Grids and maps!

Eric came in last night, with his glasses, and only one lens! AAAAAAAAAAAaargh!
I went on trampoline, and I could see, so I jumped off tramp, took off my glasses and put them in G's shoe(a whole nother story..ugh). I put them on and walked around the porch and noticed I couldn't see. The lens was gone!! I think it went under the porch.


So today we graphed out the back porch patio...

They all numbered the slats of wood. Each child did a row to make for easier mapping. (oh yeah, remember this is not just look for the missing lens, but school)
Chalk put to work~38 rows!Once the numbers were all in order, we then took some wood to draw straight lines to bring in cubes to help us. They were labeled by the alphabet. A thru K. We labeled them at top, half way and at the bottom.So now began the methodical search under the porch. The each were given a quadrant and had to go back and forth and up and down in order. To make it more exciting they had to map out and log the things they found under the porch. To name a few: tiny screw driver, numerous barbie shoes, nerf bullets, hair tyes, plastic knives and a lot of coins. They had to have another verify that the find was in the grid area, then log and label it on the grid map.Here is a view of the grid, and each circle is a find from one of the kids(labeled with initial and number) and the side is the list of items found and the location on grid. The blue squares are the pillars to the porch cover or pergola.
Well, we didn't find the lens. But we had a blast. The neighborhood kids all came over and they joined in trying to find the lens, and I smiled so hard as they explained the grid and how it worked.
This is homeschooling at its finest!

It's my birthday! the big 46!

One of my dear friends over at the homeschool lounge gave me this cake(picture) no fat, no guilt..

I hope your day has you smiling like mine has me!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

I am already smiling! I turn 46 today!!

my dear hubby!

we went to get some crab...well to put the crab trap down a few times and come back.
Eric and Tony had been discussing earlier who was faster and if Dad could win a foot race...the walk to the pier had a big parking lot. There is a boat launch there, so the trucks could park there while the folks were out fishing. There was only us and two paramedics there. The paramedics were measuring for some exercises and training they were doing the next day.
Tony told Eric, come on lets race. The girls joined in also....Yeah, I had my camera, and put it on video...
here it is:


Luckily the paramedics were right there, as the abrasions were on both knees, one hand and one elbow. Bit of pain for the day, ripped pants and wounded pride. No tears, just toughed it out for some giggles around the campfire that evening.

Sunsets in the Pacific

I am addicted to sunsets. Perhaps due to living in New Mexico for so many years and seeing so many different and spectacular sunsets!?!
There is something about watching the sun sink into the Pacific Ocean that just brings happiness and almost awe to me.
We drove a few minutes from the bay to the Pacific. I took this picture...it was so clear and bright...looked like a professional pic to me! ha haMy kids had never been there, and I don't know why...lol, we have been to the bay so many times. They were also transfixed by the power of the Pacific.
Although Lewis & Clark didn't come here on their trip, they did see the Pacific a few hundrend miles north of us in Oregon/Washington. We are studying them and the kids were in awe.This is a sheer cliff off here, and it made me so nervous to have them stand here!
The next few pics are standing on the cliff watching the sun go down. The whole sky becomes so beautiful.

homeschool happens everywhere!

We spent the day at Bodega Bay (West Side Park), with my parents, and the kids were everywhere. We were there on Thursday, due to a bad storm coming in on Friday. I think we were there about 10 minutes and a man putting his boat in the water yelled out to my kids, "How come you guys arn't in school?" We are homeschooled came my oldest reply..."Well, that's not fair." was his response. Not fair....lol, not fair to be out and about on a Thursday! Ah what a life this homeschool!
I am a very blessed lady, as my love for learning was given to me from my parents. Gabriel was wading in the bay...(oh yeah, it was cold, but him and the girls were in) and he picked up a closed clam shell. He loved the shell, I told him if he took it he had to eat it. He was all okay, lets do it.
Back to my parents RV site, where my dad the most awesomess Grandpa, put on some water and helped Gabriel learn about clams.


My parents are RV host for the park and live there most of the year. They have beautiful site that looks out on the bay. Grandpa got the pot out and begin to simmer the clam. He explained that if the clam was already dead...the shell would not pop open. If it was dead then eating it was out of the question.

It simmered and G watched closely. This was such a cool thing!
The bam! It opened. Grandpa took it out added some butter and salt.....

Gman took it with glee, and he tried it! It wasn't something he want again he said. But that shell is now all cleaned in bleach and every time he looks at it...he will remember learning!

Stay tuned for more pics of our trip!

Home from Coast...

