What a Lot of Butterflies Go Flying By!

 

 

All of these pictures were taken on the same day. It seemed we just kept seeing them. And not just butterflies, but caterpillars, too. Josiah even got "stuck" by a Saddleback that just dropped onto his hand. It did hurt, but none of the stickers stayed in his skin. We put ice and then a baking soda paste and it started feeling better.

Blue Bell

No not ice cream. Nor is it something that you ring. And it's not even blue!
It is the name we chose for the puppy.
Which puppy did we pick?

If you guessed the one that Hannah was holding,
you are right!

Blue Bell (B.B. for short) came home Monday evening and our life with puppy began. B.B. was the runt of the litter. She is very attentive, but easy-going.

She likes to play with Josiah.

And then when she's tired, she likes to cuddle with Hannah.

Yep, she's a sweetie!

She is already beginning her obedience training and we've also been able to check off some of the things on the socialization chart. Maybe I'll post a video soon, so you can see B.B. in action.

Which One Would You Choose?

Our family has been researching Diabetic Alert Dogs. I was intrigued when I heard about it on a YouTube video that someone shared on Facebook.
These dogs actually can smell when a person's blood sugar is too high or too low and be trained to signal the owner. Well there is actually a lot of training to do, but the fantastic sense of "scents" is a God-given gift that dogs have. They just have to be trained to use it.
We've also been looking for a puppy to train. We think we found it in a litter of puppies that were rescued. They were a breed we weren't familiar with, so we researched Bichon/Boxer. Both breeds are low shedders and eager to please, and the Bichon is supposedly hypoallergenic (a plus). Of course, the ancestry is not that certain, as they only knew the breed of the mom (whom they said disappeared).

There were six healthy looking pups all wanting to be adopted - 2 tan and white males and 4 white and tan females. We wanted a female. We held them and watched them and narrowed it down to two.

Both were so sweet. It was a tough decision. Which one would you choose?
Find out on my next post.

Did you know . . .?

Okay, I feel a bit silly here, but I am going to risk it.
You probably already knew this about mechanical pencils, so just humor me while I share my newfound knowledge with the world.

Recently my daughter bought some of these type pencils at Kroger in the marked-down section. She has enjoyed using them for her school work and writing her books.
Today, she surprised me by taking off the eraser and emptying out the contents saying, "Look, Mom,
I found out where the lead comes from."

When I got over the shock of such an incredibly clever thing that had been hidden from me all these years - You know I wasn't born yesterday, but I always thought you had to buy those packages of extra leads. Sure I read instructions and labels, but maybe all of mine were given to me without packaging or labels. Well the secret is out now! - I explained to dear daughter that those were actually spares and showed her how to replace one.

I had to check out my "older" models just to see if maybe this was a new thing, but NO even my old ones have that feature. Who knew? Did you?

My kids thought I was crazy. I was so excited - snapping pictures for my blog and wondering how many other people did not know.

10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2, . . .

It's almost time to blast-off into a new school year for us. Even after a long drawn out 2012-2013 year, we are excited to start again.

My shiny new teacher's manual

The day after Labor Day, I will be teaching a 7th grader and a 4th grader. When we finish this year, we will have completed My Father's World's Multi-Age Learning Cycle.

• Exploring Countries and Cultures
• Creation To The Greeks
• Rome To The Reformation
• Exploration To 1850
• 1850 To Modern Times

We had also used MFW Creation From A To Z and Adventures in My Father's World. We absolutely love this curriculum. We used another curriculum for one year, but quickly came back.
Next year, we will go through pretty much the same cycle, but it gets more in-depth as Hannah enters High School, the following year.
But hold on! We're not there yet. Let's just take it one year at a time, okay?

Our school room

complete with watchdog

Teacher's station

Just some of our books

For our other subjects, we use Spelling Power, Intermediate Language Lessons, All in One English, and Right Start Math.
Hannah still practices Ebaru Violin and Handbells. Josiah is learning keyboard and percussion.
We also enrolled in ICC (Institute for Cultural Communicators) again this year for communication and leadership skills.