New Orleans Bound

The Senior High youth raised $20,000 for their trip to New Orleans in just 1 year!!!! I am so very proud of all them as well as my son The Ark who is going with them. Our cost = $150. and whatever time and donations for dinners or bake sales…..not a bad price. I am so excited for him to be going. Yesterday we had one last meeting and have a tentative schedule for the week although many details are still up in the air. Here is what I know now:

• He leaves on July 14~ time to be determined.
• He arrives in New Orleans on July 15~ it is app. 23 hours of being driven in a bus
• They get there, check in, shower, stretch out, go out for food, devotions, bed by midnight
• July 16~ Continental breakfast, sightseeing~TBD, nap, dinner, evening activities, devotions, bed
• July 17~ same as July 16,
• July 18~ Breakfast at Cafe du Monde, trek to Superdome to re-register for the National Youth Gathering. evening~ Gathering activites: Tailgating, Opening Dome, Community Life, Final Fifteen, back to hotel
• July 19-21: The Ark’s group is listed as purple, and the only thing I know about that is that on Friday they will be practicing Justice, I know that one day is a service project day, when they will be out in the community doing work. Evening events are the same as above.
• July 22~ Closing Worship Ceremony~ board bus for home
• July 23~ arrive home at some time

I still have to get him a few things:

1. A hat
2. Super strong waterproof sunscreen
3. bug spray
4. sunglasses
5. and I have to make him a student id card~ so he can get into tourist stuff with a student discount~ using PEAH for that
6. A waterproof camera~ I can’t afford the nikon coolpix but will get him this
   

Before I know it he will be getting on that bus and I will be requesting prayers for safe travel and for the Ark to come home renewed by the Holy Spirit. He is very excited about going as am I.

Field Trip to the Cleveland Museum of Art

Create your own slideshow

So I am already tired of being so educationally driven that I dragged my husband and our 4 children plus my daughter Renee and her two daughters off to the Art Museum….The Ark was in charge of picture taking with my iphone and he needs to stop shaking but you get the drift. The boys made numerous comments about all the nudity and the Princess walked around quite a bit peaking from behind her hand, She just kept saying “this is inappropriate for little kids, Mom”…..but she really enjoyed the furniture and can now say she has seen a few Van Gogh’s, A Cezanne, Monet, Renoir, Gauguin, and quite a few other painters…even a few Picasso’s…….. Oh yes, thanks to Donna I remembered something else the Princess said today, we were looking at all the fancy chalices, both silver and gold and she said that Jesus wouldn’t have drank from any of them because they were to fancy,

The museum was still standing after we left but it will be a while before we try that again!!!!

Blessings…..

So last week Kristy offered up a iPod Nano and some school books, she no longer wanted to any takers ( I jumped at the chance, I guess I can be very competitive under the right circumstances). The Princess has long wanted an iPod anything because she loves contemporary Christian music, like her mom and [...]

Life is happening whether I want it or not……

So, I’m still tired and the hand still hurts and I’m still trying to get it to move without re-injuring it, not that easy by the way. I’m getting grouchy from having to go to dr. visits and therapy every week, even though it is a necessary evil at the moment, it just eats up so much of my day right now, and will until I get range of motion and strength back. and I’m so not happy that both of my ears are hurting and today my throat started hurting as well, hoping that the pain goes away soon. Sleeping is rough when one is in pain.

I really need to get into a summer routine but it hasn’t happened yet and that is starting to get to me a bit I think. I haven’t been able to study as much, since I’m so busy or so tired, I can’t think….and I’m thinking about adding another class this fall. I have only one more required psych class and I’m taking it this fall, I have 22 upper level credits to take and since I already have 8 credits in sociology, I might take the remainder credits in soc. and have two degrees when I graduate, but the glitch is that I want to do a senior honors project and that means 6 extra psy credits, and there are two psy. classes I’m thinking of taking as well to help me get into grad. school. So if I decided to take this route, for  4 semesters of college I will be taking 4 classes and swamped but I like the thought of doubling up on my degrees. I have realized that I’m a social psychologist and combining the two is perfect for me. But oh the work and stress of it all……the only other reason I’m considering this? From 12-16 credits the tuition remains the same, so why not take the extra few classes and have a better chance of grad school? So, in case you haven’t realized this yet….I’m just plain crazy…….

