Horses!

Our school adventure officially starts tomorrow! I have chosen Horses as our first theme, as Alyssa is currently obsessed with them. I will be easing into lapbooking with mini-books and notebooking combined. I think they'll be instant hits. I split the theme into three sections that will be covered in about a month's time....depending on interest. We'll be covering the anatomy of a horse, gaits and basic equipment needed in the first section. I will introduce the spelling and vocab words in this first week also. Section 2 will cover the evolution of the horse through history. This will include uses in the West and Asia, in depth look into the top 5 breeds and for fun, famous horses. The last section will cover owning and caring for horses. This will include what to look for when buying a horse, markings and identifiers, costs associated with owning a horse and the maintenance involved. Her math lessons will include using the measurement of "hands" and she will be calculating the costs of owning a horse. I have 15 books on reserve at the library and we are starting with some articles I found on the Internet. Alyssa is very excited and so am I!!

On the soccer front, Alyssa is doing very well and continues to impress me with her spunk. She gives it her all from the second she steps onto the field. Her footwork is improving and she jumps right into the fray when needed. Gwen is loving gymnastics and is proving to be a great student. She works very hard and listens well. I am glad to know that she IS a good listener, even if I tend to see the opposite! Victor is taking his only boy role VERY seriously. He is pushy and loud and hits things when he's mad, oh, and he's messy too!! LOL He is a total clown and keeps us in stitches all day...he's gonna be a charmer.

My next post will either be about how great our mini-books turned out, or questions on how to make them correctly! LOL! Good luck to all of my friends embarking on the lapbook adventure...here's to some fun!

This Year...

Well, September is approaching and our school year with it. I am excited and anxious about the coming year. I will be adding more "school" activities for Gwen to participate in and will be giving Alyssa more time to complete her activities on her own. She is currently exhibiting very creative vibes and I am excited about what this means for our school activities. I see a lot of cooking in our future. She is having an absolute blast experimenting with cooking and baking and it is nice to have someone take over the kitchen for a time.

I am going with a theme approach this year because our (very loosely based) classical style just is not working itself out in my mind this year. I just feel too confined. So theme time it is...this will be fun for all of us. I am looking forward to using this style. I am wondering why I did not do this last year when there were struggles. Tiny struggles, I suppose, they didn't make enough waves to stop us from trudging on to the end. But we were a bit battered in the end and needed this summer break, which was something I was not planning. Typically we start in September and go to July, with traditional unschooling in November and December.

I am thinking wildly of themes and need to write them down and sift through the ones I want to use this year. The possiblities are endless and I am really excited. My dear homeschool mentor at http://homeschoolfeast.blogspot.com/ has started using lapbooks and they sound like something my kids would love. I have been stumped about how to organize this year and I finally figured it out...with one week to go. *sigh* Well, at least it came to me, via an internet blog...thanks homeschoolfeast!

I am looking forward to blogging about our year and reading all the great posts about everyone else's adventures.

Why we like Harry Potter...

Obviously, he is the hero and likeable just for that, but moreso, he gives us a sense of hope, hope that we can struggle through our difficult times and make it out on top, even in the most extreme situations. We are loving the Harry Potter series as a family and it is fun! I enjoy reading these books aloud, everyone comes to the living room when the pages start to turn. We now have the Harry Potter Wii game and the girls are having fun exploring Hogwarts and casting spells. All the movies are favorites, too, but we all agree the books are much better. There are countless hours of "attending Hogwarts" play and it is rich with learning! Harry Potter has become a friend who we love to root for. We are always anticipating the next page, paragraph, chapter. It is a fun world we love to explore.

We are currently on book 5 and cheated and went to see the movie before we finished the book. I felt like Alyssa would be missing out on a fun, memorable experience, so I said OK and we were not disappointed. It was a fun movie to watch. She had a blast. It's fun to watch your child get interested in something and have fun learning everything about it. Without doing tedious lessons or fighting about one more worksheet, your child is learning at every turn. My daughter is learning to read by reading ahead in the read aloud book. Believe me, I never have to force her to read at those times...and they tend to be often...she's sneaky! lol Reading is important but so is loving it. That is what Harry Potter gave to us, another reason to love reading.

Currently...

I am inspired to start blogging our school fun again and will return with new links and fun stuff!! Have fun reading about our adventures last year!!

I'm Back!

Well, two months have gone by and I am still trying to keep up. We have been busy and enjoying the summer. Victor is 3 months old now and he is enormous! He weighs around 20 pounds and is wearing 12-18 month clothing. He is adorable and has continued to be a happy, content baby. He sleeps well, between 6-9 hours a night! I am only saying that because I can...neither girl slept like that and I am sooo excited! Although it has nothing to do with me, I am taking all the credit.

