So frustrated... and goals for school

Wierd title I know. Im so frustrated with my computer. I can't upload any pictures which makes my blog quite dull :( I can barely write on here without it clicking me off and jamming up my computer. We will see how it goes. Defintely time for a new computer. Anyone wanna make a donation to the help Jaelle get a computer fund HAHAHA!!

We are currently on "summer" break from homeschool, so we basically do alot of fun activities and not so much actual school work. All three kids are done with their "grade level" for the year, so we are having some fun. Here are my goals this week:
Begin teaching Dylan cursive ( this will be done in a calm, fun way, so he ends up loving it!!!!!)
Plant our Venus Fly Trap that we bought from the zoo!!! So cool!
Identify the beautiful gems from the Native American Store that I bought about 2 months ago... yup, just now getting around to doing that lol
Continue reading the general conference talks and playing bingo with different assorted treats :)
Plant Sunflowers in back yard ( doing this today hopefully)
Listen to the Honesty cd from Valuesparenting.com SOO excited for this... It's Alexanders Amazing Adventures and you get one each month, 12 values to teach your kids!!!!!
Thats school for the week..... good goals :)
Plus the normal playing outside as long as it is nice, making dinners, laundry, all that normal good stuff!!!
Love, JL

A School Day :)

My girls are so cute. Not only do we homeschool daily, but they like to "play" school! It was so funny this morning, as I was doing the dishes and Dylan was helping me cook dinner to stick in the fridge for tonight, the girls were sitting at the dining room table. Marlee was saying things like " After prayer, we will go over our family rules and then we will read from the scriptures" and they had a little prayer, read over the family rules, then Marlee read a verse from the scriptures. The whole time Sydney was sitting like a little angel. Why doesnt she do that for me?? LOL. After that Marlee decided to help Sydney work on her reading and writing. Marlee has been so wonderful in helping Syd to read. I am so proud of both of them. It was just so darling to watch them as they played and to realize that I am just such a proud momma, because my kids are so cool!
Im thankful to be a momma, and Im thankful I have the three beautiful children that I do, and Im thankful we homeschool so I dont have to miss a minute with them!

Evening Time

http://radio.lds.org/eng/programs/scripture-stories-episode-1

With a busy school day and a busy play day, I have been wanting to find ways to make our evening times a bit quieter, calm, etc. I dont want to just sit around and watch tv. So I found a really neat website, and they have this scripture stories webcast... so tonight after a quiet dinner at the table, the kids gathered on my bed to listen to the first episode. They snuggled on the bed, with just my bedside lamp on and we listened. it was so cute! and it really made the spirit in the home nice and cozy. We are getting a winter storm, so it was nice to be cozy and warm listening to this darling webcast. I am thinking, I have found a solution to the quiet calm evenings. Then the kids can go right into their beds for their personal reading time.... we read scriptures throughout the day, plus adding the scripture stories, then they read a book of their choice in bed for half an hour, then prayers then bed. its nice. i think im happy. ;)

School 2009

So... we have started school for the year. So far it has been nice and calm, and alot of fun! Here is the picture for the year, Dylan looks a little "surprised" lol. He totally has this issue with the camera, his eyes are usually closed, or surprised! lol. He's so cute!

So we will use this as our official school pic!

Its Friday

We have had a crazy couple of weeks, and Im just thankful it is friday. I have been hard at work on our website www.ldsforeverfamilies.com and am pleased to announce the new store opening www.ldsforeverfamilies.webs.com ! Check it out! More products will be added daily!
Today it is supposed to be beautiful outside, and we are excited to be able to play outside. I will also be making the kids nature journals, for the Charlotte mason method, which I get more excited about as I read and learn about it.
That is all for now. Nothing to exciting today!

Hanny the Handkerchief Doll!

For school today we had a beautiful lesson on easter, we have been doing this all week, and today we spoke about the last supper and the atonement and judas betraying christ. We used pictures from the GAK and it really was a beautiful , spiritual lesson. I have been so impressed with my children this year on how much they have grasped and how touching the lessons have been. My kids rock! lol.

Then we did our handiwork, which has to do with Charlotte Mason Homeschooling Method. We worked on a cute handkerchief doll kit that we purchased at the Lincoln Fair in quincy. Each of the kids got to sew and they were so proud of it, and it turned out adorable! She now holds a prominent spot in our home, she's special because she represents a fun afternoon at the fair, a fun lesson on abraham lincoln and that time period, and the hard work of the kids working together and making her! It has been a good day so far and we are blessed!

Spring--- where are you?????

As you can see I have taken a little blogging break. i actually took a full blown Spring break last week. Was so pooped out from everything! But today is monday and im back!!! We had the wierdest weekend, spring, rain, then snow then some ice, then a big thaw, with sunshine and today it is sunny and muddy. Im exhausted from this weather! I had started planting some things, and so far they are just fine, the ground didnt get cold enough to freeze, thank goodness. Today so far I have done school with the kids, including an amazing lesson on easter and the resurrection. You see, my grandpa is dying of cancer, and my children have lots of questions. My poor kids have lost two very important people in the past year ( well it will be one year exactly in april.) and so we have had this talk quite a bit. But in preparing them gently, for grandpa's impending death, I was very surprised at how well this lesson taught about the resurrection. It was a perfect tie in to the questions they were asking this morning about grandpa Jim. Such a hard lesson for my kids to have to learn at such an early age, with the loss of Moses and Francy, and the upcoming loss of my grandfather, who is truly a patriarch to our family and an amazing example. I was very thankful to God for providing this particular lesson in our books at this particular time. He is a good God, and loving and wants my kids to understand. We decided to head outside after that to feed the birds. They have been hungry birds! We have to feed them almost daily, but it is so worth it to see the different kinds of birds that choose to bless us with their presence!!!! My grandma gave me some aloe vera plant starts last night, mine finally died last year, lol, after much use ( keith has a tendency to be clumsy and burn himself easily, etc!) so we got the starts planted which was great fun for the kids because it involved mud and worms! lol. I need to continue to work on yard sale stuff. I have a big tub in my room that needs prices marked and one in the hallway. Then in the storage unit we have two more tubs and in the storage room we have about three boxes. Freakin huge yard sale!!! Funny thing is, im thinking of listing the clothes on ebay and then just selling everything else at the sale. Get more money from ebay on clothes. I need to make as much money as possible while getting rid of as much stuff as possible!!!! We're going to be purchasing Dylans 4th grade school books soon. Hard to believe, he is only 7 and is ready to start 4th grade. He just adores school and grasps things so easily, we only do about an hour of work in the morning each day year round, and it works well for us. Ok, more work to do. Lots of laundry, dishes and the norm. Plus the yard sale stuff, plus I have these hundreds of children to care for!!! :)