Saturday Night Love Story

This is part of a love story between a guy and his sweet, old dog.  The dog that he used to try to give away to every guest who entered our house.  Along with the dog,  this guy promised a gift card to Petco for her food needs for the coming year.

As we were settling in to watch Dateline NBC, B-real decided to make some popcorn.  Our sweet, old dog likes popcorn and so I reached into his gigantic bowl and grabbed two pieces.   Upon wanting to get some more for sweet, old dog I realized all of the popcorn was gonzers.  My sweet, old husband had eaten it all without a thought for the sweet, old dog who cuddles up to him every night in bed. 

I humphed over that fact and may have made a grumpy face at the 'selfish' man lying next to me in bed.  He said there might be a few more pieces in the bottom of the Whirley Pop.  He came back up with a small bowl of popcorn for the dog.  I gave it to her but she refused to eat it.  I asked B-real if the dog's popcorn had any butter.   He said "No, it had not been buttered.  It came directly from the popcorn maker." I told him "Well, she doesn't like popcorn without butter.  Who does?"  I then asked if he would eat popcorn without butter.  He said he would.  Yeah, right!  

Well then he humped back at me and said "Fine, I will go melt butter for the dog's popcorn."   I told him he didn't need to do that, it was pretty ridiculous to make a dog her own buttered popcorn.  But he did.  Sweet, old dog who adored him before, and even more so now, devoured her pink bowl of buttered popcorn.

The End.   

Summer Writing

It's easy for the girls to continue reading but not as easy to encourage writing over the summer months.

I decided to grab a notebook for each girl and write a prompt at the top of each page.  In the essence of giving them choices, I hand them their notebooks and allow them to select a prompt in which to respond.  Often times the notebooks come in the car and the girls can use our long car trips to write versus time they have at home.

Here is a great list of prompts to use:

www.dailyteachingtools.com

It will be a fun keepsake to reflect back on as they grow older.

Happy Writing! 

Llama Time

Big C and Mr. Bungles, the one-eyed llama. 

The girls are doing 4H this summer.  They are each leasing a llama from a farm to use for the upcoming county fair.  Originally I helped the girls but now I am realizing this is their thing and I will not be able to help them at the fair.  I am stepping away and letting them learn on their own how to motivate and encourage their llamas.  For part of their time this week I even sat in the car and watched them.  It felt like a disservice on my part to hover and help.  They are getting to the age where it's o.k. to let them work through things on their own.  Struggle leads to growth.

I could see this as being a negative aspect of homeschooling.  I am always there versus a teacher who has a class of 20 some kids.  I am fully present and attentive to these two girlies!! The fact that I am always there could either be an advantage or disadvantage.  I guess we are lucky to have the choice of using it as an advantage and choosing to back off when it could become a disadvantage.  

Here's me enjoying the scenery from the car!  Listening to my music and reading my book.  Aaaahhh !!!  

Daily

Every night I make a list on the whiteboard of the girls responsibilities for the day.

I HATE hounding people to do things and it makes my day less productive if I have to keep checking in to make sure what I have asked has been completed.  I can ask them to do their lists while I am accomplishing my work for the day.  I tell the girls it means there will be more time for fun if we are working at the same time as one another.  During the school year they have planners wih their daily work plus chores and reminders of activities and plans for the day.  

They claim they have too much work but it is maybe 45 minutes of work per day. And work includes making a birthday card for the awesome pool party you will be attending on Saturday.  That's not WORK!!  I say 45 minutes but that's if they are focused and don't become distracted...which is their issue and choice...not mine :).

Both B-real and I believe you shouldn't do work your children are capable of doing for themselves. I don't want our girls to be like me in college.  I didn't know how to do laundry and put so much in the washer it wouldn't agitate and actually clean my clothing.  It baffled me until my roommate explained it was packed too full.  My mom had always just taken care of my laundry when I lived at home.  

