Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Free Giveaway from DNG!

I love a good giveaway.  My friend and fellow homeschooler is a reviewer for Download-N-Go. It is a cool website that has unit studies of all sorts.  It is a fun thing to do if you are looking for something different.  Go to her website here and comment on her blog to win a study on tigers. 

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Losing weight-Update

Well it has been a roller coaster but I am at 17 lbs weight loss! Here is a picture.

Beach
























It is October and in Texas it is still warm outside.  We decided to take a trip to the beach yesterday with some good friends.  The kids had a blast and I am so glad we went!  Here are some pictures of our good time.

Tot School-Threading

We have been doing a couple of new things with Charlotte one is using buttons and plastic thread to practice her fine motor skills.  Here are some pictures.  She did very well with this activity and it kept her busy for a while. 



You can see that the shapes are all different.  Her favorite ones were the strawberries and apples.  We also talked about color although she could care less.  This activity was done in my lap and she was very content with that. I helped her only once before she had it down. 

To Halloween or Not to Halloween

This is a struggle I have every year.  I have no feelings towards Halloween.  To me it is just another day, the last day in October.  I really don't care about this last day in October.  I never have. I am sure I never will.  So why do I even bring it up?  Because I have 3 children that know about the last day in October, that talk about it in August and that have been counting down the days with the ticker in the corner of the television screen.  Not to mention the displays all over town in every single store front.  The costumes and the candy falling over into the isles of Walmart.  The elaborate decorations in my neighborhood where folks have turned their front yards into grave yards. It is all a bit ridiculous.  If I had the choice we would just go away that day to another land that doesn't know anything about Halloween. 

Growing up we never went trick-or-treating.  (I think Mom let us do it twice.) So Halloween was never a big deal, well maybe it was to us kids, but not to my mom.  We would stay in and have ice cream for dinner and watch the Star Wars Trilogy or something else just as fun.  So the tradition and memories that drive so many of my friends has no effect on me.  So why should I do it?  I don't think I should but there is guilt that I feel about not letting my kids do it.  I wonder if my mom ever felt the same way.  She was very opinionated about such things.  But there were those 2 times she allowed us to go.  Was this guilt?  I don't know.  I do remember that it was super cold and although we got a lot of candy it wasn't what it cracked up to be.  Should I allow my kids to make memories of the last day in October?

Our church has a fall festival that we have gone to in the past.  The kids are getting a little too old for it and honestly it is too many people in one space and I always get stressed out.  Every year I say it is the last and this year we will NOT be going.  But what about trick-or-treating?  I don't know.  I am interested to know how some of the readers feel about it all.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Letting Go

A few weeks ago I blogged about getting rid of all of the excess.  Today I finally had a garage sale that I would say was pretty successful. The thing is that I felt very sad and even though I liked counting the dollar bills I felt like I was getting rid of something that I really should be holding on to. 

I am a big purger.  I always throw away more then I should.  My house doesn't always reflect that because to be quite honest...I LIVE HERE! But for the most part I like to throw things away.  Never in my life have I experienced something like this whole clothes thing.  I can't get rid of my kids clothes.  I don't know why.  Jackson was 5 before I finally got rid of all of his clothes.  FIVE YEARS of holding on to that crap.  Even when I was ready to do it I still felt bad after.  The same thing today.  There was still a lot of stuff left over but I could not bring myself to take to Goodwill.  I needed to hold on to it. 

It is all still sitting in my car.  No one other then the driver can get into the car because of all of the clothes.  Little pieces of cloth that represent memories over that last 5 years.  It is hard.  I am sure I will get over it soon. Just not today.