Family Weekly Digest ~ Week of 16 October

“Just the facts” – http://not2many@blogspot.com

Note:*means there is an entry with more details on the blog about this line item
**means there is an entry with photos on the blog about this line item

~*The men in our family ventured forth to “War” this week – a Paint Ball War.

~**The younger set and I gave the older ones a tour of the Concho Riverwalk….we fed and/or observed ducks, geese, muskrats, a water moccasin, fish and fishermen.

~Stacia turned two months old this week. It’s always amazing how quickly a family absorbs and adapts to new members.

~We’ve met *TWO* neighbors this week. One when a nameless male broke a solar light running back to receive a pass and the other when a nameless woman and daughter showed up on our doorstep. The woman did have a name: Kathy. She began by saying “Are you the lady with lots of children who drives a big red van from AK”? She went on to tell us LOTS about us…while we knew nothing about her. She filled us in and we look forward to getting to know her and her family better.

~Football season continues. The TLC Eagles won their game 33-0 this week. The highlight of the night for us was watching Jamin introduce several opponents to the ground, blocking a pass and Zander discovering TX FIRE ANTS! We’ve been warning him since June but now he *KNOWS*. He was indignant “Mom, the FIRE ANTS are BITING ME!”

~**School marches on. We’ve made cookie dough maps, spotted planets and more this week.

~ *A couple of Family Funnies

~* Reading continues to be a favorite family hobby. Check to see what we are reading this week and leave some suggestions of your own.

~By the way, Girls, although you insisted our food consumption would not change when you left home, we need to report that we now need THREE pizzas instead of four and we eat ONE Chicken Pot Pie instead of 1 ¾. It’s also been noted that left-overs are not leaving the fridge at the same rate of consumption. Arielle, Nolan & Zander continue to listen to the story tape you made constantly. Arielle still sleeps with the picture of the three of you.

~Pictures of this & that are uploaded to the blog.

PICTURES OF THIS & THAT

Arielle on KP

Arielle wanted a picture of her

& Stacia to send the girls in

their new clothes - Ah well - every

picture can't be a winner!

Zander

Jamin

Jamin

Football Fans

Stacia - 2 months

Someone make her STOP squirming

Jared & His Halibut

De'Etta & Her Moose

Stacia views ducks

What are THOSE?

Feeding Ducks

School daze ~

 Week of 16 October

This week we continue to study the early 1800’s – with an emphasis on the United States of America. We’ve learned more about Thomas Jefferson, the Supreme Court under John Marshall, and the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Obviously, the high school boys are making many tie ins to current events with a new Supreme Court justice, a nominee on the table, and several federal cases decided this week. It’s fun to watch them connect what TJ did or John Marshall to what is going on in the news. The older boys also completed their TREK through Faust.


The younger set and I decided to make (are you ready?) :::drum roll::: Cookie Dough maps this week. This was a two day project. Thursday consisted of finding maps, making a pattern, and making the dough. Friday we baked the maps and then frosted them during Family Night. We made the maps to show the land that the US held BEFORE the Louisiana Purchase, the lands that were added because of the Purchase and the route of the Lewis & Clark Expedition.

In the process of all this hands on map-making we rewrote history. Josiah (16 yo) came out and caught me eating just a *bit* of cookie dough. "Mom, you've eaten LA," he exclaimed. We laughed and proceeded to make our cookie dough maps of the USA. In the hubbub of shaping, cutting, helping kids roll....it seems that a wild cookie monster ate Zander's (3 yo) original 13 colonies....or maybe it was a gigantic hurricane..... I warned them all that if they get sick - I will not feel bad for them - I warned them not to eat the colonies!!!! Where do these kids get such a warped sense of humor????


We learned several lessons with this project. 1. If you eat a little; your children are sure to eat a lot….watch those “little sins”. 2. Cookie Dough tastes much better than Salt Dough. 3. This could be a disadvantage…on the other hand 4. Cookie Dough maps don’t last forever in a closet…you make them and EAT THEM.

