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CrazyBusy
Sep. 7, 2009
One Post Per Month Because I'm Efficient Like That
Yikes. I can't believe I only blogged once in August. It's not that I didn't have anything to say, I just didn't have (or take?) the time to write anything.
We have completed our first week of school. It went well. I used MOTH (Managers of Their Homes) to come up with a pretty tight schedule this year. We all really needed this. I cannot stand getting up early but it's either that or do school till 7pm at night- no thanks. Even Alek, who initially complained about not being able to set the order for his day, admitted that he likes our schedule. Boy, are we busy though.
I will try to be better about updating my blog. I really want to type up what we're using this year (curriculum-wise). Not tonight though. I'm about ready for bed. I do, however, want to post some pics of my children. They are growing way too quickly!
Okay, I'm ready to publicly admit what this child's nickname is. Hoolie. Yep. Like the first part of her name (Juli)anna pronounced like the Spanish J, which sounds like an H. Hehe.
I'm posting this one for Cathy, if she stops by. Doesn't this remind you a bit of Abigail? Julianna was mad at me for putting my foot in front of the cabinet door. She would have liked to have emptied the whole thing. Mean mom. No, her fingers didn't get pinched.
Kenton repaired and painted an outbuilding the other day. Josiah "helped" with the painting. He even decorated our black lab with his handprint for us. We were so thankful.
Actually, here's Kenton's real helper- Gabe. He was out there working all day. This child is buffed.
And a few days before that, Kenton was up on the roof with the leaf blower and giving the roof an anti-moss treatment. You have to do that around here or your roof turns green. But I call this one, "Kenton with his head in the clouds."
Well, my fun's over. Need sleep. Must go to bed. G'night. |
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Jul. 28, 2009
I Heart Faces, Week 29 - "At The Beach" Photo Challenge
Theme: "At The Beach"
 I love this picture of my 3 girlies taken at Lapush (or is it La Push or LaPush) beach in Forks, WA. It was my baby girl's first time @ the Pacific Ocean and she was concentrating on walking in that sand much to my older girls' amusement.
My parents had taken my oldest 5 children overnight for a couple of nights, leaving just hubby & I and our sweet baby girl to ourselves. We enjoyed the time we had together but missed the older children lots! As soon as my parents brought the children home we took off for the beach. That was the longest the girls had been away from their baby sister and they sure missed her (and she them!). They made up for lost time hanging out and playing with her on the beach.
We were a little disappointed that we left a warm, sunny home to end up at a cold, foggy beach, but I sure love the ethereal look it gave the photos. (more below)
Be sure to head on over to www.iheartfaces.com to check out all of the beautiful face entries this week!
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Jul. 27, 2009
Day At The Beach
We are having such a great summer! This last Saturday we spent the day at the Pacific Ocean with both sets of parents. We have so many great beaches around here- but this one is only just over an hour away, I can't believe we haven't spent more time there! I think that will change. This was Julianna's first visit to the *real* ocean. She loved it!
When we left our house, it was warm and sunny and when we got to the beach, it was overcast, cold & foggy. Oh well, we still enjoyed it.
I can't believe July's almost over. Our plan is to start school back up August 31st, but I don't even want to *think* about school yet! I'm so not ready to start. Like I said, we are enjoying our summer! I do plan to (someday) write up a post about what curriculum we're going to be using next year. As school approaches, I'm a little worried about what I'm getting myself into.
Anyway, here are some pics from our day at the beach. Argh! They're in reverse order. Oh well. This first one is my fave. My oldest 5 had just spent two nights with my parents before they arrived home to take off for the beach. They missed Julianna! (and Kenton & I had a great time w/ just one child for a couple of days- my house even STAYED CLEAN... until they got home!)
