MERRY CHRSTmas!!

Just wanted to stop in and wish everyone a very

MERRY CHRISTmas!

Gloria

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas..

Well, Christmas is almost upon us and we are so ready for it to get here. We are looking forward to a couple of weeks of no school. Just relaxing and enjoying the season.The only thing that could make it better would be SNOW! But here in this part of Arkansas that is most likely not going to happen. But hey, we can wish can't we!?!?
Don't have too much time but I wanted to pop in and Wish Everyone a Very Merry Christmas!!

Until the New Year!!
Gloria

Whew! Busy Time of Year

It has been a while since I have blogged but we have been really busy, what with the holidays and trying to wind things down before our Christmas break so we can start the New Year fresh. But first we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My husbands brother Now we are preparing for Christmas. Going to put the tree up this weekend, hopefully. Still have not bought any presents yet. The boys are getting really hard to buy for and it takes SO MUCH more money to buy their presents now.
So, lets talk about school here in out little humble abode. Like I metioned we are wrapping up some things in history and Biology so in the New Year we can start on a different topic and I will be adding in some additional studies in January. We will start studying about World War II in history and we are going to start the human body study in Biology. We are going to also continue with Nature Study and will be using Anna Comstocks book The HAndbook of Nature Study. My son will continue to make a Nature Journal. This will be a fun part of our week. We are going to start a beginning computer class using my college book and course material that I used last year in college. We will be adding in Spanish and possible German. Of course we will continue with all of our other studies whcih will make for a very busy new year.
Well guess that is all for now.

MAY YOUR FAMILY HAVE A VERY BLESSED CHRISTmas SEASON!!! MAY WE ALL REMEMBER WHAT CHRISTmas IS TRULY ABOUT!!

Until Next Time

Gloria

Needing a break

Do you ever feel like you need a break from everything..well at least from homeschooling,housecleaning,cooking and laundry? WELL I DO..but alas we know that is not going to happen. You know maybe if someone would just give me a little appreciation for everything I do around once in a while it would be okay too.
Oh well, I can always dream. LOL
Gloria

TAKING A DAY OFF TO RELECT ON SOME OF MY CURRICULUM DECISIONS

I decided to give the boys the day off today because I am going to redo our composition curriculum for this year. While I would love to use IEW , well the reality of it is I can't afford it at this time. I mean it's not like I have nothing to use, on the contrary I have lots of things to use I just need to organize them and decide how to precede from here. I like the idea of using CM ideas of copywork and oral and written narration but my boys do not really like the copywork. So my afternoon will be filled with going through the curriculums and various aides I have and figuring out how to make them work for us.
Wish me Luck!!!!

Gloria

1. Answer the questions below using only one word.

2. Thank the blogger who gave it to you. (no one did, I swiped it from someone)

3. Pass it on to 6 of your favorite bloggers.

1. Where is your cell phone? table
2. Your hair? straight
3. Your mother? unstable
4. Your father?estranged
5. Your favorite food? mexican
6. Your dream last night? none
7. Your favorite drink? Dr. Pepper
8. Your dream/goal? contentment
9. What room are you in? family
10. Your hobby? reading
11. Your fear? heights
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? country

13. Where were you last night? Home
14. Something you aren't? outgoing
15. Muffins? blueberry
16. Wish list item? camper
17. Where did you grow up? Arkansas
18. Last thing you did? drink
19. What are you wearing? Jeans
20. Your TV? on
21. Your pets? loveable
22. Your friends? fun
23. Your life? happy
24. Your mood? bored
25. Missing someone? nope
26. Vehicle?truck
27. Something you're not wearing? shoes
28. Your favorite store? wal-mart

29. Your favorite color? green
30. When was the last time you laughed? Today
31. Last time you cried? weeks
32. Your best friend? Husband
33. One place that I go over and over? wal-mart
34. One person who emails me regularly? noone
35. Favorite place to eat? chilis

Thank goodness it is Friday!!

