Unrealized Plans

I really thought that once school was over, and testing was done, I would get so much done!  I had all these plans for organizing and decluttering--with no big school responsibilites hanging over my head, what could possibly stop me from becoming a wonder of organization and cleanliness?! 

Ha!  Well, it turns out that I have gotten almost nothing actually accomplished, unless you count eating.  That has turned into a major accomplishment for me this past week, LOL.  Drew ended up biting me again on the same side last Friday afternoon, just as I was thinking perhaps things might be starting to heal.  I had to start icing down my poor breast both before and after nursing.  I would stick a snack-bag of crushed ice into my bra cup, and that actually helped a great deal, both to numb it as well as to keep the swelling down.  I also started taking 800 mg of motrin around the clock.  But it was still excruciatingly painful to nurse.  I think Monday night was the lowest point.  I fell asleep thinking I for sure was developing mastitis, since I had this hard, very painful spot, and everything was just throbbing.  I spent Tuesday carefully nursing in different positions, and I think I kept the mastitis at bay.  Although I am still sore, it really does seem like things are finally starting to heal, praise the Lord.  Drew has still been nippy, although not as hard as the past 2 Fridays, but I have been saying no, flicking his cheek, etc.  Hopefully this will be a short stage.  I don't know whether to wish the top 2 teeth will hurry up and break through, so his mouth doesn't hurt as much, or if that would just mean he will have 4 sharp little teeth to bite me with!  I have blocked out what happened with Caleb and Micah once they got more teeth--but I am pretty sure they kept biting, LOL.

So anyway, I was so sore.  I also had those 2 canker sores in my mouth, and I used all the tricks I have heard of--baking soda, swishing with a mix of milk of magnesia and benedryl, etc.--but nothing worked like it usually would.  Instead, my mouth has just gotten overtaken with these huge angry ulcers that are so very painful.  I have like 6 of them now, and I can barely talk or chew.  Some are under my tongue, some are back behind my tongue--there's really no area of my mouth that doesn't have at least one!  I've pretty much stopped eating breakfast, because it simply isn't worth the pain to start eating.  And  they just won't go away!  Instead new ones keep popping up.  I think my defenses are just so low, with the constant pain of nursing, plus Drew hasn't really been sleeping through the night since we left for camping.   Interrupted sleep has always been a harbinger of canker sore outbreaks for me!

And so, instead of getting anything of note done, I have been wandering around in a fog of aching and discomfort!  What a way to  start a summer break, LOL.  I will say I am so very, very thankful that Drew was able to wait until after school was all done to start this biting phase!  Otherwise, I am sure I would be on my way to an insane asylum, LOL.

Happy Birthday, Jonathan!

 

 Jonathan turned 10 yesterday!  Hard to believe that it's been 10 years since I was 2 weeks overdue with my 4th child, and I had to have my first induction, or else he may have never come out, LOL.  Jonathan has marched to the beat of his own drummer ever since then, and on his own time schedule as well!  He is a fun character to have in our family!  He is still my artist, and the only one who enjoys writing.  And he is also still my sole left-handed buddy!

 For his cake, he decided he wanted a scarlet and red macaw.  He's been quite interested in birds lately!  I have never done a bird cake before, so it was fun to do something different. 

 I had to use 2 cake mixes to make a cake as long as I needed, so I had lots of extra cake.  In fact, I only really needed 1 1/2 cake mixes to fill the 10x15 pan I used for the bird body, so I also filled an 8 inch round pan.  Jonathan decorated that (you can't tell, but it actually is modeled after the swimming pool we are members of--blue water, a black walking path, and then the forest in the background), and then I piped the "Happy Birthday Jonathan" on it, since we could figure out a good place for it on the actual bird!

Jonathan was very happy to get a birdhouse of his own to build and decorate from my parents, as well as a book on how to attract different birds to your backyard.  He also got a few other things, including 2 Robo-Fish and an aquarium.  This is in preparation of actually getting some real fish--although since the Robo-fish don't really last that long before the batteries die out (as we have found out personally), we may be getting read fish sooner rather than later, LOL.

Now that Jonathan has hit the big 1-0, he gets his own military ID card, something he has been eagerly anticipating for quite some time!  So now Bob has to figure out a time to get that errand done!  It's a good thing Nathan is carrying his own wallet around, with his own ID card in it--otherwise, I would be looking at carrying 5 ID cards in my wallet!

Things No One Warns You About . . .

I'm having a painful few days here.  I have 2 canker sores in my mouth, plus I totally burned my poor tongue by drinking (really!) hot chocolate Sunday morning.

But mainly I'm sore because Drew chomped on me during the cold Friday night.  He wasn't so much hungry, and I was nursing just to keep him from crying to disturb the other campers, who weren't all that far away!  He bit down hard and then turned his head, pulling on me as well.  It hurt then, but boy, it REALLY hurts now!  I told the boys it would be like smashing their finger with a hammer, and then having to suck really hard on that finger every 3 hours or so.  Sometimes it bleeds, so it sticks to my nursing pad.  I'm just achy and crabby!  I've been taking motrin, but there's really nothing else to do, since it's internal bruising.  Unfortunately, Drew is teething his top teeth now, so he's been getting up at 3:00 and 6:00 the past few nights, so I'm not even able to go a long stretch. 

And thus, the huge downside of having early teethers . . .  I am pretty sure I had never heard anyone complain about this before I had Nathan!  Although, just to document for future purposes, Caleb, Anna, and Micah were my worst offenders.  Caleb and Micah were my earliest teethers (2 teeth at 3 months), and Anna was demonstrating her extreme displeasure about my milk changing when I unexpectedly got pregnant with Grace when Anna was 4 months old, LOL.  I had to stop nursing her at 7 months because she wouldn't suck long enough for me to let down before she would start biting!

So now I wait for Drew to wake up, dreading nursing with every fiber of my being.  I actually gave him a bottle yesterday because I was hurting so much and didn't want to deal with it!  He has been refusing bottles for the past several weeks, but I used a different kind of nipple, and he did take that.  Hmmmm . . . maybe I'll have the boys give him another bottle, and I'll head off to Sams . . . Who knew I would be more excited about Sams than nursing?!

Amusement Park!

Bob and the 3 girls got up early Monday morning, after our weekend of camping, to drive to the amusement park not far from his parents' house in PA!  The girls are the perfect ages for this park--it has a great kiddieland--and the weather was absolutely gorgeous.  It was cool, around 70 degrees, and cloudy.  Everyone had such a great time!  When they were eating dinner there, the waitress told Bob how impressed she was that he had all the kids by himself!  Ha!  Faith's favorite ride was the merry-go-round.  I could never tell what Anna and Grace's favorites were, but Anna was very disappointed that they took out the "Dizzy Lizzy" ride.  I don't even remember that one at all, so that shows how long it's been since I've been to the park, LOL. 

Since they had all had such a tiring weekend, they opted to spend the night in a hotel, visit Bob's parents Tuesday morning, then drive back Tuesday afternoon.  They were all so exhausted when they finally got back!  The girls had lots of special memories with Daddy though!

Camping

This past weekend we went camping for 2 nights!  We used to camp all the time when we were stationed in Colorado, even once Nathan and Luke came along.  Then we would camp with the L's, and we had a great routine going, as far as who brought what.  It was great!  We camped a few times in Ohio, and then only one time once we moved here to VA--our eventful and rainy trip to Shenandoah back in May 2005, not long before I got pregnant with Anna.  I guess I don't like camping when I'm pregnant, and I've been pregnant 5 of the last 7 summers--and the 2 summers I wasn't pregnant, it was because I'd had a baby earlier in the year, so . . . camping just didn't happen.  Plus, we had outgrown our "7 person" tent, and finding a new tent to fit us all seemed like an insurmountable challenge. 

For the past 9 (?I think 9, anyway) years, our friends the H's have reserved an entire loop of a campground in Maryland for the whole weekend.  This year we were finally able to go, and we had such a wonderful, fun time!  We found a new tent at Costco, a "10 person" tent that fits 3 queen-size air mattresses!  That's where Bob, I, the 3 girls, plus Drew and Micah slept.  The other 4 boys slept in our older faithful tent from Colorado days. 

We were able to fit all the sleeping bags, tents, tarps, camp stove (thanks Ed and Elizabeth--that was one thing they always brought, so we don't actually own our own one, LOL--we had to borrow theirs!), equipment tub, food tub, cooler, etc.  only because of this wonderful thing called a "Stow-Away".  We actually bought it 2 years ago from someone in our homeschool group.  We went to get a hitch put on the big van, but we found out that because of the time someone rear-ended Bob, a piece was out of place, and so they couldn't get all the bolts on.  We didn't do anything more about it, except keep this big thing in the smack-dab middle of our garage.  Until 2 weeks ago, when we realized that unless we wanted to drive 2 minivans, we absolutely had to have some other place for cargo to go camping.  So Bob took the van into a place that hammered on the frame for an hour to get the piece back into place, and then they were able to install the hitch.  The Stow-Away worked like a champ!  It actually swings away from the back, so we can still get into the back of the van, even with it on. 

Here is a picture of our campsite.  We managed to get the 2 tents both on it with no problems!  The one on the left is the new tent.  It is really nice, although it is not anywhere as easy to set up as our old one.  That one goes up in about 2 minutes!

You can see the fire smoking away in the picture.  We had the fire going pretty much all the time Friday and Saturday.  That is because it was FREEZING cold!!  It was like we were back, camping in Colorado, except silly me, I certainly didn't pack like that!  Oh, how we all wished for gloves, hats, winter jackets, etc.  I think it was below 40 degrees Friday night, and it was sooo windy!  None of the kids in our tent slept really well because it was so cold, and by the (early) morning, both Drew and Micah were in bed with Bob and me.  Nathan was up around 6:00 to start the fire.  I had packed something like 35 packets of hot chocolate mix, figuring that would be more than enough for 2 mornings.  Well, we had hot chocolate Friday night and Saturday morning, and we used up all the packets, plus I was putting pieces of Hershey's chocolate bars in there to up the flavor!  We were so desperately trying to be warm!  A lot of us went into town for dinner at a restaurant, and we got some more mix at a store there for Sunday morning.  Saturday night was not anywhere as cold, though, and the kids all slept really well. 

Saturday before lunch we all took a hike to a waterfall.  It was not a hard hike to get to the falls, and then a lot of people climbed up to the top of the falls.  Unfortunately, Anna slipped off a rock and fell in up to her waist, so she was not a happy camper (ha!).  Bob had to carry her back, so he was not a happy camper either!  She is not as light as she looks, LOL, and we were all exhausted from our bad night of sleep!  I was stuck hiking back with Micah.  He trooped along for awhile, and we had a fun time looking at trees, birds, bugs, etc.  But then he wanted to stop and turn over pretty much every single rock and leaf on the ground.  I started to carry him, but he pitched a big fit.  Eventually he even laid in the middle of the trail for a bit!  Finally I picked him up, and he fell asleep, so we were making good time . . . unfortunately, due to all the distraction of a stubborn 2 year old, I completely missed the signpost where we were supposed to turn onto the trail back to the campground.  So I merrily followed the blue trail at a brisk clip, although I did start wondering why I wasn't seeing anyone else.  We had been going so slowly, I was sure Bob would have caught up to us . . . I called and left a message on his cell phone . . ."Ummm, are you following the blue trail . . .??"  When he called me back a few minutes, he was quite concerned, although I did explain that I wasn't technically lost, LOL; I was simply going on a different trail!  I retraced my steps (we really had gone quite a ways!), and Bob and the older boys met me right where I should have turned in the first place.  Just a little added excitement!

Sunday afternoon, after a little church service and lunch, a group hiked back up to the falls.  Twenty-two of them joined the "Polar Bear Club" and swam in the freezing cold water, including Bob, Nathan, and Jonathan!  Crazy . . .

The kids all had so much fun.  The McC's were there, as well as the M's, another Rivendell family.  These 5 girls had such a ball playing together!  Rivendell is going to be so fun when they all get old enough! 

I wish I had a picture of Micah.  He wore our trusty 3T USAFA sweatshirt--now on its 5th boy!--the whole weekend, since it was so cold.  He got tons of hot chocolate, as well as sticky marshmallow, syrup, and other assorted stains, on it.  It may never recover!  And he was so dirty.  This weekend was like his dream--be outside the whole time and get as dirty as he wants?  Playing in the dirt is encouraged?  What fun!  He didn't want to leave, LOL.  He followed the big boys around like a little man. 

Oh, a funny thing--he and Bob were walking around the loop, when another man struck up a conversation.  The man noticed Micah's USAFA sweatshirt and said he was an Air Force fan.  In fact, he had a son who had just graduated from AFROTC at Alabama . . . he was the dad of the former CAP cadet that Nathan had talked to last week when I was so late!  What a fun coincidence!

Finally Sunday afternoon it was warm enough for Drew to be able to sit in his bumbo without his huge fleece winter thing that I had fortunately thrown in at the last minute!  He rode around a lot in the front pack or the Ergo.  There were a lot of teenage girls around, and they did a fantastic job playing with him and holding him.  In fact, the H girls watched him Saturday during the hike so we didn't have to take him!  I think he enjoyed his first camping experience, although he was glad to get home to a warm bed, LOL.  He slept a good deal on Monday!

So now that we are back in the camping mode, we are hoping to do more of it.  The boys all really enjoyed it, and they were great helps with the fire, getting the tents up and down, etc.  We'll see!

Done!

With the end of testing last Wednesday, the year is officially over for us (exception:  Nathan, who has to take the SAT II biology and Spanish subject tests on Saturday)!  (Other exception:  not everyone finished their math and English books, so they have to continue working in those.  Also, we slacked off on Latin the last quarter . .  also history for the younger boys . . . ) Okay, we are never really done.  But my big responsibilities are done, so I am feeling light as a feather!

And it was just in time too.  I was starting to lose it, as evidenced by these 2 examples.  Last Tuesday only Nathan decided to go to CAP.  After a late dinner, Bob took the middle 5 swimming, so it was just Luke, Micah, Drew, and me at home.  Micah was filthy dirty, so I decided to give him a bath, and I knew he would just love being all by himself in the tub.  So I got him going and he was having a grand time in there--when I suddenly *really* looked at my watch, noticing the hour as well as the minute.  It was 9:20!  CAP ends at 9:00!  For some reason I was an hour off in my mind, thinking it was only 8:00, not 9:00!  Whoops!  I yelled for Luke to come get Micah dressed, and I leaped into the van, certain that Nathan must be frantic with worry.  I expected to have half a dozen missed calls on my cell, but to my surprise, there were none!  I called Nathan, who said if there had to be a night for me to be really, really late, that night was it.  A former cadet, who had just graduated from AFROTC at Alabama, was back visiting as he waited to get commissioned, so people were stayed late and talking to him.  So I pulled into the parking lot at 9:40, and Nathan wasn't even the last person there!  *Whew*

Then Wednesday afternoon, after testing was all over, Luke had an orthodontist appointment.  After he finished, we headed over to Sams to pick up some last-minute things for our camping trip (another post!).  I was so pleased to find my favorite cashier, and as I chose her line, I said, "I always pick your line because you are the best at packing my cart!"  She is a woman after my own heart--every item is placed, like in Tetris, into just the right spot!  A work of art!  Anyhow, after Zahida finished scanning everything, I was ready to pay--but I couldn't find my credit card!  I mildly panicked, but like I said to Luke, I showed it to the guy to come into Sams . . . where could it have gotten to?  That's when Zahida said, "Umm, isn't this your credit card?" sitting there on top of the machine?  Why yes, because I had given it to her before she started scanning everything, except I had no recollection of doing so, LOL.  How many years have we been Sams members?  How many times a month do I go?  Clearly I was cracking up, just a short step away fron the looney bin!  A nice long summer break is just what I need!

Testing actually went really well, I thought.  I think I learned a lot from last year, and this year a lot of new people got certified as testers, so that was great.  I felt more comfortable with everything, although I was still immensely relieved to send off that 25 pound box of tests Thursday morning!  Ahhh . . . summer break!!

AP Biology Exam

This post may not have a wide appeal, but I wanted to capture a few thoughts about the AP biology exam, before everything about the class drains out of my head!

The College Board redesigned the exam this year, based on a new curriculum framework that came out last year.  The idea was that instead of focusing on knowing a ton of random esoteric facts about biology (the old-style exam), the students would be more able to think and reason like scientists, within a framework of biological knowledge. 

No one really had any idea what exactly the exam would be like.  I am still praising the Lord for allowing me to get AP approved, so that I could access the practice exam!  But Nathan didn't really think the practice exam questions were all that helpful, other than helping with pacing.  The College Board sent out a second set of a little more than 30 practice problems, which I also sent out to the boys, and Nathan thought those were more helpful.  What was universally agreed that was NOT helpful were any of the test prep books.  We used Barrons, which came out in February, but they were just guessing on the questions like the rest of us, and their questions were still geared more to the old format.  People who used other books felt the same way though.  Hopefully the test prep companies will learn as well and offer better, more helpful books next year.

There were 63 multiple choice questions, and most of them had big, long sections of reading accompanying them, along with graphs or tables.  One big complaint from students on the collegeconfidential website, as well as from AP teachers on the biology discussion board (passing along their students' comments), was that they couldn't finish the multiple choice questions because of all the reading.  Nathan, Isaac, and Eric did not have trouble finishing the questions.  Apparently a lot of students felt like the multiple choice part was "the ACT science section on steroids".  Nathan hasn't taken the ACT yet, so I don't know, but it sounded like a lot of logic/reasoning/problem solving, more than just knowledge of tricky biological concepts.  A lot of students were upset by this, feeling like they could have just taken any honors biology course and done just as well.  Some teachers felt that students who slacked off in the course could potentially have done just as well as students who really studied, as long as the slackers were good test-takers.  Since the boys aren't supposed to discuss the specific questions, I don't know really, but from the sample problems, you did have to know the concepts to be able to make sense of the reading, and to do it in a timely manner.  I don't think someone could have just taken it cold and done well.  None of my boys thought the questions were as hard as they could have been.  Some kids on collegeconfidential thought they were really easy; some thought they were extremely hard.  I am glad that just in general we focus a lot on logic and problem solving around here.  Who knew it would be so helpful in so many different areas?  : )  As some teachers pointed out, we live in an age where we can easily look up random facts.  But being able to analyze data and draw conclusions is a more important skill for scientists.  Interesting to think about. 

In the first section, which was 90 minutes long, there were also 6 "grid-in" questions.  These are questions where you have to solve some sort of math problem, so the answer is a number, and you bubble in the correct number on your answer sheet.  Nathan again felt prepared for these.  There aren't tons of different math problem possibilities out there for biology, so it was pretty obvious to me that for example, one problem would be a Hardy-Weinburg problem.  And it was!  I was glad we hammered that!  The main problem experienced by kids was that at the end of the multiple choice section, there was a message that said "END OF PART A.  DO NOT STOP.  CONTINUE TO PART B."  Somehow, maybe just due to the stress of the test, a lot of kids saw that message, and thought the proctor would tell them when to move on to the grid-in problems.  So time ran out, and they didn't do them!  The good news is that the grid-ins were weighted exactly the same as the multiple choice questions, but still . . . the teachers said a lot of their best students didn't do the questions, which may cut their chances for a 5.  I had told the boys to do the grid-in questions first, since if they were running short on time, then it is at least possible to guess on multiple choice questions, unlike on grid-ins!  There is now a thread on the teachers forum about how to make the directions more clear (take out "STOP" completely?).  It sounds like this is partly a problem due to all the high-stakes standardized testing all these students take all the time--where they are conditioned to stop after each section.  Another advantage of homeschooling!

The last section were the essays or "free response questions".  In the new format, there are 2 long FRQs (which are supposed to take about 20 minutes to write the answers for), as well as 6 shorter one paragraph FRQs that are only supposed to take about 6 minutes each.  The College Board has released all the FRQs for the "Form O" test that most students took.  You can look at them here and ascertain for yourself whether or not you could answer these questions without a college-level biology course!  Nathan thought these questions were easier than he expected, and he wrote something down for each one.  Who knows yet what the scoring rubric will be, though, and if he put in his answers everything the readers were wanting to see!  The general consensus on collegeconfidential also was that the questions were not too difficult.  There has been a lively thread on the AP teachers' forum discussing potential answers to these questions!

So now we wait.  Scores are officially out on July 8, which seems a long ways away! 

Micah and Drew

Micah turned 2 on April 9, and Drew turned 4 months on (*cough*) March 30, and today they finally had their 2 year and 4 month well-baby appointments this afternoon.  What can I say--April was a busy month!  I took Jonathan along as my designated older helper, and he was indespensible, as usual.  How did I do it without older helpers?!

We had the nicest doctor.  I know I always say that, but really, I love the pediatric doctors at Bethesda!  I was a tad bit worried because I knew that Drew hasn't gained all that much weight--he's only 14.1 pounds at almost 6 months.  He was in something like the 57th percentile for weight at his 2 month well-baby appointment, and now he's in the 7th percentile, LOL.  Sound familiar?!  But he is obviously healthy, active, and alert, and I told the doctor that this is generally how we grow kids.  It was a good thing I had Jonathan along as an example, because Micah weighs 29.6 pounds, and is in the 65th percentile for weight AND height!  He is such an outlier for our family.  He's going to pass up his older brothers in no time at all, while Drew will be the scrawny little brother forever, LOL. 

Drew now has his second tooth through, and he has been sleeping better.  Since he wasn't sleeping well the past few weeks, I started him on some rice cereal, which he likes, and now sweet potatoes, which he is not yet so fond of.  Now that the teeth are through, he is sleeping better again.  Yay!  He's pushing up on all fours, but if he rocks, he just topples forward.  He still won't roll from back to front, even though I think he could.  He loves the exersaucer, the every-faithful Johnny Jump-Up (now on its 13th kid!), and all his older siblings, who adore him back.

Micah finally started talking more a few months ago, although no one would ever say he is a "verbal" child, LOL.  But he's saying a lot more words, and putting words together.  He is very physically coordinated though.  Since he's big and coordinated, people think he is older than he is--until he talks!  Micah loves being outside.  He'd be out all day if I would let him!  He loves balls, the trampoline, his scooter, running around, pretty much whatever.  It also looks like he is outgrowing (has outgrown?) his milk allergy.  He's gotten into stuff like pudding lately and has not had any reaction.  I haven't actually tried straight-up milk yet.  Maybe now that school is done.  That would be so nice if he really has!  Anna outgrew hers at 2, so there is a precedent . . .

Micah and Drew got some shots today, which did not thrill either of them.  Amazingly, the immunization clinic was not busy at all, and we got in and out of there fairly quickly!  I left here at 9:00 for appointments at 10:00 and 10:30, plus immunizations, and we got back home around 12:30!  I think that's a record, LOL.