Our First Egg!

Our chickens will be 5 months old tomorrow. We hoped they would start laying eggs soon. This morning we found a prize!

Little Boy Grows Up

My cousin leaves for Iraq today.





I'll admit, I haven't seen him in person for at least 10 years. Then, he was a typical teen boy closed up in his room with a set of headphones totally avoiding the crazy cousin who just wanted to hug on him. Plus, there's no doubt the infant and toddler I had with me caused him to turn up the volume and crawl farther into the teen boy cave.

But despite that, this kid has a special place in my heart. I'm sure I'm turning into a sappy old woman, and if he ever sees this he'll probably be mad, but this is how I remember him...

See, he really did love me!

Funny thing is, even though I have hundreds of memories of him, mostly little everyday things, he probably doesn't remember much about me since most of the time we spent together he was between 2 and 6 years old.

While I was in college in Florida, I spent my summers living in Wisconsin with his family, working at his dad's business, and playing nanny for him and his younger sister alot. I spent most holidays with his family too, so it was almost like me coming home when we were together.

I was proud of the fact that even though I was "not a real mom" I could dress and feed two kids, pack a diaper bag, strap them in the car seats, and take the mini-van down to the grocery store or even to the mall for a whole day without blinking an eye; not to mention caring for them for up to a week at a time if my aunt and uncle needed to travel. Granted they were good kids and I was the cool cousin (not the mom) which made it fun. If they had been alot of trouble, I probably would have been scarred for life and never had kids of my own.

I feel like I really watched him grow up, even though I've mostly missed the last 17 years of his life. So, please keep him and all our troops in your prayers today and every day.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

I've GOT to make some changes! Our current homeschool schedule is killing me. We are finishing our 3rd week of school tomorrow and the girls have already read over 600 pages of history, done a major project on the Pacific Islands and another on Australia, learned all about the digetive system and cells, moved ahead every day in math, plus continued all the other "smaller" subjects like spelling, language, Spanish, logic, and Latin/Greek. Throw in piano practice, 4H, AWANA, art lessons and babysitting for Sarah and I'm one overwhelmed mama.
For the most part, nothing take a great deal of time except history. So, I think we are going to have to cut back on that even though that's the girls' favorite subject. It's just taking TOO much time! Is there anyone out there who has used Sonlight Core 5 that can give suggestions on what is critical for this year?

The sun

Sunrise out our window...

I haven't seen the sun since last week. It's been raining here for days. The next forcasted sunny day is NEXT Tuesday, 8 days away!

Constitution Day

Today is the 222nd anniversary of the signing of the Constitution.

Here are some good links for activities:
http://www.billofrightsinstitute.org
http://www.constitutionday.cc/

Read the whole thing here:
http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html

Here is an outline of the Articles:
Article I - Legislative Department - how senators and representatives are chosen, rules of procedure, compensation, privileges and restrictions, mode of passing laws, powers granted to Congress, powers denied to the Federal Governmnent, powers denied to the states.

Article II - Executive Department - President and Vice President, powers and duties of the President, Impeachment

Article III - Judicial Department - The Federal Courts, jurisdiction of the Federal Courts, Treason

Article IV - The States and the Federal Government - state records, privileges and immunities of citizens, new states and territories, guarantees to the states

Article V - Method of amendment

Article VI - Public Debt, Supremacy of the Constitutuion, Oath of Office

Article VII - Ratification

God Bless America!

The Fair

The fair opened here on Friday. I've never been a real fan of fairs. They are dusty, the rides are unsafe, the food is junk and everything is expensive. But, the girls enjoy entering projects and then going to see if they won any prizes.

In the years past, they have always placed very high with everything they entered. This year was a little different. The competition is getting tougher and to be honest, they didn't put alot of thought and prep into the items they entered this year.

Nevertheless, we had fun.

Rebecca won 3rd place for a beaded necklace she made and 2nd for a colored pencil drawing. I personally think her drawing should have won first. The first place picture looked like it had been traced from a coloring book! Here's Bec's:

Sarah only entered two items, neither of which won anything.:-( But she did help with the county 4H booth that won first place. :-)

Washing Dishes

Our dishwasher is broken. :-( I think since we are on a well the sediment has built up on the water valve. Until the man can pull it apart and see, we're doing it the old fashioned way...by hand. Luckily, I have two good dishwashers. They've been in the kitchen having a big time!

Look! They are even smiling!

Apple Festival

This is an example of what to not bring home for a date...

First Day of School

Sarah 7th Grade Rebecca 5th Grade

First day of school pictures are pretty popular right now, and our house is no exception. Can you believe they have sweatshirts on? It was chilly - 51 degrees - this morning. I must say, our classroom probably has one of the best views in the state.

By lunchtime, we had finished most of our "together work" and the girls were working on some independent assignments. They are both really excited about a year long project on countries the Eastern Hemisphere. They aren't excited about spelling and math.

Veteran homeschoolers say it gets easier as they get older because the kids start to take on more responsibility, and thankfully, I'm starting to see that in both of them - at least for today.