First Day of 2012/13

First day of school at Oak Creek Academy has come to a close; we're winding down with an episode of Star Trek Voyager!  Here is some glimpses into our day!

 One of many different "First Day of School" treats I'd

seen on Pinterest; also one of the easiest to make.

 Had seen these Cheeze its while picking up

other things for our first day.  Let the creative

juices flowing for the wording.

 Hello dollar bin at Wal-mart!  Lots of candy labeling posting

at Pinterest so it was easy to make something for candy.

 Here is most of Thing One's "new school day" loot!

He tends to get stuff in blue.

 The green version for Thing Two.

 Total impulse purchase!  Green and blue, how could I say

no to these!  Boys seemed to enjoy them too.

 Close up of shirts for physical educations!  The boys

were shocked that it didn't say Oak Creek Academy.

 Thing One's close up.  His sign says,

Oak Creek Academy

2012/13 School Year

Well Hello 7th grade

I'm ready to build a great year!

Thing Two:

Oak Creek Academy

2012/13 School Year

Watch out 4th grade ~

I'm ready to knock it out of the park!!

 Really getting tired of the photos and

ready for school.

 One more close up!

The day itself went fairly well.  They breezed through math, got through grammar and spelling (both a little shocked that we're doing formal spelling again!  Oh well kids get over it!).  Probably the best portion for both boys was mentioning it was time for Five in a Row and Beyond Five in a Row.  I didn't quite get to letting them ordering which books were first, second and so on like I'd planned, however it all worked out.  When I told Thing Two we were rowing "Roxaboxen", he was totally excited.  As always, he said it was his "favorite" and went off to get the book and manual for me.  He enjoyed doing some map work of the Southeast.  When it was Thing One's turn, I gave him a choice of the three books we had not covered in Volume Three of Beyond.  He was excited to row "Cricket in Time Square"; we read it about 5 years ago for a different curriculum and he was eager to read it again.  We spent about half an hour "exploring" some aspects of New York City.  He was excited by all this enough, he wants to write a report at the end of the week.  We'll see on this one.  Thing One even asked for more school.  UGH is all I thought, it's one day down and I already want a break (didn't sleep well last night and felt very exhausted after covering the basics).

The fall out from a crazy day and crazy school day when

no "margin" was planned for.  REALLY need to remember

that one later.  It's not such a good thing to have things stacked

that we can't clean up afterward.

The house was left as above, we got ready to zip out for Monday's therapy, briefly filled Kevin in on thoughts for dinner, and headed out.  Got home almost three hours later to a house smelling of dinner!  Thankful for a husband that likes to cook!

Feet are up, winding down, and looking forward to a better nights sleep.  Bring on day 2!!!

Picture update ~ Finally!!!!

Finally getting around to updating with a few photos! A few weeks ago, I blogged about the tomatoes turning orange.  Here's a link to the post, with a photo now!

Also, I wrote about about "Who do you look like?" and mentioned who I thought Kevin looked like and the one time I've been mentioned to look like someone else as well.  Here are the photo's I mentioned.  I'll have Kevin scan them in, so I can get better copies (I just took photo's of them because I don't remember how do scan!  Whoops!!).

 In this photo, from just about 16 years ago,

Kevin reminds me of the Eric Clapton photo I had posted.

Here's the photo, that a co-worker told my MIL

that I looked like Geena Davis.  Not sure I see it,

but that's okay.

When looking for the top photo, it was like strolling down memory lane.  It was a Sweet Sixteen party for a friend of ours ~ Cortney ~ she's now married for just over 12 years and has 2 girls.  Time is flying crazy like!  Think I may have to pull a few other photos out, to be scanned, and put up on facebook.  So neat to see these girls married (or soon!) and having kids.  Granted, in that photo, Kevin and I weren't even engaged either.  We were engaged that August!  16 years ago on 8/7/12.

 

Book Lists ~ Why so many??????

In the last few months, I have seen MANY, many, MaNy lists of books "You need to read to your kid by this age or grade"! Some of the lists I've looked for, some have come across my screen via Facebook, Pinterest, or the like. Following are the most common books across those lists (and it's a much shorter list too):

• Wind in the Willow by Kenneth Grahame
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien and others in the series
• Laura Ingalls Wilder series
• Shel Stevenstein's books ~ Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, The Giving Tree, etc.
• Charlottes Web  by E.B. White (throw in Trumpet of the Swan and Stuart Little if you want another series)
• Phantom Tollboth by Norton Jester
• Dr. Suess' highlights ~ Green Eggs and Ham seems to be the most common book with a sprinkling of others (our favorite is still "Go Dog Go" to quote and read)

Many include the Harry Potter Series, among other books.  However, for me, the books I've mentioned seem more classics I want to expose my kids too.  We have not been big readers in our household (parent driven here - I am still a recovering Dyslexic and it gets hard to read any book at times), but with the upcoming school year I'm hoping to add more time for parent lead reading time.  These books I've posted are ones I don't feel by boys will be "too old" to sit and listen too".

With this, I bid you adu and happy reading!

 

A look at a Sunday Evening

It's Sunday evening here! Sitting home, alone, and it's actually okay.   Kevin and the boys are over at church helping set up for VBS which starts tomorrow.   I helped for a bit, but my back started giving out, so I came home and took extra strength stuff so I'd be ready for tomorrow.

