Archives for May 2012

Homeschooling year by year!

When we began homeschooling we knew that we would take each year as it came and pray for what God wanted for each child.

We’ve had one go to K4 and K5, one to 2nd and 6th grade and one to Montessori school for 1st grade.  Otherwise, it’s all been at home.

Most of you who follow my blog know that we’ve spent quite a bit of time and money at LearningRx this year.  It’s been that year for us.  Homeschooling and LearningRx.  Not much else, has happened otherwise except football.

Oh, I did forget we moved twice.  How could I forget that!  And we’ve had several deaths….my mom, a best friend’s daughter, my brother-in-law’s mom.  But all of that is another story…..I wander.

Back to school.

This year we tried many things for my 7th grader that did not work.  We began with one math curriculum and ended up with Teaching Textbooks which my son LOVES.  We also began one Language program, tried another and then made our own.  We’ve taken a lot of what we learned from IEW and applied that to our language this year.

Grammar?  We tried Grammarlogues but my son didn’t like it.  So we moved onto Vocabulary Cartoons and have used that for spelling, vocabulary and stuck Grammar in with language.  Back to pronouns, nouns, diagramming.  All those things boys LOVE!

My son also does not like fiction so the “normal” books don’t work for us.  He’s read ALL IN by Gene Chizik, Auburn’s coach and  Tim Tebow’s book – Through my Eyes.  Now, it’s his Science book he reads for reading time.  We’ve tried several nonfiction books but besides Diary of a Wimpy Kid, nothing has ever worked.  He’s a fact guy.  He’s practical.  He also spends a lot of time reading his History Book (Abeka 6th grade) for pleasure.

School has always been different for him.  He doesn’t conform to the norm.  He’s a very intelligent but he’s very different.  Thus, my gift from God on Christmas Day.  Born 12-25-98, nine days past due.

This year God has placed on our hearts for the children to go to a private Christian school.  We don’t know how we are going to afford it but we know if it’s God’s will he will provide.  He always does.  I don’t know what He is preparing the kids for.  I don’t know what he’s preparing me for, but I trust Him completely.  (Might I clarify that with “as completely as I can at this time and place in my life”).  It’s hard to let go of my chickens and intrust them to another where learning is concerned, however, I feel it’s His will for next year.

What will the following year look like?  Who knows.  I have trouble going past today.  I’m thankful that He keeps me reigned in to today, for it’s all He’s given us.  I fondly remember these days….

and these….

I am trusting that the One who does this:

…..can do just about anything HE so desires in the lives of my children.


Memorial Day Weekend

We drove to Scottsboro, Al on Wednesday for our nephew, Brock’s, high school graduation.

It was a great trip.  I don’t think I’ve been to a graduation since my own.  After one more niece I will be attending my own children’s graduation.  I felt very nostalgic watching the ceremony.  What a momentous occasion in those kid’s lives.  At 47, looking back, there is wisdom you know will come that as high school graduates seems unfathomable.  Oh, to know then what I know now.

I believe the biggest wish I would give myself is the ability to trust God’s leading, to hear that small still voice, to follow it and be able to know that voice from all the others that compete for my attention.

The night before graduation my mother and father-in-law gave Brock the nicest graduation party.

My proud husband and his nephew.

Brock is going to Auburn.  My husband went to graduate and undergraduate school in Auburn.  So, yes, we are die-hard fans!

Brock graduated at the top of his class and received an academic scholarship to Auburn University!  WAR EAGLE!

After graduation we enjoyed my in-laws beautiful yard.  I know they spent hours cleaning for the party.  Thanks guys!  We loved it!

My nephew was off to the beach with his friends as we prepared to drive back home to the nice tropical storm/hurricane that landed smack dab in the middle of Jacksonville!

However, we had a one day of relaxing by the pool and enjoying the garden before returning home.  Rocketman (my husband) likes to drive through the night so we all sleep while his sips coffee and drives.  Thanks babe!

This small critter joined us poolside.

Hope you had a great Memorial Day Weekend!  We were blessed with 3-6 inches of rain!  The ducks are dancing (sorry, I missed that shot)!!


Abnormally Normal

These are the photo processing choices I usually make but I often don’t stand on the beach as a subtropical storm bears down on me either.  So it’s Florida and I feeling a little grungy in my processing!!

The angry the sea yesterday!

No one was allowed in the water and most were leaving the beach (crazy people)!  Cool photographers though!!


Someone’s turning eight…

She honestly was born just yesterday.

She called out, “My boys, my boys” every time she saw her brothers.  She cuddled with my youngest son in her crib (video proof).

Now, on Memorial Day, she is eight.

It’s hard to believe growing up happens so quickly.  Days sometimes crawl but as you look back they were gone in a single breath.

We celebrated her birthday with friends by a chilly pool, but kids don’t care!  They had a blast.

One forgot her suit so she swam in her clothes.  We’re easy like that.

Her brothers even made an appearance.  This is one of my favorite shots.  Something about the tilt of his head, the texture of his hair….

