All Thanks To Mardel For a Great Day!

I threw caution and school to the wind today and whisked Holland and myself to Mardel, which is a very large Christian bookstore and homeschool supply store. I wanted to go there by myself, but knew I could make a quick trip with just Holland while Darcy was at preschool. So...off we went with a short list in my mind: world map, 3 hole punch, and some kind of laminating tool.
Lists are great and all that but when I walked in I immediately forgot my list and fluttered toward all the beautiful shiny "tools" of the classroom trade. Holland wanted to look at the toys, but I said I needed her help finding a map. Then she grabbed a book about My Little Pony and read it while she followed behind me.
Found a package of 5 maps (2 world, 3 US) for $12.99 - not perfect, but will do until I find something more to my taste. I also got a few posters with Verbs and Alternate Words to hang up. These are mostly for me since I was so terrible at grammar in school, I have to learn as I go along now. Also, got three bible story playbooks with stickers for this summer and all about penguins - gotta mix it up right?
Then I ran in to a new friend I made at co-op who is also originally from California! We had a great chat about curriculum stuff (which I know nothing about and she's amazing at!) and she invited me to come out to her house later that day! Wow! So I was late picking up Darcy, but we made it and came home to do some house stuff and eat lunch. Then at 2pm we whizzed over to Kathleen's home in Ozark, MO which took less than 20 minutes, probably about 15. Her home is tucked in to a bit of woodsiness and has nice big windows and a HUGE basement. I was immediately jealous! You know, because my house is so dark and closed in feeling.
Anyway! Two other moms from co-op were there and we had some great discussions on the Thomas Jefferson way of teaching, which I need to learn more about because it's awesome! Kathleen also showed us some great things she's using to teach Latin (oh my!) and math etc. It's slightly overwhelming to hang out with moms that have been homeschooling for many years...they know their stuff for sure! Luckily, there was another mom there who's new too so we kept glancing at each other with raised eyebrows and laughing...

A few other awesome things that happened because of running into Mardel today: I found a new source for amazingly creamy raw milk, I got info from my co-op buds to purchase bulk fresh foods from an organic co-op and I was able to pick up the organic free range chickens from my buddy Rhonda while out in Ozark. It was like I'd run into all the right people somehow. And get this...Kathleen has also been a personal trainer! So she's going to help me get in better shape so I'll look good for the wedding of the year! Isn't that amazing!?

Now I need to go research some more books that I learned about! And possibly get to work on two blogging jobs that I was lucky enough to snag today too!

Here's a few new resources I've discovered: