First Class Boy Scout

Our son has been in Boy Scouts for about a year and a half now and he LOVES it!!  He has learned so many great skills and has been on lots of fun outings.  We are blessed to be part of a troop that's affiliated with our Christian school, so we already know most of the families and get along great with the others.  Hubs has really gotten into it too - he's completed several kinds of training and is now an Assistant Scout Master.

It's amazing what they learn in Scouts - so much more than knots and lashings!  My son can use a knife and an axe, build a fire, plan and cook a meal, and soooo much more.  He's also certified in first aid and CPR.  He has further developed leadership skills and is learning how to work with many types of personalities.  We're very proud of what he's accomplished so far!

The kiddo just recently earned his First Class Rank {and a special new hat!} and had to give a speech to the audience at the Court of Honor.  He wrote the speech himself and delivered it very well!  I thought I would include the video here in case you're interested.  I think you'll have to really turn up the volume to hear it though.

Congrats kiddo on your new rank!!  We look forward to watching you learn and grow along the journey to becoming an Eagle Scout!

Do you have a Boy Scout or know any?

Have a blessed day friends!

Smiling in the sunshine,
Lisa  :)

5 Minute Friday ~ Brave

I've been wanting to try this for so long - and I guess my only excuse for not doing it sooner is that I was a bit scared, but who doesn't have 5 minutes?  So I'm trying it for the first time here at my cozy little more-personal blog - less scary.  :)  Do you feel the need to just write?  Stop over at The Gypsy Mama every Friday for her 5-minute writing prompt and go for it!

Today's subject is BRAVE.  Eek - nervous at the thought of putting unedited thoughts out there!

OK, Starting now...

When I think of being brave, my first thoughts go to knights of old with their armor and shields standing ready for battle.  And then I think of the soldiers of today.  I'm so thankful that they and their families sacrifice so much for our country.  They are truly brave.

But then I think of bravery that occurs every day, in the Christian soldier's walk of life.  This life here on earth is not easy - and much harder for some than others.  I have friends with medical struggles, financial struggles, marriage struggles and more.  It takes bravery just to face and get through each day.

But we can look to the Lord - to be our strength and our shield.  I can be much braver with a huge shield in front of me and the knowledge that I have the strength of a thousand armies behind me.  It makes me stand a little taller, put my hands on my hips and say "Bring it on."

And Stop!

Um, wow - that's it???  I need more time - LOL!!  I think through my thoughts too much before getting them out and now I see why I'm such a very slow blogger.  :)  We're supposed to leave this unedited or else I think I would take back the "bring it on" part!  :)

Oh my, but it does feel good to just write and not worry about the editing part (although I confess I correct spellings and fix phrases as I go - cannot help it!).  Now why don't you give it a try?

Thanks for stopping by my little blog - I will be posting on my main blog later today (with a giveaway - woo hoo!) too.

Smiling in the sunshine {except that it's raining nonstop, but I know there's sunshine up there somewhere},
Lisa  :)

There Once Was A Boy Who Liked Nonsense

I recently gave my kiddo a homeschooling Literature assignment of writing a haiku and a limerick.  I thought it would help him to better remember what haikus and limericks were all about plus I thought it would be a fun thing for him to do.  Apparently he thought it was torture - LOL!

He did his best to write silly nonsense of course, but his limerick did make me laugh.  I suppose some could read it and think it sounds a bit violent, but if you knew my kid you would realize he's just being silly - and a boy.  :)

Here's your literary enrichment for the day:

Somebody once bumped right into me.

He started to walk away rudely.

He was then at my side

When I whacked his poor hide,

And then he began crying profusely.

Do your kids love silliness and nonsense as much as my kid?  Have a sweet & silly day friends!

Smiling in the sunshine,

Lisa  :)

My Official Homeschooling Post

Since I am homeschooling the kiddo for 7th grade this year (and this will probably be the only year), I wanted to post about what I'm teaching and what texts, etc. we're using.  I wanted to post about it a couple months ago, but I'm trying to get caught up!  The very homeschooling itself has caused me to get behind in everything!<-----And I wrote all that about 3 months ago so I am really behind!  :)

I guess you would say I'm doing more of a traditional homeschooling approach, but let's call it flexible traditional.  We do some subjects on Monday/Wednesday and some on Tuesday/Thursday.  Fridays are for testing and catch up with afternoons free usually (though we are often running errands that day).  Since the kiddo will most likely be back to our fave little Christian school for 8th grade, I'm following their 7th grade subjects as much as possible though not with all the same texts.

