Wow, Micah is 4 weeks old tonight! And life has gone on in other areas as well!
1. The Tuesday morning co-op finished up the year on Tuesday with a second week doing the Presidential Physical Fitness Test. Luke was a Presidential award winner, and Caleb and Jonathan were both National winners, just missing the Presidential mark by a bit in 1 or 2 categories. We did have a big personal victory for Caleb in the run, though. Eight-nine year olds can either run the 1/2 mile (in a blistering pace of about 3 1/2 minutes for the Presidential time) or the mile (in 8 1/2 minutes). Caleb just wanted to run the 1/2 mile, but I encouraged him to do the mile, because I knew Luke couldn't make the Presidential 1/2 mile time 2 years ago. He dithered back and forth, but eventually he decided to try the mile. And he came in under the 8:30 time! I knew he could do it, and I was so proud of him for trying, because he often likes to just do the easiest thing, not the thing which he is capable of but is more difficult.
Nathan and the other Rivendell boys ran as well. They actually ran with all the different age ranges, encouraging all their little brothers and sisters, and after the siblings were done, they also would go back and find the runners who were having a hard time finishing and run with them into the finish. It was so nice to see them being so encouraging!
Tuesday evening we had the big end-of-the-year picnic and graduation ceremony for the 6th graders. The weather forecast for Tuesday was very gloomy--lots of rain and thunderstorms--but the Lord held off the rain and bad weather until Tuesday night, so we had a lovely day! It was really special for my parents to be there to see Luke get recognized as a graduate. They usually don't get to be at these kind of occasions!
2. I've used the new oven a few times this week, and it's been mixed, at best. I baked chocolate chip cookies for Bob's birthday, and they turned out fine. But I made meatloaf Monday night, and that was dry and a bit brown on the bottom. I made a turkey on Thursday (that was actually what Bob requested for his birthday dinner, but I didn't get it out of the freezer early enough to make on Monday!), and that was also a lot drier than usual. So I'm going to have to play around a bit with temperatures and times, it looks like. But cooking is one thing I do a ton of, so I will have plenty of opportunities to practice, LOL. So far I have only really used the top oven, so I need to do more with the bottom oven and see if it has the same issues.
3. My parents left this morning, after being here for 5 weeks. We are really missing them already! They were such a tremendous help the whole time they were here. They gave the girls baths and put them down many times. Mom helped with the cooking, Dad helped with some outside work, and both helped with the general clean-up. Now we have to get back into a regular routine! Bob is going TDY to CA for the week on Monday, so I will be thrust into dealing with all the kids on my own! Good thing I have so many older helpers, especially ones who want to hold Micah! And we are getting a ton of delicious meals from friends in church or co-op, so I doubt I'll have to do too much cooking next week! Our friends are such a huge blessing to us!
4. Looking ahead to next week, we have our last meeting of Rivendell on Tuesday. I can't believe the year is over! We're having an ice cream sundae party to celebrate! The next week is the Stanford Achievement Tests, so we are mainly doing test practice and prep this week. We are starting the Latin class up again on Wednesday. We took a few weeks off after I had the baby, although the boys kept doing exercises. We were at a review point in the book, so that was perfect timing. And Friday we are taking a little field trip to the National Cathedral with the other Rivendell families. Should be fun!
Showing posts with label family. homeschooling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. homeschooling. Show all posts
Saturday, May 07, 2011
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Today . . .
. . . I called off school.
The day was not a total waste, academically. Nathan of course still did all the stuff he had to do. And the rest of us headed to our old Classical Conversations group so I could lead a starfish dissection. I had gotten a starfish from the lady who ordered them yesterday, so I was able to dissect one myself last night, to use as an example. I also realized that you really needed a good, sharp scalpel to be able to cut the skin of those suckers, and the scissors the kids were going to have simply wouldn't cut it! So we went early so I could make slices with my scalpel in all the starfish. They were still hard to open, but thankfully CC has lots of parents around to help. The kids seemed to enjoy it! It's fun for me too. I actually feel like I am using my degree when I do things like that!
In the afternoon, since we weren't trying to finish school, I did a pregnancy pilates video. This was because I had only walked 20 minutes on the treadmill this morning, and I've upped my exercise to 45 minutes a day. Once I am officially diagnosed, I'll have to up it again to at least 1 hour a day. Not looking forward to fitting that in to a normal day!
After I finished, Anna and Grace wanted to watch our old "Riverdance" video. Anna has really been fascinated with dance lately. She has been interested in ballet, but also in Irish dancing, because Jessica L. has been doing it for several years now and is a willing demonstrator on Friday nights! Anna dresses up in an old black leotard (from Rose's girls!) and her black church shoes (which do have a little heel), and she kicks and dances around the house. So cute! So I knew they would get a kick out of Riverdance. They were both quite enthralled! It brought back wonderful memories for me of . . . hmmm . . . one of our anniversaries in Colorado, when Bob got us tickets to watch Riverdance downtown. I LOVED it! That was such a fun night! So if Anna does decide to take up Irish dancing, I will be a willing spectator! [Okay, I have devoted more thought to the date question, because that was really bugging me. We were in our USAFA house, so I am pretty sure it was July 2000, so that would have been our 7th anniversary. Ta da!]
I was also able to make banana bread out of the overripe, brown, oozy bananas that have been sitting on our counter, waiting for me to have time and energy to do something about them. I used Splenda and whole wheat flour--might as well get back in the habit!
I also uploaded pictures onto Snapfish, something I apparently hadn't done since the middle of August. It actually didn't take that much time, because, as it turns out, I have hardly taken any pictures these past 2 months! I need to get on the stick! I guess we just haven't done anything fascinating, and no one has had a birthday. Caleb's birthday is coming up next Friday, though, so we should get some pictures from that! He still hasn't given me a definitive answer on what he wants for a cake. That worries me, LOL. I am taking suggestions!
So see, we didn't do school, but I got a lot of other stuff done. Of course, I have tons of laundry that needs to be folded, and more laundry that needs to be washed. I also need to mop. We are struggling with ants in our kitchen--and why wouldn't we be?! With all the crumbs and spills on our floor, it must seem like the Big Rock Candy Mountain to them! They probably come from miles away! We're famous! Never the less, we are continuing the good fight. Maybe in 16 years or so, when everyone still at home is bigger, we'll make some headway. In the meantime . . . school is on for tomorrow!
The day was not a total waste, academically. Nathan of course still did all the stuff he had to do. And the rest of us headed to our old Classical Conversations group so I could lead a starfish dissection. I had gotten a starfish from the lady who ordered them yesterday, so I was able to dissect one myself last night, to use as an example. I also realized that you really needed a good, sharp scalpel to be able to cut the skin of those suckers, and the scissors the kids were going to have simply wouldn't cut it! So we went early so I could make slices with my scalpel in all the starfish. They were still hard to open, but thankfully CC has lots of parents around to help. The kids seemed to enjoy it! It's fun for me too. I actually feel like I am using my degree when I do things like that!
In the afternoon, since we weren't trying to finish school, I did a pregnancy pilates video. This was because I had only walked 20 minutes on the treadmill this morning, and I've upped my exercise to 45 minutes a day. Once I am officially diagnosed, I'll have to up it again to at least 1 hour a day. Not looking forward to fitting that in to a normal day!
After I finished, Anna and Grace wanted to watch our old "Riverdance" video. Anna has really been fascinated with dance lately. She has been interested in ballet, but also in Irish dancing, because Jessica L. has been doing it for several years now and is a willing demonstrator on Friday nights! Anna dresses up in an old black leotard (from Rose's girls!) and her black church shoes (which do have a little heel), and she kicks and dances around the house. So cute! So I knew they would get a kick out of Riverdance. They were both quite enthralled! It brought back wonderful memories for me of . . . hmmm . . . one of our anniversaries in Colorado, when Bob got us tickets to watch Riverdance downtown. I LOVED it! That was such a fun night! So if Anna does decide to take up Irish dancing, I will be a willing spectator! [Okay, I have devoted more thought to the date question, because that was really bugging me. We were in our USAFA house, so I am pretty sure it was July 2000, so that would have been our 7th anniversary. Ta da!]
I was also able to make banana bread out of the overripe, brown, oozy bananas that have been sitting on our counter, waiting for me to have time and energy to do something about them. I used Splenda and whole wheat flour--might as well get back in the habit!
I also uploaded pictures onto Snapfish, something I apparently hadn't done since the middle of August. It actually didn't take that much time, because, as it turns out, I have hardly taken any pictures these past 2 months! I need to get on the stick! I guess we just haven't done anything fascinating, and no one has had a birthday. Caleb's birthday is coming up next Friday, though, so we should get some pictures from that! He still hasn't given me a definitive answer on what he wants for a cake. That worries me, LOL. I am taking suggestions!
So see, we didn't do school, but I got a lot of other stuff done. Of course, I have tons of laundry that needs to be folded, and more laundry that needs to be washed. I also need to mop. We are struggling with ants in our kitchen--and why wouldn't we be?! With all the crumbs and spills on our floor, it must seem like the Big Rock Candy Mountain to them! They probably come from miles away! We're famous! Never the less, we are continuing the good fight. Maybe in 16 years or so, when everyone still at home is bigger, we'll make some headway. In the meantime . . . school is on for tomorrow!
Friday, May 14, 2010
Light Week
This week the boys did their Stanford Achievement Tests. I am always nervous about these, but the boys all assured me that they were "so easy". We'll see in a few weeks . . . I had lots of great plans for how much I was going to get done while they were gone Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning. I did get some things done, but never as much as I hope, sigh. How does the time pass so quickly?! It might have something to do with the fact that with all the older boys gone, I am left with 3 needy little girls. Just think--that could be my life everyday if I did what everyone random stranger thinks will make my life so much easier and just send the boys off to school! No thanks.
We aren't doing any school this week. Nathan went to Medieval Times on Thursday with the L's and the high school co-op group associated with our elementary group. He had a great time! They had front row seats. I spent a lot of time going through old papers inside and stuff in the garage. We've been composting, so Nathan is always looking for paper to shred to add to the compost container. Well, he has enough to keep him busy for quite awhile now! The garage is not "clean" per se--that will take another day or so, plus another set of shelves--but it is easier to navigate through, so that is a start. We had some of those wires shelves that make cubes. I despise those things. They fall down at the drop of a hat, and they are SUCH a hassle to rebuild! So we put those out on the curb, in hopes someone who doesn't know how bad they are will want to take them, LOL, and we are waiting for some regular metal shelves to go on sale somewhere.
I also was finally able to put away the clothes at the bottom of Jonathan's closet that no longer fit him. I had to get another plastic storage tub for that. This is an instance where, if we had moved, I would not have kept this stuff, but since we are still here, and since we could potentially have another boy, and since we do have storage space in the basement, I keep the stuff. We'll see if it ends up bveing worth the space it takes up! At least all my out-grown clothes are in the basement in stackable clear tubs, so they really don't take up all that much space, and they are organized by size.
