My Mommy Kisses The Principal

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.

I am excited to tell you about Molly's money saving Digest at www.econobusters.com!!

First of all, the digest is in PDF form. I love that you can simply download it and read it at your leisure, and these monthly digests are big (55 pages this month!) and there is so much information packed into them that you will as happy as am that you get to download them and read them again and again. The digest is so packed with information that I read it several times, and I kept finding new information each time I read it. In the digest I read, January 2010, there was a lovely and informative article all about making pie crusts. I don't know about you, but I really like pie; meat filled pies such as pot pie, and fruit filled pies from my peach trees. There are wonderful chocolate cream pies... oh I could on and on, but I should stop here I don't want to get everyone drooling and shorting out their keyboards LOL. ;) There were lots of great pictures!! There were also recipes and ideas for you you to build on you know the old saying teach someone to cook and they will cook that recipe into the ground teach them the fundamentals and give them a bunch of ideas and they will be off and running. Don't we all say that?? LOL
In the organization section in the January issue there were lots of great printables. My son who recently turned the 17 (oh my how did that happen??) and I read the section about opening a checking account and how to use it. It was very informative. There were also printables to use right away, so we could you put into practice what we have learned.
The article on house hold organization was fantastic. The printables were the very thorough. There was even one that organized the everyone's clothes so you could use the list for yard sales, thrift stores, and trading. How great it will be to have who has what and who needs what and what I have available for trade/giveaway or donate!

Molly's Digest was organized into sections, which I found very convenient. I loved that all of the links mentioned in the article were categorized and hyper-linked at the end of the digest they were conveniently repeated again.

Molly's web site,www.econobusters.com has tons to offer. Just one of the many great things offered is her weekly Friday freebie list. The list is very easy to use. I have been checking it every Friday for quite a while now, and I have gotten tons of free stuff. There are also great articles posted all the time. The digest also included an interview of a new writer that will helping Molly in her endeavor to get us on the frugal path. In the interview, she gave us a wonderful heartfelt introduction of herself. I love that the digest hat is written like a conversation with a friend who is excited to share some information she has found.
Here is a link to Molly's page please go check it out!
www.econobusters.com

I was spending some time this morning catching up on my blog reading. When I  came on Judy's "Ten Tiny Tips".  They were all very good tips. Judy asked that we post our own tips so,  here are mine. I can not wait to read your ten tips.

1. Bread- if your bread goes stale don't toss it. You can use it in several ways. You can use it for french toast, breakfast casserole, or you can put a slice into your brown sugar container/bag, and it will prevent your sugar from getting hard.

2.Making foods ahead and freezing them can be a wonderful money/time saver. It also helps with those "I don't feel like cooking let's eat out nights".  One of the biggest complaints about freeze ahead meals is that mashed potatoes do not come out very well. Here is the trick, peel, boil, and mash the potatoes but do not  add salt,pepper,butter, milk, or cream cheese till you are ready to serve them.  One of the reasons that they taste icky when you freeze them with the milk and butter is that when they defrost the solids separate from the water in these two products making for a very yucky product.

3.Looking to cut down on your energy bill some?? Aren't we all?? Does the power go out now and again?? Out here in the boonies it happens often. Here is a very simple solution. When you are done using your oj or milk containers wash them thourally (sp??). Fill them with drinkable water. (We filter our water here)  Now just put a few of these in your freezer. I have a large upright freezer and a deep chest freezer so I have about 10 of these frozen jugs. Now, whenever the power goes out I put one in the fridge to keep that colder longer and to provide drinking water. The others stay in the freezer to help keep it colder longer.

