Playing Hookey

One Sunday morning, we got up, got ready for church, then arguments started. You ever have those days? Finally Daddy said he'd had enough and he wasn't going to church (we rarely miss church, but Daddy didn't have to preach anywhere this day). A few minutes later, after the kids had calmed down and stopped arguing, Daddy came out and said to change our clothes, put on walking shoes, and get loaded in the van. He took us to Cypress Gardens!! We had a blast. He then treated us to supper at Outback on the way home. Daddy didn't even turn his cell phone on the entire day! The next morning when he still didn't answer the phone, we had friends coming to look for us (LOL)!

We all rode roller coasters and water slides...we got soaked!!


The Cypress Gardens Ski Show is world famous. This day they only did a 6-person pyramid. I've seen photos with 12-people.


We all enjoyed the rides, even Philip.


Philip doesn't like bananas, but Daddy thought the banana trees were cool.


Audrey of course loved the Southern Belles.

The Flood

Don't you love it when your children are helpful? Daniel (the 7 year old) was cleaning out the dog pens and he fell down in, well, stuff that's found in dog pens. He brought his clothes in and put in the laundry room utility sink to soak...sounds helpful, right? Well, he put in a BUNCH of laundry detergent, turned the sink on wide open...then went to get a bath! Where was I? Around...trying to fix supper, supervise Philip getting in the bathtub with Daniel, etc. By the time I realized what happened, the laundry room, mud room, art studio, dining room and our bathroom were flooded with soapy water!!! The good news is we have vinyl floors, so they just got a good washing. The only damage was to the baseboards, and they're not that bad, just a little peeling paint in a few places. Praise the Lord!! Kenny arrived home shortly after I discovered the water. The boys greeted him outside with "Don't go in there." I had the rainbow vacuum out and he grabbed the shop vac. It filled both many times with water before we got it all sucked up and the floors dry. Daniel got a lesson on proper detergent usage and NEVER EVER leave the water running in the utility sink.

The Big Kill

My husband killed a 10 point yesterday!! He isn't a very large deer (but then Florida deer aren't large anyway), but his horns are huge! This is the biggest antler deer he's ever killed. We now have 2 deer and 2 hogs for a small game hunt banquet that B.U.B.B.A. Ministries is hosting on February 7th.

And here is Philip trying to help Daddy.

Speedtest

98 words

My cousin, the court reporter, impressed me with her typing speed (her court reporter machine typing doesn't count, I'm talking regular typing). I am always told I type extremely fast. So when she posted her speedtest results I had to beat them!

The First Kill

Thomas made his first kill yesterday. He killed a HUGE hog. His Daddy killed the deer this morning.

Thomas is 11 years old today!! Happy Birthday!! He got a new rifle for his birthday. It wasn't firing right, so they bought new bullets (thinking that was the problem) and took it down to the shooting bench late yesterday afternoon. It shot fine with the new bullets and he got to shoot the hog on his way back home!

Reversible Vest

I made a reversible vest for Kenny to wear with the B.U.B.B.A. Ministries logo on it. The orange side has the logo and he intends to wear it to the woods and have an opening to tell people about the ministry. The camo side has a deer just because he didn't want the logo on both sides. We intend to offer them for sale if anyone is interested.

File Folder Fun

File Folder Fun is a new site with lots of lapbook ideas, templates and support. They are having a giveaway. Please stop by and see what's there!

We love lapbooks as a way to display the things we learn. The kids learn really well with small "chunks" of information at a time. Each little book that goes into one of our lapbooks is just right for learning a little chunk. Then at the end of the unit, we put it all together in some file folders and we have review time. Then the kids present their masterpiece to some people, and they have review time again! It really reinforces the learning and helps the kids with presentation skills too.

Acrostic Poetry

At "Poetry Pals" time at the Library yesterday we learned about acrostic poems. You take a word, write it vertically, then write a line of the poem beginning with each letter of the word. Thomas hates poetry and grumbled about even going. But after Miss Linda taught what acrostic poems were and then asked who wanted to write their own, Thomas was excited about doing it! All the kids were. Here are their poems.




KIDS

Kids like to have fun
It's fun because we can climb trees
Deer hunting is fun when we kill our first deer
Sun's heat does not stop us from playing




FISHING

Fins help them swim
It is fun
Swim
Hot on the lake
Iin the boat
Not one but two trout
Gulp is the best bait

BROTHER (Philip)

Big
Really nice
On the
Tables
He is
Ever playing and
Running

Thanks to Tina for taking the pictures! I'll be including all the kids poems (9 of them) in our Homeschool Fellowship November newsletter.

Aunt Cindy

My Aunt Cindy passed away after a long battle with Lyme's Disease. The day she died the family gathered at their house together. I smuggled a photo out of the house and spent 3 days in prayer for the family capturing Aunt Cindy's image in graphite. This is a photo of the drawing. It now hangs in a place of honor in their house...right below Uncle Gary's prized deer!

We had two deaths in the family in the same weekend. My cousin Tiffany's dad, Uncle Richard passed away the night before Aunt Cindy.

Trash Ties

I splurged on myself and bought some of Heather Bailey's Trash Ties. Strange name, but they are really cool. Think of the little wire thingy you tie a trash bag with...cover it with fabric and you get Trash Ties for your hair. Here's a picture of my first use of the long trash tie. I was trying to make a bun, but I couldn't get the tail wrapped in it. It ended being a short pony tail. It's holding really well and I think it's kinda cute.

Reversible Skirts

I've made Audrey two reversible skirts. She loves them! She loves changing it around when we're out places too. She always asks to go to the bathroom just to turn it around! This is the second one I made. I don't have a photo of the first one...I'll have to get one. Bamma gave us the fabric for this one.

