Nolan & Miss Natalie....

Speech began again today....Miss Natalie said that Nolan had grown a foot over the summer. She is going to work with him to write a book in the next few weeks. She thinks this will give her lots of time to work on sequencing with him.

What is this????

Does anyone know what this is? I guess I'd best schedule time in to visit a nursery.....

Jamin's Blog

Our 16 yo has a class this year in which he is trying to get book reviews etc published. We've run into a problem. No one seems to WANT to publish what a YOUTH thinks about books - even the teen magazines have adult reviewers telling them what teens think. ::snort:: A blogger is born. He will be publishing his book reviews, editorials, various writing assignments, short stories, various excerpts he's working on from his book - to his blog.

He may eventually write about "life", but my family seems to think that I do a well enough job communicating our daily activities. ::snort::

You can visit his blot at http://scribe-jamin.blogspot.com/

The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Rolling by Neta Jackson and Bye Bye Black Sheep by Ayelet Waldman.

I've finished another book in each of these series: The Yada Yada Prayer Group and The Nursery Crimes. Both more of the same in each series. I find myself liking the characters in Yada Yada more with each book. LOL I actually finished these books a week ago but decided I'd never find the time to write reviews.

Saturday

This is not my idea of a wonderful Saturday, but I'm sure it will pay dividends later. I'm choosing to be joyful about it. LOL

I spent 7 hours working on lesson plans. We realized last week that Mondays are so horrendous because it takes me a solid hour to get the older ones lined out for the week...then I have to do us. My big confession is that after 18 years of homeschooling - I DON'T USE LESSON PLANS! I haven't for many years. I teach directly from the assignment sheets of TOG - before that it was SL....which had the plans there anyway. I simply do what we do.....and it works. HOWEVER, for the older children it was getting very time consuming to explain over and over how to FIND ALL THE ASSIGNMENTS of TOG.... Mike and I decided it would be a good investment for me to spend a few hours at the library on Saturdays. It went well.

I spent 4 hours at the library. I got Jamin and Jared's plans done. I picked out books on cows and butterflies (Monarch's are coming). I corrected a lot of work.....I put in a solid hour on Jamin's portfolio from LAST year which needs to be turned in by December.

I came home and spent an hour with each boy going over the assignment sheets.

Meanwhile, Michael kept the younger ones and they had FUN...and I'm choosing joy! ::snort::

Ah yes...we figured out what the bouncing in the van was all about....it seems we did not throw a counter-weight.....the tread was separating from the INSIDE. I shudder to think of all the freeway driving I did on Friday. SO....we now have new tires - and truck tires are not cheap. ::sigh:: Jamin offered us a no interest loan. ::snort:: Sure love these young men.

Mike took me out to DQ this evening. We came home and played charades.

I made an "assignment sheet" form, and then typed in all the assignments for each boy. Next week - I will take my LAP TOP to the library...then I could type in lesson plans, check websites I need etc.

Unfortunately, all my Sat. chores - menu planning, grocery shopping, cleaning....didn't get done....feel like I'm on a bit of a teeter totter here. ::snort::

What makes me think that if I throw enough forms at this problem it will go away? ::snort:: Actually, we DID get all our TOG finished by Wed this week and we did a lot of fun projects....so we're doing well....I want to do better. I want more play/down time.

Fall Into Reading 2007...

Begins on 23 September and runs through Dec 21st. Don't miss the fun...be sure to check out the info on Katrina's blog here. Really, there are very few rules, unless you want to be considered for the gift certificate at the end of the challenge.

WHEW FRIDAY

Wow. Fun week. Today we had a play date. We never quite made it to school.

I dropped Jared off to mow a lawn at 9:00 a.m. When we got home from playing about 12:20 and he wasn't home I began to worry. When he wasn't home at 1:00 p.m. I went to track him down. I found the tell tale gas cans and knew I'd found the right spot. ::snort:: I knocked on the door and spent the next 30+ minutes visiting with a delightful seasoned citizen. She told me that Jamin (who did her yard last year) and Jared are great boys. She asked questions about Stacia. We chatted. I sensed that she is lonely....and she is very security conscious. She told me to drop by any time as I was leaving.

This all put our schedule off - but I felt it was well worth it to have those moments of well...ministry. All I had planned for the day were some hands on things.

I got word that my name was drawn to win a DK Family Bible - and I'm totally excited. I didn't have the $30 to purchase this and have been using the libraries copy. I can return it shortly - for all you local folks who have been wanting it. LOL

Tonight was PWOC Project night. Low numbers tonight - but we had fun visiting. I DID put 14 sheet protectors on. ::snort::

I got home earlier than usual on Project Night. Mike and the kids at home were playing charades. I joined in and totally grossed out Stacia by washing her feet with my "tears" and drying them with my hair. ::snort::

I'm rethinking tomorrows plans...we have three different directions to head....I think I may simplify the plan.

Stacia has only attended chapel. I'd not realized she hadn't seen a baby before. She told Deja she wanted to hold the baby and Deja is very generous with Elisha. She examined his toes, hair, nose, and lips....pointing them all out to us....Ah...Elisha is a doll.