Family Pics, 2012

I love the fact that I have the following pics, but I am not happy about the reason. At. All. They were taken at my mother's funeral. It was good to see my family. Some I had never met. Some had never met my children. But we were able to come together to mourn and grieve the loss of a mother, wife, sister, aunt, cousin, and friend. We were also together to celebrate her and her life.

 This is Big Sis. Isn't she beautiful? I love her like no other. She is my friend and my soul. She is an amazing woman and I don't think she knows it. Now it's in print for everyone to see.

 These are four of the reasons my sister is amazing. These are my gorgeous nieces. I love and miss them dearly. How can you not smile when you see them? They just make my heart sing.

 My mother had three brothers, one of which died a few years ago, and two sisters. These are my aunts and uncles. While I was growing up, we saw them as often as we could. We went for Thanksgiving and Christmas and, when we were lucky, a week or two in the summer. And football and basketball season we saw them ALOT. They are huge Arkansas Razorback fans. And loud!! I love it!! Those visits are some of my best memories.  

These are my cousins. Sweet summers. Laughing and running. All of us listening to Van Halen in GP's room, cranked as loud as it would go. That was the first time I had ever heard rock music. It was like the heavens opened up and David Lee Roth started singing. Magical moment for a kid who was forced to listen to Country and Western. I don't mean that stuff we hear today. Think ooooolllllddddd C&W. Dancing in my cousin C's room. That woman was quite the dancer, let me tell you what. R is the tall one in the ball cap. He is my cousin D's son. I had not met him before this day. That stinks. The other man is my cousin, G. And Big Sis. :)

My heart yearns...

Have a great day.

Bees Knees, Part II (And Now I Know What That Means!)

I posted (months ago) about taking a bee field trip. I have the pics to prove it. And now I can post them. I figured instead of a "year in review" post, which I can't remember anyway, I would get the pics going. Be prepared. It may be a whirlwind. Let's get started, shall we?

The pic above is us going into the zoo. I will not even go into the difficulty involved in this pic. The big entrance sign was supposed to be behind us. At least most of us are smiling. The boy is quick. You have to watch him when he's in charge of the camera.

This cute sign is in front of a secondary hive the zoo has. I thought it was cute. And somebody should clean off the lens on my phone. If you look over the top, right side of the sign, you can see the secondary hive.

 

This is the secondary hive, and the back of hubby's head. The bees flew in and out looking for flowers. Interestingly enough, bees won't sting unless you are trying to harm the hive or standing in their flight path to and from the hive.  Kinda cool. There was a queen in this hive. The facilitator challenged the kids to find her. The boy did. He is tenacious.

Honey bees are not just important, they are vital to our crop survival. They are the number 1 pollinator. Roughly 30 % of our food supply needs to be pollinated. Bee population has shrunk 40 % over the past 20 years. Colony Collapse Disorder has become a major issue for bees. Only the queen and the honey will remain after a collapse. All the other bees will fly away and start a new colony. Other bees won't take honey from a collapsed colony. Possible causes for hive collapse are pesticides, malnutrition, mites, viruses, and intensive agriculture. Pesticides are poisons that don't discriminate. They just kill. Some genetically modified crops are not conducive to healthy bees. Somebody help me up on my soapbox and we can talk about GMO crops and the dangers involved in that. Please inform yourself about those dangers.

One bee will make 1 teaspoon of honey in her lifetime. I say her because the female does all the work. When a queen becomes a queen, she kills all the other possible queen bees. She flies high into the air while the drones, who are all male, chase her down to mate. Once they've mated, the drones genitals are ripped off and he dies. Just thought I'd throw that cautionary fact out there. Drones are fat, male bees that have one purpose, and one purpose only. They make baby bees. After mating, the queen can no longer fly because her abdomen is too big. The worker bees, all female, take care of the queen, feed the babies, build the honey combs, clean the hive, and do whatever else needs to be done to keep the hive running.

The bees knees refers to the pollen sacks they have on their legs. That's where they store all the pollen until they can get back to the hive. It's one of the most important parts of the bee. There's your fun fact for the day.

That's the boy in the yellow shirt. I guess he wanted to look like a bee. Strange one, he is. I love him soo much!! This is the beekeeper with the hive. He was asked where the worst place to get stung was. His answer was anywhere boney. It's like getting a tattoo. The closer to the bone the needle gets, the more ouchy it is. He was very good with the kids and loved his job. Love that!

