Join me today at the Homeschool Blog Awards where I posted about discount software pricing for homeschoolers. I think I’m sensing a copy of Adobe Lightroom in my future!

Can you identify the huge flowers we saw on our hike this week? Visit my photoblog for a picture.

My 11- and 8-year-old daughters and I participate in Keepers at Home through our homeschool group. We meet once a month for 2 hours to learn valuable homemaking and life skills. This is a wonderful way for both the mothers and daughters to learn new things, and for the moms to put their talents and creativity to good use.

Tonight we had our planning meeting to map out our monthly topics for the next school year. We wanted to achieve a mix of crafty and outdoorsy activities, depending on the time of year. Here’s what we decided:

• September: swimming
• October: photography
• November: hiking
• December: etiquette with tea party (Christmas party)
• January: mosaic
• February: volleyball
• March: sign language
• April: soapmaking
• May: year-end banquet

We spent 2 months covering photography this year, but there was a desire for a continuation of the topic. I am responsible for teaching it, with 1 to 2 other mothers helping, too. This year we began the school year with photography and ended with scrapbooking, utilizing the photos we’d been taking throughout the year for the girls’ scrapbooks. Next year we will follow photography with hiking, taking photos on our hike. We might even be able to cover letterboxing since there are 3 boxes at the park where we will hike.

Here are some pictures from this year, including singing at a local nursing home:

At our Mother/Son Outing we were given a questionnaire to read with our sons at lunch. It’s purpose was to discover how well we really knew each other by seeing if we knew the answers to each other’s questions. I don’t even seem to know myself, based on how difficult some were for me to answer. Some things I couldn’t narrow down to one choice; I had an easier time with the multiple choice questions.

Do you want to play? Erase my answers and insert your own and post it in comments (if you are a lurker, this is a great opportunity to leave a comment. Pretty please!).

Here’s a picture I found this week. I didn’t realize that I had it. It’s my mom, sister, and I (I’m the older sister). Doesn’t it transport you straight to the 70s? I still remember those vests and that frilly-armed shirt.

Ready? Here we go:

What are your favorites?

1. Color (green and yellow)
2. Season (fall and spring)
3. Food (pasta with Alfredo sauce, mushroom and Swiss burgers, Mexican, chocolate)
4. Animal (hmmm…. as a child I was fascinated by the lynx)
5. Bible verse (Romans 8:26, Ephesians 3:20, Roman 9:11-16, Proverbs 3:5-6)
6. Holiday (Thanksgiving - you get to visit with the family, but less stressful than Christmas)
7. Book (how about authors? Jane Austen, Robert Ludlum, Dostoevsky, Dean Koontz, etc.)
8. Movie (While You Were Sleeping, Moonstruck, Pride and Prejudice (BBC), Emma, Kate and Leopold, The Manchurian Candidate (original 1962 version), North by Northwest, The Princess Bride, The Philadelphia Story, Spiderman 2, The Terminal, Waking Ned Devine, That Thing You Do, … can you tell I like movies?)
9. TV show (24)

Which do you like better…?

10. Hugs or kisses? (hugs)
11. Sugar or salt? (sugar)
12. Going to bed or waking up? (going to bed)
13. McDonalds or Chick-fil-a? (Chick-fil-a)
14. Swimming or skiing? (never been skiing and I’m not much of a swimmer - none of the above?)
15. The ocean or the mountains? (mountains)
16. Going to the dentist or the doctor? (doctor)
17. Walking or running? (walking)
18. Reading or writing? (reading)
19. Singing or dancing? (dancing)
20. Dogs or cats? (dogs)

Don’t worry if you can’t answer them alI; had trouble myself. I would just love to see who’s dropped by for a visit.

Check out the spider I caught on my photoblog!

Blessings,

My toes are officially ready for the spring and summer months, although my family was awfully disappointed that I chose the same design I had at the end of last summer - “Those are last year’s toes!” The nail salon was packed and other people wanted the book with the designs in it. I panicked and picked this one again.

Before the book was snatched from me, I did manage to pick out two more looks for later. Stay tuned for apple green with flowers, and pink with flowers and white dots!

Visit 5 Minutes for Mom or Wordless Wednesday for more Wordless Wednesday participants.

Our homeschool group does a couple of really neat events each year: a father/daughter dance and a mother/son outing. Last Thursday was the mother/son outing and I had 3 handsome dates!

