This Weekend in Color

Squishy Wars

Keyboard



New Water Color Pencils

The Artist

 

Jared's New Book Series

(He read two this weekend and is hooked)

Bleeding Heart

Hosta

Peony... Almost

Lastly, a random foot photo (a little out of focus)

Have you ever found your child sleeping like this?

Me either...which is why I had to snap this one.

Click.

Oops.

Good Morning, Jared!



The End.

I hope everyone had a nice weekend!

Walk on the Canal

We took a stroll down the C & O Canal on Saturday, minus one child.  (She has a broken toe/broken toes and is wearing a boot that she didn't want to get dirty! Someone please tell me how to wrap my children in bubble wrap to avoid all these injuries?).

I'm so glad we got outside to soak in the sunshine this weekend before all this cold, rainy weather rolled in!  It was a very relaxing walk...except for the part when I stepped on a baby snake!

Lock House #28

Check out this creepazoid millipede!

After our walk we rewarded ourselves with ice cream from the new creamery in town.  It was so good!  I wasn't able to get a clear shot of this next picture because we were driving down the road.  This is through my windshield and the dog was turning his head constantly.

If you can't see- he has goggles on.  Only in the country...

Quick Art Project

Follow through is not one of my strengths.  I have good intentions on getting things done but, unfortunately, I have a lot of unfinished projects around.  Such as, the scarf I started knitting this winter and walls that I never finished painting. 

So when we started our art curriculum this year I fully intended on sticking with it until the end.  But...we fizzled out of it.  We chose a drawing course and we completed a few nice projects and learned some new techiniques like shading, texture, lines, etc.  We also learned how to draw one point perspective:

Jenna~

Jared~

Now that we don't have a curriculum to follow I was scrambling at the last minute to come up with an art project the other day.  I did a quick search and found instructions and templates for making comics.  It turned out to be a fun activity and Jared plans to continue making more. 

In case you can't see it, it says:

Hi, my name is Jared.

This is pretty much what I do most of the day. (Kid laying in bed, relaxing)

(Running) Yep, you heard me, 'most of the day'.  I said that because I'm homeschoo--

(Bang! Crashes into trashcan.) ...Uh...---schooled.

I found the templates and lots of other ideas at donnayoung.org and instructions and ideas for coming up with a story here.  Or, if you do a search in Google you can find lots of ideas.

Discovery Sighting in DC

Yesterday the kids, my mom, brother and me went to DC to watch for the Discovery to fly by.  The pilot graciously flew 3 laps around the Mall which allowed for lots of picture taking.  This was a really neat experience for the kids and I'm glad we took the time to go see it.  They were especially glad to have a field trip day!

Here are a few of my favorites (I took 100, so I'll spare you the rest!).

This was lap #1

Lap #2

Lap #3

It was quite a sight to behold!  And not only that, I found out there still are caring human beings around:

At the end of our day, as we stepped off the metro and the train started to pull away I instantly realized I'd left my Nikon camera on that train.  I felt sick.  As soon as I called out "My camera!"  There was a metro lady walking right past me (which had to have been the hand of God) and she instructed me to go to the station manager. The station workers were so helpful and called immediately to the next station.  They told me to ride the next train and it would be there at that station.  But, when I got there they said no one had turned in a camera and to check back with 'Lost and Found' later that day.  My heart sank.  And I was thinking 'Yeah, right. No one is going to "turn in" a nice camera'.  As I was having my negative thinking pity party a gentlemen walks up with my camera bag in his hand.  I wanted to hug and kiss him!

I have to give glory to God because it was only by His grace that I got that camera back!

My First Homeschool Convention~Greenville, SC

I just returned from my first homeschool convention in Greenville, SC.  This was truly a life changing event for me, and in turn, my family.

I am blown away how God answered so many of my spoken and unspoken prayers, giving me new direction and purpose. It's like He strategically placed me in each of the workshops that I needed to be in.  I feel like I just gathered up arm loads full of precious golden nuggets and gems that are spilling out and overflowing.  As my friend at The Anderson Bunch put it after leaving one of our workshops- my cup runneth over!  I am overwhelmed by His goodness and so excited for what's ahead for us throughout the remainder of this year and in the years to come.