Today we are cleaning the house this morning, and we'll make a commissary trip this afternoon. I am dreading that because everyone is really crabby today. I gave them all haircuts last night, and somehow everyone ended up going to bed late. Anna and Grace have been waking up MUCH earlier than usual for the past few nights. We had told Grace that when she was ready to give up her pacifier at night (the only time she was using it), then she would REALLY be a big girl, and she could move out of her crib, and into the double futon bed that Anna sleeps in. So she decided she was ready to do that a few nights ago. She's been doing fine, getting herself off to sleep just fine and sleeping through the night without waking up. BUT she wakes up early, and I know if she had her binky, she would go back off to sleep. And she wakes up Anna with her singing, LOL. Oh well. Next week, it's back to regular schoolwork. I can hear the cries of joy already! LOL
We aren't doing any school this week. Nathan went to Medieval Times on Thursday with the L's and the high school co-op group associated with our elementary group. He had a great time! They had front row seats. I spent a lot of time going through old papers inside and stuff in the garage. We've been composting, so Nathan is always looking for paper to shred to add to the compost container. Well, he has enough to keep him busy for quite awhile now! The garage is not "clean" per se--that will take another day or so, plus another set of shelves--but it is easier to navigate through, so that is a start. We had some of those wires shelves that make cubes. I despise those things. They fall down at the drop of a hat, and they are SUCH a hassle to rebuild! So we put those out on the curb, in hopes someone who doesn't know how bad they are will want to take them, LOL, and we are waiting for some regular metal shelves to go on sale somewhere.
I also was finally able to put away the clothes at the bottom of Jonathan's closet that no longer fit him. I had to get another plastic storage tub for that. This is an instance where, if we had moved, I would not have kept this stuff, but since we are still here, and since we could potentially have another boy, and since we do have storage space in the basement, I keep the stuff. We'll see if it ends up bveing worth the space it takes up! At least all my out-grown clothes are in the basement in stackable clear tubs, so they really don't take up all that much space, and they are organized by size.
Today we are cleaning the house this morning, and we'll make a commissary trip this afternoon. I am dreading that because everyone is really crabby today. I gave them all haircuts last night, and somehow everyone ended up going to bed late. Anna and Grace have been waking up MUCH earlier than usual for the past few nights. We had told Grace that when she was ready to give up her pacifier at night (the only time she was using it), then she would REALLY be a big girl, and she could move out of her crib, and into the double futon bed that Anna sleeps in. So she decided she was ready to do that a few nights ago. She's been doing fine, getting herself off to sleep just fine and sleeping through the night without waking up. BUT she wakes up early, and I know if she had her binky, she would go back off to sleep. And she wakes up Anna with her singing, LOL. Oh well. Next week, it's back to regular schoolwork. I can hear the cries of joy already! LOL
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Another week . . .
Wow, another week has gone by?! This week went quickly mainly because the boys worked through test review book to prepare for their Stanford Achievement Tests in a few weeks. We tried a new set of books this year, ones that are specifically geared toward the SAT, as opposed to the ones we usually get, which ask generic types of questions that prepare for a wide variety of standardized tests. I must say I prefer the old kind of review books, which are Spectrum Test Practice books. Although the questions may be not always asked the same way as Stanford asks them, I feel like they have a ton more review in them. Plus, for Caleb and Jonathan I have to read almost every question to them. The questions are only in the teacher's manual--they only have the answer choices in their book. Well, that is how the test is for 1st and 2nd grade, but it is a real hassle here at home! Because of the heavy amount of involvement from me, Caleb and Jonathan are not done yet, so we'll have to spend a few more days finishing those books up before going back to our regularly-scheduled school routine. I'm still thinking I might go ahead and order the other kind of book for Jonathan. I think he needs a little more practice before he takes the test. It's his first year testing. I always get nervous for that!
Every morning last week we expected the drywall man to show up to finish the backsplash walls. He never showed up, so Bob called Tuesday, and eventually went himself to the showroom to talk to someone. The guy did come Saturday morning. Yay! We had to wait for the caulk to dry before painting, and we had company for dinner last night, and our small group from church over this evening, so we have not been able to paint it yet. But soon!
Our company last night was a couple who we knew back in Ohio. We knew Teri from when Bob and I were dating, and her husband Jeff we met later on. They got married right after we moved back to Ohio in 2001, so we got to go to their wedding. They have a little girl who is about Grace's age. She is as cute as a button! She has been diagnosed with autism, but she did really well. She wasn't overwhelmed by all the kids, and she and the girls played really nicely. We had a great time catching up with Teri and Jeff, who are now assigned here. They are going to hopefully try our OCF Bible study out one Friday.
Today we got an exciting new addition for our backyard--a trampoline! Our German neighbors have to move soon because the people from whom they are renting their house are moving back here after their State Department tour. About 2 years ago they bought a trampoline for their daughter's birthday. Our boys have played for hours down there on it, so when they realized they wouldn't have room for it in their new yard, they asked if we wanted to buy it. I have never thought we would have one, but like I said, they have been playing on it for a few years now where I can't see them--so maybe it would be better if it was where I could see them! We did call USAA to make sure they wouldn't raise our rates or anything. Our yard is none too big here, so it definitely takes up some space back there! We trimmed a few branches to get it into the yard, and we might have to trim a few more. It's not totally level right now either, so we still have a bit of work to do.
That's our exciting and not-so-exciting news for last week!
Every morning last week we expected the drywall man to show up to finish the backsplash walls. He never showed up, so Bob called Tuesday, and eventually went himself to the showroom to talk to someone. The guy did come Saturday morning. Yay! We had to wait for the caulk to dry before painting, and we had company for dinner last night, and our small group from church over this evening, so we have not been able to paint it yet. But soon!
Our company last night was a couple who we knew back in Ohio. We knew Teri from when Bob and I were dating, and her husband Jeff we met later on. They got married right after we moved back to Ohio in 2001, so we got to go to their wedding. They have a little girl who is about Grace's age. She is as cute as a button! She has been diagnosed with autism, but she did really well. She wasn't overwhelmed by all the kids, and she and the girls played really nicely. We had a great time catching up with Teri and Jeff, who are now assigned here. They are going to hopefully try our OCF Bible study out one Friday.
Today we got an exciting new addition for our backyard--a trampoline! Our German neighbors have to move soon because the people from whom they are renting their house are moving back here after their State Department tour. About 2 years ago they bought a trampoline for their daughter's birthday. Our boys have played for hours down there on it, so when they realized they wouldn't have room for it in their new yard, they asked if we wanted to buy it. I have never thought we would have one, but like I said, they have been playing on it for a few years now where I can't see them--so maybe it would be better if it was where I could see them! We did call USAA to make sure they wouldn't raise our rates or anything. Our yard is none too big here, so it definitely takes up some space back there! We trimmed a few branches to get it into the yard, and we might have to trim a few more. It's not totally level right now either, so we still have a bit of work to do.
That's our exciting and not-so-exciting news for last week!
Friday, January 22, 2010
A New Post Just For Luke
Luke keeps bugging me to post something new. The fact is, nothing new is really happening, and I am too mushy-brained to think deep thoughts. Soooo . . . that leaves things a bit barren, as far as new post materials. I can say that overall things are going well. We're in a good homeschooling routine, and we're getting a lot done. We're in one of those nice periods where we don't have a newborn and I'm not pregnant, LOL. Since I was crazy busy with co-op responsibilities before the break, that means now I am a lot less busy, which is a huge relief. It's one of those things like the old Chinese story about the man whose house was too small. The wise man told him to keep adding more and more creatures into his house (while he kept complaining about how it was still too small). Then the wise man told him to put all the animals outside, and lo and behold, his house felt huge! So while I felt busy with all the co-ops before November, after all the extra stuff I now feel like it's all a breeze! Well, not really, but I'm definitely not as stressed or busy.
One thing we have learned recently is that Slovak and Polish share 75% of common vocabulary! Bob's mom is Polish, and his dad is Slovak. His mom bought Bob a life insurance policy through the "First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association" quite a while ago, although we never knew anything about it until this past summer, when she handed us a raft of papers about it. After we changed our address with the association, they strted sending us their little monthly magazine, which is quite interesting. In the back of one issue, there was a little blurb about the Slovak alphabet, along with some common phrases. Bob recognized a few of the words as Polish as well ("Dobre"="good"). Bob asked how something so long in English could be so short in Polish. For example, "What do you have?" is "Co mate" (there are lots of funny accent marks, which I can not hope to type!) I said it must be inflected, like Latin, where the pronoun and verb tense are included in one word. So of course we did some research on the internet and discovered that yes, in fact it is inflected, and in fact, as I found on this website Polish, like other Indo-European languages, shares some Latin grammar and vocabulary. There are 3 tenses (past, present, future), 2 numbers (singular and plural), and 3 genders (masculine, feminine, neuter). There are no articles but Polish, like Latin, is an inflectional language that distinguishes 7 cases, defining the noun usage in a sentence. This feature makes our mother tongue difficult to master and presents a lot of trouble to foreigners. So maybe Polish/Slovak will be our next language! Actually, there is a new family in our church, and the wife, Anja, is Polish (as in, born in a small Polish village, grew up there, went to university there, etc.). She is a lovely person, so maybe she could be our tutor. I'm not sure how I would do with the pronunciation though. The thing I like about Latin is that there are no Latins around to actually hear me speak it!
One new development is that we have a smell emanating from inside our dryer. A smelly smell, to be exact. I asked Bob if someone had dried a poopy diaper in there, because that is definitely the aroma. The dryer had a fairly long sojourn in the garage while the laundry room was being tiled. We also can definitely say that we had a mouse in the garage before we left for Ohio in December. The mouse has not been spotted recently, so one theory is that he climbed up in the dryer innards and got himself cooked. Or perhaps something climbed into the dryer via the dryer vent, especially since we had that terribly cold snap a little while ago. Anyhow, Bob is going to spend some time searching out the cause of the smell tomorrow. Fun!
Aaaaannndd, that's what's happening here, folks. I know, I know, you all envy me my glamorous and exciting life!
