It's official...

We are homeowners again! 

More on this later. :)

One week from tomorrow...

...we will be closing on our 4th house...I am packing and wondering why we have so much stuff.

Jake's Science Fair Project

Our homeschool co-op had a science fair to end the year and we decided to see which liquid would clean pennies the best.  We gathered 5 1985 pennies (we found the most of those the quickest and we heard that older pennies were softer) and these are the liquids we choose.

At first it seemed like the Coke was going to come out on top...

But after some data collections and 24 hours, the winner was....

Dawn!  It cleans the dishes.  It cleans animals that get stuck in oil spills.  And it cleans grimy old pennies. 

 Jake and his poster at co-op.  Note to self:  Removable (because we want to use the $8 board again) two sided tape doesn't hold well at all...The pictures kept falling off.

 So we just laid it down.  No points were deducted due to unsticking tape. :) Objective, hypothesis, and materials list...

 Procedure and results...

 The conclusion.  Dawn Ultra cleaned the penny the best.  I really thought the Tabasco Sauce would burn it right off.  You learn something new every day!

 Jake and some of his buddies.

Playing ga-ga ball.  (No I don't really get it but they all loved it)

 Awaiting the science fair results....

 JAKE IS A WINNER!  We didn't do places because it was too hard to decide, so we just did 3 winners.  Jake got a $10 gift card to Chick-fil-a and a certificate!  AWESOME!!!!

It is a bittersweet day to be closing out co-op.  We have had a great year and are looking forward to next year...but not before we have an awesome summer!!!  We aren't done school,just co-op. But we are only going to be reading (because we never stop reading) and doing math until after we move-NEXT WEEK!!!  I need to get back to packing! :)

A day of Homeschooling...

 It sometimes starts off like this...especially when you have a new shiny book that you have been wanting for a really long time (Brandon Mull's Five Kingdom: Sky Raiders) and your amazing mom (yep I am that amazing mom) put in the cart at Sam's Club with out you looking and laid the new book on the desk in your room to see how long it takes you to notice it....How long did it take Jake to notice it?  No time at all.

 I was going to continue to be the awesome mom but the weather and an uncomfortably high park swing foiled my plans.  We had some bread that had been down graded to only duck worthy and hadn't feed the locals in forever so we loaded up some books and old bread and headed to the "lake" (it's really a pond but its called a lake for some reason) .

 Jake fed Fred first.  He is an ugly looking duck...poor guy...

See what I mean?...

 The fish were happy we were there too.

 The Canadian Geese are always the bullies...

 Jake threw this lovely lady a piece that landed on her back.  It stayed on for probably 5 minutes.  Jake was glad that I got a shot of the egg that was in the water too.  Poor egg... :(

 Our books were waiting and we read a little while but than got chilly and our legs hurt from the weird swing.

 See what I mean by chilly?  These guys agreed.

 So reading commenced at home.  This is the kind of mess I love to see in my house.  Books, paper, and pencils/pens are all you really need to educate yourself

 And books that are so good that you can't stop reading them to eat lunch. :)

 We went to the library again today (we were there yesterday for the Homeschooling Club, "School of Thought" [our library rocks], for "Ready, Set, Grow"-where they made a terrarium and a newspaper planter) because Jake could get a free book today!  Free + Book = Awesomeness!...No this book is not the one he got for free.  This is one he looked up and we couldn't find...So he asked the librarian in the Teen room where to look.  Would you believe there is a whole section of books upstairs we never even knew was there!?!

 Upstairs is the reference section...and the overflow of the teen section!  They only keep the most popular older books (Harry Potter type books) and the new ones (6 months and younger) on the main floor teen section.  We are so exploring up there soon!!!  Crazy to think Jake is in the teen section but they consider you a teen when you are 12+ and/or a rising 7th grader.  Last year Jake did the teen summer reading program when he was only 11!  While he was looking at his book I read the large print version (walked by the large print row, and saw it.  I have been wanting

 to read it for a while so I grabbed it) of Sarah, Plain and Tall. Is that wrong to check out a book (after I read the whole thing...but it was so good I want to read it to Jake) that is large print when you don't need large print...
Jake also did 45 minutes of math on Khan academy (online and math major, Principal Aaron approved) and started his science fair project (more on that later).  Also he didn't just read the Brandon Mull book.  We read & discussed, 2 chapters of Vol. 4 of the History of Us...and his library book...and built with Legos and lots of other things...

He is back to reading his new book (the one from Sam's Club not the library and that he has read 178 pages of today) and is going to be bummed that I am almost done with the post because that means he has to stop reading, get a quick haircut (that poor kid has never had a real haircut!), take a shower, and head to bed...Oh wait also add in make his bed because one of his chores today (2 days late....this is a Tuesday chore...) was to change his sheets and they are still in the dryer...

