Animals at the fair!

We went to the fair at the end of September, and I have a ton of pictures, so I'll be breaking them up into different posts. :)

One of the first animals we saw was a llama.



I didn't expect to see this zebra!



The girls loved feeding the goats!





Milking a cow! Jill and Beth jumped right in, but Kate waited till there were fewer people around.





Hatching chicks!



The chicks were all put in an incubator as they came out of their eggs.



And of course there were hens.



And piggies!



And of course Beth fell in love with this horse. :)

Apple picking!

We've been picking apples with the girls for several years now, and this year was no different.

looking for the right place to begin picking



Mmmm!



helping pick apples



our helper--she carried this bag till it was almost half full!





all of us (not the greatest picture, actually :P)



Flying!



my animal lover



exhausted on the way home

Goodness, life seems to be a whirlwind lately. Schooling three little girls isn't as difficult as I thought it'd be, but it definitely takes planning. Typically, I start with the pledge and "My Country 'Tis of Thee," then Bible. After I read the lesson and sing with the girls, Jill does the Bible schoolwork, I have Beth read, and then work with Kate on whatever she has for that day.

When Kate finishes, I move on to Beth (by this time, Jill's reading and working on papers), and when she finishes her papers, she's off to play. Then I work with Jill whenever she needs it; typically, though, I can give her the paper, explain it, and go do my own thing while she does hers. So far, though she thoroughly understands everything, her own downfall is following directions. She's gotten some pretty low test scores simply because she didn't listen. Not that that's a surprise. That's always been one of her weakest areas.

Not only is there school, but there's normal life. We're still fighting fleas, so I have to vacuum the whole house once a day, and as the dishwasher's on the fritz (again), I have to wash all the dishes by hand (and five people make a lot of dirty dishes!).

And then of course there's all your lovely people. I love reading your blogs, but I often forget about my own.

The weather has turned cooler here, which isn't too bad. We had a couple really warm days this week, and I'm sure we'll have a few more, but I think fall is officially here (it sometimes comes later). The sun is shining, though, and the leaves are starting to change, so I like fall right now. November is when I really hate fall--everything's dead and ugly.

I do have pictures, I promise, but they're all on my phone! I'll try to get them up Wednesday or Thursday (tomorrow's Jon's day off, so I make no promises for then).

Wow, it's been almost a month since my last post! Sorry I've let it go. I'll try to have some new entries up later this week. Things are going well, and I lots of pictures. I'll leave you with this one, though.

Yesterday was the first day of school. I got a day planner because a friend of mine (who also homeschools) recommended it. Thank goodness for it! Yesterday was kind of haphazard because I hadn't gotten up early like I'd planned, so I wasn't as with it as I wanted to be, but it would have been worse if I hadn't had my planner. There were a few times that Jill or Beth just sat there, waiting for me as I worked with another child. Kate did well, but of course she was done the soonest. Thankfully, Ginny didn't mind when she went upstairs with her.

Beth loved her first day of kindergarten, and just as I thought, learning all the letter sounds will be great for her. There are still many sounds that she can't make or that she makes wrong, and as we go through every sound, I'll be able to see how she makes it wrong and help her fix it, or find a way to help her.

Jill hadn't been looking forward to school, but I think she really enjoyed it. Of course it was the first day, so everything was pretty easy, but I didn't even have her do everything she was supposed to do since much of it was review. But her cursive yesterday was beautiful. Toward the end of last year, she was really tired of school, so she was lazy and tired. But I'm determined that she'll have pretty writing this year, and I think if I continue to praise her good work, she'll be more motivated to write nicely.

Oh, and I took measurements of my girls yesterday: Jill weighs 59 lbs and is 48 1/2" tall, Beth weighs 40 lbs and is 43" tall, and Kate weighs 31 lbs and is 38 1/2" tall (she's my monster child ;)).

As we prepare to enter a new school year (Jill'll be in second grade, Beth in kindergarten, and I'm doing some preschool books with Kate), I've been thinking. I'd love to be more organized this year. So far, I've already got lesson plans done for the first six weeks; I'd like to get more done, maybe even the entire school year. That'll take time, yes, but it'd be nice to not have to scurry around every day and wonder what's coming.

I'd also like to get on a cleaning schedule (bathrooms certain days, sweeping/vacuuming/mopping certain days, etc), so that I don't feel overwhelmed and try to get it all done at once.

I also want to do field trips with the girls. I'm planning to call around to different places and see what I can manage. There's nothing like hands-on learning to make the things you're learning real and stay in your brain.

I'm hoping the coming year is a good one.

Back when it was time for me to get a better phone, I wanted one with a good camera, and I wanted it to slide up. I'd had a flip phone, and I didn't want one of those, nor the kind that opened to reveal a qwerty keyboard (I have a qwerty keyboard, I just didn't want the kind that snapped open--I like it sliding). In December, I could get an upgrade, and we found me one, the Kin 2 (it had bad reviews, but mostly for its data plan, which I wouldn't be getting). I have been SO pleased with it. Yeah, the button for taking pictures could have been put in a better place, but I really have no complaints with it. And it takes really good quality pictures, so I don't even use my digital camera anymore.

Anyway, as much as I love taking pictures, I'm by no means a professional. The only reason I get as many good pictures as I do is that I've learned to take about a million just to get the two or three good ones.

Ginny's planted marigolds out front, and I've been wanting to get pictures of the bees that alight on them, but I kept not having time or not having my phone when I was out there. The other day, though, I had my phone and the time to get some pictures. I'm really pleased with the ones that I got.



The second one is my favorite. :)