Gardens 2012

Hello!

Welcome to the first installment of photos from our veggie and herb gardens as well as some from the orchard..more to come as planting progresses..

Yes, our kids love to garden. Kids and dirt are a great combo!

Great homeschooling in the garden going on, indeed!! Wish I had these amazing experiences when I was a wee little one. They are blessed!

Have a blessed Sabbath!

-Kelly

recent happenings..

first off...wow! it's been a while since my last post..just so busy. i am going to do my best to get you all caught up on our happenings since my last post.

well...the weekend before last we headed back to tn for father's day weekend. it was mainly a work trip, but we squeezed in some fun while we were there.

saturday we headed to hiwassee river for canoeing and tubing. we encountered thunderstorms while on the river complete with hail...we were very blessed to be able to make it off the river quickly before being pelted. Praise GOD!

here are some glimpses from the trip to tn...(which, unfortunately...does not include photos from the river adventure as that was a very wet trip and well...water and my camera do not mix).

a snooze on the way to tn.

one of tina's new kittens getting his bath. ;-)

gary and debi's (my in-laws) first tomato of the season. isn't it a beauty?

first cucumber of the season...and it is so cute!

the above photo is of my sister-in-law tina working on one of her beautiful ceramic creations. you can check out more of her work on her etsy shop, Xarine Creations. she is super talented!!

time at the duck pond

making father's day cards..

then this past week included another VBS for river...he had lots of fun learning about ways we can take care of God's creation through recycling, preventing pollution, leaning more about the animals God created and how our actions can put them in danger, etc.

here is a snapshot from VBS...

'the little zoo that could' brought in animals to help the kids learn more about them. here is one of the monkeys.

while river was at VBS, lily and i got to enjoy some time together..here, she is clearly getting tired of all the picture taking..oh, but i can't help myself. i mean..look at those gorgeous eyes!

also this week we had friends come to visit us from tn....our buddies, kent and his son daniel.
here are some photos from the activities which took place while they were here...

meet daniel.  ('beast')...a new term i learned from him. i will forever remind him i know this word. haha! he thinks it sounds funny when i say it because i'm not a kid. oh, that makes it even more fun to say around him.

oh my! i love this man!!

making pancakes...river supervising. ;-)

i also finished my homeschooling list (which includes the subjects as well as a materials list). you can find the subjects/curriculum list under the 'homeschool' page. i will be frequently adjusting this list (especially once we actually get started...so, you might want to check back often.

and then saturday fires broke out in gulf shores...what a terrible mess. when we were at the beach we saw this....

afterwards we drove around and snapped a couple more photos of the fire...
here is a news bit on the fire in case you didn't hear about it. gulf shores fire news story.
my friend amy reminded me that the trees being burned are the ones that had just started to fill in from being hit from hurricane ivan. how sad!





well, how's that for a catch-up post? ooh...remind me to keep up with my at-least-twice-a-week-posts so, i can keep the posts a bit lighter. ;-)

i hope you all are doing great and have a fantastic week!

love,
kelly

the graduate... ;-)

meet one of my sweet nieces.. "a2".

she just graduated from kindergarten yesterday.

wow, kids grow up fast! way, too fast!!

remember a while back when i said something along the lines of, "pictures from the time my sister and her family came to visit us...well, they will pop up randomly in posts"? well, i meant that.

the above picture was taken during that weekend...a fun beach/pier day.

in fact...i will be playing catch-up on picture posting for awhile...Easter, the time my sister came to visit, the kid's first time at the pensacola navel air museum, and i think one other event, too.

i will be getting those and more up asap (just as soon as i finalize, and place in rocky's hands, the completed homeschool curriculum for the fall). seriously, rocky, i am almost done.   ;-)

anywhooo...

miss, a2.... i am so proud of you!!
sorry we couldn't be there during your big milestone.

love,
aunt kelly




linking up with:

black & white wednesday.

daybook

wednesday {may 4th}
daybook

outside my window...we finally got some rain, so the temps are much cooler. it is downright pleasant outside right now. after the kid's quiet and story time today we will be venturing out to enjoy it.

i am thinking....that i have a kitchen i need to quickly clean up...we made quite a mess baking chewy chocolate chip oatmeal cookies for rocky this afternoon. you see, rocky is really an adorable cookie monster in disguise. i try to oblige. ;-)

i am thankful ...the tornado did not destroy our home (it came about 100 feet from it) and that it even left the newly planted orchard and vineyard in tact (all but a couple apple trees) on our property back home in tn. 

