Ho Hummmm

Having a tough day already, I was stupid to think New Year's Eve would be any different around here!~
Money problems left and right, For 2 hours last night my husband and I discussed what we should do today to help get the issues some what fixed - Now this mornig he has totally changed his mind and is screaming again....I won't bore you with the rest of it because I'm sick of it too and I have to live it.
Kelly & I were enjoying our time without school, Yesterday we went horseback riding, took the dogs out for a walk, but as always in this house you have a fun day and the next turns crappy : (
I really am not looking forward to getting back to the books on Monday, I know we have to but I sure am enjoying the freedom and the no stress of not having to think about school work!

Charistmas Is Over For Another Year....

All and all we had an okay Christmas, Christmas Eve Kelly, my husband & I (my son had to work) went over to my in-laws for a ham dinner. It was nice (any time I don't have to cook - I'm there!). We opened presents that they gave us which was nice, Kelly got a large horse blanket which is very pretty (I will post a picture of it after we get it out of the car, all the presents are still in there from Chrsitmas Eve....). As I have said they give us gifts that they buy from garage sales so everything is used which I find kinda weird for Christmas gifts but as they say it is the thought that counts. They usually give us $25.00 each but this year they didn't which threw us for a loop since we were going to use that money for gas to get home... I guesss thats what you get when you count your chickens before they hatch! I had a $30.00 budget for Kelly's gifts this year, she got a Three Days Grace CD, Scrabble card game, Monopoly card game, a pair of Flip Flops, two Simis Palystation 2 games (I bought them at Game Stop, They sell previously owned games for much less then new) - That was it but she seemed to enjoy the presents so thats all that matters : )
Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday with your families!!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!

Hope you all have a wonderful day today with your loved ones : )

Best Wishes!!!

Getting Outside For A Mushroom Hunt

I told my daughter to grab her coat we are getting outside - Can you see the enjoyment in her face "not"!
We went on a mushroom hunt and found a number of beautiful ones. Kelly took the pictures of them with her camera so they came out pretty good.

I am trying to get our "mojo" back to positive things instead of all this major negative stuff that has been happining to us!

We are taking the rest of this week off from schooling, but am thinking we are going to get back to school work on the 28th. I have been looking at Ambleside to add music & art study to our day. Year 6 looks like a good spot to start at. I am just going to mold some of their ideas into our day and see how it goes.

Hope everyone is getting ready for the holiday! I can't wait till it is OVER!!!!!!

My Son Was Robbed At Gun

My son was driving home from a friends house last night at about 10pm., He was running late so he took the fastest way home which is through an area that besides it having a tiny clump of houses is pretty desolute for miles. He stopped at the one stop sign in the area and then went around a cornor he saw a man walk out into the road in front of his car. My son slowed down and was watching & wondering what the heck this man was doing! He then heard tapping on the driver side window which startled him, When he looked over there was another man in a mask with a gun pointed at my son's head!!!!!!! The guy told him to give him his wallet which my son did, the guy took out the $50.00 that he had in there and threw the wallet back at my son and then acted as though he was going to hit my son in the face with the gun butt, Then the two men ran off into the darkness. He raced out of there as fast as he could and got home. I tell you when he told me the story I just shook!!!!!! So many other things could have happened to him, they could have shot him, they could have pulled him out of the car and beat the living daylights out of him, ect. - So many things keep racing through my mind! Praise God he is okay!!!!!!

"Are You Smarter Then A 5th Grader"

As part of our schooling today we pulled out "Are you smarter then a 5th grader" game.
We haven't really ever played it before, it has been sitting in the closet from last Christmas. Anyway, My husband, Kelly & I played, I found alot of the questions to be pretty hard. We were on the 1st grade questions and having to think about a few of the answers - Yikes! This whole thing kinda back fired in my face because Kelly felt very frustrated not knowing the answers to a number of the questions. She said to me about herself "I sure am dumb!". I felt terrible! Hearing and seeing her struggle with alot of the questions really made me question what I have been teaching her. One question was about Mozart, She had no idea who he was. To be honest we have not covered him or much of any other music, I have just felt that with her learning disability going into to many directions would just make things harder for her...... I may be wrong though. She felt very down and it didn't help that her father kept giving me "the look" when she didn't know things. If you have read my blog you know I have struggled with the topic of what do you teach a child with a learning disability who has no plans to go to college... does knowing who Mozart is something that we just should cover.... Or one of the other questions was about Aesop's Fables, We haven't ready any of those yet either.... It's funny how playing one game can really open ones eyes!

Meteor Shower - Fantastic!

We were out side for most of last night and early this morning watching the meteor shower
The evening started off with clouds and the viewing was not so good but we kept going out every hour to see if it improved and it did! Just after 11:30 ish we were getting good views. We took out a blanket to lay on and a pillow (later on I did need to add a jacket, I still had on my shorts though). My husband, Kelly & I watched until about 1:00am, We saw a ton of shooting stars some were quick and faint others we bold and had a tail! It just amazes me how beautiful the night sky is when you take the time to really just settle in and enjoy it! My son was yelling of course because we were keeping him up from his sleep - We would get loud when we saw one (he had to get up for work at 2:30am).
Other than that though we had a great evening! Kelly & I hope to go out again tonight and take another peek : )

An Interesting Blog

Good Saturday Morning!
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend ahead!
I found a blog I am enjoying reading: Under $1000 a month (I am especially ejoying her posts about expenses). I love it when you find one that you just keep hitting the older posts button to read more : )

24 More Days Till 2010!

You won't belive the days I have been having....
To start off with we did finally receive the unemployment check in Sat. mail - Thank God! That whole issue was wearing me out!
Then my in-laws popped in on Sunday. As I have said before these people are like no other people I have ever meet before..... They sat here telling us how they hired a guy to come in and install tile in their kitchen and laundry room. I tried to keep my mouth from dropping open while they told this story, my husband couldn't belive it either. Here we are in desperate need of money and they go out and hire a stranger to do the work my husband could have done! It really broke my husband's heart. I just don't understand these people at all.... Then they invited us over for Christmas Eve dinner!
I am praying the holidays fly by fast this year, I am so drained already and we haven't even gotten to the actual holidays yet. Every year on New Year's Eve I always say "I sure hope the next year will be better this one" and every year they seem to be getting worse.... My husband has unemployment until I think Feb. then I am not sure what we will do if they don't extend it again.
As you can see I am in a depressed mood again! It just is sad when you go into Walmart and some people are smiling and laughing with shopping carts full of presents for their loved ones and others like us are worried how we are paying the electric shut off bill AGAIN plus have enough to just get by until the next unemployment check : ( It broke my heart when my son asked Kelly for some present ideas for her and she said "Just help pay the bills so nothing gets shut off". Jan. 1, 2010 where are you???????

Weekly Wrap Up

Weekly Wrap Up:
It has been fun reading & seeing blogging posts about areas having snow! It sure looks like all the kids had fun with it : ) Here in Florida we are windy, cold with rain... a dark gloomy day. I went out this morning to find my horse Roper shivering : ( I tried to dry him off some but it is still raining a bit, I will have to keep and eye on him.
It's funny we had our outside Christmas lights up way before Thanksgiving (my son did it all) but now the days are ticking away and we still don't have the tree up. I have no interest at all in putting it up maybe my son will in the next few days.
Our bigggest problem this week has been my husband's unemployment check did not get delivered! It comes ever week on Thursday like clock work but not this week. He has checked and they sent it out so the problem is not on their end. We went to the post office and of course they said "Give it a few days..". We are really up a river, We so count on that check each week to pay bills, buy food, animal food ect., I don't want to even think that it might be lost... If you could include us in your prayers that this check comes soon, I would really appreciate it! Thank You!
School has been going very slow, I can't get up to the library for any books to add to our readings which always adds alittle something to the day. I can't wait for the holiday season to be over with!

Night At The Museum Lapbook

This was posted on one of my other homeschooling groups and thought I would pass it on, It looks like such a fun idea to do...
"A Night At The Museum" lapbook type thing which cover both the older movie and the one that comes out today, the best part is that it is free right now from CurrClick (normally $12.00).
If anyone finds some great books to go along with this please pass it on to me justme32110@yahoo.com.
Thanks!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone has a wonderful day to day!
It seems this year that the stores are racing past this Thanksgiving more then ever to get to Black Friday which I find sad : (
So little is mentioned about Thanksgiving you wouldn't even know that is was actually the holiday not Black Friday!
Anyway, I am cooking a turkey today (the church sent over all the fixins for a nice Thanksgiving meal). It is just going to be the four of us, It just doesn't seem festive when you don't have guests over... I told my family to try and think of something they are thankful for this year (It has been a really really tough year for us so thinking of something will be tough). Right now I am thankful for Advil! I have been having such a terrible ache in my knee - I guess this is what happens when you are 46.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!

Not Going To College Curriculum?

Good Monday Morning To You All!
I had to check the computer date to be sure it is Monday - Yilkes! The days all seem the same here.....
I was wondering if anyone has found a website/Blog which covers topics that should be covered if you don't plan on going to college?
I think that could be a great new curriculum idea for some one to sell.
What brought me to this is that on another site they asked if Kelly plans on going to college or not which should influence my teaching plans for her.
I really wonder how many of the topics would be omitted....
If you have found anything like this please let know justme32110@yahoo.com
Thank You!

*I did find this book while roaming the web: Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers It looks like it covers alot of great topics -Now if I only had the money to buy it : (

Topics Being Covered......

Here we are at Thursday already, Gosh the weeks just go by fast...
I seem to be all over the place with schooling again,
We are enjoying the Boxcar Children as our Beyond Five In A Row tile. I just love how many topics we cover doing schooling this way... and if Kelly is interested in any of the topics we go further into them. Some of the topics are childish and Kelly get's aggrivated but we just go quickly over them. I'm still not sure how you write this type of learning up in a transcript form but I will worry about that at the end of the school year.
We are also using "A History Of Us" vol. 9 for history, We are getting to the Depression (I sure can relate to alot of what is mentioned in these chapters.... no work, everything being shut off ect.). I really like Joy Hakim's books, She writes just enough about each topic & the pictures are really good which helps to keep Kelly's attention.
We kind of tossed the Apologia Zoology 1 book to the side, Kelly just didn't have any interest in most of the topics : (
We are still working on geography, using "Galloping The Globe" and I had a great atlas in our bookshelf that I pulled out "Scholastic Atlas of the World". I was getting extra books about each country from the library but really we aren't interested in going to indepth into each country just knowing where they are and some fun facts about them is just fine for now.
I still need to find a remedial grammer & math book..... I need a real easy to understand book on both topics but not babyish because she hates that. I have been using some worksheets and that doesn't seem to be working - to all over the place I think. I found a neat website on teaching children with learning disabilities, It stated some signs most of which Kelly deals with:
Indication observations:
Difficulty learning new skills, relying on memorization
Trouble learning about time
Difficulty remembering facts
Confusing basic words (dog, cat, run)
Poor coordination, 'accident prone', unaware of physical surroundings
Having a hard time learning the connection between letters and sounds (Phonetics)
Spelling and reading errors such as substitutions (house/home), letter reversals (b/d), inversions (m/w) and transpositions (felt/left)
Problems with planning
Impulsive behavior
Transposes number sequences and confuses arithmetic signs
If your run across others like this site/blog please pass it along to me (justme32110@yahoo.com). I have really got to find some new ideas on how to help her learn.
The public school is taking the entire Thanksgiving week off, I have been debating if we would or not.... I sure could use the rest from thinking about schooling.

Praying Mantis & Baby

Here is a praying mantis I saw the other night on our hay bale, She was walking on the pitch fork with what looked like a baby on her back. I ran in and got my camera, the picture didn't come out very good. I got Kelly and she saw it also, but before I could get my son to see her she was gone... Nature really is amazingly beautiful : )

Library Up-Date

Thank you for the posts, I appreciate them!
I went ahead and wrote to the library about the matter, Well I heard back....
The head lady said she went and checked out the books and after lengthy cleaning the books still smelled like urine.... I knew she would back up the first gal. As to why I had to pay for the "worst" book, she said it was because of the stain even though I explained in my note that the book was never used and didn't leave the box. They told me that I should pick up from them plastic book protectors that I could use to protect the books in the future - That they were sorry that my family could not detect the odor! I wrote back and told her that I would pick up the protectors and that I will have each book of the 20 I take out each time checked over thoroughly by the check-out girl BEFORE I leave the library and again when I bring them back to make sure we are not charged in the future for books we did not damage.... I also said I would contact the other homeschoolers in our area and make them aware of the issue so that they too will check each book before hand so as not to have to be resposible for buying one.
Can you tell I am still in a tizzy over this? It just makes me mad! Then to top it off, the book I bought is still listed as being on the shelf....
I know from now on the libary is going to be a stickler to me about each book I take out and bring back but I just had to make an issue of it. The sad thing is going to the library once a week is my only "outing" of the week : ( I used to enjoy it but now I have worry so much about each book - I can't!

What Would You Have Done?

I just got back from my library and the steam is still pouring out of my head......
I took back about 15 books and was taking out about that same amount when one of the gals comes up to me with the books I had just brought back. She says to me "We have a problem", She said the books smelled like urine! I was dumbfounded! I transport all the library books in a canvas carring bag from the library to my home, I then place them in a cardboard box up on top of the counter. I am the only one who touches the books (besides giving them to Kelly to read). Where I put them none of the animals can get at them. Soooo I stood there trying to process what she was saying to me.... I then picked up a few of the books and smelled them, None of the books smelled like urnine to me at all. I was going to ask another librarian to smell the books for her thoughts, but them thought better of it - Of course she would say it does since this gal is saying so. Then I thought of asking just another person in the library to smell one of the books but I didn't. The gal kept shaking her head when I kept saying I don't smell anything (no other librarian's came over even though they were all standing in the area). I just didn't know what to do.... Then she said this is the worst one and opened a book and showed me a stain on the inside front cover. I smelled it and again no urine smell. I think she wanted me to pay for ALL the books.... I was getting nervous now, that many books would be so expensive! I said "I'll pay for this book" (the one she said was the worst). She just gave me such a look and then another gal came over and said it was $15.00 plus $5.00 for shipping charges. I paid the darn $20.00 - Now you know how I have no money! This really hurts! The real kicker is that we never even opened the "worst" book at all, but I guess now we will read it for sure: (
What would you all have done? I need to be able to use the library for our school books so I couldn't make such a fuss, but I really feel like I was unjustly accused.