Tomorrow starts swim team for the boys and swim lessons for all 4 of them. We have to be at the pool by 8:45 am and won’t leave until about 11:15 am. The little ones will play on the playground until it is time to get them ready for their lesson at 10:30, the boys will be done at 10:15, change and then they get to read while the littles are in swim lessons. Then when we get home, they can eat and do some schoolwork.

As for school, I’m thinking of just working on grammar, spelling, math, science, history, reading and latin for the summer. I know that sounds like a lot but as we finish a subject, they will be done with it until we start our new year on Aug. 24…..I know that I am giving them a break of 18 days total counting weekends from Aug. 6-Aug. 24, just so that they can have a bit of free time and so I can get a break myself since I start back for fall semester on Aug. 22.

Renee is going to visit Jasmine this week but only for 4 days, she said that if I chip in for gas money, she would take The Ark and Ace too. I’m going to let them go, since they were really disappointed about not going this summer. So they will spend weds. night at Renee’s and leave about 4 am, and then be home late Sunday night. I will pick them up early Monday morning for swim. I’m hoping even a short vacation will help them be a bit more relaxed. The Ark is having some growing pains being a new teenager lately and I think time away from the littles will be nice for him.

Both boys are going to camp in July for 5 1/2 days. I drop them off on Sunday afternoon and pick them up at 5pm. Giving them another short break from the littles and school. I’m trying to give the Ark a break since he has to babysit when I’m in school and it is alot of responsibility. He is also going to be going to more youth group activities this summer since he is going to the National Gathering next year with our church. That means he has to be very involved in the fund raising activities and there are a lot of them!!!! The other issue is that he will still be in confirmation with all of those requirements: weekly sunday school/church, sermon notes, weds night classes and the once a month activities for them…..yes, my son will be overwhelmed by life But it will be good for him. I am however a bit worried about how we are going to make it all work, hoping the Lord provides the strength, energy and perseverance on all of our parts.

Haven’t gotten anywhere yet with the patio, it was too hot or no time, and the doctor bills are rolling in, so I’m not sure if we will have the money for the stones now but at least the ground will be prepped for when we can afford them. We had to buy a few tomato plants since all the rain killed our plants that we had started indoors except for the bean plants, strawberries and the one jalapeno plant. So we added 4 tomato plants, 2 pepper plants, and a cilantro plant. We will see how they grow this year. we raised the bed about 5-6 inches so I”m hopeful that will help them.

We finished reading Mr. Popper’s Penguins to the littles and the Princess saw a commercial for the movie and cried when she heard Jim Carey, say he hates penguins. So my little sensitive artist doesn’t want to see the movie and said that the movie should be more like the book and that they shouldn’t do that to good books. She is such an Artist and so sensitive about those things.

The husband and i went through the kids clothes this week and worked on their rooms, got rid of two bags for giveaway, one bag to my daughter Renee, one bag to save for the Princess and the Peanut, I was so happy, until I realized that I have a ton of clothes to wash and go through yet…..it never seems to end for me some days.

Well I guess I should end this and do something constructive but it is 7:50 pm and I have been up since 5:30 this morning and my brain is not co-operating anymore…..I had nursery duty at church today, then the boys had a job of weeding for grandma, while I picked up a few things at Michael’s craft store. Then I had to take Kendra to the mall, then we went to Renee’s to celebrate the birthdays: Ivette and the Peanut, we didn’t get home until after 5pm. Just a busy crazy day for us…..what a nice way to start a busy crazy week…..oh well Latin is easy enough at the moment to do for a bit.

next year’s schoolbooks

Let’s do this by subject so I can make sure I haven’t forgotten anything.

Math~ All of the kids use MUS~
The Ark will be doing Pre-algebra Honors
Ace is finishing up Gamma by June and then moving onto Delta, *he is still behind in math*
The Princess just started Beta, so it will be awhile before I need to buy her a new book,
The Peanut will be moving onto Alpha by mid June.
Science~ The Ark will eventually finish General Science, will move onto Physical Science when he does.
The rest will be finishing up Zoo2 *we got stalled here* and then we are taking a break from Zoology to study Human Body and Anatomy. Start date undetermined.

