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Labels: Wordless Wednesday

I Heart Faces Photography Challenge: Dramatic Black & White



this was taken with my iphone, not perfect, but a pretty good shot, her face said "drama" to me!


I Heart Faces hosts a weekly photo challenge, this is my very first entry. Click on over to see many talented/creative/interesting entries. Pick up your camera next week and join up!

Labels: family, memes

Early Sunday Morning (3 A.M.) we were awoken by a very serious barking doodle. She sleeps in the master bedroom, so yes, we were suddenly very wide awake. (groan)

Let me shorten this and say that we had a series of getting up, checking the house, calming the labradoodle and coaxing her back to her bed. And then we'd do it all over again.

Best way for a dog to freak its person?

Stand in the middle of the house growling at nothing. Just stare. Look at the ceiling. Growl, stare.

I don't believe in ghosts...but a chill ran up my spine!

At 4 A.M. we went through this whole scene yet again, but this time she ran outside barking. So, I had to follow, because the neighbors are friendly and I want to keep it that way.

I expected to find an opossum on the fence, but...nothing.

Then I saw it, a ghostly white opossum face looking down from the patio. Mystery solved.
He was probably walking on our roof the last hour. Meany marsupial.

I said security system or dog.

I got Emma the wonder-labradoodle: *Head of house security.

*see Hank the Cowdog for this reference!

Labels: Emma-doodle dog

Sundays mean links to fun/interesting/special things I've found around the internet.
Here are this week's offerings:

Art for Homeschool Art Show, fun and easy event your homeschooled kids can enter.

Duke Farms live Eagle Nest cam, -almost as cute as Molly the owl. Okay, as cute! (hat-tip to Monica @ Educating Magpies via twitter)

teacher eats and reports on school lunches- undercover here: Fed up with school lunch

When 1 +1 =1 at Prairie Lily Arts, it'll make your heart feel big. She has a way with words.

Gardening with kids is an exciting thing. So much to look forward to, so much to plan, so much dirt!

Gardening with my children is a journey of optimistical planning. Here begins the planning and hopeful visions of a fruitful harvest.

A lesson on sowing now and reaping later; on planning, care and steadfastness.



Here are the lessons lived out for us, before our very eyes;

"Slow and Steady finishes the race" -Aesop's fable

and

"Behold, the sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell beside the way, and the birds came and devoured it. And other seed fell on the rocky place, where it did not have much earth, and immediately it sprang up because it had not depth of earth." -Mark 4:2-5

and this living lesson-picture:

"Catch the foxes for us, The little foxes, That ruin the vineyards While our vineyards are in blossom." -Song of Songs 2:15

a lesson to my children to be aware of the peculiarities, habits, and introspections (teen angst, anyone??) - the little foxes, that ruin the bright living out of Christ in the Churches and in ourselves.

why here's one of those little foxes, er- hens- now...looking for a way back into the garden...

Favorite gardening with children books at our house:

• Learn and Play In the Garden by Meg Herd
• DK First Garden Activity book
• Linnea's Almanac by Cristina Bjork

How about you, are you planning a garden this year?

Labels: devotional, family, garden

Labels: Wordless Wednesday

FOR TODAY

Outside my window... a beautiful, spring day. The new fencing around the garden has gone up, seedlings are sprouting, the world is green!

I am thinking... about the laundry I need to start, and wondering what I should make for dinner.

I am thankful for... uplifting, encouraging music to brighten my day.

From the learning rooms... book work finished for the day, our last lesson was a read aloud of The City Mouse and Country Mouse- Teddy, Amie and Demi then drew a picture from the story and wrote a short narration.

From the kitchen...a pile of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, yum!

I am wearing...jeans and a t-shirt

I am creating...blog posts, and a letter template for tomorrow's creative writing for the 3 littles- a letter written from City Mouse to Country Mouse.

I am going... to the store for dinner fixins, to the library to pay a fine (darn!) and to Irish Dance with Meg (she is the dancer, I wait...)

I am reading...The trouble with Boys and Balancing Acts

I am hoping... that the laundry will magically get itself done..!

I am hearing...the kids are all watching an animal show on discovery channel

Around the house...things are a mess from the school day, need to do a clean up.

One of my favorite things...the blooming wisteria bush in the backyard, it is beautiful and smells heavenly.

A few plans for the rest of the week: P.E. test for Josie tomorrow, art tomorrow. Wednesday is also BLT bagel day, yay!!

A thought to share..

"Sacred cows make the best hamburger." - Mark Twain

Here is picture -thought I am sharing...



The Simple Woman's Daybook is a weekly meme, hosted *here

Labels: daybook

I've tried many different scheduling approaches for our homeschool planning. After more than 10 years homeschooling, I haven't found a system that sticks. Some have worked well for a year, or a month... but then the look of our school day changes, and my schedule falls by the wayside.

The chalkboard of ultimate power sprung from the clever whiteboard system used at our Classical homeschool group. I realized I was onto something possibly brilliant in execution...and so I asked sky to put up a chalkboard wall for me.

