The Last Day of School!

Leah and Sam completed their last day of school for the 2019-2020 school year yesterday! Yay!
We will continue daily Bible study together each morning, but other than that, our days are free.

I realize that I have not updated the sidebar on this page that lists our current curriculum in two years. I will update that this summer with our 2020-2021 curriculum. This past school year (Leah-10th and Sam-8th) we used the following materials:

Leah

• English--Easy Grammar, Daily Grams, The Lively Art of Writing, Wordly Wise, and literature books corresponding with the history time period we studied (1700-1850). She read Pride and Prejudice, A Tale of Two Cities, and I can't remember what else right now. She also wrote her first research paper. She did written or oral narrations each day.
• Math--She worked in Saxon Algebra 2 first semester, and then we switched her to Math U See geometry for second semester. She worked 2/3 of that book, and she will finish it at the beginning of the next school year before getting back into Algebra 2 (not sure if we will use Saxon or Math U See yet)
• Science--Apologia Chemistry
• History/Geography--We studied the years 1700-1850 in both American and world history. We also studied Ancient Greece once a week throughout the year. I read aloud to both Leah and Sam The Children's Homer. My resources and lesson planning guides were from A Gentle Feast Cycle 2 and Simply Charlotte Mason, Early Modern and Epistles. We used several books to cover this time period....too many for me to list right now, but I compiled our list choosing from both A Gentle Feast and Simply Charlotte Mason plus adding a Sonlight book here and there. 
• Fine Arts--We studied the artists Thomas Gainsborough and John Copley, the composers Vivaldi and Mozart, poets William Wordsworth, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Robert Frost, and the Shakespeare play, Twelfth Night. Both Leah and Sam also worked half of Artistic Pursuits.
• Foreign Language--Spanish. Leah completed her second credit of Spanish this year.
• Bible--We memorized Psalm 139 this year and we spent time each day reading and studying Luke, Genesis, Proverbs, Psalms, Ephesians, and Jeremiah (not all of each of those books--portions of some).
• I also read aloud to Leah and Sam Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, The Silver Chair, The Ravenmaster's Secret, A Napoleon biography, The Horseless Carriage, and Amos Fortune, Free Man.

Sam 

• English--Easy Grammar, Daily Grams, Wordly Wise, written and oral narrations, and literature books from the same time period as Leah.
• Math--Saxon Algebra 1/2
• Science--He finished Apologia General Science from the previous school year and then worked through module 10 in Apologia Physical Science.
• History/Geography--same as Leah, but with some different books to read (some books they shared.)
• Fine Arts--same as Leah
• Foreign Language--Sam began Rosetta Stone Spanish
• Bible and read alouds--same as Leah

Sometime in the next week I will clean out Leah and Sam's schoolbooks, papers, desks, etc. I will average grades as needed, update Leah's transcript, and file whatever I think I need to save. In June I will begin thinking about our upcoming school year and buying what materials we need.

Let the summer fun begin!

Back To School: 18th Edition

Well. Our summer came and went like a flash!

I began our 18th year of homeschooling on Tuesday. Thankfully, I had Julie here to help me with the fun, cute, and yummy special back to school snacks!

These are the adorable sugar cookies Julie made!

I did some simple decorating to make the first day of school special. No one (including me!) was really ready for school to begin again, so I was hoping that some fun decorations and special snacks would make the inevitable a little more bearable. 

 I reused this banner I found on the Target bargain aisles last year.

 I stayed up too late sewing seven cloth napkins and a table runner out of this fun school fabric. (I actually just cut and serged the edges.) I only had enough fabric to make seven napkins, but that worked out ok since I have only two students this year! Julie and I ate breakfast with Leah and Small Sam, and seven napkins were still enough when we all ate together at suppertime. (Jimmy, Me, Julie, Big Sam, Clay Leah, and Small Sam)

 My fiesta dishes matched the colors in the fabric perfectly!

I created 10 clues for our annual back to school treasure hunt. It gets harder and harder to think of new places to hide clues each year. I think I had some repeats this year, but maybe Leah and Sam were too young when I first used them to remember. 

The last clue led them to their school desks where I had their "treasures" displayed.

(It gets harder to be creative with the treasures each year too!)

 Sam's desk

Leah's desk

 Leah's treasures.....

new notebooks, a folder, pencils and lead, candy, and these super cute pretzel pencils lovingly made by Julie

Sam's treasures were the same---just different colors.

For the first day, we did only a Bible lesson, math, and science. I spent a good bit of time reviewing their daily checklists and what would be expected of them in each subject. I decided to ease them into a full day of school this year.  Yesterday and today we did only Bible, math, and science. Then we are off until next Wednesday, because some of our family will be attending a wedding in Virginia, and then Jimmy is off for a couple more days after that. When we start back next Wednesday, I plan to add English (reading and composition) and Sam's Sonlight. Then on the following Monday, August 13, they will begin doing their complete daily checklist of subjects. 

 Leah's Checklist

Sam's Checklist

The number beside each subject indicates the number of days each week they are to work on each subject. For most subjects they will complete one lesson per day. I asked Leah to set a timer when she is working in algebra, biology and literature for 45 minutes, and just stop after that. 

We started our school year earlier than normal because Julie is expecting her baby girl in about 5 weeks. I wanted to get as much school done before the baby comes.

Happy Back to School!

Well. Hello

I am still alive over here in Mississippi!

I am still trying to figure out how to be a mama to children near and far. As most of you know, Julie and Big Sam live in Romania (over 5000 miles away and an 8 hour time difference), and Olivia and Brian live in Indiana (9 hours away), and Clay is a freshman in college in Tampa (12 hours away). Leah and Sam are sill here with us! Yay!

But things have not slowed down like I thought they would. I have lost all my drivers, and that has made a huge difference! I am back to driving them to piano lessons, XC practice, CrossFit, and art. It's fine, but it has been an adjustment. Leah won't have her driver's license for 3 years, so I will be the mom taxi for a while.  We have also traveled a lot over the last couple of months, so that keeps me behind at home as well. (But the trips have been wonderful!)

Our days are full of homeschool (around 4-5 hours a day) and outside activities. I am also drowning in housework and laundry.....I am still working on the best system for cleaning my house. Actually, if I could just find a consistent block of time to clean I could do it. The trick is finding the time! I will blog about my homemaking struggles in the near future, because I am all out of ideas!

We are having a revival (AKA Gospel Meeting) at our church congregation this week. Our speaker is Paul Sheehan, and he is fantastic! He is motivating, convicting, and infectious! If you are interested in hearing the Word of God presented in a simple and inspiring way, you can listen to his sermons from our church's website or download the podcasts. Our regular preacher, Trey Haskett, has all his sermons on the podcast too, and they are excellent as well.
Here is the link.

One more thing.....do any of you call your kids by the wrong name? Like every.single.time. you try to say their name? I cannot call anyone by the right name, and it is starting to irritate Leah and Sam. I understand. I would not want to be called by my sibling's name all day long, but I don't know how to stop. Any suggestions?

I hope to check in again soon!

Memorizing Scripture

Since most of you are starting a new school year, I though this might be a good time to share my memorizing Scripture system. While I use this system for learning Bible verses, it could be used for anything you wanted your kids (or yourself) to learn.

I am going to share the link to the last time I blogged about my Scripture memory box. It has very detailed instructions on how to set up your own memory box.

I mentioned in this blog post that I copied all the Scriptures that Olivia had learned into a journal and gave it to her when she started college. I also did that for Julie and Clay, and as you can imagine, Clay's journal had many more verses than his sisters since he has been home four more years since Olivia left for college!

Here is the link:
Scripture Memory Box

I hope this encourages you to either begin learning Scripture with your children or to
continue hiding God's Word in your heart.

The Graduations

I'm going to go back a few months in time to share this monumental occasion. All three of my oldest children graduated!

• Olivia:  Bachelor of Science Degree in Elementary Education
• Julie:  Associate of Arts Degree in English
• Clay:  High School Homeschool

Olivia's and Julie's ceremonies were on the same day in the same facility, but at different times. Julie graduated at 3:00 and Olivia graduated at 7:30. Here are some pictures from the big day.

 my parents with Olivia and Julie

 Me, Julie, and Jimmy

 Mims, Julie, and Pops

 Jimmy, Olivia, and Me

Mims, Olivia, and Pops

 Our whole family with Olivia later that night. 

Clay and Parker (who is the son of my best friend, Lynn) graduated homeschool Kindergarten together. I found this precious picture, and asked them to recreate it on their high school graduation night!

 Clay and Parker, at age 6

 Clay and Parker at age 18

 Mims, Clay, and Pops

 proud parents of homeschool graduate #3

(Yes, I am wearing the same dress I wore to the girls' graduation.....I called it my graduation dress!)

 my grown-up children!

one more family photo

The end of April began months of exciting times and major changes for our family of seven. So much has happened since these photographs were taken, and most of it is just a blur! 

To Blog Or Not To Blog

I first began blogging in May of 2008.  I don't even remember the original purpose except that it was a fairly new (to me) thing, and it sounded like something I would enjoy. I spent some time trying to decide if I wanted a homeschool-related blog only (and I looked at some homeschool blogging platforms) or a general blog (and I considered Blogspot, the only platform I saw that others were using).  In the end I went with Google's Blogspot and writing a blog of a general nature.

