We are at the point in construction where it is time for us to start contributing to the process (more than just financially) to keep costs down.  I have three rooms to paint, numerous doors to paint, furniture to move, 5 or so pieces of furniture to refinish, shades/curtains to buy and hang, closets to build, oh and so much more!  Then there is Thanksgivng and, dare I say, CHRISTMAS on the horizon!  This is my favorite season, and I want to savor it somehow in the mist of all of this change.  I want my children to remember Christmas season 2009 as a great year, not the year mom went crazy. LOL! 

So to create balance, this is officially our last day of highly structured and planned school for this season in our lives.  We will still school, but in a lighter, less structured way.  The plan is to do reading, math, and tea time each day and have two goals for the week. Notice ~ I can't help but have to have a plan.  I really lack the unschooling bone, even though I wish I had it ....  The rest of the time, the kids will be learning skills in painting, weeding out toys, cleaning, playing peacefully and independently (still a challenge around here for some), and continuing to practice flexibility. 

On top of the basics mentioned earlier, the two goals for next week are to make an Arctic mural and do another outdoor challenge.  We will be studying the arctic and arctic life for the month of November.

I leave you with this picture of the kiddos!  Our outdoor challenge last week was to find squirrels and study them.  We could not find a single squirrel, but we did have fun climbing trees.

Blessings,

Dawn

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We keep moving on in construction.  Since I last posted pictures, insulation and drywall have gone up.  Also, the siding men have started putting new siding around the upper part of the house.  We decided to do the whole upper part ot the house since the old aluminum siding was really, really old and had become a yucky faded color.  I think it was called by one of the men, yellow-limey algae slime. LOL!!

The really big news is that Tom Sawyer gets the new room!!!  He is so excited.  Timothy was given first choice because he is the oldest, but decided it felt too small to him.  It is probably the smallest room (or at least feels like it with the attic like design).  Because we live in a Dutch Colonial and this room is on the second floor, the Dutch Colonial roof was extended and thus the garrett walls. Tim will move to what is currently our room, and we will move back to the master (which has been Tom Sawyer's and Little Red Ridinghood's).  Little Red Ridinghood will move to Timothy's current room and Goldilocks will stay put in her current room.  Are you confused yet?!?!  BOY, do we have a lot of painting to do in the next few weeks.

The sanding part of the drywall starts sometime this week.  Everyone says this is the really bad part of construction because of the dust.  We will have to be very careful with our asthmatic children.

The new color of our siding is called bananas (kinda like us, ya know).  The contractor was a little concerned that it might be too yellow.  We love it, though.  With our 1931 home, we wanted the historic yellow that you find on homes in our area and this one matches up great.  I will have to try to get a picture of it in the sun.

In other news....We are trying to make this rotation of 4 bedrooms less insane by doing a little bit each week.  We are getting far enough along to start moving things around.  Since we (the parents) are going back to the master, we decided to start working on the walk-in closet.  When we started this weekend, it was a clean slate with only a two wooden shelves up high.  The teddy bear border around the ceiling was from when the closet was Little Red Ridinghood's nursery.  (I've kept the border for sentimental reasons.) It was really important to us to redo this closet for less than $100 but have it look nice and be functional.

Along the far wall we put in a pressure pole that was laying around in someone's closet not being used.  The pole will hold clothes that the children have grown out of and are waiting to go to consignment sales.  It also holds long-term storage clothes (like my wedding dress), which is tucked back in the corner out of sight.  The top self holds photo albums and the kids' baby boxes and books.   You can also see that we have loads of winter coats and snow pants.  Yes, I know we live in North Carolina.  But, my Northern roots get in the way sometimes, and I am just sure it could snow for real anytime now.  

Underneath the consignment pole is all of the kids clothes that do not fit them yet and unmarked boxes holding future gifts.

Towards the front of the closet are our clothes and shoes.  Also, we have a box of Christmas books and wrapping paper.

