Stormy, Rainy Day!

Youngest son Androcles and I are sipping peppermint mochas and watching the weather forcast, in between movies. The rest of our fine family are on their way home from a two-day hiking/camping trip they wanted to take. This made it possible for A. and me to visit old, best friends and for me to do a little cleaning out of my mug cabinet and my clothes wardrobe thingie. A little decluttering, as it were. I was working in about 15-20 minute increments, then moving on to something else. I still have more to do. I'm sure that I'm not alone in the need for after-Christmas decluttering!

It's almost New Year's Eve...What are you all doing to celebrate? Our whole family will be visiting with several sets of friends on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

Alright, back to my son and the weather forecast!

part time work

Well, I've been hired by a homeschool mom friend of mine to stuff envelopes for metro pcs advertising. The nice thing about it is that 1) the kids get to help me out and earn money for their efforts, 2) we get to work at home in comfy clothes, 3) it will help us make ends meet each month, since insurance and other expenses have skyrocketed this past four months or so, 4) it will help us put money in an emergency fund again and if we can keep at it, a "fun" fund, as well.

At first, I was wondering how the driving would be, but the drive to pick up and drop off the materials is actually quite easy (though not real close), and our 13 yo ds is very motivated to come along and help out.Our 11 yo is a good helper when he wants to be, and our older two are pretty busy already. I think our dd will help when she runs out of babysitting money. She is without a consistent job now, as the family she sat for the most is trying to move closer to the Dad's workplace.

I'm still hopeful about having some consistent extra money coming in, and I'll let you all know how we do when co-op starts up again :-). I may want to pull my hair out then, but I hope we can juggle it all well and that the kids are motivated to keep at it. It is a good opportunity for them to learn some things about earning and saving money, keeping commitments, and being good stewards.

Christmas surprises

The Hubster read to us from Luke 2 in De Nyew Testament in Gullah language.

First of all, I have to mention that someone left us a nice Christmas card blessing over the weekend. Thank you, whoever you are!


Oh, my!! Thanks to my in-laws! This is what I REALLY wanted, but didn't ask for. Somehow, my fil just knew! He and my mil are professional photographers, btw.


Close-up of our new camera, (candid taken by our oldest son, on his Canon).




When it comes to college ball, we have a house divided (one decided Longhorns fan and two serious Sooners fans), but boy were these guys surprised with some college football gear they've been asking for :-). We got 'em beanies but later in the day, their Aunt and Uncle supplied them with caps and a hoodie or a vintage T-shirt of their favorite team. They were also happy to receive some Starbucks gift cards that Hubs and I and some friends gave them.



For family bonding through airsoft battles :-)

Happy 18th!

La Familia

Eighteen Candles

Gift cards and candles for presents

To our oldest son, who was four days early, way back all those years ago. He was supposed to be born in Boston, where we were living at that time. Alas, Hubster's mother was having serious health problems, so we made a last-minute decision to move to Texas...so he was born a Texan, instead of a cool, bohemian Bostonian. (He did keep the bohemian part, truth be told :-).

I bought lots of confetti poppers (I love confetti :-) and prepared the meal of his choice. J wanted homemade lasagna (with ground turkey) and Caesar salad. Dear daughter helped me mix up a yellow butter cake, complete with homemade chocolate butter-cream frosting for his birthday cake...and because we're never too old for sprinkles, there will be a lot of them all over the frosting. The drink of choice: tiny cups of espresso.

Happy Birthday!

Javamom of four, who always wanted to be a mom

Thanks and Merry Christmas!!

Thank you, ladies, for all your input. Hopefully the Booksncoffeehaus will function better, now! I wish you all a Blessed Christmas Day. If you are going to Christmas Eve services tonight, enjoy...and let God's Peace reign in your hearts and homes. Here are the lyrics from a song I sang in both worship services today. It fit in with the Advent theme of "Peace."

Hallelujah
words and music by Darlene Zschech

He is here
The Saviour has been born
The One we've waited for
Surrounded by our praises

He is here
The promise of the King
To You our lives we bring
Let Your glory be revealed

Joy to the world
Peace to all who love Him
The Saviour has been born
And all of Heaven smiles

Glory to God
We bring an offering to You
Join with all the angels singing
Hallelujah

(Repeat)

Merry Christmas, y'all!!
Javamom

Blog or browser troubles

Two or three of my visitors have let me know that they have trouble when visiting my blog. I'm wondering which browsers are the ones having trouble. One friend, who uses aol, used to have trouble, but her browser loads on my page just fine, now. I had messed with some of the html a month or two ago, and so I have removed those two small things. Maybe that will fix the problem. I really don't know much else about the template, but possibly swithcing to the new Blogger program will help alleviate any other possible troubles, as well.

Let me know if things seem to be working better on your own end, now! I'll also post a message to Blogger's help desk.

Our computer crashed about two weeks ago, and I noticed that made my photos here on the blog a little blurry. Thanks to my handy hubby and some upgrades in the hardware of my computer, we got that all worked out, now.

Thank you for stopping by and keeping up with us!

Javamom

Smile!

Isn't he adorable?

Nap time

We're watching one of my great nephews today. The boys wore him out and he fell asleep watching Veggie Tales.

Etymology

I am currently putting together a syllabus for a class that I will be teaching next semester called "Word Feud." So on this relaxing day, when I should be decluttering my bedroom, I am instead researching word roots and games for said class. I found several interesting websites. Here is one with a giant list of Words, short phrases, and their explanations. Fun-with-words dot com is another fun one!

I would welcome any tips or references, if you have any to share! I also plan to use SAT prep word lists and word roots from various curriculae that I have in my home library from our 14 years (come January) of homeschooling.

Javamom

Knowledge

"If knowledge means so much to us, 'What is knowledge?' the reader asks. We can give only a negative answer. Knowledge is not instruction, information, scholarship, a well-stored memory. It is passed, like the light of a torch, from mind to mind, and the flame can be kindled at original minds only. Thought, we know, breeds thought; it is as vital thought touches our minds that our ideas are vitalized, and out of our ideas comes our conduct of life."

~Charlotte Mason (vol. 6 page 303)