I am a homeschool mom with 6 wonderful children. We live in the High Desert in California. After spending 10 years on active duty with the Navy the Lord has blessed me with the opportunity to be at home with my children and school them. We have been blessed with many homeschool families that live around us. They have all been an encouragement and blessing to me. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/psalm127/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:52:00 -0600 Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:52:00 -0600 Oh man have we been busy! Thanksgiving is just a day and a half away. I have lots of pictures but haven't had time to up load them. I have been posting on Facebook and Ravelry but haven't had time to keep up  here. You all have a wonderful Thanksgiving http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/psalm127/747297/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:52:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/psalm127/747297/ Wow the time flies. I was really trying to keep up on this but oh well. I don't know if the Station Fire is out yet, I know Friday when there was a fire in the field behind our house that it wasn't out yet but it move away from us to the east.  By the time we went to bed Friday night the fire behind us was 90% contained and we didn't see any smoke the next morning.  DS2 is doing better now and is his normal 2yr old self. Last week we went to Laughlin Nv to meet up with and Celebrate some more birthdays. My father-in-law turned 80 and they came in from Taos New Mexico. It had been a couple of years sense we had seen them. DH was the day after his dad's, his sister, my mom and step fathers birthdays were the next day. None of them were able to make it. My Step Father has cancer and was goin in for surgery that Monday only to find out there was nothing they could do for him. They are now trying to figure out if Kemo and radiation treatments will do him any good. We got back from Nevada last Wednesday after three days of being gone, hubby had the rest of the week off and helped me out with the kids schooling for the rest of the week. That was a big help and it was wonderful having him home.   I am now officially license to make and sell "Tinkle Time Trainers" Whooo Hooo, here are some pictures of what I have made so far. Before leaving on vacation I received a bunch of new knit fabric to make some more. I should go and take pictures of those, just haven't had time. Last weekend we went to a Fall Festival near by and picked up a couple of boxes of apples yummy, also got an idea in making some Fairy/Princess skirts to sell at our up coming craft fairs. DD1 and I bought the fabric but she was called away Thursday, Friday and Saturday to help a neighbor get ready for their daughters birthday party Saturday. She also helped with the party, so DD2 and DD3 helped me cut out the fabric and put the skirts togeather. DD1 will need to help me make the last 6 skirts if she hopes to make some money with us. ha ha. It is my DD1 17th birthday today yeah!!!. Had to run and take DD1 to urgent care. She smashed her pinkie in the drier door. Fortunatly it is only badly sprained.  I will try to post again later this week. I have more pictures! ha ha http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/psalm127/731664/ Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:43:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/psalm127/731664/ Things started off well this week. Station Fire is no 50% contained, they still think it will be until September 15 until it is out. The smoke got real bad this week by Wednesday. DD1 and DD2 had a PE assesment Wednesday morning and during the 1 mile run DD2 got light headed, sense she has already passed out on me twice this summer I ran out to where she was to help her back to the rest of the group(ok I have never been a runner and being 4 months pregnant I might not have really run but jog/walke) She is like me and doesn't handle extrem heat very well. We were at the park for 2 1/2 hours that morning. The smoke didn't get real bad until the afternoon.  School was light that day for in the afternoon I had an eye appointment. Thursday afternoon I noticed my DS2 was having a hard time breathing and there was now a wheeze in his cough. Thought I had better check it out to be on the safe side, back in November he had to go on breathing treatments. His plus ox was 92 and he was working really hard to get air so they gave him two breathing treatments and a steroid shot, then told me he still wasn't stable enough for a chest xray so they were going to transport us over to the hospital. Now it was my DD4 5th birthday and we were going to have pizza and presents that night. It had to be postponed until Friday. I was thankful that DD1 had gone with me to the doctors so I had her drive the van home, one less thing to worry about. Just before the ambulance came, my DH called to tell me his truck broke down, fortunatly he was in town and auto club was on the way, just a blown water hose. The ER was crowded, they gave my son (2 1/2 years old) 2 more breathing treatments and then put him on a continues one, took chest xrays. Turns out he has pneumonia. Then the doctor walks up to the young girl in the chair next to us and says she needs to put on a mask because she has the swien flu. Well the release us after 10pm, we go back over to the doctors offices and pick up all our prescriptions and make it home a little after 11pm. I call the morning to make a 48 to 72 hour follow up. Oh they are closed Monday do to the holiday and Tuesday is to far off for a baby with pneumonia so  we go back Friday afternoon. DS2 is better, still not out of the woods they tell me but do his breathing treatments every 4-6 hours and slowly increase the time inbetween them over the next couple of weeks and take the other meds the ER gave us. Now we are three days behind in school work. Thats ok, hubby is home for three days and between the two of us, we knock out the school work in two days.  Yeah!!! I can start this week off all caught up.   Wednesday I was able to finish my shawl I was working on. You can't really see the beads on the boarder but they are there. I no sooner finished this, took off for my eye appointment and stopped by the mail box and this was there! My O-wool to make some Budgie Bloomers! Then when I got home this is what UPS had left on my door step.It's the Cestari fine merino that Bridget also recommened for the bloomers and I already had some Peace Fleece so I had a side by side compairison of the different yarns to see which I liked better.Blue Peace Fleece and Artic Peace Fleece. I casted on the O-Wool to make a friend a baby shower gift, not much knitting got done on Thursday and Friday, but I did finish my first pair of Budgie Bloomers on Sunday.So now I need to work on my Tinkle Time Trainers, some for my son and a sample to go to the designer so I can get my license to sell them. I still need to make some more progress on my sweater and yes we are going on vacation!!!! We are celebrating 5 birthdays in a 3 day period. My Father-in-law, my husband, my mother and her husband, and a couple of my sister-in-laws. Oh I did say that my DD4 had her 5th birthday this week. It was fun and we spread it out over three days. ha ha. The day of her birthday she got to pick her breakfast and lunch, dinner got moved to the next night along with cake and presents. Then Saturday morning hubby and I took her out for breakfast, just the 3 of us and boy is she a chatter box. She talked non stop even when I took her to the restrooms. LOL http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/psalm127/724579/ Mon, 7 Sep 2009 04:20:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/psalm127/724579/ Church was a little empty today. Around 4 am this morning the residence of Acton were evacuated.  This is the Station Fire the larges out of the 4 here in SoCal. I understand one of the 4 is pretty much out. We are now keeping our eyes on the hills around us. The fire is just on the other side in the valley next to us.  Our skies are black with smoke. Hubby and I went around last night just to make sure we knew were things were like the cat carrier, to make sure they worked and were easy to get to. Shouldn't have to worry about it, just need to make sure over the months that things aren't burried or haven't been broken.  They expect full containment by September 8. There are evacuations in some south east parts of Palmdale, it would take a while to get to us. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/psalm127/722280/ Sun, 30 Aug 2009 17:20:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/psalm127/722280/ We are far enough away from the fires but this is what our skies look like at 1:30 this afternoon. I opened up our garage door and this is what I saw. It is this dark, and orange. Reminds me of the begining of "While You Where Sleeping" when Saundra Bulock was saying she didn't remember her memories being so orange.The skie over the houses across the street.It's even changing the color of the houses. My poor pomegranate tree, it has some fruit, looking forward to it rippening this fall.Looking down toward the end of the street. This is all smoke from the fire about 20 miles as the crow. I was suppose to go to knit with some ladies on the baby booties but I think I will stay home until my doctor appointment and work on my shawl.I am further than this but don't have a picture of it. Once this is done I need to go back to work on my brother-in-laws sweater. This is an up to date picture of it. I should get back to knitting if I want to finish my shawl in the next couple of days so I can work on this sweater so then when my yarn gets here I can cast on for my "Budgie Bloomers" http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/psalm127/722000/ Sat, 29 Aug 2009 15:58:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/psalm127/722000/ Oh my I was almost finished posting all we had done and I hit something that whiped out my whole post. AAGH I will try again. Man that will teach me not to save my work from time. We had three birthdays in two week period. Here is the first my DS1 who turned 7. My DD3 calles this Ants in the Panties. LOL My oldest wanted to make him brownies for his Birthday cake. 10 days later was DD3's 9th birthday. Learning from past mistakes that 3 cakes in two weeks was too much this is what she had for her "cake" Our church just happened to be having a pool party that afternoon for TGIF Thank God For Families, so after presents we took off for an afternoon of pool fun. Here are the suits I made the girls for the summer.Pattern is from Modest Swimwear Solutions. 