One thing we have learned recently is that Slovak and Polish share 75% of common vocabulary! Bob's mom is Polish, and his dad is Slovak. His mom bought Bob a life insurance policy through the "First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association" quite a while ago, although we never knew anything about it until this past summer, when she handed us a raft of papers about it. After we changed our address with the association, they strted sending us their little monthly magazine, which is quite interesting. In the back of one issue, there was a little blurb about the Slovak alphabet, along with some common phrases. Bob recognized a few of the words as Polish as well ("Dobre"="good"). Bob asked how something so long in English could be so short in Polish. For example, "What do you have?" is "Co mate" (there are lots of funny accent marks, which I can not hope to type!) I said it must be inflected, like Latin, where the pronoun and verb tense are included in one word. So of course we did some research on the internet and discovered that yes, in fact it is inflected, and in fact, as I found on this website Polish, like other Indo-European languages, shares some Latin grammar and vocabulary. There are 3 tenses (past, present, future), 2 numbers (singular and plural), and 3 genders (masculine, feminine, neuter). There are no articles but Polish, like Latin, is an inflectional language that distinguishes 7 cases, defining the noun usage in a sentence. This feature makes our mother tongue difficult to master and presents a lot of trouble to foreigners. So maybe Polish/Slovak will be our next language! Actually, there is a new family in our church, and the wife, Anja, is Polish (as in, born in a small Polish village, grew up there, went to university there, etc.). She is a lovely person, so maybe she could be our tutor. I'm not sure how I would do with the pronunciation though. The thing I like about Latin is that there are no Latins around to actually hear me speak it!
One new development is that we have a smell emanating from inside our dryer. A smelly smell, to be exact. I asked Bob if someone had dried a poopy diaper in there, because that is definitely the aroma. The dryer had a fairly long sojourn in the garage while the laundry room was being tiled. We also can definitely say that we had a mouse in the garage before we left for Ohio in December. The mouse has not been spotted recently, so one theory is that he climbed up in the dryer innards and got himself cooked. Or perhaps something climbed into the dryer via the dryer vent, especially since we had that terribly cold snap a little while ago. Anyhow, Bob is going to spend some time searching out the cause of the smell tomorrow. Fun!
Aaaaannndd, that's what's happening here, folks. I know, I know, you all envy me my glamorous and exciting life!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Whew!
Finally I can take a little bit of a breath! I am done with co-ops until after New Year's! I have really enjoyed CC, and I know the kids are learning a lot (even Anna walks around the house singing the history songs), but it has sure taken a lot out of me! Technically we still have 2 more weeks of our other co-op after Thanksgiving, a fine arts unit, but we are just skipping it. In fact, most of the kids and I are going to Ohio to visit! A vacation!! I say "most" because it looks like Nathan is going to stay here, and my dad is going to come here, and they are going to work on some painting/projects around the house while all the rugrats and anklebiters are out of the way. Oh, I hope they can get a lot done! There sure is a lot to do.
Originally the plan was that we would drive 2 vans out to Ohio, with Bob towing a trailer of stuff that we didn't want to store. But now he has dithered around to not being as excited about PCSing, so it looks like that plan is not going to happen. We have not gotten official orders yet, and so Bob hasn't had to make a formal decision, but if he were to have to decide today, we wouldn't go. Sigh. It's all been stressful. I guess I'll say more when we know for sure.
In the meantime, I am REALLY, REALLY looking forward to seeing my mom and Amy, and just relaxing, without having to be somewhere and preparing stuff all the time.
In other news, our digital camera has died. I'm so thankful that it waited to kick the bucket until after the Egypt 5th week! I had a lot of trouble uploading those pictures onto our computer, so I'm wondering if it wasn't in the death spiral then, so to speak. We got it the Christmas before Anna was born, back in 2005. I was not excited about it at.all. because I knew we'd never get pictures developed from all the images we would take, just like everyone always complained about. But then Dan and Melinda introduced me to Snapfish, and that hasn't been a problem for me! Last week I was going through stuff in my desk, and I found our old camera. It was on pictures number 22, so I took a few more pictures of the kids to finish out the roll of film. The little ones (Caleb and younger) were confused that you couldn't just see the picture immediately ("Where's the screen?"), and when the film was rewinding, they were quite amazed at all the noise! Now I need to get that film developed. Anyway, I finally did consent to start taking pictures with the digital camera. Now I guess we need to look for another one. I abhor shopping for technical things, because there are so many different options out there, all of them expensive, and it is so hard to tell which features really add value (especially to a non-technophile like me), and which ones just sound impressive (but we would never use). Maybe a camera will be this year's after-Thanksgiving sale purchase? Bob had cracked the code on that--shop the internet! Same great deals, no standing in line with crazy people! He's been able to get great deals on internet things the past few years, so we'll see what this year brings.
Originally the plan was that we would drive 2 vans out to Ohio, with Bob towing a trailer of stuff that we didn't want to store. But now he has dithered around to not being as excited about PCSing, so it looks like that plan is not going to happen. We have not gotten official orders yet, and so Bob hasn't had to make a formal decision, but if he were to have to decide today, we wouldn't go. Sigh. It's all been stressful. I guess I'll say more when we know for sure.
In the meantime, I am REALLY, REALLY looking forward to seeing my mom and Amy, and just relaxing, without having to be somewhere and preparing stuff all the time.
In other news, our digital camera has died. I'm so thankful that it waited to kick the bucket until after the Egypt 5th week! I had a lot of trouble uploading those pictures onto our computer, so I'm wondering if it wasn't in the death spiral then, so to speak. We got it the Christmas before Anna was born, back in 2005. I was not excited about it at.all. because I knew we'd never get pictures developed from all the images we would take, just like everyone always complained about. But then Dan and Melinda introduced me to Snapfish, and that hasn't been a problem for me! Last week I was going through stuff in my desk, and I found our old camera. It was on pictures number 22, so I took a few more pictures of the kids to finish out the roll of film. The little ones (Caleb and younger) were confused that you couldn't just see the picture immediately ("Where's the screen?"), and when the film was rewinding, they were quite amazed at all the noise! Now I need to get that film developed. Anyway, I finally did consent to start taking pictures with the digital camera. Now I guess we need to look for another one. I abhor shopping for technical things, because there are so many different options out there, all of them expensive, and it is so hard to tell which features really add value (especially to a non-technophile like me), and which ones just sound impressive (but we would never use). Maybe a camera will be this year's after-Thanksgiving sale purchase? Bob had cracked the code on that--shop the internet! Same great deals, no standing in line with crazy people! He's been able to get great deals on internet things the past few years, so we'll see what this year brings.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Still Alive . . .
I just wanted to let everyone know that I have made it through my 2 weeks of teaching at co-op! I think the lessons went well. The first week was about hieroglyphics, and for the second week, we talked about the Egyptian religion, specifically the 10 plagues of Egpyt and how they were attacks on 10 of their gods. It was really interesting for to learn about too! Now we just have the 5th week activity, but I, in a fit of rare inspiration, have already typed up everything I'm going to say for that! I still have to finish painting the cardboard mummies, and make the coffin for King Cluck, though.
Next week is the last week to teach tin whistle at CC also. Amazingly, I already have my lesson done and hand-outs ready for that too! That is not due to any foresight, however. Today at CC we had a special guest speaker (a man from South Africa who is also a missionary there--fascinating man! I wish he could have spoken longer!), and so we were running short on time. Also, the tutor who has been teaching tin whistle to the little guys was sick, so I would have had to teach all the classes together. I can't even fathom how that would have worked, so I told the director I wasn't interested, and could we just skip it for today?! Thankfully she said yes, so now I'm all prepared for next week! Whew!
I'm so tired now, though. We've been busy cleaning and organizing as well. Bob had off Wednesday for Veterans' Day, and we really got a lot done (not that there isn't tons more to do, LOL). Hopefully this weekend will also be productive. We need a few nice days' of weather so we can finish up some outside stuff. Wednesday it poured down rain steadily, so that was not that day. We did throw away a ton more things.
We've also been giving back things to people as we find them. In our shed we have the smallest size of boys' bike, the one that all our boys learned how to ride on. It was actually handed down to us from the L's, after Anthony and Zachary had used it. I must say it has served faithfully! Anyhow, now the L's have Theodore, and while he won't be riding a bike for a few more years, it would certainly be fitting for him to learn to ride the same bike that his brothers both learned on! So we have given that back to the L's.
We're still dealing with this little 2-day fever sickness thing that we've been struggling with this season. We all went to church 2 Sundays ago, and then Grace got sick again Saturday. And then Faith, and then Nathan on Wednesday and Caleb today. Nathan and Caleb had to stay home by themselves during CC today. Grace and Faith are still really snotty and snuffly. I'm ready for us all to be healthy!
Right now Bob and the kids are making pizzelles, a crunchy cookie from Eastern Europe that you cook on a pizzelle maker, which is like a little waffle maker. They tried a chocolate variation, with chocolate syrup so Caleb could have some, which were quite tasty. They like to bend the hot pizzelles under a little bowl to make it into a bowl shape. These are delicious as ice cream bowls, and that is what is being planned for later this evening!
Next week is the last week to teach tin whistle at CC also. Amazingly, I already have my lesson done and hand-outs ready for that too! That is not due to any foresight, however. Today at CC we had a special guest speaker (a man from South Africa who is also a missionary there--fascinating man! I wish he could have spoken longer!), and so we were running short on time. Also, the tutor who has been teaching tin whistle to the little guys was sick, so I would have had to teach all the classes together. I can't even fathom how that would have worked, so I told the director I wasn't interested, and could we just skip it for today?! Thankfully she said yes, so now I'm all prepared for next week! Whew!
I'm so tired now, though. We've been busy cleaning and organizing as well. Bob had off Wednesday for Veterans' Day, and we really got a lot done (not that there isn't tons more to do, LOL). Hopefully this weekend will also be productive. We need a few nice days' of weather so we can finish up some outside stuff. Wednesday it poured down rain steadily, so that was not that day. We did throw away a ton more things.
We've also been giving back things to people as we find them. In our shed we have the smallest size of boys' bike, the one that all our boys learned how to ride on. It was actually handed down to us from the L's, after Anthony and Zachary had used it. I must say it has served faithfully! Anyhow, now the L's have Theodore, and while he won't be riding a bike for a few more years, it would certainly be fitting for him to learn to ride the same bike that his brothers both learned on! So we have given that back to the L's.
We're still dealing with this little 2-day fever sickness thing that we've been struggling with this season. We all went to church 2 Sundays ago, and then Grace got sick again Saturday. And then Faith, and then Nathan on Wednesday and Caleb today. Nathan and Caleb had to stay home by themselves during CC today. Grace and Faith are still really snotty and snuffly. I'm ready for us all to be healthy!
Right now Bob and the kids are making pizzelles, a crunchy cookie from Eastern Europe that you cook on a pizzelle maker, which is like a little waffle maker. They tried a chocolate variation, with chocolate syrup so Caleb could have some, which were quite tasty. They like to bend the hot pizzelles under a little bowl to make it into a bowl shape. These are delicious as ice cream bowls, and that is what is being planned for later this evening!
Friday, October 30, 2009
Radio Silence
Luke was scrolling down my blog today, and he noted that I had not been posting very much lately. He's correct, and it's going to get worse before it gets any better at all! The next 3 weeks are going to be crazy for me. They are my 3 weeks to teach at our big co-op, so I am furiously trying to get my lessons in order for that. For the first week, we're going to talk about hieroglyphics, numbers, papyrus, scribes, and anything else about writing that I can think of. Right now I'm working on making cartouches of everyone's names. I'm making all the letters, then cutting them apart and putting them in baggies so they can glue the pictures that make up their names onto a brown construction paper cartouche. Even though I borrowed a stencil for the hieroglyphs themselves, this is still time-consuming, and I have other activities to prepare. And that's only for the first week!
