And July takes off in full force...with chicken pox

We got the chicken pox at our house. The older 4 kids already had them all at once years ago, so only Penelope and Sebastian need take a turn this time. Penelope had a easy time of it. She calls them 'bug bites.' She didn't even get a pox on her face! And only 1 that I could find on her head. She mostly got them on her backside. Sebastian is still in the throws of a high fever and hasn't broken out yet. Poor little guy. He's resting in the crook of my arm right now dazing in and out of reality. I do give fever reducers, just not continuously. I usually give it only if they can't get comfortable. It's also amazing how much you can reduce a fever by cool rags and a light fan in the room.

The older kids recently finished a 3 part art class at the library. Over the past week Ricky had a birthday, cousin Echo came to town, we lit fireworks, we went to six flags, we watched some family themed movies, we had a nice cool rain storm and unseasonably cool days, and we also ate lots of ice cream and homemade apple pie. Ricky took a few days off work so he actually was home 5 days in a row. Now that it's Monday it sure is hard to get back into the swing of things. Oh wait... was I ever in the swing...?

The older kids are at their theatre camp this week (with their cousin). Luckily I have wonderful family taking them to and from the majority of the camp so I don't have to go out with sick kids. Sebastian seems miserable. It's going to be a long day. A long week. I have a mountain of things to tend to. Really.

I can't wait for Charlotte to call and tell me how camp was today. I told her, "I want the full, full, full report."

Our first outdoor oven

Yesterday Charlotte and I built our first outdoor "oven" to bake potatoes in. We wanted salad and baked potatoes for dinner but didn't want to heat up the kitchen. So we built this lil' oven outside. They cooked faster than in the indoor oven. It's great that every little and big project is 'homeschooling'. Of the cinder blocks we used only one square has an air hole. The other three holes are packed with dried mud or concrete. This kept the heat from escaping

Lately...

My Family from WiddlyTinks.com


GREAT news! The public school down the road finally got with me on enrolling my kids in classes. I can enroll them without problems in things like music, P.E., art, Etc.
The principle was extremely friendly and nice to me. He is checking into how he can get Sage into some reading classes for extra help. So I am very happy about this. This fall/winter will be a busy one for us! The school is only a mile away though so it will not be too bad. I looked into homeschool sports programs like we had before, it was double the price. That was disappointing. So while we won't be connecting with as many homeschoolers as I'd like at least I can get them in free P.E. for the time being. This is especially good timing since Sebastian is so little and it's hard to travel much further than our own backyard.

The Chester Comix came!! 8 pounds of history lesson comic books in a box on my porch when I got home yesterday! They look great! With thicker harder type covers than I had imagined. They will hold up through many kids this way. We haven't gotten too into them yet, but the teacher manuals/printables are GREAT too! I'm really glad they look so cool. We will start on the first one today.

Sebastian walks and claps now. Not all at once though. He is SO cute I can hardly stand it. What a happy baby.

Layla is writing letters and enjoys practicing that lately. Penelope following her lead asks to write letters to, or more often asks me to write letters for her.

I recently unpacked the computer educational games. Ethan finished a CD about fractions, time, and money. The time and money was review. But the fraction section served as a intro for him as we have not done fractions yet. We are starting them now. Sage started the CD the other day too.

Charlotte has a new workbook she started on. Sage is still doing studydog right now for reading.

We have been spending most evening exploring the cemetery across the street and catching glow-bugs. We have a lot of fun.

Gardening is slow going right now. I have over 40 tomato plants planted, lots of peppers, and a few other things like cucumbers, cantaloupe and watermelon planted. But I haven't done any of my fall crops yet. I'm probably still ok, but how much longer can I push it!? I just don't have the time.

A tiller would sure help speed things up. Next year I have to get one. I WILL get one. Not because I can't do the physical work (I want to for exercise) but I have to have it for the speed. A tiller could do in one day what it takes me 3 weeks to do (maybe 6 weeks!). And when I have mouths to feed, baby to nurse, laundry to do, homeschooling, mowing....well it just is not working out.

Time to go I have a baby to change and waffles to get ready.

Summer is in full swing...go go go go

Yard work, Six flags, back to back birthday parties, sleepovers, Renaissance faire, a second move (we never moved the contents of our basement), library programs, laundry, dishes, kids, school work...what's school work?

We do manage to get reading/journaling/spelling in somehow. Oh and basic math about 3x a week (we need more progress here!). Just today I ordered these history comic books ! I'm really excited (Join the homeschool buyers co op for free online for 65% off the set)!! Our plan is to cover one comic book a week together with the kids. I also just saved a zillion instant viewing educational movies on netflix to keep the kids busy for quite a long while. I'm going to compile a list and post it someday.