4. This one is one of those things people do not like talking about. Whelp, that means it's talk-able to me. LOL Head lice...dun. dun. dun... You know most people either get them or know someone who has. Every year about a bajillion kids get sent home from school or camp or vacation bible school or many other places with a little note saying that they have or have been exposed to head lice. No big deal right?? Right, putting all those harsh terrible chemicals into any ones hair is a big deal however. I have a sure fire way that involves no harsh chemicals and costs less than one application of the harsh stuff. I am sure that there is someone out there that this will not work for but, I have yet to meet them. Here what you do and it could not be simpler. You will need to purchase 1 bottle of mouth wash even the cheepo one works great 1 bottle of plain white vinegar 1 package of perm caps they cost less than 5 dollars for a pack of 100, that is it!! Less than 15 dollars and you have tons to keep using for other things or for multiple children. First step get the hair very wet soaking actually wring out but do not rinse put one of the caps on the persons head and let them “chill” for 1 ½ hours. Rinse the mouthwash out of hair, this part is a little gross cus if they did have any bugs you will see them dead in the sink and in the cap. Once you rinse the hair soak the hair in vinegar. Wring it out once again and put on a cap for an 1 ½. This may seem like an inconvenience but, if they have lice you are not going anywhere anyway.
After the 1 ½ remove the cap and wash the hair with shampoo and conditioner. Please make sure you use conditioner since it will help the eggs slide off the hair shaft easier. After the hair is washed use a lice comb to comb out the hair. If you put a fresh cap on the wet hair it will be easier to work with since it will stay wet longer. Don't forget to wash all bedding and stuffed toys with detergent mixed with 1 cups each of vinegar and mouth wash. Then spray house with tee-tree oil diluted in water.

5.If your needle sticks while sewing just rub it with wax or soap. Ta-da!! Slides in perfect.

6.Are you stocking up on rice and bean?? We sure are. If you want to prolong the amount of time you can store them for, try this super simple trick. Pour ½ a cup of salt into your containers then seal the lid with tape. They will last for months. Places that close for the summers or winter all do this.

7.Speaking of salt did you know that if you put a small pinch on top of your coffee grounds before you brew them, this will prevent the coffee from having that bitter taste. This also helps if your grounds are a little old.

8.In summer time we get fleas here. When the flea season strikes here I do this very easy and inexpensive trick. In a bowl mix borax and salt. Sprinkle this mixture all over the carpets. Let sit for a few hours then vacuum. Don't forget to dump your bag or canister out a little ways from the house. If you have a lot of fleas then repeat this process every 2 or 3 days for 2 to 3 weeks. If you have just a couple of fleas then do this once or twice week for two weeks. After you have the problem under control or if you want to prevent it all together do this once per month.

9.Speaking of carpets, here is a super fantastical carpet stain remover. The supplies needed are borax, vinegar, liquid dish soap, a scrub brush, and a towel to dry the spot. I have used this on spots that were in the carpet for several years. I just really can not explain how neat this is. Trust me you will know what I mean after you try it. I would like to remind y'all that nothing gets out kool-aide. Here is the super secret way to get the stains up. First, dust the stain with borax, put some dish liquid on top of the borax, pour some vinegar on top of this mixture. It will foam and bubble. Let sit for 2-5mins. Next, scrub the stain with the scrub brush. The first 2 or 3 swipes of the scrub brush will be nothing special then like something off of a Vegas magic show you will pass the scrub brush over the stain and it will just be gone!! Blot dry with a towel. Bonus if it blood on the carpet or clothes or furniture just use hydrogen peroxide.

10.Last one whew!! This one is again very simple and easy. I don't know about you but, I love real french fries. Fresh home made french fries just melt my butter. I have lots of people say that they love real french fries too BUT, they can not get them all crispy and crunchy. Well, it is such a simple trick that when people learn it they always say “why didn't I think of that”. Once you have your potatoes cut into what ever shape you want, heat your oil. If you want to know for sure that your oil is the perfect temp you can do a few things. You can put a small amount of water into the oil while it is still cold and when the oil stops crackling you know it is hot enough. Or you can fry a bread cube or a tester fry when the oil begins to smoke. Then there is the use a kitchen thermometer for those who have one. ;) Once your oil is hot enough put your fries into it and cook 3-5 mins. Drain and cool. If you have time go ahead and put them in the freezer for about 30mins or if you are making ahead freeze them in portion sizes now. After the potatoes have gotten cold put them back into the hot oil till golden and crispy. This blanching then frying method makes for the BEST fries.

These are my ten not so tiny tips. LOL thank you so much for the great idea Judy. If any of you want to share your awesome tips please let us know to look for them on your blog. Have a great day!!

