Homeschooling in Sunny Florida & My MidLife "Green" Crisis

A Little Of This And A Little Of That

2012-01-24T07:08:00.000-08:00

We are having a wild week already and it is only Tuesday!

My son's car broke down this morning which has set the tone for today : (

As many times as I have told him to have money set aside for car repairs he just never thinks about it happening and here we are and he only has $200.00 to his name and you know how car repair bills add up in a hurry....

On another note, I wanted to share with you a picture of our first dozen of eggs from our girls... the sad note is they decided to lay their eggs in our pump house so we added some hay to make it cozy for them which I guess they did not like and have now moved their laying to an undisclosed location. Kelly & I have been stalking the girls to see where they are going to try and find their new spot but so far no luck : (

I also wanted to share a cute picture of our man Riley snuggling in the blankets during the cold sanp we had been having, He is a Florida boy thru and thru and can't stand the cold...

Hope everyone has a wonderful day today!

Until Next Time - God Bless!!

Great Dvd's To Watch!!

2012-01-19T07:38:00.000-08:00

We watched a great dvd to go with our lesson 18 in "The Mystery of History" vol 1 curriculum, "Lost Treasures of the Ancient World: Ancient China" We found it to be a very interesting and informative dvd which backed up what was mentioned in the lesson. I really like when I can find a dvd to go with the lesson it really helps Kelly remember what is being taught.
I also watched the "Forks over Knives" dvd, I enjoyed the book alot better and thought it went into much more detail, but the dvd is also so thought provoking! You honestly can not watch it without wanting to take action right away!! Kelly who was sitting away from the tv while I was watching kept commenting on it so I know it has also caught her interest. Honestly you can't hear this info and not want to do something.... It just makes so much sense to make a few diet changes to live a more healthy pain free life. We have already cut out the meat, and we have never been much for dairy so that will not be a problem for us to get rid of - Our sticking point will be sugar, We LOVE our sweets. I need to find a very basic plant based cookbook to get going on this. I have gotten a few from our library but they all have crazy ingredients that I could not afford to buy them so I really need to get a back to basic type cookbook. I'm still trying to save for "Eat Vegan on $4.00 a Day", this seems to be my type of book : 0 ) I know I sound like a broken record but please when you get a free minute read the book or watch the dvd I think you will find it fascinating!!
Until Next Time - God Blss!!

Inside the Living Body dvd

2012-01-18T07:49:00.000-08:00

We finished up the "Inside the Living Body" dvd, WOW! I think everyone should get a chance to watch it!! Of course it's not ment for the younger crowd and it does have some "gross" moments but I think it would be an eye opener for every teen for sure. I have to say when they got to the body at 45 year old & then again a the 50 year old body I was really saddened.... It really hit home for me on what is now taking place in my body. It was AMAZING seeing food turn to fat, you actually see it inside the body and how it lays on and blocks many of your important body parts causing many life threatening issues! As I had mentioned Kelly is very embarrased by any of the scenes that delt with sexual awarness, reproduction ect. so we skipped over a few of those so I can't speak for the entire dvd but from what I have seen it gets my WOW factor for sure!!

Until Next Time - God Bless!!

Back To The Grid Stone For Us : )

2012-01-16T15:51:00.000-08:00

Good Evening Blogging Buddies! Hope everyone is doing well : )
Things are getting back to"normal" here, We hit the grid stone today and got some school work done which felt GREAT!
I did get a chance to go away to my son's house and spent some time down at the Daytona International Speedway on thurs., It felt wonderful to get away but with Kelly home sick I really couldn't enjoy myself. We kept texting her the whole time to make sure she was okay. She did fine without me and was no worse for wear when I got back. I just really enjoy my kids and outtings just don't seem as fun unless we are all together.
Back to our school day today, We starting watching "Inside the Living Body"
Wow, Is all I can say! You are able to view inside a real human and see food going into the mouth and then the path it takes through out the body amazing! The way they are able to show you how we grow from a baby to adulthood is also amazing! We are up to the age of being an adolescent and the interests it brings of the opposite sex. It was interesting how they showed a real egg inside a female and how it gets flushed out with your monthly period unless of course if it meets up with a male sperm. Kelly cracked me up when she said "So I am like a chicken, I have eggs" : ) Kelly gets real embarrassed with all the talk of sex and such so it should be an interesting day tomorrow, I'll let you know how the rest of the dvd turns out.
Until Next Time - God Bless!!

Tues. on the Homefront

2012-01-10T06:09:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone is enjoying this second day of this wonderful new week!
We are still stuggling to get well here, this cold/cough thing is still going and going... Now you know I have to be better to leave on Wed. to go over to watch the Nascar testing at the speedway on Thurs.! At this point I am not sure if I will be going or not, Kelly is still pretty sick so I would hate to leave her, time will tell.
I had hopes that we would at least watch some of the dvd's I have to get some school work rolling but that didn't happen. We went out for a horseback ride and to get some air, when we got back and Kelly tried to eat some lunch she coughed so much it came back up so needless to say she was in no mood to do school work. Thank you for all the posts about what to use to stop a cough (It's a shame I don't have any honey). I told my husband today that he must buy Kelly something to help stop her coughing & some orange juice, I have to get this kid better!
I have been reading a ton of books at once... I jump around from one to another depending on what mood I'm in. Still enjoying the Tebow book, there is a waiting list for it so I NEED to get it finished. I'm half way with"Money Secrets of the Amish" and still pretty disappointed with it. I have also started a few gardening books, I am determined to get some veg. planted this year.
I have the dvd of "Forks over Knives" waiting to be picked up at the library, I read the book but thought I would take a peek at the dvd also it was THAT GOOD! I wish I could get my husband to watch it so he would do away with meat also, I think if he could just see how they treat the cows & chickens before they are to be killed he would never want to eat another piece of meat again.... just thinking of how they tazor zap the cows sometimes in the personals to get them to move along in the line to go to their deaths, they must experience such fear & pain before dying it is soooo cruel! They even mention how the chickens sometimes aren't even killed before being put into the scoulding hot water! I can tell you from owning chickens they are NOT dumb animals, they know things like when a hawk flies over they make a noise to alarm each other and they look for a place to hide (does that sound like a animal who doesn't understand things...?). I really hope you all get a chance to read the book or watch "Forks over Knives" dvd it will change your way of thinking.
Until Next Time - God Bless!!

Sat. Night On The Homestead

2012-01-07T16:41:00.000-08:00

We warmed up a bit thank goodness today, I guess my blood has really thinned since moving down here to Florida from PA. because I can not take the cold weather at all!

We are all still coughing up a storm! My husband refuses to buy any of the liquid cough medicine, He says they cost to much. He did bring home some type of cough/cold pills that Target sells and I took two right away and I'm still coughing so they are useless... nothing like trying to sleep with everyone coughing : (

I read Forks over Knives by Gene Stone, It just makes so much sense for so many reasons to remove meat from our diets! I haven't had meat for months now and I don't miss it at all. A large part of the book is recipes, not many I would use tho : ( But over all it is a book I think everyone should read.

Until Next Time - God Bless!!

All I Hear Is Coughing : (

2012-01-06T16:27:00.001-08:00

My whole family has now come down with this coughing sickness that my husband started a few weeks back and it is really wearing us all out! Kelly could not enjoy her time down at my son's house because she didn't feel well (she also had some throwing up involved besides the coughing). My son & daughter-in-law brought her home and the poor thing looked like a zombie. Of course now my son & daughter-in-law are also feeling sick : ( As I said my husband has had it for weeks now and he can't seem to get rid of it! My throat has gotten so soar from coughing, I gargle with salt water which helps a tiny bit but what I really need is some cough drops that work, the ones we have tried are more like candy then something that will actually stop the cough. I have my two day get-away on the 11th., I am going down to my son's house and we are going over to the Daytona International Speedway and watch the Nascar drivers test their cars and they also have chances to get autographs and Q & A sessions with the drivers so we need to get better quick!!
I think Kelly found out what was wrong with my computer.... the screen is dead. We hooked my computer up to my husband's monitor and I can still use her : ) I must say tho, when I was computerless I did find time to read more, clean the house and go horseback riding and a number of other things so I am hoping to try and stay off her a bit more.
Oh yea, I have already blown my New Year's resolutions that I had made.... I have been drinking diet soda & I ate some cheesedoodles : ( I have no willpower when I am stressed.
Until Next Time - God Bless!!

Yes, We Had Frost : (

2012-01-04T05:57:00.000-08:00

I can not belive how cold it has gotten down here in my area of Florida!!
Last night was sooooo cold, I was freezing! Of course like I mentioned yesterday, Our heater does not work! Nothing like finding that out during a week long cold spell with temps. dipping down into the 30's. I'm just glad Kelly is staying down at my son's place and is warm, you know it is cold in the house when the dogs are shivering : ( We had the fireplace going but dam that thing did not give off much heat, I pushed the couch by it so I could get some sleep but I really can't rest when the fireplace is on.... I'm letting the logs burn out and I have open the curtains trying to let in some sunlight to warm the place up a bit (we don't have may logs and will need them for tonight).
The biggest news is my computer died! I was worried about her since she started to go to black screen for no reason but now I can't get her working at all. The sad part is I have all of our school work on it. I know your saying why didn't you back up your files and such, honestly I don't know how to put anything on to a disk so I just never think about it : ( I'm hoping I can have her looked at when ever we get some money together. In the mean time I have my husband old computer which I will try and use but it runs a very old windows program so you are unable to see alot of things.... but hey I can still read all of your blog posts on your sites so that is a good thing : )
My husband also broke the door lock this morning on the front door, I guess it froze and he forced it to close and bamo it's broken, but at least it broke while locked instead of broken while open with no way to keep the door closed! I have to use the side door now which doesn't have stairs, I just put a chair out there and use that to get in and out - They don't call me Donna MacGyver for nothing. It looks terrible but hey it works and that's all that matters : )
It sure has been a crazy week already and we are only on Wed.!
Until Next Time - God Bless!!

Freezing Down Here In Florida : (

2012-01-03T05:55:00.000-08:00

What a temp. swing, just the other day we had 77 degrees and it was sunny almost to the point where you were sweating... then today it is about 32 degrees with a chilling wind! The high today is said to get up to about 46 degrees - Yikes! That's pretty dam cold for us here in Florida!! We had the fireplace going last night but that sucker really doesn't give off much heat at all : ( I really don't think our heater/airconditioner works so we will be layering up on clothes for sure!

I had hoped to start back on our homeschooling this week but it looks like my son wants to take Kelly for a few days down to his house to keep my daughter-in-law busy (she is feeling a bit in the dumps about losing her job). Soooo needless to say we will be off another week. With all of my "issues" this week, I'm kinda glad we won't be dealing with school work.

My computer has been acting up also, it just goes to black screen for no reason. It has done it a few times already this morning so that sure isn't a good sign : ( I would be lost without her : 0 )
Until Next Time - God Bless!!

Bad Mother Of The Year Award For 2012!

2012-01-02T07:18:00.000-08:00

Okay here we are only a day into the New Year and I have already won the "Bad Mother Of The Year Award For 2012"!! Yes, I have done a very bad thing..... I fogot the date of Kelly's birth (Feb. 19th.)!!!!!! I honestly could not remember if it was the 18th or the 19th of Feb., I was even trying to convince Kelly it was the 18th.! The poor child just looked at me like I hurt her heart : ( I feel sooooo terrible about it, What mother forgets her own childrens birthday?????
I told her I am blaming it on perimenopause - I am 48 yrs old, my period is a week late, I'm a nasty son of a gun, moody, and I have lost my brain! So I really think I have started the first faze of menopause. Of course this does not excuse my forgetting Kelly's birthdate, I will NEVER live that down!
So don't worry moms out there I have already won the award for 2012 so you all in the clear : )
Until Next Time - God Bless!!

Happy New Year - 2012

2012-01-01T07:32:00.000-08:00

I hope this post finds everyone safe after last nights activities.......

I always love the start of a New Year and all the hope it carries with it.

Did you write down your resolutions for 2012????

One of my top resolutions is to do away with drinking diet soda, It is a huge problem for me so I really will need will power to stay away from it. My second thing I want to do away with is cheese doodles.... yes I have a doodle addiction.

These are just a few of the items I want to tackle this year : )

Hope everyone has a great day today and a wonderful start to the New Year!!

Unil Next Time - God Bless!!

New Year's Eve

2011-12-31T14:11:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone has a great time tonight ringing in the New Year! I always worry tonight about all the drunk drivers out there who think they are okay to drive.... We aren't doing anything tonight just like every other year, I doubt I will even stay up till 12:00 o'clock.

