Life in a Grub House

Names

2012-02-08T22:49:00.000-06:00

We have decided on a name for Baby Girl. Finally.

I love her name and believe it's a bit more mainstream than the other three kids' names. We've told a few people and have heard "oh" and laughing without further comment. Why bother asking if you're not going to say something nice? How hard is it to say "oh, that's nice" or "pretty"? We've been met with criticism for each name that we've chosen and I'm tired of listening to everyone's opinion.

The reactions thus far make me want to name her Niamh and then leave people guessing how to pronounce it correctly. Niamh is her middle name, by the way.

Homeschool Update

2012-02-04T21:33:00.000-06:00

School is going well so far this year. If all goes according to plan, we should be done by the time the baby is born. I use the word "done" loosely because we are never done learning. I've strayed a bit from my original weekly plans because Maeve wanted to do a lizard lapbook and because studying history does not hold Maeve's attention. Lately, the focus has been on reading, writing, math, and science. Maeve loves science and I am happy that we will spend the spring and summer exploring ponds and everything related to frogs. Frogs, dinosaurs, and the Titanic are her favorite things. Maeve is becoming a more confidant reader and her lower case handwriting continues to improve. We use Life of Fred for math and she likes the story format so much better than a text and workbook.

Finn has been more involved with our structured learning time lately. He and I are working through Singapore math together and he's almost finished with 1A. He's been working through Explode the Code and his handwriting has improved tremendously. I've started Progressive Phonics short vowels with Finn and he's already shown an understanding of short vowel "a" and has moved onto "e". Finn loves workbooks and is extremely motivated to learn.

Oren's language has exploded. He is finally saying more than one word sentences and can/will repeat just about anything. He is able to communicate all of his thoughts and will often come up to me, wrap his arms around my neck, and say, "Aw. Mama is so cute." Saying such things almost makes up for the entire bottle of maple syrup he dumped into my plant and all over the kitchen floor.

I have ordered all of our books for next year. I want to have a rough sketch in place of next year's plans before the baby arrives in April. If anyone is curious, here's what we're using:

History: Lesson Pathways (it's online and it's free). I'm combining year 1 and year 2 and filling gaps with a couple of Usborne books.

Science: Sonlight Science C. There's a dinosaur section I will revamp and might adjust a few other things once I look it all over. I wanted something directed and already organized so that I won't have to come up with experiments or lessons on my own.

Language Arts/Reading/Phonics: We'll continue with Progressive Phonics and Explode the Code. I'm adding Handwriting Without Tears. We'll continue to read lots of books.

Math: Life of Fred for Maeve and Singapore 1B for Finn. I also ordered Usborne math workbooks and plan to use those as needed and to give Maeve just a bit more practice with some of the concepts covered in Life of Fred.

30 Weeks

2012-02-01T21:33:00.000-06:00

10 weeks to go! Hoorah.

I wish I could say that I love being pregnant, but I don't. I sort of enjoy my pregnancies until I get to about 20 weeks when my uterus starts to push my internal organs up into my rib cage. I am short and short waisted so my babies take up all of the space between my pelvis and ribs. This baby is facing the wrong way and has her back against my back. It's fun feeling so much movement on my belly, but her position makes my belly super sensitive to touch. A super sensitive belly and a very loving, very active two year old do not mix.

I have only gained 20 lbs so far and am happy about it. I'm really trying to stay within the 25-35 weight gain and think I will be successful. I gained 50-60 lbs with each of my other pregnancies so this is a huge accomplishment for me. It might have something to do with chasing an extremely active two year old.

We weren't going to hire a doula this time, however, we stumbled upon a doula in training and are going to have her attend our birth. I think she will do a good job motivating me and keeping me focused. I suggested she learn about pressure points and massage so maybe she'll want to practice those at our next meeting.

My birth plan is finalized and the baby's clothes for the hospital were picked out by an excited older sister. The car seat has been installed. All that's left is packing a hospital bag, washing the Boppy, and sewing a pouch.

Someday is Next Year

2012-01-28T22:52:00.000-06:00

Most of my nesting energy has been spent obsessing over buying an acreage. I realize that putting our house on the market with a newborn and three other children is probably not a good idea, however, I can't stop myself from dreaming and dragging my family to look at properties I find online. Thankfully, my husband has stepped in as my voice of reason.

We have come up with a plan, and if we are diligent, we should be in a good position next year to buy an acreage. I am very excited. The kids are excited too and Maeve has already requested a pond so that she can hunt for tadpoles, frogs, and toads. Oren does not want goats unless they are babies and Finn said he wants some roosters.

Workboxes Revisited

2012-01-01T23:03:00.000-06:00

I'm going to start using and filling the kids' workboxes again. I am hopeful that Oren can control himself enough to not dump the contents of his workboxes. We'll see. He needs to be part of our homeschooling time and this will give him a job and a bit of direction.

Finn enjoys workboxes too, although I'm going to talk to him tomorrow to find out what he wants to learn. He's not a crafty kid, but I do think he'll like some hands-on Montessori type activities. I ran out of creativity for the week though so this week Finn will get ordinal worksheets, computer games, and Explode the Code. I don't think he'll complain.

Maeve is tricky when it comes to workboxes because she needs a great deal of hand holding. I will continue to do school the way we've been doing it this year, but I will probably add 2-3 fun activities for her workboxes. For example, this week we're starting ancient Egypt (again, no interest the first time) and Thursday we'll talk about tombs so I'll put a tomb craft in her workbox. Her workboxes are currently full of her crap so cleaning a couple out will be a project for tomorrow.

As with everything else involving homeschooling, we'll see how this goes and I'll tweak as needed.

End of the Year

2011-12-30T20:23:00.000-06:00

I have been busy lately and uninspired to update this blog. We finally bought another external hard drive so I'm able to add pictures again. Hooray, however, I will not be indulging you with any pictures today.

Here's short, or maybe long, list of updates:

-My kids liked all of their homemade gifts. They thought the elf slippers were fun, but they do not like wearing them.

-I made soap and chap stick for extended family members and I have no idea if it was well received.

-I need to get my homeschooling groove back. We've taken a couple of weeks off to enjoy each other and just play, but now I am left feeling sort of blah about picking up where we left off. We are on track for the year and the kids are showing progress. We'll start up again on Sunday or Monday with the human body, Egypt, and the usual math, language lessons, and phonics. I need to figure out ways to better involve Finn in what we do. He's not into lapbooking or crafting. Maybe I'll try copy work and file folder games with him. His learning style is the complete opposite of Maeve's which makes things just a tad difficult. Oren is a crap shoot and basically likes gluing and dumping everything he touches. His attention span is about two seconds so putting together even simple games or activities is not worth my time.

-Baby #4 is still nameless and I don't see that changing anytime soon. We have one name we are considering, but I don't know. It stresses me out to think about names. I think I'm about 25 weeks. I go in for my glucose test in a couple of weeks and then I start going every two weeks. My birth plan is updated and I need to start preparing myself mentally for labor. I think we're skipping a doula again because my midwife and husband are a good enough team. I am hoping this is another 2-3 hour labor with no complications. It's still surreal that I'm even pregnant again so thinking about childbirth is weird. I have all of her clothes washed and diapers sorted. She even has her own set of cubbies in the laundry room. I also have her car seat picked out.

-I have big garden plans this year. Unfortunately, I won't be much help planting or prepping. We'll see how much gets accomplished. I am certain I'll do a separate garden plans post around the time I order my seeds. I love ordering seeds.

-I joined Pinterest. I find it slightly annoying, although I've found some fun ideas for the kids and around the house. Once I start and complete a couple of the projects, I will share.

That's it!

The New Normal

2011-12-01T07:00:00.000-06:00

This is the first year that we are exclusively using our wood burning stove for heat. It is wonderful and I can't say enough good things about it. We have Jotul Castine and it's not only a beautiful stove, but capable of heating all 2,000 square feet of our home.

During past winters, I've kept the heat set on 67 and 58 overnight. The new normal is to keep the living room between 76-80 at all times. The upstairs, which is not anywhere close to the living room where the stove is kept, stays at a constant 62-64. The thing that amuses me the most is that when the temperature in the living room dips below 76, I am cold. I can sit in front of the stove in sweat pants and a sweat shirt and be perfectly comfortable in 80 degrees. To say that we are spoiled by the heat of the wood burning stove is an understatement.

The beauty of heating with wood is that when/if it gets too hot, we can move to a cooler part of the house. I also appreciate not having a cold, drippy nose and I like the humidity that is provided by the cast iron tea kettle on the stove. I am very happy we went with the radiant heat of cast iron because even when there are only a few coals left first thing in the morning, the stove is still warming the house. This was one of the best purchases/investments we've made and I'm looking forward to figuring out how to cook on our wood burning stove.

Inexpensive Christmas Gifts

2011-11-29T20:44:00.000-06:00

I struggle every year with gift giving because I want to make something homemade without it seeming cheap. I think I found a good balance this year and apologize in advance if anyone related to me is reading this. You may want to stop reading if you want to be surprised.

I found several recipes for sugar scrubs and was pleasantly surprised by the results after testing the recipes.

1 1/2 C sugar
1/4 C olive oil
several tsp vanilla

The vanilla is a strong enough scent that it didn't have trouble masking the smell of the olive oil. If I need to make anymore, I'll use coconut oil in place of the olive oil. My hands were left super soft and did not feel greasy. I cleaned up the kitchen after using the scrub and even after a few hand washings, my hands were still soft.

2 1/2 C sugar
1 C olive oil
4 Tbsp lemon juice

This one worked just as well on my hands, but the olive oil smell was very hard to mask with lemon juice. If I make this again, 1/2 C of olive oil should be enough.

I put the sugar scrubs in canning jars and will decorate them so they look fancy.

Another thing I am trying this year is making my own soaps. I am picky about soap ingredients and looked everywhere for a reasonably priced sodium laurel sulfate free melt and pour soap. Bramble Berry had what I wanted. I ordered their sampler pack that includes hemp, clear, white, aloe, honey, shea, and goatsmilk. I plan to buy a couple of essential oils to mix in with the soaps. I am super excited and hope that the soap bars are well received.

I also ordered lip balm melt and pour from Bramble Berry. The ingredients are simple and a small amount of base makes several tubes of lip balm.

All grandparents and great grandparents will be receiving 4x6 photo albums of my favorite pictures from this year.

The gifts will go to 11 people and will cost about $50. I enjoy making and giving (and receiving) homemade gifts and the cost fits our budget.

Baby #4

2011-11-20T22:16:00.001-06:00

I am almost 20 weeks along, which doesn't seem possible. We had our first, and I hope only, ultrasound on Friday and discovered that baby #4 is a girl. I am elated. Maeve is happy too and is excited to have someone play Littlest Pet Shop with her. The boys are mostly indifferent, although before the appointment Finn said that he wanted a brother. I am hoping that this little girl will be a good personality match for Finn. Maeve and Oren are two peas in a pod and often gang up on my sensitive Finnegan.

The baby looks healthy as far as I could tell and was using her arm as a pillow. She was a little over 12 oz, although I don't put much stock into ultrasound measurements. I am able to feel her movements more frequently now and know that it's only a matter of time before she's up in my rib cage. I feel like my belly is growing at an astounding pace and I am hungry all day. I try to have some control over my portions because I do not want to gain 55 lbs this time around. I'm not sure if it's possible for my body to stay within the 25-35 lb recommended weight gain, but I'm going to try. I've got exercise covered because Oren has started sprinting when we are out in public. Last week at Kohl's I saw a woman try to hide her laugh because I was running through the picture frame section trying to catch Oren. Stinker.

We have mostly picked out a name for the baby. I say mostly because the kids hate the name and insist on calling the baby another name on our list. We'll see. I tend to change my mind several times. We're going to get odd looks and criticism for whatever name we choose so it ultimately doesn't matter.

I need to start sewing diapers and figure out where to put the baby's clothes. We'll be able to use everything from Maeve because the seasons will match. I am very happy about that since it did not work that way with the boys.

I also need to start thinking about childbirth. Childbirth is a beautiful, wonderful, empowering experience, however, I would like to click my heels together and have her magically appear in my arms. I'm undecided as to whether I need a doula. Mathew was excellent the last time and very attentive to my needs. He doesn't say much though and I think I need to hear more encouragement and a calming voice of reason. My inner dialogue during Oren's labor went something like "why is this taking so long and OUUUCHH." Granted, labor and delivery was only three hours, but it was a whole hour longer than Finn's labor and delivery. I think that extra hour was all transition and constant contractions. Fun times. It's funny now that I think about it. My labor with Finnegan was calm and quieter and that matches Finn's personality. Oren's labor was a lot of moving, switching positions, and vocalization, all of which fit his personality. Interesting.

