I ♥ Faces: "Hands On" Fun

The theme this week at I ♥ Faces is "Hands On". It's all about the hands.
I love chubby little toddler hands!!!
Check out more great photos at I ♥ Faces!!

The Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY: February16, 2010
Outside my window...the chickadees are happy that I filled the bird feeder. They have been visiting every day.

I am thinking...about what the future holds. Our upcoming move. Our cross-continent drive. Retirement from the Army in a few years. Lots on my mind. :)

I am thankful for...new stainless steel appliances :)

From the learning rooms...we're studying Renaissance artists this week. Fun!!!

From the kitchen...I'm making beef stew for dinner tonight.

I am wearing...PJ pants, a sweatshirt, and my new flip-flops

I am creating...nothing in particular at the moment.

I am going...nowhere today. We are actually staying home today and hopefully getting things done around the house.

I am reading...The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer

I am hoping...that our house sells soon. No showings for 2 weeks and I'm starting to get worried.

I am hearing...the sounds of my kids doing their math on the computer

Around the house...Since we haven't shown the house in 2 weeks, I've let things go a bit. I need to do some major cleaning again to get it ready in case we get a call.

One of my favorite things...sleeping in

A few plans for the rest of the week: World Thinking Day (Girl Scouts), Tae-Kwon Do testing for the kiddos, AWANA Bible Quiz. We have a busy weekend ahead of us...
Here is picture for thought I am sharing...(add your picture here)

To read more daybooks, visit: http://thesimplewomansdaybook.blogspot.com/

I ♥ Faces: Autumn Beauty

This week's theme at I ♥ Faces is Autumn Beauty.

I'm not exactly in the autumn mood right now. We're under snow and definitely into winter weather here in North Pole. It's supposed to get down to negative 35 tomorrow night. BRRRRR.

We had a pretty quick fall, which is normal for this area. This is my son, enjoying being buried in leaves :)

To join in the fun, head on over to I ♥ Faces!!

I ♥ Faces: Pink!

This week's theme is "pink", in honor of breast cancer awareness month. This is a picture of my daughter Tori, prancing around in her fairy costume last month. The weather has grown really cold here, so I'm hoping that the cute little pink skirt still fits her next summer when the snow melts!! :)
To join in the fun, or just check out all of the other great photos, go to www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com.

I ♥ Faces: Excited!

This week's theme at I ♥ Faces is Excited. Tori is excited any time she is given free reign of the yard. She was especially excited this day, because she got to explore the uncharted territory in the front yard. She normally gets to play in the fenced portion in the back. She felt so free!!!


Check out all the other great entries by visiting I ♥ Faces.

I ♥ Faces: Contemplative

This week's theme at I ♥ Faces is "Contemplative". This is my daughter Ellie, deep in thought. :) Head over to I ♥ Faces to join in the fun!

I ♥ Faces: Back to School Collage

This week's theme at I ♥ Faces is Back to School! Here is just a small slice of our homeschool, Island Academy. :) To join in the fun, visit I Heart Faces.

We Picture This: Reflections

When our snow melted this past spring, our entire backyard was full of puddles - and leaves from the previous fall. This is a picture of my daughter Lexie, trying to escape from the sogginess on the swing. :)

Click the above button to join in the fun!

Not Back to School Blog-Hop: Day-in-the-Life Week

This week is "A Day in the Life" over at Life With My 3 Boybarians.

Last year was pretty chaotic. My husband was in Iraq (he'll be coming home next month!!) and I was single parenting. We didn't have a lot of structure to our days. It was mostly just working until we got things done (in various different orders) and then driving around to dance and gymnastics and art and other classes.

This year will be a bit different. I have another student (Lexie is now 5 and doing full-time work) and my baby turned into a very active toddler. Andy will be home and we will have more of a "normal" schedule.

We have just finished 3 weeks of school. It has taken me this long to assess what we need to do as far as a schedule.

