DO YOU KNOW HIM?

I know...I've been off the grid for far too long. We have done some pretty exciting but local things so far this summer. It has been raining for nearly two weeks or more in this part of the world. I think this is the rainiest summer I've experienced by 30+ years living in GA. But now, being 30+ years old, I LOVE it! As a youngster, I hated it. It always meant "staying inside with nothing to do" now it means, "staying inside with nothing to do YAY!" LOL! 

I will certainly post updates of our summer break soon. I just finished summer semester! I'm happy about that, and I enjoyed my first semester of school!

Check out this video, feel free to leave me a comment if you know him...or not.

Finally Done - Ballet Recital

I know it has been a while since I've posted but summer vacation is here, what can I say?

We got through our last recital for the year, and Chelsea did wonderfully. We were quite concerned about her during rehearsal but she pulled it together nicely for the big day, and she was magnificent -
for a 5 year old. :) That's her in the middle of this blurry picture. :)

I'm also doing a lot of writing in my English 101 class which is kind of a deterrent from blogging. After finishing 5 page essays that are only a couple of weeks apart, blogging is the last thing my brain wants to think about. I hate that about going to school right now, but the benefits put the inconveniences to shame!

Shhh...we're planning a Disney trip for the girls this fall. This will be their first trip, so we are keeping it a secret until we leave. If you have any tips for our trip PLEASE leave me a comment. I am all ears. Because we have two girls whose ages are 5 and 7; we are only visiting the Magic Kingdom this time around for three days. Having been there a few times myself, I think this will be a great first-time trip for them. I am sooo looking forward to them seeing the new Fantasy Land addition.

What are you up to this summer? Any trips planned? We are still doing school. We have school 4 days a week for about 2 hours a day. It's working out well, and on the days that kids are not feeling well we skip it. No pressure. It's summer break! We've gotten some swimming in also.

Here, the girls and a friend have built a habitat for their little plastic lizards. They studied animal classifications, so they learned that the lizards that they've been catching are amphibians with the ability to live on land and in water. They added to that, the fact that lizards love to hide underneath rocks and voila, a habitat was born.

Activities, Activities, Activities

A lot of time has gone by since my last homeschooling post. I've posted about raising kids, loving your spouse, but today I'm taking it back to the home school (somebody out there gets that :)).

The girls spent a day catching lizards and making habitats for them. I am so glad that they are not squimish like me when it comes to lizards. I am not afraid of bugs of any kind but a lizard on my front porch will send this grown lady who LOVES being outside, into the house pretty quickly.

We've completed our science project using the scientific method from springtime science. Madison wrote out her conclusion, and I challenged her to think about her sentences and incorporate what she's learned from her Rod & Staff English book this year. I told her that if she wrote a great paragraph, we would skip the English lesson because I would see that she's learned and retained the information that we've covered this year. Let me tell you, I was impressed. And I'm glad because during the 5 months that she was in public school I saw some pretty amazing writings posted on the walls of the 1st grade halls at the school. I determined from that that I really needed to make sure that she is able to write coherent sentences as early as she is read, and I was proud to see that she's there.

Chelsea took a spelling test. She's doing great at 4 years old with reading, writing and spelling. I am not excited because she is only four doing those things. I am excited because at this rate and on this path she should have a good year for the school year coming up. She will be independent enough to work on her own confidently and she most likely wont have a hard time understanding her daily lessons.

proud of her work

For Mother's Day, we made the footprint butterflies that I'd seen all over pinterest, but we did a little something different with ours. I did not get a chance to post them because we did them at 9pm the night before Mother's Day. Oh well, there's always next year. Instead of making these adorable little butterflies on canvas bags and such; we did our footprints on stones to be placed in Nanna's garden. It seemed like a perfect idea for that project.

We made and hung our butterfly feeder, again, a great idea from pinterest!

While the kids were away at their god-parents' house for the weekend of my and Phillip's birthdays, I made little cardboard dog houses (from a box) for their little doggies; a cute idea that I got from the Mom's Library. If you have never been to that site...go! There are ideas a PLENTY on that site! The girls LOVE their doggie homes and went a little crazy decorating them. Honestly, I think they are using them more as a canvas for art than a domicile for their doggies. :)

 We've had our last classes for both kids' extra curricula activities; piano and ballet. We've had one end of year recital, and one more recital to go. Madison did so well at her recital that her piano teacher is moving her up in her books. The girl has a God-given gift and I as her mother, am so thankful. Now once she found out that she was moving up in books, her response was, "Already?!" She was ecstatic and I think she recognizes that it is an honor and that it's because she's doing a great a job.

Before the recital

Sister: A built in best friend

I need a better camera!

Mommy's little divas

We also had our last day  of co-op this week. Whew! I thank God that we made it all year! I wanted to give up and quit so many times this year, but I am so glad that we hung there. The kids LOVED co-op, it was just hard for me to incorporate the "homework" from co-op into our homeschool. I like to do school at our own pace and cover the information that I think we need to cover. Needless to say, this was a learning experience for us. We will still go to co-op next year, but we are only doing the elective courses versus the academic.

Shaving cream wars on field day

Homemade chocolate cake I made for end of year banquet

I had my very first podcast interview with Demetria Zinga at Christian Homeschool Moms. She was such a delight to interview with. She homeschools her two children out on the West Coast and contacted me for an interview based on some information that she read on my blog about raising children in today's world. If you have a chance and have never been to Christian Homeschooling Moms, check her out over there. She also has an iTunes channel that you can subscribe to for great ideas on homeschooling, or great encouragement if you're new to homeschooling or have hit a rough spot in your homeschool.

 Listen here!

I also did more work on my ebook which will be coming out very soon. I am soooo super excited about that. Phillip has been helping with proofreading, editing and publishing. Therefore, if you have preschool aged kids, be on the look out for it. It will be free initially, and I really hope that people, moms, will find it useful.

All in all, May has been a wonderful month for our family in so many ways. God is a wonderful God and He, according to His word will teach you how to profit. He will guide you. He loves you and He is so very interested in our lives as His children. If you are in a rough patch right now, if you feel overwhelmed at all, distracted, pulled in a million directions, don't throw in the towel. Hang in there! If you are a born-again follower of Christ, you have the spirit of an overcomer on the inside of you. There are times that we may need to slow down and check to see if we are headed in the direction God has planned for our lives, but if you know you are, then just keep going don't give in to inadequacy, doubt or fear. He loves you, you are in Him and He in you. You CAN do this.

Linking this post up at Collage Friday and here.

*	To listen to our family's FREE Educational music...visit our YouTube channel here.