Halloween Pumpkin

So what do you think? Pretty cool huh?! Eddie totally rocks!! He carved this the other night. Alex wants to try his hand at it so today I plan to get another pumpkin so he can try, if he succeeds I'll post a picture of his. Bri believes she has the coolest pumpkin on our street, and I think she is right. Of course I've not really seen any other pumpkins except the plastic variety and there is no comparison there! She wishes I would decorate our yard like the Parkers have, but I just don't have the time or energy right now for that. Christmas is coming and that is my big decorating holiday. We even have an awesome new blow up for the yard. Papa got a real kick out of it last year when we bought it, Frosty on a motorcycle.

Well guys that's it for now, I need to go take care of some other things. I plan to update you all real soon on the goings on in the McAnnally household, things have just got me hopping right now. For now I hope all is well with each of you!

Shelby, I hope you had a totally AWESOME, COOL birthday! I'm sorry I missed it, but I knew your #1 from this family was Bri! Your growing up so fast, I can't believe your in DOUBLE DIGITS already! Wow!!!! Happy Birthday Sweetie! I love you!!!

May the God of mercy richly bless each of you!

Lisa

Gulf Shores Camping

This beautiful sunrise over the bay of Mobile greeted us as we came out of our tent our first morning. Our campsite was on the bay of Mobile and it was simply gorgeous, and the sunrise every morning was just beautiful! Of course the first morning we had to get up real early so we could witness the birds being banded. So I guess you could say we were up with the birds. ha ha

Several of our kids were able to release the birds once they had been banded. Bri looks a little unsure in this picture because the bird before this one bit, not her, but it did bite the man who is helping her. She got to release a hummingbird. They caught the birds in nets that are so thin you can't see it until you walk into it. The birds fly into the nets and fall into a pocket where they are taken out and checked over and banded. Some have bands from other banding areas and that is noted too so they can see how far the bird came from.

Another new experience, at least for Bri was fishing. This is a picture of her fish, she caught 3 by they way. This is a pin fish and she was very proud! She was not sure she would want to fish, but she found out it was a lot of fun, but she has no interest in eating it. One of the dads there was a big fisher and told them we could fry them up for dinner, Bri thought that was horrible. Luckily none of her fish were big enough to fool with. She used squid for bait which I thought was gross, but she actually did not. She told me, "mama, all you do is cut up the squid and hook it". Okay Bri I'll let you bait my hook with the squid. Of course one of the teens was down there with the little girls and came back saying Bri had her eyes covered saying I don't want to see you kill it, no blood please, and the other girls crowding around trying to see and nearly pushing each other into the water. Since we had a pier onto the bay at our campsite every night was fishing time, then campfire and s'mores. Since we usually walk the beach and go crabbing at the beach this was a new experience and was a lot of fun for everyone!

Okay one afternoon while we were at the beach Barbie and I went for a walk. I left my camera behind and the teens grabbed it and played around. I'm not complaining, I got pictures without asking, begging, or chasing them down. In this picture they have buried Kaitlyn in the sand, but I think they may have gotten a little carried away since I can't even see her.

This is my favorite picture! Alex actually tried to put Dalton on his shoulders, but he could not hold him up. There are also several more of them doing various poses on the beach. This group of teens were quite entertaining at any given moment.

There were tons of shells that were whole on the beach, so of course Bri went shell hunting. This is her showing me one of her shells. She even found a whole sand dollar, but as hard as we tried to keep it from getting broke, it still broke three times. Next time I'll take a shoe box just for the delicate shells.

We also saw this ship that washed up from the last hurricane. It as huge! They say it was a Union ship burned during the Civil War, it definitely looked like a ship that had been burned. If it is from the Civil War era it is amazing that the wood has not rotted and there are no barnacles on it. It was absolutely cool to look at though. We found several pieces along the beach and further down the beach found some in the water still. The State of Alabama does not have any money to deal with it so they plan to just let it wash back out.

This picture was taken from the top of Ft. Morgan on the bay side. Way in the distance is the Dauphin Island bridge. Standing on top of the fort you could see why this was such a good spot for a fort. You had a perfect view of the bay on one side and a perfect view of the gulf on the other. We had a very informative guide for this tour. He told us that the government still has a clause that if they ever need the fort again that it would have to be surrounded to them. That is why nothing is built close to the rode going down to the fort so that the street could be widened and the necessary equipment brought in. Another interesting thing he told us really brought home how hard it was for women many years ago. He told us that the army had laundry women, but they had to be married to an army man to do the laundry. If her husband died she had 3 days, 1 to mourn, 1 to bury him, and she had better be married by the 3rd day or they threw her to the street with her kids. I'm glad I don't live in those times. He also showed us the sleeping quarters of the men, the had 12 bunks, but 24 men lived in the room, which meant they slept 2 to a bed, and it was a twin size bed. Of course he told us that the men in this fort did not really adhere to that because of the climate of the area, so some of the men slept on the floor because it was just too hot to share a bed. Remember they had no air conditioner. We also saw the killing field and murder room, which was kind of creepy to be told you were standing in the middle of the killing field.

On Wednesday we drove down to Pensacola to the NAS Museum. This museum is on the naval air base. It is a great museum, Eddie and I had actually taken the kids several years ago, but they did not remember it so I took them back on this trip. They had a blast checking out all the airplanes, helicopters, and even a replica of an air carrier. There were many new things added since my last visit as well. They had a really moving POW display, it actually brought tears to our eyes to read some of the things. One picture actually did make me cry. The kids got to climb in a lot of cockpits and they enjoyed that immensely!

