This is your A.D.D. brain on Summer...

Hello blog-land! I've been a little distracted/confused/busy/busy procrastinating/overwhelmed/exercising/dieting...um, pick one...

So much going on, so much to blog about!!  I guess I will do a few catch-up type posts:

***but first a plug to vote for the blawg!  I am in the running for Circle of Moms top 25 Homeschooling moms.  I am in the middle of a blogging slump, as you can probably tell...so I haven't mentioned it here on the blog, but somehow, I went from like 18 votes to 100+ {wow! someone loves me!}  So...if you could click over, scroll down and vote for me, I would so {heart} you.  You can vote once a day until June 27th -only 8 days left!

~1~

Meg went to Prom and I had a great "ah-ha" moment for a photography session.  We keep driving by this set of railroad tracks next to the freeway with these colorful empty train cars just sitting there.  I thought it would be fun, Meg agreed, so we drove around till we found it.  This was a Jenn-sort of adventure, I had no idea what street would come close to the cars, or if we could even get close.  It all worked out, though.  I got some great photos, a few that could have been better. It's such a learning process with me.  She had a great time at prom :)

~2~

I attended a small photography workshop here in Orange County at Crescendoh art gallery.  I have been wishing/looking for a local class only a day or weekend in length, but could only find semester-long community college classes.  I just don't have that kind of time to commit, this class was perfect- one full day of photography/blogger bliss.  I got to hang out with other bloggers *AND* have lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, which was just down the street.  This class was taught by Cynthia Shaffer and she physically took hold of my Nikon D80 and helped me change/find all the menu settings on it.  Finally!!  My photography horizons were expanded- I can now do so much more with my camera!  She taught us about settings, aperture, lighting- gave us lots of tips and hands-on help and then we went outside for an outside photo lesson, urban style.  It was an amazing day!

~3~

Our homeschool year came to a close- and not soon enough for me!  This has probably been my most lack-luster homeschool year, I was really overwhelmed & uninspired and we didn't do many creative things at all- just kind of survived the year.  I crashed and burned spectacularly with end-year stuff for Meg and Josie.  My charter school ES- a saint.  She's still talking to me...a miracle.  It was this weird situation where I actually had extra time to complete stuff, but I kept procrastinating and dragging my feet anyway.  I think in my brain, I was just done/bored/over it.  I keep mentioning A.D.D. in a joking way here on the blog, but it's kind of not a joke.  I am thinking maybe I have it.  Last week I grabbed a few books on A.D.D. at the bookstore and started looking through them, I started to read some of it out loud to Sky and we both laughed at how so much of it sounds like me.  It's funny that Sky can be so patient with me, he is so linear and logical and organized- I know just my way of being must drive him crazy, but he tolerates it /looks past it all very well. I like to think that I add the flavor to his life, linear would probably be kind of boring...

~4~

So, in light of #3- I am dedicating this Summer to getting organized/my house clean/and doing some major planning for homeschooling in the Fall.  But first! - I am in the middle of serious exercising/weight-loss.

Did I mention I seem to only be able to concentrate on one thing at a time?  Right now, it seems to be P90x.

refer to #3 again.

~5~

My baby-girl had her 17th birthday.  I can't believe she is 17!  She is finally driving, she has her own car now.  My life has changed so much just by having her driving!  She is my most busy child, I call her my Renaissance kid- if she could dabble in almost every activity/sport/art -she would.   Now, she does her various activities, like violin/Irish dance/ high school classes/ her job- on her own. It's like magic!  I was kind of in a daze at first, having a day or two where I didn't have to drive anywhere was kind of surreal.  Sky has been emphatic that I need to decide what I want to dive into and make this my time to shine.  [love that man <3 ]

~6~

First up on Jenn-time is p90x.  It's an intense exercise dvd set.  So far I have lost a bit over 9 lbs (it keeps bouncing up and down). I am going to do a blog series on it.  I have been watching what I eat and counting calories on My Fitness Pal.  In the past, when I needed to lose weight, I have done Jenny Craig- but I just couldn't afford it this time and I just couldn't stand the thought of eating the pre-packaged food again.  With My Fitness Pal, I can plan to eat the things I like, I just need to pick healthy/ healthier things.  More later....

