My Cups Runneth Over

First ceramic attempts.  

I wouldn't actually recommend anyone drink out of them, because, well, I can't afford the attorneys' fees or the medical bills.

I am proud of the funky colors I made by mixing waxes, rusts, and glazes. 

I think my actual construction may be getting better, but it's hard to know until pieces actually come out of the kiln.

Turns out, just because you're a lover of the arts, does not necessarily mean that you actually have artistic talent, LOL.  

Luckily, I'm having a WHOLE LOT of FUN!

Until next time . . .

Transformation . . .

You won't like them when they're angry.
(Click for a full sized view.)

Until next time . . .

Fight Sequence

Over the past couple of years, Baby Boy has been writing and illustrating his own original comic book series about the ongoing saga of all things resident evil and the complex characters that are needed to save the world from them.

I usually don't pay too much attention to it, because I've become accustomed to seeing him with a pad of artist's paper and his various writing utensils all the time.

I did, however, think he did a really impressive job on the latest fight sequence. I thought I'd share so you could have just a tiny taste of what I get to read all day every day.



Oh, and just imagine hundreds of sheets of paper all over every horizontal space in your child's room.

Keep your eyes open, you may be seeing more in bookstores near you sometime in the future. At least that's what I tell myself when I'm picking up paper and colored pencils up off the floor, the dresser, the bed and the coffee table.



Until next time . . .

This week . . .

. . . was great! Fun, busy, and productive . . . everything life should be for a homeschooling family.

I'm so glad to have made up for our lack of getting anything done last week. So without further ado . . . let's get on down to the weekly report:

• In Literature, Baby Boy and I read and analyzed the short story, The Open Boat, by Stephen Crane. I'd actually never read it before, so this made for interesting discussion between Baby Boy and myself. An interesting tidbit is that this story is actually a fictionalized account of a shipwreck that Stephen Crane himself actually lived though. Of course we're still doing our SAT prep vocabulary, and Baby Boy is doing excellent in that regard.
  

• In Algebra 2, we finished up a chapter on Powers and Exponents. Luckily Baby Boy is pretty good in math, so we haven't had any major problems yet, but I'll reserve judgment until further notice. The problem is the instructor when it comes to anything mathematical. All I can say is that I studied Sociology in college. 'Nuff said. I do words . . . not calculations.

• In Human Anatomy, which Baby Boy is loving, by the way, we studied Epithelium Tissues which makes up the linings of our organs and glands. Our Human Anatomy kit came with some very interesting slides that Baby Boy more than enjoyed looking at under the microscope. He made some drawings of what he saw so that I could share them with you today:

Human Stomach Lining

Human Skin

Human Lung

And

Human Salivary Gland

• In American History, we are discussing the time in America's past when the new locals are experiencing extreme dissatisfaction over the British controlling them from afar. They are beginning to support a movement to succeed as British colonies and become their own independent nation. This was the beginning of the American Revolution.

• In Logic and Critical Thinking, we learned how to spot a genetic fallacy, which is a false argument attacking the speaker's origination of thought rather than the actual validity of the argument.

• And finally, we did have a little time to get some art in this week. If you can remember, last year we worked with charcoals and pastels imitating some of the great artists of our past. This year, I hope to work mostly with watercolors and put our own personal spin on whatever projects we decide to take on. Because my niece's school was out for some reason today, she spent the day with us and was able to participate in our art lesson. We decided to do a Fall Leaf Sampler, in honor of the beautiful autumn weather we're having. Of course, we don't really do autumn in Texas, so we looked at some photos online to see what real fall leaves look like . . . but don't be fooled . . . not everyone in my class is all too concerned with realism in their art. I'll just say . . . some of us have a flair for the abstract, LOL.
  

Fall Leaf Samplers

By Baby Boy

By Baby Niece

And

By Mom #1

I guess I'm going to have to learn to let go and get a little more creative like the kids, LOL.


Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope all you other homeschooling families and friends in general had a productive week.

Until next time . . .

The Late Weekly Wrap-Up . . . And Other Stuff Too!

We had a very exciting week last week.


