What do you do with a child who every. single. morning says she has nothing to wear?? Seriously, every morning!
And what do I say ever. single. morning? "Yes, you do. Go find something."
I admit that this child does not have a LOT of clothes because she is too skinny and it's hard to find clothes to fit her, but she has clothes to wear!!
I also admit that sometimes I am behind on the laundry, but she usually has SOMETHING in her closet or in her drawers or even in the laundry baskets in my room or on the dryer. She just has to find it.
I am also sorry that sometimes she just doesn't "feel" like wearing certain clothes that she has in her room.
I am also sorry that she has clothes in her room, but she just doesn't like them, but they fit perfectly!
After we argue about it for awhile and she sheds a few tears, I usually walk away and tell her to just go find something again. And you know what? Every single day she does!
I even took her shopping the other day and we bought more clothes for her!! Three bags between Walmart and Target!! And today, she still had NOTHING to wear! That about sent me over the edge....
I think I will say to her tonight, "If you say to me that you have nothing to wear tomorrow, I am going to take ALL your clothes and put them in a trash bag for a day. Then you will really have NOTHING to wear." Would that be too mean or would that teach her a lesson???
AHHHHHHH!!!!!
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Friday, December 27, 2013
Friday!
It is two days post Christmas. The mess is finally cleaned up from Christmas Eve and the dishes are finally put away! The kids are loving their new toys!! We are all loving the free time, but honestly, I do miss the schedule! I have no reason to get up in the morning, so I don't. :) I wait for all three children to get up before I get up! We usually end up getting breakfast about 9-9:30 and we are usually out of our pajamas by noon. This is also my summer schedule.
Anyway, today I have something planned. We are going to the zoo!! It is supposed to be 50 degrees out today and I want to take advantage of the warm weather while I can. My other reason for wanting to go is that we have been studying animals from around the world (mostly Africa right now) and I want to go see these animals. We also saw on the news that Megan's favorite animals at the zoo are turning one this weekend. These are the lion cubs! I can never get her away from that display!! She thinks they are so cute!! And they are.:)
We are going to head out about 12:30 and stay all afternoon. It is also a great chance to go get some exercise. We might watch an IMAX, I'm not sure. Honestly, I just want to stay outdoors!
We still have three more Christmas parties in the next week and a half, so we're not quite done with Christmas yet. I still need to get more presents. Hopefully we can get all the decorations down and get our house back to normal before we start school on the 6th.
Since school came up, I got asked today, "Do you ever wish your kids went to public school?" My answer, "NOPE!!" Then I listed off the reasons why I am glad they are at home and that was pretty much the end of the conversation!
Anyway, off to get ready for the zoo!
Anyway, today I have something planned. We are going to the zoo!! It is supposed to be 50 degrees out today and I want to take advantage of the warm weather while I can. My other reason for wanting to go is that we have been studying animals from around the world (mostly Africa right now) and I want to go see these animals. We also saw on the news that Megan's favorite animals at the zoo are turning one this weekend. These are the lion cubs! I can never get her away from that display!! She thinks they are so cute!! And they are.:)
We are going to head out about 12:30 and stay all afternoon. It is also a great chance to go get some exercise. We might watch an IMAX, I'm not sure. Honestly, I just want to stay outdoors!
We still have three more Christmas parties in the next week and a half, so we're not quite done with Christmas yet. I still need to get more presents. Hopefully we can get all the decorations down and get our house back to normal before we start school on the 6th.
Since school came up, I got asked today, "Do you ever wish your kids went to public school?" My answer, "NOPE!!" Then I listed off the reasons why I am glad they are at home and that was pretty much the end of the conversation!
Anyway, off to get ready for the zoo!
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Bedtime!
It's 10:25 pm on Christmas Eve and my kids are still WIDE awake!
They got new lego sets for Christmas and are determined to get them together before they go to bed.
Megan's set has 695 pieces and Courtney's has 423.
I think we are going to have to call it quits for the night and resume in the morning.
Mom and Dad don't want to stay up any longer. (Actually, I think Matt went to bed already!)
They got new lego sets for Christmas and are determined to get them together before they go to bed.
Megan's set has 695 pieces and Courtney's has 423.
I think we are going to have to call it quits for the night and resume in the morning.
Mom and Dad don't want to stay up any longer. (Actually, I think Matt went to bed already!)
Ice cream!
I got a new ice cream maker this summer and I could never get it to work right. It is one where the bucket for the ice cream is already frozen and you just have to plug it in and it will make you ice cream.
The problem: the ice cream bucket does not stay frozen, therefore, it does not make ice cream.
I wanted to have ice cream tonight, so I came up with a solution.
I put the ice cream maker in the garage where it is nice and cold. (I thought about putting it outside.)
Guess what? It worked!!! I actually have ice cream!!
Too bad this won't work in the summer. :(
The problem: the ice cream bucket does not stay frozen, therefore, it does not make ice cream.
I wanted to have ice cream tonight, so I came up with a solution.
I put the ice cream maker in the garage where it is nice and cold. (I thought about putting it outside.)
Guess what? It worked!!! I actually have ice cream!!
Too bad this won't work in the summer. :(
Christmas Eve!
This week has been weird. No school. No outings. No dance class. Not much going on!
I think we are enjoying it though!
Today is super busy! We will go to church tonight at 4 and then come back home, have a nice meal together, and open presents. This is our night as a family!
A couple years ago, we started the tradition of having ham balls (Matt's favorite) and cheesy potatoes for a Christmas Eve meal. I don't think we did this last year because there were too many yet on a strict diet, but this year, I am the only one left watching what I eat almost every meal. We are going to make ham balls this year, but I will be doing some substituting. :) Of course, Matt asks, "They are going to be REAL hamballs, right?" Sure thing!!!! I will try my best!!!
There is no way to substitute the sour cream and cheese in the cheesy potatoes, so I will make those and just not eat them. I think I am going to make myself a side of hash browns. We are also going to have real green beans (not frozen or out of a can). For dessert, I found a recipe for hot apple topping using apple pie filling. I bought some REAL ice cream for the rest of the family and I will be making myself some homemade rice ice cream this afternoon!
We are also going to get out our good dishes (and wine goblets) and eat at the dining room table. The kids' favorite part is drinking the sparkling grape juice! I have two bottles on hand because it is just that good!
After we get done eating, we will all move to the piano room and start on the presents. Before we open the presents though, we always read the Christmas story out of the book of Luke. Matt always does this. Then we each take turns opening presents. The kids each get three and it looks like Matt and I each have three ourselves. Well, the kids will have three if the post man brings their last one today in the mail. If not, they will just get two for now.
I'm looking forward to a memorable evening! Now to get busy!!!
PS The mailman did bring their final gift today, so I am happy and the girls will be happy too!!
I think we are enjoying it though!
Today is super busy! We will go to church tonight at 4 and then come back home, have a nice meal together, and open presents. This is our night as a family!
A couple years ago, we started the tradition of having ham balls (Matt's favorite) and cheesy potatoes for a Christmas Eve meal. I don't think we did this last year because there were too many yet on a strict diet, but this year, I am the only one left watching what I eat almost every meal. We are going to make ham balls this year, but I will be doing some substituting. :) Of course, Matt asks, "They are going to be REAL hamballs, right?" Sure thing!!!! I will try my best!!!
There is no way to substitute the sour cream and cheese in the cheesy potatoes, so I will make those and just not eat them. I think I am going to make myself a side of hash browns. We are also going to have real green beans (not frozen or out of a can). For dessert, I found a recipe for hot apple topping using apple pie filling. I bought some REAL ice cream for the rest of the family and I will be making myself some homemade rice ice cream this afternoon!
We are also going to get out our good dishes (and wine goblets) and eat at the dining room table. The kids' favorite part is drinking the sparkling grape juice! I have two bottles on hand because it is just that good!
After we get done eating, we will all move to the piano room and start on the presents. Before we open the presents though, we always read the Christmas story out of the book of Luke. Matt always does this. Then we each take turns opening presents. The kids each get three and it looks like Matt and I each have three ourselves. Well, the kids will have three if the post man brings their last one today in the mail. If not, they will just get two for now.
I'm looking forward to a memorable evening! Now to get busy!!!
PS The mailman did bring their final gift today, so I am happy and the girls will be happy too!!
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Good bye corn....;(
Another food bites the dust! Ugh!!
This last month, I have had some major reactions to something.
1. new IBS symptoms
2. extreme moodiness. I am usually pretty patient with my kids (you need to be to homeschool!) but I have not been very patient or nice on a couple of occasions lately!
3. major sinus headaches. Remember, I have been having sinus headaches since May, but now they have been 10 x worse!!
4. breakout of acne
5. fingers swelled
6. cyst on right knee hurt and painful
7. Drop in blood sugar after I eat
8. Fuzzy thinking/ can not think straight
9. Eye vision affected
10. heartburn
Some of these have been coming on within 15 minutes of eating, so I knew it had to be something I was consuming, but what?? I thought I had this all figured out!
These are a lot of my symptoms that I had experienced before I got diagnosed with food allergies, so I knew I was back to square one with something.
These symptoms have been building the last couple of months and finally I said enough is enough and I went to go see my doctor.
Her first question, "What do you eat a lot of?" My answer: corn! I eat a lot of corn chips, corn cereal, cornstarch, corn noodles etc. I probably eat corn at least twice a day. My doctor's next thought was that I had built up an intolerance to corn! She said that many people who go gluten-free usually come down with a corn intolerance because many people replace their gluten with corn. She said she has seen this before and this is probably what is going on with me. The solution: take out corn! NOOOOO!!! She told me to keep a food journal for two weeks to see if I could correlate corn to any of my symptoms. She also said corn is an inflammatory food and it will inflame parts of your body and could very well be causing all my sinus issues!
I wanted to see if this theory was true right away, so as I pulled away from the doctor last Thursday, I had a sandwich bag of Honeycomb in my purse. I was hungry, so I pulled it out. If you don't know, Honeycomb is half corn/ half oats. I ate about half the sack and by the time I got home, I could already feel the headache coming on. For the next three hours, I could not see clearly, could not think straight, and I was on edge with my family. It finally wore off early in the evening and I could see straight again.
The next day, we had a homeschool Christmas party at my house and we decorated cookies. The person who brought sugar cookies and frosting happen to leave the leftovers at my house. Guess what I got into right before I went to bed?? the frosting!!! YUMMY!!! I checked the label and it had nothing in it that I could not eat, but it did contain cornstarch. I ate quite a bit of it because it was so good!!! Well, 15-20 minutes later, I got a huge sinus headache again! I went to bed and thought that I would just sleep it off. I was wrong! Christian came into my room at 6:30 am and I seriously got mad at him because he woke me up! I also got mad at Matt because he wanted to take Courtney out for breakfast and I told him that it wasn't fair!! I was really mad! (This is where I realize I cannot control this and I stay away from my family!! This is very unlike me.) By about 10 am, the moodiness had subsided and I felt like my regular self again! I think I actually took a couple of Advil that morning!
I believe that corn is my true culprit and every time I don't eat corn, I don't feel bad and I treat everybody nicely!!
I am so sad to have to give up corn, but if it makes me feel better, it is worth it!
Tonight I finally had a chance to sit down and look up the symptoms of corn allergies and sure enough, every single one of my symptoms are on the list!! Except for the heartburn, my doctor thought that was from eating too many tomatoes. :)
My doctor also told me that I should try to get back on a few other foods, especially the ones that weren't so high on my allergy test. She said I should try chicken, blueberries, peanuts, and almonds and any other ones that had a lower number. She told me not to try to get back on gluten because that is also an inflammatory (like corn) and would probably make my troubles worse at the moment.
Here I go again!
This last month, I have had some major reactions to something.
1. new IBS symptoms
2. extreme moodiness. I am usually pretty patient with my kids (you need to be to homeschool!) but I have not been very patient or nice on a couple of occasions lately!
3. major sinus headaches. Remember, I have been having sinus headaches since May, but now they have been 10 x worse!!
4. breakout of acne
5. fingers swelled
6. cyst on right knee hurt and painful
7. Drop in blood sugar after I eat
8. Fuzzy thinking/ can not think straight
9. Eye vision affected
10. heartburn
Some of these have been coming on within 15 minutes of eating, so I knew it had to be something I was consuming, but what?? I thought I had this all figured out!
These are a lot of my symptoms that I had experienced before I got diagnosed with food allergies, so I knew I was back to square one with something.
These symptoms have been building the last couple of months and finally I said enough is enough and I went to go see my doctor.
Her first question, "What do you eat a lot of?" My answer: corn! I eat a lot of corn chips, corn cereal, cornstarch, corn noodles etc. I probably eat corn at least twice a day. My doctor's next thought was that I had built up an intolerance to corn! She said that many people who go gluten-free usually come down with a corn intolerance because many people replace their gluten with corn. She said she has seen this before and this is probably what is going on with me. The solution: take out corn! NOOOOO!!! She told me to keep a food journal for two weeks to see if I could correlate corn to any of my symptoms. She also said corn is an inflammatory food and it will inflame parts of your body and could very well be causing all my sinus issues!
I wanted to see if this theory was true right away, so as I pulled away from the doctor last Thursday, I had a sandwich bag of Honeycomb in my purse. I was hungry, so I pulled it out. If you don't know, Honeycomb is half corn/ half oats. I ate about half the sack and by the time I got home, I could already feel the headache coming on. For the next three hours, I could not see clearly, could not think straight, and I was on edge with my family. It finally wore off early in the evening and I could see straight again.
The next day, we had a homeschool Christmas party at my house and we decorated cookies. The person who brought sugar cookies and frosting happen to leave the leftovers at my house. Guess what I got into right before I went to bed?? the frosting!!! YUMMY!!! I checked the label and it had nothing in it that I could not eat, but it did contain cornstarch. I ate quite a bit of it because it was so good!!! Well, 15-20 minutes later, I got a huge sinus headache again! I went to bed and thought that I would just sleep it off. I was wrong! Christian came into my room at 6:30 am and I seriously got mad at him because he woke me up! I also got mad at Matt because he wanted to take Courtney out for breakfast and I told him that it wasn't fair!! I was really mad! (This is where I realize I cannot control this and I stay away from my family!! This is very unlike me.) By about 10 am, the moodiness had subsided and I felt like my regular self again! I think I actually took a couple of Advil that morning!
I believe that corn is my true culprit and every time I don't eat corn, I don't feel bad and I treat everybody nicely!!
I am so sad to have to give up corn, but if it makes me feel better, it is worth it!
