Back to School

We have been back at school for a week now. And we are in a good routine and things are getting done. I thought I would post a couple pictures of what our "school" area looks like. We really do school all over our house depending on what is going on. We start in the living room for History and Reading, and we are in the kitchen for Science and Art, and we are in the room anything that is left over.

As I'm looking at these pictures I'm realizing that this really only shows a small part of it.

We have a 5 foot table that the boys will sit, stand, jump, bounce at. We may at some point get desks, but for right now this is what we have. Some shelves and little drawers. Each of the boys has a drawer where they put the things that they think are special or what ever, nothing in the drawers gets thrown away {until it's too full and I make them go through it...} I tried to do the Workbox System I think it's good in theory, but it didn't really work for us, and we don't have the room. Although, I have done something similar that I will tell you about in another post. Anyway... the magazine boxes are now used to hold.... magazines... workbooks, extra paper, lapbooks, pretty much anything else that will fit inside that we are using but I need to be out of the way.

What you don't see is that off to the left is a GREAT BIG white board {3'x 6'.... we had to cut it down to fit in the car} I was saving and saving to get a big white board from Staples when a friend of mine told me to go to Lowes and get it there. Low and behold I got a 4x8 piece of whit board for $12!!!! {instead of the $280 that Staples would have ripped me off for.... wanted me to pay.

And from there if you turned a 1/4 turn to the right you would see the beds. Fortunately it's a big room so we are not squished at all!

We have a couple filled bookshelves... and these are not all of our books... I rotate them out so it's pretty fresh every 6 months or so. {the rest are under Tim's bed} I love books, but I am trying to buy any more. {we will have to move them you know} so we use the library quite a bit. I look forward to one day having floor to ceiling book cases just filled with all sorts of good things!!

There was a map above the book cases but the boys liked looking at it to much.... so it came down to make it easier to find the places that they were looking for. Tommy has started an Art Gallery by his bed, so I think I'll let him expand it to this wall as well.

I wish it looked like this all the time, but alas, it does not. That's ok though, I'll take a clean area twice a year.

{the dinosaur is Phil and he sit on the table to watch it. I'm not sure what he is watching for that is just what I have been told, and he is put there every night}

11 whole months!!

{this is a bit late...}

Can you believe that the baby has been here... in my arms 11 whole months!!! It's gone way to fast for me!

I am debating weather or not I want to do some 1 year old pictures with him next month... I feel like I would pay someone to have  pictures of Benji walking out the door. He has his mind made up on what he is going to do and there is no changing it.

I tried to get a picture with the monkey... this is the best I could get. I don't think ke likes it much.

Please tell me that some one else can see the wheels turning in his head... This boy is always on the move, and getting into EVERYTHING.

He has his own agenda.... I think our days would go smoother if he would send me a memo every now and then.

{I love this picture of him, what a cute little guy I have!}

Benji, I love you more every day! I'm glad you are a part of our family... and in less than a month we are going PAR-TAY!!!

What's it called??

What is that fruit called that is yellow?

You know.... the one that most kids like?

Babies like it because it's soft and easy to chew.

You can eat it alone, or in a a split form, or even just dipped in chocolate... {that's the way I like it}

Most little one start calling it "nana" first.

Not this little one.....

He calls it a "mama"

Adventures on Anasazi Ave

Many... many moons ago I lived in a little town called Logandale. It is a quaint little town in the middle of the desert. {How I love the desert}. When I lived there it was a close-nit town with lots of kids. I'm going to take you on a walk down memory lane.... well... more like a walk down my street called Anasazi Ave.

We'll start at my house which happen to be the first house on our side of the street. We happen to move into a sea foam green house. Our family of 9 moved in and brought even more chaos to the street. We came in all ages so there was plenty of everything going on at my house. We never locked our door, and we often had extra kids at our house for dinner.... depending on what the mom's up an down the street were cooking.

Next house was a brown one, and really.... I'm not sure who lived there.

Now there were two boys in the next house, now they didn't actually live on Anasazi, but they were part of the crew so we'll throw in Jason and Justin. Jason was my age and I had a little crush on him probably the whole time we lived there. But, I think every girl my age had a little crush on Jason. Anyway... they had horses and a small basketball court. Jason taught me how to shoot a basketball. We would run through their yard every day to catch the bus. And Jason's mom only had one request.... DON'T EAT THE POMEGRANATES! She liked to make jelly with the fruit and didn't really like all the kids eating the perfect pomegranates. Confession.... every now and then I would grab one and run home. I just couldn't help myself!

And then the next house. They too had a boat load of kids. Some older girls and a couple boys. I remembering looking up to girls, I really like Emily and Tammy, they were always smiling and giggling. And the boys were younger than me but always funny. I remember Micheal was always cracking jokes. He was always with us when we would go and build our forts in the desert, or jumping the canal or something. He also had a pogo stick and a unicycle.... try as I might I never got it.The funny thing that I remember about their house is that I NEVER went in their front door. Not once... and I don't think they did either, humm... I always went through the garage door.

A couple more houses down was an older lady, Betty. She was really sweet and lived by herself. One year for Christmas we decided to doorbell ditch her and leave some goodies... Now all 7 of us had to go... that's just the way it was. So we go and leave the goodies and knock and run. {have you ever seen 7 kids from ages 13-5 try to run away quietly??? yeah, it doesn't happen} Well apparently she heard us but had no idea what was going on. So we knocked again. Nothing... we knew she was home... we kinda peeked in her window. So again we were going to ring the doorbell. This time we thought it would be best to have one person go up so my brother Hyrum was the chosen person. He went up to the door and go ready to knock... imagine our surprise when little miss Betty opened up the door before he could knock and and had a blow horn that she was blowing right in his face. We all took off down the street like banshees, leaving the goodies on the doorstep. We thought better next time than to ring the doorbell and run away... we would just hand her the goodies next time.

