Be Still and Listen

to the equal, rhythmic bass of my feet

to the wind filling my lungs, keeping to the beat on the pavement

to the tiny cymbals that are my earrings, ching-chinging with every step

to the singing of the stream that runs along side me

to the high, stuttering solo of a kingfisher

to the warblers' duet

to the sigh of relief in a hot shower

This is the symphony heard on a morning jog when ipod batteries are dead.

Guest Blogger

I have a guest blogger! isent that cool. And my mom is making me tipe four lines. But I am going to make a volcano with my guest blogger. If I don't leave Ituns alone my mom will make me lisen to the song I don't like. And trust me its inoing. The song is sung by two people. Its contry I think but i'm not sure but I'm prity sure it's contry.

How to Have the Perfect Snow Day

1. Bundle up!
2. Get a fire going.

3. Catch some flakes.


4. Beware the slippery walk!

5. Invite a friend to play.

6. Bake cookies.

7. Play, play, play.


8. Thaw.


9. Drink cocoa.

10. Repeat.

On Friday we have to make a volcano so thats going to be fun.The math test I had was hard and easy at the same time.The way you make a volcano is you nead a plastic bottle some self harding clay thats all I know so far. I think making a volcano will be fun because its a craft and I like crafts. My mom is making me type more. She is also making me lisen to music I don't like. The songs are really weird.One even said '' drems ''.

happy holidays

what I love most about the holidays is watching a movie with a cup of hot coco, sitting next to th fire. I love it when it's flurrying out side but nice and cozy inside. I remember a long time ago that on Christmas day my whole family could go out side in short-sleves and take a picture. I didn't like that Christmas so much. I made my presents for my family. I'm seeing my Grandparents this saturday for breakfast. My grandma is coming over to make cookies tomorrow. I'm super excited because her cookies are the best!
I am reading "to kill a mocking bird" right now.At first i didn't like it so much because it was hard to understand. I'm on chapter 6 and i like it more.

Its a two-fer

Two posts in one day!! How can anyone be so lucky?!?
We had a wonderful day yesterday. One of those days when I thought over and over that if we weren't home schooling we would never do this.
My new friend (see previous post) called on Thursday and invited us to go with her to the harbor for the Army-Navy pep rally. Even though the decision to HS was partially about "doing those things we never get to do" it was still difficult to step out of that comort zone of home to pack everyone up on a winter day and head downtown knowing that it would exhaust us all and we still had a party to go to that evening. Oh well, what the heck.
What a terrific day spent cheering, watching, exploring and laughing.
Yes, we were exhausted when we got home. Yes, the Sambino missed his sanity-saving nap. Yes, I had very little time or energy to make the brownies, make the ornament, make the kids shower, make them eat. Yes, there was about 30 minutes of hell for everyone at the party when Sambino just crashed (thank goodness for his brother and their game of tackle).
And, NO, there is not one eensy-weensy bit of regret for any of it.

A bit late but still thankful...

For the wonderful chaos that family and dogs and holidays bring.
For the weekly walks with my kids and various companions.
For technology.
For ham shoved into rawhide.
For my handsome man returning safely from his travels.

I hope everyone had a most wonderful Thanksgiving. Are you looking forward to Christmas?

fashion

My new project is to create a fashion magazine. I am doing it with a friend and she doesn't do research and it kind of bugs me. I did a ton a research on Oscar de la Renta, Channel,and Dior. Did you know that Oscar de la Renta's real name is Oscar Aritides Renta Fiallo and he was born in the Dominican Republic (his mother is Dominican and his father Puerto Rican). When he was 18, he moved to Spain and in 2001 he started a collection.
I bet there is a lot more to Gabrielle Bonheur (founder to Coco Channel) then you think there is. She redefined fashion by making elegant suites and dresses instead or corsets. Coco Channel came through in 1910 and created Channel No.5. Now the company is run by Karl Lagerfeld.
Dior was founded by Christian Dior in 1946. He was known for the beautiful silhouettes he created on women. Then sad news came to the fashion world when he died at a health spa.

today I studied volcanoes I did it on Arenal and Mount st.Helens and well I don't know what els to wright about

just another tirring day

I am on my way to gymnastics as I'm writing this. I just found my laptop today and it had power! Today was my brothers birthday party and we went to laser tag in Columbia. It was so much fun to play and I was the best! Although i am the oldest, I am definitely not the most skilled. I guess I was just the fastest. I am kinda excited for gymnastics. I got a new floor routine and I am super excited about it. I really didn't like my old floor routine because it was very robotic. I hope I do well on bars and vault but I am very tired!!!!!
Okay, I just came back from gymnastics. Our last event was floor and I had to do my routine with tumbling. I was terrible! I could barley finish the routine but, I did the routine without stopping. I have to go to bed now. Bubye =]