This is part of the hive that the beekeeper showed us from the hive above. This is where the bees are taking care of the babies. What you don't see is the honey. All that glorious honey made me want to play bear. Interestingly enough, the bears aren't after honey. They are after the grubs, or baby bees. It's the protein they want.

We got to walk through the zoo to get to the bee hive from the education center. On the way, we got to stop at the butterfly gardens. We liked the giant butterfly bench. And the boy had the camera. You would think I would learn.

In the education center, they had huge displays of all sorts of bugs and yucky things. You should see the size of this beautiful butterfly. It was bigger than my hand! I like the "eyes".

Before you could get close to the hive, you had to suit up. I really have too much hair for the hats. Mine doesn't really cover me, but I got it on. The big girl decided she was close enough and chose not to suit up. Crazy girl. Aren't we cute? Just say yes.


It was a great field trip. It got us wanting our own mini hive. And when would we have time? Please be careful when you see honey bees. They are very vital to our crops, which means our food supply. Don't kill them unless you have to. Walk the other way to avoid them if that's what it takes. And eat more bee spit, um, honey!

Have a great day.

Shhhhh...

I'm still here. It's the holidays and I need some quiet time. Give me a bit and I'll be back.

Catchin' Up

We are still here! I promise. Just some stuff to convince you:

• We've been sick. Oh, yuck. How does the body produce so much snot? That is just disgusting. And debilitating. Apparently, when you're sick, that's what your body does with all it's energy. It makes more snot. Thanks, I've had my quota for the day. It's hubby's fault and he is in so much trouble. We're finally getting over it. I cancelled school for the week. Which stunk because we were off for the whole week of Thanksgiving. We schooled Monday, part of Tuesday, then forget it. At least I have the beginnings of lesson plans for next week.
• Still not sure we'll make the Christmas parade this year. It's this weekend and the kids are still recovering. We have one more rehearsal and we'll see how they do. I'm sure they'll be amazing, but it's a long walk when you're dancing you're tushy off. We are resting, practicing a little, and just trying to take it easy. The theme this year is a Seussical Christmas. The boy was going to be the Grinch, but I couldn't find a costume. Instead, he's the Once-ler from The Lorax. Simple, easy and he can wear the clothes for every day wear. Sweet! The big girl is going to be the Cat in the Hat. She is something. Now to find someone to do her makeup...
• The good thing about being sick and not schooling is that I've had time to catch up on some reading. Loving that. We finished a book on CD to listen to Life of Pi. The movie is coming out and I wanted to read the book with the kids first. Yeah, well. We got through the first 5 chapters before I pulled the CD out of the player. A little inappropriate for my younger 2. "Hey, Mama. What's a sexual deviant?" is not a question I want to answer for my 8 year old, but thanks for playing the game. Maybe in 20 years. The book we finished, The Navigator, was really good. There are supposed to be more books, but we'll find out. We just read George's Marvelous Medicine as our after dinner book. I can honestly say that Roald Dahl is our favorite author. We're back to Mark of Athena. Hopefully, we'll get it finished. If not, I requested it under all the kids, so we have more time.
• I am already researching curriculum for next year. I need to go through my cabinet of doom and see what I have and what I need. I only have pieces and parts of some things. Others, I think I'm going a different way. Oh, how I love curriculum.
• We had a great Thanksgiving. We had our big meal Wednesday, then went to the mouse's house on Thursday. It wasn't bad. Some parts of some parks were a little crowded, but those parts are always crowded. We didn't stay too long since hubby had to work the next day. And besides, we had pie left! The big girl made 2 apple pies, the boy made a pumpkin, and the baby made chocolate pie. Scrumptious! One of the apple pies didn't make the night. Everyone had some, even me. My nephew had a huge piece. It realy was very good and I don't eat apple pie.

That's all I've got. We're still here, I promise. I think it's nap time, though. Wish we still had pie.

Have a great day.

•         

Daybook or 7 Quick Takes, Whichever Comes First

So much stuff in my head. I'm making my list and checking it twice. Really, I'm just crossing stuff off and hoping I'm hitting the high points.

Outisde my window...the sun is starting to come up. Daylight savings always messes me up. Makes me wish I lived in Arizona or Hawaii, where they don't participate in this nonsense. I think we should always fall back. I don't care if it's noon and pitch black. I get 2 "extra" hours a year and that means more than you can imagine. I do like the sun coming up a little earlier, but the setting earlier, not so much. It should be a beautiful day, and we have a cold front coming in tomorrow evening. I like the cooler weather. I see soup in our near future.

