End of year musings on a New Year's Eve

Catching up at times seems a daunting endeavor...there are so many things I would like to have blogged about, not only for others who read, but for myself, to remember - the days are passing by so swiftly and the children are growing up so quickly...but that's as it should be.

This year has been a very busy one, as they all seem to be, but especially the ones in which a new family member has been born. Miss Baby is 11 months old now - she has 2 teeth and 2 more about to come in, she's pulling up and "army crawling" all over the place, she's verbalizing and communicating with us in so many ways and has uttered her first "mama" and "dada", however her favorite "word" right now is "ah-ha", she is an absolute delight.

Mr. A is growing so fast! He is full of mischief and as sweet as sugar. With his rosy cheeks he looked like a little elf the past few weeks - he is so smart, learning to read and always trying to keep up with everything his big brother and sisters are doing. He may be an engineer some day as he delights in dismantling things and trying to see how they work. Look out world!

Mr. E has such a sweet heart - he always wants to take care of his baby sister, he's constantly wanting to use "his money" to buy something for someone else at the store, his favorite past time involves a little cartoon named Mario, however a new game, Mousetrap, trumped video games this evening as his "want to do" item for the night. He's bright as a whip and can answer math questions faster than his sisters sometimes!

Miss A has a very giving heart as well - she never pauses for a moment when I ask for her help with something around the house - she is always near when her baby sister starts to fuss and constantly amuses Miss Baby on car trips from her seat directly behind Miss Baby's seat. She tries her best to keep up with her Daddy on Sunday mornings and marks all the scriptures in her Bible until she runs out of bookmarks and then bemoans the fact that she can't mark any more places. She is a precious girl.

Miss E - ah, the eldest. Always there to enforce the "rules" with her siblings (or try to) when I'm not right there in the room. Confidante and best friend to Miss A - they are inseparable at times. Ever reading, she would stay up all night with her nose in a book if we would let her...and sometimes I'm tempted to just let her read as long as her heart desires. Time is short and one day she will have so many responsibilities of her own.... Loving and dear, she is growing up so fast...9 soon....the last single digit age....where does the time go?

CKB and I have had a wonderful year - watching our little ones grow and learn. Trying our best to guide them on their way...looking to God for our help. We've been so blessed. CKB continues to fill 2 regular appointments and we visit on the remaining Sundays. The folks in all of the churches in the area have made us feel so welcome since we moved up here about 3 years ago. Those of you who knows us, know where "up here" is and the churches I'm referring to, no doubt. Again, we are so blessed. We have made some new friends this past year and I've tried my best to keep up w/the friends we already have, but know I've failed in keeping up with everyone as I'd like to - I often "blame" it on a large and busy family, but I do intend to try to do better. Miss Baby is growing and I hope to have a tiny bit more time here and there to do things in her second year of life while watching over her as she heads into toddler-dom. We'll soon begin our second half of the school year - we have much to do before the end of our studies this year, but we're well on our way. I'm not one for making 'resolutions' - what's the point anyway? I do look forward to this coming year with great anticipation - we have exciting news to share soon, we will be celebrating in February a momentous occasion (more on that soon as well) and I'm sure there are many unexpected surprises in store for us as well.

My prayers are with you all, our most loyal readers and those who happen by now and then, for a wonderful new year filled with manifold blessings from on High!

Happy New Year to you!

What we had for Christmas dinner....

Well, Christmas 2009 has come and gone.

For dinner, we had:

Turkey breast stuffed with ...what else, stuffing!

I saw a cooking show around Thanksgiving and decided to give the quicker and easier a try for a change...

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/oven-roasted-turkey-breast-with-leeks-and-cornbread-stuffing-recipe/index.html

Review - stuffing that was cooked alongside (what didn't fit inside the turkey breasts) was too dry - otherwise, yum! By the way, did you know that leeks are the national dish of Wales? Well, I didn't either, but my Dad did...who knew?! I don't think the gal at the grocery store was all that impressed with that little tidbit of trivia, but hey, Dad likes to share such information whenever he gets the chance...makes life interesting, right? :) I better watch out next time a game of trivial pursuit is proposed.....anyway....

Sweet potato casserole - yum yum
Cranberry sauce
Rolls - you know the ones, w/the "slits" along the tops? I'm sure they have a name...but I don't feel like going out to the freezer to look at the extra package we have left to see what they're actually called...they're the ones, the ones we always had at Thanksgiving and Christmas...those!

Hmm....I think that was it for the food - we kept it simple...kept it sane.

Dessert.....drumroll please...pumpkin pie, pecan pie, Bluebell Vanilla Bean ice cream and sugar free cool whip for my mom - yum, yum, yum :) Classics!

Oh yes, and we all drank water...I know, boring, but I ran out of time and didn't get any sweet tea made - horrors.

So, that was our Christmas fare - I hope yours was super yummy! Next year I will make pies the day before...or something...anything, but not all on the day of - even w/keeping things a bit simpler it still took a lot longer than I thought it would!

And no, no pictures of the food this time around....we were too busy eating I guess!

What are you having for Christmas dinner?

This morning at breakfast I asked the children what they'd like to have for Christmas dinner. The responses were very interesting:

Mr. E loudly proclaimed - DONUTS!

Mr. A chimed in with - BIRTHDAY CAKE!

Miss A replied - PIZZA?

Miss E said she had 3 suggestions...nachos, burritos, and frito pie - hmm, I see a theme here...

So...what are you having for Christmas dinner?

Fall Piano Recital

We made it to the Fall piano recital this year - yay! The weather wasn't crazy and I wasn't pregnant and concerned about slipping on the ice, therefore we went!

This was Miss A's first recital and Miss E's second. They both played very well and Miss E even sang along to her pieces which surprised us all, including her teacher!

Miss A played: Jolly Old St. Nicholas, Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Miss E played: We Three Kings, Silent Night and Up on the Housetop



I wish I could share a recording with you, but for now that isn't possible. We hope to get a copy of the one that their teacher's husband made, but it may be a while before he's able to get copies made and out to everyone.

Here are some of the children enjoying refreshments after the recital...I think Mr. A is playing the trumpet....?



Miss E and Miss A were thrilled that Grandma and Grandpa came in early for Christmas just to be able to be here in time for their recital.

Playing around with depth of field and my Canon today

I haven't been spending much time with the camera lately....too busy spending all my time with the children instead of photographing them!

Today, however, I took a few minutes, grabbed the camera and played a little while the children played around me...yes, I should've been folding laundry, but, well, I didn't.

Here's one of my favorites from today...Miss A

Container Store Curbside Pickup

It really was that easy - amazing! Now, seriously, some of you other stores out there - offer this service...please?????

The Container Store will bring your order to your car!?!

I placed an order today at the Container Store website and lo and behold, there is an option to pickup your order at your local store (if you have one). I wasn't too thrilled about this at first because it'll be a tad of a drive for me and the little ones, but the item I was ordering would've cost a lot for shipping so I decided to take the drive later this week to pick up said item.

After I made my choices, put in my info. and clicked "checkout" I found out when printing my receipt that there's an option for having the order brought out to your car....whaaaaaat???? Where have you been all my life, Container Store? Well, all my life since I had children, that is!

Now, if only I could do ALL my shopping at the Container Store.....I can dream, right?

I'll update later this week to let you know how it all works out...supposedly you call the store 15 mn. before arrival and then when you arrive and they waltz right out with your order - I can't wait! I sure hope it's really that easy!

Who needs Mario when you have Luigi?

Isn't he adorable?




(Thanks Aunt R for finding this for us!)

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....