Keeping the Lamps Burning

Notebook: Week 6

2010-09-28T21:33:00.000-07:00

Shannon
Language Arts
   Spelling Workout Lesson8
   Hooked On Phonic: Completed the yellow level. Yay!
   Handwriting Without Tears: 6 pages and some review
   First Language Lessons 15 - 18

Shannon and his completed level yellow progress poster

Math
   Hooked on Math -began the third set of flash cards

Science
   Mammals: Giraffe, Camel, Deer

History
   Story of the World: Chapter 8 (The Assyrians) and Chapter 9 (The First Cities of India)
   Narration and Map Work

Religion
   Catechism: Lesson 2

The Arts
   First Piano Adventure: Continued Unit 2
   Artistic Pursuits: Lesson 3. For this lesson we went on a walk to find things in nature to draw later. I decided to take the kids to the trail that I usually run on. I always see loads of photo worthy specimens on my evening run so I wanted to share it with them. It wasn't super warm but we had fun. Shannon and Chloe even ran ahead to get the full experience of what it is their mom does in the evenings. I kept having to call them back. They sure have a lot of energy.

You can barely see Chloe's pink fleece and Shannon is just a little dot up ahead.

Other
   Reading at bedtime
   Soccer practice

Chloe
Language Arts
   Handwriting Without Tears
   Hooked on Phonics Readers
   Phonics Centers

Math
   MCP worksheets

Religion
   Catechism: Lesson 2

Notebook: Week 5

2010-09-27T22:54:00.000-07:00

Shannon
Language Arts
   Spelling Workout Lesson 8
   Hooked On Phonics pages, common word cards, and readers
   Handwriting Without Tears: 6 pages and some review
   First Language Lessons 13 - 14 and illustrated "The Caterpillar" the poem they now have memorized

Math
   Hooked on Math - still working on second set of math cards, played space bingo and sum swamp

Science
   Mammals: Goat, Cow, Pig. I chose these animals to tie in with our trip to the fair.

History
   Story of the World: Chapter 7 and Review
   Map Work and Coloring Pages

Religion
   Catechism: Lesson 2

Arts
   Artistic Pursuits: Lesson 3
   My First Piano Lessons: Continued Unit 2

Other
   Reading at bedtime
   Soccer

Chloe
Language Arts
   Handwriting Without Tears: with each lowercase letter she first makes the letter with wood pieces, then with the Stamp and See Screen, then she makes it with chalk on a chalkboard and then finally with a crayon on her worksheet.
   Hooked on Phonics Readers
   Phonics Centers

Math
   MCP worksheets

Religion
   Catechism: Lesson 2

Field Trip: Spokane Interstate Fair.
We brought our babysitter, Alex, with us and her friend (and backup sitter), Kelsie. Alex's mom was happy to keep Athena back at her house as this trip would interfere with nap time. We had a blast! The kids love Alex and Kelsie and it was pretty awesome to have more adults than children. We watched the baby pig races, saw loads of farm animals, and the kids got to enjoy some rides of course. And before we left, we stopped by Mary Lou's for some homemade ice cream. Messy but delicious.

Ice Cream Face!!!

A rough patch

2010-09-27T22:33:00.000-07:00

Last week was really rough for us. Well, for Shannon and I in particular. And it really hit me hard because school, and family life in general, had been going very well. I was so busy not getting along with my son last week, blogging didn't really happen. In fact, I haven't even read a blog in about a week. I have some serious catching up to do with my blogger friends.

The week started with Shannon's first Religious Education class last Sunday. For the first time in a while, he was nervous about me leaving him. Usually he is Mister Independent. So that was a bit odd. And then when I brought the rest of the family back for mass, he completely lost it. He was really confused about the new schedule. When we sat down for Mass, he started melting down. He was rocking side to side and back and forth, standing when he should be sitting, sitting when he should be standing, pacing, talking loudly, wimpering. These are all behaviors that I am familiar with when Shannon is under stress. Even though he seemed to be fine during R.E., he was under the stress of meeting new people, having new authority figures, new activites, a new schedule. The whole thing was a recipe for disaster. The only saving grace was I had the foresight to take Athena to my parents house for Mass so we would both be free to handle whatever was thrown at us. But even with the extra planning, we were still unprepared for how extreme this episode was. So, not even 15 minutes in, Stacey took Shannon out to play under a tree in the front of the church.

What I wish I would have done differently: prepared my poor son for this change. It just didn't seem like a big deal to us. It was only an hour and fifteen minutes in a classroom with many kids he had already met before. I should have talked to him about it and then planned some sort of organizing activity in between R.E. and Mass.

The rest of the week just seemed to feed off of that experience. I felt tired, stressed out, unorganized. I was snappy. Shannon was snappy. Looking back, there are many things I wish I would have done differently but I just need to put it behind me and move on. Shannon and I did spend quite a bit of time praying together this past week. We prayed for patience, for rest, for the ability to make good choices. But I always felt like we were praying out of desperation.

Today, the first day of Week 7, was wonderful. And we needed a good day so badly. I planned some extra group time this morning so we could read some stories and just enjoy being a family and be thankful that we have each other. I think one of my favorite things is listening to my kids talk to God. I don't think I will ever tire of that.

Our week of bickering ended this Sunday with a family evening out. First we went to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, The Nordstroms Cafe, and then hurried over to the grand opening of the Spokane Apple Store. Stacey was looking forward to this all week and I must admit, I was pretty excited too. We are a family of geeks and proud of it. Shannon had so much fun running from iPhone to iPad, playing all the demos. A little Stacey in the making.

Geeking out at The Apple Store

Notebook: Week 4

2010-09-16T21:32:00.000-07:00

Shannon
Language Arts
   Spelling Workout Lesson 7
   Hooked On Phonics pages, common word cards, and readers
   Handwriting Without Tears: 6 pages and some review
   First Language Lessons 10 - 12

Math
   Hooked on Math - first and second set of math facts

Science
   Mammals: Zebra, Hippo, and Fox

History
   Story of the World: Chapters 5 and 6
   Map Work and Coloring Pages

Religion
   Catechism: Finished Up Lesson 1
   Catholic Mosaic: Mother Teresa
   Virtue Focus: Obedience

Arts
   Artistic Persuits: Lesson 2
   My First Piano Lessons: Started Unit 2

Other
   Reading at bedtime
   Soccer practice
   First soccer game: Shannon scored a goal. I took a video of it but Chloe was playing with my phone and deleted it : (

Chloe
Language Arts
   Handwriting Without Tears: started lowercase letters and built a mat man
   Hooked on Phonics Readers
   Phonics Centers

Math
   MCP worksheets

Religion
   Same as Shannon

Date Night: First Friday

2010-09-06T19:34:00.000-07:00

This past Friday, the husband and I went on a little date downtown. Many of the retail shops and wineries host a First Friday Art & Retail Walk on the first Friday of every month. This was our first time going, though we had already been to the wineries we visited. First we stopped by White Stone Winery for appetizers and four very generous wine tastings. Their signature wine "Pieces of Red" is delicious. And the appetizers really hit the spot.

A few of the members of the band Hot Club of Spokane were there and they were awesome as always. Hot Club actually played at my brother's wedding a couple of years ago. Then we went over to Barrister Winery for a very reasonably priced dinner, brought to us by Beacon Hill.

Artwork on the walls of Barrister

We decided to skip the tasting because the pours at White Stone were pretty large. Then we picked the kids up and headed home to watch a movie. We will definetly go down for First Friday in the future.

Notebook: Week 3

2010-09-06T15:44:00.000-07:00

Shannon
Language Arts
   Spelling Workout Lesson 6
   Hooked On Phonics pages
   Handwriting Without Tears: 3 pages and some chalkboard work
   First Language Lessons 7 - 9

Math
   Hooked on Math - first set of math facts

Science
   Mammals: Lion, Cheetah, Giraffe

History
   Story of the World: Review and Chapter 4
   Coloring pages of Hieroglyphs and Pyramids

Religion
   Catechism: Lessons 3 & 4

Other
   Reading at bedtime
   First soccer practice
   Park day with our home school group

Chloe
Language Arts
   Handwriting Without Tears
   Hooked on Phonics Readers
   Phonics Centers

Math
   MCP worksheets

Religion
   Catechism: Lessons 3 & 4

Book of Saints

Athena, mostly nakie and reading a book.

My little grownups

2010-09-01T08:31:00.000-07:00

Shannon was up before Chloe this morning, battling monsters with his legos. I was working in my office listening to the battle. Finally I heard the pitter patter above my head as Chloe shuffled through the hall and down the stairs. Shannon paused his battle:

"Hello, C.C. Good Morning."

"Good morning, Shannon."

Whenever my little children use these grownup-sounding phrases, it just makes me giggle. Of course this initial exchange of mature phrases was followed by:

"You missed it; I just fought a bunch a monsters"

"Oh, good." Chloe walked through the play room and into the bathroom.

And the battle continued.

Kid down!

2010-08-30T00:10:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday night of last week, our little Chloe put herself to bed early and then woke up Thursday morning only to put herself back down for a nap after breakfast. I checked on her mid-morning and found she had a fever of 104! I put my shaking little girl in the bathtub and offered her some Tylenol. She got into some fresh jammies and went back to bed. And this is what she did for the next 48 hours. Her temperature went up and down between 100 and 103. Sometimes she would get out of bed to join us but soon become too tired and go right back to sleep. We sure missed her. Our dynamic just isn't the same without her.

Finally, on Saturday morning, she sprang back to life. Her temperature was down to 99 and she was eating breakfast and feeling good. Until around 11am when I heard her scream from the bathroom. I ran in to ask what the trouble was and she cried "My pee hurts!!!" and we were off to the walk in clinic for a quick bladder infection diagnosis and a stop at the pharmacy. I feel so terrible for her. Even with the antibiotics and loads of cranberry juice, she couldn't use the bathroom pain free until this evening. I'm looking forward to having us all together again tomorrow morning.

Curriculum Changes . . . Already?

2010-08-29T23:50:00.000-07:00

We got about four days into school and I already felt like I had to switch a couple of things around. I posted my original curriculum on this page a couple of weeks ago. And here are the changes:

First, I had to make some changes to our reading program. Last year we used Teach You Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons and it worked out very well. But it seemed like right around Lesson 50, it took a giant leap in difficulty. And that was right around the time we stopped last year. When I picked it up again this year, Shannon became immediately frustrated and overwhelmed by the lessons. He would see it in his work box and say "Oh, no, not this. I can't do it". At first I was frustrated with Shannon's attitude but quickly realized that it wasn't working for him. So I busted out the Hooked on Phonics program that I got for super cheap at the beginning of summer. I meant to go through the kindergarten program over the summer but we never finished so I'm starting with kindergarten and we should be able to get through first grade by the end of this year. I have already seen a huge change in attitude with Shannon. He is gaining confidence and he is a sucker for a good progress sticker chart.

Chloe and I are reading the Hooked On Phonics readers together and using the sound cards to review the sounds of the letters. Basically I'm preparing to use the kindergarten program with her sometime in the future. I don't think she's quite ready.

We have also ditched the Writing with Ease program. Basically, this program focused on proper writing structure and grammar. At this level, Shannon is only expected to copy simple sentences and summarize passages that I read to him. The problem is, I already have him working in a handwriting program and Handwriting Without Tears has him doing similar copy work in his first grade workbook. And we are doing narration work in his other subjects so I just think at this stage, it is a little much. I will just shelf that text and maybe pick it up again if we finish HWT early this year.

Moving onto math. The problem with using a workbook, is sometimes I lose sight of what my goals are. The worksheets I had him doing last week were all addition problems, which is great, but he gets really frustrated with all of the writing. I think he is focusing so much on forming the number, he is not really learning any math facts. So, to the shelf with you, too, math workbook. I think this book will be useful later on but right now we need to focus on basic math facts. So, I laminated (with my awesome new machine) the flashcards I got with the manipulatives I bought from ebay and Shannon loves to write the answers in with a dry erase marker. It is a lot less overwhelming then staring at a sheet full of problems. We are also using the Cuisenaire Rods that came in the manipulative box. This hands-on approach is working out way better than the worksheets.

Hmmmm, I think that is about all for the big changes. We'll just see how it goes.

Notebook: Week 2

2010-08-29T23:39:00.000-07:00

Shannon
Language Arts
   Spelling Workout Lesson 5
   Hooked On Phonics pages
   Handwriting Without Tears: some pages in the workbook and lowercase letters on the chalkboard
   First Language Lessons 4 - 6

Math
   Worked with Cuisenaire Rods and Flash Cards
   Math Facts of 0 - 5 memorized

Science
   Printouts found online - Animal Habitats

History
   Story of the World: Chapters 2 & 3
   Map Activity of Upper and Lower Egypt

Shannon, as the White Crowned King of Upper Egypt, and Chloe, as the Red Crowned King of Lower Egypt

King Narmer of Upper Egypt defeats the Red Crowned King and wears both crowns to unite the two kingdoms

King Narmer, hard at work on his map

Religion
   Catechism: Lesson 3

Other
   Lots of reading at bedtime. We always throw in an easy reader or two so the kids can read to me.

Chloe
Language Arts
   Handwriting Without Tears
   Hooked on Phonics Readers
   Phonics Centers

Math
   MCP worksheets

Religion
   Catechism: Lesson 3

Book of Saints

New gadgets, gizmos, and free furniture

2010-08-25T07:32:00.000-07:00

While putting together my curriculum this year, I realized how nice it would be to have my very own laminating machine. This time last year, I put a few phonics centers together and it cost me twice the cost of a basic laminating machine to get them all laminated. And it was only four centers! So, I bought one of my very own.

Also, I invested in a continuous ink system for our printer. Between homeschooling, coupons, and other general stuff we . . . okay I . . . go through a ton of ink. The entire system only cost $35 on ebay and it came full of ink. That's already less then buying a couple of new cartridges. Sweeeeeeeeet.

We rearranged our downstairs so the kids now have a school room/play room. We used to have a small office with a ton of really bulky office furniture. We moved all of the office furniture out into two separate rooms to make things less crowded and used the old office as the kids' new room. We use it to do school in the morning and then they can play in the afternoon and clean it up again before bed. I wanted to get some desks for them but I was not thrilled about the price of those things. Any surface at the right height would work just fine but I had a hard time finding anything at a decent price. Until my granny was kind enough to find an ad for free school desks in the paper. So I was able to get two desks in really great condition and I grabbed four chairs while I was at it.

Our old office, empty and ready for a new paint job

I realize how drab that ugly brown curtain is, but it is far more lovely than

the window behind it. One of these days I'll get a prettier curtain.

I know a lot of moms don't like the idea of school desks in their home school but after doing all of our learning at the kitchen table last year, it just was not working for us. I had to keep clearing the table every time someone got hungry. And in this high metabolism family, that happens a lot. And since I wanted to give the work box system a try, we would need more space.

One of these days, when my office isn't atrocious, I may post a picture of it.

Notebook: Week 1

2010-08-24T22:34:00.000-07:00

We started our school year last monday and I must say . . . it is going rather well. I am super impressed with the workbox system and the chore packs I put together. Our home has never been cleaner and school has never run this smooth. I realize we are only a week in but I have always been an optimist.

I plan on writing a post dedicated to the workbox system and the chore pack system so I won't go into that right now. I'll just scribble down what we covered this week.

Shannon
Language Arts
   Spelling Workout Lesson 1
   100 Easy Lessons 51 - 54
   Handwriting Without Tears: review of capital letters
   Writing With Ease
   First Language Lessons 1 - 3
Math
   MCP Lessons 2-4, 2-6, 2-7, 2-8

Science
   First Animal Encyclopedia - characteristics of animals

History
   Story of the World: Intro and Chapter 1
   Map Activity of the Fertile Crescent

Religion
   Catechism: Chapters 1 & 2

Other
Lots of reading at bedtime. Shannon has insisted on reading the words that he can sound out. And Chloe chimes in as well. We also read some books about archeology.

Chloe
Language Arts
   Handwriting Without Tears
   Hooked on Phonics Readers
   Phonics Centers

Math
   MCP worksheets

Religion
   Catechism: Chapters 1 & 2

Book of Saints

I made schultutes to celebrate our first day of school. I stuffed them with some school supplies

and a couple of books. I didn't make them very fancy but the kids loved them just the same.

Heart of the Matter Online Conference 2010

2010-08-20T19:55:00.000-07:00

Heart of the Matter Online presents their main conference in the summer and a refresher conference in February. If you've been following along, I attended the virtual conference last February and reviewed it here. I decided to go ahead and attend the conference because the speakers were particularly interesting this time around. Also, when I paid my $20 to attend the conference I received a pretty handsome down loadable swag bag. I wasn't sure what to expect from a virtual swag bag but I was pleasantly surprised. I got several ebooks, some downloadable lapbooks, a ton of free downloads from CurrClick. I haven't even had time to look through at all of it yet. And I was entered to win over $2000 worth of prizes. So, all of that cool stuff alone was worth the $20. And now on to the speakers.

Susan Wise Bauer did a session called Literary Analysis: When, Why, and How Should I Teach It? She has some fantastic talks that I had purchased last year from Peace Hill Press. I have decided to use many of her curriculum materials this year so it was great to hear her speak again. Her talks are always very concise and organized and she just has a lovey speaking voice. This particular session was about when and how to introduce literary works to your kids. She had some great information. She went through the three stages of classical learning and presented approaches to take during each of those stages in teaching our kids about literature. Good stuff.

Dr. Stephen Guffanti did two sessions on ADHD and Kinesthetic learning. I gleaned a few nuggets from these two talks. I have done a lot of reading on these subjects but I still manage to pick up a little something from new sources. The interesting part was Dr. Guffanti is, himself, ADHD and dyslexic, so he was able to pull from his own experience. He even talked abut methods his wife uses when interacting with him. That was pretty funny. And he has created a phonics program, Rocket Phonics, that uses a multi sensory approach. I already have so much reading and phonics material but if I ever feel like Shannon, or any of my other kiddos, isn't getting it I would definitely give this a shot.

