Okay so I know that my Granny would be so proud of me! I have really gotten into this canning thing - it's so rewarding! And funny because I really dislike cooking...but I don't think of this as cooking - but as helping my family.

So, Wednesday the boys and I got home from VBS and I had a bucket of tomatoes staring at me (that my sweet hubby had picked from the garden). It's funny because our garden hasn't

yielded nearly as much as it usually does, I think the super hot weather has just taken a

toll on it. But we have still gotten quite a few and put up several jars of sauce as well as salsa. And we've been getting several squash - which gets turned into fried squash (Yum-O!) and a few cantelopes - sweet!

But anyway, back to the this last week. The boys went to two VBS's - Whoa~! But I have to say they had an absolute blast. It's funny because we started going to both of these particular VBS's about 4 years ago. We were invited by

a friend and I have to tell you that Bug had such a good time we got involved in other things and it just went from there. LOL - here it is four years later and we still attend each summer. They just happened to be on the same week this year - at least one was morning and one was evening so they could attend both. The FUMC in Wax. was in the morning. This is the church where Bug attends choir so he has several friends there already and was VERY excited to attend. They had a fun time learning all about God's recipe for them and singing fun songs like "Shake It Up"! Then in the evenings they went to FUMC in Midlothian for A visit to Nazareth. This is another one that we've gone to for the past 4 years...they are one of the best around. I love how every aspect of what the kids do

involves them learning about Jesus and how much he loves the m. They have so much fun! They got to make all sorts of crafts and visit the various shops that Jesus would have seen as a boy. They also collected money for to help get rif of Malaria and had a contest between the boys and the girls. The girls won by about $40 so Ms. Keeley got to put a "pie" in Mr. Matt's face. The kids of course LOVED that part. LOL I loved watching them sing and do all the motions to the songs at the end of the night. What a blessing!

Whew we they tired at the end of each night. LOL But they would get to bed so that they could get up and go again. They woke up raring to go each morning - it was great to see them having such a good time.

I spent my "kid free" time - "Cemetery Hunting" - walking at the cemetery taking pictures for findagrave.com. I love the peacefulness of a cemetery and the history that can be found there. I have been taking pictures for find-a-grave for a year or so, but I took advantage of having a few

hours each day to walk the cemetery and take a lot of pics. People use the site for genealogy research and often want pictures of the headstones of their relatives. There are a lot of memorials that don't have pictures, so I like to hunt for the headstones and get pictures to upload for them. I find it very relaxing to just walk and read the stones so it was a great time of peacefulness for me. I can tell you after four hours of walking each day I was a tad tired!

On Wednesday afternoon I got in and thought, I really gotta put up that Salsa. So I began working on a Garden Salsa recipe. I ended up using more peppers and jalapenos than tomatoes I

think, but it turned out pretty good. It sure was pretty!

Here's my pretty salsa all jarred and waiting to "pop"!

I also canned the jalapenos I got on sale for $.25 a pound! Can't beat that! They were HOT though and I was about to burn my eyes out so sweet Bug helped me out with his goggles! It was quite look let me tell you, but it sure did work!

!Caution! HOT peppers!

I guess Bug thought I was doing a good job - cause he took a pic of my spectacular cutting as well. LOL

Stuffing the jars and filling with brine!

Here's my pretty peppers. When I began taking them out of the water bath I realized I forgot to put in the carrots. Oops! Oh well - I won't tell if you don't!

I have a feeling that my canning days have just begun....what an adventure...wish my Granny was here to see me now...

VBS @ The Cowboy Church of Ellis County -Son Country Harvest

The boys attended VBS at our church a couple of weeks back. They had so much fun! Bug was so excited about the water games and play that they did each night. It was a blast. I got to help out with Bug's class which was a lot of fun.

The boys attended VBS at The Avenue church last week and had a lot of fun with friends. Bug was excited to see his friends Garrett and David again. Red made a new friend named Seth and just had a ball playing on the playground with him.

I love that they have the opportunity to go have some fun with old friends and new during the summer. It also helps pass the crazy hot days we've been having lately.

Here's our latest project! LOL

Canning!

We dabbed at it last year with Memaw and made some tomato sauce.

We have a garden going, but it's been so crazy hot already that our poor garden is just not producing like it usually does. :(

But I found jalapeno's on sale 3 pounds for a dollar so we thought - heck we need to try

this canning thing again! So we did - and honestly it was so easy! Hubby did most of the work on the jalapeno's and came out with 6 beautiful jars! I am excited!

So I caught the canning bug!

I

picked up peaches 3 pounds for $1 and decided I could can them! I got 5 beautiful jars out of the batch and boy oh boy are they pretty! I was very excited. It was a lot of work to peel, pit and dice all those peaches, but oh so worth it to see the end product!

The coupon chat group from ECCHO meets up every Thursday for a play date and we decided that this Thursday we want to have a canning play date.

I came home this afternoon after a super fun time at Mattie and JoJo's birthday party and put up a pineapple I got for $.99! Woo-Hoo! I have been debating putting up some tidbits and did a little research on the best way to do it. I didn't want to make it really syrupy - so I decided to sweeten the pineapple with a touch of sugar and just use water as the liquid. I tasted it before I jarred it and it was very yummy! I only had one jar left in my box so I figured it was a good "trial" jar. It went smooth as butter and I am very excited. It turned out sooo pretty! Love it! I can't wait to try some other things. I have to get myself so more jars. We got some tomatoes and peppers from the garden yesterday so I am thinking Monday I might try a garden salsa.

Oh the fun I am having!

Here is Bug's newest friend...he was outside with Daddy this evening and found this little guy hopping around. He was quite excited to play with him for a while. LOL I think we'll call him Fred...

Well I am feeling better that I got May caught up. LOL

I was thinking the other day about the journals that B's mom used to keep - he actually found a few of them while cleaning out the shed at his Dad's old place. It was rather cool to see her thoughts about daily life, grocery lists, what the boys were up to and such. Made me think, I need to do that, then I remembered I do, sorta, with my blog. So I am more determined to keep it updated.

Bug went to Horse camp earlier this month - he had a

blast!!! I got the chance to stay and help out during the mornings which was a lot of fun! During one of the class times the girls and I did a Draw Write Now lesson and drew a horse. Well it was an attempt on my part to draw a horse. LOL - the girls got a good laugh though.

Bug had a great time riding horses, playing games and learning about being a cowboy.

After horse camp on Friday we ran down towards Itasca where we had seen a field of sunflowers a few weeks earlier that had just begun to bloom. Well when we went down there they were in full bloom and boy oh boy were they beautiful! What a site to see acres and acres of the pretties!

Red took swimming lessons the same time that Bug was in Horse Camp. Oh what an experience that was. Red absolutely hates the water and he was not not very happy about it. We haven't every tried before because we knew that the teenage instructors at the Y would never get him in the water. A friend of mine recommended Coach Gaylor from the HS, so we decided it might be just what Red needed. It was horrible the first day, he was upset and cried and scared to get in. But Coach Gaylor ot him in. Not that he was happy about it. He completed six days though and in the end he was actually swimming on his own a little bit and floating on his back like a champ! I will definitely be contacting Coach Gaylor again next summer!

Back in early June the the boys, Daddy and I loaded up to head out to the Annual Preston Street Garage Sale in Ennis.

We love a good junkin' sale and the community wide garage sales are always the best!

We came home with lots of treasures and two very tired boys on Friday, but it didn't discourage us from heading out again on Sunday. What fun we had!

We found a $.05 bucket at one sale and boy oh boy did Bug have a good time digging through it! He found lots of little treasures for the geocaching box. He also found several old match box cars, and some Disney pins. He was quite excited about his find. That boys is a collector already....oh help me! LOL

Here is some other finds. I was very excited about this Texas Aggies box that Daddy found at one sale! It will be perfect to fill with goodies for a future Texas box!

Daddy picked up a few interesting jars. I found a set of three boxes (brand new) of staples for $1 - what a steal! I also found a goodie bag at one sale for $.50 - it was very interesting with a great mix of old buttons, interesting jewelry pieces and sewing stuff.

