She’s not crawling but she discovered today that trying to crawl can GET HER PLACES…she scooted and rolled across the living room to the dining room……I do believe she’ll be crawling by the end of February.
Monday, January 30, 2006
Not Crawling but...
She’s not crawling but she discovered today that trying to crawl can GET HER PLACES…she scooted and rolled across the living room to the dining room……I do believe she’ll be crawling by the end of February.
Going to the BIRDS
We spent a bit of time this a.m. updating our Zoology notebooks. Arielle and Nolan made their bird maps.
We hung our suet hanger. I decided at less than $2 it was smarter to BUY the suet than buy the ingredients and make smart suet. {g}
Our first chore was to fill the feeders.
Josiah went after the project with a hose, a hammer and a piece of wood. He broke the wood but got the feeders moved.
Now we are just waiting for birds to visit. Yes, it does seem strange to be preparing for BIRDS in January.
We hung our suet hanger. I decided at less than $2 it was smarter to BUY the suet than buy the ingredients and make smart suet. {g}
(Nolan hangs Suet basket)
We also began our 3rd experiment of this book We are going to watch and track and see what type of bird feed the birds in our yard like. To eliminate variables we needed two feeders exactly alike. Girls, you will remember we made feeders in AK – but I bought two because none of our are “exactly alike”.
Our first chore was to fill the feeders.
We’d decided to hang them side by side on my Shepherd’s Hook. Jared found it hard to move the feeder. We thought this would be easy…..this should have been a hint of things to come. We couldn’t get the Shepherd’s Hook into the brick-like TX soil.
We settled for moving it back to the original spot and planned to ask Mike to move it to the other side of the yard tonight. The kids want the feeder by the tree so that they can watch it while eating.
Josiah went after the project with a hose, a hammer and a piece of wood. He broke the wood but got the feeders moved.
Now we are just waiting for birds to visit. Yes, it does seem strange to be preparing for BIRDS in January.
Homeschool Panic
We’re beginning unit 3 today. I’m so happy with the way the year is progressing. I began to stress this weekend because all the books I wanted to order were “special order” or “out of print”. I tried to see what the library had and their site was down. I posted my frustration on a TOG yahoo list. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TOGLooseThreads/ It was quickly pointed out to me that I could use internet links for the Crimean War (the subject I can find nothing on) or the boys can read the Teacher’s notes. I then checked to see and have a lot of “Sonlight Books” – which are really just great books we used in that curriculum that I can substitute for the ones I can’t find. For instance I can’t find THE book on Hudson Taylor that I needed for this week but I did have two on him “Shanghaied to China” (even listed as a choice in TOG) and “God’s Adventurer”. I also have “Hero Tales” which has a section on Hudson Taylor.
The library website came back up. I’ll be able to find plenty of books on the topics we are studying – except The Crimean war. I remembered that we’re only studying the Crimean war for ONE week…it won’t matter if we don’t have lots of books for that one week. I still have Chris’ book lists from Read It Again books to check out…. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ReadItAgainBooks/
The younger ones have really enjoyed me reading bigger fiction books and biographies to them in the last unit. I’ve decided to keep that up. I’ll read “Shanghaied to China” this week and maybe one on Eric Liddell next week…or maybe I’ll read the “Boy in the Alamo” even though we are past that spot in history because I still plan a trip to the Alamo in the next month or two.
All in all there was no reason to panic. It seemed the thing to do at the time.
The library website came back up. I’ll be able to find plenty of books on the topics we are studying – except The Crimean war. I remembered that we’re only studying the Crimean war for ONE week…it won’t matter if we don’t have lots of books for that one week. I still have Chris’ book lists from Read It Again books to check out…. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ReadItAgainBooks/
The younger ones have really enjoyed me reading bigger fiction books and biographies to them in the last unit. I’ve decided to keep that up. I’ll read “Shanghaied to China” this week and maybe one on Eric Liddell next week…or maybe I’ll read the “Boy in the Alamo” even though we are past that spot in history because I still plan a trip to the Alamo in the next month or two.
All in all there was no reason to panic. It seemed the thing to do at the time.
Full Weekend!
It’s been a full weekend. Time seems to fly by so much quicker on Saturday – the only day of the week that we’re “off”.
