Monarch Migration at the Zoo

I love homeschooling because we have flexibility and freedom.
We can go to the zoo in the morning when no one else is there.
We get to see monarch butterflies while they are migrating from Canada to Mexico.
What an amazing sight!  The kids LOVED seeing them!!

Getting Ready for Fall....

What did I do for Labor Day?  I spent that Saturday getting ready for Fall!!!  My sweet husband had to work and the kids went to Grandma's, so I was able to have some extra time to start getting out my Fall decorations.  This is our first Fall in our new house so it has been fun finding places to put pumpkins or scarecrows and such.  I'm sure I will want to change things around as I go and add things here and there.  But we have a start!  I love Fall decorations - they just seem to make my house feel more "homey".  I love the colors and the cool crips air of autumn.  I love the leaves changing and the cool mornings.  Autumns is definitely my favorite season....it has been since I was a little girl.  I remember telling my momma...."I love Fall because the State Fair comes, then Halloween, then my birthday!"  I love fall for different reasons now - but I still love all those things.  Well, maybe not my birthday.  BUT - my MIL does make me the yummiest fried chicken dinner every year for my birthday!!  Anyway...here is a glimpse of Fall in our house.  For now.  Until I change it. There haven't been any real pumpkins at the store when I've been the past few times.  I saw lots of pumpkins in front of the local pumpkin patch today, though.  So...soon I will have pumpkins and mums and a hay bale! :) 

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."

Albert Camus

This is the front porch.  I have a little corner I decorate....

The fireplace...

Upclose picture of the mantel.  I LOVE the vintage window!  Oh, and that little pumpkin in the middle was given to my sweet Maddo when she was a baby :)

These guys visited while I was getting my decorations out so I had to stop and say hi...

This is my little farmhouse that sits in my kitchen...got her some new pumpkins for her front patio!

This is the few Halloween decorations I have.  I really stopped buying Halloween decorations a few years ago - I do like the vintage style ones, though. 

Put a few Happy Pumpkins on the wall of our School Room...

Made a "Fall Playdough Bucket" with fall colored playdough and Pilgrim, turkey and fall themed cookie cutters.

We made a "September" garland for the wall in class the other day. 

This is one of my most treasured pieces...this is a pumpkin patch that Madeline drew and colored in First Grade.  I LOVE IT!! 

"Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree."

Emily Bronte

Backyard Scavenger Hunt

Last week we decided to get outside and take advantage of our beautiful weather!!  We have been cooped up in our air conditioning ALL summer while it has been 100+ degrees here!! (They showed on the news the other night that Oklahoma had the SECOND hottest temp's in the country for the summer this year - Texas had the hottest by about 3/10ths of a degree!)  Anyway...we are LOVING the cooler weather.  While I was trying to think of something fun to do I had the idea to do a backyard scavenger hunt!!  I went here and found a list.  (After doing it this time, though, I need to adjust it a little for our specific backyard - there are certain things we just don't have in our yard.) 

It was such a simple thing and the kids just LOVED it!!  Madeline kept thinking of things to look for that weren't on the list.  It was like an Easter egg hunt, almost.  We looked for things like....a twig longer than your index finger, signs of a bird (nest, feather, etc), spider web, yellow flower, pinecones (we have none), etc.  The kids had so much fun.  We will definitely have to do this again!! 

Our list and our buckets:

On the search....

Showing me the leaf she found...

Looking at a bird nest...

He found a feather...

Philip with his bucket of backyard treasures...

Enjoying an "After Scavenger Hunt Treat".....candy corn!!

God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars. 

~Author unknown, commonly attributed to Martin Luther

Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'.....

This morning I had one of those "Be Still and Know That I Am God" moments.  Throughout my adult life, I've felt like the Lord whispers to me sometimes to just stop and look around.  To Be Still.  To appreciate the beauty that He has created for us to enjoy.  To listen to the beauty He has created.  To smell it.  To feel it.  I always know when He is whispering this to me and I love it so much.  I feel like God speaks to me a lot through nature.  I think that is why I love our new home so much.  Because, although we are not as buried inside of nature as I would like, it is a definite welcome change to the hustle and bustle of living in the middle of a big 'ol city! 

