A friend and I, who have consistently complained of our ever growing bottoms finally got out of our rut and went to the gym this morning. WE WENT TO THE GYM. AT 5 AM. Don't not even get me started on how out of character it is for me to do anything before 10....

So we get to the gym and like typical 30 something slightly out of shape women are want to do we began to talk and giggle as we worked out. Now, I'm not talking being loud, just talking. And... I will admit that because of the location of our particular gym the other gym members were say slightly older, but they kept giving us dirty looks. In fact, a little before we left one asked the guy on duty at the gym to turn the TV up...

So here I ask you...Were they just ticked off that they aren't 30 something-ish giggling women? or Is there some gym etiquette that I don't know about? Is the gym like the library? Are you not supposed to talk at the gym? Truly this must be one of those moments when the dye has seeped into my brain!

Brandon noticed it was windy and hightailed it outside to fly his kite he got for Easter. Of course then Em wanted to fly hers too. Our yard has too many trees. So, I took the kids to the field at the end of our street. Here is a picture of my little angel showing off her kite flying skills.



What's that? Where is the kite? Did you really think a 5 year old girl was going to waste her time flying a kite when all those flowers were there? Silly blog reader!

I have always been big on reading. The basis of all education right? I mean if you can read and comprehend instructions then you can do anything. I firmly believe it. So, I bought Bran his first books before he was born. I couldn't wait to read to him and instill my love for books into him. (And this was years before I ever decided to home school him.) However, for the longest time I had a hard time getting Bran to read to himself. The love of books was there. He loved me to read to him. He just would not read to himself. Time and time again he'd check books out of the library and check them back in unread.

Well, the time of worry is over. My boy is an official fantasy fiction fanatic! He is particularly crazy about books in series. For the last few days I have to keep telling him that he has to do his school work and chores before he reads his book.
Last night I got up in the middle of the night to discover he was still up reading. So what does a good home school mom do about this new problem? She compiles a book wish list for her son. Of Course!

He has read Midnight by Erin Hunter and loved it! Here is a list of Erin Hunter's Warrior books:

Warriors
1. Into the Wild
2. Fire and Ice
3. Forests of Secrets
4. Rising Storm
5. A Dangerous Path
6. The Darkest Hour

The New Prophecy Series
1. Midnight (He has this one.)
2. Moonrise
3. Dawn
4. Starlight
5. Twilight
6. Sunset

The Power of Three
1. The Sight

There is also The Lost Warrior.

I am currently reading Redwall by Brian Jacques out loud to both the kids. Emily is not impressed. Brandon can't get enough.

Redwall series:
1. Redwall
2. Mossflower
3. Mattimeo
4. Mariel of Redwall
5. Salamandastron
6. Martin the Warrior
7. The Bellmaker
8. Outcast of Redwall
9. The Pearls of Lutra
10. The Long Patrol
11. Marlfox
12. The Legend of Luke
13. Lord Brocktree
14. Taggerung
15. Triss
16. Loamhedge
17. Rakkety Tam
18. High Rhulain
19. Eulalia!

He is currently reading The Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke. This book isn't a series but I think he'd like these other two books by the same author:
1. Inkheart
2. Inkspell

OF Course he is waiting for the new Harry Potter book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to release July 21, 2007. Also,we have read Eargon and Eldest by Christopher Paolini so he is very impatiently waiting on the third book in that series that is not due to release until summer 2008.

Gee, now if I can just get Emily more interested in books.... She doesn't like Redwall. She did sit still and listen when I read Black Beauty. I asked her what kind of books she likes. She said counting books, books about princesses, and ballerina books. *sigh*

Oh my gosh am I ranting again?

