This & That...

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~Yesterday my sissy, Jill, and I got to do something we have been waiting to do for 15 years years. Really!
Jill and I, with my sweet Momma, and Abbie-girl watched the Anne of Green Gables movie together.  To some of you that may not seem like a big deal, but it was to us.  Jill and I love the books and we have been waiting to share them with Abbie. I don't know what we would have done if she had not liked it also.

Jill actually bought the Anne movies before Tyler was born in anticipation of him being a girl and in anticipation of sharing it with her. Of course Tyler was  a boy and then Matt, another boy came along, and then finally we got our Abbie-girl.  And we love our boys, but it's pretty special having one girl all to ourselves.

~James is taking to Kindergarten very well and wanted to know since he was doing homeschool now did he have to go back to church.  He was disappointed to realize that yes indeed he was going to have to keep going to church.  James is not a fan of big church.  He behaves in big church, but he does not want to. 

~Oh my stinkin goodness, the big kid's school starts Monday and I feel very unprepared.  Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow?

~Freezer Friday-I froze 4 quarts of lima beans, but I shelled lots more and we ate those fresh.  Mark discovered how good the jalapeno jelly is and requested many more jars.  Guess I will be getting on that next week, along with pears and more lima beans.  Very thankful for the work to do though.  I love feeding my family good things.

This About Sums It Up For Me...

By the way, this is exactly what I look like when I am doing my hammock time.... Right honey, right?????!!!???!!??

MamaHen Is Really A MamaHen Now...

Saturday morning was an exciting day here at our house. We got our new baby chicks! Since the Great Chicken Massacre of 2009 we haven't had any chickens (except for Pearl) and we were sitting on ready. But let me tell you, these chickens have been more trouble in three days than the others were in three years. So not exaggerating. But first, meet the girls. And I'm sure there is a boy in there also. We will have to wait till they grow up a little to know for sure.

(Please excuse my lack of makeup and the dark circles under my eyes. Being a new mama is exhausting.)

Meet my chickens Patricia Anne and Mary Alice (the characters from my favorite set of books). Mama and Jill, they are true to their names.

Right now I have two little banty chicks in an rigged-together brooder. I am trying to keep it at the right temperature and make sure they are clean and drinking their water. I was having to pull a Dr. MamaHen this morning with another one because she had a condition called, well, I can't say it out loud. I really did all I knew to do to help her, at one point I even had her in a flannel-wrapped heating pad, but she did not make it. The other 13 are doing great though. They are so cute and fun!

Wednesday

Today is a day to be at home ALL DAY. Yeah!!! School, laundry, cleaning, potty-training, rinse and repeat. Potty-training was a great success Monday. Yesterday we were gone most of the day so not so much. Abbie and I are making a new recipe tonight. And I am in a baking mood so we might make some cookies this afternoon.

Our garden is growing! Sunday night we all spent time weeding and it looks really pretty right now. By Saturday it will need it again. But if the weeds are growing the plants will be too. Right?

Our school year is wrapping up and different kiddos have finished several of their books, so we are doing School Lite right now. We will go until the end of May and then take three weeks off. This momma is looking forward to a break and I know the kids are too.

Added: Oh, internet friends, I just had a crushing disappointment. I went outside to do a load of laundry (our washer is in the detached garage) and I saw a little black car with a bright pink logo on it. And the logo was for The Merry Maids. And it slowed down as if looking for my house number. And my heart began to beat quickly and I caught my breath. Could this be the day? The day the Cleaning Fairy arrives? But alas, no, she drove on by. I thought about throwing the laundry down and chasing after her right on down the road. That way I could get my Cleaning Fairy and my daily exercise done all at one time. But, I didn't chase her. I will wait. For one day my Princess will come. And her name will be Millie, the Magic Cleaning Fairy.

A Fun Giveaway!

Laura at Heavenly Homemakers is having a great giveaway over at her site. You could win a $25 gift certificate to FSB Books. You know how much I love my books.....