Melinda Boring's session, Adapting Curriculum for Struggling Learners, was another one I gained quite a bit of knowledge from. She has a great website that I will probably buy a few products from to help Shannon focus and keep him comfortable. For example, we've only been doing school for a week and he has chewed the erasers off at least three pencils. Then he goes to erase, forgetting he has destroyed his eraser, and tears his paper. I am either going to get him something to chew on while he works or maybe a pencil topper would do the trick. Once he started doing this, I had a total flashback of when I was elementary school and did the same thing. And even as an adult I have an oral fixation. Especially while driving my car I need to be eating something, chewing gum, or drinking something through a straw or I feel very unfocused. So, I feel for the little guy. I also think I am finally going to order an inflatable seat cushion. I've been thinking of this for a year now because Shannon can not help but shift in his seat or slump over his desk. He always looks so jittery. It can be pretty distracting . . . for all of us. I think the cushion will help to satisfy his need to move while still sitting in one spot.

Oh, my life would be so boring without Shannon in it.

Lee Binz presented Christian Homeschool Success in High School. She gave a lot of the ins and outs of high school record keeping and other options parents have when it comes to teaching their teens. Like online courses, tutoring, college courses, etc. This seems light years away for me but Lord knows it does go by quickly. I didn't think this session would interest me because my kids are still so small but I found it actually quite fascinating. She has a great website too full of useful information for your high school homeschool.

There were some other sessions that I will probably go back and listen to once I get the link to the MP3s. Also, at that time the MP3s will be available for purchase at their website. Oh, I also should mention that when I was logged into the sessions, I was able to chat with other participants. That was nice for passing around ideas and such. Also, we could ask the speaker a question if we wanted to. It seemed like no matter what the speaker topic was, someone inevitably wanted to talk about whether or not we let our kids read/watch Harry Potter. So, there was that. All in all a good experience that I will probably take part in next year.

It's going to be okay

2010-08-09T13:06:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my last couple of posts, my husband started complaining of stomach pains Wednesday night of Camp Mom. He was out of bed all night because he just couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep. The next day he called in sick to work in an attempt to get some sleep during the day. He started feeling better after not eating all day but after dinner, the same pain came on again. He attempted to go into work the next morning but came right back home. Again, he felt well enough in the evening to eat at the camp fire but then immediately started feeling sick again. Finally on Saturday evening, around 5:30, he headed into Spokane to the VA Hospital.

I tried calling him several times with no luck so after I got the kids to bed, at around 9pm, I called the VA Hospital and told them I had misplaced my husband and hoped he was there. They assured he was there and undergoing some tests. They ruled out kidney stones and moved to the next logical conclusion: appendicitis. At around 1:30am, they transferred him to Sacred Heart Medical Center for more testing and possible surgery. I had seen Stacey's sister, Steffany, pop up on facebook so I let her know what was going on and she told the rest of the family and now we had a whole gang of people worrying about him. This is where I'm not sure if I'm a bad wife. See, I was never worried. I asked our Lord for patience in waiting for a diagnosis and, of course, for the recovery of my husband. But I never once thought that something terrible could happen or that I had even a tiny reason to worry. I just took care of things around the house the best I could and arranged sitters for the kids so I could be with Stacey. I figured that it was either going to get better on it's own and remain a mystery or we would find out what it was and get it fixed. What became very obvious to me, was how blessed we are to have so many family and friends in the area who are available and willing to take our kids so I could hang out with Stacey in the hospital.

I was certainly frustrated at times with the lack of information we were getting from the tests and I really hated knowing that my husband was in pain. For the most part they had him on pain killers and he was pretty comfortable. On his first day there, he was feeling okay so he went off the meds and had lunch. Since nothing was really going on, Stacey said I should head home and take care of things around there and then come back. While I was away he went into a fit of pain. His sisters had stopped in to see him and he was in agony, waiting to be put on pain killers again. I, of course, was not there at this time. When his sisters called and told me what was going on, I did get pretty upset. I just don't like being helpless in the care of my family. I would rather be the one in pain because I feel in control. I like the fact that I birth the babies and Stacey provides loving support because I know what to do to help myself through the labor. I've never asked Stacey how he feels when I go into transition and have to work through those really intense contractions. Does he feel helpless? Does he ask God for help and guidance? Because that's how it was for me on my drive back to the hospital. Even during that time, I knew it was going to be okay. God would carry us lovingly through this and we would come out the other side.

So what the heck was wrong with him? This remains a mystery. His kidneys were fine, his gall bladder was fine, his appendix was fine. On Monday night they got his system all cleaned out and by Tuesday mid-morning, he was feeling a lot better. He was taken off pain medication and he tried eating a nice healthy lunch and nothing bad happened. He came home with me that evening and that was that. If this ever happens again, they would definitely do tests to figure out more, but at this point he doesn't have history of stomach issues and it might have been a one time thing. Crazy.

Camp Mom 2010: Day 5

2010-08-07T22:11:00.000-07:00

Today's Adventure: Homeschool Group Park Day, Spokane, WA

What we learned:
That we missed our friends, whom we haven't seen in a few weeks, and that I need to plan better for the changing weather.

What we did and saw:
We went to our regular weekly park day with our homeschool group. We had not been able to make it in a few weeks and there was another family that we had missed a few times so we got to see some friends that we had not seen since the end of the school year. When we were getting ready in the morning, it was raining but it looked like it would probably clear up. Around 9am, my husband came back home from work, complaining about his stomach again. So, we sent him to bed and headed for the park. Somehow, I allowed myself to leave the house without a change of clothes or swim wear, in case the weather cleared up. And of course, as soon as we got there, it was getting darn near close to being hot outside. The kids wanted to play in the splash pad and I had to break the news that I had not brought their suits. But, they figured why bother with suits and proceeded to have fun getting soaked in their jeans and t-shirts. However, I did somehow manage to bring one towel.

After they were good and soaked, they dried off and played on the playground. One of our homeschool moms was kind enough to bring her three nephews, who proved to be quite helpful with the little kids. The oldest, 13 years, pushed Chloe on the swings for me. I do enjoy pushing Chloe on the swings but she would be just thrilled to be there for hours and hours. Those boys were just a delight to be around. Most of the kids in the group right now are 7 and under so it was a nice little change in dynamic.

And what would Camp Mom be without a camp fire? Granny let us use her fire pit as a gathering place to wrap up camp mom, complete with roasting marshmallows and making smores. We invited Laura, Bill, and Roxanne out with us as well. Stacey was feeling better after sleeping all day so he came out with us. Granny has an awesome yard for adults and kids to marvel at. Her vegetable garden, berry bushes, and flower gardens are pretty spectacular. Stacey aspires to have a garden like hers one day. I'll have to go over again soon and take some pics and give you all a virtual tour. And the kids like to run around the property as well. There's a lot of foliage to play amongst.

And that concludes Camp Mom 2010.

It was a very busy, fun, and tiring week. It proved to be much more so because Stacey was feeling so sick and unable to lend a hand in the evenings. And that brings us to another post, in which his seemingly innocent stomach ache lands him in the hospital for three days. I bet you're on the edge of your seats now.

Camp Mom 2010: Day 4

2010-08-05T15:08:00.000-07:00

Today's Adventure: Mobius Children's Museum & Riverfront Park, Spokane, WA

What we learned:
The kids played with a lot of hands on exhibits and were introduced to many concepts. I want to check out some library books about aquifers because it was there favorite exhibit. They also spent some time at the dinosaur fossil dig and the magnet launcher.

What we did and saw:
First stop was Mobius Kids. We had not been here in over a year and we had a great time. Even Athena found plenty to discover. Back when I would take just 3 year-old Shannon and 6 month old Chloe, it was exhausting. I had to chase Shannon around to make sure he was behaving while slinging baby Chloe around. Shannon sure has come a long way in three years. He and Chloe got along really well and he was polite to the other kids. And when it was time to go, they came along without complaint.

Exploring water currents

Launching magnets together

Fun with the aquifer

Gathering food in the Philippines

It's hard to tell which one has the buggiest eyes and the fishiest mouth

Digging for fossils

Then we walked over to Riverfront Park and sat near the giant Radio Flyer Wagon to eat our lunch. They weren't too interested in the wagon. They just wanted to eat and go play in the fountain. So we did just that.

But first we stopped at the Garbage Goat to get rid of our trash.

And then we enjoyed some Tropical Snow while Shannon played in the fountain.

We headed back home where Stacey had been sleeping all day. He started feeling sick last night and had to call in sick to work this morning. At least we were out of his hair all day so he could sleep. I dropped off sleeping Athena and took Shannon and Chloe to the city pool. This was actually our first time visiting the pool beyond swim lessons. The open swim times are at odd hours where it makes it almost impossible for us to go. Although, after having fun with Shannon and Chloe and seeing how well they behaved and seeing that they are pretty independent, I probably could manage all the kids. Safety was my main concern. Shannon can now touch in the shallow end and Chloe has fun hanging onto the wall. They both understand how to be safe in the pool. So if I had Athena clung to me, I would still feel that we were all safe.

We then came back home for dinner and I ended the day running with Laura down on the trail. Unfortunately, it was really muggy and buggy down on the trail so we were dripping sweat and trying not to choke on bugs. But I still found peace in it. I like having a grownup gal to chat with a couple of days a week and being out with nature is fun too. Here is a pic of a weird creature we saw a couple days ago.

So, it is some sort of large rodent carrying a bunch of dried grass in his mouth.

At first we thought the rodent just had a crazy mustache.

Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion of Camp Mom 2010!

Camp Mom 2010: Day 3

2010-07-29T22:35:00.000-07:00

Today's Adventure: Greenbluff, Colbert, WA

What we learned:
I can't really pin point any serious learning but just being outside exploring, they're bound to pick something up.

What we did and saw:
We had planned on going to one place to pick raspberries but I couldn't find it so we just wandered around looking for a sign. When we got to the Harvest House I decided to pull in and ask if they were picking raspberries and they were. So we headed down with our bucket and got to picking. Even though it was only 10am when we got there, it was starting to get pretty hot. We didn't last very long and only got about 1 1/2 pounds of raspberries. Trying to keep the unpaid for raspberries out of Chloe's mouth was a whole other obstacle.

Athena and I checking out the Harvest House Bathrooms.

Best bathrooms on the Bluff.

Shannon amongst the raspberry bushes

The kids enjoying their honey sticks

The Harvest House does not allow you to eat your own food at their picnic area so we had to leave in search of an picnic-friendly picnic area. This was harder than I thought it would be. We went to Trezze Barn to get one of their delicious prepared pesto lasagnas, which they don't give away, and they wouldn't let us use their picnic tables either.

I feel the need to pause right now for a rant. I think advertising a picnic area but then not allowing us to eat our picnic lunch there is a bit contrary to the spirit of picnicking. Purchasing a prepared meal and then eating it outside is just eating at a restaurant on the patio. When we sit on the patio at Rock City, I don't call it a picnic. To be fare, I believe there are other places that have areas where you can eat a packed lunch but many are not open during the week and I just think we didn't pass by the right places. Okay, on with our adventure.

We finally pulled into Walter's Fruit Ranch where they graciously allowed us to use their picnic area for our controversial picnic lunch. Now I wish I just would have gone there first and spent our berry money there. I just made sure we cleaned up very well. There was a whole group of older folks out to pick fruit and they seemed to really enjoy the kids so perhaps we gave back by adding to the ambiance.

And then we headed home to rest up for day 4.

Camp Mom 2010: Day 2

2010-07-28T23:13:00.000-07:00

Today's Adventure: Manito Park, Spokane, WA

What we learned:
Plants come in many different shapes and sizes
Some plants have hilarious names
Not all roses look the same
Where the Upper Manito splash pad and park is
That honey bees have a very important job and if we leave them alone, they'll leave us alone

What we did and saw:
We started our day at the lower park playground. We got a later start because we wanted our friends, Laura and Roxanne, to come and Roxy had swim lessons in the morning. So we laid out the picnic lunch right away. But the kids were more interested in the playground equipment. Soon we packed up and headed to the gardens. We first explored the Rose Garden. They had a garden full of larger roses and then a garden beyond that with baby roses. The kids had fun trying to read the different names.

Then we headed to the Japanese Gardens. I always love coming here. I like it because it's really beautiful and it is enclosed so the kids can explore on their own. I threw down the rules (no running, stepping over the barriers, or touching the water) and then just set them free. But they didn't get too far before we heard "Mommy, come check this out!" So we just let the kids be our tour guides.

Roxy and Shannon

Camp Counselor Mama and Camper Athena

Then we walked back through the rose gardens and on to the Sunken English Gardens. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the entire garden from above. It is really awesome. But I did get some of the kids having fun.

The kids found a path beyond this garden and decided to take it to see what we would find. And we found the splash pad and playground. Laura took the kids up there while I went back and got the car with all of our water gear in it. The weather was being pretty weird all day. It kept threatening to rain but never quite got there. And the area with the splash pad was pretty windy. We were finally able to talk the kids into eating lunch but we didn't stay too long. We headed back to the car with the intention of heading home but Shannon started to get really upset because he had his heart set on seeing the Lilac Gardens. It was hard to resist the kid's desire to be one with nature so we drove back down and parked once again. And it turned out to be a lot of fun for us all. The kids got to see some bees hard at work and a lot of interesting looking plants. We haven't had time to do any further learning with this at home but I hope to get to some books on plants shortly.

On the way home, both Athena and Chloe passed out pretty quickly. All this time outside sure does encourage some good napping. And a couple of hours later, Laura and I went running because we just had not had enough excitement that day.

Day 3 to come.

Camp Mom 2010: Day 1

2010-07-28T00:13:00.000-07:00

Today's adventure: Finch Arboretum, Spokane, WA

What we learned:
What the different parts of a tree are: trunk, branches, leaves, roots
The difference between deciduous and coniferous trees
There are a lot of different kinds of trees.
Chloe learned that peeing outside is much harder for girls than for boys

What we did and saw:

I was not sure what the kids would think of hanging out in a park, without a slide and swings, all day. But we all had a great time and learned a lot. First we started out from the parking lot and headed into the arboretum. We didn't get too far before the kids wanted to stop and rest . . . and then play. This place was a gigantic playground for them. They had a blast hiding amongst the trees. Some groups of trees created these fantastic play structures. As we walked through the park, I would ask what kind of tree we were looking at and they would yell out: deciduous! or coniferous! After about an hour and half of exploring the different shapes, sizes, and leaves we headed back toward the front so the kids could use the bathroom and then we set up for lunch.

My kids kept popping in and out of this tree so I went in for a closer look . . .

. . . ah, so that's what they're doing in there.

On the menu: Egg salad sandwiches, watermelon, grapes, cheese, juice box, water

After lunch we got in the car and drove a little ways towards the back of the arboretum to a place I had never been: Corey Glen. This area was so beautiful.

We walked a little bit further because the kids wanted to see the crab apple trees that the map promised to be right up ahead. We were having a hard time locating the trees because the apples are still so small. When I was about to give up, Shannon found a sign under one of the trees and asked me to read it. He is so resourceful. And it was indeed a crab apple tree. And then we walked from tree to tree, reading all of the signs and learning that there are many, many varieties of crab apple trees.

Shannon and a crab apple tree

When we got just past the crab apple trees, the kids climbed up on this giant rock and asked me to take a picture. When I asked if they were having fun they gave me a double thumbs up.

Heading back on another beautiful trail

We headed back home to rest up for a bonus Camp Mom event: boating with our friends Bill, Laura, and Roxanne. When Stacey got home from work, we packed a lunch, and headed to the lake.

We found a calm, sunny place to drop anchor and we all got to take a dip. We only put Athena in for a moment so she could cool off. She wasn't too thrilled so the adults took turns holding her in the boat, relaxing on the water, and goofing off with the kids.

By the time we got home, Day 1 had been declared a success and we had three very sleepy kiddos . . . and two sleepy parents.

Stay tuned for Day 2.

Camp Mom 2010

2010-07-27T23:16:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I started planning a week of awesome outdoor activities for the kids and I to do together and I lovingly named this week Camp Mom. It would give us an opportunity to explore some places we don't normally explore in the Spokane area. We have visited many of the places before but this time around, I am giving us a lot of time for exploring and we're packing a lunch so we can have picnics everyday and not have to leave in search of food. And we can do it all for a fraction of what it would cost to send the kids to a day camp. Besides, why should they get to have all the fun?

Preparations and Materials

T-shirts: I designed and ordered some Camp Mom shirts from Custom Ink. I know, I know. This is not an essential item but I knew the kids would get a kick out of them.
Places to go: I picked a few places to go that would keep us outdoors and having fun. After choosing the places, I also checked out some books so we could learn more about the things we would see.
Backpacks and insulated lunch bags: I got these from Old Navy on sale for a great price. In each bag, I packed a change of clothes, swim suit, and towel. I also packed some drawing paper, crayons, and pencils for any impromptu art projects. And the library books we checked out. And, of course, a healthy lunch and plenty of water.
Picnic Blanket
Camera (I'm using my new iPhone 4; it takes awesome pics)

And that's it. Now we're ready for Camp Mom!

Summer Time! Weeks 5 & 6

2010-07-21T22:37:00.000-07:00

Where is the time going? I can't believe it's been two weeks since I've posted anything. My only excuse is the weather has been awesome, Stacey was out of town for a week, and we've been doing swim lessons. So let me see if I can remember what we've been up to:

Home Ec
The kids are still putting away their own clothes but the problem seems to be with their mom actually running the laundry and folding the clothes. I have been so out of whack lately. I feel like everyting has taken a back seat but I'm not sure what's in the front seat. I did receive my Managers of Their Chores book and chore pack kit so I have been spending a lot of time putting that together. Meanwhile the kids are just helping out here and there.

