This morning, I woke up and it took everything I had to let my kids go to school.  Not because I think the school isn't safe or the teachers can't take care of them.  It's just that when something so catastrophic happens like what happened in Oklahoma yesterday, I feel an overwhelming need to spend as much time with my kids as I can.  As in giving thanks to God for allowing me to have them one more day. I experienced a very similar feeling after the Newtown shootings.  I was physically ill over that one.  I can't imagine what all those parents must be going through.  Don't even want to.  I just can't deal. 

Anyway....this is what we've been doing.  I was very sick with a stomach virus for a good week, and then we've been so busy with end-of-the-school-year projects and "stuff" that we haven't done a whole lot of lessons after school.  But we have been spending a lot of family time together. 

For instance... my nephew graduated high school!  He's attending the same small-town school that I attended.  It was bittersweet to go back after all these years.  I go home often, but I usually just go to my mom's house or around town.  I have only been up to the school a handful of times....usually for an occasional football game.  But this time, we got to see the inside of the school for the first time in almost 20 years.  It's sad how money runs out, buildings get older, and some folks lose their pride in their town and school.  But I was soooo very proud of my nephew, Daniel.  He has worked so hard and I was filled with pride as he received his diploma. 

Small town graduation.  The funny thing is that Daniel had more people in his graduating class than I did!  :)  

 

Loo and our Graduate! 

In other exciting news..... we have 2 award-winning musicians in our home!  This week, Trey and Addie were asked to participate for their school in a solo contest at a neighboring school.  They each received a medal and the highest score possible in the contest.   So proud of my little musicians! 

 

Addie with her medal for playing the flute.

 

Trey with his medal for playing the trumpet (sorry for the poor picture quality - I'm the worst photographer ever, I know.)

 

 

 

So there you have it - our month of May in a nutshell thus far.  We will spend the rest of the month finishing up at school, attending awards ceremonies and class parties.  They get out of school June 7, so I need to start planning some lessons for the summer.  I'm also co-directing VBS this summer, so they will be learning and helping quite a bit with that. 

 

Hopefully, I can keep up with my posts and continue to update.  For now, I'm going to go snuggle-buggle with my sweet babies.  Hope you all do the same.  Blessings...

Stomach Bug

In the wise words of my grandmother, Good Land of the Living, that was a bugger!  It has been a few days since my last post, and there's a real good reason for that.  I almost died.  The stomach virus hit me, and I thought I was going to die.  Fever, chills, muscle and body aches, and well, you can guess the rest of the symptoms.  It was atrocious.  I've never experienced pain quite like it.  My hair hurt....the hair on my LEGS even hurt.  Seriously - I had to shave them and everything.  Have you ever tried to shave your legs and vomit at the same time?  TMI, I know...sorry.

Anyway...all is well (at least for the most part).  I am still weak and hungry.  Of course, I did lose 5 lbs in 2 days (I admit I did a little happy dance on my way from the scale to the toilet.)  

Pink Moon?

So I heard there was supposed to be a pink moon the other night. Having no more information than an obviously photoshopped picture that I saw on Facebook, of all places, we all went outside to try to see it. But we have a lot of mature trees in our area, and we couldn't get a very good view. So we set out in our PJs and flip flops, and got in the car to go find this Pink Moon.

This is what we saw ...

I'm sure that if we had been able to view it at an earlier time, it would have been more spectacular.  We drove for a while, found an empty field, and pulled in. Thankfully, we weren't met by an angry landowner. Not quite pink, but beautiful nonetheless. We will spend the rest of the week and weekend researching this pink moon phenomenon.

Score another one for our little "not exactly" homeschool! :)


Amy

Meteor Shower Watch Party

Last night was supposed to be the best night to view Lyrrid's Meteor Shower.  So the kids and I loaded up a blanket, Trey's telescope, and some lawn chairs and sat in our driveway in hopes of seeing some truly spectacular sight.  We saw 2.  lol...

Forgive my photo quality - as I've said before, I'm NOT a photographer by any stretch of the imagination, and my iPhone doesn't really cooperate when I try to tell it otherwise.

We may not have seen the spectacular show that we were expecting, but we did have a good time trying!
Lindsay was super excited at the prospect of staying up a little past her bedtime and being outside at that time of night is a little magical to any child.



