Art Journaling.

I have been experimenting with outlining some of my previous drawings with a darker line.  This one is without.

This is with the darker outline.  It's also in a different light so it's hard to tell, but I think it looks better with the black outline.

I am not sure if I have shared any of these or not  I have been very into these tulip-ish flower shapes lately.

I have also noticed that as my journaling evolves, I tend to like the newer ones, but really don't like the older ones anymore.   Below follow some of the older ones. 

Trying my best.

I'm trying to hang in there this Friday, another day without a car which is driving me completely bonkers and we all know that is not a long drive.  I don't know anyone who goes without a car as much as me.   Yes, I know that is a first world problem, but we seriously live in the boonies here.  I went ahead today and permanently changed my daughter's piano lesson from Friday to Tuesday since we cannot ever get there and then I looked and this coming Tuesday is the next pain clinic appointment for mom, so I probably won't make even the first one.  It seems like, in the winter time anyway, we go from nothing to 100 things on one day (mainly because 4H starts their January-June meetings), like Monday, when we finally get to see our homeschool group for gym day, but also have a needlework club 4H meeting that day and probably won't have a car so won't be able to do either one?  I don't know.  It's frustrating.  Also it might snow again this weekend.  If I were one of those Pollyanna type people (which I would very much like to be) I would just look on the bright side of things, be thankful that if I am stuck home I am stuck at home with 2 of the most wonderful teenagers on the planet and clean the house and bake brownies and do all kinds of Pollyanna type things, but being me, I'll probably just take a nap.  You've got to go with your strengths right?  I'm very good at napping. 

We did do something fun last night after I got home from seeing mom, the kids and I watched part of Season 1 of Boy Meets World from Netflix while I painted backgrounds for art journaling.  That is a very cute show that I really didn't watch the first time it was on.  Then my daughter read several chapters from The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle. 

Just now when I was trying to type Hero the word expansion software I use for work (Shorthand 10- highly recommended!) tried to expand the word to hemorrhoid, which I thought was kind of funny and it reminded me of an rather unfortunate tendency I have during work to type foot instead of food.  I was typing a GI report this morning and I was supposed to type "The patient was instructed to cut her food into small pieces."  You can see what's coming, right?  I typed "The patient was instructed to cut her foot into small pieces."  I did catch it before I saved.  :-)   It also reminds me of my friend from my very first medical transcription job who accidentally let the spellcheck change the word hemorrhoids to hammerheads about 6 times in a report and printed it and sent it up to the floor, reducing the unit secretary to tears.  Good times.

Anyway, that's another Friday.   We'll see how the homeschool procrastination has gone this week later tonight.

The blahs.

A lady at our church passed away this week, a single woman who never married, never had kids, but was a wonderful addition to our church family.  She was always good to the kids and sometimes crotchety (synonyms are cross, ornery and contrary) with the adults, okay, almost always crochety with the adults, but we loved her anyway.  Her funeral was today.  I didn't go for several reasons, one was that I didn't feel well at all and another was that my husband needed the car to go to town for some things.  I am also feeling kind of sad because today would have been my Dad's 84th birthday and yesterday was the fourth anniversary of his death.  So I am taking comfort measures today, taking it easy, art journaling, making no-bake oatmeal cookies (the ultimate comfort food) and hopefully I will feel better and be up to going to the children's hospital to see the babies tonight.  I feel like I need to.  I think it will help my disposition -- my crotchety-ness, if you will.  We'll see I guess.

I'm also looking for a new job, always fun.  :-P

Finally, we were able to go to the library.

We finished our read-aloud book either Thursday or Friday but couldn't go to the library (or in fact, go anywhere) Friday, Saturday or Sunday and Monday, we got the car (We're sharing one again. :-( ) after the library had closed.  By the time Monday got here we were stir crazy.  We would have gone anyplace, just to get out of the house.  We had a 4H meeting for a club that my son is not actually a member of, but he attended, just to go someplace.  Then we went to the grocery, another activity that my son would not usually voluntarily participate in, but he went and he enjoyed it, because it was out of the house.  I tell you that cabin fever is a real thing.  Whew.

So here's what everyone is reading.

My son:

Found

My daughter:

Skullduggery Pleasant

Me:

An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth

And together at night we are reading the delightful:
A Heros Guide To Storming The Castle

We will call it ...

