It has begun . . .

It has begun. It has been cold & windy, muddy & crazy.

Our season has begun.

The time for baby lambs being born has started here at the ranch. Or lambing season as it is called.

Posts might be few & far between or maybe a bunch. Honestly I have no idea, but I spend half my day in the lambing barns & the other half cooking for my family & all the herders.

It's cold & windy, muddy & crazy. Cute & cuddly. Amazing. & wonderful.

Making it all add up . . .

  We trying to keep things interesting at this house. We have constantly been adding new things to our math schedule & taking away things that they boys are bored with or are no longer working.

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    My 5 year old, bought a watch & was dying to learn how to tell time. So we did a week or so of practice telling time. He didn't master it, but every day he gets a little better. I have an entire Pinterest board dedicated to telling time. You can check it out here.  I love that it keeps it all in a central location & works well for me to make my weekly plans with. I am constantly adding new ideas on there.

    We played some telling times games off of there, & made this great clocks.

Another favorite that we have been doing is Math IXL.


 The send certificates through e-mail & once you do so many levels you get to turn over a puzzle piece. I doesn't sound like much, but I am amazed how much my boys get excited over passing off the next level. It is really good for testing knowledge, but if my kids don't get a concept as well as I would like I still have to teach it to them. It explains what they did wrong on a problem, but I do have to still do some teaching. So keep that in mind.


I have another Pinterest board dedicated to just a mix of  Math Ideas.

One of my favorites is the Engineering Ideas for kids. It helps teach math application & things like this are perfect for my boys.



or I love this idea as well:

 for math. For some reason , I cannot click over to the pin, so I just saved the image & we just printed if off or I created my own. I will share that with you another time.

So I hope this gives you some new ideas to keep math fun.

Also we are starting some fun things with Lego's this week, I hope you will join me with. Now off to subtract some of the clothes from my laundry pile & add food to my kids bellies!!

YW Personal Progress: Isn't it Sweet?

 As I mentioned in this post earlier I am involved with the YW in our church. We try to help encourage them to do their personal progress. Right now, I am trying about twice a month to recognize & give a little something to those girls who are passing off goals. I hope it is 1. Encouraging those girls to keep going & 2. Maybe offer a incentive or at least a reminder to the other girls to be working on theirs. I made these up to give to the girls.

           It says:  "Isn't is SWEET, that you got these goals complete. Great Job:      ( Then it has a place for me to add the girls name in)  & For Finishing:  (the list of goals that they have passed off to me in the last few weeks. That way they too can double check & make sure I recorded all the ones that have been completed).  At the bottom is says "Keep up the good work."

 Here are a few done up from earlier this week:

I like to use a need & thread & sew the little treat bag onto the card. 

Tie it up.  My color was about dead, so they are lighter than the original.

The back: I have a bag filled with treats and & another bag  I have stickers & the will add the bookmark once I pick it up. Then she has everything all together. 

         All cards finished up & ready to hand out. I have a few extra ready to go, just in case I missed 

       someone. 

And in case you want to make some of your own:

        If you want to save them (right click on the image & click on save image as) or if you prefer I would be happy to e-mail this copy or the pdf to anyone that is interested. Just send me an e-mail. Enjoy.

Menu Monday - 01/21

This Week's Menu     
    So everything is just starting to get crazy. We are shearing this weekend & then hope to start lambing this week or next. I don't know if I am ready for it all to begin, but I can't wait to see our 1st new lamb! So much to do around here.  So here is to hopefully a productive & happy week. 

Monday:
        B- Waffles
        L - Sandwiches
        D- Chicken Alfredo Roll-ups


Tuesday: 
         B- Oatmeal
         L- Leftovers
         D - Steak & Potatoes

Wednesday:  
          B- Breakfast Burritos
          L - Grilled Cheese Sandwiches & Tomato Soup
          D- Tin Foil Dinners

Thursday:
      B-   Cream of Wheat/Oatmeal
      L -  Macaroni & Cheese
     D-  Chicken Pot Pie

Friday: 
       B: Eggs & Sausage
       L: Leftovers
      D - Taco Soup with Corn Bread

Saturday: 
        B - Oatmeal
        L - Leftovers
        D -Pork Chops w/Apple Maple Glaze

Sunday:  
        B-  Waffles
        L- Cheese quesidillas
        D -  Roast &  Mashed Potatoes
Baking:  Homemade Wheat Bread,  Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies

As always I am linking up to Organizing Junkie. 