So here's what we're learning ('cause I'm learning most of it too!):

Bible {every day}:  New Testament (KJV) and Balancing The Sword (Vision Forum)
History {M/W}:  World History (Bob Jones) - an old 10th grade edition - oops!
Geography {M/W}:  World geography using http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Geography.php
Literature {M/W}:  World Literature (A Beka)
Grammar {M/W}:  Easy Grammar Ultimate Series (Grade 8)
Science {T/Th}:  Space & Earth Science (Bob Jones)
Math {T/Th}:  Course 3 (Pre Algebra) {Saxon} - another homeschooled friend at the same math level comes over and I teach both boys at the same time
Computer {T/Th}:  Blogging, Word, Excel - we are way behind on this and haven't done much yet
Composition {T}:  Total Language Plus - he attends classes taught for homeschoolers once a week
P.E. {M/W/Th} - Various exercises and activities assigned by me!
Fun stuff:  Lego Engineering Class {F}- taught for homeschoolers; attends with a friend
                 Boy Scouts {T}- meetings once a week plus several campouts & outings - he LOVES it and hubs is trained and goes on campouts too
                 On Stage {W} - singing/performance class taught at our Christian school to get kids used to being on stage and performing
Reading {every day}:  Working on 20 books for our Christian school's Junior High reading list - he'll have finished 8 of them by the end of this month [Around the World in 80 Days, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Pilgrim's Progress, Oliver Twist, The Hobbit, Hans Brinker, Johnny Tremain, Through Gates of Splendor]

During our second half of the year, he'll be taking some tennis classes and piano lessons.  He has been bugging me to get him into both things and since we have more time this year because of homeschooling - we'll make it happen!  We also have a series of health DVDs from Vision Forum that we'll be watching.

I wish that I was a *cool* homeschooling mom who did unit studies to tie everything together and lots of field trips, but it's just not me.  But I do the best that I can and we're moving right along.  Kiddo would prefer to be back in school (mainly because he's an only child and misses being with the other kids all day, not just seeing them occasionally) but he says that he likes the way we're doing school so far and hasn't asked me to change anything  - other than he'd like to avoid the writing class (his weakest but most needed subject)!  Science is his favorite subject.

That's it for now I think!  I'm happy that God has given me the strength and knowledge to do this and I do enjoy the time with our sweet (but silly) boy.

Hope you are having a good year of schooling no matter which kind of schooling you are doing!

Smiling in the sunshine,
Lisa  :)

The One Pic Christmas

I'm the worst about taking pics at Christmas!  I guess it's because we have such a small family and only exchange a small number of gifts.  And because I like to enjoy the moments without having to worry about taking pics I suppose.  So I took a pic of the kiddo the day after!

That remote control helicopter was his fave gift!  He's already pretty good at flying it too!

We know that being able to buy gifts for each other is quite a blessing that we are very thankful for.  But we would enjoy Christmas and praise the Lord just as much if we had no gifts!

We had a quiet Christmas morning.  Got up nice and early, but couldn't figure out why hubs wanted to start opening gifts before I at least started some coffee for myself.  That's because he got me a Keurig!  What a lovely blessing!  Don't know where he got the idea unless it was from me constantly pointing them out and saying "Hello Keurig" every time a commercial came on - LOL!!

We sent kiddo hunting for the helicopter.  He loves it when we give him clues to follow to find his gift.  I remembered that at about midnight Christmas Eve of course.  That's when hubs confessed that he had come up with clues for *me* to follow, but we could just use them for kiddo instead.  Perfect!  And what hubs didn't know was that I had secretly bought a remote control helicopter for him too (awesome Vision Forum deal that I couldn't pass up!) - and I came up with clues for him to follow!  It makes for lots of fun!

