A Change of Plans!

I think we should be famous for changing plans!!!

We ARE now going on our trip, BUT if anything happens to my grandpa, we are heading home!

We were at a company picnic for Matt yesterday and we were talking with one of Matt's co-workers. We were telling him about our situation and how we had put our trip on hold.  We mentioned that we were thinking about going some place local to stay around here, but then he mentioned that we should go to South Dakota or out to western Nebraska. His next sentence was, "It's not that far, you can always get back within a day. If your grandpa did pass away, you have 2-3 days before the funeral."  Matt looked at me and said, "Let's go to South Dakota, that sounds fun.  We could come right home." I looked back at him and said, "If you are willing to go to South Dakota, which is about 8 hours, then why can't we go to our friend's house in Illinois, which is only 7??"  It was then that we agreed to go ahead with our vacation and come back if needed! Depending on the timing, we could probably leave our camper at our friend's house in Illinois, come back to Omaha, and then head back to Illinois when everything was over. Maybe then we could go on to Kentucky, like originally planned!

Once we had made this decision, we decided to leave as soon as we could.  Our first plan was to pack this morning and head out by 12, this could possibly put us at our friend's house by 7 pm tonight, if we didn't stop on the way!  As I was thinking about this last night, I thought this might be too much for a day PLUS it is move-up Sunday at church. Each child moves up to their new Sunday School room today and there is a pancake feed at church.  I told Matt that we should pack in the morning, go to church and Sunday School, come home and finish packing and THEN take off. My new goal is 2 pm.  This would not get us all the way to our friend's house, but it would get us at half way there, or even further.  I think that is our new plan!

If anybody wants to know where we are on this adventure, Matt wrote a program that shows us where we are via his cell phone.  Here is the link:

http://wherearetheruwes.azurewebsites.net/Home/Login?ReturnUrl=%2f

It will need a login, which is our last name.  The password is "Grace," which is our second daughter's middle name. Matt thought this would be fun for everybody! Of course, you can always call or text us to know where we are too!

Ok, off to start packing!  We have quite the day ahead of us! My stress levels have been a little high lately...I wonder why!!!

Transition time!

I can say that Matt no longer works from home. He finished his contract yesterday with the company he has worked with for the last 2 years and in a month, he has a new contract.  This is at a company here in Omaha, so he will have to go to the office.  We are all sad that he will no longer be home with us, but we know it was a great opportunity and we are very thankful for the time he was here!

He has taken 4 weeks off between now and his next job, which will start on September 22nd.  Until then, we had planned on taking a 2 1/2 week trip to Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, but that trip is put on hold due to my grandpa being pretty sick and not having much longer to live.  Until then, I think we are going to hang around this area and Matt is going to get some stuff done around the house.  We may even camp locally, we are not sure yet. We are just to a point where we cannot leave town.

Because our plans were changed, school is also on hold. If we are around here, we may continue to open the books and learn, but I had originally planned to take the next three weeks off, so we may yet, we will just have to see what happens.

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!!

Ok, I have to admit. I am having a GREAT time with Christian and his preschool curriculum! We are not doing numbers or letters, I think those will come in time, but we are just having fun! Each week we are reading a different book and doing different activities. This week's book is Caps for Sale.

It is about a peddler who is trying to sell his caps, of which he wears them ALL on his head, but one day, he can't sell any and he decides to take a nap under a tree instead. While he is sleeping, monkeys come and take his caps! He gets very angry at the monkeys, but eventually get his caps back! It is a great book and Christian loves it!  Today, we collected all the hats from around the house and tried to see how many we could stack on our own heads! Even the girls were involved! We laughed pretty hard as they fell off our heads!

Tomorrow, we are going to learn a song. It is called "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" and I am going to use this website for a video.

http://bussongs.com/songs/5-little-monkeys-jumping-on-the-bed.php 

Christian loves to sing, so hopefully he will enjoy it! I think we are then going to sing it ourselves and add in the actions. I may need some help from the girls!

I think we are going to read some Curious George stories on Friday.

Another week of school!

We had Courtney's big birthday party today and after two days of massively cleaning, I can officially say the house is not as destroyed as I thought it would be. :)  It will take a little bit to get it back in order, but not much! I hope everybody had a good time! I know Courtney did!

Now we are gearing up for another week of school. This is our last week before we head out on another trip! This one is for about 2-3 weeks, we haven't quite narrowed it down yet! But until then, we have to concentrate on getting some more school work done.

Tomorrow in science, we are going to be talking about teeth.  I found this website that looked fun and answered quite a few questions I came up with from our reading. (Such as, "what are milk teeth?"

http://32teethonline.com/pediatric-dentistry-teeth-dental%201.htm

I was also confused about the difference between premolars and bicuspids. (I can tell I haven't studied teeth in awhile!!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premolar

I also need to pre-read history tonight and get Christian's lessons ready!

Birthday Weekend!

It is birthday weekend at our house, this means we are having a birthday party for Courtney who turned 8 last Thursday! She had a great time Thursday and we ended up at her all-time favorite restaurant (Valentino's) for supper. She didn't want to go there because of the food, but because they bring you a birthday cake, balloons, sing to you, AND they give you coins to play the claw machine! She loved it, so that is all that mattered!

Today we are going to spend cleaning the house and tomorrow we are going to have about 40 people over here! That means I also need to figure out what I am serving for food! I have not put much thought into this party AT ALL this week. I have had two people ask me what I am serving and I just looked at them and said, "I have no idea yet!" Honestly, it will probably be fruits, veggies, maybe little smokies, and potato chips. This menu is usually pretty easy and goes over well! I will also need to find some time to go to the grocery store. :)

And just because they are so cute, Megan- almost 3, Courtney 4 days old (both pictures)

 

 

School, school, school

It has begun. All the Ruwe children are back in school. :)  At the kitchen table of course!! I feel very fortunate that I do not need to send them off to school for the day. I LOVE it that they are home with me and we can have school together.

Things have been going well. We started Monday and at the breakfast table, Megan was asking if we could start our read aloud right then and there! She was anxious to get started! Our first read aloud is this book and I have been telling her about it, so she just wanted to get started! She says read aloud time is her favorite part of school.



We finished breakfast on Monday and then took "first day of school" pictures! (Sorry if you already saw these on Facebook!) I think they turned out great! The kids were so cooperative!

 

Once we were done with these, we headed back indoors and started the read-aloud. We spent almost an hour on it because I really wanted this kids to understand the characters and the story line and they didn't want me to stop reading! Every day I hear, "Just one more chapter!"

We also started all our other subjects Monday morning too.  Some subjects we are continuing from last year (Megan's spelling, Courtney's phonics, history, Bible), but many we are starting with brand new (to us!) books.  I love writing in notebooks for the very first time!

Things have gone well. I really think my kids enjoy school and are eager to learn! Megan jumped right in on Monday and I did not have a problem with her at all! Once she finishes her lessons with me, she immediately goes upstairs and gets her homework done. 

Courtney is having a harder time adjusting to the new schedule.  She doesn't like that she has to write out her math problems now instead of just putting the answer in her workbook.  She doesn't like that she doesn't get to play all day anymore! I think she has nothing to complain about! I will give her some grace because it is only the first week of school. She will adjust. :)

Christian is loving school too.  We started the "Before Five in a Row" curriculum and the first book we explored is "Blueberries for Sal." Christian LOVES blueberries, so I thought this would be a great one to start with! We have been reading it every day and doing little activities. He doesn't want to put the books away at lunch time! He wants to keep learning!  If you asked him his favorite book right now, it would probably be "Blueberries for Sal!"



I know this is the first week and we all have some adjusting to do (especially Courtney), but I think we will fall into a schedule and have a great year!!

science video on the heart.

http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/En/JustForKids/Body/Pages/Heart.aspx

We are going to use this as part of our review on the circulatory system!

Back to School tomorrow!!