So, blog-friends, how is your Summer shaping up?  Have any big plans? What do you hope to accomplish this Summer?

Notes

Well, our school year is winding up.  We just finished up with our Biola Star classes, the 3 youngest are done with their charter school but we have another week of charter school for my two high school students.  I feel like my load has lifted a lot, but like I still have a lot hanging over my head with finishing up the high schooler's year.  We have some essays and projects to finish up and record before our last meeting. This homeschool year was not my best year.  I am clearly going to have to dedicate myself this Summer to super-organizing for next year.  With that in mind, I am planning on using My Father's World next year for everyone but Meg.  Meg will be in her Senior year next year, History as a subject is over for her and we already have a really full course planned for her.   I really, really liked the schedule pages for My Father's World.  The schedule grid looked about the same as the History course we area already using, but- it had spaces for all subjects on the page (A.D.D. mom does not do well having to flip around to other schedules) and also some helpful little notes in some of the squares reminding you to do something or telling you where to find something.  I really need that.  The best part was the facing page- It listed the days of the weeks with directions on what you should be doing each day.  } This works with how my brain thinks.    I have figured out how to line up our History plans with what MFW is offering.  I think/hope it will be a really good change.  [Worksheets].  I saw ample worksheet offerings and narration sheets and coloring sheets...swoon. I am so glad I was able to see this curriculum in person, otherwise I would not have realized how much I like it.

I am still going strong with watching what I eat and exercising daily.  I am now up to level 3 of the 30Day Shred and I can run more of my mile & a- half route.  I've lost six pounds already and feel so much better.  Here's the neat part, yesterday while I was doing my Shred, one of the kids was watching me.  In the past, I would exercise in the privacy of my room, using the laptop but something is wrong with the disc drive and I can't use it now...so, it's the desk-top in the front room or the t.v in the living room.  Well, this un-named kid was watching me and watching Jillian Michaels and laughing at me when I couldn't do the full-on sit-ups with my legs straight (those are hard!)  She asked if she could do the workout with me the next day.  I am really happy over this.

Here's where I struggle with how much to share on-line and with how much to be real- and how to be helpful to other moms.  I think I am okay sharing this.  One of my kids, (I will not name) is a butter-ball.  I noticed from the start that she is built differently then the others, she has always been more sturdy, bigger-boned; I guess you could call it.  The last few years she has put on the weight and I've been distressed and unsure of how to help her.  My big handicap is the fear of giving her some kind of horrible body-issue- struggle for the rest of her life.  As a society, we've become really sensitive about body -issue problems with girls- and not contributing to them...but I feel left in the dark about what to do when your child does have a problem.  At first, I figured it was our problem, not hers.  She needs to just be a kid, we as the adults in her life needed to handle it by getting her more physical activity and watching that she eats more healthy.  Sounds good, but really hard when you have four other kids in the house who are built like you were as a child- athletic and can eat anything, all day.  We've tried to watch her like a hawk and remind her to only take 3 cookies, not the 8 she grabbed...to suggest fruit, to make her eggs instead of cereal for breakfast.  We've put her into after school activities just to watch her put in the minimal effort.  We've taken her out because it was a waste of money.  When I was a kid, I was almost always outside playing.  Here, there are no other kids on our block.  It's been a real struggle.  I don't know how to change it without singling her out, and I'm afraid of the issues I could cause if I deny her a snack but let the other kids have one.  I worry if I stop all snacks but healthy stuff, that she will begin to hide food and binge.  I worry she will resent me.

I've tired little efforts- taking her on mile long walks more regularly, trying to get out and play tennis at the park..but it isn't happening every day.  So- having her ask to workout with me is huge.  It's something she wants to do, not something I am pushing on her.  Jillian Michaels, you rock- and I am so glad that my daughter has found something in you to compel her to emulate you.  After we finished our first workout I pulled up a photo of Jillian in highschool, when she struggled with weight...to show my daughter that we all have our struggles but that we all can also get healthy.

