Halloween Party!

There are a few things I miss about my girls going to school. One thing is the holiday parties! But never fear, us homeschoolers can have our own holiday parties!!

I got together with a few of my friends these last couple of weeks and we planned a party!  There are about 20 kids coming to my house tomorrow for a Halloween party. We are going to have crafts, games, and even a piñata! Don't forget the food too!

I like hosting parties at my house because it gives me a chance to clean my house pretty thoroughly! And that is exactly what I have been doing all day. I spent about two hours in the playroom tonight and I told the kids that I don't want anybody in there until the party tomorrow! I threw away two bags of trash out of that room!

I still have a few things to do in the morning, but hopefully it will be a great time for everyone!
I am looking forward to it!

Science Class

I often talk to other homeschooling parents and read online that science is usually the first thing to go if a parent is out of time during the day.  I plan science whenever we are home in the afternoon and I really look forward to it. I have learned soooo much this last year and I am still learning things!

We are finishing up our unit on the human body and we have been talking about food lately.  Today the topic was to talk about where our food comes from, such as the food chain.  We have talked about food chains before, so it was sort of a review, but we got to tie it in with food.  For our activity, I gave each girl a piece of paper and split it into four sections.  At the end of each section, I had them draw a picture of themselves eating their favorite food.  They then had to draw the food chain back to its original source (the sun.) 

I totally thought the girls would not be happy with this little exercise, but I have not laughed so hard in science class for a long time! Wow!  Courtney picked ice cream as one of her foods, the food chain started with Courtney- ice cream cone- milk- cow- grass- sun.  Of course, she can't just draw a gallon of milk or even a cup of milk, she drew somebody milking a cow! Her picture was a classic!  Both girls were also drawing pictures of themselves in odd places, such as on a Ferris wheel and eating a banana upside down!

During this project, we also got to look up pictures of the plants where our food grows.  The girls choose bananas and grapes, so we looked up banana trees and grape vines.  They also had great fun drawing the sun on each section, they weren't just normal suns, but they were suns with mean faces and they had little "suns" all around them!

They were having so much fun, they wanted to flip the piece of paper over and continue on! I said they could draw more later, but I love it when we can work, learn, and have fun at the same time!!

Food Article and my thoughts.

I had a friend forward me this article this morning and I LOVE IT!!

http://www.omaha.com/momaha/pay-attention-to-what-you-re-putting-in-your-mouth/article_8693aea2-5d1a-11e4-a380-001a4bcf6878.html

It sums up about exactly what I am trying to do with my children and food. I am teaching them ABOUT food so in the future, they can make decisions for themselves on what to eat and what they should avoid in regards to their health.

Yes, my children CAN eat about anything they want. Yes, they have all been food tested and at this moment, there are no restrictions, except for Courtney and peanuts.  BUT does this mean they should eat whatever they want, whenever they want?? Absolutely not!

I want to teach them about food and what it does for or against our bodies. I want them to be able to go to a party where there are sweets galore and limit themselves. I don't want to always be over their shoulder telling them what is good and what is not good, and I certainly want them to have the respect that they won't be sneaking things behind my back. I also want them to be able to stand up for themselves if others are encouraging them to eat something that they think is not good for them.

I want them to know what food is good for our bodies and what is not.  Last week, we had a lesson in science on "junk food."  The very first thing I had the girls do was to pull all the junk food out of our cupboards, fridge, and freezer and put it on the stove.  They thought it was great! Honestly, I wanted to see what they would pulled out! Have they been listening to me for the last couple of years?? After they had everything on the stove, we talked about it all.  They had everything that had any sugar (mostly processed), anything with wheat, anything with salt, and artificial food coloring. I was impressed! We then talked about everything and why it is bad and what would be a good alternative.

As the article says, I also do not feed my children according to the USDA's food pyramid. I kind of flip the pyramid upside down and we eat a lot of fat (good fat), fruits, and vegetables.  We limit our sugar and grains during the day. Are we perfect in what we eat? Absolutely not, but we are certainly try to eat healthy.

Last of all, I love this statement right out of the article:
"I’m not a doctor, nutritionist, chemist or biologist; so don’t look to me for a micronutrient breakdown. I’m also not telling you how to eat, how to feed your family, or what to believe- so hold off the negative comments and mean-girl attacks."

I know some people do not agree with me on how I feed my children, and they do not like it that I limit sweets, grains, rotate food, etc.. I have heard you loud and clear, but please, these are my children and I am their mother. :) I gave birth to them and I will decide what they will and will not eat. I am not the bad person here. I am doing the best I can, just as we all our. I may just take it more seriously than others because we have had a lot of food issues in our family and I don't want everybody sick again.  I can also see side effects of everybody eating junk, like my children behaving very badly after they eat artificial food coloring. Just please believe me and stop encouraging them to eat junk and going against my wishes! It doesn't make this mama very happy! (There, I am done venting now!) 

Anyway, food is amazing! It has been a huge challenge to get our health back and we have used food as medicine. I plan on continuing what I am doing and I look forward to our future as we continue to strive to eat healthier than we did a few years ago!!!

Pickup Basketball Game!

Everyday about 4 pm, I try to chase the kids outside. We are usually done with our schoolwork (except for homework) and the public school kids are usually home about at that time, so it's a great time to get outside for some fresh air.

We were out there today and saw a neighbor mom bring home a bunch of the neighborhood kids. We were outside playing basketball and her daughter decided to come play with us awhile, it was great  because we were able to play a true basketball game! We had two fifth graders, Courtney, and myself.  It was nice because we had two on each team. Today we were only able to play until somebody got five points, but really, it's 1. exercise 2. teamwork and 3. getting some fresh air! What else do we want??

Now to get the kids to finish their homework!

Saturday!

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Saturday mornings??

I love that there is no need to get out of bed, no need to rush to get started on school, Matt is HOME, and he's not racing out the door to get to work!

It's just a very relaxing atmosphere and we usually spend half the morning watching a nature show on TV.

We usually get dressed about 11 am because my rule is that you need to be out of your pajamas my lunchtime.

It is just a time when everybody in their family can do their own thing!

I love it!

Update on our Pet Bugs

Here is an update on our pet bugs.

1.  Our hornworm turned into a cocoon, but there are about three holes in the cocoon, so I am pretty sure he didn't make it.  Courtney's teacher for her bug class on Wednesdays told us that flies probably laid their eggs in their and we should throw it away, so we did.

2. Our praying mantis finally laid her egg case! Now we don't know if the eggs really contain baby praying mantises or not, we are not sure that she got "married" as the girls say! She has it attached to the top of the terrarium.  She did not eat for about 3-4 days before she laid the egg case and now she is starving! And her abdomen is much smaller!

We thought she would die when she had her eggs, but she didn't, so we still need to feed her.  Matt wanted to let her go because he doesn't want to keep buying crickets, but then we had a crazy idea. What if praying mantises ate boxelder bugs?? We have about a million of them on the front of our house right now!  We looked it up and they eat them! YAY! Courtney and Matt collected a few and she ate them right up! That's easy enough! And free!

It sounds like if her egg case does not contain fertilized eggs, then she will continue to put them down until she dies (which is when it gets colder).  Our grasshoppers do the same thing.  I'm not sure how this will end since she is in a nice, warm house.

3.  We are now up to four grasshoppers in the other terrarium.  The katydid died, so we had a couple of tears.  Courtney continues to feed the grasshoppers grass whenever she gets the chance, she loves watching them eat and fight over the grass!  I get updates on them every so often!

Some people think bugs are gross, but I have really found an appreciation for them since there is a collection of them in my house right now. God made some amazing creatures!!!

Science Lesson on Taste Buds

Tomorrow we are learning about what makes you hungry and about our taste buds in science.  Some of the information is new, but some is not. 

We have already had a lesson on taste buds, so we are going to watch this movie instead of doing the same experiment on tasting things that are sweet, sour, salty, and bitter again.

http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/tounge-movie.html?tracking=K_RelatedArticle

I think it's a cute little movie. :)

Too Many Books at Once!

My head was spinning this week. I am reading more books than usual for school and I am getting them all mixed up!

Every week for school, I read the girls a chapter book out loud that goes along with what we are studying in history, these are called our "read-alouds, and Megan also has one to read to herself, which we call her readers.  These also have to do with what we are studying in history.  In addition to the read alouds and readers, we also have a history book that we are reading. In addition to these three everyday, we have also thrown in a chapter book for Bible class this week! At night, I have started reading Megan's "reader" for next week, so I have been trying to keep straight many books this week and unfortunately, a couple of them are overlapping! (If you missed it, that is five books right now!)

Here is why my head is spinning:

1.  Our book for Bible class is Peanut Butter Friends in a Chop Suey World.

We just finished a unit on friendship and this book is about a missionary family who moved to Taiwan (right next to China) from America.  The first three chapters so far have been a lot about the differences between American and Chinese culture and how the main character, Amy Kramer, just wants some friends.

