May. 20, 2008 - Spring Has Sprung!
Wow! As I sit to write, and see it has almost been two months since I've done so, I am shocked that it has been so long. But we have been busy with a capital B.
After spring break we finished with the last weeks of co-op classes for Spanish, drums, and drama. Then the drama group performed the play they'd been working on, a comedy version of the Odyssey, the beginning of May.
My thirteen year old son finished up with his last weeks of first year confirmation class. Then the weather warmed a bit, the grass started to grow, and he is now keeping up with a booming lawn care business. He has made his own business cards, keeps an account log, has made customer survey sheets he hands out at each job, and has already invested (with his first profits) in his very own lawn mower and a utility cart to transport all of his tools to each job.
My oldest daughter turned sixteen in April. She has started to work as a busser at the restaurant where my oldest son had worked. We went this past weekend to open her own checking and savings accounts. When not working, she is busy finishing up with her last weeks of high school.
My two youngest have been busy just playing outdoors after school- bike riding, jump rope, baseball, soccer, playing at the park.
So then besides still trying to get in a full schedule of school, and all of the above, we have had youth group activities, park days, 4-H meetings and workshops, have taken time to work on 4-H projects, and have been working on our own yard work and gardening. We had my mother-n-law's 70th birthday party, my ten year old's first communion, my daughter's 16th birthday party, a few cousin's birthday & baptism parties to attend, and we and have taken on the task of running my father to the store & such each week.
I am definitely looking forward to June, when we will cut back to only reading for school and I will be done teaching Sunday school too. Then I might actually get to work on some of the projects I have put on hold so as to get everything else done. :) I have five months worth of pictures to scrapbook, kitchen curtains to finish sewing, a shadow box to make for my oldest son, some painting to finish in the living room, and a list of books & mags that I would like to read.
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Mar. 26, 2008 - Not So Spring Break
This week we are on "Spring Break", and though the calendar even says that spring has sprung, it doesn't feel so much like spring around here. The temps are a bit nippy and it has been very, very windy as well.
I like to take this week each year and do some good cleaning and reorganizing of school stuff, so we're good to go for that last sprint of school before summer. Usually it is at least warm enough to open the windows a bit and feel the clean crisp air as I clean. Then when I have put in some time around the house, the kids and I can head to the park. That is just not happening this week. They are even predicting some snow by tomorrow, so maybe we just might go sledding! LOL
The big plus I can see is that this cleaning and organizing will be all done when those first warm days do start creeping in, and we can just pack up and go to the park for the whole day.
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Mar. 6, 2008 - Addition & Subtraction In Real Life
The birth of a first-born begins the addition factor in motherhood and homeschooling. Babies are born and added to the family. Then schooling begins with the first, then a second is added, a third, a fourth, a fifth, etc. Then the subtraction begins, as the older ones finish with school and start to move on in their lives. One by one the numbers decrease again.
Yesterday in our house, we began the subtraction. My oldest son has left the nest. He has moved to Arizona to work and go to college. He will be living with my brother once again, as he had done two years ago when he went there for five months, so I'm glad for that. He will still have family and some positive guidance close at hand as he begins his journey of independence.
I knew just how hard it was going to be for me, as a mom, this letting go. Us moms work hard from day one to raise children who will one day fly off on their own as responsible, caring, young adults. We think about it from day one, just who that tiny little bundle will become when they are "all grown up". But of course we also will always have that part of our hearts too that wants our child to stay with us forever. The more they grow, the more we love them, as we learn more about the person that they are.
The one thing I hadn't thought about at all, until yesterday, was just how hard this was going to be for my son's siblings, just how the family dynamics would change on a day to day basis. My oldest daughter has lost her best buddy, the brother she's spent 16 years of her life with. Now their friendship will be by phone and visits. My two other boys have lost having a big brother around the house. My youngest daughter will eventually barely remember a time when big brother was at home. She will spend more than half of her growing up years with him not living here with us. Wow!
As we were all giving our hugs and kisses goodbye yesterday and everyone was crying, I couldn't help but think just how much I was grateful for homeschooling and how it has affected our family dynamics over the years. My children are close because they've had the opportunity to be close. They have always spent their days together. They love their brother for more than just his being their brother, they love him because they truly KNOW him, through and through.
Today, we will go on with our routine just as we have always done-though minus one, while my oldest adds a whole new dimension to his life.
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Feb. 21, 2008 - 'We didn't do school today."
We have had more sickness in these past few weeks than we've had in a few years! Everyone has had a basic cold; but we've also had two diagnosed sinus infections, four cases of pink eye, and just yesterday I was at the clinic for the fourth time in three weeks with my oldest daughter who was diagnosed with strep throat.
The sickness in itself puts a kink in schooling. Those with pink eye couldn't do much when they couldn't see and those with sinus couldn't concentrate for the pain. So then the others didn't want to do much either, or at least not follow our regular routine. Then add in the hours we spent sitting at the clinic and it's seemed as though we've missed much of what we'd do here at home. I would find at the end of a day, however, that despite the interruptions there was still learning going on.
