M+B=E2O2

Is there a beginning?

When does your day begin?When does it end?  As a mom, you are "on call" 24/7 ~ so  what happens when your pager seems to be broken in the on mode?

Suppose you get the kids off to bed and your husband, let's name him Ben, calls it a night too. You decide to spend 3 hours messing around on your computer totally uninterrupted.   Once you are done you decide to head up to bed too. It is after midnight, so technically it is the beginning of a new calendar day.  Really it is the end of your day. Laying  (or is it lying? Maria help here) down you  suddenly have some wonderfully clear thoughts that must be immediately transcribed.  Handy dandy book light  near by, along with journal, makes this an easy task.  The pen flies for nearly 45 minutes when  suddenly your 10month old baby, we'll call her Olivia, cries out.  The paci (or ninny as you like to call it) is just what she needs and while words are still floating in your head, coherent thought is not.  As sleep takes over, the pleasantly warm body beside you  leaves.  Hmmmmm you sort of wonder why, coming slightly out of your slumber you hear his steps pass on by the bathroom.   The sound of a door opening brings you further away from the possibility of you day ending.   The wail of your third child, how bout we call him Evan,  brings you back to a state of complete alert.  His cry of I WANT MOMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" sends you flying out of bed. , hoping to tame the beast before the beastette hears him and joins in.  Water and  a hug calms him, and you hope against hope that he'll take to the idea of going back to his own bed with you joining him.  No of course that doesn't happen.  He wants your bed with you.  Silly mommy.  You plop him down between  you and your Ben and he promptly plasters himself under your armpit.  By now it is 2 am. Has your day ended yet or has a new one began? 

In the next two hours your Evan cries out, kicks, sniffs, and sleeps (in that order).  At some point your realize how badly you need to pee.  trying to slip away you carefully creep out of bed, tip toe to the potty and pull him in close when he joins you weeping.  shortly after the return to bed, he falls asleep, but then cries out so loud that miss Olivia wakes and needs you now too.  As you lift her to you a damp circle meets your hand.  Of course her diapers are downstairs but your Ben is so desperate to get the whole sleep thing going again he goes down for one and finds something for her to wear.  While he's looking for new clothes you manage to change the wet diaper while nursing!  Now here's another dilemma.  do you put Olivia next to Evan in the bed?  He kicks, cries and wants to be glued to mommy.   No she must risk  a short fall to the floor and sleep on the other side.  Well really it is not just the floor, her bed happens to be on the floor right there, but still- not really what you want to do, but that Evan is just not having a good night.  So with an Olivia plastered under your right armpit and an Evan under your left, you finally manage to fall asleep for 3 uninterrupted hours.  7 am feels like 5 am, but he troops are gathering, time to mobilize. 
Tell me.  Did this day start at 7 am or would you say 2 ish?  Or really is it 7 am yesterday?   

And just think (or tink), Soon fall and winter will be upon us. Bringing all the germs, colds, coughs,  and fun to keep that mommy pager beeping non stop, sleep turning into some far off concept you vaguely remember and dreams of warm sunny days long behind.  OK OK I know I am in So Cal and we have lots of warm "winter" days but still- work with me here!

Back to the Casa de Oruga and Rosie

I am so into this whole caterpillar thing!  Our first little guy didn't make it- not sure what happened, but I think he must have been sick from the get go, he only ate the first night and after that not again.  Our inch worm has gotten sooooo big and fat!!! He loves the lettuce leaves I put in there (from our garden) and doesn't seem to ever stop eating.  The third little guy we found hooked himself up on the lid of the Casa on the first night and has been doing his thing there ever since.  This morning I went to clean the Casa (because man they poo a lot!!!) and I went to the garden and picked some fresh lettuce leaves.   Lo and behold on one of my leaves was a teeny tiny little inch worm!  So of course we are giving him a room in the Casa! I took some pictures of the things,  amazing how small the new guy is.  Our fat inch worm was maybe twice the little guys size when we found him, so it will be fun to watch this one grow and get fat!

The kids are interested in the whole process but I must admit it holds my interest and fascination far longer than theirs! 

Back to the Beach Bar

We went to the bar that sits on the beach again yesterday.  I should clarify that I am usually the DD, so it is rare that I drink anything harder than a 7up on the rocks.  It is a fantastic place though.  The weather was clear and very windy, just warm enough to be very comfortable in short sleeves.  We arrived to a very crowded lot but were lucky enough to get  a first row slot.  It was just me and the older 3 kids, my parents and Ben's.  Ben stayed home with Olivia, he studied -she slept.  It was so much more fun and relaxing for me with out Olivia!  She is just not beach ready. 

There was a large crowd down by the water, we all were speculating the reason.  Beached animal?  Family reunion?  I guessed church group- then thought more on it and guessed baptisms.  I was right!  My mom and I walked down to the water with the kids- I didn't want them going in at all, but they love to go see the water and there was a sailboat anchored in close so they wanted to see that.  Plus we were all wanting to know what was going on.  So we watched a few kids  and some adults get dunked, the crowd cheered and everyone was happy.  The kids didn't ask what was going on- they just commented on the fact that people were in the water and why couldn't they go in.  LOL!  I enticed them back to the soft sands away form the waters edge by offering some kite flying.  The wind was blowing at least 20 or so knots  so it was a great kite flying day.  My only fears were that I'd make a fool of myself getting the thing up (or not) in front of the entire bar crowd.  Not that I knew anyone- but still.  Our kite is a giant wasp and has eyes that spin.  The wing span is more than my own.  Once I got it together all I had to do was let go of it and let some line out slowly.  It went right up- and I was actually still sitting in the sand! 

Each of the kids took turns holding the string- it was strong! I had to keep my hands very nearby when Evan had his turn,  I did not want to have to go running down the beach chasing the kite! LOL!  Once the kite was flying high the beach hound Rosie (dog of one of the bartenders) came running under it ready to attack it should it come within reach!   The part that made me most nervous was bringing the kite- Rosie was ready and waiting to pounce and destroy!  And the whole bar had their eyes on me.  Somehow , with powers I did not know I possessed, I managed to bring it in with nary a bite from that silly dog!  I do not doubt that she would have shred it to pieces! 

seems about right

Ok well- I guess this right- or left?  The left brainy things at the end though (the dogs, quiet, reading part) is very very me-  I don't think I could get enough of any of those three things.....

You Are 35% Left Brained, 65% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

Casa de Oruga

So last week Evan found a caterpillar. We took the guy in gave him a lovely bug jar, complete with magnifying glass on the top so we can really enjoy his good looks.  I scooped out some compost for the bottom and dropped in a piece of lettuce from the garden and a stick.  He has happily lived there for oh, almost a week I guess.  His bachelorhood did not last more than 2 days though.  I found a tiny inch worm on my kitchen counter, huh? how does one get an inch worm on their counter?  Oh well there he was so in he went.  He is much more exciting than the caterpillar.  It would seem that caterpillars are mostly nocturnal or at least this guy is.  His food would disappear through the night but we'd never see him move.  The inch worm doesn't seem to care when he eats, he just eats and wiggles and inches.  after a couple of days I notice a bunch of little white wormy things wiggling around, like 15 of them- yup folks we have our very own maggots!  blech!  however in the name of science, we left them in there and they promptly spun some silky stuff and cocooned themselves in.  I didn't know they did that- did you?  I am assuming they came from the compost-  good friend of decomposing matter and all that they are.   So  today we are clearing out toys and poop so the gardeners can come and do the backyard and I find yet another caterpillar- this one is green and spiky (the other is grayish and all smooth). In he goes into the Casa de Oruga (Spanish for caterpillar or so it says in the dictionary!).  He chows down on the dandelion leaf I put in there (since he was found on a dandelion) and poops right away.   The kids are digging it though so its all good.  

Some people!

Ok so we went to Target this morning for the usual stuff- diapers, wipes, %50 off  t shirt for me, etc.  We wandered through the whole store.  By the time we were done, Evan was totally over it and hungry- so he was getting a bit cranky.  He is two- very two I like to say and he is very verbal- and loud when he is feeling , um, emotions strongly.   So we are checking out and I am swiping my card- most every thing is in the basket.  Emma and Owen went to sit on a bench and Evan wanted to go too.  I told him no and he freaked.  He yelled- no screeched at the top of his lungs "I want to get out mommy!"  I calmly and quietly told him no and not to yell like that.  He yells again that he wants to.  So I tell him again that he needs to quiet down and that by yelling he is not going to get  himself out of the basket.  He begrudgingly accepts his fate and pouts.  Over all not bad- IMHO.  I mean, we'd been there an hour the basket was full so anyone looking could guess that we'd been there for a bit of time.  And he was quite pleasant for the vast majority of the trip.  So this lady in line with me is talking loudly on the cell phone and says to whomever " No that's not my child acting like that!"  She was two people behind me and apparently forgot that she was in public and speaking about someone less than 5 feet away form her.  The college girl in between us looked just as appalled by her rude remark as I felt.  The cashier went so far as to apologize for the old bat.  (she was grandma age).  I commented to the cashier that I was actually pleased with the boys behavior over all, and that he was just two for gosh sakes!How many 2 year olds last over an hour in Target with out melt downs or freak outs that they can't have every cotton picking toy in sight? She said sorry again and I left.  Of course I thought of all sorts of great replies to the lady as I was loading my car- as I took the cart back to the cart corral, I saw the lady and her  two ish looking child (grand?).  She was parked in the same area as we were and had to pass me.  So here is how it all went down.

Me: (in a soft, quiet , even tone) I would venture to say that you were as rude as my two year old by talking so loudly on your phone and making such rude remarks about others.  More so even.

Her:  (looking totally socked):  well I'm sorry!

Me:  Well, you should be, thank you

her: I would say you are the one being so rude now.

me (to her retreating back): At least I saved it for your ears only and not the whole of Target.

I was shaking so badly after when I got in my car that I had to wait a bit before I could drive.  Mind you I stayed soooooo cal during this - but I HATE confrontation!   I mean really did she think no one could hear her private conversation.  She could have replied to who ever she was talking to- "no its not) and no one would have ever know she was referring to my child.   ugh!

Ok another new blog

This is it - unless I stick to homeschool blogger- I have now created my veryown blog.  I hope my friends will come visit me here- I really don't want ot be lonely, but I do like  this set up. 

If I hadn't spent most of the evening playing with my template I'd have time tp post all about school ish stuff, but as it is it is late and I want to hang with Ben.   I will brag about Owen real quick though- he did his first page of math today- out of a 1st grade math workbook- yay Owen!  He is very rpud of himself as well. 

August 18th

I had a fantastic day at the museum with Maria- can I just say how cute her kids are! They will grab for eachother's hands when they are off to look at something and they are so joyful with each other. It was really a lovely day- except the drive and really, I don't even mind that too much- it was only hard for Olivia- she was awake for the whole two hours home and not very happy.

Wednesday we stuck around the house for much of the day, I have so much laundry to catch up on it is insane. WE spent the afternoon at costco- not a bad place to be. The kids were fairly well behaved so that was nice. Well, I want to write more but my brain is fogging up- it is after midnight and I'm sure Livvy will decide to cry just as I lay my head on the pillow!

peace out-

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Thursday, August 10, 2006

Hey maybe I am not unschooling!
Maybe I am teaching them using the Thomas Jefferson Education method! I just read a post about this on a notebooking list I am on- and gee if it doens't sound kinda good to me! It gives me at least 2 more years of complete unschooling ish living before adding some self directed study to the day.
Comments

Friday, August 11, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by jennyberm
I had read about the book _A_Thomas_Jefferson_Education_ in TWTM and have been wanting to read that BUT our library doesn't carry it. I tried an interlibrary search too and no one in the entire bay area seems to have it. I'll have to remember to put it on my Amazon wish list though.

Did you ever read How Children Fail? How did you like it? What about Beethoven's Wig? My kids are STILL obbsessed, can you believe it?
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Tuesday, August 8, 2006

Two days down
3 to go and we can go back to our laid back moring routine! yeesh flying out the door at 8 am is hardly my idea of fun. I could no imagine doing this all week lone 181 days out of the year. nope no way. The kids are enjoying VBS, but I do not love driving them. Plus I have to haul the baby and Evan out of the car so I can sign them in- only to go right back to the car- Olivia justloves that! Yah right. Emma was sad today because they had a "movie" day after VBS in the hall and she was so excited to watch a move- figures the movie picked is the one movie that she has developed a fear of and will not watch- even though she has seen it at leat 5 or 6 time- probably more. Finding Nemo. she just decided on day that she was scared of it and will not watch it. So she ended up going to the office and coloringpoor thing. she was so sad about it. Owen has madea firend in the class and tells me they whisper to each other and be silly. He got a bit bummed out when I talked to him about rudeness and thinking with his heart- he I think realized that he was making a bad choice- but I really don't think he;ll remember tomorrow once he has his buddie to be silly with again.

My neighbor is a K teacher and is going through her stuff thinning out- she gave me a whole crate full of books- at least 10 or so books with tapes and a bunch of puzzles!! my kids were sooooo excited! (me too) they love the books with tapes, we have a boom box (who calls them that anymore) set up for them in the downstairs room and that was the first thing Owen did- he picked out a Franklin book and went to listen. Emma grabbed a puzzle and went to work. (she is the puzzle queen!). I had just bought 2 bins on clearance at Target that I figure I'd put toys in or somethign but instead put a bunch of books in one next to Emma's bed and I put the tape books and puzzels in the other downstairs. She had the puzzels in ziplock bags with the box picture cut out and in the bag- brillant- I am going to do the same with all our falling apart smashed up puzzle boxes!!

Oh and just a heads up but Barnes & Nobel University has a How to homeschool course (or something along those lines) set up to start in September. I'm thinking of taking a writing course- we'll see if I actually get a chance to.

Tomorrow we are going to our local fair when Ben get's off work. The kids are super excited, me too, I love the fair. Ben's brother is working the stage area so he has his own golf cart thingy to drive around. He's going to get us tickets and give us a ride as needed! LOL! Thursday my sister is coming to town, she'll be here over the weekend. Friday is the last day of VBS (or as Owen keeps calling it "homeschool bible school") and Ben & I are going to a wine party across the street at our neighbors house ( the one who gave us all the stuff). Saturday and Sunday be has off so we are excited- he was on call this last weekend and had to go to work both days all day- and he got a few 3 am calls as well (didn't have to go in thankfully but still). Oh and on Saturday we are going to a cool local bar with my parents and some of thier friends- it is right on the beach and there is a group of tables out on the sand that you can have your beers at- so it is ok to take the kids- they play parents drink- hmmm that sounds bad, but it is really cool. I spent many a day there in my youth!! The ocean is far enough away (loooooong walk in the soft sand) that the kids can't really go there so they just play in the sand and climb on an old fallen tree. After we are coming back here to BBQ.

Comments

Wednesday, August 9, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by pixmum
Wow, lady. Busy, busy!

That's funny. My only complaint about VBS was getting the kids to their class on time. LOL It's not like we weren't up at the crack of dawn, but the timing of diapers and potty time and clothes-changing and everything was hard for me. I'm trying now to get them to wake up, wash their face, change .... just because they were capable of doing it. VBS made them learn, so now I'm thinking, "Hmmm, maybe we could be more ready in the morning." That makes the noon rush to speech therapy a little smoother. But, augh, I would hate to have it be a MUST. Yoiks.

Boom box made me laugh because my husband used that word yesterday, and I thought, "Who says that anymore?" But I didn't have a cool alternative. The man is dying for an iPod. If I even crack a joke about being outdated, he will go and feed his mid-thirties crisis. Double yoiks!

How totally awesome to have a teacher next door! When my mom worked in the school district, she always, always had stuff that she passed onto me, for teachers were always redoing their curriculum, supplies, what-not. Sigh. That was cool whilst it lasted.

B&N has cool classes. I took a history one, and I've been meaning to get into one of the book clubs. I am such a commitment-phobe, though. The *one* organization that I belong to that I am actually loyal to is the Catholic Church. LOL

So you're going to get plastered while the children eat sand. Shame, shame. ROFL I am SOOOOO kidding. I just laughed at the description of what you were doing. ROFLOL ... Sounds nice. I mean, the idea of it, not the description itself. Hee, hee.

And in reply to your comments on my blog, I know! The therapist really worried me and I overthought everything but you are so right. His troubles are due to his tongue being stuck, nothing else. SHEESH. And she's a good therapist, but she has opinions about everything under the sun and tends to share them like they are law. I just think that people in our life are so used to Essie's learning and energy that they sometimes think that some thing is a little slow with Miguel ... and they freely say stuff like, "Oh, shouldn't he be doing [insert anything] already?" He is four for crying out loud.

He loves numbers, though, and like I told my husband, I think Miguel is going to surprise everyone later on. = )

p.s. I was ticked off that people are insensitive to Emma, though. Grrrrrr.
p.p.s. This is such a long comment! Sorry. I should've just emailed you!
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Sunday, August 6, 2006

This and that
I should be picking up things around the house, or mayber shuffling laundry around. However, I miss blogging and I have so many things I have wanted to share that I am going to enjoy Olivias nap and the big kids snacking on veggies by sitting here for a bit.

Owen has started to spell. He is essentially doing it on his own, asking me questions and finding words to copy on his own. I think I mentioned this in a previous post- the whole fat but thing. He is really an amazing combo of both Ben and I. He has my emotional side and Ben's type A compulsions. He is meticulous and neat in most every thing he does (though he doesn't mind a messy room). And like me he wears his softest emotions on his lleeve. WE watched The WIzzard of Oz for the first time last week and when it was over he has tears in his eyes and said, that was good but it was kinda sad too. I think he really felt for Dorthy when it seemed as though no one believed that her tale was true nad not a dream. He is so sweet. Amazing that he can be such a turd sometimes too. Evan has mastered the fine art of making him nuts and does so daily. I feel for him though, my sister did that as well, drove me nuts! LOL!

I am in the process of linking this blog to another site. This is something I have been debating for a long time now, but I think I think it is something I need to do. WHile I appreciate the TOS for this site, I am not being completley myself at times due to either my own censorship of sellf or it being done for me. I am certainly not a trash talking sailor, but sans children I do sport the occasional 4 letter word. I do respect and appreciate why those words are not allowed here, and one thing that has kept me here was the privacy that sort of comes with it. I don't suspect there are many freaks out there reading homeschool blogs hitting the random blog button and finding us, but mayber there is I don't know. Seeing as I have three other sites out there (a photo site, a baby site and an old family site) our family can be quite easily found on the web including links to this site. So my frustration with censorship has finally won the battle in my head and I am in the procees of making a new blog, once that will link to this one, but once I get all the links up on the new on, my new posts will appear there. I don't see the total move taking place for a while though, I started this blog back in November and have only linked my November archives. Anyhoo I thought I'd mention this now for some reason.

So a couple of weeks ago I was driving down our street, it was a Friday and a family was having a yard sale. I am a garage/yard sale junkie though I really don't go often, but I just have a hard time not driving by! So we turned in the direction of the sale and I stopped and looked. THere in the middle of the driveway was a large telescope. Ben has always wnated one so I inquired. They were pricing everything to sell and they wanted $50 for it. it is pristine and as it turns out the guy thought it was a hobby he's really like, but couldn't really figure it out. It is the 2004 model of this telescope. We have tried it out once, but we really need to set it up- it is all electroni, you put in your longituted an latitude and it auto aligns to know stars- theres a bout 60 to pick from I think. The kids are sooo excited about it. We looked at the moon with it on wednesday- sooooo cool amazing how clse it is through the lens.

Our garden is also coming along quite well. we picked a bunch of green beans yesterday and each had a couple wtih our pizzza dinner! Here's some more pictures of our garden. I still have things I want to plant, maybe that is what I should be doing now? I figure this is my year to learn and next summer when Olivia is older I will be able to get more done it the garden. As it is we are having fun with it. I cna't wait until our pupkis start to show! They have sprouted, but no veggies showing yet. We can see ears of corn though and both the tomato plant are getting big. I also got some mint from my MIL and she bout me a sweet basil plant that needs to be planted. We used our lettuce on hamburgers not to long ago too. Fun!

OMGosh and I can't believe I have not shared this bit of news..... Ben bought us a new (to us) 2004 suburban!!! I have never been so in love with a car! Our whole family fits, and we have room for more (don't be getting any baby ideas- no way!). The two dogs fit in the back, I can shop for food and we only have to take one vehicle. awsome awsome awsome! I feel so cool in it too. Shamful I know but I do. It is light silver with grey cloth interior. (leather gives Ben a headache when it is in such an enclosed space- when he gets his dream car - a BMW- he'll have to special order the no leather! LOL!) I haven't taken any pictures of it yet- but I'll do that today and post them later. I don't love the gas on it, but if I fill it when it is at 1/4 full, I put the same amount in as when my van was empty, so I'm gonna try and fool myself that way and fill it at 1/4 full.

Emma decided to make our guest room walls beautiful. I'm surprised we've gone over 6 years and 4 kids with this never happening. Even the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser can't get it off. Good thing we still have some paint left over.

Comments

Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - Lots of comments...
Posted by jennyberm
Oh MY! to Emma's masterpieces, lol. Framed and everything. As long as those aren't MY walls, that's adorable. ;)

Glad you found an inexpensive telescope! We love ours. We just brought it out this weekend after waaayyyy too long in the closet. Is your powerful enough to see the rings of Saturn? So beautiful. So amazing. So awe inspiring. My DH will tell you that you should go out to the Mojave with that telescope and go camping.

Sorry to hear that you'll be leaving here. I also have a blog elsewhere but it only has one entry, lol. When I first joined, I had a similar moral dilema about posting here but I just love the nothing-but-homeschoolers atmosphere. I also don't ever find time to check those other blogs that are just in my "favorites" and not "friends" here, so it's basically just too convenient to let the other stuff bother me. (I seriously think I would be banned if I ever posted the root of my moral dilema.)

Blah, blah, blah... look at me rambling AGAIN. ;)
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Monday, July 31, 2006

I can't think of a title
OK, I am alive. We are alive and well. Hot, sticky, often a bit grumpy, but here we are. I can't get over the heat we've had lately. I am soooo glad we are not in LA this summer, but really the ocean has not offered up its cool breeze during the day. It is starting to really cool down now at night but the last few weeks even the nights had a humid sticky feel. So what have we been doing?

Playing in the backyard a lot, spinklers, blow up pool, blow up slide, slip and slide, watching movies, hanging out. I've been working on our garage, trying to empty it of boxes from the move. I am almost done with it. The Rescue Mission is coming Friday to pick up a bunch of our give away stuff, once that is gone there will me a nice chucnk of space opened on one wall. We also used to get water delivered but not any more, but I have 9 empty water bottles in my garage waiteng to get picked up- that will clear up a nice space too.

