Dreams of Winter

If it wasn't for the heating bill, I might actually love Winter. I love take snow photos for sure. These photos are of Esme and the kids next door - she is usually reluctant to play in the snow on her own, but they lured her out many times this Winter.



I loved doing this layout because I got to use so many OLD supplies. It is amazing to me how much stuff I have in my scrap room, and it is amazing how quickly it is becoming out of date! A good reason to get scrapping and use it all up!

Cherry Dotee

The more I practice, the more details I am able to add. This is my 4th dotee and the theme was cherry. I had this cherry fabric kicking around from the Joanns Tutti Frutti collection, which is my favorite line every Spring. I love the bright colors and the fun designs. This is my first time doing beading on a dotee, and my first time using that chenille hair.

Mergers

In an effort to streamline my life, I have decided to merge my blogs. Before my family discovered Facebook I had one for sharing photos with them, I had one for ramblings, one for crafty projects, and one to share about homeschooling. Instead of trying to do an okay job with each, I think it would be easier to do a good job with just one.

Here is one of my new recent layouts -



I am loving grid layouts right now - I love the busy look, and this is a way to fit a lot of photos onto one page. Are you a scrapbooker? If so, are you more streamlined or busy?

taking another crack at Dotees

After my first dotee attempt I was REALLY discouraged. It was so much harder than it looked! Well, it turned out maybe it was my planning and lack of common sense. So I decided to try again, and was WAY more pleased with the results.




These are both for celestial swaps and I am happy with how they turned out. I was surprised that a lot of the red shiny stuff wore off the star while I was working with it. I stamped the letters on the twill banners on the moon. Thanks for visiting!

Taggy Collagey Layout

Despite a busy schedule lately, I have been sneaking in some creative time whenever I can. I've mostly been scrapping and makihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifng ATCs.

I have also fallen in love with Pinterest, and my favorite layouts I see there are the busiest ones, covered with lots of tags and collage elements. They inspired me to make this:


Thanks for stopping by!

My First Dotee

Making this was a bigger challenge than I thought it would be. I usually have complete confidence in my sewing skills until I sit down at my machine. I was committed to making it because I was in a swap, so I had to stick to it. In the end, the skirt didn't line up in the back, but otherwise it pretty much came together. I am definitely going to try another one!


So this was a bigger challenge than I thought it would be!

New ATCs

I have been loving sending and receiving ATCs through Swap-Bot lately. Here are some of my latest creations!

The Esme Update: The Dam Cafe

The Esme Update: Outtakes and Bloopers

Keeping Busy

I have been staying very busy lately, between work and Girl Scouts and my daughter's birthday and just general stuff that needs to get done! I have not had as much creative time as I would like, but I have certainly been taking a lot of photos for use when I finally do have some.

Now that I am several weeks in, I can tell everyone that starting a Facebook group for local scrapbookers was one of the BEST ideas I ever had. I would highly recommend it for anyone who would like to make some new scrappy friends, and have the opportunity to get together and crop. What started as me talking to a friend has grown to a group of 57 women and counting. We've planning several events including local crops and even an overnight at a campground, with the hall rented for cropping.

I also love having a challenge every week - this layout is from a sketch challenge from a couple weeks ago.

The Esme Update: Pizzeria Uno

Board of Directors

Esme had the opportunity to speak to the Board of Directors tonight! Turn the volume up to hear her - I was kind of far away with the camera.

The Esme Update: Ivy and Bean Book Review

Esme in the News.....

Girl Scouts is an important part of homeschooling for us, and Esme got to be on the news last week for attending our World Thinking Day event. She was also in the newspaper.

World Thinking Day

More about our awesome World Thinking Day event later, but for now, here is a clip from the news. I am the adult interviewed!

New LSS

There is a new LSS near me! Whooo hoo! I got to check it out for the first time yesterday - here is the my video of my visit!

The Esme Update: Friendly's

PVS, Challenges, and More

The Facebook group Stephanie and I created for local scrapbookers is going great. We are up to 45 members and have planned our first event and are working on our second. So happy to make some new friends, and feeling really excited about scrapping. We took last week's challenge from this blog, and this is my take on it.

Challenges

There are sooo many challenges for scrapbookers out there, it's hard to sort through them all and decide which ones you'd really like to be a part of. A friend and I are planning to offer challenges every week to our new local scrapbooking group, so I guess for me that's a good a place to start as any! If you have a challenge group you really like, please link me, cause I'm looking for some more inspiration!

Here is my layout for this week's challenge - from a sketch posted by my friend:

Reading Separately and Together

Now that Esme is older and her reading skills have grown so much, we've lost most of the time we used to spend poring over picture books together. Esme still loves picture books, but it is far more likely she'll grab one to read aloud to me than for me to read to her.

However, we have found a new love - chapter books. She's really enjoying them on her own - everything from Encyclopedia Brown to Beezus and Ramona and Ivy and Bean to Horrible Harry. We also love reading them together. I've read aloud Sarah, Plain, and Tall, The Phantom Tollbooth, Charlotte's Web, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Pippi Longstockings, and we're working on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I find I'm MUCH more motivated to make the time for reading aloud together every night if it is a book I really, really love. When I was a little girl I loved Pippi, but I didn't love it as much this time around. I also wasn't so much on The Phantom Tollbooth, but the rest I've really, really enjoyed. Esme seems really, really interested to know what is going to happen next in Narnia.

The Esme Update - Ed's Kitchen

We are really on a roll with these videos - since we were in CT visiting friends the last couple days we had occasion to eat out, and made another installment of The Esme Update.

The Esme Update - Panera Bread

Esme had such a good time making her Bueno Y Sano review, she decided she wanted to do another one. Panera is usually our go-to spot if we have to be out running errands.

Time for it all.....

I really wish I had time to scrap a page every day, make more cards, paint a lot more, and still be an effective homeschooling mom and Girl Scout leader, as well as work an adequate number of days at my job. As it is, I'll have to settle for doing some of those things. I was really pleased with how quickly this layout came together - these photos were from my brother's family's Christmas card.


This week I am hoping to travel to my bestie's house (about 75 miles away) and spend the night actually scrapbooking with her IN person! It's been soooo long since we could have time together that was about us, and not just running the kids from place to place.

Finished Layout - Best Boy

A friend and I have been going through old scrap magazines and pulling out pages for inspiration. When I looked through my enormous pile, I realized that what I like most is pages with A LOT going on. I love busy layouts!

Some friends and I recently started Pioneer Valley Scrapbookers - a group for local scrapbookers. We used to be part of a really active crop group that was great, but it pretty much fell apart over time. This way we can chat with people locally about our favorite hobby, and hopefully maybe even start up a crop or two. I made this layout for the first challenge.

working on a layout

Still learning to use my Flip cam - will post the finished layout later - thanks for stopping by!

The Esme Update - Bueno Y Sano

snowed in AGAIN

Well this is the SIXTH day school has been cancelled in the city where I work this year. Luckily, my long term assignment ended yesterday so today I would have been off anyway. What's a girl to do when snowed in? Scrap of course!


Since I didn't have any page kits ready to go, I took a bunch of tags and stamps next door so I could visit Shannon and Baby Andrew and just did some experimenting. I am ashamed to say I am totally behind the times when it comes to all the cool mists out there. I have 2 store-bought bottles and one I made myself following tips from 2 Peas. I made three tags using varying amounts of layering, stamping, punching, and misting. Ready to give it a go on a page now.

Summer Pages on a Cold Day

The snow is super deep here and Ethan had to spend most of his day shoveling. We're at about 8 inches so far. Meanwhile, I'm dreaming of summer and parties at Vicki's house. Here's two layouts that include my nephew having fun at her house.

Christmas Cutie

This is an older layout, but looking through pages on some other websites I was reminded of this look and how much I like it. I love the combination of all kinds of different elements clustered together, surrounded by negative space.

