Homeschool Talk: School Rooms

Since we are starting school on Monday this weekend's topic is school rooms. I thought it would be fun to take a tour of some school rooms of other homeschoolers.

So, if you'd like to be part of the tour, this is all you have to do:
Join in below using MckLinky.
Post about your school room or area on your blog and link back to mine.
Then click on the participants in the MckLinky list and visit everyone's school room.

This is our schoolroom.

It is actually the 5th bedroom in the house. We are starting to outgrow it.

I hope we can move next year into a house with a bigger schoolroom.

This is Nathan's desk. The dry erase board is new for this school year. We had a small one, but realized we needed a bigger one...I'm excited about it!

This is Claire's desk. I got it at a sale from a private school that was closing. I just love it. It is the perfect size for her. When she gets older we'll get her one like Nathan's so her computer will not have to have a separate cart.


This is my desk. Unfortunately it isn't usually this neat!

Here is one of the many bookshelves we have in our house! We just love books!

The kids really like the calendar too...its one where they put the date on each day. Also, another bulleting board. I really think the bulletin boards give a "school feel" to the room.

Ok, this is my favorite part of my school room.
Since its a bedroom it has a walk in closet.

As you can see, we've taken advantage of every inch of it!

We have scrapbooks, photo albums, board games, school books, school supplies, you name it...its in here! And notice the nice labels on everything. I just got a label maker and I went to town with it in this closet!

Ok, that's our school room, now let's see yours!

Postcard Friendship Friday #19

Welcome to another Postcard Friendship Friday hosted by Marie at http://www.cpaphilblog.com/ Stop by her site to join in or see other postcards.

This is mission #2 from our Texas Mission Trip. This is San Jose. (I'll post another mission next week.) San Jose is the largest of all the missions. The grounds were huge! The whole mission is walled in. The outer structures are the apartment like living quarters.

This is my daughter looking out of one of the windows in the living quarters.

This is the inside of the Church.

There were several wells and stone ovens in the inside "courtyard" area of the mission. This is me and the kids at one of the wells.

This is the granery where they stored their grain. It was a huge room. I was standing about in the middle when I took this picture so there was that much more behind me.

You can go here to read more info on the missions: http://www.nps.gov/saan/

Thousand Word Thursday

The Mom Jen at Cheaper than Therapy--Musings of The Mom Jen is hosting Thousand Word Thursday today. Click the link above to join in or see others. Here are my pictures that are worth a thousand words...

My kids' first s'mores...we had to make them indoors over the stove because it's been raining here for the last 2 weeks!

Wordless Wednesday: Toy Box

Heather at simly joyful photos is hosting Wordless Wednesday today. Stop by her blog to join or see more. http://simplyjoyfulphotos.blogspot.com/

Monday Mayhem

Anyone who knows me knows I HATE Mondays! Everything always seems to go wrong on a Monday. And for some reason I almost never get a good night's sleep on Sunday night. Today, one of those Monday things seems to be underlining stuff I don't want underlined!

Here are some pics from my Monday today....

I was really tired from no sleep last night so I tried to take a little nap. Well, Nathan decided to make a snack for himself and Claire. I was woken up by Claire saying "Our popcorn bag has a hole in it."

Me: "ok, why are you waking me up?"

Claire: "Well there's smoke."

Me: "ok, I'm up!"

Mom's cooking lesson for today... "It doesn't matter how long the bag says to set the microwave for, you have to stop it when you stop hearing pops!"

(My whole house now smells awful!)

Our bag is still packed for the pool...I promised the kids I'd take them to this certain play pool this summer. Last Thursday as we were walking out the door to go it started raining so I just left the bag packed so we could go this week.

This is our weather for today...

and the forecasted weather for the rest of the week!


Really, Claire? You thought I'd be ok with you putting your tea on the couch?
(At least she used a coaster!)

I didn't even ask about this one...I was just glad it was George and not our cat!

Blogger Award

My friend Kara at Eskimo Kisses and Air Hugs gave me this award.
Thanks, Kara!

The rules of the Honest Scrap Award are to reveal 8 honest things about yourself.

