Wordless Wednesday...



Mom's night...in

   A friend and I were talking the other day about getting together with friends more. We both have had a very long year and have missed having time to spend with friends. So we have decided to start making time to spend with friends. Since we can't always get out without kids or have the extra money to spend on a night on the town we came up with a few ideas to try.

I know how hard it is for moms to get out and spend time with their friends as much as we'd like so I thought I'd share some of our ideas. Yes, some are just silly ideas but it would be time spent with friends.

• Recipe Swap- Each person makes a favorite dish, side, or desert to share. Copy the recipe down onto a 3x5 note card for each of the friends. Everyone gets to enjoy something new and take home the recipe.
• Dollar Store Goodie Bag- Each person has a limit of $10 (spent at the dollar store) to put together 1 or 2 fun little goodie bags. Get together for drinks or games and everyone gets a goodie bag to take home.
• Book Swap- Everyone brings a few books they are done with to swap with the others. This could also be done with kids books or other household items.
• Game Night- Simple pot luck dinner and games. Kids love this too, just have some kids games available as well.
• Mom's Sappy Movie and Ice Cream Night- Obviously a sappy movie and ice cream for the mom's. Pj's are a must!
• Take a Hike Mom- Everyone meet up somewhere to take a day hike. No kids! Just mom's, sunshine, and lots of water. Oh and of course a camera!
• Mom's Spa Night-  Many have done this but make it what you want. Either get together and just spend the evening pampering yourself with friends, or each person puts together a spa goodie bag (set a dollar limit) and every swaps the goodie bags to take home and enjoy.
• Homemade Christmas-  I know many of my friends enjoy making Christmas gifts for their kids and families each year. Everyone can get together and work on their own project, or everyone can decide on one project and work together.
• Clothing Swap-  I know most women have tons of clothes that are just sitting in the closet gathering dust. So why not get all those clothes you have no need for and let your friends rummage through them all. If you sew, you can get quite creative as a group and put together some great Halloween Costumes or dress up clothes for the kids.

What do you think?
Any of those ideas something you and your friends would try?
What ideas would you put on your list?

Summer Fun Bucket List

                       
The kids and I have decided to put together a Summer Bucket List. We often have great ideas of things we want to do or places we want to go see, but we seem to forget all those wonderful ideas when we actually have the time and ability to go do something. So we decided to get a head start this summer.

This is our summer bucket list. Many on our list are typical summer activities, others are some fun creative ideas the kids came up with.

Have you made your Summer Fun Bucket List yet?


                          

• pool time
• playtime at the park
• bike rides
• lots of walks
• nature hikes
• camping
• play in sprinklers
• picnics -at parks or in the mountains
• art day at the art museum
• craft day with friends
• trip to local splash park
• costume party (kids love having Halloween parties throughout the year)
• day at the county fair
• spy party (the boys came up with this one)
• dinosaur party
• build bird houses
• pajama dance party
• movie and pizza night
• trip to the zoo
• field day with friends (just like last day of school)
• art walk (walk through downtown, taking in the sights and drawing what interests the kids)
• cooking day
• museum of nature and science
• dinosaur museum
• fossil beds (local attraction)
• dinosaur dig day (boys want to go dig for dino bones)
• family game/movie nights
• go to the movies
• trip to the ice cream shop
• roller skating
• ice skating
• and pool time (kids said this one many, many times)

I think that was most of them.

So far the kids are excited about the list. We are trying to go ahead and put some activities that we can on the calendar. I do much better if something is actually scheduled on the calendar. I'm not sure if we will get to everything or not this summer, but we are really going to try.

What ideas would you put on your summer fun bucket list?

Reading in their own time...

   
 As a homeschooling mom one of the most memorable moments is when your child reads their first words. With three children I have now experienced that three times, and it is awesome each time and with each child. I have to say it runs a close second to their first words or first steps. Yet, it's almost more, well for me anyway. As one who loves to read and one who has spent way too much time hiding in a corner, staying up all night, or locked in a room to read, that when my children learn to read I feel like the world has just opened its doors to the them. I have always felt that once a child learns to read, there is no limit to what they can learn, and I have made sure to tell them that as well.

     Yesterday, Little Man, my youngest read his first words! We have been working on letters and letter sounds for awhile now, but not very often and not near as much as I did with my other two. With Lady Bug and Wild Thing I had a set plan and schedule and we followed the phonics and reading curriculum to the letter. But with Little Man, I have taken more of an unschooling approach to his learning so far. I never planned to unschool, but this last year has been so far from what we planned and expected that much of the year was spent just trying to get by day by day and keeping up what school work we could, when we could.

     I will say I was a bit surprised yesterday when Little Man read not only his first words but 15 words in total. He was working on writing a few letters and practicing their sounds and we ended up putting a few of those letters together on our board and that was all it took. He just took off.

    Watching him read each new word and beam with pride and joy was wonderful. He was so happy and excited that by the last word he was smiling a huge smile and bouncing up and down. We celebrated with lots of hugs, kisses, and high fives! He told me he was so happy he was reading.

    Today was even better. Little Man wanted to read his words again so we wrote them each on a 3x5 card and he practiced reading each word. After he read most of the words he turned to me and he said, "Mama, I'm reading! I'm really reading! I'm so happy I want to cry. People cry when they are really happy. Do you know that?" He then jumped up in my lap and gave me the biggest hug and I was surprised to see he really did have tears in his eyes. I knew he was excited but I never imagined learning to read was so special to him at this age. (he just turned 5)

     I am beyond thrilled for him and happy that he too is excited about reading. I think that much of the excitement for him is because he has never been pushed to read. I have not made him sit down and do school work. I have asked and only when he wanted did we do typical school work. Otherwise we have read lots of books, played games, and answered any questions he had.  He will ask me many times a day what sound different letters make, what letter starts a specific word, or how something is spelled. And he is often rattling off words that rhyme or start with the same letter. Between all this learning that was not forced but of his own interest and my not pushing him, he has been able to learn naturally.


   So once again, I have been reminded how blessed I am to homeschool my kids and spend each day with them.

Fridays Fave Five...or 6...

1) Progress! With the medical struggles in our family this last year it's a great thing to finally see some progress. We still have a long way to go but progress of any kind is quite welcome.


2) Spring Break! Yes, homeschoolers take spring break too. Well, we do anyway. Except that we are taking two weeks off instead of one. That wasn't the plan but with so many things going on and trips to the Children's Hospital each week it has been necessary.

This spring break we were able to take a trip with a few other homeschool families to visit the Al Kaly Mule Team here in town. The kids enjoyed the trip and we all learned quite a bit.

3) Great Friends!   We enjoyed an overnight stay with a dear friend of mine. Having to take trips to the Children's Hospital has it's rewards when we get to spend time with our close friends.

Along with spending two days our friends, the kids have had quite a bit of time with friends this week. (Thank you public school spring break) Having good friends with kids nearby is such a blessing for us all.

4) New Adventures!   Because I don't have enough to keep myself busy, (ha ha) I have decided to start up our homeschool play group again. I let it go two years ago because I didn't have time to plan and keep up another project. But now, since I have so much free time, I am getting the group up and running again.

We had our first play date this week and it turned out great. We just met at a nearby park and let the kids play for a few hours. The kids had a great time and the mom's enjoyed the time outside talking.

5) Cute Visitors!   We had a little visitor this week. A very cute one! A neighbor has a bad habit of not keeping track of this cute little girl. We have found and returned her a few times, but I have thoughts about keeping her if the family doesn't keep track of her better!

The kids begged to keep her!

They all had a blast with the little puppy for the time that we had her. They even named her, Missy.

The cat wasn't so sure he liked the little puppy. Though, I'm sure he knew he was big enough to eat the little dog if she got out of hand.

6) Blessings for Friends!   A dear friend has been going through a very difficult time the last 8 months and finally it looks as though things are finally turning around. These major life changes are beginning to fall into the right places for her and her kiddos. God has taken good care of them.


Quote of the Week:  

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
― Mahatma Gandhi


Bible Verse of the Week:

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own." -Matthew 6:34

Wordless Wednesday...

The view from up here...



In Our Life This Week:

 Well lately, in this family, it just doesn't seem normal to have a week without someone getting sick.

Wild Thing spent a good part of the week on the couch. He is the one who really seems to catch anything and everything going around. And in the last few months it's been worse. He has asthma already so every cold he gets hits him harder than it does the other kids. But now, since we have finally found out what else is going on, it's looks as though his already weaker immune system may have an even harder time.

