A Little of This and a Lot of That

A little of this and a lot of that, a look at my week.



In my life this week…
I lost a little chickie. My beautiful Fiona died on Sunday, she was my "silver" Araucana that I bought along with 2 others back at the end of March. I have no clue what happened, but I've been keeping an eye on all the others.

Let's talking about frogging. I really dislike it, especially when I have all the pieces of a sweater knitted and ready for the last piece to come together and the button band and main color panel will not cooperate. I put the sweater down for about 3 months and picked it up again this week. Let's just say, that I frogged all the pieces and now have two balls of yarn that are screaming to be knitted into a sweater. ~ Maybe I'll just look for another pattern...

I found out that the state of Georgia has a change in our homeschooling laws. Families will now be notifying the state and not their county school district with their letter of intent. According to local newspapers, the state has not even put into play how this is going to work when it starts July 1st. Hmmm...

In our homeschool this week...
I've been incorporating a lot of Netlfix into our school. Would you believe they have many documentaries about WWII? They do and we've been enjoying watching them. So far D-Day: The Total Story  is our favorite.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…
Seriously, check out Netflix. You'll be surprised at all the documentaries and biographies they have listed. The good thing about it is ~ you don't have to leave your home to find educational films and they're available all the time.

What’s working and not working for us… 
Teaching Textbooks is a BIG plus for us. This is our second year using it and we love it! I have probably spent a total of two hours teaching (explaining) a concept to my son this entire school year. Yahoo! Math is a subject that is hard for me and trying to explain something pertaining to Math is not the easiest for me. (I sometimes wonderful if I helped or hurt students in Math while I taught school.) Hopefully I didn't do too much damage. The majority of them have either graduated or still attending college, so I guess that is a good sign.

Questions/thoughts I have…
I wonder what would happen in/to our country if all Christians joined together and really prayed for our nation. I don't mean the hit and miss prayer when it crosses our mind. I mean setting aside time every day to pray just for our nation and leaders.

Things I’m working on…
I just don't have the crafty mood right now. Hopefully once we are finished with our school year, I'll be able to focus more on my sewing and knitting.

I’m reading…
I'm trying to finish up Journey to the Well by Diana Wallis Taylor. It was a freebie a couple of weeks ago and it's a very good book. I'm also working on Tracie Peterson's Chasing the Sun for a book review.

I’m cooking…
I'll be cooking Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas for supper tonight.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

  Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Almost Done

We are finally on the back stretch for this school year, in six more days we will be finished with the 6th grade.  I can't believe that my son will be working on 7th grade work in the fall. Time really flies when it comes to our children.

All we have left to finish up is our Math and since that is all, I'm pulling extra History and Science in to "add" to the hours for our days. This week, we'll be working on a short study of WWII. This is a favorite time period for Jamie to study since it really wasn't all that long ago and he is able to watch videos pertaining to the war online. He also had a Great - Great Uncle that fought and was killed at the Battle of Savo Island on the U.S.S. Quincy. We also had a precious man we went to church with that was a medic at D-Day. He was a real hero for Jamie and a wonderful man of God.


Can you imagine your 12 year old son joining the Navy? Neither can I, but one mother found out what that was like during WWII.  Calvin Graham enlisted in the Navy when he was 12 years old, he fought at the Battle of Guadalcanal on the U.S.S. South Dakota. Once his age was found out, he was put in the brig until his family went to the newspapers telling his story.

When he was released he was stripped of his awards and any Naval compensation. It wasn't until the last 70's when Jimmy Carter signed for him to have an honorable discharge. He received his medals except for the Purple Heart, which was finally given to his widow two years after he passed away in 1992.

In 1988 Ronald Reagan signed for his relief which included his back pay and mustering-out pay with interest. Here's a link to an article written in 1977 telling Mr. Graham's fight with the Navy and Congress to receive what was due to him.  It's hard to imagine there were thousands of boys and girls that enlisted while underage. What a History lesson!

Hopefully, I'll be able to get all of our paper work finished up this week, so all I have to do is print off and mail our May calendar. Then I'll be able to pull out the other books that I'm going to sell and list them. I am really excited about finishing up, since I have some sewing in the planning stages that I want to work on. The sooner I get all the school work finished, the sooner I can get started ~yippie skippie!

Spring Cleaning? I Don't Think So

In my life this week…

I have finished up my deep cleaning. Some people would consider this Spring Cleaning, but I don't spring clean. Really, why would you want to spend several days and/or weeks cleaning something that can be done throughout the year? This is so me. On top of my daily chores, once a month a particular room is deep cleaned from top to bottom = a sparkly house year round

In our homeschool this week…

It's hard to believe that there are only 15 days of school left. The sad thing is there are about 22 days of Math work to finish, so we are busily doubling up on some days. We finished our History and I've been working on lessons from American Heritage Education Foundation. Some good stuff there!  I've been going through our books that will be sold to help with the funding for next year's books. I can't wait to get started listing them on Ebay.

