Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Christmas Traditions
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Busy Weekend
Saturday, November 27, 2010
What Grace Has Been Up To Lately
Black Friday Shopping...An Adventure
Normally I do not relish getting up before the crack of dawn to go shopping. But Black Friday is different. Last year my sister introduced to me to the concept. It can be a good time to do a girl's day out. I really wasn't going to go again this year but my mom really wanted to and talked me in to it. The first thing we did is pour over all the ads after our Thanksgiving Day meal to see what was available and map out our route. My friend joined us this year also. So, up at 3:20 to be at Walmart at 4:45. Really was not that crazy - me, mom, and friend got what we needed and was out by 5:30. Headed to a town thirty minutes from us that held more shopping possibilities and hit Target, Best Buy, Family Christian Book Store, Books a Million and Belks. I got The Action Bible for Grace (not for Christmas) just to read because she loves graphic novels and comics so much. By this time it was only like 8:30. We really wanted to eat breakfast at IHOP, I could really hear the french toast calling me, but so did everyone else. Not a parking spot to be had. Decided on Chickfila instead and had a great chicken biscuit. Next back to the hometown, on the trip home, me and mom decided we still needed to get some items for Travis (very hard to shop for). Dropped of friend in Walmart parking lot to get her car and my sister calls wondering where we were and what we would do next. We told her we were going to another city about 40 minutes away to do some more shopping and she said she would meet us in the Walmart parking lot. While waiting for her to show I had to go potty and was walking down the parking lot to get to the store on go to the bathroom and ran in to my sister's best friend. Asked her if she wanted to tag along, she did. So now we had four of us headed to the Tanger Outlet center to shop. Lots of people at the Outlet Center but great shopping was to be had. Got what I needed for Travis. Also found something completely unexpected. There was a great kitchen store that I will for sure revisit, and purchased a doughnut maker. The kids are really looking forward to that. After all the shopping hunger had set in again. This time we got to go to Ruby Tuesday for their great salad bar and Cheddar fries. Got home about 3:00 in the afternoon and was actually able to stay up until about 9:30 in the evening, then crashed. It was good to sleep, actually very tired by that point. Every year after it is over I say I won't do it again, but I think I will. We had a great girl's day out.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Happy Thanksgiving
Well today is the day. Looking forward to ham, turkey and dressing at my parent's house. Did you ever wonder why some people call it stuffing and some dressing. Either way it is one of my favorites. We finished up most of our school work on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, including Grace's first real research paper. She chose to do it on Giant Pandas. Did you guys know that the Atlanta Zoo just had a new panda baby born. I think this is our third since they started the panda program. I think I will have her do another research paper in a couple of months. Maybe about a famous person. Much of this week was taken up with drama practice. We are getting down to the wire to performing Les Mes. Tuesday was practice from 1:30 - 5:00, Wednesday was 1:00 - 4:00 and Saturday will be 5:30 - 8:00. Dress rehearsal is on Monday 3:30 - 7:30. We perform next Thursday and Friday. Looking forward to getting this one put to bed so we can move on to Alice in Wonderland. Which all the kids are so excited about. Tomorrow is Christmas shopping with my mom and a close friend. Nothing big just out for a few hours in the morning then a big breakfast. Mostly I need to get Christmas for my son. He is always the last one I purchase for because he is hard to buy. I also need to get a little something for my dad to add to what I already have and hubby too.
Happy Thanksgiving and Many Blessings to You and Your Family
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Cherokee Indian Presentation
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Looking Forward
Even though we are only half way through our 6th grade year, I can't help but think about what our plan will be for high school. You know all those hard subjects. The state of Georgia requires 23 credit to graduate. Here are those requirements:
English = 4 credits
Math = 4 credits
Science = 4 credits
Social Studies = 3 credits
P.E. = 1/2 credit
Health = 1/2 credit
Electives including Foreign Language = 3
Electives with one being in Fine Arts = 4
A couple of them I may have to pay someone else to do, especially the higher math and science. I was doodling around the other day and at this is what I came up with:
9th Grade
English - Easy Grammar, Vocab and Literature
Math - Algebra 1 with Teaching Textbooks
Science - Physical Science with Apologia
History - Middle Ages/Renaissance through Simply Charlotte Mason
P.E. - ?
Health - ?
Fine Arts - Drama and Art
Elective - ?
Bible - unfortunately cannot be counted as a credit
10th Grade
English - Easy Grammar, Vocab and Literature
Math - Geometry with Teaching Textbooks
Science Biology with Apologia
History - Early Modern Times 1550-1850 through Simply Charlotte Mason
Elective - Drama and Art
Elective - Foreign Language
Bible - Unfortunately not counted
11th Grade
English - Creative Writing, Literature, Grammar and Vocab
Math - Algebra 2
Science - Marine Biology with Apologia
History - Modern Times 1850 - present through Simply Charlotte Mason
Elective - Drama and Art
Elective - Foreign Language
Bible - Unfortunately not counted
12th Grade
English - Essay Writing, Literature and Vocab
Math - ?
