Me & Dad • Lovely Sunset • On the beach • Look Mom, I’m SKIING!
Aren’t they cute? • We ♥ G’ma & G’pa • Perfect mirror image • Sibling ♥
I ♥ the driver • Another evening cruise • Strange children • Looking for food
Yes, another sunset • Inside activities • Five loons • Oh Captain, My Captain♥
A quiet moment • Still looking for food • Cousins & tubing fun • Last sunset
We’re heading to the beautiful Northwoods this afternoon and won’t be back for more than a week! I’m ready for a vacation! Here’s where we’ll be….are you jealous yet??!?
Last weekend, all four of my children were in the wedding of a dear friend. The girls have been been friends with Emily…more like sisters, really…for more than 20 years. They’ve share both the blessings and the hardships of growing up “in ministry.” It’s created a bond that is unbreakable. It was a wonderful weekend with laughter, tears, and lots of makeup and hairspray!!
Summer has finally arrived in Northern Illinois and our garden is finally looking like a garden! In fact, we’ve even eaten some peas! Now, if only the tomatoes would ripen.
And finally, I was asked to write an Independence Day guest post over at The Homeschool Village! You can hop over HERE. Happy Independence Day!
A very busy week of VBS has preempted Memorize Mondays!! Sorry to those of you who are memorizing every week! Take this week to review everything that we’ve memorized so far!!
Here’s a little taste of what we’re doing at SHAKE IT UP CAFE this week!
VBS 2011 – Shake It Up Cafe Preview Video – Cokesbury Vacation Bible School from CokesburyVBS on Vimeo.
Stormy Lake on Memorial Day, 2011, with my two favorite guys!
(Memorize Mondays was postponed for the week due to the holiday and the fact that I was in the middle of nowhere!! We’ll return next Monday to post and memorize the next portion of Romans 5!)
Remember this?
Same spot. Just three months later.
Summer arrived in full force yesterday. I wasn’t thrilled with the 90 degree temperatures, but Jimmy and his friend were!
90 degrees + a sprinkler = FUN!
It’s that time of year again.
Well, actually, we’re a little bit crazy ALL the time, but it gets noticeably worse at this time of year.
It’s nothing new. It’s a generational thing. My father-in-law passed it on to my hubby. My daughters inherited the disease from their dad. They came down with it years ago. There is no cure.
And they’ve done their best to infect their sweet baby brother.
The symptoms intensify in the spring. Last year’s outbreak was the worst. It lasted for months. But mercifully, it came to an end on June 10, 2010.
This year’s outbreak of insanity in our home may be shorter lived. Our Chicago Blackhawks aren’t the team they were last year. Last year, they ended their season by hoisting the Stanley Cup. This year they eeked into the playoffs with an 8th place finish. Last year our expectations were through the roof. This year….not so much. The 2011 playoffs didn’t start well for the Blackhawks. After three losses to the Vancouver Canucks, it looked like the season was about to come to a sad end. But then the Hawks won. And then they won again, and then 2 nights ago, they won again. In overtime. To force a Game 7. To say we reacted strongly is a bit of an understatement.
One of my daughters thought it might be fun to record us watching the overtime period. Just in case. The following video provides visible (and very loud) evidence of the insanity that resides here during hockey season.
Enjoy. And please, for your own sake, turn your volume down.
So, our season might end ended tonight. But even if it does, we’ll always have Game 6.
(And you should all be really happy we didn’t record our reaction to the short-handed goal that sent Game 7 into overtime!)
In a word…winter.
The Blizzard of 2011. It had lots of names.
Snowmageddon…
snO.M.G…
Snow-pocalypse…
Whatever you want to call it—we survived it. In fact, we enjoyed it.
Homeschool took another hit this week. Last week and the week before it was colds and flu. This week, company from out of town, and of course, the blizzard kept us from our normal school week schedule. We still managed to complete most of our work in most of our subjects, though. Notice how I make myself feel better with that little word “most”?
We didn’t go as many places or see as many people this week. We were “snowed-in” for two days. Not snowed inside…just snowed at home. Though we didn’t go anywhere, we got to spend time with some of the best people around. Laughing. Shoveling together. Helping each other.
When our next-door neighbor sustained a nasty snow-blower injury, the rest of the neighborhood jumped into action. One neighbor helped them get to the ER, despite the fact that our street was still covered with 20″ of snow. Two more helped me and my husband finish clearing their driveway and un-burying their mailbox. My daughters watched their three children and helped me make them dinner. I have really great neighbors. Sometimes it takes a blizzard to make you slow down for long enough to notice.
My favorite thing this week…
Being snowed in for 2 days with my five favorite people in the whole world.
What’s working/not working for us…
The thing that’s the hardest right now is trying to find the balance between work, homeschool and home-making. I love working from home. It gives me so much flexibility. But it’s hard. The balance is hard to find.
Can I really make it another 12 years? Sometimes I’m not so sure.
A photo to share…
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It’s been a week of sickness…fevers, coughs, colds…and general “ick”. I’ve been slowly recovering from all of the aforementioned symptoms, and Jimmy spent the better part of the week suffering through the worst of them. He’s better now…happily spending today playing with his cousins after nearly a week of quarantine!
Our homeschooling routine definitely suffered this week as a result of the sniffling and hacking, but we managed to cram a few things in so that Jimmy would be prepared for his co-op classes on Monday. On Thursday he did a whole week’s worth of McCall-Crabbs Reading Comprehension Tests. His cold did not affect his scores. Check out the last three grade equivalent scores on the bottom of the page. By the way, he’s in first grade. Yeah. The boy can read!
Last night Jim and I went to hear GreenChoby.
Nearly 15 years ago, Carolyn Green and Mike Choby served on staff (though not at the same time) with the ministry that my husband and I served with. During Mike’s tenure with the ministry, Jim introduced Mike to Carolyn, and the rest, as they say, is “musical history!” It’s been several years since we’ve heard them perform, but last night we were able to see them at a local coffee house…and it was wonderful. It was dark…and all I had with me was my iPod, so sorry about the bad picture…
If GreenChoby is ever in your area, definitely go give them a listen! Want a sample? You can listen to a couple of their songs here: Carry Me Back Home and Patience . More information about Mike and Carolyn and their upcoming events can be found here on the Official GreenChoby Facebook Page.
Everything having to do with language is working for us. I love Shurley English. I love SWR (Spell to Write and Read.) I love McCall-Crabbs.
Everything having to do with math is NOT working for us. In this area, we’re really struggling. We’ll keep plowing through it, but I have a feeling we’re going to have to make a change. Grrr…I hate changing curriculum!!
Many of my homeschool thoughts and questions get asked/discussed over on my other blog! Please consider this an official invitation to join me and my very talented co-author (and stay-at-home homeschool dad), Arby, over at The Homeschool Apologist!
And every Thursday during January and February, some of my answers to common Homeschool Questions can be found over on The Homeschool Village Panel!
A photo to share…
Here’s the look I got early this week when I asked the question, “How are you feeling?”
Interested in joining this weekly meme? Join the fun HERE!