Houston, we have a plan!

I was on such a roll with the blogging!! Sorry I've slacked off the last ten days. I've been caught up in planning and pulling together curriculum for Ella's kindergarten year which will begin around mid-September. I have done tons of internet research and have finally come up with a plan that will at least get us started. (For those of you who aren't homeschooling, just skip the next paragraph, as I'm about to bore you with the details!)

I will mainly be using Five in a Row because I love the idea of unit studies coupled with great children's literature. We've used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons in bits and pieces this year, but we will fully focus on it in the Fall. Math is definitely Ella's forte (just like her Daddy!), so I won't bother with kindergarten level math for her. I have an older curriculum I used when I was teaching that will help her continue to build on her math skills, and I will pull activities and lessons from the internet to push her along. When I think she's ready, I may go ahead and bump her up to 1st grade Saxon Math. I have ordered the One Year Bible for Children and the lessons from ABC, I Believe to compose our Bible curriculum. We are going to sign up under Crossroads Christian School as our umbrella school, which keeps us from having to report directly to the State.

As you can see, I've been a busy girl! I'm very excited about the coming year, yet a bit apprehensive. Homeschooling an only child offers it's own challenges, namely, finding opportunities for her to be with other kids. She is somewhat lonely and that does concern me. Ella is a very social child. She absolutely loves every chance she gets to be with her friends and even begs to spend the night with anyone who'll let her (she had no qualms when she went for her first sleep-over with a friend and has been a couple of times since). Because of my back issues that also lead to a lack of energy, I cannot play with her the way I would like to and that's so hard for her. I know it's good for her to learn to play on her own, but I also know the importance of social interaction. I have to find a way to not just be her teacher, but also a playmate, of sorts. Please pray for me as I seek the Lord for strength and endurance for the upcoming year(s) of homeschooling. Just so you don't think she'll be holed up with me all week, we are at church pretty much all day Sunday, she'll continue Mother's Day Out this year, and we go on Wed. nights. I also plan to put her in a dance class next month, so she will have plenty of interaction with kids her age. It's just in the day-to-day that I think she feels sad that she doesn't have friends around. Pray, too, that we can develop relationships with our new neighbors who have kids. I know God will give her what she needs...it's just tough as a parent to figure out what's adequate. Does that make any sense??

I have more to share, but I have been a little sick this week and I'm worn out. I finally finished reading The Shack and have some thoughts to share with you that will differ from all the accolades you might have heard over this book. So, I'll save that for another post and call it a night.

You know your child was born in the digital age...

When she tells you that she can still play with you even when she's at her Memaw's house because she has a "DVSPS". With it, she can play games with you - like helping you get over the stinky mud, climb a wall, make a cake and clean your room. All you have to do is go to "phone.com" and it's all there, Mom! (I'm not sure if that's a real website & I'm not endorsing it if it is!)

Ella's definitely picked up on the fact that alot of what is talked about at home & especially on t.v. is related to the computer and the phone. She's been trying to figure out all the acronyms lately and I guess she just had a bunch of them spinning around in her mind the other day when she said all of this. The best part was how matter-of-fact she was about the whole thing. :)

Speaking of funny things kids say...

While we were shopping in Destin during our stay-cation, we sat down on a bench and she saw a treat that she wanted - a strawberry-flavored Italian ice. She started begging for it and told Paul, "C'mon Dad. Please buy it for me. You know I can have it because vacation means we can eat whatever we want!". :-) Hmmmm...I wonder what gave her that impression!

My parents celebrated their 38th wedding anniversary on July 11. We had told Ella about it and had talked a little about the meaning of the word anniversary. That Sunday, my mom cancelled lunch at her house and Ella was pretty distraught about it. After a bit of thought, she said something like, "Maybe Memaw didn't want us to come over because it's her and PawPaw's anniversary and they want to be alone." Paul & I just about fell out on that one!

And the other day she asked me if she could have a "beagle". Translation: "bagel".

That's about all I can think of right now. I need sleep! Off to read some more of The Shack and hopefully doze off into dreamland.