In Science Jamin continues to explore all sorts of flora a fauna under the microscope. He’s now convinced us all that the lid MUST be immediately put back on the milk after each cup is poured so that no bacterium floats into the milk. Jared, Arielle and I got up early to catch a look at Mars in the early a.m. sky. We studied Comets, Meteors and Asteroids this week.

I continue to feel that ALL of life has become school…but that isn’t a bad thing.

Reading List

Here's a list of what we're reading this week. Feel free to leave suggestions of your own for future weeks.

Zander (3) – Read to him:
Dinosaurs by Design by Duane T. Gish
How They Crossed the West: The Adventures of LC – Rosalyn Schanzer

Noaln (6) Curently learning phonics sounds - enjoys the above as well

Arielle (8)
Runaway Pony, Runaway Dog – Ruth & Latrobe Carroll (This book is special as Arielle discovered it on the shelves and it has the CO Springs address in it. She thinks it is way cool that she is reading the very book that her Aunts or Dad read as children.)

The Mud Flat Olympics – Stevenson {?}

Jared (11)
The Young Carthaginian – GA Henty
Streams to the River; River to the Sea – Scott O’Dell

Jamin (14)
Faust – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Men in Black – Mark Levine
Thomas Jefferson: Architect of Democracy – John Severance
The War of the Worlds – H.G. Wells

Josiah (16)
Faust – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Men in Black - Mark Levine
Thomas Jefferson: Architect of Democracy – John Severance
Various Louis Lamoure (sp?) & Saga of the Sierras

De’Etta (Mom )
The Preacher had 10 kids – Frances Bradsher - OLD
Age of Opportunity – Paul D Tripp
The Grace & Truth Paradox – Randy Alcorn
Lord, Calm My Anxious Heart – Linda Dillow

Mike (Dad)
The Grace & Truth Paradox – Randy Alcorn

We also love the evening hours when Mike reads to us. Of course we also read the Bible each week...but it is really a class above the rest of our reading.

Family Read Aloud
Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
Araminta’s Paint Box – Karen Ackerman
Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales

A Couple of Family Funnies

It became apparent that a summer of shorts with growing kids leads to a fall shopping trip. Arielle and I valiantly headed to out to our own “war” – “The Shopping War”. We were thrilled to find all the right sizes 30 x 32; 32 x 32; 32 X 34; 8 slims….on sales at Ross’s and the other famed battleground – Wal-mart. It appears, however, that one must now watch for the CUT and not just the size. I noticed that the relaxed jeans we bought the older three young men seemed rather baggy. I commented that I seemed to have gotten the wrong size and was assured that I got the right size. I then noted that they didn’t seem very relaxed. Jared (11) solved the mystery of the baggy pants for me, “Mom, I wouldn’t call it relaxed having to jump behind a tree every 5 minutes to pull your pants up!” :::snort::::

Zander continues to give me wonderful advice on parenting and life in general. I’m not sure WHERE he picked it up but he loves to tell me, “MOM!!! RE – LAAAAAX!” He also has begun cocking his head to the left and saying "You talking at me?" and "don't sass me"....sigh. To show him in a brigther l ight I continue to struggle with wrist pain (and feet pain too???). Zander has taken to asking me quite often "Mom, Your wrist hurt?" and giving me a hug. One day last week I asked Zander to help me carry laundry and he said, "Ohhh....my wrist hurts!" He also has a new habit of shaking the computer mouse. I asked what he was doing and he said, “waking UP the mouse”.

