Another Wonderful School Year….

We started school today.† Well, sit down and do various subjects, school.† Kei has been raring to go for 2 weeks.† She picked out her clothes and packed her bag last night.

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We are doing American History after spending the last 2 years on Ancient Civilizations.† We just are going to kinda skip the middle parts for now. :)† We started with Native Americans and I have been gathering information for a month.† We did the Plains Indians first and both learned so much.† Then she started Caddie Woodhouse. She is reading and listening to the audio at the same time.

In fact, Kei roped a neighborhood public school kid into doing a ‘debate’ this afternoon.† Kei took the Native Americans part and Vicki was European.† I was so proud of Kei’s arguments about how badly the Indians were treated.

We also did Science, about the Earth and rotation and revolutions and we used an orange and various things to show both.† We are doing Saxon 6 math this year.† She is very good at Math, good enough to have me worried that I will be clueless very soon.

She also made a doll and a cat out of fabric.

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All in all, a great 1st day of school.

I just love homeschooling.

Lazy Days of Summer…

It has been a good week.†† Kei and I cleaned OUT her room.† We moved everything out and then rearranged.† What a job!† But she loves it.

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We had my nephew spend the night a couple of nights and he was a blast.† He helped me clean off the balcony and various other “I need a strong dude” chores.† We sat on the balcony and had a fire.† It was so great.

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We went to Esther’s for a day of food, laughter and play.

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We moms had to get our “silly on” too.

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Then Seth taught Kei to play Poker.† Of course, she had to ‘dress’ the part.† Esther said it was a fine example of learning Math and symbols.† E can find the ‘learning’ in anything!!

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Kei is so excited about going to see “Beauty and The Beast” at the Princess.† We can’t wait.

Happy Weekend!

Mud and Fairies Houses and Tea Parties, Oh My..

Today was a kick back and enjoy the day day. Kei decided that she wanted to build fairy houses. She has 2 different processes for this. One, she makes them out of twigs and leaves and two, she makes them out of mud. Today was a “Mud” day.

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Here she has proven the, often suspected but never documented, fact that 9 year olds do attract mud like a magnet. Also that she can finally do the Vulcan hand sign. [????]

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But the Fairy House was lovely. She named it Dragonfly City and gave me a tour of the houses and stores. It came complete with a pool for the fairies.

dragonfly

Then she invited me to a Tea Party. We do this every now and then, not as much as she would like but as much as I can stand attend.† She makes a grand production, hand writing my invitation and anxiously awaiting the time. She uses her Tea Set that she hand painted a couple of years ago.

tea-set

We always dress up in summery dresses complete with hats and talk in accents. Last time we were British grand ladies and today we were Southern aristocrats. No matter the nationality, our names remain the same. She is Mrs. Sassafras and I am Mrs. Chamomile. We discuss our gardens and recipes and our grandchildren and how ‘wild and reckless’ today’s society is. Kei adores this pretend time.

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Memories…it is all about making memories.

One thing I want Kei to say when she is 20 is, “I had the most wonderful childhood.”

Homeschooling Rocks!
Karen

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The Winds of Change….

“Once upon a time, there was a quiet little village in the French countryside, whose people believed in TranquilitÈ – Tranquility. If you lived in this village, you understood what was expected of you. You knew your place in the scheme of things. And if you happened to forget, someone would help remind you. In this village, if you saw something you weren’t supposed to see, you learned to look the other way. If perchance your hopes had been disappointed, you learned never to ask for more. So through good times and bad, famine and feast, the villagers held fast to their traditions. Until, one winter day, a sly wind blew in from the North…”† From “Chocolat”

I feel something in the air.† A change coming that I am not sure I am ready for.† Some things are supposed to change, others are not.† Or at least not in my world.

Parts of my life do not feel the same any more.† I don’t know if it because I have had the most stressful, heartbreaking, life changing 1Ω year of my life or not.

Maybe I am wrong, maybe it is just a strange ‘dog days of summer’ wind.† Or maybe is is a wonderful, exciting, life changing inagoodway wind.† I just hope I am ready.

The Tail Tale of Lillian….

A couple of months ago, we were invited to a “Tadpole Rescue” at Heather’s house.

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We came home with 1000’s 100’s of tadpoles.

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Every day or so we would check on them to see if anything was going on.† One by one by one they died.† Until we had 5 left.† Then, a couple of them developed legs and we were so excited!!† Last week I was showing one of the neighborhood kids their progress and there was a little bitty frog.† We were all jumping up and down and shouting, [easily amused, remember?]† Kei †was so happy.† She has ALWAYS wanted a dog or cat, but HEY! A frog will work just fine, thankyouverymuch.

We got one of Kei’s bug holders and put it in there with some water.† Kei named her Lillian and for the next few days she was besotted over this froggie!† She enlisted the neighborhood kids to find flies for her.† Yes there was a sandwich bag filled with dead flies on my patio.

Then, we woke up and could not find Lillian.† She was not in her container.† Now there was no way that I could see for her to get out so I searched that sucker for 30 minutes.† We took out the rock and the water, no Lillian.† Kei was devastated.† She insisted that I immediately say a prayer for Lillian which I did.† She searched all over the house for this frog that is probably Ω” long.

It was Sunday morning when we made the discovery of Lillian’s strange disappearance and Kei said she was going to ask her Kid’s Church teacher to pray for Lillian. †When I got her after church she was outraged.† I asked her what happened and she said, “I told the teacher and she said, “You can get another frog”. As if!!† I tried not to laugh and told her we still have 4 tadpoles to watch for.

