I was hacked!† My website was taken over by someone.† I first noticed it LAST Saturday and didn’t know what was going on.† On my PC AVG scanner was labeling it a ‘virus’ and wouldn’t even open it.† On my iPhone or iPad it would open then redirect to various ‘download this’ sites.† I emailed back and forth with my computer guru and the man who hosts my website [for FREE] and he did some ‘cleaning’ and finally got it back up. I am so thankful to Bill for all he does for me and my site.† I know I ask so many stupid questions at times.† Thank you Bill.† It is still not loading but if you hit ‘refresh’ it seems to fix the problem.
I was so discombobulated all week.† I didn’t have my ‘Favorite’ blog list so I could visit and I basically stayed out of blog land.† It was a sad week.
So now on Tuesday I decided to do a quick post.† Almost every one of my pictures are from my iPhone.† I find myself using my digital camera less and less.
Keilee didn’t do much ‘school’ work this week.† She listened to some lectures from Open University.† Everyone with a iPhone or iPad needs to check out their course on iTunesU.† They are incredible.
We made 3D Paper snowflakes.† They were a little harder than they looked but once we got the hang of it they were easy.† Check out the link for the YouTube video.† We are both such visual learners.† I ‘read’ the directions and couldn’t make heads or tails of it!† Then Keilee went a little crazy and made all sorts of paper snowflakes.
I see Keilee doing more and more ‘creative’ things and less ‘academic’ things.† This worries me a bit at times.† How much ‘creative’ is too much?† Or a better question, how much ‘academic’ is too little?† She accomplishes so much in a week.† Seriously much more than I do.† But I still question myself at times.
1.† Kei has become a HUGE Alabama fan.† This cracks me up.† I grew up around sports and never missed a game of any kind.† But since Kei I have stopped watching.† We have begun to watch Alabama football and she is SO into it.† I love it.
2.† Spray painting a set piece for “Little Women”† The show is 10 days away!
3.† Nomad has a new ‘baby’.† He is so cute with it.
4.† I had to take my iPad to the Apple store.† The mic wasn’t working and the warranty was about to be up.† I was worried that it may be expensive.† They gave me a NEW iPad!† This is one reason I love Apple so much!
Keilee almost entirely decorated the tree this year.† My Daddy bought us a new Christmas tree for part of our gift.† It is a 7 1/2′ Martha Stewart pre lit tree.† It can either be all white lights or colored with a flick of a switch.† We LOVE it.† We had to get up at 4:00 AM and wait in line to get it.† It was Kei’s first experience with “Black Friday”.† Her response, “These people are like wolves!”† The tree is great though.† And since my brother and I went through all of Mother’s ornaments we had plenty to decorate with.
Our neighbor got Keilee this Santa hat! Isn’t it great!???† It has a tiara.
The picture of me cracks me up.† I always see people posting pics on Instagram of themselves.† In the mirror.† Well I took 30 pictures and I was ALWAYS looking up!† I am self portrait challenged I think.
See the ornaments? I made them when I was 10!† We found them in the attic and they made me so happy.
Keilee made Nomad a ‘Bama” bandana.† For game days.
Keilee’s henna art.† Well they are markers but doesn’t it look cool?
KEILEE’S TREE
Keilee decided to put our old tree in her room.† She started to work after church Sunday with instructions for me to ‘stay out’.† Isn’t it great!!???† She didn’t have enough ornaments so she used jewelry, her goggles and other things.† I LOVED it.
Next week is “Little Women” and we can’t wait.† It is going so well and I think it will be one of her favorite plays.† If Momma can only survive show week.
Homeschooling Rocks!
Karen
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.
Only through experience of trial and suffering
can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired,
and success achieved.Ӡ ~Helen Keller
So glad you’ve got your blog back! We’ve been missing y’all. Of course, now you have to recover from Little Women;)
I think creativity is more important than academics…truly, I do. I think of creativity as being one of the highest forms of learning because it fosters a desire in an individual to form something new and different (and truly unique) as a result of what she has learned or experienced.
Plus if we miss something academic along the way, the girls can learn it or pick it up quickly later…especially if Hutch and I are doing our job to raise true life long learners.
We may be alone in thinking this, but I just wanted to share;)
So glad you all are doing well. I was worried when I couldn’t get on. I love the trees.
Blessings, Dawn
yay! I was able to get on. I Love, love, love Keilee’s tree!!! I love her creativity!!
My girls would also be creative all the time and do little academics–I find myself asking the same question sometimes…I want to make sure we have time for both!
I can’t wait to hear all about Little Women!! The photos are beautiful! I so wish we were closer so we could come see it in person!
I’m sorry about the site issues, but SO THRILLED with the trees! (Even though I didn’t get to get my Martha Stewart Awesome Special, LOL!) Sarah has her own tree too, also decorated with things she loves (little bird statuettes, a few Phillies baseball cards, you name it!)
Love and Christmas blessings to you guys!
I am SO glad that you are back! Yay! 🙂 I so look forward to what you and Kei are up to! You both are so incredibly creative. Don’t let it worry you one bit. I just need to get there, myself. I think once we’re out of my parents’ house and I don’t have to hear “the kids aren’t doing any work today?” or “they’re done already?” types of comments, that I’ll loosen up a bit more. Don’t get me wrong, my folks are amazing people who I love dearly, but they are very “traditional” when it comes to education and I think the fact that I homeschool drives them (and thus me) crazy. 🙁 The 3D snowflakes are so pretty! I am going to show my kiddos. Your trees are beautiful, too. Good for you both in braving the Black Friday crowds. I can’t wait to hear all about Little Women! Tell Kei that I will keep the success of the play in my prayers! Much love to you both.
I hadn’t even read your last post due to the virus issue, so I was glad to see a new post and the issue resolved!
Davan and I love the snowflakes hanging from the ceiling. We may steal that idea. Davan has made those before (in Ami’s Girl Scout troop years ago), but I bet we’ll have to look up how to do it, too.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole academic/artsy balance changes again and again over time. This time of year seems to me to be all about doing crafts and holiday stuff. Things will even out. If not, sometimes a nudge in the direction you want to see helps the balance as well.
All the decorations look great. Love the bama hat in the first picture. Even though I haven’t lived in Alabama since I was 17 I will always be a Roll Tide fan. I remember being in high school when Bear Bryant died, it was so sad. We finished up our play last night and everything went great. Hope Little Women is the same for you guys.
Blessings
Diane
I’m sorry your site was hijacked. The refresh did work, at first it told me there still was a virus, but I was able to read it on the iPad with no problem, so I refreshed with the computer.
I LOVE those snowflakes. Amber adores making paper snowflakes, so we will definitely have to try those. She is also into origami, so maybe we can make it through the directions. Maybe.
We have the opposite problems of you, we don’t get enough fun things in and do quite a bit of academics. It’s the background that she and I both come from. We are trying to loosen up, it’s just taking us a while. I admire that you are able to have so many creative projects. Makes life so much fun.
Both Christmas trees are lovely. Keilee is so creative, again, with hers. My favorite has to be the goggles. Seriously, how does she come up with this stuff?
Good luck to you both with all the Little Women show week. I’m sure it will be a wonderful success and fun time too.
Glad to see you are back up, we missed hearing from you last week!
I was wondering what was going on with your website. I couldn’t access it and still can’t on my Google Chrome. I can view it on I.E. though. Beautiful trees. Lovely! And Sassy and I are doing snowflakes today for art. 🙂
Hi Karen!! You were right…refresh worked!
Those 3D paper snowflakes are on our December fun list. We’ve made them for several years in a row. I know exactly what you mean about the written directions being utterly baffling! The video version is SO much better.
I also know what you mean about being worried about the balance between creative vs. academic. My girls would do mostly creative things all the time, besides lots of reading. I try to suggest other things that I think they’d enjoy, plus I plan other types of reading and projects (to fill in “gaps” or things I think they should work on) and ask them to join me. I have to work to create a balance that I’m happy with, and sometimes I get frustrated and wonder if it’s worth it…they usually do like what I come up with, so I guess it’s not all bad. It’s always a work in progress.
I LOVE Keilee’s tree!!! I am going to show my girls 🙂
I hope all goes well with Little Women and that you come out in one piece on the other side 😉
{{hugs!}}
You both are too talented 🙂 I love the snow flakes 🙂
My mum often tells me that I should give equal time to art and study but I can’t help it I am sometimes feel like addicted to art 🙂
Thanks to God that you got your site back 🙂
Great decoration :)x
I am so sorry you were hacked!! How upsetting. (I must admit I was worried when I didn’t see you post a weekly wrap-up post on Friday. You were missed.) I know what you mean about the worry about creative vs. academic weeks…it is especially hard when your student(s) are not nearly up to the reading level you would like them to be. Nomad’s baby is so cute! I love your Christmas tree. It is beautiful and so are the snowflakes!! I love all of Kei’s curls in the Santa hat. I wish you all the best on Little Women. I know it will be fantastic. Wish I could come see it. Hugs to you both. (Still praying a job comes your way soon.)
The same thing happened to Greg’s iPad and thankfully with just a week left on the warranty, it was replaced! I am so glad you were able to de-bug your site. It reminds me that I have to print out years 2011 and 2012 just in case I were to get a virus that could not be cleared. Can you imagine losing everything?! I would be devastated.
Looking forward to your pictures next week. Please please please take video!