 Once again, I'm finding my heart turn toward school for the boys.  I am finding myself getting excited about school for the boys.  I am excited about how to "shake" things up and make this year better than last year.  I'm having fun thinking of things to make and/or buy, for the first day of school (thanks Christy Mitchell, for the idea, if you are reading this).  I'm thankful for home schooling being a choice. I'm thankful we've made that choice to school our boys at home (or where ever necessary! :grin:). I'm thankful that we will be starting our sixth year in just a few short weeks.  I'm thankful for living in an area that is rich in history and places to visit as a result.

Many, many things to be thankful for.  In the coming days I'll post more of gifts we're making or buying, the subjects/curriculum we'll be using, "out sourced" subjects, etc.

Enjoy your Sunday evening!
 

Who do you look like?

I don't get many folks telling me that I look like "so & so". At one point in time, someone told my mother-in-law, that I looked like Geena Davis based off of Kevin's and my engagement photo.  Hhmm, not so sure!

Kevin on the other hand, gets told he looks like George Lucas.  Funny aside, during 2011 Christmas Choir Practice, our worship director said the band had "George Lucas, Pocahontas before she cut her hair, and Reba McEntire".  There was a good chuckle if you knew the band.

Anyway, today while listening to Pandora, an Eric Clapton song came up.  The cover of the album made me think of Kevin.  It struck me how Kevin looks similar to both.  He'll be quick to retort, "I may look like him, but I don't have his bank account!"  So I leave you with a couple photos to ponder what my husband looks like!

And yes, I am still "missing" my camera cord!  And yes, I do have photos of Kevin on my Mac, but will look through those later to see what I have.  Come back tomorrow, or some time soon, and maybe I'll post our engagement photo and some of Kevin and you can let me know what you think.

 

Our crazy pets!

I am often baffled by our pets. Any one of them have done things that just amazes me at times! Not including aquatic pets (you know the ones that need to live in water, that some parents don't have a knack for keeping alive!), we have had 2 cats and 2 dogs.

K.C. was my first cat.  While I lived in an apartment, before Kevin and I were married, she would jump 4 or 5 feet off the ground to "attack" moths outside the sliding door.  It always surprised me how high she could jump.  She was the one, also, that would come running, about 2 seconds after starting to open up a can of tuna fish.

Gremlin came along to keep K.C. company.  She is a Himalayan cat; basically, think of a Siamese cat with long hair.  She weighs about 5.5 pounds and is now "top animal" at the Brock household.  In her youth, she'd come running for tuna; not so much anymore.  She'd love to play with crushed up receipts and would bat them all over the house.

Maggie was our first dog.  A mutt of three small breeds.  Not a whole lot I remember about her, as she's been gone almost 11 years.

Charlotte, our second dog, seems like she is all nose and ears.  She can smell fish, meat, and string cheese even in a dead sleep.  She will beg, crazy amounts, for said meats, fish, and many dairy products.  She can get quite annoying begging for yogurt with berries mixed in it.  This dog can jump, too, maybe not as high as K.C., but can still manage to get over our fence.  She has the closing of our screen door timed beautifully and will dart out, on occasion, for a lap or two around the front yards of our neighbors.  She sure is pretty to watch run.  Have you seen a coon hound or grey hound run?  There is such joy in the dog's face as they run.

Yesterday!

Didn't blog yesterday, although I had a great topic - lack of electronics.  Our power has been restored from the storm that blew through on June 30th.  All of us seemed to be glued to electronics and not actually interacting with each other as much as we should.  Kevin knows this is a huge source of frustration to me, that we do our individual things, for way to long in a day, in front of a screen (as a side note, his work doesn't count toward that ~ he HAS to use a computer to earn his paycheck).  We get hung up checking up on everyone under the sun from facebook friends, to random bloggers who we don't know and may not need their input on whatever, to reading book reviews of books we'd never read, to reading several news websites that are basically saying the same thing.

So yesterday after a huge lunch, and a little screen time, there was no screen allowed.  Reading an actual book made of paper and cover, coloring, Legos, napping, biking, arts & crafts were allowed.  I curled up and read for awhile in bed, in case I fell asleep.  Thing Two fell asleep playing Legos, Kevin dosed while reading, and Thing One goofed off quietly.  When I came back down, Kevin went up to sleep and Thing One fell asleep on the couch. 

It was really enjoyable having a different kind of quiet house yesterday afternoon.  Will definitely have to repeat in the near future.
 

Firsts on the first!

A couple firsts on the first for you!

Thing One was dropped off late morning for his third, week long summer camp.  The first for me is that I didn't feel nervous leaving him.  He's comfortable going, it's his third trip with a couple of the guys who've been together since Tigers as Cub Scouts and 2nd year with his Boy Scout troop.  He really enjoys scouting and I am thankful that it is a good experience for him.  That it is a safe troop to learn how "to be a man" in, to learn to be a man of God in.

Second first for the day ~  I have a cherry tomato finally starting to turn orange.  It is still a yellow/orange color (heavy on the yellow), but it's changing and not green anymore.  This one will probably be plucked off the vine and eaten warm!!  Yummy!  And if I ever find my camera cord, I'll upload a photo of it!
 

ETA a photo of tomatoes!  They are pretty good.