A very long catch up and a brain declutter. (I am not proofreading this-just warning you...)

It seems like forever since I have posted!  Did you miss me?  I wasn't really gone.  I was at home enjoying FREEDOM!  We have had a fun time getting ready to home school, going to the park, playing the Wii, working on a project....We have been busy doing nothing and it has been FUN.  I am going to just make this a MASSIVE picture and brain declutter extraordinaire!  (I warned you ahead of time so don't be surprised when you see just how long this is...this is what happens when I don't post for a while. This could probably be about 5 separate posts...)

*I have mentioned before I am a Yankee (born and raised in NH), but I consider myself a converted Southerner (except when it is really hot and I wish I wasn't....).  Well, I often wish I had an accent like Paula Dean, but I don't think it will every happen.  What I am getting at, is that the other day we were watching something on the History channel or Discovery channel  (2 of our fav's...I also love Fox News and HGTV) and a Southerner said "thang" instead of  "thing" and I was instantly mesmerized...Not enough to remember who it was or what it was on apparently, but I really wanted to sound like that.  It wasn't a redneck or uneducated accent like people who don't live in the South think it is.  It was a civilized "thang"...Maybe one day I will get my wish and have a Southern accent...I girl can dream right?

*Jake was playing his recorder the other day and decided to write a song.  It took him about 10 minutes and was really AWESOME.  I am so impressed.  I told him that he could probably play it on the piano (which he wants to learn to play and is going to when Nee get home to teach him us.).  So, we sat down at the piano and I found the notes and he played it.  It really is a great song.  He played it on Father's Day for Aaron and Papa G.  He decided he wanted to wait and surprise Papa Harmon by playing it for him live on their piano, when we go down to Spartanburg some time soon. So, Nana don't tell.

*While I am typing this post Aaron is teaching Jake to play the guitar and they are writing down all the cords in a notebook for him to practice.  I told Jake the other day that when he was writing his song and playing it on the piano that, that was homeschooling.  He didn't believe me, but I asked him: have you ever written a song before?  (No)  Are you learning the first few notes on the piano (Yes).  That is learning!  It is educating yourself and finding your talents.  He was pretty psyched to think that an education is not just worksheets.  :)  I am excited too. 

*The other day while I was doing something (dishes or something...), I heard some noise coming from Jake's room and when I went down the hall to see what it was this is what I saw:

What is it you ask?  A club house of course!  This happened to be the day we thought maybe we would put Sadie's crate in Jake's room to see if she would start sleeping in there.  The night before she slept in his room, (not in her crate just on the floor...she has a nice comfy dog bed but choices to sleep on the hard floor?) but she peed on the floor!  I think she was nervous or something because she didn't know what to think when we shut her in there and Jake said she was pacing for a while.  She never pee's on the floor any more...Except today when we put a rug back down that she peed on a couple times when she was tiny, so we put it up until she was potty trained.  Fast forward a couple of months with no peeing....She pees in Jake's room and then pees on the rug we literally just put back out...Any way...back to the story.  This is what was going on in the club house:
Jake rediscovered his dress up clothes and was sharing them with Sadie.

I like to call him "Obi-wan-ca-Jakey" when he puts this old Halloween costume on, but he had another name for himself that I can't remember at the moment...He wants to post some pic's on his blog too so he will probably tell you on there what his name was....
****BY THE WAY**** Did that get your attention?  His blog has changed to: jake-myschool.blogspot.com and it is not private after all.  Aaron thought it was fine to be public since I talk all about him on my blog anyway...Good point...So, if I sent you an invite to the old one, just forget all about it and go to this one from now on...Back to the regularly scheduled post. :)

He got hot and changed.  Can I even tell you what a joy it has been to watch Jake play and enjoy himself again?  It seemed any time we played before it was in a hurry because we had to do homework or get to bed since it is a school night.

*I forgot to mention Jake has been lucky enough to go to a b-day pool party and to a  friends house who has a pool in his neighborhood?  He is a fish and loves the water like I do.  That just popped in my head for some reason...Probably because I really want to go swimming...

