Send Me To North Carolina

Every now and then a girl has to grovel. I'm not immune. Especially when I'm hormonal and low on chocolate (which I could take by IV at this moment). This economy is tight, but it was tight for me even before the gas prices went up. Living on one income and homeschooling your children - WHILE paying property taxes like a good-little-Texan is NOT easy. Texas has pretty hefty property taxes, by the way. We have to forgo luxuries, shopping and vacations. I don't usually miss the finer life that much, but when blog conferences roll around, I do whine a little.

My husband was sweet enough to let me attend a few homeschool conferences that were close to home this year. They were a much-needed break and breath of fresh air for me as a homeschooling mom. Just call it teacher training. Whatever floats your boat. Now I'm looking to breathe new life in to my online life... by attending Typeamom. I'd love to rub shoulders with other bloggers (my imaginary friends) that I'm friends with online. I'd love to be in a room full of people who understand the urge to tweet, facebook, and blog as your first response to any given situation. I get the strangest looks from my real-life buddies when I "blog-talk".

My friend Dawn of My Home Sweet Home (who created the winning Typeamom Poster that you see up there) even offered to let me room with her if I can swing the trip. That means I'm about 150$ towards my goal. Just another ... 600$ to go. Seems like a huge amount of money when we don't even buy Christmas presents in my family... but I'm sure that if God wants me there, I'll be there.

Here's the breakdown:
$550 $300 Round Trip Airline Tickets for me and baby (flying to Atlanta, driving to NC)
$235 $100 Conference Tickets (a friend is selling me one cheap)
$140 $100 Food for 3-4 Days (some meals are included)
$100 Gas, Travel cushion just in case
___
$600 Total

And the conference is in TWO WEEKS. Eek. I guess I'm asking for a miracle.

If you are a sponsor who is looking for a blogger to ship to North Carolina, look no further. And if this request doesn't work, I'll have to do one from Baby K's point of view. It would, after all, be his first airplane trip - and he would be the absolute cutest (little) person in attendance if we got to go.



So really, I should say, Send ME & BABY K to North Carolina. Cuz I 'ain't leavin' him, y'all. He goes with mama.

If you want to donate to the cause, you can click the donate button in my sidebar and just leave the note "conference" in your transaction form. If you donate and I don't make my quota for Typeamom, I'll file the change away for Blissdom or another such similar conference at a later date. You'll still get credit for being my sponsor! Just later. I promise.




*updated:
Here's a ticker to show the progress of my fundraiser:

Getting Creative: Combining Subjects

It doesn't take you being the Great Creator to come up with ideas on how to combine subjects for school. However, if you are having trouble with the concept of doing more things at once to save time - you can always crack open a KONOS curriculum manual and browse for ideas. I guess after using KONOS so long with unit studies, my brain just works in that manner. Take for instance our History co-op day...

We read Ruth Beechick's "Adam and His Kin" to the children WHILE they created these lovely History Notebook assignments (the 6 days of Creation) and covered ART - HISTORY - READING - and BIBLE all at once! Then we threw in a video on floods and winds at the end to cover Science and Nature. 5 Subjects in one. Our homework assignment for the co-op was to write a narrative from the perspective of someone living on the Ark. And to research the expeditions sent to find the Ark along with reading and scientific videos on the topic. That adds another two subjects in to the mix (WRITING and SCIENCE). Now we're up to 7 subjects when we're done.



If you are in a state where keeping score of your time in each subject is mandatory, overlapping your subjects is the way to go! Homeschooling doesn't have to take up 8 hours a day when you use this method. The kids will be thrilled with a huge chunk of free time for independent learning or just pure old fashioned PLAY at the end of your scheduled (combined) assignments.

After all, kids (and moms) need some free time every day!

What Color Will His Eyes Be?

There are no seven wonders in the eyes of a child. There are seven million. - Walt Streightiff

Steel gray. Dark blue. Hazel. Blue with brown specks. We argue amongst ourselves every day about little Viking's eyes. They are shifty, glistening little marbles that seem to look different depending on the light and his clothing.

Serious little eyes.

My eyes are orange-brown. They didn't turn brown until I was two years old. Kev's eyes are a turquoise blue with a lovely dark blue ring around the edge. Dreamy.

If Baby K's eyes turn Hazel (which is a green and brown mix, by the way), I'll have one kid with brown, one with blue, and one with green!

I'm enjoying watching them discover the world. I love to see them light up when he wrinkles his nose with a happy grin.

Matthew 6:22 - The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.



These collages show three versions of the same photos. The photo at bottom left is the original shot - straight out of the camera. The photo on the bottom right has only the eye-pop action by Pioneer Woman done on it. It is like putting sunshine on your eyes so you can see them glow. [I promise, I'm not stalking her or anything. I just like her Photoshop actions, alright?!] The top photo on both is has been "colorized" and "boosted". I just love that suburban, Edward Scissorhands, retro cream color.

Looks great with his gray-blue-brown-hazel ... err, lovely eyes. Doesn't it?

So... tell me... what color do you think they will turn out to be? Let me know in this little poll: