We've moved. Finally. It all came down to (and I am summarizing big time here) just packing it up, throwing it in a box and putting it all in storage. It took us three full days of stress, pressure, and urgency to get it all done. I am not sure we had anyone who didn't cry at some time during this frustrating time. The frustration mainly was on the part of emotion competing with the need to just get it done.
We now sit at our river home (our 40 ft 5th wheel) with my husband going back and forth an hour and a half away. He is staying with family and working until he sells his business. The kids and I plan to have a great summer here fishing, swimming, and crabbing. My husband will spend his days off here with us and then go back during the week and spend it there working.
We are strong. It will work.
Monday, July 1, 2013
Friday, May 24, 2013
A Homeschool Mama's Rant (and a bit of that Teacher in Me too!)
Before I became a homeschool mom I was a teacher for 20 years. I studied under the best of the best in the world of learning disabilities, Dyslexia, and social studies. I went to conferences and learned all about brain development, learning, and how to make learning happen. I studied with some of the best experts in the field of history and learned all about American Colonial times, wars, and our founding fathers. I started a private school for children with multiple disabilities, Autism, Asberger's syndrome, seizure disorders, Dyslexia, and other learning issues. I worked in both private and public schools, teaching children from kindergarten up through high school. I tested kids in both the school system and for a private organization to determine their learning aptitude, IQ and help to set educational plans with families.
Now I am just a homeschool mom.
I am on many forums and I read lots of posts from other homeschooling parents who ask for advice on lots of different things.
There are a few things that I would like to say to them but always retract my comment because it might be taken as "snarky" or "rude".
Here are a few thoughts I have.
1. For the mom of the 6 year old boy who refuses to sit still and do math: let him play. Why does he need to do 45 minutes of math a day? Why can't he practice counting and adding up his Legos or his Goldfish crackers at snnack time? And if it is the math that he is not ready for then why can't he just not do it for a while? Kids (especially boys) are not really ready for formal/traditional learning yet. Their brains aren't ready for abstract concepts like math or even reading(will get to that in a minute). Let them run and be kids and explore their surroundings. Provide opportunities for exploration, examination, and for inquisitive minds to learn on their own. Trust me, they WILL learn to do math, but may not ever really enjoy sitting for 45 minutes of hard, traditional math learning, ever. Don't force it.
2. For the mom of the 8 year old who is reading above grade level and has a hard time finding age appropriate books on her instructional reading level: my question to you is why does she have to be pleasure reading above her age level? Why can't she read books that are age appropriate even though they are easy reads? Most adults pleasure read below their instructional reading level. I can read on a post graduate level however, when I am reading for pleasure I don't want to be reading books that are on that level. I want to enjoy the story and not struggle through the vocabulary. Reading a year or two below your reading level for pleasure is what makes reading pleasurable. Let your daughter read the Junie B. Jones books and the Amber Brown stories and the Judy Moody books for fun. It increases her fluency in reading, increases her speed and comprehension in reading AND teaches her that reading can be fun. You will develop a life long reader this way. Don't push her in reading. Relax and enjoy that you aren't having to force her to read.
3. For the mom of the 4 year old who is looking for a year long curriculum for her child: SERIOUSLY???? Your child is 4! In the USA 4 years old is not a mandatory school age. Don't force them into something they aren't ready for. Take them out in the community and explore. Take them to museums, take them out to eat, take them shopping, take them everywhere and let them learn from their surroundings. Yes, you can buy educational toys and yes you can read read read to them. But why do you need a formal curriculum for a 4 year old? (oh, and this goes for the mom who has the 2 year old who won't sit through a full 30 minutes of lessons too.)
4. For the mom who is struggling with a child who has Autism or Asberger's Syndrome or Pervasive Developmental Delay: Bless you. I know it can be hard day after day to teach your child at home. Don't be embarrassed to take them everywhere with you. Know your child's limits and expose them to the world and community. Work with other professionals to develop a plan for education and behavior management. Know that you are not alone.
