The World of Anime

Grace's passion in life is anime. Not so much reading and watching it but mostly drawing it. She spends hours every day drawing her own characters. Six months ago she learned that anime con would be held in Atlanta. She has been waiting not so patiently to go. Today that day finally arrived. Because of my crazy busy week I decided to stay home and catch up on some work. Grace and hubby went without me. Traffic was awful, but they arrived safely and had a great time.

As you can see everyone dresses up, it is called cosplaying. She even got asked with two other girls that were also dressed as pikachu to be filmed in the video for the convention.

Currently Grace is all about the hipster glasses.

Books!!!!!!

Every year our community holds a children's sale at the local fair grounds. Many of the items that are for sale we have grown out of, like baby items. clothing, games, etc. One item that we do enjoy going to look at is books and home school materials. This year we lucked up on quite a few good books and some khaki pants to wear during Acts of Faith performances. All the books above in the pictures were either .50 or 1.00 a piece with a total of 22 books purchased. 

TOS Review - Box of Ideas

Box of Ideas (Ideally Dynamic Enrichment Activities) is a company that has engaging topics of study that come in a box with multiple activities. For the purposes of this review we received The Salt Box as a pdf.



Each box is designed as a supplement to your curriculum or a stand alone topic to study. The website states that their product "can also be used for homeschool group activity, summertime learning, and as a break from the normal routine". Every box of ideas contains at least 10 modules of learning for the topic chosen and is recommended for students 9 - 16 years of age. Currently available topics include:

• Pigs
• World War II
• World War II Pearl Harbor 
• Eleven
• Salt
• Quilting
• Laundry

Topics that are coming soon include:

• Mystery
• World War II Kitchen
• World War II Innovations
• Olives
• Pine
• Cemeteries

I would say these are some pretty eclectic and interesting topics to study.

As I mentioned earlier, The Salt Box was sent to us as a pdf for review. Salt is something that children see or taste every day in their lives, but probably know very little about where it comes from, how it nourishes our body, and the history of it for trade. The modules included for The Salt Box are: 

1. The History of Salt
2. The Science of Salt
3. The Salt March
4. The Salt of the Earth
5. Need for Salt
6. Preserving with Salt
7. The Wall that Salt Built
8. Where Salt Lives
9. The Language of Salt

As you can see from the above modules, each academic subject is touched on with the chosen topic. Each module will have a quote, a few paragraphs of information specific to the topic and module, extension activities to learn more, weblinks, questions, and activities. Most activities in our unit were games and matching items. "If all the printing, cutting, and assembling is not your idea of fun, you can order our complete, ready to use Salt Box of Ideas", for $79.00. I want to reiterate that we reviewed the pdf format, not the physical box. The pdf download sells for $49.00.

How We Used It and What We Thought
We choose to use two modules a week. I thought that all the materials were researched well and laid out for easy understanding. Our favorite modules were Need for Salt, Preserving with Salt, Too Much Salt, Where Salt Lives, and The Language of Salt. I didn't mind cutting, pasting and assembling all the cards for the different games. Our favorite game was the salt trivia game found in the preserving module. I had extra dice and player pieces around without having to purchase anything extra. All graphics in the study are of high quality, and I found the pictures of Salt lakes to be quite beautiful. I feel this product is high quality and would recommend it. The random topics of each box are topics that are really not found elsewhere. The only con I really have might be the price. For a pdf I would personally be a little hesitant in spending $49.00. On that same note the pdf is very full of information, activities, and graphics (almost an inch of paper was included).

Graphics of salt lakes that I cut and made into cards are included

To see what other TOS reviewers thought about this product, go to TOS Review Crew.

Disclaimer: As  member of the TOS Review Crew, I received this product at no cost to me in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine.

This Week So Far

Wow, this week has been a whopper. Very busy with lots of activities going on. Here is the breakdown:

