Awesome Mini Vacation

We just got done with the best mini vacation, ever! Grandpa Ed, who happens to be my father in law, came in from NY on Wednesday until today. I never really got to know him real well. Even though Craig and I have been together 10 years, I was pregnant and ornery, then we moved to FL right after Caitlin came along, so I never got to get close to him. This week I learned what a laid back, loving father and grandfather he really is. We had so much fun and enjoyed his company so much, it was sad to see him go. We went to the ocean, the springs, and just swam and enjoyed each other right at our house. He was here six years ago, to be Craig's best man, when we got married, and that was the last time we got to see him. They were only here that one day, and they flew back out. They have a small farm, so it is hard to travel, and of course we have dogs and kids which makes travel expensive as well. However, I told Craig we are not getting younger, his family is not getting younger, we need to just save and at least every other year head to NY for some family time. We are planning on going next Fall, so I am happy about that. Now I have to get all the laundry done and the house cleaned, and pay some bills, LOL! I hope everyone had an amazing week. I will load more pictures on the next blog post.

Free Flashcards at Sudy Stack

Anyone who knows this blog, knows that I spend Summer doing Spring cleaning of my house, my homeschool supplies, and everything else. This blog is due for some Spring cleaning matter of fact. Anyways, one of the new websites I found this Summer, is Study Stack. Now, I have only tried it briefly, but my kids like to learn in a variety of ways. Usually, on Friday they get to play games and other avenues of learning. Since the computer is super important to them, they would prefer those games be online. Study Stack is not really a game, but an online flashcard generator for all subjects, even foreign language. I love flashcards, because they repeat things over and over, and that is the best way to retain information. So, my kids will definitely be giving this website a try. There is another one, I like too, but for some reason the site is down, so I can not share it yet.

Tropical Waves, Tropical Storns, and Inlaws, Oh MY!

Of course it has been hotter than the blazes here. It is August after all. For some strange reason my FIL picked August, the worst month to visit Florida, to come for a vacation. We are very excited he is coming, been six years since we saw him, but now I am honestly stressing a bit. Who wants to sit in a house with possibly no power, no air conditioning, and torrential rain everyday. Welcome to the Sunshine State! It is August, and that is when the Tropics really heat up in August. There is a tropical wave sitting over south Florida, that promises a very wet weekend. We do need rain, but some areas flooded very badly with the last system, and I feel bad for them. Then next Wednesday, just as FIL is set to arrive in Florida, the Tropical Storm or worse Hurricane Ernesto will be approaching the Gulf. Since we live on the Gulf side, this would really suck. We still have a ways to go, so I can hope that it steers to the left, over towards Texas where they really need rain even more than we do. Of course I will pray that it just peeters out all together. I am not optimistic though. What are your plans for the weekend? I hope your weather is nicer than ours is going to be.

Vistas In Reading Literature

This book, Vistas in Reading Literature, will be the book I use for 7th grade reading and comprehension. I like this particular book because not only does DJ have to read and understand, but there are a lot of writing type activities to go with each short story. Along with vocabulary and grammar, this book is a nice complete little book. Because DJ reads other books, for which he is responsible to do book reports on, this book could easily be a two year curriculum. The one we used last year, I thought we liked, but it ended up not being user friendly. Also, because I really dislike just textbook learning, I have discovered tons of new sights, a few really good ones, that I have now included in the kid's curriculum for next year. We have a big year planned, I hope I can work it all in. If not, we carry over to the next year. I try not to stress the small stuff. The book shown is the silver level, 7th grade is the red level. There are red level books available at Amazon, but they didn't have an image, so I used this one for the image.