Total cost for the closet redo ~

$6 for the shoe rack with coupon

$40 for the storage boxes

$12 for the rack and hardware

Total~$58

Blessings,

Dawn

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Welcome to another Show and Tell with Mary.

Timothy is really enjoying his continuing education classes at our local community college.  This session he took "woodworking" and "knowing your digital camera".  In his woodworking class, he made a wooden shoe all with hand tools. 

This is the front view.  I love all the detail he put into it.  The little lines used as trim were burned into the wood.

Here is the side view.  I love the detail of the tongue in the shoe.

Blessings,

Dawn

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We are having lots of fun with Barb's Outdoor Challenge.

We have enjoyed several nature walks around the neighborhood collecting leaves and observing the change in season.  We found an Oak tree as our tree to follow for a year and watch all the changes it goes through.

Here are some interesting shots that our children took of the neighborhood foliage.


The kids thought this bark looked like a face!


Tom Sawyer misplaced the adult tree identification book, so we cannot identify these strange pods. Hopefully, we will identify them soon.  In the meantime, anybody out there know what this is ?


Tom Sawyer insisted on stopping every few feet and drawing anything that was NOT a tree.  Here he is drawing a picture of a stick.  He is our budding artist, after all. 

The kids have been complaining that we have not decorated for fall.  So, we took the leaves back to our house and did crafts with them.  We did the traditional crayon rubbings and pressing leaves between wax paper. 


While we were at it,  we made a table centerpiece with fabric leaves, pumpkins, and apples.


And decorated our own home grown pumpkin that weighed in at 68 pounds !!


Blessings,

Dawn

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Bbullard, you guessed right!  We did indeed go to Myrtle Beach!  We were rained out most of the days, but had a very nice time anyway.  My father-in-law gave us a wonderful gift of a condo for the week.  We so appreciate that gift.  We were also blessed that my mother could join us. 

We were blessed with one complete day in the sun and a few stolen hours on the other days.

Tom Sawyer using the sea scope to look for little critters.

Dh and I enjoying a walk on the beach.

Lots of love notes in the sand.

A rascal who was told NOT to get wet being called out!

The girls spent most of their beach time digging moats and castles.

On the days that there was too much rain to play in the sand, we enjoyed the game room and indoor pools at the resort.  Daddy taught everyone how to play pool, and the kids loved playing Wii mini golf.

We also enjoyed going to two movies in the movie theater (a rare event for us!).  We saw "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" and "Where the Wild Things Are".  We also took a day trip to Wilmington, NC. 

We enjoyed touring the historic section of Wilmington and going to the Cape Fear Museum of History.  The kids really loved all the hands-on exhibits there.  On the way back to Myrtle Beach, we took a ferry ride.  The kids were amazed that we could drive a car on a boat.  We fed a loaf of bread to the seagulls and pelicans.


Everyone's favorite event was the Ripley's Aquarium.  If you have never been there before, I highly recommend it.  They also give a GREAT homeschool discount.


The three little ones looking at a coral reef with lots of fish!

One of the most awesome things about this aquarium was a tunnel underneath the huge tank!  You are surrounded on all sides by fish, sharks, and sting rays.  This sawfish was laying on the roof of the tunnel right above our heads!  They even have an area where you can pet stingrays, and horseshoe crabs.  Some of us were brave enough for that. 

All in all, this was a great trip!

Blessings,

Dawn

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• Expressive
• Mother's helper
• Athletic
• Loving
• Nurturing
• Friendly

Blessings,
Dawn

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It is time for another Show and Tell with Mary!

We are in week two of construction and so far, so good.  The framing is almost done, and we should be "dried in" within the next few days.  Our contractor tells us that this is the fast part when the weather is nice, and it will get slower down the road.  We are hoping to be done by the first week of December.

It is starting to get really noisy around here.  There is loads going on inside and out.  More of the house is being affected than I expected, but it still is not nearly as bad as people told me it would be.  Yes, there is more dust, but the guys clean up after themselves really well.  There is always the backyard to escape to when things get really loud inside.

The roof going on! 

Inside the house, there are pressure beams and bracing going on in Goldilock's room to  give added support to the new room above.

Also her radiator is out and being replaced with a smaller radiator so that she will have more wall space.  Her radiator was so large that it never could warm  all the way across.  We are very blessed that the radiator man is trading our huge radiator for two small radiators.  The only cost to us is the labor.  What a blessing that is.

One of our new to us radiators!

Yikes, somebody get me some paint!  The beams will be covered back up once the inspector has looked everything over at this stage.

As for the new room ~

It is coming along and we are starting to get a better vision of what it will look like.  Several of you asked, "Who gets the new room?"  That is a really good question.  I don't know for sure.  Timothy has first choice because he is the oldest.  However, he is thinking that the room looks a bit claustrophobic with the attic like walls.  More likely than not, the new room will go to Tom Sawyer (7) who is chomping at the bit to have it.

Next week our electricity is being brought up to meet fire and city codes, and our circuit breaker is being upgraded so that we have enough electricity for the new room as well as the rest of the house.  We've been tripping the circuit breaker for years.

Have a blessed weekend!

Blessings,

Dawn

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We are doing the outdoor challenges with Barb. 

 We finally found some cattails.  They are in our local bird sanctuary, so it will be easy to follow them for a year now that we've found them.  The kids really wanted to touch them but they were too far away for us to reach as well as on protected ground .  I will have to keep my eye out for some they can feel.

Here is a picture of my sweet boy trying to climb a tree to reach the cattails.

Here are the children and my drawings of cattails.  Going clockwise~ Tom Sawyer (7), Me, Little Red Ridinghood (5), and Goldilocks (8).

Blessings,

Dawn

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I chose Owl Moon as our theme book for this month's FIAR activity group to read.  We went to the WNC Nature Center with our Five In A Row special needs group to learn about owls.  We had a wonderful class hosted by Timothy's boss, Keith.  He did a great job of including all of the children regardless of their special needs.  He even communicated with one child in sign language.  I was very impressed. 

We learned all about raptor birds.  The kids were really engaged in the learning process and asked lots of great questions. There were lots of hands-on things to touch, including eggs, feathers and nests. The highlight was getting to meet a real live owl.

The kids learned all the body parts of owls, their habits, how they fly and how they hunt.  Then they played a game based off of "rock, paper, scissors" to learn about the owl's food chain.   We all started out as an acorn and went around saying, "I'm a nut" until we met another nut.  Then we would play "rock, paper, scissors" and the winner would become a mouse.  We went around and around until everyone made it to a predator that could eat an owl.  Did you know that crows will dive bomb an owl while it is sleeping and eat it?  Owls and crows are lifelong enemies.

After our class, we had a picnic lunch and toured the rest of the nature center.  I did not get many photos, since I was talking to other mothers.  However, the otter was very entertaining and I did get a picture of her.

I am glad that our special needs group is starting to take off.   It is wonderful to have a "safe" place filled with understanding within the homeschool world for our special needs kids.  Even in the homeschool world, it has often been a challenge to "fit in" with the normal homeschool groups because of academic requirements or behavior requirements.  This group is working out well and hopefully will provide a well-needed service in our area.

Blessings,

Dawn

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After much thought and prayer over the last year, we have decided that our current home is the "forever" home.  We like our low mortgage, land, location, and living in a vintage home.  There was only one major problem ~ we needed one more bedroom.  We have a unique situation where each of the children needs their own room.   Becuase of Goldilock's issues, it is not safe for her to share a room with Little Red Ridinghood.  Her behaviors are just too unpredictable, and we want both of our dd's to find their bedrooms to be a peaceful, safe place.  Goldilocks also sleeps behind an alarmed door for everyone's safety.  Furthermore, our disabled 19 year old son will continue to live with us for many years to come.  It is important to us that, while he needs much support and care, that he also have some independence and a space of his own.  So it would not work for him to share a room with his 7 year old brother.  That has left our youngest son and daughter sharing a room for a few years.   All that said, we decided we had to add a room to our home.

So....the adventure begins.  The first indication that something was really going to happen was this showing up in our driveway.

I bet this had any neighbors that we don't know talking up a storm.  (We know the neighbors well on either side of us, but can not seem to get past the waving stage with the folks across the street ~ they keep to themselves but watch us a lot.)

Then changes started inside the house.  Bye-bye bedroom window!  This will all be drywalled over after the inspector comes out.

Then this morning the crane came!  It was really cold and foggy outside, so the kids only stood outside for a few minutes.  I kept telling them how exciting this was and they kept shivering.

It will be a small railroad room (meaning you have to walk through one room to get to the other), but we are so happy the project is underway.  We are also very happy with our contractor so far.  I interviewed a lot of men, but one just stuck out as being really honest, caring, and willing to really look at ways to save us money and build a little bit green.  He is really proving to be all that and more.  He is really good about safety issues and giving the kids a safe space to watch and learn.  He grew up in a family with 13 kids, so it must come naturally to him to think what the kids need!  Also the men he has hired are very respectful, and I have heard no bad language out of them at all. 

Week one down!  I can't wait to see what next week brings.

Blessings,

Dawn

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We are working on learning to tell time this week.  We are lucky to have a large clock floor game, and the kids are having so much fun learning with it.  This game can be played in several ways.  One way is to throw the big dice and then move the hands to the correct positions.

Here is my 5 year old learning with the game.  She was very pleased with herself.  I never imagined teaching kids to tell time would be so easy and fun.  Another way this game can be played is using the kids as the hands of the clock. 

This is such a great way for my hands-on and very physical child to learn.  She had down the concept in less than 4 turns.  It will be interesting to see if it sticks in her mind.  We will be exploring lots of ways to learn time this week including good old worksheets.  It sure is nice having this game to get them off on and learning with a light and fun attitude.  It is called Time Mat by Learning Resources.

Blessings,

Dawn

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Well, I did the last of my shopping for this month's challenge.  This has been a hard week.  We have had doctor and therapy appointments every day.  We have eaten out fast food twice with coupons.  Anyhoo, I still count this a huge sucess. 

This weeks shopping ~

Sam's ~

• spinach
• strawberries
• cherry tomatoes
• two heads of lettuce
• two containers organic ketchup
• big bag of carrots
• 10 pound bag of potatoes
• big bag of corn chips
• red grapes
• green grapes

Total~ 52.12

Ingles ~

• big bag of cheese
• two jars of spagetti sauce
• bag of dog food
• two tubs of smart balance with coupons
• bananas
• two bags of candy corn

Total 28.24

Grand total for this week $80.36

Grand total for the month~ $322.92   Yeah!

Reflections ~ I am very low on food and ideas.  Right now I feel like getting through the next 6 days is going to be really hard.  Hopefully, I will get some inspiration soon to make the next few days easy going.  My savings really came from making my own cleaning supplies and laundry detergent.  Also, the kids did not miss juice at all.  I was surprised about that.  Amazing Savings (dent and scratch store) is very helpful to me savings-wise, while the local Ingles is not.  My "emergency" trip to Ingles produced very little food for almost $30.  I will continue shopping this way.  I will increase the amount to $100 a week so I can take advantage of sales and stock up a bit.

Blessings,

Dawn

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We are doing Outdoor Nature Studies with Barb-Harmony Mom this year.  This week we were supposed to go looking for cattails.  We did not find any cattails because it has been raining here for a week and the river is flowing over its banks.  For this reason, our nature study turned into learning about the flow of rivers and what it means when a river crests over its banks.  We live very close to the river district and went to a park in it near our home.  The park is separated by a road.  One side was already closed, and the other side will probably be closed in a few hours, especially if it starts to rain again.  The predictions are for 4 more days of rain and about 3 to 4 more inches of rain.  After very, very strict guidelines were given out about staying near mommy, we got out of the car and walked around a bit.

All of the area around this path is usually low lands that are sometimes muddy but not under water.

The spot with the bench is one of my kids favorite places to hang out at this park.  As you can see the river has left the banks and is running through here.  You can kind of see the speed of the water from the picture under the bridge.  It is moving at a very good clip.  Luckily, there is very little debris so far.

This bench which water is almost touching is usually about 10 feet from the river. 

After checking out the flooding, the kids sat down to journal about their findings.

Happy outdoor adventuring!

Blessings,

Dawn

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I made the decision this weekend that it was time for my youngest dd to learn how to swallow a pill.  She will be six in just a few weeks.  I want her to be able to swallow a pill so that she can take a small Cod Liver Oil pill. The children need the extra vitamin D, because we eat very little dairy products.  With the Fall setting in and the sun's strength depleting, it is important that she gets vitamin D.  All of the other children have been taking Cod Liver Oil or Vitamin D pills for months.  I knew that getting her to take a pill was going to be hard.  However, I did not imagine that it would turn into such an event.  There were many tears and spitting the pill out!  The tears went on for a long time....long enough to pull out the camera.  She actually asked me, "Is this real?  Is this really happening to me?"  I guess she thought it was a nightmare. LOL.

My goodness!  This child can carry on.

And on and on and on!!!

After sucking on several Cod Liver Oil pills which made them split open and spill into her mouth, throwing up once, and throwing three pills in different stages of destruction on the floor, she finally swallowed a pill. 

A teeny tiny pill!  This child is so dramatic.  I don't know what to do with her sometimes.  I feel better that I stuck with it, though.  When she finally swallowed she giggled and had to admit that it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be.  The worst part was when it melted in her mouth.  Well, duh!  That is why you are supposed to swallow it quickly...  

On a happier note~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We went on our latest field trip to a small train museum in a small town only about 45 minutes from us this weekend.  I forgot the camera, but it was lots of fun.  Right when we arrived, a large freight train came through the depot.  We were able to stand at the fence and watch it lumber by.  It was thrilling to see a train so close and the engineer waved at the kids.  They were very excited about that.  We were surprised to find the museum having an ice cream social.  I love small towns.  The kids enjoyed listening to the banjo music and eating ice cream sundaes. I have been teaching them the instruments in the orchestra and they could identify each one in the Bluegrass Band.  The bass had been difficult to identify when listening to classical music, but this time they were pleased to sit within a few feet of it and really hear the sound of that instrument.  Honestly, school happens 24/7 if one just lets it.

We then moved on to the Gateway To The Mountains Museum and enjoyed it as well.  Lastly, we watched the river which is really rising and about to spill its banks.  It has been raining for five days here and is forecasted to rain for 10 more days.  The news is predicting sizable flooding coming our way.  Our home is on high ground but travel may require some detours in the coming days.

Blessings,

Dawn

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We are now in week 3 of Mary's challenge at Owlhaven.  I am going about $5 to $10 over the goal each week and my cupboards are a bit more bare than I like.  Also, I am very low on produce and laundry detergent.  I need to get to the Farmer's Market and also make some laundry detergent this weekend.  I am pleased with how well it is going over all.  Considering that in the past few months I have been spending closer to $700, I can see that there is real room for saving money in the future.  I think I will make my goal for next month $100 dollars a week so I will have more wiggle room and I will be motivated to make this a lifestyle change instead of a one month challenge. 

Here is this week's shopping. 

Amazing Savings~

• 2 packages of organic ground beef
• 1 package of cheese
• 3 bags of chips
• Rasberry jam
• Organic beef boullion
• Bananas
• Red pepper
• 1 pound cherry tomatoes
• 1 tomato
• Organic chicken nuggets
• Orange juice (We were not going to buy juice this month but the price was really good and two kids have the sniffles.)
• Rice Dream
• 2 Ians organic package of gluten-free fish patties (enough for one meal)
• Loaf of bread for dh's lunch
• 2 boxes of gluten-free chedder crackers
• 2 bags of gluten-free bagels
• 2 packages of organic sausage links
• Gluten-free pasta
• Dairy-free ice cream sandwiches
• 2 bottles of sparkling strawberry juice (saving for Thanksgiving)
• 2 packages of hash browns
• 1/2 pound organic jelly beans
• 1 bag of cereal

Total~ $58.28

Walmart~

• 2 pounds of grapes
• Jar of Salsa
• 5 ears of corn
• 1 dozen eggs
• Smart Balance margarine
• 2 packages of nitrite-free lunch meat (for our on-the-road days)
• Can of Olives
• 2 Pizza Crusts
• 2 bags of Cheese
• Gluten-free Mac and Cheese
• 1 jar of spagetti sauce
• Corn tortillas

Total~$32.88

Grand Total~$81.16

Blessings,

Dawn

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Well, he sorta is going to college.  Timothy started some continuing education classes today at our local community college.  We decided with his special needs and learning challenges that taking very small steps into the college world was the best choice for him.  He will be starting with continuing education classes and then try an audited class or two and then perhaps regular college classes. 

He loved his first class in woodworking and the class was small with only 6 students.  He will be making a little wooden shoe next week.  He will also be starting digital photography tomorrow.  Everything went just as we had planned and practiced.  He got to class just fine and back to our meeting place. 

There was one funny thing, though.  Timothy wanted to get a snack while he waited for me.  He checked out the vending room and saw that they had a coffee machine.  He really wanted some coffee, but did not have a cup to catch the coffee with.   It never occurred to him that the machine would provide the cup!  I only chuckled a little bit.  Really, I am telling the truth.  I am not sure if this indicates that he is really sheltered or just raised really earth-friendly. 

Off to his first class!

Blessings,

Dawn

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After more than a month of waiting, Little Red Ridinghood finally lost her second front tooth!  The tooth had hung so long by one root that the gum was starting to grow over it.  It was decided that it really needed to come out.   It took lots of cajoling, ordering, and her brothers bribe of a roll of pennies to convince our little drama queen to let big brother pull it out.  It came out with the lightest touch and more tears than a shot!

Timothy giving her a makeup hug after pulling it out.  She calmed down pretty quickly, once she had a roll of pennies in her hand.  She stopped mid-cry in fact and said, "Thank you, Tim".

Check out the new gap in her smile.  Now she will have to learn the song ~ All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!

We celebrated the loss of her tooth with our traditional ice cream cone for the whole family.  We tried out a new place which had very unique ice cream flavors.  We tested the maple syrup and bacon, coconut swirl, and black cherry fudge, but settled on our old favorites.  Everyone had peanut butter or cookie dough. 

Blessings,

Dawn

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We just finished our latest FIAR book, The Duchess Bakes a Cake.  It was great.  It is set in the Middle Ages, which we will be studying very soon in history.  The basic idea of the story is that the Duchess bakes a cake with no cooking knowledge.  Talk about a recipe for disaster.

The children made a lapbook from worksheets and mini books that I found at Homeschoolshare.com.  They also illustrated their favorite part of the book. We also made a castle kit that I bought on clearance more than a year ago.  I have been saving it for when we got to the Middle Ages but decided to pull it out a little bit early to go along with the book.

Over the summer we had a math "map" on the wall for the kids.  Each day we worked on a problem and put up a sticker when we worked out the right answer.  The kids loved it.  I wanted to include another math map in our schooling.  I took word problems based on the story and placed them on a homemade chart.  We used it for group math time.  The kids liked working as a group.

We also had our first meeting with our FIAR group. For this first time, I decided not to do a field trip.  We had a meet and greet with some treats instead. The turnout was light, but I already have more families signed up for next month.  We did several yeast experiments and made cake towers out of cupcakes.  It was lots of fun.

To see more great Friday Show and Tells, hop on over to Mary's.

Blessings,

Dawn

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