Homeschooling Update

2011-11-06T22:54:00.000-06:00

This school year is going well so far.

Maeve has started reading and tells the boys to pick out one book at bedtime for her to read. She lacks confidence with spelling, but when prompted, almost always spells the word correctly. Singapore was not a friendly math for Maeve so we switched to Life of Fred. She is much happier and is now asking to do math. We've done a few grammar lessons out of First Language Lessons for a Well Trained Mind and I think that book will work out well. Our focus in science is animals and we are working through the Usborne book of animals. I don't remember the exact title. We are finished with an intro to American History and are jumping to world history. I am loosely basing our history lessons on Sonlight's Core B curriculum for the rest of the year. Maeve isn't a huge fan of her Explode the Code workbooks, but they have helped with her lower case handwriting and they also force her to read and understand what she reads. I think she finds the workbooks redundant and boring. We're still working through the Progressive Phonics books and Maeve is able to breeze through them.

Finn is still great at math. He's almost finished with Singapore 1A and the math is getting hard for him. He works at his own pace and we rarely read the lesson out of the book before starting the problems. He has finished two Explode the Code workbooks and can recognize many words. Finn still has the option of whether or not he wants to participate in school for the day. Sometimes he'll go grab his math or another activity and sometimes he'll go play the Wii. He's only four so I don't feel the need to push academics.

Oren is Oren. I've started trying to include him more by doing a letter a week. He likes to glue and cut so I start our day with a craft geared towards him. Oren has no interest in letters, but he loves books right now. His favorites are The Little Lamb, Where Does Maisy Live?, The Belly Button Book, Come Along Daisy, The Grumpy Goat, and his newest special book is Velociraptor.

I've incorporated calender time into our school day. We pull up the day's weather and on a marker board the kids write the current temperature and the high for the day. They also write the time (and show it on an analog learning clock), day, month, and date. We say the Pledge of Allegiance too, although that usually gets a lot of moans.

All in all, I am pleased with how things are going.

Random Tidbits

2011-10-27T23:37:00.000-05:00

1. Trick or treating is Oren's calling. He loves having people give him candy. My other two kids like candy too, but Oren has no limit. I told him that his fourth sucker was his last so he licked it a few times and handed it over in order to pick out something else from his candy bucket. Smart kid.

2. I am pregnant with my FOURTH child. Four. Children. And although I've been somewhat of a crank lately, I couldn't be happier. Seriously. Bring on the fat baby cheeks and huge thighs.

3. I used a saw today and did not injure myself or threaten any of my kids with it.

4. The kids asked when we are going to church again. This is a major accomplishment and makes me think that I've finally found a place that fits. I still need to check out the Sunday school program, but I think this church will give the kids a good Christian foundation and help give them a sense of community and service. I also like that is very family friendly and I don't get death stares when Oren starts crawling under the pews.

5. The church is not Catholic. As much as I'd love to raise the kids Catholic, all of the Catholic churches I've tried around here have been disappointing. I really wanted to like the church closest to us, but everything was always about money. Few activities were free and community service was about raising money and not necessarily charity work. I am more than willing to give my time to a cause, but I got tired of being asked for money every time I turned around. The death stares during mass were also a turn-off.

6. All of the plumbing in my house is currently working, however, try as I might, I can't figure out why my bedroom smells like pee. Maybe Oren peed in the closet again. Yes, again.

7. I am genuinely excited to start working on Christmas gifts. I braved the craft store with the kids today and might take them to the fabric store tomorrow. I need diaper fabric, fleece, oil cloth, grommets, and chalkboard fabric (no clue if I can find it). The kids will inevitably throw in $30 or so in crap that I don't need. I should just order it online, but I like to "see" fabric with my hands before I buy it.

8. I'm freezing this pregnancy. I was upstairs and had to put on socks and a sweatshirt. My nose was frigid and I was certain that the temperature had dropped to 60 or below. Nope. 67. That's what the heat was set on before we got the wood burning stove. I am spoiled now and like to keep the temperature between 75 and 80. The upstairs is never that warm though which is why I sleep under the heaviest, biggest crocheted blanket in the world.

Christmas

2011-10-26T23:19:00.000-05:00

It is easy for me to get carried away at Christmas. As a child, we opened lots of presents and always got one big present to share as a family. "Big" as in one year we got a speed boat for Christmas. My parents spent a small fortune, which I can appreciate a lot more now that I'm a parent.

Spending a lot of money on my kids for Christmas isn't an option and I've been stressed lately trying to figure out ways to increase our budget in order to buy the kids stuff they want. You see, they love to circle everything in the magazines that come in the mail and I want to buy them everything from those magazines.

Reality set in and I started making a list of homemade gifts for the kids. I love making things for the kids and while no one will be receiving a skee ball machine or wooden putting green, they will be getting stuff that was lovingly made by their mama. Here's my list for those who might be interested:

Elf bowling pins
wallet
trinket keeper
slippers
chalkboard place mat
marshmallow gun (I have it marked somewhere, but can't find it right now)
leg warmers
fleece skirts
fabric barn (similar to this only better)
art smock

I am excited to get started and have my list of supplies ready for the fabric and craft stores.

Chili

2011-10-08T08:52:00.000-05:00

'Tis the season for chili. I made the best pot of chili ever today and thought I'd share. Unfortunately, I didn't measure anything so it's all approximate. Taste as you go.

Chop the stems/tops off of enough tomatoes to fill a 6 qt sauce pan. Bring to a boil, cook until soft, and use a blender, food processor, or immersion blender to grind up the remaining chunks. Dump into a large crock pot or whatever you like to use for chili.

Add beans. I like black beans. I boil the beans for a bit, rinse, and add as many as I want to eat in the soup. This is usually about 3/4 of a bag. That's probably 2-3 cans.

Chop one onion and toss it in.

Cook ground beef. The beef we use doesn't have a lot of drippings so I don't drain it before adding it. I also think drippings add flavor so I almost always use the grease unless it's some sort of ridiculous amount.

Now for the spices. I like to add paprika, oregano, salt, pepper, garlic and cumin.

I cooked the chili on low in the crock pot for about 7 hours, however, I usually cook it on the stove for 1-2 hours.

Here it is all written out:

1 lb ground beef
6 quarts diced tomatoes or tomato sauce
1 large onion, chopped
salt, to taste (I used around 1 1/2 tsp of salt since everything was fresh)
pepper, to taste (I used 1/2 tsp)
1 heaping tsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp garlic
1 Tbsp paprika
a few chopped fresh tomatoes for good measure

Life

2011-10-06T20:38:00.000-05:00

Life with children is not always rainbows and unicorns. I saw a commercial tonight that said "My children were so cute as babies that I wanted to eat them up. Now that they're older, I sometimes wish I would have." Yes.

So what has my last week involved? Lots of whining. Lots of runny noses. Lots of coughing, a few fevers, and very, very little sleep for me.

Oren is a fireball and, while he's better than he was this spring, he is still sneaky and ornery as hell. He has managed to flush an apple, a pair of safety scissors, and a rubber, squirty penguin toy. It goes without saying that our toilet is having problems. Where was I when all of this happened? In the office paying bills for about 10 minutes. I know he acted alone with the apple, but I have a feeling the scissors and penguin toy were suggestions given by siblings. They have all claimed innocence, of course.

Maeve and Oren were the first two to be sick. It was a cold, but Maeve acted as though she was going to die. She wasn't quite sick enough to be quiet, but she did sit in her chair most of the day and whine about wanting to cut off her nose. I think she sneezed three times, maybe. She was fine after that.

Oren's cold was longer. There was a lot of snot involved and a coughing spell that lasted three days and was the worst at night. He would be awake from 12-2 am and again from 4-5:30 am. We sat in the bathroom many times with the hot shower steam. I still have not recovered from the lack of sleep. I suspect I will not recover until the end of next summer when baby #4 knows that night is for sleeping.

Finn never did get a cold. Instead, he had a fever, a belly ache, and puked water. All over my bed. That was a lovely way to say good morning. He was sick for an evening and part of a morning and never sick enough to not whine. Finnegan is also great at the man moan, which, I am certain, he inherited from his father.

Oren now has a fever. I took his temperature before we left for art class and was hoping the fever would break while he napped in the car. While the boys and I were driving around during Maeve's art class so that Oren could finish his nap, we got in a car accident. Everyone is fine and there was no damage on either car. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the lady is honest and doesn't become some sort of psycho, insurance fraud kind of person. Oren's fever had climbed during his nap so we went to the doctor after art class to rule out an ear infection or strep. He has a red throat, clear ears and had a negative strep test. Sigh.

Goats

2011-09-21T20:22:00.000-05:00

Oren has an obsession with goats.

A friend of ours had baby goats and lambs this spring. Or maybe they were all lambs. It doesn't matter. We were at her house and Oren grabbed a bottle for one of the baby animals. A baby animal came running and Oren had an "oh shit" look on his face and immediately tossed the bottle. I believe that incident has scarred him for life.

Oren spotted a donkey or mule statue in our friend's neighbor's yard at our most recent visit. He pointed to the "goat", he talked about the goat biting him and he said that he was scared. I tried to explain that it was fake and unable to move, but I was unsuccessful. He was concerned about the goat the entire time we were there and paid no attention to the real goats that were near him while he was in the chicken coop.

Oren spotted a small screw driver tonight while we were in the office and immediately ran over and grabbed it. Screw drivers are precious objects in our house and to have found one without a sibling around was as close to bliss as Oren could have come in a day. Oren brought the screw driver over to me and asked to sit on my lap. Then we talked about goats for a solid 30 minutes. Our conversation went something like this:

Oren: Away
Me: Is someone going to take away your screw driver?
O: Uh huh. Goat.
M: No, the goat is not at our house.
O: Ap's.
M: Yes, the goat is at Abby's.
O: Bite. Off. (He said this while wildly gesturing and pulling at his finger)
M: No, the goat is not going to bite off your finger.
O: eye?
M: Nope, not your eye either.
O: cheek?
M : Nope, not your cheek.
O: (looking around on his body) Scab?
M: No, the goat does not want your scab.
O: Hold?
M: Do you want to hold the goat?
O: (thoughtfully) No, poop
M: Did the goat poop?
O: Uh huh, bleck

Then the conversation started over. And over. And over.

Appliances

2011-09-19T22:41:00.000-05:00

I am not a master repairman, nor am I educated in any way about fixing electrical junk. That being said, here's my advice regarding appliances: opt for the cheapest, simplest machine possible.

Our dishwasher, about six months after the warranty expired, quit working. It shut off mid-cycle. I am very lucky to have a super husband and father-in-law who can fix just about anything. Unfortunately, the mother board went out on our dishwasher and it was going to be more expensive to replace the part than to buy a new machine. My husband bought the cheapest, simplest dishwasher and it works like a charm. There are no digital displays, no special soil sensors and no other fancy gadgets that will soon fall apart. The dishwasher sounds like a tank driving through my kitchen, but it gets the job done and fits in with the noise level in the rest of the house.

We had a similar experience with washing machines. I jumped on the front loader bandwagon and bought one with a sanitary cycle. I thought the sanitary cycle would be awesome for cloth diapers and with as much hype as was surrounding the stupid machines, I was certain I was spending my money wisely. Wrong. Our front loader worked beautifully for three whole years. Then the plastic case cracked inside the machine and we were told that front loaders weren't meant to wash big loads of blankets. Or towels. Or jeans. Or anything, really. We fixed the part and a couple of months later, the washer broke again. My husband fix it, but we continued having issues and finally sold it on Craigslist for $50. Our new machine is simple. No fancy washing cycles. No digital displays. I love it.

I have since heard advice from two repair men and they have said the same thing. The simpler, the better. One repair man even went so far as to say that he believes front loaders are meant to last until the warranty is up and then go to shit. He said that the first time he's in a household fixing the front loader, the owner praises the machine. When he comes back a month later to fix another expensive part, the owner asks if he knows anyone who wants it.

I am not going to mention my other appliances by name for fear of jinxing myself. One appliance is newer, one is eight years old and going strong and two are as old as the hills and work great. Here's to a future of cheap-ass appliances and I hope easy fixes.