Here this issue has come up over and over again. The issue in question is to only fellowship with other Christians or to also fellowship with non-Christians...Or for that matter Christians whose beliefs may not still be just in line with yours. I know I've covered this a little when I did the "Where do I "fit in"? thread. However, This week in Sunday School class this thought got into my head again. I didn't mention it out loud at the time but it was all I could think about the whole class time. Now I wish I did bring it up so I could have gotten some of my class mates opinions on it. The verse we were covering was where Jesus said that people would know us by the way we loved each other. In my mind I was asking "The way we love one another as in all humans or just other Christians exactly like us!?" I mean...How can we love all humans if we are busy avoiding them so their sin doesn't contaminate us? And let's just say for a moment He meant by the way we love each other meaning our fellow believers...All I can say is, you know what? People are seeing how we love each other and they are running for the hills!! Please don't read don't discern wrong from right in that comment. My friends and family members do things wrong and they know that both

A. I felt that they were wrong
and
B. I still love them.

I do have different values from mainstream public. I do understand we are to be in the world but not of the world. But IMHO too many Christians are choosing to not be IN the world either. Too many homeschoolers in an effort to protect their families from the world are not shining their God given light on the world! How can people see how kind, loving and filled with peace you are if you are avoiding them like the plague?

Let me just clarify. I keep my kids out of PS because I don't want someone else to have more time to influence my kids than I do. BUT I don't lock them away from the world as a whole. I have faith that being with me all day long, 7 days a week, 365 days a year has taught them our beliefs strongly enough that they can hold their own. As a result of my philosophy do my kids some times get exposed to things that I'd rather they hadn't? Well, I'm not going to lie about it. Yes, they do. But we talk about it and move on.

So I pose a question to you dear blog reader:
How righteous is too righteous? Is there such a thing? We are called to be Holy and set apart but how far apart? How are we to fellowship with "the world" with out becoming jaded by it? I understand the idea of not being of "the world", but if we don't fellowship with "the world" at all...how are we to ever reach them?

OK If you ever hear yourself saying,

"IF YOU ARE SO SMART AND ALREADY KNOW ALL THE FREAKIN' ANSWERS THEN WHY DID YOU JUST ASK ME FOR HELP?"

Then you might be homeschooling a pre-teen!

Ok end of rant.....

Saturday was my group's Ladies Breakfast Club. We meet the third weekend of every month at the Edom Bakery. It was a small group this month but I was really glad because one of newer members was there and this gave us an opportunity to get to know her a little better. Mom's Night Outs have never really worked well for me but I love the breakfast club and I think I'd go even if I found out not another mom was going to be there.

Going to breakfast put me in the mood to be out and about town though. So, I went home just long enough to get the kids ready to go with me (since Cecil had to work). First, we went to the library.

Branflake:

Rechecked out Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke
as he is not quite through with it.
Rechecked out The Ice Dragon by George R. R. Martin
since he hasn't started it yet.
And he checked out the first book of the Redwall series by Brian Jacques for me to read out loud to him and Em.

Emily got:

Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel (again)
A Kiss for Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik
Josefina Javelina by Susan Lowell
The Rooster Who Set Out to See the World by Eric Carle
Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
Milo the Really Big Bunny by Stephen Krensky
The Classic Tale of Pigling Bland by Beatrix Potter
There's a Nightmare in My Closet by Mercer Mayer
Leon and Albertina by Christine Davenier

We then went grocery shopping, grabbed some shakes at Sonic and stopped at several yard sales on the way home. It seemed like all of East Texas had a yard sale going Saturday. I didn't really run across any good finds. The only thing I bought was at a house on my own street! LOL The man used to set up a stall at First Monday in Canton and was basically having a going out of business sale in his yard. He had a bunch of those Mountain brand shirts with the animals on them. Branflake is short on summer clothes so I bought him 2 shirts for $10. Now he and Em just need some shorts.

The rest of the weekend was wrapped up in yard work, good food, watching movies, and the kids and I laying around reading either out loud or to ourselves.

This is my DH's dog Sassy. Sassy is the only dog I've ever met that runs away from you when you call her. Once she goes outside there are only two ways to get her in. One, wait for her to come in or ask in on her own. (Believing it is her idea, is a must.)Two, pick her up in the car. She will get in the car in a heart beat.

