A new level of torture....

Just when I think it's stressful to go shopping at a store like Hobby Lobby with 5 children and I tell myself I'll NEVER go again with all 5, by myself....I make the mistake of going on a Saturday (because CKB can go too) ....in the month of December...with all 5...and the rest of the world.

Yes, the rest of the world was there today. Apparently one lovely (mucho sarcasm here) woman (I will not say lady because she did not act like a lady) thought that 6 people (ie, us) waiting for our son (numero 7) to open the door for us was an invitation for her to barge in front of us and sail on in while we stared at her (probably open-mouthed) and wondered at her rudeness....as if that wasn't enough, another lady followed her right on in as said son still was working on getting the door all the way open so the stroller would fit through. Imagine. This time of year I am appalled at the rudeness displayed all around me.

There was one nice lady in the store, at least one, anyway, who very carefully maneuvered her TINY Hobby Lobby basket past 3 of the children as they looked at ornaments and told me she was trying to make sure she didn't bump any of them...what a contrast from the man who actually laid hands on Miss E's shoulders and pushed her aside one year because he was in some giant hurry to get past us - excuse me???? Who does that anyway?

So, I have decided it would be LESS stressful to go shopping mid-week sometime...in the morning...with all 5 children RATHER than go on a Saturday with all the crazies.

There, I said it.

At least around Christmas, that is.

The rest of the year....well....I might have second thoughts.....

Hex quilt update

Well, I actually remembered to snap a few quick pics of my grandmother's hex quilt while we were at my parents' house for Thanksgiving - yay, me!

Anyway, here it is - 2 pics - I haven't had time to examine it to see if it's a 1 patch (all hex's different) or if there are any repeats. If you feel like doing that for me, by all means go right ahead - I don't know when I'll get a "round toit" ;) (Wait a sec, I just took a quick glance and see at least one repeat, so there are probably more - so now you don't have to do anything - aren't you happy?)

Good SNOWY morning to you!

We awoke this morning to this......






our 1st snow! Now, I say 1st for 2 reasons, 1. I hope it's not the only snow we get this year and 2. because it is the 1st snow :)

Anyway, Mr. A was the first one up this morning and after CKB showed the snow to him (that is STILL falling, by the way), he exclaimed, "I have to go tell my friends!" :D Shortly thereafter there were 4 little folks peering out the windows watching the snow fall. Ahhh.

What's going on in your neck of the woods?

Since when?

Since when did children get the whole week of Thanksgiving off from school? I know we didn't when I was in school....ah well. Well, the schools in our neck of the woods appear to - as is evidenced by the 10 or so young boys playing ball in the neighborhood this afternoon!

We, on the other hand, continued with school this week - I know, mean me, right? No, we missed a week back when I was sick, re-mem-ber????? So we're continuing on this week until we head off for a Thanksgiving road trip - fun fun!

Anyway - we're free of sickness at the moment and very thankful.

Been too busy to blog lately - I know, y'all have missed it so much, right? Ha ha.

Miss Baby has been verbalizing more and more - she uttered her first genuine "ma-ma!" in the car over the weekend - she was tired of being in her carseat and had been fussing and it culminated in a loud cry for help - "Ma-ma!!!!" - melted my heart of course, and made me sad at the same time since I couldn't stop and just pull her out of the carseat and hold her at that moment - sigh - nothing like those first times a baby says "mama" or "dada" :)

Well, I don't have much time right now either - laundry mountain beckons....why do I always have a mountain of laundry right before a trip?? and feel the need to get it down to a small hill before we leave? And, why do the children wear their best, unstained clothes the days before we leave? I guess in future I need to pack 2 weeks out and snatch all the "nice" clothes straight out of the dryer so they never have a chance to be worn before the trip.....it'll never happen, nevermind.

Happy Thanksgiving!

more sickness....

Well, it seems since the beginning of October, at least, that someone has been sick.

At present, we are done with breathing treatments for Miss Baby and Mr. A - at the dr. office today (yes, we were there again - I joked that we should just rent a room, har har...har...) - the dr. kindly listened to both Mr. A and Miss Baby and said they were both "crystal clear" - Praise God!

Now, there is still the occasional cough from both of them and Miss Baby's nose, well, it's still a bit runny...but we're on the upswing...I think.

Miss A and Mr. E seem to be pretty much over the mess as well - Praise God!

Miss E, though, apparently didn't want to feel left out and came home with a diagnosis of an ear infection in one ear and bronchitis - argh.

So, we continue on...and continue to pray for good health and for all of this to clear up before Thanksgiving....and nothing new to beset us healthwise.