I have been so melancholy today it has put me in a bit of a funk. Sometimes you see something happening and you want to scream out stop but you know it's really not your place. I'm speaking about my daughter-in-law now being a stay at home gal. My son has said he is fine with her not working and staying home. I have been a stay at home mom for most of my married life and to tell you the truth I think that is one of the things I would change if I were to be able to go back in time. Now I'm not saying it's a good thing or a bad thing I'm just saying my thoughts on the topic. I feel it has really lowered my self esteem in many ways... Like today for example I went food shopping (I seldom get the chance to get away from the house since my husband always has the car but he isn't working this week), when I got home my husband wanted to know how much I spent and to give him all the remaining money that was leftover. I said I liked having some cash in my pocket and he said, He does all of the food shopping and he pay all the bills, and picks up the horse feed ect. so I don't need any money. I told him I wrote down everything I spent and posted it on the frig to keep track of our spending, he said he didn't need to keep track of the spending. I said but I like to know where the money is going, he said it was his money and as long as I have everything I need I shouldn't worry about it! How about those apples!! I felt so low, my husband has always said he didn't want me working but when money problems arise it is always my fault for not working and bring in money. It has always given him the upper hand in our marriage because he knew not being out in the working field I would make very little and never be able to live on my own. It might be just my husband but I don't think it is, I see this alot with gals who spend years being the "stay at home mom". Sooooo when I see my daugher-in-law following my path I just want to grab her by the shoulders and tell her what possibly lies ahead for her and does she want that.... but I will sit back and hope I can send hints here and there to make her find a job she is happy with and lets her always be an equal in her mariage.

Like I said getting all the negative thoughts out there so I can start fresh tomorrow....

Until Next time - God Bless!!

Getting All This Out Of The Way....

2011-12-30T08:50:00.000-08:00

Well I had some more bad news this morning.... I spoke with the lawyer who is handling the will situation for me up in PA. and it looks like we will NOT be getting the $10,000 from the first will like we had hoped : ( It really is so hard to understand that a women who had a trust of over $470,000.00 can not pay out a $10,000.00 gift mentioned in her will.... It just doesn't seem right but it all comes down to her not having assests it was all in a trust and it went stright to her sister. The lawyer does not know why the will was written like that but he can only go by what it says. To tell you the truth, I am just glad it is my husband & I who are losing out on the money and that it wasn't someone else listed.... It's just another kick in the gut but God must have a plan I just wish he would make it more clear for me.

I am just glad we are getting all this bad news out of the way while we are still in 2011! I am really praying 2012 is a better year for us : )

Until Next time - God Bless!!

Mixing Two Blogs into One : )

2011-12-29T13:10:00.000-08:00

As you can see from my header I am combining my two blogs into one, I find it hard to find time to post on both.

I forgot to post about the sad thing that happened yesterday.... When I went out to feed the horses in the morning, Chance Kelly's horse back kicked one of my "baby" chickens and killed it : ( I was so heart broken! If I had just been a bit faster getting over to the issue I saw starting to happen between the two I may have been able to stop it. He killed the dark brown one, she was a real beauty too. I just hate when a healthy animals dies it just seems so senseless.

I started reading "Money Secrets of the Amish" by Lorilee Craker, Not loving it but I'll let you know as I get into it a bit further...

We had a fantastic dinner tonight and it was so healthy too : ) We had fresh broccoli, a lettuce/tomato/cucumber salad & a Bosca chicken patty. It was soooo good. I just LOVE fresh veg. (my local produce stand just picked the broccoli yesterday). I'm gearing us up for a more healthy new year...

Until Next Time - God Bless!!

P.S. - I just got a call from my son, My daughter-in-law just lost her job! Things are really tough around here so finding another will be really hard. He says they will be okay with just his job but they pay $700.00 a month in rent so I am worried for them. Life sure has it's ups and downs : (

An Amish Christmas

2011-12-28T17:53:00.000-08:00

I just picked up "An Amish Christmas" by Cynthia Keller today at the library and could NOT put it down, LOVED IT!! I read it all day just taking time out to cook and eat dinner it was that good. I hope you get a chance to read it : )

I got a few other goodies from the library I'll let you know if they are worth reading or not.

I took our tree down yesterday, my husband didn't even notice it was gone : ( and packed away all the Christmas stuff something I never usually do until after we ring in the New Year but felt putting it away early might hopefully change things up for us. I have been spending most of our off time from school work reading books that I am interested in and am enjoying myself : )

Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!!

Until Next Time - God Bless

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T13:37:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to you all! I hope you had a wonderful day with your family & friends, and you found wonderful treasures under the tree for you!!

It was mighty hot here today in my part of Florida, so it really made it seem even less like Christmas then usual. I cooked a turkey and all the treamings for those in my family that eat meat. No one was very hungry and everyone just picked so it was kinda a shame I should have just served pizza. My husband is sick so needless to say he was a crank butt and my son was not feeling well either so together they both were trying their best to ruin the holiday for the rest of us : ( I just tried to ignore it even tho parts of the day I felt like crying, but the best part of the day is that it is over for us! My son & daughter-in-law have moved on to visit with her family, my husband went to bed and Kelly is playing her new video games which she seems to like so all is good : )

Best Wishes & God Bless You!!

Christmas Eve 2011

2011-12-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

Well here we are at Christmas Eve, One more day and this holiday will be over!
Can you tell I have not had a good couple of days... It's not from trying. My son & daughter-in-law invited me down to their house for dinner and to spend the night, I jumped at the chance to get away and see their Christmas tree. When looking at their tree I see a ton a presents for my husband & I, now most people would be happy to see this but not me, it made me depressed knowing we have like one card each for them. They also bought Kelly a number of presents which I am happy about since we were only able to get her four items this will give her something to look forward to.
Then my husband's boss told him they will not be working at all next week... this was very unexpected since he had said they were busy and would work thru the holiday - When you live week to week like we do this is a gut buster and to top it off his boss said no Christmas bonus this year as he didn't make enough.. My husband told him he was just happy to have a job and that was bonus enough which is true bu man we could of used that bonus : (
So needless to say I am counting the minutes until this holiday season is OVER!!

Through My Eyes

2011-12-18T11:15:00.000-08:00

I recently got another good book from the library: "Through My Eyes" by Tim Tebow. I am really enjoying the book! He talks about being homeschooled and all its perks and of course football. He gives alot of credit to his Mom& Dad which is so rare these days where kids rip their parents up one end and down another. He speaks of how little he watched tv, I really belive as a whole if we all didn't have tvs, computers, video games ect we would all be better off - We would have to talk to each other and think of things to do instead of always being stimulated by things.... He also goes into detail of his daily workouts - Holy Cow! He started at a very early age, his commitment to getting into the best shape possible is unbelivable. If the world only had more Tim Tebows in it, It sure would be a better place.

Christmas Shopping

2011-12-16T18:18:00.000-08:00

Started Christmas shopping tonight!
My husband and I started our night off at Game Stop,
It was very successful - They had all three of the x-box 360 games Kelly had on her list (we bought 1 used and 2 new = $97.00 "OUCH"!). We shot over to Target and got Kelly pjs and could not think of a thing to get my son & daughter-in-law! I was getting flabergasted standing in the store and not getting anything accomplished so we packed it in for the night. I just hate that we will be
giving Kelly only 3 games and a pair of pajamas for Christmas :( but those darn games cost sooo much! I guess we will go with gift cards for the other two... Gift cards are sooo boring and not much fun to open but you really can't go wrong with them. A few more days and this holiday season will be over with, Bah! Humbug!
Until Next Time - God Bless!!

Having One Of "Those" Days Today : (

2011-12-14T11:02:00.000-08:00

I am having one of those days were you want to go outside and scream at the top of your lungs kinda day : (
Nothing life shattering just little things that you sit there and shake your head about... We have rural postal delivery so in the past the mailman would carry stamps if you needed to buy some, Well today I left money & a note out in the box for 6 stamps. The postman took down the note and left it in the box and took the money but left no stamps. If he didn't have any with him don't you think he would have written on the note saying he would bring them tomorrow? Not sure if we will ever see the stamps or the $2.64 again, they may be history. Then in the mail he did drop off I got a letter about our food stamps, they said I need to send copies of my husbands last 4 weeks of paychecks.... I had done that on Dec. 5th. it shows they downloaded it on their site but yet this letter dated the 12th is asking for the info. again. They are sticklers, if you don't get the correct paperwork in on time they close your account no questions asked so I guess I will have to send the same stuff in again and hope for the best. Then I e-mailed the "new" lawyer to see what is going on about the wills, I have been getting the feel since I signed the paper stating that I am employing him that things have come to a stand still AGAIN! He e-mailed me back stating the same mumbo jumbo as the last e-mail he sent me a number of weeks ago....That's the kinda day I have been having, everything I have done needs to be done again.... I just hate that!

I posted a picture of Kelly & her "man" Chance that I took, I thought it came out really nice & I also posted a picture my daughter-in-law took of my son & daughter (I took the same shot but hers came out better). I tell you, you would never guess those two were brother & sister! They both look so different from each other... my daughter has said more then once that she thought she was adopted since none of us look like her (and because we have so few pictures of her - Bad Mom Award Goes To Me!). They are so different in so many ways but I wouldn't trade either one of them for any other kid in the whole wide world!! : )

My Baby Girls Are Growing Up!

2011-12-13T15:53:00.000-08:00

Here are the before and after pictures of my baby chicks! We got them on June 12th. (they are now 6 months old), You can see they have grown into 4 beautiful little ladies : ) They are not laying yet, but we sure look forward to the day when they will supply us with fresh eggs : )

Trimming Of The Tree Party

2011-12-11T16:48:00.000-08:00

We had our trimming of the tree party tonight and it went very well! We got a fire going in the fireplace even tho as you can see my son was wearing shorts.... but I thought it added a little something to the evening. I threw in some frozen pizzas so I wouldn't have to cook, this allowed me time to enjoy my company instead of running around the kitchen like I usually do. I also made chocolate chip muffins and had ice cream but nobody wanted any : ( We bought all white lights for the tree this year and gold garland which made the tree look a bit different from other years. I didn't bring out any of the many other different Christmas decorations that we have just trying to keep it simple this year. I placed a white shower curtain that I got from the dollar store aound the bottom of the tree, I thought it would look like snow but it kinda looks cheezy, Oh well I'll have to try something else next year. It was a fun evening and even tho I have no holiday spirit at all, I am so glad we did it! Happy Holidays!!

One Year Anniversary of Our Fire!

2011-12-10T06:59:00.001-08:00

Can you belive it has been a whole year since that fire which almost took our home! It seems like only a few short months ago... Here are the before and after pics. (We didn't get many of the fire when it was happening because we had left the camera in the house and couldn't get it until they felt it was safe for us to go back into our home). I just went outside and took the "after" shots, you can see how nature mends itself and wants to restore things to the way they were. Almost all of our 2 acres where burnt, but you can see that the palmetto bushes have all grown back already. Most of the trees that got burnt are dead. The woodpeckers are loving it tho, you can see in some of the pictures how they are stripping the bark right off the dead trees.

Sure was a scarry day, and I "Thank God" for saving the house!! It really was only by the act of God that the fire which was racing right towards the house slightly moved to the left and missed our goat house by inches.... My husband & I talked about that the other day and he said "Somebody sure was watching out for us that day"!

AMEN!!

MOH Lesson 15 Joseph

2011-12-08T11:48:00.000-08:00

We watched "The Bible Collection: Joseph" dvd. It took us a few days to finish it since it was over 3 hours long.... It was very good BUT there was a few uncomfortable "mating" scenes since alot of the topic is "be fruitful and multiply" ect. (nothing to hot and heavy). I know the dvd stuck with Kelly because when we walked the dogs, she spoke of Joseph and all he had to go thru and that's the most I can ask from a dvd : )

One of the activities for this lesson mentioned in MOH is to make multi colored cookies, but I was thinking of maybe making those rainbow cupcakes I need to find the directions for that again. As we move along with our MOH lessons I really wish we would have made a time line to go with our learning, it is getting really hard to remember who is who and what time frame each one is in... I didn't want to start one with all our "property tax issues".

Heard from my son and he and my daughter-in-law want to take Kelly ice skating this weekend, so she will be leaving Friday afternoon after my son get's out of work. It will be exciting for her she has never skated before....

I thought since it is getting closer and closer to the holiday I need to do something... So I suggested to my son that when he and my daughter-in-law bring back Kelly on Sunday night we will have a trimming of the tree party at our house. I figured that will make me have to get my butt in gear and get the tree out and up. I also want to get a few of those logs that when they burn they change colors and use them in our fireplace for the party, giving it a bit more of a Christmas feel to the evening. We haven't gotten any presents yet, not sure when we will get those.... but my heart was happy when Kelly said "Mom how the heck did we get from Christmas being about the birth of Jesus to it being all about a santa and buying gifts"? Honestly, I don't know why we all have gotten so far away from celebrating the true holiday : (

Until Next time - God Bless!!

Simply Charlotte Mason - Your Business Math Series

2011-12-06T06:20:00.000-08:00

Whooo Hooo!

Kelly & I were able to get a hold of an e-book version of the "Simply Charlotte Mason - Your Business Math Series (Pet Store)" I couldn't wait to get started with it! I plugged in my printer and got out enough paper to start to print out the student book, which is 179 pages and wouldn't you know it it has blue ink in areas : ( I was so disappointed. I only have black ink, so I looked up on the Target webpage and the price for a black/color pack of 21/22 combo ink is $31.99 YIKES! It's bad enough I was trying to put the $13.99 aside for another black ink, but now I need both... I guess I will have to wait till after the holidays to print, hopefully by then I can get the color ink.