Oh I love this bag - it was $0.10 - it included some sewing stuff which I will pass along to Mom, but the most interesting was a pin cushion with little china girls on it. It is very pretty and very interesting.

I found a Texas shaped ice cube tray (another great thing for a future Texas Box) and a brand new # 8 candle! Red found a toy and a tap light for his room. Bug found that very interesting lizard piece and an angel pendent. Daddy picked up the games and the collector card and pin.

We found some canning books at a sale and I was very excited about that! We also found a little fan for the classroom and a clip light. Bug found a boomerang for $.25 - one of his favorite toys these days!

Daddy picked up this 7 up trash can for $1 - What a Find! He also got a Coors lamp and some silver pieces.

I got a new cutting board and a box of envelopes for a quarter.

Well that was most of it. We had an absolute blast and really just enjoyed being out and about with each other and spending time together as a family. It was HOT, but we loved being together and junkin'! :)

Our Beach Trip to Matagorda Bay with Memaw & Papa!

Back in May we traveled to Matagorda Bay to spend a few days with Memaw and Papa.

It was a wonderful time.

The boys had a great time feeding the gulls. I am always amazed when we throw a piece of bread to one and then all of sudden three dozen we upon us! It was quite amazing.

Dad and I enjoyed walking on the beach in the mornings. It was so nice out! We found a really cool man-o-war and he was still alive. We tried to "save" him, but the darn thing kept coming back with the tide. The discovery turned up a very interesting conversation about man-o-war's and how they might "work". Thank goodness for technology when we got back to the house we were able to learn all about the man-o-war! :)

Here is one of the gulls wading in a tide pool.

Here was another cool discovery Dad and I found. A coconut covered in alga and little tiny crabs. They were alive too - it was really neat. Again we tried to get it back out to sea, but it kept rolling back in. It was cool to ponder where that coconut might have come from.

The ocean was very rough the whole time we were down there. The wind was crazy and the waves were big! It was cool to watch them roll in though!

Here is a shot of the brown pelicans that are native to the gulf coast. They are so cool to watch.

It didn't take long for Bug to convince his Papa to take him off into the water. They would "ride the waves" as they came in. It was hilarious to watch. Up and down up and down! Bug loved it! Papa finally had to drag him out there because they were both shivering and turning blue! LOL

Oh I just love this picture. The way that the sand dune flowers would open and close each day was so pretty. I just love it.

Here I am moving on through the month of May! :)

I wanted to share a little about the reading program I found for Red. He is a very auditory learner and didn't really respond well to the traditional Saxon Phonics program like Bug uses, so I did some hunting, tried lots of different stuff and finally found something that seems to be working well for him. We also use the Explode the Code books (Thanks Angela P!) but this goes very well with Red's auditory learning style. We have been using it for about a month now and it is going very well.

It's laid out very simply - each lesson includes any materials needed (like making a few index card pieces - see below), and includes what to say, etc.

The lessons are quick and simple - we've gotten into a few sight words now as well as reading a simple sentence. The book includes copy work ideas. I have done a of few of these with Red as well.

I am so happy to have found something that he seems to be taking so well too!

Here is a sample of the cards that I mad to practice the words ending in the "ap" sound. It makes it something like a game and Red does really well with it!

Here you can see Red's depiction of "The Beach". The boys were so excited about the beach trip we took with Memaw and Papa to Matagorda Bay. During school, Red was drawing on the board and came up with this. The blue is the ocean, the brown is the beach and the black is the beach house, we are the various circles you see are us on the beach.

More from before the beach trip.

Here is one of our opossums - we call this guy Great Uncle Bob.

Unlike Fred who just dumps the bucket and eats from the side Uncle Bob climbed up and hung himself over the edge. It gave me quite a start to open the backdoor and find him hanging there eating. But the funnier part was that he didn't seem to hear me, I got the camera and came back and he was still there. LOL

After several minutes he seemed to get his fill so he waddled off under the porch. What a cutie!