I am listening to...the morning news. I'll be glad when the election is over. Social media is full of political posts and insults. Just makes me want to scream "shut up". Pretty soon, I'll be listening to the kids as they get up and get ready for their day. It's going to be a busy one, let me tell you what. That brings us to why...

From the schoolroom...eek! It's going to be a day. Our plans got shifted a little last week and we got behind. The big girl has a quiz and a test she has to take from last week. First she needs to finish her review for the test. The boy had a math review that he did pretty good on, but there are some corrections. The baby just keeps moving on. It must be nice to be a third grader. I hear grumbling every now and then about how easy her work is. Well, get over it. We are taking a week off for Thanksgiving and 2 for Christmas/New Years, so we need to get this stuff done. Our winter break is almost here. And if we don't get it all done, I have a big eraser I can use on the lesson plan book. I have a new lapbook we're going to do for Christmas. Pretty excited about that!

From the farm...I love our chickens, but I wish they knew how to clean their own coop. That is the one chore I really dislike. I feel much better when it's done, but it's yucky. They just keep laying eggs and laying eggs. The weather is getting cooler, but we don't have to put heat in the coop yet. We pulled sweet potatoes yesterday. It's really too cool for them right now. Something has been eating the tops and it was time. They're so little. We're going to plant potatoes. Our other potatoes are doing well. Carrots and beets are growing strong. We lost another strawberry plant, but we still have 2 or three that are doing well. Our peas are beautiful! Excited about those! And those darn bell peppers are just going and going and going. They are smaller in size, but they're still growing.

From the kitchen...we are busy planning our Thanksgiving meal. I've ordered some things from co-op for our meal. I am waiting for cranberries to go buy 1, get 1 free. I have plans for those little babies. I'm going to make cranberry sauce and a cranberry compote. The turkey will be brined again this year. I'm thiking an orange glazed turkey, but we'll see. I've ordered mushrooms to make cream of mushroom soup. For the first time ever, I'm going to make a sweet potato casserole. Hubby is getting a little tired of sweet potatoes, so I'm trying something new. And we have to have brussel sprouts, because that's the law in our home. I know Big Sis is going "blech!" right now. She's funny! The big girl wants to make an apple pie. We're sending her to my FIL's. If she's going to learn, she might as well learn from the best. Hubby got a recipe from him so we can swap some of the ingredients. Pretty excited about the meal.

Around the house...we are working on some projects. Hubby has been cleaning around the sheds trying to get rid of piles. Our room is stil clean even if my desk is a mess. We are about to hit a super busy time with rehearsals for the Christmas parade starting up soon. The parade is the beginning of December so it's all over in about 4-5 weeks. The boy won't be dancing this year. He has a birthday party for the first rehearsal and he really needs to be there. If you miss one rehearsal, you can't participate. I'm not sure what that means for the day of the parade since hubby and I both walk while the kids dance and ride the float. Maybe he can ride the float. We'll see what happens. Is it break time yet?

We are reading...I have to rerequest a couple of books. I had to turn them in before I got the chance to read them. That stinks! One of them I really wanted to read, but didn't even open it. We had to turn in our after dinner book. We got 10 chapters in, darnit! It was a one week loan because it's a new book. I requested it under all of our library cards so hopefully we'll get to finish it. I am about to read "Guilty Wives". I say that, but then there's that whole time thing. When is that going to happen? I'll get to it, I'll get to it.

I didn't make 7, but I made a few. Good thing I'm stopping, though. It's time for breakfast. Then we school, school, school. I think I may take a reading break. Or a nap.

Have a great day.

   

Lessons Learned

I got a new computer!! You cannot even begin to understand how happy I am. I got a laptop so I can take it with if I need to. It has been a search, that's for sure. Hubby and I have become research people. Before we would just get what we wanted and if it broke, oh well, get another. Not anymore. I finally got what I wanted. The keys feel great under my fingers, they're spaced right, and it's easy to navigate. Love it!! But that's not what this blog is about. When I got the computer home and got it set up all I could think about was how I couldn't wait to blog. So, here I go.

This has been a school year. We aren't even half way through and I am tired. I'm not tired of homeschooling. I'm just tired. Come the end of the day it's all I can do to not pass out on the couch at 7 pm. Some nights we aren't even home at 7 and I still want to sleep. I have to admit I fell asleep at piano lessons the other day. I was sitting on my friend's couch, and there I went. Good grief, I hope I didn't snore. The big girl and her friend were standing right next to me talking. That didn't stop me. The baby had about 15 minutes left and my body decided to take advantage of it.

