Making Fall Trees

The kids are out for the Thanksgiving holidays and I am in a crafty mood. I may get over that quickly depending on how messy things get.

We don't get many fall colors in Southern Cali, but I am doing my part to make sure my southern kids know what fall is all about.

Hopefully this time next year we will be in the Carolinas enjoying Fall in all its glory.

Isn't he cute. Messy hair, SpongeBob shirt and all

Play Ball!

I am a big fan of IAVA (Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America) They are strong advocates of veterans health and educational rights. They push hard on Capitol Hill to get help for all veterans. This summer we were able to get 4 tickets to a Padres game with other veterans. It was amazing and I wish that I had more pictures of the day.


Here are my 2 punks enjoying the game, but really they were just looking for the next snack vendor. It was a beautiful day.

Here is the field from our seats. We did get the chance to move down about 6 or 7 rows. I loved it, but I am a sucker for baseball.

Their 1st Snow Experience

Who would drive through this?

We must be crazy? Right?

But, Look at this face

and this one!

And you know it was worth the climb!

We Love The Putt Putt

He takes golf serious. Cheats like crazy, but its the most excited seriousness you have ever see.

This girl just loves to play. Hates being rushed and loves pink.

Building a plan

As you may can tell from some previous posts that I have been trying to figure out what to do with myself since the kids started school. Their hours vary, so I spend a lot of time at the school and a lot of time traveling to and from the school. Not really on the traveling because it is 2 miles from the house, but it feels that way 'kay!

My problem, was that I wanted to teach my kids. I wanted to be in charge, dangit! Well we all know that when we start making plans and thinking we are in charge, we end up getting a swift kick in the pants. I promise, I have been trying to avoid that.

Patiently (haha) I have been waiting on a plan for my time, my children's time, and what we can do with our downtime away from school.

My thoughts were, what enrichment can I give my kids that they will not be getting in the classroom. Did you see that key word - enrichment! Our time with the kids does not have to be ALL about their school, but about what we can bring into their lives. Aha moment, if you may!

So I am looking at a few resources that will work for my kids (and that will include plain old fun time). You see, I do not want to tie my kids down to more work after being at school and after my oldest had finished her homework. Afterschool homeschooling is not going to work for us.

I am going to build some Bible Study back into their week! I love 1+1+1=1 Rock Stars idea, but I need to modify it a little bit for a 3rd grader, but a lot of the activites my 5 yr old and I can do together.

We also have some gardening plans, camping plans, and many more outings to enjoy. Plus lots of reading, playing games, cooking, and enjoying life. I will let you know how it is going.

Still Summer

It is still summer time to me and we are finally enjoying some down time. Once we got moved in military housing just before 4th of July, we began to feel a bit more settled and ready to enjoy some time of nothing. And we have. The house is set and friends have been made. we get daily use out of the closest playground

We are making some decisions about school. C would like to attend public school this year, I don't blame her one bit. This past year has been difficult on her. We began homeschooling to pull her out of a school situation that she was in. Two moves later, she misses the friendship that she had at school prior to our move from AL to MS. So it has been quite a while since she has had some good girlfriends.

Homeschool is still in our line of sight though. J will be doing a modified preschool/kindergarten program. Basically we are going to beef up the prek stuff, add in things he enjoys, and run off on every bunny trail he would like to study.

We never know what the future holds, so we are mentally preparing for every possibility. C could stay in school or come home, if R deploys we may not stay here at all (we are across country from our family), and J could go into Kinder next year, test into 1st, or stay home and continue homeschooling. Right now, we are living in the summer and not worry about the what ifs.

Hope you are having a fabulous summer. Keep enjoying it.

Free Ice Cream

We went down to Seaport Village today to get our free ice cream scoop from Ben and Jerry's. Thanks you Ben and Jerry's for the ice cream, even the one that C dropped on the ground.


Here is C enjoying my Peanut Butter cookie dough. I got maybe 2 licks off of it before hers hit the ground. She probably could have gotten another one because we had just walked away from the window, but I figured maybe someone was telling me I did not need ice cream. C did let me eat the cone, which is delicious all by itself.

Here is my little man taking a bite out of his Chunky Monkey ice cream. Once he heard the word Monkey, no other ice cream existed for him. He ate every last bite, well except for the drops that ran down his arm, or dripped on the table, or stuck to his face.