Tonight I finally had a chance to sit down and look up the symptoms of corn allergies and sure enough, every single one of my symptoms are on the list!! Except for the heartburn, my doctor thought that was from eating too many tomatoes. :)
My doctor also told me that I should try to get back on a few other foods, especially the ones that weren't so high on my allergy test. She said I should try chicken, blueberries, peanuts, and almonds and any other ones that had a lower number. She told me not to try to get back on gluten because that is also an inflammatory (like corn) and would probably make my troubles worse at the moment.
Here I go again!
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Found Library book....oops!
Before we went on our trip, I checked quite a few books out from the library on all the cities we were going to visit. I wanted to learn a little bit before we left. I even took some of them on our trip.
When we got home, I took the whole stack back to the library. I was convinced I had them all back, I had kept them all in one place and honestly, I rarely lose a library book.
About a couple weeks later, I noticed that I was getting a fine on a library book and it was a book about Boston that I checked out before our trip. I called the library and said that I was positive that I returned it and they took the fine off my account (they will do this 3 times) and I left it at that.
Guess what I found today IN my couch today?? the library book about Boston!!!
Should I just put it in the drop box at the library and let them figure it out or actually go confess that I was wrong???
When we got home, I took the whole stack back to the library. I was convinced I had them all back, I had kept them all in one place and honestly, I rarely lose a library book.
About a couple weeks later, I noticed that I was getting a fine on a library book and it was a book about Boston that I checked out before our trip. I called the library and said that I was positive that I returned it and they took the fine off my account (they will do this 3 times) and I left it at that.
Guess what I found today IN my couch today?? the library book about Boston!!!
Should I just put it in the drop box at the library and let them figure it out or actually go confess that I was wrong???
A 3 year old and scissors!
Guess what my 3 year old discovered? Scissors!!!
The problem is that he is left-handed and we only have right-handed scissors, but that doesn't stop him!
He sat at the kitchen table today for about 45 minutes and cut paper!
He started with a pink pair and then said those were "girl" scissors, so he ran upstairs and got a green pair.
Then he said those didn't work very well and went upstairs and got a pair that cut zigzag.
(I guess I shouldn't have let my 3 year old go through the house with scissors??)
They were all kid-friendly ones, so I wasn't too worried!
In the end, I had a bunch of cut up paper on my kitchen table today, but it sure kept him busy while I worked with Courtney!!
The problem is that he is left-handed and we only have right-handed scissors, but that doesn't stop him!
He sat at the kitchen table today for about 45 minutes and cut paper!
He started with a pink pair and then said those were "girl" scissors, so he ran upstairs and got a green pair.
Then he said those didn't work very well and went upstairs and got a pair that cut zigzag.
(I guess I shouldn't have let my 3 year old go through the house with scissors??)
They were all kid-friendly ones, so I wasn't too worried!
In the end, I had a bunch of cut up paper on my kitchen table today, but it sure kept him busy while I worked with Courtney!!
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Namib Desert
Tomorrow we are going to be looking at the Namib Desert in Africa. We are going to study the animals that live there as we continue to look at the different continents and their habitats.
One animal that our book mentions is the dancing lizards. It states that these lizards do a special dance to keep their feet cool and they even swim through the sand! I found a video showing these dancing lizards on YouTube. We are definitely going to watch it tomorrow! It is amazing!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rkkKyYCxio
We are also going to see how beetles get water for themselves in the desert.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsMJNNshPOs
One last animal is the elephant and how they can survive in the desert.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0v5MIdyxZc
One animal that our book mentions is the dancing lizards. It states that these lizards do a special dance to keep their feet cool and they even swim through the sand! I found a video showing these dancing lizards on YouTube. We are definitely going to watch it tomorrow! It is amazing!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rkkKyYCxio
We are also going to see how beetles get water for themselves in the desert.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsMJNNshPOs
One last animal is the elephant and how they can survive in the desert.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0v5MIdyxZc
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Christmas Shopping
I think I am about done Christmas shopping and I have only stepped into one store! I LOVE online shopping!! I have to admit though, I have probably spent more time in front of my computer deciding what to get than I would have in a store, BUT I could order items for my kids without them knowing! (And spend hours searching and searching for the exact Legos they want AND make sure I get them at a decent price!)
Boxes are starting to appear at the front door and of course, they want to know what is in them, even Christian has joined the fun! I found the easiest thing to do is to hide them right away and then they forget all about them!
Stocking stuffers have been a little bit harder, but I managed to get a few things online. I don't really want to go out by myself for just one or two little things, so they are just going to get what I ordered online! I think they will be just fine with what I have planned.
I just hope everything that I need gets here by next Tuesday. There are some things that I ordered that I don't need until the next week, so it is ok if they come after that.
Did I mention I have also been ordering some school curriculum along with the Christmas presents? Megan is going to finish her spelling book shortly after Christmas, so I just added that onto one of my orders. I also ordered a book of patriotic songs for school. This is something I have wanted for awhile and decided it would be a Christmas present for myself. I can do that, right??
Matt also ordered my present online, but when it showed up at the door last week, it was already in a box, so they didn't put it in an extra box to hide what it was. They just stuck a label on the original box and sent it on its way! It is something we had talked about getting for awhile now, so he eventually got it for me. Megan and I snuck out to get him something the other night and I got it wrapped before he could peek, I hope he likes it! I know Megan keep a secret!
I still have a list of other people to buy for which I MAY need to go shopping at a real store! I need to think about those presents some more and those parties are not until after Christmas, so I have a little bit of time yet. :)
Boxes are starting to appear at the front door and of course, they want to know what is in them, even Christian has joined the fun! I found the easiest thing to do is to hide them right away and then they forget all about them!
Stocking stuffers have been a little bit harder, but I managed to get a few things online. I don't really want to go out by myself for just one or two little things, so they are just going to get what I ordered online! I think they will be just fine with what I have planned.
I just hope everything that I need gets here by next Tuesday. There are some things that I ordered that I don't need until the next week, so it is ok if they come after that.
Did I mention I have also been ordering some school curriculum along with the Christmas presents? Megan is going to finish her spelling book shortly after Christmas, so I just added that onto one of my orders. I also ordered a book of patriotic songs for school. This is something I have wanted for awhile and decided it would be a Christmas present for myself. I can do that, right??
Matt also ordered my present online, but when it showed up at the door last week, it was already in a box, so they didn't put it in an extra box to hide what it was. They just stuck a label on the original box and sent it on its way! It is something we had talked about getting for awhile now, so he eventually got it for me. Megan and I snuck out to get him something the other night and I got it wrapped before he could peek, I hope he likes it! I know Megan keep a secret!
I still have a list of other people to buy for which I MAY need to go shopping at a real store! I need to think about those presents some more and those parties are not until after Christmas, so I have a little bit of time yet. :)
Monday, December 16, 2013
Back to it!
We are back to school today. It is our last week, just like the public school kids. :)
I am not so sure if the kids want to take a break, but we are. We might do some math during the break, but that is it. Ok, I guess if the kid are begging to have school, we might, but there will plenty to do with the holidays!
I also volunteered to have a homeschooling Christmas party here on Friday, so I need to clean the house before then. Honestly, I think I volunteer to have parties just so I have an excuse to clean!!
Packages have started coming in the mail from my online shopping and the girls want to know what is in them so bad!! I think they have a clue what is in there when the box says "legos." Hmmmm.
I also see kids' projects from Thanksgiving hanging around my house yet, I need to get those down and get more Christmas decorations up! I can't believe Christmas is just a week away!
I am not so sure if the kids want to take a break, but we are. We might do some math during the break, but that is it. Ok, I guess if the kid are begging to have school, we might, but there will plenty to do with the holidays!
I also volunteered to have a homeschooling Christmas party here on Friday, so I need to clean the house before then. Honestly, I think I volunteer to have parties just so I have an excuse to clean!!
Packages have started coming in the mail from my online shopping and the girls want to know what is in them so bad!! I think they have a clue what is in there when the box says "legos." Hmmmm.
I also see kids' projects from Thanksgiving hanging around my house yet, I need to get those down and get more Christmas decorations up! I can't believe Christmas is just a week away!
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Courtney's turn
Since Matt took Megan to Narnia the other morning, Courtney thought it was only fair that daddy take her somewhere too!
For the past couple of years, Matt has taken the girls out to breakfast on a Saturday morning. He doesn't do this all the time, but maybe once every couple of months. He takes each girl separately for some one-on-one time with him.
Today, Matt decided to take Courtney out for breakfast to have some on-on-one time with her too! She had been talking about this the last three days and she was super-excited! As soon as she woke up this morning, she jumped out of bed and before I knew it, she was dressed and ready to go!
I'm glad that Matt does these special things with his girls!!
I told him that he has to take me out next. :)
For the past couple of years, Matt has taken the girls out to breakfast on a Saturday morning. He doesn't do this all the time, but maybe once every couple of months. He takes each girl separately for some one-on-one time with him.
Today, Matt decided to take Courtney out for breakfast to have some on-on-one time with her too! She had been talking about this the last three days and she was super-excited! As soon as she woke up this morning, she jumped out of bed and before I knew it, she was dressed and ready to go!
I'm glad that Matt does these special things with his girls!!
I told him that he has to take me out next. :)
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Super fast!!
As many of you know, Megan is NOT a morning person!!
I have never seen her jump out of bed, get dressed, and be ready to leave in less than 10 minutes! She did exactly that today!!
About a month ago, a local homeschooling mom had put out an email saying that she had tickets available to the school production of "Narnia" that is at the Rose Theatre right now. I immediately thought of Megan and Matt. They have read through the whole stories and loved it! (Plus tickets were only $5.00 because it is for schools instead of the usual $20 we would otherwise have to pay!)
I sent my check in for tickets for those two and was able to get my check to her in time to still get tickets!
Today is the day of the play. Matt had told Megan last night that he would take her out for breakfast too, so she set her alarm for 7:15 this morning and when it went off, she popped right out of bed! She was dressed and ready to go by 7:25!! I have never seen Megan move this fast in the morning!! She has such a reputation around here for being slow in the mornings that we nicknamed her "sloth" for awhile. " :)
They are going to go out for breakfast and then they have to be to the Rose Theatre by 9:15 to get their seats. It is a 2 hour production with an intermission. They are going to love it!
(But then a couple of days ago, Courtney decided she wanted to go to. Megan said, "No, I am just going with my daddy!")
I have never seen her jump out of bed, get dressed, and be ready to leave in less than 10 minutes! She did exactly that today!!
About a month ago, a local homeschooling mom had put out an email saying that she had tickets available to the school production of "Narnia" that is at the Rose Theatre right now. I immediately thought of Megan and Matt. They have read through the whole stories and loved it! (Plus tickets were only $5.00 because it is for schools instead of the usual $20 we would otherwise have to pay!)
I sent my check in for tickets for those two and was able to get my check to her in time to still get tickets!
Today is the day of the play. Matt had told Megan last night that he would take her out for breakfast too, so she set her alarm for 7:15 this morning and when it went off, she popped right out of bed! She was dressed and ready to go by 7:25!! I have never seen Megan move this fast in the morning!! She has such a reputation around here for being slow in the mornings that we nicknamed her "sloth" for awhile. " :)
They are going to go out for breakfast and then they have to be to the Rose Theatre by 9:15 to get their seats. It is a 2 hour production with an intermission. They are going to love it!
(But then a couple of days ago, Courtney decided she wanted to go to. Megan said, "No, I am just going with my daddy!")
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Titles and Names of Jesus
Just need this for something we are going to do in school tomorrow. :)
http://www.abetterhope.com/whois/titles.html
http://www.abetterhope.com/whois/titles.html
Monopoly!!
This is how we spent two hours last night...playing Monopoly!!
We had been at home all day because it was just too cold to go anywhere! We had already put up the tree and all the Christmas decorations, we had watched too much TV, and it was only 6:30 pm!
I suggested we play a game together, so the girls went and got Monopoly. By the time we got it set up and going, it was about 7 pm. We sat around our table until 8:45 playing this game!
But since you cannot finish a game of Monopoly in less than two hours, we had to let it be until today. This was kind of hard to do because we all had properties, and houses, and we had gotten into a rhythm!
After we got home from a work event for Matt today, we gathered back around the dining room table to finish our game. Matt had a couple houses on his properties, I had some, Megan had three on some of hers, but Courtney was definitely taking the game more seriously we were! She was proud of her properties and houses that she had and she thought it was great that she was taking money from everyone in the form of rent. She was also doing a great job counting out money and following along.
We had gotten to the point where we knew any move could send someone into bankruptcy. Every move was calculated and there were certain spaces you knew would cost a LOT if you landed on them. (Megan had three houses on some of hers!) There was a point when you were glad when you got sent to jail just to avoid a certain part of the board!
I thought I would be out on a certain move, but then I sold some houses and mortgaged some properties and Matt had to do the same thing, but then Courtney landed on one of Megan's spots that had three houses and her rent was $700!! Poor Courtney had less than $200 in her possession, so Matt and I said she had to start selling back houses. This poor thing started to sob and cry! No, not cry, almost wailing!! She did not want to sell back her houses!! We sold them back for her and went ahead and mortgaged her properties and she was not taking this well!!
Matt and I know this is how the game works, so we were just sort of laughing about it, we certainly did not expect this out of Courtney! (Megan, yes!) Matt and I eventually figured out that she could not come up with enough money and she had to declare bankruptcy. Game over!
It took us quite awhile to get Courtney calmed back down! It was almost unbelievable, I don't think I have seen her this upset in a long time! She wasn't even this upset when we had to put Dell down!!
She then said that she wanted to play again- just her and dad, but that didn't happen. Matt sat on the couch with her for awhile until she stopped crying and we were able to eat supper and enjoy the finale of "The Amazing Race" tonight.
I don't know how long it will be until we play Monopoly again!!
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Frozen Pipes?
Around this time of year, I have to take caution when doing laundry. Our pipes to our washing machine are located on an outside wall and we learned the hard way that when the pipes freeze, we will have a flood!! And it won't just flood around the washing machine, but water will run down the wall into the basement!
I wonder if they are frozen now with it being 3 degrees out!
I haven't done laundry all week and pretty soon, I will be hearing, "Mom, I don't have anything to wear!!"
Maybe I should get a space heater in my laundry room before things get too far behind!!
(If we have a flood now, it would be really bad because since our original flood, we have finished off an office for Matt in the basement which is directly under my laundry room. Flood= ruined office for Matt, so I cannot let that happen again!!)
I wonder if they are frozen now with it being 3 degrees out!
I haven't done laundry all week and pretty soon, I will be hearing, "Mom, I don't have anything to wear!!"
Maybe I should get a space heater in my laundry room before things get too far behind!!
(If we have a flood now, it would be really bad because since our original flood, we have finished off an office for Matt in the basement which is directly under my laundry room. Flood= ruined office for Matt, so I cannot let that happen again!!)
