Giveaway

Barracudas Memory Box is giving away a years subscription to Family Fun Magazine. Get on over there and sign up. Since I have so much trouble with buttons here is her link www.barracudasmemorybox.blogspot.com.

Girls Day Out

Yesterday we decided to get out for awhile and go Christmas shopping. I only had to more people to buy for and got that accomplished. The closet mall to us is Mall of Georgia which is about an hour away from us. Our first stop was Olive Garden for lunch, grannys treat. We all really love their brick oven pizza. So we ordered three different pizzas which come with all you can eat salad plus some breadsticks. For those that don't know, on the far left is granny, then my niece, Grace, my sister, and me.

After lunch it was off to the mall. Granny decided to have Grace get an early Christmas present. Every girls dream (another build a bear). This year Grace decided on Holly the Moose. So very cute in her little elf outfit. Papa had also given her 15 dollars to spend. We all know how she is about hats. Well, she found two new hats at Claires for a total of $3.16, what a deal. The black and white hat she is wearing is one of the new ones. She also bought a new book and dinner from Burger King on the way back hom. She really stretched that 15 dollars. She has great grandparents that always look out for her and us too. It was a fab day and we all enjoyed each others company so much. I am now offically finished with all my Christmas shopping. Yeah!!!

Black Friday Adventures

What was I thinking? Get up at 3:00 a.m. and go shopping. Yes, that is exactly what I did. I have not been to the Black Friday sales in probably about 6 years. My sister was going and I thought it might be fun. Started out at Walmart and got some movies, games, toys for church food pantry give away, and snow boots. Surprisingly - no problems. Crowded, but everyone was happy, helpful, calm, and quick. After Walmart scooted over to Burger King for breakfast and on to the road for our closest Kohls, about 45 minutes away. Got the rest of my son's presents at Kohls and Game Stop. Kids are done. Yeah! Now I just have my sister and her husband which are the names we drew. Going shopping again with mother and Grace on Sunday, will get those presents then. After Christmas shopping I had to go get groceries. So obviously this day was pretty pricey. Didn't start feeling drowsy until about 2:30 - tried to lay down and take a nap but the dogs would not leave me alone. Finally got back up at 4:00. I will probably go to bed early tonight.

There has been no book work this week. Taking a break for the holiday. But just like any homeschool family, stuff got done. Today Scott found our old video camera and most of the day Grace has been doing stop action filming with her legos. Making backgrounds, etc. I also sat down and read two chapters to her from The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Also much drawing and reading going on. Yesterday we put the tree and such up. Tomorrow is big clean house day. Hope everyone out there is having a good Thanksgiving and holiday weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving and an Update on Mom

As some of you know my mom has had recurrent thyroid cancer for 8 years. She has had many surgeries, radio iodine treaments, and radiation treatments. Nothing has really worked, it always comes back. We came back from her oncologist yesterday at Emory and in two weeks she will be put on a clinical trail. This trail will go on for 6 months with chemo infusion once a week and pills every day for four weeks then a two week rest. There are many side effects that we will have to watch for and deal with. Please pray for my mom. This has been such a long battle for her. Pray that the side effects will be bearable and that the medication will do its job. I am thankful that I still have both of my parents and am a little selfish and want her to be here longer. Thank you in advance for any prayers you can send our way.

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!!!!! Have a Blessed Day!!!!

Play Posters and Cupcakes

In cake decorating today the girls got to make turkey cupcakes. Each student made between 4 -6 cupcakes and took them home to share with their families. They really enjoyed this activity.

We got our play posters today for Willy Wonka. I took this close up to show you Grace's character which is Veruca. She is stealing the nut. One of the older drama students drew the poster. She really did a awesome job.

Thanksgiving Fest 2009 At Trinity

What a fun day we had! All day was about everything pertaining to Thanksgiving. This is how the day started out. Everyone was put into groups with kids ranging in age from 5 - 14. This little girl in the picture with Grace is actually a buddy from church and they hung out for the day together in the same group. You will see her in alot of the pictures. Alot of the centers we visited was food related to prepare for the Thanksgiving lunch we all had (about 120 people).

This first picture is of my group peeling sweet potatoes for the sweet potato souffle we had for lunch. The potatoes were very hot.

Here is Grace and her friend again. At this center the kids made butter for the meal and ice cream for after the meal.

This is Grace's group with the next stage of the sweet potato souffle.

The kids also made applesauce to go with the feast. They peeled, cored and cut up the slices.

This center was out in the gym. String and sticks were attached to the plastic to make bird feeders.

Turkeys were made for decorations.

In the afternoon there was archery and a kickball game.

Mr. Dan gave us a 45 minutes presentation about the Pilgrims.

We also saw a presentation about the Cherokee Indians.

