one thousand gifts... a practice in gratitude. (2)

from A HOLY EXPERIENCE

63. flags flying

64.  freshly vaccumed cars
65.  bird decor

66. whip cream out of a can

67.card stock

68.  Our contitution
69. snowmen

70. scarfs

71. wireless printers

72. open windows

73. pictures in black frames

74.  organizations that go out into the World when I cant
75.  StarBucks gingerbread biscotti

76.  things that match

77. laptops

78. hymnals

79. candy corn

80. vanilla scented candles

81. pastors who tell the truth and preach the Word of God
82. a trickling stream- where you can hear the water

83. wearing black

84. a family who dutifully saves their newspaper for my daughter to donate them to the SPCA-- her way of helping
85. lamplight

86. quiet time

87. leaving really early in the morning for a trip

88. savings accounts

89. Hallmark movies

90. dry erase boards

91. John Wayne movies

92. holidays

93. Charmin toilet paper

94. my husband calmness
95. label makers
96. thick socks
97. Sales papers
98. a plethora of organic choices...
99. Christian music on the rado that I can relate to and worship God to
100.  warmed up chili over frito's and cheese on a cold day
101. Sharpies!

102. the envelope system

Score!

So Matt got Super Mario Brothers Yahtzee for Christmas and we decided to play last night! If was really fun. I mean I love Yahtzee anyway, but to play with the characters he loves so much made it all the more enjoyable!

Oh and Matt won! He was the only one to get a Yahtzee!

Weekly Wrap Up...Week 25

SOOO this week has been better, minus us all having yucky, yucky colds!  I have thought about of the reasons that I had such a hard time the last few weeks.  I feel like even though I don't have a resolution for some of those issues, at least KNOWING what they are makes me feel better!

I was DETERMINED to be purposeful.  REALLY.

I got up every day to accomplish something.  (less with being sick, but still something)
I purposefully got the kids up and encouraged them to accomplish things.

I purposefully got started with school or the activity of the day, meaning I DID something!
So just right there is a HUGE improvement!  Especially with being sick I mean!

SMILE!


Bible----We started with Bible- finished up the story of Ruth.  I had Emily be Ruth and go pick up wheat in the field.  I am going to have her DO a lot.  I figure she will be up and about,  PLUS how much more will she remember the story if she is picking up wheat than coloring a sheet! 

We watched The Story of Ruth, 1960  (Netflix)

Language---

FLL2  5 lessons-- we had a lesson on adjectives and wrote a lot of describing words, then I had the kids draw a picture of a cake and write words describing the cake.  After they were done they were able to write a sentence about the cake.

FLL3

All About Spelling- 4 steps.  I had Emily take the list I printed out for her and spell all the letters with magnetic letters on the refrigerator.  Then we read them all out loud.  Each day we went over the list from the day before.  Then made flash cards of the words- broken into sounded out sections.  I had her put the cards together to make a word, when she made the right word she went and wrote it on the board.  I MEAN I am having her DO!

Writing With Ease- 5 lessons

IEW- Kaitlin continued working on Lesson 4, which she finished earlier than scheduled this week!.
She also took her first vocabulary quiz and aced it!  :)

Matt writing- I again had him pick 20 Lego pieces and write 7 sentences about them.  Here are two of his assignments.

Math----

I worked with Emily on her carrying.  Half the problems were right and half the problems were wrong in her last two lessons, so we worked on that.

Whoo hoo only two wrong out of 25!!! We made some definite progress this week!

I put her on the computer to play a computer game also.
She moved onto the next lesson. 
WE also worked on money some more.  I had her be the cashier and make change for me when I checked out!

I have a new favorite math worksheet generator website....Mathfact.com


Matt moved on to the next lesson.
I had Matt do some drills online
He also played on a math website

Kate breezed through to the next lesson
She also worked on drills online
We did some flash cards and did a times drill, just for review.

Science---

I had Kate and Matt start reading chapter 9.

We made a model of a neuron

We played two health related games this week.

We also made a model of the parts of the brain. (pre-talking about chap 10 with our science buddies)

I had Emily work on the body puzzle, we also read a few books.

We also watched The Fantastic Voyage.

History---
we started our Read Aloud

JOHNNY TREMAIN

I am also reading the Matchlock Gun with Emily.

We also wrote a letter to England-- telling how unfair we feel their taxes are. 

ART---

We participated in Sketch Art Tuesday

Something you sketch in science.  THIS worked perfectly for us as we were doing it anyway!



We also started a Valentines count down chain which I got the idea from MOMMY OF TWO.... we are counting down to Valentines week because on Feb. 16 we go on a vacation!