5. For the mom who struggles with the decision to take her child out of school and homeschool: DO IT! We have chosen this path for our family and we love it. We can't imagine going back to a public or private school now. The kids are kids again, they are growing faster than we can keep up with, and we are happy with our decision. We have sacrificed a lot to make this happen for us. We also didn't have support from family or friends. That is okay. We are happy and I love that I am home every day with my kids. They are only kids for a little bit of time and I don't want to miss another minute of their childhood and teen years.
Whew, I am glad that is off my chest.
Now I am just a homeschool mom.
I am on many forums and I read lots of posts from other homeschooling parents who ask for advice on lots of different things.
There are a few things that I would like to say to them but always retract my comment because it might be taken as "snarky" or "rude".
Here are a few thoughts I have.
1. For the mom of the 6 year old boy who refuses to sit still and do math: let him play. Why does he need to do 45 minutes of math a day? Why can't he practice counting and adding up his Legos or his Goldfish crackers at snnack time? And if it is the math that he is not ready for then why can't he just not do it for a while? Kids (especially boys) are not really ready for formal/traditional learning yet. Their brains aren't ready for abstract concepts like math or even reading(will get to that in a minute). Let them run and be kids and explore their surroundings. Provide opportunities for exploration, examination, and for inquisitive minds to learn on their own. Trust me, they WILL learn to do math, but may not ever really enjoy sitting for 45 minutes of hard, traditional math learning, ever. Don't force it.
2. For the mom of the 8 year old who is reading above grade level and has a hard time finding age appropriate books on her instructional reading level: my question to you is why does she have to be pleasure reading above her age level? Why can't she read books that are age appropriate even though they are easy reads? Most adults pleasure read below their instructional reading level. I can read on a post graduate level however, when I am reading for pleasure I don't want to be reading books that are on that level. I want to enjoy the story and not struggle through the vocabulary. Reading a year or two below your reading level for pleasure is what makes reading pleasurable. Let your daughter read the Junie B. Jones books and the Amber Brown stories and the Judy Moody books for fun. It increases her fluency in reading, increases her speed and comprehension in reading AND teaches her that reading can be fun. You will develop a life long reader this way. Don't push her in reading. Relax and enjoy that you aren't having to force her to read.
3. For the mom of the 4 year old who is looking for a year long curriculum for her child: SERIOUSLY???? Your child is 4! In the USA 4 years old is not a mandatory school age. Don't force them into something they aren't ready for. Take them out in the community and explore. Take them to museums, take them out to eat, take them shopping, take them everywhere and let them learn from their surroundings. Yes, you can buy educational toys and yes you can read read read to them. But why do you need a formal curriculum for a 4 year old? (oh, and this goes for the mom who has the 2 year old who won't sit through a full 30 minutes of lessons too.)
4. For the mom who is struggling with a child who has Autism or Asberger's Syndrome or Pervasive Developmental Delay: Bless you. I know it can be hard day after day to teach your child at home. Don't be embarrassed to take them everywhere with you. Know your child's limits and expose them to the world and community. Work with other professionals to develop a plan for education and behavior management. Know that you are not alone.
5. For the mom who struggles with the decision to take her child out of school and homeschool: DO IT! We have chosen this path for our family and we love it. We can't imagine going back to a public or private school now. The kids are kids again, they are growing faster than we can keep up with, and we are happy with our decision. We have sacrificed a lot to make this happen for us. We also didn't have support from family or friends. That is okay. We are happy and I love that I am home every day with my kids. They are only kids for a little bit of time and I don't want to miss another minute of their childhood and teen years.
Whew, I am glad that is off my chest.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Have you ever had one of those days????
One of those days where you get out of bed and forget to turn on the coffee maker and realize 30 minutes later that your coffee isn't perking?
Where you have to organize five boxes of books for the used curriculum sale but they are all in another room and you have no one to help you move them so you have to carry the heavy boxes yourself up and down stairs to get them all in one room?