For the second week, I'm going to talk about some of their false gods, particularly the ones relating to the 10 plagues of Moses. I'm also going to talk about a few of the famous pharoahs, and we have to make some necklaces and arm bands for them to wear at the 5th week activity. The 5th week is what I am doing all the chicken mummifying and cardboard painting, so thatis also taking up some time!
In the middle of all this, I still have to tutor at Classical Conversations, and since I volunteered to teach tin whistle to the 3/4 and 5/6 graders, I have that as well to prepare for! I think I must have been impaired when I signed up for that, LOL. It has been fun, even though I don't think we're going to get anything really approaching harmony. Some kids really do work at home (this would not be mine, however, LOL), and they sound really good, and then there are those who could be really good, but don't put in the effort required, and then there are those with learning disabilities. Definitely a challenge, and the prepared lessons move at a snail's pace, so that's why I am doing so much of my own stuff.
We have 2 more weeks of Upward soccer. Nathan has already started practices for his junior high homeschool basketball team, and Luke will start his Upward basketball practices soon as well. We are going out to Chuck E. Cheese tomorrow night for our annual non-Halloween celebration with our Bible study. Sunday night we have our monthly church growth group at our house, so things have to be picked up and decent around here! Caleb's birthday is next Thursday, so I have a cake to make for that (he has requested an F-22).
In the middle of all this is the on-going uncertainty of a potential overseas move. Talk about radio silence! It seems that AFPC just becomes a ghost town in September, after the summer cycle is over and done. No one is there! Bob's assignment guy is supposed to be back Nov. 16, so I guess we will know more about a report date, etc. then. In the meantime, the people in Guam are thinking we're coming. Carolyn, my friend over there, talked to the vice wing commander's wife at a function, who told her they were expecting us! Bob continues to sort of be hot and cold about the whole thing. Just the other day he told me he was sending in a resume to a guy from church! But I think we are leaning towards going, unless something really miraculous and clearly from God drops in our lap soon. Of course, that leads to its own set of busyness! I have been deluttering right and left, and trying to get things organized. If this all happens, then it looks like we will try to drive back to Ohio right after Thanksgiving in 2 vans, with Bob pulling a trailer behind the Honda filled with stuff to leave at my parents' house. Then he would drive back here with my dad, and they would work on painting, repairing some drywall, putting the trim around the hardwood, etc., without the distraction of lots of other people around. I think we could stay away for maybe 10 days or so, since the boys will have basketball. We're thinking, based on what the AFPC guy said way back in August, that Bob will probably have a report date in January. Since we have so many commitments here, the kids and I would most likely follow the end of March, when those are all winding down. I am just not thinking about a 25 hour plane trip with 7 kids by myself, so kindly do not remind me of this, LOL.
So that's where we are now, and if you are wondering why I'm not posting much in the next few weeks, just think "Ancient Egypt"!
For the second week, I'm going to talk about some of their false gods, particularly the ones relating to the 10 plagues of Moses. I'm also going to talk about a few of the famous pharoahs, and we have to make some necklaces and arm bands for them to wear at the 5th week activity. The 5th week is what I am doing all the chicken mummifying and cardboard painting, so thatis also taking up some time!
In the middle of all this, I still have to tutor at Classical Conversations, and since I volunteered to teach tin whistle to the 3/4 and 5/6 graders, I have that as well to prepare for! I think I must have been impaired when I signed up for that, LOL. It has been fun, even though I don't think we're going to get anything really approaching harmony. Some kids really do work at home (this would not be mine, however, LOL), and they sound really good, and then there are those who could be really good, but don't put in the effort required, and then there are those with learning disabilities. Definitely a challenge, and the prepared lessons move at a snail's pace, so that's why I am doing so much of my own stuff.
We have 2 more weeks of Upward soccer. Nathan has already started practices for his junior high homeschool basketball team, and Luke will start his Upward basketball practices soon as well. We are going out to Chuck E. Cheese tomorrow night for our annual non-Halloween celebration with our Bible study. Sunday night we have our monthly church growth group at our house, so things have to be picked up and decent around here! Caleb's birthday is next Thursday, so I have a cake to make for that (he has requested an F-22).
In the middle of all this is the on-going uncertainty of a potential overseas move. Talk about radio silence! It seems that AFPC just becomes a ghost town in September, after the summer cycle is over and done. No one is there! Bob's assignment guy is supposed to be back Nov. 16, so I guess we will know more about a report date, etc. then. In the meantime, the people in Guam are thinking we're coming. Carolyn, my friend over there, talked to the vice wing commander's wife at a function, who told her they were expecting us! Bob continues to sort of be hot and cold about the whole thing. Just the other day he told me he was sending in a resume to a guy from church! But I think we are leaning towards going, unless something really miraculous and clearly from God drops in our lap soon. Of course, that leads to its own set of busyness! I have been deluttering right and left, and trying to get things organized. If this all happens, then it looks like we will try to drive back to Ohio right after Thanksgiving in 2 vans, with Bob pulling a trailer behind the Honda filled with stuff to leave at my parents' house. Then he would drive back here with my dad, and they would work on painting, repairing some drywall, putting the trim around the hardwood, etc., without the distraction of lots of other people around. I think we could stay away for maybe 10 days or so, since the boys will have basketball. We're thinking, based on what the AFPC guy said way back in August, that Bob will probably have a report date in January. Since we have so many commitments here, the kids and I would most likely follow the end of March, when those are all winding down. I am just not thinking about a 25 hour plane trip with 7 kids by myself, so kindly do not remind me of this, LOL.
So that's where we are now, and if you are wondering why I'm not posting much in the next few weeks, just think "Ancient Egypt"!
Friday, October 02, 2009
Week in Review
1. Tomorrow Caleb and Jonathan have another soccer game at 9:00. Bob is the coach of their team, so at least they will go. Last week they were supposed to have their team pictures taken before the game--at 6:45 A.M.! Well, that's when they were supposed to be there; the pictures were to be taken at 7:00. I wondered how this would work, since it's still dark here at 7:00. Bob pitched the idea to the team that, seeing as how we are living in this digital age, he just take pictures of everyone on our camera, make discs, and then people can get their own prints, buttons, magnets, whatever, at reasonable prices from Sams or Snapfish or wherever, as opposed to the outrageous ones charged by those sports photo businesses. That was a winner of an idea, so they did that at the civilized hour of 8:45, and he handed out the discs at practice on Thursday. We had gotten an email from the league saying they were having a make-up picture day during practice next Thursday night for those teams that couldn't get their pictures done. One of the other team moms heard someone on another team say their pictures hadn't turned out at all because--get this--it was too dark, so they needed to retake them. Yeah, I know--it's hard to see that coming, what with all the uncertainty of when the sun rises each day and whatnot. Anyhow, we were feeling good about that.
2. It was our turn to do the family presentation at the beginning of Classical Conversations on Thursday. We're supposed to do something relating to one of the 8 history timeline cards we memorize each week, so we chose to do a Greek myth, which related to the card "Homer and Greek Mythology". We did "Theseus and the Minotaur", which was very well-received. Nathan was our brave hero Theseus, Caleb was King Aegeus, the king of Athens, Jonathan was an unnamed Athenian sailing to Minos to be a victim of the Minotaur along with Theseus, Anna was Ariadne, King Minos' beautiful daughter who gave Theseus the golden spool of magical thread, and Luke was the Minotaur. We had to get a monster mask from the dollar store from him. Since it had crossed eyes, it was more goofy than scary, so it was perfect.
3. Bob was driving the big van to work on Thursday so that he could pick up the running boards he ordered over lunch. At a stop light, he got rear-ended! I know--it's so hard to see the tiny Ford 350 van. Turn it sideways, and you can hardly tell it's there! LOL! The lady actually told Bob she was late to work, in a hurry, and she looked down for "just a second"! All the things your insurance tells you not to say. Her license plate (in vanity plate-happy VA) was "XLER3". I guess someone took the 8 before she could get there, LOL. There's not too much damage to the big van, although now our backups sensor lights don't work, so there's no beeping when you get close to things. I liked that. This is actually the second time this year Bob has gotten rear-ended. Lucky him!
4. I've been gradually working on potty-training Grace, and she's been doing well. The only fly in the ointment has been that we are gone Tuesdays and Thursdays for co-ops, so there isn't a long chunk of days where we don't go anywhere to really cement everything. Instead, shell do well in underwear for one day, then I'll put her back in a diaper for CC or whatever, and she'll happily go in there. and she's definitely not at the point where she would tell someone else she needs to go. I still have to remind her often to go, or she will have an accident. Today was not a good day, however. She pooped in her panties not long after she got up, she had a pee accident before lunch, and after lunch she pooped in her panties again! What in the world was that all about?! We don't have our Tuesday co-op the day after Columbus Day, so I'm hoping that week will be the week where it all comes together for her. And I'm hoping the pooping thing does not become an issue! (Maybe she and Emily talked about it, Melinda?!)
5. I had mentioned back in July that one thing that made selling our house and PCSing attractive was this military homeowners' assistance program that was in the stimulus package. it was supposed to pay the military person back 90% of the difference between what they bought the house at and what they could sell it for. In an area like ours, that is a significant amount. But then we never heard anything official, and in fact, stuff had even been taken off the official website talking about the program at all! We thought, that's not a good sign . . . . Moving was a lot less attractive. But then yesterday we got a phone call from a friend in CO and an email from E out here saying that things are a go, and it's about to get officially entered in the congressional register. Right now, the deal is for people who have orders by Dec. 09, with a report date no later than 28 Feb. 10, but they could extend that up to 2012 if there are sufficient funds. Hmmm. So we're back to leaning towards going. We haven't actually heard anything from the guy at Andersen (Guam) or the AFPC guy, so we were wondering what was going on, but Bob has been busy, so he hasn't called them either. I told that to Carolyn, the one with 7 kids that is over there already, and she said her husband had been given a request for him to be our sponsor, so she had assumed Bob had gotten the job! How funny that she knows more than we do! Please keep praying that we make the right decisions here, and that the Lord will make His will very clear for us.
Well, that's where we're at! I hope you all had a good week too!
2. It was our turn to do the family presentation at the beginning of Classical Conversations on Thursday. We're supposed to do something relating to one of the 8 history timeline cards we memorize each week, so we chose to do a Greek myth, which related to the card "Homer and Greek Mythology". We did "Theseus and the Minotaur", which was very well-received. Nathan was our brave hero Theseus, Caleb was King Aegeus, the king of Athens, Jonathan was an unnamed Athenian sailing to Minos to be a victim of the Minotaur along with Theseus, Anna was Ariadne, King Minos' beautiful daughter who gave Theseus the golden spool of magical thread, and Luke was the Minotaur. We had to get a monster mask from the dollar store from him. Since it had crossed eyes, it was more goofy than scary, so it was perfect.