Fun
Swim lessons and playing at the park. But mostly just swim lessons. By the time lessons are over, it is usually too hot to be out. But then by early evening we try to get out in the yard and run around a bit. The kids have been running around in the garden with Stacey. I like to think they're helping and learning something but I think they're just playing in the dirt. And that's fine too.

This past Sunday, our friends who live down the street but we hardly ever see, invited us over for an impromptu BBQ. And I am so glad we were able to go. It was great to catch up and let the kids play and just relax for an evening. Actually, the wife in this couple, Laura, is my running buddy so we see each other quite often but that has been a recent development. Just our two families had not gotten together in, gosh, probably a couple of years.We had some great food and I had a couple of glasses of wine. Stacey had just returned from DC on Saturday morning and we had both been rather snippy the whole weekend. So getting out of the house and back in the company of our pals was a great way to recharge and put our snippiness aside.

Projects
My husband helped me clean under our refrigerator, which has been on my list for months. It actually only took like 10 minutes. I don't know why I kept putting that off.

Mom's World
I have been feeling so stressed lately. I know why and I know what I need to do but I have a hard time being disciplined enough to do it. I am not getting enough sleep so I am feeling lazy during the day. And then I don't feel motivated to get anything done around the house so the house is messy and cluttered. The kids are getting into things that are left out, I get frustrated with the mess and the kids getting into things, and then my head explodes. Mostly, I have been up late planning for the upcoming year or planning Shannon's birthday party or planning for the next couple of weeks of summer. Also, Stacey was out of town for a week and things have just been off. Also, our weekends have been pretty packed lately so I feel like I need to use my nights to do things I didn't get done on the weekend. I haven't been keeping up with my own personal daily schedule either so that is throwing me off. It's so funny that I need structure to feel relaxed and at peace. You would think it would be the opposite.

The good news is, this week has been going well and very productive so stay tuned for Week 7.

The Family Tree

2010-07-07T23:28:00.000-07:00

So here is the entire crew. Heather and her husband are all the way to the left with their four boys on the tree limb above them. Our family is clumped together next to them. Down in the front is Steffany and her husband. My mother in law is right above her and then my father in law above her, holding Steffany's daughter. To the right is Shala and her husband and their two daughters are in the center of the tree and their son is right above Shala.

The couple that started it all. They have now been married for almost 44 years.

Shala's beautiful daughters and handsome son.

Mama and son -sigh- So grown up

Heather, her husband, and her crew of boys.

Steffany, her husband, and their daughter.

Am I the only one disturbed by how crazy high in the air that little girl is?

All the grandkids in a tree and then with their grandparents.

The troublemakers . . . er . . I mean . . . grandsons.

Stacey and his sisters

And you should know all of these people by now . . .

Score!

2010-07-07T15:02:00.000-07:00

I went to Rite Aid last night and scored some cheap diapers. With Stacey being at guard and the busy fourth of july weekend, I haven't done any grocery shopping in about a month. It's so hard to just watch the deals pass me by but the awesome thing is I have a huge stockpile so I can go a month without grocery shopping and we still have plenty of food to spare. So here's what I got:

Transaction #1
Pampers Cruizers Jumbo Pack x 3 = $26.97
Used $5 off $25 Rite Aid Coupon
Used $2 off diaper coupons x 3
Paid $15.97
Received a $5 off next purchase and submitted a $2 single check rebate

Transaction #2
Pampers Cruizers Jumbo Pack x 2 = $17.98
Pampers Wipes x 3 = $7.47
Used $5 off $25 Rite Aid Coupon
Used $5 off next purchase from previius transaction
Used $2 off diaper coupons x 2
Used $2 off wipes x 1
Used $0.50 off wipes x 2
Paid $8.45
Received $5 off next purchase

So if you subtract the $5 off next purchase I earned and the single check rebate I will get, I got 5 packs of diapers and 3 packs of wipes for $17.42. That's $2.12 an item! Oh how I love a bargain.

Summer Time! Week 4: Family Fun

2010-07-07T00:35:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh! Where is the time going?! We're already halfway through week 5 of summer. I don't think I really know what went on last week. I'll try to remember though. Stacey's sister, Steffany, and her husband, Jake, and their daughter, Amberly arrived so we had a lot of family stuff going on. Steffany and Amberly will be living with one of Stacey's other sisters, Shala, for the year while Jake is overseas. Since Jake was only in town for about 10 days, we wanted to all spend some time together.

On Monday, during the day, the kids and I went out to Shala's to spend time with the kids and hang out for a couple of hours. We got to see the new addition and go swimming in the new pool.

On Wednesday night, the kids went to the sitter's house and Stacey and I went to Shala's daughter, Shelby's, dance recital. Oh. My. Goodness. That girl sure has turned into a woman over the last couple of years. She is a phenomenal dancer. She was in two different numbers: a hip hop routine and a lyrical routine. She is just so graceful, animated, and confident. While most kids were just kinda doing the steps, she was performing. This was the first year we were able to make it to one of her recitals and I am so grateful we were able to go.

On thursday evening, we had photos taken of Stacey's entire family: his mom and dad, his three sisters and their families, and our family. 10 adults and 11 kids. We had never done this before so we weren't sure what to expect from the kids. It turned out to be a great day. We had them taken at the Finch Aboredum. There was a lot of open space and the kids were able to run off when it wasn't their turn to be in a picture and they were quick to return when we needed them. It was so great to capture this moment in time with the whole crew. I will post a lot of the family professional photos in another post but I will share some of the candids that I took with my phone.

Shala and her daughter's, Madi & Shelby

I loved seeing all the white shirts, running across the field in the distance

Shannon and Chloe got all lovey during the grand-kids picture

Other than that, not a whole lot got accomplished. I only ran one night. No formal learning. No projects. I barely got anything cleaned around here. But we had a great time and got to spend invaluable time with our family. And what I didn't get done last week, can be done this week.

A Sensory-Friendly Homeschool

2010-07-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

When deciding whether or not to homeschool, one of the main things we considered was the fact that Shannon has Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). But, when it came to choosing curriculum last year, I don't feel like I considered his special needs as well as I could have. I am not a kinesthetic learner. I am mostly visual. So for someone like me, teaching kinesthetically does not come naturally. Many moms are so into crafts and projects and I must admit my envy. But, just because it does not come to me naturally, it doesn't mean I will not give it my very best to be the teacher Shannon needs me to be. One of the main advantages of home schooling is I can teach him and understand him better than someone who is not as in tune with him as I am. I have been spending a lot of time researching some SPD friendly tools and curriculum for us to use next year.

Consistency is important to the sanity of almost every child and even more so for a child with SPD. When we are coming into Cheney from Spokane, there are two routes to take: straight through town or up and around past the college. I originally started taking the college route because there were some new apartments going up and the kids liked to watch the workers and see the progress. Now it is just out of habit. If I ever decide to go through town because I need to go to the bank or something, Shannon will get really upset because we're not going the "right" way. I have learned that I must let him know ahead of time if I need to go through town so he is not taken off guard. The same goes for rearranging anything in the house. He will immediately point out that something is not in the "right" place. This may seem a little OCD and you are correct. A child with SPD will often have some OCD tendencies. As Shannon gets older, he is learning to work around his environment but he is still a little boy and therefore needs coaching most of the time.

Organizing Our Day

When it comes to keeping our days consistent, I am thinking of trying out a couple of new things. I wrote out a schedule for me and the kids using A Mother's Rule of Life. I keep this schedule in a sheet protector in my Home Organization Binder that I recently put together. This schedule will serve as a guide for me as we move through our day. I also just ordered a new book/system called Managers of Their Chores. Other moms who have used this system have found their children to be more efficient, independent, and cheerful in completing their chores. I am hoping we can all do our chores at the same time and get everything done quickly right after breakfast and before we begin formal schooling. The main structure of the system is a "chore pack" that the child clips onto their clothing as a hands on and visual guide while completing their chores. The chore pack is a plastic pocket, like a name badge, with a card for each chore the child is to complete in it. So I would hand Chloe and Shannon their chore packs full of (don't know how many yet) chore cards and they would do the card that is on top and when it is done move it the back. This physical movement of the chore cards will be so helpful for Shannon as positive reinforcement. I'll let you know how it goes.

Organizing Our School
Now that I have, hopefully, found a system for getting us through our morning routine smoothly, I needed something to get us into and through our school work smoothly. I have decided to implement Sue Patrick's Workbox System. This system was created by the mother of a child with autism. When I first came across this system a few months ago, I thought it looked like it took up a lot of space, was a big investment, and was a lot of work so I mentally tossed it aside. I came back to the idea after seeing it pop up on various blogs I read. I attended her webinar, Implementing Sue Patrick's Workbox System, presented by the creater last monday, June 28th, and I was impressed by how low maintenance and versitile the system is. She has used this system for children as young as 15 months old so the whole family can do school at the same time. And the start up cost is low. The physical structure is a 4-shelf rack (target $15) and 12 shoebox sized bins (I've seen these for $1 each in many stores). So for about $30 I can give the system a try and see if it works for our family. I am sure I will be reviewing the system a few months into the new year.

So that is how we will frame our days. Now on to curriculum . . . in Part II.

7 Cute Takes

2010-06-29T10:10:00.000-07:00

Athena has been so dang cute lately. Okay, you're right, all of my kids are cute all of the time. But I got a few random adorable shots of Athena that I had to share.

1. Taking flight.

2. Most adorable daddy hat ever!

3. Soap beard.

4. Being cute in a swing.

5. Eating her cute baby foot.

6. Double underwear cuteness with her big bro.

7. One of her favorite past times is taking every single card out of my wallet.

This time she did it while being adorable.

Summer Time! Week 3

2010-06-28T23:00:00.000-07:00

Yay! AFT is over and I have my husband back. It was another fairly stressful week but we had Stacey for most of the weekend as the AFT was winding down so we got to spend some family time together.

Home Ec
The kids are still putting their own folded clothes away and we started examining what a clean room looks like and how to accomplish that. I have realized lately that sometimes Stacey and I make impossible requests of our children. We will just tell them to clean their room and expect them to do it without ever really being trained. And that is when the crying and whining would begin. I want to show them, step-by-step, how to properly clean a room and do our chores together so we can all be happy when the work is done.

Fun
The weather was awesome this week. Almost everyday was in the 70's and sunny. We went to a park for an hour or so everyday. And the weekend was full of fun in the sun as well. Friday we went to the park with our homeschool group and the splash pad was finally on. So the kids got to play in the water and get a bit red.

Athena even got in on the splashy fun. The young lady pushing Chloe on the swing is our awesome babysitter, Alex. She came to the park that day simply because we had not needed her to sit in a while and she missed the kids. How great is that? I know so many moms that struggle to find a reliable, trustworthy babysitter and not only do we have that but we also have someone who loves being with our kids. She has been sitting for us since Shannon was about 18 months old and she was 14. I feel like she has watched our family grow just as we have watched her grow. Such a beautiful thing.

Saturday was Stacey's guard unit's annual picnic at the lake so more water and sun for the kids. I met some fantastic military wives that I hope to spend some more time with in the near future. One of the wives being the mom of one of Shannon's soccer team mates from this past season. And Stacey took a pie to the face as a result of one of the unit's fund raisers.

While I was making granola bars this week, I used the last of a container of oats. I tossed the empty container into the livingroom, where the kids were, and the fun immediatly began. That container took many forms inclduing a small house, a mailbox, and a hat for Athena. Doesn't she look thrilled?

Summer Learning
None! Too much sunshine and park fun. But we still read to the kids at night and during the day so there was that.

Mom's World
A fantastic thing happened this week. Shannon said to me, "Mom, I'm really sorry. I did something." I took a deep breath and asked him to explain. He told me he had cut a hole in his window screen. I had just finished going over bills and sighing over the fact that it seems like we are constantly paying for upkeep on our house, our cars, and our bodies. Cavities being filled, warts being removed, brakes being replaced, and Shannon breaking things around the house. And now my son tells me this piece of news. I calmly walked to my room and took a time out. I laid on my floor and just thought and prayed. I thought about what the true magnitude of the situation is, what may have motivated Shannon to do this, and what I can do and say to guide him. I emerged from my room and sat down with Shannon in the living room. I asked what it is that he did in his room that was not a good choice. He answered and apologized again. And I ended with a few words of encouragement but that was about it. The reason this is huge for us is because usually I freak out and loudly lecture him and ask him why he did what a did and on and on. Then when I would ask him if he knew what he had done wrong, he would answer with tears in his eye, "I don't know. I'm really sorry". Ugh, I hate that I do that. But, not this time! He already knew what he did was wrong and he came to me to confess and apologize without any prompting. I am afraid if I keep doing things the other way, he will just learn to cover up his mistakes out of fear. I feel like this situation with the window screen will be a great first step for us to build on.

I am on week 3 of the Couch to 5k program and I ran 3 nights this week but only did my pilates twice I think. And I have been baking healthy snacks and keeping yummy produce in the house to snack on. What I really need to do is break my Starbucks habit. Now that would save us money and my health.

I have been keeping some late nights researching some things for next year's homeschooling. Is it just me or does 1st Grade sound way older then Kindergarten! I think I may cry.

Changes for the Coming School Year

2010-06-26T00:44:00.000-07:00

Although I am thoroughly enjoying the lazy days of summer, my wheels have also been turning about this coming school year. When will we start? What curriculum will we use? What will our days look like now that Shannon is entering first grade, Chloe is in pseudo-kindergarten, and Athena is in full blown toddler mode?

Well, I can only begin to answer those questions. This coming year we will be enrolled in Columbia Virtual Academy and I am pretty excited about it. Last year I was very hesitant to enroll in any sort of umbrella school. I wasn't sure how things would go and I wanted a lot of flexibility. I had heard about CVA but was pretty closed minded about the idea. But, a blogger friend of mine got me thinking about it. Her teaching style is very eclectic and free wheeling so I was surprised to find out that her kids were enrolled in CVA. I also discovered a post on Homeschool Distractions that describes the program perfectly. That link will pretty much tell you everything you need to know about the program. The financial reimbursement for curriculum and other learning expenses is very appealing but I also think being in contact with a teacher once a week will keep me and the kids on task. I really wanted to include a field trip to the Portland Zoo in our life science curriculum this year but wasn't sure if we could afford it. With the help of CVA, it just might be possible.

I am also thinking of starting our school year in the first part of August. I want to start a bit early because, and I think I have mentioned this before, we do want to add to our family. We don't know when that will happen, but I would rather start early just in case we are blown off course by first trimester sickness.

I am still working on choosing curriculum and trying to keep Shannon's sensory needs in mind. First grade has a bit more work than kindergarten and I want this to be a positive experience for all of us. Homeschooling is supposed to allow us more freedom and flexibility, more fun, more opportunities to grow in God's grace, and more time to just be together. These thoughts escaped me at times last year as I anxiously plowed us through the material.

I have a ton of ideas about this coming year that I will share with you over the coming weeks. Meanwhile, we will be spending as much time outside as possible. Thank you, Lord, for the sunshine this week!

Summer Time! Week 2

2010-06-21T17:33:00.000-07:00

Week One of Stacey's Air National Guard Field Training is over. One more week to go. I know it's only two weeks (16 days to be exact) but it's still rough. We're both very tired as Stacey leaves the house at 5am and doesn't get back until somewhere between 6pm and 8pm. On top of the long hours, unlike when he is at his civilian job, we can not talk on the phone during the days or text or e-mail. So when he gets home at 7ish, he takes a shower and goes to bed, and we get about 2 words in with each other. We're used to sharing a lot with each other throughout the day and then for an hour or so in the evenings. Luckily, I got out a lot last week to be social with other adults so I didn't completely lose my mind.

Generally Speaking

We were doing so well without our technology and then I kinda lost my mind a little this weekend and let them play computer games for, like, an entire afternoon and into the evening. It's not that I think video games are evil, but the kids (especially Shannon) get a little moody and out of control after hours of gaming. And that is why I try to limit their time. And, seriously, it's summer and we should be doing other things.

Home Ec

We continued working on the laundry. The kids put their own clothes away but I wasn't very good about asking them to help me with the folding. But putting their own clothes away has been a lot more helpful and time-saving then I thought it would be.

Fun

Unfortunately, the weather was kinda nasty this week. Not a lot of time was spent outside which led to some moodiness around here. We did make it to the park with our home school group and that was very fun. I invited my friend, Cheri, and her three boys to join us as they are considering home schooling in the future. And we hadn't seen each other in a while so that was double awesome.

We also spent a nice morning and afternoon over at my parents' place on Saturday. The weather was actually pretty nice that day so we spent some time outside and then I fell asleep on their couch for about a half an hour.

Summer Learning

I got our hooked on phonics sets in the mail last week and we dove right in. Shannon started reading the little books right away and then we jumped into some lessons later on. Basically we just work through a workbook and a CD and along the way they have you do different activities. Shannon is speeding right through the Kindergarten set, which I guess he should since he is entering first grade. So then we'll just go into the first grade set and see how far we get. Chloe has been enjoying the program too but she is at a slower pace so I have been working with them separately. Shannon is definitely liking the different activities that we get to do. I am realizing what a hands on learner he is and I will definitely be taking this into consideration when planning our lessons for next year.

Just a little side note. I was watching some demo videos of the Math U See program and Shannon insisted on sitting with me as we watched it. He was pretty engaged. I am not a kinesthetic learner so I do not teach that way by nature. So, I am looking for curriculum choices that will really push the hands on learning so I can just follow their lead.

