My friends!  Obviously we decided to homeschool.  Our area's not the safest, and our religious views differ from those in our current surroundings.

For the past few years, we have done the best we can on very little.  We made the sacrifice of money for the benefit of the development of our little girl.  I know sometimes it got tough.  Our friends and family are to be thanked many times over for bailing us out of some pretty sticky situations over the years.  (Including the most recent broken car and sick dog episodes) 

Things are heading for an upswing.  Hubby works as a mortgage banker now, started 3 months ago, and we're looking forward to commission checks as a way to get started on paying back so much generosity from friends and family.  Soon, we'll have another car again, and I'll be able to join the homeschooler group's field trips and picnics and play groups and all that!  Not to mention being able to drive out once in a while and see about RIDING lessons for our daughter!!

(Well, really - a horse to ride on at any rate.  I can teach her the basics.)

The dog that got sick, Bella, is doing much better now and is back to her annoying, hyperactive, loveable, cute self.  The other dog, K, has "graduated" in my mind from training, as she's passed the major test of remaining calm and submissive to our daughter during walks where I was not there to "override controls" so to speak.  It's a thing of beauty that makes me wish over and over again I had a digital video camera!  I'd LOVE to send that into Cesar Millan's website.  It was just perfect. Go Daughter!

My sister turned 16 the other day.  It makes me feel old.

My friend had a baby shower today, and LOVED the sweater I crocheted for her new baby boy.  I just hope it fits him!  I have never been to a more fun shower!  The entire families were invited, not just the women, and it was at an all you can eat buffet!  Talk about my kind of party!  It's also worth noting the family is Wiccan, which means once we get into comparitive religion, we'll have a (whaddya call 'em) consultant in that particular field.

I started a dinosaur unit last week.  She's liking the dinos, and I'm loving the questions that come along with that.  Especially the ones that deal with exactly WHERE did the dinos come from - they're not mentioned in the Bible - did God put 'em there?  Did God make everything?  HOW did God make everything? 

My answers dealt with the Buddhist hierarchy of beings to answer where the dinos came from, and that God decided what forms come when, and whatever mysterious criteria He deemed as making a 'good plankton' turn into a 'good jellyfish' to a 'good dinosaur' and everything in between.  I said no one knows exactly how it happened, so there's lots of arguements between religious leaders and scientists and no one can really agree WHY the dinos were here, or exactly WHY they died out (or for that matter, why some remained unchanged and did not go extinct - i.e. turtles, jellyfish, alligators/crocodiles) or what, if anything, guided evolution of a species (mammoth to elephant, prehistoric horse to modern horse).  It's been challenging, but tons of fun. 

We're hoping to get past the stories, the coloring, etc. and get to the museums and do our own little backyard excavation to dig for fossils.  I'm also hoping to get a hold of an x-box soon, and use the Jurrasic park video game as a teaching tool.  There's surprisingly a LOT of info in that particular game, including dino bios, habitat, time period, and what they might have dined on.  Plus, it's a park managing type game, which would teach basic budgeting skills, and touches a little on running a business (even if it IS fictional).

It's too late for me - obviously.  I've just referred to a VIDEO game as a TEACHING tool!