Working on those Merit Badges

As I said earlier this week my son got sick right before he was suppose to leave for summer camp. It's really sad to see him miss out on something he was looking forward to doing.

So we have spend a good portion of our week working on some of the merit badges.  One of the merit badges we are working on is Family Life.   Family Life requires that we work on a family project.

We chose a garden, raised bed, to be our family project. So we got the supplies we needed at home depot along with a couple of plants and got to work building the garden. We bought 4x4 raised bed kit and a 16 in x 16 in kit. The kits can be combined and that's what we did. Later if we want to add more we can too.   I also got the book Square Foot Gardening. I'm going to read it over the next several weeks, months, so that by early spring I will be more familiar with gardening using raised beds and will be able to have a good amount of produce of the family.

Gardening is something I have been wanting to do for a long while now, but never did so Superstar needing a family project for the merit badge was a good 'excuse' to get the garden I have been wanting in! Yay, for scouting!

The following links, when you click on the date stamp, will take you the Facebook posts on my Facebook page: Catholic Christian Homeschooling that has pictures of our gardening project.

The family project for family life badge is done.
Posted by Catholic Christian Homeschooling on Monday, July 13, 2015

He still has a slight fever, but feels up to working. We are working on the family project for family life merit badge. Finish picture later today.
Posted by Catholic Christian Homeschooling on Monday, July 13, 2015

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Growing A Willow Tree

One of DH's all time favorite tree is the willow tree. He has always said that he wanted one.  I started to question what are willow tree seeds? Seeing we know we where we can find some at a few public parks and other areas.  My thinking was if we knew what the seeds looked liked or when they seeded we could get some and just grow a willow tree.

A few weeks ago we were @ my mom's house. My step sister was there and we asked her if she happen to know. She said I think you can take a branch, a cutting, and it will grow. So with that I asked my mom if I could borrow her computer to look it up. Seeing there was a willow tree there that we could take a branch or two from it that turn out to be the case.

It was clear that yes, a cutting or broken branch can and will indeed grow and take root for MOST willow tree varieties. Of all the different varieties there are only 2 of them can not be cultivated in this matter. So with that we took a few small branches of the tree that was available to us.

I came home and place it in some water. We have noted the leaves are starting to dry out and fall off. I thought perhaps it didn't work but today we noted there are roots starting to grow off the branches.

In about a week we'll transfer the branches to a pot with soil and leave it  inside for the winter. We think we'll keep them in a pot until they are bigger and then transfer the biggest strongest one to the yard and give away the other ones if they all make it that is!

School Room! I wish!

Several of the (homeschooling) blogs I follow have been showing of their homeschooling rooms! Oh how lovely, clean, and organized they are! It is a real blessing to have a space for ONLY homeschooling. Then there are homeschooler like me! Not so well organized, cluttered, and cramped for space! (Please see pass the clutter and dirty counters. Thank-you)

This is my living room that holds most of our homeschooling materials: The only thing really missing from these 2 pictures is the wall where our front door and couch are on and part of the wall that has our fireplace (that would be the wall with the wood paneling). In the one picture where the desk chair is right next to me is where the front door is...

This is the kitchen that has the table that the kids work at time to time, and that little corner I call "my office":There really isn't much more to the kitchen other then the counter, sink, and stove. They are all on the 2 walls that are not shown.

Both rooms are about 14x13. So there you have it. As you can see we don't have a "school room", but we are still able to homeschool the children. Please see pass the clutter! I'm trying to find a system/way of decluttering! I'm not every good at "housework" if anything that would be my real weakness when it comes to homeschooling and being a housewife. When I try things are great! When I don't try it gets overwhelming! There really isn't much more to the house other then a cluttered laundry room, if you can even call it a "room", it's more like a closet. An average size bathroom and 3 average size bedrooms. Then again with 950 sq. feet, there isn't going to be much more.

What I lack in "housing" space I make up for "yard" space! All of the back yard pictures where taken from my back door (the kitchen door). The red line that I "drew" into each picture is to help show where the property line is.

Looking to the rightLooking straight outLooking to the leftThat big old dog in the one picture is our dog Gravy! Yes his name is Gravy. When he was a puppy he looked more like a pile of mash potatoes with brown gravy on him. Thus we named him Gravy! He is 6 year-old! Here is one more picture of the Gravy.Gravy is a lab and collie mix and weighs nearly 90 lbs! He thinks he's some kind of "lap dog" and is always trying to sit in our laps! LOL

One last note regarding the yard: I WISH I knew how to garden! I have more then enough space for a garden (as you can see). I just don't know HOW!! LOL That would be the other department that I lack in! At least my kiddos (including the dog) have room to RUN; even with a large garden there would be room to RUN! LOL Perhaps some day I will learn how to garden.