Trey searched and searched for more meteors, but they just didn't come.  Maybe we'll go out again tonight...He worked so hard to get it set up just right.  It would almost be unfair to not get to see anything!

The shower is supposed be going on through Friday night, so if you have any youngsters (or oldsters) who are interested, go look in the northeastern part of the sky and see if you can find one or two.  :)

Learning about Money

Please forgive the horrid condition my bed is in - I swear I made it that morning, but something happened after 3 kiddos and 1 tired mommy got home from school/work and needed some cuddle time.  :)

Friday's Life Lesson mainly involved Lulu...I know they've already introduced the concept of money in school, and she knows how to count bills and change.  However, I can't help but see a need for improvement when it comes to understanding the concept of budgeting and saving.  For some reason, my children hate to save their money.  I have tried everything I know to do.  They just don't get it.  I know I sound like my mother - "Money doesn't grow on trees!"

In an effort to begin learning how to budget, I began with the little one.  Last week, I started introducing her to a time/money kit that I bought when we were homeschooling.  It has the standard play money/coins, but it also has a dry erase marker and board, as well as a clock with movable hands.

We're going to start with the basics.  Just getting used to counting our money.  Then I'm going to start taking some of the money away to "pay" for things like dinner, groceries, etc.  When she sees that money is disappearing, I'm going to introduce a checkbook style system so that she can learn to keep track of where her money is going.  Not sure if this will help matters or not, but I thought it was worth a shot.  I plan to do this over the next several months - nothing too grueling.  I'm being sneaky about it - we're learning by playing.  :)  My hope is to involve the older kids as well - but I have to be sneaky about that as well.  As much as they like to think they are all grown up and beyond the "baby toys"....I see the way they eyeball that play money!!  We're one game of "Store" away from a full fledged learning experience!!  :)

Hope everyone has a great week!

Baking Cookies!

Today Loo had a dentist appointment that left her mouth very sore. I took her for a milkshake afterwards, but by the time dinner rolled around, the numbness was starting to wear off. So to take her mind off of it, I suggested that we bake some cookies. Chocolate fixes everything, right?? Her dentist probably wouldn't agree with that assessment.  But we got a good lesson in measurements, and it cheered her up to help Mommy in the kitchen, so what the heck, right?

Anyway, halfway through the cookie making process, Lindsay was in excruciating pain. I felt so bad for her - I hate to see her hurt like that. It just breaks my heart.

I went flying to Target to retrieve all the Orajel they have in stock, and I heard the funniest conversation going on over on the next aisle between a man on his cell phone and a person whom I can only assume was his wife:

"Tampons AND hemorrhoid cream? Seriously? What are you DOING to me??!"

Bahahahaaa!! Poor guy!!

It took all I had to keep my composure - of course I couldn't stand not to peek around the corner (acting like I was looking for heartburn medication of course). He was in his 40's and ha an extremely red face. Haha!! Anyway, I collected my toothache medication and sped home only to find my sweet angel-baby asleep. She's feeling MUCH better this morning, Praise the Lord!   She was a little sad that she didn't get any cookies last night, so I snuck (that's how we say "sneaked" in Texas) an extra one in her lunchbox while she wasn't looking.  That ought to make her smile.  :)

If the sun is still shining after work/school, I think we'll go do a little nature walk and enjoy spring!  :)

What I Want to Avoid...

Yesterday I mentioned that I see differences in my kids since they started public school. They're small differences so far, and I suppose that a lot of parents would even consider this to be normal, but they bother me nonetheless.

Here's what I'm talking about:

As you can see, Lindsay is now a TV Zombie, and Addie has an iPod super-glued to her hand. (As you can also see, I'm NOT a photographer - or a housekeeper evidently.)  It drives me crazy! TV, Xbox, and YouTube have taken over our home, and it's spreading like an infectious disease. Trey couldn't even be captured on film because he was barricaded in his room with some awful video game that he plays online with his friends from school - some sort of military game. He is super serious about it - he has headphones and other "gear". ::Sigh:: I'm not sure how this even started.

Well never fear - MOM is here! I'm going to start working on my lessons for different Life and Social Skills, and we're going to work! I hope they love it as much as the iPod! :).  The good news is that at least Trey still loves to read as much as ever - and often times will choose a book over the xbox, so all is not completely lost.  There's hope!!  Hooray!!

Hope everyone has a blessed day!!