Mike took me out to lunch at Schlotsky’s. This is the first time we’ve gone out alone all month. Well….we did have Stacia with us. The other times we’ve tried to go out we’ve ended up taking 3 - 5 children with us. {grin} We enjoyed our lunch - mostly being able to catch up on the various events we are involved with.
This was the first Saturday this month that we’ve not gone geocaching. It was very windy. During lunch we decided to go check Academy to see if they had a backpack I could carry Stacia in. We have one…but its 20 years old and technology has changed. It doesn’t feel very “safe”. They had no backpacks but we were able to check local prices for GPS units. Mike also finally talked me into trying a new pair of shoes that he’s heard are good for folks with high arches. I still have good and bad days with my feet. These are Saucony brand. I’m not sure they feel much different but my trusty New Balance were over 8 years old and splitting at the seams. We laughed that I needed a smaller size shoe and that the best fitting ones were ½ the price of the other choice.
We left Academy and ventured to Toys R Us. They are going out of business. I hate it when businesses leave an area. They have things marked down and so we checked. THEY had a great back pack which Mike purchased for Stacia and me. I shared my parking lot revelations below. {G}
Saturday night ended with all of us walking to a park. The older boys (and Arielle off and on) played HORSE at the basketball court, the younger ones enjoyed the swings and merry-go-round and I (with Stacia on my back) walked about a mile around and around the playground. It works. We came home and I began the cooking saga…what to take to potlucks the next day. I settled for some brownies and some Chocolate-Almond Gooey Butter cake.
Sunday was “FIFTH SUNDAY”. This means that we have two pot-lucks to attend and Mike preaches in all three services. The last few months the kids and I stayed for services and the second pot luck as well. This Sunday the kids were so tired, we’d had a hard week with one of the children behavior wise and were starting a new unit in school today. I asked Mike if I could just go home and work on lesson plans and take the kids out for some fun. He agreed. I feel badly about it now. I don’t think I planned it out well. I SHOULD have sent the kids home and stayed for the services with Mike and Stacia…but yesterday I was tired and in pain and wanted to come home to my bed. (I never made it to the bed anyway). {G}
That’s the weekend. Now on with the week!
Mike took me out to lunch at Schlotsky’s. This is the first time we’ve gone out alone all month. Well….we did have Stacia with us. The other times we’ve tried to go out we’ve ended up taking 3 - 5 children with us. {grin} We enjoyed our lunch - mostly being able to catch up on the various events we are involved with.
This was the first Saturday this month that we’ve not gone geocaching. It was very windy. During lunch we decided to go check Academy to see if they had a backpack I could carry Stacia in. We have one…but its 20 years old and technology has changed. It doesn’t feel very “safe”. They had no backpacks but we were able to check local prices for GPS units. Mike also finally talked me into trying a new pair of shoes that he’s heard are good for folks with high arches. I still have good and bad days with my feet. These are Saucony brand. I’m not sure they feel much different but my trusty New Balance were over 8 years old and splitting at the seams. We laughed that I needed a smaller size shoe and that the best fitting ones were ½ the price of the other choice.
We left Academy and ventured to Toys R Us. They are going out of business. I hate it when businesses leave an area. They have things marked down and so we checked. THEY had a great back pack which Mike purchased for Stacia and me. I shared my parking lot revelations below. {G}
Saturday night ended with all of us walking to a park. The older boys (and Arielle off and on) played HORSE at the basketball court, the younger ones enjoyed the swings and merry-go-round and I (with Stacia on my back) walked about a mile around and around the playground. It works. We came home and I began the cooking saga…what to take to potlucks the next day. I settled for some brownies and some Chocolate-Almond Gooey Butter cake.
Sunday was “FIFTH SUNDAY”. This means that we have two pot-lucks to attend and Mike preaches in all three services. The last few months the kids and I stayed for services and the second pot luck as well. This Sunday the kids were so tired, we’d had a hard week with one of the children behavior wise and were starting a new unit in school today. I asked Mike if I could just go home and work on lesson plans and take the kids out for some fun. He agreed. I feel badly about it now. I don’t think I planned it out well. I SHOULD have sent the kids home and stayed for the services with Mike and Stacia…but yesterday I was tired and in pain and wanted to come home to my bed. (I never made it to the bed anyway). {G}
That’s the weekend. Now on with the week!