Before heading home on Thursday we went to Mobile to the U.S.S. Alabama. When we went into the gift shop we found a POW from World War II in there. He spent several minutes talking to our teens about the war and life. He was such a nice man. He told them that lying never pays and they should not ever do that. He lied to get in the army at 16 and at 17 he was a POW. He told them that it took him 30 years to forgive the Japanese for the things they did to him and his fellow POWs, and that he forgave them 23 years ago and it helped him finally heal from the war. He realized that he was hurting himself physically and emotionally by not forgiving them, that the Japanese were not suffering at all. He said he had even recently gotten a Japanese car. He was selling a book about his experience and we got an autographed copy of it. Alex spent the first 2 days home reading his book and really enjoyed it. He said it was quite gory sometimes, but he really saw the war in a different light than any textbook he has read about it. If your interested his website is http://www.hellsguest.com/.

It took us several hours to tour the ship, which the kids found very interesting that the fort they men slept 24 men to a small room and the ship had several sleeping areas with wall to wall bunks, of course the officer quarters were where they would have rather been. The ship held 2200 men and was like a city on the water. Then they toured the submarine which only slept 65 men. They found the difference very interesting. We went from the top of the ship, as in as high as they let you to the lowest level, as in engine room low.

I think this was a great trip! We learned about birds, ships, forts, war, etc. When we got home Bri said after camping she really appreciates her home, "its the most beautiful place in the world". Of course she also said she wants to camp again though! Myself, I enjoyed camping, especially with the dads that went. They would head back to camp to start dinner each night and the mom's would come back with the kids around dark to a cooked dinner and a fire. It was great!

I hope you all have a great week loving and learning!!

Lisa

October 10, 2008

I have not had a moment to post in awhile. When I finally get a moment, I've caught up on email, paid bills, or fell asleep sitting up! I've been so busy I'm not sure when we are coming or going. A few people asked me what I have been up to, and even some who have not seen us asked me if I'm becoming a recluse. Well the following pictures tell it all! Our okra is still putting out like crazy, I had 10 gallons of okra a couple of days ago. The freezer is full. The rattlesnake beans are putting out too, there was also 10 gallons of them on the same day. It took me 4 hours to completely get it all picked that day.

The picture below shows a few of the jams I've put up, and some peach preserves. I have a pantry floor full of canned goods, as well as floor space in the dining room. I had a friend ask me if all the boxes along and up the wall were full, and yes they are. It just looks so pretty I had to show it. Eddie says my Suzy Homemaker self is showing through, but I really do enjoy canning. Papa says I should take pictures when it is all sitting in the floor waiting to be processed. That is really true. Seven quarts of green beans is actually 1 1/2 buckets of beans. The peas took over the floor this summer and you had to literally step over them to get to the kitchen. Then there were the tomatoes, speckled butter beans, okra, squash, cucumbers, blueberries, peaches, strawberries and plums which at any given time were living on the floor and counters waiting to be put up. I'm sad to say we ate the plums and they never got to be made into jam, the same with the muscadines. But, I did make peach jam, strawberry jam, and blueberry jam. I have also made bread and butter pickles, stewed tomatoes, jalapeno's, chow chow, relish, green beans, and pickled okra. Then in the freezer are the peas, okra, squash, butter beans, corn and a few blueberries. It is very satisfying to know that we have been blessed with all of this to enjoy all winter. It has really shown up in our grocery bill, and at first I just was not sure why my bill was lower, but I was sure it was because I forgot something. Well I started watching and 90% of the veggies we have are coming from our garden! Tonight for instance, we had meatloaf, okra, squash, green beans, peas, the only thing I bought was the meat and seasonings. Papa was talking with someone about how well the garden did this year and they asked what he did when so many others did not do so well because it was still rather dry. He said he really did not know. Well in Bible Study this past week we talked about drink offerings I had never heard of them. Basically, we should pour out our blessings because keeping them to ourselves makes us bitter and stops the flow of the blessing. From our garden Papa has fed every widow woman he knows, honestly he has, not to mention his friends that may have gardens, but they did not have something we had, or it did not grow, he took it to them. Then Eddie and I gave to some friends of ours who have been really hurting and their garden would not grow because of the soil in their yard, and several other friends just because I can only do so much before I start losing the food and I don't want anything to go to waste. Because of all the giving I think God kept giving to our garden. It is the same every year, we get a fair amount out of it even though it has been dry for the last couple of summers. If it rains look out!

Okay moving on....The kids still have school work and trips associated with that. We still have piano, scouts, karate, and art every week too! Bri and Alex are coming along really well with piano. Bri had left her music at home for Away in a Manager, but I did not know it and I was busy working on an Alabama Elephant, which are going like hotcakes around here I might add...I can't keep them made up before I sell or give one away! Anyway I never looked up when I heard the song being played, but I thought wow Bri is doing really good with that song, I'll have to get her to play it this Christmas! When we got home I complimented her on how well she played that song, she looked at me and smiled, then said "Mama that was Ms. Judy, I never played it today." I'll have to pay closer attention next time before I compliment her I guess. She did play Jesus Loves Me in a Depot has Talent talent show last week, and did quite good. She would not use her keyboard though and the piano was badly out of tune so it threw her off.

In karate the kids are gearing up to test for their next belt. Alex is looking really good! Bri is doing good to, she is just still getting a few katas mixed up, but Thursday she looked like she was really starting to catch on to it!

In art Bri is still drawing faces and I think she is coming along really good. One of the young ladies in the class drew a picture of her niece and it was really good! She said her sister wanted it, but she told her no she had the real thing so she was keeping the picture. Ms. Abbey is the sweetest young girl I have ever met, and when she said that she said it with more gusto than I have ever heard from her and it just made me laugh. For those of who went to Bri's ballet performance Abbey is the girl who drew the picture of the ballerina that was put up in the church. She is really quite an artist and she is just 17! She has started a beginning sewing class for young girls 8 and up because she thinks that it is something that young girls will need in light of the current ecomonic outlook. I think that she has such a good head on her shoulders, and she is such a Godly young lady. Even her mother says she is so much more together than most kids her age it is truly amazing.

