Long Day!

You know those days when you get up at 7 am with the kids, teach them all day, feed them dinner, do science experiments at 8 pm, and husband/ dad finally walks in at 9:45 pm?  Then after all the children are in bed, you stay up and grade papers until 10:30 pm.

As much as I want to enjoy the PEACE AND QUIET, it is now 11 pm and I get to start all over tomorrow at 7 am. (But luckily Matt will be home by 5 pm tomorrow!)

Crazy Day!

January is kind of boring around here. We don't have many activities going on, but on the flip side, we have gotten a lot of school work done this month! Today though, we had a few bumps in our day that made life interesting.

1. My alarm went off as usual, but I turned it off and slept in an additional hour! (Good thing we go to school at home! We would have missed the bus!! haha!)

2. Everybody needed a shower this morning, except Micah! This always takes longer.

3. Because of these two events, school started an hour late.

4.  As I was doing some research on the computer and getting things ready for school, a big blue screen came up and asked for my Microsoft password. I didn't want to touch anything, so I texted and called Matt to see what I should do and of course, he didn't answer or write back. Everything I needed to do for school was on the computer. I had to put all that on hold. Since the girls were showered and ready, I decided to read some school work to the kids while I waited for Matt to get back to me. (In the end, it was somebody "fishing" for my information and I just had to reboot the computer.")

5. And if starting the school late and my computer acting up wasn't enough, Courtney stopped me as I was reading and said, "Isn't that Christian crying?" (He was in the shower.)  I said, "No, that is just him singing in the shower again."  All of us stopped what we were doing and sure enough, it sounded like he was crying. I went upstairs and into the bathroom to check on him. He was kneeling on the floor with a towel around him and said he could not stand up. He was just sobbing. It mad me so sad. :(    He kept pointing to his hip bone and saying it "really, really hurt!!!!"  I didn't know what to do! He couldn't extend his left leg or sit up straight. I helped him get dressed very carefully and got him downstairs. I called our doctor and our chiropractor. While I was waiting on a call back from one of them, he was able to extend his leg and sit up. I was sure he had a muscle spasm, and it was affecting his leg and back.

Our chiropractor was the first to call back, and she said it sounded like a muscle spasm and to put ice on it. Luckily I had an appointment already scheduled for this afternoon, so she said she would look at him then.  Our doctor's office also called back and they thought maybe it was a virus that had settled in his hip joint. They wanted me to check him for a fever. I said, "He does not have a fever. I am not even going to check!"  He was back to normal within 20 minutes! So weird!



After our morning drama and not getting much done, we had lunch and went back to the books a little bit in the afternoon.

At 3 pm this afternoon, Courtney had tryouts for a middle school play that she wants to be in. While she was there, I took myself and Christian to the chiropractor. She checked Christian out and said he was still SUPER tight on his left side. She definitely thinks it had something to do with his muscles. We both got adjusted, and we were on our way.

I had plans to go to Sam's during this time, but since I spent so much time at the chiropractor, I ran out of time before I had to go back and get Courtney. Instead I decided to take the kids over to Barnes and Nobles. The boys love the train table there and Megan just loves books. (A kid after my own heart!) The boys had about twenty minutes to play, and they kept fighting and fighting! UGH! Finally it was time to go, and I just picked up Micah and said we were done. He was not leaving that place without a fight! He screamed the entire way out the door! Of course, Megan had found herself a book she wanted, so I made her stand in line by herself while I took the boys out. She said the people in front of her were making comments about the screaming kid! I asked her if she said it was her brother or not. She didn't!

After the bookstore, we headed to Pepperjax to get dinner. Matt picked Courtney up from the play rehearsal, and we had a nice peaceful dinner that I did not have to cook. :)

We ended our day with a worship night at church. It was pretty cool! I love watching our junior and senior high kids raise their hands and worship God! This is our next generation coming up in the church and my child is up there with her hands raised too! Makes this mama proud!

Now instead of staying up and grading papers and preparing for tomorrow, I am writing this all out on my blog! Tomorrow may just be another crazy day. I think we are going to start with "Operation Clean the House." It is getting a little bit out of control!!

