Match Your Mood BIC Pens

Remember these pens?

I do. I don't remember if my older sister had one I liked to use, or if it actually was mine, but I remember how special it was to switch colors while using the same pen and doodle hearts and a cute boy's name little cute drawings on my school notebooks.




The iconic BIC 4-Color Pen is celebrating quite the milestone this year: it is turning 44 years old! Happy Birthday, 4-Color Pen!!




BIC generously sent us a package of these fabulous pens to try and review. Little Miss especially loved the new 4-Color Fashion Pen with its' funky inks: ocean blue, girly pink, deep violet and acid green.




Schoolwork immediately becomes funner, fancier and snazzier!

New additions to the 4-Color portfolio for 2014 include the 4-Color Metallic barrel, 4-Color Mini Original and Fashion and 4-Color Grip in blue, all with a SRP of $2.99. Staples would be one place to shop for them.


Do you have any BIC 4-Color pens at your house? Did you use them when you were growing up?


Thank You, Bic, for providing our homeschool with new pens! 
You can review our disclosure policy here.

Getting Ready/Valmistautumista

Wind is in the east, mist is coming in.
Like somethin' is brewin' and bout to begin...

Yes, it is time for our family to take another road trip, and we are getting super excited!

It is so freeing not to have to be tied to a vacation schedule set by a school! Definitely one of the perks of homeschooling.

We often get asked how we are able to just leave, and never sometimes seem not to have plans set in stone.

There are a few variables, but there are two main life decisions we have made.

The Captain is self-employed, and I am a stay-at-home travel-in-the-RV homeschooling mom. Five years ago we made the decision to pull our children out a great Christian school to educate them at home. It was such a difficult decision. Honestly, I didn't want to do it! Finally agreed to give it a try. (You can read more here.)

We used Switched-on-Schoolhouse for 5th grade, and were amazed at how much we loved homeschooling. Alpha Omega Publications came out with an online curriculum Monarch the following year, which worked so much better for us mac users.

As long as we have a computer and an internet connection, we get our schoolwork done! On the road, at RV repair shop waiting rooms, on the beach, in the sticks, overseas. We love it! And as I am making plans and lists, it is such a relief not to have to pack crates and crates of school material to fit into our cozy Mothership motorhome. Storage space is pretty much all used for food and clothing.

And yes, there is a lot of learning that happens as we travel and visit various places, but we like having a traditional school curriculum to fill in the gaps.

You can check out our Monarch curriculum here.


Alpha Omega Publications is a sponsor of Our Mothership Adventures. We have been given free curriculum in exchange of our honest reviews. You can read our disclosure here.


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Alamme valmistautumaan uudelle asuntoautoreissulle, jee!!!

Meiltä usein kysytään kuinka pystymme matkustamaan niin paljon, eikä meillä koskaan joskus tunnu olevan varmoja suunnitelmia minne ja milloin. Pelkistettynä vastaus on: Kapteenilla on oma yritys, ja minä opetan lapsia kotona/tien päällä, mikä vapauttaa meidät koulujen tiukista aikatauluista. Teinien kouluohjelma Monarch tekee matkustamisen helpoksi, emme tarvitse laatikoittain koulukirjoja ja tarvikkeita, riittää kun on tietokone ja nettiyhteys, ja saamme koulutyöt tehtyä.

Ja matkustaessa oppii tietty myös!

Kohta, kohta:)

First Day of Spring/Kevään ensimmäinen päivä

Today is the first day of Spring. As you can see from the photos of this morning, we are enjoying it The Maine Style.




A foot of new snow, and more falling!




Local schools were canceled, and while our homeschool wasn't, we decided to have outside PE, even before breakfast.




Call us crazy, but we love the snow!




Fresh, clean, wonderful powder! What's not to love??



Especially with a little snowball fight.




Wouldn't you want to join us?

(Or maybe you wouldn't. The cold I had over Little Miss' birthday has morphed into The Man Cold. The Captain and Mr T (poor, poor little bunnies) are hunkered down with tissue boxes, electric blankets, gallons of tea with honey, and soup. Maybe you better stay away.)