How's everyone else faring this lovely cold and flu season?

up and up? more like down and down!

Ok, I know, cryptic title ....for some, unless you shop at Target a lot perhaps.

I purchased a crate/carton/big huge box of Target brand baby wipes a little while back - the new branding is called "up and up" - whatever - anyway, I just have to give them a big thumbs down.

I don't know about you, but a wiggly 9 mo. old who likes to flip over on her stomach the minute I put her on the bed for a diaper change combined w/these wipes is a disaster.

1. They are NOT "1 hand user friendly"
2. The "resealable" sticker thing-a-ma-bob - what a pain - see #1
3. The wipes are so well "connected" that you practically have to fling the package across the room w/your one free hand to try and get just one wipe at a time - argh.

You may have seen blog posts entitled "Works for me Wednesday"...?

Well, this one falls under "Fails for me Friday"

Just thought you might want to know before you buy such a gigantic box of these things and are stuck in the "I must use them up before I buy another brand" situation that I am. I will be going back to the Sam's Club ones I was buying, I think.

What about you? What "Fails for you Friday"?

Things I never thought I'd hear or say at the dinner table....

CKB - "Mr. A, get that piece of plate out of your hair."



CAB - "Mr. A, take that back to your room....swords do not belong at the table."



:)

And another....

I decided to take Mr. A to the dr. today and he has been diagnosed with bronchitis - the dr. heard wheezing when he listened to him and asked if we had a nebulizer...why, yes, we do.

Anyway, Mr. A also got a prescription for antibiotics and some over the counter cough medicine for nighttime - as of right now the boys are both resting well. Miss Baby is also and I haven't been hearing any coughing from the girls' room tonight either.

I pray they are all well soon. It's hard on everyone to have a house full of sick children.

I will say this, at the pediatrician's office, my children looked like they were just fine compared to how the rest of the children looked - they were all laying on their parents and quiet....mine....I had the boys and Miss Baby with me...were..well....rearranging the chairs....flitting back and forth to check out the fish tank...lying on the floor (one of them - ugh!)....well, you get the picture. I started to have second thoughts about being there at all, but am thankful I listened to my gut and took Mr. A in to have him checked out - his cough has sounded worse than everyone else's and I just wanted to rule out ear infections, make sure his lungs were clear, etc. I believe it's a good thing we went.

After being in the waiting room and then finally the exam room for 2 hours - yes, 2 hours, about 5 or more hand sanitizing sessions (must we really touch the fish tank every time we go to look at it????? yes, apparently we must....even after Mama reminds a certain someone to not touch it....), we finally got out of there... Don't get me started on how long we waited for the pharmacy - they were busy too.

I hope you, the reader, are well!

9 months today!

Miss Baby is 9 months old today. We started off the day heading to the pediatrician for the 9 month well check visit. Everyone went along (children-wise) because our favorite babysitter has the chicken pox! Pray for her - she had the chicken pox when she was 2 and now has them again at 16!

At Miss Baby's appointment, the dr. listened to Miss Baby's lungs as part of the well check and also because Miss Baby has had a cough for the past 3-4 days or so. The dr. said she heard a bit of a "wheeze" - after a breathing treatment in the office, Miss Baby sounded a lot better so we headed out after being there 1.5 hrs. and picked up a new nebulizer (we went through something similar w/Mr. A when he was 3 mos. old, but don't have a clue where that nebulizer is...) and then to another pharmacy for the medicine. It was not the dr. visit I had thought we would be having, but feel it is providential timing - who knows what might have happened in the days to come w/Miss Baby and the "cough" and whether or not we would have thought she needed to be seen, etc. I'm very thankful she's receiving treatment earlier rather than later when we might have been facing RSV or pneumonia....please keep her in your prayers.

I hope to have a 9 mos. picture up soon! Stay tuned!

It's here!

At long last, Miss Baby has her first tooth!

Can you see it?

Overheard...

A few days ago the girls wanted me to fix their hair in the style of Princess Leia and/or Padme - I did what I could do, not being a fabulous "hair stylist" and they went on their merry way.

Around lunchtime, Miss A headed to the kitchen to get a glass of water and Mr. A followed after calling out... "Wait, I want to see your hair-dude!"

he he he...not a "hair-do", but a "hair-dude"

So cute!

Week 7 of school - complete!

Last week we managed to pull Tapestry back into the mix and even did our projects (however, they did take time over the weekend to finish them up!).

We had a pretty good week. I went back to the dr. and after a round of antibiotics feel like I'm on the mend finally - cough is still present, but is a lot better. Fever is finally gone - Praise God! I don't have a ton of energy, but am prayerful that it will return soon.