Friday, December 6, 2013
My thoughts for today. :)
1. Days like this, I am really glad I homeschool and don't have to go anywhere. brrr!
2. I am also thankful that Matt doesn't have to go anywhere!
3. But there are certain times that you just NEED to get out!
4. It is going to be a long winter if we don't get out!
5. I need to find some place I can take ALL my children to go run around. I saw that a community center was opening their gym up to homeschoolers on certain afternoons, which is definitely an option. They were also going to open up their pool on Tuesday afternoons. Both of these options are really cheap, but they are also all the way across town!
6. All our windows and doors leak plus the fireplace. Matt says we just need new windows and doors. :( He said he could put plastic over them, but he said he would have to put the plastic over the shades, which means I couldn't open the shades all winter. NO WAY!! I would rather put more warm clothes on than not be able to see outside!
7. Courtney had to write a short journal entry today for her writing assignment. I asked her to write four sentences and she burst out crying! She didn't want to do it! After awhile, she came back to it and wrote it and was actually having fun with it!! I read over it and she had everything capitalized and periods at the end of her sentences!! This is something that we have been working on and I was thoroughly impressed! She only had three words wrong (she forgot the last letter) in the entire entry which was five sentences long! She is really putting things together when it comes to writing and reading. Yay for learning!! (She is also reading a lot smoother than she used to!)
8. Megan also had to write a journal entries for her writing assignments this week, but she already has a journal, so I let that count. :)
9. I am hoping to get the Christmas tree up this weekend AND get my Christmas cards/ letter out. This always takes forever...
10. We have been doing daily Christmas devotions and singing Christmas songs everyday during school. I really think they should know the traditional Christmas songs! They wouldn't be doing that at public school!! (Again, yay for homeschooling!)
2. I am also thankful that Matt doesn't have to go anywhere!
3. But there are certain times that you just NEED to get out!
4. It is going to be a long winter if we don't get out!
5. I need to find some place I can take ALL my children to go run around. I saw that a community center was opening their gym up to homeschoolers on certain afternoons, which is definitely an option. They were also going to open up their pool on Tuesday afternoons. Both of these options are really cheap, but they are also all the way across town!
6. All our windows and doors leak plus the fireplace. Matt says we just need new windows and doors. :( He said he could put plastic over them, but he said he would have to put the plastic over the shades, which means I couldn't open the shades all winter. NO WAY!! I would rather put more warm clothes on than not be able to see outside!
7. Courtney had to write a short journal entry today for her writing assignment. I asked her to write four sentences and she burst out crying! She didn't want to do it! After awhile, she came back to it and wrote it and was actually having fun with it!! I read over it and she had everything capitalized and periods at the end of her sentences!! This is something that we have been working on and I was thoroughly impressed! She only had three words wrong (she forgot the last letter) in the entire entry which was five sentences long! She is really putting things together when it comes to writing and reading. Yay for learning!! (She is also reading a lot smoother than she used to!)
8. Megan also had to write a journal entries for her writing assignments this week, but she already has a journal, so I let that count. :)
9. I am hoping to get the Christmas tree up this weekend AND get my Christmas cards/ letter out. This always takes forever...
10. We have been doing daily Christmas devotions and singing Christmas songs everyday during school. I really think they should know the traditional Christmas songs! They wouldn't be doing that at public school!! (Again, yay for homeschooling!)
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
My little Native American girl!
If I post a cute picture of Christian, I should post a cute picture of Courtney. :)
If you ever wondered if Courtney was creative, just look at this picture.
If you ever wondered if Courtney was creative, just look at this picture.
Things to note:
1. Her bow and arrow is made out of pipe cleaners and she was serious about it!
2. She stored extra "arrows" in her quiver she made that is on her back, this too was tied around her neck by pipe cleaners.
3. I had braided her hair, but she made her headpiece out of construction paper and a real feather she had in her playroom.
Creative, huh? I think she is pretty cute!!
Sweet Dreams!
This was a picture I took of Christian two nights ago. I really wanted to post it on Face.book and say, "You know you are having sweet dreams when you fall asleep next to your tractor magazine!"
New Internet ....and cable?
We have known for a long time that Cen.tury Link would be coming into our area. C.ox Cable just raised their rates again and it's kind of ridiculous what we pay for Internet! We don't have phone or cable, but it was still expensive. There were also some other reasons we were looking into switching.
The other day, somebody from Cen.tury Link knocked on our door and said they were finally in our area! We were pretty excited!!!
We signed up and today, they came and hooked up our new Internet AND television cable. We only did this because it was $5 more per month to bundle it. We really don't want/ need cable, but we went with it anyway. They even have three months of free DVR/ HD TV!
Do you know the last time we had cable?? We cancelled it when we were still living in our old house! We moved to this new house in 2008, so it has been over five years! And have I missed it? nope!
Tonight, as the cable was being hooked up, guess what all five of us were doing? Sitting in front of the TV! Exactly the reason why I don't want/ need cable!
I hope my kids continue to turn the TV off unprompted and continue to play and not sit in front of the TV!!
This deal goes on for a year and then it goes up by $50, I can tell you already that we will have the cable cancelled by then!
The other day, somebody from Cen.tury Link knocked on our door and said they were finally in our area! We were pretty excited!!!
We signed up and today, they came and hooked up our new Internet AND television cable. We only did this because it was $5 more per month to bundle it. We really don't want/ need cable, but we went with it anyway. They even have three months of free DVR/ HD TV!
Do you know the last time we had cable?? We cancelled it when we were still living in our old house! We moved to this new house in 2008, so it has been over five years! And have I missed it? nope!
Tonight, as the cable was being hooked up, guess what all five of us were doing? Sitting in front of the TV! Exactly the reason why I don't want/ need cable!
I hope my kids continue to turn the TV off unprompted and continue to play and not sit in front of the TV!!
This deal goes on for a year and then it goes up by $50, I can tell you already that we will have the cable cancelled by then!
Monday, December 2, 2013
Thanksgiving is over...
We had a great thanksgiving celebration! Three parties, three trips back home, lots of family. :)
We have so much to be thankful for this year!!!
But now that is all over and we are back to life! Matt had a four day weekend, so he was back to work today. We took Thursday off from school, but did do half a day on Friday (remember, I have to do four days of math, spelling, English no matter what!), so I finished those subjects up then. We got back to school full time today I could tell the girls had a good break, they sat in their chairs, they didn't argue or complain, they learned and it went much smoother than we had left it last week!
Now that we are into Christmas season, I changed things up a bit with school. A couple of weeks ago, I bought a book on amazon called The Christmas Countdown. For every day in December, it has a short Bible reading, a devotional, questions, and a family activity. I thought this would be very appropriate for school! (We are going to put our bible curriculum away until January).
Today the reading was from Malachi and it talked how we should be anticipating Jesus' coming. It talked about not getting so caught up in the commercialism of Christmas, but to get our hearts ready for Jesus! The craft was to make an advent wreath, which we didn't get to today. I can either go to Hobby Lobby and get all the pieces or I can cheat and order one off of Amazon. I wasn't quite prepared for today, so neither one got done! Hopefully I will get this done though, I think an advent wreath would be a great thing! We will not do every family activity, but maybe 2-3 times a week. As I was looking ahead today, I noticed that we need to make gingerbread cookies at the end of the week. That looks like fun! I may call a few friends over to make them together. :)
Anyway, off to science!
We have so much to be thankful for this year!!!
But now that is all over and we are back to life! Matt had a four day weekend, so he was back to work today. We took Thursday off from school, but did do half a day on Friday (remember, I have to do four days of math, spelling, English no matter what!), so I finished those subjects up then. We got back to school full time today I could tell the girls had a good break, they sat in their chairs, they didn't argue or complain, they learned and it went much smoother than we had left it last week!
Now that we are into Christmas season, I changed things up a bit with school. A couple of weeks ago, I bought a book on amazon called The Christmas Countdown. For every day in December, it has a short Bible reading, a devotional, questions, and a family activity. I thought this would be very appropriate for school! (We are going to put our bible curriculum away until January).
Today the reading was from Malachi and it talked how we should be anticipating Jesus' coming. It talked about not getting so caught up in the commercialism of Christmas, but to get our hearts ready for Jesus! The craft was to make an advent wreath, which we didn't get to today. I can either go to Hobby Lobby and get all the pieces or I can cheat and order one off of Amazon. I wasn't quite prepared for today, so neither one got done! Hopefully I will get this done though, I think an advent wreath would be a great thing! We will not do every family activity, but maybe 2-3 times a week. As I was looking ahead today, I noticed that we need to make gingerbread cookies at the end of the week. That looks like fun! I may call a few friends over to make them together. :)
Anyway, off to science!
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Thanksgiving
After searching the Internet, I could not find a short unit study that we could use this week to learn about Thanksgiving, so I am going to make up my own!
I found one that I can base some thoughts off of, but I am not going to use it exactly as it says I should.
http://members.tripod.com/~goatladie_3/thanksgivingunitstudy.html
Instead of taking nine days like it says we should, we are going to condense it to four!
Day 1: Pilgrims and Puritans
http://www.plimoth.org/learn/just-kids/homework-help/who-were-pilgrims
The Mayflower1
http://www.plimoth.org/learn/just-kids/homework-help/mayflower-and-mayflower-compact
http://www.history.com/topics/mayflower
Day 2- Native People
http://web.ccsd.k12.wy.us/techcurr/Social%20Studies/05/0101firstwi.html
Day 3- The First Thanksgiving and Proclamation
http://www.history.com/news/abraham-lincoln-and-the-mother-of-thanksgiving
Day 4- Scripture and how it is related to Thanksgiving (which we will do on Thanksgiving!)
This is going to take a little bit more planning on my part, but I think it is doable.
We also visited Plymouth, Massachusetts last September, so we always can rely on our pictures and the stories we heard there!
I found one that I can base some thoughts off of, but I am not going to use it exactly as it says I should.
http://members.tripod.com/~goatladie_3/thanksgivingunitstudy.html
Instead of taking nine days like it says we should, we are going to condense it to four!
Day 1: Pilgrims and Puritans
http://www.plimoth.org/learn/just-kids/homework-help/who-were-pilgrims
The Mayflower1
http://www.plimoth.org/learn/just-kids/homework-help/mayflower-and-mayflower-compact
http://www.history.com/topics/mayflower
Day 2- Native People
http://web.ccsd.k12.wy.us/techcurr/Social%20Studies/05/0101firstwi.html
Day 3- The First Thanksgiving and Proclamation
http://www.history.com/news/abraham-lincoln-and-the-mother-of-thanksgiving
Day 4- Scripture and how it is related to Thanksgiving (which we will do on Thanksgiving!)
This is going to take a little bit more planning on my part, but I think it is doable.
We also visited Plymouth, Massachusetts last September, so we always can rely on our pictures and the stories we heard there!
Friday, November 22, 2013
TV special
You know you are a history geek when you are counting down the hours until Tom Brokow's "Where Were You?" special on John F. Kennedy comes on....
If you need to find me for the next two hours, I will be curled up under a blanket on the couch learning about that fateful day 50 years ago.
If you need to find me for the next two hours, I will be curled up under a blanket on the couch learning about that fateful day 50 years ago.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
50th Anniversary
Most people may not know, but tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. And of course, we are going to have a lesson about it at our house. :)
When we were in Washington DC in September, we stopped at Arlington National Cemetery. While we were there, we saw JFK's gravesite.
There is an eternal flame at his gravesite. (f you were watching the national news last night, President Obama and his wife PLUS President Clinton and his wife PLUS some Kennedy family members laid a wreath at Kennedy's place of burial.)
There is a huge plaza by his grave and it has many excerpts from his speeches engraved along the wall. Can you see Courtney in the picture?
An excerpt from a very famous speech!!
We are going to have a short lesson his life with my favorite students tomorrow. How can I let such an important day in history go by without talking about it??
http://gardenofpraise.com/ibdkenn.htm
http://www.ushistory.org/us/56d.asp
When we were in Washington DC in September, we stopped at Arlington National Cemetery. While we were there, we saw JFK's gravesite.
There is an eternal flame at his gravesite. (f you were watching the national news last night, President Obama and his wife PLUS President Clinton and his wife PLUS some Kennedy family members laid a wreath at Kennedy's place of burial.)
There is a huge plaza by his grave and it has many excerpts from his speeches engraved along the wall. Can you see Courtney in the picture?
An excerpt from a very famous speech!!
http://gardenofpraise.com/ibdkenn.htm
http://www.ushistory.org/us/56d.asp
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Last chance!
There has been four chances here in Omaha to get school pictures done for homeschoolers.
I have missed the first three. Today is my last chance and I nearly forgot about it too!
I have many things going on today, so much so we might not get any school done!
I remembered about school pictures as I was thinking about my schedule today.
Now I have to think about what my kids should wear and I NEED to go cut some bangs!!! I don't want hair in my kids' eyes during pictures!
I also need to go pack our lunches because Megan has a dr. appointment at 10:15 and we have to be at the Learning Center by 12, you never know how long dr. appointments are going to take! Don't worry, it's just her 10 year checkup!
Then of course, library and errands after the learning center.
It is also Matt's big 36th birthday today, so we will be celebrating tonight!
Ok, maybe I can squeeze a math lesson in or two today. :)
I have missed the first three. Today is my last chance and I nearly forgot about it too!
I have many things going on today, so much so we might not get any school done!
I remembered about school pictures as I was thinking about my schedule today.
Now I have to think about what my kids should wear and I NEED to go cut some bangs!!! I don't want hair in my kids' eyes during pictures!
I also need to go pack our lunches because Megan has a dr. appointment at 10:15 and we have to be at the Learning Center by 12, you never know how long dr. appointments are going to take! Don't worry, it's just her 10 year checkup!
Then of course, library and errands after the learning center.
It is also Matt's big 36th birthday today, so we will be celebrating tonight!
Ok, maybe I can squeeze a math lesson in or two today. :)
Monday, November 18, 2013
Amazon River websites
We have been studying animals that live in South America lately and tomorrow we are going to talk about animals that live around the Amazon River.
http://infactcollaborative.com/nature/amazon-river-facts.html
http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/geography/amazonriver.htm
http://infactcollaborative.com/nature/amazon-river-facts.html
http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/geography/amazonriver.htm
Sinus Update
After seeing the ENT today, I am back to square one.
I do not have a sinus infection. He took an xray just to be sure and said my sinuses are completely clear. I have not had any trouble breathing or any drainage from all of this, just lots of sinus pressure that is getting worse and I am having more trouble with my eyes. We talked about my latest root canal and he came to the same conclusion: my teeth and sinus troubles are not related, BUT he does think my sinus troubles and my jaw are related!