Preschoolers and chores

We're going to start giving Ella an allowance, but I am calling it a "commission", per Dave Ramsey's Tips for Teaching Your Kids About Money. I want her to grow up knowing that chores are a part of her contribution to the family, not something she's getting paid to do. So, I told her that if she finishes her chores each day (with some help from me) and does a little extra here and there to help me out, she will get her commission at the end of the week. We're starting with $1 per week. I have been looking for a neat way to help Ella keep up with her chores by herself. I was just delighted when I found these To Do List Jars posted by Megan on her blog called and everything nice. Since Ella can't read yet, I thought that she would need a picture prompts on each stick to help her figure out which chores she needs to complete. First I scoured the clip art sites for some cute graphics that showed jobs around the house. But, then I had a stroke of genius (I'm sure that's debatable!). Why not take a picture of Ella performing each chore, then attach each picture to a craft stick? So, we went around the house, taking cheesy pictures depicting her chores. Always the ham, Ella loved every minute! I cropped each pic into a 3"x3" square, arranged them into a Word document for easy printing, put some card stock in the printer, then hit the print button. I used some clear laminate to cover each chore card, then taped it to a stick. On the other end, I let Ella add a smiley face sticker. I used permanent marker to write the name of the chore on the picture.When she completes a chores, she turns the stick upside down to show the smiley face! We put them in a little basket that will stay on her night stand. The chores I came up with are:

1. Make the bed
2. Get dressed
3. Brush teeth (we made 2 of these and Ella put a sticker of a sun on the one for morning and a sticker with dark clouds for night)
4. Put up (dirty) laundry (in her hamper)
5. Help mommy (we showed her washing the dishes in the pic)
6. Water the plants
7. Pick up toys

To see the pictures I took for each chore (minus the one of her getting dressed!), check them out on my Flickr page. If you make a version of these, I'd love to see them. Also, what are your thoughts on giving kids an allowance? If you already give and allowance, how much is it per week? We plan to teach Ella to put aside 70% for spending, 10% for her tithe, 10% for charity, and 10% for savings. If you have any creative ideas to help us with that, let me know!

Stay-cation Finale!

(Please excuse this last pic with me in it! We had been in the hot tub and were in our jammies when Ella said she wanted to take a picture so she could remember our fun stay-cation. Just had to oblige her!)

The last few bits about stay-cation, I promise! Thank goodness we did not go to the Blue Angel show! Right around the time it was to start, the floodgates opened and lightning popped everywhere. My poor family had a time getting in out of the storm, but they were all safe. The newspaper reported that 4 people were struck by lightning and several others were injured by flying debris. It really stinks that they waited all that time to see the show and it wound up being cancelled! We wound up going to see Kung Fu Panda. Cute and funny with some scary parts, it is bound to become one of Ella's favorites. She's been talking about it ever since. We played a few rounds of Uno, then had a frozen pizza for dinner. After church yesterday, we ate at Ella's other favorite place, Wendy's, then just relaxed most of the day away. We did hop in the hot tub last night for a bit. We were sad to see the end come, but it was a very nice week. We now have to go back on our diets and Paul had to head back to work today. It's time to start planning the next vacation.

So, I've decided that I am going to take down my crafty blog. What was I thinking, trying to maintain 2 blogs?? I can hardly remember to post on this one. I will just combine everything here because crafting is just as much part of my life as everything else I talk about here. With that in mind, I wanted to show you what I made last month. I hadn't sewn anything in a while with the move and all, so I was itching to get back to it. For the purse, I used lee's Zip Top Tote tutorial, but I did not add a zipper or any type of closure to the top. I also modified the fabric dimensions so that it would be a smaller purse, rather than a tote. I put in lots of pockets to hold my cell phone, lipsticks, tissues, etc. I just love this bag and have used it every day! I followed Javajem's tutorial for the wristlet. My mom and I walk at the mall 3 times a week and we have needed something to carry a little bit of cash, our keys and maybe a credit card. I made this wristlet smaller than Javajem's and it fits everything just right. I also figure that, if necessary, I can hook my key ring to the tab on the end that was originally made to be a zipper pull. I used the wristlet for the first time today and it is perfect for walking! I made the wallet around Christmas time when I made several for friends, using happyfrog's slotted wallet tutorial. Hopefully you can see it in the group shot. I thought I had taken pics of it when I made it, but I didn't. You can see the others I made in this post on craftster to get a close up.







I've got more to post, but I think that's enough for tonight!

