Friday Pics and Today's Goings-on

Last Friday I awoke with the desire to change things up a bit. I encouraged the kids to stay out and play longer, I arranged a tea party for us girls, I let Noah spend time tinkering with his new lawn mower, and I leisurely prepared for the guests we had over for dinner that night. It was a nice day.

I took about 20 pictures of these two on the trampoline together. It was so much fun to see them having such a good time. Try not to notice that huge saggy diaper on Sam. :)

Noah asked Kevin if he could take apart the lawn mower last week. Kevin's response? "Um, no." How exciting to find, two days later, a $5 lawnmower at a garage sale! It needs a new carburator, but that does not detract from the fun of dismantling and playing with it, apparently.

Today we interspersed cleaning/organizing/preparing for a showing that was scheduled for 5:45 this evening with school. We got the house in shape and even managed to get everyone fed and the kitchen cleaned up in time to pull out of the driveway exactly at 5:45. When we returned an hour and a half later, it looked like the realtor never showed! Lights all still on, no realtor's business card on the counter. Frustrating! However, we did enjoy a nice drive south of town to look at a beautiful property, and were able to pet the owner's goat and mule and admire the goldfish and chickens. (Loved the property, but the house wasn't quite what we're looking for...) Oh well, let's just hope they don't call to reschedule in two days when the house is a wreck again... :)

Seven Things

1. I've been reading a lot lately, and have pretty much eliminated t.v. from my evenings altogether. Not that we usually watch much. A tivo'd episode of Shark Tank or Jeopardy, or sometimes, if I'm alone, America's Next Top Model. Don't be too disappointed in me...it's my guilty pleasure. Anyway, I've recently read To Kill a Mockingbird (for the first time) and am almost through Jane Eyre (also never read that one--can you believe it?) I wanted to preview To Kill because Keely will be reading it soon, and I knew it had some mature themes. What a great book. We'll definitely be discussing it together as she reads it, though. And Jane Eyre ranks right up there with my favorite Jane Austen books.

2. Over Sunday lunch, Kevin always has the kids take turns telling us all what they learned in their SS classes. Last Lord's Day, Rowan was telling us about Jezebel, and after she finished with "...she was a really bad lady" Joseph chimed in, "Yeah, but she sure had a pretty name!" We were cracking up.

3. Sam and Joseph and I went to visit a little friend in the hospital today. She's Joe's age and had surgery yesterday, that praise God, went very well. I'm always reminded to hug my littles and thank the Lord for their health when I see all the sick children and weary-looking parents at the children's hospital.

4. Due to my 'advanced maternal age' --I'll be 35 when the baby is born-- a 'level 2' sonogram was ordered for me this time around. It was Monday, and basically the only difference I could tell was that it was performed by a doctor instead of a sonographer. Everything looked healthy and we had the pleasure of seeing our beautiful little one again. We didn't yield to the temptation to 'find out' and turned our heads away when the doc was looking in the area of the baby's business. It will be fun to be surprised!

5. Speaking of 'advanced maternal age'....I am experiencing 'advanced maternal weight gain'. I can't believe I'm going public with this, but I have gained 15 pounds already! And the baby weight 6 ounces! Shame on me. I'm trying to get it under control.

6. Last weekend we took the kids to the county fair and carnival. Since we are on a budget, they were only allowed to ride a couple of rides each, but it was really fun to watch their faces from below--especially Row and Lily on the ferris wheel. You'd have thought it was the gut-wrenching tornado of death the way they were screaming! The older kids rode things that you couldn't pay me to get on. I'm actually really happy that they inherited their Dad's fearlessness instead of my boring-ness.

7. I'm so thankful for the friendships of other godly women. This truly is a gift. I've recently sought advice and council from one friend in particular, and have been blessed by her faithful and honest words, love and prayers for me. I aspire to be that kind of friend.

Blessings to you all, and say 'hi' if you have a minute to spare!