Here are my 8:

1. I'm a pessimist. Always have been. The glass is always half empty to me!

2. I hate to grade papers. I know, I'm a homeschooler with only 2 students, but still, I dread it everyday!

3. I never put the cap back on pens.

4. I love to plan and organize things...parties, bookclubs, activities, you name it.

5. I like everything to be symmetrical. My husband makes fun of me, but everything has to be balanced and symmetric in our house!

6. I love turtles. I've had several as pets and I will stop if I see one on the road and move it to the side so it doesn't get hit. My dream vacation is a trip to the Galapagos Islands.

7. Even though I live in the city and have for many years, I grew up in the country. I was in 4-H and FFA, I raised chickens, judged dairy products, seen calves born and I have even seen a hog castrated! That's something most people don't really know about me since I don't really do those things anymore! For the record...I like the city life better--It's much more convenient.

8. I read magazines from cover to cover. I don't skip around. My husband thinks this is very weird...I think it is efficient!

Now, I always have a hard time deciding who to pass a blogger award to, so as a thanks to the people who read my blog, if you are visiting my blog today I am offering it to you! :-) All you have to do is post 8 honest things about yourself on your blog. Happy Monday!

Weekend Homeschool Talk

Our school year is about to start up again...just one more week of summer for us! We school from Aug-Apr. and take our summer May-Jul. Its cooler weather and my son is usually busy with baseball in May so its nice to be finished with school then.

I tried to have a seperate homeschool blog last year, but I just didn't have the time to keep up with it so I'm going to try out a weekly homeschool post this year instead. I'm planning to post it on the weekends when I have more time. I want to use this to share homeschooling ideas and such. I try to be really creative with my kids especially in the area of literature so I'm going to be posting a lot about our Literature units and activities. I also like to share any good resources or websites I come across.

Next weekend will be the weekend right before we start school so if I can figure out how to use Mr. Linky I'm planning on having a tour of schoolrooms/areas. I thought it would be fun to post pictures of our school room and look at others as well. I love to go to another homeschooler's house and look at how they do it! And it's a great way to get ideas too! So, come back next weekend and tell other homeschoolers that might want to join in too!

And if you'd like a good laugh click on the homeschool family video link in my margin. Tim Hawkins is my favorite comedian. (and he's a homeschooler too!)

Postcard Friendship Friday #18

Welcome to another Postcard Friendship Friday hosted by Marie at http://www.cpaphilblog.com/ Stop by her site to join in or see other postcards.

This is a postcard of Mission Espada. Last October we took a Texas History Field Trip and visited all of the missions around San Antonio. I thought I'd post a postcard from each one. So, next week, I'll have another mission to show you.

This is Espada. Its the most rural of the 4 missions and it also has the longest historical record. It was first located in east Texas in 1690. The new Mission Espada was reestablished in San Antonio in 1731. (This is the info off the back of the card.)

This is a picture of the inside...complete with my family in it! All of the missions we got to go inside were really beautiful.

Thousand Word Thursday

The Mom Jen at Cheaper than Therapy--Musings of The Mom Jen is hosting Thousand Word Thursday today. Click the link above to join in or see others.

Here's my picture that's worth a thousand words... (yet another Disney World pic!)

Wordless Wednesday- Summertime Part 2

More from my "images of summers past" collection...

Heather at simly joyful photos is hosting Wordless Wednesday today. Stop by her blog to join or see more. http://simplyjoyfulphotos.blogspot.com/

Bow Giveaway

My friend Jen at Frugal Fabulous is having a bow giveaway. Would you like to win a bow made by Jenny at Bella Bowz ? If so, just visit Jen and enter. The contest ends July 31st.

Enough Hairballs Already!

This is my cat, Simba. Cute huh?



Well, cute, little Simba has a BIG problem with hairballs! I have had many cats in my life and none of them have ever had hairballs. Simba is constantly throwing them up....and they are the little, dry balls of fuzz that they show in the Garfield comics! Nope! She throws up her food too! Sorry, I'm trying not to be too graphic. It really is much more disgusting than I'm telling here!