The picture below is from the Southern Museum of Flight. They are working on a new wing to the museum and it is so cool. These are manuquins they have set up with different scenes throughout. There was one plane where they asked the kids to turn the propeller so when the little girl who volunteered did, the plane's engine started and it scared her. The plane was not going anywhere it was just a sound effect, but it was really cool. He was showing how those planes used to be started and he told them how they had it set up to do that. We also saw a plane from WWII that was pulled out of a lake in SC, I think it was a WWII plane. We had to hurry through that part because we had a McWane Lab to get to.

This is a model of the Leonardo flying machine that he drew. We had gone to the Museum of Art to see the Leonardo exhibit that morning and then we went to the Southern Museum of Flight to see what they had. This was really neat to see, but I would not make a special trip there to see it. The picture does not really do it justice though.
Check out this cake! We went to a birthday party Tuesday for one of Bri's friends. She has been learning cake decorating and made her own cake. I thought for a 10 year old she did a really good job! I did not get a close enough picture of it, but she did a really good job on the edging shells, the other things you see are flowers, and in person they looked like flowers. Like I said she did a great job I think. I told her she could do my next cake and she just beamed.

Well, that is a little bit of the things we have been up to this week. The kids did go and visit a friend's church this Wednesday since our church services were cancelled. They absolutely loved this church. Bri loves the kids group, and Alex has not quit talking about the youth group. I have sensed that his youth group is not getting it for him and for this reason I have been seeking God on what he wants me to do. I ran into a few people I have not seen in ages this past weekend and they just started talking to me about the importance of a youth group, out of the blue. I really felt that God was talking to me through them, but I'm still not 100% sure which way to go. I am thinking for the next few weeks I will take Alex to this church's youth group though! I met this youth pastor last year and I really like him. The pastor of this church talked to me about visiting one day, then he said "you were talking to me about it weren't you". I wasn't, I was just talking to God about it though. I came home and was sharing this with Eddie, who thinks I have a direct line with God, and this just sealed it for him. Anyway, that was out of the blue I know.

Monday we are off to Ft. Morgan to learn about bird banding and tour the fort. We will then do some siening, maybe, fish, swim, and see the U.S.S. Alabama. We will be home at the end of the week. We are really looking forward to our long distance field trip this week! Though we will be camping and I'm not 100% sure about it since my back has been keeping me awake at night in a bed, but with God's help I'll make it through. The kids are very excited. Alex loves to camp, and Bri has never camped and can't wait to experience it. Next to sleeping in the tent, her next big deal are the S'Mores we are going to do at night! Just pray for no rain!!

Well that's it now I promise, until next time.....Love you guys and I hope you all have a great week living and learning!

Lisa

Wow How Time Flies!

Well I hope this finds each of you doing great! The McAnnally Clan is doing good. I could hardly believe that September was almost over though! Seems like it was August just yesterday and now we are almost done with September! Did it sneak up on anyone else, or is it just me?



Well I'm sure it comes as no surprise that we have been on the move yet again this week! Piano went well for both kids, they are both having some rhythm issues but all in all they are doing very well! Alex is learning to play Oh When the Saints Go Marching In and Bri is working on Jesus Loves Me.



Tuesday when we finished our school work and after lunch we had a field trip to Adamsville Fire Department where we were certified in CPR and got a tour of the firehouse. I had not planned to become certified, but once I got there a friend of mine wanted me to join her so we two mothers joined about 10 kids and became certified. I think we gave our friendly fireman more trouble than the kids. We just had trouble remembering the steps, but we did it! He actually seemed to get tickled at us from time to time. Anyway, Bri, Alex and myself are now certified, though we all think it would be gross to stick our finger in someones mouth and unless we knew them we are not sure we could do that, unless of course we had a glove on! We got to see where the fireman sleep, saw the fire trucks, and met the firehouse dog. It was a fun afternoon really!



Wednesday found us at Oak Mountain for a picnic. We were celebrating a No School Zone Party. This is a yearly event and was postponed because of one of the hurricanes that dumped a lot of rain on us, but I can't remember the name, I think Flo or something like that. The picture below is of Bri and Dae taking a break from swimming to have an apple. The way they went on about how luscious the apple was you would think they had never had an apple before. I had to snap this picture of them and their apples. They were really huge apples!







Most of our teens decided to play touch football instead of swim, at least in the beginning! The lady in yellow is from the Birmingham News. She wanted to take pictures of our kids playing and hanging out together. She mainly concentrated on the teens. There is a picture of them in the Birmingham News Sunday paper in the local section, 2nd page, if your interested. There is a close up of Jamie, one of our newest friends, but Alex is in there too. It was a really fun day!

The picture below is Alex and Dalton sparring. Alex is progressing so well in karate, granted he is a black belt 1st degree in Tae Kwon Dae, but this is a different form, so he is learning some new steps and techniques. His instructor is so pleased that he told him he was ready to spar, something he has enjoyed very much! Bri wants to know when she can spar, but she has a ways to go in blocking punches better first.

Check out this picture! Bri learned about facial profiles in art Thursday and this is her first try at it. I thought she did a great job! What do you think?

We took out a school membership with the Museum of Art and we can check out up to four cases at a time to explore. I had no idea how much was in a case. They have cases on Japan, China, Egypt, Native Americans, Westward Expansion, etc. We have the Japan case and it has a Kimono, Happi, shoes, tea set, Buddha beads, etc., so much I cannot name it all. It has several books and a video. So all weekend Bri has been playing with all of it. It came with a notebook that explains each thing in the case which she has also been reading. She has thoroughly enjoyed it. In the case were origami cranes, so Saturday we got origami paper and learned how to make cranes. This is not easy and has tried my patience on many occasions! I've managed to make 2 and teach her how to make 1. She is so proud of herself! It looks much easier than it is, but once you get the hang of it, it probably would not be that bad. The one in front of the 3 cranes is my first really bad crane, it hardly sits up, but hey at least it has a head and tail. There are a few earlier tries lying around Bri wants to keep that look much worse!

