Teen in the House?

      I officially have a teenager in my home now. My daughter turned 13 on Oct. 19th. I just can't hardly believe it. It seems like only yesterday when I recieved her in to this world. She was a beautiful bundle of joy that lit up my life. Time is traveling too fast for me. She is growing up entirely too quick.

      Anyway, let me get on with the rest of this post before I get all teary eyed thinking about my baby growing up. We feel like a child's 13th birthday is a special time in life so we wanted to make her's special for her. We had her a huge party. She chose all of the decorations, ordered them off line, sent out her own invitations, decorated the way she wanted, and decided to make her own cake. There were lots of guests & plenty of food for them all. She went with a horse theme. Here are some pics of preparation & the party.

Sarah's using her cake decorating kit that someone gave her. This was her first cake to decorate and she would not let us help her. We didn't know if she could handle this task by herself, but she had a lot of determination.

Getting closer to finishing her work of art as she runs a bead of icing around the bottom of the cake.

Everything finished but the "HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH" theme which she decided to let her aunt (a cake decorator) put the theme on the river for her.

My daugther is growing taller than me. We are at the end of the big "13th birthday" party blowout and I'm tired!

The HMJ/Weekly Wrap Up

     In Our Life For the Past Two Weeks: Last week we had to go take S. A. T. tests so after that we did not do any schooling. The weather was beautiful so we enjoyed our back yard.

     This week the weather has been beautiful and we would have loved to have spent the week again out doors, but I figured we might better do our duties and work on our school work so out side time came after school. Other than the norm of every day life, not anything spectacular has happened.

     In Our Home Schooling: We began Module 8 in our Apologia: Exploring Creation With Physical Science. This is the second Module about weather. Before last week when the weather was so beautiful my children have had a lot of time to study the clouds and the weather around them because it was raining every day, or every other day. There's not any thing like first hand experience to educate. They even had the opportunity to see a tornado coming down from a cloud. Thank goodness it went back up in to the clouds. They were riding with my mother-in-law when they saw it. When they returned to where their daddy & I was we got our ears full of the excitement of weather.

     Math has become fun in my house. We have finally made it to the day when math is not like pulling teeth around here. We are learning so many different things in our Saxon 8/7 math, but Ratio & Proportion has become by far my children's favorite types of problems. Thanks to the pnemonic, "Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally," they are having no problem with the order of opperations in the Algebraic expressions.

     Literature/English/Art has been great for my son. We are reading the book "Johnny Tremain." After we finish our reading each day they paint a picture about some part of the reading. Then, they have to write a paragraph about the picture/days reading. At first my son was having a problem with letting his writing be a bit choppy. We would have to sit down, read each sentence, & add/change the words to make his writing flow smoothly. The past three or four paragraphs he has done completely by himself. He is also doing a superb job with putting a topic sentence & drawing his paragraph to a close. Everything has an even flow from beginning to end. I'm seeing improvement in his writing skills.

     For history we read the book "Our Constitution: I Know America" by Linda C. Johnson. This book is small, but informational. It does a great job of breaking the Bill of Rights down on a very low level so that they are easily understood.

     My daughter had sewing lessons this week. She has been wanting to make a quilt from a small quilt top that she had acquired. My mother-in-law quilts, so she has been giving lessons to my daughter on a small quilt square before she starts her quilt top. I'm not sure who is more excited, my daughter or my mother-in-law that my daughter is wanting to learn to quilt. Here's a few pics of the sewing lessons:

     My daughter has decided that she likes quilting much more better than crocheting. It only took her one lesson to determine this.

     What I'm Thankful for This Week: that my children came through their S. A. T. tests with confidence. They were not intimidated by them.

     What we are cooking this week: southern food, collard greens with corn bread, pork steak, corn casserole, lima beans,red beans & rice with CONECUH sausage, bacon egg & cheese sandwiches for breakfast, & of course a bit of fast food style, pizza & french fries.