3. Bob was driving the big van to work on Thursday so that he could pick up the running boards he ordered over lunch. At a stop light, he got rear-ended! I know--it's so hard to see the tiny Ford 350 van. Turn it sideways, and you can hardly tell it's there! LOL! The lady actually told Bob she was late to work, in a hurry, and she looked down for "just a second"! All the things your insurance tells you not to say. Her license plate (in vanity plate-happy VA) was "XLER3". I guess someone took the 8 before she could get there, LOL. There's not too much damage to the big van, although now our backups sensor lights don't work, so there's no beeping when you get close to things. I liked that. This is actually the second time this year Bob has gotten rear-ended. Lucky him!
4. I've been gradually working on potty-training Grace, and she's been doing well. The only fly in the ointment has been that we are gone Tuesdays and Thursdays for co-ops, so there isn't a long chunk of days where we don't go anywhere to really cement everything. Instead, shell do well in underwear for one day, then I'll put her back in a diaper for CC or whatever, and she'll happily go in there. and she's definitely not at the point where she would tell someone else she needs to go. I still have to remind her often to go, or she will have an accident. Today was not a good day, however. She pooped in her panties not long after she got up, she had a pee accident before lunch, and after lunch she pooped in her panties again! What in the world was that all about?! We don't have our Tuesday co-op the day after Columbus Day, so I'm hoping that week will be the week where it all comes together for her. And I'm hoping the pooping thing does not become an issue! (Maybe she and Emily talked about it, Melinda?!)
5. I had mentioned back in July that one thing that made selling our house and PCSing attractive was this military homeowners' assistance program that was in the stimulus package. it was supposed to pay the military person back 90% of the difference between what they bought the house at and what they could sell it for. In an area like ours, that is a significant amount. But then we never heard anything official, and in fact, stuff had even been taken off the official website talking about the program at all! We thought, that's not a good sign . . . . Moving was a lot less attractive. But then yesterday we got a phone call from a friend in CO and an email from E out here saying that things are a go, and it's about to get officially entered in the congressional register. Right now, the deal is for people who have orders by Dec. 09, with a report date no later than 28 Feb. 10, but they could extend that up to 2012 if there are sufficient funds. Hmmm. So we're back to leaning towards going. We haven't actually heard anything from the guy at Andersen (Guam) or the AFPC guy, so we were wondering what was going on, but Bob has been busy, so he hasn't called them either. I told that to Carolyn, the one with 7 kids that is over there already, and she said her husband had been given a request for him to be our sponsor, so she had assumed Bob had gotten the job! How funny that she knows more than we do! Please keep praying that we make the right decisions here, and that the Lord will make His will very clear for us.
Well, that's where we're at! I hope you all had a good week too!
Friday, September 18, 2009
Catching My Breath . . .
We're not going anywhere this weekend! I didn't have to pack suitcases for anyone! Or find any odd, random items that are rarely used but are definitely needed for the weekend! Actually, for the trip last weekend, I let the boys pack for themselves, having told them exactly how much of everything they needed. And they all put their own stuff in their own duffle bag. Nathan and Luke are old pros at this, having packed for themselves to go to Camp Caleb for a few years now. But even Caleb and Jonathan are not novices at traveling, and usually I tell them what to bring to me, even if I do the actual packing, so they should be well familiar with the packing procedure.
Well, when all the duffle bags were brought downstairs Friday, Luke mentioned that Jonathan's bag looked awfully empty, and I made a mental note to check it. That mental note promptly flew out my other ear, and I didn't even glance at his bag again. As we were well on our way, Jonathan piped up in the back to tell us that he had not packed any underwear, but not to worry--he WAS wearing a pair. Whew! LOL He also neglected to pack a second pair of pants, which I had specifically told him about, so he was a bit chilly when his jeans got wet on Saturday. So obviously a little more supervision is needed on his end, at least. Everyone else did just fine.
One thing I have realized as we have gotten back into our school routine, is that doing 2 co-ops with everyone is definitely more tiring. Classical Conversations is going very well. I really enjoy my class, and I think all the boys are learning a lot and having a lot of fun. But it is hard to get out 2 mornings a week, and preparing for CC is another thing taking up my time, although I do enjoy it! Plus, Nathan has his writing co-op Tuesday afternoons, and Luke's is on Thursday afternoons, so that is more business. Those will both end up being only every other week, though, so I guess that will help. The point is, the weeks are flying by, and I constantly feel like I am behind on cleaning, laundry, etc. (and I constantly feel that way because in fact I AM behind, LOL). Going away every weekend has not helped that either. Even typing a blog post has just become too much most afternoons and evenings! Hopefully things will settle down into more of a rhythm.
Well, when all the duffle bags were brought downstairs Friday, Luke mentioned that Jonathan's bag looked awfully empty, and I made a mental note to check it. That mental note promptly flew out my other ear, and I didn't even glance at his bag again. As we were well on our way, Jonathan piped up in the back to tell us that he had not packed any underwear, but not to worry--he WAS wearing a pair. Whew! LOL He also neglected to pack a second pair of pants, which I had specifically told him about, so he was a bit chilly when his jeans got wet on Saturday. So obviously a little more supervision is needed on his end, at least. Everyone else did just fine.
One thing I have realized as we have gotten back into our school routine, is that doing 2 co-ops with everyone is definitely more tiring. Classical Conversations is going very well. I really enjoy my class, and I think all the boys are learning a lot and having a lot of fun. But it is hard to get out 2 mornings a week, and preparing for CC is another thing taking up my time, although I do enjoy it! Plus, Nathan has his writing co-op Tuesday afternoons, and Luke's is on Thursday afternoons, so that is more business. Those will both end up being only every other week, though, so I guess that will help. The point is, the weeks are flying by, and I constantly feel like I am behind on cleaning, laundry, etc. (and I constantly feel that way because in fact I AM behind, LOL). Going away every weekend has not helped that either. Even typing a blog post has just become too much most afternoons and evenings! Hopefully things will settle down into more of a rhythm.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
The Weekend is Over!
And I for one am glad. Now maybe I can get some rest! Actually, all of last week was really busy too. Tuesday was the last day of our homeschool co-op. The kids have been working hard on a musical for this last unit. They started working on it (casting parts, etc.) back in December, when they had a fine arts unit before Christmas. Then they picked up with everything the end of March, and last week they had practice Wednesday and Thursday afternoons as well. Friday was the big perfermance, and they did great! The musical was called "Promise U", and the idea was that a big group of college students were studying for a test they had to pass about God's promises to famous followers over the past 2000 years. The DJ was new to the school and didn't know about these people, who were Paul, Martin Luther, Pocohantas, the Wesley brothers, Harriet Tubman, Gladys Aylward, and Billy Graham. There were little vignettes about each famous follower, plus songs, a stomp team demo, and various other special and creative things. It was so fun to watch! The kids did a great job, especially for not really having practiced all that much. Actually, the ladies who directed it really did a great job, being able to pull together such an amazing performance with so little time, and so many wiggly kids! Luke, who was really not into the whole thing at all was so funny on the way home Friday night: "You know, it really felt good to stand up there and have all those people clap for me!" Ah, self-discovery, and the joys of going out of your comfort zone, LOL.
Saturday afternoon I went to a wedding shower for a girl at church, and then I rushed home to start cleaning and making food because I hosted a baby shower for 5 women from church this afternoon over here. I stayed up WAYYYY to late Saturday night, in part because one of the honored women called Saturday night to ask if her husband and kids could just be in our basement during the shower because they live 40 minutes away. Of course I said sure, but that meant I had to rush downstairs and clean up, which meant throwing everything on the floor in a kitchen trash bag, LOL. The funny thing is that so far the boys haven't even noticed that all that stuff (mainly legos) has just disappeared. The not-so-funny thing is that when the lady came, I asked her where her family was, and she told me that another family at church had asked them to come over to their house, which is what they did. Oh well, at least the basement is really clean. And less cluttered.
I wasn't sure how many people we would have, but I figured it would be a good amount, since the shower was happening right after church. We ended up having over 20 women, plus a few daughters. Good thing we had lots of food! I made these make-ahead sandwiches out of 3 loaves of Italian bread, as well as a bean salad, and a broccoli salad. We also had fruit, and the lady who hosted the wedding shower brought her leftover food as well, which was several dips and spreads for crackers. Karen, our pastor's wife, made a beautiful cake. We hardly had anything left over! I guess the women were hungry after church! I had stayed up late last night also trying to figure out games. Normally I come up with some creative ones, but I was just so tired, plus we were out of computer paper, I discovered. Anyway, there were so many people that it would have been hard to play games, plus everyone was having a grand time just talking, so we ended up not playing anything. Another thing I could have not done last night! We did go around and ask each of the 5 women about what we could specifically pray for them, and then we had a time of prayer. It was really a nice time.
Bob took all the kids but Faith out to eat at Ci-Ci's Pizza, and then swimming at the rec center. They had a wonderful time, and it was so nice to have the kids out of the way for the whole afternoon! I'm sure Bob was also happy to not be there, listening to all the talk of childbirth and nursing, LOL.
After everyone left and Bob and the kids came home, I crashed for a 2 1/2 hour nap. I was so tired! I only woke up because I had to nurse. Hopefully this next week won't be quite so busy!
Saturday afternoon I went to a wedding shower for a girl at church, and then I rushed home to start cleaning and making food because I hosted a baby shower for 5 women from church this afternoon over here. I stayed up WAYYYY to late Saturday night, in part because one of the honored women called Saturday night to ask if her husband and kids could just be in our basement during the shower because they live 40 minutes away. Of course I said sure, but that meant I had to rush downstairs and clean up, which meant throwing everything on the floor in a kitchen trash bag, LOL. The funny thing is that so far the boys haven't even noticed that all that stuff (mainly legos) has just disappeared. The not-so-funny thing is that when the lady came, I asked her where her family was, and she told me that another family at church had asked them to come over to their house, which is what they did. Oh well, at least the basement is really clean. And less cluttered.
I wasn't sure how many people we would have, but I figured it would be a good amount, since the shower was happening right after church. We ended up having over 20 women, plus a few daughters. Good thing we had lots of food! I made these make-ahead sandwiches out of 3 loaves of Italian bread, as well as a bean salad, and a broccoli salad. We also had fruit, and the lady who hosted the wedding shower brought her leftover food as well, which was several dips and spreads for crackers. Karen, our pastor's wife, made a beautiful cake. We hardly had anything left over! I guess the women were hungry after church! I had stayed up late last night also trying to figure out games. Normally I come up with some creative ones, but I was just so tired, plus we were out of computer paper, I discovered. Anyway, there were so many people that it would have been hard to play games, plus everyone was having a grand time just talking, so we ended up not playing anything. Another thing I could have not done last night! We did go around and ask each of the 5 women about what we could specifically pray for them, and then we had a time of prayer. It was really a nice time.