The girls have been taking gymnastics and are having a great time. I finally got them into classes that occur at the SAME time, so there is only one hour per week spent at gymnastics...and I am almost as happy with that as I am Victor's sleeping schedule! Alyssa has started swim lessons, in Tulsa, two days a week, so twice a week for the next four weeks I am driving 3 hours round trip for swim lessons. This girl had better learn how to swim! She has attended 2 lessons and she is doing well. I put her into the level 1 class because this is a girl who would gasp and sputter in the bathtub if water got in her face. Of course she is the oldest one in her class (level one takes 3 year olds!) but she has NO skills and she is a "start slow" kinda kid. Well, on day 2 of her lessons, someone thought she needed to be moved to level 2. On the second day, without talking to me, they put her into a class that was jumping off the diving board into 7 feet of water!!! Now, call me an overprotective mom, I am fine with that, but I know my daughter, and although she went willingly with the lady in charge and jumped off the side of the pool (they told her she did not have to jump off the board...what's the difference, I say!) into the water, she was terrified. All day she put on a brave face and said it was OK with her, then at 10pm that night she came from her bed crying and stressing about the fact that she would have to go back to swim lessons. I was furious!! This is a child that had to wait until she was almost 7 to actually take swim lessons that did not require me to get in with her (and we took 2 seasons of those!) and now she is scared to go back because they pushed her too far. I told her I would take care of it and she said OK, she just wanted to be back in the level 1 class. I called and they truly thought that it was MY being uncomfortable with her being in the level 2 class, not her. I get so mad when people don't give kids credit for knowing what they are comfortable with. For god's sake I raised her to KNOW and TRUST her abilities and feelings, and people constantly second guess that. People do not give kids enough credit.

The 4th of July was great!! We had our annual party and everyone came out for the big show. We had some friends show up that we have not seen in some time. It was fabulous. They have 3 sons and they are all very sweet boys. We had 10 kids there and they all had a great time. We ended up with a huge crate of very large, commercial style fireworks and then supplemented some smaller fountains and kids stuff. The show ended about 11pm and all the kids, except the babies, we still up and running. Gwen fell asleep on the living room floor around midnight and Alyssa finally wound down about 1am. Every year our party gets a little better. Everyone looks forward to it, especially Brian and Alyssa.

Before...














After...














Oh what fun!!!

Some post-mother's day thoughts...

As mother's day came and went I found myself thinking of my fortune. No, not my money (I tend to part with that quickly), but my personal fortune. I have said before that I have very little to complain about in my life and that I would not change anything about it. I really mean that. I have a great husband to works very hard for his family, loves his wife and children more than anything in the world (except for the new Playstation 3, but we accept that), and chooses to spend his free time close to home, with us.

My kids are amazing. They are funny, smart, witty, well behaved (mostly) and they are a light to all those who know them. Alyssa, wise beyond her six years, always makes me wonder how someone so young can be so insightful. She has deep thoughts, feelings and conversations. I have always chosen to drive with no radio or distractions so that we can talk or think or just enjoy the scenery. When she was a toddler, she would look out the window and think. You could tell it was something important. Sometimes she would share, or ask questions, but other times she would just sit silently. When she was 4 years old she lost two great-grandmas in one month she was thoughtful and concerned for her family. For months we watched both grow weak and tired of fighting and Alyssa's main concern was for their well being and the well being of her family. At both funerals she placed flowers inside the caskets to share with her "greats" and she blessed them both with her love. Her view of death is enlightening. She still talks about them, misses them and shares stories of them with Gwen, who was a baby when they passed. She is the best big sister, ever. She takes care of Gwen in all the ways that a big sister should and she enjoys her job as mentor. She takes her role very seriously, as she does many aspects of life. She is a strong, intelligent, wonderful human being and she makes her family proud every day. There are so many more stories that I could share about her, but I will finish with the story of her sister's birth. She was 4 at the time and was determined to be there when her sister was born. Well, that ended up being at 12:30am and all the hooplah kept her up until about 4am. She was patient waiting for her sister to arrive and would not sleep, just in case something happened. She stood at the nursery window jumping up and down, clapping, saying "that's my baby sister!" She was so proud and excited. She stayed at the hospital with us for the remaining 2 days and she grew even more excited. Once we got Gwen home, she wanted to hold her constantly (and she did) and she was the designated helper and she was fabulous at it. I believe there is no child more caring than Alyssa. She wanted to make sure that I was healthy and rested and that Gwen was getting what she needed. Here are a few other things about her: she LOVES to plan a party, she will forgo any toy to purchase something that she can cook with or fill with stuff, she will wear a dress on any day of the year, she will not attempt something that she does not feel she can do perfectly (we're working on that one!), she loves comic books and anything X-men related (thanks daddy!), she has only spent one night in her life without her dogbaby and that was one too many and she has an answer for everything and if you don't agree, then you MUST be convinced otherwise!