I have been scrapping tons of photos of my nieces and nephew lately. When I first started my oldest niece's album, her dad thought I was giving them the album. I was like, yeah, when I die! These are my memories of my niece - I want to keep them! I'm already on volume 2 for both her and my nephew. I have been on a scrapping roll lately and I'm enjoying it very much.

Cookie Booth Video

Writing Projects

We had a big snow day this week! Esme did get most of the day off from lessons, since her dad had to spend most of his day shoveling. I also got the day off from kindergarten.

Esme is starting a new big writing project and given the choice to write about anything she wanted, she decided to write about Barbies. She is writing about playing with them, playing with them with friends, and collecting them. Meanwhile she's gotten in several hours of playtime with the kids next door - luckily she's not trying to call it research.

Snow Day

Wednesday we got about 18 inches of snow here. Since I am a long-term sub right now, I got to celebrate a real snow day. And lucky for me, I have another scrapper right in my house who invited me over to scrap with her. My friend/tenant and I scrapped her table for a few hours while the kids alternated between playing outside and warming up in the playroom. I did two coordinating layouts of my nephew.

Winter Visit

This is an older layout but still one of my favorites and I thought it would b e the perfect page to post on this snowy day. I love making pages with a grid - so fun to arrange the photos and add the embellishments!

homeschooling friends, Math lessons, and more

We are excited that we have two other homeschoolers in our Girl Scout troop this year. It is so nice to know that Esme is mixing with not only schooled children, but children having similar experiences to her own.

This year we have been focusing on Math a great deal. Esme's reading and writing are already far exceeding our expectations in second grade. We want to make sure she is at or above grade level for EVERY subject. Ethan is spending many doing Math with her.

I am teaching Kindergarten right now and it is hard to balance teaching at school and getting anything done at home. I go back to part time in early February and I am looking forward to having time to really work with Esme!

trying to get my scanner to work....

I really, really want to post more pages in 2011 but I am facing some challenges. First of all, my scanner seems to be producing inconsistent images. Parts seem overexposed and I'm not sure what to do about it. Secondly, I have yet to find a great stitching program that works with Windows 7 and and doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I used to use a program that came with my scanner - well, two or three scanners ago. That definitely isn't going to work now. Third, I really, really stink at photographing layouts. Even when I use a tripod I can't seem to get a good image. If anyone has any good tips I'd love to hear them - this is how my layouts are coming out right now:



BTW as bad as that image is, I LOVE those photos. That's my niece last summer grabbing onto my daughter in the kiddie pool. Plus I love those bright Doodlebug papers, and the simplicity of the whole thing. Thanks to Jennifer for giving me the Bazzill border.

New Year's Resolutions

I have three New Year's Resolutions this year:

1. Get my arts and crafts area clean and organized, and maintain it. This will make me so happy.
2. Invite my friends over to scrap and/or craft more. This will make me super happy too!
3. Scrapbook more. I love all the other things I do, but I think scrapbooking has got to be my greatest love. I love photos, pretty papers, and all the tactile stimulation that comes along with embellishing.

To get myself started I did a layout for the Doodlebug challenge at Two Peas.

Brownie Ceremonies

We had our first Court of Awards of the year this year and it went wonderfully. We started with a candle ceremony. We had a raised candle holder with three candles symbolizing the three parts of the Girl Scout Law, and ten tea-light holders, each symbolizing part of the Girl Scout promise. We have thirteen girls in our troop so this made it the perfect ceremony for us.



Next, I wrote a special ceremony to commemorate the 100th anniversary of girls showing up at a Boy Scout meeting in England and announcing that they wanted to be scouts too. WAGGGS made the charge "plant seeds for growth" this year, so I talked about how our troop had done that by inviting five new girls into our troop, and to make it more memorable, had each girl plant 6 herbs in little pots, and gave them the 2010 WAGGGS patch.

Next, we did investiture and rededication by having the experienced members of the troop put the newer girls' uniforms on them.