We went to a Dodger game last week, I took Emma, Owen and thier cousin Paublo. Emma and Owen got to particpate in a pregame gymnastics show. We did it last year too, it was very cool. I was really worried aobut the heat- I figured we'd be baking up in the stands, but it wan to at all bad. the place it was yucky was when you went up to the consessions area- then it was hot and sticky. Here's a few more pics of the kids. Last year Emma was only able to handle the first 3 innings- then it got to be to loud for her. WE made it to 7 innings this time. What I figured out was that it is not the loud noise of the croud- she was totally into all the cheering and yelling. but what she does not like (and last year the first time they did it was in the 3rd inning, this year it wasn't until about the 5th or so), is the horns that preceed the word "CHARGE!" You know da da da dant da dant (am I a musical genius or what!??) She was a trooper through ti though and while she didn't like that particular sound, she didn't freak out about it and was happy enough to stay an dwatch some more. But we we getting tired and the drive home was about an hour so inning 7 was as good as any to go. I am looking forward to taking Evan to a game next year- he is such a sport nut. I've never liked watching basseball on TV, love playing it, and now I am definately a fan of going to a game. such a good time.

Owen is teaching himself how to read and write. in this last week he has taken a huge interest in writing words. The slip and slide we have is a Star Wars one, he copied "star Wars" and now writes it every chance he gets. He also figured out the "at" words, Sat, hat, bat, cat etc. so he writes thme every chance he can as well. At my moms today he was writing them out on the sidewalk , he wrote the word "fat" them startied giggling and calls out "mom, I wrote 'fat but' he figured out how to spell "but" on his own- I decided not to tell him at this time that the "but" he is thinking of has two t's. Later at home he was showing off for daddy and spelled all his words on our dry erase board and he saw one of his toy guns and figured out how to spell gun- based on his 'but' discovery. Emma wants to be able to spell too, but she hasn't quite grasped the concpts that Owne has. But (heheh I said but)she is really not far behind him- funny how one kid sparks the other's interest.

Ok, I do have more to say, but (heheheh) It is late and I need to sleep. I'll try to write again soon! 11 days without blogging- bad blogger- I hope to get back into the swing of tings someday.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Another site to check out
The blog is called The Shape of a Mother . What a great blog! Real women, real mothers, real saggy bellys! Be warned that there are some bellys with um baby feeders(guess I can't use the boo wihth another b word here hehehe!)- so you mighn't want to view this at work!!

I do have homeschool-ish stuff to say too- but I'll do a separate entry for that.  Maybe tonight- but prolly not!
Comments

Friday, July 21, 2006 - Say!
Posted by pixmum
I thought I was the only gal with "racing stripes" for stretch marks. The site is very interesting, and I'm really surprised (though I perhaps should not be) that other mums have these funny, poofy bellies leftover from post-partum, too. I don't know why, but I just assumed other people bounce back amazingly, but it was fascinating to see the variety of bodies of mums. Thanks for sharing the site.

Friday, July 14, 2006

WoW!
Ok you MUST go check this out! Until AUgust 4th (I think) there is a world ebok fair going on where you can download bazillions of ebooks in PDF format, and they have an MP3 collection! I have about 15 tabs open right now that I am going to browse through- scicence collections, religion, classic lit, childrens lit. My oh my how fun will this be!!!
Comments

Sunday, July 16, 2006 - RAD
Posted by pixmum
I am so there. Thanks for the tip! I'm off to download. ;-)
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Saturday, July 8, 2006

Sick and tired
I have had an awful head cold for the last 5 days. It came on slow and strong. I think Owen may be getting it now. It, unfortunatly, coinsided with Ben starting his new job. His new job with long hours. Very bad timing indeed! I *think* I may be getting better- but it's hard to say. Olivia has decided to wake several times at night these last 3 nights too- really fun.

We got some of our amazon order a couple of days ago. The kids got thier game- I really like it. it is called Blokus. It is a very cool game- I definately reccomend it. The kids like to play with it and just fit the pieces together in patterns and stuff- I can see a number of concepts being learned from it. Ben & I played a game last night after the kids went to bed (and then I went to bed too!)

I got and started reading one of the two books I ordered. I was really excited to get it- but I have to say it is not really all I hoped it would be. It is called The Unprocessed Child - Living Without School. Since I consided us to be a sort of unschooling type family for now- I was very excited to read the tale of one successful unschooling family. The term radical unschooling just barely describes them. I'd say they unparent, undiscipline and un just about all things in life. One thing I really dislike is when someone makes blanket statements about groups or situations. I will grant that in life there are many generalizations that can be made. But even if a generalization is true 99% of the time- I try- really try to not use words such as aways or never. If I do I tend to add in a disclaimer. The problem I am having with this book- with this mom/author is that so far in each chapter she makes a blanket stament about parents, parenting, children or whatever. She has taken her one expierence with her one and only child and makes claims about all children and parenting. What she did worked for her, worked for her girl. I wonder how it would have worked had they had more than one child. (My assumption is that they did not since they never speak of any other children). Or I wonder how things would have worked if she had had a boy. I am about half way throughthe book, but it keeps making me a bit frustrated so I don't really jump back into it with joy- but I will finish it.

I got my other book in the mail today How Children Fail It is foing to be hard for me to not start reading that one- until I finish the other one. I just fear I"ll never finish the other and I am really curious about how the girls life was- and they do take you through that.
Well there are many things I want to blog about- our corn is over a foot tall, we planted more beans to make up for the ones the snails ate, our lettuce and tomatoes are coming in, we got a cool new swing in the backyard, oh lots of things I have blogged in my head about this last week that I just haven't gotten here to put it down, and now I am going to head off to bed so yet again I won't get to share it all! I can not wait for this darn cold to leave my body. BTW I started this post Saturday- it is now Monday- day 7 of feeling like crap, hardly able to swallow. *sigh* oh and Evan seems to be getting sick now too........
Comments

Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by jennyberm
I *hate* when you've been so looking forward to a book and it ends up dissappointing you. You won't be dissappointed in How Children Fail. Have you read How Children Learn yet? Ahhhh, to be awake enough to read, lol.

How you're feeling better soon.
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Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 4boys4me
We've just gotten over colds here too. You wouldn't think a few germs could knock us down like that!! LOL I hope you're all feeling better by now. :)

After reading Jenny's blog and then reading yours saying you'd ordered the book, I requested How Children Fail from the library. It's waiting for me now. I admit that I'm constantly warning my kids, "Watch out, You're gonna fall, Be Careful, etc." Maybe I'll change my ways after reading the book. :)
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Sunday, July 2, 2006

The hunt is on!
So Ben and I were watiching a movie last night (The Family Stone), it was nearly over and getting late when in the dim light I happened to look toward the far wall. Running along the wall right into our bathroom was a mouse. A little grey mouse. Bleck! So we trapped it in the bathroom and after several minutes of trying Ben got the little thing into a box. Then we didn't know what to do- we didn't want it here or coming back, outright killing it didn't appeal, so in the end Ben walked down the street and when he got to the corner he saw a big fat cat so he tossed it in that direction. Now we have to have someone come out to make sure we don't have any other "friends" living here.

Evan fell and needed 3 stitches in his head. The kids were playing out back - using the hose and just running around. He was done and wanted to be wrapped up in a towel. I did too good of a job and he tried to take too big of a step and face planted on the sliding glass door track. He is an amazing kid I tell ya. He cried for less than 3 minutes I think. Then was telling me that he was ok and "I got blood on my head mommy"- but you see at times he uses a typical little kid voice, others he deepens it dramatically and talks really gruff. That is how he would say it. Ben trucked him off to the ER and he came home 3 hours later with 3 stitches. In the mean time we had some friends who were up for the weekend visiting family come over for a visit. This is another long time friend- I knew her in high school, but we really became friends in college. They have an almost 3 year old boy. The kids had a blast playing again and I had the pleasure of another good chat with a friend. Evan went on with life as though nothing had happened. Though he would occasionally let anyone nearby know that he had an "owie on my head".

I just orded two books off amazon- one is the book Jenny mentioned in a recent post. That post has been on my mind often lately- as I notice how often I caution my children. Apparently it matters not since I said nothing to poor evan and let him fall flat on his face! Really though both of us seem to tell them they are going to .....whatever..... Anyhow- I got How Children Fail so I can possibly make some changes- or not. heck my kids have each had a trip to the ER- all around the age of 2. Wonder if Olivia will follow the pattern.

Re: Emma and her locked door. I talked to our ped about it- her main concern was the same as mine (and some of yours). Fire. However she too concluded that the fire might be more likely if we let her have free range. She did give me some ideas though. I have been thinking a lot about it and have decided to try a few things. First of all I am going to buy a clock for her room. I want her to stay in her room until 7 am or until I let her know I"m awake. I am going to put a sign on her door at her eye level reminding her of this rule. I am going to come up with some sort of positive reward for doing so at least until it becomes more or less a habit for her. But for now- she is locked in. I am hoping ot be able to get a clock in the next week.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Friends
We had a fun playdate today with one of my longtime friends and her two daughters- our kids had met (well her oldest & my two oldest) long ago so this was more like a first time meeting. The kids plyed together for hours and I had such a lovely time just chatting with my friend. I've known her since high school and we share views on many levels. I love that I live so close to long time friends, and theat we can let our kids begin to make memories

Ack I started this  days ago and never got back..... oh well........

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

How to shine a penny
I'm sure you are thinking I have some really great science expieriment right??? nope. just give it to your two year old and it will go in one end dark and ugly and come out the other ever so shiney. *sigh* Evan is just a human disposal. scares me. did I post about the marble stones a while back? I'll have to look before I write about that whole saga.

We are potty training now- which means he is hanging out in the buff. so far so good, except that he has decide that if going poo outside is good enough for the dogs it should also be for him (found the penney out side). We are bribing him with candy- he gets one smartie (from a a package) per pee and two per poo- but they have to be in the potty.

On the school front or the unschool front- we are not doing much. I still have to unpack crayonss and paints etc. I am slowly getting my school closet unpacked- but I am just so unmotavated by the end of the day. I really just want to sit and take an uninterupted break. We have decided that we are going to buy a sonlight core program. I'm leaning toward the K and not 1, since we will get to use it for Evan and Olivia later but we may have to buy core 1 within the next year- I'll just have to see. As I've said before I'd like to add more structure to our days- so we'll see.

We have had to resort to locking Emma in her room at night. She is the first to get up in the morning and is quite as can be. She has gotten into all sorts of things that she shouldn't and it is getting to the point that I am afraid she will hurt herself of set the house on fire. Yesterday she was "making cookies". which meant she had a supply of tupparware on the table, milk, and probably a spoon or two. she walked accross the kitchen with a container full of milk (leaving a long messy trail behind her) and put it in the microwave for 23 minutes. I woke up when I heard our microwave making beeps. fortunately you can't press a button on it with out it making a beep. I flew out of bed and down the stairs hopin gthat she didn't have anything metal in the thing. (like she did the last time she put something in there, but didn't push the right buttons to get it going). This time she got it going, and fortuatley nothing would have exploded, though couple of cups of milk and some plastice mightn't of lasted 23 minutes. I have no other way to keep her upstairs, I've asked her to just play in her room or come and wake me up, but she is not doing that. She is not happy about the lock in but I just don't know what else to do. Any thoughts?

Comments

Wednesday, June 28, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by
LOL at Evan. My Evan ate a penny not too long ago and he's also pooped in the yard while pretending to be a dog. Must be the name! LOL

I used to put a baby gate across our hallway to keep the boys from venturing into the main part of the house while I was asleep. They could have climbed over it but they understood it to be their boundary. It worked well until late one night when I was going to bed through the darkened hallway. I thought I was stepping over the gate but I tripped. The gate and I went crashing to the ground! I has some scrapes and bruises but the gate did not survive! The boys still come into my room in the morning and ask if they can open the gate! LOL I guess they just got into the habit.

My only concern with locking the bedroom door would be in case of a fire. But it sounds like there's more likely to be a fire if she gets to the kitchen!!

Edited by 4boys4me on Wednesday, June 28, 2006 at 12:21 PM
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Saturday, July 1, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by
Are you serious about the penny?! TOO funny! I'd never have suspected that kind of a trip could make it shine! LOL. I saw in your post that you're considering Core 1. Is that Sonlight? We used it for pre-k. But we're using KONOS for elem.

The next comment is from me, too.

Edited by Deblily on Saturday, July 1, 2006 at 2:07 PM
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Saturday, July 1, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Anonymous
Oh yeah, meant to tell you my aunt used a screen door on her son's room. That way she could still see in, but he couldn't get out. Guess it had metal scrollwork or something on it to keep him from breaking through. Or maybe they had that special screen that doesn't rip.
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Saturday, July 1, 2006 - yikes
Posted by pixmum
Motherhood is definitely not for wimps. Children have a way of scaring us sometimes that .... well, scares us. YIKES about Emma. I don't know, I don't have good advice. So, she climbs over a gate ... Yeah, she's too big for one. I'd probably end up locking her room like you are doing. I would be at a total loss. I'll ask my RL friends here and see if they've got any good ideas!

And ewwwww about the penny. LOL The story is funny because it's a potty story, but the swallowing of a funny is not. Yikes.

(((((hugs)))))
Hope this coming week isn't so stressful! And good luck with the potty training!

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Monday, June 19, 2006

The Birds
We came home from church/coffee/farmers market on Sunday to find two birds in our home. We leave the slider open for the dogs to go in and out- and I guess they just came right in. One got scared and tried to fly out and fly right into the glass- poor thing knocked himself out. the other was on my kitchen counter next to a window- fortunatly we had taken the screen out of that window to use it as a pass through for the BBQ, so we were able to just open the window and it flew out. We took the other one to the front yard and placed it on the ground- once it came to, it took off. Poor things! I hope that doesn't happen again!

Comments

Wednesday, June 21, 2006 - Yikes
Posted by pixmum
I love birds .... from afar. It's all I can do to not cover my head and run screaming whenever the children feed the ducks and pigeons at the park. (Apparently, there was a Bad Bird Episode when I was a child that has left me forever bird-affected .... and, quite frankly, I'm not surprised that the bird flu will probably wipes us all out .... LOL) That said, I did feel compassionate towards the birds in your story, and I do hope the little guys avoid the glass in the future. Don't forget to put those little stickers on your windows so the little feathered dudes don't smack into them!
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Sunday, June 18, 2006

New book
I ordered The Gift of Famly Writing last week- it hasn't been published yet, I think it will be out in a few weeks, but they sent me the ebook to look at in the mean time. I am really liking it so far & can't wait to get my hands on the actual book. I have started journals for the 3 big kids, they LOVE it! Well not Evan yet, but both Owen and Emma are totally digging it. I'll have to transscribe their first enties later- I"m making lunch right now so I have to go- but I just wanted to post about this real quick while I was thinking about it.
Comments

Sunday, June 18, 2006 - journaling
Posted by KeepingtheHome
I haven't picked up that book yet, but plan to also. Thanks for the reminder. I love journaling, too!
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Wednesday, June 14, 2006

A little of this and that
Today was our last official day of swimming- though Marjean told us we can come tomorrow if we want. I'd have to go solo since Ben is going to work tomorrow, so I'm not so sure I want to go. I've done it, but boyis it so much nicer with a little help. Now I just need to get us invited to a pool once a week or so and the kids will be certified fish. I do have one friend who has pool access, so maybe that can be our weekly playdate. I would also like to take the kids to the beach once a week or so, but that is absolutely something I can not do alone. The beach I would go to has bathrooms and such, but they are waaaaay in the back, and I would have to truck everyone along if just one kid had to go. Nope, can't go there alone. I am hoping to get a library routine going soon too. We haven't been to the library in ages. What else do I want to do? Hmmm well, I want to sign Owen up for some sort of martial arts. Emma needs to get into gymnastics, Owen will probably want to do that do. heck, I want Evan in it as well. they all want to do soccer or baseball or basket ball, so I need to see what is avalible for that. One of the local yacht clubs has a very active youth program that I would love to get involved with- and we don't have to be members to partake. Though we want to join the club eventually, it is way out of budget right now. I want to find a good homeschool group. I want to get more exercise in for me. And I want our lettuce, tomatoes and peppers to sprout. So see, I don't want much do I? oh and I forgot to mention music. I want the kids to learn an intsrument of some sort- I'd love susuki violin, but I son't know if we have any teachers out here.

I met a homeschool mom today at the nail salon of all places (I got to get a pedicure- badly needed my feet are awful!). Sh too has 4 kids, her older two are 8&11 I think she said, and the younger two are 6, but the younger two go to private school, she plans to take them out around 3rd grade or so. Didn't get a chance to find out why. Any how she said one of the groups around here recently disbanded- not sure if that is a bad sign. but she is also looking to find an active group to meet with for regular park days etc. I'd love to find a group that is similar to the LA group I belong to. they do a monthly newsletter, and have all sorts of activities plaanned- teen dances, yearbooks, talent shows, dinner dances- all sorts of field trips. I figure I will try to get more involved with other homeschoolers as the new "school year" comes up. We did exchange numbers though- incase one of us found a great ne group.

One of my kids favorite books is called In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak. Each of the kids has attached to it- all around the same age too. Currently it is Evan most favorite. Owen has it memorized. He "reads" it very well. I wonder if Olivia will love it too. It was given to me by my godmother when I was 4, and I remember loving it too. So cool when I book has that kind of appeal.

We listen to books in the car- I am going to burn a bunch of stories to a disk tonight- I got a bunch from - hmmm I think it is call Living books for the Ears. I'll look it up if anyone wants. I got tons and I mean tons of stories from them. We have been listening to a book my dad got from audible.com and I am getting a bit tired of it- but I love that the kids keep asking to listend to it. (if we try to listen to our raidio stations). The book we've listened to at least 10 or 15 times now is Mrs. Piggle wiggle. Did any of you read those books when you were a kid? I had several or at leat a vouple of them and I remember just loving them. The kids doo too, they get a real kick out of her "cures". I really want to capitalize on thier desire to hear stories in the car now that they've got the hang of it. You can tell Mrs. Piggle Wiggle was written in an era long past though- well, I can tell, the kids don't know the difference, which is fine.

Comments

Thursday, June 15, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by jennyberm
I love your list of wants. It's nice to know that other people also have that huge list of want-to's that they never get around to doing. :)
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Saturday, June 17, 2006 - Motivation
Posted by funschool
I'm in an area where there are no groups, and for awhile I had a group of 3 or 4 moms meeting every two weeks with the kids. In a span of two months the rest of them moved away. So, here I stay. Good luck finding a good group to get in with. Right now, I'm glad its summer. There's a surplus of kids around at every time of day. :)
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Monday, June 12, 2006

Happy Birthday My Owen!!!
My little boy is now a big 5 year old! Sniff sniff! Amazing how fast they grow. We are going to have some cake & ice cream tonight and a party for both the boys this weekend (Evan never had a party since we were in the moving process during his birthday). We got him a bigger 2 wheel bike- he loves it. It is the one he wanted- a bat man one we saw at costco. He did great riding it with out the training wheels, even though it is bigger than his old bike. He was quite proud of himself. He can now swim across the pool- we've been doing lessons the last two weeks. He is really really proud of himself with that accomplishment. He was very nervous about swimming prior to these lessons. Now he goes to the deep end and canonballs in. Woo hoo!

Comments

Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by jennyberm
HAPPY BIRTHDAY OWEN!!!! Five is such a BIG age isn't it?? Especially weird for me since this little baby I've got here looks exactly like his big soon-to-be-five-year-old brother. It's like I've got him frozen in two time periods at once, lol.

Enjoy your special day, big guy!!
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Thursday, June 15, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 4boys4me
Happy Birthday Owen!!!
great pictures!
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Saturday, June 10, 2006

Yikes
I sure hope there is not a special place in Hell for the ruthless killers of ants and snails. Surely I will be there if there is. I feel just awful about it. Well not really the ants- sadly this is probably because there are just so darn many. But the snails, well dropping them into a bucket of warm soapy water just made me feel bad. I don't think I'd feel bad if our garden was our livelyhood- but as a hobby/lesson it does make me feel kinda bad. There are still a few left out there- I saw thier trails all over the green beans this morning. I looked up natural preditors yesterday- and as it turns out there is another snail that likes to eat garden snails. it lives on mulch and dead organic materials, as well as the snails. If my beans keep disappearing I may have to go that route. They look pretty cool too.

I used my newly aquired parafin wax thing on my feet last night- aside from feeling soooooo good, it is alread helping the look of my dry heels. YAY!

We have a busy day today. I am taking the big kids to the Valley for a birthdya arty (40 min drive), then bringing them home. They are going to MILs for a sleepover. Evan and Olivia will go to my moms house and Ben & I are going to his medical center graduation in Universal City. (back down through the Valley, and into LA- so at least an hour). Right now I need to get some laundry through, and I need to decide what shirt I'm going to wear. I also have to get shorts wahed for my dear son- who has none- how sad is that.
Comments

Saturday, June 10, 2006 - Hey
Posted by pixmum
Essie is totally ticked off with her grandfather for putting snail poisons in the garden, so I told her that our part of the backyard can be a snail safehouse. Whoever she can save can go in there. However, the little pains do eat our plants. Erggh. I'm liking the bigger snails, the natural predators, that you linked to. Let me know how that goes. If it's successful, then we'll get some! Thanks for the info.

Hope you had fun at the party!

And no rush on my template. Just let me know when you get the chance. I'm just happy right now that I'm logging onto my blog without all that "page not found" irritation solved. Thanks so much for mentioning that it might be a template problem. I was going crazy trying to figure out what the deal was!

Looking forward to an email for a meeting spot,
Maria
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Thursday, June 8, 2006

Bad blogger Bad!
I really really need to get back into this! Life is starting to get settled around here, though I still have boxes hidden away in closest that need to be un packed. I need to get my homeschool closet organized and I want to get pictures and maps and other posters on the walls in this room. For some reason Owen is very interested in the state of Texas. I have no idea why, but when I mentioned to Ben that I had some gift card to boarders and that I wanted to buy a world map and a US map with them Owen wanted to be sure I got a map with Texas too. Hmmmm.

Our garden is sprouting which is very exciting. The problem we have now is snails. they have completely eating some of our bean sprouts. so now I'm putting semi buried bowls of beer out there to entice and drown the suckers. I also am sinking the things in a bucket of soapy water if I see one. hopefully we'll get them gone enough to let the beans grow. Our corn is also coming up but one of the dogs got into the garden and found an old bone burried near the corn and dug it up. I'm hoping that they got in because we left the gat open and not because they hoped over the fence. Daisy could easily do this. I replaned the dug up corn and got rid of the bone, now we'll just keep our fingers crossed. We also planed bell peppers, tomatoes, and lettuce. those should be sprouting in the next few days. This weekend we'll try to plant our carrouts, cucumbers, and squash. Our compost is also doing wonderfully. Owen is amazed at how it is "turning into dirt". I want to get a bunch of red wigglers in there to see if that speeeds it along even more. We are going to also plant sunflowers at the back of the kids dirt box, maybe I'll do that this weekend.

Speaking of the dirt box, we had an exceptionally sunny day a few days ago so I was letting the kids run through the sprinklers. As they started tiring of that I thought of Maria and the pictures of her kids making bricks and brought the sprinkler over to the dirt box, and we made a mudbox. I showed the kids how to dig a river and we made two lakes. They had a blast and it kept them happy for quite some time!

