Happy Birthday!

Today my sister Samantha is 20. Wow! I remember when she was born (I was almost 10.) She is such a beautiful and amazing young adult. I am so proud of her!

Me and Samantha














Sammie, have a great day, I love you!





Today is also my grandmother and cousin's birthday as well. Hope everyone has a great day!


Grandma and Joshua



















-Becky

Peach Picking

Friday we went peach and nectarine picking. It was fun. And yes my mom did try to throw peaches at me, ouch! Here's some pictures:

Joshua
yum
Joshua, mom, & Scott

Happy Birthday MOM

Mom and I yesterday













Today is my mom's birthday. Even though she does not want to celebrate, I want to remind her how much I love her and respect her and am so in awe of her. She is amazing!!! She is the strongest person I know, yet so loving and kind. She is everything I want to be. Everyday of my life I have known that she loves me and she has shown it in a million ways.

Dear Lord,

Thank you so much for giving me the mom you did. Please bless her today and everyday. Give her rest and comfort. Remind her of your love. Remind her that you are always with her.

In Jesus name,

Amen


Mom,

Have a great day! I love you so much!

-Becky

First week of homeschooling at home complete

Our first week of homeschooling at home is almost complete (tomorrow is a light day as each boy only has to do Bible, devotion, reading, & a current events.) Jason is sleeping at his grandparents and will do that stuff with them, so I only have to work with Joshua on those things.

I can say that I am exhausted! I did not manage to get up by 7:30/8:00 everyday, but we managed to get all school work done and get to co-op on time Tues. & Thur., so that is a positive for this week.

Monday & Wed. at home Joshua did:
Bible (reading it and a devotion), Handwriting, Creative writing, Math, Language Arts, Cooking, Arts and Crafts, and Reading. He also did 6 chores each day (as he is 6.)

Jason did:
Bible (reading it and a devotion), Handwriting, Creative writing, Math, Language Arts, Vocabulary, and Reading. He also had to do History and Science homework from co-op. He also did 11 chores each day.

Tues. & Thur. we all did Bible, reading, and co-op.

Each day we did some sort of P.E. I even took three walks this week (not my goal of five, but better than none.)

I will say that Joshua was very well behaved during school time. We still had going to bed issues a few days, but that would occur no matter where he was in school (as it has been an ongoing problem.) Jason also has been well behaved, although new routines and people are harder for him to adjust to. He did do well on his history test today.

Also both my boys played very nice together this week. I was really impressed by that. They both discovered they like to play catch together and found mitts and balls in the shed.

I have loved being in preschool at co-op, especially working with the two woman I am working with, they are such a blessing to me. Although six active preschool boys are a lot of work, the joy I see in their faces is such blessing as well.

I am going to go food shopping now and then get to bed early. Tomorrow after Josh and I do those few things he has a doctor's appointment and then we are going peach picking with my mom. I am so excited. I love picking fruit. Except I hope no one throws any at me like when we went blueberry picking, the peaches may hurt. Ouch! Lol.

-Becky

p.s. as a teacher I know things like history are common nouns and are not supposed to be capitalized, but I did it anyway in this post.

carpet results

Both my homemade laundry soap and the Seventh Generation carpet cleaner got the coffee stain out of my cream carpet. However I have a strange mystery stain that neither cleaner got out. At least Duane and Josh are off the hook.

-Becky

Something vinegar doesn't do

I only have one carpet in my house (in the living room.) The rest is hard wood floor (bedrooms, and part of living room), tile (bathroom), and vinyl (kitchen and front hall)
Well, the carpet is really stained (it is cream colored), but vinegar alone does not get rid of the stains. I just tried some of my homemade laundry soap to see how that will work. I also bought Seventh Generation carpet cleaner. I am trying both on two separate coffee stains on the rug, to see which if any works better. Here is the funny thing, I do not drink coffee. Both times Duane brought his coffee into living room and set it down. Both times Joshua knocked it over on accident. Duane is not yet used to the fact that little kids will spill stuff. So if the stains come clean they will both be off the hook.

What works for you on carpet stains? Any home made solutions? Any good natural / organic stuff?

I will let you know if any of my solutions worked.

-Becky

It's Sept.

Yikes, where does the time go? Today we had co-op and then we went to the park with another homeschooling family.

I was a little peeved as Jason usually climbs to the very top of any playground (like above it.) This never bothers me as he knows his limitations, plus it keeps him from climbing the curtains at home-lol. The playground we were on had a sign that said, "this playground is geared for 5-12 year olds." Well, he is only 11 (and doesn't look older.) But another mom with toddlers told him he couldn't play on the playground. I assume her kids were trying to emulate him and climb up, but he got very upset (he wasn't doing anything wrong) and then he would not play on the playground until the woman left.

Now, when I am on the playground I will tell a child I do not know to be nice (if say they are hitting my child), but I felt like this mom should not have told him he couldn't play. Plus technically she was in the wrong as the playground was for 5-12 year olds. Right next to it was the 0-5 playground. Her kids did not look five. Yet still, I would never tell them they can't play there. I actually tell my kids to watch out for the little ones (by the way Jason is very good with little kids.)

No real point to this post, just venting. I am glad Jason was respectful of the woman and didn't tell her off as I have seen some kids on the playground do (not today.) But my mama bear instinct kicked in and it upset me that he was upset. He handled it well, and actually used that time to whittle with his, gasp, pocket knife. I am sure the playground lady would have objected to that as well. Ok, ok I will calm down and say a pray for this family later. Alright, I'll do it now. I will even be grateful that someone else was looking out for Jason's safety.

-Becky