Josh's Birthday

Today is Joshua's second birthday. I don't think he really understands the concept of "birthday" but he liked us singing to him, going to the Hands On Children's Museum where he spent most of two hours playing at the water table, having ice cream at Dairy Queen, and receiving a Sesame Street (Elmo!) computer program.

He's a delightful child...most of the time. LOL One of the things we really enjoy is hearing how he pronounces words and what he calls the members of his family. There's...

awpone -open

hum - thumb

hums - a game consisting of him grabbing you hums and then jumping on you

bum - a game consisting of him running and trying to knock you know

doge - dog with a long o

heese - cheese

no - milk

huice - juice

hoosh - shoes

Dada - Daddy

MaMom - Mommy

boy - Sammy

girl - Mika

He's also a child who thinks he can climb...anything...anywhere. He makes other parents at the park have heart attacks when they see him climbing something that he is obviously too young to climb. Then I come in and explain that he is fine and bid them wait and see...to which they are usually surprised to see him reach the top safely. I only freak out when he tries to come down the rock wall from the top about 8 feet off the ground.

He keeps us laughing and on our toes, that's for sure!



And to see where he's come from...here is a photo of him at just 3 1/2 weeks old (the story behind this photo will be shared in a few weeks).

A Detailed Look at Our Schedule

Here it is...our somewhat unusual new schedule.

By 10am...Morning Chores & Breakfast done
By this time, morning chores and breakfast should be completed. Mika's morning chores include getting dressed, brushing hair and teeth, making her bed, putting away last night's clean dishes, and getting the bread started in the bread machine. Sam morning chores include getting dressed, brushing teeth, making his bread, feeding the dogs and cats, and watering the animals. My morning chores include showering, getting dressed, brushing my hair and teeth, making my bed, getting a load of laundry in the washer, washing any dirty dishes, starting dinner (defrost or crockpot), and checking my email.

10am-12pm...Errand time
Calling this errand time is a misnomer. I do my Safeway grocery shopping on Mondays (for the next several weeks it is art class time for Mika), Albertsons grocery shopping on Tuesdays, and other errands on Thursdays. On Wednesdays, we have a trash day cleaning routine. Mika scoops two litter boxes, brings two trash cans to the kitchen, and takes out the recycling. Sam scoops one litter box, brings two trash cans to the kitchen, crushes cans, and cleans the outsides of the washer and dryer. My job is to clean out the inside of the fridge and get all of the trash to the outside can. Fridays will be my desk day; my day to pay bills, update the checkbook, and start grading school work.

12pm-1pm...Lunch and Quiet Time
We eat lunch together at the dining room table. Afterwards, the older kids read from their assigned independent reading while I put Josh down for a nap. So far, he's fallen asleep with just enough time for me to also fold and put away a load of laundry.

1:00pm-2:30pm...School Time
This is when we get what I consider the most important school work done. Mika does her spelling, grammar, poetry, vocabulary, MCT writing, penmanship, and math done. Sam does his spelling, phonics, language arts, writing, penmanship, and math done. A lot of their work for the year is done already so they are getting their work done with plenty of time to spare. We are waiting for new curriculum to arrive. I give spelling tests, answer questions, and do my weekly cleaning: Monday-vacuum upstairs, Tuesday-vacuum downstairs, Wednesday-mop kitchen, Thursday-mop bathroom, Friday-dust & water plants.

2:30pm-3:00pm...Break
Sam gets to spend 30 minutes doing PE (Fit, DDR, or Sport) on the Wii. Mika has free time.

3pm-3:30pm...History
We work on history all together.

3:30pm-6:30pm...Taekwondo
Sam changes into his taekwondo gear and heads off to class for two hours. Meanwhile, Mika and I stay home to get some things done. Mika uses this time to do a quick pick up of the main rooms, do her Wii PE, do her IEW writing, and have some free time. I used the time to clear some "hot spots", finish up any other chores, and cook dinner. For the next several Mondays, this is my Safeway shopping time.

6:30pm-7pm...Dinner
Dinner is ready soon after Sam and Scott get back from taekwondo. It's ok if this spills over the next time slot.

7pm-7:30pm...Science
The kids and I do their science school work together. If we start late, we just keep going since the next time slot is free time.

