Home is where your story begins

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Hope all is happy and not too many hangovers whether it's a headache from drinking too much or your belly is hanging over from indulgence. My NYE was blah. I am still sick! HOORAY! love it! Not sure why I can't kick this cold but it's kicking me. I put the kids to bed early and watched the ball dropped. Non eventful. Safe. Boring celebration to bring in this new year. But.....there is always next year!

I have this exact saying "Home is where your Story begins" only it's on a deep rich rusty red color. I love this saying because it's so true and for me it has been a theme in my life since I continue the search for who I am and my spiritual search about God and the Universe, etc..

Jax and I have decided this will be our theme this year. We will work hard in making our home a great story with lots of respect, love, harmony, mild yelling, and great fun.

So after saying the Pledge of Allegiance in home school we will practice our home theme:

Home is where our story begins
We will try real hard to have love with in
We will respect, love, honor and obey
and forgive and be humble each and every day
We will strive for kind words, good actions and deeds
and help our family and each other with any of their needs.

Jax wrote most of this. He is turning into a great words man even though he gets
embarrassed if I mention his talent.

Service will be our main focus as well and Jax and I have come up with a fun project and we invite everyone to join us.

We have created the Pillow Case Project. Any pillow case with out holes works perfect. They will be filled with common sense things and handed out to the homeless. The pillow case will be used as a sack and the following items are an example of what you can put in them:

Package of tissues
Package of Wipes
bottle of water
Flashlight
batteries
tooth brush
tooth paste
1 roll of toilet paper
pen
paper
chap stick
comb
gum
any fun cross word book or search a word
I put in copies of the homeless shelters/churches

And for those homeless that have dogs or cats.. buy a bag of dog food and make individual baggies of dog food.

All of these items you get can get from the Dollar Tree or buy in bulk to make it even cheaper. You don't have to personally hand out to the homeless but you can contact your local shelter, tell them what you are doing, and they will take them and pass them out.

Jax and I have saved $30.00 so we are going to create 3 kids pillow cases. I am going to go buy some fun material at the fabric store and sew pillow cases and then we will put most of the items we listed above but put a small stuffed animal, and some toys in them. We are excited to start.

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I found out today through an unnamed source and some one who I love that loves to help the homeless and needy like I do that a family just a few doors down has no food. They are unemployed and they do have the ball rolling with getting things like unemployment, food stamps, etc..it's just gonna take time and the little ones are coming to school with empty bellies. So, today the boys and I are making boxes of food and making some cookies and tonight we will do "Operation Food Drop" and of course, the walkie talkies are coming with us and so are the night vision goggles Jax got. It will be fun. I hope we don't get caught.

It saddens me to think that people are hungry and it's only getting worse.

I love that the Universe hears ours desires and wants because it shows Jax and I that some one is listening. That we want to serve others and then out of the blue my friend calls to give me a heads up. How great is that?

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Whom I love~ Jax Dec. 2010

I LOVE EVERYTHING! about this kid! I adore him. I am so grateful he is in my life to teach me all the things I am supposed to learn on this earth. I can't imagine my life with out him!




Look at those teeth GLOW! He just ate a can of Ravioli. barf!

Christmas 2010

We had a nice Christmas. Our friends, The Coles, surprised us with their train table and trains on Christmas Eve. We were invited to dinner on Tuesday night and the boys just freaked out over it. And both boys cried when we left. Christmas Eve, Tootie called to say she was coming over with a surprise on their way to Wilmington so we just stood in the door way with our mouths open when they hauled in the table. A great surprise and she swears her kids don't play with it any more.

Ashton got lots of little cars and a fun car ramp. He also got his first little bike. He loves it and loves to ride it nude no less. Notice he is nude in some of his pictures. He will not keep clothes or diapers on..... Choose your battles, right?
He also got blocks, legos and a ball.

Jax got to keep Ruby Grace and that is a story for another blog entry. He also did end up getting the DS only because I found it online at 3:00 a.m. on sale for $75.00. That is a great savings. I got a few used games. He was so happy. He had tears in his eyes when he saw he really got one. Christmas Eve night all he could talk about was "I wonder if I got a DS" and he was up till 1:00 a.m. tossing and turning and having a hard time just existing with thoughts of "What if's" floating in the air. I don't know how long I scratched his back, did relaxing breathing and meditation with him to get him to just calm done. So cute!

We put out lots of carrots and oatmeal for the reindeer and made Chocolate Chip cookies for Santa. Jax left Santa a pair of glasses in case he needed a pair because Rudolph nose was so bright. We watched Elf. My Favorite Christmas movie.

It snowed! The day after Christmas. Ugh!

Today

This morning we started our home school day off with fun. I was going to start the first of the year but I can no longer handle the "no structure" in my house. I thought with the holidays we would let the schedule go very casual and all we have done is fight, yell, scream, and stay tired with each other. It's amazing how much a structure is what makes my family happy.

We started with Play-dough. We love it! We are so happy the McVicker's created such a fun thing. We researched Play-dough and read all about it. We got to spend time playing with it and then we re-read all our information and Jax had to write out key points to what we read. I helped him, of course. But he had to write out who the creators were, what year, etc... It about killed him to write or so you would think, but oh well, he'll get over it.

Here's a short fun link:

http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/playdoh.htm







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One of the things Jax and I have been exploring are his interests and what he may want to be when he grows up. Like me, he has a billion ideas. At one time I wanted to be a Vet or work with animals. I was most excited when I saw this movie was on.

We watched the 1966 movie called Born Free. It's one of my most FAVORITE movies of all time. It's a true story of a couple who raise a Lioness and then they have to set her free. We had a few sniffles and it was so good. I sure loved this movie growing up as a child.
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It was Kathy's 55th birthday. So we made her a mountain house. It was supposed to be a gingerbread house but it turned in to quite an interesting creation. She loves anything the kids bring her. I forgot to take her picture but here is Jax's creation.




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We worked on our family theme for the upcoming year which is to be announced and Jax and I started working on creating the January Calendar, did more English and Math work.

For math we are using a program called www.IXL.com

We love it because it's all on line. The kids earn a reward the more they work and it tells you what requirements, if any, your state mandates and what will be on the End of Grade tests. We also use fun flash cards and other fun things.

**I am excited for this school year. It's going to take a lot of work not only on my part but on Jax's. He knows if he doesn't do well he will go back to public school and it's not his wanting. And I don't want him to go back either but he has to make some better choices with his defiance in learning. I have faith. It will come.