Saying Goodbye to RivkA

How do you say goodbye to someone you never really met?

That's not entirely true. Though I never met RivkA in real life, I feel that I knew her. She shared her heart, soul and struggles on her blog Coffee and Chemo. Her blog was an honest and encouraging window into her world, the world of living fully, even with cancer.

My friend, yes my friend, RivkA crossed over this morning, late last night in my time zone.

I'm ashamed to say I was surprised. Though I read the words, words like brain mets, liver failure and pain management, I prayed and truly believed that the perfect combination of drugs would be found to whip the cancer and pain back into submission and RivkA would be back to blogging her encouraging stories in a week.

It was not to be.

I was shocked to read the latest post starkly entitled Funeral Arrangements.

So today I am mourning. I am grieving the loss of RivkA's tomorrows. I grieve for the heavy loss her husband and children are to endure. I grieve for the world's loss of this compassionate and vibrant woman. And I grieve for my loss, I will miss reading her words and exchanging comments about child rearing. I grieve the loss of my dream of one day going to Israel and having RivkA show me around. Selfish I know, but I so hoped to meet her in real life one day.

And tomorrow, I will try to put away my grief and be thankful that through the miracle of the internet I had the chance to get to know her. I will be thankful for all the lives she positively impacted. I will think of her children who will carry on her legacy and I will smile. That is what RivkA would had wanted.

If you're fighting cancer or would like to know more about RivkA please read her blog or watch her speak on Coping With Adversity.

Fruitful Thursday : Peace

Father, thank you for walking with me on my journey toward peace. Thank you for stirring in my soul, opening my eyes and granting me grace. I thank you for your patience, for all the years you stood by me in my floundering attempts to rule my own life. Thank you for the fact that you will continue to stand by me as I learn to live within your design for my life, and for the patience you will bestow upon me as I struggle to discover my purpose in you. May you bless the eyes that read this Lord and make your presence known. ~Amen

Relevant '10 Wrap Up

I haven't gone anywhere, I'm still here. I'm just busy processing the beauty that was Relevant.

It was a beautiful conference, God was present and I was greatly humbled by the spirit.

I spent a lot of time tearing up, trying not to cry and crying. In a good way. I was uplifted, rejuvenated...

VALIDATED.

I think that's what touched me the most. I was reminded, and not subtlety, that being a wife and mother are callings. VALID callings full of honor and beauty and grace and fulfillment and much responsibility. A calling not to be taken lightly.

I'm reordering my priorities, making quiet time with the Lord a daily priority and concentrating on putting family right after God. Blogging will come after all my other responsibilities are filled. And I have a strong desire to make this blog about Him rather than me, as it should have been all along.

Along with a new outlook, I came away from Relevant with new friends. I was able to make some bloggy friends into IRL friends, as well as reconnect with some ladies I'd already met IRL. Here are a few of the highlights...minus the lovely Stef of Layton Family Joy and The Homeschool Village. I managed to somehow spend half the weekend with Stef and not get a photo. Don't ask me how that happened!

(top left, top right, bottom right, bottom left; clockwise)

Amy, Blogging With Amy; Amy, Mom's Toolbox; Steph, Bowmania; Michelle, So I Married a Mennonite

Dawn, 5 Kids and a Dog; Tara, Feels Like Home; Jenn, Daze of Adventure; Traci, I'll Take Tea

Heather, Sprittibee; Kristen, We Are THAT Family; Jolanthe, Homeschool Creations; Carisa 1+1+1=1

And not that I didn't love the rest of you, but this photo here was a definite highlight of my trip. I got to meet Kris of Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers!!! I have read her since I began blogging y'all and her site has never ceased to be a fantastic resource. She was kind, sweet and funny! We got to go to lunch together, cruise through Target and just hang out. It was a pleasure Kris and I am so happy to now be able to call you my "in real life friend"!

I hope there will be a Relevant '11. And if there is, I hope you will prayerfully consider attending!