Projects

We made our jars of art supplies pretty and organized. And I was able to sort through some stuff and see what we could get rid of. I have decided that we don't need to own markers right now. I keep finding ink on the walls and carpet and even though it is washable, I just can not deal with that at this moment. They have crayons and colored pencils and those work just fine as a creative outlet.

Mom’s World

I totally failed at going to bed early and waking up early. Not one day did I wake up before my kids and on top of that I woke up tired and cranky almost every morning. It threw everything off. And without Stacey home for dinner, we're not eating very balanced meals. I don't know why that always happens when Stacey is gone. I get super lazy with the meal prep. I was able to get my three runs in for the week and it was actually quite satisfying. I felt less death-like afterward. I downloaded a couch to 5k app for my iPhone that has made my workout both pleasant and technologically advanced. -sigh- I love technology. And I continued with my pilates as well. So, still working on the sleep and eating thing. I have another week without a husband so I don't know how far I'll get with that.

I went out with some girl friends for our monthly dinner and drinks date. I didn't get there until almost 7pm because of all the scheduling craziness and then by 10pm I was beat. I believe I was home by 11. But we still had plenty of time to catch up, have some drinks, eat some delicious food, have more drinks and then dessert. I was pretty disappointed in the ambiance of the restaurant. We really wanted to eat somewhere with a nice patio so we could soak up some sun and celebrate summer but the sun was barely peaking out by then and the patio was almost completely covered so it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Oh well, it's all about the company anyway.

I am really looking forward to this coming week. I am committed to making some strides during this awesome down time. I believe we are supposed to have some sunny days this week so hopefully that means some great days at the park and getting to eat our lunch outside on the lawn.

Summer Time! Week 1

2010-06-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

I know I originally stated that I would home school year round but I feel that the kids and I all need to take a breather and focus on our family for a few weeks. So, I will be using the roughly laid out plan I made and my resolutions to guide us through the summer. Here's what we did this week.

Generally speaking . . .
This week we turned off the TV and video games. We went cold turkey. I have noticed a few odd behaviors that Shannon has adopted from the seemingly innocent shows he has been watching. So we turned off the electronics and spent a lot of quality time together. Now I can be the one to guide them and teach them, not some animated characters with attitude. There is a catch: I have to actually set a good example.

Home Ec

We worked on folding clothes, mostly just towels and small things. Shannon can get upset very quickly when a task seems overwhelming. He especially found folding large towels to be frustrating. When I saw and heard the signs of a meltdown brewing, I would gently give him tips on making the job easier. They both did very well and the clothes were folded in no time. Next, we labeled their dresser drawers together so they would know where to put their clothes. When I handed them each a pile of clothes to put away, they were very excited to be doing this mature task on their own. "We're independent!" Chloe exclaimed.

Chloe's Dresser Shannon's Dresser

Fun!
I must admit, I was a bit nervous when I announced to the kids that we wold not be hanging out with our buddy, TV, this week. But by Wednesday they didn't even ask about it anymore. Instead, we spent lots of time at the park, doing random art projects, and blowing bubbles in the backyard. My goodness, they can blow some bubbles. Hours and hours of bubbles. And they made forts with the bunk bed and played in the toy room a bit. Without any prompting from me, we did end up doing some free writing. Shannon handed me a piece of paper that said, "I love u mom" (awwwwww) and the kids spent some time with their alphabet train puzzle. We also spent a lovely afternoon at the park with our home school group. I feel blessed to have those moms to share my successes and struggles with.

Projects
I will have to add these in as I get our days flowing more smoothly. I did clean the inside of the refrigerator. Does that count?

Mom's World
On the days that I woke up before the kids, I was able to read my Small Steps for the day, pray, and do some relaxation exercises. And then just read and make some lists (I love lists!) until the kids woke up. These were definitely my most successful days. On the days when I did not go to bed early enough and the kids woke up before me, I invited them into bed so we could all just snuggle and be together, stress free, for the first 20 minutes of the day. This was helpful but I could feel that something was missing throughout the morning. Having an hour to myself before the kids wake is definitely ideal.

My friend, Laura, and I have started the Couch to 5K program and have successfully completed week one. I also did 30 minutes of pilates after each run/walk and on a non-run day as well. Now I must conquer my terrible eating habits. I want to clarify that I don't eat junk food; I just don't get many well rounded meals or snacks in. I tend to carb load because it's easy to just grab a quick muffin, scone, or even a piece of bread when I think I am too busy (lazy) to prepare a proper meal. The kids are all eating just fine because I tend to try and get things done while they are eating and resolve to eat later. As I types this, I just grabbed one of the peaches I got from Safeway this evening. See, I'm getting better already.

So, I am reading my books, taking notes, and implementing the techniques as they come and I can already see a big improvement in my ability to control my temper. I only had one real big outburst on thursday over something really dumb. And then a medium sized tantrum earlier in the week. Each time I failed to control my temper I would have these immediate negative thoughts: "I can't believe I did that. I just ruined all of my progress. I should just give up." But, luckily, those thoughts only stuck around a short time and I was able to forge ahead. With God's Grace, I will conquer this.

All in all, this week felt very positive. Lot's of awesome quality time spent with the kiddos. I think the TV can stay off for a while longer.

PS > This peach is crunchy. It is a white peach, which I don't recall ever having before. Are they supposed to be crunchy?

Summer Resolutions

2010-06-12T01:17:00.000-07:00

I was reflecting on my list of things I would like to accomplish this summer and I was feeling very optimistic. But I feel like there are a few things missing from the list in the way of personal and spiritual growth. There are some things about myself that are keeping me from true happiness and keeping me from being in full relationship with my kids, with my husband, and with God. This post may seem a bit self-centered but if I am not living up to my full potential as a mama, how can I take care of this family?

1. My temper. I am able to brush most things off. When my husband forgets about something we were supposed to do, I just simply realize that he is human, we all forget things and it is kind of silly to think that he forgot on purpose just to tick me off. And I afford this rationale to complete strangers as well. When another driver does something crazy in traffic I think, "Oh, perhaps he didn't see the sign or maybe he is lost or not familiar with the area." Nothing really phases me out and about in this great world . . . except my own children.

Isn't that crazy? I am willing to give complete strangers the benefit of the doubt but when I ask Shannon to go get his shoes on and he doesn't do it, I fly off the handle and automatically think, "Why is he trying to make me mad?!" And that is when I yell at him and behave like a child. As I sit here typing this, I can be rational and know that Shannon simply got distracted. He was not thinking, "I really like it when my mom is mad at me so I am not going to put my shoes on." My overreactions to Shannon's behavior is my biggest struggle right now. Once I go into anger mode, it is almost impossible for me to effectively discipline him. Discipline comes from the Latin "disciplinaire" which means "to teach". It does not mean "to punish". I can not teach him to make the right choices when he is crying and upset after being yelled at.

I was recently talking to two moms, in separate circles, who seem to struggle with their anger as well and in very similar situations so I know that I am not alone in this. Not to say it is okay, just that we can help each other. Knowing that there are others like me, I wanted to list some of the resources that I am finding helpful right now in my struggle.

Resources:
Parenting with Grace: Catholic Parent's Guide to Raising almost Perfect Kids by Greg and Lisa Popcak. This is a great resource for all parents. One of the first chapters discusses how important having a good rapport with your children is. And I must say, Stacey and I are kind of awesome in this department. Even though I lose my temper and handle stressful situations poorly, my kids love being with me and doing things together because I tell them I love them about 50 times a day (probably more times actually), and I hug them and kiss them about 50 times a day, we play together, we pray together, we work together, and we rejoice in their successes. So, right away, I knew there was hope for me. The next section is pretty much techniques for everyday dicipline. The preventative maintenance if you will. And then a section on correcting behavior. And then a whole mess of awesome information after that. Even though I have read this book before, I am re-reading the first sections very slowly and carefully, with intention, and really working through it.

When Anger Hurts Your Kids by Matthew McKay. This is another book that I believe all parents could gain from. Basically anger is caused by stress and trigger thoughts so this book works on decreasing stress (which could also be any sort of physical discomfort), changing your trigger thoughts, and responding appropriately. It also breaks apart the first seven years of life and what motivates kids to behave in certain ways. Just knowing the why behind some of the behavior is helpful. This same author also has an anger control workbook that I picked up.

2. Spiritual Life. Having a healthy relationship with God has always directly effected the relationship I have with my kids, my husband, and others. My overall satisfaction with my life is dependent upon my spiritual health. And lately, I've been slacking. I need to be more intentional in my prayers and in setting time aside in the morning for this.

Resources:
Small Steps for Catholic Moms by Elizabeth Foss & Danielle Bean. For everyday of the year they give you a quote from a saint or from Scripture, a short prayer in reflection of the above quote, and then an invitation to act on this reflection. Each month has a different theme. For June the theme is Gentleness. Is that appropriate for my struggle right now or what? And I also picked up the companion journal, which invites you to reflect deeper on the overall theme for the month.

3. Physical Health. I have been failing my body in both nutrition and physical activity. Not to mention, I do not get enough sleep because I keep forgetting to go to bed at a decent hour. All of these things lead to stress and/or physical discomfort and this stress leads to a decreased ability to manage my temper.

Resources:
Couch to 5K program. If you have ever considered running but every time you try you feel like your lungs might explode and you're shins are going to snap, this program is for you. This is a super gradual introduction to the world of running. Even at my most fit (between pregnancies 1 and 2), I refused to work on my cardio health. I just enjoyed the awesome muscle tone. I am now determined to complete this nine week program and maybe even go beyond. We shall see.

10 Minute Solution: Rapid Results Pilates. I have always loved pilates but for some reason I got away from it to change things up and then never stuck with anything after that. This is just one of those things where if it wasn't broke, I should not have tried to fix it. Stacey actually bought this DVD a few years back, after returning from an officer's training where he was forced to do pilates as part of his militray training. And he liked it so he bought his own DVD. I really like this program. There are five 10-min workouts and from the top menu you can create your own workout. I do the stretching and abs workouts every time and then I alternate between buns/thighs and arms/shoulders. I follow my run with pilates and I think it has helped keep me lose so my muscles don't cramp up in between runs.

As far as sleeping and nutrition goes: I know better, I just need to be more disciplined. If I find any resources of interest for this I'll let you know. Or if you have any suggestions, please share.

In Summary
This may seem like a lot of things to be working on at once, but I am easing into each one very slowly. In the past, I have rushed into these sorts of things just to become overwhelmed a week in. And right now is a perfect time to focus on these things as the weather is uplifting and I will not be as focused on structured schooling. By the time a new year of learning is upon us, I hope to have grown in these areas while simultaneously conquering the items on my summer plan. I realize I will not have mastered everything (summer isn't that long) but creating a strong foundation to build on is what I feel is most important right now.

Summer Reading

2010-06-09T13:19:00.000-07:00

I just took advantage of a hot deal on the Hooked on Phonics website. In the past I have steered clear of these products simply because of the price. But right now they have a complete K-2nd grade set, originally priced at 199.95, marked down to $59.95. But wait . . . there's more! If you use the coupon code SLICK50, it will take another 29.95 off.

I think this will be a great learning tool for the summer. I want to change things up a bit and the kit has a ton of different things to chose from so it will add some variety. It comes with 30 books so that alone is worth the $30.

Plans for Summer

2010-06-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

I just read "A Summer Schedule" on The Homeschool Classroom and it inspired me to come up with my own plan of attack for summer. Of course the thing I look most forward to the most is a little relaxation and fresh air. Most years we end up doing way too much stuff and by the time the summer is over, we're exhausted. Last year, we purposefully did not make any plans for the summer and by the end we felt like the summer was wasted. This year, I want a happy medium. So, I'm making a plan.

Places to go

Park days with our home school group
Library
Greenbluff
Lake Coeur d'Alene
City pool (for swim lessons and for fun)
The Farmers Market

Special Events

Shannon's 6th Birthday and he actually asked for a party with his friends so we're having one for the first time. -sigh- How they grow.

Things to do with Stacey

Sunday evenings at Arbor Crest
Warm afternoon dates on restaurant patios

Household Projects

Get doors installed in basement
Thoroughly clean kitchen (something that slipped through the cracks during Spring cleaning)

Homeschool prep for Fall

I want to create activity boxes for Athena so she will something to do while I do one-on-one lessons with the other two
Order the rest of our materials
Create a few weeks worth of lesson plans

Chores to teach Shannon and Chloe

Fold and put away own clean clothes
Wipe down bathroom throughout week
Get into a better chore routine with the chores they already know

Activities to do at home with kids

Cooking: I have a couple of cookbooks that I have been meaning to crack open with the kids
Lots of picnics to enjoy our newly baked creations
Decorate the various glass jars I have been saving to store craft supplies in
Teach Shannon to ride his bike (I realize many 5 year-old boys can already ride a 2-wheel bike but he just wasn't ready last summer. He has actually shown interest in learning so I have a good feeling about this year)

Creative projects of my own

I want to give digital scrap booking a try
Canning peaches and pears from Green Bluff

My next step is to get out the calendar and start planning on where these things can fit in. Of course I can't plan every little thing, nor would I want to, but I do want to have a rough outline.

We will continue reading over the summer and take advantage of other learning opportunities but I do want a more laid back, summer-like, feeling around the house.

Now if only it would stop raining, we could get this summer party started.

And we're back

2010-06-03T13:31:00.000-07:00

I accidentally took a little blogging break. Two weeks ago, I came down with mastitis again. So, I was down for the count for about a day and a half followed by a really awful cold. I swear I am not here to complain I just wanted to explain myself. We actually did continue to do some school but nothing significant.

The weekend after my mastitis hit, Stacey and I were one of the presenting teams on an Engaged Encounter Weekend. Engaged Encounter is an international organization that puts on marriage preparation retreats. This last weekend was just as fabulous as all of the weekends we have done. We had 21 enthusiastic engaged couples to minister to. On the first night of the retreat, I thought I just had a tiny cold that had already peaked and was getting better. Boy was I wrong. By Sunday morning I could barely talk and was coughing and hacking and the nose was running. All around gross stuff. But I still enjoyed the weekend we got to spend together being all in love and married while the kids had a blast with my folks.

After we got home from the retreat, I had three days to prepare for another adventure: I took a solo trip to San Jose, CA to visit some of my friends from middle and high school. Nicki, Kevin, and I have been friends for almost 20 years even though I only lived down there for 5 of those years. Now that is dedication. I make it down there at least once a year and sometimes I even let Stacey come with me . . . but not this time. We are actually hoping to go down together this fall but that is still very tentative.

I spent four nights down there in Nicki's lovely apartment in Santa Clara. We went to dinner with Kevin on our first night and had a great time catching up. I actually missed Kevin the last time I was down so I had not seen him in almost two years. The next day, I finally got to check out the infamous Santana Row Shopping Center. It is gorgeous. We took a seat at the Village California Bistro & Wine Bar and just soaked in the sun and scenery for about 2 hours before purchasing some makeup at Aveda and browsing a few clothing stores. That evening I watched Nicki play in a soccer game and then we went to see some stand up at The Improv. Now, the younger versions of ourselves would have gone out to some bars afterward but not present day Nicki and Stephanie. Nope, we went straight home and to bed.

The next day we went wine tasting in Santa Cruz. The drive was very scenic,

though I only got one picture and it doesn't really do the view justice.

Chocolate-covered bacon and Nicki and I enjoying wine at Beauregard Vineyards.

That evening I celebrated Mass with the nice folks at St. Clare's in Santa Clara. After Mass, I met up with Nicki and some of her friends and went to the Earthquakes game. They lost 3 - 1 but I still had an awesome time getting to know some more people.

The next day we went to lunch with my new friends, Sam and Marissa. We then went back to Santana Row and met up with Kevin and some more of my new friends, Jaime and Joel. We did a little shopping and then went to the Cheesecake Factory. I got a piece of Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake. Yummmmmmm! As you can see, we are all very mature adults.

And here is a picture of Jaime and Joel taking a picture of themselves.

That night we went to Jaime and Joel's and drank daiquiris and played some board games and watched a movie. By 2pm the next day, I was home and hugging my family. And now I am back to doing all the things I love: teaching, parenting, and just taking care of my home and family.

Notebook: Week of 5/10

2010-05-17T22:29:00.000-07:00

Language Arts
Reading
Shannon: Lessons 51 - 53. It seems we have hit another plateau. Shannon seems to get overwhelmed by the length of the stories at the end of each lesson. But we'll keep plugging along slowly.
Chloe: She has not been able to do the lessons that Shannon is on so I want to start working with her, one on one, at her own level. I started at the beginning of the book and went through parts of each lesson to see which lesson I should start on with her. I think we got up to lesson 15 so far.

Poetry
We finally got back to this after a pretty long break. The kids have memorized Bed in Summer and now we are starting on The Cow. I like how at the end of Bed in Summer, Chloe sometimes states, "It's hard to go to bed in the day". She is both summarizing the poem and agreeing with it at the same time.

Handwriting
Mead books: Letters G, Q, U, V, W, R
We had taken a break from this as well and I am amazed at how much each kiddo has developed in their fine motor control. Chloe is actually forming letters and Shannon just zooms right through without getting tired.

Math
Shannon finished up the unit on number placement. He did very well working independently. I had not originally planned on going back to the workbook but he seems to like it. If he gets tired of writing, I just go over the lesson without the worksheet. I should also note that he is doing awesome at printing those numbers. He used to get so frustrated while attempting a "6". But his 6's are great now and he is so proud of himself. He'll call me over to look at his masterpieces, "Check out this six, Mom!"

Chloe, not to be left out, has started completing worksheets from the beginning of the book that we never used because we started with this book mid-year. So she is learning one to one association. It also gives her a chance to work on fine motor skills without calling it handwriting.

