Map of Egypt

I just needed to document this work of art. It is a map of Egypt that Kate made with a couple of other students in her class. The medium is salt dough. Although it can't be seen well in the photo, I love the crocodile headed toward the water with a lamb in its mouth.

Thunder or rocks falling...

Crash of thunder.

Amelia says, "Mom, what was that? Did rocks fall?"

I have to admit, it did sound like rocks falling. Love The Cute.

Conference Weekend

I love, love, love, love Conference Weekend. I think it started when I was little. My grandparents would always drive up from California and then take one of the
grandchildren to conference with them. In addition to that, all the cousins and aunts and uncles would get together for meal in the evening or something. So much fun!

Now I love General Conference for the spiritual feast that it is. I love listening to the talks and feeling so revved up about being a better person, mother and disciple. So much deep doctrine in this conference. I just loved it. I loved Sister Beck's talk about the responsibilities of a mother. I am blessed to be one and want to be "stong and immoveable" in teaching my children the gospel so that they can know the doctrine and teach by the spirit on their missions and as they grow up to be parents of their own. So many great things that she said. And Elder Oaks' talk--this one piqued Kate's interest. This is so hard deciding between the good, better and best things in life. Anyway, loved the whole weekend. I am so grateful to be a member of the church with this blessing of modern day revelation.

Haircut

Check out the haircut. I decided it needed to be done after two people at the school's Fall Festival thought he was a girl. He was dressed boy-ish...so I figured it was time to cut the hair. This is never fun since Mons wiggles all over. Oh well...I do think the front is a little crooked though. This picture was taken right after the haircut, which is a good thing. Now his face is covered with marks of a newly walking child--scrap on the chin, ding on the nose, and bruise on the forehead. Crawling was much safer. He makes me laugh at how grown up HE thinks he is. Funny boy.

Soccer Season Ends

So you know...the soccer season has come to an end. The season was fun while it lasted. Hunter improved a lot and I enjoyed watching his team figure out how to play like a team...I still know next to nothing about soccer though. Don't ask me what offsides is and don't ask me why games will end in a tie. It's all a mystery to me.

Math

Following this post is another post with a link to see if you can pass eighth grade math. It was kind of fun to do. I have always liked math. I am hating it now for my kids. Our school district introduced a new curriculum several years ago called Investigations. It is an inquiry-based math program--each child discovers their own strategy to solving math problems among other fuzzy, make you feel good things. To an extent I agree with this method, but some of my kids get overloaded with all the possible strategies and miss out on some of the repetition of traditional math. I could go on and on about this, but I won't. Near the end of last school year, the district allowed each school to choose its own curriculum, since Investigations, standing on its own, didn't meet the state standards. Anyway, I still have to put up with Investigations. Investigations is our schools primary program, while Scott-Foresman is our secondary math program. This is supposed to represent a "balanced approach" to math. Well, we will see. Personally, I like the old ways. I really enjoyed knowing I got a right answer and checking my work. My children born with the "math chip" seem to do fine with this, but we'll have to see how this year goes.

Can You Pass Eighth Grade Math?**THE TEST

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?