You know you're a homeschool mom when. . .

They're pond critters. We have tadpoles, water beetles, pond skaters, crawfish, and may be something else??

They had critter night for the preschoolers at church last Sunday night, and since the man doing the presentation is good friends with Joel, and knew we were wanting some tadpoles, he gave us all of these! The crawfish are disgusting looking, but I'm really excited to have something interesting to watch. Now, let's just hope we can keep them alive and see the tadpoles turn to frogs!

Land of the Living

Well, I think I'm coming back, y'all! My body is imprinted on the love seat and I've slept through about 150 I Love Raymond reruns. I'v watched entirely more Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy than I'd like to admit, and I haven't done anything around my house.

So, while I'm back to life I think, I am spending my spurts of energy today cleaning house and doing laundry.

Next week I'm off with the little girls to meat all the other women and children in Joel's family for camp meeting. I'm hoping I'm not too naseaus to enjoy the cabin/tent that my mother-in-law has been working hard to restore to living conditions so we can all spend the night up there. Joel and his siblings and cousins used to go up there every summer, but in the last 15-20 years the place has just been opened up enough so that the family can keep it (you lose it if you don't open it up every other year or so).

Well, for the past few years some of us have gone and stayed in hotels or houses in the area during camp meeting, choosing air conditioned locations because of young children. But, this year the cabin has upgraded kitchen stuff, newer matresses (family hand-me-downs), newer furniture (our hand-me-downs), and a new window (for more air circulation). We started making all the plans as we were leaving from camp meeting last year, and over the past 12 months, Joel's mom has been busy seeing that things get done around there.

What we didn't anticipate was that Joel's sister and I both would be pregnant (me 8 weeks, and her 9/10 weeks). Hopefully we don't morning sickness everyone out of there!

So, when I get back and recover, I'll be getting ready for the homeschool convention. We will start school on August 3, and I hope to be a much better blogger then! I hope I don't loose any readers in the mean time!

Hope you all have a great week - I'll put pictures of our adventure up when we return!

When Life Happens

So, I've been making big plans for our homeschool year. All these wonderful themes and such for us to do. And now, I'm pregnant. And Tired. And Miserable. So I'm not making big plans.

I will still educate my children, but I am going to let myself off the hook for doing a lot of extras. When I have the energy for extras, I'll do them, but we might get by with the basics.

Anyone else have to scale back their plans when life intrudes on the ideal?

No Tutorial Today. . .

I plan to do a tutorial of my binder cover, but I'm very, very tired. That's what pregnancy does to you. Yep, that's right! We're PREGNANT!!

I am just 6 weeks along, with a due date of February 27. . . hopefully, I will be back to blogging regulary soon, but for now I'm trying to keep my head above water!

To Tell You What's in My Binder. . .

Okay, there is nothing magical about the binder, but I love it! Here is a tab-by-tab description of what is in mine:

~ Calendar - I printed monthly sheets from www.donnayoung.org I try to write everything down so each morning I can take a look at today and the next few days.

~Schedule - I have a copy of my daily schedule so I know what I'm supposed to be doing. I've made one for school days, and I'm trying to decide if I want make one for non-school days, or just wing it. Probably, I will just wing it since we are going to do school 4 days a week instead of just 3 like last year.

~Homeschool Plans - I have sheets for my unit plans with ideas, goals, and other notes. I also have my workbox planning forms in this section.

~Grocery List/Menu Planse - I have a table type form with sections of the grocery store - produce, frozen, paper products, etc. I currently have a 3 week rotating menu. On the fourth week I either start over or try to clean out the pantry and freezer of things that I've purchased but haven't eaten for whatever reason.

~Homeschool Misc. - I keep little tidbits here like things I would like to have in our art center, or great ideas I print off that I want to remember for later.

~Telephone/Address - Currently, there is only my Homeschool Co-Op group's contact information. I plan to put my Christmas list in here too.

~Travel - Places we want to go, ideas for keeping the kids entertained, sample packing lists, etc.

~A tab for each of my girls - yearly homeschool goals (for my kindergartner this has things like learn 200 sight words, count to 100 by ones, twos, fives, and tens; it also has things like learn to load the dishwasher, learn to tie shoes, learn to think of others before herself) I have a similar list for my 3 year old.

~Craft tab - things I want to make or sew, handy tips I read on the internet, etc.

Other tabs you may have:
~Ministry (I had one of these last year when I was facilitator for a women's mission group at our church)
~Household chores
~Loan/Borrow list - what you've loaned to someone or things you've borrowed so you can remember who has it or who it belongs to
~Gift Registry - who you need to shop for, gift ideas, sizes, etc.

So, what's in your binder? I might be missing something life-changing!!

~

Do You Have a Home Management Binder?

div>I do. I plan to utilize it more for our homeschool plans, grocery lists, and menus. But, I like to do planning at the library sans the kiddos on my afternoon "off", and a big, bulky binder just gets in the way. So, today, I fixed it.



Here is my boring, run-of-the-mill binder.



Here is my new, fabulous binder that I can carry on my shoulder like a pocket book!

It was VERY easy to make, I made it start to finish in about an hour and a half, including phone calls and a pull up change :). I like pretty organized!