Friday, June 21, 2013

A New Giveaway from All Free Jewelry Making!

As I was shopping for supplies and ideas for my creative side, I happened to find this nifty giveaway from All Free Jewelry Making. The prize is a super nifty, magnetic frame that you can 'stick' your jewelry on! What an interesting concept! I doubt one of these would be enough to make sense of my cluttered and clustered jewelry but one must start somewhere, I suppose. So, if you are like me and you need a little organizational help with your bedside table or the top of your dresser, check out the giveaway here. While you're there, the folks at All Free Jewelry Making have some quick and easy projects that you could do with your children or do on you own, if you wish. My baby goats have been making knotted charm bracelets with me this summer and the time spent together with them is priceless. (Photo blog post coming soon!) Time passes so quickly... Until next time...

Laugh a lot and remember to breathe!

Monday, June 17, 2013

Fun With A New Photo App

I should really start this post by saying that I am not a huge fan of my touch screen phone. Touch screens,in general, seem to dislike me and are more often disinclined to respond to my prompts than not. On the bright side, apps are fun and interesting. I found a nifty photo app called Pixlr-o-matic which offers vintage effects, textures, and frames you can apply to the photos you take with the camera already installed on your phone. I have another camera app called Picsart. This app has more features than the previous one and it is also a "camera". You can take photos with the app, itself, not having to revert back to the default camera that came with your phone. I'm keeping both apps on my phone because the Picsart camera is tons more user and lighting friendly than my default camera and the special effects, textures, and frames on Pixlr-o-matic are very much my style, earning both apps a 5-star rating from me. I'll share the three photos I took last night. The lighting in the room was horrible and my younger baby goats are usually in motion more often than not. So...using the Picsart camera and the vintage finishes from Pixlr-o-matic...

Saturday, June 15, 2013

My Baby Goats' First Concert

If you are nitpicky about anything you term 'religious', then this is your heads-up and you might wanna stop reading here since I'm certain this will fall into that category for folks like you. If the previous statement has piqued your curiosity and you want to continue reading, please feel free. Tonight, my husband and I took the baby goats to their first concert. We saw Jimmy Needham. I already liked what I heard on youtube. "Clear The Stage" snagged me with lyrics that were well written, real and to-the-point. And I've already claimed "Rock Bottom" as my theme song. But this concert solidified my respect for this artist. Not just a singer, not just a song writer, he also thinks deeply and shared some of those thoughts with us. I needed to hear those words tonight. So now, not only my do my baby goats have a pleasant memory, so do I. I also have a fresh perspective to delve into. Am I doing 'all to the glory of [my] God'? Am I really? Eating? Drinking? Walking to the mailbox? Am I? Am I looking to and relying on the One person who can truly satisfy me? Am I? Or am I too busy to stop and receive the bountiful feast He wants to give me? We couldn't have chosen a better first concert for our baby goats. They got to enjoy real music with real lyrics sung by a real human being. Thanks, Jimmy Needham, family, and crew! Keep doing what you do. God is doing an awesome work through you. Thanks so much!
Photo by J.D. Kittles Photography. Used with permission.

Monday, June 3, 2013

First Day of Summer School

Today marked Day 01 of our summer school session. I made the mistake of referring to it simply as a summer session and my middle child said, "Huh? What's that mean?" so I went back to the long version. I'll have to remember to tell her to look up the word. Anyway, if a first day of any activity can be any kind of indicator in this household of ours, summer school should pan out fairly well. I have to say we did really well today and I'm proud of my baby goats for sticking with it and getting their work done on time. I put a little more effort into forming a plan of action for the weeks I wanted to be doing school by modifying the use of a Unit Study Planner that I found through Newbee Homeschooler's blog. I used Unit Study planner page 4b but I used it as a basic curriculum planner, not to plan unit studies. I like the idea of unit studies but I am having a hard time wrapping my head around it so we still use textbooks, literature books and workbooks. I only make a basic plan because I like to retain some flexibility and I also have to plan for 3 students, one of whom will be graduating soon. I find it extremely frustrating when I take tons of time and make a meticulous plan only to find it gets tossed aside after the first two weeks because one child got sick or we had to make an unplanned trip. Those kinds of things are detrimental to my sanity so using the KISS method is the best for me.

I really am looking forward to having lots of fun-filled learning experiences with my baby goats this summer, especially since the first day went so well. We'll probably have some bad days but with a good start, we have a better chance of succeeding. My two youngest will tackle 4 subjects and my oldest will tackle 5. We'll just be brushing up on our skills and keeping what we've already learned fresh in our minds. Now some people say, "Well, they /need/ a summer break." Really? If that's so, then why are so many other kids complaining of boredom already? Besides, by only taking a 3 week break, I'm certain my kids will be ready to go when the next school year arrives. And I'm equally certain that more of the skills they learned throughout the previous school year will remain intact. So without further ado, tally ho! Onward to a vast wealth of knowledge!

Laugh a lot and remember to breathe!

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Flashback to Biloxi

My baby goats went to Georgia to spend part of their summer break with their grandparents. (Shout out to the grands for taking them on!) When we met them in Mobile to bring them back home, we decided to take a short stroll down memory lane. We took a detour and drove down Hwy 90 from Ocean Springs to Gulfport. We stopped at Sharkhead's so TheRo could see it. After all, she was born there! It's certainly different than it was when we were stationed there but it's still a nifty place to go. We took a moment to walk on the beach and smell that wonderful air that can only be found there. The girls played in the sand a little and we tried to remember which buildings were wiped away by Hurricane Katrina. I was really glad to see business was still carrying on and people were still visiting. I miss living there, for certain. What a joy to be able to enjoy it all again, even if only for a short time.