*This is a picture of Jake reading from an awesome new collection of books a friend of mine from church brought to Cub Scouts to see if Jake wanted them.  She got them a the school she works at and thought her kids would like them.  They didn't...at all and since Jake had excitedly told her at Church (she is our Primary pianist) that he was going to be homeschooled she thought she would bring them to someone who would appreciate them.  And he does!  They are so cool and it is the whole set A-Z talking about cultures in different countries.   On a completely unrelated note (I can do that because I am brain decluttering...) see the peach he is eating?  I told Aaron I got peaches and he excitedly went to eat one and then informed we they weren't real peaches.  We are used to the peaches that are almost the size of a softball, that are so juicy you have to eat them outside because the juice drips down your arm all the way to your elbows...I wish I had one right now...Which makes me think of one other quick thing...Nana, Jake thinks you are very tough.  (Why did that make me think of Nana?  Because you get those awesome peaches in SC and there are awesome peach stands off the highway on the way to Nana and Papa Harmon's house....See how randomly my brain works...)  Any way.  Nana has a broken foot right now and went a week after hurting it before she went to the doctor to get it checked out.  So, in Jake's book you have to be tough to walk around on a broken foot for a week...In my book too, now that I think about it.  Jake stubbed his pinky toe today and said if it is broken (it's not...) than he will just be tough like Nana.  Just thought you would like that Nana. :)...

*Here is Jake working on his first homeschooling project.  We aren't "officially" starting until July 5th because July 1st is when we can start taking attendance according to the county we live in.  This is a project that Jake decided to do on his own, just because he wanted to.  That makes me a happy camper. :)

This is what it looks like so far.  It is a report on Black Mamba snakes, which happen to be the most dangerous snake, but not the most poisonous.  Jake will have to explain all that to ya.  He learned it in his research and it is all pretty cool if you like that kind of stuff.  Jake some how became a big snake fan and I am not sure how...The pattern on the poster is an extreme close up on the what a black mamba's scales look like.  Pretty cool huh?  I was excited because he let me help. :)

Aaron serenaded us while we painted.  He of course would not look at the camera, since he is a PTPP (picture taking party pooper).

Sadie just hung out looking all cute like she does.

So cute Jake couldn't resist playing with her and a few days later the project has not moved any further along than printed pic's from the internet of black mamba's (that I was REALLY sick of looking at on the computer desk so I made him move them to his room), and a sheet with "fun facts".  Did you know there was such a thing as "fun facts" about snakes because none of it sounds fun to me....

*This is a park close to our house (we gave up on the ghetto park after we had to leave because several cop cars pulled into the parking lot with their lights on, to arrest a bunch of people in what was apparently a drug deal...And we had one of Jake's friends with us.  Luckily his grandmother understood when she came and picked him up...), that we LOVE.  We went twice in one day the end of last week.  Then we went back the next day again.  Jake made a couple of new friends and had a great time running around with them.  I had a great time not having to be the one running around and I painted my nails and cleaned out my purse while he played.  Actually it was the other way around.  I found the nail polish in my purse while cleaning it out and then I painted my nails.  We had to cut playing short (it had already been over an hour so they were getting tired since it was 9,000 degrees out) because one of the boys Jake was playing with a had teenage cousin who was playing too, that cussed a couple of times and then when he said "rape" and "hey my cousin tagged me and tried to touch my private parts!".  I don't think he was a child molester or anything like that.  I think he is just an idiot and doesn't know what is and is not appropriate to say around younger kids..  At any rate, I called Jake over and told him it was time to go, which he understood.  Sad isn't it?  I remember when I was little and  we used to play outside all day with our friends...It is a different world.  On a more positive note.  I showed Jake all the fun things we used to do on swings on the playground when I was a kid.  Like twist and swing at the same time.  Or hold onto each others chain and swing sideways together.  All those things he doesn't know about because he has never had swings at his schools because they are too dangerous.  And the last time we had a swing in our yard he was too little to show those things too. :)  I have heard more of my favorite Jake belly laughs in the past week than I have in a long time.