Gwen. Well, when we had Gwen we had no idea that two siblings could be so different. Brian and I were both only children and had no concept of siblinghood. Being an only has pros and cons and we wanted to provide our children with siblings, something we sometimes wish we had and are sometimes very happy we don't. When Gwen came along Alyssa was four and we were feeling very proud of ourselves in how well-behaved and mature she was. Little did we know, it sometimes has more to do with personality than parenting. Gwen was overall a good baby but you could tell that she was going to give us a run for our money...and boy has she! She is mischevious, strongwilled, hilarious and a risk taker. Gwen has been climbing on things since the moment she learned to lift her leg and once she was able to push something, she was making "stools" to get what she wanted. She wants to do everything by herself and god help anyone who tries to step in!! She loves to play outside and can have a blast playing alone. She doesn't need toys, she will find the nearest stick, rock or piece of trash and entertain herself. She loves barbies, polly pockets and little people, oh, and anything that belongs to Alyssa! She can go from a screaming fit to laughing in a matter of seconds and sometimes a drink of milk will stop a fit as fast as anything. Fits were something Brian and I had no clue about. Alyssa did not have fits...EVER. Gwen has already had enough fits for her and Alyssa combined and she is only two! Fits in public are extremely rare, she mostly saves them for home (knock on wood). She is easily distracted and most times, when sent to clean up, you can find her playing again. She loves to make people laugh and is a natural joker. While I was pregnant with Victor, she would tell him that people eat dog poop and bird poop. She thought this was hilarious and it has been made clear that she will undoubtedly trick him into doing many things as a toddler that she deems "hilarious." We are going to need eyes in the back of our heads! She loves a good laugh, especially if it's a laugh at your expense! Everything that was easy with Alyssa has been a challenge with Gwen. She will not be made to potty anywhere that doesn't suit her, currently, still in her diaper. She loves to try and push you. Just one more second of ignoring my mother's calls to come here, just one more touch of something my mother just told me not to touch, just one more step away when my mother is trying to keep me from running off. She has a sideways look that can make you laugh even when you want to lock her in a closet and she can smile at you at just the right moment, to keep you from slamming the door on said closet. She is truly a challenge, but I just can't think of her any other way. Here are a few other things about her: she sleeps with her head at the opposite end of the bed, she talks constantly, however, you can only catch a portion of what she says (how much depends on how often you are around her), she loves to give long, slobbery kisses, she loves scooby-doo and the gang, when she is mad she will yell at you and point her finger, she is a great big sister (minus the whole poop eating thing), she bounces when she runs, she loves to sing and she always says "three" when she means "two."

Victor...oh, how mama tried to save you from that name. But, your father and sisters had other ideas. My son. It's very weird to say. My. Son. All little people should have so much love showered upon them. Between parents, sisters, grandparents, aunts and friends there is no shortage of love for this boy. Possibly our last child, I am sad at the thought of him growing up. I have watched Alyssa grow so quickly and Gwen going from baby to toddler so quickly that this time I want it to go more slowly. But, he's already a month old and growing at an alarming rate (he's gained over 4 lbs since birth!) so I can tell that this child will be a "biggie" before we know it. I have refered to all my children as "biggie" as they have gotten more independent and less baby like, but it seems that my endearing term is getting used earlier and earlier. As I referred to Gwen as a "biggie" the other day, Alyssa said "Mom, I remember when you used to call me that." I thought to myself, Gwen probably won't remember me calling her a "biggie" because I will be referring to her brother as a "biggie" before we know it!! Victor is a calm baby that is very much like his older sister. He cries when he is hungry or uncomfortable for some reason, but never just to cry. He looks very much like Alyssa, but is looking more boyish as he grows. He is a grunter. And I don't mean just a little grunt here or there, I mean he will grunt for 15 minutes solid. It's mostly a bed time thing, and he will make lots of grunting noises when going to sleep or when he is about to wake up. However, when waking, he could start his grunting an hour before he actually wakes up and wants to eat. I have had to condition myself not to go and pick him up until he is actully crying because if I go to get him when he starts his grunting, I could be missing an hours worth of sleep!! Speaking of sleeping, he is a great sleeper!! He sleeps 4-5 hours at a time and has been waking only once to nurse at night!! Both girls woke every 1-2 hours to nurse and didn't sleep through the night for YEARS, and Gwen still wakes more often than I would like! Victor is the love of his sisters' lives and is constantly harrassed by them and their kissing and hugging. No wonder he is very snuggly. He is definately a "mama's boy" already and I am OK with that. His room is not finished being decorated, and he doesn't seem to care, and he wears mostly consignment clothing, again, he doesn't seem to care. I have learned many things in my 6+ years of mothering and he will benefit from those lessons and maybe suffer a bit from them as well. I am definatly more laid back, more tired, less worried and know to devote more time enjoying his babyhood. I am looking forward to the experiences of raising a boy and can't wait to see my family grow and change. On this mother's day I am happier than I have ever been and can't wait to see how happy I will be next mother's day, with my growing family.

4th of July, already?

So, to put off having to start dinner when the house is empty and relatively quiet (the new baby is a sleep grunter), I have decided to blog. The girls are outside with Brian doing fireworks, mostly those little poppers you throw down and only about one-third of them actually pop. I think they are trying to gear up for July 4th, which we is more celebrated than Christmas at our house. Due to the burn ban, I am dropping hints of the possibility of no fireworks this year and I think said hints are falling upon deaf ears. Every year we put on a HUGE fireworks display, compliments of Brian and his friends. All the families get together and buy entirely too many fireworks (hundreds of dollars) and give a show worth charging money for. I am sure that the neighbors appreciate our overspending. The kids are usually falling asleep by the end of the display and are usually jolted awake by the yelling and cheering for the "last big one." Or, they are jolted awake by the blast from the one that gets away and somehow finds it's way to the pile of fireworks awaiting their turn. Every. Year. People. Do we learn our lesson? No. Actually, by this point, if that DID NOT happen, everyone would wonder why not and collectively hold their breath for when it did!

