Pippi died Saturday around 1:30.

We still are not sure what happened.† It was a hard afternoon for Keilee and yes, even for me.

She was going to blog about Pippi but she got busy and wasn’t able to.† She was very sad that her blog post about Pippi had to be about her death.† But like I told her, the post is not just about death, it is also about her life…her beautiful, short life.

Please visit Kei’s blog and read about it here.

I was reading my book on my bed and had almost fallen asleep.† You know that place you get to…not really asleep but not awake?† She said, ‘Momma’ and I knew something was wrong.† I jumped up and she said, “Pippi is dead”.† I rushed outside and she was laying in her box.† You could tell her little neck was broken.† Keilee and I just hugged each other and sobbed.

How could a silly little ‘pooping all the time’, ‘never stop chirping bird’ wind its way into our hearts in 10 days?† Keilee was sure it was her fault.† She didn’t understand.† “Why would God let me find Pippi and save her, if she was only going to die anyway?”† “What did I do wrong”? “I should have moved her into a taller box”.† Questions and no answers.

We talked about what a wonderful life Pippi had.† Yes it was short, but it was full of love and yummy food and a girl who loved her dearly.

Sometimes there are no answers.† And I know in the grand scheme of things, one little bird dying isn’t the worse thing that could happen.† But it hurt my girl’s heart.† As Mom’s we want to protect them from all the bad things in the world even when we know that is impossible.† Life happens.

R.I.P. Pippi.† You brought us a lot of happiness in a very short time.† Keilee and I hope you are flying in Heaven.

Hurt happens….

Karen

“Heartbreak is life educating us.” ~George Bernard Shaw

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened. ” ~Anatole France

It is hot here already!† Is it hot where you are?† I think it took us a week to recover from our trip.† There is so much to do when you get home; clothes to wash, groceries to buy, a house that needs straightening up, just getting back in the rhythm of life.

We spent 3 days this week at Robin Hood practice.† It is going really well but I think Keilee and I will both need a break after 6 complete months of theater.† This is her 3rd play in 6 1/2 months!

We also spent a couple of days at Point Mallard.† This is our local Wave Pool/Olympic Pool.† We snag passes on their 1 day only $50 each sale in March.† Otherwise we could never go!† It costs $36 for both of us to swim once!

See Keilee in the top picture?† She is riding the waves. :)† The second picture she is sleeping resting her eyes.

1.††† Keilee has been reading.† With no prompting from me.† I don’t even mention it anymore since I am now a hip, cool unschooling Mamma ::coughcough::

2.†† I just finished reading “Matched” and started “Crossed”.† I am liking these books very much.† New “Hunger Games”?† Not sure I think that but they are very cool.† Down side is the 3rd one doesn’t come out until November.† I did not know this when I started.† I don’t like series books I have to wait on.† I almost had nervous breakdowns during my almost 10 year Harry Potter era.† Anyway…this Dylan Thomas poem is featured very heavily in the books.† Keilee is reading the books next so I wanted her to have an idea of this poem.† I read it aloud to her and she did it as copywork.† “Do Not Go Gentle Into the Good Night” has always been a favorite poem of mine.

3.†† A few months ago we were at an Antique Mall and Keilee bought an old letter.† She LOVES old letters.† She managed to find the person the letter was from on the internet and found out a lot of things about them.† My brother went back the other day and bought her several more.† She was so excited!

4.†† Our lovely neighbor is giving Keilee voice lessons.† They also worked on piano.† Both of our neighbors are scary talented in voice and music.† Frances headed the music department at our local college for 40 something years and Joan has sung for 2 presidents!† Keilee practiced “Amazing Grace” all week on her keyboard.† Like most things if she messes up “I” can’t help her!

I have this thing about taking pictures of our shoes.† My favorite one is the one on the water over glass.† That was at the Aquarium.† Keilee loves her black Converse.† She has tons of shoelaces that she changes out depending on what she wears.

Keilee has been reading “Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day” for about 3 weeks.† She loves it.† Well guess what we found in our driveway the other day?† A little fledgling.† It was pitiful looking.† We looked everywhere for its nest and even left it there for about an hour while we watched and no one came for it.† So it was Keilees!

