Little girls and their baubles

I think I've mentioned before how much I love it that little girls can't resist pretty, sparkly things. Well, today grandma brought us  some beautiful purple and pink gems.

While the girls were wondering what they could make with them I, of course,  was wondering how we could incorporate them into a learning activity :D  I decided to just dump them into baskets and see what they did with them.

When Katie decided they were earrings, I decided maybe they needed a little direction. Once I mentioned patterns, sorting, and counting they had a blast!

Katie made a pattern with hers.

And princess Francesca separated all the different colors. Success!! Moral of this story? If you have a little girl you can make a lesson out of anything as long as it's pretty and it sparkles!!

It seems like just yesterday my girls looked like this. Now they're almost 14 and 4. (And don't you dare laugh at Francesca! She was having a...bad hair day!)

A Tale of Two Dogs

Molly wasn't too sure about Riley the first week or so he was here. She had enjoyed being the only dog, and as a lady getting along in her years she wasn't sure she was up to having a young whippersnapper around messing with her routine. After much debate, she finally relented and it wasn't long before she fell under his spell like the rest of us fools. (twenty minutes of sitting with him on the puppy pad this morning with no results just to have him run away and poop all over my dining room floor...)

Lately, however, she's been growing a little tired of his antics.

He chews her ears when she's just innocently walking by to get a drink...

He chews on her legs and tail when all she's trying to do is get a little sleep. It's hard getting through a long day without a nap here and there...

He bites her face when all she's doing is trying to get a tiny taste of his favorite toy. She wasn't trying to steal it or anything...

Sam and Mylo will gladly corroborate...

Sam can't even lay on the floor without him chewing on her face! She only pulled his ears once or twice, hardly enough to justify attacks on her face...

He's gotten so out of control that Mylo has to guard him just so poor Molly can have a few seconds of eating without him trying to gnaw her foot off.

And if Molly happened to accidentally tear the head off of his favorite toy while he wasn't looking, and then proceed to gleefully chew on said head...well, it's not really her fault, is it?! She could only take so much...

Maybe one of these days they'll learn to love each other...

Word Filled Wednesday

This verse really encourages me. It's a great reminder, isn't it? Learn about WFW here. See more here.

Bread, and tortillas, and bagels-oh my!

I didn't take any pictures during school today. I was a little distracted by the crazy family meeting I had to attend later in the afternoon. So I decided to share some pictures of all the things my wonderful husband and I baked over the weekend. Ourselves. From scratch. I know! I was pretty proud of us, too!

Here, obviously, is a tortilla. There's nothing like one fresh off the grill!

Here are our bagels. I am especially proud of our bagels. Not only were they a ridiculous amount of work,  there was also an unfortunate incident with some wax paper that made me fear it was all for nothing. Thankfully in the end we saved them. They were definitely worth the effort!

We also made some loaves of wheat bread, wheat chocolate chip cookies, and spinach and mushroom calzones, but I won't bore you with a bunch of pictures of food. (I get a lot of my recipes here. It's a wonderfully written blog with tons of excellent recipes!) I just thought it was worth mentioning, since those of you who know us well know it wasn't too long ago that my specialty was Hamburger Helper. In our quest to eat all natural, unprocessed food our cooking skills have improved quite a bit. I even make our own ranch dressing! Now all I need is to make a Big Mac all natural!                                      

Diligently working

Today started off well. I had finished my planning over the weekend so I was super organized. We were zipping along at a good pace, everybody focused and working hard. And then Riley decided we needed a break.

Thankfully Katie had just finished her history. This week we are learning about great Christians of the past. Today it was John the Baptist. We read about him in the Bible first to help tie it all together before we read about him in the  textbook. Although we've talked a lot about him in the past this was a good refresher.

Sam's been reading a lot of great books in history and literature lately: Bound for Oregon, The Slopes of War, The Red Badge of Courage, and Dragon's Gate. This week she begins Sounder, The Call of the Wild, and After the Dancing Days. (Good thing she loves to read!!) I just can't say enough good things about the curriculum we're using. Sonlight is a perfect fit for her. This has been her strongest year academically. After so many years of  struggling, it's really amazing to watch her thrive. How great is it that all we had to do was find a curriculum that matched her learning style? Just one of the many benefits of a home education. The public school would never have been able to tailor her education the way that I can!! 

(See the cat sitting on the table? He thinks he's learning something, too. Or he's looking for a good place to sleep...)

Francesca finished another page of her Creation book. I got this here.

In addition to Riley distracting us, there's also Francesca's tendency to randomly burst into song...

Thankfully she focuses again pretty fast...here she is making a pattern. This is a kindergarten activity, so it was a little hard for her, but she got it!

In math Katie finished up a unit on number bonds. In this activity she had to make two parts equal the whole.

And in this activity she had to make two addition and two subtraction problems out of the number bond. We're moving on to memorizing facts next.

I'll leave you with a trip down memory lane. Here's Bethany with Katie the day she was born. Notice Sam in the background eating my supper? :D Time goes by way too fast. Every day is a blessing. We need to slow down and cherish them while we can!!

How can you resist...

...this face? I sure can't. He melts my heart.

Meet Riley, the newest member of our family. On Valentine's Day my mother decided to give us the coolest gift ever. Since my baby is almost four, I've been longing for something to fill the "I need a baby" void. My mom knew what I was going through and decided to put me out of my misery. She must love me!

Since our dog is ten years old, Donnie thinks I forgot how naughty puppies are. Riley is quickly refreshing my memory!! Puppy pad? Why bother when there's a perfectly good rug a centimeter to the left?!

What do you mean I can't chew on every.single.thing I can get my little puppy teeth on?!? Boy, is he lucky it was love at first sight...Oh. And I'm seriously rethinking the "my mother must love me!!"