Nov. 13, 2006 - Holidays Birthdays Bizzydays... oh, and pink hair:)
Well Thank the Lord, we're done with all the kids birthday parties for the whole year!!! Yeah, I know, its only another month and a half 'til the end of the year, but still! Actually, we're done until March. Yay!
Sprite and Abyni had their parties this past weekend and had a blast. We had princesses all weekend:)
My family ~ my brother, his wife and their three kids... as well as my mom and step dad AND my bestest friend from Iowa and her man and two kids are all coming for Thanksgiving weekend! I get to finally have a "real" family huge Thanksgiving! I am SO excited:)
Other non school updates ~ I put pink highlights in my hair just because I wanted to... I think its fun and it makes me gloriously happy ~~ honestly, I can't look in the mirror, see pink highlights and not smile:)
Oh ~ AND I'm selling Avon... I just love their products, and I thought maybe I could sell some to make a little extra $$... and pay for my own Avon skin care and makeup that I have always loved!!:)
Aug. 14, 2006 - A new Cook!!
Jaedin got a Redwall Cookbook for his birthday... and has been cooking up a storm! He has baked a bunch fo things out of it and the recipes are just AWESOME!! What a great gift (thanks, Grandma!) and he is definitely getting a lot of use out of it.
I've had to buy things I've never even bought before, leeks, rutabagas and shrimp. Yes, its true, I've never bought shrimp before.
Anyway, just bragging on my awesome boy:) He's been posting in his LJ about it, and its so good to see him interested in something new! Of course, to him, this ties in very well with his major interest in gardening! He is all excited abotu growing things next spring that will work in his favorite recipes.
I am sooo blessed with such awesome children:)
May. 30, 2006 - Tuesday Co-Op ~~ Our NEW POOL!!!
This weekend, I happened upon a 15 ft aboveground hard sided pool for sale in the area. It included NEW accessories, all the pumps, filter, steps, hoses, skimmer, etc were only used for one summer ~ and they are like new! The pool is older, but all we'll need is a liner... and that isn't bad at all for a $300 pool!
Anyway, Dh prepared the ground a bit yesterday, although it then started raining before we could do the leveling or anything. We need to level the ground, then put up the sides, put in the sand... and then install the new liner. We should have a "new" BIG (for us) pool within the next two weeks!
Co-op today was nice although totally unstructured for the most part. I did some painting with the girls, Kerra pretty much finished her painting. The boys all started paintings... they all chose animals ~ go figure:) Kainan is doing a painting for Grandma Barb, so I wont' describe his picture here:) Jaedin is doing a horned lizard, and Sprite is doing a beach scene. Oils are different ~ really different ~ but I LOVE them. I dstarted a painting last week while the girls were doing theirs. I still need to finish it though.
Laura and Paris made clothespin dolls today, and Abyni and Mattie made a "floorplan" type house for the dolls. They were all working diligently (and quietly!!) for over an HOUR on their new project! It was nice.
I have garage sale stuff everywhere in the living room. I have almost every article of clothing in our house sorted in the living room at the moment (except Sprite's clothes and the current things Dh and I have in our room) and I just have a TON of clothes for the garage sale. I have a big tub for each child for winter/to grow into clothes ~ and the rest are GONE soon! I am so happy to be having the sale! It will help defer the costs of the swimming pool too.
So, I'm fairly exhausted, so I'm going to go veg out and read or something.... whew!
May. 16, 2006 - live journal
For the summer months, although we will still be doing part time schooling, I doubt I'll have a lot of school/family type updates.
For those interested in keeping up with us more, you can check out my livejournal account. It is mostly friends only (especially for photos of the kids and whatnot) so if you want to read most of the posts, you'll have to get a livejournal account (which is free) even if you don't use it, just so I can put you on my friends list to open the filtered posts for you! You can post to my journal or send me an email and I can add you to my friends list.
May. 6, 2006 - Redwall Cookbook
Jaedin has been devouring the Redwall series (he's now 2/3rd s of the way through the fourth book ~ last night I had to pry it out of his hands at 11:30 and make him go to bed:)
Last week we were looking up the next book in the series at our library website and we stumbled upon The Redwall Cookbook! Jaedin was thrilled to pieces at the thought, so we reserved it.