All of the children are well and I am very thankful for that.

We studied Vikings this past week and dispensed with our Zoology for the week. (no energy for both on my part). The children really enjoyed learning about the Vikings and building their Viking longhouses.

Here are quite a few pictures - you have to see them from every angle! I'll try to share a bit about each one so you'll understand their creations. I helped with the construction of the actual house, but all decorations were done by the children (hence it taking over the weekend to complete - they would still be tweaking and adding things if I'd let them, but at some point you have to say "enough!" and reclaim your table!).

Here's Miss E with her Viking longhouse:


Just starting out....


To the left is Miss Baby sitting outside on a chair...The figure "standing" is supposed to be me...we all appear to be a little jaundiced (limitations of the clay colors we had on hand!) - behind me in the house you can see the bed and small cradle for Miss Baby.


A view of the whole house and surrounding yard....


This is the...ahem...outhouse...and that's Miss E's clay figure of herself inside...why is the door open Miss E? She thought this was hysterically funny.....uh huh.


Note the thatch roof...


We used corn meal for the "sand" area where the livestock are kept - here you can see the "weiner horse" as Miss E described it to me....


Ta-da!



Here's Miss A with her Viking longhouse:

Starting off....

"outhouse" to the front right, with a lid :)

View from the side....thatch on roof...

Miss A was limited to red clay...therefore her Vikings look like they've been getting quite a bit of sun....Bed shown on left, fire immediately beside it....baby at right in cradle.



Front/side view. "Sandy" area at front left for livestock. "Shed" at front left is for the chickens.


2 red hens.....


The whole sha-bang...


Miss A with her creation...



Here's Mr. E with his Viking longhouse:

Getting started...

All done - what a plush bed Mr. A has for his Viking (his Viking was a Mario figure, but unfortunately it was left in the car on the day of picture-taking)

Thatch roof - note the hearts in the "sand/dirt" - apparently these Vikings have a lot of time on their hands and like to draw designs in the dirt of their yard (Mr. E found some small cookie cutters in the play-doh box and got creative!)


Front view - you can see the fireplace area to the back/right and the large match lying on the ground in front of it.




Mr. E - Viking longhouse creator extraordinaire...




Mr. A was not allowed to create one of his own despite his pleas - I just didn't have the time, energy, space, patience, etc. for him to participate in this project - he wasn't too upset thankfully and went off to play after watching the other children for a few minutes. He really just wanted to play with the clay and play-doh. :)

In hindsight, we did do a little bit of Zoology somewhere along the way - we mixed up a batch of "smart suet" from the recipe in our Zoology book and hung out our suet feeders. So far, we have not seen any visitors to them. Here you can see Mr. E's - he chose to put his next to the other feeders, while the girls put theirs on our lone tree (not pictured).


step 1 - melting the lard and crunchy peanut butter


final step (sorry, didn't get pics in between - the children were adding ingredients so quickly!) freeze suet in plastic bags to firm it up before placing in feeder bags (anyone need any suet? considering the fact that we're not getting any visitors to our feeders, we have enough suet for.....ever?)


Mr. E's suet feeder (interesting note - the birds would NOT go to the regular feeder as long as the suet feeder was hanging there - I took it down one day and moved it to the other soda pop feeder and then the birds started going to the one on the left again, but wouldn't go to the one on the right! I removed it completely and the birds started visiting both of the soda pop feeders again - very interesting!) Here you can see a few of our "bird friends" as Mr. A calls them!

Back up....

After a conversation with the nurse yesterday, I decided it was time to go back for another check on my "condition" as it stands.

Contrary to our home thermometer, which stated I was a balmy 99-ish, the one at the dr. office stated I was a bit over 102. Hmm. I think I'm done w/our home thermometer and will be getting a regular ol' thermometer as soon as we can find one - CKB looked at Walgreens and the grocery store last night on his way home and they were out!

Anyway, the dr. said my lungs are still clear - that was good news. Considering the sound of my coughing I thought for sure I was heading down the road to bronchitis or worse. The dr. said she thought it was time for a round of antibiotics to see if we could 'get this cleared up' - uh huh. So, I headed off, still not knowing what on earth is wrong specifically, prescription in hand and hopeful it will indeed "clear things up".

CKB picked up my prescription on his way home along w/a few other things they recommended for the congestion, etc. and that were "approved" for when you're nursing. For the record, I absolutely do NOT like to take ANYTHING when I'm pregnant or nursing. I took one of the congestion medicines before bed hoping it would help me sleep better and not cough as much - I don't know that it really did anything to "help" - I still woke up about 5-8 times last night coughing and coughing and, well, you get the point. I'm sore from coughing.

