Halloween Scrooge!!!! That's me!

If I had to pick my least favorite holiday, it would be Halloween, hands down! I don't remember ever really liking it. I grew up in a small UT town with a high elevation (= cold at Halloween so snowsuit worn over costume while trick or treating) and Halloween was just not a whole lot of fun. Our little elementary school would hold a carnival for Halloween and there was always a costume parade.....you know the drill, witches, princesses, pirates, ghouls, etc. all parading around the cafeteria/gym so the parents could take pictures.

I was a very shy little girl and what I wanted most was to have a really pretty princess or genie costume like all the other little girls. I probably didn't tell my mom that because she had her own idea. Taking a costume I had worn in the 24th of July parade, she had me wear green tights, a leafy green costume and a leafy green hat and I got to go to the costume parade dressed as Niblet. Who? Oh, yes, the Jolly Green Giant's little helper.

I'm sure that other years I had lovely costumes, I just don't remember them. I only remember the trauma of being a little green plant for Halloween.

Since then, I've harbored much distaste for this holiday and I have not done much in the way of fun for my own kids. We've carved pumpkins every so often, we've never done a corn maze, I don't buy costumes, we don't decorate much for it. In short, I've done all I can to make it boring. My husband, bless his heart, is trying to make it fun for them this year. Yesterday he took them all the Punkinland and let them each pick out whatever pumpkin they wanted. Then he helped each of them carve them and light them to decorate our porch. I watched and took pictures.

I'm trying to have a better attitude about it. I let the girls pull out all the decorations we have (that's what you get for presents when you have an Oct birthday like me. Yay!! Not!) and dress up our house a bit. I found WAY cheap costume makings at the dollar store and today I got those ready to go. Just need to get a bit of candy and we're set, I guess. Maybe next year, I'll even spring for the corn maze................

Here's a few pictures of the kids artwork(excuse the shaky photography, my camera is not good with night pictures). Hope you have a safe and

fun(?) Halloween.

I've been on a winning streak!

This has been such an interesting year for me. Normally, I would not consider myself lucky when it comes to winning contests and things. In fact, I remember playing blackjack with my roomies and some friends when I was at college, using our spare change. I lost everything I had, everything I dug out of my car and all that my friends loaned to me, before I gave up. When I married my husband, I told him he better never take me to Vegas, cause I'm unlucky.

But this year, I have won prizes in four different blog contests. The first was on Wendy Anderson's blog and she gave away an awesome box of scrapbook supplies. The next was on Christy Tomlinson's blog and she gave me all the makings of a sweet little scrapbook. The last one I won was on Kristi Bennett's blog. I haven't received the prize yet, but I've seen pictures and it's a darling, handmade decor item. She's very crafty, hehe!

The biggest thing I've won, though, is a set of 5 organizing bags given away by Lara over at The Lazy Organizer. I've been wanting to post pics of them to show how I'm using them, but I keep changing what's in them. I guess that's the beauty of them, they are so totally usable and versatile. So I will post the pics I have now and tell you how much I'm loving them. So much, that I'm sure I'll be placing an order for some more in the near future. Thanks, Lara!

This is the BIG organizing bag. It's perfect for taking along a couple of diapers, wipes and books for a car trip or to church. I am SO glad to not be hauling around that huge diaper bag anymore.

This is that same bag, but it has my knitting in it, hopefully to keep little hands from pulling the needles out of the knitting and driving mother crazy.

This is the JUST RIGHT bag, holding the current book we are reading and writing materials to make notes. I like the vertical orientation of this bag!

This is the TEENY TINY bag and it is perfect for carrying around my plastic cards, stamps, cash and change in my purse. I like that it has a handle so I can quickly grab it out of my purse.

Currently, my makeup resides in the SMALL bag and the EXTRA LARGE bag holds some of my larger study materials. I'm sure I'll continue to use them in different ways, I'm still finding many other uses for them.

Leadership Education

In the last few months I've made some pretty dramatic changes in the way I look at education and my role in it as a parent. I made the choice to withdraw my girls from a private school where they had been attending for 2 years and bring them home to home educate them. In the midst of trying to determine what in the world I was doing, I did tons of reading and online research of different philosophies of home education. I found things that I liked in each philosophy but wasn't sure which direction to go. Then I read "A Thomas Jefferson Education" by Oliver DeMille and found there the guiding priniciples that 'spoke' to me, allowing me to pull from the different philosophies what felt 'right' to me and incorporate all of them into our home education adventure.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Shanon Brooks, who is the CEO of George Wythe College, which was founded by Oliver DeMille. The college is expanding and building a new campus in my hometown on land that was once owned by my parents and this was an opportunity to gain a greater understanding of what the college is about and how it will impact my hometown. I was so motivated and inspired by what I heard, and if I could I would sign myself up as a freshman today! But since that is not possible, what I can do is to begin to educate myself so that I am better prepared to guide my children as they start on their own education journies. One of the keys to a Thomas Jefferson Education is to "Inspire, not require!" and that is what I came away from that seminar feeling like I needed to focus on. If I undertake to educate myself and share my excitement about the learning process and what I am learning, it can't help but inspire my children to want to learn, too!

