UGH!  We spent most of R's birthday all cooped up in the house yesterday because A was sick.  She had a quick Motrin-induced energy burst where she was able to play outside, go for a walk, and ride her bike, (with no training wheels--- finally!) but by dinner she had completely depleted all of her energy reserves and she crashed.

M woke up at 12:30 a.m. with a fever and he started vomiting about an hour later.  Luckily he seems to be past the throwing up, but he still has a fever and has been intermittently napping and moaning pitifully on the couch since he got up this morning.

R refused to eat breakfast this morning and said she didn't feel right.  Then she took a 4 hour nap.  She just made a beeline for the bathroom and her vomiting has begun.  At least she can always make it to the toilet or the bowl!

C is fever free, but just had 3 diarrhea filled diapers.  He keeps pointing to his diaper and telling me he is "stinky" right before he goes though, as if that makes it any better.

As for me, I am saying silent and not-so silent prayers that this will all clear up by tomorrow.  R's sleepover birthday party is scheduled for Friday night and I would hate to have to cancel it due to illness; I have a feeling that no one would come.  I am also busy running from one sick kid to the other, all the while juggling time entertaining the non-ill one.  It'll be a miracle if I don't come down with this as well.

Hope all of you are having a better day than I am!

This morning was one of those golden moments in homeschooling that we've missed quite a bit over the summer. Yesterday, my wife was teaching our 9 year-old (Quarterback) and 12 year-old (Narniagirl) how to diagram sentences. Today, my 5 year-old daughter (Katiebelle) comes in, waaay before her brother and sister are up, and she has--on notebook paper in purple marker--diagrammed the title of her "school" book, Come On, Snoopy. She even had her rocket ship for compound subjects and verbs, but she called it her jet. I guess that's what Snoopy used to catch up.

This is the same daughter that watches Prince of Egypt and later starts singing snippets of "Let My People Go," but instead of the repeated line "Thus says the Lord," she sings, "Upset the law, Upset the law..." It worked for her.

There she is!  My beautiful 10-year-old birthday girl with her dazzling cowgirl hat tiara!  I can't believe she is 10 already!  Where did the time go?

So, in honor of 10 years of R, I'd like to post 10 facts about her!

1.  She has a special stuffed tiger named Niles (after the character on Fraiser) that she got when she was 10 months old.   She received Niles as a present from Papa D's cousin after they got back from a road trip, and she still sleeps with him to this day.  He is old and thread-bare and very well loved.  He is too fragile to leave the house anymore.

2.  When she was a baby she used to call milk "mong-ay".  She would stand at the refrigerator door and cry for "mong-ay, mong-ay, mong-ay" over and over.  We still tease her about "da mong-ay"!

3.  When she was 5 she still had a hard time differentiating between blue and purple.  I took her to the eye doctor we found out that she has an astigmatism that changes the shape of her eye and makes it difficult to distinguish certain colors in certain light.  With her glasses she can see 100% better.

4.  She has one foot that is a half size bigger than the other.  That makes finding shoes incredibly difficult.

5.  She is the most caring child I have ever had the privilege of knowing.  She donates all of her money to church or Heifer International, she is growing her hair to donate to Locks of Love and she makes up posters to "Save the Polar Bears".  She is such a good humanitarian.  (A wanted me to add that R is also a great big sister who helps her when she gets hurt.)

6.  She wants to be a hairdresser when she grows up.  She wants to have a small salon in the back of her house (like our hairdresser) so that she can work part-time, but still be home to homeschool her kids.

7.  She is a creative free spirit and loves using her imagination.  She wholeheartedly believes in things like fairies and wizards.  She is expecting a letter from Hogwarts next year when she turns 11.  (Still don't know how I am going to handle that one..)

8.  Despite my best efforts, she is now interested in things like Hannah Montana and High School Musical.  Her interests are very diverse, however, and she never lets someone else discourage her from something that she wants to to like or do.  She is a leader of the pack, not a follower.

9.  She has her own sense of style and flair.  (Hence the hat in the above picture)  She likes to design her own hairstyles and outfits and luuuuvvvs to shop.

10.  She is very creative and enjoys putting on musical shows and dramatic performances for us all.  She can sing and dance very well.  She'd love to see her name in lights one day!

Well, there you go.  10 fabulous facts about my fabulous girl! 

Happy Birthday Ry-fry!

     Last week we had a family meeting where we discussed implementing the loop schedule.  In the course of that discussion,  the kids  told me that they would like to go back to the school room for our learning time.   This has caused me conficting emotions.

     Before we moved into this house,  we lived in a mobile home.  It was a beautiful house but it was small.  It was small enough for a family of five but for a family of five that homeschools it is unbearably tiny.  I had spent many a day thinking about what it would be like to have a school room where you could keep all of your books and learning things and not have to haul them out and then put them away every day.   I pined for a school room.

     Four years ago,  my dream became a reality.  We moved into a beautiful home with oodles of room.  There was a room in the basement that was begging to be a school room.  In fact there were two rooms.  There were two rooms that were connected by a joining wall.  We made the one room a play room and the other one was a school room.  That way I could school Mia while the other two were in the adjoining room  playing.   It worked so well.   It was so nice to have all of our supplies and books right there at our fingertips and we could just leave them there.  It was quite freeing. 

     Then came the Life Bump.  This bump  messed up our family in a very big way.  I was quite depressed over the whole situation and the last place I wanted to be  was in a dark, cold basement.  I needed to be where there was lots of light and the enviroment was warm and cozy.  The school room didn't do that for me.   So during our Life Bump  we schooled upstairs, mostly in the living room where there is a bay window.   After the bump,  we stayed upstairs.  I felt calmer  schooling upstairs. 

     This is where we have been ever since.  I am more comfortable doing school upstairs.  I have heard faint grumblings, though, from the kids that they would like to go back downstairs for their learning time.  The grumblings came full blown words last week.    They said that they would like to try it downstairs again.   I decided to give it a try.

     The problem with all of this is, though,  that in the interim of the last year and a half, the school room has become a catch all for everything that we can't find room for upstairs.   You don't know where to put that puzzle?  Put it in the school room.   Where are you going to put that box?   Put it in the school room.  You get the picture.   There is a lot of stuff to go through and organize before next week.

     But I am trying to do it all.   Now that I have some time to myself,  I am using that time to shovel out the school room.   I have done quite a bit in a short amount of time but there is so much more to do.  There are cupboards to clean out.  There are books that need a new home.  There are craft supplies that need a new shelf, etc, etc, etc.    This is what my day is full of right now.  I have to admit, though, I am enjoying the cleaning and organizing.  This is a good way to start a new year.

Today I bring you three things that make Miss Dance crazy. So, if you know her IRL, you will now know just what buttons to push.

#1 Many times she will see someone's necklace and tell them they are "illegal." This means the clasp has slipped around to the front where it is visible. Or, worse yet, it is the whole way down touching the pendant. She is not even happy if it is off-center in the back. I am not sure just what law this breaks, but apparently it is criminal behavior.

#2 If you take her shopping to a store that uses carts, she wants it filled evenly. The Right Way to do this is to set things in squarely so they fit together without leaving blanks. Everything must be (of course) right side up and you start filling from the back right corner across to the back left, then start another row touching it from right to left and continue till you are done in the store. She is more willing to be flexible if the contents of the cart include things she deems cute, for herself, or even if there are inordinate quantities of sugar.

#3 She totally disapproves of all my special buddies being males who are pink. Yes, Chicky, Precious and Melrose look like females to her, just because of the color of their fur. Piglet missed the photo, but everyone knows he's a guy. (Fans of Melrose: note the cape Mr Music has furnished him. This was knit for I think a Barbie by a very young Miss Language. I think it is the only thing she has ever knit.)

So, free advice to any males who want to drive Miss Dance away: wear a necklace with the clasp slid around, shop sloppily, and wear pink. That should do it.

So I've had a lot of interest in this Simple but Special concept so I'm going with it! 

One of the areas I want to address is cooking.  Cooking for a family can be a big (and sometimes complicated) job.  Sometimes I've felt exhausted by the time I sit down to the table only to have the family be "done" in 20 minutes and then scatter leaving me to table and kitchen clean up. 

I have had some successes already in making the whole cooking chaos more simple.  For years now I've always organized and participated with my fellow homeschoolers in a cooking exchange.

What's a cooking exchange you ask? 

It's just like a cookie exchange at Christmas time only involving main ingredient meals.  We usually do it every second month and each exchange has a different main ingredient theme but what you cook using that ingredient is up to you.  Here is an example:

September - beef

November - chicken

January - soup and a bread item

March - pork

May - vegetarian dish (no meat)

July (if we do one) - grill ready (the item in this dish does not have to be cooked but ready for the grill) for example marinated meat (raw) in a freezer bag.

The beauty of this exchange is you can do the cooking in the comfort of your own home whenever it is convenient to you.  The only date you are "out of the house" is the date you set for the exchange.  Everyone brings their meals usually frozen (leaving one of their meals at home for themselves) and if there are 8 participants we go home with 7 other various meals all made with the same main ingredient.  The end result is you have 8 meals in the freezer when you get home but not 8 of the same thing!  Make sense? 

Yes we usually enjoy an afternoon of coffee and chatting and sharing other recipe and cooking ideas.  It's a delightful afternoon out and I usually can't resist using one of the meals that very day!

What I love the most is I get to taste someone elses cooking rather than my own all the time.  My kids love knowing who made the cooking exchange meal and will often compliment that person on their meal when they see them, that's what makes it so special, sharing foods among friends.

So that's one idea that perhaps you could start within your own homeschooling community this year.  It's nice to have those frozen meals in the freezer for those days when the day gets away from you or you know you are going to be out and about and don't want to have to think about dinner when you get home.

In my next blog entry I'll include some new ideas that I myself am going to try but in the meantime if you have any tips on making the chore of cooking more Simple but Special I would love to hear them, leave a comment please!

Until next time!

It was while we were watching our umpteenth hour of Olympics coverage on NBC that I came up with an explanation on why guys generally have a hard time articulating their feelings about matters of the heart. I tried explaining this to my wife in the middle of her work and didn't quite make it through, so I'm going to try it here and see if I get better in explaining it.

Guys don't like to show their emotions or reveal their feelings about something dear to them because it leaves them vulnerable. This is not just "Me Tarzan not like feeling vulnerable. Rather hunt bear with pointy stick!" It's something I think we've forgotten in our relative prosperity and "lack of vital needs," like when there was only so much medicine available or there was only so much food to go around. In competition, weaknesses are exploited and it's imbued on men that weaknesses can cause you to fail and lose. To allow others to know what is in his heart is to invite disaster. So men have instinctively clammed up and only allowed their feelings out when they knew it was safe, confidential and controlled. To protect himself and the ones he loves, a man will not betray the contents of his heart for the instinctual fear that the sentiments of his heart could be used to hamstring him and expose his beloved to possible harm.

It's not an apologetic that I'm making for men, saying this is the way we are and so don't go asking us how we feel. Instead, understand that men need to know that when the environment and time is right, it is okay to actually open up a little. They won't do it if they feel threatened. Using his feelings in a later argument to hurt or hamper him is an immediate and profound reinforcement of the instinct to clam up and protect his heart. Good luck getting him to open up after that.

On that note, I'm glad that we are homeschooling my son. Keeping him out of the dog-eat-dog competition and ruthlessness of the schools, public and private, is probably going to spare his heart and protect him from the pathological side of this instinct.

No, my wife and I aren't fighting. It's just that seeing the competitive nature of the events and it's impact on so many of the olympians and their families. It really has helped me understand the human heart to watch the games. I just better come up with some more observations that are a little more profound in order to keep this from being a total loss.

Oh, and NBC, ease up on the ads for sex-and-violence shows. My kids are watching, and it's only reinforcing our desire to turn off the TV after the closing ceremonies. Maybe that wouldn't be a such a bad thing for us.

     Whenever we have plans to do something, someone in the family gets sick, leaving our plans in jeopardy.   It happened today.  Well, actually, it happened last night. 

     Rocky came downstairs as he was getting ready for bed with tears streaming down his cheeks.  He had  a very bad stomach ache.  sigh   The kids were going to go camping with Nana and Papa and their cousin J.  for three days.  This had been planned for a very long time.  The kids,  especially Rocky. had been looking forward to this for a month.  The countdown began last Sunday.  Every day, Rocky would ask me how many more days until they went camping.  I would give him the latest number and he would break out in a grin,  "I am so excicec (translation:  excited)!"   But, alas, last night those plans looked like they might never materialize after all.

     The ritual of Rocky runnng to the bathroom (even though he had a 'puke bucket' by his bed)  to throw up began at 10:00 p.m.  This little sequence continued all through the night.  

     I hate when this happens.  You don't know whether you should cancel the plans and risk being hated by your child (children) for the rest of your natural life or risk being known as a horrible, neglectful mother who let her child go on a camping trip as he was upheaving all of his internal organs.  It's risky any way you slice it.   Needless to say,  I did not sleep much last night.  Actually,  I have been awake since 1:30 a.m.   I haven't been doing too bad either but I am sure I will drop like a fly tomorrow.  The day after is always the nastiest. 

     The little sequence that Rocky had mastered during the night carried on during the morning light.  He was still throwing up when his sisters woke up.  I had to brace it to them that there was a possiblity that their brother might not be able to go to on the trip.   They looked at me as if I was Scrooge incarnate.  

     I went out to garden to get away from those scathing looks.  When I came back into the house,  wonder of wonders,  the routine had ceased.  Rocky was able to sip water and keep it down.  Two hours later I gave him some toast.  He ate it gingerly but that stayed down as well.  Wahoo!  Things were looking up.   Finally at lunch time,  I officially announced that Rocky could go on the camping trip.  There was hooting and hollering of the positive kind.  I was nominated again for mother of the year and everything was good.

     I took them to their grandparents  and loaded them into the truck.  I was  a bit battle weary but I was so happy that my boy was able to go on his much awaited camping trip.  Life is good.

One party down, one more to go!

The medieval birthday celebration was a success!  The thunderstorms held out until the party was over and we only had a small scattering of rain.  The kids all had a grand old time having sword fights, making crowns and coats of arms, slaying dragons, and playing with the royal purple sand.

And now, for your viewing pleasure... a slideshow of pictures from the event!  Enjoy!