Toys and Clutter

2011-09-12T20:20:00.000-05:00

Our home is big enough that it should accommodate us and all of our stuff. Lately though, it doesn't. It seems like I am constantly stepping on or over something and I find bits and pieces of toys or games all over the house.

I sorted through the kids' toys a couple of months ago and bagged up two trash bags worth of stuff. A third bag was filled with stuffed animals. I don't keep broken toys, I've avoided garage sales most of the summer in an attempt to not collect more crap and I try to have the kids clean up their toys when they're finished playing.

But there are moments when the kids must entertain themselves because I'm doing dishes or laundry or sweeping or you get the idea. It is during these times that my children make the biggest mess. Our game closet, located in the same room we use for school, is a disaster. The games were dumped, pieces are everywhere and the mess is overwhelming even for me. The kids were also playing dump in the closet which involved gathering game pieces, blocks, trash, etc and dumping it into the very back of the closet.

My first instinct is to do what I do for other huge messes and start throwing things away until someone pitches in and helps. I've asked the kids several times to clean it up and have had no response. The office is so messy at this point that it is unusable for school. It's like this in their bedrooms and in the dining room that also functions as a play room. I know it is part of my job to clean up crap, but I am getting tired of having to pull teeth to get one of the kids put a toy away that they got out. Lots of whining, complaining and time wasting.

I have tried to make the toys very easy to put away. I labeled all of the containers on the bookshelves and have even labeled the baskets. Most everything is kid level. I know that Maeve's room needs more functional storage, but the boys' room should be able to be kept clean.

So how do I enforce and/or encourage them to pick up their junk? How do I prevent them from dumping everything constantly? I keep repeating "this too shall pass", but I would like to help it pass and teach the kids some responsibility. Thoughts?

Lemons. Lots of Lemons.

2011-09-10T21:42:00.000-05:00

The kids have been something else lately and there have been several moments where I wasn't sure whether to cry or laugh hysterically.

I took the time this morning to get dressed. I put on one of my favorite shirts and a skirt. As soon as I walked into the kitchen, I was greeted with a handful of flour thrown directly at my chest. Thanks, Oren!

The kids are control freaks when it comes to music in our house. I turn something on and someone comes running to change the song or the volume. Sure enough, when I turned on a song to distract me from the fighting kids, Oren came running and turned it up. I scooped him up and we danced. It was torture for Oren because he was almost within arm's reach of the fish food and I may have been taunting him just a bit.

Maeve has a toad, Toadee, that she holds everyday. Oren also likes the toad and is very gentle with it. Unfortunately, Maeve hates sharing her amphibians so she often times will come up with something "better" for Oren to do. Today she told Oren that I was going to let him play with rice. I obliged. All was well until Maeve and Finn started playing with the rice too and decided to dump all 10 lbs onto the floor, roll in it, throw it and kick it all over the kitchen.

Oren can climb onto the counters now without a stool.

Oren's favorite thing to do, if I haven't already shared this, is to climb onto the kitchen counter, turn on the faucet and turn on the sprayer. Yesterday he decided to do this and spray the stove, diaper bag and all of the electronics in the living room.

Our wood burning stove is a fun climbing toy. I think Oren might think twice when it's 500 degrees in a couple of months. And the nice fan that sits on top of the stove? That is great to grab and use to chase/threaten your sister.

The couch that I just deep cleaned was the perfect place to pick all of the elderberries off their stems.

I bought Maeve new shoes this week. She immediately went outside, went into the chicken coop and stepped in poop. Then she came in and told me that her shoes didn't fit. I tried to fix them and it didn't work so we went to buy new shoes. While we were there, Oren got out of the stroller and sprinted. Then he played in the drinking fountain. Finn entertained himself by jumping on all of the chairs and throwing all of the display shoes onto a high shelf. Oren was banished, once again, to the stroller where he screamed until we got to the van.

Unfortunately, all of our recent shopping trips include Oren sprinting off. A guy at the hardware store told me that I should be in the Olympics. Yes and thanks for noticing.

And bedtimes! Oh how I just love bedtime. The kids were so terrible that I put them to bed at 5:30. Finn and Oren were asleep by 6 so Maeve and I went downstairs for a bit. Finn started screaming because he had to pee and just as he was settling back to sleep, Maeve started yelling and complaining about how she wanted to go back downstairs. Um, I said she could and never asked her to come up with me to check on Finn in the first place. Her yelling woke up both of the boys, who were absolutely refreshed after such a terrific nap. They were up for another three hours.

Tonight's bedtime was better, but it started with Finn screaming for 45 minutes about being videotaped. I got out the video camera after dinner because all of the kids were being funny. Finn was being especially goofy, but smacked the side of Oren's head when he thought Oren was blocking the camera. The camera was turned off and Finn started screaming about needing to be videotaped more. I may have started singing "Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I'll tape you tomorrow! It's only a day away. The tape will come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomoooorrroooow, you'll be taped...." Sometimes I just can't help myself.

School Stuff

2011-09-07T19:31:00.000-05:00

We are on week 6 of school and have been a lot more consistent this year. There have been a few days lately that we've opted to play outside or go to the zoo instead of do school. Not like school takes a great deal of time, but sometimes no one wants to stop what they're doing or take the time to do any formal learning.

Maeve has been very motivated to read! This makes me happy. She has a renewed interest in her Progressive Phonics reading packets and can read a couple sentences in a row with ease. As soon as extra funds are available, I plan to order a book called Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind. It covers grammar and will be another reading opportunity for Maeve.

Math is going better this year too, although it's not Maeve's favorite subject. She can only handle one lesson at a time and barely has enough focus to finish the workbook pages that go with the lessons. She understands the concepts, but is easily frustrated when she doesn't know the answer right away. She's even more frustrated when Finn accidentally blurts out the answer.

Speaking of Finn and math, he is almost finished with Singapore 1A. He blew through his first Explode the Code book and is more than half way through his second book. Finn loves workbooks and is an easy student when he's in the mood to work.

We've been studying the symbols of the United States, have learned the Pledge of Allegiance, made mirrors, have learned about magnets and light and have almost completed a chicken lapbook. I have two chapters left to read in Stuart Little and then the kids will watch the movie. We've also been playing a lot of the game Life and the kids have been doing a great job taking turns and following the rules of the game.

Safeguarding vs. Overprotecting

2011-08-29T22:31:00.000-05:00

Last week, a barefoot man was discovered in a tree at a public park. The tree was in a wooded area and the man was staring at the children who were playing in the woods.

Creepy, yes?

Dirty needles and condoms have been found at this park. School teachers have been videotaped having sex at this park and last year a sex offender that had been recently released from prison threatened to hurt a child.

Should I keep taking my children to this park?

I would be naive to think that these kinds of shenanigans don't happen at other public parks, however, why would I go to a park knowing that just last week an adult male who no one knew was watching the kids play from up in a tree. I can think of a million different scenerios for what could happen, although thankfully, nothing did.

Does that fact that nothing happened last week safeguard my children from what could happen this week? No. Is that me living my life in fear? Absolutely not. As a mother I am required to protect my children from danger. If dirty needles and condoms were found in my grocery store, I would raise hell with the manger and then go to a different store. Why? Well, dirty needles and condoms are disgusting, pose a health threat and aren't something I'd want my children to come in contact with while shopping. Why should this be any different with a public park?

If we were at the mall and an adult male was in a tree in the children's play area, yet had no child of his own, would I feel comfortable taking my kids there to play? No. Is that out of fear? No, it's out of common sense.

Do I live my life in fear of what could happen? No, but you can be sure that I take every precaution to safeguard my kids from crime.

There is a difference between safeguarding my children and being overprotective. Oren is a crazy toddler who often times makes poor decisions. While I'm not going to let him fall off of the kitchen counter, I won't rush to keep him from slipping on the bucket of water he just dumped all over the floor. Yes, it is my duty to keep him safe, however, there are good learning moments when mistakes are made and consequences are realized.

Where is the learning moment when your kid steps on a dirty needle at the park? Or when that man jumps out of the tree onto your kid?

Perhaps the man in the tree was just a man in a tree. A man with no day job who likes to climb trees at public parks and watch children he doesn't know play in the woods. That sounds innocent enough right? RIGHT?

No.

Almost Eight Weeks

2011-08-25T20:54:00.000-05:00

I am exhausted. I am typically a night owl, but need to be in bed by 9:30 every night or I feel like crap the next day. I am keeping up with house work okay, but the sink is always full by evening, the laundry isn't quite caught up and it takes a couple of days to clean up the junk that accumulates on the floors. It's frustrating.

I have my first midwife appointment in two weeks. I couldn't remember when I was making the appointment if you were supposed to be seen at eight weeks or 12 weeks so I split the difference and made it for 10 weeks. I will feel so much better about everything when I hear the heartbeat. For some reason, it's going to take hearing the heartbeat for it to really sink in that I am pregnant. We had been on the fence about trying for another baby since January and the month we finally decided to give it a go...

I am always amazed at life. I don't use the word "miracle" all that often, but how else do you describe a baby? This creature has only been in existence for seven weeks and already has a beating heart. I think of all of things that can go wrong and then I look at my three perfect children and am in awe. And to be blessed with one more? It takes my breath away.

Menu Monday

2011-08-15T10:23:00.000-05:00

Spaghetti and meatballs
Out to eat
Chili and cornbread
Ham and bean soup
Pork roast
BBQ shredded pork sandwiches
Quiche and hashbrowns

Get into the Groove

2011-08-14T22:45:00.000-05:00

This is our third week of school and we are settling into a groove. I helped myself tremendously by outlining all 36 weeks of history and science. All I have to do on Sundays (my planning day) is fill in the blanks with daily activities, experiments, readings, workbook pages, etc. It sounds sort of rigid, but having a plan and being organized keeps me sane and makes me better able to adjust our day according to what the kids are up to. I still follow my kids' cues, but they really enjoy having set, structured things to do.

I am using a binder this year to help me keep everything organized. I love my binder. I may invest in something that is more Trapper Keeper-ish because Oren often throws my binder off of my desk and I'm tired of things spilling out. The binder, in addition to my planning out weekly topics, has helped give me a clear idea of what I want to accomplish this year and how to accomplish it. I am a very tactile person and need to see everything in front of me to make a plan. Last year, I organized almost everything on the computer and it stressed me out because I couldn't see it all at once.

I am also loving all of the Usborne books I ordered. We have several science experiment books that are great. We've been studying magnets and the book has a lot of fun ideas and explains things in a way that makes them easy to understand.

Anyway, I'm tired now and will ramble on another time. I initially wanted to blog because we are studying matter this week and I'm excited for all of the fun stuff the kids get to do. I will post more on that later when I'm not fighting my eyelids.

Fried Rice

2011-08-12T21:09:00.001-05:00

There is a Japanese steakhouse around us that makes the best fried rice. This place is always my last good meal before giving birth. In fact, we were dining there when I was pregnant with Finnegan and I was certain I was in labor. Anyway, my point is that you haven't eaten fried rice until you've tasted this stuff.

I tried to replicate the rice tonight and came very close. So close, that I'm going to share the recipe.

1 1/2 cooked white rice (I refrigerated it before I fried it so it wouldn't stick together as much)
3-4 Tbsp butter
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp garlic salt
soy sauce (I didn't measure this, but I probably ended up using about 2 Tbsp)
2 eggs

Heat your electric skillet and melt your butter. Add the rice. Add everything else and stir until the eggs are cooked. When the rice was done, I added slightly caramelized onions and carrots that had been cooked in butter, garlic and ginger.

The Sneaky One

2011-08-10T10:08:00.002-05:00

We recently picked up 15 roosters to butcher. As we were well into the process, we noticed that we only had 14. We both assumed that we had miscounted.

I had to run an errand later the same day and when I pulled into our driveway, I saw a rooster happily pecking the grass in my front yard. I was able to catch him rather quickly and my goodness did I have a good laugh.

As luck would have it, the renegade rooster is actually a pullet (young hen). She has been named Dandelion and is held at least twice daily by Maeve and/or Oren. Dandelion is very gentle with the kids, however she is quite skittish and is not yet friendly with the other girls. I haven't seen any evidence of pecking so I'm hopeful they will all eventually be buddies.

Menu Monday

2011-08-08T10:20:00.000-05:00

Baked spaghetti
Out to eat
Tacos
Stuffed squash (recipe from Smitten Kitchen blog)
Teriyaki chicken
Waffles and eggs
Eggs, toast and bacon

Doing Without

2011-08-06T06:54:00.000-05:00

I met a nice mom at the park today. She said that she's been substitute teaching twice a week for the past few years so that she could stay home with her kids. She went on to say that she has an interview for a full time teaching position and is excited because she's tired of making financial sacrifices in order to stay home. The example of sacrifice she used was that all of their vehicles are paid off, but they want something nicer.

This conversation got me thinking about what we sacrifice so that I can stay home.

Our only vehicle is a 11 year old van. We paid cash in order to avoid monthly payments. All newer vehicles were out of our price range.

Our kids share rooms. We have three bedrooms and will have four kids.

We are treated to dining out once a week and rarely eat out otherwise.

We don't take expensive vacations.

I could keep going, but I think you get the idea. We live frugally and really do our best to live within our means. I do not, however, feel like we are missing something. I am perfectly content with my older van, I like having the kids share rooms and I like knowing that we are eating food that was prepared by my hands.

According to dictionary.com:

noun

the offering of animal, plant, or human life or of somematerial possession to a deity, as in propitiation or homage.

the person, animal, or thing so offered.

the surrender or destruction of something prized ordesirable for the sake of something considered as having ahigher or more pressing claim.

the thing so surrendered or devoted.

a loss incurred in selling something below its value.

It seems to me that if you are well fed, can clothe all of your children, have a solid roof over your head and have a vehicle that runs well, you're not really sacrificing much in order to stay home. Are you sacrificing a bigger house? More stuff? And what is more valuable than raising your children?

Garden Update

2011-08-03T10:09:00.003-05:00

Ah, my garden. I love my garden. I love growing things and I love harvesting things.

There has been one huge, hot problem lately that has kept me from doing much in the garden. Heat. It is HOT. I can handle high temperatures, but this is high temperatures with humidity. I'm starting to sweat just thinking about going outside.

These pictures were taken at the beginning of the heat wave when my precious garden was somewhat weeded and under control. All of my bean plants in these pictures had not been eaten by Japanese Beetles. My tomato plants were still in their cages and the weeds were not taller than the kale. Sigh.

My tomatoes are crazy now. Like five feet tall crazy. I have never grown tomato plans this large. They are loving the heat and I'm going to be loving salsa and homemade sauce soon. We have an insane number of plants this year (around 50) and I am hoping we planted enough to satisfy us until this time next summer.

My squash is happy in this heat too. I have a few tiny butternut squashes and can almost taste the squash soup I will be making in a few months. The pumpkin vines are doing well and I'm ready to roast the seeds and puree the pumpkins.

The rest of the garden is not worth mentioning at this point. Except I'm going to mention it anyway. I planted a drying kind of black bean this year and they are producing. I might have enough to make a pot of soup. Maybe. I doubt I will grow them again unless they are so incredibly delicious that I crave them in my dreams.

My green beans are ruined. I went out there today to pick some beans, but the plants aren't producing much anymore probably largely due to the fact that all of the leaves have been eaten by bugs. If I was still motivated, I would pull the beans and plant more peas and carrots. My onion and carrot patch looks terrible and my kale and swiss chard patch is full of tall weeds. I can't even see where I planted six pepper plants.

I'm not complaining too much though because a lot of the garden has been very successful.

New Beginnings

2011-08-01T22:08:00.000-05:00

I took the kids school supply shopping on Sunday and they were sooooo excited to get started. So we did. I was originally planning to start school on August 29th. Then I went and got myself pregnant so I bumped up the start date to August 8th, but then we started on the 1st.

We are working on magnets, a chicken lapbook (per Maeve's request), classifying and organizing animals, the flag and the Pledge of Allegiance. I am going to let Maeve take the lead on math and reading since she does better and is more motivated when it's her idea.

Speaking of math, Maeve was very happy to have found a green calculator at Target. She said that now when she does math, she'll just use her calculator. Good idea, but.....no.

I gave Oren his own workspace (again) and he seems to like it. I need to find some neat stuff to put in his area so he'll stop taking everything off of Maeve's desk. Oren's scissor privileges have been temporarily suspended because he cut (another) chunk out of his hair.

Finnegan has me a bit stumped. The kid is a whiz at math. He LOVES math. Everything he does is somehow put into numbers. He's also learning how to spell at an alarming rate. Maeve asked me how to spell "new" and Finn answered her. Correctly. He already completed his Teach Me Kindergarten app on the ipod touch and is working through Teach Me First Grade. I think, at least for this year, I'll let him keep doing what he's doing: math, Explode the Code for writing practice and computer and board games. If he wants or asks for more, I'll provide it.

Here is our clean, organized space (ignore my desk...it will never be cleaned or organized):

Menu Monday

2011-08-01T10:18:00.000-05:00

Pasta alfredo
Out to eat
Greaser's Delight
Summer Squash Soup (recipe from Smitten Kitchen blog)
Roast
Chicken and noodles
Beef and potato hash (recipe from Cook's Country magazine)

Menu Monday

2011-07-25T10:15:00.000-05:00

Lasagna
Out to eat
Chicken Chimichangas (recipe from Cook's Country magazine)
Beef stew and bread
Chicken and steak kabobs
Brats and burgers
Funny face pancakes

Chicken Pasta with a Creamy Red Sauce

2011-07-21T22:29:00.000-05:00

Sometimes the ideas in my head are delicious.

Chicken:
2 Tbsp butter or oil
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1/2-1 Tbsp dried basil
salt to taste

Cream sauce:
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1 C milk or heavy cream
1 15 oz can of tomato sauce, diced tomatoes or 2 C prepare spaghetti sauce
1 pkg pasta of your choice

Heat your skillet and melt 2 Tbsp of butter or oil. Add chicken. I used frozen chicken breasts, but you can easily substitute shredded/pulled chicken. Add 1 Tbsp minced garlic and 1/2-1 Tbsp dried basil. Add salt to taste. Cook the chicken until it's done and then take it out of the pan and set it off to the side.

Melt 2 Tbsp butter (or oil, but I prefer butter in this step) and add 2 Tbsp flour. Whisk together and add 1 C milk or heavy cream. Keep whisking until all of the tasty bits on the bottom of your skillet have lifted. Add 2 C of spaghetti sauce. I always make huge batches of sauce and freeze it. You can use plain sauce, diced tomatoes or whatever floats your boat. Return chicken to the skillet and turn to low.

In a separate pot, bring water to a boil. Add pasta and cook according to the package directions. Strain, dump into a medium sized bowl and pour sauce over the pasta. You can top everything with some sort of shredded cheese, but it's delicious with just the sauce too.

Wall Hanging Paper Organizers

2011-07-19T22:44:00.000-05:00

I plan to hang these on the wall by my desk with wooden dowels from a broken drying rack.

Menu Monday

2011-07-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

Swiss steak
Toast, bacon and scrambled eggs
Chicken parmesan
Tacos with Spanish rice
Oven baked chicken
Beef and noodles

Diaper Drafting

2011-07-15T11:10:00.000-05:00

I am very good at starting projects, leaving them and then finishing whenever I am inspired. I work like crazy until my goal is mostly accomplished and then I get bored.

I started drafting diaper patterns before baby #3, who is almost two, was born. I suppose in this case, I got busy instead of bored. Well, I have finally finished my patterns and am excited to see how they look with fabric. Of course I am out of PUL (polyurethane laminate) and suede cloth or microfleece. As soon as I stock up again, I will post pictures. The patterns aren't anything special, but I combined my favorite diapers, changed the rise, added more elastic, moved the snaps and tweaked the shape. I might order some labels just for fun. I honestly have no intention of making and selling diapers right now, but maybe I will when the kids are a bit older.

Herbs

2011-07-13T08:19:00.000-05:00

I did not plant nearly enough basil last year so I went a bit crazy this year.

I found a dehydrator at the thrift store for $5 and thought I'd give it a go with the basil. It took most of the day and I was amazed at how little basil was left when it was finished. I will definitely use the dehydrator again, but my favorite way to dry herbs is by hanging.

In the past I've hung the herbs by the kitchen sink, but my husband pointed out that that's not completely sanitary because the garbage disposal spits out junk.

I decided to hang cilantro from nails. I think they look beautiful, but I am not loving having a kitchen that smells like dirty soap. I do like cilantro in salsa, however the smell is worthy of a gas mask and rubber gloves. I gave all three of my kids a bath today in an effort to rid my hands of cilantro stench. Finally, five hours and a million hand washings later, I smell normal.

Menu Monday

2011-07-11T08:00:00.000-05:00

Baby back ribs
Funny face pancakes
Lasagna
Enchiladas
Chicken and noodles
Teriyaki chicken

Planning

2011-07-10T23:35:00.001-05:00

I planned our learning week by week last year for homeschooling. I based my plans off of whatever the kids were interested in at the time and, while that system worked okay, it left me feeling unorganized and sort of stressed.

My plan for this year is a bit different. I have started outlining weekly plans for the entire school year. 36 weeks of science is completely outlined and I am up to week 17 of history. I'm not going to outline phonics/reading and math the same way because those subjects are largely based on how much the kids want to do in a day. I will make an overview of things I would like accomplished, but I can operate by the seat of my pants with phonics and math since we are already working out of textbooks (Singapore and Explode the Code).

I really like the books that Sonlight uses for history and science so I am combining those with a bit of A Beka for history and Lesson Pathways for science. I was originally going to order the instructor guides for Sonlight's history and science, however as I was looking at some of the sample weeks, I realized that I would do a lot of tweaking so I decided to just make my own plans.

I am excited to see how this year goes and am looking forward to being more organized.

Garden Harvest

2011-07-10T08:13:00.000-05:00

The kids have been asking me to pull up a few carrots so I finally did today and was pleasantly surprised. I was also happy to see some green beans and lots of Swiss chard and kale.

Entrance Help

2011-07-09T22:49:00.000-05:00

This is the door that is the most used in our house. The coat hooks are at kid level and work, but I have no idea what to do about shoes. We all have 2+ pairs around the house or by the door at any given time. I put the basket there to toss the shoes in, but digging around for shoes is not easy, fast or fun.

I've tried various shoes organizers, but we are not a shoe organizer kind of family. We like to pile. I am okay with piles, but I want organized piles. I think the basket needs to go since it's the wrong size and a bottomless pit of crap. What should I do? I would like this area to look a bit nicer, especially since I just finished labeling and reorganizing all of the bookshelves and toys. Should I have a shoe basket for everyone? Should I put the baskets on the floor? Any organizational products I should try?

Snack Time

2011-07-07T08:39:00.000-05:00

I gave the kids a snack and this is how Oren was sitting.

6 Weeks

2011-07-06T08:09:00.000-05:00

The bunnies are six weeks old and I am convinced they can only do two things: eat and pee on each other. Peed on white rabbits aren't very pretty.

A Boy and His Drill

2011-07-05T20:39:00.000-05:00

Tools are special treasures that should be held tight and kept away from moms.

Not even two and he's already giving me a look that says he knows more about a drill than me.

Putting in reverse. Honestly, it was only recently that I figured that out.

Fixing the floor.

Fixing his sister's chair.

Carrying the drill like he's been doing it for years.

Pure joy.

Menu Monday

2011-07-04T08:00:00.000-05:00

Burgers and Brats
Quiche Lorraine scones with poached eggs
Spaghetti and meatballs
Black beans and rice with sausage and tortillas
Grilled cheese and tomato soup
Meatloaf

Herb Crackers

2011-07-02T22:56:00.001-05:00

1 C flour
3 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp milk
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp ground sage
1 Tbsp freshly chopped parsley
2 Tbsp freshly chopped chives

Combine in a food processor. Dough will be crumbly. Dump onto floured surface and form into a ball. Roll out, prick dough with a fork and cut into rectangles. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, sprinkle with salt and bake at 325 for about 20 minutes.

Boy Pants

2011-07-02T22:37:00.000-05:00

I love these pants. They are so easy to make and an XL men's shirt is the perfect size for 4T/5T. I'm trying not to go overboard since my boys don't need many pants, but I like the cut of the pants and I like that I can use light, summery fabrics.

Homeschool Organization

2011-07-02T21:37:00.000-05:00

I am a very visual, organized person, although you might not notice this about me if you were to see my house in it's "natural" state. Anyway, I like organized piles and I like making lists.

Last year I tried a few different ways to organize my homeschooling plans.

1. I bought the kids workboxes because I loved the idea of everything having a place. Unfortunately, we are not a workbox family. Try as I might, my kids did not always want to do the activities I put in the workboxes and it was a bit too formal for my liking. We still have the workboxes and use them to store crafts and projects that are in progress.

