Christmas Pictures

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2007037&l=c19f8&id=1537666024

Here are our Christmas Pictures :)

this cracks me up

wordless wednesday

One of my favorite songs :)

Something about this song so makes me giggle.






Mom got drunk and Dad got drunk at our Christmas party
We were drinking champagne punch and homemade eggnog
Little sister brought her new boyfriend
He was a Mexican
We didn't know what to think of him until he sang
Felis Navidad, Felis Navidad

Brother Ken brought his kids with him
The three from his first wife Lynn
And the two identical twins from his second wife Mary Nell
Of course he brought his new wife Kay
Who talks all about AA
Chain smoking while the stereo plays Noel, Noel
The First Noel

Carve the Turkey
Turn the ball game on
Mix margaritas when the eggnog's gone
Send somebody to the Quickpak Store
We need some ice and an extension chord
A can of bean dip and some Diet Rites
A box of tampons, Marlboro Lights
Haleluja everybody say Cheese
Merry Christmas from the family

Fred and Rita drove from Harlingen
I can't remember how I'm kin to them
But when they tried to plug their motor home in
They blew our Christmas lights
Cousin David knew just what went wrong
So we all waited out on our front lawn
He threw a breaker and the lights came on
And we sang Silent Night, Oh Silent Night, Oh Holy Night

Carve the turkey turn the ball game on
Make Bloody Mary's
Cause We All Want One!
Send somebody to the Stop 'N Go
We need some celery and a can of fake snow
A bag of lemons and some Diet Sprites
A box of tampons, some Salem Lights
Haleluja, everybody say cheese
Merry Christmas from the Family

Wordless Wednesday

My son is the one pulling the shovel through the water... he is on a fossil dig.

Pantry Re-organization

This is the bottom of our pantry we put a lot of our canisters of noodles and beans, oils and backing things down here. Also notice the cans, these are frequently used things that I try to keep a heavy stock of:chicken broth, refried beans, cream of mushroom soup and Bean with Bacon soup (dh's fav soup and so we always try to have lot of it) We also keep large cans of tomato soup for soup night at our house which in Sunday night.


This is a another area I keep our dry milk, potato flakes and condiments. I am kind of low on condiments but I stock up when on sale. During the summer when prices were so high we had enough bbq sauce to last us until Sept. My wacky prince uses bbq sauce on everything


This is the top half of the pantry, the blue boxes is mashed potato flakes that I got with angel food for a couple of months. Also there is tomato sauce that normally I don't but once again got it from Angel food. We have lots of beans and tomato products as we eat lots of tex mex things at our house. I normally keep enough diced tomatos, chicken broth and refried beans to make our favorite soup- Refried Bean Soup. We also try to keep enchilida sauce, green chilies and refried beans for our Bean Enchilida Casserole.

So there is a look at our pantry :)

End of November Update

Well we have had a difficult month-- but it will be over soon enough and then we can start anew with a shortest month of the year. YEAH! The queen continues to have some problems with budgeting her time between our homeschool work and her co-op course load. I think it is something she is starting to get the hang of, but she sometimes tends to dwell on the "stress" and does not do a quality job. So sigh I had to be the mean mom and come down hard on her she did horrible on her math last week, and her phone time had been substainly cut down on and will until she brings her grade up.

I have also made decision to swtich from TOG and get something that is not so teacher intensive for me, at this point I just don't have time to devote to it as I had in other years. So my oldest two are using Beautiful Feet Anicent History and my chef to be is going to be using History Odyssey. HO looks like a good fit for him but will require him to learn to outline, something that I really need to work with him on anyway. Beautiful Feet looks good for the older two and I think it will free up some of my time.

We once again signed up for Co-op, this coming semester I am teaching 3 classes again- can you tell I love to teach at co-op. I will be teaching a class in every grade level. I will teach Readers Theater (1st-3rd), Literature Quest (4th-6th) and the Hobbit (7th-12th). I really enjoy teaching more of the discussion literature classes and am amazed every semester by some of these homeschool students and their deep thoughts. This semester I will have my grandson in a class that is a first I am looking forward to that.

My kids classes look really well some of their first choices were filled up, we go to a BIG co-op but I think it will still be a good semester for them.

