My How Time Flies…

February 11, 2009 Karen Leave a comment

Good grief!

I haven’t updated this blog in 6 months!

6 months!!

I will do better, I will do better.

I can’t began to cram 6 months into one post so lets just say we have been loving homeschooling, loving our wonderful homeschooling friends, loving life for the most part.

Times are hard, money isn’t flowing like a stream, but life is good.

We went to the Inauguration [as you can see in the picture ;)], K got Johnny Depp’s autograph, [her future husband], and K built a robot named G.I.A. [Girls in Action]† Unfortunately it doesn’t clean her room!

I am going to try to be better about updating. What!?? I am…really!

K/K

HomeSchool

No Girls Allowed!!!

August 7, 2008 Karen Leave a comment

We started school Monday. We first did a short study on the Ancient Olympics. KB dressed up and read “Hour of the Olympics” from the Magic TreeHouse. She loved it but was so angry that not only were girls not allowed to participate in the games but were not even allowed to watch!! I love my little champion of injustice.

We also read the cutest book called “You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Greek Athlete!” by Michael Ford. It was funny and full of information.

Next are going to do a short study on China and then a Unit Study on the Olympics.

We were both thrilled to start back to school, even though we have done things all summer.

Welcome back to school!

Field Trip, HomeSchool, Science

Sol Beautiful Sol…

July 16, 2008 Karen Leave a comment

Yesterday we went to Camp Down Low for Solar Fun Day.

Esther, homeschooling mother extraordinaire, always has the coolest things for the kids to do.

They made solar cookers for hot dogs [chicken hot dogs that wouldn’t kill them if they didn’t get completely done, they put sun screen on a Paper Man to see how well it worked, they made ‘coolers’ to see how long an ice cube could last, they watched a colored ice cube melt on the concrete.

They also ran and played and did a talent show of sorts, played bounty hunter and played with trains and sang and laughed. I love this lifestyle I have been blessed with. I love these wonderful mothers that I have met.

I left a thermometer in my car, parked in the sun, to see how hot it got. 160 degrees! Fahrenheit! And to think parents [and I use that term loosely] leave their children in the car to ‘run in’ and get a few things or leave their pets! It makes me want to scream!

That aside, it was a lovely day. Enjoy the Sun! With Your Sunscreen of course. 😉

My Mother

Month 2…

July 11, 2008 Karen 2 Comments

Yesterday was a very hard day for me.

2 months ago my mom died.

I asked my aunt, “Is it always going to be like this? Forever more, the 10th will be ‘The Day Mother Died’

She said it would get better.

For 2 months I have grieved but during that grief I have accepted.

Yesterday I just wanted my mother back! Now! This minute!

Yesterday I was angry.

Grief is so strange. Not at all like I imagined……

Today is better…

Tomorrow…who knows.

I miss you so much momma.

I love you always.

Holidays, Life

4th of July…

July 7, 2008 Karen Leave a comment

Sometimes we forget

We get so caught up in fireworks and grill out’s

that we forget.

What our ancestors did for us.

How they fought,

What they lost,

so we could have freedom.

Happy 4th of July!

HomeSchool, Science

Scientist in the making…

June 25, 2008 Karen Leave a comment

KB loves, didImention, LOVES, science.

We are always doing some sort of experiment here.

Did you know, that if you immerse a raw egg into vinegar and leave it for a few days, the shell disappears. It is just sitting there with nothing but the membrane holding it. You can see the yolk inside. After KB showed it to everyone in the neighborhood, she pricked it and it cracked just like a…well a raw egg!

Today she is experimenting with Newton’s laws. She is dropping balloons off the balcony. She is filling up balloons with 2 liter bottles. She is milking a cow with an old glove [Yeah well…we are city girls!] We just put a raw egg into a balloon and filled it with water. She wants to drop it off the balcony to see if it will break. LATE BREAKING UPDATE- It broke! She said it wouldn’t have if she could have made sure the egg was surrounded on all sides by the water!

She is making all these connections….membrane holding the yolk in, fluid protecting our brains, fluid keeping a baby safe. I tell ya…the kids’ gonna be an Einstein!

Blessings,

HomeSchool, My Mother

Laughter and Tears…

June 23, 2008 Karen 1 Comment

Yesterday KB and I went on a picnic. We do that a lot. We went to Publix and got a few cheeses and some bread and went over to the Park by the river.

We were talking about things and I realized that I don’t really like living here anymore. I don’t know if that is a normal reaction since Momma died. I am sure that is most of it.

KB and I have decided we want to live in Mayberry! And yes she knows Mayberry, she knows ALL 60’s 70’s and 80’s TV. And 80’s songs. I dread the day when she realizes I am not as cool as she thinks I am and the things I know aren’t everything in the world!!

When we left the park we went by the cemetery, which I haven’t been to until yesterday. It was very hard. I sat there, on the ground beside this hard, red mound and cried my eyes out. I almost couldn’t bear the thoughts of my mom down there, even though I know she isn’t there. I had a crazed moment that I just wanted to claw at the dirt and get to her. KB is so good, she hugged me and told me Baba was in heaven and look how pretty it was here [she is under a tree] and that Baba would have loved it here, because she hated to be hot. Then KB got a piece of paper and wrote JEAN/BABA on it and stuck it, with a stick, on her grave with an old faded silk flower.

I feel so strange about Momma, on one hand I always thought I would be on the ground kicking and screaming and I am not doing that. But on the other hand, I feel like nothing will ever be quite right again. Like no matter how happy I am, there is an underlying sense of sadness.

All in all though, it was a good day. When we got home KB got in the pool and had to show me her Water Ballet/Karate Routine. I love this child!

nature

Splashing…

June 20, 2008 Karen Leave a comment

KB and I went with some of our best friends to Smith Lake Park to swim.

And swim they did.

I, like the good mother I am, slathered sunscreen all over KB, but unfortunately not so much for myself.

Ouch! I don’t remember ever being sunburned so badly, but KB had a blast!

My Mother

30 Days Later…

June 10, 2008 Karen Leave a comment

One month,
the amount of time for the moon to cycle,
30 days,
One month today my mother has been gone.

It seems like so much longer,
it seems like only yesterday.
I am doing fine,
I am falling to pieces.

It still doesn’t seem real.
Or real in a surreal sort of way.
Grief is so strange.
It isn’t at all like I thought it would be.

Most of the time I am fine
Then, like a train hitting my body,
I am breathless,
With a voice in my head screaming, “I will never talk to my mother again!”.

She has always answered my questions,
“How do I cook fresh green beans?”
“KB has a strange red rash”
“How do I remove grass stains?”

Now I have no mother.
I am motherless.
How can that be?
She has always been my one constant in an unconstant world.

One month today.
I miss you so much Momma.

HomeSchool Girls