Yes, you make me feel like dancing....

What has me in such a mood?  Well, life at the moment does.  As I look back on our school year I see that we have done a lot even though I thought it was not much.  We have kept up with our nature studies.  We are always on the lookout for a new bird, plant, animal anything nature.  We had some fun nights using the Crayola glow in the dark chalk.  

 

Even though some are camera shy we have fun in our venture of helping those that are deaf. 

 It was a cold day and we are still out helping the deaf. This was a cold, windy day and yes, I have two glasses on my head.  One for the sun and one to read.  No fun getting old.  Oh well....

 

We are learning a new language as a family.  American Sign Language is a beautiful language and it's right up my alley.  Didn't you know I like to act up?  ASL is perfect for acting and performing.   

We also had  "farm boy" out with us one day and I happened to find a wheat field.  So "farm boy" gets out to show my middle son the wheat.  Son and "farm boy" got some left over wheat from the side of the road and got the seeds out.  

So yes I feel like dancing at all we have learned this past year.  There is so much more I haven't posted but this is a sneak peak at some of our fun.  

The Soap Lady

A friend of ours makes soaps as their business.  Homeschool families are so creative.  I love the Almond Oatmeal soap.  My order is in and getting it Sunday since that is the only day we will see each other for some time. 

Pool Time again

It's pool time again.  The boys are enjoying trying to get the highest jumps they can.  Not much else to do outdoors when its hot and muggy out there.   

I passed by a home in town and just can't get over how long this small area has lasted.  I still see those poppy flowers out there.  Reminds me of my trip to California and friends.

 

We have also had so many bunnies outside.  It's crazy.  We hadn't seen so many in forever.  I think it's the drought that has them coming closer to home and eating what little bits of our grass we have left.  My youngest loves going out there to see how close he can get to them.  Not much closer than that before they speed away.

 

By the way our berries are all gone because of the heat and bunnies.  We did enjoy our berry cobblers though.  

Our lives are still full of things to do.  We still have lots going on in our volunteer service.  Our ASL is going great.  We all keep learning more and more.  We can carry on a conversation with the deaf friends we have.  

There is my little update for now.   

Hummers

I was reading a blog about hummingbirds and I am so glad they are back at my home too.  I love to see all my hummingbirds come to our feeders. 

We had 6 Ruby Throated Hummingbirds out there fighting for the feeders.  It was amazing to see them fly around and come so close to hitting me and my camera. 

Here you can see one ready to land on the feeder and you can see his red throat.  How amazing!

We (girls day out) took a little trip to a friends house way out somewhere between No and Where.  They had a beautiful yard with tons of hummingbirds fighting there too.  This is the first time to see a Buff-bellied Hummingbird.  The white tip on the beak is actually its tongue. 

We were told they actually have around six different varieties of hummingbirds come around their home.  I'd love to be there for that.  These Buff-bellied hummers are fierce little guys.  They would not let the Ruby Throated hummers near the feeders.  


Our feeders are still hanging in front of a window at our home and my little one loves to watch them fly around and often will call me to come see.  If only we had several different kinds stop by...oh well, we are happy to see what we have.   

Our Service Year

It's amazing how time flies.  Seems like yesterday that my 15yr old son and I started up with full time ministry.  This will be his first year and he is excited to be able to attend a special 2 week class for his first year in full time ministry.  I on the other hand will not be able to go.  Boo-hoo  I'm going on my 5th year.  I had 4 years previously and now this year continues my years so I need to complete 12yrs before I get to go again.  Anyway, I am excited for my son to be able to go.  

My 13yr old  is also participating in the ministry continuously and this will be his 5th month.  Now my 8yr old is joining us and enjoys talking to people in the ministry.  We have all increased our time, joy and we keep learning.  At the moment we are learning sign language and are helping the deaf community to learn more about the Bible.  I am studying with a deaf lady in her 60's that never learned sign language.  Wow, talk about a challenge but she is so excited when I go over for our visit.

This month we slowed down on school.  Sort of a break and doing the bare minimum.  This is a special month in our ministry so since we homeschool we can arrange our schedule to participate more fully.   I've not forgotten our nature studies and we do that all the time.  This year has not been the greatest for wildflowers but we saw this field and had to snap some pictures. 


I am so excited that as a family we can all participate this month in the ministry more.  It has been a challenge with my rheumatoid arthritis though.  The pain has been crazy and the swelling is constant.  My cane is my companion now.  Oh and yes, I love my cane...it let's those dogs out there know who's boss.  I've never had to use it but I've had to display it prominently one time.    