Last, I gave out the awards, shaking each girl's hand and giving them an envelope. On a side note, I am especially proud of my daughter, who got a huge pile. Of course, she has to come to every event, so it makes it easiest for her to earn Try-Its and patches. She got Girl Scout Ways, Dinosaurs, Bump in the Night, Bicycling, Archery, Animals, Art to Wear, Caring and Sharing, Water Everywhere, Fishing, her Brownie Quest Journey set, the WAGGGS patch, Halloween Fun, and more. She has really put a lot of effort into Girl Scouts this year, and has done a great job!

This Past Week in Girl Scouting.....

I had my Cadette meeting Wednesday and it went very well. We finished up the "talking" part of our aMaze journey by talking about bullying. I was very impressed the girls shared their personal stories, and was saddened by the story one girl told of being bullied by a teacher so much that she had to hide in the bathroom and cry. 8-( Now we are on to our Take Action Project - we're using World Thinking Day to complete this project!


This week my Brownies attended a Try-It day at our local children's museum. They did some great projects - a collage mask, T-shirts decorated with fabric paint and markers, reindeer headbands, face painting, and friendship bracelets, earning Art to Wear. They also got two hours of free play in the museum, which may have been their favorite part!

Today we have our troop cookie kick-off meeting - if anyone needs some Thin Mints, let me know! We're selling as of Wednesday.

Going to the Mall

Both my troops have had recent mall experiences. My Cadettes earned a mall overnight with approximately 750 other girls in their council. We arrived at the mall just before 9 pm and after the stores closed down the council offered all kinds of activities like crafts, games, juggling shows, movies, nail painting, yoga, dancing, video games, and more. The girls got about an hour of sleep each with Lisa and I staying up all night. They girls had a great time and LOVED this event.

My Brownie troop went shopping at the mall tonight. They broke into small groups and had a budge of $10 per group to spend on toys to donate to Toys for Tots. Different moms led each group and the girls did a great job, picking a tea set, a baby doll, accessories from Claire's, and a stuffed giraffe. After the big unveiling we went to Target and purchased some food for our pet food drive. I was very proud of how the girls did on this trip.

We are really, really pushing Math this year. Esme is already a great reader and writer, and we want her to be totally on top of her game with Math as well, especially because she's also so interested in Science and the two go hand in hand.


Time4Learning.com actually offers lots of other subjects as well, but currently we're only using it for Math. It offers lessons with little characters leading the examples, quizzes on each lessons, tests on units, and extras like printables when Esme needs a little extra time on a lesson. She seems to be enjoying Math much more this year and it has also been much less frustrating for both her and Ethan.

So far Esme has covered things like place value, operations, fractions, and money and is doing a great job!

The Day My World Collided, and my thoughts on Journeys

My goddaughter came up to earn her Leadership in Action award while my Brownies did their Quest in a day at a local Girl Scout camp. Kristina is not one to be happy with sitting and listening so the planning section was not her favorite, but she did enjoy working with the littler girls, and Esme got to be in her group.



Initially, I was very skeptical about the Journeys. As a die hard leader, I am not sure I like something that takes weeks and tells me exactly what to do. Consequently, when Lisa (Kristina's mom and my Cadette co-leader) and I were making plans for the year, we were trying to decide if our girls should go do aMaze in one day in a council-sponsored program, or if we should do it as a troop. The more we weighed options for activities, the more I actually got excited about doing it. I can't speak to other troop's experiences, but for a brand new, very small Cadette troop, the aMaze Journey was actually the perfect first activity for us. Girls had never been Cadettes before, and one who had never been a scout at all, actually had a good way to get started and get some direction, while learning a bit about Girl Scouts and a lot about each other. We did adapt it quite a bit, mostly to keep the girls physically busy while discussing the issues outlined in the program - we found this kept them much more engaged.

My daughter is also almost done with her first Journey. I am so glad my Brownies had the opportunity to do this in one day - I think it worked much better for them. I have some non-readers in my group from what I've seen, it would be difficult for them with so much reading and writing to do. However, when they had Cadettes assisting them and the stories read aloud, it worked out perfectly. Also, I am very proud of what they chose as a group for their Take Action project - a pet food drive to help people who are out of work keep their pets.

