Touches of September

The other day I took out all of my fall decor and started to take it all out of the buckets. I tried stuff here and there but nothing seemed to work. everything was aggrivating my eye! I took a break and started looking up ideas online and realized I did not want to fall decorate yet! I just wanted to ease into it naturally.So I packed everything up and sent it back to the storage room. Instead I came up with some September changes....

Just added some color with the faux flowers in a creamer pitcher

I seem to like things in threes. Here I brought out my muted table runner, added a wooden bowl I had just found at Target on sale ($13), and a vase from a garage sale ($3) with mint from my garden. Last, I finally found a spot for the sign I found while out to lunch at Cracker Barrel. It needed something so I rubbed chalk all over the front of it to mute it just the right amount. The pears I found at The Christmas Tree Shop last year.

Added a pumpkin from Hobby Lobby to some fall food magazines.

Sunflowers from my garden in a pitcher from Target and some wooden acorns from Hobby Lobby.

I had to figure out a solution for all the succulents I had on my porch. It's getting a bit chilly at night here already.I also had to keep them away from my cat! She tries to eat them! I found a way to transplant them temporarily and placed them above my cupboards. I don't think my cat will be getting up there any time soon :-)

Sharing this post at The Inspired Room’s Fall Nesting Party

J2's Junior Year Curriculum Plans

This year is going to be an adjustment because J1 has graduated but is taking a Gap year (more on that later) and J2 will be schooling for the first time without his brother. All of us are trying to settle in on a new routine and way of doing things.

J2's schedule has finally taken shape! A lot of what we are doing this year will be new to the both of us so it's going to be an adventure.

Science: Apologia Advanced Biology, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made by Philip Yancey and The Human Anatomy Coloring book by Wyn Kapit
Also, to make my life easier, I ordered Sonlight's Advanced Biology schedule. We used it for Chemistry last year and it was a real time saver and great record keeper.

History: Ambelside Online's suggestions and plans, A History of the Twentieth Century by Martin Gilbert as a spine book. He has also started the book, Seven Men Who Rule the World From the Grave by David Breeze and Theodore Rosevelt's letters to his Children. We will be adding in Ambleside's speeches too. We are also gleening all we can from Harmony Art Mom since she has done this before and is doing it again this year with her last homeschooler. One of her suggestions was to use The Book of Centuries from Notebooking.com so I purchased it this past week.

English: Ambelside Online's suggestions and a few of my own. We will be following their poetry schedule and some suggested by Harmony Art Mom. Our first poet is Edna St. Vincent Millay. He will be reading a selection of short stories and essays. For literature, he is starting with, The Grapes of Wrath. Shakespeare this year will begin with The Merchant of Venice. We will be working through Jensen's Grammar and also doing SAT prep. I'm still working on his writing plans. (This is where I always struggle)

Health: The SAS Survival Handbook:The Ultumate Guide to Surviving in any Climate, on Land or Sea by John Wiseman, The Survivorman Series, Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris
We will be adding to this list as the year progresses.

Art Survey: I'm not sure if I will keep this exact name for this class but it will include: acting, graphic arts, stop motion/animation, and photography, J2 already spent about 60 hours as an extra in a movie called, King's Faith over the summer. He will be taking the graphic arts and photography courses through or home school co-op. He has a program he purchased for the computer animation that he will be using to complete a short film.

We are looking forward to a great year!

Special last moments of summer

This past week we have enjoyed a few precious moments to take with us into the winter. We are such a summer family that we are all feeling a bit depressed that it's over. This week we will be gently beginning school again. I say gently because we will work into our full schedule over the course of the next two weeks so we will not feel withdrawals too badly. :-)

We enjoyed some time at our friends home who have a beautiful peice of property. They have an amazing tree house and one of the boys had built a small log cabin on the property. My kids were so inspired by them they came home and started building things.

Good bye summer! We will miss you tremendously!