Mary Mary Quite Contrary...

Two posts in one week?  What?!? I know.  Pretty cool.

So, growing up, I frequently heard the nursery rhyme "Mary Mary Quite Contrary..."  Especially during preschool and kindergarten. I must say, I kinda hated that nursery rhyme for most of my life.. well, all of my life up until a month ago actually - kinda sad. 

The reason for my change in endearment to this antiquity is that, finally, for the first time ever in my life, I have a garden!!!

I'm excited! (Can you tell?)

Growing up, we usually had some type of flower garden and in Texas we even had a small vegetable garden in the backyard with okra and sunflowers (I'm sure we had more things than this.. but this is all I remember).  My dad's parents ALWAYS had a garden at their house, no matter where they lived (except Alaska.. sorry Alaska).  So I've been exposed to gardening for many years, but never had one for my own. 

When my girls were toddlers,  my dad would plant flowers in the back yard and the girls loved helping Pops take care of them (so did my dad -- I miss that man). The flowers only lasted a few months, but the memories were there forever.  My dad loved gardening, and it's something he left for me to continue on now and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

In April and May, my mother purchased three tomato plants and we planted them in the front yard.  This sparked a desire in both of us to have a small garden in the backyard. In June she purchased a raised gardening structure (wood planks) and lots of wonderfully healthy peat/compost soil.  In the middle of June the kids germinated Lima beans and sprouted potatoes during their final science unit. We planted them in the ground on June 18th.  Since then, we've planted a few more Lima beans, okra, cucumbers, and a green pepper.  It's been so wonderful to watch the garden grow!

We're using the Square Foot Gardener technique (Google it, I dare you) so we're only using up a 4x4 section of our backyard and only have 12 of the 16 square feet plots full.  So we have room to continue planting (yay!).

Yesterday we saw our first Lima bean pod!!! It's less than 1/2 inch long, and is to tiny and cute! You can actually see three Lima beans inside of it.  The kids got a kick out of seeing it yesterday. (I'm tempted to dry it out and hang it on the wall as our first pod.. but that's just a little weird.. maybe..)

We also have some small cucumbers growing, one green pepper growing (almost ripe) with one more on the way, and one of the potato plants are flowering - a sign that vegetables should be growing underneath.

Those that know me well, know that I'm not exactly a patient person (I'm working on it.. slowly.. is that ironic?), but this gardening thing SURE takes patience.  It seems like months ago that we started this garden, but when I look at the calendar, it's only been 5 1/2 weeks.  I'm hoping that this garden produces not only lots of yummy veggies, but patience - a fruit of the Spirit - in me.  Only time will tell (pray for me!).

Next month and in September we have plans to growing lettuce, carrots, radishes, and spinach.  Next spring I hope to have an earlier garden and hope to expand to include two more 4x4 plots.  We'll see!!

I'm thinking of making a sign that says "Mary's Quite Contrary Garden".  What do you think?

Summer Lovin'

Our summer is winding to a close, as school starts next Wednesday.

Looking back on the last six weeks, the kids really haven't done 'anything' this summer.  Unless you count staying up a little later, playing outside until the sun goes down, swimming at the public pool, swimming at the lake (which we plan to do A LOT more of), reading tons of books, playing restaurant, designing houses/hospitals/restaurants/buildings out of Legos, and eating lots of watermelon.

Come to think of it, they HAVE done a lot this summer - they've gotten to enjoy being kids.

A friend of mine posted on Facebook that she only has 15 more summers with her oldest daughter, who's 3 - that really put things into perspective for me.  Our summer is very short - usually only one month long - and I want to make the most out of it for the kids, even if I am at work during most of it.  But 'making the most of it' doesn't necessarily mean going on trips, spending money, or checking off a list - it's about relaxing, enjoying what we have, visiting nearby (free) attractions, and just being a kid.  I'm slowing learning that, and knowing that in just a few short years (one or two) my oldest daughter won't enjoy playing outside with her siblings until the sun goes down, she won't enjoy playing restaurant and legos with them, she'll have different ideas of fun things to do.  It makes me tear up a bit, but that's just part of her growing up. 