Alex and Eddie went to Camporee this weekend. Eddie took the camera, but did not take any pictures. The troop won 1st place in Bow Line, 2nd in Knot Tying, and 3rd in boiling water. They had a great time and came home tired. I had to ask 100 questions to get this and they were tired of my questioning so this is all I have. Alex of course was on cloud nine over the Bama win, as are many people!

I hope you all have a great week full of love and learning!

How do we do schoolwork?

So how do we do the schoolwork with such a busy schedule you ask. Well.....

If you don't homeschool most people truly believe that we are always home, never around anyone else, just home doing schoolwork like you would if you were in school. Sadly, most of us have a public school mentality about school. I know I did until God led me and my family down this path. Most homeschoolers start out doing school at home, but over time each family finds what works best for them and their kids. Some homeschoolers use no textbooks at all instead they go to the library and get any books on any subject that the kids are interested in. Don't knock this I have seen some very smart kids emerge from this way of learning. They take the kids on fieldtrips to learn even more. They teach the kids with things in everyday life. This group is known by the label of unschoolers, there is even a group of radical unschoolers, but I know even less about this group. Then there are the eclectic homeschoolers. This group uses whatever works for each child. Meaning they could incorporate several different learning patterns into their family. They don't use a set curriculum, they could use some textbooks, some subjects may be all hands own and exploration, library, etc., a lot like the unschoolers. This group evaluates the need each child has and plans their school from there. The vast majority of homeschoolers I know do this. This is the style our family falls in. Though some of my unschooling counterparts are trying to move us to their camp it just does not work for us. Both kids like getting new textbooks each year and actually look forward to the day we get them. We had a big box arrive one day and you would have thought it was Christmas because both kids tore into the box and took out their books and started looking through them. The day I bought Alex's Chemistry book and several science things and used books from a friend the kids were again just as excited as before. Each took their books off to their rooms and started reading them. Several science experiments were picked out to do the next day.

Homeschooling is very diverse and until you are actually in the trenches so to speak it is very hard to see and understand it all. Homeschoolers are a very diverse group of people and each family goes about the same things in different ways. That is one of the things we love about homeschooling the most the diversity and freedom that comes with homeschooling. My goal for the kids is to raise independent life-learners. What I mean by that is that they understand learning happens all day, any day, and if they don't know something that they know how to go about getting the information they need. Alex is very independent with his schoolwork. He is responsible for taking his textbooks and doing his work, if he needs help he can come to us, but he is to try and get the information he needs by himself first. It is up to him to figure out how much he needs to do in order to be finished by the end of the "school year", if he wants a break. We homeschool year around, but the kids know our school calendar which goes something like this, 6 weeks in, 2 weeks out, and 6 week break in the summer. This schedule is when we cover, science, history, math, English, foreign language, literature, spelling, vocabulary, writing, geography, and health. During our 6 week break we take a lighter schedule. We do math to keep the kids fresh. Bri actually does something called Vacation Stations which is a couple of pages of math one day and a couple of pages of language the next, just to keep her fresh. Alex does things that may not have gotten fit in during the school year. Sometimes they do a typing course, language course. Every summer is nature studies, which is just going outside and observing nature. Studying the plants, bugs, trees, grass, rocks, etc. We get field guides to trees and birds and identify what we see. We have done in depth studies on bugs we find and don't know what they are, we find out though. We learn a lot of home ec things, such as canning, and preserving food. Harvesting and planting our food. We have a life skill day which is the day we clean the house and do laundry, ironing, etc. Each child is responsible for an area and we all pitch in and have the house clean within an hour. Keep in mind though this is not a deep cleaning, just a maintenance cleaning.

At the beach last year we found a dragon fly and studied its life cycle. We found a whole sand dollar and looked up ways to bleach it out white. We found out it was still alive because of the fringe stuff on the side which is how it swam, until we removed it from the water and caused it to die. We even found a baby lobster from the best we were able to figure out. We found dissecting a jelly fish still looks the same, there is nothing that we could find except clear jelly stuff inside of it too. Then there were the hermit crabs, we checked several books out on them and studied them for awhile. We learned that love bugs are very prevalent at the beach in September, and biting flies are too and how many of these you see depends on how the wind is blowing. Again, Alex is independent and does his own research and then writes about it. He has done many research papers on things that we have found and he wants to know more about. He has done book reports on books that he has read in our book club too. One of his research papers was actually quite funny to me. He wants a Playstation 3 so he researched all the game platforms out there and gave me the pros and cons of each of them and why Playstation 3 was the best choice.

So back to the school year with our books, when does that happen? Again, Alex is very independent. He gets up, gets his shower and usually works on his school work. I don't set a time for him to start his work, or to have it finished. He knows the daily schedules and is expected to be completed by the end of the day. One thing with teens is they are more awake at night, and more sleepy during the morning. So if he sleeps until 10 I really don't care. He has been known to work on his math at 10 p.m., or study his science at 3 p.m. My thinking on this is in a few years he will be in college and his schedule will be different. It will be up to him to schedule his time and plan his time. So he needs to know now how best to do that. Last year he did not pace himself well with his math and so he worked on it all summer in order to finish it for the next year. It was absolutely imperative he finish his Algebra I in order to do Chemistry this year. Of course by the same token he finished his vocabulary, English, and history by March. Did I know he was off on his pacing? Yes I did and we talked about what he would have to do to get himself back on track and his options. He made his choices and he lived with them. He keeps all of his work in a binder and for some assignments he has deadlines to turn them in to me. If I don't have them by that deadline he gets a 0, no questions asked. I expect him to keep up with his deadlines and turn his work in when due, no exceptions. Of course if he were to be deathly ill or some other major problem then of course I would cut him slack, but none of this has ever been the reason he has not turned in his work on time. He has actually only done this twice and now he knows so he does not procrastinate on it. As far as daily work he keeps it in his binder and I make "surprise" inspections. He knows what he is supposed to have done each day, I may check it that day or I may check it the next week. The deal is it better be done when I check it or a big fat 0 will occur. The first time I did this to him there were lots of tears, now he is ready when I inspect. All in all Alex is very independent and likes having his independence. He is very responsible with his schoolwork and I think this will help him in college. He knows that if he does not know something then it is time to research and he knows how to get what he wants. As one of my friends put it, "for him my greatest role is for support, but his greatest role is to learn how to get what he needs to learn without me."