It was terrified at first.† Keilee did research on what kind it was and how to feed it.† It is a mockingbird and she has hand fed it for 8 days now.† She gives it sugar water with an syringe.† She has fed it bread soaked in water, chicken livers, and egg yolk.† She thought that was cannibalism but that is what it said on a bird site.† We also bought worms!! which are in my outdoor fridge.† We aren’t too sure about those.† I told Keilee they were too big and I wasn’t about to chew them up for Pippi!† This poor bird will never adjust to regular ole’ bird food after spending a couple of weeks with us.† She is so funny, if she doesn’t like it, she spits it out!

She plays with “Pippi” every day.†† She has taught it to fly short distances.† Pippi chirps her little head off during the day.† Keilee feeds her every hour or every 2 hours.† But at night…not a sound out of her.† No matter how much sound we make.† She sleeps in the homeschool room.† Keilee is afraid a coyote or cat will eat her on the patio.

We can not believe how she has grown in only 8 days.† Keilee read that if you whistle the same tune every time you are about to feed them, they may start mimicking it.† Some sites even say they may return to visit year after year.† She has honestly spent HOURS with this bird.† And our crazy Nomad who barks at every bird and leaf…not a peep outta him when Pippi is in the house.† I think he knows she is part of the family.

I circled Pippi so you could see her.† She will fly up and land in Keilee’s hand.

She has researched, kept a notebook, taken pictures and spent so much time with this bird.† Talk about ‘hands on learning’.† This is it at its finest.†† I asked her if she would be sad when she flew away and she said, “A little but I will be proud that I helped her live and fly”.

I made this video yesterday.

We also spend the day with our RoamSchoolers!† I made 2 pictures, both of which were really horrible.† So I stole Esther’s….hers are always good. 🙂

So the first week of June shall be deemed a success!† We are off it a bit on an adventure.† I want to go somewhere, anywhere about once a week if we can.† Just meandering, going no where very far.

My favorite resource this week is one I have loved since I began homeschooling.† In fact I used this FREE curriculum for Keilee’s science for 2nd and 3rd grade!
Mr. Q’s Lab Notes† Links to TONS of Science Activities

Mr. Q’s Science Curriculum† Wonderful!† The “Life Science” is the free one.† He offers others for sale.

Happily linking up with

Susan at “Favorite Resources”

Mary at “Friday Collage”

Homeschool Mother’s Journal

Homeschooling Rocks!
Karen

“Birds are a miracle because they prove to us there is a finer, simpler state of being which we may strive to attain.” ~ Doug Coupland

“God loved the birds and invented trees.† Man loved the birds and invented cages.”† ~Jacques Deval

Keilee and I don’t take vacations.† It is just too expensive for this single Mom.† We have gone on a couple of short trips over the years and we went camping with some of our homeschool friends but that has been it.† We got an AMAZING chance to go to Gatlinburg this past week.† Kathy and Sophie were going and invited us to go along.† They had already gotten the cabin so we didn’t have to pay for any accommodations.† I wasn’t sure we could swing it, but we were able to.† WE HAD A BLAST!

The trip took about 5 1/2 hours.† It is the first time in years that I have ridden that route.† Years ago I lived in the mountains of Tennessee and it brought back bittersweet memories.† We were staying in Sevierville which is right beside Pigeon Forge.† Our cabin was at the TOP of a huge mountain.† Our poor GPS was so confused because it was a newer area.† We got lost almost every single time we left or came back in.† But it was breathtaking.† I could happily live there forever.† Unfortunately we did so much going that there was very little enjoying it!

The first night we just went back down into Pigeon Forge and walked around some.† We ate dinner and since we were all tired we headed back up to our ‘home away from home’.

Thursday we had planned to go to Dollywood.† Our wonderful friend from here knew someone who worked at Dollywood and she said we could get discount tickets from her.† That was great news since Dollywood is expensive!† We got there and met with “Jane” and she handed us FREE tickets!† She said Melea had told her that we were both single Moms so she just gave us tickets.† It was such a blessing.† That was about $85 each we didn’t have to spend!