Playing catch-up again! First May flew by and now here we are at the end of June! Oh my goodness! Well this post takes us all the way back to the first part of May. We went with some friends from ECCHO to a baseball game in Grand Prairie. The Grand Prairie Air Hogs vs. the Salt Dogs.

The kids had an absolute blast being with their friends, Seth, Aaron and Alyssa @ the game!

At one point they threw out t-shirts and Bug tried hard to catch one! I think he enjoyed the running more than the trying to catch though. LOL
Here is the mascot - he came around to visit all the fans in the stands! It was fun to meet him!
The mascot got the crowd cheering as the Airhogs finally scored a run! :) Although we really didn't care as we just enjoyed being with friends. We ate hot dogs, drank soda, popcorn and cotton candy! The kids were a mess, but they had so much fun it was totally worth it! Thank goodness for germx and baby wipes.

The Class Brain

A couple of weeks ago I attended a teachers conference called edcampPlano. It was really great...lots of great topics to choose from and lots of great info to get! Loved it!

I went to a class by Diane Dahl (http://www.fortheloveofteaching.net/) on brain based learning. What a wealth of information! She brought in a project that her class did (look under metacognition lesson was a huge success) and it had me very interested in trying this in our own home classroom with the boys. I sort of changed it up so it will better work for a daily practice rather than all one time. We started out chatting about our brains and what our brains do and how they work and we looked at pictures, stuff like that. Then I gave each of them three pieces of pipe cleaner and we talked about the neurons in our brain and how they work and how our brain ties together information that we already learned with new information that we are learning. They caught on real quickly with the fun of pipe cleaners! So we began by talking about some of the different subjects we cover each day. Then we talked about how we would build our own brains by learning new things about each subject. So I let them know that they would build the class brain as well as their own. So each day, a couple of times, as

we start a subject I'll have them grab a couple of pipe cleaner pieces and tell me some things they know about that subject or what we've been covering, or what we learned yesterday, something like that. It has been a great experience to see them recalling information so easily. Both boys are beginning to understand more about how their brain works because I continually remind them through words actions and funny noises and gestures about how the neurons and axons and dendrites of their brains are tying together as they learn. It's been a lot of fun and I'm excited to see how it grows throughout the year. The brain currently hang from the ceiling fan right in the middle of the room but I'm thinking it may be too big for that area very soon.

More to come...Wendy

Here I am playing catch-up again! Where did the month of May go? Boy oh boy did it just fly by! Wow!

Here is a beautiful reminder of my fun volunteer experience with Mrs. Kuntz this last school year. Since I am certified in Utah right now I can count up to 25 volunteer hours a year toward my training hours needed to renew my certificate. I enjoyed working with Mrs. Kuntz so much last year that I was overjoyed when I found out I could volunteer in her classroom this year and earn credit as well. Earlier in May the school held a Volunteer brunch for those of us who volunteer in the school. What a sweet gesture! They had yummy pastries and breakfast casserole and gave each of us a potted flower to take home. I have enjoyed my time working with Mrs. Kuntz and her 2nd grade class. She is always so full of smiles and good ideas. I am looking forward to volunteering again next school year. She will be moving to 3rd grade so I get to see all the wonderful ideas she has for an older group! Yeah!

The boys and I have been doing quite a bit of geocaching lately. We've almost gotten all the ones around Wax here, but there are still a few smiley's to claim! Here is a few of our most recent prizes.

Bug loves those little parachute guys that you throw int the air. LOL He also found some temporary tattoos. LOL Kaden traded for the turtle (for his little things shelf. I found a cool paper clip in one cache!

A couple of weeks ago we had some issues with the name calling. One of our neighbors has a

much younger sister that comes to play with her son and my boys sometimes. She is just the sweetest kid and so good about joining in and playing even though she is the only girl. Well for

whatever reason the boys were teasing her one afternoon and she got her feelings hurt. Well when she went inside, it got the best of Bug and he knew what they had done was wrong. So he came inside and told me about what had happened. Well she had already gone home so we didn't get to chat with her directly. The boys had already apologized, but after we talked about it I thought they needed to do a little more to show her they were sorry. So they decided to make her a card. Each of them sat down with markers and crayons and stickers and wrote her a sweet little note of apology. They gave them to her the next day when she came up and asked if she would forgive them. It was a sweet time of learning how to get along and how to treat others...