We are getting closer and closer to being finished with our Geometry. Baby Boy is still working hard and putting in very good effort. We're sure to be done in the next week or two. He's also working hard at doing well on the new Ultimate Frisbee team he just joined. Of course he's also sharpening up his tae kwon do skills as he will be phase testing this weekend.


My quest to get photos of those moments has been lackluster at best, but I'll try to get some posted next week.


We finished up the last art project in this particular art curriculum, but we do hope to do additional art in the future. We are taking a break from doing art right now. We are not, however, taking a break from learning about art. As a matter of fact we are going to a beautiful art museum later this week to see a special exhibit on Leonardo Da Vinci. We're both excited to see it, so wish us luck. We have to drive a little bit to get to it, but I'm sure it will be worth it. We're going with our new home school field trip group.


Here's our final project. It's a lesson on composition, or how the items you draw are actually sitting on the paper. I love the way Baby Boy's came out. The fruit seems to be jumping off the paper. It makes me want to take a bite. Mine, of course, is neatly colored, but lacks passion. I guess you can't win them all.


Anyway . . . Art Composition . . .

By Baby Boy

and


By Mom #1

And in case that isn't enough, our six week old grand baby spent a day and a night with us last week! It's been so long since we had a little baby in the house! We had a wonderful time, although admitedly, a little sleep deprived. LOL

Oh . . . one more thing . . . The Denim Jumper seems to be back up and running. So let's all get over there and post a bunch of stuff so they'll know how much we missed them!



OK . . . That's all!

Until next time . . .

Getting Back In The Saddle . . . With A Potpourri Of Topics

Thanks for all the nice emails while I've been taking a break from blogging.


It lasted a lot longer than I thought it would. Turns out, although I thought I was the queen of multi-tasking, sometimes more things get done in real life if you just take a real live cold turkey computer break. Of course, those who know me from some of the home-schooling boards know that I didn't totally go cold turkey, but I did trim it down significantly and I have a lot to show for my time off . . .


We went to see the new Indiana Jones movie. If you liked the first three, this one will be lots of fun for you. It holds true to the series. If you are looking for a real action movie judged only by today's standards, well, not so much. Baby Boy has a full movie review. I'll have to get him to type it up this weekend and post it later. I really enjoyed it, but frankly, it doesn't take too much to impress me. It also doesn't help that I'm totally infatuated with Shai LaBeouf. He's like an adorable little Ken doll that I want to bring home in my purse and put on a shelf. It's amazing to me that he's the little Brady Bunch Afro-wearing boy from Holes. I'm not sure why, but, well, I've been known to have strange ways.


I went to see my niece's "Self Expression" exhibit at her fancy private school. She made a very cute self portrait. I think it turned out really well.




Speaking of self portraits. Baby Boy and I finally finished the six or eight or however many art lessons on how to draw the parts of the face. Today we did portraits of ourselves in charcoal. Don't laugh, remember, we are not trained artists. Just a mom and son trying to express ourselves a little bit, LOL.

Self Portrait


By Baby Boy

and


By Mom #1

In case you are wondering, YES I did intentionally make my face a lot slimmer in my portrait than it is in real life. I mean, that's the way I see myself, young and thin. I'm not letting reality get in the way of a good fantasy! One thing we couldn't figure out was how to make ourselves black (I mean African American) without making ourselves, you know, black (like the color), so we just left ourselves white (you know, the color, not the race). As you can see, this discussion could go into the wrong direction, so just look and love the art for what it is. HA HA HA!


Actually that is the kind of drawing I like to do. We've pretty much finished all of our subjects but seem to still be hobbling along at geometry. Unfortunately, that means the kind of drawing that I have been doing the most of lately looks like this . . .

. . . and poor Baby Boy has been spending his mornings looking like this . . .

But all of that hard work is really paying off. Recently we experienced something of a miracle around here. In five years of home schooling, we have never - until this week - witnessed this extremely rare phenomenon . . .




A perfect 100% on a math test! Yah! As you can see, stickers are a great currency around here.


In honor of all that hard work, and because we really really felt like we needed a break. We took a little mini vacation to our local water park. We had great big fun, although I am deathly afraid of the water and cannot swim at all. They provide lots of shade, fun slushy drinks, and chairs directly beside all the rides so lazy scary moms can watch their wild and crazy kids. That's where I was at.




So. As you can see, we're all doing fine. Busy, as life always is, but fine. I've enjoyed spending quality time with my family and friends. I'm going to try to find better balance in my life that allows for the real life closeness and the online fun. If anyone has the recipe for that secret formula, please forward it to me. I'm in desperate need! ;-)


Just for kicks, I'm going to round out this post with pictures of our new grand baby. She's still so new and beautiful and perfect in a way only grandmas can appreciate. She's a smidgen over three weeks old. These pictures were taken about a week or so ago when she was about 2 weeks old. She's already making lots of noise and funny faces, so we know she'll fit right in with the rest of our family.




Until next time . . .

Is The Weekly Wrap-Up Late? Why Yes, Eye Believe It Is.

Not too much in the way of school work to report. Baby Boy has one more module left in his Marine Biology, three or four lessons in Spanish (we do each lesson for 4 days so those are weekly lessons) and a God forsaken 30 more lessons in Geometry. Someone save me! I've got Spring Fever so bad, I'm about to explode. It's so sad, because Baby Boy is working so hard. I really need to get it together. That Geometry is my Achilles' Heel.


We do have some fun photography lessons planned for summer and some "homeschool lite" activities as well, so our brains don't turn to mush, but we are definitely taking a couple of weeks off before we dive into all of that.


We spent the entire day on Saturday hanging out at the pool, so I think I must still have a little water on the brain.


Also, I'm super busy at my part time gig taking flower orders because it's the week before Mother's Day. Let this be a reminder to you, the closer it gets to Sunday, the HIGHER the delivery charges will be. Sometimes more expensive than the flowers you are having delivered. Do yourself and your mom a favor and deliver them to her personally. She'll enjoy the gift and the company.


Baby Boy and I completed our first portrait art lesson and are on our way to personalizing our generic portraits from last week. If you don't remember, you can check out this post.


This week we learned how to draw . . . you guessed it . . . eyes! Actually just the right eye, or the left eye, depending on how you look at it. Well, anyway, here's the photographic evidence.

By Baby Boy

and


By Mom #1

Of course, you probably already saw this coming, but, of course, these eyes turned into none other than . . . The White Board Monster!

OOOOooohhhhhh . . . . Scary!

I hope that put a smile on your face, ;-)


Until next time . . .

Look At These Pictures While I Get Well . . .

Hello, all!


I know I've been neglecting my blog as well as neglecting visiting the blogs of all my dear cyberfriends. I've been fighting off a raging sinus infection and Mom#2 hasn't been letting me do much of anything that isn't absolutely necessary. Of course she doesn't understand how important blogging is, LOL.


To be honest, I just haven't really been in the mood for blogging lately. I'm taking an antibiotic that makes me sick to my stomach; I'm trying to keep school going as we only have a few weeks until our summer break (YAH!); and I've been mulling over my curriculum choices for next year as well. I'm still plugging along at my part time gig as well. I guess it's all starting to get the best of me.


Anyway, rather than whine about myself, I thought I'd provide some photos for your viewing enjoyment.


Baby Boy and I recently started a new series of art lessons on sketching portraits. These are our generic portraits and over the next 6 weeks or so we'll learn how to draw specific eyes, noses, mouths, etc . . . and try and do a real self portrait in a month or so. That should be interesting, stay tuned!

Generic Face by Baby Boy

and

by Mom #1

So that's that.

We also studied bioluminescence in Marine Biology. We studied the different effects of darkness, sunlight, cold water and warm water on the chemical bioluminescence used in some deep sea fishes. It was very interesting. Here's a short photo essay.

The glow stick represents the chemical bioluminescent material in the fish.

This is how bright it is in warm water.


Next we let it sit in ice water for about 5 minutes and then took it into the dark again. Trust me, it dimmed greatly, but it didn't photograph well (LOL), so here's how it looks on the kitchen counter in ice water.


And finally, here's the bioluminescence monster coming to get me because he's tired of doing schoolwork.

Thanks for stopping by. I'll post more when I get back to a little more normalcy, whatever that is.

Until next time . . .