**Queen to Be**
Biology
Dance
Spanish
One Act Play

**Wacky Prince**
General Science
Spanish Made Fun
Architecture
Archery
Entomology

**Chef to Be**
Early Explorers
Whose Line is it?
Literature Quest
Adventure Down Under (My DIL is teaching this one)
Entomology

Wordless Wednesday

Week in Review Catch up

Well it has been a long time since I have updated but with co-op going I just don't have the time with keeping Queen to be on track. She is doing much better at keeping on top of things and is doing very well at planning out how to get the work done.

All the kids have now done the big switch from MUS to Saxon and boy I wish I would have just done it at the beginning of the year with everyone. The only problem is with Wacky Prince, he just does not seem to retain how to do certain things. So I think we are going to have to have a lesson in taking notes and remind him that that is not a sign of weakness. MUS definetly is a good fit in the younger grades but you know spending a year on fractions(or in our case 2 years) tend to make anyone loathe math.

The chef and the prince has switched from CQLA, I really liked the idea of cqla but the boys needed a little bit more review on grammatical concepts than they allowed so both boys have swtiched to Easy Grammar. This way we can do a strong spelling program, chef is still really struggling in that area so he is using Apples and Pears and wacky is reviewing his spelling rules with Apples Spelling Drills. Both boys also have a daily review program for english concepts and they both has new writing programs.

Tapestry has definetly taken on a light status here, we have had to switch our priorities especially with the queen to be. WE don't do as many projects or activities but we still do a lot of the reading and about 1/2 of the literature selections. I think we are trying to get over a little Fall Fever and it is just taking awhile. I finally sat the kids down and we have decided we definetly don't want to do school after May so we need to get better about doing school work on the weekend.

WEll that is a little update I hope to do better next week.

Homecoming

Here is our Homecoming pictures from last night. I love this one of her alone, sigh she looks so grown up.


This is great because her and Thumper are in their own world, they had totally forgotten anyone was in the room

Doesn't she look calm and collected in this picture? Well it because she completely wigged out about 20 min before, I mean any cool she had left was gone. I had seen her like that once before and the best part was my friend was there to see it too.

Dear Socially Challenged Duplex Mates,

I know your life must seem hard to you, and I know it is hard to believe that other people reside in this world for reasons other than serving you. But I would like to request that you follow some simple rules that your moms forgot to teach you. Honestly I should not have to teach you these, you both are older than I am and I feel most people should have realized the "unwritten" guideline by now but that apparently is not the case.

First if my outside light is not on and it is dark outside don't ring my doorbell, and if it is on and it is past 9pm don't ring my doorbell. I am sorry your wife has run off, she is not over here. I am sorry that is thundering and lightening outside and she has had enough so she has left. Also I am very sorry that your teen has lost her cellphone and you only have one car and your wife is out with the girls. Your emergency is not my emergency and maybe your teen does not value that phone as much as you do and should lose it.

Secondly, please stop collecting cats, although kittens are cute when they start numbering in the double digits they loose the cuteness. I am tired of hearing meowing kittys under my house, we have a cat and love it dearly but we only have ONE. Please close your garage door so not to collect more strays, strays have fleas and we don't like fleas. Don't assume every one else likes your cats and when you finally are forced to get rid of them 3 loads of cats is TOO MANY! It is your sign you have a cat addiction problem, when you open your door and cat urine can be smelled 5 feet away that is not pleasant.

Finally, please learn to not slam you door, honk you horn we have groceries or I am in the car waiting, and for gosh sakes buy your youngest daughter a second pair of pants. You may close your door without slaming I don't need to know your coming and goings. By slamming you make me cringe especially after 9pm when I am scared my peace is going to be distrubed. I am glad you have gone grocery shopping and are home but by honking the horn the whole neighborhood realizes you are home and honestly we don't care and especially if it is 7am and your dd will no come to car get out of the car and get her. An idea, take your dd cellphone the one she has lost and call and they can meet you at the curb therefore distubing NO ONE. I have lived here for 10months and have seen the same pair of pants on your daughter everyday that I have seen her. Please buy her another pair and if she has more than one have an intervention and make her wear something else. WE all know that the brown pair is her favorite but please change it, a nice pair of jeans would be nice.

I hope I have brought to your attention some ideas you might embrace. Remember the world does not revolve around you, other people live in this world and honestly don't give a darn about you. Honestly we don't all care about your daily life, just because I have pulled up and you are out feel free to not to talk and tell me your woes. I have my own problems and family and honestly don't care, go and talk with your wife, you children, or a cat that wonders by.

Signed,
your annoyed again neighbors

Muddy Waters

Absolutely wonderful video, it gave me chills.

Our week in Review- Week 11

Well our week has been a little strange, dh was home sick on Sunday and Monday, the mold count is through the roof and has been effecting both of us for weeks (since Gustav blew through and then Ike). So we are getting a little behind but I have some "catch up weeks" scattered in before Christmas.

Week 3 at co-op unearthed my 14yo test taking skills, she received a 93 on her first Spanish test and has a 120 homework average (yep she is the extra credit master in spanish). In biology she took a test, and it was hard it is Abeka Biology, and got a 74 so we learned she needs to really review hard before she takes her tests. She is currently gathering up extra credit to take in on Friday to be added to her test grade.

This week in History we are studying Ancient China, the boys are writing mini-reports on Chinese inventions, the both chose gunpowder. Isn't that a big suprise considering wants to be a police officer and the other wants to be a parimedic SWAT member (yes the have some of those in Dallas). She is doing a mini biography on Confucius mainly to understand a little bit more about how that religion got started.

The chef to be is loving doing TOPS science Monday he made a circuit out of a clothes pin and enjoys the hands-on feel of TOPS. WE are going to start working on our science fair projects soon. The queen would like to make a model of the heart, and the chef would like to do an electricity project, the wacky prince wants to do something but not sure on what?

Math is coming alone, how else to describe it? The queen is getting ready to start Pre-Algebra in the next two weeks. Math is not her thing but I think she is turning a corner and it is starting to get easier for her. The wacky prince is thriving in Saxon and is doing really well, I think he really needs the spiral method. The chef is doing well and is taking a math class to help with his facts at co-op. The class seems to be helping him and his rate of computation errors is going down.

Tomorrow we go to week 4 of our co-op, we love co-op but it is a little exhausting for mom. I teach three classes and I still have to prep those. I have two chapters to read for my literature class and I need to firm up my plans for my 4th-6th Africa class I have already worked out what we will do in the 1st-3rd grade. Everyone have a good weekend.

Great new movie

Our plans for the week--Week 10 of our school year

Well this week we are studying the Indus Valley in History, we will be reading several books on Indian Mythology. Because co-op has started we have cut down on the expectations in History we will do a notebook page on "the Buddha" and some literature sheets on their mythology books. We are reading these books:


and



The queen to be has a lot of homework for her co-op classes so she will have to keep on top of it to get it all done. This is our first full week back after starting co-op last week because of dh getting a couple of "holiday/personal" days. With co-op starting that means we have to do core subjects on Sunday to be able to get everything in, since we take off Wednesday to be with dad and run errands. Our menu for the week is posted on my recipe blog . Have a great week!

Wordless Wednesday or What Gustav's winds blew in!

Isn't it pretty it is a Amorpha juglandis, aren't you impressed? He stayed all day on Saturday, the winds were very high due to Gustav (we didn't get any rain just high winds) and so he stayed on our wall underneath a shelf on the patio area. We learned that as adults do not eat it is only the larvae that feeds on walnut, hickory, alder, beech, hazelnut and hop-hornbeam (whatever that is) none of these trees do we have in our yard. So happy Wordless-Nature Loving Wednesday!

Week 8 and 9

Well we finished up our first term, and week 9 was our break week. Everything is going smoothly. We start co-op yesterday and that was a little rocky for me, I was so exhausted and also was having major allergy issues thanks to Gustav! So I had an allergy medicine induced haze all day. The kids had a great time and were real excited about all of their classes, my queen to be is in high school classes so she is learning how to schedule all of her homework. Next week dh will actually have two days off in a row so we will have a short week, honestly I still need a little break to get history for the next unit together. So that is a little update!