Mother's Day Rules!

2010-05-17T13:06:00.000-07:00

I am here to fully admit that I tend to indulge a bit on Mother's Day. In fact, one day is not good enough so I call it Mother's Weekend. And this year was no exception.

Friday
The kids and I went to our home school group to be with my Catholic home school peeps. And this was an exceptional meeting because I got to meet, in person, one of my blogger friends. All of the kids and moms got on very well with one another and I really enjoy this time we all get to just be together and socialize. Here is Athena with one of my friend, Barb's, girls. She has five other kids just as sweet and cute as this one. No wonder she keeps having more (#7 due this Fall).

Friday Evening
Hot date with my husband. This date almost didn't happen because of some scheduling stuff but I am so glad we made the decisions that we made and went on this date. We had such a fantastic time. We went out for a light dinner at the Nordstrom's Cafe, one of our very favorite places to eat. We like it because it has a very chic atmosphere yet is casual and not very pricey. In fact our entire meal, with dessert, was only $25. Then we went to the Eastern Washington University Alumni Wine Tasting at the Spokane Club. Great food, great wine, and the great company of my sweetie.

Then we went back to Nordstrom's so that Stacey could grab the opportunity to fully spoil the mother of his children. He bought me a pair of Dansko Sandals that I have had my eye on. I really needed a new pair or sandals. Shoes and I have a checkered past. I wear a size 11. Yes, you read that right, an 11! So for a very long time, I hated shoe shopping. I was insecure about my feet and most stores don't carry my size. And just forget about shopping at a clearance. Since stores almost always have to order my size, they don't need to clearance them for quick sale. But I have since learned to love my feet and how cute they look in sandals and boots and I really love how the right pair of shoes can dramatically change the look of an outfit. I was quite the tom boy growing up but I think I am making up for it in my adulthood. But Nordstroms actually does carry many styles in my size and if not, they can order them and ship them right to my house. I have also found that they always have the lowest price for whatever brand I am looking at. AND, they will let you return anything if it isn't working out. I bought a pair of UGG boots this past fall and the color immediately soaked up the dye in my jeans. It looked awful. I went back in to see if they had anything that would take the stain out. They told me there was no way that stain was coming out so I thought I was just out of luck. They quickly followed this bad news up with, "Why don't we just get you a different color boot? That way the blue dye won't show up as well". My heros!

Saturday
Shannon's last soccer game of the regular season. We had to get up crazy early, for a Saturday, so we hopped in the car and stopped by Starbucks for scones and coffee. Great start to my day.

After the game, we went home to just relax. It has been a crazy couple of weeks so this was just what we all needed. Stacey watched some movies with the kids and I got to be in my office for a while to work on some future planning. Yes, I consider this relaxing and not working. Such a fine line.

Sunday
Spring Barrel tasting! This was our fourth year in a row. All of the wineries in Spokane participate in this event. We met up with my parents, Stacey's parents, and my Granny at Latah Creek Winery. Then we went to Barrister, White Stone, and ended at Barili. We had a late lunch, just me and Stacey, at Laguna Cafe on the south hill. We went to pick the kids up and saw them headed for the park so we joined them for some play. We drove home and spent the remainder of the day resting.

I would say the weekend had a perfect mix of alone time, husband and wife time, and family time. And I was able to recharge my batteries and hit the ground running on Monday. Back to the grind!

Simplifying

2010-05-04T09:27:00.000-07:00

I have been writing a lot lately about decluttering, cleaning, organizing, etc. Originally I started this process to make life easier and less stressful for me and the rest of my family. But then I realized an even greater purpose through the reading I have been doing lately. First, A Mother's Rule of Life by Holly Pierlot. This book really got me thinking about my calling. Since God has called me to this vocation of marriage and motherhood, everything I do is for Him and should be that much easier to say "yes" to. "Yes, God, I will go do the laundry even though I would rather sit here and look at everyone's Facebook status updates." God asks this, and dozens of other tasks, of me everyday and that is a pretty awesome thing. So many people are lost out there, living with pain in their hearts, wondering what it is that God wants them to do with their lives. Well, I already know! Yet, it is sometimes so hard to just do it. So, that it something I am working on in my prayer life right now. I already know what God wants of me and that is a huge gift in and of itself.

The book that I am reading right now is called Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne. Since I have been reading a lot about cleaning and organizing, I actually thought this was another book on simpifying your home. But, this book is actually about the effect that a messy, hectic, stressful life can have on children. The funny thing is, I put this book on hold at the library about three weeks ago, because I saw it mentioned on a website along one of my web surfing adventures. Apparently, I didn't even know what the book was really about. But as I started reading it, I realized it is exactly what I need to be reading at this time.

Shannon's occupational therapy came to an end about two weeks ago and I wasn't really sure how we were going to have to adjust for that in our everyday lives. Things have actually been working out okay with a few exceptions. Whenever Shannon watches too much TV or plays computer games, he gets all crazy eyed. He becomes irritable, gets a nasty attitude, starts hitting things/siblings. I then react with complete non sympathy and pretty much get nasty right back and then we have this great unbreakable cycle until I finally remember that I am the adult (sometimes I wonder who throws the bigger tantrums: me or my kids). Well, lately the weather has really been gross and the kids have had a lot of down time due to my own projects around the house. And they have naturally spent a lot of this time in front of the TV/computer and that has caused fighting over said TV/computer, lots of screaming, and an overall stressful tone within my family. I tried to get them to play in the toy room or do some crafts instead but they haven't seemed interested. Enter Simplicity Parenting.

So, the third chapter deals with the environment that your child lives in. He begins addressing the toy situation. Most kids do have way too many toy. Now, I am pretty proud of the fact that we do not keep many toys around after they have been played out and I go through and throw out broken toys at least once a month if not more often. But then after quantity of toys, Payne addresses the kinds of toys you keep in your home. He said that any toys that don't foster creativity or use of imagination are pretty much useless and kids get tired of them after a short time. As I was reading this, I peeked in on my kids. Do you know what toys they were playing with? Not a single one of the new toys they had received as Christmas gifts. Not a single toy that requires batteries and makes lots of awesome noise. Nope, they were both in the toy room playing with good ol' reliable Legos. They were building airplanes . . . that talk, of course. Another thing we are guilty of is something the author calls "toy multiples". When we noticed how much Shannon loved playing with his wooden train set and trains, we went out and bought even more train track and even more trains. We also thought that this way the kids wouldn't fight so much over the two or three wooden trains. Wrong! They immediately started fighting, even more so and louder, over the twenty wooden trains.

So, I will be doing a toy makeover very shortly. I am not going to just dump it all in the trash (and the author does not suggest this either) but I will be putting a lot of stuff out of sight for a while. I can't believe how many perfectly new-looking toys the kids have because they lost interest in them after only a week of use. The toys I notice that they still play with are the wooden bead maze thingy (we have had for over two years), the wooden food (old), the dolls (old), the Legos (old), the stacking toys, and several of Athena's baby toys. Kids really do like to create their own fun. They don't want a battery operated toy doing it for them. Even though Shannon asked for a battery-operated train set for Christmas, he barely ever plays with it because it is constantly falling apart or running out of battery. And it only does one thing: you push a button, it goes around and around. I am only on chapter four but the premise of the book is that kids, in general, have too much stuff, too many choices, too much information, too much in their schedules. And this can make them crazy.

Stacey and I went out last night and bought a few items in an attempt to organize the arts supplies so they are more accessible to the kids. I can't expect them to want to do art projects if they can't even see the art supplies. And I got a folding table for them to do their craft projects on so we don't have to push everything aside when we do school or want to eat a meal.

So, that is where I am on my domestic journey right now. As I was typing this, Shannon woke up a bit early so I told him while I was finishing up he could either read or play quietly. I heard him shuffling around in the family room and finally he asked me to come look at what he made.

Out of all the toys in that room, he chose the Styrofoam (from the packaging of a shelf we just bought) to play with. Yep, sounds about right.

My son . . .

2010-04-29T23:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the cord to my MacBook was yanked out and when that happens, because my charger is kinda broken, it takes me forever to get it put back in just right so that it will charge again. I was getting frustrated with it, probably making all sorts of annoyed noises, and Shannon says to me, "I hope it starts to charge. If it doesn't, it will be a mollerseat". I asked, "A what?" and he repeated, "A mollarseat". And I had to ask once again what he was saying. I hate it when this happens because sometimes Shannon will get really frustrated that I don't know what he's saying.

Finally he says, "You know, like if the house was on fire it would be a mollarseat".
"Ohhhhhhh, an emergency."
"Yah, a mollerseat"

I was (and still am) so impressed that instead of getting frustrated he just thought of a different way to explain it to me. He used to just keep repeating the word over and over and OVER and OVER. Getting louder and louder and more frustrated until he exploded. I could not stop telling him how proud of him I was and then we spent a few minutes practicing the correct pronunciation of the word "e-mer-gen-cy".

-sigh- I just love that little man.

Oh, and it is kind of funny that he thought my computer not charging would be an emergency. Hmmmm, I think he just knows his mom very well.

Future Learning

2010-04-29T23:07:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my first year of educating my children is coming to a close (I like to believe I've been teaching them since they were born but you know what I mean). I think I have learned more than they have about so many things. I never knew how great it was going to be. Working through challenges with Shannon has been so fulfilling. He went from running away whenever I mentioned picking up a pencil, to writing on his own when I don't even ask him to. And watching Chloe go from toddler to scholar over this year has been incredible. I just can't believe how much she has blossomed. She can read! And count to 20! And she loves to open up random books and make up her own stories. I'm so proud of all of us. We have made some great strides this year, which is why I can't help but get excited for next year.

My hope for the rest of this year:

Language Arts

Reading: Get through as many of the 100 Easy Lessons as possible and start reading easy/beginning reader books. I'm not too worried about him finishing out all of the lessons this year.
Handwriting: I think we'll just keep copying lines from stories and maybe finish out the Mead book

Math

I have pretty much put the book away. The rest of the MCP Kindergarten book covers a basic intro to place value, measurement, addition, and subtraction. We started out this year using the first grade book but there were so many problems on each page that Shannon would just look at it and freak out. It was taking us an entire week to get through one lesson and it was not happy for anyone. So we jumped back to the K book. Basically, it covered the same material but less of it and at a slower pace. So, I will probably pull out a couple of worksheets from each of the remaining chapters and call it good for Kindergarten. Now that Shannon is way more comfortable with writing, the first grade book should be just fine.

Religion

I have really been slacking in this area. I want to finish reading God's Love Story and finish our lap book that is taking forever because I keep losing focus. At this stage, I really think religious studies should just be who we are what we do. Catholicism is so much more then just another subject to cover. Our faith should be reflected in how we live our lives everyday.

Other

Soccer will go until mid - May and then we'll probably be starting swim lessons and possibly a soccer camp this summer.
Many trips to Green Bluff. We always have a great time picking fruit so I'm excited for Green Bluff season. And we always seem to learn along the way.
Nature walks, now that the weather is getting nice
Trips to the library
Lots of fun in the garden with Daddy

When we made the decision to home school last Spring, I decided to start right away and just take it slow. So we have been doing Kindergarten for almost a full year now, with plenty of breaks along the way. This has worked out so well, I've decided to home school year round on purpose. I think it makes the most sense for flexibility. It has been nice being able to take time off when we have just done an Engaged Encounter weekend or when Stacey is out of town.

So, we could actually start on First Grade whenever I get the materials together and plan out a few weeks of lessons. I am working on a lot of stuff around the house right now and we have a few other things coming up in May but probably around June we'll transition into a tiny bit heavier work load. Another advantage to starting early is I have a feeling that sometime next year, we will be thinking about another baby. During week 8 - 16ish of my last pregnancy left me pretty useless so at least if that happens again I will be ahead of the game.

I have been thinking about next year's curriculum for some time now. I'm pretty excited. I haven't made all of the final decisions but I have decided that I will just buy materials for Shannon and then adapt what I can for Chloe. So far they have done pretty well at the same level. There are a few things that go over Chloe's head but for the most part she's pretty engaged. I can't believe that in the public school system she would still have two more years before starting kindergarten. That's just crazy talk. That girl wants to learn!

So stay tuned for the reveal of next year's learning materials and tools. Oooooooo. You're on the edge of your seat, I know it!

Notebook: Week of 4/19

2010-04-27T22:42:00.000-07:00

Language Arts
100 Easy Lessons 47-50: we slowed down a bit this week on the lessons but we attempted to read some books. Shannon made the transition pretty easily. Watching him attempt to sound out longer words is amazing. I usually help him but the fact that he tries is awesome.

Handwriting: we continued doing some copy work. And he has been doing a lot of writing on his own.

Math
We have been just doing math as it comes up. Lately, Shannon has been pointing out the speed limit signs, reading them to me and then telling me whether I can go faster or I have to slow down. And money, time, weather, the date, and other topics are also covered on a pretty regular basis.

Other
The weather was pretty nice this week so we spent a few days at the park. Shannon had soccer practice on thursday and then a game on Saturday where scored his first goal. Woo hoo!

And we went on a field trip to Spokane Family Farm. They had a customer appriciation day in celebration of their one year anniverasary. They spoiled us with bottomless milk and cookies and we went on a short tour of the farm to learn about the milking and bottling process.

Shannon jumping down from the hay after I hollared at him to get down. And then getting out of a tree that he should not have been climbing. -sigh- Boys.

Chloe tried so hard to touch those ducks.

Cute baby piggies.

Athena with chocolate cookie all over her face. Hey, she's a customer too and she wanted to be appreciated.

Spring Cleaning: The Livingroom

2010-04-27T22:22:00.000-07:00

I did it! I Spring Cleaned one entire room! I finally buckled down and actually used the three step process in the e-book, Spring Cleaning For Normal People: declutter, clean, organize. See, you're supposed to take everything out of the room and throw it all in a designated spot. I chose our bedroom. Then you clean the entire room. Then you put everything back, that is, everything that actually belongs in the room. This doesn't seem too difficult but my first attempts were ridiculous. I would pick something up and then decide to take the object to the room it belongs in. Well, this takes forever and is really not efficient. It is much faster to throw everything in a pile and deal with it all at once. My entire living room really only took a couple of hours. After I had it all done and put back, I still had two bins of stuff to sort through. That took about a half hour to sort through and put away. And my living room has never looked more fabulous.

As I was putting things back in place, I realized many things that simply did not need to be returned to their spot. Things that had lost meaning to me, or lost beauty, or lost usefulness. I think sometimes, we tend to put things back because it has become a tradition of sorts. "This thing goes here because we have always had it here." So I busted out of my rut. I used to keep a double frame in the cabinet. One side had my college graduation picture and the other had Stacey's college graduation picture. Well Stacey looks as handsome as ever in his picture but I have never liked that picture of me. EVER! But I felt like it just had to be there. Well, it's my living room and that picture is gone! We also had a few random baby pictures of Shannon in really odd frames that were each given to us by different people around the time of his birth. Now our walls our covered with beautiful photos of our family and all of our children so the beat up little novelty frames were also taken out.

Complete Organizing Solutions has been featuring a series called, "Picture my memories" where in she discusses taking pictures of those items that we only hold onto for sentimental value. The things that are sitting in boxes, not being displayed (because we don't find them to be particularly beautiful) and not being used (because the item is not useful). I have a storage bin full of things from when I was a little girl that I am thinking of doing this with. I want to take pictures of everything, make the photos part of a scrap book and then donate the whole thing. I have already begun this process with a few things that were in our living room. The top shelf in the corner cabinet is dedicated to items from our wedding and a few things that seem to fit in with that theme. Our unity candle, ring barer pillow, and flower girl basket also used to be crammed onto that shelf but I have taken them out with the intention of taking some pictures and selling them on ebay. I have always wanted to make a wedding album but we really don't have a lot for decent photos from our wedding. So I think the pictures of these wedding accessories would fill in the space and create a beautiful album.

The shelf below that holds all three baptism candles and white garments from our kids' baptisms. It also has the missal that was given to me by my parents when I made my first communion. And to the right, Chloe and Shannon's rosaries and rosary book.

And our family Bible sits on a desk in the corner of the room that you can't see in the pictures. My dad was Stacey's Confirmation sponsor and he gave this to Stacey after his Confirmation.

Now I can truly say that I find everything in our livingroom to be either useful or very beautiful.

Here is one last photo of Athena helping me clean.

Wish me luck as I attempt to complete this same process in every room in our house.

From the Kitchen

2010-04-21T23:21:00.000-07:00

I've been trying out a few awesome recipes from Kitchen Stewardship and I meant to take some pictures so I could post them but the food kept getting eaten before I had a chance. We made homemade granola bars. Mmmmmm. And I really want to try making our own yogurt. It is supposed to be really simple and it could save us some money. The kids love yogurt.

But I did manage to get a few photos of my latest gourmet recipe. I call it "Leftover mashed potatoes and vegetable puree". What? That doesn't sound appitizing? Well, Athena begs to differ.

Notebook: Week of 4/11

2010-04-21T23:11:00.000-07:00

Language Arts
100 Easy Lessons: 42 - 47
Shannon has been cruising through the lessons now. He really likes the story at the end of each lesson so that is his motivation to get through the first part. There were a couple days where we did two lessons in one day. He wanted to get the book out again in the evenings.

Handwriting
I got out a piece of paper and wrote a line from the story that we read, and he copied it onto the next line. He did it without any frustration. He also came into the office one afternoon and sat down at Stacey's desk and started to write onto an index card with a highlighter. He asked me how to spell one word but other then that he wrote the rest himself. It was pretty small print. Very impressive, Little Man.

Math
I put the book away for now and just started doing practical short lessons every other day. One day we got out a hand full of change and named the coins, gave them values, and added coins together. Another day, the kids were playing with the Melissa and Doug wooden clock so I sat down with them and taught them about the minute hand and gave them a little intro on telling time with hours and minutes. They were both really engaged.