We split into two groups: kickball for boys nine-and-under, and flag football for boys ten-and-up. I had two boys in the older group and one in the younger, so I started with football. The moms received the first kickoff. The ball hit the ground and I sensed that this could be a moment where we moms might just politely stare at the ball (and then get trampled by a herd of our stampeding sons), so I grabbed it and ran!

Looking over my shoulder to see if my flag had been taken (it had, but didn’t feel it) I lost my balance and nearly careened head-first into the end zone. Fortunately, I regained my footing quickly enough that maybe I was the only one aware of my near wipe-out (otherwise my boys would have teased me to death by now). That was our first down, and I ended up scoring the mom’s only touchdown.

I ran track in jr. high and played softball from fifth grade until my senior year, plus I participated in high school and jr. high drill team and cheerleading. It really felt good to run again and give my latent inner jock a chance to come out and play. With eight kids, I’ve spent most of adult life on the sidelines cheering and taking pictures.

One of the moms switched with me so I could join my younger son at kickball. He told me, however, that “kickball is for losers (pronounced “loosers”)” and would I please just go to the creek so he could show me a snake he’d found and take pictures of him? We never found the snake, but that kid had a ball in the water (check the photoblog). When I asked him if he wanted to go to the football game, he told me that “football is for losers.” I quickly determined that anything that didn’t involve water, rocks, and mom taking pictures of him was for losers.

Here are some pictures of my guys in all their glory:

My 8-year-old daughter walked up to me at breakfast and said, “While I was drinking my milk I just thought: Am I drinking cow tinkle?”

I nearly choked on my tea. And then we had a discussion of mommies, babies, and milk that I hadn’t anticipated having over breakfast today.

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Mother’s Day has stirred thoughts about the mothers in my life, past and present. My mother passed away 4 years ago in March. I still miss her. In some ways I am very much like her, in others not as much. She was very visual, like I am, and had strong opinions about what constituted “tacky” (or in some cases, “high tacky”!). Although my tastes in color and design are often bolder and more adventurous compared to the more conservative and delicate ones that she preferred, I know I am very much governed by the internal “tacky meter” she passed on to me. I think it’s helped me in my blog design business.

My sister and I always loved this picture of Mother; I don’t know her exact age, but I would say early to mid-20s. She looks so glamorous, doesn’t she?

This picture shows “The Golden Girls” - my Aunt Thelma, Grandmother, and Aunt Mayme. They’ve all passed on, but their imprint on my life will live on as long as I do. I just wish I had written down all of their family recipes!

This is my Aunt Linda, possibly the only person who reads this blog daily (Hi, Aunt Linda!). She is my mother’s sister and a grandmother figure to my children. Her daughter, Laura, is like a sister to me.

Here is my mother-in-law from last Christmas, pictured with my dad. She hasn’t been able to visit for a few months because her house is for sale and she’s spending a lot of time taking care of her parents in Kansas. She is a real sport and tags along to all of our ball games, classes, music lessons, etc. when she’s here.

Last, but not least is my new stepmother, Frankie. My dad’s wedding at the end of March is one of the big events that I’ve been meaning to post here (along with our father/daughter dance). I’m not sure how in the world this happened, but there was a fluorescent lighting filter on my camera lens at the wedding, so all the pictures have a red tint. That pretty much explains why I haven’t posted. I can’t tell a story without pictures, and it will require an extended appointment with Photoshop to doctor all 186 of them from that day.

Frankie is a beautiful lady both inside and out, and we all love hear dearly. It is sweet to see how excited my kids are to have her as their new grandmother. She makes my daddy happy, which means a lot to me.

Speaking of weddings, my sister is getting married IN TWO WEEKS! I am so incredibly happy for her and Steve. This is just after she caught the bouquet at Daddy and Frankie’s wedding. I am taking pictures at the wedding so feel free to leave me links to any great wedding photography sites or blogs. I need inspiration and ideas!

My Mother’s Day was extra special today. I saw all of my children, including my oldest who no longer lives at home. Here am I with my 2 oldest boys. Handsome aren’t they?

This was my first Mother’s Day gift, a day early during a nature hike. We were told that these are rare azaleas native to our area. They made a sweet bouquet from a sweet little girl (who complained to me this week when she didn’t see any pictures of herself on the blog).

This was a special note I found waiting for me in the dirt yesterday. I was last in our party at the end of our walk, lagging behind taking pictures, if you can imagine that. Can you read it?

Visit my photoblog for a picture of my youngest sweetheart from yesterday.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!