We have this cabinet in our house.  It is between the stove and the pantry.  It has an odd assortment of things in it, cookbooks, spices, seasonings, medicine, sometimes a mixer and/or a small food chopper, band-aids - you name it.  Anything can wind up there.  We used to have our microwave sitting on the counter below it, but 7 or 8 years ago we got a microwave cart and moved the microwave.  To this day though, I have continued to direct people to this cabinet by calling it the-cabinet-above-where-the-microwave-used-to-be.  The other day my youngest noted this and decided that since the microwave has been gone for quite some time, maybe we should rename this cabinet?  The cabinet next to the stove?  Nah, not specific enough.  I guess the cabinet next to the pantry would work, but we have decided to call it George.

A book review and other things from our new new normal.

I am looking for my place in the new new normal.  Yes, I am still a homeschooling mom for at least the next 2 1/2 years unless the youngest graduates early.  Whether or not I will continue to be a medical transcriptionist/editor is in question.  I have been applying for other jobs, but have had no luck yet, no response at all yet.  I'm trying to find my footing after a year of some very difficult physical issues, joint pain making it very difficult for me to walk at times.  At the recommendation of the bloggers at The Common Room, I bought some Dr. Christopher's Complete Tissue and Bone supplement and surprisingly, it has really helped.  I still have some knee pain, but the all over joint pains are fading.  It's weird and unexpected.  So anyway, the things that I was focused on in 2013, finding a solution to mom's issues and trying to deal with my physical pain may be in the past.  I fervently hope so.  Mom seems okay and my joints are getting better.  So now, what?  I need to figure out a career path and enjoy my last 2 years of homeschooling.  And then, what? what?  what?  I have no idea.  I have had some plans but they all seem to have fallen through.

Last week I was reading blogs and I found a list of book recommendations.  I got a couple of them from the library, 1000 gifts by Ann Voskamp and a book about being an astronaut called An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield.  I started trying to read 1000 Gifts and though it is beautiful and poetic, it just does not suit my reading style.  I keep skipping over the poetic parts and then find that it is all poetic parts and I've gone through several pages without getting anything out of it.  In theory, it's a great book about being thankful for all the little things in life, but the writing style is just not one I can get my teeth into.

I'll let you all know about the astronaut book. 


 

Another Friday.

I can't believe it is Friday again already.  We've been hanging in here, keeping warm in some very cold weather, playing in the snow a little bit and figuring out our new new normal.  I have to say that this one is an improvement on the last one.  For the last couple of months I have been so stressed out about my mom and now I feel that she is doing so much better.  She is living with 4 other ladies, getting 3 nutritious meals a day and says that she likes it reasonably well.  I think in the back of her mind, she would rather go home, but I am hoping that as she continues to live here, she will feel that it is home.  I am not sure if she will, but she's doing things that indicate she's feeling more homey like taking her shoes off when she gets in, so that's a start.  My brother and I discussed how well our parents raised us to feel guilty about everything, and so both of us feel like we are not spending enough time there ... but at the same time, feel that mom is okay.  It's weird.  

This is a picture of a snowman that the kids made on top of my husband's car.  His car doesn't have a heater, so he has not been driving it to work for some reason, which means that I had to miss volunteering last night :-(  to finish mom's TB test and run errands because I wouldn't have a car today.  Or this whole weekend.  :-(    It's very frustrating.  I guess maybe we could get the housecleaning done? 

It is supposed to snow here again Saturday I hear.  Geek Mom has a gathered a bunch of snow-related fun activities.  If you are expecting snow, go take a look. 

The reason.

Last night, at 7:00 p.m., promptly, we all discovered the reason the alarm hadn't gone off at 7:00 a.m. yesterday.  Yes.  I set it wrong.  However, I am kind of glad I did because of the snow yesterday because if I had gotten up on time, I would have had to agonize over the decision of whether to go despite the slick conditions on the road.  I am not the greatest with decisions like that, especially early in the morning.  So I got up, called mom's caregiver, called the clinic and rescheduled.  Then later, after the roads had been cleared, I went and got mom and took her for her TB test and took the VA paperwork to the person who is helping with that application.  I did get something accomplished yesterday and it felt good to get that out of the way.  And also, I can't emphasize this enough, it felt great not to have to go to the pain clinic yesterday.  If you have read my blog for long, you will know that I hate that place.  I love the service they provide and all of the people are nice, however, the waiting and waiting and waiting, just makes me crazy.  Yes, I know we still have to go but I am just as childish as my kids when they are wanting to take a day off school - I realize I have to do it later, but I don't have to do it TODAY.  :-P

I had a good visit with mom in the car as we were running errands and she told me that she likes this place she is living better than living alone and the people are nice.  There was no crying from either of us.  (I nicknamed the road that the old assisted living facility was on "The Trail of Tears".).  This is such a relief.    Thank God.

