Wow it was hot this week.  High 80’s and gorgeous every day.  We haven’t turned on our AC yet and yes it was hot in the house.  In fact it was 87° inside one day.  I am trying to keep my electric bill low.  No I don’t plan on doing this all Summer but for now it works.  After the freezing winter we don’t mind hot.  It actually isn’t bad unless we are going somewhere.  There is nothing worse than getting ready when you are burning up!  Thursday a cold front moved in and it is downright chillyish now.

Saturday was our Co-op Showcase.  My Art Journal kids displayed their notebooks and my Drama class performed The Ugly Duckling.  They did a really good job and it was many of the kids first speaking lines.  I made sure everyone had at least a couple of lines.

Keilee did a project for the Science Fair.  She did AUGUSTUS.  She had already kept a daily journal for him and she printed out pictures, did ‘Lapbook” like info flaps and even brought Augustus.  Her project was a hit!!!  People crowded around the entire day oohing and ahhing and asking Keilee 100 questions.  I was so proud of her!  It was a perfect project for my animal loving, rehabilitator wanna be daughter!!

Mother’s Day was a lovely day.  Keilee was upset that she couldn’t buy me anything but as usual she got creative and outdid herself.

I woke that morning, as always, before Keilee. I found hearts everywhere I touched. By my bed, on the light I turn on in the kitchen, on the outside light that I flip off when I wake up, in the bathroom, on the fridge where I grab something to drink…..all together 23 hearts with the most beautiful things written on them. I asked her later how in the world did she know my routine so well since she is always still asleep.  Her response, “I just know you”.
Some of my favorites:
“Things I love about you”  [this was the first one I found by my bed]
“I love that you’re my best friend”
“I love that you love me”
“I love how you dance with me for no reason”
“I love how you help others”
“I love that you don’t need much to be happy”
“Your compassion”
“Your hope”
“I love our life”
“I love when we sit outside and enjoy Nature”
“I love when you spin in the wind”
“I I love that you love adventures”
“Your Faith is bigger than your fear”
I just loved every one of them.  I am so lucky to have her.

Mother’s Day afternoon we went to a beautiful park here.  We had a gift card from Panera that a dear friend, who I have never even met in real life, had sent us so we ran by and got a sandwich to split.  It was the BEST day and it didn’t cost us a penny except for gas.  So many people are such blessings to us. 

After church we ran to the store and on the way back she said, “Mom I want to go to that old train track one day and take a few pictures”, so I whipped into an empty store and we got out and walked over.  I can’t do anything that cost money but saying “YES” is always free.

The rest of the week was slow and lazy.  We stayed outside a lot.  We rode bikes every day and read outside and Keilee created like she always does.  I taught Keilee how to drive a riding lawn mower and sorta ran along beside her like when she learned to ride her bike without training wheels.  And there were leaps in the rain and learning outside on a quilt with Augustus soaking up some rays.  The rose is from our garden.  Keilee calls it the “Beauty and The Beast” rose.

I can’t believe it is already halfway through May.  We school year round but we do slow down on Math.  We don’t love Math. 

I would like to thank everyone for the continue prayers.  Life isn’t perfect and some days are hard but life is still good. 

Lots of plans this weekend if the weather cooperates.  It is supposed to rain Saturday and that will definitely effect our plans!!

Happy weekend all!
Homeschool Rocks!
Karen

“The world’s favorite season is the spring. 
All things seem possible in May.”   –  Edwin Way Teale

“There’s no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.” —Jill Churchill

Linking with
Mary at “Collage Friday“
Sylvia at “Friendship Friday”

That is how she signed every card to me after I was an adult.
I love you,
Your Mother, Your Friend.

2 of the pictures are just black and white copy machine copies of old pictures.  I have the originals but just can’t handle digging through old pictures.  The black and white ones hang on my fridge.  The color one is by my computer.

6 years ago tomorrow my Mother died. It seems like forever ago, it seems like yesterday. I miss her every day. Every.single.day.

She died after a 4 month illness that was never really diagnosed. They ran every test in the world on her. Nothing. The death certificate says, “Failure to Thrive”. That has always made me insane. No one wanted to ‘Thrive” like my Mother.  Saying goodbye to her on May 10th, 2008 was the hardest thing I have ever had to do.  She was there and then she wasn’t.  And I was Motherless.

