I'll be back in September!

August has been a very busy month. We spent the first week in Roxbury Holiness camp, the kids loved it!!! We started our insects & spiders unit study, which is our way to get back into school mode, it's been going great as well and this week we have soccer camp. Dh and I've been busy with Clubs and next Wednesday is the Club carnival.

We have two more weeks in August, then everybody goes back to school full time. I'll get back to blogging about our little homeschool in September. Until then enjoy the last two weeks of summer!

I'm Done!

I just finished reading Breaking Dawn!
I went to Borders at 11:30pm Friday night and I was #212!
Once 12:01am came they started to sell the books, it took about a half hour and I had the book in my hands!
Once I got home I could not put it down, I finally went to sleep around 4am.
This book and Twilight are the best books of the series... it had everything.
My DH is reading it now!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday and my wonderful husband made me this incredible five course meal!






















Piña Colada


















Garlic Shrimp and Bacon Skewers with Crostinis and Three Cheese Bacon Dip
Pan seard shrimp in bacon drippings skewered with thick slices of bacon served along side garlic crostinis and a hot three cheese dip with bacon bits.


















Papaya Avocado Salad
Sliced papaya and avocado with a topping of red onions, ginger and lime.


















Lobster Bisque
Delicious lobster in a base of cream cheese & milk seasoned to perfection.


















Fillet Mignon on Lobster Rice with Avocado Butter and Balsamic Syrup
A perfect fillet seared medium rare served atop a bed of rice mixed with a creamy lobster sauce. Avocado butter and a reduced balsamic syrup served alongside.


















Glazed Mini-Bundt Almond Cakes
Delicious almond cake with a cinnamon center topped with a sugary glaze and toasted almonds.























Master Chef!
Thank You for a wonderful birthday!
You are a true Iron Chef!

How Do We Know?

How do we know when God has called us to do something? I used to think that God would only call me to do things I was good at, things that wouldn't take a lot of my time, things that I would not be inconvinienced by. That's what I used to think.

That was before I became a mother. Once I became a MOM I saw things a lot different.
In the beginning I was not very good at it, it was taking way too much of my time, actually it was taking ALL of my time, and let's face it waking up every two to three hours a night to feed a baby is not very convinient I don't care who you are!

But then, I started to rely more on the Lord than on myself. I knew there was NO WAY I was going to be able to do this mothering thing without HIM. You know what? It got better!

Being a mother is still something I feel I'm not that great at, it still takes a lot of my time and there are many times that I'm still inconvenienced by it. But I'm having a blast, what I'm getting in return it's sooo worth the "inconvenience"!!!
I know that this is one thing God called me to do.

God has called me to do other things and at first I felt the same way I did when I first became a Mom. No way God, this is going to take too much of my time... I don't think I'm going to be very good at this God...this is way to inconvenient for me right now God...

I knew there was a need, I knew help was needed, but I kept telling myself I would be no good at this. I took a leap of faith and as I look back I can see God's hand in everything I've done.
There more I rely on Him the easier things seem to get and they become much more enjoyable.

There is a boldness that develops, there's this feeling of "Yes, I can do this because God has already taken care of it"!

How do you explain this to other people? How do you let them know that Yes! You can do this because God has already taken care of it!

We have a great need at Clubs, we need help...all of the kids that show up on Wednesday nights need help. We need people to love them as Jesus loves them. We need people to teach them about Jesus' love for them. Many of them don't get that at home, many of their parents don't even have a Bible.

We have an opportunity here to do what God wants us to do. At first is going to look like you'll be no good at it, at first it's going to look like it's going to take too much of your time and yes you will be inconvenienced by it. But as you rely 100% on the Lord He will show you different.

I have heard all the excuses in the book but God can break through every single one of them!
How do we know when God has called us to do something? Look around, is there a need? Is help needed, then there's a good chance God is calling YOU to help.

Going Away! and Desperately Waiting...Again!