Loving Cadettes

We've been working on our aMaze Journey for several weeks. Last night we used an idea from the leader book - we made a circle on the floor and put post-its saying what we want from friends in the middle, and what we bring to a friendship on the outside, then compared the two by grouping the post-its. At that point energy was high so we played Machine a couple times and played the froggy song. After that we talked about I Statements and gave examples of how to use them in our lives, and make some great junk necklaces, with the theme that I Statements are Key. The girls had such a good time with this, we are considering working on the Just Jewelry Interest Project.

Before we started I was a bit intimidated by the idea of working with middle schoolers, but I am so happy with the way our year is going. Plus I love that my goddaughter is excited about Girl Scouts again - every meeting she says it was better than the last!

Centenary, Awards Ceremony, and Presents

In 1910 a group of girls in the UK presented themselves at a Boy Scout meeting because they wanted to be scouts. This event is officially recognized by the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) as the beginning of the movement. WAGGGS has put out a really cool patch set - four triangles that fig together) to commemorate the centenary events, and I'm excited to get them for my girls.



Our first mid-year Brownie award ceremony is a month and a half away. I am excited to have investiture for some new girls, and rededicate the rest. My daughter has put in a ton of work and will have a mountain of new Try-Its.

I am also excited that we'll be having our first-ever awards ceremony for our new Cadette troop. Last year the only awards my goddaughter received were for fundraisers, so I am really glad to have helped her earn something more significant this year. She'll be getting Journey, LiA, PA pin, and fun patches of course.

There are so many great Fall homeschooling opportunities! It has turned into one of my favorite seasons since I've been a mother. We went to the Big E, apple and raspberry picking, to the pumpkin patch, a corn maze, a pumpkin festival, we designed and built a Halloween costume together, carved our jack-o-lantern, made pumpkin cream pie, trick-or-treated, etc. And as homeschoolers, we try to make each activity educational, from talking about the life cycle of plants, and to life skills like cooking and using landmarks to find your way.

Esme just finished her first long writing project using the complete writing process, from brainstorming to publishing. She wrote about The Big E and did a wonderful job. I would definitely say it was strong third grade work. She's also been plugging along in Math - she has a lot to do this year, so she and Ethan are working hard to stay on task and even get a bit ahead.

We're very proud of our girl!

Field Trips, New Members, and More

It has been a whirlwind few weeks for us. We've been helping out with recruitment nights, going to meetings, and trying to keep up with all the other activities in our busy family's schedule.

I am happy to say we finally have enough girls to be an official Cadette troop! Hip hip hooray! We went on our first field trip this week, a corn maze, since we have just started the aMaze Journey. A couple weeks ago we talked about first impressions and what is on the inside, and made some awesome T-shirts. I was especially happy to do this because my goddaughter has expressed interest in fashion design, and I want to make sure we are pursuing her interests!


Brownies is continuing to go wonderfully. A few weeks ago we had a police officer from our city come in and talk about bike safety, and at our last meeting the woman who runs a local bike clinic came it and showed the girls how to do some basic work on a bike, like taking off, patching, and putting a tire back on. They LOVED this. I don't think I could have predicted how much they would love this. They were super engaged and even started the closing ceremony without me while I wasn't looking, because they were so excited to share it with their new-found friend.

This past weekend we finally set out on our bike trip to a local trail. I was disappointed with the attendance on this trip, but right now it seems like sports is a big conflict for lots of families. The girls who did come had a great time and I was really glad to see my own daughter having a blast.

We have three new members who will join us at our next meeting bringing our Brownie total up into the teens. Hoping everything will continue to go smoothly with a bigger group!

Aren't you worried about interaction with other children?

This post is a bit of a rant.

Near the first day of school in our city, a cashier at Stop and Shop, who is probably around my mother's age, asked Esme if she was ready for school to start. Esme said, "I'm homeschooled," and the cashier said, "Oh!" and I paid, we left, etc. Last week the same cashier said to Esme, "How's school going?," then remembered us and said, "Oh wait you're homeschooled." Then she turned to me and said, "Aren't you worried about interaction with other children?" Sigh. If you are homeschooler, you may have had this conversation 1,000 times.