That is my update for this month.  We have been very busy and will continue to be for a long time to come.  At least for as long as my arthritis let's me.  

Bird Day

We were out in the ministry and had to stop to take pictures.  These birds were making their homes under an overpass.  They are Cliff Swallows.  I just love their colors.  If you look at both pictures you can see some with nests all done and some that are working on theirs.  It was amazing to see them fly all around.  Yes, I made hubby stop on the side of the road and we watched for a bit.  It's a country road so there was not much traffic. 

 

We also saw a Blue Jay.  I love the colors on him.  They are so beautiful.  I still remember seeing a Steller's Jay on a trip a long time ago to California and I also got to see a Mexican Jay on last years vacation.  My iBird PRO app on my ipod says that a Mexican Jays range is mostly in Mexico but I saw him in Texas.  

That was our nature observation for this week.  I am wanting to go back and take more pictures of those Cliff Swallows.  They are beautiful. 

It's Berry Picking Time Again

 

While hubby was working on dinner the boys and myself went outside to look for and pick some berries.  We got a big batch and I decided to make a cobbler.  It was soooo yummy.  As you can see on the bottom picture it was almost gone.  

It's amazing to just be able to walk out your door and look for them and pick them and voila you have a cobbler out of fresh fruit.  These berries grow wild on our land around our trees and I let them grow there.  The only bad thing is that they are very thorny.  Ouch!!  The results were good though.   

It's all gone now though.  Every last bit of it is gone.  It was a fun nature, outdoor, cousin bonding time.  Yes, their cousins were over and they enjoyed the cobbler too. 

All About Reading

I got a great email about a new program that just came out called All About Reading.  I am disappointed that my boys are past this stage but thought I would post about it anyway.  I love All About Spelling and we are still using it and I'm sure that this reading program is just as wonderful.  Even if you don't get the program you can go get their free e-books at this link... https://marierippel.infusionsoft.com/go/activitybooklets/gr84u/ 

Our family is using All About Spelling.  I have a 3rd grader and a 13yr old dyslexic which use this program.  My dyslexic son loved this program from the beginning.  It's fun and easy for him to learn it.  Can't beat the fun part.  Here is a whole article about dyslexia. 

This is what we use for spelling.  So what I write about our spelling curriculum is from experience.  We are also an affiliate which helps us continue in our wonderful choice of spelling programs.  I'm sure those two free e-books will not be free for long so grab them while you can.    

Lots going on

Was nice in morning then rush home from ministry because of sleet. Home for 2 days till the thaw.

Here I am.  I was out of the blog world for a long while.  We have been so busy and really I had no time to do anything but try to keep up with what is going on now.  So what have we been up to?  Let's see, where do I begin?  My oldest is done with high school.  He will soon be taking an online course in electronics.  There are actually two courses he is going to take but he will start off with electronics.  

Middle son is working diligently on his Teaching Textbooks math.  He also wants to finish school early but we'll see how that goes.  He will be learning engine repair soon.  We found a friend that is going to teach his son and he will also take on our middle son.  That is so nice when someone does that.  

Now as for my baby he is plugging along with his school work.  We actually took some time off from a full school load and just did the basics so that we can pursue other interests.  

Nature study at home.  Caught a baby bat inside my home early in the morning before ministry. Kept him for a day to observe as any good homeschool mom would.

I am happy to say that my oldest son and I have started our full time service in our ministry.  Middle son will be joining us soon in that.  Learning how to balance our ministry and school has been interesting and has taking me some time to adjust.  I think I have gotten the hang of things now.  Now if only my health cooperated.  Oh well, that's life.  

What does our schedule look like?  Mon, Wed, and Fri is our long days out in the ministry.  Since we are out in town and after our ministry I run errands and get groceries.  I do that to conserve as much driving as I can since gas prices are going up and up and up.  Tues and Thurs are our school days.  We have done math only Mon-Fri. but only two days a week we do everything else we have to do for the week.

I'll try to post more now that I am getting used to our schedule.  I have more to say about our ministry and our schooling.  I will have to schedule in my blogging to my already full schedule but my goal is to post at least once a week.  Let's see if I can accomplish that.   

Yummy Garden Goodies

Yum, the garden has been great.  Some of the tomato plants are at the end of their lives.  I have others that will start producing soon.  We love those little tomatoes.  Lots of salads going on. Lets see now if my other things come up soon.  

