*I have mentioned before I am a Yankee (born and raised in NH), but I consider myself a converted Southerner (except when it is really hot and I wish I wasn't....). Well, I often wish I had an accent like Paula Dean, but I don't think it will every happen. What I am getting at, is that the other day we were watching something on the History channel or Discovery channel (2 of our fav's...I also love Fox News and HGTV) and a Southerner said "thang" instead of "thing" and I was instantly mesmerized...Not enough to remember who it was or what it was on apparently, but I really wanted to sound like that. It wasn't a redneck or uneducated accent like people who don't live in the South think it is. It was a civilized "thang"...Maybe one day I will get my wish and have a Southern accent...I girl can dream right?
*Jake was playing his recorder the other day and decided to write a song. It took him about 10 minutes and was really AWESOME. I am so impressed. I told him that he could probably play it on the piano (which he wants to learn to play and is going to when Nee get home to teach
*While I am typing this post Aaron is teaching Jake to play the guitar and they are writing down all the cords in a notebook for him to practice. I told Jake the other day that when he was writing his song and playing it on the piano that, that was homeschooling. He didn't believe me, but I asked him: have you ever written a song before? (No) Are you learning the first few notes on the piano (Yes). That is learning! It is educating yourself and finding your talents. He was pretty psyched to think that an education is not just worksheets. :) I am excited too.
*The other day while I was doing something (dishes or something...), I heard some noise coming from Jake's room and when I went down the hall to see what it was this is what I saw:
Jake rediscovered his dress up clothes and was sharing them with Sadie.
****BY THE WAY**** Did that get your attention? His blog has changed to: jake-myschool.blogspot.com and it is not private after all. Aaron thought it was fine to be public since I talk all about him on my blog anyway...Good point...So, if I sent you an invite to the old one, just forget all about it and go to this one from now on...Back to the regularly scheduled post. :)
*I forgot to mention Jake has been lucky enough to go to a b-day pool party and to a friends house who has a pool in his neighborhood? He is a fish and loves the water like I do. That just popped in my head for some reason...Probably because I really want to go swimming...
*This is a picture of Jake reading from an awesome new collection of books a friend of mine from church brought to Cub Scouts to see if Jake wanted them. She got them a the school she works at and thought her kids would like them. They didn't...at all and since Jake had excitedly told her at Church (she is our Primary pianist) that he was going to be homeschooled she thought she would bring them to someone who would appreciate them. And he does! They are so cool and it is the whole set A-Z talking about cultures in different countries. On a completely unrelated note (I can do that because I am brain decluttering...) see the peach he is eating? I told Aaron I got peaches and he excitedly went to eat one and then informed we they weren't real peaches. We are used to the peaches that are almost the size of a softball, that are so juicy you have to eat them outside because the juice drips down your arm all the way to your elbows...I wish I had one right now...Which makes me think of one other quick thing...Nana, Jake thinks you are very tough. (Why did that make me think of Nana? Because you get those awesome peaches in SC and there are awesome peach stands off the highway on the way to Nana and Papa Harmon's house....See how randomly my brain works...) Any way. Nana has a broken foot right now and went a week after hurting it before she went to the doctor to get it checked out. So, in Jake's book you have to be tough to walk around on a broken foot for a week...In my book too, now that I think about it. Jake stubbed his pinky toe today and said if it is broken (it's not...) than he will just be tough like Nana. Just thought you would like that Nana. :)...
*Here is Jake working on his first homeschooling project. We aren't "officially" starting until July 5th because July 1st is when we can start taking attendance according to the county we live in. This is a project that Jake decided to do on his own, just because he wanted to. That makes me a happy camper. :)
*This is a park close to our house (we gave up on the ghetto park after we had to leave because several cop cars pulled into the parking lot with their lights on, to arrest a bunch of people in what was apparently a drug deal...And we had one of Jake's friends with us. Luckily his grandmother understood when she came and picked him up...), that we LOVE. We went twice in one day the end of last week. Then we went back the next day again. Jake made a couple of new friends and had a great time running around with them. I had a great time not having to be the one running around and I painted my nails and cleaned out my purse while he played. Actually it was the other way around. I found the nail polish in my purse while cleaning it out and then I painted my nails. We had to cut playing short (it had already been over an hour so they were getting tired since it was 9,000 degrees out) because one of the boys Jake was playing with a had teenage cousin who was playing too, that cussed a couple of times and then when he said "rape" and "hey my cousin tagged me and tried to touch my private parts!". I don't think he was a child molester or anything like that. I think he is just an idiot and doesn't know what is and is not appropriate to say around younger kids.. At any rate, I called Jake over and told him it was time to go, which he understood. Sad isn't it? I remember when I was little and we used to play outside all day with our friends...It is a different world. On a more positive note. I showed Jake all the fun things we used to do on swings on the playground when I was a kid. Like twist and swing at the same time. Or hold onto each others chain and swing sideways together. All those things he doesn't know about because he has never had swings at his schools because they are too dangerous. And the last time we had a swing in our yard he was too little to show those things too. :) I have heard more of my favorite Jake belly laughs in the past week than I have in a long time.
*This is Jake getting ready to roll the dice and pick what 5 states he is going to research first. He decided he wants to start with geography, researching a few interesting people, and researching animals this summer. Sounds good to me. We are also going to be reading the Book of Mormon.
We were having a game day last Tuesday and took turns picking the games. I love this card game called "5 State Rummy". You have to get cards for 5 states that border each other. While playing Jake decided he wanted to learn the states.
*We made Aaron blueberry streusel coffee cake one morning. Don't be too impressed-it was out of a box. But you can be impressed that I got if for almost free on sale plus my coupons...which I really need to cut out, I am so far behind...This is the best pic we could get with our resident PTPP. Jake was concerned when we first started making it, that it had coffee in it, since the box said coffee cake. I assured him it didn't and we enjoyed it's yumminess.
*Here is a where a picture of the Papa John's pizza we got the other night would be...but I can't put it up here because it is one of the pictures I took for the secret shop we did...don't tell them! You just order the pizza (you have to be approved to do it obviously...), answer some questions about the customer service. Take a few pictures of the pizza with your shopper number on it and you get a free pizza. This time it will cover the cost of the pizza, tip, and I get a $10 bonus because I haven't done it for a while and they really needed someone to do it. Did you know you could do that? It is the only time we order Papa John's. :)
*And last and definitely least...Did I mention that I dyed my hair "dark mahogany brown" about a week and a hal ago? I have dark brown hair and I have been dying it for a few years because I am getting gray...I would have a skunk stripe on both sides of my face and they are starting to pop up other places throughout too...I usually just go with dark brown, but since I have red undertones anyway I decided to try the mahogany for a change. This is me waiting...
I got bored waiting for 30 minutes, when there was no one around (Jake was asleep and Aaron was at work) to distract me from the fact that I may look like a clown when I rinsed it out, so I took a picture of myself...That makes sense right?.. Can you tell by my facial expression how I am feeling about it? It was so much runnier than the regular dark brown and where I could see it on my forehead it was BRIGHT red...I have no after picture...yet. I haven't really worn my hair down since because the roots are so red. The rest of it looks pretty much like what it always looks like. I am just waiting a couple of weeks to go back to my regular color. After 4 days and 4 times washing my hair red dye was still coming out of my hair in the shower. That never happens with the brown I use and it was the same brand. So, I learned my lesson: I will just stick with the color I've got...as long as it's not gray. I am too young for gray...