     I think that will about give you a peak at our home schooling. I'm linking up with the HMJ & the Weekly Wrap Up. Drop over to these links to enjoy some more great blogs. You will be encouraged.

Weekly Wrap UP

     In Our Life This Week: We/the children have had a blast. We had cousins over from Friday until Tuesday evening. The cousins were out of Public school Mon. & Tues. & thought it was time to come spend some time with us. A lot of basketball was played, along with jumping on the the trampoline, to just getting out in nature. All of them enjoyed each other's company.

     We also still have the puppy. My nephew is suppose to pick him up tomorrow. I think we might miss the little fellow.

Here are a few pics of the children having a great time:

     I managed to get to my lesson plans on Wednesday. That means two days will be pushed forward because we only schooled three days this week. Well, I say that two days will get pushed forward, actually, my children have done some of the work off of those two days, just not all of it.

     Our Schooling for the Week: Saxon 8/7, three lessons this week, yea. We also pretended like we went shopping at the store (even though it was just in our pantry/freezer) to reinforce what we were learning in our math book, Unit Price, Rate, & Sales Tax. Here's a couple of pics of our pretend shopping trip.

 

     I gave each child a certain amount of money to purchase their items with. My daughter was surprised when she reached the register and was $ 3.67 short of what she needed to pay for her items.
It was rather funny. She just went to the pantry and began to grab, not figuring. I told her that is why you always figure your bill BEFORE you go to the register. She immediately decided the dogs would not eat this week, or at least not dog food, so she returned the dog food back to the shelf so she would have enough of money. Lesson learned, learning to figure Unit Prices, Rates, & Sales Taxes in our math is something I will need in life.

     Apologia: Exploring Creation With Physical Science: We began Module 7, Factors That Affect Earth's Weather. We began the weather experiment & will be doing our observation of the weather for the next four weeks. Also, we watched some weather videos. I'll put a link to the web site in case any of you need a site that has lots of videos to use for school. It has videos for all subjects.

     History: still reading The Summer of 1787, wondering if we may toss it. Had good reviews given to us on this book, but we just can't seem to get into this book. We are about to be on chapter 6 & still just haven't took a liking to it. Usually, by the time we are this far in a book we are captivated or at least interested enough to talk about it & discuss it. But not much talk has been going on about it. We are finishing up If You Were There When They Signed the Constitution by Elizabeth Levy today.
English/Literature: Yea! we did English this week. The children wrote their book reports on Little Men. We have decided that our next Literature selection will be Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes. This is a book that we wanted to read so we decided that we would read it while we are studying the Constitution so we would be along the same time frame.

     Helpful Home School Tip/Resource: the link where we have been watching videos from, http://www.watchknowlearn.org/ There are a few videos that we have clicked on that would request payment, but many, many, many that we have enjoyed are free. Videos for all subjects. Check it out if you like integrating videos in with your schooling. I'm talking a few thousand videos.

What I'm Reading: rereading Things We Wish We'd Known by Diana Waring.

     My Most Favorite Thing This Week: watching my children battle out a debate in our Science over when the northern hemisphere is at its Aphelion point or Perihelion point. This was my favorite thing because remember my daughter has not been a Science fan until this year. After the debate, I would say she's on the Science wagon now. Even though one of them was wrong, I am proud of both of them because of the way they both were trying to prove their points.

     I think this about wraps up our week. I'm linking up with the HMJ & the Weekly Wrap UP..
If you'd like to read about some more great weeks, drop over to one of them & visit some more great blogs.

Our Week Wrapped UP

In My Life This Week:
    I have had a great time getting ready for the holidays. Thanksgiving is gone now & I have just a few more things to get ready for Christmas. By Tuesday evening I am hoping to have my tree up, the lights on the house, & all of the presents wrapped. We'll see how much is accomplished Tuesday night.

In Our Home School This Week:
    We did not have any planned lessons this week We always take off the week of Thanksgiving. We like to do lots of cooking, free reading, relaxing before the holidays kick in & keep us on the go. So other than a lot of hands on in the kitchen reading recipes, using measurements, or picking up a great book or playing a game we haven't done a lot of formal schooling.

What I cooked This Week:
    We started off the week baking amish bread. It was delicious! My son baked Apple Cinnamon Raisin nut bread while my daughter chose to bake Banana nut with chocolate chips in it. For the last batch they put butterscotch morsels, along with some chocolate chips, & white chocolate morsels. It was good, but very rich.

    For Thanksgiving I cooked a corn casserole, a chicken casserole, 2 pecan pies, 2 peanut butter pies, & a German chocolate cheese cake. The cheese cake was a new recipe, but turned out great. We are adding the recipe to our family recipe files.

Places We Are Going, People We Are Seeing:
    We went to Nanny & Pa Pa's house & got to see lots of aunts, uncles, & cousins. It was such a joy to see some of them beings that most years we only get to see some of them once a year at Christmas. For some reason (which I'm thankful for) lots of the family decided to get together for Thanksgiving.
Went shopping for Black Friday & had a blast! My mother, my 2 sisters, one of my aunts, my hubby, & I went to the Tanger Outlet (a huge shopping place similar to a mall) & hit as many sales as we could, tiresome, but fun.
    My hubby & I started quite a bit earlier than the others as we wanted to get something for our children that was a door buster. So, we started in the middle of the night (not exactly middle, about 8:00p.m. to wait in line, what we won't do for our children, he he he) & met the others at Tanger Outlet around 6:30 a.m. the next morning. We did not get home until about 4:30 in the evening.

I'm Thankful For:
    All the fabulous deals I found on my shopping trip. We really got some great deals on clothing, which my children desperately need (they are growing tooooo fast).
    I'm also thankful I have a husband that gives so much to our family, especially his time. He is so devoted to us & things that we desire, not things we need, but things we desire, you know the things that we don't have to have, but he still goes that extra mile to see that we get them. I'm so thankful for the man that God blessed me with.
    I think this about sums up our week. Hope everyone else had a marvelous week as we did.
To read about some more great weeks drop over & visit Weird Unsocialized for the Weekly Wrap UP & visit The Home School Chick for the Home School Mother's Journal. I'm sure you will be blessed & encouraged from the post you will read.

On Another Note:
    For my Christmas book give away I only have one commenter. It's not going to be very hard to pull a name out of the pot with only one. If you are interested in this drawing please click on this link & leave a comment. I will be selecting the winner ON Monday, November 28, 2011.

Getting Ready For Thanksgiving

Today has been a wonderful day. I have been doing some of my cooking for tomorrow while my hubby & son have just been enjoying some computer time. My DD is gone to herAunt Conny's for the night. She along with my niece Miranda are staying the night over there to help her cook. This has become a family tradition for about three years now. The nieces go to Aunt Conny's to help cook Thanksgiving dinner. That gives my sister quality time with her nieces.
I have gotten my Pecan Pies, Peanutbutter Pies, & German Chocolate Cheese cake ready for tomorrow. In the morning I will get up & cook a Corn Casserole & a Chicken Casserole before leaving to go to my Mom & Dad's.
I am looking forward to tomorrow. Usually it is just my mom, dad, & their children/grand children on Thanksgiving. Well, tomorrow some of my mom's brothers & stister, along with some of their children are coming. How fun!
SupposeI'd better be turning in for the night. Hope all of you have the most blessed Thanksgiving imagined. God bless you all.
Don't forget my give away if you are interested in entering. Scroll down and leave a comment on that post.

Happy Birthday To My Little Lady

     Today is my Sweety Girl's birthday. She is 12 years old. I remember the day I had her. The joy was so great I thought I could never experience that kind of joy ever again (then my little man came along & I felt that same joy). Time sure is flying by. In six short years she'll be a young woman. That scares me. If I had only known how quick the time would pass I would have held her & squeezed her so much more than I did.

"I love you Little Lady."

     She chose her birthday supper today & she chose Velveta Nacho Skillet Dinner & Cauliflower with cheese sauce steamed in butter. We surprised her with Peanutbutter Pie (killed my weight loss).
     Here's a quick shot of brother presenting the Peanutbutter pie.

     Other than me eating more than I should have that about summarizes our birthday event. May God bless my Little Lady with many more happy birthdays to come.

Recipe For Peanutbutter Pie
  (Quick & easy)

2 no bake graham cracker pie shells
1 8oz. package cream cheese
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup crunchy peanutbutter (have made it with creamy)
1 16oz. whip cream
2 tablespoons vanilla

    Cream powdered sugar & cream cheese together, add peanutbutter & cream again, add vanilla & whip cream & do the final creaming (would probably work creaming all ingredients at once, just never tried it because recipe does them like I listed it.) Pour mixture in pie shells & chill in freezer for about 45 minutes., serve, Mmm good!

 Put back in freezer if all is not eaten, will freeze really good after sitting over night (the way we like it best).
Traci 

Light, But Productive

      This week was a light week for us. The weather has been so nice I haven't been able to bring myself back to the books completely.
     In our English/Grammar this week we worked on writing Narratives. They quickly made a draft/outline of some facts about one of the things we did while we were out camping. After collecting their facts they wrote their Narrative. They only wrote one. We have narrated in the past so I knew they could handle that lesson with not any problem.
     Three lessons were accomplished in our Saxon 8/7 math this week. If I could only get then to pick up on their speed math would be a breeze. They have been acing every lesson.
     We started reading the Little House books at the beginning of the year for our Library read aloud. We are currently reading On The Banks Of Plum Creek. Even my DS is enjoying these books. He loved Farmer Boy. I so can't wait until they get to The Long Winter. That was my favorite when I read the series.
     After finishing up Where the Red Fern Grows, we started reading Pilgrim's Process. We are working our way through it slowly, talking about the journey that is taking place. I want my children to really grasp what is happening to Pilgrim on his journey. I'm trying to point out the encounters to them to make sure that they are paying attention & capturing the meaning of the story. Here's the only pic that we took this week. They were reading & dad snapped the pic.

     A bit of Home EC. skills were put in to practice this week as my DS helped me cook Chili for supper one night and my DD helped me cook a Key-lime pie another. We are squeezing in cooking skills all along our homeschool journey. I told them I'm expecting to have some great cooks when they get older, he he he.

     Other than a coupon trip outing & a bit of house work I think that about sums up our week. If you'd like to read more about other's week hop on over to Kris's blog & check out their Weekly Wrap-Ups. Everyone have a wonderful week!

Camping for Schooling

      Hey, guys, we are having loads of fun, just not enough time for me to get everything on my blog. Two weeks of weekly wrap up are in the making, just haven't had time to post. But, we are having fun.
Here's a few picts of us while we are camping.

This area were I snapped the pictures was very high up over the wide beach. Up top was three pavillions, bathrooms, showers, laundry, snack machines, playground and many picnic tables. You can sit at the tables and easily watch your children play or swim in the water.

Theres a volley ball net on this end of the beach. The creek keeps winding its way back into the woods for several miles, great for canoeing! That's a hovercraft that was being tested while we were there.

Me blogging! My children are off swimming, riding bikes, rock hunting or hiking somewhere around here everyday.

Looks like Matthew and Sarah are panning for gold. They were looking for rocks on the bottom of the creek.



Me with my cellphone attached to my face! Notice behind me all the modern conviences of home.

Sarah's helping me cook bacon and pancakes for breakfast.


     Oh, I had forgotten how great Smores tasted! M--m--m, we made them around our camp fire the first night & they have been a hit each night since. Mama has looked forward to that each night. OOPS, did I say that? The children are suppose to be enjoying those aren't they.
     We met another homeschooling family here. How awesome that was! That's twice we have gone camping in September and made friends with other homeschoolers. We met the first family about 4 years ago & have kept in touch, sending little gifts back & forth to the children. They have been some great friends.
     Well, my computer time is up so more later. Happy homeschooling this week!

What's Cooking/Happening Around Our House

     Summer is official at our house now. We grilled for the first time this summer. You all know that's what folks in Alabama like to do during the summer. You'd think it's so hot down south we'd not want to get outside and stand by a hot grill, but there's just something about having a grill going with all those nice aromas floating in the air, Ah...
     We've had a wonderful evening of family time. Dad fired up the grill and we cooked out. The food was great, but the fellowship together was marvelous. I would not trade anything for my days with my family. Now I'm not trying to paint a picture perfect family that's as sweet as a comb of icecream because every day is not like that. But, we are family and love spending time together.

     As for our schooling for the summer, we don't have a schedule. At the present moment my children are researching the Statue of Liberty, just collecting a bit of information from the internet and putting together a short report. They turned their report in today so tonight they'll probably get out their models of the Statue of Liberty I had found and start working on them. They are the neatest little kits and I found them at a local store for only $ 2.00 each. The kit is like a model car kit, really cute.

     We are also still reading our book Tiger, Tiger about Julius Caesar, and our Hank the Cowdog book about the tornado. We are just taking our time and enjoying the summer. We have two other books we are dabbing in about the human body and one about horses. See, I told you we don't have a schedule this summer. We're just catching the breeze and letting it carry us from one study to another. We'll pick back up in August with a schedule. Until then, we'll just fly in and out different studies. Hope all of you are having a great summer.

Weekly Wrap-Up

 



    Here's a brief look at what we've been doing this week. Our official school year is over, but we never stop schooling. We take breaks from time to time, but even then someone finds something for us to dab into and that turns into schooling.
    We are reading a family read aloud at the present moment. It is, " The Case of the Swirling Killer Tornado" by John R. Erickson. It's #25 in the Hank the Cowdog series. Time to time we try to pull in just a fun read aloud so I figured sense we have been studying about tornadoes this would be a cute read aloud that would bring some family laughter. It has done just that. Due to this part of our read aloud time it sure is making my getting fit a hard task.   

    Dad and the children decided to work on some woodwork this week. Here are a few pic's of their handy work in progress.

Dad teaching children woodworking & saw safety.

Dad teaching children how to make their Roman projects as part of the Ancient Rome Study.

Sarahs dressed up as Julius Caesar (looks serious)

Matthew said, "I looked so mean that I scared myself."

Matthew's homemade short sword (these swords are made of wood & are NOT SHARP)

Sarah's homemade sword.(we are going to paint the blades silver to add the finishing touches)

　
    Of course, if you've been reading my blog this week, you've already seen the Home Ec. pics of my DS's fabulous strawberry pie. He and his sister did a great job helping me with supper one night this week. (You all know I'm from the south now, I said supper and not dinner, he he he.)
    Be sure to see Kris at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers and checkout her Weekly Wrap-Up: The One Where My Baby Turned 16. I'm sure you will enjoy Kris's blog as I did and you will find great homeschooling ideas and a good friend that understands homeschooling life.
    Other than walking and bicycling I think this about wraps up our week. We've enjoyed quality family time this week, just being with each other.

Little Chef's Delight!

Mmm, good!