Now around 4 AM this morning Sassy began whining to go out. Cecil and I do this pretend your still asleep until the other one gives up and gets up to let the dog out game. This morning I lost and got up to let the dog out. So, when the dog starts barking it is then MY Fault of course! Soon after she got out she treed a squirrel. Now this dog can sit under a tree and bark for hours on end. So, here is about how it goes this morning...

Cecil: "See if you can get that @#$%^&* dog in!"

Me: "You know she won't come in when called, besides she has treed a squirrel she won't hear me." Plus in my head I was thinking if he thinks I'm getting up and going for a drive at 4 AM to pick his dog up he is crazy!

Cecil: "Well I might as well get up! There is not going to be any sleeping with her barking out there....." He then ranted on and on and on....about stupid things like not letting her out and keeping her in a cage. Like those answers would be quite and peaceful.

Now here I'd like to point out that he got up and went to watch TV in the living room but did not I repeat did not do anything to get said barking dog to stop barking!

So... I lay there in bed with our windows open hearing this cursed dog bark on and on until I had enough. This was clearly going to take a woman to solve. I calmly walked to the front door, opened it up, lit a black cat, threw it into the yard, stepped out of the door way for the frighten dog to make a mad dash into the house, shut the door and began heading back to bed. My dh rushed into the hallway complaining that I woke the whole street. To which I replied, "Cecil they've been awake listening to your stupid dog bark for the last 15 minutes, at least now they can go back to sleep!" And to prove my point I did just that!

As I snuggled down in my bed I imagined the neighbors quietly thanking God that someone finally shot that stupid barking dog and wondered at the disappointment they are sure to feel the next time they see her. But that is OK. I now have a bowl full of black cats with a lighter sitting at the ready for the next time!

Let me just see if you get this:
Yes, that is the trunk of a car...
Yes, there is a woman and a small child sitting in it...
and...
Yes, they are scarfing down Krispy Kreme dough nuts...

Just a heads up: If you often find yourself hiding in the trunk of your car and scarfing down Krispy Kremes ...despite how ever so normal it may seem at the time.....

This is not normal behavior. You have a problem. Step away from the dough nut and seek medical attention.

Brandon Brag:
There has been two things I've really been struggling with with Brandon. Ok, I'm the mother of an elven year old boy I struggle with a lot more than 2 things. But we have made progress on two things that really deserve a brag or a 100 or so brags. Buckle your seat belts this might get windy....

One: We always fought Brandon's weight. It comes natural. Heaviness, love of food, and well... laziness are all in his genes. It is a bad combination that I fight myself. But it really reached a point where I was starting to get concerned and beat myself up that his weight might be spiraling out of control. We did go on the Daniel fast together and I really think both Bran and I learned some control there. Then the soccer season started. Brandon has never been sporty. In fact... we quit his first soccer league because kids on his team made fun of his lack of talent. Then our little home school group started soccer last year and his interest peaked a little. However, when we tossed around having it again this year I was really shocked when Bran was bursting that he loved to play soccer! Really a whole game based on running when you dread walking to the mail box to check the mail? Then when the teams were set up I realized that Bran would be moving up to the older group. Would he be able to keep up? You know what? Brandon is running. Brandon is really a player. I mean he is not the star of the team by far but he is actually in the game not just another body on the field. He is running, the whole game, and making plays! NO NO REALLY you don't understand my joy! This is a child that has set down on the floor while I was shopping because he said he was tired! The other night Cecil said he thinks Brandon might be slimming up a little. Lord I pray so! He is such a handsome sweet natured child. He deserves to be healthy too.

Two: This one is much shorter I promise! Just let me set a brief back drop. Branflake loves books but in the true lazy fashion that embodies the Branflake lifestyle prefers them read to him! He has read small chapter books to himself but prefers nice meaty novels. Wanting to encourage his appetite for books and because I enjoy the time with him I have read several to him. But this last Tuesday he picked a book up at the library... a good 5oo page 57 chapter novel..and he is half way through it. Pardon me while I do a lame Momma Victory dance!