Preparing Daughters

two of our four (or is it five?) girls

I read a helpful book recently called 5 Conversations You Must Have With Your Daughter. It covered topics relating to sexuality, body image, culture, and marriage and family from a Christian worldview. Though there was a lot in the book I wouldn't feel comfortable sharing with my 13-year-old, there was lots of good information, too. I think the most helpful thing about books like this is that they inspire me to actually make it a priority to have pointed discussions. It's so easy for me to put this kind of thing off, or wait for the 'perfect' moment. I was convicted that I need to be intentional to meet with Keely (I don't feel the younger ones are ready for this particular 'conversation', though the book does suggest adaptations for different age groups of girls). Last Friday, Keely and I got up early and over coffee (for me) and hot chocolate (for her) we spent some time talking through the notes I'd made from the book. It was a great time of discussion, and I'm looking forward to our next meeting.

What books have you read that you've found helpful in training your daughter?

Schedule

I feel a little funny about sharing this schedule, with me supposedly up at 5:30, after a week of getting up around eight each day! Today, I did manage to get up at six...I've given us all a more 'lax' week as far as the schedule goes, as I think we've all been catching up on sleep since family camp last week. A few years ago I'd be stressed out about this and feeling like a failure for not sticking to my scheduled plan; now, I am just really happy that we have the flexibility to rest more when we need to. So, here's what I came up with. Most days it's a loose guide, some days we actually stay with it all day.

5:30 Mom up, quiet time, dress, makeup

6:45 begin breakfast, wake kids, make Kevin's lunch (need to work on getting this done more often; usually he makes his own!)

7:15 Breakfast cleanup*

8:15 Mommy time with Annesley (playing games, reading, coloring...just spending some time with her before I get focused on helping the school-aged kids)

8:30 family worship

9:00 CC review (we work on miscellaneous memory work from Classical Conversations)

9:30 K- math
N-math
L-typing/work on independent checklist**
R-read to Annesley, Sam, play with them
J-phonics/handwriting/geography/read to him/he reads to me (We don't cover all of this every day; I try to make phonics and handwriting priority. We also work on a little Rod and Staff Bible story/coloring book.)
A-with Row
S- with Row

10:00 K-math/checklist
N-math/checklist
L-read to/play with S
R-math with me
J-alone time
A-alone time
S-with Lily

10:30 break outside/go over graded work with oldest 3

11:00 K-checklist/typing
N-checklist/typing
L-math w/ me
R-checklist
J-play with S, A

11:30 lunch prep*, all other kids finish morning chores/work

12:00 lunch/cleanup*

1:00 Read aloud to all, Sam nap

1:30 R, J alone reading in bed
A-nap
KNL-finish daily work

2:00 N, L grammar lesson
K-daily work or assigned reading

2:30 KN Science with me
L-assigned reading or rest time

3:00 K, N assigned reading for 45 minutes

3:45 done

*I've begun a two-month rotation for breakfast cleanup, lunch prep, lunch cleanup, and dinner cleanup. Right now, Joe is my breakfast cleanup helper, and though he's actually not much help, it's a good chance for me to train him as I'm usually in the kitchen at this time, too. Keely prepares lunch for us, the middle girls clean up lunch, and Noah cleans up after dinner with Daddy.

**Each of the kids has a checklist hanging on the wall in our schoolroom. It has written on it things they can do independently each day, and they check off their tasks with a dry-erase marker. Keely's, for example, has such things as piano, history reading (which I assign ahead of time), and laundry. Joseph's has 'brush teeth','make bed', etc.

Hope this is helpful to you if you're planning your own school year at home, or just curious about how our days might look. Have a great weekend!

Colorado Pics

On our way out to Dodge City, we stopped to see some Santa Fe Trail wagon ruts...however, we had a hard time figuring out exactly where they were...those ruts? or the discolored grass over there?....oh well. We were near them, anyhow, and had fun visualizing all those covered wagons making their slow trek west.

Dodge City was interesting, and this primitave jail was a bit scary. No cable t.v. and a/c for those bad boys.

The kids enjoyed sasparillas (very sweet root beers) at Boot Hill Museum.

The girls waiting for the gun fight to begin. We had an interesting talk about the 'saloon girls', and how even though they were dressed in cute outfits for the reenactment, that their lives were really sad and their 'occupations' evil and shouldn't be romanticized.

Sam was very concerned when the shots began to ring out. I took so many pictures of him with this pensive look on his face.

There were beautiful flowers throughout downtown Westcliff, CO.

Lily and Kevin went horseback riding on Monday, and had a great time. What a treat for my horse-loving girl!

This is the view from our cabin's front porch. We tried not to wake the neighbors before 7 a.m, but it was hard. Yes, Sam has a sharp stick in his mouth in the background. No, we didn't end up with any injuries during camp week. :)

Our favorite thing about family camp was meeting so many neat people from different congregations in our denomination. A very close second, for me, was having someone cook and clean up three square meals a day for us! I almost felt a little guilty at first leaving our messes for someone else! I think if/when we go again, it will be helpful to bring our baby monitor. I felt a little tied to the cabin in the afternoons when the little ones were napping, and wished I could've had some more freedom to socialize in those hours.

The lectures on sin by Andrew Quigley were hard to hear, at times, but had the ultimate effect of reminding me how great Christ's gift of salvation is, despite the ugliness of our sin. The Lord was applying what we were hearing to my heart and Kevin's, as we worked through some wrongs we had committed against each other on our trip. Marriage is hard work, even on vacation!

We're back in the swing of school after taking Monday off to deal with laundry and grocery shopping. It's good to be home, and we're getting excited about beginning our homeschool community again in a few weeks.

Stay cool out there!

Packing for a family of 9...Whew!

We've had an incredibly busy but good week here. I had Classical Conversations parent/tutor training all day Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and while I was in training, the kids went to various 'camps'. Keely and Noah did Logic, the middle girls were in the geography and drawing camp, and the younger two in 'play camp', where they learned some American history songs and made some cute crafts. Sam did amazingly well in the nursery, and I was blessed to have the peace of mind of a wonderful, loving lady who made me completely comfortable leaving him in a new situation. The kids all had a great time, and I had the chance to work on my skills of making eight lunches each day and trying to get us all out the door on time, with supplies and homework. Whew.

On our way to the practicum on Tuesday, I heard something that made me smile from the back seat. As we drove by a Great Clips, Lily said, "I don't like Great Clips." Noah asked her why, and she responded, "Because Mom took me there once and I got a bad haircut." Noah thought a minute and said, "Lily, that's a logical fallacy called a 'hasty generalization.' Just because you had one bad haircut there doesn't mean that all Great Clips are going to give bad haircuts." Yay for Logic Camp!!

Today is devoted to packing and packing and planning and list making and packing. I haven't had the energy to even think about preparing for our vacation, so today is the day. We leave tomorrow morning at 6 a.m., and I've much work to do yet! I'm trying to get all the laundry done so I can determine if the kids have enough complete outfits for our trip. If not, I'll be making a flying shopping trip this afternoon. How's that for waiting til the last minute? You can lay to rest any ideas about me being super-organized super-mom!

This is actually about 1/3 of the kids' clothing for the trip. I still have lots to gather...

We'll be heading to Colorado for family camp (our first time ever to go!), and breaking up our drive with one afternoon and night in Dodge City. We plan on going to some wild-west type museums that will be fun for the kids. Typical homeschool Mom that I am, I've had the older ones reading books about Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday and the Santa Fe Trail so they can appreciate what we'll be seeing there. As for keeping everyone happy in the car for the 26-28 hour round trip....Well, I have a plan to help that I hope is successful! We just purchased the Narnia books on CD (the Focus on the Family Radio Theatre ones that are excellent), and I've picked up some goodies to distribute every three hours or so while we're on the road: gum, small toys, activity books, etc. We also allow our kids to watch movies on their iPods or on the portable DVD player--in moderation.

If you think of us, please pray for safety on the roads. Things will be settling down for us after we get back home, and I will post that school schedule then. Now, back to packing....

Fireworks

Yesterday afternoon we had a great time at our friends' house. The kids were so excited to shoot fireworks. The kids even decided to purchase our fireworks in Missouri since bottle rockets aren't illegal there, as they are in Kansas. (You may substitute 'my husband' for 'the kids' in the above sentences.) Really, my children should be so glad they have their Daddy to bring some fun into their lives. If it were up to me, we'd do smoke bombs, snakes, sparklers, and maybe those little tanks that roll and shoot sparks out of the end.

What do we have here?

How interesting.

Oooh! Here comes one!

I think I may be able to go in....

Yes, I think I can fit!
(This is when I intervened.)

We had a great time and enjoyed the pretty countryside, the chickens, and the freedom to shoot bottle rockets. One of my friend's children ended up with a minor burn from a punk, but seemed to recover quickly. Obviously the Lord answered prayers for protection with sixteen kids running around and fireworks flying! Hope you had a wonderful Independence Day, too!