Journey to Excellence

… is Ireland? … did St. Patrick live and work? … are the leprechauns? … do shamrocks originate? … is a pot 'o gold? These were some of the questions we sought to answer when reading the book Papa and the Leprechaun King  by Arthur Cola. Papa, Grammy and the "Roses" are on a tour of Ireland when Papa comes across an old shepherd. He tells him of a legend and chooses him to solve a mystery because of the truthfulness he can see in his eyes. This adventure takes them through many historic villages, cities, and landmarks in Ireland and introduces him to Finbar, the Kind of the Leprechauns. The book is filled with adventure, mystery, intrigue, and lots of eloquent and informative descriptions of the landmarks in Ireland. You could use this book as a guidebook for a trip to Ireland. It gives names of restaurants, inns, highways and backroads, monuments, and much more. This book was a good mix of adventure and geography. The geography got a little dry for an 8 and 10 ye...

It has been such a long winter. I know that many, if not all of you, have experienced the same thing. I love winter, but I have to admit that this year's cold and dreariness has had its affect on me! It has zapped me of all energy! I love a good snow day to snuggle in the house, but come on! Today it is 70 degrees and sunny and I headed out to my garden to do some spring cleaning. I wish that I would have taken a before picture, but I didn't. Let me set the scene .. the whole area was full of leaves … last year's tomato and pepper plants were tall, dead and gangly ... twigs and debris were everywhere. I cleaned everything out and bagged up all the leaves. While cleaning I noticed some beautiful sprouts of green! There are chives, parsley, oregano, and basil just starting to peek out of the soil. I removed all their dead relatives so that they would have room to grow! And then I did some cool weather planting. I have never planted anything this early before, but I ...

The last basketball tournament of the year did not start out so well! Thursday night our team played horrible and lost the first game against a team they have beaten before (but who has also beat them). They always play a pretty close game. But this time our girls just weren't in it. It's been a long season. The tournament resumed this morning. We arrived believing that we were playing one game for 3rd place and we would be out of there in an hour. However, there on the wall was a double-elimination bracket. If we won our first game we would play again, against the team we had lost to on Thursday. If we won that game we would go onto the championship game. We won both. Brynne even got a basket! She played like a rockstar, as usual. She rebounded, made several assists, and just played really smart! Our girls finished their season climbing up the loser's bracket and winning 2nd place. And a team trophy. The girls were so excited! With all of the faults o...

Oh my goodness we only have one more week until we leave for Florida!!! We are SO ready for a break! `We are five days away from completing 60 straight days of schoolwork. Woo hoo!!! The Past Week in our Regular Life The most excitement we had this week was opening day at Dairy Queen! Of course we hit it up for lunch. Yum!!! I finally broke down and went to the doctor for my stomach and heartburn issues. You know I am feeling really bad if I go to the doctor. I don't think I have gone to the doctor for an ailment in 10 years. My doctor placed me on a prescription strength Prilosec and we are praying for the best! One of my good friends gave me a piece of advice about living in the moment. And I really started practicing that. There are so many rotten people out there, liars and deceivers who just do bad things. And when it affects your family it's hard not to dwell on it. But then that affects everything in your life and takes your focus off the things that are imp...

This week was Spring Break for our public schools which means Dawson was out of school. However, Eli and Brynne and I still charged ahead as we plan to take our Spring break in a couple of weeks. We were a little sluggish because we are ready for OUR break!!! The Past Week in our Regular Life We have had an extended family situation come up this week that has rocked us. There is a lot of sadness and worry and even some anger. It is not a good situation but decisions have to be made and we all have to move forward. We would certainly appreciate any prayers you could give. I do not feel comfortable sharing the specifics, as they are not mine to share, but Jesus knows our needs and I would appreciate your prayers asking Him to intercede to the Throne on our behalf. The Schooling Basics Bible  - We have been starting our mornings listening to an online radio show called Brinkman Adventures . It is a review product and my review will be coming up in a couple of weeks. Gramm...

Photo Credit - Vale Designs We are finishing up some work and heading to the park! It's 70 degrees and sunny. What a perfect first day of Spring!!! To celebrate, I am giving away three coupons to three separate winners for a FREE bottle of Purex Crystals! They will make even your clothing smell like spring!  All it takes is a quick comment below. Say whatever, I don't care. The giveaway will end tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. central time. I am in such a hurry to get to the park that I am drawing the winner the old fashioned way. Good luck!

Thank you all for entering my giveaway for the coupons of free Dial Deep Cleansing Hand Soap . I had 101 total entries! That is awesome! The winners are Natalie Yeoman, Gloria Nimtz McKellar, and June Lisle . Congratulations! I have e-mailed each of you for your mailing addresses. I will be having another giveaway coming up this weekend … this time for a new Purex product that I had never used.

This is my grandma Alice. She turned 91 years old yesterday. She lives in a nursing home in the town where we live, so I can drop in and see her whenever I want. A couple of weeks ago I asked her what her favorite meal was and she told me fried chicken. When I was a little girl, we had family dinners at my grandma's often. One of our favorite meals was fried chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy. She used her china, her gravy boat, the whole 9 yards. She would serve us all at the table and would stand at the counter next to the stove to eat her meal. I have such fond memories of those dinners. So yesterday evening I made her a homemade meal of fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, corn, and corn bread, and we had shamrock mini-cupcakes for dessert. She was so happy! I sat next to her and we just enjoyed our dinner together. She went on and on about how good it was and wanted to keep the leftovers for another meal. We have always celebrated St. Patrick's Day big ...

This is a picture of my boys taken yesterday at the park. And this is what it looks like today.

When we have had a couple of weeks of fun unit studies, it always seems we just need a week to buckle down and do some book work to get caught up. That has been what this week has been like … doing all of our regular work with some extra reading. No bells and whistles. Just good, steady work. Oh, and some extra outside time. The weather has been amazing! Meet Ted. We have lots of stray cats that like to frequent our cat Clifford's food bowl. But they usually run off with a "psssstt"! But not this black cat. He has taken up residence on our back porch and no matter how many times we try to run him off or keep him from Clifford's food, he sticks around. Clifford even seems to like him. This morning I went out to feed Clifford and he shared his food with him. Side-by-side they stood. So, Eli named him Ted. And it looks like Clifford now has a best bud. Then we had another pet incident when the wind blew open the gate to our backyard and all four of our dogs got o...