Acorn Hill Academy

My Memories Suite - Digital Scrapbooking Software GIVEAWAY!

2011-11-14T15:59:00.001-05:00

Have you ever wanted to try digital scrapbooking? Are you a "traditional" scrapbooker (like me) with more stuff than you can use and no time to use it? Perhaps you have one or more small people in your house that don't allow for a dedicated scrapping area. I have one with a scissors fetish who will cut anything he can lay his hands on - tablecloths, winter coats, and the cords to the window blinds, just to name a few. There is NO WAY I would leave scissors laying around, much less my Cricut machine (which I love) or my other paper cutters.

Enter My Memories Suite! This software is fun and simple to use. I have not done much digital scrapbooking. I have never taken the time to organize myself, for one thing. Nor have I bothered to learn how to do it, even though I have Photoshop at my disposal. I have just not taken the time.

I was asked to review this scrapbooking software, and I have to tell you, I am hooked! I installed it, opened it up and started playing around, had a grand old time exploring all the possibilities. Of course, one of the best things about digital scrapbooking is the ability to drag and drop a picture into a pre-made template. This is one of my favorite pictures of the kids from when Isaac was a baby:

This is a freebie I received from the Share My Memories newsletter. I thought the colors were great for a picture in the fall leaves.

After watching a tutorial, I created this layout using the free elements included in the software package:

Not too shabby, eh? I found a picture of Todd and Isaac at Lake Superior this summer. Then, I chose a paper, added a texture, border, mat, shape and photo corners - all with a few simple clicks. Easy as that!

I also made a few pages using pictures from Isaac's Halloween party at preschool. I used some things from My Memories Suite, but included elements I had from other places, too.

It did take an extra step to import embellishments (the overlay & buttons on the first page, the hand print and the cat on the last two) but there were no issues with using them. My Memories Suite comes with a ton of great stuff, and they have lots on their website you can download for free, too. However, I had quite a bit of stuff I've downloaded for free from here and there, and I wanted to be sure I could use what I already had. The pumpkins on page 2 are actually a nifty font I downloaded and installed. I just clicked to add a text box, typed them in, sized and dragged my text box, and voila: a pumpkin border!

I am excited to do more with this nifty software. I have not even scratched the surface of what it can do. The best part is, I HAVE A FREE COPY TO GIVE AWAY TO A LUCKY WINNER!

Here's what you do:

1. (Required) Visit the My Memories Suite website and poke around. Come back and share your favorite products with me in the comments.
2. (Optional) "Like" My Memories Suite on Facebook (let me know that you did so in the comments)

3. (Optional) Follow My Memories on Twitter (let me know that you did so in the comments)
4. (Optional) Share about the giveaway on your blog, Facebook page or Twitter account! (let me know you did this &leave me a link in the comments) If you'd like, you can copy & paste this:

Visit Acorn Hill Academy for a chance to win FREE digital scrapbooking software! http://tinyurl.com/8894pkm

I will announce the lucky winner on Monday, November 28. Good luck!

If you just can't wait to get started, I have a fabulous coupon code for you! You can go to the My Memories Suite site and use code STMMMS31018 for $10 discount on your very own copy of the My Memories Suite software, and a $10 credit in the My Memories Store!

Soup - It's What's For Dinner

2011-11-09T22:27:00.000-05:00

I do love fall in North Carolina. After a summer of oppressive humidity, the bright fall days bringing cooler temperatures are quite welcome. I love the colors and scents of fall, too. Autumn also ushers in soup season.

I made one of my family's favorite soups tonight, and I thought I'd share the recipe. I got it from Todd's mother, because it's one of his favorites, and have made a few modifications.

Here is the original recipe:

Chicken Tortellini Soup
9 oz pckg frozen broccoli
6 cups water
3 - 1.75 oz cans of condensed chicken broth
1 - 10.75 oz can cream of chicken soup
2 cups cubed, cooked chicken
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup sliced carrots
1/2 cup vermouth or water
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp basil leaves
1/2 tsp oregano leaves
7 oz pckg cheese tortellini
Parmesan cheese, if desired

Directions:
In large saucepan or Dutch oven, combine water, broth, soup, chicken, onions, carrots, vermouth, garlic, basil & oregano. Bring to a boil & add tortellini. Reduce heat & simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Add broccoli; simmer 5-10 minutes more until broccoli is tender. Serve with cheese.

