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 Wow, we really had a nice turnout for the LEarning Never Stops Photo Challenge this week.  I really had a hard time choosing only two winners, there were some really wonderful photos out there!

Here are the two winners- I just went with my gut reaction this time, the two photos that made me exclaim out-loud when I saw them...

 1)  Scripted Heart


the simple composition is stunning on this, as is the lighting.  Wonderful!  I love the lone leaf there...


2)  Sunflower Schoolhouse




Honey asked for our thoughts on this photo, which neither she or her husband took- they just found it among other shots taken that day.  My first reaction when I looked at it, was that to me, it looked like angel wings.  What do you see?  Honey, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it...

Thank you everyone for playing this week!  I hope you can join us this Saturday when the challenge theme will be - "cropped"

Labels: Lens, Lens winners

Welcome to the LEarning Never Stops Photo Challenge. 

The theme today is - Your best shot.  Give us your best recent shot.  Linky closes 10 pm pacific time, Monday.  (giving extra time because I was late getting the challenge up)

Labels: Lens

Labels: Emma-doodle dog, family

Winners for the LEarning Never Stops photo challenge- Home edition are:

  1)  Janet Rose



this is a view of her grandparent's farm, it says "Home" to her.  Lovely, lovely photo.  I love the sunset colors, and I love the reflection in the water.


this is her Nate the great.  This photo looks so comfy, so  home-ish.  Wonderful!!

thank you for participating, I hope you will join us next week when the challenge is-


Give us your best recent photo.

Labels: Lens, Lens winners

Labels: Wordless Wednesday

Labels: devotional, homeschool, Jen's world

Welcome to the LEarning Never Stops Photo Challenge- Home edition.

Please link to your photo entry, not your main blog page.  Please visit around a bit... :)  Linky will close 10 P.M. pacific time, Sunday.  2 winners will be chosen and displayed Tuesday night.

Can't wait to see what says "home" to you :)

Labels: Lens

Labels: Wordless Wednesday

 We had so many great entries this week, it was so hard to choose!

Here are the winners for
the LEarning Never Stops Photo Challenge- Capture the Ordinary edition:

1) Ten Kid and a Dog



this is a beautiful shot, I love the softness and light on the subjects, and the sepia is wonderful!


2) Life in Between the Lines



with several youngsters in the house, scenes like this are sure to be ordinary! :)

Thank you every one for participating!  I hope you can join us on Saturday when the theme will be -Home.

Labels: Lens, Lens winners

 As a child, I looked forward to the time when day turned to night- and we set out in that magical gloaming hour when the light faded and the owls stirred. We would walk the quiet road, looking upward to the sky-

I'm writing today over at Smartly Orange County, click over to read the rest :)
Owl Moon

Labels: guest posts

Simple lavender salve from Delighting in the days- she makes it look so simple!  I love lavender, I think I will have to try this.

Pumpkin waffles, and other great and easy pumpkin desserts over at Deals to Meals  

Plan to Eat  meal planning, grocery lists, recipe sharing and more.  Oh my, I must have been under a rock to not know about this.  As an extremely planning-challenged mom..this could either be helpful to me, or a waste of space...thinking about giving it a try...

Have a great week, bloggy friends!

Welcome to this week's LEarning Never Stops Photo Challenge :)

The theme this week is "Capture the Ordinary".  I thought we'd take a break from a specific challenge, and ask for a photo that captured an ordinary moment in your homeschool, family or life.  One of those moments you are so thankful to savor, but that is not marked by anything out of the ordinary, one of those moments that make up the wonderfulness of family life.

Linky will close 10pm pacific time Sunday.  2 winners will be displayed on Tuesday night.

Labels: Lens

This is the season we are gently nudged to slow down and center our days around home and family.  In the midst of our very busy modern-day lives, Fall is the pause..the fermata in the symphony that is my family life...

I'm writing today at The M.O.B. Society - Thankful for the Pause , click over to read the rest.

Labels: guest posts

Labels: Wordless Wednesday

You know when you have a day when everything seems to come together, everything seems to run smoothly, you get where you need to be with no rush?  Today was like that.

I've not had many days like that in several months.  It felt really good.  The key, I have to admit, was getting up really early and getting ready to hit the day at a good clip.  Sky is a firm believer in this, but me- non morning person that I am- find it hard to believe.

Meg had her outside science and composition/Lit class...Teddy's tutor came for an hour and a half...Did some descent homeschooling before/during and after the tutor's session... picked up Meg, did the lunch thing, broke out HP 7 to re-read before the movie opens...took the kids to the library, violin shop and then to the yogurt shop for a treat...checked out a martial arts place nearby.  It was a really, good-productive and yet mellow day.

Oh, how I need more of these!

I hope you had a good day, too, internet-friends!

Labels: being mom, homeschool, Jen's world

1) Mary from Homeschool Success! 

She shared photos from a wonderful post about Math lessons at her house.  I loved the point of view of this shot, how close in she got to the manipulatives and the bright colors.

