• Nov. 14, 2007
Baby Molly is here!

This will be short but sweet.  Molly was born 11/9/07 at 1:18pm.  She was 8 lbs 4 oz and was 21 inches long.  The girls are having fun with her.  They always want to hold her.  Emily and Sarah think they should be able to walk around with her (NO!) and Laura wants to hold her (for about a minute.)  I am doing okay.  A little tired but managing.  DH is home for one week to help out.  More on another day when there is more time.

Blessings.

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• Oct. 27, 2007
Basement Done and the Waiting Game Begins

Well, for all practical purposes, the basement project is done.  The girls moved in a week ago, and to my surprise no one has ended up back upstairs on the couch as I feared.  They are enjoying their rooms.  I am letting them complete a little bit of their school work in their rooms, though they don't really get much done in there.  We still have a lot of stuff that was in storage to go through and figure out where to put it.  My Mom volunteered to help me with some of it as it is difficult to do much now. 
    We are all anxiously awaiting the arrival of our new little one.  Laura puts her head next to my tummy everyday and says, "Baby Molly - it's time to come out.  I want to play with you.  This is your big sister Laura."  It's really cute, and I hope that Molly listens to her soon.  I'm very ready to be done.  At this stage she's only gaining weight - who wants to push out a bigger baby anyway!  They will induce me sometime between the 9th and 12th if she isn't here before then.  At this point, I'd even settle for October 31.  This weeks' ER episode showed a woman who had contracted the parvo virus and it had affected her baby.  She needed to have a blood transfusion through the umbilical cord.  I watched and thanked God that my baby was spared any complications from the virus.
    We are on track to finish up our schooling on the 8th - then to have our 8 week break.  We will be in Week 14 or Week 15 of MFW adventures.  The girls are enjoying learning about the states so far.  They did fairly well on the test I made up for them.  I want them to be able to take tests in different forms as even if they are never in the PS, they will face it in college.  There are tricks to learn with test taking, and I want them to know how to do them.  Emily will be at about Lesson 16 or 17 in Beta when we break.  I'm amazed at how quickly she's caught up.  Sarah is still working on her math facts.  The thing is that with her ADD, she gets so distracted doing flashcards that she's only good for about 20 a day.  Same with drills, she gets too distracted to finish anything within the alloted time.  I know she knows most of the facts, but it all depends on where in the drill you ask it of her as to how long it takes her to answer and if she will get it right.  They are both over half way in their Stepping Up to Good English books.  I plan to just move them on when they finish.  I found several supporting worksheets at Enchanted Learning that I'm going to use.  I also found a lot to use for our State studies as well.  But for now, it's just a waiting game.  I'll be glad to reach the finish line.
Blessings.

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• Oct. 6, 2007
Week Ten and Not Allowed to Nest

Well, I've not blogged for a while.  Not because I didn't want to but because it's been so chaotic.  Our basement is still not done.  Looks like moving day won't be until after the 17th.  We do have Laura moved into her new room, though we still have all of Sarah's clothes and some of Emily's in there.  I haven't been able to redo the nursery yet because we've had to store some stuff in there including a matress for now.  The other girls have been sleeping on the hide-a-bed for two weeks now.  Now besides the family room and laundry rooms being a mess the living room is as well.  Half the bunk bed is in there.  For those of you who experienced lots of nesting when you were in your last few weeks, imagine having your wings handcuffed and your sticks thrown all over the ground.  That's what I feel like.  I worry that the baby will come before we've got everyone moved and then the house will stay chaotic for a few more moths as I'll not have any time to try to put it back into some semblance of order. 
On a positive note, we are almost done with week ten of MFW Adventures.  We are enjoying it, though a lot of the projects we are skipping simply because I don't have the energy or patience.  For example, we skipped the feather quill pen and berry ink.  I know, with my two, how big of a mess this will create and I frankly don't want to have to clean it up - or go through the fight to have them clean it up.  So we'll skip it.  I have been working on a review page and "Test" for lack of a better term of the dates, people and places that I'd like them to know from our studies so far.  I've got to let DH go through it first as he is the big history buff in our family.  If there's anything else he feels is important, then I'll add it.
Blessings to all.

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• Sep. 8, 2007
Building and Schooling

Well, it's not easy doing school when there is lots of noise coming from the basement.  But at least the basement is finally getting done.  If all goes well, the girls can be moved to their new bedrooms in about two weeks or so.  We got a little behind when my Mom was in town, but we're still looking to be 1/3 of the way done with our school year by baby time. 

The next week we will be trying a 4-H group for homeschoolers.  If they like it, then we will have meetings the 2nd Tuesday of every month.  We also start Awana on Wednesday evenings.  The following week we start Homeschool Swim and Gym at the YMCA.  That will be every Monday afternoon for ten weeks.  Also piano lessons start up on Thursday mornings.  Our schedule is starting to get really busy and I am going to have to try to follow the written time schedule I made or we will start getting really behind. 

I am relieved that the public schools have started up again so that the girls aren't the only ones in school any more.  Plus our little neighbor girl isn't knocking four times a day asking if they can play yet.  But, it brought yet another chorus of whining.  "Mom, when can we go to a REAL school?"  They will probably ask this question every year no matter how many homeschooled friends they have.  I can only pray they will not be like the few you hear about who are mad at their parents for the years of "imprisionment in homeschool."  I can only pray that someday they will come to appreciate the sacrifices that have been made on their behalf.  I can only pray that they don't drive me so insane that I break down and send them to their REAL school they so desire to attend. 

DH took third place in the Minnesota Flatpicking Guitar contest at the state fair.  I reminded him that last year, when he took 1st place, there were 17 contestants.  This year there were only 10.  Tomorrow, he and his friend will be playing at our church Neighborhood Picnic.  I am praying that the rain holds off until after the picnic.  He really doesn't like playing in the church gym as the accoustics are terrible.

Blessings.

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• Aug. 18, 2007
Schedule Changes

Well, we’ve implemented a new schedule for our school day.  I sat down on Wednesday and went through what our schedule will look like when we start back up in January.  The baby will be on a fairly set schedule by then so I figure I might as well plan for that now.  The problem is with Swim and Gym on Mondays, my work at the YMCA on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, and Thursday morning piano lessons for both girls; our schedule will have to be different every single day of the week.  So I started with Friday, our one and only day with nothing going on.  I changed each day accordingly.  Though we will be doing some school each day, we will not be doing the whole gamut of lessons each day.  Mondays and Wednesdays the girls will be doing their individual work in the morning.  This will consist of Spelling, Handwriting, English, Math and Art.  They are at different levels (except for the art but they do it on their own time) so that is why we call it individual work.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we will do our MFW lessons that we do together – Tuesday work in the morning and Thursday work in the afternoon.  On Fridays, we will do individual work in the morning and MFW work in the afternoon.  Each sister will have assigned times to play with Laura so that the other sister will have time to work one-on-one with me and have piano practice time.  There are also times scheduled where all three must play together to allow me meal prep time or nursing time once the baby is here.  Laura is also scheduled between her sisters, myself, and she has specific TV/video times – two half hour slots when I just couldn’t figure out how to occupy her.  So I think I’ll be taping several Curious George and Barney episodes for her to watch during those times.  I’d really like to get her watching Mr. Rogers, but she just doesn’t hold the interest with him for very long.  I think she’s maybe still a little young.  He seems to be for the 3-6 set.

For now, we will be following the Friday schedule for the next three weeks until all our various activities start up.  Then we will follow the schedule I made up, the exception being I do not yet have to follow my half hour nursing sessions and have a little more free time to try to get things done.  I plan to come up with a weekly lunch schedule as our lunches three days a week will need to be fairly simple and quick.  We’ll do the same thing each day so they know what to expect.  I also want to come up with a list of Crock Pot meals as well as fast prep dinners for the two nights a week that will be hectic.  I’ll try to buy the staples required for these meals in bulk to keep them always on hand. 

We tried using the new schedule on Thursday and Friday of this past week.  It worked fairly well for the most part, although it wasn’t totally a true test because Dad was home “sick” which meant he was around to either “help” or “hinder” as the case may be.  Not that he would try to hinder, but that they aren’t used to him being around and that in and of itself can take their attention off their work.  (I’m not saying I don’t want you around when you read this my dear, just stating what can happen on the few occasions that you are home.)  Sarah seemed to do better with me sitting at the table with her.  We went through all the directions first to make sure she understood (though a few times she said she did but did it wrong anyway,) and then I sat at the table with my own stuff.  When I saw her attention somewhere else, I smacked the table with my hand.  She pretty much finished during that hour, with only one subject partially completed.  She doesn’t like that Emmy has more Laura time than she does, but I explained that Emmy has less time to get her work done with me there.  Therefore, she may have to use more of her scheduled free time to complete assignments later.

We are officially 12 weeks from baby time, as they are planning to induce me a week early.  Personally, I’m praying for a November 1^st date.  I don’t want a Halloween baby, and November 1^st would be 16 days early – just perfect as far as I can see.  As long as it is born in the hospital and not at home or in the car on the way to the hospital.  As sick as I get during the 40 weeks of pregnancy, I have a history of fast deliveries and have always been scared of not making it to the hospital.  We are hoping the basement work will start in the next week and a half.  The construction company got a little behind doing work on their owner’s new church building.  I’m still hoping they will be done by the first week of September to allow us time to repaint the girls’ current room for Laura.  And, since she’ll be moving to a new room and to a big girl bed all at the same time, I’d like several weeks for her to adjust before throwing a new baby into the mix as well.

Blessings.

P.S. - In case you're wondering, I'm not as addicted to Oregon Trail as I was.  I still play occasionally and actually completed a trek from St. Joseph to Sacramento alive.

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• Aug. 13, 2007
Week Four MFW

Well, we're almost through week four of MFW Adventures.  We've schooled for six weeks now.  Seems the same bad attitudes I dealt with last year are still raging.  I'm not sure how to make DD understand that it's not me making her learn this stuff.  It's stuff she needs to learn to get through life.  She doesn't seem to understand that she'd be doing the same thing in the PS except she'd be at it more hours in a day and would inevitably wind up in trouble every day for her day dreaming and complaining.  Assignments that should take only 15 minutes take an hour for her because she can't focus.  And, I am not able to sit next to her the whole time to keep her focused.  If she were an only child I could, but not when I have two other kids, a house to take care of and am pregnant to boot.  How do the rest of you handle ADD type kids?  How do you keep them on task and focused?  How do you get them to understand that the reason it takes them so much longer to do their work than their siblings is because they are goofing around instead of concentrating?  It's just so foreign to me because I was so not like that in school.

Because Sarah is having so much trouble with her addition and subtraction facts, I've added the book Two Plus Two Is Not Five.  This teaches the facts by teaching them as a series of tricks.  The order is very different from MUS.  But, I think it will be worth it because she can do well on the MUS worksheets and tests (given an hour to do them of course,) but when you give her flashcards she can't seem to do anything.  Her attitude about doing them is already better.  Maybe she just likes the fact that she gets to use a dry erase marker for the problems, in which case I'll be taking apart the MUS books and putting them in page protectors like I did with this book.  It sure makes it much more re-usable that way.

I used the verse memorization method suggested in Adventures where you write the verse on a white board and then erase two or three words at a time and have them repeat the verse.  It worked wonders.  So I've decided that during our 8 week break we are going to use this method to go commando on our Awana verses.  We need to do something constructive during this time, and that seems like the best way for both my kiddos to get lots of verses down.  Plus, as I said, they like using the white boards.  Think I'll go out and buy another so we've got two of them.

Blessings.

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• Aug. 2, 2007
Prayer for Bridge Collapse

Instead of blogging anything mundane, I thought I'd mention the bridge collapse that is a mere 20 minutes from my home.  As of right now I don't know anyone that was hurt.  But that may change.  Please pray for all involved, that the rescue workers would be safe, that everyone would be eventually found and accounted for.  The Mississippi River has tons of currents that can very easily carry things downstream quickly.  We do have one man at our church, Paul Pettit, who works for the NTSB as an investigator.  I talked with him last night as he picked his children up from the nursery at church.  He will be very involved at the site for a while trying to help determine the cause.  Please pray for his physical and emotional safety as he carries out his job.  And pray for the hundreds of thousands of communters who are already impatient with the hot weather and our traffic jammed highways as they become even more jammed with our major aertery across the river now out of commission.  Pray that God would give all Twin Citians a dose of patience that is not usually seen.  The fallacy of Minnesota nice doesn't spread to the roads much and we need it to now.  I'll update you on our week on another day.

Blessings.

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• Jul. 24, 2007
Addictions

Okay, confession time.  I have a new addiction.  I'm addicted to Oregon Trail.  We bought it for Emily for her birthday because it fit in well with our curriculum this year.  Who'd have thought it would be so much fun to sit in front of a computer screen and see if you can make it from Independence to Oregon City?!  It's very addicting.  I remember playing it in third grade in front of the teletype computer at school.  No screen, just a huge printer with a typewriter attached.  My have times changed.  So far, I've drowned once, suffered an unknown illness once and died of snakebite once.  Now I'm bound and determined to just make it there alive.

School is going well.  We'll be finishing up the last part of week two in our MFW Adventures.  We'll be cutting it a little short tomorrow because the outdoor pool is having a free swim day.  So we're supposed to meet some friends there in the afternoon.  And it's supposed to be dreadfully hot and humid tomorrow, so I'm sure the pool will be overcrowded to boot.  But they'll have fun.

I got to go to a Ladies Night Out tonight with a bunch of gals from church.  We went to Centennial Lakes to play mini-golf.  Wouldn't you know it the first hole I stepped up after explaining how bad I am at golf - and shot a hole in one!  It was pure luck - I didn't do that again the whole time.  But I did end up with a 35 for 9 holes, and that was only two over par.  I was quite shocked.  Then we all went to DQ for ice cream.  It was a nice time, and we hope to do it again soon.

Blessings.

P.S. - Since everyone else has a cool pregnancy ticker I thought I needed one too.  But figuring out how to get it where it should be is difficult.  So it's going to have to stay where it is.

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• Jul. 13, 2007
Starting Fresh

Well, we're off with a new year.  Emily was excited to get started and was up and ready for school before her one hour warning alarm.  Sarah, as expected, drug her feet the whole time and was barely ready in time.  For our first three days this is what we've accomplished:
Handwriting - both girls did a total of six pages of review
English - both girls got through the first 12 pages, all of which was review
Math - we did two calculadder drills and a day of review flashcards
Adventures in MFW - we did the first three days of Week One

So all in all it wasn't too bad, although old patterns do seem to be repeated.  I  still have to prod Sarah to get her work done.  I've set up checklists for their free time, and they don't get any until everything is checked off of it.  For Sarah, that means a lot of complaints and tears before everything is checked off.  Emily is motivated to finish everything quickly, but her work is sloppy as a result.  But, at least I feel on top of things - for now. 

We are hoping to begin the basement finishing project in the next two weeks.  We will receive the final estimate within the week, and are anxious to get started.  The house is even more messed up with stuff from our storage area strewn about.  We also need a new roof as ours has wind and hail damage.  An adjuster came out today and we are praying for coverage.

Blessings.

P.S. - I cannot believe that tomorrow my oldest will turn 8 years old!  It seems like it was only yesterday.  Did I blink?

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• Jul. 4, 2007
Ending the Break

Well, our three week break turned into a five week break.  But it was a needed break, and I think I finally have my ducks in a row.  We will be starting our 2007/2008 school year next week.  We will be doing school three days a week until November when the baby is born.  Then we will take a break (they'll be doing book reports and math drills at least three times a week during the break) until after the New Year.  Then we'll try to go four days a week until the end of May.  That should get us on track without making things too stressful for any of us.  Here is what we have lined up for the year...

Emily 3rd Grade

Math-U-See Beta (starting at lesson 5)

Calculadder drills

Climbing to Good English (2nd Grade) This will be mostly review, but there's a few new concepts that I really want her to learn.  We will go on to 3rd grade when we finish 2nd grade, hopefully halfway through the year.

Horizons Handwriting 3

Spelling Power

I Can Do All Things

Adventures in My Father's World

Sarah 2nd Grade

Math-U-See Alpha starting in subtraction

Calculadder drills

Climbing to Good English 1st Grade (As with Emily, much of this will be reviewing concepts learned and working toward mastery.  We'll go on when we finish.)

Horizons Handwriting 2

Spelling Power

I Can Do All Things

Adventures in My Father's World

That's our year in a nutshell.  We will be doing the Swim and Gym program at the YMCA for at least two sessions.  I'm thinking the second and third sessions, because that will be approximately the timeframe when the baby is born and home for the first month.  I hope that will give me two hours to myself to get some planning done.  (Who am I kidding - I'll probably sit in the lounge and sleep!)  I had thought about joining a co-op for this year, but the one I was drawn to is a half hour drive away.  Not the thing I want to be doing this year.  I'm also taking the year off from leading in Awana, but I'll be helping in the nursery once or twice a month. 

So far, the parvo virus seems to be having no affect on the baby.  The Level 2 ultrasound showed the baby to be very healthy.  We are having another girl, and are having a hard time agreeing on a name.  We will be starting our basement finishing project in the next two weeks.  Please pray that it goes quickly with no complications.  I'd love to have the girls moved into their new bedrooms by the end of August.  Then we can redo their room for Laura and start preparing for the new little one.

Blessings.

Jennifer

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