Turning 33

Birthdays just aren’t what they use to be.  I guess some adults don’t care to much about their birthdays, but I would still like to have a bit of a big deal made about mine. 

How you know you’re an adult on your birthday:

You are up all night with one (or more) of your children that are not wanting to sleep (as opposed to partying with friends)

You are up at the crack of dawn with the same children who didn’t sleep all night (as opposed to sleeping in till noon to catch up on the sleep you lost while out with friends). 

Your husband insists on making dinner, instead of going out or ordering in and you wake up to a sink full of dishes.

You take a 2+ hour nap during the day of your birthday (okay that might not be different, it all depends)

Instead of being showered with gifts, your husband tells you to tell him if you see something you like and he’ll buy it. 

You get an Amazon Gift Card from you mom, and all you can find to buy is stuff for your kids.

No elaborate birthday cakes, surprise parties or expensive presents.

However, I’m trying to focus on the positives, aside from being a year older….

Things that made my birthday great this year were:

• 85+ messages from friends and family on Facebook (Facebook really has increased the ‘I feel special factor’ on my birthday)
• Being told “Happy Birthday” by my 5 yo when he woke up in the morning
• Getting a quiet 2+hr nap, kid free
• Spending the morning with my family in beautiful Hawaii
• Waking up to two messily wrapped presents in Thomas Christmas Paper
• C telling me my gifts were a necklace and a humming bird feeder (he was close)
• Opening presents to find a coco nut lei with purple flowers and a butterfly shaped bird feeder, which made the gifts a bit more special.
• Being sung happy birthday to, having my kids blow out my candles and eating a very messy, but yummy cake that was baked and decorated with lots of love (and picked out my C).

I am very thankful for my family, and the things they did to try and make my birthday special,

Happy Birthday To Me! 

Book Review - A Place Called Blessing by John Trent

A Place Called Blessing by John Trent, Ph.D. is a very uplifting and inspirational story about the life of a young boy who grew up in the foster care system.  When Josh is 5, he and his two brothers lose their parents in a car accident. Following his life from a young child through adulthood; the reader is taken on a journey of overcoming obstacles and facing feelings of inadequacy, mistrust and unworthiness.  This journey, 'where hurting ends and love begins', paints a picture of the ‘five essential elements’ as laid out in The Blessing, leading the reader on an emotionally healing journey of their own.  A self help book of sorts, but a great fiction read as well.  The principles taught in this book can be applied in many aspects of life.  

It's a feel good, tear jerking story that shows the important roles that God, love and forgiveness play in our lives.  There are discussion questions for each chapter at the end of the book; making it a great book club read or a more thought provoking self read. 

I definitely recommend this book, particularly for those trying to overcome past heartaches, on their own healing journey or who want an uplifting story to enjoy.

This book serves as a companion to Dr Trent's book The Blessing; however, A Place Called Blessing can stand on its own as well.  

Field Trip #6 Friday Blog Hop

Field Trip Friday!

 

A Blog Hop designed to share 'FIELD TRIP' related Blog Posts

(does not have to be a 'home school field trip', can be any trip to any place with your children!)

 

This week was our ‘vacation’ week for the month, so today we hit up the water park!  Boy was it crowded, kids here go back to school August 1st; I think everyone wanted to get a trip in before school starts!  It’s hard to believe just a few short months ago C wouldn’t even put his face in the water, and Z hasn’t been to comfortable with the lifejacket until today!

 

 

**NOTE:  Before linking up please review guidelines HERE

Education Cubes

We used the continent pages to play a game.  We printed this continent hop game from SPELL OUT LOUD Blog, then we would roll the cube to see which continent to hop to.  (we ended up having to move to the hardwood and tape them down)

We also used the cubes for sorting animals by habitat.  We used the blank template, and I made some habitat squares to glue on them, as well as some larger habitat pages to sort the animals on.  We used TOOB animals from various places, as well as other animals we had around the house.   You can download my sorting cards and habitat squares here.

We also played a body part bean bag game, using the body parts page and the colors page.  You roll a body parts cube, and then a color cube to know which color bean bag to put on which body part.  Try to keep them there while you roll again!

Workbox Wednesday

Gluing dots to make a ladybug

tweezing lincoln logs to place in slots

Painting with a spider

Spelling with magnet tiles

L items (HWT, leapfrog, lacing L, tracing L, sandpaper L)

I got this great set on sale at Borders...came with bugs, poster and book.  Z had lots of fun with it.

color matching cards

Land Formation and Bodies of Water Cards

Insect Cards

Fruit Loop Graph

Check out my Math Monday and Education Cubes posts for MORE ideas!

Tiggerific Tuesday! Blog Hop...or Bounce CO-HOST!

Welcome to Tiggerific Tuesday! Blog Hop...or Bounce!

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Math Monday: Shapes, Patterns and NonStandard Measurement for PreK/K

Geoboard  (Geoboard Pictures for Little Kids)

Revisiting the matrix - naming objects by 3 characteristics.  Again we played the 'what's missing' game

Non-standard measurement

I found this great measurement unit packet for FREE, and we used the first part of it for non-standard measurement with the linking cubes.  We will definitely be using the rest of it later down the road.

What my Child is Reading

 

What My Child is Reading this week:

FOR SCHOOL:

We Can Read About Nature:  An Arctic Year by Catherine Nichols

Desert Animals (Benchmark Rebus (Animals in the Wild)) by Sharon Gordon

C has a Raccoon Habitat Diorama he has to do for his Science Class that is due this upcoming week, hence all the Raccoon Books. 

FOR FUN:

Hamlet was a random library pick.  I left the two boys to look at some books in the children's section, while I scanned the bookshelves for my specific finds (they were in eyes view), I came back to Z having a HUGE stack of books on the floor that he had taken from the shelf.   I went through the pile and just grabbed two, totally judging the books by their covers and titles because I didn't put much if any other thought into it.  This one seemed to be a winner because it had a kite (my kids LOVE kites) and it was a Chinese dragon kite (my kids study Chinese).  I came home from running errands one day to find Q reading them the book, he asked if I had picked it particularly, and I told him the story.  Well turns out that Hamlet's friend in the book shares my husband's name...which is not a very common name by any means...the kids though it was so neat, and now the book has been read billions of times during the 1-2wk time frame we have had it!  It's a cute story too! (double bonus!)

also linked at Book Sharing Monday