The baby has continued to sleep very well and on a nice schedule. I am trying not to talk about it much, or he might get the idea that he could wake up every hour and demand food. I am actually feeling pretty darn good, due to the number of hours I get to sleep...in a row!! In fact, I would actually sleep more hours in a row if Gwen would quit waking up and getting annoyed at the fact that her nose is stopped up but she won't learn how to blow her nose! Alyssa was blowing her nose, on a tissue, BY age 2, with no help or prodding from me. Gwen, on the other hand, will sneeze and let it sit and dry on her face if no one does or says anything about it. I have tried all methods and she simply could care less if she has a crusty face. However, if this happens in the middle of the night, well, she just can't stand it and must yell "mom" until the neighbors are calling telling me to deal with my child. Is it the middle child? Is it the terrible twos? Is it her stubborn personality? Is it my fault? *Sigh* I am just hoping that her husband likes crusty faces, or, doesn't mind getting her a tissue, because I see no end to this battle.

We have resumed "school situations" (termed thus because I am hesitant to actually call it school work) and Alyssa was ready to get back to bid'ness. We have been reading the Magic Treehouse books that she chose at the library, about 10 so far, and she now wants to read them all. Actually she wants to OWN them all. I think we own 4. The pond tank is now filled with minnows, crawdads and a few swimmy things. Brian and the girls have been watching the giant crawdad catch minnows (better than TV!) and have been adding things to make the environment more "fun" for the creatures that manage to get away from him. It's amazing how long two girls will stand and look at a fishtank filled with pond life. Brian keeps telling me to get a microscope and I am hesitant to buy one yet. I would like to get a good one, but not one that is too complicated for Alyssa to use (and too delicate for Gwen to "look at"). I will be scouring the internet looking for one that will be user friendly.

Well, I have put dinner off long enough and I am sure that everyone will be entering the house soon and wonder why it doesn't smell of something yummy! The refrigerator would suffer the consequences of my lazy actions and cheese and crackers are not a dinner!!

Why we love to homeschool...

Top Ten Reasons We LOVE Homeschooling

1) Jammies...need I say more?

2) Playing IN the rain rather than hiding from it

3) The smell of dinner in the crockpot wafting through the house all day(no cafeteria food here!)

4) The teacher can nurse her baby during lessons without anyone taking a second look

5) No standing in line

6) Terrariums, tanks, boxes and jars filled with various insects and animals

7) Days when daddy is off work

8) Field trips, field trips, field trips!!

9) Learning to learn by living

10) Truly loving your students and watching them grow each year

Home!!

We're Home!! Okay, so technically we have been home for several days...but with little sleep, it's all been one LONG day! We brought Logan Victor Achilles home on the 9th and he was happy and healthy. Well, happy once he got adjusted to smells and sounds of the house, which took a night of crying. He is now a wonderful sleeper (I really mean it!) and has adopted a schedule that mirrors perfection. Before I get into that, I will start at the beginning...

We went to the hospital on Saturday, the 8th for the scheduled induction. We got there at 7:30am and we were ON TIME...something we, as a family, rarely accomplish. The fact that I woke up at 3:30am and could not go back to sleep helped quite a bit. Gwen got up at 5:00am (she must have felt the energy) and so she was ready to go by 5:30am. Next was Alyssa and Brian, who are NOT morning people, but they managed to get up and get ready so that we could leave at 6:00am. Everything was going extrememly well...I was waiting for something to happen. The hospital got me right in and started my drip around 8:30am. Everyone was sleepy but relatively calm. My in-laws and my mother were there to take care of the girls during delivery. Everyone came in and out and visited and progress was not uncomfortable. About 1:00pm the doctor came in and broke my water and told me things should begin to progress quickly now. The screaming woman next door remined me that after my first two deliveries, I wanted to experience a calmer delivery this time. I asked for the epidural, knowing that waiting might not be a good idea. Epidural in place, just in time, it was about 2:00pm and I was feeling quite good. The nurse came in to check me at 2:30pm and said I was between a 7 and 8 and asked how I was feeling. Considering the pain of my first two deliveries, I felt GREAT. About 2:45pm I was feeling pretty uncomfortable and had a lot of pressure happening. Now, not having an epidural (that worked) before, I was not sure what that meant...should I dose myself with more medicine (I had a button) or is this a sign of something happening? I called the nurse and she came to check. When she lifted the sheet she realized there was a head coming out and that she needed to call the doctor immediately. History shows that I deliver quite quickly and the nurse had been made privvy to this information early on. Once she called the doctor she came and prepped the room and told me she was afraid to turn me to my back because she felt like she would then have to deliver the baby since he was in a hurry to join us! The doctor got there just in time (and I mean JUST.IN.TIME.). After a few pushes and about 20 minutes later, Logan Victor was born at 3:24pm. Now, let me just say that this delivery was easy, dare I say, pleasant, and I felt pretty good afterwards. The two women who delivered before me, both screamers (which under non-epidural circumstances, so am I) had babies that were 9lb 10oz and 9lb 11oz...I(bucking the bets of all labor and delivery nurses) did not deliver a 9lb 12oz baby and am happy to say that Victor was 7lb 2oz!!

