New Stove!

I am really excited about our new stove!! I have been wanting a new stove since we moved in this house 4 years ago but it wasn't something that I HAD to have right then. Several reasons for wanting one and NEEDING one were 1) when we first bought this house we discovered the hinges on the oven door were broken, Vince offered to get some replacements then to fix the problem but I hated to spend the money on hinges when the stove wasn't my pick in the first place. 2) I had gotten really spoiled to my previous stove in the fact that it had a time bake option, which I loved when I couldn't be home to turn the oven off but wanted hot food when I arrived, as well as it was self cleaning which also comes in very handy when you have a nasty oven, which is what my previous stove was!!!! 3) I had never had a gas stove/oven before and I wasn't sure how I'd like it and when I did get a new stove if I would want gas again or electric. Since I have decided that I LOVE GAS - it heats up so quick and now when I'm at my moms and think her stuff is never going to boil, I miss my gas! 4) Since the hinges were broken, it took great talent to either prop the door on a chair to get the contents out, OR prop the door on your knee while you removed the HOT food all at the same time trying not to burn yourself and/or spill the food. This is partly b/c if you didn't know you had to do this before hand, then the door would slam on the kitchen floor which is tile and there went the handle... so lately, not only did you have to prop the door up you also had to open the door at one particular end of the handle b/c if you did not then the whole handle would fall off. Needless to say, it was time to purchase a new stove. Thanks Sears for your recent great sale that I got an awesome stove that we all LOVE!!!

The new stove!!!

the old door propped oven and the MESS inside

The old stove

Waiting on my sign.....

I can hardly believe that our first semester of home school is almost over. We've finally made it to the final folder! At the beginning of our school year, I divided up each lesson into folders and labeled them week 1, week 2, and so forth. I pulled our final folder, week 13, off the shelf today. I am so amazed at how comfortable we've gotten with our lessons and how much easier it is now than it was those first weeks. Carson has adjusted to me being his teacher for a small portion of the day and I've adjusted to him being my student. We both can look at an assignment and not have to try to figure out exactly what to do with it. At times I've felt like crying, pulling my hair out, yelling, spanking his bottom and so forth but I can honestly say, I've had the best time, far better than I imagined.
For some time now I've debated on sharing my "homeschool testimony" and just never took the time but I'll give a small little tid bit on what led me/us to this decision.
To be honest (and not to offend anyone) I always thought homeschooling was kind of odd. I remember the first I ever heard of it was when I was a junior in high school. A friend of mine was moving from New Albany, where she was in public high school, to Michigan b/c her father had gotten a new job. Instead of starting school there, she and her little sister were going to homeschool. I remember her trying to help me understand what it meant to be homeschooled. Then I never put much more thought into it. Never in a million years did I ever think I'd be homeschooling my kids. I'm not sure where the thought even came from, but last year when Carson was in kindergarten at Calvary and the topic of holding him back had come up several times, I started thinking, why are we even considering holding him back? the answer to that was clear, if he stayed in his current grade, he would always be one of the babies of the class. That made me squirm! To think, he's a boy and a majority of the other boys in his class could be close to a year older than him was a thought to consider. The more I talked with his teachers and Vince and I discussed it, it became a clear, easy decision. One, that, like homeschooling, we had not thought much of before.
Then the more I thought of him going from a class of 13 kids total with two teachers to one of 19 classes of 20-22 with two teachers, I thought, how much can he be taught there?? I'm sure the teachers are awesome but I knew that I could review the kindergarten stuff in one semester and then we could pick up with first grade the next. So, after much research, visiting other homeschool moms, reviewing many curriculum's and a few tears, wondering if I was making the right decision or not, I dove in. I remember the day I called to inform the public school to take his name off the list was the Monday before they started on Thursday and I was a nervous wreck, still wondering if I was making the right decision. I had to pray myself up to just pick up the phone and after I did it, I still didn't feel any better!!! I felt like I was cheating him out of something.
Then that Thursday came and I remember we were in the swimming pool and I felt AWFUL that my child was "missing" his first day of school. I remember asking him if he wished he was at school instead of playing with us and he replied, "Nooooo MAAAAAAM!" which did make me feel some better.
I have to admit I'm sure I get on his nerves at times but this sweet boy has not once complained. He has never told me he doesn't like school, or he doesn't like his teacher or that he wishes he was at public school. I often wonder if he's really learning anything from me but then he will amaze me with things he knows. All I can do is pray that I'm doing the right thing and that God will give me the wisdom to make the rights decisions from here on out.
At times the question pops up, "am I going to continue doing this?" and I can honestly say that I have no idea. God knows how elementary I am and that I just about need a sign to drop out of the sky to sometimes get me where I need to be. All I can say at this point is, "Lord, I'm waiting on my sign!"

Our Volcano

I have to admit with two kids with strep throat we have not gotten our school work done as planned. Carson has not been taking naps for some time now, Emilia on the other hand still needs one every day. This week, Carson has gone to sleep with us everyday AND been the last to wake up. He must have really been drained! We did do a very little school work on Monday before he ended up going to the doctor on Tuesday, none Tuesday, a little more yesterday and the most we had done all week today. I think we'll just stop here for the week :) Anyway, our lessons were about rocks. We talked about different kinds of rocks and what they are made from. One being ignitary (I hope I spelled that right!) being formed from fire/hot/ignite.... so we were able to talk a little about volcanos and then make one!