2. I tried using a portable file folder box and each day had its own file. This was too much work for me and wasted too much paper. I also hated that I couldn't see what was in the file folder.

3. I kept a college ruled notebook and wrote out detailed plans for each day. This was my most successful way of organizing. I could easily see what I needed to prepare daily and I had all of my notes right in front of me. The problem was that I sometimes needed to add or adjust my notes and had no where to write. It also bugged me that I couldn't easily plan more than one week at a time because I didn't know how fast the kids would learn the material or if they would even be interested. I tweak as I go and try to follow the direction my kids take with a subject.

I think I would like to use a binder to organize my plans, but I have no idea how to organize the binder. Do any of the three people who read this blog have suggestions or links? I am in the process of planning our first week in detail, but I need to have one place where I can write everything down and adjust it as I go.

ETA: I found a few planning pages that might work. Here and here. I still need suggestions on how to organize a binder. I think I'll have a two page spread for my weekly planner, but I also want a space to write down our library books for the week and other notes. I'm going to need to take a trip to Staples. It's a shame I hate school supplies.

Settings

2011-07-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

Maeve asked to borrow the camera one day and this is what came back to me. She posed all of her Littlest Pet Shop animals.

Amusement Park Fun

2011-06-30T08:00:00.000-05:00

On our way to an amusement park. The kids were super excited. Finn dressed himself. Can you tell?

Oren's first ride. When the ride started, he wasn't sure if he should cry or laugh, but since everyone was smiling, he decided it was fun. He slouched like this the entire ride and thought was cool. I thought he was cool too.

The lone kid. I'm sure he didn't mind riding by himself, but it makes me want to have one more kid so that everyone has a buddy.

The boats.

This is a kid version of the thing that shoots you up in the air and drops you. It was all fun and games until they got to the top and dropped. They didn't drop far, but Finn was scared out of his mind.

Finn made the funniest scared face. I didn't take a picture of it because I didn't want to be mean, but I had trouble hiding my laugh. I felt so sorry for him. Thankfully, the ride was short. He was done with rides after this.

Greaser's Delight (Taco Salad)

2011-06-29T19:45:00.001-05:00

1 lb ground beef
1 C cooked or mostly cooked black beans
1/2 of an onion, chopped
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp cumin
chili powder or cayenne to taste
1 15 oz can tomato sauce

Brown beef. Add onion and cook for a couple of minutes. Add everything else. Cover and cook in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. I never have pre-cooked beans so I add a bit more tomato sauce and cook it for an hour. Top with shredded cheddar cheese. We like to eat this on top of lettuce and chips or crispy tortillas.

Bunnies

2011-06-29T08:00:00.000-05:00

The bunnies are nutso. Have I said that yet? I go out there every morning to see them smash up against the front of the cage. Starving. So starving they fail to notice the edge of the cage when it's open. These rabbits eat more than my children and that is saying something.

Peas and Shades

2011-06-28T08:00:00.000-05:00

Maeve asked me to take a picture of the monster pea she found in the garden. I keep telling her that all of the peas could be monster peas if she would stop eating them.

Isn't he cool? These are the free cow sunglasses the kids got at the dairy farm.

See? He can put them on all by himself.

Pasta Alfredo

2011-06-27T22:52:00.000-05:00

Let me start by saying this is probably not a real Alfredo sauce. It is tasty though and easy.

Chicken and seasonings:
Melt a tablespoon or so of butter in a large pan. Combine cooked shredded chicken, garlic, parsley, basil and finely chopped kale and chard and add to melted butter. Cook over medium heat and turn to low as soon as you can smell the garlic. You can add any number of things to this chicken mixture. Peas, broccoli, or whatever you like to eat with a white, cheesy sauce.

Sauce:
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour
3 C milk (I never measure, I just dump until it looks right. I use whole milk, by the way.)
1 1/2 C grated Parmesan cheese

Melt the butter in a heavy sauce pan. Add flour and mix. Add milk and whisk like you mean it. When the milk is almost as thick as gravy, add the cheese and whisk. Stir for a minute or so and turn off your burner.

Cook a box of spaghetti or pasta of your choice. Your pasta should be cooking at the same time you are making the sauce. Drain the pasta, but do not rinse. Pour your pasta into a big serving/casserole dish and add your sauce and chicken mixture. Stir to combine. Eat.

Menu Monday

2011-06-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

Once again, I fell off the menu planning wagon and got back on with gusto. I planned our menu for the entire month. I just did dinners and will try to post recipes as I make them. My menu starts on Saturday because I go to the store on Friday.

Saturday: Indian hand pies
Sunday: waffles
Monday: pasta Alfredo with chard, broccoli and chicken
Tuesday: out to eat
Wednesday: Greaser's Delight (Not really greasy, but my husband thought naming it this was funny)
Thursday: Ham and scalloped potatoes
Friday: beef pot pies

I don't always list a veggie, but it's almost always included. I have a tendency to add chard and kale to everything in addition to whatever main vegetable we're eating.

Dairy Farm Tour

2011-06-26T22:14:00.000-05:00

We toured a dairy farm recently and I neglected to take any pictures except for this one. The tour was very interesting and I learned a lot. The kids got free ice cream, orange juice, bananas, yogurt, milk, doughnuts, corn and soy bean seeds and sunglasses. There were two calves for the kids to see up close and Oren thought that was fantastic.

As soon as we got home, Maeve painted a shirt and some white fabric with black spots. I still haven't made her cow pants, but I will very soon. Maeve also sat down and drew this wonderful picture. Oren has been mooing quite a bit and picking out animal books for me to read.

The Garden

2011-06-26T20:01:00.000-05:00

My garden is growing nicely and so are the weeds. We added straw to the tomato patch and I'm hoping that will give us a bit of relief from weeding.

Here's what we're growing this year:
tomatoes (I believe we have around 45)
peppers (not as many as I had hoped because one of my "helpers" kept dumping out the seedlings when they were still in the house)
kale
swiss chard
lettuce (I can't remember the kind, it's loose leaf)
onions
carrots
black beans
green beans
watermelon (maybe, they've been mowed twice)
butternut squash
pumpkins
zucchini (this is another maybe because our wood pile is now blocking a great deal of sunlight)
sugar snap peas
cilantro
basil
lemon balm
oregano
sage
parsley
thyme
chamomile

We also planted raspberries and grapes, although one of our grape vines bit the dust shortly after being planted.

The beauty of having used heirloom seeds is that we were in for a few surprises this year. I found eight small cherry tomato plants, a green bean plant, more tomatoes, some onions and two random chards that never came up last summer.

I planted the beans and peas together this year and it is working out great. The combination of the two plants does a nice job of blocking out the sunlight for the weeds.

The patch with the carrots and onions is sort of a waste of space. The carrot seeds must have washed into one corner because they are not in a nice, neat row like I planted them. I planted onions from seeds this year and will probably not do that again. I do have several onions growing, but it's hard to tell them apart from the weeds and I have to weed very slowly in that area. I need to figure out what to plant to fill up some of the wasted space.

I never did get the leeks or asparagus planted. I also will plant garlic this fall.

Why My House is Never Clean

2011-06-18T22:51:00.000-05:00

Every once in awhile, I do something crazy and give Oren things like colored rice or flour. He had so much fun dumping flour from bowl to bowl. He stirred, he dumped, he delicately poured it all over my floor.

I was incredibly impressed that he went and got his broom when he was done playing. He made an honest attempt to sweep and really gave it his all. At one point, he was on his hands and knees with a plastic scraper trying to get the glued on flour bits off the floor.

The Laundry Room

2011-06-17T23:13:00.000-05:00

I recently reorganized the laundry room so that it's more functional for me.

Each kid has their own column for clothes: shirts on the top, shorts/pants/skirts in the middle and socks and underwear in the tote on the bottom.

The brown totes are diapers and the three cubby thing is for my husband's clothes.

This section isn't finished, but the bottom shelf is for my clothes and the upstairs towels. The middle shelf is for blankets and a few pillows and I haven't quite decided what I'm going to put on the top. It'll probably be for our emergency backpacks or other preparedness type stuff.

This is where I hang my husband's shirts and a few of my shirts. I have a card table next to the dryer so that I have a place to fold clothes and so that clean clothes don't end up on the floor. I also have a smaller round basket that I toss socks into as I find them. I go through the basket about once a week to find all of the matches.

Next to my fabulous old school washing machine (I am not even being sarcastic. I LOVE this thing and regret believing the hype about front loaders.), I have a cheap bookshelf for laundry detergent and laundry detergent ingredients, a jar for loose change, light bulbs and vinyl gloves. I don't have a need for vinyl gloves all that often, but I found an unopened box while I was cleaning.

I am caught up with laundry for the first time in awhile and have been throwing dirty stuff into the washer as soon as I find it. When the washer is full, I start it. I am hopeful that this new organized room will help keep the laundry under control.

3 Weeks

2011-06-16T23:58:00.000-05:00

The bunnies are three weeks old and are crazy. The love straw and hay, they drink water from Flower's water dish, they eat pellets and if they are awake they can be found pestering Flower and attempting to nurse.

The bunnies and Flower were inside all last week due to the heat. They have been returned to their hutch outside and are doing quite well. The babies scatter like mice when startled and jump like popping popcorn when excited. All of the skinnier babies have fatten up nicely and everyone is handled on a daily basis. My kids are fantastic with the rabbits and even my almost two year old handles them gently. The babies are proving to be a great learning experience.

Summer School

2011-06-16T23:28:00.001-05:00

My kids have asked to start school again. So we will start on Monday with tadpole lap books, as requested.

And if I haven't posted my plan for the school year, here it is:

*We will do structured learning Monday-Thursday
*We'll take off the last week of every month
*We'll also take off August, December and April

Strawberry

2011-06-16T22:47:00.000-05:00

Maeve took the camera outside and while this is not at all in focus, I appreciate her subject. That is the perfect strawberry and yet another one from our garden that will never touch my lips.

Bunnies!

2011-06-15T23:07:00.000-05:00

See those teeth? The bunnies are about 4 days old.

Here they are at two weeks.

Dog Treetse

2011-06-14T22:44:00.000-05:00

Maeve has started sounding out words and spelling them without asking me first. I love it.

Granola

2011-06-13T23:07:00.001-05:00

I am trying a new granola recipe and am hoping it's as good as my recipe that calls for lots of butter. Who am I kidding. Anyway, here it is:

5 C oats
1 C ground flax
1 C wheat germ
1 C coconut
1/2 C coconut oil
1 tsp cinnamon
1 C brown sugar
1 C flour
3/4 C water

Mix wet and add to dry. Bake for two hours at 250 degrees. Store in the fridge or freezer.

The Forgotten Moth

2011-06-13T22:44:00.000-05:00

The kids found a caterpillar so naturally it went into a canning jar. We forgot about the caterpillar because he rolled under the couch and when he was found, he had turned into a chrysalis. We then placed the jar on the buffet so that we could watch him emerge, but we thought he might be dead. I had every intention of throwing him out, but when we looked at him again he had turned into a wonderful moth! Maeve let him loose in a big patch of weeds so that he could have a place to hide.

Sewing Projects

2011-06-06T00:03:00.000-05:00

Watch out world because I have figured out how to sew pants. I made a few attempts last year at creating my own pants pattern, but for whatever reason, I failed miserably. I've been on a sewing kick lately and found this boy pants pattern. I added about 1/4 of an inch all the way around and have been making the pants longer so that I can let out the hem as needed. The pants fit my lean four year old perfectly. I am super excited to be able to make him pants because he hates zippers, snaps and buttons, I love re-purposing clothes and he will finally have some comfortable pants that are a bit dressier than sweat pants.

Tomorrow I am going to attempt a shirt. I have never made a shirt so this ought to be interesting. It doesn't seem difficult, but shirts have always intimidated me. I made my own pattern and will be using this tutorial. We'll see how it turns out.

They're ALIVE!

2011-05-29T21:59:00.000-05:00

I've been hesitant to announce this for fear of jinxing us, but we have 10 living bunnies! Flower waited until the last possible moment to build her nest and again had no interest in using a nest box. I let her build her nest on the wire and then moved it into the nest box after she had everyone settled and cleaned. Flower pulled a sufficient amount of fur and I witnessed her nursing her kits, which I thought was neat.

