Keeping It Simple

Lots of baby care around here as the boys' big sister (our second daughter, Jessica) was having her fifth baby. It was a week full of sword fighting, cuddles, disney movies, books, and coloring. It's also been a week full of colds. The 2 year old twins had a cold, which I assume James caught from them (although every one in the world seems to have it, so not necessarily). The problem is that no matter how many times I caution the boys, who can resist cuddling with a sweet little toddler who does not feel well? I guess germs are meant to be shared. In the way of school, we have been in "keep up" mode. Paul's strongest focus is on his Dave Ramsey finance class (which I highly recommend), his Spanish class, and his economics course. http://www.daveramsey.com/store/search.ep?keyWords=homeschool http://www.livinglanguage.com/languagelab/spanish  (I cannot recommend this highly enough. The books and cds make it easy to open and go. Additionally, the...

Successes-  Did not let the house fall apart- we did what I call "hold the line". You know, no progress was made, but we did not backslide. Not Successes- I am bound and determined that things shall move forward around here. Not so much this week. On to next week!! Day by Day:  Monday:  We host Geometry class here each week (taught by my daughter- you can look her business up at "Ralston Tutoring"). Paul, my 16 year old, and 3 additional homeschool students meet here each week to muddle through Geometry. Actually, they are all doing very well! We also host a general math class of just 2 students including my son, Mark, after Geometry. During this time, at least 2 of my daughter's kids hang out while their mom is teaching- occasionally all 4 of them are here. These are "Monday" pictures- not all from this Monday,  but I like to give a visual. :)  Tuesday: This is "Theater Fun" day. I head out with James...

A friend of mine passed away on Tuesday. She was a homeschool mama of 5 who homeschooled through chronic illness. She was very well educated (but not at all pretentious), kind, fun, funny, and a bit blunt. We connected a little more when we discovered "hey, you have a blog!". Tricia would have become a blogger of considerable force, but things like taking care of her kids, taking care of herself (no easy task), and being a wife took priority. I have to admit that the first thing I wanted to do when I heard of Tricia's passing was to crawl into bed, pull the covers up, and not get up for a very long time. But, one thing Tricia did was keep on going. Through so much. She complained only in the sense that she was frustrated, she wanted to do more. To be more for her family. I have to honor that. So, I got up (I let myself have one morning to wallow for just a few hours) and I got going. I love this post that Tricia wrote. It is very honest. - http://adobecreekacademy...

Monday - Beach Day My sister and her 5 children, 2 of my daughters and their children, and I with 2 of my boys headed to the beach to try and stretch our summer just a bit longer. Tuesday- First Day of Theater Fun (James) Wizard of Oz Junior, here we come! Try outs were on this day. Next Tuesday, the fun begins. Wednesday-  Children's Zoo, First Day Back to Volleyball Class (Paul),  Paul's Crazy Social Life James and I headed out first thing in the morning to visit our local children's zoo. We are members so that we can take grandchildren, yet have not gone on our own in years. But this was member's early entrance morning and we thought it would be fun to go hang out for an hour or so. The highlight of the morning was watching the Fossa eat breakfast. Eew.  I don't have pictures of Paul's adventures. As a homeschool parent, I don't want my child to feel deprived, but sheesh! This kid needs to start driving (almost ...

In my life… This is an odd collage. This caught our early morning arrival home from mass on the 1st where I think my boys are actually still asleep in spite of having alter served AND my dear dear husband helping to get our little house cleaned up.  Which leads to the "in my life" portion of this post... our youngest daughter is getting MARRIED . So after mass my sleepy head boys and morning owl husband pitched in with me to get the house straightened up for the arrival and meeting of our daughter's future in-laws. Crazy!!  That is them! Erin and Nick.  In our homeschool… We have been working hard on the basics with a strong dose of baby care thrown in. We have also hired a tutor to help our oldest son with some of his school.  Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share... In regards to the above, I was at a homeschool conference years ago when a "veteran homeschool mom of many" told a group of rapt newbie moms, me included, th...