No snow days for my kids!

Every public school kid in our area got the day off, again! This is the 3rd snow day in three weeks! And it really snowed pretty bad this time! They needed to be off!

But then there are my homeschoolers who will NEVER get a snow day off! haha!!!!

Of course, they complained a little bit this morning when I told them everybody was off and that we were still going to school. They don't mind too much that I make them go. They know that when spring comes around and we want to take a day off, those will then be our "snow days."

We started school at 9 am this morning and ended at 4:20 pm. This is about an hour longer than usual, but I had so many interruptions by my sweet boys this morning, that everything just got pushed back later. I was determined to get everything done today and I did!! I really need to figure out how to keep my two boys separated during school. They cannot be in the same room together without irritating each other. Unfortunately, my best strategy at this point is to just put Christian in his room while he isn't working with me. Sometimes Micah finds his way up to his room and then we are back at square one. :(

Broken oven :(

I am so sad; my oven in broken.  :(   If you know me, you know that I bake A LOT!!

I actually learned my oven was broke the hard way. I put an apple crisp in one morning, smelled something burning, opened my oven and smoke billowed out plus I had a burnt apple crisp.  This was about 15 minutes into the bake time.  The apple crisp was salvageable, but there was something clearly wrong with my oven.

After Matt took it apart a little bit and did some research online, he thought that my temperature regulator was bad. He checked that specifically, but that was still good. The temperature regular leads back to the computer panel, so we are pretty much assuming that the computer panel is bad. After looking online a little bit more for a new part, we found out that it would be $325 to fix!!! That is about the price of a new stove!

We went and looked at new stoves last night. We looked at flat tops, convention ovens, gas ranges, etc. and I don't really know what I want. Matt doesn't want to spend an arm and a leg either, although I think he would prefer to get a gas range with a convention oven. We will do some more research on them.

Until then though, I have been using the convention oven in my microwave to bake items! I haven't used it in years, so I forgot how it worked! Once I pushed a few buttons and figured it out, I got it working! I made granola in there yesterday and today I am making some jellied rolls. This is the best I got until I get a new oven! Hopefully that will be soon!

Micah's new "thing"

Micah is at the age now where he pretends play and has a great imagination! Some days he is hilarious, but other times he makes more work for me with his imaginary play.

Last night was one of them.  He loves pulling my small appliances out of the cupboard and playing with them. This would involve the waffle makers, blender, toaster, and crock pots. He really does no harm and as long as I keep an eye on them, he is fine.  He doesn't plug them in and just plays. It keeps him busy. :)

About a week ago though, he had found a bucket of crayons and decided to fill the pitcher of the blender up with crayons. I said he was making a "crayon smoothie" for me. He was so cute because he was saying, "Cover your ears. It's loud!" And then, "Want some?"

Last night though, he took it to the next level. I was grading papers and not watching him very closely. He decided to put crayons in the toaster. :(  By the time I saw him, he had it pretty full. Have you EVER tried to get crayons out of a toaster?? Well, it doesn't work so well!!!

He was also putting the crayons in a pitcher and calling it "apple juice." Last night, he got me a cup and poured me some of his "apple juice." It was so yummy! :)

As I write this, he is back at it. He put crayons in the crock pot last night and is moving them into the blender this morning. He is counting the scoops as he goes (one, two, three, etc.) I guess he wants his "crayon smoothie" for breakfast!! "

(And yes, before we use any of these appliances, I will wash them and get all the crayon stuff out of them!)

Hives again?

We have been on a roll lately. The last time Micah broke out with hives was last June from grandpa blowing raspberries on his tummy (weird, right?). I have been very careful with what he eats and it hasn't really been an issue.

Last night we were over at  friends house, and they let their dog out into the area where all the adults were.  In the past, Micah has been allergic to dog dander, but just recently, we had him retested and his numbers went WAY down! About a year ago, we were over there though and this dog licked him and he broke out in hives on his face.  I kind of assumed he had outgrown this since his numbers went way down.