We had a blast in Dollywood.† It was the first time Keilee or I had been.† Keilee wanted to ride every ride.† The main thing she wanted to ride was the new Wild Eagle Coaster.† But no one would ride it with her.† :/† Not even me.† I felt so bad and told her I would ride it but I think she could see the terror in my eyes.† I love rides but HATE roller coasters.† This one looked scary!† Your feet were just dangling in space.† But she did ride every other thing and I rode most things with her.

There were so many themed areas.† We walked and walked and shopped and rode rides and ate and laughed and just had a blast.† It was crowded but I am sure it wasn’t as crowded as it would have been on a Friday.† I talked to Jess while we were there and we tried to figure out a time to meet.

Not sure why I thought putting my hair through the hole would be cute.† Beard anyone?† The water ride was my least favorite.† I don’t mind getting soaked but when 15 year old boys were doing the soaking I was not happy!† 🙂

Do you see the Bald Eagle on the nest?† They have a huge area filled with Bald Eagles!† It was one of our favorite things we saw.† They are so majestic and beautiful.† It was even more special to Keilee and I because we had watched the Bald Eagle cam a couple of months ago and saw the eaglets hatch.

On Friday we decided to hang out at the pool.† It was a beautiful salt water pool in the mountains!† It was even a DIVE IN pool!† See the movie screen?† We wanted to come back and watch a movie but we just didn’t have time with everything else we did.† Keilee and I did decide that a Dive-In will be a part of our ‘if we win the lottery’ dreams.

Friday late afternoon we headed for Smokey Mountain National Park.† We were going to Cade’s Cove.† We saw deer on the side of the road and pulled over once when we saw several cars stopped.† We just missed seeing a black bear!† When we got to Cade’s Cove, some of Kathy’s friends that lived nearby met us and we all piled in the back of their truck for our Cade’s Cove adventure.

We saw 49 deer, wild turkeys, and a coyote.† We wanted to see a bear but we didn’t have any luck.† We did stop at old churches and several log cabins.† The church pictured above was beautiful.† See the 2 doors? One was for the males and the other for the females to enter.† On the podium there were letters to God from all of the world.† Then we walked through the cemetery.† I was particularly moved by the ‘3 Sons” markers.† 2 of them died within their first day of life and the 3rd was a few months old.

Saturday was Aquarium day.† This is the only thing Keilee asked to do.† We all loved it.† Look at the SEA TURTLES!!!† We love Sea Turtles!† And they swam right over our heads.† Hard to get good shots since it was so dark.† And I hate flash!

They had these cool little tubes that you could crawl into.† Keilee was not very happy since the tagline said, “Playing with the Penguins”.† She thought she could actually PLAY with them. 🙂

The first fish is a Lion Fish and we love Jelly Fish!!† Aren’t they the coolest looking things??!!

Stingrays, Swordfish, Sea Dragon, Iguana, Garden Eels and Piranhas!† These were some of our FAVORITES.† The Sea Dragon is one of the coolest things I have ever seen.† They look like grass and leaves.

Coral and an huge Moray eel, Keilee with Bubba Gump Shrimp and with horseshoe crabs!

Saturday we toured all the Craft areas of Gatlinburg.† There are craftsman that do just about everything.† Leather, candles, quilling, forging and more.† The main thing Keilee and I wanted to see was glass blowing.† We got to the shop and the man had left 15 minutes earlier!† We saw incredible wood creations, Keilee got to eat ice cream at Ben and Jerry’s.† She had watched a documentary on them a month ago and told us the ENTIRE story of how they got started.†† I also found something I wanted but it was a little pricey.† But doesn’t it look cute on me??? 🙂

Keilee and Sophie both had a blast.† We were going to go to Wonderworks but just ran out of time.† Also Keilee and Sophie practiced for their upcoming roles in “Robin Hood”.

We ate at this cute little 50’s diner and Keilee had to do a photo shoot with Marilyn.

We had an incredible time.† It was so much fun to get away and just laugh and talk and have fun.† And we indeed had fun.

Keilee and I hated that we didn’t get to meet up with Jess and the girls.† They were so busy and we weren’t just keeping to OUR schedule.† But next time Jess!