It came in yesterday, and he has been after me since then to let him make something. He finally found enough ingredients to make shortbread and a nut-brittle type thing (I'm not using the proper Redwall-ish terms, shhh! Don't tell Jaedin!!)
His shortbread turned out great, and the candy-stuff is cooling. We didn't have a candy thermometer, so we used the cold water method and I think it will turn out fine.
Anyway, I was just so proud of him for having the initiative and then doing a good job both at following the recipes and cleaning up... Yay! Another cook in the family:)
May. 6, 2006 - Friday Night IN!
OMG ~ I had a GREAT, awesome, fantastic night. It was SO exciting:) I made a conscious decision to not even begin to clean, organize, plan and just have a free from everything night.
I was sitting in my cozy little sitting room, doing a puzzle, listening to the Sahara soundtrack (loudly), and I was in there for the entire CD when I realized that NOT ONE PERSON had interrupted me!! Not only that, but I couldn't HEAR anyone else either! I hadn't realized how bad that has gotten. I can't think of the last time I had an uninterrupted 15 minutes to myself... other than when I'm crashed at night! I hadn't realized until last night how very awesome it was to just have some QUIET time!
I ate my favorite pop-tarts, and a Digiorno Pizza for my "treats" for the evening (did I mention in the avoiding of the "issues" I've been eating everything in sight?) I watched Hudson Hawk while doing my puzzle, listened to music, emailed some friends, and just did NOTHING productive all night! It wsa awesome, wonderful perfect. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
I have the most wonderful Dh in the world ~~ the kids had a good time too. They left at 6:00, went to Mardel so Sprite could pick up a gift for her friend (and as it turns out, the thing(s) she wanted to buy were 75% off!) then they went to Pizza Hut... which too too long, so they had to catch a late movie (Ice Age ~ which is in their opinion Farrrrrr better than the first one), Oh, and they went to Braums to cash in their Reading Program coupons.
Apr. 28, 2006 - Grandma Visit again
We had a normal school day on Wednesday. Mom got here Wed. evening so we've been having a visiting vacation.
The kids all had dentist appt.s yesterday, so its not like much would have gotten done anyway. They have NO cavities!!! Yay!
Today Grandma helped the girls get their room cleaned and vacuumed, Grandpa helped Sprite repaint her bedroom walls... and that's all the excitement.
We'll be back to school for "real" on Monday!
Apr. 18, 2006 - Jaedin's Praying Mantis Event
Well. although we generally don't have much school on Tuesday morning (because of Co-op in the afternoon), the kids had a big science morning before Dh and I were even out of bed.
Yesterday Jaedin (9) found an egg sack and put it in his shadow box. This morning he awoke to fins TONS of baby praying mantis' in the box! He watched them hatching, then start walking around.... so he put them in his terrarium. Now he has... I don't know how many Dozens and dozens I believe! They are crawling all over the dirt and the walls, visiting the water "pond" he has in there for his snakes that he and Kainan found yesterday.
This is definitely my little scientist boy!
Apr. 16, 2006 - Easter 2006
We had a fine time. Visited a friends church (more on that later) and then went to Super Salad for lunch. It was nice going out for lunch without a crowd to fight! For as much as I like to cook/bake, I am just not much for stressing over big holiday dinners (other than Thanksgiving) when there are other activities going on. The easier the better in my opinion. I hate spending the whole time int he kitchen instead of WITH my family... and I think for as much as they help int he kitchen during the regular days, they probably wouldn't consider it much of a holiday to cook:)
Anyway ~ I'm posting all the clues from this year here in case I need ideas NEXT year! For the "MAP #1" etc, I made a map of our yard and house, and made copies, then Dh drew a trail marking a spot twhere the next clue was hidden)
Abyni (age 5)
10 under our bthrm sink Under here is where the toilet paper lives.
9 front yard tree “Tree” with a map to the front yard
8 freezer “You can see (picture of ice cream) here”
7 fruit Genesis 3:18 “You will eat ______”
6 (Behind magnet) Behind Dora in the Kitchen
5 Daddy has it Do 3 flips on the bar to get your next clue
4 Charlie’s food “Squeak! Squeak! Feed me!”
3 Daddy has it Draw a picture of a rainbow NOT USING YOUR HANDS!!
2 lt. Fixture in kitchen “Let there be _____________”
1 Shed Door MAP #1
***Beatrix Potter Video, gardening tools, hair doodads, Cdrom game, new puzzles!
Paris (age 8)
10 dryer round and round and round it goes, really hot, it dries our _____.