Where you then grab your cup of coffee and head in the living room where the 5 boxes are sitting, sit your coffee down and look around for those little round stickers to put the prices on the books, can't find them, sit your coffee down and go searching for those little day-glow stickers?
Where while looking for the neon fashion colored stickers a child calls from the kitchen with a question on finding the degree of one angle of a triangle, so you sit down and help solve the equation, teaching her how to do it on her own, checking to make sure she knows how much all the angles in a rectangle add up to because you know that question is coming next, but still no fuchsia stickers in sight?
Where you check your desk, realize you haven't checked emails, Facebook, etc this morning, so you sit down for 10 minutes to do that and search for those sticker dots again to no avail?
Where you go into the laundry room for that was the last place you saw them and while you are in there you switch out the laundry, fold the load from the dryer and call for a child to come get their pile of clean clothes to take to their room, knowing that said pile of clothes will just end up on the floor again and back into the laundry basket to be washed before wearing yet again?
Where you take up your own load of clothes to your room, wash your face and brush your teeth, check the clock and realize it is 12:30?
Where as you are gathering up another load of dirty clothes your son comes up and announces that dad is coming home for lunch and he would like a ham sandwich and your son announces that he would like one too?
Where you go down stairs with the load of clothes drop them off in the kitchen while you make the sandwiches, pick up the load of dirty clothes to take them to the laundry room, where your daughter calls you into the family room where she would like you to show her how to wind the bobbin on your sewing machine that she is borrowing because hers is broken, so you sit down to wind the bobbin, change the foot, and thread the machine for her?
Where your husband walks in while you are putting the laundry in the washer and you tell him you want to run to the grocery while he is home so you can get some more of those silly stickers to which he grumbles something and moves into the kitchen?
Where you return to the kitchen to tell him you are leaving when you turn around, look out the window and see that the Heavens have opened up and it is POURING. DOWN. RAIN. so you decide to wait for the quick shower to pass by?
Where your husband walks into the kitchen as you are cleaning up the lunch dishes with a full cup of COLD coffee from the living room that you forgot you put there and never drank?
Where you ask your husband if there is enough money in the checking account to go to the grocery store and he says he is running to check his mailbox and go to the bank, so you sit and wait for him to return and when he does he says, "oh you are back from the grocery store already!" and heads back out to work?
Where you get the kids' shoes on and get everyone ready to get in the car to go to the grocery store and it starts POURING DOWN RAIN again {sigh}?
Where you get to the grocery store FINALLY and you find that they are marking down the bakery items for quick sale and you are the first one to the sale rack??? SCORE!
Yeah that was my day today! {said with a yummy donut in my mouth and a new cup of coffee that I just brewed}
Okay, off to go put those little day-glow, neon stickers on my books for the sale tomorrow! :) I wouldn't change my life for nothing!!!
Where you have to organize five boxes of books for the used curriculum sale but they are all in another room and you have no one to help you move them so you have to carry the heavy boxes yourself up and down stairs to get them all in one room?
Where you then grab your cup of coffee and head in the living room where the 5 boxes are sitting, sit your coffee down and look around for those little round stickers to put the prices on the books, can't find them, sit your coffee down and go searching for those little day-glow stickers?
Where while looking for the neon fashion colored stickers a child calls from the kitchen with a question on finding the degree of one angle of a triangle, so you sit down and help solve the equation, teaching her how to do it on her own, checking to make sure she knows how much all the angles in a rectangle add up to because you know that question is coming next, but still no fuchsia stickers in sight?
Where you check your desk, realize you haven't checked emails, Facebook, etc this morning, so you sit down for 10 minutes to do that and search for those sticker dots again to no avail?
Where you go into the laundry room for that was the last place you saw them and while you are in there you switch out the laundry, fold the load from the dryer and call for a child to come get their pile of clean clothes to take to their room, knowing that said pile of clothes will just end up on the floor again and back into the laundry basket to be washed before wearing yet again?