This weekend we have a birthday party to go to, then Ben & I get to go to a graduation dinner for the medical center he is finishing up his fellowship at. That should be fun. He had his department graduation dinner on Tuesday. He wasn't at work Friday or Monday so we didn't know about it until Tuesday morning. SInce we no longer live in the area we had to scramble to find babysitters and get clothes. It was a good excuse for shopping! We both needed some new duds anyway, me for church and him for work. I am very pleased with the skirt and top I found and I also got some new shoes- dressy-er than my usual flats, but very cute. They did a "roast" type thing for Ben and the other graduating GI fellow- it was pretty funny. I couldn't possibly do it justice by writing here, but suffice to say I was laughing so hard my eyes were watering.

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Thanks everyone!
Both here in the land of blog as well in real life.  I'm glad so many of you read and liked my little motherhood piece.

PARTY!

We had a house warming party yesterday- such a great time! We had family and friends from near and far come and celebrate with us. It is such a special time for us- such a huge accomplishment, so much sacrafice to get here. Endless hours of work and study for Ben. We feel so blessed to have what we have, and so happy to have family and friends to share it with.

SCHOOL
Our downstairs room is going to be our center for learning. or at least it will house all things school. I image sit down work will take placing on the dining room table, or the floor. I've always been a floor person myself. My computer as well as the kids is in that room. There is a huge closet that I am going to attempt to organize into our education zone. So far it is full of boxes, but I do have one of those mailbox cubby things that you see in schools and offices that has one box filled with paper. Since I have no idea where the kids art supplies currently are, the big thing they've been doing is making paper airplanes. Owen has gotten quite good at making them. Emma is getting there, but mostly she is more interested in either wraping odds and ends up into "presents" or flying planes that Owen makes. Evan wants me to roll the paper into a "map". (think the map on Dora). I really need to find the crayons. I've also been working on the garden. The kids have all helped in that too. It is a rather large area so they poop out after a bit, but they are great helpers. I had to pull out all the grass that had overgrown the area. I have one of those claw things. It rained a few days ago, so I took advantage of the softer ground and spent a good hour and a half "roto tilling" the garden. The kids raked and threw the grass into the compost area. That was last week, since then, the kids have been donning thier rain boots (garden and dirt box boot around here), and the go into the garden and rake, dig and pull weeds and grass. They are so excited to plant now! I finally had a chance to get back in there today and I did another good raking of it, and we planted four small rows of corn. they each helped in dropping the kernals and covering them. I them built a tee pee and we planted beans at the base of it. I hope I got the right kind! I then took several paving stones that were once a planter boarder that I wanted to shrink, and I made a path from the gate to the tee pee. It looks pretty cool. I tooks some pictures (of course), but I need to down load them still. My goal is to have them help me plant the rest of the garden over the next week or so. We have carrots, lettuce, cuks, tomatoes, and herbs. I also want to get some hot peppers. we also have some sunflowers that we'll be planting at the back of the kids dirt box along the fence.

Ok, I'm off to bed, my brain is not working quite right, too many mojitos this weekend and not enough sleep! I need to get back to joting down things I want to blog in my notebook. I know I've had lots of thoughts running around in my head lately- wonder where they are hiding? Not a fan of hide and seek memory.
Comments

Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by jennyberm
Oh that sounds like such fun! I never can get motivated enough to garden. All of our potential garden spots were covered with big ugly bushes and rock ground cover by the previous owners - blech. DH is working on ripping out the bushes. We're all ignoring the rocks, lol.

Glad you're enjoying your new house... now go find those crayons!

Sunday, May 21, 2006

My first published essay....
Ok well it was just for our homeschool newsletter, but it made the cover! It was fun to write and I did enjoy seeing it in print. It was for the May newsletter so as you might guess it is about being a mom.

In college I remember having a conversation with my friend and the both of us thinking that we would be good parents of a child with Down syndrome. We were both earning teaching credential and working in the campus preschool together. This was one of the only times I remember thinking about being a mom prior to the birth of my children. Four years later I was actually a bit surprised when my first baby was born with an extra twenty-first chromosome. Shocked, really. My pregnancy was nearly text-book; I was young, healthy, and athletic. I swam 3 days a week on a long course masters swim team, I even went to Nationals 17 weeks pregnant. Every prenatal test was negative. Yet there she was.

I left the working world, said goodbye to my students and became a mother. I was never one of those girls who fantasized about having babies. I never dreampt about my wedding, never thought much about how many children I wanted. Despite having never really put much thought into the role, I threw myself into it, and was surprised at how strongly I started to feel about my baby and my role in her life.

I simply could not imagine going back to work and leaving her with someone else. Not even for a few hours once a week. I was shocked at how important breastfeeding became. I could not bear the thought of anyone, any teacher, thinking my child could not do something. I think this must have been the first seeds of home schooling being planted, though I didn’t know that at the time.

My mother bear instinct can be a bit over the top at times.. I want to not only protect my children, but I also want them to learn how to stand up for themselves. I want them to learn how to be good people. I want them to love life and learning. I want them to know that they can do anything. I want to be their example.

Six years and three children later I continue to be shocked by motherhood. I always told my husband that two children would be my limit. He wanted three. Guess who ended up talking him into having number three. While I loved my daughter and son, I didn’t feel complete. Our family didn’t feel complete. We had our third and planned to give it a year or so before making any decisions on a fourth. Valentines Day 2005 told us that we really were not the ones in control of how many kids we’d have. Our fourth came in October and truly completes our family.

I love being a mom. I honestly cannot imagine my life any other way. I love spending my days with my children. I love watching them discover and learn. I love watching them play together. I love how the older three adore the baby. I worry that Emma has a higher chance of developing a variety of diseases. I worry that Owen is too sensitive. I worry that Evan will not be able to eat fruit. I don’t worry about Olivia, yet.

When you have more than one child, you begin to have the same questions asked of you, or comments made to you every time you go out. Do I have “my hands full”? Absolutely. Do they “keep me busy”? Everyday. My heart is just as full as my hands, and I don’t ever wonder what I will do with my day. I don’t marvel at my ability to have “so many”, but wonder about those who want none. Some days I “don’t know how I do it” either. How does anyone? You just do.

Motherhood fits me better than any profession I can think of. Motherhood is harder than anything I have ever had to do in my life. Motherhood is sacrificing for the greater good of the family. Motherhood is full of worry, especially when the odds are tilted the wrong way. Motherhood is my joy, my passion and my calling. I love that I have four children that call me “mom”.
Comments

Monday, May 22, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by jennyberm
Beautiful! Congratulations on being "published."
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Monday, May 22, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 4boys4me
YaY! Meesh is back! Your new house is beautiful! You got unpacked pretty quickly. Congrats on being a published author. :) I loved your article.
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Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by pixmum
What a beautiful essay, Meesh. It was so honest and simple and lovely in the description of both the worries and joys of motherhood.

Congratulations on being published. Right on!

And YIIIIIIKES about Emma. AAAAAUGH. I'm so glad that she's better but what a scare.

And your house is lovely. I am so going to try and get up there this weekend, but we'll see. Everything is kind of crazy right now ... =-(
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Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by hsmomof3
What an awesome essay! I can see why it was on the cover. Great job and congrats...on getting published and on being a mom.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Emma's Ordeal
had I had computer access last week I most surely would have been here for some heavy prayer requests. Last Thursday morning Miss Emma woke with a tummy ache. I kind of blew it off as, well, as a tummy ache. She was not warm in the early morning, but by 10 or so had a low grade temp of 99. She had no appetite and seemed happy enough to lay on the couch and watch TV. (the boys were beside themselves as I have really reigned back on tv since the move.) I gave her some tylenol at 11 and let her rest. She got up to use the bathroom not long after, did her thing then washed up. as she was drying off she all of a sudden lost it. Since she hadn't had food since dinned the night before, it was mainly water and a bit of tylonol. Poor thing was sobbing and cramping with each heave. she retreated back to the couch and fell asleep not to long after. I still was not very concerned. she sipped at some water later and stayed on the couch. her temp went as high as 101.5. Ben had called in a appointment for us- which at the time I thought was premature, but he likes to be sure of things so I had no problem. Once she started rubbing her side I was happy for the appointment- I feared for her appendix. I dropped the boys off at my MIL's and took the girls to the office. She was very weepy and crying a lot at this point- soooo not her self. She is just not one to cry. she is sooooo tough it is amazing. So I knew she was feeling pretty bad. The doc checked her out- ears fine, belly didn't have point tenderness where it should for an appendicitis. but she did upchuck all over his floor. he had us do a urine sample and took some blood to check her white blood count.)she moved the first time so had to get poked 2x) Her urine they could do there (it was neg for anything) but the blood had to be sent out. Her white blood count is usually low, we've seen a hematologist about it, she gots poked once a year for it, now twice a year). Normal range is between 3 & 14, she is usally 2. So the doc said we might hear from the lab because they would be concerned not knowing her history. but they wouldn't call if it was in the normal range say a 8 or 9 since that would seemingly be "normal". But that would be high for her thus indicating some sort of infection. The doc would call us in the morning. I took her home to rest. She threw up on the way home. Ben was taking the train home from LA, frustrated that he couldn't be here sooner. around 8 we tried to give her more tylonol, but she threw that up with in minutes. Worried Ben called the lab- thankfully he did. For one thing they did the wrong test on her blood. Even though I asked the doc to double check before sending it off. after a few tense words Ben was able to order the proper test. (So nice to have doc in the family!). Half an hour later we got the results- her count was 16---- way way high. Plus ther was some other abnormal numbers, but those are out of my area of understanding. We called my folks and they came over while we took off for the hospital. We opted to drive the 40 minutes to a facility within our insurance, also because Ben is staff at another of their facilities. It was a good call, they helped expedite emma's being seen. They admitted her at 1 am, and got her hooked up to an IV. she was very dehydrated. She perked up within minutes of that IV, though getting it in was awful. She is such a brave girl. Ben stayed with her overnight, I went home so I could feed Olivia. My mom stayed home from work Friday, I went back up. Fortunatly she was dc'd Friday afternoon. It would appear she had a viral infection. Fever can lead to nasea, which is what happend to her, which is why she got so dehydrated. She is doing much better now, though she now has some nasty fever blisters on her mouth and cheek. We go for a follow up tomorrow. Evan had a fever the last two days, we have been super on top of keeping it down as well as keeping him hydrated. Ben is up in bed now, feverish and achey. I'm just hoping the rest of us are spared.

Comments

Friday, May 19, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by hsmomof3
I'm so glad Emma is okay. That had to be so scary!

I love the pics of your new place. It's beautiful!!! I love that ceiling.
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Sunday, May 21, 2006 - {{HUGS}}
Posted by jennyberm
Poor Emma! I'm glad she bonced back so quickly. I hope everyone else has stayed healthy.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Such unschoolers lately!
I guess I'm always pretty unschool-ish, but I was really trying to add more structure to our days here and there. ah well. So much is going on and the house is such a disater- I'll take what ever life learning moment come our way and run with it!

I went Easter Bunny shopping today. We don't really do much, the kids will put out baskets the night before and I"ll fill them. I don't do much candy- just some jelly beans because I used to love doing jelly bean hunts with my sister as a kid.Plus they are small and not too messy. I don't see ours lasting long, but it's worth a shot! I also bought one pack of peeps- I think those are just gross, but I know that Owen likes them- so they'll each get a few and that's that. No chocolate bunnys here. I'd end up eating it all anyway- I hate how messy they get with the chocolate. I got them some cool bubble wand stuff to share, a game for thier L-max and some small things to put in the plastic eggs. I want them to get something fun and special for the day, but I don't want it to be a candy holiday for them. I know they'll get plenty of candy from other sources that day anyway. I have been talking to them about the real reason for Easter as well. I hope to instill that in them. Since we are only recently going to church again- they still think of Jesus as "baby Jesus". We'll get there with them though. I bought Ben Napoleon Dynamite for his gift- it is what he wanted- That movie just cracks me up. I think it is a love it or hate it kind of movie- we xare in the love it category! I can't wait to watch it again! Ben got me (well I went and bought it- but it'sthe thought right?) an ipod shuffle. I am so jazzed! I love love love it! I put a bunch of dance songs on it and rocked to it on the bike tonight. I love dancing and bumping thumping music (the kind I hate to hear coming out of cars!) I got a great work out for sure. I also went searching for kid friendly podcasts. I found a few and and in the process of screening them. I found one that is favorite bible stories. seems pretty good, the lady has a nice voice and tells the story as if she is right in front of the kids talking to them. I plan to use the shuffle to rock out and to listen to books and podcasts in the car. It is the smallest ipod out there and the cheapest- but I think it really holds plenty. right now I have 40 or so songs, the full unabridged version of Eragon, two old time radio shows (each about 25 minutes- Robin Hood & Ali Baba) and two 20 min podcasts. The thing is only half full. There is 20 hours of audio on it. How cool is that. and it is so easy to swap in and out the podcasts and books and radio shows. Anyway can you tell I'm excited? In my dream world I'd have the photo ipod, but you know, now that I have this- it is so small & light, it holds plenty of stuff, I think that this is a better fit for my needs. Mind you I would not complain if a photo/video ipod came crashing down in my lap, but really for $70 bucks- this is perfect.

Comments

Friday, April 14, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by jennyberm
My DH has the photo ipod - it is soooooooooo cool. He took it on a business trip to Singapore and I couldn't believe the photo quality. It was really convenient for him to carry around all his photos like that. Anyway, not to make you jealous, lol.
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Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Packing blues....
This whole packing thing really stinks. My house looks like a trian wreck- & it is so small that it feels really closed in. WE have empty boxes, packed boxes, bags of trash, bsags of clothes, give away box, and then all the regular everyday stuff- legos, paper, shoes toys........ I need to schedule a moving company, change my dental appointment, buy dog food, diapers and wipes, and today is our playgroup day which I only miss under diress. and we are not going to miss it today- my friend who had the baby will be there. (saw him yesterday he is sooooo cute!)I just don't feel like there are enough hours inthe day- and here I am at the puter- d'oh! My excuse for that is that I am enjoying my cup of coffee, and what better spot to do so than here at the puter?

I have been working on an essay of sorts for our homeschool group newsletter for the month of May. They asked for pieces on Motherhood. I have been working on mine off and on for the last few weeks- feels goo to have something sort of schoolish for me! I've always loved writing, though I'm not particularly good at it. But I do enjoy the process. I 've just printed and gone over it- made some changes and need to revise in my puter, then I"ll print it again. I hope it will feel done after that. Once it is I will post it here. ok- tiime to enjoy my last few sips before taking on the day.

Oh and we have been going to church through this lenten season- I've been trying to get my dh to go for a a long time now- it has been nice. Palm Sunday was, however, the longest mass I have ever been to in my life! the school kids did a re inactment of the passion- it was very cute and they did a great job- but having 4 little ones who couldn't see anything and had no clue what was really going on- it was tough. I will say they all did soooooo well though. We are staying here for Easter- no traveling for us. I don't like the traditional Easter meal of Ham so we won't be doing that! My neighbor is going to heat her pool and we'll probably go swimming and have easter egg hunts with them. WE'll go to mass to of course. Next year I want to get a book on palm weaving to do with the kids- I saw some really fancy weaving! I did a small one- nothing fancy. Ok- gotta jam-------------

Tuesday, April 4, 2006

Thanks Miki!
I used her portion of the  BloomOutside the box kit for this months background. I Just love the colors in it!

Tuesday, April 4, 2006

Surprise
I never know what to expect from Emma each morning. She is a very early morning person. I keep trying to convince her that she needs to sleep until at least 7 am, but that doesn't usually work. I am often nursing Olivia when I hear her get up- and I always just hope & pray that today she will only be using her stuff. which is sometimes the case. Well today Evan had hopped in bed with me, Olivia was asleep and we were all nice and cozy. Then I heard Emma up and moving about. I kept my fingers crossed and stayed in bed. When I could not stand the suspence any longer I got up. Today she had gotten out all of my acrylic paint bottles (those little $1 ones from Michales) had them all lined up. SHe had used eachof them. SHe had a large piece of construcction paper then stacked on top were 20 or so pieces of that brown lined paper- you know the newprint kind that has big spaces. in between each page was a glob of paint. *sigh* When we move all my art stuff is going in a loced cabinet. She get's all sad on me too when I get mad at her- tell me she's making a "surprise" for me. THing is she totally knows that she is up to no good. She would never get into my stuff when I'm awake, never- but she doesn't hesitate to do so when I'm asleep. WHat do I do? she is allowed to use her water colors at any time- but she really wants to use my paints. I use them for crafts- with the kids, so she's used them before, but I always tell them that they may not use them with out me. Other things emma will do in the wee early morning are things like- getting out the paper towel roll and use them to as placemats for her 20 or so imaginary friends. or she'll fill every cup she can find with water- not tap water but the water we pay for that is in the water crock. One morning I found one of her metal pots fro her pretend kitchen stuff in the microwave filled with water. Thankfully she didn't press the right buttons to start that one! oh well-

We all have cold right now- I've had it longest and I'm tired of it. I want it to go away. Guess it is good that it is raining- we're not fit to be around anyone anyway.

Oh and my dear friend had her baby on Saturday! YAY! She was 36 weeks so it was a bit unexpected. He is fine and momma is fine. I can't wait to meet the little guy!

Comments

Tuesday, April 4, 2006 - Yeeeeeep
Posted by pixmum
I've been there. I used to have that problem with Essie every morning. It was really bad when she was younger. I read somewhere this tip that I'm going to share: Every evening before you go to bed, leave her a little something by her bedroom door. When she wakes up, she'll be intent on that and forget about roaming. For those little somethings, I just went through her room and found books and toys that were at the bottom of her toy bin and just languishing, ignored .... and each night, I'd put a little something for her. One morning, for example, it was a stuffed Ernie that she'd forgotten, and the newness of that helped her from wandering.

Have you considered a gate? I also had a baby gate in the doorway, but Essie was already climbing that sucker by the time that she was 2. Miguel, on the other hand, because he is just stockier and heavier still can't climb gates if I put them up. BWA-HA-HA-HA ;-)

Cute new background, by the way.

Friday, March 31, 2006

Go tag yourself-
Thanks Heidi! I think this is a great idea!

Fill out the poll in an entry on your own blog. Then whoever you took it from, go back to their poll entry and comment with a link to your blog. If you see it on multiple friends' pages, feel free to comment with your link in all of them. Then we can see which of our friends have done it and check out some new blogs maybe!

A little game of "AT THIS VERY MOMENT" [ATVM]

1. ATVM I am wearing sweat pats & a long sleeve T

2. ATVM I am drinking water

3. ATVM I am listening to/watching relative peace- Owens playing a game on the new Chicken little DVD, Emma's doing a puzzle & Evan is stealing my keys. Olivia is eatching me type with one hand

4. ATVM I am thinking about dinner.

5. ATVM I wish I in our new house.

6. ATVM I would rather be taking a nap.

7. ATVM my computer desk looks like a tornado whipped through, picked everything up and randomly dropped it again. (that about covers it for me too Heidi)

8. ATVM I should be packing

9. ATVM the weather where I live is cold and gloomy. (relitivly speaking)

10. ATVM I have to go check on my chicken & rice (spanish).

11. ATVM the time is 4:55pm

Comments

Saturday, April 1, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Anonymous
I can't wait to get into our new house either! It's so exciting isn't it?

Heidi
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Friday, March 31, 2006

comments
I thought I'd respond to comments- I always have good intentions of doing that- but seem to never get to it. I was sick and exhausted yesterday- so I didn't do much of anything- feeling better today though so here goes-

Maria- you are so right it was a very surreal expierence- though not the first sadly. I find it even more strange when I sense displeasure from someone in church. We are Catholic too so you'd think there'd be nothing but support. A few weeks ago I was walking back to our seats after communion. I had Olivia sleeping in my sling, Owen and Emma were walking nicely & quietly in front of me. They both do really well in church. especially considering that we are only recently in attendence again. Evan is a bit of a challenge still and on this particular day didn't even make it to the readings. So Ben had taken him out & I was on my own. We are going back and Emma is looking around not quite paying attention to where she needed to go, so I was sort of "herding" her to the back- no out of control things, I thought I was doing a pretty darn good job personally. So a woman says to me (her face in a somewhat shocked expression) "do you need any help?", a kind gesture that I'm sure I would have welcomed had my kids been running back & forth and jumping around wildly. So I found it sort of odd, but just smiled nicely and said no thank you, my husbad was around somewhere with our other little one, and that we'd be just fine. Her somewhat shocked looked turned into a more horrified shock. Looking back at it I can't help but wonder what the shock was all about. Was she concerneed at first that I was a single mom of 3 little ones? Was she appalled that my husband left church early? Do I have too many children in her opinion? I was really confused! As for how I respond- mostly I do usethe "heart full" one. A few times I've been known to say "better than empty". And one day if the person is really on the rude side- I might say "and yours look really empty"- Though I do like the one "the other 8 (or10) are in the van. Oh and as much as I would love to take credit for the heart full comment- it's not mine- I stole it from someone- probably online, I don't remember. I started hearing the hands full thing when my second was born.

Deblily- I have been digi scrapping for just over a year now- I love it! I am a total gadgit geek who has loved photography & design for as long as I can remember. I really don't know how I ended up as a teacher (I am CA certified). digi scrapping is a great outlet for me. You upload from your camera - I think. I think the simularity in ages in our kids is what drew me to your blog- I found you while "random blogging". I love the ages. especially when I imagine us 6 years from now- so cool!

Mary- I think my viewoint comes from all the unschooling we do- I'm always looking to see how what they do relates to "real life" or schoolish topics!
Comments

Friday, March 31, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by jennyberm
How strange, we were just "talking" about the hands full comments on my DS's playgroup yesterday and today. It's never really bothered me because, yes, frankly, my hands are full and I'm glad people realize that. But the one that gets me is when they look at you like you're messing with perfection because "you already have one of each!" It would drive me nuts when I was pregnant with my daughter because people would ask if I knew what I was having and then say, "Oh great, now you have one of each" like that's the goal of childrearing. Now I'm getting it again whenever I go out alone with DD and someone finds out I'm having a boy. "Oh how great! Now you'll have one of each!" and I say, "no, I already had that, my son's at home" and they look at me with shock and horror. Since when is three kids such a rebellious thing to do?

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Morning snapshot
I'm holding Olivia as she watches her sibs. they are playing with matchbox type cars. They have a track thing that is retactable and they are trying to figure out how to make it be a bridge- a frustating task! but with some guidence- we have sucess- now on to figuring out where the chairs need to go in order to stay on the track for the legnth of it. Engineering 101 at Liberty Beach IS.

Comments

Wednesday, March 29, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Deblily
I can't remember if I told you this or not...our kids are just about the same ages. 7/00, 5/02, 12/03, and 11/05. Isn't it wonderful to have such little ones so close together?! Every day is a treat.
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Friday, March 31, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 4boys4me
I love the way you look at that! I didn't realize how much "engineering" happens at our house with all the road building my boys do! :)
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Monday, March 27, 2006

Bog people
The Natural History Museum has a current exhibit with all sorts of artifacts and several mummies. I totally want to go see it, but wonder if my kids can stomach looking at mummies. Emma gets pretty creeped out at paper halloween monsters- and fromt the website the mummuies look pretty creepy. I should see if I can get someone to go with me there, then I can check it out first or in turns with someone. hmmmmm. I want to go this week- we haven't been in a while.

