Plexus Slim

This is me in June 2013 and October 2013. I have lost 5 pounds and 5 inches in just 5 weeks from a great new product PLEXUS SLIM.

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I have always been pretty slim and have not had problems losing weight by controlling my food intact and exercising. However, upon reaching menopause, my story changed. Dieting and exercising were not doing anything, the scale kept going up and so was my pant size. I was not going to let it happen. A friend introduced me to Plexus Slim. I bought 2 of the 3 day trial packs. I was pleasantly surprised when in that one week the scale went DOWN. I jumped on the 30 day supply. Within 5 weeks I was down 5 pounds. WOW, I had been struggling for months to just lose a pound or two. After my own testimony and seeing so many other testimonies I decided to jump on board and be an ambassador. This company is growing FAST. I did not want to miss the opportunity to jump in and start earning some extra cash!

If you are interested in product, contact me by commenting on my post, visit my website, or shoot me an email at akingagain@yahoo.com

Also, if you are interested in joining my team contact me too. We are always looking for new team members to help spread the word of improving your health in an all natural way.

Nico Turns 12!

I know I say it every year....where does the time go? But, really this year it seems like we just celebrated Nico's birthday. I am not sure if it is because he had the same theme or, time just slips by too fast.

 

Nico has been having sleep over parties since he was 9. This is the first year that everyone invited was able to come. He was over the moon excited. He had the nerf battles all planned out. (How I missed a picture of them all in their gear I don't know...but they were awesome.)

I am such a proud mama of this growing young man. He fills my every day with so much love, insight, bravery, empathy, and skills.

Besides the gift he saved up to buy, he loved the right of passage to be able to sit in the front seat of the car. (although I still prefer him to sit in the back ;-)
 

 

 



I was going to buy Nico a cake at the local bakery. He insisted he didn't need one bought and wanted to make one himself. It is a cherry chip with cherries in between. It is not fancy, but he is not a child that asks for much. He was totally happy with it. Unfortunately the dog ended up eating the cake the night after the party.

Who ever said Homeschoolers are unsocialized has never been around our house. Nico makes friends every where he goes. Most of these kids are homeschoolers from various groups we are in and two attend public school. This is an awesome bunch of kids!

The morning after playing some exploding Jenga which he received as a gift.

Since the theme was Nerf Wars Nico wanted to make some barriers. I have a stack of pallets sitting in the back of the house. Nico dragged up two and asked for some help cutting them apart. I did the cutting, but then he did all the rebuilding to create his barriers. I think he ended up with 4 of them.

He added the rabbit feeder as a holder of bullets.

Nico's only request for his birthday was money or Amazon gift cards. He had been researching the Traxxis RC car for quite a while. He knew he wanted to save up his money for this. His birthday was a perfect time. That Thursday night we went to the bank, got some cash, bought an Amazon gift card and ordered his car. It arrived Monday, Sept 30. Of course he had it out of the box and putting it together in no time. 

 

Squid Dissection

During our adventure of History through the Sea and Sky, I am adding dissection to our study.

Nico is a pro at dissecting as I used to teach it to kids at the Community College. He was 5 years old and hanging out with the 8 year and older kids. This year Luca is showing more interest in science. I also have some extra starfish we need to use up. Luca has been working on an octopus lapbook I thought I would start with the dissection of squid.

 

I opened this up to our homeschool community as I had to buy a whole box of squid. I was amazed at the response. I had 30 kids on my front porch dissecting squid.

Luca, surprisingly got into it.

 

Below are a few pictures of our fun day.

 

Luca bravely touching the squid.

Even though Nico had done this before, he enjoyed doing it again. Of course, you always learn something new or refresh your memory.

As the final part we pulled the pen out of the squid and wrote our names with squid ink. This was the best part!

Luca gets some help from another mom so he can cut.

 

Our school year is continuing to go very well. We have gotten behind in a couple subjects due to things coming up during the day. The great thing about homeschooling is the flexibility we have. It is great to be able to change things up and even complete some things on a Saturday.



Two Weeks Down

Two weeks of school are down. I have to admit I am pleasantly surprised at how smooth it has been going. Usually our first few weeks are hard for us all to get back in the swing of things. Maybe the new plan of attack is working better this year. We start the school morning with a fun breakfast doodle placemat or we have a fun thinking activity to start the day. Next we work on History and Science as these are the two classes I teach them together. I then give Nico his list of assignments for the day. He takes his list and sets to work on some of them by himself while I work with Luca. We take a 30 minute break for lunch then regroup. I work with Nico on his assignments he needs help with and then finish up with Luca. It seems to work as we having been starting around 8:30am and finishing up most days around 1pm. (give or take an hour).

 

Here's a little bit of what we have been up to. We had to move school into the kitchen this week due to the heat wave we suddenly got. It had been a very mild summer. We finally hit 100 degrees this week. The school house was just a bit too hot for any of us to be comfortable to learn.

 

 

Nico is in 7th grade (give or take a grade) You know how it is with homeschooling. He was not thrilled to get his picture taken on the first day of school.

Luca is in 1st grade. He is starting to have more fun and get the hang of what school is about this year. He is still a lot harder than Nico ever was. His learning style is quite different and we are still trying to figure out what works best. It seems workbooks and computer work are his favorite.

We are using Shurley English 1st grade this year. Luca really seems to like the interaction with it. The first 5 weeks are grouping and learning how to look at things. This is a change from when Nico was in 1st. I used First Language Lessons with him. I knew it wouldn't work for Luca as it is based on reciting and answering back questions. Luca  has to be moving.

We are really enjoying WinterPromise Adventures in the Sea and Sky for World History and Science. Here the boys are working on adding people to the Egyptian reed boat. By the end of it Luca had a guy ziplining and Nico had a guy jumping off the top mast.

This is one of the experiments I found while using Discovery Education Streaming. Homeschool Buyer Co-op had a free month with the option to purchase a year subscription. I love it! We watched the video on ocean currents and then conducted the experiment with different colored ice cubes in hot water to see the convection currents.

I bought Sing Song Spanish last year and we got through 3 chapters. (Although we were meeting weekly with a group so I didn't push it too much). This year we are going to get through the book. I bought Rosetta Stone for Nico to move onto after the book. We have fun singing and using the puppets to learn our words. It gives a little break from doing a lot of writing.

This week we made sails and the boys practiced furling and unfurling their sail. The history study is history but as seen through the ocean and sailing aspect of history. For Nico it puts a new light on World History. It is stuff he has learned before but from a different angle. For Luca it is all new. I am liking all the hands on activities. As long as I can stay ahead of the game we will be good. We are moving into Pirates soon and there is going to be a lot of fun there!

Nico hard at work. He is very meticulous in his work. It has to be just right.

Luca demonstrating

Luca enjoying his math. McRuffy 1st Grade Math is what I am using with him.

I was working with Nico on US History while Luca watched a video on Discovery Education on Octopus (for science and ocean). He then had to draw a picture of an octopus and tell me about what he watched. He froze the screen when he saw one he wanted to draw.

 A trip to Big Joel's Safari was our first field trip of the school year. Joel walked us through his family farm and talked about the animals he had. The kids got a chance to feed them and really see them up close.

Nico was full of giggles from the camels fuzzy lips.

 

So, here's hoping our weeks keep continuing on a positive path. We have a back to school picnic, ice skating, and a week break all coming up in September.



School Is In!

It was tough, but we started school this week. I kept thinking I should put it off a couple more days due to my work schedule. I am glad I didn't. We have had a great 2 days of school so far. This is pretty impressive since I work Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday night this week. This means I work 12 hours (6p-6a), sleep for a couple of hours in the morning at my sister's, drive home (one hour), and hit the books. Both days we were finished in 3 hours. Both boys worked extremely well. (This is amazing for the first days back - usually it is quite a struggle for some subjects.)

I am enjoying Luca's language and the History through Sea and Sky. I am incorporating more game type learning because this is something they really enjoy. They also learn so much more when we make it a game and not so much a read and regurgitate (as public schools do).

I am trying to set our schedule where we do subjects together and separate giving the boys little breaks after a couple of subjects. Wednessday, Thursday, and Friday are going to be HEAVY days. I am making Mondays and every other Tuesday half days (due to work and time constraints).

Last year I was really bad about letting Nico complete things as 'homework'. Things didn't get completed properly and sometimes not at all. This year there are two subjects where is going to be held accountable for getting assignments completed on his own. These are geography and world history. I want him to be able to manage his time. Reading is the one subject I am not going to let him wait on. Our reading is consisting of books to go with our science and world history study. The first book he is reading is Robinson Crusoue. I am starting out the year with the simplified versions so I don't lose his interest in reading and enjoying the book.

Luca is really wanting to try things on his own first and then I check them. I am really excited about this as I want him to gain the confidence and indepence he needs. We are struggling a little bit with reading due to some speech issues. However, we are working through all of that.

All summer I have been wanting to get to the fruit farms for fresh fruit. Today peaches were ready to pick and I have time this week to make jam and goodies. I made myself get up after 2 hours of sleep so we could get to the farm early enough to pick peaches and get back home for school work.



One of the best things about picking your own fruit is getting to eat all you want for FREE!
The boys had no problem chomping on the peaches this morning for breakfast.

A Family Vacation

My husband and I have been crossing paths for the last month, barely seeing each other except for minutes at a time. We finally scheduled some time to go on a family vacation. We went to Oregon to visit with his family. His brother, sister-in-law, and nieces came up from California. (it was actually his brother's idea for us all to meet there)

We were all set to start school this week, but instead the vacation was much needed. His family reminds me a lot of mine growing up. We hung out with our cousins all the time. Family get-togethers were a blast! His was no exception.

 

We spent some time during the day doing things with the kids and then in the evening hung out with the family.
Below are pictures (crazy out of order because this blog was doing crazy things when I went to write captions). The pictures include Skinner's Butte, Spencer's Butte (much taller), Sea Lion Cave (without any sea lions - very disappointed), horseback riding, and family time.

 

 

Skinner's Butte. Nico couldn't pass up a chance to climb. He was really wanting some rock climbing equipment.

Hubby and me

A little friend came to visit at the top of Spencer's Butte. Nico had to take the opportunity to get close.

Who can resist hanging on a branch? Not us!

The boys are out numbered in this family. There are 3 boys and 8 girls.

We went up the Oregon coast to Sea Lion Cave. Unfortunately this time all the sea lions were out to sea :-(
 

A first for Luca---horseback riding by himself! He was so excited.

Nico looking so handsome on his horse Bailey.

A bit of the trail on the sand dunes of the Oregon Coast.
 

Having the best time!

Luca and the girls.

Luca and Sophie are the same age and have so much fun playing together.

Brothers

Terry, getting his cook on.

A hike up Spencer's Butte

Very tall trees. It is such a beautiful place.

On top of Spencer's Butte

Skinner's Butte

The two older boys trying to escape the camera.

Hanging with cousins from Oregon and California

We will be starting school this week on a full load come Wednesday.