7:30pm-9pm...Free Time
Everyone gets free time for the next hour and a half. Meanwhile, the kids take turns taking a bath...but not every day. We often have a TV show that Scott and I like to watch at 8pm which is why free time is scheduled now.

9pm...Bedtime
I read our current literature selection out loud to the kids either in their bedroom or in my bed. After about 30-45 minutes of reading, it's bedtime.

Important Scheduling Thoughts

I know a lot of people, especially homeschoolers, like to see the schedules of others. We like to see how other people schedule their day in hopes of gleaning sometime that might help us. We have to be careful, though, not to let other people's schedules make us feel bad. Often we see them getting more accomplished than we do. Sometimes we try to emulate their schedule with disastrous results. What works for others often doesn't work for ourselves.

That last statement is so true for me. I don't know how those homeschoolers who wake up and start school early so that they can be done with it early do it. If we start early, we usually end up not doing half of what we should be doing. It just doesn't work. After many years, I finally figured out what does work for us...quite by accident, too.

Since our schedule is on the unusual side, I thought I'd share it. What I hope you get from it is:

It's ok not to start your homeschool day early.

It's ok to do homeschooling when it works for you.

It's ok to break it up and do other things in between.

It's a good idea to get the hardest things for you to get done first (for my that's cleaning).

It's a good idea to get the most important subjects (for us that's language arts and math) done first in case you don't get to the rest.

It's a good idea to schedule plenty of time to get each thing done. If you think a task will take you an hour, give yourself an hour and a half.

It's important to be flexible. When you must alter your schedule for a day (ie. doctor's appointment), you can pick up where you left off or do your most important things instead (ie. get math done during history time; let history go for the day).

If it doesn't work, try something different, even very different.

Contemplating Tolkien

We've been reading Tolkien in our house. We finished The Hobbit a few weeks ago. Now we are reading The Fellowship of the Ring. I've been enjoying my third reading of it, catching things I don't think I noticed before. The kids are enjoying their first run though.

Tonight I ran across a particularly descriptive sentence. Let me give you the sentence and you tell me what you think it means...will ya? Please?

The night was railing against the morning of which is was bereaved, and the cold was cursing the warmth for which it hungered.

I'm curious to see your interpretations. As a bonus, do you know what part of the book it comes from?

A New Schedule

At the beginning of the year, I wrote about coming up with a schedule that works for us. It was an unusual schedule with us not starting school until 1:30pm but it worked wonderfully for us. We knew when things were going to happen and we were getting things done. I was thrilled; it was the first time in my life that I had a schedule that actually worked.

Then the sky fell.

Sam's taekwondo school changed their class schedule as was no longer offering day time classes. His classes moved from 10am-12pm (a perfect time for us) to 4pm-6pm (the worst time for us). Regardless of where we've gone, I like to be home at 4pm. It's time to wash up any dirty dishes, cook dinner, and relax.

I tried rearranging the schedule but it wasn't as simple as swapping the old time for the new time. The old schedule had us finishing history, cooking dinner, and eating during the new class time. Scott solved part of the dilema by taking over taekwondo duty. I could still be home to cook dinner and have it ready to eat. It seems simple to solve the rest, right? Just do history duriung the old class time. It wasn't that simple; I used his class time to do my grocery shopping (Safeway on Mondays and Albertsons on Tuesdays), run my other errands (one of the other days), get some cleaning done, and have Mika do her DVD writing class.

I tried getting us to start school earlier but it just wasn't working. Sam can do school in the morning but Mika and I just aren't wired that way. We are definitely not morning people. Regardless, we tried starting school earlier. I found we weren't getting it done and I had lost by valuable grocery shopping/errand/cleaning time.

Well, for whatever reason, my brain had a temporary moment of clarity Monday night. I was finally able to work out a new schedule based on the old one. While I had to cut back on the amount of time scheduled for history and science, we are back on track. I'm back to being involved in history and science is back to being done daily. Cleaning and laundry is getting done and slowly things are getting back under control. It's only been two days but I can see that we're back on the right track and that feels good.

I'll share the new schedule in a couple of days.

Preferences Made Known

For quite a while now, Josh has shown a strong preference for me over Scott. Normally, I might be flattered but it usually comes into play when he needs a diaper change.

