I am many weeks late properly thanking :)De for her beautiful Springtime gift, but her kindness is really on my mind today as we enjoy the Sounds of Spring on our back patio.
It's a loooonnnnnngggggg story, and not really mine to tell, so I'll keep it brief.
The three fairies have been staying here off and on for the past few weeks and since their parents are unable to care for them right now, they'll be staying at Two Moms' Homeschool for the foreseeable future.
They are just soooooo precious and really deserve a positive start in life. I hope that Mom #2, Baby Boy, Baby Doggy, and I can give them that. I also hope their parents wake up and see what they are missing out on very soon. That second hope is that one that's really on my mind lately. Either way, we've chosen to celebrate the new additions to our family.
To give you just a glimpse of our new lives, we are being treated to regular serenades such as this one:
We had a wonderful holiday and hope your family did as well!!!
Big sighs of relief until another holiday rolls around. Enjoy a few photos from our celebration.
Off to relax and enjoy my miraculously-still-spotless house!!
All three of Mom #2's grand-kids spent the night with us this week.
In case you're new or have forgotten . . . YES, I love them too, but since I'm much too young to have grandchildren, we'll be referring to them as Mom #2's grand-kids from now on.
Anyway, What better way to start off the weekend than by watching three beautiful little girls dance. They love Yo Gabba Gabba!
Have a great weekend!
Until next time . . .
Due to some remodeling at the office, Mom #2 ended up being off of work most of the day. That means while Baby Boy and I did schoolwork, we had to try to pretend this Motley Crew wasn't right across the room from us.
So far the beach is washing away and some beach houses are already filled with water and Ike is still several hours off shore.
Galveston is below sea level and it doesn't take much water to fill it up. With the rain they've been having they already have more water than they can bare.
I know there are a few ridiculous souls who simply refuse to evacuate, while others feel they have good reason to stay and hold down the fort. This is not the time to be a hero.
Get out. Be safe. Live. Evacuate.
Oh, I'm back from a nice long week of fun in the sun. I have mixed feelings, of course, it's always nice to be home after a long trip away, but the beach is such a delicious get-a-way that it makes you want to stay there forever and ever.
This was an extremely unique vacation experience for us. Usually just the three of us go, with Baby Doggy in tow, but this time the in-laws invited us to go with them on vacation. I was pretty weary of the whole set-up from Jump Street, but Mom #2 insisted everyone could be on their best behavior for a week.
So just to recap, the vacation includes: Mom-in-law, Pop-in-law, two Bros-in-laws, along with Mom #2, Baby Boy, Baby Doggy, and myself. We did manage to get our own beach house for
just our little family while the two bros-in-law stayed with their folks since they are both single.
Now let me just explain the difference in our family dynamics. Mom #2’s family is a very traditional Hispanic family: Dad sits in the recliner, Godfather style, and demands everyone do what he says, when he says, and how he says. Family members shuck and jive to keep the peace.
Our family unit is run a little differently: Mom #2 and I hash out discuss everything and try to come to some resemblance of a compromise and even solicit Baby Boy’s opinion on what he may or may not want to do IF we’re in a good mood.
Even with this major contradiction in leadership styles, everyone did manage to behave themselves and there wasn’t too much tension other than a few ill-scheduled fishing trips (which Baby Boy simply did not attend), one extremely tense lunch, a few murmured, “Why don’t y'all just eat when Dad and I eat?” And a three person family decision to come home a day early just so we could spend a little time alone on the highway, LOL. Oh, the joys of extended family.
As you can see from the photos above . . . we officially survived our Summer Vacation 2008.
Baby Boy and I are officially getting back to learning on Monday . . . so I’m just going to try to
get all of my last minute lesson planning and preparations done for the rest of this week, and of course, catch up on my blog reading. ;-)
Thanks for stopping by!
Until next time . . .
Baby Boy had his belt testing at tae kwon do this past weekend. He did very well, remembered all his forms, etc . . . BUT the highlight of the whole event, for me, was when he showed off his great big home-schooled brain! Mom #2 and I were pumped up for hours afterwards!
Yes, we're still doing Geometry. It's going fine, A's all around, but I'm tired of talking about that.
Right now it's a million degrees outside, so we walk Baby Doggy as early in the morning as possible and then we hide in the house all the live long day until the sun goes down.