Wordless Wednesday

We are calling this picture... Sitting Fat Cat :)

Week 6 and 7

We have been very busy still getting and keeping our groove going. WE are making progress, in fact next week is our first break week and we will start co-op that week too. WE are working on Biblical era of Exodus and talking about the tabernacle. WE are finishing up our Ancient Egypt projects so I have pictures of them working on those. We are making progress in all of our other subjects.

We are enjoying Write Your Own Roots a lot, dd is learning a lot about our family tree. I really do like the concept of the book, I do recommend if you are going to use it as your writing program to(at least at the beginning) supplement with a grammar program (we are using Easy Grammar/Daily Grams). It is very simple to use, you just have a short weekly "meeting" with your student and then they have a learn and apply section and write their story.

The Queen is finishing up MUS we probably have another 4 weeks left and then we will switch. She is counting down the days and so am I, I think MUS got us through a rough spot but I think she needs more of a constant review built in. The chef is still about 8 weeks away from switching. It seems as they get older they all need that constant review. I was the same way so I know how it feels to know you how to do something but then for the life of you, you just can't remember how to do the problem.

We registered for Co-op and we are excited!!!

WE were number 10 out of 105 and we got everything we wanted, sorry to brag but we are so excited! So I will tell you all about them.

Queen to Be-9th grader
Biology with Abeka
Line Dancing
Spanish I
Pyschology

Wacky Prince-8th grader
General Science II
Architecture
Tennis
Brain Surgery
Whose Line

Chef to Be
Math Games
Spanish
Chess
Whose line is it?
Brain Surgery

Teen funny

Wow I heard this just this week :) don't you love the teen logic?

Wordless Wednesday

Joy is a wordless Wednesday full of grandkids pictures. This was taken for Wendy's 9th birthday, not her real name but she plays Wendy on several blogs.


My youngest Grandy and my daughter in law


second to youngest grandy


The Birthday girl in jeans and our once youngest grandy (happy adoption)

Blogger Class Mates

Hop on over to Blogger Class Mate to do what sounds like a fun "class" getting to know other homeschooling moms. Add the button and sign up on her Mr. Linky, and come get to know us!

Week 5 in Review

Well we are into week 5 of our new year, we are in the midst of our Ancient Egypt study and also talking about Moses this week. It is very interesting to talk about Ancient Egypt and Moses at the same time. We are focusing our studies this week in the pyramids and the preparation for the after life that the Egyptians took.

The kids are working on a salt dough map of the Nile delta region. Notice the Queen is having way to much fun while the chef is totally disgusted by the whole thing. I think the wacky prince is thinking up how to smear this all over the queen (SIGH) but he knows better and tries later when there is no proof of his crime


Here is a close up of the map, it is still in its drying phase. We are expert salt dough mappers now! Let's hope I don't get the urge to do this again this year, we are still cleaning up the table boy it was a mess

See enjoying this way too much!!!


OUR CORE WORK

This is the chef math, he is trying to finish up the Delta book so we can move onto Saxon, my kids really need the spiral method in math if not they will total forget everything. Chef had a good week this week, he finished up another CQLA essay and is excited about our co-op starting again.


This is Wacky Prince's essay he is doing really well in his writing, and who said this boy was dysgraphic? Yep the advantage of homeschooling is we waited until he was developmental ready and boy his writing is wonderful. The prince has moved onto Saxon and is doing really well with spiral method. MUS was so boring for him because he just hated studying the same thing almost all year. He also got very frustrated with the MUS videos, especially when a new concept was taught and Demme showed three different ways to solve a type of problem one right after another. It was very annoying and ended up confusing him most times so we had to say good bye to MUS, it was great for a season!


The Queen to be is really doing well last week we had to give the poor girl a meet the "principal"(instead of a meet the maker) speech. She improved her attitude and has had a great week. This is her Bible for one day this week, it is from Bible Explorer series. This is a great series and real dives into the Word, it especially great for kids who have gone to church their whole life and needs an indepth study. The queen is enjoy the calm before the storm, we register for co-op on the 23rd and she will have pre-homework for co-op and that is when she will get busy. She is taking 3 credit classes this year and boy will she have homework. But she will survive-she knows this because I tell her all the time!

Wordless Wednesday

Yep week 3 of the squirrel picture! If you enlarge the picture you can see a foot dangling in the back. LOLOL

Weekly report week 4

Yes we are on week 4, I sure do wish we were on a 4 weeks on 1 week off schedule and I would be a lot happier, but we have the first month down and completed. So last week I showed you our "core" assignment sheet, this week I will show you our history assignment sheet.

This is the front page, it lists all the vocabulary words for the week, people to know, reading assignments, literature focus, and a master checklist. Notice the reading box is labeled 1-4, dh has only one day off per week normally and so we take off Wednesday to be with dad and to run errands (we have only one car).

This has some notes about this week, and lists our hands on projects for this "theme" I find that older kids like to do one or two bigger projects instead of little ones, at least my kids do. The queen and wacky prince are making pectoral (see week in review #3 it is the jewelry thingy) and the chef is going to making a model of a home during this time period (he begged to do this instead of the other ). They are also doing a salt dough map of the area. I figure TOG is so crazy about salt dough maps that using it for going on our fourth year we need to at least make one, right?

These are his accountability questions, these are his notes for when we have our history discussion. We normally have our history discussion on Monday of the next week, what I do is we discuss last weeks leesson and then I give a preview of the coming week. I love TOG but after 4 years I have learned to adapt it to our family, I don't have to the talk on Wed because we don't do the writing that comes with TOG. And I have a lot more "discussion" or lecture energy at the beginning of the week and by Friday I am spent and when co-op starts I will be even more so!



These are our history books for this week and next


We are continuing to love our new Bible program Bible Explorer Wisdom of Words, it has worked out so nicely

This is the chef's work it is also used with Wacky Prince and the Queen uses the same but a different level (this is Discovery level shown Queen uses Quest). We are still working hard on completing our math u see so we can move onto Saxon, boy do we need the review every day especially the Queen, the prince has moved onto Saxon and I have seen an improvement in him already.

Things I have learned this week: (in case people are curious)
-the Ancient Egyptians created a calendar that was very accurate even though it relied on the flooding of the Nile River.

-that the egyptians only used high windows in their homes (geez they had windows I thought tents) to get light but not sunlight heat in their homes

-they cooled their homes by wetting mats and the evaporated air cooled

-that squirrels like to eat grass when there is no water around (nope not in our reading but I observed it in our backyard)

So that is our week in review!

Wordless Wednesday

Look! Our buddy brought a friend with him this week. How cute he has a playmate! (This is week #2 for this little guy in our Wordless Wednesday, look at last Wednesday to see his debut!)

Week in Review week 3

Well we are already to week 3 of our new school year, where did week 2 go? Well let's just say we don't really want to review it LOLOL. Here are my two boys working on our TOPS science electricity, it has been a huge hit. They love that is written to them and I do too. This next week we are going to check some books out from the library to do some readings also to round out our study!




This is my Chef's asssignment sheet for this week. I thought I would include this pictures in case anyone wants to see how these look in action. The Sunday column is for when co-op starts and we have to do school on Sunday because we take Wednesdays off because it is DHs only day off.

Handwriting for ds, we are trying Italics. My poor chef's handwriting is very hard to read so we are still trying to improve it. The Wacky Prince graduated from Handwriting this year.


This is the wacky Prince's assignment sheet, the circling is things that were missed during normal school hours. NOT COOL this happened last week and trust me no one wants that to be repeated. If it is on the assignment sheet it has to be done, if it is not done on that day you listed, you lost your right to ask questions like, "where would I find the area of Greenland?"


This is Wacky Prince's first essay (CQLA) of the year. He wanted a letter grade and so he got one because, I really think he did a good job. This was the same boy 3 years ago who could barely write a sentence, and when he did it took him hours. Dysgraphia is so annoying!


This is Queen to Be's assignment sheet, this week was rather lite in government because she had a test and essay. She does the essay tomorrow but the test is down below.


Queen to Be's test this will 2/3 of her test grade for this unit, the other 1/3 will be her essay.