Parking Lot Revelation
I sat in the Toys R Us parking lot feeding Stacia and enjoying the sun and wind. I idly watched a blue SUV pull in next to a very nice Truck. The truck was parked far away from other cars. He had backed in to protect his tail?
One door of the SUV flew open – very windy and smacked right into the nice truck. The mother and daughter got out. They inspected THEIR vehicle and went inside. Never ONCE did they inspect the truck to see if they had damaged it.
Mike came back out to report that Toys R Us did in fact have baby packs. He wanted me to come in and see what I thought about the one he’d picked out – I loved it. While I finished feeding Stacia, I pointed out the truck and SUV and told him my story. I told him I thought it illustrated our society. VERY concerned about OUR things but not a thought to other’s things or the damage we may have caused them…..even concerned about ourselves but not much concern for others. As we finished talking I got out of the Honda. I carefully opened the door. I waited a few seconds to make sure it was secure. Mike got out of the car and a gust of wind hit (same moment) and the door blew just enough to hit the very nice and fancy car next to us. I’d smiled at the elderly couple as they went in. Can you believe THIS? {snort} We checked their car and had made a small dent that Mike thought would buff out. He left an explanation, our name and phone number on their wind shield.
By the time we got home they had called Josiah. They were thankful we’d left a note and didn’t want us to worry about it at all.
The best and worst of our culture? There are still folks out there who are NICE.
I’m being very careful with doors from here on out.
One door of the SUV flew open – very windy and smacked right into the nice truck. The mother and daughter got out. They inspected THEIR vehicle and went inside. Never ONCE did they inspect the truck to see if they had damaged it.
Mike came back out to report that Toys R Us did in fact have baby packs. He wanted me to come in and see what I thought about the one he’d picked out – I loved it. While I finished feeding Stacia, I pointed out the truck and SUV and told him my story. I told him I thought it illustrated our society. VERY concerned about OUR things but not a thought to other’s things or the damage we may have caused them…..even concerned about ourselves but not much concern for others. As we finished talking I got out of the Honda. I carefully opened the door. I waited a few seconds to make sure it was secure. Mike got out of the car and a gust of wind hit (same moment) and the door blew just enough to hit the very nice and fancy car next to us. I’d smiled at the elderly couple as they went in. Can you believe THIS? {snort} We checked their car and had made a small dent that Mike thought would buff out. He left an explanation, our name and phone number on their wind shield.
By the time we got home they had called Josiah. They were thankful we’d left a note and didn’t want us to worry about it at all.
The best and worst of our culture? There are still folks out there who are NICE.
I’m being very careful with doors from here on out.
Saturday, January 28, 2006
READING
As I race on to finish these ½ read books by the end of January Mike is finding occasion to tease me. I tend to DEVOUR my books. The non-fiction, however, I often mark quite liberally. The most recent books to receive this attention are “Men in Black”, “Third Culture Kids” and “Experiencing God in Prayer”. I highlight, I make asterisks, I fold down pages and I even write comments in the pages. It’s not uncommon to pick up a book after I’ve read it and see comments like these in the margin: “Great comment!!!”; “Whoa – bias showing”; “WHAT – big leap”; “NO WAY” or references to other books on the topic, Scripture references that either support or refute what the author said, and BIG QUESTION marks on issues I want to study further. This has advantages and disadvantages….Mike can read the highlights and get the gist of a book that interests him after I read (so can the boys and I must remember this when pre-reading school books LOL); on the other hand there have been books I’ve not wanted to loan out after reading because my comments made me vulnerable to that person.
I don’t mark library books. I am very careful with books I borrow. If I find the urge to mark a book heavily I often buy it so I can do that. {g} Mike looked over last night and said “You’re really marking that up”. This a.m. I followed a link from Laura’s blog and found an article by Mortimer J Adler titled “How to Mark a Book”. And I quote: “I contend, quite bluntly, that marking up a book is not an act of mutilation but of love. You shouldn't mark up a book which isn't yours.” This whole article was great. Here’s the link if you want to read it in full. http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/adler.html What a timely post on Laura's blog. {G}
I can barely refrain from waking Mike to show him this article – or at least have him read this blog entry. I will continue to happily read with my highlighter and pen. I’ve been vindicated by a “great one”.
I don’t mark library books. I am very careful with books I borrow. If I find the urge to mark a book heavily I often buy it so I can do that. {g} Mike looked over last night and said “You’re really marking that up”. This a.m. I followed a link from Laura’s blog and found an article by Mortimer J Adler titled “How to Mark a Book”. And I quote: “I contend, quite bluntly, that marking up a book is not an act of mutilation but of love. You shouldn't mark up a book which isn't yours.” This whole article was great. Here’s the link if you want to read it in full. http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/adler.html What a timely post on Laura's blog. {G}
I can barely refrain from waking Mike to show him this article – or at least have him read this blog entry. I will continue to happily read with my highlighter and pen. I’ve been vindicated by a “great one”.
Friday – 27 January
I remembered the camera today but forgot the memory stick! What a total bust. I will get this right next week.
Melody, who you may remember is a homeschooling Mom whose husband works with Mike, and I had made plans to take her children and mine bowling on Monday. She now has piano students (Go Melody!) and so needed a day other than Monday. We settled on today – Friday. She gave me the freedom to invite some others with children the ages of my older boys. I did that at park day yesterday.
What a blast we had at the base bowling ally. We stayed much longer than I’d anticipated and the day got long for Zander. At one point I calmly told him that if I had to talk to him about his behavior again I would take him home. He acted up again. He’d already bowled 2 games. Jamin was at home because he wanted to finish school work (he’s got his hands full with Algebra 1 and Biology). I decided since we’d been gone over 2 ½ hours he was probably done with school and so I took Zander home. Poor boy. BUT he is learning that though he’s louder than I – my word is to be trusted and there are consequences to misbehaving. In other words he may be a screamer and I’m not – but I’m the mom. {g} When I got back to the base to pick up the other kids some of the families had decided to go down to Kids Kingdom. I phoned Mike and he said that he had a couple of hours left at work so we joined them.
We got to discussing that it’d been 24 days since we met these families at this very park. I’m reading “Third Culture Kids” and seeing that in the phase of transition I’m moving into the “entry” stage. This is good…shortly I may feel “involved” again.
Stacia’s been on this “new” funky formula for a week. We’ve now tried them all EXCEPT the new Sam’s Club has a generic that is cheaper and I’m trying it before going back to the original formula. None of them have seen to make much difference in the amount of her spitting (though I won’t discuss the finer points of consistency, smell and bowel movements here {vbg}).
We got a late start on our Pizza and Movie night – but we are pressing ahead….
Melody, who you may remember is a homeschooling Mom whose husband works with Mike, and I had made plans to take her children and mine bowling on Monday. She now has piano students (Go Melody!) and so needed a day other than Monday. We settled on today – Friday. She gave me the freedom to invite some others with children the ages of my older boys. I did that at park day yesterday.
What a blast we had at the base bowling ally. We stayed much longer than I’d anticipated and the day got long for Zander. At one point I calmly told him that if I had to talk to him about his behavior again I would take him home. He acted up again. He’d already bowled 2 games. Jamin was at home because he wanted to finish school work (he’s got his hands full with Algebra 1 and Biology). I decided since we’d been gone over 2 ½ hours he was probably done with school and so I took Zander home. Poor boy. BUT he is learning that though he’s louder than I – my word is to be trusted and there are consequences to misbehaving. In other words he may be a screamer and I’m not – but I’m the mom. {g} When I got back to the base to pick up the other kids some of the families had decided to go down to Kids Kingdom. I phoned Mike and he said that he had a couple of hours left at work so we joined them.
We got to discussing that it’d been 24 days since we met these families at this very park. I’m reading “Third Culture Kids” and seeing that in the phase of transition I’m moving into the “entry” stage. This is good…shortly I may feel “involved” again.
Stacia’s been on this “new” funky formula for a week. We’ve now tried them all EXCEPT the new Sam’s Club has a generic that is cheaper and I’m trying it before going back to the original formula. None of them have seen to make much difference in the amount of her spitting (though I won’t discuss the finer points of consistency, smell and bowel movements here {vbg}).
We got a late start on our Pizza and Movie night – but we are pressing ahead….
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)