Thursday Thirteen #9

13 Homeschool Curriculum Favorites

I admit it, I'm a book-o-holic! I love books of all styles, but lately homeschool books really peek my interest. Since we began homeschooling almost 9 years ago, we have acquired quite a large library full of books. Here are some of my most favorites...all curriculum books that we have used over the years.

1. The Prairie Primer by Margie Gray/Cadron Creek
2. Galloping the Globe by Pettit & Mullins/Geography Matters
3. Cantering the Country by Pettit & Mullins/Geography Matters
4. First Reader by Phyllis Schlafly
5. Exploring Creation Series by Jeannie Fulbright/Apologia
6. WriteShop by Kim Kautzer and Debbie Oldar
7. Sing, Spell, Read & Write
8. Medieval Renn. & Reformation Times by Beautiful Feet
9. Spelling Power by Beverly Adams-Gordon
10. Saxon Algebra 1 by Saxon Publishers
11. Words on the Vine by Claudia Vurnakes
12. Character Sketches by Bill Gothard/Inst. in Basic Life Principles
13. Apologia General Science & Physical Science

Photo Hunt #100 - Different

OK, in keeping with the Photo Hunt theme and also with updates on our new dog, Cody...these photos are the best I can come up with. See how DIFFERENT Cody looks? Read my previous post to see why he looks so DIFFERENT. Hopefully his coat will grow in soon...he looks so naked right now...cute, but naked!

Update on Cody

Wow, has it really been a week since I posted? I have been so tired lately and haven't had much time to get online to update my blog. Cody has taken up what 'free' time I had. He has been a great dog, but he came to us with a LOT of baggage. Here's the update:

• On Monday we brought him to our Vet. He was extremely scared to leave the house but we got him there without any major problems. He still wasn't doing well on the leash at that point, se had to carry him in to the office. Once in there, he decided to leave a present for the doctor - he pooped right there in front of him. It actually was a good thing because they needed a stool sample anyhow. Cody was very obliging! ha ha The Vet checked him from head to tail. They found a few things wrong, but nothing that wasn't 'fixable'. He had ear mites horribly! His ears were filthy dirty and the mites were infesting them so bad, he must have been in such pain. They flushed out his ears and cleaned them out...they're a pretty pink now!! We got medicine for him and have to put it in 2 times a day - plus clean them out daily. He also was found to have round worm. He had to be dewormed in the office. The worms came out the next day which we were thankful for. We could tell he instantly felt better - amazing! Cody's teeth also aren't the best. The Vet said to us "he's how old??" We told him he was 15 months. He was shocked at how bad his teeth were for a young dog. He was NOT cared for at all!!! Besides those issues, he had a couple shots - one being a steriod for his ear problem.
  
• On Tuesday we brought him back to the Vet's office for a much needed bath/groom. This particular Vet we found is absolutely wonderful! It's actually an animal hospital and groomer all in one. We dropped him off in the morning and picked him up around 3:30. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! The poor guy had to be shaved. All his poofy hair is gone. It was not only mangey, but was matted, and had ticks in it. He must have been in agony!!!!! The groomer was wonderful with him - she cleaned him up and made him smell wonderful. His coat is so soft now and he looks different, but very happy. What a relief it must be to him not to be infested with all those bugs! The ticks were removed and he is feeling refreshed...it's quite obvious. He is still scared of everything, but we're taking one baby step at a time with him. This was a huge step for him though.
  
• On Tuesday night I was sitting on the floor petting our newly groomed and pretty smelling dog when I found a lump on his left front leg. It was black. EEW! Another tick! Apparently the groomer got most of them, but left this one last tick. I immediately put the Frontline oil on his neck which he was due for anyhow. I figured that it would most likely kill the tick during the night so we could get it off safely in the morning.
  
• On Wednesday morning we ended up bringing him into the Vet's office (per their request) and they looked him over for more. This was the last one and fortunately it was dead. They got it off immediately and he's now as good as new and is totally bug-free! Yahoo!! This should never happen again now that he's being cared for and has anti-tick medicine on him each month. We are so thankful that God lead us to this particular Vet, and we're thankful for them...they all have been wonderful with Cody and are encouraging to us in caring for this oh-so-neglected dog!!!
• Each day has brought new surprises for us...the bad surprises are in the past. Now we see new exciting things in Cody. He is eating much better for us. He drinks his water when he wants to without worry or fear, and he sleeps well in his crate. He also goes outside on his leash without fighting us. He has grown quite accustomed to who we are and knows when we say "Cody out", that he must go out and do his business. After that 2nd night home, he hasn't gone to the potty anywhere but in our backyard! He had 2 accidents the first 2 nights home, but that was because of his extreme fear and nervousness. He's not nearly as bad now and each day he is improving little by little.
  