Alpha Omega Vlog Series

Alpha Omega Press has started a new and exciting vlog series, HomeschoolView.tv! Their goal is to share information and advice that will benefit all homeschoolers. And I love the first edition! How often do we as homeschool moms get bogged down in the academics? How often do we fret over our to-do list and the lack of items checked as complete?

These videos, from homeschool moms who've 'been there, done that" help put our days in perspective. It is very encouraging, please take some time to watch and be uplifted.

Fruitful Thursday : Peace

I'm so sorry, I skipped Fruitful Thursday last week! I don't know how I forgot it, it completely slipped my mind. I guess I've been feeling more peaceful lately, and that's a good thing!

On my last Fruitful Thursday I questioned my own attitude and how it can influence those around me as well as myself, asking "Do I come in peace?"

I found even though I didn't mean to , my words and tone were not usually conducive to peace at home. And it showed on my face...set jaw and a slightly furrowed brow. Even if I wasn't stressed I had the classic 'mom face'.

It had become habit.

I've done some work the last couple weeks. I've put in the effort of awareness. I'm trying to be aware of my tone, words and face. I'm speaking sweetly and softly and feeling as well as seeing a difference. I'm finding that some times it just takes focus and a little effort to put ourselves in a peaceful mindset, thus spreading peace to those around us.

If you're having trouble finding that peaceful place take a mental vacation. Take a few moments in the beginning of the day, or throughout it as needed. Listen to the calming sound of the waves, or find a something else that brings a peaceful feeling to you, and meditate on the following verse.

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." ~ John 14:27

Dressing for the School Day

Today The Homeschool Village asks us to share what getting dressed for the school day looks like in our homeschool and what the silliest thing is our kids have worn.

For getting dressed, that's usually a must in our house. I get so much more accomplished when I start the day with a shower and clean clothes, and so do the kids! If we shlump around in our pajamas all day we usually move at a snail's pace.

Early mornings I can sometimes be heard using my husband's favorite saying: "C'mon boys, motivate, motivate, motivate!" (in a loving tone of course).

But I'm far from a drill Sergeant. When we're not feeling well, need a break or there is a foot of snow outside we can be found shlumping the day away!

As for the silliest outfit...that title goes to my littlest, Bram. This photo was taken last winter. He was just learning to dress himself and decided to get himself ready to play out in the snow.

Be sure to come back this evening for my Fruitful Thursday post!

God Made a Way

You may remember many months ago I was all gung ho about going to the Relevant Conference which is being held about 90 minutes from my home. Well...Libya stepped in so I put it out of my mind. Well here we are months later and it's looking like we're not going to Libya after all.

We haven't gotten an official no. We've basically been told "it doesn't look like you'll be going but don't unpack your bags because something might change. And if not we may decide to move you to Florida or Texas." *sigh*

So we're still living in a half packed house, but we're making the best of it. The best part is I feel like we finally have our life back. I can PLAN again. I'm the type of person who needs something to look forward to or I sit and spin my wheels and nothing gets accomplished. I need a plan, a goal and a dream.

I had a good cry over Libya, I thought that would be the adventure of a lifetime Now that I've had my good cry I've dried my tears and am looking to new things.

Like planning my own conference for Christian, homeschooling bloggers. And going to Relevant!!

I trusted that if I was supposed to be there God would make a way. But it didn't look like it was going to happen because by the time I had the ability to go, I didn't have the money and needed a sponsor. I didn't get a sponsor. Then by the time I had the money all the tickets were gone. Sold out.

Through the grace of God and the miracle that is Twitter, I was offered a ticket from someone who could not make it at the last moment. So I'M GOING TO RELEVANT!

And I couldn't be more thankful!!

The Thankless Job of Parenting Other People's Children

Parenting is often called a thankless job. And in many ways it is. But at the end of the day you have a child that usually tells you they love you and calls you 'Mom'.

For me, there's an extra level of thanklessness that goes with parenting someone else's children.