Emily Entertainment:
Just a tiny funny. You know that some peeps think we home school mommas keep our little angels locked away from the evils of society. Pop culture and worldly ways never reach the ears of my pure little lady right. Well yes it does but apparently she filters it differently than others do. For instance just yesterday my little pop diva was giving an impromptued concert. Her song? If you want to be my mother your have to be my friend.... Just in case you don't know the song that comes from...it is supposed to be if you want to be my lover you have to be my friend...tell me what you want what you really really want...
LOL Ok it was much cuter in person......

OK Saw this and it looked like a fun way for people to kind of get to know me and may be figure out a little of who I am.

Why do we think fitting in means being the same? I don’t fit in main stream public because I home school my kids. I am different from the crowd. Which means what? Well, if you make a different choice from your neighbor it either means you’re a nut or you think they are nuts, right? I mean, it couldn’t possibly just mean you made the right choice for you and your family or that you respect others' rights to make their own decisions, could it?

Just for a hoot lets say home school families can’t “fit in” with public school families. So, Then comes along the local home school support group. This is the place where home schoolers can come get together with like minded families and really “fit in” right? Well, I guess not. More and more I hear home school moms fretting over not “fitting in” in the home school community.

Mom “A” feels God called her to home school and stands out because she is more conservative than her fellow home school mom friends.

Mom “B” doesn’t home school for religious reasons at all and feels frustrated that she is expected to fit the stereo type that we are all Mom “A”.

Mom “C” is stuck in the middle somewhere (say hello to Mom “C”). She does home school because she feels that God called her to but also does it for academic reasons. She isn’t as conservative as Mom “A” but is still more conservative than main stream John Q.

Truth is I could probably really break us all the way down to Mom “Z” or Mom “ZZ”. Why? Because we are people. God didn’t make us with cookie cutters.

I think the reason we think we can’t “fit in” is assumptions. (You know what they say about Assumptions, right?) We have these broad range assumptions of who people are and who people expect us to be. Just because I wear the name Christian or Home School Mom it doesn’t mean I am super perfect mom or that I have the right to judge other moms. Don’t set me up on that pedestal. I will fall off and I’m afraid of heights! We don’t all handle our relationships with the Lord the same ways. We don’t all live our lives with the same convictions. We don’t all home school the same way or for the same reasons.

What we all are though is HUMAN and we can love each other as HUMANS. Which means we are all flawed and fall short. Mom “A” love Mom “B” for who she is as a person, don’t judge her by your convictions and don‘t assume she expects you to live by her convictions. Mom “B” love Mom “A” because of who she is as a person, don’t judge her for her convictions and don‘t assume she expects you to live by her convictions. Mom “C” you’re a freak that doesn’t fit in anywhere just face it! HA! HA! Just joking. The point is all mom types “A - ZZ” want to be loved and accepted for who they are as individuals. The answer is to love and accept others first. Then may be they’ll love and accept you back. If they don’t then they are missing out and you’ve still reached out and loved another human being. You’ve not lost a thing.

Friday Emily was watching TV. I was sitting at the computer working on something and only half listening to her answer questions on the show. It was Dora or Blues Clues. I'm not sure which one. I wasn't paying much attention. I just know it was one of those because she was shouting out the appropriate answers when the time came. You know how they ask questions for the kids to shout answers at the TV like they hear them? Anyway, I'm still not real sure exactly what the show was about but here is what I heard....

TV personality: "What is your favorite room in the house?"

Emily: "Mommy's room!"

TV personality: "Why is that your favorite room?"

Emily: "Cause that is where Mommy and Daddy are!"

To some this may not be a notable moment, but she could have said her room because of the toys, the living room because of the TV and video games, the kitchen because of the food, the school room because of the craft supplies but she said MY room because that is where her Mommy is found. How long will my room and my arms be her favorite places to be? Such a short time. Needless to say my determination that she must sleep in her own room that night slipped. She slept snuggled up to me and I dozed off knowing with out a doubt that being snuggled up next to one of my babies is my favorite place to be.

