Kathryn worked hard on reading books about and looking for information on the net to make her poster, then she had to teach her class from the poster.

Here she is teaching us about her animal.

Here is a picture of the kids Easter morning my mom made the pink dress and the outfit that Aidan is wearing.

It has been quite busy around here, We have many projects going on in the house, so far they have finished the attic pull down ladder and the arch way in the living room/ dining room. They will be back Saturday to work on the changing the garage into a bedroom, and then onto the roof.

Today the pool guys are coming to start putting in the pool.

But the reason I am so sore is I have been raking out areas of brush before it grows agian, as I am trying to regain some more yard. So therefore my upper body aches,and I have started walking at the local school track with some of the women from my church. It is great there is a grassy area for the kids to play and the track is soft to walk on. We walk and talk which has to be better for my health then to sit and talk.

Kathryn has really been showing signs of growing up lately, she has finally lost her first two teeth. She has started reading all the time. It is funny every time I turn around she has a book in her hands and she is reading outloud to someone. Kathryn is also more helpful and taking pride in doing a job well.

Last night at church, she came up to me when I was wiping the tables and asked if she could help so I handed her the dishrag and off she went. She wiped every table in the hall, then went to the kitchen and asked one of the ladies there for a broom and swept the kitchen floor.

Before long she will be a young lady.

I took all 5 older kids to get there teeth cleaned. It went well Conner has some very small cavities but they are not going to fill them at this time. Nolan has to get a tooth pulled, but that is in order to get his braces. He was born with a extra tooth, that  belongs no where in his mouth. And Sarah well she has two cavities so she will need those filled before her braces go on. Next up annual check-ups for all the kids.

We use Streams of Civilization for Pat history this year, I type up a sheet for him to fill in as he reads.

Important Dates:

Republic –

Empire-

The Etruscans:

They were from:

The Etruscans were able to easily over take the people already living in the area because: ______________________________

This happened around the year: ____________

They established the cities of _____________,_____________,____________.

The city of __________was already established before they invaded.

While trading with the Greeks they received ___________, and_________________. In trade for _________,_________,__________,___________,and ___________.

Etruscans women were allowed to ____________________, and some even __________________.

Art and Religion:

At the beginning there art showed ______________________, later there art changed and showed ________________________.

They were controlled by there religions rituals and not a sense of __________, and ___________.

There three main gods were _________,________________, and _______________.

They also believed in demons one named ___________, was pictured as ____________________________.

Emergence of Rome

The Romans gained political Etruscans in _____________.

One reason for the fall of the Etruscan empire was a belief that a nation’s life span was ______ to ___________ years.

Therefore when they approached the end of that time period they gave up.

Etruscan Influence:

Some things adopted from the Etruscans by the Romans were the ___________, a man’s main garment.

They also adopted:

1.

2.

3.

4.

As far as war the Romans copied there:

1.

2.

3.

The Romans also adopted the gladiator games from them. Gladiator games were –

The early Roman Republic –

They had a government called a _____________.

The leaders of this government were called ______________.

Roman households were ruled by the _________, this lead to all Romans having __________for authority and also ____________.

The Roman General Assembly consisted of all __________of Rome.

While the members of the Senate were _______________.

The two consuls were chosen from this group to rule for one year to prevent anyone from gaining too much power they had to wait ____________ to be reelected.

Class Struggle:

 The rich were called ___________________and were____________________.

The other class was called ___________________, they were ________________________.

The Senate was consisted mainly those from the _____________class, so many laws and courts cases were unfair toward the _______________ class.

The Laws were eventually recorded on _______________, and placed in the _________________, all boys had to memorize them as part of there schooling.

The plebeians won the right to have there own representatives called ______________. They were allowed to stand outside the door of the Senate and if they found a law to be unjust they could yell __________.

They were able to earn these rights from the Senate due to the fact that they were needed to ________________ and the Senate wanted to keep them happy.

Some members of the plebeian class were allowed to hold _________________. But instead of fighting for there class they married the rich and class struggle continued.

Roman Expansion

The main reason the Roman fought was to protect there republic.

As they took over the ________________, _________________, and the _________________.

The conquered people were expected to pay ___________, but were allowed to keep there own ____________________.

When they proved they were loyal they were allowed to become _______________.

They only gained land in response to ________________.

The Punic Wars

They wars were between ____________and __________________.

The reason was ______________________.

The wars were called the _____________, because _____________.

The First Phase – happened in _________, over ____________.

One thing the Romans did to win was _________________

.

They won the cities of 1.____________

                                     2.____________

                                     3.____________

The Second Phase happed around ___________, over the country of ______________.

They main leader for the Carthaginians was _________________; he took _____________, _____________, and ____________over the _____________.

While Hannibal had won many battles against the Romans he was counting on the people of ___________ to join him. This did not happen so he roamed the countryside for ___________ doing small battles.

The Romans eventually placed a man named ____________, in charge of the army. His plan was different he _________________________.

The two of them met in battle in _________, at __________.

Carthage lost was required to do the following:

1.

2

The third phase:

Happened due to the fact that the Romans felt she was still a ________. The way this war began was the Romans ___________________________________________________________. After they won they destroyed the city and plowed the fields with ____________.

The Republic Expands:

Macedonia, Mesopotamia, and Egypt

Write four things that happened.

The Romans made Egypt a protectorate, which means ___________________________.

Conquest of Greece:

The Romans took over the city of Corinth in _________BC.

And they were placed under the rule of __________________.

The Romans hired __________ to teach there children, and soon ____________,_____________,_______________,________, and _______________ were part of Roman Culture.

Two main problems the Romans had due to there growth as a republic were:

1.

2.

When the farmer/ soldiers returned from wars in foreign lands they found that there farmland was taken by the large landowners due to _______________. The large landowners no longer needed the farmers because they had ___________.

The middle class was dying out; there was much _______________, in the elections.

Tiberious Gracchus was the grandson of ___________. He was elected to the office of ____________, in ____________.

He passed a law limiting the amount of land a person could own the rest was to be divided among the __________.

This law as vetoed by another Tribune_________.

He had the senate ____________the tribune.

He felt that his ideas were so important that he could bend the rules. One rule that he bent was _____________________________________.

The patricians did what to stop him?

Who was elected in his place?

Two things he did during his term were?

How did he die?

The roman Army changed under the leadership of ___________. He made a ___________________.

There was one big problem with this that will affect Roman history later and it was ________________________________________________________________________________________________.

The First Civil War

The war was between the __________________ and _______________. The two leaders chosen for this ware were _____________for the Senate and _____________for the General Assembly.

In the end _________became Dictator of Rome. He was dictator for _____________which was longer then the ______the law allowed.

The Republic Comes to an End

Three men became consuls of Rome they were ____________,_____________________,and_________________.

There government started in ______________BC, was called a ___________________.

When ____________was the consul and______________was in France fighting. _______________was killed in______________. In __________BC the Senate called _____________back home. He knew that if he disbanded his army and returned he would be killed. So he crossed the ____________with his army.

Julius Caesar declared himself ________________, and ___________was killed in Egypt.

While he only ruled for 5 years he passed many good laws including:

1.

2.

3

4

5

6

7

Two groups of people joined together to kill him and on March 15 or the __________of March he was _______________.

His heir was Octavian who joined with ___________________, to defeat the ones who killed Caesar. They ruled for ____________.

_________________traveled to __________, were he fell in love with_______________________.

He and _____________, died when they _______________________.

Octavian then took the name ____________________, and was the first _____________________..

We were at Pizza Hut for a Sunday dinner, and I noticed something we actually order the party meal deal they have in order to feed our family. We have also found that they always seat us at the same table, the only one that fits 8 people. Pizza Hut happens to be one of the cheapest places for us to eat out as a family; we usually go twice a month.

Why to we even take our large by today’s standards family out to eat, because we want them to be comfortable and know how to behave in a restaurant setting. While eating out they practice the skills of reading a menu, ordering, asking nicely for refills, and behaving in a restaurant.

Some if the many things the kids do while waiting for there food is play tic tac toe with there straws and the sugar packets. We also play Family quiz show were Dad goes around the table asking math, spelling and other school questions.

It always makes you feel that you are doing the right thing when some one in the restaurant comes up to you on there way out and tells you what a wonderful family you have.

But of course this Sunday during dinner out the kids were having a fit of the sillies and started taking in rhyme. Pat said “How about a Whale in a pail with a snail? “ And my response was “Dad might get mad, or glad or even sad but it could just be a fad. “  We also had Pat the rat, Nat the cat, the mouse in the house, a fox in a box, and a cat in the hat. It was quite fun, and I think we have read enough Dr. Seuss to the baby.

Teamwork that is something our children learned about today, that as a family we are a team and if each member of that team does its job then the team works.

 Our house has gotten out of control lately (attitude and messes) so when DH and I went out for breakfast today we discussed the kids, house, and attitudes. What was working what wasn’t working.

Step one was this afternoon, we choose a room for each child to clean. Sarah was given her room, Patrick the dining room, Conner the living room, and Nolan the hallway. Kathryn was to clean her room but Aidan was awake so she played with him as her job. Don supervised Nolan and Conner, and I checked Sarah and Patrick’s work. With in a couple of hours those rooms were looking real nice. At dinner we praised them for working so hard and as a reward  had ice-cream for snack tonight.

Tomorrow Don has some repair jobs for the boys to work on and I have some floors for the girls to wash, then we have signs to make for an up coming puppet show. To wrap the day up Conner and Nolan have there Blue and Gold Dinner  tomorrow night.

We are also going to reapply some household rules that we had in the past that went by the wayside when Don was gone. The one starting Monday is no computers on school days except for schoolwork or 10 min for the older kids to check there e-mail. This also means no game boy or x-box, and no computer for mom and dad till after 9pm or before 6:30 am.

This entry is in response to my sil Mary’s blog were she is  talking about living more simply. Well  here at the Eagles Nest we have had a very busy year a new baby and dad’s travels.

One thing that we have been working on is the mountain of laundry that we have each day. Some changes we have made are a family closet or really a kid’s closet. This is in the laundry room were I have a large shelving unit that holds three banker boxes for each child. One for pants or shorts in the summer, shirts, and one for pj’s and undies

We have goals on what we want for each child as far as clothes go, and we are slowly getting there. One thing is I regularly go though the boxes to get rid of clothes or add new ones, for every item of clothes that we add from a store or a bag of clothes then we pass on one item.

For the younger boys the goals for winter clothes are:

2 pair of dress pants (blue, tan)

2 dress shirts (white, blue)

5 pair jeans

2 long sleeve red polo’s

2 long sleeve blue polo’s

2 red t-shirts

2 blue t-shirts

4 other t-shirts

4 other shirts w collars

4 underwear

2 pj’s

1 red sweater

1 other sweater or vest

1 gray hoodie

1 blue sweat pant

The baby has more clothes as he needs clean pj’s each night and sometimes more then one outfit a day.

Sarah

2 pair dress pants (black, tan)

5 pair jeans

5 t-shirts

5 other shirts

3 dresses

2 skirts

6 sets of undies

2 hoodie

2 sweaters

2 pj’s

1 sweatpants

Kathryn

7 pants

3 turtlenecks

6 other shirts

3 skirts (tan, black, pink)

3 dresses

6 sets undoes

1 pink hoodie

2 sweaters

2 pj’s

My oldest son isn’t a problem as he is growing so fast it is hard to keep him in clothes. And as for me and dh that is another story.

13 years ago I married my dh a Irish man, I on the other hand have a Polish background. So our wedding was English, but the reception was Polish. One of the things I still remember from all those years ago besides my dad and uncles singing Puff the Magic Dragon. Was the Oczepiny cermony  after this I was really married, my dh got to wear a really fun hat ,and on this hat were all the things wished for him. There were alot of little babies if I remember, along with a house and money

Rosnie Trawka
The Unveiling Song

As lovely green grass grows, throughout the promised land,
Before the main altar, you've given Don your hand.
You've given Don your hand, he gave a golden band,
Your eyes swelled up with tears, before your friends on hand.
Twelve lovely white petals, attached to this white rose, (I carried a white rose with twelve petals down the aisle )
Twelve heavenly angels, will serve the bride they chose.
The first angel has brought a white candle's brilliance, (I was given a candle from one of my aunts.)
The second angel brought, a lily's full fragrance. (I was given a lily)
The third angel has brought a lovely bouquet to hold, (I was given a small bouquet)
The fourth angel has brought, your wedding band of gold. (we were given some fake gold rings)
The fifth angel has come, with blessings from the Lord, (I was handed a Bible)
The sixth angel has come, with matrimonial accord.  (I was handed a rolling pin )
Remaining six angels, come with a crown so keen, (I was given a white head covering, and it replaced the veil I wore for my wedding.)
They'll place it on your head, as if upon a queen.
You promised to be true, love honor and obey,
In all your days ahead, uphold your vows today.
Remember to be good, and live in wedded bliss.
And in our presence now, honor him with a kiss.
Remember Margery, be true, your right hand on the cross,
You've pledged your life and love, to Don who is the boss.
Oh wedding gown and crown, somehow you make me sad,
You make me feel that I'm losing my mom and dad.
And yet with mom and dad, no longer shall you live,
But only with your Don, to whom your life you give.
Remember to be good, and live a life of prayer,
And in a year or two, present him with an heir.

The photo is a little dark, but top to bottom Kathryn,Nolan,Conner,Sarah,and Pat only the baby is missing as I didn't dare place him on top of that pile. We sometimes call the kids stair steps and this picture shows why.Each one just a little smaller then the last.

My oldest two went to the Word of Life Superbowl in our area on Friday night. This is a all night youth event, they started out at a hockey game and then on to lots of other fun. The group they were with went bowling, to a indoor gym full of games and then to a indoor soccer place. By the time they got home at 7:30 am they were tired.

Now the oldest my son Pat went to bed for about 4 hrs and then was up for the day. On the other hand Sarah went to bed at 9am Saturday and slept until 8am Sunday morning. Except for dinner on Sat were she was at the table but half a sleep. I didn't think a person could sleep that long.

I would like to give Word of Life and the local church here that took kids a big thank you for taking the time to think of the youth.

I was actually glad that it rained today; I just wanted to stay home. So because of the rain soccer for the little ones was cancelled. I ran Sarah and Patrick to church to help with the pancake breakfast, then came home and made a breakfast for the rest of the kids. I even did Mickey Mouse pancakes for Kathryn.

 I then spent more time cleaning the upstairs and dejunking; I also did loads and loads of laundry. I am trying real hard to get the house working well before my dh gets home on the ninth of November.

It is hard to believe that he has been gone for 15 months. We will be getting a break as he did tell me that they can’t call him to active duty again until March of 2008, and he can retire in July 2008 (I think). If he actually retires of not is another story.

I even got in a nap this afternoon with Aidan on my tummy sitting in "my chair ". And I had a really nice surprise when I woke up; Conner says to me “ Mom check out the kitchen.” My thought oh no what did they do, as Pat and Sarah had also taken naps, so it was Conner, Nolan, and Kathryn awake. Well he cleaned the kitchen, loading the dishwasher, wiping the countertop, sweeping the floor, and writing me a note. The note said Mom could you please pretty please make Taco’s for dinner.

I couldn’t say no to that, so off to the farmers market for lettuce and tomato’s and because they close for the season on the 31^st I was able to get lettuce for 50 cents a head ,nice ones, and tomatoes for 1.00 a pound. The kids are also finally getting the hang of the new dinner chore system and it went better today. By the time Dad gets home at least dinner chores should be going well.

Please stop over at homeschoolbuy.com and take a look. I just listed some grade 5 Abeka Science, grade 3 BJU science, A simply grammer book and some other math items. And will have more to list tomorrow. Well I am off to clean out the garage.

We have a new family activity, and it is letterboxing. This is a great activity for our family as the kids range from 6months to 14 years. We have so far gone on one hike it was a chilly day but sunny. We set off from home to a park not to far away. From there we followed the directions I had gotten off the web on how to get the letterbox. The kids had fun following the clues as we hiked along. But while my 14yo had found the right area, it was dad and his eagle eye that found the rock pile covering the letterbox. After looking at the stamp and journal, we used there stamp to stamp our journals. And then we used our stamps to stamp there book. When we have another nice day we will set off on another hike.

Dad stamping our books.

Some of the kids and me.