Life flies by so quickly.

Go hug your kids.


Photography Actions

I love Pioneer Womans Actions as well as MCP Actions.

So I wanted to share a few of my before and afters with you.  (After posting I realized this isn’t EXACTLY the same shot, but goes with the 4:30am editing)

Before:

After:

One Click Color by MCP Actions at 40%   –   Lovely and Etherical at 100%  by Pioneer Woman Actions   –   Selective Sharpening turned up to 80%

Then here’s baby girl:

Before:

And After:  One Click Color again/ Raised exposure in Camera Raw and used MCP’s Magic Powder

I should have lightened up around her eyes some more but oh well….it was 4:30 this morning and I couldn’t sleep.

Here’s one more but I couldn’t tell you what I did!!  I just love her hair in this one.  It needs a little more work but here it is anyway….

Before:

After:

I had such high plans of this being a great tutorial but my early morning wakefulness got the best of me.

Enjoy anyway!


Rain, Glorious Rain!!

Last night we finally had rain.  Real, pouring down, thunderous, booming rain!

It was glorious!

Jacksonville has resembled the Majava Dessert.   I swear a scrub brush flew by yesterday.

This morning our neighborly little friends were bathing outside the house.  Of course I ran for my camera.  These were my favorite shots.

Isn’t her reflection spectacular?

Don’t you wonder what they are thinking?

Oh, to be a duck!


He’s our hero!

All three of my boys had football games on Saturday.

There are times when son #3 takes an interest and other times when he doesn’t really care about what’s going on.  But I’ve noticed this season as we have progressed so has he.

Saturday I watched him run for 40 yards or so, but my proudest moment was this one.

He was chasing after the guy carrying the ball, got trampled, picked himself up and pulled the guy’s flag.

I tell ya, it was a moment that would make a mama cry!

Enjoy it in pictures as I did on a breezy Saturday morning in Florida…

The collision…(he’s the guy on the right getting clobbered)

The knockdown….

The pain…

And the snag!  You go little man!  You’re our man!


A little Photoshop!

I’ve been playing with some new techniques with Photoshop and wanted to show you the end results.  I’d love to tell you all I did but I was interrupted so many times I don’t know where to begin.

Cropping, Clone Stamp and some Camera Raw adjustments and here you go.

Before:

After:  (no kids in background, no gatorade on ground, no poly cone).  One photo I did not center him but he likes them centered so I did this one for him.  Usually, he’s left or right of center.

So go play with Photoshop!  I love the YouTube tutorials!  This one is my new fav because I shoot with a high ISO at times to capture the action on the football field.  It reduces NOISE or all those annoying speckles.


Mom’s Night Out


My Main Squeeze

It’s been a long time since I’ve sat and talked about my walk with the Lord over the past two years.

Since moving to Florida we’ve been on an amazing journey.  My darkest times were during our first year here.  We were renting a house, homeschooling in a far smaller space than we had done before and living in a gated community for the first time.  Yikes.  We’d moved from rural SC where peeing in the back yard was a sport in and of itself.  Now, we received nasty grams about the very way I’d potty trained three boys.  I cried.  I longed for our former home.  The kids missed their friends.  I missed my friends.  I wanted our yard, our woods, our life for the last 10 years.

I longed for the lifechanging Bible Study I attended.  I think I took one year off in my 6 years of having 4 children.  Those women there were my lifeline.  I grew, I cried, I loved and I was loved. Some of my best friends are still in my life because of our vulnerability shared during Bible Study.

There were nights of sitting on the porch crying with a friend from home because I’d had a child diagnosed with ADHD but had no answers, one wasn’t reading and I didn’t know how to help and one was dying to get out of the house and go to school.  My life was falling apart.  I felt like a failure as a mom.

The first year was dark, yet I knew Florida was where God wanted us.  Why?  He was certainly the only one who knew!!

As the first year morphed into the second light began to shine.  We discovered LearningRx through a friend in our homeschool group.  It was there I began to find answers to help my kids.  The folks there were kind and seemed truly interested in my children.  They offered hope.

Fast forward to today as I sit reading The Purpose Directed Business by Ken Gibson.

For those of you who’ve read The Purpose Driven Life you know what an impact that book can have on your life.

“It’s now about you.”

And it isn’t.  Those words offer so much freedom.  Freedom to be messed up, sad, happy, uncontrolled, hopeless, hopeful and most of all totally dependent.

Today, I sit and read feeling excited.  I’m excited that the man who founded the company God has used in my life is a Christian.  I’m excited to be a partnering parent with LearningRx.  I’m excited that none of this is really about me or about cognitive thinking skills (although high on my list), it’s about God.  It’s about what He wants to do through me, in me and for me.

He’s my Main Squeeze.  And I say that with the upmost respect.

To the one who knows me like no other…..“Thank you dad!  Thank you for stirring in me a desire that comes through you to reach other moms and children for your glory!  Open the eyes of my heart to see and love those you put in my path.  Expand my territory.  Be huge.  Be God!!”



image