|
This is a long post. It was a very long day. Let's see...we had our field trip to Sea World planned for the morning, followed by a riding lesson for SammyJo and then Teenager's baseball game. On paper, it looked doable, but then I have trouble remembering to factor in a small thing called the human element. Sea World was offering a special deal to homeschoolers wherein we could get in for $5 each. It covers a half day admission, which is from 9:30 to 1:30. This is a very good deal. And we were supposed to be at the horse barn at 2:00, so we wouldn't have been able to stay any longer anyway. We had to sign up as a group and go into the park together, through the Education Gate. Sea World is not far, but the traffic is very bad, that time of day, so we all planned to leave North County around 7:30 am. For me, that meant a 5 am wake up, which turned out to be difficult because Littlebit ended up in my bed after sleeping fitfully from 7:00 to 11:30. I decided a Starbucks was in order, which put us a little late getting on the freeway, but we had padded our time and traffic was moving, so all seemed well. UNTIL we got about 20 minutes down the road, where we came to a virtual stand still and spend 45 minutes CRAWLING. It turns out we had just missed a four car pile up! I don't think anyone was seriously hurt, but it took forever to clear the lanes. Believe it or not I still made it to Sea World by 9:00, but part of group did not, and so we missed the first 30 minutes of the admission period. I decided to call SammyJo's trainer and get the lesson pushed back, even though that would probably cause us to be a few minutes late to Teenager's ball game. We then proceeded to have a lovely field trip. I got no pictures because the memory stick to my camera was sitting here plugged into my laptop. Around lunch time we all started wearing down and decided we might as well leave and get some lunch before heading to the barn, but then decided to let God's Science Kid choose one more attraction to visit in honor of his birthday. He chose the Freshwater Aquarium, and off we went. It was very dark inside and I had just helped Littlebit to climb up on a ledge to look at the fish when I turned to set the brake on the stroller. It was at that moment that she decided to step off the ledge, misjudged the height, and went crashing to the floor. I couldn't see her in the dark and was feeling around and realized there was blood. A lot of it. I scooped her up, and went running back outside. She was screaming and blood was gurlging out of her mouth! It was awful. I sat down on the ground, pried her lips open, counted her teeth, and found the big gash where her tooth had gone all the way THROUGH her lip. I had to pin her down and squeeze it really hard to get the bleeding to stop. She was, of course, flailing around and screaming, "OW MOMMA, OW MOMMA OWWWWW!" Then I look up and realize I have landed in the middle of a public school field trip and all the kids are staring at me in horror. We are covered in blood, Caroline's lip is swelling and I'm very ready to call it a day at that point. I go back to the aquarium entrance to call my children and Parker begins crying because he didn't get to finish looking at the fish. (He stopped quickly when he realized his sister was hurt). The other moms and I had a pow wow and decided medical intervention would not be helpful, so I just said our good byes and made a beeline for the car and first aid kit. Then we went to the barn. Where SammyJo had a very uncooperative horse and a not very fun lesson. She was pretty much on the verge of tears all the way back to town, and I was looking around at the filthy kids, the disheveled car, my emotionally distraught teenager, and my bloody toddler and wondering how bad a mom I would be if I were to skip the ball game. I decided to stop by the field and ask a friend to be my substitute while I gave everyone else a little TLC. I was about 5 minutes from the ball field when my cell phone started ringing. It was my friend's husband telling me Teenager had been hit by a foul ball and they were going to get a car and try to bring him to me. It seems the very first batter up hit a foul ball directly through a gap into the dugout and into the back of my son's head. He was momentarily rendered paralyzed, blacked out, and hit the floor of the dugout. I'm so glad I wasn't there to see it! He recovered pretty quickly and couldn't understand what all the fuss was about! So I dropped Sammy Jo at the house with the other kids and instructions for giving Caroline some soft cold food and cleaning the blood off her (poor little thing!) and we headed for the ER. The staff there took us back pretty quickly and did an x-ray and CT scan, which were both clean. The doctor said he has a mild concussion and I will have to wake him periodically over the next 12 hours to check his alertness. I wonder if he has ever tried to talk to a teenage boy who has been sleeping soundly? I'm so very thankful to my Lord for keeping him from more serious injury. It could have been so much worse. And now, I'm going to go kiss my kiddies and try to get a little bit of uninterrupted sleep. |
|
Birthdays always seem chaotic to me. Probably because I'm so last minute in my preparations whenever DH is on deployment. It is like a swarm of locusts just descended on the pile of presents and the cake and has now flown off to other regions of the house. The last and best present was a new lego kit. It's a house and the most complex thing we have bought (translation--most expensive), so all the kids are pitching in to assemble it. I hate to tell them they will have to quit and go to bed in 10 minutes. We have a field trip to Sea World bright and early in the morning. Here are a few of the highlights. I'm getting too tired to type up captions, so I will just leave it at visuals.
   I also forgot to say that for his special birthday dinner he requested Pizza Hut cheese pizza, so I was let totally off the hook today. They watched Man vs. Wild from Netflix while they ate. We had put ourselves on the waiting list and it was released yesterday, just in time for the birthday. Fun. Fun.
Littlebit and I only made it through the first 15 minutes and then escaped to my bedroom to watch Caillou on the laptop and wrap the presents (I told you I'm very last minute.) I have probably ruined the chances for my grandchildren to have decent birthdays, since both girls wondered aloud why I bother to wrap gifts when the paper will be pulled off momentarily. |
|
Since it is God's Science Kid's birthday the post this evening will be about him only. But I had to post these funny pictures of Caroline doing her "school work" (as she told us over and over and over). Parker didn't appreciate her commandeering his penmanship page for the day, but I reasoned that if she scribbled on it too terribly, we could always skip it for the day. And suddenly it was all right. I hope it doesn't start a trend of "oops, Caroline got ahold of my math for today"!    |
|
Adventu That is the name of this Norman Rockwell painting and seemed a fitting title to today's post as well. It's amazing how I can go for days running off at the mouth and then suddenly the well dries up and......nothing. I can't think of a single thing to blog about. It's not that there is nothing going on around here. There is always SOMETHING going on around here! So that is where I'm at tonight, but I wanted to update so here I sit rambling on...and on....and on. We actually have a busy week planned and it would have made a great "weekly plan" post, but it is just not the same to do it on Monday evening, already a day into it, so I will just have to fill you in as it happens. Here is a sneak preview though: a birthday boy, a field trip to Sea World, and a homeschool convention. And those are just the highlights. Oh and my sweet SIL is going to have my next little nephew at any moment! Can you believe this is all happening in one week and I still can't think of anything to write about. Actually what's on my mind is solar energy. Glad I got that off my chest. Maybe that will clear my mind for more interesting subjects tomorrow. Stay tuned for birthday pics. We are having ice cream cake from Baskin & Robbins. I picked it up this afternoon on my way back from dropping off the boys at baseball practice. |
rers Between Adventures
It is that I think it would either a.) be too shocking or b.) too boring. Or maybe it would shock half of you and bore the other half.
I know. You never know what to expect out of me do you? There is actually a good reason for it. or two. First, is that our electric bills are unreasonably high, mainly due to 12 foot ceilings, which are totally impractical and children who open windows and doors when the AC is running. But I digress. I also found out there has been a convention this weekend here in San Diego on the subject and I missed the days which were open to to the public. Drat. However, I did get to hear some knowledgeable folks talking about it on the radio and I've been researching it this evening and doing the math and it would pay for itself in 4 years time. Seems like it would be worth checking into.|
This family is going through an awful lot right now, and have been having one trial after another since I started reading their blog. They have a homeschool business that will be their sole source of support for the near future. If you are shopping for curriculim for next year, please consider ordering from them instead of your usual vendor.
|
|
Yesterday was a stay at home day. A friend offered to drive Teenager to his baseball game, and suddenly my whole day stretched out before me. I made a decision to stay at home no matter what. Of course, we ran out of goat's milk and Littlebit became very unhappy with the water we kept offering in its place. I reasoned, though, that it would not hurt for her to go a day without it, and so we overcame that obstacle. Then I realized that we had a movie due back at the library, which would cost us 50 cents in fines, oh, but wait! We spend at least twice that in gas to get over there. Better to wait. Then I remembered a package I had wanted to mail to a friend. That was almost my undoing. I was very ready to jump in the car so I could mail it out in a timely manner. But no, I overcame the urge and made a list instead. I had to take Teenager to his lit class this morning, and then had a chiropractor appointment immediately following, so I decided to combine all my errands into one trip. I had a whole little route plotted out in my mind, to do this in the least amount of time and to use the least amount of gas. I planned to leave the kids at home to further improve my speed and efficiency. I would surely be back early enough to get in a good school day.  Then I read Jen's post on being a party pooper and decided this plan would never do. So I went to the chiropractor and the post office on the way back from dropping Teenager off, and then loaded everyone into the car to drive to the park and go on a nature walk. Except for the cranky toddler who missed both nap times, I think it was a success. Even Teenager had to admit to enjoying our company surrounded by such beautiful scenery.  Littlebit's favorite part was sitting on this rock throwing leaves in the water. You wouldn't believe the position I had to contort myself into to get this picture. I can't believe I didn't fall in. What a dedicated blogger I am!
 After walking a little further down the path we found this pretty spot. The kids decided this was the perfect spot to play indian tribe and would have played happily for several hours if the toddler had been more cooperative, although Teenager did his best to keep her entertained.       Most of the shots of the boys are a little blurry, as they never stopped moving. I did convince God's Science Kid to pose in front of this very cool tree. |
|
Well, we are totally unknowledgeable and inexperienced, but at least our plants have survived the first months under our care. Here is our first ever raised vegetable bed.
We have two different tomatoes, red and green peppers, some cabbage, and a strawberry plant. Something is eating the cabbage. I haven't managed to find any clues yet. I noticed these little flowers on the strawberry plant, which are new, and I take as an encouraging sign:
The tomato plants are also sporting some little (pre fruit????) flowers:
The girls have also tried their hand at growing edibles. They started theirs from seeds only a couple of weeks ago. Shelby has been the constant and faithful tender of her little charge and is reaping the rewards:
Samantha's care has been a little, shall we say, erratic, and she is learning a valuable lesson:
Although, the other children have come up with some very creative explanations in trying to comfort her. |
 It's been an interesting day. I was intending on posting pictures of some fun stuff I found at the thrift store, but I've spent the last several hours cleaning it all, and I have no energy left to blog about it. Caroline has been walking around all day randomly calling out names of food and drink. I'm not sure what it's all about. She is a quirky little thing. She started on the way to Biology Lab:
"chicken nuggets, chocolate cake, sweet tea, cookies....." to no one in particular. It seemed we weren't even expected to respond, so we didn't. However, she continued with the list throughout the day. Tonight in the bath it was, "buns, sandwiches, biscuits, sausages, coffee, fudge". I never knew a one year old could list so many different foods. Do you suppose she's categorizing information in her brain--sort of like defragmenting a computer? Hmmmm. It's a thought. We also had another tooth lost today. That makes three children and four teeth in 5 days. I think it's a conspiracy. They are probably up there right now planning ways to loosen more. Oh, and Shelby has solved one of life's great mysteries. On the way home from ballet she announced to me that the Starbucks sign must be green and white because stars are white and bucks are green. Makes sense to me! And I leave you with this poem, scribbled down by Samantha, whilst she awaited her turn at reading out loud. She posted it on her blog as well, but with lots of highlighting, funky colors and large fonts. Mine is easier on the eyes.
We Are Homeschoolers
No, we DON'T get to go to school in our pjs,
WE also have to work all 5 days;
We get chores along with school,
Sometimes the teacher and I have a duel.
We are homeschoolers.
We get breaks when the phone rings,
Also when the doorbell dings,
When the baby cries,
When it's laundry time.
We are homeschoolers.
Our best friend is probably our brother,
Of course the teacher is our mother!
We always have to answer the question,
There are no other students to make a suggestion.
We are homeschoolers.
When Grandma comes we get a break,
A birthday means free ice cream and cake!
At lunch we get reading out loud,
Also at lunch, there is no crowd.
We are homeschoolers.
In some ways public schoolers are lucky, but we're luckier,
Because I can tell you: I'm a proud homeschooler!
|
  "You smell da flowers, Mommy!"  "Smell da flowers!"  "Mommy, smell da flowers. Smell da flowers, Mommy!"  And she's off to do something else since we won't cooperate.  Let's see what we can do with the tomato plants that my big sisters have been so carefully tending.
|
And she's off to do something else since we won't cooperate.
Let's see what we can do with the tomato plants that my big sisters have been so carefully tending. 
Mwhaaahaaahaaahaaa haaahaaa
|
I guess you've all noticed that I did not manage to come up with a plan for this week. I became overwhelmed starting about Friday morning as I was rushing from Chiropractor to grocery store to church and back again and then the baby got sick and yada yada yada. I guess I need a new list, but I was reading over at Susannah's that I have been doing it all wrong. She says the list ought to conform to the day and not the other way round. So here is my list. Although it is not nearly as entertaining to read as hers, I feel I have accomplished quite a lot:
|