NaBloPoMo July. Lessons learned.

Yes I did!  I really did it.  I actually posted everyday for an entire month!  Whew!  And, I actually learned a few things along the way...

#1 There is a reason I don't normally post everyday.  That's because I'm boring.  And I get a little distracted by other things in blogland.

#2 I have really deep things to say, but posting everyday keeps me from saying them.  Just to get the days post up, I sacrifice quality for quantitity.  So, unless I just need the distraction, I probably wont do another NaBloPoMo. 

#3 I love writing prompts.  BUT, I rarely to never follow them.  I get off on a mental bunny trail and write about something different.

#4 There is a fine line between over sharing and still being interesting.

#5 A person can waste WAY too much time reading about people they have never or will never meet. 

#6 The more I post, the less I comment :(

#7 Expect much less posting around here...school starts next week!!!

#8 I'm afraid to talk politics.

#9 Not discussing what is considered "politics" leaves out some of my core beliefs.

#10 I really, really wish we could read into each other's tone of voice in blogdom.

#11 Linky parties are fun.

#12 I love comments.

#13 I'm a tad bit embarassed by how much a simple blog comment can make me smile.

#14  I want to learn more about photography.  Again. 

#15 I can't believe I've just posted 15 things I've learned from NaBloPoMo.  Well, 14 really. 

Anyway...Kindergarten here we come!!!  Look for more posts about homeschooling and adoption around here.  I think I've found my niche.  Let's just hope I can remember to photograph said niche :)

Distractions

 

I do my daily Bible reading before Ethan gets up in the morning.  This year, I’m reading the Bible through chronologically.  Last year, I read the Bible in 90 days.  I love my morning reading and coffee time.  It’s so peaceful and I feel so accomplished actually getting something done so early in the morning.  I can tell a HUGE difference in how smoothly my day goes when I read the Word first thing in the morning.

 

I love these quite mornings.  Unless they just happen to be one that is not so peaceful.

 

Like one morning when I could have sworn I was hearing a mouse.  We have lived in this house almost 5 years and have never seen any sign of mice here.  But there was one morning while reading in Chronicles I kept hearing “scratch, scratch, scratch”. 

 

I was a bit freaked out.  It seemed to be coming from our fireplace.  My mind wondered and I thought maybe something fell down our chimney or a snake crawled through the area we clean the ashes out from under the fireplace.  I could hardly finish reading. 

 

Finally, I had enough and grabbed a flashlight.  I looked around the fireplace and didn’t see anything.  But I could tell I was getting closer because the sound got louder.  Then I glanced down in a piece of Turkish pottery that I have set on the fireplace and saw this (big) little guy…

He was trying to crawl up the side of the inside of the pottery and would fall back down and make the scratchy noise as he was trying to turn over and keep crawling.

 

I still have no idea what kind of bug this is.  The closest thing we could come up with is an old house borer, but there are still some distinct differences.

 

And you better believe I showed it to Ethan.  And we might have even kept it in the pottery (on the back porch) to show Ben when he got home from work.

 

Isn’t it funny how the little distractions can take the most away from our day and our quite times.  Sometimes it’s our never-ending to do list that drowns out His words. Sometimes its tiredness or just “lack of time”. 

 

Sometimes it’s a creepy little bug.

Celebrating the 4th

With the 4th of July being on a Wednesday, we did a lot of celebrating last week!  We had family picnics and fireworks and all kinds of fun at home too!  I love it when we have a family day, although it did feel a bit odd having my husband home on a Wednesday.




Who knew pipe cleaners, paint and glitter could be so much fun?



I originally found this project on pint.erest then clicked on over to this blog to read the instructions. but basically, you just twist your pipe cleaners into a little handle and spread out the ends until it kind of looks like an octopus.


Then you let the kiddos stamp to their little hearts content!  Or at least what I did.  My secret to keeping the table clean is a garbage bag. Yup.  I just slap one down and squirt the paint right on the bag. 



He added a little glitter to the paint while it was still wet and it dried right in place.  After we glittered up the fireworks, I shook off the excess glitter onto our garbage bag paint mat and just picked up the four corners and wrapped it up.  That made the whole glitter and paint clean-up a breeze and we were out the door to the next Independence Day event!

One of our other activities last week was reading How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the USA by Marjorie Priceman.  While we read, we had Ethan’s electronic map of the USA by our side and he traced along our journey with his finger, noting what each state along the way is known for.





After we read the book, we got our ingredients together and we made a cherry pie.



While our pie was baking, we looked at some more of our Independence Day related books and talked about the US flag.  It was a really fun project.  An added bonus to being fun was we did a little geography (talking about the states), math (measuring the ingredients), history (the US flag and America’s Birthday), sensory play (making the dough for the crust with our hands) and art!

But really, even with all of that, what 4th of July would it be if we didn’t at least have a few small fireworks?  We were not under a burn ban, but it has been so hot and dry in our region, we were a little afraid and only set off a few fountains on the pavement and a few sparklers.  Of course, this was after a picnic and pool party!





What about you?  How did you spend our nation's birthday?

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Linking up!

Best Prank Ever!

{This post is part of the NaBloPoMo writing prompts and my attempt to post everyday in July}

The prompt for today asks, "What is the best prank you have ever played?"

The best prank I ever played was probably when I was in college.  It involved hoodies, white masks, three girls and an almost spilled cup of coffee :)

I think we must have been studing that night when we got the idea.  It was late, we were tired and getting slap happy.  One of our friends was a percussionist who just did his senior recital and I was in a choreographed drum peice that resembled a dream sequence.  For that sequence, we all had these creepy white masks.  Hmmmm....what should we do with them?

We went to a private college and all the dorms were locked at midnight.  If you were off campus, or even just needed to go to your car, you had to go to the security building and have the guard unlock the dorm building for you.  Our percussionist friend was working that night in the security building and we decided to sneak over and see if we could make his shift a little more interesting.

The secrity building has shrubs in the front and a flag pole that is lit from ground lights.  The three of us, masks on, hoodies pulled up tight around our faces crept behind the shrubs and peeked in the large window.  Our friend was at a table filling a cup of coffee. 

We posed in a very "scary movie" kind of way and waited for him to turn back around and face the window. 

I sure wish we had a video of the next part!  He turned around and jumped and almost completely dropped his coffee and grabbed his chest with his other hand!  We were laughing so hard that we could hardly make ourselves walk into the builing and apologize for scaring him so badly. 

I have to say, it was hilarious.  I probably would have reacted the same way if I had saw the three of us backlit in the bushes with those masks on.

I can't even think about that story with out almost laughing out loud!

NaBloPoMo-I'm In, Are You?

So, in an attempt to make some "me time" happen and get this blog rolling after switching addresses (I will explain why later) I have decided to participate in NaBloPoMo July!  You can get the details here.  They even have nice little prompts all worked out for you!  Of course, you don't have to follow the prompts, but they sure do help get your thinking kick started!

What do you say?  Want to join in? You can sign up until July 5th.  It will be fun...right?  If you join in, be sure and leave a comment and let me know so I can follow and cheer you on!