Here is another pic of our latest outdoor activities. LOL

The neighbor Mr. Larry has a mower with a trailer hook-up - the kids love to sit on it while he drives them around the yards. Funny!

I have been reading a blog called The Homeschool Post. I just love it...so encouraging and so much good stuff to read. Well I participated in the last Mom Swap they did. How fun...I am always doing stuff for the kids - but now I get to do one for me! I can't tell you how excited I was to shop for my swap sis and to be able to send some goodies to her. I got a wonderful package in the mail! Yeah!

My Swap Sis (see http://hsbapost.com/2011/04/11/april-and-may-swapperoni/ for more info) Suanna (http://family6-time.blogspot.com) sent me a spectacular package of goodies! I got a new wipe off board and some cool colored wipe off markers, a pie recipe book, some great stickers for the boys, an awesome piece of cloth for crafting (in my fav color blue!!!) and my fav candy - Haribo gummy bears! How she had time to shop and mail packages in the midst of moving I don't know - but she did a spectacular job!

Thank you so much Suanna!!!! You Rock!

Here's another highlight of our May - watching wrestling at Killer Tim Brooks pro wrestling night down the road from our house! The boys were so excited - we love wrestling around our house!

Here you can see all the kids up at the ring cheering for The Doberman!

More highlights when the Doberman was pinned!

Oh here he is - mad!

Here is one of the kids swaps!

We participate in the geo-box swaps at Homeschool Swapping Adventures (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_143028255761047&ap=1). This is just to coolest thing and the kids just love it!!!

This one here came from Ohio. We got it right around Easter so it had Easter eggs with some goodies from the state of Ohio in them. They also

included a new water bottle, some buckeye seeds (awesome!) and lots of magazines, maps and information about the state of Ohio! I loved the ladybug - the state bug we found out!

Very informational box filled with lots of learning opportunities!

They also sent some Chili seasoning - we plan to make chili and have a learn about Ohio day! Fun!

Thank you to the Hines family for this awesome box!

Here you can see the Florida geo box we got last month. (I actually put these in the wrong order - oops.) This box was really cool as well.

We got a book about Florida, a table football game, some nice magnets and cool postcards! They also sent us a really neat bag that has the outline of Florida on it - I love bags and this one is especially big and roomy!

We also got some orange coconut patty candies (Daddy was a big fan of these!) And the bottle of orange blossom honey (which we polished off in no time) was a HuGe hit! So yummy!

Shells from Daytona beach and some real oranges from their very own orange tree where also in the box!

Oh and I can't forget the bug jars - the boys love these and I have to say they are probably the most used thing of any items we've received.

Thank you to the Alexander Family for this wonderful box of goodies!

Here is Bug's extra activity for the month of May. We signed him up for riding lessons at the Flying G ranch. Oh my goodness did he just take right to it! He had a ball and was so excited to go each week.

He learned all about saddling a horse and some grooming techniques.

He also learned how to mount and dismount as well as how to make the horse go and stop and turn and so forth.

Here is Beauty, Bug's first horse. He found out later that she is actually a mule - thus the reason she is so stubborn. LOL He had a bit of trouble getting her to go sometimes. LOL

Here is Mr. Ken chatting with the kids before their first ride. Ken and Dee are wonderful people and we really enjoyed working with them each week. They are so gentle and patient and very concerned that the kids know how to be safe around horses and have fun! He chatted with the kids about how God gives us dominion over the animals and it's important that we treat the horse with respect while letting the horse know that we are in control (as God wants us to be). It was awesome - he sang songs with the kids and prayed with the kids and just really had a great time.

They are hosting a horse camp at the Ranch House Cowboy Church and Bug is so very excited to attend! Lots of horseback riding, crafts, songs, devotionals and much more. I am so excited for him!

Well I think I will sign off for now...it's taken me much longer than I figured to get this done as I have had a least a thousand interruptions since I began. LOL

Until next time....love one another and hug your kids!

Wendy