Science - Chemistry through Apologia
History - Government and Economics
Elective - Drama and Art
Elective - Personal Finance with Dave Ramsey
Bible - Unfortunately not counted
Please let me know if you have any ideas for the items I have with question marks.
English = 4 credits
Math = 4 credits
Science = 4 credits
Social Studies = 3 credits
P.E. = 1/2 credit
Health = 1/2 credit
Electives including Foreign Language = 3
Electives with one being in Fine Arts = 4
A couple of them I may have to pay someone else to do, especially the higher math and science. I was doodling around the other day and at this is what I came up with:
9th Grade
English - Easy Grammar, Vocab and Literature
Math - Algebra 1 with Teaching Textbooks
Science - Physical Science with Apologia
History - Middle Ages/Renaissance through Simply Charlotte Mason
P.E. - ?
Health - ?
Fine Arts - Drama and Art
Elective - ?
Bible - unfortunately cannot be counted as a credit
10th Grade
English - Easy Grammar, Vocab and Literature
Math - Geometry with Teaching Textbooks
Science Biology with Apologia
History - Early Modern Times 1550-1850 through Simply Charlotte Mason
Elective - Drama and Art
Elective - Foreign Language
Bible - Unfortunately not counted
11th Grade
English - Creative Writing, Literature, Grammar and Vocab
Math - Algebra 2
Science - Marine Biology with Apologia
History - Modern Times 1850 - present through Simply Charlotte Mason
Elective - Drama and Art
Elective - Foreign Language
Bible - Unfortunately not counted
12th Grade
English - Essay Writing, Literature and Vocab
Math - ?
Science - Chemistry through Apologia
History - Government and Economics
Elective - Drama and Art
Elective - Personal Finance with Dave Ramsey
Bible - Unfortunately not counted
Please let me know if you have any ideas for the items I have with question marks.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Great Find of the Day
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
No School Today
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
One Performance Down
Tonight was our drama departments first performance of the year. Two skits were performed by the elementary drama class. Every year it seems down to the wire and we don't think the kids will be able to pull it off. Every year they prove us wrong. We had two kids that struggled a little bit with their lines but nothing major. Believe me this year has definitely been a struggle getting everybody to learn their lines. Tonight was great. Very proud of all of them. Had a good time and all the families were happy to see the fruits of their kid's labor. One more performance tomorrow of the same skits to the school we are affiliated with and then off for a couple of weeks until Alice auditions. Well that is off for everyone else. Grace and a few others still have many practices ahead of them for the high school play being performed in about three weeks.
Today Will Be Busy
Today will prove to be a very busy day. November has proven to be one of those kind of months, where you just seem to be on the move alot. We will hopefully put in a couple hours of school this morning before heading out to Grace's final pottery class. After potter will hang out at that location for an hour finishing up any school work that wasn't finished this morning. At about 3:15 will head to High School drama practice for Les Mes. Drama practice is over at 5:00 but then we have to set up the stage and chairs for the audience for the Elementary performance tonight at 7:00 of Dickens You Say and Daniel the Shepherd Boy. Scott will be bringing dinner to us before the performance, not enough time to go home in between. Tomorrow the Elementary kids will have another performance for the school chapel. We are really looking forward to finishing up this last remnants of drama for this semester so we can move on to auditions for Alice in Wonderland and start practicing. The yearly musical is always everyone's favorite thing to do in drama all year.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Fun Day
Friday, November 12, 2010
Something New For School Next Week
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Baking Day
Monday, November 8, 2010
What a Blessing
I help teach a drama class every Monday and sometimes on Tuesday. Today when I arrived for class the lead teacher told me she had a bag of bread for me. She told me that a truck comes to their church every week with short dated items and drops them off. She brought home three boxes of bread so they wouldn't go to waste. I thought it was going to be just some loaves of sandwich bread. But to my surprise I now have a bag of blueberry bagels, English muffins, hamburger buns and sandwich bread. All fructose corn syrup free and 100 percent whole wheat. I halved everything so that some would be frozen and some eaten right away. I also went to my local produce store today to pick up some honey, apples, bananas, and eggs. I have been visiting the store once or twice a week for about the past month. Most of there stuff is better than from the grocery store, even the cheese they sale. Anyway to make a long story short, when I was checking out the owner asked me if I had ever tried sorghum syrup, I told her I had not, and she sent me home with a pint for free. Now I need some recipes to try it in. If you have any good ones let me know.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Weeknd Happenings
As I mentioned in a previous post this weekend was the first with hubby working. I planned many things to keep Grace busy and her mind of daddy not being home. Actually alot of what we did started on Thursday and ran through today.