Also, right now CurrClick is having a huge spring sale. You can go here and get the Little House on the Prairie Unit Study for $8.37. All of my profits go toward our baby's adoption-we are getting there!

Slighty Grumpy

Today I have been slightly grumpy. I don't want to complain... but... it is cold. And wet. And I even saw some snow flurries. And even I didn't want to do school today. And neither did the kids. And I did not want to do any housework. And neither did anyone else. And the washing machine is broken. The new washing machine. And in Casa De La Chaos no washing machine is serious business. A repair man said he would try to "get by sometime today" which means we might see him sometime this week. Okay, that is out of my system. Oh, and Abbie just stopped my blogging to give me a complete and total dramatic re-telling of the Judge Judy show she just watched at her Granny's house. My eyes were glazed over, and I tried to have a fake smile as I listened to her because she was obviously excited about it, but I don't think she was fooled. Needless to say, I will not earn Mom of the Day today. As a matter of fact I sent everyone to bed at 2:00 and told them they had to stay there for at least one hour.

Okay, I am done. For now.

Last Thursday night I got all computer geeked-up and learned how to do something new on the blog. If you go to my sidebar and click on Books I Love it will take you to a whole new page of well, Books I Love. It is right below my Roosts. You all know I love to read and if you do too you might can get some ideas of things you would like. Feel free to throw in any suggestions for me too.

Hello????

It snowed again last night. I don't think My Sweet Home Alabama listened to me at all yesterday.

Today we will be home all day. Not one place to go. Yippee. I love days to stay at home. Love the routine of school, laundry, cooking, reading books to the kids, and all that jazz. Speaking of cooking. I think I am going to try Pioneer Woman's Cajun Chicken Pasta tonight. I saw it the other day and I can't get it out of my mind. As it is very cold outside I am going to try to make the best of an inside day. We are still reading out loud, The Long Winter, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and we are also reading out loud a book about Noah Webster.

I have bills to pay today also, and Tyler has fractions to get through, but I am going to do that and get it over with. Then, we can settle in and read and talk and I might even get one of the kids to make up a dance routine with me. Yes, I really do things like that around here. Napoleon Dynamite has nothing on me with the dance routines.

What are your plans for the day?

A Ramble Here, A Ramble There

Well, I've got nothing. I have been blah this week, Hubby has been sick, and my kiddos still have an unbelievable amount of energy. That about sums it up.

~I was going to do a Friday Linky Loos and then thought, "Nah, that would involve me having to do the link thing (can you say L.A.Z.Y?)"

~I was going to prepare a shopping to list to do the once a month cooking with Money Saving Mom this weekend. Not really with her, but with a Mr. Linky. And then I got in my pjs and said, "Nah, that would involve me getting out the cookbooks and finding some paper and pens that actually work," (again with the L.A.Z.Y. thing)

~I was going to go by a craft store and get the materials to learn how to do some handwork at night. Didn't happen. And since I fall asleep around 9 in my chair every night I don't think I would get much done anyway.

~I have been trying to read Sense and Sensibility for two weeks now. I WANT to read it so bad, but I just can't concentrate on it. For some reason I think I can't watch the movie until I read the book, and then I remind myself that I am 37 years old and not in high school, but I just can't get past the right way to do it. You are SUPPOSED to read the book before you watch the movie. Someone please comment and give me permission to just watch the movie.

~The plan is for the cookbooks to be ready to sell next week. They have truly been a veeerrrrryyy long labor of love, and well labor, and I am ready to be done with it. I think they are going to be really good though. And if it gets us one step closer to Baby Clark it will all be worth it.

~There is no news on Baby Clark-we are just waiting on a birthmother to pick us. It has been pretty frustrating to say the least. I don't write much about the adoption because there just really isn't a lot to write about. We are going with a local Christian agency and are just waiting for the call. Right now we are sure that we are going in the right direction with a domestic adoption, but some days it is really hard to wait. We initially had told our agency we were wanting a baby girl, (I know it sounds terrible to want to pick the gender of your child, but as we only have three bedrooms it just made sense at the time to get a girl to share a room with Abbie. But the wait has been so long waiting on a girl specifically we have changed it to whatever God wants to give us. That's what we would get if I was expecting anyway!) Anyways, I'm ready!