• Monday - School work and a visit to the library during the day. Three hours of prison ministry training at the state prison during the evening. Let me just say that my socks were knocked with that meeting. The warden spoke to us for about an hour and then two chaplains. These women were awesome. They love what they do and the programs, classes, etc. that are available to women in prison for rehabilitation is incredible. But so much more can be done. Looking so forward to getting all our volunteer paperwork settled so we can start.
• Tuesday - School work in the morning and dropped the car off to have a tire replaced (did I mention that I rode over a hammer in the road). Taught and assisted at the cooperative 3:00 - 6:00.
• Wednesday - Took my mom to Atlanta (1 12 hours away) for her doctor appointment to get results. God is so good!!! Tumors are still stable and not growing so we get 4 more months until another scan. After the appt mom took me to Kohls and bought me and Grace some clothes. Rushed home and got dressed to go to a birthday party for a friend that had moved away. Their house is still for sell here so they came back for a couple of days so their daughter could invite all her friends over for a party. Lots of fun. Brought two girls home from the party to spend the night so they could attend Acts of Faith practice on Thursday (they live one hour away).
• Thursday - This leads us up to today. All the girls are doing some school work this morning. We will head out at 12:00 to get a bite of lunch then drop Grace off at her writing class. The two extra girls will go with me to Acts of Faith leaders house to do some more school work then Grace will head over there also to practice music for Acts of Faith until time to head out to cooperative at 3:00. I will teach puppetry arts today and Grace will attend choir. Then Grace will go with the Acts of Faith group until 8:30 for practice and dinner. I will go home to eat with the rest of the family and walk. I haven't walked in three days because of the heavy schedule and I really need it.
• Still to do - Friday will have more school work and anime club meeting. I have to finish Grace's cosplay costume for the Anime convention she will attend on Saturday with her dad. 

I am bowing out of going to the convention because I am bone weary tired. Also the house is in a shambles and I need grocery shop as well as pay bills. Can't wait to sleep in tomorrow. 

Random Monday

One of my all time favorite bloggers, Deb over at Not Inadequate, has started a Random Monday link up. If you are not reading her blog you need to go and check it out. This lady is funny!!! So here is my go at a Random Monday link up:

• Tonight I go to a three hour volunteer training meeting at the state prison in our area. I am part of a prison ministry team that will hopefully be going in one Saturday a month to help in the child care center where mothers get to visit their children twice a month. We would be responsible for activities and lunch during a 6 hours shift.
• Did you ever meet a person that just knocked your socks off with encouragement and you were so impressed with them and their accomplishments you wanted to get off your bum and  do whatever you could for those less fortunate. Well, that is what happened to me this week. I had another meeting this last Friday with a woman that heads up a huge prison ministry through the local detention center. She has her hands in all aspects of ministering to women in prison, addiction recovery, and after they get out. I really want to work with this organization.
• This week is going to be a crazy one. Every single day is full of something. Praying I keep it all together.
• Wednesday I take my mom to an appointment to find out test results, praying they are good. Also get to visit with a friend that moved away.
• One of our younger Buff Orpingtons crowed for the first time this morning. He sounded sick. Definitely needs improvement. 
• Working on our next semester schedule for the cooperative I run with a friend. Lots of great classes will take place. 
• I am reviewing a tax school program for TOS and it is kicking my tail. I WILL persevere and finish the whole program.  

So Excited...Look What We Got From the Library Today

   

Currently Grace has started the Harry Potter Series and I just finished the 5th book in the Mortal Instruments Series. As I have mentioned earlier I have taken a break from reading adult fiction and started reading youth fiction. We have waited almost a year for the 2nd book in the Michael Vey series to be released. Luckily our local library purchased a copy and we were able to get one yesterday. 

Another Spinning Plate

I think I might be crazy. As if I didn't already have plenty on my plate with reviewing items for TOS, running a two a week cooperative, joining a prison ministry team, and all regular homeschooling and housework stuff......now I have also started a youth service group for the teens in our area. For the longest time I have wanted Grace to get involved in some type of ministry or volunteer program. Since she is only 13 there are not a lot of opportunities out there. Once I joined the prison ministry team I felt encouraged to do something with the teens in our community. I sent out an email to our cooperative and homeschool group parents telling them what I had in mind. So far I have 14 families of teens interested in participating. Next on the agenda was scheduling and finding a place to meet. We are blessed to have a community room at the local library that will let us meet at no charge. I took a survey and it looks like two hours every other Wednesday afternoon will be the official meeting time. All decisions will be made by the youth with adult supervision and guidance. Some of the areas I will have them look at are:

• Adopt a grandfriend
• Adopt a stream
• Childhood obesity - walking club
• Walkathons for charity
• Trim a mitten tree for underprivileged children
• Literacy
• Homelessness
• Soup Kitchen
• Habitat For Humanity
• Pet Food Drives
• Grow a garden/food pantries
• Special Needs
• nokidhungry.org/goorange
• Food drives for local food pantries

If any of my readers have hosted groups like this or worked with one, please let me know of any advice I might need or any good ideas. Please pray for us as we get off the ground. After our first meeting I will post how it went.