(pictures coming in another post sometime soon)

i am learning....photoshop elements 9 {slowly} and enjoying it. looking forward to trying out lightroom next!

i am creating....a kindergarten home school curriculum for leafy {still} it's a slow process.

i am going to....do some crafty research..time to stock up on materials for the kids for them to do lots of crafts. anyone have any tried and true kid craft ideas they wouldn't mind recommending to me? both leafy and lily love crafty crafts. ;-)

i am hearing.... about so much going on in the world today: mind boggling weather, world events, etc.. it really makes me think that Jesus will be coming soon. i truly believe this and want to be ready to live with Him forever!

around the house...i hear momentary silence. ahhh....

i am reading....'adobe photoshop elements 8: classroom in a book' (a book i checked out from the library). 

i am praying....for all those who have lost loved ones and their homes in the recent tornadoes which ripped through the south. 

a few plans for the week....well, the week is going by so quick. i strive to continue to get my cleaning done early this week (right on schedule even if rocky doesn't believe it- ha!), come up with a list of materials needed for the home school curriculum, continue on with leafy's reading book, 'teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons', and go grocery shopping..we really need to stock up on some fresh produce. anyone else freak out if produce stash dwindles to nada? i am guilty of that. 

a picture... another photo taken at lulu's {we apparently like taking photographs there}. rocky took this during my "lesson mode" and i think it is lovely and had to share. this is unedited, btw. 

i am open to editing suggestions..in fact, i would be most thankful. that is how i learn. any takers-of-photos out there willing to talk photoshop with me on this picture? your suggestions would be appreciated. :-D

some randomness {via phone photos}

is a caption really necessary?

she is so silly, yet too adorable for words...

sometimes i get the feeling he wishes his mama wasn't a pathological picture taker. ;-)

at the pool...watching the kids swim (i do believe kids are made with different built-in temperature gages)..it's still too chilly for us, parents..but we will jump in soon!

what little man recently read in 'teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons'. (he is progressing right along) and yesterday we did lesson 42, in fact. only 58 more lessons to go. 

daybook

this is something I will be doing weekly. most likely on mondays..

just a simple way for me to jot down the plan's for the week while, at the same time, finding beauty in the everyday moments...

source of the idea

outside my window....greyish blue clouds fill the sky

i am thinking....that i am glad the kids are sleeping in, as we got home late last night from a get together 

i am thankful for....the love of God

i am learning....that i have a stronger passion for photography than i have ever had

i am creating....a homeschooling curriculum for my soon-to-be-official-kindergartner

i am going to....hug & cuddle the kids when they awaken from their slumber

i am hearing.... the sound of me quietly typing these words

around the house....i see signs of a house lived in. papers to be organized, kid toys, books being read

i am reading....my Bible reading plans on my phone, as well as 100 top picks for homeschool curriculum by cathy duffy

i am praying....my sinus and anemia issues let up so i can feel like me again

a few plans for the week....cleaning, raw food "baking", continue homeschool curriculum, a bit of couponing, loads of library story time with the kids, quality time with family

a picture....i love. taken by my love, rocky. of one of our offspring loves

blessings,

kelly

homeschool update with a splash of random pictures..

i have started to work with little man on an amazing book! teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons by siegfried engelmann.

i first heard about this book from multiple friends, including my sister, who either homeschool or are preparing their kids for school, and i was honestly quite impressed with their success stories from using this book.

source

little man is progressing right along..i believe to date, we are on lesson 14. we have been working on two or three lessons a day, depending on how interested he is. some days we do only one, which is just fine.

i saw a drastic change in his reading skills even after lesson two or three. amazing!! he was quite shocked, himself. ;-) i could see shock on his face.

it uses phonics to help the reader-in-training to understand and recognize the letters as sounds, instead of simply letters. phonics is the way to go! highly effective! 

so far so good...will let you know more about how little man is progressing in reading as we move through the book.

oh yes..i promised you some randomness in the form of pictures,right?

so..what compliments learning how to read better than skateboarding? yep, these kids lead very well balanced lives, that is for sure. ;-)

more pics to come soon from our trip to the cousin's house this past weekend...stay tuned. more skateboarding pics to come as well..

have a lovely day!

blessings, 

kelly

p.s. i normally do a fairly good job with correct punctuation, spelling, and capitalization (way to pat myself on the back, huh?) but, beware that for this blog...i have thrown capitalizing words to the wind to sway among  the wildflowers...;-)  maybe it is me trying to be less picky or call it laziness or maybe it's because i do not have a great deal of time to be picky...maybe it's a combination, either way...it works. 