The kits are five days old and have peach fuzz type hair. They are all white and are starting to get pointy rabbit ears that I think are adorable. I am going to give Flower a bit of time to recover since she was bred shortly after losing her last litter. In the future, my plan is to breed her six weeks after she kindles (gives birth), wean to butcher the kits at eight weeks and then Flower will have another litter two weeks later.

Mothering a Maniac

2011-05-29T21:35:00.000-05:00

When my daughter was a toddler, she would sit and play quietly with toys. We would color peacefully, build with blocks, take walks holding hands and I could trust her with things like soap and finger paints.

Then Finnegan came along. Finn was a well behaved toddler too, except that he ate everything. Everything like grubs, dirt, grass, basically anything not found at the kitchen table. Well, unless it was food that never got taken to the sink or finger paint that was left out.

Now that Oren is toddler, I realize how good I had it with the other two. I have to watch him constantly, but there are times when I must do things like cook dinner or turn around. In less than 30 minutes, Oren can climb on the dining room table without my knowledge, fall off the table, chuck his glass cup full of chocolate milk across the kitchen, pee on the floor and slip on it, pull all of the seedlings off the counter for the fiftieth time, jump off the couch, plug the bathroom sink with goldfish crackers, eat crayons and then end up naked on the dining room table coloring his penis with a pink marker.

Oren rarely plays with toys. He does like tactile things like rice and play dough, but there are no clean, simple objects that grab his attention. And sitting on the floor quietly? Never, unless it's in my closet and he's pooping on the floor.

Oren bounces off of concrete, falls down the stairs (only once and he was out of my sight for less than a minute) and trips over dog bowls because he's in too much of a hurry to watch where he's going. He just plows over it and hopes for the best.

The funny thing is that if you don't know Oren well, he looks like a very timid, stoic little boy who loves his mama. Oren is incredibly affectionate, however he's always plotting how to create the most havoc in the shortest amount of time.

My husband and I were talking about our sweet, ornery Oren and how, unless you have one, you can never really understand what it is to have a kid like this. A good day for Oren is the equivalent to a horrible day for a toddler like my daughter. And it's not for the lack of discipline. Oren is wired differently. He must be on the go at all times because he is intensely curious and fearless.

I am thankful to have a kid like Oren because I have stopped judging people who tell me that their kid fell off the kitchen counter. Pre-Oren I would have thought "why in the world wasn't she watching her kid?" Now I think "where should I hide the stools?". Life is all about perspective.

Dogs and Training

2011-05-27T23:38:00.000-05:00

I love dogs. There are a couple of breeds I would eventually like to own, but for now I am perfectly happy with our lovable Lab.

Our Lab helps keep me centered. It probably sounds silly, but if I can calmly and assertively give directions to the dog, I am better able to handle whatever the kids throw at me. I thoroughly enjoy taking the dog for a walk after the kids are asleep. This allows me to recenter myself and let go of whatever happened during the day. I let go of the tension in the leash, walk briskly and enjoy the fresh air and the pant of my fat dog.

I have been watching a lot (any by "a lot" I mean one or two episodes every other day or so) of the Dog Whisperer with Cesar Milan lately. His whole thing is to project a calm, assertive energy in order to become the pack leader. He also recommends treating a dog like a dog and spaying and neutering to get rid of the added frustration of not being able to mate.

I get it. I love our dog, but there's no way in the world I'm going to allow her to jump up on people, pee all over the house or steal food off of my plate while I'm sitting at the table. Our dog is a dog and is treated at such. She is very much a member of our family, but she is in her crate at certain times throughout the day and has to work for things like food and attention.

Bridget has become a respectful dog. She checks on all of the kids while they are sleeping and does not lay on the bed until I go to sleep. Bridget always knows where the kids are and what they are doing and will get me if necessary. She obeys commands from the kids, as long as they aren't screaming, and will even wait to eat in the morning until Oren gives her permission.

So....TRAIN YOUR DOG. If you are buying a puppy, get the one that is a middle level energy. The puppy that is jumping on you or acting crazy and spunky, is not the one that is going to be easy to train. Buy the dog that is a bit more mellow, but still curious. Find a good breeder or go to your local animal shelter. We went to a breeder and I have absolutely no regrets. Bridget is a perfect example of a Labrador, in both body type and temperament.

And for the love of Pete, treat your dog like a dog. Please. None of that wishy-washy "no" or "get down". Say it and mean it. Dogs are great at sensing weakness and will walk all over you if you let them. I am especially talking to anyone who owns or is thinking about owning a small, pocket sized dog. Dogs are not people and do not need to be carried around all day or protected. This will lead to disaster. In fact, don't buy a small, pocket sized dog at all if you are even remotely thinking about putting it in a purse. A dog needs to be allowed to be a dog, but you have to provide boundaries and rules.

Stepping off of my soapbox....

Chore Charts

2011-05-23T11:21:00.000-05:00

My kids love sticker charts. These are the charts they start today. The kids have three daily chores and earn five minutes of computer time for every chore they complete. I taped a file folder on the wall for sticker control.

Carrots and Chard

2011-05-22T23:38:00.001-05:00

It was brought to my attention today that I cook things that sound weird. My family was over for lunch and I said that I was going to make carrots and chard to go with some leftover ham. My cousin asked if chard was a kind of cheese. No, Swiss chard is a green, leafy vegetable that I add to everything when it's in season.

Anyway, here's my weird sounding recipe:

Roasted Carrots and Chard

lots of peeled and sliced carrots (you don't have to peel them, but I don't like the skins)
chopped chard or kale
butter (I use two tablespoons or so)

Mix everything together and bake at 400 for at least 30 min. I like to bake the carrots until they are browned and fully roasted.

My Zoo

2011-05-22T23:21:00.000-05:00

These tadpoles are some of the newest members of our crew. They are eating a piece of boiled lettuce. I am looking forward to watching them grow.

This is our Flemish Giant, Fiona. She weighs about 20 lbs. She lives on our enclosed front porch and is litter box trained.

These are our Red Sex Link chicks. Well, not exactly chicks, but they aren't quite old enough to lay eggs. From left to right: Feathery, Chickeny and Drumstick. I like the chickens.

Flower is our very pregnant and due in two days, Californian doe. She enjoys pooping and peeing in the only spot that doesn't have a wire floor. She also likes to wait until the very last moment to build a nest and pull fur.

Bowling Pin is mad at me in this picture. You see, he spent a great deal of time chewing through the wooden cage divider and I ruined his escape. He and Flower often lay together on the opposite sides of the walls.

You can't see him, but inside the cave is Maeve's new toad, Toady. Toady is tortured, and by tortured I mean "loved" in only a way a six year old can love a toad, on a regular basis. I would rather have Toady in my garden.

These are the fire belly toads. Santa brought them and I'm not sure what he was thinking.

This is Bridget, our four year old black lab. She is finally a nice, good dog and I no longer want to find her a new home on a daily basis.

Rainbow is a Harlequin and is Maeve's speical rabbit. Rainbow is about four years old and is the tamest of all the rabbits.

Re-purposing

2011-05-16T23:29:00.000-05:00

My favorite thing to do besides clean the house constantly (haha) is re-purpose clothes. My husband and I have a closet full of clothes that we've outgrown in one way or another. I save everything so that I can turn it into something else.

My husband received a very nice, blue linen shirt for Christmas. Unfortunately, the shirt was the wrong size, so I used it to make the best pair of spring/summer pants for my four year old son. I also turned an old pair of my khakis into pants for my four year old. I found the perfect pattern here (I added about 1/4 in all the way around the pattern and added a 1/2 in for length for growing room):

http://www.dana-made-it.com/2008/07/tutorial-and-pattern-kid-pants.html

I am trying to use up some of the huge pile of clothes I've been saving for sewing. I also have a large pile of fabric I received at Christmas that I am tired of shuffling around. I post pictures of all of my projects soon.

Kitchen Re-do

2011-05-13T19:16:00.000-05:00

I like to change things up every so often and thought the kitchen would be a good place to start. I love orange and wanted a funky, pop of color. It looks great in the picture, but was sort of neon orange. I hated it.

So I went with a less neon color and I like it a lot better. I found fabric that ties in all of the colors in the kitchen and living room and I turned a garage sale skirt into a cafe curtain.

I am pleased with the outcome and like that the color can fade into the background like the other color on the walls. I might paint a couple more walls blue, but I've already started painting the boys' room so I need to finish that first.

Homeschool Stuff

2011-05-06T22:47:00.001-05:00

We took off most of the month of April because the kids were sick for three weeks. Three very long weeks.

Maeve said she wanted to learn about dogs so we've been working on a dog lapbook. The kids have also been working on math and phonics this week. Both kids seem to really like Singapore Math and liked it even more this week when I let them use Unifix cubes. It was almost better than candy.

Finnegan is funny because his math skills far exceed his writing skills. He is much better at just telling me the answers than writing them. It takes a great deal of focus for him to write letters in his Explode the Code workbook, but he does a great job.

Maeve has been working through quite a few pages in her Explode the Code books. For some reason, she has it in her head that she can't read or write in lower case. She completes everything exceptionally well if I pretend one of the boys needs something and walk away. She can read, but I think is afraid of getting it wrong. I also think she's lazy and just doesn't want to put forth the effort it takes to read to me. A few weeks ago I caught her reading Hop on Pop to Finnegan. It was cute.

Oren has been able to keep busy while I help the other two with their work. I've been giving him a dry erase board and markers and he loves writing and erasing. I think he also likes having his own work space. He's not interested in many fine motor skill type things, but does like to sort, fill and dump.

I have a good idea of how I want things to function for next school year, although I do plan to school throughout the summer. I think we'll probably do school for three weeks and take a week off, as that seems to be the limit for all of us. We will also take off the entire month of August so I can clean out the office and make things new and exciting again.

First Tooth!

2011-04-30T21:56:00.000-05:00

A few days ago Maeve's first tooth came loose. She was so excited and wanted her father to pull it immediately. Unfortunately, the tooth wasn't ready.

Maeve was showing off her loose tooth to friends and family today. While I was getting the kids a bedtime snack, Maeve left the room and pulled her own tooth. I couldn't believe it! What kind of girl pulls her own tooth? I would hide behind the living room furniture and it would take hours for my dad to pull my loose tooth. I understand that that was probably super wimpy, but I was at least expecting Maeve to want someone else to pull it. I think she might be my hero.

I would just like to add that I touched several worms today. On purpose. Does that make me sound less wimpy? No?

Maeve was incredibly disappointed and on the verge of tears after seeing her tooth. She couldn't believe it was so small and was certain it would only fetch a one dollar from the Tooth Fairy.

Well, Tooth Fairy be damned because Daddy just left for Toys R Us.

Two Week Menu

2011-04-28T23:13:00.000-05:00

It was great having all of the meals planned so I'm going to do my best to keep at it. This past week didn't go according to plan, so I'll be keeping most of the menu the same for the upcoming week.

Friday 4/29
homemade donuts
whatever I feel like making after we've gone to the store
beef stew with rolls
*cook two chickens

Saturday 4/30
German apple pancakes
leftovers
steak and waffles: a re-do of my son's birthday dinner since he was sick

Sunday 5/1
hard boiled eggs and fruit
fried rice and veggies
chicken and dumplings

Monday 5/2
oatmeal
leftovers if we have them, otherwise sesame noodles
lasagna with bread and green beans

Tuesday 5/3
rolls with butter, honey or jam
leftovers
out to eat
*soak beans

Wednesday 5/4
eggs and toast, fruit
homemade mac and cheese
Greaser's Delight

Thursday 5/5
oatmeal
leftovers
chicken and noodles

Friday 5/6
German apple pancake
leftovers
meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans

Saturday 5/7
homemade donuts
leftovers
pork chops, twice baked potatoes, broccoli

Sunday 5/8
rolls, fruit
pizza
pancakes, eggs, hash browns

Monday 5/9
oatmeal
maid rites with homemade fries
spaghetti and meatballs, green beans

Tuesday 5/10
hard boiled eggs, fruit
leftovers
out to eat

Wednesday 5/11
have the kids make breakfast
pizza
tacos, rice

Thursday 5/12
German apple pancake
leftovers
whatever is left in the cupboard to fix

Grocery list (we might go to Costco this month since almost everything on my list is a staple I can buy in bulk)
apples
milk (4)
sesame oil
spaghetti
rotini
mozzarella
cheddar (2 blocks)
Parmesan
sour cream (2)
black beans
tortillas
frozen blueberries
carrots
celery
bread
syrup

Easter Eggs

2011-04-22T21:30:00.000-05:00

I wanted to try dying eggs with food this year. We used blueberries, strawberries, onion skins, tumeric and grass. The grass was a last minute idea and the kids got antsy so we added green food coloring. I put a white sheet over a card table and let them go crazy with the dye after the eggs were finished. We're using the dyed sheet as our Easter table cloth and the kids are very proud of it.