Now please don't take this the wrong way, I love having Tony and Billy here, I would be heartbroken if they left. They are wonderful kids! And I hope they stay here forever...well at least until graduation. I'm just sharing from the heart.

My problem is that I feel like I'm battling a ghost. And while I know this isn't truly the case and I try not to show this to the kids...it hurts.

Billy is very resistant to hugs or affection of any kind from me. Me only. He will hug my husband, the other boys, his dad, his sisters...anyone really. But he will go out of his way to display that he doesn't want affection from me.

Last week I gave him a one-armed hug while telling him "good job". He wrestled out of my grasp saying "I'm not hugging you! But I'll hug Shane." and proceeded to give my husband a bear hug. I just smirked and shrugged it off and I think I 'jokingly' called him a stinker, which made him laugh.

I know why he does this. He's loyal to his mama. His blood. And that's okay. But it still hurts.

I don't want to do anything to tread on that sacred relationship. No one really takes the place of the mama in a child's heart-and I don't want to take that place. I want his relationship with his mother to flourish.

But I want him to feel safe enough to let me into his heart too. I want him to want to hug me. And to say something other than a smartly stated "Thanks, I guess" when I tell him I love him.

I love him dearly but it's hard sometimes, battling the 'ghost of mama'. A mama, who until recently only saw them one week a year and talked to them sporadically (though in her defense it wasn't all her fault). A mama for whom I set the boys up with Facebook and Skype accounts, for whom I've reminded the boys to call at least once a week, for whom I've had the boys send birthday cards...

It's a thankless job. But I hope that one day I will see the fruit of my labors. That one day Billy will feel free to hug me and love me AND have a close relationship with his real mama. And if I don't get to see the fruit of my labors I hope Billy still gets to experience them.

I tip my hat to all foster and adoptive parents. I have a whole new respect for you. May God bless your efforts 100 fold!

Weekly Wrap Up - Volunteering

Before I get into our week I'd like to share that I'm guest posting today at Raising Arrows! Please stop by and check out my post.

Also, in case you missed it, I made a very exciting announcement yesterday! Shhh, it's about a Hristian-cay, Omeschool-Hay, Log-bay, Onference-cay! Mkay?

This was a busy but good week for us. We started Monday with our first preschool fieldtrip to Pumpkin Patch. That was a lot of fun, even for the bigguns.

Tuesday and Wednesday we had full school days, continuing with the basics as well as introducing spelling. Yay!

Thursday we participated in our first volunteer activity of the homeschool year. We went to the somewhat local distribution office for GAiN. Boy was this place organized! They had different stations set up for people to sort clothes, pack boxes, package mix-a-meals and more. I couldn't get over the sheer amount of STUFF they had to go through and make ready to ship out. I thought this was just some little operation...boy was I wrong. Turns out they are affiliated with Christian Campus Crusade. Who knew? (Apparently everyone but me!)

We were assigned to the seed sorting section where there were huge (HUGE!) boxes of seeds to sort by type. Bram played in some smaller boxes for a while. Eventually he got to work in the huge boxes filling smaller containers for the sorters.

At some point Fox and Tony were moved to an area where they had to count out seed packs in sets of ten...over and over until they had 500 seed packs per box. I was proud of them, none of them complained once!

Today we did only the basics academically, then I called for a much needed life skills afternoon in which we cleaned house!!

Linked To:

Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Christian Homeschool Blogger Conference? Gulp!

UPDATE: Planning for this conference is underway, check it out!!

That's right. A Christian Homeschool Blogger Conference!

If you've read my blog for a while, you probably know this has been on my heart for a long time. Late last night, while chatting on Twitter, the desire to get things moving hit me full force. I tweeted about it with a few of my IRL/Blog friends and found there's actually quite a bit of interest!

So much so, that we've already received positive feedback from our first possible sponsor!

Details will be slowly coming out as they are confirmed but this is what I can tell you so far:

• This conference will be for Christian Homeschool Bloggers
• Topics will include both Homeschooling and Blogging
• This will be a rather intimate conference, not huge
• It will be in Spring 2011, probably May
• It will be in the Washington DC area (a great place to take a family field trip!)

