My Mommy Kisses The Principal

The weather here is Texas has been amazing this week. Well two weeks actually. I love that the days are filled with sunshine and brightly colored flowers in bloom or still budding. It just seems like the whole yard is alive. ;) Then there are the wonderful nights and occasionally days filled with deep rumbling of thunder. Oh and loud. I have live a great many places but, I have to say that I like the thunderstorms in Texas the best.
Now that the weather is becoming so wonderful we have begun doing some much needed yard work. I have great plans for my yard this year. We are also making plans for this years garden. I need to get a start on it since planting starts very soon here. We are thinking Tomatoes of course, lettuce, garlic, scallions ( I am a total addict), some herbs, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, pumpkin, watermelon, eggplant, carrots, that is what is on the diagram for now we have a few more slots so not sure what we are gonna fill it there. Oooooh, oooooh, squash yummy. Then on the other side of the yard we have two peach trees which are wonderful producers, we have a fig tree oh soooooo yummy,we also have a small patch of black berries that we want to expand, and we want to add blueberry bushes and strawberries.

This week for Sunday dinner we had the most amazing pork roast I have ever made. Oh man I let it cook for 4 wonderful smelling hours and boy was it worth it. It was so soft and juicy :::drooling::: just remembering it. Oh and the best part I got it on sale!! .88 cents a pound. I cooked the whole thing, but I saved ½ for another week.
Sunday menu:
Roast pork
Parsley buttered new potatoes
fresh green beans
Rolls

I used some of the left overs from Sunday to make pork fried rice yesterday for a quick dinner along with some homemade miso soup.

School has been going a little differently this week. Next week is our spring break so the kids are a bit excited and preoccupied with plans of what they are going to be doing next week. We also had our Spanish tutor come twice this week and that added to the mix. Then Safety girl who is now wanted to be called coupon girl (I'll explain in a min) asked me if she could make me a deal. So the deal was that she wanted to completely finish unpacking her room and clean it and get it all done so that she would not have to work on it during her spring break. So she did and WOW!! I am just so proud of the job she did. She had no help at all and she made that room look amazing. Now she wants to paint it so that it looks like a research lab. LOL. Today (Thursday) Art girl (my oldest daughter) asked if she could do the same and she is working on her room as we speak. On the other days this week the kids have each picked a subject and did the entire weeks work in one day. It was a nice change up for them. So this week has been strange but wonderful.

Ok I did tell you I would explain coupon girls new nick name oh and we have coupon lad. Art girl says that she is just not interested in helping. ;) That is ok she about to turn 12 and loose her mind for the next couple of years so, it is all good. I started playing the Coupon Game three weeks ago and I am having a blast. I LOVE going into the store and having the register ring up 135.00 and then I scan my card and my coupon and the bell begins you know that sound right?? when you at the register and a transaction is made it makes that little sound. Well, last week (only my second time ever of using coupons) I was at Kroger and the register said 135.00 then I handed my coupons and savings card over to the cashier and watched it go down, down,down. My final out of pocket cost was... ready?? 72.00 Yes folks that is 63.00 dollars in savings!! Woohhhooooo. Oh man I was just beaming when I left the store. I felt like I had really spent my money wisely. I also so the coupons for CVS and then I get what ever else I can not find any where else or what is the cheapest at Walmart last. My cabinets are just filling up. If any of you gentle readers are coupon guru's please let me know I would love to pick your brain. BBBWWWWAAAHHHHHAAAAA!!
I hope all of you are having wonderful weeks too.
Look for a new recipe VERY soon.

Haven't we all wanted our own theme music?? No?? It's just me them huh?? Well I have thought about this and I would want mine to be funny and quirky. I want one that would make people smile kinda like the song The Candy Man Can from Charlie and Chocolate factory the original one with Gene Wilder. Not that song in particular, but one that makes you feel happy or smile or give you fond memories. If you had a theme song what would it be?? Would you want something more super heroish?? Or maybe you would be more like a peaceful Enya song anyway you get the picture. I for one thing it would be great. I will let you know as soon as I remember the song that my family said that need to have as mine. I love that I can't remember what it was. See, I need a funny and quirky song. ;)

I know it has been quite a while since I have posted to my blog. With all the stress of the past 8 months and many, many times not having anything nice to say about what was going on I decided that the old saying “if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all” was the better path to travel. That is mind I know that most of you are not used to checking my blog for posts so I am looking forward to hearing from you all again. I really love your comments and feedback on my posts. ;)

Now that you have rediscovered me and I know that you have if you are reading this LOL, let me give you a little catch up on whats been happening with the family and I.

