Saturday ~ I am frozen!

The day was spent selling cookies. We had a booth sale scheduled from 9:00 to 1:00 in the morning and from 4:00 to 8:30 in the evening. This is the last weekend of cookie sales (I am SO glad!) so everything had to be sold.

The morning shift was VERY cold and windy. We sold 22 boxes in 4 hours, not good at all. I was very worried. We did not have enough to even pay our cookie bill. We still had over 170 boxes left to be sold during our evening shift. Well God was shining down on us and answered our prayers. Another troop called and asked if they could have some of our cookies. We were able to transfer 9 cases (108 boxes) to them. So for the evening shift we had about 65 boxes to sell. This was more manageable.

We were able to sell all but 11 boxes. I will bring them to the meeting on Monday and hopefully we can all divide them up to get rid of. I now remember why I was never the cookie mom when my older daughters were younger. It is almost too much to be the troop leader and the cookie mom.

When Kalie and I got home we were so COLD from being in the wind all day that we got into pajamas and went to bed. We did watch TV forever (I was ready to go to sleep by 8:30) though.

Friday ~ Icky and rainy.

Today was an icky rainy day! We schooled for a bit in the morning and then I decided we were done for the day. I was getting restless. In our area a local roller skating rink has homeschool roller skating on the 1st and 3rd Friday of the month from 1:00 – 3:00 for $3. We (ok really I) decided that it was time to go. I had been suggesting it for months to Kalie and today was the day.

It was a bit rough at first: with her anxiety, not knowing how to skate and it being very close to the assisted living that Bill had lived in before he died. But … we survived. Had an OK time and will be returning! Kalie has made so much progress in her behavior and dealing with new situations in the past 2 months. I am amazed!

After skating we dropped Kasie off at work and went to Kalie’s favorite store, the “pay by the pound” GoodWill. We got two more games, a few books, some “junky” toys and … 2 pairs of moon shoes. They are this strap on you shoes, be suspended on stretchy bands, walking device. Kalie loved them in the store. Both pairs weighed less than 3 pounds, so for $3 I couldn’t say no. She can’t wait for Hannah to come over and play. LOL!

We went home, let the dog out and played. We ran errands with the dog in tow and picked Kasie up at 10ish. Izzie has been a wonderful addition to our family. Kalie enjoys her so much and she is very loving. She LOVES to ride in the car and take walks with Kalie. She also lays right at your feet if you are sitting in a chair (computer, desk or dining room) but if you are on the couch she wants to lay on you. LOL!

So all in all it was a very good day!

Thursday ~ Stay Home Day!

Today was a wonderful stay home day! I am amazed at how well Kalie is doing in school. When she is given a little bit of “control” she goes above and beyond what I would have required.

A little backtrack… when Kasie and Katie were in the last half of the 7th and 8th grade and then the entire 8th and 9th grades they were homeschooled. I was working full time and Bill was the “daily supervisor”, I made all of the lesson plans and corrected about 1/3 of their stuff with Bill or the girls doing the rest of the corrections. The girls were given their “plans” on a quarterly basis (every 3 months, as we schooled year round). They learned very fast that if they worked really hard, were disciplined and finished early then they would have time off. So by the 3rd 9 weeks, they would work very hard for about 6 weeks and then have almost 6 weeks off. They still had some daily work but a majority of their lessons were completed.

Fast forward 4 years. I am now sharing the “plans” with Kalie. I have given her the option of working hard and long on a few subjects (that she doesn’t like) so she would have to do them less often during the week. She finished the entire week’s math and reading lessons in 2 sittings (instead of 5). Now what she doesn’t know is that most of the games we play during the rest of the week when we are not “doing school” really are learning games. LOL!

When she works hard and fast we also have lots of time to work on lapbooks (we have 5 or 6 going at once right now), our pioneer study and her Animal Notebook (science). These are the things that she loves.

Hope everyone else had a great day!

Wednesday ~ Katie's Birthday!

Katie is 20. I am happy and sad at the same time. My life has changed so much during the past 20 years. I hope I have been the mother that the Lord had intended for her.

We spent the morning on school work and walking the dog. Katie called and said she was not feeling well. She sounded terrible. Her allergies were flared up and giving her lots of trouble. She spent most of the day in bed.

We drove to Anderson (1 hour and 15 minutes away) in the evening to have a Birthday Dinner! She wanted Wedgy’s Wednesday. Wedgy’s is a local pizza delivery/restaurant in our area. They thought we were crazy ordering a sausage pizza with no sauce. Kasie has developed food allergies because of her RSD. She is now allergic to apples, peaches, cherries and tomatoes. So, no sauces with tomato base for her.

We also stopped and picked up an Ingles bakery cake for her. We had the party at Charlie’s moms house (2 blocks from AU) because it was Wednesday so no RSVP for Charlie (he is Katie’s boyfriend of 18 months). RSVP is the time when boys and girls can visit each other in the dorms at AU. It was an interesting party.

Katie loved her gift. Kasie and I went together and bought her an iPOD Nano. Katie was thrilled! She has been hinting and thought she might be getting an iPOD Shuffle, since they had just gone on sale for about $50. But we got her what she really wanted (which was $150). After we were home she called to tell me she was loading songs. I am glad she had a nice birthday.

After the “party” we went to petsmart (in Anderson) to get Izzie new clothes and everyone new collars. (They were having a 75% off sale). Izzie came to the party with us. She did very well riding in the car for so long and then being in a new environment. She is a great dog; we love her already and are very pleased! Izzie got a new coat and a harness. The cats all got collars to put their new ID and rabie vaccination tags on. (Let’s just say, they were not pleased with their presents. LOL!)

On the way home we stopped at Izzie’s old owners to get her shot records and registration papers. It looks as if she was never officially registered with the AKC, so we might have a late fee. But that is ok because then we can name her. The name on the application is Ms. Isabella Stella Kiss Faal. We would change it to Ms. Izadora (something) (something) Williams. Any suggestions?

Am I CRAZY? Chickens in our house?

Okay so let me tell you first off that I am not this huge animal lover. I like them, but do not want to have a zoo. LOL! Three cats, a dog, and a part time fish (it lives in the dorm with Kasie most of the time) are plenty enough for me! Actually they are too much for me. Well … I do not always have the deciding vote in our house. I run a democracy; sometimes I wish it was not. LOL!

While we are at Art class today (Kasie joined us) we played with Ms. Samantha’s chickens again. Ms. Samantha lives in the real country; not the have a big yard with no trees to climb and still have neighbors country like we do (Kalie’s words). Ms. Samantha has a wonderful husband who supports her crazy, eclectic, creative homeschooling adventure. They have a dog, five cats (two who will be having kittens soon), two guinea pigs, two birds, 3 roosters and many chickens! So … while we are there Kasie is talking to Ms. Samantha about her chickens and how cool it is to have chickens just walking around your yard. Somehow (I do not know because I missed the beginning of the conversation) Kasie discovered that you could get baby chicks at the local Feed and Seed for under $5 each. So, guess what Kalie is going to get for Easter. How crazy is this? Ms. Samantha said that when the chick was too old to keep in the house we could add it to her “flock”.

Our homeschool adventure is becoming more and more unschooled. I need help!