Halloween 2009

With the addition of our new little ones, nicknamed "Jabber Jaw" and "Big Boy" for Internet purposes, many of our daily interactions take on the perspective of young ones again...especially holidays like Halloween. This has been really good for my teens, helping them to learn more about caring for little children, sharing their lives with them and sacrificing a few things in service of others.

Here are some pics from our ward's Halloween Party...we have some good lookin' kids around here!

Secret Agent Man and the Good Witch


Jabber Jaw as a Fairy Princess

Big Boy as Tigger

October '09 - Week 5

:: Daily Lessons ::

• Devotional: "Let Him Ask of God" daily inspirational readings.
• Read A-Loud Book: "By the Shores of Silver Lake" book 4 of Little House on the Prairie series.
• Core Phase "Littles": Right and Wrong, Good and Bad, and True and False. - We are working on learning our colors, counting to 5, shapes, and learning the "ABC song" and "Wheels on the Bus".
  
• Math: Chris - Math-U-See: Delta - Marly - Math-U-See: Zeta - Celeste - Math-U-See: Algebra (review for mom...again!)
• Daily Journal Writing
• Daily Guitar Practice
  

:: Weekly Lessons ::

• Monday: Grammar Lesson - "Winston Grammar" - Chris: Interrogative sentences - Marly: Prepositions.
• Tuesday: Guitar Lessons and Government Lesson - "The 5,000 Year Leap" - Principle 4 (part 2) - The role of Religion.
  
• Wednesday: Mutual/Scouts and History Lesson - "Story of the World", Vol. 2 - Chris: "Monks in Caves" - Marly: "Elizabethan Times"
  
• Thursday: Homeschool Friend Outing - it's getting too chilly for Park Day anymore so we meet at a home to enjoy each other's company for a few hours.
  
• Friday: Science Lesson - "Concepts and Challenges in Physical Science" Chapter 2.7 "Pressure" - "Usborne Science Encyclopedia" Pages 123-133 - Chemistry for Every Kid - Experiment 10
  

:: Individual Readings ::

• Chris (Love of Learner) - "Robin Hood"
  
• Marly (Project Scholar) - "Erec Rex: The Dragon's Eye", "The Wolves of Aam"
  
• Celeste (Mentored Scholar) - "Jo's Boys", "Catching Fire"
  

:: Projects ::

• Chris - Making a wooden bow and arrows set from oak.
  
• Marly - Working on her Young Women's goals - Crocheting - Practicing better note taking skills - Writing a book
  
• Celeste - Learning Fedora (Linux), Lesson Plans for the rest of this semester, Reorganizing the kids rooms, super cleaning the house after everyone being sick for SOOOO long.
  

My Baby Turns 13!

I'm sure Chris will not like being referred to as "my baby", but he is my youngest and is now a teen! All my kids are teens, and Sam is now officially an adult. For his birthday, he begged for an Airsoft Sniper Rifle...

Well, he got one!

While Chris was out trying out his new sniper rifle, our neighbor came out and stood staring at him for some time. I'm sure she was trying to figure out if the gun was real or not. It does look real...except that little orange plastic piece at the end. I wondered if the Sheriff would be coming by and talking to us. It is all legal, even if he had a real rifle we would still be legal since we live in the County.

For each person's birthday we have a tradition of allowing that person to choose their favorite meal for dinner. Chris told me early that week that he wanted Spaghetti and Meatballs. However, Mike brought home a ton of Schwan's food a couple days before and Chris changed to a smörgåsbord of Schwan's foods for dinner. So we had Chicken Nuggets, Pot Stickers, Sausage, Eggs (of course since we have dozens!), Rocky Road Ice Cream, and Lemon Cake.

Out with Windows Vista - Hello Fedora!

I'm messing around with my computer again. Yes - I fully admit to being a complete computer nerd. It calms me and makes me feel productive in one of my passions.So, if you are not a techie-wanna-be like me, then you might want to skip this post.

I purchased a laptop with Windows Vista installed about a year ago. I have struggled, like many others, with Windows Vista crashing and having problems. One of the major problems is the networking problems and difficulty printing.My network will go down, making it impossible to keep connected to the Internet and stops my ability to print anything.My printer is not compatible with Vista...big shocker! I think Microsoft and HP are in cahoots making sure everyone has to spend money every year or two to buy new software and hardware for their stupid programs.

Several months ago I messed around with making my laptop a dual boot system - which allows me to either boot into Windows Vista or Fedora 10 (Linux). I like many features of Fedora 10 and was able to get my wireless card to work with Fedora (Woot! Woot!). The only thing holding me back is that sometimes the printer works and sometimes it doesn't. Also, my dear hubby, Mike, is not exactly computer savvy or I would ditch using Windows altogether. I have my settings so that I can access ALL my Windows documents, music, and pictures while using Fedora, so I can still do all of the work I need to do except PRINT! Of course, I can't print from Windows Vista either! What to do!