TOS Review - Homeschool Legacy

Once a week unit studies are brought to you by Homeschool Legacy. What is a unit study you may ask. A unit study is a method of learning using all the senses and different academic subjects (math, science, art, social studies, etc.) to focus on one topic. Currently Homeschool Legacy has the following unit studies available:

• Birds of a Feather
• Forest For the Trees
• Horsing Around
• Weather on the Move
• Knights and Nobles
• Native America
• Early Settlers
• Revolutionary Ideas
• We the People
• Lewis and Clark
• Christmas Comes to America

We were blessed to be picked to review Weather on the Move. You see, Grace is crazy about all things weather. She loves to look up videos about extreme weather, check out weather forecasts, and watch storm chasers. Needless to say this was the perfect unit study for us. Weather on the Move is a 7 week unit study for grades 2 - 12 and retails for $19.95. It will come to you as a soft bound book. There is no way I can mention everything that you can do with this unit, but here are some:

• Family Read Alouds
• Weather Journal
• Writing Assignments
• Experiments
• Create Weather Instruments
• Arts and Crafts
• Track Hurricanes
• And so much more

How we used it and what we thought:

We decided to use this for our main science curriculum until it is finished. This means we are doing every reading, activity, and assignment. Even though this product is formatted for once a week studies, because we were using it as our main science, we worked on the unit 4 days a week. I think the product is fabulous and covers everything Grace would need to know about weather. Grace's favorite parts were the experiments and creating weather instruments. I like the weather journal and drawing all her experiments in it. We liked it so much that we will finish every portion which will take a couple more weeks. Because of the hands on experiments, I think this is the most Grace has ever understood how the water cycle and weather actually work. I am even looking at one of their other products to purchase and teach as an enrichment class through our cooperative. I was also very appreciative of the price. There is much information gleaned for $19.95 and well worth the price.

One added benefit to the unit studies is the opportunity to earn badges for American Heritage Girls and Boy Scouts. Throughout the unit, activities and research assignments are added to help these students earn their badges.

Please visit Homeschool Legacy and pick out a unit study for your family.

To view other opinions from the crew visit TOS Review Crew. 

Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Review Crew, I received this product at no cost to me in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine. 

TOS Review -Raising Real Men - A Cry From Egypt

Raising Real Men is a website dedicated to teaching and appreciating raising boys. They also publish books through Great Waters Press. We were given the opportunity through TOS Review Crew to read and review A Cry From Egypt written by Hope Auer. Hope Auer is a home school graduate that has enjoyed writing stories since she was very young and has a passion for history, which has culminated in "The Promised Land Series".

A Cry From Egypt is the first book released of The Promised Land Series. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in Ancient Egypt? How about living in Egypt as a Hebrew? What about witnessing the plagues of Egypt through the eyes of the Hebrews? If so, this is the book for you.

We read a chapter each day from A Cry From Egypt as a read aloud and also included it with our Bible Time. A Cry From Egypt follows a Hebrew family living in the land of Goshen leading up to the Exodus from Egypt. The characters, relationships, and struggles in this story are entertaining, educational, and started many thought provoking discussions between myself and Grace. Grace has really enjoyed the book and her favorite characters are Eitan and Ada. We have read a lot of historical fiction for Ancient Egypt over the past few years. A Cry From Egypt is by far the best. I found myself, as an adult, riveted to what would happen next. This book would be great as a read aloud or for your children to read themselves. The writer and publisher recommends for 8 yrs and older. Currently this book is available through Raising Real Men for $12.50. We received a physical book for this review. I loved this book and am waiting not so patiently for the 2nd book in the series to be released. Please go check this out and purchase a real gem for your family to share.

Visit TOS Review Crew to see what other reviewers think about A Cry From Egypt.

Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Review Crew, I received this product at no cost to me in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine.

First Field Trip of the School Year - Mountain Fresh Creamery

Mountain Fresh Creamery was opened a couple of years ago in a town 30 - 40 minutes from our home. We have already visited a couple of times to purchase milk, butter, ice cream, and grass fed beef. They don't process milk everyday, so we were excited to go today for a field trip with our home school group and see some processing done as well as talk to the owner.

