Tax Time Already?

It's not, but I start working tomorrow so it certainly does feel like it. :/ Hopefully it won't be too bad...just preparing for the upcoming tax season and getting things ready around the office before it gets busy. As much as I want to whine, I'm not and will instead be grateful for the extra money! :)

The week went well last week. Bailey submitted his first draft of his 4H portfolio for DPA, so it's good to have that out of the way. This is his second DPA, but his first as a 4H senior (9th-12th grades). He's so excited, and I love that.

I don't have anything really planned for school this week, but I think it will work out fine since we have the back half of the week off for Thanksgiving. I'm hoping Bailey will work on some analogy activities (struggling with that at the moment, but I think he just needs a little reinforcement a la game play, lol), and Braeden will work on his reading comprehension. He's actually doing really well with that! It's taking him a little longer to read than it did his brother, but he can tell you EVERYthing he read. :D

That's about it for this week. I know. Short and sweet. We spent the weekend with the fam and now I'm exhausted. I'm going to grab dinner and curl up with a new TV show, Almost Human, before bed.

I want to leave you with this - I saw today that the word "selfie" was just added to the Oxford English Dictionary. I hate that word, but my sweet nephew took an adorable selfie today while he was playing with my phone:

Couldn't you just eat him up? ;)

Wishing you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday...

Monticello and Montpelier...

I don't know how well this is going to go, because we took a TON of photos...and I can't narrow anything down. But I will try.

While we loved both places, Monticello was, hands down, our favorite. So much history, but so much neat history! Thomas Jefferson had so many stories to tell. We learned about his family and his friends, about his work in government, we learned about how much he enjoyed being on the cutting edge of what's new in the world, and we learned about the Jeffersons and slavery.

Ok, remember what I said about not being able to narrow down photos? Yeah. Well. I made it through a teeny tiny portion of what we have and this is what I have for now. :/

Monticello:

In touring Jefferson's home, the guide made a point several times to tell us how close Thomas and his family were to the Madisons. Apparently, Monticello had a room that the grandchildren called "Mr Madison's room." After learning that, we thought a trip to Montpelier was in order.

Montpelier:

This was a neat place too, but they are still working on recovering furnishings and artifacts from when James and Dolley lived there. Major restoration was finished around 2008, but there were no records kept when Dolley had to sell everything, so getting period pieces back has proven difficult. Regardless, it was very cool.

Sorry for the limited pics. Maybe I will be able to go through them again in a couple days and pick out some more. Right now though, my internet is rebelling and my eyes are crossing.

We spent two days at these historic places, but they will meet our homeschool requirements for history for quite some time! We are still googling things as we remember them. We go back through photos and talk about what we learned, and we even took information that we learned (either from googling, or by going back through brochures/pamphlets) and made lists on SpellingCity so they could practice spelling and vocabulary words from our trip.

I know I've said it before, but seriously...I am shocked by how much fun we had learning about these two men and their families!

Thankful for Vacation, Thankful to Come Home.

We had an amazing vacation! We had so much fun together, and really learned a lot while we were gone. Felt like we did a good bit of roadschooling, lol.

There are lots of photos, but I haven't even had a chance to dump them from the cameras yet. When we got home, we hit the ground running with our normal activities. I do have some pics in my iCloud stream, so I can share some of those...

Shenandoah National Park:

Beautiful view!

Love this one of my guys. :)

While we didn't see any bears or exotic wildlife, lol, we saw LOTS of these cute little guys/gals. They were veeeeery comfortable with all of the traffic and sight seeing going on...

A couple of the places we went to play tourist, were Monticello and Montpelier. Thomas Jefferson's Monticello was absolutely incredible. We expected to have fun, but we ended up spending about seven hours there. Not only did we enjoy it, we learned a lot about him and his family (the guides there definitely gave us some homeschool help, lol).

James Madison's Montpelier was really neat too, but I don't have any phone pictures from there. Honestly though, those two homes need their own post. I hope to get to that this week.

Here are some additional pictures of the yurt we stayed in:

And this is just a random photo of a double rainbow we saw while we were out driving after a little rain shower. Boys thought it was so cool! :)

The drive home was fun. You'd think we would have been all sad and stuff, about leaving Virginia. But, we spent several hours reflecting about the trip and how glad that we were that we got to take it together. In between our talks about the vacay, and the bathroom breaks (so many! the 4 of us could never seem to all have to go at the same time, lol!), we played some games together. Road trip bingo was one. Another is a word game we like to play. One of us says a word, then the next person says a word that starts with the last letter of the previous person's word. It's something we started doing a few years ago, and we all love it. The boys build their vocabulary, but it also helps with other things like spelling and practicing putting words in ABC order.