Overslept and Snow!

It looks like we may have gotten a decent amount of snow fall this morning, maybe 2 inches?  My mom had a pain clinic appointment this morning at 9:00 and I set my alarm at 7:00 and it didn't go off for some reason and I got up at 8:15 ... not early enough to shower, dress, drive to her assisted living home and then to the pain clinic.  So I've been making phone calls and rescheduling stuff this morning.  I really don't think it would have been a good idea to take mom out in the snow anyway.  I wasn't afraid of driving in it, but her walking in it with a bad back might have been a bad idea. 

She needs a TB test for her assisted living facilities rules and regulations, so I may take her this afternoon to get that.  We'll see how the weather goes.   Meanwhile, I'll work and do things at home. 
The kids will probably start angling for a snow day as soon as they get up.  I let them have a couple of chores off the other day when there was snow and they did go outside and play in it.   We used to follow the public school schedule and cancel when they cancelled, but now we follow my oldest son's college schedule and when he is home, we don't do school, so since he's there and it isn't snowing right now in southern Mississippi (I'm assuming based on the palm trees on campus.) we will at least do half a day today. 

We went to see our new great nephew tonight and although he hadn't slept pretty much all day, he was asleep when we were there and then apparently woke up right after we left.  He was still cute though and it was still good to meet him for the first time.  :-)

Another break.

Another Sunday I am stuck home without a vehicle.  I kind of hate it, but I kind of like it too.  Sometimes my life just doesn't have enough margin in it.  I work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, volunteer and clean (not as much as I should) on Thursday and go to church on Sunday.  I visit my mom on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and do all her doctor's appointments and pharmacy trips.  Sometimes, it is actually good to be forced to take a day off.  I'm playing the Sims and watching Big Bang Theory at the same time.  Later, I'm planning to do some cooking, list some things on ebay and perhaps take a nap.

I had a good visit with my mom last night.  We were actually able to play a game and talk, which was really nice.  Lately, with all the moves, etc., she has been too anxious to play.  We changed doctors and we were actually able to find a nurse practitioner who comes to the house and she prescribed a mild anti-anxiety medication, which seems to help. 

I think it might be time for my nap.

Friday.

I was able to go and volunteer at the children's hospital yesterday.  Every week, I think maybe I shouldn't go, I'm tired or I should do housework or something, and every time I go, I treasure the time and wish I could spend more time there.  I have been applying for jobs in that hospital, so maybe I will be able to at some point.  My current job just gets worse and worse.  It is a total waste of time even trying.  It's very frustrating.  I really don't want to have to re-invent myself and get a new job at my age.  Sigh.  This past couple of years has really been a lesson in not getting what I want.  I should be good at it by now.   A pro.

Speaking of things I don't want, I will go visit my mom at her assisted living home tonight.  I can't really say I like her being there very much.  I love that she's not alone, but I am not sure how I feel about the people that she is living with and it's kind of odd, going to visit my mom in someone else's home.

So for today, make several phone calls I don't want to make, struggle to make a few pennies at my job, go see my mom at someone else's home ... and then I hope maybe play board games with the kids or do something enjoyable this evening. My son is trying to get The Sims 2 work so maybe I'll play that.  I'm trying to balance the good and the bad and keep myself going. 

Meanwhile, while I am waiting for work to download (which is taking forever) I'm listening to this band my oldest son got me hooked on while he was home, Twenty One Pilots.  The sounds are perky and the lyrics are deep and thoughtful. It's some very, very strange music but for some reason I like it.  My son is always listening to something different, from folk, to country to this category which is kind of indefinable.  

Hmm.

We are in another new normal here.  In the one week that Mom has been in her new home, things have been so different.  I went up to see her Monday night and she seemed reasonably happy.  She wanted to live with someone and now she lives with 4 other people.  My brother and I are now in the process of working on applying for VA benefits for her.  My Dad served in the army in the Korean Conflict.  He never talked about it much, but he drove a truck and was not in combat.  The kids and I looked at his service record and found it interesting.  He worked for an engineering unit, building bridges and was 5 feet 8 inches and weighed 145 pounds.  He was drafted from Cook County Illinois and was an employee of Club La Conga in Chicago as a musician.  I think that the fact that my mom, a rural KY girl who wanted to be a missionary, married at 20, a 27 year old divorced musician who was passing through town is one of the reasons I'm so odd.  :-P    At least, that's my excuse.  My Dad was also from rural Kentucky and I guess followed the music scene to Chicago.  I'm really not sure why he was there.  A couple of his siblings also showed evidence of wanderlust and moved all over the country throughout their lives so maybe it was just that.