*This is Jake getting ready to roll the dice and pick what 5 states he is going to research first.  He decided he wants to start with geography, researching a few interesting people, and researching animals this summer.  Sounds good to me.  We are also going to be reading the Book of Mormon. 

Where ever the tiny little dice landed would be one of the states he would start with.  With exception of Florida and Texas, he just wanted to do those 2 first and he helped the dice land where it needed to land. :)

We were having a game day last Tuesday and took turns picking the games.  I love this card game called "5 State Rummy".  You have to get cards for 5 states that border each other.  While playing Jake decided he wanted to learn the states.

*We made Aaron blueberry streusel coffee cake one morning.  Don't be too impressed-it was out of a box.  But you can be impressed that I got if for almost free on sale plus my coupons...which I really need to cut out, I am so far behind...This is the best pic we could get with our resident PTPP.  Jake was concerned when we first started making it, that it had coffee in it, since the box said coffee cake.  I assured him it didn't and we enjoyed it's yumminess.

*This is a random picture of Jake playing Wii Fit Plus on our game day last week. (Out of order but I don't feel like moving it...)  He was doing the flying chicken one...It was much funnier than the picture makes it...

*I can't believe I haven't posted all this stuff already!!!  This is the very first lightening bug Jake caught of the season last week...I think it was on our game day last Tuesday...Yep it was because Sadie turned 6 months that day.  She goes to the vet on Thursday to get spade.

Sadie played with our neighbors dog "Bear" (he is the vicious looking one in the picture, but he really isn't...), while we caught lightening bugs.  Bear is Sadie's best dog friend.

I couldn't for the life of me get a shot of them running that wasn't blurry.  They are way to fast.  They ran from one yard to the next.  We don't have to worry one bit about Sadie running off if Bear is out to play with...If he isn't?  Forget about it-she is gone.  Little stinker...

Here is the mason jar filled with the bugs.  One lite up as I took the picture. :)

Love this sweaty headed boy.  Nee you can see your little bushes growing back in, in the back ground.

See all the little guys in there. Don't worry we let them all out before we went in for the night.

*Here is a where a picture of the Papa John's pizza we got the other night would be...but I can't put it up here because it is one of the pictures I took for the secret shop we did...don't tell them! You just order the pizza (you have to be approved to do it obviously...), answer some questions about the customer service. Take a few pictures of the pizza with your shopper number on it and you get a free pizza. This time it will cover the cost of the pizza, tip, and I get a $10 bonus because I haven't done it for a while and they really needed someone to do it. Did you know you could do that? It is the only time we order Papa John's. :)

*And last and definitely least...Did I mention that I dyed my hair "dark mahogany brown" about a week and a hal ago?  I have dark brown hair and I have been dying it for a few years because I am getting gray...I would have a skunk stripe on both sides of my face and they are starting to pop up other places throughout too...I usually just go with dark brown, but since I have red undertones anyway I decided to try the mahogany for a change. This is me waiting...

I got bored waiting for 30 minutes, when there was no one around (Jake was asleep and Aaron was at work) to distract me from the fact that I may look like a clown when I rinsed it out, so I took a picture of myself...That makes sense right?.. Can you tell by my facial expression how I am feeling about it? It was so much runnier than the regular dark brown and where I could see it on my forehead it was BRIGHT red...I have no after picture...yet.  I haven't really worn my hair down since because the roots are so red.  The rest of it looks pretty much like what it always looks like.  I am just waiting a couple of weeks to go back to my regular color.  After 4 days and 4 times washing my hair red dye was still coming out of my hair in the shower.  That never happens with the brown I use and it was the same brand.  So, I learned my lesson:  I will just stick with the color I've got...as long as it's not gray.  I am too young for gray...

Don't know what you've got until it's gone...

