Journey to Excellence

When we lived in Oklahoma, I had over 20 pots that I loaded up with flowers every year. This was what Rick bought me for Mother's Day and I usually spent around $300 or more. It was a lot of work, and cost a lot, but I loved how pretty it made our porches and driveway. I did the majority of my shopping at Lowe's. This year, now that we have moved, we have scaled down quite a bit, but I still have a lot of pots to fill.  Yesterday my mom and I headed out to one of the Amish greenhouses. We live in the middle of a thriving Amish community. I was blown away with all the Amish had to offer, and the prices were fantastic! I came out with enough flowers to fill several of my pots, and even got some pepper plants, jalapeno plants, and red onions for my garden. I only spent $35! Now, I still have ferns to purchase, and will replace my pansies with other annuals in the next several weeks. But, I got a great start for a fraction of the cost! And, they also have lots of other la...

My kids have really wanted to learn Spanish this year. So we were pleased to review Fiestas by Spanish for You!  This was a very thorough, yet simple, Spanish program developed by a Spanish teacher with loads of practical experience. The program teaches the students speaking, reading, and writing skills, as well as grammar. Fiestas taught these things by learning about various Spanish celebrations, such as a birthday party, Day of the Dead, Carnival, Holy Week and April Fair. The program is broken down by grade level, and we used the Grades 3-4 lessons. How We Used the Product At the beginning of each week, I would pull up the provided Lesson Guide and print off all necessary text pages and worksheets and clip them together for use later in the week. Each day the kids and I would do the assigned lesson (again, following closely the provided Lesson Guide), by listening to the provided audio versions of the text. Then the kids would do the worksheets. Additionally, they wo...

Sonic for lunch in the car on a mini road trip ... $11.58. Mother-Daughter tattoos at the end of that road trip ... $210.00. Spending the whole day with your daughter, marking something off your bucket lists, together ...  on the day she graduates from high school .... PRICELESS! For graduation, Kyndal wanted a tattoo. On Wednesday night she, jokingly, said, "We should get mother-daughter tattoos." On Thursday I texted her and asked what she was doing on Friday morning because I thought we should go get those tattoos. She was blown away ... couldn't believe I was serious! I thought I had passed through my phase of wanting to get a tattoo, but then decided that it would be such a cool thing for her and I to do together. I had a bird put on my upper back, by my shoulder. It is shaded in yellow, which is Kyndal's birthstone color. It symbolizes my first child leaving the nest, flying away into her future. I plan to have a bird tattoo added each tim...

In our regular life this week… Can I just say .... WOW! ... I am beat! In my last wrap-up I had just told you about Dawson getting a new car and having a brake malfunction that caused him to have a wreck. Since then he has been back to driving his Cadi and sharing my car with me. Well, Papa to the rescue. He found him a newer Ford Explorer, very nice, with less miles! They went and bought it on Thursday night. So, Dawson is back to being happy! We had a snow storm, in May, that caused a HUGE tree limb to fall on our internet line which wiped it out for a several days. The snow was gone in a day or so, but GEEZ, really?? Brynne is playing her first year of softball, on a coach-pitch team. We have not been able to have very many practices because of all of the rain we have had, but they have had their first two games. They lost the first one, but won the second one! It's been a LOT of fun! She really loves it! She plays second base and even got her first hit, a...

It is always a pleasure to do a book review because I love books! Through the Schoolhouse Review Crew, I had the opportunity to review the book Papa's Pearls: A Father's Gift of Love and Wisdom to His Children and Grandchildren by Diane Flynn Keith. What a treat! Diane Flynn Keith wrote Papa's Pearls in tribute to her father, Carol Joseph Flynn, and to share the multitude of pearls of wisdom he passed on to his children and grandchildren. Some of those pearls were: "What's the worst thing that could happen?", "You don't kick someone when they're down, you give 'em a hand up.", "You gotta roll with the punches.", and "If you want to be successful, spend your time with successful people." But Papa didn't just preach these words to his family, he shared his life stories with them so that they could see how they worked out in real life. Papa didn't always have it easy, and he didn't make all the best ch...

The past two summers I have "led" a book study on this blog. What I mean by "led" is that I read a book and posted my thoughts on it each week. I did have some commenters, and I really appreciated the participation and input! Two summers ago I read and discussed The Book Whisperer  by Donalyn Miller. Last summer I read and discussed Last Child in the Woods  by Richard Louv. This summer I am shifting gears. I am planning to read and discuss Trim Healthy Mama by Serene Allison and Pearl Barrett. It is a "common sense guide to satisfy your cravings and energize your life" If you would like to join me in the reading and discussion of the book this summer (starting the first week of June), then purchase the book and get ready! I am linking up with Marcy at Ben and Me .

I have mentioned in many previous posts how I approach unit studies: I start with a topic and go straight to literature for non-fiction and fiction books to anchor our study. We read and do activities related to the topic. In my opinion, reading is how you learn and doing is how you reinforce your learning.  Homeschool in the Woods   is a company whose product I had the pleasure of reviewing this past month, and we chose the Great Empires activity study from their vast collection. It was fabulous and fell right in line with our way of doing things. The Great Empires activity study covers 14 major historical empires, including Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, the Viking Empire, and Russian Empire. Each activity study includes text about the empire, reproducibles (including maps), and an activity page with several fun-filled activities. There is also included a recommended book list. Each empire takes between 1-3 days to complete. How we Used the Curriculum: We use...