Makes 10 servings, 1/2 C

Notes
I don't know about you, but I have yet to find anything labeled "condensed chicken broth" at the grocery store. The cans of broth I have (usually Swanson's) specifically say on the label "Do not dilute." I have diluted them, but I don't think the soup is as tasty. Tonight, I used 6 cans of chicken broth and 2 cups of vegetable broth. (I think the 6 cans of broth would have been sufficient, but I didn't look at the labels and assumed that they were 10.75 oz cans instead of 14.5 oz cans and decided I needed extra liquid. Vegetable broth has a nice flavor.)

I like to add celery to the soup. I think I added about a cup tonight. Chicken soup should have celery in it.

I have learned over the years that I am not a huge fan of oregano, so I leave that out and add 1 tsp of basil and approximated 1/2 tsp allspice. My mother tells me that allspice is a great thing to add to chicken soups, so I do. I say "approximately," because as I was attempting to measure the allspice over the soup pot, a whole bunch of it dumped onto my half-teaspoon and overflowed into the pot. I put back what was still on the spoon and called what was still in the pot, good enough. (I would guess that you are beginning to see why this is not a cooking blog.)

I never have vermouth so I don't put that in.

The best thing about this recipe is that it doesn't ask that you sauté the vegetables first. You just dump it all in and boil it. It's wonderful! I also love that it has lots of veggies so it can be a one-dish meal. I wish I had remembered to throw some bread in the bread machine, but I will do that tomorrow when we have the leftovers. :-)

Paperback Swap!

2011-11-02T10:25:00.000-05:00

Homeschoolers: have you signed up for Paperback Swap yet? If not, get thee hence and do so now!

Here is how it works:
1. Sign up for your FREE account.
2. Post books that you would like someone else to have.
3. You receive 2 credits for posting books, and then one credit for each book you send. With your credits, you can request books that people send to you for FREE!
4. When someone requests a book from you, you have to send it in a fairly timely fashion and pay for media mail postage.

I had heard of Paperback Swap (PBS) quite a while ago, but it seemed like too much work at the time to get books together to post so I could get credits to get books. However, this past week, I was looking at my bookshelves, which are overrun with books again, and realized that I had a stack right in front of me that could go. I am terrible about getting them to the library or to Goodwill, but I got them entered into Paperback Swap, and instantly had requests for 4 books. I mailed those last week and just mailed 4 more today. I figured it would be a good way for me to get some books to read inexpensively. Honestly, considering what a new book costs, even from Amazon, it's a good deal even after you pay for the postage.

One of the things I sent off was my boxed set of the Twilight series, in hardcover. It was expensive to send, and the person requesting it had a lot of restrictions on what she would and would not accept. My set was in nearly perfect condition, but it was a bugger to get packed, and I do confess to feeling a small amount of irritation at knowing I would get only one credit for all that work. However, I sent it, because I wanted the books out of my house. Guess what? The person who received them emailed me to thank me for packing the books so carefully and said they arrived in perfect condition. She also gave me 3 more credits, because she didn't think it was fair that I only received one for a 4-book set, especially considering the cost of the postage. Is that not fabulous?

Why is this good for homeschoolers? Well, let me tell you! When I went the post office, the very nice man who helped me turned out to be a fellow homeschooler. He told me that his wife gets lots of books for their homeschool from Paperback Swap. I had an epiphany. I had not considered the possibility of looking there for school books! Immediately, I went home and started looking up books we will need for next year. I have 2 on the way to me as I type this! If you homeschool, you know how expensive books are, and therefore the gleefulness I feel at getting some from PBS.

I hope I've inspired you to at least consider PBS. If you homeschool, or read at all, you know you have too many books. This is a great way to get rid of some that didn't turn out to be fabulous, and get some that you either really want or need in return. Bibliophiles helping bibliophiles - it's a beautiful thing.

As You Were

2011-10-24T19:49:00.001-05:00

My friend Kenny died last week. He was 58. He leaves behind his wife of 39 years, his only son, his daughter-in-law, 3 beautiful grandchildren, his mother, and innumerable extended family and friends who loved him. He had a heart attack quite unexpectedly and died at church in a meeting.

My heart aches with missing him, and I cannot imagine how his family must feel. His son gave a beautiful eulogy, and ended with saying that he hopes to be as good a husband and father as his dad was, but he doesn't know how to be himself without his dad. They were best friends and did most things together. They recorded 2 CDs together, which fulfilled a dream of Kenny's. I know my world would be turned upside down if I lost my dad, and I don't get to see him every day because we live so far apart.

Kenny loved music. He particularly loved the Beatles, and the funeral people found an interesting CD with funeral music arrangements of Beatles songs to play. Apparently Kenny had said he didn't want funeral music at his funeral someday, but the Beatles. I can't say I cared for the funeral-ish versions of their music, but I suppose it was an acceptable compromise. I do wonder if Kenny would have cringed at those arrangements.

Kenny and I were both on the praise team at our church. Even though I only knew him for a little over a year and a half, I saw him every week and we shared music and laughter together. He shared those things with everyone. We had a little inside joke about one of the songs we performed, and in listening to people talk about their experiences with Kenny, I think he had an inside joke with just about everyone. It was a great way to connect with people.

I learned some things about Kenny during his eulogy that made me wish I'd had more time to get to know him and that my husband had had the same opportunity. He loved Star Trek and Star Wars, and so do we. He was also into science fiction and space, and loved model rockets. Todd would have loved that!

Kenny's son told a story about starting a Star Wars fan club with his dad and some friends, and how much his dad loved being a part of that. One night Kenny fell asleep while watching a movie and startled himself awake, and the other guys were laughing. He just looked at them and said, "As you were." (I think this is a Star Trek quote, but I can't be sure.) That's how Brad ended his eulogy: by telling us all, "As you were."

We had a get-together at our house on the 4th of July for our praise team, and Kenny and his lovely wife, Renae, came and brought the most amazing baked beans. I didn't learn until after they arrived that they had a family dinner at their house, and had sat their family down to eat and then came over to join us. I can't tell you how much that meant to me. He and Renae said we'd have to get together with the kids, and I was looking forward to getting to know them as part of our North Carolina family.

The best thing about Kenny is that although I know he would not have chosen to leave his life on earth just yet, everyone knew how much he loved them. His family knew beyond all doubt that he adored them and were the most important thing to them. He didn't leave any broken relationships behind. We all miss him terribly, but I don't believe there are any regrets of things we didn't get to say. I hope the same will be said about me, someday.

Thanks, Kenny, for being a great friend. I will miss you greatly and look forward to seeing you in heaven.

Homeschool: Our Scintillating Conversation

2011-10-11T10:16:00.002-05:00

Me: (Child), Get your math.

Child: I don't know where it is.

Me: Well, find it.

Child: Will you help me?

Me: Is it in your bag?

Child: (spoken without moving from couch) No, I took it out.

Me: Look in the bonus room.

Child: It's not there.

Me: What about your bedroom?

Child: It's not there.

Me: FIND YOUR MATH! I DO NOT HAVE IT AND HAVE NOT SEEN IT!!

Child: walks straight out to car and gets her math books

Me: Deep breathing and counting to 10 (or more) so as not to go choke said child and whack her on the head with said math book.

There is No Peace with Preschoolers

2011-09-19T14:51:00.000-05:00

We started our homeschool year a couple of weeks ago - the day after Labor Day, to coincide with Isaac starting preschool again. We took the plunge into Ambleside Online, combining years 1 & 2 so we don't miss any of the wonderful books. The first week went REALLY well. It was even better than I'd hoped! The girls enjoyed the books we're reading and even though we're doubling up, it's not a terribly heavy workload. Of course, our math books hadn't arrived yet and we don't have our microscope for science; it's going to take another week or two to get up to our full load, but still, it was good.

Last week, we were all sick. We did do some reading, but for the most part, we laid around and felt pathetic. It was pretty bad.