She died at home, in the room that is now mine. It doesn’t freak me out because while she died there, she also LIVED there.

My earliest memory was of my Mother and I. We lived in a little 2 bedroom house. I was 2. I remember it snowed and she put me in a cardboard box and dragged me around the yard. We made a huge-to-me snowball and when my Daddy pulled into the driveway we rolled it into his car. I was delighted.

She loved her children and my Daddy and her Grandchildren more than anything in the world. I always knew I was her favorite child.  Maybe my brothers thought the same thing. When I was 6 she read me “The Secret Garden” during the Summer with us laying on my bed at nap time. I can remember the windows being opened and the breeze coming through and me snuggled beside her listening to this fascinating story.

When we moved to this house, I was 9. The neighborhood was full of kids and my house was the favorite place to hang out. My Mother never let a child leave her house without a “Jean Goodie Bag”. She got a Ziploc bag and filled it with whatever goodies we had in the house. There were always Little Debbies.

She buried her Mom and Dad, a brother, a much loved sister and her son. She never quite got over that. She buried a Mother and Father In-Law that she loved dearly. I remember her telling me that when she and Daddy first got married she thought she was a little better than his family. She said she was young and stupid then. She was a ‘city’ girl and he was a ‘country’ boy. She said she quickly learned that his Mother was the wisest, kindest woman she had ever met. They had a special bond. I remember sitting at my Mammaw’s house and Mother cutting out beautiful paper dolls and clothes for me and me coloring them. She always drew little things on pieces of paper. She could draw beautifully but never really drew ‘big’ things.

She loved practical jokes and was forever popping out and scaring us. We had a tree house with a window and one night all the neighborhood kids were up there and she got a ladder and climbed to the second story window and knocked. I am surprised we didn’t kill ourselves getting down. She loved scary things and would always call it ‘delicious terror.’

She was the 2^nd oldest of 10 children and said she doesn’t remember a time when she didn’t have a baby brother or sister on her hip. She was a 22 year old nursing student at UAB who modeled occasionally for department stores on the weekends and Daddy was a pitcher for the Minor League Braves when they met. They knew each other 6 weeks before they got married and immediately moved to Lawton, Oklahoma for Spring Training. They returned home a few months later after my Daddy hurt his arm and could no longer play. But she always loved the Braves. She followed them every single season and knew every player’s name and their background. No one could talk when her Braves were playing.

We didn’t go to church every Sunday or honestly most Sundays because we always had to visit my Grandparents to help them out, but she was the one of the most Godly woman I have ever met. I still find pieces of paper around the house with things she had written, always in green ink, Bible verses or thoughts that she had. Each time I find one I feel like she is sending me a gift from Heaven. Her marked up Bible is one of my favorite possessions.

She would call me to tell me it was raining or cold. She called me every night to say “Good night baby”. When I moved to California she called me every single morning to make sure I was awake for work. We watched the 2^nd tower fall on 9/11, over 2,000 miles from each other. I wanted to be home so badly I could taste it.

I get so envious sometimes when I see pictures of women with their Moms and I think, “Why can I not have my Mom?   Why can’t she be with us and go places with us? The last 5 years have been very hard financially for us but we live here rent free. I often wonder if my prayers to God to take care of Keilee and I meant that she had to die. I KNOW God doesn’t work that way but I have thought that before.

She drove me nuts at times. She always had advice for everything. I just wasn’t wise enough to realize that she was right. I wish I had her voice on my answering machine. My Dad remarried 4 years ago and kept the same home phone number. On my iPhone it is still a goofy picture of her with a Christmas bow on her head and it still says “Mom”. I just can’t change it. Even after 6 years.

She loved that I was homeschooling Keilee.  She never saw her perform on stage or do any of the amazing things she does but I know she would be so proud of her.  My biggest regret is that Keilee didn’t really get to know her. My Mom had been sick on and off since Keilee was 6. She remembers little things; Mom is the first person who put mascara on her and she will always have that memory but I want more. I want Keilee to know the Mother I knew. Keilee is so much like her in so many ways; she loves playing jokes on people, she loves scary things, she laughs at things that are sad to most people, she loves to go to garage sales and junking around, she loves jewelry and even has Mom’s jewelry box and all her jewelry, she can take one bite of food and know exactly what is in it and so much more.