Project: Homeschool

Hello all...I'm really not sure if I can say "all" quite yet as I am pretty certain only a few of you are actually reading this. Those reasons are most likely due to lack of time (I know, life is just sometimes too busy to catch up on a blog) and well, only a handful of people even know this blog exists. That's okay with me.

Well, I started a good portion of this post last week...but, am finally finding time to finish it up. ;-)

Before I begin my wordy homeschooling post...let me share some pictures with you...

One of our two new family additions, hermit crabs..Rocky and Little Man picked them out.

Little Man: deep in thought..

My handsome little man

She says she wants to be a civil engineer when she grows up...random,huh? ;-)

Love the tongue twirl

My precious babies

Tire swings make them smile, which in turn makes me smile ;-)

Anywho..moving onto breaking news. We are about to embark on a new journey. Little Man is about to start school. Yes, school. But, not the kind of school, which is confined to walls of a classroom. He is soon to begin "official-for-the-records homeschool."

First let me say that I am thrilled that I can stay at home with our kids and now be able to homeschool my oldest one. I realize that many families would like to be able to do this, but can not. I am aware of just how blessed I am and do not take this privilege for granted.

We have decided to go with an umbrella school, which is a homeschooling school you register with who will deal with the state on your behalf. Also, we will be keeping a record of grades through them. We will be using Homelife Academy. You can check out that umbrella school HERE.

So, before we officially register Little Man, I am working on coming up with curriculum that we will use throughout this educational journey. On that note, one of the many good things about homeschooling is that we will not be tied down by a curriculum or benchmark standard. We will have the freedom to explore and go beyond what is "expected". There is so much freedom in homeschooling.

So...that is where we are at right now...swimming in the pool of homeschool curriculum.

One book that is amazing for breaking down the best-of-the best homeschooling curriculum picks is 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum by Cathy Duffy. I once checked this book out at the library in Collegedale, and am sad to find out that I can't check the book out here in Gulf Shores (someone once checked it out along time ago, and apparently lost it.) This is saddening because it is now when I am knee high in research of homeschool curriculum. Yes, we could buy the book on Amazon, but we were hoping to snag a copy free somewhere like a library...unfortunately, this doesn't look promising.

I do know that I do not want to spend a lot in curriculum for Kindergarten...I mean this is kindergarten after all. Most of what I can use to teach him can be found in nature. Kindergarten is still supposed to be fun and enjoyable..so, making sure that I have an adequate amount of educational crafts for him might be the hardest part, well...that and sticking to a schedule. We do have our schedule for daily living, but now we will adjust that to include kindergarten. Once again...I say, that is the beauty of homeschooling.. it is not rigid, but instead flexible yet functional. ;-)

Other than keeping track of grade level and grades, not much will change..we've been teaching him since the day he was born...lots to teach with lots of love. ;-)

So, as I decide on what I will be using for curriculum I will share those with you on future posts...

Have a lovely day!

With much love,
Kelly

Kids at Play

 Rocky and I have some silly kids..they must get it from us. I enjoy looking at their unique personalities shining through each and every day. They are growing at incredibly fast rates of speed, and sometimes I secretly wish they came with a pause button.

But, alas...that would not be fair to them if I really could head over to an electronic store and purchase such an attachment. Seriously, watching them grow is amazing. But, kind of sad all at the same time. More happy than sad, of course. But, sad moments do creep in. I think that's normal for parents, right? To say that I will experience severe empty nest will be putting it mildly, I'm sure. ;-)

Anywho...on to some play time..first we start at our apartment. Gotta love the airplane. The kids sure do!

Mr. Firefly doing full airplane with daddy

Miss Sunshine doing a mini airplane with Mama

Exploring a new-to-us park in Gulf Shores

 And of course...Gulf Shores and Orange Beach have some very nice playgrounds for the kids...This one in Gulf Shores even has a skate park..which has Rocky, Mr.Firefly, and Miss Sunshine pretty excited. Maybe I, too, should consider taking up skateboarding. ;-) Hey, why not??

Mr. Firefly LOVES tire swings..

Slides are fun!

Rocky was happy to discover that there is a skate park here., too! Rocky can be really good at hiding his excitement. ;-)

Just a random sign at the park..

Smiling is contagious!

 Playtime wouldn't be complete without a good bath/shower at the end of the day, right? I think this is especially  true when the bath is finished up with a warm comfy robe. Am I wrong?

Miss Sunshine in mama's robe after bath time. ;-)

That's all for now...I will be posting soon what is going on in the world of homeschooling prep-work. Yep, Mr.Firefly will be "officially" starting school soon. Homeschooling is where it is at for this family. ;-)

Stay tuned for the homeschooling post.

Love, Kelly