This is a pretty good picture of good day in the life of this homeschooling family. :)  Next time I will document what a bad day looks like.

She is a mess...

 This dog is adorable.  Obviously.  How could you not love that face?  BUT.  She sheds like no dog I have ever encountered.  Lab mixed with whatever is a mix that SHEDS!  Notice the floor beneath her...

 I had vacuumed just a mere 3 days before I took this picture.  Gross.  We will be vacuuming every day for a while...

 And the dirt she brings in the house!  How could I not mention the dirt?  Her favorite place to sit outside (besides on the porch, where she can keep watch of her yard and make sure the squirrels are kept in check) is in the dirt that is around the trampoline (a path she has worn...I will have to take a picture of that before we move for memory purposes).  She especially likes to lay in that dirt after Jake has sprayed her with the hose.  To be fair my vacuum fills up on one side before going to the other but that is still a lot dog fur and dirt...

Not to mention the fur I brushed off of her.  That is the fur from her back "haunches" and a little from her back.  And then she got restless and I let her go.  More brushing will be happening soon...Welcome Spring! :)


It is a good thing she is so stinkin' cute and smart and loving and cuddly...and the best dog on the planet!

It's Bow Time!

 In the South we have a fast food restaurant called Bojangles.  The serve some of the best (fast food) biscuits and fried chicken you can eat!  Their tag line is: "It's Bo Time!"

(I am the bad mom who didn't realize how drastically the temperature had changed during the day...It was going to be in the low 30's over night...I didn't realize it had already dropped to probably low 60's, high 50's (maybe even colder than that...) already...)

 Today it was "Bow Time" because they are sponsoring the Mavericks-Jake's homeschooling archery team.  They are giving the team 15% of all the sales that they make between 5pm and 8pm.  The archers waved people in, opened the doors for everyone and cleared and cleaned the tables.  It was packed!

 No doubt some people came in because Microphone Man (who is apparently the voice behind the local wrestling association) did a video that he posted to his Facebook account. 

 That was so nice of him...but I have to say he didn't buy anything...hmmmm...Maybe he will come out to our next Bow Bo night on April 30th-which is the day we close on our house!!!!

On Saturday....

Jake helped me (he sprayed the hose) re-pot this plant.  My parents gave it to us at Christmas time and it had a very pretty Pointsetta (spelling?) in the middle.  I have been planning on re-potting the other guys ever since then.  Saturday was the day it was going to get done (along with a couple more coats of paint on two tables...more on that later)!

This is the before of the plants...kind of sad.

When ever the weather is nice and the hose is out, Sadie ends up looking like this. :)

This is the after...They look a little "off" right now, but when they get their roots in there good they will GROW and be so pretty!

Aaron also made ribs.  He is so good at it! 

Don't let this picture fool you.  I made the potatoes but he got them out from under the broiler for me.

Nee and Papa were there...obviously.  The ribs were Nee's idea.  She buys them and Aaron cooks them.  Sweet deal, I know.  After we ate, on the back porch because Spring in the South is awesome, we played a rousing game of Blurt!  Can you guess who won?  Me.  I am a fan of words and being loud.  This game revolves around both those things so I rocked it.

  Guess who came in last?  Papa.  For posterity's sake I will just come out and say it:  He usually does.  Not always, mind you.  But usually. :)

And it wouldn't be a party with out one picture of Aaron being a dork!

I should be cleaning and packing...

...but I am here instead.  That is what I do.  Procrastinate.  But I feel a big burst of getting something done-right after this really quick post.  Just a bit of randomness...


Best friends....

 Archery....

 First box I have packed...I put pretty things I love on top so it will feel like Christmas when I open it. :)

 All while sipping from my very cool, new mason jar topper that my friend Leandra Grinder gave me. She saw it at Target and thought of me because she knows we love our mason jars. Feeling loved is a good thing. 

Now back to packing.  Every single room in our house is a disaster right now.  Literally.  I am going to completely finish (hopefully) one today and feel accomplished.  If I took pictures of my house you would be shocked. The spare bedroom looks like a library threw up in it (we never did put up the bookshelves because we started looking for a house...then I needed one stinking book, that I couldn't find, in one of the 5 Rubbermaid containers of books.  I need to go through them all any way so....), and the school room is not much better.  Bedrooms: closets have been cleaned out and there is stuff everywhere....Note to self (and everyone who made need this):  Don't pull things out to try to organize and decide what to get rid of in every room.  Do it one room at a time....Now I am going to blare Les Miserables (I just had it!!  It is temporarily misplaced in the chaos...Pandora-John Mayer radio it is) while working in the spare bedroom since I have the house to myself.:)