Anytime my life was hard or I was going through anything she would tell me it would all be all right and I would always say, “Promise me?” and she would always say, “I promise”. Some days when things are so dark and hard I can almost hear her whisper, “I promise”.

I read something on Instagram this week that said, “I wish we could visit people in Heaven.”   Oh how I wish that too.

Happy Mother’s Day Momma,
I love you and miss you so,
One day…
Karen

“The death of a mother is the first sorrow wept without her.   ~Unknown
“My mom is a never-ending song in my heart of comfort, happiness, and being. I may sometimes forget the words but I always remember the tune.” Graycie Harmon

Linking with
Mary at “Collage Friday”
Sylvia at “Friendship Friday”
Kris at “Weekly Wrap-Up”

Our Co-op Banquet was this past weekend.  Keilee went back and forth about going.  She didn’t feel the NEED to go since she is only in 8th grade but her friends wanted her to.  She finally decided to go.  We borrowed a beautiful, red formal from a friend and then she got sick.  She felt a little better Saturday and decided to go to just the dinner and then come home.  She also decided to wear a shorter dress and save the red one for something bigger.

Here are a few of some of the kids after dinner. 

I asked her if she wanted to go back to Co-op and stay but she really felt horrible.  So we went home.

We only have 1 more Co-op.  As much as I have loved it I am ready for a break.  We aren’t sure about next year.  Things are so uncertain in our lives right now.

1. Augustus eating sweet potato  2.  Kids doing collages at Co-op.  3. Keilee setting up her camera to do a time lapse video for her Photography class.  She also did one of an ice cube melting.  4. Wild Roses at our house.  They were one of my Mom’s favorites.

We had a forecast Monday for bad weather.  They hadn’t made this much of a big deal about it since April 27, 2011.  You can read the post I wrote about that here. 

I spent my childhood in the closet for tornado warnings.  I have never been afraid.  All that changed after April 27th.  We cleaned out our closet in the hall Monday afternoon.  We got blankets and pillows.  We watched the weather as tornadoes touched down in Mississippi and then headed our way.  Then, about 2 hours later,  he said it, “If you live in Decatur go to your safe place now”.  The sirens were screaming, it was storming like crazy outside, and Keilee, Nomad and I huddled in our closet.  Augustus was right outside in the hall.  I posted a picture on Instagram and got almost 100 comments with people praying for us.  I read them to Keilee while my heart just thumped in my chest.  Keilee got texts from Grace, Lilah and Abby.  I love these homeschool girls who live all over the country but love each other.  Keilee posted the picture on the top right on her Instagram.  Isn’t that just the best thing?  The bottom right picture is from a town about 12 miles from us.  I didn’t take it.

My birthday was Wednesday.  I had a very good day.  Keilee is always more excited about my birthday than I am.  My Dad and Marlene, Patsy, Eddie, Heather and Katherine and the neighbor ladies all came over during the day.  Keilee made me the most amazing book.  I asked her to video it so I could show all of you.  She used a child’s board book.  She also found and prepared dinner.  An INCREDIBLE dinner.  She made Caesar salad, lemon chicken thighs and pasta with a cream cheese sauce and broccoli, squash and mushrooms.  It was so good.  And Google knew it was my birthday!!!  This must be a new feature.  It was very cool.

Here is the book she made me:

We don’t have a lot planned this weekend.  Next week the weather is supposed to ROCK!!  Mid to high 80’s!

Please continue to pray for my boss and for Keilee and I.  He is still recovering from neck surgery.  Times are hard but we are ‘gooder than good’ as my Mother always said.  God provides.

Happy weekend all!
Homeschool Rocks,
Karen
And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” ~Abraham Lincoln

Linking with
Mary at “Collage Friday”
Sylvia at “Friendship Friday”
Kris at “Weekly Wrap Up”

There isn’t a lot to blog about this week but I really like to post at least once a week.

We had a wonderful Easter.  We went to church and then to my Dad’s for lunch.  Keilee is the oldest grandchild so there was no Easter egg hunt.  It made me a little sad.  The picture of Keilee and my Dad makes me smile to see.