Bob took all the kids but Faith out to eat at Ci-Ci's Pizza, and then swimming at the rec center. They had a wonderful time, and it was so nice to have the kids out of the way for the whole afternoon! I'm sure Bob was also happy to not be there, listening to all the talk of childbirth and nursing, LOL.
After everyone left and Bob and the kids came home, I crashed for a 2 1/2 hour nap. I was so tired! I only woke up because I had to nurse. Hopefully this next week won't be quite so busy!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Snow Day
My Mom and Dad got in safely last night, and we were sure glad they came yesterday as opposed to today! It started snowing this morning, and it would not have been a good traveling day at all!
It snowed enough that our co-op was cancelled, much to everyone's disappointment. I decided we would just take a snow day, as opposed to doing any regular school stuff. This was a popular decision, LOL. Nathan decided to make pancakes for breakfast in celebration. It was nice for me to have a day where we didn't have to go anywhere OR do school! I did laundry while the boys worked on a puzzle that Grandma and Grandpa brought. After lunch the boys went outside to play in the snow. Anna and Grace also went out for a little while. After shoveling the driveway (why do you think we have all these boys?!), they went down to the end of the cul-de-sac to go sledding. They made a little ramp so they could catch some air when they hit a certain stump, and much fun was had. Anna even went down this ramp thing with Nathan. He said she laughed, but as soon as they were done, she told him it was too scary, LOL. Shortly thereafter, she and Grace came in. The boys stayed out for awhile. I love, love, love when they can stay outside all afternoon!
Nathan came in first, and we set up our new cocoa-latte maker, which I won in that basket from the orthodontist. When we were in the last time, the receptionist gave me the box, which had all the instructions in it--definitely what we needed to be able to try it out! Now let me be the first to say this is NOT a machine I would EVER just purchase. A kitchen appliance dedicated to making hot drinks?! I don't think so. But since we do have one, and it happened to be free . . .it turns out that it is really great! We put in the liquid (we used half water and half milk) plus the hot cocoa powder mix, put the lid on and turn the thing on. It mixes everything up and heats it up to the right temperature and there you go! Thirty-two ounces of hot cocoa on tap! Usually we're heating up tons of water, getting powder everywhere, etc. This was very non-messy, and everyone could serve themselves. I'm a fan. Poor Caleb still had to heat up water for his apple cider, but all the non-dairy-allergic people thought it was great.
Jonathan was the most sad about co-op being cancelled. While the older kids are having a writing unit, the K-4 and K-5 classes are doing a unit on community helpers. This week they were supposed to take a field trip to the library and the police station. He was very sad to miss out on that! Last week they learned about bakers, and they got to make pretzels and decorate sugar cookies. The week before that, they learned about doctors and nurses. A nurse came in and talked to them, and they got to doctor up their stuffed animals. Too cute! The first week they learned about farmers. Their project was a head made of a panty-hose knee-high stuffed with something that looks like what you put at the bottom of hamster cages, along with some grass seed right at the top. They tied a nose in it and sent it home with us to water every day. We have been doing that faithfully, and I am pleased to report that Jonathan's grass man has indeed sprouted a head of (somewhat thin) hair. It is long, however, and before the guy goes for the questionable "comb-over" style, the boys are anxious to give him a trim.
Some of you who have faithfully read my blog for awhile may remember the Shrek chia pet my brother so kindly passed on to the boys after he received it at an office Christmas party. Amazingly, this cheapo version of a chia pet turned out even better than Shrek, if you can imagine it!
Tomorrow we;re back to our regularly scheduled school day. Unless the baby comes, of course. But since there have been absolutely no signs of any impending action, I think we're good to just plan on school!
It snowed enough that our co-op was cancelled, much to everyone's disappointment. I decided we would just take a snow day, as opposed to doing any regular school stuff. This was a popular decision, LOL. Nathan decided to make pancakes for breakfast in celebration. It was nice for me to have a day where we didn't have to go anywhere OR do school! I did laundry while the boys worked on a puzzle that Grandma and Grandpa brought. After lunch the boys went outside to play in the snow. Anna and Grace also went out for a little while. After shoveling the driveway (why do you think we have all these boys?!), they went down to the end of the cul-de-sac to go sledding. They made a little ramp so they could catch some air when they hit a certain stump, and much fun was had. Anna even went down this ramp thing with Nathan. He said she laughed, but as soon as they were done, she told him it was too scary, LOL. Shortly thereafter, she and Grace came in. The boys stayed out for awhile. I love, love, love when they can stay outside all afternoon!
Nathan came in first, and we set up our new cocoa-latte maker, which I won in that basket from the orthodontist. When we were in the last time, the receptionist gave me the box, which had all the instructions in it--definitely what we needed to be able to try it out! Now let me be the first to say this is NOT a machine I would EVER just purchase. A kitchen appliance dedicated to making hot drinks?! I don't think so. But since we do have one, and it happened to be free . . .it turns out that it is really great! We put in the liquid (we used half water and half milk) plus the hot cocoa powder mix, put the lid on and turn the thing on. It mixes everything up and heats it up to the right temperature and there you go! Thirty-two ounces of hot cocoa on tap! Usually we're heating up tons of water, getting powder everywhere, etc. This was very non-messy, and everyone could serve themselves. I'm a fan. Poor Caleb still had to heat up water for his apple cider, but all the non-dairy-allergic people thought it was great.
Jonathan was the most sad about co-op being cancelled. While the older kids are having a writing unit, the K-4 and K-5 classes are doing a unit on community helpers. This week they were supposed to take a field trip to the library and the police station. He was very sad to miss out on that! Last week they learned about bakers, and they got to make pretzels and decorate sugar cookies. The week before that, they learned about doctors and nurses. A nurse came in and talked to them, and they got to doctor up their stuffed animals. Too cute! The first week they learned about farmers. Their project was a head made of a panty-hose knee-high stuffed with something that looks like what you put at the bottom of hamster cages, along with some grass seed right at the top. They tied a nose in it and sent it home with us to water every day. We have been doing that faithfully, and I am pleased to report that Jonathan's grass man has indeed sprouted a head of (somewhat thin) hair. It is long, however, and before the guy goes for the questionable "comb-over" style, the boys are anxious to give him a trim.
Some of you who have faithfully read my blog for awhile may remember the Shrek chia pet my brother so kindly passed on to the boys after he received it at an office Christmas party. Amazingly, this cheapo version of a chia pet turned out even better than Shrek, if you can imagine it!
Tomorrow we;re back to our regularly scheduled school day. Unless the baby comes, of course. But since there have been absolutely no signs of any impending action, I think we're good to just plan on school!
Friday, November 14, 2008
All's Well That Ends Well
You may remember the Presidential fitness run fiasco a few weeks ago. Basically, the lady in charge messed up on the distances, so Luke only ran 1/4 mile, instead of a half mile. He ran it again that same day, but it was really hot, and he had just eaten lunch, so he was still off on his time. He got 3:48, but he needed 3:30.
Today was the day he reran it. We went to the park where we usually do the run in the years past, where there is a half-mile circle to run on. The McCs were there, as well as a few other kids. Luke and Caleb McC ran the half mile, but both of them didn't get the time. Luke's time was 3:44, and Caleb's was 3:47. They were disappointed, but not devastated.
As we (the parents) stood around talking, we looked at the time the boys would need for presidential if they ran a whole mile. That time was 8:31, considerably more than double the half mile time they were shooting for. So Craig McC convinced Caleb to give the mile a shot, and Luke said he would run it too. Nathan also decided to run, even though he had not planned on running at all today. I think all the cheering and race-time excitement motivated him, LOL. So they all set off, and Nathan ran a mile in 7:52, which was better than his other time of 8:01, but not good enough for presidential, since he needed 7:32. But he was only national in the shuttle run too, and he was fine with that. Luke came in at 8:01, well under what he needed, and Caleb got 8:18, which was also under. So both he and Luke will win the Presidential Physical Fitness award! Everyone was very excited. That's pretty good, considering they had already run a good fast half mile! We were glad Nathan had decided to run it with them, because he was definitely a good pace-setter for them. So the fiasco has been resolved, and everyone is happy now!
Today was the day he reran it. We went to the park where we usually do the run in the years past, where there is a half-mile circle to run on. The McCs were there, as well as a few other kids. Luke and Caleb McC ran the half mile, but both of them didn't get the time. Luke's time was 3:44, and Caleb's was 3:47. They were disappointed, but not devastated.
As we (the parents) stood around talking, we looked at the time the boys would need for presidential if they ran a whole mile. That time was 8:31, considerably more than double the half mile time they were shooting for. So Craig McC convinced Caleb to give the mile a shot, and Luke said he would run it too. Nathan also decided to run, even though he had not planned on running at all today. I think all the cheering and race-time excitement motivated him, LOL. So they all set off, and Nathan ran a mile in 7:52, which was better than his other time of 8:01, but not good enough for presidential, since he needed 7:32. But he was only national in the shuttle run too, and he was fine with that. Luke came in at 8:01, well under what he needed, and Caleb got 8:18, which was also under. So both he and Luke will win the Presidential Physical Fitness award! Everyone was very excited. That's pretty good, considering they had already run a good fast half mile! We were glad Nathan had decided to run it with them, because he was definitely a good pace-setter for them. So the fiasco has been resolved, and everyone is happy now!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Medieval Day!
Today was finally the big day--the wrap-up for our medieval unit at co-op! I was in charge of the unit and the wrap-up activity, so it was a big responsibility, but I had a great group of ladies working with me. We set up the church like a castle, with a few different rooms and activities for the kids to go around to.
There was an outdoor tournament activity, where the kids got to launch tennis balls out of a catapult that Craig McC had built. This was a very popular activity! Bob was able to be there again today, so he helped Craig out with this. Also outside, the kids participated in an armor relay, where one kid was the squire and another kid the knight. The squire had to get his knight dressed up in a bunch of hockey equipment and pads so the knight could run off somewhere.
Inside, we had a monk's room, where the kids illuminated a page which had their first initial printed on it. We had paint pens and other colored markers for them to use. The best part of this room was that the ladies in charge told the kids that the monks had taken a vow of silence, and so they had to be quiet too. I had brought 2 CDs of Gregorian Latin chant music, which they played through out the day. This room was such an oasis of peace and quiet, as the kids busily and quietly worked away at decorating their letters!
I was in the armory, where the kids decorated foamboard swords that we had previously cut out. We also had paint pens to use to "etch" the blades, as well as glitter glue and lots of shiny plastic jewels.
Elizabeth and another lady were in the apothecary room,w here they talked about different herbs and spices, and what they were used for in the Middle Ages. The kids all got to take home a sachet with lavender or apple potpourri.