Now Brianna is a completely different story. Where Alex is very independent, Brianna is very dependent, but she is getting better. This is really more of an age thing than anything. The difference in their learning is that Alex will pick up most anything he learns very quickly. Brianna has to go over and over the same material a few times. In essence, Alex learns like his dad really quickly. Bri and I have to study it and study it, but we eventually catch on. Both kids are very hands own people. Anything they can do with their hands or experience they learn much quicker and it stays with them. This is especially true for Brianna! So her studies are often done with her hands. I have to say her most hated subject would be math. She has a love/hate relationship with it. One day she will sit down and be finished in about 15 to 20 minutes, the next day she will cry and piddle and still not be done in 2 hours. On the days where math is a major chore then I have found ways to get her do it without realizing she is doing it. Now of course the workbooks are much easier for me, but for her she learns quite a lot just by doing. We have a math game that we pull out for math sometimes. When we play board games we let her be the banker and she is doing math and does not even think of it that way. When I cook I involve her in weighing things, measuring things, doubling things. In the store I have her search for gallons, pints, quarts and tell me the difference in them. I have her do price comparisons and tell me which is the better deal based on what she finds. Of course on these days at the store they are not usually my big grocery day or we would never get out of there, we are usually there a long time when Bri is doing grocery store math. These are all fun to Bri though and she never sees it as math, though I do tell her this is how she will use the math in everyday and how important it is. We measured out a dinosaur she was studying in science one day and found that it was as big as our house! Bri loves science, which I'm really glad. By homeschooling she has never learned science the way I did. I always thought science was so boring and dry, but since homeschooling I've found science is really a lot of fun! Right now she is studying the ocean and lakes and all the creatures that live in them. We have been to McWane and looked at a Bamboo Shark egg, and we saw some of the babies. We have seen an eel, jelly fish, and octopus. Eddie says we may even get to go to Sea World next year, yeah! We also have a field trip planned for January to the Atlanta aquarium. She loves her English too, and can break a sentence up pretty good, but she is not real confident in herself with it. She loves to write, but she has an awful time with spelling and is very self-conscious about it. Because of her struggle with spelling she tends to not want to write so much. She will write in her journal for herself though. Spelling is Bri's challenge and we have a few computer games to help her, and she and I sit down everyday and go over her spelling. We are doing a new spelling curriculum this year and I think it is really helping her. This has been a struggle for me too, as I can spell pretty good, and Alex has always been an excellent speller. To really get on Bri's level and try to see where her problem is has been hard for me. We got some outside help this year and they recommended this curriculum and it seems to really be helping right now. History is just something we both love and could spend the entire day reading it. She will read her history book and I ask her questions to see what she remembers. Usually she just re-tells it to me. Some days we watch the history channel if there is a show relating to what she is studying. We have watched many Civil War movies and read many books as she had a big interest in this for awhile. American Girl Club is another thing we do for history. Each historical doll we cover in this group covers a part in American history. Kaya we studied the Indians that lived here before we did. She does not feel she learned enough however and is wanting to study that some more. Josephina was about how part of Mexico became New Mexico and Texas, etc. We are currently on Samantha which is 1904. Next month's meeting we are going to learn a little bit about an orphanage which Samantha visited. In November we are going to make ornaments like they would have in the early Victorian era, and some will be in the pioneer time as well. The Jefferson County Historical Society was so impressed with our girls visiting some of the pioneer cabins in McCalla the girls have been invited to decorate one of the trees and attend a tea there. One of the girls even played the pump organ and really impressed the ladies with that as well. So our December meeting will most likely be going back to the cabins we visited when we were studying the pioneer lifestyle. We did learn a very hard lesson that day, cabins are not heated! It was a very cold and wet day and we were cold during our visit. I'm hoping for the tea it will be a nice day or at least have some heat somewhere though.

So what is our school day like this when we are home. We get up, eat and dress then Bri and I start our school day. Bri is usually done with all of her book work within a couple of hours if all goes well. We have been known to spend a couple of hours just on history and/or science. Alex gets up, eats, dresses, reads, plays a game, does his school work. If he sets his mind to his work, and he usually does he is done within a few hours as well. He has been interested in the Civil War too so he has been watching some of the programs we have been watching. He is also studying American Government right now and following the political events very closely which we count as political science. Believe me he knows his politics quite well. Much better than I ever did at his age. Studying government right now really fit in well with the time our country is in, election time. It has really helped him to understand the whole process very well. In fact, I got confused on some things with congress and he gave me a refresher on how our government works. I just laughed and told him I probably needed to read his book when he was done. Since then he has been bringing me things to look at in his book. After he finishes this he will do an economics course. I got the books from a friend of mine and I love these books. I looked at them and I understand economics now! To me it is usually dry and boring. These books are letters that a Wall Street accountant wrote to his nephew to explain the economy to him and they are on a level that is very understandable to the average person. The books are called Penny Candy. Anyway, my long range plans for Alex are to take him to Washington in the next couple of years and let him see some of these things up close. I think this would be a great history lesson for both kids!

