Tons of catch up pictures....

Jake got his first trophy yesterday. He was so proud he took everything down from the high shelf in his room so he could put it up there all by itself. In my 39 years, I never got a trophy!





Beach fun.








Nature walk fun.




Silly string and Slip-n-slide fun.





Muddy fun.



HOLES.


April's AWANA clubber of the month.


Fun at writing club.




Madi went to a fun birthday party a couple weeks ago where they had to follow clues to solve a Nancy Drew-type mystery. One clue was even in the pool.

Rush rush rush continued

I had a lot more on my mind than I had time for earlier today so here's the rest (or some of it anyway). As I've said before I feel like I sound like Paula Abdul most of the time (for those of you non Idol fans she often has no idea what she is going to say until it comes out of her mouth and she sounds pretty clueless half the time). I really cannot get the most common word out very often, but I'm consoling myself by saying (or at least trying to say) that it is because my brain is going a million miles a minute all the time. In Harry Potter (yes, I know some of you aren't Harry Potter fans either) they have this object called a "pensive" (I've probably blogged this before) where Dumbledore can basically put his thoughts to get them out of his brain...I need one of those, but so far the blog is the only thing I've come up with that is even close.

Since I was last on here I've picked up the kids from PE, eaten lunch with them, done science with Jonathan and Madi, read them 3 chapters of St Pius X, and brought them to a friend's house. I also did a load of laundry, cleaned a bathroom, and closed my eyes for 20 minutes. Actually I also went through three bags of clothes that a friend had handed down to Madi (great stuff!) and watched some of the Brady Bunch. Madi was thrilled with the clothes. It is funny because I remember my grandmothers both used to talk about how embarassing it was when they had to wear hand-me-downs. As a child I was never too keen on wearing someone else's clothes...but it is definitely the "in thing" now! Back to the counter-culture thing. It is often said of those of us that bake bread etc, that we are doing it like our mothers and grandmothers, but really I think you'd have to go back 3 or 4 or more generations to get to where they regularly had to bake the bread they ate. We just read in one of our history books about convenience foods and how more than half of what you could buy in a grocery store in 1970 was not even available in
1950. WonderBread however was available long before 1950.

T-ball is winding down. Jake is supposed to have a game tonight, but it has been raining (Thankfully...we need it desperately).

The homeschool convention is next week. After Christmas, that is generally my favorite time of the year. Also next week is the AWANA awards ceremony, Jake's last game, the finals of Dancing with the Stars and American Idol, and the kids will have their yearly homeschool evaluations. There's more going on next week, but those are just the highlights.

We are going to Connecticut this summer afterall, but for a shorter time.

Apparently Jon and Kate are separating. Did anyone else hear that? Rumor has it they have both been unfaithful. WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE??!!

As most bloggers will tell you, when you get into this, you eventually "think in blog post"...I found myself wondering today if authors do that all the time too. I was actually thinking this way (narrative story form) long before my blog though. Back then I thought of it as composing our Christmas letter in my head all year long. Sometimes when I have a short thought I think in Facebook post instead.

Well, the sun is coming back and so far it looks like Jake's game is on. Better get moving!

Rush rush rush...

This is my 442nd post...can you believe it! I guess that's where all my time goes. This is going to be one of those "empty my brain" kind of posts. I had composed some of this in my head this morning, and was getting on the computer to do just that when I found out we could see a local performing arts elementary school's version of ANNIE for free this morning...so off we went. What's one more thing right? Madi read Jake his Five in a Row book on the way. Also during breakfast this morning the kids watched an episode of The Wonder Years that involved a lot of discussion about the Vietnam War...the sister on that show was part of the "counter-culture" of the 60s. Now I think we just might be a part of a new kind of counter-culture. I grind our wheat like the Little Red Hen, and speaking of Little Red Hens we had one at our park day on Tuesday. Some of our friends are raising chickens for eggs (that's all we buy now and I'm hooked!) and this particular little chicken was being bullied at her new home so she was going to go live with some other little chickens for a while. Something tells me this is not all that typical. (not the chicken bullying, but the whole thing)

I'm considering switching to a natural "shampoo bar"...I've avoided this because they are not cheap, but I guess if they last a long time it will be worth it. Also rumor has it you don't need to wash your hair all the time if you use these. Right now my head feels like it is crawling if I don't wash my hair AT LEAST once a day...so this could be interesting. Between gardening, and farming, and grinding wheat, and natural products, and homeschooling we have a really interesing crowd. Sometimes, though, I just want to rebel again the new counter-culture and let my kids have poptarts for breakfast (of course today they had kefir that we cultured ourselves). [But believe me we eat more than our share of poptarts too!]