So many families from our group signed up that we had to split into two groups. First we all had a tasting of their milk, either chocolate or white. I can attest that their chocolate milk is the best I have every had, and I have drank a lot of chocolate milk in my day. Next the owner showed us a short video and explained to the kids what homogenized and pasteurization was in terms of processing milk.  The Creamery's milk is only pasteurized to a temp of 145 degrees and is not homogenized. 

The owner's dairy is actually 6 miles down the road. They have 60 Holstein cows and treat them like their children. No antibiotics unless absolutely necessary. All the cows can go and come as they please inside the barn or out, and have sawdust and hay beds. In the summer they have the option of going inside the barn where misting fans are available to keep them comfortable. 

After the tour everyone could purchase ice cream or milkshakes from the silo they just built.  It is wonderful to have a choice of local dairy products now that is close. Currently I am bartering for raw milk, but when that runs out I will go back to purchasing dairy from Mountain Fresh Creamery. The milk we watched being processed today into chocolate milk was milked from the cows last night and this morning. You cannot get much fresher or local than that. I did learn that once they mix the cocoa and sugar to the milk it has to sit 24 hours before drinking. He said it tastes completely different if you taste it the day it was made. If you are ever in Cleveland, GA be sure to stop by and pick up some great tasting dairy products from Mountain Fresh Creamery. They also have lots of fun hats, shirts, etc. to purchase.

TOS Review - Family Time Fitness

For the purposes of this review we were offered to review Fitness 4 Homeschool - Core 1 through Family Time Fitness. We received the product as bundles of PDFs which I printed out and put in a binder. Over the past year getting and staying fit has become a primary focus in our family's life. Currently we do something active 3-5 times a week. I felt this product would be a perfect fit for us to help us get a little more structured in what we did each day for fitness. Childhood obesity has become a real problem in our society. Getting kids to be active is a struggle with all the gadgets, games and such that they choose to do before even thinking about exercising. Finding a product that motivates kids to get active and have fun at the same time is part of the solution. I think Family Time Fitness has succeeded in this arena.


Let's get down to what the product is and what is included. The curriculum includes 260 planned lessons, Each lesson is very well laid out with skills that are being taught, suggested recovery times, warm up exercises, activities and game play, cool down exercises and an outdoor activity. What makes it even better is the clickable blue links that take you to a video to demonstrated each exercise or activity. For homeschool parents this is a great product that takes very little time in preparation and what kid doesn't like being active and playing games. The lessons are recommended for five days a week and each lesson takes 30-45 minutes to complete. Here is what is included in Fitness 4 Homeschool Curriculum:

• Start Up Guide
• PDF Lesson Plans
• Video Demonstrations
• Assessment Tools
• Reminder Emails
• Lifetime Curriculum and Video Updates
• Access to Online Webinars and Certificates of Completion

Recommended Equipment:

• Bean Bags
• Jump Rope
• Hula Hoops
• Playground Balls
• Foal Balls
• Cones
• Measuring Tape
• Stop Watch
• Exercise Mat

What We Thought and How We Used the Product:

I thought the product was great. Grace was a little more reluctant with it. Grace was the only child using the product and would have benefited from a fitness buddy other than her mother. We used the product three times a week as a supplement to what we already do for exercise. Grace is in the 8th grade and at the top end of the age range for this product. She expressed that some of the exercises seemed a little young. I feel that as she worked her way farther through the program the exercises and activities would have become more intense. Even though it wasn't a perfect fit for us to use at home, I really liked the product and thought it was very well researched and put together. I feel this product could be utilized for many homeschool families. I am even looking into purchasing the license to use the program in our cooperative. I felt the price was right on target and a bargain for all that you will receive in the curriculum. 

Family Time Fitness does have other products available for high school and co-ops. Fitness 4 Homeschool - Core 1 currently retails online for $57.00 and is recommended for kids K- 8th grade. The normal price for this product is $199.00.  Please visit Family Time Fitness and check out all their wonderful products.

To view what the rest of the crew thought visit the TOS Review Crew.

Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Review Crew, I received this product at no cost to me in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine.

Hubby's Ingenuity

Our chickens stay in a coop and run. We can not allow our chickens to free range due to predators and dogs in the neighborhood. When I use the term neighborhood, I use it loosely because we live on a gravel road with only 4 neighbors. Unfortunately up the road from us other homes allow their dogs to run free and we learned the hard way a couple of years ago when two dogs we had never seen before came down to the house and killed our rabbit that was outside in a pen. To make a long story short we have to supply all the greens and extras for the chickens to eat. When the garden is producing it is no bigger, but in the Fall and Winter we have to buy the greens. With the escalation of prices of produce and other food we decided to take a new tactic. We have lots of weeds growing in other parts of the woods on our property that the chickens can't reach. Here is where the ingenuity comes in (on my husband's part). There is one weed in particular that they like. Hubby grabbed a bunch and wired it to the fencing to give the birds something to do while eating.

Does anyone want to take a guess what kind of chicken this is, and if it looks like a hen or rooster. I believe the chicken is about 5 months old. No crowing as of yet. We also have 4 of Betty's eggs about to hatch tomorrow. Hoping they are mostly like Betty and nothing like the daddy.

Weekly Wrap Up With Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Wow, these weekly wrap up posts come around fast each week. I think it was a pretty typical week for us:

Monday - Holiday, no school. Grace was sick with a respiratory infection so not much fun going on either. Actually we were invited to my sister's house to visit with some relatives that were in town but hubby was the only one who could go I stayed home with Grace and Travis who were both not feeling well and probably contagious.

Tuesday - Of course we attended co-op. In drama we practiced blocking and reciting lines for the first 14 pages of our Narnia play. Grace is in the first part of the play as a unicorn speaking with Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. In art history they are studying ancient Egypt and created masks. In school we are busy doing reviews for TOS and some of them we are enjoying very much. We started a literature lapbook this week for Island of the Blue Dolphins from Hands of a Child. This is the quarterly freebie, you can download it for nothing. We do lapbook units a little different. Grace despises cutting and pasting so we just you the text and questions and she writes her information down in a notebook.

Wednesday - We ran around all morning trying to find a particular medication for Grace and in the end had to have it ordered for the next day. More of the same with school and very little exercising going on, at least with Grace, because she has had some medical issues. Hoping to get back on the bandwagon this week.

Thursday - More co-op with dance and choir. Grace also attended her second class of beginning essay writing. She was very pleased that she got a 90 percent on her homework. Writing is really not her thing, but she absolutely loves this teacher, so I am hoping the energy of the class will transmit to better writing skills. Thursday night also included Acts of Faith practice for a couple of hours. Very little academic work happens on Thursday except the writing class because of our time away from home with the co-op and Acts of Faith.

Friday - I went off on an adventure to look at co-op in another town to get ideas for our cooperative. It was very encouraging and helpful. Grace didn't get school done today because I came home so late in the afternoon. Instead of doing some by herself she decided to wait and us do it on Saturday. Sometimes Saturday school does happen around here if we didn't get a lot done during the week and if we have nothing going on for the weekend. She spent most of the day with hubby thrift store shopping and eating out for lunch. We hope to get to the fair in the next couple of days because Grace wants to see if she won any ribbons for her art work.

To see what happened in other homeschool families lives visit Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Little House Link Up

•      

Churning butter is one of those activities that we read about in Little House books and elsewhere. In this day and age it is very simple to purchase real butter at the store but is also getting very expensive. Recently I started bartering with a family friend her raw milk for my baked goods and produce from the garden. It has worked out very nicely so far. Never in a million years would I have imagined that I would be making my own butter.

I love the butter I can purchase at our local creamery but it is very expensive. With the three gallons of raw milk I get each week I can make our own butter with just the cream and added salt. No expensive involved. I am sure that many of you have read the information that is available about margarine, very nasty stuff. I switched to butter a couple of years ago and never looked back. We read more than once in the Little House books that a lot of the time they just had bread and butter for lunch with maybe a little honey if they were lucky. Meals were much more simple during those times. Next week I hope to use a gallon to make mozzarella cheese. Not sure if they even had that yet during pioneer and westward expansion times.  Be sure to visit The Usual Mayhem for the weekly Little House Link Up.

So Cute!!!!!!

Grace adores all kinds of hats and usually can't wait for Fall and Winter and to wear them all. Yesterday we found a sock  monkey hat and thought it was fab. She only took it off her head to go to bed last night.


On a separate note me and my cooperative partner visited another cooperative about 45 minutes from ours today. They were having an open house and we wanted to see what they were teaching, ask some questions, and just get some fresh ideas. It was a blast. The cooperative was small but so encouraging to talk to everyone involved. If we lived closer we might of joined up with them. We are already working on the 2nd semester scheduling and adding some academic enrichment classes for 3rd - 8th grade. We currently have between 50 - 60 kids enrolled in fine arts classes. Our dream would be to have our own place next year and teach even more classes. Until then we are praying for wisdom, guidance, and for certain doors to open to make this happen.