Stay-cation update cont'd

Thursday - The shopping & driving from the day before had worn us out, so we stayed home most of this day. We played a few games, but mostly just lounged. We did go out late in the afternoon for a walk, with Ella riding her bike. Apparently I'm going to have to incorporate lots of physical education into our homeschool routine because my girl is out of shape! She didn't even want to pedal most of the time and she wimped out after our first hill. My mom & I have been trying to get her to walk with us 3 times a week. I guess we haven't worked her hard enough! :) So, after that short outing, we went over to an Italian eatery we hadn't been to before. Ella and I shared a pizza that had obviously been thawed and shoved in the oven to heat, so it wasn't very good. Paul enjoyed his sampler plate, though, that included baked manicotti, fetucini alfredo and chicken parmesan. Ella was still pretty tired, so we came home and had an extended story time before bed.

Friday - Ella had been talking about going to Cracker Barrel all week, so we gave in (it was so hard to twist our arms!) and went there for brunch. Ella and I shared some delicious blueberry pancakes, eggs and bacon. We had heard about an indoor miniature golf place in Orange Beach, AL and we were curious, so off we went. It wasn't the best course, but it sure beat playing in the heat, so we had a good time. Paul's been wanting to teach Ella to play golf, so he has tried to work on her technique each time we've played mini golf. She hit a few good shots, but other than that, she mainly did what she wanted. Sorry Dad. Not sure she'll be the future LPGA star you've been praying for! ;) After the golf, Ella was ready for another swim, so we hit the pool again. This pool had a shallow kiddie area that was separate from the deeper pool. She stayed in the kiddie pool most of the time, but she did spend several minutes in the big pool with her Daddy, swimming back and forth (in her swim vest on, of course!). We wanted to go to Lulu's for dinner and since Paul had been there before, he knew we had to get there early to beat the crowd. It seems that everyone else had this figured out and we still had to wait about 45 minutes when we got there at 4:30! The clouds provided great shade, though, so it wasn't very hot and there was actually a nice breeze. The entree I shared with Ella was good but didn't seem like enough food for the price. Good thing, though, because we had to save room for the homemade key lime pie. It was divine! We walked around for a few minutes, watching the boats come into the marina, then left for home. Paul and I put Ella to bed, then settled in to watch the summer shows recorded on our DVR ("great" shows like "I Survived a Japanese Game Show" - what does that say about the lack of good entertainment these days??).

Today - Well, today, we were supposed to go to the Blue Angel show at the beach with my family, but the more we thought about it yesterday, the more we dreaded it. Sitting in the heat for 6 hours because my family wanted to get there early to beat the traffic was not our idea of a fun vacation day. Plus, we had just seen the Blues in November and we're just plain exhausted! So, we're lounging again - well, Ella and I are lounging. Paul has been working in the yard. Bummer for him. Hopefully he'll quit soon so we can enjoy on of our last days of stay-cation.

Here are a few pictures of our adventures so far:

Stay-cation update

Here's a run-down of our family fun this week. Sorry I haven't been updating every day. It's gone by too quickly and I'm sad to see the week winding down. Ella sure is going to miss having Daddy home with her. He's now trying to find ways to work less - that's a good thing! :)

Tuesday - Ella had Mother's Day Out, so we decided to let her go so that we could go to Wally World (Wal-Mart, woohoo!) together. We came home and vegged in the recliners and then had a quiet lunch at home before picking her up. That afternoon, we went to the UWF pool so that Ella could practice her swimming "skills" (see this post if you don't know her history with the pool). We had bought her a swim vest, hoping that would boost her confidence in the water and it has helped alot! Today, it only took her about 15 minutes to actually get off the steps and into the water, then she just took off!! She must have done 4-5 laps across the width of the pool by the time we were done. She kept "racing" Paul from one side to the other. She even put her face in once or twice. The really cool part was that she was putting into practice the things she'd learned in swim lessons even though she had hardly really participated during the actual lessons (besides just desperately holding onto poor Chelsea each time it was her turn in the water!). Paul and I were SO proud of her! Afterwards, we ate dinner at Ella's favorite place, Chick-fil-A, where she got to play for a little while. We then walked over to Marble Slab for some yummy ice cream to top off a fun summer afternoon.