CONCHO RIVER

 ~ 15 October 2005

We are discovering that TX and AK are reverse images of each other. In AK it is winter 9 months of the year; in TX it is summer 9 months of the year. What a relief that “cold weather” is finally starting to slowly descend on Western TX. It’s now in the 80*s. I believe our highs are supposed to begin dipping into the high 70*’s next week….and the lows in the 40*s. All that to say this: in AK we didn’t see our neighbors during the winter and they’d all reappear in the summer. HERE we are noting that we see more and more people every week while we are out and about in the parks, on our walks, at the lake and river…



The younger five and I had so much fun on the Concho River last Friday that we INSISTED on taking the older two boys and Mike back for a peek. We left the house loaded with two bags of mostly stale buns for the ducks…and the C*A*M*E*R*A. We were barely at the bank when the ducks began to drift our way. There is *something* about tossing bread to ducks that is very appealing to all ages.

The younger set and I were hoping that the stray muskrat, which had drifted into our duck feeding escapade on our prior adventure, would make reappearance. We hoped our friendly muskrat wasn’t camera shy. In less than 2 minutes of feeding ducks our muskrat showed up ~ with family and friends in tow. We think we found a nest/den/whatever you call muskrat homes….they were swimming under the bank where we were standing. There was even a very tiny baby muskrat brave enough to dart in and out for bread. They certainly could care less about the camera…as long as bread was somewhere in the vicinity of the camera.

Eventually, we had our fill of feeding ducks and muskrats and began a leisurely walk along the river….as leisurely as any walk can be with an energetic Zander in tow. Unlike the San Antonio River Walk, this River Walk is not commercialized. There are no restaurants and shops along the river….just wildlife, nature, fishermen, and skaters across the street. They’ve also built a wonderful park for children, Kids Kingdom, along the river. We’ll have to get pictures of it one of these weeks.

It was fun to see various fishermen and the bait they were using. We have decided that we will not eat anything that we know is caught in this river. It is the slowest moving river any of us have ever seen…more like a lake. We can’t help but wonder what is under the surface besides muskrat and water moccasins (which we also spotted).

We ended the night by snapping the obligatory family picture (seen above) and skipping over a few blocks to Scholtskys for a “serious sandwich with a funny name”.

PAINT BALL WAR

15 October 2005

Two of Mike’s squadrons determined that a day of “team building fun” was in order. The commanders lighted on the idea of a Paint Ball War on the base. As the chaplain, Mike was invited to attend and told he could bring his children along for the fun. Josiah, Jamin and Jared decided to join him. Arielle and I thought the whole idea sounded a bit nutty and possibly painful; the younger boys were sleeping when it was time to leave. While I worked on updating the blog the men ventured forth with Mike to “war”.

Near as I can tell they had a blast! We’ve been reliving the four rounds in our dreams and conversations. It would appear that there was at least ONE from the family standing at the end of each round and one round where the only ones left standing were ours. What amused me the most were the comments the boys overheard. “Chaplain G is aggressive”…..”Chaplain G really lights them up”. It would seem it is not just the females in our house that think Chaplain G and his 3rd son are a might bit competitive.

I was ready to attribute this whole event to T-poisoning until Mike informed me that there was quite a bit of estrogen running around on the field as well. Now that we’ve discovered that the base has a paint ball field and equipment you can rent…we are sure to try this as a family. I noted that a box of paint balls made it home with the guys.

Family Weekly Digest

 ~ Week of 9 October
“Just the facts” – http://not2many@blogspot.com

Note:*means there is an entry with more details on the blog about this line item
**means there is an entry with photos on the blog about this line item

~When counting heads to make sure all the children are safe and accounted for I catch myself counting, “1, 2, 3, 4,5,6,7, and 2 in Spokane”. For you older moms…is this something I’ll do the rest of my life or will I adjust to counting 7 and knowing all is well?

~** Air show – perfect day for a great air show – 8 October

~**Sunday Finery – picture and blurb about our visit to the Gospel Service

~**Nolan learns to “ride” a bike

~**Zander learns to ride a Tricycle – he rides like the wind

~Watched Wallace & Gromit – We were disappointed with the adult humor

~**Stacia tries to roll over, has a 2 month baby check up and a VCUG this week. We are still waiting for VCUG results but the doctor says she is now at the 50% for weight and is very advanced socially. He didn’t believe she interacted and did the things I said she did; so he tested her. He said most babies aren’t beginning these things until 4 months. I explained that she was the youngest of 9 children. He said she was “socially and developmentally advanced”. Not sure that is a trend we want to continue. Pictures uploaded of Stacia learning to roll over.

