It's been a cold week here in Kansas. I'm ready for spring and flowers rather than ice.

My old header.

I finally got a face lift on my blog. I have been needing to do this for around a year now. My blog was giving me issues and things were just not working anymore. I have been working with The Cutest Blog on the Block and Amanda has done an amazing job. 

I actually had no idea what I wanted or what colors! I just told Amanda the style of blog I like, I wanted a tree or a tree of life, and one little honey bee (for my daughter). I was amazed at what she came up with as my mind was blank! All I knew was it was time for a face lift. 

The blog looks so much cleaner and not so busy. I still have a few hiccups with signatures as the previous designer had my old signature in an place that it didn't disappear when we created the new one. So you may run across double signatures on some post for awhile. I'm slowly removing it. I'm adding more labels to my navigation bar and cleaning up some of my post.

We have been enjoying the newest edition to Heirloom Audio and For The Temple. You can read more about it next week in my review! 

My son is reading our newest review The Secret of The Hidden Scrolls. We have book three and four.

We finished up Old Yeller earlier this week and are now reading Nate Saint On a Wing and a Prayer for our read out loud. I love this story and was excited to read it again with the kids.

 

Twitch always has to be involved in everything that revolves around school. He wasn't too found of vinegar and ran way and then came back as he's too curious to stay away too long.
 

Bug has been doing lots of experiments with Apologia Human Anatomy. Currently she is learning about bones and is doing a vinegar and water experiment with a chicken bone.

I made a hammock for our cats awhile back and they have both been ignoring it. I was about to take it down since it wasn't being used. I guess Mercy couldn't resist it any longer and decided it was comfortable.  

We have had lots of ice. I fell on the ice while taking out the trash. I'm pretty sore and bruised my whole arm and hip. I'm grateful I don't have any broken bones.
 

The ice is beautiful to photograph. I love the icicles.
 

The ice looks interesting on the car window. Ice reminds me of what an amazing God we have. He is just so creative and his creation is so amazing to look at.

Little Man has been playing around with the camera a lot this week. I'm like the surprises I see when I see what he came up with.

The cats are always an object of his attention with the camera too. Twitch is camera shy and is actually hard to get a face picture of.

I hope you have a wonderful week. 

It's been a cold week here in Kansas! I'm ready for spring already. We keep missing all the snow as it's been all west and north of us. The birds keep pecking at the bird bath. I keep pouring water in it daily and every morning it freezes over. 

I'm getting a blog makeover sometime in the next two weeks! I'm so excited to get something new and fresh after 6+ years. I can't wait to see the designs that they come up with! My blog has been not cooperating lately.

Twitch and Mercy are finally starting to really get along. Or maybe I need to rephrase that. Mercy which is on the right is finally excepting that Twitch isn't so bad and mothers him and plays with him now.

Bug started Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology last year and decided that she needed to learn about rocks and minerals instead. She was pretty stuck on it after a review we did on dinosaur bones. I figured it wasn't worth making her do it. Since she was so excited about rocks and minerals suddenly. Having a child with Autism and special needs is always an adventure.

My son ended up working through it instead. She wanted to start at the beginning again.

This week we have been learning about our skeleton and how important bones are. Her first clay person was floppy like jello. 
 

 She added toothpicks to make her clay person more sturdy.

She had him doing a happy dance since he was all better now.

We had a feast at our congregation for Tu Bishvat. I'll talk about it in another post. It was a lot of fun and not to mention delicious.

How is your week going? 

This year we have had some great books and curriculum's the kids have really enjoyed. 

We just finished up reading, "The Great Turkey Walk" by Kathleen Karr. We read it as a read-aloud and it was a huge hit with the kids. I read it when I was younger and was hoping the kids would like it as much as I did.

Our next read-aloud is Old Yeller by  Fred Gipson. I read it to the kids when there were much younger but, they don't remember it. The kids wanted me to read it again and then watch one of the movies afterwards.

365 Fascinating Facts About Israel by Clarence Wagner is a huge hit and we have been reading it for almost 3 years. It's broken up sort of like a devotional. A few times a week we read one day. Each day is usually a short paragraph or two. Right now we are on day 349 and we are almost done with the book. The kids wanted me to find another book similar to it but, I haven't found anything yet. The kids are thinking I should start at the beginning again and just read it over! I told them we will shelf it when we are done and see about it next school year.

From Adam to Us from Notgrass is amazing. We broke it up in two years and do it three times a week and sometimes twice if we have a hectic schedule. I read it out loud to both kids. With my daughters disabilities she would struggle reading it. My son does the timeline, maps, and the workbooks for it. 

The workbooks would overwhelm my daughter. She loves me  reading and can tell me what I read out-loud to her.

A surprising favorite of my daughters this year is Memorial Press and their "The United States" geography book. Writing is hard for her but she loves this and some assignments takes her several days. I let her go at her own pace.

What have you been doing in your homeschool that you and your kids enjoy?

We started school this week. It's so hard to believe how fast my kids are growing up. I'm so excited to get in a routine with school this year.