4 days after her birthday was DD2 15th birthday. We had 3 in swim lessons this summer. DD3, DD4 and DS1. This is DS1 and DD4, it is very hard to take pictures through a chain link fence. We were not allowed to be in the pool area during swim lessons. Here is DD3, she was the only girl in this class. Here is the update on DD4's Skirty made fromBelladonna Designs Here it is all done. These are a pair of newborn longies I made with the same pattern. I have an other pair using the reverse, light blue for the waist band and cuff and the darker blue for the main body and legs, that I need to make. Still need to cast on, but I have so many other projects to finish, that I don't want to start on any new ones till I finish the projects I am working on now. LOL Did you see these? I made them just for fun, DS2 has a pair of longies made out of the same yarn as two of these. Now here is a pair of newborn capris crochet fromWigglebunz Creation pattern  These are called Slobber Soakers, they are knit with supper wash merino so they can go right in the wash. The pattern is from Adorabubble Knits I made these bras earlier this year but haven't had a chance to post them. These are the patterns from Anne St. Clair over at Needle Nook Fabrics. Back in Febuary Anne and her friend came out. You can see my post from earlier here. I am working on trainers for DS2, I have this one completed and three others ready to go. They are made from"Tinkle Time Trainers" there are options for one side snap, both side snaps or just pull up. I opted for the pull up ones. He loves to wear them, but then he poops in them too. Oh well one of these days. ha ha This is a new stew reciep that I tried. I ran out of time so I only cooked it on the stove top instead of putting it in the oven for two hours. This one didn't turn out as thick as the one I made last night which I started on earlier in the day so it was nice and thick. This was a big hit and I will be making it quite a bit through out the fall and winter. YUMMY I just purchased an other new knitting pattern and can hardly wait to cast on. This is from Bridget over at Purityseekers but you can either buy the pattern at her store TheEast Side  if you are a knitter or if you are not then you can have a pair custom made just for you. They are sooo adourable. I have been drooling over her "Budgie Bloomers" for about a year now just waiting until the pattern would come out so I can knit them up. This is one of my all time favorites......well until the next one. Everytime she posts a new bloomer I fall in love with it. Like this one. Or what about this one?Just look at all the work Bridget put into these. I melt everytime a new one comes out. Do you have a favorite yet? Are you drooling like me? Then go CHECK IT OUT BEFORE YOU LOOSE YOUR MIND! ok one more. I am waiting on some yarn that Bridget recommened in the pattern so I can cast on. I am glad its not here yet, remember I said I have to finish some other projects first before I can start an other project. So what am I doing on line updating my post for! I have work to do so I can play with my new pattern. LOL   Last but certainly not the least of everything going on, God has blessed us with an other child on the way. I should be 13 weeks this Friday, and I have been so sick by the afternoons, which is a blessing. That means HCG levels are still there hence the baby is still alive! I have my next appointment on Saturday and looking forward to hearing that heart beat! If all goes well baby #7 should be arriving around March 5, 2010. You all have a wonderfull start of a new school year! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/psalm127/720737/ Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:43:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/psalm127/720737/ Wow I can't believe August is here and do you know that some of the Public school in my area started back today!!! I have two off to summer camp this week. I have been busy doing things but not keeping up my blog. I have posted things to Facebook, Ravelry and a KAL but I haven't had time to upload photos to an online site to then turn around and blog about our summer and post pictures.   I have been collecting school supplies for this next year.....and beyond. LOL I figured when I found great deals on the curriculum I like to use I would buy what I need for everyone to finish school. I had the old verison of Easy Grammar (ie. 34,45,56) that I had used with my oldest two and now that they have upgrated I went to the company earlier this year and asked if they had any left over workbooks for the levels I needed for the four younger ones (8yrs old down to my 2yr old) They had most books except for one level and each work book was only $5. WOW what a savings!!!! I have been able to fill in the rest with great deals on ebay. Last year someone was having a clearance on Pathway Readers and I did the same thing. So my reading and grammar is covered for Elementary grades and some Jr. High. I have History of the world volumes 1-3 with workbooks that I have made copies for my kids which is allowed for the owner for their kids so I use that, I am thinking of picking up volume 4. My High schooler I have picked up the Sicence and History requirements for our state with SOS so that too can be used with all children following. I found an online sign language course for free that qualifies for 1year foreign language in our state, but also picked up level one spanish Rosseta Stone for