~*Alex’s potty training adventures (see Zanderisms)

~**School continues on. We enjoyed math manipulatives this week. We also found some favorite websites for exploring space.

~Jamin’s team wins last year’s champs 14 – 7; if they win one more game they will be in the state play offs. This is pretty heady stuff for a team that didn’t win a single game in the previous two years.

~Friday Fun Day – The younger ones and I went to Kids Kingdom while Josiah ran to the library and Jamin went to football practice. It was a great day to visit the park. It was much cooler than it was on 4 July when it was 105*. We fed the ducks and geese. We were all taken aback when an ugly muskrat swam into the midst of the ducks and geese. It had big red teeth and red eyes. It was cute the way it scooped up the food we were throwing. I forgot the camera.

~**When faced with the age old “eat what I fix or don't eat at all" mother lecture” Alex finds a solution (see Zanderisms)

~**Zander discovers that Oompa Lumpas live in the computer? Nah – those are MEN! (See Zanderisms)

Stacia’s learns a new trick

I happened on Stacia trying to roll over. I quickly ran for the camera. When she noticed the camera, she stopped to smile and then rolled over on her back to coo and smile. I’ll have to be a bit more stealthy in the future. She’s about 8 weeks in these photos.

SCHOOL DAZE

Week of 9 October 2005

I’m not sure why, but folks seem interested in what we are doing in school. Here you go:

This week Josiah and Jamin are tackling Faust. They are also reading *Men in Black* by Mark Levine. We are all studying the founding of the Supreme Court. What a timely issue this is to study. They have been visiting many internet sites as well.

Jared discovered this week that he is much better at spelling than he expected. He made a 90% on the test from his new 6th grade spelling book.
Arielle and Nolan enjoyed pattern blocks and other math manipulatives this week. Here Arielle tries to make sure that her missing tooth is in the picture. We continue to begin our school day with either a walk or a bike ride.

Arielle, Nolan and Jared are all studying Astronomy. Here are some links we found this week that we enjoyed. We plan to try to find Mars on Wed morning in our sky. We also hope to catch an awesome meteorite shower in the upcoming weeks.

http://www.dustbunny.com/afk/skymaps/ This site has maps for meteor showers
http://janus.astro.umd.edu/javadir/orbits/ssv.html A cool animation of the solar system
http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/index.html deep space 1 - Zander’s site!!

Air Show

We were blessed with a PERFECT day for an Air Show last Saturday. The temp has taken a down swing and fall weather may be here to stay. There was a refreshing, cool breeze. There were no clouds in the sky. We had worried about sun stroke; but the sun was behaving. The temps were in the low 80’s. In addition to the weather we were blessed with GREAT seats this year. The base off-campus housing is near the lake and the airport. We were invited to watch the Air Show from the home of the NCOIC at the chapel. What a great solution. The little ones were able to play. We had comfy seats to sit in and plenty of shade.

We brought burgers and John grilled them. Melody and I enjoyed the chance to get to know one another. Nolan and Zander had a great time playing with their oldest, Noah (9 or 10). Arielle loved playing with Shiloh (4?), while visions of sisterly fun must have danced in her imagination. Stacia enjoyed lounging in her stroller. I was worried about the sun and had her decked out in a cute, skin-tight cap. The boys teased me mercilessly saying she looked like a gang baby.

John had just returned from an AETC Wing Chaplain/NCOIC conference in San Antonio and so he and Mike spent some time talking leadership philosophy and such. John recommended a book called True faced that I am going to need to look up. Melody and I discussed getting something started for the spouses of those who work in the chapel – what we may want to do and what we hope for it to look like.

The planes cooperated fully to create a perfect day. Zander seems to have forgotten how load F-15’s could be and was terror stricken when one flew directly over his head…it did seem to be lining up with the street he was running down and it was quite low…would have made a great picture but Mike had claimed the camera for the day.

At one point the older boys left to play tennis at the lake, but they eventually returned and we completed the day with ice cream and toppings. How can you beat that????

Jared (11)

Josiah (16)

Zanderisms

Zander is such a joy. Some weeks he is the only thing that keeps life funny around here.

I’ve been trying to introduce him, oh so gently, to the concept of going potty in the TOILET! First we tried to make bubbles…he thought I was nuts. Then I sat a small cup of cheerios on the toilet and told him he could sink them. A nameless older male in the house even demonstrated the maneuver for Zander. He told me later that said individual doesn’t like to EAT cereal; he puts it in the toilet….yuck…..that didn’t work. Later in the week he informed me all the Cheerios had gotten lost. I don’t WANT to know where they went. Evidently, Zander thinks I just want to play with him. He came to me one day and said, “Mooooom”. I said, “Yes, Zander?” “Mom!” I looked up. He stood with his feet hip distance apart. He pulled the right tab on his Pampers and said, “Ka boom!”, he pulled the left tab on his pampers and said “Ka boom” and then standing naked from the waist down he did a little jig very much like a Chippendale dancer while humming music and occasionally saying “ka-boom, ka-boom”. I’m about to drop the subject with him.

Before this next incident I need to make a big confession. I need to go shopping and all of Zander's food is gone....... When faced with the age old “eat what I fix or don't eat at all" mother lecture, Zander found a unique solution. I was in the shower. Zander found a package of Oreos and ate them for breakfast. I can’t decide if I should post this or hide my head in shame.

The kids and I are studying space rocks this week in science. We viewed some websites on meteorites and such. I came back later and discovered this 3 yo surfing the web. He’d found the site and loved all the pictures of Deep Space 1. He was double clicking and pulling up pictures and had figured out how to use the back button as well. Arielle and I decided to watch with him. One picture had scientists in white suits and hats working on Deep Space 1. Arielle and I began to sing “oompa, lumpa” you know from the old Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory. Zander got quite irate “Those not LUMPAS – those MEN- Just LOOK!”

His most recent comment to amuse me occurred during Stacia’s “hour of power” or as the pediatrician calls it the “arsenic hour”. Stacia is colicky off and on. I was trying to calm her and Zander said, “Mom, Stacia needs to SCREAM!” I figure that piece of parenting advice is as likely to help as any I’ve received.

Oops – no, most recent is this: I noticed Stacia was fussing and then quieted – Alex was no where around. Just discovered her in the living room with Alex’s dinosaurs, elephants and snakes ringing her blanket…he was putting a pacifier in her mouth. Guess he tried the toys first but they didn’t work well.

Yes, Alex or Zander (depending on his mood) can be a hand full but his personality is charming. He is destined to do great things…well or to be a dancer….

Sunday Finery

Here’s a picture of Stacia at 7 weeks. We’re on our way to church and she is NOT in pink. 

This Sunday we attended the Gospel Service. We love to visit this service and had not been in it for over a month. RE (Sunday School) had been cancelled so we opted to attend the 2:00 Gospel Service instead of the 10:30 traditional. Sister Cheryl is dying to get a chance to spoil Stacia.

At the service they gave Nolan a tambourine. He had a blast making a joyful noise. Somehow Zander got it when we went up for offering so he entertained one and all as he danced and jingled up to the offering plate. Pastor Floyd had a great message from I Sam 15 about appearances and obedience. During the sermon he would say “Amen” and Alex loved the chance to yell “Amen” at the top of his lungs. We are blessed that Pastor Floyd and Cheryl enjoy children.

BIKES GALORE!

We’ve discovered the terrain in this part of the States is much more bike-friendly. The kids had tried valiantly to learn to ride bikes in Alaska but our block was on a hill, add snow, ice and short winter days and there just wasn’t much time to learn to ride. Arielle had begun to make real progress in Alaska. She was thrilled when we got the bikes out a couple of weeks ago to discover that she could still ride. She’s made great progress in the past couple of weeks.

Zander had decided he didn’t need a bike and would ride a scooter instead. The problem being that he is a dare devil and we didn’t like him on the scooter at all. Boy he can make that thing go! Josiah and Jamin chase him on rollerblades. We decided it was time to take stock of the bikes we had, buy a 12 in one for Zander and set out to teach the boys to ride. Mike has a “thing” about training wheels. He’s determined that the way Dad Earl taught him to ride is THE way to teach a child to ride. We found Arielle’s old hefty, YERF tricycle and got it outfitted for Zander. At this point Zander took 3 minutes to figure out the pedaling thing and away he, Arielle and I went. He charmed the neighbors by yelling, “Mom, Look at me! I Ride Like the WIND”.

Meanwhile, back at the home, Mike had found a bike that would fit Nolan. He had lowered the seat, pumped up the tire, put pedals back on and was teaching Nolan to ride his bike. Nolan did quite well. He was able to ride from our house to the next by himself…”with dad a little bit behind me”. The beauty of this training system is that Mike is going to get plenty of exercise riding along behind Nolan. If we can find some time this weekend to ride bikes, I think Nolan will have it made.

Family Weekly Digest

Problem:
Not all of you will have the time or inclination to read all our blog entries. Others want “all the details and photos too”.

Solution:
For those who want “just the facts”, I’ve created the Family Weekly Digest. It appears that I may only be posting updates once a week. I write them during the week and in the wee morning hours I can upload them and their corresponding pictures. My plan (open to tweaking) will be to post a digest on the blog every Saturday a.m. I also realize that some don’t have time to even log on to the blog….so I’ll send this digest out to family when I post it on the web each week.

Note:
*means there is an entry with more details on the blog about this line item
**means there is an entry with photos on the blog about this line item

Week of 2 October

**~We send our first care package to the girls!

~We talked on the phone to both BreAnne (Monday) & Krista (Sunday). They had a great week at Master’s Commission. The theme of the week centered on servant leadership, they were able to attend an Open Bible Ladies Retreat, and are busy preparing for an outreach to local schools and INSTE (academics) which began this week. We’ve not talked to them yet this week. They have both been able to try to answer they many emails that this family has generated to them each week. They had a couple of memory tests this week that both are doing well on. Please do continue to pray for them as they step into new roles.

**~Tennis joins our roster of Family Fitness Activities

*~A “vicious puppy” followed us home Monday from a walk (story by Arielle)

**~Nolan lost his first tooth, visited the doc for mole check up/speech referral

**~Football Funny and Jamin’s football team is featured on the front page of our newspaper

~The boys attend “Flipside”, a local youth group held in an old theater…will this become their new “youth church home”?

**~We make volcanoes and explode them (along with an exploding nose!)

~We continue to love the dynamics that have been added to our family and school by having all the children using Tapestry of Grace this year. We are having some great Socratic discussions….in the living room, in the van, around the table. Sunday night Josiah gave a 3 min speech to us on Beethoven, Jamin gave a 3 min speech on Verdi, Nolan recited the alphabet, and Jared read a paper on Robert Fulton and Arielle gave a speech on Mars.

~Late breaking news – Zander has changed the language on our computers to German….sigh…

EXPLODING VOLCANOES
Or
AFTER 16 YEARS OF HOMESCHOOLING I’VE FINALLY USED SALT DOUGH ~ BUT IT WASN’T FOR A MAP!!!

7 October

A recurring joke among real life and cyber friends is that I’ve managed to homeschool for 16 years without making a salt dough map or lap book. Both of these are used quite a bit in Tapestry of Grace; but I’d even managed to avoid them last year.

However – THIS year….well did you know that the biggest Volcano in our solar system is Olympus Mons and that it is on Mars? We had the option of making and exploding a volcano. I was skeptical. The last hands on science experiment *I* planned was when the four older ones were in elementary school. I needed to boil an egg, which we began and then promptly forgot due to an interesting read aloud book. We heard an explosion and the egg had hit the ceiling. This time the project was SUPPOSED to explode. What could go wrong? I decided to give it a try. (Side note – we’ve DONE experiments before – but only when Mike was home).
The younger ones and I headed to Wal-mart for flour, vinegar, baking soda, food coloring and salt. We came home on Thursday to make our volcanoes. We were supposed to use “small, plastic aspirin bottles” but I didn’t have any and I didn’t want to buy 4 bottles of aspirin to empty and use. (I’d done that the week before for Jamin’s biology experiment – bought four jars of Ovaltine). Thanks to Zander’s fascination with play dough I DID have four play dough containers. We began to mix up salt dough…we had to make 6 batches of it….(Yes, SHS ladies…the Bosch Mixer handled the load quite easily!) I think Alex (or Zander) is a budding scientist. He loved this project. Note the fine china on the plate stacker ).

ANYWAY, Thursday, we made four volcanoes. This came off without a hitch. We did discover that I seem to be an outside of the box type of person. I found that I was inspired by the dough. I thought I could make a mold of my face (ala Jan Brady) and impress the kids. The salt dough stung my eyes. I settled for making a nose. I made a mold of my nose, complete with nostrils for breathing or spewing lava. At this point we set aside our 4 trays of volcanoes, and a nose, to dry overnight. (I was actually a bit nervous about exploding things, given my prior record, and decided to wait for Mike to be home to supervise).

Mike is a great, by the book type, guy! He measured, poured and supervised as 4 perfect volcanoes erupted in the color of each child’s choice. It WORKED! They were very cool. This is a good time to mention that we are using “Exploring Creation with Astronomy” by Jeannie Fulbright and published by Apologia as our science text. This text takes a Charlotte Mason approach to science. We cover only one topic a year (though this is our second year on this for my young set (2nd, 1st grade, and Zander). By covering one topic a year we are able to really explore it. I believe the text is meant for older elementary kids but my younger ones love it as well. We plan to do the Botany book next…..we’re over ½ way through this book. Thanks to Jeannie for writing a text that is fun, informative, includes hands on ideas and gave me the courage to try another experiment.

After all the real volcanoes had done their thing….I HAD to see if my exploding nose would work. There was some discussion as to how I planned to do this. I added all the ingredients except vinegar to Zander’s previously exploded volcano. I then put the cost of my nose on top of Zander’s volcano, poured the liquids through the nostrils and whammo!!! It worked! The kids were very impressed…I put so much “juice” in the thing (not being a by the book type of gal I hadn't measured) that it oozed not only out the nose but out the sides, ears etc.

Next week we begin a chapter on SPACE ROCKS!!!! I wonder what adventures we will have then!

Football Funny

Coach Trevor & Team - Jamin #3

Funny thing happened at the game this evening. Jamin was a bit nervous about starting and being the um….offensive front line something or other. This meant he would be responsible for tackling and stopping the opposing team - in particular he was to protect the quarter back.

We were all excited when he made the first tackle of the game. There had been an article in the paper Friday morning about TLC’s football team and the role that faith played in their great season. It seems when Jamin made the awesome tackle some purple/ red-headed, blonde-streaked lady in the stands yelled “That’s it son! We’re into the Philistine Principle – none of that turn the other cheek stuff tonight!” He was fearsome. He sat that huge boy right down on the field. I also quickly noted that one of our players seemed to keep loosing his pants when tackled. Josiah finally convinced me that I was seeing beige pads and not TLC hiney. Unfortunately, as the game wore on the ref called a couple of personal fouls on my favorite warrior – um football player. In fact, I noted that several of these very nice Christian parents were about to loose their witness due to questionable calls. Determined not to be one of them, I simmered down. It helped that Mike had his hand firmly planted on my leg and was saying “don’t go there, De’Etta”.

