Today we went to Mt. Charleston w/ friends to play with our cameras. My friend is a REAL photographer, I am just a wannabe. We took our 2 chicklets with us, for a girls' day out. We had some prayer and a devotional too!

I attached an older 80 - 200mm lens that belonged to my brother-on-law's 35mm Canon, many years ago! I did not adjust any settings though, so most my pix were overexposed. However, I did find out today that you can download Adobe Lightroom for 30 days, for free! And... if I choose to purchase it, I can get a smoking deal because I am a homeschool TEACHER lady! So I can get it for $99! I think I might have to do that ; )

My chicklet

These 2 did not turn out originally, they were way overexposed. I like how Lightroom rescued them. They certainly aren't the best pix or the best objects to photograph, but I am pleased w/ the fact I can rescue them w/ a good program.

Anyway, it was a good day. The air was cooler up there and the fellowship was wonderful.

So was the Starbucks.

Smooth

So school is going good so far, even though we're having a 'light week' to start. Yesterday we started our Christian Liberty Press Nature Reader 3 and started reading about the ants. The kids enjoyed 'observing' ant lions seek and destroy their prey. Today we read about creation in the Mystery of History. The kids had to create an animal unlike anything they knew of; they had to create it out of clay, name it, and then write about it. They had to write what type of species, what it eats, what it does....

Chicklet and her horsemouse

It's only August 25th, it's @ 102' outside, and I am soooo ready for cooler weather! I made homemade potato soup, apple crisp, and anadama bread for dinner. Does that not scream FALL, it's FALL! The Weather should be COOOOLER! Oh wait, we're in Vegas. Leaves don't turn color till January here.

it's time!

It's the first day of school! WOW! My firstborn is a senior in highschool! I can't believe it! This time next year he'll be going off to college. Most days that makes me sad!

George - 12th
Stuart - 10th
Tom - 8th
Rick - 5th
Sara - 4th

I am not as prepared as I'd like to be for our homeschool year. We'll take it easy this week and then add another subject or 2 a week till we're all on board. Homeschool kids have
Bible
Math
Language Arts
History
Science
Latin
Art
Music
Handwriting
P.E.
Read Alouds
Silent Reading

And probably more, I just don't have our schedule here in front of me. Better get them up & going !


May God bless our year!

Wednesday

This is a picture of the messy dining room!
The china closet is there, but the piano
won't fit. We've left the dining room table up
there as my desk & sewing table.
The computer desk is still there
but we are going to get rid of it and the one
in the kitchen area. We'll replace those w/
laptops in December. This will take me about
30 min to finish.


Here's the loft. Most the boxes
are empty, just need to be moved.
We'll get rid of the computer in Dec.
Once the boxes are gone and the
floor is vacuumed, it will look so much
nicer. We're getting an 8' plastic table to
put in the loft for school. We can fold it up
and put it away if we don't need it.



Living room needs to be painted, dusted
and junk put away. But most of our living
room furniture is in the living room!

I just need to get a few hours and start finishing this project, then we can start painting.

Where has the time gone?

Oops, kinda forgot about the blog! We are about 90% done w/ rearranging, I just have a few boxes to unpack and lots of empties. I will post some pix of the inbetween.

I had finally found the color I want to paint our bedroom, but... (there's always the 'but') when I threw some of it on the wall in our room, it didn't look the same. I'm bummed. Our bedroom windows face north, so we don't get much direct light in there. I'm on the search for another shade I guess.

I've been sick the last few days - but feeling better today. I went to the gym & grocery store, made chocolate chip cookies for the kids & peach pie for my hubby. He was very happy ;)