History~ we will work our way through MOH v.2 finishing it up late July, early August, taking off a week or so before starting up MOH v. 3. We really like MOH, it is interesting to the boys and since we are only doing it MWF and while it will take us longer, we are much less stressed out about it.

Latin, we are still struggling here, but starting to move along a bit better, we will finish up LFC A and then move on to LFC B, no breaks in this subject except for maybe a week between books, they forget too much of it if they get a long break. I’m still waiting on The Peanut’s book so I can start the two youngest on Song School Latin, hopefully by Monday, since Fedex is saying a Saturday delivery.

Art~ we will continue to use Mark Kistler’s site and I’m getting them his book Drawing in 3D.
Music~ for now we will continue with Music Ace, eventually I want to buy that piano program that is so $$$$

Reading, we have that covered for the younger ones easily. The Ark has The Crown and Covenant Trilogy, Arms and Armor, Brethren: A Tale of the Crusades, Red Falcons of Tremoine, Secret of the Scribe and Sword and the Circle: King Arthur & Knights, and there is always time to add more if he finishes these.

The Ark will also add in The Art of Argument this upcoming year, I think that since he likes to argue, he should know how to appropriately.

They must learn the Greek Alphabet!!!! it is very important in statistics!!! We are using the story book, The Greek Alphabet Code Cracker for the intro and then following through with ??????

Language Arts~ this is the hardest for me to find something that we like. This year we are trying out Sandi Queens Language Lessons.
The Ark is doing Lang. Lessons for the Secondary Child v. 2
Ace is doing Lang. Lessons for the Elementary Child v. 1
The Princess will use Lang. Lessons for the Very Young v. 1
The Peanut will use Lang. Lessons for Little Ones v. 2
I picked this curriculum because it adds in narration, classical artworks for narration, writing letter’s, haiku’s, limericks etc. as well as all the grammar they will need. The lessons are short, which is much needed here and follow what my goals for their lang. arts study is: mainly integrating art and real life into the study. Grammar is a necessary evil and I want it to be as interesting as possible.

Spelling~ we are still using Sequential Spelling, it has worked the best for my special needs kids and they have learned to spell better but also to read better because of it. Now if we could just get to it every day. We are on lesson 85 today and there are 180 lessons!!! *sigh* we may be doing spelling all through high school at this rate but it is all good. There are a total of 7 levels, The Ark may get through 5 or 6 of them.

Phonics~ The Princess is going to continue with Explode the Code online and I will add in MCP Plaid Phonics B & C as needed, at least C for sure since they cover a lot of reading skills like dictionary, etc.
The Peanut is going to finish out his two books of Explode the Code, his Lang. Arts reviews consonant sounds and introduces short vowels. We still have some explode the code books for him to use if necessary. Trying to decide if I should just use Veritas Press again but I’m not sure. I really need to think about that some more. On second thought or is it the third? fourth? I think we will use the Lang. Lessons for little ones and then follow up with VP if needed.

I’m not sure yet how much of a summer break we are taking this summer, I think the Ark will be doing science all summer, Ace and the Princess will be doing math, The Princess~ phonics, so it may be a summer of 3 weeks on, 1 off in order to catch up and not stress out too much. I know the boys will get off in July since they will be at camp.

Ok, enough rambling for now, i have to go study for my own classes.

The Long Awaited Friday Post:

Where to start? It has been so busy here lately, we have been to church for the last 4-5 weeks consistently, that is a miracle for us you know. We will be there this week but I think since The Husband has to work next saturday night we will skip that sunday, allowing us to get a day to sleep in, which right now is so much needed. The Princess received her bible last sunday,

This was the 2nd graders doing a pretend baptism, it was so cute…..
Of course the week was filled with chaos, kids in, mom in and out, dad working. I’ve stepped up the kids schooling a bit, and so far they are handling it ok, if not great. The last two weeks the kids have gotten a ride to the church on thursday nights so that they could play basketball. The little ones hang out with the youth director or out in the hall. Until i get there after school and pick them up. They have been having so much fun, there I will have to find a way to get them there after Matt leaves to his new job. They are still playing city basketball, and I’m so sorry that i made The Ark play this year. The boys and the parents are horrible and I hate it. They do not have good sportsmanship and I’m so disappointed in them.