Since we slacked on school last week, we are definitely starting tomorrow!  If my kids went to public school, they would be starting tomorrow too.  Am I ready to start? Mostly. I don't have much time today to prepare because we are having people over tonight, so I might be cramming at 10 pm tonight! I have it planned out in my head though. :)

I am definitely going to take "back to school" pictures tomorrow with my 5th grader, 2nd grader, and preschooler! I am looking forward to another year of homeschooling! I am anxious to pick up where we left off and continue to learn about World War I and we have a lesson on the heart right away in science.  We will also start math for the two girls, continue phonics with Courtney, English 5 with Megan, spelling for both, language arts for both, and I am going to go through a curriculum called "Before Five in a Row" with Christian.  This includes reading stories everyday and doing activities to go along with them. This will take a little bit longer than last year, but we will make it work!

A Year with No Sugar??

I found this article on "100 Days of Real Food" website and was very intrigued by it!!

http://www.everydayhealth.com/columns/my-health-story/year-of-no-sugar-one-family-grand-adventure/

As many of you know, I got diagnosed  back in April/ May of having leaky gut and one of my main triggers was yeast.  My doctor then proceeded to tell me that sugar is what feeds yeast and therefore, I needed to cut sugar out of my diet! It wasn't only sugar though, it was all forms of sugar, vinegar, citric acid, etc.  I also had to lower the amounts of starches I was eating. 

I went home and told myself that I was going to do my best! My head was spinning for a couple of weeks as I figured out how to make this no sugar diet work.  I had already been on a certain diet for a couple of years and now I had to completely switch! But the bad thing is that sugar (or some form of it) is in everything!

I also told myself that if I am going off of sugar, then my kids are too and I greatly decreased their amount of sugar intake. Yes, they still get ketchup, mustard, birthday cake, etc. but I really wanted a sugar product to be a "treat," not an every day occurrence.  I also started to rotate everything we ate every four days.

Little did I know the effects I would see about a week after coming off of sugar!  I love the article cited above because I can relate!  I didn't even know I had a problem before getting tested, but I can totally tell a difference!

Here are a few of our good side effects:

1.  I stopped craving salty foods. Your body craves salty foods when it's sugar intake is too high, it is a way of keeping your body balanced. I was always thirsty and craving salty foods. For awhile, I thought I was maybe diabetic, but nope, my sugar intake was just too high!

2.  I stopped wanting to eat or drink ALL THE TIME! (due to the salty cravings) Now, I can go 4-5 hours without eating and I really only need to eat when I am hungry. 

3.  My 10 year old daughter calmed down a LOT! Being home and working with her all day during school, we would sometimes get attitude trouble and somebody would have to be sent her room.  She often would be stubborn and not want to listen. Guess what? We don't have any trouble with attitude anymore!! She is not as stubborn and she is willing to listen better to what I am telling her! I saw this clearly as we were finishing up our school lessons last year. I know she has a hard time with phonics and using the dictionary, but she was doing it and not giving me any trouble (unlike the year before!)

4.  My almost 8 year old has lost her sugar cravings.  This is a child who was constantly asking me for candy, ice cream, pop, fruit snacks, popsicles, etc.  Now, I don't even get asked. It is AMAZING! (and yes, having these here and there are fine, but not every day)  I have not had any popsicles of any kind in the freezer all summer and nobody has even asked for one! I have a bucket of ice cream in there right now and I don't even recall the last time we had ice cream here at home. Nobody asks anymore!

5.  I have noticed that when I took the cereal away for breakfast and replaced it with protein filled food, my children can make it all the way to noon without asking for a snack!  Before this, it would hit 10 am and my children were acting like they couldn't survive without a snack. It would totally interrupt school and just didn't go over well. I am glad they can make it to noon now, it helps with our school day!!

6.  We are less sick.  Christian only got bronchitis 1-2 times this winter instead of 10+ times like last year! None of us had the flu or even a cold.  Once we started to get sick, our bodies would fight it right away and it wasn't so bad. 

7.  I have noticed that when my kids have too much sugar, they will start to not feel well. Megan got sick at a birthday party about a month ago and Courtney got sick at the county fair last weekend. I believe that both time they overdid it and their bodies are just not used to it anymore!

I believe that by pulling sugar out of our diets, our whole palettes have changed.  Do we still eat fruit? Absolutely! Do we eat more vegetables than we used to? Yes! Do we try to eat more protein and good fats during the day? YES! Do we try to lower our grains, especially wheat? Yes! Like my doctor says, you should flip the food pyramid upside down and plan your meals according to the "new" pyramid.

I plan on sticking with this "decreased sugar" diet for awhile. I know some people don't agree with what I am doing, but I have seen too many positive effects for me and my family to quit now and go back to our old ways!!  Why can't we strive to be as healthy as we can be? Are there other things I could do to be healthy? Probably! Maybe someday I will get to those too, but as for now, we are doing what works!

Plans Changed!

After a fun-filled week of camping and enjoying the county fair back home, I had high hopes that we could get school started this week.  I just wanted to start a few subjects to ease into it this week and then get going full days next week, but I was wrong!

Like always, I have to be flexible because plans change!

I decided that we are not going to get school started this week for a variety of reasons. 

1. School is not ready to go yet!

 I don't have all the school books I need. I still need to figure out a math book for Megan.  This involves getting my money back from the one that was broken/ written in and order a math textbook for Megan for the 4th time!

I was also waiting for a notebook for Courtney to arrive via Amazon, which came yesterday.

I need to type questions up to go with Megan's readers.

I need to plan science.

I am still working out my school day.  I don't want to go past 3 pm (we start at 9 am and take 1 1/2 hours off for lunch), but I want to be able to fit all three kids in this year.  I am going to have to make Megan more independent in a few things (checking own Math and English) and Courtney a little bit too. I just need to sit and think about this a little bit.  I asked the girls if they had any opinions on how to run our school day and they didn't have any thoughts. I thought our schedule worked well last year, so we may just start 15 minutes earlier and see how things go.

2. After living out of the camper for a week, that needs to be cleaned out, everything put back in the house where it goes, clothes washed, and get it out of our driveway. :) 

3.  Since we left for camping right after our air conditioner was installed, we still have items to clean up from the air conditioning installation.  The representative from the company is coming over this morning to do a final walk through and he probably is going to want his money. We have already had to start saying 'No' to things we want to do/ kids want to do because of this nice, expensive new unit  :(

4.  There are many other little projects I want to get done around the house before school starts.

A. I have a pile of about 20 homeschooling books I want to sell on eBay. I took pictures of them all yesterday, so I need to get them on eBay today.
B. Clean out the fridge!
C. I ordered pictures for Christian's baby book about a week ago and I received them, now I need to put them in his baby book. 4 years late isn't so bad? Maybe I should finish Courtney's baby book while I am at it!!
D.  Take Courtney and Christian to get their pictures taken for their birthday!
E.  I would like some pictures hung up in my bedroom along with a bulletin board I bought for my office area. Since Matt doesn't want me putting holes in the wall, this will be on his time.
F.  Plan our next trip! We are heading to Illinois in about 3 weeks to visit some friends and then we are going to go on with them to Kentucky. There, we are going to visit the Creation Museum and Mammoth Cave.  We will need to find campground over Labor Day weekend, so I need to get that done before there aren't any left!
G.  I received my next core for Megan's curriculum a couple of weeks ago and that was all over the dining room table.  This one involves 55 books! I need to get some binders yet for those lesson plans, but yesterday, I got all the books put back into the box and taken up to my office. Now I can see the dining room table again!
H.  We also got Christian his new bedroom set about two weeks ago. It was right after putting this up and that Matt realized our air conditioner went out again. I have yet to put Christian's room back in order!
I.  And that poor playroom...disaster central! This will be a job for the kids!
J. I would like to take down the curtains in my kitchen and bathroom, wash them, iron them, and hang them back up. 
K. Plan Courtney's birthday party! This sweet child of mine turns 8 next week and I need to figure things out! We have her invites sent out, but now we need to plan the party!
L. Host small group here on Sunday night, which includes cleaning and preparing snacks.
M. OH, don't forget to continue to enjoy summer! Play outside, go for bike rides, go swimming, visit zoo, etc!!!

I wonder if I could continue my list until I hit "Z?" hmmmm

Do you think I can get all this done by Sunday night? I doubt it too, but if I can get a few more things done, my mind will feel better. I want some organization around this house before we start and I will have no time to get things done again! I want to be able to dive right into school on Monday morning. I figure that since our public school kids start on Monday, we can get going too (even though we will have school for 2 weeks and then we are off on a 2 1/2 week vacation!)