A couple of months ago I painted this picture:

I liked it but I didn't love it.  I knew it needed something, so I hung it up and looked at it...and looked at it...I couldn't put my finger on what bugged me about it. Tonight at about 10:45, when I should have been in bed already, the creative juices to try to fix it appeared to be flowing...I got out my paint and brushes and went for it....And now I wish I never did...I thought maybe changing the background color would help...It didn't.  I had to dry brush a lighter color over it because it didn't turn out to be the perfect shade of Robin's egg blue/teal that I thought it would be.  Then I decided that since I left a little of the original dark brown background around some of the petals, that maybe if I went in and lined them all (I didn't even finish because it didn't work), it may be just what it needed...Not so much.  I worked on the center of the flower (I am too tired to remember what it is called right now) and it is a little better...maybe?  I give up.  I may just paint over the whole canvas and start over.    I don't know...maybe I like it better...I need to sleep on it and look at it for a while I guess...
What do you think?

Jake's Homeschooling Blog!

We are having a blast so far being home for the summer and starting up a routine (I will post soon)!  Jake started a homeschooling/life blog called "Guess What!?!" and he is pretty excited about it.  If you would like to follow on his journey let me know.  He is dying to get some comments from someone other than me. :)  It is private for now, so you need an invite to get to it.  Jake wants to make it public but I want to discuss it with Aaron first.  It is actually under my account because I am a little paranoid...Any way if you would like to see what he has started let me know! :)


 

The Last Day of Public School and the First Day of Freedom...

This is what Jake looked like as we got in the car and were ready to head to the 4th grade for the last time.  We were running late so there was no time to pose for pictures if we wanted to make it on time.

This is his last goodbye to Sadie...on the last day of school.

This is his last hug to me..on the last day of school.

This is me missing the shot of him signing I love you and blowing me a kiss, like he does every morning (he is a sweet boy)...for the last time, on the last day of 4th grade...

This is me getting ready by stacking up all the wonderful things we have collected in preparation for homeschooling next year.  It looks like we spent a fortune but 95% of the books Nana Harmon got for us for FREE!!!  THANK YOU NANA!!!!

This is what Jake will see when he walks through the front door after school...

This is the sign, you can't see in the picture of the books, on the cocoa (we don't drink coffee, so Jake dubbed it the cocoa table when he was about 3 years old) table, that Jake will see when he walks through the front door.  (This post has a similar pattern of repetition as a popular children's book...but I can't think of what it was actually about at the moment...It was not planned.  I am just trying to post all these pictures that took forever to upload...download?...which one is it.  My computer, and brain, are both running slow today.)

This is the sign on the front door that Jake would read....Oh you get it already!!!

This is me driving one last time to pick him up from public school...wasting precious gas...

This is Jake getting in the car after HIS LAST DAY OF PUBLIC SCHOOL!!!! (Well if all goes as planned anyway...)

This is the traditional ice cream cone we eat on the last day of school at Dollar Cone...Not sure what my hair is doing...I took a shower and immediately put it up in a pony tail and well something funky happened from there...

This is my ice cream with Jimmies or sprinkles to you non-New Englanders.  Really I just was playing around and when I noticed my favorite colored nail polish was in the picture I had to post it. :)

This is the mandatory trip that I promised Jake we would make right after school, to rent  Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, since he got 3 A's and 1 B.  Good job dude!

Here's the report card and free rental coupons...I didn't plan on taking a picture but since the guy gave us and extra one just to be nice I couldn't resist. :)

This Jake at the front door...FINALLY!  Drum roll please...For anyone that doesn't know, Jake has been asking to be homeschooled and we are finally doing it...Everyone (almost) but Jake knew we were going to do it months ago.  It is so hard to keep secrets and this was a big one...

This is Jake's first reaction to all the books.

Then to the note...

Soaking it in....

Tears...I was getting ready to hug him so it is blurry but I had to post it. 

What did he do next?  He immediately started checking out ALL the books....

And a little organizing took place.

This is his "I can't believe this is really happening" expression.  He had just hit himself in the forehead a moment earlier and rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't dreaming. 