Some of you will remember that my brother in-law and my niece and nephew came to stay with us for a “few weeks” till they got settled into their own place back in June of 2009. Well on February 2010 they moved into their new home!! It was a rough 8 months to say the least. All buried hatchets aside, I am so VERY happy to announce that we have our home back and that our family unit is functioning like the well oiled machine that we are!! You know I really never appreciated just how wonderful it is to be able to pee with the door unlocked or open a crack or to be able to go from the bathroom to the bedroom in a towel cus you forgot some article of clothing when you took a shower. I cherish it I really, really do.

OK so what have we been up to?? At the end of August we began the new school year full of excitement and wonder. I also added two rather difficult students to my classroom with hopes of change and dreams of them getting into the groove and falling into line.

In September we were off and running. One of the coolest fun activities I got for the kids (OK it was really for me, but don't tell any one) was an eraser making kit!! It was so much fun. There was plenty of clay for everyone our kit came with 8 colors and there were 6 of us making erasers so we cut each color into equal parts so everyone would have some of each color. There was lot of trading as the boys did not want any of the pink color and gladly traded for other colors. With my pieces of color I was able to make a turtle, a starfish, a flower, a yin yang, and a couple that were just fun creations. Then we just baked them in the oven for about 5-7 mins for small ones and 10-12 for larger ones. It could not have been simpler. The kit was about 10 dollars at Walmart. I am still using my erasers. I also loved that no one has argued about who's eraser is who's at all this year. Gotta love that.

I also started implementing Charlotte Mason into my curriculum this year. I can not tell you how much I love it. We are also using the workbox method loosely, but we use the schedules and a lot of the methods. We could not be happier and holy moly does work get done quick around here.

October was almost unbearable in it's stress level so in all honesty October was a big blur. So nothing to report on October. ;) We did begin to have a reprieve from the stress as two of my students began public school and I was free to run my school as I always had. It is wonderful.

November was our Anniversary this make year 15. Wow!! I am so happy with the man God found me and put in my path then hit me with a steam truck till I figured out he was the one God had intended for me. LOL For our anniversary Julie “took” us out to dinner. We went to this very charming little place in Tyler called The Basil Tia Cafe. Oh it was so yummy.

In December we began planning for our trip to RI. This was the first time my girls had ever been to RI and it was also the first time they could remember flying. We did find ourselves with mixed emotions about going on vacation and leaving our pets and home in the care of others. I am happy to report that almost everything went off without a hitch. The house was trashed when we got back it took us a week to get it all cleaned and back to normal. We were also heartbroken to find out the our foster bird Stormy had passed away. We had a lovely funeral for him. Back to the vacation. While in RI we did tons of stuff we went to the Boston museum of Science!! It was amazing. One of the best things that came of that trip was for only 5 that is right 5 dollars more we were able to obtain a family pass to a ton of museums all across the U.S (many right here in driving distance from our house). Or so we thought it was going to be 5 dollars more it turns out that the extra exhibits that we choose to attend had made the bill more, but with the family pass there were a bunch of discounts and it actually saved money. Yes folks we got a ton more stuff and paid a fair chunk less!! Yippee for frugality. ;) The museum was so big that were not able to see the whole thing. Honestly we just did not have time to see the whole thing and oh man almost every exhibit had interactive stuff to do. You could make a vacation just going to that museum. We went to the New England aquarium. What a wonderful afternoon that was. It is really a wonderful place. The center of the aquarium is a giant circular tank. Each floor wraps around the tank and on the outer walls are tank after tank of awesomeness. Of course the sushi jokes were running rampant. The kids played in the snow every chance they got!! We had a lot of fun slinging snow. There was a wonderful huge family Christmas dinner. Lot's a family I had not seen in a long time. I loved it. Lukas got to go to the Naval War Museum in Newport RI. He is still talking about how much fun he had there. One of the highlights of our trip was to go to my Aunt Claudette's art studio!! She is amazing she teaches art to her students or so she says what she actually does is inspire you to express your self in art. She is so much more than a teacher of art she gives you an understanding of a technique then she pulls out your imagination to make it your own and to make something truly from your heart. We loved every min we were in her studio.