Anyway...I took my cup of coffee and went and sat down in my cute little rocking chair on the back porch this morning.  I sat there and enjoyed the cool air so much!  It is such a WELCOME change to us in Oklahoma!!  This has literally been THE HOTTEST summer of my entire life!!  We experienced the second hottest June ever, the hottest July and the hottest August on RECORD in Oklahoma.  We had 61 days of the temperature being at 100 degrees or higher!! It has been miserable.  I am SO ready for the summer to say goodbye!!  So...we had a nice cold front come through this weekend dropping the temp's drastically.

Where was I?  Oh yea.  My back porch.  As I sat there the Lord was just talking to me in that way that He does through nature.  It was so calm and peaceful and quiet.  Except for the occasional car driving by (you take the good with the bad) I heard...

Geese honking...
Dogs barking...
Cows mooing...
Birds chirping...
Cottonwood Tree leaves rustling in the wind...
Roosters crowing...
Crickets chirping....

...and it was wonderful. I loved every second of it.  I'm so glad that the Lord caught my attention this morning!! 


Wouldn't this be a beautiful view too.....Oh goodness!!

A Day in the Life....

The title of my blog is "A Day in the Life...."  Well...just for the heck of it, I decided to document part of my day yesterday.  I think I did it as therapy for myself or something.  It made me smile a little.  I woke up to what had the potential to be a stressful day.  And it was.  I won't go into all of the details.  But, I thought I would blog the "fun" stuff....just for the heck of it.  So.  Here goes....

0615 - get up.  make the bed.  drink coffee.  check FB. check e-mail.  make a pin on pinterest.  make Matt's lunch.  Get the baby up.  Change her diaper.  Feed the baby.  Pack a backpack of some school work.  Coloring books. Crayons.  Get the other kids up.  Make the big kids breakfast. Instruct big girls to get dressed, brush teeth, brush hair. Get the two smaller kids dressed.  Assist one of the bigger girls with her hair.  Assist the other big girl with taking care of her new earrings.  Pack snacks.  Pack juice.  Get diapers. And pull ups.  And wipes.  Get toys for the two smaller children.  Get myself dressed.  Try to not let the feeling of being "rushed" make me cranky.  Stop for a moment by myself in my bedroom to ask Jesus for strength.  And calmness.  And an un-cranky tone in my voice.  Answer 20 questions from the children about where we are going.  What we are doing.  Why we are going there.

0815 - Say goodbye to my Sweet. 

0820 - begin loading things into the van.  The Van.  You see, the other day a "check engine" light came on.  The AC stopped blowing cool air.  This can't happen when it is still 100 degrees outside.  So, I roll the windows down in case the AC doesn't work when we get in. 

0825 - Big girls strap themselves in.  I strap the baby in.  I strap Philip in.  I get in to my seat.  Feel a funny feeling in my tummy.  Realize I didn't eat breakfast.  A Sonic stop is in order!

0830- Pull out of the driveway.  We are on our way to see my dad.  He is an auto mechanic.  He is going to diagnose what is wrong with my car.  Plus, he will change the oil in my van. Yes.  I'm taking 4 children to sit in a waiting room at a car dealership.  Yes. 

0845- We are at Sonic. It takes 15 minutes to get there now. Yep. This makes me sad. I order. Breakfast burrito for me. Tots for Philip. Tots for Madeline. Su doesn't want any. She "hates tots!" Oh. And a Coke for mommy.

0850 - Go through the ATM for some cash for my Dave Ramsey envelopes.  Plus, I will need some $ to pay for the oil change and whatever else might be wrong with my van!

0900 - We continue our drive.  Madeline is reading her reading assignment aloud.  She reads her Science homework aloud too.  We have to take advantage of every minute!

0930 - We get to the car dealership.  Notice.  We've been in the car for almost an hour now.  Yep.  We live far away from things now.  Far away.  It's much more of a drive to simply "run an errand".  But, to me it is worth it.  Plus, most of my drive looks like this now:  (I LOVE this view!)







0945 - Greet Papa.  Tell him what's been going on with the van.  He lets us know that there are donuts in the waiting room! Oh happy day. First tator tots and now donuts.  What kind of a mother am I?!?!

Yum.  Donut.  Chocolate.  Good thing I packed those wipes!!

10:00 - Time for the girls to do some worksheets.  One thing I didn't pack??  Pencils.  Guess we'll have to use crayons and ink pens. 



