Learning to fingerknit!

Now, before you envision me as Charlotte Mason herself, please know that I got this idea from pinterest!  I guess you could think of me as the 21st century version of Charlotte Mason, ha ha!

Getting behinder and behinder...

We had so many wonderful visitors in the month of October and November that I have now found myself at that precarious state known as...behind.  Now, I know that seems like a strange thought to my homeschooling friends.  "Behind whom?" you might ask.  Well, I guess I am simply behind where I wanted us to be at this time.  Every year I start out with the greatest intentions to adhere to my chosen curriculum, but every year about this time, I start to feel confined by thus curriculum.  So, inevitably I scrap the curriculum for a while, only to return to it in spring, without completing it totally by the end of the school year.  I think the problem for me lies in my need for freedom.  I want to be free to study whatever might come up.  That is what I adore about homeschooling.  I feel that education is so much more meaningful to the student when related in a relevent way to that student.  When it is Christmas time I want to be doing Advent studies and baking bread to share with the neighbors, and making home-made Christmas gifts.  I guess I have yet to find a curriculum that gives such freedoms, except unit studies.  I guess that is why our beloved Five in a Row curriculum worked so well for us.  It gave us the freedom to pick and choose what we wanted to study and when we want to study it.  I had hoped that Exploring Countries and Cultures would give us that same sense of freedom, but it is still feeling a bit confining.  I will keep working at it though, because I do see the strength in it, but I am still longing for that simplicity that I had with FIAR.  Maybe this gives me points to ponder as I look ahead to next year...until then I am just going to keep pressing on.  I will take time to smell the flowers, as they say, bake the bread, and enjoy this amazing journey that God has ordained for us...

Noah enjoying THE HOBBIT...

In preparation for the upcoming movies Noah is reading THE HOBBIT and I am reading ANNA KARENINA.  These are first readability for both of us.  I am really enjoying AK, although I am not a fan of the some of the characters actions.  Gaining insight into the mind of someone opposite of myself.  I love it when characters don't behave the way I want them to.  It provides for an interesting inner dialogue!

DEAR school day...

Dropping everything and reading.

Wow, sometimes I really impress myself...

So last night I was poking around a bit in blogger, trying to remember how to do all the things that I once knew how to do when I was regularly writing this blog.  I had once been able to post things by mailing from my iPhone, but hadn't done that in ages.  So, after about 10 minutes I figured out how to set up a mobile blog and merge it with my existing blog!  Success!  I am not nearly as tech savy as those who are having a blog carnival (whatever that means), or those posting crazy ideas to pinterest, but at least now I can update on the go!  Maybe now this little blog won't be so forgotten!  Cheers!

The cute little buggers...

This is our ridiculously cute yin-yang picture.  They are just full of cuteness...and naughty-ness...

I love them, I love them not, I love them, I love them not...

I think that title just says it all, right?  Oh, yeah, I guess I better tell you what I love and don't love...two beautiful little puppies.  Two puppies that came into our lives shortly after we had to say goodbye to our faithful dog, Addie.  Addie was 14.5 and was getting worse by the day, poor girl.  She completely stopped eating.  I think it must have been cancer or something horrible...or maybe she just wanted to see her girlie in heaven, who knows.  Anywho...the atmosphere in our house after Addie was gone, was, well...just sad.  I had so wanted the kids to grow up with a dog, like I did.  For as far back as I can remember, Icy was there.  He was a giant ball of fluff, a mix of collie, husky, and anything else big, dumb and loyal.  Everywhere I went, he went.  We visited everyone (read, all the old people) in the neighborhood, we went down-town to the drug store where we shared some ice cream, we even went to church together one time (boy that was memorable, and unintentional).  We got Icy when I was really little, I don't even know how old I was, all I knew is that he was ALWAYS there...always.  He lived 15 years until we had to let him fly to heaven.  Didn't you know that dogs fly to heaven when they die?  Yep, angels...special halos for the really good ones.  So, I wanted my kids to have that same, little town, neighbor visitin' friendship and goodness that I had growing up.  One problem, we found siblings.  Two little sibling, rescue puppies, from a place called All About Dogs Coastal Rescue.  We fell in love at once.  They looked so sweet on the website.  Beagle-Dachsund mix.  One looked more like a beagle, the other with short stubby dachsund legs.  They came over for a visit and that, they say, was that.  What we did not expect was that after four months, yes, four months, they would STILL not be potty trained, and would escape the yard several times a day.  Now, on their behalf, the fence is falling down and there are holes everywhere that we have done our best to patch up...but seriously, multiple times a day.  Chasing them all over the street, even into our sweet neighbors house, seriously, I almost died.  Had the older lady not been so sweet about it, we would have had floppy-eared soup for dinner. 
So, today was my breaking point...I had HAD it with the accidents, with the escapism.  I was DONE!  I am sure I told the kids a thousad times that we were just going to have to take the dogs back to the rescue (I'm sure there will be therapy about that later).  I have just felt so taxed lately with all of my duties PLUS puppies acting badly.  Okay, they are just puppies...and cute ones at that, but I swear if someone had come by the house today inquiring about pups, I would have handed them both over with all their supplies without another thought.  The problem is that I have these three little kids that have to have that doggy goodness of childhood...sigh...I guess I will just have to pray for yet another miracle, that I don't completely loose my mind until they stop all the aggravating puppy behaviors.  Oh, and we are getting an in-ground fence :)  My friend Ashley (our friendly Petco manager, love her) assures us that after two days, they will NEVER go past that fence again.  So, that is the plan...hopefully, all will be well by my next post, which, at the rate I'm going will be sometime next year...ha ha.  I know I have been MIA from this blog for a while.  I kept waiting to feel really good and settled here in P'cola before I really started writing.  Now after a year and a half, I think I am there, maybe half-way there...
Till next time...