January we returned home like I said it above. We had a lot going on in January. We got our house ready for us again. That meant switching rooms so everyone had their own rooms again and writing up new chore charts and getting new schedules in working order. Then there was the sad afternoon of my sister in-law's day of passing anniversary. Then was my father in laws birthday cake number 1. Then was my nieces birthday cake number 2. Then of course my Lukas turned 17 and we had cake number 3 and a Chinese food buffet.

If you want to know what has been going on if February keep check my blog cus I will be posting again VERY soon.

To those of you who follow my blog and blog yourselves you know how important it is to your readers that you address their thoughts and comments. With that in mind I am doing just that.

Before I do I want to congratulate Judy's daughter on her wonderful and momentous occasion she is receiving her confirmation!!!!!!! We here at our house are sooooo excited for her. What a wonderful and blessed event for them. HUGS from our family to yours Judy!!

Next, I want to let everyone know that pictures of the new classroom are close at hand. We will be completely done this weekend!! We are having so much fun constructing our classroom. There was a lot of work to do.

We went to the library in our new town this week and everyone got library cards. For the girls this was their first time as they have always checked out books on our family card.
We went to the wonderful thrift store in town this week too. I got some really cute stuff. I was even blessed with finding a few homeschool books that I did not own and an earth science curriculum!! I got these two really cute jars one with lemons painted on it and the other with grapes.

As, we are preparing for guests to come visit us,(I am so excited to be having company) we are tossing lots of items that we really no longer need so I am very excited that we are gonna be blessing the thrift store with items we no longer need.

We adopted out four of the kittens so, we have 4 more that need to go. We have happily choosen 4 kittens to stay and become part of our family. Please help me welcome: Chloe, lazer kitty, Sir Didimouse, and bubba-ho-tep.

We got a very special treat today!! Julie and her family sent us goodies form Japan. We have had a blast all day with the goodies we got. Thank you Julie.

My son and I are looking forward to meeting with our online book club to discuss the new chapters of our Sherlock Holmes book.
I will also be posting pictures of our DNA experiment. I encourage you to do the experiment as it is very fun. I love when learning can be fun. ;)

I am really into casseroles this month. I will be posting recipes of our favorite casseroles all this month. I ask you to please post your favorite casseroles either here on the comments or on your blog with a link to it in your comment.

Ok, if you are still with me. Thank you!! ;) Now, it is time to address a comment an anonymous poster made. As you all know I am very open to others. (ok some of you say I am liberal ;)) With that in mind I saw this comment and I wanted to address her concerns. A blog without it's readers is just a diary. But, a blog with readers is an outlet and a place to share. With sharing comes views that may not always agree with each other. Hence the argle bargle article. I was going to post the comment in the comment section where it belongs instead of wasting time on a post but, I am incredibly long winded and I over shot the maximum of characters you can have in a comment by 400. So, I decided that was a blog post and not a comment. ;)
I honestly hope that the poster comes back so, I am responding. If she does not that is ok. I still responded and that is what is important. With out further ado here goes:

Dear Anonymous,

First and foremost, let me welcome you to my blog, which showcases my feelings and life and topics of interest to me and any one else who might enjoy them as well. ;) I encourage you to read more than just the two posts you read. There are lots of fun posts here even if I do say so myself. (giggle, giggle). Also, if you want to put comments on my blog, I encourage it! But, I would also like to make it very clear here and now that this is MY personal blog so, my opinion counts here. (I hope this fact gives you a little better understanding on how a personal blog works.) One thing I want to make clear is, to have a discussion, as webster defines it, is 1) a consideration of a question in open and usually informal debate 2) a formal treatment of a topic in speech or writing. I love good discussions and appreciate differences of opinion. A key to having a good discussion is being respectful of others' feelings and views. I was respectful and did not use names and slander or name calling with regard to the person who argle bargled me, nor the site this all took place. I also made the classy decision NOT to copy and paste anything from the site I referred to in my blog post. I made my original post to that discussion on that site in a format that was discussable. I have also made my post to my blog site discussable and you have made your comment in a form that can not be discussed.

Now to address the comment you left here. ( I am however, wondering if you are going to come back and read my reply or if you are a post and run kind of gal). 1. "I don't know if you are a Christian, but it is important to be honest." I sincerly hope that you are not implying that only Christians are honest or that if someone is a Christian they are automatically honest (this logic will bite you in the butt one day if it has not already). I know people of all- faiths, baha'i, muslim, catholic, non-denominational, etc. and some who are just not sure what they believe yet, agnostic, etc., who are very honest and upstanding and wonderful people. I do not feel that I have to convince any one of my belief system. I don't believe that I should shove my beliefs on ANYONE. I believe in letting GOD shine through me and that he can do ANY/EVERY thing. I purposely do not shout out my beliefs on my blog or anywhere else. I like to be open to all people I cherish them for who they are not because they know the secret handshake. I also know in MY heart that God wants me to simply shine. 2. "several things in your post were not true." Please back up your accusation with facts. I simply cannot reply to your opinion if I don't know what it is. As hard as it is to believe I am not a mind reader. If you wish to email me your accusations in concrete proofs, a classy choice to protect the identity of the person as well as the site, I will address them. This would, most likely, reveal your identity to me, however, when you want to accuse someone of being DIShonest, you really should have the courtesy of giving your name. It is a shame that the tone in which the person responded to me on that discussion was not clear to you. You don't have to use CAPS to be yelling at someone online, the tone says a lot. She really was NOT "fairly respectful" in her reply as you stated in your comment. But, since I didn't mention the website address or specific online group name, it makes sense that you are probably also a member of the group and most likely a friend of the person, so your perception of what she posted or what I posted may be skewed.

Finally, I would like to mention these last few things, according to the TOS notice posted within the discussion we refer to, it was in fact posted incorrectly. There was to be a specific tag in the subject line. For the topic to be considered for discussion, it most likely should have been more open ended, versus opinionated. If opinionated, then tagged per the TOS notice. As for the controversial issues unrelated to homeschooling? There absolutely should be controversial issues and unrelated to homeschooling isn't a bad thing either, however, they should be labeled appropriately.

In closing: as for how I felt? It is my feeling and blog site. There is nothing "untruthful" about my post, I am, however, open to listen to specifics you may wish to address and if needed, will make corrections.

Have a great day ALL!! ❤❤

Wow!! The countdown is upon us. Ten days left till the move. It is really exciting to be moving into a new house.

The kids will all have their own rooms!! My new kitchen is really lovely. The kitchen I am in now is well, crappy. Honestly, the fridge clicks when ever it goes into a cycle as it is about to die and our lease says that they do not have to replace it. It is really old and very energy wasteful. Our utility bills are horrendous. In the hot months of the summer we pay just over 400.00 for a monthly electric bill!! In the new house the highest electric bill in the hottest months of the year has been 200.00!! The rent is a lot less than what we are paying now. I can not tell you how blessed we feel about this.

I have not even told you the best part yet..... ready...... We will be living very close to lots of relatives. Having been a military family for most of our marriage, we have never really lived near family. So, this is going to be a truly wonderful experience. I am also excited to be able to have some animals like goats and rabbits oh yeah and chickens. We have a plot of land big enough for a nice size garden. Oh my goodness I am going to turn into farmer Jane. *LOL*

We are even going to be able to get high speed internet (my husband needs it for his job). I was so dreading the thought of having dial up aaaakkkkkk. While high speed internet does not come cheep in rural Texas it is a job expense and we will be able to claim it on our taxes next year.
My in-laws who live across the street from us are truly wonderful people. Grandpa is so excited that he will be able to take the kids fishing and other fun grandpa stuffs. Grandma is excited to be able to pass on her love of crafting not only to my girls who love any and every craft they can get their hands on but, I am also happy that I will be learning some wonderful crafts too.

