Shaving Cream Colored Paper Art Project

The other day Kelly worked on the Shaving Cream Colored Paper Art Project. She had a blast with it! We used a cookie sheet to put the shaving cream on so she could go wild with it and she did : ) Here are a few pictures of her creations.
I also see over at "All Things Beautiful" Phyllis and family had fun today making Milk Colors that sure looks awesome, We will have to try that one soon! I noticed adding some art projects in really adds to the day and makes it go alot smoother : )

First Day of School Pictures

I say better late then never....

Here are the pictures I took on the first day of the 2011-2012 school year.

I couldn't decide on which one was best so I posted them all : )

Wow!

You know when you thought the day was going to go one way but you got the exact opposite - That was the kinda day I had today.
Yesterday was a day I dream of when homeschooling, their were smiles, learning, actual interest in what we were learning just a geat day and to top it off my husbands boss called and said one of the guys quit so if he wanted the full time position - Hell ya!
Running off of that high from yesterday the day started off nicely I got an e-mail from my blogging buddy Phyllis and as always she was very helpful. I was all gun hoe and we got the day rolling and hit one brick wall after another : ( Not the day I had invisioned at all. THEN here my husband is now considered a "full" time worker and the boss said no need to come in I'll call you tomorrow if I find something for you..... He has worked only one day this week - Yikes!
I guess it just the roller coaster of my life, I gotta roll the good with the bad.
Heck for one day there I thought just maybe my luck was changing - Maybe tomorrow!

Happy Last Monday of September to You All : )

Hope everyone had a wondeful weekend!
My Monday is starting off slow, It's 12:00 o'clock and my love muffin daughter just rolled out of bed.... Yikes that's going to throw the whole day off for sure.
I had som time on my hands so I thought I would share a site with you that I found that lists some selections and study guides for some Classic Literature. Now that we are over the hump on Swiss Family Robinson - We just finished the chapter where the snake eats the donkey : ( I am looking to see which book we will read next. It is sad that I haven't read a large number of the listed classics either so I hope we can tackle a few this year.
Okay now that the child has rolled out of bed she takes a quick look at her computer and heads over to play Dragon Age 2, the video game she is now obsessed with. If I could only get her to focus that much attention on school work it would be a breeze : 0 )
We have been invaded by "love bugs" again this year, I think it is the most we have seen since moving down here 8 years ago. I guess I should get my butt in gear and whip up a nature study on them while there are here.
Still stuggling with our school scheduling (You would think since we don't have a car and never go any where that we would be able to stick to a schedule but no...).
Some days we get reading Swiss Family Robinson and just keep going with it and by pass everything else which throws me all off. I need to get my mind wrapped aound it all and just buckle us both down.
Here I am talking about scheduling and I haven't even gotten Kelly registered yet for the 2011-2012 school year! I need to get that done by October 31st. - I better check on that date to be sure, wouldn't want that problem on top of everything else! I just need to get the $30.00 together and fill out the paper work for what we accomplished last year (I know it's terrible I haven't gotten it filled out yet but for some reason that seems like such and undertaking for my mind that I have been putting it off).
Well I'm going to make some lunch and try and get this girl to hit the books : )
Have a great day!!

Happy 1st Day of Fall : )

Can you belive we are at Sept. 23rd already!
The first day of fall..... time sure is flying by!
Remember to keep an eye out for the pieces of satellite that will be returning to earth today, with my luck I'll get hit with a piece :-0
My husband has been off again this week, but the boss called him to go into work today and tomorrow. He has been so nasty word wize this week it almost brought me to tears a few times but I try not to show it in front of Kelly..... I know the stress of loosing his mother, our house going up for property tax sale, not knowing from one day to the next if he will be working is driving him nuts but I still don't understand why he feels it's okay to lash out swearing and nasty talk in front of Kelly about it! This is her life and we have really let her down in soooo many ways already! We actually live one day at a time here, I can't let myself look any further and I sure as hell try not to talk about it with Kelly. Most 16 year olds are thinking of getting a car, parties, trips and concerts ect. they sure aren't having to worry about the stuff Kelly has to deal with. Her brother bought her a video game that she has been totally focused on which I am so thankful for, just something to make her happy for alittle while during the day.
Sorry this post turned into another venting post just when I wrote that we are going into the cooler weather made me think of what may happen soon....
But I have today, my husband is out of the house, the sun is out and I haven't gotten hit my any flying debris yet so it is all good : )