Besides the workshops, the vendor hall presented a bunch of new curriculum that I can't wait to try.  There are things I plan to order for the remainder of this year and I know the changes I'd like to make for next year. 

I'm thankful for my homeschool mom friends that I was able to share the experience with.  It's refreshing to be with like-minded women of God! 

Mom & Son

What they say about the relationship between a mom and her son is so true.  There's just something special that takes place between them.  Jared and I have many ways we bond and it takes little effort. 

We are both early birds.  Many times we snuggle together early in the morning in my favorite chair by the window and talk about anything, listen to the birds, watch the sun come up or simply say nothing. 

Or, we talk about waking up with a song of praise on our hearts.  Music is something we both love.  We have a couple of "our songs" that are special just to he and I.   One of them is Glenn Miller's "In the Mood".   Jared loves Big Band/Swing. Another is a silly one called "Let's Rub Noses, Like the Eskimoses." 

We like to read together.  Many times I read books outloud to him, and neither of us move on to the next chapter without the other.  Sometimes we both fall asleep before we can finish a page.

We share a love for nature.  Whether it's sitting in the sunshine and soaking it up, bird watching, taking in the beauty of plants and flowers, a walk in the woods, or the simple excitement of having bunnies come right up beside us in the yard---we love it all.

Mostly, we share a love for our Creator.  I love the talks we have together about our God: thankfulness for all He's done, His beautiful creations, the song He puts in our hearts, His word,  answered prayers and prayers that are currently on our hearts.  It blows my mind how Jared can find the spiritual application in almost any situation.  I can count on him to share in a burden or excitement and take them both to prayer. 

Then, there's Chess.

It's a game that sits on the shelf, untouched, until he and I play together.  I taught him how to play a few years ago and ever since, it's been our thing.

The End.

Our Melted Crayons

Hello Friends!

Spring is in the air and I'm so happy about it!  We have been pretty busy over here, lately.  We joined a Homeschool Co-op which meets weekly and the kids are lo-oving it, which = a happy mom.  We spend about 5 hours there and it is the highlight of my kid's week.  They both have classes (Jared: Human Anatomy, PE and Orchestra. Jenna: Zoology and Sewing) then we have our packed lunch.  After lunch the gym is open and the kids run around playing all sorts of organized games while us moms gab on the sidelines. 

Besides the new Co-op, we have our house on the market which = constant cleaning. *Yawn*.  I'm tired just thinking about all the cleaning I've done.  We have a routine in the morning of making beds and picking up bedrooms before we start school.  Friends, you are more than welcome to "drop by" ANYTIME, because my house is always clean!

We tackled a project that we'd never done before: melting down our old crayons.  This is something I've been planning to do for years, literally (which is why I HAVE to blog about it--ha!).  The kids tackled this one on their own since they were tired of waiting for me to get around to doing it!

So, we broke up our crayons into pieces and put them in my muffin tin (I recommend using an old one that you don't plan to use for muffins later because it's hard to get all the melted wax off when you're done).

This isn't the best picture (above) but I wanted to show you the condition our house was in when we got a call at 6:58pm for a house showing at 7:00pm.  Talk about panic.  My husband was just walking down the stairs from waking up after working 26 hours straight.  Crayon bits and labels covered the table and floor, no beds were made, dinner dishes were in the sink, etc.  I told them they could come see the house at 7:30, which was still crazy.  I went from room to room carrying around the container filled with crayons (above) because I didn't know where to put it and couldn't stop to think about it!  I guess it was a good drill for us because everyone ran around and we got the house picked up in time!

So, we then baked our crayon bits on 250 degrees for about 10-15 minutes.  They came out looking like this:

We put them in the refrigerator to cool for about 15-20 minutes and popped them out of the tins.  And they looked like this: 

What we'll do with them now, I have no idea.  The kids say they're too pretty to use.