I have many ways of dealing with this question, or the more typical, what about socialization? If someone is not a complete stranger and usually pretty nice, like this cashier, I usually say lightly, "Trust me, she's a social butterfly. She's just fine!" One day a nosy person who happened to be doing my taxes asked me about it and I said, "Well when I want her to be socialized, I take her in the bathroom, beat her up, and offer her drugs. {long pause with hard stare} Just kidding!" Sometimes extremely rude strangers question us - now that Esme is is bigger they realize that other kids her age are in school. Ethan was once accosted by someone about it at the deli counter. For them, I bring out the hard stare, and tell them we're not worried about it.

There is one other thing that people say all the time that bugs me. "You're homeschooling? That's great!!" This confuses me. If it's a stranger, again, making judgments about my life choices although they don't know me, I usually say, "Is it?" Cause why do they think so? They don't know me - maybe it's terrible! If it's someone I sort of know, I usually say, "Thanks, we think it is."

Maybe I am getting more snarky or more bitter? I don't know. I feel like when strangers choose to be that familiar, I have to say something to back them off. I try not to be rude about it (okay maybe I was a little rude to the tax guy) but I don't understand why people feel free to offer their opinions so much on this. I don't offer my opinion on their decision to send their children to school. It would be equally weird if they said, "My daughter goes to public school," and I said, "That's great!!" Maybe it is great - I have no idea!

Okay this homeschooling mom is done ranting for today. I'm off to edit Esme's essay on her trip to The Big E.

Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Esme

Esme thinks we're working her too hard this year. We have stepped up academics a bit and are focusing pretty intensely on her Math skills. She also had to work with me to create a web of her experiences at The Big E and is now working on a rough draft of her writing assignment. Frankly, we don't feel bad for her. She has no idea about waking up early, going to school 30+ hours a week, etc.


Right now she and Ethan are finishing up The Knight at Dawn and she designed her own coat of arms. She's also enjoying her swimming and ballet lessons.

Homeschooling Open Mic

Esme performed at her first open mic night tonight. They sets were up to 10 minutes so Esme prepared four short songs - One and One Make Two, The Little Brown Owl, The Stinky Skunk, and Ob La Di Ob La Da. She was nervous earlier but really pulled the whole thing together and did a great job at the show!

Approved!

We have received our official approval from the city to homeschool this year. I wasn't really worried about it, but it was still nice to get. Esme's been busy this week. She went on a field trip to pick raspberries and apples with two homeschooling friends, watched us give blood, went to the library, and is about to go perform at her first homeschooler's open mic night.

First Cadette Meeting

My goddaughter wants to be part of a really active Girl Scout troop, and get a chance to earn her Silver Award. The troop she was part of last year moved on to Seniors this year, so she needed a new troop. Kristina was the first baby in my life, and has been a big part of my life since the day she was born. Even though she lives about 75 miles from me, I really want to help her reach her goals.



We had our first Cadette meeting this week. Other leaders have told us we might have trouble recruiting middleschoolers and I'm disappointed to say they were right. So far we only have two girls, but we still had a super fun meeting last night! We played games, talked about what it means to be a Girl Scout, etc. I left feeling very uplifted about Cadettes, even though we need at least one more member to have a troop.

Mail Call - Caring & Sharing

Last week I handed out envelopes with blank cards inside, each one addressed to a girl in the troop, with a stamp already on it. The girls' task was to decorate the card and include a message of card to one of their friends. Everyone loves to get mail - I thought this would be a good way to work toward the Caring & Sharing Try-It. My daughter got the newest girl in our troop, and mailed her card yesterday. I'm hoping we get full participation so that everyone who mails a card receives one as well.

Archery!

I feel really, really lucky that our council is willing to start girls with Archery at a young age! Several of the girls in our troop tried it for the first time when they were only five years old. The first time my daughter shot was a great experience. She is sensitive to certain sounds and was very scared by the whooshing the arrows made. Even though she'd been very excited about trying it, she panicked and cried and didn't want to do it. The other girls in our troop all rallied around her and told her stories of time when they were scared to do things, but then tried it and liked it. The cheered for her when she went up and gave it a try. I was so proud of all of them! Because of their support and her willingness to give it a try, they earned the Sister to Every Girl Scout petal, and she earned Courageous and Strong.



