Where have all the flowers gone?

It boggles my mind how the summer passes so quickly!  It has been so hot and dry in our area lately that I am afraid the flowers are pretty much done.  So sad!  I have enjoyed my sunflowers this year so much that next year I shall plant three times as many!!!

This time of year I grow antsy to start school.  I miss our usual school routine and long for it.  I cannot say that my children share my excitement.  They will have their last summer "hurrah" at their sister's this week, and when they return, Lord willing, we will begin our 2011-2012 school year.

I will don many hats this year - teaching kindergarten, seventh, and tenth grades!  But I look forward to it.  I have found a few "new to me" sites this year that I would like to share . . .

Erika over at Confessions of a Homeschooler.  She has really helped me with stepping back into kindergarten  mode!

Thanks to Christy F for showing me Knowledge Quest Maps.  I am really looking forward to using these in our Ancient Egypt study this year.

You know me always "a day late and a dollar short,"  I am planning to use the Workbox system this year with my two youngest.  We are incorporating some of the fun stuff that we usually miss.  There are actually several sites that I have frequented this summer studying about them . . .
Workbox systems with Erika
Workbox system with Sue Patrick 
Wayzley Academy
Workbox system on Squidoo

Some other fun things we are hoping to do this year . . .
Pick and Draw cards 

Scratch and Sketch pads -



And then because I cannot leave off my favorite part of the year . . . these are some of the books we will be reading this year in our morning time . . .

The Brendan Voyage

Autumn Across America

 Trial and Triumph

The Beginning of the Garden Bounty and FLOWERS!!!

Well, tonight was the first of the garden bounty . . . for dinner Swiss chard, fried zucchini, and fresh carrots!!  Where is my camera girl when I need her???  It was YUMMY!!

Spent the day with one of my bestest friends . . . we visited two local "FLOWER" places, Sunshine Hollow and Mouse Creek Perennial Nursery.   We had a wonderful time botanizing, walking, talking, buying flowers, and having our typical hootenanny together.  Before we ever left this morning, we had to pull her vehicle out of our very deep ditch!  My 15 passenger van, chains, her van and a couple of our children pushing strenuously . . . so strenuously that they cracked the plastic cover on the brake lights . . . HOOTENANNY!!!!  But oh, so much FUN!