I felt it was great timing for us that the Homeschool Minute yesterday was all about "a day in the life" and that many of the writers talked about how school does not look much like "the perfect homeschool day" in their homes much of the time. They talked about how school goes on around and within the rest of their daily living activities, the kinds of activities that in public school would not be considered learning at all.
The one day that we had been at the clinic we had a two hour wait just to see a doctor. I brought a magazine to read, but the kids 'conveniently' left the worksheets & books I had brought for them in the car. Oh well, I wasn't well and I wasn't going to pick a fight about it. If they wanted simply to be bored, then so be it. So they spent a good hour just people watching, watching the goings on of how the clinic operates, and my youngest daughter occupied herself with counting how many times the automatic door opened and closed. Then brother chimed in and they began to count the door openings in Spanish and by skip counting. Soon all three kids were hovered around me and my magazine(American History Magazine) and asking questions as to what I was reading. The two boys then began reading sections of the pages over my shoulder and asking more questions. My youngest daughter then began to look for words on the pages with the phonograms that we had been working on at home. When I was finally called in to see the doctor, and I went to put the magazine away, they were all saying "Wait! Wait! I didn't finish!" And ironically, when dad came home that day from work and asked how school went for the day they all said "We didn't do school today." Hmmm? Spanish, math, social studies, history, and science(one article in my magazine was on double exposure photo fakes from the Civil War).
Then yesterday when my daughter was at the doctor and diagnosed with strep, he told her she was to be out of school for the next two days. She replied that she homeschools and that she'd even been doing her grammar while in the waiting room just minutes before! He jokingly told her that today she should just not study as hard then, "doctor's orders".
Life goes on, day in and day out, with the good and the bad, and learning goes right along with it!
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Jan. 31, 2008 - I've been tagged!
Pick a book of at least 123 pages, go to the 123 page, recite three lines-
"The goat stared unblinking through the reading session. The Lady had more or less told him the story of Dick Whittington up to where the cat was. Willy didn't care about reading, but an adventure story he'd stand around for. If you don't read, you don't get many adventure stories"
Well, that was more than three! But I love those lines anyway! They are from the book we've been reading aloud with my 7, 11, and 13 year olds entitled- Whittington by Alan Armstrong. All three kids have fought for a spot on the couch next to me each night we've been reading this book. I believe it will be one of those special books that we won't even want to come to the end of, and will most likely read more than once or twice!
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Jan. 23, 2008 - Back to Blogging :)
I took a hiatus from blogging for a time. I was feeling that I just needed more time for other pursuits, especially over the holiday months. I had felt like maybe I was the only mom who took a break from blogging in November & December, but now as I read other blogs I see that was surely not the case!
We had a good holiday season and a wonderful short break from our schooling routine. I indulged in our time off from schooling by reorganizing the house as the kids played with friends.
My youngest daughter now has a room of her own what with big brother getting ready to move to Arizona in a few short months. Since he only used the room to sleep in at night, it made more sense for her to have it. She now has a space all her own to play in. Over the holiday break we had painted the room and she got a new dolly station (a doll bed with a cabinet underneath to store doll clothes & such) There wasn't room for that when sharing with big sister. And she can spread her barbies out on the floor to play and it doesn't interfere with big sister having friends in her room. We also put up a tall five shelf bookshelf in there as well. I am certainly enjoying that! We were able to do away with three small bookshelves that were in other spots around the house. That gives us a little more space here & there and keeps all the paperbacks and picture books in one spot too. No more guessing where, on which bookshelf, a certain book may have ended up!
Well, today is quiet day here today. I led a LaLeche meeting this morning. My two girls went with me. Then they went to bake at a neighbors house. The two younger boys were home doing some school on their own, under big brother's supervision, while we were gone. Amazingly, they got everything done that they were supposed to before I even got back home! That was a first! So then they were off to go play with friends and shovel some snow. I even managed to get a scrapbook page done before leaving to take my oldest to work! Wow! Now I am up to starting on pics from August. If I'm diligent enough, I just might get to the Christmas pics by Easter time.
I have a meeting tonight at church, so then when I get back from that we'll have read aloud time before bed. My youngest already has her stack sitting by the couch and the boys are eager to know what new book I have planned to read with them. I told them I am keeping it a surprise!