And Nomad…first time ever left alone.† My nephew, who is 16, was supposed to come check on him twice a day.† We just left him in because he has NEVER slept outside.† Seth ended up staying all nights but one.† We missed him so much but we Face Timed him every night.† WHAT??? Do you not Face Time your doggie when you are gone? 🙂

I can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer has in store for us!

My favorite resource this week is our GPS!† You all have no clue how directionally challenged I am.† Seriously.† I.get.lost.everywhere.† Since we have had GIA [Yes we named her, Girls in Action] my life has changed dramatically.† I am still always lost, but she isn’t!† We took her to Gatlinburg and she was only confused on the mountain.† One of Keilee and I’s favorite things is to drive and drive, doesn’t matter how lost we get because we just hit ‘Go Home’ and she takes us home.† Now if they could only invent cars that drove themselves so “I” could look around!

Happily linking up with

Mary at “Friday Collage”

Susan at “Favorite Resources“

and Keilee’s blog with her version of our trip.† She has mainly pictures she made on her iPhone.† I love how she loves taking pictures.
*Disclaimer- I promise I don’t usually eat like a 14 year old boy with sandwiches and french fries!† I just craved them the entire time.† 😉

Homeschooling Rocks
Karen

ìIf you come home as happy as you leave, you have had a good vacationî† ~Author Unknown

I can’t believe it is Friday already!† The weeks just zip by.

1.††† Kathy and I took the girls to see “Dark Shadows” .† The movie was not very good but Keilee really wanted to see it because of Johnny Depp.

2.††† Keilee made me this for Mother’s Day!† She nailed it together and painted it.† I had seen one similar to this and she decided to make it.† It is for the squirrels!† My Daddy would DIE!† He spent so much time getting rid of the squirrels here and Keilee names them and feeds them. 😉

3.†† Bread in our Dutch Oven!† This is so good and it really worked!† I had my doubts.† I first saw this recipe over at Deb’s and followed her link to the recipe I ended up using.† I WILL make this again.

Crusty Bread

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon yeast
1 1/2 cups water

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt and yeast.† Add water and mix until a shaggy mixture forms.† Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 12 – 18 hours.† Overnight works great.† Heat oven to 450 degrees.† When the oven has reached 450 degrees place a cast iron pot with a lid in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes.† Meanwhile, pour dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into a ball.† Cover with plastic wrap and let set while the pot is heating.† Remove hot pot from the oven and drop in the dough.† Cover and return to oven for 30 minutes.† After 30 minutes remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes.† Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack to cool.†† You do not need to oil the Dutch Oven.

4.††† My dryer stopped working when I had just washed 2 loads of clothes!† Keilee and I had to go to the laundry-mat!† First time I have been there in forever and first time ever Keilee has.† It made us both very appreciative of our washer/dryer.† A friend of my Daddy’s came and fixed it for us, thankfully.

5.††† Keilee’s first attempt at French Braiding.† She wanted to learn so I taught her and she braided my hair.† Not bad for a 1st time!

1.† Keilee and I went out to eat the first of the week.† This is something we rarely do.† We had so much fun.

2.†† It’s Fairy House time!† Hours are spent of this each summer.† I am so glad she is still interested in building these.

3.†† Going to church.† I love her sense of fashion.† [and I used to be the same way!]

4.††† Keilee and her friends at play practice.

5.† Keilee even took her ‘studies’ to the dentist office.

She has surprised me so much the way she has taken off on educating herself.† There are times when I want to say something to her, but for now I am letting her do things at her own pace.† She makes a schedule and works from it.† This week she has studied about “Flying Creatures”.† She reads and takes notes.† She watches videos and draws birds.† She even made a spelling list of 20 words from her Science.† Seriously I couldn’t spell some of these words without studying.† She asked me to give her the test today and she missed 1.† She is also reading about WW1 and WW2.† She has compared life in Germany to life in Russia and read her book everyday.

She has also been working on a new blog.† Check it out!† I love that she uses quotes just like I do.† She scours the internet for just the right one.

I also have great news!† There is a VERY good chance that Keilee and I are going to meet Jessica and her family next week.† They are coming to Knoxville for a DI tournament and we are going to Gatlinburg for vacation!† We have talked on the phone about our plans and we are so excited.

I have 2 Favorite Resources of the Week

Lit2Go A great site with audio stories and poems and the pdf files to go along with them.

†Periodic Table of Elements with Videos!† This is awesome!† Each element is clickable with great videos featuring an “Albert Einstein” type professor.

Happily linking up with

Mary @ “Collage Friday”
&
Susan @ “Favorite Resource”
Kris at “Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers”

Have a magical weekend!

Homeschooling Rocks!
Karen

†”Come away, O human child: To the waters and the wild with a fairy, hand in hand, For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.”† ~William Butler Yeats

ìAll sorrows are less with bread.î† ~Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish author

Last Friday was National Garden Day and we were able to go to our local Botanical Gardens for free.† We made a day of it.

First of all, Keilee has a much better eye than I do.† She makes pictures on her iPhone camera that are better than my digital.

It was a beautiful day and the fact that it was filled with public school kids didn’t faze us a bit.† Keilee said a few ‘poor public schooler’ comments under her breath though 🙂

Keilee’s favorite Flower Pictures

Other Pictures from Keilee

The butterfly house was stunning.† Butterflies everywhere, blooming flowers, turtles, waterfalls.† I could have stayed in there forever.

My pictures:

So funny every picture of me and Keilee together is taken at arms length.† See my arm in the sunglasses. 😉

The pictures of me, Keilee took with my camera.† I should have let her use her own!

It was such a glorious day.† We were very lucky we could meander at our own pace; no following someone’s notion of how we should explore, no walking in lines, or being told “no’ over and over.

So blessed to homeschool.

Homeschooling Rocks
Karen

I will be the gladdest thing
Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.
~Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Afternoon on a Hill”

I really wanted the week after Show Week to slow down for us, but no such luck!

Keilee tried out for another play and had her first cast meeting.† It is ìRobin Hood~ The Musicalî and I think it will be really good.† She got the role of the Sheriff of Nottinghamís wife, a social climbing woman who wants desperately to find her place in society and get her awkward, silly daughter married.† It should be a really cute play.† I just wish there would have been, I donít know, more than ONE day between shows!

Kei studying about stars.

Kei and her cool tennis shoes before church started.

Kei, Sophie and Mags at Robin Hood practice.

We are still on our ëunschoolingí journey and I have already had one HS Mom say ìoh no, unschooling is awfulî.† I just smiledÖdifferent strokes and all of that.† Keilee became fascinated with stars, galaxies and solar systems because of a class she was going to take on Wednesday.† She spent hours researching and told me tons of things I didnít know.† Then they had to cancel the class because they didnít have 5 students sign up.† It all worked out though; I talked to the instructor and she sent me the lesson plan she was going to do and Keilee signed up for another BETTER [to her at least] class.

They dissected an owl pellet and a R.A.T† A GIANT Rat.† Better her than I!† When I asked her why she didn’t take pictures of the dissected rat she said there was so much blood she couldn’t pick up her camera!† She touched the heart too.† I mean she is 12 and has done so much dissection.† We are so lucky to have access to these classes.

1.†† Rat jaw found in Owl Pellet…see the teeth?

2.†† THE GIANT RAT [Kei’s finger!]

3.†† Everything found in the owl pellet.

4.†† Some bones and things from pellet

5.† The Owl pellet in half.

6.† The RAT in the bag.

One thing that Keilee spent a lot of time on is Khan Academy.† It is a GREAT RESOURCE for Math and so much more.† We always watch the videos and then work some problems.† She is doing Pre Algebra and really liking it.† He explains things so wonderfully!† It isn’t just for upper level Math.† He starts at the basics.† They is an iPad app too!† It is my favorite resource this week.

2 years ago Keilee took summer classes at our theater offered by Bethel University.† She fell in love with the college kids teaching the classes and decided that is where she wants to go to college.† They have an amazing Fine Arts program.† She even met the director of the Fine Arts program when she was 10 and said, “My name is Keilee and you should remember me because I am going to your school’.† Well they put on a performance Tuesday and we went.† The director was there and walked up and said, “Hi Keilee!”.† He then told some students what she had told him.† She was so excited that he had remembered her.† The did skits and songs from several plays including Wicked, but the one Kei liked best was from “Anne Frank”† These pictures are from her iPhone.

