Homeschooling - Exciting or Boring.....

I had a few minutes this morning to browse the internet and my thoughts went back to how excited I get thinking of teaching my daughter Kelly - I always have such high hopes on ALL the wonderful things we could learn about..... there is just so much out there. Then I stop and remember how hard it is to get Kelly interested in learning! From time to time I have heard things we went over come out of her mouth - Even at her horse class, the instructor asked if anyone knew what horses looked like when they were first discovered and she did, they were much smaller then the horse of today. I know things are sticking in there but I worry when I sit down and work on where all my money goes (I am trying to write down everytime I spend money in a book to keep track) and I add & subtract the numbers - I worry maybe I should make sure she know this. She really seems to have a hard time with math, and I think we tend to not spend much time on it.
I looked over a Homeschooling Blog: http://higherupandfurtherin.blogspot.com/ now this mom has it working! They take such cool trips too!!!!! Now that to me is learning..... Which brings me back to our situation "Boring"!

Horses & Girls....

We had a nice weekend, Friday night we went to watch my son's girlfriend ride her horse in a horse show - she did barrel races & polls. She did very well, She sure is a great rider. We meet her parents there - I pride myself as being able to mingle with just about anyone, these folks were much older then us but I found them to be very nice.
The kids and I went back on Sat. to watch the competition again, Kelly & I just love seeing so many horses in one place : )
Now I have to say Kelly is going through the grundge stage, she looks dirty most of the time & her hair - Well that is straight and just not pretty. I have let her go on like this because I kinda remember when I used to wear yuky sweat-shirts and ripped pants too.... She usually wears a basball cap that hides alot but at the horse show she didn't. My son came home and said that his girlfriend said "Kelly better wash her face & brush her hair or the next time she see's her she will brush it herself". I thought that odd.... But what ever. I think it really hurt Kelly's feelings - It's not that it isn't true, the girl looks a mess (dirty hair, neck, hands ect..) but I really think it's that fase just before they care about their appearence where they want to hide that they are developing into a women (I remember it). Oh well.....
I have one more week with the puppies and then they go to their forever homes. We still have a few that don't have homes, but at least the bulk of them will go. I need a brake, and I need it soon!

Homeschooling During the Summer.....

I had high hopes since out first 6 months of Homeschooling did not go very well that we would just keep plugging along for the summer months and start our 6th grade curriculum..... Well it hasn't turned out that way at all!
With my son home from public school my daughter feels very slighted that she has to do school work and has balked at the idea oa doing any work. I really can't blame her, I soooo remember those last days of school for the summer months something inside you just bursts with excitment - By telling her we were going to work through the summer I have taken that excitment away..... I should have just told her we would take the month of June off and that way she could have anticipated the school brake.
To be truthful, Right now I am sooo busy with my work that I can't even begin to think of school work on top of it. The majority of the puppies go home on June 24th. so just possibly I may be able to take a deep breath and regroup. I for sure want to add in some fun things this summer! Buying a swimming pool is still very high on my list, I had to spend $244.00 on an airconditioner - Our centeral just isn't working right and my husband thinks it would be too high to get it fixed so he suggested getting a large window unit. We will see how high the electric bill goes now with this & the central air both running - Yikes!

I Hate Complaining But.......

It seems as though more posts then not I am complaining about one thing or another but sometimes I just don't understand why so many bad things are happining at once!
Here is the latest saga that occured yesterday.... My husband & son left to take two puppies to their forever homes, Kelly and I had the whole day planned out on what we were going to do (As in past posts you know how stressful things are here lately so when two of the stress factors leave it really lightens up things). We were just getting read to go to Walmart when the phone rang our van was acting up they were going to come home..... We then all went down to Daytona and rented a car for them to complete the puppy drop-off's. It was terribly hot here yesterday, I mean really terrible so it was a struggle to get things done. When it got a little cooler Kelly & I headed out to Walmart and dinner both were nice. We got home and one of the puppies was really ill! She looked awful bad so I called the emergency vet and we set off for that journey. It is all the way up in St. Augustine which is over an hour for us, It was about 7:30pm. We got there and they said her temp was 105 and going up.... They had me sign a paper saying the cost could be between $500.00 - $700.00 to stablizer her. We sat and waited - I find these places like blood suckers and I mean it, They pray on your weaknesses and they know they got you. They have Kelly & I go in a talk with the doctor - The doctor says they can not pin point the problem but they think either she choked her self and swollowed her vomit which is n0w in her lungs or she bit into a cord.... they want to keep her on oxygen and keep her over night. They bring out the bill, It could cost between $1,200.00 to $1,600.00 and she could still die! I tried calling my husband to see what he thought but he didn't have his cell phone on. I kept rolling it through my head and I just kept going both ways back & forth - I finally said I guess we will try and see if the medical treatments will work. they took me to the office and the doctor said that they needed the deposit of the higher amount..... I was like all right now? $1,600.00? They said yes, I looked through my pocket book and had $1,000.00, I said I guess that anwers my problem for me. They come back out and from an estimate of keeping her over night which would run $1,200.00 - the bill I owed was $950.00!!!!! I think they saw I had $1,000.00 on me and they paded the bill to get it up to that point. What can you do though? I paid it, took my sick little pup home : ( She is still hanging on but having a terrible time breathing.... I just hate that I spent almost a thousand dollars and they don't know what is a mtter with her - If she hangs on till Monday I will have to spend more money and see my vet. Next time, I wonder if I will be so quick to go to the emergency vet hospital???? I got home without crying, but I sure am on the brink of it. Here I finally thought I was going to have maybe just alittle money to pay bills get caught up and buy the kids a small pool to enjoy... at the rate I am going renting cars, vet bills ect. there isn;t going to be anything left. The real topper though is if the pup doesn't start responding, I will need to contact the women who bought her and tell her the bad news! It will brake her heart : ( Life sure is never easy.....

Finding the "Good Life".....

I had a chance to read one of my all time favorite blogs & website: http://www.homesteadblogger.com/quiverfull/ I just loved those pictures of her children playing in their pond! That is what childhood should be all about! That's the way I grew up, We had a summer home in the Catskill mountains in N.Y.. We would go their when ever my dad could get off of work. We had a number of family memebers who owned summer spots there too. I would have a number of cousins to play with when we were all there at the same time. It was just so relaxing, We would ride our bikes down to the lake (I've attached a picture of it) swim, lay on the dock and sunbath with the radio on or sometimes off so we could just hear the boats hitting up agains the docks when the ripples from the lake would rock them. At that time I thought it was so boring going to the same place all the time but now..... Gosh I wish I could give something like that to my kids! We have started using the Charlotte Mason methods of teaching for Kelly, and one things she says which hit me really hard is "One third of education is atmosphere"! That is something I really have to work on.... Like I said it is very crazy here right now with all these puppies we have, it is driving everyone over the edge! Our house is not a calm place, your stomach tightens up here, you breath in short breaths. Not a great place for learning inside or out : ) In another part of her teachings you are to explore & enjoy your area outside and make a nature book. I tell you when we go outside, I worry! When Kelly and I go for walks during the day I can never enjoy them because you just never know now a days what just might happen. I try and tell myself that I am just being over protective but you hear so many stories. The area we are in is not the best, great for having animals ect. but like I mentioned in earlier posts we have a sex offender two house down, I think our neighbor in the back is a drug dealer, We have had neighbors try and run me over, race cars, swear at my children ect.... this is not a place where you can take a breath and relax at all!!!!! You might ask why do they stay there????? I ask that of myself many times lately. It is so hard now to sell anything for a profit and we have so many obstacles to over come to be able to move & then of course we have all these animals that we would need to move which would be really tough. My mother always said to me"Look at each problem, If it is something that can be fixed fix it, If not then you have to let it go and live with it and make the best of it" she lived by that.