Another wonderful walk in the woods. And with a new friend, too!
We met at a little-known part of a state park. When we were trying to figure out where to go we talked about here and there and then mentioned "this wonderful place, off the beated track, that nobody goes to." We couldn't believe the other knew about it! (Very cool.) While our boys (yes, even Sambino trying desperately to keep up with his brother and new friend) took point, the ladies strolled along behind chatting and getting to know eachother.
We have a mutual friend we both think is just delightful. (Wild.)
It turns out that she is a Grace Potter fan. (MmHmmm.)
She likes going to concerts. (AhhHaaa.)
And wants chickens. (OMG!)
Isn't it wonderful to meet new people?

The Little Ditty That Played Over and Over In My Head Today

I am so spe-cial
I am so spe-cial

My chil-dren love me
My chil-dren love me

They made me coo-kies
They made me coo-kies

While I played soc-cer
While I played soc-cer



This is what I came home to today after playing soccer for the first time since March of 2006 (when I busted up my hamstring). I feel wonderful.

science center

Yesterday we went to the science center and it was very cool. We went to the dinosaur exhibit and there was a map of anything you could imagine. We saw the white house and the bay and the great pyramids of Egypt. We also played a harp with no stings. Then, we went upstairs and went into the kids play room. There was a submarine that had a camera view of inside the fish tank and there was this big water "fountain". This was all for little kids but me and carl got a blast out of it. Did i mention it was carl's birthday? After that we came home and had pizza for dinner and homemade chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Overall it was a good day =]

Be Still and Listen

To the two schoolers talking about friendship.
To the fever-laden breathing of a sleeping two year old.
To the belly laughter of said two year old the next day.
To the loud conversations of a flock of starlings perched nearby.
To the excitement brimming right before a science experiment that includes fire.
To rain in the middle of the night.

10 things you probably didn't know about me

I realized last night that I am kinda secretive and I don't share things about my life. Here is my life in a list of ten things!!






1.) I took ballet when i was 5

2.) I got stitches in the middle of the night playing football

3.) I used to love soy-sauce. I would put it on anything. Mac & cheese, noodles, bread, anything!

4.) I am really good at the wobbly ladders you see at the state fair.

5.) I can not stand talking in front of people that I don't know.

6.) I love talking to my friends.

7.) I have a gold fish that i won in a fourth grade spring fair. It's still alive.

8.) I am in 8th grade ^^^

9.) My nickname is "abbs"

10.) I love camping!!!!!

These past two days were bise. I went to a homeles senter to serve food and today we are going to my gramas cherch to bag food.

School on the Trail

A bit of PE, a dash of science, a pinch of art...
(I'm trying to jazz up the joint with photos. Being new to this, I forgot to rotate them so get yourself a comfy pillow and take a nice little rest on your desk while viewing!)

gymnastics

One of my favorite sports is gymnastics. I love the feeling you get when your flipping over a 4 inch wide beam, 4 feet off the ground. I recently started doing a tsukahara. A tsukahara is a vault and what you do is flip off the vault to land. I started gymnastics when I was really young and I never stopped. Our team recently got a new coach and basically a new team. I have a lot of friends at my gym and I love competing with them.
My second favorite sport is soccer. I guess I'm okay at it but by far not the best on my team. I just play rec so not very competitive. I play indoor and outdoor soccer as well.
Altogether, I am a really active girl who loves sports.

Peace and Smiles

1. The Trio taping, wrapping, taping a gift for papa for his 70th birthday.
2. Watching Bino's class look, look, look for pumpkins that are so close they could trip over them and then big bro and big sis play so sweetly with all of them.
4. My big sister working her word magic in honor of papa.
5. Black and tans.
6. "All natural training bits [for dogs] with calming herbs..." that claim to "transform your dog." I can't believe I bought them. She sniffed and turned away.

Today I traded 3 points in for no math. Also I get to use my chemistry set. The points are for like privileges like 2 points you can get a snow ball. Those are the points and what you can do with them.

Today I got wizerd chess.I havent played it yet but when mom gets back i will be abell to play it. I will have a lot of fun.It might be harder then regulr chess.We have ruls in home schooling now.I know that was random.

burf-day

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. I have been really busy. It was my birth-day a couple of weeks ago and i had an okay day. I was in West Virginia all day and then came home to a soccer game. We won the soccer game so that was good. I take gymnastics so i could do a really cool throw in/front-handspring. Everyone thought the throw in was so cool and it was fun to watch. My parents gave me money to Best Buy for my birth-day and i bought a camera. Overall i had a good birthday.

Once there was a boy who found a scorpian and he wanted to take it home. That night, the scorpian escaped! The boy went looking for it but instead of finding it he steped on it. He got stunned and went to the hospital. The next day the boy left the hospital and was afraid to go outside because he thought he was gonign to be stung by something else. then he got home and everybody was safe.



THE END

What would I do without the mothers in my life?
After a particularly trying morning, I called my sister. Her kids are older (and absolutely perfect) and she has already been through the crap that I encounter. Much to my dismay--and probably to her luck--she was not available. My mom, another wonderful mother, just had surgery, so hearing from her mopey daughter is not the bouquet of flowers she deserves. My third try was a relatively new friend that I spent much time with over the summer. Poor her and lucky me! After a few minutes of niceties, I spilled my guts. I half-heartedly tried to stem my flood of woes and even shed a few tears. Without skipping a single beat or even doing the pity thing, she guided me over my obstacle. She was supportive and kind and offered a few ideas to try. I hung up the phone a changed woman.
I saw her later in the day and thanked her. She commented that there is a tremendous wealth of knowledge in each and every mother and what a fabulous resource we are for each other. I agree and am very, very thankful for each and every one of you. I will probably contact all of you at some time or another while on this home school adventure (if I haven't already!).

ckarl's post

Once there was a man and he loved jumping off of cliffs with a parachute of course but one day he forgot his parachute!He jumped off anyway but he survived the fall with a broken leg and scratches.
For the next few days he wore his parachute around with him but he did not know that his parachute
had a howl in it.The next day he jumped off of a cliff even tho he released his parachute he saw
a branch so he grabbed it.He was hanging there when help came and brought him back to his family.

Our adventure begins...

Our first week of homeschool is over.
The first day was Wednesday (I certainly wasn't going to start on my birthday!) and it was pretty anti-climactic. Maybe its the romantic in me that thought it would be a day of epiphanies and "ah-ha" moments. Instead it was a day of being hit over the head, again and again and again, with the fact that I/we are at the very very bottom of an enormous learning curve. My dream that the kids would love being encouraged to think outside of the box, enjoy the less structured schedule and be able to do subjects together turned into my own "ah-ha" moment. My middle child thrives on structure and wanted to know what our "specials" schedule was (what day was art? library? when, exactly, will we be doing science? for how long? at what time is break?) These were questions I thought I was prepared for (anytime we want! for however long you would like! no, you don't have to ask to go to the bathroom!). These were not the answers he was looking for. He wants his specifics, his schedule, his "box." My oldest was clearly bored with the history lesson (geared to the younger set), eager to start her French lessons (parlez-vous francais??), and reminded me over and over that the math was everything she did last year.
It was clear that my romantic notions of schooling at home needed serious tweaking. I went back to finding more curriculum for the bored one and figuring out how I was going to slowly guide my middle to discover the joys of stepping out of his comfort zone.
Keeping all this in perspective, we continued on Thursday. It turned out that maybe not everything I hoped for was wrong. We had an absolutely lovely day of quietly working independently, figuring out a French dialogue, riding our bikes to pick up the littlest from his preschool, building a nomadic-like structure out of things found in our yard (the middle choosing NOT to following his sister's lead and create something different), and making, eating, and cleaning up from lunch together. This was what all that work was for.
Friday, it turns out, is our library day. It is on our white board under "Specials." The littlest has story time and the other two can browse and discover. And the oldest will soon start a year-long program that will result in a novel.
We have climbed just a bit up that learning curve. We still have a long way to go but the view from here is definately better.

get smart?!

hi everybody!

We started our first day of homeschooling yesterday and it was a blast! Our day starts at 7:30 in the morning when my mom comes in and wakes me up. Then we have breakfast at 8 a.m. and then school! We school in the basement so there's plenty of room. My brother and I each have a desk and then my little brother just runs around screaming(he's 2). Our school day begins with my brother doing math and I'm doing reading,writing,journaling,vocabulary,grammar, and blogging. then we switch and I do math and my brother does all the other stuff. Cool,eh? We each have a book with like 1million vocabulary words in it. We pick one word per day and then copy it so by the end of the month we have a lot to study. My word was depravity which means extreme wickedness. That's weird, i just opened the book and that word popped out at me! HAHA.
My favorite part about homeschooling is the sleeping late and NO HOMEWORK. Actually thats not true, I have a few reports and this blog site that i must add to every week or so. It's kinda fun writing and adding to the blog every week. I love to type so it's awesome for me!
Other than writing and math, I also have French, history, and science. I took French last year and I loved it so I'm taking it this year. my mom is teaching me because she took French when she was in high school. My French name is Genevieve which is the same name i had last year! It would be to confusing to me if i changed my name so Genevieve is good! =]
I'm really looking forward to the year and I hope it is just as fun as the last couple of days!

abalicious