9 Flip for clue Flip 3 x FOR CLUE
8 ceiling fan(bedroom) “Your greatest fan even hangs around while you sleep.”
7 Daddy Using NO HANDS draw a picture with a blue tree with orange leaves, etc.
6 bedroom window Wakes you up in the morning
5 (Behind frig magnet) Behind Boots in the kitchen
4 Dad’s pocket Give Dad one red marble, a blue comb, a pink paperclip, two twisty-ties, and five pennies- all in a blue cup.
3 Stick of butter Proverbs 30:33
2 liv. Clock Behind the green flower that tells us something
1 bus MAP
**Books, hair things, craft stuff, books, puzzles etc.
Jaedin (age 9 )
8 return air duct Don’t hide here unless you’re being chased by rabid monkeys or kidnappers
7 bunk tree Look where there would normally be nutrient gathering devices for this large imitation deciduous.
6 daddy Using a paper funnel and a 4-piece lego, fill a pink cup with water. Use the water, paint, a quetip and your mouth - no hands allowed- to create Dad a picture of a blue rainbow in a green sky with red grass on the ground. Then use a three inch long piece of pencil lead to write Happy Easter on it.
5 bike Driven by sprocket, chain & gear, this device will move you.
4 Redwall book St. Ninians
3 toilet Deuteronomy 23:12-13
2 Dad’s Pocket Show Dad one red bug, one black bug, dandelion seeds -only seventeen. No more, no less.
1 MAP
**Gardening tools, gift card to the WM garden center for more plants, science exp. book... cdrom exploripedia.
Kainan (age 10 )
8 bdrm closet If you were a munchkin, this swinging orifice would be your size.
7 bike Driven by sprocket, chain & gear, this device will move you.
6 J. Tremain silver hand
5 Dad’s pocket Using a paper funnel and a 4-piece lego, fill a pink cup with water. Use the water, paint, a q-tip and your mouth - no hands allowed- to create Dad a picture of a blue rainbow in a green sky with red grass on the ground. Then use a three inch long piece of pencil lead to write Happy Easter on it.
4 Under the table Judges 1:7
3 Fish tank The abode of aquatic denizens.
2 17 feet 4 inches behind the front door. No tape measure allowed and you can only use a ruler to measure one thing that you cannot carry with you.
1 front bus MAP
**Gardening stuff, A monopoly-type game set in our hometown, another game.. RACKO(?) and Cdrom Carmen Sandiego
Sprite (age 14)
8 Mom’s closet Where you borrow clothes
7 Holy Grail I would like to buy a shrubbery!
6 Dad’s left pocket Give Dad a purple flower, two small pieces if paper in the shape of butterflies, a plastic M, a green piece of toilet paper, three hairs from your head braided together, and five rocks that all weigh the same.
5 Renoir living rm The largest painting by your current artist
4 Dad’s right pocket Use your mouth, a quetip, and paint to create a Happy Easter card for your Dad.
3 behind tropos mag. Behind turning in the reading room
2 purple monkey Hey Dad, Guess what?
1 back of her shirt Look behind you
**hair dye, bath stuff, craft book, hair stuff and her favorite gum:)
The kids had a blast with the clues that had them drawing/painting with their mouths:) Almost all of their prizes came from the dollar store or garage sales. We didn't end up spending much this year at all. Plus, there were gifts from grandma in there too!
Apr. 7, 2006 - Dh was in an accident last night
VERY nerve wracking in my current state of being.
Dh called me on someone's cell phone (for once he didn't have his... he was just running up the street to return some movies...)
Anyway, he was stopped in the turn lane and someone driving, not slowing at all, slammed into him ~ his head broke out the back window of his truck. He's hurting (I know he's hurting because he actually ADMITTED it, which he NEVER does) OW!!
Since the title of his "new" truck isn't transferred yet, I had to take the title to him (it was stil lhere sitting on my desk. He went to the ER to get checked out... and I'm trying to just be thankful that it wasn't "really" bad... and not freak out. I was shaking like a leaf though ~ of course I can't help with the "what if" scenarios........
Anyway ~ some prayers that he'll heal well... the other driver's insurance will cover whatever needs to be covered (including missed pay ~ this is the rent check week)
Wow. My poor baby.... ALthough things are better today, he had to go take the vehicle to get an estimate... and he has an appointment with an attorney this afternoon.
Kinda threw our school day into a little dissarray!
Apr. 2, 2006 - My Abyni Pillow
When the kids stayed in Iowa last summer, Abyni was really not wanting me to go. I took my favorite night shirt (A big Eskimo Joes glow in the dark tie dye shirt) and put it over a pillow, tied the corner, and told her it was her "mommy pillow" so she could pretend I was there with her.
Later that summer I found the EXACT same shirt in HER size at a garage sale! She was SO excited to have her very own mommy shirt!!
Anyway, fast forward to now... she has used the mommy pillow several times, when she wasn't feeling good, or on nights when Paris was having a "Sleepover" with Sprite in her room... and the other night I was having a kinda bad night... Abyni came into my bedroom after I'd went to bed.. and brought me her favorite pillow wrapped with HER "mommy" shirt! Oh my LORD. I about cried... or laughed... or melted. She is just SOOOOOOO flipping SWEET!!! And it DID make me feel better:)
Mar. 27, 2006 - A Successful Party!
The girls had a blast... and, in spite a rough morning, I think I may have too:)
Paris made her 1/2 batch of bread this morning, so we'd have dough ready to bake for the party.
When her friends showed up, they all worked with markers, stickers and scaprbooking paper (All from the Dollar Tree) to make covers for their cookbooks (three ring binders with the clear "pocket" in the cover to put your cover page). They decorated while we waited for the last girl to show up. I printed out and laminated our bread recipe as well as some muffin recipes for each girls cookbook.
Then we eventually moved into the kitchen and had a cooking lesson. The girls got into groups of two (and one group of three) and each group made a batch of bread. They had so much fun, measureing, cracking eggs, making a mess;) They, for the most part, LOVED getting to knead the bread... getting all gooey and stuff just thrilled them to pieces.
This is our recipe (and yes, we made THREE of these batches ~ Lotsa flour!!)
Home Made Bread
Pairs and Byn Always
*In a small, separate bowl
3 packages of yeast
3 Tablespoons of sugar
1 ½ cups warm (not hot) water
*In a large Mixing Bowl
MIX
1 ½ cup butter (or margarine)
1 ½ cup of sugar OR 3/4 cup of honey
ADD & MIX
1 ½ cup of hot milk
9 eggs
Yeast mixture from the small bowl
Mix well then add
6 cups of wheat flour
6 cups of white flour
Knead well for 8 minutes
Let the bread rise until its doubled in size.
Punch it down and let rise again
Shape it and put in pans to bake
Let it rise in pans for about 30 minutes
Bake in preheated over at 350* degrees
Times vary:
Loaf of bread: 15-25 minutes
round pan of cinnamon rolls 20-40 minutes
Bake until bottom is slightly browned.
We like to add almonds, apples, raisins, blueberries, cranberries, pecans or other fruits and nuts to our cinnamon rolls:)
Then, we set their bread aside, and got out Paris' dough from the morning. Each of the girls got a hunk of dough, and I took them through the process of making cinnamon rolls.
While those were rising, the girls went and Paris opened her presents. (She got such AWESOME stuff!!)
Then I took the girls, and explained proper table settings to them (briefly) and they each made their placemats. I had cut out circles for plates and cups, silverware and a triangle "napkin" out of colored paper, and they each used assorted letter stickers and scrapbooking paper to label their place setting placemats. Then they each got to laminate their placemat. (I think they were more thrilled with getting to feed their placemats through the laminator than anything:)
By that time the cinnamon rolls were done, we promptly melted the canldes int hem, and then Paris blew out the candles... and the rolls were a big hit!
The girls were out of time for any major games or crafty type activities at that point... but they played with the Polly Pocket stuff that Paris had recieved while the moms gathered up the stuff.
Each child went home with a kitchen thing (measuring cups/spoons, wooden spoons, bowls, etc) as well as their new cookbook and placemat.
It was a success!!
And, of course, to all who ask... you may certainly use any ideas I have!!!
Mar. 25, 2006 - Paris' Cooking Birthday Party
My little baker is having her eighth birthday Party on Monday!!