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Jun. 15, 2009
Splash Of Color
Just wanted to add a couple more since that last post was just for the I Heart Faces entry. Can you believe my baby girl is almost ONE YEAR OLD!??! I can't. She has brought so much JOY to our home. She is such a blessing to us. It was so funny- I had to leave church today because she was getting REALLY noisy. I sat in the nursery with her and watched her play and was able to semi-listen to and watch the service on a TV monitor in there. When the rest of the fam met up with us after church, you would've thought it had been MONTHS since my older children had seen the baby! They mobbed her with kisses and sweet words. Loved that.
Anyway, here's Julianna in living color. :)
and a big smile for ya
(in some of the pics I took, her smile was SO BIG her eyes disappeared! LOL!)
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Jun. 14, 2009
I Heart Faces: Week 23 Kids Category: Sepia Toned
Theme: "At The Beach"
 This is my sweet baby girl, Julianna, examining some daisies. I got plenty of B.I.G. smiles the day I took this photo, but her seriousness here seemed to suit the mood of the sepia tone.
Be sure to head on over to www.iheartfaces.com to check out all of the beautiful face entries this week!
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Jun. 13, 2009
Enjoying Our Summer!
The weather has been unusually nice here. And for quite a while now. I'm talking for the last several months; maybe even a year. And by nice, I mean sunshiney days. Yeah, we had more snow than is typical for this area this last winter, but I actually liked that. I'd take snow over rain any day. Well, almost any day. In the past 1.5 months, I think we've had 2 or 3 rainy days. We even had one day that was over 90 degrees. So that's been nice. And this is supposed to be the rainy PNW!
I am also enjoying a freed-up schedule now that we're done with school. I've gotten around to some projects that I couldn't have before- like the jumper dresses I made for Gracie & Millie this last week. Since I actually had something to share, I really wanted to participate in Mary's (canadagirl) Show & Tell Friday. But yesterday ended up being pretty busy. Yesterday I spent nearly 5 hours removing a virus from my computer after hubby downloaded an infected music file (thank you, honey). Do any of you remember that this same thing happened LAST year around this time? Just before I had Julianna? Well, it happened again. This time wasn't as bad as last time though, thankfully. I have now banned hubby from using my computer. hehe. Then we spent the second half of the day with the in-laws & hubby's sister and her husband. So I just never got around to photographing the dresses for Show & Tell. Today I finished up making Julianna some 4th of July beaded socks. So I guess I'll participate next Friday.
Another thing I've been doing is trying out new hair styles on the girls. I found several blogs that do a great job explaining how to do all of these cute hairdo's. There are pics of a couple below (I took them for my parents who've been in CA for a couple of months).
Well, my hubby's trying to hurry me out the door for a walk, so this post is done! I'll just add some pics below.
My baby girl is almost ONE! Can you believe it?
I LOVE this one. Just wish it wasn't so hazy that day.
Spinning the umbrella was Gracie's idea. :)
A couple more things...
I think it was Kristi in one of her comments who asked if I could write up something about how I use Homeschool Tracker. I've filed that suggestion away and will do that when I can! I did write up something about it (with screenshots even) last year. You can find that here. Our needs change every year though and it seems like I'm always learning new ways of doing things on HST.
And someone else asked about typing up something on how I shoot silhouettes at sunset. I typed up something about that a while back here. I changed the category that post was in so it'd be under the "tips" section.
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Jun. 2, 2009
I Heart Faces- "Happy Birthday" and "Pets"
UPDATE: I feel VERY honored to have received 5th place for my "Pets" entry! THANK YOU, Leslie!
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Theme: Happy Birthday and Pets
Here is my entry for Happy Birthday.
(Urban) Princess Emilia turns 5.
AND
Here is my entry for Pets.
Puss 'N Boots.
Be sure to head on over to www.iheartfaces.com to check out all of the beautiful face entries this week!
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May. 29, 2009
Forgot A Few!
After saving that last post, I *thought* I was missing some pictures. I should've added to my "happenings" list in my previous post that I've been spending too much time on FB lately. I had uploaded some pics on FB, but not on Photobucket (which I use to post pics here) and didn't notice these were missing until after I had posted.
