Our Monday...

 ...was pretty much the best!!!


Our homeschool co-op started up for again after our Winter break.  We saw some of our friends over the break, but we hadn't seen some of them since before Thanksgiving, so it was great to be back.  It was also pizza day and we had a mom's meeting to start planning next year...which was long and slightly stressful but it actually jump started my planning (I had a plan for what we are doing next year and this motivated me to finalize some of it) so it was a good thing.  It may mean I am teaching two classes at co-op next year but we shall see!  After co-op we went to the skating rink for one last skate of the year.  It is kind of funny that just as winter really hits, they pack up the rink! I guess it is because Southerners won't go when it is really c-c-c-cold!

 When we got home there was an amazing surprise from Aunt Gloria and her Sherpa (Hahaha!) Uncle Tom.  It was like Christmas all over again!  We were so excited as we looked at all the books.  I was SHOCKED when I opened the 2nd box and saw the lavender, cream, and olive green corner of a book...Could it be the very book I had planned on going to Barnes & Noble and buying with a gift card I got?!?!?!  I opened the other flap of the box and....  YES!!!!!  It is Jane Austen's 7 books bound in one gloriously beautiful lavender, cream, and olive green binding...And then there was Laura Ingalls Wilder's first 5 books-another on my list to buy!  Jake and Aaron were both THRILLED with the Art of War-one they had their eyes on when we were at B&N on Saturday scoping out what we might buy with the gift cards we were going to end up using Tuesday-the day, it turns out the boxes were supposed to come.  Funny they came the day early with the very treasures we were wanting inside! 

 Did I mention the Jane Austen...? I am not one to ask for my picture to be taken...but I did on Monday night.  Twice.  :)  I love the inside of the Laura book...It looks like the calico of one of their dresses...Aaron pointed out how cool the Sherlock Holme's plaid inside cover was.
We are slightly THRILLED!!!! :)


Jake is going to start a Shop/Woodworking class with Papa Harmon next week and he is going to make a lamp.  I asked him last week if he would extend the lessons with Papa and make my book cases I need to finish out the dining room library (how lucky are we to have a dining room library!) and he said he might.  This seals the deal-he has to!  Pretty books cannot be crowded onto shelves--they must be displayed!

We carefully put the binding down on the shelf and alternated on opening a small section of pages at a time.  I was taught that was the best way to slowly open the binding so it won't crack.  The binding laid  flat beautifully and the pages still floated even after slowly sectioning it open....How pretty is that?!?!?...And the Little House books have the illustrations by Garth Williams.  And they have ribbon bookmarks...I LOVE THAT!  And...Jane...See how pretty the cover is.  I know some people don't like the word pretty.  It isn't a "quality adjective" I am told. But I like it so I will  use it...over and over again apparently! :) Shakespeare, Grimm's Fairy Tales, a 3 book series by Richard Paul Evans (I love his Walk Series and he happens to be Mormon!) that Jake is excited to start asap!  The Iliad and Odyssey,  a book on U.S. Grant...I could go on and on!  THANK YOU, Thank you, thank you Aunt Gloria!  Our home library has been happily expanded with such beautiful books and we are so grateful and blessed!

And we have lost him....before his jacket even came off.


Life is good...and add the feel and smell of two boxes of new books and it becomes GRAND!

Tender Mercies of 2014 #1...

While busily putting away groceries (while maybe being in a little bit of a grumpy mood...) a couple of weeks ago I dropped the milk carton on to our tile kitchen floor.  Instead of the splash of milk I expected this is what I saw...A slightly crumpled milk carton with not a drop spilled.   Tender mercy #1 of the year.  I am sure there have been more but they sometimes go unnoticed.  I am looking for them this year because I know that Heavenly Father is mindful of me and I am thankful. :)

What I learned this week...and I love these posts....

*I learned that I was more ready for Spring than I thought when I saw these on the trees in the front yard:

  I love it when it seems the trees are coming back to life with the first fresh, vivid green baby leaves and buds!  But...we did not have 1 flake of snow this year!  Jake's winter jacket may as will still have the tags on it.  I made him wear it 3 or 4 times (even though it really wasn't ever cold enough to need it) so that if it doesn't fit him next year I won't feel like we didn't at least get some use out of it.  I am ready to see the green buds...Not so sure I am ready for the heat already (it was 84 degrees out yesterday and it has to be right around that today).  I am REALLY hoping since it was a mild winter that it will be a mild summer too...For now I will be happy it is spring and see if we set a new record this year of having to turn on the air conditioning before we even hit April....

