Summer Day? or School Day?

A couple of weeks ago, we drove up to the closest IKEA and Kelsey found a loft bed that she thought would be perfect in her room. She even told me she had enough money to pay for the bed herself. We didn’t buy the bed that day, but she did come home and she did take all the measurements necessary to see if the bed would fit in her room.

This morning, we measured the area in my car (a Saturn Vue, not a huge SUV) to see if the bed would fit. We decided to take the chance, make the drive, and do our best to fit the bed in the car.

Once we arrived at IKEA, we saw that the bed came in two flat boxes, so we were not sure if they would fit. Since we made the drive, we decided to go ahead and buy the bed and take the pieces out of the box to fit everything in the car.

The best part of this was when we went up to the register and Kelsey handed the clerk a wad of cash that she had saved up to pay for the bed. A gentlemen at the register next to us was impressed that she was paying for the bed herself.

IKEA loft bed in my car
IKEA loft bed in my car

Yay! Everything fit!

Once we arrived home, we got right to work: moved out the old bed, vacuumed, and got started putting the new bed together. It took quite a bit of work and coordination, but we were determined to get it done!

new loft bed
new loft bed

So, goodbye to the picket fence bed and hello to the new loft bed!

So if you ask me, I love these kind of summer/school days. I am a big believer in that every lesson does not need to come from a textbook. We had a great day together, overcame some obstacles, and persevered. It is hard to see her growing up so fast, but I love to see the young woman she is growing up to be.

A little of this and a little of that…

Today, I am just going to share some random things with you, I hope you enjoy them!

Hello Mornings
Hello Mornings

I have decided to join in on the Hello Mornings Challenge again. This is a great way to start my morning off the right way. Spending time with God, making a plan for my day, and taking time to exercise a few times a week. This fall, the group is doing a inductive study on the book of Ephesians. My book is ordered and I am looking forward to the lessons God has for me.

last homeschool book
last homeschool book

Quite a few schools out here have already started and I believe many more will be starting in the next week or two. At this point, our plan is to start at the end of August or right after Labor Day (one of the benefits of private homeschooling!). We have most of our books, but we are waiting for this one last book to arrive. Just got an e-mail that it should arrive just in time for us to start. We have already gone through the first three books in this series and I have been waiting for this fourth book to be published and ready.

Mexico countdown
Mexico countdown

And I can’t believe that when I first started the countdown for our Compassion trip, the number was 203 days! Matthew’s passport arrived yesterday and I am still making things to fundraise for our trip. Take a peek at my Facebook page, you might find something you like!

Happy Friday, enjoy this summer day, and have a great weekend!

Capture Your 365…or not

Usually on Wednesdays, I share with you a week worth of photos that I have taken from the Capture Your 365 photo prompts. Well, the past couple of weeks have been crazily (not sure if  that is a real word or not, but it fits!) busy and I did not take any pictures with my Nikon! Tragic, I know! What was I doing you might ask?

homeschool conference
homeschool conference

I was able to set up a Compassion table for two days at our local homeschool conference and we found sponsors for three kids! In addition to hanging out at the table for two days and talking with a lot of people, I presented a workshop on the this title, “How One Mom Transitioned from Career Mom to Homeschool Mom”. This was my second time speaking at this conference, but the first time speaking on this topic. The topic is very personal to me because I was that career mom many years ago. Once I have time to enjoy some of my summer, I might just share with you some of what I shared in my workshop.

Spirit West Coast
Spirit West Coast

The other event that keep me busy and away from home was three days at Spirit West Coast in Monterey. I could have taken some pictures with my Nikon at this event, but my focus was on finding sponsors for a lot of Compassion kids. Once I arrived home on Saturday night, I did learn that 165 children were sponsored over those three days! Praise God!

So I finally printed out my August list of prompts and will do my best to share a set of photos with you next week. In the meantime, why don’t you print out the August list and join me for some photo fun?

Capture Your 365

Five pictures for you this week and here they are:

lavender
lavender

ISO 100, 116mm, f/4.8, 1/80 sec

Day 111 – Blooming: This lavender plant in my backyard is blooming like crazy! I need to do some cuttings and start drying some of these.

mail
mail

ISO 100, 80mm, f/4.2, 1/4 sec

Day 113 – Mail: I was able to mail off letters to my Compassion kids last week! I hope they enjoy the bookmarks I made for them. Do you send your sponsored kids handwritten letters?

mobile
mobile

ISO 100, 55mm, f/4.0, 1/160 sec

Day 114 – Mobile: trying to get back into the routine of walking a few days a week. On my iPod, I have a playlist of upbeat Christian songs. This is a great way for me to focus on how amazing God’s love for me is while I do what I can to keep my body healthy.

oreo moon phases
oreo moon phases

ISO 100, 50mm, f/4.0, 0.4 sec

Day 115 – Spotlight: When I saw this idea on Pinterest months ago, I penciled in our history book to give this a try. We had just read about the Battle of Marathon in the Mystery of History and one of the activities was to learn about the moon phases. Always fun to combine lessons with food!

fence with poppies
fence with poppies

ISO 100, 50mm, f/5.0, 1/250 sec

Day 116 – A Fence: Well, there is a fence behind the California poppies, does that count?

So what have you been taking pictures of this past week? The May list for the Capture Your 365 is now available to print out. Go get the list and join me for capturing the little details of your life.

Mystery of History – Take 2

I first discovered the Mystery of History curriculum years ago in a Timberdoodle catalog. I was looking for something that would include biblical history as well as world history. This curriculum has not disappointed us!

Joseph Cookies

Matthew and Kelsey with their Joseph coat cookies – picture taken April 2006

Ancient Egypt cake

A lesson about the Nile – picture taken May 2006

Volume One takes you from Creation to the Resurrection. My favorite parts of this curriculum are the lessons, the activities, and the timeline. When reading the lessons, you almost feel like Linda (the author) is right there with you, telling you the stories. Each lesson has at least three suggested activities, with age appropriate lessons for each age group, younger, middle, and older students. And the timeline!

World History Timelines
World History Timelines

We put together our timeline on a project board that could be folded up and stored away when we weren’t doing school work. This is the timeline the kids created from Mystery of History Volume One.

World History Timelines
World History Timelines

The kids made their own timeline figures based on the description provided in the book. For each week of lessons, Matthew would create two of the timeline figures and Kelsey would do one.

World History Timelines
World History Timelines

These figures are from Mystery of History Volume Two which spans from the Early Church through the Middle Ages.

World History Timelines
World History Timelines

Volume Three covers The Renaissance, Reformation, and Growth of Nations.

World History Timelines
World History Timelines

So our three completed timelines cover from creation until 1707!

I was really hoping that Volume Four would be completed before Matthew finished school, but Volume Four is still in progress of being completed. Looks like Kelsey and I will be working on that timeline together!

One of the really nice things about this curriculum is that even though we have gone through all three volumes in the past, Kelsey and I are starting to go through them again. This year we are working our way through Volume One and have been able to do some things we didn’t do the first time through. Like go to the Rosicrucian Museum!

We plan on using Volume Two next year which makes one less thing for me to have to purchase for school for next year. Yay! The catalogs have already started arriving so I will be making decisions on some other subjects soon.

What is your favorite history curriculum?