How does your garden grow?

Bell Peppers

Banana Peppers

Luci's Treehouse

Grape Vines

Cucumber Blossoms.  I may just cry.  Those blossoms mean that more are coming.   I've canned gobs of Bread and Butter Pickles and Dill Pickles.  Gobs.   John just keeps bringing in more cucumbers.  We took three bags full of cucumbers to church today, to foist on unsuspecting people.

After the Storm

Our Yard

First Day of School

Yes, we began school earlier than the public and private schools around here.  We also got out of school last year a whole month before they did, so this starting date makes sense.

Annual shot of the schoolkids in front of the hutch:

Hey!  Where's Luci?  Move over, JT!

And, since JT feels like he's incarcerated every school day, we have the mug shot:

Look at my babies in the school photo from 2007:   JT has grown so much!  So has Luci.  I love that each child has their signs either backwards or upside down; in Luci's case, also in front of her face!  So cute.

Something I tolerate in our school room:  Passing Notes in Class.  Luci makes a "nest" below the table to do her school work.  She wrote a love note to JT.  :)

Happy Birthday!!

Last Monday was Bryan's birthday. I'm sorry I'm so late adding this post. The lateness of this tribute is in no way indicative of my feelings for this young man! He is a great son. Bryan turned 20 last Monday. He was not sure I put enough candles on his "cake." Luci was helping in the background.

Why the strange "cake?" Because Bryan requested blackberry cobbler for his birthday. You can't successfully put candles into a cobbler, so I got a ziploc baggy box and poked 20 holes in it, then painted it. Black was the only color of spray paint we had on hand. Viola, a pretend cake.

Hope you have a great year, Bryan! New job, starting college, it's going to be exciting!

This Week

We are still getting plenty of use out of the easel that Mom and Dad gifted to us a while back.  Luci made a checklist of things for her to do during her day:

Slep  (sleep--get out of bed in the morning)
Et      (eat)
Play   (I think you can figure this one out!)
Slep  (sleep --go to bed at night)
Chorz  (chores)

Please, someone tell me:  How can she spell phonetically but not be able to read?

Luci grabbed my camera and had a photo shoot with her Barbie and Ken dolls...

Not too shabby of a photographer, huh?

I've been canning or freezing many things that John has grown in his garden.  I learned that I should not have cut the banana peppers because it looks a lot like canned calamari.

We have so many pickles (the cucumbers did quite well!) that I told John, "No more!"  He brought in two dozen cukes last week and I nearly cried.  We've started giving them away.

Happy Birthday!!

JT's birthday is today.  Sweet 16!  He got a new car!!

JT sometimes helps in the garden...

 umm, JT, put the iPod down!

 And now the boy young man has enough candles on his cake that we can turn off the overhead lights!

Goin' to the Chapel.....

Luci's big on playing wedding, family, everything with her dolls.  If it's not Barbie, it's her little friends from Littlest Pet Shop and the other small dolls. 

Here are a pair getting married, complete with the white carpet down the aisle.  (It's toilet paper)

Here's what I heard during the ceremony:

Do you, Sandy, take Christopher to be your husband?  In sickness and in hell?

That's what she said. 

Yes, I corrected her.  After I wiped up the coffee I spit out.

Yard Work?

John spent the morning mowing the yard.  Afterwards he hooked up the wagon to our old tractor (it has no blades--it's just for "fun") and hauled Luci around, looking for blackberries.

The definition of spoiled!

Water, cushy seating, Barbie dolls, ear protection, and an umbrella.  Oh, and the ride, too.

John found enough wild blackberries to make a good cobbler for tonight.  Luci picked one or two; she got enough to be able to say she helped.

Our Front Yard

Our front pathway...what it looked like before John attacked it.

and after!

John removed each brick and pulled the grass out, and put everything back.

Hardest working man I know.

Great job, Honey!

And, our one surviving camelia bush.  We started with four, and this one nearly died, too.  This year it is blooming like crazy!  Luci loves the scent.

Sew much fun!

Luci wanted pajamas for her Barbies.  The last time I sewed for Barbie, I used an internet idea that used t-shirts--cut a circle, cut a head hole and arm holes, and viola.  The first time I sewed for Barbie, I nearly went mad, hence the t-shirt/circle idea.  Here is that post about the first time:  Harder than it looks. 

This time I hunted for free Barbie patterns on the internet, and found this page.  The patterns were fairly easy to follow.  I used the pants pattern (but made them larger in the waist and added elastic), and the crop-top (making the crop-top longer for modesty's sake).

Since we were hunting for "a little bit fuzzy" fabric, I also got a pajama pattern for Luci and made her a pair of pajamas, too.  All in all, four Barbies have pajamas now, and one real-live doll has pajamas.

To solve that problem of "which side is the front, mama?" I put a button in the front...and what do we call it?  A belly button!

Milestones

This has been a big week for two members of our family.

First, Luci got a new bike!  It's about time, hmmm?   Here she is with her new bike and old bike.

Such a happy girl!

Bryan started college today!  He got up early, which never happens.  I don't expect it to happen on any other school day this summer.  I met him at the breakfast table with this sign:  "First Day of College:  May 30, 2012"

He grinned!  I was concerned that he would think it was just too stupid to pose, but he did, and did it happily.  John did remind him that college was not like homeschool, and he'd have to change out of his pajamas to go!

We've been doing this tradition since Bryan began Kindergarten.  Every year I have the kids stand next to the hutch, to measure their growth.  My, how he's grown.

The Princess Bride

Yesterday, Luci was introduced to the movie, The Princess Bride.

Oh, so fun!  She was scared by some of the fight scenes, the Gas Swamp, and a few other things, so she spent quite a bit of the movie watching while partially hidden behind a door. 

One of the characters said, "Have you ever heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates?"

Luci's reply:  "I've heard of Play-Doh!"

Card Machine

We are home from visiting family (posts on that to come).  I thought I'd tell you a Luci-ism in the meantime.

Luci has a birthday party to go to today (YAY!).  She is so excited.  Last night I asked her if she wanted to make a birthday card for the Birthday Girl or buy one. 

I want to make one!  We have a machine to do that!

I need to buy more printer ink, Luci.  We can't print one.  I meant, make one yourself.

But we have a card-making machine!

But, Luci...

It's ME!

And so she did.  Make a card, I mean.

Oh. My. Word.

We are on our journey to Idaho to see my folks.  With me are JT and Luci; John stayed home with Bryan.  They almost had to stay home...have you seen a Prius automobile?  Fitting three people in, with their luggage, is just enough.  A fourth person would burst the seams of the vehicle.  Put all five of us in the car for the trip to church (the only time all five of us are in the car together) and when we get there, you can see us pile out like clowns at the circus.

Well.  I love my Prius.  Bryan and JT make fun of it, but I don't care.  I get awesome mileage! The mileage will be what gets regular folks to buy it, not the lower-emissions/save the Earth thing.  Lower emissions are a bonus, not the selling point for me.  And it's cheaper than the Honda Odyssey minivan we used to have.

It has a built-in GPS with a map like a little TV screen.  That works great most of the time.  Two places where the GPS fails are 1)  it does not estimate travel time well when going on state roads (like our county roads in Alabama, and today through western Tennessee); and 2) it is hard to get the little genie inside to re-route the trip easily.  For instance, today I wanted to go from Corinth, MS, through Jackson, TN, and Dyersburg, TN up to Missouri.  The little booger wanted me to go through Memphis (an hour longer!) and did not like me going a different way.  I had to call John and get him to look on maps.google.com to tell me which state road went to Jackson and on to Dyersburg.  The machine will let you put in extra stops along the way--but it wants a street address; you cannot just input a city's name and have it take you there.  I could not just put in "Dyersburg."  I finally figured out how to get around that--I had the machine search for McDonald's in Dyersburg, it found three, and I clicked on one.  Voila!  We made it to Dyersburg without being routed through Memphis.

I was so frustrated.  JT and Luci kept busy with their TVs and Gamecube console, so did not mind the detours. 

I minded.  At one point, I was quite lost in Jackson.  We found ourselves in, shall we say, interesting parts of town. 

Going down one street, I told the kids, "Close your eyes!"  because, on the right, were the first prostitutes I'd ever seen.  It was quite obvious that they were ladies of the evening.  But come on!  It was only 11:00 a.m.!


Luci did not obey--her eyes were wide open. 

Her question:  Are they going to the Prom?

I never woulda thunk it...

but...

This week has seen JT actually eager to shovel a huge load of horse manure fertilizer.  Eager to work in the garden.  Eager to help his dad with cedar chips for the flower garden.

This boy loves nothing better than playing video games.  And yet, he was working outside, happily, for the past two days?

Why?

To earn two tickets to a WWE event in June!   That's wrestling, y'all.  I don't understand the attraction, but I guess since we are in Alabama, it's okay to be a little redneck, don't you think?

JT thinks it's cool.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
added later Tuesday evening...

Now he's willingly scrubbing the boys' bathroom from top to bottom!

Which Song Comes to Mind?

John is helping JT with his final project for the year, after our study of Human Anatomy:

The Visible Man.

As they worked on the skeleton, and inserting the brain, this refrain from The Wizard of Oz kept going through my mind...

If I only had a brain!

JT's GPA for his first year of high school is 3.44.  Way to go, JT!

From the Heart

Yesterday was a Day of Awful Proportions.

Not a Happy Homeschool Day, that's for sure.

We had one who was reacting to some scents he had been exposed to, and one who thought noon was just an idea, since he rarely sees it with his eyes open.

So.

After supper I spent a great deal of time convincing (convincing is "Susan-ese" for talking extremely loudly) the boys to clean their rooms.  They did, but they were not happy about it.

After that melee, I took my Kindle Fire and went to my own bedroom and had a nice, quiet time.  Until Rock Band exploded in the living room!  Wowzer!  All three kids, getting along, and playing nicely!  Nice and LOUD.

Since this was a rare occasion, I took a photo.

The music went on for several hours.  Luci found some sunglasses, a wig and a cool hat.

And it's going on again, tonight!  It is NOISY.

And NICE.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tonight I was figuring out JT's grades (he did well this year!) and putting them into our online reporting program.  Since the dates of JT's birthday and Bryan's birthday are so similar, I had JT come check to make sure I got it correct. 

This discussion brought Luci...who has studied right along with JT and his anatomy classes this year...

Mama, when is my birthday?

October 26!  The best day of the year!

I wasn't born in your tummy.  I was born in your heart.  And believe me, it is not pretty in there!

from Apologia Science text

Crafty Critters

Luci and I have been crafty today--we made iPhones for Barbie and G.I. Joe,

a composition book for Barbie (along with a pencil!)

and the other day we made a dress for Barbie from an old t-shirt of Luci's.

Aren't they cute?

Luci wanted you to see the backs of the iPhones (her decorations) and the credit cards she made (hmmm, wonder why she thinks Barbie needs a credit card?  Oh yeah.  She's seen mama use her debit card a lot.)

Here are the youtube videos, showing how to make all these things:

Dress for Barbie dolls: (very simple!)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKQHvxK5qmY 

How to make an iPhone: (note:  I saved a photo of iPhones and printed them out to be "wallet sized" photos.  Perfect for Barbie)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYGrpriHcdk   

How to make a composition book:  (Sorry, this video is kind of long--but it is nicely detailed.  I glued my composition book cover to the heavyweight paper.)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vu60P6O660&feature=related 

How to make a pencil:  (note:  we made them a bit longer for Barbie)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DY7oOxpeUM&feature=related 

Current Events

This is a post of several things--all of the photos were taken with my (not smart) phone.  So the quality is not so good.

But--this sunset turned out spectacularly!

Last weekend I got to go to The Great Homeschool Convention, Memphis-style.  Luci and JT went with me.  Luci got to take part in the Kids' convention, which was a lot like Vacation Bible School--she had a ball!  JT went to some of the Teen Track lectures.  He was not as thrilled, but he did hear some great speakers.  (Chuck Colson was on the docket until he got so ill in the past few weeks.  We were sorry to hear about his passing this weekend.)

Thank you to my Mom and Dad, who sent me some money so I could buy whatever I wanted while we were there, without any guilt or credit cards.  That was incredible!  THANK YOU!  (JT thinks most of it was spent on torture materials for Sophomores in High School, but, whatever.  I loved it!)

 While there, Luci got to hold a real, live baby duck!  JT did, too, but his photo came out even more blurry (is that possible?).

The hotel and conference center were right downtown, very close to the river.  There are several trolleys in Memphis, and one goes in a loop (perfect for we tourists who want to venture out some, but don't want to get lost).  We rode around and saw the pyramid, the Lorraine Motel (where Martin Luther King, Jr was killed--Luci kept saying, "that's where The King was shot"--not sure if she understood this was not Elvis, even though she had heard the story of his life several times), and we even saw the Occupy Memphis encampment.  We did not see any people out, though. (well, there is that one guy right there on the left--maybe he was part of that group, but he looked like he was just walking by, to me)  It was a beautiful day, so perhaps they were out working somewhere?  Yeah, I don't think so.

JT was wearing this t-shirt while we rode the trolley:

I told him he ought to get off the trolley and go preach to the Occupy Memphis crowd about earning one's own way, but he declined the invitation.

After we got home, we told Bryan about what we saw.  He said his friend (a college student, a pretty smart fellow) had never heard of the Occupy Wall Street group, so of course had no idea what Occupy Memphis was about, either.  We saw some of the inlaws this past weekend, and the ones around my age did not know what the groups were about, either.  I was stunned.  Hadn't they watched the news?  All three of my kids knew about the groups (Luci didn't know what they were there for, but she has seen them on the news).  They know about the presidential elections, about the shooting in Sanford, FL (Trayvon Martin) and quite a few other current events.  Even Luci has an opinion about Michelle Obama.


JT said it was because I watch the news a lot (love DirecTV for those 24 hour news channels!).  I guess I owe my news-hound status to my parents, who also had the news on a lot as we grew up.  Thanks, Mom and Dad! 


I can mark off "Current Events" from my list of things to teach my kids. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This Tuesday I went to the commissary all by myself.  ALL BY MYSELF.  Did I mention that I was all by myself?!

It was wonderful, just having my own thoughts and no squabbling from the back seat.  It's 75 miles to the commissary, and 75 miles back.  All.  By.  Myself.

In Limestone County, if the road is wet, they drop the speed limit to 45.  

Which meant only that I got nearly a whole 'nother hour of solitude as I tooled along at 45mph.