He is extremely mild mannered and quite the sleeper. I have yet to have a baby that did not wake up every 1 to 1 1/2 hours to nurse and this one sleeps 3-4 hours at a time. He does tend to "cluster" feed towards the end of the day...but, hey, I am NOT complaining about that!!! He is sleeping in his crib (he hates his bassinet) and has peed out of his clothes about 100 times already!! I am going to have to get used to diapering a boy. This experience has been much easier than the other two and the girls are just so excited to have a baby around, he will never be lonely. In fact, I am concerned about the female attention he may crave as an adult due to his hovering sisters!!

For those of you not aware, there has been a name struggle happening for several months. Hence the three names, Logan Victor Achilles. Yes, that's Achilles, as in achilles heel, although not named for the body part, but named from Homer's The Iliad. My choice was Logan and Brian's choice was Achilles. Victor was thrown in by Brian in the middle of pregnancy because, after 12 years of marriage, he feels as though he has not tortured me enough with his eccentricities. So, after several months of simply not discussing it (my choice), I agreed to use all names to give him room to "choose" a name. However, for many months, Brian has rallied his troops (the girls) and they have chosen to call the baby Victor (Vi-er in the case of Gwen). So, defeated, I have found myself calling him Victor and, surprisingly, not cringing everytime I do so. Time will tell if "Victor" will love or hate his name, I can only offer as a consolation that I, his loving mother, gave him the choice of Logan. To spite us all, he will promptly choose the nickname Bubba and we will all pay a price!! Until then, we are happy to have baby Victor home and we all feel that our family is complete...for now!!

Tomorrow?

Well, a lot has happened in two weeks. I am scheduled to go to the hospital for induction tomorrow! The doctor says I am ready, and boy is he right!! Everyone is very excited and since this is earlier than we thought, it makes it even more exciting. I have stocked up on groceries and toiletries so that I will not have to enter a Wal-mart for weeks and, for the most part, the house is clean and ready to go. I am hoping to be home Monday or Tuesday so we can get settled in and back to normal! I will post when we get home.

Catching Up

Okay, so I know I was supposed to be better about posting, but I guess...I lied. Sorry. Anyway, things are going well. The baby is doing fine, I am sore. I swear, I feel like if I bend over...well, you get the idea. The doctor says the baby has dropped lower but still has room to flip around. He also said I do not have to come back for 2 weeks. I have also made the decision that the girls will be at the hospital for the delivery (in the waiting room) and get to see the baby right after he is born, but they will then come home to stay with my mom. I had no idea how much this "problem" was bothering me until I solved it. Alyssa was insisting that everyone stay at the hospital for the entire duration and for some reason it did not occur to me to tell her no. She stayed with us when Gwen was born and she did very well. But Gwen has a different personality and I think Gwen will do much better at home. Having their own beds to sleep in and some sort of a normal schedule should help with any potential freak outs. Although Alyssa is not so happy with the staying at home part, she is very excited about staying with my mother. The kids have never spent the night away from me. Yes, Alyssa is six, NO she has NEVER spent the night away from me. She has tried to spend the night at her Granny and Poppa's (next door) and was home by 9pm. Although some people see this as unusual, I am very comfortable with having kids who can't sleep without me in the same house. I'm not sure how I would feel sleeping without them. This birth will be a new adventure for all of us!!

My aunts threw me a baby shower last weekend and it was very nice. I got so much stuff and we had a great time. The girls at work gave me a shower too and I got more stuff. All the new things helped me to get motivated to clean out the baby's room and it looks almost like a baby room now. There are still some piles of donation and "where does this go?" stuff, but the changing table is out, the bed is made and you can see the dresser. Technically, if I had the baby tomorrow (if only), he would have somewhere to sleep and get a diaper change...and he would have clean clothes!! I'm not sure he would ask for more!

The girls have been somewhat trapped in the house because of rain, but we needed it so badly it was worth it. Gwen has discovered computer games and she is addicted. She loves her Jumpstart Toddler and we just bought her a Dora the Explorer game. Alyssa was already a game nut so any excuse to play more and she is down with it. The other day I bought her The Learning Company's Arthur's First Grade Learning System and she loves it! I am actually impressed with how well she has done. I thought it might offer some difficult math or phonics that she would get frustrated with, but she is blazing through with flying colors. We have been reading her Magic Tree House selections from the library and she is loving those, of course. I really can't say enough about the benefits of reading aloud to kids. I have seen her comprehension level improve and her vocabulary. She could listen to me read aloud all day and Gwen will listen to a story anytime you offer. Gwen enjoys read aloud time also.

We still have Black, the puppy. He has not proved to be the "chewer" Casey was, but he does chew. A couple weeks ago we noticed he was not anywhere on the property so we thought he must have wandered down the road. We started looking and we ended up pretty far from the house in a small neighborhood down the road. He was running with a pack of loose dogs and was fully aware that he was lost. He whined the whole run to me and then sat very still in Gwen's lap on the way home. He has not left the property again. I think he was thoroughly freaked out when we found him. I think he will become a good dog. Max has become less hostile towards him and I am hoping that means he will "mentor" him. Max is a fabulous guard dog and a great dog, in general.