If you are a dog person, I am reading a fantastic book called Marley & Me by John Grogan- It is really good- and I can see bits and pieces of my dog Bunge in Marley- though not much- but he is part lab which is the breed that Marly is. anyhow- great reading.

I printed up some pictures of the kids- They really turned out great. Here is a layout I made for Ben's dad- I ended up making a copy for us too. I don't really love the layout- but I love the pictures in it.

I also had a 8x10 made of the one of Emma in this layout. I lLOVE LOVE LOVE it! I put it in an 11x14 frame with creme and burgandy mats- it looks so nice! I can't wait to hang it on a wall in our new house! I also had 5x7's printed of each of the kids (from the above layout) and put them in a frame that has 5 openings side by side I made a picture in paintshop that is each of the kids names and March 2006- I used the same font as in the above layout. I then put each of thier picures in the remaining slots. It really turned out nice. I forgot I uploaded both the layout and in indiviual picture to my photo blog site. I'm going to add some pictures of Evan eating ice cream in a bit- he was too funny yesterday- he took forever to eat this chocolat clovers drumstick type cone. do check it out later!

Oh and I just remember (sort of) something that happened today. I took the kids to the YMCA for Evan's gymnastics class. (I got to go workout after too- YAY!) and after I picked the kids up from the childcare, Owen decides he needs to go to the bathroom so we head into the 17 & under or parents and tots changing room. There was an older woman (late 60's maybe) who was just getting dressed. She's not supposed to use this room but apparently uses it anyway. She was very nice & honestly I don't think she has a clue how awful she sounded to me. Her first comment as my troops went charging in like they owned the room was that she was glad to be finishing up. I just smiled and said we were just into use the potty anyhow. (thinking maybe she didn't want to see my young boys changing?) She then made the very common and typical comment "boy you sure have your hands full". Ya think!?? I just smiled again and nodded saying "yes my heart too". I don't think she got it. After hearing a few of the kids calling me mom- she then says "oh are these all yours!?!?" ummm yeah. I smiled an nodded. she then said (this is the part I don't remember exactly- darn babies taking my memory!) something about being sorry . I wish I could remember what it was exactly- but it was enought to sort of shock me and I do remember reponding that there was nothing to be sorry about and that I considered each to be a blessing. She went on to comment on how she could not possibly do it. uh well no your what- 70!? and I again smiled and said something about feeling blessed to have the opportunity to try and that if I didn't think I could do it I woulndn't want to either. The odd thing is that she was so nice and smiley and seemed to even like the kids. though the look of shock on her face was pretty apparent when she my "situation" really dawned on her. some people- man I would never comment on someones choice (or inablility) to have just one kid or none.or to choose cats over dogs. or to eat meat or be vegan. jeesh Oh well. Shock & awe baby- that's what we do- shock and awe!

Comments

Tuesday, March 28, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 4boys4me
I get that comment all the time, "you sure have your hands full." I usually just laugh it off but I'm going to start using your reply. :)
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Tuesday, March 28, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by pixmum
So much to reply to!

First, the pictures in your photo blog are absolutely adorable. They are just so cute!

And second, AUGH, how weird and surreal an experience with the old lady. To be told such cold comments with a smiling, friendly face sounds eerie, but I've had that happen so I know exactly what you mean. You're standing there thinking, "Am I hearing this right?" because the behavior is exactly NOT with the comments at all. Sorry you had to hear all that stuff. Sheesh. But, boy, Michelle, you ROCK in how you handled it. I am so impressed with your comments.

I love the "yes and my heart, too." I am unapologetically stealing that answer and will use it. I've only 3 kids, but I hear it a lot, too. And now I have the perfect comment to "boy you have your hands full."

And, ya know, I always wonder what the heck the people expect me to say in reply to that. "No, actually, this is so easy! I might have 3 more!" or "The other seven are in the van waiting for us." Really! I wonder about some people ....

;-)
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Wednesday, March 29, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Deblily
I SO would like to digi-scrapbook. Seems enough for me to even get my pics uploaded (or is it downloaded) from my camera? Lol.
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Monday, March 27, 2006

oh well- back to the usual!
So much for doing "school"! WHile I do know I want to incorporate a more formal time in our day to do some school stuff- I don't think right now is the time to set that pattern. Between trying to keep Evan happy, the baby sleeping & packing boxes for our move- it is not happening very easily. I think I will try to do it here and there- when the universe is in proper alignmnet or whatever and all things fall into place- but I refuse to stress out over it- I hate stress. I am feeling so closed in here in this house right now. I am trying to pack, throw away & do regular mantinance= laundry & dishes. Once I pack a box, I have no where to put it. When I pack a bag to give a way- again, no where to put it so our house is even messier than it would normally look. We are going to look into closing escrow a few days earlier- that's my job today. Hope we can!

Evan has gymnastics today- it is really just a go and explore class, but he loves it. For April I signed all the kids up for 2x a week. it will be our last month with this class. I'm not sure what we'll do once we move.

Ok right now all three kids are doing either pretend play (Ecan has two action figure, Owen is using some building materieals from a building kit he has and is pretending the pieces are space ships etc.) Emma is sitting and actually building with the stuff. This is a common snapshot of my home. - give it a few more minutes though and Owen's spaceship will crash into Evans men and peace sill no longer exists! LOL!

Anyhow- back to what we'll do once we move. We have acess to a summer swim program and a great price so I wnat the two big kids to do that. If I have to get in with Evan I'm not going to put him in that program, the waters too cold for Olivia so we'll just watch. I know of another swim program that Emma did for a couple of years that I would love to do - but summer is just too crazy there. I'll look into it for the fall. That program has actually been on a discovery health show (osmthing like that). I learned to swim from Majean when I was a kid. Emma loves Majeans. I think Evan would love it too- he is a fish. I really want to get Olivia in there as well. I am excited to be back in the area!

Owen wants to do soccer, I think Emma will too- they both love kicking the ball around with me in the yard. If I can find a "ball" sport for Evan 's age I want to do that for him- he is such a ball freak. He can throw a football (or baseball) like nothing else! If I do but the big kids in any sort of "ball" sport - I don't think we'll be able to take Evan to games- he'll be hard to keep off the field!

OK, well there is still peace in my home- I'm going to grab a cuppa and watch my kids play until Liv wakes up- which should be any minute!

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

If you or your kids like juggling.....
Check this out!

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

School & stuff
We did it again yesterday. I have to laugh though- When Owen heard that "school" is what our neighbors do while they were gone all day- he was horrified! I heard a news story on the radio yesterday that many schools are cutting 40 min of recess out of the day to prep for standarized testing- I don't know who the mastermind is behind that but they have obviously never been rained out of recess for a week.

We had playgorup yesterday- this was at a park- and it was such a nice day!! We had a good sized group too- it was really fun. I got to visit with a friend from college who I haven't seen in several years- and he's lived in the area since we've live here. i'm glad he stopped by. Owen got a shiner from one of his mates- accidental of course. I keep teasing him that he needs to match his other eye. He totally disagrees though. Emma got a dress that was made just for her by the grandma of one of her mates- it is soooo cute. She's gong to wear it today so I'll post a picture later. Makes me want to take the time to learn a bit more about sewing, the dress is fairly simple, but I don't think I'll be learning any time soon. I gave my sewing machine to my sister anyhow. but it wold be nice to whip out simple dresses and shorts for the girls! (she made matching shorts too, she doesn't like seeing little girl underwear but knows how little girls are.)

Today we are off to target- we'll probably do some school when we get back. or not. We are going to pick out what veggies we want to plant in our garden since we will need to plant as soon as we move in.

Oh and here is a neat website- it is a huge compolation of articles on homeschooling- I've only read a few, but they look interesting. It also has a resource page with tons of homeschooling links.
Comments

Wednesday, March 15, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 4boys4me
cutting out 40 minutes of recess???? I'm surprised they have that much to cut out. When Adam was in ps for K and 1st, he had a 10 min morning break, 20 min to eat lunch, and 20 min for recess. If it rained, they just cancelled recess.
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Wednesday, March 15, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Deblily
I would love to learn to sew, too. I have this vision of me and the girls in matching outifts! I have had an offer for lessons, but can't seem to fit it into our schedules. Phooey.
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Wednesday, March 15, 2006 - Fun
Posted by pixmum
Sounds like you had a fun day ... and how neat to get everything going forward for the house. You must be so excited! I am so excited for you.

And I'd love to learn to sew, but nowadays it seems more expensive (materials and all) to do it then buy a nice pretty dress for the girl at Target or Sears ... at least, it seems so. Still, what a very cool hobby to have.
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Tuesday, March 14, 2006

I did it!
We did "school" yesterday! I love our unschooling lifestyle, but I am seeing a need for more sturcture with Emma. Owen would do fine left to his own- he has learned how to to many things with out much direction from me. My main concern with Emma is her understanding of numbers. She can count and recognize numbers, she can even recognize small quanitites. She tends to rush through counting objects- or even if she is saying the alphabet while pointing- she'll just skim her fingers along and not actually apply the letternumber/object/ to what she is saying- yet you show her a letter or number and she will name it. I just think I need to spend more time with her on it. SO yesterday we got out some math manipulatives and a 100's chart and the made "100"
we also did some cutting & gluing w/ seqencing. Owen struggles with writing so that will be somethong we focus on too. It comes pretty easily to Emma- but even when it doesn't she isn't bothered by that Owen get mad when he can't do something. Today we'll spend some time with numbers again. I also want to start writing our San Diego book. I have all the pictures in those clear plastic sleeves, The kis will now tell me what wedid & I'll pint it for the book.

We took the kids to see the new house last weeked. Owen loved the kids room with the "magic door". The bookshelf in the picture is on a hinge and opens. We plan on dry-walling the space and adding lights for the kids- they will have thier own hide out. (or as owen calls it "magic room").

We've started filling out the endless papers for buying the house- yeesh-at least one tree was lost ! I look forward to the process being over!

Friday, March 10, 2006

The Best Present!
I couldn't have asked for a better birthday gift! We got the hous! There were moments of worrry for a while that it was not going to appraise high enough. It did- we are going to inspect it today. I am just sooooo happy!!!!

I feel as though I rarely comment on school here so before I go let me share this little story. I had an appointment with a nutritionist Wednesday for Evan. It was at 1pm. We go downto the room I took out the folder of worksheets that I always have in my bag, some crayons and the L-max. Evan was asleep in the stroller, Olivia sat happily or nursed and Emma and Owen sat quietly and worked. It was so nice! I'm sure she assumed they were doing "homework", she never asked about school, but I love when my kids are so well behaved! I've been thinking a lot lately about bringing more formality to our days- we'll see. Funny how that scares me!

Comments

Friday, March 10, 2006 - YIPPEEEEEE
Posted by pixmum
Congratulations! And happy birthday, girl!
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Saturday, March 11, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 4boys4me
Congrats on the house!!
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Tuesday, March 7, 2006

Finally!
It really feels like forever since I've last blogged! Having Ben home for the week or so while he was recovering was great- but I did lose a lot of my computer time somehow. His knee is doing great, he is on the bike right now actually. The great thing about having him home injured was that he had to relax and sor t of just hang with us which was soooooo nice.

The biggest news of all is that we put a bid in on a house- there were a few back & forth counters but the family really likes us so WE GOT IT!!! Our first home (well the first that we will own anyway)! It should get apprased tomorrow and then we do the home inspection Thursday. Escow closes on the 28th of April. I am a little nervous about the house being a 2 staory. I have never in my life lived in one. I lived on the second floor of an apartment with Ben in our first few years of marriage, but living space was all on one level. and we only had the dogs for most of our time there. The stairs are wood too, so that I guess will have to get adapted so little feet wearing socks wont slip. The yard has space for us to put a swingset/climber thingy and there is a garden area just waiting for me to dig up. I want to grow veggies with the kids this summer. I can't wait to figure out where all our homeschool stuff will go- there is a room downstairs that will be a guest room- we're thinking that it will also be our space for housing school stuff. Ben will have to commute May & June to Los Angeles, but both those months he has a pretty relaxed schedule. He starts his new job July 5th.

We've also finally gotten somewhere with Evan & his poop. While I'd love to cheer- it has been hard. he is just very limited right now. This does not go over too well. But we are getting somewhere so that is a plus.

We started back up with gymnastics today- I hate the time but it was all tha twas open. Our last month with them will be a better time I hope. they kids are happy though- they love it & they love the teacher. (so do I). The director also said that we could do the doger pre game show again in July even though we won't actually be members of the team. YAY! We did it last July and it was soooo cool. I'd never even been to a game before so it was neat to actually gt right on the field! we stayed for part of the game, but Emma didn't like that part- she is not into loud.

I've meen meaning to reply to comments- let's see- Maria- we went to Garden Grove I thingk? Near Kaiser off the 5? something like that. She was a gereat doc- very helpful.

Jenny- you are so right about the "starter house"!!!! no way would we fit into what the paper calls a "great first time buyer" home!!! LOL!

Thanks to everyone for your P&PT- it means a lot!

Comments

Wednesday, March 8, 2006 - Yay
Posted by pixmum
Man, I've been waiting for a new entry in your blog, but I figured you'd be busy with Ben at home recuperating. : )

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!! on the house. That is SO awesome. (confetti in the air, cheers abound)

Garden Grove? You were getting closer to me! Ah, well ...

Glad to hear Evan is doing better. Hugs to him.

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Wednesday, March 8, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by hsmomof3
Congratulations on the house!!!! I know you've got to be so excited!

~Kris
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Friday, March 10, 2006 - Saying hello
Posted by daddysgirls
I just ran across your blog and wanted to say hello.
You have the sweetest kids :) We have a new little
one in the house as well, she is about to turn 5 months
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Tuesday, March 7, 2006

Olivia's 4 month scrap
I finally got around to finishing it- I used a kit called "A Little Love" by Christine Nash.   

For those that have asked: I do digital scrapbooking. For now I usually scrap in 12x12 size, I'm able to get them printed at Costco for a great price. I occasionally do 8x10 too.I never (ok rarely) make my own stuff, I have several friends that do designing & I occasionally buy stuff. There are also lots of free kits out there (like stuff from the Shabby Princess- who made the kit I used for my latest background.)

Comments

Wednesday, March 8, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by hsmomof3
How sweet!!
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Monday, March 6, 2006

Another Shabby Princess background
Love her new "Splendid" kit- I can't wait to scrap w/it. big news coming later tonight- plus all the gegular stuff- I am soooooooooo behind! gotta clean the house now while Liv is asleep-

Comments

Tuesday, March 7, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 4boys4me
I love, love, love your new template! Did you do the pictures yourself? Great job!!!
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Tuesday, February 21, 2006

All went well!
Ben is home and doing great. I have a HUGE fear of anesthesia- Probably could fall into the phobia relm uf unreasonable. it is more with myself I've found - though I was scared beyond it all waiting to hear from Ben this moring. Anyhow his knee looks good= turns out there was no tearing, but there was some flaps or something that could have been causeing the pain- so thingsgot cleaned up and shaved off and hopefully he will be pain free.

I talked with my ped yesterday about Evan and she asked if we wanted a second opinion from the GI doc that used to be in LA but has now moved to OC. Ben knows her so I waited to talke to him about it. The DOc we saw is just not as aggressive as we'd like and the OC doc is very aggressive. SO Ben called her and she was happy to shcedule us in. We go on Friday morning. SHe metioned all sorts of test that the first doc did not do, so it makes me feel better that Dr.N wants to find a dx not just wait and see what effect something has on another. Evan is back to his crancky self- he has also complained about belly pain- and usually has a BM shortly there after- and yup somthing surely must have crawled in and died. *sigh* I can't wait until Friday- I can't feed the poor kid anything- have you ever really looked at how much food we consume that has fructose- then we've cut out the lactose as well- honestly if we have to cut glueten- I don't know what I'll do!

As for school- well Owen is really starting to get into writing. he is asking how to spell this or that or he'll just sit down and write all our names down- he doesn't know how to spell Olivia yet but he can do everyone else. Emma is really developing her drawing skills- her renditions of Peep, Quack & Chirp (characters fromthe show Peep on TLC) are reall good. She love to draw adn paint. so far her painting is still more of a scribble style- she doesn't really try to control waht the watercolor does. She uses too much water on her brush so I think that shejust doesn't even bother to try and contain the picture.

Speaking of Emma, she lost another tooth.  popped right out this morning.

We went house hunting this last weekend- it sure looks like it is going to be a time consuming process. We did find two houses we loved, two that we liked and several that were just not right for us. Hard for me to believe that our time is up here in LA. YAY!

here's a layout I did yesterday of Evan- I need to do Olivia's 4 month scrap.

Image hosting by Photobucket
Comments

Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by hsmomof3
Very cool layout! I am so jealous of you for being able to do that. I'm glad you're going to a new doc for Evan. Hopefully, she'll find something that the other doc didn't...and quickly! It's good to hear that Ben's surgery went well.
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Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - Yay!
Posted by pixmum
I totally kept Ben in prayers yesterday, and I am happy to hear that he's doing well. Hurrah! Here's hoping he'll be pain-free for a long, long time.

And I hope your little guy gets everything worked out soon. Where in OC will you be?

Have fun with the house-hunting. That sounds like a good time, so exciting!
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Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - OMGoodness, you've had a busy week!
Posted by jennyberm
Wow, I take a long weekend off from reading blogs and look what happens! I'm glad Ben's surgery went well and I will definitely be thinking of Evan on Friday. Nothing worse than a non-diagnosis. Oh, and congrats on the house hunt! It so weird to become a "first time buyer" so late in our families' development, isn't it. All those "starter homes" that won't even fit what's in your garage much less your kids, lol. Good luck with it all. :-)
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Friday, February 24, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Deblily
Hi there. Do you do digital scrapbooking? It's so wonderful.
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Monday, February 20, 2006

P&PT please
If you could all send your positive thoughts and prayers our way. Ben is having a knee surgery tomorrow morning. He's had a bad knee for years and has finally decided to do something about it. He should be done by noon tomorrow and the recovery shouldn't be more than a few days but he'll be in lots of pain by Wednesday.

We are also still trying to figure out Evan's poop. We have tried a lactose free diet- no change - and now a fructose free diet. it seemed to be working- then yesterday things started heading back to "normal"- meaning 3-5 nasty watery-something crawled up there and died- poos/day. I want to cry. Those 3-4 days with regular once a day solid poos- he was a happier, mellower kid- yes- Evan has a mellow side- who knew? He was less moody and just seemed so much happier. I think he has had a lot of abdominal pain over his little life- or at least lots of uncomfy moments. So as we struggle with this journey please keep use in your thoughts. We are working with both our pediatrician and ped GI doc on this
Comments

Monday, February 20, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by hsmomof3
Prayers have been said for Ben and for Evan. I hope that all goes well with Ben's surgery and that you figure out what's going on with poor Evan soon.
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Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - Prayers
Posted by
Meesh,

Ben is in my prayers on this Tuesday morning. Keep me posted on how he's doing.

Hugs to you and yours,
Maria

p.s. And I'm praying that you find out how to best help Evan. Poor poopy little guy ...

Edited by pixmum on Tuesday, February 21, 2006 at 8:47 AM
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Sunday, February 19, 2006

Favorites?

A few days ago Ben had a conversation with a co-worker about kids. The worker either was taking about his/herown kids or a friends- but anyhow they commented about having favorites. I just couldn't imagine that. This person (or his friend) actually did admit tohaving a favorite. How? I look at my kids and certainly have favorite things that I love about each of them- things that make them so uniquely "them". But in no way could I possibly love or favor one of them over another. Ben & I talked about it and talked about eachof our kids and what we love about them. Later I came here to do some catching up & I read this post by my friend Maria. She wrote just exactly how I was feeling- especially regaurding my little spirited one Evan. It brought made me cry - aside form the fact that the writing is so beautifully done- the story hits home- really hits home. I made Ben read it too- and he feels the same.

Friday, February 17, 2006

Ashes & Snow
This is an exhibit that is near us right now- my homeschool group is trying to put together a field trip- After looking at the pictures I think I may have to see if we can go..... the photographs are beautiful.

http://www.ashesandsnow.org/

Comments

Friday, February 17, 2006 - Beautiful
Posted by pixmum
Those photographs are gorgeous. Man, I wish we could go, but the drive is so faaaaar (said in a whiny tone). I hope it works out that you can go, though, and then blog all about it! = )
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Friday, February 17, 2006

half a pregnancy
It just boggles my mind sometimes how fast time goes by. Ben will be starting his new job soon- which means we well be moving north about an hour. We are all sooooo excited. I was figuring out how long until His first day with the new group & his first day as an "attending" doctor instead of a resident or fellow. As it turns out Wednesday marked exactly 20 weeks to that day. It made me laugh be cause much of our 7 year marriage can be measured in pregnancy. I told ben that he was half a pregnancy away from starting. LOL! We will be buying our first home in this time (ifngers crossed anyway) and the kids will be moving fromthe only home they remember. I know they are excited to move, because they know we are moving to where all thier grandparents live, but I don't thinkg they've totally connceted that that means we will be leaving our neighbors and friends here. THey absolutly adore my neighbor. Good thing is that we are not so far that they will be out ofour lives, but I think Owen especially will be sad.

Yesterday we drove down to CM to visit my uncle/godfather whom I haven't seen him since I left Philadelphia. He was at a conference for work. It was great to see him- I am still in shock as to how old his kids are now- they are sort of burned into my memory as being 9 years old- and logically I knew they aged- but to hear that his son is in his first year of college and his girls are 15- WOW!! Maria I thought of you as I drove through your hood- on a non traffic drive we're really not too far! we should figure out what is between us and have a playdate. The kids were well behaved- the hotel he was staying in had these glass elevators- so we of course had to ride up and down them several times. You'd think we were at an amusement park!

Evan is on his 4th day or so of a fructose free diet- What a difference it has made! He has gone from having 4-8 BM's a day to 1 yesterday. His rash is all but gone, and I swear he doesn't seem as cranky as usual. So we think he may have a fructose malobsorbtion problem- which will be much easier to live with than Hereditary Fructose Intolorence- which would mean no sugars at all- nothing- ever. (they both have similar symptoms) with malobsorbsion we will just need to find his threshold. some fruits will be out completley (likey apples which will be hard for him- he loves apples!) and all fruit juice- (that's gong to be fun at birthday parties!!) we'll have to see how it goes. I'm taking him to his ped on Monday just to keep her in the loop- I had appointments for Liv & Emma that day anyway. Emaa is due for her yearly thryroid fuction test- I hate to do it to her-but it must be done. And poor Liv will be getting shots.

We bough a n exercise bike last night-Ben used it yeaterday- I am going to give it a go later today. I can't wait to get going on it!

Ok it is 745 am and Evan is still asleep- even Liv is up an on my lap right now- ohhh I hope this is the start of a new sleep pattern!! Emma was up at 630- but she will play quietly until we get up so it's not a big deal.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

The 4 Valentines....

Comments

Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 4boys4me
Your kids are gorgeous Meesh!!! I especially love that second picture where Evan (?) has his head thrown back laughing. They all look so happy. :) And the weather there is gorgeous too!!! We have snow on the ground but not enough to enjoy. It's just enough to make a mess!
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Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - KUH-YOOOOOT
Posted by pixmum
Those kids are so adorable. Goodness, what cutie patooties.