Jamin got to play quite a bit this game. That’s a great thing for a Freshman. When he got home I was telling him how proud I was of him. THIS is the funny thing that happened. Jamin replied, “I held them” and I said, “You sure DID. No one got by you!!” I noticed the boys were sort of smirking and looking at each other a bit uncertainly. Mike said, “De’Etta you’ve misunderstood”. Jamin got called for HOLDING….well shoot….he did stop the charging line. The coach was happy with him and I’m sure they’ll have lots of time this year and in the future to work on that holding thing.

I’ve still not attained to the full stature of “TX Football Mom”; but I sure do enjoy having the family out together, watching one of our own pursue his interest, and knowing that all that energy had to come out somewhere…thanking God it’s on the football field and not the living room floor. By the way, they really do name children Bubba down here. And they constantly slaughter Jamin’s last name over the PA system.

NOLAN

Nolan lost his first tooth this week!!!! He is quite proud of himself. He also got to visit the doctor where we discovered that his has an “angel mole” but that it is nothing to worry about.

The pediatrician, Dr. Carroll, seems very nice and competent. She’d never seen a white circle around a mole like he has and immediately went to find the head dermatologist.

She’s very willing to give us a referral for speech therapy but said we have to talk to the school and get a “non-availability” statement first. She doesn’t think this will be hard for us to get. We’ll look into it next week. She had lots of good things to say about the rehab center where they would send Nolan for therapy. Stay tuned….

TENNIS

Tennis has arrived in our home. I have no idea why we’ve not tried this before! Mike was quite good in high school…part of a winning doubles team.

Monday we walked to the park with 3 rackets and one ball. Not a great plan…especially since the ball may have been around since BreAnne was a toddler. Mike ran the kids through drills and basics. We left the park with a list of things I needed to buy. Tuesday found Josiah and I at Wal-mart where we picked up: JR rackets for Arielle, Nolan and Zander, a dozen new balls that BoUnCe!, and a tennis bag to carry it all in.


We’ve spent quite a few afternoons/evenings investigating this new family activity. We are dreaming of fun, fitness and all on a price the budget can afford! I look forward to the day when they know the basics well enough to give Mike a workout on the court!

Just the basics

FIRST CARE PACKAGE

We sent our first care package to the girls this week. What fun to shop, cook and package it up. The little ones and I decided to roam through Wal-mart and see what inspired us. We ended up with an eclectic mix of things…Vit C, Kleenex, high lighters, chocolate chips, notepads, animal crackers, homemade peanut butter/chocolate Rice Krispy treats and I can’t remember what else. I made up little notes to explain each item and Jared attached them to the items. For example attached to the Chocolate Chips “For those times when nothing but mainlining chocolate will get you through the day” and attached to the animal crackers “for the days when you think you’re in a zoo…open the box and regain your humor” etc.

My favorite item was the family hug bear “for the times when you feel like you need a hug from home.” Each member of the family took turns hugging the bears (one for each girl). I sprayed my hallmark perfume on the bear. Mike, not to be outdone went and doused them with his cologne, we drew the line at Stacia spitting up on them.

Arielle, Nolan and Zander helped to make the treats. Krista reports that they tasted like Ziploc…..guess I need to figure out a new way to package goodies. I’m open to suggestions. How do you all package cookies, brownies, to ship?

The crowning touch was wrapping the boxes in the paintings that Nolan and Arielle had painted this week. Mike reports that the clerk at the Post Office and I managed to back the line up all the way to the lobby with our chat about where the packages were going and why the girls weren't with me. Our prayer is that the package will be as fun for the girls to receive as it was for us to prepare.

Making treats for the girls: doing math too….4 sets of 10 marshmallows

Jared attaches labels

Mike sucks air!