Thank you, Jillian Michaels.

Homeschool Show and tell } fractions workbook

I like to open up my homeschool closet to share materials I find helpful in our homeschool journey, it's been a while since I've shared... Of interest to me lately are these nifty Math workbooks by Flashkids.

After a slightly confusing lesson on decimals -for test prep purposes, I went to our local Barnes & Nobles to find some help.  I found these great little flashkids workbooks on fractions, I loved how the workbook walks you through all the ins & outs of fractions in small, incremental steps with lots of practice.  I thought, Eureka! (Ca motto...learning moment, people!) and decided to buy the fractions workbooks and go home and order one on decimals... -which they don't make.  Cue unsmiley face.  I decided to skip that pesky section in the test prep workbook on comparing obscure, tiny decimals...problem solved. :)

So, this handy-dandy fractions activities workbook is small, at a non-threatening 9" x 7" size.  Each page moves you through understanding and using fractions in small non-threatening steps.  It explains what a fraction is, parts of the fraction, comparing sizes, common factors, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.  The only flaw might be the monster theme of the book.  I'm pretty picky when my kids are small, but after 2nd grade and up I don't think it would be a problem.  (unless you really don't want that in your house-which is why I am mentioning it, there are monsters, spiders, witches and vampires represented in silly manner).

This particular workbook is labeled 3rd grade - but we are using Math-U-See and my boys will not tackle fractions in that program till next school year, so for me, grade levels are kind of meaningless in Math.

This is a nice, simple workbook series that is great for test prep or introducing new concepts. Thumbs up :)

}I am linking up over at Learning ALL the time's Favorite resource this week. Click over to find some other great learning finds!

*disclaimer: a totally spontaneous review of an item I purchased myself.

Homeschool beat -what is hip and happening

okay, all that is hip and happening [in my mind]...!  Hey, homeschool's cool!

er, not homeschool related, but I have to show you the legs of my reclaimed wood farmhouse table.  Sky is experimenting with this yellow first, with a top-coat of white, and then distressing/ rubbing some of the paint off.  I'll keep you all posted, because I know you are as excited and impressed as I am! ... I am so excited about my new table, it makes me smile every time I think about it!

I swear, thesis papers and Science projects will make me old before my time....  Meg made this wonderful (hey, I'm her mom-but I think it came out really good!) model of a prokaryotic cell.  It's a soda bottle with jello.  She scooped out the cytoplasm jello and then laid in a red jello cylinder with a plastic chain inside for the nucleoid.  I didn't think it would work!  That'll teach me to doubt Meg's creativity!  Still, I kind of grit my teeth when it's science project time.  Sue me.

So I packed up the car with one jello prokaryotic cell model in a bucket and one hen in a cat carrier on my front seat. Don't ask. Just believe me when I say that it really happened.

Homeschool beat is anarchy beat, [word].

Meg took her hen, Dapples to her Biola Star Biology class.  They are studying birds right now.  This just happened to collide with homeschool Science fair project day. Because, I live in a constant state of hecticness (yes, I just made up a word)  Did this all really happen this week?  Yes.  Homeschool's cool & happening- [word].

How is your week shaping up, bloggy friends?

I'll take random thoughts for $200...

Hey-ya friends!! My life is totally on cruise control right now, I'm a victim of my circumstances- something like that...or maybe not....

• First up, I have achieved total slacker level in my own photo challenge.  Um, I'll catch up, maybe tomorrow.  The problem, after being sick- it's kind of cold here in Orange County and I like to sit next to the fireplace in the dining room, sitting at the table with my laptop.  Problem is, all my photos and photo editing software are on my desktop in the front living room.  The cold front living room.  I'm kind of disinclined to change my location.

• Our homeschool plans/curriculum have been in a state of flux.  I am contemplating if I should do a side-by-side comparison of what we started of with and what we actually ended up using....it will make a busy page even more messier though, I am conflicted.  Here's a teaser, I've ditched MTC Grammar for Shurley Grammar. Does the change in educational philosophy just make your head spin?  Honestly, I loved MTC, but the format was a more -read with a child one-on-one and discuss.  In this crazy household, it just kept getting pushed off.  Shurley Grammar has worksheets and I can do the lesson with all 3 kids together.  !worksheets!  [yes, I am forever a worksheet girl]

• My car theft saga:  Photo evidence here * March photo a day: mom-my-ride Back -story: I now have the nicest car I have ever had. It's a 2004 with a bucket-load of miles on it, but it is fully loaded to the max.  I told Sky it was all over, luxury all the way, from now on, baby!  I had it 2 months maybe- and it got broken into, on our driveway, and the fancy radio/navigation system touch -screen- wonder was stolen.  Top it all off, this was when I was really sick, so I was sick in bed and Sky called home to tell me.  After I got over feeling depressed that I was not destined to have nice things {extreme pity-party in action}  I snapped out of it determined to replace it and move on.  I was also determined on some righteous karma wishful-thinking....

I had it all figured out:  The radio actually didn't work all the time and had lately started shutting off when I tried to use the nav system.  it was starting to do this when I was changing music functions, too.  My great all-consuming hope/dream was that the thieves would go on to sell the radio on craigslist, sell it to a gang-member and then get their tuckus kicked when the gang person realized the radio was broken.

You're a little psyched with me, I can tell!  Karma, got to love it!

Sky returned home from church and I filled him in on my great hope.  He looked at me, a little confused/concerned and said...

"I just prayed for them, they really must need the Lord."  ....okay.... I realized with sudden clarity that it was glaringly obvious which one of us was reading their Bible and which one of us hadn't been...

So okay, I prayed too.  Is it bad that a teeny tiny part of me still kind of likes the whole craigslist scenario??  Don't answer...

• I am getting a lot of visits to my blog because of a google search for River Song's red shoes.  This makes me a bit giddy.  You can see her shoes in action here *River Song video

• I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with way less sugar. Brilliant move, the result was the kids left them alone.  Score!  I will share my recipe as soon as I can get it together enough to take nice photos of the cookies.  My name is Jenn and I have a homeschool curriculum habit problem and a picky photography hang-up, I am seeking an appropriate 12 step program. 

• I actually made three things on my pinterest boards!!  Woot!  I made the crock-pot French dip sandwiches [great but lacking in flavor, must figure out a spice remedy] the pancake apple rings [made them with gluten free pancake mix-they are an awesome snack!] and then tonight the Greek lemon chicken. [Sky thought they were too sour, but he ate the skin, I did not eat the skin and liked them]  I think I need to make a pinterest board titled "pins I've actually done"   Here are my boards - henjenca on pinterest

• everyone but me it seems, has seen The Hunger Games.  Big pout.  Meg and Josie went with friends on Saturday night.  Sky is going to take me hopefully tomorrow.  He has no real interest in it, but knows I want to see it badly.  He's a good man <3

Hope your week is beautiful, bloggy friends!  :)

Wordless Wednesday - Katniss

Katniss

the {Home} version of Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games.

Happy [not so] Wordless Wednesday!

homeschool day in the life -March

Here is a look at our Monday:  We started the day around 9-ish  (yeah, still working on that) after everyone had breakfast we all sat around the dining table and worked on Math.  The 3 youngest students are using Math-U-See and Horizon Math, Josie is using Math U See Algebra 1 and Meg is using Math-U-See Algebra II.

After Math, the high school girls began working on their other assignments independently.  They had grammar review for test prep, Biology for Meg, Art appreciation for Joise, Earth Science for Josie using Switched on Schoolhouse and Language arts for each using Alpha Omega Life pacs.

Here is a page from Josie's LA life pac, grade 9 unit 4.  She is learning about topic sentence patterns.  She also takes a composition class with Biola Star on Thursdays.

Meg is learning about Poetry right now with Alpha Omega's Life Pac -LA grade 11 unit 5.

Her work was about meter, rhyme, feet, all that good stuff.  I also found her a helpful youtube lecture on meter,  here:  Youtube Rhyming Schemes lesson  and Poetry Metrics 1 by the English Guy in Texas

The 3 younger students did cursive handwriting and then had a short snack break.  Once back at the table, we worked on grammar.  Today we learned about helping verbs and review linking verbs from last week's lesson.

We worked in our Spectrum test prep books on reading skills.  I did a read aloud for History and asked questions as I read.  We then stopped for lunch.  The kids ate lunch and then tore through the house with nerf guns.  I did my best to tune them out.  The high school girls moved to their bedroom to work in quiet.

After lunch, we did a Science reading worksheet.  The 3 younger kids then had a 1/2 hour of quiet reading time.

I had to leave and take Meg to her violin lesson.  Josie practiced piano, the 3 youngers continued to tear up the house and play their nerf gun wars.

My photoshop elements 10 arrived from Amazon!  Much rejoicing in the land.  Ok, I was happy, no one else noticed...  I finally had enough with the nerf wars and the upended furniture and commanded the kids to clean up and stop.  They did and then watched an episode of Sherlock.

Meg went to the front room and practiced her Irish hard-shoe dancing.  More noise!  The 3 youngers were now just free-ranging around the house.

Amie gave Emma the wonder labradoodle a bath, Dad paid her $5 to do this.  Emma was not real impressed with how her day was turning out.  The 2 boys played a computer game online.  It's a game with viking villages and forts...kind of educational.... Before dinner, Sky took Demi to his martial arts class, Teddy's mom arrived to take him home and I started dinner.

So ends our day in homeschool land.  Nothing artsy or creative was done today, but it was very typical and normal.

{Home} at large: Homeschool Winter Formal edition

Meg attended Winter Formal, a homeschool version.  It was hosted at a local hotel ballroom and they had dinner, a DJ and dancing, and photos even.

His mom dropped them off, I picked them up- at late o'clock.... Her lovely and loving cousin did her hair (I am so grateful, I am not skilled in the fancy hair department!!) and then the moms took the kids to Bower's Museum for some photos.  Kind of exhausting.  I congratulated his mom on having two boys.  I have 3 girls, and many dances to look forward to...

***

Did I mention that Sky is an artist with wood?  He made a horse-shaped jewelry box for Meg last year.  I've been encouraging to make a few more and open an Etsy store..so he did.  Here's a look.  The middle part is a drawer, and there are two more drawers on the side.  He's pretty amazing.

Meg drew the outline of the horse, Josie had the idea for a Wolf-profile jewelry box, so she drew this outline.  I think it will be a work of beauty when it is done.

***

This weekend we did a bit of Spring cleaning (though of course not as much as I had envisioned) and a ton of laundry.  I had planned on finally cleaning out and organizing my homeschool closet, but so far, haven't attempted it.  It's almost dinner time here on Monday, so it is looking less likely that I will do it.

I am making Chicken tortellini soup right now.  (I cook the chicken thighs in the crock-pot first) -and pumpkin bread in the oven is making the house smell nice.

I just finished reading "What a girl wants" by Kristin Billerbeck.  It is  Christian chick-lit, and I really enjoyed it.  I love a happy, girl finally gets guy sort of ending.  I picked up the sequel at the library, and dived right in...but the first page the character mentioned her future s-i-l and the last name was a different last name then the guy of the last book. {Spoilers! - I guess}  Now I have to see if there is a book I missed, because I seem to be lost...

***

Josie and Demi-Sky have been sick with asthma, Josie has been under the weather for a few weeks with some kind of mystery virus.  She is going to try to go to fencing tonight for the first time in 3 weeks.

After fencing, I am going to get the kids' homeschool work set out for the week.

It's been a nice holiday weekend.  How about you?