YW New Beginnings: Standing in Holy Places

   I get the chance to work with the Young Women (ages 12-18) in our church & I love it. Being surrounded in a house full of boys its nice to have the chance to hang out with the girls sometimes.  Well on Tuesday, we had our New Beginnings.  It is a night when the we introduce the girls who will turn 12 this year, all about the fun things we do. Well, I am a Personal Progress specialist & I had the lovely privileged of being in charge of it this year. (Have I mentioned I don't really enjoy being in charge.) So we our theme for the year is "Standing in Holy Places." & we decided to do a shoe twist on it.  It took place at our local library community room, because we couldn't do it at the gymnasium at our church.  I didn't quite know how to decorate, & it was a little tricky to decorate where we were, but I think it turned out alright. Also, we kept in casual & told the girls on the invites to wear their favorite pair of shoes. We have 33 YW, plus parents that were supposed to show, so most of our room was just filled with chairs.

  This is what we did:

Look at all those cute shoes! 

The table at the entry way. The buckets our filled with our little gifts for the girls at the end. 

The back wall.  

     Our program consisted of our Beehive Counselor, giving a talk & then calling up the 3 girls that will be joining us this year. She gave the girls all white roses & told them how excited we are they they will be joining us.

     We had "A Day in the Shoes of " where we introduced our upcoming beehives, & told everyone how about a day in their shoes & got to know them a little better. 

   I then gave a talk.  It was the "Different Shoes of Personal Progress."  I had in our displays different shoes that helped represent the different values, and told a few stores to go along with it. Here were the types of shoes I used & close to the order that I went in.

                 Good Works: Snow Boots (I told of personal story of a snow shoveling service project)

                 Integrity: My husband's dress shoes (A personal story of my Grandfather)

                 Choice & Accountability:  Running Shoes  (Talked about choices we make every day)

                  Knowledge:  My baby's cowboy boots    (how from baby to adults we are here to gain  
                                        knowledge)

                 Individual Worth:  Camouflage covered High Heels, (Everyone, is unique  some qualities may   
                                            be the same, but we are all different with our own worth & purpose)

                 Divine Nature:  Glittered Princess Shoes  (You are a princess, born of Royal birth a Daughter 
                                          of a King)

                 Faith:  I used strips of fabric & told this story of the woman leaving Prussia from Pres. Monson.

                 Virtue: Temple Slippers (Because the whole goal of Personal Progress is to build enough faith,   
                             & to help you get to the Temple.)

                             

We then had a talk  given by our Bishop & our YW President said a few things & we ended the night.

Of course food is always important. 

These were are little gift to the girls. The "Stand in Holy Places" CD by Jenny Phillips, & a bottle of cute fingernail polish. I came up with the saying & our lovely YW President put them all together. Thanks Robyn.

 We had so many help & come together to put this on. SO THANKYOU everyone.  . . .  I am glad    
           however to be done with it & able to think & focus on something else for awhile.  



Oh yeah.  . .  I did find some really cute sayings about shoes, such as this one:
               

There are lot more, you can go check out my PINTEREST board, if you want to see my favorites. We never ended up using them, but they are all still cute!  So . .  I hope maybe that can give you ideas . . . I will be sharing later more ideas later on things we have done in YW or with personal progress. So for now have a an amazing day!

         

Happy 2013!

I can't believe another year has come & gone. 2012 was great!! I think 2013 will be amazing as well. We have been at the "ranch" since Monday. I can currently hear my boys screaming with delight as they get pulled on sleds on the way to do more chores.
My baby is in my arms nursing & getting ready for a nap. It's precious & these moments make me happy. We spent New a years here & then made a quick trip to Utah to pick things up for work & had the chance to stay with my sister overnight. She home schools as well & I always leave her home inspired with new ideas & my excitement renewed about homeschooling. I will post ideas later, since things I can post from my phone are limited.

Here are a few pictures from these past few days: