We talk about everything...including the mundane and unimportant. Well, she was asking if I'd double check online to be sure this highway went where she wanted to go. I looked and it did. But I noticed a town called New Plymouth (don't blink!) was shaped like an upside down arch. I was intrigued. So I had to find out why!

First check out this map on mapquest.

http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=New+Plymouth+&state=ID#a/maps/l:::New+Plymouth:ID::US:43.970001:-116.8181:city:Payette+County/m:hyb:13:43.970001:-116.8181:0::/io:0:::::f:EN:M:/e

Can you see it? Searching online as to why it was shaped this way I found this....recapped.

• It was planned by a group of people unhappy with the city life in Chicago.
• One of those people was William E. Smythe who was a proponant of irrigation. He wanted a colony which showed that irrigation was a good thing.
• New Plymouth was named after New Plymouth, Mass.
• The people who planned to colonize there were called "New Plymouth Society of Chicago" in 1895
• New Plymouth was created to be self reliant utelizing the railroad and the Payette River as irrigation
• It was the first planned community west of the Mississippi River, being bought and planned before being settled.
• It was incorporated in 1896. Each family purchased 20 shares at $30 each and that entitled them to 20 acres for clearing and planting fruit trees (apple prefferably) (there is a town close called Fruitland for a reason) and 1 acre for their home. All of which was irrigated by the river.
• All home lots were 1 acre with the home near the street and the remaining back part for a family garden, a cow, and horse(s).
• There is a curved park 80 feet wide and 1 mile long seperating the housing streets with the streets surrounding it and it was called "The Boulevard" Part of this park is now a frisbee golf course.
• the open end of the horseshoe was an industrial area
• It became a village in 1908.

Now you know a bunch of absolutely useless information about a town in southwestern Idaho that you'll likely never see. But I thought it was very interesting.....maybe I'm just a geek!

"B", the little girl I tend during the day slammed her finger in my front door this morning. Took the tip off....anyhow, I was upset, and trying to look without being too squeemish, I thought it was just the nail gone....anyhow, she was screaming for her mom. So we called her first thing an took "B" to her moms work. She was at the ER and seen immediately. Within 20 minutes of it happening. I went home fast to check for the tip cause her mom had the where-with-all to ask. I was looking outside, on the floor. My daughter said "I know where it is!" Anyhow, long story short, a guy misinformed her mom about needing the tip and I disposed of it so the dogs couldn't get it out of the trash. We found out later, if they had it she could keep her fingernail. So tomorrow morning, she's having sugury at 6:30 am MST to make a new tip. Pray for the sweetie. She's only 6 and she's upset that she'll never have a nail on that finger. I have had a long and stressful day because I had some cell phone issues that though they didn't prevent me from calling her mom they made it difficult...and well, it has some though unnecessary guilt, it's still there. We tracked down her dad when he didn't answer his cell....thank heavens his company clear across the states took our word for it that we knew him and needed him to call us ASAP. They could have been buggers.

UPDATE!!!! "B" had her surgury this morning, she did great. They had to take a piece of the bone off it was smashed. She ended up having some nail bed left so she'll have some kind of a nail! We won't know for a long time what kind of a nail, but something. So PTL! She is doing well. Good enough to wants shrimp for dinner and playing on her swing set. YAY!!! Her daddy is in town now too, so that'll please her to no end.

Carol Barnier! LOVE HER! I went to a homeschool conference way back in June. I had decided I was the only homeschooler out there that didn't have a perfect well rounded child with great social skills despite not being in public school. I had just come to realize that's how they all were, till I went to her workshop. LOVED IT! Finally someone I could relate to. Anyhow (think I wrote about her a little way back in June). I signed up to get her periodic e-mails. And they are just fun for me to read.

An excerpt from the Sizzle Life e-mail:

TO:  Sizzle Bop! Members
RE: Look at Me When I Talk to You!


Have you ever met the perfectly mannered child?  This is the child that without any prompting will reach out his hand to shake yours at an introduction.  This child will look directly in to your eyes as you speak, nodding his head occasionally, and listening respectfully until you are done.  As I describe such a child I am reminded of those kids who were Mouseketeers on the old Disney show from many years ago.  When an adult would speak, these kids would all pivot their heads toward the speaker and then freeze, staring intently, seemingly lovingly upon the speaker.  Well, here’s the news flash.  You haven’t got that child. 

For the highly distractible child to remain perfectly still and gaze intently into your eyes would cause an internal combustion reaction that would involve much clean up.  If you equate respect and listening with an intense and focused gaze, you need to let it go.   That is hard for us!  We have been so conditioned to believe that respect and intense gaze are surgically connected. 

This child CAN’T look at you this way.  Indeed, if he were looking at you this way, you can almost guarantee that he ISN’T listening but in fact is focused through your eyes and has landed on some spot far to the back of your skull where his placid face does not reveal that in his mind he is building a tower made completely of cotton swabs. 

LOL! Sooo true! She wrote two books, neither of which I've read, but want to read both.

    AND  

Her website is

www.opengifts.org

I didn't realize it till recently, I used this webpage lots and that's who wrote it

http://www.westfieldacademy.org/adhd/

Though not really with anything school oriented. We've done swimming lessons, church stuff at the park, lunch at the park daily (usually riding our bikes), swimming here and there, playing in the dirt, visiting with friends.....and a whole lotta nothing! It's been nice. We are going to Bear Lake Idaho in a few weeks and I'm sooo excited! Going with  my parents and my brother and his girlfriend. For those that are familiar with Idaho, we are a high mountain desert in the southern part, more mountainous in the central and northern parts. Well, this is in Southern Idaho half the lake is in Utah actually. It has sandy beaches and blue water due to the limestone on the bottom. BEAUTIFUL! If anyone doubts God exists....you know the saying.

Ok, so for someone very much in love with the ocean (who hasn't spent much time there....at all!) Bear Lake is as close as I can get for now, and I'll take it! You can see how it'd be easy to settle for it. This picture was last year and it was getting ready to storm!

Isaiah at the park

a couple of stragley haired little girls! in the jeans is my daughter Maryah

This is Maryah and Noah....see that almost 5 year old on a tiny 12 inch bike....he road that Diego bike to a park almost 3 miles away!

This is our dog Apollo. He didn't think outside was where he aught to be, so he came through that tiny window! You have to understand he is over 100 pounds. Then he was too chicken to get off the washer. LOL!

Not the greatest picture, but you can see Maryah grinning at swimming lessons

Isaiah at swimming lessons. Having a boy teacher was great! Isaiah knew his place, NOT Alpha MALE!

My littlest, Noah and his beloved orange goggles. Everything must be orange.

Noah and "B" were in the same class

My princess? Umm, yeah, after a day camping with a bunch of cub scouts. She found one little girl and they covered themselves in dirt. There was LOTS of it!

I've been horrible about pictures this summer. Sorry.

Sell used curriculum? I don't want big fees or anything cause I'm only selling one single solitary book! LOL! Thanks in advance. I just want it to be a trusted safe place.

And I have been a slacker!!! WOW! Mostly cause we are out of ink and haven't had the big bucks for 2 cartriges....those suckers are spendy. But I get paid soon. So I'll get one of each black and color. It is my 2 weeks that I don't have "B". I only babysit her 2 weeks a month so it's kind of nice for a break....but she's sure grown to be one of the famiy. We love having her around.  You would think my daughter was missing half of her own body when "B" isn't here. Which is funny cause I am kind of that way with my friends, always have been. Is that normal? 

I did finally get a new pool for my kiddos. One of those Easy Set ones from Intex. Ugly as I'll get out but boy are they handy! The kids love the size and I love that they are easy to use and pretty cheap. That'll keep me outside a lot. I don't like them out alone, farthest I'd ever be is right in the door doing dishes...maybe I'll have a clean kitchen. HA! All my kids get to start swimming lessons on the 7th of July so that will be nice. Give us something to do twice a week. I have a trip to the zoo and a dairy planned later in the month which being sneaky I plan to tie in some learning. This zoo has penguins so we'll do a penguin lapbook.

The new song "My Savior Lives" is one we are doing for praise team at church and I just love it! It's not only a great song, great words but it is so fun to sing. I just love having the opprounity to sing with our praise team at church. Some churches are very picky and where I go they aren't. I had one year of choir in jr. high. That's it. I can't read sheet music and I couldn't sing an A on demand without someone else singing it or a piano. But they accepted me anyhow....and I just find such great joy in being a part of that part of worship. As much as I sang I just as well put it to good use for God.

Thanks to those who put in a few more rhymes...the girls will be so thrilled! 

Have you ever heard of these? They are little snacks, and th are so good! MMMM! Very addicting though. My kids got them with the free lunches at the parks they have here during the summers. The vanilla and the chocolate ones.

I had a great time! It was so much fun for me, I really hope I get to go next year. My poor mother was thinking or hoping it was a little less time each day, but for me the information I gained was very needed. OK, so the first workshop I went to was Carol Barnier.....and well, I can relate to her! Unlike 97% of homeschooling parents out there, with kids that are so nice, wonderfully behaved and highly accomplished I don't have one of those! He is accomplished....but more in the lines of his ability to dismantle the garage to build creations out of the wood he salvaged. He is behaved...but usually only while sleeping. He is nice but only if you can get deeper than noticing all the bad things he does and all the naughty things he says and see whats deep inside his heart. So anyhow....finally someone out there I could laugh with (cause well, my son had done some of the same things).

I found the teachers manuals to the Horizons math I love so much. It was an older publication and so I was very hesitant..but all the sample pages are exactly the same! YEAH!!! That's not to say they all are, but definately close enough for me to justify saving like 25 bucks! I got Heritage Studies (BJU Press) and a bible book from Christian Liberty. Anyhow, overall I was very pleased with my findings. It was like a treasure hunt and I hope to be more prepared next year.

Oh the time away was precious. My mom kept asking me where I wanted to eat for lunch or dinner. Breakfast was a continental breakfast which I was pleased as punch with cause well, I didn't clean or cook!!! She didn't realize when I said "anywhere I can get a salad" meant TRUELY ANYWHERE! I love eating out cause I don't have to cook and clean up after the meal. We did some shopping (thanks for the birthday gifts mom!) too.

Isaiah didn't want to leave. It was a nice respite for him. He can trapase around in the dirt. He went fishing in the boat with grandpa, uncle Seth and Ashley. He got to drive the 4-wheeler so grandpa could spray the noxious weeds on their 60 some odd acres. I guess he was begging to get off the 4-wheeler which he calles his 4 wheeled friend. LOL! He said "can't I just say for like a month or so?" when I told him it was time to leave. I got a nasy look for a good 15 miles down the road.

I would love to teach Maryah and "B" some of those little jumprope and hand clapping rhymes. I can't remember as many as I'd hoped. So the ones I remember I'll give you the first couple lines...if you remember any please share! They have been singing one, I'd never heard and thought it'd be fun. Wonder if I can still double dutch? HA!!!

Down by the banks of the hanky pank, where the bullfrogs jump from bank to bank

Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around. Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground.

Help me on this one....it goes Down by the bay, where the watermelons grow, back to my home I dare not go, for if I do, my mother will say:   (WHAT?!)

Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack all dressed in black, black, black with silver buttons, buttons buttons, all down her back, back, back

I met my boyfriend at the candy store, he bought me icecream, he bought me cake, he brought me home with a bellyache. Mamma, Mamma I feel sick call the doctor quick, quick quick. Doctor doctor, will I die? Count to five and you'll be alive.

Bubble gum, bubble gum in a dish. How many pieces do you wish?

Down, down baby down by the rollercoaster, sweet sweet baby I'll never let you go. Shimmy shimmy coco pop, shimmy shimmy pow....

Ok, then the one I can't remember much of is your calling a playmate to climb up my apple tree...anyone?

So there's my fun for the summer. Trying to remember all these and teach them to the two little girls in my care...mine and otherwise. If there are any other ones you know, share! Some of those are jumproping games some are the hand clapping ones.

Marja 

Bigger than I had thought it would be. Definately needed some help. LOL! Ok, so while my husband went to Hawaii for 10 days for work, I decided I was going to build my kids a swing set. Not a little one from a kit, a big one since my kids are older I wanted it fun for them now. So they could really swing! Sooo,  for a week before my husband left, I drew, and redrew the plans. I called my dad for some help remembering SIN, COS etc. to figure some angles using the lenghts of sides (for those teaching high school math, now would be the time to tell your kids you really do use this stuff) So my dad taught me about SOHCAHTOA, an old indian cheif. It stands for SOH is SIN(sine)= Opposite/Hypotenuse; CAH is COS (cosine)=Opposite/Hypotenuse and TOA is TAN (tangent)= Opposite/Adjacent. The only one I remembered was SIN! LOL! Go fig. Anyhow.....so angles figured out (they were 42 and 48 BTW) I was able to finish. I didn't have a camera to take pics of the process, but it was LONG! over 10 days to be exact, and of course it sat for several days cause I wasn't able to do things myself. Did I tell you it weighs a metric TON?!

Where I needed help was I had one A-frame leg attached to the top rail and I needed to lift the top rail (which is 10 feet high) to get the second A-frame leg under and lag screwed into place. So my neighbors, God bless 'em, came and helped. It was  pretty quick thing to do, just not something I could do alone with the help of a 9 year old! Then, once it was up, it swayed side to side more than I wanted, which was NOT AT ALL! So, I had decided I would move it to it's home which was by a tree for shade and actually screw it into the tree with one lag screw. It was too heavy to move alone.  So it sat, till Ryan came home. He thought adding another cross brace would stop the swaying, so he and I added those. You'll see there are two cross braces on each end. One is directly under the top beam (mine) the other is from the top beam to a leg (husbands). It didn't stop the side to side movement. So, screwing to the tree was a must! In the picture above, on the right you see my brace, and on the left husbands....and on the left is the tree that is supporting it from swaying.

Husband also did the rope to climb. I was thinking it wouldn't be between the two trees and the end would be open and not so close to that pine tree I was going to put a wood swing copying It's called a surfboard swing. ANYHOW.

The thing will hold anything! I put everything heavy duty in. I can swing on it.....all the components have over a 300 pound limit!

This is the garden I tilled thanks to my neighbors again who have an awesome rototiller that's sooo easy to use! Ours is in Soda Springs. I have got some cool plans for our garden spot.....my husband thinks it is going to look very ghetto! LOL! Oh well! I'm excited.

These are my red adirondack chairs (resin!!!) from Home Depot I got yesterday! So excited. I think they are so cute, course the red sold me.

Yep, that's me. I haven't blogged in eons...and haven't done a whole lot of much. I have a few projects going on here at home which I'll share after I show my husband. Cause well, if he were to stop in here from where he is it would ruin my suprise! LOL! Additionally he has our camera so I couldn't even post pics.

Schooling has taken a backseat for the week. And actually will be very minimal till June. There is sooo much happening here through the first week of June it's just crazyness. My husband being gone and me taking on almost 4 hours a day of his job in town being a big part in that. I am sooo tired. It's not the job though, it's cause I'm not done till almost 10 at night and by then I'm up and ready for the night! LOL! So, home I go do a few things then try to wind down which takes a couple hours. For some, that may not be a big deal, but I am  usually asleep by 10.

I've been enjoying having unfettered access to the TV. I moved all my girlie movies up on our Netflix Q and so I've been watching them. Got a couple good ones in, besides the usual Little House on the Prairie, Human Trafficking and Israel and the New Breed: Alive in South Africa. Ok, totally differnet I know, but Human trafficking was a lifetime movie about well, human trafficking. Growing up in areas where things like that are rarely heard of, and like NEVER seen, it was a movie I had to see. Helped me to realize these things do happen and why. Quite educational for me. And well Israel Houghton is just awesome! Worship music at it's best. From their heart, unashamed, uninhibited worship.

Marja - who will be back to homeschooling "officially" in June...and likely to blog before then anyhow.

So far, Time 9:32 am Date Monday 4/28/08, the week is going great! Not too many attitudes and we are headed to the library. It can get worse, quickly. I usually have about 20 minutes at the library with Isaiah then it's like he gets dizzy and just starts melting like a 2 year old. So we leave. But I am going to get him his own card today, maybe that'll make it better.

Had better end very very soon! Everything entrusted to me is in danger of being forgotten!

That includes but isn't exclusive of:

the potato dish I said I would bring to church for a funeral meal

the little girl I pick up each weekday at 11:15

the library item which is very very overdue (first time they call , second time they call )

UGGH! Not sure what my deal is, but I haven't managed to remember anything today...and it all started with waking up completely in the morning. I think I should've taken a left turn at Albuquerque!!

with our Charlott's Web study. I have learned a few more things about Isaiah and myself. That is that although we like unit studies....2 weeks is our max! LOL! I am sooo ready to move on to more things. Maybe it's partly cause it was a literature study ( did I mention I HATE lit!) I love reading, but analyzing it? talking about it even. Ummm, no thanks. It's terrible.

Now, don't get me wrong. I've enjoyed it, I am pretty sure Isaiah has too. However next time we do a novel study we'll use it as a starting point for some good discussions and art projects. Isaiah isn't ready to do character wheels on paper, he just barely gets it enough to do it verbally. And, he moans and groans...that means he's not liking it...and well, we are avoiding that with reading. If nothing else a kid needs to be able to read well and a variety of things. And I don't think they will ever learn that if they dislike their "reading times". JMO!

Part of our antsyness (is that a word?) is that we want to plant our seeds! It's warming up out...between freezing and 40's mostly lately. Except a few sunny, beautiful days. So we are getting spring fever. We have one big project for Isaiah with Charlott's Web that's building so he should enjoy that. Then we have almost 6 weeks to do 3 smaller studies in. We are going to do plants, gardening, sunlight etc. Then we will do flight to spark his interest for birds. LOL! Birds will probably be short and mostly hands on with a trip to the Birds of Prey in Boise Idaho. He should enjoy that. Speaking of flight...if anyone has any clue how to teach that I'd love to know! I'm clueless! Someone noticed he was building and drawing lots of planes, helecopters and space ships. Well DUH mom!

Noah is flipping through a Thomas coloring book...going "Chapter one" "the end" "chapter one" "the end" with each page turn. He was reading it my neighbors baby. It was so cute...or at least I thought so!

We went to Lowe's for their free kids project..but we got there late and they were out of ant houses (fine by me!) but they had their goofy golf kit which we happened to have missed. Anyhow, so it all worked out just fine in the end! They had lots of fun too. And it took us an hour, for those of you with busy kids you can appreciate an hour that they aren't physically on the RUN somewhere.

Then at somepoint during the early afternoon, they decided that since it had reached 20 degrees above freezing it was warm enough to run in the sprinkler. At some point a smart child realized they were cold and needed a hot tub. So pictured here, you have the ingenious work of my son Isaiah. It's toys and blankets and whatever else he found with a waterproof mat for the house as the liner. Filled with hot water from where else? the kitchen sink! Boy that's a lot of 2 quart juice pictures of water!

I raise wierd kids!

Checked this book out at the library...and let me tell you! I like it a lot. If your doing a nature study on animals, birds, fish, flowers, food, insect, trees it's awesome! Check it out.

I recieved two packets of free seeds from Utah Stat University today! One for Micro-Tina Tomatos and one for Triton green peppers. From what I understand they are testing vegetable seeds to be grown on the space station that use very little light. You can find outmore at www.usu.edu/cpl or more specifically http://www.usu.edu/cpl/outreach.htm. I can't wait to do this in a few weeks. I'll keep ya updated on how they are doing. Additionally we will be able to compare them to some typical pepper and tomato plants.

Yesterday we didn't do a whole lot of official schooling. I needed a day to regroup, do some praying and figureing (that's NOT spelled right is it?!). So I did. Isaiah made a freight boat and so we talked a while about how people would move form continent to continent. We talked a little about steam engines (I only know LITTLE!). This was his freight boat. Nevermind the blurry picture, I changed a setting and can't figure out how to change it back! I'll get it one of these days when I make myself read the owners manual for my camera. Guess that couldn't kill me.

See the lifeboat coming out. The dog had just stepped on his boat messing it up. The tub lid floated even!

In hopes of getting the Charlotte's Web study and reading done fast enough to maintain interest and slow enough that I can use it as a cross-curricular unit study, I decided yesterday to do 2 chapters a day. I'll pick and choose between all the activities of those 2 chapters for the ones he'll like and are most benefitial to him. So we will be doing 2 starting today. In the first two chapters one of his art projects was a pig from paper plates from DLTK...I think it is (I always transpose letters in that websites name!)

Introducing! King Wilbur. Notice the crown.

WOW! It's dusty up there!

The directions said to cut the TP rolls for the legs in half.....

They were EXACTLY in half! He measured!

Meanwhile, I am trying to get my almost 5 year old ready for kindergarten. He probably won't start in the fall, because he'll barely be 5 but we hope he can be completely ready when he goes. They require so much in public school kindergarten nowdays. So we decided to start with the first letter of his name "N". But, don't tell him it's not kindergarten cause that's the only way I can get him to sing his abc's is to tell him it's kindergarten at home! LOL! You say preschool and he'll gladly correct you. Try explaining that to your 6 year old daughter who is a "Know It All!"

OH MY GOSH! He drives me batty! Something as simple as drawing an apple tree in the summer....you know, complete with green for the top and brown for the trunk and he complains! Something as simple as listening to a few stories (picture book style from the library) and he's bouncing on the furniture, picking at his body and talking to his little brother about something completely different! Drives me batty to think that all the time and energy I put into stuff, anything school related honestly, is not even regarded as a human talking or having a discussion with him. I can't figure out how to get this kid to just pretend to have a remote interest in anything...unless of course it's blowing up something, burning something, making something fly or running. AAAAHHHH!