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Oct. 24, 2007 - Fraction Debate
First, a little background info- we have called our ten year old son "the attorney" since he was two. He is quite the mediator, loves to use large eloquent words, and debates EVERYTHING. Well, yesterday I was sitting with him while he was working on math. He was doing some fraction review. It was dealing with improper fractions and fractions equaling a whole such as 5/5, 3/3, 12/12, etc. He was certain that nothing cut would still be a whole. Giving him the example of a pie cut into pieces, with no pieces eaten, I was trying to explain that it would still equal a whole pie even though it was cut. My son insisted that the pie would NOT still be a whole pie since when you cut a pie there are crumbs on the knife so part of the whole was gone. OK, I then gave the example of a puzzle. He still insisted that, once cut, the puzzle would not be the same exact size as it was before cutting(tiny parts, splinters of the wood or paper, would be gone) I felt was fighting a loosing battle at that point! How could I disagree with his logic? It actually was true, no matter how minuscule the missing pieces would be! The only example I gave that he agreed with was that we are a whole family, 7/7, whether we are all standing together or not. Whew! We could get on with the figuring!
The blog challenge over this past week was to write about pencils. Since we are on the topic of my ten year old, this fits right in!
Pencils in a homeschooling household? Pencils are everywhere, right? We purchase those zip up pencil holders to go in the kids' notebooks and yet there are never pencils in them. There are pencils on the desk, next to the coffee pot, in the drawers, in the couch, under the couch, under beds, in the block wagon, in books, in the car, in the pockets of jeans ready to be washed. Just when I think we need more pencils, because there aren't any in notebooks or in the pencil holder on the desk, we clean house and find dozens.
Well, back to my son. Pencils left in the open are not safe if he is around! LOL He has always had the habit of taking off the erasers and also of tapping the newly sharpened leads off of the ends. I have learned not to sharpen many at a time to go in the holder, because they won't be sharp when you need to use them. "Sharpen as needed!" has become my pencil motto. I also have learned to hide extra erasers around the house. Everyone seems to have a favorite pencil, or pencils, that they like to use. But if the pencil monster has found the fav lying in an open book, it will not long have an eraser! Being able to pull out a spare eraser for the child who is then terribly upset that a favorite pencil is no longer of use, ruined without an eraser, can be a lifesaver!
Hmmm? If my son does decide to become an attorney, I think I know just what gift to get him when he passes the bar. You guessed it! A box of pencils, unsharpened of course, and a set of spare erasers!
Happy Homeschooling!
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Oct. 23, 2007 - Extreme Nature Study
Our family has always enjoyed nature. We would be lost if we lived where there were no trees, and nature was not on our doorstep each day. We hang bird feeders and have a bird bath in our flower bed. The kids, even the oldest ones still, go to the window each morning to see what's going on outdoors.
This year, as part of fall decorating, I put two pie pumpkins on the porch to sit beside corn stalks. The squirrels loved the ears of corn still on the stalks. Unfortunately, they loved the pumpkins as well! They dug right in and had a feast. Oh well, we just left them to it. And when the pumpkins were scraped clean, we put the shells in the compost and left the stray seeds on the porch for the squirrels to gather up in time.
Yesterday, my ten year old son and seven year old daughter raced to the window to watch the squirrels. They wanted to see if all the pumpkin seeds were gone yet. Then I was called to the window to see a tiny female stuffing her cheeks with seeds. We oohed and ahhed and watched her make a few trips up the tree to her nest with her bounty. Then on one trip, as she got to the bottom of the porch, a neighborhood stray cat jumped from behind the tree and our fluffy-tailed friend became the cat's breakfast.
We were horrified at first. With indoor cats who eat their meat from a can, it can be easy to forget that cats are hunters. My daughter became angry even, and then she cried. It was truly sad from our perspective.
It was certainly the time for an impromptu lesson in in the hierarchy of nature's creatures. We talked for a while about how all things that live do eventually die, about how those animals that eat the plants are then eaten by meat eaters, and so on and so forth.
The morning was not the usual joyous celebration of the beauty of nature, we witnessed the darker side as well. But the lesson of how God's circle of life works beautifully, and for the benefit of all in the long run, is a lesson I don't believe I will have to explain again to my daughter. It has been imprinted on her heart. She has gained a deep respect for the value of life in each moment in time, and for the design of each of God's creatures.
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Sep. 11, 2007 - Back To School?
After today, we will have completed one full week of school in our normal fall through spring routine. it was a little bumpy, to say the least. Normally, we start a few weeks earlier and just do more reading than we do in summer and start our math curriculum. This year we put off starting to finish up those couple of household projects that never seemed to get off the "to do" list. Great! We got those done! But then our back to school week was full routine and also "back to co-op", "back to bowling", and "back to Sunday school/ regular church hours". It was a true test of adjustment, even for me.
I figured yesterday would actually be our first smooth day, that we'd have gotten settled in a bit more. I was confident it would go smooth and be one of those enjoyable days of living and learning that I love. Then I woke up late, never hearing my husband leave for work or my alarm, so there went my morning time for myself and to start house stuff. The neighbor then came and asked if we could drive her daughter to preschool at eleven. Fine. We'd still have a few hours uninterrupted once back home. We went for our walk around the pond, spent time reading, and then took the neighbor girl to school. We only got math in once back home and then my dad called (he can't drive anymore) and asked for me to run and get him some things from the store. So we headed out to do that and then back home once again. When we finished with most of the day's schoolwork, I figured I then had time to get dinner going and get caught up on what I hadn't done in the morning. Then my other neighbor showed up reminding me it was Bookmobile day. Oh my! I hadn't even gathered my daughter's books. I ran around frantically trying to find the library books within the piles of other books as she asked me questions about homeschooling. It was probably not a good time for that! In the back of my mind I was thinking "Just send your daughter to school, you'll be less weary!"
So here we are today. I'm refreshed, and I got up on time. I've had an hour of quiet time to reflect on what we did learn yesterday, despite interruptions, and because of them. I am thankful that most mornings I'm not harried searching for school papers and backpacks only to send my kids away for six hours where I can't watch them grow, or teach them life lessons, or enjoy nature and life with them.
My kids are now rising and getting on with what they know they should do every morning, and without arguing. Even my teens are moving (last week they still wanted to sleep most of the day). I am confident that today, whether it continues to go smoothly or if there are still some bumps in the road, I will have joy. I may get weary, but I won't remember it ten years from now. Selective memory will only allow me to look back see the good!
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Aug. 24, 2007 - Rain, Rain, & More Rain
We have had rain off and on every day for the past week. Yesterday was the clincher. I was taking my oldest son to work. We left the house and the sky was sunny. In fact, I had just finished sweeping up the drive and walk from the previous days' rains. I figured if it hadn't rained all day like they had said it would, then maybe we were finally in the clear. As we were going down the road, just a couple miles down the road from home, we could see the sky in back of us become a wall of black that was moving in our direction. Then we could see the rain as well, like a waterfall. The radio weather broadcast announced a tornado warning. No tornado touching down had been reported, but there was rotation. They were reporting sixty mile an hour winds. We sat at a stoplight and had branches, paper signs, and garbage blowing past us. It was too late to go back home, we'd be going right into the storm. I figured we could all go into my son's workplace if we needed shelter. (I had my youngest daughter and her neighbor friend in the car) I had my son go to the back of the van and get the blanket just in case. Then I had him call home and make sure my oldest daughter was safe in the house. She was home alone as the other two boys were at a friend's and my husband was still at work.
We reached my son's work just as the rain caught up with us. They announced on the radio that the tornado warning was over, but that there would be severe thunderstorms all evening and into the morning. I waited with the girls in the car until the rain subsided a bit and then we headed back home. Along the same road that we had just came down to take my son to work, there were trees down and branches in the power lines on fire. At home here there were trees down in yards all over the subdivision, some people had damage to siding and skirting on their mobiles, the streets were full of water, the gutters blew off of our shed, my daughter's little tykes house was apart, and there were leaves and branches all over my freshly swept drive. It didn't look like the same place I'd just left 45 minutes ago!
It was truly scary that the storm came up so fast and that we were all, my whole family, in different places. We are usually all at home here together, listening to the weatherband radio, during storms like that. I was surely glad that the outcome was minimal. It did continue with thunderstorms all night though, and so the kids and I were all together in the living room and sleeping lightly off and on until about two in the morning. Then we finally fell into a deep sleep until eight.
All week we have been painting between two bedrooms, the girls' room and the younger boys' room. I have to admit I was grumpy about it a bit too. We've wanted to get it done for two years, but it is messy and somewhat chaotic to say the least, especially when teaching a seven year old how to paint. I said quite a few prayers last night and this morning though that we still have walls in rooms to paint, and that everyone will be safely tucked into beds in those rooms when all is done. This past week of storms here in the midwest have cost the lives of several people and left many without homes to return to due to flooding. We have been blessed, and my heart goes out to all who have been not so blessed due to this wave of weather.
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Aug. 9, 2007 - Mitten Kitten
At one time we had four cats in our house. My husband has never really been a "cat person". So when we moved into this house he said we could have only one. We got an eight week old kitten and my youngest daughter named her Strawberry Shortcake. With two hamsters and a couple of toads, our pet set seemed complete. My youngest always asked for another cat, but I would just remind her about dad's "only one" rule and she was fine.
So then last November we had a stray hanging around our porch. My daughter was quick to feed her. I was certainly not going to discourage such humane behavior as feeding a starving animal, even though I knew it would mean the cat would become a frequent visitor. And seeing that she was also infested with fleas, I gave her a flea treatment to relieve some of her suffering from that as well.
One day it was storming and the visitor kitty was desperate for shelter. She sat by the front door meowing and the wind was literally blowing her off into the flower beds. She just kept coming back onto the porch only to be blown off again. I could not stand to watch. I let her in. A few days, and a few baths later, she became our cat. As a brown and black Siamese mix, she was thoughtfully named Cookie Dough.
Now at the farm stand where my oldest daughter works, there are always kittens that the owner gives away free to customers who would like to take one home. Last week my youngest named one for her own, a black and white kitty she called S'mores, and begged daddy to let her bring it home. He told her no. I reminded her we do have two already that she loves very much. She relented.
No two days later she came home from a friend's house carrying, you guessed it, a kitten. She's an orange & white striped tabby, already named Ginger Snap before my daughter brought her in the door. "She doesn't have anyone to love her mom." My voice was telling her we'd clean her up and put her out at the farm stand and find her a good home. My heart was hoping, just as my daughter's was, that she'd be here to stay. I silently worried too that if my husband refused to let us keep her, we might have a hard time finding her a good home. She has actually two paws on each of her front feet. I knew some people might not look past her deformities. Her paws look like she's wearing mittens.
We are so enjoying her! Just like a new real baby, it's a lot of work, but so much fun. And for a kitten born to a stray momma, she is so lovey. She makes her rounds for attention between my daughter and I, and the other kids, like we are her siblings. She's even grown on my husband already, though he shakes his head in disbelief that he's agreed to three cats in the house now.
The other two cats are a little leery of her. Strawberry is leery, it seems, because she knows she has to share attention with yet another cat. Cookie just keeps looking for the baby's mamma. She tries to get close, then looks around to see if a mamma is close behind. Yesterday Cookie got so spooked she ran and got herself stuck behind our big roll-top desk. We had to take it apart to get her out! But then she was right back to checking on the new baby, smelling her and overseeing her litter box trips like she was the mamma. She's not even thinking that the kitty's new mamma is right here all the time- a seven year old girl with a heart as big as the sky!
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Aug. 1, 2007 - Getting Closer to School Time !!
Don't mind me for bragging a bit, but I feel soooo accomplished today! :) We could start up with school full-time tomorrow if we wanted to. I have all the kids' records & papers, from this past year, filed and put away. I finished the last of that this morning. Everyone's notebooks are ready to go. All of the books I ordered are now on the shelves, and those we won't be using any longer (or at least for this year) are put away. The supplies are stocked up- glue, pencils, colored pencils, erasers, paper, etc.
I feel ready. I would start tomorrow if I could. The kids most certainly disagree. With temps in the 90's this week, going to the pool is the #1 priority for them right now! They want their last two weeks of summer. And in all honesty, I do really need those weeks too. I have a list of household things to get done before we start up full-time again or that list will still be on my desk at the start of next summer.
I promised myself at the start of school last August that I would not be scrambling with getting ready for school in August. I would not put it at the end of my to-do list. The school preparation would come first. Whoo hoo! I kept my promise! Now if I can get the rest of my list accomplished I will really be doing good! (Painting the kids' rooms has been on my list since we moved in two years ago) This year I actually went and bought the paint, so I do have the incentive to get it done staring at me each morning on the kitchen floor. I won't want to move those gallons to wash the floor too many times.
Well, I am off to go get my daughter from work at the farm stand. Then we're going to take a quick trek to the park so I can walk at least one time around the track, and the boys want to fish for a bit. Tonight, after dinner, we'll then finish up the last of the books we have to read for the summer reading program at the library.
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Jul. 17, 2007 - Bookmobile
Our library district has a bookmobile that comes twice monthly to the various neighborhoods in our area. I had a bookmobile come to my neighborhood when I was young, so I thought that having one come around here that my own kids could go to would be great. The idea of it, that the library comes to us and the kids can go independently to it to get books, certainly is great. But last fall my opinion of it greatly changed when two of my boys (age 9 & 11) came home without books at all, and with three PG13 movies. I was a bit furious. I would have definitely prefered they come home with "books" from the "bookmobile" and not movies that I did not even want them to see.
Yes, we do get movies from the library and I like that we can get them there for free. They do have a great selection of documentaries too! I just believe it is up to the parent to decide if a child's choice is ok when the material is certainly questionable. I believe the librarian in charge at the bookmobile should ask a child to come back with a parent if they are unsure of the child's choice.
So I had a talk with the head librarian, asking that kids (especially those aged ten & under) not be allowed to check out movies rated parental guidance for the 13 & older crowd without parental permission. Then I told my boys they should come home with books and not movies.
Several weeks later the boys returned to the bookmobile and they did come home with books- comic type books with what I considered still not good reading material for young boys. There were some not so great drawings and some foul language. Oh my! So then I knew that from then on I would have to go with them whenever the bookmobile rolls our way.
Yesterday, my six year old daughter asked to go to the bookmobile with a neighbor friend. I said that she could go since the girl's mother was going with them. Still, I held my breath as they strolled down the street. I had visions then of her coming home with those sordid Captain Underpants books (sorry if I've offended, but I'm not a big fan). But I wanted my daughter to get at least one chance to go herself. She was so proud with her library card neatly tucked into the pocket of a wallet borrowed from her big sis! Greatfully, I was pleased as well that the librarian directed the girls to books for their age group too. She came home with some great classic poetry books and a picture book about adverbs.
I remain cautious, but I am glad there is hope! My daughter's experience gave me an idea to speak to the librarian again and see if the kids could have a list there of materials I've previously ok'd for them. Then they could still go and choose independently, but from those books & movies on their list. We shall see if they are up to the challenge!
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Jul. 7, 2007 - Summer Setbacks
Well, where to begin? I thought that this summer would start as any other. We'd finish our regular schooling, then finish up 4-H projects, have VBS, 4-H turn-in, send Brianna off to her mission trip in Canada and I'd have August to relax a bit and get ready for school once more. Summer is never fully "lazy" at our house, but it is generally different than the rest of the year and at least more laid back. I never knew just what I was in for when the calendar hit June!
Our plumbing issue became a $450 bill from a plumber who had to snake the pipe all the way to the sewer line. Work on the main sewers combined with a wrong elbow at the sink, not even sealed properly either, left us with gunk build-up.There was no way we would have ever gotten it cleared with draino and our 20ft snake would have never gotten through to the sewer line. With the wrong elbow attached, the plumber had to snake it from below anyway.
So then my oldest son was arrested. Yes, arrested. That's certainly every parent's nightmere! He spent two nights in the juvenille detention center. We spent two nights wondering what had come over him! He was arrested for stealing. He was at a friend's house spending the night and they decided to play a prank on the neighbor boy. That boy had done the same to my son's friend. They took his bike and some things from his car. In the morning, as they were returning the items, the boy's grandpa saw them with the things and called police. Explaining things to the boy and his family, the family decided not to press charges but the police still charged them with theft. It's a hard lesson to learn! Prank or no prank stealing is only stealing in the eyes of the law. When we were told what he had done we were shocked, especially since he was on a bike when he left here. It just seemed like nothing we'd ever expect out of our son. Even though it was wrong no matter the circumstances, we were relieved that his intentions were not to steal the bike to keep or sell. That makes it a little easier to swallow! Now he has a court hearing, on my birthday, and will have to endure probation. Eighteen years ago on my birthday I was seeing my son for the first time on an ultrasound monitor.
So then we had to take my husband to the ER and they found he had kidney stones. he went through that once before ten years ago but he passed it and went on with life. This time we were back and forth to the doctor and clinic for tests for two weeks. A urine test revealed high levels of a horomone indicating parathyroidism. It makes the body absorb more than normal amounts of calcium in the blood. He's probably had many, many kidney stones over the years that he'd passed unnoticed. Parathyroidism also messes with metabolism, either too slow or too fast. Always having been overwieght his whole life, thyroid problems were always in the back of his mind but no one would ever test because his "glands weren't swollen". They would just hand him info sheets on diet & exercise. Well, the doctor opted out of the surgical option for now and he is on a thyroid medication. In less than two weeks on the meds he lost 25 pounds and no more stones are forming in his kidneys.
Then we hit a heat wave, many days in the 90's, and found our air conditioning not working up to par. Set at 70 it was 85 in the house! We cleaned the coils, cleaned and sealed the ducts, had the blower motor checked, and still it was not working. As an industrial unit it never neads coolant added so we knew it wasn't that. We could feel cold air in the ducts, it just wasn't coming out! Finally one technician found that the second set of coils(we had no idea existed) were not only filthy but also covered by a filter that should not have been there and had probably been there since the unit was installed nine years ago! If we'd only known! We spent two weeks in jungle heat, trying to fix everything else on the unit, and we could have fixed it ourselves. Now at least it works better than it ever has!
So other than the above we have been busy with 4-H projects at home and with basket workshops, going to the pool, a few field trips, co-op planning for the fall, VBS prep, job hunting for my oldest son, and I have been trying to keep up with getting the other kids to summer jobs and keeping a handle on where they are all day! I'm ready for a vacation from our vacation! I just hope that August will lend me at least few days of quiet!
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Jun. 2, 2007 - Saturday
Today's schooling, though a Saturday, will include plumbing 101! I clogged up the sink running some leftover beans from the fridge through the garbage disposal. The disposal itself is still running as it should, and the sink does drain some, but if the water runs too long it backs up. I have already put a bottle of draino down it and no luck. My husband has a strained muscle in his back and can't bend down on his knees for long so it looks like the boys and I will be taking the pipes apart later today to get to the clog.
I haven't blogged in over a month now due to the problems I was having with HSBlogger. I hope that now those problems are behind me what with the new server HSBlogger has. I'm hoping too that this entry will post without taking up so much space and covering my favs. I couldn't figure out before how to fix that! (Very frustrating!)
Well, I hope the start of summer finds everyone enjoying the outdoors!
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Apr. 21, 2007 - Testing, testing
"Warning-This is a test, this is only a test!"
Yikes!! :( It seems that my last blog post has decided to take over the entire page, and now my links have disappeared. I am writing now to see if this entry will do the same. I am not techno-savy, have no idea how to fix it, so I Ihope it was a one time thing.
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Apr. 19, 2007 - Triage
April 11, 2007 This week we have taken a spring break. I don’t really like to take a spring break. I’d rather work right on through and be done with the whole school year earlier, when the weather is tugging us outdoors. I don’t like the interruption of spring break to our routine either. Some years, like last year, we don’t take one if we need to keep going to get done by June. Last year we missed a lot of time when we were all sick with flu & such at all different times in January & February. We needed the extra week to catch up a bit. But it wasn’t easy when all the public school kids were out and knocking on the door and calling to see when we’d be done each day. So I decided to go with the flow and take the break this year. I decided it was easier than having so many interruptions to our day, every day, for a week. I figured I will take time to clean while the kids are out to play each day. Well, it is not too “springy” around here this week anyhow! Temps have been in the forties for over a week already. In fact, this morning there is two inches of snow on the ground and, as I type, it is raining and sleeting. The kids have been out to play many days but I don’t see that happening today! My plan was to tackle the living room today. I had started with the back bedroom and I am working my way to the kitchen (which may wait for a good cleaning come summer, since we did still have co-op classes yesterday and we had went running on Monday). So with the weather, I think today will be a good day to tackle the boys’ room. Then if it’s nice tomorrow, I won’t have to keep them in to do it. Some good cleaning, some reading, and maybe some games! It looks like that’s how today will go. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That was last week! I figured that this week we'd just roll back into our routine again come Monday. Then, after our "Spring Break", we all came down with the flu on Sunday. (I guess I should have never even mentioned that naughty little word!) :( Sooooo! My closets were cleaned, the booksleves reorganized, and the dust bunnies were banished from under the beds, but now my living room looks like a triage. The air mattress has taken center stage for a few days, there have been cups of juice and water living on every end table, we all have our own box of kleenex & hand sanitizer, and our only schoolwork this week has been reading. The only plus side of our sudden illness- we have been studying pioneer America for history and so it has become a great opportunity to talk about just how life threatening the flu was to the pioneers. When the flu came around 150 years ago, it meant certain death for some. We are truly blessed in this day & age! While reading about our forebearers this week I believe we have all grumbled a little less about our aches & pains and also about taking our "yucky" medicine. Our copy of the newest issue of Discovery Kids magazine came on Monday too and it is all about Pioneers. What great timing! A little extra supplement to our learning with no extra work for mom!YES! According to the weather predictions it looks as though we may finally have temperatures climbing out above 50 by Sunday. I just can't wait now for next week to get here! It will surely be great to be well again, and to be warm without being warmed by a fever! :)
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Apr. 2, 2007 - Planes, Trains, & Automobiles :)
About two years ago my oldest son went to Arizona to live and work with my brother for five months. My brother owns a business detailing cars. It came up that my brother was to work a car show this past weekend and he wanted my son to fly out for the weekend and join him on this venture. What seventeen year old boy would not want to go detail high end autos like Ferraris and Lambos?
My brother's wife set up his flight plans, my son requested today off of work, he packed up last Thursday, and my husband drove him to the airport Friday night. My son was supposed to get on a 9pm flight to Phoenix. The flight turned out to be overbooked, and as he was on standby, he was then scheduled for the next flight at 5am.
My biggest concern was that my night-owl child would have much difficulty making that 5am flight unless he stayed awake all night. Well, he did fall asleep and awoke to an empty terminal. He asked a clerk if it truly was the gate for the 5 o'clock flight, since there were no other people at the gate. He was told yes it was-the gate for the 5pm flight however. His gate for the 5am flight was changed and he didn't know it. By the time he got to the right gate, the plane was already boarded.
So twelve hours after my son arrived at the airport he was still waiting for a flight! At that point he had no money left for food even. (He had not wanted to bring his debit for fear he'd overspend while out of town) Luckily, my brother was able to send a friend of his, who works five minutes from the airport, to bring my son some money for food. My sister-n-law, who works booking for the airline, was then able to get him onto the next flight at 10am. He made it to Phoenix with just enough time for them to load up their materials, stop at Grandma's for a quick visit, and head off to the car show.
My son was quite grumpy each time I had talked to him while he was still at the airport and claiming he will never do standby again in his whole life! I was worried he might have been grumpy to everyone he had to come in contact with at the airport . I was glad to hear that one gate clerk that my brother had spoken to said my son was a very polite young man. Whew!
It was hard for me to be here and not have any control over my son's circumstances, but I knew also that it was just one of those learning experiences he must endure. At seventeen, and almost an adult, he needs to learn from his choices for sure. And I know that the next time he flies he will be sure to be much better prepared!
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Mar. 29, 2007 - Wow! A Really Great Day!
Yesterday was a day that I thought was not going to turn out well at all. Emma & Evan were up early but were dawdling. Brianna & Nate did not want to get up out of bed at all. Then when I thought we were ready to get the ball rolling with school for the day, Evan decided to play a bowling game with three liter bottles and said that he was going to play for an hour, not the fifteen minutes I told him he could, while I worked on reading with Nathan. And he started screaming because Emma wanted to play too. Not a great start! Then at some point, not too much later, our day just started to flow. I just kept working with Nathan and then I noticed Emma went and sat down and wrote out her own addition problems and worked them out alone with the marble manipulatives. Then I noticed Evan had gotten the Spanish book and cd and was listening to the dialogs and songs and practicing his Spanish reading and pronunciation. Brianna was at the computer working on devotions and her government workbook. It was so neat to look around the room and see all four kids actively doing school so diligently. We went from one subject to the next in a rhythmic pattern, myself moving from one child to the next as they needed me and/or wanted questions answered. Evan, who usually balks about writing and vocabulary, went to write out the new vocabulary words for the week without balking or dawdling. He even helped me look up the words in the dictionary and then spent time looking up words on his own. The day became a home school mom’s dream! It went from bad to what a good home school day looks like in those fancy books about home schooling. The kids were eager, diligent, happy, and went above and beyond my expectations of the work I had planned for them to accomplish. Some other highlights of the day include: Nathan, Evan, & Emma (since she did not want to be left out of what her brothers get to do) began with cursive writing. They wrote letters on a printout page. Evan worked on the world map puzzle for probably the tenth time in two days. Emma sounded out all of her own words when we played the Mouse & Cheese word builder game. We finished reading the Diary of an Early American Boy book for history and the boys said they want to read it again! Also, instead of just jumping up as soon as we were done reading, they stayed on the couch with me and they talked about their favorite parts of the book. (Wow! An impromptu oral book report!) Then Nathan and Evan looked at the Mother Earth News magazine together and talked about some of the tractors listed on the ads and about an article on types of compost tumblers. Evan had read a book about food and so when we were making lunch and snacks for the day, he was critiquing the food choices we were making. The only drawback to the day was when Brianna went off with Emma for a time and read books with her, played house with her, and listened and danced to some music with her. Brianna could have been working more with her own work instead of being with Emma. I did not get on her though because I know how much she enjoys spending time with Emma. She used to do the same with Evan when he was younger. When she spends time with Emma it is like a child development class really. She learns how to interact with young children and is ultimately learning how to be a mom. She is learning how challenging it can be to be involved in the life of a young child. She is learning listening skills and patience. And she will grow up and become a great mom because of these experiences now! Well, we ended our day yesterday with going to midweek service at church, watching some tv, and reading before bed. Now I can only hope that every day until the end of the school year will be just as great as yesterday! I know they won’t, but I can hope! And I can know in my heart that one great day like yesterday makes up for many of those days that have extra bumps in the road!
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Mar. 22, 2007 - Walking
I try every morning to do twenty minutes or so of yoga. I really enjoy it, even though it has become a necessity for me. I have scoliosis. About ten years ago I began having back pain from it so I started with a yoga routine to strengthen my back muscles. It works. I certainly notice, when for some reason I get out of the routine of doing the yoga, that the pain begins to return. Many days, my younger kids enjoy joining me in doing yoga. For them it is just fun exercise.
Before the yoga, my main exercise was walking. I had babies and small children and it was easy exercise for me to get out with one in the buggy and one in a carrier and head on down the road ten blocks to the park. We walked fast because the kids wanted to get there quickly and have fun playing. Great! With the addition of yoga, I was getting a cardio workout and muscle toning!
Then somewhere along the line the walking stopped. Two of my kids were getting a bit older and were not as interested in going to the park with mom so much. They weren't old enough yet to stay home alone while I took the little ones, but if they went with they walked VERY slow and grubmled that they would have rather stayed home to get school done faster so they could get out and play with friends in the afternooon.
I have missed the walking. I feel I need the exercise too. I mentioned it to my oldest daughter sometime in December and, to my surprise, she said that she would go walking with me if I wanted to start up again. She wants more exercise too. At almost fifteen, she and her friends don't play ball or jump rope or play hopscotch anymore when they hangout after school. We decided that we would start when the weather began to warm up.
Last week we had two very warm days. We got in the car and headed to a park nearby that has a walking trail around a playground area. My youngest, age six, walked the trail with us once and then went to play at the playground. My two boys, ages nine and twelve, went around with us twice then went to toss a football. My oldest daughter and I walked the trail two more times ourselves. In the car on the way home each day, we all talked of coming everyday.Then the third day our temps went back to below freezing. None of us wanted to go, and especially the youngest ones, since the park is not really fun if there is ice on the slides and on the grass.
So today it is warm enough agian to head on out. But I awoke this morning at five to the sounds of thunder and rain. As I sit here typing I am hoping that, at least by mid-morning, the storms will have cleared. My former grumbler is even saying that she is willing to go walk still if it is drizzling. I'm game! Now if the two of us can just convince the younger ones that it could be an adventure to go walk in the rain, then we'll be set. I'm thinking that bringing the fishing poles so they can go fish in the pond while we walk just might be all the encouragement they'll need!
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