10:30 - Oh thank goodness.  We see Papa.  He has changed the oil.  This has been a much shorter trip than I had planned.  He informs me that there is something electrical wrong with the fan something or other.  There are new oil leaks.  There is a nail in my tire.  My battery is about to die.  I need new brakes.  Oh, and I already knew that the transmission has to have something done to it b/c we are approaching 100,000 miles.  Yep.  Looking at hundreds of dollars of money to be spent on my van in the near future.  Lucky me!

10:40 - we say goodbye to Papa.  He gives hugs and passes out Certs like Papa always does.  Now we are off to Target.  I have a prescription to get filled.  And a small list of things to get.  I want to see if the school supplies are 50% off yet.  (They weren't!) 

11:00 - EVERYONE must go potty.  Thank goodness for those big 'ol family bathrooms at Target!!

11:10 - The Dollar Spot.  WHY do I stop here when I have all the kids with me?!?!  "Mom...look at this!....Mom, can I get this?!?...Mom, isn't this the cutest halloween bucket you've ever seen??...Mom, I think I want to buy this with my own money....Mom, do you need one of these??"  I love my babies.  But I don't care who you are...it's hard to process 3 different conversations coming at you at once!!  :) We make it past the dollar spot and only have $2 worth of workbooks for school.

Then...we spend an hour in Target. Shopping.  Waiting on my prescription.  Touching things.  Dancing in the aisles.  Yelling.  Pretending to be ducks in a row.  Asking for things.  Saying, "Mom, LOOK!" 75 million times.  Being children.  All the while, I'm trying to NOT get grouchy.  To NOT think..."I wonder what everyone is thinking about me and my 4 kids at Target during the day"  Hearing their voices (in my head) saying..."Those kids should be in school".  I was a bit paranoid. 



12:00 - As if shopping at Target wasn't stressful enough...I decided a trip to Hobby Lobby was in order.  I needed to go there.  If I want to go, I must take my children.  Or I don't go.  I just wish Hobby Lobby had bigger shopping carts.  Because they are small.  Philip can't really fit into the basket when I have stuff in there.  So he walks.  And there is SO MUCH breakable stuff.  And my nerves begin to get more frazzled because I'm scared he's going to break something. 

12:15 - I'm running out of stamina.  The girls are TOTALLY loving the Christmas ornaments.  They have visions of how they are going to decorate their rooms.  I love hearing their ideas.  They are cute.  I love that they want to decorate their room. but I'm scared.  Oh...be careful....please don't break any of the ornaments!! DO NOT TOUCH THEM.  Only look at them!

12:30 - My 13 month old is NOT appreciating all of this adventure.  She has already missed her morning nap.  She is getting crankier by the second!  I am starting to feel guilty about all of the 'nilla wafers I've already given her to keep her from crying!!



1:00 - we are leaving Hobby Lobby.  I got a few of the things I came for.  I bought a few things that I had not intended to purchase.  They didn't have the magazine I wanted.  I debated about whether or not to take the kids to Chick-fil-a for lunch.  This had been the original plan.  I told them.  I didn't have the energy.  The air conditioning wasn't working.  I was sweating.  The baby was crying.  I didn't have the strength.  So.  We stopped at Sonic again. Yep. More tator tots.  We got chicken to go with them this time. 

As we drive home, I hear conversations like this....
Madeline - "This day would have been so much happier if we'd have been able to see Libby!"
Philip - "Mom, when I grow up I want a car that is black and blue and has a button on the inside and you can push it and it changes colors!"
Susanna - "Mom, how long is 3 days???"
And there was a lengthy conversation amongst the three of them about inviting all of the children in the world over to our house.  Susanna said that only them and their close friends and cousins would be allowed into their bedrooms so they wouldnt' get squished by all of the children in the world being in our house.  So. Very. Funny.

1:45 - Time to eat.  At home.  In our house.  And we STILL had schoolwork to do/finish.  Yep.  My life is busy.  I don't get out as often as I used to.  But I love it.  I love my children.  I'm so thankful that my Sweet works so hard so that I can stay home with them.  I wouldn't go back to work and leave my babies for anything!

....Oh, and the rest of the day included...schoolwork, grocery shopping, eating dinner.  We made it to Chick-fil-a to use our free kids meal coupons from VBS.  My kids don't eat like this on a daily basis.  They eat very healthy on most days.  but anyway...if you made it this far in the post, thanks for sharing in my day with me!!