homeschoolers which I am finiding I need just to help out my grandmother (she doesn't speak spanish but lives in an area that they just about only speak spanish) I love my new Homeschool Tracker Plus program, I have been creating lesson plans that I will be able to use year after year with each different program, subject and publisher. I only have to create it once and it is saved forever or until I delete it. ha ha  15 to 30 minutes now creating a lesson plan for a subject for a whole year that in the future will only take me 2 minutes to apply to the next one who needs it. Talk about time saving. I have a summer schedule in there and love that I enter the points earned out of the points possible then go to generate a report card and it has my grades for me. Then there is the Library, all I have to do is input the ISBN number of my book and wala it puts in the rest of the info for me. I can then assign that book for reading, school lessons or just have a record of what I have and where I have it, if I borrowed it from someone or lent it to someone, If I borrowed if from the local library, when it is due and can have an alarm sound so many days before its due date so I don't forget to return it. Ok love it love it love it!!  I have been doing the Dave Ramsey High School Finance Course with my two high schoolers this summer, they are bumbed when one of them is away at camp because I won't work on it with one gone.   DD2 went to Jr. High camp even though she is going into High School this year, they were allowed to go this summer, much cheeper than High School Camp $65 , HS was $175. We told the girls that they needed to help pay for their camps. Well DD2 baked chocolate chip cookie (ground the flour and all) and took them to the church's bake sale and raised $130, paid for herself and an other girl who need fund to go to camp. I was so proud of her. DD1 now had earned money by babysitting, dog walking and dog sitting and paid her $50 deposit they then had a Bar-B-Que at church (same day as the bake sale) to raise money for 4 High Schoolers to go to camp.They raise $100 for each of them $400 total to go to camp which then DH and I paid the last $25 for her to go to Hume Lake. DD1 went to camp the Sunday after DD2 came back. While DD2 was at HS camp VBS was going on so DD2 helped out and DD3, DS1 and DD4 attended! they had a blast. Yesterday DD1 went to camp with DD3 as a Jr Counsoler.  All the while DD3,DS1 and DD4 are in morning swim lessons. DS1 loves Friday fun days (every two weeks) because he can jump off the Lifeguard towers. I have been knitting and sewing as well. Once I get a chance to upload picture to another site I will post them. I have swim suite I made for the girls, longies, Skirties, Capris, stegasoures, baby booties for the Pregnancy Crisis Centers in California, monthly socks for the KAL and still working on my brother in laws sweater. Yep I am still here but haven't found a whole lot of time to blog. ha ha http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/psalm127/713778/ Mon, 3 Aug 2009 08:28:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/psalm127/713778/ I love this time of year, Ali over at Skeins Her Way is doing her yearly motivating contest. Go to her blog, read the contest rules, make your summer knitting list and have fun. I have some UFO's I have been finishing up Baby Cardigan, done(last week) Dish cloth (last week) Baby booties for Pregnancy Crisses Centers in California---- this is on going, just started with the group on Saturday. These are two I have finished so far, but trying to finish up UFO socks for DD1 Wool Skirty for DD4 Socks for DD1 Black Sheep Jacket for brother-in-law (on hold til LYS can get the size circs I need to keep my stiches from jumping off needles) longies shorties skirties (I am addicted, I just bought lots of worsted weight yarn to make longies/shorties/skirties) Smiple Raglan - I now have both pattern and my 7 skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Skinny Died Cotton in malard I also want to learn how to dye my own yarn Fun, Fun , Fun!! You have until midnight on June 21 to enter. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/psalm127/699548/ Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:45:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/psalm127/699548/ Can't believe how fast things are going. We just finished up our home schooling PE class for this year and it's sad not to be getting together with the other moms every week. Though I have made several more friends this year and look forward to seeing them over the summer. One lady and I are going to teach our high schoolers next year sign language for their foreign language course.  California requires one year of foreign language to graduate from high school and sign language is deemed a foreign language, it is also recommended for those with an audio learning disorder ADD is one of them. I did some research and found this course online that is free, I am really excited about it. ASL University go to the syllabi and scroll down to were it says ASLU Level 1 [Home School / Self-Testing.  