Where you take up your own load of clothes to your room, wash your face and brush your teeth, check the clock and realize it is 12:30?
Where as you are gathering up another load of dirty clothes your son comes up and announces that dad is coming home for lunch and he would like a ham sandwich and your son announces that he would like one too?
Where you go down stairs with the load of clothes drop them off in the kitchen while you make the sandwiches, pick up the load of dirty clothes to take them to the laundry room, where your daughter calls you into the family room where she would like you to show her how to wind the bobbin on your sewing machine that she is borrowing because hers is broken, so you sit down to wind the bobbin, change the foot, and thread the machine for her?
Where your husband walks in while you are putting the laundry in the washer and you tell him you want to run to the grocery while he is home so you can get some more of those silly stickers to which he grumbles something and moves into the kitchen?
Where you return to the kitchen to tell him you are leaving when you turn around, look out the window and see that the Heavens have opened up and it is POURING. DOWN. RAIN. so you decide to wait for the quick shower to pass by?
Where your husband walks into the kitchen as you are cleaning up the lunch dishes with a full cup of COLD coffee from the living room that you forgot you put there and never drank?
Where you ask your husband if there is enough money in the checking account to go to the grocery store and he says he is running to check his mailbox and go to the bank, so you sit and wait for him to return and when he does he says, "oh you are back from the grocery store already!" and heads back out to work?
Where you get the kids' shoes on and get everyone ready to get in the car to go to the grocery store and it starts POURING DOWN RAIN again {sigh}?
Where you get to the grocery store FINALLY and you find that they are marking down the bakery items for quick sale and you are the first one to the sale rack??? SCORE!
Yeah that was my day today! {said with a yummy donut in my mouth and a new cup of coffee that I just brewed}
Okay, off to go put those little day-glow, neon stickers on my books for the sale tomorrow! :) I wouldn't change my life for nothing!!!
How to Create a Unit Study around a Book. Snowflake Bentley, By Jacqueline Briggs Martin
There are so many different methodology for creating curriculum for your child. Homeschooling allows you to cater to your child's interests and needs. Here I give you just a few of many ways to create a unit study around a book of interest.
FIRST, choose a book or novel that interests your child. Often it is easiest to create a unit study from a book that is historically based, about a real person, or has a science theme.
Let's take the book Snowflake Bentley, by Jacqueline Briggs Martin.
This is a nice little book that you can read in about 5-20 minutes. It is a nice story about a man named Wilson Bentley. He was homeschooled for most of his schooling. It talks about his interests and what he did with his interests and how he made an impact on the science and weather communities.
NEXT, determine the subjects that you can pull from the book. This book has a science theme along with a history piece, and we are reading a biography. This lends itself to having a science component, a history component, a literature/writing component, and because of the topic of photographing snowflakes, art.
List the subjects:
1. Science
2. History/Social Studies
3. Literature/Writing
4. Art
maybe even Math.
THIRD, depending on your child's age and abilities you will want to create the lessons.
Let's start with History/social studies. Bentley was born in 1865. This was right at the end of the Civil War. You can discuss this. You can find on a map where he was born. You can create a timeline of his life, noting all the ages and events in his life. You can add to the time line other major events going on during his life time. (ie. wars, presidents, etc)
Science: This book lends itself well to so many different facets of science. First, he studies weather. You can study and record the weather for a two week period noting differences in temperature, humidity, or even as simple as recording sunny, rainy, and cloudy days. Next, he studies snowflakes. You can study how snow is formed, how snowflakes are formed and look at microscopic photos of snowflakes including the actual photos that Bentley took. (see notes and links below) You can study how microscopes are used and what they do. You can look in a microscope at raindrops, snow if you have some, and other items.
Literature/writing: Because this is a biography, you can look up Wilson Bentley in the encyclopedia or online and gather more information about this man and his work. You can also use this opportunity to define new words/vocabulary from the book and research using encyclopedias or online, snow, snowflakes, microscopic cameras and the sort. Have your child write a biography of him/herself or summarize Bentley's life and work. You can have your child keep a journal during this unit study of the weather, what he/she is learning, and what they think about Bentley and his works.