What I need from you:

• Prayer - we need generous, Christ centered sponsors to keep costs down (which includes ticket costs)
• Comment - Let me know if you're interested, what topics you'd like to cover and who you'd like to hear speak

Shout Outs - Holla!

A few weeks ago I shared about our wonderful vacation at Chincoteague and Assateague Islands. We couldn't have asked for a better vacation. The weather was incredible and we got to fit in all the activities on the top of our to-do list. But the ride home was a different story.

What is usually a four hour drive took EIGHT hours. But I have to say that even with our misfortune, those that helped us get back on the road were angels. So I'd like to give a shout out to those people and the companies they represent.

Let me set the stage.

It was a Friday, we spent the morning at the rental house packing up our bags and cleaning. Since this was a working vacation for Shane (my husband) and he had a few conference calls to take he decided to leave about 9AM and talk (hands free) while driving home.

My mother-in-law had vacationed with us. We decided to leave around noon after taking the kids (ages 14, 14, 13 and 3) souvenir shopping and hitting the Island Creamery one last time for GIGANTIC banana splits.

Our entire vacation the temperatures stayed about 75-85. On this last day it was sweltering, around 90 and humid. Not wanting to rush about in the heat, we stretched the day out, not leaving the island until 3:15PM. This turned out to be a blessing so we weren't roasting along the side of the road at noon.

About an hour into our trip I noticed the van vibrating. Something didn't feel right. I mentioned this to my mother in law. Since the vibrating was rhythmic, we hoped it was simply a poor stretch of asphalt. Nope.

A few moments later, while traveling 65 mph, in the fast lane, down a major highway, we heard a really loud *POP* and the whole van lurched to the right. Blow out. God was with us because thankfully I was able to keep the van under control and get it to the shoulder.

So now that I've shared my life story, I'd like to give a shout out to the people who made a very unpleasant experience bearable, and the companies they represent!

AAA - We have been members of AAA for a long time (go for the Plus membership, it is so worth it especially if you ever need to be towed.) I called them and since I was on a busy highway with children they listed our status as urgent and had someone out to us in about 30 minutes with no extra charge. They also sent follow up texts to make sure their guy showed and we were safely back on the road. THANKS AAA!

Grant's Tire Service in Salisbury, MD - This is the company AAA contacted and the gentleman they sent out was, well, a gentleman. I'm sorry, I'm not sure of his name, I was worried about keeping Bram from running out in traffic, but I think it may have been Eric. He had an accent which sounded German or Polish...maybe slightly Hungarian, I'm not sure. But anyway, he was so kind. He had to move my van to the other side of the road to safely change the tire, take all our vacation junk out of the back to get to the donut and put it all back. He brought the van back to our side of the road and made sure he pulled his truck out into traffic behind us to give us safe entry back to the highway. And all with a smile. I know to some it may not sound like much but to a frazzled mama, it made a world of difference. THANK YOU SIR!!

PepBoys on 13 in Salisbury, MD - We limped along on our donut to PepBoys (which Eric had directed us to) to get a new tire. While there two very kind men serviced the van and I wanted to be sure to give them recognition also. I'm sure of their names, because they're on the receipt.

Johnny - He checked out my tires and advised me what and how many to get. I decided to follow his advice and go with two. I was treated kindly and not talked down to, which was nice. I also felt that I was treated fairly because he could have told me I needed six tires and I would have bought them if I thought it would keep me from having another blow out on the way home.

Duane - He did the tire change quickly, doing a great job.. He didn't say a word about the horrid state of my van (think clothes, sand and water bottles everywhere!) for which I was very grateful. He was kind and chatted with me while I checked out and gave me much needed directions to the closest Burger King and highway. His way actually shaved some time off my drive since I didn't have to circle back

THANK YOU GUYS, I APPRECIATE YOUR KINDNESS!

That Pull Again...