Good Tuesday Morning!

I am feeling a whole lot better today - I thought I was coming down with something but I really think now it was just stress.... But today I am up early and thinking positive again : )

I picked up a few books at the library to read since our internet/cable is due to be shut off and I have found one that I am really enjoying, Easy Homeschooling Techniques by Lorraine Curry.
It really hit home with me since it mentions alot about how too much tv & video/computer can really affect kids.... I think alot of my childrens troubles with schooling are from my not reading enough to them when they were little. They did watch way too much tv, I thought all those shows like Barney, Seasame Street ect. were going to teach them things but really I think it just made them less able to concentrate for any length of time on one thing. I also think like the books says that tv takes away your ability to visualize, like when you read a book and you see pictures in your mind of what is happening and you float off to that place, well with to much tv you can't do that you are "waiting" for the pictures. I have tried to think back to my childhood and I can honestly say I can never remember my parents reading a book to me ever - but I always had the love of reading. I was not allowed to watch tv during the day when I was little, We only had it on after my father got home from work and of course only things like the news, Waltons, Little House On The Praire ect.. Which leads me to belive that it is the amount of time my kids watched tv that has partly stripped them of enjoying reading. My son who is now 20 and went through the public school system has said he has NEVER read a single book all the way through... he always found ways around doing it (watching a movie made of the book ect.). The things I find most sad is that he never "wanted to", you know what I mean? Anyway wrapping this all up - I now feel fine with the way we are doing school this year with using alot of outloud reading, It just might spur Kelly to enjoy a book one day.... : )

Prayers were answered again.....

I want to thank those who sent me e-mails of encouragement & prayers - Again they have been answered!!!!!! Praise God!!!! A lady who I have never meet personally who bought one of the puppies I breed heard of our electric troubles and paid $500.00 towards our electric bill!!!!!!!
We sure do have angels looking out for us!!!! We told her we would pay her back but she wants us to just get caught up with our bills.

This is going to be a long month......

Gosh, I hate when the day starts off bad and just keeps going......
We got both shut off notices for the electric and the cable/internet in today's mail - The internet will be off by the 8th and the electric by the 10th : (
Can't imagine how that will be. This month is already turning into the "perfect storm" for us.
My husband and Kelly are both soooo depressed - I have been trying to figure out how we will work things out not having electric.... and to top it off we don't even have our cell phone any more. It will really be like back in the old days here!
My husband did get an extention on his unemployment - Yea! But we don't get the next check until the 19th. (by then the next past due electric bill will be added to amount we already owe making the electric bill $659.00 plus any added charges to turn it back on), He only gets $406.00 from the unemployment so things don't look good.....
Oh well tomorrow is another day - Sure hope it's a better day!

Math & Spelling Problems - Your Opinions Needed

The weather here has been wonderful! It has taken a long time to get here but I am sure enjoying it!

On the school front - Gosh are we struggling with math! I really think it is worse then ever this year.... I have pulled out Kitchen Math I thought this might be a way to work on math without really working on math, Kelly struggled with it. She did the addition problems and subtraction problems just fine, the multiplication problems she struggled with but worked them out but the division problems she said she has forgotten how to work on them...... Her recall memory is pretty bad this year. We are also struggling with spelling - She writes the words down for a pre-test, does a word search for the words, does fill in the blank questions for the words & does the workbook questions and still by the end of the week she still gets a ton wrong, She just can not remember them. Does anyone have ideas on what teaching ideas I should use for her in math & spelling? Should I just go back to real basic math books until she "gets" it? Would you continue with the spelling even if there seems to be no advancement with it?
When we play match game with cards she does really well with that - She remembers were the matches are many more times then I do. Is there any other types of games to help memory problems. I really think this is the main issue area of her learning disability.....

You Have To Try This!

I was reading over at my blogging buddy's site: Toad Haven that she got her broom to stand up all by it's self. I grabbed my broom and we did it! It is kinda spooky looking but cool. I would have taken a picture but of course our floors are a mess.....
Give it a try your family will find it amazing!

Time Change.....

I always find it hard to adapt to when we change the clocks.... they say we gain an hour in the fall but in our house we just stay up later that night then everyone is shot the next day which throws the whole week off.....

Anyway, I think I have finally gotten Kelly's transcript done for the 2008-2009 school year - Yea!!!! I just have to type it up and get it off to our umbrella school. Having to work on this has really made me alot more aware of record keeping and what she is learning, You can tell by my past posts some days I am in a tizzy over it : )

I have been reading "Strategies for Struggling Learners - A guide for the Teaching Parent" by Joe P. Sutton, PHD. & Connie J. Sutton, M.A.Ed. If I understand them correctly they suggest to use grade level books and also remedial books this way your student will cover what everyone else in their age bracket is covering. I just don't see how that would work. I have found when things are getting to hard for Kelly I can see her zoning out. I can't see much good in using the harder material - I would think that would bring attention to the child that they really are behind what "other kids" their age are doing. I hate when the books have the age brackets listed on the front pages.... Most times I try to hide that from Kelly.
I find this all so interesting and if anyone has any good books or websites on this topic please let me know.

P.s. - I have been reading this blog for awhile now and really enjoy it:
Chicken In The Road she posts the cutest animal pictures and such sweet stories - Take peek if you get a chance.

Happy Halloween!!!!!

"Happy Halloween"

We don't have any plans for today/night, We are just going to stay home. We will be having some candy, and I bought some brownies & cookies mixes that we will be making tonight. It will also be game night which is always fun : ) My son bought the new WWE wrestling video game so that will be included in tonights line up....

Hope everyone has a safe and fun filled Halloween!!!!!

My Heart A Bit Sad....

I wanted to start by thanking all those who posted & wrote e-mails to me, I will look into all of your ideas! Thank You : )

My heart was a bit sad yesterday, My son was home and he was on the computer when Kelly & I were doing school work. He said to me, "If I had school like this I would have quit - You talk to much"! Kelly jumped in and said, "I like it like this, She does all the work and I just sit here". Now you know I have found that Kelly really does take in the things we learn about even though she may be coloring or painting while I am reading, BUT I do do alot of the "work". When it came to a story she needed to write she kept putting it off, finding reasons why she could not do it. I wasn't going to give in and she handed back one paragrah that she wrote. Maybe I am doing to much of the "work" and she does need to do more.... I was just so happy she was actually retaining the information we talked about instead of having it go in one ear and then out the next that maybe I have been neglecting other things : (

I found this site for assesment test taking: Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills I thought it would help knowing what each grade level is learning. Gosh, by this Kelly is way behind in math.....

