God Loves Tortoises!

First let me say that is does NOT rain in Southern California in September!! But it did this year and I don't mean the drizzle that we sometimes get at night.

The weather man has been saying "there's a storm coming!" for several days now but I didn't believe them. Friday was beautiful, clear skies, warm air, just gorgeous. Late in the afternoon a wind began to blow, a cold one. I thought maybe I should bring the tortoise in just in case. He (or she we aren't sure) has been living in the back yard in a nice burrow he made under the driveway. But he is an African Spurred Tortoise so he does not fare well in cold or wet weather and we need to bring him indoors or make him an above ground house with a heater for the winter. We haven't done that yet because IT DOESN'T RAIN IN SEPTEMBER! Well, I went to bring him in, but he was already way back in his burrow and it is very deep. I certainly wasn't going to go get the shovel and dig him out. And I figured if it did rain, it would only be a little bit.

We went to bed. Around 11pm, I woke up. I heard rain...hard rain. I worried a bit about my hard shell friend, but tried to go back to sleep. What could I do anyway? I couldn't sleep. Finally, around midnight I got up to look out in the yard. The water was coming down in sheets off the garage roof, right into the place where his burrow is. That is when I really started to worry. I went out into the yard in my PJ's and a blanket over my head. We don't even own an umbrella or rain coats that are handy! It was pouring and the yard was flooding. I went over to the burrow and kneeled down to feel inside. It was wet and puddled in front. The burrow goes down from there, not level with the ground, so I knew that the water was running down to the bottom of her house. It was cold, too. I started to cry. I knew he would be cold and not be able to move out of his hole and save himself. He was going to drown and it was all my fault. I ran back inside crying and stared out at the yard and the rain for several minutes trying to figure out what to do. I prayed out loud to God. "If you love tortoises please save this one. Do something!" I stood there trying to figure out what to do for awhile longer and then went back out into the rain.

There I was, standing in the yard in the middle of the night in my PJ's with a blanket over my head crying. I felt inside the hole and now the water was running in a river from the grass into the hole along with the water from roof. I stood up and yelled "Come out Lucky!!" When I looked down at my feet, there was Lucky poking his head out of his hole and looking up at me!! I couldn't believe it! I snatched him up from the ground and yelled "Praise God! Thank you!" and run into the house with him. We were both muddy and cold, but we were safe. He would warm up in the house and live to eat grass and harass the dog another day. I cleaned up and went back to bed, praising God for his small miracles!

Angels Baseball!

We went to the Angels Homeschool Appreciation Day! I was worried because it has been so hot and I knew we would be up high because the tickets were so cheap. But there was nothing to worry about. I also worried we would be the only ones there, but we filled at least two sections! Yay!! We got there before the game started because I wanted the boys to get a snack and hear the National Anthem. It was so perfect. I could have stayed the whole game. I forgot how much fun it is to watch a live game. We were in the shade the whole time and there was a nice breeze. Perfect baseball game weather!

Jake wanted to leave at the second inning. He was bored. Tom was pretty interested though. If it were just the two of us, we would have watched the whole game. We did stay until after the 5th though. I got them ice cream to bribe them to stay. I tried for the 7th by telling Jake there would be singing and stuff, but he was not impressed. Oh, well. Maybe next time. :)

Here is a picture of the boys with their noise maker tubes. Oh my goodness, those are annoying!!

Fun Science!

At the CHN Family Expo this year we heard the writer of Real Science 4 Kids series talk all about her new books. We fell in love with the idea and ordered "Chemistry Pre-Level 1" when we got home. It is for kids in the age range of K thru 3rd grade. By the way, that is one thing I love about the Expo each year. There are always homeschooling families that are using their expertise to help other homeschoolers and that is what this woman is. She and her husband are scientists raising kids and didn't like the way they teach science in schools. They did it their own way since they were homeschooling and decided to share it with others.

Today we read the chapter about molecules and their rules and then we did the experiment. The idea was to show that the rules limit the atoms to create only certain kinds of molecules, otherwise there would be chaos.