Vince did make fun of our volcano and said it looked more like a ball, but if you've ever worked with air dry clay, what a mess. My main objective was to get something formed that I was able to stick my finger down in just to have a place to pour our lava! And it worked. We added baking soda in the hole and then poured vinegar tinted red with food coloring on top of it for our eruption. It was really neat.

Our erupting volcano
Before the eruption

Vince and Carson just before leaving for their first Tiger Cub Campout, and might I add, while they were both still well!
Tiger Cub Campout

The pictures below are from our homeschool Fall Party. The first being the group of kids that attended and the second a fun game that Angie came up with -Pumpkin Bowling. She used 2 liter bottles for the pins and of course pumpkins for the balls!!
Brooke, Clara, Madelyn, Grace, Carson, Jackson, Hannah, Emilia, Sara, Laura, Emma, Joshua, Elijah, Hannah, Lydia at our Fall Party
Pumpkin Bowling

Holley Farm

Posing for a picture
Mooing like a cow - Carson that is

At the corn box

In the Pumpkin Patch

Just being a boy

Madelyn, Jackson, Carson & Emilia at the entrance to Holley Farm

Last week we took a fall field trip to Holley Farm in Tremont, MS. For the past several years we have gone to the pumpkin patch in Blue Mountain and the the Corn Maze at Wish Farms in Ecru. We really enjoy both but to keep some excitement in the trip, I had heard about Holley Farm this year from a friend of mine who is from Tremont and so we decided to check it out. It is really a neat place. The day we happened to go there were about six kindergarten classes from Saltillo there as well on field trips. This would have been where Carson was if he had gone to public school this year and so he had a chance to run into some of his buddies from church and his classes at Calvary.
We had a GREAT time, went through the corn maze, picked pumpkins from the patch, played in the play area, went on a wagon ride, rode in the barrels, and played in corn. We packed a picnic lunch and enjoyed eating under a huge tree at a picnic table.

We are really having a fun year and are enjoying our trips from time to time.

That following Friday we had a small, homeschool fall party at Angie's house. There ended up being 15 kids there!!! Not bad for a made up yourself homeschool group! Angie was so sweet to have pumpkin bowling, make your own carmel apples and make your own pumpkin craft which is now the centerpiece on my kitchen table! And then we had pizza and cupcakes! Yummy.

Thank goodness for all the fun last week b/c this week we have had an unplanned, unexpected break from school at at house due to strep throat!

Alma Pearl...

Week before last at school we had been talking about goats and learned lots of interesting things about them, from Billy's to Nannies to them being offered for sacrifices in the Bible.
A nurse that I work with, who is a newlywed, still in my opinion and her husband have a pet goat, Alma Pearl, who they keep in their back yard, with dog harness, leash and all. I had asked Stephanie if we could come visit Alma Pearl and she greatly (I think) agreed. Today was the first time we got an opportunity around Stephanie's work schedule and the rain.
Her husband Ryan got Alma Pearl out and let us feed her some goat food, which made her really happy. And then he was gracious enough to take some pictures for us.
We also made a couple by Stephanie's cute porch/Halloween decorations. Emilia especially liked the little ghost.

Thanks Ryan and Stephanie for letting us visit Alma Pearl!! She's a sweet goat. :)

The Ants have arrived...

First let me say, we did get our dinosaurs painted and so I've posted a few of those pictures. They have now moved on to our little homeschool corner in the dining room.

But... today, our ants arrived!!!! I'm not sure who was more excited, me, Carson or Emilia. When we got home from picking Emilia up from Calvary, I saw the mailman at the end of our street so I hung around at the door until he came by our house. I don't know why the mailman coming is still so exciting to me, but I just enjoy getting mail!! Anyway, there was a small brown envelope with Carson's name on it and I couldn't figure out what it might be until I noticed, "LIVE ANTS" on it. So we brought them in and found our instructions for preparing our ant hill. I remembered there were several IMPORTANT instructions and wanted to make sure we did it right. I knew one was putting the ants in the fridge to "make them sleepy" so you could easily transfer them from the tube to the hill without any escaping, so Carson placed them there, while I set the timer for the instructed 10 minutes.

While the ants were literally chilling, I prepared the sand in the hill with the water. Finishing just when the timer went off! Carson got the ants and indeed they were asleep or dead one, I wasn't sure at the time but trusted the instructions were right. So we gently tapped the tube and dumped our 25 ants in the top of the hill. Then we all three hoovered around to watch and slowly, one by one, we saw little legs wiggle and then yes, the bigger ones first, the ants started moving around with the smallest ones being the last to wake up. We got a very small piece of carrot to feed our ants and dropped that in as well, not knowing when they last ate and again, just watched! You can only feed them and water them every 3 days b/c of overfeeding, watering them and their favorite foods are carrots, celery and apples!! Healthy eaters aren't they?

I'm happy to say that all of our ants are awake and have even started working! I'm excited about our lessons next week when we will learn all kinds of neat things about ants. Hopefully we can share some with you!

Dinosaurs at the Langford House!!!

Carson & Emilia with their dinosaurs!
Carson's Dinosaur

Emilia's Dinosaur

This week at "school" we are studying about dinosaurs and, today, we made dinosaurs out of clay. It was really fun but I must say MESSY!! I got several dinosaur books out and let Carson & Emilia pick out which dinosaur they wanted to make and these are the ones they chose. I have to admit, they did more of the playing in the clay and I did more of the constructing the dinosaurs but they still belong to them. We added the extras with a toothpick. Now, our dinosaurs are drying and then in a couple of days we /they will be able to paint them. I'll try to post the finished project when we get it done!