Religion
We worked on their Things We See In Church lap books. They are slowly being completed.

Other
Stacey and the kids have been taking care of the seeds they planted three weeks ago. Here we have our beautiful carrots . . .

. . . and then the habanero.

Look at that one crazy habanero plant sticking up. It is quite the over achiever.

Athena's First Birthdy

2010-04-19T22:45:00.000-07:00

We had a great time celebrating with Athena's grandparents on both sides, her Great Granny (my dad's mom), her aunts and uncles and cousins. Two sets of aunts and uncles were absent because they live far away but all of the locals were able to make it. We also missed cousins Shelby and Madi who were at their dad's this weekend. We grilled up some burgers and dogs and had a great time with our families. I honestly don't know where the year went. She's so grown up. Happy Birthday Princess!!

And here's Chloe lounging in the sun

The cousins having some good ol' fashioned rolling-down-a-hill-in-a-wagon fun.

And this last one is Athena, the next day, wearing one of her new birthday presents from Aunt Shala. She looks like a little girl! She is a baby no longer. -sigh-

What was the plan again?

2010-04-19T22:35:00.000-07:00

So, I planned to get up early again last week and I failed. Last Sunday night I stayed up until midnight finishing the roster for the Engaged Encounter weekend that was coming up. So I set my alarm for 6am but Athena was awake and wanting to nurse and just rather cranky. Monday night I stayed up late again, clipping Sunday's coupons and filing them. And, honestly, I don't even know what happened the next two nights. I spent most of every day clearing all the junk out of the house, separating it, and pricing it for Friday's yard sale. I finally got it all done Wednesday night. A pretty busy couple of days was approaching but I had a plan to get everything done:

Thursday morning: take stuff to Pamela's for the yard sale
Thursday afternoon: clean house
Friday morning: go to old navy for 50% off stuff and save and drop a few more things off at Pamela's
Friday afternoon: make list of groceries for Athena's birthday BBQ and make cupcakes
Friday night: drop kids off with sitter, pick Stacey up, have dinner with some friends, go to the Conan O'Brien show (so excited!), possibly have a few drinks with friends, pick kids up, go home.
Saturday morning: Doula meeting way up north, run a few errands while in town, get groceries for BBQ, go home and celebrate Athena's first birthday with family.

So here's what really happened:
Thursday morning: dropped kids off at Granny's. My grandma just had knee surgery a week or so ago and my mom was over there helping her with things while she recovered. I took my stuff to Pamela's and came right back. That part of the plan worked great.

While I was out, the lady from the furniture store called to let me know that the bunk bed we wanted to purchase had come in and was ready for us. Dang! I knew this was the last day we would be able to get the bed until next week and really wanted to set it up. So I called Stacey and we set a plan for him to come home early on the bus and then take the van to the store while I stayed back with the kids.

This is where everything derailed. At around 5pm, I was watching some mindless TV and waiting for Stacey to get home until I thought I should probably get up and put all the seats down in the van so it would be ready to go. I stood up and immediately felt sick to my stomach. I laid back down on the floor for a minute, thinking I had just stood up too fast. So I tried to get up again. Same result. I pretty much just laid there hoping whatever it was, was temporary. I kinda crawled up the stairs and made my way to van, and mustered up enough energy to get the seats down. I then went back to lying on the floor for another hour and a half while Stacey went off to the store.

By the time Stacey got home I was feeling a little bit better. I got up and made the kids a very late dinner and helped Stacey put the bunk bed together. So cute! I then cleaned the entire kitchen and went to bed. Stacey and I had decided that it might be time to start weaning Athena, at least at night. Her frequent night nursing was really starting to wear me out. So Stacey took Athena to the guest room to sleep with him while I went to bed in our room. The theory is that when she wakes up, Stacey will comfort her back to sleep, instead of my breasts doing all the work.

When I walked into our room to go to bed, I suddenly felt sick again. I was hot from cleaning up the kitchen but I was also shaking. I started to read a book but couldn't keep my head up any longer. Suddenly I felt like my left breast was engorged. I thought, "Now this isn't supposed to happen yet. I've only just left Athena a couple of hours ago". I tried to fall asleep but I was shaking and sweating. I don't really know how many times I fell in and out of sleep but I heard the baby crying and thought I should go down to her as it would help the pain to nurse her. I walked down the stairs, shaking the whole way and realized I now had a whole new pain: a headache. I got into bed with Stacey and Athena and started nursing. Oh my word. I cannot articulate the pain. My entire body was aching and shaking but I recognized the true epicenter was my chest and my head. I was now convinced of two things: I had mastitis and I wanted to die (just a tad dramatic I know). And there was nothing I could do about it until the clinic opened. Even though I have never had it before, I have been a doula and a childbirth educator long enough to know what it is and what the symptoms are.

Stacey got up at some point and started getting ready for work I think. It's all a blur. I know he came and got Athena at some pint and said something about catching the 6:30 bus. And I yelled out, "Are you crazy??!! I can barely move!! I'm sick!!" And then I fell asleep for another 45 minutes. Stacey looked up the clinic hours for me and I went in at 8am. I was home by 8:30am with a diagnosis and a prescription. I finished the room assignments for the Engaged Encounter weekend. We all got in the car, went to the pharmacy, the post office, Starbucks (heck yes I still go to Starbucks when I feel like death), and then we dropped Stacey off at work. I actually felt okay when I wasn't moving. We then went up to the retreat center to drop off the final roster and the room assignment sheet. And then we went home. I tried my best to just sit in one place while I waited for my mom to come over. I made the kids cereal for lunch. They were pretty stoked about that. My mom showed up at about 1pm and I went to bed. I couldn't really sleep but just being able to lie perfectly still with a heat pad was very helpful. Oddly, the pain that was really bugging me then were my legs. I think it was from dehydration and shaking all night. So I kept the heating pad on them to try to get the blood circulating. At 3ish, I returned some phone calls and started getting ready for dinner.

The rest of the evening was awesome, in spite of the pain in the entire left side of my body. My fever and headache were gone and I stayed hydrated so I wasn't in terrible shape. I was pretty tired from having not slept all that much the night before. Conan was awesome. The entire show was very well done. Hilarious! We did go to a bar for about a half hour afterward but I was beat so we headed home. I slept pretty great that night. Athena and I slept in our room alone so we could have more space and I could be more comfortable.

The next morning, I was off to a meeting of the Inland Northwest Doula Network. Of course that went on longer then I really wanted it to so I didn't get home until 2pm. Luckily, I had already enlisted my mom's help. She made Athena's birthday cupcakes and she came over early with my dad to help me with last minute details. Shannon had a soccer game in Spokane so Stacey took him to that. We didn't know the time of the game when I scheduled the BBQ.

The rest of the afternoon was a great time and it all worked out. Thank God for my parents. This was the first time, in my three years of being a stay at home mom, that I have been sick enough to keep Stacey home and be completely out of commission. I just can't believe how much I have been set back just from a day and a half of illness. I'm convinced that moms should simply not get sick. Or we should be able to call in a temp when we do. That would be awesome.

Easter 2010

2010-04-19T22:07:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I haven't posted any Easter pics. Well, I didn't get very many but here's a few.

The kids had a grand time looking for eggs in Mema and Papa's front yard. Stacey was in charge of getting the kds dressed that morning and I must say he did a fabulous job.

Well, that's it. I really need to get better at taking the camera out more often.

An early riser experiment

2010-04-10T09:17:00.000-07:00

I posted last thursday about how my current waking and going to bed schedule was not conducive to being joyful and productive. So I began an experiment this past Monday. I woke up at 5am, every morning. I thought it would be interesting to see how I felt and to see what the heck goes on around here at 5am. It turns out my husband gets up and goes running and then comes home and does push ups and sit ups on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. No kidding? So that's what he's been up to. First thing in the morning, I would go down to the office and get some nice quiet prayer time in. Then I would take a shower and grab a cup of coffee. Then I would spend any extra time before kids awake, reading, surfing the internet, or completing any administrative tasks that needed to be done. Bill paying and whatnot.

I didn't feel tired in the afternnon, I wasn't dragging throughout the day. I was surprised at how great I felt and how productive I was. I plan to simply get up early again next week and then after that incorporate some sort of workout routine in the morning as well. Baby steps.

The only day that failed was wednesday because Athena woke up at like 5:15 and I didn't get her back down until 6:30 and by then Shannon was awake and everything was thrown off. I ended up snapping at Shannon almost first thing because I felt bumbarded with requests first thing in the morning. I guess I'm not perfect. Dang it!

Domestic Makeover

2010-04-10T08:54:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I heard myself saying, "Why can't I ever find anything?" and "Nothing is where it is supposed to be!" I realized that nothing had a proper place to be so that was probably why I couldn't find anything.

I have never really Spring cleaned our house before. To be fair, we are not pack rats at all. So, we don't have 5 years of pile up over here but we do have some stuff that can go. I downloaded an e-book from Simple Mom called Spring Cleaning for Normal People and it was very inspiring. Last Monday, I realized a few of my zones had been neglected so I went through the house, doing a light cleanup and throw out of each room. That evening I downloaded the e-book and to my surprise that was the same task that the book instructed to do on the first day of Spring Cleaning. The book has a 10-day program to get the whole house down. She has you focus on one room of your house each day or two days for larger areas. Since that was last Monday my house should be totally clean now right? Wrong!

I believe I have domestic ADD. I started to work on Shannon's room first for some reason and then I kept wandering over to Chloe's room to do some stuff in there, then I would go put something away in the guest room and realize I wanted to clean out some stuff in there as well. So after nearly two weeks, I am not even close to being done but I did get a lot accomplished. Something that always frustrated me was that we keep stuff in random closets so we never know where to find anything. I was determined to only have Chloe/Athena related stuff in their closet and Shannon related stuff in his closet. I did break this rule a little bit becaue Shannon has the largest closet in the house and he doesn't really have a lot of stuff. So in the main section of the closet, I kept it strictly Shannon and I continue to store a few baby items, that we won't need for a couple more years, in there as well. And my snowboard. We finally got a shelf and bar for the guest room closet so I was able to move all of Stacey's military stuff out of Shanon's room and into the guest room. So Shannnon's room is done. I do want to get him a more grownup bedding set now that he is turnign into quite the little man. He has had the same one for four years so I think it is reasonable to get a new one.

The girls room was not very hard to tackle. We've had our eye on a bunk bed for their room for some time now and we fnally went down and ourchased it this past monday. I can't wait until it comes in. It's a twin over double so I figure the girls can sleep together in the double until Chloe feels comfortable sleeping on the top bunk. I also moved the dresser out of the closet and in the spot where the crib used to be, to make the closet roomier. In the process of cleaning the rooms out, I also found myself with 3 large storage bins of clothes and other items to be sold, tossed, given away. My friend, Pamela, is having a yard sale next friday and I already took the toddler bed, the changing table pad, the toddler bedding, and two crib mattresses over there. I hope to get all of the clothes sorted out this weekend so I can take it all over there next week. I will post some pics of the kids' rooms as soon as I get the bunk bed setup in about a week.

So, yes, I have two rooms down, and many many more to go. The decluttering is getting easier. I started to follow the mantra, "If I don't find it useful or beautiful, get rid of it". Something I have always had a hard with is getting rid of things that other people have given us as gifts. But, I just have to do it. I cannot possibly keep every nick knack that has ever entered these walls. I think the gift givers will understand . . . right?

In addition to the Spring Cleaning book, I also downloaded Simplifying Your Domestic Church and my friend Cherri recommended A Mother's Rule of Life. SYDC starts right off with gettign rid of clutter so I stopped there and started working on that. I am really enjoying MROL. She really focuses on what it all means. Being a wife, a mother, and a servant of God. This really spoke to me because I sometimes get the feeling that my sngle, childfree, friends, think my lfie must be a drag. If I just made a list of the tasks I completed on a daily basis and boiled my purpose down t those things, they would be right. "Dear diary, today I scrubbed my toilets and changed Athena's diaper. Life is good". But when I do these tnings with a greater purpose in mind, I am not only more productive but fullfilled and proud of my accomplishments. So, that book is pretty stinkin' awesome and I highly recomend it.

So that is the Spring Cleaning update. By the way, Simple Mom is beginning a Spring Cleaning series this Monday so if you want to get your own domestic church all sparkly, follow along.

Farm Fun

2010-04-01T23:47:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share a pic of the latest addition to my folks' farm. Meet Fred Bacon. My parents have him set up in a nice cozy pen right next to the chickens. It was hard to get a good shot of Fred. He kept pretty close to the fence.

Eggs . . .

. . . And Bacon!

Notebook: Week of 3/22

2010-04-01T23:41:00.000-07:00

Language
100 Easy Lessons 35 - 40

Shannon was on such a reading high that we just stuck with that this week. I want to get to the library soon to pick up some easy readers and see how he does.

Chloe was attempting to read the program during the Chrism Mass today and she did quite well on some parts. What a smarty.

Science with guest lecturer: Daddy
Stacey woke up last friday not feeling very well. The poor guy was probably burnt out from wokring a million hours everyday and then being abandoned by his wife every evening for one thing or another. And then sleeping with a teething baby. Oye. But after he got a few extra hours of sleep in and some general relaxing, he put the kids to work planting seeds in the middle of the kitchen.

This is the first year that we are attempting to plant anything other than a few flowers out front. I'm really curious to see what comes up. Stacey has been flipping through gardening magazines and seed catalogs with the kids in the evenings. And he let them pick out a few veggies to plant. And of course the kids are learning along the way.

That was about it for last week. Pretty laid back. And we're taking Holy Week off so I probably won't have much to report next week either.

What the . . .

2010-04-01T23:27:00.000-07:00

I was searching the bedrooms where I had last seen Athena heading when I heard a thumping sound coming from the bathroom . . .

Funny, I don't even remember calling a plumber.

Free board games. W00T!

2010-04-01T09:01:00.000-07:00

I went to Toys R Us last night and got some nearly free stuff. Allow me to brag . . . er . . . share.

Twister $8.99
Operation $8.99
Connect Four $8.99

I then used these coupons: $5 off Operation, $4 off Twister, $4 off Connect Four
Then I received a $5 gift card for spending over $20 on Hasbro games
Then I mailed in a rebate form to get $3 back on each game.

So I paid 16.31 out of pocket and got a $5 gift card and $9 back in rebates.
That's like paying $2.31 for three awesome board games.

Rock on. I will store these away until an occasion presents itself.

Cranky Mama

2010-04-01T08:51:00.000-07:00

I am cranky this morning and not being a very loving mama. I am not a morning person but I think I need to tweek my weekday schedule a bit or I am never going to get out of this rut. Along side the crankiness, several of the first items on my daily schedule consistently do not get done because I get up late (and cranky) and want to jump right into other stuff as to not fall behind. I recently came across blog post that got me thinking about making small changes for the better. Here are a few things I want to try that will hopefully allow me to accomplish two goals: be more productive and less cranky.

make sure kitchen is clean (for the most part) before I go to bed. Trying to get breakfast on the table when the table is still nasty from dinner and there aren't any clean bowls or spoons is a typical early morning cause of stress. And so easily preventable.
Get enough sleep. aka: stop staying up until 1am doing stuff that is not that important and can wait until the next day.
Wake up before the kids. I have a harsh knee jerk reaction to the one responsible for waking me up in the morning, especially when I stayed up way too late. I would rather that thing be an alarm clock than one of my kids.
Start an early morning routine of exercise, followed by prayer, shower, and coffee. All before the first tiny foot walks down the hall.

I really don't want breakfast and other kid related "chores" to become . . . well . . . a chore. We should be enjoying breakfast together, tidying up together, and then enjoying all of that free time together. I don't want to simply check "feed kids" off of a list of tasks that I need to complete before I can get to all the stuff I really want to be doing.

To be fare, I woke up this past Sunday with a bit of a cold so I haven't been feeling 100% but I think a proper routine would allow me to function better, even while under the weather.

Success!

2010-03-23T22:29:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in a few notebooks past that Shannon was struggling with his reading lessons. I decided to keep plugging along but I told myself that as soon as he starts to get frustrated I would just say, "Hey, I think we've done enough. Great job!" and move on. But as soon as I would say that, he would calm down and want to keep going. So after about a week of that, things just started clicking. It is so amazing. He is just reading up a little storm over here. What's interesting is that Chloe, who was quite a bit more comfortable with reading single words than Shannon was, has now fallen a bit behind as she seems to get confused when reading words together in a sentence. Which is totally fine considering she is only three years old! I didn't expect her to learn more then just the letters and maybe some sounds this year.

It is so incredible what shifts can take place in just a matter of weeks. I feel so blessed to be the one who gets to facilitate their learning. If I can remember to get a video of Shannon reading, I will post one. I am the worst at taking pictures. I like to think it is because I am so busy living the moments that I forget to stop and take pictures. Yes . . . that's it.

Motorcycle Fail

2010-03-23T11:00:00.000-07:00

So I took a motorcycle safety course with my dad over the weekend. I had never even been a passenger on a motorcycle but it's something I have wanted to do since I was 15 and watched Easy Rider with my dad in our living room. My dad found out the dates for the course and my job was to just call and confirm my registration. I did it pretty quickly amongst a million other things going on at the time. So I was all signed up and just had to buy some boots and wait for the class. When we were finally heading to the course, I think it finally dawned on me that I was going to be riding a motorcycle.