Oh, lightening

A few weeks back we had some crazy weather but I was able to take some awesome pictures.  

The boys were excited to see my pictures and jumped with joy when I was able to get another one. 

And another....

And another....

And another...

After that last one the storms let up and the lightening was gone.  We were left with 5 inches of rain the following morning.  The news informed everyone in our city to stay put.  The flooding was incredible.  The worst came days later with the flood of mosquitoes.  I hate those things.  They have finally died down some after a few weeks.  I can finally get to the garden which was very neglected.

Garden news to come...stay tuned... 

Fuzzy Fuzzy Garden Eating Catepillar

I was outside and came across this little buggy.  It is hairy and crawly.  I couldn't figure out what it was or what it will be.  Of course being the good homeschool mommy that I am I brought it indoors. 

I brought in some yellow flowers so it could continue to eat.  Don't you think it needs a haircut?  Look at those eyes.  

It had nice reddish hairs on the bottom.  Can you see it holding on to that stem?  

  It went to the top and started to do its change.  So now we wait to see what it turns into.  We take a look everyday to see if something has happened but nothing yet.  Wonder what it will look like?   

Africanized Honey Bees

These mean things still exist and they were very close to us.  Like on our property.  Hubby and a friend were attacked and good thing they only got stung once each.  You should have seen these two grown men run though.  


We have a friend who we call the "Bee Man" because he has many bee hives for that precious honey.  He found out about our little up front and personal encounter and called and came prepared to take them on.  Those things were aggressive but he took care of them.  Now we will not be afraid to be on the lawn mower or at the pool.  They were pretty close to the pool.  Glad we have the "Bee Man" for a friend.  

Bee Man to the rescue!

It's been a while

Yes, it's been a while.  I've been busy working on getting my medications straight.  If you are interested, I'm still working on this one.  I've also been enjoying the cooler weather.  The boys and I got the garden going.  We have some tomatoes almost ready to harvest.  We planted green beans, peas, cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, bell peppers, jalapenos, onions, carrots, zucchini, yellow squash and some zinnias.  I'm still thinking about what else to plant.  I still have space in that garden.  Any suggestions?  

We've embarked on a family learning experience.  We are learning sign language.  We have been learning a lot and can now at least understand what is being said by our deaf friends.  When we decided to do this as a family we went to the big chain book stores and got some ASL dictionaries.  This is great for learning words but our question was how to do you speak in ASL.  It's not like speaking in english.  We searched and found a site for ASL grammar.  I got the books in pdf and we have started to figure out how the grammar for ASL works.      

Here I am at one of our sign language practice classes at a friends house.  I think there were about 25 of us learning that day.  Of course it was fun eating the food too.  That was a lot of fun.  We have been driving to a congregation meeting in sign language out of town.  That has been lots of fun also. 

We took a trip to the Houston zoo and really enjoyed the cool breeze that day.  We have also taken days off of school to accomplish other learning experiences.  Also days off with hubby have been fun even if we just stayed home and just did work around the house.  It's the best time of the year when the cold stops and it's just mild enough to be outside in shorts.  That is when we take time off.  It's not much time we have when the weather is perfect to be outside.  We always say our winter is maybe 3months, spring is about 3 weeks and our hot and humid summer is the rest.  BLAH!  


Now that summer is coming on in South Texas it will be time for finishing up our school year.  I hope to be posting some more now.  Nice to be back.

Something Different and New.....for us

Is there ever a time that you do something different?  Something unexpected?  You try something you have never tried before and do it with a "I'm going to like this" kind of attitude?   Were you pleasantly surprised or totally disappointed?  

We tried something different.  We did it with an "I'm gonnna like this" kind of attitude.  We tried to like it, really we did!  We tried several times.  Some only once with a quick trip to the trash and a quick trip to the faucet for a rinse.  What did we try?  

 

No not spinach but mustard greens.  We added some wonderful bacon and followed the recipe to the letter.  Now this was fresh picked from a friends garden.  We were proud of our motivation to try something different.  We all tried it.  We just could not get the what I've heard is an acquired taste for it.  We have some friends that absolutely love this stuff.  All I have to say is "more power to them" cause we just couldn't keep trying.  

Sorry, we are not mustard greens bashing because I know someone out there loves this stuff.  All I know is that this will not be in our garden this year.  Or even the next for that matter.