The other night, or I should say *morning* since it was 1 am, I walked past the boys' room and noticed the light was still on. I opened the door to find two things.
First, this. My sweet lil' guy completely zonked out and hanging over the side of his bed:
And secondly, on the top bunk, I found this. My oldest child reading encyclopedias. For the fun of it. About satellites. Yes, he's "one of those" strange homeschoolers. Although Alek would be Alek no matter how he was educated:
Why yes, I do believe this is the 3,957th photo of one of my children blowing the seeds off of a dandelion! They're such fun photos to take though and the children love it too!
And I think I will save my "mitosis" picture for Wordless Wednesday. Remember those diagrams of the process of mitosis in your high school biology book? Keep that in mind when you see the picture I post on Wednesday. And that's all I'm going to say about that. |
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May. 28, 2009
Overdue Update!
Two good things have happened lately: School's OUT and my satellite internet is back up & running!
We were on dial-up for over a month. That's like, an eternity. We had/have the option of getting wireless internet and I was sort of waiting on the outcome of that situation before making a decision to either go back to satellite or wait for wireless. I've been in contact with the owner of this company. He came out to our house a few weeks ago to do a site survey. He said he couldn't even get a good line of site of his towers standing on our two-story high roof because of all of the tall trees! He told me he'd either have to put the receiver up one of our very tall Douglas firs or piggyback a connection from a neighbor who'd have to both be a customer of his AND be willing to have his equipment installed on their property. Well, it just started sounding more and more like this wireless thing wasn't going to happen. And if it did, it sounded like it was going to be a big hassle. It would've saved us $30 & supposedly be quite a bit faster, for both uploading AND downloading. But May's almost gone & he's not even close to being ready. So we signed a 1-year contract with WildBlue and they came out and fixed the problem free of charge. It is SO nice to not have to wait 15 minutes to pull up our bank account and to download pictures and watch videos again. My word.
And boy, were we ready to be done with school! It feels so weird to have so much time freed up, although there's always something that needs to be done around here. I spent this last week entering next year's school assignments into Homeschool Tracker. It took me around 30 hours to do this! I told someone it only takes 4-6 hours to do this, so thought I'd keep track to be sure. Four to six hours. HA! But that is DONE. Grades have been entered. I still need to print out the children's report cards, assemble their portfolios and find a spot (or list on Amazon) for last year's books. Next year's books are in tubs in our school area, waiting to be put on the shelves. I plan to write up a post soon listing all that we are going to be using next year. I enjoy reading others' school year plans (like my friend Tracy's- check out her plans! Talk about organized!) and what they're doing and I'm sure others do too.
As you can see, I've also updated the look here @ CrazyBusy. It really needed to be done. The graphics I had on there were from fall and the letters that spelled Crazy Busy looked like poo. Literally. And I'm surprised nobody told me that. Hehe. I am not good at this html/redesigning blog thing at all. I literally wasted my entire day on that. How frustrating. At least it doesn't look like poo this time though. I had some fun downloading and playing with different Photoshop brushes though.
So what's happened here in the meantime?
- Julianna is 10 months old; she's learned to give kisses, play pat-a-cake and has taken several steps on her own. She LOVES to eat real food (but of course I'm still nursing her), especially Cheerios and bananas. I wish I had named her Liberty.
- Josiah... just keep watching my Friday Funnies posts. That child cracks us up.
- Gabriel turned 8 on May 15th. We spent his birthday @ Discovery Bay. Kenton took them fishing but they didn't catch anything. They spent a lot of time in the pool. That child is going to make the BEST husband and father someday. He's a sweetheart.
- Alek has been obsessed with satellites and TV's lately. He probably knows more about how they work than most adults.
- Alek was baptized May 17th!
- I became a GREAT AUNT! I've always been a great aunt, but now it's official. ;) Kenton's oldest sister's oldest child had her 9lb 3 oz. baby boy on Memorial Day. They live on the other side of the country so I only get to enjoy him in photos. He's a doll and his mama is sure to be one of the best moms around!
- The neighbor kids are driving me nuts. What ever happened to knocking on one's door and *asking*, "Can _____ come out & play?" I will stop there on that one.
- Had my kidney stone blasted. Have a feeling she didn't get it all. Haven't passed anything, as far as I know. Argh.
- Gracie added "Beat rugs" to her chore list. I think she's been reading too many Little House books. It was amusing seeing her out there, rug draped over clothesline, and her beating it with a big stick. How many children do you know that ADD chores to their list?
- Millie is a handful. She reminds me of myself at times- more than I want to admit. Heaven help us.
And of course, I have pictures to share- just snaps from Gabe's birthday and some others.
This was @ Discovery Bay. Josiah was a little Mopey because he had to stay with me while the others went fishing.
Gabe in the pool. He got these goggles from my parents (plus $20!). That is ALL he asked for. Goggles. Gotta love that boy.
He's such a stinker about having his pic taken though. One. This was the only one he semi-cooperated for.
My sweet punkin-girl.
Gabe & his 8 candles.
Some rhodies on a rainy day. (rainy days have been rare- it's been so nice here!)
This next one is a close-up of the previous shot- I thought it was neat that you could see the anthers (?) up close and open.
Yellow rhododendrons with a bee buzzing about.
I am looking forward to catching up with everyone! |
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May. 26, 2009
I Heart Faces- Silhouettes
Theme: Silhouette
This is my first entry, so I hope I did everything right! I took this of my older 4 children a while ago down at our favorite beach. I have to say, I LOVE taking silhouettes and had a hard time choosing a fave!
Be sure to head on over to www.iheartfaces.com to check out all of the beautiful face entries this week!
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May. 10, 2009
Happy Mother's Day, My Friends!
 A Mother's love must always be strong,
her work is hard, her day is long.
But all in all, she is truly blessed,
for there is nothing so warm as a crowded nest.
 I'd Rather
I'd rather be a mother,
Than anyone on earth -
Bringing up a child or two (or six?),
Of unpretentious birth.
I'd rather tuck a little child,
All safe and sound in bed -
Than twine a chain of diamonds,
About my foolish head.
I'd rather wash a smudgy face,
With round, bright baby eyes -
Than paint the pageantry of fame,
or walk among the wise.
 Cleaning and scrubbing can wait 'til tomorrow,
for children grow up, we've learned to our sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep. |
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Apr. 19, 2009
Just One.
(I want to apologize ahead of time to my HSB friends who are also my FB friends. I am just going to copy & paste the commentary I wrote there. However, to console you for wasting your time on this post, the pics DO look better here. I don't like how FB compresses photos. And if you're my HSB friend and on FB, and are NOT my FB friend, why not!? :) I'd love to add you... I love keeping up with my HSB friends there.)
(4-19-09) After church today, I decided I wanted one picture of my children before they changed into play clothes. Just one. It's a lot of work getting six children ready for church. At first glance, I thought I had a good one. Did you see my Christmas card? Do you remember Josiah's face? His poochy lips? Here's a repeat of the incident. The goof.
Just to mix things up a bit, he decided to add the "eyes closed" to his "poochy lips" move. Yeah, you're pretty funny Josiah.
To appease his mother, he tried really hard to keep both eyes open. He even was so kind as to prop one open with his thumb.
But the other one fell shut.
Good try, buddy.
Then things just got a little crazy. Gracie's face began to melt. Gabe's head started to fall off. Alek started panting. The baby was getting scared. Millie was clueless as to what was going on behind her and Josiah just decided not to let me see what his eyes were doing at all.
Group explosion. That was the end of that.
Typical of my children. (baby was not harmed. oldest got baby-holding lecture.)
I think this one's my favorite. Josiah just cracks me up. Check out his face in this one. He is so proud of himself for literally one-upping his sisters' peace signs. Although with three fingers up, I no longer believe it's considered a peace sign.
And last, but not least, my crazy 4 year old riding his bike without training wheels!
That's all, folks! |
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Apr. 15, 2009
No Ordinary Tea Party
When I heard that our town was going to have a Tea Party, I knew we'd have to send at least one representative from our family. The spending going on in Washington and the lack of accountability is appalling.
Our town has seen plenty of protests during Bush's presidency- calling for his impeachment (?), protesting the war... there were usually about 5, maybe 10 protesters marching around in circles. I really didn't expect we'd see more than 20 people at ours.
I didn't want the whole family to participate, for a variety of reaons: I wasn't sure how those who didn't agree would react and what that would expose the children to; I wasn't expecting a huge turnout and didn't want my family singled out for anything; etc. However, I did at least want to drive by and see it happening. So Kenton and Alek were our chosen family representatives. We dropped them off about a block away and drove by.
The turnout was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Our paper estimated there were between 300-400 protesters there. The event organizer, however, told me about 500 people had come & gone that day. People are fed up! And have a right to be!
The children & I found a great parking spot, where we could watch the protesters and hear the cars drive by, honking their horns in support of the cause which in turn excited the protesters into a frenzy of whoops, hollers and cheers. I finally decided that we would go join them. There were so many people there, including several families with children, that I knew we'd blend right in.
It was pretty exciting for the children, although I think Alek is the only one who could competently tell you why we were even there.
Social Studies: Current Events? Check.
Here are some photos from our (rebellious) Tea Party:
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Apr. 12, 2009
Easter Sunday
This Easter was... different. It was just the children and I. My parents and Kenton's parents went on a cruise together for the 453rd time. And they didn't even take US. Can you believe it?!
So while those pobrecitos were sailing to Hawaii on Easter, Kenton was working and I didn't even get to go to church with my children. My two littlest both had nasty, nasty colds. Didn't want to share the love with the church-goers.
And it was raining.
But we made the best of it- we had a ham dinner ready to eat with Kenton before he left for work that evening. And we colored Easter eggs and had an egg/candy hunt.
We also watched The Greatest Story Ever Told. I told my children they had to watch it since we missed church that morning. It seemed appropriate. However, have you seen that movie? It's like, 3 1/2 hours long, or something like that. We didn't watch it all at once, as other things that needed to be done broke it up a bit. But there was a part- maybe it was when Joseph & Mary were traveling to Bethlehem? Where along the road, there were all of these criminals hung on crosses scattered all over the place. And there was this creepy, echoey, spooky chanting going on. Freaked me out. I don't even know if that part is biblical. What is that about?!
Other than it being an unusual Easter, it was still nice, and of course grateful to our Savior for all He's done for us.
Here are some of our Easter pics (these are going to show up backwards, and I apologize, but I am on dial-up right now, so it will have to do):
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Apr. 5, 2009
Sunshine and Beaches and Sea Glass, Oh My!
What beautiful weather we've had! We decided to head out to our favorite beach yesterday, and it seemed we weren't the only ones who had that idea. There were a lot of people there! We hung out for a while and then Kenton decided he wanted to take us to this little beach he'd discovered recently. He had found a bunch of sea glass there and thought the children would like to try and find some. Boy, was he right! We're probably going to head back there again today. We were there until dark last night.
Gracie was my little poser yesterday, as you can tell.
There was a little park at the top of the trail to the beach. The children played a bit while we got ready to go.
I love it when at least ONE of my children is in the mood to have their pic taken. :)
Silly Millie.
Millie again.
Gracie showing me her little tiny piece of sea glass. We're going to start a collection and put them in a clear vase.
Josiah.
Millie climbing the big rocks.
My honeys.
I liked this graffiti. It was really dark when I took this though. I'll have to try it again. That's a paper mill in the background.
And here's a pic of the sea glass we collected!
Off to enjoy the nice weather! Adios!
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