Art: Create paper snowflakes. Draw snowflakes on black paper with white crayon, copy some of the photos by drawing them on black paper as Bentley did. Discuss how the snowflakes are 6 sided and all the same.
Math: Chart the weather on a graph, count the six sides of the snowflake, use snowflakes to practice math facts, multiply and divide according to numbers of spikes on the six spokes of the snowflake. Just make it up as you go along. Predict rainy weather according to probability. You can do anything with math.
Be open to new ideas that arise as you read the book. Pay attention to your child and the interest level that he/she shows. Make new activities using these interests.
Create lessons to cover across your children's ages. You can beef up any of these plans for older children including having them act out his life, make a stop animation video of his life from Legos or other figures, or ask them to further research the science of snow and forecasting the snow and write a report. Also, the story is written in poem form. You can do a ton with this topic for your older children, but remember, the older kids like to make paper snowflakes just as much as the younger ones. {wink wink} Listen to your older kids' questions. That will clue you into what they want to learn and can guide you to creating meaningful projects for them too. I can't tell you how many times they ask me a question and I say, "I don't know but we can look that up. Why don't you research that and bring us the answer?"
FINALLY, determine how you will put this all together. Often times, we use lapbooks (folders) to keep and present the material we have learned. It keeps it all organized and makes an easily transportable and easy to store package.
Resources for Snowflake Bentley online.
The Snowflake Bentley official website.
A beautiful YouTube video of Snowflake Bentley's snowflakes set to music.
A Quia Quiz on Snowflake Bentley.
A great website all about Snowflake Bentley and snow.
The beauty of the internet is that as parents/teachers we have the world at our fingertips. We can search any topic and we have a multitude of great resources available to us.
Fun books to use for Unit Studies:
Magic Treehouse Books, by Mary Osborne Pope (K-4th grades)
Dear America series books (4-9th grades)
American Girl books (3-8th grades)
I Survived series by Lauren Tarshis (4-9th grades)
Don't be afraid to create your own unit study for your children. It is not hard and you don't have to spend a lot of time on it. Sometimes just reading the book together and listening to the questions your child asks you will help to create activities surrounding the book.
There are many times I just choose a book and begin to read it with my kids and the unit study evolves while we read.
FIRST, choose a book or novel that interests your child. Often it is easiest to create a unit study from a book that is historically based, about a real person, or has a science theme.Let's take the book Snowflake Bentley, by Jacqueline Briggs Martin.
This is a nice little book that you can read in about 5-20 minutes. It is a nice story about a man named Wilson Bentley. He was homeschooled for most of his schooling. It talks about his interests and what he did with his interests and how he made an impact on the science and weather communities.
NEXT, determine the subjects that you can pull from the book. This book has a science theme along with a history piece, and we are reading a biography. This lends itself to having a science component, a history component, a literature/writing component, and because of the topic of photographing snowflakes, art.
List the subjects:
1. Science
2. History/Social Studies
3. Literature/Writing
4. Art
maybe even Math.
THIRD, depending on your child's age and abilities you will want to create the lessons.
Let's start with History/social studies. Bentley was born in 1865. This was right at the end of the Civil War. You can discuss this. You can find on a map where he was born. You can create a timeline of his life, noting all the ages and events in his life. You can add to the time line other major events going on during his life time. (ie. wars, presidents, etc)
Science: This book lends itself well to so many different facets of science. First, he studies weather. You can study and record the weather for a two week period noting differences in temperature, humidity, or even as simple as recording sunny, rainy, and cloudy days. Next, he studies snowflakes. You can study how snow is formed, how snowflakes are formed and look at microscopic photos of snowflakes including the actual photos that Bentley took. (see notes and links below) You can study how microscopes are used and what they do. You can look in a microscope at raindrops, snow if you have some, and other items.Literature/writing: Because this is a biography, you can look up Wilson Bentley in the encyclopedia or online and gather more information about this man and his work. You can also use this opportunity to define new words/vocabulary from the book and research using encyclopedias or online, snow, snowflakes, microscopic cameras and the sort. Have your child write a biography of him/herself or summarize Bentley's life and work. You can have your child keep a journal during this unit study of the weather, what he/she is learning, and what they think about Bentley and his works.