Tues. Up-date : )

Thank you for all the condolences about my mother-in-law's passing!
I am still amazed at how one week your here and the next your not.... I see her facebook page and her e-mails in my in box and think how is it possible that she is gone, but I guess that is the story of life.....
We have been trying to get school work done and Kelly actually said "I need to get up earlier so we can get more school work in", I almost fell on the floor! With things so stressful here will ALL that is going on I am not really pressing Kelly with any type of schedule. We get in as much school work each day as we can and just start from that point the next day which is all I can ask from her right now.
Science: We started reading one of our Forensic Science books we got from the library "Fingerprints, Bite Marks. Ear Prints by Angela Libal what a disappointment! Kelly & I are very interested in forensic science and we both found the book to be to dry and just plan old boring : ( I have gotten a ton of these books out for our forensic science study so I will need to scrap them and look for something else. I see Simple Schooling has a forensic science curriculum that looks like something we might try, right now it is half price only $8.50 but of course I would need to also buy ink for the printer roughly another $13.00 so we will see.
History: Still loving Mystery of History! We are cruising along, I think we need to slow down a bit on that tho - I LOVE history and can spend the entire day on that for sure so I have to watch myself.
Math: She has done some worksheets but that is about all.
Reading: LOVING Swiss Family Robinson! I will be so sad when we get done with it. We are about half way, but here again since I ran out of ink for the printer I can't print out any more pages of the fantastic Easy Fun School unit study that we have been using which has added alot of fun to the reading so we will need to slow down on that also.
The rest of our schooling plans are falling by the way side right now but I hope to get us on rolling soon, If we can just have one week without something happening maybe we can focus our minds on schooling : )
Have a great day!!

My Mother-in-law Passed Away Today

Sad news to report, My mother-in-law passed away today : (
My husband had just seen her on Sat. and said she looked great but everything went down hill fast yesterday. They got her to the hospital by 6am and by the time they made it up the elevator they had a crash cart out for her...
My husband went down to see her last night in the hospital and he was shocked at how bad she was, he didn't think she would make it thru the night.
She was hooked up to all kinds of tubes and machines, so I guess it is a blessing that she is out of pain and no more worries.
We will miss her!!

Heck Yeah!!

What a beautiful day outside today...
Have you been taking a peek at the harvest moon the past few nights? Spectacular!
My daughter is home at last, I missed her : ) I enjoyed my time to myself, but really what is life if you are by yourself....
Anyway, while at my son's house they all stayed up till 2am almost every night so the poor thing is a tired lump of a teenager. It is 11am and the child is still sleeping, I can't remember the last time I was able to sleep till noon!
I have some good news to share with you all....
My husband's boss called and he said he has about 5 days of work for my husband for this week - Whoo Hooo! Remember the last time my husband worked was back on Aug. 15th when the boss said they were swamped with work and then my husband only worked 4 days and was off until now... but I'm hoping maybe things are picking up.
Then yesterday I went out to turn the water pump on in the pump house (remember the over flow tank is broken so that is the only way we get water to the house), and it wouldn't go on.... I thought oh no now we have no water at all! I checked over the box and slapped over the water pump lever and tried it again and it worked but that's not the best part for some reason the water heater started working again and I have hot water - heck yeah!!
So all and all had a great day yesterday!
Hope everyone has a wonderful day today : )

Get Your Rulers Out!

Okay, You all can get your rulers out and slap my knuckles!
I have had since mid-day Friday and here we are at Monday morning and I still haven't worked on our homeschooling schedule like I said I was going to do!!!!!
I can't belive how fast the days are just whizzing by.... I have gotten nothing done. I have to blame the internet : ) I just get taken to so many ideas, tips, websites ect. that I spend the day reading, searching new ideas and lose my goal of getting our day more organized and flowing.
I have made one decision, since I can not inter-library loan the "Encyclopedia of Nature" by DK publishing for more then a month I will have to put a hold on using the biology curriculum until I can get a copy of that book. In the mean time I have decided we will study Forensic Science for awhile, I think Kelly will love it! My library has a number of books on the topic which I have requested and I am searching for unit studies to go with them. Other than that I have made no progress on the schedule : (
Kelly comes back sometime tomorrow and I better get my butt in gear and get something down on paper.... Right after I read the new blog entries for today on all the wonderful blogs I follow : )
Have a great day & Don't forget to check out the Harvest Moon tonight!