If we are so inclined, we hop in the car and go to any of Baby Boy's miscellaneous extra curricular activities. We've kind of slacked off a little bit due to the extreme price of gas lately, but that's a whole different post.
Today we braved tae kwon do class. Right now Baby Boy is training for his next belt (I think it may be red, but I could be wrong). Today sparring was on the agenda.
With all the talk of grandbabies going on around here, I've been thinking about when Baby Boy was really a baby boy.
This used to be his very favorite song in the whole wide world.
We've been having such wonderful, beautiful, delicious weather that Baby Boy and I can hardly concentrate on anything other than sitting on the patio and taking Baby Doggy for walks.
We did manage to get all of our assignments done, and we are both pleased to be almost finished with several of his subjects for this term.
We've completed Music Theory and our Movies as Literature this week. Actually and honestly, we ditched the Movies as Literature, we only had two more movies to watch, but neither of us were all that jazzed about them, so we decided to call it a year on that. Don't get me wrong, if you've looked at this for your own student, it's an excellent curriculum. It's very unique and requires real analysis, easily as much as a good rigorous literature curriculum would require, if not more, because with the visual, there is so much you are expected to notice. You end up practically watching each movie four or five times. For almost every question, Baby Boy and I found ourselves reviewing the scenes to make sure we didn't miss any subtleties. It's been a lot of fun, but we're just done, LOL. This is the time of year we get antsy and don't want to waste our days away watching television. We have some other literature activities that we're doing that are not curriculum and textbook based. It's just one of the perks of homeschooling, I guess.
Of course we did get a chance to get our art projects done this week. We studied Expressionism, which we learned is two giant steps away from realism. That's what we liked best about it, because we tend to do art that doesn't look very realistic whether we are trying to or not, LOL. It's more of a visual display of how you emotionally feel when you see something in nature. This week we did our own renditions of Vincent van Gogh's Wheat Field with Rising Sun (We have pretty high self esteem, don't we? I mean we really aim high! he he he).
Baby Boy earned his purple belt in tae kwon do last night. I'm so proud of him - here's a few photos and even a short snippet of video of how the evening went.
We've had a very successful week. We've really been trying to stick somewhat to our schedule without being so rigid it takes all of the fun out of everything. I am slowly but surely learning balance. That's my new mantra, "All in due time, and with appropriate balance." Lord, help us all. LOL.
We completed our writing assignment on To Kill a Mockingbird, much to Baby Boy's delight. The writing is his least favorite part of anything we do in our home school program. I keep explaining to him how wonderful and fulfilling it is to be able to express yourself clearly and artistically via the written word, but as of yet, he hasn't bought into it. Of course he's actually pretty good, so that frustrates me even more, but what are you going to do? As Moms we're trained to just wait until our young find their own way in life. I try to apply gentle pressure and guidance, and I hope the rest will work itself out.
Baby Boy learned some pretty impressive take down moves in tae kwon do this week. I have a little film, but it isn't of those moves. I usually try to get some photos or even a video or two on the "down low" so as not to interrupt the class. What you see here, is what transpires when a group of teenage boys realize they are being filmed. It's extra silly, so view at your own risk!
Well today is our very last day of school before the Christmas Holiday. We've been sort of doing *school light* this week. We ditched geometry all together. Last week we finished up a chapter and just didn't see the point of starting another one without being able to finish it before Christmas. We certainly didn't feel like rushing!
Baby Boy wrote a fabulous letter to Jeff and Lisa, of Rear Window fame, explaining to them in detail why they should get married. (That was his writing assignment for this week)
Of course, we have brand new art projects to report on. This week we learned about warm and cool colors and how they complement each other on the color wheel. This week's project is. . .
So far, I'm having a great day today.
Baby Boy made a 100% on his Marine Biology test. I don't know how he remembers all of that vocabulary. It's frankly too much for my feeble mind. I don't remember knowing all of that in high school, much less now. I'm so proud of him!
Also he did a great job in tae kwon do today. He had a few great kicks. I thought I'd share some of them with you, hence the following video clip.
I'm such a proud Mom - Can't you tell?!
Anyway, this day is not over. Just thought I'd pop in to share!
Smooches!