Speaking of musicians, my oldest son has branched out a lot in his musical tastes and has brought some interesting music home for us to listen to.  For some reason, I am enjoying this 21 Pilots cover of Can't Help Falling In Love so I thought I'd share.  The guy singing has a great voice and it is one of the best songs of all times, so maybe that's why.  Anyway, here it is.

Monday, back to school 2014.

My oldest son started classes in Mississippi this morning and we started back to school here in our house.  I haven't been all that involved in it, other than waking people up and prodding them a little bit to get started.  I also checked the lists to make sure that they had exercise on them.  My husband gave them some math instructions last night.  They are pretty much on their own for school unless they have a questions.   I've been working and when my car gets home (My husband has it) I will go to the grocery.  I've been trying to come up with a meal plan.  It saves a lot of money if I go in there with an idea of what I need, instead of just throwing everything into the cart.  I kind of feel like the holidays are finally over and we can start our new year.  I'm trying to inspire myself to get in better shape and to keep the house in better shape this year by coming up with an essential morning routine/list for myself.  You know how I love a good list.  :-) 

Absolutely Nothing.

That is what I am doing today.  My oldest son is on his way back to Mississippi and I have been lying around like  a slug today.  I did do some art journaling and a tiny bit of cooking, and I had some brief guilty feelings about not accomplishing more, but I was able to squash those down pretty quickly.  Tomorrow, I will come out of my brief one-day hibernation and go see my mom and get a bunch of things checked off my list.  But today is a day of rest and I'm resting.

I've got a doctors appointment this week and 4H and the kids are starting back to school but I'll deal with that all later.

Ahh.

Some more.

Today, we are going out to the original assisted living facility to get the rest of the stuff out of there.  There is a twin mattress and box springs and a table and chairs and a few other things, some toiletries and towels.  Last week when we moved mom was such a blur with 7 of us moving things and making decisions on what to take and what not to take since we weren't sure if this was going to be a permanent move or not, that I am not sure what we left there.  Just to be on the safe side, I'm taking all of my wonderful children with me.  They are fabulous human beings and I am grateful for that.  Very grateful.  With every fiber of my being, I am thankful that my kids, my brother and my husband have supported me and done all kinds of things for me to help make this easier.  Still, I feel like there has been a death in my family.  I am having a grief reaction and I am trying all my coping mechanisms to deal with it.  I have the crazy urge to sit and play The Sims like I did after my Dad died but I don't currently have it on a computer.  Why does it relax me, I do not know.  Volunteering with the babies in the NICU is also something else that helps me with my stress.  I chose to go see my homeschool friends instead of the babies at the children's hospital this week (though I am not sure which helps most) and hey, whatever it takes. 

Things that help me personally with stress and grief, in no particular order.
Prayer, but a lot of times when I am stressed or grieved, I can't organize my thoughts or prayers.
Someone else doing chores for me or cooking.
Certain comfort foods, white chocolate peppermint bark (especially Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses).
The Sims
Reading.
Art Journaling.
Back rubs.
Watching Monk or Big Bang Theory.
My Sunday School Class. (It is like a therapy session, I swear I feel like I need to write the teacher a check for 150.00 every time I walk out of there.)
Volunteering.
Laughing and playing games with my family.
Freckles, which would be an odd contribution to this list, if I meant actual Freckles, but I mean my dog who is named Freckles.  :-)

Hey!?

Yesterday I did not have one call with someone presenting a crisis to me that I must handle.  Not one.  I communicated with my brother through email/text and he reported that my mom was doing okay - confused (which was to be expected) but not sad.  That is the best we can ask for and I am appropriately grateful for my one day of peace and yet, praying, yearning, hoping (dare I even hope!?) that this is the new pattern.  (Please, God.)

I will go see her tonight.

Thanks for all the prayers and warm thoughts and for sticking with reading my homeschool blog as the subject matter here has gotten increasingly away from homeschool and has become more of a middle age blog.  We start back to homeschooling next Monday.

52 days since we moved mom to the first assisted living facilty.

