week one recap and an observation

This is pretty much just a recap of week one of home school and an unrelated observation.

Let’s start with the observation. I was out the other day and saw a man driving a very big (Cadillac?) convertible with HORNS on the front of it. I know some people think evvverybody in Texas drives those, but let me set you straight. Ummm, no. This might be the first time I’ve seen one and I’m pretty sure J.R. Ewing wasn’t behind the wheel.

Well, we have completed one week of home schooling. And I’m here to tell ya…

• Seems a bit odd to watch Paula Deen dish out the butter and fat whilst walking on the treadmill. (We do gym work 3 days a week and the other 2 days are weight/floor work we can complete at home)
• Spanish class is interesting via computer.
• I am not near as tech savvy as my husband…and the ENTIRE younger generation.
• Did you know you can say all the vowels in Spanish??? Here, let me show you! Say “Pepe, taco, burrito”. There! You’ve just said all the vowels correctly. Spanish should be a breeze from here, right? RIGHT??? : )
• I don’t think Rosetta Stone is interested in her looking at the picture of the waving man and saying “he’s hot” after saying “hola” into the microphone. I overheard that little jewel as I walked past her room as she played around on RS earlier this week.

But overall, we had a good week. We are still learning the ropes, as they say. This week was a lot of procedures and learning the tech with a little learning thrown in. Next week we’ll be hitting the real stuff harder. I hope we can remember everything we learned this week about zips, downloads, mp3s and a million other little details. hold me.

I’m flying!

OMG(osh)! I can’t believe all the researching, planning and ordering of the books is over and we are down to the wire.

Tomorrow is the first day of school.

This is our first home school type experience. I’ve always sent her off to school in new clothes and a full lunchbox. But this is different. And it feels different. I bought a few spiral notebooks for her to jot down little notes. And a big container of mechanical pencils, which are a fave around here too. And that’s about it.

We’ve been joking that she can go to school in her pajamas! Just kidding though. She’ll have to get her act together a little bit to visit the gym several days of the week. Until January. And then she can go to school in her pajamas! : )

I’ve been thinking a lot about all my routines and how things will change with this new school set up. One thing I realized is that I won’t have uninterrupted days alone to ‘get things done’. And one of the easiest things to get behind on is housework!

So!

I was chatting with a friend the other day and she had nice things to say about Flylady’s system. During our discussion, I figured out that I was already doing some things “the Flylady way”. That made me happy. But I could still see a thing or two that would make cleaning easier.

My bathroom counters are always a mess.

Ooops..pardon the kitty. Flylady can’t help me with that. But you get the idea...mess-y! And it takes time to clean everything off and move it all around to clean. So I got an idea.

I put all my bottles and containers in another container, so I can move ONE thing instead of a zillion little things! I’ll let you know how it works out for me. I plan to do my counters the Flylady way and wipe them down daily so they don’t get dirty. Should be much faster that way.

Isn’t it pretty?

I’ll let you know how it goes!

in concert

We had a great weekend! We found out in a rather round about way that Chris Tomlin (!!!) was going to be in concert close enough for us to drive to see him on a Friday night. (!!!) So we got tickets right away when we figured it out. Squeeee!

I couldn’t wait. The only things that caused a little dread were an unknown opening band and the heat. This was an outdoor venue. In the Texas heat and one of the hottest days to date this summer. (This week will be hotter, by the way.)

Anyway…we arrived and found our seats just as the first band was being introduced. Tenth Avenue North.

Did I mention it was hot. Notice the cut offs. Don’t know if they started out that way of if it was an afterthought because of the heat..and those poor guys were playing into the sunset beating down on them.

I may be so behind the times, but I had never heard of this band before. I wanted to like them since they were opening for Chris Tomlin. But that wasn’t really the case. There was so much other noise…drums and bass..that it totally drowned out the vocals except for a couple of lines here or there. Very disappointing because to me, the thing that makes modern Christian music..or any  Christian music for that matter..unique is the lyrics. And if you can’t hear them…??? When he stopped to talk, you could tell he had a heart for God and for others knowing Him, but the music fell short, sadly. I have his cd so I’m hoping the lyrics are there when I can hear them.

Had he just turned down the amps a bit, I know it would have been a whole different story. : (

It worried me that Chris (we’re on a first name basis now. haha) would have his ‘stuff’ turned up too high too, and I just wasn’t sure I would be able to make it through another set of that. It really did cause even my insides to feel like they were moving around. Bleh.

Anyway…he came out!

 

And yes, I think he’s got a sweat band on his head. Did I mention that it was super hot? : ) He did toss it later in the evening though.

And yes, he was AMAZING. His music was loud enough for a concert, but I could hear everything..all the lyrics..everything! I thought I knew just about every one of his songs, but he sang a couple I had not heard before. And they were amazing too. Cuz I could hear them. : )

I can’t say enough about what a gifted worship leader he is. He’s not ‘just’ an artist standing up there putting on a show. He is truly leading in worship. I truly felt like I had “been to church” as they say…even with all the distractions of being outside and airplanes and other noises. What a blessing and an asset he is to the Christian music community.

An incredible evening…even with the heat. Well worth everything it took to get there! : )

I’ll leave you with a taste of what we heard at the concert…

No more sorrow, no more pain. Such a precious promise!

Happy Monday, my friends!

cat day planner

Jump off couch when I hear the alarm clock go off. Sit in the hallway. Staring. Waiting on movement.

Maybe get on bed and beg for rubs. Or maybe not. Depends.