A couple years later, they are still extremely interested in Archery and all want to take part in it whenever they can. Since they all feel so strongly, we got the archery instructor from our council to come out and do a day just for us. The girls went over the safety rules and commands, got to shoot, got practice strings, made their own arm guards, and got to shoot again during the four hours we were there. The Brownies also got to earn the Council's Own Archery Try-It. They've definitely improved as time goes on - my daughter hit the target several times and was very proud of herself!

Two frustrations and then some good stuff

1. RSVPs. Specifically, I am frustrated by parents who do not RSVP and/or pay a fee if there is one, and then still expect their children can show up to an event. This summer I made a new rule for myself, that I am not going to chase parents down to find out who is going to what event. I do not have time. The flip side is when parents do RSVP, but then they don't show. I already know that two of the girls who RSVPed yes to an upcoming event are not really coming.

2. Time. When I handed a parent a newsletter yesterday he said something like, "I really wouldn't have time to do this.," and he said it in a condescending way. I give an enormous amount of my time to Girl Scouting. It is my choice and my pleasure to do it. That doesn't mean I don't have other things I could be doing. If someone feels they couldn't make the time to run a troop, instead of demeaning the person who does, they should say THANK YOU.

We had a meeting this week and it was great! I was so happy one of my most active little girls said, "Jenny, Jenny, can we do skits?," and I was able to say YES. We started working on the Caring and Sharing Try-It, because I thought this would be a good way to start the year and have everyone get to know each other a little better. We did skits on different ways to show you care, showed how the girls in our troop are alike and different, and I gave them each a card, already addressed and stamped, to decorate and mail to a troop member this week.

The best part of the meeting for me was when I said, "We have to do this quickly, it's almost time to go.," and they all seemed shocked and said, "What? It's been an hour? I don't want it to be over!"

Spelling Words for This Week

We have decided on a somewhat new approach to spelling. We'll be doing lists that are a combination of words misspelled in her journal and words that follow specific rules. Words for this week are:

every
party
with
poured
missed
fixed
walked
cooked
prayed
joked
passed
past

Overwhelmed by opportunities......

I don't know if it is because we came up from Daisies and there is more available for Brownies, or if it is because our council stepped up and put out awesome programs this year, but I am overwhelmed by the number of great activities available to my troop this year. They can do everything from Try-It programs at local children's museums, to overnights run by the local Audubon Society, from Journeys in a day at camp, and to learning to sail with others girls. It's amazing! They could be working on something pretty much every weekend from now til the end of June.

In other news, my daughter applied for and was accepted onto the council's Girl Advisory Group. This is a great opportunity for her to work with girls of all ages and some new adults too.

Homeschooling a Second Grader

I am back to blogging about our experiences homeschooling Esme and excited about it. I have been reading several other homeschooling blogs lately and feel very inspired to come back to it with new enthusiasm. I'll start with a somewhat random list of things about this new year for us......

1. We are now using an online Math curriculum, through Time4Learning.com. It was a big decision for us to actually start paying for something, since we have used all materials we've managed to get free or near free in the past. But we also just decided that one-lesson-a-day-5-days-a-week systems just aren't flexible enough for us. Esme has started doing lessons on Time4Learning and so far I think we're happy with it. We'll also be supplementing with materials from The Mailbox.

2. Esme's reading took off last year and we're starting this year with the Magic Treehouse series. She loves reading them and gets some science and social studies too. We are all using the research guides and a mix of library books for non-fiction information on the same subjects. We'll also be mixing in some other chapter books to make sure she stays challenged and moving in the right direction with her reading.

3. Science is still far and away Esme's favorite subject. This weekend she went to a program put on by a local museum about dinosaur tracks, right after reading Dinosaurs Before Dawn. This summer she was super interested in the Water Everywhere Brownie Try-It.

