A face of determination

Saturday was Rebecca's first game of the season playing Upward. 

There was some anxiousness over playing against 8th and 9th graders from many of the rising 7th grader.  Listening to them girls talk about stacked teams, playing full court and on the 10 ft rim was interesting. 

Saturday's game was back and forth with the score, often tied.  It's one of those where you sit at the edge of your seat and bite your nails.

Rebecca scored 2 pts in the first half.  She was defending a girl that was pretty much her size, fast and aggressive.  If anyone knows Rebecca, you'll know that she is not to be discouraged.  She played hard against this girl, but she was able to score a couple of times against her.  Rebecca fouled against her, allowing her two foul shots, which the girl missed on both. 

This girl was not to be out done and they played very hard against each other. (it's not the girl pictured above.)  In the last two minutes of the game, she fouled on Rebecca.  Since there is not enough time for a foul shot, the 2 points are just given to the team with the player being fouled. 

With just 7 seconds left on the clock, the ball was thrown in by Rebecca's team under her basket.  Instinctively, everyone ran to the opposite side of the court, not thinking that they were on the opposing side.  Rebecca was able to throw an awesome shot scoring the last 2 points of the game.

All in all, Rebecca scored 4 points, had 2 in foul, for a total of 6 points.  Their team won 24-18.

I am already looking forward to next week's game.

By George, I think I've got it!

As ashamed as I am to admit it, we are completely behind in school.  Between taking too many Fridays off, pre-vacation prep, vacation, birthdays, Christmas, lazy days because daddy is off...excuses, excuses! 
Back in December, a mom posted a question in a homeschool/fb group concerning how many days of school others had completed.  After reading the responses, I feel so much better about being behind.  Here are the responses to the question:

Question:     Just curious, how many days of school has everyone accomplished up to now?

Response 1:  I'm not even sure. Am I supposed to be keeping track?

Response 2: Ummm... I dunno... I don't keep track since much of life is a learning/teaching opportunity.

Response 3:  I don't keep track since it isn't required and we have some kind of learning every day. We are about to get alot more informal now that I'm dealing with morning sickness though. ;)

Ok, maybe I am justifying myself here, but, seriously, according to these homeschool teachers, I am RIGHT on track!  I love it.

During our extended Christmas break, I came out of denial realized that something had to give or we would be doing school all summer long.  That may not bother some, but it sure does bother me!  Now that I established my goal, I needed to figure out how to get there, because what we were doing Aug- Dec just was NOT productive. After going through it all, I realized the main time waster was math.  Not just any math, but Rebecca's math.  It's working for her, it's not too hard, it just was taking F.O.R.E.V.E.R.  So much so that all of their other subjects were falling by the waste side.  Not just Rebecca's, but it affected Emily.  It affected her so much that I spent all of my time focused on Rebecca's math that all of Em's other subjects that required me were being neglected.
I figured out a schedule that I implemented on Jan. 2nd and here it is, the 10th and it's going great.  I think in this month alone, we have accomplished more schooling, subject-wise, than we did in Nov and Dec. 

Here is what we do:
7 ish - I wake up, shower, prep for the day
8:00 am- wake the girls up, make bed, morning chores
8:30 am- breakfast
9:00 am- Bible reading
9:30 am- brush teeth and start school
               Emily- English
               Rebecca- piano
10:00 am-History or Geography together
10:45 am- Rebecca- Science with a friend
                 Emily and I- Science in another room
11:30 am- Emily- piano
                 Rebecca- English
12:00 pm- Emily Spelling
                 Rebecca- most likely still doing English
12:30 pm- Emily starts lunch or math
                 Rebecca- Spelling
12:45-1:30 LUNCH BREAK ( sigh of relief)
Depending on the day, math is done directly after lunch or after our afternoon activities.
Reading is done 30 mins. before bed time or if there is free time during the day.

So far, it's a structured day with lots of schooling, no free time for me meaning no naps or cleaning, but the goal is being accomplished!  School is getting done.  Can you hear the excitement in my voice? 

GardenFest of Lights

We went to Lewis Ginter's GardenFest of Lights with friends.  I didn't realize it had been 3 years since we last went with them!  You can see the difference in the girls and JD here!  Boy, time goes by way too quickly!

Enjoy the few pictures from this years' trip.

My two gorgeous girls.

Hello. My name is Peggy :o)

the girls with JD

Rebecca said, " A house munchkin size for me!"  Hanging around with JD can make any of us feel short!

Emily

Happy Belated Birthday to my Little Doggie

Rosie is 3 years old~ that's 25 in human years according to this website.

Rosie still has plenty of spunk in her, but is a much calmer doggie.  She loves her rawhide bones, going for walks and to doggie daycare.  Her favorite person to play with is Jay and her favorite person to follow around is me.

She still likes to jump on certain people when they come over.  We are working on that :/

Rosie's favorite spot to snooze is curled up on the couch next to me or in the sun.  During meal time, Rosie can be found sitting patiently under the table for something to drop.  Although she is trustworthy and hasn't destroyed anything in years, we still keep her downstairs and leave her gated in the kitchen.

Rosie is a great addition to our family and we LOVE her.  I can't imagine our family without her. 

When people say that having a dog completes a family, they are correct.  She has taught our girls a type of responsibility that they wouldn't have learned otherwise. 



Rosie is a little too pooped out from all the Christmas festivities to celebrate her third birthday.





Christmas with Family

The Walters Family gathering

my cute little neice and me

taking a sip of air...

and then sharing with her new doll

Rosie says, "Let me in."  Madison says, "If I could figure out how, I would."

The nativity scene featuring th three smart phones.

Christmas morning.
I liked having the tree in the playroom this year, but I'm not loving the background for all my pictures.

We had a great Christmas 2011.  It was nice and relaxing.  We didn't have to travel to see family this year making it stress free.  I also did lots of cooking!  Amazing, huh?  We didn't have our traditional Chinese for Christmas dinner :(  That was disappointing for the girls, but I preferred the ham, potatoes, and all the fixings instead :)

A Closet in Need

Every once in awhile I open a door or a cabinet and am amazed at the unorganized chaos that I see.  Most of the time, I just ignore it, but sometimes, it just gets so bad that I can't ignore it any longer.

Last night was one of those times.  We had purchased some bins from Costco and Target earlier in the day so a closet cleaning was expected.  This just happened to be the first one that I opened and had just had it. 

As usual, I pulled everything out and made a ginormous mess on the floor.  You can see my last closet cleanout here.  From there, I started to organize and put things back.  Unfortunately, wen we came home from shopping, I had a monstronious headache and took a couple Tylenol pm.  I could no longer take the fuzzy headed feeling and went to bed only to tackle the rest of it today.  It took longer than expected and I was unable to purge as much of Jay's stuff as I would have liked,  but it is an improvement.  Let's just hope it stays this way for longer than a week.



We wish you a Merry Christmas