Learning Our ABC's

We've been so busy (& and sometimes under the weather) that I've had time for Facebook only. Hey, what can I say? I know where my priorities lie. ;)

But I promised a friend I'd post some pics of this project H-F is working on so it's a good excuse for a blog entry. :) H-F already "knows" his ABC's but this is a fun book to put together & learn more about things the letters start with.

We are using the free Alphabet Lap-n-Note from Homeschool Share (my all-time favorite site).

I buy binders in bulk at Costco.  For the school year (I suppose) they actually had color binders so I splurged. The white are cheaper I think. Anyway, I found an ABC coloring page for our title/cover page. Just google it and you'll get a lot of options.

While most of the pictures are, of course, apples. There were a few that weren't.

H-F had to write ABCDEF after his name.  That's apparently his ABC book name. :) He also realized while we were putting the book together that the word "answer" starts with A so he wanted to include that.

This coloring page is from A Bible Alphabet Activity Book by Alison Brown. There is a story book that goes with it.

This is a list of the books we read for the letter A. I found the form at Donna Young (of course). I just cut it to fit our book.

Tomorrow H-F goes back to preschool. It's just a one-day a week class but he loves it. This year it's 3 hours. We also signed him up for an hour long reading class on Thursday mornings with the same teacher.  He's dying to back to see his favorite teacher. :) 

Getting ready for the first day of preschool consists in covering your bucket with stickers earned at the library's summer reading program. :D

Summer Weather in My Heart

I love the book The Valley of Vision. It's a great prayer tool.  You can use it when you know what to pray and especially when you just don't. Organized into different sections such as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Penitence and Deprecation; Approach to God; and so on, you can easily find a prayer to inspire you to go deeper with your communion with God.

My reading today ended with "...and when I am restored and rest in thee give me summer weather in my heart." That might elicit a silent guffaw with folks considering how hot it can get in summer.  But when you realize what used to happen in winter, the heat of summer was probably a welcome relief.  When the prayer was written, people still contracted pneumonia with no hope of recovery. Disease during a winter that was often long and miserable wasn't the only depressing thing.  Lighting was not what it is today. The nights were long & dark. A candle or oil lamp would be the only light in a room of most common people.  Houses often burned from logs falling out of open fires or candles carried too close to draperies. And if you've never lived somewhere that gets truly cold and snowy in winter, and where people use wood or coal for heat, you probably don't know about the smell.  It smells of smoke, always.  The air inside the house, the air outside the house.  Everywhere you go it smells of smoke.  Your clothes and your hair always smell of smoke.  When the first sniff of spring comes it is truly a breath of fresh air.

Life is like that.  Especially life in the darkness of mental illness.  For those who don't know me I have suffered for the most part of the past 14 years with post-partum depression, with occasional bouts of post-partum psychosis.  It has only been within the last year that I have finally been released from this.  There is no feeling like it in the world except, perhaps, the feeling one has when they are first born again. It is truly summer in the heart.

"...then take away my mourning and give me music;

remove my sackcloth and adorn me with beauty;

take away my sighs and fill my mouth with songs;

and when I am restored and rest in thee

give me summer weather in my heart."

Lots of Swimming

The middle boys started swim lessons today. They were very happy...mostly.  HF decided a few minutes into his lesson that he wanted to be afraid. He acted like he'd never been in the water before.  Fortunately, he's the  lowest level & there are only 1 or 2 swimmers allowed in that class....and he's the only one in it. :)

Then we came home and, because we had surprise company, got to swim some more instead of do our chores.  I haven't heard a lot of complaining.  And, since the chores involved dusting and vacuuming, two chores Thing's 1 & 2 still like, I won't hear too much tomorrow. :)

Saturday, July 16, Whereon Babycakes Finally Has a Birthday Party

Where Were You at Midnight?

Well I, along with The Teenager & his buddy, C, and about 1,000+ other folks, was at the local Edwards Theater waiting to watch the long-anticipated HP7.2.

We arrived to the line about 7:30 but still ended up in a pretty good spot.  We got great seats, all the way in the back so no one was behind us and I could lean the seat back as far as it would go. :) We did have to wait outside this year; but, aside from the wind and the cold (yep, it's cold here in SoCal--stupid "global warming"), it wasn't unbearable.  I took an old pillow to sit on this time, instead of a blanket.  When we figured out we were going to be outside until right before the movie I did call my dh and have him bring a blanket to wrap myself in. A sweater wasn't cutting it anymore.

The best thing this year was the people in our line were much more sociable than last year. We were in a weird situation where our part of the line had the same 8 people for a long time before anyone else came and none were people opposed to engaging strangers in conversation.  I like that kind of people. :)  Eventually there were three of us who were avid readers of all books so we discussed books made into movies and what we liked and disliked about them.  Yes, I brought up my disgust with The Lord of the Rings movies. :D

The Teenager & C played with some older guys who had a hacky sack and, fortunately, these guys were not far enough removed from their teen years to forget when they were annoying and obnoxious and took it all in stride.  The Teenager learned a new "game" that kids are taught on the playgrounds these days that involved hitting people when you saw a certain type of car pass by.  Needless to say I will not encourage it. LOL.

As for the movie, it was better than the last.  I always have issue with even guys changing shirts in film because I know it is only for the exploitation of the person they include it so I find it disgusting.  Hey, what can I say, I just don't think anyone ought to be exploited.  I'm so narrow-minded that way. :P But that's about all I had to say negative (aside from the things they changed from the book but I think that should go without saying. ;D)