I have been so frustrated with Edu Track and I have read several blogs over the last several months of people who were frustrated with Edu Track and recommended Homeschool Tracker so I thought I would check it out. Oh man was it so much easier to use and the customer support was awesome! They have training videos, discussion group and live chat (haven't had to use the live chat) The people have been very curtious and helpful. I have been having a blast creating lesson plans and getting things ready for next year. Having several kids needing or going to need to use the same books over the next several years, I liked that I can make a lesson plan for say Math U See Zeta and be able to save it to use in the next coming years for the next four kids. All lesson plans are reuseable for years to come, hence make a lesson plan once and then assign it as offen as you need to, the work is already done. Plus there are already made lesson plans that are shared for free in a yahoo group that you just have to download them import. There is so much I can do with this, I love it!   Dear Hubby is on vacation for two weeks!!! We were given free 2fer tickets and went to California Adventure this last week. (Have pictures but haven't had time to down load them yet) We had a blast! None of us had ever been there before. This week we plan to go to Disneyland, "regular" school isn't out yet so it shouldn't be too crowded. DS2 unsure about the tram from the parking lot to the park. DD1 and DS1 with DD4's back of the head. They all liked the tram rideDD4 and DS1, excited about the day.   DD1, DH holding DS2, DD2 front row DD4, DS1 and DD3 Hey look a real family picture, I made it in the photo and with Goofy to boot, does that tell you something about us. LOLHad to take pictures of these doors, I could relate. Ha ha Must be the government door. HMMMM. Aah my little peanut. She was my  riding buddy for the day.DD1 and DS1 were riding buddies.DD2 and DD3 were riding buddies.DS2 and DH were riding buddies, looks like son is starting to get use to the rides.Videos of trip will be loaded on my Facebook. Don't know how to imbed them in the blog. We all got the flu Thursday night into Friday, it was yukky and painful. Friday DH and I were suppose to take my van in to get new tires, brakes and oil and filter change, neigther one of us felt up to going so tomorrow we will and have a breakfast date at the same time! Do to the flu, DD2 wasn't able to go to her PE class's swim party. I was bummed.   DD1 is off at the wedding of her youth pastor today. The wedding is at the church I grew up in and became a christian at. The reception is up here so when she is done she will call and we will go get her. I just got some more yarn in the mail yesterday that I plan on making a skirty for my daughter and longies or shorties for my son. DD1 doesn't think the blue is boy enough. I will get to it one of these days. Now I love my friend Bridgets longies, skirties but unfortunatly she has no pattern for sale yet so I had to go and get an other pattern to hold me over.  I have knit both sleeves to my brother in laws sweater and a wonderful lady on Ravelry explanded how to attach my sleeves to the main body. Now do to not having long enough circular needles so my stiches wont commit suicide by jumping off the end of my needles, I contacted my "local" yarn store to see if they had the ones I needed, Well they are in the process of moving closer to me but haven't finished their move yet, but you can call or email them and if they have or can get it they will mail it to you. Great!!....but they emailed me to tell me they were in Idaho until June 5 or 6, so I just have to put the sweater on hold until they get back :( Ok I am in the process of downloading my pictures and I need to use a new place to store them so maybe I will be back to edit this post with pictures. Oh an I believe there are pictures of the fire that was just across the way in the open field on Thursday afternoon. DD2 took pictures, after calling 911 to report a brush fire and watching it for a time I was feeling to achy so she took the pictures while I laid on the couch. Yes this is what it looked like looking down our street. Thankful that the wind was plowing the other direction. Remember the sheep I told you about in an earlier post? This is why. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/psalm127/694513/ Sun, 31 May 2009 18:23:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/psalm127/694513/ It's that time of year again. Ali over at Skeins Her Way is doing another contest, giving away 3 skeins of the new 'Sweater' yarn from Spud & Chloe. All you have to do is hop on over to her site, read the contest instructions(which is easy) By midnight on Memorial Day and you get entered in. Ali is the one who inspired me a couple of years ago to branch out in my knitting with one of her contest. That time we had to say what are knitting goals where for the summer. I had only one item on my list and that was a sweater. I had never knit a sweater before that, I did finish it and then turned around and sold it at a church craft fair in the fall of that year. Sense then I have tried many other project that I never thought I could do. It has been fun....Still haven't won any of her yarn, but I have bought a few of her pattern designs. LOL Ali is also a home schoolin mama with 7 wonderful blessings. I have enjoyed reading her blogs over the last couple of years. So go over and check out her blog and dream of what you can be knitting this summer.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/psalm127/691061/ Wed, 20 May 2009 21:38:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/psalm127/691061/