Teaching High School

I really have been thinking about what lies ahead for us in Kelly's homeschooling.
Do we really want to continue homeschooling for the next four years.... Am I capable of giving her a high school level of education? When she was in public school she had an IEP (Individual Education Program), So I am sure this would affect the "requirments" expected of her for graduation.... The one website I found about teaching high school mentions that you should print out your states requirements for graducation and start from there, but do you really teach to those requirements or do you follow your own path? Or do you teach to be able to pass the GED test? I would love to hear from those of you who have moved into that area of teaching "high school" you can e-mail me at justme32110@yahoo.com

P.s.- I found this great article about the topic of how to teach: http://www.homelifeacademy.com/heart_for_learning.php
Thanks!

Good News - Bad News

Start of another day....

I found this picture in the newspaper this morning of the pelicans flying over the beach, I wanted to share it with you, I thought it looked so peaceful.

Good News - Kelly is doing alittle better with the toothache, It doesn't seem to be hurting as much - Thank God!

Bad News - The job that my husband's boss told them they would be starting tomorrow in Alabama fell through : ( I can not tell you how upset we are to hear this.... We were soooo counting on this money! We have a $404.00 electric bill that we will be getting the shut off notice for any day now (I called around to see if we could get help - the one lady said to call back in about four weeks that they are so swamped with requests already. The other places I called are tapped out already by the huge demand of people in our area needing help). We get another unemployment check on thurs. which we could use to pay the electric bill but we are out of food stamp money and need to use some of that money for that..... I just have to pray everything will work out okay.

The Monday Blues.....

Kelly is still struggling with a terrible toothache!
I feel soooo terrible for her - She was up most the night last night (she had run out of anbesol, which has been the only thing to give her some pain free moments).
She is napping right now laying on the bench next to our table, I hope she can nap for awhile - no sleep always makes things worse!
The really sad part is I can't get her any help for all this pain! We just don't have any money to take her to the dentist, and I can't see any time in the near future when we will either : (
If you know of any home remedies that work for toothaches please let me know....
She has tried advil, ice bag on the area, salt water rinses and nothing so far as worked.
Needless to say a really down day here : (

I've Been Thinking....

I have really been mulling over - What do kids really need to learn about,
I think I have been struggle with this because of my having to work up Kelly's transcript.
I printed out from World Book what an 8th grader should be learning about as a general guide line.
Why do we teach some things and not others? How much do you really remember from 13 years of schooling? Do you really need to know the state bird of another state? Do you need to know the periodic table of elements? ect. How much of the stuff we teach do they really ever use? (Can you tell I haven't slept well in awhile).
Most everything can be looked up on the computer in minutes so there really is no need to know the "indepth" of things if there is no interest in it - Is there?
I really find this topic interesting.
I think to since our area has been hit really hard with the bad economy - Flagler County's unemployment rate is at 16%, Is it more important to focus in on job type things to learn? But there again, I know a Penn State graduate who can't find a job either and is working at a store.
I wonder if it is more important to just have the "love of learning".

Friday....

Nothing much new here....
Kelly still seems to be in that in between stage of being sick and not being sick.
To top it off the poor thing has a toothache also : (
We have been trying to get a little bit of schooling in each day but really we haven't gotten much done. We wrapped up early today because I saw it was pointless, She just feels lousy and cranky.
I went up to the library this morning - It is sad to say but going to the library is the highlight of my week. When I got there they were setting up for a play and had most of the children's book area roped off. The gal did help me by getting two of the books I needed. I hate when I can't browse through the books! Needless to say I came home with a poor selection of books for this up-coming week.
One of the inter-library books I have been waiting for weeks did come in today (The Yanks Are Coming) - The problem is that we have covered most all of what the book is about already using other texts : ( I will most likely send the book back without reading it - I hate that because I have to pay $2.00 for every inter-library book I order. I am debating if it is just easier to order the books from Amazon - most of the books are .01 plus $3.99 shipping, so for $4.00 I can get the books pretty much within a week and not have to wait almost a month for the inter-library book.
I did pick-up from the library Mommywood by Tori Spelling that I had requested so at least I have something to read again.... I just LOVE when you get a book and crack it open and submerge yourself in it!

Feeling Under The Weather : (

Kelly hasn't been feeling well since last night.... It's almost 11:00am and she is still laying in bed dosing on and off.
It's been brewing, she wasn't eating very much, then last night she said it was hard to breath, her throat was soar, headache, feeling shaky. My son works at a food store so I always worry that he is bringing home all those germs from the many different shoppers he runs into. He also mentioned that one of the guys he works with is sick as a dog coughing on everything (they told him to go home but he is in major need of a paycheck), the guy is taking today off though - my son is filling if for him. So not sure if Kelly is starting with the flu or what but I hate to see her not well : (
My son brought home "Transformers Revenge of the Fallen" video so that looks like what we will be doing today.

Still Searching.....

Well we hit the books today again.
I have been wracking my brain on what I had been doing that kept Kelly interested in schooling and had been actually getting Kelly to the school table before me..... I have not found it yet : (
She has no interest at all in the Apologia Zoology 1 book, I was debating if I should just go through the bird stuff anyway but she just totally tunes out so I am think we will jump to the info about bats and see how that goes. I'm not sure if that is the correct thing to do or not - I know she is not always going to be interested in everything she needs to learn but when I see that she isn't paying any attention at all to the topic I can't see the point in proceding with it. It really caught me off guard since she usually loves anything to do about animals.... all of her picks for our "special interest" topics have been about different animals.
I was reading over at Home *School* Home how their homeschool group went on a great field trip to a fantastic looking maze which looked like so much fun! I have to say the homeschool group around here is nothing like most homeschool groups I have read about, they get together once in awhile at a local park, once in a rare while they plan a field trip but not many at all. I know most times I don't even have a car or money to go places but it would be nice if the options where there.
The weather has been so beautiful here!!!!!! We have been out walking a whole lot more : ) I hope it stays like this!

Topsy Turvy Kinda Day

Things sure are topsy turvy here!
A cold front has traveled down to our area of the country and boy am I LOVING it!!!!! It has been sooooo refreshing to feel actually cold again. I don't own a single pair of pants so I don't want it to get too cold : (
Then on a sad note, My son and his fiancee broke up last night. Just seeing my 20 year old cry just makes my heart so sad..... I don't know if they will get back together or not but for now he feels so sad and keeps saying he will never find another girl like her. I have tried to explain to him at 20 he has alot of time to find the right girl and there is no rush at all.
The other topic I wanted to mention is our schooling - It was going fantastic but since my husband has been home ALL the time, then the turmoil with my son & the decision to end my dog breeding business has just put a major damper on it! Kelly has not been able to consentrate on any of the work again : (
We started Cricket In Time Square as our next book from the Beyond Five In A Row selection. I thought she would be interested in it since I know alot about the area and have been there a number of times and could share with her some stories but so far she hasn't been interested at all. I went to one of my favorite blogging buddies site Toad Haven, her and her family recently visited Time Square and took some GREAT pictures I thought it would give Kelly as idea of what it actually looks like there.
Maybe tomorrow we will have a better day !!!!!!