~I have in mind a Valentines Mr. Linky/Meme to do next week. I'll try to have it up soon and maybe a little prize for a name drawn from among the participants.

Okay, off to claim my chair and let the dozing begin.

Friday

Well, we did have to go the doctor about the poison ivy. Fortunately it was a very short visit as I had all four with me. The older kids really do well though. James does too overall, its just the fact that all four are with me and I know it "could" all come apart at any minute. Poor Matt is now on Predisone which causes stomach aches, headaches, and hyperness. The Benedryl is cancelling out the hyperness for now though. Poor thing, he has the itching and now the stomach ache and headache.

Today will be a teacher workday for me as our progress reports are due for our umbrella school tomorrow. Nothing like waiting till the last minute. Depending on how Matt is feeling later in the afternoon I hope to get to the library. I have pulled everything I can possibly remember about Ancient Rome from my mind and now I need some books to go along with our studies.

Nothing new to report on the adoption. My brain is soooo tired of thinking about it. Tired, I say. Mark is tired of waiting and the kids don't even really talk about it anymore. I guess it just seems like it is never going to happen to them. I am still trying to think of baby names. I am even tired of that. I want the baby to go with the name. Okay, enough whining.

I could not sleep last night. Just one of those nights. So I am draggy this morning. As in, lets just all stay in pjs and not do anything today. Does Rick Steve's Europe on PBS count as school? Just kidding Paula!

I'm off to apron up and get started on this day. Hope you all have a lovely laughter-filled day!

Friday Linky-Loos

***I tried to think of something clever to title this but obviously it didn't happen.


The kids and I are headed to the Missions Fair this morning. And then home for an exciting weekend of cleaning the house and the yard because the social worker is coming Friday. I am determined I am not going to get all upset and antsy this time. Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!!!


I thought I would share some neat links I have found recently~~~~~


Some of you know I love the Little House books. Lizzy at A Dusty Frame told us about this site. Love it!


If I could ever get up the gumption I want to make this~~Family Rules Canvas


My real-life from high school friend Kathy is about to go to China to get their Baby Girl. You should run over and ooh and aah because she is precious.

And, if you go watch this and don't end up smiling then something is wrong with your smiler and your heart is obviously not in the right place :). And, by the way, is that woman next to Simon not gorgeous? I'll take an extreme makeover if I can end up looking just like her. Go watch and get to smiling!



Hope you all have a wonderful Friday!!!!!

It Doesn't Take Much...

Today was a new day in the ole Clark Homeschool. A day I have been wishing for and waiting for a long long time. A day my kids wondered about and longed for.

I purchased an electric pencil sharpener.

I broke down and bought one. For years I have just bought the little plastic sharpeners. It just went against my frugal ways to spend money on an electric sharpener when I had three children who had the ability to turn a pencil clockwise a couple of times. But hey~guess what? If you can't find the little pencil sharpeners or you try to sharpen a crayon or a pen or anything else your toddler finds to sharpen in it you will find they break in a heartbeat. And its bad when you can't find any sharpened pencils in your house and you have three homeschooling kids.

This morning we excitedly opened our pencil sharpener box. We hurriedly installed the batteries. The kids begged over who was going to get to sharpen the first pencil. And then little sweet Abbie reached over~picked up the blunt useless pencil~held her little hand over the opening~and slowly inserted the pencil into the sharpener. A quick buzzing sound and then quiet. Would it work? Would we be disappointed yet again at with our pitiful pencils?

Victory!!!! The sharpest prettiest little yellow #2 pencil you have ever seen! I immediately began to sing "We Are The Champions" and the kids cheered. All the kids~including James~took their turn and in no time flat we had enough sharpened pencils for a small country. We were ready to conquer the books. Ready to write amazing essays well beyond our years. Ready to show fractions and long division who was boss.