I chose a spot in the room we do most of our school work...the dining room area. Sky simply painted this wall with chalkboard paint.

I write out the flow for our day for my 3 youngest students, so they can see what comes next and what is left to do.

I have a running list of things I need to do. Here's the brilliant part....I erase as they are done.

If it's still on the board, I still need to do it.

It's my board, no one else is allowed to write on it. Ha!


There you have it, homeschool planning/scheduling for the Bridget Jones homeschool mom.

Labels: home design, homeschool, homeschool planning, Jen's world, school year 09

The Home crew will have a short lesson on atoms tomorrow;




*A Host of daffodil crafts over at The Crafty Crow! Is it Spring where you are?

*For my fellow Blog moms, Beware of Adsense, just something you might not be aware of, I was not.

*Owl live cam, go over to watch Molly the Owl, she is sitting on a clutch of eggs, one hatched today. You will be mesmerized, so will your kids!

Have a great week, bloggy friends!

Labels: Emma-doodle dog, Jen's world

St. Patrick is thought to have lived around 385-460 A.D. His father was a Roman government official. His family's name was Succat. When Patrick was 16, he was kidnapped and carried away to northern Ireland and sold as a slave. He lived the hard life of a shepherd-slave on the slopes of Slemish mountain in what is now Ulster.

*Click here to read more

Happy St. Patrick's day!

Labels: devotional, Ireland

Labels: Wordless Wednesday

Amie and Demi are playing on a beginner's hockey team. The first several games, we had fits of random, spontaneous falling. Meg and Josie began keeping count for each team. Completely for scientific statistical reasons, of course...



Amie is on the frequent falling mileage roster...I have many pics like this


here's a player on the ground, not Amie



just to be equal opportunity- here is a kid on the other team.



But, we come back once again, to classic Amie-pose...

Homeschool = fall school some days

will she have a complex from mommy laughing behind the camera the whole game??

Labels: family

Young beginner readers enjoy and benefit from playing word games. Through word games, your learning-to-read student will learn to recognize common sight words, and get phonics practice- all this while having fun, too. Here is one we had fun with last week:

Sight-word bingo is available in 3 different difficulty levels. You can find it at
Lakeshore learning. Teddy's special education tutor recommended this game to us.

It's bingo you remember, but with words. I was surprised to discover that not only my young beginner readers had fun with this game, but the 7th and 9th graders also, plus mom enjoyed several rounds of this.

In fact, as I type this post, Demi-Sky is playing this with one of the Bible college boys.

The kids really had a good time, we had several days with several games running back-to-back. I kept score of wins among the 3 littles..and ultimately the winner on Friday had the privilege of choosing a treat for everyone.

The choice was shamrock shakes..our first of the season! The game is playable with only two players also, just put the word cards in a bowl, face down and pick.

another example of homeschool = playschool
:)

*this is an unsolicited review, sharing what we live with my bloggy friends...

Labels: homeschool, reviews

* from nannygoat; Birthday Banner redo- redo one of those commercial-looking Birthday banners, easy idea..I can do easy!

*Choosing Rejection over at Prairie Lily Arts, beautiful post about sharing faith

*These faces by Mckmamma. She just returned from a trip to Kenya with Compassion International, these are her thoughts after returning home.

*The Casual Blogger Conference- are you going?

7 Quick Takes Friday is hosted over at Conversion Diary.

Labels: Jen's world

Yesterday, as I was getting ready for the day- I felt the need to stretch my legs a bit. Just a bit.

Then I moved into natarajasana- dancer's pose. My muscles remembered. My body was happy, "here is what I need!" my body seemed to sigh out.

As my arms stretched above my head, I thought about how as adults, having our arms stretched out, above our heads- is something we almost never experience. How very sad for us.

It felt good, stretching my muscles, my tendons, opening my heart, waking up my sleepy mind.

I slipped into the pose as deeply as I remembered, though it's been a year since I've practiced. I don't know what that says about my practice before..eek!

"Yoga practice is like life
Each circumstance in which we find ourselves is like a pose.
Some poses are hard to hold, others are pleasant.
It is how we hold the pose that determines whether or not we will suffer or grow
And whether or not we will listen to the drama of the ego or the wisdom of the spirit."

My yoga mat called, it misses me...

Labels: Jen's world, yoga

Seems a spate of bad haircuts has hit the neighborhood. Two different moms, two sad results.

Labels: Wordless Wednesday

We read about the vikings in A Child's History of the World. We then took paint to paper and followed the Vikings adventures, starting with the Viking homelands.

This is Amie's Viking settlements map.

We read more about Viking villages and Viking ship building methods in
the Usborne Book of World History. I had the kids draw a picture from the reading, and then write a narration about what they learned.

Window on the World is another Sonlight 2 book. I love this book. It's colorful, full of interesting facts, and outlines the role of Christianity in each country and gives the students points to pray for. This book is big on cultivating a heart for missions.

