Homeschool Freedom day!

My friend Mary Jo, started a holiday with her kids a few years back called homeschool freedom day. It's basically celebrated on the first day of school for our public/private school counter parts. I thought it was a wonderful idea and celebrated the first time last year. This year we had planned to meet other homeschoolers at our local splash pad but, I also told the kids since it was their freedom day they could sleep in. Well lol they slept in well past the time we were supposed to meet the others and we ended up braving the 100+ heat index. After 30 or so minutes out in the heat, I was so wishing I had brought a change of clothes for myself. I let them pick whatever they each wanted for lunch since I never am a short order cook once we are schooling. Of course PJ wanted oatmeal (yes for lunch, it's his chocolate-could be worse) , Tre' wanted pb and j, Cookey Face wanted a hot ham and cheese and buttered noodles and Precious toasted some bread and made a peanut butter sandwich. I had a concoction plate of all of these - minus the oatmeal. I just can't eat that in the middle of the day. We went to McDonald's for ice cream afterwards for a cool off. Once daddy was home we had a late dinner and watched movies off of netflix until everyone fell asleep. We had fun! Isn't that what homeschool freedom day is all about? Now it's time to get in planning mode. nope I'm not done with that yet..

Toni

Checking in!

Wow it's been a while since I have posted so I thought I would do so.  I have been having a great summer with the kids.  We have been to a lot of different camps this summer including Lutherridge in North Carolina, Affirm in Ga, multiple Vacation Bible Schools, Rocket camp, 4h camp and the list goes one.  Let's just say it's been a busy summer and now we have a month and three days to get ready for school.  So in other words it's crunch time.   Hope your summer is going well and that you are having loads of fun.   Toni

 

   

 

Well Planned Day

I wish my day was going as planned. Maybe if I win the Well Planned day planner from Erica over at Confessions of a Homeschooler it might go a little better.
Have a wonderful Wednesday,
Toni

Teacher's appreciation Day

Well it's teacher's appreciation day! For some reason I really don't feel appreciated. No one brought me an apple. Actually the apples I cut and cored for morning snack were eaten up without regard that the cutter had not had one. No matter, that's what my hidden granola bars are for. shh!! don't tell anybody. Anyway, I do appreciate having the opportunity to be a teacher regardless of the pay, late night planning sessions, whining, or the lack of sick days. The fact that free time consists of sitting down watching the same episode of veggie tales while folding yet another mountain of laundry doesn't bother me a bit. I truly love being able to school my little ones. At this point in my life, I seriously wouldn't trade it for the job I used to have by any means. Any who, I found an old link on the subject and felt like sharing.
Happy Teacher's day

5QF 5/29/11

I haven't done one of these in a while. I always thought they were fun but, haven't been blogging much so here is this weeks five question Friday. Oh and if you would like to join in just go on over there and join in.

1. If you could buy any car, money not an option, what would it be?

Okay, so I'm a mom and I always think of car seats, ease of getting in and out, and of course size does matter. I would love a 15 passenger van with tinted windows and all of the bells and whistle. I absolutely love the conversion we have now but, if the Hill family grows (which is likely) we will need more space.

Oh and can it have gas mileage like my honda accord?

2. What was your worst first date ever?

I am going to totally plead the fifth on this one since my husband reads my blog and it was with him.

3. How old were you when you fell in love for the first time?

13

4. When was the last time you reconciled your checkbook?

well I guess I can't plead the fifth twice in the same post can I?

Do people really have time to do that. The banks are probably making a killing off of us and we don't even now it..

5. If you were going to fashion a "Wanted" Ad for a best friend, how would you word it?

Wanted: Best Friend

Must have children-at least three. Must be a birth junkie, breastfeeding nazi, homeschooling, wish she had time for sewing, facebook loving, android app addicted, domestic goddess who never is actually at home.

Must be willing to understand that my voice mail box is always full so when she hears my message begin just hang up because I won't get your message for at least a month. Must be okay with texting and be able to put up with me totally forgetting everything some days. Oh and of course she must be willing to be a sister friend with our birthing project. May hit me up on facebook if interested. If you are the right person you probably have a facebook tab open while you read this.

Toni

My shares of the week

It is interesting the number of links I share in a given week. It is almost funny how much time I waste on facebook in the middle of the night while I can't sleep. Looking for a post that I shared only earlier this week led me to come up with the idea of sharing on my blog. This week has been full of mixed emotions. The storms that passed through our area have left a trail of devastation in its wake. I am so blessed that our family was spared this tragedy. We spent many hours this week in the hall while listening to continuous sirens over head. I am not sure how many tornado warnings we were under but, we didn't leave the house for two days because of the threat. Our extended family, who lives in Wren, MS -one of the places hit only had to deal with hail damage to vehicles and loss of power for a couple of days. Only a mile away many family friends lost their homes. I can't help but, remember the way I felt after Hurricane Katrina and my heart goes out to the victims of this disaster. So this week's links were mostly about the devastation that so many suffered in so many states.

This one about a homeschool father of 13 affected me the most. It really hit home about the protection that the father makes for his children. Our father in heaven as well as our earthly father. After hearing the speaking in the background of that blog someone shared this video of an 11 year old revealing Jesus throughout the Bible. I thought it was totally amazing to hear that from a child so passionately. I thought of all the verses we teach our kids that follow the alphabet and even some that relate to Bible stories and I thought this would be an amazing thing to do for a year long Bible study with the children. I found this link that is sort of a chart of all that child spoke about and I will make a plan of how it can be incorporated into our daily Bible/devotion time.

This one reported about the tornado in Cullman Alabama was important to me because of our last interim pastor at our church Pastor Bob. My children prayed without ceasing that his family was safe. He emailed us a day or so later informing us that he was serving someplace else but, that his home church there in Cullman, Christ Lutheran, was totally destroyed. We will keep them in our hearts and prayers along with all of the others who have been affected by these storms.

TONI

howdy and homemade washing soda

Well, I can't believe I haven't blogged in months. so just an update here. We have been doing great schooling like usual. Trying to get done in time for June. It's hard to contain them in for an entire day now with the nice weather. I have been reading lots of bloggers and spending way too much time on facebook these days. The birthing project has me really busy as well as all of my other activities. The kids just got done with a production of Oz with Pied Piper. They loved it! I'm exhausted! which is how these things usually go. I just ran across a blog today that showed how to make washing soda, which is one of the additives in homemade washing detergent which my family, along with countless others, makes. It works good in everything except for football uniforms and dad's work shirts, which require a little more. So that's my share today. I hope all's well with yall'

FQF 9/17/10

So I haven't done one of these for a while so I decided to jump in this week. Interested, then hop on over here to join in.

1. What is the first nightmare you remember?
it's kind of weird but, its about this train. I was sitting at the station waiting on the train to come and somebody walks in front of it. They don't get killed but, it's like really close. I was like 6 or 7 when I had that dream. Funny thing is it freaked me out so bad that it became one of those recurrent dreams. My mom even remembers it.

2. Even if you're not a sports fan, what's your favorite sport to play/watch? Well, I'm not a huge sport fan but, 8 years of marching band ( no it didn't take me that long to get out of high school that's counting college) kind of made me be a football watcher. Then of course marrying my high school sweetheart, who was also in the band and loves football did not help. Short answer Football. Who dat! (just in case you are wondering my favorite team)

3. If you could pull off one piece of trendy fashion, what would you want it to be (jeggings, hats, thigh high boots, etc.)? Hats, I love hats but, having a head full of locs doesn't qualify me to be able to just pick up any hat I want.

4. Did you make good grades in school? What do you consider good? Okay let me quit playing.... Yes, I did. Now I was no National Merit scholar but, I graduated after all.

5. What magazines do you subscribe to? That should be what magazines don't I subscribe to.. Not having a television in the house you have to do something other than housework. I was notorious for buying magazines from every little kid who is selling them as a fundraiser. (don't come to my house selling magazines please. I did say was) Anyway, those magazines seem to keep coming. My youngest is now four and I still get Parenting, not sure how many times I renewed that one. I think Mothering is my page turner though. Of course I really like This Old Schoolhouse as well. What La Leche League leader doesn't love New Beginnings which is now online. I could go on and on and on and on and on and on and on about this one but, I won't. I love reading and if I can finish a mag it seems like I have accomplished a book sort of.

Toni

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Update

So school did start as scheduled on Monday. We have been so busy I have not had a free moment to post about all that we have done. It's been a jam-packed week. So what else is new right? It's been an awesome start to the new year and I surely hope it's an indication of how things will continue to go.
Toni

4 days left

Okay I really am almost at the deadline. I think this is the first year when I have not been remotely ready for the upcoming school year. It's a good thing that I am the one who made the deadline. It is not my fault. There are things that are working totally beyond my control.

• I have been working a lot and have not had a bit of down time.
  
• It's truly been a crazy month.
  
• I lost the debit card and had to order another one... (can't buy things online without it). Maybe the dog ate it....oh yeah we don't have a dog.
• I expected Jimmy to order everything we need... (no one's going to believe that one)

well, enough excuses and down to work. I can't believe that I volunteered to go to a convention the weekend before school starts. argghhh!!!! Anyway I think the downtime will do the kids and myself some good. I will be gone all weekend and they will be here with dad, poor thing (the kids not him). I guess I can't say that I'm not prepared at all because I do have some things I need. This year I decided on a whim to actually buy a curriculum for our youngest. Of course I will supplement it a pretty good bit with other things but, you can't beat it for being under $20. I just thought that it would be a good idea to have workbooks for her so she will at least be content at the table a little while so the others can do their schooling. They have been here in the house for quite a while and I have had to hide them because of the constant questions about is today the day or not. I'm glad she is excited! I have to say though, all of the others are excited too about things getting back to normal around here. well I'm off to plan some things and pack. Yall' have a good one.
Toni