Summer’s Close

Summer is wrapping up for us and with the end of summer came the end of our summer reading challenge.  I wasn’t as organized as I usually am about this year’s reading challenge.  I think I was being a little lazy actually and the library changed their program into something ridiculous so that sort of took the wind out my sails too. Thankfully I managed to think of something and it worked to get my kids reading this summer.  I bought them Sonlight’s summer readers.   Strawberry and Chocolate shared a pack, Bubble Gum and Blue-Raspberry got their own.  It worked out really well.  Sonlight packaged them up so nice, it was like they each got a present!

Anyway, the challenge was to get the books read before the end of July and in return I would take them to Nelson’s and buy them an ice-cream cone!  They all finished the challenge earlier then the date I set, so off we went! 

        

It was a magnificent day!  Warm, bright, not muggy!

         

I was a good girl, I didn’t have any ice-cream.  I was too busy wiping up spills and dolling out the wet wipes! 

Afterward, we decided to surprise the little people by taking them to the most adorable park ever created:  Teddy Bear Park.

I love it that my teens will still be in family photos, and go to the park with us.  lol

   

Isn’t that cool?  The whole park is like a squishy Astroturf, it’s really fun to walk on.

We ended our adventure at the Stillwater Farmer’s Market, which was quaint and delightful.  My husband spoke my love language and paid the big bucks for a gallon of pure maple syrup!  I am one blessed woman!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Yucky Kale

I’ve been trying and trying and trying to like this superfood.  I just don’t like it.  Any way I make it, it’s still disgusting.  My least favorite vegetable, the only food that makes me gag when I try to swallow it:  Brussel sprouts.  I like Kale even less, though it doesn’t make me gag like Brussel Sprouts do.

I tried to make Kale Chips.  It’s in the Trim and Healthy Mama book, it’s on Pinterest, I have friends who rave about them.  Gag.

I was really careful to get all the stems off, spritz the leaves with olive oil and used this yummy vegetable seasoning that generally makes everything taste yummy.  Baked them until crispy.  They did have a nice crunch, but after the crunch, NASTINESS filled my mouth!

She didn’t like it either. She willingly tried them, with great expectation.  I ate mine before I shared them with everybody else, I thought maybe it was just me.  I promise, they didn’t see ME make this face!

“Can I spit this out?” 

Marshmallow seemed to like them, at first.  She stuffed quite a few in her mouth.

I even caught her sneaking a few.  Then I saw her spitting the kale out and putting the chewed up Kale back in the bowl.  Um…

Then she started making this face.  Yeah, no more Kale for her!  There were more Kale pieces on my floor than her mouth or stomach!

Maybe you have a suggestion?  I just can’t figure out how to eat this super food.  To me, it’s super-ly yucky!

The Battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy

Having a little one in the School Room

You would think after all these years that I’ve been homeschooling I would know all the tricks to getting little ones to behave  during school time.  Well I don’t.  (smile)

My last little one, Laffy Taffy, was an easy going child, he was happy to play by himself, close to us, but happily occupied with this toys.  I really enjoyed doing Tot School with him because for about 30 minutes everyday he would attentively and happily learn what ever I was teaching him and then be content to play until the rest of us were done.

Enter Marshmallow Taffy.  She is loud.  She is MOODY.  She is NOT content to play by herself and 30 minutes of my individualized time is NOT enough.  I’m not really sure how our next year will go with her in the school room.  She doesn’t understand that if Mama is talking (reading out loud) that she should be quiet, instead, hearing my voice makes her want to say, “mom. MOM! Mommy! Mom!!!! MOOOOOOOOMMY!”  Louder and louder, with more and more drama and energy.  You would think the poor thing is completely neglected.  That’s so far from the truth…but still, it does pose a problem.