I used to lesson plan for months at a time. I planned from the beginning of school until Christmas break. Why? Because I was a lunatic. It was also much easier then. I was only schooling 2 kids. The baby was still a toddler and played in her room or colored while she sat at the table with us. The curriculum was easy to plan. 2 pages a day in every subject. Just follow the book. We also didn't have as many activities as we have now. We only had 2 dance classes, park day, and church. We were done schooling by 11, 12 at the latest most days. Oh, how things change. Now when I lesson plan, I plan 2-3 weeks at the most, but not more than that. Things change in this house too quickly for that. Now we're at 7 dance classes, park day, piano, veggie co-op, church, field trips, girls club, book club, Pokemon club, and I know I left something out, but I have no idea what that would be. I fill out our schedule before I even start planning. I had to get a copy of my menu planning paper and fill it out with activities and what subjects we would do on what days so the load would be school light on activity heavy days and school heavy on activity light days. It takes me at least an hour to lesson plan.

One reason for the time consumption is the curriculum we are using. The big girl is using A Beka for everything but bible. I used to despise that curriculum. It was boring and dry and not for us. Amazing what you'll use when it's free. I have to say, though, it is not what it used to be. It is engaging and detailed and the big girl likes it. The hardest part is the detailed part. There is so much information. I do have the lesson plans that came with each subject, but they are made for school. We aren't school. We don't have homework. All of our work is homework. I mostly follow the lesson plan, but there are some things I have to change. You should see the chapter review in geography. It would take the big girl at least 2 hours to complete. In school, that would be class time, then homework. We don't have that kind of time. I broke it up over 3 days, then test day 4. We are 5 day a week schoolers now. We only do math and bible on the 5th day, but anything that didn't get finished has to be done on Friday. If not, that means Saturday school for whoever didn't finish. Yuck!! Nobody wants to do that. They do sometimes, but nobody wants to.

I sit with everyone for almost every subject. Bible we do together. The boy and the baby have history and science together, so that gets knocked out pretty quickly. Then I sit with everyone, one at a time, and we go over math. When math is done, it's time for language arts. The baby is using Rod and Staff for grammar. Oh, how I wish we would have used this so much earlier! I cannot say enough great things about Rod and Staff!! Since the baby hasn't really done alot of grammar, she likes when I sit with her. The boy and the big girl are doing literature based studies this year. I have found that if I don't sit with them and talk about the story or go over the questions, things don't stick in the brain like spaghetti to the wall. And I need to add grammar to the mix for the boy. Ok, fine. Then there's geography and science with the big girl. I know that she's smart enough to do the work on her own, and she does. We do the reading together. I do try to assign just the reading part to her on busy days and then the question parts on not so busy days. Most of the time, that works.

We still have to get chores done. Saturday has become errand day and Sunday has become chore day. The exception is those chores that have to get done every day. Feed and water the chickens, gather eggs, and unload the dishwasher get done every day. Every couple of days, someone needs to get a load of laundry in there. Whoever does their laundry then has to get it folded and put away. Lunch is important. We break every day for chores and lunch, which takes about an hour to an hour and a half. Some days work goes with us when we go to activities. It either gets done in the van or at the activity.

 One reason we gave up science co-op was because I felt like I had to shove a week's worth of info into an hour I didn't really have to shove it into. I had to make sure they were familiar with the info and they were ready for co-op day. It was too much. Now I feel like I have some control. I can spread the information over a week. We can take our time and get it done. I know that the big girl understands hers and the boy understands his. I don't have the pressure. We don't have to make that a priority unless it has to be. If there's something that's more pressing we can focus on that. It's like the weight of the world. Well, at least I feel like one world is lifted off me.           

By the end of the day, I am exhausted. My brain is mushy. Poor hubby thinks I've forgotten who he is. I really haven't. I'm just tired. We were talking about it tonight. School is a priority for us. Gone are the easy days of done by noon and sleep til 3. Not that I ever got to nap that long, but still. The big girl is a 9th grader. It is very important to us that she do well with her school work. I have cut out all I can for her. It's as light as it can be. The boy is now in middle school. His work isn't going to get any easier from here on out, either. The baby is asking for more work and she's about to get it. BUT, it's work that she can do independently. I like that. She's going to start some critical thinking activities and handwriting. All I need to do is grade it. Yea!

I am already planning curriculum for next year. I wish it was something that I could do over the summer. No it isn't. Who am I kidding? I have an addiction to curriculum. I enjoy the lesson planning. It's like a puzzle. It keeps my brain moving. That's why I like loading the dishwasher. How much can I get shoved in there without overloading it? Crazy, I know. But, what did you expect? It's me. I have some guidelines for high school I have to sort of follow, but I still have lots of leeway for the boy and the baby right now. And really, this is just a stage of life we're in right now. It won't be this way forever and I am embracing every second I can. I may gripe about it, but I'm hanging on for dear life.