Kelly said to me "Mom, Have you noticed that we can never get the correct stuff together to make our homeschooling day roll". It is so true! I just can never get the right books when we need them, either I am waiting on an inter-library loan book which I never know how long those will take sometimes a week someimes 3 weeks or the library doesn't have the correct book and I try and see if we can buy the books which takes for ever in this house or we have to wait on Netflix to send the next dvd we requested (sometimes they inform me that the "dvd will be sent at a later date"), or like now we have the correct curriculum but can't print it out! Yikes! Ahhhh but life is good and we will get it all together eventually - I hope : )

Like they say "Don't sweat the small stuff"!!!!

Have a great day & God Bless!

Life Skills: Disaster Preparedness

2011-12-05T17:21:00.000-08:00

We started working on another one of Kelly's Life Skills: Disaster Preparedness. We are using "Handbook To Practical Disaster Preparedness For The Family" by Arthur T. Bradley, Ph.D. Kelly was very interested in jumping right in with this book, she didn't want us to spend to much time reading over the first few intro. chapters. I thought that this was going to be a bad sign for this book, but she settled right in when we got to the actual "what to do" sections. We covered tornadoes today, We worry about those alot since hurricanes here in Florida tend to spawn a number of tornadoes. Thank God we have never seen one or had to deal with one so far. Just the thought that we live in a doublewide mobile home always makes me worried, We have no area that is safe to go to if a tornado does come our way. The book says to go outside and find a ditch to jump into and cover your head with your arms... We will go outside tomorrow and scout some ditches, but not sure how much time we would really have to be able to make it over to the ditch. We would have looked today, but the dam goats got out of their pen today. Kelly & I spent a good part of the early evening tonight getting the fence fixed and getting them back in. I hate when I have to wait for my husband to come home to fix something. I want to be able to do it myself, but this time I could not hammer down the stakes into the dirt far enough : ( I would really love to get rid of the goats, but with the way things are here in our area the people who would be interested in taking them would be using them for meat and I could not live with myself if that were to happen to them!
We also watched "Greatest Heroes and Legends of the Bible: Sodom and Gomorrah", It was animated which I wasn't sure what Kelly would think of that but she seemed to have liked it (It did have some really corny singing in it which I thought we could have done without). In one part it showed Lotts people stabbing Abraham in the arm/hand, Kelly looked at me and said there was no mention of that in the other dvd we watched about Abraham. That made me really happy to know she really is watching and taking in the info. and remembering it too!! Whooo Hooo!
We read one of the book I had gotten out from the library on "The Human Body". We are getting going on our Biology course which includes the body. We have been really slacking on science since we are so enjoying history lately. We need to get the ball rolling on it....
Until Next Time - God Bless!!

A Year by the Sea

2011-12-03T17:50:00.000-08:00

WOW! What a book!!!!
If you all get some free time during this hectic season to read, I would like to suggest: A Year by the Sea by Joan Anderson. So seldom do I find a WOW book these days but this one is it. It's one of those you can't put it down books. It really opened my eyes and I hope you get a chance to read it. There sure is nothing better then a good book!!!!! Well maybe a few other things, but you know what I mean ; )

22 More Days till Christmas....

2011-12-03T06:59:00.000-08:00

Can you belive we have only 22 more days till Christmas! I'm one of those people who can't wait for the holidays to be over.... I LOVE Jan 1st. with all it's new possibilities, Of course if you are a beliver in the Myans prediction that we only have till December 21, 2012 until life as we know it ends then it's not such a good thing - Yikes!! Anyway, We haven't gotten the tree out yet - I'm pretty sure that will be the only thing we put up this year. My son came over a few days after Thanksgiving to put up the outside lights but my husband said no. I might be getting a "new to us" sofa from one of the guys my husband works with (it's a sleeper sofa & heavy as heck), So I am going to wait to pull out the tree it might be in the way when we try and haul in that big sofa - I sure hope I get it tho!

Hope everyone has a wonderful day today!! : )

Star Gazing

2011-12-02T06:03:00.000-08:00

We got down to 42 degress on Wed. night, Getting a bit nippy here in Florida...

I have been having to wait outside after I feed my horses in the morning because we have been giving my horse special food and Kelly's horse keeps coming over to eat it. I'm out there at 5:30am, It has been crisp, cold & magnificently beautiful out!! The stars are AMAZING at that time of the morning (still dark out but the sun is trying to rise in the east). Our entire area has very little outside lighting so you can really see the stars in all their glory. I just marvel at how beautiful and breath taking it is to really just look at the stars. Okay, I know your asking yourself did she add alittle something to her morning beverage.... but I so seldom take the time to REALLY stop and look at how beautiful it is to be surrounded by these sparkling balls of beauty. I also saw a shooting star yesterday & this morning in almost the same spot which was an added bonus : )

MOH Lesson #14 Jacob & Esau

2011-11-30T07:24:00.001-08:00

We watched a dvd yesterday about "Jacob & Esau". Kelly was getting lost and it was hard to figure out who was who especially since it was so simular to the Abraham story. She looked at me when the story dealt with Jacob being with a total of 4 women whom he had children with.... Esau also had 4 wives and had many children with them also. We didn't go into more detail about that, I really didn't know what more to say about it.
We are getting a dvd on "Sodom & Gomorrah" it is animated and geared towards children so we will see how that goes.
Before we get that dvd we have to watch "Horton hears a Who!", No, Kelly nor I requested that video - my husband did! The other day at work the guys (men well over the age of 40) were discussing Horton and who he was. My husband had not heard of him and came home and asked me about him. When I said I had seen the dvd he wanted to get it. It really makes me wonder what else my husband and the "guys" talk about when they are at work - Yikes!!
Have a great day & God Bless!

To The Mud Pit And Beyond : )

2011-11-29T06:18:00.000-08:00

Our school day was rolling yesterday! We both got up early and the weather was fantastic! We had some computer time then we took a long walk and explored a "mud pit" back in the woods where some kids have started taking their 4 wheelers and older trucks to ride around in. It was a great outting : ) When we got back we finished up the "Abraham" dvd., I liked it. Kelly said being that is was a "movie" type dvd about the topic brought it more alive for her and she could understand it better. I just love when she says stuff like that..... : ) We read a bit more about Abraham in the History of Mystery book and then went on to our "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" book. We have a easy version of that book, so we are crusing right thru it. Kelly is enjoying it, of course not as much as the "Swiss Family Robinson" book.
We did a few other things also but the day went really well... Still lagging on math. I really want to get a copy of "Your Business Math Series: Pets" I know it states for 8-12 age group but I really think seeing how math is involved with any type of business you own or work at will help Kelly understand how impotant math is in life instead of the constant struggle we have each day just to do the basics.
Anyway, Hope everyone has a fantastic day today - God Bless!!

Happy Day After Thanksgiving!!

2011-11-25T06:11:00.000-08:00

Whew, Glad that holiday is over..... I cleaned and cooked "wait" is that a holiday????? Anyway, It was wonderful to have my son & daughter-in-law over for dinner. My husband called his father and he had plans with his neighbors and friends, He is doing very well since the passing of my mother-in-law. I asked my husband to invite a friend/former co-worker of his over (this fellow like alot of folks around here hasn't worked in ages and is losing his house and his health from all the stress of it all) I didn't want him to be alone during the holiday but he said he had plans : ( Dinner I have to say turned out to be one of my worst to date, I burnt the rolls & the pumpkin pie! My son said "We are having Christmas at our house" I think that said it all about my cooking this year....
On another note, My son and daughter-in-law are inching to be moving out of Florida and they want us to follow them. Now you all know my thoughts on Florida, this state has brought us to our knees so I'm like where ever the heck you decide to go we will try and go with you. I just love that my son wants his family to be close to him : ) I must have done something right raising that boy! It turns out they are thinking of moving all they way back up north - Yuck! He actually wants to buy the 1st house we ever bought, the home he grew up in. It happens to be for sale and my son is crazed about getting it. The really funny thing is that the house right behind our 1st home is also for sale! He feels it is a sign from God that we are ment to be there together. Now remind you my son & daughter-in-law have not saved one dime towards buying a home yet.... So how he feels he can move on this I do not know. He is calling the realestate office today to ask more questions, I hate to be a negative nelly but they just aren't ready at this time but I guess it is wonderful to have dreams to strive for!!
In school news we are working on lesson 13 "Abraham" in our Mystery of History book. We are watching "The Bible Collection: Abraham" dvd. I wasn't sure how Kelly would like a "movie type" dvd on the topic, but she has been drawn in. She actually said to me "Mom, Don't forget we still have to watch the ending of that dvd." : ) What an amazing man and what trials he had to face... In the one part of the movie Lott (Abraham's nephew) and his family welcomed in strangers to their home, We talked how we treat stangers and to be honest we are very garded. I think most in society today are fearful of strangers but people are so nasty now adays you just don't know. We did think about how when our neighbor (who almost ran me over with his truck and the same family who calls the cops/animals control on us) lost thier dog they other day we helped them look for it. Not sure if the two tie into each other but we know we did a nice thing.
We also got on inter-library loan the two books we need for the Elemental Science Biology curriculum I was given. The funny thing is the one book came in right away and the second one took another week to get here so since the take out time is limited to 4 weeks we are really only down to 3 weeks so we need to get rolling on it! If it turns out that we enjoy it like I think we will, I will need to bite the bullet and buy those two books....
Hope everyone is having a wonderful day today!!

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!!

2011-11-23T05:51:00.000-08:00

Well here we are at Thanksgiving Eve, Are you all ready?????
I have all the fixins but the house sure isn't ready for guests : ( Today will be spent cleaning..... I think this is a large part of why I hate holidays I am always worn out by the time the day gets here. You think I would learn and get the house in shape before hand but in our house that is impossible if it looks good today it will not look good by tomorrow just how it is.
Anyway, We plan on taking the big table outside and having Thanksgiving out there. I love having it outside we did it once and it turned out fantastic. The weather is supposta be in the 7o's with a breeze - Can't ask for better than that!
Hope everyone has a great day today getting ready for your feasts tomorrow!!

Happy Monday Morning To Ya!

2011-11-21T05:39:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone is primed and ready for Thanksgiving.... only 3 days away - YIKES!
Being that Kelly & I are vegetarians, I was upset to have to buy a ham : ( But my son, daughter-in-law & husband are not in our frame of mind about meat so I will have to cook that for them. I saw a glimmer of hope tho from my son, he was telling me about the egg plant and the way they treat their chickens, he had seen a little bit of the video about it and he said "Mom it was BAD". Back when I was buying my baby chickens he thought I was crazy when I asked him if he wanted me to get extra so I could supply him and his wife with fresh eggs also, now he is like "Got any eggs Mom"?
I had a surprize outting on Sat. night my daughter-in-law came a picked me up and we went to the movies! I have not been to the movie theater is years so it was really nice to get out. We saw Breaking Dawn, it was okay but I liked the book a whole heck of alot better. I couldn't belive how expensive it was to get in $7.00 for each ticket and the 2 large sodas & large popcorn was another $14.00 - Yikes $28.00 dollars for a movie night.... just doesn't seem right : (
Kelly is still sick! It seems to be sticking with her and not letting go. She is a real crank pot when she is not feeling good so school work is on the back burner.
Hope everyone has a wonderful day!!

Next Week This Time Is Thanksgiving : )

2011-11-17T07:25:00.000-08:00

Can you belive we are a week away from Thanksgiving.... Yikes! It turns out we are going to have dinner at our home this year so I need to get planning.
Have you read about how Facebook tracks your every move, Isn't that scarry! Like my episode with Walmart calling my son's phone number trying to collect our debt when we never gave them his number, things are getting out of control! I'm not sure if this is related or not but I have been viewing "The Omnivore's Dilemma for kids: The secrets behind what you eat" on Amazon a number of times because I want to buy a copy and use it as part of our Life Skills: Nutrition course. It seems every time I look the book up it keeps going up in price... Now of course I know others thru out the world are also looking the book up and buying it but it just seems strange that when I first started looking at it I could buy it with shipping for $6.56 now it is up to roughly $8.28! I guess that is what I get for not buying it right away.... I am now thinking of going the inter-library loan route, that will cost me $2.00 instead of $8.00.
School has been going slow, naw lets face it it has been in a stop mode the past couple of days : ( Kelly got back from her brothers totally wiped out. The child was staying up till after 1am each night, came home with a cold also. Needless to say we are going to be tip toeing around school work getting what we can done...
Hope everyone has a wonderful day today!!

2011-11-13T05:53:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know I am always the last one to jump on a band wagon and Pinterest is no different. Jennifer from Toad Haven had sent me an invite awhile ago and I signed up and kinda gave it the once over but didn't really spend alot of time there. I have been seeing posts from a number of my blogging buddies about finding some real goodies over at that site, so I thought I would give it another look see.... Holy Cow!! I am addicted to it! I spent most of yesterday on there just going from one thing to the next. You find a craft you think looks interesting and then you end up on that persons blog or website and then you get drawn into what they have to say on their site which is amazing. I have pinned a number of things, but I can see how you could spend your time pinning and not doing.....
Kelly is gone for the weekend over to my son's house so it just me and Pinterest... no no I ment to say just me and my husband : 0 ) hehehe!
Have a wonderful Sunday!!

Sorry For Blogging Issues!

2011-11-09T05:52:00.000-08:00

I'm very sorry if you had come to read my blog and were subjected to that "music" or just plain nasty talk that took over my blog!
Some how something was able to attach to the "my weather" gadget on my blog and was able to cause trouble from there, not sure how that happened but I have removed that gadget!!
Sorry : (

Don't Forget To Set Your Clocks Back Tonight

2011-11-05T10:06:00.000-07:00

Happy Saturday to you all!
Hope everyone is having a fantastic day!
We are having great weather here, coolish but sunny - can't ask for more!
Don't forget to turn you clocks back tonight - Gain and hour of sleep : )

If you all get a chance you have to read this post over at Homemaking on the Homestead, I think she hit the nail on the head with this post "Life isn't about what you don't have... It's about making the best of what you do have" AMEN!

On the lawyer front, this new lawyer is really grabbing the bull by the horns and getting busy with it! Just what I like : )
I really don't know what the last lawyer was up to but he was pulling alot of wool over my eyes... He told me that the two sisters estate had $80,000 dollars in it, this new lawyer tells me they have $470,000.00 dollars! I was floored and kinda a saddened that if they had that kind of money (they also had been paying roughly $2,000 a month at the assisted living place for the past 5 or 6 years they lived there) they could of just hired a live in nurse instead of going to that place, but that's all water under the bridge now.... The pervious lawyer said I was to get a fee for my survices for being a co-executor of the will that I was NOT mentioned in the will, well my husband and I are mentioned in the second paragraph of both wills - the ladies are giving us $10,000 dollars each for a total of $20,000 dollars!! Praise God!! These ladies have always been our Angels and they are STILL trying to help us even from their graves... So it turns out we will be getting the $20,000 plus 3% of the $470,000.00. The lawyer gets 4% for his payment, which I find to be really high but that is the going rate - Yikes! The three people the ladies listed in their will will be getting a really huge amount of money from this estate so I expressed my concern to the new lawyer that time is of the essence since I am sure if the ladies where 97 & 101 years old when they passed that their cousins must be in their late 70's or 80's we need to get these people their money ASAP.
I don't know when we will get this money, it would be enough to cover the property tax sale so we would not loose our house & property but if it doesn't come in time and someone else buys the note so be it, I am leaving it all in Gods hands.

Life really is something, We make decisions thru out or lives thinking was are doing whats right for our families but then find out after time we have made huge mistakes! I wish there were do-overs in life, but there aren't : (

Time Flies - Last Sat. In October!

2011-10-29T07:28:00.000-07:00

I know I say this often about the months passing so quickly but my gosh where the heck did October go?????
We are having a rainy day today here in our part of Florida, and I am LOVING it! I have already baked some chocolate chip muffins, made a macaroni salad, washed the kitchen floor, worked on "My MidLife "Green Crisis" blog and it's only 10:30am!

Do you all remember my mentioning back on June 20th about my being a co-executor on a will and having trouble getting the lawyer moving on it (the lady has been dead 2 years already)? Well I have called left messages, wrote a letter ect. and heard back from him once. I have been in no position to hire a lawyer on my end of things to see what the heck this guy has been doing so I felt pretty stuck. Well this past Wed. I got a call from the lawyers brother (who is also a lawyer), the original lawyer I was contacted by (this guys brother) passed away! He went in for routine surgery and never woke up, he passed Sept. 18th. (eerie coincidence - the same date 2 years earlier as my lady friend who's will he was holding up)! This new guy seems like he really wants to wrap this all up and I'm with him! I have been really worried since the people mentioned in my lady friends will are also elderly that they would pass on before being able to enjoy this nice chunk of money they are going to be inheriting! Anyway, I pray I can get this all settled for all involved!!

I have to tell you about the A&E Noah dvd that we watched, Wow - I wished I had watched it before Kelly saw it!! Holy Cow, It was moving along very informative and interesting then BAM! They talk about how Noah's second son Ham went mad on the year long stay on the ark and when they got off in one scene in the dvd they say he either sodomised or castrated Noah!! I brushed over it and did not discuss what these two words ment, I felt there was no need for her to have that vision of Noah when she thinks of him. YIKES!

We are watching a cute dvd about the different time frame of dinosaurs called "Prehistoric Planet: The Complete Dino Dynasty" It is narrated by Ben Stiller, he makes funny comments thru out which we have enjoyed.

Hope everyone has a wonderful last weekend in October - Until Next time!!

Life Skills: Cooking & Art

2011-10-27T07:23:00.000-07:00

We have been kinda off track this week with schooling, We have been doing more of the "Fun" type of learning.
For Kelly's Life Skills Cooking course she made this to die for chocolate cake! She did get a bit of help from Betty Crocker but I figured she could make one cake by using a box mix and then try and make a cake from scratch and see which one we all like better. I hope to attempt the scratch cake next week - If anyone has a "simple" and I mean "simple" cake recipe we could use please send it to me justme32110@yahoo.com

We also tried are hand at some Art, I saw this post over at
Art Projects for Kids on how to make a "Batik-esque Maple Leaf Drawing". The first one posted is Kelly's & the second one is mine. I thought Kelly's came out fantastic! Mine was a bit washed out looking, I don't think using the water colors you get from the Dollar General store is what the gal used but we tried. We both enjoyed adding art into the school day I really need to get more craft supplies and do more projects like this one!

Noah and the Flood

2011-10-26T05:00:00.000-07:00

We are reviewing chapter 4 in Mystery of History - Noah and the Flood.

Have I said how much I am loving MOH! LOVE IT : )

We received our second dvd from Netflix: "A&E Biography Noah" and midway thru it didn't work, they are sending another copy out to us which we should get today.

We also watched "The Incrredible Discovery of Noah's Ark", Kelly & I both liked this dvd. They have newer dvd's out about finding the ark but Netflix didn't have them available (Don't you hate that about Netflix - Why do they show dvd's that you can't order????). I am glad we are going back over the chapters for review it lets the info. sink in a bit more.

Kelly read out loud the version of "The legend of Sleepy Hollow" that we had gotten from the library, LOVED IT! I was really pleased with how well she reads : ) As I have said it is hard to get her to read out loud or for that matter read at all so I can see how she is doing, but this story caught her imagination and she stayed with it.

Have a Fantastic Day!! God Bless : )

Absolutely Beautiful Day Today!!

2011-10-22T09:05:00.000-07:00

Wow! If I was able to bottle a days weather, it would be today!! I woke up early and have just been enjoying the fabulous weather ever since : )
Days like today my grandmother would always say "It's good to be alive"!! AMEN!
I'm always scared to let myself start to feel happy because something always pops up and ruins my good mood, but not today!!

We had a great week this week:
We were able to get Netflix back up and running, which always adds a little something something to our school day.
We watched the Disney version of "Swiss Family Robinson" made in 1960. Holy Cow, If you want a perfect example of why you read a novel and then watch the movie made about it, this is it! Both Kelly & I felt that the movie did not do the book justice at all. Kelly even went so far as to say they "ruined the story". They used only 3 boys when the book has 4, no pirates actually seen in the book, tons of pirate attacks in the movie ect ect ect. Way to many changes and not enough sticking to the actual story in our opinion. Don't get me wrong we enjoyed the movie just were disappointed with the many liberties they took with the story.
What I really enjoyed was the many topics of conversation Kelly brought up about compairing the movie to the book. For the first time I think she realizes that the movie is NOT always better then actually reading the book - Hell Yeah!

We also did further reading about when your car has mechanical issues or what to do if you are in a car accident, We have really been enjoying "The Lady Mechanic's Total Car Care for the Clueless". I am really hoping to get Kelly going on driver's ed soon! I have told her to drive the car around our drive way to get the feel of it, but she really hasn't been that interested in doing it yet.

We also watched a dvd "Biography: Adam & Eve", I figured since we now have Netflix to let me go back over the Mystery of History chapters we have completed and get a few dvd's to review those topics. While the dvd was interesting I thought, Kelly did not like it all. She didn't like that it showed nakedness thru out the whole thing (it had a mix of painted depictions & an actual actor/actress protraying Adam & Eve). She was very uncomfortable with it.... so needless to say I don't think she got much out of that one : ( We will be getting a bio on Noah for Monday that should go over better, I hope!

Still really struggling with getting math going on a daily basis!!

But all in all a fantastic week : )
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, God Bless!

Pumpkin Time : )

2011-10-20T06:18:00.000-07:00

While Kelly was down visiting my son & daughter-in-law they cut out pumpkins! This fine fellow is the one Kelly did herself. She said to me "Mom, this is the first time I did the whole pumpkin all by myself!" I thought about that and it is true I always have to get involved with everything we do, I'm just that kind of person. I need to step back in the future and remember the excitement in her voice about her doing something "totally" all by herself from start to finish.
I got a few spooky Halloween books from the library to read this week, (It's hard to choose which ones to get when I can only search the library system and then without seeing them put them on hold for my husband to pick-up). We have "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", a real easy read edition that has word searches, fill in the blank questions ect.. Then we also got "Salem Witch" (My Side of the Story) series which I hope we enjoy. I did also pick a dracula book but we had read it last year and y'all know my daughter she HATES to do anything twice.... so that book will be going back to the library unread this year : (

As for school work: I am so very happy to say, I begged and pleaded to get NetFlix going again and my husband got soooo sick of my complaning that he relented and we got the 2 dvd's out at a time for $11.99 a month plan. I know when we so need every dollar that it seems silly to spend some of it on Netflix, but Kelly just does sooooo much better remembering the things she sees instead of I reading it all until I'm blue in the face and it all goes in one ear and out the other, this will so help our school day!

Needless to say I am now very pressed for time to buy the black ink needed to make copies of the school paper work & the $30.00 to get Kelly registered for this 2011-2012 school year by Oct. 30th. at York Christian Academy

One day at a time is my moto : )

Have a wonderful day today!!

Books, Books & more Books

2011-10-14T05:47:00.000-07:00

This spooky looking fellow is Kelly's cat Jasper. She took this picture by keeping her finger over the flash, it gave it a scarry feel to the picture perfect for the Halloween season : )

Kelly is going down to my son & daughter-in-law's to spend the weekend with them. I'm so glad they ask her often to spend time with them. It gives her time away from our daily routine which is always a good thing, she comes back refreshed and cheerful.

I had been searching my library's search engine for Halloween books, but I've waited to long again this year most are out. I am getting a copy of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" I thought that might be fun to read this time of year.

Speaking of my library, they just never seems to have the books I'm looking for. Also with them charging $2.00 for each inter-library loan request (and only being able to keep an inter-library loan book out for a max. of 4 weeks) makes it real hard for me to get the books we need : (

So I have made a "Wish List" of books I am hoping to find cheap copies of: Encyclopedia of Nature by DK Publishing, We need that book to be able to start our Biology curriculum from Elemental Science.

Also, I would love to get my hands on The Usborne Art Treasury by Rosie Dickins. It sounds like such a great book to use for art lessons and activities, I've heard nothing but rave reviews about it.

And Your Business Math Series Pet Store, It sounds like a wonderful way to tie in real math to real life situations which might really help Kelly understand just how much math is really needed out in the workforce.

If anyone sees a copy of these books for cheap please let me know - Thank You!

Have a wonderful day!!

Life Skills: Auto Care/Repair

2011-10-11T08:28:00.000-07:00

We started on our Life Skills topic of Auto Care/Repair yesterday.
We are using "The Lady Mechanic's Total Car Care for the Clueless" by Ren Volpe.
We started off by reading the introduction, which after reading it we just knew we are sure to enjoy this book. She mentions how when she told her parents she was studing to be a mechanic her father said to her without missing a beat "But you have no mechanical aptitude!", She said "Thanks Dad for the encouragment", I thought isn't that so true how a few words from someone can squelch the excitement and enthusiasm for something you want to persue. She stuck with it even tho she had a terrible time with the fellows in her trade school giving her grief over everything she did. I thought that part of the book alone was well worth reading, it gives good insight to what life is like out in the real world when you go against the grain or live outside of the "normal" box.
We jumped right to chapter 5 which was how to jump your car using jumper cables. I have been driving for 31 years and have never used jumper cables. I always have stood back and let others do it which I find sad : ( Since this is an issue we just had with our jeep Kelly was very interested in learning more about it by actually looking at the car and where we are to place the cables correctly. So when my husband got home I asked him to clarify where to put the "ground" cable on the car that is not working for us. Do you know what he said to the both of us "Like you would ever do it yourself"! I felt so deflated not just for me but for Kelly and thought back to what Ren Volpe the author said about her father giving her no encouragment. I remember seeing an episode of the Dugger's where the girls all had to learn to change a tire. the father and bother taught them and then let them try it themselves. What a different experience that would have been instead of hearing her father say "You won't ever do it yourself".....
But hey, I just have to read more and figure this out for Kelly and I! I want to show her she CAN do what ever she sets her mind to and don't let others tell her different!!
If you read about a jeep going on fire in Flagler County Florida you know it is just Kelly & I working on the car : o )

Velvet Ant

2011-10-10T12:10:00.000-07:00

I thought I would share with you all an insect I thought maybe most of you haven't seen that we have running around here in my part of Florida - The Velvet Ant.

It's not really an ant it is a hairy wasp, they are also called a "cow killer" because of their painful sting. The ones around here are a bright scarlet red and black, they move around so fast that it is hard to get a picture of them (I got this one from the internet). Kelly & I caught one and placed it in a jar, but it was too hard to get a shot of it. They are pretty large and with their coloring are very easy to see, they are really a very beautiful insect. You sure wouldn't want to step on one - Ouch! If you would like to read more about them I have included a fews link about them: Here & Here.

Soggy Sunday

2011-10-09T10:56:00.000-07:00

It has been raining on and off all weekend - I LOVE rain! Now I'm not talking about flooding and all that, Just a nice gentle rain. I think in my past life I must have lived in London or some place that rained alot.
I baked some chocolate chip muffins but the oinkers that we are we wolfed them down already. I also mopped the kitchen floor that I never did after the bleach incident, not a great idea when it is pouring out....
Still procrastinating on the school schedule. It's funny, I have a plan and when I go to work it out I find something else that looks interesting and get side tracked.
I think we really just need to get Netflix going this will add the "interesting" factor back into our day. I'm going to see if I can borrow some money from my son to get it going this week, they have a plan for $7.99 a month for one dvd out at a time or $11.99 for two - I'm thinking the two out will work for me and that's not too much to borrow.... we will see.
Kelly and I walked around the block and we saw that someone stole the gate off of one of the driveways where the house had been empty. We have been wanting one for our driveway forever and I mentioned that. Kelly said "Mom we don't steal, that would be a sin". I worry so much about what Kelly is not leaning then I hear something like that come out of her mouth and I relize she is learning and knows some of the most important lessons needed in life... : )

Bleach In The Eye, Oh My!

2011-10-07T08:59:00.000-07:00

Yep, That's how I started off my Friday morning slashing bleach into my right eye : ( I was filling up my water bucket to wash the floor and poured some bleach in and it splashed up right into my eye - Hey good way of getting out of cleaning I guess.
Kelly hasn't started the day any better, the poor thing was up all night with a nasty toothache again. She has been swishing with salt water in her mouth and taking some Advil. My husband who actually has work for today (Whoo Hoooo!) is going to bring home some of that stuff you rub on the gums to help ease the pain. I sure hope the pain subsides soon, I hate to see her suffering.
As I mentioned my husband has worked Wed., Thurs. and today - Three days this week. I pray that the work continues next week, It is sooooo hard living on one day a week of work. Our food stamps are available on the 8th which we are so thankful for, We are sooo out of food it isn't funny. I should write a book on how to live on next to nothing and still survive....
As far as school goes, That is put on the shelf for today. I can't expect Kelly to concentrate when she is dealing with a toothache. The rest of the week was a snorefest! Our school day is just way to dull, I need to pep it up a bit. I really pray I can get Netflix back up and running for us, Kelly is such a visual learner that reading from books just goes in one ear and out the other. That's basically what happened this week, I read until I was blue in the face and I could see she was in lala land with it all. I hope to find something to jazz it up a bit since I now have a long weekend to work on it.
Until Next Time, Have A Great Day!!

Family In A Tizzy

2011-10-03T14:05:00.000-07:00

This is Birdy, Kelly's parakeet (she really went out on a limb naming him don't ya think). He was her birthday present when she turned 16 on Feb. 19th so he is almost 8 months old. To be honest we aren't really bird people (besides chickens) so I didn't hold out much hope for a long and happy life for him but so far so good : )

We had a scare today which thru the whole household into a tizzy. My husband who is still not working and may not have anything for this week either went down town to pick up a few things. During his trip he started to have car trouble. Now as I have mentioned our jeep is old and she has tons of miles on her but she never lets us down. He made it home and she would not start, you can imagine the fear that went thru us. We have no money for a car repair, even if they could fix it my husband has no job to pay for the repairs and if he had no car he could not get to a job if he is called.... you see the circle of panic. Anyway, He called a friend of his and he took a look at it and they got her running "Praise God"! I will be including the car in my prayers from now on, after todays eye opener of how much we need her. While all this was going on Kelly mentioned that she would really like to learn about car repair. Have any of you done a study on car repair? I'd love to see which books you have used for it. My library had "The lady mechanic's total car care for the clueless" by Ren Volpe which I requested, I thought we would start with that. Any tips or ideas would be appreciated - Thanks!

Have a great evening!!

What Glorious Weekend Weather : )

2011-10-02T06:32:00.000-07:00

Loving this weather we are having here in Florida! 50's in the morning and 80's in the afternoon, You just can't get any better than that!!

Here are a few pictures of one of the experiments we did for the Mystery of History's lesson 5 - Ice Age. Kelly made a greenhouse in the jar, Just a simple activity but added some fun to the day : )

Shaving Cream Colored Paper Art Project

2011-09-29T17:42:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-28T14:43:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-09-28T11:14:00.001-07:00

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 : )

2011-09-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

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 : )

2011-09-23T06:23:00.000-07:00

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 : )

2011-09-20T06:10:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-15T12:58:00.000-07:00

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!!

2011-09-14T07:49:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-09-12T08:09:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-10T08:27:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-08T07:17:00.000-07:00

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!!

2011-09-02T06:17:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-09-01T05:14:00.000-07:00

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!

Mid Week Up-date

2011-08-31T12:12:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone is having a fantastic Wed.!

Sure hope all those affected by Irene are hanging in there.... I know alot are still without power. Being a Floridian I know how that is, We were out for 5 days back in I think it was 2004 - It Sucks!

My mother-in-law made it thru her surgery just fine! I think she is even slated to come home today. It is amazing how fast the hospitals get you out now a days. My husband went down yesterday from 10am to 8pm and stayed with her and his father, never calling me once to let me know how she made out - He said there are no pay phones any where to be had in the hospital so he couldn't call.

As you know things are never dull here, so far this week our water heater broke. We are now taking cold showers, It sure does wake you up in the morning. We already have to go outside and turn the pump on from the pump house just to get the water into the house since the over flow tank broke awhile ago. So with the washer broke also, Kelly thinks God is making us use the information we had learned last year while watching all those dvd's about living in the different past time frames.

Then we had an episode with red ants by the tons climbing up the cable line which runs under the house up into Kelly's room! They were every where, all over her carpet. I poured bleach on the hole they were coming up from and it seemed to have stopped new ones from coming in but there were still massive amounts of ants already in her room. I decided to tear up her carpet, the carpet wasn't in great shape anyway and I figured she could never really feel comfortable in there thinking they might still be running around. I tore it out all by myself, I was kinda proud of myself it was a tough job since I had to use one of my steak knives to do the cutting. I cleaned the room up real nice and now she is painting the walls a pretty blue.

Just when I thought we had the red ants under control, I grabbed a cheeze doodle from the bag and got bit in the tongue by an ant. When I looked into the bag it was loaded with ants.... Gross! They had come in thru the front door walked over to the frig., climbed the frig. and got into the bag I had wrapped up on top. I was amazed how much trouble they had gone thru to get the cheeze doodles. I am not sure why the ants are coming into the house for food, it's not like we are having flooding or a drought here, There is plenty of food outside for them. Even tho they are so small their bite hurts real bad! You actually get welts from them and the bite area gets so itchy. I've been washing the floors with bleach and making sure no crumbs of food are left any where!

Like I said never a dull moment at our house : )

Thank God That Week Is Over!

2011-08-26T19:17:00.000-07:00

Thank Goodness that week is over!!!!
Today my son called his car broke down and needed my husband to go down town and get him. Would you belive the tow truck took his car to the repair shop but wouldn't take him! I have always ridden in the cab of the tow truck with the driver. Not sure if this is a new policy because of some insurance issue or what but I think it really stinks you could be stuck on the side of the road if you didn't have anyone to call....
My mother-in-law goes in for surgery on Tues. the cancer has not gotten into her lymph nodes but they are going to remove both her breasts. My brother-in-law is flying in from North Carolina he told my husband "Because it might be the last time he sees his mother". I haven't been thinking in those terms, I've been thinking that she will make it thru the operation, I'm just worried about infections and such afterwards. She is an insulin diabetic and not sure if she needed to to chemo how all that would work out for her. My husband has been very quiet about the whole thing, I know when my mom was fading fast with emphysema I visited her at her home and I knew in my gut it was the last time I would see her alive but your mind doesn't let you belive it. I talked about how great the meal she made was, How happy I was that she was home from the hospital ect. - I never said I love you mom! I could kick myself now.... I really want my husband to go down Tues. and sit with his mother while she is getting ready for surgery and hope he has some one on one time with her (He went down to her home on Wed. and spent some time with her but he said she didn't talk much and was kinda cocooning herself from everything). Our brain fools us into thinking we have days, even years with our loved ones but we don't, time passes so quickly and then an illness pops up out from out of no where and we have to face the fact that that person might not be around with us anymore. My mother-in-law has not asked to see my kids or my brother-in-laws daughter, so not sure if they will be going down to see her or not. It's so odd we have had sooooo many problems and issues this week that we almost put my mother-in-laws cancer on the back burner.... Which is so sad!
I am praying all goes well and she makes a full recovery! She has said even tho she is 78 she is not ready to die yet....

How Low Can You Go!

2011-08-25T06:23:00.000-07:00

Just when I think we can sink no lower we go even lower!
If dealing with my mother-in-laws breast cancer isn't enough this week we received in the mail that if we don't pay our property taxes it will be put up for tax sale....Yikes! The past few years when we received our property tax bill we have been in survival mode thinking that the next year will be better and we will use our income tax check to pay it off..... Well each year comes and each year goes and it had gotten no better then the last one so we now find ourselves three years behind in our property tax. We owe $3,266.22 due by Aug. 31st.! I guess they will take a one year payment by that date to stop the tax sale, but that would be alittle over a $1,000 which we don't have either. It is amazing how you think things are bad but in a split second it can be so much worse!!!! Not sure how all this will play out, I have looked into if there are any org. in my county who help out with past due tax bills but haven't been able to find any yet. You would think with my county still having a 14.7% unemployment rate and many who have been unemployed for over a year would have some kinda program so I will keep looking....
Please say a prayer that things work out.... Thank you!

Wed. Mid-Week Up-date

2011-08-24T06:08:00.000-07:00

My in-laws heard back from the doctors yesterday and the lump my mother-in-law found on her breast is cancer.... She has to go for tests and then they are thinking surgery thurs.. At 78 I'm not sure how well she will do with going thru surgery and then being able to fight off the infections that seem to accur afterwards but I guess time will tell.

My washing machine broke, the motor won't go on any longer. I tell you I miss that machine already : ( I have been doing a few items by hand, but it is alot of work. Not sure when I will be able to get another one, I hope soon.

My husband didn't get called back for work this week which has been a huge bummer! The kicker is when the guy had called him for work he said they were swamped with work.... My husband worked 4 days last week and then has been off since - What happend to being swamped????? I sure hope they call him back to work next week!

School is going well, We are not at full roll yet but just starting up Kelly's engines... : )
It sure is something about all these earthquakes! I worry about California when I hear other areas are shifting.... And then we have hurricane Irene, I don't think she will be a problem for our area of Florida, but looks like the Carolina's could have some issues from her. Hurricanes can be so unpredictable we just have to keep a close eye on her.

Have a wonderful day!!

First Day Back To School Yesterday

2011-08-23T06:35:00.000-07:00

We got our first official day of school under our belts for this year!
It went very well : ) We kinda started last week but things came up so we are off and running now for sure.
You all know how I have planning issues! Well I really tried to get the first day planned as best as I could and it really does make a difference for Kelly. If I stop and have to look around for what we are doing next I lose her.
With us using the Mystery of History book it has also put an added learning of the Bible back into our day again which was missing last year which is so uplifting.
Just overall a great day! Okay I have to admit we AGAIN didn't get to math... : (
I am not going to let that happen today, this child is way behind in her math and needs to work on it every day. She is sneaky and gets me to go off in another area so I forget about math but I'm not going to fall for that today.
Hope everyone who has started back to school is enjoying it : )
Have a great day!!