Thursday we spent the day with our Roamies!† Esther had made tuna salad and egg salad and everyone brought yummy things.

These are the only pictures I took.† The top one is the only one with all 4 girls.† [See Keilee in the mirror ;)]† We had a great day.† It was beautiful weather.

Kei has been doing so much art lately.† She has this really big Art Pad and she has been ‘arting’ like crazy.† 🙂

Kei’s Owl

This is a song she decided to do.† It is by Kelly Clarkson.† I told her it wasn’t a very ‘happy’ song but she likes it.† She found the Victorian girl and printed it out to put in the center.† I love the way it turned out.

This is a collage of everything she loves.† Hopefully in no particular order since Johnny Depp is above MOM!

We spent all day today at The Botanical Gardens but between us we took 250 pictures so that is another post for another day.

Happily linking with Mary @ “Collage Friday”

and

Susan @ “Favorite Resources”

I hope all of you have a FANTASTIC Mother’s Day!

Homeschooling Rocks!
Karen

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.† ~Tenneva Jordan

Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is! ~Anne Frank

If the stars should appear but one night every thousand years how man would marvel and stare.† ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am Mother.

Honestly it is something I never thought I would be.† An Aunt? I rocked at that.† I was the cool Aunt, the one who would let you do things your parents never would.

But a Mother?

Not IÖ

Funny how God had other plans for me.

Keilee has changed my life.† She has made me understand a million things that I never understood completely.

It is hard at times being a single Mom.† Hard being a homeschool Single Mom.† Hard being a homeschool Single Mom without my Mother, but things happen every single day to make it all worthwhile.

Thank God I had an amazing Mother who showed me what is was to be a great Mom.† I find myself channeling her SO often.† And I smile…..

I am raising this amazing child.† This amazing girl child with a huge heart and wonderful talents and a love for God that is awesome.† A child who has so many passions and interests.† Who I have never ONCE heard say, “I’m bored.”† I am so thankful that I decided to homeschool her.† A thousand, a million things I would have missed.

There is no rule book for Motherhood.† No set of guidelines.† Everyone does it differently.† Most of us do the very best we can.† We donít live a lavish lifestyle.† We live very simply.† We donít eat out, or buy expensive clothes or drive a new car or live in a big house, but we have something so much more than all of that.† We have a unique closeness, a language almost all of our own.† Laughter, silliness, joy, love mark the passage of our days.

I am far from a perfect Mom.† I yell, I get frustrated.† Mostly I think that is because I forget that Keilee is 12, with a 12 year olds perspective on things.† She is still a child.† She still leaves her room a wreck and throws everything on the kitchen table and forgets to do something I ask her 100 times to do.

I have trouble making time for myself.† There are no dates or time spent without Keilee.† Now she does things without me, I just donít do anything without her.† I spend my ëmeí time reading or blogging or finding a TV series that maybe isnít appropriate for her and watching in my bedroom.† I love working backstage at her theater productions with the other Moms.† We have a blast.† I also love playing online games but I find they take up too much of my time.† My friends who play are the ëletís play for 12 hours at a timeí kinda gamers.† So we are mostly together; always.

She will be gone so soon.† There will be time for Karen time.† Now I just want to be Keileeís Mommy.† It is the best ëJob Titleî I have ever held.

†Here are† 2 of my favorite ìMommy/Keileeî stories.

When Keilee was about 3 or 4 she would drive me crazy asking me to change her Barbieís clothes.† Every 30 minutes all day long.† Why do they make those stinking clothes so hard to get on and off???† So I had a brilliant idea!† Instead of changing their clothes, I would jerk off their cute little heads and stick it on the other body! Voila!† Years later I told Keilee this story and she said, ìI always wondered why my Barbies always had different color bodies and headsî 😉

KeileeÖaround 2 years old Ö.I was playing a game online, she was watching a movie; probably The Wizard of Oz since she watched that back to back to back every day for 3 MONTHS!† She came up to me and said, ìI have something on my finger, get it off pwease.î† What did I do?† I looked, saw a little dot and stuck it in my mouth.† Guess what it was?† Yes, I ate Keileeís booger!!† Is that TRUE MOTHER LOVE or what???