Art: Create paper snowflakes. Draw snowflakes on black paper with white crayon, copy some of the photos by drawing them on black paper as Bentley did. Discuss how the snowflakes are 6 sided and all the same.
Math: Chart the weather on a graph, count the six sides of the snowflake, use snowflakes to practice math facts, multiply and divide according to numbers of spikes on the six spokes of the snowflake. Just make it up as you go along. Predict rainy weather according to probability. You can do anything with math.
Be open to new ideas that arise as you read the book. Pay attention to your child and the interest level that he/she shows. Make new activities using these interests.
Create lessons to cover across your children's ages. You can beef up any of these plans for older children including having them act out his life, make a stop animation video of his life from Legos or other figures, or ask them to further research the science of snow and forecasting the snow and write a report. Also, the story is written in poem form. You can do a ton with this topic for your older children, but remember, the older kids like to make paper snowflakes just as much as the younger ones. {wink wink} Listen to your older kids' questions. That will clue you into what they want to learn and can guide you to creating meaningful projects for them too. I can't tell you how many times they ask me a question and I say, "I don't know but we can look that up. Why don't you research that and bring us the answer?"
FINALLY, determine how you will put this all together. Often times, we use lapbooks (folders) to keep and present the material we have learned. It keeps it all organized and makes an easily transportable and easy to store package.
Resources for Snowflake Bentley online.
The Snowflake Bentley official website.
A beautiful YouTube video of Snowflake Bentley's snowflakes set to music.
A Quia Quiz on Snowflake Bentley.
A great website all about Snowflake Bentley and snow.
The beauty of the internet is that as parents/teachers we have the world at our fingertips. We can search any topic and we have a multitude of great resources available to us.
Fun books to use for Unit Studies:
Magic Treehouse Books, by Mary Osborne Pope (K-4th grades)
Dear America series books (4-9th grades)
American Girl books (3-8th grades)
I Survived series by Lauren Tarshis (4-9th grades)
Don't be afraid to create your own unit study for your children. It is not hard and you don't have to spend a lot of time on it. Sometimes just reading the book together and listening to the questions your child asks you will help to create activities surrounding the book.
There are many times I just choose a book and begin to read it with my kids and the unit study evolves while we read.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Eating down our Food Storage
 |
| This is just one of our food storage closets! It is getting really lean, usually it is packed full. |
We had some lean times this past winter when my husband was hardly working and money was thin. We ate quite a bit of what we had then. But as the move is quickly approaching we have been more diligent to eat down our food storage.
I have learned a few things in the process:
1. My kids like creamed corn. I bought several cans to make corn pudding with over the holidays but never had a chance to make it. I ran out of regular corn the other day and grabbed a can of creamed corn. For the first time my kids tried it. All three LOVED it. I love it too. So we will add this to our food storage next time. It is quite a treat, a bit sweet, to keep in the food storage rotation.
2. I need to store more vegetables. This is the one thing that we have run really low on. The other thing we need to store more of is "junk food" like chips, cookie mixes, and popcorn.
3. What is it again that you can replace an egg with when baking? I forget and I run out of eggs quickly.
4. I would so rather buy bread on busy weeks than bake it. But we DO have enough flour.
5. 15 bottles of relish is probably a year and a half worth. I still have eleven bottles of relish and 8 bottles of BBQ sauce. We obviously do not use as much of this as I thought we did.