3 in 30 Making goals a reality

So did I do it??





 Remember how I joined up with 3 IN 30 days.


The goal was to take our LONG, LONG list of things we want to accomplish and break it up into smaller chunks. We will focus on 3 things each month! By the end of the year that is 36 things I will have worked on, changed, made better or resolved! That is awesome!

SO MY GOALS WERE:

1. Keeping up with my Reading the Bible in 90 days Pledge

2. Keeping up with the schooling on our daily schedule and being purposeful each day to get done
what we need too.

3. I am going to add that have a large list of reading material that I would like to cover this year. So I would like to finish TWO books by the end of January.

Here is how I have done...


1. yes, I have kept up with it for the most part, I am behind this week, with being sick... but hope to catch up tomorrow!  It is however an easier read this week-- more narrative form.


2.  yes, I have kept up with school.  We did not get everything on our list done, every day this month... but we got a whole heck of a lot done!  i am not entirely pleased yet.. I need to get better!  This week we were all sick, however if you check out my weekly wrap up tomorrow.. you will see that I honestly DID attempt to get a lot done, even being sick!



3. nope, didn't make this goal.  However.  I ended up reading some other things instead that took priority, so I did still take time to read books I need to read.  These are still on my list and the Making Brothers and Sisters best friends, I am mostly through and will start with the kids on Feb 1-- OUR MONTH OF LOVE!  :)

The other book-- well I will get to when I get to!  :)



FOR FEB... I am making 3 more goals for Feb.  however I am going to be VERY specific on these.

1. paint the side of the kitchen with my blue color.

2. clean out from underneath all the couch cushions and send covers to the cleaners!

This is a picture off the IPhone and is a really bad picture,  it makes it look worse than it is, but they are really in need of a cleaning!

3. DO school from Jan 31- Feb 11      We have a sabbath break after that and we are going on vacation.
After vacation school every day from Feb 21- Feb 28.  EVERY DAY will do school.  I have big plans for Feb.  I am being purposeful in my choices for undertaking certain tasks... and I want to accomplish them!

That is only 16 days of school to accomplish!  I can do it, yes I can!


Go see how everyone else did on their goals!

Doomed to the fire and brimstones of Hades....

I got you there with my title didn't I.



So I put up a paper that had house rules on it. I went over them very quickly but then sat down, I mean the rules were not new... I was just reinforcing them with a paper on the wall (yes hello to Super Nanny marathon).

We were all working again when I noticed a tear on Emily's face and she burst into tears and said "I am doomed".

I was a little startled to say the least.

I asked what she was doomed for and she said number 2. Well number two on the list was No telling lies. So of course I am starting to feel a little concerned. I said why would you be DOOMED over not telling lies.

She said no the second one... SO under Number 1 was NO fighting and in parenthesis was NO horseplay.

She was doomed to never be obedient if she couldn't play like she was a horse. I just burst out laughing.. although she was VERY serious.

I said "Honey, it doesn't mean playing like a horse, it means fighting, throwing balls in the house, swinging chairs around.. just being wild."

She, very teary eyed but obviously relieved went right on about her work.

Note to self:

Parenthood is like a box of chocolates... you never know what you will get.
(Thanks H-Mama for reminding me and don't forget to go comment on her blog giveaway!)

American History---Week 9

We finally started back up with history!   Yeah!

We went back over the 13 colonies.

The kids watched a Drive Through History DVD

We went over the

Sugar Act
Stamp Act
Quartering Act

Boston Massacre

and started talking about The Boston Tea Party


Amy set up a store and the kids got to use their dollars to "buy" stuff.

Then she added a tax to the cost of the goods and the kids had the same amount of money to "buy" and came back to the store.

They witnessed first hand how hard it is to pay high tax!

We showed them what the money of this time period looked like...

Amy read the first chapter of Johnny Tremain.  Which is ONE of my favorite books!

Can you tell the kids were enthused!  :)

When the cats away, the mice will play...

Generally speaking I am with my kids during school time. I will start them on something and go move clothes or start lunch or check email, but there are not usually large chunks of time where they are on their own.

Until a few weeks ago, I was having some "issues" and spent sometime away from my desk in the throne room. Yes I know TMI, but concentrate on the rest of the post.

45 minutes later when I entered the school room, nothing appeared amiss.

Until I tried to upload pictures from my camera.

Did they NOT realize I would see them????

OH and there is video too.......Okay I cant get it to load and I cant get it to go away either! So never mind!  but it was funny, I'll tell you that much!

He is no Spielburg but.....