Daybook

For today Monday May 11, 2009.

Outside my window...it is hot and sunny, it is smokey outside, the wildfires are starting.

I am thinking...about plans for May and June and trying to keep my head from exploding. This is such a busy time of year (even busier than our usual busy). I've never been good a writing things down, but it is nearly impossible to keep it all straight in my head...who's doing kids college? when? Who's doing what VBS? where? and when? Who's doing what session of Theatre? [these are just retorical questions right now...I'm just trying to keep my own kids straight never mind figuring out who else is doing what]

I am thankful...for so many opportunites for my kids.

From the kitchen...we just had chocolate chip pancakes.

From the learning rooms...Grampa Carlie told the kids all about Vietnam yesterday. Jake still has to finish up Very Last First Time...although we saw a lot of ocean stuff first hand at the beach this weekend--like tides etc. He will either do Storm in the Night or The Glorious Flight next we've got them both out of the library right now.

I'm creating...still educated kids...no time for creating anything else.

I am wearing... still jammies.

I am reading... A Father Who Keeps His Promises by Scott Hahn.

I am hoping...that Jake doesn't need glasses, he's been squinting and blinking a lot, he and Madi are both getting their eyes examined today.

I am hearing...Jonathan getting in the shower and Madi trying to decide what to wear that won't hurt her sunburned legs...you'd think with my skin situation, I'd do a better job of not letting my kids get burned.

Around the house... Laundry is in full swing...one load on the line (even though it is going to smell like smoke), one load in the dryer, one load in the washer....it never ends...

One of my favorite things...fresh sqeezed OJ...I just had some.

I am going...crazy...wanna come?

A few plans for the rest of the week...Two kids at the Eye Doctor today, usual crazy busy Tuesday, regular semi-busy Wednesday, I can't even get my head straight enough to continue because while typing this I've already realized I have a few more "double booked" days (i.e. we can't be at he beach and Madi's art class at the same time) and I've got to get those strightened out. To answer the age-old socialization question..."Yes, socialization is a problem for us homeschoolers we are TOO BUSY!!"

A picture thought...

on the beach

I'm writing this on Mike's blacberry, so there are sure to be many errors. The family has all headed back to Meme and Grampa Carlie's for showers and brownies, and I'm alone here on the beach waiting for the full moon to rise. It is now to dark to read and thanks to glorious technology, I can blog instead. Speaking of technology... I have made some great technological findings in the past two days. First I learned abou hulu.com from Tiffany's blog and I found Family Ties on there. We will be watching a lot of that when we get to the 80s in history. First is the 70s (this week) and we'llbe watching the Wonder Years...we have that on DVD. The other find I am even more excited about...does anyone remember watching a movie in school about a teacher in Iowa that did an experiment with her 3rd graders where she said blue eyed kids were better than brown eyed kids to teach them about discrimination? Well I found it on You Tube... Search Jane Elliot--no links here again I'm on the blackberry. The moon still hasn't come up, and it is REALLY DARK!! We listened to the Vietnam War in Story of the World today and the big kids will interview Grampa Carlie who fought in it tomorrow. We also want to talk to them about Kennedy's assassination etc. I sooo miss "the oldie" relatives because after studying the last 100 years we have so many questions for them. We were blessed to have them all as long as we did and did asks lots of questions and have some of that on video...priceless. If you have older relatives cherish them and ask lots of questions. The moon is up now and it is RED it looks like mars. Speaking of the moon, I think Jonathan and Madi are going to do some beyond five in a row this summer. The first book we plan to do is a biography of Neil Armstrong. OK I'm leaving the beach.

Happy Mother's Day!! I'm so happy to be surrounded by so many great mothers.

