Back to school

Today was our official day for back to school. Actually, we have been schooling for the past two weeks. Shek received his assignments at orientation two weeks ago so he has already been back to the grind. Since he was back at it, I started Jolie as well.

 He was headed to Konos this morning when I made him pose for this photo. He will attend Konos classes for instruction one day a week. We will follow up for the remainder of the week with a get r done work ethic before next  Wednesday.

 Jolie wanted her first day of 2nd grade photo taken in front of the horses that live next door. The horses are not ours but Jolie likes to have them in her photos.

This year we are trying to hit the park in the mornings for a 3 -5 mile walk or jog, I am out of O2Gold   which makes running easier so until I get my order of it in, the jogging will have to wait. . We plan to go at least 3 times a week maybe 4. It's important to get out in the fresh air and exercise.

 Shek may also start practicing tennis with his dad in the early morning hours too, so that the evenings can be devoted to math.

 Jolie is loving her new cursive handwriting book, and enjoying a unit study on the American girls. Right now, we are reading Kaya. She is also reading Rod and Staff Bible readers.  We are also studying the Prayer of Jabez for Children. She really wants to play the piano and/or violin, but her oldest brother needs to help her with that. lol On Thursdays, she goes to Gam's for art lessons and projects and I volunteer/doorhold at church, and sometimes I take one of the older kids with me. I think it's important to instill a love for serving, especially at church. We look forward to a fun-filled school year chock full of learning, growing and serving.

School in Session...well almost

IT's almost time for school to start. We start after labor day. Shek will attend Konos Academy one day a week. We will tackle his math and science at home. Jolie longs to go to Konos too, but she's not old enough. I can't take the kids to two co-op/hybrids so I will do ALL of her school here at home.

I've dusted off all my old Hands of a Child lapbook/unit studies as well as the Konos Curriculum and I have a plan for the whole year. This year we will be doing the American Girls unit study from Hands of a child, we will do a unit on bees, kings and queens, light from Konos as well as a Christmas and Thanksgiving unit study, I'll end the year with a Ocean Unit study, Blueberry sal and probably Bees with a trip to Strawberry patch which also has a bee hive.

We will also use rod and staff Math and Bible Readers.

Looking forward to getting started....after Labor Day

teacher treasures

This past week, I tackled a closet that I have been ignoring for  a while. It was the hall closet and had seemed to become a catch all for everything. I kept the door closed, what is out of sight was out of mind, well sort of ....I knew it was there and needed to quit dreading it and just clean it out. The thing about cleaning out something means there's probably going to be a larger mess before we get to the clean and orderly. AND so it was, it's hard to believe that such a small closet could hold that much stuff. 

I found a lot of junk that needed to go away, but I found an odd little treasure as well. In the bottom of the closet under some boxes and stuff I found  a file folder. I thought that it was something I had used when I sold Southern Living at Home, but I opened it and realized it was my file folder that I used the last year I taught High School Literature. I opened it, to see students' names for each of the files. My oldest, Zach, was one of those students that year. In each folder there was one lone assigment that had not been picked up by the students. It was dated January of '09, so why I still had it was amazing to me. The assignment was called Perfect mate. IT was as assignment given to the students when we were studying Romeo and Juliet. On one side the students described physical and personality traits that they desired in a future mate, They also had a space provided to guess what qualities they thought their parents would desire for them. On the back side, of the page, the parents were asked to do the same. 

This was the last year that I taught high school Literature, so still having these was a treat to find. Many of the students have already found their mate, or they are engaged, and some have children. It was neat to see what they wrote and what their parents wrote all those years ago.
When I read Zach's, I still have the same desires in a mate for him, and he still agrees with what he wrote on his paper back when he was in the 11th grade. 

One of my students said she desired to marry a cowboy, with a job and a truck. I am friends with this former student on facebook, and from what I can tell...she did marry someone with those qualifications. Reading all the qualifications from students and parents alike was so thrilling all these years later.

I am glad that I cleaned out the closet, not only did I clear out some trash, make a garage sale pile, organize my closet, but I was rewarded with this little treasure from my former students. I had the best students of all time back then.

Hitting the trail

This summer has been a very HOT, so we did not hit the trail walking or jogging as much as we should have. Recently, my parents found another local park with the best walking trail around. Most of it is shaded, and there's lots of nature to explore. There is even a babbling brook. It is next door to a small airport, so we see small planes take off and circle the area a lot. Once there were helicopter that seemed to hoover over the trail. I was concerned that possibly they were looking for someone. EEK! They moved on so no bad guys were lurking about.

The Wilderness

Last weekend, my family and I went to Lydia's cd release party. She grew up in the youth group with my oldest kids and has always been singing. Last week she released her awesome cd, The Wilderness, which was produced by Riverstone Music group. My oldest, Zach  and his college roomate Eric, formed Riverstone and produced her cd. She has an inspiring backstory. Check her music out on itunes  purchase it, roll down your car windows, sun roof and turn up the tunes.

stylin'

Karlie has been growing her hair out for years only getting a trim every five weeks and a little hair dye every 10 weeks. Recently, she decided to go for a new look. She had tried layers with out really touching the length, but decided to go for it and cut off about 6 inches. It's still long enough for a pony tail or a braid if she wants one. Cutting off that much hair can make one nervous, but she was excited to see the final look.

Peachtree Road Race

Back on July 4th we participated in the Peachtree Road Race. The largest 10k in the world, I think. It's a big deal. This is the 3rd one that I have had the privledge of participating in. It was also the absolute hottest one I have ever been in. It was EXTREMELY hot. People were dropping like flies. Do flies drop? Maybe people were dropping like raindrops...it was crazy. We stopped for a few minutes ourselves for a break, but we did finish and we have the Tee shirt to prove it.

 I wore my favorite Auburn shirt, even though I went to Mississippi State. Karl wore his Auburn Cap. Auburn peeps are the friendliest, we heard many War Eagle greetings through out the race. 

 Gam and Pop joined us. This was Pop's first road race and Gam's second one. 

 This was Karl's first peachtree as well.

 Shek's second!

 We finished and snapped a photo at the finsh line.Shek had left us in the dust and was waiting on us at park.

 I"m praying for cooler temps next year.

And the shirt was worth it..don't you think.

Tennis

Tennis is a year round thing with Shek. He plays when its cold when it's hot when it's just right and when it's not. During tennis team season it's especially busy for the family. We love to see him play the game. We enjoy his passion for the sport. We admire his champion attitude to improve daily.

Tennis Team Brothers

good music doesn't have an expiration date

Zach is working toward ordination as a worship pastor. He also continues writing music and has recently put on the producer hat as he and his friend have joined forces and are using their God gifted talents and passion for music.

Zach doing what he loves!

  

 Zach with his Pastor

 2nd year ordination certificate

Zach and Eric producing Music...good music doesn't have an expiration date.

A girl can never have too many lipstick options

"A girl can never have too many lipstick options." Zoe Sugg.  Karlie has always loved makeup. It's been her desire to become a makeup artist. She recently finished her makeup artist course at Atlanta Makeup Academy. She enjoyed learning so much from her instructor and looks forward to more opportunities to learn and work in this field.

Here she is with a stocked makeup kit, a certificate and a smile. 

You can follow her on facebook or check out her website karlieceleste.com

Fit Fine and 91

When I was a little bitty girl, we lived in a trailer in Honey and Lovey's yard. I have vague memories of it, but I do remember living there for a time in a green and white trailer. In this photo, Honey is younger than I am now, and she was a grandmother. Too young to be called granny, she was  named Honey.

Last year we celebrated her 90th birthday, and I reached out to all of her nieces and nephews and had them send her cards with memories that they had of her over the years.

I am so glad that they all sent in those happy memories. She treasured each card and memory, and in the past year, one of those nephews was killed in a car accident. 

This April, she turned 91. I tried making an icecream cake. Next time I will leave it to the professionals!

Honey on her 91st!

Mother's Day 2016

Mother's Day 2016

At Church on Mother's Day, there was an awesome backdrop and real photographers taking mom's day photos. TO me the best gift, is an awesome photo. So in between services, and serving, I met my kids and we had a photo snapped. Since I didn't get the wear pink memo, and everyone was not present, because we all go to different churches, we did the whole photo thing again at Mom's Day lunch with the family.

 The Multi-generational Mom's Day photo....I changed into a more color-coordinating outfit to match everyone else.

Me with all four kids. 

Alive

My number one prayer for all my children has been that they would Love Jesus from an early age and live for Him all the days of their lives. Last year, Jolie, prayed to Jesus asking Him to be her Lord and Savior. She wanted to be baptized at church to share with everyone that Jesus is her best friend, her Lord and Savior. We talked about baptism and how it is just a symbol that shows everyone about your love and commitment to Jesus, similar to how wedding bands symbolize a love and marriage commitment to each spouse. We met with the leaders at church, she shared her story. On April 24, baby number 4 was baptized showing that she loves Jesus.

Jolie said she was nervous, and that her knees were shaking, but she did great. Her wonderful leaders gave her an awesome new pink Bible and a cupcake from Sprinkles. We celebrated with the family after church at California Pizza Kitchen.

During the time that Jolie was baptized, our pastor was preaching on the labels that define us. He reminded us not to let anyone but God speak over us. Many times we allow someone else to label or define us with negative words of death. During the label maker series we were reminded that God speaks to us that we are chosen, we are holy, wer are able, we are heirs, we have purpose and we are alive. On one of the Sundays, we could stop and get a photo made with a label that we thought defined us especially. Jolie wanted to have her photo made and she chose ALIVE. What an awesome choice! She knows at age 6 that she is ALIVE in CHRIST.