Honeysuckles:

  My oldest son who is 8 spent a lot of time finding honeysuckles today. I remember as a child enjoying them also. He wanted to know if I wanted one. A friend had showed him how to remove the honey, and he seemed to really enjoy the little bit of honey they produced. My youngest son who is 6 got moved up to the next level on swim team today. He was so proud, and so were we. My husband had to jump in the pool to save him about 5 weeks ago fully clothed. That day my husband got a speeding ticket on the way home from the health club soaking wet. The officer didn't notice or say anything about it. The boys said to me when they got home. Boy dad sure is having a bad day. My husband told the boys that it was a great day because Justin was alive, and well. He had fell off the board that he was learning to swim with. We were really concerned that he would be scared of the water so my husband brought him back the next day and got in the pool with him. He seemed fine, and we decided to enroll him on the swim team. He excelled at rookie camp, and has been swimming since that first week of camp. He has since learned the back stroke, and came in sixth at this past weeks meet in that event. His older brother  who is in his third year on swim team has yet to get a ribbon, and is pretty jealous.

  We are coming up on the end of our first year of homeschooling. It has been very hectic to say the least. I can't remember the last time I have had the house all to myself for any extended period of time. My oldest son has flourished this year, having had a rough couple of years in public school. It seems so long ago that we went to our first Homeschool conference wondering is this really for us. Deciding on which curriculum to use seemed to be our biggest concern. We decided on Abeka, and boy was that the right decision for us. In my desire to try and find the perfect curriculum, I had put to much pressure on myself. Being a certified teacher who had taught in the public schools for 12 years, I felt like it had to be perfect. My husband convinced me to keep it simple. He said Abeka covers every subject, and you get a good price on buying the whole curriculum. At the homeschool conference they had suggested keeping it simple your first year. Well it has been so simple I believe we are going to use Abeka again. It is an awesome resource for homeschool parents. 

  Since this is our first day of our new blog I will save some of our stories for future posts. We hope you enjoy reading, and please feel free to leave feedback.