I thought Friday would never get here! We did not accomplish as much as I would have liked to this week, but then again I seem to over plan the week so maybe that is the problem. B and I have started reading the Hobbit and so far it has been interesting. Our discussions seem to get off track a little at times and I remind myself that we are not doing public school we are doing school our way and it ahs worked so far so we will continue as is. He started World War 1 in history this week and is reading Albert Marrin's book The Yanks Are Coming. I think he is learning because everyday he has something new to tell me. Algebra is coming along nicely. Math has always been hard for him but since we switched to MUS he seems to understand it better. Compostion is going rather well. I had him read one of Andersons fairytales and then the next day write it in his own words and I was rather impressed with it. There were some minor grammatical mistakes but over all it was quite good.Biology is well just Biology. He is on track and seems to be enjoying it. We are doing vocabualry with his literature reading right now and this seems to work pretty well. I am thinking about having him start Vocabulary Cartoons after the first of the year but we'l see. I am sure that I have skipped something but this is about all I have time for today as I need to get back to cleaning the house.
Enjoy your journey!!
Gloria

TOO Much Rain!!

It raining yet again today. We have gotten so much rain this year already and have not seen the sun shine for at least 4 days. Yuck!! I am sick of it already!!
On a school note...B went to his Speech class yesterday and I stayed to listen in on the class and I must say that is the most boring and dry teacher I have heard in a long time. On the way home I questioned him about the class and he told me that it was Okay but the teacher was VERY boring. So will see how long he hangs in there with the class. For some reason the boys are finished with school for today already and it is only 1:43. VERY unusual for this to happen. But they are not complaing one bit..lol. B is playing xbox 360 online and C is watching bushcraft videos on the internet. I think I will enjoy the afternoon before I have to start dinner which is going to consist of an Itlain Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn and some type of bean(probably purple hull peas).

Until next time!
Gloria

Monday morning

Well here we are, the weekend is over and it is Monday. Normally I would be getting the boys up for breakfast and getting ready for our day of school. But this morning they are sleeping in a little extra time and will do school in the morning and get the afternoon off as their dad will have the afternoon off today. Brandon will go to his speech class this afternoon for 2 hours though.
It is nice to sit here at the computer with utter quietness. Have a litle computer time and then have my time in my Bible with the Lord. Don't have too many days like this. As I type I am listening to the rain fall outside. Wishing we would have sunshine instead of rain but thankful to the Lord for the day he has given us anyway.

I have been thinking all weekend about composition. We use various things for composition and I am growing weary of planning so many different curriculums for this subject. I would like to get SWI C for the boys but can't afford to get it new right now and of course can't find it used on the boards. So what do we do..who knows maybe this afternoon I will get time to sit down and look at everything I have for compostion and figure out how to make just one of them do what I want.
Well that is all for now!! Hope everyone has a wonderful Columbus Day!!

I figured it out and now the slides are gone!
Gloria

I goofed

I was trying to figure out how to add my pictures as a slideshow and somehow I got 3 slideshows on my blog and none of them my pictures and now I can't figure out how to get rid of them.
Oh well, at least they are nice to look at even if they aren't what I intended to put on there.
gloria

WOW!!

I really have neglected this blog. So let's get started with an update.
C is doing good with his studies what little he has. For B we decided not to do Tuthquest for history and are instead doing History Odyssey Modern TImes level 2. I was worried that it would not be enough for 10th grade but my worries were soon put to rest. It is more than adequate for 10th grade. He is enjoying it. Instead of LL for literature we are doing our own thing. I am roughly using WTM as a guide and adding in lots of books that he and I want to read. We have always done literature together by reading aloud and then discussing it. I was going to try LL this year but in the end we like our read aloud time so we ditched LL. B joined a Speech club and actually is enjoying it so far. C is trying to decide what he is going to major in next fall when he attends college. I have realized that 17 year old boys just take a laid back look on life at this age. I am one of those people who plans and plans and it is just driving me crazy that he is just not too worried about college right now. Oh well, my husband told me to just leave him alone and he will figure it out. So I am trying and most days do fine but occasionally slip. LOL

It has been raining and raining and then raining some more here off and on all summer which is very unusal as we usually have a drought in the Summer. As a matter of fact it is raining as I type. we went camping last weekend which was okay. We got rained on Sunday morning and decided to pack up and come home early. We were all exhausted so noone complained.

I am so glad it is Friday!!!!! I love the weekends when husband is home all day and we do a lot of family things then too.
Well gotta go start lunch....HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND EVERYONE!!!!!

2009-2010 school year

WOW! Summer has flown by here and it is already to get ready for the new school year.
C will be a senior this year and B will be in the 10th grade. My BABIES are gorwing up WAY too FAST!!! But I can say that are becoming awesome men and my prayer is for their life to shine for the Lord each and every day.

