Bread of Life Valentine Party

The Bread of Life Homeschool group gets together at the park around Valentine day to exchange our Valentines with each other.

We break the kiddos into groups and in an organized chaotic fashion play mailbox.

This is often mentioned as one of the activities that people worry about when we tell them that we homeschool.

Apparently Valentine Exchanges are a rite of passage that some find to be a necessary part of growing up. Our kids share more Valentines than their peers in traditional school. We can also add treats because we all know each other. These are some happy faces!

I don't know who was taking this picture but I bet it was cute from the front.

Here is Jumba trying to enjoy a treat that he was given in his box.

Princess and Bagel enjoyed looking at how other people decorated their boxes.

We make our own Valentine. This year the kids used a Toy Story Theme.

Jumba loved playing with Bear.

Pickle is getting too cool for so many of these activities.

OK maybe not, here Sugar made Bagel help her because she was too old.

I enjoyed time with my friends as well. I always enjoy time with Mrs. V and Mrs. W.

Moogie is on the go to play with her friends.

These guys know how to have fun.

They all loved the play time.

If you can tell from this picture of the moms chatting. I have a new shorter hair style. Not sure if I like it. The good news is that my hair grows quickly.

When everyone is forced to go home they are comforted by all the happy notes that they just got from their friends.

I am glad that we get this time to play and share Valentines like the regular school kids do.

I Can't Even Imagine

I write this as I sit in bed cuddled up to my Jumba. I have spent the night waking and being so thankful to hear him breathe. He woke hours ago with a leg cramp or growing pain. I joyfully held him as I rubbed his legs and rocked him. You see I am just so happy to have him right now that nothing else matters. I am so blessed.

One of Jumba's friends, his peer in our homeschool group drowned this week. This young man was the little one from a large family. They homeschool and all adored their little one just as we adore Jumba. This young man was a month older than Jumba. He was just 2 1/2 years old. The group had given us a a joint baby shower years ago. This mom and I have shared how much fun it is to be lost in the laundry while hearing the family play in the back ground. She is one of the only mom's out there that can truly relate to many aspects of my life. We have so much in common.

The older brothers are in our Catholic Coffee Club, the children are always at our PE days, Nature Study and Fine Art Classes. This family has been there for us and brought us meals when we lost David. We are now struggling with how to be there for them now.

I imagine that she would give anything to have her little one keeping her up with a kick here and there as he tries to sleep. She longs to rub his legs and offer him comfort. Her heart must be broken. I don't know any other way to describe what I feel for her.

My family will now prepare for another funeral. We will try to remain joyful knowing that this little man is truly resting with the angels. We will try to focus on all the goodness that this family is blessed with. My children will try to not get lost in how we would fight, blame each other and lose hope if it was our family. Instead we will focus on prayer for this family and thanksgiving for another soul joining the communion of saints. We are headed to Mass to offer the only comfort we can think of at this moment.

We beg you to hug your children and give them all the love you can muster. Pray for this family.

This was taken over a year ago of this young one. I suspect that he is playing catch with the angels now. I beg you to join me in praying for this family. The siblings blame themselves, each other. The parents blame themselves, wishing the nightmare would go away. God can be found even in this pain. For that I am postitive! Please just pray that we all find Him and not the world of guilt and pain. May his precious soul Rest in Peace as he now prays for us.

Turkish Delight Would Not Tempt The T Family

I love that when we homeschool we can get creative in how we celebrate the completion of something. As you might recall we are diving into the Chronicles of Narnia to kick off this school session. The books seam to be dominating our studies right now. After a month of reading I am still impressed with where we are going and where we have begun. Each child is creating a Narnia notebook. In just one month we finished two books and have written book reports and everything. This past month has been one that reminds me why I love homeschooling.
When you dive into a book in a homeschool classroom you can allow it to take over your life. We all began to crave Turkish Delight as we read the latest book. We had no idea what Turkish Delight was. When we finished the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe we wanted to celebrate by trying some of this treat that tempted Edmund. In the Disney version of the Movie the treat looks so yummy.

We didn't find the same joy from this treat that Edmund seamed to find. We are open to the fact that our Turkish Delight was a cheap version we found at the store but not knowing what it was made creating it from scratch an impossibility.

This experiment went so badly that I don't know if we will ever try it again. Maybe if we happen upon is in a bakery or something like that. As we nibbled our pieces we all thought the same thing. We would never sell out our siblings for this junk.

If you have had good Turkish Delight and find it to be at all tempting, let us know please. I will be reading the books again in a few years with the younger children and maybe then we will find the treat to be just that.

Meal Prep Resolution Update

One month has passed since I started trying to be better at planning meals. We have had meat loaf 2 times so I can't say that I have been very creative. Pooker, Goobers, and Bear all make their own versions of sweet and spicy meat loafs. They are good. We have done a pretty good job of knowing what we are fixing before 4 pm. The Teens and I are trying to create a usable schedule.
We like to eat, we like the time together and we are trying to plan more. My goal for February is to have a written plan for the month with the help from the Teens and to finish my creation of a pre-written list bast on what we normally need. I would like to print a pre-listed copy off and let it sit on the fridge to be checked when it is needed. One issue that we have is that it is hard to change the reigns of who makes dinner. I still want my computer time and dad wants to eat what he plans. So still some compromising but all is going well.

Art/Nature with BOL pictures from 1-22

In our homeschool world we have tried to add a few activities to include all the ages.  

We were blessed to have one very nice day in the middle of January.

Fun Day!