Happy 8th Anniversary

Eight years ago today, September 22nd, I married my best friend, the one I laugh with, the one I love. We've been down many bumpy road, but thank goodness for seat belts!
And thank God for grandparents! They kept our boys while we spent much needed time together this past weekend celebrating our anniversary. It was wonderful. We drove up to North GA Mountains and 600+ stair-steps plus the trail, we were at the top of Amicalola Falls. It was very strenuous, but worth every breath. The Falls were breath-taking beautiful and so peaceful. We picnicked at the base of the falls by the creek, then drove the SR home, through Dahlonega, detouring through Helen for a pound of fudge!
We had a great time!
The natural beauty

(Before)

At this point, we were standing on a bridge that sits very close to the fall. It was pouring down rain, but it felt as though we were getting wet from the fall. It was awesome!

(After). I was soaking wet, had already climbed 175 steps to the bridge, and had 425 more steps to go to the top!

Beauty-ful!!

The sounds of the falls were so peaceful

The top of the falls, looking across the mountains. The air up here was so fresh.

Our Family Tree

Maximus is very interested in his family, his generation and his ancestors so I decided it was time to do make his family tree, using a lapbook, of course!
But before we branched out, I wanted him to study a little about himself, so we made a book about him and one of my favorite parts of his book was a page that he dictated about his bedroom. He said 'I love my bedroom because I share it with my brother and we have a boat full of stories' (which he is referring to a bookshelf made to look like a boat). He's already learning "creative writing"!!
Briefing on adjectives, I asked him to name some "feeling words" about his home... and he said safe, creative, love and cozy... sweeeet!!

Inside the door was a picture of all the members who live in his home...

and inside the window is a picture of what you would see if you looked in and he drew a picture of me and him with a big heart... I melted!

We also learned some facts about his home state, Georgia... geography being one of his favorite subjects.

Then the family tree! It was really cool for Maximus to see how generations work and who's who! It always amazes him when he finds out my grandmother is actually my father's mother, etc.

Maximus said he wants to keep going and find out who is ancestors are!!

Sometimes I have to get it out of my system

Since I do not have a girl, in order to get the "girlie" things out of my system, I make things for my niece, Abbie. When I was a little girl, I used to love paper dolls, and its kind of sad to me that you don't see these kinds of things out anymore, toys are so commercialized these days.
So why not? I made some paper dolls for her :)! First I drew a little girl (very plump and old fashioned) and made several copies...
Then the fun part! Instead of paper, I used scrap material that I had and made her some fashion. I am into the 60's right now, so you know she had to have a pair of bell bottoms and a flower power shirt!!

Then I made a Ballerina girl for the example since Abbie is now a ballerina girl. I tucked it all into a girly pencil box and wa la...

I haven't given it to her yet, but I really hope she enjoys it! My boys loved it and want me to make them some paper boys with boy clothes...Hmmm, that's do-able :)!!

Butts Mill Farm

Our homeschool group, Eagle's Nest, had its first annual Family Fun Day at ButtsMill Farm in Pine Mountain, GA. I had never been to ButtsMill, but had heard lots about it. It was a really neat place, a great place to spend family time especially if you have all boys, like me. They had tons of slides and tunnels, go- carts, a train, horseback riding, petting farm, putt-putt, lots of picnic tables and the best part was the creek. The creek had slides on the side, and tubes, but the best-best part was the swings under the bridge for the mama's and daddy's to relax while their kids play.
Well, other than me having a sore throat and spiking a small temperature, River busting his chin open (thank goodnesss one of the daddy's was a paramedic), and both Maximus and River's clothes getting soaked, on purpose, of course... we had a great family day and plan to do it again, a little better prepared however.

The first steps in the cold creek

River lovin' his bluerasberry snowcone!

On Noah's Ark!

The kids loved the barn with the real loft and slide-down pole... that I did not let them do!!

It Pays to be Passionate

I have taken on the position with our homeschool group of Box Top Coordinator for the 09/10 school year. I've always loved collecting Box Tops and have a passion for fundraising, so it wasn't hard to coax me into this role. The thing that I didn't know is how valuable these little box tops really were. You think of them as only $.10, it would take a lot to really account for a lot of money, but when I started doing the figures with a group of collectors, I was surprised at how easy it was to earn money. I have set a big goal for this year! We have over 300 families in our homeschool association and I am really counting on at least half of them to participate, and participating couldn't be easier with all of the choices Box Tops for Education provides!
At the end of the year, we (me and a team coordinator) are planning an Ice-cream social for all of the families that turn in at least 100 Box Tops- its going to be a fun event!!
I have many more ideas to encourage collecting, so I hope to be posting more on this soon!

That's right! The Power is in Your Hands! Help us collect Box Tops if you are not already collecting!!

President Obama and Our Nation's Children

http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks/

The above link is a prepared speech that our President will be delivering to public schools this week. According to many, his speech is supposed to indoctrinate our kids into his “socialist” viewpoints. If anyone knows me, they know I despise, only because I choose not to use the word *hate*, our new president. I do not agree with Obama on any count, nor trust him, my Freedom of Speech and rightly so, so when I hear he is going to publicity speak to children across our America, I cringe inside.
However, after reading the speech, I didn't see much wrong. It was no different than any other president's as far as I can remember. I wasn’t keen with the “and make our nation more fair and more free”, since his "agenda" is pulling us further from freedom and justice, and using only one race as his only examples, but other than that, I read it to be harmless and a decent message. And THAT is what scares me most. I believe our president is very smart, smart in a harmful way. He has the brains to warp minds and the skills to wash brains. He has charisma, and don't forget his cute pooch. He has charm, but beware, its that of, the object that one uses to hypnotize.

Reason #10, another PERFECT example of why we homeschool: so that our children are not indoctrinated into our government’s agenda.
All I really have to say right now is, DANG IT! WAKE UP AMERICA!!