Thursday - School in the morning and a little in the afternoon after we got back from a local book fair and visiting a church friend in the hospital. Please pray for Jerry. He is in his mid 70's and has been diagnosed with cancer that has already spread to spine, lung, colon, and liver. I think at this point he has chosen not to do any treatment.
Friday - Went to the podiatrist to do a recheck on Grace's toe, looks normal she said. Went to a thrift store searching for clothing (nothing to be had) so went to Walmart instead. We were actually able to get two pairs of jeans for me, one pair of jeans for Grace, a jacket sweater and shirt for Grace, two shirts and a light weight jacket for me for 125.00. I thought that was pretty good. Went to a friends house for a playdate in the afternoon, out to dinner with said friends and then to the cemetery field trip.
Saturday - Went Christmas shopping with my mother and out to lunch. Was home by 2:30 at which point I began baking (nothing in the house like sweets and such) while Grace worked on a 1000 piece puzzle, read, played on the computer, created some hand drawn note cards and just hung out. So far I don't think she has had time to miss dad.
Sunday - Woke up early to go to the early service at church with hubby then invited a friend home with us for the afternoon. We will all have to go to choir practice at 4:30 and arrive back home for dinner. By then settle down for the evening. I am also currently working on finishing a few more scarves to sell at the church bazaar this coming weekend.
Obviously I will not be able to keep up this pace every weekend. But next Saturday should be busy with my Sonya Schaffer seminar to attend and Grace and my mother doing the Bazaar at the church.
Thursday - School in the morning and a little in the afternoon after we got back from a local book fair and visiting a church friend in the hospital. Please pray for Jerry. He is in his mid 70's and has been diagnosed with cancer that has already spread to spine, lung, colon, and liver. I think at this point he has chosen not to do any treatment.
Friday - Went to the podiatrist to do a recheck on Grace's toe, looks normal she said. Went to a thrift store searching for clothing (nothing to be had) so went to Walmart instead. We were actually able to get two pairs of jeans for me, one pair of jeans for Grace, a jacket sweater and shirt for Grace, two shirts and a light weight jacket for me for 125.00. I thought that was pretty good. Went to a friends house for a playdate in the afternoon, out to dinner with said friends and then to the cemetery field trip.
Saturday - Went Christmas shopping with my mother and out to lunch. Was home by 2:30 at which point I began baking (nothing in the house like sweets and such) while Grace worked on a 1000 piece puzzle, read, played on the computer, created some hand drawn note cards and just hung out. So far I don't think she has had time to miss dad.
Sunday - Woke up early to go to the early service at church with hubby then invited a friend home with us for the afternoon. We will all have to go to choir practice at 4:30 and arrive back home for dinner. By then settle down for the evening. I am also currently working on finishing a few more scarves to sell at the church bazaar this coming weekend.
Obviously I will not be able to keep up this pace every weekend. But next Saturday should be busy with my Sonya Schaffer seminar to attend and Grace and my mother doing the Bazaar at the church.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Friday Night Field Trip
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Thrifting
After lunch today we went to a local book fair and some thrift stores. My main objective was to find some jeans for Grace and a white shirt to go with part of her costume for Les Mis. I was pretty successful. Brought home two shite shirts, a pair of jeans, jean skirt for me, 5 books and two puzzles for 8.00. Bought a couple of chapter books for Grace at the book fair and some crafty things. On Saturday I hope to go to a bigger thrift shop to find me some shirts and Grace another pair of jeans. Then we should be set for a while. I have been wearing the same shirts for about three years and they are getting pretty worn out in shape and color. Clothes really don't interest me that much. Our church is pretty low key so I don't need really dressy clothes, not to mention that because of my husband's new work schedule we will be going to the early service which is even more casual. I would also like to find a couple more ceramic or class canisters to keep my baking supplies in.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Happenings Around the House
Today was Scott's first day off in the middle of the week. He will also be home tomorrow. Then his new schedule will start Friday and last through Sunday. Very long days so we probably won't see much of him. Grace will miss him being home over the weekends because they normally spend alot of time together. They will just have to adjust to spending more time together during the week after school is finished each day. I have some fun things planned on Friday and Saturday to keep her mind occupied. First off on Friday no school work, at least no book work. We will be attending a history field trip visiting a local cemetery, going over to a friend's house for a play date and visiting a local book fair. On Saturday we hope to go do some shopping in a close by town. A little Christmas shopping, hunting down the new Percy Jackson graphic novel at the book store, and eating lunch out. Looking forward to a little girl time. Maybe on Sunday after church she can invite a friend over for the afternoon.
Baked a new wheat bread recipe today, looks like it turned out well. I get most of my recipes from the King Arthur Flour website. I still need to learn to do hamburger and hot dog buns, as well as dinner rolls. I know I can do it, just haven't tried any yet.
