Who Are You, And What Have You Done With My Son?

Last week Justin was questioning what all I was teaching Jed. Then the conversation came up about his reading. Last year, reading was hard for him. It didn't come easily, and his 20 minutes a night of reading was like pulling teeth with no toothfairy money to look forward to. Jed's curriculum has a LOT of reading in it, so even though in the back of my mind I was thinking he needs to be reading books, I figured he was reading a ton--to me and silently--that he was doing "enough". Well, after J and I conversed over Jed's "schooling" I started googling books 2nd graders like. Over and over again The Magic Treehouse series came up. I remember my neighbor mentioning she had #1 her daughter had gotten as a present and wasn't able to read it yet, so I called her, she brought it over, and within 24 hours he had read the whole book. I also found a website that has activities and tests over each book with a "passport" he can earn if he passes the comprehension test (kinda like Accelerated Reader Points). He took the first test, passed and printed out his "reward". Since then (one week) we have been to the library, gotten him his very own library card and he has read #1-5 and passed all the tests! In one week! This little guy is on fire! Today, we returned the books he's read and checked out the next 6 books in the series. I am hoping this will last us a couple of weeks, but at the rate he's going, we'll be back at the library by Monday!
Who is this child, and what has he done with my son??? :)

Wondering Where I've Been???

I did it, I really did it...after months of using my husbands, I finally have my own...I joined FaceBook. I have been avoiding it because I know how much blogging I do and others that I read takes up so much of my day, I knew if I added facebook (or if you are cool you refer to it as fb) I would be sucked in...and I am. I have already caught up with so many old friends. Do you know how good it feels to look at your "friends" and see that number grow bigger...silly but it is quite the confidence builder! I am seriously going to have to put a time limit on my "fb"ing like my kids time limit for tv...but I don't think that will be long enough...
So, if you don't hear from me in awhile check out my fb page, and if you are not my friend yet, I'd love for you to be :)

10,000 Steps and Other Randomness

I am a random person...
Here's some of my randomness tongiht:
*My favorite Body Blast teacher and friend has been on vacation for the last 2 weeks, last Thursday Justin asked if I wasn't going to go back to the gym until she got back...ouch! So I drug my tired body up Friday morning, picked up another friend and headed to class at 5:30 AM...of course, we had to stop at Starbucks afterward...one should not get up at 5am without some kind of reward! Well, I went to my normal class today thinking that I would at least get 2 workouts in before my friend got back....wrong...she was back...very tan...and very excited to work us out!

*Justin and Jed are very actively watching Monday Night Football...Cowboys and Eagles...need I say more? I bet if you listen you can hear them yelling, I mean cheering, all the way to your house.

*Jadyn starts ballet on Thursday...that makes 75% of our kids in an extracurricular activity...they all happen to practice on Thursdays...fun times ya'll!

*Ike hit my sisters neighborhood badly. My sister and fam were lucky, only a few trees down and thankfully none hit the house. When you have 67 trees in your backyard, a few are likely to fall! They will not have electricity for at least 3 weeks...talk about roughin' it!

*My mom is in the hospital...she's had 5 of her 6 intense chemo treatments...she is a rock, she is feeling good, and her voice is strong and normal! Wednesday she will have the stem cells put back in ..what I've read online about it is that it is comparable to a bone marrow transplant. This is when she will probably not feel well, I am going to stay with her the first of October--while my wonderful in-laws take the kiddos for a week..love in-laws!

*Our Neighborhood Homeschool Group is having our 1st annual Back To School Bash/Olympics Friday night...yes, I am making my family matching t-shirts :)

*For some reason I get emails from Payless Shoes...tonights email was: "Ankle Boots A Must Have For Fall" UUHHGGG! I guess I won't be hip this fall!

*The weather today was incredible...we took a nature walk after school work was all done...we all had a ball!

*Oh yeah, 10,000 steps....so if you've read previous posts you know all about my catastrophic experience with my yummy spinach shakes...so, I've decided to just get back to the basics...eat less and move more...which led me to buy a pedometer to see how many steps I take in a normal day. Everything I've read says to strive for 10,000 steps a day. 6,000 steps for health and 10,000 for weight loss. So, I got a pedometer and started tracking last Friday. Let me tell you, 10,000 steps is a TON...I had about 4,000 and thought I did a lot of walking...So, now I hop on the treadmill and get my 10,000 in no matter what. And guess what, I feel more energized. We walked to the park today, and I wanted to run around and play, not sit and watch...so, how many steps do you take in a day?

I guess that's all my randomness for the day...guess I should go fold some laundry...yuck!
Catch ya'll later

My Life

My friend just posted this poem...it is my life! :) Check out The Potter's Hand (over on the right--under my list of blogs I read) and you will get a glimps of my day-to-day life! And I'm most certain it will reflect some of your days as well, or at least a memory of them!

Boys...

I just found my 7 year old boy making all the Barbies naked....
hmmm...

Homeschooling

It is 9:47pm.
My kids are playing games.
Very loud.
Very happily.
They are getting along.
Lots of creativity is flowing~
"Singing Chairs" instead of Musical Chairs.
I think I just heard something about forming a band....
We don't have to be anywhere early in the morning.
Or dressed for that matter.
I love homeschooling.