2.  This is Megan's reader for next week.

This book takes place around the end of WWII when Jackie Robinson is playing baseball. This story is about a young girl who moves from China TO America!! (See why I am confused after I read the Peanut Butter book!)  I have read about half the book and again, a lot of the reading is spent on comparing the two cultures! It's funny to see the overlap between the two books.


In addition to these two books, I am reading this book to them too as their read-aloud this week.

We just finished a section on the Great Depression in history and this story is about a young girl and the struggle her family is having to earn money during this hard time.  The main character actually writes a letter to Mrs. Roosevelt and Mrs. Roosevelt answers and helps the family! We have twenty pages left as of yesterday and of course the girls were saying, "Just finish the book! Just finish it! We need to know what happens!" I didn't finish it, so it will have to wait until Monday.


Last week, we finished this read-aloud.

This about the struggle between whites and African-Americans in Mississippi during the 1930's. It was a GREAT book!  You felt like you were right there within the struggle and your heart went out to these people that were being discriminated against! (This book is one reason why I would much rather teach history from a chapter book than from a textbook AND one reason why I continue to teach from Sonlight curriculum!) At the end of the book, a young African-American boy got accused a killing a white store owner and the book never really says what happens to this young man.  They hint around that he was going to be killed for it, but don't say exactly.  We do know at this time that many African Americans weren't even given a trial and were usually punished right away, even if it wasn't fair because that's just the way things done in the that time and place.

I was talking to another mom last week who has also read this book and they said, "Don't you know that there is a sequel to the book?" I had no idea there was a sequel! I was very interested because I also want to know what happens to the young man!

I went home and looked online and there are four books in the series! Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is actually book #2.  I found book #3 and after reading the summary, I found out what happened to the young man, but I refused to tell the girls.

The library did not have it to borrow, so I just ordered it off Amazon for $3.  It came in the mail the other day and both girls, at the same time, said, "When can we start??" 

Looks like we have a story to read at bedtime now because I don't think I can read anymore during the day!

Beautiful Weather to play outside!

A friend of mine and I have started a PE coop that meets every Thursday afternoon.  We have a couple goals with this group.  One is to learn those group games that you can't really do at home with your brother and sister (unless you have a really large family!) and another goal is that when someday your friends say, "Hey, let's go play a game of soccer," our children will have somewhat of an idea of the rules and how to play!  Plus it's great fun to get together with your friends every Thursday afternoon!  Don't forget the added exercise.  Good all around!

Yesterday we met for PE class and introduced kickball. We used Frisbees for bases, had about 10 kids involved from ages 3-10, and even involved the moms! It was fun!! We played two innings, which was enough for these kids, and everybody got a chance to play.  Even Christian kicked the ball and ran around the bases (with some help of course!)

After we were done with PE time, we went over to a nearby park to play for awhile.  But since it was so nice out and everybody was having fun, we played for almost two hours!  Another family stayed too, so it was just a great time! It's great for the kids to use their imagination as they make pies in the sand and even play hide and seek among the playground equipment. I got to sit and talk to the moms- that is so refreshing! We planned a Halloween party and just talked about life!  Like one mom said, PE is not only for the kids, it is for the moms too!

Next week we are going to try t-ball with the kids, but I have already had some older children in my family who don't want to play t-ball, they just want to hit the ball without the T.  This may be possible! I am glad they are having fun!

Clean bill of health!

I took Christian back to the doctor today and he has a clean bill of health! His lungs are completely clear and the pneumonia is GONE! Hip hip hooray!

I asked the doctor if we are going to be battling bronchitis with him all winter again with him and she thought not. She said that maybe these antibiotics kicked it all out of him! I hope so!

Now to get the Megan and I to stop coughing and we will be one healthy family!!

Columbus Day!

It's Columbus Day tomorrow! You know what that means, it means my children will be getting a lesson on the holiday!

The website from the History Station usually has great write-ups about these holidays, I am going to use this article for information tomorrow.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

After learning about Christopher Columbus, we are going to do a little craft.

http://www.brainpopjr.com/socialstudies/holidays/columbusday/activity/

It's fun because Christian has been joining us for a lot of crafts lately, it may be too childish for Megan, but I think she will want to do it anyway!