We are headed to Nina and Grandpas today, we'll be gone for a few days! The kids are very much looking forward to going,
I'm looking forward to Aug 2nd!!
I remember last summer, I was desperately waiting for book 7 to come out (Deathly Hollows). I honestly thought I was never going to be so desperate to read another book like that again, WRONG!!!!
One year later, Breaking Dawn is coming out on Aug 2nd!!!!
I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!
I'm sure next summer I'll be desperately waiting for Midnight Sun!

What we're doing in July

I can't believe July is already here. We've been doing school here and there during the whole month of June, A6 has come a long way with her writing. There's a few letters that she still flips but overall she's been doing great. As far as reading she's gone back to wanting me to read to her instead of reading the books herself, which is okay since she's writing without even being told to, so I guess that's what she is interested in now. I'm just going with her flow.

We are going to take a little break in July since my niece is going to be here for two weeks and then we are going away for a couple of days.
I have an insects and spiders unit study for the whole month of August. We are going to go out there and hunt for bugs!!!!

I'm not sure when I'll be able to post again, so enjoy July!!!!

Fourth Of July!

End of June Already??

We've been so busy around here with VBSs, summer camps and the pool that I keep forgetting to blog. We've been having a great time! The kids loved VBS, they've gone to three of them and now this week is summer camp 10am to 2pm. They have a giant water slide 100ft long!
There's two more VBSs in July and possibly a Soccer camp at the Church.
The kids are really looking forward to my niece coming to stay for two week in July.
Plus we are going to Hershey Park for my birthday! I Love Summer!

School's Back!

We're back!! We had a wonderful three week break from school and now school's back!

A6 is starting First grade. She is so excited to be in 1st grade. During the summer months we are going to do reading 3x a week, math, phonics and writing 2x a week.

Reading will probably take no more than half hour a day, math, phonics and writing up to an hour the most. We'll have plenty of time to do school and then go to the pool afterwards!

Of course once Fall gets here it'll look a little different, but for summer this will be more than enough.

I told A6 now that she's in 1st grade we'll be doing alot more than last year, I'm going to be expecting more of her, she's up to the challange!

Even X3 wants do school, I'm just going to continue to read to him and now A6 is reading to him!

Summer Vacation is here!

Yesterday we had our last Clubs class of the year, we brought the kids over to our house for ice cream and a movie last night. The kids had a great time. Next week it's the awards ceremony for the kids and the following week we are having a picnic with all the little ones who don't get to go to camp.
It is going to be a nice break, but since Dh and I are taking over Clubs for next year I'm sure it's going to be a short break!

We've had rain most of the week, which is okay since we've been doing nothing but play all week!
This Saturday we are going to the Washington Zoo with the Church! The kids are really looking forward to it.

For Memorial Day weekend Dh is going to be at camp with the 3rd and 4th grade boys, so the kids and I are going to stay with my family so we won't be home alone missing daddy :(

For the next few weeks we are going to have a webkinz blog :)
A6 wants to show everybody her rooms so I thought why not show pictures here!?
We will do a room of the week or maybe even a room everyday since we have plenty of them to show!

That is all for now, it's 5 am and I can't sleep so here I am writing this post. I'm sure I'm going to be crashing sometime today.

Last Week of School...or is It?

This week was supposed to be our last official week of school, however between doctor appointments, pest control appointments, Bible studies, Truth project, friends coming over to visit, we haven't really gotten much done.
We've been reading Frederick this week, no math, no phonics, just reading. I don't think we are going to be doing anything else the rest of the week.
I'm not too worried since we are going to keep doing some type of school throughout the summer.

Speaking of summer I just saw the sign for the first VBS of the season!!! Starts June 2nd.
Hopefully this year X3 will be able to go to a few of them.

Well that is all for the next few days,

Happy Mother's Day!!!!!!!

Twilight

I've been reading so many books lately that it's hard to blog about all of them, but I have to blog about this one.
Twilight is a story about this girl Bella who falls for this boy Edward, who just so happens to be a vampire.
Edward loves Bella but can't decide whether to kiss her or kill her... so of course I loved the book!
There are four books in all, the fourth and final book is coming out sometime in August.




There is also a movie in the works, which also looks good.
I found this picture and I love the way Bella and Edward look in it.
Seeing this pic made reading the book so much easier for me.
