Now some of you may doubt that this actually happened. But it did. There were four witnesses~and just because one can't talk very well doesn't matter. He knows what he saw. As Abbie reached for another pencil and happily began to sharpen its little blunt end~she took a small breath and quietly began to sing... "Don't Stop Believing..."

And a little tear rolled down my cheek.

We can move forward with Clark Academy now. We will not be swayed.

Goodness~I just don't know who they get all their dramatics from? ;)

Fall, Fall, I love Fall! And Giveaways Too!

Ya'll, let me tell you, I have been oh-so-blessed by the Random Number Generator thingy on some giveaways lately! I love entering giveaways and this past month they have loved me back. I have won a book, a $25 gift card to TJMaxx, and box full of all goodies including goat's milk soap which I LOVE.

So, I decided to have a giveaway of my own. In honor of my favorite season, Fall, I will be giving away these cutie little apple salt and pepper shakers and an Apple Crisp Mix. Anyone can enter and I'll draw a name sometime Wednesday afternoon. Please leave an email if you are not a blogger. Just leave me a comment telling me something extremely interesting about yourself! Or if you can't think of anything extremely interesting, I know it would be a stretch for me, just tell me what your favorite season is. Or you can tell me a really good book you are reading cause you know I love me some good books. Or... oh, just leave me a comment about anything!

I Really Want To Win This One!!!

Mary at Owlhaven is having a great giveaway that I really want to win. She is giving away three SETS of her cookbook, "Family Feasts for $75 a Week." Each set will have three cookbooks in it. These would make great Christmas presents! Mary has a neat blog where she shares how she feeds her hubby and 10 children at rock-bottom prices. Last month she did it for $350! I hope I win and one of my readers do to!!!!

Anyone want a nap?

This morning has been busy busy busy. First, all four children had dentist appointments at 8:30 AM. This was to be James' first visit and overall he did well. He did great for the cleaning part, but when the dentist came in he just decided he had had enough. They had to pry his mouth open and he cried a little. But it wasn't that a big a deal. Well, evidently it was to James because when he got up I went to pick him up and he threw up all over me and himself. Lovely. We still don't know if he just got real nervous or if he just had a strong gag reflex or what. Oh, we also found out today that she wants Tyler to get his braces soon. Lovely again.

After the dentist (and cleaning up the best we could in the bathroom), we went to the eye doctor to get both boys glasses fixed. Bless their hearts, they said Tyler's glasses were still under warranty so it did not cost anything for him and they fixed Matt's for free. His was pretty easy. Tyler's whole arm was broken off. Then to the post office where I finally mailed my giveaway gifts from forever ago. Rachel, I meant to send you a jar of jelly with the books (as you will see when you get the card), but I got home and realized it is in my bag. I will get a jar to you soon! LouCinda, I mailed your jelly and salsa and had a card to go with it, but I packed up the box and then saw the card laying on the counter. So sorry. Jayme, your jelly is on the way. As much as I can remember I put the jelly in the box and it is not still sitting in the post office.

Then haircuts for me, James, and Matt. I was so happy to have three $3 off coupons for the haircuts. Being so proud of my frugal ways I happily hand the coupons to the cashier who informs me they are for a different hair cutting establishment. It could not have been more clear on the coupons, but I did not notice it. UHHHHH. Then to Target to pick something up for my mother-in-law and now we are home..

We still have Heritage Girls and Boy Scouts tonight. James is still holding up pretty well, but I want to climb in bed and not come out till tomorrow. Or maybe the next day. The good news though is I don't have anywhere else to go all week and we are going to stay home! We have got to get going on some serious schooling and I have a box of tomatoes and another box of pears waiting for me. Not to mention Mark really likes to have clean clothes to wear to work. And there are six people here who like to eat (at least) three meals a day. Someone stop me before I head to the bed right now.