Sometimes I Could Just Kick Myself!!!!!!

Awhile back my son found on the beach a Mermaid's Purse it's the first time I had seen one. He kept it in his room, then a few days ago he gave it to us for our shell collection. Would you belive in less then a week's time it got ruined.... some how the dogs got it and ripped it to shreds : (

This picture is a picture I found of one that looked just like the one he had..... I just HATE when something that I wanted to keep get's tossed around and ruined! I can blame it on the house being messy & It should have been placed in a much safer spot.

My goal this weekend it to organize - It's not that we have alot of stuff, I really have decluttered but the stuff we do have seems to be not in place.

Hot, Hot, Hot Here In Florida....

It sure is hot here in Florida! Where is the fall weather? I think we have even broke some old records for this time of year : ( All those folks who have planned their Disney vacations for this week must be sweating their tails off..... It's funny we live about 20 or so minutes from Flagler Beach (picture above) do you know how many times we have been down there this year swimming? None! I know alot of people would die to be able to visit the beach and here we never go.... I guess that is the way it is when things are in you so called "backyard" you just don't enjoy them like you should.

I sure hope the cooler temps. start heading our way soon!!!!!!

Perspective.....

Sometimes you really have to step back and see what else is going on before you complain.....
We are facing a tough week this week, Our electric is being shut off this Friday. The bill is $368.00, there is no work in site for my husband (his boss now says maybe at the start of November) and I can't seem to sell my puppies..... I have been such a crank pot this week with worry, and of course the temp. has gone back up here so not having a/c is going to be terrible but the worst part is having no water.... ANYWAY, here I am complaning about one thing after another then I read my blogging buddy Rhonda's post at Alston Academy that really just puts things back into perspective!

Tiny Egg.....

Look at the tiny egg my daughter found out in the hen house..... It is so tiny : ) I placed a large egg next to it so you can see the size difference. Not sure why one of the girls layed one so small. In the number of years we have had the hens we have only had one egg hatch to a baby chick. We didn't spot it fast enough and the poor thing got stepped on by one of the goats or the turkey's got it.

We are going to start Apologia Flying Creatures - We are trading our Zoology 3 book with a gal who had the Flying Creatures book and wanted to trade with us. We were going to start Apologia General Science but after looking it over I think we won't start that until next year. We will go through Flying Creatures and then Botnay to finish off those books.

Happy October 1st.!

It was chilly here in Florida the past fews nights, a sure sign we are heading into the later part of the year.... I soooooo enjoy the cooler weather!

Would you belive I am STILL working on Kelly's transcript for last year!!!! I sent a copy in to the gal who handles the paper work for our unbrella school and she said it needed more.... she wants to meet with me to fix it - Yikes! I am using a regular notebook to keep track of everything we do this year, but still feel I don't really have a handle on what is required for the transcript : (

Other then that school is going very well still - Kelly actually for the second time woke me up from a nap and said we best get to the schooling.... I think the whole key for Kelly is to keep it short and sweet. She remembers a whole lot more that way, once we go into to much detail her eyes glaze over and the she seems to zone out. Adding the "Special Interest" section to the school day has helped too.

On the home front things are not going very well..... My son's mustang broke down (it may be the head gasket or engine) costing in the $850.00 range which he does not have sooooo he has been using my jeep. My car has 250,000 miles on her and I baby her so I am so afraid all this extra driving will ruin her. My husband also is still not working, that has really been tough again especially since out electric bills each month have been $367.00 last month and this month $400.00!!!!!! Something is drastically wrong with our airconditoner but we can't afford to have someone come out and look at it and it had been way too hot in the house to not run it..... but now that the cooler weather has come that baby has been SHUT OFF!

Florida Soft Shell Turtle In Our Yard!

Here is a video and some pictures Kelly took of a Florida Soft Shell Turtle that wondered into our yard during the heavy rains we had in the middle of August. This is the first time we had ever seen a turtle like this one.... She walked right through the horse pen, Kelly was taking a video and trying to hold the horses back so they wouldn't step on her. The turtle left and we haven't seen her since : (

20 Books....

I never would have belived that being able to take 20 books out of the library would not be enough books!
I am really trying to have all the books needed for the whole weeks worth of schooling so I do not have to run all the way up to the library mid week, but there I was today driving up there at 9am.. I had my list of books to get so I could wisk in and out. Again some of the books I was looking for that are listed in their search catalog are missing/stolen..... our library really seems to have a major problem with that (they want to install a anti theft beeper at the door but as of yet have no way of knowing when books are going out the door stolen). Anyway, I could have taken out at least 30 or more books (remind you I was just there on Sat,) but cut my list down to the 20 allowed. I'm not allowed to use my daughter's library card only when she is with me to use the card herself which is NEVER the child hates going to the library : (
I could spend the day in the library.... If I let myself ramble along I can find a topic that interests me in no time at all.
Note: We read a cute story while doing our Just Plain Fancy book study about the Amish. The book was an example of jealousy/envy/equality : "A Bargain for Frances" by Russell Hoban.

China Study & World War I ?

We had our Chinese food to go with our study of China for lunch today - "Chicken Chow Mein", It is amazing how filling a plate of that is.... of course we had to have fortune cookies too : )

I think it is these little added touches that are making our school day more enjoyable.

I wanted to ask you all if any one can suggest a good World War I book? We are starting it and the books I have gotten so far are way to hard to follow (even for me). The suggested reading books are: "World War I" by Tom McGowen & "The Yanks Are Coming" by Albert Marrin, my library has neither one of these so I have to order them with inter library loan program which will cost me $4.00 dollars ($2.00 for every book you order even if they can't find it for you...). They need the money before they can order, I wasn't going to order them but since the choices of books for World War I are so slim I guess I will.

Today is the first day of Autumn! Have a great day : )

Jumping For Joy : )

If you have been following my blog you know the struggles I have had with homeschooling my daughter Kelly.... Well I have to share this little tidbit with you : )
On Friday I went down town with my husband to cash my husbands unemployment check (Yes, He is not working AGAIN), When we got home I had one of those blister of a headaches brewing so I told Kelly I was going to lay down for an hour, Well I slept right through our schooling time. When I got up she said to me "So how was schooling today" in a sarcastic tone - meaning we didn't get to it and she was UPSET about it! She was upset we didn't do schooling...... My heart jumped for joy : )

Homeschool Share : )

I just have to mention again about "Homeschool Share"
It really has been such a help this year already for us!
We have added "Special Interest" to our school day - That is where Kelly & I pick things we are interested in to learn about.
So far we are working on the Amish (in one of my all time favorite places Lancaster PA.) - If I could redo our move to Florida I think we should have moved there....
Anyway, I just typed in Amish and got a number of possible books to use (We went with "Just Plain Fancy") we are using the suggested topics and I have found more books at our library to add to it.
I really hate to breath a word of it because it may change but our school year this year is going along beautifully : )

Origami Kit Making - "China"

As part of our Galloping the Globe study of China, I found these Origami Kits at the Dollar General store for one dollar. Kelly & I made the sting-ray's - Her's came out nice, mine I cut in half (Yikes!) so I had to tape it together..... There are a number of different designs to make in each box, the sting-ray looked the easiest to start with. It's alot harder then I thought.