*I learned that I love the Little House on the Prairie series as an adult as much as I did when I was a little girl.  I am excited that Jake and I are going to start reading Farmer Boy together.  He could read it very easily and quickly on his own but it is fun to read books together. :)

*Pinterest looked different today when I got on to pin things I think I am going to do but most likely never will.  I am trying to decide if I like the new look or not....Do you?

* I learned last night, as I was staying up late reading Mockingjay, that I will be very upset and totally hate the whole series if it doesn't end the way I want it too. I like a happy ending and I am really crossing my fingers for it in this series.   I learned that I thought I would hate The Hunger Games series but I don't.  It is scary and morbid.  It has violence and death.  I don't want to read it but I can't stop because I have to know that the characters are going to be okay.  If I hadn't grown so attached to the characters  I would have stopped reading it a long time ago.  It is controversial.  It is scary because it isn't completely an unbelievable plot.  It is scary because there are aspects in our culture that make me think it could actually happen (to some extent) if we allowed it to happen.  I put my name on what I was told was a long wait list for this book at the library on Monday and was surprised...excited even, I am sad to say, that they already had it for me when I took Jake to his book club there yesterday. I did refrain from reading it the moment  I received it in order to finish the last couple of chapters of On the Shores of  Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Talk about reading on a very wide spectrum! 

*I learned (again) that Heavenly Father is mindful of my family. His tender mercies remind me daily that we are taking the right steps on the path of the plan he has laid out before our family.  I am so thankful that Jake is old enough to recognize that hard work, prayer, sacrifice, and faith can bring you through hard circumstances and make you stronger.

*I learned that when you are at Sam's Club and your child sees a book that he has been dying to read, that  isn't at the library, and it is only $4.38 that...you buy it!  You are a hero for buying an unexpected treat and it is a BOOK.  I want to read them too so it is a win-win.  It is fun to read the same book as Jake, talk about what we think is going to happen next or discussing our surprise when this or that happened...He doesn't even realize that is part of homeschooling. :)

*I relearned how amazing and important the wonders of modern medicine are to my very existence.  I learned my Advair inhaler really does help me breath so much better.  It ran out before our new insurance kicked in and I had to use Jake's (less powerful...) inhaler for almost 2 weeks.  I finally got the insurance card in the mail and got my inhaler yesterday and I remembered how wonderful it is to breath deep breaths.  This all means I have to restart the couch to 5k training I was doing.  At least I learned my lesson in the fall and didn't push more poor lungs past the point of no return like I almost did last time.

*I learned even more this week what an amazing thing it is to be able to homeschool Jake.  On Tuesday Jake had the 1st of seven weeks of a soccer homeschool clinic with some of the Charlotte Eagles soccer players.  They are professional soccer players that just happen to be strong Christians and are missionary athletes trying to make a positive influence on the surrounding communities.  Jake had an AMAZING time and can't wait for next week.  I had an amazing time sitting and talking to the other homeschooling moms  After it was over we ran to Target and I realized just how awesome it is that the other kids we saw at Target had just gotten out of school and instead Jake had just gotten done a hour and a half of soccer.  I am not sure why that hit me the way it did.  It was just a moment of recognizing my blessings I guess. 
By the way Tina, he wore his Ukrainian soccer jersey you guys gave him and the Charlotte Eagles guys thought it was pretty cool.  While we were at Target a girl in her early twenties said that was her favorite soccer player!  She even said the his name, which I can only assume she said correctly because I had no idea how to say it. :)

*I learned that I have many favorite posts of the week...(I am cramming these into one post this week since tomorrow is St. Patty's Day).

(You had to know I was going to put that picture on because I love it so much.)

I got some great ideas over at Latter-day Homeschooling from these 2 posts that I LOVED :
1.) Iditarod: The Last Great Race-  It is a little sad how little I knew about the Iditarod.  This post has great info. on it that sounds like a fun thing to take a day or two away from our "March=Math Month" and study.  Dog heros, snow, and the power of serving humanity.   I love all the resources that Stephanie added also-it makes it so easy.

2.)  Free books at your fingertips!- If you have been here a while than you know I love my Kindle.  This post tells you where to find a whole bunch of free books and gives you ideas on how you can use it in homeschooling.


