Here, There, and Everywhere

The last few days have been especially busy both at home and out and about.  I feel like I have been here, there, and everywhere.  Today was supposed to be a mostly at home day but of course things never go as planned.  We had an opportunity to go to a local school this morning and see a dress rehearsal of "Annie, Jr."  Since Hannah was just in that show in December I thought it would be fun for all of us to see the show and see how a different theatre (or school) did it.  The show was at 9 and we found out about it at about 7:30 so it was a hurried morning trying to get out the door.  It was worth it though, the show was cute.  I don't think my kids have ever been in a real school so that was an experience as well.  The whole 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade came in to watch the show and the MC welcomed us homeschoolers.  I asked Hannah later if that embarrassed her or if she is proud to be a homeschooler.  She said she felt a little weird but mostly felt proud to be a homeschooler.  Anyway, after leaving the show we went to the organic produce co-op to pick up our veggies and fruit.  This is our first time doing this and I was very impressed with the organization as well as the prices.  I spent $30 and came home with 4 tomatoes, 3 bunches of kale, 1 pound yellow squash, a 3 pound bag of apples, 5 pounds of carrots, a pound of spinach, a head of broccoli, celery, and that might be all but I can't remember.  Not bad for organic produce.  I plan on using the kale to make kale chips.  I absolutely can't wait.  I've heard that they are really good and anything salty and crunchy sounds wonderful to me right now.  Even if it is a salty, crunchy leaf.  We made a trip to Goodwill, a swing through McD's drive thru (for the kids), and then to Publix.  Home by 1:15 and I had to tutor at 2.  My plan was to tackle the dishes still on the table from last night but I was just too tired.  So, I crashed for twenty minutes or so and then got the table cleared and dishes in the sink soaking.  The dishes never got done last night because I was up until 11 making cheerleading skirts.  I made 7 of them yesterday.  They are costumes for the upcoming High School Musical 2 show.  Needless to say, after sewing all day yesterday, being out half of today and then tutoring in the afternoon--my fresh, clean house is a mess!  The stuff I brought in from the park two days ago is still sitting on the piano bench along with three days' worth of mail and that's just the beginning.  I told Ollie tonight that I'll get to it on Sunday.  That's my next free day.  Seriously.  It's one of those weeks!  Tons of fun but totally exhausting.  I have lots of pictures to share but tonight is not the night.  The Office is on in 4 minutes and the last few weeks have been HILARIOUS!  I hope tonight doesn't disappoint.  

Works for me Wednesday

In the summer in Florida it is a regular occurrence to go swimming either at the beach, at a friend's pool, at the springs, wherever we can find water to help us cool off in the heat of the day. So, a couple of years ago I started keeping a stocked laundry basket with all our swim stuff. When towels and bathing suits get washed they get folded (sometimes but not always) and put back in the laundry basket. I also keep sunscreen, baby powder (for getting sand off at the beach), and goggles in the basket. And, after not having clothes for my kids to change into after swimming earlier today I decided to add some underwear and an outfit for each child that can just stay in the basket. When we get invited swimming I just grab the whole basket and off we go. Another thing I've done to help with the summer heat is that I've bought each kid a large water bottle and I have one too. We keep them filled and in the fridge. When we go out everyone gets their water bottle and then we don't have to spend money when we are dying of thirst. Works for me!
If you want to participate in Works for me Wednesday, visit We Are That Family.

Random Thoughts (with pictures!)

I'm really excited about this! It's ridiculously expensive but when you have been eating salad, grapefruit, lentils, chicken, and fish for almost two weeks it's almost as good as chocolate. I had some on celery yesterday and it was so satisfying! I wish it wasn't so expensive. I used our soymilk maker and made almond milk last night. I'm thinking my green smoothie will taste much better made with almond milk. I blended some with frozen raspberries last night and it was pretty good too. If only I could add a scoop of ice cream. :0)
We set up the bunnies in the bathroom today during the hottest part of the day. It worked out well, I think they used their litter box. Grace cleaned up and she didn't see pee so that's good. I know it must have felt good for them to lay on the cold tile. This will be their new "home" for the hot summer afternoons.
What is this? A redneck clothesline! Ollie and I decided to get a clothesline but I couldn't wait to try drying our clothes outside so I put yesterday's load out on the trampoline. It worked fine. I told Ollie he didn't even need to get a clothesline. I think he's going to anyway though.

My wrist is much better thank you. It is still sore but I can mostly resume normal activity. I'm still not sure what happened. One thought is that I might have had a ganglion cyst that ruptured. I don't know but I hope it never happens again!

A Simple Woman's Daybook

A Simple Woman's Daybook for today...May 11, 2009
Outside my window...it promises to be another HOT day with too much sun and not enough rain and I smell smoke in the air. Wildfire season in FL.
I am thinking...that I want to remember day in and day out what a blessing it is to be a mom. On Facebook every mom is gushing about how happy they are with their children and how great their kids are. Mother's day is a great day of the year for moms. Aside from our birthday, us moms really make every other holiday special for everyone. Mother's Day is when our families make it special for us. It's like a parched ground getting rain, we just soak it up! But, even today when I am no longer being treated like a queen I still want to have the gushing feelings that my kids are wonderful and I am sooo blessed to be a mom!
From the learning rooms...well, last week was a bust so today we start fresh. We are on our summer schedule which is fairly bare bones--Hannah will be doing My Father's World (finishing Saudi Arabia this week) and Math and Wordly Wise. Grace and Joe will do reading, math, and science experiments. I got three great kits half price at a local toy store and I'm really excited about them. They will make doing science experiments really easy, they contain everything we need, even an owl pellet! We have 9 subjects--bones and muscles, the 5 senses, minerals, and I can't think of what else right now. Life is going to be very busy for the next two months but I am going to keep plugging along with school. We won't have full days for a while but we will try to get something done everyday, at least an hour and more when we can. That's the plan...
I am thankful for...a clean house and a fresh week! Friday I will have finished two weeks of The Maker's Diet and on Saturday I get to add more fruits to my diet. I can't wait, thrilled I tell ya, to be able to eat bananas and apples again!
From the kitchen...wow, haven't even thought about that yet. We have a freezer full of fish, chicken, and vegetables, and a fridge full of produce so I'm thinking we will be having lots of healthy meals this week. No casseroles in sight. For myself--more lentils, more salads, more green smoothies, it's fun getting healthy~
I am wearing...pjs
I am reading...The Host by Stephenie Meyer. I am really enjoying a break from reading books about health and diet and arthritis. This book isn't as good as Twilight but I'm still enjoying it.
I am hoping...for three good productive school days this week and for healing from arthritis in my hands.
Around the house...clean, clean, clean (read my Mother's Day post!). And--Ollie is getting a clothesline for me today. Question to those of you who dry your clothes outside--any hint for making the towels soft and not crunchy?
One of my favorite things...reading a good book to my kids.
A few plans for the rest of the week...school and tutoring today, school and park tomorrow, visiting with our friends who moved to VA and are back visiting, maybe going to the beach, girl's night out, baby shower, lots of fun!!!
Here is a picture thought...this is from Friday, we babysat two sweet toddlers and of course they had to meet Chloe and Rosie
If you want to participate in the daybook, see Peggy here.

Happy Mother's Day to Me!

I hope all you moms out there have had a wonderful Mother's Day. I had one request for Mother's Day this year--for my family to clean my whole house! I even said I would help. Well, they are wrapping things up now and my house is clean. We are about to go out to a friend's for dinner so we won't even be staying home to mess it up. I can wake up to a fresh house and a fresh week. I am so thankful for a husband who actually enjoys cleaning and knows how to motivate the kids as well. I can check the house off my list of things I'm behind on. At least for this week. Oh, and the picture above is our annual Mother's Day picture. Every year on Mother's day they take family pictures and then print them for you and give you a frame. Our church has grown so much that they started taking the pictures two weeks ago! I should do a post of pictures of all our previous years. Sometimes it's the only family photo we get all year. Happy Mother's day to all the moms!

School stuff

I swear I just moved that top picture down where it belongs but it's right back here at the top.  I'm not moving it again, it's kind of a pain.  The picture above is from this past Thursday after the play.  A group of us had a picnic in the park and the kids decided to climb this tree.  I wish I had a better picture, you can't see it but Grace is only a few feet from the top and the tree is literally filled with kids all the way down.  Thankfully (and amazingly), there were no broken bones.  

Hannah finally wrapped up her studies of Africa.  Our final project was to make Faux Injera.  It's basically a pancake that you eat with a stew type meal like dal.  Don't you love the apron--that one's mine.  It says, "Put on your big girl panties and deal with it." My friend, Joa's mama gave it to me last year.  The Faux Injera was a big pain in the butt but we put on our big girl panties and dealt with it.  Below that are some pictures of the Africa lapbook.  The cover is not yet finished so no picture of that.  

Grace and Joe wrapped up their study of Night Creatures.  This was an Evan Moor theme pocket.  It was pretty simple and mainly focused on owls, bats, and koalas.  With the theme pockets you make a "pocket" book and there are different activities for each pocket.  

Here's the group of kids who went to see "Holes," it's terrible that they are all so unsocialized and have no friends since they are stuck at home homeschooling. :0)

And, this last picture has nothing to do with school.  Hannah rolled her hair the other night and woke up with ringlets.  

OUCH!

I did something to my wrist this morning, don't know what but it's terribly painful!  It's been really sore and even crampy for days and then this morning I put my hand in my pocket and I don't know what happened but it felt like something exploded in my wrist.  I'm typing this with my left hand now, even typing is excruciating.  Please pray for me, that with some rest it will heal quickly.  Of course I had a to-do list a mile long today.  That's okay though, I also have a good book to read.