Category Archives: Weekly Wrap-Up

June 27, 2014 · 9:06 pm

Weekly Wrap-Up . . . When I Actually Got Stuff Done!

So, this week was a LITTLE more productive . . . we managed to work on some educational review products nearly every day. I was also able to get “The Batman” and “The Artist” to get on their piano practice every day except for one.

Yesterday, I got up early and got a review completed (there will be a few more in upcoming weeks), worked on some review products with the boys, and prepared (mostly) supper. My husband came home and whipped up potatoes and corn, as I was very wiped out by then.

Today, I managed to get almost all of the laundry done, for the first time in weeks! 🙂

In preparation for our upcoming move, my husband and the boys did a bunch of yard work last Saturday, and will be doing more tomorrow, as we’re supposed to leave it looking good. While he and 2 of the boys do that, I’ll be taking the 2 older boys out shopping for clothing items they need for summer camp, which is fast approaching! I never thought the day would come when we would feel OK about them going, but I’ll tell you, they have such a wonderful youth pastor at our church, along with his wife. They are so great with all of the kids, and have really helped a lot with our boys, working to understand their limitations. His wife is also our piano teacher, and a very good one, too! We’ll be in our first recital since leaving MI this coming August. I’m hoping my husband will be able to record us so you all can see what we’re doing!

Well, that about wraps up our week!

As always, I’d love it if you joined me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”. Just go and enter your email into the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog, and never miss another update! If you DO enjoy “My Journeys”, please, go to our Facebook page and give it a “like”. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

This post is being linked up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers. To add YOUR weekly wrap-up, just click the graphic below for the guidelines!

Weekly Wrap-Up

Leave a comment

Filed under Weekly Wrap-Up

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

June 6, 2014 · 5:33 pm

Weekly Wrap-Up: When I was Unwell

Struggling with a chronic disorder makes life difficult and stressful, especially in the midst of homeschooling, trying to (faithfully!) serve at church, and trying to find a house to live in which would put a MUCH closer to our church. It’s become more and more difficult on me, getting to church for 8:30 choir sound check, then Sunday School and morning service, and getting back to the church by 4:30 for choir practice before evening service, as it currently takes us anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes to get there. When we first moved here, we of course had no idea where we’d be going to church, and most everyone we know lives closer to our church.

A couple of weeks ago, we actually had to leave at the beginning of evening service because I became very weak, and then I missed service altogether this past Wednesday, which I HATE! I hate feeling as though I’m not being faithful!

Yesterday, “The Batman”, “The Artist”, and I were supposed to begin switching our piano lessons to Thursday mornings, but we had to put it off until today (thankfully, our wonderful teacher hadn’t begun lessons with the family taking our former Friday slot, and offered to let us come today instead) because I wasn’t well. Our teacher says we’re doing great, even me! Today she told me she’s figured out I learn well in patterns, so that’s what we’re working on, especially for my recital piece. I’m beginning to get excited about it! 🙂

Well, that’s our week!

Linking up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

To add your own weekly wrap up, click the graphic below for the guidelines:

I’d just love it if you joined me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”! Just go and enter your email into the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog, and never miss another update! If you do enjoy “My Journeys”, please go to our Facebook page and give it a “like”. I’d sure appreciate it if you did!

1 Comment

Filed under Weekly Wrap-Up

Tagged as

April 18, 2014 · 1:04 pm

Weekly Wrap-Up . . . Education for MOM! :-)

So, I have been exploring this thing called Zentangle for a little while now. When I first discovered it online, and read all the stories of people it was really helping in areas of relaxation, anxiety, even physical issues like shaky hands due to Parkinsons and other things, I knew I had to try it. Besides, it’s really, really beautiful, and you don’t even have to be an artist or have an art background to do it! I had been trying to learn what I could, from books and the internet. One favorite site is Tanglepatterns, which has an index of many, many patterns, complete with step-outs to show how to draw them.

This past weekend, I went to my very first Zentangle class with two Certified Zentangle Teachers. It was AWESOME! We learned ten different tangle patterns, and used them to make two zentangle tiles.

Here’s my first one, using patterns crescent moon, hollibaugh, printemps, static, and tipple.
2014-04-18 03.11.07

During the second half of the class, we learned five more patterns, and made a tile using florz, hibred, ‘nzeppel, pokeroot and pokeleaf. Here is mine . . .
2014-04-18 03.23.23

In both sessions, we also learned about aura-ing on some patterns, and how to shade to give our tiles dimension.