• moves ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2
• times me crying (at least) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------52
• times mom crying (that I personally heard on the phone) -------------------------------------------1
• number of people trying to extort money from mom. ------------------------------------------------1
• phone calls to lawyers -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2
• times mom called me and asked me to bring her home ---------------------------------------------10
• times she called her siblings and my brother and said the same thing--------------------------100s 
• times my mom called me and asked me to put my mother on the phone---------------------------2
• times the electricity went out at my mom's house, causing the heat and fridge to go out and the water pipes to freeze.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2
• times either my phone or my mom's phone has gone out  (ours was annoyingly nonfunctional for a week, ringing all the time, but not functional as a phone, just as a noisemaker). ----------2
• trees that fell across my mom's driveway -------------------------------------------------------------1
• inches of ice on the floor at mom's house that we had to deal with yesterday.---------------------1
• days of being on my period------------------------------------------------------------------------------23
• (conservative estimate) PMS days -----------------------------------------------------------------------8
• (conservative estimate) Hershey's white chocolate peppermint bars eaten by me and not shared. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10
• pounds gained --------------------------------------------------I don't want to even think about it.
• doctor's visits and phone calls, trying to get mom's nurse practitioner to give mom an anti-anxiety medication, with no success.________________________________1 visit/4 calls
• number of times my mom called my brother during one half hour meeting at work--------------7.
• number of jobs I have applied for since my job has went to voice recognition (not that I feel like getting a new job right now) ------------------------------------------------------------------------3.

Add working and the holidays in there and you've got 2 crazy, crazy months.  I am praying the new place is good for her. 

Art journal pages.

Per your request,  Amy. :^)

 Since art journaling is good for my stress and I have been having a hard time lately, I have been very productive these last few weeks.  

The Roller Coaster Ride.

We are all still on the roller coaster here, trying to find a way to help mom. She called me crying yesterday and in desperation, I called a private care home near here and asked for a tour.  They have one opening.  The place was reasonably nice and clean and they have home inspections by the state posted and so we are going to give it a whirl.  There is the lady who runs it, her aunt and she is allowed by the state to keep 3 elderly patients.  They have an open door, come in anytime policy and they operate like a family, hanging out together in a house, not an institution.  I hope/pray that this is the answer for mom.  We are going to move some things in there this afternoon and have mom spend the night there for a few nights before we decide whether or not to end our current lease at the assisted living facility.

I also pray that the chest pain I am having is asthma and not a heart attack.  It's been a rough, rough ride lately.

Monday stuff.

Wow, it's cold.  Yesterday I did venture out.  My husband had a prescription that needed to be picked up at the pharmacy and since he pretty muchly has pneumonia, I went and got it.  I also picked up a couple of other things we needed like a big old bag of dog food.  (With 4 dogs, we go through it pretty quickly).  It was so cold.  It made my head hurt and my lungs hurt.  I went out to mom's assisted living and had a not great visit with her.  I was feeling kind of bad after being out in the weather and she was feeling kind of sad about being in assisted living.  After a while, the phone rang and we realized that there was something wrong with it, so I went back out into the cold and got a new phone for her.  Then we hooked it up, verified that it would work and I came home.  When I got home, I sent my youngest out to the truck to get the dog food.  He came back in very quickly, trying to get in before his boogers froze.  :-) Earlier yesterday, the kids had been out blowing bubbles to watch them freeze and throwing boiling water in the air to watch it instantly crystallize.   Being homeschoolers, that was not optional.  :-P


After I got home from my outing, we had a pleasant evening.  My husband had made a big old pot of chicken soup and my daughter made us grilled cheese, (comfort food!) we played Munchkin and after that, watched Monk and I got to try out my new art journaling supplies that my brother had got me for Christmas that came in the mail yesterday. (comfort activities?).  

At some point last evening, I shared a dream that I had had in which we had 2 dishwashers and both of them worked.  This was wonderful as we only have one and it continually goes off and doesn't finish the cycle.  When I shared this, my husband shared that a couple of nights ago, he dreamed that we had a new house, which included 2 hot water heaters.  (So that if you take a shower after the 2 teens do, you still have hot water.)  I thought it was hilarious that both of us are dreaming of multiple appliances.  :-P

Yeah, it's cold, but there's no snow.