I know I've blogged about this before-but tonight I'm feeling that pull again, the pull to do more. That piercing feeling that I'm not doing enough. It took me by surprise because all day I've been plagued by a serious case of the IWANTS.

I want a clean house...

I want a bigger house...

I want another child...

I want twin daughters...

I want new curtains...

And on and on with dizzying selfishness until at last I sat down for the evening. For whatever reason (my money is on God) as I was sitting I recalled something I saw on the news last week, I think it was something about a man wanted for rape and murder.

Mostly I remembered the anger and disgust I had felt for this man and all the ill will I silently wished upon him.

Then something clicked.

I pictured this man as a young boy. I imagined the pain and desperation that he most likely experienced as a child, helping to shape him into the violent young man he is today. And I pitied him, not the man but the boy.

Today's criminal is yesterdays abused child, yesterday's neglected child.

Tomorrow's criminal is today's abused child, today's neglected child.

It's a vicious cycle.

And I want to do what I can to change it. Do you ever get an overwhelming urge to pack it all up, sell the house and go? To the mission fields. To Africa. To the American ghettos.

I do.

I pray one day I get to do just that. Please Father let me make a difference. But until that day comes I'm trying to look at my home, my neighborhood, my town as my mission field.

What do you do when you get the urge to do more?

Our First Preschool Field Trip

Today was our first Preschool field trip!

We went to the Pumpkin Patch! Bram had a blast and although it wouldn't have been their first choice for outings, the big kids had a great time too. We took a hay ride, picked pumpkins, fed goats, played on the playground, navigated the corn maze and had delicious apple cider! The weather was gorgeous. We couldn't have asked for more. I am so thankful...even though we spent about $80...at a Pumpkin Patch!! LOL

Linked To:

The Preschool Parade at The Homeschool Village

Weekly Wrap Up - Gaps in Education

It's so hard to believe that we've made it through our first TWO WEEKS of homeschooling this year! Things are going well. This week we added grammar to the basics (history, reading, math and science).

And yes, we found the missing science disk! Guess where it was. Under a pile of clean laundry waiting to be folded...uh huh. So yeah, my house is still a wreck. But we're working on it. :)

Next week I plan to add spelling, I'm using a combination of All About Spelling (affiliate on my sidebar) and SpellQuizzer. I hope to also add an elective like art...but we'll see how the spelling goes. I don't want to overwhelm them.

The major event that stuck out for me this week was when I discovered some gaps in Billy's (the 7th grader) education. Before I share this let me say I'm not trying to embarrass Billy and he's definitely not a dumb child.

I'm just shocked and dismayed that he made it through SIX YEARS of public school, plus head start programs, tutors, aides, and after school care without these issues being noticed or addressed. Not to mention his babysitters and father not picking up on it.

During math I discovered that Billy does not know his multiplication facts, he can work through them on his fingers but it takes him a long time. After a little Q&A I discovered that in his public school children are allowed to use calculators all the time from about 5th grade up. If your math facts are not strong before you introduce a calculator...you can see what happens.

But what disturbed me the most was during a word problem in which he was supposed to calculate what percentage of the months start with 'J' he admitted that he didn't know all the months of the year. He knew May-October and December, and not in the correct order either.

So over the next few weeks we'll be concentrating on multiplication tables and months of the year in ways that hopefully will boost his self esteem and not cause him to feel inferior because honestly I don't feel it's totally his fault, it's mostly "their" fault. And truth be told, I'm mad as hell about it. But I won't let him see that. :)

This was a full circle moment for me. Remember my Bright and Shiny Lights of Public School post? I think homeschool is the best choice for him right now.

I realize that no matter what educational route you take there will be gaps in education...but I think these are the most basic fundamentals that shouldn't be overlooked.

