My Mommy Kisses The Principal

What an outstanding week I have just had!! I was able to attend the Heart of the Matter homeschool online conference. It was great. The best part is that I won the tickets to go. The Old Schoolhouse Magazine has a fanpage on facebook and, a week or so ago they had a contest where you explained why you would give a ticket to the conference to a friend. So, I told them about my friend Julie, who has not figured out the super secrete hand shake that the homeschoolers on her base are currently using. So she is feeling pretty alone an isolated. I mean she does get to talk to me all the time. Hmmm what more could she need. LOL I am hoping that she meets a nice family or three so she can have some companionship. I love getting to be her friend but, I am sure that having someone right there to be able to trade childcare with or maybe trade curriculum or just let the kids or them hang out would be so fantastic. Ok, back to the conference. The conference started each morning at 8:15 am. I am not a morning person so, this part was a little hard for me. ;)

Monday: morning session was one of my faves I have followed her blog for quite some time now, Sheila Wray Gregoire. Let me tell you, she really is a dynamic speaker. She left me rejuvenated and inspired. I can't wait to be able to download the mp3's of all of the speakers. The seminar hostesses also said that they would be making all the public chats available as well. I am very glad about that because I saw lots of links in the chat but it moved so fast I was not able to write them all down.
Mid morning was:Dana Hanley and she talked about Developing an Educational Philosophy. I enjoyed her session as well. I am now hard at work in fine tuning my educational philosophy.
There were two afternoon sessions but, I choose to download them at a later date.

Tuesday: the morning session was Trusted With Trouble, Belinda Bullard. I was still pretty tired and groggy but, it was great. I am glad that I woke up to listen to it. Next on tuesday came, The Natural Approach to Teaching Thinking Debbie Strayer. Mrs. Strayer had a really great message but she spoke so fast that we were all left dazed and confused. I will happy that when I download the mp3 I will be able to slow it down. I am orginaly from new England so I know how to talk fast and to listen to people talk fast but, this was just speed reading. I will probably be able to give you a much more favorable view after I listen to her seminar on mp3. There were again more but, I chose to listen to them at a later date.

Wednesday: WOW, WOW, WOW. What a jam packed day wednesday was. I enjoyed all 4 speakers. I took a little nap at lunch time. Here was the awesometastic quartet.
How To Teach Kids About Money (When You’re Not Doing So Great Yourself) Carol Topp – very strait forward and super informative.
The Dateless Lesson Planner (A Workshop on Preventing Anarchy) Linda Hobar I really enjoyed this. I love the concept of planning your school days / life but, instead of scheduling the plans with out actual dates. So no stress. As long as you get to it you are good to go. ;)
Workbox System: An Easy Approach to Optimize and Organize your Homeschool from Preschool to High School Sue Patrick – I can not say enough about this wonderful lady. I am going to glean every thing I can from her. I highly recommend you learn more about her fantastic system.
Seeing and Being – Your role in shaping the lens through which your child sees the world Graham Scharf – my hubby had to use the computer. I do look forward to listening to the mp3 of this one too. I did not get to hear much but, what I did here was terrific.

Thursday: I listened to the morning sessions and they were wonderful!! first was, Read Hebrew Today by Evonne Mandella – I was simply amazed by the how easy and accomplish-able she made Hebrew seem. I definitely recommend you look into her method if you are considering Hebrew, Greek, or Russian. I also love that she is very punny. ;)

The Best Online Tools Karin Katherine – Karin had a lot of resources for any one. Even seasoned internet junkies could find some new tools.

Katherine's online tools session has inspired me to organize my online links and tools. I'll let you know how that goes. It will take a few weeks it is definitely not an afternoon or even a weekend thing.


That brings us to Friday. Friday's speakers were all just wonderful. Here was the line up:
Nurturing Excellent Writers and Speakers – The Power of Linguistic Patterns Andrew Pudewa – I totally overslept and missed this one. Gotta love those mp3's.
Nature Study: Connecting Children With Creation Lisa Lewis-- This one was near and dear to my heart. I really enjoyed this one. I just know I will be listening to it again and again.
Science: It Can Be the “Fun” Subject Leah Nieman-- How interesting it was to hear the story of how Currclick had formed. Leah really has an affinity for science. Her ideas on how to organize your science area were wonderful. I hope you utilize currclick's weekly newsletter which has at least one free resource each week. Oh and did you know that currclick is now offering live online classes. Great prices too.
Developing Leadership in Your Teens Cara Putnam-- I think this was more geared towards preping your children for missions but, the message that came across for me was to be open to what ever God has planned for your children and for your children to be open.