Well, I guess that concludes my update. I'm sure there are many other things I can't think of right now, but I think we are lucky I got this done! Everyone have a great weekend~

Light at the end of the tunnel...

Ahhh...yesterday was the last day of gymnastics for 3 weeks! We have been way overscheduled the past few weeks and it was killing me. This week has been very crazy with 2 days of gymnastics, doctor's appointment and co-op. I can not wait until Gwen can take a gymnastics class that is at the same time as Alyssa's class! But...that means 3 years old AND potty trained...HA, Gwen is making it very clear that she does not have time to stop and GO to the potty, when she can just GO potty!! Anyway, we have co-op today and tomorrow is unscheduled (shhh...don't say it too loud!).

We went to the library yesterday and Alyssa found the Magic Tree House book section. Ultimately, we checked out 4 of them and she is thrilled to report that there are A LOT more!! She loves this series of books and I have decided to put off Treasure Island, our next read aloud, to allow her some Magic Tree House time. We have decided to keep watching birds as an ongoing Science project because we find it so interesting. I am considering keeping a type of chart on what types of birds we are seeing as the seasons change. I am trying to work out a chart that would remain fun and not become a "task", if at any time Alyssa sees something as a task, you can mark it off your list of things she would want to do! I think she could be the poster child for schooling at home. Gwen, on the other hand, notices EVERY school we pass and begs to go there. Alyssa keeps trying to convince her that she does not want to go there but the big slides and lots of kids keep Gwen from even hearing Alyssa's voice.

The doctor's appointment went well and the baby and I are doing fine. I go back on the 21st and then the appointments are weekly. It is hard for me to believe that it is almost time, don't get me wrong, I am ready for delivery, but my house is not so ready. The baby's room is still quite the storage closet and everytime I think I am going to GET IT DONE, I don't. No real excuse, just not motivated. Surely, I will become that way...soon. Lucky for me the baby won't care if his room is a bit cluttered with other people's extras!

Monday begins the Spring Break period for public schools here so there will be no co-op...the ENTIRE week is unplanned!!! No appointments, no classes, NOTHING! We probably won't even know how to get back into the daily school schedule. The next week is when weekly doctor's appointments begin and co-op resumes. I am looking forward to being home more, maybe that will motivate me to get things ready, and STAY on a school schedule.

Everyone have a great day!

It snowed!! It snowed!!

Was that a vacation?

Okay, so I am back to post after a break from too much internet. I had to limit my internet surfing so that I could get some things done! I decided that I HAD to do some DEEP cleaning before the baby got here. I have cleaned the laundry room out, the sunroom, decluttered the kitchen (mostly), cleaned out my closet (the biggest job~I can walk INTO my walk-in closet!), and vacuumed all the corners and along the walls. Oh yeah, I cleaned out under my bed ~ do NOT ask what I found!! Of course the baby's room is now stacked with stuff that needs to be donated, stored and sold. *Sigh* I will be dedicating a day to that room so that I will be done.

I bought a new couch and that has made me feel so much better. My old couch was a hand-me-down that had been handed down WAY too many times and I found, in my current state, I could NOT get off of it once I sat down. Most people had a hard time getting up, except the kids, who loved to climb on it. Alyssa had just begun to do some pretty fancy flips onto it and for that I am glad that it was replaced. The new couch is not so "flip friendly" and that is good for mom, disappointing for her!

Doctor's appointments are getting into high gear now, at every 2 weeks. I am not looking forward to weekly trips to Tulsa, but, that just assures me that soon I will be able to turn over in my bed at night without causing a ruckus. Everything is great with me and the baby and the girls are getting pretty excited. We are trying to decide how we are all going to fit into the hospital room, since NO ONE is willing to stay anywhere else. It's going to be quite a sight!!

School has been moving slowly, but Alyssa is reading her BOB books quite fluently and reading sentences that I am writing for her on the board. Her phonics skills have improved so much this year and I am relieved. You can see that it is taking less and less effort for her to read words and sentences now. Our current read aloud is Poppy and we should be done with it this weekend. She has enjoyed the book and frankly, so have I. Each chapter we read, we want to move on to see what happens next. We participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count and it was really interesting. We have continued our birdwatching and have had a great time looking up the different birds that visit us. As a complete bird moron, I have to admit that looking at a bird in the yard and then trying to identify it in a book was extremely difficult! Once we got the hang of what types of birds were visiting and what characteristics to look for, it got easier. Honestly, a cardinal was the only thing I could readily identify in the beginning. Alyssa spent quite some time this evening looking through the bird books to identify one that she saw at the feeder today. I was happy to see that she was genuinely interested in identifying what kind of bird she saw.