Off I go!

Sort of SMART!

How did this week go? Last week's habit to work on Study Time for me got off to a pretty rocky start. I am much too easily pulled away by my kids and all the things going on in the house. Life, I guess you could call it. I need to actually put it on my schedule, and tell everyone that I have an appt. I think that's what I'll do this week.

I started homeschooling my girls this year and we started out pretty well, but with all the house stuff we've been working on, we have lost our consistency on our start time. So this week, my new habit to work on is to:
Stick to our morning routine and start time for school
No more computer time in the a.m. for me, no more fiddling around for the girls before we get started. It just throws the whole day off.

My habits:
Daily a.m. prayer ~ Still needs work, doing better though
Study Time ~ Make an appt for it and put it on the calendar, tell family I have appt.
Consistent start for school ~ remind girls of our routine and set example myself.

Happy Birthday Snow!

Yah, it's my birthday today and what do I get? SNOW! Do I like snow? Not really. I like the look of it, it's the feel of it that chills me.

Seriously, I do like the first snow of the winter. It is always fun to sit at the window and watch the flakes fall gently down and, if we're lucky, watch them start to turn the ground white. I remember the first winter we were back in Utah after living in AZ for 8 years. The first snowfall was on a Sunday morning and I yelled to the kids to run to the window and look. I had four kids at the time and most of them had only seen snow 2 or 3 times, that they could remember. They were pretty excited. There was a little bit of excitement today as well. My 3rd boy and two oldest girls went out in it and played some football with a neighbor and got absolutely soaked. They came in smiling, with rosy cheeks and dripping hair, saying, "That was so much fun!"

I think I'll let them have that kind of fun. I'll stick to watching it out the front window, sitting right over the heater vent and wearing my favorite wool sweater.

Talk about Tuesday 10/16

He finally grew out of the little crib he's been in since his birth. Which was just supposed to be temporary anyway. When he was born, the seventh child, there just wasn't room anywhere in this house for a full sized crib. So we got by with a small one, but when we noticed that his head and his feet touched the ends of his crib, we decided it was time for something a bit bigger. Luckily, my friend had a spare toddler bed we could borrow for now, because there still is no room for another bed. Maybe when his oldest brother leaves home next year, we'll move him up to a big boy bed. For now, this works great!

SHS-Oct 13 edition

That little sign at the foot of my bed really worked well. I only missed one day of morning prayers, (today)because I wasn't sleeping in my own bed last night. C and I had a mini vacation at the Hampton Inn to belatedly celebrate our 20th anniversary. Aug was just too busy to get away.

Anyway, I'm going to add:

STUDY TIME

to my list. In trying to implement the principles of TJEd into our home and life I need to be modeling what I want my kids to do. If I want them to be interested in studying, I need to be doing it first. I have a plan, I just need to schedule time to do it, which I haven't been doing. So I'm going to take an hour each afternoon to study for me!

UEA!

This used to be one of my favorite 'words' (I know it's not a word, but you know what I mean) because it meant a break from school and, for us, growing up in the hinterlands of So. Utah, a trip to the 'city' to visit cousins. My mother was a school teacher but I do not remember her ever going to the UEA convention, which is what the break is for, but she always loaded us up in the car and headed north to see her siblings. I have fond memories of those times in the car, stopping for chocolate milk, powdered donuts and jerky on the way, with my mom and my sisters. There were also lots of fun times with my cousins. My uncle and aunt were always so good to let us come stay for the weekend. My memories include pizza and root beer from Brick Oven, (which I was too picky to eat, so I got Spaghettios,--what was I thinking?) going to Arctic Circle late at night for fries and fry sauce and sitting on my uncle's bedroom floor to watch M*A*S*H, trips to the Mall to shop and playing 'horse' on the basketball court.

UEA is not my favorite word these days. I still like the break and so do my kids, but I'm thinking I'll just start calling it Fall Break. Don't know where you stand on the voucher issue, or if you care at all, but I do not appreciate the control the UEA and NEA are trying to wrestle from us over our own children. I do not think vouchers are the magic pill that will solve educational problems, but I do believe that parents ought to have a choice and if vouchers make it a bit easier for some to make a different choice, then that's a good thing. We ought to have a right to use our tax money in a way that we think best for our family.