One of our teachers, Dennie York, has posted all of the tiles the class made on her blog dentangles. Go give it a look, and check out the rest of her blog too, it’s just become one of my favorites! 🙂

This post is being linked up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers. If you’d like to join the fun, write your weekly wrap-up and click the graphic below for the guidelines!

As always, I’d love it if you joined me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”. Just go and enter your email into the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog, and never miss an update again! Also, if you do enjoy “My Journeys”, please go to out Facebook page and “like it”. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

4 Comments

Filed under education, home education, just me, Weekly Wrap-Up, Zentangle

Tagged as , , ,

April 14, 2014 · 11:09 am

Weekly Wrap Up . . . More Drama!

As I told you last time I did a wrap up, “Mr. Loquacious” has had a chronic nosebleed problem. Since the Sunday night when he blacked out at church, he’s had a number of new nose bleeds, and so this morning had an 8;00 appointment with the specialist. Well, he will next be having surgery to hopefully correct the problem. Of course, he is very unhappy about this. 😦 Now, we wait for the surgery scheduler to call, and the earliest he can have it will probably be in May.

Other than that, this past week has been slow and easy with homeschooling. We did some science experiments from Supercharged Science, those who are in piano lessons did daily practice, and we’re working on a history curriculum that is an upcoming review. Plus, our homeschool co-op at church had the end of the year creativity fair Friday night, so the two youngest, “Mr. Loquacious” and “The Puzzler” participated in that while “The Batman” and “The Artist” were at a youth group activity that was a pirate theme murder mystery party. Pictures will be coming in a post very soon! 🙂

Hope this week will be a bit simpler to deal with!

This post is being linked up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Write about your homeschooling week and link up too! For the guidelines, please click the graphic below

As always, I’d love it if you join me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”! Just go enter your email into the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog, and never miss an update again! If you DO enjoy “My Journeys”, please go to our Facebook page and “like” it. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

Leave a comment

Filed under education, family, home education, Home-school Group, Homeschool Group Monthly Activity, Kids, Weekly Wrap-Up

Tagged as , , , , ,

March 28, 2014 · 7:52 pm

Weekly Wrap – Up . . . A Bit Less Busy!

So, this week was more of a regular week, no special meetings at church, etc, which was good, because as I may have said in a previous post, I’ve been dealing with some health issues that we’re trying to get regulated.

The boys and I took it very easy this week, as far as school stuff, although I did ask for daily piano practice. “The Artist is up to 50 minutes per day, and next week he goes to 55, then one hour per day the following week. Our teacher says at his level, he should be doing at least an hour per day, 5 days a week. I am at 30 minutes, as is “The Batman”.

I will leave you with the following video of the song I sang at church Sunday night a week ago, which was written by a good friend back in MI . . .

This post is being linked up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

If you’d like to write about your week and join us, please click the graphic below for the guidelines.

As always, I’d love it if you join me on all of “My Journeys”. Just enter your email into the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog, and never miss an update. And if you enjoy “My Journeys”, please go to our Facebook page and “like” it. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

1 Comment

Filed under just me, Music, singing, Weekly Wrap-Up

Tagged as , , ,

March 21, 2014 · 4:58 pm

Weekly Wrap-Up . . .Boy, am I TIRED!!!

Beginning Sunday, our church had special conference entitled Solve Family Problems, featuring Dr. S.M. Davis. He spoke for the adults and teens during Sunday School, and again in morning service, then we also had him for Sunday evening service, Monday and Tuesday evening. Monday and Tuesday, as our church generally does, a supper was provided at 6:00 p.m. so that those who would need to come straight from work could still eat. And our church is, as our Pastor likes to say, “the eating-est church in town”, so you know the food was really great! Of course, it IS a Baptist church, and I’ve NEVER had a bad meal in a Baptist church, whether it be a pot-luck or a church provided meal! 🙂 The conference was really great, and we got a lot out of it.

Wednesday evening, I needed to hang around after church to practice with the choir, as we’re singing the special Sunday morning, then after that, I practiced with our piano teacher, who also plays when I sing a special. We WERE practicing for my scheduled special at the end of the month, when the music director asked if we could do it this coming Sunday evening instead. Well, we do feel comfortable with it now, so we told him yes. I’ll post that sometime this next week. Y’all are not getting tired of all my videos of either my kids or me singing specials, are you?

This morning we had homeschool co-op at church, where we had the kiddos split into 3 groups based on age/ability range, who then rotated between rotated the 3 moms who were there for things like string art, writing, younger kids writing, and my station, which was using different color paints to put their hand prints on the big banners for the upcoming co-op Creativity Fair. They also had root beer floats for snack.

Next, we went to McDonald’s (I know, I know, don’t judge me!) for a quick dollar menu lunch before heading over to piano lessons. We have an hour and a half block with our teacher, for me, “The Batman”, and “The Artist”. I got my recital piece last week, it’s really pretty. It’s called Appalachian Sunrise by Michael Schwabe. “The Artist” will be doing Solfeggietto by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, and “The Batman” is going to be doing Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin. God thing we have until August to practice!

Well, I’ve been very tired lately, and dealing with some stressful stuff, so I believe I’m going to go lie down on the couch and try to rest for a while. I hope you’ve had a good week!

This post is being linked up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

If you’d like to join the fun, do write about your week and link up with the rest of us! To find out the guidelines, click the graphic below!

As always, if you enjoy “My Journeys Through Life”, please enter your email into the “sign me up” box at the top of the blog, and never miss an update. Also, please, go to our Facebook page and “like” it. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

Leave a comment

Filed under Church, education, home education, Home-school Group, Homeschool Group Monthly Activity, homeschooling, Kids, Mesa Baptist Church, Piano lessons, Weekly Wrap-Up

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

March 14, 2014 · 9:48 pm

Weekly Wrap-Up . . . Music At Both Ends Of The Week!

We began on Sunday evening, when the Kids Sunshine Choir did the special during the evening service at our church. You can check them out in the video below. 🙂

During the remainder of the week, we went a little light on school, as I’ve been dealing with some health issues, and my doctor is currently trying to regulate some new medications for me. Meanwhile, it often affects my days, so we’ve mostly been just working on some review things that you’ll be reading about soon! 🙂

We skipped out on homeschool park day yesterday, I was so tired, and slept a lot. 😦 Today, however, we made it to piano lessons. We’ve switched with another family, and now we are going Friday instead of Thursday. That way, the kids get to continue with their regular homeschool park day, when we’re able to make it.

I found out from our piano teacher (yes, “our” teacher. “The Batman”, “The Artist” & I are all taking lessons!) today that “The Artist” is really an advanced student, and that when she was at his level, she was required to practice an hour per day, 7 days a week. He’s not real keen on that, so I said we’d work up to it. He’s already doing 40 minutes, so beginning Monday, we’ll add 5 minutes each week, until he gets to an hour. She did say that on days when the time really isn’t there, he’s to do a MINIMUM of 30 minutes. Here’s a short little video I took when we got home, after I convinced him to play just one song for me to post. He sounded much better at lesson, but he just wanted to get it done with when I was recording, LOL!

This post is being linked up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers, and you too, can link up a post about your week! Just click the graphic below for the guidelines, write your post, and link it up!

As always, I’d love it if you join me on all of my “Journeys Through Life”! Just enter your email into the “sign me up” box at the top of the blog, and never miss an update! Also, if you do enjoy “My Journeys”, please, go to our Facebook page and “like” it. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

Leave a comment

Filed under Christian faith, Church, home education, Kids, Music, Weekly Wrap-Up

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

March 8, 2014 · 10:20 am

Weekly Wrap-Up . . . When Our “Schedule” Was Off Duty . . .

My husband had this week off of work, so we didn’t get a whole lot of “school” stuff done. It was helpful to have him here though, because we DID get some other things out-of-the-way. We FINALLY managed to get the tires replaced on his car, which was becoming urgent, plus getting his oil change. Next we’ll get my oil change, and we have a coupon for that.

My sunglasses FINALLY came in. Because of the problems getting them, they had told me to come in and choose a different frame, and said they would not charge me the difference even if they were more expensive than the ones I had originally chosen. I chose a pair of designer frames (Laura Ashley) that were nearly $100.00 more. Then, a few days later they called and said they found a pair of the original frames I chose, and I would get both pairs at no extra cost. So now, I have two pair of prescription sunglasses to switch off. I also now officially have cataracts, so will need eye surgery within a few years.

My husband was supposed to go to a conference yesterday and today with men from our church, but he got sick with some kind of bug and ended up not being able to go. He got up, was already feeling sick, but tried to go anyway, only to turn back halfway to the church. He was very disappointed, because he really wanted to go, he’s never gone to anything like this before. Hopefully he’ll be able to go next year!

Well, today, I’m going to go to a Mary Kay thing a friend at church is having, then I’m going to pick up the last bit of groceries I didn’t have time for the other day. Then, I guess, since it’s time change weekend, and I have to be at church by 8:30 tomorrow morning to practice with the choir, it will not be a late night for me, lol!

How was your week? Write about it and link up over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers. For the guidelines, please click the graphic below:

As always, I’d love it if you joined me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”! Just enter your email into the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog, and never miss an update! And, if you do enjoy “My Journeys”, please go to our Facebook page and “like” it. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

Leave a comment

Filed under Weekly Wrap-Up

Tagged as

February 28, 2014 · 10:38 am

Weekly Wrap-Up . . . Another Birthday!

So, Tuesday was “The Artist’s” Birthday, and I had spent several weeks seeking out things that went along with his request for drawing materials. REAL drawing materials, artist quality. He noticed that I had bought for myself a set of black sketching pencils complete with one of those kneaded erasers (because I am attempting to learn Zentangle, which I’ll write about in a future post), so I got him a set too, at Michael’s.

Here are a few photos of “The Artist” opening his gift . . .

First, the big box!
2014-02-25 05.05.29

Here are the aforementioned pencils . . .
2014-02-25 05.07.47

And a set of artist quality color pencils he had specifically requested . . .
2014-02-25 05.07.25

“The Artist” also received a variety of sketch books and sketch pads to put his artwork into . . .
2014-02-25 05.07.04

2014-02-25 05.06.32

2014-02-25 05.06.13

2014-02-25 05.06.03

And a book called Cartooning For The Beginner . . .
2014-02-25 05.08.09

Last, but certainly not least, “The Artist” received his much requested Nintendo Eshop card.
2014-02-25 05.04.17, which is now burning a hole in his pocket, lol!

We went out to dinner at a local Chinese place called Tao’s Chinese Bistro, which was quite good, and left enough extra that everyone had more for lunch on Wednesday!

As far as homeschool stuff this week, we were kind of laid back, as I’ve not been feeling well lately. We worked on a couple of review products that I posted about here and here, we did our piano practice (one of these days, I WILL remember to video either the practice or lesson time, or both, and post that), and we went to both Homeschool Park Day and Piano Lesson yesterday. Yes, we are able to go to Park Days in February, and we LOVE that! 🙂

So, how was YOUR week? Why don’t you blog about it, and then link up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers, like I’m doing? It’s really easy, just click the graphic below for the guidelines . . .

Write your post, then go here and link up at the bottom of the post. That’s all there is to it! While you’re there, check out all of the other bloggers writing about THEIR weeks! 🙂

As always, I’d love it if you joined me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”! Just enter your email into the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog, and never miss another update! And, if you do enjoy “My Journeys”, please go to our Facebook page and “like” it. I’d sure appreciate it if you would! 🙂

1 Comment

Filed under Birthdays, education, home education, Kids, Weekly Wrap-Up

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

February 22, 2014 · 7:47 pm

Weekly Wrap-up . . . A Week Late!

I didn’t manage a weekly wrap-up last week. I’ve been ill off and on for the past couple of weeks, and then last week, I broke my glasses!!! All is well on that front though, this week I got a replacement pair, though I’m still waiting on my prescription sunglasses (a needful thing in a state with at least 300 sunny days per year).

Anyway, back on February 7, we had another co-op day with our church homeschool group. This time, it was all about nutrition, manners, and physical activity.

My friend Aimee, one of our fabulous homeschool moms, was in charge of putting this one together, and she really made it fun! Here, she is teaching the kids what would NOT be good table manners, LOL!
2014-02-07 02.41.14

Aimee discussed with the kids the importance of good nutrition, and of drinking enough water every day, especially living here in the desert.
2014-02-07 02.06.54

The kids learned about the importance of good posture, and in this video, you can see some of them attempting to practice USING good posture!

After all of this, we moved to another room, where we worked on stretching . . .
2014-02-07 03.09.35

2014-02-07 03.09.00

2014-02-07 03.11.12

Exercises . . .
2014-02-07 03.27.14

And a game to work on good sportsmanship!
2014-02-07 03.40.38

This is one of MY favorite photos of the day, two of our toddler friends! 🙂
2014-02-07 03.24.58

So, this was a good homeschool day, in the midst of my not feeling well off and on. My kids really enjoy our co-op!

This post is being linked up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers. To get the guidelines for the weekly wrap up link-up, click the graphic below:

As always, I’d love it if you joined me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”. Just go and enter your email into the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog, and never miss an update! And, if you enjoy “My Journeys”, please, go to our Facebook Page and “like” it. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

1 Comment

Filed under Church, education, exercise, family, home education, Home-school Group, Homeschool Group Monthly Activity, Kids, Mesa Baptist Church, Weekly Wrap-Up

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,