All in all it was a great day. Grace is exhausted. Last night she spent the night at a friends then they both had to get up this morning around 6 to get ready for this day of fun. I was a group leader all day. We were both happy to get home and relax a little bit. Grace is now downstairs watching an American Girl movie and I of course an working on my blog. No school this week! Yeah! Time for relaxation and rejuvination.

Thanksgiving 2009

As many of you know my Aunt Linda passed away this past summer and this is our first holiday without her. All of our extended family got together for the Thanksgiving Feast. We probably had about 30 -40 people. Food was great and fellowship was even better. We took alot of photos. This top photo is three of my cousins and of course Charlie Bear, the hit of the day

This is my sister, another cousin, and me.

My Aunt Julie, Uncle Whitey (he also lost his wife a couple of months ago), and my mom.

A bunch of the kids play ball ,etc.

Travis and Granny.

Sisters.

Cooking Class and Stage Design

Today we went to a cooking class at our library. "Cooking with Rachel", of course not the real Rachel. But her name is Rachel and she is the head chef at Unicoi Lodge in Helen, GA. This class centered around easy entertaining ideas. There was butternut squash soup, chocolate covered pretzels, truffles, pumpkin rolls, and veggie trays. Grace really liked the chocolate covered pretzels. I being on my diet have been very good and only had a glass of eggnog. Did I mention I have no lost 12 pounds. Yeah Me!!!!

After leaving the library we headed to our church which also houses Trinity. We had set work to do. I painted the pink candy boat and we got half of the curtain hung. Still lots of work to do.

The most exciting thing happened when we got back home. The Artful Parent has started an art pen pal program. I think over 200 kids signed up for it. Grace got her email tonight of who her art pen pal is and she lives in South America. Yeah!!

Random Items

Today was a Trinity day which meant we were gone from the house from 10:00 - 2:30. In chorus they are practicing Christmas songs to sing at a nursing home and for the Fine Arts Program in December. In drama we are getting down to the nitty gritty with Willy Wonka. Very intense, long practices. But still enjoyable. Cake decorating is still going on in handicrafts. This afternoon for school we didn't accomplish much. When we don't get home from Trinity until about 2:30 I only fill about 6 wokboxes. Today we had a review worksheet in math over long division and multiplication. We have also started a math book I picked up last weekend that has a daily math riddle to solve. For Bible we have been reading through The Children's Story Bible by Catherine Voss for the last year and a half and hope to be finished with it in January. Then we will start The Greenleaf Guide to the Old Testament which I won in a blog giveaway. Since Grace loves to draw so much, I try to include some form of drawing in one of her workboxes each day - today we looked at an activity that emulated Audubon and his sketching of wildlife. Grace chose to do a wild rabbit and then wrote some facts around the drawing. In Literature it is On the Banks of Plum Creek and we are almost halfway through the book. Right now we are reading the chapters about Christmas which is very fitting with us also about to go in to the holiday season. Tomorrow will be our last day of book work until after the Thanksgiving Holidays. Tonight after dinner went to the grocery store to pick up the few items that I will be responsible for with my extended families Thanksgiving feast on Saturday. Looking very forward to seeing all of them.

Beautiful Fall Day

Its Monday and back to the daily grind. Here are a few things we accomplished for school. In Bible we just read about the death of Christ, in science we are still learning and reading about insects. For math today we did something a little different, viewed a animated video about similar and congruent figures and did a couple of worksheets. We finished industrail revolution with the book The Bobbin Girl. Grace wrote some info in her history journal about what it was like to work in a mill. We also did some work in spelling, art, typing, and our proverbs study. After lunch Grace asked her dad to help her rake some of the many leaves we have and let her jump. This is one of her favorite pastimes. She is now waiting for a friend that lives down the road to get off the school bus and join in. Tonight we are meeting my son for dinner at Zaxbys and then off to the grocery story and maybe the library if we have time.

Busy, Fun Weekend

Friday - Scott started his first art show and spent all afternoon there. Grace loved being there also. She drew most of the afternoon. I ran many errands after visiting them at the art show. By the end of the day everyone was pretty exhausted.

Saturday- Grace left early with Scott to go to McDonalds for breakfast, to a yard sale, and then back to the art venue. I visited late in the morning and then went and got Blimpies for use for lunch. My mom and sister visited us and took Grace back with them to let her play with my nephew. They ended up outside the remainder for the day playing and jumping on the trampoline. My sister invited us over for dinner and we had a great dinner of steak, potato, salad, and bread. The next morning I weighed myself and I had a gained a pound. No kidding! We stayed over at my sisters for a while then headed back home. Again we were all exhausted.

Sunday - Church first thing in the morning. Watched a video by Voddie Bauchum(sp?) in Sunday School and enjoyed it very much. Scott had to leave right after church to get back to the art show, we stayed at church for our Thanksgiving dinner that the church does each year. Lots of great food. Did I mention I gained a pound back yesterday, lol. Grace brought two friends back home with us for the afternoon. Then back to church to practice for the upcoming Christmas production. Such a busy weekend, but it was fun.

First Art Show

Today is my husband's first art show. It will be very low key but a three day event. Artists in our area come out and show their pieces as well as demonstrate what they do. Scott has always been talented and can do many things and for many years he has said that he really wants to start focusing on his art. So after 20 years he is actually doing something about it. He works mostly right now in wood, copper, and rock with pen and ink. He was also juried this week and has gotten his work into a local gallery. So proud of him. We hope in the next few weeks to giveaway one of his pieces through this blog.

This piece is an old guitar neck with artwork all over it.

This is a personal custom made communion set.

Community Service

The second Wednesday of each month is our church's food pantry day. It was very busy from the word go - handed out 97 boxes of food to local families and 80 gift cards to get a free turkey from a local grocery store for Thanksgiving. Grace and I really enjoy each month when we get to help. I work the front desk and handle most of the paperwork and greetings, Grace takes boxes out for the elderly. Next month we hope to have enough baked goods to send something home with each family. Still have a couple of hours of school work to do. Going to eat at church tonight - b-cue and fixings - yum!! I think tonight will be game night from my middle school class - Bible Charades.

Pretty Normal Day

Its raining again. Probably going to rain tomorrow too. But we had some beautiful days prior to this rain. Anywho, enough with the weather. Today was a pretty normal day. Trinity this morning for choir, handicrafts, and drama. This afternoon consisted of Bible, math, spelling, video about Eli Whitney, Proverbs Bible study, and literature. All in all a pretty normal day hence the title. I was supposed to go to a board meeting tonight but that has been cancelled which is good because instead we need to go pack boxes for our church's food pantry. We will be handing the boxes out tomorrow. Here is a couple of things that have been rambling in this brain of mine: I received an email from The Old Schoolhouse about the upcoming Midwest Homeschool Conference in Cinncinati and I am really thinking about going. My MIL lives about two hours from there, so we are thinking about going to Kentucky first to visit family then on to the conference. It looks really good - Tim Hawkins will be there and we love him. Also coming up much sooner is a Thanksgiving Day Feast and Activities that Trinity is doing. We are really looking forward to it - many activities planned. Weaving, archery, presentations, making butter, traditional Thanksgiving dishes, and it goes on and on - an all day event. I will be sure to post many pictures, etc. from the event. Time to go fix dinner got to get off of hereand do that mom thing.

Art Co-op - Botticelli

Two Monday a week are our Art/Composer co-op classes. Today we learned about Botticelli. We concentrated mostly on the paintings he did in the round. That is what we decided to create today also, and of course eat popcorn.

Grace decided to do a fish in a bowl.

Our Weekend

Both Saturday and Sunday have been beautiful days with wonderful weather. Yesterday we drove out to the big library that is about 50 minutes away. I needed some books for my co-op on Monday for Botticelli. Unfortunately between two different libraries I couldn't find just one book so I had to get a few books that had small amounts of info in each. Grace checked out about 8 drawing books and immediately came home and started drawing. She is so passionate about drawing and really always has been. I will try to take some photos of her recent drawings and post them (if she will let me) they are very personal to her and hard to share. I also checked out some dvds about fractions, we will be starting with fractions in about one week. We also lucked upon a dvd about Da Vinci and Eli Whitney to watch in the next couple of weeks. Today after church we headed out to Toccoa Falls to have some professional pictures taken with my sister's family. The Falls were beautiful. It has been about three years since we were out here last. Toccoa Falls is located on the campus of Toccoa Falls Christian College. In the 1970's the dam that is located a little above the falls broke and flooded the area as well as killed some people on the campus and in town. By God's protection the school was actually not in session and many students were home with their families.We took this picture while waiting for our turn with the photographer.

This one too. Can you tell that Grace loves her brother.

This is Grace and my nephew trying to catch falling leaves while waiting for their turn with the photographer.

And here of course is the Falls. Quite spectacular!

Wednesday

We visited some friends for a playdate.

Grace did an art project to paint like Monet.

Some of the other things we did for school today were: We have finished the biography about Eli Whitney and started a new one of Robert Fulton. In science we continue to learn about bats - today was megabats. For math we are still working on long division and in Bible were are in the New Testament. We also did spelling, a worksheet on proofreading a paragraph and one on working with charts. Grace has picked back up on reading her Warriors Series and is almost finished witht he second book - she read for about 40 minutes before bed. I also had her look through our book about lizards, pick one, read about it, then write in her journal. After going to church last night it was actually a pretty busy day. I road my bike last night and caught up on some TV shows on the computer. If I haven't mentioned lately - I have officially lost 10 pounds. I think I will keep on going and see where it takes me.