What's new?

Too much!! Mike is getting a pay decrease at work, which is extrememly frustrating! We will not be going to CT etc this summer. His work has been so frustrating for him for so long, but the fact that it is 10 minutes from our house (among other things--known vs unknown, etc...) has kept him there. In other words even if there were some other options they probably wouldn't be better ones. In the grand sceme of things it is not all that bad, but still annoying.

Also because we are so blessed by having so many close friends in our lives, so many people that I am involved with on a daily basis are burdened right now with financial difficulites or health issues or both. It can be overwhelming. The story that Jonathan and Madi and I read this morning for their Bible lesson was about people who were forced to travel miles out of their way on a bus because the mean bus driver didn't feel like letting them off. As it turned out while they were hiking back to their village they met a woman with a baby with an eye infection. One of the women was a nurse and they were not only able to cure the baby, but they were also able to bring the Gospel to the woman and her village. It made me think of the Garth Brooks song Unanswered Prayers and the kids and I discussed that. Also I quoted the line from the movie Rudy..."we ask God for things in our time, He answers in His time". So there's the lesson for today courtesy of Garth Brooks and Rudy!

Yesterday we saw the play HOLES. It was really good, I was able to finish the book just minutes before the play began. I had it on CD from the library as well as the book that we own, so on the way there we listened in the car and then when we got there I just had to finish the last two chapters. That is basically the way we squeeze so much into our day. Just a few minutes of planning can make all the difference. On the way home from the play even though we had a friend with us, we listened to Story of the World...the Assassination of JFK, and Madi read the FIAR book to Jake. As soon as we got home Jake colored the Canada flag for his Very Last First Time lapbook. Minutes later 4 more kids were dropped off at my house and Jake was picked up to go to the little kids' writing club. We eventually had 15 kids here for big kids' writing club. We learned long ago that if we didn't do school because something else had come up, then we'd never do school because something ALWAYS comes up. We just fit it in around everything else (and I am one of those people who thinks "everything else" is very educational too!). When writing club ended (incidently, that is school too) we ran upstairs to do the JFK outline and review questions...then it was off to Jake's game.

Speaking schoolwork, we're going to get back to that now. We have three extra boys here this morning, and I've given everyone some time to "rock out" to We Got the Beat and Eye of the Tiger, but now it's time to get back to JFK and the Civil Rights Movement.

Daybook

For today Sunday night May 3.

Outside my window...it is getting dark.

I am thinking...about how Cindy and I seem to always do our daybooks at the same time even though we live 1200 miles away.

I am thankful...to live in such a great community with such a wonderful group of friends.

From the kitchen...I am culturing kefir, I don't know a whole lot about it, but a friend gave me some kefir grains and I'm doing it. Mike and I had a smoothy with it this morning. Ribs and corn-on-the-cob tomorrow, tacos with friends on Tuesday, and I haven't gotten further than that (we have tons of food though because we went to BJs on Friday).

From the learning rooms...The 50s still, maybe the 60s by the end of the week. Jake will be doing Very Last First Time for FIAR...once again I found some great lapbook ideas for this book on homeschool share.

I'm creating...educated kids.

I am wearing...an orange shirt and tan skirt...can you believe it?!

I am reading...oh so many possibilites...I just finished The Upstairs Room by Joanna Reiss (another Nazi book similar to Behind the Bedroom Wall), I plan to read Holes this week before we go see the play on Thursday (Jonathan is finishing it for the second or third time), getting ready to start A Father Who Keeps His Promises by Scott Hahn, and will probably start The Grapes of Wrath tonight.

I am hoping...for a good week.

I am hearing...Madi read Junie B Jones to Jake.

Around the house... it's fair...I had this realization the other day that it is good that we don't use a lot of cleaning chemicals in our house (read don't really clean a lot), it is healthier this way.

One of my favorite things...reading in the tub.

I am going...to get in the tub and read as soon as I finish this.

A few plans for the rest of the week...well it's May so I think we're pretty much at the point where I can only think one day at a time...too much going on! I do have to pay my speeding ticket figure out what I'm doing for traffic school this week. Plus all the usual Theatre, Tball, babysitting, etc etc

A picture thought...