After opening gifts, we enjoyed a breakfast of Baked Caramel French Toast, fruit salad, and bacon - oh and COFFEE - LOL!  And then, the best part about Christmas being on a Sunday - we went to worship!

After we came back, it was solid cooking for me as I had much to finish for Christmas dinner.  We had 2 of hubs' brothers over for dinner.  We had ham, scalloped potatoes, parmesan green beans, salad, beer bread, and cranberry butter.  For dessert there was peppermint-chocolate ice cream pie and cranberry-raspberry mousse chocolate cake.  Yes, we were full!  The brothers hung around the next day too and we had leftovers of course!

It was a blessed and enjoyable Christmas!  I even managed to get some decorations up on Christmas Eve (I know, I know) which helped things feel more festive.  But NO pics  - except the one the day after.  Maybe I'll do better this year?  Maybe I'll have two pics?  :)

I pray that you all had a lovely Christmas and that your new year is full of blessings!

Smiling in the sunshine,
Lisa  :)

And Now My Son Is 12

Well I'm LATE with this post as this occurred a few months ago!  Things have been so busy that I haven't had time to hop over here to my little happy place blog!  :)  This whole homeschooling thing has overtaken my life  - LOL!

My son had his 12th birthday this year which amazes me!  I thought it would be no big deal as I waited for his 13th birthday to be the one to hit me hard.  But this one did affect me and I got a little teary-eyed because I can see the changes starting to happen as he transitions to being a young man.  Sigh.  It's bittersweet, isn't it?

We didn't have a party for him this year since we plan to do something big for him when he turns 13.  But hubs had the day off and we spent the entire day doing whatever kiddo wanted - breakfast out, a movie, mini golf, dinner, and dessert!  So yes, a party probably would have been cheaper - LOL!  He enjoyed his special day and ended with his fave restaurant dessert - Tahoe Joe's cheesecake!  I did make cupcakes for him - but did it a couple days later so we could share them with friends.

On his actual birthday he was coming back from a Boy Scout backpacking trip, so I wanted to do a little something - I taped crepe paper across his door and tied it in several places in his room (though you can't see that).  He enjoyed it!

Because I'm so classy, he got his birthday cheesecake served up on some newspaper (so it wouldn't spill on the table) and still in the plastic to-go container (it stuck to the sides and wouldn't have come out in 1 piece)!  I had bday candles and planned to just put 3 or so in his cheesecake, but he wanted ALL 12 - LOL!!!  They would barely fit and what I hadn't told hubs or son was that they were the candles that keep lighting up.  The warning on the package said not to put them close together because they flame up so much - yikes!  It was quite the fiery display and hubs was getting upset with kiddo because he couldn't even manage to blow out some little candles - LOL!  I finally confessed and we all had a good laugh, but the candles were melting down and hubs almost burned his fingers trying to get them out while still burning!  Oh my...good times!

Not the typical birthday celebration, but we had a good time!  And a couple days later he got to enjoy some chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes - yummmm!

Hopefully I'll be able to catch up on posting over here little by little!  Hope the few of you that found me here are doing well!  :)

Hugs to all!

Smiling in the sunshine,
Lisa  :)

This Little Place Makes Me Happy

I haven't written over here in so long because I started writing again at Stop and Smell the Chocolates, but this little blog still makes me smile when I stop by.  I like it here!  Well except for how I made the pictures crooked on the side - must fix that - LOL!

I'm toying with the idea of using this blog and my main one.  I would continue to post recipes and blogging-world sorts of posts at Stop and Smell the Chocolates, but post more personal day-to-day stuff here.  And if I posted a yummy recipe over there, I would let you know here.  Don't want everybody to feel obligated to follow more than one blog!  Haven't made up my mind though - I'm kind of wishy-washy if you haven't noticed!  :) If I do that, I would probably start sometime in September.

I hope you are all having a wonderful day!  I'm looking outside at sunshine, flowers, trees, and spiders (as long as they stay OUTside, I'm OK) and listening to birds chirping and the windchimes in the breeze.  It's a lovely morning!

Smiling in the sunshine,
Lisa  :)