I know this post was technically last week but I don't care.  It is called The Best Mom That They've Ever Had...Or Maybe Not.  Melissa is a friend (I actually know here in the real world-not just the blog world) of mine that is all sorts of amazing.  I am a better person for knowing her.

Redneck Thanksgiving

I am running behind on posting (I know you are shocked!) so here is the quick version of our Thanksgiving.  We spent it in Spartanburg with the Harmon's and did it up right-Redneck style!  Here are 36 of the 88 pictures I took...I know that is a lot-cutting it down to 36 was hard...

Jake sitting on Papa's new toy: A four wheeler...

Riannon and Jake...

The big boys playing with the toys...

Doing nail swirly style....

The nail polish in the water.  Pretty don't you think?

Of course we shot guns.  Here are my 2 guys with a very LOUD one....

Here are the dogs in "jail".  Look at Sadie (on the far left)-she is rolling her eyes that I am taking their picture.  Aaron and Jake your PTPP attitude is even wearing off on Sadie. :)

Papa Harmon and Aaron frying the turkey.  Aaron decided for every picture I took on Thanksgiving he was going to stick out his tongue...At least he was letting me take pictures of him!

Can you say delicious?...

I had to take a picture of my beloved bread maker.  It may have done it's last batch of rolls...It has been dying for a while (we got it as a wedding gift and we have been married for 14 years so it is old.) but the batch of rolls we made Thanksgiving morning in it, had it screeching like it wasn't going to make it.  Seriously it was making screeching noise.

"Two Papa's!" a quote from Jake when he was around 2 or 3, when both Papa Harmon and Papa G. were at the same place.  It was like it clicked in his little head for the first time that he had 2 Papa's. :) 

The kids were the first to dig in to the feast...Wait a minute!  I think Nana beat them to it! Check her out in the background sneaking a taste of something from the dessert table. Caught you Nana! :)

Ranee, Aaron (and his tongue), and Jeremy...

Piling the feast on the giant plates. They really are giant.  You don't have to go back for seconds when you use serving platters...You think I am kidding?  That really is what they are... :)

Jake made a snow man out of his mashed potatoes and ham.  We are so proud of his creativity. :)  Crazy kid!...

The senior table...

The cool table (I was sitting at this one too just so you know).  Aaron keeping up with the tradition of the day.  We decided Riannon could join us this time instead of sitting with the kiddos.  See how cool we are?..

The kiddos and Leah in the back ground-the rest of her table never did come back for a picture.  She could have been part of the cool table if Riannon hadn't been there, but Riannon is pretty cool so we couldn't kick her out. :)

The cousins that were able to make it.  We missed you Sara, Kayla, and Megan!!!...

And of course a silly one...

Jeremy and his Charlies Angel pose...

Ranee is practicing for the concealed weapons course...

Jake took some time to sit at Emily's (our black lab that we had to put to sleep because she had cancer) grave. 

Me and my favorite 10 year old...

Aaron forgot to stick out his tongue in this one. :)

Della found a new cool use for a neck pillow. :)

Black Friday started at 10pm on Thursday night so we made our way to Walmart...

Riannon had proof on her boot that people were a little pushy...

The fruits of our labor: DVD's for $1.96.  I got a couple for $5 too.  Shhhh! These are Christmas gifts...

In case you are wondering this is what it looked like at 10pm...I can only imagine what it looked like at midnight when the big stuff went on sale!  We called it a night and skipped Target opening at midnight like we planned.  The only thing on our list was $5 flannel Lego Star Wars PJ pants for Jake-not worth the chaos...

The rest of the weekend looked like this...

Riannon had a zit on her nose-one of those painful ones that is under the skin.  I told her about the toothpaste trick to pull it to the surface.  She was kind enough to let me take her picture with it on her nose. :) 

We split some wood and stacked it at the Martin's and then at the Harmon's.  We were trying to work off some calories we took in.

Nana asked me to paint her mailbox.  Della was my assistant and it turned out she was good enough to help me finish quicker!  Thanks Della.  Oh yeah-like my layers? (I hadn't done anything to my hair...) Ranee gave me a hair cut.  I can always talk her into it. No she isn't a hairdresser-she is just my hairdresser.  I don't believe in paying to get my hair cut.  Why would I when I have a sister-in-law that will do it for free!  Thanks Ranee! :)

We also looked at a house that has been on the market off and on for the past 7 years-for the fun of it.  I love it!  We are hoping Aaron will get a teaching position here for the next school year and crossing our fingers that it will still be on the market.  It is perfect for us!  It is three bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, 2 car garage, fenced in back yard that backs up to the woods, living and family rooms...I love it...Not sure why it hasn't sold-except they had it priced too high for some of those years.  Now they just want to sell it and are willing to negotiate-big time!  It is smaller than other houses in the neighborhood.  Ranee and Jeremy looked at it a couple of years ago (when they were buying a home) and really liked it except that the bedrooms were a little too small to put two kiddos in.  It would fit us perfectly!  You can see the corner of it in the background of the picture of me and Della painting.  Two doors down from Nana and Papa Harmon and right up the road (with in walking/biking distance in a neighborhood that allows children to do those things safely!) from the Martin's (COUSINS!!!).  Keep your fingers crossed...This is the second home in the neighborhood that I have owned in my dreams... :)

This is Jake and Sadie on the way home from Spartanburg.  How cute are they? 

And that is the quick version of an awesome weekend in South Carolina. Hope you were able to spend your Thanksgiving with the ones you love too!

The Last Day of Public School and the First Day of Freedom...

This is what Jake looked like as we got in the car and were ready to head to the 4th grade for the last time.  We were running late so there was no time to pose for pictures if we wanted to make it on time.

This is his last goodbye to Sadie...on the last day of school.

This is his last hug to me..on the last day of school.

This is me missing the shot of him signing I love you and blowing me a kiss, like he does every morning (he is a sweet boy)...for the last time, on the last day of 4th grade...

This is me getting ready by stacking up all the wonderful things we have collected in preparation for homeschooling next year.  It looks like we spent a fortune but 95% of the books Nana Harmon got for us for FREE!!!  THANK YOU NANA!!!!

This is what Jake will see when he walks through the front door after school...

This is the sign, you can't see in the picture of the books, on the cocoa (we don't drink coffee, so Jake dubbed it the cocoa table when he was about 3 years old) table, that Jake will see when he walks through the front door.  (This post has a similar pattern of repetition as a popular children's book...but I can't think of what it was actually about at the moment...It was not planned.  I am just trying to post all these pictures that took forever to upload...download?...which one is it.  My computer, and brain, are both running slow today.)

This is the sign on the front door that Jake would read....Oh you get it already!!!

This is me driving one last time to pick him up from public school...wasting precious gas...

This is Jake getting in the car after HIS LAST DAY OF PUBLIC SCHOOL!!!! (Well if all goes as planned anyway...)

This is the traditional ice cream cone we eat on the last day of school at Dollar Cone...Not sure what my hair is doing...I took a shower and immediately put it up in a pony tail and well something funky happened from there...

This is my ice cream with Jimmies or sprinkles to you non-New Englanders.  Really I just was playing around and when I noticed my favorite colored nail polish was in the picture I had to post it. :)

This is the mandatory trip that I promised Jake we would make right after school, to rent  Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, since he got 3 A's and 1 B.  Good job dude!

Here's the report card and free rental coupons...I didn't plan on taking a picture but since the guy gave us and extra one just to be nice I couldn't resist. :)

This Jake at the front door...FINALLY!  Drum roll please...For anyone that doesn't know, Jake has been asking to be homeschooled and we are finally doing it...Everyone (almost) but Jake knew we were going to do it months ago.  It is so hard to keep secrets and this was a big one...

This is Jake's first reaction to all the books.

Then to the note...

Soaking it in....

Tears...I was getting ready to hug him so it is blurry but I had to post it. 

What did he do next?  He immediately started checking out ALL the books....

And a little organizing took place.

This is his "I can't believe this is really happening" expression.  He had just hit himself in the forehead a moment earlier and rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't dreaming. 

Jake says he is soooo happy but he will miss his friends and the playground.  To which I reminded him that he will still see his friends and there are way better playgrounds we can play at WHENEVER WE WANT BECAUSE WE ARE FREE!!!!  Well, almost whenever... :)

I can't believe it's finally official: we are homeschoolers!  :)  If you are too and you would like some A-MA-ZING resources, ideas, and networking than you have to check out:




It is nice to know I have a place to go whenever I need encouragement or help and it is only a mouse click away!