The quality of my photo's will be improving as well. I know you are all excited by this. he he he.... this is because my in-laws have a digital camera that we will be able to borrow/use when ever we want. My goal is: as I get each room all set up and situated the way we want it, I will then take pictures for you all. Kinda like taking "the 50cent tour" only virtually.

We will even have room for a classroom. WOW!! I love typing that. We do school at the table and on the couch and on beds and well, where ever we feel comfy. ;) I am sure that will not change. We will have a classroom with a full size chalk board, to go with our dry erase board, and plenty of room to start projects and leave them out while they dry or if they need to be worked on for more than one day.

I am so thankful for the internet. When my husband and I went to our first base as a married couple we did not have internet. AOL was the only internet then and they still charged by the hour!! So we had the phone (which can get pretty darn expensive) and snail mail. OH man snail mail was such a treat as a young Navy wife. When in military housing we all knew if some one's spouse was deployed so when some one got a letter we would all be so happy for them. Wives are also known to call all their friends when they got a letter or a package. ;) I am so thankful that the military is able to offer it's members e-mail and web cams so that the distance is not so bad and that children can see their parent. How amazing that truly is. (sorry, I was on a tangent there for a few mins)

Please keep our move in your prayers. God had truly blessed this move so far and we are very tankful to him. You know some times I think it is really important to thank God publicly for the blessing that he is giving you. It is also a good thing to share when God has helped you through some thing tough or challenging. This move is tough and challenging for me. Last time we lived in rural Texas I hated it. I was miserable. I just have so much peace about it this time. I know that we are doing the right thing. I am also thankful that God has blessed me with the friends I have made on the homeschool lounge and for returning a friend to me Julie. So, thank you God for your blessings and the challenge of following you.

Have a great day every one I will try to keep you all updated during the move.

Wow!! What a long day today has been. With a visit from Nana looming on the horizon our house was all a twitter with anticipation and frantic cleaning. LOL There was no use in trying to do school work today after all who can be expected to sit and concentrate on school work when their Nana will be available for hugging in just one day.

I hope you all like the new look of my blog. It was my first attempt at changing the look to something other than a canned template. Well folks, let me tell you in my attempt there were gasps of "oh my goodness I lost my profile" and "where in the heck did my followers go" and of course there was "Baby?? Are you busy I think I just ruined my blog". LOL I am happy to say that I learned a lot from the experience.

I got a new laptop!! Well, new to me at least. A family member gave it to us. It is a little slow compared to the one my husband has and I am used to but, it's mine all mine. Bwwaaahaaaahaaaaa Ok so I guess it's pretty evident that I am not a very good sharer. ;)

I just have to say how much I love the Netflix subscription that mother was kind enough to give us as a family Christmas present. We love the instant watch section. We have lots of fun watching the MANY documentaries they have a very pleasant addition to our Friday school schedule. My kids really like the cartoons (they even have ones that my husband and I watched as kids) and there is even a faith/religion section. I have had a wonderful time watching "keeping Up Appearances" and the "Munsters" this past week.

I just have to tell you a little more about our new kitty Marmalade. She climbed into bed with us last night!! She loves to be pet. She learned how to use the litter box in 2 days. She is funny as all get out when she plays with her toy mouse. I am really happy that we decided to take her in.

As you all know we will be moving soon. Well, my husband was pretty worried about what we were gonna do for an income. Today he called his boss and explained that we would be moving soon and that he would really like to keep his job and was there anyway that he could work from our new house (a 4 hour drive from where we are now). His boss said "funny you should ask that, I just got the word that the company wants our division to work from home". My husband was so happy. When my husband got off the phone with his boss and told me what was going on he said "Isn't it awesome how when you are doing what God wants you to do he takes care of all the details for you." I am so happy that the Lord is really giving us peace about this and that he is really putting all the pieces in place.

Well, thats all I have to say tonight but, I'll be back in tomorrow. ;)