(Slight exaggeration may have been used for the enhancement of this blog post. Wink ;-)

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Kevään ensimmäinen päivä täällä pohjoisessa näyttää hyvin tyypilliseltä, eikös:) Koko yön ja aamun on satanut lunta, joten mehän suuntasimme ulos ennen aamupalaa. Oi ihanuutta! Toki sitä alkaa pikkuhiljaa tekemään mieli mennä eteläänpäin, mutta kyllä me nautimme talvesta ja lumesta. Tosin Kapteeni ja Mr T ovat nyt kipeinä, minun nuhani tarttui heihin, ja he sairastavat kunnolla (kannattaa katsoa tuo ylläoleva linkki, onneksi nämä minun mieheni eivät ole ihan noin surkeita:)

Baking/Leipomista

Friday night we were invited to friends' house, and we wanted to bring some brownies along.



Little Miss and mama got busy.



Ingredients needed:

1 Regular brownie mix (+ eggs, oil, etc)
1 Gluten-free brownie mix (+ eggs, butter, vanilla, etc)
Chocolate chips
Hershey's mint chocolate kisses
Plenty of silliness and happiness
Camera snapping pics on self-timer



Baking was fun, the brownies turned yummy, we had a lot of fun at our friends' house, and the kitchen remodeling mess behind us got cleaned the next day. (Our kitchen is almost ready!!!)

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Perjantai-iltana olimme menossa ystävien luokse, joten leivoimme suklaapaloja viemisiksi. Leipominen oli hauskaa, suklaapalat olivat herkullisia, ystävien luona oli kivaa, ja seuraavana päivänä keittiöremonttisotkut takanamme siivottiin pois. Keittiö alkaa pian olla valmis!

Birthday Balloons

What's greater than being eight?

- Being eight years old, skipping school, and playing with an entire bag of balloons. Almost all day.




Last photo, but it is how Little Miss' day started. Breakfast in bed. If you can find the breakfast amidst her mess. And I wish I could claim the floor looks hazy because of the Lightroom Preset I used.

Yes. Actually, let's call it that.

Eight Candles/Kahdeksan kynttilää

Eight candles.

  

Milk chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream frosting. And a very excited little girl.



But something is missing.

Presents?

Where are all the gifts for Little Miss?



Turns out Junk's (Mr D's old stuffed raccoon) cousins have come and taken away all the presents!!!



As these raccoon cousins look for hiding places our Junk tags along leaving little clues for Little Miss. Thank you, Junk!



Eighteen clues. Some easier than others. All very creative. Finally, a little past bedtime, the presents are found. And opened.


Happy Birthday, Little Miss. You are so loved.

At bedtime mama hears: "I wish this day had never ended."

I think someone had a wonderful birthday celebration.


(Mama is glad. Thankful for Mr A's creativity in making this day special. For Mr. D & the Captain running to the store for frozen dumplings the birthday girl had wished for. For Mr D making fried rice for dinner. For Mr T and Mr D helping Little Miss solve the clues and help make this day fun, and even going outside in the dark so Mr A could finish his 'project'.
Mamas sure are glad for helpers. Especially sick mamas with birthday girls.)

The BEST Educational Gift

After I typed the title I started thinking how BOOKS are the best educational gift ever, but having the title: "The Second BEST Educational Gift" isn't quite so catchy. So there's my disclaimer. {Grin}




Little Miss will be celebrating her eight (!!!) birthday soon, so when Grandma and Grandpa were here, they gave their present to her early.




Yes! A microscope! (The second best educational gift!)




This is so embarrassing to admit, but we already have a microscope. Somewhere. From Grandma and Grandpa. Yes, this is the second microscope Grandma and Grandpa gave our family. We have looked high and low for the first one, but can not find it. We still have some of our belongings boxed up from our move in 2010-2011, but we've even looked at those boxes. Twice.




The only excuse reason I have is our nomadic life can be a bit unorganized crazy challenging, so some things have been misplaced in the last few years.




We, especially Little Miss, are so grateful Grandma and Grandpa didn't mind giving us a second one. It has already brought so much joy to Little Miss' school days.




And we promise to keep track of this one!

Thank You, Grandma and Grandpa!!!!