Last night when I got back from my evening walk, I saw the kids out by the garage shooting target! :) They are both doing pretty good!

I took the time to check out what's growing around the house......we have some huge tomato plants beside the house that are hanging full of tomatoes. Now we just need to wait for them to turn red!! :)

This is the garden we share with our neighbors, the Bontragers. Most of it is theirs....

These 4 rows are ours....two rows of lima's and two of zipper peas! :) I hope to maybe do a little more in the fall!

Their corn is soon ready to pick! It's got some nice ears on already!

I didn't know if I was going to plant any flowers this year, but then I found these hanging pots at Walmart for $4, so I bought 2. This one and one of pink petunia's.

A mix of petunia's and verbena.

These petunia's came up on their own free will. I had a pot of petunia's on the porch above that area last year, so I don't know how these came up....and how they survived the winter?? :O But I don't mind!! :)

Today the kids and I worked around the house. We cleaned both bathrooms, their bedrooms and the hall and I did all the wash. I was hoping to get the living room done tonight yet, but that didn't happen. I think I will try to get up early tomorrow and do that and the kitchen, then we have to go clean church!

We plan to go to a play tomorrow night, so that will be motivation to get the work done. Then maybe Saturday we can relax!?? Oh, sometime I need to finish up the mowing. Shouldn't take long, but I didn't quite get done before it got dark tonight!

While I was working today my mind was going. I have so many questions! I think the older I get, the more I read my Bible and the more I hear other's life experiences, the more questions I have. Things I never really thought of before. I wish I was better at putting stuff down on paper so I could share some of it with you. But that is not me. In fact, I don't know how many times I stopped cleaning today to write down some thoughts so I wouldn't forget them!! :P

**I think I need to take some pills for Memory Loss! Maybe I have some kind of disorder!?? Sometimes I really wonder!! **

Well, it's time to get everyone to bed!

Goodnight~

Homeschool Celebration

Last night was the End of the Year celebration for our homeschool group!! :) The kids could bring projects they made throughout the year and display them and then they also had a chance to give reports, recite poems or Bible verses, play piano, or other things, during the program.

Dylan P. (sitting) displayed a bunch of boats he made. The one on the right, Danny made and then he and Dylan worked at it together!

The children opened the program by singing the 2 songs they learned and sang over the air at the Faith Radio station in Tallahassee on one field trip this year.

Emily G. introduced her children and Anna recited some memory verses, gave a book report, and played a piece on the piano.

Sam recited some verses, too and also played a piece on the piano.

Christianna A. showed us the paper chain she made! :)

Her little sister was too shy to count to 10 for us! :) :)

I was out getting Tamara ready for her part, so I missed this, but it cracks me up.....while their Dad helped Baylee, Taylor (on the right) is already getting nervous! ;) She was too shy to recite the poem she memorized. :)

The Pickron family....

Darren F.

Tamara gave a report on the people of Ancient Egypt and we dressed her as an Egyptian Queen.

A big thanks to Emily and Anna G. for allowing Tamara to borrow Anna's Cleopatra outfit....it worked perfectly!! :)

Daniel took along the hourglass he made out of soda bottles and told about the history of the hourglass. His hourglass runs for 5 minutes and he said he would be done with his speech by the time it was done....he even had time to spare! :)

I was so proud of our kids! They have both done so well at getting over shyness in public speaking!

All the kids did such a great job!! A big thank you to the extended families who showed up to support them and to all the parents who helped with set up, tear down and the food!!

Tamara and her friends Bethany & Anna

Our friends, Leah & Rachel Smith came for the program. They wanted a picture with the Queen! ;)

Danny & Tamara.....ending their 4th and 6th grades of school!! I love my kids!! :)

And of course, snack time at the end!! :)

We still have a little bookwork to finish up, but we may just sprinkle it in here and there throughout the summer.

Next week, I go with a group to the Florida Homeschool Convention in Orlando. I am really looking forward to the workshops and browsing the curriculum. I always come back refreshed for another year!! And the blessing of spending a few days with my "Mom" friends, can't be beat!! :)

FOR TODAY~

Outside My Window...
birds are singing and a cool breeze is blowing! I'm loving it

I am thinking...
that after tonight I can breathe easy the rest of the week. We've been going, going, going!!

I am thankful for...
the privilege to teach my kids at home and give them one on one education!!.

From the learning rooms...
The kids are ready to give presentations at the Homeschool Program tonight! :) We still have a few days worth of book work to do! :P

From the kitchen...
Made cupcakes for tonight....no supper for us.

I am wearing...
my most comfy jean skirt and a green shirt

I am creating...
a blank....pretty good at that! :P

I am going...
to enjoy this cool weather while it's here!

I am reading...
Nothing this week....but I got a stack of books waiting on me!

On my mind...
making sure we have everything together for our "End of the Year" celebration with the homeschool group tonight!

Around the house...
things look a little better than they did Monday morning, but this whole house needs a CLEANING!!!

One of my favorite things...
cool temps, freshly canned beans, a weed free garden

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week:
mid-week church service, clean church, go to a play put on by friends, clean my house and take some time to relax and maybe swim if it warms up! :)

Wild Adventures

Was it just Private schools, or did/do Public schools take an end of the year "School Trip"?? I looked forward to that time with much anticipation when I was in school. It usually happened the beginning of May and most trips were educational.

I've really been thinking that we should award our kids a fun trip for an end of the year celebration, as well, so when some friends invited us to join a group

going to Wild Adventures (and a Mercy Me concert in the PM), we thought that would be a perfect "award"!!

While this trip wasn't exactly educational in a "book knowledge" sort of way, I think we all learned a few things...

We spent the day Saturday at Wild Adventures in Valdosta, GA.

Now, you need to know that it hasn't rained here for weeks, so what are the chances the rain would come on this particular planned out, May day? I guess pretty high! :P We knew that rain was predicted, a whole 50% chance. But we went anyway! We got into a few showers on the ride there, and everything was wet when we showed up as the park opened.

Ready for a day of fun.....

First we rode on a small roller coaster right inside the park. The Ant Farm~

Emily and Hannah Redmond on the middle car....

When we got off the ride, I noticed the sky was a very dark color to the ?? east, I think.... I became very directionally challenged in that place!! ;) And then *crack*, thunder and lightening were seen and heard, so we found the closest shelter to hide under. And hide under we did....for a good hour or more!

We had promised the children we would all go on the Go-Karts together, so when the rain let up a bit, the guys went to check it out. We weren't sure if they would run it if the track was wet. Soon Dan called and said that if it didn't soon stop raining they weren't even going to open the tracks at all. In a little while he called again and said that they were for sure not going to open the track at all that day. BUMMER!!

So, Tamara and I went and found them and we all traded our sneakers for flip flops. (We had to wear sneakers on the Go-Karts) Dan so kindly took all the sneakers out to the van, so we wouldn't have to tote them around all day! While he was out there, it poured some more and some more and some more!! I bet it rained for close to 2 hours total!! :(

Soon we saw they were re-opening rides, so I called Dan....he had stayed in the van....and had fallen asleep!! :) While he made his way back to us, the kids and I took a ride on the Ferris Wheel.

Then the guys rode "Go Bananas", a ride I went on once, and said never again!! :) I might change my mind sometime, but for now.....nah!

Danny & Tamara on the Aviator.

Dan and Emily Redmond on the Boomerang....they were on the second car. I wish you could see their faces!! :) The coaster is pulled backwards up the incline and then, woosh.....released! This was right as they were released! :)

A new ride....the Falcon Flyer. They really liked this one. At one point you would swing out over the water! :)

This is what the sky looked like when we finally headed back to the van for lunch....

After we ate, we dressed for the water park. But alas, they had shut that down while another storm passed....and a nasty storm it was!! Torrential rain and hail and people were still running around rather then hiding under shelter! Crazy people!! (We saw so many people slip and fall from running on the wet pavement!) :O Come to find out they decided not to reopen the water park anymore that day. Again, BUMMER!!

Oh, and our most favorite ride, the Tasmanian River Rapids, was shut down for maintenance....and the Safari train was also closed down when we got to that part of the park!! :(

BUT, we still rode the Pharoah's Fury, Blackfoot Falls, Dizzy Dragons, Firecracker and the Viking Voyage. AND....we still had a Mercy Me concert to look forward to!! :)

So after we found out the water park wouldn't be reopening, we got some food to eat and then went and changed into clean dry clothes.

Thanks to Dan R. for taking our picture (for free!!) :) while we waited for the concert to start.

About an hour before the concert, we saw they were reopening some rides again since the rain seemed to be past, so we took a few more rides....

And then we got to listen to an hour or more of Mercy Me!! :) :)

The lights around the water on the way out......

So today we learned.....patience, flexibility, patience, tolerance, forbearance and more PATIENCE!! :)

Despite all the disappointments, we really did have a good time!! Subway on the way home was a bonus, too!! About an hour from home, neither Dan or I were doing too well at staying awake, so we pulled off interstate and took a 10 min. snooze. The kids were both sleeping too, but woke enough to see what was going on.

But, that 10 min. snooze didn't help too much!! :( So a few miles later, as we approached a rest area, we decided we better pull off again. Usually I would take over for Dan, but I was having a hard time staying awake while trying to keep HIM awake!! :O We slept another 1/2 hour and then I felt good enough to drive home....though I did struggle a bit the last 15 minutes to home!

I guess next time we need to be caught up on sleep before we spend a long day away!! :)

It was a good day to spend as a family....with a sprinkling of friends in it, too!! :) :)

What a week so far!! Monday I did a lot of wash and tried to recuperate from a weekend in GA. I have graduation pictures to share sometime.

Monday night when I laid down to go to sleep, my one tooth that has been giving me a little trouble on and off, started throbbing. I could NOT go to sleep. I tried to figure out what I could take to help, and really wanted some immediate relief, so I got the bottle of Chloraseptic throat spray from the medicine cabinet and put some on a Q-tip and rubbed it all around my problem tooth. That helped for a little bit, but not long enough for me to fall asleep :P So I got up and did it again and then I was able to sleep. I had also taken a Tylenol PM, so that may have helped, too! :)

Tuesday morning I called the dentist right away. I knew I didn't want to spend another night in that kind of pain!! I was able to get in at 11 AM and he ended up extracting the tooth, which already had a medicine filling put in to try to save it. It was either an extraction for $89 or a root canal for $1,000+

The tooth was gigantic! I wish so bad I had asked to bring it home!! The roots were wider than the top, so I guess that explains why my gums are still swollen! Ouch!!

I spent the rest of the day taking lots of Ibuprofen and Tylenol (except I accidentally took another Tylenol PM, which explained why I got a good nap in too!!) ;)

In the PM, we had our last Parent Planning Meeting for the '10-'11 year with our homeschool group. Speaking of which, I still need to enter my notes in our Google doc! *sigh*

The children have been enjoying quite a bit of this lately! :)

Wednesday I needed to ship some things I sold on Ebay and we also got some groceries. While we were in town, I remembered that I wanted to stop at the produce stand to see when/if they would be getting green beans in. I didn't want to miss another year of canning beans!!

They had a bushel there ready, so I took them. Had I stopped to think a little I would have left them there!

#1. This was NOT a good week for doing beans. I am trying to go through stuff yet for my friend Emily's yard sale on Saturday and the house is a mess!!

#2. I am still suffering from the after effects of the tooth extraction.

#3. It's really hard to do a big project like that when your kitchen is messy already!

#4. They were going to be getting the kind I REALLY wanted NEXT WEEK!! :P

So, last night I decided to make a pot of fresh beans for supper......come to discover, these beans are a nightmare!! They had these nasty hard strings down both sides!! Yuck! We were picking strings out of our mouth's all through supper! :( Gross, I know!

So cutting the ends off and cutting them up today was no better.....we had to pull all these strings off and that was no easy chore! I'm sure we missed some! BUT, I need to give my kids big Kudos!! They helped with NO complaining! (better than their Mom's endless muttering!!) and we got the job done....21 quarts to be exact! :)

One of our $2 Magnolia trees we got at Big Lots has 2 buds on and the one opened this week!! :) So pretty and they smell mmmmm!! good! ;)

Still little, but doing great things! :)

Oh, yeh!! The beans! :) I am so thankful it was a beautiful and cooler day. We worked outside, partly because of the messy kitchen and partly just to enjoy the outdoors, which we don't do often enough!!

Danny is more thorough, which means it takes him longer....plus he likes to goof off a little here and there! :)

Tamara probably did twice the amount he did (or more), but I bet there were more strings found on hers! :) I love how my kids have such unique personalities!! :) Makes life interesting!!

And this lady, well, she plugged away till they were all done! :) And she is happy tonight to have that job out of the way!!

One other thing that made my day......Danny is my early riser. When he gets up, he does his Bible reading and then he is SUPPOSED to get dressed and get breakfast, so he's ready to start school. Well, some mornings he gets sidetracked on the computer (he uses YouVersion to read his Bible online) and so this morning all was quiet and I knew he had to be done reading. I went to the living room prepared to fuss at him for being on the computer instead of getting his day going.

And guess what? He was sitting there on the sofa studiously doing his Math lesson! Made this Momma's heart so proud! I love seeing signs of maturity and responsibility!! :)

And what's more amazing....he did 2 math lessons and his writing by 9 AM!! :) I know every day won't go like this, but I will bask in the ones that do! :)

That's all for tonight....a full day ahead, I better get some sleep! Good night~

FOR TODAY~

Outside My Window...
our "new-for-us" pool is sparkling and inviting me. It is very warm today, in the mid 80's (feels close to 90)

I am thinking...
a nap would feel good....maybe that's because I took a Tylenol PM, instead of a regular Tylenol a few minutes ago. An unexpected tooth extraction has caused me some pain! uh-huh!! :P

I am thankful for...
a house that is standing, AC on this hot day and food in my fridge.

From the learning rooms...
Math and Writing are all that got done today...

From the kitchen...
Making chickenetti casserole for supper.

I am wearing...
my most comfy jean skirt and a new for me green top.

I am creating...
nothing at the moment....

I am going...
to our homeschool Parent Planning Meeting tonight at El Jalisco's

I am reading...
Real Medicine, Real Health by Dr. Arden Andersen and the latest Homeschool Magazine! :)

On my mind...
I have a lot of decluttering to do this week before my friend Emily's yard sale.

Around the house...
a new top for our fish tank came in the mail....so it sits waiting for the man of the house to come home and put it together!! :)

One of my favorite things...
hearing my kids laugh and play together. Love their imaginations!! :)

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week:
mid-week church service, pick up my new glasses, yard sale and more school work down!!