Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Tyler's worst Tuesday

today was my worst day ever. i forgot to do most of my schoolwork. i got a time out i cant play the computer. i have to go to girl scouts with maggie. i hit my toe twice. my sister hit me. has the world gone mad!!!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Maggie's Mussings

I like my Co-Op and all the friends who signed up.  I like playing with them. 


Maggie

Monday, March 21, 2011

The Simple Woman's Daybook


FOR TODAY Monday March 21, 2011

Outside my window... sunny FL

I am thinking... about new curriculum

I am thankful for... my marriage and the communication tools we learned this weekend

From the learning rooms... planning our week right now.  We are winding down on some of our curriculum so I am trying to decide what to start next.

From the kitchen... whatever Jeff decides to buy at the grocery today. Last night we had delicious grilled burgers and salads.

I am wearing... my pajamas

I am creating... our monthly budget for April

I am going... possibly nowhere, but I really need to mail something to my sister.

I am reading... I just started Nanny Returns the sequel to The Nanny Diaries.  So far I haven't made it past the first chapter.  I hope it gets better.

I am hoping... that I continue to implement the lessons I Iearned this weekend at our marriage conference

I am hearing... Tyler doing morning PE on the Wii Fit

Around the house... my Mom watched the kids all weekend and did some cleaning while she was here.  Our kitchen is a mess, as always, but the rest of the house is in decent shape.  I need to do a few loads of laundry today.

One of my favorite things... my bracelet my SIL gave me for my birthday

A few plans for the rest of the week..Co-Op, Cub Scouts and a sleep-over for each of the kids.  This is Maggie's first sleep-over so I hope all goes well.

Here is picture I am sharing...
this is our first week of co-op 

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Maggie's Mussings

i have worms i have a worm farm.  i learned lots of stuff.  I learned that worms don't have any teeth.  And I learned worms don't have any eyes, but they can still see.

Maggie

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

One Year Ago Today...

I started yet another weight loss plan.  I wasn't sure it would work, or that I would be able to stick to it.

A year later I have lost 75 lbs and I am still headed toward my final goal.
What a difference a year makes.... which is basically the exact thing my SIL told me a year ago when I was struggling.

Tyler Tuesday

Hi my name is Tyler. I like harry potter. I like star wars. I like my friend Noah. I went to the worm farm yesterday.

Tyler

Monday, March 14, 2011

The Simple Woman's Daybook


FOR TODAY Monday March 14, 2011

Outside my window... the sun finally rose.  It feels like we were up too early after Daylight Savings started yesterday.

I am thinking... about people who can't figure out yahoo groups and how much that annoys me

I am thankful for... the safety of my family

From the learning rooms... science all day thanks to our worm farm field trip

From the kitchen... grilled chicken quarters and a salad on deck for tonight

I am wearing... my pajamas

I am creating... a History Pocket folder for our study on Ancient Greece

I am going... to Our Vital Earth for a field trip

I am reading... I just finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.  Now I am reading The Hot Flash Club Chills Out

I am hoping... that everyone shows up for this field trip I planned.

I am hearing... silence intermittent with Jeff typing on his laptop.  Ahh the kids slept in this morning.

Around the house... a big mess on and around the kitchen table where the kids have been painting

One of my favorite things... my anal need to crunch numbers which just saved my from owing an extra $100

A few plans for the rest of the week..no Girl Scouts this week, but we still have Cub Scouts, park day, and Co-Op.  This weekend Jeff and I will be attending a marriage conference for 3 days.

Here is picture I am sharing...
this is the downside of using the Chrome laptop which doesn't have any saved files to choose from.  No picture from me this week... maybe I will edit later and add some field trip pictures.

Garden Update for March 13, 2011


I am trying to update the world on our garden progress every few weeks or so. I am keeping the majority of the photos in Flickr and will share my favorite picture on the blog.



Enjoy.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Weekly Wrap-Up: 3/12/2011

Busy, busy week

Sunday:  I met my friend N for lunch and shopping.  This was a fun and much needed day out.


Monday:  The kids and I ran some errands in the morning while J had a dentist appointment.  Then we headed to the Brevard Zoo where I, once again, forgot to bring my camera.  We had a very nice time.  We were happy that Daddy finally got a chance to go before our membership expired.  J and I had wanted to go kayaking, but my back was bothering me so J took T and they had a great time.  M and I hit the snack bar while we waited.  They got to see all of the giraffes and some wild otters while kayaking.  It was a great family day.

Tuesday:  Today we had our new Homeschool Co-Op at my house.  We had 3 girls attend, plus my two kids.  We started with a cooking lesson and made individual pizzas from refrigerated biscuit dough.  I'm not sure how good they were, but all the kids ate them.  T did not want to participate but I did make him do the cooking lesson.  I had scheduled this lesson for the first hour and it took way less time than I anticipated.  So I let the girls play for a little while before we began the second half.

Our next activity was Language Arts enrichment.  I had planned to play several sight word bingo games and Bananagrams.  This was more difficult than I anticipated because the girls really just wanted to play.  M always likes games so I thought she would be happy to have someone play with her, but that was not the case.

Wednesday:  Yeah a day at home and we didn't even have to go to Girl Scouts!  It was nice to have a relaxed but productive school day.  We are finally back to talking about the Greeks in our Ancient History so Tyler is thrilled.  I have been doing alot of personal reading which has been relaxing.  

Thursday:  Another productive day of school.  I found Tyler's missing Reading Comprehension book yesterday.  It had fallen behind our bookshelf and has been missing for over a month.  Tyler actually likes that particular workbook so he was happy to have a new story to read.  We are also finishing up 2 Harry Potter books and he got another movie from Netflix to watch today so we had plenty to keep us busy.  

Friday:  Today was a lovely sunny, yet cool Florida day.  We were able to complete almost all of our school work before we left for the park today.  It was an odd day at the park.  We had 2 new Moms come, the rest of us were in a low key "blah" type of mood and Tyler didn't have any boys to play with.  When no boys come then the girls like to tease and chase him and he gets annoyed and usually ends up in trouble for lashing out at one of them.  Hopefully next week he will have someone to play with.

Saturday:  As usual I almost forgot about dance so we were rushing around washing M's hair at the last minute.  It never fails.... After dance M had to go work at a Girl Scout cookie booth so I took both kids to lunch in between.  We got to the cookie booth only to discover we went to the wrong grocery store and so had to drive back another 10 miles in the opposite direction trying to figure out where to go.  T and I just ran a few errands while M sold cookies and now we are back home.  I will be catching up on some teacher stuff while the kids are enjoying free time.  I did make them clean their rooms first, though. 

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Maggie's Mussings

i went to the zoo and i saw monkeys, giraffes, and otters.

i like gardening with my daddy daddy and i planted plants and we even made my own garden we check on the garden every day and water it.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Tyler Tuesday

Hi.  I'm Tyler ty for short. I like reading harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Weekly Wrap-Up: 3/5/11

Monday:  J and I had eye doctor appointments so I had scheduled today as a catch-up day for schooling.  That ended up being a good decision because, as usual, I forgot about the numbing eye drops.  I am not sure why I blank out on this each year, but I seriously couldn't see for the majority of the day and I was worthless trying to read to the kids.  We had picked up the first Harry Potter movie and T was in agony all day waiting for our eyes to clear up so we could watch it.  This was his reward for reading the first book.  He likes to read, but he has a habit of skipping around and reading bits and parts of books.  I decided to read HP with him so that we could discuss it chapter by chapter.  That really worked and also made me a HP convert.  I can't wait to finish all the books.


Tuesday:  Today was supposed to be the first day of the Homeschool Co-Op I am starting, but all but one person cancelled.  The Mom who was coming needed a ride so I just called the whole thing off for the week.  I was very perturbed by the whole thing; mostly because of all the mental energy and stress I caused myself planning for this.  I am not a born educator so I really had to plan and prepare.  I was very close to cancelling the whole thing because it is not worth my stress but have decided instead to just not worry about preparing anything because if having something "super awesome" was that important to the other moms then it would have been more important to commit to the co-op.


Wednesday:  Yeah the kids and I were so happy to stay home almost all day today.  We needed it after yesterday.  We were able to catch-up on a lot of our work and have relaxation time.  My new chore system arrived this week and I realize I need to get paint so the kids can decorate their boards before we start using.  This means a trip to Michaels, so now I have to fit that into my desire to not shop.  Later we went to girl scouts where I accused Tyler of loosing a book when I actually carried it to the car.  Yeah, I had a bad mom moment.


Thursday:  We ran a few errands this morning.  I think someone finally wants to buy my KONOS curriculum from last year so I had to go get a postage estimate.  After that we were able to quickly finish up our school work for the day.  It suddenly feels like we are doing way less per day, but I can't figure out why.  I need to review what our weeks looked like last month to compare.  I do know Tyler switched from Horizons math back to Math-U-See and we have been doing some review in between.  Maybe he is just complaining less and that is giving us more time???  LOL  We also somehow lost his Reading Comprehension book, but I replaced it with another book I found in my stash.


Friday:  Park Day... Yeah!!!  We were all so ready to spend some time with friends today.  We managed to fit most of our assignments into the morning and then we spent 3 hours at the park.  Tyler is happy now that we have some older boys attending.  For awhile it was just him and 5 little girls.


Saturday:  Today we have dance class at 11 am then we are going to help with a car wash fundraiser for the boy scouts.  It is unfortunate that all the boy scouts events take place on Saturday when Jeff is working.  I would really rather not participate, but I was finally guilted into doing something.  Ok I am hoping not to have to do anything, but I am taking Tyler.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Weight Loss Wednesday: 3/2/11

About a month ago I was starting to get annoyed at my slow weight loss.  I even started exercising and I still wasn't loosing any weight.  I stalled out after reaching a 75 lb loss.  I will admit I have had trouble getting 100% back on track since Christmas.  I have allowed myself a slice of bread or two and I wasn't very focused.



So last month I just decided to work the Take Shape for Life transition plan for awhile.  I am still eating every 2 hours and I am still eating a shake or bar for 3 of my meals.  The main difference is I am occasionally eating muesli for breakfast or I will eat lunch.  I am eating extra protein during the day and not being so strict with fruit and grains.

Let me just add that my love affair with muesli began on our NCL cruise last November.  I decided to try a helping of this giant bowl of something... and it was DELICIOUS.  Jeff and I have been trying to perfect the recipe.  His version is very good, but I would still love to get Norwegian's recipe.

I eventually plan on going back to the 5 & 1 plan to loose the rest of the weight, but I think this will help me.  I am obsessively watching the scale to make sure it doesn't rise.  Last week I actually lost 2.5 lbs which is my biggest loss in several weeks, maybe even since before Christmas.

My biggest struggle is still with the exercise.  I motivate myself for a week and then fall completely off the wagon.  I wish there was a magic motivation pill I could take to get myself moving, but I haven't found it yet.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Tyler Tuesday


Hi.  My name is Tyler.  I like to play the Wii and computer and watch TV.  And I love my kitty.  And I am super cool.  And I love Harry Potter.