Looking for Guest Bloggers

Do you have something interesting to share with the world? It could something serious or silly. Once a week I would like to feature a guest blogger. Guest bloggers need to have their own blog, blog type FB page, or website.  The topics need to be family friend to a point. Let me know if you would like to be a guest blogger by inboxing my FB page. https://www.facebook.com/knittingknitwit Thanks!

2014 Weekly Kindness Challenge

I know a lot of us come up with a list of new year resolutions that we really try to complete but our focus is usually stolen away by life. Life can make us lose focus on what is truly important. I believe kindness is one of the important things that has been lost. This year I decide to have weekly kind goals instead of resolutions. My friend asked if I could share them every week so other could join in. Each week a new goal will be updated on my blog and on my blog's Facebook page. The first weekly challenge will be post on 01-12-14, that is this coming Sunday. Please join in and share your photos and experiences with by posting on my FB page. I hope we can all bring a little kindness to those around us.

I will probably post organizational weekly tips and challenges as well. Organized people tend to be happier and save money. This is going to be a great year! 

The Disney Postcard Arrived!!

Do you remember a few post back about sending a letter to a Disney character? If not, check the post out here: Write to a Disney Character The postcard arrived this week. My daughter was excited to add it to her postcard collection. She is going to write to a different character next week. This is a great way to sneak in handwriting practice. Here is a front and back view of the postcard. I cropped off the part that showed our address.

More School Area Photos

Here are some more photos of our school area. The first set of photos of other parts of our school area are posted here, School Room & Garden Update.

 My son's desk

 My daughter's desk

 Shelves between the desks. Top shelf holds our flashcard box. 

The next shelf is our outgoing box; like box tops, papers to be scanned, mail, items that needed returned, etc..

Each child has a yellow bucket with their daily needed items;  rulers, glue, crayons, etc.

The red and yellow pails hold pencils.

The last two shelves hold the printer/scanner and teacher guides.

 The white rolling table is used by a child when I need to use their computer to enter a lesson. I use it a lot when they need me close.

 My son's desk again. You can see their weekly goal dry board hanging on the side of the shelf unit.

I put how many lessons in each subject they need to complete by the end of the week. It helps us a lot!!

The side of my desk. The corkboard now holds our days of the week signs. 

The small shelf unit is for their daily work. Each shelf has one lesson. The kids start at the top and work their way down. It helps them focus, know how much they need to complete, and stops them from looking for assignments. We also use a binder system.

This is the only time you will see my desk look this clean. The top of it has shelves for my crafts, school books, sewing pile, and a everything else that doesn't seem to have a place in the house.

#FMSphotoaday craze

I decided to join the #FMSphotoaday craze because everyone seems to be having a lot of fun with it. You can read about the photo challenge and about the mum who started it all at Fat Mum Slim. Basically she posts a monthly list on her blog with a daily photo topic on the last Monday of the month. People share photos on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and their personal blogs while using the #FMSphotoaday to connect. Fat Mum Slim aka Chantelle picks photos for the Fab Four daily. She actually picks 8 photos, 4 each from Facebook and Twitter. You just have to use the # to enter. You will be able to find all my photos for the challenge on my Facebook Page, Instagram, and Twitter. Click the word to find & follow.

Here is October's Photo A Day Challenge.

Here is my first #FMSphotoaday.

10.6.13 ~ 8 o'clock

Waking up to peaceful rainy day.

Demolition

We have watched a house down the street go through different stages of preparation for demolition. We saw them gut part of it, firefighters set it on fire & rip the roof apart for practice, different rescue dogs practice their craft, and even a company set up a decontamination unit around the house to run different scenarios . It was interesting to watch everyone practice their valuable skills. I loved that they used the house for something good before tearing it down. Everyone is thankful the city fought to remove this unpleasant and unusable house from our neighborhood. The site is now green area.

I took the kids down to watch the city tear it down. We sat across the street and an official asked us if we planned on getting closer because it wouldn't be a good idea. REALLY? We were about 6 plus ft behind the yellow rope. No sir, I am going to let the kids crawl under the rope to investigate the process closer. That answer stayed inside my head but not my daughter's. She said," No sir. Why would we plan on disobeying the police officer (he told all the onlookers to move back about 3ft from the rope) to get closer to the dangerous conditions and possible endanger ourselves or the workers?"  He just looked at her and said, "Oh, good point." and drove off. I was embarrassed that she spoke rudely to the official. That is not like her. Her reason was she didn't like to be spoken down to like she was an idiot. I was talking to my daughter, oh heck I should just call it what it was, I was lecturing (evil parenting nowadays) her about treating others how we would like to be treated when a construction worker came over to high five her for finally getting rid of the official. Apparently he was trying to tell them how to do their jobs. They think he just picked us as an easy target to boss around. I later told my kids that is still not a reason to be rude and he probably was just trying to make sure we were safe but didn't know how to say it.

I had an 12 yr old boy, 8 yr old girl, an almost 4 yr old boy, and a 1 year old girl with me. Who do you think enjoyed it the most? Yup, the 1 year old girl. She cheered each time something big came down. The other kids found it insteading but nothing like she did. They all thought it was neat that the crew was spraying water on the wood while the equipment tore down the wall. They jumped with fear when a guy almost lost his head when a huge side wall flip towards him instead of the way it was suppose to fall. We even walked down the next day to watch the removal of all the remains. I asked the kids to share what their favorite part of the house removal week with each other. Here is what they said. They liked watching big equipment destroy everything, watching the firefighters hack the roof with axes, and the guy almost losing his head. Nice kids.

 Down the street, about 3 houses away when we took this photo.

 On the corner, about 2 houses away.

Across the street, in the lawn of a neighbor's house.

Write to a Disney Character

Did you know that you could write to your favorite Disney Character and they will reply back?!?!?! This was exciting news in my home. My daughter decided right away that she need to draw a picture for Rapunzel. I think she created a cute drawing. There are two address, one for FL and on for CA. We are going to mail one for both but my daughter needs to decide which character needs a letter from her first. ;-) Here is the first one. I will let you know what she receives when it comes.