No child left inside.

So this weekend was full of fun stuff. Once we got Johnny home from San Diego, we were at Busch Gardens on the most perfect day. No lines, great weather and well behaved kids. I don't think I could have asked for a better day! Busch is set up for Halloween so there were great spots to take pictures all over the place.

Saturday was just a nice fun day at home, as was Sunday. The boys and Johnny worked on a path/trail in the woods. It's going to be great to let them play in the woods finally. They really understand the concept of staying on the trails.

Plus it was nice to have them outside so I could get some school stuff together for the week and get the house cleaned! I wish I could play outside with them more often, but I always use that time clean up or have 5 minutes of quiet time.

Today is such a perfect day. The boys got their morning work done. This usually includes, Language Arts and Science. We do these things together, all three of them. It starts with the Pledge and then they recite the poem they are learning. This week, I was excited because it was a new poem and they learned it in three days. I have a video of them doing it, but can't figure out how to get it on here. As part of my No Child Left Inside mindset we did our art/science/seasonal project outside today. We made leaf rubbings in primary colors and blended them to make orange, purple, and green and then added them to a tree the boys drew. The wind was a pain, but it worked out.

We even got rotation lessons done this morning. They are usually math, spelling and handwriting. We got the math done. After Sam naps we do the other rotation lessons and read another chapter in our book. We're still on Little House in the Big Woods. And lastly we do history. Sam has to be in bed for this, since it's a decent length story and a project to go along with it. Sam's attention span is that of your average two year old. So he's in bed for that part.

I guess that's it for today. I do want to start blogging again. It's nice to get things out and share what we're doing. Homeschooling is such a major part of my life, it's nice to let people see how we do it.

Oh, Shane is a Cub Scout now! He has his first Den Meeting on Thursday. I'm so excited for him!

My attempt at being purple.

Purple is code for green. I just hate the phrase 'going green' To me it's just doing your part, I don't know why it needs a name. Everything is green. It's annoying. So anyway. Our attempt to save our little corner of the world is going well. We have a huge compost been. No food waste goes into our trash (except meat). The recycling system is working wonderfully. Until I found out my small town only recycles 1 and 2 plastic, so a lot is still making it into the trash, But we're down to one bag of trash every 2 or 3 days, instead of 2 bags a day! I've been into trying to make fresher food. The garden is coming along great, except for the evil rabbits that ate half of it. I'm going to try to make my own homemade spaghetti sauce when the tomatoes are ripe. Right now my fun new phase is bread making. I'm trying to get us off store bread. One the price is rising, two it's full of bad stuff. I read Jenny McCarthy's book about her son with autisim and how changing his diet REALLY helped him and I think that if food can change a brain disorder such as autisim, getting some of the crap out of our diet would be a great thing. This thing is that my bread hates me and doesn't rise right. I've gotten one loaf to rise right, but it was still doughy in the middle. I have some rising right, now I'll even be brave on post the pictures of it once it's out. So that's pretty much it for now. We're trying and if everyone tried a little it would really help.

A much needed weekend.

Ok,
Yes, I stole the idea from Brandy, we'll just leave it at that. I tend to borrow ideas, but blogspot is not just her thing, so I'm quite able to steal it without feeling to badly. I'm starting off this fun new world of blogging outside of myspace (though I LOVE myspace), this just seems more fun. I had the best weekend in a very long time. It was in my top 3 favorite vacations, which sounds good, except I've only ever taken 3 vacations. I went to Charlotte with one of my favorite people in the world. My best friend Brandy. We took a car, her daughter, some water, and a lot of gas money and hit the road. Seven blissful hours later we were there. I must admit, a lot of my fun came from the car ride itself, and the fact that I kicked her but in the ABC car game 4 times in a row helped make it more fun. After saying goodbye to the adorable Sadie, we settled in to her parent's house. It started off with a laugh when her dad offered me a beer. This is not an odd thing to do to a 26 year old, but the fact is, I haven't been to his house since I was 18, so it was very strange. I giggled, he asked "haven't you been offered beer before?" of course I have, but not by him. It was weird, being with Brandy makes me feel young, and in high school. I have her mother's promise that I will have wine coolers there for my next trip in June, we won't even begin to say how weird that was too. After happy hour, we shopped, and shopped, all without buying anything. We had dinner at a FANTASTIC sushi restaurant. I met her friend Meghan, a fellow bridesmaid. I was molested by her dog Betty, forcefully frenced kissed by a cute mutt. I forgot to breathe, that hasn't happened in a long time. It was great. We spent an hour texting Jermaine (the fiance) about the fact he's mean that he doesn't like people names on dogs. He said I was cruel, my dog is Princess Rachel Stephanie of Lake View. He said it should be 'Chel. Whatever, I have to love him right now, he made me a model. That's another story. He rocks by the way. After staying up to late and fighting for the bed half the night, we awoke to food being prepared for the shower. It was fantastic, we ran away to shop some more. It was her party and she didn't have to help, therefore neither did I. We got clothes at a great thrift store. Her's were smaller, but whatever. We snuck Chick-Fila, my fav. We had to sneak. Her aunt is a "how much food do you want person, instead of a would you like any food kind of person. She's grand! We ate, me more than her, again whatever, I was told in secret that it was weight watchers, I chose to believe!. Her shower was fun! My team won the toliet paper dress game, we rocked it. Her mom gave her condoms, hysterical! We left and shopped some more with another friend, Lauren. I got my shoes!! Finally. We went to a crazy expensive mall, it had a Tiffany's in it, and a Louis Vutton, no matter how rich I may get, it's still ugly and I'll never buy it. Anyway, I got shirts from Delia's. I always wanted shirts from Delia's. It made me happy! Brandy still is barefoot for her wedding. (In all fairness she has now ordered shoes!). We stayed up to late, shared A LOT of stuff, went to bed. We awoke to Aunt Peggy, asking How many sausages we wanted, not if we wanted any. She's grand! We ate, cleaned up, waited for Sadie's rearrival. We left. We got poured on, scary scary storms, we laughed and laughed, and talked, thank God Sadie had earphones on. We ate at a Wendy's 10 miles out of the way, there was one at the next exit! We made it home (well my home) in one piece, said goodbye, she made it home 3 hours later (poor thing). It was the best weekend in a long time, filled, with my favorite things, Brandy, food, shopping, youth, and lots of laughter. Thanks Brandy!!!!