GOALS FOR SUMMER:
Math with dad on weekends! Must do this!
Comic Book history every week w/corresponding movie/lesson
Netflix educational movie 2-3 x week (at least 1-2 as a family movie)
WRITE EVERYTHING down (log better than ever)

IN OTHER NEWS:
-The public school down the road is ignoring my phone calls (I'm requesting supplemental classes (art, music, P.E. for all, and reading for Sage)
-Layla will go to half day pre-k this fall (only 0.4 miles away from our house!)
-I finally signed up to be a HSLDA member
-Kids are signed up for drama camp!

earthworm mama

Monday May 11, 2009

I'm trying to get in a bath to wash the black soil from my toes, scrub my nails and feel clean again! But some little one wants me to rock him. I spent the day doing yard work. Planting is slow going for me since there is SO much other yard work that keeps us sidetracked. But I do have to say things are coming along great. The strawberries we planted are starting to flower already! It's great! I had used some black weed out cloth around them, but that wasn't working as well as the ol' lasagna garden method. So the kids and I spend Saturday afternoon pulling up the black and then laying newspaper and straw down around the plants. When we were working Ethan found the biggest earthworm any of had ever ever seen! The picture doesn't really even do the worn justice, it was even bigger than this.

Tuesday May 12, 2009

I never made it to the bath last night. I fell asleep with Layla and Sebastian. I never even changed my clothes! Ricky thought it was so funny. So this morning I was ready to garden again, why even bother. It was a rough go this morning though when Sebastian decided to be super needy/unhappy. I got a few things done but not nearly enough. I worked until I was tried of him on my back in the backpack. I think his gums must have been sore. He was quite cranky. He finally took a nap this afternoon and I made better headway. I transplanted some ornamental grass to a different spot, planted a salad bar of baby greens in a partial shade garden bed and tended to the lavender I had planted yesterday. I also dug a huge "trench" of sorts along a fence to eventually cover with paper/mulch/compost (lasagna garden) and plant something in. I planted 6 cauliflower starts, and 5 cabbage starts in the "main garden" area. Do I even have a main area anymore???? I've got Shtuff planted EVERYWHERE. I have no clue how I'm going to keep up with all the watering. This is the hardest I've ever worked outside.

Trying to make serious plans for some big projects: chicken fence, ripping up carpet in house for the wood floors, planting area for large vining plants; pumpkins, watermelon, cantaloupe.

I have another BIG thing hanging over me too though; we have to finish getting the rest of our stuff out of the old house! Eeeep. So little time, SO much to do.

New chickens (baby chicks) arrive the 20th!!!

I'm insane.

Other Various:

We took snapshots of a nest of baby birds and put the pictures here We tracked them until they left the nest.

Kids "homeschooling"

The girls who light up my life and make me pull my hair out

Sebastian eats soil more than once a day

week in review : kids home, earthday, homeschool

The older kids are home! After a crazy 12 hour plane delay in TX due to two days of bad weather in he area. Poor kids! They made it home though. They had fun in Mexico and they came home with tans, stories, and a boat load of dirty clothes.

Earth day was yesterday. We spent it with good friends at the annual Earth Day celebration we go to in Rolla. The kids made pine cone bird feeders, and such. It wasn't as entertaining as last year (every year the booths dwindle to less & less), but it was good to see our friends and watch the kids play.

We found yet another early reader website! I swear I try them all. It's http://www.sightwordswithsamson.com/ I like it because it's focus is on sight words and not phonics. We found another site I'm thinking about buying the software of at http://www.readinghorizons.com/ . It teaches real reading rules in easy to understand format (and has games). One of their free movies is about why/when do words start with K/C; like why isn't Kitten spelled with a C? It's very interesting and I think it will help even older readers. I'm having fun learning too.

This week we tried a new homeschool "format" in the mornings after breakfast I have the little girls (age 2&4) do two letter of the day worksheets. The older three kids (age 9,9 & 12) do worksheets together. Monday they did a series of geography, latitude & longitude, map skills worksheets. On Tuesday they did a packet of about 6 worksheets on pollination (earth day related). The sheets were educational and also had mazes, word searches, Etc.

So now what to do today...

The dormant strawberry plants/roots we planted while the kids were gone are doing FANTASTIC! They have tripled in size! I hope I muster up the energy to garden today. I need to get a bunch of household stuff done first. I need to accomplish several things today since we'll be gone all day tomorrow again. I need to drop off the older kids to sleepover birthday parties back in Rolla again. So there goes our Friday. (Charlotte and the boys each have different parties to go to).

And people wonder how homeschoolers socialize. They should be wondering when homeschoolers have time for school work.

100 strawberry plants are a lot

Well I miss the older 3 kiddos. But not as much as I thought I would. I think they are finally getting old enough that I don't obsessively worry about them. Oh I worry...Just not as obsessively. Plus I know they are having so much fun. Away they come home tomorrow. Then it's back to homeschooling, a schedule, Etc.
I'm going to joke with them and say I missed them because I had to do the dishes while they were gone :D

I'm disappointed that we didn't end up taking the little girls somewhere really fun. We got really caught up in buying fruit trees, gardening, mowing, Etc. They had loads of fun in the dirt, on their playground, at the farmers market, digging up worms and having worm races. But still I feel bad. We were suppose to do something special with them. Maybe we'll come up with something.

I'm discovering that gardening is exercise. I'm exhausted. My leg muscles are sore. And planting 100 strawberries does not sound like or look like as much work as it is. Yesterday we also bought more fruit trees than we have room for. I think we have a plan though.