I took this because I love straw hats, it is actually a doll hat.

I was walking through campus last week and stopped to take pictures.

this picture hangs in my bedroom and it is my favorite!!!! My daughter Renee bought it for me, because she knows that I long to visit England, Scotland and Ireland, plus the women is wearing a dress and pink, what could be better? If she had dark hair she could pass for me when I was a bit younger.

this pictures hangs in my living room, the kids Godmother  bought it for me the year we moved into the house. It is very much me….

Today the boys learned about Pompeii and of course we had to make a volcano: only one slight problem, it is winter in Ohio and we have no dirt for the mountain, so we improvised like the true homeschoolers we are and used snow. which I might add looked very pretty compared to the red lava….

the Ark took this picture so it is a bit shaky….it was fun. Then the boys had to write for me, The Ark got the Pacific Ring of Fire and Ace got Pompeii, while The Princess got to watch Bill Nye’s volcanoes and then drew me a volcano off of Mark Kistler’s site.

The boys are still struggling through latin, they are great at vocab, not so great at grammar but since this is still elementary latin grammar, I’m not overly concerned yet, although I think I will print off the flashcards for them and start quizzing them and making them quiz each other.

The Ark and The Princess and The Peanut all did great in Math this week, The Ark will take his test for the lesson tomorrow, The Princess already took hers. Ace did not do as well this week and will be doing work on sunday…..little does he know it yet.

I had a pretty good week at UA, I have lots of studying to do for two exams and two homeworks over the next two weeks, but that is college life. What continually amazes me is how the Lord is still leading me into making decisions about what I am supposed to do. Thursday after class I met with my Psy. Test & Measures Prof., he requires you to meet with him so he can give suggestions about your future. * I really like him* , so we tossed around ideas of what i still need to work on in order to get into grad school, whether or not I will just do my master’s or go for my Ph.D, that is still up in the air but, I have finally decided to go for clinical psychology and specialize in cognitive/behavioral psychology, since that is a good field for working with women in correctional facilities and he agreed. So now, I just need to see if I can get an internship and some research experience before I graduate while getting A’s and studying for the GRE.  It was amazing because on my drive into UA that morning, I remember singing along with Matthew West newest album and one of the songs talks about wanting to be in the center of God’s will for our lives, and I remember thinking about it and then look what happens. I feel as if I’m gaining ground and am almost confident that I can do this.

Which means that this post is at an end since I really need to finish reading chapter 4 of Psy. Tests!!!

PS, I lost 3.2 # in the last two weeks probably because i carry a 20# backpack for two days a week around UA and eat very little on those days. Now to get my caffeine fix aka : coca-cola under control and I will have it made.

Well, gee that was a short break…..

I checked my school email account today only to see that my psychology of women prof. had already emailed us about reading a book before the semester starts, to get a headstart……So I sent the husband to get it from the library, I’ve already read the intro and it is going to be sad, even with the positive endings. It is Half The Sky:Turning Oppression Into Opportunity For Women Worldwide. I’m kind of glad that I’m reading this now while I’m home so I can rant and cry and hopefully get it out of my system before I have to discuss this book in a classroom full of people.

It took all day to do latin, history, grammar, reading, spelling, math and one chapter of the God King!!!! Hoping that tomorrow goes better for us. The ark has a science test, and both boys have a latin test. It will be a long day. The Princess is watching videos at Michaels about crafting, the Peanut is complaining because I won’t let him play video games. I want to throw them in the trash at the moment~ the games not the peanut.

I also downloaded the first chapter of my text for psychological tests and measures, so I’ve started reading it, I wish that i could buy my books now but I can’t until my financial aid comes in January. So, my grade are not even posted and here I am studying for spring semester!!!!

Still need to get some work done around the house, but it is coming along. I only have the big picture window to put plastic on, hopefully tomorrow. I know we hope to get lights on the tree as well. We have been doing some more organizing and cleaning. For the first time in months one can walk through the upstairs hallway without tripping over a basket of toys or dirty clothes. I still have tons of clothes to hang up on my dresser but I need hangers in order to do that. I also need to clean out my closet to hang up said clothes. Although some of said clothes belong to the Princess and have to go into to room.

I”m reading Family Under the Bridge to the little ones, it is a cute Christmassy story, after that i hope to read them the Light at Tern Rock. The Ark is reading Usborne’s The World Wars for fun, however I wish he would just finish up the Phantom Tollbooth and write the report already. Adrien is reading Harold and the Purple Crayon~ don’t ask me why, but he really likes it and at least he is reading something. The Princess finally finished up book 1 of I Can Read It by Sonlight, so she has moved onto book two, let’s hope it doesn’t take her as long to read. I caught her drawing shirt designs the other night. She missed art lessons yesterday, she just didn’t feel well enough to go, next monday is her last for at least a month. Giving us a much needed break.

We have enough snow to shovel finally and we managed to get the kids out to play in it, even the Princess who doesn’t like to play outside at all. I hope I’m that lucky tomorrow.

We still have so much to do and I’m running short on desire and energy. I don’t think I realized how much I put into my classes this semester or the toll of the commute and homeschooling the children, while trying to be active in my church. I seriously need to stop doing something but what? It won’t be homeschooling, or college, so that leaves, church activities for a while.

Ok, well I want to go look for a lapbook for The Family Under the Bridge for the littles to work on.

Glory Be…..it’s an update!!!

Where to start? It has been another busy week here. I had two exams, a group presentation, a homework and a paper to write for the end of the semester stuff. I have an A in criminology and it is posted already, the email from my social psy prof. said I have a 96% there, so no final to take. I have 266 points out of 300 in Quantitative Methods but that doesn’t count my extra credit, once that is added in I have 284/300 which is an A, so no final to take there either. My Careers class doesn’t have a final but I had to write a self exploration paper and have to turn in the hard copy tomorrow. So I drive 50 minutes to drop it off and then come home. I don’t understand why she can’t just let us email it to her and then she can print it out. But I have an A in her class currently, so I’m not worried. I just can’t wait to see what my new GPA is and hoping it is at the magic number of 3.7 for graduate school. Now I need to spend some time studying for the GRE, so I can get really good grades on it. I heard I need at least 650′s on each portion of the test for clinical psychology. Not an easy task but so worth it.

I put plastic up on most of the old windows but still need to finish. Sadly, with this headache that is not happening today. I also have to plan the kids schoolwork for the week……so much to do. I wish I had some energy. Tomorrow, after i drop off the paper I’m hoping to stop by a doll store and see if they have any of the Life of Faith doll clothes left, they are not making Life of Faith dolls anymore and we had bought the Princess one 4 years ago and saved it for her. Well, since money is sparse this Christmas, we are giving her the doll but it would be nice if we could get her an outfit marked down for it as well. Auntie Katie, gave her the clothes she bought for her, and boy was she excited!!!! We had found a black shrug that was marked down on Black Friday, so she will be perfectly decked out for the holidays and I’m so excited. We were rearranging the living room yesterday, I will post pictures after we are done and the tree is up. I’m hoping that the husband will be able to pick up a tree today so we can decorate it tomorrow.

Well, I need to go do that planning…..I don’t really want to but that is life, I will be happy when we have a week that goes smoothly because I did the work.

I suppose……

I should write something but as usual at this time of the semester, I’m getting burnt out and seem to only be reading, testing and writing papers……leaving little motivation for writing here.