Anyway.....any of y'all have recommendations for a good thermometer for using with small children? The Braun temporal one we have just doesn't seem to be that accurate. I always feel like it's reading low compared to what they get at the dr. office and that's not good. Some of the children are old enough to hold a regular thermometer under their tongues I suppose.....but not the littlest, of course.

Well, that's the update. Not so fabulous.

On a funny note, I was trying to do a little catching up on our history reading when I got back from the dr. - Miss Baby was awake during this and almost as if on cue, as soon as I started reading about Alfred the Great, she interjected a loud "Aaaaaaaa!" (short "a" sound) every 2-3 words for 3 pages of reading. It was humorous, however a tad disruptive. Now I remember why I try to get our history reading done during her afternoon nap!

99...100....and holding?

Today the highest temp. I've taken has been 100.0 - I am ever so hopeful that I'm on the downside of this mess finally. Now, to just get over this congested miserable cough. I'm sore from coughing. Ugh.

We were able to resume all schoolwork today despite my hacking and coughing, for which I am very thankful. Amidst one of our readings today, I...in a choking fashion read "Hungary...ack..cough...Hungary....cough cough" and when I finally got control again just had to say "Hippos" to which I was met with hysterical giggles from my "class" - anyway, I don't think they'll forget reading about Rollo the Viking and Henry the Fowler any time soon!

All of the children remain clear from the fever/congested cough mess, as does CKB. Praise God! It is a HUGE testament to the protecting hand of God that Miss Baby hasn't contracted this mess. She is always around me, even at times when I've had a coughing fit...or two...I am so thankful for a loving, merciful God.

Other than a few more of the same type of, we think, house sparrows at the feeders out back, we saw a tabby cat on the woodpile today - who knows where it came from, but it was a surprise to see it out back when I looked to see if there were any birds around! So far we have NOT had any visitors to the suet feeders....

101 and holding....

Yesterday I went all day without my temperature going over 101 - hooray - there is a light at the end of the tunnel I do believe.

I wasn't up coughing...as much....last night which I'm sure was a great relief to CKB since today was the 3 hrs. away preaching appointment Sunday and a good night's sleep is always much appreciated the night before that drive.

As it turned out, I woke up with temp. readings of 98.6 and 99.2 - I did not hop out of bed however and go on a 3 hr. drive w/CKB - he thought it would be best for me to stay here and rest. If I felt up to it to attend services locally, but to stay close to home and rest. About the time I'd decided I'd get everyone ready and go to services, I started coughing...and coughing....and....coughing. So, I decided we'd stay home after all. We sang a little while (amidst my coughing) and prayed together and read together - all the while thinking about CKB driving and driving. He is driving now on his way back home...3 hrs.

Just took my temp. and it's 101.3..........maybe it won't go any higher........

Miss Baby is still well - Praise God!
The boys are both still well - Praise God!
The older girls are both doing great with the exception of a little bit of coughing on Miss A's part last night - Praise God!
CKB is well - Praise God!

I'm hopeful that we'll be able to get back into the full swing of things tomorrow with schoolwork also - I might just have to read and cough and read and cough to get it all done or enlist the girls' help to do some of the reading aloud...we'll see.

Hope you're having a good weekend!

Week 6 of school - sick week

Well, as you may know, we've been trying to get better over the course of this past week.

As of right now (Friday afternoon), I'm still under the weather. CKB wasn't feeling well yesterday after he got home from work and I pray it's not the mess I've been dealing with. Time will tell.

All of the children are fever-free - hooray! Miss Baby and the boys are still holding out - Praise God!

Now, just to see if my fever creeps up again today or not....so far the highest reading I've gotten today has been 99.5....I'm hopeful that this might be the day it goes away. It was a week ago today that this all started.

As far as school goes - Miss E is still playing catchup a little bit, but is almost back on track.

We did not do any Tapestry or Zoology this week since those involve all of the children listening to readings, etc. and 1. Miss E and Miss A were both out of it Monday, 2. Miss E was still out of it Tuesday and Wednesday, 3. I've been out of it all week and did not feel like doing all the reading out loud that needed to be done, not to mention supervising any projects.

So...Lord willing, we'll pick up with Week 6 of Tapestry Monday and I pray I'll be up to the reading since there's quite a bit for Week 6. Also, we'll pick back up with Zoology and make our suet (maybe over the weekend, maybe not) and continue on. We have been having quite a lot of little visitors to the feeders and we believe they are house sparrows. I'm going to try to get a better picture of them sometime soon, but for now, that's what we amateur birders think.

