Hackberry Emperor Butterfly Caterpillar (I think.)

Playing and learning combine as the children make some new discovery – a flower here, a caterpillar there. We like to look them up, learn their names, their benefits, their life cycle.

More Hackberry Emperor Butterfly Larvae

We have several different websites we go to find the information that we seek. Today I want to share my top ten websites for learning about the nature around us:

1. What’s That Bug

2. North American Moths & Butterflies

3. Bug Guide

4. What Bird

5. All About Birds

6. Trees of Texas

7. Texas Wildflower Identification Index

8. Bird Jam (Learn the birds you hear.)

9.  Snake Identification Guide (We don’t see too many of these!!)

10. eNature <– this is a new one for me!

What websites do YOU use?

For a time, until the ABC’s of Homeschooling returns on Tuesdays, I’ll be joining in Top Ten {Tuesdays} with Angie at Many Little Blessings.
I was hoping that today I would also be able to show you my decluttered and reorganized bookshelf that I shared last week. It’s only half done. And that camera that I bought last week?? I sent it back. Now I have to pick another one. So I’m sorry to say that y’all will have to bear with camera phone photos a little longer. (They’re better than the new camera photos – trust me!)

Not a To Do list, but a prayer, a list of attributes I would like to see God sew and water and fertilize in my heart. Things I need to work on, continually, practicing weeding out the negative weeds and sewing in the positive growth.

It’s a continual process of edification!

I haven’t ignored this completely but I haven’t thought about my list much since I made it, to be honest. I’ve thought of it several times recently, though, and in conjunction with my desire to start blogging about marriage on Mondays.. I thought perhaps it might make a good blogging plan to follow!

The words I chose at the beginning of the year were: attentive, bold, content, diligent, encouraging, forgiving, gracious, helpful, initiative-taking, joyful, kind-hearted, long-suffering, merciful, nurturing, obedient, passionate, quick to listen (and slow to speak,) reliable, self-controlled, thoughtful, understanding, virtuous, wise, an example, yielding, and zealous.

Growing these characteristics in my heart also apply to my relationships with other people, especially my husband. And let me tell you something… growing and improving any relationship, whether really good ones or really difficult ones, always begins in your own heart, on your own end.

So next week we’ll start blogging through my list. I don’t know if I’ll be going it alone or if any of y’all want to join in with me — anyone? I can create a link up if there’s interest. So just let me know! Either way, each Monday I’ll be bringing a short, (yes SHORT!,) encouraging post that will address one attribute to intentionally pour into our lives, our relationships and especially our marriages.

I would be delighted if you would join me on this journey.

Photo Credit: Marriage Monday graphic based on the photo “V-day” by Mike V’s Photography Some rights reserved by Mike V’s Photography

I can’t believe this week is over, either. What a strange week!

In my life this week…

I had a good chunk of dental work done on Tuesday that they sedated me for and as a result I slept through most of Tuesday. I did manage to make it to the ladies ministry bible study that night for the first time and I had a good time. With the dental work and the resting and the catching up on sleep.. my house is a disaster again. It’s always two steps forward and two steps back! Time to get it cleaned back up. Again!

In our homeschool this week…

Homeschooling has been hard this week. It was difficult to get out of the mindset of chilling out and doing whatever we wanted after a sick week last week. But we kept at it. They even did some school while they were at my mom’s and I was at the dentist office! This week we learned about nerves and neurons and synapses. Little Prince is fascinated. It’s a little bit above him with all the technical terms and I don’t try to get him to take all of it away. My goal is for him to get the gist of how it works, but if he takes some anatomy terms with him all the better. I had a good mommy brain moment when I remembered that he’s a DO-ER and we spent a few minutes during the daily review tossing a ball back and forth: “Which neurons told your brain the ball was coming?” (Sensory neurons.) “And which neurons told your hands to catch it?” (Motor neurons.) He had fun, he learned something new and he remembers it. I need to remember to do stuff like that more often! We also learned about Carthage, Hannibal and Rome. We learned about “mal-” words like malicious and malpractice. We did lots of math and language arts.