I could tell you that after talking to a classmate today that I’ve dropped ASL 2 for the spring semester, it was going to be next to impossible to get from the asl building that is off campus in time for my next class that is on campus in get this~ 15 minutes…..they are quite a distance apart walking through main streets. So I came home and checked the community college, they are supposed to be offering asl 2 in the summer so I’m going ot get permission to take it as a transient student and just take it then, saving me angst and frustration during the winter months and that gives me more time with the family, Cory also told me that Abnormal is a bit difficult and another friend said that Psychological tests and measures is a bit rough as well. So that means I will have a bit more time to study for those classes without over doing it. I’m hoping to find a research opportunity, as well. Some clinical psy grad programs don’t feel that UA gives there undergrads enough of research so in order to make myself more grad school material I have to find research time…..yet another thing I have to do. Oh yes, while I’m on the subject, I’m so frustrated, I got a letter from the univ. telling me that I still need 42 upper level credits in order to graduate, which is extending my time there another year…..I’m not a happy camper. I’ve decided that my little ones will go to a 4 year university right off the bat, and not try to transfer credits because it is a waste of time and money. I should have just applied to a 4 year when I decided to go back, I would probably be done. Although I do believe that the Lord had a reason for me doing it this way, but I’m just getting impatient now to get my undergrad and apply to grad school and be done with it.

The kids are doing pretty good in school this week, although they had incentive, I told them if they did their schoolwork this week and next that they could have the week of Thanksgiving off except for reading every day and helping to bake and clean for the holiday. So that has helped them stay motivated. They seem to finally be understanding their latin better and The Ark drew this week, a picture of our backyard and it is so much better than he has ever done. I’m so proud of him! He has always been frustrated with his drawing since he thought he couldn’t draw and almost all of the other kids can, but now he can hold his own and hopefully feels more comfortable with it. It is hard to be around people who can draw, when you think you can’t.

I have such a busy next four days, two papers to write, an exam to study for, homework in statistics to do, reading in stats, and criminology….plus this is my weekend for my youth group……I’m doing sunday school and then the youth group, and home to work on everything. I’m hoping that I can get quite a bit done before then. It is all a bit overwhelming to think that I only have 4 more weeks of school left. I might be going to panera or starbucks to write and study.

Ok, I’m getting tired, off to watch Burn Notice or something on dvd and try to sleep better tonight. I slept ok for about 3 nights and am back to waking up at 4am only to toss and turn until about 6:30 then have to try to drag out of bed by 8 and then run all day. Not a happy camper right now.

A brief respite from school life

I went out to lunch with my friend Robin, since we hadn’t had lunch for ages. It was great to take that brief break and I got to use her expertise in sociology to help me decide on the paper i have to write for criminology this week. As well as toss an idea at her about my future career choices.

I think the Lord is leading me to go into corrections after grad school. I was sitting in my careers class and the Prof. goes through all the different career fields available for psychology majors. She mentioned that with a grad, degree one could work in corrections and that field is growing and the median income is 6 figures. Well, the income is appealing as is the growth of job placement. But the thing that caught my attention is that I could have a broad career base and still work with women who really need me. I’m not the private practice type of counselor. I truly want to make a difference in many women’s lives and I just don’t have the patience to work with women who are superficial or who have the money to pay for private counseling. I am loving my criminology class and have just as much love for sociology as i do for psychology and this seems to be a way of combining the two nicely. So for the rest of my college career I will be taking as many classes that are women based and corrections based as possible. I’m also going to be looking for an internship in the corrections field for next year. I have also come to realize that I may not graduate next spring like I wanted to but have to move it back to December of 2012 due to the amount of upper level classes I still need to take with the classes that are required yet. This frustrates me but give me more time to do an internship and study for the GRE and get a competitive score on it.

We took the kids to Boo at the Zoo and had a great time last night. The kids came home tired but so happy at having time with both mom and dad and something fun and exciting to do together. I posted photos on my Facebook page for you to see.

Our school week was a bit out of control this week since I had two exams but hopefully we can get back on track this week. We are hoping to be done with MOH v. 1 before Christmas and the boys are doing fairly well on math, grammar, and reading. Latin is coming along slowly but better than before. We signed the boys up for basketball this winter. I hate it when they sit around and do nothing. The Ark is doing well in confirmation, although he still complains about it. I just ignore him. Ace wasn’t sure about playing b-ball but he didn’t get a choice. The Princess is still taking art lessons and getting better at art and loving every minute of it. The peanut is great at math and horrid at phonics, I hope he is not dyslexic like his dad and older brother.

Well, I really need to either do some research for a paper that is due Nov. 09, or study ANOVA’s and don’t ask me what they are yet, I haven’t a clue.