my blessed life

I must admit, the kids and myself love all things about the ocean!  We are beach bums whenever we get the chance to be--I've even tried my hand at snorkeling a couple of times--and we all love to swim in the ocean, so I was excited to receive this  very cool dvd by Dive Into Your Imagination called Dive Into Diversity for us to review.   Dive Into Diversity is just one in a series of educational dvd's created by Annie Crawley, aka Ocean Annie .  Annie is a scuba diving instructor, an underwater photographer and underwater cinematographer.  She is the voice you hear on this video and her love and passion for the ocean and the amazing creatures that live there come through in a beautiful way as she narrates throughout the film.   This dvd contains 8 short videos about all of the diversity in our oceans.  The chapter titles are: Night Diving on the Reef Dive Into Diversity! Be a Submarine Pilot Swim in a Kelp Forest Invertebrates of the Sea! Coral

On Memorial Day we decided it was time to check out the Land Between the Lakes that we've heard so much about since moving to Western Kentucky.  It was a beautiful day and some great family time together!   On our first day to visit the Land Between the Lakes we chose to go to The Homeplace : a mid-19th century working farm created from authentic buildings moved from various places in the LBL area when they were turning into a national recreation area.  We all enjoyed exploring the homes (there are two on the farm) and all of the many out buildings.  The people working there, all dressed in period clothing, performing tasks from that period, were so interesting and helpful.   That day they were hosting a fun scavenger hunt around the farm for children and the kiddos had a great time finding and learning about the various things from that time period as they crossed off their list.   pretending to drive the horses the largest home on the farm an album

(one of my little readers squeezing in some Nancy Drew while waiting at a local carnival:) Today I wanted to pass along some great links for you to check out for your young readers.  My kiddos always LOVE the summer reading programs offered at so many places.  They don't need much motivation to read, but it's certainly nice to be rewarded. So if you're looking for some really good ways to motivate your kiddos to read this summer, here are some great places to start: ~ Book-It Summer Break Reading Challenge ~ Barnes & Noble Summer Reading ~ Pottery Barn Kids Summer Reading Challenge ~ Half Price Books Feed Your Brain ~ Chuck E. Cheese Reading Calendar ~ Homeschool Journeys' Summer Reading Club ~ Scholastic Summer Reading Program ~ Books-A-Million ~Your Local Library Also, here are some links to some great reading printables: ~ Free Summer Reading Game ~ Reading Logs Happy Reading!!

( The Perfect Burger ) Last week brought me a whole new cooking challenge!  I made our weekly menu on Monday and prepared what I had planned for that evening's dinner.  I was using our broiler to make fajitas.  Well, I pulled the pan of fajita meat with onions and peppers out of the oven when it was finished (thankfully!) and turned the knob on the stove from *broil* to *off*--just one little click.  When I did there was a loud *POP* and then smoke came out from behind the knob.  Yikes!  Later that evening when I was finally brave enough to try turning it back on nothing would come on, not any of the stovetop burners, not the oven, not even the oven light.  :(  So....I have been stoveless and ovenless all week long.  Hopefully this week we can get a repairman out to check it out and see if it is salvageable.  It's sort of old, although not that old, so I really don't know.   Vince says we just need to work harder to win our friendly Biggest Loser competition w

This school year our science has been about all things botany.  Admittedly, it was a bit hard through the winter because studying botany just makes you want to get outside and that doesn't work so well when everything is in its dormant stage.  However, since the weather has gotten nice it's so much fun to go outside and really get hands-on with our lessons.   Yesterday we hit the nature trails at our local environmental center, Jeffers' Bend .  I had printed off a fun botany scavenger hunt list from this site and we grabbed the nature journals and water bottles and set off!   I love handmade signs. The kiddos examining the different kinds of leaves on their list. This list went so well with our Apologia Botany study! Lovely flowers, not sure what kind, but so vibrant. We thought this tree bark was unusual from most others. Getting up close with pollination. Hitting the trails! Daddy found a good grapevine for swinging.