Creepy Critters

Aahhh!  Spring.

Definitely my favorite time of year!  I love the blooming flowers, the budding leaves, the green grass, and most of all, the rising temperatures. (Although it’s been unseasonably warm here since January.)

My monkeys are enjoying the spring weather too.  Ty, for one, has been taking advantage of the weather and doing a lot of fishing in the creek behind our house.  He’s baited up several drop hooks, and the Tool Man helped him set out a trotline.  Armed with a bucket of goldfish for bait, Ty’s hoping to catch the granddaddy of all catfish.  (I’d just be happy with a mess of white perch.)

Although he has caught only a handful of catfish, one weighing in around 20 pounds, Ty has hooked quite a menagerie of other aquatic creatures.  Not the least of which was this slimy critter – a fresh-water eel!

 
YUCK! 

This was the first time the kids and I had seen an eel in person, and let me tell you, we were totally grossed out.  It was the creepiest thing I had seen in quite a while for sure.

As Ty was posing for these pictures, that eel tied itself into a knot.  How strange is that!

This eel is isn’t the only odd thing Ty has caught this spring.  He’s also hooked 2 more eels, two turtles, one white perch, and two gar measuring around 4 feet long!  And Ty wonders why I’m not a fan of swimming in the creek.

Happy spring,
Lindsey

School Daze

Hello everyone!  Even though January I thought I would share some pictures I took of the monkeys on our first day of school waaaay back in September.

You know, we’ve been homeschooling for eight years, and this is the first year I’ve ever thought to take a first-day-of-school picture!  I’m kind of disappointed in myself for missing out on the opportunity all these years.  Oh well, no time like the present to start, right?

I was so excited about how good these pictures came out.  Given, it’s hard for the monkeys to take bad pictures, but I thought these photos were extra cute!

This year we officially welcomed a new student to our school table.  Tacy has been working on Pre-K 3 curriculum and is doing fantastic.  Some of her favorite things to do are cutting and working in her sticker books.  She would breeze through an entire workbook in one day if I would let her.  Honestly, I don’t know why I hold her back.  I guess I’m just trying to avoid having to buy new workbooks every other week.  But like the Tool Man always says, what’s money to a hog?  I think I’ll let her do as much as she wants from now on.

OK.  Time to be real.  This school year has been one of the toughest ever THE TOUGHEST EVER! Babies have a way of complicating things, especially babies who don’t sleep.  Besides beginning this school year about a month later than we normally do, we have been moving at a snail’s pace.  Honestly, we’re about 9 weeks behind where I would like to be.  Yikes!  That sounds bad.  But, in the grand scheme of things, are 9 weeks really that big of a deal?  No!!!!!!  So, I’ve determined not to stress about it. 

Part of the challenge of school this year is that I’ve had a hard time working in fun activities.  Unfortunately, when you’re running low on time and energy, it’s usually the fun stuff that gets cut first.  Nevertheless, here are a few pictures from the one poetry tea time we’ve had this year.  I made some old-fashioned tea cakes for our snack, and the kids substituted actual tea with chocolate milk and Coke.  Lucy set our table and lit some candles for us. Then we all sat around the table and enjoyed our cookies and poetry selections.

Ty read us a poem he had written in his literature class.

Tacy even “read” a few poems out of one of my old nursery rhyme books.

And these two lazy girls spent the entire tea time snoozing on the couch. 

Now that the Christmas holidays are behind us, we are back at the books again.  It looks like Tib is finally going to string together some sleep-filled nights, so I’m hoping my energy and gusto will return for the second half of our school year.  I do so want to give the monkeys the best school experience!

Lindsey