This is the logic we do during "circle time" we also do word winks, sudoku and other "logic" games I come across. WE do a devotional called Extreme Devotions which talk about modern day people who spread the Word. Every day we locate the place and read the devotion. We also do a read aloud this terms read aloud is Gilgamesh by Geraldine McCaughrean. We will add some hymns, folk songs and Chistmas Carol study later on in the year, after the first terms.


This is one of our projects we are going to work on for the next couple of weeks, while study Ancient Egypt.


Here are the instructions for said project.

My list of what I have learned during this weeks history study
-the book of Job should follow Genesis (I actually think I learned that during Bible time when studying up for our Psalms and Proverbs Bible study)
-Isaac means he laughs
-Abraham means the father of many
-and the Bible is not in order, at least the old Testament is not
-and we have a weird squirrel who lives in our tree
-and we have more baby possums under the house although I am not sure how many

Yes I did learn those last two things during history, I can be a little ADD after lunch and sometimes I have to be redirected (I just hate it when the kids feel the need to redirect me LOL) So all in all it was a good week. Hope you enjoyed!

Wordless Wednesday

Notice the squirrel flat on the branch, we have named him after one of my sons (the wacky prince) because he seems to be a funny little dude and this squirrel likes to sleep and sleep and then sleep some more. The squirrel obviously feels the same way yesterday he was rolling around in a dirt hole LOLOL and then went and napped the afternoon away.

69 As a 1930s wife, I am Superior Take the test!

Wordless Wednesday

Hiding from the heat!

Week in Review- week 1

Well week 1 did not go as smoothly as I would like, although day one was awesome but it would not last. Day two was the victim of surging hormones but was salvaged and we were still able to get the whole days work done. Day three we had a little issue getting the garage door to come down and I had to be outside until dh got off at noon because it seems the little public school kids have nothing better to do than to get into trouble (the kids were able to finish their core subjects but no history or science). Day four was a weird day dh left for work late, the garage door guy came and the plumber came. So all in all it was a very atypical and weird week, and for me frustrating (at everyone else not the kids).


DD started her high school classes this week, she is finishing up her MUS and will move into Saxon PreAlgebra in another month or so but is moving along and is understanding so that is good(math is a very hard subject for her, just like her mom)! She is working a lot on her own and we have scheduled two "teaching sessions" per morning with mom but honestly she can get by with just one. It will probably change once we really get going! She also decide to tag along with our electricity unit and science and SHHH don't tell anyone she likes it, she is also decided to do a science fair project this year. She is thinking of doing a project along the lines of anatomy. Government proved to take more time than she budgeted so she is stuck working on it on Saturday.


This is from Trail Guide and instead of using an Almanac for all of this, you will be amazed at how quickly you can fill this out with the help of Google.

This is her assignment sheet for Government, she found that she definetly needs to allot more time for this subject than she was.(This picture came out really large I don't know why and can't shrink it) I am letting her plan some of her subjects out this year and it is definetly a learning curve, she ended up spending about 4 hours on Saturday working on things not finished from this week. She will do better I bet :)

Wacky Prince is working on a high school level health class, even though he is in 8th grade we are allowing him to do the Abeka 9th grade health for credit. He loves abeka science, in facts he jokes that he must be a geek because he automatically knew the name of the small clusters of endocrine gland cells that are located in the pancreas are, do you? He got an easy week in geography this week, it seems the chef got his worksheet and he got the chef's work. I wish sometimes the trail guide series codes for levels was a little easier to keep straight. He has one lesson in his MUS and will move to Saxon, He has been so bored in MUS for the last year it has been good for him but he does not like staying on one topic all year and I agree with him.


This is his first Health Quiz


This is his map work for Trail guide notice you can read the handwriting, that is big :)

The chef had a good week he is still getting hung up on long division but it is almost figured out. He can do it but just doesn't like it at all, the steps of divide, multiply, subtract and bring down just drive him crazy and the way MUS teaches it really confuses him. CQLA is going the same, they do it but they don't like it but would they really like anything? Nope probably not!


here is his handwriting, it is still needing some help. SIGH dysgraphia is very annoying

This is a worksheet for history, I am using it with TOG it shows all the different animals and how many really would need space on the ark. IT is very very neat.

So that is our week 1 in Review! Ohh and if you missed our pictures from the first day of school click here