This week's challenge only had two entries- however, the other entry was not a photo, but a video clip, so it could not be chosen as a winner.  I will give a shout-out, however, to Arithmetic Village and the really cute clip of King David reading a lesson.  :)

I hope you can join us next weekend, the theme will be: Capture the ordinary

see you Saturday!

Labels: Lens, Lens winners

 It's Sunday! Here is some awesomeness I've noticed around the internet: Enjoy :)

• The Homeschool Blog Awards voting has begun over at The Homeschool Post. Click over to vote for your favorite homeschool blogs, and to find new reads.  That part is my favorite, finding new blogs to read... 

•  Finger-painted leaves craft- from U Create with kids blog: I love, love fall crafts- here is an easy one you can do with preschoolers, I might try it with my older kids

• Nikon My Picture Town.  Free 2GB of photo and movie storage every month, or upgrade to 20GB a month for $2.99 -for those of us with no real backup of our precious photos...uh, yeah, I keep thinking I need to do something about that-besides every few months putting everything on a cd...this looks incredible, and easy. I'll report back once I try it out. (you can keep me accountable to stop thinking about it and actually doing it...)

• The Room Fairy- cute way to get the kids to clean their room :)

• What happens when a magazine decides the whole internet is copyright free...

The World's Dumbest Editor Incurs the Wrath of the Internet   for more, here is also
Swiper, no swiping! Stealing sucks  and for the original post by the author whose content was stolen, go here- Copy infringement and me

I am blogging this, and have tweeted these other posts, because I strongly believe that bloggers need to defend their ownership of their creative content- which is, indeed protected by copyright laws, even if published online.  We are all in danger of having our work stolen, if bloggers and magazines get away with such theft.

Welcome to the Living Math edition of the LEarning Never Stops Photo Challenge!

{in this photo Amie and friends are playing with wedgits, a multi-dimensional building toy, geometric shapes and spacial awareness/problem solving..I love these!} We use a Math Program, Math-U-See at our house, but Math happens outside of our workbooks through toys, games, online games such as Timez Attack, cooking and building things with Sky. 
*What does learning look like at your house?


Linky closes at 10pm Sunday night, Pacific time.  Winners will be announced/displayed on Tuesday night.

try to visit around! :)

Can't wait to see how you live Math at your house!

Labels: Lens

Labels: giving

Sifted and weighed...I have too many days of feeling like that...

 Wednesdays are my 'light' days, because Teddy is not at my house...I don't want to do anything big that he would get behind on, so I usually do some basic schooling such as Math, handwriting, reading- but stuff like History, Science, Vocabulary, read alouds get put off till another day.  Because Wednesdays are my light days, I like to think of them as 'catch up' days or errand days- but lately, it seems like my Wednesdays have come out all wonky.

Today I had big plans of cleaning, catch up, laundry and some homeschool planning.  Our learning record meeting is coming up next week- I need to sit down and make sure we've finished everything, all areas of learning have been covered, etc.

Well, first off- I am chronically anemic..and I'm also forgetful and a bit stubborn, so I don't take my iron pills until I'm feeling really bad.  This past week or two, I've fallen asleep while waiting in my car at various lessons- a sign that I am pretty anemic.  The anemia headaches kicked in on Monday.  Wednesday I woke up to a pounding headache, took tylenol and then a sudafed in case it was my sinuses, not anemia.  Went for my walk, felt dizzy and nauseous, so cut the walk short and went home. -crawled into bed. Slept it off, got up, did the breakfast/shower thing...

Had this realization: it is now 11 o'clock.  Half my day is wasted.

Did some laundry, some Math with the kids, tried to straighten the house a bit.
Tried.
Around 4 pm I had to lay down again.  It was lay down or eat large amounts of chocolate and diet coke to wake me up.  I picked the nap.  Woke up, success! -headache was finally gone!  Now it was dinner time.


I don't often share days like this here, because frankly, I figure no one wants to read whining day after day on a blog...and also because I dread the possibility of being linked to some message board where people are bashing homeschoolers and my horrible day(s) being held up as an example of bad parenting.  But, I do have days like this, more than I care to display...I thought I'd share the ugly, in case there is another mom feeling as much of a failure as I often do.  I know, and believe with my whole heart that the Lord's burden is indeed light...and that he will guide us to the heights, valleys and even pit-stops we need to travel, if only we will open our hearts to his leading.

I will close my eyes tonight on a day that was failed, offering up my weak, temperamental heart.

Today, I remained.  Sometimes that is all I can do.

Tomorrow I will open my eyes, and look to My Father's eye- to see that which I ought to do.
My heart knows it is enough. 

Amen.

Labels: being mom, devotional, homeschool

Labels: giving

 Here are the winners of
the LEarning Never Stops Photo Challenge- Comfort edition:


1) Janet Rose



It's just a big cup of comfort, don't you think?  I love this shot, how close up it is. Wonderful!


2)  Say What?


Doesn't he look ultra comfy?  We have a painting in our house, titled "Master's Bedroom" by Andrew Wyeth, this photo made me think of it.  I think our pets are masters at getting comfy. :)

Thank you to everyone who participated, I hope you can join up for the next challenge, on Saturday. The theme is "living math"

Labels: Lens, Lens winners

Labels: giving