Grillin' and Fishin' in January

You may have heard about the awesome weather we have been having here, but I think a picture is worth a thousand words.

You're drooling.

So, as you can see. We were chillin' out lounging around and loving TEXAS!

Prez-isms

After climbing on my back and accidentally breaking my necklace.

Prez: "I'm sorry that I broke your necklace. I can buy you a new one."

Me: "No, honey, that's okay. I don't need you to buy me a new one."

Prez: "No, really, I can. How much does a necklace cost?"

Me: "A good one costs about $20."

Prez: "How much does it cost if it's not a good one?"

More Catch-up...Soccer

This was our first season of soccer "out in the country". Believe it or not, it proved to be quite different from our previous experiences. Either way, the kids had fun and met new people,which really was "the goal."Prez was a great goalie even with clothes that are drowning him.
Pursing your lips together always makes you run faster.
Prez versus the giants. Prez wins for being the cutest on his team...not to mention the most courageous.
Nothing is happening down on this end which is just the way Mama likes it. I was glad when the kids got out of the goal. I don't like the idea of balls and cleats being so close to those precious faces.

Keep your eye on the ball, girl. You GO!

Four months old and growing up too fast

Happy 4th month, Sweetness. You are TOO SWEET!



Did we have you believing that school was only for those who are walking and talking? Oh no! If you are breathing, you might as well be learning something. Actually, I think Prez just likes the idea of not being the youngest. Either way, Sweetness loves the attention.

Conversion Corn?

Tuesday was the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. You read about his experience in Acts of the Apostles Chapter 9, 22, and 26. While on his way to Damascus, a bright light flashed around him and he fell to the ground. A voice called out to him, which was Jesus. Needless to say, he had a conversion and started then and there working to bring souls to Christ.

We decided that the popcorn we had made (for a movie that afternoon) was much like St. Paul. Like the popcorn kernel, he started out cold and hard. After having an encounter with hot oil, the kernel changes. After Paul has his encounter with the bright light and voice of Christ, he is changed. Lastly, the popcorn (which was made on the stove versus in a microwave) was bursting about in the pot, just as you can imagine St. Paul was doing with his enthusiastic preaching.

Either way, it seemed to work for the kiddos. Our recipe is simple too.

2 Tbsp. oil

1/3 cup popcorn kernels

Put them all in the pot together. Listen for the first kernel to pop. Once this happens, hold the lid on tightly and "shake" pot. Keep it touching the burner so that the oil stays hot and the corn pops, but keep it moving so that nothing burns to the bottom of the pan. Once you hear the popping slow down, remove from the burner and add salt, Parmesan cheese, spices etc.

Drake, Elizabeth, and Magnets..OH MY!

History: After a week of learning about Sir Francis Drake and his circumnavigation, Queen Elizabeth and her struggles with Spain, and the Netherlands and their attempt at Independence, we had many things to do.

Geography: maps of England, Spain, France, and Netherlands

study of longitude, latitude, and time zones

used Google Earth to do a "fly-over" of all of the places Drake stopped at

Science: making our own compass(I've created some group activities to do with compasses and this Friday we have friends coming over to share in the learning)

exploring magnets (for we needed them to make our compass)

learning about the Magnetic North of the Earth versus the Geographical North

Art: studied various pictures of Queen Elizabeth I and learned about how she used these for propaganda to win over her many subjects. We also explored how artists use symbols in their work to portray virtues. Bubbles was then "commissioned" to sketch a portrait of me. I wanted it to show a warm, loving and happy family. It should convey my love for music, sweets, and religion. Last, but not least, I wanted straight hair rather than curly. I think she did a GREAT job! On a sidenote...it should be mentioned that we decided people today still use their portraits as a form of propaganda when they send out their Christmas cards. I thought that was a neat observation.

Memorization: continents, oceans, location of bodies of water like: English Channel and Straits of Magellan, time zones, some Math measurement, academic vocabulary we are learning, and Anima Christi, a prayer by Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, the patron of our school

Writing: Bubbles wrote a paper on How to Make a Compass. It included not only detailed instructions of what to do, but also why it worked. She definitely prefers the informational writing over the creative stuff.

Just for Fun: We decided to make our own face magnets. The kids had fun adding eyebrows, mustaches, goatees, and sideburns to their cartoons.

Bubbles, the Lumberjack

What can I say? Bubbles, oddly enough, has a gift for swinging an ax and actually splitting the wood, usually on the first try. Well, if she doesn't always split it, she does hit it, which is way better than I did. You go girl!

An Afternoon Treasure Hunt

The prize goes to the kid who finds the coolest thing. The winner is Hubby who doesn't mow over some huge metal thing having been buried for 30 plus years. The finale is a beautiful garden in the Spring.

And the winner is....Bubbles. Prez forfeited after injuring his ear with a Pickaxe. There was no puncturing of the skin, Aunt Tina, just a hard bump from the handle on a very cold ear. OUCH!

This was also an extension on our lesson of magnets. To simplify...the inner coil gives off a magnetic field attracting metallic objects. The outer coil then picks up on the magnetic field being given off by the object. If you're lucky.....TREASURE! Our coolest find was a rusty ol' vise. It was not exciting to find, but it was fortunate. That thing would have done some damage to the mower.