I have to say that the fact Fedora is FREE and everything that goes with it is FREE is a huge plus in my book, so I'm still searching out a solution to my printing issues. The fact that it happens with BOTH Windows Vista and Fedora makes me think it just might be the stupid printer!

I took a class last year where the professor sparked my interest in using a Linux OS. i researched it and have found that while it is NOT for the average user (difficult to install without help), the computer nerd, like msyelf, can benefit from trying it out.And wow is it cool!

More coming soon...I am making a video of my super-fast Fedora set-up.(It really is sweet!)

October '09 - Week 4

:: Daily Lessons ::

• Devotional: "Let Him Ask of God" daily inspirational readings.
• Read A-Loud Book: "By the Shores of Silver Lake" book 4 of Little House on the Prairie series.
• Core Phase "Littles": Right and Wrong, Good and Bad, and True and False. - We are working on learning our colors and counting to 5.
  
• Math: Chris - Math-U-See: Delta - Marly - Math-U-See: Zeta - Celeste - Math-U-See: Algebra (review for mom...again!)
• Daily Journal Writing
• Daily Guitar Practice
  

:: Weekly Lessons ::

• Monday: Grammar Lesson - "Winston Grammar" - Chris: Contractions - Marly: Modification by Adverbs and Adjectives.
• Tuesday: Guitar Lessons and Government Lesson - "The 5,000 Year Leap" - Principle 4 (part 1) - The role of Religion, Morality, and Knowledge.
  
• Wednesday: Mutual/Scouts and History Lesson - "Story of the World", Vol. 2 - Chris: - Marly:
• Thursday: Homeschool Friend Outing - it's getting too chilly for Park Day anymore so we meet at a home to enjoy each other's company for a few hours.
  
• Friday: Science Lesson - "Concepts and Challenges in Physical Science" Chapter 2.7 - "Usborne Science Encyclopedia" Pages - Chemistry for Every Kid - Experiment 11
  

:: Individual Readings ::

• Chris (Love of Learner) - "Robin Hood"
  
• Marly (Project Scholar) - "
• Celeste (Mentored Scholar) - "Jo's Boys"

:: Projects ::

• Chris - Airsoft rifle shooting
  
• Marly - Working on her Young Women's goals - Crocheting
  
• Celeste - Finding balance in our lives - Scheduling tons of meetings, therapy, visits, and fitting in lessons, Mutual, and other church responsibilities.
  

October '09 - Week 3

Switching it UP! - I have a new plan of together lessons during our "littles" nap time. The "bigs" get to have all my attention during nap time.

:: Daily Lessons ::

• Devotional: "Let Him Ask of God" daily inspirational readings.
• Read A-Loud Book: "On the Shores of Silver Lake" book 4 of Little House on the Prairie series.
• Core Phase "Littles": Sharing, learning the rules, waiting patiently for food, Right and Wrong, Good and Bad, and True and False. We also weened the "littles" from their bottles. I don't know why people think bottles are good for a 3 year old child. Not to mention rotting their teeth.
• Math: Chris - Math-U-See: Delta - Marly - Math-U-See: Zeta - Celeste - Math-U-See: Algebra (review for mom...again!)
• Daily Journal Writing
• Daily Guitar Practice
  

:: Weekly Lessons ::

• Monday: Grammar Lesson - "Winston Grammar" - Chris: Reviewed Helping Verbs - Marly: Modification by Adverbs and Adjectives.
• Tuesday: Guitar Lessons and Government Lesson - "The 5,000 Year Leap" - Principle 3 (part 2) - Virtuous and Moral Leaders.
  
• Wednesday: Mutual/Scouts and History Lesson - "Story of the World", Vol. 2 - Chris: - Marly:
• Thursday: PE at the Park
• Friday: Science Lesson - "Concepts and Challenges in Physical Science" Chapter 2.6 - "Usborne Science Encyclopedia" Pages
  

:: Individual Readings ::

• Chris (Love of Learner) - "Book of Mormon Stories", "Midnight in Sanctaphrax"
• Marly (Project Scholar) - "Bloodhound", "The Picture of Dorian Grey"
• Celeste (Mentored Scholar) - "Jo's Boys"

:: Projects ::

• Chris - Finished several merit badges over the past few months - First Aide, Emergency Preparedness, Citizenship in the Community, - Also worked more on splitting fire wood.
  
• Marly - Working on her Young Women's goals -
  
• Celeste - Still has an injured finger and did not get all of the apples canned or any of her Halloween sewing done yet. Bummer!
  

Monster Mash

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