This is what we will be using for this year
C--12th
Bible- reading the Bib le together and discussing it
Math-finish MUS Algebra and do consumer math
Government-various things I have put together
American Literature using Hewitt;s LL
Composition- will be writing various papers
English-review in his writing

B--10th
Bible-reading together and discussing
History-Truthquest AOR 1 with LOTS of reading,timeline work,map work and maybe some lapbooks thrown in for good measure
Science-Biology using Biology 101 DVD's with various things added in and labs of course
Geography-Trailguide to US Geography
Math-MUS ALgebra
English-review through his writing
American Literature using Hewitts LL
Compostion-Hewitts lL and IEW US History based writing lessons voulume 1
Art-Art appreciation that I put together
Spanish-not sure what we are using here yet
Introduction to computers-using my college course I took last year

So far these are definites. there are some other things that I am looking at and thinking about but have not quite made up my mind yet.

summer

Well summer is in full swing here! It is already hot and no end in sight until probably September or October. The boys are enjoying their summer. We have always done school year round but this year we decided to take the summer off. I hope I don't regret the decision once school starts back. for some reason I have gotten started watching re-runs of I Love Lucy on TV in the mornings. The boys will watch it with me if they are up(they tend to stay up to the wee hours of the morning playing on the xbox live). For the most part we are spending a quiet lazy summer.
We do however intend to do some bowling, swimming and movie going during the day when my husband is at work. We have also been doing some camping on the weekends.
We plan to go float the Buffalo River in July.
Well that is all for now!

looking through my RAinbow Resourse Catalog

Oh my gosh my RR catalog came at the end of last week and for the last 2 days I have been pouring through the pages. This is absolutely my favorite homeschool catalog of all time. I almost always order everything I need from them.

This week has been such a lazy week so far and I think that for the most part it will continue to be one. I will be continuing to look at the RR catalog and trying to finalize what I want to order for the boys for next year. C will be a senior and B will in the 10th grade. I have to get this all figured soon as I need to order by July.

The boys both got their driver's license on Friday!!! I am so glad we are all finished with all that. My oldest is looking for a truck now.
well that is all for now, gotta get back to that catalog!!LOL!

tuesday

Well so far this week we have not had any rain!! After weeks of rain it is nice to see the sun!!

fresh start

Had a great weekend with my huband and the boys. I realized however that I really needed to get busy exercising and dropping a few pounds. So today I started exercising with Walk Away The Pounds. it was hard but I know it will get eaasier as the days go by. Have a busy day today so that it is all for now.

Saturday

Today was a gorgeous day. We planted more flowers and for dinner we grilled some really nice steaks my husband purcahsed at the local meaat market. It was just a lovely day to s[end with my family.

PRAISE THE LORD FOR THE DAY HE HATH GIVEN US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friends

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about friendships and I have come to some conclusions. First the only true friend we really have is Jesus Christ. Then if we are lucky enough to have a wonderful marriage our husbands and then our children.
People in my life have dissappointed me time and time again, but the never ending love of my Lord and Saviour never dissappoints me. I'm sure I have dissapointed him many times but he is always there patiently waiting for me to come to my senses so to speak. My husband is the most wonderful man I have ever known. He has always been there for me through it all good and bad. I have had people through the years that I thought were true friends only to dissapoint me time and time again. So I think that I have come to the conclusion that having the love and friendship of my Lord and Saviour and my husband and children is enough.

Fresh Strawberries

My husband came home for lunch today and surprised me with a huge box of big sweet juicy red strawberries from the local grower. Ar strawberries are absolutely the best strawberries ever, even though they are a bit exspensive.

Can't believe it has been this long since I have posted here!!!

I can't believe it has been this long since I last posted. so much has happened since my last post. First we sold our home in the country last year and moved into town in July of 2008. With gas prices at that time, economy slowdown and loosing my income just made it impossible for us to continue to live so far out. We are hoping that in the next year we can find some land closer and build another home as we desperately miss living in the country. I guess the next thing of importance to mention is that my baby boys are growing up way too fast. C is in the 11th grade and B is in the 9th grade. Where does the time go and yet there is so much more we need to teach them before they are out in the world!
School this year has been so different for us. We lived out in the country for so long and our day always began early as we had animals to feed and quite a lot of chores to accomplish before we began school each day. Now with being in town the only animal we have left is our inside Westie susie. So our days this year start out a lot later and the pace has been a lot slower for us. For the first few months we did not mind it so much. But now we are so bored and just want to get back to the country where life is a daily adventure. Hopefully that will happen soon!!!
Well, thisn is all I have time for today. I am going to try to make a better effort to keep this blog up to date.
So have a great day in the LORD!!