No Posts in Four Days?

What's up with that? Life, I guess. I usually don't go this long without posting something. My only excuse would be working on many reviews for TOS, getting lessons together for cooperative, teaching school to Grace, errands, house work, cooking meals, taking care of animals, baking to trade for bartered milk, getting information to start a prison ministry team at our church, and so much more. Life just kind of got in the way this week. This equals very few blog posts. Today will be very busy also:

• 1:00 - 2:00 - Essay Writing Class
• 3:00 - 5:30 - Fine Arts Cooperative
• 6:00 - 8:30 - Grace goes to Acts of Faith Ministry Practice
• 6:00 - 8:30 - I come home to cook dinner, see to animals, and pick up

As I mentioned above our church is in the beginning stages of creating mission teams to help in different facets of the community. I felt led to work with the prison ministry team. We have a large women's medium security prison in our community. I talked to one of the chaplains yesterday and was very encouraged by all the volunteer opportunities that are available. They seemed very flexible and agreeable to a lot of the items our team had already discussed. Our entire team will need to attend a volunteer training day at the end of September before being allowed to start working and of course background checks. I am so looking forward to getting this off the ground. 

Weekly Wrap Up

This week was our first with all extracurricular activities included. Tuesday and Thursday Grace went to her fine arts co-op and participated in art history with making  something from ancient Egypt out of clay, drama practice for The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe, choir practice, and in dance class the partnered couples continued to learn the Waltz. On Thursday we also add her weekly Beginner Essay Writing class with one of her favorite teacher's Ms. Christy. Ms. Christy makes everything fun even Grace's dreaded writing time. She was assigned daily writing to put in an observational journal and writing a thesis statement as well as some supporting thoughts for their first big essay. Grace chose to write an essay about fighting animal abuse.  Thursday night also included practice with Acts of Faith which is a drama ministry team.

School itself went pretty well this week. The one thing we are having trouble fitting in is reading. Unless I assign something she just doesn't do it. We are working on five different reviews for TOS Crew with future posts coming. We created a miniature greenhouse to use as an example of the Earth's atmosphere and the greenhouse effect. Also played a game about salt preservation (from one of the reviews). As I have mentioned over and over math is a much disliked subject in our household. For Grace but not for me. This summer we did a review of Math Essentials that you can read about here or visit their website Math Essentials. Currently we are working through the Problem Solving workbook and once finished will head back in to Pre-Algebra Concepts and if time permits at the end of the year I will purchase the Geometry book. The biggest selling point for Grace is shorter amount of problems and less time in the day devoted to math and it has built in review.

Grace turned in her two art drawings for the county fair to be judged in the art show. Of course both were manga drawings, her specialty. Last year she won 2nd place in her age division. She continues to draw 4-6 hours daily either on computer with her bamboo pad or sketch pad. Something that fascinates me is that she will draw her character on the sketch pad, take a picture of it on her i-phone, then upload to her manga software or paint and digitize it. Once on the computer is can color it and add graphics, etc. It amazes me how talented she is in this area.

To see what other families are doing each week visit Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Not So Normal Sunday

This morning both Grace and my 22 year old son woke up with respiratory viruses. So church was a no go this morning although later I am attending a fellowship kick off for our small groups. Each small group is in charge of a mission outreach for our church. It was a really tough choice because I felt led to be a part of two different groups but after much time, prayer, and deliberation I chose prison ministry. Anyway, me and hubby were both up, it was 9:00 and the whole day was ahead of us. We decided to take a three mile walk just the two of us and it was great. Talking without kids around and exercising to boot. Lots of spiritual decision going on lately that we needed to hash out. After the walk I came in and cooled off a little then started with cleaning all of the chicken coops. Hubby went to the backyard also to start preparing an area for us to butcher some of our chickens. That will be on the schedule next week. Once I was finished with coop cleaning I moved on to the patio stones which were in dire need of some cleaning. Actually they had become slimy and treacherous with algae. Next came lunch then a well needed bath. Ran over to my mom's to visit a bit and pick up some tissue for Grace (didn't want to drive all the way in to town just for tissue and mom lives 5 minutes from the house). Now contemplating what needs to be taken care of next. I have a few reviews I need to start writing and a stack of books that need to be read. God Bless and have a great day!