An Up And Down Week

2011-08-19T07:02:00.000-07:00

Here we are at Friday again....
This weeks up-date sure has its ups and downs.
We started school on Monday and it went very well, We are starting to dig into the Swiss Family Robinson book. I love that I have two copies so Kelly can read along when I'm reading and I can see the words she is having trouble with when she is reading. I was going to get a different version of the book since there are alot of words that are causing trouble for Kelly (and for me too) but our libray had no other copy with 2 books available. Being that we are major animal lovers there sure is alot of animal killing in the book so far - Yikes! The book seems to have captured Kelly interest already which is always a good thing : )
We also did some math worksheets, Yes I said math worksheets. I know it's hard to belive but I got my child to actually do some. I'm starting out with very easy problems to try and get her motivated. Hey, I'm just happy we got some math done at this point.
She also worked on some spelling words, Still not sure what we are doing with that. Like I have said she can get thru the week of working on the words and do well on the test but by the next week they fly right out of her brain. I'm thinking of working more on vocabulary instead but she asked for spelling words and when my child asks for work heck ya I'm giving it to her : )
As the week went on our days were not as good, Kelly felt kinda sick and was a crank pot. We had some issues with the dog warden asking for proof of my dogs rabies shot which my daughter-in-law and I can't seem to find so Toby has to go Sat. for a rabies shot. They happen to be running a low cost shots clinic in my area for only $10.00 Whoo Hoo! It was looking like we were going to have to pay for a vet visit plus the shot which was in the area of almost $50.00.
On to very sad news, My mother-in-law found a lump on her breast and went and got it checked out and had tests done on it. The doctor says it doesn't look good but they won't know for sure until the tests get back next week. She is in her late 70's so I'm not sure what options they will be giving her. The poor women is a wreak, I've told her to think only positive thoughts nothing is for sure yet. This is such a blow since my father-in-law was diagnosed with the onset of alzheimer's recently : (
One other note, Would you belive my husband is off of work today already! This is the kinda thing that drives me batty... Just when I think we are able to breathe again it all goes out the window. I had called and cancelled the cash assistance since he was back to work & notified them of his working so they may cut off the food stamps. My husband is not sure if he is working Monday or not either so it looks like we are back on this roller coaster again.
No one said life was going to be easy.... With God's help we will get thru all this! Better days are comming!
Have a wonderful weekend!!

Who Is Looking At Your Phone Calls????

2011-08-17T05:51:00.000-07:00

I'm telling you this is scarry!
You all know about my financial problems of late, Well we are wayyyy behind on our one and only credit card from Walmart. We know it, they know it, We have tried to make a few payments but they add on an over limit charge on top of the interest rate which makes it impossible to ever get to an affordable payment range...
Anyway, They call us constantly I'm guessing about 7 times a day, It is a message telling us to call them. I have stopped picking up the phone when they call (being that my phone is one of those pay as you go phones, I waste minutes every time I pick up). I was getting a little leery when right after I would talk on the phone they would call, making me feel like they are able to monitor my phone calls which is freaky. Here is the topper, They ARE scanning my calls and they saw what phone number I was calling and started calling that number!!!!! It happens to be my son's phone number of which I NEVER gave to Walmart on the credit card application. They are now calling him constantly thru out the day also. Isn't this really scarry how someone not even govt. related can tap into your phone calling! This has me pretty freaked out on many levels, I mean how many times do you give out your phone number???? I can think of endless number of times I have given it out and you never know what people are doing with it. Are these same people who are able to tap into your calling able to tap into your conversations????? They obviously know exactly when I'm on the phone and with who, maybe even the location I am calling from : ( My son called back the number and told them that he wants his number removed from their calling system immediately. It really is mind blowing and creepy!!

What Is It? A Dog or A Rabbit? : )

2011-08-13T09:27:00.000-07:00

Can't you tell Kelly needs to get back to school work.... This girl has too much time on her hands, That is Reba her dog/rabbit : )

It sure is Hot today here in Florida, We have been getting up into the high 90's with the heat index over 102! It is wayyyy to hot to go outside, our poor horses hardly move at all they just stand under the canopy tent we have out there for them and just sweat : ( I swear you won't hear me complain not once this winter about it being cold!!! These hot temps have got to go!

I can't wait for our copy of Mystery of History to get here.... I LOVE history it is my all time favorite thing to learn about. No matter how many times I go over a time period there is always something new to learn about it. Kelly is going to be none to happy about us going back to the beginning of history again (I tried to get there last year but we went a bit more indepth with modern history then I had thought).

They shut off our tv and our internet should be off by tomorrow or Monday so we are going to have alot of time to start school work : )

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, Stay cool!!

Happy Friday Everyone!!

2011-08-12T06:34:00.000-07:00

No, It's not Cousin It.... It's my daughter Kelly and her many different hairdos : )

I have fantastic news to share with you all!!!! My husband starts work on Monday - Whoooo Hoooo!!!!!

Not sure how long the job is for but heck anything right no is a blessing for sure.

I hate to even write about it because I don't want to jinx it but I have to share : )

I do have to say this past month I have learned alot about myself, when the chips are down I can pull the boot straps up and get the ship floating again.

Since I haven't worked outside of the home for over 25 years I was scarred that I was useless in the job market to be honest with you. I have found I do have some skills that can make me money if need be which I think has really given me an uplift.

Well enough of me going on about that....

I have been re-reading "You can teach your child successfully" by Ruth Beeschick, I really enjoy that book! I read it when we first started to homeschool but in my haste I don't think I really digested what she was saying. This time around I am really listening to her words and am picking up alot of tips I over looked.
You know when I wasn't sure how I was going to fit in homeschooling and working with all that is happening around here, I was sooooo sad. You know what they say you don't appreciate what you have until it is gone. Now that I have been given another shot at it I really am hoping to make it better for both Kelly & I. One thing that I really have to address is that Kelly & I both like to learn in different ways and I find it very hard to switch off of what feels so right for me to switch to a way I feel uncomfortable with (does that make any sense???).

I just want to say I LOVE homeschooling : )

P.S. - On a side note, I was scheduled to work at the animal shelter on Sat. for an hour to clean the cat cages. Since my husband needs the car to meet the boss tomorrow I texted the gal at the shelter telling her I can't make it that my husband has found work and I will let her know how things work out. I told her I will call her Monday to let her know if I will be able to work there or not. I wanted to make sure this job pans out as we hope it will before closing the door on my working. The girl just texted me and said "What Ever"! Sooo I guess working there will be out in the future, she must be mad at me but she knows they goal of the cash assistance program is to get people back to work.... I tell ya I have tried to follow all of the program requirements that have been asked of me and to be honest you have to jump thru hoops to get this cash assistance which we still as of yet have not seen a dime of (signed up July 21st.) and I still get the short end of the stick..... Oh well God willing we will not have to go that route in the future!

Thoughts On Cursive Writting

2011-08-11T14:07:00.000-07:00

I received this article from my homeschool group, It talks about how as a nation we no longer are teaching/learning to cursive write and the impact in may or may not have on future generations.
I have never stressed cursive writting in our homeschool day, I have come to feel that everything is done on computer so there was no need for Kelly to learn more then her signature (which honestly you hardly ever need any more either).
In reading the article it does bring up some good points, that if you don't really learn it you are not able to read it and some of our nations most historical documents are in script. I really think more and more people are using the internet/computers for letters, e-mails, journals/diarys, ect so not many paper letters are sent out anymore. Most all reports are required to be typed so you wouldn't be using it there either. I may be wrong and this is just my opinion but I think cursive writting is a thing of the past which we will not be using in the future kinda like checkbooks, postal mail to name a few other examples, I guess time will tell.
Either way it was an interesting article, if you get a chance take a peek at it.

Have a great evening all!

Good Thursday Morning!

2011-08-11T04:54:00.000-07:00

Hope you'll are enjoying the month of August... It's almost half way gone already - Yikes!

I have good news to share with you, We are getting a copy of Mystery of History vol 1 Whooo Hoooo! I know you think I'm nuts getting excited over a book but I was so hoping to be able to use that book this year.

We still haven't got down to the nuts and bolts of school work yet : ( I worked at the animal shelter Monday & Wed. from 8am to 12 noon but it sure throws my entire day off. I have to fingure out a way to juggle everything....

I still haven't filled out our school paper work from this past school year so I need to get that done and get her paper work in for this year too! York Christian Academy only charges $30.00 for the year to sign Kelly up so I am hoping to get that paid when I get my first cash assistance check to make sure that is all taken care of for this up coming school year.

My chickens looked so cute sitting together up on the goat house door that I took this picture, I need to take some shot to show you how much the baby chickens have grown... they have turned out to be 4 really beautiful hens!

Enjoy the day!!!!

Heard From Lawyer.....Up-Date

2011-08-09T11:21:00.000-07:00

I finally heard back from the lawyers office!
What a load off my mind... as everything thing else in my life lately he said I am not mentioned in the will : ( I was sooooo hoping to use that money to MOVE away from this HELL HOLE but I guess that is not going to happen now. I am kinda thrown why the ladies would make me a co-executor and not mention me in the will but of course it is there wishes and I will continue to try and get this completed for the ladies.

Lawyer Issue, Any Ideas????

2011-08-08T12:37:00.000-07:00

Okay I'm getting a bit worried now about this lawyer issue.
He never called back on friday even after I told the secretary I have been leaving messages for a month now. I checked on the computer and his address and phone number are all correct and the same info. that was given to me on the letter that he sent me.
But really why would he not want to talk with me to get this case closed????
It is a simple will (as far as the info. I know of), So I can not for the life of me understand why he is dragging his feet.
I then thought that there might some time restraint that he was trying to get to (the lady died Sept. 2009) so we are closing in on two years now. I checked again and some states do have time restraints on probate wills but not seeing how that will effect in this instance.
He as the other co-executor must be getting paid from the estate for his services so maybe he wants to draw it out as long as possible????
I'm thinking of sending a letter to his office that he will need to sign for just to cover my bases to show I have been trying to get this case moving.
My husband is thinking we might need to contact a lawyer to deal with this issue since we are all getting that feeling in the gut that something is just not feeling right about this entire thing, Of course money will be the issue getting a lawyer.
Any ideas from you all on what I should do about this will issue? The lawyer and will in question are up in PA. which adds to the problem.
Thanks for you help : )

Freaky Friday

2011-08-05T09:01:00.000-07:00

What a Friday I am having.... I love Fridays, they are the end of the work week and everyone is usually in such happy moods.

I got up early and took my husband over to meet up with a guy who he is going with to scout out some job possiblites, then I shot over to the animal shelter to get some hours in there and would you belive the gal never came to let me in : ( I called an waited, beeped, waited, called again (I had called Wed. night to let her know I would be there Friday). She has a gate blocking her driveway you need to know the key pad combo to get in, there is no intercome to beep her in the house. I'm not not sure what was up with that since she said she could use me every day I wanted to come over.... I always try and find the signs in things and it just seems like I am not supposta be going this route.

I called the lawyers office again this morning (I have called a number of times and left messages with the answering machine, remember I got the letter from this lawyer on June 22nd.). Today someone actually answered the phone! I asked to talk to the lawyer the girl asked who was calling and then got off the phone and then came right back on and said he was busy. I asked to be able to hold until he could get to me but she said no he would return my call at a later time. I told the gal I have been calling for over a month now, I could feel my fur start to go up. It is now almost 2pm and still no return call....

I said heck with it all and Kelly went down to my son's house, She NEEDED to get away from all of our problems! She wasn't feeling very well this morning but went away anyway. I'm glad, I hope she has a wonderful time.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!!

Honest I Am Not Making This Up

2011-08-04T07:31:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone is enjoying this first week of August!
August is one of those months where your mind starts to race because it's like the hump month, We are moving away from summer into the "Back to School" time of the year. I can't wait to flip a couple of pages on the calendar just so we can get some cooler weather!!!!
This week has been one crazy week for sure : )
First I did some time over at the animal shelter and loved it! I have not worked outside of the home in such a long time I had forgotten how it feels to put a days work in where someone appreciates you. On the flip side I didn't have enough gas money to go back down town for the resume class on tues. I waited and went down yesterday for another class and they said I need to get the resume class in before they can even begin to take a look at if I qualify or not for the money assistance..... It costs me roughly $10.00 each time I go down town for gas and they now want me to come back on tues. this is all so crazy if I had the money to blow I wouldn't be asking for assistance.
Anyway, On to the "Honest I am not making this stuff up" list:
We had a three foot rat snake in out bathtub! I pulled the curtain over and there he was, I shut the curtain and ran and got Kelly. I tried getting him into a garbage can but he kept slithering out, of course he started to get mad at me and became really wiggly and moving all over the place. At that point I closed the bathroom door and put a towel under the door... I had know idea what we should do. I called my neighbor down the street and asked him if he had something I could use and he said he would come up and get the snake for me "Halleluia"! He came down right away and picked the snake up with a towel and took him away.... He said he saw a crack in my tub drain where the snake must have gotten in. I now stick paper towel in the hole when we are not showering just to make sure we don't have any more visitors!
Then on the same day as the snake episode I got stung again by a scorpion, This was not my first time but it sure hurt worst then the last time. I had alittle swelling but that was about all.
My neighbor behind us also was caught by the police for drugs, but you wouldn't know it he is still there. I would have thought he would have gotten some jail time since this is NOT his first time getting caught. I just shake my head on how some people just get away with things!
I know this all sounds like I am writting a suspense novel but it's not it's my life : )

On the Schooling Front, Kelly's computer friends all go back to school on Monday so she really wants to get back to school work also. We have already started the Swiss Family Robison book but the copy we are using has alot of tough uncommon words which is making for a slow go of it. I am thinking of switching to an easier version of it. I would rather her enjoy the book then to be put off by the wording...
Since I am not able to get any new books for this years school year I have been going thru the bookshelf and am just going to use what ever we have. I have had for many years a copy of "The Story of Mankind" that we may use, not sure yet (Have any of you used it?).
I need to plan so Kelly can do some of the work on her own when I am out at the animal shelter. Kelly can't go with me to the shelter because someone needs to stay home and keep our dogs quiet since the episode with the neighbors calling the cops. It's funny the animal shelter I worked at is in a residental area with neighbors closer then mine and the dogs there bark non stop all day but yet none of the nighbors complain, I guess they all feel she is doing such a fantastic thing helping these dogs find new homes they over look it.

My son called and wants to take Kelly to his house for the weekend, We have a tropical storm Emily that will be skirting the coast the waves by his house are going to be huge for our area. My husband & I are going to the shelter tomorrow but I am hoping she can go down Sat. & Sun. to have some fun away from here for alittle while anyway....

Have a Fantastic Day Today!!!

When Things Get Tough The Tough Get Going!

2011-07-28T18:41:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone is enjoying the last week of July... August is only a few days away.
Things have been topsy turvy here but aren't they always : )
Sometimes I think I am at my best when I feel the ship sinking.
My husband's boss told him on the 20th that there just isn't any more work and he doesn't see anything coming up any time in the near future either.
Sooooo here we sit with no income and running out of money quick, I signed up for food stamps again and cash assistance.
For the cash my husband & I need to do 25hrs each of community service every week. The problem we are facing is before your claim can be opened/approved you need to start your community service which of course means we need gas to get to the community service areas and when you are on your last $40.00 it tough to use it up on gas without knowing if we will be approved or not for the cash.... but I did find a no kill animal shelter down town that I am looking into to do our service at (I want to make sure my husband & I can both do our hours at the same time otherwise we will be using way to much gas).
Which brings me to the problem of Kelly home alone for at least 5 hours every day! That just does not sit well with me at all. She is 16 and is capable of being alone but as you know our area is not the best and things are ALWAYS happening around here. I keep telling myself this is only going to be for a short while until God willing some work comes thru for my husband. We take a few classes next week, We have to put together a resume - I told the lady the last time I worked outside the home was 25 years ago! She just looked at me like what planet have I been living on.... I just have to bite the bullet and get thru all this!!

Life Never Ceases To Amaze Me!

2011-07-15T06:13:00.000-07:00

Life never ceases to amaze me!
I received a letter in the mail a few weeks ago for a lawyers office, I was like what now???? It turned out I am listed as a co-executor on a will. The lawyer said he has been looking for me for over a year.... it turns out that the two ladies who were our living angels up in PA. put me in their will. These two ladies were the closest you can come to down right living saints on this earth as you will ever find!!! I could write an entire blog about just them but they were a life line to us in so many ways. They always had a kind word for me every day which is such a boost to a persons esteem. I loved those ladies like they were my own family. They rented out our second floor in the big old 1880's house we had and then they decided they wanted to move to an assisted living home. It was very hard leaving them when we moved to Florida but at the time we "thought" we were doing the right thing for our family by moving. I wrote a few notes and called but as time passed just like all the rest of my family up there we didn't hear from them much.
Anyway, They both passed away one was over 100 years old, the other was in her late 90's, they went a few months apart as one never did anything without the other. I had gone to cell phones so not sure if anyone from the assisted living tried to call me but they never sent back the notes & Christmas cards I sent letting know.
I find it odd that it took the lawyer this long to find me.... I hate that I am not able to go up to PA. and look the ladies assets over as I guess they wanted me to do since they made me a co-executor (the other co-executor is the lawyer who contacted me). He said that he will look into me being able to sign the papers down here and just send them up. I contacted him yesterday since it has been almost 2 weeks since I heard from him but there was only the answering machine not sure if he is on vacation or what but it just seems really strange to me.... The one lady worked for ATT down in NYC for many years and he said she had stock, some liquid assests and some other things we need to take care of which he did not mention. I would think being a co-executor I should be told/shown all that needs to be taken care of even if I am far away. I just hope I don't let the ladies down and that the people they have listed in their will get what's coming to them....

Mid Week Up-Date

2011-07-13T08:55:00.000-07:00

We are having another scorcher of a day here in my part of Florida! We have been getting rain most days which is a good thing but still sooooo HOT! It feels alot hotter this year then even last year and I thought last year was horrible. I can't wait till fall or winter.... Is that me saying she wants cooler weather (Yes, it is!).

Since my mini vacation we have not been doing any schooling alot of issues going on as well so we just cooled it for awhile, Well wouldn't you know my darling daughter said "When are we getting back to school work"? Heck ya! It just goes to show you even the most reluctant learners like to have something to keep their minds on other then the computer : ) So I really am hoping to start back up on Monday. I say hope because in this house you just don't know from one day to the next what is going to go on which isn't always a good thing.

My husband's boss found some work for him all the way in DeLand which is pretty far away from us, with our jeep hitting over 250,000 miles on her I hate to have him go that far with her every day but you just have to hope and pray that she keep running for us. To be honest he will be using alot of gas also so he won't be making much money but at least it get's him out of the house..

I have really been trying to keep the house in order (as much order as someone who has as many dogs as we do can). Wouldn't you know today my mop broke : ( I need my mop, I do the floors almost every other day and now no mop. It' funny how you don't miss something until you don't have it. I guess I could find some old clothes and use them to wipe the floor with since I don't know when I will get another mop (hey, back in the old days they didn't have all these new gadgets to work with).

I am hoping to get over into the old school area and clean that out. As I have mentioned after reading Bea's advice over in No Wast Home how stuff just adds stress I really am trying to lighten our load of things... Of course she doesn't home school but I am sure I have a ton of stuff that are just laying over there not being used that I could either toss out, sell, or donate to the Salvation Army.

Hope everyone is staying cool!! Have a Great Day : )

P. S. - I wanted to mention Target has the 70 page notebooks for .20 cents this week - Can't beat that price : )

Yikes!

2011-07-11T06:26:00.000-07:00

Gosh, I have been having those kinda days where you just shake your head!
First, like I mentioned we got home from the 4th of July fireworks and nighbors had called the cops, then my nighbor's in forecloser home burnt to the ground. Then the new stuff that has been happening, my goats got loose (which in the past has gotten us a visit from the animal control officer), then I find a guy laying on the ground next to the stop sign! I was afraid to go up to him wasn't sure if he was drunk, drugged out or sick. Around my area you just never know what is going on so I called the police. Some guy in a golf cart pulled up and took the guy away. The cop showed up and I told him and he drove around and found the fellow, it seems he has a medical condition and shouldn't be out walking around. Well wouldn't you know it about a half hour later there is the guy again walking down the street stubbling and falling, luckly the cop hadn't left the area and I think he took the guy home again. THEN the biggie for me is that my husband hasn't worked at all last week, and they never called him for this week either! We were thrown for a loop since he has been working not full time every week but enough to get us by and now this. It seems like all of a sudden people are starting to feel the effects of the economy again especially in our area there just are no jobs... It's hard to explain how good things were going and now it is like we got slammed against the wall. My husband shuts down instead of calling the boss and pesting him till he finds something for him or calls some other guys to see what jobs they might have he just goes into zombie mode. I'm like there is no time for zombie mode... we have $167.00, no food stamps (we stopped them when he started working), and all the other bills needing to be paid especially the $150.00 electric bill (pretty much all other bills I'm just going to have to put aside). I also have the horses, goats & tons of dogs that I need to take care of too. He hasn't worked long enough to collect unemployment so that is out, we really seem to be back in a pickle again! If you could send your prayers our way I would appreciate them - Thanks for listening : )

Great Homeschooling Website

2011-07-08T07:58:00.000-07:00

You all may have seen this site already, but I am finding alot of goodies there so I wanted to share it with you:
"Cheap Homeschooling"
You can look for info. by grade or just by topic, Lots of great sites listed with tons of free (I LOVE free) activites, worksheets, crafts ect....
Take a peek you might find something you can use in your "Back to School" planning.

I am also looking for vol. 1 of "Mystery of History" for real cheap, If you happen to see one please let me know - Thanks!

I gotta go get Kelly up, I don't want her to miss the last launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis! Weather is kinda a iffy here but they are still saying it is a go...

Have a Great Day!!!!

Another Fire....

2011-07-07T14:44:00.000-07:00

This morning at 2:45am one of my dogs started barking so I got up to quiet him since the police showed up July 4th night about us causing a disturbance I didn't want any more visits from the cops. Benny stopped and then started again so I kinda thought something must be going on. My husband said the house is shaking and went outside to see if maybe the horses where using the side of the house as a scratching post again. As soon as he opened the door he yelled major fire... I ran to get Kelly up and then grabbed the cell phone and ran outside. My next door neighbors mobile home was totally ingulfed in fire! The wonderful neighbors who came to help us with our horses & dogs in the Dec. fire that came so close to taking our house were already there. They had heard the explosion of the propane tanks and shot over. While we were standing the gas kept coming out of the tank and the fire would roar up so high and be so loud it was scarry. Thank God we had had some rain because otherwize this fire would have raced right over towards our house (they have pine trees with lots of pine needles laying around). No one has lived in the house for awhile now and someone said that it is in forclosure. Not sure what caused the fire, the police at the scene didn't ask any questions so not sure if it was set or maybe an animal ate the wires. I just hope that someone isn't torching these empty houses because we have a number of them in our area (things have still not picked up in our part of Florida). My husband has been without work for the past week sure hope they find work for him next week.
Fire is just so scary! It moves so fast and it can take everything from you in minutes.... there is nothing left to my nighbors home only the metal under the home that has the wheels on it, everthing else is gone : (

A Four Day Vacation!!!

2011-07-06T07:39:00.000-07:00

I was away at my son's house for four wonderful exciting days!! This is the first time in many years I got away from my house for some fun... We went to the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach for the Nationwide & Cup Nascar races. It rained on thurs. which ruined our plans to go over to the FanZone area and meet alot of the drivers but we really needed the rain here so it was hard to complain about it. It was just me & my son, My husband had worked with a guy who was able to get a free tickets to both races (we could never have gone without those : ) It was really HOT but heck I over looked that I was having fun. My son was a bit of a party pooper he doesn't really like crowds and he really can't stand when people get drunk and start acting up, tried to tell him to relax and just roll with it. All & all had a fantastic time, meet a few of the drivers, Brad Keselowski (my new fav.), Trevor Bayne (What a cutie!) and a number of others and saw some great racing who could ask for more!
We also went down to the ocean to swim and watched the fireworks on July 4th., the water was warm so I got in but lots of jellyfish. The fireworks were fantastic but the traffic getting out of there was horrible! We were in grid lock not moving at all. Kelly & I didn't get home till 11:30pm and wouldn't you belive it our nighbors called the police on us saying we were yelling... I was floored to have two officers knock on my door at 11:45pm! They were very nice and all but I was steaming here it is July 4th people were still shooting off fireworks around our area and they call on us. Some people are just so nasty in their hearts : (
Hope everyone is enjoying their summer days!!

No One Way Is The Right Way....

2011-06-22T06:20:00.000-07:00

A week has gone by already since my last post : (
The baby chicks are doing very well, they are in my laundry room and aren't all that noisy. I need to find an bigger area for them as they are getting bigger by the minute....
It has been very very hot here & smokey from the many fires in our area, which has made it really hard to sleep at night and at times even to be able to just think straight let alone do school work. So we have not be progressing along as I had hoped : ( I am getting a couple of copies of "The Swiss Family Robinson" book out from the library, that is going to be our next reading story. Kelly has never read it before and to be honest I don't think I have either (I've seen the movie) an it kinda ties right into my going back to nature mode I am in lately see: My MidLife "Green" Crisis. I also found a simple unit study to go with the book at Easy Fun School which we will use while readng the book.
My librarians are all giving me the "look" when I go in lately, I have been getting a ton of books out on recycling, vegetarian cooking, farming, gardening, chemicals that are in our food and in our every day lives, the list goes on and on.... Just this past friday my husband went in to pick up my next set of books and the librarian joked with him saying looks like you are now going Amish because I got out "Plain and Simple" by Sue Bender : ) Jessica over at Teachable Moments had mentioned this book and I just had to get it. You can read her thoughts on the book at the above link. I really liked it! One thing that really hit a cord with me is when the author mentiones that the mom in the one Amish family never does anything out of the ordinary which made me think of my mom. My mom never had any hobbies, never read any books (she would read the local community paper that came out onces a week), she never showed any interests in a sports team, or music ect. which now I find very odd. Back then I never seemed to notice that she just expressed herself thru her cooking, cleaning, taking care of her family which she did wonderful I might add. Reading that book brought to my attention how different we all experience the world we live in and no one way is the "right" way. One thing for sure my kids know their mother's likes and dislikes I could not be further from my mom on that subject! My family these days just roll their eyes at me, and I LOVE it!!!
Enjoy the day!!!!!

Baby Chicks!!!

2011-06-12T06:29:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures of our new baby chicks!!! Aren't they the cutest!
They all seem to be doing great so far, they eat & drink alot so I feel like they are settling in really well.
I can't wait to get some fresh eggs from these girls : )
Who knows what's next for us & My MidLife "Green" Crisis!

We are having to deal with alot of fires in our area! One fire is about 5 miles away from us that has gotten to about 3,ooo acres. It is located out in a wooded/swampy area so it is very hard for the fire dept. to get a handle on it. There are a number of other fires burning also which is very scary since we are soooo dry here and no rain is sight : (

Kelly went down to her brothers for a few days to spend some time with him & my daughter-in-law. it is so good for her to get away for a few days, It just isn't healthy to be in the same spot day after day....

