Co-Op....

I want to go to co-op but my kids don't - until now! We visited last Friday and now they are gung-ho and whining becasue they can't wait to go back...aaarrrrgggghhhhh!!! Why are they never happy! I have been pushing co-op all year and they wanted nothing to do with it and now they won't stop talking about it!!
What is co-op? Is it a place for your kids to get classes like music,art and maybe science with actual experiments that they might not get at home? Is it a place for homeschooling kids to socialize? is it a place for moms to socialize?? That is what I would like co-op to be but how in the world do you meet all those needs in one place?? I think if we could figure it out we would have the perfect co-op!! But until then........we will stay home - just kidding!! We will make do with what is available!!!

School, School, School......

I went to bed with a sense of renewed spirit and faithfulness in the Lord - an amazing night of loving the Lord at church last night - and with the idea that I was going to get up and get it right today!! Didn't happen - again! Big suprise there! I rolled out of the bed at about 930(i went to bed at a halfway decent time) with 3 little ones jumping all over the bed and hollering at me(the cartoons they like are now over) and I was all ready to get our day going(a little late) on the right track. I grabbed the laundry and hung it out on the line - I love hanging my laundry on the line - I feel like such a country girl and I just Love it! We all had a little something to eat and we were ready to go.....
We are reading a little bit each day of this book I got called the Story of Easter to get our hearts prepped for Easter and refreshed of all the events that led up to the cross. They were like wild animals while I was reading and so I tried the whole stop reading until they get quiet routine - they did not get quiet! They just looked at me and then continued on with their playing! so I did what any mother would do - I yelled at them! They listened for approximately 2 minutes and then they were crazy again. I go thru the story and they were gone - I yelled again. By this point I didnt even know what I wanted to do with them so I just let them go - this is where being an unscheduled, non routine person is of no use to anybody!!! I have such great plans about all that we are going to do and then I get sidetracked or off the subject with them and it is all gone! The curriculum that we use has it all right there for me - what pages, which book, what to say but if I dont follow it for whatever reason then I am at a loss. I am also very bad about looking it over prior to opening the book to do the days lesson so I realize i dont have what I need or I didnt finish yesterday's and I am once again scrambling!! I am a MeSS!!! And then this warm weatehr has come along and I have nod esire to be inside doing school - I want to be outside as much as they do and it is so hard to keep them in after being inside for months on end! Somehow the boys are learning - a little bit here and a little bit there so I cant be failing them completely but I sure do feel like it!!!
And now I am so done with the history we have been doing that I have just decided to sell it and start with next years - is that horrible??? I was able to borrow almost all of the curric and the books we will need for next year so I am ready to just start and I figure since we are going nowhere fast(doing bits and pieces here and there) with this years curric that I may as well just start with the one i really wanted to do all along anyways! From the moment we started hsing it has been my greatest desire to learn history chronologically - starting with creation. That has been the plan all year is to do a brief intro to american history and start the cycle of history next year. Now that I have the stuff in my possession I cant control myself - I want to start so we are!!! The boys dont care one wit - it is all about me! Is this crazy or what??? We are going to have to do school all summer anyways because of my work schedule messing us up here and there so we may as well do what I want to do - right????

one project done....

I finished the sign I have been working on for my room today!! My hubby was sweet enough to hang it for me and I love it!!! I am always very critical of the lettering when I do stuff because I am too impatient to use a stencil - so the lettering is not perfect by any means but it sure does look cute on my wall!! You can't tell in the picture but the walls in our room are a beautiful shade of turqouise and the colors on the sign look so good against it!!! I do love to paint and decorate!!

This cost me nothing! I had the boards in the garage(they are old cabinet doors I bought last year at $1 each and i have a whole box of them) and of course I have lots of paint upstairs!! I wanted the sign to be bigger because the space it is in is bigger but to buy a different board or canvas it just wasnt worth it!!

warm weather means PROJECTS.......

at least for me it does!!! I have been waiting for it to get warm for these two projects and I am having such fun!!! One of them is an old barn window that I am going to paint and do something with - havent decided yet and the other is a sign for my room that says always kiss me goodnight! hopefully i will have pics in the next day or so!

my mom was here this weekend and we worked on my quilt some more and I just wanted to show off what the main body of it is going to look like because I love it!!!

the edge that falls over the side of the bed will be red with white polka dots!!!

off to play outside.......

Such Fun.....

Do you celebrate Easter with baskets and chocolate and eggs and such?? We used to but once the oldest found out the Easter Bunny was us and the little ones hadn't really picked up on the whole idea of Easter = presents we decided to just make it about Jesus and nothing else and forgo the baskets, presents and candy! Noone has ever been the wiser......but me! I miss the little trinkets you put in Easter baskets and all the chocolate and the Easter egg hunts!! Walking past all that fun stuff in the dollar spot at Target makes me want to make easter baskets for the boys!! We saw the cutest stuff in Walmart, too and is was just a fleeting thought (and an expensive one) but it would have been fun to make the baskets!!!
We do color eggs - like crazy!! That was one thing we couldn't stop - the boys just love to color eggs and they associate that with easter so......
We did decide to have an Easter Egg hunt here at the house for all their little friends so that should be fun and i can do some cute things for that - right???

How do you do it all???

There are so many electronic avenues to explore and keep in touch and follow that I am overwhelmed! It started with blogging which I loved and still do - I love that i can just write absolutely random thoughts and some of you out there have them too!! Then I got on Facebook - finally if you asked a few friends and my son(the whole reason I got on facebook) and was found by my HS and it turns out there is a 20 year reunion coming up this summer - can you say DIET??? aarrgghhhh! Then I was aked to join another online community that is about homeschooling and i did! On top of that my regular email communication with friends and family and I am about done in! How in the world does a person keep up with all this stuff?? i cant imagine those of you that have even more than that! I almost go into panic mode when I look at the computer because I know I am going to be sucked in for hours on end checking out all the comments, emails, blog updates and discussions!!

Today was another Snow Day......

and I just had to show off a couple of pics! we went across the street to the hill behind the high school and did a couple of runs. we went twice and mommy forgot her camera the first time so i didnt get any of alex or ben(who sat in the car the whole time and refused to go back). it was very cold and windy the first trip so we went back after lunch and it wasnt as cold but it sure was windy so we only lasted about 30 minutes! but - it was fun!

I was coming down the hill on the sled with my camera so I took some pics of Stephen waiting till the last possible minute to get out of the way!!! I almost took him out becasue I was not dropping the expensive camera!!

Visiting the Grandparents

we went to grandma and grandpa's for the weekend...........


Ben and Thomas wanted to ride in the elevator - constantly! Thomas went in the 'vator' every time he went up or down and could get an adult to ride with him!!!



Thomas was glued to grandma's side the whole weekend. Everything we did he wanted to know if grandma was coming, where's grandma??? It was just too cute!!!


we went to Yorktown for the morning on the way home and toured an army encampment and a colonial house and farm.
Alex was the water boy!


Here dinner, dinner, dinner!!!

Thomas is all about daddy's ipod! He knows how to work it better than daddy and loves to listen to it! Isnt he just too cute???

calling all creativity.....

I found this...........

at Michael's for 29 cents - yes you read right - 29 cents and i had to buy them ....all!! But I am not sure what to do with them......do i decopauge scrapbook paper on the front and maybe embellish with an initial or verse or word??? do i paint them to look like a house?? myhusband suggested putting a verse or initial in the roof and afamily photo on the bottom part??

i love the saying - Home is where your story begins and that is what I was thinking of when i bought them but I need ideas.......any ideas......all ideas are sooo welcome..........