We may not have an adventure filled summer, or one full of lavish vacations, but if we can all have time to unwind and relax as a family - then I'm content with that - knowing that our summers together as a whole family are quickly coming to a close - my oldest turns 10 next month.. yes, 10.. can't believe it.

Those of you enjoying another month of summer, make sure you relax, spend time in each moment, and don't get caught up in the crazy mix of summer to-do's.  Your summer's are numbered, hold each one as close as you can.

Savings are wonderful!

So a while back (quite a while back), I posted about saving money through better utilization of coupons and sales.  My success with said savings have waxed and wained this year, but this month - I think I've done pretty well.

So far, just this month (all three weeks of it), I've saved just over $30 in coupons alone.  That's more than half a tank of gas!  In my last Publix shopping trip (my second most frequented grocer), I spent $24 and saved $35 with combined BOGOs, coupons, and sale items.  I stocked up on cereal (a very popular and expensive item in our household - one box for $5?? I don't think so...), muffin mixes, and a few other BOGOs or sale items with double coupons (yeah, baby).

The thing I like about couponing is that it doesn't matter if you save 55 cents in a shopping trip or $15, the bottom line is that you saved and it all adds up.  Think about it, if you save 55 cents per shopping trip and shop twice a week, that's a $13 savings for one year.  No, that doesn't seem like a lot, but it's equivalent to 6 bottles of shampoo (I use Suave, which always has coupons making them about $2 a bottle) or two boxes of K-cups (I'm a Keurig lover now) or eight boxes of cereal (on sale and with coupons).  Generally, people save $1 or $2 each shopping trip, which makes the savings $24 or $48 a year, and that's just with coupons - let alone the savings acquired buy purchasing items on sale.

There are also TONS of tools available online to help you maximize your savings. My favorite sites are: southersavers.com, frugalcouponliving.com, couponmom.com, and coupons.com.  You can also find websites for your favorite products and most of the time the parent companies have 'membership deals' with free coupons every month (General Mills and Kelloggs have TONS of online coupons).

Also, you don't have to spend hours each day or even each week with matching sale items or coupons.  I spend at most one hour a week looking at sales ads, the websites above, and matching (or finding) coupons.  That's broken up over Sunday mornings (finding coupons) and Wednesday lunch breaks (matching sales and coupons). 

It's worked for me and encourages me in becoming a Proverbs 31 wife (Prov. 31:15, 16, 18, and 21). If you're interested, take a prayful step forward - it can be as easy or as complicated as you want.

So excited!

Our homeschool year is coming to a wonderful close and we have some exciting things planned for our last four weeks.

In science, the kids are learning about Oceanography. So far they've learned about the five oceans and the four ocean zones.  It's always amazing to see the things God created in the ocean - fish with luminous organs, 'smoke stacks' billowing with sulpher from inside the earth, and all the amazing plant life living in the darkest coldest depths.

I'm not sure what their final product will be - a lapbook probably. Those are always fun to make.

Next the kids will do a short unit on the reproduction of plants.  We even got a bag full of hydrangeas from a friend the kids are going to disect.  I love hands-on projects!

Finally, and this is the project I'm most excited about, we'll end the year learning about the different types of rocks. The reason I'm so excited about this, is because of this blog: http://www.squidoo.com/homeschool-unit-study-schedule-for-year-1  Scroll down to the Earth Science & Geology unit and look at the amazing ideas this lady has for learning about sedementary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks.  Those who know our homeschooling style know that whenever I can include food in a lesson - I do (I love to cook.. and eat... and it shows... but that's another story).  So the kids will be able to learn about the amazing rocks God created, then do some creative, yummy, and hands-on activities to dig deeper into their exploration.

Cannot wait!!

Before I forget - the kids wrapped up their weather unit last week with their final projects - creating a video about one weather event.  Little Man and Lulu both chose to make videos on hurricanes - but they each had a different take.  Little Man chose to be a teaching meterologist in his video by explaining a little bit about hurricanes.  Lulu decided to make a pretend weather report tracking fictional hurricane Debby from North Carolina to Florida (following a similar path to TS Beryl that landed last week). 

