Ready, Set...Christmas!

Last night we put up the Christmas tree and decorated the house all up. We have decked our halls and are jingling our bells. LOL We also spent about 3 hours outside putting lights up and I have to say, it looks mighty pretty. :) We haven't put up lights in a couple years. Brenna was so giddy about it and thought it was wonderful. I love having a kid during Christmas.

This year's a little different for us then it has ever been. We decided to use the money that we had set aside for Christmas to help a family who really needs it. We talked to everyone in our family and told them to please not get us anything because there would be no presents from us.
Brendon works with a girl (and knows her father) who really needs our help this year. Her brother (19 years old) was in a terrible car accident about a month ago and they didn't think he'd make it - they spent two weeks wondering if he was going to live or not. The same day they got the good news that he was going to be okay, they were hit with another tragedy - their house caught on fire and they lost just about everything.
Now on top of medical bills, they have a whole house to refurnish and are without things that most of us take for granted. People at Brendon's work have really come through for them and they have received lots of clothes and furniture. The son who had been in the hospital came home to a hand-me-down couch to sleep on and has been sleeping on it for a couple weeks. He's still in pretty bad shape and told his Dad that the couch is really hurting his body (it's one of those fold out couches with the bars you can feel through the mattress). When we asked Elias (the Dad) a few days ago what they needed he said right away, "A bed for my son." Well I went out today and used our Christmas money to buy him a new bed. This week we will also be shopping for kitchen things as well as some toys for the 7 year old daughter. Some of the women in my home school group have been awesome too and we are getting two dressers, clothes, a night stand and a stove to give to them as well. Today I went to my Grandma's and got some more clothes for the mother, towels, wash clothes, hangers and blankets.
I just feel in my heart that I have to do all that I can to help these people. They are a good, hard-working family and the times that I have talked to Elias on the phone, you can just tell that he hates asking for things. I just couldn't imagine losing everything I had.

So I think this year is going to be a really good Christmas for the Spear house. It's going to be all about giving to a family who really needs it. I think that that's what Christmas should really be all about.

Cardinals Game

Brendon and I went to the Harlingen Cardinals playoff game this past Friday with his Dad and Nan at the Alamo Dome in San Antonio. We had side line passes and had a great time!! They lost but they did such a great job going as far as they did in the playoffs! GO CARDS!!!

Freedom Wall

Brenna and I re-did her room about two months ago and created her Freedom Wall. It's a door in her room that her and her friends are able to doodle and draw on. She loves to draw and what a great way to let her express herself. :)

Busy Day

Oh geez! I don't write a post in forever and now here I am posting for the fourth time in two days. Talk about sporadic!!

Anyways, today was a VERY busy day!! Seems like I've been having a lot of those lately. You should see all the stuff I have written on my calendar! People think that because we homeschool, we are home all the time. HA!
We had our last co-op with the homeschool group this morning. Most moms in our group are so happy to see co-ops come to an end but I actually enjoy them and wish they were longer than 6 weeks or more often then just twice a year. I think a lot of the Mom's are happy when they end because they are so caught up with school curriculum and anything extra just throws them off course. I guess if we did school at home it would be the same for us. Some families blow off field trips and stuff because of all the curriculum they do. I just couldn't imagine that. What's the point of homeschooling if you can't just stop and do fun stuff?
So after co-ops today Brenna went to Grandma's house to play with her cousin, Keira. She sure does love her little cousin and she's one of her favorite people. While Brenna was at my Mom's I went shopping for a birthday present for Brenna's buddy and then came home and got some cleaning done. I picked up Brenna a couple hours later and took her to her friend's birthday party, went to HEB, picked her up and off to Girl Scouts we went. Brenna left this morning at 9:15am and did not get home until 6pm!
Tomorrow morning at 8:30am she has basketball pictures and then her first game at 9:30. GO SAINTS!

Brendon is in Kingsville right now with his Dad and Nan at the Cardinals play'off game (local High School). They are kicking butt this year and are undefeated! At half we were up 14-0 against an undefeated team from San Antonio. That is big!! We NEVER beat S.A. in play-offs!! GO CARDS!!! Next weekend, if we win, we will be playing in San Antonio so I am hoping to (maybe) go. Mom? Brenna? Sleep over? LOL We'll talk later... :)

Ok, time to send Brenna's friend home - we have an early morning with basketball. Wish Brenna luck! I'll try to remember my camera and take pictues. Don't hold your breath tho....

Girl Scout Camp Pictures

Pictures

It's been a while since I posted pictures so here's a bunch!!
For some reason blogspot is not cooperating with me and I can not line up the captions with the pictures so here's a brief explanation of the pics........

-Our silly little (BIG!) kitty, Taco, taking a nap (he's so like Garfield!!!)