 My sweet Bug is almost 14 and in 8th grade. It can't be so I just remember her starting pre-school.

Well not everyone is so excited about school. I think he's tired of me snapping pictures.

 We made a whole lot of lip balm this week.

 It's so easy to make.

 Bug was interviewed for our local newspaper about the county fair and her 4-H projects.

 We got to enjoy a mamma deer and her 2 does.

 Precious aren't they.

Did I mention it was a long week?

It's been a busy last two weeks around here. It's been extremely hot here in Kansas and it's not even July! I have been digging holes for plants and painting the outside of the house some. We have put the final touches on the 4-H projects for the fair! I'm so glad the 4-H projects are completed other than baking bread for the food project for the fair.

 We had a friends son do his Bar Mitzvah last week. He did an amazing job. I had fun taking pictures for them during this special time.

 Mercy found a new sleeping place and wasn't at all happy when I had Little Man put the game up. So we let her have it for a bit longer.

 My daughter blessed me when I seen her prayer journal this week. I knew when I recieved this prayer journal that it would be perfect for my sweet little girl with a heart of gold.

Our congregation is actively looking for a building to call their own as they have been renting the place we are in now. The congregation is  averaging 170+ people a week and still growing. The hard part is finding a building to hold around 300 people. 

My sweet Bug made it a point to add it to her prayers when she heard them asking for prayer to find the perfect location for them. 

Bug thinks Mercy is praying also as she likes to lay on the prayer journal often. I love looking at the world through the eyes of a child with special needs as it's so precious.

 I am ready for Shabbat tonight. I pray you have a wonderful week.

This has been a fun filled busy week. The Homeschool Convention was last Friday and Saturday. I love going to the convention and seeing people I haven't seen for awhile. Of course, looking at all the homeschool products is always so much fun.

This year I felt extra blessed being able to review on The Old Schoolhouse Crew. It has helped my homeschool budget tremendously. They have had some amazing vendors so far this year. It gets even better and we aren't even half way throught the Crew run. I think after three years I finally figured out how to  make the review items be a part of our homeschool even after the reviews. Sounds crazy but, not as easy as it may seem when you have several reviews going at once and more on the way. It just took awhile for me to get into the flow of the reviews. My kids get excited also with reviews and know what to expect. They get to learn topics that I wouldn't of ventured into with such depth.

 It was actually busy this year with a great line up of speakers. I did some workshops on Friday. I was planning on doing some on Saturday it just didn't happen.

 I  love Rainbow Resource. It's the first vendor I visit every year. They get so crowded that I like to get in there when I walk into the door. I always venture back there a few times to pick up things.

I was able to introduce myself to one of our vendors we worked with on the TOS Crew, Here to Help Learning. Little Man was the one who used her writing program. Wow, I have bags under my eyes!

 Little Man went with me on Friday to help with some of his curriculum. It was fun being with him. Bug stayed with Grandma. She would of been a handful with all the noisy and the rows of books and toys. She would of been throwing temper tantrums and wanted everything!

We went on a nature walk at one of our favorite places. We go there often. The weather was nice enough to actually stroll through the park.

I love the flowing trees this time of the year. Little Man was taking the pictures at the park.

Bug begged him to take this picture. He got a nice shot of the goose I think. It was a windy day and you can see the water rippling with the winds.

Little Man likes to put lines of some sort into his pictures. I never realized that this fence has the curved boards prior.

We did spring maintance on the beehives this week and reversed the brood boxes. The middle hive had quite a few queen cells. We should of made a split but, I didn't have all my equipment with me. I ended up adding an extra super to see if that may tempt them to stay. I doubt it but, I will check after the rain passes this coming week. Hopefully I can prevent them from swarming and get there before they take flight. They like to take off after a few days of rainy weather I read in a few books.

We are making homemade paper for an upcoming review with ARTistic Pursuit.

We put flowers in this one to give it a different affect.

Little Man's expression says it all. He thought it felt pretty disguising. Bug thought it was a lot of fun.

Sitting in the mold waiting for us to do the next step.

Yes, we have been making a lot of paper. This is around 2 weeks worth of paper making.

I thought the colors looked pretty.

I had to put Mercy into here. She was relaxing and enjoying the birds outside the window.

Zeezok Music Appreciation Book 1 Collection. Little Man has really enjoyed learning and listening to music for Paganini. He has even enjoyed the lapbook. He has frowned with lapbooks the last two years. I haven't' done one for awhile due to lack of interest.  This is an upcoming review that Little Man wants me to do the rest of the musicians after the review period. I may spread them out over two years so he will continue to enjoy lapbooking.

Bug is taking a quiz for language arts. She is thinking real hard!

Little Man is reviewing his times tables by writing them down on paper when I quiz him. He is actually checking his work.

IEW Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization. This is another upcoming review that my kids really have enjoyed and we plan on continuing after the review period. Little Man is dramatizing the poem and adding in a lot of emotion. He is a silly kid that likes to make you smile.

We had another good productive week in school along with a few laughs. We are trying to finish up a few things so we can do just a few things in the summer. Most likely it will consist of reviews and basics. Have a blessed week.