The weather was beautiful and the food was even bettekits, it puts a smile on my face. This is her new one: Black Tie Event. Now I'm not a real black tie event goer to! (bad bad grammar), I opened the kit a bit nervous...r!! I will post some pictures on my other blog later today!!
I had a few layouts I did with some new kits from the wonderful ladies I CT for...first is a real excitement, because it is for Christine aka Pressed Petals. Every time I am honored to do a layout with her oh how I fell in love with the greens! We went on a field trip with the local homeschool group, and learned so much about olives! I was happy to be able to do a layout with new photos!
This morning I opened my email to find this beautiful blinkie for Pressed Petals! It's official! She is a bonifide designer!

I also had one more layout, just fun things, Lyndsay Ritchie over at Scrap Orchard. She has a collab with Wild Dandelions called...Sweet Sugar Holidays. Lyndsay always has the most coordinated kits....full of fun elements and her papers are just a joy to play with!

Our Christmas tree is very eclectic and usually has so many candy canes it is to the point of ridiculous! ha ha...was fun to scrap old pictures...from Christmas past.

De Schooling is Real!

Stop thinking schoolishly. Stop acting teacherishly. Stop talking about learning as though it's separate from life. ~ Sandra Dodd.

I have been uhm overwhelmed with organizing and not getting the actual work moving...the kids are doing school work, but it seemed without a goal, or end point, just knee deep in mud!
Last week, I broke. My emotions won, guilt won, fear won and I was a quivering mass of jello, huddled in a corner. Trust me, it was not a pretty sight!
I had called my trusty IRL friend and had a good ol' laugh about homeschooling~we exchanged, "I don't knows" and I still was very anxious. There are some ladies over at the home school lounge that brought up a word...that as soon as one dear lady said it...my head clicked and my heart and brain went together and things started to make sense. The word: deschooling. Deschooling is the process during which children who had previously been in public or private school need time to decompress, to shake off the schoolish notions that have surrounded them and find their footing in the freedom that homeschooling affords them. Think astronauts reentering the earth's atmosphere. Same thing, different situation.

now~hold on to this word...let it sink in, because my kids needed it, but more so, I needed it! I have all my years and their years all rolled up together in the public school system. This has revolutionized my walk in homeschooling
So, the kids really had all summer to deschool, but I put them smack dab back into public school, but they were sitting in my dining room!
Last Wednesday, I did not get dressed (well, until church), the kids played...I mean played outside ALL day, I even took away chores for the day! ha ha
I cried, boo hoo'd, prayed and regrouped my brain.
I am beyond excited about the outcome:
I had boxed up the science and history curriculum, it is gone
Shurley English, although it has what I need, it is too school room/teachery for me. Gone!
The hold to this schedule - Gone
I also put Saxon on the shelf, not gone, but it's over for now. We were spending hours each day and I had yelled at my youngest til her eyes welled with tears. Not my finest moment. It broke me!
I found in my journeys and googling a woman named Carolyn Morrison, the Guilt Free Homeschooler. This woman has been in the trenches and is winning, and I want to be just like her, but different as all homeschoolers should be. I am never going to be you and vice versa, we take and choose different thoughts, ideas and plans to fit our family and situations.
The holes in my children's education were like bullet holes to my heart to add more guilt and push us back in my highly scheduled and goal related system.
Reading the numereous encouraging blogs taught me to take these holes as badges of honor, like I was a detective almost, and had found another area that needed to be fixed and or strengthened. I am not going backwards I am building a firm foundation that will help produce the confidence and knowledge in my children to press on to other areas.
I also initiated a workbox/folder system...kinda in the working out process, but as the new curriculum trickles in, I will take some pics and give you a glimpse, and the bumps and snags in it will work out a bit!

NO learning, it's a HOLIDAY

Homeschooling! I sit here on Veteran's Day, and we announced last night, late bedtimes and no alarms, no school today. I am not teaching anything...ha ha I am in my robe, on my second cauldron of coffee and enjoying just playing.

I can't help it, I teach all the time;

1. This morning, Anna and I made egg sandwich with bagels, yummy and fun!
2. Eric and I had a discussion about the sentencing of a man who shot a neighbor two times, hid the body and said his gun misfired (twice). He was sentenced to 15 to life! He is 68years old.
3. Gabriel is on my computer playing zoo tycoon trying to figure out the animal habitat of African animals
4. Abby is hot on the trail in Carmen San Diego...where in the USA? and the little idioms they use, she has asked me 3 of their meanings.
You can have an official holiday on the calender, but it doesn't stop the learning.
See, even I am learning!

Monday and lagging....