Doodle Bug chose to do her project on thunderstorms.  Which, I'm just now realizing, is totally appropriate for her.  Since toddlerhood, she has been TERRIFIED of thunderstorms.  Since we live in the hot and humid south, said storms are a staple in 5 out of 7 summer afternoons.  Learning about these terrifying storms and exactly how they form, what they do, and what they are has really eased her mind at them. In fact, we've had a few come through in the last few weeks and come to think of it - she wasn't scared a bit.  So, her project on thunderstorms was perfect for her - and she did a good job.  I'm hoping to upload those videos this week and will post them here in my next post. 

That's it for now. Hope and pray you all are doing well.

My Little Man

Can I brag about my oldest son for just a minute? I can? Great, thanks!  But where do I start?  By telling you he consistently keeps his room (mostly) clean  and that he eagerly  jumps in to help the girls clean up their room (which can be an utterly disgusting feat)?  By telling you that whenever he sees a full trash bag in the kitchen he proceeds to drag it out to the garbage can (even when it outweighs and outmeasures him)?  By telling you that on Sunday (Mother's Day) he folded and put up an entire basket of laundy - and that every time I jumped in to help him he said "No, Mama. You just sit down and relax."  Well, I could start there - but I won't.

What I'm really proud of at the moment is his incredible math skill and dedicated work ethic. 

He's only in kindergarten, but he completed his kindergarten math book around Thanksgiving (he would've finished it earlier but we delayed him until we could purchase his new book). Part of this is due to the fact that his two older sisters started teaching him how to add and subtract at the age of 4 (it's great to have older siblings!). The other part is that he LOVES it.  He eagerly wants to do more and more math each night.  He usually does one to two pages, but 9 times out of 10 he asks to do four to five pages. He's now almost finished with his first grade math book - which is totally awesome. He is grasping mental math with such speed and skill that leaves me in awe most nights.

I think part of what makes it so incredible is the fact that since 2nd grade, Doodle Bug has struggled with math.  She learns new concepts quickly, but if we stray from previous concepts for too long, she forgets them or confuses them with other concepts (something I am prone to do as well).  Knowing this, Ryan and I have changed our teaching strategies with her and it helps amazingly.  She also wasn't too quick to memorize simple facts (ie- all multiples of 10s or multiplication facts 1-12), that alone has cost her a semester or two of math.

So honestly, I really doubted my ability to teach elementary-level math to my children. If my oldest child struggled so much in the simplest of things eventhough she's an exceptionally bright girl- I must be doing something wrong (which is still a big part of it - I've learned A LOT about how to and how not to teach math - that's for sure). But the fact that he is grasping it so quickly is boosting my confidence in my teaching ability and making me a better math teacher to both of the girls. It's blessings all around!

So, kudos to my son.  For learning so quickly, understanding concepts, and changing our home school confidence all at the same time. And BIG kudos to God, who continues to teach and refine me through my children.  It's awesome.

Are You Prepared?

So they say that kids learn through play - I'd say I definitely agree with this statement.

Yesterday we started the last phase of our weather unit - hurricanes. We talked about what creates a hurricane, what happens during a hurricane, how to prepare for a hurricane, etc. We looked through the National Geogrphic featuring hurricane Katrina. We watched videos from The Weather Channel's Kids website, and even started an episode of Sesame Street that dealt specifically with hurricanes. When I found the Sesame Street video online, I wasn't sure how the oldest kids would react, but was excited that I found something on Buddy Boy's three year old age level. Turns out, ALL of the kids loved watching the video. At one point the power went out at Sesame Street and Doodle Bug (who's 9) was so surprised and said "Oh no! The power's out!" They were getting into it - it was awesome. The video is almost one hour long, we just watched part 1 (which is 15 minutes) and the kids are looking forward to watching part 2 tonight.

Anyways, our science activity for the next few days is to track a fictional hurricane named Sam across the Atlantic Ocean (so far it's sitting right over the Bahamas with category 5 winds). The kids are pretending to work for the National Weather Service and are issuing alerts to residents in the Bahamas, Cuba, and the US if necessary. They've done VERY well and plotting the coordinates, determining what category the hurricane is, and deciding together what alerts should be issued to neighboring countries. I'm quite proud!

