My Daily Ramblings...

Maybe this should say "My Weekly Ramblings?" LOL Oh well, I'm doing what I can. I've tried to update since Monday but Blogger just doesn't like me and Photobucket has decided to not like me either. It may be time to move on soon. Xanga is looking better and better each week.

Let's see...since I last posted, we went to the park. (Just imagine happy photos of kids running around having fun.lol)

Got to visit with my sister. She flew down to visit while my brother was in the hospital. He has pneumonia but will recover.

Did the whole P.E. thing twice this week. I had Jon take pictures for Allison's portfolio today. They came out great. Just imagine little girls and boys mauling Allison, while the teacher tries to keep her from falling over...lol

On Tuesday we began working on some really neat File Folder games for Isaac. You can see them at http://www.mormonchic.com/crafty/filefolders.asp They were easy to put together and Isaac really likes them! I wish you could see ours. We didn't have any color ink so we printed out the black and white ones and colored them ourselves. They turned out nice. Just imagine them.lol

On Wednesday, the older kids and I went to WinnDixie and bought $78.08 worth of groceries for $45.67 and received two coupons for $14.00 off my next purchase.

We also covered Sophia in bubbles on the living room floor. That's a pretty cute photo too.

I'm going to at least put some recipes up next on the blog. I made apple cinnamon muffins and pineapple-orange-banana muffins this week, in addition to my usual chocolate chip muffins.

Oh, I've found that you can use Chocolate Silk brand soymilk for the liquid in pancakes and muffins for an awesome chocolate-chocolate chip muffin/pancake recipe! Very tasty!lol You all must know by now that I NEED chocolate in the morning or I just don't function.lol

I almost forgot that we carved pumpkins on Sunday after church. We used sharpies to decorate the little pumpkins and hopefully will be able to cook them after halloween. The big kids carved theirs and we roasted the seeds. I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com and they turned out good. The kids said they tasted like popcorn. Just melt 3 tbsps of butter on a cookie sheet in the oven on 350. Add washed seeds and salt to taste and roast them for 45 minutes stirring every 15.

Well, now you all are caught up. I'm grumpy about the whole photo thing but at least you all don't think I dropped off the planet.lol

Blessings,

Lisa

Annual School Photos...

Well, I guess I shouldn't say "annual" since I missed last year and before that we had them taken with our park group down in Miami but I plan for it to be annual, so that's what I'll call it.LOL

Here are the photos we took on Wednesday after the Christmas ones. I'll also post the touched up photo that it now on our cards for this year...

Genevieve 5 years old Isaac 2.5 years old

Jonathan 13 years old
Allison 15 years old

Sophia 7.5 months old

Blessings,

Lisa

Christmas Photos 2007

It has been a LOOOONNNNG day! We started the day by dressing everyone in their best outfits and then trying to get a decent photo. Really, at this stage in the game I just go for decent.LOL After 58 photos, the very last one was the keeper! I've already ordered the Christmas cards and will get them tonight at Walgreens. Pretty cool!

Sophia getting ready. In retrospect, I should have gotten the older kids ready first. :snort:


Yoohoo, I'm over here!


Evie! Over here!


This pretty much sums up the whole experience...


Almost...


Not quite... Jon quit throwing things!


Evie quit making puking faces!


Isaac quit rolling on the floor!


I'm still over here, Isaac!


We're getting tired, but giddy with the idea that someday this will end...


Baby Hulla...


Ahhh! Perfection! All smiling, looking straight ahead and no pukey faces!


We kept this one and Allison fixed the background so that it isn't all wrinkled. Next time I'll iron the background.LOL We also cropped it so that it's even on both sides.

Blessings,

Lisa

My Day in Photos...

We had a great day yesterday! We spent the morning outside. Then did the whole back and forth to the Y thing. Finally we came back and spent the rest of the day outside. Lots of fun and photos so here's My Day in Photos...

Sophia gets around! I just found her in Isaac's room!


So cute!


She's perfected her stinker face...


I don't know how I did it, but I got a sweet photo of Evie!