"How to Make an Apple Pie and see the world"

We were working with Galloping the Globe and one of the activites was to make an apple pie... Don't laugh at our attempt at it : ) First we got all the ingredients together then I coudn't find a pie plate so we used a cake tin, then we couldn't find our rolling pin and tried to use a pepsi bottle - Yikes! Nothing like being prepared - Not! Some how we didn't come up with enough dough to cover the entire top of the pie.... but eveyone said it tasted good so I guess that's all that matters : )

Beyond Five In A Row

I can not tell you how much we have enjoyed Beyond Five In A Row !
At first I was a bit worried about it being to easy for Kelly being that is states for ages 8 -12, sure some things she has covered before and some are introduced in a very basic form but I just love it. It keeps things moving for us which for Kelly is very important if it goes into to much detail I have lost her.... It also tells you if your student shows interest they give you more ideas to follow up with ect. so you can make it more challenging or as simple as you need to. We are really cruzing through Sarah Plain and Tall, Kelly hasn't done many of the writting assingments suggested : ( Which I am sad about because there have been some real good ones mentioned but being that we are just getting school back up and rolling again I'm letting it slide..... I think we will shoot right to Skylark after finishing Sarah Plain & Tall. I have to buy a copy though, Our library has it listed as being in but when I checked on it it is missing, they have been having alot of trouble with people stealing books : (

We Have Lift Off !!!!!!!!

Here are pictures of the lift off of Discovery space shuttle taken in Titusville by +BP+.

It went up 11:59pm. Friday night after a number of scrubbed lift offs.

In the first picture you can see a lightning bolt very close to the shuttle lift off area I thought for sure that the lightning was going to cause problems for the shuttle but thank God it went off just fine!

Space Shuttle Discovery......

The shuttle was supposta go off early this morning at 1:30am - My family all wanted to get up so I woke up, checked the internet and it was scrubbed. They are going to try and get it off Wed. morning at 1:10am again - Yikes, another morning of getting up way early but we hate to miss any launches it is just to breath taking to watch!

UPDATE:
The lift off has been scrubbed again for Wed. morning.

A Visit From Bill Off Our Coast....

Hurricane Bill thank-goodness missed us here in Florida but he is off our coast. He is causing some very high waves for us - Here are a few pictures....

Distractions : (

Well my best intentions have really gone out the window again...
We started school with a zest and it was going well then we got distracted and then poof we were on to something else and school was out the window : (
My son and his future wife were mobile home shopping and wanted us to go with them, We shot over to Ocala to see what they had to offer. The trip was nice, that area has great parks and Silver Springs which I hope to one day visit. I am amazed at how just this little distraction threw us all off school course. I need to make sure I have all the books we need each week by Monday and have nothing planned (like trips to town ect.) for during the week. We need to get back to the books!
On the home front things are bleak! The guy my husband is working for has not paid them for THREE WEEKS! This is how it is in our area for the construction field type workers - The employers know they got you over a barrel because there are no other jobs out there so they know if you leave they have a ton of other guys who will take the job. Try telling that to the bill people.... Our electric most likely will be shut off this coming week - My son has lent us money to be able to feed the animals and he is going to pay the car insurance because that will be cancelled on Sat.
I pray that the guy pay them soon!
I did want to mention that over one School For Us blog they have fantastic pictures of their trip to Ireland! It looks soooo beautiful over there! I had always thought I would love to go to England or Ireland some day but I guess pictures will have to do.

Can You See The Steam Bubbling Off My Head?

Okay, Yes - I am feeling cranky already this morning!
Remember the post about our trying to give my son an acre of property so he and his future wife can put a mobile home on it.... But the title insurance company omitted telling us about the binding lot agreement that was placed on the property.
Well I had placed the claim on June 2nd. and it is still not corrected!
The thing that has me burning up today is, they contacted me saying that she HOPES to have the paper work all ready and in to submit to the County Board at their NEXT meeting Sept. 19th.! HELLO!
If my son does not get the mobile home here onto the property by Nov. 30th. he will lose up to $8,000 dollars in Gov't. tax rebate money! The mobile home place can not start the process until they have the title in his name in his hand.... they say it takes at least 3 months to get the mobile home in so we had just enough time to get it going if we started NOW - Yikes!
I wrote the title insurance people about the loss of this money to see if the claim will possibly recoop some of it, I doubt it though, I would probably have to sue them for it....
It just makes me soooooo mad that here I wanted to give my son a wonderful gift to start them off on a nice foot and here it is truning into a nightmare! Why do the little guys always lose out?

Monday Already... & Woodstock "40 years ago"!

Really, Where does the weekend go? Why does those two days fly by when the week days just putts along....
Anyway, I didn't get to the library on Sat. to get the books for our upcoming week : ( I have to make it a priority from now on to make sure I get to the library otherwize it blows the whole weeks learning!
As I said we are using the "Beyond Five In A Row" & I was able to pick up "Galloping The Globe" for cheap (I know these two items are geared for much younger grades then Kelly is in, but I felt that they both have some fun things to learn in there and if she is interested we can always move on to more info. about the topic.
I have to start moving on MATH! I have to find a really basic book and just start over with it all I guess.... Kelly hates math, I mean she really hates it! I just wnat her to get the basic math down, I think she struggles with it so much that she just tunes it all out. I am think of working on it in an around about way, like working on a checkbook ect. this way it might make it abit on the fun side.
I have to wonder if in the near future we just might not even have checkbooks though... I think we may just all go to a debit type card and the banks will do away with paper checks.

On to another topic:
Woodstock... Can you belive it will be 40 years ago on Aug. 15, 16 & 17th!
We had a summer house very close to that area and I remember it so vividly even though I was only six and a half years old! The roads were jammed, cars just parked any where - to see the Rt. 17 shut down was scary. People were walking for miles just trying to make it to the concert site. We were driving home with all these people and they were riding on the outside of the cars, taking baths in the water holes along the roads. My parents were much older and so NOT into that scene but I found it so exciting : ) I have been to the concert site many times since then and at first glance you see just an open farm field but I waitied just awhile and had a tingle just remembering what had gone on there and invisoning it my mind.... PEACE : )

Early Rising this Sat. Morning....