As he was examining me, he noticed that my jaw did line up very well. He said, "You've got quite the jaw there!" Tell me something I don't know!!
His conclusion: My sinus pressure is being caused by 1. My bad jaw alignment and/ or 2. allergies.
He put in a prescription for a stronger antihistamine eye drops and suggested that I get on a stronger decongestant. He also said that I should consider getting allergy tested.
I then called my chiropractor and I am going to go in Thursday and get my jaw adjusted, I am going to see if that helps first.
I am going to be really upset if getting adjusted did work and in the end, I didn't need to go to a very expensive ENT and get a very expensive xray!!!
I do not have a sinus infection. He took an xray just to be sure and said my sinuses are completely clear. I have not had any trouble breathing or any drainage from all of this, just lots of sinus pressure that is getting worse and I am having more trouble with my eyes. We talked about my latest root canal and he came to the same conclusion: my teeth and sinus troubles are not related, BUT he does think my sinus troubles and my jaw are related!
As he was examining me, he noticed that my jaw did line up very well. He said, "You've got quite the jaw there!" Tell me something I don't know!!
His conclusion: My sinus pressure is being caused by 1. My bad jaw alignment and/ or 2. allergies.
He put in a prescription for a stronger antihistamine eye drops and suggested that I get on a stronger decongestant. He also said that I should consider getting allergy tested.
I then called my chiropractor and I am going to go in Thursday and get my jaw adjusted, I am going to see if that helps first.
I am going to be really upset if getting adjusted did work and in the end, I didn't need to go to a very expensive ENT and get a very expensive xray!!!
ENT here I come!
After struggling with sinus pressure and not being able to wear my contacts for the last five months, I finally gave in and called an ENT. My regular doctor couldn't do much more for me, the decongestants she gave me worked, but the pressure would always come back after awhile. And it's getting worse and spreading throughout my sinuses.
I talked to a friend of mine this weekend who seems to have the same issues and an ENT diagnosed her with a chronic sinus infection and she is going to have surgery to clean her sinuses out in January. Her doctor said that infections can get so bad that they can get up into your eyes! Aha! She was describing exactly what I had going on!
I am anxious to hear what the doctor has to say, I am going to try to not take any decongestants or put any drops in my eyes this afternoon, so my symptoms will all be there when I see him.
This is also the same side of my face that I just had a root canal on AND the same side with all my TMJ troubles. I really think the abscess in my tooth and this sinus trouble is related, even though the root canal specialist thought otherwise. I guess we will know this afternoon!
I talked to a friend of mine this weekend who seems to have the same issues and an ENT diagnosed her with a chronic sinus infection and she is going to have surgery to clean her sinuses out in January. Her doctor said that infections can get so bad that they can get up into your eyes! Aha! She was describing exactly what I had going on!
I am anxious to hear what the doctor has to say, I am going to try to not take any decongestants or put any drops in my eyes this afternoon, so my symptoms will all be there when I see him.
This is also the same side of my face that I just had a root canal on AND the same side with all my TMJ troubles. I really think the abscess in my tooth and this sinus trouble is related, even though the root canal specialist thought otherwise. I guess we will know this afternoon!
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Christian's friends and church
Christian has three friends he will tell you about, they are Erich, Tyler, and Gabriel. We have played with all of them and we see some more than others, but when asked, these are his three friends!
Today we were talking about going to church and his Sunday School class. I asked him, "What do you like to do at Sunday School?"
He replied, "Play with cars."
I then asked him, "Do you have any friends there? Who do you play with? Do you play with Bobbie?"
I then continued, "Do you play with Gabriel? Oh that's right, Gabriel isn't in your room at church." (Gabriel does go to our church, but since he is a little bit younger, he is in a class behind Christian.)
Christian responded to this, "Mom, Gabriel NEEDS to be in my room. And Erich needs to come to my church too! And Tyler, he needs to come back from camping and come with me too!"
I am not sure why he thinks Tyler is camping, but he definitely thinks ALL three of his friends need to come to church with him!!
Today we were talking about going to church and his Sunday School class. I asked him, "What do you like to do at Sunday School?"
He replied, "Play with cars."
I then asked him, "Do you have any friends there? Who do you play with? Do you play with Bobbie?"
I then continued, "Do you play with Gabriel? Oh that's right, Gabriel isn't in your room at church." (Gabriel does go to our church, but since he is a little bit younger, he is in a class behind Christian.)
Christian responded to this, "Mom, Gabriel NEEDS to be in my room. And Erich needs to come to my church too! And Tyler, he needs to come back from camping and come with me too!"
I am not sure why he thinks Tyler is camping, but he definitely thinks ALL three of his friends need to come to church with him!!
Friday, November 15, 2013
School on Friday!
I can't believe it's Friday and we don't have one thing on the calendar!! No birthday party, no appointments, nothing!
In the past, I have always liked to take Friday off, but it has not worked that way yet this year. I like to use four day lesson plans and then spread the four days worth of work over five days. We take what equals to a day off (morning and afternoon, two afternoons, etc), but it hasn't always fallen on a Friday this year.
With Homeschool Learning Center being Wednesday from 12-2, we usually take Wednesday afternoon off and do errands and then we usually have something else that comes up during the week that we need to do.
This week, we had nothing scheduled on Friday and I thought about letting the kids have it off. But then I thought otherwise. We can use that time to make up lessons.
I also looked at my calendar for next week. Megan has a doctor appointment Wednesday at 10:15 am and we all have dentists appointments Thursday at 10 am. Guess what we are not going to get done Wednesday or Thursday morning next week?? School! Then we have HLC Wednesday afternoon and dance Thursday afternoon, looks like both those days are taken up. We may get some work done after we get home, but it's hard to school work started at 3 pm!
So are we catching up on school work today or getting ahead??
Can I say again how much I love the flexibility that comes with homeschooling??
In the past, I have always liked to take Friday off, but it has not worked that way yet this year. I like to use four day lesson plans and then spread the four days worth of work over five days. We take what equals to a day off (morning and afternoon, two afternoons, etc), but it hasn't always fallen on a Friday this year.
With Homeschool Learning Center being Wednesday from 12-2, we usually take Wednesday afternoon off and do errands and then we usually have something else that comes up during the week that we need to do.
This week, we had nothing scheduled on Friday and I thought about letting the kids have it off. But then I thought otherwise. We can use that time to make up lessons.
I also looked at my calendar for next week. Megan has a doctor appointment Wednesday at 10:15 am and we all have dentists appointments Thursday at 10 am. Guess what we are not going to get done Wednesday or Thursday morning next week?? School! Then we have HLC Wednesday afternoon and dance Thursday afternoon, looks like both those days are taken up. We may get some work done after we get home, but it's hard to school work started at 3 pm!
So are we catching up on school work today or getting ahead??
Can I say again how much I love the flexibility that comes with homeschooling??
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Finally getting somewhere!
I feel that we finally are getting somewhere in regards to school!
We don't have any appointments this week OR any birthday parties!
It is the end of Wednesday and we have everything we needed to get done so far this week.
I am pretty excited!
We might even get ahead. :) Oh wait, I have five weeks to catch up!
Ok, so I might be able to make up some English/ math lessons that we missed the last couple of weeks!
This feels pretty good!!
PS I can definitely tell the girls have been at school for the last month. Courtney's reading is much better and she is doing great at her math facts! Megan has a better understanding of things and actually wants me to skip things because she, "knows this already!"
We don't have any appointments this week OR any birthday parties!
It is the end of Wednesday and we have everything we needed to get done so far this week.
I am pretty excited!
We might even get ahead. :) Oh wait, I have five weeks to catch up!
Ok, so I might be able to make up some English/ math lessons that we missed the last couple of weeks!
This feels pretty good!!
PS I can definitely tell the girls have been at school for the last month. Courtney's reading is much better and she is doing great at her math facts! Megan has a better understanding of things and actually wants me to skip things because she, "knows this already!"
Random thought...
When are kids old enough to write their own thank you notes??
It has been birthday season and my girls have received thank you notes from their friends.
Are 9/ 10 years olds old enough to write their own thank you notes OR should their parents still be writing them for them??? Are the kids the ones who are thankful or the parents? Should the kids have the writing skills by 9/10 years old to write their own notes??
I make my kids write their own thank you notes as soon as they can write! I certainly help them, but I feel they are the ones that received the presents PLUS it is a good chance to practice their writing and all the mechanics that come with writing a note.
Just a random thought....any opinions on this topic???
It has been birthday season and my girls have received thank you notes from their friends.
Are 9/ 10 years olds old enough to write their own thank you notes OR should their parents still be writing them for them??? Are the kids the ones who are thankful or the parents? Should the kids have the writing skills by 9/10 years old to write their own notes??
I make my kids write their own thank you notes as soon as they can write! I certainly help them, but I feel they are the ones that received the presents PLUS it is a good chance to practice their writing and all the mechanics that come with writing a note.
Just a random thought....any opinions on this topic???
Monday, November 11, 2013
We are studying conservation.
Courtney is going to either love this lesson or hate it! She is my animal lover and does not like it when we talk about animals that have gone extinct, luckily, we are also going to talk about what we can do about it, so hopefully we will come out about neutral in the end!
http://www.ehow.com/info_8374247_reasons-extinction-endangered-extinct-species.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_8236260_stop-animals-becoming-extinct.html
http://www.ehow.com/info_8521968_happens-gets-endangered-species-list.html
http://www.ehow.com/info_8374247_reasons-extinction-endangered-extinct-species.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_8236260_stop-animals-becoming-extinct.html
http://www.ehow.com/info_8521968_happens-gets-endangered-species-list.html
Big Megan :)
Megan, almost 10!
Taken September 22, 2013 at Washington DC. Taken at the base of the Lincoln Memorial with the Washington Memorial in the background!
Baby Megan :)
How can this cute little baby be 10 years old already??
Taken November 11, 2003 at Methodist Hospital
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Done, Done, Done!!
I love celebrating birthdays! I love that we can celebrate our children getting another year older! (Even though I don't want them to grow up!) But I am glad that birthday celebrations are over!
We had a homeschooling friends birthday party on Friday, we had 16 kids and 7 moms over and I had a great time! All the kids got along, nobody got mad at each other, the games went relatively well, and everyone seemed to have a great time!
On Saturday, we had two more birthday parties, one of them was for my niece and another was for a friend of Megan's from church. More cupcakes, more ice cream, more celebrations. :)
Today was Megan's official birthday and we had family and a couple friends over tonight. It was an odd party though, many people came over around 3, even though the party started at 4. Many relatives were in town and I said they could come over early, it wasn't a problem at all! We ate and opened presents and then people had to start leaving. By the time we blew out candles, we had less than 10 people left! It was an odd thing! We were singing to Megan as people wanted to walk out the door! Next year, I will plan the party earlier!
Now, I am trying to get stuff ready for school this week! We are going to talk about Veteran's Day tomorrow too, so I need to find some activity for that too!
We had a homeschooling friends birthday party on Friday, we had 16 kids and 7 moms over and I had a great time! All the kids got along, nobody got mad at each other, the games went relatively well, and everyone seemed to have a great time!
On Saturday, we had two more birthday parties, one of them was for my niece and another was for a friend of Megan's from church. More cupcakes, more ice cream, more celebrations. :)
Today was Megan's official birthday and we had family and a couple friends over tonight. It was an odd party though, many people came over around 3, even though the party started at 4. Many relatives were in town and I said they could come over early, it wasn't a problem at all! We ate and opened presents and then people had to start leaving. By the time we blew out candles, we had less than 10 people left! It was an odd thing! We were singing to Megan as people wanted to walk out the door! Next year, I will plan the party earlier!
Now, I am trying to get stuff ready for school this week! We are going to talk about Veteran's Day tomorrow too, so I need to find some activity for that too!
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Christian can spell!
Last night, we took Megan out for her birthday and ran some errands.
It was about 8:30 and we were getting into the car to come home.
Courtney asked me, "Mom, where are we going now?"
I replied, "We are going home and we are heading to B-E-D!"
Christian replied, "That spells McDonalds!!"
Um, no, it doesn't and we are not going to McDonalds!
(Ever since our trip, Courtney and Christian are determined that we are going to stop at every McDonalds we see for ice cream! Once in awhile is fine, but not every McDonalds! I need to get this out of their brains! Christian might be spelling McDonalds before he can even spell his name!)
It was about 8:30 and we were getting into the car to come home.
Courtney asked me, "Mom, where are we going now?"
I replied, "We are going home and we are heading to B-E-D!"
Christian replied, "That spells McDonalds!!"
Um, no, it doesn't and we are not going to McDonalds!
(Ever since our trip, Courtney and Christian are determined that we are going to stop at every McDonalds we see for ice cream! Once in awhile is fine, but not every McDonalds! I need to get this out of their brains! Christian might be spelling McDonalds before he can even spell his name!)
Friday, November 8, 2013
Birthday Celebrations!
This weekend is THEE weekend! I mean, it's Megan's 10th birthday on Sunday! We have been counting down to this day for a very long time!!
Megan has her first birthday party this afternoon! Another thing (of many) that I love about homeschooling is that we can have birthday parties in the middle of the day! And everybody can make it!! I don't have to have it on a Saturday anymore!
I think we are having seven other homeschooling families over to celebrate! This will include 16 kids and 7 adults. We have games and crafts planned. It should be a good time!!!
She is going to have her family one on Sunday. I hate not having family get-together, I want to celebrate my kids every year!!!
In addition to Megan's two parties this weekend, we also have two MORE birthday parties on Saturday!
Off to a busy weekend!!!
Megan has her first birthday party this afternoon! Another thing (of many) that I love about homeschooling is that we can have birthday parties in the middle of the day! And everybody can make it!! I don't have to have it on a Saturday anymore!
I think we are having seven other homeschooling families over to celebrate! This will include 16 kids and 7 adults. We have games and crafts planned. It should be a good time!!!
She is going to have her family one on Sunday. I hate not having family get-together, I want to celebrate my kids every year!!!
In addition to Megan's two parties this weekend, we also have two MORE birthday parties on Saturday!
Off to a busy weekend!!!
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Finish the Book!
After supper last night, we asked the kids to clean up the living room and the rest of the first floor, Megan's friend party is Friday and I would like to get a head start on cleaning.
Except nobody felt like cleaning and they weren't moving too fast and I didn't really feel like fighting them....
So I thought of a new plan. I was going to have them clean last night and then finish reading our read-aloud Wednesday morning.
I asked them, "Would you rather me finish reading your book now or clean?? If I read now, you will be cleaning tomorrow morning"
Simultaneously, the girls responded, "Read the book!!!"
So for the next hour and a half, I read the rest of "Moccasin Trail." (I read it so long that Christian fell asleep in my lap!)
Wow, such a good book! After we finished, Courtney said, "That is my favorite book!" I'm so glad! (These books are not a part of her curriculum, but I've had her listen anyway.)
Now, time to get the girls out of bed and we have to clean this morning...and work on science! Then we are off to the Homeschool Learning Center at noon, errands and the library afterwards, home to give piano lessons, supper, then church tonight. Not much school going on today!
Except nobody felt like cleaning and they weren't moving too fast and I didn't really feel like fighting them....
So I thought of a new plan. I was going to have them clean last night and then finish reading our read-aloud Wednesday morning.
I asked them, "Would you rather me finish reading your book now or clean?? If I read now, you will be cleaning tomorrow morning"
Simultaneously, the girls responded, "Read the book!!!"
So for the next hour and a half, I read the rest of "Moccasin Trail." (I read it so long that Christian fell asleep in my lap!)
Wow, such a good book! After we finished, Courtney said, "That is my favorite book!" I'm so glad! (These books are not a part of her curriculum, but I've had her listen anyway.)
Now, time to get the girls out of bed and we have to clean this morning...and work on science! Then we are off to the Homeschool Learning Center at noon, errands and the library afterwards, home to give piano lessons, supper, then church tonight. Not much school going on today!
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
School Today
You know you have a learned a lot in school when it is 5 pm and you finally tell the kids that school is over! We started at 9:15 this morning.
I try to get a lot done with school on Mondays and Tuesdays and I usually don't keep the girls busy until 5, but that is just how it worked today.
Here's how today went:
9:15-9:30 intro/ calendar
9:30-10 Bible class with both girls
10-11 I meant to start with Language Arts with Megan (Courtney is free to go play), she really wanted to read history, so we went with that instead! Do you know why she wants to read history first?? We are reading "Lincoln: A Photobiography" by Russell Freedman. She can't get enough of Abraham Lincoln lately, so I might as well feed her little mind some more. :)
This took until about 11, we like to stop and discuss things...a lot. About 11, I went through English, Spelling, and Writing with her. Her writing assignment today was to discuss the Bill of Rights to the Constitution of the United States, so of course, I looked up Bill of Rights on the computer and we talked about them! It is amazing how relevant those are to our lives today!! She gets to pick something and write a Bill of Rights about it tomorrow.
By about 11:30, I was done with Megan's Language Arts and History.
It was now Courtney's turn to go to school. We got through our Phonics and Spelling lessons by 12.
We had lunch and I gave them some free time (oh wait, break time for me) until about 1:30.
At 1:30, they all played legos on the living room floor and we read our read-aloud assignment. We are currently reading "Moccasin Trail" and we are almost to the end, so we are trying to read everyday.
By 2:30, we were done reading.
Megan had a math test today and once she got this done, she was done with school. At this time, I checked her math assignment and gave her the test. She went up to her bedroom to do it and I sat down and finished Language Arts with Courtney. She had to read and we learned about homophones.
After that was over, we did her math assignment and continued to drill her addition facts. She is getting good at her math facts!!
By 4 pm, we were done with our daily assignments for both girls. They had been begging for some ice cream, so I said once we were done, they could get some, so at 4 pm, the kids scooped out ice cream for themselves. :)
I knew it was already 4, but I really wanted to get to science today. I had a project prepared for them on animal habitats and I knew it would take more than a day to finish. I asked them if they were ok with doing science yet today and they said, "Yes!" As they were eating ice cream, I started reading them our assignment on animal habitats and homes out of "The Usborne World of Animals".
As they were finishing their ice cream, I was finishing reading and we did our couple questions out of our curriculum. After that, the bowls went on the counter and out came my project on animal habitats. We made a book and are going to be describing eight different habitats and the girls are going to draw pictures of each habitat. We got "grassland" and "desert" done today. It was about 4:50 and Megan said, "Can I be done??" I looked at the clock and realized that we had gone much later than usual and let her be done. Courtney, on the other hand, wanted to do more! I told her that I wasn't going to teach the same thing twice and that we would finish tomorrow. She said, "That's ok, I'll just go make my own book," and she ran off!
As she ran upstairs, she said, "Mom, can you come upstairs and play with me?" I said, "Sorry Courtney, I need a break too!" It's been kind of nice that the playroom is clean, they have been playing up their lately and I can actually have some peace downstairs. :)
I look at my day and realize that if we didn't read for two hours, we would've been done two hours sooner! But I love this time with my kids and I love the books that our curriculum presents us! It takes a lot more time, but I think it is so worth it! About every book we read is a Newberry Medal book, so they are very good books! Every year I think about switching from this curriculum, but just can't bring myself to do it because I (and the kids) enjoy the literature so much! Even if it takes us all day to get through school. :)
(And really, neither girl is in school for more than 2-3 hours, I am the one that is teaching all day!)
I try to get a lot done with school on Mondays and Tuesdays and I usually don't keep the girls busy until 5, but that is just how it worked today.
Here's how today went:
9:15-9:30 intro/ calendar
9:30-10 Bible class with both girls
10-11 I meant to start with Language Arts with Megan (Courtney is free to go play), she really wanted to read history, so we went with that instead! Do you know why she wants to read history first?? We are reading "Lincoln: A Photobiography" by Russell Freedman. She can't get enough of Abraham Lincoln lately, so I might as well feed her little mind some more. :)
This took until about 11, we like to stop and discuss things...a lot. About 11, I went through English, Spelling, and Writing with her. Her writing assignment today was to discuss the Bill of Rights to the Constitution of the United States, so of course, I looked up Bill of Rights on the computer and we talked about them! It is amazing how relevant those are to our lives today!! She gets to pick something and write a Bill of Rights about it tomorrow.
By about 11:30, I was done with Megan's Language Arts and History.
It was now Courtney's turn to go to school. We got through our Phonics and Spelling lessons by 12.
We had lunch and I gave them some free time (oh wait, break time for me) until about 1:30.
At 1:30, they all played legos on the living room floor and we read our read-aloud assignment. We are currently reading "Moccasin Trail" and we are almost to the end, so we are trying to read everyday.
By 2:30, we were done reading.
Megan had a math test today and once she got this done, she was done with school. At this time, I checked her math assignment and gave her the test. She went up to her bedroom to do it and I sat down and finished Language Arts with Courtney. She had to read and we learned about homophones.
After that was over, we did her math assignment and continued to drill her addition facts. She is getting good at her math facts!!
By 4 pm, we were done with our daily assignments for both girls. They had been begging for some ice cream, so I said once we were done, they could get some, so at 4 pm, the kids scooped out ice cream for themselves. :)
I knew it was already 4, but I really wanted to get to science today. I had a project prepared for them on animal habitats and I knew it would take more than a day to finish. I asked them if they were ok with doing science yet today and they said, "Yes!" As they were eating ice cream, I started reading them our assignment on animal habitats and homes out of "The Usborne World of Animals".
As they were finishing their ice cream, I was finishing reading and we did our couple questions out of our curriculum. After that, the bowls went on the counter and out came my project on animal habitats. We made a book and are going to be describing eight different habitats and the girls are going to draw pictures of each habitat. We got "grassland" and "desert" done today. It was about 4:50 and Megan said, "Can I be done??" I looked at the clock and realized that we had gone much later than usual and let her be done. Courtney, on the other hand, wanted to do more! I told her that I wasn't going to teach the same thing twice and that we would finish tomorrow. She said, "That's ok, I'll just go make my own book," and she ran off!
As she ran upstairs, she said, "Mom, can you come upstairs and play with me?" I said, "Sorry Courtney, I need a break too!" It's been kind of nice that the playroom is clean, they have been playing up their lately and I can actually have some peace downstairs. :)
I look at my day and realize that if we didn't read for two hours, we would've been done two hours sooner! But I love this time with my kids and I love the books that our curriculum presents us! It takes a lot more time, but I think it is so worth it! About every book we read is a Newberry Medal book, so they are very good books! Every year I think about switching from this curriculum, but just can't bring myself to do it because I (and the kids) enjoy the literature so much! Even if it takes us all day to get through school. :)
(And really, neither girl is in school for more than 2-3 hours, I am the one that is teaching all day!)
A Full Night's Sleep!
After having "bronchitis boy" sleeping in our room and coughing for the two nights, it was nice to have him back in his room and sleep peacefully last night!
His bronchitis wasn't as bad this time, maybe there is hope that he won't get it every three weeks this winter!
And if he does, I refuse to give him steroids for it! I would rather boost his immune system so he can fight it on his own!
His bronchitis wasn't as bad this time, maybe there is hope that he won't get it every three weeks this winter!
And if he does, I refuse to give him steroids for it! I would rather boost his immune system so he can fight it on his own!
Sunday, November 3, 2013
The Liberty Bell
Matt finally put our pictures from our trip on our servers, so I now have access to them! As I was looking through them tonight, I found this one and thought it was pretty good, so I decided to share!
It is Courtney and I in front of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania!!
For awhile, Courtney said the Liberty Bell was her favorite part of the trip! (Now she tells people that the gift shops were her favorite part!)
I can't seem to find pictures from our last two days in Washington DC, so hopefully those are around somewhere....
It is Courtney and I in front of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania!!
For awhile, Courtney said the Liberty Bell was her favorite part of the trip! (Now she tells people that the gift shops were her favorite part!)
I can't seem to find pictures from our last two days in Washington DC, so hopefully those are around somewhere....
Bronchitis is back!
Poor Christian! He was doing so good, he hasn't had bronchitis since July and now I believe he has it again!
He started with a runny nose yesterday and it eventually turned into a chronic cough. He slept in my room last night on the floor and was up coughing half the night.
Today his cheeks are flush and he's running a fever. We got out the albuterol already last night and started giving it to him when we heard him wheezing. I haven't given him any Advil yet, but it's getting close to where he will need some.
I really hope he doesn't get this all winter again!
He started with a runny nose yesterday and it eventually turned into a chronic cough. He slept in my room last night on the floor and was up coughing half the night.
Today his cheeks are flush and he's running a fever. We got out the albuterol already last night and started giving it to him when we heard him wheezing. I haven't given him any Advil yet, but it's getting close to where he will need some.
I really hope he doesn't get this all winter again!
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Another mission accomplished!
As many of you know, the playroom at our house is Courtney's favorite place to be. It's also her favorite place to make a mess!!
Thanks to Courtney and a few of her friends, the playroom has been a huge mess for the last 2-3 weeks! (I'm not sure which set of friends it was, so I'm not blaming anyone here!) About a week ago, I closed the door and shut everybody out!! The mess was beginning to get out into the hallway and when that happens, it's time to shut it down!
After we got home from a baby shower and a birthday party today, I told the girls that we need to at least START on the playroom. I told them that if they worked hard for an hour, they could stop. You know what? They cleaned the ENTIRE thing with no complaints! I helped them because oddly enough, I like cleaning that room.
I am amazed! One day and we have two rooms done!! YIPPEE!!!
Now do I close it until the birthday party or let Courtney start over with her mess??
Thanks to Courtney and a few of her friends, the playroom has been a huge mess for the last 2-3 weeks! (I'm not sure which set of friends it was, so I'm not blaming anyone here!) About a week ago, I closed the door and shut everybody out!! The mess was beginning to get out into the hallway and when that happens, it's time to shut it down!
After we got home from a baby shower and a birthday party today, I told the girls that we need to at least START on the playroom. I told them that if they worked hard for an hour, they could stop. You know what? They cleaned the ENTIRE thing with no complaints! I helped them because oddly enough, I like cleaning that room.
I am amazed! One day and we have two rooms done!! YIPPEE!!!
Now do I close it until the birthday party or let Courtney start over with her mess??
One Mission Accomplished!
I have many goals to achieve this week. We have Megan's friend birthday party on Friday and her family one on Sunday.
One big goal is to clean this house before Friday!!!
One little goal is to clean the girls' bedroom and sort through their clothes!
Guess what? Little goal: Mission Accomplished!
It's funny what you find in their drawers---socks that couldn't have fit them for years (Courtney!), dirty tights (Megan!), dirty leotards that she has worn over and over (Megan!), pants with holes in them (Courtney), swimsuits that should have been thrown away a long time ago (Megan!) etc, etc. etc.
I'm glad that job is done! Now to put these clothes in their appropriate containers and back into the attic- that might be a job for another day!
One big goal is to clean this house before Friday!!!
One little goal is to clean the girls' bedroom and sort through their clothes!
Guess what? Little goal: Mission Accomplished!
It's funny what you find in their drawers---socks that couldn't have fit them for years (Courtney!), dirty tights (Megan!), dirty leotards that she has worn over and over (Megan!), pants with holes in them (Courtney), swimsuits that should have been thrown away a long time ago (Megan!) etc, etc. etc.
I'm glad that job is done! Now to put these clothes in their appropriate containers and back into the attic- that might be a job for another day!
Friday, November 1, 2013
More Candy?
If I got a dollar for every time I heard, "Can I have a piece of candy?" today, I would be RICH!!!!
Thursday, October 31, 2013
animal Camouflage
Info on animal Camouflage for science class tomorrow. :)
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c0/76/84/c076844cc157ac0012eafc992510efb8.jpg
http://www.topscience.org/activities_web/freedownload37.jpg
http://oakdome.com/k5/lesson-plans/powerpoint/animal-camouflage-pictures-and-information.php
http://www.ehow.com/info_10022078_camouflage-animal-projects-kids.html#http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ehow.com%2Finfo_10022078_camouflage-animal-projects-kids.html
http://sgmacro.blogspot.com/2013_08_01_archive.html
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c0/76/84/c076844cc157ac0012eafc992510efb8.jpg
http://www.topscience.org/activities_web/freedownload37.jpg
http://oakdome.com/k5/lesson-plans/powerpoint/animal-camouflage-pictures-and-information.php
http://www.ehow.com/info_10022078_camouflage-animal-projects-kids.html#http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ehow.com%2Finfo_10022078_camouflage-animal-projects-kids.html
http://sgmacro.blogspot.com/2013_08_01_archive.html
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
My Last Visit?
Today I visited the root canal specialist, for what I hope, is the last time!
I have been there four times now.
1st time- Take out my old root canal and clean everything. Refill with antibiotics and come back in two weeks.
2nd time- Week later, I returned. My tooth hurt pretty bad and they decided that I needed another root canal done.
3rd time Week later, I returned for another root canal. Come back in two weeks.
