Chicken Chores

 

I thought I would take the time give you a run down on our chicken chores.  We have 5 chickens. 

Every day we the kids go and check for eggs. 

Every other day we usually Tommy or I clean out the bottom of the water container, and spread fresh chicken scratch on the ground for them to peck at.

About once a week we Tyler rinses out the entire water container and refills it.

This is Tyler’s favorite job.

He even has to help us carry it!  It is really heavy.

When we freshen up their water we Emily or Tommy also cleans out and refills their food container.

 

About once every other week, we Paul replaces the pine shavings with fresh ones.  The nastiest job if you ask me.

   

About once a month (sometimes more) we, yes we, move the coop around the yard, so they have fresh grass and fresh bugs to eat. 

Tommy was mowing the lawn when we did chicken chores this day. 

So if you were wondering….. Now you know.

Cleaning Playlist

Remember a few weeks ago when I cleaned out my storage closet?  I mentioned my cleaning playlist and had a question about it.  So here is the explanation. 

Whenever I am going to do a deep clean, (about 1 hour or so of straight cleaning) I crank up my cleaning playlist on the iPod and I dance around cleaning. 

It really motivates me and makes the time go faster.

What type of songs are on my playlist? 

They are mostly upbeat songs that I know the words to.

I have a guilty confession.

I LOVE THE BLACK EYED PEAS!

I know most of their songs. 

When they were the half-time show at this years Super Bowl, I almost died!

Anyways, enough about them.  Obviously my playlist consists of most of their songs, I have others thrown in.  I love Country Music too, so there is much of that.  Tons of Faith Hill, and Luke Brian!

If it’s upbeat and I know the words, it motivates me. 

I have had the playlist so long that it just works, I feel like cleaning when I play it.

This Works for Me, and will be linked up to Works For Me Wednesday over at We are THAT Family.

 

How to have a H.E.A.R.T. For Your Kids.

Have you ever gotten something that you didn’t even know you needed and then you realize just how bad you do need it?  That happened to me. 
I just had the opportunity to change my life, better yet, my children’s life's.   I read How to Have a H.E.A.R.T. For Your Kids, by Rachael Carman. 

This book really is so much more than it’s title.
  H.E.A.R.T. is an acronym
Have a Heart for the Things of God.
Enrich Your Marriage
Accept Your Kids
Release Them To God
Teach Them the Truth

  Now I do love my children very much, I always have, so I wasn’t really sure that I needed this book, but boy was I wrong. 
Let me take you chapter by chapter about how this book changed my life. 
In the introduction, which you can read here, I met Rachael Carman.  I really got to know her and she sounded just like me.  I had never intended on homeschooling.  It just came about after many promptings from God.  I found out how she became a homeschool mom.  I really related to her.

Have a Heart for the Things of God.
In this chapter I learned that while worship is important, WHAT REALLY MATTERS IS YOUR PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD!  This chapter totally motivated me to pray more, and really rely on Him more in my life.  I want a much more personal relationship with Him now. 

Enrich Your Marriage
In this chapter I learned to live in a marriage that IS worth defending.  In a world where marriage is becoming less and less common, it is more important to live in a marriage that shows your children what marriage should look like, so they can grow up and take marriage as serious as it is.  I learned how it is important to my children as well as my marriage to take special time together as a couple. 
Accept Your Kids
In this chapter I learned some things I already knew, but are hard to come to terms with such as; your children are you, only magnified.  I need to act like the kind of person I want my children to be.  I also learned that you need to accept your children for who they are, and that doesn’t mean you need to approve of everything they do, or even let them do whatever they want.  The book talks about how your children want to be shown and told they are loved and most importantly that GOD LOVES THEM!

Release Them to God
In this chapter I learned to realize that I want more for my children than for them to just be happy.  I want them to do what God has called them to do.  What if I am raising the next Mother Teresa or the next President of The United States?  My children are God’s children first, he is letting me take care of His children.  I need to take that VERY seriously.   

Teach Them the Truth
In this chapter I learned while academics are important, is God going to care how smart you are?  No! Is God going to care about your morals? YES!  Teaching them how to read the Word of God and how to understand It are of the upmost important.  The choice is ultimately theirs but they need to be taught the Truth. 

The book ends with an Epilogue and Acknowledgements which are totally heartfelt. 

This book touched my heart more than I knew I needed.  If you are feeling like you aren’t doing enough or that you are not happy with who your children are then this book could be so helpful for you. 



The book is a nice small size hard bound book.  It fit perfectly in my purse, so I was able to take it anywhere and read it, my favorite place to read it though was outside while watching my children play in the yard. 

It’s quite the opportunity to get to review a book for me.  My life has been so blessed in the short time since I read this book.  It will definitely get read over and over again.  

I feel like buying this book for everyone I know!


This life changing book is a mere $13.00 from Apologia. 

Apologia is well known for their science curriculum, but they are so much more than that.  They offer all kinds of curriculum.  Check out their catalog here. 


Others reviewed this as well check out this post to see what they had to say.

I am blessed to review many products for TOS Crew this product was one of those. 