I've also been reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, they are great books as well, the fourth book in that series is coming out in a couple of days..I can't wait.
This book is also being made into a movie!

I'm going to be reading The Land of Elyon books next...so many books, so little time!

Truman's Aunt Farm

This week we've been rowing Truman's Aunt Farm, this is such a funny book, the kids really like it!
Since we have one more week of official school, (next week I will have my 180 days of school) we are taking it easy, we've been doing a lot of reading and playing lots of math games.
Somebody from Church introduced me to Doodle Dice and the kids love it. Even X3 can play this game.
I'm really looking forward to having a nice week off from any school, then we'll be doing school two times a week just to make sure that everything stays fresh in A6's mind!



Yesterday we had our annual bike race during Clubs, this year we had a scooter race with all the younger kids. X3 got to race his scooter and came in second place!! We had so much fun, it was a little cold but all the running around kept everybody warm. Dh and I were exhausted by the end of the night.

The Bee Tree

This week we are rowing The Bee Tree.
It's a story about a girl and her grandfather chasing a bee back to the hive.
We have so many bee resources in our house, it's going to be fun!










I won the Big price today on the Wheel of WOW!!!

Pretty Cool Homeschool Moment

When I decided to homeschool my kids there was one thing that kept freaking me out... how in the world am I going to teach my daughter to read?!?!?!
I decided to use the Five in a Row curriculum because all these moms kept saying how their kids had learned to read using it.
I was a little skeptical but I went for it... this morning as we were getting ready to read our book of the week, A6 put her hand on my mouth and started to read the book for her brother and me!
She read every page stopping only when there was a particular word she didn't know how to read, (I helped her with those) she kept going till the very last page!!!!!

How did I reward my daughter for giving her Mommy a "you're not sucking at this" moment?

A new Webkinz of course!!

Math U See

This week for math we are learning to skip count! I'm going to take my time with this lesson, MUS came with a music cd and it has skip counting songs that we are going to learn!
We decided to take today off from school and do school tomorrow instead. Although I could still count today as a school day since they are playing in their computers, call it a computer lab day!

My Webkinz Garden

If I'm not careful this blog is going to turn into a Webkinz blog!! ha ha!
On my previous post I was talking about how the kids and I have vegetable gardens in our webkinz world and how everyday we have to maintain them. Water them, rake them and then harvest them.
It is a great way for the kids to see what it takes to take care of a vegetable garden and to see the reward of all the hard work.
We have to wait 7 to 10 days for the vegetables to harvest, which for a kid can feel like an eternity, they are used to seeing results within seconds.

The kids are really looking forward to the harvest, they know all their hard work will pay off!
The food from the garden is healthier for the pets than the one from the WShop, they understand why that is as well.

Once I'm able to harvest lots of fruits and veggies I can show them how we can keep some to eat then sell some of them and make money like real farmers do!

Like I said before, very educational!

Another Gem of the Day

A6 found the gem of the day today!!

The Salamander Room

We are rowing the Salamader Room this week. This book is a lot of fun, insects, birds, frogs, lots of things the kids are interested in! The next few books are all about insects and we are starting to see lots of those around.

It's been so nice here the last couple of days, we spent a lot of time outside over the weekend.

We just set up our hummingbird feeder as well, haven't seen one yet. We also planted some seeds that are supposed to attract butterflies and hummingbirds, we have to water it everyday, the kids are getting a kick out of that..their first flower garden!

We are still loving our webkinz, A6 just got a garden on her backyard and she loves checking it everday and waiting for it to harvest. It takes 7 to 10 days for the veggies and the fruits to harvest. Very educational!!

For those of you familiar with Webkinz world, I found the gem of the day today.

The Webkinz Diamond, the hardest one to find!!!
I just wanted to brag a little.

I got W1000 for it!! SWEET!!!!

Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel

This week we are rowing Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel, I also happen to have the book in dvd format. It's always fun to read the book then watch the book!

We only have 5 more weeks of school, we've been doing two math lessons a week and it's been going pretty good. We are going to continue to do Reading made easy and Math U See through the summer, two days a week and then take the whole month of July off.

Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself...