If Only For a Moment

Certain people touch your life if even for a moment.  Looking back over my life there have been a few people that I “knew” for only a few minutes and have made a lasting impression.  Leaving a grocery store with a toddler on my hip a wounded veteran in a wheelchair stopped me.  He was selling stuffed Shamu toys to raise money for veterans.  I told him I didn’t have any cash and I wouldn’t be able to help him out.  He insisted that my son take one of the Shamu toys anyway.  Now, 8 years later, that toy sits on my son’s bed.  Though a toddler at the time, Nathan remembers the story, I often told him, of how he came to own that stuffed Shamu.  He sometimes mentions the kindness of that wounded veteran.  Though that man was only in my life for a few moments, he has forever touched my life. 

Work on House

Oh, I can't forget this post!  Over the summer my friend Megan and I put up a tile backsplash in my kitchen.  Megan has experience with mosaic tiling and talked me into doing this ourselves.  It turned out great - but started with a long process of choosing tile, borrowing no less than three wet saws and two long days of tiling.  My only tip, make sure you have a decent wet saw and an awesome sharp blade for that bad boy!

School Year 2013-14

Pictures from the first day of school

Now that we are in our new house the kids are zoned for Vineyards Elementary School.  They have a uniform dress code - which parents really like and Nathan seems to be getting over his distaste for it (at least I haven't heard him talk about it lately).  

Audrey is in Kindergarten with Mrs. Sharp - she has 21 kids in her class

Nathan is in 3rd grade with Mrs. Addis - 17 kids in his class

Summer 2013

As it turns out I am probably close to the worlds worst blogger.  But I guess it doesn't matter because it doesn't seem that anyone missed the posts while I was "out."

There are a few things to post about from over the summer - (funny that I have to look back over the pictures I have taken to see what sorts of things I need to post)

The big deal this summer was our three week vacation to Michigan.  All of our family is from Michigan.  We use to go up to MI during the summer and at Christmas (and before Nathan started school we would go up 3-5 times per year) - now with Ryan's big job we can't make it up for Christmas anymore.  It is going to be an adjustment for all of us.  But if I have to choose between a long trip in the summer when we can be outside and do lots of fun things with the family and a crammed, cold, short trip around Christmas - SUMMER IT IS!

I'll let the pictures tell the story.  I will caption above the photos:

Fun with cousins - Alaina and Zachary

(Didn't notice until now just how much Alaina and Elysse look alike - hair parted on different sides but these girls look a lot alike!)  Audrey - hmmm not sure what that face is all about.

Boat and fishing with Grandma Karen and Grandpa Jim

Park in Lake Odessa

Fishing at Great Grandma Brace's house

Hike on an old Indian Trail

Trip to the Detroit Zoo

Green Field Village

Audrey's try at modeling... No future...

Road Apples

More modeling??

Watering a garden with Uncle Chad

More fun at cousins

Grandkid Picture

Elysse on Lake Michigan

 Building Sand Castles and Flying a Kite

The Badger - takes people from WI to MI everyday

Riding with Grandpa Beadle on the tractor

We had an action packed three weeks and I didn't get pictures of everything but we had a good time.  While visiting family we made sure to get in some fun activities - Nathan and Audrey went camping, we stayed at a condo in Ludington on Lake Michigan, went to Michigan's Adventure amusement park, went fishing and to parks, Detroit Zoo, Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.

Having so much fun in Michigan makes the kids miss it all year long...

Beadle Academy

Summer is here!  It is rainy and drippy but I don't care.  We all feel less pressure now that school is out.  But that doesn't mean we stop learning!  A good friend of mine from Asheville would have "home summer school" during summer breaks.  I loved the idea and the kids did too.  We did it for two years in Asheville and then skipped last year as we moved back to Florida.  The kids were not happy about my decision to skip Beadle Academy last summer so we are back on.

Nathan:  The focus this summer is on reading, writing, math, piano and spelling.

Audrey:  The focus this summer is on site words, reading, handwriting, coloring and cutting.

Elysse:  The focus this summer is on learning the alphabet by sight and sound, counting and coloring.

Today was the first day of summer and we jumped right to it.  We have a large quantity of workbooks thanks to a friend of ours and a couple that we have purchased along the way.  Though we use much more than just workbooks. They do however, provide the outline of what we do on a daily basis.

My very favorite workbook is Summer Bridge Activities.  It is a workbook that bridges the completed grade to the next grade your child will enter.  The book is split into three sections for the typical three month summer.  Each section has 2 workbook pages for 20 days.  It includes reading, writing, math, science, social studies and fitness.  It is very well designed and it is fun for the kids.  Apparently there is also a free online companion - but I haven't had a chance to check that out yet.

Audrey wants to know when Beadle Academy begins and ends each day, what time we do each activity during the day.  I have explained to her that this IS summer and we might not need that much structure - but she said if we are doing school we need to do it right.  I then introduced her to the thought behind montessori schooling - after all it is just me with three children all of different ages skill level - kudos to the homeschooling mommas because I could't hack it, but summer is fun.


The best part about Beadle Academy is quiet time - this is one "activity" that I have scheduled.  It is built in around Elysse's nap time it begins between 2:00 and 2:30, for the bigger kids quiet time is one hour, for Elysse it is however long her nap takes...

Cute Girls

 Elysse let me do her hair!

Audrey thought she should get a picture too.  

She always lets me round brush her hair.