Cold came in a whooosh! I am happy we had one gas/electric bill without a/c or heater being turn on! That is huge!
I didn't want to get out of bed this morning...just lazy, lazy, lazy. I knew I had to go grocery shopping and that is enough to cause me to not want to get up! I pushed myself...kinda...growling around the house, shuffling around in robe and slippers...not a pretty sight! ha ha
My kids disappeared (something they have learned when mom is shuffling and growling) and I went outside and the tree trimmer men are doing the tree next door, cutting and grinding it down....a homeschooling moment! They watched and I tried to remember where I put my grocery list!
We finally (list in hand) were off to Walmart...after pledge and bible! Got it done, unloaded and put away. I was beat..the kids were now dragging. So they ate lunch and did math.
blinker blinker
we are looking at Math U See, watched the on-line video last night and the manipulatives look like they will work for us! me included! haha
My dear hubby just took them all, boys need their hairs cut in a bad way...as Gabriel can put his in a pony tail!
I am updating this and then I am going to go take a nap!

Challenges and Free Template!

I have been busy with Creative Victorian Designs! Netta has become a friend whose work I admire and her work ethics are just above and beyond.
I am honored to let you in on a freebie kit from CVD via The Daily Scrapper.
Netta is the featured designer this month, for their 20th edition! You get 1/2 the kit now and the other 1/2 in two weeks. I recommend signing up for their newsletter to remember! I will post here too...but it's a good newsletter!
The kit is Feline Splendor, and I did this fun layout of my Feline; Lady Fluffy Pants!
Creative Victorians Shoppe is full to the brim with a lovely kit that Netta did for me!! Indian Rapture! It is East Indian..with the brightest colors..I have only done one layout so far, but I know I will use the kit again and again. This is my goofy girls in the water last MARCH...yes it was cold, yes it was freezing, yes they are weirdo's! Then just when I though I was gonna have a break from this one woman kit producing maniac! ha ha...She pops this one; Hunter out! I had an out and out blast layering the elements...a big thank you to Misty Cato for the freebie alpha...


And the challenges are out for November over at Creative Victorian also! I made this template for ya'll. Please, please, download and enjoy, but would so love to see what you made with it...upload it to Creative Victorian Gallery and join us in the challenge.
Go here for the template.
I hope everyone is enjoying life.

Science in our house!

Home schooling is evolving, Eric is now teaching science. So much less stress, well at least for now!
We officially boxed up our science and history curriculum..it was all fill in the blank, then score, and test, and retest. We spent too much time getting the answer right but not knowing why or who this person was or did! I boxed it up.
We are now doing hands on science and reading of books (thank you Charlotte Mason) in the unit studies of American History. Right now we are in colonial time and merging into the westward expansion. We are reading the American diary series outloud; the boys do the boys and the twins read the girls. It is really neat, as their voices bring it alive. The enjoy it. I am then reading out loud the Magic Tree house Revolutionary War book...very quick read. It all goes together.
We made butter last week, (way cool) and had baked beans and cornbread to relive the food of colonial times.
Yesterday we all did the Oregon Trail cd game together...we caulked our wagons and crossed many rivers, climbed steep hills using proper gear, and sadly buried 2 of our party. It was a great way to learn the path.

I am hoping I can add these videos.

I hope it worked...I have another one...but this took forever to upload and process?

November flies it..............whoosh..........

I am running around crazy and had to just sit and get it all together~my blog is a good way for me to piece my scrap life together~what I have done, and what needs to be done(which the list is bigger, but getting smaller quicker)

What's done:
As you know I am CTing (albeit without an official blinkie) for Alamama's Pressed Petals over at Scrap Matters. She has the most hilarious kit...well, it was for me. It is called 1st&Parkway, it is a city kit, but the colors make it versatile for just everyday things, Like Abby and her show and tell presentation.

But also in the kit is the awesome signal light that I had to scrap my dad getting caught in the red light camera's here in our town! I hope you laugh like I did:

Big News: I am creating for a new designer! Ruby Rynne aka French Ruby; who is actually Irish and lives in France. Ruby caught my attention due to her quick wit and intelligence with the language in explaining the digi world happenings...(some in the dark inner workings of digiland! ha ha)
I love her designs and am wanting to try ATC's~this is my first attempt: Abby doing school work, like a bird set free to learn and see all you can see!
I took a million pics of my kids last night with their hilarious costumes!

A bride, a scarecrow, a domino, and a homeless waif! I used Ruby's kit again and put one of her papers over the whole thing and made it an overlay for a cool sepia orangy look.



One of the perks of Ruby being at SBG, is the collabs! Oh my! I did two heritage layouts with their November Mega Kit; Impressions of Tradition. They are from the pictures I scan this past spring from my mom! I love to look at them, especially my aunts, as I can see myself and my mom in their faces.

I have a few things cooking! Challenges over at Creative Victorian, new layouts with a beautiful new kit made by request for me by dear Netta, Indian Rapture...stay tuned for this all tomorrow (I hope) lol