Michigan Vacation Recap...

Wow, ok, I kept saying to myself that I'd sit down and blog about our Michigan vacation in full detail with pictures and links and everything.  And, well... it's been nearly three weeks and I have not had the time to sit and focus like that... nor do I see that opportunity arising in the future.  So, dang it.  This will have to do...

Route 1: Grand Prairie, TX to Whitehall, MI

Friday, Aug 3rd:

Michael arrived home from work later than expected and it took us longer to pack up than expected as well.  Late start, but finally on the road around 330pm.  We got about an hour into the trip and Preston already had to go to the bathroom.  Stopped for Dinner and bathroom in Greenville.  Then proceeded to drive all night.  Several stops for bathroom, drinks, snacks, diaper changes.  One particularly memorable diaper change occurred in the middle of no where Arkansas.  Callen started complaining that his bottom hurt quite vehemently, so we pulled over at the next exit... nothing but cornfields, not even a streetlight.  Oh well.  Proceeded to change the kid, who was neither wet nor messy (grr!), and approximately 1billion mosquitoes flew into our vehicle because of the light.  Oops.  That was NOT cool.  We also realized that we were getting very poor gas mileage and the wind noise caused by the overheard luggage was incredibly irritating.  We decided to stop, also in Arkansas, and take everything down from the luggage rack and cram it in the back so we could stop the noise AND get better gas mileage.  To our surprise, everything fit fine.  We didn't even NEED the luggage rack and cross bars, which we had purchased specifically for this trip because we though the back was simply too small for our luggage.  Sigh.  Anyway, other than that our overnight drive went rather smoothly and we arrived at our destination around 1130am on Saturday morning.

Saturday, Aug 4th:

Arrived in Michigan, then drove through a parade in Grand Rapids and finally ended up in Whitehall, Michigan - our final destination!  Left the kids with grandparents and attempted to rest for a while.  Enjoyed checking out "Grandma" and "Grandpa's" house, and the nice lake view out their back window.  And the kids fell in love with their giant basement.  Michael and I were able to slip away after dinner and have dessert by ourselves at Pekadill's.  Mmm!

Sunday, Aug 5th:

Church and lunch afterwards at... Pekadill's.  We got to spend some time with Great Aunt Laura there.  Great Grandma Kathy came over and Callen got to meet her for the first time in person!  Later we all went to Duck Lake and splashed around in the little creek there, and went out into Lake Michigan.  Callen LOVED the little creek.  However, as soon as we got a bit out into the "big water," and a large wave smashed into his face, he wasn't so crazy about the water.  Plus, it was a bit cool and he couldn't stop shivering, poor thing!  Preston loved every bit of it.  Michael and he ran up and down the sand dune, and thankfully didn't fall!

Monday, Aug 6th:

Michael's birthday!  He wanted to go sailing so he, Preston and Steve went over to a friend's house to borrow a boat.  Michael and Preston sailed a little ways, then the winds kicked up and pushed them into the shore... they had to abandon the boat and walk back to the friend's house.  And when the got there the friend and Steve were gone.  They had gone in another boat to tow back to the sail boat because they had seen what happened.  It was quite a little adventure for Preston!  After that we visited a little tourist town called Pentwater... it was so fun.  We visited the Cosmic Candy Company to get some pressed pennies for Preston.  And I scored some delicious Michigan Cherry Coffee, mmme!  Then we went out to Ludington State Park to get some more pennies and visit the dam.  We also went over to the SS Badger Car Ferry for some pennies.  Played at the park there and had a pizza picnic.  The kids were rather grumpy off and on even though the weather was nice and we were having fun along the way

Tuesday, Aug 7th:

We knocked ourselves out on Tuesday!  We picked blueberries... the boys loved that, so much fun!  Then we went to Mac Wood's Dune Rides, the Country Dairy and Lewis Farm to pet some animals.  At the Country Dairy we got to drink all the milk/chocolate milk we wanted, visit some cows and had some yummy lunch.  That place was neat... next time we'll have to go earlier to get to do the dairy tour (it was closed).  That evening we went out to see the sunset on the Lake at White River Light Station.  It was lovely. It was a full day of fun and being outside in the nice weather.

Wednesday, Aug 8th:

The boys, Michael and I went down to Holland to visit the little Dutch Village to get some pennies.  We had lunch, went out to see Pere Marquette and the Big Lake again.  Then went and visited with Great Grandma Kathy again.  And met up with Steve, Jill and Laura at the Unity Fest Concert.  We saw Manic Drive, Abandon Kansas, Group1Crew and Peter Furler and Phil Joel.  It was fun... and it drizzled on us.  

Thursday, Aug 9th:

Michael wanted to take Preston out on a canoe ride, but he wouldn't go (grumpy guts!) so Michael went with his Dad.  The kids and I just hung out around the house.  Later we went out to a little town called Bitely because they had a little shop there with a penny machine, and pretty much nothing else.  We stopped and ate at a restaurant called "Daniel's." And we dropped by an Amish store... with no electricity and all kinds of fun little things!  That evening, Michael and I had a date by ourselves for dinner at Sam's Bistro.  We shared a yummy pizza, and the owner of the store gave us our dinner for free because Jill always sent him so much business!  Yay!  We started packing up and getting ready for the return trip.

Friday, Aug 10th:

We left around 815am and had several stops to make on the way to our hotel.  After the long drive there, we decided we needed to break up the trip home.  We stopped in Arcola, Indiana at Rockome Gardens.  It was this neat attraction that had a lot of Amish stuff, old schoolhouse and shops, a Raggedy Ann & Andy museum and all kinds of neat stuff.  Would have loved to stayed and looked around a while, but since we were on a schedule we just had to get the penny and go.  We also stopped at some truck stops in Portage, Indiana to get pennies.  We arrived in Marion, Illinois, where we were staying for the night (Sikeston was completely BOOKED!).  Got checked into our hotel and walked across the street to the 17th Street Grill for dinner and pennies!  It was delicous!  Then we drove over to Makanda to get some more pennies at their Boardwalk, but it was all closed up.  Booo!  (I left a note with some money and they ended up sending us the pennies in the mail, yay!).  We went back to the hotel and swam in the indoor pool, boys had a blast.  The hotel was REALLY great for the price... it was  a Country Inn & Suites, and I highly recommend it!

Saturday, Aug 11th:

Left the hotel around 815am and our first stop was at Boomland for pennies and drinks.  Then we stopped by Lambert's Cafe, but they didn't open for another 1.5 hours and we didn't want to wait so we had to skip those pennies.  We stopped in Benton, Arkansas for a penny and finally made it home all in one piece.

Whew!  It was a fantastic trip. The weather was so nice it was very hard to leave Whitehall that Friday.  We would have loved to stay for a week or two more, but just couldn't do it.  The boys had a great time, even though the fussed and complained about a lot of things... I know they enjoyed it.  It was so great to just get away and do fun stuff and enjoy family up there.  I can't wait to go again!

See Preston's Pennies blog post about the trip here.

Here are pix... they're not exactly in order.  Enjoy!

Sometimes I just need to say it...

Image from here. It's funny, you should read it.

I thought I should just take this opportunity to express my love for coffee. 

Coffee, I love you.  Forever and ever.  Amen.

There.  I feel better.

This post brought to you by a rough night's sleep and two crazy kids.

Homeschool Recap, August 24th (Week 6)...

In my life this week...

Didn't do much out of the ordinary this week.  Working on my business a bit, because I got three brand new recruits this month.  Very excited about that!  The boys and I were lazy, just hung out inside otherwise.  Michael had some training for his teaching job, he starts classes on Monday.  Very excited that he is getting to do that again... there was a bit there where we thought he wasn't going to have a class this semester.  Praise God he does!

Things I'm working on...
I had to institute a new behavior chart to try to bribe... er, give the boys an incentive for behaving.  They've been on the wild side lately... talking back, out right defying us, etc.  So, I created a sticker chart... stickers for good behavior and x's for naughty behavior.  If they get 15+ stickers for the whole week, they'll get some sort of prize.  Nothing fancy, but something to show that it pays off to behave.  We are using this chart in conjunction with the Doorposts' Blessing and If-Then charts.  We've had those up for a while but have failed to really stick to them.  Hopefully this will do some good.  It's Friday afternoon, and the boys have 11 and 12 stickers (it only goes through Saturday)... so, we'll see!

Posted on the pantry door for ALL to see!

In our Homeschool this week...

Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "B."  Callen was slightly less excited about his notebook this week, even though the theme was Balls.  I mean, come on... he is obsessed with all kinds of balls.  Wow, the novely wears off so fast!  We didn't really spend a lot of time on his pages this week, but we went through them... he did the tracing, coloring, scribbling, lacing, puzzling and all.  We even did a Baseball Lapbook (and I'm trying to wrack my brain to remember where I got that from, printed it out a long time ago and I usually try to save the links... but I guess I didn't this one, oops!).  And, of course, we played with Balls and read lots of books about Balls like Beach Ball, Hit the Ball Duck, Preston's Goal, The Ball Bounced and Froggy Plays T-Ball.

Big Brother helped a lot with the lapbook.

[Quick Callen story: Last Wednesday at church, we were making fish to go along with the story of Jonah.  There were little foam stickers and googly eyes to decorate your paper plate fish.  At one point, Callen came to me and said "Eye in my nose!"  I tried not to freak out, but calmly look in his little nose.  I asked him three times "Did you put one of those eyes up your nose?"  Twice he said yes, and the last time he said no.  I couldn't see anything up there, so I dismissed it and made a mental note to check closer later.  Mental note instantly forgotten after a room full of 2-5 year olds!  Fast forward to this Wednesday, and Callen lets out a great big sneeze.  He comes running to me with something in his hand says "Eye from my nose!"  Oh my gosh, y'all... there was a little, red foam dot (about 1/4" around) in his hand, covered in boogers!  That thing HAD been up his nose for a WEEK!  Thankfully it didn't bother him too much or cause any major damage, and it easily came out with that big sneeze.  It was part of a sticker so it had a sticky side and I guess it was just stuck up there all that time.  I felt so bad because I had totally forgotten about him telling me about it in the first place and didn't make it a point to look later.  GEEZ!  That was my first (and hopefully ONLY?!) experience with a kid sticking something up his nose... I know it could have been a lot worse, I've heard the stories!  So, praise God it wasn't a big deal.]

Bible: Introduced Jesus as "The Bread of Life."  We used Mama Jenn's printable up on our Morning Board to help us memorize John 6:35.  We looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that described Jesus as bread, food or drink for the spirit.  Added the Bread of Life picture to our Names Poster.  Preston wrote the first line of the memory verse as copy work.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure.  Reviewing the words we went over the first 5 weeks.  On today's test, Preston missed "sick" and "road."  Not sure if it was because he wasn't fully paying attention, or really got confused spelling it.  I don't make him write the words out for the tests, just spelling them aloud to me, so sometimes he gets lost in this thoughts (y'know, since there's usually a screaming 2 year old around, lol).  Continued with lessons 4-6 in Primary Language Lessons.

History:  This week's history topic was New Netherland/New York and the Dutch colonists.  Our hands on activity was to make butter!  The boys enjoyed shaking the cream for about 2 seconds, but we managed to make really good butter.  FYI, a little salt goes a long way... yes, I over salted it.  It tastes good on toast, though!  Our main read-aloud from MFW this week was The Courage of Sarah Noble.  So far I have been reading most of the read-alouds, but this time Preston read a few of the short chapters from this book as we traveled to and from errands this week.  We also read from our MFW book American Pioneers and Patriots, and from the library, The New Americans: Colonial Times 1620-1689.

Shaking the cream into butter!

Shake, shake, shake!

We made butter!

Math: Preston continued working on addition facts this week, including adding with 6, reviewing 6, 7 and 8, then moving on  "what's the difference?" and "how many more?"

Math and lapbook work.

Science:  Science went along with our scripture verse this week, having to do with bread.  We did two yeast experiments.  Mixing water, yeast and sugar in a bottle and putting a flat balloon on the top... watched it expand because of the carbon dioxide.  Then tried the same thing with salt, no expansion.

Music/Art: We continued the My Very First Art Book, using a painting by Franz Marc to discuss "wild colors."  We colored animals in crazy colors. And in the My Very First Art Coloring Book, we used another Franz Marc painting and colored outside of the lines so that the colors all ran together.

Spanish: Continued with the next two episodes of Salsa. We reviewed words having to do with "La Juegateria" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish.  And we continued our second lesson of La Clase Divertida!. I attempted the tostones again, and though they were much better this time, the boys still didn't care too much for them.  Oh well, I tried.

Callen's reaction... see, not a fan.

Mostly ate the powdered sugar off the top.

We are using Adventures in My Father's World. See our curriculum here.



[This post contains affiliate links for Usborne Books & More and Amazon.com.  By clicking on those links and purchasing items, you are helping me continue to be a SAHM so that I can focus on homeschooling my children!  Thank you!]

Hair Cut...

We got Callen's first "professional" hair cut yesterday.  A few months ago, Michael gave him a bit of trim... but it grew back pretty fast and since Daddy was going to get a hair cut, we decided Callen should too.  We took him to the very same SportsClips where Preston got his first hair cut!  Callen behaved so well, sat still and patient and just watched the lady do her work.  I was a bit nervous that he'd freak out or something, since it was well after he should have had a nap!  He did great, though!

Callen Levi's first pro hair cut, at SportsClips, August 19th, 2012 (29 months old)...

Handsome boy, Callen!

Preston James' first pro hair cut at SportsClips, August 18th, 2007 (20 months old)...

Handsome boy, Preston!

It's funny that their haircuts happened on nearly the same day... 5 years apart.  Haha.

2012-2013 Student Photos

It's time to show off my adorable students!  Can't say that we do official school photos around here, but... close enough.

Preston, my 6-year-old second grader...

Excited to get started!

Self-portrait.  Um.  Yep, that's about right.

Callen, my 2-year-old preschooler...

He loves doing "tool" (aka school).

Up close "cheese!"

Homeschool Recap, August 17th (Week 5)...

In my life this week...

Last week we took a trip to Michigan to visit Michael's parents.  It was a great vacation, with only a few minor bumps (basically just 19 hours of driving each way and some grumpy kiddos).  I will post a blog on it soon, hopefully.  I have lots of pix to share and certainly want to record our trip for memory's sake here. This week was basically just recovery mode and trying to get back into the swing of "normal life."  We had a Homeschool Group meeting on Tuesday, plus I had Children's Ministry Training that evening.  We had lunch with my mom on Wednesday, then Children's Church that evening.  Michael had band practice at church (he's running sound on Sunday) and is working this evening.  I'll have AWANA training most of the day tomorrow, plus a friend's baby shower and then Michael works tomorrow evening too.  So... back in full swing, for sure!

In our Homeschool this week...

Tot School: We started the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "A."  Callen was pretty excited to have his own notebook with things to do.  He loved saying, "I do school.  Where's my notebook?"  We worked on recognizing the letter, which he was already pretty good at, as well as went over apples and other kinds of fruits.  I use a notebook, the print outs in sheet protectors and Crayola Dry-Erase Crayons.  He colored, drew lines and circled various things as we went through it.  Some times I went through the pages with him, and other times I just handed him the notebook and let him do what he wanted.  He also put together a three-piece puzzle of an apple, worked on putting things in order and laced a laminated picture of an apple... he actually really enjoyed that for a while!  We also read lots of apple and fruit books this week, like A Cow's Alfalfa-Bet, The Bowl of Fruit, A Book of Fruit, Apple Picking Time, Apple Farmer Annie, Under the Apple Tree and Growing Colors.

Coloring the little apples red, then connecting them.

Identifying different fruits.

Three-piece apple/Aa puzzle.

Lacing the apple.

Bible: We continued with Jesus as the "Light of the World."  We used Mama Jenn's printable up on our Morning Board to help us continue memorizing John 8:12, which Preston seems to have down now.  We looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that described Jesus as light.  We made a sunshine craft to help remind us that God is the best source of light. (The lesson plans said to do a craft that includes crayon shavings, an iron, etc., but... yeah, we didn't do that, did this instead.)

You are my sunshine!

My only sunshine!

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure.  The words got a little more difficult this week, but not much.  Preston is still breezing through it.  He only stumbled on the word "black" once on the very first day. And we started our first lessons in Primary Language Lessons.  So far, so good with that. I'm really curious as to how Preston is going to like/dislike it as we go.  So, we'll see!

History:  This week's history topic was The Pilgrims.  Our hands on activity was to create an oiled window, using a sheet of paper and cooking oil.  Preston was really impressed that it became see-through and water-proof with the oil!  We read a lot from our MFW books and library books, or books I already had.  Our main read-aloud from MFW was Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims, which was we started and finished this week.  We also read If You Sailed on the Mayflower, Who's that Stepping on Plymouth Rock?, Samuel Eaton's Day, You Wouldn't Want to Sail on the Mayflower, and The Pilgrims of Plimoth.

Math: Preston worked on addition facts this week, including adding the next whole 10, adding over 10, then adding 9, 8 and 7.

Science:  We continued talking about space a bit, specifically the Big Dipper (read The Big Dipper), constellations and another close star called Betelgeuse. To show how much bigger Betelgeuse is than our own sun, we did a measuring experiment outside.  Basically, it's A LOT bigger.

It's from here to way over there!

Music/Art: We continued the My Very First Art Book, and did a dot finger painting. And in the My Very First Art Coloring Book, Preston and Callen colored a skyline of London with dots (or they were supposed to... basically just ended up in scribbles).

Preston's is a Sunrise on the Beach, he said.

Spanish: Continued with the next two episodes of Salsa. We reviewed words having to do with "La Calle" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish.  And we moved into our second lesson of La Clase Divertida!. We had a couple of hands on activities this time, including creating a color wheel and making Tostones.  The plantain was not really ripe enough so it didn't come out that great, boys weren't too crazy about 'em.  Going to try again next week after the second plantain has had some more time to ripen.

They were excited, and then not impressed.

We are using Adventures in My Father's World. See our curriculum here.

[This post contains affiliate links for Usborne Books & More and Amazon.com.  By clicking on those links and purchasing items, you are helping me continue to be a SAHM so that I can focus on homeschooling my children!  Thank you!]

Our 2012-2013 School Room

Our "school room" is in our kitchen.  Our house is just too small to have our stuff anywhere else, and it works well for us.  Yes, I drool over other people's rooms dedicated solely to "school" (or at least store and organizer their stuff!) but I TRY not to covet too much.  God has blessed me with the opportunity to be doing this, and we can learn ANYWHERE!

We do the majority of our work at the kitchen table, followed by the desk in the bedroom where the computer is, and, of course, the couch and living room floor.  And sometimes the van.  But, yes, the kitchen table is our main focus point.  My husband is awesome (he was completely homeschooled, so he understands) and has allowed me to "decorate" the walls of our kitchen with school stuff.  We have our workboxes, posters, timeline, art showcase and supplies all over the place in there, and it's a cluttered mess... but it works.  We have books and supplies also stored in my closet and in Preston's closet!

Some pictures of our "school room":

At the table.

Our workboxes and wall stuffs, to the right of table.

Larger view, including supply area, both cabinets are full!

Morning Board, posters and timeline, to the left of table.

Artwork display area above door & on pantry door.

Computer time in our bedroom.

In the living room floor.

Where do you school?

Homeschool Recap, August 3rd (Week 4)...

In our Homeschool this week...
Our week was pretty straight forward.  We went to see a kid's production of Rapunzel at the Artisan Theatre in Hurst on Tuesday.  The kids LOVED it!  I enjoyed it myself, very funny!  And on Thursday we had lunch with my mom and aunt.  Other than that, business as usual this week - and I took, like, one picture of school this week, ha!  We finished up our fourth week of school, and it's time for a break!  We'll be off all next week for our vacation.  We are so excited!

Tot School: Nothing particular that we worked on this week.  Callen is getting really good at identifying his colors, plus some letters and numbers.  At church on Wednesday, I asked a few of the kids to identify some letters and numbers and Callen kept being the first to answer (he's the youngest in there, it's 2-5 year olds)!  Haha.


Bible: This week's Name of Jesus was "Light of the World."  We used Mama Jenn's printable up on our Morning Board to help us start memorizing John 8:12 and Preston had to copy the entire verse down (which took three days!).  We looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that described Jesus as light.  We also made a light switch cover that showed "light,"  used a candle and flashlight to show how important light is and how it can guide us.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure.  Preston is doing great with spelling the words so far!  Finished  up the handwriting practice with the letters Ss through Zz. 

History:  This week's history topic was Native Americans.  We read North American Indians, which goes over lots of different tribes and their characteristics.  We made a model of wigwam and a teepee, and practiced some sign language.  We also read Who Came Down That Road?, Who Were the First North Americans?, The Hopi and The Rough-Face Girl (which Preston LOVED).  Over our break, we plan to read The Magic Treehouse Book, Buffalo Before Breakfast.  And then we'll start on Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims.

Wigwam and teepee.

Math:  We finished up Chapter Two of Math Mammoth, which is time/calendar.  Learned 'till' and 'past.'  Reviewed days of the week, months and dates.  Had a review and then the chapter test today.  He got a 93% on the test, he missed two questions by just a little.

Science:  This week we talked about the Universe, the Sun and Gravity.  We used First Encyclopedia of Science (notebooked a page on the Universe and on Gravity) and The Usbornce Science Encyclopedia.

Music/Art: We continued the My Very First Art Book, and did two projects.  One was "Smudgy Pictures" using chalk, and the other was using finger paints.  Callen enjoyed the finger paints, of course!

Spanish: Preston and Callen both enjoyed the next two episodes of Salsa, which tells the story of Little Red Riding Hood (sort of). We reviewed words having to do with "El Taller" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish.  And we continued the first lesson of La Clase Divertida!.

We are using Adventures in My Father's World. See our curriculum here.

[This post contains affiliate links for Usborne Books & More and Amazon.com.  By clicking on those links and purchasing items, you are helping me continue to be a SAHM so that I can focus on homeschooling my children!  Thank you!]

A Chickfila Civil War...

I don't have anything brilliant or terribly insightful to add to the recent Chickfila controversy. But since this is my blog, and I enjoy looking back years later to see what was going on in the world... I thought I would post something for posterity.

It is heart breaking to see this "civil war" breaking out right now over this.  Both sides seem to be spinning their wheels, and are only further hurting their causes, it seems.  If you like Chickfila and/or agree with what Dan Cathy said about traditional (one man-one woman) marriage, you're intolerant and hateful.  If you are on the opposite end, you're offended and want to shut down/keep out all CFA restaurants because of one man's comments.  Really, y'all?  Really?  Don't we have bigger things to worry about than whether or not it's ok to eat at a restaurant?  CFA (or it's CEO) has just as much right to be in favor of traditional marriage as the other side has to be in favor of same-sex marriage.

I am a Conservative Christian and I do believe in traditional family values, which seem to be so passé these days. We have been (and will continue to be) avid customers of our local Chickfila. #1, because we like the food. #2, because we appreciate the company as a whole. No other fast food chain I know offers such fantastic, high-quality product, outstanding customer service, seems to truly appreciate and work hard to treat their employees well, and has such a mindful attitude about family values. They have books as the prize in their kids meals! They do a fine job of keeping their restaurants, food and employees above most fast food standards.  Psh, and they're fun, too!

My family just a few weeks ago.

These recent someecards.com graphics sum up my thoughts nicely...

I mean, really?  What did you expect him to say?

There isn't just one side being "intolerant" here.

I appreciate Chickfila for taking a stand for what they believe in.  For not being "PC" just to make sure they don't lose business. I don't think Cathy's comments, in the grand scheme of things, are all that earth shattering, nor are they a reason for this huge uproar on either side.  I think those that are eating Chickfila today should be doing it to show their appreciation of the company's stance regarding their traditional values... not just to rub it in the faces of those who disagree.  We are entitled to our own opinions... this is AMERICA, after all.  If you want to voice your opinion, you should probably be able to handle hearing someone else's opinion.  Ok?  But, let's try to make ALL of our voices loving (I'm not saying "tolerant" here, I'm saying loving... this CAN be done, y'all).  We are still neighbors, and I'm pretty sure our top two instructions in this life are to "Love God.  And love your neighbor."  It doesn't say agree with your neighbor, and it doesn't say tolerate your neighbor and his actions... it says LOVE them. Period.

July 2012 Tweets to Remember...

July 3rd - It's midnight, why wouldn't we stay up to watch Beetlejuice?

July 3rd - Sweet boys. pic.twitter.com/vRT91n54

July  4th - Love how excited my kids get watching The Price Is Right. This show beats cartoons any day.

July 9th - First Day of School Today!!! Guess I should wake up my students, eh? #homeschool

July 9th - Dry-erase crayons just changed my life for the better. Thank you, @Crayola!

July 10th - Quiet Time is not a suggestion, y'all.

July 13th - I love the looks on people's faces who walk into Chikfila unaware of this sacred holiday. Yes, you ARE missing out.

July 16th - Watching Batman The Movie (60's) and Callen has a new favorite word... ZOCKO!

July 17th - #ProudMama Moment: Received compliment from older lady at Cracker Barrell about how "well-mannered" my boys were at the table. Yay!

July 22nd - I put a Rangers shirt on Callen. He says, "I wear ballgame shirt to church? Ballgame shirt for Jesus!?!"

July 22nd - The #homeschool mom nerd in me LOVES Sunday trips to the library, then sitting down and getting the weekly plan in place!

July 27th - Just at the Post Office where they are only accepting cash at the moment, yet didn't have $200 in their registers to cash this lady's check.

July 27th - The Opening Ceremony has been on for 2 minutes, I'm already tearing up. Auuugh, love me some #Olympics!