 

　

   Strawberry pie, I wonder how well this will balance out on my scales this week.
   My son made strawberry pie for our dessert (Oh yeah, he wanted me to let all of you to know that he made it by himself). It was delicious. The recipe is his Me Mah's (My M-I-L). He did as good a job as she does. Me Mah may have some new help at Thanksgiving when she's doing her cooking.
   My daughter also helped with the cooking this evening. She made a marvelous potato salad. She used the basic potato salad recipe with a touch of her own zest. It turned out really good. I wasn't sure of it at first when we were discussing how she would do it, but I let her go and it was a hit with our family. She used new potatoes, eggs, mayonaise, salt, pepper, & dill relish as usual. Then, she changed from plain mustard to spicy brown mustard and threw in some bacon bits. It was really good. I give A's all around in Home Economics today.
   Oh, if anyone is interested in a simple no bake strawberry pie recipe just let me know. The one my son did has no cooking involved other than using the microwave for 4 minutes. It's a simple recipe, but good.
   It's getting late and I must hit the threadmill to try and burn off my piece of strawberry pie so I'd better go for now. More later.

Cookies + Books = Great Family Time

It's Library Read Aloud time and Mamma made Chocolate Chunk Pecan Cookies, mmm...good.

　
One of our most favorite family times is grabbing our read aloud book and gathering around daddy so he can read to us. We have such wonderful discussions over our books during this time. These discussions have proven to help my children retain the information we have read. There has been books that we have read several years back that my children still talk about, act out scenes from, etc. My family enjoys our family time over a great book. Memories are being made and relationships are being developed.
Oh, and sometimes we make that time just a little more special with a nice snack. Fresh hot cookies straight from the oven sets the atmosphere for a wonderful reading time, or it does in our family. So tonight whip up some cookie dough, grab a great book for your family to share, and make some memories with your family. I promise you, you'll not regret it.

Weekly Rap Up

Our week was thrown off coarse a bit, but we still accomplished much. Let's see, my daughter reinforced her home management skills by rearranging her bedroom and cleaning it, washed, dried, and put away her clothes,and served us breakfast two mornings. One morning she cooked us some delicious strawberry cheesecake muffins and another morning she cooked and served us with tasty blueberry muffins. (Wonderful job Sarah Grace) My son also rearranged his room and cleaned it and washed, dried, and put away his clothes. (Washing their clothes is not part of their normal chores, but I do require them to do this every now and then to be sure that they could do it if in a place that they would have to.) We did two math lessons, two Simply Grammar lessons, a Proof Reading and Editing lesson,read from The Bronze Bow and The Greatest Story Ever Told, began a nature essay using our cameras to capture the nature photos that will be in the essay, did four geography lessons, worked on two Physics lessons, and for our grand finale we read, narrated, and rewrote our own version of The Three Little Pigs.
I feel like we had a productive week. I plan to put my children's Three Little Pigs stories on my blog one day next week, Lord's willing. Other than a park day with our local home school group, I think that was our week.
It's late and I have church in the morning so I'll post more later. Until next time, Happy homeschooling.

Apple Pie Success?

    We did arise this morning and make the apple pie that I had mentioned in the last post. It was a success. My children did an exceptional job following the recipe, with the exception of us changing a few minor things. I don't know what it is about us and recipes, but some how we always change some little something. I took a picture of the pie, forgot to get a picture with the pie and the children. Here is the pic.

It  tasted great with vanilla ice cream. There went my diet. I don't remember those items on the list for my diet. Oh well, it's said and done now.
     Today was my husband's birthday. I think he had a great one.  He seemed to like the apple pie with the vanilla ice cream.
    
Tonight was also our bowling night. My children just started bowling about a year ago and my son still bowled a 77 tonight. I'm so proud of him. I know in some people's eyes that's not good, but I've seen how far he has come along. We had taken off for the summer so he is doing exceptionally well starting back up. He's improving so much. His dad told him and his sister that if they would bowl 100 he would buy them their own personal bowling ball. I think before this season is over daddy will be bowling ball shopping.
     Guess it's time for me to close this post. It's way past my bed time and I am feeling it. Hope all of you have a blessed and happy homeschool week, Traci.