• We have gotten him to venture into our living room - a huge undertaking for a dog that was constantly shaking from fear. He lies on his fluffy bed while we all take turns petting him. He's even eaten his first few treats the past few days. This dog knew nothing about food but his boring doggie dry food. He never had a treat, never slept on anything soft, never was kept inside and was never loved by humans!!!! He is a true rescue dog. His breeder should be ashamed of himself. I don't even think of the place as being a breeder, but as a puppy-mill! I wrote several emails to them and explained my disgust for how they treated Cody, but they deny everything. SHAME ON THEM! I am now debating whether or not to report them online.
  

Here are more photos of our Cody...he does look different now, but his big fluffy coat will grow in soon! We are excited about our future with him as we love him SO MUCH!!! The kids adore him and spend as much time with him as possible. He is so gentle and doesn't have a mean bone in him. He has not once attempted to growl, bark, jump up or do anything bad towards us, and we've been pretty forward with how we touch him, pick him up and clean his ears etc. too. We put our hand in his food dish and carry him outside to the yard (since he has yet to walk out there alone - still fearful). He's going to be a great family dog and we're glad to have him in our lives!!! For those of you who know us personally...we can't wait for you to meet him!!! He'll melt your heart as he did ours.

Prayer Request

I know it sounds silly, but if you read this, could you please pray for our new dog Cody? He has been extremely depressed since getting him at the airport a week ago and nothing seems to help. He has eaten a little and drinks now and then, but not enough. Tomorrow we're going to the vet to see if there's anything medically wrong with him. This is not normal behavior for a dog and we're very worried about him!!! He is so gentle and sweet. It's either severe depression or he's sick. I'm hoping for neither, but in all honesty, I'd rather him be sick with something that could easily be cured...then maybe we'd see a bit of life in him. If it's depression, it could take months to 'decompress' him.

We have been patient and persistent with our care. We have taken him out to go potty (having to carry him out!!), but he doesn't go...inside or out! He won't get up and walk around the house to explore, and he won't play with his toys or eat any treats we offer him.

Here he is laying in the corner of our yard 'hiding' from everything and everyone. He's on a leash with a halter, but he absolutely hates it since he was never trained. The first thing he does when brought outside is take off for the furthest corner of our yard.



The breeder we got him from really did him wrong and we ended up learning about this after he was paid for and shipped to us on the airplane. Information about him was withheld from us and the only reason we're not sending him back, is because we already love him and do not want him going back to the horrible situation he was in! We are determined to give him a loving home and safe environment to play in and enjoy. He's still a baby - only 15 months, so he has a long life ahead of him. We want it to be the best one possible, so please pray!!!!! Pray also for strength and rest for us. We are tired and sore...from lifting him up to go out, and trying to be consistent in caring for him.

Thanks in advance for your prayers...they are appreciated greatly!!!

Photo Hunt #99 - Party

When I look back at all the birthday PARTY celebrations I had, they make me giggle. Here I am at a couple different parties. My birthday is around Thanksgiving, so we used to celebrate at my Grandparents' house right after the Thanksgiving dinner. Oh my, just look at everyone - how frumpy can you get?? How times have changed huh?!?

My 1st birthday!


My 7th birthday!


NO comment on the crowns!!! Those days are over, no one buys them for me anymore. Hee hee!

Friday Faves #11 - Beverage

Friday Fave #11 - Favorite beverage

Well, I do enjoy a nice cold ice tea or lemonade in the summer-time, but hands down my favorite beverage of all time has to be COFFEE! I admit it, I'm a coffee-a-holic! Is there really such a thing? There should be!

I love going to Starbucks, Barnes & Noble Cafe, or any other fun coffee hang out with my homeschool-mom friends for a cup of hot coffee and some fellowship! When I'm home though, I love to pop a K-cup in my Keurig coffee maker and drink it while reading a good book. If you don't know what a Keurig is, take a look:

Wikipedia describes it best: Keurig is a coffee machine manufacturing company that is a subsidiary of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. Their machines are all designed to brew a single cup of coffee at a time, in under a minute. The coffee grounds are in prepared, single-serving K-Cups. The user is required to insert a K-Cup, place a mug under the machine and press a button."

Here are some fun and interesting facts about coffee:

• With the exception of Hawaii and Puerto Rico, no coffee is grown in the United States or its territories.
• The term "Cuppa Joe" came from "G.I. Joe," who always had his coffee.
• It is estimated that 100 million Americans drink a total of 350 million cups of coffee a day!
• In 1732, Johann Sebastian Bach composed his Kaffee-Kantate. Partly an ode to coffee and partly a stab at the movement in Germany to prevent women from drinking coffee as it was thought to make them sterile.
• A mature coffee tree will produce one to two pounds of coffee per growing season.
• Some of the worlds most powerful business, including Lloyds of London and the New York Stock Exchange, started life as a coffee houses.
• In 1683, one pound of coffee in New York was worth as much as 4 acres of land.
• Espresso has 1/3 of the caffeine of a regular cup of coffee.
• We say coffee beans although they are really berries.
• Beethoven who was a coffee lover, was so particular about his coffee that he always counted 60 beans each cup when he prepared his brew.
• Dark roasted coffees actually have LESS caffeine than medium roasts. The longer a coffee is roasted, the more caffeine burns off during the process.

Well, I gotta go grab a 'cuppa joe' and finish the book I'm reading.

Thursday Thirteen #8

13 Things I love about our new dog

Our 15 month old dog, Cody, is more of a rescue dog than just a new dog we purchased...he was pretty much neglected where he came from. He was left outside all day long and didn't get much, if any, human interaction. We are giving him a warm loving home. We hope and pray that he will feel like he's an important part of our family. We love him already!!! What do we love about him?

1. He's adorable
2. He doesn't make my allergies go crazy!
3. His coloring - more like a golden retriever than a poodle
4. His big eyes
5. The cute paw prints he makes out in the snow
6. He makes my children happy
7. His big fluffy tail
8. He doesn't bark - not yet anyhow ha ha
9. When you pet him he just lays there and enjoys it
10. He is slowly realizing that our home is 'safe' for him
11. When he tilts his head, he looks so cute & innocent looking
12. He lays down in front of our food pantry, causing us not to eat as much since we don't want to bother him - that's a good thing! ha ha
13. He is giving our children a sense of responsibility!

Our newest family member has arrived!!!

Well, Cody arrived home and is safe and sound!! We are so thrilled to have him in our home. As of now, he is still quite traumatized from flying in from Kansas! He went through a lot yesterday, and it will take some time for him to get used to being here in his new home. Here he is with Lionel:



Cody is a 15 month old Goldendoodle and looks more like the Golden part than the doodle part...if that make sense. He is Lionel's dream dog since we can't have a Golden Retriever due to allergies.

Please pray for us and for Cody...that his transition will go smoothly. He is very quiet and is not being social right now as he is trying to figure out what happened to him yesterday. We are giving him lots of love and are doing our best to be patient with him. He will need to be leash trained as he was a farm dog - always outside and always without a leash. It won't be easy, but with persistence and patience, we'll get there. I did talk with the vet today and they were encouraging.

Here are a few more photos from our trip to the airport to pick him up...

The plane landed safely...


Getting ready to unload...


Unloading the baggage and cargo...Cody is there somewhere!


The first moment we met...one very nervous (and rightfully so) dog!


Finally home...time to unload.


At home in the kitchen...where he is still wondering where he is and how he got here.


I'll be posting more photos once he comes around and livens up. I don't want to take too many and scare him even more with the flash! Please remember to pray for us all...thanks!

Photo Hunt #98 - Wooden

Lionel's violin is wooden...and it sounds simply gorgeous!


In keeping with the whole musical theme I'll include some other instruments we have...our wooden piano, wooden piccolo, wooden flute, and wooden alto recorder. I left out my husband's entire clarinet collection - it was just too much to ask him to drag them all out simply for a photo!

Friday Faves #10 - Magazine

Friday Faves was officially canceled, but I had so much fun doing it, so I decided to make my own Friday Faves graphic and keep it going. If you'd like to join me, feel free to use my graphic (copy it, don't link to it!) for your site and post a comment here letting me know. I hope to put a Friday Faves list on my sidebar soon so you can participate and know ahead of time what the next 'fave' topic will be. For now, check here each week for the fave topic.

Friday Fave #10 - Favorite magazine

I love reading magazines of all types. I enjoy Country Woman, The Old Schoolhouse, Creation Magazine, Digital Scrapbooking, the History Channel Magazine, Birds & Blooms, and Home Education, but my absolute favorite magazine lately has to be Log Home Living!

I always wanted to be an architect, I love anything country, and those two are definitely represented in this magazine! My husband often brings me home various log home magazines (there are a few great ones!) and I sift through them all and drool!! I will always wish I pursued my dream career, but as long as I have these magazines to read, it'll be enough for now. My life is definitely complete, so I don't need to be going back to school again...I still have 11 more years of homeschooling ahead of me! When all is said and done, I'll have gone to (or taught) for 38 years of my life! That's enough for one person, don't ya think?

Thursday Thirteen #7

13 of my favorite movies

I love watching movies, especially when snuggling up on the couch with my hubby, a warm blanket, and a hot cup of tea! I do enjoy movies of all styles, but my favorites are period movies, suspense/thriller movies, and of course the old stand-by, romance movies. It won't be easy picking 'just' 13, but here are the ones that come to mind without too much thought...

1. Sense & Sensibility (as if you couldn't tell!!)
2. Becoming Jane
3. Return to Me
4. Pride & Prejudice
5. Amadeus
6. My Best Friend's Wedding
7. Anne of Green Gables 1 & 2 mainly
8. The Sound of Music
9. Miss Potter
10. Bourne Identity/Supremacy/Ultimatum
11. The Princess Diaries 1 & 2
12. The Net
13. The Queen

Photo Hunt #97 - Free

Revelation 1:5-6 sums up what it means to be 'free' quite well....


Yes...I this is an actual photo that I took myself...a macro of the verses in my Bible...for anyone who may have thought I scanned the page. = )

Homeschool Convention or bust!

I know it's still early, but I am quite anxious to go to the homeschool convention/curriculum fair this spring!!! There's just something exciting about planning out the next school year and buying the books and supplies that make me happy. Is that sick or what? ha ha

I'm doubly excited about it this year because we're taking Lionel and Sweet-Pea with us. The fair we attend is about an hour away. We could go up for just one day, but the fair lasts all day Friday right through to the end of Saturday, so it's worth making a weekend event out of it. In previous years, Edward and I would go up alone for a nice romantic weekend, but we figured that this year we would make it a family event. There's not a whole lot of time for romance anyhow when picking through books all weekend long! hee hee I'm actually excited about having the kids along this year...it'll be fun to see their reactions at all the vendors and books available to them.

If you've never been to a homeschool convention, here are a few hints I'd like to share with you...

• Take a quick walk-through when you first enter the vendor hall...they're usually overwhelming and if you know what lies ahead, you won't be foolish and spend all your money in the first aisle. Make a plan of attack!
  
• Bring your own bags or even a suitcase with wheels (the kind airline pilots use) so you don't feel bogged down with all your purchases. Many convention sites have a baggage check-in so you don't have to carry it all around, but a rolling suitcase or large shoulder bag does help!
  
• Be prepared with a list of your favorite curricula - look at those first and before you make any purchases, go and check out all the other vendors to see if another curriculum suits you better. Don't go with your blinders on...look around...open up books and read through them. Look at the scope and sequence. Most importantly, speak with the representatives...yes, they are there to sell you their items (I have yet to come in contact with someone who has been pushy and tried to 'sell us' on something), but they are also quite knowledgeable about what they're selling. Many times you'll find the creator of that particular curriculum there as well.
  
• Bring a notebook and pen/pencil for taking notes during the various seminars they usually offer. At the fair we attend, you are able to purchase audio cd's of the speakers which is wonderful. If you don't have time to hear every seminar on your list, buy the cd instead...but buy the ones that interest you most so you can refer back to them over and over again. When you're done, donate them to your homeschool group library if you have one.
• Bring a calculator and notepad so you can keep tabs on your purchases - as homeschoolers, many of us are one-income families so money is tight. Be careful not to overspend...it's so easy to do with all the 'goodies' around..and I don't mean food!
• Grab a brochure from each vendor if you're able to. Bring them back to share with others in your homeschool group who may not have been able to attend.
• Get on every mailing list you can...some of you may not agree, but in my opinion, the more options you get in the mail for homeschooling ideas and curriculum the better. You can always opt out later on with most companies by sending a quick email. You'll even find coupons and some freebies this way!
  
• You may want to carry a bottle of water with you...although if I had to make a choice between carrying a few extra books or my water, I'd put the water down in a heartbeat!
• Don't go alone!! I highly recommend going with your spouse if that's possible, but if not, go with a homeschool friend.
• Pray! Pray! Pray! This is key. Don't jump into the convention without first going to God about the gazillion decisions you'll have to make. Pray that He will guide you and will help you make wise choices for your family.
• This important tip I learned quickly...don't go home with 'just' books for your children. Buy them something fun to play with. Some items we've purchased in previous years include: stuffed puppet animals, a huge wooden map puzzle of the USA (4'x6'), various board games, audio books, coloring books, dolls and more. The ideas are endless and most likely what you'll purchase will be very educational.
  
• Keep in mind who you are there for and what your purpose is!!!
  

Well, I'm off to start my list for our next school year...I'm so excited...but maybe you've already figured that one out.