Have a great day.

Bees Knees

I don't know if bees have knees or not. I know the saying is supposed to mean that something is really great. I think my blog is great, but that's just me. I just had to use a bee reference, though. You'll see why in a minute. Ready for the journey?

• We are taking a field trip to our local enough zoo to take a beekeeping class. We aren't going to keep bees, but it would be great to know what makes them tick and how do we attract more of them to our garden. I'd also like to find out what the beekeeper's views are about hive collapse. I think it's pesticides. Poison is supposed to kill things so why not bees. And the larger the colony the better chance of spreading it to the rest of the bees. That isn't why we're going, either. We're going because we like honey and we think it's way cool. We have to wear long sleeve shirts and long pants, they supply the helmets. That's gonna bee a funny pic. I made a funny. In honor of our field trip, we are going to forgo most of our schoolwork and do a bee lap book and unit study. We are still going to do bible and math, but how fun. I checked out a bunch of books from the library. The baby has read all but 1. Guess who's going to teach the bee unit study? Not really. I even checked out a Magic School Bus movie just for fun. 
• Speaking of watching movies, we watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for our family movie night. I haven't seen that movie in probably 30 years. The kids and I had listened to it as a book on CD. It was completely different from the book, but we all enjoyed it. Hubby had only seen parts of it. We were singing the CCBB song all night. It's very catchy! I had no idea Roald Dahl had written the screenplay. We heart Roald Dahl. I am waiting for Mary Poppins to come in. I also haven't seen that one in years. My kids haven't seen it at all that I know of. I am a bad mama. It's in transit, so hopefully we'll get to pick it up come Monday or Tuesday. 
• We did a pretty good cleaning of the house before my dad and step mom came to visit. Believe it or not, except for the kitchen, which is the hub of our home, everything has basically stayed that way. If I can keep ahead of the hand washing, my island stays clear. I've even mopped a couple of times since they left. That, in and of itself, is tantamount to a miracle. The baby's room, however, may be the downfall. That poor room. 
• I make our own broths. One of my favorites to make is veggie. I keep a gallon size baggie in the fridge in the crisper drawer. When it's about 1/2 full, I make stock. I save the peels from my garlic press, the ends I cut off the onions, potato and carrot peels, zucchini ends I cut off, and spinach leaves and stems. I also save some of the cabbage leaves I pull off the plants in the tower. I normally make it in the crock pot, but I changed my mind last time. I pulled our big stock pot out from under the cabinet and made it on the stove top. I let it cook for a few hours. I like it much better. My house smelled amazing! It smelled like veggie soup, only better. I used it to make brown rice and a couple of other things. It was so good. That has now become the way I prefer to make veggie stock. 
• We had our first ever tailgate party at youth tonight. It went very well I think. There was some last minute stress that required us taking our little table top grill, but it was all good. We had grilled hot doge, brats, and hamburgers. We also did chicken wings, but we baked those since the grill was small. We had a pretty good turnout. 
• We are looking for some trick or treating options. We normally trick or treat at my in-laws with the rest of the family, but that is not happening this year. My MIL said she cancelled it. Funny since I'm not sure anyone will be there this year anyway. I already have a bead on some fall festivals we're planning on and some trunk or treats planned. We aren't keeping the candy we get this year. Our dentist has a program where you can turn in your candy for chances to win prizes. I wonder what the prizes will be this year. We're hoping for a Kindle Fire, but we'll see.   
• I am trying to be grateful for the loaner computer. I really am. When I have to print, I get extremely frustrated. There are only 2 USB drives that work. I have 3 things to plug in usually: my mouse, my flash drive and the printer. The process is mouse and flash drive, click what I need to print, unplug mouse and plug in printer, after printing unplug printer and plug mouse back in. Pain in my butt! But, we have a computer, we have a computer, WE HAVE A COMPUTER. Sorry, I didn't mean to yell. I think I was trying to convince myself. Gift horse, gift horse, gift horse...
• I have to write everything down or I'll forget. You have to email me, text me, or social network me. I use the notes feature on my phone like it's going out of style. If I can set an alarm to remind me as well, then bully. I have lost my mind. Wait, I think I already knew that. Let me check my notes.

And there's my alarm. Well, not really, but I did mark stuff off my list. Now to fill it up again.

Have a great day.