6. If you store cake mixes and cookie mixes then you need to find a way to store eggs and milk. Enough said!
Some dinners we have been eating:
Chicken, pasta, and a canned veggie.
Chicken, mashed potatoes and a canned veggie.
Kielbasa and dirty rice or a box of jambalaya.
Spaghetti sauce, frozen chicken patties and mozzarella cheese over spaghetti noodles. (quick chicken parmigiana)
Chicken pot pie (made with cream of chicken soup, can of mixed veggies, and biscuits)
Beef Stroganoff (stew beef in crock pot with cream of mushroom soup and an envelope of beefy onion soup mix over egg noodles)
~~~~~~
I can't tell you how much our food storage means to us. It gives us such a comfort knowing that in the lean times we don't have to worry about spending our hard earned money on food. It has saved us so much money in the last several months.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
And now for something completely different....
Wasn't that the "headline" for a tv variety show or something many, many years ago???
Today we spent our morning with our school work and mid-day while the kids were finishing up some lessons, I packed a few boxes to take to storage. This afternoon we ALL needed a bit of something completely different.
We piled in the car and went to a local park down by the river.
We headed into the woods on a path and took a nature walk.
Today we spent our morning with our school work and mid-day while the kids were finishing up some lessons, I packed a few boxes to take to storage. This afternoon we ALL needed a bit of something completely different.
We piled in the car and went to a local park down by the river.
We headed into the woods on a path and took a nature walk.
The middle child decided to capture a few of her own photos. She brought along her camera.
Her taking a photo of me taking a photo of her.
A cool centipede we saw on the trail.
Heading deep into the woods.
It is hard to see in this photo above but we recently had a flood. You can see the dirt tinted leaves. The river (this is just a stream you see) rose about 12 feet here.
Pretty butterfly we found.
The clan looking at the river.
A fun squirrel to watch.
Looking down the river. So pretty and peaceful today.
The green ferns and foliage was so pretty today.
We found and tasted honeysuckles.
Along the path near the boat ramp are scattered beautiful sculptures of the local wildlife. This is part of a sculpture of egrets called "Family".
We SO needed a break from packing and the mess of the house. We needed the fresh air and the long walk as a family.
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Frustrated - because of RAIN!
Yesterday we had a bit of a yard sale. We pulled out the stuff that we didn't want to pack and move with us. Clothes, books, toys, Halloween costumes, linens, and lots of other stuff. Because it was Friday and Friday isn't usually a yard sale day in our area we didn't expect much. We did make $130. We packed everything up and set it aside under a canopy.
There was a chance of rain.
It rained. Poured.
This morning the yard and driveway were soaked. The canopy had water stuck in it. The stuff underneath, okay not all the stuff, some of the stuff got wet, but most of it was pretty dry. HOWEVER there would be no yard sale. It was just too wet outside. So all the stuff came back inside and we gave up.
We did, though, dig up our Hostas in the front flower bed. I wanted to get them divided. They are enormous! We got them dug out and I figured that I would wait a little while and then divide them when they dried out a bit.
About 3 hours later it poured down rain again. No go on the dividing the Hostas either. UGH!
But, if the buyers of our house drove by today they would think that we were digging all the flower beds up. LOL If only they knew that we were actually helping them by dividing these big bad boys for them. I do hope they love this house.
It rained. Poured.
This morning the yard and driveway were soaked. The canopy had water stuck in it. The stuff underneath, okay not all the stuff, some of the stuff got wet, but most of it was pretty dry. HOWEVER there would be no yard sale. It was just too wet outside. So all the stuff came back inside and we gave up.
We did, though, dig up our Hostas in the front flower bed. I wanted to get them divided. They are enormous! We got them dug out and I figured that I would wait a little while and then divide them when they dried out a bit.
About 3 hours later it poured down rain again. No go on the dividing the Hostas either. UGH!
But, if the buyers of our house drove by today they would think that we were digging all the flower beds up. LOL If only they knew that we were actually helping them by dividing these big bad boys for them. I do hope they love this house.
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