Most of our outings are about the kids, piano is music, scouts is survival skills, leadership skills, cooking, first aid, home repair, etc. I sat down with his Boy Scout experiences one day and the state requirements for graduation, Boy Scouts gave him more elective hours than he will ever need. As a matter of fact we filled a page with the electives Alex has so far. Wednesday at McWane is Chemistry Lab classes for Alex and science exploration for Bri. Karate is physical education and self defense twice a week. Art classes are, well art. Art appreciation at the museum, is well Art Appreciation which is an elective. At first Alex did not want to take this class at all, but now he likes it and says he sees art in a new way, in a way he never had thought of looking at it before.

Field trip outings are learning in a more hands on experience it way. For example Aldridge Garden's yesterday was plant study. We had a field guide of trees and we identified the trees there and we looked at the plants and learned the names of the trees and plants in Latin. We also learned that we will most likely always know them by their more common American name. We found a plant that actually has an X in its Latin name. We had a scavenger hunt and had to find things in the garden that started with each letter of the alphabet. The kids had to make a food chain with the things on their list. They had to list the number of animal kingdom finds and plant kingdom finds. Turkey Creek was all about the history of Alabama and that area in particular. They also touched on the snail darter and the depressed musk turtle that are only found in that area. CHOM was a fun filled day of learning about soda fountains, how banks used to look, barber shops long ago, and shoe shines, and who gets that anymore, the one room classroom. The Japanese house, did you know they took their shoes off before entering the house? Our field trips are also about socialization which so many people worry about for homeschoolers. Trust me these kids socialize a lot! There were around 50 homeschool kids yesterday and the younger crew played hide and seek and chase, the older kids hung out and talked. Park day is another social time and playing is also physical education.

All in all school work takes place anytime, all the time, its just changing your mindset and looking at things in a different light. Bri has been known to be doing her math, science, history, English, or spelling while I cook. Which means I go back and forth between the two, but it gets done. We just don't have a set time all the time. We have a schedule of set events and everything else just falls into place around that. I hope this helps you see our school life in a more understandable light. Things are often crazy and hectic, but I have learned that is just homeschooling at its finest! When God led me on this journey I was really not sure about it. Today I could never imagine my kids going to school all day. This lifestyle is as natural to me as breathing. The kids themselves have no desire to go to school all day. In Alex's words, "been there done that, no way do I want to go back!" Alex loves being able to move at his pace and not sit and wait on someone else to catch on to what he learned the first time. I hope I've explained it to you better, its just so diverse I may have left out some things. If you have more questions please feel free to ask and I'll try to explain it.

We have been quiet busy learning and playing the last couple of weeks, and I realized the other day I've not posted on here. Piano is going really well for both kids. Alex has really latched on to it and can find and hold his rhythm very well. Boy Scouts is going very well and he getting ready for yet another camping trip. Both kids are doing very well in karate. Last night Alex got to spar with some of the other students who are higher ranked and he won a couple of matches. Sensai (the name for the karate teacher) was so pleased he told him he was ready to spar, so we ordered his sparring gear. He is on cloud nine about that one!

See this tired looking little girl? We spent the day in Tuscaloosa at CHOM and the park. In this picture she is playing the part of the doctor and I'm playing the part of the very difficult patient. She is really losing patience with me and a couple of other moms who are demanding they wait on us NOW! We had a lot of fun. CHOM is one of Bri's favorite places to go. They have Grandmother's Attic which is full of dress-up clothes, a Japanese house complete with kimonos and shoes, a bank, a soda fountain, a hospital, a school room, a barber shop and shoe shine area and a few other areas, but these are Bri's favorite hangouts. She can spend hours playing and pretending in here. We had our American Girl meeting for September here and had lunch by the river. It was a really fun day. In the soda shop they had prices of coffee, sandwiches, etc., back in the 50's I think. They were really surprised at how cheap things were. They could actually afford to buy our meal there, if only the food were real.
We went on our first Outdoor Adventure Group meeting on September 11 at Turkey Creek. The picture below is an encampment of the Union soldier. This man is a re-enacter and historian. He was so interesting. We learned so much about the state of Alabama during the Civil War. We also learned quite a bit about Turkey Creek, Blount County, Trussville, Winston, and Walker County. One thing we learned was that the state of Alabama actually did not want to succeed from the Union, but the rich people did and so the state did. The war was a rich man's war and a poor man's fight. Most rich people never fought in the war, but the poor did. Those who had slaves stayed home and were in the home guard. Trussville is actually named after John Truss who was over the home guard. I could go on and on, it was so interesting. The best part of the whole thing, at least for me, was when he fired his Union rifle and Alex, who was not paying attention, very nearly jumped out of his skin. In all honesty he had been listening, but I handed him a bullet that was being passed around that was used in the Civil War and he was busy studying it.

After the history lesson we had a picnic and then went swimming. This is all of the kids getting ready to slide down the natural rock slide. It looked like it was a lot of fun, and I hear it was. I wanted to go down it, but after watching them hit the same rock every time I was too afraid it would cause my back to hurt. Little did I know it would start hurting the next day and get progressively worse so that by Sunday I could hardly get out of the bed.

Check out Bri, she got brave and went down the slide by herself since her wimpy mom wouldn't. She and Alex had a great time. If you go, wear socks though. These rocks are slick as snot and not even beach shoes give you traction, but the socks help. Both kids fell down at least once, so I just sat on the side with my feet in the water. Like I said I did not want to set my back off, yet it flared up any way.

On Friday the 12th we went to an Ice Cream Social. It was a lot of fun. We saw a lot of people we had not seen in awhile, and met a lot of new people too. This was organized for the teens to get together and just hangout, since that is the most favorite thing for teens. Of course ice cream is always cool too. They played tennis on the tennis courts. After they finished the grown-up game of tennis they reverted to childhood games, it was truly funny. They played duck, duck, goose, red rover, red rover, kickball, and played at frisbee. This picture below is some sort of new game, not sure what it is, but you are not allowed to put your leg down beyond that I don't know the rules. I'm just the taxi driver and photographer after all, unless I'm being the bank.