4. Speaking of Brownies, we are excited that our Girl Scout council has decided to do a whole Journeys series for homeschoolers! I have been pushing for more involvement in the homeschooling community for years, and finally my wish is coming true. Esme will do the Wonders of Water Journey with other homeschoolers over the course of the 2010-2011 school year. Our troop is very active as well - we're working on the Animals Try-It right now. Esme is also going to be a charter member of our council's Girl Advisory Group.

5. Esme is involved in lots of other activities as well. This year she's starting with the Instructional Level Swim Team at the YMCA and ballet. We're also hoping she might add a musical instrument if we can fit it in. We are also very active in our church, and she'll be back in Sunday School starting next week.

6. Our Not-Back-to-School picnic is Wednesday. I didn't get to go last year, so I am extra excited about it this time. I can't wait to connect with other homeschoolers, and hopefully plan some activities together. I love collaborating with other parents.

7. So far this year my favorite part of homeschooling is Esme's journal. I love seeing what she chooses to write about. I might post a couple pages with her permission. I love kids' writing in general.

That's all for now - more within the week!

Blog hiatus will be officially over in 3....2...1.....

I have finally got some creative juices flowing again. I have mostly been working on scrapbooking lately, but for some reason my scans are all coming out overexposed, so I need to find a new way to post pics.

Ethan and I were lucky enough to have a day to ourselves to do whatever we wanted (thanks Lisa!) so we decided to go to NYC to check out the American Folk Art Museum. I had never been there before and I loved it! Ethan was esepcially interested in seeing Henry Darger's work. Coincidentally, it was right next to MoMA, and it was their free Friday night, so we got to go there as well. We saw an interactive piece that was about screaming into a microphone, which honestly got really old really fast, since you could hear people screaming though the whole museum. We also got to see a special Matisse exhibit though, which was much more interesting to us.



I'm happy that Sunday scrap nights with Lisa are coming back with the new school year, and that I'll have lots of time to get inspiration and just hang out with my bff, even if it is only through the computer.

First Official Brownie Meeting!

I wanted to jump right back in to Girl Scouts so we had our first meeting today! We met at a local mountain to start our Animals Try-It. We hiked around the lake and found lots of bugs, squirrels, two lizards, and three frogs. We saw evidence of beavers and chipmunks too. I even managed to keep my cool while a huge, fuzzy, yellow caterpillar crawled up my pants leg!

It was so good to see the girls again! Seven of the girls from last year were able to come, and and we had one brand new members. I am looking forward to lots of great activities this year!

Bump in the Night and Fishing

We went camping with another family from our troop this week and tried our first Council's Own Try-It from Girl Scouts of Southern Alabama - Bump in the Night. Esme and her friend learned about nocturnal animals and saw a bird presentation including an owl, went on a night hike, sang songs about owls and skunks, etc.



Saturday was the Learn to Fish Derby that we've been looking forward to so much. The girls learned the parts of the pole, how to cast, about bait, and spent about 3 hours trying to catch something. A sister of one of our girls did manage to catch a little fish. They did earn their Fishing Try-It , another Council's Own from Girl Scouts of Central Indiana.

Brownie Try-Its and Council's Owns

It's been fun starting Try-Its with the girls! We completed two as part of our activities to earn the Daisy to Brownies bridging award - Outdoor Adventurer and People of the World. This summer, I've been working with Esme. Today we finished the Water Everywhere Try-It.

When I initially looked at the Try-Its book I was actually a little disappointed. I'm blessed with a very adventurous group of girls, and I felt like maybe we are more adventurous than the book. I'd seen our Council's Own Try-Its and we're already planning to earn two of them in the Fall - two which are very specific, Bicycling and Archery. I did a quick Google search to find awards from other councils, and was delighted with what I found. There are lists put together out there, and I know my girls will be thrilled that I've found them for Rock Climbing, Horseback Riding, and many more things - even Caving! I also know my girls would enjoy things like Drama Queen. Esme and I have already started working on the Dinosaur one!