I also decided to not teach diagramming any more! Yes, you read that correctly. There is absolutely no need for diagramming in college, unless you are planning on attending a Christian college. The parts of speech is a must but without the rocket ship. YAY!  I love grammar but I disliked diagramming and trying to teach diagramming knowing that it will not be used in college or in a non teaching profession is a nightmare. ( I talked with former students who are attending college at this moment and no diagramming. Even for the English major!)

Thoughts I have…

Motherhood is  not a hobby, it is a calling. You do not collect children because you find them cuter than stamps. It is not something to do if you can squeeze the time in. It is what God gave you time for.

                                                              - Rachel Jankovic

A photo to share…
Saturday was the opening day for the WGJR and when the steer riding came closer, I began getting nervous. I have never been nervous for my son, but I was on Saturday. While I was standing with the camera in hand, I prayed for him. He ended up having 2 rerides because of the steer. This is what happened on the third ride, the steer stepped on Jamie's chest and it's hoof slid across the vest and ended up under the arm.

Changes Are A Good Thing

When you realize a change is needed and follow through with it, it's a good thing. We finally made a change in our daily schedule.

When I first started home educating my son, I was one for a set time and schedule. Once my husband left for work at 7:00, I would spend the next hour cleaning the kitchen up and straightening the master bedroom and bath. 

At 8:00 I would start the waking up process of Jamie and laying out the school books. Let me tell you, trying to wake that boy up is like trying to get a statue to move. We would start our school work at 8:45 and then we would work for the four and half hours that are required by the state.

Once the school work was finished, we would go on with our other chores and hobbies.When we lived in Montana, we kept up with a similar schedule, only we started our school at 9:00 and worked for the allotted hours that I calculated that we needed for the year.

As the years went on, I noticed that my son had inherited the "night owl" gene from me. Because of this, I made some changes in our scheduling and bedtime. Over the years the grumpies moved in and started affecting our days. Over the past year the bedtime stayed at 10 and the getting up time moved to a later time on most days. Teens need at least 9 hours of continuous sleep but 10 hours are perfect. Enough sleep was something my son missed.

Since our "early to bed, early to rise" has become a "later to bed, later to rise", I have been able to move all the school work to the afternoon and do all the cleaning in the morning. With the cleaning time being moved to the mornings, I am able to focus on school work without the looming idea of needing to clean something.

This change has been perfect for us. We both can sit with a clear mind and focus on what needs to be completed. It also has helped with the lolly gagging that went on in the past. A BIG plus.

When I think back to when I taught school, I remember precious children having a hard time keeping their eyes open during class and those that had a hard time focusing. It makes me wonder what they could have been able to do, if they had the right amount of sleep.

Scheduling school work to fit our family's need is a freedom of home educating that I love.

It's That Time Again!~

 I can't believe that it is already the middle of April ~ boy, does time fly!   For the past week, I have been busily going over our present curriculum, reading my notes on the yays and nays of each subject. I have more yays than nays, and that is a good thing.

I am eagerly waiting on the plans for the fall classes at the co-op, so I'll know what I need to either buy or not buy.    Hopefully, I'll get those in the next couple of weeks.

I've been kicking around the idea of schooling year round for the past several months. I think I like the idea, but I also think I would miss my summer days off. ~There's no thinking about it, I know I would miss them. Year round schooling is still up in the air, but one thing I do know that has become a permanent fixture in our schooling and it is our 8 weeks on / 1 week off.  This is a perfect combination for us, right about the 6th week of school, Jamie will start asking when is the next week off. Because of this, I may change it to school for 6 weeks and off for one. I haven't looked that far in the future to see holidays and what not.

I was asked by Jamie to change one thing and that is our Language Arts. He had rather have a grammar textbook instead of the Learning Language Arts Through Literature. It just didn't click with him, so I am looking at Easy Grammar.  I'm hanging on to our Winston Grammar, since I'd rather have Jamie learn to label the parts of a sentence without dealing with the confusion of diagramming. In fact, diagramming is not even necessary once a student hits college, other than one of the big Christian colleges.

For Spelling, I'm jumping in with Spelling Power. I really should have ordered this book years ago, but the price just kept scaring me. Well, I'm diving in and spending the money, then I won't have to worry about Spelling in the future.

We are going to be using some Literature Study Guides from Progeny Press.

I'm sticking with Teaching Textbooks for math. We love this way of learning.

For History and Science, I have an idea on what we are doing. Since both of these subjects are taught in the co-op, I'm waiting to see what is being offered.

I'm also looking at several books from The Critical Thinking Co.

I'm thinking about starting a foreign language ~ What? I'm just now starting this? You bet! English is a hard enough language to master, why would I want to start another before we have our native language learned!?

Of course, we will be in 4H again along with rodeoing.

As soon as I finish up planning my curriculum, I'll post everything that we are going to be using.

                                                          
Sadly, that awesome picture at the top is not mine. ~  Image Source

Have a good week!

                                           

Chicken Wrangling

In my life this week… I brought three more pullet babies home on Monday. They were only a day old when we picked them up with no feathers. Today, they all have their wing feathers starting. All three are Araucanas to go with our one lonely teenager among all the others.

Last night we "wrangled" Hank and Henrietta. They moved to their bigger pen and coop. Ever since starting the Poultry Judging classes at 4H, Jamie has wanted to be able to grab chickens by the legs ~ this is what he calls wrangling.

In our homeschool this week… SPRING FEVER has hit our house! We are doing all that we can to stay ahead so we can finish up a little early this year. I don't know why, but I'll be glad when this school year is over.

I am inspired by…   Those moms who home educate their children year round. I'm so inspired, that I'm actually thinking about it for us. Jamie is wanting to finish school early ~ to graduate at least a year sooner. I'm studying this option for him. I think now would be the time to start the ball rolling for him to accomplish this instead of waiting until the ninth grade.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing… Tomorrow after our morning service at church, we are headed to North Carolina. We have some exciting business that may open for us regarding Jamie's rodeoing and a ministry.

What’s working/not working for us… This late in the school year, it's not an option to put something away that is not working for us and purchase something else. We only have 6 weeks of school left, so we are plugging away  at all that we have and I'm implementing free items from off the internet.

I’m cooking… A soup for supper tonight. ~ 5 Ingredient Soup ~ so yummy!

1  can refried beans
1  can broth
1  can corn
1  can black beans
1  can diced tomatoes

Mix the refried beans and broth until smooth. Add the other ingredients and simmer for about 10 minutes.    ** For us I double the recipe and add a can of rotel in the place of the second can of tomatoes. I cook this in the crock pot on low. *~*~* Out of this world with cornbread!

A few photos of our new chicks and Chicken Wrangling…

Henrietta being wrangled.

When you hold a chicken upside down, it puts them to "sleep". Not really asleep, just causes them to calm down.

This is Hank fighting all the way.

Happily settled in the new open coop.

A Primitive Package

Last month, I joined a prim swap. I was so excited about doing a swap, since it has been several years since I joined in on one. This was my first prim swap, so it was REALLY exciting! 

Yesterday, my package came in the mail. We stopped at the mailbox when we pulled into the driveway and I watched Jamie as he went and pulled out all the mail. Yep, I forgot to go on Thursday until it was dark and since we have coyotes and foxes on the prowl, I just left the mail.The first thing he pulled out was a large envelope and I got all excited.

 When we came in the house, Jamie and I sat at the table oohed and awed over everything and enjoyed some very yummy fudge that was included in the package. It was like Christmas!

This is what my friend Nancy sent.


I took a picture of all the things that I sent to her, once she receives her package, I'll post a picture.  Nancy has been working on a Celebrity's Favorite Recipe Cookbook. You can see more about it on her selling BLOG.

I hope you all have had a good week and having a good weekend.

What Was That?

I found this daffodil in the field on Monday. Isn't it pretty?! I have never seen one like this, so I had to try and find out what kind it is. I'm thinking that it is a Butter and Eggs variation. (You can scroll through the list to #4 on the link.)

Now for a Chicken Story~

I heard something this morning and it kinda scared me at first. I had thought that one of the many bicyclists that ride our road had been hit and left. As I was waiting, watching and listening I realized that it could not be that, my husband had just left for work and he would have stopped if something was wrong. Besides it was still too dark for anyone to be out riding. But then again, some of those people are crazy enough to ride in the dark.

While I was filling up the waterer and feeder for the brood box, I heard the noise again. This time is was coming from behind me, so I turned around and checked the run that Henrietta and Hank are in and didn't see anything.  This time it sounded more like a choking sound. While I was coming in the door, I turned around and was watching Hank and saw that he was flapping his wings and all of a sudden a froggy sounding "cock a " came out.  I knew then what the noise was. Hank is learning to crow! It was neat to watch as he kept trying  several times and finally he was able to get out a  "Cock a doodle" that last little doo didn't quite make it. I'm sure he'll have the hang of it by tomorrow morning.  He seemed so proud of himself and Henrietta ran from him like she might have been a little scared.

My little chickies are growing so fast. Several of them are learning how to roost on the roosting rod that we put in the brooder box. I found them the other day flying up to the top of the feeder and waterer. It won't be long before they are out in the coop with the other two. Funny, how this endeavor had taken root with my husband. He's beginning the planning of converting our dog pen into a big coop.
                         BIGGER COOP = MORE CHICKENS