I have never had any rhyme or reason to my blog. I have just shared my life over the last 9 years in a less than consistent manner. My topics have included homemaking, homeschooling, parenting, sickness, grief, vacations, random fun, Scripture, how-to, holidays, running, exercise, and most recently weddings. I have also never had any specific goals for my blog--just sharing information that was relevant to me in hopes that it may bring joy or offer help or encouragement to someone else too.

I have been trying to decide what to do with this blog for several months now. Part of me wants to create a routine where I blog on a regular basis (5 days a week? once a week? twice a week?). Part of me wants to stop altogether. Part of me wants to completely delete the blog off the internet.

Do people even read blogs anymore?

Is there anything else to say that has not been said?

Does anyone even care that my family ran yet another race or that I dropped off yet another child at college, or that we have started yet another year of homeschooling (the 16th!) or that I have found the best way to clean my shower door or that my heart is broken because my three oldest children are grown and gone and it happened too fast and I am trying to find the positive in all my situations.

I am not sure what I am going to do.

If I continue blogging, what topics are you, my readers, most interested in?

• random family life
• homemaking tips and ideas
• homeschooling tips and ideas
• exercise
• recipes and meal planning
• home organization, cleaning, etc.
• personal Bible study-thoughts/ideas/applications
• products and books that I like
• wedding planning ideas and specifics

I hope to begin our fall routine with what will be our new normal family life on Monday. We did begin school last Monday, but we left last Thursday to bring Clay to college. We have done a couple of days of hotel school, but we have yet to settle into a routine of school, piano, XC and art classes. Most of that will begin for us next week. 

Just Checking In

Hello! I thought I would check in on this beautiful Friday morning! The temperature is supposed to be almost 80 this afternoon here in Mississippi. I want to do school outside today! We just might do that.

The kids are at the track right now running. I stayed behind because I did not want to be that mom that takes her kids to the track to run and just sits in the car! I normally run or at least walk when I take them (it makes me feel better to be exercising too instead of just watching them), but since I am still struggling with this strained/pulled/broken forever trapezius muscle, I am unable to do anything really. It's been 11 days since I injured it! 11 days! It even hurts to walk for very long, so I am not running of course. I am getting a little antsy without regular exercise. And my house is getting dirtier and dirtier because I certainly cannot vacuum or mop!

Anyway. I have been pinning and planning things for our little pop-up camper while I am resting. We are taking it out for the first time soon, and I hope to have everything all ready. It will certainly be a learning experience the first few times we camp. I really cannot even imagine how it will be!

We have had a productive school week. In addition to their regular subjects like math, grammar, spelling, etc., Leah and Sam are still learning about the presidents and each of our fifty states. Each morning we spend 15-30 minutes reading about and making a page for our notebook for either a president (in random order) or a state (in alphabetical order). When both projects are complete, I plan to bind the state pages in some sort of book. The president pages are 3-hole punched and are going into a decorated binder.  We are also slowly working our way through Sonlight Core F which is the Eastern Hemisphere. We are studying China right now.

I hope all of you have a fantastic weekend! I hope to clean out my refrigerators. Fun!

A Homeschooling Update

We are still homeschooling.

With all the traveling we have done this fall (XC meets for Clay and Leah, two hours away on most Tuesdays, and trips to Florida to watch Julie run--one 8 day period we drove 3000 miles to watch her run two different meets!), it has proved difficult to get our schoolwork done each week. But we have been diligent! This past weekend Jimmy flew to Virginia to watch Julie and Olivia run their national championship meet, and then he flew to Nashville the next day to watch Clay, Leah, and Sam run their national championship meet. I only went to Nashville!

Anyway. We are schooling when we can. Most weeks we are getting five math lessons completed (sometimes they do a math lesson on Sunday afternoons). We also completed a 12 week unit study on the presidents, American government, and the election process. I began Core F of Sonlight for Leah and Sam last Monday. It will take me the rest of this school year and some of the next to complete this Core, but that's ok. We are going to take our time and enjoy the books.

Clay is taking college algebra at the local community college. At home he is doing Apologia physics, Notgrass American government, and the English class I am teaching. This class covers literature and composition. So far we have read Right Ho, Jeeves, Pride and Prejudice, and we are currently reading Hamlet. Next semester he will add health and Notgrass economics.

Leah is doing Saxon math 8/7, IEW, Daily Grams, Easy Grammar, Apologia chemistry and physics, Wordly Wise, spelling/dictation, and Building Thinking Skills.

Sam is doing Horizons math 5, Daily Gams, Easy Grammar, Wordly Wise, Apologia chemistry and physics, spelling/dictation, and Building Thinking Skills.

When I made Leah and Sam's daily checklist for school this year, I assigned each subject a number of days to work in each week.  For example, math, reading, and piano practice are assigned five days each week. Journal writing, Daily Grams, spelling/dictation, and Wordly Wise are assigned four days each week, and Easy Grammar, Building Thinking Skills, Cursive (for Sam), IEW, and science are assigned three days each week. We do our Sonlight reading four days each week. This is a doable schedule for us, and it ensures that we are getting to every subject an appropriate amount of days each week.

I would love to take the whole month of December off from school, but I have scheduled for us to work until December 14. We will see! :)

The First Day of School 2016

I started our new homeschool year a little bit later than I have in the past.  I waited until after I had taken Olivia and Julie to college before beginning school here at home. Our first day was August 26.

I set the table for breakfast.....

And we began our day with clues for our annual treasure hunt. I always try to stump the kids with my clues. This one proved to be difficult for them.

(It was two picnic table benches stacked on top of each other beside a tree they like to climb. I always see it when I am running, but they haven't used it in a while, so it took them several minutes to figure out this clue. I made two clues for each child.

Back to school photos....

 Leah

Clay

Sam

Here they are with their treasure bags--they contained some fun school supplies and MSU shirts for the boys.

We are having a great school year so far. Leah, Sam, and I go to Crossfit on Mondays and Fridays at 1:00 PM, so I am doing less subjects on those days in order to finish school by 11:45. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, we do a full load of school. We begin each day at 8:00 AM with a Bible lesson and Scripture memory at our kitchen table.  Clay is taking college algebra at a local community college on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and he completes all his other schoolwork independently. Jimmy is offering assistance as needed in physics.

Leah and Sam still do all their schoolwork in the schoolroom with me sitting at the table with them. We are doing history, science, and geography together, and their other subjects they work on independently. I am there to help as needed, and I check their work as soon as they complete it and have them make any corrections. 

I will share the specifics of our curriculum in a future post.

Homeschool Planning

So I have been working on my homeschool lesson plans for the upcoming school year all summer. I am still not done.  And I am planning for only three students!

To begin my planning process, I first had to clean out my entire schoolroom. I cleaned every single cabinet, drawer, shelf, closet, etc.  And this led to my wanting to clean and and reorganize every single bookshelf/bookcase in our house.  I did that!  I am so happy with the finished product. I grouped like books together in various spots in our home.  I cleared out two shelves of books in one of my schoolroom closets, and moved those books to the built-in bookshelves upstairs.  That gave me much needed room in the closet for teacher supplies, binders, current school resources, etc. As I went through the hundreds of books, I found many, many duplicate titles.  I kept all the duplicates, and I can share them with my children when they leave home.

After I got everything in order I began making a school supply list.  It was actually fairly short.  I think I have enough markers, pens, spiral bound notebooks, and glue sticks to furnish an entire elementary classroom. (Clearly, I am an over buyer in certain products!) Next I made a list of schoolbooks that I needed for each child.  It wasn't too long of a list either.  I ordered everything, and all has arrived except for my final (second!) Sonlight order.

I bought new crates for the children's schoolbooks and supplies and have put all their new school things in there.  I typed up their daily work checklists, and I think I have almost everything ready to go.  I am just finalizing my daily schedule.  When my Sonlight comes in, I will need to spend some time putting the new Instructor's Guide in my binder, sorting out the books, and putting stickers on them.  The last big planning task I have is mapping out my English IV class plans.  This is a senior level English class for Clay and five other twelfth graders.

About the Sonlight.....Lynn, Leanna, and I are taking a short break from our Sonlight studies this August-November to study the presidents, the election process, and our American Government.  I am also going to finish covering the 50 states with Leah and Sam.  Beginning November 7, I will start Sonlight Core F.  My original plan was to fly through this Core, cutting books here and there and still completing the Core by the end of May.  I spent several hours culling the books and typing a 100 day plan.  But I still wasn't satisfied.  I couldn't figure out how to fit in the books and content that I wanted to cover, and I also wanted to add some of the newer Core F books.  I first used Core F 6 years ago, and Sonlight has revised this Core since then.  Last weekend I had a new idea!  I decided I was not in a race to complete this Core. In fact, I decided to order the newer Instructor's Guide (at half-price since it was a reorder!) and the newer Core F books.  I am so excited!  I really liked this Core, and I feel so much better going through it at the intended pace. We will just work on it November-May, and pick up where ended the next school year.

I am starting school later than I have in years.  I will be having various houseguests (college students) during most of August, and then I will be driving Julie (Olivia has to go a week early for a class) to school later in the month, and staying there a few days. So, I have set August 26 as our first day of school.  That leaves me exactly one month to get everything ready.  Actually, I want to have everything ready before the guests start arriving.  :)

I'll share our curricula for next year and an outline of our daily plans as soon as I get everything ready.

Planning and Canning

Well. Summer is in full swing around here.  For me, summer means planning for the upcoming school year and also tackling projects that I cannot do during the regular school year--things like canning, cleaning out closets and drawers, and deep cleaning. All of these activities actually bring me great joy.

We didn't plant a garden this year.  After last year's traumatic experience with the deer eating my entire garden, I just needed a break from the commitment and work of having a garden.   However, I am still canning, but instead of fresh produce, I am canning jars and jars of dried beans.  I ordered 100 pounds of dried beans from Azure earlier this month.  I also had lots of bean from my order last summer....so I am going to can until I run out of jars.  I actually started today.  My canner holds 19 pints at a time, so today I plan to can two batches.  I am not sure how many jars I have, but I'm guessing I have at least 100.

As far as school planning goes, I have planned 10 weeks of one subject.  Lynn, Leanna, and I are going to do a "co-op". We are all studying American government and the presidents, and we have planned three group meetings.  During these meetings the children will give brief oral presentations about an assigned subject or president. We also planned various other learning activities and games to review what we covered at home.  Leah and Sam have never done a co op like this, and I anticipate they will love it!  When Olivia, Julie, and Clay were younger I participated in co ops similar to this for many years.  They have fond memories this, and I hope that Leah and Sam will as well.

That leaves me lots more planning to do!  I now have to condense Core F of Sonlight to roughly 24 weeks.  (Since we are spending 10 weeks on the presidents and government.)  I also have to make decisions regarding which curriculum to use for Clay's economics and American Government courses.  I am considering using something different from what I used for Olivia and Julie.  Then I have to make my shopping list for things such as math, worldly wise, daily grams, Apologia elementary science, etc.  I hope to place my order for school books and materials next week.

The timer beeped (the beans are ready to process), so I better get back to the stove!

A Little Bit About Our Homeschool This Year

This is the first year in a long time that I have had only three children to homeschool.  But it still takes me all day!  Not really, but on most days, if I do all subjects with Leah and Sam and check/review all of Clay's work, it takes me from 8:30AM-3:00PM.

Sam is in the 4th grade, Leah is in the 6th, and Clay is in the 11th.  Clay does all of his subjects independently, but I spend about 1 hour each day checking his work, having him make any corrections, and teaching him any new math concepts he had trouble with that day.

Leah and Sam sit at our schoolroom table (with me in between) and complete their schoolwork.  They do some subjects independently, some with minimal instruction (math), some with a little bit more instruction (writing--IEW), and some completely with me (science and Sonlight).

I laughed earlier this summer when I was planning my school days.  In past years I have labored over color coded schedules with 30 minute intervals---a MOTH schedule at its finest!  This year I jotted down a few things on a scrap piece of notebook paper.  :)

Here is our current daily routine:

7:45 AM:  Make sure all children are awake and drinking coffee (except for Clay who does not drink coffee).  Morning chores, breakfast. Clay is normally up before this time, and he begins his schoolwork before Bible time.
8:30:  Bible lesson and Scripture memory drills with all children at our kitchen table.
9:00:  Clay--upstairs to complete his schoolwork, Leah and Sam to the schoolroom.  I help Leah and Sam as they need me and check their work as they complete it.  They make their corrections at that time.
11:00:  Clay is still working.  I do a science lesson with Leah and Sam.  We usually have a snack during our science time.
11:30:  Leah and Sam take a break. I work with Clay at this time (reviewing/correcting/teaching math)
12:30PM:  Lunch (I do some laundry, make phone calls, answer emails, etc. during this time too.)
1:30:  Sonlight reading with Leah and Sam. Clay finishes any English work or other schoolwork he has not completed.
2:30:  We are usually done for the day. If we are later to eat lunch or the Sonlight readings are longer than normal, we don't finish until 3:00.

On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays (afternoons) the kids have extra activities outside the house. On Wednesday afternoons, beginning at 3:00, I teach a small English class at my house for Clay and 5 other 11th graders.

That's it!  Our homeschool day.

The Edible Cell

It's hard to believe, but it has been 5 years since my children made their very first edible cell.  Clay was in the 6th grade, and all five of my children participated in this fun activity.

Now Leah is in the 6th grade, and she and Sam (4th grade) are studying Apologia's Human Anatomy and Physiology course. We finished the first module last Thursday, and Friday they made the cell.

You can click here to read all about the first edible cell we made (and see how much my children have grown!)

Leah made the jello, and after it cooled I let them make the cell all by themselves.  

They actually took most of these pictures themselves too.

Fun and educational!

Well. That's a Record

This is the longest I have ever gone without blogging since I began.

So much has been happening.  Some of it mundane. Some of it very stressful. Some of it happy and fun.

The summer is flying by.  We had a restful and enjoyable vacation to the Smoky Mountains.  We hiked almost every day, and our last hike was an 8 mile one!  It took us 6 hours, and at one point I thought I was going to fall off this skinny little board bridge into the raging river below.

Lynn and I (and Leanna too) survived another week long adventure known as Rustic Youth Camp. Lynn and I stayed at Hotel Beulah with our kids who are not old enough for the bunkhouse. Olivia stayed with us too, because she is 20 now, and she was an official teacher at camp! The week was hot and fun. I taught thirty 3rd and 4th graders with five other fabulous ladies.  Lynn tried out a new counselor position this year--cleaning crew.  She got to wipe up spills and clean bathrooms.  I am seriously thinking about signing up for something other than teaching next year.  :)

I've been diligently working on my English class plans.  I am really looking forward to teaching this class for Clay and his friends. The class will meet weekly for two hours for a total of 32 weeks.

Julie is getting ready to go off to college. That's the thing about having your kids two years apart…..one of them leaves home every other year.  I do have a small gap between Clay and Leah…..then just two years between Leah and Sam. So. Just nine more years of homeschooling left.

Julie is going to the same college as Olivia. They will not be roommates, but they will be living in the same dorm but on different floors.  Both girls are running XC for the school, so they will be spending time together every day. I plan to stay down there a while when I take Julie to get her settled and all. Olivia actually has to return to school one week early for a summer school class that she has been taking online this summer. (And that has been an adventure since we have no internet except for our phones!)

And yes. It will be an adjustment for our family to have both girls away from home.  But I am so happy for them and the opportunities they are having for spiritual, social, and academic growth. I cherish the time we are having all together this summer, and I will completely enjoy the times we have together when they are home for various holidays. I will also call them, text, them, email them, and write them letters on a daily basis. Jimmy and I and the other children also have a few visits planned to see them this fall. I have already bought our plane tickets!

Lynn's family and our family have a short lake house vacation together coming up soon. I am really looking forward to sitting down and doing nothing but visiting and reading a book.

I'm slowly getting my school materials organized and prepared for the upcoming year. I hope to find that Not Back To School Blog Hop and participate in August. That's always fun, and it motivates me to get my act together so I can share it with others. I like reading other people's plans too.

Last thing today.
My running has taken the back burner to life/traveling/visiting/whatever for quite a few months now. I plan to begin anew next Monday with some sort of running plan. My blogging and my running both have been in a slump, and I hope---I really am going to try---to rekindle both.

Some Randomness

• We finished school today, but we still have a few loose ends to tie up…..Clay needs to complete a works cited page for his research paper and also make his final corrections to this paper.  I am so pleased with his very first research paper.  His topic is Japanese sword making. I have three more chapters to read in Moccasin Trail for Leah, and we have 1.5 chapters left in our Apologia astronomy book (Leah and Sam).  I am really happy that is all we have left.  We tackled two Apologia science books this year:  botany and astronomy.  Next school year we are only doing one--the human body.
• We almost have all our "spring" yard work completed. Clay will get us more mulch tomorrow to put around our little playground area, and I think that will do it!  We lost count, but Jimmy estimates that we have spread well over 100 bags of mulch. Sam is now an expert mulch spreader, and he has done a few of our flower beds all by himself.
• Our garden is coming along nicely. It was getting overtaken with grass after several days of rain, so I took it upon myself to hoe up that stubborn grass.  That is back breaking work!  I worked over 2 hours and got only 3 rows done.  The next day Jimmy used our small tiller to get in between the rows, and then all 5 children helped me hoe around the plants.  It looks great!  And my plants are really beginning to grow.  
• I'm having a small reception for Julie Sunday--for family and friends, and so we have been cleaning the house all day.  Thankfully Olivia, Julie, and Leah are all big helps.  Clay and Sam worked outside most of the day, mowing the grass and mulching flower beds. Leanna helped me with some simple but very cute graduation-themed decorations.
• I finished reading Alas, Babylon, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!  Olivia and Jimmy have both finished reading it now too.  Currently I am reading The Fellowship of the Ring and Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin. I really like reading.
• It's that time of year….VBS and RYC (rustic youth camp) preparation!  I am 99% ready for VBS, but I am just beginning to plan and prepare my RYC materials.  I am teaching with ladies that I love to be with, and so we will have a wonderful week.  As usual, Lynn and I are staying at the same house together, so that is fun too!
• Running…. I am doing well one week, and then not so well the next.  I guess I do need a race on the calendar to motivate to me get the miles in. That is part of what I am learning from the habits book. It's almost easier to do something every day (or 6 days a week), than to do it 3 or 4 days a week. A couple of weeks ago I ran 6 days in one week (resting on Sunday), and while I did not do a large amount of miles each day, I did manage to get 26 miles for the week. This week I have run only 3 days. I'm going for 6 days again next week. 

I think that is all for now.

The Last Track Meet

This is the first spring that the Spartan Homeschool Team has participated in a full season of track meets.  They ran in 6 or 7 (I can't remember) meets in all.  It was so much fun!  We ran a meet with 22 other schools (and got home at 1:00 AM) and a meet with 3 schools (tonight, and got home at 10:00 PM--Yay!), and various sized meets in between.  All of our track meets have been in Tennessee because Mississippi public schools (and private schools that are part of the public school athletic association) do not allow our homeschool team to compete in their running events--both cross country and track.  So……we travel!  We pack picnic suppers and lots of drinks and snacks.  They runners and their siblings have enjoyed the fellowship so much.  And so have the parents.  It's been a great season!  Many personal records were set in various distances. I was a little sad that tonight was the last meet of our season.

Sam bought a ukelele with money he had in his savings.  A Ukelele!  I have no idea why he wanted one, but it came in today, and he took it to the track meet.  One of the older runners helped him tune it, and he is already making a little melody.  However, I  foresee his practice time being mostly outside.

I have a new book about teaching literature using the Socratic method.  It's called Reading Roadmaps by Adam and Missy Andrews.  I used Adam Andrew's Teaching the Classics course with Clay earlier this school year, and I really liked it. This summer I hope to pull together a literature/composition course for Clay's 11th grade year.  I will study Reading Roadmaps, the American history booklist from Notgrass curriculum, and the books from Core 100 in Sonlight.  I plan to choose 8 of these books for Clay to read over the school year.  Some of the books will also have accompanying writing assignments.  I am excited about formulating this plan.

Now that I am sort of back in the habit of posting regularly (3 days in a row!), I keep thinking of so many things I want to write about.

I hope to be back tomorrow!

Back to the Blog

As my 7 year blog anniversary approaches, I figured I better get back to blogging!

I also need to update my profile picture......I certainly have more gray hair than that picture shows.

So what all has been going on in the last month?

• Olivia turned 20, and is home from college for the summer. I flew down there last Monday, cleaned out her dorm room and packed her up, and we drove all the way home on Thursday.
• Julie graduated from the Johnson Homeschool last Friday night. We had 24 graduates in our local homeschool organization, and the ceremony was really nice and special.
• I have taken the children to three track meets--one that was run well and ended at a respectable time, and two (same location) that lasted SO LONG that we got home a little before 1 AM each time! We actually have one more track meet this week at that same location. I can't wait. (just kidding). Watching my kids and their friends is lots of fun. Driving home when I am worn out....not so much fun.
• We had our Keepers At Home end of the year dinner and pin awarding night. Leah earned several pins including laundry, cookie baking, etiquette, and patience. I forgot to order her a pin for general Bible memory, which is pretty important because she has learned a ton of Bible verses (one per week).
• Jim (my father-in-law) finished his 6th chemo treatment yesterday. I haven't blogged about it, but he was diagnosed with cancer of the bile duct back in January. He has been in the hospital here in Tupelo a few times for various treatments, procedures, and surgeries, but he will be going to St. Louis later this month for further evaluation and treatment. His attitude has been super! We are all fervently praying for him and for Jimmy's mama too as they go through this trial.
• Megan and Russ (and Millie Janalee and Smith) are moving 20 MINUTES AWAY FROM ME next month! Isn't that great?
• I have read a few really good books recently, and I am currently reading a couple of more interesting, thought-provoking ones. I plan to share about all of them soon.
• And. I hope to get back into the habit of blogging.......

Warmer Weather

Finally.  Sunshine!

I sat outside yesterday while eating my quick lunch so I could soak up a few rays from the sun.  I think we will be doing our Sonlight reading outside soon.  (We have been reading our Sonlight books at night for various reasons).

Jimmy is tilling up our garden site right now.  I think I missed the opportunity to plant potatoes, but I plan to plant tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, and squash. This year I will plant enough green beans to hopefully can for the fall/winter.  I have only 3 jars of tomatoes left from last year's crop.  I would have run out sooner, but I have bought some canned tomatoes at the store in order to save my last few jars.  If we have soup one more time this spring, I will use the remaining jars.  We have also eaten all but three or four jars of the beans I canned last July.  I have plenty of dried beans (chickpeas, pintos and black) to can again, I just have not set aside the time for the task.