And we made sensory balloons!!
The kids loved this, they had so much fun with it. Not only a fun little project but now we have home made stress balls for them to play with while they’re listening! I’ll put up pictures in a post to show you how we made them.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

This Saturday we’ll be helping my grandmother some more at her house. We’ve been cleaning and purging, decluttering and organizing. Saturday evening we’ll get together with my family for Mother’s Day (and possibly with Big Daddy’s family on Sunday.) What are your Mother’s Day plans?

My favorite thing this week was…

Princess crocheted a headband! Remember last week when I posted pics of her “making it up” while crocheting a belt?? Well. I decided that from now on if she was going to pull out the yarn then she was going to have to pull up a youtube tutorial and MAKE SOMETHING. So she did! She made this cute headband and learned four new crochet stitches in the process. I was so proud!

Speaking of proud, Drama Queen sang her first song for church on Sunday and she did so well. She has a talent that needs to be nurtured and a desire to sing and play guitar that I want to encourage. I am so very proud of her, too!

Things I’m working on…

Still working on the blog! Did you see the results of the survey? I posted them on Monday. The feedback was great!! I’m making small changes here and there and you probably won’t even notice most of them. Yesterday I made the sidebar wider and this morning I cleaned it up a little.

I’m also working on a couple of reviews and some other bloggy things and.. SOON I’ll begin working on an ebook to actually FINISH and put out there. Just a small one. But it’s a start. I know, I know.. you’ll believe it when you see it. I’ll actually finish this one, I promise! I have some people keeping me accountable..

I’m reading…

Tuesday we discussed Chapter 8 in the book we’re reading, One Simple Act, which addressed being a better listener and about how listening can actually minister to and bless someone. This has come up several times from several sources so I’m really *listening* and paying attention to the message. I hear you, Lord! I need to listen! Yeah, we also talked about listening to God, too… ; )

We’re still plugging away through Around the World in 80 Days and How to Speak Dragonese… the kids are really enjoying these!

I’m also still plugging away at reading all the way through the bible on my kindle and I’m now in Song of Solomon. I’m actually kind of excited to get to the prophets having recently studied this time period in history! One of the reasons that I’ve been taking so long is that I haven’t been following any specific plan. Now that I’m nearing the prophetic books, I’ve decide to use a plan for reading the Major Prophets, the a plan for reading the Minor Prophets, then a plan for reading the New Testament from YouVersion.com. The first will take 40 days, then 25, and I haven’t picked a plan for the New Testament yet.

I’m grateful for…

My mom! She took off the day to watch the kids and pick me up from the dentist while I was sedated. I’m also grateful for the opportunity to start fixing my teeth.

I’m praying for…

My husband, the new Online Bible Study he and his brother are starting, his computer business, and the online marketing business he shares with a partner.

My children, their spiritual needs, their schooling, their relationships and that I would be a good example to them.

Provision from God for our daily needs, our bills, our home, my teeth, and everything else that we need.

Some friends, especially Jeni, Katie, and Vicki.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

Some links for you!
Lots of good stuff floating around the internet this week:

• Notebooking Pages is having a baby! Find out more about the upcoming launch of Notebooking PUBLISHER! (A very cool notebooking app that lets the kids create the pages on the computer and print them out!)
• Mother’s Day freebie from Currclick.
• Free download for May: Audiobook of Resolving Everyday Conflict by Ken Sande & Kevin Johnson
• 40 Amazon Kindle Freebies for families – a list by FreeHomeschoolDeals.com
• Homeschoolers worry about dyslexia, too! If you’re worried at all, check out this post from Spell Outloud about a website called Lexercise where you can have your child take a free dyslexia evaluation.
• Enter to win a copy of the e-book “Simplified Dinners” by Mystie Winckler from Kendra at Preschoolers and Peace.
• Homeschool Share is offering up a collection of 100 Lapbook Templates that you can type on just for subscribing.

For more Homeschool Mother’s Journal posts head over to the iHomeschool Network and browse around!

{A Wordless Wednesday}

 ”Man” in Black:

BONUS PHOTO:

Titled “The last camera phone photo taken for my blog.”

(Alternate title: “Say goodbye to lousy camera phone photos!!”)