Shel Silverstein wrote a poem that many American kids can relate to. And that is, the dreaded and dirty job of taking out the trash. I like the talent Silverstein has for describing garbage.
Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out*
Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout
Would not take the garbage out!
She’d scour the pots and scrape the pans,
Candy the yams and spice the hams,
And though her daddy would scream and shout,
She simply would not take the garbage out.
And so it piled up to the ceilings:

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The use of helping verbs causes certain changes in verb phrases that we need to be able to recognize. One change is the use of contractions. List the contractions in the following sentences.
I’ve done it again.
You aren’t going with us.
She’s staying to tend the kids.

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I found 3 good quotes applicable to our family life from an old teacher’s edition math book from 1997*:
1. Be pleasant until ten o’clock in the morning and the rest of the day wwil take care of itself.
~Elbert Hubbard
I need to do this . . . tomorrow. I really hope it works.

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You can listen to Paul Harvey on the intertet @ Paul Harvey.com. My mother used to him with my grandmother. I used to watch it on our local channel 8 news with Mom and Dad when I was a teenager. Now my children and I listen to him!

A helping verb may be connected with another word in a contracted form. The following sentences have verb phrases using contractions. Find the verb phrases in each sentence. Determine if the verb phases are action verbs or state of being verbs.
I’ve done it again.
You aren’t going with us.
She’s staying to tend the kids.
Copyright 2006 Word Place Inc – – All Rights Reserved.

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My 4 children and I had the privilege of marching in a Veteran’s Day parade in Tulsa today. It is on the internet on our local News Channel 8 website. We carried a huge flag with about 70 other people mostly kids.
If you would like to see our homeschool fellowship team, after you click here, which will take you directly to the video, move the blue button just below the small video screen (the button helps you know where you are in the video), to just right above the fast forward arrow. We are one behind the fallen heroes float that stops and plays Taps.

The colored sunsets
and starry heavens,
the beautiful mountains
and the shining seas,
the fragrant woods
and painted flowers,
are not half so beautiful as a soul that is serving Jesus out of love,
in the wear and tear of common, unpoetic life.
–Faber
(Back To The Bible website)
This is a hard saying for me to embrace but I just gotta hope in God, that this is the bottom line in life. . .

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Sometimes as the sun is rising, I pretend (just like I did when I was young) that it is really the dark after a sunset. This may sound a little odd but it sets my mind up to enjoy the sunrise even more. It is easy to have a pretend sunset because the sky looks just like the beginning of a dark night. But the new day’s sky will come forth (the Lord willing) and show beauty that I will be able to study and enjoy all of its details.
Today is a big cloudy day. The sun hasn’t shown it’s brazen face. Only the over all brightness of the sky tells that is near. In fact, there were no colors of orange, yellow, peach or gold. There are just the basics. Blue and white, accented by gray. Earlier there was a line of white clouds above the horizon.
Yesterday was Veteran’s Day, the day in which we give respect to the keepers of our land. Soldiers of all ranks, those living, those currently on duty and those who have died. There will be a parade. I hope the cloud filled sky doesn’t pour its rain upon us. But it won’t matter if it does. We’ll still celebrate and pray and thank God and our American soldiers and their families for protecting us.

There are lots of clouds above the eastern edge of the sky this morning. There are two thick layers. And sandwiched in between is a cloudless layer accented with a pinkish hue.
When I was young I used to pretend a thick cloud layer was a kingdom in the distance where just like in fairy tales there is a prince riding on a beautiful gallant horse and he is headed toward a castle. There in the castle his princess awaits him.
Or I would imagine the clouds were an island. There would be a sandy beach and hills in the distance and the ocean would roll in. There would be white foam on the waves. I would then imagine walking along the edge of the beach and having fun as I discovered creatures and objects that the sea would bring forth.

This is a song from my husband to me. It’s been our song through 16 years of marriage.

Yesterday when I was buying groceries I was very surprised to hear it over their PA system.