Walk Across Texas 2009

Today begins the annual Walk Across Texas program, It is an eight week program to help people of all ages support one another to establish the habit of regular physical activity. Walk Across Texas! is recognized as a Best Practice Physical Activity Program by the Texas Department of State Health Services.

For eight weeks, teams of eight people, school classes, or individuals walk 830 miles across a map of Texas.

Today, me and 4 of my kiddos will record all of our walking and bicycling each day for the next eight weeks.

Stay tuned!!

Jake's new hair cut

It was past time for Jake to get a new look. He had been thinking about getting a crew cut for the last month and finally took the plunge yesterday. He really likes his new "do" and so do I. I think it makes him look much older, what do you think?

BEFORE


AFTER

09~09~09

9-09-09 ~This date will only come along once in my life. In fact it won't happen again until 3009. Quite a long time from now, the next millennium.

Have you noticed that there are 9 letters in the word September?

Also 9 letters in the word Wednesday (which is today's date).

Also today's date represents the 252nd day of the year. 2+5+2=9.

I wanted to capture a picture of my kiddos on this date, so I called them all from whatever they were busy doing at the time to gather around and savor the moment of this special date.

New school year 2009~Thinking about college

Oh my, where does time go and why does it go by so quickly?

We started easing back into the school routine about four weeks ago although this year we are doing things a bit differently. Some of my children will start to acquire some college credits through the process of online classes and College-Level Examination Program also know as CLEP and DANTES test.
None of my children have a definite plan as to what they would like to major in at the moment so what we will be working on is getting some of their general education credits knocked out first and then we will re-evaluate to see what needs to be done.

When your children start getting older as mine are, I as a parent, start to worry about college, where will they go, what will they study and how will we PAY for it. College is EXPENSIVE. So in my hours of reading I ran across College-Level testing, the sound of it intrigued me. It is the best of both worlds-the kids learn, test and then get college credit (if a passing grade is made) and it does not break the bank. My children can acquire a degree in a much shorter time period and the cost is no where near as expensive as a four year college/university.

A very good book that I am reading is titled "Accelerated Distance Learning" by Brad Voeller. I highly recommend this book for any parent or student wishing to jump start their higher education at a faster rate of speed and for much less $$.

Learning to Sew

My little girl is going to learn how to sew. Oh, sure she has sewn things like pillow cases, little purses, small stuffed dolls out of felt. She has even hand-sewn a beautiful throw pillow for my bed from maroon and gold satin material complete with tassels as a gift for me this past Christmas. But now she will be learning how to sew clothing.
Molly (12) is in the Clothing & Textiles project in 4H and one of the things that she is to do is sew some form of clothing for the fashion show. I took her to town the other day where she spent about an hour or so picking out a pattern and material for her project. The project is under-way as she has started cutting out the paper pattern in the photo. I will up-date more photos as she works on her project. This is so exciting for me!! I hope that she will learn to love to sew and it will become a new hobby for her.

A New Year Begins

2009 is here-a new year-a fresh new start to things and boy do I feel the need for. I have big plans for this year (this is nothing new, I have big plans every year). Although, it is my hope to follow through on more of my plans this time around.
I want to be more organized, don't we all? So the plan is to take baby steps to getting our home, our schooling, my thoughts more organized.


We shall begin our schooling on this up coming Monday and boy do I have some new things that I will be implementing this year. I will write about them more as the year continues.

Until then--Happy New Year everyone!! May it be a wonderful year for us all! :0)

Last post of the year

It has been sad how little I've kept up with this blog this year, although I wanted to add one last post before the new year that starts in just a couple of hours. 2008 is almost over and I must say that it has been a very good year for us.
I didn't get near as much accomplished as I had hoped throughout the year but like the saying goes-There's always next year!!
So see you all next year and I will keep up with this blog better--I promise!