Onion Rings

As I was flipping through my cookbook from the library, I saw a page on making homemade batter and it had a picture of onion rings on the opposite page. Do you know what I have not been able to have in over two years because they are always covered in wheat? Onion rings! I am so excited that I can make a version that I can eat!

I also contacted the internet to help me too, I have never made them homemade, but they don't look so hard!

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Onion-Rings

Scheming Courtney

Matt and Courtney have been scheming around here lately.  I limit a lot of wheat in our house and Matt eats all the wheat he wants, which encourages the children to ignore mom's rules sometimes and go with dad.

Last night, I heard this conversation between Courtney and Matt as I was sitting in bed reading a book.

"Dad, I have a plan. Tomorrow morning when I wake up, I am going to come get you...very quietly so we don't wake mom up.  Then we are going to make ourselves some waffles, using the pancake mix in the cupbard (wheat, of course).  When we are done, we're going to wash all the dishes and when mom offers of breakfast, eat a little bit, but just tell her we're not so hungry. How does that sound??"

Courtney thought she was being sooo sneaky, but then I ruined her whole plan and said, "I heard that!!"

Then I heard, "Shucks!"

Honestly, it would be fun to see if they could pull it off! Last week when I got up, Matt was making them hole-in-the-middles (bread with the middle cut out and replaced with an egg.)  The kids need time with dad too, so honestly if it includes wheat here and there, it is worth it! I can step back once in a while and let dad take over!!

New cookbook I found!

I have never found a cookbook that I have been 100% happy with in the last two years.

My main food sensitivities are milk, gluten, eggs, and sugar and none of the books were specifically aligned with these dietary restrictions.  I have checked out many books from the library and have looked at many websites online and I often still find myself trying to substitute ingredients in a recipe.

I found this book at the library the other day and I could hardly believe it!

Do you see the print underneath the title?? Gluten free, dairy free, and egg free!!! And the best part is that she doesn't include any processed sugar in her recipes, they all use natural sugars, such as honey or maple syrup!

I found a cookbook that I can make every single recipe in!!

The best part is that there are recipes in this book of foods that I have not had in a couple of years because I couldn't figure out how to make them, such as pizza crust, waffles, bread, English muffins, etc.  Now, I have a solid recipe in front of me and I can make every single one of them and not have any reaction! I noticed that I would have to use yeast in a few of them, which I have been off for about two years, but I think we can try it again! I feel sooo much better!

Guess what we are trying tomorrow? Waffles!

Honestly, I may go to Amazon and buy one for myself!

Tired of the germs!

We are going on the 3rd week of battling germs in our house. It all started the Friday that we went to Vala's. Megan had a low grade temp that night and has been coughing every since. Her cough was not so bad, so I just let her be.  On the other hand, Christian came down with pneumonia the following week.

Now we are about done with his antibiotics and I think we are home free, but guess what? Now I have a sore throat! I woke up yesterday and it hurt so bad to talk! The kids thought they were getting a free day off of school, but luckily, it cleared up and I was fine.  Today I woke up and it wasn't so bad, but still hurt.

I got an email from one of my friends this morning and she said she had been up since 3:30 am with a daughter who was puking.  These are some friends that we saw yesterday afternoon.  About an hour later, my stomach starts burning! It hurt pretty bad! I had added a few new things into my diet this week, but nothing that should make it burn!  I cancelled our afternoon plans and said we were just going to stay home and chill out.  I could use the rest anyway!

So here we are, at home for the afternoon. We got all our schoolwork done this morning because we had plans for this afternoon, but our new plan is to catch up on a little housework and watch "Back to the Future 3."  I really should sit down and rest.

In the meantime, I had to put off plans yet again to go see my new niece who was born over a week ago!

Germs, germs, go away!

My children and underwear problems!

I have another underwear story from today and it just made me laugh.

I do not help Christian get dressed in the morning. He can now do this all by himself and he usually gets dressed while I am getting ready, so I don't really pay attention to what he is doing.  I lay out a pair of pants, a shirt, and a new pair of underwear.  As long as he has new clothes on, he is good to go!

Today he got dressed as usual and we started our day. About 3 pm, we were in the middle of doing a duck puzzle with him and he had to go potty, so he ran off to the bathroom. When he was done, he seemed to be having some trouble because he kept saying, "I am having trouble with my underwear!"  He never has troubles with his underwear, so I went into the bathroom and saw a pair on the floor, then I looked at him and he had a pair on! I had been in that bathroom several times and there has never been a pair of underwear on the floor.

I said, "Christian, what are these?" pointing to the pair on the floor.

"Those are my old underwear."

"What are you wearing?" I asked him back.

"My new underwear," he replied.

I said in a very inquisitive voice, "Did you have two pairs of underwear on?"

He replied, "Yes."

I said, "Did you not change underwear this morning? Did you just put your new underwear on top of your old underwear?"

"Yes!"

UGH! So since he was having so much trouble with his underwear at this moment, he decided to take his old pair off and just wear his new pair!! Little stinker!

Maybe I need to start checking his underwear in the morning!!

You know you are behind laundry when...

Laundry has not been my friend this past week. Neither have many other things!

The laundry basket in the kids' bathroom was so full that the kids started calling it a "mountain." Let's just say that mountain was about up to the window!!

My laundry basket was overflowing and there was just miscellaneous piles of dirty clothes all over the house.

I got two loads through yesterday, but not enough to even put a dent in the pile!

Last night we got home from the football game about 11 pm from a friends house and I asked Megan, "Do you have any clean underwear for tomorrow?" I know this might be an issue because she couldn't find any clean ones Saturday morning! She replied with, "no." At 11:15 pm last night, I threw a big load of dirty underwear, socks, and t-shirts into the washer so they could be ready to dry right away this morning.

But what happened this morning? I forgot to put them in the dryer! I remembered them when Megan was heading upstairs to get dressed and we had 25 minutes until we had to leave!

I told Megan to wait about 20 minutes and to see if they would dry, but by that time, they were still pretty wet. I told her she just couldn't change underwear and she would just have to wear the same ones again (I know, gross, right?)

Her reply, "But mom, I have already worn this pair for two days!"

You know you are behind in laundry when your child has already worn the same pair of underwear for two days and you are asking her to wear them a third!!!

(The clothes should be dry now that we are home from church and she can change, but it just shows how behind I am in laundry!!!)

My goal today: conquer the mountain!!

Ready for the Weekend!

I am soooo ready for the weekend.  This has been a long week! Just when I think we are going to be able to get to a schedule and really get going on school, somebody throws a wrench into my plans!

The wrench this week was Christian's pneumonia.  Not only did I spend 2 1/2 hours at the doctor on Monday (and who knows how much $$), he is still not much better and it is almost Friday!  We have been up every three hours at night giving him albuterol because he is coughing so hard.  This has happened for the last four nights and I really struggle to get out of bed in the morning! He is also still running his low-grade fever on and off. 

So not only do we start school late every morning, but I am dealing with a sick kid on a daily basis.  I will say that he is worse in the evening, nighttime, and in the morning. This morning I was upstairs and he drug himself up the steps because he had no energy and told me "My blanket is sooo heavy." He had brought his blanket upstairs with him. I told him to go lay down in bed and I was going to go back downstairs and start school with the girls (because it was already 10 am and way past time when I would like to start).  Apparently he didn't want to be upstairs by himself, so I had to come back upstairs and carry him down. Poor thing! He was better a couple hours later though.

To get this boy better though, the doctor prescribed some antibiotics. But why do they have to make them so disgusting??  I tried to give him some Monday night and he about spit it back out at me! We have put it in applesauce, ice cream, and tonight we put it into apple juice. I don't blame the kid for not wanting to take it, I wouldn't want to either! If I knew what was in the stuff they use to flavor medicines, I might take it back to the pharmacy and pay $1.99 for some grape flavoring, but I bet it's high fructose corn syrup and artificial food dyes, not exactly what I want to give my sick child! 

After not noticing much of a difference from two days ago, I got on the phone today and called our pediatrician just to see when we should start seeing improvement.. They just said to call them back if his fever went higher or if he started vomiting. She said it could be 3-5 days before we see improvement!  They also told me not to give him so much albuterol because it will make his heart race.  Sorry, but it breaks my heart to see my kid coughing until he gags and his eyes watering so much. The albuterol is working, so I am going to keep giving it to him! Am I just supposed to let him cough all day long?? How miserable is that...not just for him, but for everybody in this house!

I also asked today if he is contagious or not.  We have been taking him places, but have not let him play with kids his age, such as to Sunday School.  The nurse said that the cold that gave him pneumonia is contagious, but the pneumonia is not. Interesting!  I did not know that...

In the midst of school, no sleep, fighting a kid to take his medicine, and his sickness, I have totally let the house get out of hand! Seriously, it is very bad right now and honestly, I don't have the energy to clean it or to have the kids to clean it at the moment! Maybe Saturday....

Is it the weekend yet???