There are some subjects that we do together (history, art, read-alouds). There are some that the kids do independently (the older two do their math on the computer, Ellie does most of her writing assignments on her own, literature reading to themselves, etc.). And there are some that need to be one-on-one (spelling, language arts, math with Lexie, science with the younger two).

I have also had to figure out about how much time we need to spend on each subject. And what to do with the younger kids during school time.

This is a lot to consider. I think that I have finally come up with our schedule. Nothing is set in stone of course, because we have yet to actually try it out. We'll see if it works out by the end of this week!!!

I have decided to lump the one-on-one mom time into "meetings" with me. Each kid gets one individual meeting with me where I can give their spelling test, discuss things we're studying, give instructions for writing assignments, and help with whatever subject they can't do on their own. I am hoping that this will work out.

Before, I was jumping from kid to kid all at once - different subjects and different levels. It was pretty distracting. Kate has a very hard time concentrating if other people are talking and couldn't handle the noise of other people asking questions and making noise. I am hoping that this helps her out a bit too.

This is what our schedule will look like:


Ok, so I obviously haven't actually come up with a plan to keep Nick and Tori busy yet. :)

I'm hoping to just rotate toys, puzzles, and manipulatives with Nick to keep him actively doing something.

Tori is another story. She wants to move around A LOT now, but she still needs to be watched every second. She is pretty happy to be in the playroom, which adjoins our school area, so she will probably have to play in there for a good part of the morning.

I sure hope this works!!

P.S. The greatest thing that I have done this year is moved all of our extra-curricular activities to the afternoons. No more missing out on dinner at home - together!!

I ♥ Faces: Nostalgia

This week's them at I Heart Faces is Nostalgia.

This picture of my son Nick, just reminds me of summer when I was a kid. I can't even begin to imagine how many popsicles and otter pops I must have consumed. :)

I can't wait to look through everyone else's wonderful photos this week. Join in the fun at I Heart Faces!!

Come Shoot the Breeze With Me

So this is just a collection of various random thoughts and links that you might enjoy. If you want to shoot the breeze with other bloggers, then head on over to www.ClassicalHousewife.com and join in the fun.

*I am a BBC/Masterpiece Theatre fanatic. I enjoy almost all of them, with a few exceptions. I can't say that I liked Tess of the D'Urbervilles, but it was very well made. I just didn't enjoy the storyline (I hated the book too). I'm a happy ending kind of a girl. So, I was very pleased when this new movie came out on DVD. Little Dorritt is WONDERFUL. I've never read the book by Charles Dickens, but I added it to my reading list for this year, because it looks so good. And it has a happy ending. Watch it!

*The Lattice House. Every day, we pass "The Lattice House" (as we have nicknamed it) at least a couple of times and every time we pass it, it puts a smile on my face. The kids never tire of pointing it out. The house is COMPLETELY covered in lattice and has a matching lattice fence. It just cracks me up. I'm not sure if it was on sale, or if the man works in a lattice factory or what. It is very interesting though. :)

*What do you guys drive? I'm in a 2003 Ford Expedition. It's paid off, thankfully. I don't particularly want a car payment again, but I can't help salivating over those huge 15 passenger vans. They have so much room!! 5 kids and the double stroller and our truck is pushing capacity. We could actually fit groceries and stuff if we had a larger vehicle. I can't justify the price though. What we have works and has enough seat belts in it, so I will have to live with it for now.... I can dream though.

Not Back-to-School Blog Hop: School Pictures

Here are the kiddos:

Ellie, Grade 5, Age 10

Kate, Grade 2, Age 7

Lexie, Grade K, Age 5

Nick, Grade PK, Age 3

Tori, Age 1

Head on over to Life With My 3 Boybarians and join in the Not Back to School Hop :)

I ♥ Faces: Bubbles

Oh my goodness, I love taking pictures of bubbles!! They are so much fun! ☺

Quite a few times this summer, I have given the kids each their own bottle and let them blow them all over the yard while I tried to catch a few good shots.

