Ten on Tuesday

Haven't done one of these in a while.  Usually when I think of doing a "Ten on Tuesday" post it is Friday or some other day!

1.  I have been up to my neck in lesson planning.  Planning is something I really enjoy and thankfully God has gifted me with organizational skills.

2. I signed up to teach a Before Five a Row class to preschoolers next year at our co-op as well as being the "Preschool Coordinator."  Cody will be in preschool so I get to be his teacher too! It will be an adventure. I love Before Five in a Row curriculum.  I used it when Corbin was in preschool and kindergarten and it was so much fun!

3. I have gotten my curriculum picked out for Corbin for this year. Praise God for his guidance.  We are using Plants Grow Up for Bible (actually Bible is saturated throughout all of our curriculum but Steve is going to do this book with the boys), CQLA for language arts, Teaching Textbooks for math, Mystery of History for history, and Apologia Science (we are doing Astronomy using a junior notebook) for science.  Corbin will be taking Geography, Art and be in the choir at our Co-op and he will be taking Piano Lessons as well. I almost added Latin but decided to save that for next year. SO excited for the next school year.  This is the first year I am not doing a "Unit study" style curriculum with Corbin. In fact, every curriculum we are using is new.  There will be a learning curve!

4. I have been using a lot of almond flour lately to bake with. I also started roasting my own almonds an making my own almond butter.  My inspiration came from Elanas Pantry (and trying to stay away from "potato starch" which is in my gluten free flour blend.)  I made some really good Cherry Almond Muffins and want to try making Almond Banana bread next.

5. We have been enjoying our summer so far.  Lots of water activities have been going on - our pool, sprinklers, squirt guns, and the local water park!  The boys love the water.  Grilling has become one of our favorite ways to have dinner and cool treats like homemade ice cream is becoming a common dessert.

6. My cousin graduated from homeschool high school (actually in May) and we celebrated this last weekend.  It was such a blessed family time.  Good meal, awesome Godly encouragement (for him), and just amazing to see what a Godly young man he has turned into. What a treat to see his Dad hand him his diploma and hear all the words of wisdom!

7. We had an RV pad poured on the side of our house a couple weeks ago.  It has been something we planned to do since we moved in but it became fall and fall became winter so we had to wait until summer.  I love how it turned out. It is the perfect place for our toy hauler.  The boys also love riding their bikes on all the new concrete too!

8. We are going on our first family camp with our church in August.  I literally cannot wait!  This will be our one and only vacation this year since Steve does not get any vacation time until next year.  He just happened to have the days off for this trip.  Praise the Lord!  It will be the first time Cody has been camping.  The boys are going to have a blast.  We are blessed to be able to be surrounded by Godly families, having worship time and fun camping time in the mountains!

9. Steve and I went and saw Brave the other night for a date night.  Yea, sometimes we see "kids" movies because really (in our humble opinions) kids movies really aren't for kids these days.  The animation was great in the movie but I couldn't believe the storyline.  A rebellious little girl decided to get a witch to cast a spell on her mom because she didn't want to do what her mom wanted her to do.  She regrets her decision and then the witch gives her advice on how to change the spell.  Really??? KIDS movie? It was sad and there were VERY scary parts in it too.  Our Pastor had just spoken on demonic things the previous Sunday and how they are packaged in "pretty" little packages.  We must be aware and "flee" as believers.  This is not a children's movie.  I would not let my kids see it.  We usually check Plugged In Online before we rent or see a movie but we spaced out and didn't this time.  Never again!

10. I got some scrapbooking time last weekend!  Finally!  It has been so long. I started Cody's baby album.  I am thrilled to be getting his birth and first year of life documented.  Thankfully doing albums from events in the past is easy because I keep all my pictures organized in Creative Memories Memory Manager software.  I currently have almost 9000 photos organized in there. I can search by date, person, event, rating, etc.. I can also edit my pictures in it.  It has been such a lifesaver because during certain seasons of life I don't have time to scrapbook but I do have time to keep my photos organized so when I do scrap it is easy!

~Blessings~

I'm Here!

I have been absent lately from blogging as much as I would like to.  I think about it everyday though.  Does that count?

May is always a VERY busy month around here.  We have two family birthdays and Mother's Day.  On top of that we have had some sickness and a myriad of life issues to be settled.  All is good though.

So aside from the above here are some of the things I have been up to:

+Going through a big box of heritage photos and memorabilia from my Grandma's side.  Seriously there are  some in there that are 100 years old.  I am organizing them into a power sort.  Once I am done with that I will be scanning the originals in to make digital storybooks for the family. A huge undertaking and very interesting to say the least.

+Making my first "dry rub" baby back ribs.  They turned out yummy!  Here is the recipe from one of my favorite cooking websites: Baby Back Ribs.

+Taking my boys to play at the park.

+Taking my boys to storytimes at various places.

+Enjoying our home fellowship weekly.

+Bidding farewell to the last MOMS of all Seasons at my church.  The Tea and Raffle went well.

+Attending the CFS Homeschool Expo for two days. It was very encouraging.

+Planning my next crop at the end of the month (the 29th).

+Planning a Creative Memories unit Meeting that I am hosting this month.

+Creating recipe cards in Storybook Creator Plus 3.0 to put into my Picfolio Milestones family recipe book
Here is one of our favorites:

+ Assembling and installing my sons NEW booster seat compliments of my Mother-in-law.

+Teaching Corbin reading and some math.

+Going to Garden Club with my boys.  Corbin gets to Garden with the Grandmas and Grandpas at a senior facility.  He gets to see seeds grow into beautiful vegetables and get to know some sweet elderly people.

+Helping Corbin make a model airplane.

+Making some cards with my cousin Stephanie's AWESOME stamps!
Here is one:

We have been having fun around here.  I have been choosing Joy and enjoying my family and the interests and talents that God has given me.  One thing on my list to do is get back to reading.  I haven't read in a while.  I have a Karen Kingsbury book waiting for me!

What have you been up to?