Home Alone : - 0

Hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful Sat.!
The weather here in my part of Florida has cooled a bit which is such a welcome change.... don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we are breaking out the pants or anything : )
I am home all alone today... and I am loving it! I have no car, no phone (we ran out of minutes), no husband and no daughter - Home Alone : - 0
I slept in late, got up and ate a chocolate chip muffin with a can of diet pepsi, took a cold shower (still have not been able to replace water heater) and am sitting at my computer which still has internet (for today anyway) - Life is GOOD!
My goal today is to try and get our homeschool day scheduled better and have it run more smoothly.
My library contacted me about the "Encyclopedia of Nature" book that I need for our science curriculum we are going to use, she said they do inter-library loan with the library that has the book but that I would only be able to keep it out for 4 weeks and then it would need to be returned to them : ( That stinks, so not sure I am going to spend the $2.oo to request it. I am going to look thru the lessons and see if I can just use "The Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia" that I have.
Got a ton of books out from the library that my husband picked up yesterday, I love getting books from the library I love looking thru them and soaking the info. up (I know what can I say the little things in life makes me happy). I need to schedule them in to our day which should add a little zest to it. Our schedule has been alittle to dry and hum drum for Kelly's liking.
Kelly doesn't come back from my son's house until sometime on Monday so I have a few days to try and get the schedule spiffed up and purring along.
Enjoy the day : )

Thurs. Up-Date

Hope everyone is enjoying this fine Thursday morning!
My prayers go out to all those being affected by the flooding going on... We used to live up in NY./PA. so hoping everyone stays safe up there.
I was blessed this week by an angel! Paige from Elemental Science sent me a digital download copy of the biology logic stage curriculum book that I was so hoping for : ) I am amazed at how blogging has brought me in touch with so many wonderful caring & giving people!! Thanks again Paige!! I can't wait to get going on it, I contacted my library to see if I can get some of the spines that are needed for the curriculum by inter-library loan just waiting back to hear.
Nothing new on the work front for my husband : ( I haven't been able to sleep at all from worry which makes me a crank pot all day but thank goodness Kelly is going to spend a few days down at my son's house. I just have to leave it all in Gods hands and trust it will all work out.
Hope everyone has a wonderful day today!!

Found A Great Blog!!

I found another great blog that I am adding to my blog list and wanted to share it with you all: Journey to Excellence Nicole has a son around Kelly's age and I found it fantastic how she updates what he is doing. So many times as the child gets older you see less and less posts about the older child but not on Nicole's blog! She has a ton a great ideas and books that they have read which I am looking into now. I just LOVE it when I find another great blog!!

School is going okay, We are still trying to find our stride. I am really enjoying Mystery of History, but of course when I read Nicole's blog and saw she had been using: A World of Adventure by Dorian Holt and how that looks like a fantastic curriculum all packed into one I wish I would have looked into that a bit closer.
Anyway, Back to Mystery of History I am Loving that we are reading the Bible for part of our school work. It is just so uplifting and gives you hope when things are down!
We are also LOVING the Swiss Family Robinson book! Kelly actually asked me if we could draw a map of their island so we could better visualize the different areas they are talking about - I say HELL YEAH! I love seeing her drawn into a book! She loves these types of books they remind her of The Sims castaway video game that she loves playing.
For science we are working on cells - We look at each other and I can see we both have that glazed over look. Not going well at all, we are not understanding it very much and of course I lose her quickly when that happens. I will need to tweek science for sure....
Well I won't bore you will more about our week but just enjoying getting back rolling on school work again.
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!!

Cool Looking Science Curriculum!

I was reading a few blogs last night and found this cool looking website about a science curriculum: Elemental Science. It's not too expensive and looks like it is alot of fun. When things turn around for us I would love to buy the (logic stage) biology curriculum it looks awesome : ) Just thought I would share in case some of you are on the fence about what science course you are going to use this year this might be an option for you.
Have a great day!