See the bottom left picture?  She was very upset that she didn’t have money to buy me something for Easter so she made this.  It is a baby food jar covered in glitter.  It has my favorite verse on it, “”For I know the plans I have for you”.  Inside was a nail, a rock, a little handmade cross and 3 bible verses.  I LOVED it.  I asked her if she found it on Pinterest and she said no, she just made it up.

Our writing group met and it was a good day.  We did some Earth Day pages and then they wrote.  They also did Mapping the World Through Art and watched some TED talks.

My Mom’s best friend Patsy had an outpatient procedure on Wednesday morning.  She asked if I could take her and stay with her.  So Keilee and I picked her up early Wednesday morning and stayed most of the day with her.  Keilee woke up feeling bad and continued feeling bad the rest of the day.  I took her to the doctor on Thursday because she felt so incredibly bad and she is never sick.  That is probably the 4th or 5th time she has ever been to the doctor because she was sick.  Instead of giving me a $5 prescription he gave me a list with $30 worth of over the counter medicine.  She is feeling a little better this morning [Saturday] but not 100%.

Very little ‘school’ got done this week.  She wrote and read a lot and watched some documentaries.  We also watched “Pearl Harbor” which is a very good account of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

My favorite picture this week.  Nomad can be the worse dog ever.  He barks at everything and doesn’t mind half the time.  But he lets us do just about anything to him for pictures. 🙂  Here is is researching this strange creature who is living in his house.

Hopefully this week will be healthier and more productive.

If you haven’t read this article by Matt Walsh about homeschooling please do.  I LOVE it.

Happy weekend,
Homeschool Rocks,
Karen

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. ~Confucius

Linking with:
Mary at “Collage Friday”
Sylvia at “Friendship Friday”

It was one of those weeks that I can’t really remember what we did day by day.  No commitments except for Co-op.  Just going with the ebb and flow of our lives.

It got very cold the beginning of the week.  Blackberry Winter my Mamaw always called it.  Every year as long as I can remember it has gotten very cold around mid to late April.  Just a day or two.

Keilee stayed really busy all week.  We did 2 Algebra 1 lessons.  I am not stressing that we aren’t finished the book because 1( We school year round and 2( She is only in the 8th grade.  Algebra 1 is not her favorite thing as I have mentioned about 1,253 times.

She built games for hours at GameStarMechanics and had me try to get through them.  I will get the link for her games and let some of your kids play them if they want. 🙂

We aren’t die hard fans of Dr. Who.  We like it but we don’t love it.  Not yet anyway. But I saw on a blog about an episode about Vincent Van Gogh and we watched it.  It was AMAZING.  Honestly Keilee and I both agreed we will forever think of Van Gogh differently.  Yes it was fiction, yes it was Dr. Who so it had the usual crazy, but we loved it.  I would totally recommend it.  It is in Season 5 called “Vincent and The Doctor”. It is on Netflix streaming.  It doesn’t matter if you have never seen Dr. Who, it stands alone.  Here is a list of Dr. Who episodes that feature famous characters.

The MOST EXCITING thing we have discovered this week is HogwartsisHere.  It is a brand, spanking new site.  It has some glitches because they are being swarmed with new users.  But it is AWESOME.  You register and sign up for ACTUAL classes.  All the classes that Harry, Ron and Hermione took is offered.  You pick your house and dorm.  You have an account at Gringotts.  And you TAKE CLASSES!!  Each class is 9 weeks.  Keilee and I have both signed up but it has been so slow that we haven’t actually started our classes.  We are both taking “Defense Against the Dark Arts”, “Herbology” and “History of Magic”.  So if you have any Potter fans check it out!!

We went to a little park in our town that we just discovered last year. I actually knew it existed but always thought it was a private park.  It isn’t!  It was a lovely day and we had so much fun.

I haven’t said much about it here but I have been laid off since Jan. 1 and there is no start back date.  I have had a hard time this time for some reason.  I think it is because usually I have an ‘end’ date to when this is over.  But my boss has been very sick and had surgery in February.  He is about to have surgery again the end of April.  Please keep him in your prayers.

Wisteria….I love it.  And I am quite fond of her too. 😉

1. Creative Writing with Jessica and her girls.  This has been such a blessing to us both.
2.  She made Augustus a ‘harness’.  Thank you all who supported Augustus.  He is doing so well.  Keilee is still documenting everything and he is growing like crazy.
3. Wildflower pictures.  Kei is doing a Wildflower Collection.  I remember we did this in 10th grade Biology.  She isn’t picking them, she is just taking photos and putting all the pictures and info in an App.
4.  Art Journaling.  This Co-op class has been awesome.  It has taught ME so much too!
5.  Nut Balls for Augustus.  You wouldn’t even believe the ingredients.  He LOVES them so much.

Another week gone.  Next week the temperatures are supposed to be in the 80’s!!!  Wooo to the Hoo!!!

I hope everyone has a beautiful and blessed Easter,
Homeschool Rocks!
Karen

“A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours’ time by Mrs. Dursley’s scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley…He couldn’t know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: “To Harry Potter – the boy who lived!” ~J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

Linking with:
Mary at “Collage Friday”
Sylvia at “Friendship Friday“

“Shrek the Musical” is history.  The songs are still being sung in our house, lines from the play will forever be a part of our dialogue.  It is like that in theater.  You hear the same lines over and over and over and the funny ones or the poignant ones just become part of your lives.

This was the biggest show Keilee has been in since she was about 10.  Dreamweavers Theater Company that she did from age 6-10 decided to stop doing theater so she found another home at College Street Players and Curtain and Lights Theater.  Which we both loved but one was in another town and their shows were smaller productions, still amazing, but smaller.

This show was not small.  It was a huge cast, an amazing director, professional costumes, a makeup artist, an orchestra and mainly adults in the lead roles.  The show was amazing.  Seriously amazing.

We met wonderful people who are now friends.  We met homeschoolers we did not know.  3 families that live in our town but we had never met.  I think there were about 7 homeschool families in this play.  I talked to 2 more Moms who have since contacted me about homeschooling!!!  I love that!

Keilee had practice 3 times a week at first, then the last 3 weeks it was 4 times a week.  From Saturday to Saturday [which is “Show Week”] I counted up and we were at the theater 58 hours!!! No exaggeration!!!  But I didn’t mind any of it.  For some reason it all just flowed.

Keilee LOVED it.  LOVED IT!  She loved meeting adults who were passionate about acting.  She loved getting to know the director who is just wonderful.  She loved making new friends.  She loves the fact that this company does several things a year and a huge variety of things from musicals, to straight plays to Shakespeare.

Keilee also made a Shrek hat for Shrek, a crocheted tiara with Shrek ears for Fiona, a headband with donkey ears and a LONG braided tail for Donkey and 3 Shrek dolls!!!  A Mom asked her if she could do it and she told her she would try.  She looked online and found one and just made it!  She worked on them about 12 hours during Show Week.  Then she decided she wanted to make the director one so she worked another 6 hours on hers.  And she took care of Augustus who is one high maintenance squirrel.  All during the grueling week of tech rehearsal, sound rehearsal, dress rehearsal and more.  I am seriously so proud of her.  I wish I had her energy.

She had a smaller role than she is used to but she started out with 1 line and ended up with about 6 and 2 one line solos.  She knew going in that the director didn’t know her and she would have to prove herself.  She said she liked being a small fish in a big pond better than a big fish in a small pond because she had somewhere to go.  UP. 🙂  She said she learned so much and it was wonderful to work with such dedicated actors and director.

So here are some of the 1200 pictures I took.  With my crappy camera but some turned out good.  Its a law of averages kinda thing. 😉

Backstage Fun:  Theater kids are so dang cool.  They are always singing and performing, even when they are not on stage!!

Getting Ready:   A wonderful guy who does set design and costumes in New York is from here but lives in NYC and does Summer Stock at The Barn in Michigan.  He brought ALL the costumes from when they did “Shrek the Musical”.  He also told Keilee she could come with him and be his assistant.  Nomad can’t go but Augustus can he said.  I said, “Ha Ha, NO”.   Keilee was also asked to be in the picture for the paper which was so cool.  The really bad quality picture is from our paper. I scanned it.

 On Stage:  It was simple magic!