Off the soapbox, and back to the family. It hasn't been a fabulous Fall Break, but we have enjoyed time together. I took the two oldest boys to the eye dr. yesterday and got them fixed up with contacts and glasses. OUCH! So much for 2 pair for $69.99! Thursday evening we went up to South Fork Park with C's BIL and co-worker and their kids and hiked about a mile up a small canyon and found a nice clearing to roast a hot dog and have smores. It was a beautiful hike and I wish I had been there two weeks early. The ground was absolutely covered with red maple leaves. It would have been gorgeous for pictures. I'll have to remember that for next year. I was the lone woman, my SIL has 6 mo old twins and didn't want to haul them up, and the co-worker's wife has a 4 mo old and didn't want to bring him. Oh, well, I could have stayed home, but I wanted out of the city too!
Today we are going to go to an ice cream place. We were going to go for FHE last Monday, but it got too late, so that's on tap for today. That and going to see Great-Grandpa who turns 98 today!!!

Enjoy your FALL BREAK!!

It's a Blooming Miracle!

I truly can't believe it. After 4 years of dirt, we have a green backyard again!

I can't tell you how much smiling I've been doing at the thought of grass back there again. Smiling, that is, between grimaces from the pain of my sore arms and shoulders from raking up all the blasted rocks that this piece of ground produces.

Here's a picture of the before and after......









Before............








After.............

Sorry this is a day late for Talk about Tuesday, but, ahem, I was rather busy raking rocks.

For more information about Talk About Tuesday, click on it.

I'm jumping back on the bandwagon!

I fell WAY off the SHS bandwagon last spring when things started to get crazy with end of school and summer approaching. But I am going to jump back on this week and try to finish out the year. I figure if Lara can do it from her bed(poor girl) then I have no excuses.

I'm going back to the very most basic habit I need and that's

daily personal prayer

I've been almost 100% on evening prayers, but that a.m. prayer thing just doesn't happen as often as it should and heaven knows I need that help throughout the day. I think I'm going to write on the whiteboard on the wall at the foot of my bed, "Did you Think to Pray?" Maybe that will catch my eye as I wake up in the morning.....Can't hurt, right?

Really excited for Talk about Tuesday, as well.

Octubre!

Wow, I can't believe how quickly time is passing by. I want to make a more diligent effort to post frequently, but it's hard because my computer died and M takes the laptop to school and DH takes his to work. I usually get a few minutes on the computer a couple of evenings a week. I'll just have to remember to blog when I do get some computer time.

I think things are going better with homeschool. The girls aren't complaining so much anymore about being bored and they are finding things to do when there is time for them to do so. DH and I sat down with each of them last night and had them write down a few things they would like to work on and learn in the next month or two. Now they can just pull out that sheet when they are looking for something to do.
Today C started putting together a babysitting kit for herself. She won't be 12 until next Sept, but she's really excited about being able to babysit. She has decorated a box and filled it with lots of fun things. She'll be a great babysitter, she is very good with children.
S wanted to learn about animals and she loves to draw so she decided that she would like to make a book about animals and illustrate it. Today she cut up some paper sheets and stapled them together and drew about 15 animals in it. We need to spend some time gathering the written information for her to put in it. Must be time to visit the library again.
H decided that she would like to read more of Shakespeare's works. I do have a Lamb's Tales, which is a simplified version of some of Shakespeare's plays, which I am going to have her start reading. That will kill two birds, learning more about some of his works and getting some reading in. I think I'll also encourage her to do some oral reports on them as she finishes each one.
I am feeling so good about what is taking place here. They are starting to be more helpful around the house and I am starting to enjoy having them around me as I work. I have enrolled them in a club called The Princess Academy. It is a book review/service activity club hosted by Donna G. Last week was our first meeting and we all gathered and got acquainted and had a nice potluck lunch. I had told the girls how I needed the morning to go so that we could get there on time, and I was absolutely shocked when they all got up, ate, & got in the tub together. Then they got dressed in their dresses, fixed their hair and helped me with the veggie tray we were taking. They were then ready to do some reading so we could finish up Little House on the Prairie which was our discussion book for the month. It thrilled me to the core to see them step up and do what needed to be done without ONE, SINGLE, SOLITARY word from me that morning. There is hope!

In other news, my oldest son, J, was made an elder a couple of weeks ago and is attending missionary prep classes. I hope he has enough money to go on his mission in Feb. He also received word last week that his Eagle Scout project was accepted by the BSA and we will be having an Eagle Scout Court of Honor soon. It's nice to see him becoming such a fine young man.

The other boys are doing great in school. We had P/T conferences last week and got good reports. If they will keep up with the assignments, they will have a terrific year. They each have a wonderful teacher. Looked up info on Driver Ed and learner permits for M. We need to get him going on that soon. He's not too excited, but I need to have another driver after J leaves.....I enjoy having someone other than myself to run errands.

JS is growing up so fast. He is an absolute joy to us. He keeps us laughing and smiling at his funny words and deeds. He has really begun to talk a lot and it sure is nice being able to understand him. He got a bike recently and he loves to ride it outside. He loves books, cars and tractors, and boxes. He recently was playing with Duplo blocks and made a gun. He's definitely a boy!