Life with my sister

This boot wearing cutie got his very own library card today. He was so excited. I told him this morning that we would go this afternoon when I picked him up if she was a big boy today at school. He proved to be a big boy according to his teacher, so we jetted one block over from his school to our local library. He watches Bubble Guppies alot and one of his favorite episodes is the one about the library. He kept asking me, "Where's the author?" the whole time we were at the library today. He never comprehended, but it is not for my lack of trying! ha. Henry showing off his card. He was so proud of it. He loved playing in the children's area of our library. He rode on the toy firetruck, played several little games and wanted every book in the place. We checked out 8 books and 2 DVDs. We have read all 8 tonight and watched both DVDs. I think we will be going back again pretty soon! I love making simple little memories with my sweet boy and having the time durin...

Last week we went on a field trip to a chicken farm. We have Tyson chicken farms all over southeast Arkansas but we had never been to one. One of our new homeschooling family's owns the farm and it was so fun to visit.  They have four chicken houses and about 95,000 chickens! I never knew there were so many chicken in those buildings.  They also had a few goats. You know, we really aren't country farm kind of people so if there is any opportunity to be with goats and chickens my children want to be a part of it! I only have a picture of Anna, because David and Daniel and the rest of the boys were chasing the other goats. Poor goats. This picture has nothing to do with field trips, farms, chickens or goats. I went to Bible Study fellowship Tuesday night and sat behind this woman. I don't know her but I LOVE her hair. The cut and the color. I took this picture and sent it to Suzi, my friend who does an awesome job with my difficult hair, she loved it too. I'm hoping to lo...

    We finally made it to the beach the week before Labor Day. With a wacky planting season and starting my real estate business, this year has been one for the books. We all needed the getaway.   This little cool cat was ready to get to the water. We always stay at the Caribe in Orange Beach and we unload onto these utility carts. Henry always gets loaded onto one of them like the precious cargo that he is! We have our little routine on how we do it and this time we packed in plastic tubs because of the simplicity of it and traveling in the truck we always fear rain. We arrived before sunset and ran out to the beach to watch it set. It is what we usually do upon arrival each time. We are pretty routine driven in our house. We don't "shake it up" too much. If it works, we keep repeating. Henry had been asking to take his shovel to the beach all summer so he could dig for treasure. Finally he got to dig. He was so excited. He had his daddy ...

For many years I relied on Abby to let me know what I should wear. Her style has always been better than mine. And when I say many years, I'm pretty sure when I was 16 I was asking her for advice. And she's 8 years younger than me, you can do the math on her age! For years we have exchanged clothes. Really, she gave me her clothes that she no longer wanted, and I offered her clothes and she would usually very nicely say, "no thanks. "  I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but I've become slightly obsessed with a few fashion blogs. Now, you know why. I need help! The scary thing for me at times is I hope I've chosen the right blogs to follow.  My favorite right now is www.pinteresttoldmeto.blogspot.com. She's a petite, skinny little thing, (that's why I'm a bit scared.) She shops at a store we don't even have here in Arkansas, but I try my best to replicate the items I like best. For this fall I got an army green jacket/big shirt, I ho...

I am not sure if you are familiar with the term "cray cray" but it is slang for "crazy" and that seems to be me lately. Flat out cray cray! I can't complain or frown about it, because I am loving it. Yet, this week I have been craving some calm. Going home at odd times during the day helps with that. Yesterday I got Henry before nap was over at school and we went home and played in the floor until the phone started blowing up at 5:00 again. I am learning my windows...2-5 are good "me" times during the day. I think people are in their after lunch comas at work and not thinking about real estate. I hate to see how unoften I find time to post on here. My professional schedule is totally different than any other I have ever had while having this blog. At night the last thing I want to do is get on the computer after searching properties online all day for clients ,and in the morning I am frantic trying to get people properties to see, etc. "Unpl...

I know some of you wonder how we do school so I thought I'd give you a little look inside our school day.  6:20 Samuel's alarm goes off and he wakes up. 7:20 I wake up 7:45 I take Samuel to school for his geometry class. 8:00 I get home, start a load of laundry, kids make breakfast. 8:45 I go back to school to pick up Samuel 9:00 back home, D,D,&A are ready for school, Samuel fixes breakfast          I out clothes in dryer, another load in washer          David and Daniel do english. Anna does spelling words and then reading  9:45 Samuel joins us and does his geometry homework           David and Daniel do spelling words, and literature           Anna does math 10:30 Samuel does literature            David and Daniel do English, then health, history and science            Anna does English, history, science 12:00 lu...

One year ago we moved into our little house. It needed decoration but I just couldn't do it. Somehow the home decorating genes passed me right by and dumped themselves all over Abby. I have moments of genius, but my genius has been silent this last year. But suddenly it reappeared! A friend of mine did the black and white drawings of our kids quite a few years ago. I gave her photos of them when each of them were two. She drew them and I love them! I've had them for years and have never hung them in our house. Crazy. I found the Family hanging at Goodwill a while back and thought it would go perfectly with these pictures. And I was right! It looks really nice. When you walk in the front door you see my darling children. I love it. It feels like home.  What do you have hanging on your walls?

Today is Stephen's birthday. 42! He's finally a year younger than me. For one month it appears that he is two yrs younger than me, I don't like that one month at all!  Aren't we cute?! The man drives me nuts sometimes, but I do love him so much. We've known each other for 30 years. That's unreal, isn't it. I remember him asking me to be his girlfriend while he sat on his bike in front of my house. I said no then, but I'm so glad I said yes all those years later. Stephen loves candy so very much. A couple of years ago we made him a candy poster for Father's Day. So this year the kids and I picked out candy and wrote a birthday card using the names of the candy. We wrapped each box and handed him one when we referred to it in the card. He loved it and so did we! You should try it , if someone you love loves candy! Happy Birthday Stephen! I love you!

 This is what we've been doing lately. Nothing.  Since school has started our calendar has stopped. We have stayed at home, inside, more than at anytime this year. I don't know why.  It seems like everyone is running around but us. And I'm bored! When the kids say they're bored they usually have to do a chore, but all the chores have been done! At the beginning of the summer I made a list of activities to keep us busy, I guess I'm going to have to make one for the fall.  Do you have any suggestions? My mind is empty, my piece of paper is blank, I need help!

This is what we had for supper tonight. I found the recipe on Pinterest, as I do so many things I cook. But this time it wasn't graciously received by everyone. I had one refuse to eat it. Refuse! It was a first for him.  The recipe was Thai noodles, made with peanut butter, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, and other things. It wasn't bad but I deleted it from my Pinterest boards. I don't have a Pinterest fail board but if I did, this one would have been on it. I don't think I could eat it again! Do you have any Pinterest fails?

Today was our first day of school. Samuel is a 10th grader, he is taking geometry at public school and playing baseball. He gets home from geometry just in time to start school with us and finish his day before he heads back to school for baseball. David is a 7th grader. He enjoys reading and is an over-achiever. This should be a fun year. Daniel is a 7th grader. He loves books, and is a bit excited about school starting, even though he didn't realize it was starting today! Anna is a 4th grader. She was quite taken by her history and geography book today. I'm super excited, this is my favorite book to teach! I love these kids and love that they learn at home, and do it well. Only two more first days left with Samuel. I can't believe it! Julie