Wednesday - There are some nice outlet stores in Destin, FL. So, we headed over there, but before arriving at the outlet, we stopped to eat lunch at the Mellow Mushroom where they make the best calzones anywhere!! Once we were sufficiently stuffed, we proceeded to shop til we dropped. Ella was quite a trooper until we reached the toy store, where she was allowed to spend the money her G-Maw had sent her last week. After that, she lost interest in any other shopping we needed to do and was ready to get in the van so that she could play with her new toys. I still needed a few things (especially undergarments, which you ladies know, it takes a little time to find just the right size, etc.), so Paul and Ella waited outside each of the next several stores I had to visit. They survived the apparent torture and we were off to eat at Joe's, where it is so much fun to eat good seafood and watch the singing & dancing waiters/waitresses. It was late when we got home that night, so it was straight to bed for all of us!

I hate to do this, but I'm going to have to finish up this report tomorrow. I have edited most of my pictures and will include them in tomorrow's post. :)

For all you homeschoolers

I don't know if I have any readers who are also homeschooling moms (besides my new friend, Candace), but I thought I'd mention this here just in case. I actually saw this mentioned on Candace's blog! Angela at Homeschooling and Loving It is having a giveaway of The Schoolhouse Planner. All you have to do is leave a comment on the top post here to be entered into the contest. This planner looks great and I have been thinking of buying it, but it does cost $39.00, so it would be even better to win it!! :)

Yesterday was day 4 of our stay-cation. We first made a stop in Daphne, AL for lunch at McAlister's Deli, one of our favorite places to eat (so sad we don't have one here!). We then headed over to the Exploreum in Mobile, AL. It was pretty cool. The new frog exhibit wasn't as great as I thought it would be, but the rest of the Exploreum was really fun. Ella had been there before with her Tio & Tia, so she had to show us around. After that, we went to the Eastern Shore Centre in Malbis, AL where there are some dancing fountains and Ella had such fun splashing and running around in the water. On the way home, we stopped to have dinner, making it a full day! I promise to have pictures up soon!

On stay-cation

Yes, we are officially on stay-cation! Friday was Paul's first day off work and, of course, we celebrated the 4th with a bang. The whole family came over to our house for tons of food and fun games (if you haven't played BuzzWord, find it and play it now!). We then headed over to the fireworks show downtown. Our good friends met us down there and Ella had a blast playing around and "oohing" and "ahhhing" over the "beautiful" fireworks. Yesterday, we took it easy for the most part, but we did go out for a round of bowling, shopping and pizza!

Now for the real reason for this post. After church and our usual family lunch at my parents' house, we headed to the movies to see WALL-E. What a great, beautifully animated, family movie!! I was so impressed not only with the stunning visuals, but also with the compelling story that was told through the eyes of an adorable robot who doesn't even really talk. There are so many positive messages woven throughout the movie that it's hard to know where to begin. The main theme being friendship and love, the plot also explores things like being a good steward of the earth, having a strong work ethic, the dangers of over-consumption and materialism, sacrificing to do the right thing, and having a child-like wonder and an appreciation for life. I cannot say enough about this film. Ella did get a little worried about a few things and some parts startled her, so I wouldn't take a child under 4 to see it. Because the dialogue is limited to very few scenes, this movie might bore some children who like more action and funny banter. But, I was pleasantly surprised at how well Ella followed the story and could figure out what the robots were feeling just by their expressions. As if it isn't blatantly obvious, I give WALL-E a "heart"-y two thumbs up! If you're interested, there is a much more eloquent review by Adam R. Holz of PluggedInOnline.com (the entertainment site affiliated with Focus on the family) here.

Tomorrow, we're off to the Exploreum where there is a new frog exhibit. I'll report back later in the week with some pictures of all of our fun!

Going Deeper Still...

This past weekend, I was priveleged to experience the most wonderful women's conference I have attended (and I've been to quite a few). It's called Deeper Still with Beth Moore, Kay Arthur, and Priscilla Shirer as the featured speakers. Travis Cottrell (my all-time favorite worship leader) and his praise team, along with Mandisa of American Idol fame, led me and 18,999 other women in praise to our King. I really cannot put into words what I learned this weekend yet, but here are some pictures from the Deeper Still blog that catch just a glimpse of what it was all about:


DeeperStill - Atlanta from Rich Kalonick on Vimeo.

If you ever have a chance to go to one of these events, please do. It was amazing and I'll be sharing more of what God has done in me over the next few weeks. TAFN!