Today was a dreary day. What do you do on a dreary day? You read. So, off to the library we went!

BranFlake got two books:

Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke
The Ice Dragon by George R.R. Martin.

(Think the boy likes dragons?) The real trick will be getting him to read them before they are due back. He is not an avid reader. However, he would still do just about anything to have me read out loud to him. He’ll even sit and listen to me read little kids books to his sister! He is wanting the second book in the prophecy warriors (about warrior cats) but the library doesn't have it. Since he read the first book faster than he has ever read anything and he read it with out trying to talk me into reading it out loud, I guess I'll have to go buy that series for him. Soon the third book in the Eragon series should be out. (another dragon book) I’ll really have to buy that when it comes out. Of course I’ll end up reading that aloud.


Emily got several books:

Goodnight Moon (again)
Llama llama red pajama (again)
After Dark by Louis Baum
Winnie the Pooh Everyone is Special
Wild about Books by Judy Sierra
The Castle Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner ( This is the first non picture book that Emily has ever picked out. I really think that she just picked it out because of the castle on the front but we’ve read three chapters already and she seems to like it. I didn‘t notice until we got home that it was a boxcar children book. I‘ve been trying to get Brandon interested in those because they are more his reading level. May be listening to me read to his sister will peek his interest. Right now he wants these huge epics that are beyond his reading level and guess who he wants to read them?)
Just a Minute by Yuyi Morales (This is a cute book about an old woman that tricks death into waiting around for her until he gives up. It also has counting in both English and Spanish all the way up to ten.)


I like historical and fantasy fiction. I guess Bran has my taste. For myself I got The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwall and The Spirit Gate by Kate Elliott. I hope I can still time away to myself to actually read them! I used to read and read and read. But it has gotten hard to make the time to anymore. After all I'm always having to read to my kids! LOL

We usually don’t color coordinate our outfits but when I bought Emily’s little dress I just happened to see shirts in Brandon’s department that matched on sale. It was all lime for us after that! So here we are the lime family on Easter.



The kids had a great Easter. Emily has been talking about Jesus all the time for weeks now. I’m beginning to think it will soon be time for her to start asking about being saved and baptized. Brandon was about 6 or 7 when he accepted Jesus and got baptized.



They had more eggs than their baskets could carry and had to resort to plastic bags to help them out.



Brandon has always complained that the eggs are too easy to find so this year I hid some hard ones for him. This is him playing hot and cold. The prize is in the gas door of the car. It took him a long time to find that one.

Yesterday our home school group had our second annual Easter egg hunt at the Goodman Museum. There were two changes made this year. One is we invited the families staying in the Salvation Army temporary housing to join us. The other is that this year our tour through the Museum was guided.

The Museum has beautiful park grounds that we do our egg hunt in. The tour took longer than expected so after the tour the kids where really chomping at the bits to be set free to hunt eggs! It all happened so fast I didn’t even get a chance to take a single picture of the kids actually hunting eggs! In total we hid way over a thousand eggs but they were snatched up fast.

I did manage to get a few pictures of all the families sitting down together for a picnic after the egg hunt. The way everyone set down together, shared food, and laughed and talked like we were all one family really touched my heart. I hope we get another opportunity to serve the Salvation Army families again in the future.


We were worried about it raining or turning out too cold for families to want to be out in the weather but the day turned out to be perfect egg hunt/picnic weather!

Today on the other hand……It is snowing!!!!!

You got to love Texas! You have got to LOVE God’s sense of humor! Thanks God for waiting one day!

I love my daughter. She is me! She is beautiful and yes it is true I admit that she gets that from her Dad, but the personality is all ME! Sometimes when our hard heads bash up against each other it is a bit rough but for the most part I am thoroughly entertained by her. For instance…..