Brian brought home a new puppy today and the girls were very excited. Alyssa was having a difficult time getting over Casey. I thought she was doing OK, but everytime Gwen mentioned Casey, Alyssa would get upset. And Gwen had to mention Casey everytime we left the house, everytime we drove past the spot in the Wal-mart parking lot where we got her, and any other time she just thought about mentioning what she looked like dead. It was torture to Alyssa. This puppy is an all black lab-hound mix. He is very cute! I am hoping that we can keep him from chewing everything in site, and ultimately killing himself on something in the yard/trash/field...well, you get the idea. Alyssa has appropriately named him "Black" which her father and I thought was a little weird, but when you tell a 6 year old to name her new puppy, you get what you pay for!! She insists that we NOT call it "Blackie" but simply "Black." I am hoping that before we imprint this name on the puppy she will change it to something that sounds more like a name. She does love to change her mind!

I will try and do a better job at keeping up in the coming weeks so that no one thinks I have fallen off the face of the earth, or more likely, exploded from the pressure being applied to my navel. I will also post a picture of the girls enjoying the small amount of snow we got last week. You would have thought it was a blizzard!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

My birthday was Thursday and it was fun. That afternoon we went to the Valentine's Party for Alyssa's homeschool co-op. Alyssa was chosen to be the Valentine Queen for the day! She looked very cute in her heart cape and crown. Later that night we ate birthday cake, which Alyssa made (with the help of Granny) and it was yummy. She did a beautiful job! She had been planning that cake for a month and it took them 2 days to actually get it all done. It was 3 layers, chocolate with white icing and pink "roses" with candy letters that said "Happy Birthday Mama" and the number "35" on top. Due to the burn ban there were only 10 candles! :)

We are about done with our Ramona book and Alyssa liked The Emperor's New Clothes. We will be starting Poppy by Avi after we are done with Ramona. I am not sure what we will do after that but I think I might bring out some of the shorter classics and some mysteries. Gwen has enjoyed listening to our stories also, I find her reapeating the last word I said many times which tells me that she is listening. I have been so tired lately that reading aloud has been a good time for me to rest and still do school! Once the baby arrives there will be lots of reading aloud. ;) I am considering leaving the girls in gymnastics because I hate for them to be out for 9 weeks. The baby is due right in the middle of the session, but I think if I can get someone else to take Alyssa to class she will only miss a week or two. Gwen, on the other hand, her class is "Mommy and Me" so I'm not sure how that will work out. I'm not sure Brian would be up to the task. Although Alyssa would love to take my place, I'm not sure Gwen would listen to her. Let me point out that this class is made up of a couple one year olds, Gwen (2) and a 3 year old who is the instructor's son. This is basically controlled chaos with a little deliberate tumbling involved, but Gwen loves it and I feel like keeping her out for 9 weeks would interrupt her flow...she really is making progress in listening and actually "doing" what her teacher wants her to do! We'll see what happens!!

A similar thing will happen with Alyssa's homeschool co-op. It ends April 16 (I am due the 20th) and there will be the graduation/year-end party sometime soon after, so we might miss the last day, which should be the Medieval Feast (bummer!) and I may or may not be able to attend the year-end party. I am pretty freaky about taking the baby out before 6 weeks (or longer if I can get away with it!) so I try to stay home and get baby and mom situated. In the past Alyssa has not been too thrilled with others taking her somewhere, but with age, she has lightened up and hopefully she will attend some of these events without me. However, leaving the baby behind might cause her some stress, she is totally a "little mama." I guess if these are the only things I have to worry about, I am lucky!!

Have a great day!!

Update

Well, we are going to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count! It sounds fun. It's from Feb 17-20. I have requested some bird watching books from the library and going to purchase bird seed. http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/ Our Science unit for the next 2 weeks will be Birds so we can get familiar with bird watching and the types of birds in our area.

We finished Mr. Popper's Penguins and Alyssa enjoyed it. We have started Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary and it has L-O-N-G chapters! We just started and got through chapter 1 (41 pages!) so far. I remember reading the Ramona books when I was a child and liked them very much. Alyssa likes this one so far, she is not concerned about the long chapters because she could listen all day! I just purchased Favorite Poems: Old and New and The Random House Book of Fairy Tales which we will be starting this week. One of my old faves is The Emperor's New Clothes and Alyssa is excited to hear it.

Co-op will be starting for us this week. We did not participate in Co-op last semester and I think Alyssa is ready to go back. However, during this Co-op I will be delivering the baby so it should be interesting! This semester's theme is Kings, Queens and Knights which I think will be fun. This theme is more in tune with Alyssa's interests. She can't wait to dress up as a princess at the Medieval Faire!

I think that is our latest, we are still doing gymnstics and both girls look forward to going each week. I'll try and keep up this week!

TGIF!

