Whee! Here we go!

Ah, it has been very good these last few weeks. We started school on the 9th and things have been going fairly well. I can hardly believe we've gotten three weeks done! At least, the girls have gotten 3 weeks in. Our son started yesterday and it was so nice to see him start with a smile on his face. I'm so glad we decided to use the college books his father kept. Those will definitely challenge him. I think that's exactly what he needed. He told me today that he likes his new books. I could hardly believe it! And my youngest is reading (READING) this year! I'm so glad that I didn't push her too fast. She's really enjoying it. So overall, the first few weeks of school get an A. :)

On the crafting front, I haven't been up to much of anything. I did manage to scrapbook the children's play and part of the photos from the first play we did back in the spring. I don't have an album yet but the pages are looking fun and creative.

We are coming to my favorite time of year. I love the autumn months. No matter where I am, things just seem lighter and full of hope. It could be that most of the fun holidays are coming up. It could be that the autumn colors are my favorite colors. I really don't know what exactly causes it to be so. It just is. Where we live, we don't see much 'fall color' in our trees. The air changes, though, and it becomes cooler, much like a breath of fresh air that blows away the heat and humidity. Having said that, I /hate/ Louisiana winters. They are wet, cold and generally nasty. There isn't much playing outside that goes on during the Louisiana winter.

Our Redwall Feast will be coming up soon and I just love preparing for it. I can't wait to plan and send out invitations! Should be lots of fun since we have new people to invite this year.

I have several costumes to make. Last year, theShi asked me to make her a San costume (the heroine from the movie Princess Mononoke). I've been gathering the materials to make it for some time but it's coming together...slowly. LOL TheRo asked me for a Merle costume (from the anime Escaflowne) and that one should be a bit easier. We'll see. This month, I'm going to try to get some of the few things I have to buy to complete it. Thankfully, I have almost everything I'll need. My one worry is 'fur'. That kind of material is usually pricey and I'll probably need about 2 yards, if not more. We shall indeed see...

On the garden front, our citrus trees are producing pretty well. In a few months, we should have pink grapefruits, lemons and oranges and probably in amounts that will be too bountiful for our needs. I think the people of the church will probably be blessed with some. I'm looking forward to fermenting the lemons and I hope to make some orange marmalade and some grapefruit jelly. Our efforts with last year's crop yielded some very pleasing results!

Well, I guess that's enough for now. I really am trying to get better about posting more often. I don't worry too much about doing 'extra' stuff on a regular basis. I'd much rather get into the habit of doing the necessary things on a regular basis...like dusting and mopping... Well, we do what we can. Talk to y'all soon! Laugh a Lot!

Good Golly Miss Molly...

The second week of school for my girls starts today. I've been trying to keep the schedule kind of light for the first 3 weeks, taking care of the core subjects and trying to add in little projects that reinforce some of those lessons but are fun, as well. Last week went pretty well. We did work every day and worked well together for the most part. I found some wonderful online sites, thanks to other home school moms who post these helpful tidbits. www.currclick.com is a wonderful resource for unit studies and helpful supplemental materials. They offer many free items and lots of their products are less than $5! (They didn't ask me to promote their site. I just thought I'd pass along some helpful info to other home school folks.) Another of my favorite sites is www.enchantedlearning.com . This is a worksheet and information site. You do not have to be a member of the site to print out some of the worksheets but many of the topic specific worksheets can only be printed out by members. I think it's well worth the member fee (which is somewhere around $25/yr, I believe) to be able to print any of the worksheets I might happen to need. The worksheets vary in grade range all through the elementary level. They are easy to modify for a child who is a bit older. As an English and Science project throughout the year, my DD will be posting to her new blog www.journeytoaworldofherbs.blogspot.com . She'll do research during the week on various herbs of her choosing and post her findings.

In other family news...my extended family still doesn't get it about our food decisions. Eating out is unhealthy for us. So bringing food home that has been made at the fast food place is also not a good thing. Also, Domino's pizza has got to be my least favorite pizza of all the 'fast food' pizza chains. I guess that's why they offer their product for school fund raisers. :( So my middle daughter, who would love to kill herself with junk food, is now upset b/c Domino's pizza will be on the table for supper at my mom's but she won't be able to get any. I suppose my question is why. Why was it important to tell my girls what others were having for supper? Did they ask? If so, then the truth was better than a lie but...it's still annoying to have to deal with grumpy kids who'd love to have some pizza. And, no, it's not ok for them to have it 'just this once' because 'just this once' turns into a regular occurrence. If we're going to pinpoint what is making our allergies worse, then we have to eliminate all kinds of that stuff. Tough when it keeps getting shoved under our noses...

More news... My dh has started getting his things together to start the new semester at a new school. While shopping for books (at the store the school referred us to), we found out that his books were going to cost about $400...which we didn't have. The school gave us the ISBNs for two of the books but not the third one. When my DH went back to the store this morning, the owner said he didn't give out the ISBN's because it hurt his business. Poor owner! He just didn't really realize that he hurt his business even more by /not/ giving us the customer service we needed. I'd never shopped there before and had planned to go back but not now. I'll just shop at Amazon. I'd even pay 3x as much, rather than shop at that store now. Honestly! Did the imbecile not know that we /can/ research the stuff on our own? He still lost business on the school books and now he's lost business on his used books, too! I'm not stupid. My DH is not stupid. We found the ISBN at the school and got all the books online...for about 1/3 of the cost. We would really have been stupid not to get the books online... Which bookstore? "And Books Too" in Lafayette, LA. If you need comic books, I'd recommend you go to the other comic book store that I don't know the name of. If you need used books, I'd recommend the one off of I-49 on the north side of town. Can't miss it. It's a huge building with a bright orange tin roof.

In the midst of all this chaos, I think I'm staying sane. Well, as sane as possible considering my 'normal' state of mind. LOL Trying to stay positive in the middle of all the negative...but wondering if that attracts the negative, now. After all, physical science teaches that opposite charges attract. Ok, since I'm rambling, I'll stop for now. I hope some of this helps someone out there.

A Bit of Fear is Healthy, Right?

Well, I guess it keeps me on my toes...maybe...unless something shiny crosses the path.

My 9yo, who enjoys using her imagination but hates writing anything down, expressed an interest in blogging. At first, I thought, "ARGH! No way." Then I thought that it might be worth it if our young lady is learning something useful while she learns about something she's interested in. She happens to be interested in herbs, historical use of herbs and specifically the use of herbs to help others. So we'll be setting that up today and I'll be watching very closely as she posts on her blog each week. We had a great start to our school year with our girls begging me to begin their schoolwork. And now a writing project that was /chosen/ and suggested by one of them... Something else to note is that she will be learning valuable internet usage information. It just kind of surprised me since I know someone who's daughter is also doing a blog for a school project, though she is older and is doing a lot more work with hers.

So please pray for us and wish us good tidings with our endeavors on this blog.

A Visit With Relatives

Just a quick post today. My DH, 2 DDs, my dad and I went to visit my great-uncle and aunt yesterday. He has Alzheimer's. She's not too healthy, either, but she's well enough to take care of him for right now. The Alzheimer's is progressing slowly but it is progressing. I suppose the hardest thing to take is the fact that he used to be in the thick of things. Both of them were always involved in community projects that benefited their city. They were active older adults who traveled at least once a year. They were truly an asset to the human race, a vision of what hard work and dedication can do for each individual and for the rest of humanity. So now they go out periodically. They still attend church. They dine out periodically. I guess it just goes to show we should always be thankful for the small joys in life. They are still here. They are able to get out some. He can still communicate well enough to have short conversations on his good days.

I'm glad we went to see them yesterday. My uncle still remembers my dad. They were able to share some old stories and some jokes. My uncle didn't remember me but he remembered my son, who wasn't with us on this visit. I thought that was a very nice compliment to my son. My uncle always appreciated the fact that I borrowed another uncle's name to use within my son's name. My Uncle Willis Kessler died in the D-Day invasion of Normandy. He never had a chance to have children of his own. So we chose to add his name into our son's name in honor of the sacrifice he gave. So my uncle who is still alive, who was brother to Uncle Willis, remembers my son. My son has always been special to him.

I guess I said all that to tell you to cherish the time you have here on this Earth. Cherish the ones you love and take good care of them. Be faithful to them, even when it's hard to understand all the whys. Forget about yourself for just a little while and bring a bit of joy to another person in dire need of it. You won't be sorry and the smile on that person's face will be its own reward.