It started like this:

Scott: Joshua, do you need a diaper?
Josh: Yeah.
Scott: Who do you want to change it? Me or Mommy?
Josh (pointing to me): Mama

Then it evolved to this:

Scott: Joshua, do you need a diaper?
Josh (laying down in the diaper changing spot): Mama.

Recently, we experienced this:

Scott: Joshua, do you need a diaper?
Josh (with emphasis): No!
Me (immediately after): Josh, do you need a diaper?
Josh (laying down): Yeah.

Washington History Museum Free Day

For those of you who live locally, I have a great history opportunity for you.

On February 28, 2009 (next Saturday), the Washington State History Museum in downtown Tacoma is free all day. Park at the Tacoma Dome station for free and take the light rail (also free) a couple stops to the museum.

Free Parking.
Free Light Rail Ride.
Free Museum.

Can you get a better deal?

The occasion is the opening of the "Women's Votes, Women's Voices" Exhibit. The celebration begin at 11am and continue with activities for the kids (11:30-1:00), music, refreshments (12:00), a women's march through the museum (1:00) that ends in the auditorium with performance. Get more detailas at their website.

Our favorite part of the museum is the Great Hall of Washington History. There is also a difficult scavanger hunt you can ask for at the front desk. It'll take a while to complete so if you do it give yourself plenty of time and ask for help on the ones you can't find.

Mommy

Joshua calls Scott Daddy.

He calls me either Mama or MaMom or just plain Mom. I've been trying to get Mommy out of him forever. He just won't put the E on the end of it no matter what.

Today, he finally said, "Mommy." Do you want to know what he was referring to? Not me.

Mommy means mermaid as in "I want to watch Little Mermaid 2".

I feel so loved. LOL

Please Mama, Please!

I need you to put me down for my nap NOW!

I often hear about toddlers fighting nap time, not wanting to go down. We have a completely different reality here which I find quite humorous at times.

When Josh is tired, he whines and cries and pretty much begs me (without words) to put him down for his nap. No, he can't wait a minute. No, whatever you are cooking can wait. I don't care that stopping right this minute will ruin it; I need my nap RIGHT NOW!

So, you ask him, "Do you want to go nigh-nights?" You'll get a very enthusiastic, "Yeah!" out of him if your lucky. If you've waited too long, you'll get a rather pitiful half-cry, half-laugh as he runs to the stairs as quickly as he can. "Mommy's finally got to nurse me to sleep! Yea!" is what he seems to be saying.

I know this is a problem that most mom's would love to have...that is until you really are in the middle of something and want/need him to wait just two more minutes. He really cannot wait and those two minutes will be the most interrupted two minutes you've ever had.

Wax Tablets

We recently read about the ancient Greeks in our history curriculum, Story of the World Volume 1. One of the things we learned was that the Greeks used wax tablets. Story of the World also has an activity guide that you can purchase with it and in it there was this simple activity to give the kids an idea of what using a wax tablet would be like. The kids thought it was fun for a few minutes.

You take any plastic lid you have available and fill it level with the sides of the lid with lard. Using a small margarine or 16 oz sour cream lid would be ideal because it's a decent size and can be thrown out when finished rather than washed. I didn't have either so I used some Tupperware lids that I had. Then you refrigerate it to somewhat harden the lard. Once it is firm, the kids can use toothpicks to write in the "wax" and butter knives to smooth it out before being used again.

Bowling

We found a new family favorite hobby. Bowling. Besides the fact that it is a lot of fun whether you win or lose, there are several other reasons for us to like it that we've recently discovered.

Last month, we took the kids bowling for their very first time as part of Mika's birthday. We picked a nearby alley and just went. We were a pretty sad group. Scott and I haven't been bowling in about 9 years. I haven't been bowling very many times in my life to begin with. I think my best score was something like 102. Pretty sad. The kids were able to get the ball down the lane but we had to utilize the reset button many times as they didn't roll the ball hard enough to activate the machines at the pins. But we had fun and that's what counts, right?

So, anyway, while we were there we found out that they offer kids free coaching every third Thursday. The kids loved bowling and the idea of coaching excited them so we signed them up. We arrived last night to find out that they changed the coaching schedule to every other week and we came on the off week. They honored the original deal and provided the kids with an hour of coaching anyway. It was great! Each kid got their own lane, a 6lb ball (they bumped Mika up to 8lbs), and shared the coach. Scott and I bowled at a nearby lane.