 

Hubby and Little Man have decided that they felt left out so they are now spending the day resting on the couch and being taken care of. My hope is that my daughter Lady Bug and I can keep from catching their cold.

Wish us luck!

Next Up In Our Week:

 This coming week we will get to drive (and hour and a half) up to the Children's Hospital to get some more guidance with some of my daughters health issues. I do wish it wasn't such a long drive. Especially since the appointment is so early in the morning. But on the bright side it does mean we will get to visit and spend some time with my dearest friend and her family while we are there. 

We met another homeschool family last week, through a friend of ours, who has two daughters Mariah's age. When we all spent the afternoon together the girls really hit it off so we are going to have another "play date" this coming week.

What I Am Thankful For This Week:

 I am thankful that, even though we have been trying to deal with not just health issues of one child we are now dealing with health issues of two children, we have family and friends who are being supportive. I am also thankful that we have found some great doctors and counselors to work with.

Being that we have had such an odd schedule for the last few months, I am so thankful we made the choice to homeschool years ago. Never did I imagine that our choice to homeschool would be something so helpful when it came to the kids health. It has been nice knowing that when our schedule of dr appts or errands takes up much of the day, the kids are not falling behind. Why? Because we homeschool on our schedule, not someone else's schedule.

In Our Homeschool This Week:

 As I mentioned we do school on our schedule. So this week we took advantage of the that while Wild Thing was not feeling well. Instead of all the "regular" lessons we took it easy and enjoyed making our first set of Lap Books. Little Man enjoyed helping make his Grocery Trip Lap Book. It's a great way to learn about one subject and have something to show or look back to later on.

Wild Thing was very excited to start his Dinosaur Lap Book. He is very interested in dinosaurs right now...again. He even asked me to read,  Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton to him. I tried to explain that it's not a kids book and that it may be difficult to understand but he insisted. So far we are 4 or 5 chapters into the book and Wild Thing loves it! Just goes to show what mom knows!

Lady Bug started a Lap Book on The Magician's Nephew, the first book in the Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis. She was not very happy  when I suggested the Narnia books be her next set of reading for school, but now that she has started into them, she is really enjoying them.

Projects We Are Working On:

  We have started going through the kids' clothes. Lady Bug's clothes are first, because they take the longest! I have been blessed with a few great friends who have handed down their daughters' clothes. It has been often enough that I have not had to buy much in the way of clothes for her. It has also been very helpful that many of the clothes have been various sizes so for years now we have always had a large box or two of clothes waiting for her to fit into.

The boys on the other hand have a good amount of clothing, but nothing ever lasts very long. And now Wild Thing is so rough on his clothes and shoes that at this point there is not much left to hand down to Little Man. But we still end up with Grandparents finding great deals on clothes and I have good luck with the thrift stores.

Snap Shots of our Week:

**ELittle Man, cuddling with Buddy! ** Lady Bug, spending the day resting! ** Daddy, Wild Thing, and Buddy all enjoying cuddle time! ** Lady Bug and Little Man had a sleepover and when I checked on them they were asleep holding hands! So precious!

**Lady Bug working on the cover of her Narnia Lap Book! **Wild Thing's Dinosaur Lap Book Cover. He is so proud of his book so far! **Wild Thing and Daddy started building a model of the Titanic. **Lady Bug's science experience. Salt and water. It made an awesome circular salt crystal. **Wild Thing went bowling for the first time with his cub scout troop. His first turn he bowled a strike.

**Little Man's Grocery Trip Lap Book. Everything opens and shows pictures or holds paper money or game pieces. I even found two old books, that were mine as a child, to read to Little Man. They were perfect for this little unit study for him. My favorite was the last page one book when it said the best part was buying penny candy!

Favorite Quotes For The Week:



“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

― Anne Frank

“We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be.”

― May Sarton

**Now, hours later, I am finally posting this!

I started writing hours ago but with kids, lunch, sick hubby, dog and the cat, it has taken all day to get this post written. Sheesh! You'd think a mom could have a few minutes on peace on the computer.

Oh well, in some 15 years or so I may have time to myself. Until then I guess I'll just...absolutely love being mom!  (ignore any typo's, I am done!)