Hop on bathroom counter. Waiting on the faucet to be turned on.  Hope he turns on the water. If so, take a drink.

Run into living room. Plop down on the floor in front of the big guy. Waiting on neck rubs. Get mad as he tends to move his hand like he’s rubbing my neck but I have to get up and get under his hand to get rubbed. Roll around and act cute, hoping he will change his mind. Roll around some more. Either give in and go under the hand or get mad and walk away. Depends.

Sit in front of bowl waiting on her to feed me.

 

It doesn’t matter if there is food there; keep waiting for fresh stuff. Meow a little if she doesn’t get a move on. Rub up against table legs and act cute if she still doesn’t get a move on. But don’t let her pet me.

Finally eat breakfast. Take care of business. And then lay in wait for the other people to eat breakfast.

Get excited if the mom eats toast. Beg for the crust. Touch it with nose and swat it out of the saucer. If she’s having cereal, have a cow until she lets me lick some of the almond milk left in the bottom of the bowl. Then, move on.

Wait on the kid to get moving. See what she’s having for breakfast. I like to let her pet me on the head while she eats. Cuz I’m nice like that.

Go to the bathroom counter again and wait for the mom to turn on the water. Glare at her if she only turns it on for herself. How selfish.

Take a nap. 

And another one.

Lay on a piece of tissue paper they’ve left on the floor for me. 

Or maybe crawl in a box some new shoes just came in. I think they’re keeping it around just for me.

Take another nap. And another one.

Wake up long enough to play with a gnat or tiny toy for about 5 seconds.

Take another nap.

Stare out a window for a while.

Or sleep hide under the bed.

Lay on the couch with the big guy while he watches tv. Sometimes he’ll pet me without me begging.

Stare a hole through him because he’s not petting right away.

Beg for midnight snack.

Go to bed on the couch. But not on the blanket they provide for me. On the couch. The red chenille looks much prettier against my white fur.

Wait for the alarm to go off so I can do it all again.

Yes, she is a very predictable cat. And yes, she does these things every single day. Funny kitty! : )

thinking cool thoughts

It’s hot. I know I’ve said that one or twenty times of late.

So today I went looking through pictures of vacations and the like to find some pictures taken in cooler weather. I thought it might make me and all my hot weather buddies feel a little better. So here goes…

These are taken out the window of the cog train as we rode up Pikes Peak.

The first pic is Boo’s cute little giraffe she got at the zoo. He seems to be enjoying the ride.

 

Snow!!!

We made it to the top….aaaand then felt light headed and couldn’t wait to ride back down. : )

It was so pretty as we rode up…and down. And nice and cool at the top. Loved seeing the snow in the middle of summer!

And then there is me…playing outside in the snow, sporting a lovely car coat, as my mother always called it. The yellow “fur” around the face really adds that classy touch, don’t you think?! I must have been just 5 or 6 when this was taken. (This is one of my slides that I took a picture of.)  The snow looks pretty deep… for Texas.

I say it’s hot, but it rained a little bit last night and right now (middle of the afternoon), it is only 90 degrees out.

And that’s not too bad… for Texas.

summer is…

Summer is kind of lazy. And a lot of HOT. 

The girl got her braces and she’s pretty much gotten used to having a mouth full of metal. We had to go in today to have a bracket removed. It fell off but was hanging by a wire.

Sometimes I feel like that. LOL

We went to an amusement park a week or so ago. She’s not much of a coaster girl and has managed to avoid them. But we thought she needed to be initiated so we got the girl on one of those loop-tee-loop roller coasters. She waited through the line hunting for a place to turn around and actually walked across the seats to the other side when she was supposed to be getting on and we had to put her in the ride chair. We are such loving parents. *smiling sweetly*

I’ve been making a lot of these too.

Smoothies!  Chocolate ones. YUM.

Excuse the fancy cups. She has a fun one and I use a Spring Creek BBQ kiddie cup. It’s the perfect size. : ) 

They’re so good, I’m thinking about just calling them milk shakes, but then again, that doesn’t have the healthy ring to it, does it?!

But they are pretty healthy, see?!

2 cups unsweetened almond milk (that’s 4 carbs total), handful of frozen mango and strawberries, 2 frozen bananas, a splash of vanilla, couple spoons of unsweetened cocoa powder and 3 packets of Sun Crystals.

And then put the spurs to it!

Deee-lish! Serve almost daily.

braces are thuper **edited**

**edit** I lost 2 comments tonight. They just went poof when I went to read them. If you can't find your comment, I didn't delete it. Would ya leave it again so I'll know what you said? Pweeese? : )

We’re sliding into an easy rhythm of summer. I like it.

I took the girl to the ortho a little over a week ago and her day had finally come. She got her braces. She spent several days getting used to having a mouthful of brackets and wires. And all the new rules about eating and cleaning.

She’s about to get there, though.

We decided to make a quick run to see hub’s family. Had a nice time. The weather was mild and much more enjoyable than it’s been for almost a month.

The driving to and from is never fun though. We are talking one looong day in the car.

And now we have this new little twist.

We’ve perfected using a bottle of water and an empty cup and the vanity mirror on my side in the van to get her teeth brushed after eating a meal on the road. That’s all I’m gonna say.

Two words: Not. fun.

The thought of using a public sink somewhere to brush her teeth just about gags me to death. So we made do and even though it wasn’t fun, we got it just about figured out by the time we got home.

Braces are thuper fun. Especially on the road.