April 30^th was my birthday.† This is what Keilee wrote on my birthday card:

Mommy,

Thank you for always being the calm one.† Thank you for always being there for me.

Thank you for being the amazing Mom that you are.† Thank you for every meal you have ever cooked, every dish you have ever washed, every shirt, pants or shoes you have ever bought me, every drive to another city to take me to play practice or field trips or classes, every time you told me everything would be alright, every kiss and hug, every good night kiss, every dance in the rain, every cuddle or snuggle.† But most of all thank you for making me who I am today.

Love,
Keilee

†No words in the world could be as sweet as these are….

Motherhood Rocks!
Karen

Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs in my field, since the payment is pure love.† ~Mildred B. Vermont

Sweater, n.:† garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly.† ~Ambrose Bierce

What do girls do who haven’t any mothers to help them through their troubles?†† ~Louisa May Alcott (Littler Women, 1868)

Be sure to join Susan at “Learning All The Time” for tomorrow’s post on Motherhood!† I can’t wait.

Week 1 is in the history books.† It was not without problems.† See the whole thing about ëunschoolingí is my child craves lists and plans.† She kinda freaked out about not having them.† Which is ironic considering SHE NEVER FINISHES THE PLANS EVER!
NOTONESINGLEWEEK!

I told her to letís just do it this way for awhile.† I remember when we began homeschooling all the things I read about deschooling.† Maybe the same thing is true for letting completely go.

She wrote stories; a lovely story about a turkey who planned his getaway right before Thanksgiving.† It was so hysterical.

She worked on the Webkinz blog.† This takes up huge amounts of her time.†

She knitted and knitted and knitted.† She is working on a purse with the colors of Ice Cream in each patch.† She read.† All by herself. She worked on a documentary whose subject is a secret from me.

I bit my tongue, MANY times.† I started saying, “Maybe you could” ….and I would just stop.

We watched a DVD called ìPrinces in the Towerî about one possible scenario for the strange disappearance of Englandís King Edward V and his younger brother.† We both LOVED it.†

We watched another DVD, ìCreatures That Defy Evolution, Disc 3î.† We both really liked this too.

Keilee watched episode after episode of ìDance Academyî.†† She loves this show.† It is about a Dance Academy in Australia.† She loves all things Australia.† [*Waves to Helena].†

She played “Tower Madness” on iPad which she loves.† Very physics based.† She tries to save sheep from Aliens.† I mean how great is that? † I got this free on “Apps Gone Free”.† I am telling you if you have an iPhone or iPad download this APP!† Free stuff every single day.

We had 2 semi performances of ìThe Princess and The Peaî.† Director asked Keilee and Britney to do their roles for ìRelay for Lifeî and a fundraiser at the theater where she performs.

She has had practice and she is working on her audition for ANOTHER play which she tries out for Saturday.† More on that later.† We are also exploring options for even more theater experiences.

We went to Panoply with a homeschool group.† This is a HUGE Art festival in Huntsville.† We had such a great time.† We heard a blues band, we watched a Shakespeare performance, †we watched dancers and saw amazing art.† I got so many ideas for art journaling. ††The place was filled with Public School kids and Keilee kept telling them to ëshhhhhí during the performances.† She couldnít believe how rude they were. 🙂

†Really bad lighting but here are some of my favorite ideas.

So Week 1 is down and out.† My feelings….it went well.† It feels weird.† What about Math???† What about???† I am trying.

Favorite Resources this Week:

Teenage Liberation Handbook – Grace Llewellyn

I have known about this book forever but always thought, “Keilee is too young for me to read this”.† She is suddenly not too young.† About 1/2 way through it and LOVE it.

Happily Linking up With:

Susan at “Favorite Resource“

and

Mary at “Friday Collage“

Homeschooling Rocks!
Karen

I recognize June by the flowers now.† I used to know it by review tests, and restlessness.”† ~unschooled teen (From The Teenage Liberation Handbook.

†”Education is hanging around until you have caught on”† ~ Robert Frost

1 Year Ago Today.

†