Pieces of my past

I hate that the modern life is so busy. No matter what phase of life we are in, we seem to fill it to the brim; sometimes we fill it too full and important things are washed out. Sometimes we keep putting something off until we have more time to devote to it . . . unfortunately we never seem to have more time.

Then the guilt sets in, the guilt that says "you've taken too long, it's too late."

I had some friends I treasured, friends from high school and college. But I moved, and we lost touch. We all had busy lives and things going on. I waited to call or write or email until I had time to do so. Time to devote to it, to do a thorough job.

Some of them, I was able to contact about 8 years ago but busy-ness got in the way and rather than send a quick email, I waited until I could send a longer one. Waited too long. I am realizing now, I should have just at least sent emails that said "I am thinking about you." Knowing me, once I started it would have gotten longer. But I waited . . . and lost contact.

These are friends that I laughed with and cried with. They hold pieces of my past, we share memories. We have all moved on with our lives, built new ones. But we don't have to throw away our past. We can still keep our old friends.

Can we be as close as we once were? Probably not. I would like at the very least to be on each others Christmas card lists. I know they are busy too but I think emails once a month or so would be nice.

Speaking of which, I have an email to write. I encourage you to get in touch with an old friend.

Make new friends but keep the old
One is silver and the other gold.
The circle is round and has no end,
that's how long I want to be your friend.

Cold weather has arrived

Yep, it got really cold last night. You won't believe how cold. We woke up this morning and didn't want to crawl out of our toasty warm beds.

Do you want to know how cold it got?

Are you sure you can handle it?

Well ok, it got down to (shuddering) 1 degree last night.

ok, yes that is 1° celcius . . . which converts to 34° farenheit . . . which I know is not cold for some of you. But for us, it is cold! According to accuweather our average low for November is 46°F and our lowest average is 38°F.

So we are bringing out the thick fuzzy socks, and making some hot chocolate with marshmallows.

My Darling hubby and house weather geek informed me that it was colder than 34°, he saw some thermometers in town announcing it was 27°. I hate being cold.

God's World of Extremes

I was looking for a way to enrich our geography lessons, make them more than just places on a map. The October Old Schoolhouse module is what I was looking for. God’s World of Extremes is full of amazing facts, such as the most rainfall happens in India with 500 inches! You will never guess what amount is the least average yearly rainfall.

God’s World of Extremes has learning opportunities such as maps of each continent; coloring pages for the younger ones; price comparisons for things like bread and gas; games kids play around the world; and a “which continent are we on” worksheet.

There are also loads of links:

• Easy foreign language
• More about countries such as Greece, Mexico, Chad and even the United States
• A penpal website
• An extensive resource list
• And more

In God’s World of Extremes my favorite is the copywork pages, one for each continent with a fast fact section that includes things like land size, largest river, and number of countries. These would be wonderful for lapbooking or notebooking.

My daughter can’t wait to start this one. This is a fabulous module that can be used with the Old Schoolhouse Planner; however, owning the planner is not necessary.

God’s World of Extremes will get your kids excited about geography.

Prayers needed

There is a young man who used to go to our church who just graduated from high school this year. He has had an awful time of it recently. His mom battled cancer for a couple of years and passed away close to his graduation. To watch his vibrant, joyful mom waste away was hard enough, now I have found out he has even more sorrow.

His paternal grandfather died 6 weeks ago and then his dad passed away on tuesday. I don't know how or why, I know his dad's death was sudden but I don't know anything specific beyond that.

He is at such a fragile age and has lost 3 close family members in less than 6 months. He is either going to cling tightly to Jesus or become angry with God.

Please just keep him in your prayers.

Transitions

I loved my blog over at Homeschool Blogger but I found I wanted some of the bells and whistles that are over here at blogger. So rather than open up another blog, I decided to move everything over here.

This isn't exactly the way I want it Does anyone know how to put a graphic at the bottom of each post? but it is getting there. Its taking longer than I would like, partly because I have never messed with CSS, just html.

I plan on moving all (or at least 98%) of the posts over at homeschoolblogger over here, but it may take a bit. You are welcome to browse around here if you want to see what I have missed or what I haven't moved yet.

100 species Challange

I was over at the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival at Jimmie's One Child Policy blog (well worth checking out even without the carnival) and found this entry:

Faith Alterton shares a most creative post at Blessed Quietness -- And yet another use for mud. That got your attention, didn't it?

Of course I had to check it out, and then I looked around and found the 100 species challenge.

What is the 100 Species Challenge you ask?

Well, it seems the person who came up with this challenge had read a book that mentioned most people nowadays cannot identify 100 species of plants within walking distance. So she took the challenge and has challenged others to do the same, identify 100 species of plants in your area.

You can do this on your own or you can blog about it. If you blog about it, these are the official rules.

The 100-Species Challenge

1. Participants should include a copy of these rules and a link to this entry in their initial blog post about the challenge.