Last night, I looked over at Micah and their dog was licking Micah on his face! I told the dog to get away, and then told the owners that Micah will break out in hives.  The owner then told me that dog's saliva is sterile, and that it won't cause hives. I just responded with, "Well, it has happened before."

Not even five minutes later, I looked at Micah and he had hives on his face, right where the dog licked him!! I said, "See?? He broke out in hives!" Again, the owner said, "Well, he was rolling on the carpet a little bit ago." HUH?? I think he was assuming that the hives came from the dander in the carpet and not from the licking. I beg to differ.

So, apparently, Micah is still allergic to dog saliva! I may call the allergist and just reaffirm this!!

Getting back to Normal!

We started school back yesterday and it has been crazy. I have two boys who constantly want to touch and irritate each other, so I am constantly being interrupted. :(  I also have a two year old who thinks he needs to be entertained all day long. Somehow he is always trying to get onto my lap while I am trying to teach somebody. Today I got the money out to practice with Christian and Micah wanted to play with it...on my lap! I said "no" and gently put him on the floor with the money. That did NOT go over well!   When I put him down, he cried and then a certain 11 year old told me that I was not being compassionate enough to him! I just want to teach my children!!

As for school, we are able to pick up right where we left off before break. I had everything graded, and we were at good stopping points in most subjects.  I always try to do tests if I can before a long break, but in Courtney's English and Megan's science, we were unable to get the test in even though we were super close to the end of the chapter. We were able to get the reviews in today, and they will take their tests tomorrow. The older two girls were also in the middle of research papers.  They had all their research done before break, so we sat down today and wrote outlines. I think they wanted a break from them anyway, so it worked out well!

I am looking forward to ending some curriculum here shortly and started anew. Courtney and Christian finished their science book, so they are going in separate directions in a couple of days. I think it will be for the better. Courtney is going to do biology, and Christian is going to do earth science. We are close to finishing our history curriculum, so that will be a big switch too, and I am looking forward to it. As I look back at what we were doing, I realized how many books we didn't read and how much of the curriculum we didn't use. I am thinking about selling it because I probably won't use it again. Plus I already have somebody interested in it! Bonus for me!

Along with school, basketball started up this week, so we are doing that for the next two months up at a local church. Courtney and Christian are playing with the Upward program again, so they are excited! Christian started practice last night, and Matt said he was the tallest person on his team. He is also a very old 1st grader, so he is probably one of the oldest too! Courtney starts practice tonight. She is going to be too good for Upward, but it is still fun for her. She really loves basketball!

Youth group also starts back up for Megan this week. She thoroughly enjoys that!

Since we are back at school, I am back to grading every evening. So guess what I get to do tonight?? Grade schoolwork!!

Holidays are over!

Wow! We have had a great time celebrating Christmas and the new year. We let all four children stay up on New Year's Eve to ring in the new year.  The two year old lasted until 11:15, the seven year old lasted until about 11:30, and the rest of us made it until 12! We passed the last hour by playing Phase 10 and enjoying root beer floats! (Yes, at 11:30 pm!, I figured we were all so tired that the sugar might not affect us too bad!)

I had told the girls last week that I wanted to get back to math and English this week. As I went to tuck the girls in last night, Courtney said, "Mom, I am really dreading tomorrow. We have to go back to school." I said, "School? No, we aren't going back to school yet." She jumped for joy! I told her I needed some order back in my life before we went back to school! Our kitchen was a disaster and the whole first floor of my house needed some order. 

Guess what we did today? We got the place back in order! Even though that is done, there are still a couple of things I want to get done before we go back to school! I want to get the sitting room clean, get some old curriculum sold, and get some pictures on the walls. I am not asking for much, but I just want it done!

Today we cleaned in the morning and then this afternoon, we went out and got groceries. It was cold, but we survived! Tomorrow we are having some friends over, so we will probably just get a few things done in the morning. Maybe Thursday morning we will try to pull out the math and English. I just tell the girls that the more we do now, the less we have to do in the summer!