And I loved reading about your San Diego trip. We love SD and would live there if not for how $$$$$ everything is. But it's an awesome overnight (a few hours) trip for us. So nice ... walking at Seaport Village, lunch at Anthony's Grotto, etc. I heard they were redoing the kids museum there .... Did you check it out?

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Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Thanks Tamara!
I love your Grungy Love Kit!  Makes for a perfect February blog!

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Happy Valentines day!
From 3 of my 4 little cuties!
Comments

Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Steph
What an ADORABLE picture !
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Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by boogaloog
Too cute!!
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Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - Awwwwwwwww!
Posted by jennyberm
What a great Valentine! (Except for the Dodger shirt, of course! Let's go, GIANTS!)

Monday, February 13, 2006

So much to blog- so little time
I'm going to start with our San Diego trip. All in all we had a great time. I wasn't sure whow it would go given that Ben would be in conference most of the time. We stayed at the Sheraton on Harbor Island- this was where the conference was held. The room was nice- clean but a tad small- though I guess with 6 of us on room with two beds is always gonna seem tiny. we got a crib for evan, Emma & Owen shared one queen and Olivia slept with Ben & I. the bathroom was particularly small- watchout if you were sitting and somone opened the door! But it was clean asn fresh smelling- no smoke at all. We were on the ground floor so it was easy to come and go. The kids also could run around on the grass outside our sliding glass door.

We got in Thursday lat afternoon. the drive down was relatively painles, not much traffic and the kids took a tap or played with some of the toys I packed. WE relized half way there that we should have brought Ben's laptop, we probably wouldn't have used it in the car but in the room for movies. Next time! Once we got settled in our roomit was just aobut time for dinner. We were told that all of the restaurants were "casual" dining. the restaurant we choose-in the hotel- did have a kids menu- but I don't know that I'd call anything else about it casual. Emma & Owne are easy in resstaurnts- Evan is fine as long as he is eating. The sevice was jpretty slow in mopinion- and they put us off in a corner (which I understan and appreciate- but just don't forget about us). It was by far our most expensive mieal- but we decided going into this we weree not going to look back at money and regret. Most of this was paid for , so what came out of picket was minimal. Anyhow that first night we went to bed pretty early, the kids kept to thier regular routine for the most part.

Friday morning I went to check out the breakfast scene. The food provided for the conference goers was ok- but not enough for my crew. I hit the cafe and we ate in the room. I then gathered up the crew and we went for a walk. we looked at the pool, the fountains the boats in the harbor. the SD airport is nearby so we saw many large planes taking off- Evan loved that. WE found a small cafe weher I got a mocha (the in room coffe was not too great). Evan and Emma both took a bite out of some apples before I could stop them- so I bout a couple of apples! LOL! After that I needed to go to our car- while there Emma & Owen were jumping from the street(where the car was parked inthe lot) over some mud up a curb. jumping from the cub proved to be easier. On her 2nd jump back up the curb Emma missed and caught her foot on the curb. SHe face planted into the wheel of the stroller. she has a little bleeding on her lip and a little red mark on the outside under her lip but that was it-- or so I thought. When we got back to the hotel I looked at her lip again and it looke a little swollen so I got some ice form the bar. Back in the room we got in our bathing suits and hit the pool. The kids had a great time- but the air was really not warm enough for the level of swimming they are at. Emma can swim- but still likes to go between me and the side. Own like to sit on the stpes and go under water. Evan loves to be in the water but I have to hold him. I left Olivea in the stroler for as long as possible. WEh both the boys were shaking (since they are the least active in the pool) we went to the hot tub. There I took Livi in. She loved it. it felt great on my back too so it was nice. we only stayed in for a short time though- lunch was calling and I was hungry. It was back in the room that I glanced at Emma and thought her bottm tooth looked a little more crooked than I remembered. Lo & behold she knocked her tooth loose. She kept fiddleing with it- - she is a very oral kid to begin with. When Ben cam in for lunch he checked it out nad tested ti to see if he could pull it out. He decided against it. Turns out he should have tried. some time durng her luch she swallowed it. So we took a picture of it to put under her pillow for the tooth fairy. We hadn't even begun to talk about bout that whole thing- since none of her teeth were loose prior to this fall. Now the two teeth on either side of the gap are also loose- but not nearly as much as the one. SO we have now entered the world of lost teeth and tooth fairy's.

Friday was also the beginings of bad bootie rash for Evan. He has always had a tough time with bootie rash- and this is a whole nother blog- but I will just say that the poor kid had it BAD all weekend. he didn't want his diaper changed because it hurt too much- even using a warm washcloth insted of a wipe. We have tried a lactose free diet with him- that did not make a difference so this week we are eliminating all fruit and fructose and tomatoes. (we came to this logically based on history and my suspicions.) I also have an appointment to talk to his ped again about it.

Satyrday we met wiyj my dad's aunt & uncle. His ant took us to th zoo- which u have to say I was surprisingly impressed with. I am just not a zoo fan- I live less than 10 min from the LA zoo- & have yet to go. I think we'll go back to the SD zoo though- it was really neat, Huge too.The kids had fun- Emma had a sweet expirence with an orangutan. He was walking along the glass- stopped in front of her and put his hand to hers on the glass. the he smoothed his hair as if he was trying to look good for her. it was cute- and she was thrilled.

After the zoo we went to B&D's house which is practcally on the beach. We took the kids first to the bay side beach- they loved playing in the sand. Wethen walked over to the ocean side where they played inthe sand some more! Owen can look at the pictures I took and tell you if it is at the bay or the ocean!

Owen had a bit of an ephiany with reaidng Saturday night. He could read the word "bat" - he wrote it for me then read it so I then wrote a few other "at" words for him- he read them all and you could see how cool he though tit was to have figured it out! I don't doubt he will be reading soon! I need to do 100 easy lessons with him- it is just his style.

Sunday brought a close to Ben's conference and Evan was my little helper when taking things to the car. Emma and Owen "babysat" Olivia while she slept and Evan & I loaded the car. I could see the room door the whole time but they felt quite grown up to be left "alone" like that. Once ben was done we went back to B& D's nad went to lunch. OUr Dirve home was a bit longer- the kids stayed awake for it all too so they were bouncing off the walls by the time we got here. We had to stop half way through because Evans bootie hurt so bad-he had pooed again and his rash was so bad at this pint he was bleeding and had some raissed hives. I feel sooooo bad for him!!!

I guess that is the basics of our trip= I took lots of pictures and just got them back for Costco- tomorrow mornig the kids and I are going to make a travel journal of the trip- complete with pictures. I'm just going to use a 3 ring binder and page protectors- I don't want to get too caught up in "scrapping" it. I just want to get the info and pictures in a book for the ASAP so they can "read" about thier trip.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Adventures galore!
Whew! Well, we got back from a 4 day trip to San DIego. Ben had a conference there Friday thru Sunday, so we all tagged along to enjoy the sun & get away from our everyday life. I have to say that I think this will by far be one of the best advantages to our homeschooling. Ben will have the option and need to go to these things at least once or twice a year- and there are conferences all over the place (just got a mailing for one in Utah-ohhh I wish we could go!!) We will be able to travel with him and truely turn living life into a living school. We had multiple schoolish adventures in the last four days...... I want to head off to bed soon- I am uploading photos into my costco account so I can pick them up tomorrow- that should be done inthe next 15 monutes or so- so I will blog here untill then and finsh our adventure tomorrow. I will first say that in case you were wondering- YES I did get that pile o'laundry folded and put away. however I now have 4 days worth in suitcases ready to be washed..... it really never ends does it?

Let me also mention that I got to take the girls (my dd & our friends dd) to thier ballet class on Wednesday. My friend had something come up and she really needed to take care of it- so I offered to take them- I was really happy to do so too- I got some really cute pictures and it was fun to see all the little girls being so girly! I felt bad that we had to leave Owne behind though- he went next door, and I'm sure he had fun, but It still was kind of a bummer. I wish Evan was more willing to stay behind- then I wouldn't have felt so bad. Owen was good about it though- there just isn't room in our car for more than 4 kids. So that was part of our Wednesday, the rest of our Wednesday was made up of making shadow puppets (both E & O cut out rocket ships that they drew & taped a pipecleaner to them to then use in their puppetshow stage) they were calling them shadow puppets, but we never got around to actually creating a shadow. We also read more from our Magic tree house book - and lame-o me forgot it for our trip to SD- DOH! bad mom- brought toys but not one book!! anyhow we also read 3 or so other books. Well looks like ore SD adventure will have to wait till later- photos are done & I am beat-

Tuesday, February 7, 2006

Monday& Tuesday
Yesterday (monday) as I was drinking my morning coffee and reading my usual stuff on the computer (blogs and a few messageboards) my kids were in the morning play mode. I really enjoy watching them play. The early morningis when they are usually the most cooporative with one another and they seem to get the most inventive too. So the latest thing they came up with (this is the older two) is what I will call "math hockey". So cool to see them using numbers and measurements in their playtime with nothing from me- this was all thiers. My sister gave them some kid sized ice hockey sticks a few years back- they are not really meant to go on the ice- they are more commemorative type ones. She used to work for Aramark.

This was in Denver and she was there when the Av's won the Stanley Cup. She also sent us two real pucks- one was a Stanly cup/Avalanche one and one was a Flyers (Philadelphia team for those of you non hockey folks- which includes us for the most part! LOL!) That is Emma[s since she was born in Philly. ANyhow, our flors are all tile, the squares are 12x12 inches (my guess). They would stand at one end of the largest area of just tile (we have a couple of area rug) and whack the puck.then they'd count how many squares it would go. Owen has a much better grasp on the whole relationship of counting and what it means exactily. Emma gets it in small numbers but can't be bothered to actually make a relationship between item and number once it jets past 5 or so unless I force her to slow down. So they were having a great time just whacking and counting. Owen was commenting that he hit it farther when it went 17 squares vs the previous hit which took the puck 15 squares. I know I could have taken this all further with them- and maybe I should have, but they were have too much fun and I just could stop the flow. Plus I was in the middle of my coffee- how could I put that down!! LOL!! Later in the afternoon when both Evan and Olivia were asleep we got out thier "special stones" (I'll have to talk about them in detail in another entry) we counted how many they each had then did some skip counting by 2's and some simple addition and subtraction. It was great for Emma becasue I could force her to slow down and touch each stone for each number. I also had them do a lottle work on thier writing. I just had them work on the letters in their own names. Emma always pusts 4 lines on her E so that was her main focus and Owen often writes his N backwards. Evan sat between them and scribbled! Our friends J & D came over to paly for a while- they all had a blast. WE all then packed up and went to a nearby park wehre local homeschooleres (who are a part of the bigger hs group we belong to) meet on monday nights for a potluck dinner. J&D are hs'd too. so they ran around the park nad had a good time. there were no boys Owen's age though- two were 8ish and he really wnated to play with them and they did a bit- but they would tend to forget his size and age so we had some tears. None of it was intentionally mean or anything though.

Today we went up to my moms house. The kids love playing there and they got to see both sets of grandparents so that was nice. I can't say we did anything particularly schoolish- but then again they did discover a magnifying glass and played with that dows that count? They listened to 4 princess stories in the car onthe way there- Emma got a book that came with a CD for her birthday and we've been meaning to bring it in the car- we finally remembered.

I got a really nice eamil from a friend today. She was a member of the playgroup I'm in- actually she is the reason I'm even a part of that group. I met her in a local mall and she invited me in. I am thankful for that every day! She and her family moved away in the last year, but she still has family here and was recently out for a visit and made it to a playgroup and a "mom's night out". The last line of her email just made my day and really just made me feel so good- she has a way fo doing that too- she is really a kindhearted person, I miss seeing her on Tuesdays.

She said "Sometimes when I get stressed out with the kids and the house I think "How would Michelle handle this".
You are an inspiration of calmness."

Really she just made my day. They all (my playgroup friends) think I am so calm- and mostly I guess I am, I have a lot of patience, I get that from my dad, and I am very laid back (wonder why unschooling is so appealing to me??) but really I sometimes wish they could be a fly on the wall here. I have my crazy mom moments like everyone else. Then again, maybe it's best that they don't se that side of me- I don't like myself too much when it happens- I doubt anyone else would either. There are many things I aspire to be- more organized being at the top of that list. I think my laid- back-ness often gets in the way of my organization. I do know how to organize and I do try- but sometimes I just don't do what I need to do when I have the opportunity to do it. I've been sitting here tyoping for at lest an hour- my couch is still covered in laundry. ahhh welll. I will get it folded tomorrow- I have to right?

Re: Comments
Maria- We do have much in common don't we! I sure wish we lived closer to one another! The book I was reading was Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner
It was a pretty good book though I plan to comment on that further next chance I get to blog.  I'm going to go to bed now!

Sunday, February 12, 2006 - Cool Blog Title!!
Posted by Youngwife
Very imaginitive!!! Also very interesting to read!! I'll be back to see how it all goes down!!! If it is like my house, it usually all goes down at once!!! =D
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Tuesday, February 7, 2006

I've been tagged!
What were you doing 10 years ago? 1996, I was in my last semester of college (Chico State baby!)- doing all the leg work to get into the teaching credential program. It was in march of that year that I found my dog Daisy wandering along a busy street with another dog- she was 5 moths old. I found the oweners and it turned out they were trying to find a home for her. She is a german shepard and such a great doggy! hard to believe she's 10 years old now!

What were you doing 1 year ago? I was nursing my 10 monthould- 7 days away from finding out I was pregnant AGAIN! (I took the HPT on Valentines day) Other than that I was doing much of the same- playing on the computer, learning the art of digiscrap and being a mom to my 3 kidlets.

Five snacks you enjoy: most anything crunchy & salty- so pick most any five from that - chips, pretzel, chex mix, Utz Pub mix, and I do love the occasional chocolate chip cookie or peanutbutter cookie.

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics: Twinkle twinkle, itsy bitsy spider-
oh you mean grown up songs? If the song is playing- I can sing along to Best of You- Foo Fighteres, Just Another Girl- From Sattelite, Madonna, Oingo Boingo, bunch of Metallica songs,

Five bad habits: Sitting at the computer too long, not folding laundry when I have the time to (like now- killing two birds with one stones here- not good!)staying up way too late (usually at the puter or occasionaing the TV- last night it was a good book though)

Five things you like doing: reading, digiscrapping, taking pictures, being home with my kids, spending time with Ben ALONE! and spending time all by myself

Five things you would never wear, buy or get again: satiny shirts that show every little roll on my tummy, high heels (well, Iwould wear them if I had to but I can't even remember the last time I wore pumps), hmmmmI'm sure there are others.....

Five favorite toys: Computer, Ipod, Camera, Ben (hee hee), anything with buttons and a computer chip is fair game!

Six people I'm tagging:(and If you're tagged already, sorry!)

Jennyberm
4boys4me
hsmomof3
vegiemama
pixmum

Comments

Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 4boys4me
your bad habits sound a lot like MY bad habits. LOL
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Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - hello!
Posted by t4jesus
I wanted to introduce myself--I am new to this blogging thing! I see we have some interests in common! Visit my blog sometime if you'd like and say hi!
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Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by pixmum
Wow, Chico State is way up there. And soooooo hot. (My best friend lives in Chico.) And that's cool that you're an actual teacher.

Mmmm, salty snacks. And good books. And computer-y toys. Hey, we've got a lot in common, Meesh. What book were you reading that kept you up late?

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Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Cynthia
I'm glad I'm not the only one with DH as a toy ;)
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Saturday, February 4, 2006

ho hum
Love the quiet of the house at night sometimes! We had a fun day of just being a family today. I left for a bit to get buy dog food- took Liv and left the rest with Ben. After gettting the food I dropped itin my car and wandered upstairs to Nordstrom Rack- I went up there once with the 3 big kids when I was pg with Liv- never again. First of all you have to take an escalator or a teeny tiny elevator up. Then once in the store it is so crammed with racks you can't push a stroller around. So today I just went up and peacefullly walked around. I didn't buy a thing, but I did find a very cool clutch type purse that I would love in purple- for a mere $200!!!! what a deal huh? the retail price was close to $400!!! Yikes. After that I walked down to B&N and got a mocha and pretzel. There was another mom there with a baby who looked to be Liv's size- turns out she was a month and a half- big girl! the mom was a first time mom and we chatted for a bit. in the end we were both good for eachother's self esteem. I encouraged her and let her know she would be find & get the hang of it all- she'd gain confidence in her role as "mom". She was visibly relieved- anothor mom (of 5) had very recently told her the same thing. She in turn complemented me on how "together & hip" I looked. I had Liv in my Maya pouch and I had a pink stripped diaper bag (that I got for 3 bucks on sale at Target!) but it looks very trendy. "together & hip" are two words I rarely, if ever, associate with myself- it felt kinda good.

all & all a nice day-

I'd add more but Liv just woke so I am now typing one handed- lefty at that....

Comments

Monday, February 6, 2006 - you hip momma you
Posted by pixmum
How cool to be considered hip! ;-)

And it sounds like you had a neat exchange with that lady. New moms need so much encouragement ... at least, I know that I did.

p.s. Say, are you suffering from these killer smoky winds like we are? YIKES.
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Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by itsmeesh
We did have some smoke and ash yesterday- but the wids were mellow. good thing since we were outside much of yesterday!
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Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - Tag!
Posted by Cynthia
Tag! You're it! (see my blog)
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Friday, February 3, 2006

ouch

Nope I just don't believe anygood can come of thiswhole exercise craze. Ok well I'm a little better today- I can almost turn my head normally. And I can breath with out it hurting. yeesh- makes me feel prety darn wimpy to have such pain from something as simple as dancing whilde flying a n11 lb baby through the air. I mean for two years in my life I swam over 5 miles a day- yes a day! An injury like this makes me really want to get back in the water and swim. I know it would stretch out the knots nicely. I would acutally go do it except that Owen is coughing again adn has a runny nose- so he can't go in the day care.

Owen is such a sensiive kid- he feels so much for others. The kids watched Ice Age this morning for the 100th time- but it has been several minths since the last viewing. when the mom disaapears- he turned to me with his chin slighlty quivering and fighting tears and said " Mom that is kind of sad isn't it?" So much more insight now than even 2 months ago. He wanted to cry at the end of the movie as well when they had to leave the baby with the dad. I cry at the drop of a hat- so I know that much of this comes from me. I wonder how this sensitivity would bode in a brick & mortar school setting. Not well with bullies I know- we've already seen that with a playgroup playmate.

The boy across the street was taken to the hospital today. I don't know what happened- he looked pretty lethargic on the gurney. No one was frantic so I can only assume that means he wasn't in major distress, but still very sice. He is a sweet little boy- though our first expieriences with him were shakey. My assumption of him right from the start was that he had some cognitive delays- and social. he looks to be around 9 or 10 but his behavior is much younger. He called the neighbor kids next to use some prety bad names- but I suspect he has no clue what they really mean. he also exposed himself to one of the girls- but again- I don'tthink his intent was any more than maybe to say he had to go to the bathroom or maybe it was some thing else- but I don't think it was sexual. he would also get these hard berry like seedsfrom a palm tree fill a bucket with them and throw them across the street at the kids next door. I would tell him in spanish not to throw them- I suspected he spoke primarily spanish & some ienglish since he went to school every day. Boy did he make the nastiest faces at me! However- what he was really doing was trying to figure out how to interact with all of us- he just didn'tknow how. eventually hebegan coming across the street with his scooter and eventually he stopped throwing things. Now he fills his backpack with toys (all much too young for his physical age) and comes over to play with my litlle ones. I don't let him out of my eyesight- but he really is sweet and obviously innocent. He is left alone fare to often- or in the care of a girl who is maybe 12. Lately it seems as though his mom(?) is around more. She has to be out front when his bus drops him off or the driver will not leave him. So anyhow he was taken away today- the kids were all eating at the kitchen table and saw the firetruck and paramedics pull up- so we said a prayer for him together and then had some interesting disscussion about being sick and hurt and death- I really hate talking about death- I know they are too young to understand the finality of it- and they havenot expierenced it first hand. My sensitive Owen- I worry about it with him with all of them- but especially him. Well I'm on huby's laptop sitting on my porch- the weather is just awsome- in the low 80's- Evan just woke up. I hope he is a better mood than this morning. What a grump. Course if he'd just sleep until 7 or 730 I know he'd be much happier. Course if Emma would get up a 530 and wake him up in the processwe al be a lot happier. She goes through phases like this and it makes me nutso. They have a digital clock and I have told the big kids that the rule is after the first number turns 7- but she forgets to look. I wouldn'tmind 630 or 645, but 5 or 530- UGH!!! What the heck is so hard about staying in be longer? I marvel at some of you who haveto actually wake your kids up. what time do they go to bed - if you tell me 8 I'll cry. Mine are in bed by 8 every night- rarely later and often earlier. he longest they have eer slept in is 730. Owen would sleep longer if not for the other two. Emma would get up at 530 everyday if I let her.

Comments

Saturday, February 4, 2006 - Oh, I feel for you!
Posted by jennyberm
My DD was up every two hours last night! She's been going through these nightmarey phases lately and just won't sleep. Luckily, she'll finally pass out for good at about 5 and then sleep until 8 or so. But on a good day, when she's slept all night, she's often up before the sun. I try to make her lay in bed with me until 7, but then she just spends the whole time poking me instead, lol. It's just the principle of the thing though - I refuse to get up before 7! ;)

Oh, and I keep meaning to ask you... how old is Emma? You have 1/06 listed as her birthdate in your profile. Somehow, I have my doubts that a one month old can go to ballet by herself. ;)
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Saturday, February 4, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by itsmeesh
LOL! I agree with the 7am principle! I keep trying! today was a good day- they all got up at 658!

oops on Emma's date! she was born in 2000- so she just turned 6. Guess I'll have to fix that!
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Monday, February 6, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 4boys4me
Your early risers would kill me. The main reason I decided to homeschool was so I wouldn't have to get up to get the kids to school in the mornings. Well, okay... not the main reason but I do count it as one of many advantages! LOL I try to have the boys in bed around 9pm but that doesn't always happen and Adam will read in bed for a half hour before he goes to sleep. They usually get up between 8 and 9am. The rule is that they play quietly in their rooms and not bother me until 9am! "Quietly" doesn't always happen but they've never been up as early as 5 or 6. Yikes!
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Thursday, February 2, 2006

And they say it is good for you!
Hump! I turned on the music yesterday and danced around the house with the kids- we spent 20 minutes or so getting our heart rate up and having fun. somehow I managed to pull or otherwise injure something between my shoulder blades. It hurts to breath deep, turn my head, bend, sit, stand you name it. Oh well - at least PE was totally covered yesterday.

We went to our park day today- the kids had a blast. I enjoyed chatting with my friend S & meeting a few more moms. Evan is getting very independant these days which is nice.

Yesterday Emma had her first ballet class. S took her- her daughter J is in the class. It was the first time she went off and did something without me or her brother. so weird. She loved it and she and J were telling everyone they were ballet sisters & best friends. too cute. Sadly she has to miss next week b/c of a dental appointment I made long ago. Owen was sad to see her go- but he tried hard to be a sport about it. he kept asking when they'd be back. I showed him on the clock- he is very into trying to tell time these days so this was good for him.