It helps my boys to have something to do during the read alouds. Here is a flag coloring page I found online.

My Sonlight history notes suggested we go outside and measure out a viking ship.

80 feet by 16 feet. I had no idea. Fascinating.

This is a glimpse into our history/geography studies last week. Thanks for visiting:)

Labels: school year 09, sonlight

Links for Sunday! :)

• Is this what I look like from behind? from Mother Bird

...Then I thought about the grown man that he will someday......do I want him to see discomfort, and know immediately what to do?

I really loved this post, click over- you will enjoy your visit there.

• This from Amy's Humble Musings-

I always get morbidly introspective near my birthday. When I turned 33 last year, I got nervous because Jesus went to the cross at 33-years-old, but my own faith won’t even let me ride in an airplane without breaking into cold sweat. Clearly, I am not where I need to be.

...I’m probably the only person with enough brains to brag about my arrogance and then congratulate myself afterword for repenting of it.

I know that there is grace for people like that, too. There is a seat at the King’s table. There is forgiveness. There is hope, and it’s all because of God’s faithfulness to do what He said He’d do as we confess and believe. Help our unbelief.

to read the whole post go here *Mephibosheth, the dirty dog

• Over at Quirkymama, Making pancake letters: let your preschooler cook breakfast!

I think older kids would have fun with this, too.

• Finally; drum-roll please...The perfect accessory for your ipad....the imaxi. really, go see! Look, it has wings! I'm still laughing....

Labels: family

7 Quick takes is hosted over at Conversion Diary.

Labels: Jen's world

The winner for the Steady Days giveaway is comment #6, kamidthun at frontiernet.net

Congratulations!

Thank you everyone for playing!

The latest Carnival of Homeschooling-Oddities Edition is up over at Homeschool Buzz.com
carnivals are a fun way to learn more about a subject, and to find new blog reads.

hop on over!

Labels: Carnivals, homeschool

Last week, the Home crew grew crystals from borax soap. Borax soap-as in laundry detergent, just check the laundry aisle...it's a powder. This project was instigated through our Classical Conversations group, I am a tutor this year for master's class. I admit, if I didn't have to do this for the class, I most likely would not have done this cool project. I spend most of my time working to get our basic school work done, special projects get left by the wayside, unfortunately. But, I'm here to tell you...

*This one was fun! *Didn't take much preparation!

*Didn't need many ingredients! *Wasn't messy!

Each time I pull off a neat project, I am inspired to do more with my kids- I hope this inspires you to do the same!I chose to use Borax powder instead of sugar to make rock candy, because I had heard and read mixed results with the success of getting the sugar to grow. (and then I cheated and just bought rock candy!! The sugary final product to eat is the point, really now-admit it)

I found the directions by googling on the internet. Here is roughly what we did:

Supplies

• jar
• boiling water
• pipe cleaners cut into small pieces, we then twisted them into star shapes
• string and a stick to tie them to
• borax powder (3 tablespoons per cup of hot water, I used 2 cups of water in my jar)

procedure

Prepare your pipe cleaners and string first, make sure they will hang in the jar without touching the bottom, yet will hang low enough for the 2 cups of water to cover them.

Boil your water. Once boiling, measure out 2 cups and pour into jar. Parent needs to do this.

Next, stir in borax 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring to dissolve. This part is fun for the kids.
After the borax is all in, put in your stars and then set the jar somewhere where it will not be disturbed. Check daily to see crystal growth.

I made lab sheets on Word, typing in the name of the project on the top, with the directions to draw what they observed.

I made a second comprehension sheet that listed the experiment, the hypothesis, and our procedure. Then, I typed in a short paragraph describing what occurred and why- the Science behind the project, leaving blanks for key-word like "crystal", "dissolve" "salt" "cube-shaped", "molecule", "saturation" and the kids filled these in as we discussed the why.


Easy-peasy.

fun

beautiful

educational

try it!

Labels: classical Conversations, homeschool, school year 09, science

Labels: Wordless Wednesday

It's time for a giveaway! I am giving away the book,
Steady Days by Jamie C. Martin.

this is a lovely book, comprised of short, manageable chapters that help you approach motherhood in a more intentional, professional manner. Mostly, she'll help you plan and give you a vision for flexible structure in your family's day- the aim being steady routines and rhythms for your child's day.
The appendix has several helpful worksheets for managing daily life with children.

This book is practical and inspirational. I liked the practical part! I do think this book was aimed at families with young children, for moms with Kindergarten children and younger, this will be a perfect fit.

So, if you are a mom with young children, enter to win...or if you know a mom with young children, enter to win and give her this book...

here's how to win;

• you must be in the continental United States
• leave a comment
• make sure your comment links back to where I can find you, or leave your email in your comment so I can contact you if you win.
• winner will be chosen sometime Thursday night...because I am anything if not exact..! (contest will close at 8 p.m pacific time Thursday) *extended to 10pm pacific time!
  
• good luck!