Here is “Let Your Freak Flag Fly”  Keilee has on the blue wig. 😉  This is crappy quality from my iPhone and I didn’t even get the entire stage.  The colors were MUCH more vivid as you can see from my pictures.

 On Stage Part Deux: 

After Show:  So many people came to see Keilee.  I didn’t get pictures of a lot of them.  Her first director was there.  She did plays with him from age 6-10.  It was awesome to see him.  The lady with the Shrek ears is Carol, her director for this show.  She is wonderful.

Cast Party:  Always the cast party has been between the 2 shows on Saturday.  Not this show.  They had a huge party at a little restaurant downtown after the show.  So it started around 10:00.  It was a blast.  And they were STILL singing all the songs from the play. We made ogre toes!!  Aren’t they cute?  We both had so much fun and got home around 12:00.

It is such hard work to put on a performance of this caliber.  So many hours spent at rehearsal and at the theater.  Honestly it is like a non paying job.  But watching her on stage always makes it all worth it.

To my daughter, this play has so many wonderful lessons.  “Beautiful isn’t always pretty”, “Always be who you are”and “Let your freak flag fly”.  This last one is pretty easy for us both because we’ve always marched to our own beat.

Another show under her belt but these memories will last us both a lifetime.

Homeschool Rocks!
Karen

Live theater is just an incredibly powerful medium, and I think anyone who goes, whether they know about it or not, if they see something that sort of fits with them, it’s kind of hard to deny that they had a good time.  ~Harry Connick, Jr.

There’s nothing like the buzz of live theater. You put it out there and receive an instant reaction: laughing, crying, yelling, applauding.  ~Samantha Barks

Linking with
Mary at “Collage Friday”
Sylvia at “Friendship Friday”

Keilee loves animals.  She has loved them since a very early age.  Not just dogs and cats and horses [she was never really a ‘horses’ girl] but all animals.  She has wanted to be an Animal Rehabilitator for years and years.

She wanted a dog since she could talk but until we moved here she wasn’t able to get one.  She rescued Pippy the bird 4 years ago and some of you know how that ended.  She kept her for 3 weeks and she could put her in the yard and call her and she would come to Keilee.  Kei found her dead in her crate one day and it almost wrecked us both.

About 3 weeks ago a friend called and said she had a baby squirrel and would Keilee want it.  I said, “NO, no way, no how”.  She laughed and told me to think about it and call her back.  And then Keilee made her case, with beautiful logic like she always does.  So I called her back and told her we would take it.

She immediately brought it to us and Keilee checked and found out it was a boy.  She named him Augustus after her favorite book character.  And then we became squirrel people.

After doing intensive research, and finding contradictions on every.single.website.   we went to Petco and got some puppy milk.  $5 a CAN!  When Keilee told the check out lady she had a squirrel she gave us a name of a woman who used to come in that rescued squirrels.

The next 2 weeks were a blur of feedings every 4 hours, setting the iPhone every 2 hours to restart his heating pad because it turned off after 2 hours and very little sleep.  During the first 2 weeks Gussy almost died twice!  The first time we think he just got cold.  They must have the temperature 99°.  We came back from play practice one Saturday morning and he was stiff in his cage.  Keilee was so upset and I took her to the den and told her to sit on the couch and I got paper towels and a bag to put him in to bury.  When I picked him up his little arm moved! I called Keilee and she immediately put him on the heating pad.  In 30 minutes he was fine.   This is the first time I called the squirrel woman.  She sent me what I ‘should’ be feeding him.  So after pouring $5 of puppy milk down the drain we were off to buy $25 worth of the things we should be feeding him.

Last week we got home from play practice and he was gasping for air.  This time we had become much more attached to him and Keilee was crying and telling me to do something.  But I didn’t know what to do.  So I called the squirrel woman and she told me to give him amoxicillin mixed with water every 3 hours.  So we did that.  That night Gussy was so bad, we honestly didn’t think he would make it through the night.  Keilee kept saying she wanted to hold him because she didn’t want him to die alone.  [I am in tears just typing this] but I wouldn’t let her.  I wanted him to stay warm.  She moved his aquarium to the floor and laid curled around it.  I called my brother to let him know just because she was so inconsolable.  About 30 minutes later Seth, my nephew, came over.  Keilee was NOT happy to see him at first.  She HATES to cry and HATES for anyone to see her cry.  But he laid down in the floor with her and just hugged her.  I had to leave the room.  I heard her say, “I know he is just a stupid squirrel but I love him”.