She wanted a cooking/baking theme, and she wants to make home made cinnamon rolls instead of a cake for her party activity. She has invited 5 girls, so there will be 6 girls total. Each of the girls are bringing a couple of their favorite recipes for Paris' binder/cookbook. The grandma's all sent their favorite recipes, and I copied and laminated those, as well as some of my own favorites. Paris will get to have her own cookbook instead of always using mine!!:)
Since bread actually takes 5-6 hours to make with rising time, and the party is only 2 1/2 hours... we're doing it ala' TV way. Paris and I will mix up a big batch of bread in the morning, set it aside, punch it down and have it ready to go during the party.
When the girls arrive, we'll have them in pairs make their "own" batches of bread. Once they are to the point of letting it rise, we'll put it aside, and bring out the already risen bread. The girls will get to create their cinnamon rolls with extras like nuts, blueberries, apple pieces, raisins, etc. available... and then we'll let them rise while we clean up and do our craft. (Wooden spoon puppets or decorating a can to keep "real" wooden spoons in, Paris hasn't decided which we'll do)
Then, while the cinnamon rolls are baking, we'll work on decorating our place-setting placemats and talk about table manners a bit... I'll have them practice with the "real" silver and whatnot... I got the info from this site and am printing out a copy for each girl to take home.
The girls will all go home with some of Paris' favorite recipes (including the cinnamon rolls) and their craft, laminated placemat to help them remember the proper place settings, and a three ring binder for each to keep their recipes in.
If there's time, we'll play some games, but knowing these girls, we'll probably end up crafting, baking and eating... with maybe a bit of time on the bar and rings upstairs!
Mar. 23, 2006 - The Father's Role
I was just reading my friends page, and one of them had a link to this post about the father's responsibility in homeschooling. I couldn't agree more... sort of.
In our house, although my Dh doesn't technically "help" with the schooling, I have made sure to give him a more active role in choosing what we cover, what we learn, etc. When before I tended to just make the decisions and then tell him. I've also saved myself some major stress by making sure to consult him before I commit myself to ANY outside activities. Otherwise, I tend to say "yes" to everyone and totally burn myself out.
He has odd work hours from time to time, but always has answers for the science questions (and since we really see learning as an "all the time" thing... I guess he IS helping with school!) he plays countless board games with the kids and does things with them.
He tries to make sure he's always home to take them to scouting things, extra curricular type things, since he knows that I just loathe driving and running errands. That, although may seem small to others, I find immeasurably helpful.
My Dh also always makes our husband-wife time alone together a priority, and I think if I didn't get that time alone with him at least 6 evenings a week (when we aren't too tired to even speak!) I would deifinitely suffer burn out in a hurry.
So, I guess, in the long run. although I agree with the man's assessment that father's need to have a stronger hand in homeschooling and raising up their children, I guess I probably have a different definition of what that entails.
I love it that my Dh is willing and able to pick up the slack when I need it. I love it that he makes sure that I have breaks from "life" and time with friends. I love it that he supports me, and encourages me, and is interested in what we are doing during the day. I love hearing his opinions, and his advice. I love it that he is so involved in the discipline and day to day life of the kids. I love how willing to help me in whatever way I need whenever I need it... and I love it that our kids, although they don't techinically do "school" with daddy, know that he is smart, willing to spend time with them and that he has taught them a LOT.
My kids start out each day with me after Dh has left for work, as we are not early risers like he has to be. And they end almost every night with Daddy time, prayers and bedtime routines with him... at the very least. Everything else time wise seems to vary depending on his schedule, but they pretty much have that mainstay in their lives.
I guess all being said, for our life right now, I more appreciate the time and support he gives me as his wife, than I would if he instead used that time to do "school stuff." To be honest, I'm more happy to shed my "work day" than I would be to then have to spend my time alone while HE tried to deal with it... or even to spend the majority of "our" time trying to plan/do school stuff.
I love it that we have worked out things so well that they fit US like a glove. I love our life and our routine, and I know that he is there for me in whatever capacity I may need it (and lately I've needed him A LOT for my own emotional support totally and completely independant of anything parental/school wise!) I feel so very blessed to have him in my life!
Mar. 23, 2006 - Normal Day here ~ other than an abundance of STRESS!
Yesterday was thankfulling uneventful.. Tuesday's writing class got interrupted and basically cancelled when one of the LITTLE kids over got outside and wandered over to the neighbor's yard whilst I was doing art and the other mom was doing writing class. A policeman happened to be driving by and picked him up, and then found us. He said he wouldn't report it to DHS, but left us all freaked out beyond belief at what "could have happened" Not Good. Certainly caused a big deal of stress... the mom was freaked out... thankful that the policeman is the one who did get him, but that in a nd of itself was beyond stressfull... the kids could not have been outside more than 5 minutes. ACK!
Anyway ~ stress seems to be abounding here, and I could really use a break from it.
We had a normal school day yesterday, nothing terribly exciting. Kainan and Jaedin are both reading Redwall now for their reading. Kainan was trying to wade through The Hobbit, which he liked, but it appeared to be discouraging him since it was taking him soooo long to wade through each page.
The kids are outside now playing in the SNOW!! After all the days of 70+ wether, it finally snows for spring break (Public Schools anyway) so they're outside taking advantage while they can.
Stress alert:
GRRR!!!! So, last Wednesday, this guy shows up and tells us we have to move our bus to a storage space and hands me a city ordinance. We knew nothing about it. Our bus had been parked beside our house in another part of the city for a year and a half, so we never heard anything about it. Anyway, when he gets home, Dh reads it and in amongst the legal mumbo jumbo it actually just says that the bus has to be behind the front of the house.
So, in actuality, we just have to move it back FOUR FEET. No problem... Dh had Sunday off, he first chance to do so, since its always dfark when he gets home and there is no way to back it up in the dark without breaking down the fence or something....
Then Saturday and Sunday its a complete downpour, our yard is MUSH. So, needless to say we didn't get it moved. There is NO WAY it would have done anything other than immediately SINK.
So then yesterday, we get a notice to appear in COURT for failing to move it.
I DO NOT NEED ANY MORE STRESS!!!
And, speaking of which... we not only got DENIED for the secured card we applied for, they didn't reutrn the $300 money order we used as the "secured" deposit. So now, yet ANOTHER way we've tried to start improving our credit that we've been turned down for... the months are ticking away, and I'm not needing the stress of wondering how we'll ever improve our credit enough to be able to buy this house....
AND, for the first time in over a year... Dh's check from his retail work last week is late, so our RENT IS LATE.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR (That $300 money order would have saved our butts there!...)
PLEASE!!! Something Stress RELIEVING come into my life today please please please... this constant knot of stress in my gut feels like its beginning to chew a hole through me.
Mar. 20, 2006 - Father of the Year Essays
Here are my kids "Father of the Year" essays. Its really our first foray into the world of essay writing (other than Sprite), so I think they did well.
Sprite's (full length version) 8th
I have an awesome Dad. Well, he is actually my step-dad, but he is cooler than a soft pretzel (covered with salt) sitting in the middle of a huge cake with a bowl of ice cream and 3 McDonalds chocolate milkshakes on the side! (And boy, would I love that!)
My Dad is such a good husband, he is always wonderful to my Mom. I think that makes a really great Dad. Plus, Mom is happier to be around with a nice husband than she would be if he was mean. That would be a huge difference in my life! He lets my Mom home-school us kids, which I love, and he works so hard to support the whole family.
Dad works as much as he has to- to support the family, but whenever he has a day off he either spends the time playing with my siblings and I, or fixing something around the house. I love that he does that, instead of just watching television all the time.
Another thing I think is wonderful about my Dad is that he is strict, but he trusts me. He still lets me do certain things that some other parents wouldn’t let their kids do, but he is really strict, and I know that is just because he wants all of us kids to be safe. So instead of just saying "yes" to everything I ask him about doing, he thinks it over and talks with Mom about it to see if it would be a good thing to do.
If there is something I really want to do, that won’t happen often, my Dad will go out of his way to get it done. Like, for instance, last year in December, my favorite band named Barlow Girl had a concert with my favorite singer Tobymac, and I wanted to go SO bad! But when I found out that they were not selling tickets, and charging $10 at the door instead, I figured I wouldn’t be able to go, because we I would have to go really early to get in line. But, my wonderful Dad took off work to go stand in the cold weather with me, just so that I could go to the concert. He does that with a lot of things, too. But not every little thing. Just things that are really important. That makes it even more special.
My Dad will watch movies with me when Mom doesn’t want to, he will pick me up from ballet practice and babysitting jobs. Oh yea, that’s another great thing, he lets me babysit! He also takes me to the Church youth group whenever I want to go, and he lets me have my own e-mail service and my own blog.
Kainan's 5th grade Essay
Why I think my dad is the best. My dad always tries to make sure that we have special things. He makes sure we always have food. Sometimes he rents us movies to watch for family movie night, or even lets us go out for lunch after church.
Another thing that I really like is that my dad plays a lot of games with us. He always brings home new fun games to play from garage sales and stuff. My dad is so much fun to play with. On special days I get to go to Quick Trip with him and he buys me a smoothie. Once we went on a birthday date and played pool at Reverend Jughead’s and he bought me Skittles. He taught my brother and I how to play Empire Earth and we get to play it almost every weekend. He always makes sure he’s home from work in time to take me to my basketball games and to my practices.
My dad is always nice to me and my family and we all love him a lot. He helps us take good care of our pets too. He doesn’t spoil us so that we’ll grow up and be good people.
I’m not sure you’re going to believe it, but the only thing I would like to be different is if my dad could be home even more and didn’t have to work so hard (especially outside in the cold that he hates) to take care of us and make sure that we can live in a nice house. Otherwise, he is just perfect.
Jaedin's 4th grade Essay
To start my essay about dad I will write a poem I made up. It goes like this:
I love my daddy,
oh yes, oh yes I do.
I love my daddy because
he will work for me and you.
I also love my dad because every Monday if he can make it home in time he takes me and my brother Kainan to cub scouts and gets us a smoothie at Quicktrip.
He tells me a lot about science and knows about all kinds of things that I ask him about. He helps me look up things if he doesn’t know them. He even lets me look up things on the internet.
Sometimes he teaches us how to play games such as Sorry and Pit. Twice he went he went through the work of installing satellite just for us kids.
The thing I like most about my dad is that he married mom and they love each other so much. I also like dad because sometimes he even works six days a week to take care of us. I liked it when he let us boys come to work with him.
The only thing I’d like more is if he could stay home with us and still be able to make money to take care of us. That’s why I think my dad should be father of the year.
Paris' 2nd grade Essay
I love my dad!! He’s the best because he plays with me and he takes me on Daddy daughter dates with him and sometimes my little sister too. We went bowling once and we went to play miniature golf once too, the best of all was going to The Funhouse! He even took us girls out for a special ice cream when we were done. He plays card games with me too, like Skip Bo and Uno and plays board games and all that.
I like to bake bread and cookies for him because he always stops at the store on his way home and gets stuff I need if I’m out of something. He even helped me make the cheesecake one time. And especially because he always eats it all and really likes it.
I know he loves me because he always prays for me every night. He plays with me and spends time with us all the time and watches movies with us. He also lets us have popcorn.
He gets us surprises, and put up my bar in my room to practice my gymnastics, and even put up rings for us girls for Christmas so we can practice flips and stuff.
I think that my dad should be father of the year because he loves us, and he doesn’t tell us that he doesn’t have time to do things for us. He does stuff for us, even when he doesn’t have very much free time.
Feb. 17, 2006 - ADD/ADHD
Well, not that its any surprise, but its come to my attention yet again that I am dealing with some major ADD/ADHD "symptoms" in my family. Not only the boys but myself as well. The girls, not so much.
I am not the type to jump on any bandwagon ~ but its easier to label something rather than to say everytime... "I'm having issues with not being able to keep my attention on any one thing, focusing long enough to read a paper (even on ADD!), staying in my seat or not incessantly fidgeting, getting so distracted while doing any one project that I end up having 5 things started and never remember to finish any of them.... " etc. Just saying that Jaedin is fidgety or distractible or Kainan is a little hyper or I'm a little forgetful doesn't even begin to cover it.
This "issue" has come up time and time again, at different times for different reasons. Mainly because there seem to be times when it gets so out of hand that we're not getting through a day without major frustrations. This is above and beyond a little "spacey-ness" or distractions.
At any rate, I was reminded today that I wanted to look up information on this topic ~ specifically what I can do diet wise to help adjust the majority of the symptoms. I tend to believe that (at least in our case) most of the symptoms are able to be at least minimized by changes in diet. Most of which I have realized we need to do anyway for yet other reasons that have recently popped up.
I have so far come across this site with symptoms, and a recipe page with lists of beneficial foods. I'm open to hearing about anyone else's experience with this issue ~ especially things you may have done and in what ways they have helped. Please share any sites you may have as well.
On this page (which I've just read through briefly thus far) I found this odd and new to me claim under the recipe for a kids shake made with coffee:
"This protein shake is helpful for a lot of people. For many small kids, and many adults, this recipe works about as well as a small dose of Ritalin (100 mg of caffeine is roughly the same as 5 mg of Ritalin). So many who might just take a small dose of Ritalin might get away with just doing this."
And This page has not only info on diet changes and effects on ADD type things, but there are a ton of links at the bottom as well that I will be off to check out...
We are not interested in (or in a position to get into) medications for this right now, so we are looking for alternate methods of dealing with this.
Feb. 16, 2006 - Arbonne
So today I got a call from a HS aquaintance asking if I wanted to sign up as an Arbonne (consultant?) person.
Prior to today, I knew nothing of it ~ other than they have a good quality product that is far too expensive for me. Not that its unreasonable compared to the other good quality stuff ` but for someone who shops for makeup at Dollar Tree and the generic WalMart section ~ its quite a stretch.
I'm wondering if anyone has any real time experience with it that would be willing to share. I've searched online and can find just as many passionate "pro" speeches as I can "con" speeches.
And I'm wondering if it would be something that would even be worth doing for me. Most of my "contacts" are other homeschool moms ~ with not only limited incomes, but half of them never wear makeup at all. My mom would like it, I'm sure... but that's certainly not enough of a "contact list"
Anyway ~ experiences??
Feb. 15, 2006 - basketball hoop challenge
Well, the little girls were sick today with stomach upsets. (big sigh) So it was a bit of a lax day yet again as we all recuperate back to "norm."
I had the 3 older ones practice the writing/notes process they learned yesterday by taking notes from our science books. They all seemed to grasp the idea well enough after that. I will have them rewrite their paragraphs tomorrow, then practice the note taking again on Friday with a re-write on Monday about their artist for Art class on Tuesday.
We did more math review and all the independant subjects, using our writing exercise in place of copywork.
We're getting to the end of an era ~ so to speak. Sprite will finish up Wuthering Heights this week, I finished Belles on Their Toes this morning, Jaedin finished One Man's Wilderness, and Paris finished Kirsten. This month we'll finish up our unit on resourcefulness and get ready for the unit on self control. I need to figure out what on earth to do for a wrap up!
Anyway ~ after school the kids AGAIN asked when we could hang the basketball hoop. I decided that we'd stop waiting for Dh to have a day off to do it ~ and we'd figure something out. It is quite the interesting endeavor. I'm not sure what we're going to do ~ but I sort of have a place to hang it (Even though it involves covering a window)~ if I could just figure out HOW to hang it, or rather WHAT to hang it with that would be sturdy enough. The last thing I want to do is have a basketball hopp fall on someone's head. Decisions...
Feb. 13, 2006 - The Ick... and I LOVE the library!:)
This past Saturday, I came down with a sore throat... just before my "date" with Dh. I didn't feel that bad, so we went ahead and went anyway. I had felt perfectly fine up until then. That morning I'd had 6 other HSing moms over to watch part of "Creating the Balance" video for Konos. We had a great time, I hope everyone comes again, it was so good to have other HSer over to discuss the stuff with!
We went and saw The Pink Panther, sicne it was the only movie at the theater next to us that we were remotely interested in... and about half way through I realized I was feeling much worse. By the time the movie was over, we just went straight home where I took some Nyquil and went straight to sleep.
I stayed home from church and slept most of Sunday... and today woke up still feeling exhausted. Yay. I do NOT want to have to postpone our writing thing tomorrow!!
Anyway, since I had a bunch of non renewabel library videos, I had to go to the library. Just going there wore me out completely... ugh. But, thankfully, there were about 10 educational dvds and videos on inventors and stuff that we're studying to "help" me with school! Yay. I love it when things work out like that.... so even though the teacher is "out" the kids can still get some educational stuff done.
The boys played outside for a loooong time today, the weather was gorgeous! They were reenacting the French and Indian war, if I understood correctly. I found that odd, since its been a long time sicne we studied that... but who knows.
The little girls watched a bunch of videos and played on the computer a lot today, and Sprite slept most of the day ~ just feeling icky and tired herself.
Praying that we'll feel completely better in the morning so we can have our writing workshop and art tomorrow! At least the writing one won't take any energy from me:)
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