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!!

Time for Re-Enrollment...

2011-06-07T06:19:00.000-07:00

Well it's time again for re-enrollment for Kelly's next school year.... Yikes! Doesn't time just fly by now a days????? I have to get paper work filled out for the next year and paper work filled out for the past year which is hard since we don't do grading/GPA's and we are using more of an unschooling approach for her learning. I am waiting back on an e-mail from our district rep. to see what I should do on that matter. We aren't really stopping for a school break this year, We are just going to keep going at our snails pace.
It has been sooooo darn hot here we don't want to be outside anyway! We can't even go for our walks. It has just been too hot & the knats are terrible in my area. We also are having a ton of fires all around us, none have gotten to close yet Thank Goodness!
Hope everyone has a Wonderful Day!!

Sunny & Hot Sunday

2011-06-05T09:21:00.000-07:00

Here we are at Sunday already! The weeks sure are just flying by.... June has been sooo hot already and we are only 5 days into the month : (
Jessica over at "Teacing Moments" mentioned how we just naturally pass on our interests to our children and turn them into a learning lesson, That is sooo true!
I have been just crazy with my new interests and trying to get Kelly interested in all of it, She is starting to get sick of it all : ( I was really hoping she would grab on to all these changes I am making & hoping to make and run with it but it doesn't look like it at this point.
One of the exciting things is we are going to get a few more baby chicks : ) I know we already have a number of roosters & a few hens so way so excited? I am going to raise them away from the roosters so we can get some eggs! We always hated to eat any of the eggs our hens layed because we were always thinking there was a possibilty of it being a baby chick.... I know we are nuts! One time we found an egg with a growing baby inside that had gotten cracked and that did us in. So no doubt we will be learning alot about chickens as one of our school lessons.
I'm reading a really interesting book "Natural Energy Booster", I need to take notes as I am reading it on all the suggestions they mention. I will update as I read more.
Have a great Sunday & Stay cool : )

What Day Is It??????

2011-05-31T09:24:00.000-07:00

I have been really thrown off thinking today is Monday..... It's going to be one of those weeks!
I have a plan of action in my mind for the summer months schooling.... That is if we don't have a rough Hurricane/Fire season this year.
As I have said I am using the "Checklist" & "How to Home School Today - Checklist Assistant" & "The Homeschool Network Internet Library" to throw together some ideas and fill in some of the areas we just have not covered.
I'm trying to get a better picture of our schooling direction but we really are a wing it type of homeschooling family : ) When I find something that catches Kelly interest I run it for all is worth!
Of course My MidLife "Green" Crisis has been really affecting alot of what we are working on lately. Today we are going to be watching the "Planet in Peril" dvd, I'll let you know how it was tomorrow...
Have a great day!!

House Dvd Series

2011-05-26T06:02:00.000-07:00

We are still working on our "House" dvd's (No, Not Dr. "House" the tv series) but the one where families are transported back to a far away time period and have to try and live that way of life.
So far we have seen:

Colonial House set in 1628

Frontier House set in the 1880's time frame

The 1900 House set in 1900

The Manor House set in the 1900's British class system

The 1940s House set in the time frame of 1939 to 1945

We are still in the watching stage of "The Manor House" but the rest were all very good! As I have mentioned there are some questionable scenes most notable a few animals getting killed, a few shots of nakedness, some talk of husband & wife stuff but we just turned the tv off for a few minutes and these scenes passed quickly. This has been the most enjoyable series of dvd's that we have watched for Kelly! She has come alive with talk of "Would we be able to live back then", "Which time frame we would do better in", "How would we of survived with out the ability to kill an animal", Many many more questions and topics have been delt with while viewing this series. It has been a great success for us I am sad to see we are now viewing the last one in this series so our time is coming to a close for our time travel back to other times but is sure has been a fun trip. : )

Commenting

2011-05-24T07:07:00.000-07:00

Good Morning!!!
Hope everyone is having a fantastic day today!
God Bless all those people in that Missouri town hit by the tornado, My gosh the destruction was horrible!

Sorry I haven't been able to get back to those who commented on my blog, I had changed the settings and had to verify each comment.... which of course got lost in my e-mail issues. Anyway, I have reset it so we should be good to go.

We are still working on the "On theFar side of the Mountain" book & the "Pocket Guide", I know it seems like we have been on them forever doesn't it.... We move along at a snails pace here : ) We are reading about poison ivy, You know I don't think I would know it if I saw it. I think I have only had poison ivy once in my life time and that was years ago. The book shows an example but that looks like alot of other plants. I have to get out the "Nature Guide" book and see what that says.

It's been very hot down here in Florida! It's those kinda days where you hate to go out after lunch because you just sweat buckets : ( Sure hope we are not setting up for a terrible hurricane season!

Have a great day!!

Books..... Don't you just LOVE them!!!!!

2011-05-20T10:01:00.000-07:00

I just LOVE books! I am on a reading marathon right now. I am soaking in as many tips, ideas ect. on a number of different topics and am loving it!!!!
It makes me sad that Kelly has never found the joy of what a book can give you.... She has never just let herself get immersed into a book and let it take her away : (
Both her & my son are non readers, my son says he has never read a book all the way through. He had a small glimmer of hope when his 5th grade teacher started reading the Harry Potter book to them, he seemed pretty caught up in that book and I thought it would spur him to read more but no.
I stand back and see many areas I could have helped encouraged them to read more, One thing is I should have read to them more then I did when they were very young! They spent wayyyyy to much time watching what I thought were educational tv shows. I think that is one reason both of them would much rather have a book read to them then read it themselves - they both are visual learners maybe because of so much tv watching.....
In my travels of my new "Green Life" (See My Other Blog), I ran into a books that looks like a must read for me:
"Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder" by Richard Louv, Has anyone read it yet? I'd love to hear your opinions on it.
Touching back on books....
I told you about my library starting a new anti theft system and they weren't allowed to ship books to my local branch any more which had me sooo upset, WELL by stating that my branch is my pick-up location they have to send the books over for me I just have to request and wait a few extra days which is no problem Yea Hoooooo!
Of course alot of the books I am now interested in reading my library does not have so I have had to resort to inter-library loan books which cost me $2.00 a book (ouch!) but it is still cheaper them buying right.....
Have a great day!!!!!

On the Far Side of the Mountain

2011-05-18T15:36:00.000-07:00

We started reading "On the Far Side of the Mountain" today (we have had it out from the library for weeks now just sitting there waiting for us in our to-do pile). I really can not say enough about how great Jean Craighead George'es books are! She writes so that you feel you are really in the woods listening to each animal and feeling each emotion & sensation the characters are going thru, just wonderful writting!
We also started reading the "Pocket Guide to the Outdoors", Wow did that get Kelly interested in doing a number of the activities in the book! The first activity suggest making a shelter, one of the options is making a teepee. We have a bamboo tree/bush down the end of the road which Kelly wants to cut off 8 or 9 sticks to use for the teepee - I think it is very hard to cut thru bamboo so not sure if we will be able to do that.... but I LOVE that she is interested in trying it. She really is an outdoors type of girl if she lets herself off of the computer long enough to remember how much she loves it.
We will not be stopping this year for summer vacation, We need to keep moving along granted at a snails pace but at least we are moving.....
Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

Another Blog....

2011-05-15T07:27:00.000-07:00

I wanted to let you know I have started another blog:
Wast Not Want Not Eco. Journey
You might call it my "Midlife Crisis" blog : )
As you know this year has been such a struggle for me in soooo many ways, Homeschooling has had it's ups and downs (mostly downs) alot of that is my fault. One of the reasons I think is because I just never seem to clear my mind of homeschooling. I am always thinking of new topics to teach Kelly about and ways to go about it ect. which I think has been very taxing on me because I am a person who loves to read, learn new things, enjoys nature, work on my genealogy tree the list goes on and on. Lately I have shut that part of me off, I have been so worried about is Kelly learning enough, are we covering enough, ect. that it has consumed me. I have decided to start another blog about my outside interests in the hopes that my mind will focus on those things which I enjoy for a little bit each day. I think all this will make me alot more happier and we just might get some better results with our homeschooling day also!

Dog Tick Borne Paralysis

2011-05-10T05:56:00.000-07:00

This ugly looking tick almost caused our dog his life!

This past Monday Toby started with wobbly back legs & not moving very much, by Tues. he could not use his front or back legs at all! He was paralized but the guy was still wagging his tail a mile a minute & was very alert. At first I thought he had blown a disk in his back but the tail thing had me not beliving that. Wed. he was not better so we were trying to make plans to take him to the vet (we were really thinking he would have to be put down). I felt so bad for him because he kept looking at me pleading with me on why his legs weren't moving (he in normally a very active dog). While I was petting him I saw a tiny black tick on his ear, picked it off and told Kelly about it. She said "Mom you better check his other ear", which I did and lo and behold there was the biggest tick I had ever seen stuck down in his ear canal area! It was the same color as his ear canal so it was easily missed. I got that sucker out of there with Kelly holding Toby down, I wanted to make sure I got it all. I quickly did a search on the computer and found out about "Dog Tick Borne Paralysis"! By the next day he was wobbly again but starting to move, by Friday he was back to his old self : ) It was amazing how quickly this could have killed him if we didn't get that tick out.

Cinco De Mayo Day / Digital Nation dvd

2011-05-05T06:53:00.000-07:00

Happy Cinco De Mayo Day!

I have been so far behind this week I totally forgot about today's holiday : (

I have another very eye opening dvd to tell you about...

Frontline: Digital Nation ... Another Wow dvd!

It touches on sooo many issues of today, multitasking, addicted to video games, How students do not know how or want to read a book of any length, Kids attention spans are so short that all they want is instant gratification right away, How they are making virtual friends which makes them feel that there is no need for "real" friends, that there will be no need for students to retain alot of info. about a topic because they are able to look the info up in a seconds notice ect. I was spellbound by it all! Kelly was like the kids on the dvd, She kept saying "What's wrong with that"? Kelly has bought right into this digital age, she can't live without her computer & her computer friends, she texts at record speeds, she just LOVES "The Sims3" video game ect. I guess most kids today really are like that : ( As the dvd says we will see what effects this kind of simulation will have on our future generations. One thing that caught my eye is that some schools are going totally digital! The kids are still in the classroon but every subject is taught on the computer, it will be all visual. Some of it sounded wonderful, I mean being immersed in say the Civil War were you are one of the soldiers and you actually meet Gen. Lee & Grant ect. sounds amazing to me! I guess it all has it's good points & bad but really interesting to think about....

God Bless America....

2011-05-02T17:21:00.000-07:00

God Bless America & All of her Armed Forces! Finally getting Osama bin Laden!
9 1/2 years after the attack but they finally got him. Most of my family doesn't belive it, they feel since there is no body we will never know for sure if all this is true.... My husband feels that the goverment wanted something to rally America since so much has been going wrong lately ex. gas prices going over the $4.00 mark, food prices are going to soar because of the gas prices, the horrible devastation in Alabama from the tornados, unemployment, housing market hitting the rocks ect.. I really wish they would have been able to reassure the American people that it really was him some how.

On to the school front:
We finished up "My Side of the Mountain", Kelly enjoyed it! I have also gotten from the library "Pocket Guide to the Outdoors" based on My Side of the Mountain which we are going to work thru this week. It looks like alot of interesting facts & ideas to try. We also have been watching the Frontier House dvd, Wow it has spurred alot of conversation between Kelly & I! It really tied in great with the book above. I have to say the dvd's are in 2 parts 3 hours long each, Kelly was glued to the screen! She "Asked" me to hurry up and get part two. I do want to mention that they speak a little bit about contraception & a few bits about the parents not having any time for some "together" time. It also has some scenes of them killing chickens & a pig, We just turned the tv off for a few minutes until these scenes passed. The dvd really makes you aware of how lucky we are now with all our technology to help us make our days easier but also it has ruined us in many ways also. One of the little boys in the dvd said something to the effect that people now adays have no imagination any more! Wow!
I have also gotten from the library "On the Far Side of the Mountain" the next book to follow "My Side of the Mountain" so we will continue with that.
I LOVE Jean Craighead George books!!!!!! And the best part is Kelly does too : )

The Royal Wedding

2011-04-29T16:58:00.001-07:00

Well I didn't think I was that interested in the Royal Wedding of William & Kate but I turned it on and I was hooked! It brought back so many memories of Diana & Charles wedding - I remember thinking how wonderful it was for Diana to marry a prince little did she know wha was ahead of her : ( But she would be so proud of her two boys I'm sure! William looked very happy today I wish him & Kate the best. Kate & Will have been living together for awhile now and both are near 30 years old a whole different situation then when Diana got married so maybe they really know each other and will make this marriage work. I remember how I felt when Diana & Charles started showing all their problems it was like a bubble burst. I kinda figured out that fairy tales lives have problems too : (

Happy Easter!!!!!

2011-04-24T05:43:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone has a Happy Easter!!!!

Have a Great day with Family & Friends!

Enjoy the time you have with each other : )