Honk!! Honk!! Came the sound from the mailman's car. Wooohoooo I thought. Oh Yeah the first wave of curriculum must be here. I do get so excited when stuff is coming in the mail. ;) My hubby (who works from home) went out to get the box since we thought it was books and there for heavy. How sweet right??
He came back into the house and put the box down so we could look at it.I must admit that I was pretty giddy with excitement. My husband looked up at me and said “stop you can't look” Errrrrrr?? What!! He said it was not curriculum it was a birthday present from Julie. (oh you sneaky, cheeky monkey you)
The heavy box was from Spice3 or spice cubed. www.spicecubed.com. Spice cubed was on my birthday wish list. Just a little interjection here. I hated having a birthday in August when I was a kid. None of my friends from school could come. I always got school clothes or supplies for presents and it was always to hot to do anything. But, as an adult I am a lot more inventive. ;)
It turns out that Julie had sent off a quick e-mail to my husband to make sure that they did not get the same gift for me. (purdy smrt huh??)
So, now we get to the fun part of the story cus you know I did not bring you on this journey without some sorta suspense. Enter the dilemma. (giggle)
When the package, now established as a birthday gift arrived it was 2 in the afternoon my time. That means it was 4 am the next day in Japan for Julie. She was asleep. Dun... dun...dun.... We were due to have our book club at 8pm my time. Gentle readers do see the excruciating set of circumstances that were happening here?? I would have to wait 6 that right 6 whole hours before I could even ask to if it was ok to open my box!!
By 3pm I had shaken the box gently. I had brought up the website and was pouring over it trying to figure out what was in the box.
4pm- I was very figgity by now. I had placed the box in several prominent places. So we could look at it. I had been offered by each of my family members to take the blame of opening it. After all they reasoned if they opened it and I had not then I could see it without getting into trouble. LOL Not much for patience are they??
5- 7am Julie's time. Now I was sitting with gmail pulled up. I was talking to my computer at this point. “Come on Julie wake up” “I know you are awake Julie since you go jogging in the mornings” “Wake Up!!” (will the hilarity ever stop??)
5:30- 7:30 am Julie's time. Her status on gmail said active. I could hear the angles choir. I sent her an IM and told her that her package had gotten here and please, please, please could I open it. She sent me back a message saying that I could if I wanted to but, she would like to see me open it on the webcam. I totally agree that it would be sooooooooooooooo much more fun to open it over the webcam. So, I had resigned to wait till 8pm. 2.5 hours to go. Julie and I talked for a little bit longer. When she finally got my vulcan mind meld thru the chat. “would you like to sign onto the webcam now??” She asked!! Does a bear poop in the woods?? I replied. Heck yes!!!! “Give me a sec she says” Let me tell you right now that Julie and I talk on the webcam at LEAST 3 times a week. So, this should have taken all of 10 seconds right?? About a minute later I sent her an IM “ummmmm what's up??” Julie- “You will not believe this, gmail will not acknowledge my webcam!!” Me- “Are you kidding me??” Julie - “I am gonna have to reboot”
5:45- Julie's green dot goes gray indicating she is offline. I on the mean time began shouting at her computer from 3,000 miles away. “BOOT YOU INFERNAL MACHINE BOOT!!”
While I waited we opened the outer box to reveal this:


I sat staring at the box. I have to say right here and now I am a sucker for an awesome box. After what seemed like an hour. Julie's gray dot turned green, and the dot changed to a little picture of a camera. Then the sound of the computer initiating a video chat. It rings sorta like a house phone. I answered and we said Hello. I showed her the super cool box. I even took the time to show her how nice the ribbon was. Really company wants people to be happy with their products.
You know when ever I buy something online I always have this feeling like it is a gamble. You know it looks so great on the website but, when you or your loved one gets it, it is well, less then what they hyped it up to be. Not so with this company. I dare say it is cooler than the site advertises.
I really enjoyed being able to show Julie exactly what everything looked like. I would say that if you are someone you know is a foodie or they enjoy good quality ingredients this would make a great gift.
I have tortured you long enough here are the pictures of what was in the box.

Here is me doing my price is right showcase pose. That's right Bob, all the foodies in the audience are swooning. giggle

Here we have one of the spices after I put the magnet on it. These magnets are good and strong.

Here we have a close up of the spices. You can see how full they are. You can also see how brightly colored they are.

Here they all are on my fridge. I just think they look so darn cool.

How cool do these look?? I love the fact that you can put the magnets on the back and hang them on your fridge,freezer, any magnetic surface or even a strip of magnets on your cabinet door.
All these spices made me think that I should leave you with a recipe so here it is...

Super easy lasagna
1pkg oven ready lasagna noodles
6-8 cups of tomato sauce (canned, jar,or home made all work just fine with this recipe)
1 pound of Italian sausage
1 16oz container of Ricotta cheese
1 egg beaten
4 cups of cheese for thrifty version and 6 cups for any other time
1 TBS each of parsley, oregano, basil, garlic,onion powder
1 tsp each of paprika and red pepper flakes (optional)
½ cup of parm cheese
1 large casserole dish long enough to fit the noodles in
1 sheet of plastic wrap large enough to cover the top of the dish
1 sheet of aluminum foil large enough to cover the top of the dish

Step one:
Remove the sausage from the casing and fry in the pan till no more pink is showing. Add a ½ cup of water. Now add your pre-made sauce. Stir till all the sausage and the sauce are well combined. Turn the burner down low. Remember the sauce will splatter if you let it boil.

Step two:
Put your egg in a bowl and whisk it. Now add all of the ricotta cheese. Put in one cup of the mozzarella cheese. All of the spices parsley, oregano,basil, garlic, onion powder, paprika, and red pepper flakes go in now. Mix all these ingredients together and set aside.

Step three:
Assembly, my kids love this part the best. ;) In your large casserole dish place a layer of sauce. Now layer your noodles no over lapping. Make sure you gently push your noodles into the sauce. On top of the noodles put ½ of the ricotta mixture and spread it around evenly. You can put a light layer or cheese on top of the ricotta, if not then a layer of sauce goes on now. Your first layer is done easy peasy lemon squeezy. Giggle.
The next layer is noodles (remember to press them down) the rest of the ricotta, cheese if you using, and sauce. For the last layer it is noodles, then sauce, then mozzarella cheese.
Now is the part that most people do not do. Tightly cover your pan with the plastic wrap. Yes plastic wrap. Lastly cover the top again this time with the aluminum foil. This will ensure that you will not get that nasty metal taste in your lasagna.
Bake in the oven at 350 for 1 hour. Then remove the plastic wrap and foil and let the cheese on top get all golden and melty.
One of the reasons people get soupy lasagna is they do not let it rest for a few mins. 20 mins should do just fine. I usually make my salad and garlic bread while I wait.


I thought y'all might like a photo. At least that is what Julie has requested. She says that she would like to see pics of the dishes when I write up the recipe.


I love all the layers. Some times I make veggie lasagna and that makes some very cool layers.
I hope you all enjoy. We are making peach cobbler tonight.

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!! ;)

We had such a great day today!! The new class/craft room has everyone all a twitter. The kids were so enthusiastic I did not have crack the whip to get them going. It was a great day. We had BLT's for lunch one of their favorites. We set up our reward charts. I got to do my organization stuffs like, set up my daily log book, and my attendance sheets stuff like that. While we were out at the store the other day I got some Jolly ranchers and lolly pops for my desk. I know sugar is not good but, one lolly or hard candy now and then is just fine. ;)

So, with out further ado WELCOME to our room!! Let us know what you think. Have a great day!!


Bubba Ho-tep and Star, lounging together how cute is that!!



Oh, so soft... I cannot resist the hypnotic pull of the blankie...


Hands off teh blankie, pal. The look he is giving is soooooo funny.



Hoss, the school mascot. He is around 28 years old, he is my husbands childhood buddy.



The Reading Couch I really like having a cuddly place to all sit and read. ;)



Whiteboard above, chalkboard below. They are well loved and used often. ;)



The Franklin stove sits in the corner. It makes the room very toasty in the winter.

The desk and the worktable. Above the table, our stance on the 2nd Amendment. Mostly my husband just like plinking golf balls across the yard, but we do believe in the Right to Bear Arms. Just so everyone knows it is never loaded while hanging there only when in use.

So, that is our little school room in the piney woods way our yonder in the boonies.❤❤

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!! ❤❤