Interesting.... re: swine flu

So many have asked me if we have/had swine flu, that I thought I'd give the nurse a callback to verify what exactly they tested for anyway.

She said they test for Type A and Type B influenza. I asked how they determine if someone has "swine flu" and she said that if you come back positive for Type A, they're "saying" it's "swine flu" because "it's too early for the regular flu" - uh......huh.

Anyway....that's what I was told.

Miss E is still without fever today - hooray! I continue with 103 (and that's with a Tylenol on board, fun!).

Miss E has been playing catchup on her schoolwork today and doing a great job. Everyone else is either on track or caught up...now for me to get caught up with checking their work.....maybe tonight after Miss Baby is in bed and I take 2 Tylenol.

and....negative

Today we heard that Miss E's strep culture that was sent out to the lab also came back negative.

So....

She has been holding at a temperature of 99 all day - hooray!

I, on the other hand, am back up to 102 right now....I hope tomorrow is the end of the fever. I can't remember a time I've run a "higher" temp. for so long.

Back to my cups of hot tea and cool water....and keeping an eye on everyone else...and most importantly, praying that no one else comes down with this, whatever it is, mess.

Prognosis...negative, negative, negative....

CKB worked from home today and was able to help out with everyone and allow for me and Miss E to go to the Dr. without taking everyone along and exposing them to who knows what else.

First up, my appt. My fever has been up around 102/103 since Friday. After a mild migraine around noon, I took 2 Tylenol and therefore showed no fever at the appointment :) They checked me for flu, but the results were negative. "Just treat your symptoms" was what I was told.

Next up, Miss E's appointment. Her temp. was up to 104.2 - Motrin on board at the appointment and a strep test and flu test later, all negative.

What's wrong with us? Who knows. We're still both running fever. Mine's up to around 104 now. Oh joy. Miss E and I are the ones around here who don't get sick very often, so it's been odd that this hit both of us so hard. Thankfully Miss A's fever is gone and both of the boys are ok so far. Miss Baby is ok as well and I pray she will continue to be well.

I must admit I'd forgotten how miserable a fever can make you feel. I've gone from freezing and shivering to burning up every day since Friday. I pray this mess breaks up pretty soon and we're on the mend around here.

Week 5 of school - complete!

Week 5 seemed to be a "lighter" week for us. We still accomplished a lot, but our readings were a little bit lighter and less this week in both Zoology and Tapestry, not to mention, no mapwork this week in Tapestry.

So, let's see...this week we read about Charlemagne. We also read the story of King Arthur, which the children really enjoyed. Projects this week were abundant!

Miss E chose to learn some "slight of hand" (tricks) as well as to create a coat of arms, make a "jumping jack" and a model of a medieval cottage - whew!

Here she is with her medieval cottage:




Miss A wanted to learn to juggle. She also chose to make a model of a medieval cottage.

No pictures yet of her juggling, but here she is with her cottage.



Mr. E thought he wanted to make a jumping jack until he saw what it was...then he changed his mind and declared he would make a coat of arms!

Here is his coat of arms which he incorporated into a shield...hmm, this looks a tad familiar....


I wonder where he got his inspiration from....I can't imagine...


In Zoology news, we constructed some soda pop bottle bird feeders for the backyard - this project didn't take too long, but as seems to always be the case when 4 children are involved, it took longer than I thought it would :)

Here's Mr. E filling up one of the two feeders....


2 feeders ready to go...
Ta-da!



We also plan to make some suet and put out suet feeders. We, ahem, I mean, I forgot to get one ingredient at the store last week so this project is on hold temporarily....

We saw our first visitor to the feeders today - can you guess what kind of bird it is?



We ended the week on a low note - Miss E was pretty sick Friday and then it hit me Friday as well (fever of 102-103) - over the course of the weekend, Miss A started running a fever as well. Miss E continues to run a low grade fever, but hasn't been sick any more. We thank God for that! Lord willing, we'll all be on the mend soon. Praise God for keeping Miss Baby well thus far. Mr. A has a little bit of a cough, but that's all.


In other news, Miss A lost another tooth this week - I believe.....that's 4 for each of the older girls! Miss Baby is still without teeth.




How was your week?

A quote...

Mr. E asked, "Can we get dinner from Confetti Fried Chicken?"


;)

Week 4 of school - complete!

4 whole weeks of school gone - just like that - time flies! The children are now in week 5 and fast approaching the end of their first units in grammar. Amazing how quickly we've come to this point!

Let's see....last week...

The weeks are so full, sometimes it's hard to remember what we did the week before because we're already ensconced in a new week! Maybe I'll have to try to do a recap BEFORE the new week starts from now on...but that would mean weekend blogging time - ha ha ha. Anyway...