Good time was had by all.

The phone takes pretty good pictures.

Getting Ready

It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks and things are not slowing down. We are gearing up for our big move across country. 2 cars, 2 adults, 2 kids, 1 dog, and a fish.

• We have packers coming to do a walk through this week and they will be here on Monday to start packing.
• A haircut for me


• Yard Sale on Saturday.


• My parents coming to visit and pick some things up.


• Final inspection from the housing office.


• Packing for 9 days in different hotel rooms. This has to be done before the packers come on Monday.


• Letting the friends say goodbye.


• Not to mention that we still do not have a place to move to and we are traveling on our faith alone.

What we have done in the last couple of weeks is mind boggling.

• R spent a week in school and then met me at Memaw's house in AL


• Celebrated my Memaw turning 80 years old with out extended family.


• Visited my Dad, had lunch with him, my stepmom, and my brother.


• Took one brother to the other brother's house to get a ride home because his car was in the shop


• Hubby went and visited a friend in Florida


• Spent a few days with my Mom.


• Went to the In-laws to see their new house.


• J got to play golf

• C went to 2 birthday parties


• One kids threw up, the other had a fever.


• Played in the snow. Can you believe that it snowed in AL.

Mind boggling isn't it. The kids are doing great and handling all the pressure and changes like champs. The are pretty good military kids. Mostly they are excited to see their friends in CA. Please keep us in your prayers and we travel these all to familiar paths.

Lost In December

I am feeling a wee bit lost amongst all the posts for homeschool reviews. I am forever thankful that I was chosen to represent The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and Store. The amount of material that we have been able to review is staggering and I did not get chosen to review every item. There are some good folks out there who are reviewing more than me. Bless their hearts. I will be even more thankful come summer and I am not buying as much because of all that I was given. Thank you God!

December is almost over and we have been trying to enjoy it. We had to say no to several invitations because the stress was getting overwhelming. We have seen plenty of Christmas lights, visited Santa, shopped, made gifts for others, sent Christmas cards, attended a children's Christmas party, and laid low as a family.

So much has been happening since R's homecoming back in October that we just had to put a stop to a lot of things. Mostly the running around. We felt like chickens with their heads cut off. We had no direction because we were trying to please everyone and do for everyone. I know that we have hurt some feeling by not attending Thanksgiving and Christmas with other family members but it just was not right for us.

I never realized how much war changes a person. R is not the same person that he was when he left. We are not dealing with major changes just some stress induced moodiness. Thankfully some of that subsided when we moved closer to his work and we decided that the holidays would be spent here this year. I can see the mark that this has left on him and I pray that we can learn to live with the changes. The kids are not sure when to ask him something, because his first response is to say no. I am not sure why, but I was really looking forward to having the kids go to him for some things, but that has proved useless and tear full. SO more patience is needed as we move through this.

To say that we have been busy would be an understatement. Just the fact that R has been home 2 months today and we have moved into a whole new house and town is enough to make my pressure crawl back up. We are settled now and we like where we are. There are new kids across the street and we are relaxing some.

So Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope that you will continue to check in with us. I promise life is happening amongst all the homeschooling.
Amanda

Snow in LA

Can you see the snow coming down through the window. We did go out and enjoy it. It never snows this close to the gulf. My kids have never played in the snow. Well, C had but she does not remember when we lived in North Carolina and it snowed. Not much accumulation, but a whole-lotta excitement.

The Oldies

I finally figured out why I like to listen to Oldies music during the holidays. Yes, that is a little dark secret. I find an oldies station on the radio when I am alone in the car, but I usually only think about it when the holidays get closer.

Well today I had a flash of memories. The town that I grew up in had no shopping and still doesn't. The closest mall, movie theater, and until the early 90's Wal Mart was an hour drive. During the holidays, Mama and I spent many weekends in the car visiting family or going shopping. Now Mama was a child of the 1950's and 60's. She loved Elvis, big hair, and dancing. She used to try to teach my brother and I how to do the twist. In the car, the closer we got to out shopping destination the better we could get the oldie's radio channel. We were ready.

My brother and I probably know the words to more songs from our parents generation than we care to admit.

I will just go ahead and tell you that Mama said that when " Big Girls Don't Cry" came out on the radio they thought that it said " Big Girls Small Fry"

Now, I am a country bumpkin at heart. 9 times out of 10 I am listening to a country music radio station in the car. I don't have a CD player or that would be my down fall. Anyways, my girl loves to sing. Taylor Swift, Sugarland, Hannah, and the Jonas Brothers are her favorite. My boy holds his hands over his ears or just stares at us like we are crazy. What I love is that she will remember the times together when we cranked up the radio to what we are in love with at the time.

They are all precious memories and I hope that I get to see the memories that she will make with her own children some day. What will your children remember? And leave me a comment and tell me what your children like to listen to in the car. I have a 7 yr old and a 4 yr old that don't care one bit for preschool songs.

Have a great day! Amanda

What doing?

We are moved and pretty much settled. Most things are put away, curtains hung, pictures up, and toys sorted. You know what happens when all of that happens, YOU GET ORDERS! We don't have orders yet, but that could happen at any time. We are debating two schools for hubby to attend and we think we have it narrowed down. Now it is a decision on whether or not we would go with him and we can't decide until we know when he is going and for how long. Just gotta love living in limbo.
Today is a beautiful day. We have not found a church and so we went to the park and visited a sports club that has lots of activities for the kids. We love the club, the military discount, and the fact that we can cancel at anytime with our military orders.
Now we have a big week ahead of us, lots of school to catch up on, Thanksgiving, and eventually I have start Christmas shopping. I have some homeschool reviews to complete this week. I still have to call a few people (companies) and change our address.
I do tend to function better when I have a lot of things going on, hopefully I can get them all done.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Next week, I will post a picture of our thankful tree that the kids and I have been working on.

Be Good,
Amanda

It Has Been Forever

We have been so busy since Daddy got home. I feel like I have been neglecting the Internet. Hah!

• We took a 10 day vacation and it was wonderfully relaxing.
• We took a field trip to the Kolomoki Mounds in Blakely, GA. There are some good nature trails and a outdated mini golf that my boy loved.
• We spent a few days with my husband's parents and went trick or treating with cousins. They were so excited all day long and 2 of the were asleep in the car by 7:30pm.

And then we came back home and I am not sure that we have sat down yet. I was doing mountains of laundry when I noticed rat/mouse droppings in many places throughout the house. We have never had mice before so I was beside myself. Then we noticed that our dog was covered in fleas. I have been fighting fleas and we thought we had a hold on it but when your neighbors 3 dogs are not being taken care of things can get out of control quickly. Hubby called base housing and they sent Orkin over to spray. We caught one mouse (he was cute) and I was told to vacuum everyday to get rid of the fleas.

Our surprise from housing was that they had just purchased some townhomes in a community closer to my husband's work. There is not any base housing where he works so he drives 45 minutes each way. Killer on the gas budget. His commute will be 15 minutes each way now.These townhomes are nicer than what we live in now and they are in a regular community. So we begin moving immediately. You may not see me around here for a while, but I will be back. So keep us in your prayers. Take care and see you soon.

Happenings, prayer request and homeschool

It has been nearly a week since I have posted anything. We are just getting busy. Gymnastics has started and both kids go at the same time. We like it so far. There is lots of playground activity right now. The weather is just great to send the kids out. C will stay out there until I make her come in at dark. I can see all the she does from my kitchen and back porch, but I have her trained to stay there or at her friends house next to the park. I can see her there to and the other parents watch out to. It is a good set up for us right now.

Prayer request. A girl in my Sunday School class had her baby 2 months early. She is home and the baby is doing OK in the ICU. This is a very touchy situation, because the father of the children is very abusive. He is out of the picture right now, but tends to come and go as he pleases. Hurting everyone along the way. Please give this girl your prayers that she will be strong for her baby and strong enough to turn this man out of their lives.

I got picked by The Old Schoolhouse to be part of their focus group to review homeschool materials. I am excited. There are about 100 people in this group. This should be fun, no pressure because I am not getting paid for my reviews.

Have a great week.
Amanda

Surviving Deployment - A picnic

Today was a missing Daddy kind of day. Tempers and emotions were on the surface every time I turned around. So I sent everyone upstairs for a few minutes of alone time. Hoping that everything would be back to normal. While making lunch I decided that we needed a picnic lunch, but it is awfully hot out there and the flies are terrible. I put my imagination in over drive and began thinking of somewhere to have lunch that was going to be stress free. I came up with the back of R truck. The garage door that leads into the house had been left open and the garage was cool. So I set up the picnic with a blanket and couch cushions.

C brought her dolls and enjoyed pouring tea for everyone.

My little man was very careful with his tea cup.

The stress level fell and things are better here in the house.

There is not a secret to surviving deployment. You have to be able to take the good with the VERY BAD and improvise. I never would have thought to have a picnic in the back of the truck that is parked in the garage. I knew that the kids needed to talk about Daddy, but I did not push. He came up in our conversations and it was good things. If I had started asking them how they were, or if they missed Daddy, then we all would have been in tears. Hopefully we are under 3 months till Daddy is home and then he will laughingly shake his head at us for having a picnic in his truck. He does not always get out goofiness, but he does participate in our antics.

Time will tell

When your 3 yr old tells you to stand back because this is dangerous. All you can do is laugh. I mean really, how much danger can he cause. J has a hard time remembering that he is only 3 yrs old. Over the last week, he has been the most accident prone kid. He busted his knee open and we had to glue it back together. He got poison (ivy or oak) on his ankle and his foot swelled up. He fell off the bunk beds and was to shocked to cry. J will be 4 soon and I have a feeling that things have only just begun.

We are home from vacation and have been lazy. The suitcases are still packed and laundry is piling up but I am not motivated. I did manage to wash the dog again because she has picked up fleas.

Our 4th of July was fabulous but my camera is messed up so there are no pictures. We sat on the beach in the breeze and watch fireworks in every direction.
Hope you have a great weekend. Amanda

Summertime

Swimming at the pool
Enjoying something?

Oh My! Have we been busy! The pool is open, the kids are out of school, and we have to much going on. We still have to get through our dance recital and then I am free. We do not have any big summer plans, what about you? What are you and yours up to this summer? We will be visiting some family and counting down the days for our daddy to return. Then we will have a family vacation. What is a good vacation for the fall? Some place the whole family can enjoy. Let me know what your ideas are.

Have a great day. Amanda

What a week

On top of keeping the laundry caught up because I am worried that R might get the call to report. We have had a pretty good week and great weather for spending some time outside. My little man made a new friend and has decided that he wants to spend all his waking time with him. He is a sweet boy from down the street and we have enjoyed getting to know him and his family. On top of that, her husband is deployed as well and so we will have something in common.
My gal, C, is going to see Horton Hear a Who today. I am so excited for her. She has read the book and is ready for the adventure.
I have no idea what the weekend holds. I got a bunch of books at the library so if anything maybe I can sit in sun and read a book. We might definitely have to take a walk on the beach, play in the sand, and fly our kites.
Have a great weekend

Weekend Plans

We have been here a month and a half and already we are cleaning out the garage. We are also cleaning the clutter out of the house and it has taken up residence in the garage. Today it was moved to the garbage can.
We also have been listing things on ebay.
We have been to the Humane Society thrift store once to drop off some stuff.
Now I need the motivation to get through some paper work around here and put up, throw away, and shred.
Exciting times here.
This weekend I am hoping that the weather keeps up and we can try out a new park that I saw and maybe a walk on the beach. There is a thrift store I want to dig through. We bought Checkers for C last weekend at Goodwill and so we have a little rivalry going on. She is a bit of a sore loser but we are working on it. I blame the grandparents for always letting her win. On top of that we are trying out a new church on Sunday.
That is about it for us.
What are your weekend plans.

Kodak Printer Giveaway @ Sprittibee

I have been drooling over the Kodak Printer that Sprittibee is offering the chance to win. We have been out and about the last couple of weekends enjoying some fall weather. Here are a few pictures that we took along the way.

Is this one big enough? Taken by me.

I can drive this tractor if you would just give me the keys. Please! C took this picture.

Never Mind, I will just see how dirty I can get. C took this picture.

Georgia Aquarium, AWESOME. Penguin exhibit is up close and personal. Check out my little man noticing the poop. Dad took this picture

Look MOM! Jellyfish just like from Nemo! C took this picture as well.

"I'm entering the Fall Five Kodak Printer Give-Away at Sprittibee's Blog. Kodak and Sprittibee are giving away an EasyShare 5300 printer!"

We are looking into getting a better camera. C loves to take pictures and I am looking for ways to help her express and learn more. We need a good computer program so that she and I can learn some editing and creative ways to improve the pictures that we take. Any ideas???