The Transformation is almost complete

It started with a cardboard swing (see Country Discoveries for the details) and now has moved onto nasty teeth. This could be a sign that Country living could have a down side. NAH!

Feast of Saint Agnes

Saint Agnes was a virgin martyr from the early fourth century. She was a beautiful girl in a wealthy Roman family. She had many suitors, all of whom she declined, for she had given herself entirely to Jesus as His spouse. Having been rejected, they turned her into the Governor for being a Christian. This was in the year of 304 when Emperor Diocletian had order all Christians put to death. She died happily for her Jesus, but not before she was saved a few times by an angel and through her prayers brought back to life the very man trying to put her to death. We celebrate her devotion to Our Lord and her purity. We ask for her prayers that we too may love Jesus with her fervor and that our chastity will always be protected. She is often depicted with a lamb. This is due to her name..Agnus in Latin means lamb and she willingly kept herself pure for her true love, Jesus.
By the way....I did not have any cake mix and "running to the store" is not really an option around here, so I whipped these up--homemade. When I say homemade, I do not mean what I have always meant in the past, which is...I made it in my home, so it is homemade. Nowadays, if I say "homemade", I mean I didn't open a box. That being said...they look delicious, right? The weirdest thing is that they taste almost exactly like sugar cookies. Once the icing was added it really resembled one. The texture was that of a fluffy, moist cake, but the taste was sugar cookie. All of that to say, if you are in desperate need of a white cake and you can't run to the store, make these. I got the recipe from allrecipes.com

School continued--the second week

So week two begins and we still have momentum. We continue our short vowels with the letter i and insects. Here we begin investigating.Prez is intrigued to say the least.
Bubbles and Prez both make models of insects. I love the feathers as wings!
We also learned the word "icky", a new chant, new hand movements etc.
We couldn't let the day pass without an experiment with icky goop. This was great for observation skills as well as tons of conversation.
No day is complete without a snack, so making the icky inchworm drink was another great follow the directions, sequence event.
Last, but not least, an insect hunt was in store with Prez's new bug equipment for his birthday. Interesting but uneventful.

Catch-up continues...The beginning of the year

Our phonics program began with the short vowel sounds and of course the letter A. Being over ambitious and playing off of Prez's excitement of "being in school", we did a week of alligator activities. Here we made life sized drawings of alligators at different stages in life. We painted them, measured them (with uncustomary units), and compared them.
Here we worked on identifying the letter a as well as the word alligator. He memorized this chant with the hand movements and above the chant is a picture of an alligator he made by practicing his shapes. He also practiced some handwriting.
Every four year old can work a little on following directions as well as some measuring, for Math purposes. So, what better way than to make Gator Juice.
Bubbles got in on the fun as we read some alligator books with our snack.
We didn't want to exclude Bubbles from the "A" activities, so we had her calculating the area of our kitchen/laundry room/dining room to be tiled. The attitude was just a bonus! Gotta love this girl.

Snow in these parts? not so uncommon these days.

We had already decided not to do school last Monday, on account that Grandma and Grandpa were coming to visit, which was a good thing. I don't think we could have accomplished much else than playing.

Actually, after warming up a bit, we did have a little bit of learning. We attempted to make "Jack Wax". From my understanding, it was a winter treat from Colonial times of heated maple syrup poured over fresh snow. It is supposed to make a taffy like substance. Ours didn't work as prescribed, but it was yummy. We actually experimented with other flavors and decided that lemonade over ice made a special slushy that was delicious. I just love the love of learning.

A little bit of catch-up

Seeing how I've been out of touch for six months, I thought I'd slowly share some photos of what we've been up to in the midst of a move, a new baby, a new school year and holidays.

Saying it like that makes me feel better about the chaos we've had. Enjoy.

Bubbles, who by the way, has a tremendous knack for archery.

Prez, who often forgets that it's "mini" golf.

Picking our grapes so that I can make jelly. I still have yet to make the jelly, but they did a tremendous job of picking.

Don't you just love the boots? Who can be bothered with shoelaces when there's a mountain to climb?

Life's so unfair

Prez: "Mom, can I hold Sweetness?"

Me: "No, it's bedtime."

Prez: "Why does Bubbles get to hold her?"

Me: "She's holding her so that I can read you some books. Tomorrow you can hold her."

Prez: "That's no fair. I only get to hold Sweetness on Tomorrows and Laters."

Just another day in Paradise

If anybody is worried about us so far away, fear not. Our local SWAT team is employed and ready at a moment's notice. If you think you're the only one smiling, you're not. Sweetness thinks that Prez is awesome!

A Life Changing Experiment-the Beginning

Welcome. I have finally arrived!

This is my attempt to keep you updated as to what we are doing waaayyyyy out here in the country. I know that I'm a real ace when it comes to sending out pictures and emails, so why even try blogging? I asked myself the same rhetorical question. The answer came. Why not--maybe this will stick. I'm going to try to make it a habit. So, get your fix. Visit as often as you like--just overlook the details. We're going for big picture here. Love you guys.