All the basics are moving right along without much ado....math is going well, as are grammar, spelling and reading. I continue to be pleased w/the R&S grammar (English) and readers. Everyone aced their spelling tests again.

Our more "hands on/project-y" subjects of Zoology and Tapestry continue to keep us hopping....

We continued our study of birds with a bit of time spent with our bird field guide familiarizing ourselves with the layout and information available to us on each bird listed. We also conducted a scavenger hunt that will be an ongoing project until each of the children find everything on the list (some items listed are not expected to be found at the same time of year as others so this project may take a little while). We also spent some time outside watching for and listening to the few birds that were around our backyard last week. We were graced with the presence of a flock of birds that congregated on the rooftops of the houses behind us for about an hour and a half one day.






Later in the week after our study of Islam which was mainly a brief introduction, the boys constructed their own scimitars and the girls completed a flag project. Not to be outdone by the boys and miss out on the fun, the girls decided to make their own daggers and, well, you can imagine what went on for the next few hours in our house :) You can't? Well, think about it....

Here are their creations.....I don't think you want to mess with these warriors!

I think I need to add foil and electrical tape to my shopping list.....









...until next week....

4 Days!

What happens or can happen in 4 days?

Well, lots of things I'm sure....4 days could be a short work week - and that's a good thing!

Hmm, 4 days old - a newborn baby...a good thing

4 days.....the time it would take to drive up to where my sister lives and back again w/no time to stay in between - not a good thing since we rarely get to visit....


But what, you ask, are these 4 days in reference to?????

Sigh. Ok, well since you asked.....

4 days - the number of days the carpet stayed clean....then this happened at lunch....argh!



And yes, that's ketchup....not blood, I kindly asked the perpetrator of this heinous crime to leave the room before any blood was shed :) I kept my cool, sent another kind little helper to bring me the bottle of spot remover the SS guys had left and commenced carpet cleaning 101 - the good news is that it came out - whew!

So, in case you're thinking of having your carpets cleaned and there are wee ones around, remember, you will get to enjoy it for 4 wondrous days and then....who knows what might befall your carpet!

First days of Fall

Fall is here! Fall is here!

This is our favorite season around here - sooo glad the first day of Fall actually felt like Fall for a change!

Miss Baby is ready for Fall - how about you?



We "rang in" the first evening of Fall with the first fire of the season - we've been waiting for the first cool day/night for sooo long and it timed out just right this year!

HAPPY FALL Y'ALL!

Week 3 of school - complete!

Well, rolling through week 3 we accomplished all that we set out to do! Hooray!

Miss E and Miss A aced their spelling tests again!
Miss E did beautifully in her first lesson back in math and Mr. E and Miss A continued reviewing math facts to make sure they're solid before moving on - this next week we'll do a little bit more review and then they'll be off and running again with Mr. E hot on Miss A's heels in the realm of math!

History found us studying about the Medieval Period and monks and monasteries this week. We read quite a bit this week from our "Usborne Guide to the Middle Ages", a few more famous men of the Middle Ages including Justinian the Great, Benedict and Gregory (monks), "Caedmon's Song", "Life in a Medieval Monastery" and "Saint Patrick". In Geography, Mr. E, Miss E and Miss A finished labeling their world maps with some of the most well known mountain ranges, deserts and seas as well as labeling the Italian Peninsula in greater detail and identifying some of the major cities in Europe. Friday found us back at the kitchen craft table with paints in hand - this was a MUCH anticipated project - to finally get to paint their salt dough maps from last week! Here are a few pictures of the maps being created, painting them and the final product with labels intact and ready to show off to CKB when he got home from work that night.

Here's Mr. E creating his map:

A little paint here....


And voila!


Miss E carving her "carved head" statue for her island - she remembered reading about Easter Island (last week) and the carved head statues and thought it'd be fun to create her own!

Hmm, I wonder what that blue thing is....

Ah yes, a river! (closeup of Miss E's map/labels)


Ta-da!
Rolling something up here...

Dab, dab, dab....


And here we go!




After finishing painting their salt dough maps, the children all created a mosaic for their art project of the week. Miss E decided to do a picture of Miss Baby and Miss A and Mr. E also wanted to.

Miss A titled hers "Miss Baby After Dinner, but Before Her Bath" (note the greens in the hair and on the face - ahem - that's supposed to be baby food ;) )



Mr. A, always the unique one, wanted to do a picture of himself.


