California!!!

We live far from California but were blessed to be able to visit there.  Hubs works in the Los Angeles area from time to time and has spent extended periods of time there.  For his last trip, we all went!  Our last weeks of the school year were spent in California, and how fun they were!

To read about our adventures, visit the blog I created to journal our journey at http://www.calijournal.blogspot.com/.  I'm not through posting yet.  It's taking quite some time to weed through pictures, edit my writing, and actually post it.  Blogger hasn't been too friendly with me lately. :(

Since the blog displays most recent posts first, I would suggest searching the Blog Archive on the right for Day 1 and go on from there.

I'm anxious to catch up on some blog reading soon, instead of blog writing!

Secular Songs

When my kids are with me, we listen to contemporary Christian songs.  And most of their friends listen to the same songs.  The hours Emily spends each week in gymnastics is different story.  You would think that a YMCA would not allow songs by Lady Gaga to be played.

Here's where this is coming from.  While on vacation, we were flipping through radio stations in the car and in passing, one song immediately caused Emily to sing along.  Come to find that it was a song by Lady Gaga.  Not knowing much about her, I didn't a little research.  All I knew before was that she is freakishly weird.  After just 15 minutes worth of reading, I'm appauled that the YMCA would allow such songs to be played during any program there!  In her songs, Lady Gaga twists Biblical beliefs to promote sin.  It's just horrible.

Our YMCA has comment cards and I definitely plan to submit one.  They probably don't even realize what they are playing.  Most people don't really listen to complete phrases in songs or bother to learn the meaning behind them.  They just hear a catchy beat and think it's a fun song.  I really hope and pray that they will take my comments seriously.

What I Should be Doing but I'm Not

I should be finishing the laundry, washing dishes, and preparing for bed.  Instead, I'm reading and writing.  And before that, I was eating ice cream.  And before that, I was shopping.  What better way to console myself after an unsuccessful shopping trip than to have ice cream loaded with cookie dough?

I was less than enthused about the clothes I tried on.  Oh, they were cute enough.  Just not on me!  Had I stuck to my eating plan in the winter, I might have been happier with what I tried on.  But no, I rebelled.  And am still rebelling... hence the ice cream I had a little while ago.  I can totally relate to Paul when he said "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." (Romans 7:15).

I hate that I'm not more disciplined.  I hate that junk food is much cheaper than healthy food.  And I hate that I have to eat so little in order for the numbers on the scale to be lower.  Regular exercise has been not so regular lately, for various reasons.  It's been rainy and cold, and my gym routine was interrupted by my husbands work schedule and our Relay For Life.

Ok, so tomorrow is a new day.  I will motivate myself to get motivated!  Is that even possible???

Weekly Wrap-Up: Can’t Wait to Return to “Normal”

But really, what is “normal?” Well, I can tell you what it is NOT...

Normal is NOT having a dining room full of stuff in preparation for our Relay…

(This was Thursday.  It looks way worse now!)

We made over 75 bracelets to sell...

My mother-in-law made a quilt for us to raffle off…

We dressed up plain black chalkboards with bamboo to use for signs, in keeping with our safari jungle theme...

We have water, coffee, hot chocolate, flashing fun balls, and various other items to sell. Year after year, I do my best to convince our team that we don’t need a huge variety of things to sell. But everyone gets so excited and we always end up with a ton of stuff!  Next year, I'm pushing for simplicity.

Having said all that, you may have already guessed that not much regular school work happened this week.  I guess you could say we used this as our Spring Break week!  We did do some regular work, just not a lot.

Is anyone else ready for summer???

Linked with Weekly Wrap-Up.

A Day of Pampering

Mother's Day was wonderful for me!  I woke up to receiving gifts in bed: a gift certificate to my salon, a lovely ring made by Emily, and very "special" perfume from Katie (regifted, of course).  I have to be honest, I was happy to wear the ring to church Sunday morning, but I sure am glad that little miss Katie didn't think to ask me to wear the perfome!  I also got a beautiful pot of gerbera daisies, which are my faves!  I'm not sure what I did to deserve all that, but I'm very appreciative.

And did I get pictures of any of this?  No!  Not a single one.  I'm so bummed about that.  I didn't even get a picture of me with my girls.  I'll make a point to do that this week.  It's a must.

Happy belated Mother's Day to all my blogging buddies!  I sincerely hope you had a blessed day.

Weekly Wrap-Up: Gearing Up and Winding Down!

First of all, I'm so ready for warm, dry weather!  I've had enough of all this rain and chilly air.

We are winding down our school year, for the most part.  We have just a few weeks left in MFW Creation to the Greeks.  I have to say, it's kinda boring right now.  I think the best part of this curriculum was learning about Ancient Egypt, with all the pyramids, mummies, the Nile River, etc.  The Bible portion has kept our interest but after Ancient Egypt, the history has just been ok.

As far as MFW First Grade goes, we are lagging behind a bit.  It's so much reading for me, going between the two curricula.  Next year should be much easier on me, doing just one curriculum for both of them.  That's one thing I love about My Father's World! 

We haven't done much in the way of science, other than cooking, weather related discussions, and projects that just "happen."

Math is moving along nicely for Emily.  RightStart is a great fit for her.  Emily is finally starting to get pretty good with multiplication facts.  At this point, most lessons are moving quickly because we skip the parts that Emily already knows.  Makes my life much easier and she's happy to get it done!

For Katie, we've been toggling between The Complete Book of Math and RightStart.  She likes the color of the workbook and I like the lessons in RightStart.  So, we combine them.  She's not big on manipulatives, unless we use Barbies or other things of the sort. :) So the workbook has been nice.

Emily has been working her way through a vocabulary book, which has been great.  I'm glad I started her on it because it's really helping her reading skills.

Speaking of reading... I found a free flashcard download on my new cell phone, so we can work on them where ever we go!  I'm sure Katie will be so excited!!!

And speaking of a new phone... I love it!  The USB socket broke on my old one, so I wasn't able to plug it in to charge it.  What good is that, right?  So, my wonderful husband gave me his old phone that I used until it fell out of my pocket onto the concrete sidewalk last week and shattered the screen.  Well that certainly didn't take long!  It was no secret that I wasn't a fan of that phone, but I honestly didn't mean to drop it!  My plan doesn't allow me to get a new phone until June, but I've been blessed with other people's old phones!  My new one is actually on loan, but it will be the one I end up getting when it's time.

Well, it took me nearly an hour to type this because we have the "Kool-Aid House" which means that kids are in and out constantly!  I don't mind it, but one of them is particularly nosey and kept trying to read as I type.  It's too hard for me to concentrate with someone over my shoulder like that!  I'm thinking that I should join the "extreme coupon" club since we ALWAYS have kids here!

So, we're winding down the school year, but gearing up for our Relay For Life and then for vacation.  Well, it's vacation for the kids and I, but mostly work for my husband.  At least he'll have weekends off!



Linked up with Weekly Wrap Up and Homeschool Highlights.

New Poll

I'm curious to see results from my latest "amusement park" poll.  It's located to the right of my most recent post.  Thanks for participating!