Okay in case you forgot, we also had a very important birthday come up this week! Alex turned 16! He had lunch with Granny the day before his birthday and she gave him a couple of really cool Alabama pictures. One she and Poppy got at Gulf Shores of Bryant Denny Stadium, and one of Coach Saban. I tried to get a picture, but I could not get Alex to cooperate. He really hates having his picture taken so most pictures are taken while he is not paying attention. I'll work on it though. I will tell you this, the Saban picture was hung up immediately and the other picture was put in just the right spot too. He is not planning on getting his license just yet though. Not because he doesn't want too, but because he has not completed some much needed requirements yet. He has to finish driver's ed first, and we have a defensive driving course in the works for him, as well as a DUI driving course. Eddie talked to him about how things have changed since we were young and how people drive more distracted today than ever. So we want to try and help him face the situations he may face as much as possible, plus let him get a little more maturity under his belt. Anyway, for his birthday he wanted to go for pizza after his lab class and then go to a movie with his friends, and his girlfriend met us at the movies. He also got a surprise last Friday night with tickets to the Alabama/West Ky game, that was his big gift. Eddie and Alex went to the game and had great seats on the 30 yard line or so and about 15 rows back. They had a lot of fun. Alex and Eddie were standing in the right place at the right time when the team ran by them with Coach Saban, he was almost close enough to touch, of course I'm sure the security around him would have stopped that. His hat in this picture was a souvenir from the game.

Checkout this really cool water pad! This is at the new Celebrations Park in Gardendale. We went there today for lunch and to play in the recently opened water pad. It is really nice! I could not get any closer without getting me and the camera wet, but Bri is in the pigtails behind the water gun. We saw a lot of friends there we were really not expecting to see. So it turned into a really fun play time for Bri. We stopped by this park on our way back home from a field trip to the Aldridge Gardens. It was a beautiful day to spend outside in the gardens and the park today and I think both kids really enjoyed the slowed down pace of the day.

Well that is a synopsis of what has been going on in our lives lately. Of course the garden is still putting out so I'm pretty busy still with that. The muscadines have started ripening so I looked up making some jelly and will most likely work on that this weekend. Eddie wants to do some shopping for some camping supplies that the kids and I will need in a few weeks. Oh, I did forget about the art classes Bri started this week with the wonderfully talented Ms. Melissa. She had so much fun and can hardly wait to go back next week. Ms. Melissa and her husband have been very blessed, that and her husband owns a real estate company and is in construction. They built a subdivision years ago around the house they built for themselves. The house, no joke, takes up the entire end of the street. When we drove up Bri looked stunned and called it a "ginormous house". Anyway, Bri learned about drawing straight lines and ovals, it sounded a lot like her Art Appreciation class she took the week before.

If I can get my pictures together I may go scrapbooking with friends tomorrow night. It is technically my night out, but I'm really not prepared to scrap this week so I'll see. A friend of mine has started a scrapbook night at her church once a month and I really want to get into the habit of going so I can get my pictures caught up.

I have so many more things to share, but I think I've already written a book. I'll share more later with you all. One thing you may be asking, I know mom did, is how do the kids have school with all the activity. I would like to share how school work goes around here and we manage to do all we do, but I'll save it for another post. Maybe this weekend I can share that with all of you.

I hope all is well for each of you and look forward to hearing from you soon!

Work days, Tea Parties, Art and McWane

I hope this finds you all doing well! Last weekend was Labor Day Weekend and we had plenty of opportunities to grill out, swim, and hangout with friends. Eddie and I decided instead to have a workday weekend at the house. We have been gone so much and there was a BIG need to take care of some things at home. Alex was not real thrilled with the plan, as many of you may not know he has a girlfriend. Caity's parents had invited us all over and he absolutely wanted to go of course. Our yard was just such a mess, and Alex thought if he got it cut Eddie and I would change our minds, but that was unfortunately not the only thing we had planned and some of it needed Eddie's attention. So we stayed home and took care of the house and yard. We did grill out and used the leftover chicken for some really yummy chicken wraps for lunch. On Monday Bri planned a tea party complete with invitations she gave out. She expected you to dress for the occassion as well. As you can see Dad was a hard sell. She is explaining the finer points of a tea party to him in this picture and he still could not mind his manners! She had to ask me to help her with him, and still we had some issues. I'm not sure Dad will be invited back again.

After the tea party Bri washed up all the dishes herself and put them away. She is getting to be such a big girl!

On Tuesday we had karate, but other than that it was a quite day. Well unless you count cutting okra, putting it up, and doing school lessons. Not to mention the mounds of laundry or housework that was done. Of course if you look at the house you would wonder what exactly I did.

Wednesday was a super busy day, as it will be most of the time, at least until mid-December. On Wednesday we went to Art Appreciation at the Museum of Art. We learned the basics of art, line, perception, color, shape, and texture. I learned alot and Bri really enjoyed it too. Our docent was very nice and very informative. The teens had a different docent and went with him without any parents. Alex said it was good, but his docent was a little boring. I heard many of the teens say he was adamant about them finding the center. He seemed to enjoy it though and asked when the next class was. Our next class will be about Leonardo Da Vinci at the Musuem of Art and we will also go to the Southern Museum of flight to look at Lenardo Da Vinci's flying machines. After we finished our art lesson we spent some time in the Indian exhibit which is a favorite with the younger set, the teens went to the sculpture garden to "hangout" and chat for a little while. This picture shows Dae and Bri in an Indian tepee. The Indian exhibit is a children's hands on area where they can play in an Indian village. There is a meeting house, teepee, canoe, clay, games, musical instruments, just all sorts of fun things to do.