School went great today. When Scott's around the house I can always count on Grace doing her best and no talking back. We are thoroughly enjoying two new additions to our school work. Hey Andrew, Teach Me Some Greek is fabulous. Grace can't get enough of it. We are doing a letter every day. I decided to start her off on the easy book that just teaches the alphabet and we will be able to move on to the second book in a couple of months once she has the alphabet down. Our other new addition is Home Economics from Pearables. Again the first book starts off with very easy cooking and cleaning lessons. But coming from a 11 yr old child that doesn't do anything domestic, we really needed to start with the basics. So far she has learned to peel and cut carrots, keep a food journal, choose healthy food to eat and make cinnamon toast. Tomorrow she will do a lesson on cracking and cooking eggs. This has mostly been my fault because I come from the school of if I want it to be done right I will do it myself and not have to clean up a mess later. But I know that she needs to be more independent and learn more life skills. We are working on it and she really seems to be enjoying it. The books from Pearables has 3 or 4 level books and I hope to get through them all in 1 - 1 1/2 years then move on to a more intense Home Economics and Life Skill course geared more toward Middle and High Schoolers.
Baked a new wheat bread recipe today, looks like it turned out well. I get most of my recipes from the King Arthur Flour website. I still need to learn to do hamburger and hot dog buns, as well as dinner rolls. I know I can do it, just haven't tried any yet.
School went great today. When Scott's around the house I can always count on Grace doing her best and no talking back. We are thoroughly enjoying two new additions to our school work. Hey Andrew, Teach Me Some Greek is fabulous. Grace can't get enough of it. We are doing a letter every day. I decided to start her off on the easy book that just teaches the alphabet and we will be able to move on to the second book in a couple of months once she has the alphabet down. Our other new addition is Home Economics from Pearables. Again the first book starts off with very easy cooking and cleaning lessons. But coming from a 11 yr old child that doesn't do anything domestic, we really needed to start with the basics. So far she has learned to peel and cut carrots, keep a food journal, choose healthy food to eat and make cinnamon toast. Tomorrow she will do a lesson on cracking and cooking eggs. This has mostly been my fault because I come from the school of if I want it to be done right I will do it myself and not have to clean up a mess later. But I know that she needs to be more independent and learn more life skills. We are working on it and she really seems to be enjoying it. The books from Pearables has 3 or 4 level books and I hope to get through them all in 1 - 1 1/2 years then move on to a more intense Home Economics and Life Skill course geared more toward Middle and High Schoolers.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Cooking and Running Errands
It seems like my life revolves around teaching school to Grace, running errands and cooking. Yesterday I cooked/baked from 9a.m. to 1:00p.m. I boiled some eggs and made egg salad for hubby to take to work for lunches. We were out of anything sweet to eat and that just won't do around here. I baked my tried and true choc. chip blondies but this time I made them a little more healthy by using whole wheat white instead of white flour. Of course my son noticed the difference and asked if I would go back to the White flour the next time I made them. Next I noticed that I had four very ripe bananas and knowing my clan they would be trashed. Thats just wasteful, so I looked up a new recipe for banana bread and made that too. Still need to fit in some time to make some bread. Next week I will be baking alot. I plan on making some baked goods to sell our our church's holiday bazaar. Then today was running errands day: to Holland's for fresh produce (noticed they sale honey at a lower price than the other produce store, will have to get it there next time, I go through alot of honey when making granola bars), took Grace out to lunch, attendance forms to the board of education, library to pick up on hold books and back to the homestead to finish school for the day.
On a side note I didn't know if I had mentioned that hubby did get the new schedule he was after. So now he will be home four days a week and work three long days. We are all excited about this. Also wanted to mention that the chickens are loving their new day run we built over the weekend.
On a side note I didn't know if I had mentioned that hubby did get the new schedule he was after. So now he will be home four days a week and work three long days. We are all excited about this. Also wanted to mention that the chickens are loving their new day run we built over the weekend.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Halloween Night
Top 15 GMO Companies
As many of you know I have been reading alot about GMOs. I recently stumbled upon a pretty good book, "Food Not Lawns" and they had a list of the top 15 GMO companies to try and stay away from. The problem is it would be pretty hard for your average family to stay away from all of these companies all the time. They make so many of the products we know and love.
Campbell Soup
Coca-Cola
Frito Lay
General Mills
Heinz
Hersheys
Kellog's
Kraft/Nabisco
McDonalds
Nestle
Proctor and Gamble
Quaker Oats
Safeway
Shaw's
Starbucks
Campbell Soup
Coca-Cola
Frito Lay
General Mills
Heinz
Hersheys
Kellog's
Kraft/Nabisco
McDonalds
Nestle
Proctor and Gamble
Quaker Oats
Safeway
Shaw's
Starbucks
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)