I promised the kids that after we finished some math, writing, and our science that they could outside and play in the sprinkler. So as we finish up our science, the girls are getting all giggly and squeely and say "Hey! We can use our wagon as an evacuation bus! You guys pack up your kids, pets, and purses and wait at the bus stop (our two garden benches). Then we'll turn the sprinklers on and pretend that the storm is coming." They even created a short weather report to issue to the town's residence informing them of the storm. They were getting SO into it. It was great. They played 'evacuation' for almost 2 hours. Gosh I love them.

So, you know you're kids understanding something when: 1 - they teach it to their friends/younger siblings, or 2 - they immitate what they've learned through play.

Play Ball

Softball and T-Ball games are in full swing (no pun intended.. ok, maybe a little pun is intended). Doodle Bug is playing coach/girl pitch this year and it's actually very much like REAL softball - finally! She has had some challenges hitting the ball when the girls throw it to her (being a lefty is hard sometimes), but thanks to some great coaching, she frequently makes contact with the ball.

During her last game, she was at bat, hit on her second swing and ran as fast as she could to first base. During last season whenever she'd connect with the ball, it would usually go right to first base - so she'd be out before ever making it to the base. This time she hit it towards third base. The third baseman eventually got the ball and threw it to second, but overthrew it and it went WAY into the outfield. So, Doodle was able to keep running and made it onto second base. She's NEVER done this before - she was so excited! In addition to her mad hitting skills, she's playing catcher, center field, and left field and is doing great. She's running for the ball when it comes her way, she scoops it up and throws it in with some pretty decent accuracy and is loving it. 

Yesterday we were practicing in the front yard and she threw the ball super hard to me, but I missed it and she beamed me in the leg. My leg actually went numb for a second it was so hard - but it was so cool at the same time! She felt really bad about it, but after her realizing I was laughing, not crying, she got over it.

Little Man is playing T-Ball for the second year and he's having a good ol' time. He does a great job with hitting and running and has improved on his catching and throwing. Occassionally the ball will go between him and another player and instead of going for the ball, he just kind of looks at the other kid as if to say "You going to get that?" 

It's been a fun season so far - kids running to the wrong bases, kids hitting the ball and being too shocked to run to first base.. ahh, I love T-Ball.

The school year is coming to a close now and I have to admit - I'm VERY relieved. My class ends tomorrow, and thanks to Mr. Pell Grant, I won't be taking classes this summer - woohoo!! 

For those that don't know, I finished my AA degree in December, but am taking some other classes at TCC before transfering to university since I still receive free tuition. Oh yeah, and graduation is this Saturday. Not exactly excited about it, more like I'm excited for it to be over. But it's all good.

We're finishing up our weather unit with the kids and they're having a GREAT time. I was planning on making their final project be a weather broadcast that I'd film and post on YouTube, but I'm afraid so much time lapsed from the beginning of the unit to the end that it may not work out... we'll see. 

Lulu and Little Man have finished their math books (yes) and I believe their language arts and spelling as well. Doodle still has two units to finish up in math and is doing SO much better. But since these last three units have dealt with multiplication and division, we're taking a short break to visit the world of time, money, measurements, and geometry (the last two units). Something I think she'll enjoy much more and will hopefully keep her out of the "I hate math" funk she was in previously.

Lulu and Buddy Boy have been having fun as well. While the other two kids are busy playing sports, they're left up to playing on the playgrounds at the various ball games around time - such a hard life, but somebody's got to do it.

Oh, they've also been enjoying the newest member of the family (no, we didn't have another baby), our dog, Trooper. He's a beagle/cocker spaniel mix (although looks 98% beagle) and is a VERY good dog. He's very obedient, funloving, full of energy, and has a mad fascination with cats. We've had him three weeks today, and he is finally getting along with one of my mom's cats. They'll play a little bit, chase around the house, and I'm now waiting for that awesome moment when I find them sleeping together in one of the pet beds... that'll be the day. The other cat, crazy man - I mean Harry - is trying to stand his ground as top dog - I mean cat, and it's working. Trooper will bark like crazy at Harry, all Harry has to do is raise a paw to scratch Trooper and the poor dog goes running. It's quite funny - although I probably shouldn't laugh. I will say they've made progress - they can actually be in the same room together without barking/hissing - it's kind of nice! I'm hopeful for the day when all three animals can live harmoniously - we'll see if it happens. Hope and pray you're all doing well.