{I have not and will not receive any compensation for this review.  All opinions expressed herein are my own based upon my experience, yours may differ.}

Tot Time

Tyler loves to help with chicken chores.  He loves to fill up their water. 

When it is full, he gets so upset. 

We solve that problem by having him help us carry the water to the coop. 

He colored with chalk outside. Call me crazy but I really think he wrote a T and a Y, he kept spelling his name out there too.  T Y L E R.   

He spent some time playing with his Singing Elmo again.  He has  really been loving that thing lately.  His favorite song is “If Your Happy and You Know It.”

I took him bowling with the family.  This was the first time I let him actually bowl. He had a very hard time taking turns.  He always wanted it to be his turn.  It was often quite embarrassing the scene he was causing.  Needless to say, I didn’t get many pictures.  I was in control mode.  

He was also our science project photographer. 

 

That’s what I get for leaving the camera in his reach.  (Yes, that IS a towel on my head.) 

Guess what else was in his reach.  Blue food coloring from Emily’s science experiment.  He got it all over his hands and face. 

 

I guess it gave us a chance to work on blue, right. 

This week was crazy as it was our official first week of school.  Next week will go much better, when we start incorporating B4FIAR.

This post is linked up to 1+1+1=1 for Tot School.

What to do on the first day of Public School.

Public School has started here and we spent the day schooling in the morning and then we went out for a family fun day. 

We went bowling. 

I set Tommy and Emily up on their own lane and I set Katey, Tyler and I up on the next lane.  Boy, am I glad I did that.  

This actually turned into an educational experience.  Tyler definitely needed a BIG lesson in taking turns!  This was the first time that I have actually let him bowl.  He was more than excited.  Which is why I wasn’t able to get many pictures.  I had to keep track of him.  He kept on grabbing all the balls and trying to throw them down any lanes. 

We asked to go and see the back of the alley.  They  let us!  I have never seen the back of a bowling lane before.    It is much more complicated then I had imagined.

 

The employee was so nice and explained a lot to us.  There were even some other people bowling so we were able to see to see the machines in action. 

 

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It was so much cooler than I could even get pictures of. 

I love it when a normal activity turns out to be an educational one.

After that we went out for to our local bookstore with an ice cream shop in the back.  We bought some new books, and had ice cream.  We window shopped at the hobby store.  Next, we headed to the library.   

 

All in the day of a homeschooler. 

First Week of School 2011

This is our first week of school, and if you remember from our curriculum post, we are going to use K12 this year.  I will still be adding in some things of our own. 

Our week began with an online assembly to meet the teachers.  Then we went right into testing.  They test at the beginning of the year and at the end, to see how far you’ve come.  The tests were honestly a huge pain.  Emily hated them mostly due to internet problems we were having that day.  I tried calling and of course so was the rest of the town, so I didn’t get through.  UGHH!  Ok, back on track.  Later that night they had our internet back up and Emily was able to finish her tests. 

The next day felt like a regular (if there were such a thing) homeschooling day for us.  Emily did everything I asked her to do that day.  We are using K12’s curriculum, however, I am not exactly following their schedule. 

She had previously done a few lessons, so she is already even ahead in her work, according to them.  I am grateful for that even though I did plan it that way (and obviously a plan I stuck to =)).  This way when we do our “stay-cation” we won’t have to worry about falling behind to their standards.   

I have to mention how weird it feel to write this post, all this they say and falling behind, being ahead, it just feels weird.  I am not giving up because of that yet, though. 

Day 3 felt like a day that was more our way.  We worked on our assigned schooling for that day in the morning, then we had lunch, cleaned up and I told the kids I had a surprise for them, that they need to put socks and shoes on.  We went bowling and got a way cool tour of the back of the alley.

 

Emily stayed up late, late with me and we watched Top Chef, Just Desserts, while I worked on some advance prep work for Katey and Tyler. 

Day 4 We woke up at our regular time ready to learn.

Emily got out some art supplies and decorated her math notebook.

She has always struggled with lining up numbers properly in problems.  Our solution to this has been to use the notebook sideways.  She never misses a problem now because of the numbers being lined up wrong. 

Day 5 Fridays are usually saved for science, art and/or music. Here are some highlights from that day.

Emily did her first actual science experiment of the K12 curriculum.  She is learning about the ocean. 

Yes, that is a towel and my head, and Tyler, my two year old was the photographer.  This is life!

So sorry about the two year old fingers. 

Her experiment was to see the layers of the ocean water.  She mixed up 3 cups of different colored water, each with varying salt levels. She slowly filled them with a beaker and then let sit for 2 minutes.  Then she examined it and filled out a science journal. 

It was hard to see the layers unless it was in natural light. 

 Katey’s week is all mashed together here.

She worked on letter L from All About Reading,

she moved right along in ' target=_blank>Explode the Code as well.  She is also working on counting all the way to 50 without any mistakes.  She can count that high, actually higher, but it seems to be that she gets flustered and skips a number or two (usually 12 or 13 and 27).

 

So we tried counting objects in groups of 10.  We will just continue counting daily for now, hoping this corrects that. 