I was able to get quite a few that made it look as if the whole kid was in the bubble. Those were fun, but I love the look on Lexie's face in this one. I wish I had gotten a reflection of the trees as I did in some of the other shots. :(

A lot of them turned out blurry. Between the bubbles drifting with the wind, me chasing the bubbles, and the kids trying to get behind a bubble, it was hard work getting a clear shot!!

Just a hint: try not to let the bubbles actually pop on your lens!!!!!!

To join in the fun, head on over to I ♥ Faces.

Not Back-to-School Blog Hop: School Room Week

School room, school house, converted space or at the dining room table… the world of academics takes place in all sorts of interesting places. Please show us where you do school, and check out how others make it work.

Welcome to our school room!!
It is located downstairs, along with the laundry room and a bedroom/play room.
It is very crowded full of books and supplies, but I am so thankful for this space. It allows me to keep the school-related stuff in one space (usually!).

First of all, we have books:And more books:
And even more books (also puzzles and games!):

And a shelf full of educational videos (luckily we still have a VCR/DVD player in one). There is a large filing cabinet under this which is full of art supplies and paper.
Then we have another shelf unit. The top shelf is for teacher manuals for the current year. The middle shelf has the kids' notebooks for each subject's work. The lower shelf has a bin for each of their workbooks and a white basket for the books we're reading this week. I move them from the bookshelf to this bin so that they are easier to keep track of . We also have a TV mounted to the wall so that he kids can watch TV down here.
I love the art carts (as we call them). I picked them up at Costco years back, but I think that they are available at JoAnn (but they are much more expensive there). They are full of drawers, which I have filled with art supplies. When the kids want to color, they pull out the crayon drawer, etc. It makes clean up much easier!

And another set of shelves, full of manipulatives, rock collections, puzzles, and miscellaneous stuff.


And one of the best garage sale buys I've ever made. An old dining room table. It is now covered in paint and stickers and tape. And I'm very thankful that my real dining room table isn't!! It also has 2 leaves that I could add if the rooms weren't so cramped.
I also have a humongous desk with my desktop computer and printer and a very large filing cabinet, which I keep all of my genealogy in. Like I said, the room is cramped - and not very decorated. :( I wish that it were a bit more cheery :) In the winter, it can get pretty dark down here in the basement. I have just recently bought a lamp that simulates the sunlight which I placed on the table. I'm hoping that this helps out a bit.

Next to our school room is the playroom (which now also has a toddler bed in it). I put the baby gate up and I let Tori and Nick play in there while we are hard at work.
That's it! We're moving to Savannah, Georgia next spring, and I'm hoping that we are able to find a house that has some extra space for all of our homeschooling stuff. It will be interesting getting it all moved and set up again.

Thanks for stopping by! I can't wait to tour everyone else's homeschool rooms.

I ♥ Faces: Crazy, Silly, Funny Face

This week's theme at I ♥ Faces is Crazy, Silly, Funny Face. Lexie is definitely the one that always wants her picture taken. She is constantly sticking her tongue out or tilting her head and making her eyes go buggy. She is a goofball.

This picture almost gives me the creeps since it makes her look like she has a gigantic upper lip. :)

To join in the fun and look at everyone else's wonderful pictures, visit www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com

I ♥ Faces: Feet Week

This week's theme at I ♥ Faces is Feet.

I love my kids feet. Especially when they are dirty from being barefoot in the backyard :)

To join in the fun, or just to look at all of the wonderful entries this week, go to: www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com

I ♥ Faces: Let's Hear it For the Boys (Kids)

Looking through my photos, I realized that I really don't have that many boy pics! I have one boy and 4 girls, and my son usually moves too quickly for me. He either ends up blurry or I get a picture of the back of his head. He is 3, so I guess it's to be expected!

This is one I took of him last year, after he was done eating Nutella on toast. Who doesn't like Nutella?? Yum!
To browse through everyone's photos, go to www.iheartfacces.blogspot.com