Ghetto Trees

2011-04-21T20:53:00.000-05:00

The weather here turned cold just as all of my fruit trees were starting to flower. We are already the only house on the block without a neatly manicured lawn, and I can only wonder what they all thought when they saw Sponge Bob Square Pants covering the cherry tree in our front yard.

Rabbit Fail

2011-04-20T20:34:00.000-05:00

Our doe, Flower, finally had a large litter of kits. We were happy to see that most, if not all were living and that she seemed to be a good mother.

Unfortunately, Flower refused to build her nest in the nest box and instead built in on the wire floor. She pulled some fur, but not a lot, and when the weather turned cold and extremely windy, all of her kits died.

I'm annoyed. Her first pregnancy was a miss, the second was stillborn and now this fiasco. I'm going to get her a different nesting box, but I really do not enjoy cleaning out or even seeing lifeless, hairless baby bunnies. They are even worse to touch.

Flower and Bowling Pin will be spending some quality time together soon. I am hoping that she gets her act together with this next litter because if she doesn't, I will start exploring other options. Like roast.

On a related note, we have a Flemish Giant doe named Fiona who has an attitude the size of Texas. My original plan was to breed her to Bowling Pin, our Californian, so that we'd have a cross for meat. Actually, my original plan before that was to keep her as a pet in the house, however I discovered that I am allergic to rabbits and that Fiona enjoys chewing cords way too much to be kept out of a cage. Anyway, I put Bowling Pin in Fiona's cage last month and she about killed him. She had backed him into a corner and was throwing a fit. Fiona was nasty for several days afterwards.

I honestly thought this rabbit thing would be easy, but we ended up with two silly does and one doe who is a great mother and nest builder, but older and a little too skinny for me to be comfortable breeding her.

Cute Chicks

2011-04-19T20:02:00.000-05:00

I love our chickens and had no idea they were such characters. We were playing with them and I guess wore them out because they all fell asleep on the arm of the chair. I think it was one of the most adorable things I've ever seen.

I need to keep reminding myself that I gave Drumstick her name for a reason.

Groceries for Two Weeks

2011-04-18T21:17:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine recently shared a link to a book called Hungry Planet. The book is full of pictures from around the world and details what people buy from the market or grocery store.

I found it fascinating to see how much some families spent on food. I admit that I am frugal and I definitely think that making most things from scratch helps our budget, but one family spent around $500 for one week's worth of groceries. How is that possible??

Here is mine. The picture isn't as pretty, but this is what I bought for two weeks for my family of five. I spent $102. There are five bags of potatoes hidden behind everything.

I posted my menu and grocery list here and stuck to it, with the exception of vinegar, more potatoes than planned (they were on sale for .88/bag) and orange juice.

Violet Jelly

2011-04-18T20:02:00.001-05:00

Wash and rinse the violets

2 C violets
2 C boiling water
1/4 C lemon juice
1 box pectin
4 C sugar

Add boiling water and let steep up to 24 hours.

Bring violet juice, lemon juice and pectin to a rolling boil.

This was a hit with my family. I need to find more violets.

Add sugar and boil for one minute.

Process 10 minutes in a hot water bath.

Four Years Ago Today...

2011-04-17T21:17:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to my sweetest middle child, Finnegan.

Finn told me that he skipped a year and that today he's actually five.

Yeah, buddy, and I'm turning 30 again this year.

Learning Update

2011-04-16T20:27:00.000-05:00

I am amazed at how much can be learned from everyday life.

I recently bought math books from Singapore Math and the kids really enjoy them....when they are motivated to work on them. I don't force my kids to sit down and learn. If they are not in the mood, everyone involved gets frustrated and upset. Maeve has worked through the first 15 pages or so of her math book and I don't know if the lessons have inspired her, or if she is starting to finally be interested in numbers, but she has been counting everything. Maeve even counted from 1-100, which is a big deal for her. After she counted to 100 she turned to Finn and said "I bet you can't count that high." Finn was like "Dude, I've been counting that high since I was two."

We've been studying weather lately and learning about the different types of clouds and how to read weather forecasts.

We've also been very busy playing outside, working in the garden and exploring. The kids have made several worm homes and have discovered that a wheel barrel really isn't the best place to put worms before a big rain. Oren has decided that he does like to eat dirt and that feeding the rabbits is awesome. He has also been jumping off a whole slew of things in the yard and I'm thanking my lucky stars as each day passes without him needing stitches.

Our family has grown. Our rabbit, Flower, recently had bunnies. I counted at least five today and am looking forward to when they get a bit bigger and we can handle them. I think the kids will get a kick out of watching the babies grow. We have three chicks too. I believe they are Red Sex Linked chicks. It will be fun getting the kids involved in the coop building. I also think they'll be able to help care for the chickens. Oren is all about feeding the animals and gets upset when I do it without him. Maeve loves her chick, Feathery, and Finn likes to watch his chick, Chickeny, run around, but isn't too interested in touching it because he doesn't want to have to wash his hands.

I love this time of the year.

Menu and Groceries

2011-04-14T22:42:00.000-05:00

It's been forever since I've planned meals. I spend so much less and don't stand in the kitchen at 4 pm twiddling my thumbs and wondering what I'm going to fix for dinner. So, in an effort to get back on track, here's my menu for the next two weeks.

Friday
Breakfast: oatmeal with frozen strawberries or blueberries
Lunch: whatever we want to eat as we are unpacking the groceries
Dinner: Sweet and sour meatballs over rice with green beans
*make dough, make meatballs when we get home from the store

Saturday
Homemade donuts filled with various jams
leftovers
ask the sweet birthday boy what he wants
*make a cake

Sunday
eggs and toast or rolls
homemade mac and cheese
birthday party
*make coconut cream pie in am

Monday
German apple or blueberry pancake
maid rites with homemade fries
manicotti with bread sticks and green beans
*cook two chickens, make more dough

Tuesday
muffins
leftovers
out to eat
*make pretzels

Wednesday
oatmeal
pizza
tacos with beans, rice, salsa, etc.

Thursday
sunny side up egg in the middle of toast
leftovers
potato soup
*make sandwich bread

Friday
cinnamon toast
leftovers
kids' choice or let them cook

Saturday
cereal
sesame noodles with carrots
meatloaf, mashed potatoes, broccoli

Sunday
oatmeal
leftovers
eggs, hash browns, toast

Monday
German apple or blueberry pancake
fried rice with veggies
pasta with meatballs, broccoli

Tuesday
hard boiled eggs and fruit
chicken and dumplings
out to eat
*soak beans, make dough

Wednesday
rolls with butter and honey
hamburgers with homemade fries
Greaser's Delight (my husband's creative name for nachos)

Thursday
muffins
leftovers
beef stew with rolls

Grocery List
brown sugar
celery
carrots
strawberries
apples
potatoes
onions
cheddar cheese
tortillas
heavy whipping cream
milk
eggs
bread
ricotta
sour cream
black beans
canning jar lids
Parmesan
tortilla chips
muffin liners
baking powder
sugar

Why My Lettuce Won't Grow

2011-04-14T22:24:00.000-05:00

With a Chick, Chick Here....

2011-04-14T20:23:00.000-05:00

Meet Chickeny, Drumstick and Feathery.

I am amazed at how fast these suckers grow!

From Good to Bad in a Matter of Seconds

2011-04-12T22:22:00.000-05:00

Cheese!

2011-04-10T22:13:00.000-05:00

Oren asked me to take these pictures and then posed while saying "cheese". I love this kid.

The thing in his hand is his special screw driver. He carries it around all day so that he can fix things as he sees fit. That includes his brother and sister.

Oren is almost always sporting some sort of bump. The one on his forehead is because he went barreling down the hallway and neglected to see the wagon directly in his path.

Keeping It Real

2011-04-08T22:12:00.000-05:00

This is what my kitchen looked like after dinner. Notice the huge, delicately balanced stack of pots in the sink? They are all still there because I didn't have it in me to do dishes after the kids fell asleep.

This is my living room. The yarn all over the floor is from Maeve taping a huge spider web onto the walls and then knocking it down. After knocking down the web, the kids took the ends of the huge ball of yarn and ran all over the house with it. The blocks are from a destroyed dinosaur house. I have no idea why the soccer net is in the living room.

This is the always messy (with water all over the floor because Oren has figured out how to turn on faucets) bathroom. I put toilet paper on the holder every day and it's forever empty. I'm almost certain a great deal of it is waded up on the floor next to the toilet.

The toy area of the dining room. The monkey in the picture was very tired. The pillows and blankets were from the kids pretending to be dogs in a whelping box. Do you see the bit of yarn around the table leg? The dining room is not close to the living room.

All of the mess in the pictures is from today. I think the laundry room and half of my desk are the only clean spots in the house.

My Bunch

2011-04-02T23:34:00.000-05:00

I love my kids.

I often times complain about Oren's busy ways, but there is nothing better than when he wraps his little arms and fingers around my neck and hugs me. Or when he give me a toothy grin because he's about to do something terrible. My heart melts when he laughs that huge belly laugh that comes from pure happiness and joy. He truly is amazing.

Finnegan is my most sensitive kid. His feelings are hurt easily and he has a gentle soul. Finn is a snuggler and a silent observer. He feels and loves deeply and almost always has good intentions. Finnegan is funny, smart and kind hearted. He, too, is amazing.

Maeve is in a league of her own. She is the oldest and very clever. Maeve is also kind hearted and will often times offer to spend her money on a toy for Finnegan. She adores her brothers, but you will seldom hear her admit it. Maeve is creative, strong willed, spunky and loves nature. She, of course, is amazing.

I am so lucky to be a mom and have the opportunity to homeschool my kids. Life doesn't get much better.

Actually, I take that back. I think when my kids discover that they can serve me breakfast in bed, life will get better. And life might get just a touch better when Oren stops jumping off of tables and furniture. In the meantime, I think I have it darn good.

Lentil Soup

2011-03-28T23:17:00.001-05:00

I have yet to try this since it hasn't finished cooking, but it smells terrific. I can only hope it tastes just as good. I found the recipe here.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups brown-green lentils, preferably the small variety
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced
2 carrots

14 oz can chopped tomatoes
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp dried oregano
4 cups hot water
salt and ground black pepper

Directions:

Rinse the lentils and put them in a large pan with water to cover. Bring to a boil and boil for 3-4 minutes. Strain and set aside.

In a large pot, heat the olive oil, add the onion and saute until translucent. Add in the garlic and as soon as it becomes aromatic, add the lentils. Stir the lentils well to coat in the oil. Add carrots, tomatoes, tomato paste and oregano. Stir in the hot water.

Bring to a boil, turn to low, cover the pan and simmer for 20-30 minutes until the lentils feel soft but have not begun to disintegrate. Salt and pepper to taste.

As Destructive as a Tornado

2011-03-23T20:19:00.000-05:00

My sweet Oren is 19 months old. I am using the word "sweet" loosely here.

The kid keeps me busy.

We had an appointment this morning and by the time we returned home, the kids were starving. They had already eaten apples on the way home, so I opened a full sleeve of Ritz crackers, hoping that it would lessen the complaining while I made pizza. Oren threw every cracker on the floor, stepped on them and then slid and hit his head while stepping on the crackers. What was I doing? Talking to the fire place guys who had just arrived.

Then, while I was bent over getting out a pizza pan, Oren fell face first off the stroller. He had climbed into it in about 30 seconds, leaned over the top and bam! On his face.

Oren threw an enormous fit when I put him down for a nap. Like arching his back in convulsions type fit. And lots of screaming.

He gave me a small sanity break by taking a decent nap and behaving the first part of the afternoon. Then it was time to make dinner.

Dinner started with Maeve and Oren standing on her desk looking out the window. Oren was naked, of course, and standing in front of the window. Maeve decided it would be fun to jump off of her desk and land on her feet while holding onto Oren. Nice idea, but guess what? She didn't land on her feet. She landed on Oren.

My husband came home from work and was watching the kids in the living room. I am using the word "watching" loosely here. Oren was messing around on the couch and fell off and hit his butt.

Then I had to rescue Oren from falling down the steps because someone had taken off the baby gate.

