Homeschool Memoirs #12: Let's Play a Game!

This week at Homeschool Memoirs:

Homeschool Memoirs #12: Let’s Play A Game!Homeschoolers are very resourceful people. They use what they have and use them to their best ability. I know in our home many times people ask us how we use this or that for learning, and we are happy to explain it’s value. I think the main thing that a lot of people miss is that life is learning, and you must use everything in your home for learning otherwise you won’t fully be prepared.


I love to play games. We played games growing up, and I have very fond memories of playing cards and Yahtzee with my Grandma. While we don't play as much as I would like...we do love games in the Williams house....Here are some of our favorites...

Go fish...we play the traditional game, we play with states and their capitals, with colors, shapes, and with Dora the Explorer...

Memory...same thing....we do this with whatever kind of card we have to match...

Great States, Jr....This one is a great way to explore and learn about the country...

Battleship...Caleb and I love this game. I love strategy games, and he does too...and has smoked me a few times at it...but the girls enjoy this too...

We also have pizza games for fractions, games with making shapes into a picture....and, of course, the High School Musical games, which you know, teach, ummm memory skills when learning songs and dance moves....

Yahtzee is a favorite around here too, though we haven't moved past the Disney game...I will have to get out five dice and teach them the real way to play....

And, of course, we love Candyland, and Chutes and Ladders, Sorry, and Disney princess...

Thirteen years...

Thirteen years ago today, I married my best friend. Today we celebrated by going to vote together, and then a trip to Cades Cove with Mike's mom and her husband, who have been visiting all week, and finally our annual trip to the Melting Pot (alone) for dinner....

I am stuffed, and ate a lot of that sugar I said I gave up a year ago, and now await the election results.

But, all that aside, I have to say, I love you, my Mikie. I am so thankful to have you in my life. You make me laugh, you are a great dad and a wonderful husband, and I enjoy being with you and being married to you....

Happy Anniversary!!!

Aren't we cute?!!

Election Day....

Happy election day! I just got back from voting with Mike, the first time we got to go together. And it's our anniversary..how romantic.

Now, I am not real political, but I do believe people should exercise their right to vote...even if they don't agree with how the votes are counted. I was in line behind my friend, Alina, who became a citizen last year. This was her first time to vote. What a privilege we have in this country.

So...If you haven't already...get out and VOTE!!!

Something beautiful this morning

Not that I didn't have enough guilt that the other morning one of my three beautiful things wasn't about Caleb...
That morning we had butted heads over a missing vocabulary book and a messy room. So, that was not one of my beautiful things that day....

And then Sam has to come along and make a comment that I left Caleb out....one day you will understand Sammy... anyway....

This morning...my beautiful thing...
Sitting up at the bar eating breakfast with my little man, who asked, "Can I sit next to you today, Mommy?"

Three beautiful things...

Smallworld asked...so I will answer...
What is beautiful in my life?

-My little Bekah girl reading anything and everything now. She reads my emails as I type them, signs, books...I am so proud of her.

-My Elisa, who is four, but will be five in three short weeks. She is my baby....but today came out in a dress that I have had for two years (it's a size 3 and had yet to fit her) Not only did it fit, with a matching hat...we had a fun time outside taking pictures for her birthday invitations...that is, until she got a little cold without tights on...

-My afghan from my mom. She made this a few years ago when she and my dad were out of town for almost six months so they could take care of his aunt. She picked out colors to match my living room, but I love it on top of my comforter on a cold night to help keep me warm.

What is beautiful in your life today?

Homeschool Memoirs #10: 10 timely facts...

I am very late in doing this this week, mainly because.... I have had a cold and I haven't felt like blogging, and because all I have done lately is blow my nose and couldn't find anything interesting about myself. But, as I sit here on this rainy day and have nothing to do...well don't feel like it anyway...I have made list of some interesting things...here goes..

1. I love to dance...I dance anywhere and everywhere I can and one day hope to learn how to "Riverdance"
2. I love Sushi, and could probably eat it every day.
3. I also love gymnastics, and when I was 13, I got to do an exhibition with Peter Vidmar, who was a member of the 1984 Olympic gold medal men's gymnastics team.
4. I wanted to be a nurse all my life... Until my senior year of high school, when my mom talked me out of it saying the profession wasn't what it used to be. (she was a nurse) Instead, surprisingly enough, I studied communications, and wanted to be a sports broadcaster.
5. I really want to deliver a baby some day, and can't get enough of baby shows.
6. I am very loud...Mike makes fun of my laugh and says the neighbors at the end of the street can hear me...
7. I have a crush on Zac Efron from High School Musical. Mike knows this and makes fun of me. Bekah once put one of her baseball cards of him on my night stand...I'm thinking this has gone too far...
8. I love crafty things. In the past, I have loved scrapbooking and stamping. Right now, it is vinyl lettering, which you rub onto your walls and makes such a great way to decorate.
9. I love to sleep in...and I turn on the Disney channel before I go to be, so when my kids wake up, they have their electronic babysitter until I am ready to roll out of bed...you don't have to tell me what a great mom I am...I already know!
10. I gave up sugar a year ago after I kept seeing it grow and grow in my stomach...I am a little too obsessed with how my jeans fit...

So..there you have it...a little bit more about me...

The big night...

The kids and I have been waiting for this since last August...since we saw High School Musical 2....

Today it has arrived, High School Musical 3 in the theater!

Now, I feel like, well, crap, and I have done very little this week with school, no energy for finding out 10 interesting things to blog about me, and we skipped a field trip today, but we will head out tonight for our family date to see High School Musical...