So this is what I’m praying through.  Praying for wisdom in how to deal with her.  How to actually teach her to be quiet, or at least quieter during school time.  I can’t do all of school during nap time.  I would love to hear how you deal with difficult children during school time.  There might be nothing I can do…I might just have to  grin and bear it until she’s older and understands more.  I’m not sure.  It does teach all the other children patience.  It teaches us all how to be gracious and it also allows more of my ugly impatientness  to be dealt with.  Many little eyes watching Mama, what will she do?  How will she respond?

The Battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy

2013/2014 Taffy Academy

During my blogging sabbatical, I spent a lot to time rearranging and reorganizing our school room.  Being as I lost two of my students, three actually when I take into account that Strawberry does most of her studies in her room… where it’s quiet, eh hem. I figured it was time for a good old rearrange!

The view looking right.

The view looking left.

I love it.  All the books make me happy.  I would still like to replace my plastic table with a conference table.  Our plastic table wiggles when somebody uses their eraser.  That’s kind of annoying.  Mr. Taffy is also on the look out for a cheap wall TV with a built in DVD player so I can show the kids education movies from time to time without them huddling around the lap top.

My Sonlight Books  and educational DVD’s.

Here’s the fall line up for the children starting with the oldest.

Strawberry Taffy-11th Grade

• Chemistry-Apologia
• Geometry-Teaching Textbooks
• English 3 (American Literature)-Excellence in Literature
• History-Constitution 101 & 102 (Hillsdale College)
• Graphic and Web Design- Team Tree House on-line program (She’s already started this because she’s VERY interested in it.)

I put links in the text if you are interested in learning more about each of her subjects.  I’ve also got an elective planned for her called:  Training in Biblical Womanhood.  I bought her several books that she is going to slowly read and journal her way through.

I found this awesome book holder at a garage sale.  This was on my list to find for our school room!

Blue-Raspberry Taffy- 5th Grade

• 5th Grade Math-Teaching Textbooks
• History-Sonlight Core D & E (combined American History)
• Latin- Song School Latin 2
• Science- Considering God’s Creation
• Language Arts: Sonlight Core D & E (Reading), Easy Grammar, All About Reading Level 4

Strawberry Taffy-3rd Grade

• 3rd Grade Math-Teaching Textbooks
• History-Sonlight Core D & E (American History)
• Latin-Song School Latin 2
• Science-Considering God’s Creation
• Language Arts: Sonlight Core D & E (reading), Easy Grammar & All about Spelling Level 4

You can see Blue-Raspberry and Bubble Gum are pretty much doing the same curriculum, I just have different expectations for each of them.  Bubble Gum read’s terrifically and won’t have any trouble with the reading, Blue-Raspberry reads terrifically too, he just doesn’t enjoy it as much.  (smile)

Laffy Taffy- 1st Grade

I did things differently with Laffy than I did with my other children.  I couldn’t stomach another round of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.  It’s a great book, but it’s SO boring and I’ve been through it 5 times already…ugh.  So I used All About Reading PreReading with him.  Usually my children are reading by the end of Kindergarten, granted he just turned 5 toward the end of kindergarten but still, he’ll be starting 1st grade and he doesn’t know how to read yet.  Though he knows all the letter sounds and how to write them on demand.  This year we’ll put all the pieces together and he’ll be reading like a champ before I know it!

• Reading-All About Reading Level 1
• Spelling- All About Spelling Level 1
• Math-Miquon Math Starting in the Orange book and working our way through them all, I’m not sure how long it will take, might take a couple years, might only take 1.
• History/Literature/Science-Sonlight Core A or K depending on what you’re used too.  I primarily wanted a list of age appropriate reading material, to read to him and to have him start reading to me. 
• Handwriting-Just a work book I got from a friend.

I’m using workboxes for him this year so he can visually see how much he needs to do and consequently know when he’s almost done. 

I read on the Duggar’s Blog that during school hours the children aren’t allowed to talk about anything non-school related.  I am totally considering copying this amazing idea.  So much chatter and so many uninteresting questions and too much redundancy, it really makes me crazy sometimes!

The Tot School Area.

