I am learning from a 5 yr old...

My son is studying geometry in school, sigh, and he's only in Kindergarten!

Michael has NOT been wanting to do some schoolwork with his teacher and she has sent home notes! UGH! I hate NOTES!! Love communication but just hate NOTES from the teacher!

We were discussing what he is supposed to do and he informed me that I was incorrect when I called a parallelogram a parallelogram...He told me it is a Rhombus! So we googled it and you know what he was right! Guess I didn't learn a thing from High school & College geometry class and got showed up by a 5 yr old in Kindergarten, lol.

Below is one of 3 papers he was supposed to do in school but wouldn't. He is supposed to take shaped blocks and fill in the image with these blocks. Today I purchased said shaped blocks and told him we have some work to do....He was not happy! The first paper was "Arnold the Alligator" and it took him 30 minutes to do it...he whined and carried on the whole time, ugh! I cringed and stood my ground...Then I had him start the second paper and something clicked and he seemed to understand what he was supposed to do...he filled the image in with blocks in a matter of a few minutes and the same with the third paper...

Below he is working on the second paper and laughing...he loved it! Not sure what happened at school and why he refused to do it and gave up so easily? He loves puzzles! Then he told me he liked doing it and would just bring the papers home to do...Ekk! I told him I wanted him to do the papers at school first with his teacher then he could bring them home to do them and show me. He was okay with that idea...thank goodness I can reason with a 5 yr old or this might have back-fired on me! Hopefully this problem is sorted out and we can have a moments peace from "The NOTES"!

I haven't blogged in a few days and thought I would show you one of the reasons, lol. Actually Michael had all smiley faces this week, a first! So for a reward I gave him a Lego Creator set. These sets have on avg. 60 to 70 pieces and you can make 3 different things out of each set...but mind you when you want to build something new you have to tear what you have already made apart and start over again...it's frustrating as I am the builder and Michael is the helper. Michael loves the vehicles you can make from these sets...you might all remember the airplane set...So I enjoy doing it for him...not sure I enjoy his help, lol...So as you can see I have been very busy building!!

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

A few critters in the yard...

Nope No "Post turtles" today but I did find some other interesting critters...I decided to mow the yard...I haven't mowed in at least 2 months and there really was nothing to mow except weeds...So now all our weeds are even, lol...Michael noticed and told me "Thank you Momma"...he thinks I mow just for him, lol...



Praying Mantis...I actually took the photo in color but with the red bricks of the house she clashed...So I reverted it to B/W and I like it...She was watching me! Yikes!! She looks so Alien like!

Spiney Lizard...I must confess he isn't all there...Oops!! His tail is gone, Yikes!! I think I might have possibly hit him with the weed-eater...ugh!! I felt just awful...poor little guy! I think they are so cool looking...almost like a dragon! His tail will grow back and hopefully he'll be okay...

Cloudless Giant Sulphur. These butterflies are the flightiest things...I have tried and tried to get a decent photo but every time I get close they flutter off and they don't stay still very long either...Not the greatest photos with the streaks of shade on it but I still liked it.

Post Turtle

YOU'VE GOT TO LOVE THIS RANCHER's OUTLOOK & COMMON SENSE APPROACH TO LIFE …
While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75 year old rancher, who's hand was caught in the gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to politics with Obama and his bid to be our president. The old rancher said, 'Well, ya know, Obama is a 'Post Turtle''.
Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a 'post turtle' was.
The old rancher said, 'When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a 'post turtle'. The old rancher saw the puzzled look on the doctor's face so he continued to explain. 'You know he didn't get up there by himself, he doesn't belong up there, and he doesn't know what to do while he's up there, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put him up there to begin with'.

Photo Challenge #21 ~ Zen Photography

This weeks photo challenge was "Zen Photography"

After doing quiet a bit of studying on the subject I interpreted "Zen photography" as;

A sense of Peace & Calm, minimal distractions from the photo subject...

Below are my photo examples...

If you would like to check out the Photo Challenge blog click here.

Sunday's Nature Photos...

First thing this morning I perused the mums and found a walking stick...I was so excited the phone rang and I let it ring while I grabbed the camera...Fred was busy and yelled at me to get the phone and I yelled back as I was running to get my camera "I can't, PHOTO OP!" LOL....

I had to try 3 different lens as this walking stick was long and it was really hard to get the whole thing in focus...below is the best photo of the bunch!

Northern Walking stick in the Mums. If you look closely in the background you can see the spider with her egg sac that I had taken a photo of the other day.

We had to run to town and get horse feed and as soon as we got home I told Fred I'm going for a walk and grabbed the camera...Today I decided to head into the woods and see what I could find, it was a beautiful day for a walk...I took the telephoto lens so I could zoom in. I've decided maybe I need to hold off on the Macro and get a better Telephoto lens. I was really disappointed in the photos and below are the best out of 200+ photos, grr....I've learned a valuable lesson don't buy a cheap lens as you get what you pay for and in lenses the optics will suck!

Eastern Kingbird, possibly...Not the greatest photo for identification! He was on top of our broad band tower before I left for my walk...


Longtailed Skipper

Queen butterfly

Pipevine Swallowtail

Eastern Phoebe

Snout butterfly

El Toro....(The Bull)...

As I was walking down an old rotten fence row amongst the trees...I had a buck come up behind me and snort and stomp...no photos as he was in brush that was too thick...I then stopped and stood and then not 30 ft away a group of Hogs jumped up from their afternoon nap, grunting and snorting they ran away from me (thank goodness)...I heard a calf start to bawl and and as I was searching the underbrush I spot the Bull, Yikes! The bull was trying to figure out what I was and I was listening to where the hogs had gone and also looking for a tree to climb just in case Mamma hog came back, lol...In the meantime the bull is getting a bit unsettled and snorting still trying to figure out what I am...He's not a mean bull but he is a bull and not to be trusted...So I decided that maybe it was time to head back up to the house...I'd seen enough and had all the wildlife stirred up for the afternoon...I didn't have my snakeboots on or a pistol so I didn't want to push my luck...

Amymone butterfly....

On the way back to the house I spotted this pretty little butterfly. The photo is terrible due to the telephoto lens but as I hadn't seen this type of butterfly before I wanted to share it...

Green Darner Dragon fly...I spotted him hoovering in the brush and saw him alight on a weed and thought "PHOTO OP!"....lol...He was watching me too!

I'm almost positive this is a Warbling Vireo....I have several different photos and because it has no wing bars, the longish beak and the white around the eye I'm pretty sure that is what it is...It was in the tops of the Weesachee trees as I was coming up the drive and not singing but hunting for food...I happen to notice it flitting from branch to branch...

So that was my day in photos and how was your day?