Jake says he is soooo happy but he will miss his friends and the playground.  To which I reminded him that he will still see his friends and there are way better playgrounds we can play at WHENEVER WE WANT BECAUSE WE ARE FREE!!!!  Well, almost whenever... :)

I can't believe it's finally official: we are homeschoolers!  :)  If you are too and you would like some A-MA-ZING resources, ideas, and networking than you have to check out:




It is nice to know I have a place to go whenever I need encouragement or help and it is only a mouse click away!

Five Minute Friday: Backwards

Got writers block?  Need to empty out the old noggin'?  Then you need to try 5 minute Friday over at The Gypsy Mama.  This is a hard one for some reason...Remember I ramble, I don't write, so don't expect too much... :)

Go 
  
I eat pizza backwards. Crust first...That is seriously all that is popping into my head right now!  But I guess if I really think about it I do a lot of things backwards in the eyes of the world. I married Aaron before I lived with him. I got married before I had a child. I got married at 21 rather than waiting until I was 32 and successful in a big career.  I decided to stay home with my child and pinch pennies and cut coupons rather than have 2 incomes and go to Disney World on vacation.  I consider being a stay-at-home mom the greatest job in the world, rather than saying "I am just a mom" when people ask me what I do.  I choose to follow my Heavenly Father's plan, rather than following the worlds "do as you please" attitude.  In the eyes of the world I am "backwards".  I don't give myself enough credit (the world says)-I could do so much more in life than "just being a mom".  I think the world is backwards.  

Stop

"No other success can compensate for failure in the home"-J.E. McCulloch. One of my all time favorite quotes....


I added the quote after the 5 minutes was up, but I had to it is what kept popping into my mind.  I have learned if things keep popping into your mind it isn't a coincidence, it is the Spirit trying to tell you someone else might need to hear it too.  Or it is the Holy Ghost reminding me that I need to focus and remember it in my life.  Either way, it is an awesome quote and I wanted to share it.  :)

Brain Declutter...Because my brain is overflowing with clutter...

Clutter is putting it mildly....There is some guilt mixed in too, so i (a lower case i because that is all i deserve at the moment) will start with that and get it over with...

*i will not be winning any mother of the year awards any time soon i am sorry to say...We got an invitation to attend an awards ceremony for awesome kiddos (Jake of course was one of them) and i...forgot.  Totally and completely forgot...i was in school on Tuesday morning and the saw the principal and she said "I gave Jake his medal and award.  Sorry you weren't able to come on Friday night."...To this my reply was come to what?  i didn't even remember it then!!!  My child could have walked across a stage and gotten his medal and award for being a smarty pants (at the local High School, because it was that big of a deal and i could have cried like a baby clapped and cheered....but i forgot....i stink.  i am also really bummer because they changed the words to apply to the kiddos getting good grades and sang "Firework" originally by Katy Perry.  i really love that song and wish we could have heard it. i would have cried for sure...
Here is Jake with his medal and certificate.  Sadie had couldn't resist being in the picture.

*Jake's way of trying to make me not feel so bad (he forgot too, but he is 9 after all and i am the mom) is to remind me that he feels bad about getting into our mini pool and playing in it with Sadie...with my cell phone in his pocket.  We are talking submerged fully for enough time that they couldn't even retrieve my phone numbers or photos from it when i went to Verizon...i really can't be mad at him and i'm not.  He was carrying my keys and phone in his pocket when we went on a walk with Sadie, because I had on yoga pants that didn't have pockets.  So, if you are a close friend or family member that didn't receive and email from me here is what it said: "Please send me a text (or email) and tell me who you are if you would ever like me to call you again."  There are some people i expected to hear from but haven't...i wonder if they didn't get it, or if they are not responding deliberately...This mishap made me realize:  i don't even know my mom and dad's cell phone or my in-law's...And I thought I knew Aaron's (my husband, for those of you who may have stumbled upon my random blog), but I was off by one number.  This is my wake up call to get organized.  It would be pretty bad to not be able to call...well anyone, if there was an emergency.