The coach thinks Sam is a natural. I'm not sure what he's seeing because I see a kid struggling to control a ball heavier than he can handle. He IS young and small after all. But, the coach, sees other things. I know he sees Sammy's tendency to get frustrated as a good thing; it will keep him trying harder to get it right. He also mentioned that Sammy was using "the stance" after only being told once. He said it's difficult to get most kids to do that. I told him it was the taekwondo which is all about stances.

The coach also thinks Mika has potential. He was working with her on a whole different thing since she's older, stronger, etc. After a while, she was getting what he was showing her and starting to get the balls down the lane without hitting the bumpers. I told her that she'd soon be scoring better than me. I think she liked that idea. The coach also mentioned that if she liked bowling and kept it up, there are tons of bowling scholarships available for women bowlers. Whoo hoo! Scholarships is a word a mom likes to hear. LOL

The coach even gave me a couple of pointers which made a huge improvement in my game. My first game was only a 58....REALLY PITIFUL! My second game was a 174 but didn't really count because Scott accidently bowled one of my frames while I was getting food and got a strike. Of course, I got a strike the frame before and the frame after and a couple of other frames. My third game, I only got a 113. We had moved lanes and I did really poorly the first few frames before I started hitting a few spares and a strike or two. But still, I doubled my score from the first game and increased my highest score.

Oh, and this bowling alley has awesome food. The first time we went, I made the mistake of ordering everyone their own plate. BIG mistake as the portions were huge. Last night, Scott and I shared some nachos, Mika and Sammy shared some chicken strips and fries, and Josh had a very small order of chicken strips and fries. Yum!

I'm looking forward to more bowling. I can't wait until we can afford to go regularly.

Create an Animal

I gave the kids a science assignment this morning. Not only were the finished products humorous, they asked for two more worksheets each to do it again and again. How could I refuse...once their other work is finished, of course.

The assignment was to create a fictional animal utilizing parts of four different animals and tell the purpose for each part. We've done something similar before by cutting out animal parts from pictures in magazines. This time, they drew them from scratch which gave them more freedom since we can't always find all the animals they might want in a magazine.

Here's what they came up with:

Mika created the Teouse. It has the body of a tiger (camouflage), the head of a leopard (eating and camouflage), the tail of a skunk (stink glands for getting away), and the legs of a horse (fast running).

Sammy created the Lirajoucheet. It has the body of a lion (muscle), head of a giraffe (far away seeing), the tail of the kinkajou (hanging), and the legs of a cheetah (fast running). I got a chuckle out of trying to picture a feline with a giraffe's neck hanging upside down in a tree by it's tail.

An Update

Wow! I think this has been the longest time between posts that I've ever had. I've been just so tired lately. It makes it harder to think, type, etc.

So, how about a quick update while I'm sitting here waiting to leave?

I'm 19 weeks pregnant today. So far, everything appears to be going ok with that. The last two days have brought more nausea and fatigue than normal though.

Last week, I had my appointment with my midwife. It was an interesting appointment because she asked to check my pulse, lungs, heart, and thyroid. She noted that my thyroid was enlarged but did not comment further so I didn't really think much of it. We talked about the normal stuff, heard the baby's heart rate, which has been consistently between 150-160bpm. Then we headed off to the Children's Museum since we were in the area.

Six days later, I was at my Monday night meeting when a friend looked at me and out of the blue told me I had a goiter (enlarged thyroid). I hadn't mentioned the midwife's discovery at all. I was shocked that she could see it. But she confirmed, "Oh yeah! You have a little tire around your neck." I headed to the bathroom and could see what she was talking about. My neck didn't use to look like that.

So, I came home and looked up thyroid stuff online only to find my life laid out before me as symptoms of hypothyroid (too little hormone being produced): depression, fatigue, weakness, weight gain or difficulty losing weight, cold intolerance, muscle aches, irritability, memory issues, and abnormal menstrual cycles. I also read that an overactive thyroid can turn into an under active thyroid. Pregnancy can also enlarge thyroid but not enough to feel or see. Any noticeable enlargement is often a sign of thyroid dysfunction beyond normal pregnancy enlargement. I also remembered that I had been monitored for overactive thyroid when I was 20 for a while.

So, I made an appointment to see an endocrinologist in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, I've read some scary things about untreated thyroid problems during pregnancy. I'm going to try not to think about those things.

Another exciting thing is that my ultrasound is schedule for the 27th. Hopefully, we'll know the baby's gender that day.

As far as school...things are moving right along. Nothing very exciting to report. I've been too tired to be exciting with school.

Dessert

We've been trying out some new desserts in our house as I haven't been interested in chocolate in the slightest. Pregnancy food-moods are strange, I tell ya!

Above was/is tonight's dessert. It is a lemon-coconut cake (made with lemon boxed cake mix and lemon gelatin). Then it was frosted with cream cheese frosting (rather than the fluffy white frosting of the recipe) and some flaked coconut. It's good...not the greatest...but good.

Now if you want great, you'll have to go to the Betty Crocker website and try their Honey Bun Cake. It is, by far, the BEST coffee cake type cake I've ever tasted. YUM!

17 Weeks

I guess I'm pregnant and can't stay in denial anymore. I'm really...how can I with a belly like that.

Things are progressing normally for me. I feel ok. Tired most of the time which is to be expected when you are taking a sleeping aid every night. I still get nauseous at random times...usually when I've stayed up too late and my dose of antinausea was due an hour ago. I have to be careful not to do too much activity to get my breathing rate too fast or to laugh too hard because they both activate my gag reflex and THAT's not good. But other than that and noticing reduced breathing space, frequent visits to the restroom, the fact that I can no longer sleep on my tummy, and an occasional noticeable Braxton Hicks contraction...things are good.

LOL

I guess I'm saying, it's pretty obvious that I'm pregnant.

Thankful for CVA

We've been waiting....a long time. The time has finally come and we're thrilled. Or better yet, Mika is thrilled.

It can take For.Ev.Er. for community based instructors (CBI) to get all of their paperwork properly submitted for approval to our virtual academy, Columbia Virtual Academy. I'm not sure why it is so hard. I've seen the paperwork and it seems straight forward to me. We've been waiting about three months for one CBI to get approved for Mka and the day has finally arrived.

Open Arts Studio is a local art studio teaching classes in the fine arts, including clay, drawing, piano, guitar, and voice. Mika has been wanting to learn to draw. I started to teach her this year but it didn't last long. It's not on the top of my list for things to get done for school. Nor do I know how to teach art techniques at a child's level. So, I looked into classes, found them, and urged the studio to get approved with CVA. We just can't afford the classes otherwise. Now that they are approved, I can enroll Mika. Her first class will be February 18th.

Session 4, she'll be enrolled in homeschool drawing. Our goal is for her to begin a foundation in drawing techniques and learn to see...as in the way an artist sees. The class runs from 11:00am to 12:30pm. I'll have to figure out something to do with the boys for that hour and a half as it really isn't worth going home nor is the weather nice enough (consistently) for us to hit a nearby park. Hmmm....

Session 5, she'll be enrolled in a class called Draw, Write, and Be Published. This is the class she REALLY wants to take but we decided that since we have two sessions left, she could get some beginning drawing instruction in before taking this class. What is so neat with this class is that the kids write a story (something Mika loves to do), illustrate the story, and then the studio sends it in to be published into a real book. The final result looks just like any other picture book you'd check out at the library or purchase. She's excited about that one. Hopefully, she can keep her story short enough to fit into their perameters as I'm sure they aren't looking for a chapter book-length story.

There are some days that I am really thankful that we found (were told about) Columbia Virtual Academy. Today is one of those days. They just paid for Sammy's taekwondo lessons for the months of September through January. Tomorrow, I will be mailing them an order for next year's (it was originally planned for next year at any rate) math and language arts curriculum for Sammy as he'll soon be finished and needs something to do for the rest of the school year. Included in that order are more Mindbenders books for both kids; they love these deductive thinking skills puzzles. Finally, there's an order for more language arts for Mika.

All together...the art classes, the taekwondo, the curriculum...accounts for over $800 in school expenses that I don't have to pay myself. Being able to provide my kids with excellent curriculum of my choice and wonderful enrichment classes is definitely something I am thankful for.

He Doesn't Stop

Ok. There's got to be a point at which a kid gets too much exercise...right?