We got in late Monday evening. Tuesday we had to pick the doggies up from the vet and grocery shop a little. Wednesday we had our nature program at Elachee. Thursday was Master's and Friday was park day. Whew. Like the energizer bunny, just keeps going and going and going... :D

Getting back into the swing of school was a little slow going. We really didn't have a solid block of time any day this week, so they just did what they could, when they could. Some days we had mornings, some days we only had evenings. I am soooo thankful that we can be that flexible when we need to!

Until next time. Hope you all have a great week, and remember to honor our military men and women tomorrow. Always, always thank a veteran when you can...any day, not just Veteran's Day. :)

Virginia!

This is going to be a quick post, but I did want to say hello from beautiful Virginia! :)

We arrived last night, after a drive up that included a yummy lunch with friends in NC, and some fabulous fall colors on the trees. I can't count on two hands how many times one of us exclaimed "Oh my! Look!" and the rest of exclaimed "ahhhhh or ooooooh." Lol.

The boys enjoyed the ride too. I had gotten them this little travel game set, with several different dry erase board activities. They played road trip bingo, tic tac toe, hangman and worked on some vocabulary activities (working on syllables and sight words for Braeden).

We knew we were staying in a yurt, but we really didn't know what to expect.

This is what we checked into:

All hardwood floors, a full kitchen, two small bedrooms and a luxurious bathroom (no not kidding about the bathroom!)...all surrounded by a canvas tent-like thing. It's honestly awesome. :)

The hubs and I do have a little bit of work to do this week, here and there. I thought I might have the boys do some T4L this week, but I don't think I'm going to hold to that after all. There is SO much to see and do and learn about around here! Tons of American history. We are going to check out James Madison's Montpelier (I think there are a couple of other past presidents' homes as well). There's the Shenandoah Valley National Park. And, as we discovered upon check in, Luray Caverns (totally can throw in a rocks and minerals lesson there, lol).

We are super excited about what this week holds for us! Hopefully will have a chance to post pics throughout the week, but more than likely, I will post a few key photos as a recap next weekend. :)

Until next time, have a fantastic week!

Fall is HERE!

It's here for now at any rate. Here in GA, that could change real quick.

The temps are cool, the sun is shining and yesterday I was able to pull on my favorite comfy sweater for the first time this season. Things are good. ;)

The week went well. We stayed pretty busy, as usual. Wednesday, we had a birthday lunch and some play time with a friend. Thursday, after Master's, we took the kids skating. They had a great time, and I had a blast watching them. Takes me back to being Bailey's age and hanging at the skating rink all the time.

Sweet group of kids...

Bailey...he's very cautious and trying to find his footing.

Braeden...who decided "screw this, I'm getting in the middle." Haha.

Friday was homeschool park day, and yesterday we took the boys to see a friend perform in a play, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. 'Twas a fabulous production that we enjoyed very much! Following the play, we had dinner and board games with a GREAT group of people!

School is going great. We had a little bump a couple of weeks ago with both of the boys retaking quizzes they didn't score well on. I have no idea why they were doing this all of sudden; it's not like either of them is a new homeschooler, lol. Having said that, I discovered what they were doing and explained that all of the retake scores were being included in their grade average...which brings it down. They just thought it would take the highest grade from all of the them. Oops. Anyway, since I exlplained that, they are paying closer attention to the lessons and asking questions before they start on the quiz, if they are unsure about anything. So, things are going much better now.

This week, we are preparing for a fall vacation! Doesn't happen often, but we found ourselves able to spend the last week of the month in Virginia. A state that NONE of us have been before! We leave a week from today, and I want to make sure that we stay on top of school (and work!), but I also want the boys to learn a little about Va before we head out. I think I will look up some fun facts about the state, and build a word search they can work on.

As much as we are looking forward to the trip, my "oh my gosh, I have a week to pack and get ready" anxiety is kicking in. I hate that about my personality...that I get so stressed and anxoius about everything, including the happy stuff. Ah well, at least I'm used to it. :/

For now, I'm logging off to enjoy the day with my men folk. Happy Sunday Funday to me!

Happy Sunday Funday to you as well! :D

His Potato Has Hair!

Ok, so, not actual hair. But made ya look. ;)

The plant lesson that Braeden started a little while ago has been going well. Remember the potato head he made, and was growing grass in? Here's its progress:

This is the photo I shared last week, a day after he planted the seeds...

