The Family Revised

I Just Have One Thing to Say

2012-01-29T21:23:00.002-06:00

I feel big. Really big.

Whew.

Gonna roll myself to bed now. See you in the morning!

The Home Improvement Bug....

2012-01-28T09:35:00.000-06:00

...has bitten my husband. And I'm not looking for an antidote either! After he painted our bedroom for me this week, he told me to go ahead and get new bedding, which I was going to wait to do. He wanted to be DONE with a project.

And so after our bedroom looked so awesome and clean, I got up Friday morning and cleaned our bathroom. I also took out all the maroon and sage green stuff (the former colors of our bedroom and bathroom) and started replacing them with blue stuff from around the house. When he got home and saw the bathroom all cleaned up, he decided why not go ahead and paint the bathroom too? (It's never been painted---it was ugly off-white.) After all, we had the shower re-done last February. I think he's ready to be DONE with that project too!

So yesterday he started on that. Now I've got to scramble around and get some new curtains up in both places. I also plan to sew on the girls' quilts some today. I hesitate to even get on here and say that "it's sewing day" because as sure as I do, something will come up and I won't even look at my sewing machine. But, I have good intentions, OK?

Very excited to have a nice looking space for us and also to bring baby home to. Speaking of baby, she's kicking up a storm these days and I just love it. I'm not sleeping at night and I don't love that. But so far I haven't done anything stupid from being tired. Give me time.

The girls are at my dad's this morning eating green eggs and sausage in honor of Little Bit reading that book (well, the one about ham) by herself this week in school. Yesterday she started her new book and I just sat there in awe watching her read and work out words that she has never seen before. I've known it for years, but it never ceases to amaze me in action: once kids can read, they just keep reading better and better. It's very cool to watch!

Hope you all have a great Saturday!

Colors on My Mind

2012-01-26T21:24:00.000-06:00

Purple...
...the color of the pajamas I'm wearing right now. And that tub of clothes in the living room that needs to be put up.

Gold...
...the color of the wedding anniversary we are planning for my parents. Must order the cake tomorrow.

Blue...
...the color of the walls in my (new) bedroom. So pretty!

Beige...
...the color of the fabric I need to buy for new curtains in our room.

Can't wait to sleep in my new bedroom snuggled under my new comforter!!

Best Christmas present ever!

Room Progress, School Progress...Two Out of Thee Ain't Bad!

2012-01-25T21:56:00.000-06:00

S is off the rest of this week so he can complete my Christmas present. He asked me what I wanted and I told him. I had cans of paint under the tree Christmas morning and this week, he's going to use them!

First, we had this wall in our bedroom which had been covered in wallpaper and then painted over before we moved in. So...I just painted over it too several years ago. That's the only wall we've ever painted in our bedroom since we've lived here. It was ugly. And we weren't about to start peeling that wallpaper.

So I showed S my board of ideas for our bedroom. And he totally caught the vision. So today, he and my dad did this:

New wall all covered in beautiful wood.

And new homemade baseboards...

Oh I love it! And we like it so much we decided not to wash white over it like we originally thought. And it smells wonderful! All wood-y.

Tomorrow the paint goes up on the other three walls. And see? There is plenty of room beside my bed for baby. :)

So having him home changed our day up considerably. First of all, I had to run to Lowe's for a few things this morning and help him move things in our bedroom. After breakfast I made the girls a list of things to get started on and I ran the errands. We still managed to get most of school done even with boards being carried through the room and the nail gun and air compressor making noise, and all the activity. I had to actually make something to eat for lunch and be a runner for the men working, etc. So I was way busier than usual and did far less sitting on the couch. Probably both good things.

Thankfully, S was tired too so we went out to eat before church. Not sure I had it in my energy reserves to cook.

And I'm really glad for all this progress today. I'd like to tell you that I sewed on the quilts today and that I made progress on the quilts today, but those 2 things are not necessarily the same. Yes, I sewed. But when you have to seam rip the entire thing apart in the end, it's not considered progress. Note to self: don't do it backwards next time. Grr.

Sleep is Like Food

2012-01-24T09:34:00.000-06:00

It's that important, I've decided. It's my answer to everything!

You're grumpy at your sister? You need to get to bed earlier tonight.

Math is too hard? You need more sleep?

Mama is not feeling energetic? I NEED TO SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT!!

Little Bit with her big bear. :)

Sunday I was kind of concerned about myself. I had been so out of energy all week. I was like 38-weeks-pregnant-tired when I'm only 24 weeks. That concerned me. I know I'm older this time, but man! I should feel better than this!

So I thought I'd call the doctor on Monday if I still felt that way but Sunday night I slept through the whole night and felt great all day yesterday. We did school, we had a Keepers at Home meeting, and had someone over to dinner last night and made it through all of that just fine!

Then last night I lost over 2 hours of sleep again. Which is why I did not get up with S this morning to make his coffee/lunch/breakfast and see him off. Which is why it is after 9:00 and we haven't had breakfast. But it's OK because if I don't make up that sleep I will not make it through the day. We're just on a different time frame than the rest of Texas today. I'm uh...on California time today. Yeah. That's it.

Just gotta have a beach frame of mind today. School hasn't started yet? It's all good!

In other news, I picked up my sewing machine from the repair shop yesterday so now I can work on the girls' room re-dos!! Yay! And tomorrow starts husband's vacation. He's going to be re-doing OUR bedroom. Can't wait. I'm looking forward to a relaxing retreat/nursery/mis-matched-space-for-a-while. We'll see how good I am about getting school done with him here working on the room. I know we'll be off-schedule for the rest of the week but that's OK because obviously I'M PRACTICING TODAY!

Yeah, that's it. We're practicing.

How Sonlight Works

2012-01-22T22:31:00.000-06:00

I'm sorry for those of you who could care less about Sonlight curriculum. It's just that friend asked me about Sonlight this weekend and I realized when I was first looking at it, I needed a lot of guidance. So, I thought a post was in order. Hope it helps someone!

I don't know why Sonlight is so confusing when you first look at it, but it is. I had Erin to guide me via e-mail and also learned a lot from googling various blog posts. I'm going to try to really easily and in plain ol' English, tell you how it works.

So Sonlight started out offering complete packages for a grade. One of the founders had lived in North Africa and knew how difficult it was to get homeschool materials. You can read the brief history here.

As time went on, as I understand it, more and more people were using Sonlight's materials, but wanted more choice. For example, maybe they really liked everything else, but wanted to use a different math curriculum. So, math was offered separately. Or, perhaps they liked everything but the Language Arts curriculum. So, LA was offered separately. Sonlight kept splitting things up (you could still get it all in a package deal if you wanted) until they got down to BIBLE, HISTORY, and READING. These three, they decided, were not workable if spit up. These three things then, make a "core."

You can still get a package deal from Sonlight with absolutely everything you need for a grade. These are the "multi-subject packages." Want simple? Just order the "Third grade package" for your 3rd grader. Simple. Easy.

But, if you like to pick and choose, you can also order things by subject. Sonlight has a LOT of choices from various homeschool companies including Teaching Textbooks, Saxon, Singapore, Horizons, Mathtacular....that's just MATH! So you can order what you want to use for math, for spelling, for science, for handwriting, etc. I ordered a lot of things we needed from Sonlight instead of directly from the various companies and many times there is a discount offered when you order through Sonlight!

But when it comes down to History and Reading....well those come together. And there is a good reason. Almost all of Sonlight's cores are based on a History theme. For example, this year Sweetheart is studying American History (Core D+E). So all these books I showed you the other day?

Those are her history books and her reading books all together. There is not a huge dividing line between history and reading in these upper cores. You read about history. You don't study history and then some other reading books that have nothing to do with the price of eggs. Your reading and your history are all based on the subject you are studying that year. In our case, American History. Even the read-alouds that I read to her are about American History. And they are SUCH GOOD BOOKS!!!

So here is how we use Sonlight. We ordered a "CORE PACKAGE." They are lettered because they don't have to pertain to any certain grade level. They give some guidelines such as Core D+E is recommended for ages 9-12 or grades 4-7. They say they often run a bit on the harder side, so I chose this core as Sweetheart is 12 and in 6th grade. She's at the upper end of the recommended ages/grades and that is making it just right to easy for her this year. If you have a very advanced 9 year old/4th grader, they might find this core just right. It's up to the parent.

Then, we did the "pick and choose" method for the other subjects. Math? We did not order from Sonlight. Science? We did not order from Sonlight. Handwriting? Sonlight offered what we already used and at a discount, so we ordered it. Language Arts? We did not order from Sonlight. Spelling? Sonlight offered what we already used, so we ordered it. See? You can customize your order for you.

Whatever you choose to buy from Sonlight--whether a complete package, or just a core, or just individual subjects--comes to you in a box all together and ready to go.

I didn't tell you about Bible. Since many non-religious homeschoolers also wanted to use Sonlight, the Bible curriculum is not automatically included in your core. But it is automatically included in your Instructor's Guide. And one of the books for our core goes along with the History and Reading. It is called The American Indian Prayer Guide. But I chose not to purchase the other things for Bible. We just use the prayer guide, and a Bible. The assigned readings for both of these are included in the Instructor's Guide.

Speaking of the Instructor's Guides....wow! They rock. No need for me to try to explain these any better than Heather at OMSH did already. Here is her post (and this just about sold me on Sonlight!)

You get a LOT for your money. A lot of materials. A lot of pre-thought out organization. A lot of now-I-don't-have-to-do-everything. I try to read ahead of Sweetheart, but if I don't, there are questions and answers for me in the Instructor's Guide so we can still have an intelligent conversation about what she has read. I can literally wake up on Monday morning, give each child their new assignment sheet, and get to work. And I've already told you about the independence it is fostering in my daughter.

By the way, Sonlight is still available for overseas families AND they offer discounts for missionary families. I like that.

Weekly Wrap-Up Week 18

2012-01-20T10:14:00.001-06:00

I feel pretty good when I look back at what we HAVE gotten done this year. Using Sonlight means we have read lots of really good books. Not that you can't read good books if you don't use Sonlight, but I know WE would not have gotten all this done without a plan.

The books Sweetheart has read so far...

Little Bit had this time line in Kindergarten when we used Five in a Row the second part of the year. It goes from 1900-2009.

It came with printable circles for the books we read that year. So I printed off little pictures of the books she has read this year and we added them. (to the year they were published)

Reading big numbers (dates), before and after....lots of good learning with this little activity! Plus, we put pictures of our family on the timeline so she could get a feel for how old a book is

Ping (which we read in Kindergarten and this year), was written the year before Grandpa was born! (And before Kit Kittredge--American Girl stories help us place them in time too.)

But the Children's Encyclopedia was written when Little Bit was one!

Anyway, it feels good to know we have gotten some things done this year!

Little Bit finished reading her first "real" book this week--a CHAPTER book no less! Now she's reading Green Eggs and Ham.

Sweetheart's assignment sheet said she was to do a report on Andrew Jackson this week. Mama hadn't even read that little blurb, and honestly Mama didn't care if she did that report or not. But she read it and was excited. So at the library, she went and found a book on Andrew Jackson, brought it home and read it, and wrote up a report.

Maybe it wasn't perfect book report form, but she took the initiative to do it and I was very proud. And she did learn!

We had "backwards day" twice this week. This is when we start at the back of our schedule and work our way up. That way, the things we never get to, get done! Like Science. We even did an experiment!

But enough about school.

Of course I worked in the girls' rooms this week. One way to make your tiny little 8 year old seem bigger instantly? Hang 0-3 month clothes in her closet next to her dresses!

And we found out that three 5 gallon water bottles a month is NOT enough for our family. We ran out this week and we don't have a water deliver until next week! ACK!

Sad and empty.

I'm not really sure four bottles will be enough either as this month we were also drinking the free cases of water bottles we got for signing up. But I think we'll try a month with 4 bottles and see how it goes. We've created water snobs. When the water ran out, the girls were all, "We have to drink SINK water????" Oh puleeze. Three weeks you've been drinking the good stuff!

And of course, a day of too many errands requires some fun. We had lunch at James Coney Island one day. Cute hats. Gross food.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Home

2012-01-19T08:52:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we did school from 9-11:30 and were VERY productive. Then, from 11:30-3:30 we made no fewer than SEVEN stops around town (well, several towns actually) before we landed back at home. At which time I started printing inserts for the invitations and counting out envelopes and stamps. Then I may have fallen asleep on the floor only to have a friend come over to pick up a crib we were giving away (it didn't fit in our space). She totally caught me napping. Then I cooked supper and sister came over to get half the invites to address last night and then we ate supper and we ran out the door to church.

Because I thought the day had been kind of boring up until then, I decided it would be a good idea to lock the car keys in the trunk of the car after church.

SIGH.

Today, we are HOME. And I don't want to run any errands. I have enough to do here to occupy me for 3 straight days! And I am very thankful to just be here. I can assure you school will not start on time. We are all still in our pajamas and the girls are playing. I still need to stuff some envelopes and get everything out to the mailbox before school starts anyway.

There are a lot of should do's on my list today like laundry and finding the kitchen sink and school and things like that. Those will get done. But there are also some want to do's on my list and they are calling my name.

We worked in the girls' rooms Monday evening and haven't touched them since. Completely half-done and a terrible mess. I would like to work in their rooms today. I would like to start seam-ripping ribbon off of their curtains so I can re-decorate the curtains for their "new" rooms. If I have 100 things to do, taking the ribbon off of those curtains comes in #99 in importance. Maybe that's why it appeals to me.

I guess I'll share some before pics of the girls' rooms:

Sweetheart's desk area and part of her bed. And always stuff on the floor.

Little Bit's museum of too much stuff!

While we spent several days in November organizing and labeling everything in Sweetheart's room, it occurred to me that her arrangement wasn't very organized. Now she has zones--the desk is actually beside the locker and bookshelf, etc. But oh there is much more to be done.

And Little Bit's room has to start transforming into a room for 2. I cleaned out the closet the other day and it's all good now. We got rid of her desk and a lot of toys and now I have to figure out where to put the rest of her furniture. She probably has a year before her roommate will move in, so we can worry about getting rid of more furniture later.

And I've decided to call off that mini-vacation I wanted to go on before baby gets here. We are just too busy right now and I think I will be tired of all that walking, etc. I will probably feel better going in the fall with a 5 or 6 month old in tow. I may regret that. Not sure yet.

I'm off to be productive and enjoy my house and all the improvements which will surely happen around here today!

A New Day

2012-01-18T08:27:00.002-06:00

I am so glad to start fresh today. Yesterday was an emotional adolescent day at our house. It's truly the first time I can say we had an "adolescent problem" at our house.

Does anyone have a fit-throwing needs-to-be-potty-trained toddler I can swap you for?

Just kidding. I love my girls so much but this growing up thing is all new territory for me and I feel totally unprepared!

And wait!! In about 2 years I can have both the adolescent and toddler at the same time!! (Which, as I understand it, are quite similar things.)

So as I came into the picked-up living room this morning and saw the sunlight streaming into my yellow kitchen...and thought about the day ahead...I was so thankful for this verse:

Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23

I don't know about you, but I need new compassion every morning.

And so do my children.

Doing It All

2012-01-17T07:34:00.000-06:00

Yesterday on Facebook there was a conversation among some friends of mine about getting fixed up before husband gets home. The poster had been working hard all day and was sweaty and trying to get supper on the table and shower before he got home. This created some interest---one friend of the poster, who I don't know, wondered if she was living in the 1950s.

But another lady was inspired and came back later to say that she had showered and put on make-up and clean clothes before her husband got home. She was concerned he might have a heart failure when he stepped in the door. :)

Do you clean up and freshen up before your husband gets home? Do you clean the kids up? Do you pick up the house?

I'll tell you, we ALWAYS pick up the house. At least the living room...at 4:00. The girls know I expect the disaster to be resolved before Daddy walks in the door. I shudder to think of him walking in early and unexpected one day because I think he would just be in such shock! HOW is it possible they did ALL THIS since I left for work this morning? Sometimes I'm shocked.

Have you heard of this rock stacking thing? We gave it a go this weekend.

I do brush my hair. I'm not often sweaty and disgusting. But I'll admit I haven't put a ton of thought into what I look like when he walks in the door. Then again, I ALWAYS shower and get dressed every morning. I understand that some ladies do not. It grosses me out to stay in pajamas all day. I just could not do it. So, yes, if I were in pajamas, or yoga pants and a stained shirt--I could see where there would be room for improvement. I also understand how a mom can let that get away from her and not even realize what she looks like when husband gets home. But I think it's important.

Anyway, Carrie piped up in this Facebook conversation to say that many women in the 1950s had help of some sort. Either they had a maid, or some kind of hired helpers, or even just that you could get milk and groceries delivered to your house back then. Also that most of them did not work outside OR INSIDE (read: homeschooling) their homes. Her point was--yes, look presentable. But we can't do it all.

Sweetheart working on her creation.

This was an interesting thought to me. I hadn't really stopped to consider the time homeschooling takes away from other things I could be doing. THIS is what being a "stay at home mom" means to me because this is the only way I've ever done it--with homeschooling thrown in the mix.

Oh don't think I haven't dreamt of all I could get accomplished if these little sweeties were gone for 8 hours a day! But that's not what I want. Not what we want. I love having them here but I admit--I love the holidays a whole lot when the homeschooling factor is gone and I just get to be a mom and homemaker. It's so nice.

That's why it irritates me that I get stressed out about not doing spelling for the 3rd day in a row. Or how we forgot to do Zoology yesterday. Or the other myriad of things we don't always get to. I have so many other things to be doing! Homeschooling is a lifestyle, but it is not life.

Meal prep.
Kitchen clean up.
Laundry.
General housecleaning.
Errands.
Bill paying/checkbook.

JUST those things take up a considerable chunk of time. I don't have time to homeschool for 12 hours a day on top of that! All things in moderation, right? Even lessons. Checking off all the little boxes does not ensure a successful education. Quality over quantity, right? Balance. We have children to educate, but we also have a house and a husband and responsibilities.

Other people before us went ALL out!

So I will not worry about what didn't get done. We will wisely use our time during "school hours" and then move on to other things. (Knowing, of course, that learning doesn't stop at a certain time.)