So, this was Sammy's day...

First, he wakes up and learns that we want to get our chores and school work done early today. Why? Because it's going to be nice and we want to go to the park. Not only do we want to go to the park, we want to go to THE park. You know which park, don't you? It's their favorite park. The one they asks to go to regularly.

So, he gets started on his chores. He makes his bed, gets dressed, brushes his teeth, folds and puts away his part of a load of clothes, gets his own breakfast (cereal and an english muffin), takes out the recycling (which has been building up), and crushes some cans.

Then he gets started on his school work and pushes through spelling, phonics, language arts, penmanship, and math. History is kind of on hold until I can get to the library tomorrow. Science gets thrown in when I have time to do it with them.

Then there's one last push to pick up around the house. Mika tackles downstairs and Sammy tackles their bedroom. After a bit, he apologizes that it isn't all done yet. That's fine with me, they've worked hard to get a lot done in a little bit of time.

Finally, with tuna sandwiches in hand, we head out at 12:30pm. We finally arrive at the park at 1:00 and the kids spend the next two hours swinging, sliding, climbing, and running up and down the stairs and walkways of the fort. (This park has a huge, multi-level fort.) We head out in time to get home for Sammy to change and head out again. He spends the next two hours at taekwondo class.

You'd think two hours of running around the park and two hours of taekwondo would be enough, right? Naw! As soon as he walked in the door, he asked to get on Wii Fit. As soon as he changed, he spent just under 30 minutes getting in some Wii Fit exercise.

It's 8:19pm now. The kids are now upstairs playing...and making plenty of noise.

I'm glad I don't have to keep up with them!

My Wii Fit Problem

Scott bought us Wii Fit. It arrived Monday so he and the kids had fun setting up their profiles and trying it out while I was gone for the evening. They all gave it a thumbs up.

Mika and Sammy couldn't wait until I tried it out Tuesday morning so I finally relented and set up my mii. Of course, my mii is the fat one. I expected that. I am overweight after all. Ok, ok. My weight falls in the obese category. That was fine with me. I know exactly where my weight falls in the health range and am aware of my need to lose. I just can't right now. I suppose to be gaining weight being pregnant and all...

...and that is where my problem comes in. Wii Fit has no setting for pregnancy. Today when I stepped on for my second day, I had gained. Not only was I wearing heavier clothes, I've also finally managed to register a 1-2 pound weight gain. The game took issue with that. So, it pops up asking me why I've gained weight and gave me several reasons to choose from. The reasons included too little activity and too much eating. There were eight reasons all together with the final one being "I don't know." Guess that's as good as any, right?

On a good note...

Even with the weight, I scored well with my Wii Fit age. My initial body test put my age at 33, almost two years less than my actual age. Whoo hoo! I'm not telling what Scott's age was but I'll say he was quite shocked upon hearing my age. ~smile~ I'm also first in many of the activities. tee hee hee

Lovely Sunny Days

Cold, gray, and rainy is normal weather for this time of year. We got a rare sunny and warmish (59 degrees) day yesterday and it was such a treat. We just had to take advantage of it so we skipped school...or part of it. We left the house to turn in some library books and deposit this month's money in the bank. We stopped by home to pick up my forgotten cell phone and do a quick 15 minutes pick up on the house before heading out again. This time to fast food lunch and the park. It was nice.

The park was warm. The play ground was filled toddlers and preschoolers. My kids were the only school-age kids there. It's a good thing they like each other and play well together. We enjoyed our time there and my eyes got the benefit of seeing some real light. Wonderful!

Not only that but the kids finished their school work in the evening after we got back.

Guess what! Today is suppose to be the same way. Guess what we'll be doing? Yep, you guessed it. We'll be hitting the park...a different one today. Shhhh! The kids don't know yet.

ARGH!

Flickr, which I use to host certain frequently used graphics, randomly and without warning, changed the URL of my graphics. I have no idea why they'd do that. No clue. And it is driving me nuts!!!!!!!!

Why is this bothering me? Because I have 368 posts that have a signature graphic hosted by flickr that is now showing as a large (several times the size of the signature graphic), white square saying "This image is currently not available." The only way to remove that annoying, ugly, white square is to go into each and every post and edit them. Ugh! Ugh! Ugh!

Did I say Ugh?