The kids and I both have spring fever with this warmer weather.  No one wants to do school!  We want to be outside.  The kids are roller-blading, swinging, riding their bikes, and romping in the woods.  I want to plant my garden, trim my shrubs and monkey grass, clean out the flower beds and spread the one hundred bags of mulch Jimmy bought last weekend.  However, we are still doing our schoolwork. And when I am home in the afternoons, we will do our Sonlight reading outside in the lovely sunshine.

We have a few 5K and 10K races planned for March, April, and May.  Also Julie will be graduating on May 1, and I will be bringing Olivia home from college at the very end of April.  The other three children will continue their schoolwork until the Friday before Memorial Day.  Then summer break will begin!  Yay!  I plan to continue some Sonlight reading throughout the summer, but we will see if I actually do it.  :)

Happy Spring!

Just Jumping Back In

Well. I am back after another hiatus. 

Between having to use my cellphone as a hotspot for internet, Olivia being home for a week for spring break, watching my mother redecorate Leah's room, enjoying another spell of ice, and spending time with my father-in-law, I have not really thought much about my blog.  Except that people periodically ask Jimmy about it.  And I ran into a blog reader at Kroger yesterday……I miss sharing with y'all!  (If anyone out there is still reading!)

While Olivia was home for spring break it was about zero degrees (I exaggerate, of course), and we had an ice storm.  Our whole town shut down for the second time in one week.  We spent a good bit of time outside in the frigid temperature and did some sledding.  On the ice!  It really was a lot of fun, and we took about thirty short videos of all of us slipping and sliding down our hills.  

 The Mama and the Daddy

 Julie, Leah, and Olivia

 Clay, Leah, and Olivia

The woods didn't look as pretty as they did the week before with all the snow, but it was still beautiful. And fun.  And cold!

Clay made a new welded metal tree for me last week.  This one replaces the one he made me last year for Mother's Day.  It is shorter and a little bit narrower, so it fits on our kitchen table better.  He really is an artist, if I say so myself.  :)  He also made a bird for his aunt Jenny for her birthday--he and Jenny share a birthday at the end of this month, and he made a couple of other things during his spring break too.  A sort of robot thing and a dinosaur looking creature.  Like I said.  Metal art.  Unique.

If you look closely at this picture of my kitchen table, you can tell that it is shiny and has a map on it…..When my mother decorated for Leah's birthday party in January, she used clear vinyl to cover the cute fabric for the tablecloth.  I kept the clear vinyl and place several different maps underneath.  I had heard of doing this before, but I had never tried it myself.  We love it!  I have changed what's underneath the clear covering a few times since January.  Currently we have a large U.S. map with all the major interstates marked, a Mississippi map, and lots of president facts and information cards. We have also enjoyed looking at a U.S. map marking all the national parks and a simple world map.  Sam requested a map of Italy, and I bought one on Friday. I will put it at his place once he has learned about some of the presidents.  :)  These maps and cards are definitely conversation starters, and we are all learning so much in a fun way.

Until next time….(and I hope it won't be too long)

Reading

I finished reading Detectives in Togas today to Leah and Sam.  It ended well.  That was the last book in Sonlight Core B!  Hooray!

But instead of beginning Sam in Core C tomorrow (the second part of world history), I am going to put him with Leah in the last 7 weeks of Core D (American history, part 1) and then keep him with her all the way through.  I have done multiple cores for many years now, and I am just ready to teach one core.  Just one set of read alouds.  Sam has listened to most of Leah's books anyway, so he really is not skipping any chunk of history.  Plus, he will have world history and American history again, at least one more time, before he graduates.

Tomorrow we begin The Journeyman in Core D.  Occasionally Sonlight adds new books to their core (and omits some others) and I find myself reading a book to Leah or Sam that I have never read before. The Journeyman is one such book. I have no idea what it is about!  We will find out tomorrow.

For our bedtime reading, we finished Farmer Boy a couple of days ago.  Jimmy is reading Climb Happiness Hill to the family after supper each night.  I plan to begin a new bedtime book tonight…..I think it's going to be Little House in the Big Woods.  I want to make sure I read all the Little House books to Sam, because I doubt he will read them on his own when he gets older.

I am still not through with Pride and Prejudice, Home is Where My People Are, or Running With the Girls, because I have not had any time to read lately!  When I finish P &P, my next book to read will be A Tale of Two Cities.

And I am thinking about beginning reading through the Bible in 90 days beginning February 1.  I have not done that reading in a while (maybe over a year), so I would like to do that again.

What are you reading?