Linked To:

Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Fruitful Thursday : Peace

Welcome back to Fruitful Thursday (a day late). A new month means a new fruit so all October long I'm exploring PEACE. Can you hear the hallelujah choir? Couldn't we all use some more peace? Just saying the word causes me to take a big breath and feel more calm. *sigh*

As I usually do for fruitful Thursday, I went to the Bible to see what God has to stay about Peace. I was looking for how to get it, where it comes from, how to keep it, peace that surpasses understanding. But the verse that caught my attention was 2 Kings 9:17 which says:

When the lookout standing on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu's troops approaching, he called out, "I see some troops coming." "Get a horseman," Joram ordered. "Send him to meet them and ask, 'Do you come in peace?' "

Do you come in peace?

Do I come in peace?

How often has my day been intruded upon by some stranger in a foul mood, spreading the misery around? How often have I been that miserable stranger?

So often we get caught up in the day to day, stressing over DETAILS, working ourselves up so that we overlook what's really important. Hint: it's not the schedule, a clean house or even a shower.

We need to guard our homes and our lives so that this WORLD doesn't intrude. We need to be able to walk in God's peace to be able to share God's love. How we that may be different for everyone. It may even change over the years.

For instance, when Fox was young and my only child, we were always busy. Our schedule was packed. We were trapped in an endless cycle of baseball, soccer, baseball, swimming lessons, guitar lessons, co-op, family commitments and more! We were stressed beyond belief and our attitudes showed it! We finally had enough and cut out everything except for co-op for several years.

It worked for us.

But now that I have four kids here, three active teens and one energizer bunny toddler, less isn't working so well for us anymore. We now need more outlets to get the energy out and keep the kids entertained. So we're working on more adding more to our schedule to reclaim the peace.

How about you? How do you reclaim the peace? How has what peace looks like to you changed through the years?

Calling All Homeschool Crafters!

Are you a homeschooler that crafts? Do you have an etsy shop or sell your handmade items on your blog? Do you sew, bead, craft jewelry, crochet, mod podge, throw pottery...you get the idea. If so, please contact me! I'm looking for homeschool entrepreneuers to highlight on an upcoming series. You can email me at talktocheryl (at gmail dot com).

SpellQuizzer 24 Hour Sale - 60% Off!

I love SpellQuizzer! So I wanted to let you know about a great 24 hour sale this Thursday! On October 7th at Daily Deals SpellQuizzer will be offered at 60% off (only $11.95). All. Day. Don't miss out!

Revoking My Endorsement

I hate to do this. I really, really hate to do this. But since this issue affects my reputation as a blogger I feel I need to address it.

I am officially and publicly revoking my endorsement of Me Do Good T Shirts.

There are always two sides to every story. Because of that I encourage you to seek out the other side if you feel so inclined. Here's my side of the story:

• You may remember back in March (yes, March) I did a series, 31 Days to a Somewhat Crunchy YOU, where I shared tips on how to become somewhat crunchy.

• One of those tips was Support Something. I listed several ideas in that post, including Me Do Good T Shirts, who claims that you can purchase T shirts for wounded and recovering veterans at Walter Reed Medical Center. They will get the shirts (plus thank you cards) to the soldiers.

• They also offer other inspirational tees for schools and more.

• At the end of the 31 Days series I offered a multi-company giveaway worth over $100 in products. Brad at Me Do Good had offered and agreed to participate in the giveaway to raise awareness for his site by contributing one free T shirt, winners choice.

• A winner was chosen. A couple months after the contest the winner contacted me stating that she had not received 3 of the promised products.

• I contacted the 3 companies, 2 of which saw and apologized for their oversight and quickly remedied the situation. Brad at Me Do Good did not.

• Over the course of a couple months I emailed Brad at Me Do Good four times and DM'd him on Twitter at least twice. There was never a response from email or Twitter.

• At a loss for what to do (and giving the benefit of the doubt since I was dealing with a charity that may not have much money to work with) I purchased the desired T shirt for the winner. Me Do Good charged my credit card and accepted the $12 payment.

• Several weeks later the winner still had not received the T Shirt.

• Using my personal email address (which is different than the one I use for my blog, media etc.) I emailed Brad about the order.

• Brad responded in a timely manner, apologized for the delay, blamed it on moving locations and stated the shirt would be done that week. He also said he'd be in touch and let me know when it was to ship.

• That was 3 weeks ago. I have not heard from Brad and the winner still has not received her shirt.

So to sum it up, 6 months ago, Brad at Me Do Good offered and agreed to participate in a giveaway on my blog. The promised T Shirt was never sent to the winner. Emails from my blog email and DM's on Twitter were never responded to. About 6 weeks ago I ordered the promised T Shirt, paid for it in full and still did not receive it. When I inquired about the order, using a different email address, I received an apology and a promise for service. The T Shirt has still not been received.

All previous Me Do Good links and endorsements will be removed from this site.

According to the Me Do Good website, Brad works with certain gift coordinators to make sure the veterans receive the shirts do-gooders purchase with thankful hearts. Due to my experience I have to question whether veterans receive anything from this site.

I have called the gift coordinators, left a message and am waiting for a call back to verify the validity of the Me Do Good claims. I will update this page if/when I receive information.

1st Week of Preschool - Kindness

This week was Bram's first week of preschool!! Mine too actually. Fox went to preschool at a private Christian school, so this is new territory for me, and I think it's going to be FUN!

As I mentioned in my post about the biggun's school, this week was very disorganized. I couldn't even find the weekly plan I had meticulously written out...so we winged it.

Since we've had issues with over excited hitting and pinching (ahem) this week's theme was KINDNESS. Our stories included Ruth and Naomi (which we read over and over again from the Beginner's Bible) and The Rainbow Fish (I really do NOT like this book, but Bram does and it is a good illustration for sharing, so we used it.)

Our week revolved around stories, songs and crafts. Here's a peek at two of the crafts we did this week.

We worked with triangles so we made triangle fish, and we had to make rainbow fish too. They were made from white cupcake liners. Bram colored them with highlighters (because I couldn't find the markers *sigh*) then he was supposed to paint them with water to make the colors run so they'd look more rainbow-ish. But he didn't like it when the colors ran, so we skipped to step three which was drying them with a blow dryer. We finished them off with pieces of aluminum foil and wiggly eyes.

We also did Ruth and Naomi coloring pages, a construction paper ladybug and he had a great time helping Billy with mummifying an apple and making a jello mold cell.

It was a great first week. I think I'm really going to enjoy teaching preschool!!

Linked To:

Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeshchoolers

Tot School at 1+1+1=1

Weekly Wrap Up - Is It Pledge Week?

Seriously, I feel like it's been a week of hazing. This was the first week of our 2010/11 homeschool year and it was brutal.

Okay, it wasn't that bad, the kids were great but it was a bit stressful.

We returned late last Friday from a wonderful vacation. While we were gone the last minute curriculum I ordered had come in, I had to sort through and review it all. Add to that post-vacation laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping and exhaustion...and you can understand why I was so disorganized come Monday.

Well, that and the fact that my Dell mini crashed, I had loaded Homeschool Tracker on it and I don't think it could handle it.

But I'm no sissy! We were going to start school on Monday thankyouverymuch!

For the bigguns we stick to the basics, history, reading, math and science. Well, Billy did science. Fox and Tony's science is on CD Rom, we had it Monday morning, by Monday afternoon it had vanished and hasn't surfaced since. I pray we can find it this weekend.

All the boys joined in Billy's science projects. The first one was mummifying an apple. it's sitting in the 'mummy powder' now, we'll share the results next week once it's complete. The project that was the biggest success this week was making a cell model.

We used jello for the cytoplasm and different candies for the nucleus, mitochondria, golgi body, endoplasmic reticulum and more. They has a lot of fun with that, and it was yummy too!

So even though it was a bit stressful and completely disorganized, and my house looks like a bomb went off, I would call this week a raging success! We made it through our first week, Tony and Billy's first week of homeschool ever! YAY!

Stop by tomorrow when I share Bram's school week. Our theme was kindness and story highlights were Ruth and Naomi and The Rainbow Fish.