One Thousand Gifts

0291. rays of sunshine at the end of a cloudy day

0292. hanging out at our new library with my kiddos

0293. having a good cry

0294. singing {especially harmony!}

0295. spending time with my sister

0296. the smell of clean laundry

0297. watching my kiddos *dig to China* in the sand pile

0298. Spring's first flowers

0299. driving with the windows down

0300. the patience of my husband with me {thank goodness!}

0301. participating in the excitement of my kiddos over their science experiments

0302. two nights out this week with girlfriends

0303. good, honest conversations

0304. the smell of my kiddos' clean, damp hair

0305. Sunday afternoon naps

The Weekly Wrap-Up: Leonardo, Jupiter and Girl Scout Cookies

Happy Saturday! Isn't a slow Saturday morning wonderful after a very busy week? I even slept-in a little this morning...ahhh.

Now I'm just enjoying my hazelnut coffee and reflecting on this week. Bliss.

*****

Monday was...well, a typical Monday. I'll admit it's always a little hard to get my kiddos motivated again after the weekend so Mondays are a little slow around here. Does anyone else have that experience or am I the only one?

It was Presidents Day, of course, but I regret to say that we didn't do anything special. I wanted to, but right now I am having some challenges in the way of printing things, etc. I so wish we hadn't stored our printer. The ones I'm working with now are not user friendly. But that will be over soon. Patience, Lora, patience!

Tuesday began way too early with my son being revisited by a stomach bug. Ugh. But thankfully it didn't even last 24 hours. It did however knock him out for much of the day, along with The Princess and myself who were both up through the night with him. So we took it easy that day and did reading together (we're reading a Paddington Bear book) and a few other laid back exercises. Wednesday I kicked things off out of our usual order. I'm not sure why, but I almost always start off with the more mundane bookwork and then move onto the more *fun* subjects later. But this day we started with our art appreciation study. We have been studying Leonardo Da Vinci all month and I thought it would be fun to try drawing animals since, of course, Leonardo liked to draw animals. So I whipped out some of those Dover samplers I've been hording and the kids got out their new art pads and got busy.

The kids had SO much fun I'm pretty sure they (at least Mr. B) could have gone all day doing that. Mr. B loves to draw so much! We did manage to get the rest of our school work for the day finished though. Art was a great way to kick of the day! I won't wait too long before we do that again.

(Mr. B's animal drawings)

Thursday we continued playing catch-up a little from our *sick day* earlier in the week. It was a good day of lessons, reading and also a little box-crafting.

The reader that Mr. B is in has a fun story on fun things to do with boxes and he couldn't wait to make something:) He chose to make a rabbit and The Princess joined in by making a car. You should have seen them sliding down the staircase in the *box car*! So funny!

When The Princess was in Kindergarten she had fun with a box, too. I can't believe it's been 2 years already!

We also studied the Phoenicians in history and watched some YouTube videos on glassblowing to go along with our lesson. Apparently the Phoenicians were some of the very first glassblowers and really perfected the art. It was a fun lesson!

Friday is usually our short day and we had a very good morning finishing up our lessons for the week. We wrapped things up with a lesson in our science on Jupiter and also a science experiment~always a big hit around here!

We built a *hurricane tube* using two 2-liter bottles, electrical tape and a 1" washer.


One of the bottles was filled 2/3 full with water and by flipping it over (water on top) and giving it a little swirl it creates a funnel, similar to the funnel in a hurricane or tornado.

The kids loved it~hey, I even thought it was fun! We did it over and over.


And that was our week in school! Oh~and did I mention that we've also been delivering Girl Scout cookies all throughout the week? Yes, it's that time of year! Mmmmm...so yummy! I hope you have some cute little Brownie to buy them from where you live, too:)

Just Some Chit-Chat

I hope you're having a great week! Mine has been super busy~and pretty good, too.

I keep thinking it's Saturday instead of Friday, but I'm glad it's not because I need that extra day!

This week has been filled with delivering Girl Scout cookies (Thin Mints, anyone?), school, church, the usual house stuff and--believe it or not--two girls nights out! I don't know how I managed to get two in the same week, but I did.

Last night was our monthly Moms Nite Out for our homeschool group and we had a really great time. We had a guest speaker, the childrens pastor from my church, who talked about those *Awkward Talks*. You know, the ones we dread to have with our growing children. She had some amazing advice to give and some great resources to share. I'm definitely going to be headed to the bookstore very soon.

And tonight is the kick off of our *new & improved* womens' ministry at our church. So I'm headed out to dinner with some of my girl friends from our small group and then we're all off to the big event at church. It should be a lot of fun!

When you go out with your friends do you ever feel guilty? You know, for not cooking your family dinner and not being there at bedtime? Sometimes I do. But I have to say, my hubby does an amazing job at doing all of that when I'm not there. In fact, he is always very supportive and encourages me to head out the door for some out-of-the-house time. I'm thankful for that. Sometimes he realizes that I need to do that even more than I do.

So here's to a great finish to this week~I hope you have a wonderful Friday!

It's Me Rambling About My Favorite Calendar Again...

I think I may have mentioned before how much I love my homeschool planner...once or twice:) Well, my friend Robin asked me to share my thoughts on her website, New Homeschool Help. Of course, I was honored to.

If you're interested in a great homeschool planner, go here to read more.

And while you're there check out Robin's site~it has lots of great homeschool advice and resources.

A Trip to Our Capitol

A week ago today we took the kids on a field trip to Little Rock, our state capitol. It was Homeschool Day at the Capitol and we joined several families from our local homeschool group and also hundreds of other homeschoolers from around the state.

(the rotunda)

The purpose of this day was to promote good will between homeschoolers and legislators and bring more awareness of the homeschool community to our leaders. Of course, we also schmoozed them with desserts...ha! Oh~and it was a great educational field trip for our family!

Our group was able to receive a personal tour from one of our area's senators. He did a great job of explaining to all of the kiddos (and parents) just how everything works.

(our state seal...in carpet!)

(the ceiling of the state senate)

(where the state senate meets)

We also had some time on our own to explore the capitol a bit. The upper level was filled with kid-friendly displays telling all about our state. Our kiddos were a tad young to read all of the displays and really retain it all, but it was a very good introduction for them.

We also explored a little of the monuments and memorials on the outside grounds of the Capitol. One monument that I found particularly moving was the one to The Little Rock Nine~the students who were so significant during the Civil Rights Movement. We would learn much more about them later that day.


We wrapped up our time at the Capitol with pics on the front steps~both of our family and with the hundreds of other homeschoolers there.

After a lunch break (Yes, all of this before noon! It was an early morning!), we made our next stop: the Central High School National Historic Site. We had a list of different places we wanted to possibly visit and I'm so glad we chose this one for this day.

(at the visitors center)

(a painting of the Little Rock Nine)

The visitors center was filled with amazing photographs of our country during the time of the Civil Rights Movement. There was also much in the way of recordings and film. It was so fascinating (and heartbreaking and maddening) to read and watch. The kids were very interested, but of course they have no frame of reference for that sort of mind set that was so prevalent then. Even Vince and myself have very little comprehension of how things truly were. I've only heard stories from my parents~who remember that time in Little Rock very well.

I have to say this was one of the nicer visitors centers for the National Parks Service that we've visited. Maybe it was because their workers were also so very welcoming and friendly. This Park Ranger in the photo below was THE nicest Park Ranger we've ever encountered. The kids were once again participating in the Jr. Park Ranger program and worked hard to earn their badge that day and the Ranger absolutely hooked them up with all kinds of fun loot: patches, badges, tattoos, fun papers, you-name-it! We really enjoyed our time there.

Across from the visitors center is the actual high school, which is still a busy school today.


After all of this learning, it was time for a little down time and leg-stretching. So we headed down to the Riverfront area to look for a piece of the *little rock* that the city was named after.

What we found was a lovely park area with a beautiful pedestrian bridge over the Arkansas River. And, of course, the little rock.


We enjoyed a brisk walk over the river~the weather was absolutely perfect that day! Such a blessing!

And the view of Little Rock were so nice!



We enjoyed walking a bit and letting the kids play before being in the car for our 2.5 hour drive back home.


This was one of my favorite family field trips yet! We all enjoyed it so much. And would you believe that this whole day only cost us: gas to get there, lunch at Wendy's and $5 to park at the Riverfront!? I say that's a deal!