Hip Hop Nation Spring Showcase

Morgan, Jaden, Jadyn, & Sophie






The showcase went well on Saturday night. Watching my girls perform & the crowd cheering for them always makes me cry. I am glad they had a chance to be a part of this magnificent group. I will post some video of some of the other groups' dances another day. Enjoy the videos!

What do you do?

This simple question that people love to ask when getting to know someone better can be so complicated for me. In the past, if people asked me what I did for a living, I could say, "I work in a foreclosure law firm" or "I am a closer for a mortgage company". Simple things like that don't exist for that question any more. Now, it is hard to explain what I do to people. I do so many different things. Usually, I stick with "photographer" and "auditor".
For those of you who care and want to understand my schedule better, this is what I do:

1. On the weekends, I am a newborn photographer at the hospital (the hours are usually 8:30AM until 5:30PM~ depending on caseload)

2. The first two weeks of the month, I do store audits (4 audits in total) for 4 days~ these audits are usually done on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

3. I sell items on Ebay, and I pack and ship items every Monday, Wednesday, & Friday

4. I do miscellaneous work as it becomes available with other companies. Work includes merchandising, auditing, theater checks, etc. My last job I did in this category was last week. The job that I had to do was to go to each resaturant on my list & see what brands of beer they sell on tap. I, then, reported my findings at the end of the day for 19 resaturants.

5. The data entry part of all of these jobs I do at home while taking care of my two kids. I homeschool them, and we send a total of 45 minutes of the day on book work. The rest of the school work is hands-on, life experiences (such as you have seen in field trips, trips to the library, computer software learning for reading & Spanish, etc)

6. I am running several fundraisers to help families in poverty help themselves. The majority of these fundraisers go to help the families start their own businesses and become self-reliant. Six of the fundraisers have been completed, and I have started fundraiser #7, which can be found here: http://www.firstgiving.com/clothingsalesigp

So, that is what I do in a nutshell. I am very grateful that I get so much time with Jaden and Morgan, and we are able to discover the world together!!

Pet Rocks

Do you remember making pet rocks? Jaden collected 5 rocks yesterday. Instead of them just sitting around, I decided to show her and Morgan how to make pets out of them. They even put them to bed in a bank check box lined with sheets (paper).

The flowers & foliage at the arboretum

More great adventures at the arboretum

We are so blessed!!!

It is so great to have so many things to do so close to home!!! Jaden, Morgan, and I went to the Dallas Arboretum. There was so much to see!!! Just like the zoo and the science museum, it is more than you can see in one day. The flowers were gorgeous (and they always have beautiful flowers regardless of the season)!!
We went there specifically to see some playhouses that were set up this year. I will show you some of those pictures soon. I made it an educational field trip. Since each playhouse focuses on a book (examples include One Fish, Two Fish and James and the Giant Peach), we are going to bring the books into our home school education.
We have begun making lapbooks, and this field trip will be our first one. For those of you who have never seen lapbooks, you will begin to see how they come together this week as we study "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish". Stay tuned...

A wild surprise

http://http://ilovemykids08.blogspot.com/2008/12/christmas-for-those-in-need.html

You may or may not remember one of the things that my girls got involved with around Christmas time last year. I put the blog post link above, just in case you missed it... Jaden, Morgan, and I packed up Christmas presents for children with HIV/AIDS and took them to a non-profit that works with these children and their families. A month or so later, I received a magazine from the organization. I didn't even look at the magazine. I put the magazine in the pile of junk mail. 5 months later (today), I decided to flip through it and was surprised to see our names in an article about Christmas items they received. In the picture above, you can, also, see our brown lunch bags that we put Christmas decorations on. We are not pictured (thank goodness!! I mean, thank goodness I'm not!!) If you have trouble reading the small words, you can click on the picture above to maximize the attachment.

I wanted to mention that I have begun a new book that is inspiring. It is giving me many more ideas of how to help people, and include my children. Maybe we can even start a non-profit! Whatever we decide to do, we won't be doing it to get our name in a magazine, though. I hope that we can make at least one person's life better, but I believe we can do more than that (with the help of others).

Looking for Organic Baby Items?

Hey, everyone!! This is an exciting web-site that I just had to pass on to everyone. My neighbor/friend/co-op homeschooling parent runs a business out of her home. I stopped by her house last week to check out what she had for my cloth diapers. She has all kinds of cool stuff!! I bought some unbleached prefolds to put in some of Morgan's diapers. Morgan has some diapers that have a bunch of different designs, but they aren't very absorbant... Now, I just fold up the prefold & put it inside the diaper. Very cool!
Then, while I was at her house, I picked up some Maggie's Soap Nuts laundry soap (it works great on cloth diapers, and it's all natural). I, also, got some RLR. If you are a cloth diaper mom, you will want to get some RLR. It is an additive. You wash the diapers like normal, and once a month use the RLR. The RLR gets rid of detergent residue, mineral deposits, and any lingering amonia-like odors. It can be used on regular clothes to get them whiter and make colors brighter.
I like to support mom businesses, and I have seen this one first hand. The lady (Kristi) who owns the business has a house full of girls (6 in all!!), and she is very sweet. Check out her site & pass it around if you know someone who is interested:
http://www.hip-green-baby.com/

This time last year

Looking back at these pictures from last year, Jaden and especially Morgan look so itty, bitty! Where did the time go?

Money Saving Tip #14 ~ Berries in Bulk

It's almost berry season. Yay!!! This year,we have 2 fruit picking field trips planned, so I am excited to to be able to have some fresh fruit for jam, etc. Here is a quick and easy way to "can" and preserve the fruit without boiling lids & jars:

1. prepare the fruit (clean, peal, cut) ~ up to 5 cups
2. put the fruit into a blender or food processor to make it into very fine pieces (or ash it by hand)
3. in a seperate bowl, mix one packet of "Ball Simple Creations Freezer Jam Fruit Pectin" with 1 cup sugar
4. add the fruit to the sugar mixture and stir
5. put the fruit into freezer safe containers and let it sit for 30 minutes (room temperature)
6. put into the refridgerator or freezer

It will last in the refridgerator for up tp 3 weeks & in the freezer for up to a year.

You can find canning products & recipes on Ball's web-site: http://www.freshpreserving.com/

Homeschool Co-Op Field Trip #1

Peter Piper Pizza Tour
The kids learn about how the sodas start as a syrup (syrups are on the right)
Inside the cold cooler
It was really crowded inside the cooler, so I stayed outside. This woman stood between the inside and outside.
Jaden takes the "Make it Magic" pledge

They see how the dough is mixed & then rolled out.

Washing dishes
Making pizzas

Now the fun part begins! They each get to make their own pizzas! Morgan was busy eating the pepperoni (and then,putting it back on to the pizza! Yuck!!!)










Jaden, Morgan & I went on our first field trip with the homeschool co-op. It was at Peter Piper Pizza. They gave a tour & then let the kids make their own pizzas. There were plenty of friends to play with. I wonder what the average number of children a regular homeschooled family has. Our small family was the minority. Most of the people there had at least 3 kids... The majority was 5+ kids. I guess we have some work to do before we get to be considered the norm for homeschool family size (just kidding).
The parents talked about events & home school activities & curriculum. The kids (all 100 of them) played and played and played!! I can't wait for our next activity... Berry picking!!! Very cool!