4th time Today I went back in and I wasn't sure what they were going to say. I have still had some problems with it, but mostly in conjunction with my sinuses. He tested it and decided to go ahead and take the antibiotics out and fill it permanently. Once he got in there, he said there were no cracks, no drainage, and everything was dry. After he filled it, he put in a temporary filling and I have to go back to my general dentist to get it filled for the final time in ANOTHER two weeks.
I am now waiting for my numbing to wear off before church tonight.
I really hope this is over with!!!
I have been there four times now.
1st time- Take out my old root canal and clean everything. Refill with antibiotics and come back in two weeks.
2nd time- Week later, I returned. My tooth hurt pretty bad and they decided that I needed another root canal done.
3rd time Week later, I returned for another root canal. Come back in two weeks.
4th time Today I went back in and I wasn't sure what they were going to say. I have still had some problems with it, but mostly in conjunction with my sinuses. He tested it and decided to go ahead and take the antibiotics out and fill it permanently. Once he got in there, he said there were no cracks, no drainage, and everything was dry. After he filled it, he put in a temporary filling and I have to go back to my general dentist to get it filled for the final time in ANOTHER two weeks.
I am now waiting for my numbing to wear off before church tonight.
I really hope this is over with!!!
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
food chains
This will probably be Courtney's least favorite lesson in science class- food chains!
But I think it is very important to understand!
I am going to put some websites here that I may use in science class tomorrow.
http://img.docstoccdn.com/thumb/orig/24603955.png
http://pack152.net/AcademicsAndSports/WildlifeConservation/FoodChain.gif
http://wc1.smartdraw.com/examples/content/examples/10_education/2_biology/food_chain_drawing_l.jpg
http://www.chainconveyordesign.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Food-Chains-Examples2.jpg
http://www.zoomstore.com/subjects/foodchain/samplefoodchains.GIF
http://www.doctortee.com/dsu/tiftickjian/cse-img/biology/ecology/food-chains.jpg
http://www.field-studies-council.org/breathingplaces/images/minibeasts/FOODWEB.gif
http://gozips.uakron.edu/~jrl63/WBLS/Picture%204.png
But I think it is very important to understand!
I am going to put some websites here that I may use in science class tomorrow.
http://img.docstoccdn.com/thumb/orig/24603955.png
http://pack152.net/AcademicsAndSports/WildlifeConservation/FoodChain.gif
http://wc1.smartdraw.com/examples/content/examples/10_education/2_biology/food_chain_drawing_l.jpg
http://www.chainconveyordesign.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Food-Chains-Examples2.jpg
http://www.zoomstore.com/subjects/foodchain/samplefoodchains.GIF
http://www.doctortee.com/dsu/tiftickjian/cse-img/biology/ecology/food-chains.jpg
http://www.field-studies-council.org/breathingplaces/images/minibeasts/FOODWEB.gif
http://gozips.uakron.edu/~jrl63/WBLS/Picture%204.png
I might do that again!
We have needed groceries for about a week now. Every time I wanted to go get them, something came up. Yesterday, we were getting desperate. No fresh fruit, no fresh vegetables, no cereal, no milk, no eggs, no canned fruit, no frozen vegetables, etc. I was beginning to wonder what my family was going to eat for breakfast.
As I was looking at our weekly schedule, I was trying to figure in a two hour grocery trip. (This is usually how long it takes when I have so much to get! ) I wasn't seeing many open hours in the schedule. We have school, learning center, dance, church, plus a couple other appointments this week along with a birthday party. I was kind of running out of options.
Last night, we got invited to attend a piano recital of two of my girls' really good friends. If anybody knows me, I immediately told them we would be attending! I took Courtney and Megan along and it was at a church really close to our house. We were done about 8 pm and then I thought, "I should go get groceries! The store would be empty, I only have my two older girls, and I could probably do it pretty quickly." Matt was at home with Christian.
So we did! We went to Walmart last night after the piano recital! I texted Matt and told him where we were going. We got to Walmart at 8:20 and I gave myself a goal of having my shopping done by 9 pm. I had a list that was two pages long and thought this would be possible.
I was wrong. We were about halfway done at 9 pm! We probably got done shopping around 9:30 and then it took awhile to check out. Not because it was busy, but because the checker was really sweet and nice (another plus at going at 9 pm) and was just taking her time, which I didn't mind because I had nowhere else to go PLUS there was nobody standing behind me!
While I checked out, Megan helped put bags in the cart and Courtney helped me unload all the groceries. What good helpers!! We were in our car by 10 pm and headed home.
When we got home, Matt and the girls helped bring everything in as I started to put things away. When everything was in, Matt helped put groceries away too. By 10:30, everything was put away! WOW!!! (Usually I put away the cold things and leave the pantry items for another time.)
The girls were kind of wired yet and didn't want to go to bed. Courtney actually sat down in the living room and was playing with legos at this time! She told me she wasn't tired!
By 11 pm, everybody was in bed. Wow!
But in the end, shopping at 9 pm was very pleasant! The store was empty, it was quiet, it was easy to find what I wanted, and the cashier was actually friendly! I might just do that again!!!
As I was looking at our weekly schedule, I was trying to figure in a two hour grocery trip. (This is usually how long it takes when I have so much to get! ) I wasn't seeing many open hours in the schedule. We have school, learning center, dance, church, plus a couple other appointments this week along with a birthday party. I was kind of running out of options.
Last night, we got invited to attend a piano recital of two of my girls' really good friends. If anybody knows me, I immediately told them we would be attending! I took Courtney and Megan along and it was at a church really close to our house. We were done about 8 pm and then I thought, "I should go get groceries! The store would be empty, I only have my two older girls, and I could probably do it pretty quickly." Matt was at home with Christian.
So we did! We went to Walmart last night after the piano recital! I texted Matt and told him where we were going. We got to Walmart at 8:20 and I gave myself a goal of having my shopping done by 9 pm. I had a list that was two pages long and thought this would be possible.
I was wrong. We were about halfway done at 9 pm! We probably got done shopping around 9:30 and then it took awhile to check out. Not because it was busy, but because the checker was really sweet and nice (another plus at going at 9 pm) and was just taking her time, which I didn't mind because I had nowhere else to go PLUS there was nobody standing behind me!
While I checked out, Megan helped put bags in the cart and Courtney helped me unload all the groceries. What good helpers!! We were in our car by 10 pm and headed home.
When we got home, Matt and the girls helped bring everything in as I started to put things away. When everything was in, Matt helped put groceries away too. By 10:30, everything was put away! WOW!!! (Usually I put away the cold things and leave the pantry items for another time.)
The girls were kind of wired yet and didn't want to go to bed. Courtney actually sat down in the living room and was playing with legos at this time! She told me she wasn't tired!
By 11 pm, everybody was in bed. Wow!
But in the end, shopping at 9 pm was very pleasant! The store was empty, it was quiet, it was easy to find what I wanted, and the cashier was actually friendly! I might just do that again!!!
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Trip Pictures
Speaking of our trip (referring to previous blog), I still am not able to put anymore pictures up.
While we were gone, we downloaded all our pictures onto matt's work computer that we had along in the camper. All 3,000 of them! There are still about 300 on the camera yet!
Once we got home, Matt had to replace the water heater and in order to get the old water heater out and the new water heater in, he had to take down all his computer shelves and servers.
For the last month or so, he has not had time to put the computer shelves and servers back together.
Hence, he cannot download my pictures onto the server so I can use them.
His work laptop is always in the basement or with him so at the time, I do not have access to any of our pictures!!
On the bright side though, he has them all downloaded onto a memory stick, so we can plug that into any computer and show people, which we have done a couple of times.
We also have our DVD of us on the Today Show, which is super fun to watch too!
Someday, I will be able to put more pictures on my blog and MAYBE finish documenting our trip!
While we were gone, we downloaded all our pictures onto matt's work computer that we had along in the camper. All 3,000 of them! There are still about 300 on the camera yet!
Once we got home, Matt had to replace the water heater and in order to get the old water heater out and the new water heater in, he had to take down all his computer shelves and servers.
For the last month or so, he has not had time to put the computer shelves and servers back together.
Hence, he cannot download my pictures onto the server so I can use them.
His work laptop is always in the basement or with him so at the time, I do not have access to any of our pictures!!
On the bright side though, he has them all downloaded onto a memory stick, so we can plug that into any computer and show people, which we have done a couple of times.
We also have our DVD of us on the Today Show, which is super fun to watch too!
Someday, I will be able to put more pictures on my blog and MAYBE finish documenting our trip!
Time to Get everything fixed!
Do you remember how we bought a brand new camper in June of this year? And then in August took is on a 5,000 mile journey half way across the country?? (ok, 4,933 miles)
Ever since we got back, it has been in storage and waiting for the day to go get everything fixed in it that broke while we were gone. Today, after waiting three weeks for an appointment, Matt hauled it back to Leach Camper sales for the repairs!
And we have a list of them, here are some to name a few:
curtains in the bunkhouse are frayed
comforter in master bedroom is coming apart
water damage along woodwork in kitchen from leaking water heater
corroded motor in one of the jacks
gas line has come loose and just hangs under slide-out
shades are broken by kitchen table
bathroom door is on crooked and squeaks every time it opens
And the list goes on...
Ok, some of this we did, but the person at Leach said they would take care of everything for us! Everything should be covered by warranty!!
After going on a factory tour in Goshen, we now know how these are put together and I wonder how they are going to fix some of it!
I guess we will see next week when we get it back.
Some of our friends are going camping one last time next weekend, but I think we are not going to be able to go with them. We have four parties that have come up that weekend!
After we get everything fixed, we will put it away for the winter.
I wonder where we will go next summer. And no, we are not going on another 5,000 mile trip for a couple of years!!
Ever since we got back, it has been in storage and waiting for the day to go get everything fixed in it that broke while we were gone. Today, after waiting three weeks for an appointment, Matt hauled it back to Leach Camper sales for the repairs!
And we have a list of them, here are some to name a few:
curtains in the bunkhouse are frayed
comforter in master bedroom is coming apart
water damage along woodwork in kitchen from leaking water heater
corroded motor in one of the jacks
gas line has come loose and just hangs under slide-out
shades are broken by kitchen table
bathroom door is on crooked and squeaks every time it opens
And the list goes on...
Ok, some of this we did, but the person at Leach said they would take care of everything for us! Everything should be covered by warranty!!
After going on a factory tour in Goshen, we now know how these are put together and I wonder how they are going to fix some of it!
I guess we will see next week when we get it back.
Some of our friends are going camping one last time next weekend, but I think we are not going to be able to go with them. We have four parties that have come up that weekend!
After we get everything fixed, we will put it away for the winter.
I wonder where we will go next summer. And no, we are not going on another 5,000 mile trip for a couple of years!!
Monday, October 21, 2013
Hibernation Activities
Back to websites for science class!
We are still talking about animals in science class. Today we talked about migration and the lengths that some animals go to migrate, like the artic tern that travels from the Arctic all the way to Antarctica! That is 27,000 miles!
Tomorrow we are going to look further into hibernation. Here is one website we are going to use to learn about the topic.
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/hibernating-animals-list.html
I think after we talk about hibernation for a little bit, I am going to have the kids go into hibernation themselves! Courtney loves to build forts around the house, so this will give her a good reason to build a fort (aka cave for hibernation).
http://www.craftcaravan.com/hibernation-theme-activities-for-kids
Finally, we will discuss what the pros and cons of hibernation are for them. What would they miss over winter? Where would they hibernate? How would they prepare? I am curious to see what they will say!
We are still talking about animals in science class. Today we talked about migration and the lengths that some animals go to migrate, like the artic tern that travels from the Arctic all the way to Antarctica! That is 27,000 miles!
Tomorrow we are going to look further into hibernation. Here is one website we are going to use to learn about the topic.
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/hibernating-animals-list.html
I think after we talk about hibernation for a little bit, I am going to have the kids go into hibernation themselves! Courtney loves to build forts around the house, so this will give her a good reason to build a fort (aka cave for hibernation).
http://www.craftcaravan.com/hibernation-theme-activities-for-kids
Finally, we will discuss what the pros and cons of hibernation are for them. What would they miss over winter? Where would they hibernate? How would they prepare? I am curious to see what they will say!
Prayers by Christian. :)
Three year old prayers are the best!!
While we were on our trip, Christian would pray the following:
"Dear Jesus,
Thank you for today, thank you for grandpa and I will give grandpa his card. Amen."
The only thing we could figure out was that he wanted to give his grandpa a postcard from our trip.
Last week, we decided that Christian needed to pray for something new because grandpa had gotten his postcard about a month earlier. :)
His new prayer:
"Dear Jesus, thank you for today and thank you for grandpa. I want to ride with grandpa in the combine and tractor. Amen."
He prayed this all last week.
Guess what he got to do on Saturday?? Ride with his grandpa in the tractor and combine!
He rode with his uncle for awhile in the tractor, rode for awhile longer in the tractor with one grandpa, and rode over an hour with his other grandpa in the combine! This boy loved it!! He was very reluctant to get back in the car to go home.
Now, he has a new prayer.
"Dear Jesus,
Thank you for today. Please help grandpa fix his combine and get some new back tires. Please help the corn to go into the wagon behind the tractor. Amen."
My dad was actually using a rental combine on Saturday because his broke down. Christian saw his combine in the field and it had no back tires on it! He is now praying that he is able to get his combine fixed!
I hope we can get out there and help harvest again next weekend and that grandpa will get his combine fixed!
While we were on our trip, Christian would pray the following:
"Dear Jesus,
Thank you for today, thank you for grandpa and I will give grandpa his card. Amen."
The only thing we could figure out was that he wanted to give his grandpa a postcard from our trip.
Last week, we decided that Christian needed to pray for something new because grandpa had gotten his postcard about a month earlier. :)
His new prayer:
"Dear Jesus, thank you for today and thank you for grandpa. I want to ride with grandpa in the combine and tractor. Amen."
He prayed this all last week.
Guess what he got to do on Saturday?? Ride with his grandpa in the tractor and combine!
He rode with his uncle for awhile in the tractor, rode for awhile longer in the tractor with one grandpa, and rode over an hour with his other grandpa in the combine! This boy loved it!! He was very reluctant to get back in the car to go home.
Now, he has a new prayer.
"Dear Jesus,
Thank you for today. Please help grandpa fix his combine and get some new back tires. Please help the corn to go into the wagon behind the tractor. Amen."
My dad was actually using a rental combine on Saturday because his broke down. Christian saw his combine in the field and it had no back tires on it! He is now praying that he is able to get his combine fixed!
I hope we can get out there and help harvest again next weekend and that grandpa will get his combine fixed!
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Another root canal is complete!
Has anybody else had three root canals on the same tooth?? Or is it just me?
Root Canal #1- December 2010
Root canal #2- Two weeks ago
Root canal #3- yesterday afternoon
Seriously! I even went to a root canal specialist for these last two root canals, he found an extra canal, so that explained why it had gotten infected. But for the third time? He doesn't know.
As he was in there yesterday, he said he didn't notice any cracks in my canals and everything looked fine. He said it is sometimes hard to get rid of bacteria.
I have also had a lot of sinus and eye pain, but he doesn't think it's related, BUT he wants me to get that checked out before he does the final filling.
If my infection does not go away after this root canal, he says we will need to pull the tooth. :(
And since I am so young, he said my teeth would surely move, so I would probably need to replace the tooth with an implant. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?? This is also the same side that I have so much TMJ trouble on, so I definitely don't want to mess that up any more either!
(All my TMJ trouble started when I originally cracked this tooth back in February of 2010!!)
Root Canal #1- December 2010
Root canal #2- Two weeks ago
Root canal #3- yesterday afternoon
Seriously! I even went to a root canal specialist for these last two root canals, he found an extra canal, so that explained why it had gotten infected. But for the third time? He doesn't know.
As he was in there yesterday, he said he didn't notice any cracks in my canals and everything looked fine. He said it is sometimes hard to get rid of bacteria.
I have also had a lot of sinus and eye pain, but he doesn't think it's related, BUT he wants me to get that checked out before he does the final filling.
If my infection does not go away after this root canal, he says we will need to pull the tooth. :(
And since I am so young, he said my teeth would surely move, so I would probably need to replace the tooth with an implant. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?? This is also the same side that I have so much TMJ trouble on, so I definitely don't want to mess that up any more either!
(All my TMJ trouble started when I originally cracked this tooth back in February of 2010!!)
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
A girl after my own heart. :)
In history, we have been reading about events leading up to the Civil War and Megan is loving it! And I am not lying!
We were reading a section today out of our book and I wanted to stop and have math with Courtney, but when I mentioned stopping, I got told, "Mom, don't stop, it's soooo interesting!"
Do you know what we were learning about?
pro-slavery vs. anti-slavery
north vs. south
"Uncle Tom's Cabin"
The Missouri Compromise of 1820
The Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854
Bloody Kansas
Senate/ House of Representatives and how they wanted to keep everything equal
Just to name a few. :)
After we were done reading (because I didn't stop to math with Courtney), Megan said, "Mom, I think my favorite war is the Civil War." Really??
This is also the same girl that when we were in Washington DC could NOT WAIT to get to the Lincoln Memorial!! We had seen Ford's Theatre that morning and all afternoon, I kept hearing, "When are we going to the Lincoln Memorial??? Can we go there NOW??"
When we finally got there, she told me that she wanted to memorize the Gettysburg Address!! (We had been at the Gettysburg Battlefield a few days earlier.)
She has also told me that Abraham Lincoln is her favorite president. :)
I think it's pretty neat that she has such an interest in this at such a young age!
Honestly, I told her that Congress at that time is a lot like our Congress today! Caught in a stalemate because nobody can agree!!!
We were reading a section today out of our book and I wanted to stop and have math with Courtney, but when I mentioned stopping, I got told, "Mom, don't stop, it's soooo interesting!"
Do you know what we were learning about?
pro-slavery vs. anti-slavery
north vs. south
"Uncle Tom's Cabin"
The Missouri Compromise of 1820
The Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854
Bloody Kansas
Senate/ House of Representatives and how they wanted to keep everything equal
Just to name a few. :)
After we were done reading (because I didn't stop to math with Courtney), Megan said, "Mom, I think my favorite war is the Civil War." Really??
This is also the same girl that when we were in Washington DC could NOT WAIT to get to the Lincoln Memorial!! We had seen Ford's Theatre that morning and all afternoon, I kept hearing, "When are we going to the Lincoln Memorial??? Can we go there NOW??"
When we finally got there, she told me that she wanted to memorize the Gettysburg Address!! (We had been at the Gettysburg Battlefield a few days earlier.)
She has also told me that Abraham Lincoln is her favorite president. :)
I think it's pretty neat that she has such an interest in this at such a young age!
Honestly, I told her that Congress at that time is a lot like our Congress today! Caught in a stalemate because nobody can agree!!!
The love of muffins in my heart?
There are two things that Christian loves lately. Singing and muffins. Odd, right?
He wants us to sing songs to him all the time and he usually has them memorized by the end of the day.
He knows
1. "Down by the Station"
2. the "number song" (ABC's)
3. the "macaroni song" (Yankee Doodle)
4. the "watermelon" song (Grandma Jo song!)
5. Jesus Loves me
6. Twinkle, Twinkle Little star
7. Railroad song (I've been working on the railroad)
8. "Ant Song" (The Ants go marching one, by one, hurrah, hurrah...)
His latest one is "Down in my Heart."
I've got the joy joy joy joy
Down in my heart. .where?
Down in my heart. .where?
Down in my heart
I've got the joy joy joy joy
Down in my heart. .where?
Down in my heart to stay
Here's a version we have been singing to Christian.
I've got the love of Jesus, love of Jesus,
down in my heart.
down in my heart.
down in my heart.
I've got the love of Jesus, love of Jesus,
down in my heart to stay.
Christian's version: (remember his two loves from above?)
I've got the love of muffins, love of muffins
down in my heart.
down in my heart down in my heart
I've got the love of muffins, love of muffins
down in my heart to stay
and I'm so happy, so very happy
I've got the love of muffins in my heart
and I'm so happy, so very happy
I've got the love of muffins in my heart!
He thinks he is pretty funny. :)
Do you think I should go make him some muffins??
He wants us to sing songs to him all the time and he usually has them memorized by the end of the day.
He knows
1. "Down by the Station"
2. the "number song" (ABC's)
3. the "macaroni song" (Yankee Doodle)
4. the "watermelon" song (Grandma Jo song!)
5. Jesus Loves me
6. Twinkle, Twinkle Little star
7. Railroad song (I've been working on the railroad)
8. "Ant Song" (The Ants go marching one, by one, hurrah, hurrah...)
His latest one is "Down in my Heart."
I've got the joy joy joy joy
Down in my heart. .where?
Down in my heart. .where?
Down in my heart
I've got the joy joy joy joy
Down in my heart. .where?
Down in my heart to stay
Here's a version we have been singing to Christian.
I've got the love of Jesus, love of Jesus,
down in my heart.
down in my heart.
down in my heart.
I've got the love of Jesus, love of Jesus,
down in my heart to stay.
Christian's version: (remember his two loves from above?)
I've got the love of muffins, love of muffins
down in my heart.
down in my heart down in my heart
I've got the love of muffins, love of muffins
down in my heart to stay
and I'm so happy, so very happy
I've got the love of muffins in my heart
and I'm so happy, so very happy
I've got the love of muffins in my heart!
He thinks he is pretty funny. :)
Do you think I should go make him some muffins??
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Opposition to Columbus Day?
If you celebrate Columbus Day tomorrow, you might be surprised to read this article.
http://racerelations.about.com/od/historyofracerelations/a/The-Argument-Against-Columbus-Day.htm
There are actually people in our country who oppose Columbus Day! If you read through this article you will understand why!
As we talk about Columbus Day tomorrow, I am going to have the girls debate this topic!
This reminds me of the day we spent in Plymouth, Massachusetts last month. There is actually a plaque on a rock in Plymouth where Native Americans hold a National Day of Mourning every single year on the US Thanksgiving holiday! It sits just up the hill from Plymouth Rock. The Native Americans don't like it that the explorers ever came to this continent and ruined their way of life!
Here is an article about how it started:
http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=340
What do you think???
http://racerelations.about.com/od/historyofracerelations/a/The-Argument-Against-Columbus-Day.htm
There are actually people in our country who oppose Columbus Day! If you read through this article you will understand why!
As we talk about Columbus Day tomorrow, I am going to have the girls debate this topic!
This reminds me of the day we spent in Plymouth, Massachusetts last month. There is actually a plaque on a rock in Plymouth where Native Americans hold a National Day of Mourning every single year on the US Thanksgiving holiday! It sits just up the hill from Plymouth Rock. The Native Americans don't like it that the explorers ever came to this continent and ruined their way of life!
Here is an article about how it started:
http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=340
What do you think???
Sunday Night Tradition
A Sunday night ritual has begun at the Ruwe house!
The new season of "The Amazing Race" is on and it is a must see for every member of our household!!
For the last two Sundays, I have made a pot of chili, we got out the table trays in the living room, we each got ourselves a bowl of soup, and made our way to our spots in front of the TV.
We enjoy our chili as we enjoy "The Amazing Race." It is great!!
We refill our bowls during commercial and usually by the time the show is over, we are done eating!
I know we are going to get tired of chili really fast, so I told the girls that maybe we can just make Sunday a "soup night" and I could try some new recipes. I think it sounds like a plan!
The new season of "The Amazing Race" is on and it is a must see for every member of our household!!
For the last two Sundays, I have made a pot of chili, we got out the table trays in the living room, we each got ourselves a bowl of soup, and made our way to our spots in front of the TV.
We enjoy our chili as we enjoy "The Amazing Race." It is great!!
We refill our bowls during commercial and usually by the time the show is over, we are done eating!
I know we are going to get tired of chili really fast, so I told the girls that maybe we can just make Sunday a "soup night" and I could try some new recipes. I think it sounds like a plan!
Friday, October 11, 2013
Zoo afternoon!
On Thursday, some homeschooling friends asked us if we wanted to go to the zoo Friday afternoon. There is a dinosaur exhibit there that has always cost too much to get in, but this weekend, it was going to be $1! I haven't ever gone through the exhibit because I didn't want to pay the extra cost, but I would definitely pay $1!
We got up this morning and worked hard at school for three hours. The kids really wanted to go and I told them we had to get our work done first! I was kind of hoping to work all day, but seriously, who can resist such a beautiful day??? And to spend it at the zoo with friends??
About 12:45, we took off for the zoo and had a great time there. There were actually three families that went- 3 moms and 10 kids!
We saw the dinosaurs, which Christian did not like, plus the sea lions, the aquarium, monkeys, gorillas, and the cats. I love having a zoo pass and knowing that I can always come back another day to see other animals!
We have also been studying animals this week in science, so we used some of our knowledge at the zoo today.
We got up this morning and worked hard at school for three hours. The kids really wanted to go and I told them we had to get our work done first! I was kind of hoping to work all day, but seriously, who can resist such a beautiful day??? And to spend it at the zoo with friends??
About 12:45, we took off for the zoo and had a great time there. There were actually three families that went- 3 moms and 10 kids!
We saw the dinosaurs, which Christian did not like, plus the sea lions, the aquarium, monkeys, gorillas, and the cats. I love having a zoo pass and knowing that I can always come back another day to see other animals!
We have also been studying animals this week in science, so we used some of our knowledge at the zoo today.
Too funny not to post!
I should really post more about the government shutdown, I really enjoy politics and it is really fascinating ...to me. :)
Here is a poem somebody wrote about the shutdown; it is set to the tune of " One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" and it is hilarious!
http://conservatives4palin.com/2013/10/one-park-two-parks-yellow-park-blue-park.html
Enjoy!
Here is a poem somebody wrote about the shutdown; it is set to the tune of " One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" and it is hilarious!
http://conservatives4palin.com/2013/10/one-park-two-parks-yellow-park-blue-park.html
Enjoy!
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Playdate on a Wednesday afternoon. :)
I knew we weren't going to get much school done today. We didn't get to science yesterday, so that was first on the agenda today. We also had to catch up on Megan's history and read-aloud. I had planned to get some of this done before lunch and then head off to the learning center for the girls' classes at 12.
My thought was that when we would get home, we would finish history and do a math lesson.
That was my plan!
Here is what really happened:
Don't start school until 9:15 (instead of 9). Read through science and start on our peacock crafts. Take almost an hour to do our craft (totally worth it because they turned out super-cute!).
Spend the last twenty minutes reading history to Megan.
11:00 am Lunch
12:00 Greek class for Megan
1:00 Science class for Courtney
At 2:00, I had full intentions of running to the library quick and then heading home to do math.
But do you know what happens when two little six and seven year olds think they need to have a playdate??
They ask their moms, their moms quickly calculate in their heads what school work needs to be done yet, they both agree that school work can be finished later, and agree to have a playdate!
Ok, so we didn't get math done, we didn't get to the library, and we didn't get history done, but we had some fun with our friends!!
Looks like we are going to be going to school on Friday this week!!
Have I ever said how I love the flexibility that comes with homeschooling???
My thought was that when we would get home, we would finish history and do a math lesson.
That was my plan!
Here is what really happened:
Don't start school until 9:15 (instead of 9). Read through science and start on our peacock crafts. Take almost an hour to do our craft (totally worth it because they turned out super-cute!).
Spend the last twenty minutes reading history to Megan.
11:00 am Lunch
12:00 Greek class for Megan
1:00 Science class for Courtney
At 2:00, I had full intentions of running to the library quick and then heading home to do math.
But do you know what happens when two little six and seven year olds think they need to have a playdate??
They ask their moms, their moms quickly calculate in their heads what school work needs to be done yet, they both agree that school work can be finished later, and agree to have a playdate!
Ok, so we didn't get math done, we didn't get to the library, and we didn't get history done, but we had some fun with our friends!!
Looks like we are going to be going to school on Friday this week!!
Have I ever said how I love the flexibility that comes with homeschooling???
Monday, October 7, 2013
Science Craft for Tomorrow
Ok, so our lesson on science tomorrow is on animals and how they attract each other so they can mate. :) We are just going to talk how animals show off for each other, build things to please their mate, and how they fight over each other. I am going to read straight out of our book and not add any details. No need for that. :)
In order to avoid the questions I don't want to answer, I came up with a craft that should be fun. We haven't done a craft in awhile! We are going to make peacocks!
My girls know that peacocks are the males and peahens are the females. The peacocks are the birds with the big beautiful feathers and the peahens don't have any at all. Both of them are always running around the zoo when we are there and it's such a sight when you see a peacock with his feathers open! The peacocks have these beautiful feathers to attract the females.
I found a template and we are going to try to make very beautiful male peacocks tomorrow!
http://www.allkidsnetwork.com/crafts/animals/birds/peacock-craft.asp
The next day we are going to talk about baby animals, which is a much safer topic! :)
In order to avoid the questions I don't want to answer, I came up with a craft that should be fun. We haven't done a craft in awhile! We are going to make peacocks!
My girls know that peacocks are the males and peahens are the females. The peacocks are the birds with the big beautiful feathers and the peahens don't have any at all. Both of them are always running around the zoo when we are there and it's such a sight when you see a peacock with his feathers open! The peacocks have these beautiful feathers to attract the females.
I found a template and we are going to try to make very beautiful male peacocks tomorrow!
http://www.allkidsnetwork.com/crafts/animals/birds/peacock-craft.asp
The next day we are going to talk about baby animals, which is a much safer topic! :)
Just pull the tooth!!
I'm getting tired of this root canal saga. Seriously!
I went back to my root canal specialist today because my tooth was still hurting, my cheeks hurt, my glands are swollen, and I've been pretty anxious lately.
I went in and the doctor took his metal tool and banged on my tooth and I jumped!
He said, "Yep, it's still infected. Why don't you go on another round of antibiotics and we're going to have to go back in and clean it out again. You can go ahead and keep your appointment you had for next week and we will just do it then."
Really??
I went back to my root canal specialist today because my tooth was still hurting, my cheeks hurt, my glands are swollen, and I've been pretty anxious lately.
I went in and the doctor took his metal tool and banged on my tooth and I jumped!
He said, "Yep, it's still infected. Why don't you go on another round of antibiotics and we're going to have to go back in and clean it out again. You can go ahead and keep your appointment you had for next week and we will just do it then."
Really??
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Church this morning...
We had quite a hard time getting to church this morning!
We had the usual "I can't find my clothes," "I can't find my shoes," and "Where is my jacket???" that had already made us five minutes late.
We pulled out of the driveway and onto the street and started to hear this "thumping" noise coming from our passenger back tire. Matt pulled over about three blocks later and found it was a piece of shingle with a nail in it, stuck into our tire!! FYI- They had just pulled the roof off the house across the street from us yesterday!
Matt thought a little bit and then called Tires Plus. They were able to fix our tire right away, so we headed over there. After twenty minutes, we had a fixed tire. Church started at 10:45 and it was already 11. We decided to head over to church anyway, by the time we got there, the sermon was just about to start! All the kids went to church with us and they were great. I'm very glad we made it!
Now, do we call the roofing company and see if they'll pay the $25 it cost us to fix our tire??
PS After we got home from church, Matt decided that he was going to move our camper from our driveway back to the storage area. Before he did this though, he went out to the street to look to see if there were anymore nails. Sure enough, he found three more nails and part of a razor blade!!! As he was out there looking, another neighbor came out (not the one that was having the roof replaced) and said there were nails all over his yard too!
Guess what I will be doing tomorrow? Calling that company and complaining! This is very dangerous!
We had the usual "I can't find my clothes," "I can't find my shoes," and "Where is my jacket???" that had already made us five minutes late.
We pulled out of the driveway and onto the street and started to hear this "thumping" noise coming from our passenger back tire. Matt pulled over about three blocks later and found it was a piece of shingle with a nail in it, stuck into our tire!! FYI- They had just pulled the roof off the house across the street from us yesterday!
Matt thought a little bit and then called Tires Plus. They were able to fix our tire right away, so we headed over there. After twenty minutes, we had a fixed tire. Church started at 10:45 and it was already 11. We decided to head over to church anyway, by the time we got there, the sermon was just about to start! All the kids went to church with us and they were great. I'm very glad we made it!
Now, do we call the roofing company and see if they'll pay the $25 it cost us to fix our tire??
PS After we got home from church, Matt decided that he was going to move our camper from our driveway back to the storage area. Before he did this though, he went out to the street to look to see if there were anymore nails. Sure enough, he found three more nails and part of a razor blade!!! As he was out there looking, another neighbor came out (not the one that was having the roof replaced) and said there were nails all over his yard too!
Guess what I will be doing tomorrow? Calling that company and complaining! This is very dangerous!
Saturday, October 5, 2013
Love that smell!
Anybody else love the smell of the furnace running for the first time of the season?
I do!! I love the warmth it provides too!!
I do!! I love the warmth it provides too!!
Friday, October 4, 2013
Cute!
Right before I put the kids to bed tonight, they were all playing "kitties," You know, when you get on all four and meow like kitties.
I had taken the youngest "kitty" upstairs to get his pajamas on and he even crawled over to the bathroom to brush his teeth.
I read him two books and we sang "Jesus Loves Me" like always. We were just starting on our second song "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" when he stopped and got this very serious look on his face.
"Mommy, do kitties sing 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star??'"
"Of course they do Christian," and my little kitty sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."
I thought it was pretty cute!
I had taken the youngest "kitty" upstairs to get his pajamas on and he even crawled over to the bathroom to brush his teeth.
I read him two books and we sang "Jesus Loves Me" like always. We were just starting on our second song "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" when he stopped and got this very serious look on his face.
"Mommy, do kitties sing 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star??'"
"Of course they do Christian," and my little kitty sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."
I thought it was pretty cute!
What is happening in Washington DC??
What is going on in DC right now?? I can't believe we were just there and now everything is going haywire!
1. Government shutdown- How crazy is this!! I cannot believe they shut down everything! But the government is actually hiring police officers and renting barricades to shut down the memorials? Seriously?? They are in open parks! I loved that the veterans broke through the barricades at the WWII memorial!!!
2. The shooting yesterday- I can't believe there was a shooting right by the capital! I know exactly where that happened! We were at the White House and probably saw the gates that the lady tried to ram through and then she sped down Pennsylvania Ave and tried to get through to the capitol. By the map they showed last night, it looks like it was right by the Library of Congress. Yep, there too.
3. A guy set himself on fire today at the national mall? What? Did I see that correctly? The national mall is one of the most popular places in DC! This is a huge grassy area between all the Smithsonian museums. If you are on this mall, you get a great pictures of the US capital. I can't tell you how much time we spent walking near the mall.
Don't forget about the navy yard shooting that happened right before we got there!
Wow, were we there at just the right time!!!
1. Government shutdown- How crazy is this!! I cannot believe they shut down everything! But the government is actually hiring police officers and renting barricades to shut down the memorials? Seriously?? They are in open parks! I loved that the veterans broke through the barricades at the WWII memorial!!!
2. The shooting yesterday- I can't believe there was a shooting right by the capital! I know exactly where that happened! We were at the White House and probably saw the gates that the lady tried to ram through and then she sped down Pennsylvania Ave and tried to get through to the capitol. By the map they showed last night, it looks like it was right by the Library of Congress. Yep, there too.
3. A guy set himself on fire today at the national mall? What? Did I see that correctly? The national mall is one of the most popular places in DC! This is a huge grassy area between all the Smithsonian museums. If you are on this mall, you get a great pictures of the US capital. I can't tell you how much time we spent walking near the mall.
Don't forget about the navy yard shooting that happened right before we got there!
Wow, were we there at just the right time!!!
Life is getting back to normal!
I have had many people ask me, "How are you doing? Have you gotten back to "normal" yet?"
I would say, we are getting there!
We started homeschool learning center, D6 (Wednesday night programming at church), and dance class for Megan.
Between that, we have seen both grandmas, got a root canal done, put in a new water heater, played outside, went out for supper with some friends, went to Vala's, washed many loads of laundry, and have talked to many people about our trip! It doesn't seem like we were gone just last week!
We have also managed to get in some English and Math!
Today we had a friend ask us to do something (homeschool-wise) and I turned her down. I just wanted a day at home to keep catching up on things. Catch up on school, finish cleaning, clean out camper, etc. I can't really finish catching up on things when I don't wake up until 9:15 am!! We only got school done today. And some laundry. :)
I told the girls that we are doing full days of school next week, so they need to be prepared. Megan also need to get some reading done before we start next week's assignments. I think it will be fine, I may do some tweaking in our schedule, but we will survive.
The camper still needs to be wiped down and vacuumed out, I think we have everything out of it. Unfortunately, it is supposed to storm tonight. :(
Other than that, I am hoping for a nice quiet weekend!
Ok, maybe we will see some more friends. :)
I would say, we are getting there!
We started homeschool learning center, D6 (Wednesday night programming at church), and dance class for Megan.
Between that, we have seen both grandmas, got a root canal done, put in a new water heater, played outside, went out for supper with some friends, went to Vala's, washed many loads of laundry, and have talked to many people about our trip! It doesn't seem like we were gone just last week!
We have also managed to get in some English and Math!
Today we had a friend ask us to do something (homeschool-wise) and I turned her down. I just wanted a day at home to keep catching up on things. Catch up on school, finish cleaning, clean out camper, etc. I can't really finish catching up on things when I don't wake up until 9:15 am!! We only got school done today. And some laundry. :)
I told the girls that we are doing full days of school next week, so they need to be prepared. Megan also need to get some reading done before we start next week's assignments. I think it will be fine, I may do some tweaking in our schedule, but we will survive.
The camper still needs to be wiped down and vacuumed out, I think we have everything out of it. Unfortunately, it is supposed to storm tonight. :(
Other than that, I am hoping for a nice quiet weekend!
Ok, maybe we will see some more friends. :)
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
We have hot water again!
Matt did it, he got the hot water hooked up before he went to bed last night!!!
There are no water leaks and no gas leaks!!
YAY!!!!!!! Laundry and dishes, here I come!
There are no water leaks and no gas leaks!!
YAY!!!!!!! Laundry and dishes, here I come!
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Life is busy!
Nothing like getting home from a five week trip and jumping right back into life.
Before I left, I found out I had an abcess in my tooth, a tooth that already had a root canal and a crown! I went to a root canal specialist today and got that taken care of.
I'm thinking about getting some groceries this afternoon and restocking the fridge.
Tonight I give piano lessons and then Matt's company has a family outing at Vala's pumpkin patch. Since I refuse to pay the high price at Vala's, we go on a night when it's already paid for. :)
Tomorrow we start our classes at the Homeschool Learning Center and Wednesday night programming at church.
Thursday Megan starts ballet class.
We will definitely be getting back to school tomorrow.
I shouldn't even complain. Matt was up from 1-3 am putting the water heater into place!
Today, he is jumping between work and installing the new water heater. He said he has the water lines hooked up and all he has left is the gas line. Maybe I can wash some clothes....tomorrow!
Before I left, I found out I had an abcess in my tooth, a tooth that already had a root canal and a crown! I went to a root canal specialist today and got that taken care of.
I'm thinking about getting some groceries this afternoon and restocking the fridge.
Tonight I give piano lessons and then Matt's company has a family outing at Vala's pumpkin patch. Since I refuse to pay the high price at Vala's, we go on a night when it's already paid for. :)
Tomorrow we start our classes at the Homeschool Learning Center and Wednesday night programming at church.
Thursday Megan starts ballet class.
We will definitely be getting back to school tomorrow.
I shouldn't even complain. Matt was up from 1-3 am putting the water heater into place!
Today, he is jumping between work and installing the new water heater. He said he has the water lines hooked up and all he has left is the gas line. Maybe I can wash some clothes....tomorrow!
Monday, September 30, 2013
New hot water heater...
Matt went out tonight and bought a new hot water heater. It's not exactly what he wanted to do, but it seemed like our only option.
He brought it home and then thought I could help him get it downstairs! HA! That didn't work! He ended up getting it down there on his own!
We have a plan though until this new one gets installed:
Take showers in camper!
Wash clothes on cold- oh wait, I tried that and the water went back through the water heater and spilled out onto the basement- Hmmm. don't wash clothes. Make do with what you have.
Hopefully this won't take too long!
He brought it home and then thought I could help him get it downstairs! HA! That didn't work! He ended up getting it down there on his own!
We have a plan though until this new one gets installed:
Take showers in camper!
Wash clothes on cold- oh wait, I tried that and the water went back through the water heater and spilled out onto the basement- Hmmm. don't wash clothes. Make do with what you have.
Hopefully this won't take too long!
No Hot Water :(
We were having trouble with our hot water heater before we left on our trip. The pilot light would always go out, so before anybody took a shower, Matt had to go re-light it.
We got home Saturday and everybody went to go take showers Sunday morning before church and Matt realized it was still broken. He went the basement three times sunday morning to re-light it!
Sunday afternoon he was determined to fix it. He knew what was wrong and knew what part he needed, so we stopped at Menard's and got the part. Once Matt got home, he went downstairs and started tearing the hot water heater apart. He got the old part out and realized that there was just a lot of sediment on the old part, so he cleaned it off and put it back on. He thought that would work and then we could take the new part back to Menard's.
When he went to fill the water heater back up, something happened to the pressure valve and it was now broke, so he went back to Menard's last night to get a new one. Once he got home, he put it on and something happened somewhere else on the water heater and yet he needed ANOTHER new part!
Knowing that he had to work this morning, he went back to Menard's at 6 am, so he could get it all put back together before work.
Guess what? Menard's didn't carry the piece he needed! He called me at 6:45 so I could get him the serial number because Menard's recommended that he should go to a plumbing store.
He went to a plumbing store and yet again, they did not have the part, so they sent him to another plumbing store. They again did not have the part! They said they would check and see if they had anything compatible and give him a call later. They haven't called all morning!
Matt's conclusion: Just buy a new water heater!!!
So since we have gotten home, I have washed NO laundry, washed NO dishes, and we got showers yesterday morning, but none since!
If all else fails, we can always take showers in the camper. The water heater in there works great, but showers don't do us any good if we don't have clean clothes to wear! And to remind you, the last time I did laundry on our trip was over a week ago! We're going to run out of clothes fast!
We got home Saturday and everybody went to go take showers Sunday morning before church and Matt realized it was still broken. He went the basement three times sunday morning to re-light it!
Sunday afternoon he was determined to fix it. He knew what was wrong and knew what part he needed, so we stopped at Menard's and got the part. Once Matt got home, he went downstairs and started tearing the hot water heater apart. He got the old part out and realized that there was just a lot of sediment on the old part, so he cleaned it off and put it back on. He thought that would work and then we could take the new part back to Menard's.
When he went to fill the water heater back up, something happened to the pressure valve and it was now broke, so he went back to Menard's last night to get a new one. Once he got home, he put it on and something happened somewhere else on the water heater and yet he needed ANOTHER new part!
Knowing that he had to work this morning, he went back to Menard's at 6 am, so he could get it all put back together before work.
Guess what? Menard's didn't carry the piece he needed! He called me at 6:45 so I could get him the serial number because Menard's recommended that he should go to a plumbing store.
He went to a plumbing store and yet again, they did not have the part, so they sent him to another plumbing store. They again did not have the part! They said they would check and see if they had anything compatible and give him a call later. They haven't called all morning!
Matt's conclusion: Just buy a new water heater!!!
So since we have gotten home, I have washed NO laundry, washed NO dishes, and we got showers yesterday morning, but none since!
If all else fails, we can always take showers in the camper. The water heater in there works great, but showers don't do us any good if we don't have clean clothes to wear! And to remind you, the last time I did laundry on our trip was over a week ago! We're going to run out of clothes fast!
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