Trampoline fun with a boppy...


Flying high!


Sand art anyone?


Sophia's first trampoline time...


Quick photo op. Love the look on both girls...


She's excited!


A contrast of my girls...


Cheese!


Today is Christmas Photo Day! I was able to get outfits for everyone and now we're going to squeeze Sophia into that dress one more time so I can get our cards made while they are on sale. Should be interesting and may cause my gray hair to become a prominent feature.LOL

Blessings,

The How Low Can You Go Challenge

I know that the challenge is over but I wanted to share a blog with you all that was shared with me this past week. I have been learning a lot and was able to save $44.00 at Walgreens today. Pretty neat!

http://www.moneysavingmom.com/

Blessings,

Lisa

The Epic of Isaac...

Lest anyone think that I have everything under control....

Cheese anyone?

Yes, that's my whole block of cheddar cheese. Yes, he ate close to half of it. I sat it on the counter while I was making dinner. Sophia woke and I ran to get her. When I got back, I didn't even notice it was missing! Allison found him and his crumbs all over the living room, on the couch, on my chair and all over the floor. What a mess! It's all cleaned up now and I even saved some of it for dinner.LOL I'm guessing Isaac won't be hungry.

Blessings,

Lisa

My Daily Ramblings...

Can you all see me juggling? Well, at least all those balls that I've dropped?LOL It's hard keeping up with everything all at once. Maybe someday I'll grow those extra arms I've been praying for, until then, I'm just going to blog when I can. Bummer.LOL

Isaac shares sooo well.LOL Notice the tears...


The kids are doing great with their school work! We're really on a roll now. It's great to see us slip into the groove.



This is Sophia's blankie. Yes, it's my housecoat and no, she won't take anything else... I can just see us the first time she wants us to take it to the store....snort!



I played yesterday.LOL The littles and I just played and had a great time. It was amazing to have so much energy even after doing the whole back and forth to the Y all morning!

Evie hamming it up... I promise I bathed her after these photos...


I've changed my diet again and it's definitely giving me more energy. I don't think I realized how bad I felt, until I began feeling better. Looks like I've got a real milk allergy now and I've completely removed it from my diet. Not too hard when you're used to reading labels all the time. I've found so far that I can make biscuits and muffins with plain rice milk and no one noticed.LOL I tested this theory by making some with regular milk on Monday and then some with rice milk on Wednesday and everyone raved about them both times.LOL I like using the rice milk instead of water because it is at least fortified. I'll be trying pancakes next week.lol

Yes, I know she doesn't match... did I mention they all received baths after this?



Today is a glorious day! Beautiful, cool, breezy, and clear blue skies! Praise God for such a gift after this very hot summer! The kids are off to lunch with Grandma right now, but I'm thinking park once they get back and Sophia's up from her nap. I've got the windows open and it's so nice to be sitting by this window feeling the cool breeze blow through.

Here's a happy boy photo...got all his cars back.lol



Sophia's got a fever today. I think it's from teething though. She's finally cut her gums and all my babies get fevers once the gums cut. She's been miserable but today she seems to be feeling better.

Cutie!



I guess that's it for now. The kids are pretty busy nowadays. They had skating last night and Jon has confirmation class tonight. I'm praying for just the right thing for Jon to join in the new year. He really needs an outlet but it's hard to find things that would interest him. Allison's busy, busy, busy, but Jon, not so much.



Blessings,

Wow

I just realized that I've hit


10,000!

Pretty neat! I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd have 10,000 hits on my blog.LOL

Thanks, to all of you, who come to my blog to visit.

Blessings,

Lisa

My Daily Ramblings...

So, I haven't been talking much about our school year, now have I? I mean, this is Lisa's HOMESCHOOL circus, right? Where'd the homeschool go?LOL

Well, we're finally hitting our stride. Allison is on her way to finishing her school year with a bang, or at least 10 credits. (Whichever comes first.LOL) She already has 8.5 credits from last year and she's about 1/2 way through this year now and will have 10 more credits by the end of the year. At this rate, her senior year will only be electives. We changed some things and added other classes as things came up. So far, she's taking Literature, PreAlgebra (she's almost done and will go straight into Algebra 1), CQLA (she's going to take this over 3 years to get one credit, she'll write 12 papers a year), Biology (she's almost done with this also, she'll wait until next year to take Chemistry with Jon), Ancient Civilizations and the Bible, World Geography, Health, Drawing (using Artistic Pursuits), Spanish, P.E., and she's also getting her volunteer hours at the YMCA 4 hours a week. She studies from 6:30am to 11:30am each morning and then has a homework time from 7:30pm to 9:30pm, except on Wed and Thur.

Jon's school is going well also. He is earning some highschool credit this year too. He is almost through with Algebra 1, Biology, and is working through Ancient Civilizations and the Bible with Allison. He'll move straight into Geometry once he's through with Algebra 1 but he'll have to wait until next August to start Chemistry. This will give Allison some time to catch up in her math so they can do just one science together. This will give him time to concentrate on his writing in this next semester. Writing is his weakness, although he's getting better each year. I just love seeing him make progress in this area! I remember when he couldn't even hold a pencil. What a blessing to watch him grow.

Evie is learning to read... ever so slowly.LOL She has read her first words in the past 2 weeks! She's can read MAT, BAT, and PAT. She's also learned this week how to read MAD and MAP. I never thought I'd be able to teach her.LOL She's not the easy going student that I'm used to. I have to wait for just the right day/time/lunar phase? just for her to do well but she's making progress and I'm encouraged.lol

Isaac is still in the potty training phase. Diaper on=wet. Naked as a Jaybird=potty trained. I'm tired of having to dress him every single time we go somewhere and having to remember to strip him every time we get back. If we have to go back and forth, well, that means a big wet diaper when we are finally done for the day. This is very discouraging but I'm guessing we're just waiting on his maturity level to increase and that just can't be rushed.

Sophia is in the learning to get around phase. She's dangerous.lol She is slow but extremely quiet and can be easily forgotten until you're going, "Where's Sophia?" and you find her eating paper or off in a corner trying to eat the video game cords.lol She's such a sweetie though.

I'm doing o.k., a little discouraged by the lack of IRL friends, but I'm hanging in there. I'm starting to get a little more sleep at night, (although sleep is for wimps,lol) and I'm still able to get things done each day. Some days, just getting breakfast served to everyone seems to take all morning and some days I'm able to clean the whole house, bake bread, do lessons with Evie, play with Isaac and the baby, and fix breakfast, lunch, and dinner all before 6pm.lol I guess if I can't be consistant, I'll at least be consistantly active. Well, it's time to go...

Blessings,

Lisa

My Daily Ramblings...

We had some GREAT weather today! It's been raining and raining for the past week and the kids were getting restless. Finally, the clouds parted and the sun shone down upon us. What a blessing! After Sophia's morning nap, I collected the children and we escaped to the park. It was a really nice day and the kids had a nice time. Poor Isaac didn't want to leave even after 2 hours! Everyone else was feeling the heat by then and he was out-voted.LOL I love this park because it has lots of shade for me and the baby. She really enjoyed watching all the excitement and I can tell that it won't be long before she's off and running too. Here are some photos of the excursion...

Here we are when we first got to the park...


Even Sophia was excited to be here...


Shhh! Allison's playing hide and go seek...


Jon's flying high...


With Evie and Isaac at the controls...


I have no idea how he ended up on the wing...


Evie and Isaac thinking about sliding...


Stinky baby? Why yes, she is!


This is a photo of the giant play structure. It was all built with volunteer's and donated money...


Well, that's it. We're hot, tired, and one of us is napping.LOL On our way home from the park, we passed by Grandma G's house and found her about to mow. Jon offered to mow for her and whipped that out while we visited. Afterwards, he offered to stick around and help with any odd jobs. He's such a great guy! I'm sure that he's working hard and I'm blessed that he's my son.

Blessings,

Lisa