After the last session the organizers gave out a list of all the winners of the door prizes. The list will be posted on the Heart of The Matter website on Monday. I won a year subscription to Home Education Magazine!! I am really excited.

In preparation of our new school year, I have made a new chore spreadsheet (Julie taught me the fun of spread sheets). I am really liking it. If a chore does not get done I just look on the fridge and know exactly who was responsible. Just a quick funny, on Tuesday my husband (who likes to sound all mean and gruff but, is really not) was griping about how the filtered water container in the fridge had not been filled and oh man no tea either. He was working up to giving a lecture when some one said well, whose day was it?? About 5 mins latter after we heard no more from Dad, we asked who it is that was “in trouble”. No one my hubby said. We all got up and went to check the chart I mean who had escaped the lecture?? It was DAD!! He had not done his chores. So now every one really likes checking the chart. Now that the chore spreadsheet is up and running a proving to be a success I do believe that one for the classroom and school work is in order.

This week I also purchased a large portion of our school books. Just a little bit more to go. I am leaning very heavily towards the Charlotte Mason. Ok leaning is an understatement. I am there I love the concept I love the ideals. I am just having a little bit of trouble jumping in on my own. So this year I am buying all my supplies with the Charlotte Mason method in mind. I will be posting my curriculum choices and schedule here this week.
How about you, how is your new school year going to be organized?? Will you do every subject every day?? What subjects will you cover?? How much time do you allocate for each subject?? (I am particularly curious about this one) I hope that you will make a post about this this week or in the coming weeks and link to it here in the comments.

Just a quick update on what we have been up to.
We school year round so, we have been keeping on our schedule. So, no change there.
My brother in-law and my niece and nephew are living with us for a while. So, now there are three adults, one teen (with green hair), one preteen, and three rambunctious wild little ones. It is an adjustment but, it is very nice to spend the time with them. They are very sweet and loving.

My peach trees were so heavy with peaches we had to use a crutch to hold the branch up. I froze at least 20 pounds of peaches. My fig tree has started producing figs. So far I have prepped and frozen about 5 or so pounds of figs. I have also been eating figs topped with caramelized onions and goat cheese wrapped in ham and then baked in the oven for a few mins. SOOOOOOOOOO yummy!! I am going to try to make my own fig newtons. I love fig newtons but I find them dry and the seeds in them kinda yucky. ;) (yes yucky is the technical term)
We finished our Sherlock Holmes and are now reading Mossflower by Brian Jacques, for bookclub. So far I am really enjoying it. Since the reading comprehension on this book is at about 5th grade level my oldest Daughter has joined this session of bookclub.
I have been on an organization binge. I just can not get enough of organizing. I even got a super cool Label Maker. The Dymo Letratag. I love it!! I really want the Managers of Their Homes, Chores, Homeschools book series. If you have any organization tips or tricks feel free in fact pretty please leave me a comment or a link to a post about them. ;)
All the pets are doing just fine. September starts the first round of kitties getting fixed. Sir Didamis and Bubba-hotep are first. Star has made sure all the pets as well as us all know that she rules the roost.

I am having a cookie making party here at the end of the month. I am really excited this will be my fist time meeting with the members of the homeschool group I have chosen to join. We are making the cookies to bring to the fire station on our field trip in September. If all works out I would like to open my house up for a cooking co-op this school year.
I have been offered by the Tyler gourmet store to teach cooking classes!! I am pretty excited. The only problem is it is like 40 miles away. Uggg long drive to teach a class. We shall see what happens with that. At least I know were to get awesome stuff like truffle oil and premium olive oil and chocolate truffles.
That is all that I can remember for now.
Till next time,
Haley and the chain gang!! ;)

