Fringe Time- A little me time.

Me time. What exactly does that look like? Well, the amazing, Jessica Turner has written a book that comes out next week called The Fringe Hours. It's a book that stresses the importance of finding time for ourselves in all of the busy days we call our life.

 

What is my favorite fringe time activity? Baking. I love the feeling I get when I know I have all of the ingredients and the quiet time to really concentrate on turning out something yummy. It also feels great when my family's eyes light up over a new dish we are trying. 

I'm looking forward to reading Jessica's book. She writes with such practicality. 

Happy Weekend!

Testing...testing...1..2..3...

Is this thing working?

New Adventures...

Wow! It's been a while since my last post. I would like to apologize to the five people who know about and read my blog. :)

Anyhow, summer has come and gone and it's time for a new school year. This one will be a little different though. After five years of learning at home we are going to school. It's both scary and exciting at the same time. The kids are super excited to have new teachers, meet new friends, and participate in all of the fun activities that come along with going to school. At the same time they are a little nervous about what will be expected of them. It helps though that Mom will be going along with them to work as a teacher's aid to the Kindergarten class. We can't wait to take part in this new adventure, and hope to do a better job of posting our stories.

I have to admit I'm going to miss the time spent in this little corner of our family room, but I know that we are looking forward to the new adventures that this school year will bring.

Here we go!

Teamwork...

Today I'm appreciating the way my children interact when they are working together to accomplish a common goal.

Today it was "catch the cat".

I had to laugh at the way they drew up a plan and then discussed it thoroughly. They each had position titles and watchposts. They started off with the sly, let's trick her tactics:

And when she caught on to that, they decided to bring out the big guns. Yes, literally the big guns. (That's where I had to go from quiet observer to full fledged: NO WAY, YOU CAN'T SHOOT THE CAT!)

I had to admire their determination to somehow trap the cat and take notes on Cleo's behavior. And I don't think it was my imagination that Cleo seemed to be playing along. She happens to be one smart kitty. She found a safe hiding place amidst the mountain of dirty laundry.

In the middle of all the chaos. I silently thanked God for the children He gave to me, and how lucky I am that I get to see so much of their daily interaction with each other. Don't get me wrong. It seems that we're breaking them up more than not, but when they do play together I get a glimpse of the strong bonds that they will have for the rest of their lives.

Christmas 2011

Now that the holidays are over we have less of this

And more of this

We had a wonderful Christmas that allowed for many hours of family and friends. We are so blessed!

Homeschool favorite #2...

My plan is to start highlighting some of my favorite things about homeschooling. There are many. Some days they are hard to remember. But they are a few of the things that make this homeschooling "adventure" a wonderful experience. So without further ado, homeschool favorite #2:

Flexibility...
It's a wonderful thing. Days can be made to order just by rearranging our subjects. We can take field trips when we want to and not have it disrupt too much. If one of the kids isn't feeling great we can work with that too. I just find that in this fast paced world it's nice to be able to be flexible with our days, and that's why I greatly appreciate this aspect of homeschooling.

Unfortunately, I couldn't take a picture of flexibility so I'll post a cute picture of my kids in their costumes.

Homeschool favorite #1...

I have many homeschool favorites. They are the things that remind me that the days of craziness are worth it. One of my FAVORITE favorites is this:

 I just love the first squiggly letters that their chubby little hands write. It's like cuteness on paper. I also love how their face lights up when you praise them and tell them that this one is most definitely a "sticker paper".(as they ALL are) It's one of the little things that goes a long way to encourage this homeschool momma.