Curiosity Killed the Cat…

The other day I was trying to watch American Idol and cook supper at the same time. So, as I’m in the bed room trying to catch a song before I check on the food I hear my daughter crying and screaming and her father (who doesn’t do stress well) screaming “HELP!” OH MY Gosh! She did she get burned, cut, is she seriously injured? I run out of the room to find the screams weren’t from the kitchen they were from the hallway past the kitchen. “What on earth could be so wrong in the hallway?” I wonder until I come completely around the corner….

Did I mention that she is Daddy most precious little wonder and joy? Daddy is freaking out….. I run in and try to figure out why they are screaming....

Our front door, you see, has one of those little knobs you twist to lock and the door has been shoved open too roughly on many occasions and put a small hole in the wall. What do you do with a small hole in the wall? Why you stick your little finger in there of course! Then your finger swells up and won’t come out.

So Mommy sends Daddy away because his panic is feeding Em’s panic and uses a syringe to squirt oil into the wall around the finger…and when that doesn’t help you use a knife to cut around the finger. In the end she didn't trust Mom enough and Daddy had to come back to cut it out....

But Em evidently isn’t the only child like me, cause my son announced , “She must have pushed her finger in too far, cause when I did that I pulled my finger out when I felt it getting smaller and I didn’t get MY finger stuck!” LOL

A Box….

I was sorely disappointed when we bought our new fridge and it didn’t come in a box. So naturally I was overjoyed when our lawn mower did! Yes, a big box for Em to play house in. Not as large as a fridge box but she is a very petite girl. We handed the box over and yes she was thrilled! I knew she would be. What I didn’t know is that instead of a house she would throw in a blankie, pillow and battery operated night light and go to sleep! I wish I had a picture of her curled up in there but she never goes to sleep on time or out of my bed so I was too scared I’d wake her with the flash!

I’ll Learn What I Want… When I Want….

I have been worried that Emily doesn’t know what other kids her age know already. I am not worried that she is mentally slow. I am more worried that I never really get around to doing school with her on a regular basis and that I may be I am letting her down. Even her Daddy nags that I don't work with her enough. (Deep down I know there is plenty of time. She may pass the other kids in her age range and leave them in the dust when she really starts doing regular school work, but I’m tired of having her being questioned and compared now.) That and when I do bother she resists and plays games with me. By play games with me I mean she acts like she doesn't know stuff to avoid work. For instance she can count to ten one second and gets lost at 2 a moment later. I can tell when she really doesn't know the answer because that is when she doesn't want to do school anymore. If it is not easy or doesn't come to her naturally she would rather not mess with it. Also, she is five and doesn’t know her colors??? Is she colored blind? Well, I sat down to do a little school with her a couple days after complaining to a friend that Em was having a hard time learning her colors and not only did she say all her colors but several of them she could recognize the names of the colors in writing…. I guess I SOOOOO need to get over this. She is clearly going to learn things in her own time!

I've gotten the all kid's curriculum for next year all bought and a rough plan for the year lined out:

Language Arts:

Brandon
Journal-writing daily in a journal
Reading-The All-In-One The Pilgrim's Progress
Grammar- Easy Grammar Grades 5 and 6
Spelling- AVKO Sequential Spelling 2

Emily
Explode the Code
Handwriting Without Tears
Spelling and Vocabulary (Houghton Mifflin)

Math:

Brandon
Saxon 65

Emily
Various workbook pages from:
The Complete Book of Numbers and Counting
More Everything for Early Learning
Mathematics The Path to Math Success Texas Edition

Science:

Brandon and Emily
Flying Creatures of the 5th Day
Swimming Creatures of the 5th Day

Emily
Christan Liberty Nature Reader Book 1 (We're already reading this I probably should have bought the set)


History:

Brandon and Emily
Diana Waring's Ancient History and the Bible
Emily does have her own workbook for this, but I'm not sure if it might still be too hard for her. At the very least she can listen to the stories.

Bible:

I'm not doing a separate Bible curriculum this year as I feel it is already throughly covered in Reading, Science, and History.


I also plan to try to get Bran more computer literate.