There was an outdoor tournament activity, where the kids got to launch tennis balls out of a catapult that Craig McC had built. This was a very popular activity! Bob was able to be there again today, so he helped Craig out with this. Also outside, the kids participated in an armor relay, where one kid was the squire and another kid the knight. The squire had to get his knight dressed up in a bunch of hockey equipment and pads so the knight could run off somewhere.
Inside, we had a monk's room, where the kids illuminated a page which had their first initial printed on it. We had paint pens and other colored markers for them to use. The best part of this room was that the ladies in charge told the kids that the monks had taken a vow of silence, and so they had to be quiet too. I had brought 2 CDs of Gregorian Latin chant music, which they played through out the day. This room was such an oasis of peace and quiet, as the kids busily and quietly worked away at decorating their letters!
I was in the armory, where the kids decorated foamboard swords that we had previously cut out. We also had paint pens to use to "etch" the blades, as well as glitter glue and lots of shiny plastic jewels. 
Elizabeth and another lady were in the apothecary room,w here they talked about different herbs and spices, and what they were used for in the Middle Ages. The kids all got to take home a sachet with lavender or apple potpourri.After all the kids had cycled through all the rooms, they marched into the main room for the actual feast part of the day.
The Feast
We ordered 20 pounds of turkey legs from a bulk food co-op, expecting to get about 120 smoked turkey legs that were a little bigger than chicken legs. Instead we got 20 turkey legs, with each one weighing a pound! They were enormous! We gave them to the fifth and sixth grade boys, who had a great time eating them! The younger kids all ate chicken legs. I bought those (84 of them!), marinated them in Italian dressing, and cooked them all yesterday. It was five pans of chicken legs, and we had none left over!
The kids ate on pita bread "trenchers". They also had cheese cubes, slices of bread, carrots, celery sticks, and cream puffs and apple pie squares for dessert. All we had left over were a few carrot and celery sticks. It worked out perfectly! 
We had entertainment during the feast. First, a boy from the high school part of our co-op came and acted like a jester, doing some gymnastics and juggling. Then 2 men from the fencing club that gave the boys lessons came and did a demo. They talked about the different kinds of fencing blades, and showed some theatrical fencing. They dressed up 3 kids and let them have a go at fencing the instructors. The kids really enjoyed the demo. 
Here I am with my 4 knights in shining armor!Thursday, October 30, 2008
A Cryptic Message
There is a puzzling message written in my mother's handwriting on a green sticky note next to my compter. It reads "Fat buffalo eat cheese". Hmmmmmm. What could this mean? Why would my mother write such a phrase? I asked her about it. She said that it was actually Jonathan's message. One night, he kept running back and forth between the study and the family room, asking her to spell various things. Finally she told him to just tell her everything he wanted her to spell, and she would write it on one piece of paper. "Fat buffalo eat cheese" was what he wanted spelled. Why? Who can know the mind of a 5 year old?
In other funny things, for English the other day, Luke had to think of 3 questions "that you might ask an older person about long-ago days" (this is Rod and Staff grammar). Here are Luke's questions:
1. Why was Satan evil?
2. Why did he go to hell?
3. Why were bugs created?
So, Grandma or Grandpa, would you like to take any of these? Or maybe we should just hunt up Adam to ask him. LOL!
In other funny things, for English the other day, Luke had to think of 3 questions "that you might ask an older person about long-ago days" (this is Rod and Staff grammar). Here are Luke's questions:
1. Why was Satan evil?
2. Why did he go to hell?
3. Why were bugs created?
So, Grandma or Grandpa, would you like to take any of these? Or maybe we should just hunt up Adam to ask him. LOL!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
An Exercise in Futility
Wow, do you ever have days where you feel like everything you touch is not going to work out?! That's how I'm feeling today!
Today is our co-op day, and it was the day the kids were going to do the run for the Presidential Physical Fitness test. They would do the run during the non-teaching part of the morning for each of them, so for Nathan and Luke, that meant they ran first, then came back for teaching. So I decided the girls and I would go watch them run. They were running on a portion of a wide, nicely-paved bike trail (used to be train tracks) that's not too far from the church where we meet.
When we got there, the lady in charge was giving instructions--the fourth graders had a choice. They could either run to the first lady and then turn around and run back (making 1/2 mile total) or run to the second lady, turn around, and run back (making 1 mile). The 6th graders all ahd to run the mile. This was explained several times for emphasis, and then they started off. Luke (4th grade) and his friend Caleb were #1 and #2 in the half mile, and everything seemed great. But there was starting to be a bit of a commotion with the timing people and the lady in charge, and when the first 6th graders crossed the line, those people started shouting at them to start running again--they needed to turn around and do it again! Keep running! It was very confusing, but they started off again, losing a bunch of time though. Nathan was 4th in the 6th grade group, and his time ended up being right around 8 minutes. He needed 7:32 to be presidential, however. But it was all very confusing, and I couldn't figure out what had happened. Obviously something was very wrong, though.
Then the girls and I left to go to Wal-Mart. I needed to buy a bunch of t-shirts (80 to be exact) to make tunics with for our medieval unit. Since we're associated with the church, we are allowed to use their tax-exempt number on purchases, so armed with that info, the girls and I set off. Of course, Wal-Mart had a terrible selection of boys t-shirts. They still hadn'[t restocked the boys extra-large ones of the cheap brand, so it took me forever as I tried to figure out what other sizes could work for the different grades. Finally I took my cart full of t-shrit packages up to the front to pay. When I said I had a tax-exempt number, the cashier wanted the actual paper from the church. I said I didn't have that--they told me I just needed the number, as well as the church's address and phone number. The lady tried to enter the number several times, but it always came back as invalid, so obviously something was wrong. Very frustrating! I ended up just paying for all the t-shirts, because I knew if I left them and came back later, they would probably all disappear, and I had taken all the packages of cheap t-shirts, so there weren't anymore on the shelves to get. All this took forever, though, and so we ran home, I threw together sandwiches for the girls and me, and we leaped back into the car to eat them because it was already time to pick up the boys. Whew!
Back at co-op, I got the piece of paper from the leader, so I decided we'd head back to Wal-Mart after leaving the church. We were already out, and we didn't have other plans or schoolwork this afternoon, so it just made sense.
I also discovered that Luke was out rerunning the half mile with Caleb McC and Craig, Caleb's dad. Odd, I thought. Plus, it was really hot out there--in the 80's. He had to run a second timed half-mile in less than 3 hours in the heat, and after eating lunch? And what was the deal with making the 6th graders go back again? Well, it turned out that the lady in charge had totally hosed up the distances (duh). She had originally thought that the little guys (1st-2nd), who only have to run 1/4 mile, were also going to run on the bike path, so she had measured out 1/8 mile, so they could just go there and back. Then the second line was actually 1/4 mile out. But somehow (? She is a mom of 9, so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, but still . . . ) she forgot she ever did that, so she basically told the 4th graders to run 1/4 mile, and the 6th graders to run 1/2 mile. When Luke and the other 4th graders started crossing over, the timers realized the times were way off, and not 1/2 mile times, so they told the 6th graders to turn around and do it again, so they would have the right distance. Of course, when you think you are coming to the end and you start printing, then pull up, only to be told you are in actuality only halfway done and you need to start running again . . . . well, that's not really right. So no one in Nathan's class was Presidential in the run, which was very disappointing for people like Nathan, who pretty much just needed the run to be Presidential overall (and he still lacks the shuttle run).
When Luke came back, we all piled in the car, and Luke immediately started crying. He was so upset. His time was 3:48, and he needed 3:30, so he didn't make it. They told him he had "done it wrong" the first time and only gone 1/4 mile, so he needed to run it again. Well, that is true, and I know they said they TOLD him wrong, because the lady in charge was very clear that it was her fault, but he was still devastated. He was hot, tired, and full from lunch, and he didn't understand what had happened--he had done exactly what they told him to do, so how could he have done it wrong?! This is the only event Luke lacked to be a Presidential award winner, and he's a good runner, so he wasn't anticipating a problem.
They are trying to work out a time for Nathan's class to rerun the mile of they want to, and I am hoping they will let Luke try it again as well. I'm going to email the lady in charge, anyways. I hope she doesn't think that should be his only chance, when it was their fault. Anyhow, it was a frustrating day at co-op for Nathan and Luke, who had both been looking forward to the run, as well as training for it.
So we went off to Wal-Mart again, discussing the run over and over again until everyone understood what had happened. When we got there, I brought all the t-shirts back in to the return counter, where I proudly displayed my correct form from the church, and asked for have the tax taken off. Well, the lady said I needed to fill out another form to put it on file, and there was no one there who could help me with that--I needed to come back some morning. Really?! No one who could help with that?! Obviously the lady I was dealing with couldn't help me. She was one of the many non-native English speakers who work at returns, and it was hard to even get her to understand what I was talking about. But there was nothing I could do except turn around and head back out to the car with everyone in tow. And now I have yet a third trip to Wal-Mart to look forward to, this time during a morning when we should be doing school. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. So now I'm wondering what else I should attempt today, just to see if it turns out as poorly as everything else has.
Today is our co-op day, and it was the day the kids were going to do the run for the Presidential Physical Fitness test. They would do the run during the non-teaching part of the morning for each of them, so for Nathan and Luke, that meant they ran first, then came back for teaching. So I decided the girls and I would go watch them run. They were running on a portion of a wide, nicely-paved bike trail (used to be train tracks) that's not too far from the church where we meet.
When we got there, the lady in charge was giving instructions--the fourth graders had a choice. They could either run to the first lady and then turn around and run back (making 1/2 mile total) or run to the second lady, turn around, and run back (making 1 mile). The 6th graders all ahd to run the mile. This was explained several times for emphasis, and then they started off. Luke (4th grade) and his friend Caleb were #1 and #2 in the half mile, and everything seemed great. But there was starting to be a bit of a commotion with the timing people and the lady in charge, and when the first 6th graders crossed the line, those people started shouting at them to start running again--they needed to turn around and do it again! Keep running! It was very confusing, but they started off again, losing a bunch of time though. Nathan was 4th in the 6th grade group, and his time ended up being right around 8 minutes. He needed 7:32 to be presidential, however. But it was all very confusing, and I couldn't figure out what had happened. Obviously something was very wrong, though.
Then the girls and I left to go to Wal-Mart. I needed to buy a bunch of t-shirts (80 to be exact) to make tunics with for our medieval unit. Since we're associated with the church, we are allowed to use their tax-exempt number on purchases, so armed with that info, the girls and I set off. Of course, Wal-Mart had a terrible selection of boys t-shirts. They still hadn'[t restocked the boys extra-large ones of the cheap brand, so it took me forever as I tried to figure out what other sizes could work for the different grades. Finally I took my cart full of t-shrit packages up to the front to pay. When I said I had a tax-exempt number, the cashier wanted the actual paper from the church. I said I didn't have that--they told me I just needed the number, as well as the church's address and phone number. The lady tried to enter the number several times, but it always came back as invalid, so obviously something was wrong. Very frustrating! I ended up just paying for all the t-shirts, because I knew if I left them and came back later, they would probably all disappear, and I had taken all the packages of cheap t-shirts, so there weren't anymore on the shelves to get. All this took forever, though, and so we ran home, I threw together sandwiches for the girls and me, and we leaped back into the car to eat them because it was already time to pick up the boys. Whew!