I think as parents we can make the mistake of doing things for our children believing it signifies love. The real love comes in teaching them how to take care of themselves and become responsible citizens of the world.  Our job is to set them free to fly on their own one day. And we want them to be ready to take that leap. 

Phone Phourth

Heart Sings

Do you ever come across something that makes your heart sing?

This did it for me tonight...

First library card!! Thankful for phone cameras where I can snap a quick photo and have this image forever. 

Strawberry Fields Forever

One summer tradition we hold is going to pick strawberries with my mom!  There is nothing like fresh picked strawberries.  

We may have had a bit of a stem war with the berries we ate in the field!! 

Intentional Parenting

B-real and I were on a date a while back and I asked him what three words he would want used to describe him as a parent.  

Both of said we wanted to be remembered by our children as fun.

  I wish I could recall what else we said but fun was the first thought that came to both of us.   I definitely see both of us being fun in our own ways .  B-real did a flip off the front of our boat on the 4th.  I love wild rides at amusement parks.  We both like to dance even though it's not our thing.  We aren't easily embarrassed and like to be silly and laugh.  The four of us have fun together.  I want our girls to grow up enjoying our family time versus that strong pull to move away from the family and be about friends.  

It's nice to have that discussion and be more intentional about how we live our lives though.  People have goals for their careers, finances, and futures but what about goals as parents?  

Fall Planning

I am beginning to think about school.  I did see supplies at Target today but that's not the reason for my preparations.  The older my students et the more pressure I feel to have a plan!

Both girls love, love, love to read.  And they still like when I read out loud to them as they are doing art projects or building with Legos.  I have never wanted to ruin that love by forcing books on them.  I am realizing that Big C especially is not choosing books at her reading level and doesn't seen to be stretching herself.  I understand her issue though in that it's easier to go to a series you enjoy versus taking a guess on a random author or book.  I decided for this school year the girls will do some required reading.  I believe kids do better when they have some control over their choices.  As a result I compiled a list of books that I would like them to read and asked them to select seven books from my long list that they will commit to read this school year.

I made sure to include fiction, non-fiction, biographies, humor, sci-fi.  B-real was helpful too because I wondered what level books to choose for the girls.  Although little c is capable of reading books like Percy Jackson she does not have the attention span for such a long book.  I wanted her to have the feeling of success rather than feeling overwhelmed with her choices.  I can't wait to see what they pick! 

I also starred a few that I want to read myself.  Those will be read alouds for the year.  Our current read aloud is Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli.  We are loving it!!  And we recently finished The London Eye mystery.  We were sad when that book came to a conclusion.  I read Counting by Sevens too.  Great book.  It's young adult category but neither of the girls wanted to listen because the book begins on a sad note- the death of the main character's parents.  

Exercise

Exercise does a body and a brain good at our house.  I see the mood benefits of regular exercise especially for Big C.  We like to bike as a family and both girls like to jump on our trampoline.  Big C does not enjoy walking or running though.  Maybe most kids don't?!  I inspired her today by working with me on interval training where we run /walk in intervals.  We went about 2 miles and she was faster than I expected.  Too fast for her mom!  We had fun talking as we passed different flowers and exterior decor.  We talked about how proud we were of ourselves for having gone the distance.  And the best part was I had a happy, flexible, calm little person with whom to spend the remainder of the day.  Yeah for exercise!! 

Cakes and More

Little c remarked on Sunday morning that we hadn't spent much time together lately.  I was a bit shocked as a homeschooling mom with a traveling salesmen for a husband has a pretty bit credit in that department.  Nonetheless I mentioned my plan to make homemade pancakes for breakfast and asked if she wanted to join me.  First we made her a chef's hat and then she decided we needed a menu for our customers and coupons for free breakfasts.  Just like at a hotel.  Little c is really good at working on the stove and can make those pancakes from ingredients to cakes on a plate!  We had so much fun together!!