*i went to Jake's school today to help with a field day of sorts.  The 4th grade was playing "A Minute To Win It" and it was a lot of fun.  It was 9,000 degrees out so i was lucky that i got to be in the hall way.  You see i had "defying gravity" that required balloons which popped as soon as they hit the 9,000 degree ground.  They were supposed to keep 3 balloons up in the air for 1 minute...We ended up modifying it all the way done to 1 because the longest anyone could go with 3 balloons was not quite 4 seconds, and with 2 they made it to almost 30 seconds...Try it-it is harder than it sounds.  We are talking 1 person trying to keep 3 in the air with out holding them. It was fun but again no mother of the year award because i forgot my camera!!! But i did remember it on Tuesday when the 4th graders did the NC Living History Museum.  They all had to pick a person linked to NC in some way and dress up like them and give a speech.  It was so neat, but for whatever reason it was 7,000 degrees in the hallway Jake's class was standing in (the rest of the 4th grade was in the nicely air conditioned gym...)  and by the end of the hour, costumes were being peeled off and parents had abandoned their children and were standing in the gym chatting... Not all parents. i I only went in to hear a couple of kiddos in the gym do their speeches and then went back out to suffer with my child's class.  After that we had a picnic and an ice cream party and i I took Jake home early. Jake was Sir Walter Raleigh.  Have you heard of him?  He is pretty interesting, you should Google him.

By the end of the hour Jake had shed his fancy neck ruffles and cape...

At the picnic with his best buds in his 4th grade class.  From left to right:  Kayla, Sophia, Maddie, and Connor.  Jake/Sir Walter Raleigh in the front. :)

*i  (back to lower case because this is not nice...) am thrilled that i am done being a room mom!!!!  i will just say what is on my mind right now (don't judge me people):  it is really hard to be the room mom for a teacher you are not a fan of.  i had to go and buy her an end of the year gift with the $165 people sent in (how much do people send in for awesome teachers???).  i have to admit a tiny part of me wanted to put the money in Jake's savings account to compensate him for his pain and suffering of being in her class all year...(i told you not to judge me...).  i didn't of course.  YIPPPEE that my duties as room mom are over!!!

*i have to go and check on a baby bird Sadie almost stepped on this morning when we were on our walk. I called the vet and they said don't pick it up because this time of year baby birds are learning to fly and the chances are good that the parents were nearby waiting for me to leave so they could go on teaching their baby.  Part of my hopes it isn't there because i don't want a pet bird...but I can't leave it there to die...

*Sadie threw up in the car 2 times yesterday as we drover around trying to find the park we went to a couple of months ago to play in the pond...Awesome.  The great thing is I have this car cleaner that works amazing and the car doesn't even smell like puke-not even in 10,000 degree weather.

*Don't let the fun activities fool you.  Jake's school has done more this week than they have done the whole year.

*While waiting in the car rider line today, a mom carrying a toddler, wearing a huge t-shirt with words on it walked by.  i got as far as: As* (rhymes with bass...) and Bit#@ (a term when used correctly means "female dog") and stopped reading.  i watched her (judging her very harshly, i must admit) as her daughter (i am guessing a kindergartner) ran up to her wearing a pretty pink princess dress...Oh the irony.  This after talking to one of Jake's classmates moms, who kept dropping the F bomb.  Lovely.  It did make me feel better that she dropped the F bomb while sober, because Jake went to a pool party at her house (i thought is was safe to leave him under her care because i have known her since 3rd grade...) and when I came back from going to the grocery store to pick him up, i found all the adults drinking on the porch while the children were in the pool...She was dropping the F bomb while i was talking to her at the pool party so i assumed she had to be drunk.  Apparently she wasn't, she just talks like that all the time children aren't close by.  So, as far as the pool party goes if she wasn't drunk, she could have jumped in the pool and rescued a drowning child.  I am trying to look at the bright side of our decaying society....

*Random picture of Jake in one of the trees in the front yard.

That's enough decluttering for now...Hopefully my next post won't be a picture of our new pet baby bird...