This is just two days after he planted the seeds...

One week after the seeds were planted...

And this is today, about 12 days after the seeds were planted...

Isn't that awesome?! He is SO proud of his little potato head. He's added a couple drops of water twice, but other than that, he's just left it alone and documented the changes every morning when he gets up.

We all had a good week last week, and this week is starting off very well. I had to spend yesterday at the tax office (nope, not tax time yet, lol) because we had some extensions to file. Bailey stayed home and got caught up on things he wanted to do, like his writing. He is not ready for SAT essay writing help yet, lol, but his creative writing is really coming along! Braeden went with me because he wanted some time with me. I know...awwwww. :D

Other than yesterday, this week is the first week in a while where we don't have to be out of the house more often than being able to stay in. I need to play catch up with some of my stuff,  and we are wrapping up soccer season. I'm going to try and stay on top of my work, and the laundry. Always with the laundry!

Until next time...Happy mid-October, errbody! :)

Doing something good...

I always tell the boys that I want to do more good around us. In our community. I'm quick to donate financially when I can, and I tell myself that the money is really needed and it's a good thing to give it.

But it's easy to donate money. I'm not saying that everyone has large amounts to give, I know I don't. But still...it's easy. You write a check, hand over some cash, click pay online, whatever. Once you've done that, it's done. You're done. You gave. Pat on the back.

It's really easy to forget that, even in our world today, there is something that we have that is worth far more to someone than our money.

Our time.

The only thing we truly own. One thing that many of us feel we never have enough of. Something that can make such a big difference to someone else.

A few months ago, I read an old friend's Facebook post. I haven't seen her in more than 20 years, but we reconnected (online at least) through FB a couple of years ago. The post was a quick explanation of her mom's battle with Alzheimer's. However, it wasn't just her mom's battle. It was about her battle. The battle that her children face. It was the pain and sadness that this horrific disease brings to everyone, not just the one who has it.  The story was accompanied by a link to donate or sign up to participate in a walk. The Walk to End Alzheimer's.

I decided right then, that I wanted to do it. I have never done a charity walk in my life, and for those that know and love me, you know walking 3 miles on a Saturday morning is never something high up on my "to-do list." :D

The boys (who, in their awesomeness decided to walk with me) and I ended up having a great morning, with some great people. We felt good physically, but we also felt really good knowing that we gave our time to a very worthy cause.

The other part of the week went well too! Bailey had his last cake decoration class. He and Z had a ton of fun with this particular course (fondant and gum paste), and they both did a fabulous job on their final project. I have to remember to download a picture that Tracy took of both of them, but here is one I snapped on my phone of Bailey's:

All told, he invested about 9-10 hours on this cake. The 50 calla lilies took the most time...about 6 hours. Pretty freaking amazing, if I do say so myself. 

The school week went fine for them as well. Wednesday they had their monthly nature science program, and we went to an arboretum to study trees. I don't really take a lot of pictures of school stuff, because I never think about it. I know, shame. I do document what they are working on, but photos elude me. This week however, I have photos!! Woot for me! ;)

Bailey isn't following a specific art curriculum, but he's improving a lot thanks to his art teacher at Master's. This is one of his current projects, studying shading and lighting and looking at an object while drawing it.

A bell at a church. This is an 18" x 24" sketch pad, so a lot bigger than it looks here.

Braeden combined art with one of his science activities. Well, kinda science. Plant science? He made a potato head. Per his words, here is what he did:

"I got a potato and I scooped out the inside. Then I put on googly eyes. Then I glued on a feather. Then I got three wet cotton balls and stuck them in the potato. Then I got a bunch of grass seeds and sprinkled them down inside there with the wet cotton balls. Now I'm waiting for the grass to grow. So my potato will have hair."

Now seriously...how great is my kid? ;) 

Here is his hairless-for-the-moment potato head:

If you look closely, you can see a little sprout of grass already,  right above my thumb. And no, this isn't a cyclops potato head...the other eye is on the other side, lol.

I don't really know what this week holds yet, but I'm all right (oh oh...side note...I *just* discovered that alright isn't a correct word, grammatically. Who knew?!) with taking it as it comes. I know it will busy, but I'm trying to not let it stress me out before it even starts. 

For now, I'm enjoying some down time with my guys. The eldest is making us his homemade fettuccine alfredo for dinner, and we are getting caught up on some our TV shows. Tonight is Sleepy Hollow, S.H.I.E.L.D. and Haven! 

Hope you all have a fabulous week!