(I'm trying to convince myself here and I'm not sure it's working. I guess I really do believe somewhere there are families who get all their subjects done, cook a home-cooked meal and have a neat house.)

Your thoughts on all this?

Abundant Blessings and The Room Schizo

2012-01-16T09:21:00.000-06:00

First of all, the blessings. A friend said she had some baby clothes to hand down to me. Great! Thanks! We sure need 'em. So I met her at McDonald's for lunch and came home with 3 large garbage bags and a huge tub of clothes. Oh my goodness!

I spent all weekend washing them up. Her house is cleaner than mine but something was making me sneeze. Their dog? The laundry soap? Not sure. Plus I know some had been stored for awhile. AND washing baby clothes and getting them all ready is one of my very favorite things to do! After sorting and washing and weeding out some with stains, (very, very few. These clothes were in GREAT shape!), this is what we were left with:

Wow!! These are mostly 0-18 months!

The striped bag is full of crib sheets and blankets that we already had. The grey tub is full of a few toys, shoes, socks, bibs, burp rags, a baby monitor, etc. Just stuff. What a blessing! This baby won't need a THING in the way of clothing for a really long time. God is good!!

Now, about The Room Schizo. New readers, I am that schizo.

My name is Brenda and I am a room re-arranger.

But this time I have a really good reason!!

We aren't really going to have a nursery for this little one. For Christmas I asked S to paint our room (where the baby will be sleeping for a long time). So he's going to do that next week. I can't exactly help with that room too much, so I'm turning my attention to the girls' rooms. Two reasons:

1. To show them that we love them and care about how their rooms look. That we aren't JUST getting things nice for the baby.

2. Sweetheart asked for her room to "match better" a few weeks ago.

3. The baby will eventually share a room with Little Bit (our former homeschool room) so some changes need to be made in there to make space.

So, yesterday I made a plan for each room. It's not going to be an expensive project by any means. The biggest expense will be new rugs for their rooms. The ones they have in there are 5 years old and pretty gross. Other than that, it will just be sewing, hanging things on the walls, and rearranging. Oh, and a dresser for Little Bit. Gotta visit the thrift stores!

Oh, and organizing Little Bit's closet to make room for baby. (And all these tubs that are stacked in the hall!) Her closet is really big so there should be plenty of room. Once I get rid of a lot of crap.

After I shared the plan with Sweetheart, she immediately got up from her bed where we were sitting and started cleaning her room. Fifteen minutes later she was done. THAT, my friends, is a world record. So...I'm thinking she liked the plan!

I threw supper in the crock pot this morning so I can work uninterrupted in the closet today.

If I get stuck, I'll send a distress signal or something.

Weekly Wrap Up--Week 17

2012-01-13T07:48:00.000-06:00

It's FRIDAY!!!

I am very excited because this afternoon I am going to surprise the girls with a trip to the movies. We almost NEVER go to the movies so it is a big deal for them. It seriously has probably been 2 years since we've been--can't remember exactly. We're going to go see just about the only children's movie showing at our local theater today and that is Beauty and the Beast 3-D. It was 30 degrees outside when I woke up this morning so the movies sound like a good thing to do for fun, huh?

We've had a good week, overall. I still struggle with having the energy to cook in the evenings so we have eaten out more than I would have liked this week but I DID manage to cook 5 or 6 meals at home since last Friday. It isn't just the energy because if it was you could tell me to use my crock pot. No, it's that what I set out to make earlier in the day gags me by 5:00. That's the other problem. Somehow restaurant food never gags me. Hmm.

We started the week out with a flood. It was a nice day to stay home but the rain was a distraction on the school work. But a nice one.

Our street. That's our Christmas tree awaiting heavy trash day. Somehow it didn't float away.

Our backyard was pretty full too.

On the school front, this week Little Bit and I have been reading Dr. Doolittle. I had never read this book. She's enjoying it and really enjoys getting all the animals out every day to act out the story while I read.

Polynesia, Gub-Gub, Chee-Chee, Jip, Dab-Dab, and Too-Too.

I've been working and thinking hard about her math and how to get her going on it. This week we played "Your Pile, My Pile" a lot with flash cards. That's a game where you flash the card at her and if she gets it right, she gets to hold it and if she gets it wrong, I get to hold it. Then whoever has the most cards at the end, wins. Of course she won every time because she was not about to let me win. It worked. She finally started getting fast on these easy facts. I thought the day would never come.

But after 2 days of that she was over it. Sigh. I'm still trying to figure this girl out and what works for her. So next I printed off several things for her to do on different math topics so she isn't doing the same thing any day. Variety is the spice of her life when it comes to math, I guess.

I continue to struggle with not getting every subject done every day. I'm just going to have to muddle through the rest of this year and hope that 4-day-a-week curriculum choice helps us out next year on this matter. I don't really mind that we don't do every thing every day....just that we seem to go several days without hitting a subject. That's not good. Maybe I'll spend some time this weekend working on that. It's bothering me.

Well, we've got lots to do before enjoying our movie day. Holding "a fun day" over their head is good for a lot of housecleaning mileage and schoolwork you know!

One last thing:

22 weeks. Please enjoy my towel. And yes, Kathy---the ironing board was up!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Sonlight--How's That Working For You? (Part 3)

2012-01-12T07:16:00.002-06:00

The Tweaks

I'm sure somewhere there is a homeschool family who uses their curriculum exactly as prescribed. But i haven't personally met them. We all take the good and the great (and a lot of times, the free and the borrowed!) and then use it in a way that best suits our family. And you usually can't tell how you will change something until you've used it for awhile.

Well, there isn't much to change with Sonlight for me. But there are a few things.

Bible

First of all, there was Bible. For 2 years now, we had been using this:

But with the daunting newness of our big new curriculum coming, and considering that Bible was already written in to this curriculum, I decided not to order our next book from Bible Study Guides. I didn't want to make our day any longer or overwhelm anyone. Myself included.

So we spent the first 16 weeks of the year using only the Bible assignments from Sonlight. BUT...let me say...I didn't order all the components of their Bible program so that is probably part of the reason why our Bible time just didn't seem like enough to me. Maybe if we had used their full program, it would have.

Whatever the reason, I felt something was missing. I realized that Bible is more important than anything else we do during our day and its worth the time to do it well. (I already knew that!) So when we started back this week, we also started back with our old Bible curriculum. We've missed it. The girls love it. AND...it's something we can all do together. A great way to start the day.

We are still doing the Bible reading from each girls' Sonlight program as well.

The Days

The only other thing I'm going to tweak, and this will have to wait until next year, is I'm going to go with the 4-day a week option next year. With Sonlight, you can purchase a 5-day curriculum or a 4-day one. We didn't have a choice this year as the condensed American History core already crams 2 years into 1 and that is why the 4-day is not an option with this core. But next year, both girls will be working on a 4-day core. That will free up our Fridays (or Mondays) to work on science, relax, get caught up, do projects, etc. I think it will give us the breather we need.

That's it! Other than that, I am really pleased with our curriculum.

Math Change Coming!

Now, (this has nothing to do with Sonlight) but I found a Teaching Textbooks used on The Homeschool Lounge the other day and snapped it up. You know I have been thinking about switching to TT for Sweetheart ever since this day back in November. I LOVE Math U See and believe in it. I think their way of doing things works! I also feel loyal to Mr. Demme because he has brought us SO far! But when something stops working well for your child, (sigh), it's time to try something else. We will still be using MUS for Little Bit. And this TT is just a trial run. I bought the 5th grade level and I'm going to let her spend this spring and probably the summer too working through it. That should let me know if it's good fit and if I should order it for next year. I decided on the 5th grade because 1. it was for sale :) and 2. she hasn't covered fractions or decimals with MUS yet so I wanted to step back to a level that covered those for her. I'll let you know how it goes!

Anyone else make some changes mid-year? Man, I love homeschooling. When something isn't working for your child in public or even private school you just have to suck it up and make it through and hope for a better year next year. Not so with us!

The Pregnant Brain and Some Other Things

2012-01-11T08:03:00.000-06:00

#1
So....I've lived here my whole life. I mean, technically we lived in another city for 7 years but that city is only 15 minutes away so...it's not like I really moved far. I currently live on the same block I grew up on. I attended the same church for nearly 40 years of my life. That's the church where we are having my parent's 50th anniversary celebration.

And yet, inexplicably, I managed to put the wrong zip code on the invitations.

And then last night we had breakfast for supper. I put the ricotta cheese on the table instead of margarine.

Help me. Can I really chalk all this up to pregnancy brain? Please???

We went to the beach Sunday after church...

#2
Our church is reading through the Bible this year. They have provided each of us with a chronological Bible. Very handy and already dated for you. On Wednesday evenings, our study will revolve around what we have read that week so there is extra motivation for keeping up. Last year I made it through April before I fell off the wagon. This year Sweetheart is also doing the reading. She's doing great right now but I dread when we get to say...Leviticus. We may have to do the reading together at some point. Genesis is all enjoyable right now. Our extra incentive is at the end of every month, if we are on target, we will all go out for frozen yogurt. Little Bit will be involved also but I am using the Egermeier's Bible Story book* for her. It's what she already uses for Bible in school. I told her if she listened to her story every day, she could have frozen yogurt at the end of the month. The point is to get us reading every day. I think I need to make a sticker chart for her. And maybe one for me too!

*I'll have more to say about this book in tomorrow's post!

I'm thinking the water was kind of cold!

#3
Getting every subject done in school is very hard. I just read a friend's blog where she listed as one of her goals for the year was to only have school 3 hours a day. Her old pattern is to try to hit everything, have school last 6 hours or more, then burn out and take several weeks off. I quite agree that smaller doses, but regular doses, is healthier. I expected school to start taking longer the older Sweetheart got. I knew the glorious days of 1 elementary-aged student and 1 pre-schooler would not last forever. You know, where we were done by lunch no matter what? I just find it hard to get back at it after lunch. By then, we've been sitting and doing for quite a while and we all want a break. The dishes and laundry are calling to me. The backyard is calling to the girls. Then I find it hard to call us back to order. I guess I'm admitting a personal weakness. I know, wah wah, right? Public school kids go to school for 8 hours. It's just hard and next year I will be making some changes to help fix this issue.

Which was really funny!

#4
Tomorrow I will be 5 months pregnant and will have exactly 4 months until my due date. FOUR MONTHS!!! Do you realize what all has to happen in those 4 months? (breathe in. breath out) OK. A lot, is the correct answer.

finish the school year
paint our bedroom
purchase some baby things
plan and have my parent's anniversary party
organize several areas of the house
hopefully go on some type of little vacation
get some meals in the freezer
make some menu plans that the girls' can make or help make the first few weeks
clean the carpet
finish the girls' quilts (my sewing machine is in the shop for a week right now!)
get the girls' pictures made

I'm sure the list will get more ludicrous and detailed and crazy (see point #1) in the next few weeks. I think I need to start a new spiral notebook so I can cross things off and keep track of all my crazy.

That's all that's going on in my brain today. How about you? And do you have any freezer meal ideas for me? That don't involve death-inducing pasta for my diabetic husband? (I really miss pasta.)

Party Time

2012-01-10T16:36:00.000-06:00

My parents will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary next month. I am very pleased to be planning a reception for them. What a wonderful thing to have your parents make it to this milestone!

We aren't very fancy people, however. As my sisters and I were shopping around last weekend for things, we found there was a fine line to walk in balancing our casual nature with the need for a fancier occasion. Gold Solo cups are not really the look we're going for, you know? Even if everyone in our family would be just dandy with those!

The gold theme can be taken overboard!! Image from my Pinterest board.

We've run into problems with the color gold. It turns out that gold doesn't translate well to paper goods. Some of the napkins and cups and plates we've found have a color on them which can only be described as "poo." Seriously. It's like mustard mixed with brown. It's very odd.

Or, you can really get fancy and go metallic with your gold. I think the cake pictured above is a good example of why you don't really want to do that.

And I kept joking about those honeycomb wedding bells. Turns out they really do still sell them. But, we shall refrain. In fact, there was a whole section of 50th anniversary decorations which looked to be better suited for use at a party in Granny's dining room than a reception at the church building. Oh it's hard trying to be dignified!!

The main source of stress this week was the invitations and guest list. Of course, I needed my parents' input for the guest list. And my mom's address book. I think they have figured out who all they would like to invite. I told them they have until Thursday to add/delete names from the list. They've done very well considering I only told them about the reception on Saturday!

Next up is the gift. I've just been stealing all my ideas from friends who have already planned 50th anniversary celebrations for their parents. (Yes, I think this DOES mean we are getting old, but not very many of them planned their parents' 50th while pregnant! Not sure what that says about me.) So one friend bought a beautiful wooden box with a picture inset in the top and an engraved plaque on it. It was lovely. Inside went all the cards people sent. But, we haven't been able to find such a box!

The other idea (from another friend) was rocking chairs. They were really cute sitting there at the reception for the honored couple to sit in and later to use on their porch. Then I looked at the prices. Hmm. We'll see about that one. Any ideas?

Here is my parents' wedding photo that we used on the invitations. Don't you just love it, even if you don't know them? You might can tell their wedding was not the fanciest in history. Which is good news for us if we decide to go with those gold Solo cups at their anniversary.

Sonlight--How's That Working For You? (Part 2)

2012-01-09T07:42:00.000-06:00

In Part 1, I shared that even though I was still loving homeschooling, we had run across two problems.

1. My 12 year old wasn't independent with her day, and it wasn't her fault!
2. I needed to be able to spend more time with my (then) 7 year old.

So, has Sonlight helped us meet those goals?

YES!

Sweetheart with her shipment of books for the year.

Here is how Sonlight has helped us, as opposed to the other curriculum we were using before.

First of all, Sweetheart (12) starts her day here:

Play-Doh optional.

In her room, at her desk, she is able to accomplish a lot right away without my help. Here she does handwriting, Bible reading, reading, a math practice sheet, a history lesson, and sometimes part of her writing assignment. ALL in the first hour or so of school and ALL independently. Now, at the beginning of the year there was a lot of coming to ask me questions, which I had prepared myself for. That has gone away. Also, in the beginning she would beg to come sit at the table with Little Bit and me but I only allowed it a few times. We all worked better separated for the first hour. She adjusted quickly and this part of the day flows now. It's nice to get so much done so soon.

So while Sweetheart is in her room working, Little Bit and I use our time to work on her reading lessons. I am pleased to say she is now a real-live, full-fledged reader. That was one reason I protected our first hour of school (i.e. kicked Sweetheart out of the room). Little Bit needed to be able to work with me on this. We still spend that first hour reading, but now....she reads to me!

Little Bit and I also do Bible, read-aloud, and history during this time. Then she gets a play break while Sweetheart comes to me for narration on everything she has read that morning.

So right there, in our first hour of school, BOTH of my homeschooling problems have been solved!

There is another thing Sonlight has accomplished which I would not have classified as a problem actually. I never had a real plan for Sweetheart in reading. She reads so much we have to practically slap the book out of her hand to get her attention. We joke about who would be responsible for going to get her should the house catch on fire because she's sure to not notice.

So I have never worried much about "assigning" books to her to read. But since Sonlight comes with nice little ready-made, well-thought-out assignment sheets, she has been reading some GREAT books! This comes at a super time in her life. The better a reader your child becomes and the more they out-grow the "younger kid books", the more problems you run into! The content of many books in the juvenile section of the library is questionable. I can't tell you how many books I've picked up that deal with messy divorces, or eating disorders, or other things that my daughter doesn't deal with or need to worry about. Let's not even get into the dating, boys, or the really sick vampire love genre, OK?

Sonlight offers us good literature that teaches history at the same time. Does that mean there is nothing controversial? Of course not, but honestly we haven't come across anything that shocked me or that we couldn't discuss together. We have loved the read-alouds so much that we often can be found reading ahead just because we can't stand to wait! (And she has caught me reading ahead too!) And that sitting on the couch together and reading thing is WAY better than sitting at the table all the time. Which is why I'm glad we got rid of the homeschool room. My pregnant body agrees the couch is better too. :)

Little Bit has a few things she does on her own each day.

Now, I only ordered the "core" from Sonlight. Our writing, math, handwriting, spelling and science are not "Sonlight" curriculum. (Although they do sell some of what we are using and I ordered some of it from them.) So we still have that part of our day that we do pretty much like we always have. But that's OK because our morning starts off with those first steps of independence I was looking for. I know as we progress through the junior high and high school grades, she will become more and more independent. And honestly I'm not looking to ever be done teaching her until she graduates. I know that seems to be some homeschool parents' goal, but it isn't mine.

So yes, it's working for us very nicely!

Next time: The Tweaks (there are always tweaks)

Weekly Wrap-Up Week 16

2012-01-06T09:57:00.000-06:00

This was our first week back to school from the holidays and we eased back into things around here. Just getting up on time, getting dressed and ready, and doing any school work was a victory!

S was off Monday so...no school. Fall finally came to Texas so we raked leaves over the long weekend.

But sadly, 3/4 of the leaves on our tree have not fallen yet. So, we will be doing this again several more times.

Tuesday was the day we started school, but first we had an important appointment which you have already heard about.

And THEN we started school. This week, each day we did:

1. Sonlight (reading, history, Bible)
2. Writing
3. a math practice sheet
4. science

So we have some things to add back in to the mix next week. But it was a good start.

And hey, learning can be found everywhere, right? This is Sweetheart melting some cheese for supper last night as I peppered her with questions about turning solids into liquids.

So, what change of matter is happening right now Sweetheart? Huh? The cheese was a SOLID and now it's a ....?

Mom. Really. I'm just ready to eat OK?

Fine.

Speaking of supper and Sweetheart, she's really loving the cooking lately and I'm loving that! What do you do when your 12 year old begs to fix supper all by herself?

Well, you let her! And you get candlelight dinners!

Wednesday was my birthday and S sent me flowers!

We had already celebrated, but we went out to dinner before church. Not cooking on my birthday=happy me!

And yesterday something VERY AMAZING finally happened at our house!!

Yes! The laundry fairy came!!!!

Sonlight--How's That Working For You? (Part 1)

2012-01-05T08:23:00.000-06:00

This is our first year using Sonlight as our "main" curriculum. I pored over the catalog for several years, but always set it aside with a "yeah, right....like THAT'S going to happen" sigh and went on about my business. It just seemed so neat and easy. It seemed like using it would give us a level of safety--at least I would KNOW certain things were being covered. Other people have thought it out before me. I don't have to come up with everything...

What happened to get us finally trying Sonlight was we got ahead of our history curriculum. I had been using The Mystery of History (very happily!) and finished level 3 last year.

Making Viking ships for Mystery of History...lots of fun stuff !

Only....level 4 wasn't finished being written yet. Written. Or edited. Or published. Which means it ain't gonna be ready any time soon. So, what to do? Well, the author suggested taking a year to study American history, which isn't covered in her world history curriculum. So that sounded like a good idea. And I knew Sonlight had an American History year (or 2) in their mix. So I really started looking at it. Could I piece it together? Could I use their booklist? Could I make my own like Carrie? Or steal all her ideas?

There was also another issue--Sweetheart was going to be starting 6th grade. I had realized a problem with our homeschool over the last year. The problem was in my curriculum choices: the sun rose and set with ME. Bible? Required me to read to them while they worked in their booklets. History? Required me to read aloud to them and they would made the timeline figure to go with the lesson. Science? Required me to read aloud to them and then direct the proper activity and journal page. Spelling? Required my teaching--on 2 different levels. Math? Required me to watch the DVD (on 2 different levels) with them and make sure they understood the lesson and sit with them while they worked through the problems.

But handwriting they could do on their own, so there was always that.

I enjoyed all these curriculum choices AND I really did enjoy all the time gathered around the table with my girls. I have great memories of those days. But there were problems after a while.

Working at the table together--many years ago!

1. Sweetheart was going to be turning 12, and starting middle school, and she did nothing independently during her day. When do I start handing the reins over? And how can I with these curriculum choices?

2. Little Bit needed more of my teaching and attention. She was still learning to read and was getting "behind" on things. Sweetheart had most of my attention in her 2nd grade year. How was Little Bit going to have my attention for what she needed when I was so......needed all the time? By everyone.

I finally talked with S about it and he listened to all my myriad of reasons and then said, "How much?" I gulped and told him. Without hesitation he said, "Get it."

WHAT? Just like that. He said it sounded good and was not too much money to spend on our daughter's education. I agree, by the way. And we would certainly be paying far more for private school. But...but..but...I'm just so frugal. I can't help it. It pains me to buy any curriculum brand new. Homeschooling can truly be done on a shoestring budget and I was one of those who liked to do that. I was PROUD of that, even. Just how much can I save? It was like a challenge and a hunt every year.

So I bit the bullet and bought Sweetheart the 2-years-condensed-into-one American History core from Sonlight. Just to try, mind you. And then we could go back to what we had been doing if Level 4 of MOH was ready by then, right? It was just to fill in the gap for this year. And OK if we liked it, I was totally going to stay with it.

Little Bit also got Core A from Sonlight just so she would have something planned and with some type of theme instead of completely random like Sweetheart's 2nd grade year. (Our first year homeschooling) Ha! But as you can see, she only got a few sad little boxes from Amazon to open because I totally borrowed, begged, and gathered her core. I mean, no one is going to use it after her so....well, that was before I was pregnant, OK?

Next time....how it's working for us so far!

Around the House

2012-01-04T08:10:00.001-06:00

Over Christmas break, we were sort of productive.

Knowing you are having a baby in 5 months will do that do you. Gets you in gear.

The sewing room is in order. The bill paying desk and paperwork have been sorted out. The broom and vacuum actually go in the cleaning closet now. The laundry room is pretty organized. S cleaned out the garage and shed and back porch.

Now, for January...my Christmas present! S will be painting our bedroom this month. We picked a lovely shade of blue and one wall will be covered in white bead board. We're going for a "beach house" feel in there. I certainly hope it feels as relaxing as I want it to.

inspiration from Pinterest...

Then this will call for new bedding as our current colors of sage green and maroon don't jive with my relaxing blue and white theme. Although I still love maroon and sage green. I'll probably donate the whole set (curtains, shams, dust ruffle, etc.) to someone who needs it. We've had it 5 years and if it matched at all I would keep it.

I have no idea what I want, but this always catches my eye.

And yes, I am quite positive we will spend several months with blue walls and maroon and sage comforter. More than positive, actually.

I also organized the homeschool cabinet over the weekend. And made lots and lots of copies of things for the rest of the year. I wanted to not have to stop and plan between now and May. Whatever school we manage to finish this year will be a miracle and I decided being prepared was the first step in making that happen. Since I was planning on going until May 28 and now my due date is May 13......obviously we won't finish every single thing this year.

And then there are the elusive quilts I started for the girls ~~5 years ago~~.....a while back. Still not done. And Sweetheart came home from a friend's house lamenting how friend's room matched. And she wants her room to match. So I should probably spend some time this spring making the girls happy with some work on their rooms. It really wouldn't take much. Just a few touches here and there.

Cause I'm thinking this summer it ain't gonna happen!

This isn't so much nesting as normal life around here though. And you can bet it will involve some furniture rearranging. You know me.

Oh, I also still need to organize the kitchen.

In my spare time.

The Big News!

2012-01-03T10:39:00.000-06:00

Well, everything looked healthy on the ultrasound. Praise God!!! I am so happy to have a healthy baby. I feel very blessed to be able to do this again.

And of course, you want to know....

Three beautiful girly blessings. :) The nurse told S he was "destined to swim in a sea of estrogen". Ha! I had actually prayed for a boy and it took a few minutes to wrap my head around girl! The ultrasound pic is not nearly as clear as I remember the girls' being...could we be that 10% that ends up wrong? Yikes.

Very happy today. Very relieved. Very blessed.

Thank you for the prayers!

The Last Day--of Adventure!

2012-01-02T15:42:00.000-06:00

S is off work today so...no school yet. Instead, we spent the day getting some stuff done. And some early birthday celebrating. :)

S changed the oil in my car.
I organized the homeschool cabinet and paid bills.

Folks, don't let anyone tell you different, your 40s are FULL OF ADVENTURE!

But the most important thing is, we have spent the day together and that is my favorite kind of day. We went out to eat lunch together and then went and bought me my birthday present. Undoubtedly the most expensive pair of shoes I've ever purchased but it's OK because a child gets a pair of shoes too now! (They should, we certainly paid for 2 pair!)

I slept all night last night (9:30pm-7:00am) and felt like a new woman when I woke up. I've been back on that kick of waking up at 4am and staying awake until about 15 minutes before the alarm goes off. Oh I hate that. I don't mind waking up in the night but I like to be able to go back to sleep! I'm not ashamed to tell you I was in bed before 9:00 on New Year's Eve either. Again--ADVENTURE--IT ABOUNDS!

I'll also go ahead and tell you that S is taking a nap right now. Hey, it's his last day off. And we are, after all, adventurers.

Tomorrow is when I get my real birthday present. We're going for the big ultrasound in the morning. Wouldn't mind some prayers...the girls are coming with us and while I don't anticipate anything being wrong, it is in the back of my head. I'm hoping for healthy most of all and also it will be fun to find out what we are having. But healthy is the #1 thing. Because if its a girl...well, I can do girls. :)

And if its a boy..well, THAT will be a really big (for real) adventure don't you think?

Top of 2011

2011-12-31T14:37:00.000-06:00

Here are some of the top posts for The Family Revised:

Keepin' It Real: Homeschool Organization

This was a fun event with a linky that we did back in 2008!!! Wow! That was a long time ago. I think it's awesome that me, a blogger with "disorganization" as one of her most-used tags, has a top post about organization. Not sure how helpful it is, but the title falsely lures people in. Mwah ha ha!

I Can't Even Concentrate on the Furniture

This was a fun little rant I had about Craig's List. Not at all sure what brings people to this post, but there you go.

Our School Room 2011-2012

Well, technically our school room didn't make it to 2012. Alas, it is no more. It's Little Bit's room now. Well, it was lovely while it lasted and served it's purpose well while we had it. I hope people get some inspiration for their own homeschool spaces when they visit this post.

Our NEW Homeschool Room

This one was part of the Not Back to School Blog Hop so that explains why it is a top post. It was the first year we had our homeschool room in what is now Little Bit's bedroom. I understand. I LOVE looking at pictures of people's homeschool spaces!!

Curriculum Choices for 2011-2012 School Year

So....I'm starting to get the idea you people like me to talk about homeschooling more than anything. Hmm. Maybe I should be more of a "homeschool blogger" instead of so random and eclectic? Not even sure my brain is capable of that!

The First Day

See? Another homeschooling post. Hmm. Look at my little babies!!

On Our Shelves for the School Year

Another year's curriculum post. It's obvious that people do a lot of searching for ideas before each school year starts.

And finally, one that is NOT about homeschooling!!

Neglect

(no picture because I was preaching!)

I'm very glad to see this post in the top 10. I hope it an encouragement. I had no idea it was often visited.

And now, I'm going to throw in one of MY favorites-just because.

Seventeen Years of Sleep

Thank you, blog readers, from the bottom of my heart, for coming here to visit. I just love writing here and sharing here and reading comments and the whole thing! It's been fun for the last 4+ years. Looking forward to more blogging and sharing with you in 2012 (obviously with more emphasis on homeschooling?).

Have a happy New Year everyone!!

One Kid is Boring!

2011-12-30T12:33:00.000-06:00

Today Sweetheart is on a play date. A very rare thing indeed for one child to go without the rest of us! She's gone for 3 hours (because we don't do sleepovers, really so this was a compromise). Little Bit and I are home alone.

Good grief I'm so thankful to have more than one child!! Right now she's playing in her sister's room at my encouragement. Hey, I was the littlest in our family and I remember the freedom of playing with whatever I wanted to with my mom's permission while they were at school. It's a wonderful thing.

We've already done art together and colored. Having one child would really mean I had to pay a lot more attention to that child. Having siblings is wonderful because they can get attention from other people too. They really do play together a great deal of the day. I think kids from big families are really blessed.

Glad today is Friday and husband will be off again for another 3 day weekend. I really do like having him around. Also glad our living room is clean and simplified with all the Christmas decor put away. It always looks so good when December is over.

Now if the house cleaning fairy would just come take care of my kitchen. And finish putting away the groceries. Does anyone else just put away the fridge and freezer stuff and leave the rest for later. Hello? Hello?

Sigh. It's really quiet here.

You Can't Believe Everything You Read

2011-12-29T13:42:00.000-06:00

So I posted on Facebook yesterday that I was about to take down my Christmas decorations, but I took a nap instead. My mom walked down to visit--thinking I was, of course, taking down Christmas decorations. Oops. I really INTENDED to take them down, but I got tired. What can I say?

Little Bit cooked dinner by herself last night (except I opened the cans with the can opener and put it in the oven). She was very proud and then I nearly threw up getting it out of the oven. S walked in the room just as I bolted for the bathroom. It was kind of out of the blue as food hasn't been bothering me for several weeks. So, I had Cheerios last night while the family ate Little Bit's masterpiece. These girls are going to be such a tremendous help--and already have been.

Today we left our decorations still up and went to the farmer's market. It's 20 or 30 minutes away and I know I have to do big things like that in the mornings when I have energy. We also ran several other errands. Here is our haul:

Mmm. Yummy, fresh food. Not organic, but probably tons better than what you find at the grocery store. Little local places can't afford to be certified organic. I'm not 100% sure where all this came from, but it all looks fresh and delicious and worth the drive. Sweetheart said, when we were checking out, "This looks mostly like vegetables..." I told her that was what was good for Daddy and us. She isn't a fan of the vegetables.

And I'm sorry to say that at least 3 of the vegetables in that picture will end up being fried--so don't be too impressed with my good healthy choices.

I sat down last night and started to plan for school and couldn't find one solitary idea for activities to go along with Little Bit's upcoming books. Planning fail. Guess I'll try again today. I really need to get the rest of the year planned so I don't have to take more breaks to get that done.

Monday S is off so...no school.
Tuesday morning is a doctor's appointment so....very little school.
Wednesday is my birthday so...i don't WANT school.
Thursday seems kind of late to kick things off, huh?

I'm seriously thinking about waiting another week but I'm already yearning for some routine. I think we'll just do some subjects and ease back in. How is your planning going? When do you start back?

And will you come take down my decorations for me?

Our Pinterest Christmas and Progress

2011-12-28T10:47:00.000-06:00

I actually did several of the things I pinned this year! I also used my Pinterest board at Little Bit's birthday party so that means my time on Pinterest has not been a waste of time!

We had these for breakfast Christmas eve morning (via Pinterest):

And I made these gifts from ideas found on Pinterest or pinned by me from other places:

The frames just contain scrapbook paper and made nice erasable boards for my sisters. The red and white ornaments were hand-stitched and we used them as gift tags on every one's gifts.

These canvases were covered in buttons in my sister-in-laws' last initials and hung from ribbon. The inexplicable piece of bacon ornament was to fulfill the "ugly ornament" we get for my oldest sister each year. This one was kinda cute, but very weird!!

Decided to make one for my parents too. And the cans with flowers in them are cans covered in craft sticks and painted. They were already wrapped at this point. The flowers are those flower pens you can make. Those were from the girls to their aunts and grandma.

So that was my Pinterest Christmas.

Yesterday I worked on the "office" area of our house. If you recall, it's a tiny area where we ~~stack thing~~s pay bills. Here's what it's supposed to look like. And oh look! The whole room used to be clean! Right now, I'm boxing up all the 2011 paperwork (and OK--2010 too. Apparently I didn't do it last year.) I will feel very relieved when I get all this done today. I've already filled 2 bags with trash from the sewing room and laundry room and office area. TWO BAGS!

I also plan to take down Christmas decorations today. We'll see how that goes.

And look! We got a water cooler!

All the cool people hang out by the water cooler around here.

All part of our plan to be healthier. We don't really drink anything but water, S drinks coffee some, and Little Bit likes juice. Sweetheart is all water, all the time. It came with a hot water spout, which I know from my sister's house is the perfect temperature for instant oatmeal or hot chocolate. But, really, we don't eat/drink that stuff all that often. So I was really doubting if the hot water spout had any merit and then I discovered this morning it was the perfect temperature for making Little Bit's magical drink! So, right there? Totally worth it.

Tomorrow I will be starting to think about school. But for today, I'll just focus on the house. That still sounds better to me.

Christmas 2011

2011-12-27T08:07:00.000-06:00

Like that original, eye-catching title? Thank you. I came up with it all by myself.

It's over and I don't want to take down the decorations. Usually I'm stopping myself from taking them down the very next day, but this year I'm kind of not caring how long they stay up.

Christmas Eve we had S's sisters and their families over for a little party. We said "5:00" but apparently to the younger generation, that number was arbitrary. (Our niece and nephews are all adults on that side of the family.) They showed up sometime in the 6:00 hour. Hmm. Pretty sure that makes me old, but I would never have done that at their age. But we went ahead without them so no big deal. This is me probably listening to my brother-in-law tells some big story. I was really tired by the end of the evening but I think everyone had fun.

We had to hurry and get the girls in bed (late) by the time everyone left. Had to make time for a story, though.

This year, Sweetheart let us sleep until 7:00am. Well, 6:51....but that's good because it means she understands rounding. Then they tore open their presents.

And we got ready for church. (Yes, I wore the same shirt, OK?)

Look! My husband was there too! This picture was taken by Sweetheart and is far more centered than the one taken by Little Bit. Also, there is less looking up our noses. Little Bit maybe should stand on a stool next time. :)

After church, we all went to my parents' house and ate lunch and opened presents. I don't think we got any pictures from then, we just enjoyed watching the kids. We were blessed with some really cool gifts though. We got the Arm's Reach Co-Sleeper from my parents, which I really wanted.

We also got a beach mat and a personalized soft-sided cooler with 4 water bottles and sandwich holders in it. Can't wait to get back to the beach!! I got some maternity shirts and my mom and sister couldn't resist buying little things for the baby. I don't have anywhere to PUT little things for the baby yet!

So S and I are feeling the pressure of 4 and half months left before life changes and took advantage of yesterday to do some cleaning/clearing out. He worked in the garage and shed and back porch and I worked in the laundry/sewing room. Today I will do the desk/office type things. I feel better already having those areas that were bad, organized again. And since I'm completely not ready to think about school, cleaning sounds better.

Hope you all had a blessed Christmas with your family!

On This Rainy Morning

2011-12-22T08:11:00.000-06:00

Every single day this week I have said it, "Today is the day we will FINISH the errands!"

So I guess you know I have 4 places to go today. Humph. (AFTER the rain stops.)

Dry cleaner so husband has clothes to wear to church Christmas morning.
Target for what nots that have nothing to do with Christmas--just daily life.
Hobby Lobby because I want to make one more thing for my parents. They deserve it.
And Walgreen's to pick up pills.

Speaking of pills--husband's diabetes is out of control. His doctor upped his pills yesterday and we'll see if that helps but it isn't a satisfying solution. We want him OFF the pills! But more than anything, we want that blood sugar under control. He hardly ate anything yesterday and this morning his blood sugar was over 200. That is ridiculous. Medicated even! So the research has begun to figure out how to improve and heal. The changes have already started too. Changes will happen in the girls' diets after Christmas as well. They share his genes, after all. Why tempt fate?

But all the presents (with the exception of that Hobby Lobby run) are bought and made. Wrapping will commence today. And the mama will feel better.

Gingerbread houses at our homeschool Christmas party...

She got a little bit of icing on her hands.

We always exchange books.

New book to read!!

We have been very busy this week and I know a lot of people like to avoid the busy during Christmas. It hasn't all been Christmas-related however. We have a friend in the hospital so we've been by to visit him a few evenings this week. We kept their baby so his wife could be at the hospital with him one morning. The girls loved having a little one to look after. She has 3 big sisters so she's used to be included in everything. My girls were painting these for gifts, so I gave her a toilet paper tube to paint.