In Zoology news, we continued with Lesson 1 (this text contains 15 lessons and each contains quite a bit of new information and new terms - we are covering one lesson every 2 weeks to enable us to conduct all the experiments and take a little more time with all the new information). The children learned about the forces of thrust and drag and constructed their own gliders for an experiment. Each child made 2 gliders - 1 with a short/wide wing and 1 with a long/narrow wing. They each hypothesized about which glider design would fly farther on average and then we headed out to the backyard for the experiment. Each of the 3 older children threw each glider 10 times to gather data. Each time the gliders were thrown, the other 2 would measure the distance the glider traveled and then return the glider to the person who was throwing at the time. We have our science time in the afternoons and while we started this whole experiment, ie, glider construction, while Miss Baby was napping, it was well into the early evening and we weren't quite done - let's see 2 gliders x 3 children - each throwing each glider 10 times a piece....well, you do the math - CKB picked up dinner that night :)


Mr. E is first up to ....throw...



Then Miss A...


...and Miss E

Mr. A insisted he build a glider as well, so I whipped one up for him quickly and he joined in the fun too! Miss Baby happily watched until her tummy let me know that it was way past dinnertime and we were still outside :)



I don't have the faintest idea what is all over a few of their faces here....ahem...but it was muddy out there in some spots....hmm....the gliders are all lined up on the table...



Piano lessons went well this week also. Amongst all the "book learnin' " we did have time for some fun and Mr. E had fun creating this snack for everyone (the recipe should say that it's for 5 refrigerated biscuits - we had a can of 10 and had to make another batch of butter/sugar/cinnamon for dipping).


The proud chef shows off his creation!

And, lest you think Miss Baby has disappeared lately - here she is at lunchtime, I mean, during Culinary Cuisine 101 - waving for the camera and letting you know "I'm still here!"

And, I finally got a picture of her "skrinkle face" as we affectionately cal it - with Mr. A, it was a "stinker face", but she's too cute to be a "stinker"!


All in all, another great week! On top of a good school week, we thank God for the abundant rains we've been receiving and the COOOOOOLER temps - Fall is almost here! Fall is almost here!

Steam Cleaners are great!

After thinking about it for a long time, we finally had Stanley Steemer out yesterday for what I thought would just be an estimate.

After they arrived, took a look and told me what the estimate was - they said "we can do it right now" and since they said it would only take about an hour and I thought the estimate was reasonable....we now have clean carpet again - hooray!!

Whose brilliant idea was it anyway to put carpet in the dining room?????

I'd read reviews a long time ago about SS and about some awful experiences folks had had with them and been a little concerned, but I have to say that the crew that was sent out did an excellent job, did not try to pressure me to do additional rooms or buy additional services and did a fantastic job. (They were even very tolerant of our curious crew that kept popping out of their bedrooms to see what "those guys" were doing).

Yay for clean carpet!!!! (now how long will it last??????? eek!)

Week 2 of school - complete

Well, I don't know that I'll update every week, but for what it's worth, we have completed week 2 of school and are well into week 3 - time just isn't as abundant for blogging!

During Week 2 we continued reviewing math for a few students and released one to go on to new lessons which involve the principles of parallelism and perpindicular..ism :) among other things, like division.



Spelling tests were aced by all - hooray - and Mr. E even grabbed a sheet of paper and took Miss A's spelling test along w/her and aced it w/o knowing ahead of time what the words were and studying them at all :) That boy!



In history, we studied 5 "famous" men of the Middle Ages and learned about their lives - the children's favorite was Clovis because he converted to Christianity after praying for God to help him in a battle and not only converting, but going so far as to destroy pagan idols and statues in the land. We went over quite a few geographic terms and learned/reviewed all the continents and oceans of the world. Afterward, each of the children created a salt dough map of an imaginary land and were required to include some of the geographic terms they'd learned, such as plateau, inlet, peninsula and so on. The maps are drying and will be painted and labeled this week (stay tuned!). We also read more about the Middle Ages, "Brigid's Cloak", and "Saint Valentine".



In Zoology we worked on our first lesson "What is Zoology?" and conducted an experiment whereupon the children became 'human atomizers' according to CKB :) The experiment dealt with air pressure.

Here they are in action...you'll have to ask them about it sometime and hopefully they'll be able to recount the principles they learned!





By the by, do you know all of your shapes? Of course, you say? Hmmm....well, I'm sure you know circle, square, triangle and so on, but did you know that the shape of a bird's wing has a name? If you did, great! If not, see if you can find out what it is and leave us a comment and we'll let you know next week if you're right :)

That's it for now - we had a great week 2 - how's school going in your neck of the woods?

Guess who lost ANOTHER tooth?

Miss E! She is looking so big these days!


This is the 2nd recently and she even pulled the one before this one all by herself!