Ever since my kids got sleds for Christmas a couple of years ago, we haven't had any significant snowfall.  For anyone living near me, you're welcome.  :-P   The weather guys locally were predicting several inches of snow yesterday and today, but as usual, nothing.  My youngest son sure would like to see some snow, but it's 7 degrees here, so I guess it's a good thing he is not tempted to go outside.  I know I certainly am not.  Today, we need to take our Christmas tree down.  We are really late this year but the cold virus that has rampaged through here this week has been pretty rough.  I guess I need to just schedule this darn cold every year because it's going to happen the week after Christmas.  There is a lot of coughing around here.  My husband sounds the worst and he probably has pneumonia.  He went to a clinic yesterday after work, but they didn't do an x-ray, so we are not sure.  We're still not doing school here due to my oldest son being home and with the illness, everyone is so, so lazy.  We've been having a Monk marathon, and since everyone has seen all of the episodes multiple times, we can join it at will and go take a nap at any time without feeling like we're missing something.  We haven't even had the energy to play all of our board games.  How sad is that?   I'll have to do my usual games review post sometime later.  Like, in the spring.

January 3, Randomness.

Some dishcloths my daughter made and sold right before Christmas.

The cheesecake my daughter made for Thanksgiving.

One day the kids decided to "tattoo" (with markers) themselves with a rule out,roman legion tattoo from the Percy Jackson books.  Hey, it involves latin, so that's educational right? 

So yesterday, we went to a restaurant to meet another homeschool family and played games.  My husband had taken my vehicle due to snow/etc. so we didn't have the main game we were planning on playing and had to play one of our new Christmas games we haven't got the hang of yet.  It's called Munchkin and there seems to be a pretty big learning curve associated with it.  Oh well, good for the brain to stretch a little.   In other news, my new great nephew* was born the day before yesterday and we looked at a lot of pictures on Facebook.  Of course he's very cute.  It will be fun to see him in person, but with the bronchitis-y thing still hanging on in a couple of family members we felt it would not be nice to visit him in the hospital yesterday. So I'm back to work, my husband is back to work and my son has one more week before he has to go back to Mississippi and so school is out here as well until then.

We went up last night to see my mom and I would appreciate any prayers, warm thoughts or suggestions for her.  She is still stressed from the move and is having a hard time with it.  I am not sure what to do.  As I have stated many times on this blog, it is very difficult.


*Apparently, since my Dad has a daughter from a previous marriage who is  15 years older than me, I have a lot of great nieces and nephews that I haven't met, but that's another story.  Speaking of that, I need to send my sister a card or letter since she doesn't do Facebook. 

Trying to think of a new direction.

I've only got a couple of homeschooling years to go.  :-(  When I started this blog, the homeschooling years seemed to stretch out for a long, long time, but it's been a long time already.  We started homeschooling in 2004, so this fall, it will be 10 years.  It's hard to believe.  Let me tell you, I don't regret one second of it.  I think it's the best decision we've ever made as a family.   So I guess I've got a couple of years to decide what direction I want to take with this blog (and with my life in general).  I've got a huge bunch of information on here, most of it only useful, probably, to me.  I use the blog to look things up so that I can figure out when we did something.  A lot of homeschool moms, post homeschooling, do talks and write essays and generally help and mentor the moms who are currently homeschooling, but I can't really see me doing that.  All of my best homeschool advice is pretty simple and it's right on this blog, over on the right.  See it?  I might also add another thing we do which is hit the basics, math and literacy pretty hard and let the rest be interest driven mostly.  Other successful things we have done include limiting screen time, adding chores and hygiene to the homeschool lists and reading, reading, reading.  To this day, we do read alouds pretty much every night although often now, the kids read to me while I art journal.  

So anyway, with the blog this year I'm thinking of doing different types of posts for different days, including sharing links, recipes, pictures, etc., but I haven't decided for sure, so meanwhile today, I will share a link.  This seems to be a great time of year for lists and here's a great list of a bunch of homeschooling freebies.   Check it out:  176 Best Homeschool Freebies and More.  Definitely worth a look.

Have a great day!

Happy New Year!

I sure do pray this year is better than the last.  Hey 2013, don't let the door hit you in the rear on the way out.  Good riddance.  Now I just need to put on my brave face and charge right into 2014.

Last night we brought in the new year with 4 of the 5 of us sick with this cold virus that's been running wild through our family and the other one of us (me) on steroids for whatever is wrong with my elbow.  We had invited friends over to play games and celebrate with us but my friend tore her calf muscle exercising yesterday morning (doesn't that sound awful?) and the battery went out on their van, so they decided to stay home.  So we watched many episodes of Monk on TV, art journaled, knitted and generally were lazy.  We won't start back to homeschooling until my oldest son goes back to college in a couple of weeks.  Hopefully, everyone will feel better, we will get to spend time with friends before he goes back.