Well after we got home from Daddy’s, Kei was picking up the container to do something with it and she started screaming, “Lillian is back, Lillian is back!!”† That dang frog was in the container!!† I still don’t know where she was hiding.

So now, we have a pet frog.† And Kei loves her.† I mean, LOVES her.† She took her outside today to get her ‘exercise’.† Good grief!† She just came in and said,† “Lillian is probably one of the smartest frogs ever! ” Then she proceded to tell me about Lillian jumping over a blade of grass she put in the container.† She is trying to teach the frog to be a high jumper!!!† She will be world famous!† The Jumping Frog of Morgan County!

She is cute, isn't she?
She is cute, isn't she?

Little things mean a lot when you are 9.† I wish we could all hang onto that magic longer…

Thanks Heather!

Easily Amused….

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The first boy I ever really loved was in high school.† I was 16 and fell hard.† After a couple of years of tears, laughter, silliness it ended.† There was drama in there but that is another post for another day.

We have reconnected on Facebook and he commented on something I said and got to me to thinking.

I mentioned when I was young I was ‘easily amused’ and he questioned that.

Today, I have been thinking about that phrase….’easily amused’.† We use it as a negative, a bad thing.† But is it really?

I was ‘easily amused’, when I was younger.† With a kid’s love of the world, everything was interesting to me.† A bike ride, a game of war, catching lightening bugs.† As I grew older I was still easily amused.† Even through the roller coaster of emotions in teenage years, it didn’t take much to make me happy.

As I got older I became less ‘easily amused’.† I searched, for what I have no clue.† That elusive ‘something’ that would complete me.† I wanted it all.† I wanted the bright lights, the excitement, the knight on the white horse, the drinking champagne out of the shoe, the exhilaration, the late nights, the exotic food, the glamorous life. So I searched and searched and traveled and searched some more.† I ran as far and as fast as I could to something…somewhere….

To my surprise I ended up right where I started as we so often do.† The last few years, since I have had a child, I am once again ‘easily amused’ and finding myself becoming more and more so.† I delight in thunderstorms, local history, the beauty of nature, watching a tadpole turn into a frog, sharing my favorite movies with Kei, eating ice cream on a hot day, walking barefoot in the rain, picking flowers in a field.† I get giddy when I have a new book to read, a song† can move me to tears, a tea party with my girl is the highlight of my week.

Easily amused?….for me it now means ‘content‘. Being happy where I am.† Appreciating life and this day that God has given me.

So yes Stevie…I am easily amused. Finally….

Happy Monday,

K

!!!!Happy 4th of July!!!!

What a great day.

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Friends, food and fireworks.

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You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness.† You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.† ~Erma Bombeck

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Day of Surprises..

We were bored.† We decided to go to TN to see a giant chicken.† We have a really great book on tape and just driving around here, to the grocery store, to the library; never gave us a chance to really listen.† So off we went.

We noticed on the way down I 565 there had been a wreck headed North.† Traffic was at a standstill!† We got to the chicken and took pictures and then went inside for a drink.† The lady there told us that traffic was backed up for an hour!† We didn’t want to sit in traffic for an hour so we got N.I.A [our GPS] and tried to find somewhere to go.† I have always wanted to take Kei to Lynchburg TN to see Jack Daniel’s Distillery.† I remember it being such a cool little town.† We looked on NIA and it said it was only 32 miles so off we went.

Kei and the chicken
Kei and the chicken
Me and da Chick
Me and da Chick

We had a fantastic day.† The tour is free so that cost us nothing but the gas.† We learned that Jack Daniels bought the whiskey making business from Rev. Call [yes he was a preacher] when Jack was 12 years old!! 12!! There is over 400 people who live in Lynchburg and over 400 who work at Jack Daniels.† Lynchburg is, and will probably always be, a dry county.† Our guide explained that you must have 2500 registered voters before you can even vote on the WET/DRY issue!† Isn’t that hilarious?

You can purchase an actual barrel full of whiskey for a mere $11,000!† Kei hated the smell of it and it was a bit strong.† But it was so interesting!† Jack Daniels had a safe in his office and one morning he couldn’t get the combination to work so he kicked it and got his toe very infected.† Which eventually killed him!† Moral of the story… TEMPER, TEMPER!

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Afterwards we walked around the square which was so cool.

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All in all a great day.† And none of it planned.† With NIA I have wings! It is so funny because I freak out with directions, I mean I am horrible.† With NIA I still don’t know where in the world I am, but I know SHE knows!

Happy 4th!

K

Free Movies and Colonial Days

We went to Monaco Pictures yesterday for their free movie.† It was Nim’s Island which we had seen several times but love.† We want to move to that island!

We ran into Suzette and co. there and sat with them.† Then we walked around Bridge Street and K bought 4 perfect pieces of candy from the Chocolate Crocodile.† $4.09 for 4 tiny little pieces.† She loved them.

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Then we discovered we were all headed to the Madison Library.† Emily helped K pick out some books and she has been reading ever since.

Well except for her deciding out of the blue last night that she wanted to dress up like a Colonial girl.† Daddy had given her a goose feather and she thought it would make the perfect quill.† She made some ink and wrote for an hour by candlelight.† She came to the conclusion that it would be really hard to live without electricity!

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We still have no money coming in and it has been very hard but….we are still here, still hanging in, and life is good.

K

Jesus, a Mother, a Daughter and a Dog….