She is also reading words with sounds, th, sh, ck, and wh.  We made a sight word ball to help with that.  

 

We have also been discussing where we live, city, state, country, continent, world.

While we didn’t get everything on the list done each day, I still feel very great about what we did.  I really feel like we are beginning to get  into the groove of things.  

To keep this blog completely honest, I feel I should disclose that Emily did have rough spots every day, except today, where she would just break down in tears over simple things.  I am still trying to decide if it is the curriculum, or if it is the lovely pre-teen years.

Next week, I will go back to my regularly scheduled format, with highlights by age. 

Tot School

What the two year old has been up to can be seen posted on Sunday.

 

In my spare time

I have still been busy reading The Help every free minute I get, which obviously isn’t much or I would have finished it by now. 

That is it!  I have barely been able to sit down this week. 

I am really hoping to finish it this weekend!

This post is linked up to Weekly Wrap Up over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Wahooo!!!!

 

Two reasons really, first is we went to a water park and had tons of fun.  Second reason is I finally tried my hand at Digital Scrapbooking and…… Da da dum. Here is my first page.

 

I used Creative Memories Storybook Creator.  I still have my eye on Adobe Photoshop Elements.  We shall see if I actually dive in and buy it. 

Here are a few more pages.

 

 

For all of these pages I used Everyday Template. 

Earthquakes and Fault Lines.

Edited to add:  This post was written about a week before the recent earthquake happenings.  I am very much praying for all those affected.  It makes me even more grateful that we have been discussing this and preparing for one ourselves. 




Recently in our family we have been getting together our 72 hour kits.  We have been talking a lot about emergency preparedness.  This shows us just how close we are to a fault line. 

We decided to take our family on a scenic drive.  Not very far from us is the Uinta Crest Fault Line.  It was an amazing site to see, the entire drive was beautiful! 

Emily wasn’t to keen on going, she really wanted to stay home and hang out with friends.  Her attitude changed after she saw how cool this was. 

In fact, the entire way Katey kept on saying how it was so cool.  There were amazing towering rocks that appeared to come straight up out of the ground.  We were able to see wind erosion in the rocks.  But the most amazing sight we saw was the Uinta Crest Fault Line.  

Can you follow the fault line through these pictures?

It was truly majestic.   It also opened up the doors for us to talk about fault lines and earthquakes and earthquake preparedness. 

I had a guide from our Chamber of Commerce about this drive and it explained to us some of the geology of the rocks, we still wished it was more detailed. We will begin checking out geology books from the library and researching, then we will go back.  

My husband is a genius!

 

Well neither one of us can take credit for this first idea, because I got it from the back of the ice cream cone box.  We love peanut butter at our house.  When I was growing up I remember my mom eating it by the spoonful, and I still do it to this day.  YUMMY.  I haven’t been able to find my favorite kind of ice cream lately.  It is chocolate with peanut butter swirled throughout it. 

 

Well I didn’t have any chocolate ice cream but we decided to try this anyway.  We spread peanut butter inside of the ice cream cone and then scooped our ice cream inside. It was so so YUMMY!!!

 

Now here is where my husband showed his  genius side.  He said I need an ice cream cone holder.  He got a tall shot glass and it works perfectly.  The ice cream never tipped.  This way we were able to dish up all the ice cream cones and present them to the kids as a surprise. 

I married a smart man!

We caught another one.

Those silly caterpillars when will they learn that if they come on our patio, my children will catch them.

Emily caught this one and has created quite the nice habitat, which it did already escape from once, I think we fixed that. 

After we caught it, we went to our favorite butterfly/caterpillar/moth website, and sadly (I really want a butterfly) discovered that this will be yet another moth, just like the last two.  Ahh, it’s okay, we enjoy raising them. 

Tot School

This week Tyler has been up to so much.

We had a very fun last week before we officially start school.

We went to waterpark after waterpark after waterpark.

 

Tyler and Daddy floated around the lazy river.

We hiked around Fantasy Canyon.

He colored in his same old Cars coloring book. 

He has almost colored on every page in that book. 

Tommy read him the directions in a workbook, but Tyler just colored it how it wanted to anyways.

We went to the waterpark near us 2 days in a row. 

On the first day Tyler hung out a lot on the chairs playing angy brd peas (Angry Birds please)

We did do some swimming and I even took him down a waterslide.

The second day was an evening party.

He loved the watermelon!

We did not get in the water as much this day.  It was too cold for us wimps. 

I seriously got so sick of Tyler’s toys all over the front room floor every single day. 

So I decided to do a clean out of his toy box. 

Emily loves organizing, so she helped me. 

Tyler didn’t seem to mind or even care.

He just kept singing if your happy and you know it clap your hands into his microphone.  His version sounds more like “Happy, Happy, Happy,”

So as you can see, his speech is really coming along, I mean really.  In the car on Friday, Emily kept having him say words and there wasn’t a word he couldn’t repeat.   I am so proud. 

This was our Tot School this week.  To see what other tot’s are doing check out Tot School over at 1+1+1=1.