I was finally ready to start setting the table so I put on a clean tablecloth and a big pitcher of water. See where I'm going with this? A minute later Maeve came running into the kitchen to tell me that Oren had dumped the entire pitcher of water onto the table. Because, you know, he can climb chairs now and get on the table.

Oren, still naked, then went into the office, the only room in our entire house with carpet, and peed. Twice.

The table was set, the food was done and Finn fell off of his chair, hitting his neck on the tile floor.

To say that I was ready for bedtime is the understatement of the year. Surprisingly though, even after all of the falls, Oren doesn't have a scratch anywhere on his body.

Pretzels

2011-03-14T23:24:00.001-05:00

We have been eating pretzels as fast as I can make them. Even my husband likes them and he's not a bread person.

Ingredients:
6 1/2 C flour
3 Tbsp yeast
3 C lukewarm water
salt
2/3 C baking soda
coarse sea salt
egg white

Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water and let it sit while you measure and scoop the flour. Add yeast, water and salt to the flour and mix with your dough hook until it's a cohesive ball. Cover and let rise in a warm spot for two hours.

Two hours later..... (or the next day after you've refrigerated the dough or left it out and forgot about it)
Preheat the oven to 375. Bring 10 C water to a boil. Grab a ball of dough and roll out into a long rope. Shape like a pretzel or you could make a twisty stick or pretzel turds (whatever, I have small kids and they like poop related things). One batch of dough makes about 14 medium sized pretzels. Grease a big cookie sheet with lard. I tried olive oil once and the pretzels stuck to the pan. Add 2/3 C baking soda to your boiling pot of water.

Drop your pretzels, one at a time, into the boiling water. As soon as the pretzel floats, take it out with a slotted spoon or spatula and place on your baking sheet. Repeat 14 times.

Using a pastry brush, or your fingers, brush egg white onto the tops of the pretzels. Sprinkle with coarse salt. I always skip the egg whites, but I don't care about presentation. The egg whites will make your pretzels darken on the top and look more like the real thing. Bake at 375 until golden. About 20 min, but I've honestly never paid attention to how long they take to cook.

A Prinicpal's Speech

2011-03-14T23:07:00.000-05:00

I heard this on the radio this morning and think that all school principals should read this, and then implement it, at the start of a school year.

A Speech Every American High School Principal

Should Give

By Dennis Prager · Tuesday, July 13, 2010

If every school principal gave this speech at the beginning of the next school year,

America would be a better place.

To the students and faculty of our high school:

I am your new principal, and honored to be so. There is no greater calling than to teach

young people. I would like to apprise you of some important changes coming to our school. I am

making these changes because I am convinced that most of the ideas that have dominated

public education in America have worked against you, against your teachers and against

our country.

First, this school will no longer honor race or ethnicity. I could not care less if your racial

makeup is black, brown, red, yellow or white. I could not care less if your origins are

African, Latin American, Asian or European, or if your ancestors arrived here on the

Mayflower or on slave ships.

The only identity I care about, the only one this school will recognize, is your individual

identity -- your character, your scholarship, your humanity. And the only national identity

this school will care about is American. This is an American public school, and American

public schools were created to make better Americans.

If you wish to affirm an ethnic, racial or religious identity through school, you will have

to go elsewhere. We will end all ethnicity-, race- and non-American nationality-based

celebrations. They undermine the motto of America, one of its three central values -- e

pluribus unum, "from many, one."

And this school will be guided by America's values. This includes all after-school clubs. I

will not authorize clubs that divide students based on any identities. This includes race,

language, religion, sexual orientation or whatever else may become in vogue in a society

divided by political correctness.

Your clubs will be based on interests and passions, not blood, ethnic, racial or other

physically defined ties. Those clubs just cultivate narcissism -- an unhealthy

preoccupation with the self -- while the purpose of education is to get you to think

beyond yourself. So we will have clubs that transport you to the wonders and glories of

art, music, astronomy, languages you do not already speak, carpentry and more. If the

only extracurricular activities you can imagine being interesting in are those based on

ethnic, racial or sexual identity, that means that little outside of yourself really interests

you.

Second, I am uninterested in whether English is your native language. My only interest in

terms of language is that you leave this school speaking and writing English as fluently as

possible. The English language has united America's citizens for over 200 years, and it

will unite us at this school. It is one of the indispensable reasons this country of

immigrants has always come to be one country. And if you leave this school without

excellent English language skills, I would be remiss in my duty to ensure that you will be

prepared to successfully compete in the American job market. We will learn other

languages here -- it is deplorable that most Americans only speak English -- but if you

want classes taught in your native language rather than in English, this is not your school.

Third, because I regard learning as a sacred endeavor, everything in this school will

reflect learning's elevated status. This means, among other things, that you and your

teachers will dress accordingly. Many people in our society dress more formally for

Hollywood events than for church or school. These people have their priorities backward.

Therefore, there will be a formal dress code at this school.

Fourth, no obscene language will be tolerated anywhere on this school's property --

whether in class, in the hallways or at athletic events. If you can't speak without using the

f-word, you can't speak. By obscene language I mean the words banned by the Federal

Communications Commission, plus epithets such as "Nigger," even when used by one

black student to address another black, or "bitch," even when addressed by a girl to a

girlfriend. It is my intent that by the time you leave this school, you will be among the

few your age to instinctively distinguish between the elevated and the degraded, the holy

and the obscene.

Fifth, we will end all self-esteem programs. In this school, self-esteem will be attained in

only one way -- the way people attained it until decided otherwise a generation ago -- by

earning it. One immediate consequence is that there will be one valedictorian, not eight.

Sixth, and last, I am reorienting the school toward academics and away from politics and

propaganda. No more time will devoted to scaring you about smoking and caffeine, or

terrifying you about sexual harassment or global warming. No more semesters will be

devoted to condom wearing and teaching you to regard sexual relations as only or

primarily a health issue. There will be no more attempts to convince you that you are a

victim because you are not white, or not male, or not heterosexual or not Christian. We

will have failed if any one of you graduates this school and does not consider him or

herself inordinately lucky -- to be alive and to be an American.

Now, please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of our country. As

Math and Phonics

2011-03-13T21:43:00.000-05:00

I have to say that the kids and I are loving Singapore math and Explode the Code phonics. The two workbooks make my life easier because they require no planning. I can sit down with the kids and we do as much or as little as they want.

My dog's head is on my keyboard right now by the way.

I told Maeve today that she needed to write in all lower case letters in her Explode the Code book. I explained when a capital letter is appropriate to use and said that she'd be able to write amazing things if she started using some lower case letters. Maeve has always claimed to HATE lower case letters and has refused to use them.....until today!

My dog is now breathing on my hands. She's grossing me out.

Maeve used all lower case letters like she was instructed and she made me a flower picture using "Maeve language". Maeve language is when Maeve writes her name correctly, as in a capital M and the rest lower case. She was very proud of herself. I promised to teach her cursive as soon as she is good at lower case letters so I think she is very motivated. Maeve loves making things look fancy.

Books

2011-03-09T23:20:00.000-06:00

I like books. I like reading books. I like collecting books. I like the smell of books and I like looking at pictures in books.

I like ordering books online. I like going to book sales. I like finding books at thrift stores.

Anyway, we've acquired some new books here lately and several of them are homeschooling related, although I could probably make the argument that all books are homeschooling related. I wanted a little direction and help teaching math so I ordered Singapore math 1A, 1B and 2A for the kids. I really like the textbooks and workbooks and think they will work out well for us. Maeve was subtracting after one lesson and Finn breezed through his stuff like nobody's business.

I also ordered several Explode the Code books for phonics and reading. The kids really like the printable online books from Progressive Phonics so the Explode the Code workbooks will be in addition to what they're already doing. I also found five Explode the Code books for reading comprehension at a book sale today and couldn't pass them up.

Another new goodie is Power Glide Latin. Yes, Latin. Latin intrigues me and seems like a good first language to learn since so much of the language we speak is rooted in Latin. We'll see if the kids like it. I bought a couple of Spanish books too just for good measure.

We found books about the presidents and US history and I discovered that I already own an Abeka book that we'll use for history next year.

I also bought The Beginner's Bible: Timeless Children's Stories. I love all of the illustrations and the simplicity of the stories. We've been reading from the book every night before bed and the kids love it. Finn has spent probably over an hour looking through the book. I remember my first children's Bible and how much I loved all of the stories and pictures. It pleases me that my kids like it too.

We are all very excited about our new books and I haven't put them away yet because I like looking at them. Ok, maybe it's because I haven't found a place for them.

Personal Sewing

2011-03-09T22:05:00.000-06:00

If you don't like reading about periods, and I'm not talking punctuation, this post is not for you.

My cycle has finally started up again and I found myself itchy and uncomfortable at the end of my period. I don't remember disposable pads bothering me, but perhaps I'm getting sensitive in my old age. I also don't like tampons anymore, which lead me to making my own cloth pads.

I started by tracing a disposable pad onto a piece of card stock. I took my pattern and traced it about a billion times onto a full sized flannel top sheet. I cut up an old towel and used that as the soaker in my pad. I also used some falling apart hemp and microfiber diapers inserts.

I used three layers of flannel per pad and added a strip of terry cloth to one of the layers. I added snaps to the wings so they'll stay in place. The pads look pretty, but are somewhat bulky where they snap. I don't think I'd be comfortable wearing these out of the house, so my design needs a bit tweaking. I think I'm going to use a layer of PUL, a microfiber soaker layer and suede cloth for the outer. I figure that way I can have the absorbency without the bulk. I could probably go crazy and make them stuffable, but I'd still have the bulky snap issue. Maybe I could use Velcro or Aplix instead and make sure that the wings only have two layers instead of three.

Pizza

2011-03-07T20:18:00.000-06:00

Preheat your oven to 450 or 500. I usually bake it at 450, but sometimes I like to test the smoke detector.

Dough:
2 C flour
1 tsp yeast
3/4 C flour
pinch of salt

Combine yeast and lukewarm water. Stir. Pour over flour and knead until you have a dough that is not sticky. It sort of feels like a baby's butt if you need a comparison. I sometimes need to add an extra few teaspoons of water. I mix everything with the dough hook in my Kitchen Aid.

Grease your pizza pan with lard. Yum. If you use olive oil, you will have a very crispy crust. Olive oil is not recommended for high temperatures and this is going to be hot. Poke holes in the crust.

Sauce:
My sauce never tastes the same. I use canned tomato sauce and generally add lots of basil, parsley, a bay leaf, garlic and sometimes red wine. I cook this for maybe 30-45 min and usually make a huge batch and freeze it in pint sized canning jars. I use one pint per pizza.

The sky's the limit with toppings and your cook time will vary based on what you put on your pizza. My kids like cheese and hamburger. I love broccoli. I never pre-bake the crust. I just pile on the sauce, toppings and cheese and put it in the oven until the crust is golden and the cheese is good and melted.

Life in a Grub House

Names

Homeschool Update

30 Weeks

Someday is Next Year

Workboxes Revisited

End of the Year

The New Normal

Inexpensive Christmas Gifts

Baby #4

Homeschooling Update

Random Tidbits

Christmas

Chili

Life

Goats

Appliances

Toys and Clutter

Lemons. Lots of Lemons.

School Stuff

Safeguarding vs. Overprotecting

Almost Eight Weeks

Menu Monday

Get into the Groove

Fried Rice

The Sneaky One

Menu Monday

Doing Without

sac·ri·fice

Garden Update

New Beginnings

Menu Monday

Menu Monday

Chicken Pasta with a Creamy Red Sauce

Wall Hanging Paper Organizers

Menu Monday

Diaper Drafting

Herbs

Menu Monday

Planning

Garden Harvest

Entrance Help

Snack Time

6 Weeks

A Boy and His Drill

Menu Monday

Herb Crackers

Boy Pants

Homeschool Organization

Settings

Amusement Park Fun

Greaser's Delight (Taco Salad)

Bunnies

Peas and Shades

Pasta Alfredo

Menu Monday

Dairy Farm Tour

The Garden

Why My House is Never Clean

The Laundry Room

3 Weeks

Summer School

Strawberry

Bunnies!

Dog Treetse

Granola

The Forgotten Moth

Sewing Projects

They're ALIVE!

Mothering a Maniac

Dogs and Training

Chore Charts

Carrots and Chard

My Zoo

Re-purposing

Kitchen Re-do

Homeschool Stuff

First Tooth!

Two Week Menu

Easter Eggs