Who keeps putting thier dirty clothes in my hamper anyway??? I do it every day and I have yet to see the bottom of my hamper- does it even have one?

Owen started coughing yesterday- no runny nose, fever or anything else jsut a very chesty cough. I don't know where that came from and I hope it goes away fast and the rest of us bypass it all together. ugh if I had to cough right now with this pain-
I'd be crying.
Friday, February 3, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 4boys4me
I have one of those never ending laundry hampers too. Four kids can fill up a hamper in a single day. Ughh! Laundry is my nemisis. ;o)
Hope you're feeling better after the dance-a-thon!
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Tuesday, January 31, 2006

The Joy of Teaching
Wow- I was a bad blogger this last week! I opened it up to post last Friday- but I guess I got distracted! Before I talk about us I want to share this liitle story. When I taught 6th grade, my 5th grade partner gave itt to me. We taught a a private Catholic school & she was Nun. It doesn't have a credited author & I couldn't find one with a quick google search. It is obviously written for a teacher (classroom/brick&mortar) but I think it is pretty cute and certainly could be related to homeschooling.

The Joy of Teaching
Then Jesus took His disciples up the mountain and, gathering them around, He taught them saying:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the meek.
Blessed are they that mourn.
Blessed are you when persecuted.
Blessed are you when you suffer.
Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is great in heaven.

Then Simon Peter said, "Are we supposed to know this?"
And Andrew said, "Do we have to write this down?"
And James said, "Will we have a test on this?"
And Phillip said, "I don't have any paper."
And Bartholomew said, "Do we have to turn this in?"
And John  said, "The other deciples didn't have to learn this."
And Matthew said, "May I go to the bathroom?"
Then one of the Pharisees who was present asked to see Jesus' lesson plan, and inquired of Jesus, "Where are your anticipatory set and your objectives in the cognitive domain?"

And Jesus wept.

Cute huh?  She got a kick out of it anyway-  our classes of 5th & 6th grades definately sounded like that!

So on to us. Last Wednesday my thoughtful landlord put manure on our lawn. We have no backyard so basically I had to keep the kids inside or away from home. it reeked like nothing else too. Good guy . We had friends coming down from Northern Ca on Saturday too. I took the kids to a new park on Thursday, they had a good time- I just wanted to give them a chance to play outside since they couldn't at our house. WE had a great visit with our friends, their kids and ours had not seen one another since last February when we went up for a visit. Sunday we just couldn't take keeping the kids inside any longer so we went up to my moms house for the day and spent the night. Ben's car ended up breaking down on the way- the altenator went out. So I ened up spending Monday night there as well. Today we went to our playgroup striaght from my moms house. The kids had a great time there and of course I loved it. So easy and relaxing- couldn't have been better really. I went and had our taxes taken care of tonight - yay we got a return! We are going to get a nice exercise bike and put the rest in savings. woo hoo! Tomorrow Emma has her first ballet class, she is so excited!

Comments

Tuesday, January 31, 2006 - ROFL
Posted by pixmum
That story is SO funny. I'm printing it out and sharing it. ROFL

Sounds like you had good visiting time with friends. Neat. Oh, and hey! I emailed you recently, so you may want to check your email. ;-)
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Tuesday, January 31, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by homeschoolhelp
Enjoyed the Joy of Teaching! I've never seen that before. Thanks for posting it!
Blessings,
Dianne
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Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Monday& Tuesday
I don't even remember Monday- hmmmm Let's just talk Tueday for now & maybe Monday will show up in my head later. Yesterday was our weekly playgroup. The orginal plan was to meet at a park, but it has been sooo sindy, East winds, but not really warm the way they sometimes get- just really windy. I voiced a bit of concern about it because Liv has a bit of a cold and I really didn't want to have her outside for 2-3 hours if it was going to be cold and windy. So the mall was picked- but apparently that particular mall has no kids play area so that was vetoed and Chuck E Cheese- everyones favorite place! LOL! I don't think it is anyone's first choice- but the kids maybe- they had a blast- Emma worked up a sweat climbing in the hampster tunnels-so PE was definately covered. Owen had fun with one of the boys they were "rescuing" everyone they could. Evan seemed to enjoy just wandering around watching everything- playing with the occasional ball. We all share tokens and tickets- once we're ready to go we add them all up and divide it by the # of kids playing. So yeterday they got a little math is- they had 35 each to spend which meant they had to choose either 2 form the 15 box or 1 from the 30. Yay for real life math. Dinner was almost ready when we got home- Love that crock pot!! we had a beef roast and I made some rice & green beans and we were good to go.

Ohhh yeah I remember Monday now- I was a walking zombie! SUnday Night Liv had lots of gas and was just not very happy. I was up most of the night holding her. Monday we played outside fo a bit in the morning, but by noon it was sooooo sindy and a bit cold that we stayed inside for the rest of the afternoon. So it is all a bit foggy for me- what did the kids do???? made lots of noise in the house? I don't know- but I sure would have loved a nap. We didn't go to gymnastics- both evan and Liv had snotty noses.

Today I have a housekeeper coming over to give an estemate- I hope it is within our means- I really need the help with the deep cleaning stuff. I was hoping for once a month- imagin my shock when Ben said it would be nice if she could come every two weeks!!! I doubt we can afford that- but what a great thought! So here's the question do we clean before she comes!!!??!! LOL! I figure we'll pick up all the toys. oh and I'll work on mt. laundry. Dishes are done. that's presentable isnt' it? Emma might be taking a ballet class with one of her friends tonight through the rec center- not sure though becasue the girls parents have been sick the last couple of days, but I hope she can go I think she'll love it. My friend offered to come pick her up and take her- how cool is that! Though if she likes it I'll have to go and take some pictures!

Oh man I just realized I forgot that on Monday a group of hsers from the big group we belong to met for potluck. I found out that they meet at the park where the rec center is for potluck every monday night. Next Monday then.

One last thing & I need to go- I want to make some charts and I need to get dressed. I just want to complain about my neighbor who over waters her grass EVERY day. she has no sense of conservation at all- it just bugs the crap out of me. she waters full force with the hose- no attachments and floods the yard. when I water half as much as her my yard gets full of mushrooms- what's up with that. Where's her fungus???? ok - I'm off for now, gotta do shom grocery shopping too- vons.com here I come!!!

Sunday, January 22, 2006

some bad--- but first the good
I could complain - A LOT about my day- maybe I will in a bit- but I first just have to say that Owen (my 4.5 yo) mastered his two wheel bike today!!! I am sooooo proud of him! He has been so scared to ride it on the side walk, he was afraid of falling. When we first took off his traing wheels a few weeks ago, I would push him around on the grass. He wasn't as worried about falling on the grass. it got to where he was getting pretty good at riding onthe grass, but it ws too hard to turn around. So today I just told him that we would take the trainging wheels off, and he was going to try riding on the sidewalk. He immeadiately started to whine about how he didn't want to and that he was scared. Basically I just said "Fine- but you will never learn to ride it on the side walk if you never try it. If you try it, you might fall and it might hurt, but at least you will know that you tried your best. and if you never give it a try- well- then you'll just not need the bike anymore." I also told him that it ws much easier to ride on the sidwalk. (which it is, grass is tough to ride on!) So he said ok and gave it a try. within 10 minutes he was totally on his own!!!! and in that first 10 minutes all I was doing was holding him steady while he got a "feel" for how to push off with the top pedal and balance while finding the other pedal. He is so happy with himslef and feels so good! He could hardly wait to ride his bike again today when we cam home form a birthday party. I think Emma is feeling a little jealous about how proud we are of him. She hasn't really been into her bike since I raised the training wheels on it a while back. I think she wants to give it a try again though. I may have her try to learn on Owen's bike first though- his is smaller so it would feel safer since she could easily place her feet on the ground.

The bad- well I am in two minds right now wondering what, if anything, I should say. My memory is so rotten that in a month I will not even remember the details though I don't imagine I'll forget the issues. I lost it with Emma a couple of times today. She is 6 now. 6. linguistically she tested about 17 mo lower (speech eval) so 4.5 is about her cogniive level in most areas. She started potty training around 3, she really wasn't very interested, but Owen was and when he took off with it (once he turned two-ish). So she joined in with him and sucessfully left her pull ups behind- except that she would have accidents- poopy ones. In the begigning I took it in stride- it was all part of the process- I didn't comepare her to Owen who never once pooped in his pants. But right from the start the feeling of ick- be it #1 or #2 was just not icky to her. Owen hated it so he potty trained quick- in 2 year I don't knowthat he's ever had a daytime potty incident. That first year with Emma was a struggle. then the poops started happening more frequently in the potty. and in the last year or so (yes that would be 2 years of pooping issues) it seemed to finally get under ocntro;. We would often still have to remind her to go- but I wasn't having to deal with gross undies on a weekly-monthly basis. SHe still has semi frequent pee pee acciedents, but that is usually when she is very pre occupied. Since LIv showed up she has gone back tohavign more #2 problems. not too often- but enough to get a bit frustrated. Today she had 3 yes 3 Pooping accidents!!!!! This is a kid who usually has a movement once a day and she decides to have 3 in her pants. I lost it after the 2nd one. Mainly because not 20 min earlier she had the 1st and she sat on the pot for a bit to make sure she was done. I mean eeeewwww yuck! it is just soooo gross. then we went to a party- she played had fun, used the potty, came home and pooped. I do think some of the time she just thinks she's gonna pass some gas and gets a surprise. but ugh! It 's just getting old. So I've been thinking on this and what I've decided to do is make a chart for her and we'l mark it off wice a day: morning and evening. if during each time period she has not had to change her undies for any reason she'll get a happy face or a sticker or something positvie. If not we'll just X the spot. if she has no X's at the end of the evening- she'll get a small treat- probably an m&m or something. I'll expand it as we go- if a week goes by maybe a treat from the ice cream truck? any how I think she needs some visual motivation. But today I just felt so upset with her. Problaby not very rational, and I hate feeling angry. *sigh* I hope someday she comes to the conclusion that it feels gross!

Nw the other bad- this one I'm not so sure I'll really go into. but I will say that I am glad Owen had such a confidence building expierence with his bike. His daddy tells made up stories to him before be and often times he will teach something with his stories. After some things that happened today with Owen, he told a story about two frogs (a green one and a yellow one). (Owen had his reptile/insect/amphibian book out and opened to a random page an told daddy to tell a story about the animails on the page-so frogs it was).

The story was about a green frog who was very nice and like to play with all his friends. He tried hard to be nice more often than not and he tried to share, though occasionally needed some reminders. Then the yellow frog came over to play and was not very nice. The yellow frog would throw things at the green frog and try to hurt him or make him cry. The yellow frog did this to the other little frogs sometimes too. pretty soon the yellow frog didn't have any more friends.

(daddy tells the story with far more detail than this- but you get the idea). So you know what my dear Owen asked? He ask daddy "How did the yellow frog feel?" he was concerned that the yellow frog had no friends. He felt bad for the mean yellow frog who hurt others just because. He is such a sensitive boy and I do not doubt he will grow into a kind and caring man who will cherish and respect his wife. I just hope there aren't too many mean yellow frogs out there to crush his spirit (and just break my heart) .

Comments

Tuesday, January 24, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 4boys4me
YaY for Owen! and sorry about Emma. We had the same problem with Ryan for a long time. He didn't fully master the potty until we got the Playstation. When he started losing video games every time he messed his pants, he started making it to the potty. He didn't care about anything else we took away but Playstation was his trigger - still is!! He'll do, or not do, anything to maintain that hour a day of video games. I hope you can find something that works for Emma - cleaning big kid poop is no fun!! btdt.

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Thursday & Friday's Fun
Thursday we spent the morning here at home. Did some laundry, cleaned up the house a bit, kids played. I packed a picnic lunch and around noon we headed out to the park. Our neighbor J was going with us and the kids were sooooo excited. It was our homeschool park day, and this was the first I have braved since a few months before Liv was born. I had stopped going because summer in Los Angeles can get too hot especially for a pregnant lady with 3 kids! We met up with oneof our playgroup friends, it was her first time at the meeting. We had fun, though the wind was biting cold so a normmally crowed park day was cut by 3/4 at least! The lower numbers were good for Emma, since she tends to get a little overwhelmed by so many kids. Evan did well, he liked going over to where J and some of the other older boys were skateboarding. The other nice thing about the smallness of the group was that my friend S & I were able to talk to some of the other moms, since many of them know one another I've noticed that sometimes they get involved with thier own conversations and not engage much wiht newbies. It's not that they are snobby or rude, they just get involved. All in all it was a nice day albeit a cold one.
Friday we stayed home all day- this was afirst for the week! Here I thought I'd get all my laundry folded and the house looking good- yeah right. For once Olivia was on the needy side so I spent much of the day holding her. We did take our paper goo and spread it out on an old screen to make our own home made paper. THis was an expieriment form outr science book- however the expieriment calls for newspaper, which we didn't have wehn we started this, so we tried out various other types of paper. the main paper we used was afrom a gift basket- it looked like easter grass but it was white crinkle paper. well that did not break down very well so our paper did not spread out very well. it is still outside drying (I hope- I haven't looked yet this morning). I think we'll do it again, but have different containers holding different materials and we'll see what makes the best paper. I read from the kids DInosaur research guide (MTH series) we're over half way done. I also got out two new computer cames for the kids computer- a scice blaster game and an I Spy game. The I spy one isn't as good as I'd hped, but it's ok. several of the game require reading or a really realy good memory- which doesnt' work out well for EMma since she can read yet and her memory skill are alright for a few things but not the 4-5 that the game requires.

I had a bad day yesterday- I'm not sure why but my patience was so very thin. I lost it with the big kids at one point- they were really pushing it with thier behavior, and I just lost it. Felt bad later. I know I over reacted. I tried to make up for it later by running around and playing with them outside- when I would have really like to have been sitting down. IT wasthe first time Liv had been outof my arms all day and I needed the break- Oh well. I It was just a day where I eally felt like a failure as a homemaker- the house was a mess though we'd stopped to clean several times, I didn't make any dinner (kids had scrambled eggs). and my laundry didn't move-though I did get a bunch folded so that was something anyway. Ben is gone most of today at a conference- it is always hard dwhen he's gone on the weekend. he has to go tomorrow too. - but we have a birthday party to go to tomorrw. We're gonna hit target this morning to get a few things- then a cool little store called Twerps to find a present for the party- I think they have a story time or craft time today there too- so maybe I'll get luck on my timing. I may take them up to Swork if hter is nothing going on at Twerps- Swork is a great littlw coffee shop with a kids play area- but I"ve neer been on a saturday- onlu during the week so I'll have to wait and see. Ok Liv jsut wok up- so I've got to stop- I'll be back tonight to respond to you Maria!

Friday, January 20, 2006

Thanks to the Shabby Princess
I had some fun with my bacground and title again. THis time I used a free kit from the Shabby Princess. SHe makes some really nice kits and they are usually (I want to say always...) free. I love the colors of this one and thought the quote was nice. Stay tuned however... I'm looking for the perfect kit for valentines day!!

Comments

Friday, January 20, 2006 - stupid question
Posted by pixmum
OK, so how do I change the background again? I'm having a bad brain moment ... and it looks CUTE, your new look does.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Natural History Museum
I had planned on staying home yesterday- but as we were sitting on the floor reading books together, I decided we'd go to the Natural History Museum Of Los Angeles. The book Owen had brought out was one of his dino books, plus we've been reading The Mgic Tree house Dino's befor dark & the research guide. We've had a member ship there for a while but have only been once- Olivia kinda through off my plans to go often. We don't live very far from it, however we do have to drive through Downtown LA inorder to get there- which is a drag, though traffic wasn't too bad- we left around 10 and we were there by 10:30. I had thought we'd only spend an hour or two there- however 3 hours later we were still there. We left around 2. The kids had a blast. Evan was too cute- he was really impressed with allthe animal displays. Every dinosaur he say was an "alosaurus"LOL! We spent some time in the Discovery zone, but htere were a couple of school groups going threou- that is both good and bad- it was good because they got to sitin on sone talks, bad in that some of the kids were a bit pushy. They all loved the insect zoo as well. My heart just about stopped as I went to look in a terrarium not reading the sign first and coming face to face with a tarantula. I am sooooooo arachniphobic. I try very hard not to show my kids how terrified I am of spiders (and some bugs). I honestly could hardly look at the spiders. Emma's not too fond of them either, but she's not scared of them. The kids got to touch some sort of black long mlipede thing- I missed the name b/c of the baby, but it has a hard outer skin like a roly poly. they thought that was pretty cool. I got some good pictures I hope of the whole thing, I still need to d/l them. I was thinking I'd print up some and start a dino notebook for them.

They all crashed inthe car, we went to Petco to get dog food nextt, and sice B&N is next door we retrned a book that didn't wrrk (it was one of thse board books where you can pull tabs and such. So we had a long day, but it was fun.

Today we're going to our hs park day- we're meeting a friend from our Tuesday playgroup foor lunch first (she's hsing too). it shoud be a good day. I've got the crock pot going, and lunches packed, now I just need to rotated some laundry........

Maria re:comment
I never realized I didn't have ages listed...Emma's 6, Owen is 4.5, Evan will be 2 in April and liv is 3 mo. as for the crock pot- ready for a laugh- that recipe literally was frozen chicken breasts (straight from the freezer), about 5 of them, then I dumped a bunch of frozen corn on it- maybe 2cups or so. then I added a cup or so of water & some salt and pepper. When we got home I added another cup of water and a cup of instant rice. With the crock pot you can litterally just cook anything you might do on a skillet or in the oven. I've put chicken in with a can of stewed tomatoes, pork w/sliced onions.... anything goes really- it is soooooo easy to cook with. today I dumped some stew meat, baby carrots, some chopped celery, tomatoes, and garlic & green onions, I added some water & salt and pepper. once you try it- you'll get hooked!

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

School happenings
I think I'll work my way back from today. Today we got up around 7 and the kids played for a bit before eating. I'm eating grapefruit these days and I had myself a big bowl of it! the kids then played on thier own for an hour or so while I held Olivia, drank my moring coffee and caught up on email reading. Then I kicked the kids into gear and we started cleaning up. They had a bazillion toys out by now so this was quite a feat. My landlord had told us that inspectors (from the city) would be here today at 12:30 so I wanted the house somewhat respectable! so we all worked together and eventually we had it looking pretty darn good. There was (and still is) a pile of clean laundry that needs to be folded on my loveseat but everything else was tip top (well, it was nice anyway). So I jump in the shower and the doorbell rings. First of all let me just say that our doorbell is not this pleasant sounding ding dong- it is a product of oh maybe the 40's or 50's and it is some sort of bell that makes this awful sound and it is continuous. It can scare the crap out of you it is so loud. So I jump out of the shower- soap in my hair- and peek out the bathroom door. My dogs are going nuts, but the kids are doing just what I always tell them to do when I take a shower- they are not opening the door. They didn't even go to the door. Evan was yelling at the dogs to be quiet, but mostly they were all watching the Wiggles. It looked like it was probably the inspector- an hour early. Since the kids were doing right, I jumpd back in the shower and finshed washing up. We had our playgroup today so after I got out I got the babies readyto go- big kids were already ready. My landlord popped by to say that the inspector guy made a mistake and didn't need to inspect. good- well at least the house was clean. I had thrown some chicken and white corn into the crock pot so dinner was ready. We headed off to playgroup which was being held at a pizza place. It is Chuck E Cheese like, but on a smaller scale and much easier to keep track of the kids with out following them all around. I am trying to make good food choices so I had two huge salads and only a bite of pizza. We think Evan may have a proble with lactose (even though the test came back neg) so we are taking him off all dairy . so I go him some chicken. The kids played with thier friends, we moms (and one dad) had some good conversation. I love Tuesday Playgroup!!! Came home and the kids played with the neighbor kids for an hour or so. Not much schooling done but they had a great day and lots of time to be kids. Evan is getting pretty good balancing on a skateboard (in the grass) I swear I won't be surprised if he pulls his first ollie by age four!! He love to watch our neighbour J skate and he tries to copy him. Tonight I rode our bike (stationary) for 51 minutes. wooo hoo!!

Yesterday we had our first class back at gymnastics. We took November & December off, and I didn't think we'd do January but I stopped by the director's office on Friday to say hi and tell her we'd be sighing up and she offered to prorate the month for us so we could start now. Yay! Though Emma is ready for the older class it is just too hard for me to do right now. They only have classes in the late afternonn, and there are none that really coordinate with Owen's age group so she said to just keep her in the pre k class on monday mornings. It is small, and Em & O are the oldest two in the class so it is nice. The director is the instructor for the class and she is awsome! They get much more individual attention in this morning class than the afternoon ones, so I think it is a good fit. Evan is also taking a class, but his is just an explore the equiptment class. He freaked out when I took E & O to the kids room, he thought I was going to leave him too, once up in the gymnastics room he was fine and off to play. I kept Oliva with me in Evan's class. When I took Evan down to switch the little kids for the two big ones ( I had pumped a bottle for Olivia) he was not happy. I left him there anyway and took EM & O up to thier class. Then I got to work out!!! I only did a little, but hey- I'll take what I can get! Evan apparently settled down since no one came to get me. Emma and Owen were thrilled to be back in class and had a great time. Evan cried when he saw me but seemed to be ok. Wonder if he'll let me go tomorrow? hmmmm We went to Costco after and got a few things, then came home to play. I showed the kids how to build a castle out of boxes (we had some from Costco). they thought that was pretty cool. Then I got out paint so they could paint it. I also put a big sheet of paper under it sand drew roads and trees and stuff. The boys only painted for a few minuts then moved on to other things outside, but Emma painted for a good 20 minutes or so. I didn't get a chance to read to them, I really want to start the Magic Tree house #2 book- oh well, another day.

Sunday- hmmm what did we do. we had a quiet morning with everyone home. Did some cleaning up from the day before - which was Emma's birthday party. It was a really windy day so I helped the kids make some paper kites out of pipecleaners, paper and sticky tape. They had a blast with that, then we took plastic grocery bags an tied a string on them and they ran around with their bag kites- those worked much better! The neighbor kids joined in too and there were all sorts of kids running amuck with plastic bags on a string!

Saturday was Emma's party. It did rain- such a bummer. Mostly family came over. We did have a nice time, and she enjoyed dressing up like a princess. She got several very cool presents- lots of artsy stuff which is just perfect she also got several very cute outfits.

ok- I think this is the most I've typed all at once in a while- my fingers are starting to cramp!!

Thursday, January 19, 2006 - Wowza
Posted by pixmum
That's a whole lot of activities happenin'. I love reading about your days, though ... and I'm so impressed that you do so much even with having a little one .. or lots of little ones. You know, I don't know if you list it somewhere, but I don't know the ages of your children ...

Dumb question: I've a crockpot and I don't even know how to use it. *blush* What's the recipe for the chicken and white corn dish you made?