Curriculum Clean Out Winner

The winner of the three reference books for the Curriculum Cleanout is

Rachel-from Grasping for Objectivity

Abbie must be your lucky charm (which I do not believe in because I am a good Reformed Presbyterian) because she drew your name AGAIN.

I'll email you.

A Quick Reminder

Don't forget to go here to enter to win some prizes I am giving away. Even if you don't homeschool any child can benefit from these books. And be sure and go to Homeschool Creations for The Great Curriculum Cleanout. You could win some great prizes.

A GiveAway!

Welcome to Great Curriculum Cleanout! For the next two weeks I will be participating the The Great Curriculum Cleanout over at Homeschool Creations.

I am offering these books:

1) The Usbourne Internet-linked First Encyclopedia of Seas and Oceans. (a 61-page great reference book)

2)Don't Know Much About The Presidents (64 page book about all the presidents through George W. Bush)

3) Notebook Reference Science Fact Book for Grades 4-8 (144 pages of great science facts and references)

All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment telling me what your favorite subject to teach is. Or is you don't homeschool, tell me what your favorite subject in school was. Please leave me a way to contact you!

To gain a second entry sign up to follow me. Just leave a separate comment.

I will leave this contest open until Saturday, August 15 at 5:oopm. I'll randomly draw a name and contact you then. This contest is open to US addresses only. For lots of great curriculum giveaways head over to Homeschool Creations. They have preschool and school-age materials. I can't wait to enter them all myself!

School, school, school...

Well, it seems from some of the blogs I read that school is getting ready to start. Do ya'll remember when school started the day after Labor Day? IN SEPTEMBER? But, anyhoos. Here at Clark Academy we took June off and have been having mini-school since July. Mini-school for us consists of science, Bible, handwriting, spelling, and math on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. It has worked out great so far and we will continue through August (and maybe some into September, depending on how the garden and pears are doing). When we start back full swing our days pretty much go like this.


***But all this is subject to change depending on my mood, the kid's attitudes, James' escapades (and I think I am about to have start potty-training him so that is a part-time job right there), if we get our Baby Girl, or the state of my house and I begin saying "I can't stand it anymore, we are living like a bunch of heathens!" and call school off to get the house back in order. But, believe it or not, most days flow pretty much according to our routine, and my kids are learning and thriving. I was worried if they were learning, but Tyler had to take the SAT last year and he did AWESOME and I said, "Yeah for the craziness of our household, it must make my children super-focused and have the ability to tune out their mom singing the Clean Up Song to James for the 10th time that morning!" Okay, I will get the Run-On Sentence Award for the day.

Our Day in a very little nutshell that leaves out the craziness that I don't want you to know about:

Around 8 the kids do their cleanup zones, feed the cats and chickens, straighten their rooms , and someone starts a load of laundry.

We usually start school around 9. We have our Bible time all together. We are going through the Old Testament stories this summer, working on memorizing a Scripture passage, and memorizing the books of the Bible.

I can usually give Tyler most of his work to do on his own and he goes off to his desk in his room to work alone. Matt and Abbie argue over who will go first and I begin deep sighing and try to remember who went first the day before. Whoever I don't pick has James' Duty which means they will play with James, work on his school work box with him, and just generally try to keep him out of trouble. I have a box titled "James' Box of Fun" in which I have put the preschool packets I made for him, some coloring books and crayons, stickers, etc.. in it. Some days he loves it and some days he could care less. He does like it when the kids play the little games with him though.

I rotate the kids and work with them individually at the kitchen table. They each have a sterlite box that all their books and work is in so they just bring the box to the table. After we have done the work for each child for the day I call the next child and then someone else has James' duty.

After all the kids have been rotated and right now this doesn't take too long because of mini-school, we do Science all together. Depending on the morning, this will be right before or right after lunch. James usually sits in with us on Bible (he has his own very short memory verse he is learning) and Science. I am trying to use this time to teach him to sit quietly and how to listen. He will be going into big church with us soon and hopefully this is good practice. Some days it goes well, some days it is a crying fest the whole time and I put him in his bed to cry by himself.