The first evening of class was just classroom instruction so not too scary. But I somehow had failed to grasp the fact that we were going to be tested on this stuff and that if we passed we could do down to the DOL and get our endorsement. Oh yah. So that part got me a bit nervous. The next morning we were geared up and ready to ride at 7:45am. We started out with very basic skills and each exercise built on the one before it. So it was actually okay. By the end of the first day of riding I felt pretty confident. The next day, I seemed to have forgotten the basics and the whole practice just seemed to not be as solid as the day before. By the time the test came I was a nervous wreck and pretty much blew the whole thing. I wasn't really too upset about it, considering I had really just wanted to learn how to ride and get familiar with the sport. My dad, by the way, got 100%. What a show off.

My dad and I have formulated a plan to get some practice time in this summer and retake the course in the fall. I do know there are people on this earth (my friend Laura being one of them) that were able to pass the test on the first try, having never ridden a bike before the course, but I was not one of them. Among all the gifts and natural abilities God has given me, if motorcycle riding is not one of them, I'm okay with that. If it would have been a karaoke test or a make-a-chicken-pot-pie-from-scratch test, I would've schooled all those guys.

The Storm Before the Calm

2010-03-23T10:44:00.000-07:00

Last week was nuts and this week even more so. Let's take a look at last week:
Monday - Prepare to make meals, get in a lot of school time because rest of week will be crazy
Tuesday - Go into spokane to pick up chicken, start preparing meals, gymnastics in the evening
Wednesday - Occupational Therapy, Albertsons to score free cereal, more meal prep, teach Childbirth Ed in the evening
Thursday - More meal prep, soccer in the evening
Friday - Fun at the park, get home and prepare to be gone most of the weekend, go to first day of motorcycle safety course in the evening (wanna know how that went? See next post)
Weekend - mototcycle safety course, church, resting

This Week (watching my cousin's daughter Tuesday - Friday):
Monday - More meal prep, coupon class in the evening (had a lot of fun. Pamela rocks)
Tuesday - Last of the meals will be prepped, meet with doula network officers in the evening, stacey will come home early to get Shannon to gymnastics
Wednesday - Occupational therapy, Childbirth Ed in the evening
Thursday - Soccer practice and then meet with NFP instuctor (we have an awesome woman instructing us in the use of the Creighton Method)
Friday - Date with my husband. We're going to Taste for Life, a benefit for Hospice.

And then . . . nothing. Peace. Quiet. A week to prepare ourselves for Easter. Although, most of the things I have scheduled this week are things I will enjoy, I am very much looking forward to the stillness. Next week I do not teach, gymnastics is over, and I don't have any other meetings. Our family will be together every night. A very Holy Week indeed.

Freezer Meals

2010-03-23T10:12:00.000-07:00

I was able to score boneless, skinless, chicken breasts for $1.58/lb last week but I had to buy a 40 lb case. So, the weekend before the purchase I planned several meals I could make and freeze and I purchased the remaining ingrediants I needed. The awesome thing it, I had most of the dry and canned ingrediants already in my stock pile. I basically had to purchase about $35 in produce and herbs. I also thawed out 12 lbs of chicken from a previous score (1.88/lb).

I used recipes from my two favorite freezer meal books:
Don't Panic Dinner's in the Freezer and Don't Panic More Dinner's in the Freezer

I bought these books when I was 8 months pregnant with Athena so I could load up our freezer before her birth. So here are the meals I made last week and part of this week:

Chicken Parisienne (crockpot meal) x 3
Chicken Cacciatore (crockpot meal) x 3
Chick Breasts Stuffed with Pesto (oven) x 2
Buttermilk Herb (grill) x 3
Chick Pot Pie (oven) x 6 this one is a family favorite
Grilled Honey Lime Chicken (grill) x 3
Teriyaki Chicken Stirfry (stovetop) x 4

So, I made 24 meals and I believe the cost came out to about $5.25/meal. Not too shabby. Oh, and I should mention, each meal will feed our family for dinner and then Stacey's lunch the next day.

Now I'm hoping to find a deal on pork and repeat the process. I would like to spread these meals out over a 4 - 5 month period. We're not huge beef eaters but if I find a deal, I have recipes for that too.

Notebook: Week of 3/15

2010-03-23T09:54:00.000-07:00

Language Arts
100 Easy Lessons: 33 - 35
Mead Handwriting: Letter O
Poetry: Bed In Summer

Math
Review and catch up on past worksheets not completed

Religion
I made an effort to lead the kids in spontaneous prayers of thanks and petition (please God help me to make good choices, etc) in hopes that it will start to become more of a habit.

Other
Gymnastics
Soccer (I was hoping it would not overlap with Gymnastics but only for two weeks)
Occupational Therapy
Many days at the playground

Arts and Crafts
Last week was a busy week so I never got around to creating any planned art projects but on several mornings, I woke up to Shannon sitting at Stacey's desk, arts and crafts bins open, creating masterpieces. He made this card for me one morning:

I also created a card for Shannon but I think he ran off with it before I could get a picture. It's a shame too because it was some of my best work. : )

My Wife Made Me Do It!

2010-03-14T23:43:00.000-07:00

It was brought to my attention recently that not every stay-at-home, home educating, catholic wife is as happy as I am. To be honest, I was shocked. Yes, I know that sounds naive but I thought, because we all had similar family situations, it was sunshine and rainbows for all. It seems some of my buddies are not completely satisfied with the amount of time they spend with, and the amount of assistance they get from, their husbands.

I want to make it clear that my friends were not standing around husband bashing. It all started when I mentioned that my husband, let's just call him "awesome Stacey", does the bath, books, and bed routine with the kids every night while I do some evening cleanup, hang out with Athena, or just watch some TV. My friends asked me, "How do you make him do all that?" Stacey and I never actually had a discussion in which we divided up these activities equally. It just kind of happened as he naturally wanted to check in with his kids after being away from them all day. And we probably get at least 30-45 minutes of conversation in between him getting home and going to bed. I am not saying that every family should start doing this or they won't be happy. What I am saying is, if your current routine is not working, have a conversation with you spouse, and make some changes.

I think it may be difficult for some moms to ask for help in these domestic areas because they feel it is their responsibility as their husband works outside the home. But, my fellow moms, if we get burnt out, we can not teach, discipline, clean, or make dinner . . . at all, let alone with a smile on our face and in our hearts. I can honestly say that I love being a mom and I am joyfully living out my calling. When I realize that Athena needs a diaper change, do I shout out with joy? No, that's crazy talk. But while I am changing her, I get to gaze into her adorable eyes and spend a few minutes just being together, stinky diaper and all. And when she's all clean and unstinky, she gets a big smile as if to say, "Thank you, mom. I couldn't have done it without you". Having to discipline my kids is not always super fun but it reminds me how blessed I am that I get to be the one to teach them. But I can not do this 24/7. That's why God gave me a partner in crime. Stacey is the head of this household (uh oh. I think I just heard the sound of a million feminists gasping) but it doesn't mean he comes home and sits on his throne while we all wait on him. Do you think Stacey would be very proud to be head of an unhappy household? In a marriage where his wife resents him and is too tired to be loving? A father who doesn't know a thing about his children and whose children don't know him? Stacey works for the good of his family 24/7, not just when he is at his place of employment. Did I mention that he works 50 - 55 hours a week and still manages to be the best husband/father he can be?

I listen to two awesome talk radio programs, hosted by the same couple, Dr. Greg Popcak and his wife, Lisa. Just as I was thinking about addressing this topic on my blog, I heard them answer a listener's e-mail on Heart, Mind, and Strength, on this very same topic. The listener expressed her frustration with her husband. She is 6 months pregnant with their 4th baby. She and her husband have an arrangement where they take turns putting the kids to bed but she usually ends up doing it all, even when it is her husband's turn. She was okay with this until she found herself pregnant with number four, exhausted at the end of the day, and unable to comfortably perform all parental tasks (ie: bedtime routine). She has pleaded with her husband and his reply has been "I do more then the average dad". Her question to The Popcaks: What is reasonable when asking or insisting on help from my husband when he gets home from work?

I loved Greg Popcak's answer. Allow me to paraphrase. First off he is not crazy about couples who try to divide up all of the work equally because this leads to problems almost always. When someone gets sick or is otherwise unable to perform their equal half of the tasks then you end up in this negotiation about one spouse taking the others "shift" and one spouse "owing" the other. Second of all, it is not the wife "making" the husband perform additional tasks. It is the situation that you have created together that is requiring additional tasks to be done. This whole, "My wife is making me do this or that" or "I did my wife a favor and cooked dinner" is a bunch of poo. Stacey and I do what needs to be done according to what the day brings.

For example: I spent all day today at the Spokane Baby Fair working at the Inland Northwest Doula Network booth. This is an event I attend every year. We planned ahead by going to Mass last night. I prepared a dinner that Stacey would just have to pop in the oven. While I was gone, he played with our children in the yard, he fed Athena and put her down for a nap, he made lunch, he washed the dishes, and he did a couple loads of laundry. When I got home, I got down to nursing Athena while Stacey and I shared our adventures. I do not "owe" him a Sunday. He did not do me a huge favor by spending time at home with my kids. I am grateful for the work he put in to our family today just as I am grateful for the work he puts in when he is working outside the home at his place of employment. Our evening went on as it usually does . . . actually it didn't. He did the dishes after dinner because he could tell how completely beat I was. I didn't ask him to. He just did what had to be done to keep this household running smooth. That, my dear friends, is a man of God.

Dr. Popcak also went on to address this "more than the average husband" business. It is not about doing just enough to be considered above average. It's about being the spouse that your wife needs you to be. Not the average husband that the wife down the street needs you to be. I love those Popcaks.

In conclusion, I encourage all of my married friends to seek out arrangements that allow everyone to live joyfully within your awesome families. You are not being a nag by requesting more of your spouse, you are simply helping them to become the fantastic spouse/parent that you know they are capable of being. When each member of the family is working for the good of the entire family, you will truly be able to enjoy changing those stinky diapers and teaching your toddler not to write on the walls.

If you wanna check out the radio show I was referencing, click here. It is called Heart, Mind, and Strength. That particular episode, Friday, March 12th, is not listed on this page but you can also go to itunes and download it for free.

Notebook: Week of 3/8

2010-03-14T21:56:00.000-07:00

Reading: 100 Easy Lessons 29 - 32. This week went better so I think we will keep doing 4 lessons a week for now.

Math: Began chapter on Order and Place Value

Poetry: Continued learning "Bed in Summer". First two stanzas are pretty firm.

Handwriting: Worked in Mead books. Shannon seemed to be getting a little bored so I printed out some worksheets from Donna Young's website. (An awesome resource. Free stuff galore!)

Religion: Started working on "The Things I See In Church" lapbooks

Other: Gymnastics & Occupational Therapy

Unfortunately, the weather was pretty poopy all week, so we didn't get to go outside too much. Today, we finally had some good weather so Stacey had the kids outside with him for four hours, working in the yard. We shall all sleep well tonight.

Heart of the Matter Conference

2010-03-11T23:28:00.000-08:00

I finally got the links to the MP3s for the conference I virtually attended a few weeks back. I still haven't managed to listen to every session but, to be honest, many of the sessions were rather fluffy. It was good for creating some overall motivation and maybe some cute ideas but not a lot of real beefy content. The entire conference was only $13 so I'm definitely not complaining. If anything, it motivated me to seek out some Catholic home school conferences that I could possibly attend in the future. Some of the sessions got pretty intense, in the way of faith based content, and it didn't quite line up with what I believe, as a Catholic. It was pretty easy to sift through it and get what I wanted out of it so it wasn't a complete disaster or anything. I thought I would give you a run down of my favorite sessions and some links that I found helpful.

Carol Barnier: "What Are You Thinking? Learning Style and Beyond"

This session stood out, ironically, because the learning style topic is talked about over and over in homeschool books, web sites, etc. Carol addressed this up front. She talked about how, as a homeschooling mom, we are told to identify our child's learning style and then teach to that. "If your child is a visual learner, teach visually" and then we are left to our own devices. She has written a book called "The Big What Now Book of Learning Styles" which is supposed to give us methods of teaching all sorts of subjects to each of the different learning styles. Unfortunately amazon doesn't have an option to "look inside" the book. Boooo. I always like to read the table of contents to get a feel for a book and if it is right for me. Her hour long presentation was pretty interesting and gave a lot of ideas. I actually listened to that one live so I plan on giving it another listen and taking some notes.

Katie Kubesh: "Beginning Lapbooking"

Somehow, I had never even heard of lapbooking until I listened to this session. After it was described, I then turned around and explained it to my husband. I kinda think of the lapbook as a miniature version of those big awkward foam board projects I was made to do in middle school. I did one in sixth grade on Paul Revere and then one in seventh on Joan of Arc. Basically, you pick a topic, your child does little mini book and different projects around this topic and puts all of the new found knowledge into a lapbook. It's kinda awesome because I am, naturally, not very artsy and crafty but I want to be for my kids. The lapbook really speaks to my crazy organizational side. You get to research a topic and then organize all of it in these adorable and crafty lapbooks. And then you can reference the lapbook over and over. And you can store them pretty easily because they don't take up much space. I was pretty impressed. Katie explains in her session how to create your own topic and come up with the minibooks and such for the lapbook or you can let her do all the prep for you. She has a company, Hands of a Child, that creates the outline for the project for you. It's really hard to explain so you'll just have to check out the site. The kids and I always seem to do our craft projects based around whatever we're studying in religion or coinciding with the liturgical year so I wanted to find something more Catholic specific. I found Lapbooks for Catholics and purchased "The Things I See In Church" lapbook. We just started working on it today. I was getting a little bored with the Who Am I? curriculum that we've been working through this year so I thought we would take a break and work on this instead.

Jim Mueller: "Essential Science"

This guy loves him some physics! You must check out his web site. He was very captivating. He basically talked about ways to engage kids in learning about physics. What I found pretty interesting is he made it clear that you don't need to do a whole bunch of math to study and enjoy physics. He has a bunch of his own curricula for sale on his site and he actually teaches classes for a really reasonable price that your child can attend via the internet. I dare your kid to fall asleep. He totally reminds me of Bill Nye the Science Guy. I just find science nerds (ie: my husband) adorable. He mentioned that kids don't really need any formal teaching, involving experiments and whatnot, until they reach the age of 8 or 9. Up until that point, it's just about observing and learning about the world we live in. This totally falls in line with the classical model of education, which we use, so I do think I will revisit his materials when it comes time to find a science curriculum in a few years.

There was also a session that addressed teaching kids with Sensory Processing Disorder (presented by Heather Laurie) so, of course, I was interested. But, because I have already read a million books on the subject and been seeing an occupational therapist, I was already pretty familiar with the material that was presented. Still a good listen though.

Here's the site for the conference, if you wanna give it a look.

Notebook: Week of 3/1

2010-03-08T00:47:00.000-08:00

Wow! This week was a little crazy. While our house was turned upside down for the basement renovation, we tried to do as many out of the house activites as possible. And, as many home educating moms know, even when we take a week off from formal schooling, the kids just keep learning despite my greatest effort to mess it up.

On Monday the kids spent ther entire day with Granny (my dad's mom) while I stayed home and painted. Oh. My. Gosh. I was soooooo sore. But the kids had a blast. They love being with their Granny.

On Tuesday we went to Alton's to get our brakes, which have been grinding for a few weeks now, done. I knew it would take a little while but when we were quoted 3 hours, I must admit I was in a bit of a panic. But we actually enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. Luckily, I had prepared and brought the stroller and hats and gloves. We walked over to Jack in the Box and had lunch and then walked to Starbucks for some hot cocoa. Then we walked over to Walmart and Shannon and Chloe helped me look at possible birthday gifts for Athena's big First Birthday coming up in April. After we picked the car up, we went to the park to further enjoy the nice weather. After dinner we were off to gymnastics where Shannon showed the signs of sensory wackiness. I call it "crazy eyes" when I talk to his occupational therapist. I'm not really sure what triggered this episode but I can guess he was over stimulated by the day's events. He tried to get the sensory input he needed to calm himself by throwing himself onto the mats and rolling on the floor. I knew right away what was happening and eventually, like 2 hours later, he was able to settle down.

Wednesday morning we were off to Occupational Therapy. And then I spent the day returning e-mails for Engaged Encounter and preparing to teach childbirth ed for Catholic Charities. The kids played outside and watched a few movies on my laptop.

Thursday was the big carpet install. After the installer left, the kids were so excited to run around the basement. We spent the rest of the day putting some of the toys downstairs and getting some things back where they belong.

Friday we went to our home school group. The group decided to have the kids do some sort of presentation related to Lent. Shannon and Chloe brought their rosaries and told the group how they pray with Daddy every night. And they recited the Hail Mary as well. Super cute.

Throughout the days and nights, the kids would often open up their 100 Lessons book and read words to each other. They would also ask me how to spell things or play with the magnetic letters on the fridge. We still did our reading at bedtime and math is just unavoidable in everyday life so that was taken care of. And we recited our poetry throughout the week as well. I felt pretty bad about taking yet another week off from school but now that I've reflected on our past week, I realize we did a lot more than I thought.

I was also off my game a little bit last week because Athena started having a lot of trouble sleeping starting Wednesday night. I finally took her in to the doc today and she has an ear infection and the infant equivalent of a sinus infection. -sigh- The poor thing. So we got her on some antibiotics and she's on the road to recovery. And I am really looking forward to getting a decent night of rest before we hit the grind tomorrow.