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Made it to a book club!
The homeschool group we belong to does a book club every other Thursday. I finally braved going to the park with all 4 kids and went to book club. They had a great time and I now have high hopes that I can attend the regular park day next Thursday and survive. (it is a huge group so I was a little worried about keeping track of Evan). We read books that had to do with snow and the kids did a little project making snowflakes out of coffee filters. It was cute and they did enjoy it. Evan was not in the least interested but he had fun in the sand and on the play stuff. Owen was very interested in what the "big kids book club" was reading mainly because thier craft involved making swords out of dowls and learning to fence! He can't wait to be 7-10 now! LOL!

We had ordered Emma a Maya wrap doll sling for her birthday. It cam today- she was too cute. we didn't have her open it until after dinnder and she was just so excited about it. She got her babydoll and carried her all over the house. she really wanted to go on a walk around the block! I love the colors of her's as well- makes me want to get another one! (for me).

Emma's party is Saturday and we have had such nice weather lately. Of course Satuday is the day of change.... we'll drop at lest 10 degrees and the rain should be hitting just in time for her party to start. I didn't order a jumper since I knew there was a chance of rain- but ut's still kind of a bummer. Thankfully we had our play group over on Tuesday - which was her birthday and it was in the mid 70's and just beautiful out- the kids had a blast and it was almost a party in and of itself- there were 10+ kids here plus my own. (here's a link to thier fun) Still I'm sad it is going to be cold and wet for her family party day.

Comments

Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 4boys4me
I LOL at you worrying about you keeping track of Evan. I have an Evan too and he's always the one I worry about keeping track of!! My Evan is four and he's always getting into mischief when I'm busy with the baby.
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Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Deblily
The book club sounds really neat. I just may have to start one for our pre-k co-op.

Monday, January 9, 2006

My Baby is going to be 6!!

Tomorrow is Emma's 6th birthday. It shocks me still how fast time flies. I can still so clearly remember the day she was born, the labor-the delivery- most all of it anyway. She has changed my life in so many ways. It excites me daily to see her grow and learn and change. She has been a blessing and joy for all who have had the good fortune to be a part of her life. I look forward to seeing who she will become and what great things she will do and how she will touch the lives of those around her. Anyone who thinks a chile born with an extra chromasome can't do something needs to spend a day with Emma- there is nothing holding her "down" and she certainly can lift up those all around her.

Happy Birthday Baby!  I love you!
Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 4boys4me
Happy Birthday Emma!
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Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - Feliz cumpleanos
Posted by pixmum
Happy birthday to you, Emma! And happy day to the parents that brought her into the world. = )

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Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by hsmomof3
Happy Birthday, Emma!
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Friday, January 6, 2006

observations

Funny how different kids are. I look at Emma & Owen and see two totally different learners. Owen is very analytical- it became very apparent when he started to understand numbers. He picked up the concept of a one to one relationship pretty quick. Emma still struggles with that concept. Right now they both are interested in writng- but from very different point of views. Owen looks at the mechanics of a word and wants to figure out how to spell it or what sounds different letters make. Emma wants to see a story- it is not so important to her to understand how thw word goes together- she just wnats the word there. I think that when Emma learns to read it will be so she can enjoy books- when Owen learns he'll be more interested in learning "stuff". He is so like his dad and she is so like me!

Thursday, January 5, 2006

New books

We went to B&N today. I've been wanting to read the kids some short chapter books but I didn't not have any age appropriate ones here. I have some for older kidsbut nothing that they'd love or that they could pay attention long enough for. SO we got the first 4 books in the Magic Tree House series plus the research guide that go with them. I reaad the first two chapters to the big kids tonight while # 3 was taking a bath and #4 was in my arms. They liked it. We've listened to a couple of them on audio, but it's been a while. I'm hoping to join auidble soon and if I do one of my 2 selections a month will hopefully be from the kids section- I need to take a look though and see what they have for kids though.

I also started excercising. We have a stationary bike that Ben uses all the time but I have avoided.. Well, I'm no longer pg and Olivia sleeps enough that I really have no excuse. So Two days ago I hoped on for 11 minutes, yesterday I went 25 and today I did 15. I am going to do a 20 minute pilates DVD when I'm done here and get some laundry folded. I have about 35 lbs that I want to lose- that will get me back to pre children. We weat pretty good around here & I am totally fastfood free. I read a book a while back - I can't think of the title but it is by the girlfriend of the guy who ate at Mcd's for 30 days straight. It was very interesting but definatley turned me off burger joints. I'll go to In & Out and that's about it. No McD's for me anymore! We never went much anyway- but I can honestly say I haven't taken the kids in over 6 months.

Oh and I also got a cool science book from the bargin books at B&N- 730 Easy Science Experiments - it is sooooo cool! My goal is to try and do at least on or 2 a week. They all look pretty fun and it really gives some great info in easy to understand terms. and even the stuff that is above my kids understanding will be fun for them to do.

Ok off to clean and work out......................

Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 4boys4me
My boys were hooked on Magic Treehouse for a while. We have a bookshelf full of them. I thought Adam was going to start reading them again but he just read one and then moved on to something else.

I sympathize with the weight loss too. I need to lose about 20lbs. I'm trying to eat fewer calories but I'm so-o-o hungry! LOL
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Wednesday, January 4, 2006

I named our school!!!

I have been trying to think of a name for our "school" for years now. I have been planning on filinf with the state once Emma turned 6 and for that I would need a name. I live in CA and I actually have the option not to do anything in terms of registering since I hold a CA multiple subjects credential. I wanted to file as a private school though mainly because I want to maintain my credential and to do that I need classroom teaching hours. This seems like a logical way to do it without making much fuss. So back to our name. I have struggled over this bcause I wanted something thatreflected our style of teaching/learning(unschoolish for now,. I wanted something that represented the 4 kids and I wanted something that sounded good. So our school is now officially called:

Liberty Beach Independent School

Liberty represents a few things. Emma was born in Philadelphia home of the Liberty Bell. It also represents our freedom and liberty to choose how we school our kids. Beach represents the 3 other kids place of birth. They are all West Coast CA babies. We are also planning a move in 5 months to a beach community and this is where we plan to live and raise our kids forever. I like Independent School because it sounds offical with out sounding too formal.

Tuesday, January 3, 2006

Happy New Year!

Hard to believe we're starting another year! Emma will be 6 years old in 7 days- that too just blows my mind! She wants a princess birthday so that is what we are having. here is a picture of her invite:

click here

(I put the photo in before- but had to edit it out- it needs to be resized!)

We plan on getting a jolly jumper (weather pending). as a take home treat I'm going to make playdough and give each kid a bit with some glitter to knead in then they'll get to have "magical playdough". I also ordered a craft from oriental trading co. We are thinking that next year we'll go to Disneyland for her birthday & have a princess tour. we'll see though.

as far as schooling goes we are still in unschooling mode. I wonder if I'll ever be able to give that up!? The kids are using thier aqua doodle right now- we got a jumbo one for christmas so there is plenty of room for the 3 of them to color.

Ben had a really bad flu over Christmas & New Year's- he actually spent an evening in the ER to figure out what it was- he worried that it was pnemonia. So far the kids & I are flu free. I'm keeping all my fingers and toes crossed.

We have most all of our Christmas decor down- just a few lights and the stockings to put away. We are hostting our playgroup here on Tuesday (her bday) so I just need it all done by then!

I had planned on going to Costco today to pick up Emma's invites and a few other things- but I can't find my keys- they are either in my van or at my moms house (an hour away). We'll have to see when Ben gets home form work. So now my goal is to get the 5 tons of laundry done.....speaking of which the house is too quiet- time to switch things around.............

Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by hsmomof3
What cute party invitations! I hope Emma has a great birthday...and I hope you find your keys. Yay on being forced to get the laundry done, though. ;-)
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Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 4boys4me
The party sounds like fun and the invitation is adorable! Hope the weather stays nice for the party and no one else gets sick!

Friday, December 30, 2005

Thank You Ginger!

Another one of my very talented friends made the kit that I used for my current backgroud- Ginger's Princess Doodle Pack I cant wait to make some scrapbook pages with it!

Friday, December 30, 2005 - Kuuuh-YOOOT
Posted by pixmum
I like the background. You have such cute ones that you use!
And happy new year!!!!
Maria

Friday, December 16, 2005

Do you ever wonder?

Do you ever wonder sometimes that when you ask your child to "Stop doing that"... whatever "that" may be, that you are asking them to stop being who they are? I know that sometimes it is detramental to ask them to stop- maybe they'll hurt someone or themself if they continue "that". Or maybe "that" is not polite, or moral or kind. But for me I know that sometimes I want them to stop "that" because it is too loud, too silly or just plain annoying. I am a very patient person, but some days I do feel like I am telling them to stop being kids. I suppose this could also be reason #342 as to why we homeschool. I see what I am doing (albeit too late sometimes) and let them be who they are. Hard to do that in a classroom if who they are disrupts the learning environment of another child. I look at Owen especially and know he would have such a tough time in a classroom. Not because he is a bad kid or that he has ADD or ADHD or anything- but because he is a boy- such a boy! He stops moving only to sleep! He can't just sit on his bottom on the couch & watch a movie- he lays on his back- feet up on the back of the couch, periodically putting his hands to the floor and then flipping off the couch. He now has Evan doing it. *sigh*

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Disneyland

On Tuesday my inlaws took us to Disneyland (CA). We had a really great time. We arrived at around 10 am- the park opened at 9 and my IL's were about 15 minutes behind us. (they live an hour further away from D). The was Ben's firsttime there with the kids. I went with the older two two years ago (again with the IL's). The decorations for the hooliday's were beautiful. There was a huge Christmas tree with hundreds of gold ball ornaments. there were poinsettia plants everywhere... it was just amazing. Emma and Owen were just thrilled to be there- Evan was a bit overwhelmed- which worked in our favor as he was happy to be in the stroller. Olivia slept in the sling almost the whole time! Emma, Owen & Evan all wear ID bracelets that have thier names, our home address and my cell phone number. I figure if their gonna get lost I won't be going home! So we reviewed what they need to do if they can't find us- they are to find a Mommy with a baby and show them thier phone # to call me. We showed them that the phone was in my pocket. It was mid afterdoon I think when we lost Owen. It was probably less than 5 minutes- but I'm really not sure- time stood still for me. We were in the center of the park- we had jsut left Tomorrowland and were tring to decide where we wanted to go next. Owen disappeared. He had asked both Gammy & Daddy we could go in the castle- the main enttrance to Fantasyland. Both had told him to wait- we didn't know where we were going. Apparently he just figured we'd follow him if he went. unfortunatley no one saw him go. The first minute or so he was missing- I wasn't scared- I just figured I couldn't see him and he was nearby. but the longer I called his name out (both Emma and Evan were yelling for him too) the more scared I got. Ben first went to The casstle- he said it was like walking into the belly of the beast- just a wall of people and no Owen. he came back to see if we found him-by this time I was talking ot a park employee. Ben went back to the castle- he just had a feeling. This time he said it was like the sea had parted- Owen was wling down the middle back out of Fantasyland. He was scared- but didn't start crying untill he saw daddy. Just as the park employee ask me if I could go with him to "lost children" I saw Ben with Owen in his arms- I jsut cried. When Owen saw me he was sobbing. we hugged and cried together. I hope he would have found a mommy soon if Ben hadn't found him- I'm glad he didn't have to. That was the only mar on an otherwise great day. The fireworks were amazing- though too loud for Emma. and the whole snow thing was very cool- I wish we were in a better spot for it but the kids still got to catch some- (it is really just bubbles- but it falls just like the real thing!) Disneyland was celebrating it's 50th anniversary too- so the kid got golden mouse ears instead of the black ones.

Friday, December 16, 2005 - Untitled Comment
Posted by juliepersons
how frightening to lose your child!! So glad you were reunited quickly!!!

Friday, December 16, 2005 - How scary!
Posted by hsmomof3
Oh, you (and Owen and your dh and your inlaws...) must have been terrified! That has to be a mom's worst fear...and five minutes is a long time when you can't find your child. That's a wonderful idea about the ID braclets.

Like you, I've always told my kids if they get seperated from me to go find a mother with kids (I think I saw that Oprah once! lol). We were at Chuck E. Cheese once when Brianna got "lost." I knew she hadn't gone out of the play area, but we lost sight of each other. I spotted her just as she was asking a mom with a child to help her find me. I was proud of her (and only just a little embarassed that the other mom probably thought I wasn't doing a very good job of watching my daughter! lol).

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Do you smell that?
This is an email I received  & thought I'd share here.

DO YOU SMELL THAT?

A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas
as the doctor walked into the small hospital room of
Diana Blessing. She was still groggy from surgery.
Her husband, David, held her hand as they braced themselves
for the latest news.
That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced
Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency
Cesarean to deliver couple's new daughter, Dana Lu Blessing.
At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound nine ounces,
they already knew she was perilously premature.
Still, the doctor's soft words dropped like bombs.
"I don't think she's going to make it," he said, as kindly
as he could.
"There's only a 10-percent chance she will live through the
night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make
it, her future could be a very cruel one."
Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor
described the devastating problems Dana would likely face
if she survived.
She would never walk, she would never talk, she would
probably be blind, and she would certainly be prone to
other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to
complete mental retardation, and on and on.
"No! No!" was all Diana could say.
She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long
dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become a
family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream
was slipping away.
But as those first days passed, a new agony set in for
David and Diana.
Because Dana's underdeveloped nervous system was
essentially 'raw', the lightest kiss or caress only
intensified her discomfort, so they couldn't even cradle
their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the
strength of their love. All they could do, as Dana
struggled alone beneath the ultraviolet light in the tangle
of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close
to their precious little girl.

There was never a moment when Dana suddenly grew stronger.
But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of
weight here and an ounce of strength there.
At last, when Dana turned two months old, her parents were
able to hold her in their arms for the very first time. And
two months later, though doctors continued to gently but
grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living
any kind of normal life, were next to zero, Dana went home
from the hospital, just as her mother had predicted.

Five years later, when Dana was a petite but feisty young
girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for
life. She showed no signs whatsoever of any mental or
physical impairment. Simply, she was everything a little
girl can be and more. But that happy ending is far from the
end of her story.
One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her
home in Irving, Texas, Dana was sitting in her mother's lap
in the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother
Dustin's baseball team was practicing.
As always, Dana was chattering nonstop with her mother and
several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell
silent
Hugging her arms across her chest, little Dana asked,
"Do you smell that?"
Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a
thunderstorm, Diana replied, "Yes, it smells like rain."
Dana closed her eyes and again asked, "Do you smell that?"
Once again, her mother replied,
"Yes, I think we're about to get wet. It smells like rain."
Still caught in the moment, Dana shook her head, patted her
thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced,
"No, it smells like Him.
It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest."
Tears blurred Diana's eyes as Dana happily hopped down to
play with the other children.
Before the rains came, her daughter's words confirmed what
Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family
had known, at least in their hearts, all along.
During those long days and nights of her first two months
of her life, when her nerves were too sensitive for them to
touch her, God was holding Dana on His chest and it is His
loving scent that she remembers so well.

Saturday, December 10, 2005

Beautifully long day
Posted in School-ish

WE had a great family day today! The hospital Ben works for is going to have a float in the Rose Parade for the first time. Today they held a "Family Day" to celebrate and get some help with the material prep. We got there right at 10am. The kids got thier faces painted and we got some popcorn and went to work. They had a very limited attention span for the tasks but they helped a little all the same. They helped sift ground rice. (the rice was put in an industrial coffee grinder) and they also helped strip dried flowers off a branch. I'm not sure what kind of plant/flower it was. The float is a scence from Beatrix Potter and there are 4 components to it I think. It was cool to see the floats up close & personal. I even got to take a picture of Ben & the kids on the back (or front?) of the main float. The FLoats were totally built & painted the proper colors etc, they just need the organic material placed on them. What an incredible amount of work those floats are! I've been to the parade a couple of times an dit is really impressive to see them up close. I'd like to take the kids some day. It'd be nice to do it while we live here since we only live about 10 min from the grandstands! When we do take the kids I think we'll try to get tickets for the grandstands. I've never really loved parades but this is one worth seeing . If you're in the GS area then the parking you'd likely get is better . when you're parked further back on the parade route leaving can be a pain. There are hundreds & hundreds of people walking like a herd of cattle all to the Rose Bowl. I dropped off and picked up my Aunt's and cousins last year. Someday we'll go- but not when I have any kids under 5 I think!

Comments

Saturday, December 10, 2005 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 4boys4me
That sounds so cool. I'm always amazed at the natural things they use on those floats to make them look so good. I bet they are just gorgeous in person! The parade will have a special meaning to your kids this year since they helped with the float. What fun!



Friday, December 9, 2005

My Chldren "The Stars!"

Over the summer we had two different opportunities to participate in making Children's DVD's. I figured since we're living in LA and so close to Hollywood, I was not going to pass them up! These were volunteer activities, with no pay. But we did have lots of fun and for me it was interesting to see the process. The First one we did is called "The Wheel's on the Bus, Mango Saves the Moon Mouse" We went to three different shoots for that one. One was on a set in a studio with a "green screen". In the final cut there is one scene where you can see me very briefly and Evan every so often. There is also a quick flash of Owen. Emma and Ben weren't in the shot though they did go and were "on the bus". The next scene they are in was the best. The produce held a reptile show in his backyard- it was an hour long and interactive. The whole show is in the bonus features and both Emma & Owen are in the main movies in several clips. The last shoot we went to was at Kidspace in Pasadena. It was a fun day, and we made it in one very quick shot. All in all it was lots of fun and more so the kids love seeing themselves on the video as well as their friends (the family that got us involved). The movie itself is very cute and they've enjoyed watching it. The next video they did was a one day thing. It is called "The Ohmies" and it is a yoga video. They had a really good time with that one. It was done on a green screen set and when Emma & Owen had their turn (they took the kids in in turns) we were last so it was just the two of them vs 5-6 kids. They are in several scenes in this one. The main part of this movie is actually a live taping of a show, but what they did was take the "green screen" shots and "pop" them up through out the live show in a small window of sorts. (I guess that is how to explain it!). They are also in the extra features, but They DVD we have is not showing a couple of those features for some reason, so I need to check the other two they sent us (They sent a copy to each of the 3 kids- even though Evan wasn't even in it!). Any how this is a really fun introduction several of the basic yoga poses. It looks like it would be a fun show to see live! I hope we get to do more stuff like this- it is really a lot of fun! When we move from LA next year we'll still be close enough to do this kind of thing every so often I think- if they are interested anyway.



Friday, December 9, 2005

some quick notes before bed
Posted in School-ish

Emma & Owen watched the Charlie Brown Chritsmas specials today (I taped them the night before). They seemed to enjoy them- I always liked them when I was a kid. After it was over They were coloring and Emma began dictating letters to Santa outloud. It was too cute! She can write her name and most all of the letters of the alphabet but whe was just doing the squigly line type of writing. WHen Owne writes his stuff he writes "real" lettlers but they are in a random pattern. His writing today was a "list" of how to bake something (not sure what since he named all sorts of weid stuff to put in!). I finished my Christmas letter and hope to print it out tomorrow and get my Christmas cards sent out.WE also orderd an attachment for my mixer so make rolling out pasta dough easier (for our Christmas Eve pierogies). Owne is also really into taking pictures- I am letting him use my old digital vamera- he loves it. He is very careful with it too. I created a folder for him in my pictures folder and I'm going to print up his pictures for him (not all- but the good ones- I'll let him help in the decisions). guess thats it- I'm just drinking a cuppa and enjoying the quiet of the house (at 12:45 am!!) but I should go to bed.



Thursday, December 8, 2005

got this email today

Had to LOL at it- not all apply but I sure could relate to some of it!  I especially loved the PS.

Dear Santa,

I've been a good Mommy all year. I've fed, cleaned and cuddled my children on demand, visited the doctor's office more than my doctor, sold sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground and figured out how to attach nine patches onto my daughter's Girl Scout uniform with staples and a glue gun.

I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my daughter's red crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I'll find anymore free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my Christmas wishes:

I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any color, except purple, which I already have) and arms that don't hurt or flap in the breeze; but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle in the grocery store.

I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month of my last pregnancy.

If you're hauling big ticket items this year I'd like fingerprint resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music; a television that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals; and a refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone.

On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, "Yes, Mommy" to boost my parental confidence, along with three kids who don't fight and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools.

I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting "Don't eat in the living room" and "Take your hands off your brother," because my voice seems to be just out of my children's hearing range and can only be heard by the dog.

If it's too late to find any of these products, I'd settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair and look in the mirror in the same morning, or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a styrofoam container.

If you don't mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely.

It would be helpful if you could coerce my children to help around the house without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is ringing and my daughter saw my feet under the laundry room door. I think she wants her crayon back. Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and come in and dry off so you don't catch cold.

Help yourself to cookies on the table but don't eat too many or leave crumbs on the carpet.

Yours Always,

Mommy

P.S. One more thing...you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my children young enough to believe in Santa.

Friday, December 9, 2005 - Too Cute!
Posted by hsmomof3
I'm so glad you shared that. It was too cute...made me smile! :-)


Wednesday, December 7, 2005

Good things are happening

So many things to write so little time! We've had some wonderful things hapening here. The kids are now skilled scissor users- That first time I was telling Emma every 2 seconds "thumb on top"- the next day I said it once and that was as her hand was tiring I think and she wanted to hold them in a different position.

I've been looking for my patience more ofen than I like lately though. I am a very calm and patient person. The women in our playgroup seem to find it amazing how calm I am. I've always known I have an extra dose of patience- I get it from my dad- he is very patient. So when it sort of slips away from me- I feel like a totally different person. A person I don't much care for and I'm sure my kids don't much care for me either. I'm slowly finding it again- but it is a struggle some times. Evan is a very trying kiddo. He talks so well it is easy to forget he is still a baby- he is only 19 mo old but has the vocab of a 3 year old. Both Ben & I have to remind ourselves of his true age and what he really understands- despite how he seem to freakishly understand waaaaay more than any 19 mo should!

We found a box on our doorstep- the mailman must have left it after we'd already gotten the rest of our mail- and with our doggies up at my mom's house (until tonight) we had no reason to open the front door until this morning. My mom's sister is a sewing genious- really she is. She taught highschool home ec for years and years (or was it middle school?). She made my sister and I crochet'd Christmas stocking back when we were born- we still use them. When I married Ben that first Christmas we spent with Aunt Loretta & her family. She made Ben a wonderful stocking. As each family member was added she made us another stocking. Thiers all are the same pattern/size and are sewn. Thier names are stitched into them as well. They are beautiful and big (kids will appreciate that later!!) So when we saw the box we just knew what it was. Olivia's stocking! Imagine my surprise when we took out the first wrapped gift and it was addressed to our christmas tree!! She was here last Christmas (she lives on the east coast) and remembered that I didn't have a tree skirt!! It is absolutley beautiful!! it is green with some trees and a snow man and a house. there are 4 mitten's strung between two of the trees, each mitten has one of the kids names on it. I just couldn't help but cry. I love it!! we're getting our tree this weekend and for the first time in our 8 Christmas's together our tree will be "dressed". We were not dissappointed to find a beautiful stocking with Olivia's name on it too. She also made a giant Santa hat that is a chair back slip cover- so Santa knows where to sit and have cookies Christmas eve. LOL! I feel so blessed and so happy! I can't wait to get all our stockings up so I can take pictures.



Saturday, December 3, 2005

Too cool
Posted in School-ish

Funny how different yet equally amazing kids are. My kids love the show Peep- I mean just love it. They've benn watching a bit more TV than I'd like lately- ut that is the way of our world right now. AT least with the DVR they watch things that are age appropriate- not the junkthat is on in the late afternoon. ANyhow- after watchinga few episodes of Peep today we were having some quiet time. This is when Evan is going down for a nap and I don't let them watch TV. the allowed activiites ae reading books, doing puzzles or coloring. they both grabbed some crayons and construction paper and went to work. Owen rarely sits he likes to stand at the table and write. So he was talking away (quiet isn't really quiet at our house), come so show me what he has done. He has written the words "Peep, Owen and TWW" TWW is meant to read Tom- I explain that he's missing some key sounds for the word "tom" and help him figure out what he needs(he sometimes mixes up m's nd w's). He goes back to the table and goes o work. a minue later he comes back and shows me what he's done. "mot". I congratulate him on gettingall the letters right and we ead all his words. I did point out that words start on the left and move to the right- but I din't make a big fuss- I was so proud of him & didn't want him to think his hard work didn't amount to anything. He is really on his way t reading and writing and I don't want to discourage it. I was shocked that he wrote peep by himself- I didn't help him at all on that one.

While Owen was working away on words emma was telling me (also a non stop talker) that she was making Peep. She likes to sit while working. So she was seated at the table and working hard. When she finished and showed me her work- again I was just so impressed. She drew the 3 main characters of the show Peep- and did a darn good job of it. Quack was especially good. If I can find where whe put that paper I want to take a picture of it (we don't have a scanner). I twas just such a good job. I want to add it to her art folder as well- but I don't know what she did with it.

I wonder how they will amaze me tomorrow. . . .

Sunday, December 4, 2005 - Thank you!
Posted by Blessedby3
I just wanted to thank you for the encouragement the other night. I feel like I am falling into a trap of seeing the grass greener on all sides but mine. I am immediately convicted because I KNOW how blessed I am to have 3 amazing children. I feel so blessed to have them safe and healthy and to finally be able to stay home with them!
Thank you again So Cal neighbor!


Saturday, December 3, 2005

page template

I want to thank my dear digi scrap friend and amazing designer Miki (Microferk Designs) for the kit "Miki's Christmas". I used it to alter this web page template. I don't have the skill or patience to come up with the amazing work she does. (along with many other design friends- who I'm sure I'll use as time goes by). Thank you Miki!

Monday, December 5, 2005 - Untitled Comment
Posted by DiWilliams
I just came upon your blog by random blogging and I have to say I LOVE your template. I especially love the Christmas palm tree. We're talking about getting one of those instead of the traditional kind.
Blessings ~ Diane


Friday, December 2, 2005

cutting- pasting -sowing- oh my!

I printed up some "guidlines" of a typical course of study for both prek & kindy to see where Emma & Owen were according to that particular website. I was able to cross off almost all of the prek stuff and over half of the kindy stuff. The only thing that I could not cross off for both kids on the pre k list was cutting with scissors. It is just not something they've done much of. The first pair if scissos I got the were part of the problem, the thumb hole was the same size as the other hole. They just seemed to have a hard time with them. The othe problem is my very busy 19 mo son. No way do I want him around scissors! He wants to do everything big brother & sister do so he'd be fighting for those suckiers! So yesterday I bout some better sicssors- kid ones but better. Today when Evan was down and Olivia happened to fall asleep too- I busted them out and taught the kids how to us them. Owen I would say has great control of them. Only occasionally did I need to remind him that his thumb needed to be on top. Emma had a tougher time with them- I had to remind her almost every time she started a new cut that her thumb had to be on top. Talk about sounding like a broken record. Here finger/hand stregnth needs some work too- so this will be a good regular activity for her. she was definately doing better after a while, but her hand started hurting from the postitioning too. I am definatly going to have her do as much cutting as possible though to both gain mastery of the scissors as well as stregthen her hands and develop better finer moter cordination. While Owen was happily cutting away I had Emma switch gears do some indoor gardening. I had a small pot and a soil pellett that needed to be soaked in water then transfered into the pot. then She planted some parsely seeds and we put it on the window sill. we took the extra seeds from the packet and planted them in the front yard garden. Owen Finished up his cutting and then did his own pot and planted basil. I have a pot with chives. With both babies still sleeping we got out the glue for some more fun. I had small tissue paper squares cut from a past project. They each had a half sheet of construction paper- Owen's was green, Emma's was red. The drizzled glue over the paper then set the small squares all over it. sor of looks like stained glass. Tomorrow I'll have them write a messageon the other side and they'll give them as Christmas cards. I'll let them decide who gets them. I'll have to take some picture of all this tomorrow.

We've also started some simple advent activities- they each got a box with thos little windows with chocolate behind them- they love that. and we made a simple green and red chain to count down to Christmas as well. I'm going to look for some good but simple activities to do here and there as well (any sugeestions welcome).

We are all on our way back to health. I had periodontal surgery on Tusday so it feels like someone socked me in the jaw- but t is getting better- at least I can now drink coffee & tea!!

We're planning to do some baking this weekend- daddy like to bake so it will be a whole family event. I'm also ging to make some pasta do for pierogies. Not ready to tackle making them yet, but we still have time. I also want to get some of our Chiristmas decorations out and up. We won't be getting a tree for another week, maybe next weekend, but no reason we can't get other stuff up.

Ok well- forgive any typos or spelling errors for now-  baby calls and I won't be able to proofread.





Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Everything happens for a reason....

So yesterday I went up to my parents house because I had a dental appointment. My Dad was supposed to be there at 2:30 to waatch the kids, my MIL would be ther at 3 for a half hour to help him out and my mom was going to try and get off wok at 2:45 to be home around 3 as well. Well my dad got hung up at a meeting and couldn't get away (my appointment was at 3) but my MIL and BIL arrived a little after 3. I drove doen the street,turned the corner and was ant the next corner, which is a busy street. I stopped at the stopsign and noticed 2 little girls (younger than 3) and a little boy (maybe 15 mo) walking towrd the busy street crying. I inched forward to see if there were nay adults that had already turned the corner aheand of them - no one. One little girl started taking steps to the street- she was crying and obviously lost and scared. I jumped out of my car and ran to them. they didn't seem to speak english- probably spanish. turns out there was another little girl (also maybe 2 yo) who was wlking aroung the yard crying. Another car had seen them and pulled up to help corral them and find out where they belonged. I called 911 & while talking to them they started walking back toward my parents street. I think the other lady sort of scared them she was on the large side and her hair was a bit wild- but she was kind. Once they saw the corner house they ran up to the door. The wild hair lady talked with the adults inside- they did not even know all 4 kids were out of the house. I called 911 back to let them know we found thier home and gave them the address. I was already late for my appointment so I had to go, but I was told that the police would follow up on it. I hope it was not a day care.

I'm not one to fuss about getting lost or being late- I like to be punctual and I strive for it- but when things happen that are out of my control- like my dad being in an interview that lasted an hour longer than he thought- I see no point in getting worked up or angry. Things like that happen for a reason. If I left on time- that little girl might have walked into the busy street. I understand that there were many stories like this when the WTC was hit. People late to work for some reason or another & it saved their life. Living in LA I see a lot of angry drivers- I just don't get it. nothing is so important that I'd risk my life or anyone elses driving crazy.



Monday, November 28, 2005

Christmas + Math = Cookies

I'm hoping to do lots of math this month.... I have tons of cookies I wnat to make!! We host Christmas Eve at our house- and we do it big! Last year was extra big- we had some east coast family out. This year will only be 23. Yep 23 for a sit down formal meal! Last year was 31. My mom's side of the family is Polish- so we have a traditional Polish Wigilia. We've added a few touches of our own- incorporating Bens hispanic heritage as well. So in these next few weeks I'll be making Pierogies up the wazoo- I'll have the kids help a little- but I think cookie making will be what they do while I do the pierogies. You might say I've got high hopes. either way I love this time of year!!! minus the sickies it is my favorite time of the year. We're all just getting over or in the midst of a mild cold. Hope that is the extent for the next month at least.

I've been thinking a lot about John Holt lately- I 've read his name in passing on several blogs. I was first exposed to him ironically while getting my teaching credential. His was one of the few books I saved. (Learning All The Time). I think at heart I am a hopelss unschooler. That book so totally got to me- and this was long before the thought of children of my own had entered my mind. Ben is more type A than me- he has to be- I don't think I'd want anything else in a doctor! I know he has concerns about unschooling. He is fine with it for now- but I know he'd like to see more structure as time goes on. I do want to buy curriculum- but I struggle when I try to imagine "school" time as a set thing. I would like for him to meet some unschooling families- or at least read about them. then again- a year from now I may be the one needing more structure- who knows. and I do want to give the kids what ever it is they need- they both love to learn (speaking of the big 2). I love this journey we've started! I can't wait to see the roads we travel and the choices we make. I also love every minute of this time right now-down to the double crying babies- Evan because he's sick and needs mommy & Olivia because she's so new that's all she can do.



Tuesday, November 29, 2005 - Mmmmm
Posted by 4boys4me
Cookie math is my absolute favorite kind of Math... and Science! We may be doing a lot of Math and Science in the kitchen this month too! LOL



Monday, November 28, 2005

The longest cry

Gee that was a long cry!  I thought I'd be back oh- last Wed or so- guess not!  Oh well!

We had a great TG- went to my moms house- nothing like packing 5 adults, 4 kids & 3 dogs into a 3 bedroom house- add in 3 more adults for TG dinner and- we- I'd say we have a lot to be thankful for! Our families get along very well- Not only do we like eachothers parents but they like one another as well. It really was a great weekend.

The reason I was thinking about socialization last week is because I was thinking about how lucky I am to have my playgroup friends. I truely lucked into them. They were a group that originated in a hospital mommy and me class- and it took root and grew (and shrank) into what it is today. I met one of the mom's at the mall one day- after living in LA for a year- going to parks, malls and libraries. and she was the first mom I met who was close in age, had same age kids, was a SAHM, and spoke english. Honestly she was the first in a year that fit even half that. Oh and she didn't have a nanny- I am still shocked at how many nanny's I see out with kids. I was at the end of my pregnancy with Evan when I met Joy nad she was so kind! we exchanged emails and she kept in touch with me. I went to my first playgroup when Evan was oh 3-4 weeks old I think. This wonder group of women meet every Tuesday and once a month they have a moms night out. Everyone gets a chance to host playgroup and we have several no host days as well. The kids in the group are all 6 and under- mosly 5 and under- I think Emma is the only 6 year old. Not only do my kids have a wonderful group of friends to grow up with- I've met incredible women who are strong and giving and wonderful. Do I worry about socializtion - not a bit.




Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Socialization & qualifications....

I wish there were more hours in the day sometimes. I often "journal" in my head and then never get a chance to write it down. Or when I do get the rare moment, I forget all the great thoughts I had wanted to get down.

As most every homeschooling family knows, the biggest question most people have is about socialization. For some I know they deal with the question of ability to teach or having the right "qualifications" to teach thier own children. Such a crock. We don't have to deal with that one since I am a California credentialed teacher & Ben is a MD. somehow that makes most people feel we are incredibly qualified to teach our kids. How wrong they are! I'm not saying I'm not quaified or able to teach, but I am saying that I am no more quaified than any other parent out there. I believe with all my being that anyone can teach. some will be better at it than others but anyone can do it. Or at least any parent can provide the tools needed for a kid to learn. I find it almost funny when I see the look of relief on a person's face when they find out what Ben & I went to school for. I know that they would never understand how I sometimes feel it is more of a hinderance than a help. I do find it to be most helpful in that I really don't need to do anything legally. However I am going to file to be a private school next year. I don't know that I'll renew my credential so I want to get that set up.
Baby's crying I'll edit in more later....................

• Comments (1)Comments

Monday, November 28, 2005 - Untitled Comment
Posted by kentuckyjourney
Love your positive attitude!


Monday, November 21, 2005

mixing colors

We had fun with mixing colors againtoday. This time I put a long sheet of paper out on the sidewalk an at one end I put red,blue & yellow paint. They took off their shoes and had so much fun making footprints and "skating" in the paint! The neighbor kids joined in and while some clothes made the ultimate sacrafice, fun was had by all! (ok so it was machine washable paint- no clothing was harmed in this process.) The kids all noticed the mixing of the colors so calls of "look I made purple!" Evan wasn't so sure about the whole thing- he did step in the paint but then went sraight to the grass to look at his feet.



ah well- the baby calls.........
    

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Thursday, November 17, 2005

more pondering of parenthood..........

Somthing else I was pondering today. I try to teach the kids to use nice words. We (Ben & I) do not to use words such as "stupid" in front of the kids. I even go so far as to replace that particular word when I come across it in a book or story I am reading them (Dr. Suess's The Lorax uses it I think). We don't cuss in front of the kids ever- though in all adult company you are likely to hear some choice words from either of us we are both very aware of our language in front of children. So what do you say when someone you like uses language you don't like in front of your kids. Things like "stupid" or "shut up". In general I tell them that it is not nice and that I don't want to hear them saying something like that. What do you say if they ask why so and so can? (an adult so and so). It hasn't come up yet but I'm sure it will. I imagine I'll tell them that some grown ups like to use words like that but that it is just not ok for them- but I literally cringe when I hear it.






Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Where is the line?

So i wonder sometimes where to draw the line. I ry very hard to teach my kids to be poilte- now they are kids and I know that it won't always happen, but I try very hard tomake them aware of how their attitude affects others. It really bothers me when other children are out and out rude to them. Do I call them on it as I would if it were my kids? Do I just let my kids feelings get hurt and tell thm that their "firend" is just not being very nice? both? If I'm the only adult on the scene and I'm "in charge" is it ok for me to reprimand the offending child? The mother bear in me usually does reprimand or at least say something- but I just often wonder if there are times I shouldn't. In our playgroup it is not an issue- most everyone that I am aware of is of the mindframe that it takes a community and we all help one another in teaching out children respect. It is the same with one neighbor too. We lost a "friend" in another neighbor a year ago over this issue. Such a bummer- It was me that told the child not to hit my son (with a badmitten (sp?) racket) and the girls mom got very angry at me. It's not as though I yelled at the girl either- just told her to use her words and not hit. she told me not to talk to her daughter that way. Since then I've always had just a bit of reserve about the situaltion. Most everyone I've spoken too feels I handled the situation in a way that they might have but still. Where do you draw the line wnd when have you crossed it?



Wednesday, November 16, 2005

No TV= more letter fun

My sister had given the kids a extra lage notebook for practive letters. It was put aside for quite a while. I pulled it out this week and the kida have been loving it. They've asked me if they can learn new letters to write. The first day I brought it out I picked a letter, after that I let them pick. I picked "G", Emma picked "A" and Owen picked "F". They are also asking how to spell words on occasion. They are also playing the computer quite a bit. Thier Gammy (Ben's mom) brought them several games fromher collection at home. They are from when their cousic was their age. They love it.

I've been very into leaving the TV off- they are already asking less. They just do soooo much more if it is not on. I know some kids will go in and out and the TV is not something that they glue into- but Emma & Owen just get stuck. I wish we had Discovery Kids though. I do like Noggin and a few shows on Nick- but I dislike all the comersials on most of the channels.



Saturday, November 12, 2005

The week went on......

The week got better day by day. Tuesday we were supposed to go to our playgroup, but I was just too exhausted. here is what I wrote to the girls to let them know why I would not be there:

I have been in tears the last two days just trying to get a grip on all the chaos around me. I know you all think I'm so calm and such a super mom, but I'm not really. I've been up since 4 this morning. Olivia had very bad gas last night and early this morning. I think I've figured out what I ate that did it- and I will avoid it in the future, but it has made for a rough few days. So with her crying inconsolably, Evan screaming over EVERY little thing he doesn't like, Emma and Owen getting antsy and rough housing all over the place- I've just been a mess. Speaking of mess, my house is almost as bad, I'm trying to keep up with everything, but between normal laundry and all the pee pee accidents (they've been on the rise lately) I just can't keep up. If Evan would just veg out infront of the TV I might get some peace, but he wants nothing to do with it. Ben has been fantastic, I don't know what I would do with out him. He took Livi last night for at least an hour of the 2 so that was great. He also puts the 3 big kids to bed at night and for that I can't thank him enough. He's coming home early today too so I will get some away time- even if it is just to the store, I'll take it! (and I can't seem to remember all we need at the store ever- even if I have a litst I always seem to miss something so I'm always needing to go back - not really what I want to do with all of them.) So anyone who happens to read this before going to Kathleen's today- please let her know why we aren't there. I do much better when I get better sleep and have the energy to leave the house. Hopefully a change in diet will bring us back to normal- this is her first time having any fits of crying like this- she's been a dream baby so far.

Wednesday was the day that the week turned around. We stayed home all day. The best part was that Olivia slept through the night so I was in a much better frame of mind. Earlier in the week I had been to the web site for TLC show Peep, there were a few games there that I let the kids try. One of them involved mixing colors. So I thought we'd do it "in real life" too. I set up thier easel in the front yard and gave them each a tray with blue, yellow and red. They had a great time- though next time I'll just do two colors I think. Owen never quite got a good green going, too much red always on his brush- he just loved the red. Other things we worked on this week include some letter writing and counting. They've been wanting to do workbook pages as well as "abc pages" that I print for them. Those are two things always avaiable for them, but I dont' force it on them. I'll offer it up and sometimes they want to do them other times not so much. Owen is much more precise in trying to copy or trace his letters. That means it takes him a long time to do it so he starts to lose interest due to being "so tired". Emma is not so careful but definately seems to enjoy it more than Owen and for a longer time.

I showed them the game mancala this week. I played against them- I seem to remember that it is taught in 2nd or 3rd grade, so I know it is a bit much for them alone right now, but it makes for good counting practice and with direction they had no problem. It is good for Emma's fine motor as well. I'm noticing that she is having a tough time with some things lately. oh yeesh - for example yesterday she went to play thier computer, it has independent speakers which she knows how to turn on and off and I though she knew how to do volume control. well she went to turn it up a little and ended up blasting the thing. she about freaked out. I mean really freaked. hands over her ears screaming "it's too loud!!!!!!!!!!!" and at one poiint she was literally shaking. I had my hands full so I was trying to direct her on how to turn it down when there was a break in the music but she had really lost it. I turned it down for her then tried to teach her how to do it. it was very hard for her to pinch the little knob and turn it. she did get it eventually but I don't know that she'll be playing "dr.suess's abc's" again anytime soon! She has told me several times since that she doens't like the abc's anymore! LOL! So yeah she needs some help with fine motor.

I'd like to start reading chapter books with Emma & Owen. I'm thinking the Little House series. those were my all time favorites as a kid so I'm really looking forward to sharing them. Evan takes a 1-2.5 hour nap every day so I think that's when we'll do it. Evan is just waaaay to busy to try and do it while he's awake.









Monday, November 7, 2005

Is it over yet???

Wow- today was just oneof those days where you want one of two things to happen. YOu either want to crawl in bed and hide under the covers all day long or you want the day to just end so you can go to sleep and pretend it never happened. Yikes. It's not even as though I can blame it on lack of sleep either. Olivia is a lovely sleeper. she sleeps 5-7 hours a night on average. and even when she wakes it is all business- eat then sleep. What made today so hard was that I had two babies. Evan was just very cranky- he cried or really more like screamed over everything. From breakfast on through the day. He had some good moments- but mainly he just was cranky nad let me know. He did have fun at gymnastics. Today was our first day back to the once a week morning class. He did well and the big kids have a very small class of just 3. The teacher is great though- she is the director of the program and very attentive. they leared the terms "mount" and "dismount" today. They had a great time in the "kids room" too (the childcare room). I can't wait to leave Evan there too. He is just not into it right now- but I think he is getting closer to wanting to stay and play. I can leave Livi starting in mid January- so my hope is to drop of the crew and take some time for me- I can't wait!

I learned that both Owen & Emma know how to draw a rocket ship- Emma even adds flames to the bottom. I learned that Owen can read (or recognize) the product Bounty.I don't buy that brand- but was looking tat the brand next ot it on the shelf and he told me " Mom- that's Bounty- it has bigger quilts" . Did I mention we've had the TV on too much lately? Finally I learned that it is not my morning cup of coffee that gets Livi a bit fussy- can't wait for that cuppa tomorrow!


Sunday, November 6, 2005

The Basics

I thought I'd try out the whole blog thing- I've kept family up to date on our life and the lives of the kids on a web page- adding stories monthly for the first year of Evans life & I'll now do the same for Olivia. However I thought I'd tryt o start keping track in some oway of what we do that would be considered "schoolish" on a seperate place.

This year Emma would have officially started kindy had we gone the public school route. She missed the Dec 2ned cut off that California uses so she'd have been 5 and a half in september. Our basic style of homeschooling is pretty much "unschooling". I do want to get a curriculum (leaning to Sonlight K) but we won't start that until January or February. With the my pregnancy and Olivia's birth falling right at the begining of the traditional start of the school year I didn't feel like I could reasonably start following any set school right now. I think I made the right choice.

I do belive inthe concept of unchooling though- it is working right before our eyes. Emma knows her letters and their sounds, she can count to 10- but numbers seem to be a difficult concept for her so that is something we'll have to focus on. She knows her basic shapes, all her basic colors and she can also write her name as well as a handfull of the other letters. She is able to play on the kids computer, though mastering the mouse took her a bit- she now can do it. All this was achived with no "curriculum", no lesson plans and very little direct instruction. We don't do "school" time ever. Yet she knows what the average kindy kid knows and then some.

Owen knows everything Emma knows. He can also write his name and loves to practice writing some of the other letters. He's been into writing a string of random letters and then telling me what "story" he has written. He has a better grasp of numbers right now and can easily count to 30 and with promting can go even higher. He is very very into the computer and I have to set the timer to get him off so that Emma can have a turn. So though he is just 4.5 he is, academically speaking, ready for kindy.

Both kids are involved in gymnastics- Emma recenlty moved up to the 5 yea rold class. I had started her in the 4 year old class even though she was 5 because it was just easier on me to go once during the week. We did them in 2 different classes for two months 2x a week- it was hard. She did well in the class and is more than ready for it- but their classes were in different rooms at slightly staggered times and Evan wouldn't play in the childcare so I had to keep him in check for the hour. Too much work now that Livi is here. So this month we went back to once a week, mornings, in the same class together. Evan takes a mommy and me class just before the big kid class and he loves that. Owen is quite talented and could also do the 5 -7 year old class however they won't let him go up at this point. The directer is woking out something though so maybe soon he can. As long as they are in the same time slot it is doable for me.

So I guess that would be the basics of where we are and what we do. I am looking forward to maybe doing some unit studies with them and I really want to get at least some structure in here and there. But I do enjoy our unchooling lifestlye right now- they love to learn and they are able to play for hours on end with no TV. Though the last few weeks we've had far more TV on than I'd like it is just the way it needed to be for me to keep my sanity with the new baby. Thank goodness for DVR's we record Lazy Town, Peep and a handfull of others. Late afternoon TV stinks and often at 4:30 or so is when I need them to sit for a bit so I can get dinner going.