If you have a family (and we all do) then you MUST check this out...

  Four amazing blogs ( Chocolate On My Cranium,   Welcome to the Madness,  We Talk of Christ, We Rejoice In Christ, and The Redheaded Hostess.) written by four inspirational, fun, busy, honest, understanding, and incredible ladies that are getting together and celebrating the most important thing to all of them: Their FAMILY.

Something we all have in common: We are all part of a family.  Our families may be large or small, "Leave it to Beaver"-ish or dysfunctional, close knit or once a month check in's to make sure everyone is still breathing...No matter where your family is in life...Is there something you could learn or share about families?

I am so excited to be able to spend the next 2 weeks learning from other people what their families mean to them.  What they have learned works and doesn't work in uniting families together.  I have a testimony of  the importance of family.  I have a testimony of The Family: A Proclamation to the World .  We live in a world that is trying to tear the family unit a part and this is your chance to be strengthened by other people that understand just how important family is. 

Spend some time in the next 2 weeks being lifted up and inspired by other peoples experiences in learning to  support, love, unite, and strengthen their families.  There is so much bad out there on the internet this is your chance to be a part of creating a little bit of light and joy. 

If you don't go anywhere else in the blog world in the next 2 weeks you must go and check out The Celebration of Family!  I know I am.

Brain Declutter...

 Jake is doing science right now with Papa G. so I thought I would take a minute to declutter my brain a little.  Papa G. is a pilot so he is the perfect person to teach Jake all the fun weather related stuff you are supposed to learn in the 5th grade.   And it gives me a few minutes to do something productive...or blog!  Blogging is productive right?

*We did a quick Science experiment yesterday with salt, water, and eggs.  It was pretty cool to see the egg float in the salt water.  Picture Jake right here doing the science project because yes I did take a picture of it...but my blog won't let me upload any more pictures.  I have really been wanting to blog, but I really don't want to have to figure out this whole "no room for any more pictures need to fix it" thing...So,  I am avoiding blogging...But my brain needs a declutter so here I am.
*We got a new car!  New to us at least-it is a 1998 Chevy Malibu.  Jake wants to name it Kirby but my brother-in-laws, brother (did you follow that?  He is the one we just picked it up from.  It was my brother-in-laws car, he gave it to his brother, who then gave it to us) calls it the Malibomber and I am kind of LOVING that name.  I spent a couple of hours cleaning it the other day and it looks like a brand new used car!  It talks to you while you drive.  The blinker dings off and on a lot. Even if you aren't turning and it is off.  I guess it should be annoying but I am just assuming it is talking to me.  How can you be annoyed by a free car!? Thank you Tina and Allen!
*I hadn't received the follow up email saying we were in fact approved to homeschool so I called them and they resent it to me.  Just to let you know, if you emailed me between June 30th and July 20th I didn't get it...Not sure what happened but I have no emails (including spam) between those dates and that just doesn't happen...The point of this ramble was really to tell you that I saw our homeschool name (you have to have a name in NC for your school), Harmon's Learning Academy, on the list of homeschools and was AMAZED at the number of schools in just the county we live in!  I will have to go back and count them when I get a chance.  I had to keep scrolling down just to get to the H's!  Now if I could just find a homeschooling group that has kiddos around Jake's age.  I was looking on line and there was a lady starting a "homeschool group" for her 18 month old...Isn't that just a play group?  Is it really called homeschooling when your child is 18 months old?
*Aaron is on his last semester of school!!!!  HORRRRRAAAAY!!!! He graduates in December and we are just a little bit excited to not be living the crazy schedule we have been living the past 18 mos.  Say a prayer that he finds a teaching position starting in Jan.!!!
*Have you ever heard of a "Common Place Book"?  (I mentioned it a long time ago.)  Thomas Jefferson's mentor had all his students write what they had learned in a "Common Place Book" so they could share the knowledge they were gaining with each other.  I really wanted Jake's blog to be called "Jake's Common Place Blog"...Get it?  He wasn't feeling it, but that's okay it's his blog...But anyway we made our own "Common Place Book" so we can all write down what we are learning.  You will never believe what we just missed!  I was on line looking up cheap or free places to take Jake on field trips and there is a plantation museum that actually had a class for homeschoolers on September 2 in which they made "Common Place Books"!!!!  We are so going to check this place out!  It also has this class that he can take for $5 called "Plantation Children's Life".  They get to see what children that lived on plantations here in the South would have done during a normal day.  FOR $5!!!  I am so excited to check it out.  I want to do it too!!!  I love homeschooling!..Even though I wanted to ring Jake's neck yesterday because he wouldn't stay on task and it was driving me CRAZY!  He just doesn't seem to get that he could be done with whatever it is he needs to do a whole lot faster if he would just do it-instead of spending 10 minutes trying to get out of it!!!!  Love that kid even when he is driving me insane. :) Is it wrong for me to threaten to send him back to public school if he is being disobedient? :)....
 *Our first field trip (or what we are calling it any way) is tomorrow and we are going to the homeschool store that is about 15 minutes away.  How cool is that?  There is a homeschooling school in the next town over! 
*I also found out while looking for cheap or free things to do in our area that there is a park that is fenced in that is a leash free park!  Sadie will love it.  After running free for a month in Vermont she is not loving having to be back on her leash AT ALL.  I don't blame her.

Well that is all I have time for. Jake and Papa just finished up and Jake is getting ready to do his "Wednesday's Wonderful Words" post over at his blog.  He is also doing an online book club that you or your kiddos can be a part of.  He is reading (we listened to all the Chronicles of Narnia on our car rides to and from Vermont and he loved them all!)  "A Horse and His Boy" by C.S. Lewis and his book club is going to be on Friday September 30th.  I am trying to make writing bearable  fun for him.  It is like pulling teeth to get him to want to write anything...These math and science guys are really hard for me to figure out. :)

There's no place like home...

...And we are finally here!  We survived Hurricane Irene (who knew we would leave the South only to get hit by a hurricane in Vermont...), ate a years worth of creamies with jimmies (soft serve ice cream with sprinkles for any of you non-New Englanders that don't know what I am talking about), and swam A LOT.  We had an awesome trip and I will post about it after the laundry is caught up, I figure out how to make more room for pictures on my blog (this doesn't sound fun...I am thinking about starting a new blog instead of fixing the problem...Just kidding...kind of...), writing the guest post for Welcome to the Madness (that I was supposed to already have gotten to Jaime but a bump to the head prevented it...Long story-Hurricane Irene's fault. Thanks for understanding Jaime-I will get it to you today.) and when I do about a million other things on my To Do list!

Note to self:  A month is too long for a vacation...At 2 weeks we were ready to come home...Remember this next summer when I am tempted to live out of a suitcase for weeks on end...