Below is my step-daughter, Nikki, jumping in to make molecules, too. She goes to public school and has one more week of summer vacation, but she loves to learn right along with the boys and help out.

Jake has a "flat friend" in town visiting from Canada. He sat in on our science lesson!

This is Tom's creation. The rule was that the candies could only have three toothpicks in them. Leave it to all three of my little "out of the box" types to come up with some ways to use more and still follow the rules of the experiment.

 

A Quick Book Review

Ok, I don't have a lot of time, but I thought I would try to get this book review in.

The Chosen by Chaim Potok

I was given this book as an assignment before I take my first Face to Face with Greatness seminar from George Wythe College. I love when I am assigned books to read because I have rarely been given a bad one. This book was wonderful. I couldn't put it down.

It is a story about a Jewish boy in Brooklyn during and after World War II. It follows his life through high school and college with a close friend that he never would have thought would be a friend. It shows so much of what Jewish life is like in two very different sects. It shows some of the history behind these sects. It showed two very different father/son relationships. It showed the Jewish reaction to the holocaust in Germany. It showed the beginning of a Jewish state in Palestine. There was so much to learn.

I will love to come back to this book again some time and really go through it more. I would love to learn more about the events it describes. But for now I have to hold it in my mind and move on because I am way behind in this assignment and still have two more books to read before September 14!

It Can't Get Cuter Than THIS!

Our homeschool group goes to the beach once a week during the summer. I am not a fan of the beach...heat, sun, sand = yuck to me. But the boys love it. They inherited that from their Grandma Shelly. It has been SO hot, so I decided to escape, bring my big umbrella and let the boys have their day. And I was glad I did. They enjoy the water and sand so much, it is hard to deny them of it. We were there for almost 3 hours. All they do is run from waves, lay in the sand and let water (and sand) rush up their pant lets, and scream when they get wet. They came back for a sip of soda and a pretzel, but that was it. We went home with pants full of sand! I'm serious, I think I dumped about two pounds of sand out of Tom's shorts. Next time, we wear shorts with NO POCKETS!

Another Day...

Ok, maybe not DAILY, but I’m doing the best I can. Sometimes I can’t find a minute to sit here and write this out and other times…well, the day is so boring, what could I write about? Today was not boring!

This morning we got moving. The boys do so much better when we have our lessons in the morning and then spend the rest of the day playing. So I got up and got my chores done and got on the lessons. Bible study, Reading, Copy Work, and then the DHL guy came with our cool new science book and the boys HAD to have science NOW! We got Real Science 4 Kids – Chemistry Pre-Level I. It is great! Today we described two objects while just looking at them and then we got out the magnifying glass and took a closer look. Once again the boys showed how different their personalities are. Jake had many descriptive words, including ones about taste. He ate the apple, felt the apple, looked at the apple, all the while telling me all the different things he noticed. He even drew a picture. Then I went to Tom. “What do you mean describe it? You can see it?” he says. So I start asking questions to get him to really think. He traced both of his objects. He wanted to read the book. So we did. It told us about atoms and what they are. He was delighted. They spent the rest of the day asking each other what things were made of and when one answered “wood” or “metal” the other would say “no, atoms!”.

We went to our weekly park day with our group and that proved to be beneficial. It was hotter today than yesterday, but the clouds had gone away, so it was nice. Every time I got hot, the boys would run over and squirt me with the sprayer. We were there almost 3 hours today!

When we got home the boys jumped in the pool as usual. When they got out we finished our Math and Literature lesson (we are reading and re-telling Aesop’s Fables). Then Dad came out of his office and we ordered Pizza! Yay! We watched Mythbusters and Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. The boys had to go out to the yard and hang from the tree some more while I watered the plants.

Now Jake is on the front porch because he is drawing something that he needs to see the front of the house to do. Tom is playing Ping Pong with the TV, crazy game. Me? I’m ready for bed, but it is too hot upstairs to even think about it yet. Yuck!

Cotton!

Check out this website www.cottonsjourney.com I came across this today. I am totally going to plant some cotton in our backyard! And then I'll find someone to help me spin it!