2. Participants should keep a list of all plant species they can name, either by common or scientific name, that are living within walking distance of the participant's home. The list should be numbered, and should appear in every blog entry about the challenge, or in a sidebar.


3. Participants are encouraged to give detailed information about the plants they can name in the first post in which that plant appears. My format will be as follows: the numbered list, with plants making their first appearance on the list in bold; each plant making its first appearance will then have a photograph taken by me, where possible, a list of information I already knew about the plant, and a list of information I learned subsequent to starting this challenge, and a list of information I'd like to know. (See below for an example.) This format is not obligatory, however, and participants can adapt this portion of the challenge to their needs and desires.


4. Participants are encouraged to make it possible for visitors to their blog to find easily all 100-Species-Challenge blog posts. This can be done either by tagging these posts, by ending every post on the challenge with a link to your previous post on the challenge, or by some method which surpasses my technological ability and creativity.


5. Participants may post pictures of plants they are unable to identify, or are unable to identify with precision. They should not include these plants in the numbered list until they are able to identify it with relative precision. Each participant shall determine the level of precision that is acceptable to her; however, being able to distinguish between plants that have different common names should be a bare minimum.


6. Different varieties of the same species shall not count as different entries (e.g., Celebrity Tomato and Roma Tomato should not be separate entries); however, different species which share a common name be separate if the participant is able to distinguish between them (e.g., camillia japonica and camillia sassanqua if the participant can distinguish the two--"camillia" if not).


7. Participants may take as long as they like to complete the challenge. You can make it as quick or as detailed a project as you like. I'm planning to blog a minimum of two plants per week, complete with pictures and descriptions as below, which could take me up to a year. But you can do it in whatever level of detail you like.

Because of 4-H wildlife this year, we do have a bit of a head start. This is going to be a fun challenge for us, and may make it easier to study for Wildlife contest next year, a contest that 8 & 9 year olds compete with highschool kids. To be honest, I am not quite sure who is at the disadvantage, LOL.

The first plants will be posted later today. Because of wildlife, and because I believe the original author complaining of the lack of botanical knowledge was referring to wild species, I am going to attempt to limit us to stuff we have not planted. For instance, I have a lovely rosemary bush but I know what rosemary is, I know what it does, etc.

I don't specify native because . . . there are many, many invasive plants that are non-natives, not just kudzu but also pretty things like honeysuckle, which would be useful to know more about. Also, to be honest, with plants you don't know, you don't know if they are native or not until you research them. I don't want us to research and then find out they are non-native and tell the kids "oops, we can't use this one." Besides on the wildlife contest there are non-natives like honeysuckle.

Any one else care to join me on this challenge?

Here are some family pictures

I have been taking pictures of the kids doing 4-H stuff and the like. Just not so many just of them.

I do need to do that but here are some pictures taken in the past 16 months.

Veteran's Day Parade

Our homeschool group has participated the past three years in the Veteran's Day parade that our town does. This was the first year, we were able to join the group and I was so glad we were able to do so.

I have family that has served in the military and so Veteran's day reminds me of them.
I was saddened to see the low attendance to honor those men and women that have done so much for our country. I also realize that I have been guilty of doing the same. This is the first Veteran's day event that I have attended -- that I know of.

Anyway, we passed out candy to the kids and said a big "Thank you" to the vets we passed.

To any veteran reading this:

Thank you!

disappointed

Ok, I can't lie and say I am happy because I am not really. I wasn't one of those chosen for a job offer.

On the other hand, I know I have so very, very much to learn. Some of the others already had prior experience in marketing. Others already were doing some work for TOS, like product reviews.

I was so richly blessed by this class. I have learned so very much, both about marketing and about myself. I tend to be shy and this class pushed me out of my comfort zone but in a good way. I have made some new wonderful friends, so that is wonderful.

My new friends and my new knowledge are very rich treasures indeed.

waiting

COPIED FROM HOMESCHOOL BLOGGER

I don't know about the results of the class yet. I should find out tomarrow. All I can do is pray.

. . . and try to mess up my blog.

I put the facebook icon up tonight and somehow messed up the coding. Thankfully, I have a backup copy for the coding, but then I would have to redo some of the stuff I have changed since last making a backup. But with it I was able to figure out where I messed up the coding so . . .

its all fixed.

Now to update my backup copy of the coding.

Frug

I was going to put some mentholated rub on Junior's chest when he had his cough. First I let him smell it.

"This smells like frug." *said like rug,the kind on the floor*

I don't say anything, just look confused. He then says

"I don't know what they look like 'cause I just made them up, but this is what they smell like."

Facebook

Well I did it.

I signed up for facebook the other day.

Ok, you need to sign up. I was able to make contact with people I haven't talked to in 8 years. I could talk to people I haven't talked to in 17 years, but . . . many of them are part of the reason I homeschool.

You can also keep up with current friends and family through Facebook.

Check it out.