This week has been pretty busy for us and I am so glad it's Friday! Tuesday was my doctor's appointment so we drove to the "big city" and spent the day. Doctor says everything is fine and I only gained 1 pound last month. That makes 7 pounds~TOTAL! In the beginning the doctor told me to gain no more than 16 pounds, at which point I asked him if HE had ever BEEN pregnant! But, with 4 months of feeling VERY ill and not wanting to eat much of anything, I have been really lucky. Of course the last 3 months I have not had ANY problem eating! My main craving is sour cream mexican anything! Any good recipes? :)

We finished James and the Giant Peach and Chocolate Fever and have moved on to Mr. Popper's Penguins. I am really amazed at how much Alyssa loves our read aloud time. She looks forward to it everyday and on days when we don't do it during the day, she wants her bedtime story to be her chapter book. I am looking forward to reading some of my childhood faves to her and I can't wait to break out the classics! We have tons of books, many of which I began buying before we had kids. I ordered more books from the Scholastic book fliers than any of my students when I was teaching. When I ran the daycare we had a Scholastic Book Fair and I probably spent a month's salary on books! Brian and I both grew up loving books and reading A LOT! As only children, I guess we had lots of quiet time to read. :) When we were first married, we spent hours in used book stores just browsing and finding great books. As a child I remember my mother always had a book or a magazine to read. Doing dictionary work the other day (using my childhood children's dictionary), I was telling Alyssa how I liked to read the dictionary when I was a child. As I was explaining it to her I wondered how many other people read the dictionary as children, I know Brian did, but he's weird like that! :) Anyway, she started looking through it and asking questions about the pictures and different words and I felt so nostalgic thinking about reading THAT dictionary and knowing that she would probably be doing the same thing soon! I love those moments when you feel good about what you are doing for your children and see them responding to it.

A "Typical" Day

Well, I thought I might describe a "typical" day for us. This is an odd concept for us because it seems like every day is different. I guess if I were sending the kids to school we would get up, have breakfast, get ready and leave on some type of a schedule. However, since that is not the case, I think we just go with the flow of the day. Anyway, Gwen usually gets up between 7 and 7:30, however, today she got up at 9:00!! So there goes my typical day! If I had been sleeping, Gwen would have gotten up at her usual 7:00, but I was up and "waiting" so she slept until 9:00! Alyssa would sleep until noon if you let her so I made sure she got up also. First, we just sit around talking and waking up for a little while and then someone (usually Gwen) gets to pick a video. Alyssa has been very good about going "second" since Gwen has learned about turns!! I will make something to eat (today, muffins) and the kids will watch a video (today, Wiggles) while I get computer time, start laundry, etc. I know, I know, TV should not be the first thing they do in the morning! For us, I find that it makes the day smoother, the kids get to pick one video a day and this way it is over with and we can move on without distraction. It seems like in the morning the kids are more likely to be active while watching TV, if we wait until the afternoon they tend to become zombies in front of the TV. I am pretty strict about no TV in the evenings because I think it makes for bad nighttime rest. So, that being said, I will move on. :) After the video, they move on to picking an activity. With this being Alyssa's Kindergarten year, I would call it "center time." They can play with toys or do arts/crafts. This time is rarely "planned" by me. After their free time to play, we clean up a bit, have some lunch and Gwen goes down for a nap. This is when school happens for Alyssa. Alyssa is very receptive after a morning of her own creative exploits. When Gwen does not nap we go ahead and school and Gwen participates by coloring or playing close by. She is getting used to "school time" and is very interested in participating so I make sure there are two of all coloring sheets, activities, etc. so she can feel involved. "Sit down" school might last up to an hour, depending on what is being done and then we do our read aloud. During read aloud time, the girls play quietly or sometimes, just sit. By now it is time to get ready for dinner and daddy to get home! On Mondays, Alyssa has gymnastics so we have a snack and leave about 5:30. On Wednesday mornings Gwen has gymnastics and that makes the whole day a lot different! AND on days when I have to go to the doctor (like tomorrow) there is NOTHING resembling what I just typed happening!! So, this is a typical day for a day when there is no morning gymnastics, no doctor's appointments, no daddy home, no co-op, no field trip, no one is sick and when no other life event has hindered our "typical day"!! God, I LOVE homeschooling!!!

Ahhh...

I feel much better now! My mexican casserole was yummy and only made me feel queezy for a short while! This morning I got up and decided to make brownies and do laundry...I AM feeling better! :) Today is going to be the day that I try and get the baby's room in some sort of order. It's been a catch all room for a couple months plus I need to de-girly it for him! At this point the poor boy has very little chance for being manly...at least I took the pink curtains down. We purchased a border for his room that is made up of classic marvel comic book covers (Brian's idea) and it is really cool. I am hoping we will motivate to get that up BEFORE he is born. Well, here's to cleaning and organizing!

I.Hate.Being.Sick

Okay, because I promised no more bodily function stories, I will save you from this. Let's just say that I am not at all happy about how I feel! It started yesterday and actually I feel better today. I WANT some type of mexican casserole for dinner (a CONSTANT craving) and I think I'm going to make one, in between sitting down from being dizzy! Well, school hit the skids about 1/2 way through yesterday because of my illness, but we did finish James and the Giant Peach. Alyssa liked it and is looking forward to our next selection, Chocolate Fever. It's a short chapter book and should only take us 1-2 days, depending on how I feel. Next week will be Mr. Popper's Penguins to go with our Science theme of penguins. I think we will try and watch March of the Penguins too. Monday we will be going to the library to pick up the books I have reserved for our penguin unit (I LOVE the online reserve feature!!) and Tuesday is my doctor's appointment. We are going to have to play catch up with history next week so it's going to be busy. I hope noone else gets sick! Knock on wood!