Here she is showing off the gap right in front!



Here she is on the phone sharing the news with Grandma and Grandpa! I love her expression as she's giggling!

Week 1 of school - complete!

Well, we've officially finished our first week of school. We began last Monday and made it through Week 1 with great success.

Miss Baby is napping fairly regularly now twice a day so I have a pretty good idea of when I'll have about an hour or so in the morning and in the afternoon to get some things done that require a little more quiet than we usually have while she's awake.

Sorry to say there aren't any pictures from week 1 - just too much to do and I believe I was carrying Miss Baby around with me most of each morning as I was going from one child to the next helping them get started with everything and work through their first few lessons.

We're trying a few new things this year from Rod & Staff and so far I like them and I believe the children do as well - that works out nicely, eh?

Here's the Fall lineup:

Miss E - our 3rd grader (yikes, when did she get so big?)

Math U See Delta
Handwriting without Tears Cursive
Rod & Staff Level 3 Reader/workbook
Rod & Staff Level 3 English (grammar)
Rod & Staff Level 3 Spelling
Tapestry of Grace Year 2 (history, literature, geography, arts/crafts and more!)
Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day

Miss A - our 2nd grader (we have a 2nd grader, too???)

Math U See Beta
Handwriting without Tears Cursive
Rod & Staff Level 2 Reader/workbook
Rod & Staff Level 2 English (grammar)
Rod & Staff Level 2 Spelling
Tapestry of Grace Year 2 (history, literature, geography, arts/crafts and more!)
Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day

Mr. E - our kindergarten kiddo (is he really only in K?)

Math U See Alpha
Handwriting without Tears Printing
Rod & Staff Level 1 Reader/workbook
Tapestry of Grace Year 2 (history, literature, geography, arts/crafts and more!)
Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day

Mr. A - pre-K (he MUST do schoolwork along with everyone else!)

Learning to Read
Learning addition
All sorts of other things!

Miss Baby - (7 mos.)

Napping 101
Culinary Delights 101 (exposing her palette to many new flavors and textures)
P.E. - learning to crawl, sit unassisted, stand, walk, etc.
Communications - general babbling, sound formations, word formations and much more!
Reading - looking at a multitude of books and having many books read aloud

Time permitting we'll add in Rosetta Stone Spanish along the way.
We're also running through the Rod & Staff Music Workbook 1 (all children except Miss Baby, of course :) ).

Week 1 went well, as I said. We began last Monday with everyone coming to start their schoolwork in a staggered fashion which enabled me to help each one get started with the new curriculum. Everyone did very well on their first day and we celebrated the first day of school by meeting CKB (a.k.a. Daddy) for dinner at El Chico! What a treat!

Day 2 went well also and Day 3 found us still on track and making it to piano lessons for both of the girls that afternoon. Day 4 and 5 and we finished up the week by setting up the pool in the backyard and enjoying the afternoon and evening outside. Miss E, Miss A and Mr. E reviewed math last week and will pick up this week with a little more review for some and new lessons for others based on how their review week went. Both of the girls aced their first spelling tests. Miss E, Miss A and Mr. E have all taken to their readers and accompanying workbooks very well and so far I'm very happy with this addition to their schedules. The same goes for the R&S English - I think we may stick with it instead of going back to Easy Grammar after this year. I definitely think it's working better for Miss A. She did o.k. with Easy Grammar, but I think the R&S is better suited to her and Miss E is doing fine with it also.

We enjoyed a busy, but fun Labor Day weekend. We took a "staycation" and ran some errands, took care of some of those "to dos" that never seem to get done and just enjoyed not having to BE anywhere at any specific time. The highlight of our weekend aside from just all being together was a nice drive in OK to the Chickasaw National Recreation Area. The water in the park has a high sulphur content - after you try a sip from the fountain there, you'd think you'd just eaten the yoke of a hard boiled egg! Mmmmm. :-P

Now, we head into Week 2 of our school year. We will add in Tapestry and Zoology this week in the afternoons. I look forward to sharing about our first lessons in these subjects after we delve into them in the coming days!

Hooray!

Well, this morning I received an email from the property manager that we should hear something about the a/c within 2 days. O.k.

I was thrilled later in the early afternoon to receive a call asking if I'd be home for the next hour or so and the call was from the a/c folks! Yay!

Fast forward an hour and a half and we appear to have a/c working again - yay!

I'm so thankful for the speed of the service company, that the Lord saw fit to keep the temps low today (high today is only 84!) and the house didn't get hotter than 80 so far today!

So glad this isn't anything like the experience we had last year!

Thank you to everyone for praying for us to have this resolved quickly!