That night consisted of alarms set every 3 hours for antibiotic and every 2 hours for restarting the heating pad.  I kept getting up and checking on Keilee and Gussy.  She refused to come to bed and slept on the floor with him.  He survived the night.  Thank goodness my brother had an old heating pad that doesn’t shut off.  He brought us that the next day.

Augustus is a lot of work.  She changes his bedding 3 times a day.  She feeds him every 5 hours.  He is about to start eating real food in addition to the formula she mixes up daily.  We thought from the beginning that he could be released at 12 weeks but the squirrel woman said, “NO”!!!!  6 months.  6 months!!!!  I told Keilee we could not afford him for that long.  He is about to start eating fruits and vegetables every day plus formula.  There is also a “Nutball” recipe that looks more complicated than French cooking and with more ingredients.  And I am laid off until who knows when.  I told her maybe we should call the Rehab people and they could come get him.

She asked me if she could try to raise the money herself.  What could I say? Keilee never wants anything and she wants to raise this little squirrel that she has invested so much time and love into. After writing down everything he needs and estimating what it would cost to buy and make, she decided it would be around $2 a day to feed him.

After doing some research she set up a fund for Augustus.  She asked me to post it on my blog so I did, in the sidebar.  I have not shared it on Facebook because it makes me feel weird to be honest.  So many people need so much.  So many people have sick children or are sick themselves.  So many people struggling.  But Keilee said some people WOULD care about a squirrel.  And she is right.  A dear friend posted the link to HER Facebook and Gussy has raised $90.  So if any of you feel like posting it to your Facebook Keilee would so appreciate it.  Just click on the Augustus link and when it takes you to his page it has a “Share on Facebook” option.

He has his own Instagram.  You can see it here or follow on Instagram at AugustusTheSquirrel.  Keilee has made Augustus her Science Project for a Science Fair.  She updates every day in a notebook.  She measures and weighs him once a week.  She has listed his formula and his sicknesses and his ‘firsts’.  She is learning so much about the profession she has wanted forever.  I think she has chosen something with a lot of heartbreak.  Yes there will be successes but the failures would just kill me.  I have been so incredibly proud of her during this.  She has taken almost 100% care of Augustus while doing a very intense theater production.

Here is Augustus drinking his formula.  He is just the sweetest thing.

Augustus is just a part of our family now.  He is so little and he needs us so much.  He truly would not survive alone.  He makes the cutest noises and ‘fusses’ when he topples over. He always turns his head when he hears Keilee’s voice.

Thank you all for your prayers for Augustus.  My favorite was from Chris at Tales of a House Husband . He said this is the first time he had ever prayed for a squirrel! Us too Chris!

Homeschool Rocks,
Karen

“To the world, you may be one squirrel, but to one squirrel, you may be the world…”  ~ Twitter Feed “Squirrel Quotes”

Linking with
Mary at “Collage Friday”
Sylvia at “Friendship Friday”
Kris at “Weekly Wrap Up“

It’s been a rough week.  For more than one reason.  But I want to post so this is going to our week in mostly pictures.  MOST of our week.

Keilee got to reprise her role in Little Women.  They did a couple of scenes for a Theater workshop.  She loved being “Amy” again.

Shrek the Musical practice 4 times a week now.  This show is going to ROCK. Seriously.  This is the most talented group Keilee has ever worked with.  Especially Shrek and Donkey.  Awesome!!  The main roles are adults except for one guy and they are immensely talented.  She has had a blast so far.

Writing group went so well this week.  They act like they like it, I hope they do.

60’s week at Co-op.  Fun.

One of the reasons for our week has been Augustus.  It is very stressful caring for a squirrel who keeps trying to die on you.  More on that later but I will leave you with his cute self.

We have done schoolish things; a few times.  Mainly we have just been trying to keep our head above water.

Homeschool Rocks,Karen

“This too shall pass”.  My Mother

Linking with
Mary at Collage Friday
Sylvia at Friendship Friday