Another family on the street was actually bigger than ours. Due to a blended family I think they had 10 kids... and 2 Adams.... I just thought that was funny.

There was a a boy on our street... Brandon. He moved in about 2 years ofter we did... I did not care for him much.... he made fun of my nose. And then.... after we moved I came back to visit... he told me that my face grew into my nose.... yeah still bitter about that one.

There was a girl named Nadja on our street. She was nice and a cheerleader... I liked her we just had very different interests. Her mom was funny though, she really liked Neil Diamond.

I really like living there. We always had so much fun. The rule was when the street light comes on you come home.... yes you read that right... LIGHT. There was only on on our street, and it usually it didn't come on until a half hour after the sun went down. We would ride our bikes into the desert and climb he mesas. We would wait for the train to come and the conductor to throw candy. We would wash our feet in the irrigation ditch. We would dig holes in the desert {yeah I still laugh about that} and build forts in the salt trees. it is a good little town and looking back I'm so glad that we lived there.... even for the short time that we did.

I will not milk the cow!

We have a dream... one day we will have a small farm. We want some acreage, we want to be able to turn the boys loose and let them run to their hearts content.

We talk often about what we will have on our farm. Everything from the types of vegetables we will grow, what trees we will plant, and the animals we will have.

You see we would like to be pretty self sufficient. I'm practicing canning and bottling. I am working on new recipes that I can use my food storage with. I am trying to cook with the seasons so I'm not paying an arm and a leg for strawberries in the winter. I'm trying my hand at once a month shopping. I'm working on having a green thumb and being pleased with the things that I have not killed... grown.

We would like to use solar  and wind energy, we hope to have a pond or a water source.

We would also like to have some life stock. Chickens of course, we would like to have the eggs and meat. We are going to have some pigs.... everything is better with bacon! And possible even a cow.... to butcher... for meat.

The boys, however, are wanting to milk the cow. Now I'm not a big milk drinker but I do like heavy cream, I like butter, and I like ice cream... all those things require milk. I am all for going to a local co-op farm and picking up some fresh milk.

The boys still want to milk a cow. I try to explain that the dang thing will have to be milked every day... twice a day. They still want a cow. Even on rainy... cold... snowy... dark days. They still want one.

But I know what will happen, people will get sick and I'll have to milk the cow. The boys will all go to scout camp and I'll have to milk the cow. Some one will break a leg or arm, and I'll have to milk the cow. Jobs, friends, girls will come and guess who will be responsible for the cow... yup... me.

I am already responsible for so many things... family, house, dog... you get the idea. I really don't want to nag make sure that it's getting done.

Now I know that most of you will say "oh... well don't let them go until they milk the cow" Which yes... good in theory, but how many of you give in and feed the dog because the poor thing hasn't been fed in 2 days and he looks at you with those pleading eyes. What do you do??? You feed him.

I'm just saying loud and clear right now... I WILL NOT MILK THE COW.... {or the goat or anything else we may or may not get that lactates}

Dated: 7-12-2011
{I'm just making it official.... does anyone think I should get this notarized??}

FaceBook stole my soul....

I have been wanting to blog for a while now but feel like I am really grasping at nothing as far as content goes. After some thought I realize that I Facebook everything... well... pretty much everything. And because I have readers that follow me on facebook and on my blog I feel like I am posting the same thing twice.

I have been all over the interent looking for ways to over come my "writer's block" or "blog cramp" or what ever you want to call it and I'm just stumped. I love blogging about my kids, I mean I have great kids, and they are all very handsome! {Tim won't let me call him cute any more...} But I want more... from myself mostly. And I don't necessarily want to be one of those "mommy bloggers" that post all the time about her perfect life.

And although I love them I don't want people to come here to read just because I'm having a give away... although that might be a good idea. Maybe doing scheduled posts on certain days?

I would like to post more about myself and my thoughts, but I'm afraid that my mouth and the way I can not tactfully write a sentence will hurt people, so I will keep most of my mean thoughts to myself. I do have some things that I am trying to get ready but I just don't know. Will you still like me if I post stuff that you disagree with?

So I'm asking you... anyone who is still out there... What do you want to know about? Anything really... I'll be totally open and as honest as I can be. If you don't want to know anything could you give me some topics to write on?

I'm going to lay off of Facebook for a while, and try to focus more here. I love my blog and my readers and this is where I want to be. I just need some help.

What Curriculum Are We Using?

I got our curriculum!!!

I am so excited for this school year!!

Last year was really good!!! And I had a really good time, and so did the boys. I made my own curriculum and it was really good {if I may toot my own horn a bit...} But with so many things going on and Benji being a bit more active and in to every thing, I needed help in the curriculum department.

There are tons of curriculum out there but I was having a hard time finding something that would fit us. Many curriculums have a schedule to keep and a reading list to pull from. While these are good for some, I need more leeway. And my boys love to read so I didn't want to confine them to the books that are on that week's reading list. or say no to the extra books they want to bring home because they need to get through the books on the list.

I have bought the Critical Thinking Co. bundle. I am so excited for this. I have things that I like to use, like The Story of the World for History, and I like having the freedom to study what we want in science. We like the Math U See program. I just needed something to pull it all together and fill in with the places that I miss.

What I like about CTC is that the answers aren't obvious. I like that you really have to think about it. I love the Mind Bender games, they really make the boys think. I like that the activities are fun and I think the boys are really going to like it.

We are starting in mid-July. It is a bit earlier than the public schools but this way we can take the extra time off in the fall and spring when the weather here in Florida is really nice. I'm looking forward to this year and the things that we have going on.