She's done this in the garage several times, but just this week in the house twice! We don't even want to let her in anymore because we are afraid she'll throw up on the carpet again. I buy hairball formula cat food and I put petroleum jelly on her paw so she'll lick it off. (I read this helps control the hairballs.) But nothing works. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to stop this?

My husband wants me to get rid of her, but I like her. And besides, I don't think anyone else would take her!
I thought giving her away as I was cleaning up the last hair ball. I laughed when I thought of how the ad would read...

Free to good home. One pretty cat with blue eyes. Hobbies include shedding, scratching carpet and weather stripping, and throwing up hairballs. Meows a lot and sounds like a horse when she runs through the house. Is afraid of strangers and enjoys biting and scratching most children.

I'm pretty sure no one else would take her! I just really need to find a solution to her hairball problem. She's actually a lot like me...only wants attention when she wants it, otherwise wants to be left alone! We get along fine except for the hairball thing!

I'd love advice if anyone has any!

Postcard Friendship Friday #17

Welcome to another Postcard Friendship Friday hosted by Marie at http://www.cpaphilblog.com/ Stop by her site to join in or see other postcards.

This is a postcard I picked up at an antique mall. It made me laugh so I just had to buy it! I mean, this is an odd postcard to get in the mail!

The back of it says: German American Novelty Art Series 532. Printed in Germany. I'm not sure of the year. There is no postage on it, but the place for postage does say Domestic and Canada one cent, foreign 2 cents.

Thousand Word Thursday

The Mom Jen at Cheaper than Therapy--Musings of The Mom Jen is hosting Thousand Word Thursday today. Click the link above to join in or see others.

Here's my picture that's worth a thousand words...

Wordless Wednesday- Summertime

To join in or see more wordless wednesday posts visit http://www.5minutesformom.com

Friend Makin' Monday

Mamarazzi at Dandelion Wishes is hosting Friend Makin' Monday this week. This week's topic is: List 5-10 of your Favorite Things!
Ok, here are mine (in no particular order!)

Tropical Drinks....

Cake...

Oh, I don't know how I ever lived without the Magic Eraser!!



Blue Bell...the best ice cream in the country!

Chili's Chicken Enchilada soup (and caesar salad too!)

The kids and I LOVE Quakes!

Disney World (and land, and ALL things Disney!)

Especially the Disney Cruise!

And, of course, my family!

Wow, I just noticed I have a lot of food items! I didn't have breakfast this morning and I think it is showing!!

How to: Making Eggrolls

I made homemade eggrolls for dinner last night. Several people asked how I did it so I'm posting a little "how to". Let me start off by saying I'm sorry...I don't really use recipes when I cook so I don't have exact measurements and such!


I shredded 1/2 of a head of cabbage. I added a couple of baby carrots too. You can add more carrots if you want, or broccoli, or black pepper...whatever your taste. I shredded the cabbage with my salad shooter. They don't make those anymore, but I think you can buy it pre shredded for coleslaw.




I stir fried 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts in a little oil, soy sauce and garlic powder. I shredded it in my food chopper. You need it to be shredded finely so that you can pack the filling in. Mix it with the shredded cabbage.




You find the egg roll wrappers in the produce section at the grocery store. Lay them out one at a time and put 2-3 spoonfuls of the filling on the wrapper.



Fold the bottom up over the filling and then fold the sides over. When folding the sides over (one is done below), dip you fingers in some water and brush it on the wrapper. That will help seal it.

Once you have both sides moistened and folded over begin rolling it. You will need to moisten the end of the wrapper and make sure it is well sealed. The picture below shows one almost rolled completely and one that is finished.

Then fry them in about 2 in. of cooking oil until they are golden brown. Be sure to flip them so they are browded evenly. The eggroll wrappers came in a package of 20 so that is what this recipe made. We like to dip them in sweet & sour sauce!

I hope this makes sense. I took pictures because it's a little hard to explain rolling them with words! You can also try variations using pork, shrimp, vegetables, or whatever you'd like in your eggroll!