After the museum we met with Dena and made a swap of okra for eggs. We have fresh eggs to eat, and some more eggs to try and hatch. I'm not sure if I told you all, but we are trying to hatch eggs as part of a science project. The first three were not fertile, well one was, but it died for some reason and believe me if you candle an egg and see nothing after a week get rid of it. Don't listen to any sweet voices asking you to keep it for just one more week and see next week. By the way candling is the equivalent of a sonogram for an egg. The first time we looked at the egg we saw veins and a dark red center which means the egg is fertile, the other eggs only showed a yolk. Anyway, Saturday we had a major stink bomb for an egg. It smelled awful! I took it out of the incubator and gave it to Eddie in a plastic bag to dispose of. We are now trying with three new eggs. Dena was so kind she gave us 8 eggs, but our incubator can only hold 3. She told us they would be good on the counter for 14 days, so if these eggs are not fertile we can pick 3 more eggs. If these eggs are not fertile then Ms. Dena told Bri she could pick a couple of chicks at her house. Bri likes that idea, but really wants these eggs to hatch.

Anyway, after we met Dena and made a swap the kids and I headed to McWane for the kickoff of Chemistry labs. Alex really loves his lab time at McWane. This time his teacher is all of 20 and weighs maybe 100lbs, she is really cute and I'm pretty sure that plays into the enjoyment of the lab class too. Anyway, the turned a penny into gold. It looked really cool too. While they were in the lab Bri and I hung out and investigated McWane. We went so much with Alex last year that over the summer we took a break. McWane has added many new things. One of the really cool things going on right now is they are hatching bamboo sharks. They have the mermaid purses (shark eggs) up against a light, just like candling chicken eggs, so you can see the baby inside. We saw one that is very close to being ready and we saw one that is very young. You could tell he was still connected to yolk and looked like he was trying to break free, but of course if he did he would die if he did. The other egg had a nearly ready to hatch shark in it, just like a baby it had very little room to move. It takes something like 4 months for a bamboo shark to hatch. It was a really cool thing to see. The picture below is Bri and Dae petting a dinosaur of sorts. From the look on Bri's face she is not so sure about what Dae is doing. You have to love the Spradlins, they love to dissect anything, and trust me never give them ideas on what to dissect. The love to look at the inside of anything, so why not pet it too.

In this picture Bri, Dae, and Cressie (she is in the far corner looking on) are trying out the new exhibit of I think some kind of dancing thing. I know they had to step on certain colors at certain times, but I never tried it out. There were a lot of kids on this exhibit.

When we finished at McWane it was 4:30 and time to head home for dinner and church. Bri wanted to go to church with Dae so she went home with her. Alex wanted to go to his church. When we got home Deb found out her dad was in the emergency room. So she needed me to pick up her kids and mine, along with Alex. That meant I needed to be in two different places at one time. Talk about stress. Anyway, Eddie was able to help me and we were able to get all the kids picked up in time. Deb's dad is doing fine, he is having an angiogram today. Basically though he wound up in the ER because he is diabetic and has heart trouble and had worked all day without eating which caused him to pass out. When he did eat it made his blood sugar spiked really high. Does this sound like anyone we know? He is fine now though.

Thursday I had a doctor's visit to get a couple of moles biopsied. One was a gray mole and the doctor told me they call them blue nevi and are usually benign. She did tell me they have deep roots though and that all the root needed to be removed. So she made it sound like nothing, "we will just punch it out so you will not have stitches". Okay punching it out leaves a hole and makes the area sore. This area is on my shoulder and think I had a reaction to latex. I've never had that happen before, but the band-aid I was using caused the sight where it stuck to turn red, puffy and itch. I switched to latex free and it seems much better now. The other mole was on the tip of my nose. That mole used to be flat, but lately has been humping up some so they shaved it off for a biopsy. That included a shot in the nose. It really was not as bad as it sounds though. It is bruised, but overall does not look too bad. So I will have the results in about a week. The best part was walking around with a band-aid on the tip of your nose and watching people look strangely at you, but not ask anything.

Friday was supposed to be Spring Valley Beach day, but I was just exhausted and could not find the energy to go. In truth I think the whole dermatology event affected me more than I thought it would. Alex was more disappointed than anyone else at the house, but he has gotten over it. As a lot of people did not go because the weather was so iffy and at $12 a person you don't want to chance thunderstorms running you off.

Saturday we had a lemonade stand. There were three lemonade stands in different locations that day and our stand made the most money! Yeah homeschoolers, you rock! We made $180 dollars in donations and had a list of people sign up for Freshair Family. The other booths made $30 a piece. We were in the Mountain Brook Western parking lot. Let me tell you, rich people do not like to give and they can be very rude! The teens pressed forward though, were kind and handed out brochures in the face of some very rude folks. It made me think of the Bible verses that talked about how hard it is for a rich person to get into heaven. Then the girls had the lemonade and the cuteness factor going for them. If you are not familiar with Freshair Family I would encourage you to check them out. It is a wonderful organization that's goal is to get people outdoors. They plan trips all over the state, camping, canoeing, caving, gardens, hikes. We have been on several things with them and we have had a blast. They pay the children's entrance in, and sometimes they pay adults way in too. They used to pay for everything, but they lost some funding and are trying to raise some donations, and are currently working on some grants. The creator of the group offered an awesome opportunity to our group. She wanted to plan at least one field trip a month for our homeschool group and it cost it us a whopping $25 for the year for a family, no matter the size. Everything is paid for, with the exception of the canoe rental in May which we are having a fundraiser for. Verna is an ethnobotanist and has several friends around the state and can get people and fieldtrips that can otherwise be hard to book. For instance, Thursday we will go to Turkey Creek with a McWane person to tell us about the folaige and possibly do some seining in the creek. I'll post next week about that. We are really excited about the opportunities. In October we will go camping at Dauphin Island and learn about bird banding, and have a guided tour of Fort Morgan. We are super excited about our opportunities with this group.

Well that has been pretty much our week. I hope all of you are doing good and have had as many awesome things come your way as we have. We are truly blessed!