Well, it's not all that bad really.  LOL  A few have been cleared out and are ready to put in our upcoming yard sale (amidst many protests from our oldest).  Hubby and I moved our entertainment center, which has bookcases on each end, back into our family room over the weekend.  We've had it tucked away in the back of the house for months and months now while remodeling has been going on (or I should really say not going on).  I believe hubby has finally given up on his former co-worker coming back to finish helping (and he owes us!).  Hubby declared that the wall the entertainment center goes on is "good enough", so back it is.  I've been loading the bookcases up with books and rearranging, and rearranging, and rearranging.  I think I've finally found an order I'm happy with (for the time being). 

I've claimed one shelf for next year's curricula.  I'm tired of it being scattered everywhere (a huge problem for us this year, but such is the life in a house that's in the deep throngs of being renovated).  I've also pulled out all the books I can find that our oldest has not read yet and have them on a shelf of their own.  These are chapter books that I really want to start reading through next school year (books such as Misty of Chincoteague, the Little House series, the Who Was series, the remainder of The Chronicles of Narnia series we haven't read yet, and many more).  Getting these together in one place (instead of spread out amongst various bookcases and other locations) is already showing me that I really can get by with using the library less and less.  Our oldest also has plenty of other chapter books that I consider "fun" reading in his room.  And of course I'll be on the lookout for more books at yard sales, thrift stores and such as I'm able.

Our other huge bookcase will remain in the back of the house for now (until we start remodeling that room and then I have no idea where we'll move it).  Hubby and I are both really leary of bringing it back into our family room yet as our youngest is quite the busy beaver and would probably try to climb the shelves and end up pulling the whole thing over on top of himself.  We don't want to bolt it into place since we intend to sell in the next year or two so it's better to keep the temptation out of the room.

As this school year is winding down (and I will admit I very much do need a break!), I find myself admiring how wonderful and inviting everything looks now so neatly lined up in the entertainment center and I'm really looking forward to next school year. 

Our oldest will be using A Beka's Our American Heritage for history next homeschool year.  I've been slowly going through the book trying to familiarize myself with everything and plan lessons along with some supplemental reading.  The book starts off with Christopher Columbus and I am so thrilled that we just purchased a book at the library a few weeks ago called Christopher Columbus: Navigator to the New World by Isaac Asimov for a whopping 25¢!

With gas prices so high and a variety of other factors deeply affecting our budget, I really need to keep our library trips to a minimum.  I am so thankful we have an awesome county-wide library system here and I can request books from any branch be sent to the location of my choice, but the books don't always come in all at once or necessarily in a timely fashion.  A new policy started a few months ago and books will only be held for pickup for 3 days (used to be 5 days).  Depending on the person working and his/her interpretation of "three" days, that time frame sometimes includes the day they call and sometimes it does not.  I often have to make multiple trips to pick up materials and I simply cannot do that any longer.  I'll be relying on our home library as much as possible (for all subjects) and am thrilled we found and purchased this book not knowing it would come in so handy!  It's hardcover, in brand new condition, and was a library book that was removed from circulation.  I would venture to guess it wasn't checked out often (or at all based on its excellent condition).

I have no trouble admitting it....... the majority of the time I absolutely hate where we live.  The noise, the overcrowding, the traffic, the rude people, and so on have all ruined the beauty of our surroundings for us.  However, every now and then I am still blessed with a few instances of beauty and serenity here. 

We are fortunate to live on an acre and a half with a good sized pond on our property.  We have a dock and our oldest loves to go out with me to feed bread to the fish and "George."  George is a Florida softshell turtle that lives in our pond.  There are others in there as well that we rarely get a glimpse of, but George is the only one brave enough to come right up to us.  We discovered him shortly after we moved into this home in May 2004 and our oldest named him George.  Seeing George is definitely a highlight for us anytime we're out on the dock.  We actually thought we'd lost him during the hurricanes of 2004 as both Frances and Jeanne flooded our area badly.  The ditches on our road overflowed due to being tied into a creek that ties into the lagoon which ties into the ocean.  Most homes on our road have a pond and the flooding resulted in the ditches and ponds just becoming one gigantic lake of sorts.  We know we lost many fish as well as alligator gar from our pond (they are all probably living happily in a neigboring pond!) due to the flooding and throught George was a goner as well.  A few months later, we delightfully discovered that George was still with us as a resident of our pond.  Hooray!  Why he didn't show himself to us all that time is a mystery.

We also have many Florida sandhill crane families living around our home.  They are frequently in our yard or walking up and down our road.  I wish I could describe their "voice".  It's very distinct.  We hear them often throughout the day and always rush to see where they are.

Last evening, we had a pleasant reminder from George and a couple of the sandhill cranes as to why it's not so bad living here.  While we were on the dock feeding George, one of the cranes was calling his/her mate and flying overhead (a simply breathtaking sight).  His/her mate was answering from a neighboring property.  It still gives me chills to think of it all and the wonder and excitement in our children's eyes when we are blessed with those sort of moments is just priceless.

What a wonderful day we've had today!  We had the opportunity to visit the Enchanted Forest in Titusville, FL for their Earth Day 2007 celebration.  Especially thrilling was the exhibit from Hands-On Wildlife.  Both Sable (Florida panther) and Tiko (African serval) were on hand along with small alligators, a tarantula, a variety of snakes, an African tortoise named Ruby (sorry, I can't recall the exact type of tortoise, but she was beautiful!), and a skunk!  We loved getting to pet Tiko, the African serval.  She was a fiesty little thing, but oh so gorgeous.  Sable, the Florida panther, was equally gorgeous.  Those two stunning cats just made our day, along with getting to hold a young alligator (roughly two years old if I remember correctly) and our oldest also ventured to pet the skunk.  Special thanks go to Miss Lynn and Miss Dawn from Hands-On Wildlife for spending so much time with us answering questions and giving us lots of great information.  They, along with all the other volunteers from Hands-On Wildlife, were just fabulous!

I have to give a shout out for the Indian River Anthropological Society as well.  The gentleman from there had a wonderful display of Indian artifacts and his information about the Ais Indians was very much appreciated. 

For more information about African Servals, check out this site.

For more information about Florida panthers, check out this site.

For more information about Earth Day, check out this site.

I've been working the past few weeks on getting our homeschool lessons for next year all planned out.  One book my oldest will be working his way through is Ed Emberley's Big Purple Drawing Book.  We've checked several of his books out of the library, but the three week loan time is just not long enough to properly make a dent in any of them.  I was thrilled to find the Big Purple Drawing Book on a library sale cart for 25¢ a few months ago - definitely easy on the homeschool budget!

Ed Emerley's site