For math we use ABEKA. We just work through the books until we are done and then move to the next grade level.

Science-Apologia Astronomy. LOVE Apologia. This year I ordered the children's notebooks instead of them making their own notebook. It was pricey, but oh my word, the difference it has made in our science work. LOVE IT.

History-Veritas Press. New Testament, Ancient Greece, and Ancient Rome. This will be my first time to use this and I am excited. I did not buy all the books they recommend because I found I can get many of them at the library, but I did buy quite a lot and they look wonderful. We will be doing lots of read-alouds, which I think is wonderful way for kids to learn. I also plan on doing a couple of lapbooks. I found this great lapbooking site, and I hope to do some more research and planning before September. We will also be reading some books about other parts of the world during that time period.

Handwriting/Copywork-Classically Cursive, by Veritas Press

Language-Language Lessons, by Queen Homeschool

Spelling-Spelling Power. This is the first time I have used them and I really like it. Very easy for mom and it will be good for my children.

Bible-We go to Community Bible Study one morning a week beginning in September. The kids have their Bible lessons and music. They will doing a 8 month study on the book of Genesis. Me too. They have lots of verses to learn at CBS so we don't do separate Scripture memory at home during that time. Mark is teaching them the Shorter Catechism at night before our family prayers.

Art-Once a month they will be taking an art class with our homeschool co-op.

They also are involved in Boy Scouts and American Heritage Girls.

So that's it. After writing it all down it looks like a lot, but we are usually done by 1 or 2 pm, James goes down for his nap, I do the elliptical machine, collapse in the recliner, and the kids have the afternoon to play. I then try to muster up the strength to get up and do some semblance of housework, cook supper, and look absolutely stunning by the time my man walks through the door. Not really on the stunning part cause by the end of August I am usually standing in the garden picking one more blasted tomato when he gets home and he is greeted by a glistening, dirty, bug-bitten woman who says she is not going to do this one more day. She then goes a gets a shower and comes up with a plan to make the garden even bigger next year because wouldn't it be fun to have our own pumpkins! She gets out of the shower, tells her man, and he says "Okay." knowing that the next day she will have changed my mind. I have a love/hate relationship with the garden in case you haven't noticed...

Saturday

Yesterday was supposed to be library day for us, but Aunt Sister and MamaHensMama came as a surprise so we will be headed off to the library this morning. And today will be even better because now Mark can go. When Mark goes we get to tag team watching James in the play area and I actually get to walk around and look for books FOR ME. Yeah! I told ya'll it doesn't take much to keep me happy.



Other than that we are not doing much today. I might cut up some apples to make some applesauce, but I'm telling you it doesn't seem likely.



Hey Mama, when were cowboys around? :)

Well It's Wednesday

It's been Wednesday all day long and it's been a loooong one. We started mini-school back yesterday and so far so good. Everything went very smoothly. Usually we have a few glips in the system as we get started.

Child Fuss and Child Fight have been at it for about the last two hours. It has ranged from, "He's looking at me!" to "She put her foot over in my section of the couch!" They are either going to be the most-prepared young adults for marriage or the most ill-prepared. It literally makes me tired to hear it all the time.

But, the good news on the homefront~James is sleeping today. Yesterday he stayed in the bed for two hours playing with his little toys and looking at books. I am not really complaining, because I think it is wonderful he can entertain himself for two hours and get some rest time, but at 6:30 last night it was rough. You know how they want something, but even they don't know what it is, and there is nothing you can do to make things right for them. He was so tired he was stumbling around. So, today should be better.

No news on the adoption front. We are just waiting. I am excited, but I have a quiet confidence (most of the time) in God's timing. I am trying to, as Rebekah says, "let God's timing be His perfect gift to me." I can't wait to see her and begin to learn about her and have her in our family.

Don't forget to go over to Jill's blog and enter to win her giveaway. I'm not sure how long she will keep it open, but she is giving away a gorgeous purse.

Well, enough rambling for now.