But not because we wanted to....
I heard banging on our front door this morning, I HATE to answer the door!
Around here it is never any good news, always bad. I made my husband get up and answer it (by now the person knocked a number of times and of course my ton of dogs were barking their heads off at the person through the window!).
Anyway, It was the crazy neighbor lady! The one who calls the animal control every time my goats step a toe off our property, called the cops on my son because she said he was doing road rage to her, called the cops on my husband because he dropped some horse poop on the road when we were cleaning out the pen ect. ect.
She came to tell us that our horses had broken out and were in HER BACKYARD!
Now to be honest we are all wondering what's up with her coming over to tell us.... this family would rather shoot the horses then help us out. Kelly and I went over to get them and to tell you the truth I was worried just putting a foot on their property. We got them and said thank you to them (my husband came over and picked up any poop the horse had done also). When we got home we kept waiting for the animal control to show up... or the cops but no one came YET!
Sometimes I just have to wonder why my family always leaves things that needs to be done until a major issue comes up about it then it get's done instead of doing it a head of time and having no stress about it.... All my husband needed to do was fix the hot wire to the box to get it going (Kelly had weeks ago got all the wire strung up) but instead he would complain that it looked like the horses are going to get out.... but at least it working now.
My husband is layed off again! Back to all that stress again!
My future daughter-in-law went for a kennel job that was posted in our local paper, they had 200 applications for the job already! It's funny because they are saying in the newspaper how the unemplyoment rate is going down a bit - What I think is happening is that people are so desperate for work they are taking ANYTHING even just part time work or even a few hours a week...
Well I hope everyone has a great Sat.!

Our Second School Day..... Transcripts?????

Well things went okay....not as well as yesterday.
I really like the "Beyond Five In A Row" it helps me keep things moving.
I had hoped to do more of an unschooling type year - Just go with what ever sparked Kelly's interest but our umbrella school is now requiring that we send in transcripts.... I am pretty lost about it! I have never done one before, the example they gave was to list all the books by subject that you intend on using. Many times we start with something and then leave it if it isn't working so not sure if I have to worry about that.... Can you tell I am nervous about all this! They told me I have till December 1st. to submit my info. but I just am not sure what to put down.
I have never graded any of her work so we don't have letter grades ect. to mark down either. Maybe I am making a mountain out of a mole hill here but I worry!

We Started Back To School Today!!!!!

Well we are back to the books.....
It felt GREAT to get going again, I actually think Kelly had fun learning today : )
We did some reading - Sarah, Plain and Tall ( we are using Beyond Five In A Row), some work on Maine, she is working on a panting to go with the book (I will post a picture of it when she is done with it). We didn't do anything to tough just getting her back into the gind.
Yea! School! I would have gone all summer but Kelly just needed the time away from my pesting....
Have a great day ; )

Drive By Shooting.....

Yes, It's true. On my street late thrus. night two houses away from me was a drive by shooting, It happened about 12pm.! Seven shots were sent into the home... No one was hurt.
To tell you the truth we didn't know much of what was happening, I had our main airconditioner on and the window unit going so we did not hear the shots. The police never came to our door to tell us what was going on even though we still had our lights on - My son was up using the computer (I was still awake too - just trying to doze). My son saw the flashing lights and went outside to see what was happening without telling me about it, looking back now he could have been mistaken for the shooter and been arrested or worse! They had seven police cars there and and an ambulance. It was in the newspaper this morning as having something to do with the family who lives there not paying her rent (sounds fishy to me though), They caught the guys who did it - Thank God! I am amazed at how I knew nothing was happening! I was outside at about 11pm. giving our horses thier hay for the night and I didn't see anything strange, there was no noises (our area is rural and not may cars go down the road so it is pretty quiet). I am just "Thankful" that these two jack-asses didn't think of shooting up some of the other houses on this road to draw suspicion away from thier true target! They could have shot our horses which our right in our front yard or even worse my son was sitting at the computer which is right by our front door area!

Toad Haven Homeschool

One of my new favorite Homeschooling blogs is: Toad Haven Homeschool
What a site!!!!! This is how I dream of teaching Kelly : )
Going places and having wonderful learning experiences & Also working on such interesting projects!
There are a number of wonderful posts to read:
"What does it mean to be well educated" *I feel it is a must read for any homeschooler*
"Why schools don't educate"
Are just two of the ones that really hit home for me since you know how I struggled this year with teaching Kelly..... I am always so caught up in the "What we SHOULD be learning thing" that I think I just stress out so much because she is so far behind but what I should be focusing in on is her strenghts and likes and work from there, that first article really pointed that out to me.
I have since decided we are taking a week or so to just "Slow our roll" and then I am going to try this new approach.

Larry King Interview.....

Did any of you happen to see the interview by Larry King with the Jonas Brothers?
He asks them about homeschooling, I thought his tone was so degrading about homeschooling it made the one kid who tried to explain it to Larry so uneasy that I felt my hair come up..... Take a peek and see what you think.

Why.....

Life sometimes throws things at you and you have to roll with it but then sometimes you just gotta wonder WHY!
In my back to posting up-date I didn't want to mention to many of the rotten things that have happened because I know many of you are sick of my constant "one problem after another posts" but I just have to share with you one of the issues.
My son and his girlfriend have a dog that is living at our house, he went to the humane society to be neutered, I went with my son to pick him up. One week later I had parvo at my house! Now parvo is bad enough for a family with one dog but for a dog breeder like myself it is a catastrophe! With in roughly three days the brown curly beautiful female puppy we had was dead, her sister the white sweet love muffin was sick as a dog. Night and day almost every hour I was giving that puppy medication, to be honest I did not hold out much hope she was in terrible shape. I had to also worry about my many other dogs not catching it so I had to bleach everything, even my daughter's carpet. Then as if a miracle happened the puppy took a turn for the best and started to eat a little on her own, to say I was relived would be an undersatement. I had to keep her away from the rest of the group and any time I feed her ect. I had to bleach my hands, shoes ect. she would give those pleading eyes at me just begging for hugs and kisses but we had to keep all that to a minimum.
Let's jump a head to today, the puppy which I named Bella after the twilight character had been introduced to the other dogs awhile ago and the sweet thing was fitting in well with everyone. As you know Kelly & I don't get to go out very often but today the Dollar Tree opened up down on our town and we went to check it out.... When we got home I came into the house and there laying on the floor was the puppy! I raced and grabbed her she was still breathing but was in shock and not responsive. I quickly looked her over and to my horror she had been bitten by one of my other dogs, there must have been a tangle over food or something and the puppy must have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. She died a short time later in my arms.... I cried all day today because this whole thing was sooooo preventable!!!!! Kelly asked me before we left "Should we put Bella away"? I said no, She was doing so well with the group and I had never in my 7 plus years of dog breeding had any issues with adding a puppy to the group so I really had no worries that anything like this would happen, but I should have known better that a puppy her age is not able to hold her own against the bigger dogs yet. I layed in the bed crying and just kept asking "Why", Why did God save this puppy from parvo to only have it's life taken in yet another absolutely horrible way! What really hurts me is that this sweet as pie little love muffin must have been sooooo terrified today and I wasn't there to protect her and to also think she had had such a rough start to life she just didn't deserve to die without getting more loving time in! Kelly and I are both so torn up about it epecially since we NEVER go out any where and here we finally do go out and had some fun and then we come home to this. I just keep asking myself "Why"!

New Post....

It seems like I have started a ton of new posts but never finish them : (

Let's see, Still stuggling with finishing up 7th grade with Kelly! I have really dropped the ball this year! We watched High School Musical 3 and I could see from a look on her face that she kinda wants that "school" experience (prom & graduation). She said "I guess I won't have anything like that when I graduate". I have gone over it a ton of times in my mind and I really think I would like to put her back into the school system for high school. I have dropped the ball too many times since we started homeschooling mid way through her 5th grade year, and as I have said many times she doesn't get to see any other kids or we don't go any where (except to town and food shopping) so she really has not had a really great homeschooling experience at all! If I knew what I know now back then I would not have tried homeschooling her.... with her learning problems and my lack of knowledge on how to best go about teaching her has really set her back : ( Anyway, I have talked to her about it and of course she says she doesn't want to go back but my plan of action is to work through out the summer and her 8th grade year to try and get her back up to speed so she can try out 9th grade in the public school system....

As for my son, We are still trying to get the piece of our property seperated for him to use! The county now wants a survey ($650.00) - Yikes! I contacted the Title Insurance Co. to see if they are going to pay this since they omited the biding lot agreement clause on our policy so far haven't heard anything : ( Being that neither my son or us have that kind of money we are kinda at the mercy of the Title Insurance Co. to get this problem corrected.

Well I have to get the day going, I hope to post more often, I LOVE reading all of your posts! Kepp up the great work : )

Monday, Start Of A New Week : )

Monday, The start of a new week!
I just dropped off my husband at work, the plans are he is staying down at the job site ALL WEEK!!!!!! But it has decided to start raining here in Florida so that could throw a monkey wrench in all his plans : ( I hope they can find work for them to do even though it is going to rain all week, I sure an looking forward to the peace and quiet! Knowing my luck he will call me back in a few hours to pick him back up that he has the week off.... : (

Anyway, Since we have no tv. I signed up for NetFlick. Do any of you use that service? Do you like it? What price plan do you use? We got Get Smart & Bedtime Stories - I really enjoyed Get Smart for some reason. Do you have any movie suggestions? I am trying to keep our bills as low as I can but yet not go stur crazy so I thought this might be a good option.

I have been reading some of my fav, blogs and seeing you all are close to being done with school for the year, We are no where near it : ( I am hoping now that I have all the paper work in to the county for the problem we are having dividing our land so my son can have an acre should free up my mind a bit so I can concentrate on school again and get us moving!!!!! Like I said before, I don't know how you all do it..... If I have to go somewhere or something needs attention like a bill problem or so other issue I just can not do both school work and that!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day today! If you are in Florida stay dry : )

Thurs., Hot Again!

Hot Again Here!!!!!
I like hot weather but this year it just seems like we raced right into the real hot temps. to quickly...

We got some schooling in today, still having a tough time with Kelly though... I do most of the reading and she listens and I ask her questions about what we covered and she seems to understand the stuff but has absolutely no intrest in what we are covering! I really wish she enjoyed school even just a little bit, It would make things so much easier. I keep telling her maybe it would be better for her to go back to public school for 8th grade (I am not sure if they would even put her in that grade since we are so far behind..) but she doesn't want to.
We are working on the book Blood & Guts she seems to be interested in that, even asking questions about how many layers of skin fall off when you scratch.....? I just pray that this homeschooling Kelly idea of mine all turns out for the best and I don't ruin her life!!!!
I know I am being a bit dramatic but I am really feeling that way lately...

On to another topic: John & Kate plus 8, I have been reading some articles on the internet of him running around with a 23 year old behing Kate's back. I feel like I know this family since I watched their show from the begining and read their book. I don't know if the articles are true or not but it just makes me sad......

I had to notify my puppy waiting list families that none of my girls are going to have puppies this time : ( I tell you we sure were hoping the matings were going to be successful! Now I have to give back their deposits..... Just what we need right now!

Have a good day today : )

Wed. On The Homefront

I spent all day yesterday on the phone and got no where!
I am still trying to open a claim up with the title insurance company who omitted the binding claus on our property..... I finally got an address to mail a copy of my policy & the binding agreemnt to, maybe something will come of it who knows.
Then I had a number of follow up calls to make, lawyers, car insurance, vet, car repair which seemed to take forever because I was doing phone tag with the people : (
Anyway, We again did not get to school work. I just can't seem to balance when I have home business to do and school work - My mind just can't seem to do both!
I was disappointed in myself because yesterday we had gotten a good start jumping back into work. I don't plan to be on the phone or go anywhere today so we should be able to tackle somethings....

I wanted to post a great link to a number of free homeschooling sites on Cindy Down site I just LOVE her webpage & blogs!!!!!!

I have finished all of the Twilight books, I hate when you finish a series of books like that I always want more.... just like the Harry Potter books. But that now leaves me with nothing to read : ( I picked up the Tightwad Gazette again and rereading that. I wish someone would write a book like that again but with up-dated prices and problems. I am still keeping a very close eye on our bills, trying to keep everything as low as I can. When we got the internet turned back on it cost us $19.95 a month for the first 6 months for roadrunner light, of course they got us for turning it all back on again another $20.00 : ( My husband is toying with the idea of putting his van back on the road once he works a few weeks but to be honest I don't mind getting up at 5:15am and dropping him off at work to save a few bucks.. The next job that this company has is up in Maryland.... Yikes! But he is happy to just be working.

Have a great day!

Sweating In Florida!

Good Day All!

It sure is hot here in Florida!!!!! It seems hotter then normal : (
We have had the airconditioner purring ALOT already, not a good thing....

We finally hit the books today, First time in a LONG time! It felt good to get rolling again. Kelly was in a cranky mood and moving around alot, but we got somethings done. She is okay with almost everything but when I bring out the math stuff gosh she sure does act up! She did three division problems (getting one of them wrong) and then tossed it aside. I'm going to move to try a few other math ideas like writting out checks ect. as a way to work on every day math with her. We are just going to have to work all summer now to make up for the time lost... Since it is sooo hot already I don't think we would be doing much else anyway. Our new pool we bought last year had sprung a leek at the end of last year so we patched it but we hardly any rain here we are nervous to try and fill it we might run our well dry doing - So we don't even have that to cool off with : (

My son did get engaged this past weekend! I'm happy for him but gosh he is only 19! They plan to get married next May or April 2010. I mentioned how they are hoping to put a double mobile home on the acre of property we are giving them, Well would you belive when I went seperate the property our land had a binding claus on it! I flew over to our Title Insurance Co. notifing them and sure enough they missed this little tidbit of information!!!!! I am not sure how to proceed with that, We may need to sue them not sure. No matter how you look at it is going to take me awhile to get this corrected : (

Well I'll let you go, Have a great day!