-Halloween Pics (Brenna (cat), Nanny (clown), Brendon and me)

-Stack of books that Brenna read in ONE week

-Camping at Choke Canyon a few weeks ago (tent site, Brenna doing dishes, walking by the lake)

As always, you can click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Good Stuff

http://www.odemagazine.com/blogs/readers_blog/6725/how_do_kids_figure_out_who_they_are_and_what_they_love_to_do

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/who-gets-to-decide-what-you-learn-questioning-the-traditional-school-system.html

Hello again..... finally

Wow. It's been a while. I looong while since I posted. That seems to be my opening sentence in quite a few of my posts. I'm not very original huh? LOL I do think about posting on my blog every day but other things just seem to come up and before I know it I'm off to bed and another day has passed without any word from Brandi. I have good intentions though - I just don't follow through. I get on the computer quite a bit to check my email but then it turns into researching things that have been my 'obsession of the week'. I have found myself being very curious about things lately and wanting to just know stuff. The past few weeks has been an obsession about vaccinations. It all started with this stupid H1N1 vaccine (horrible stuff! please don't get it!!) and then just escalated. Some of the things I have read just make me cringe. The saying, "What you don't know won't hurt you" is very true. LOL If I ever have another child there will be much more thought put into vaccines then there was with Brenna. I'm not so much anti-vaccination, just a more delayed schedule I guess. But I could go on and on about it so I'll just leave it at that.

Well we finally got Brenna into a Girl Scout troop and she is lovin' it! She's only gone to one meeting and we just went camping this past weekend. She had such a good time and gets along with all the girls. When I was little all my best friends were from my Girl Scout troop and I have such wonderful memories. The troop that she's in this year is pretty big and it seems like they do a lot of stuff. In a few weeks they will be having a Cookie Kickoff and celebrating it with a big sleepover at the school's gym. Everyone who reads this and lives in our city - beware! We will be hitting you up for cookie sales soon! :)
Camping this past weekend was a little different then what I remember and some things kinda made me open my mouth in disbelief. I had to work extra hard at biting my tongue (not easy for me by the way!). That was tough. LOL Apparently the Girl Scouts have now decided to start using Boy Scout juice! For those not savvy with Girl Scout terminology that is another word for lighter fluid. That used to be unheard of! Taboo! To say the least, I was very disappointed. Almost sad. They also had their own little twisted version of the "buddy system". It was mentioned at the beginning of camp but was never enforced. That was a jaw-dropper too. During the first few hours of camp I was constantly getting after Brenna and Kayla (her BFF and "buddy") - they finally got the point and didn't go anywhere without each other. I was very proud. But that's how it's supposed to be. I think I might be sending an anonymous letter to the Girl Scout Council very soon. That will be my way of opening my big fat mouth. And yes - I DO have a big fat mouth. LOL

So basketball season is now in full swing in the Spear household. Brenna has had practice twice a week for the past month or so and her first game is this Saturday. I love, love, love going to games every Saturday. They are very stressful though. Those poor girls hear all kinds of instructions from both sides of the court - parents and Coach. It gives me such a headache! Parents yelling, coaches yelling, girls looking all over trying to figure out who to listen to...... I just smile and watch and think to myself, "These poor girls are only 7 and 8. Give them a break!"

So this week is the last week for co-ops with our homeschool group. It has been a pretty successful 6 weeks and everything has been running very smoothly. Mom's chats have been much more helpful this time around then in the past (1/2 the moms chat the first hour and the other half have a class and then we switch for the 2nd hour). We've talked about recipes, kitchen tips and books we've read. I've acquired lots of wonderful information! In the past the conversations have mostly revolved around curriculum, which does not pertain to me at all. It's rather difficult being the only unschooling Mom in the entire group. I would give anything to have a relaxed (unschooling) homeschool group here. The closest one I have found is in San Antonio, which is about 4 hours from here. I am a member of the Yahoo Group and really hope to attend one of their park days or field trips someday soon. I just think it would be so awesome to actually meet other moms who do what I do. I have TONS of friends on Facebook and through email who unschool and that does help a bunch but I think it would be kinda cool to actually get together with some of them.
Speaking of unschooling - something kinda cool happened at Girl Scout camp this past weekend! The girls worked on a few badges and were in groups and did little activities. One activity they did was learning about habitats. They were given some little books and were told to pick an animal and draw a picture of it on the front of an index card. They had to get up in front of everyone and tell a little about the animal. As I was observing the girls I saw that Brenna had flipped over her index card and was writing something on the back. She had taken it upon herself, without being told, and jotted down a few sentences about the orangutan so that when it was her turn she was very prepared to give her "speech" about the animal she had chosen. None of the other girls had done this. The leader of the group had to probe the other girls for information and my little Brenna just stood right up and read her card and gave her presentation perfectly. I thought that was pretty darn cool considering she'd never been "taught" to do that. For a kid who doesn't do school that sure was a pretty clever (and schooly) thing to do.

Things like that is what solidifies my decision to keep doing what we are doing.

I was a very proud Momma. (ok, so secretly, yes... I wanted to shout to the world - "Yep!! She's unschooled! See! See how they can actually think for themselves and do things without being "taught" how to do it!? LOL)

Well it's about dinner time so I guess I better get off the computer so I can feed my family. :) I'm hoping I have the bug now to post more often again. Tonight I will post some pictures I have if I have time.

Till fingers and keyboard meet again......