Couponing is soooo in right now

2010-03-04T15:53:00.000-08:00

My name is Stephanie and I am a coupon-a-holic. Hey, I could think of worse things to be. So about 6 weeks ago, I went to a doula network meeting, and found out one of my doula pals teaches a free class at her home about couponing. Couponing??!! She told me that she spends $400 a month on groceries and birthday gifts for her family of 10! I was spending more then that on my family of five just on food. I went home and started doing my own reserach and found tons of blogs all about couponing and how to get stuff for free and cheap and just basically about being frugal. I have cut our spending by about 25% so far. I am hoping to get it down to $50-$75/week as I get better at it. I have decided not to make my blog about couponing bcause there are already a lot of great resources available. And here are my favorites:

www.thekrazycouponlady.com
click on her the tab "KCL 101" and then "10 days to become a KCL"

www.hip2save.com
she posts a lot about Walgreens and links to free stuff

In fact just today I got a sample of 3 free pampers that came with $12 in coupons that I signed up to receive a couple of weeks ago . . . for free. I don't have time to click on every single link that she posts but I do what I can.

Both of these sites will post when the new weekly ads come out for various stores (walgreens, safeway, albertsons, target, rite aid, fred meyer, etc) and will tell you what coupons match up with the sale items. Pretty sweet.

So basically how it works is, you wait for something to hit rock bottom price and you stock up. My husband and I put an extra set of shelves in our utility room for precisely this reason. And we already had a small chest freezer so that works out awesome. So about a month ago Albertsons had this insane Quaker sale where everything was $1. I also ordered 10 coupons on ebay for $3 off 5 Quaker products. I think the coupons costs me $4 for all 10. So I went to Albertsons and loaded my cart with 50 various Quaker items (life cereal, rolled oats, pancake mix, captain crunch, instant oatmeal, etc). So that's $50 - $30 in coupons = $20 or $0.40 an item. That's pretty Krazy considering you can usually only get 5 or 6 boxes of cereal for $20.

I must admit, my spending was getting a little out of control before this whole couponing thing. I just always thought we needed something for the house or the kids needed this or that. The amazing thing about becoming a krazy coupon lady is it has seeped over in other areas of our life. I am now very careful about what I am spending our money on. And we are hoping this will allow us to reach 2 goals: move to a bigger place in 3 years and be able to give more. Stacey told me that when he was staying in a hotel in DC a few weeks ago, he noticed a charge for $17 he was pretty sure he was not responsible for. He admits that a few months ago he wouldn't have bothered but he channeled my frugalness and disputed the charge. Sure enough, it was not his signature on the room service slip. $17 saved!!!

I have found some other interesting couponing topic as I've cruised the web but unfortunately I don't remember exactly where I found them. Such topics as "Why it does not pay to buy generic" and "Walmart is not the cheapest place to buy stuff" and whatnot. I liked the one about buying generic because when you first start couponing it can be very time consuming and it might also seem like it isn't worth it when you see the prices of generic products and think, "Why don't I just buy the off brand and save myself the hassle" Because, my friends, off brand diapers suck! and so do many other off brand products. So why settle for poor quality when you can get the good stuff for less without being unethical.

Other then this post, I plan on posting my super awesome coupon scores on Sundays but that's about it. Like I said, I think you will find a lot of great resources out there for couponing if you are interested in trying it yourself. I have also found a lot of links to blogs about organizing from the coupon sites and I think it's because to be frugal you have to be organized and you have to think ahead. Buy everything before you need it or you will be stuck paying full price. Noooooooooo!!! Not full price!!!!! In my family, we hardly ever need medicine like Tylenol and whatnot. We're tough like that. But on the rare occasion that we do, I end up running down to safeway and paying $7 or something. Well, I got some at Walgreens for like $1.50 (and you can usually get it even cheaper) and about 3 weeks later my family came down with the plague. Shannon got an ear infection and it was a whole scene. Luckily I had my super cheap Tylenol. I also currently have about 3 months of Huggies (that I purchased for between $2 - $5 per jumbo pack) and like 4 months worth of toilet paper (average .20/double roll). And don't get me started on my freezer full of chicken and my years supply of deoderant/body wash/razers.

Hmmmm, have I covered everything? I think so. If I have forgotten something, I'll just post an update. But I think you get the picture and you can learn all about the particulars at Krazy Coupon Lady. Like where to get coupons (I buy 5 Sunday papers every week. My friend with the 10 kids said one paper per family member is her rule of thumb).

Happy couponing!

Renovation station

2010-03-04T12:08:00.000-08:00

Just as I was loving my awesome new focus clipboard and my new lists and my overall organization, we decided it would be super fun to renovate our basement. We actually decided a while ago that we would use our tax return to finally finish our basement, which has been a work in progress since we moved in nearly 5 years ago. We just weren't sure when, exactly, each piece would fall into place. Two Saturdays ago my mom and dad came over and put all of the electrical in place in the soon-to-be guest room. We had already done the other rooms as parts of previous projects. Last week, we had the drywallers in. I was actually able to keep on task during that time because the kids' play room had already been done a couple years ago (still no carpet) so they were able to play and we didn't have to move any of their stuff. On Sunday, we had to move everything out of every room to prepare for painting and carpet. So, all of the kids toys and shelving, all of the crap we used to keep in the spare room, our TV and other electronics from the family room are now occupying our living room, office, and bedrooms. In short, this place is a mess and I don't even know where half our stuff is. As I type, there is a man in our basement installing the carpet. I keep watching the clock, peeking downstairs, pacing. I am itching to put everything back where it belongs. I can not live in this disorder any longer! Needless to say, school took a back seat this week. But, the kids have been doing crafts like crazy. I've just been leaving all of the supplies out and they dig in.

I am comforted by that fact that the disorder in the house has effected my children as well (because I know I am not the only one). Shannon and Chloe have been at each others throats. I am trying so hard to teach them loving and effective ways to sort out their conflicts. They are very good at asking forgiveness so we've got that going for us. And Shannon does not do well with change. We have all heard that kids crave consistency, but him even more so. He is so lost right now. He spent the first few days pointing out, over and over, all of the things that were out of place.

I have realized over the years that I become visually overstimulated very easily. For instance, when the living room is cluttered and the kids run through, tripping on stuff, I can feel my heart beating faster and faster and I feel as though I may blow. Also, I crave light. Sitting in a dimly lit room is possibly the must unnerving thing in the world. Great, now everyone knows I'm a spaz. My point is, this renovation is really taking a toll. I just feel out of whack (is that a medical term?) and nervous. What is truly exhausting, is having to hold Athena all the time. There are very few safe places for a baby to roam right now. Okay enough of my wining! When it's all over our basement will be beautiful, the kids will finally have a finished playroom, our family room will actually be a place the family wants to be, and we'll have a comfortable place for guests to sleep (when we get a bed that is).

My plan is to do a bit of school this weekend while Stacey is at guard. I think my folks may come over to help me with some finishing touches on the basement but other than that, we don't have any plans. We did get to go on some adventures this week as an attempt to stay away from my stressful house so I'll put those in our notebook this week.

Posts to come:
Review of virtual conference sessions
Notebook: Week of 3/1/10
Lenten update
Pictures of awesome basement!

Sunday Score

2010-02-28T23:31:00.000-08:00

I do most of my shopping and deal hunting on Sundays so I thought I would share what I scored today.

Fred Meyer:
Tazo Chai Tea Concentrate: 2 for $7.00

That's not a very big score but it is the cheapest I have ever found it regular price and if I have it in the house, I will resist the urge to spend all of our money at Starbucks.

Safeway:
Trans #1
5 gallons of Milk = $12.55
5 boxes of Honey Bunches of Oats $2.00 x 5 = $10.00
Use 5 Buy One Gallon of Milk get $2.00 off Honey bunches of Oats Coupons
Total Out of Pocket = $12.55
Get Back $4.00 catilina from Post Cereal Promo

Trans #2
Skippy Peanut butter $1.49 x 2
(with in-ad coupon, Limit 4)
Use 2 $0.60/1
Mac N Cheese 4@.50 each, 1 @1.09
(2/1.00 limit 4)
Use 1 $1/5
Sta Flo Starch $1.99
Total = $6.03
Use $4.00 Catalina from trans #1
Total = $2.03

So I got 5 gallons of milk, 5 boxes of cereal, 2 jars of PB, 5 boxes of Mac n Cheese and 1 bottle of starch (for my husband's work shirts) for $14.58. Not too shabby.

Notebook: Week of 2/22/10

2010-02-26T23:19:00.000-08:00

Week 20

Teach Your Child to Read: Lessons 25-28
Shannon really struggled these last two lessons. We'll see how it goes this week but I may slow the lessons down to half a lesson a day. He can sound out all the sounds in a word but then can't process what he said. I think his sensory integration issues are getting in the way. With some time and practice I'm sure he'll be just fine.

Chloe is getting the concepts pretty easily. She opens the lessons book up and reads from it on her own all the time. Here's a video of her being awesome.

Poetry
We're working on Bed in Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson. Shannon and Chloe have both memorized The first Stanza and half of the second

Handwriting
Letters I, T, J, and D
Shannon works pretty quickly through these without complaint. We've come such a long way.

Chloe traces the letter the best she can ans then scribbles all over the paper. I still can't figure out if she's right or left handed.

Math
MCP Worksheets: Chapter 6, Numbers 1-20
Shannon speeds through these without any help. He's picked up on counting mixed coins pretty quickly too. Chloe was doing awesome until we got to number 14 or 15. She gets some of the numbers confused. But she just does what she can and then scribbles on the paper.

Religion
Read a couple pages out of God's Love Story
Who Am I? Lesson 11: Jesus is God the Son
Did a few craft projects, made a little bible so the kids cold draw their favorite bible story. Shannon drew a picture of baby Jesus. He pretty much loves anything having to do with Christmas. He asked me to draw the angels singing so I did my best.

Chloe drew a heart because she loves Jesus. Awwwwwww. She wanted me to help her color it but wouldn't let me color red. She wanted it black. Who am I to tell the artist what color the heart should be?

Other stuff
Occupational Therapy
Went to the park
Gymnastics (finally back after missing two weeks due to sick kids)
Stacey has started reading seed catalogs with the kid at night so they can pick out what they want to attempt to grow in the garden this year. Stacey is in charge of this project. I'm staying out of it.

Homeschool Conference

2010-02-23T23:11:00.000-08:00

I have been "attending" a virtual homeschool conference this week and it is pretty awesome so far. It is called Heart of the Matter: Winter Home school Refresher Conference. A few weeks ago I signed up to receive a free issue of Home Educating Family Magazine and ever since, I have been getting various e-mails from them recommending this or that. I get a lot of ads everyday so I don't look at everything but this conference caught my eye. I think the ad started something like, "Are you suffering from February home school burnout?" AM I????!!! Man, they really knew how to peek my interest. So I log on with Go To Meeting everyday, whenever I can, and listen to different speakers. And if I miss anything, they will e-mail me a link to the MP3 of each session on March 5th. It's nice to hear them live, though, because some of the speakers have powerpoints as well. Can you believe the technology today? The only bummer is, it begins each day at 9:30am EST. 6:30am PST?! So, I miss the first speaker everyday for sure and then the next one begins at 8am so I've been catching most of that. When the conference is over on Thursday, I'll probably do a review of my favorite speakers. Stay tuned . . .

So, now that I am using my new awesome Focus Clipboard with fancy checklists and committing to my new discipline, not only have I been able to listen to most of the conference sessions live but I also took my kids to the park today and did not miss anything on my list. Two weeks ago, I couldn't get anything done and I didn't even have anything extra going on. It's so stinkin' exciting! Speaking of the park, 50 degrees with no sun and some wind is still too cold to go to the park. But the kids were being so awesome these past two days while I have been trying to catch these conference sessions and they wanted to go so bad, I just couldn't refuse. So here they are, living it up, while I froze:

On the plus side, this was Athena's first time on a park swing and she was laughing her cute little head off.

One more thing: it is so nifty that Stacey and I are reading the same Lenten reflections everyday. Just this evening he initiated a discussion about today's reflection. Unfortunately, I read mine at night and he does his in the morning so I didn't know what he was talking about but still, it's pretty cool.

Fat Tuesday

2010-02-22T20:31:00.000-08:00

My mask-wearing, pancaking eating kids on Fat Tuesday

Athena is a bit too young for pancakes but I couldn't leave her out . . . she's too cute.

Discipline . . . for me, not the kids

2010-02-22T14:22:00.000-08:00

We took two weeks off from homeschooling for Christmas and I was really excited to get back to it in January. I had spent some time during the break reevaluating our materials, reading some other home schooling blogs, checking out a ton of books from the library on homeschooling, and just basically figuring it all out. So we hit the books the first week of January and by the third week, I was burnt out again. And what's more, I felt tired and lazy, out of touch with God, out of touch with my kids, and I wasn't getting anything done around the house. Stacey usually does some dishes and laundry a bit on the weekends but all of the sudden, I noticed he was doing A LOT of dishes and laundry and not just on the weekend. I felt like I was busy all the time and not getting anything done. And the fact that I was burnt out again after only three weeks of school was a bit scary. Now, a couple of things occurred that put a kink in things (Engaged Encounter Weekend that we hadn't finished one talk for, two weeks of sick kids, speech evaluation, other misc appointments, new coupon hobby - more on that later) but I could have easily kept myself on track if I would have had the discipline. *DING* Our word of the day.

I was listening to The Catholic Guy with Lino Rulli (The Catholic Channel on Sirius Satellite Radio 159) and he was talking about his discipline. He wakes up every morning at the same time (no alarm), followed by morning prayer, followed by showering, followed by going to the gym, followed by more prayer and showering (it sounded weird at first but my husband says you never want to be the stinky guy or be next to the stinky guy at the gym) and he had more but I didn't take notes or anything. He also made an awesome catholic connection having to do with discipline in the religious life and some other awesome stuff that, again, I don't completely recall. It got me thinking about my own routine, or incredible lack there of, and why I felt like I was chasing my tail.

With Lent quickly approaching, I felt this was the perfect time to make some changes in my life so I turned to my trusty friend: The List. Oh how I love a good to-do list. I keep several small notebooks and note pads next to my laptop on my desk so I can jot something down when it pops into my head. The only problem is, those notes get buried and will probably only be uncovered by an archaeologist thousands of years from now. I started browsing some blogs on home office organization and found one where she had set up this really clever system of hanging clipboards up on hooks attached to the back wall of her desk. She kept really important school papers and such on the clipboards and since they were attached to the wall, they never got buried. Genius!!! I have three clipboards but I'll focus on one, which I call my focus clipboard. The top sheet in my newly created "Weekday Schedule", right underneath is my newly created "Weekly lesson plan", under that are teaching materials for that particular day, underneath that is a piece of blue card stock, underneath that are Shannon's work sheet's for that day, under that a piece of pink card stock, under that are Chloe's worksheets for that day. Okay it sounds like a lot but it really isn't and the card stock makes it really easy to flip through and find what I need. I have a black blinder that I was using to keep all of the materials for the week but I felt it was really cumbersome to carry around with me and check things off. On Sunday, I gather everything for the week and put it in the black binder and then pull from it each night and put the daily materials on the clipboard.

Check out my new fancy lists:

When I have the time, I will figure out how to insert these as documents and then they can be stolen and used for good by other moms. But, I am new to this whole blogging thing so that might take a minute. So back to discipline. I used this system for the first time last week and it totally rocked. I kept the house clean, laundry done, and all home school lessons were completed. Yes! But (of course I have a but) I did not do very well in the prayer and quiet time departments. Why is it so hard to just be quiet! Let me just share with you what I found on a piece of scrap paper when I was deciding what to do for Lent:

Goals:
Prayer
Read huge stack of books piling up
Healthier diet/fitness routine
Work through anger book and journal (more on this later)

Morning - Daily Readings
Afternoon - journal, 3 min retreat (new iphone app I discovered)
Night - Daily Reflections for Lent

Family Service Project: Form Joggin' For The Noggin' Team and raise some dough

So I incorporated the prayer, quiet, and reading into my weekday schedule but somehow I keep skipping over it. But today starts a new week and I will try again. So I better end now while it is still relatively quiet around here and get my prayer on.

Where do I begin . . .

2010-02-19T16:16:00.000-08:00

Well, I finally decided to start my own blog for a number of reasons. I have been reading a lot of other people's blogs to get ideas for homeschooling, faith formation, and basic organization and now I think I am ready to mash together what I have learned and make it my own. Also, I feel like I need a new way to keep my brain organized and I thought if I write stuff down it might help. And what better time to start getting it together than during this Lenten season.

I think I will begin with some homeschooling stuff:

Shannon's Kindergarten Curriculum

Language Arts

Time4Learning (finished in December)
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (should be done by end of June)
Stories read aloud to him at bedtime
Handwriting Without Tears (finished in December)
Mead Writing Fundamentals: Capital Letter Stories (should be finished in 7 weeks)
Mead Writing Fundamentals: Lowercase Letter Stories (begin in 7 weeks, finish by end of June)
Poetry Memorization from Harp and Laurel Wreath

Math

Modern Curriculum Press - K (we started with Book A (1st grade) but the pace and amount of writing was a bit overwhelming so after the chapter on addition, I went back to Book K. It moves pretty slow but then Chloe can follow along so that's handy)

Religion

Image of God Series: Who Am I? Kindergarten
God's Love Story
Hand's On Projects from A Year With God and Big Book of Catholic Customs
Prayer Memorization

Other

Soccer (fall and spring) and Gymnastics (winter)
Nature walks
Trips to the Library
Field trips with our home school group

It took me FOREVER to actually pair it all down to that list. When we first made up our minds to home school, I think I spent exactly one boat load of money on books about home schooling and every piece of home schooling material that caught my eye. I have it all still stashed away to maybe use for summer. If I don't end up using it in the next year or so I might sell some of it. It takes a lot of trial and error to figure out how your kids learn best and how you teach best and what materials work.

I also finally sat down about a month ago and wrote down what my goals are for Shannon this year, which helped me in working out a better schedule. So, basically, I did a lot of stuff backwards but I learned a lot in the process.

Well, I think that's pretty good for a first entry. I have a feeling I will be blogging a lot in the next couple of weeks while I clear out the backed up contents of my brain.