Didn't get a picture of Sweetheart, but she worked hard too. :)

Merry Christmas everyone!! Hope you enjoy your family and the love of our Savior this weekend!

Oh, and one more thing:

Actually, You Can Just Stick to Calling Me Brenda

2011-12-15T07:36:00.000-06:00

So I had high hopes yesterday of baking and crafting goodness.

Well.

The Oreo bark was a dud. The cake balls are SO ugly! It looked so easy on the tutorial!! There is definitely a learning curve with those suckers and let's just say....I learned a lot yesterday.

So that just leaves me with the pretzel/kiss/M&M snacks which SURELY I can't mess up. Oh, and the already sliced cookies. I can do those I think.

On a good note, the gift for Sweetheart's piano teacher turned out nicely.

I am really ready to stay home for a few days but today is not the day. I need to go on a major shopping trip Friday morning and THEN, I should be able to hole up here for a while. Make my children breakfast again. Pack S a lunch. Know what's for supper before suppertime. Get some laundry done. Work on some presents. It'll be great. I'll feel like a homemaker instead of a taxi driver!

And who knows? I might even have something to talk about on here! (Wouldn't that be something?)

Ready to be home all day,

brenda

Bonus Feature: (to redeem this boring post)

18 weeks. Please enjoy our messy bedroom. Is that an orange on my bed?

Today You May Call Me Betty Stewart....or Martha Crocker

2011-12-14T10:33:00.000-06:00

It's baking day at the House Revised! Yesterday we worked really hard on school so we aren't worrying about it today. Just baking Christmas goodies.

Of course, first I have to clean the kitchen a bit. Sigh. That is not the fun part!

Most of the goodies will not be consumed by us, although we will be sampling them because how can you give treats away unless you are SURE they are yummy? Right? S has 4 women that work in his office and that is a new thing for him. He knows what to get for male co-workers. This year, he wasn't so sure what to do.

"I know what to get women," I told him. "I'll take care of it."

We'll be making these.
And this.
And these.

So...the theme would be....CHOCOLATE.

And, most challenging of all, some of these:

Hey I can't be amazing all the time, yo? Those are for our homeschool Christmas party and our Keepers at Home ceremony later this week. The girls will be earning their pins and Grandparents are invited so we are serving refreshments. Easy refreshments.

But ladies and gentlemen....she doesn't JUST cook!

Today is Sweetheart's last day of piano for 2010 so we are making this to give to her piano teacher. Oh, but we will be using scrapbook paper that has sheet music on it instead of old book pages. It will be pretty.

(Picture from A Cottage Industry--link above)
Her whole site is pretty amazing! She has great ideas!!

Also I'm hand-sewing some little things right now. I love hand-sewing. It gives you an excuse to sit down and rest.

So cooking and craftiness all in one day! (After I clean...sigh.)

Why I'm So Happy About School (Even Though We Are Behind)

2011-12-13T08:06:00.000-06:00

Last spring, after deciding that we had hit a wall in reading instruction and the things that were formerly working---weren't anymore, I made a change. I sent out an e-mail to our homeschool group to borrow "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons." A dear mom of 8 responded. We went and picked up the book at her house and started the next day.

I felt very honored to use this book. She taught all 8 of her children, 1 of whom is married and 2 of whom are in college, to read. At the top of every lesson are her children's initials and the date they did that lesson. Little Bit already had a good literacy base before starting this book. She wasn't a 4 year old doing these lessons and so we found the book easy to fly through.

Last week found us on lesson 86. (We took the summer off.) The stories were getting longer and a bit more frustrating. I looked ahead and noticed there wasn't a whole lot more learning to happen in the remaining dozen+ lessons. Sure, some more sounds were introduced, but I can introduce those anytime. I asked Little Bit, "Are you ready to be done with this book?"

Of course the answer was yes! So I grabbed the first "reader" from her Sonlight package and handed it to her.

Buh-bye old reading book! (The cover probably fell off 4 or 5 kids ago!)

And she started reading with NO problem. Sure, I'm there to assist her. But I can honestly say...I HAVE ANOTHER READER IN THIS HOUSE!!!

I've seen enough kids learn to read and I can tell she is just at that point where all she'll do from here on out is get better at it. I love this point of reading.

Hello REAL book!!!

And that is why I am so happy with school, even though I am slowly realizing we will never finish all our subjects by May this year. It's all good. The kids are learning!!

**By the way, Little Bit is 8. I share that to encourage some other homeschool moms. I was a teacher for 11 years and a Reading Specialist for most of those years and here is my kid--reading at age 8. I determined long ago not to push it with her and not to worry about "when" it happened. She has a very positive view of reading that I absolutely know she would not have if I had pushed her to read at the "right" age. Every child is different. Don't stress!

My Ridiculous List Has Been Checked Twice

2011-12-12T08:03:00.000-06:00

This week's to do list is completely insane. But it is made, and I shall joy in scratching things off as we get them done. Lots of running, lots of doing, lots of going. And somehow we have to fit the basics in for one last week of school.

Our "Names of Jesus" chain has been really fun, although we most often sit down and do 2 or 3 at a time rather than one every night. We are hanging the ornaments on a little bitty tree I found on sale at Big Lots.

The girls have heard and recognized several of the names of Christ in Christmas carols on the radio since we started this. Little Bit told me she had always heard one of the names in a song and wondered who it was. :) Now she knows!

There's our chain hanging up. That's how many days until Christmas!!!

I sat down Saturday morning and did my first-ever online shopping marathon. It was glorious! I got everything off of Amazon and most things qualified for free shipping. The few items I had to pay for were more than made up for by NOT spending gas money and running all over town and going through the drive through for snacks during shopping, etc. I was only shopping for the girls, but I feel much relieved after I get theirs done. The rest of the family is not so hard. We don't spend a lot of money on gifts and will be making most of them this week.

I told S what I wanted for Christmas---our bedroom to be painted. It's the only room in our house that we have not painted since we moved in (5 years ago!). Since we will not have a nursery for the baby, but rather a corner of our room, I'd like our room painted nice and fresh before the baby comes. Of course I have a pinterest board that I shared with husband and he's on board and I am very happy about my Christmas gift!

See, I did paint that one wall green since we moved in. It's wallpapered and someone had already painted over it and I wasn't about to start peeling paint and wallpaper! Who knows what's behind all that? We have a special plan for that wall! And that's my side of the bed, there. Where you see the desk, that will be where the baby bed goes. Where you see my dresser, that will be where the dresser/changing table goes. That's it. Baby's whole nursery!

Yesterday, we went to our beloved beach. But this time we didn't swim, or surf, or even set foot on the sand. Instead we walked around the historic downtown district and ate ice cream and window shopped.

Mmm! Candy store. My 12 year old is very tall. And I was wearing heels.

But it was nice to be back at the beach. But enough fun. Sent husband off to work, and I'm about to get started on this 3 page to do list.

It's the Time of Year to Lose the Dining Room Table

2011-12-08T08:29:00.000-06:00

A young friend sent me a message on Facebook this morning. She has her first apartment this Christmas and needs a Christmas tree skirt sewn together. So, she's coming over today after she gets off work.

This is going to cause me to get my hind parts in gear and ~~find~~ ~~drag out~~ set up my sewing machine. I need to do this anyway as last night I started printing out all the patterns and tutorials I had pinned earlier. Time to get going! I don't actually have the budget to go spend money at Hobby Lobby this week, but I should be able to get started on what I have around here.

7 and 3 years old. Aww.

The only problem is, there are a few things I want to sew for the girls. How to sew on these things and have them not see? A few years ago we had a desk in our room and I just locked my door and sewed in there. I could sew after they go to bed at night but honestly I go to bed right after they do! Hmm. I'll have to think about that one.

4 and 8 years old. Sigh.

I also have several other craft things to do for presents that involve hot glue and scissors and scrapbook paper, etc. All I'm saying is....we aren't going to be able to find the dining room table for possibly a while.

Do you craft for Christmas? Where do you craft? Does it get worse before it gets better?

Running, Lack of School, and Ice Skating

2011-12-07T07:50:00.000-06:00

Sometimes there just is no catchy title to pull it all together, you know?

We have been running errands this week every single day and I am SICK of it!! I hate going, going, going. But, the good news is...I found an outfit for the Christmas party!!! I know you are relieved. I went to our Keepers of the Home meeting yesterday and whined about how hard it is to find clothes and the other mom gave me a non-maternity shirt to try. It wasn't my size but it was pretty and I said I would try it on. It fit. And I like it. She's not getting it back. However, it's silky which equals cold in my mind so lucky I found a maternity cardigan to wear over it. So...the whole outfit cost us $16. Thank you Lord!!

Other than running to stores looking for maternity clothes, we've had a doctor's appointment, dry cleaning runs, we have piano today, and need to get gas and go buy hay for the rabbit as it will be freezing tonight.

It was 30 degrees when we woke up this morning and I would really like to just stay home.

And because of all the running, and my friend Kathy said it would make her feel better to hear how other people were not accomplishing a whole lot in school....we aren't. Yesterday I think each girl got 2 subjects done. Needless to say my ambitious plan I outlined, printed, and put on my clipboard is not working out. December is ALWAYS like this and it really is better to just take off this month rather than kill yourself trying, but I feel like I must keep going as we only have 5 months until school will be over for quite some time around here! ACK! At least we are staying home this morning to get things done.

Also, we went ice skating. This was a first for the girls. Our church had a Christmas party for the children (which included a lesson) at a local ice rink. They really did very well. I was super impressed!

My girls are in pink.

Ice skates only make Sweetheart look even taller. Ridiculous.

So, in summary. I'm tired of going places, I have clothes to wear to the party, we need to get more school work done, and my kids can ice skate.

None of which have anything to do with your day. Enjoy!!

P.S. I feel like I should sound more thankful than this post does. 1. I am thankful to have a car to run errands with. 2. I am very thankful for the outfit to wear that did not cost much. 3. I am thankful to be homeschooling my children EVEN when we get behind. 4. Ice skating rinks are really cold.

The Pregnant Brain--Part 2

2011-12-06T14:50:00.000-06:00

There she was, feeling good. School was finished for the afternoon and she was sitting and clicking around on her computer. Just relaxing.

Then suddenly a picture of a giant pizza and bag of potato chips showed up on the screen.

And she nearly threw up. Right then and there.

What on earth? She had pizza for lunch!

The pregnant brain.

Who can explain it?

I'm Going By My Calendar

2011-12-06T07:55:00.000-06:00

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday. I thought I was 17 weeks along walking in, but the nurse said I was 16 weeks. Humph. The doctor had moved my due date after the last ultrasound because the baby had consistently measured a week ahead of the calendar. Apparently, he didn't officially change it in my file though.

I know it doesn't matter. Babies come when they are ready. But I'm sticking with what came out of the doctor's mouth because it sounds so much better to already be 17 weeks along, don't you think?

Here is the crazy part: I haven't gained one pound!! I'm not bragging--I'm amazed!! With both girls I EASILY gained 50-60 pounds. I don't know what's going on this time, but I'll take it because I don't need to gain much. I'm going to make a statement and then I'll explain: I have been way more sick with this one.

Now, having said that....I have never once thrown up during a pregnancy. I don't say that out loud to just anyone, but I figure you guys can't strangle me over the internet! Don't tell me it's genetic because my mom was sick as a dog with all of her pregnancies and my sister and I never get sick. BUT...I have been very grossed out by food, nauseated, and almost threw up one day. For me...that's way more sick than usual! (I am thankful as I know how bad it can get for some women. I cannot imagine!) I suppose it all adds up to not a lot of weight gain and that's OK.

But I was going to tell you about the appointment. If you've even made it this far. Sorry.

The lobby of the doctor's office was pretty, so we took a picture on our way in.

The girls came with me yesterday and I wasn't sure how the office would feel about children at the appointments. I told them to speak when spoken to but otherwise zip it. (Sweetheart would talk to a brick wall.) But when the nurse-practitioner walked in, she talked to the girls the whole time. She asked THEM how I had been eating and Sweetheart gave me up for that 1/2 a donut I had yesterday morning. I told her she's not coming to any more appointments. (I was kidding.) She explained the heartbeat and had them read the numbers off the Doppler. She was so sweet and teaching them whatever she could. It was nice. She said they are very welcome at the ultrasound next month and the doctor likes to teach too so they should be ready to listen! I'm so glad to have a doctor's office that welcomes the girls as well.

I'll admit I was very relieved after yesterday and hearing the heartbeat. A month is a long time to go between appointments and it's pretty easy to start worrying about things. I am SO thankful for this baby and this pregnancy. I just love every minute of it.

The Annual Christmas Party Ordeal

2011-12-05T14:21:00.000-06:00

Guess what faithful readers??? It's that time of year again! Time for husband's work Christmas party. You guys go through this with me every single year. Haven't we had fun? Let's look back on some of the better memories, shall we?

The Unfortunate Shirt Incident

The Better Living Through Facebook Incident

Facebook Success!

(The Pictures)

So....I'm thinking this year is going to be a bit more traumatic because of the whole maternity clothes kink thrown in there. Mind you, I'm not big yet and honestly could get away with wearing normal clothes but that would mean wearing last year's outfit. Or the year before that. Or some combination of the 2. And how many times can you recycle an outfit? Certain pieces, yes. But really. It's time for something new.

So I THOUGHT this one was in the bag. I looked online and found this:

Cute, right? It's long enough (some of these things hit mid-thigh! are you serious? mid-thigh when you're pregnant???) It's black. It has sleeves. It got great reviews. I liked it.

So after my doctor's appointment this morning (more on that later--and yes I was waiting to shop until I heard that heartbeat to make sure everything was OK!), we swung by Motherhood Maternity and found that they had.....size Small and size Medium. Which are not totally useless to me because I could use those sizes as a scarf in a pinch.

Just trying to be positive. The saleslady said they sell out of Large and Extra large really quickly. You don't say? Why would pregnant women be buying those sizes?

I tried on a few other knit dresses and was not pleased to discover that I look...how shall we say? LUMPY. The models do not look lumpy on the website. I think it may depend on better undergarments. Sigh. Also? It was disturbing to watch the girls trying on the belly pillow in the dressing room and convulsing with laughter. Good times.

So...Target has some nice options but most of them say "not sold in stores." Really Target? What DO you sell in your store?

I'm starting to freak out just a teeny bit. Not sleeveless. Longer than my 8 year old's dresses. Cute. Am I asking too much?

Suggestions? Ideas?

And yes, I CAN still wear that black skirt that I've worn 2 years in a row. I wore it Sunday. I could wear a cute fancy maternity top with it. And Carrie, I'm planning to wear the shoes again. OK?

Calling Off All Plans

2011-12-02T07:47:00.000-06:00

Sweetheart got sick last night. The puking kind. My stomach doesn't feel so good either. I went to the store at 6:30 this morning to buy Lysol, Jello, instant mashed potatoes, and applesauce.

We will not be worrying about school today. If we get some done...fine. If not....fine.

We will be washing hand and spraying everything in sight.

We will be resting.

It's Friday. Thankful to be home and able to take care of things.

It's December and I Refuse to Panic

2011-12-01T07:50:00.000-06:00

I have no Christmas gifts. I know some people are finished or nearly finished with their gift buying.

I have feelings about those people.

But I have nothing. But then again, I never do this time of year. However, sometimes I have some gifts made already.

I'm not feeling the crafty this year.

I do have a lot of gift ideas pinned. We'll see if I can find my motivation soon.

We have decorations up around the house, but no Christmas tree yet. Honestly I'm a bit concerned about getting a real tree with the huge drought we've had. Will it ever make it until Christmas? I guess we just will avoid the fire hazard and not put lights on it. I hate putting lights on anyway.

I am, however, ready to start our "Names of Jesus chain" tonight. Here is the link. I found it through Carissa's site. (More great ideas on that post!) I'll be honest. I never even heard of Advent until I started reading blogs. It's not something I grew up doing. I really don't even know where it started. But I like this chain because you just look up the verse and learn the name of Jesus each evening. We are going to color these ornaments also to go along with it. Kind of wish I had a separate tree to put them on. Hmmm.....

Have you found your December motivation? Are you feeling crafty? Are you through with your shopping and willing to admit that to me even though you know how I feel about you? Where do you stand on Advent? Can you believe it's December?

Isn't That What I've Been Saying?

2011-11-30T07:43:00.001-06:00

Long division has been the enemy here for a few months.

It's been months and not weeks only because of inconsistent schooling, mind you. We've been on long division for a while. Simple division? No problemo. Long division where numbers don't go in evenly and there are 3 digits in the dividend? With remainders? No good.

There has been much frustration and many set backs. I don't know why it hasn't been making sense to Sweetheart but I think I have figured it out based on yesterday's occurrence.

I believe to her brain, there was a never-ending series of steps you had to go through. These steps must have seemed very random to her because she was never sure what to do next. Or where to write the answer. Or what to do after that. I was sitting right next to her with every problem....

Me: OK---how many times does 4 go into 7? Write it here. Now multiply. Multiply 4 X 1. OK--where do you write that? Now what? Subtract. Now bring down the next number. No, bring it down to here. OK--what's next?

blah blah blah

I was hoping my voice would become her inner conversation but it wasn't happening. Girlfriend was just confused. That's all.

So yesterday I found this little tutorial and had her read it out loud.

And suddenly (cue angels singing) IT ALL MADE SENSE!!!

Why? I don't know. She's very visual. Something about this tutorial just clicked with her and math was done in 1/4 of the time it usually takes.

Praise the Lord!!!! It worked for us, so I thought I'd pass that along. And now some random pictures!

These are the books we found in Sweetheart's room during the cleaning last week. Mind you, there are supposed to be NO BOOKS in their rooms as they are all housed here in the black shelves. We found more later.

My little family watching Christmas cartoons right after Daddy got home from work the other night.

When the Plan Goes Out the Window

2011-11-29T08:31:00.000-06:00

I very carefully planned out our school year this summer. I scheduled all our breaks. I broke our books down into chapters and lessons and figured out how much we needed to get done each week. I copied everything and organized everything.

It was a thing of beauty.

Ha ha ha ha ha!

Well.

I guess we all know that my beautiful planning is kaput. Those every-6-weeks breaks have to go. (We'll take smaller ones as needed.) I slept through a great deal of the fall so we are behind on every subject just about.

I have often given the advice to others, "Give yourself a break. You'll have time later to catch up!"

A friend is sick as a dog through her pregnancy? I don't expect her to get school done every day! Puhleeze.

A friend lives with a chronic illness? Of COURSE she will have a different looking schedule than most!

Now I have to listen to my own self.

We put up some Christmas decorations yesterday. That was way more fun than school work. We're going grocery shopping today. Life lesson. We'll take time to read Christmas books, and make presents, and enjoy this whole month....and we will do school too.

I made the calendar. It's change-able. It's flexible. We set our own schedule around here. (So thankful!) The girls will learn, and grow, and improve in all areas (maybe not as much as I had planned), every week. They will end this school year smarter than they started it.

But most importantly, they will not live with the memory of a stressed-out mama snapping at them to get busy or skipping holiday fun for math practice. So my advice still stands. It really is true--it will be OK. An off-year isn't going to hurt anyone permanently.

Besides, I know what matters most.

(And it isn't checking off my little school list!)

In Which I Lose My Mind Just Before Thanksgiving

2011-11-26T15:12:00.000-06:00

For some crazy reason, I decided this last week would be the perfect time to deep clean and organize Sweetheart's room. I love her and I am in no way wanting to humiliate her but let me just say: her room was amazing. (In a Hoarders sort of way.)

No, we did not find any dead animals or grossness of that nature (!) but wow. The problem was not totally hers. A few months ago, when we moved the girls to their own rooms we just sort of said, "where do you want the furniture?" and called it a day. We never really set up PLACES for everything. And she needs that.

So me and my trusty label maker worked overtime and found a spot for each and every category of items. But habits take a long time to cultivate and so mama has to stay on her hard now for the next few ~~weeks~~ months. And I have to--because I don't ever want to spend 2 days of my life like that again.

Little Bit, who LOVES order and is really naturally pretty good at it, wanted her room to be better too. So I had 2 rooms going on for awhile there. It was really coming down to the wire on Wednesday as we were

1. leaving to go out of town Thursday morning.
2. having people over for Bible study that evening.

So...S grabbed some trash bags and stuffed the remaining pile in there and called it a day. Now, we can sort through the bags at our leisure. I doubt much of it will come back out!

For the record, I'm glad that is done and I don't want to do it again. I mean, I KNOW we will have to spring clean sometimes, but mercy.

Next up? Our room. Ug. But the homeschool room, dining room, both girls' rooms, and living room are awesome.

AAAAAAHHHHHH. That's me breathing a sigh of clean-house relief.

And we did enjoy our weekend at my parent's country place. Now it's good to be home.

Other Catching Up Pictures

2011-11-22T18:09:00.001-06:00

Here are some other things I failed to blog during my first trimester.

(By the way, I am REALLY anxious to feel baby move! It's been 2 weeks since my last ultrasound and how can I know everything is OK? Hate how long it is between visits!)

We had Physics with Carrie and her kiddos a few times:

They were packed to move on this day--boxes everywhere!

We attended the symphony with friends.

And started a Keepers at Home club with the same family. Here are the girls with their sashes....the baby HAD to have one so we quick made her one out of fabric scrap. :)

They are working on their "plastic canvas" craft badges. Little one will NOT be left out.

Today we also had a meeting but took no pictures! Sweetheart and I have been organizing her room (she's working on the Organization badge) today and we got NO school done. Sigh. Which means we will have to go one day longer before Christmas break or cram some more work in somehow.

But it was a good day. After our Keepers meeting, we went out to eat for lunch and ran into some friends so we ate/played on the restaurant playground with them and had a good time. And I went to the grocery store so I'm hoping to NOT leave the house tomorrow.

OK. I'm all caught up. (On blogging.) (Not school).

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!!

Weekly Wrap Up--Week 13

2011-11-21T13:59:00.000-06:00

Hey! Remember when we used to do weekly wrap ups around here? Me too! Feeling like you missed something in weeks oh...6-12? Well, basically mom napped and the girls played and somehow we got a little school done each day. You didn't miss much!

But last week we were on the ball!

So..I don't have any actual pictures of school taking place, but it did. Trust me. It took a long time each day, or so it seemed since we aren't used to actually doing every subject. Saturday morning we had some school to do because I had taken last Monday off and at 5am Saturday morning I had an epiphany!

An epiphany, I tell you!

See, I've been waking up for 2-3 hours for no good reason every night. THIS particular time, I grabbed my phone off my nightstand and started typing notes so I wouldn't forget all my awesome ideas.

(And I never did get to organizing the kitchen.) (Later, OK?)

First of all, I realized some things about our homeschool room.

1. It's crowded.
2. I won't fit in there much longer.
3. We only use the table for about an hour a day.
4. We stack crap on it the rest of the time.
5. It's hard to vacuum after the birds with the big table in there.

So....out went the table. (Just stored it in the garage--it's a good table!)

And now we have sort of a library. Neat. Clean. Simple.

Uh...did I ever mention that a few months ago we moved the homeschool room back to the little room at the front of the house and the girls have their own rooms now? Hmm. Guess all that happened on my break. So I have no pictures of how crowded it was in there with the bird cage and table and TV cabinet and BOY HAVE I BEEN A SLACK BLOGGER!!!

By the way, we moved the girls to their own rooms shortly after this post and right when I found out I was pregnant.

So....now we have a room to store all our homeschool stuff in (plus the girls have bookshelves in their rooms for school books) and we work at the dining room table, the couch, the living room floor, and at their desks. I like it. I don't feel tied down to sitting in the same chair all day and we are still getting things done. AND our dining room is not junked up.

AHHH. So much better. (I really cannot believe I didn't tell you about the rearranging! Or take any pictures! Man!)

OK, so this is not really a wrap up---more of a catch up. Here are some pics from last week:

Kids 12 and up are asked to help serve at our homeschool group's Thanksgiving feast.

Sweetheart was SO proud to be old enough to help with the "teens."

After lunch, Little Bit colored with some sweet friends.

And got to be the 5th little turkey during the Thanksgiving stories for the younger kids.

The Day I Became a Nag

2011-11-18T16:29:00.000-06:00

You know sometimes you stay home all day and get school done?

And you know how you and the kids just camp out in the living room with school books scattered all around and maybe someone snacks on the box of Froot Loops during school and leaves them out and you also decide to be industrious and fold a load of clothes in the middle of the floor while your child reads to you?

And you know how the living room looks after several hours of that?

Yeah. Well.

Then suppose you remember you are supposed to take husband's clothes to the cleaners today so you round up the kids and get everyone in the car leaving the living room in it's current state?

Yeah.

And then you know, your house alarm goes off while you are gone but you don't hear the phone call on your cell phone so they call your dad down the street and he and a police officer come to the house and determine no foul play was at hand?

(How they determined that is beyond me because it LOOKED like a ransack, I'm telling 'ya.)

That's so embarrassing, isn't it?

Don't you just hate that?

Sigh. That's it. I'm a hardcore MOM NAG from now on. PUT THAT UP. ARE YOU FINISHED? WELL THEN? DO NOT DARE LEAVE THAT BOOK THERE. ARE THESE YOUR SHOES? WHO LEFT THIS OUT?

Good grief.

When Friday is Not Friday

2011-11-18T09:13:00.000-06:00

It's actually Thursday around here. I say that because we are on day 4 of our Sonlight assignment sheets instead of day 5. This, of course, is because I took that teacher workday on Monday.

So....we will be having Saturday school. A first around here that I am NOT looking forward to! But that will make everything even and happy before Thanksgiving so that is a good thing. And I feel sure it won't last very long on Saturday. More than sure, actually.

Our fun, exciting, wondrous plans for the weekend include (school) and organizing the kitchen. The girls were not REAL enthusiastic about that, but what they don't know is that I am willing to pay them. I'll post pictures next week to inspire you.

I love how Sweetheart gets ready in the morning and then goes to her room to start school. She likes getting her independent stuff done and out of the way while I work with Little Bit. She loves having her desk and locker in her room. She independently, and without being reminded now, practices piano. Twelve is a really cool age so far.

And she just asked for a make-up kit for Christmas. This is the child who, in the past, would not comb her hair for a week if she were not made to. Growing up is so funny. By the way, the "make-up kit" had nail polish and lip gloss in it. I am fine with that. :)

But let's not talk about Christmas right now because I don't have one idea or gift purchased or anything thought out at all including where will we put a tree this year(?). Let's concentrate on Thanksgiving for now, OK?

Thanksgiving involves eating. This I can do.

Thanksgiving--a Week Early--and Some of My Friends

2011-11-17T08:04:00.000-06:00

It's our homeschool group's Thanksgiving feast today. I love getting to eat yummy Thanksgiving food (most of which I didn't cook) a week early! I'm making mashed potatoes and so in a minute I have to go start peeling potatoes. Ug. I also signed up to bring 2 liters. Bread was already taken.

I'm all about the challenging cooking.

So we won't finish all our subjects today but that's OK. We're going to be more thankful today than productive.

The really good news is, since we had friends coming over last night, we actually cleaned the kitchen up after supper. (As opposed to the next morning--ahem.) It was a joy to walk into a clean kitchen this morning, let me tell you. Haven't done that in a while.

So this morning we're scrambling around trying to find good looking clothes to wear. It was in the 50s this morning, but will get up to 69 today and we will be helping set up and clean up from the feast so....how do you dress for that? I'm sure we'll all pull something together.

Two more things:

My friend's 1 year old baby had major (and very long) surgery yesterday to remove a tumor from behind her right ear. This is the second tumor. The first one was removed in May. She will be in the hospital for 8 days and will have another surgery in 4 days. I have felt very distracted thinking about them. When they get in a regular room, we can go see them. She has 5 other children who she had to place in public school for the time being and I just cannot imagine what all she is going through. If you think about it would you say a prayer for baby Marissa and her family?

On a happier note, another friend was nominated for best homeschool vlogger. She really is. Even if I am slightly upset when I see her gorgeous self (EVEN with no makeup) on the videos. Do you even want to know what I would look like if I were to video myself while driving? Dear me. Check her out here and go vote if you like!

The Pregnant Brain--Part1

2011-11-16T14:07:00.000-06:00

Suddenly, having iced tea was more important than nearly anything.

So important, she heaved her tired self off the couch to make some.

And yes, the house needed picking up, and the laundry needed to be put away.

But...but...

ICED TEA.

MUST HAVE.

Who can explain it?

I Have a Plan

2011-11-16T07:55:00.000-06:00

Sweetheart has been wanting so badly to be big and helpful lately. Yesterday we got home from the grocery store and I was so tired. She said she would unload the groceries for me. And she did--each time carrying more and more bags. (Which of course I bragged on her about.)

Then she asked if she could cook supper. Why, certainly!! I just happened to find a recipe yesterday that was very easy. And me sitting on the couch giving directions to Sweetheart in the kitchen was really nice and ALSO made me think about things in 6 months.

So, my plan is:
#1 Get a list of meals together that Sweetheart can make.
#2 Get some meals in the freezer. (I've been pinning freezer meal recipes.)

And, oh yeah, I also need to kind of organize the kitchen a bit better. It's gotten messy.

That's just the kitchen!!!! Sigh. There is so much to do!

Anyway, here's the recipe (any family bigger than mine will want to double it--I may double it next time so we will have leftovers.)

Tasty Taco Bake
Crush Doritoes in the bottom of an 8 inch casserole dish.
Combine chili with beans, green chilies, and a 1/2 cup of olives in a bowl. Spoon over the chips in the dish.
Spread sour cream over the top.
Sprinkle with cheese, mushrooms, green onions, more crushed chips, and olives.
Bake, uncovered, at 375 for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted. Top with shredded lettuce.

(We left out the green chilies, mushrooms, and olives. We're picky.)

Glad I have a plan for the kitchen--now I just need to implement it!

The Longest Day Ever

2011-11-15T14:38:00.000-06:00

Oh my word y'all.

We're doing every. single. subject. today and it's 2:30 and we aren't through yet. Well, Sweetheart isn't through anyway. Who knew school would take this long when you do the WHOLE smash?

And OK we didn't get started very early because mama was awake for 3-4 hours last night for no good reason and so I went back to sleep after S left for work. Then we had to run to the grocery store just to have anything to eat for breakfast.

I told you I wasn't exactly prepared this week.

But the good news is, we WILL finish every subject today and the best part is: I MADE A GROCERY LIST. That, my friends, is 50% of the battle. Maybe more.

And so we were all ready to walk out the door and go procure food and let Sweetheart finish school when we got home and then.....

Well, if you can't tell, it is POURING outside. So, we will wait.

And school taking this long wouldn't be a big deal if we just stayed home every day but somehow we have gotten ourselves into too much going this year. I hate that. Mondays and Fridays are home days at least. I really need to look at the calendar and pare down some stuff.

So, how about you? If you homeschool, do you do every single subject every day? How many days a week do you stay home?

Recovery Day

2011-11-14T09:14:00.001-06:00

We've called a Teacher Workday over here at the House Revised. School has been....sketchy the last few months. Mama has had the energy of a slow loris and we've gotten only the bare essentials done each day.

One day, after rising bright and early at 8:00am, I took a nap on the couch at 10:00am. We'll refer to that as the "low point", OK?

Thankfully, because we are using Sonlight this year, the show has been able to go on, at least a little bit. Sweetheart has been able to do her independent work and I can sit on the couch and do read-alouds. Little Bit and I have kept up with her "100 Easy Lessons" for reading (we'll be finished by Christmas!!! YAY!!!) and her Sonlight read-alouds and there has been a lot of math practice.

Other than that? Not so much.

See? Mom sits on the couch while Sweetheart does her timeline and Little Bit apparently is reading to her pillow pet. I don't know.

But I am now officially in my 2nd trimester and sure enough, my energy is returning. I think it's been 2 or 3 weeks since I've taken daily naps. So, I have decided it's time to get back with it. I am going to plan today through Christmas, and hopefully beyond. School is top priority around here as the wonderful baby news shortened our school year by a few weeks.

But the good news? That's OK in homeschooling!!! You can get caught up.

Also, the house is still in party mode, with dining room chairs scattered all over the living room and gift bags and tissue paper everywhere. What? I was resting yesterday!

Our homeschool group's Thanksgiving feast is this week and I can't wait for that. 1. I love Thanksgiving and 2. I love our homeschool group. The best of both worlds!

I'm off to eat waffles, do laundry, and plan school!

The Party and Big News

2011-11-13T16:53:00.000-06:00

Little Bit's birthday was so much fun yesterday!

We made a little Pascal to sit on her shoulder.

Everything ready to go. Her costume, and Rapunzel hair for the guests.

I made the tower and served the cupcakes in a frying pan. I was pretty proud of that idea as it was about the only one I didn't get off the internet!

We played "Pin the Frying Pan on Flynn Rider."

Me spinning my niece Moose for the game.

Little Bit opened her presents gladly and shyly said "thank you" to everyone.

Then it was time for our plan. She calmly picked up the last gift to open and S got into place to take pictures of our sisters' reaction.

Everyone was leaning to see the shirt... (you know, this one)

And then...

Check out my sister way over on the left. :) it was such a slow realization that swept over everyone. It seemed like it took forever. So funny.

All the family was really happy though.

The movie kept everyone entertained while they ate cake.

And then the kids all played. Simple and fun.

And now....after a day of rest....its time to get back to work on school. Only I'm not prepared.

Minor detail, right?

From My Head Today

2011-11-10T07:56:00.000-06:00

Thank you everyone for your congratulations yesterday!
I spent the last 2 months struggling with worry and I plan to blog about that some next week.
I am approaching full-on panic mode about the state of our house and how we cannot possibly have a baby in this disorganized place.
We've only been getting the bare minimum done in school the last month and a half due to all the napping (mom's, not theirs). But next week I plan to add subjects back in that have been sorely neglected.
Our previous plan of 6 weeks on/1 week off is out the door. We've got to get as much done as we possibly can because when May rolls around....the current school year is over.
Our camping trip was fun and Little Bit's birthday will be fun too, but what we really need after all this fun, is a payday. Does anyone feel me?
Speaking of which, today I need to go buy her a birthday gift.
There is only 1 1/2 more weeks of school before Thanksgiving!
I do not have one single, solitary Christmas gift purchased, made, or decided on.

And now I have a question.

I did not do a baby registry for either of my other babies. It seemed presumptuous to me. (Mind you, baby registry was pretty new back in 1999.) We needed everything and knew I would appreciate anything anyone got us. We had a shower with Little Bit only because we were at a new church and the education minister's son and his wife were having a baby. We were both due near the same time and were in the same Sunday school class so how could they leave me out? I didn't need a baby shower, but we got lots of diapers and handmade blankets and nice things.

THIS time....I have a question. Do I register? Do I just make a wish list on Amazon? Because I don't want a lot of stuff. I feel very differently about what we "need" this time around and we also don't have space for a lot of stuff. And even though I don't want a lot of stuff, we um...need some things. I'm not saying we're going to have a shower because I have no idea. But I know people will ask what we need and so....do I tell them I'm registered or what? That feels strange to me. What's the word on this? What's proper these days? I am way out of touch.

Now I'll Know Who is Paying Attention!

2011-11-09T08:37:00.001-06:00

Little Bit's birthday is this Friday (11-11-11) and we are having her little party on Saturday evening. She has requested a Tangled party, for which there are tons of ideas online. I made a Pinterest board a few months ago and this week I'm putting it all into action.

Sure, they sell Rapunzel dresses at Wally World for $20, but they were too short for her and plus, I made this one for about $3.00.

Of course, Rapunzel needs hair.

Still need to glue some flowers in the braid.

I've got printables to go up around the house and I'm going to attempt to make Rapunzel's tower out of Swiss Cake Rolls. We'll see how that goes.

But since family will all be gathered for the event, we figured the party would be a good time to give her this as a present:

See? Are you paying attention? S made the shirt for her last night with his mad computer skillz. She knows about it--the girls are in on the plan. It'll be the last gift she opens and she'll turn it around to show everyone and we get to watch our family's faces as it slowly dawns on them.

Can't wait for this party! (And can't believe my little girl will be 8!)

**If you are my Facebook friend or friend IRL.....SSSSHHHHH!!! :) **

One Week Was Not Enough

2011-11-07T08:10:00.000-06:00

Sigh. We're back at it this week, but our week off of school was SO nice! We camped Monday-Wednesday and then just took Thursday and Friday off to play/do laundry/relax. This morning we'll be cracking the books again, but only until we get a few days off for Thanksgiving.

We camped with some friends and the girls all worked on earning their camping badges for their Keepers of the Faith club. One task we had them do was set up a tent by themselves.

All the big girls with the finished project! Ages range from 12-4.

We had so much fun we barely took any pictures! Plus that first night we were too cold. It was a brisk 44 degrees that first night and may I just say, that is a BIT cold for tent camping?

The last morning we went fishing in the same spot we fished in 2 years ago and I could not believe the effects of the drought!

See that big log laying there? Mark that in your mind.

Now, let's look at that log 2 years ago:

Do you see it in front of Little Bit there? Yep. This was all part of the lake 2 years ago.

Two years ago...

Last week...

We just couldn't get over how this:

Could turn into this:

But it was a fun time camping. I love camping.

Then we ended the week with a bang. Sweetheart was playing baseball in the backyard with her cousins and she tripped on one of the bricks that edge our garden and fell into the garden, cutting herself up on the bricks in the process. She has a pretty good gash on her knee, which was handled with butterfly bandages, and lots of scrapes and cuts.

Good thing it's back to school today--we couldn't handle much more fun!

Time for a Break!

2011-10-26T07:47:00.000-05:00

Uh, not from blogging. Obviously, I've BEEN taking one of those! No....we've got a camping trip coming up and I am so excited! It's time for a break from school, from housework, from being here every day, from errands, from work. We need a vacation!

We're going with some friends this year and that is always much more exciting for the girls. We'll have 6 kids running around and keeping each other busy and it will be nice. The weather will be in the high 40s-low 50s at night and the high 70s in the day--PERFECT!

This particular family we are going with, along with our girls, have started a Keepers of the Faith club. (They have all girls too). So the first badge our girls will be earning is the camping badge. Yesterday was our first meeting and one of the things they had to do was plan the meals. Um...that was really easy for them! They did it quickly and didn't miss a thing! Us Moms decided it was because they always go grocery shopping with us (being homeschoolers) so they know a thing or two about it.

That, and they like to eat.

So, next week is our camping trip and week off from school and then....I plan to be back to blogging!

We'll have nearly 70 school days under our belts by then. Not too bad.

Also, I'm ready for the holidays...Thanksgiving, Christmas.

Notice I did not say prepared. I said ready. Big difference.

What Might Have Been

2011-10-17T09:44:00.001-05:00

**Edited: S pointed out to me that a "hookworm" was something that grew inside you or burrowed under your skin. Oops. I meant "hornworm." I fixed it. And here is a visual of one we caught last year for reference of my nap buddy.

So I took a nap yesterday.

It was glorious.

And then I happened to open my eyes before I rolled over and what did I see?

Beside me on the mattress, was a quart glass jar with a HUGE hornworm in it and a note from my daughter, "Look what I found Mom!"

Did I mention there was no LID on the jar?

And we don't have one of those fancy mattresses that you can put a glass of wine on and then jump and it won't spill?

Oh my. WHAT if I had rolled over without opening my eyes???????

Let's not go there.

Why I Like Big Kids

2011-10-12T13:12:00.000-05:00

I have mourned the passing of Sweetheart's childhood....always. Every year I was a mixture of sad and happy as she kept growing up and advancing in age. But, looking back, the years between 7 and 10 things didn't change ALL that much.

I mean, she was taller.
But she still liked a lot of the same things. Her favorites stayed consistent for a long time.
She still had the same little personality.
She looked similar--just a bit older each year.
She was still my baby.

But 12? Twelve has been something else. I mean, you can't deny the very obvious physical changes going on. She is becoming a young lady. And she has glasses now. And I just cut her hair. And she's 5' 1".

And she only asked for 1 toy for her birthday. And she can't really think of any toys she wants for Christmas. I don't even know what to do with that.

But having a big kid is pretty cool too. She is very helpful. She can reach almost anything. She can follow directions 200% better than her 9 year old self could. And she can go fishing until 10:00 at night with Daddy.

And that's pretty cool.

I just wish she would still fit on my lap. Humph.

Remember Me?

2011-10-05T08:09:00.000-05:00

Hi. Been awhile, I know! We're just plugging along getting behind on schoolwork, never keeping up with the dirty dishes in the kitchen, and doing just enough laundry each day to get by.

And you?

It's beautiful outside, but actually being out there makes 3/4 of our family sneeze.

We spent too much money over the weekend and now must be very careful until pay day. (Saw Courageous! It was so good!!!)

I have no idea what I'm making for dinner tonight because for the first time in probably 4 or 5 months, I didn't make a menu plan this week.

I don't want to drive to piano lessons today.

I really need to get going on Christmas gifts.

Right now, I need a shower and to get dressed.

Surprise! We rearranged 3 rooms of our house over the weekend. I know you are shocked. TRY to act surprised.

Pet birds make a mess. I think I need a Dustbuster or something. Do they still sell those?

I need a maid. Just for one day.

We need to drag out the clothes tubs and have the girls try on fall/winter clothes. I'm sure Sweetheart will have at least 2 things that fit her from last year.

I can't find my glasses case.

There is no place to put a Christmas tree this year.

Someone needs to invent a machine that will wash your clothes and then automatically switch to a cycle called "DRY." All in the same machine. Why must it all depend on me moving them to the next machine? (And why is that so hard?)

That enough random for you? That's all I got today.

Last Call for GiveAway Winner!

2011-09-27T08:54:00.001-05:00

Deborah...you won the drawing for Mrs. June's book. Please contact me by Wednesday evening! Ladies, if I don't hear from Deborah by Wednesday night, I'll draw another winner on Thursday morning. Stay tuned!

Did You Know?

2011-09-27T08:34:00.000-05:00

That we own over 30 pillowcases?

Can you even imagine why a family of four would need more than 30 pillowcases?

(Especially if you take into account how often the sheets get changed around here.)

I know this because we have this huge cedar chest that used to be in my grandmother's house. We use it for a coffee table sometimes.

That's the cedar chest there.

But it used to be at the foot of our bed and we store our sheets in it.

It fits a LOT of sheets.

And pillowcases.

I haven't even counted the sheets.

Needless to say, I will be weeding out a bit this week. 'Cause now the TV and electronic stuff is on top of it so sheets must be stored elsewhere.

Good grief. 30 pillowcases.

I've Decided Some Things

2011-09-26T04:43:00.001-05:00

I believe I ~~have blogged on and on lately about how tired I've been.~~ may have mentioned lately about being tired. We had all last week off of school and I went out of town to a ladies' retreat this weekend. I've had some time to think. Here is what I've concluded:

I do not want to go back into that homeschool room!

It may look pretty, but it feels like jail.

It finally hit me last night as I was lying in bed. I have lost me! I know that sounds dramatic but folks I think I have been having a bit of a homeschool burnout. I've never had that before, but this is our 5th year and I found myself thinking of the old Reba McIntyre song "Is There Life Out There?" (Except I don't want to go back to school like she did in the video thankyouverymuch. Nor do I want to be married to Huey Louis.)

Anyway, I think the disdain I feel for walking back into that homeschool room is because for the last 6 weeks, I have been sitting in there for 4-5 hours a day. Then what else do I do with my time? Well, meal planning and prep, grocery shopping, mom taxi, errands, housework, laundry, and then on the weekends we do family stuff. And in the middle of all that---I realized---I am not ever doing anything I want to do!

Don't get me wrong--I WANT to homeschool my kids. I WANT to be a homemaker. I WANT to go do things with my family. But everything these last 6 weeks have just felt like I run from one "have to do" item to the next with no stops for other things along the way. There has to be joy in the day. This should not all feel like one big job that I don't even like!

I have to make it where I can enjoy these two loves!

What am I doing wrong, I wondered? What happened to "just live life and your kids will learn long division along the way?" (I've never bought that, by the way) Isn't homeschooling supposed to be a way of life....not a job?

So I decided to try a little experiment this week. You remember our wall schedule, right?

Well, I'm going to rip those suckers right down and shove them in a cup. Then we are going to start our day with a prayer or some Bible reading (that has been missing this year too) and then I'm going to set the girls loose to get their school work done. I am placing the responsibility on them. I am tired of the homeschool sun rising and setting with me.

Of course there are lots of things they need me to do with them during the day. So, I'm going to clean off the table in the homeschool room and announce there is no more "assigned seating." Just plop down where ever you like and if I'm needed (like for 100 Easy Lessons with Little Bit), well I'll just plop down next to wherever she sat. Variety is the spice of life, right? Why should we sit in the same chair every day?

As they pull cards from their cup and think about what needs to be done, they can decide where to work for that particular task. Handwriting? They have 3 choices: their desk in their bedroom, the dining room table, or the homeschool table. Read-alouds? I want those to start happening on the couch. I've made a place under the lamp table to store the Sonlight binder and the books. The girls will be responsible to come find me, ask if I can read with them right then, gather the materials, and meet me on the couch. If I am not available--they can pull another card and work on something else until I am. Math? They both know how to put in the DVD and watch their own lesson and get started. I'll probably join them to make sure they understand it, but they can take the initiative to get started!

So what am I going to be doing, you may wonder? Well, I decided I'm going to be a mom. And a wife. And a homemaker. I'm going to go ahead and wash those dishes. I'm going to switch the laundry out. I'm going to sew on those quilts the girls will need soon. If I'm sewing in the dining room, and Sweetheart is having trouble with math, well she can just join me at the table in there. I realize I will still be doing a lot of school with them, but I hope it will be broken up and done all around the house and not feel like such drudgery.

Now this is just an experiment and I'm sure it will need some tweaking. I suspect it may drive me crazy to have them interrupting me all day long just as I get going on a task. We may need to make some rules about "these subjects first" and "then these." But something needs to happen where, between the 2nd grader and the 6th grader, the mom has a break or two in the morning.

I'm happiest when I have some sort of project going and right now, I really need to start working on Christmas presents. Hopefully, with my new plan, there will be time for that. I'm done being in control of each little item. It's their schoolwork and they need to get it done. I'm letting go of a lot and letting them take the reins.

I'll let you know how it works out! And if things work out like I hope they will, we may be moving back to the smaller homeschool room.

Mama's gone off the deep end, but it's gonna be OK!

Signed,

Your slightly crazy but it's OK because I have a plan friend

Date Night and Giveaway Winner

2011-09-23T09:43:00.000-05:00

Well, I said I was going to pick the winner of the True Christian Motherhood book last night, but what I really did was go out with my husband. Sorry! (But we had fun!)

Remember I'm going out of town today so spending some time with my husband was very nice. The girls spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa so a good time was had by all. Now the girls said they "already missed me last night" and now I'm "leaving today." Poor babies. They are used to having me 24/7. But Daddy has some fun planned for them while I'm gone so I'm sure they'll have a good time.

I'm spending the morning packing and figuring out what I'm going to take for snacks. You know I've been tired and shaky hungry lately. Last night I got a smoothie--strawberry/kiwi infused with protein--and it really helped! But alas there are probably not many smoothie shops in the heart of Texas where we are headed, so I'm going to need to figure out some good snacks to take in case I get shaky while I'm gone. That, and how to fit my Mom's 3 giant pillows she sleeps with into the van are my only concerns right now. Also, if I'm going to have room in the bed to sleep.

Now, on to the winner!

#8--That would be....Deborah! Congratulations Deborah! (Your profile says "not available" right now. Could be my computer....will you shoot me an e-mail? Thanks!)

Thank you to everyone who participated. I encourage you to look out for other giveaways around the web right now if you still want to win a copy. There are several going on.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Resting and Doing

2011-09-22T12:03:00.000-05:00

So I had made a doctor's appointment earlier this week to go see if there was reason why I've been so tired. Then Tuesday I left the house at 12:15 and when we got home at 3:30 or so, I realized I felt...normal. I continued to feel good all evening and even stayed up until 10:00! I know!!

And surprisingly, I felt fine yesterday morning at 6:45. I didn't even feel the need to go back to bed after S left for work. So....maybe I have finally caught up on rest? I cancelled the doctor's appointment (which is good because then I saw I had a voice mail--them cancelling b/c the doc was sick!) and am just going on with my week.

I really think one reason why I have not felt that good is diet. We have been trying to be frugal, frugal, frugal with the grocery shopping and that boils down to eating a lot of non-food, really. After I eat, I still feel like I need something else. But what is it? I've decided I need to get more real food in me. I don't know how we will afford it, but it must be done. I believe I will start with green smoothies. Only I'm making mine purple (just add berries) because drinking something the color of Shrek is just wrong. Also I bought steak today and I'm eating it for lunch. I've been craving it.

In other news, I am going to my first ladies' retreat ever this weekend. I never went to retreats when the girls were little because I didn't want to leave them and S worked a lot and I didn't see how it was possible. They are much older now and childcare worked out fine, so I am going. It is a long way away and there will be a lot of driving involved, but I hope it will be fun and even relaxing. My mom and a friend from church are coming with me. There are many questions in my mind:

1. How will S fix the girls' hair while I am gone?
2. What will they eat?
3. How will the house look when I get back?
4. Will I be even more tired from this long trip?
5. Will it be wonderful and refreshing?
6. Will I ever get everything done in time to leave?
7. What will we eat and what should I pack in case I don't like the food?

I have many concerns. The main thing is I need to get things done around HERE before I go THERE because we get back late Saturday night and boom! school starts back on Monday. And I'm not ready.

I'm off to cook my steak for lunch and see if I can get this shaky empty feeling to leave. If I'm not feeling more normal by the end of the weekend, I suppose I'll go to the doctor next week.

And I've also decided that starting school "on time" is NOT the be-all, end-all proof of a successful day. Sure, we have a lot to do and need to start in a timely manner. But if I need more sleep, I'm getting it. That's it. Homeschooling is not so important that I need to run myself into the ground for it, you know?

Signed,

Your tired hungry friend

Encouragement for Mothers and a Giveaway

2011-09-20T10:02:00.000-05:00

I have such an eclectic mix in my Google Reader. Some blogs make me laugh. Some give me great homeschooling ideas. Some are about household organization. Some are just friends telling about their day. I love reading my blogs. And one of the most encouraging ones in my Google Reader is Mrs. June's blog.

If you already read A Wise Woman Builds Her Home, then you know what I am talking about. Her blog is a consistent place to receive encouragement and uplifting words. Always positive, always encouraging women in their walk with the Lord...well.

Imagine a whole book full of Mrs. June's encouraging words! Imagine no further--she has written a book! I am sure you already knew that.

I started reading True Christian Motherhood the other night and I'll tell you what happened the next morning. As I woke up and lay there thinking about the upcoming day and what I needed to get done, etc., I started thinking about my girls. Suddenly I was remembering what life was like when I had to drop them off at baby sitter's houses and daycare when I was a working mom. I remember the horrible feeling driving away from them each day and how I would pray all the way to work for their safety and well-being. I hated being apart from them. Hated getting the call that they had fever and trying to find a way to get to them. Hated asking my parents to take my daughter to eat lunch for her birthday as I was at work.

Now why is this all significant? I'm getting to it. After I thought about all that, I was SO profoundly thankful for the last 4 years that I have been at home with my girls, homeschooling them and raising them each and every day. Praise the Lord for His providence that allows me to be home with them!

And here is the significant part: I rarely wake up thinking about being a mother.

I wake up thinking about what I need to do.
I wake up thinking about what I'm going to fix for breakfast.
I wake up thinking about the errands I need to run.
I wake up thinking about something my husband asked me to do that day.

I almost never wake up thinking about how I can mother my children that day.

Does that sound odd? I have gotten so busy and full of things to DO, that I have forgotten the main thing*: raising and training my children!

Mrs. June's book caused me to remember that. I am a MOTHER--not just a homeschooler. I am a MOTHER--not just a homemaker. I am a MOTHER--not just a stay at home mom.

Oh it is such a high calling!

The book is full of quotes, scripture, Challenge Questions at the end of each chapter, warnings, and encouragement. It will truly give you a vision for your very important role of motherhood.

And the best news is that Mrs. June has offered a free copy of True Christian Motherhood to one of my blog readers! If you would like to win a copy of this e-book, simply leave me a comment on this post and I'll draw a random winner on Thursday evening. If you already own a copy, let your friends know about this giveaway so they can enter!

Go here to learn more about the book or to buy your copy!

*I know being a helper for my husband actually comes first--but motherhood is part of being his helper!

Exhausted..Still

2011-09-19T10:16:00.002-05:00

I wouldn't mind a prayer or two if you think about it. I have been trying to get more sleep but you know how it goes....I'm a mom. I rarely have a night of uninterrupted sleep. And counting up all the hours you slept doesn't seem to work out if you have to subtract the hours you were awake in the middle, you know?

We've been running a lot on the weekends. I have a small infection my body is fighting. School has been going on for 6 weeks and it's tiring. Add other normal issues (Is that better, K?) I suppose all of this could add up, huh?

I'm not thinking I have a major medical condition just yet. :) I am thinking I need to work hard this week to get lots of sleep, eat well, drink a lot of water (or tea....flavored water!), etc. Just take care of myself in general.

In good news, it's our first week off on our "Sabbath Schedule" (6 weeks of work, one week of rest). So I plan to sleep in, get some things done around the house, and make plans for the next 6 weeks. But I have all week to do it and I don't have to be in a rush. For this week at least, I DON'T have to worry about being "on time" and "getting getting started on time" and "hurry, hurry." That in itself is a rest!

Tomorrow I will have a review and an announcement about a giveaway! Looking forward to that AND my week of rest.....

Weekly Wrap-Up--Week 6

2011-09-15T21:41:00.000-05:00

Huh. What happened to week 5? Oh well.

This week I followed our morning through pictures one day. Just thought I'd share.

Sweetheart kicked off the morning at 8:50am finishing her writing from the previous week. Labor Day really threw us off.

Little Bit and I kick off the day with a reading lesson. Sweetheart is in her room working during this time.

9:30am--Sweetheart reading in living room.

9:40am Little Bit making a craft to go with My Father's Dragon.

10:00am Sweetheart re-reading Bible because she couldn't tell me what she read about. :)

On to map work...

10:50am Play break for the 2nd grader. Who then picked up all the clothes behind her!

Sweetheart getting snacks for me and her before read-aloud time.

11:30am Spelling lesson with Little Bit

11:45am Writing

12:00pm Zoology together.

Then we broke for lunch and I didn't take any more pictures. That wasn't our whole school day but it was the morning. We are busy this year!

Other than normal school this week, we ran way too many errands, started way too late several days, made way too much of a mess in the house, and whined way too much about school.

I say it is time for a week off!!! (next week YAY!)

We also had dinner with some sweet friends, went to gym day with our homeschool group (Where the children again spent a large portion of their time beating one another with swim noodles. It's good to have a hobby.) and bought a new pencil sharpener.

I did not fully realize this before, but not having a quality pencil sharpener can take a homeschool down FAST! We searched and scrambled all week for pencils with leads. If someone broke their pencil lead it was a disaster of epic proportions, and when Little Bit found some spare pencils with SHARPENED LEADS there was great rejoicing.

Mercy.

The most important thing about week 6 is that it is almost over and it's time for our break!!!

Oh and that I found a solution about where to put the stupid All About Spelling board. Anyone else struggle with that? The kids hated sitting in the floor and I hated sitting or leaning over them. I'll show my solution later. It won't work for everyone!

Exhausted

2011-09-15T07:46:00.000-05:00

I went to bed at 9:30 last night. Pretty sure I was asleep by 9:35. And so of course i was wide awake at 4:00 for about an hour. But...I managed to go back to sleep until 6:45.

(I still wanted to sleep some more.)

(But I didn't go back to bed after S left.)

I have gone back to bed a few times this week and all it does is make school last longer and I get fewer things done around the house. NO idea why I'm so tired. It must be time for our week off next week. Yep. Can't wait! This mama/teacher is ready for a break!

I have more to do today than is humanly possible. School takes a lot more time this year. I knew this day was coming--when we would not be done by lunchtime. Honestly, I kind of miss when I had a 2nd grader and a 3 year old. School was so easy then and I don't think I fully appreciated that.

But homeschool is not about being academically superior. So we will get our school work done and then we will live life---knowing they are learning both ways.

Must run a few errands today and also go grocery shopping. But it's also gym day with our homeschool group and I don't want the girls to miss that. Which means we will be running crazy today and I need to be really organized before we leave the house. I like grocery shopping on Fridays or Saturdays better. I hate when it falls in the middle of the week.

I can tell you now that Friday will be a very abbreviated school day. Because I am tired.

So, to sum up:

1. I am tired.

That is all.

From Drowning In...to Drowning Them Part 2

2011-09-12T14:05:00.000-05:00

So, last week I shared about our struggle to deal with our daughter's Tourette Syndrome earlier this year. Things were bad. We drove around in the car many times late at night trying to keep her mind off of the tics so she could relax enough to go to bed.

Little Bit, let's count how many flags we see, OK?

1....2...SCREAM....3.....now let's look for SCREAM 4.....oh look! SCREAM There are a lot in that parking lot! SCREAM 5, 6, 7, 8....Let's go see if there are any down SCREAM this road.....

On and on. In spite of the screaming tic, we really did enjoy those drives. She couldn't wait to get out of the car and tell Daddy how many flags we saw.

During all of this, we started researching online. It's hard to find anything but basic information on TS but I was determined. I stumbled on some forums of TS parents who were trying natural remedies and diet changes and various other medications. I read and read. It was totally and completely overwhelming. I spoke with a friend whose 13 year old son is autistic because they have been dealing with all this for years and know a lot. I told her my frustration of just not knowing where to start.

I read that if we eliminate X from her diet, it will help.
I read that perhaps her gut is full of Y so should tackle that.
I read to avoid A,B, or C foods and it would help.

So our friend told us to ask for a nutritional panel at our doctor's office. That would give us enough information to start. Is she actually low or high in this or that? Why should we go to all the pain and turmoil of changing her diet if we weren't even certain that was the problem?

It was overwhelming to say the least.

And I told you earlier this year about how, when I got to our primary care doctor, the nurse asked me how to spell Tourette Syndrome.

Not a good sign. I have never been shoved out of a door so fast in all my life! Our doctor would have nothing to do with us. "The neurologist can help you. You should go see him." Boom. Kicked to the curb (and $20 poorer for that!)

The only thing I read about that even seemed doable was Epsom salt baths. I read that they help. The magnesium helps. This we could do. Poor Little Bit, she sat in that bath for a long time each evening. And sometimes in the middle of the day. I read she needed to stay in about 20 minutes for it to "soak in" and that's a long time to be in the bath multiple times a day.

So, that's where I stopped blogging about it all. But I wanted to tell you the wonderful conclusion to our story.

We had a friend over for Bible study one night. She was sitting on the couch visiting with us when Little Bit came in crying and screaming and ticcing like crazy. S told me to go put her in the bath and while Little Bit and I left to go do that, he explained the Epsom salt baths to our friend.

And that is when the most wonderful news ever reached our ears.

"Magnesium helps?" asked friend. "Because I take a magnesium supplement every night." (for another reason)

Friend proceeds to tell us how she read that we are all magnesium deficient in America because we don't eat enough dark, leafy greens and even if we do, our soil is depleted and our water so treated that we don't get enough magnesium in our bodies naturally.

The next day she brought over her magnesium supplement and showed me how to prepare it.

And that night, Little Bit fell asleep in 20 MINUTES!!!!! What had been taking nearly 2 hours was cut down to 20 minutes. There was much rejoicing in the House Revised.

So now, every day, Little Bit "drowns her tics" by drinking orange juice with her magnesium supplement mixed in. She has been almost completely tic free since that night. Over Sweetheart's birthday weekend, we forgot her "drink" several times and the tics started to come back. We upped her dosage a bit for a few days until things got back under control.

I am still in awe that something so simple and so easy to do could have such a profound effect on her! I have no idea if magnesium supplements would help all people with TS because certainly it would be more well-known if that were true. Right? And also many people suffer from co-morbid disorder where they are dealing with TS in conjunction with other acronyms all at the same time. Our daughter simply has TS--and it worked.

Boy did it work! Just. Like. That. Life was back to normal. She sat through church. She started sleeping in her own bed. She stopped worrying about going out in public. Over. Just like that.

I am not a doctor, but if you are dealing with TS in your family, please feel free to e-mail me and I will be happy to share specifics on what we use. (Not trying to do a commercial on here or get sued for giving out medical advice!) We are thankful each day for the Lord answering our prayers to help us with our daughter. I have no idea if the tics will come back one day in spite of the supplements. We might be searching for other answers in a few years. But for now, things are good.

The Place Where We Relax

2011-09-11T21:48:00.000-05:00

Oh I love going to the beach with my family.

S just instantly turns into a relaxed person at the beach. He smiles.

He doesn't have that "I'm rushed and thinking about many things" look he has on his face so much of the time during the week.

And me? About half way down there I can't wait to get my feet in the sand and the sun on my skin. I love the beach.

The girls love it too. They are right at home there.

Wanna see what they are looking at?

Can you see the sand crab? He was tiny!

This was their second time surfing.

They did great.

They make it look so easy.

I'm already dreading when it gets too cold to go. NO! We are just going to do what Masto Mama's family does and take hoodies and hats and blankets and still go!

'Cause it's where we belong!

And that little crab we caught? Totally counted as science.

Just For The Record

2011-09-09T12:41:00.000-05:00

Trying to cram a 5 day week into 4 days was NOT worth it.

Next time I will just get a day behind. School has been brutal here at the end of the week.

It's only 89 degrees outside right now so I'm decorating for fall this weekend. It's just downright chilly around here. I don't care. It's September. I'm decorating.

Also I have not caught up on laundry or dishes all week. Taking Monday off really messed me up.

But thankfully, in about another hour or so, we will be done with school and I can start in on this house!

Or play on Pinterest.

Or some combination of the two.

What can I say? Pinterest inspires me to work on my house.

My house that is cracking in half because of this drought. No idea how we are going to be able to afford all the repairs from the effects of this drought. We need rain badly.

But at least I can decorate all around the new cracks with fall stuff, right?

Right?

Right. Right after school.

Have a great weekend everyone!

From Drowning In...to Drowning Them

2011-09-08T08:13:00.002-05:00

Earlier this year we were drowning. Our family felt like it was going down a big ol' whirlpool and we were desperately trying to claw our way out. Something had taken over our life and absolutely everything we did--from sleeping to eating to going to church to running errands--everything was rotating around one thing: Tourette Syndrome.

Our younger daughter (7 year old Little Bit), was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome when she was 4. We thought the tics had been bad before. We thought it was awful that our little girl had to live with such a thing.

What we did not know is up until this year, it had been a walk in the park. With balloons. And possibly cotton candy.

When she was diagnosed the neurologist told us he would not consider medication for her unless "she just isn't able to function in daily life." Well let me tell you, we were there. But still we did NOT want to put her on any of the drugs that are offered to control the symptoms of TS.

You may ask why? Why would you refuse to get medicine that might help your daughter? Well, the medicines are big and bad. And none of them work on all people with TS. And she is so tiny. I could not even imagine having her take some of those medicines. We still thought there was more we could try before we got there.

Before I tell you what we tried, I'd like to tell you how life was. It all feels like one big blur, but I will try to describe how our definition of "bad" changed.

You know, there are two kinds of tics: motor tics (any repetitive movement that they "have to do") and vocal tics (any repetitive noise that they "have to make"). Little Bit had mostly had motor tics since she's been showing symptoms just before she turned 2. Lots of motor tics. Lots and lots and lots of motor tics.

Jumping, shrugging one shoulder, touching her thumb to her head, tucking her chin towards her chest, touching the arm of whoever is next to her, touching her tongue to whatever item was in her hand, head shaking, blinking, touching her tongue to each shoulder, raising her eyebrows, clenching her fingers, tightening her neck, wiping her eyes....the list goes on and on. There is no way to record them all. The motor tics, they are aplenty. I remember one night when she was 3 or 4, her motor tics were going so crazy that S just picked her up, put her on his lap, and wrapped his arms completely around her trying to help her calm down and be able to be still for a just a few seconds. She would get so exhausted from all the movement all day long.

But the vocal tics were very few: clearing her throat (the one that prompted us to the doctor originally), making sort of a huffy breath by exhaling quickly, repeating certain words or sounds...not that much to report.

Then, around April, everything changed. We aren't really sure what set it off. Usually, her tics tend to get worse around her birthday and Christmas. That makes sense, huh? Exciting. Anticipation. But in April? One thing that did happen was my Dad was in the hospital for about a week. We thought that might have had something to do with it. But even after he was home, things continued to get worse.

This time the tics were mostly vocal. Here was the tic: screaming. As loud as she could. Until the veins in her neck stood out. Her whole body would tense up during the scream. Rest a few seconds. Repeat. For HOURS. In between screams she would fuss and cry that her throat hurt and that she didn't want to do it anymore. She was exhausted. The screaming carried on off and on throughout the day. It went away while she was swimming so we did a lot of physical activity! But no matter how the day went, at bedtime it all got worse. The girls share a room so we pulled Little Bit out onto a mattress in the living room so Sweetheart had some hope of getting to sleep. Although she could certainly still hear the screaming, she eventually went to sleep each night. Back in the living room, S and I tag teamed trying to help Little Bit get to sleep. We tried everything: ignore it, rub her back, give her the iPhone to play Angry Birds (which seemed to help calm her down because she was concentrating), play soft music (couldn't hear it), drive around in the car, go on a walk, get up and play longer until she was so tired she would surely be able to fall asleep, pray (throughout all of it), rocking her, reading to her (couldn't hear it). The list goes on. No matter what we tried, it took almost 2 hours to get her to sleep each night. The entire time punctuated by screams.

And church? Or outings in public? Oh dear. We switched churches during this time (a good change--less stress actually). At our old church, the music was so loud she could actually scream into a little pillow we brought and no one would hear her! We had to leave early as she couldn't hold it together very long and didn't want to go to class. At our new church, she and I would just go sit in the cry room or go outside where she could scream. We went out to eat for S and my Dad's birthday one evening and she was worried about "what if I have to scream?" I was so over the tics by that point I told her to just go ahead. I honestly knew that I wouldn't have cared who looked. But, she was horrified by the thought, so we went to the parking lot.

The screams really did hurt your ears. We tried to not cover our ears or react as though it was hurting but one time I did rub my ear after a particularly loud scream right by my ear and Little Bit just dissolved into tears. "I'm sorry Mommy! I'm sorry I hurt your ears!" Oh my heart. Sweetheart is sensitive to loud sounds anyway so she came to school each day with cotton in her ears so she could get her work done. School was done in segments. There is only so much frustration a 1st grader can handle. It was during this time that I realized--we are definitely at the point where she is not able to function in daily life.

We were drowning in tics. She was drowning in frustration and exhaustion.

Tomorrow I will share how we drowned those tics and what is working for us (right now!). If you have a child with TS, then you know how difficult it is to find answers on the Internet. I am sharing our story so that it might help others who are dealing with this. Stay tuned!

So About That Adventure

2011-09-06T20:07:00.000-05:00

You know, I've been feeling sort of sorry for us about the no rain thing. We have new cracks all over our house and the grass is dying and we are very weary of having no rain.

But.

We went to my dad's hometown for the weekend. We bought the girls some clearance swimsuits to make it through the rest of the swimming weather (their old swimsuits are another story!) at Wally World in the next town over.

But Sweetheart's didn't fit. So Sunday after lunch we headed back to return it. We didn't make it very far down the road until we started seeing this:

And this...

They turned everyone around.

On the way back, in a completely different area, we saw this.

And this.

And then, back in town, we saw another wild fire.

I'm happy to report that no lives or even homes were lost. Just some out buildings. But that was a bit closer to the wildfires than I wanted to be! The wind was insane and that surely wasn't helping anything.

So Sunday evening we headed home. But less than half way home, we ran into this.

Oh dear. We never saw the fire, but apparently there was another fire that had both sides of the interstate shut down. Needless to say, what should have taken an hour or so took 4 hours.

And several passengers in our car needed "the facilities." But my husband always takes care of us. So he pulled over and found us some facilities in a dry creek bed under the traffic. And kindly took a picture of us climbing back up.

Us? Why...we were just sightseeing, that's all.

Much better.

Later I smashed Little Bit's finger in the car and made it bleed.

And about 10pm we called it a night and checked into a hotel.

Where we all slept and came straight home the next morning with no problems.

I fretted a bit about spending the money on that hotel. S reminded me that's why he mows (for extra money). So, I think we are supposed to have a moment of silence every time he leaves to mow in thankfulness for his hard work and care for us. I have no problem with that.

Because the whole trip was wonderful and no one was upset and everyone was flexible and calm and rolled with the punches. What could have been a stressful time, was really just a fun weekend with a few unexpected stops.

And a lot of smoke.

We Had An Adventure

2011-09-06T08:26:00.000-05:00

But you'll have to wait to hear about it because the pictures are on husband's phone. It was a good weekend and this morning it was in the 60s when we woke up. HEAVENLY!

Now we are back to a normal week (in which I will not know what day it is all week because Monday will mess me up all week long) and need to get back in the swing of things. We have this week and next week and then a week off! Yay!

We add 2 more things to our schedule this week: physics and piano lessons. We are officially doing all parts of school now.

The Texas wildfires have been crazy this weekend and found out last night about several friends who almost had to evacuate and a friend's parents who did have to. We sat here last night and realized we are totally unprepared to evacuate quickly. With hurricanes, you have days to know that a hurricane is headed your way. With fires? Not so much. I realized last night I know where things are--but many things are not easily grab-able or in the same place. Need to fix that. Also thought through what we would take--one list for "just get out and take what you can" and a longer list for "you have a few hours but be ready."

All of this drought and these fires have made me really think about how we are NOT in control. We cannot make it rain when it's needed and we cannot make it stop when we are flooding. We can fight fires, but honestly if that fire wants to burn, it's going to burn. We are totally dependent on the Lord and I think we very much forget that in America.

In case you don't live around these parts, take a look at this fire map and then pray. (By the way, our family is in no danger---we were just thinking about it.)

Tropical Storm Lee

2011-09-03T06:00:00.014-05:00

We ran down Friday after work to get acquainted with ol' Lee. We THOUGHT we might play in the sand, boogie board, or surf a bit and eat some hot dogs.

Well, there was no sand. The water was really high. And with all the wind, (sandy wind) there was no eating on the beach. But we did have fun!

We really had to watch Little Bit! The wind kept blowing her away and the water kept taking her away!

Sweetheart thought it was great!

Dad's turn...

Then they just wanted out of the sandy air and to get in the truck and eat hot dogs!

I'm glad we went. It was fun and a very different beach experience than we usually have!

Weekly Wrap Up--Week 4

2011-09-02T08:37:00.000-05:00

Man, I'm not sure there is anything to wrap up this week! We did school. We got behind. We caught up the next day. We're still plugging along, but it certainly wasn't the most exciting school week in recent memory.

However, we DID have some fun! Finally some homeschool group events are kicking in. We have missed our friends! We had our first "gym day" this week and a whole lot of families showed up. Gym day is pretty much every week and the moms just chat and work out the world's problems while the children play. We had a lot of new families and apparently, our children all had some aggression to work through because they ran around beating each other with swim noodles for about 30 minutes. It was awesome. I took blurry pictures from far away. You're welcome.

Little Bit, Sweetheart's friend who is also named Sweetheart, my Sweetheart, and their friend K.

And also this week a friend invited us to another home school group's fun day. This homeschool group is just a little farther than ours but I really liked all the moms (and knew a few of them) so I'm thinking about doing some things with them this year as well. (Yes, I DO know how blessed I am to have so many homeschool groups around me! On the other hand, you might have clean air.) Anyway, we sat and melted in the shade while the kids played in some local fountains. Good and fun. I took blurry pictures from far away. You're welcome.

My kids are there somewhere. It was all homeschoolers anyway because kids are back in school!!

And last night, S and I rearranged the living room. We moved stuff 15 different ways and most of it ended up right back where it started. Sigh. With our "new" furniture there is just a very limited amount of ways it can be moved. All we were doing is trying to find a way to be able to sit and watch a movie on the computer without having to look to the side. And also we have too much furniture and I may do something about that next week. And it may involve shrinking the toy room.

But that doesn't really have anything to do with school other than that today is school movie day and we will try out the new arrangement. We're watching this.

Now we're off to finish up everything we didn't finish so far this week and watch our movie for lunch. Oh, and clean the house so we can enjoy the long weekend!! Hope you all have a great weekend too!

Homework or Life

2011-08-31T07:29:00.000-05:00

I don't know why I continue to be shocked by this every year, but I do. A child who was born the same year as my Sweetheart (actually her mom and I shared a first grade classroom the year they were both born--yikes--2 maternity leaves!), is in 6th grade this year just like my daughter. Only she is in public school.

The bus usually drops her home about 5:00. Yesterday her Dad picked her up, so she got home earlier. And at 9:00 last night, she still wasn't finished with her homework. She had stopped for supper and a bath. Her Dad was working with her the whole time. She's 11.

This, after a full day at school. Another friend who I used to teach with has a daughter in 11th grade AP classes. She reports her daughter routinely stays up until 2:00am to complete her homework. Not sure when she gets started. I know many children in high school don't get started until after supper because they are in extra-curricular activities until many hours after school is out.

No wonder these children grow up and do NOT QUESTION why they must work long hours, 6 or 7 days a week. No wonder they don't think twice about going to school for 4-10 years after high school. Our niece works a full-time job and has just gone back to school for a Master's degree. This, after working her way through college and graduating just a few months ago. She's not married. She doesn't have children. She's in her mid-20s. Does she know there are other options out there besides just work and school?

Work. School. Work. School. Schoolwork. It's all the same. It's what we're made for, right? These poor kids don't even seem to question it.

I shudder to think how I would be handling it if my children were in public school right now and carrying such a homework load. Would I let it get in the way of church? Family time? Scripture memory work? Service? Chores? How is there time for anything else but school?

Oh I pray for families today. I wish people knew there was an alternative. I could list and list the things that happen in our day that would NOT be happening if my children (and therefore our family) were under such a burden.

I am grateful for each and every one of them. And I wish more people knew.

One Little Area at a Time

2011-08-30T16:05:00.000-05:00

Enough talk.

Enough dreaming.

Enough planning.

Enough pinning!!!

Yesterday, I got up and DID something!

Before. Cookbooks, loose recipes, broken pig bookend, Christmas wrapping paper....

Underneath our antique china cabinet. Yikes. An explosion.

And....after!!! "Pretty" cookbooks up top. Diabetic cookbooks in the middle. Utilitarian cookbooks and magazines on the bottom. I got rid of a few cookbooks I have never used. Christmas wrapping paper removed. And loose recipes in my binder (which is standing up there.)

Some stuff removed. Everything else straightened up.

How I could have been even more radical:
I know there are only 2 recipes I use out of one really thick cookbook. Why not scan them in to the computer or make copies of them and stick 'em in a binder? I mainly go to the internet for recipes, but I'm not ready to get rid of all cookbooks just yet.

Progress!

And you know why I started in the dining room right? It's little. That's my kind of room.

What My Camera Is Full Of

2011-08-29T19:26:00.000-05:00

We need to invest in photography lessons or something. Both of my girls LOVE making movies and pictures with my camera and my phone. I just actually ran out of room on my iPhone. Folks, that's a LOT of media on there.

I haven't used our digital camera since I got the new phone, but today I did. And when I went to download the pictures for tomorrow's post, here is what I found:

Wake up! It's the big day!

Gotta eat breakfast.

Feed the horses...

Driving to the show.

The parking lot, I assume.

Everyone got there early for good seats.

The judges are ready.

Go! Go! Go!

Yes!!! The winner!

That's some trophy!!!

We might need a bigger table!

*smile*

I love these kids.

Why I Keep Thinking About Simplifiying

2011-08-28T22:22:00.000-05:00

Too Busy?

Satan called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his evil angels, he said, "We can't keep the Christians from going to church. We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can't even keep them from forming intimate, abiding relationship experience in Christ. If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken. So let them go to church, let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they can't gain that experience in Jesus Christ. This is what I want you to do, angels. Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!"

"How shall we do this?" shouted his angels.

"Keep them busy in the non essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered. "Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days a week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their family fragments, soon, their home will offer no escape from the pressures of work."

"Overstimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still small voice. Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive. To keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their homes. And see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ"

"Fill the coffee table with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, sweepstakes, mail order catalogues, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services, and false hopes. "

"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation exhausted, disquieted, and unprepared for the coming week. Don't let them go out in nature to reflect on God's wonders. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts, and movies instead."

"And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotion. Let them be involved in soul winning. But crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Christ. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause."

It was quite a convention in the end. And the evil angels went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get busy, busy, busy and rush here and there. Has the devil been successful at his scheme? You be the judge. How about this definition of busy:

Being
Under
Satan's
Yoke

Original source unknown--this little story is all over the internet....and it makes me want to change our life even more!!!

Weekly Wrap Up--Week 3

2011-08-26T15:32:00.001-05:00

Remember, my Weekly Wrap Ups focus on the "other" stuff--not the book work. Because honestly, who wants to look at a post full of pictures like this?

I'm so glad dolls are still allowed in the 6th grade!

But just remember--homeschooling has a lot of that in it!

We finished reading "The Boxcar Children" this week. We also finished the diorama. Oh Little Bit LOVED this project. She has played and played with it--each day acting out what I read to her in that day's chapter. Wanna see?

The whole scene around the boxcar.

Violet laying out the tablecloth and Henry at the swimming pool.

Jessie and Watch. See the little stump back there?

Benny reading his "book."

Yeah, so the waterfall just kind of STARTS. It's weird. But it gave us a little place to put the milk in the refrigerator.

Inside: The 4 pine needle beds, the shelf with dishes, and the broom.

Behind the boxcar, Little Bit made the dump.

Time for a swim!

Oh I love that book.

The only thing I am disappointed about so far is that we have not had those "cuddling on the couch" moments that Sonlight promises. Ha! Not their fault. We are just already at the table so I read to them at the table. This is one reason I was originally looking for a big comfy chair to put in the homeschool room---so we could snuggle up and read. Instead we moved the TV cabinet in there and that has been awesome. I just need to be sure to get up from the table and walk into the living room to read to them! I guess part of me is afraid if we leave the homeschool room, we will get distracted and not get back to work. We'll see...

In science we did an experiment that was a total flop. Didn't prove a thing to us. I haven't really gone back to find out where we went wrong.

Little Bit adding blue food coloring to hot water.

Sweetheart is going to add a cup of cold water and yellow food coloring with a hole in the bottom.

Put it inside.

And they mix. But which water was heavier?? Hmm.

So we did the experiment the other way--hot water into cold water and guess what? The water turned green again. Hmm. This did not prove to me which one was heavier.

Thursday brought rain for the first time in forever. Not much...but rain nonetheless. And we found ourselves with temperatures in the 80s at about 9 in the morning instead of 100! Can't pass up that opportunity!

Once they got that out of their system, we started school late. Totally worth it!

Sweetheart got a locker for her birthday. My sister had heard Sweetheart lament about how she wanted a locker. (Several years ago she said, "Am I EVER going to go to real school again?" After some talking it turned out she wanted a locker. I told her most elementary school kids don't get lockers anyway.) So this year, my sister, who teaches middle school, wanted her niece to have the full middle-school experience. She has spent all week trying to learn how to work that combination lock! Ha! Just like the real thing! She's so proud of it.

And Little Bit found the box it came in to be quite handy. She just loves "little worlds."

And this mama is glad it's Friday and there is NO birthday weekend looming for us! I am behind on laundry in a way that I have not seen in some time, my kitchen was a total wreck this week, Little Bit's tics have been back because we missed her supplement a few times over the weekend...basically that fun little weekend threw me off my game bad!!

Therefore I need a weekend.

The End.

I Have Never Decluttered

2011-08-25T08:05:00.000-05:00

It hit me last night. I have never actually decluttered. What I have done, is get rid of stuff. I have. Bags and bags of stuff have left this house. But I only ever get rid of just enough. And I don't think that's the real definition of decluttering.

See, we've been looking at those cute little homes near the beach. We know for sure that one day we want a smaller house than what we have now. Smaller and fewer things. Our house right now is just a smidge too big. Really, I like this house. But we have way too much stuff. So apparently, 1500 something square feet is too big for us.

Even when it's picked up...stuff, stuff, everywhere!

Anyway, in thinking about actually moving that close to the ~~hurricanes~~ beach, it has occurred to me that I will NOT want to be dealing with tons of stuff. I will want to be able to pack up and evacuate easily. I will want to be able to fit those things that are precious into plastic tubs and slip them in the truck and go.

I will want to be more free.

Home stagers say clearing your fridge off makes a big difference. Huh.

I will want to worry less. I will want to have it down to it just being stuff. Replaceable stuff that we need in order to live. Like this $20 garage sale couch I'm sitting on. The other day one of the girls spilled yogurt all over it. Didn't bother me at all. We cleaned it up. But I was thinking how differently I would have reacted if we had purchased a new (expensive, over-priced) couch. I don't want to be like that. I want to react like I did with the yogurt and this used couch.

Things don't matter.

So that's why it hit me that I have never really decluttered. I remove enough stuff that the cabinet doors close. I get rid of enough that the room looks tidier. I toss the obviously ruined, broken, or worn-out items.

But I don't get rid of stuff that we don't need. As long as I find a neat little place for it---it stays. Most all of it.

I wonder what would happen if I really went through this house and just got rid of stuff we don't need. I don't even mean decorative little things sitting around doing nothing. I mean those things in our closets and cabinets and shelves. Do you know I have not missed one single thing I got rid of from our homeschool room? I got rid of a LOT of stuff and I haven't missed it one bit. Don't even need it! It hasn't affected our school day at all! So why did I have it for so long?

I think I truly get the definition of decluttering now. And I think I will like the way it will feel to really be that free. To see my kitchen counter tops. To spend less time moving, cleaning, and fussing with stuff.

Watch out world. The thrift stores are about to get really lucky.

On My Mind

2011-08-24T16:54:00.001-05:00

Can't get the beach off my mind.

S and I have been joking/talking about moving there.

And maybe we looked at real estate online.

Just a few.

And maybe we looked online for churches.

And maybe we have no business even thinking about such things.

We just started the new school year. We have a homeschool group here. We have friends and family. Sweetheart will be starting piano lessons (in the opposite direction totally). And S driving that far to get to work doesn't exactly meet our goal of him being home more, you know?

But it sure is nice to think about "one day."

The Hardest Part

2011-08-23T20:06:00.000-05:00

Housework? Challenging, but do-able.

Homeschooling? Work, but fun.

Laundry? Never ending, but mindless.

Cooking? Boring, but necessary.

Training my children? Getting harder every year. Give me toddler fits any day. Toddler fits I know how to handle. Give me potty training again. I was prepared for that.

Guiding my children spiritually? Overwhelming. Hard. Worrisome.

I see how other children have turned out around me. And there are so many pitfalls. And there are so few people around to help. There is so much to avoid and guard against and prepare them for.

Absolutely overwhelming.

So I will do the only things I know to do: pray, study my Bible, and obey.

Weekly Wrap Up--Week 2

2011-08-22T08:44:00.000-05:00

MOST of school looks like this:

Working under her loft at her desk.

And that isn't very exciting to post each week or talk about or take pictures of. So, my weekly wrap ups will probably focus on the other stuff we did--the fun stuff.

'Cause you can only look at so many pictures of this:

So we did our first experiment in Zoology (Swimming Creatures of the 5th Day). It was about understanding surface currents in the ocean and how they work. (And how things like plankton just go where the water takes them.)

Aiming hair dryers over a casserole dish of water...

...gets the Cheerios and glitter going in a circle.

Then on Friday we had our first field trip. S took off of work and joined us, which made for nice weekend all the way around. First, since Little Bit is reading (or listening to, rather) The Boxcar Children with Core A (Sonlight), we went to a railroad museum.

It was torn up very badly during Hurricane Ike and honestly wan't worth the ticket price since so little has been restored, BUT....we found what we were looking for:

She said, "Now I see why they needed a tree stump to get in!" Made the whole trip worth it--learning brought to life!

And the girls enjoyed it. So, I guess it's all good.

Then, since Sweetheart just finished reading about Christopher Columbus (Core D+E), and since a trip to Corpus Christi to see this

replica of one of Columbus' ships

was sort of not going to happen, we went to see another old sailing ship. OK, so it's a few hundred years newer than Columbus' ships, but still....it gave an idea.

Again, not really worth the ticket price. But we had fun.

And then on Saturday, and this has nothing to do with school, we celebrated Sweeetheart's birthday.

Opening presents at breakfast.

At her party that evening.

And then on Sunday, we went to the beach and the girls tried surfing for the first time ever.

Balance Daniel-san!

I don't have a picture of Sweetheart, just video. But they both did great!

And basically, I wish it was still the weekend and my husband was still off work because we had the best time.

But now it's on to week 3 of school!

A Thought For Friday

2011-08-18T23:30:00.002-05:00

If you had told me

when I was a teenager

that one day I would have

gray hair

AND

pimples

AT THE SAME TIME

Well

I wouldn't have believed you.

When the Questions Get Tougher (And Why I Am Thankful for My Husband)

2011-08-18T08:01:00.000-05:00

I'll be really honest with you: I was sort of disappointed in my husband's reaction to fatherhood. I remember when he would walk in the door after work, look across the room at me and the baby, ask how she was, and then UNFEELINGLY go set his stuff down and change clothes. Then he would walk through the house to do something else. How dare he! :) (Post-birth hormones anyone?)

Confused? What I wanted...and expected sort of, was a husband who would walk in the door, throw his stuff down and come right over to the baby and want to hold her. I had been holding and admiring her for hours in complete awe and I wanted him to feel the same way. I wanted him to smile and coo and fawn over the baby just like I did. Don't get me wrong, I know he loved our babies, but I was kind of wanting him to act like..well, a woman!

A few months later, a friend who is a little older told me her husband was the same way when their girls were younger. But now, she told me, he is super dad. Now that the girls are older he is SO good with them. Hmm. That brought me some hope. And I have watched it play out here in our home.

I don't mean to imply that he used to be a "bad" dad and now he is a "good" dad...not at all. Just that as they have grown, it has all changed so much. Immediately after they were not nursing and were potty trained he was already more comfortable being alone with them. As they grew and could walk and talk and communicate needs better, he didn't mind taking them places by himself. And I can already tell you that the closer they get to "teenager", the more comfortable parent will be him. I was the one with all the ease of parenting during infancy and preschool years. He will be the one when they are older.

I'm so thankful for him now and just shake my head at myself for ever wondering about him as a dad. (ha!) He is so good with them and just handles problems that I am completely befuddled by with no problem.

One example of this is our girls' spiritual development. I am all about the singing "Jesus Loves Me" and the flannel board stories and the Bible crafts and everything "little kid" about Bible learning. But last night when our daughter was asking question in the car? I was very thankful for my husband. I feel very out of my league. Sweetheart has been peppering Daddy with questions about the Trinity, other religions, you name it. ACK! WOULDN'T ANYONE LIKE TO SING ZACCHAEUS WAS A WEE LITTLE MAN??

Needless to say, the Lord knew what he was doing when he paired S and I together as parents. Our girls have had a strong start (I'd like to think) in their younger years, and they will have a strong finish (finishing their childhood, that is) with their Dad in charge. I am very thankful for him.

And I've been studying and trying to keep on my toes too! After all, I can't say "ask your dad when he gets home" TOO many times in the day. I am the homeschool teacher!

And this is one reason why I have been praying for S to be able to be home more. He works so hard for our family, but if he could work one job instead of 2, that would give him a lot more time in the evenings to teach our girls about God's Word. Praying!!

I'm Not Even Talking To Myself Yet

2011-08-17T08:44:00.000-05:00

So I just tried to put the Fritos in the freezer, if that tells you anything about my week so far.

It's been one unexpected thing after another. Yesterday I forgot to put the roast in the oven on time for, you know, supper. Then Little Bit called my dad to see if they were home yet and could she come to his house and instead he said "why don't you all come to eat with us?" and then he swung back by our house and picked us up and took us to eat Mexican food. In the words of Little Bit, "Well, that worked out well."

My dad just cracked up. That girl is a mess.

Then when we got home and sat down for 5 minutes, S called. He needed us to do an errand for him right then. OK. Off we go. The girls had been trying to watch a movie and I assured them they could watch it when we got home. They did, and that put them in bed around 9:15. Asleep at....9:45? So...school will be starting a bit late today.

But it's OK because I HAVE A SCHEDULE!! And I'M FLEXIBLE!!

By the way, did you see Carrie's take on the wall schedule? I like it! The animals are a great idea. Our wall schedule has been the best thing ever for our school year.

It has made it so easy to get things done. If math is taking longer with Sweetheart, I can just glance over at the schedule and say, "Hey, Little Bit. Why don't you go ahead and do Handwriting while you are waiting on me?" So we do switch up the order as needed but we can easily look and see what we've done and what we still need to do. I just love it. (And I remembered the source of this great idea so I shall give credit where credit is due: Thanks Kellye! It was your picture that inspired it!)

Even though my week has not gone completely smoothly (as evidenced by the half-made baby quilt on the dining room table that has to be finished today--what DID distract me from that? I can't even remember.), we still are on track in school for the most part.

And that's one good thing about staying home a lot and not running around to every imaginable activity. Even though we are starting late today, we will have time to get done. We aren't locked into "OK we only have these 4 hours to complete school!" I would lose my mind.

I mean, even more than people who put Fritos in their freezer.