rest of the carrots and onions from the garden

A few plans for the rest of the week: a 4-H award night tonight, play practice, choir and a birthday party formy daughter Saturday

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...my daughter working on a project at the co-op

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FOR TODAY, OCTOBER 12, 2009

Outside my window...A cat is meowing to come in the warm house.

I am thinking...what should I make for lunch today?

I am thankful for...a warm house on this cold day

From the learning rooms...no "regular" school today. It's co-op day, so Spanish and Art are on the   schdeule

From the kitchen...making applesauce with the apples from our trees

I am wearing...jeans and a turtleneck

I am creating...a birthday invitation for my daughter's party next week

I am going...to town for the co-op and then to play practice

I am reading...a script for  a play my daughter might be in

I am hearing...the sounds of tractors in the field harvesting corn and beans

A few plans for the rest of the week: 4-H meeting, Bible study, play practice, choir

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

It has been too long since I've shared a Show and Tell Friday. Here are some pictures from the co-op that I'm leading. We're doing the Prairie Primer with about 12 children, ages 5-12. We've met twice now. The first week we dissected owl pellets and the second we made models of log cabins using popsicle sticks. We had some very colorful log cabins!

Working on owl pellets. What did our owl eat?

Working on the log cabins. Love the colors :)

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His name is Jet.

No, she's not dead. She will stay like this for several minutes at a time

Things are slowly starting up around here. Some of our activities are up and running, and others will be soon.

We have music lessons on Monday afternoon. These have been going on all summer, so that's not a change.

Normally, on Tuesdays, I have Bible study, but we're not meeting this week, so we have an extra morning at home.

Wednesday my middle son has rehearsal for a worship celebration at our church. He's on the youth liturgical dance team. Normally, he'd be at youth group, but he has to skip it this week for practice since it's a dress rehearsal.

And, on Thursday, my middle son has barbershop practice. He joined a local barbershop organization over the summer, which he really seems to enjoy.

That's the extent of our extra-curricular activities this week. Next week, a few other activities begin, like gym class and co-op.

A week ago, I didn't think our first week of school this year would go very well. I debated even starting this week. Maybe I should just wait a week? The house wasn't as clean as I wanted it, I had co-op things to plan and schedule, children's choir songs to choose. I had planned on a whole week for school, only to have one son go on a youth group outing and my daughter be invited to a surprise birthday party for a friend. How would we start school without falling behind right away?

However, after praying about when to start, I really feel God wanted us to start on Monday. So, feeling a little overwhelmed, I got the kids up and going and away we went.

The first day went amazingly well, one of our best first days ever. The rest of the week followed about the same. The two kids that had events that would take them away from school for a day worked ahead or got caught up the next day.

I was inundated with sweet corn this week. Enough to can 90 jars for us and have over 500 ears to give away. I got the corn processed and school still got done. A couple of times, the kids started on their own without my telling them. That doesn't happen too often.

Moral of the story: Trust God. He knows what's best. Even when it's something like when to start school and you're feeling a bit too overwhlemed.

God is good all the time. All the time God is good.

We had our first day of school of the new school year.  It was probably one of our best first days ever. All three kids were ready to start school early. I don't think that's ever happened.

Greg, the 13 year old, has a habit of being difficult and refusing to do his school work. Today, he told me he made a new year's resolution (It was OK to make a new year's resolution since it was the first day of the school year). He was going to do his school work everyday. I'm thinking this is good. Maybe he's growing up and we won't have as many struggles this year. Then he added with a smile, "when I feel like it."

My youngest did her first lesson with Teaching Textbooks on the computer. She loves it and got every problem correct. She says it's much better than last year's math.

And my oldest, he survived his first day of high school. He completed everything and is ready to tackle day 2.

Our new school year starts in 2 days. The kids claim they're not ready, but they are also starting to act bored. In other words, things like TV and computers are trying to take over their day. It happens every year. Here's a sneak peek at what I'm planning for this year.

We do a 4 day school week, with Tuesdays being a "no-school" day. However, we do actually have school on Tuesdays, just not normal school. On Tuesdays, we have PE class at the YMCA and this year we are starting a co-op. We'll have art, Spanish and the Prairie Primer on Tuesdays as well.

The other days of the week will be regular school days. I use a variety of curricula for the kids. What works with one may not work with another and what works in one subject may not work in another. Here's what's planned:

Eric, grade 9:

Math--Teaching Textbooks, Algebra 1
English--Learn to Write the Novel Way
History--Streams of Civilization
Science--Apologia's Physical Science

Greg, grade 8:

Math--DK workbook and Daily Math drills
English--Wordly Wise, Winston grammar
History--Story of the World, book 4
Science--Apologia's General Science

Janelle, grade 4:

Math--Teaching Textbooks, grade 4
Language Arts--Handwriting Without Tears cursive, Wordly Wise, Spellwell,
                           Daily Grams and Easy Grammar
Science and History will be done through the Prairie Primer

I don't usually plan out our Bible lessons too far in advance. I try to correspond our lessons at home to either what they're doing in Sunday School or to some lesson that needs to be learned, like self-control, kindness, etc.

In addition to this, the 2 youngest have music lessons on Monday. Janelle will probably have gymnastics on Monday evening and children's choir on Wednesday evening (I'm directing this year for the first time). Greg will also have barbershop rehearsals on Thursdays and he just got a role in our local homeschool fall play, so we'll have rehearsals for that, as well.

Our daily schedule? What I plan and what actually happen are usually 2 different things, but here's the plan:

I get up at 6:00 to have some quiet time and then go out to milk cows.
The kids get themselves up and out to take care of their animals and feed calves around 7:30-8:00.

I get in by 8:30, shower and make breakfast. Once that's done, we start school around 9:30 and go until we're done each day, usually by 2:00. I don't plan out which subject is done when, I let the kids decide what order to do their work in. They each have a weekly plan that lists all their assignments. If they choose to do one subject a day, they may. The goal is to get the weekly work done by the end of the day on Friday.

Our summer vacation is almost over. We've had a very full, fun and busy summer. Baseball and 4-H were major events all summer long. Our 4-H fair was last week and the kids did very well. All 3 kids were in several projects, so it seemed like we were always running to one meeting or another. They were all in ceramics. This is a picture of all their ceramics projects this year.

The pictue doesn't do them justice. The large cross is metallic copper, and the parts that show up as black are really blue. The cross, done by my oldest, won best of show this year.

As the fair got closer, we spent a lot of time getting our animals ready.

Janelle practicing her "showmanship" with Snowflake, her favorite bunny.

All 4 pigs got a bath

Even the chickens needed a bath!

Showing one of the rabbits to the judge. This one got a blue ribbon.

The boys showing their pigs, also blue ribbon winners.

Now that the fair is done, we've taken this last week to relax and start working on the required record books for 4-H. Everybody agrees that the record books are the least favorite part of the 4-H year.

School starts on Monday. I'm ready, but the kids say they're not.

Besides 4-H, we spend a lot of time in the summer at baseball games. My son plays on a little league team every year.  It's his favorite sport, and late every winter he starts dreaming about the games and getting his gear ready for the season. This year was his first year playing at a new level, so it was a learning year for him. His team started out the season with a difficult loss (they fought back from behind to come within 1), but went on to win every game the rest of the season. They even beat the team that beat them.  After the last regular season game, they were all given a plaque stating that they were the first place team. Then it was playoff time. As the #1 team, they didn't have to play the first round and they won their first game, sending them right to the championship game. Guess who they had to play? If you guessed the team that beat them the first game of the season, you're right.  This time, Eric's team couldn't pull off a win, and ended up second. Eric is happy with his season, and I am happy that it's over. I love watching baseball, but by the end, especially with the fair coming up, I'm ready to move on.

I have decided that blogging and I don't seem to get along in the summer. For some reason I just can't seem to find the time and motivation to blog on these busy, hot summer days.

Summer finds us in the middle of the busy 4-H season. Our fair is about 3 weeks away, so we are currently in "crunch time". That means we are working hard to finish all the projects necessary for the fair. We have 6 pigs, 5 chickens, 5 rabbits and a dog all competing for attention as well as non-animal projects to finish in woodworking, ceramics, archery, photography and fused glass.

This is my oldest working on one of his woodworking projects.

The middle child practicing his archery skills.

And, my daughter carefully painting one of her ceramics projects.

Usually, by the time the fair is over, I'm ready for the relative calm of back to school!

We have a new batch of kittens in our barn. This is a good thing, because we are down to only one female cat, although we seem to have plenty of tomcats. Here's some pictures of the new arrivals. Actually, they're already a few weeks old. We don't always find the kittens right away, and that is a good thing because the kids aren't as tempted to hold them too soon.

We're finishing up the school year here in our house. All the kids know what they need to finish and they know that they will finish even if it means going all summer. My oldest just has science to do. He made the choice to do the majority of his science (Apologia's General Science) during the summer. Middle son has to do math, which he absolutely dislikes. It's a constant struggle to do math. He's very good at it, when he wants to be, but just doesn't like it. My youngest is finshing up her handwriting book and some math. The math for her is review, so she doesn't foget what she's learned. Math isn't easy for her, so constant review is a must.

I'm looking ahead to next year. My oldest is starting high school. When did he grow up? Doing high school at home can seem a bit intimidating to me at times, but I am confident that we will survive. I have almost everything I need for next year already, so that's a bonus for the budget. I'll be spending some time this year getting ready to (hopefully) teach a Spanish class for our homeschool group. I haven't taught Spanish in many years. It'll be fun to teach that again.

Baseball season is starting for my oldest this week. He loves baseball and waits eagerly all fall and winter for the first practice, and now finally, the first game is almost here.

Monday: We're going to a movie in the afternoon,  just for fun on the holiday

Tuesday: Last gym class for the boys
               Bible study for Mom
               Baseball practice
               4-H rabbit meeting

Wednesday: Baseball game

Thursday: 4-H archery
                 4-H dog obedience
                 Gymnastics

Friday: nothing

Saturday: Practice for the VBS skit