We are starting up August 5th, with a four day a week schedule so we can still enjoy the summer weather and meet our friends at the beach once a week.  Until we start up, I have a BIG issue I have to pray through.  I’ll share that next time.  Here’s a hint:

The Battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy

Where do I start?

 

Well hello out there!  Is it okay if I start blogging again?  So much has happened, so much I want to share.  I have some significant things to share and some not-so-significant things to share.  Where in the world do I start? 

I’ve been purging and cleaning like a crazy person. My husband (and the rest of my family) is starting to get a little annoyed with the things they find in the garbage and in the trunk to be taken to Goodwill.  I can’t help it. I’m compelled to PURGE!  I’ve even been purging and cleaning my laptop.  Yesterday I deleted 200 files!  Most of them were  blog images that I have made over the years and different reviews of things that I don’t need to keep a rough draft of.  Some were funny things the kids have typed up or created on the computer, I found a funny ad for dog food that one of the kids had made either just for fun or a business idea.  It was cute.

            

I’ve also been filing, filing at home and on my laptop.  I made new folders to keep track of my writings and my homeschool things.  We’ve had so many computers over the years and I’ve downloaded so many fun things for our homeschool that I just can’t find what I’m looking for anymore.  I think I fixed all that.  My desktop only has 10 icons now and only about 6 of those are mine, I wouldn’t dare delete anything that looks like my husband’s.  I have no idea if it’s important or not!  I use to have about 30 files stored on my desktop.  It’s much less cluttered now.

This morning I’ve been going through my picture files and deleting non-important images.  You know, like all the images of the food I eat!  lol  Books I’m selling, stuff like that.

It feels great to get rid of the clutter.

My goals for this year are: Simplify. Trust. Pray.

That’s it.  Those are the words burning in my soul. Maybe I will share how I’m tangibly trying to obtain those goals.

Thanks for hanging with me.

The battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy

It’s been too long…

I’m sorry.  I know it’s been so long since I’ve blogged.  I really do have things to share, I just don’t seem to have the gumption to do it.  I see a lot of competition in the bloggy world, I tend to pull away from anything competitive.  I’m happy to let somebody else take the lead! 

Here’s a recap of the last 4 weeks:

                     

We celebrated Easter.  The day started with a nice breakfast and lots of pictures.  Church.  The church we’ve been going to changed their service time from 9:30 to 10:30.  It worked out fine for Easter Sunday but it’s a bad time for us a big family.  Trying to sort through that…

                   

After church we came home and prepared to have dinner at my dad and step-mom’s house.  They live in Florida most of the year but have recently bought a townhouse near us and come up about once a month.  That’s sure a blessing!

A surprise Easter Egg hunt.  We don’t typically do this, the last time we did one was when Bubble Gum was a toddler.  But boy was it fun and the kids were so happy!  It was freezing outside and there was still some snow on the ground, but the sun was shining and hearts were warm.

                

Even the first-born son was there!  That was a real treat.  Though Chocolate Taffy had to work and we missed him immensely!

Mr. Taffy turned 40.  All the pictures from that are on my phone.  We didn’t have a big party or anything, but I did load up the dinning room with star shaped helium balloons and I tied a balloon to his truck while he was at work that said, “You’re HOW old?”  That made him smile.

Our baby turned 2.  Can I still call her my baby?  Interesting thing about this child, her name means Jehovah’s perfection, she is our 7th (perfection) child and she was born on the 7th.  See the pattern?  So bizarre!  I wasn’t induced or anything either, God just worked that out and it took me a while to connect the dots!  ha!

                   

One more birthday and we’re done!  Yay!  I love birthday’s but I enjoy the non-birthday season too!  Because the end of birthday season marks the beginning of garage sale season! Whoop!

Spring is taking forever to land in Minnesota.  This is definitely a trial of patience, but just like before I can still see hints of what is to come.  Hope springs eternal.

Now more than ever we need to stay close to the Father.  Times are uncertain, trials are many and the time is short.  Hold fast dear friends!

The battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy