Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Making New Friends!

When I started my blog, I had no idea anyone would read it other than my mom. I certainly didn't expect to find so many other blogs to read and find such great stuff from. Definitely the last thing on my mind was that I would meet new people "in real life" to be friends. I have met two great ladies from blogging, and I have to tell you it has been a blessing both times!

I started reading The Snail's Trail during the 5 Minutes for Mom blog party. She is a homeschooling mom with SO many fun ideas! We figured out a couple of weeks ago that we are town neighbors! So, today we were able to get together at the park with our kids and meet and talk about homeschooling and all sorts of other things. It was so much fun!

Mary Helen did most of the photography, but here are our pictures from the day!





Aren't Kari's kids just the cutest?! Our kids got along famously well, as did the moms! It's just amazing how similar our lives are - both trained (her) or almost-trained (me) school teachers who are now homeschooling. Big Snail and Mary Helen are just a month apart in age, as are Little Snail and Anna!

Being just 20 minutes apart, we will be able to get together for play dates and field trips for a long time!

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Keeping My Head Above Water

On Thursday, Anna had her tonsils and adnoids removed. We came home on Friday, and have been trying to keep her hydrated enough to stay out of the hospital enough. We've also let her get by with things we don't normally let her get away with. It's already coming back to get us. She has been horribly grumpy and whiny.

So, today is the day I am going to try to take back my house. Yesteday, I abandoned all responsibilities and the girls and I went to my grandparents house all day. Then, I took fast food to Joel in the field, and I came home and put the girls to bed. But, today, we are going to get back on schedule. If. It. Kills. Us. (and I think it might).

Mary Helen has been acting out some, and I think it's a mix of being on the go and off schedule so much. Anna's been getting the best of my attention, and Joel has been working late nights. I noticed a great difference in Mary Helen's behavior in the weeks on the schedule, so if for no other reason, we are going back for her.

I hope to have some interesting things to post about soon, but for now, I am just trying to keep my head above water.

For a great read on setting the tone in your home, head over to We Are THAT Family and see what Kristen had to say today.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Road Trip!

Finally, here are some pictures I took last weekend when I went to visit Elise.



I've never been one to snap pictures of myself, but I figured I would just for fun. . . so here I am headed out!


Look at that long, straight road!




Would you want your legal business handled by the Law Dog?
This is a charming little coffee house in a small town on the way. I didn't stop here this time, but Joel and I ate lunch here on our way to the mountains for our anniversary. It was just as charming on the inside, and yummy to boot!


This is where I did eat:

I would like to stop here. I'm not sure of the story of this beautiful place, but they give tours. I'd love to stop. May be Elise and I can meet up and make it a field trip!
This is an abandoned antique store in a stretch of several antique stores that I would love to stop in. If you look closely, you'll see some metal porch chairs that I was tempted to stop and ask someone about. I really want some of them! Hopefully next time I'm up Elise's way, I will have time to stop and peruse!


Now, if you want to see what we did when I was up there, head on over to Elise's blog and check out her craft room transformation!

When she comes down here (hopefully sooner than later) we are going to transform my playroom!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

How I organize for school

This year, my daughter and I are doing My Father's World. Mary Helen is four, and "should" be in pre-k. We tried out a couple of pre-k curriculums, but none of them were a good fit. Then we took a few months off from school, and I decided to go ahead and buy the My Father's World Kindergarten curriculum. I had planned to use it anyways for kindergarten. We began in March and plan to use it through May or June of 2010, then start her with first grade.

Anywho. . . I wanted to share some pictures of how we set up and do school around here.


This is her school bag. It normally is home to a pencil as well. Keeping all the supplies in this bag is a lifesaver since Mary Helen love all things crafty. These items are only for school time. We have had too many frustrating days looking for scissors, glues sticks, and crayons!

An action shot!

These canvas bins house our craft sticks that we use for counting sticks and our picture cards for each letter. The jar with the white lid has our number cards for math. The green basket has our counting sticks.
Our magnet letters. The letters on the left are letters we've studied.
Shot of the whole area. I hang our badges to the left of the chalkboard and keep the week's truth written on the chalkboard.
I keep all our unit stuff organized in file folders. I write a general plan on the outside of the folder so I don't forget anything.

My folders in a cute magazine rack I got at a yard sale :)

Mary Helen's school folder. I wrote her name the way she should write it. She tends to only use capital letters or make cutesy letters, which is fine by me anytime except school time. There's also a chart with numbers, shapes, colors, etc. on it taped on the front.

Inside she keeps her calendar and 100 chart on the right and her weekly work goes on the left. Days of the week are taped in here.

I can't say enough good things about MFW so far. We are enjoying it. I love that I can get by with 20 minutes a day if I choose to, or I can extend things out as long as I'd like.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Look what I just won!

I can't believe I won a giveaway! This is a first for me, and it's just wonderful! Jamie at BusyBizzB made this adorable tag blankie. It is just in time for a sweet baby that a couple at our church just had!


If you haven't met Jaime yet, you should head on over. Her blog is pretty new, but she has some great stuff over there! She is very talented, and has a fun etsy shop.

Don't you just love being in a community of bloggers?!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Happy Sunday!

I'm just doing a few minutes of blog-jogging before I dress for church. It's been a great weekend! Friday afternoon I flew over to Elise's Nest Sweet Nest! We shopped at the best stores ever - an antique mall, Hobby Lobby, and Good Will! Talk about hospitality~she knew her guest and treated her right!

I'll post more details about all our fun, but you can read about what we did at her blog!

Sorry for all the exclamation points, but they all seemed to fit!

Friday, April 17, 2009

Springtime is in the air!

div>One last thing I got on after Easter clearance was these tulip muffin tins. I wanted to get two of them, and I sure couldn't drop $9 each for them. I snagged them for 50% off. I probably could have waited them out and may be they would have gone for less; but we do muffin tin lunches a couple times a month, and we can always bake in them. Which is what we did yesterday. Twice!


I made our muffin breakfast in them yesterday morning, then this is what we did in the afternoon:


sorry, no particular order here :) ~ this is the girls mixing the icing with food coloring in ziplock bags...

Here are the yummy cupcakes fresh out of the oven (we mixed them with food coloring right in the tin). I shaved the tops off so that they would sit flat, and I reserved the puffy tops to make a mini trifle (truffle or trifle?).


Don't worry, we aren't sending these off to anyone. . . so you don't have to worry about that finger licking!
Anna's masterpieces:



Mary Helen's masterpieces:


I also saved what was left of the icing to use on sugar cookies next week!

What a fun afternoon!