Cloth Diapers

I love cloth diapers. After discovering how wonderful cloth diapers are, I could never go back to paper. Well, most of Philip's diapers were worn out. After all, they were nearly 7 years old and on their 3rd child...I think we got our money's worth out of them. Since I've learned to sew I decided I would make some new diapers for Philip. This picture shows some of them. They are pocket type diapers, meaning they have to have something absorbent added to the middle. Yet they come apart for easy cleaning and quick drying. I stuff them with prefolds I already had. And I had plenty of waterproof covers too. I spent less than $20 on material for a dozen diapers! I used Rita's Rump Pocket diaper pattern (free). I think they turned out so cute! I love them. The monkey fabric is my favorite. I've made 11 so far, and have enough fabric for 8 or 9 more.

Super Quick Clothespin Bags

I needed a clothespin bag in a hurry. Mine was literally falling apart. I have a terrible habit of leaving it out on the line, and the sun has just about disentegrated my old one. I found lots of great tutorials for sewing really cute clothespin bags, but I did not have enough time for them. So Audrey donated a shirt and I sewed the bottom closed, put it on a child's hanger and it was ready to use!

The weight of the pins stretched it a bit and it is now a little "longer" than when I took the photo, but it is still working well.


Update a few minutes later...I decided I don't like the stretch of the shirt bag. So I stole a pair of Philip's overalls. They had snap leg bottoms...I hate snap leg baby pants. They always pop open, it's so much easier to just take them off to change the diaper. So here's the new bag. Isn't it adorable?

Gone Fishin'

The boys are reading "Tom Sawyer." As with anything they read, they love to act it out. The front porch and front yard have become a raft and riverboat. Here they are fishing with their homemade fishing poles. Audrey was the fish!

Bubbles

Here's a cute picture of Audrey blowing bubbles for Philip. He loved them!

Something I want for Christmas

Is it ok to post about something I want for Christmas? I reckon it's ok to blog about just about anything. Here are a couple of painting books I would like to have.

Between the Vines 9 by Jamie Mills-Price
(the cover doesn't look like one I would normally want, but it has other themes inside that are really great looking)

Hold Your Horses by Naomi Brown

New Background

I'm trying to learn how to make my own blog background. I painted a sunflower this morning and scanned it in to make the current background and blog header. It's not quite right yet, but I'll keep working on it.

Papa and Nana

This is a graphite drawing of my grandparents. The little people in the corner are Papa and Nana on their wedding day. I presented it to them on their 60th wedding anniversary (back in June).

Super Easy Cinnamon Buns

I found this recipe for REALLY good, REALLY easy cinnamon rolls. This is a picture before they were cooked. After they were finished and we put the icing on them I forgot to take another picture...we were too busy eating them. The original recipe calls for regular white sugar. The lady who posted the version I found on craftster said she used brown sugar. I tried it both ways and the brown sugar is better!

Butterfly Lapbook

We started our school year with a unit on butterflies. Here is the lapbook Daniel made. I used a free lapbook template from http://www.homeschoolshare.com/.

Can a lizard survive the washing machine?

Apparently so! I opened the door of our front loading washing machine to get out a load of towels, and this lovely little creature was sitting on the "seal" just inside the door. Apparently he found himself a spot where he wouldn't drown. I thought he was dead, but when I touched him with some tongs he moved! I got him onto a box and took him outside. I took the picture of him on the porch. Kenny said he's a glass lizard...I don't know about that, but he sure scared me and the kids! We don't know how he got in the house, but obviously I picked him up with the load of towels!

After a little research I identified my little friend. A "glass lizard" has no legs and therefore looks like a snake (though it really is a lizard), so that couldn't be it. I believe it is a "Southeastern Five-Lined Skink." Compare it to this picture.

Mini Patchfolio

I bought this great pattern from CraftApple. I made this mini patchfolio for my Mama for her birthday. It was my first ever "quilted" project. I made one for my sister too, but I didn't take a picture before I delivered it.

Quick Birthday Gift

I needed a quick birthday gift one day. I made this Little Artist Drawing Case (pattern from CraftApple) and a cloth grocery bag to match. I "wrapped" the case in the bag, and had nothing to throw away!

I added twistable crayons and a drawing pad to the drawing case on my way to the party. The little boy loves the drawing case, and Mama was thrilled to get the bag, she uses it as her purse.

The bag is from a couple of tutorials at craftster.org (Grocery Bag and handle tutorial) and used a plastic grocery bag as the pattern. The bag I can make cut to finish in under 30 minutes!! The drawing case takes less than an hour.

Boat Awning

We borrowed Uncle Mark's pontoon boat to go to Keaton Beach. The awning was in very sad shape and Uncle Mark hadn't wanted to invest in a new one yet. Kenny said I could make a new one. I disagreed, but Kenny pulled an old RV awning out of the shed that we were able to cut down and sew together. I was amazed that I made it!

Ultimate Organizer

I made this organizer for my husband. It's a cover for a 3-ring binder with pockets everywhere and place for a notepad. There is a little pocket that closes on the front for quick access to his business cards. Mama embroidered the deer on the front. Kenny loved using it for a while, then gave it away as a birthday gift. The recipient thought I would be mad, but I'm honored that Kenny thought enough of it to give as a gift! Now I get to make him another one.

Chore Board

In an effort to keep our house cleaner and the kids more responsible, I made this chore board. I printed chores on business card stock to make it easy to "cut" them out. Then I made pockets for each one of us, a "To Do" and a "Done" pocket. I printed those on regular card stock and folded them up. I covered an old cork board with craft paper (stapling to the back), then added some painting to dress it up. I'll let you know how it works out after we get to use it this week.

Here is a closeup of the weekly storage area and a closeup of one child's two pockets.