Library Elf

I am really loving this wonderful online service that connects me to my local library with hold reminders and overdue notices. It keeps all your cards together (I always forget what Grace had on her card especially!)

Today I returned like 15 items, and when I got home there was a notice that I had one overdue item... I thought for sure it had a glitch, then looked in the DVD player and there was a disc! The case had fallen behind the TV and I didn't realize we still had one. So Library Elf saved the day with it's e-mail!

We are lucky enough to live within a large library system- I don't know how many libraries they have the ability to connect to- but if you use your public library as much as we do, you might like Library Elf.

http://www.libraryelf.com

Grace

Yesterday I had a Dr's appointment in OC and I went by myself- I also got to use a gift card I've had for almost a year to get some maternity jeans, and new shoes (crocs, again- but this time they are the Mary Jane style- and black so they'll go with anything!). After I stopped by my parents apartment and had a wonderful visit, including a walk through downtown San Clemente to my favorite deli in the whole wide world, Billy's. We enjoyed our sandwiches on the chilly patio and walked back to a warm cozy apartment, where with the flick of a switch a warm fire welcomed us!

When I got home and gave Grace the treats that her Papa sent for her she called to say thank you and ended up chatting for almost half an hour! She found a nice spot...


Or so she thought, as she laid across the stairs, Ford decided to jump over her and he's no little pup anymore, so one of his huge paws scraped her...


She proudly showed me the art lesson she had done with her Daddy. This first one shows her attempt at drawing Scooby Doo from memory on the top, then with a little help from Daddy on the bottom left and a third try by herself on the bottom right...



This one they did together..



And lastly she did this one all by herself...



She is now working on Shaggy...



Here is what Shawn used to teach her, his before and afters...



We are doing a lapbook on the Scooby Doo theme unit- I should have photos of it up in the next week or so...

Scooby Doo Unit

Grace has been really into Scooby Doo lately, so after she wanted to watch a third episode this morning I decided I better get cracking on a way to learn through the adorable Great Dane. So we started a lapbook. This is the first one I have created from scratch and I am going to put it together to post either on homeschool share or just here on my site for anyone else who is interested in the lovable gang.

It's almost finished!!

Advent Treasure Hunt

On December 1st G started an Advent Treasure Hunt, which I customized to our style from this site. It's been a lot of fun- a few moments of frivolity amongst the frenzy! (I also enjoyed reading another interesting blog about the Advent season)

I have been stressed by packing and the disarray my house is in as we prepare to move (still don't know where!) and my 2 little bits of control and organization during the day have become this Advent activity and my current obsession with setting up the Virtual Moms Club.

I keep stealing just a few moments when a box is packed or a chore is done to pop online and do something else virtual. I realized that it is partially because I can organize, sort, rearrange, express myself and decorate to my hearts content and there is no mess! No clutter accumulates when you are playing with little widgets, bits of code and themed templates. Everything has it's nice little bordered box or mini module. Even music and family photos easily integrate into my virtual world. Moving is easy in cyberspace, click here... drag there... an voila it's gorgeous and simple to search for anything you need.

Here's a few photos from the past few days... (oh and you MUST try today's recipe, sent to my by Mel- BBQ cups!)

The cover of Advent Treasure Hunt folder, where we keep the "scrolls" she finds each day (many are printouts from the above site).


below is the calendar countdown; we paste a black & white symbol of the days activity to mark our progress. Day One was the story of the Angel Gabriel visiting Mary (I also presented her the Christmas Treasury, a book we purchased a couple years ago, but never got to in the past couple of Christmases. This year we plan on reading a story or poem & singing a song from it nightly. It's really getting us in the Christmas spirit- who needs decorations?)


Last night she got the clue "Where Joy will close her eyes, and we will sing her lullabies." She went to Joy's crib and found her handbell set in it's *new* bag, complete with a custom cut felt for silencing the bells as she set them down and the music pages securely tucked in- it's an old picnic bag that I found while packing- you can sort of see it in the background.


Shawn converted the sheet music (which he downloaded from the internet) to a similar style of the colored dot music pages that came with the handbells. The song for the day (the Treasure Hunt daily printout) was Joy to the World. We had fun trying to sing it together while she played the handbells!


Finally, I just liked these - they represent a typical day in our world- Grace wearing only my moms sweater building a lego bridge to "candy world" under the arch of "fantasy fort" ...



...and her faithful, loyal and tolerant friend, Prince Tiger.

Virtual Moms Club

I often wish I could get together with other moms to share some of my hobbies. I also wish I had more time to spend on those passions of mine! So I decided I am going to try to set aside just 2 hours, once a week to do these things, and blog about them- as well as (hopefully) read about what other moms who did the same thing experienced.

For that purpose I started the Virtual Moms Club webring. Read more about, join the webring and the e-mail list here...
http://virtualmomsclub.blogspot.com/