Back at co-op, I got the piece of paper from the leader, so I decided we'd head back to Wal-Mart after leaving the church. We were already out, and we didn't have other plans or schoolwork this afternoon, so it just made sense.
I also discovered that Luke was out rerunning the half mile with Caleb McC and Craig, Caleb's dad. Odd, I thought. Plus, it was really hot out there--in the 80's. He had to run a second timed half-mile in less than 3 hours in the heat, and after eating lunch? And what was the deal with making the 6th graders go back again? Well, it turned out that the lady in charge had totally hosed up the distances (duh). She had originally thought that the little guys (1st-2nd), who only have to run 1/4 mile, were also going to run on the bike path, so she had measured out 1/8 mile, so they could just go there and back. Then the second line was actually 1/4 mile out. But somehow (? She is a mom of 9, so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, but still . . . ) she forgot she ever did that, so she basically told the 4th graders to run 1/4 mile, and the 6th graders to run 1/2 mile. When Luke and the other 4th graders started crossing over, the timers realized the times were way off, and not 1/2 mile times, so they told the 6th graders to turn around and do it again, so they would have the right distance. Of course, when you think you are coming to the end and you start printing, then pull up, only to be told you are in actuality only halfway done and you need to start running again . . . . well, that's not really right. So no one in Nathan's class was Presidential in the run, which was very disappointing for people like Nathan, who pretty much just needed the run to be Presidential overall (and he still lacks the shuttle run).
When Luke came back, we all piled in the car, and Luke immediately started crying. He was so upset. His time was 3:48, and he needed 3:30, so he didn't make it. They told him he had "done it wrong" the first time and only gone 1/4 mile, so he needed to run it again. Well, that is true, and I know they said they TOLD him wrong, because the lady in charge was very clear that it was her fault, but he was still devastated. He was hot, tired, and full from lunch, and he didn't understand what had happened--he had done exactly what they told him to do, so how could he have done it wrong?! This is the only event Luke lacked to be a Presidential award winner, and he's a good runner, so he wasn't anticipating a problem.
They are trying to work out a time for Nathan's class to rerun the mile of they want to, and I am hoping they will let Luke try it again as well. I'm going to email the lady in charge, anyways. I hope she doesn't think that should be his only chance, when it was their fault. Anyhow, it was a frustrating day at co-op for Nathan and Luke, who had both been looking forward to the run, as well as training for it.
So we went off to Wal-Mart again, discussing the run over and over again until everyone understood what had happened. When we got there, I brought all the t-shirts back in to the return counter, where I proudly displayed my correct form from the church, and asked for have the tax taken off. Well, the lady said I needed to fill out another form to put it on file, and there was no one there who could help me with that--I needed to come back some morning. Really?! No one who could help with that?! Obviously the lady I was dealing with couldn't help me. She was one of the many non-native English speakers who work at returns, and it was hard to even get her to understand what I was talking about. But there was nothing I could do except turn around and head back out to the car with everyone in tow. And now I have yet a third trip to Wal-Mart to look forward to, this time during a morning when we should be doing school. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. So now I'm wondering what else I should attempt today, just to see if it turns out as poorly as everything else has.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Fun For the Week
The week was more than just the day at Bethesda! On Monday afternoon, our neighbors had a little shower for Elli, the German lady down the street. She is expecting their third child in 2 weeks. The other 2 kids are older--14 and 10--and the 14 year old, Julia, is so excited about the coming baby. A few months ago Julia (she's the one on the left in the picture) decided she really wanted to have an American baby shower for her mom, and she wanted to make a cake for it with me. She picked out a pacifier shape. I wasn't sure if any of this would come to fruition, but when we got back from the trip, Julia said she and her dad wanted to have the shower Monday afternoon. I baked the cakes Sunday afternoon, and then Julia and 2 of her friends came over Monday afternoon to help decorate them. We had such a great time! I put the cakes together in the pacifier shape, and then I started putting the frosting on. The girls wanted to help do that, so I let them. They quickly discovered it's not quite as easy as it looks! I put the frosting on the part that would go in a baby's mouth (a giant baby, LOL), and then we made green frosting, and they started putting the finishing touches on. At this point, they had been politely enthusiastic about the cake--"It looks pretty, like a flower. It tastes delicious." (I had been letting them eat the parts I cut off when shaping it.) But as they decorated it themselves, they became much more enthusiastic! "This is the most beautiful cake ever! I wish we never had to cut it! This is my favorite cake ever! I love it!" They also wanted to put as much frills on as possible. Julia said that at first she didn't think it would look that good with the border and the dots they put on, but then she realized it would look great with as much stuff as they could put on! LOL! I told them they reminded me of the boys when they decorate Christmas cookies, and how they think as many sprinkles as possible made the best cookie!Anyhow, the cake was a huge hit. The neighbors liked it too! Then we played some games--the one where everyone cuts off a length of string that they think will fit around the mom's belly, and the same mad-libs game that we played at the shower on Saturday. The games were fun too. Let me tell you, Elli is nothing but belly! The smallest string believable was closest for her! I think she's as big now as I am! It helps that she is really tall and long-legged, but still . . . sigh.
We're slowly getting back into the school groove, but yesterday we started something else fun--the recorder! I really want the boys to learn to read music, and piano just isn't going to happen (unless one child really expresses an interest, but that hasn't happened so far). The recorder is cheap and is also something that with my clarinet skills I can certainly teach! I have recorders for everyone, but Nathan, Luke, and Caleb are the ones that are really learning. Jonathan and Anna are mainly tooting their own horns, LOL. Everyone is having a good time, although Luke is predictably frustrated that he is not immediately an expert. I did have to banish all recorders to the basement yesterday afternoon, though. We're working on part of "Ode to Joy" right now--a part that only uses 5 notes, LOL. The book said that groups of 4 to 9 recorders are called "consorts". Hey, we've got our own made-to-order consort!
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Where we're at . . .
Schooling: We're done for the next little while, which means until mid-June, when we get back from the big trip.
Caleb finished his phonics book awhile ago and moved into the first grade one, and he just finished his math book and moved into Saxon 2. Jonathan is working through his phonics book and is thrilled to be doing "real" math now!
Luke is a few lessons away from finishing Saxon 5/4, and then he'll move up to 6/5. Nathan has about 30 lessons left in 7/6, and then . . . I'm not totally sure if I'll just jump into Algebra 1/2 or have him do 8/7 first. Something to worry about when we get back, though.
He and Nathan both have about 35 lessons left in Rod and Staff (3 for Luke and 5 for Nathan). We didn't start R&S until late October I believe, since it took us longer than I thought to finish up Easy Grammar after Grace came.
We are on lesson 17 in Latina Christiana II. We've been taking this slowly, and we haven't actually done many new lessons since we left for Ohio. I felt like it was more important to really review the vocab, since there were so many new verbs lately. The last few lessons covered the principal parts of 4 conjugations of verbs, and it was all just a lot. We'll probably review more for the first week or 2 after we get back.
We haven't gone too far in history this year--we're only on chapter 14 of Story of the World 4. We'll do more of that this summer. We're moving into World War I, and I must say it's absolutely fascinating. I really never understood that war and what led up to it and drove it. We have been doing lots of outside history reading.
For science, we've been learning about atomic structure, chemical compounds, and so on. I love chemistry, so it's been fun to help the boys learn about this stuff. We'll definitely do more with some other books in this area this summer.
Packing: I've started all the laundry, and tonight I'll begin laying out the piles of everyone's clothes. The piles line the upstairs hallway! I've got plenty of lists, and I'm always adding stuff. Today we picked up the books on CD that I reserved from the library, and I put those, as well as the ones we have here, in the car. Our listening choices for this long trip include:
--All Creatures Great and Small
--Charlotte's Web
--Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang
--All the Way From Chicago
--The Long Winter
--Tale of Despereaux
--Galileo and the Stargazers (Jim Weiss)
--"Your Story Hour" CD on Louis Pasteur
--FOTF Chronicles of Narnia
We're getting excited! Less than a week until we leave!
Caleb finished his phonics book awhile ago and moved into the first grade one, and he just finished his math book and moved into Saxon 2. Jonathan is working through his phonics book and is thrilled to be doing "real" math now!
Luke is a few lessons away from finishing Saxon 5/4, and then he'll move up to 6/5. Nathan has about 30 lessons left in 7/6, and then . . . I'm not totally sure if I'll just jump into Algebra 1/2 or have him do 8/7 first. Something to worry about when we get back, though.
He and Nathan both have about 35 lessons left in Rod and Staff (3 for Luke and 5 for Nathan). We didn't start R&S until late October I believe, since it took us longer than I thought to finish up Easy Grammar after Grace came.
We are on lesson 17 in Latina Christiana II. We've been taking this slowly, and we haven't actually done many new lessons since we left for Ohio. I felt like it was more important to really review the vocab, since there were so many new verbs lately. The last few lessons covered the principal parts of 4 conjugations of verbs, and it was all just a lot. We'll probably review more for the first week or 2 after we get back.
We haven't gone too far in history this year--we're only on chapter 14 of Story of the World 4. We'll do more of that this summer. We're moving into World War I, and I must say it's absolutely fascinating. I really never understood that war and what led up to it and drove it. We have been doing lots of outside history reading.
For science, we've been learning about atomic structure, chemical compounds, and so on. I love chemistry, so it's been fun to help the boys learn about this stuff. We'll definitely do more with some other books in this area this summer.
Packing: I've started all the laundry, and tonight I'll begin laying out the piles of everyone's clothes. The piles line the upstairs hallway! I've got plenty of lists, and I'm always adding stuff. Today we picked up the books on CD that I reserved from the library, and I put those, as well as the ones we have here, in the car. Our listening choices for this long trip include:
--All Creatures Great and Small
--Charlotte's Web
--Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang
--All the Way From Chicago
--The Long Winter
--Tale of Despereaux
--Galileo and the Stargazers (Jim Weiss)
--"Your Story Hour" CD on Louis Pasteur
--FOTF Chronicles of Narnia
We're getting excited! Less than a week until we leave!
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Big Truck Day
We went with the McC family, who also had one tag-along boy from our homeschool co-op (his mom was the head tester). So . . . 9 boys, 2 girls, and 2 moms. We were not the popular people to be behind in line.
Climbing all over a front loader.
Nine boys in the cab of a "leveler".
Nathan is on . . . something.
Luke and Jonathan on a bobcat.
Anna loved driving the street sweeper. She did not want a yellow plastic hard hat, however.
Gracie loved eating the free cookies they provided. She did not want to keep her hood on, even though it was raining.
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