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!! ❤❤

Helloooooooooooooooo every one!! What a chill we have had here in East Texas this week. I hope that all my friends/readers (you are all my friends) are not having to battle to much with the sickness that has plagued families this winter. I have been hearing talk of just terrible “bugs” that people are getting this year. I have been very blessed to that we have had two runny noses and two with sore throats each occasion only lasting a few days and that is it!! PTL. Speaking of not feeling well, please lift of Judy from benmakesten her father is ill and she and her siblings are at his bedside praying over him. Another prayer request if you don't mind. Julie and her family are moving to Japan as you all know. Well, her husband is due to report so VERY soon and they have no tickets issued to them yet. While I know for a FACT that Julie secretly wants to stay with me for a bit longer, I would like for you all the pray that they get their tickets all taken care of and that their trip is safe and uneventful. (ok, I have to confess that I would not mind at all if they have to come here and stay while they wait for tickets to meet up with her hubby)
Oh yeah please pray for housing to open up there for them. Living in a hotel for months at a time is not very fun at all. I was a military wife once and I remember all to well what it is like. All righty then that is all of the requests I can think of right now. OHH nope please pray for a job for Bobbi's husband. Truly that is all for right now. If you think of any please feel free to let me know and I will add them to my list.

On Wednesday Lukas and David went back to the city so Lukas could attend his permaculture class. He had a great time. They are home safe and sound. Speaking of permaculture Lukas started his first compost pile!! If any of you have successful compost piles and want to offer any advice/helpful hints we would love to hear them. He has also picked the spot that he wants to till for our garden. This weekend if it is dry enough he will be tilling it with the help of my brother in-law. (you know I will be taking pictures of my son's first time using the tiller)

I am happy to announce that in just a few short weeks we will be getting our chickens!! Yippee. We are getting about 8 of them. We have been enjoying fresh eggs from my in-laws chickens, so yummy. MMMMMMMM chicken. LOL Now I have visions of chickens in the pot cooking. Enchalada's, roasted chicken dinner, chicken pot pie, fried chicken, I better stop now. Ha ha ha... I guess I am gonna have to start getting on track and posting recipes more often. ;)

Our foster pets are settling in very well. You all saw a picture of Star isn't she a cutie?? Now it is time for you to meet Stormy our foster parakeet. He is such a talker. He loves to chat to us while we are watching tv. He also loves to dance. It is so cute to see him jammin' out and
getting all jiggy with it when ever music is played. Though I have to admit he only dances to music he likes. I like the music he has chosen though. Stormy does some really neat tricks. Not only does he talk, he allows you to touch him under his wing, and he will also come out and play on his play gym. While we have not gotten him to come out and fly around he has come all the way out of the door and he has eaten millet out of our hands and he lets us touch him. I am sure that flying around and dive bombing us is soon to follow. LOL “pilot to bombardier this is Stormy speaking am I clear for take off” Ha ha ha ( am such a joker) Star does all kinds a tricks as well. She plays dead, rolls over, lays down, sits, sits pretty, and we are currently teaching her “disco”. Introducing new pets into a home with old pets is really a challenge. We have had some funny situations come up.

I have to tell you all that on Wednesday night at about 10:00 pm my cat Ginger went into labor!! She had her first ever kittens. She only had two but, they are just so cute and precious. We named one Milkyway (who was snowball at first) and the other Hide 'N' Seek. There are some pictures in todays post for you. The guys had left about an hour and half before she went into labor. My poor hubby misses all kinds of stuff poor guy. It was my first time to see kittens born. The girls and I were enthralled. Our cat Ginger was so loving (a rarity for her she is soooo mean) and wanted to be petted during most of it. We really enjoyed petting her. Normally she barely tolerates us but, she LOVES Lukas. It was so neat to see her contractions and to see her kittens emerge. It was wonderful I will never forget it.


I also wanted to include some pictures of the house but, my cat Ginger went into labor again today, sadly this kitten did not make it. :( We named him Tiger and my husband and the girls said a prayer and laid him to rest. That took up most of the afternoon and evening. I will post house pictures and inside pictures of the wigwam tomorrow. I wish you all the best. Hugs and blessings to you all. ❤❤