So, today, my goal was to get back on track! We started off with some math, and Abbie finished reading the two things she was unable to read last week. It wasn't terrible.

The thing is, Isaac is not terribly quiet while we're schooling - the child talks incessantly, bless him. He also kept asking when we were going to go outside. Abbie really needs quiet for reading and Emma would do just about anything to get out of school work, so we didn't get as much done as I'd hoped. After math, we did go outside, and I decided to take a look at my plans for the week and tweak a bit (already).

I hope to be able to do a 4-day school week this year, with Fridays off for co-op twice per month and some fun field trips on the other weeks. Isaac has preschool 3 mornings per week this year, which is wonderful. We can get a lot done while he's gone and be mostly finished with our work before I need to pick him up.

Mondays, however, are going to have to be filled primarily with things he can either do with us, or that his talking won't bring to a screeching halt. I think this might be a good thing, actually. There are many things that will allow him to tag along. We can do our hymn study (he LOVES) to sing, composer study (he loves all music), nature study, and geography - we're reading Paddle to the Sea, and I know he would enjoy listening in. These are things that are easy to overlook when faced with finishing math and trying to get grammar done, so I'm hopeful that it will work out for the best for our homeschool year overall. The girls will still have to do math on Monday, and some language arts, but we can keep history and other things that require more conversation and concentration for times when Isaac is in school.

I have to say that I have no idea how all this is going to play out when he's ready to start school at home with us. He is so active and talkative that I'm glad he will not go to public school, but those same traits make it tough in the homeschool sometimes too.

Abbie's Math Instruction

2011-05-13T17:03:00.000-05:00

We got a cool set of math manipulatives, called See & Solve Manipulative Kit by Lakeshore Learning for Isaac in the mail today. They were recommended by Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler, and I was able to get them for a great price on Ebay, so I ordered them.

Isaac, of course, had to take them out of the box RIGHT THEN and play with them, and Abbie can't resist anything math related, so she started trying to show him some simple addition.

Abbie: "Isaac, how many fingers am I holding up:

Isaac: "One."

Abbie: "And how many fingers on my other hand?"

Isaac: "One."

Abbie: "If I put my fingers together, how many are there?"

Isaac: "Two."

Abbie: "So, one plus one is....?"

Isaac (confidently): "Six!"

I managed not to laugh out loud. He did get better with the next problem. When she asked him, after showing him her fingers and all, how many two plus one equalled, he did say "Three!" So cute.

Guidecraft Givewaway - Interlox Blocks!

2011-04-21T16:00:00.000-05:00

Head over to Cindy's blog, Along The Way, and check out her Guidecraft giveaway! A lucky winner will receive the Interlox 96 piece building set. It looks like a lot of fun! I know my budding engineer(s) would enjoy it. Check them out:

Doesn't that look nifty? You definitely want to enter to win these! I will be adding them to Schmooey's wish list!

Archimedes Discussions

2011-04-12T19:43:00.000-05:00

The girls and I have been reading Archimedes and the Door of Science together, as part of Living Books Curriculum Year 3. It's been interesting to read what life was like in Ancient Greece. We're now starting to learn about some of Archimedes' discoveries of simple machines, like the screw and the lever.

Today, we read about Archimedes making a bet with King Hiero that he could move whatever heavy object King Hiero gave him to move, no matter how large. The king told him to move a ship out of the harbor that all the king's slaves had not been able to move. Archimedes set up a system of pulleys, and moved the ship with one hand. Needless to say, he impressed the king.

We also read about a discussion Archimedes liked to have with King Hiero. Archimedes believed that the most perfect thing was a well-reasoned idea. King Hiero said that such ideas were useless unless they could be applied in a practical way. I asked the girls which they thought was better - thought, or application. They told me they agreed with Archimedes.

I told them we would try dinner using Archimedes' method. I would think about a fabulous dinner, from preparation to serving. I would ponder all the ingredients and think about exactly what I needed to do to make such a dinner. I would ruminate on the process of cooking and what would happen when the ingredients were combined. Then, when Todd came home, I would tell him all about my well-reasoned dinner plan, and see what he thought of it - all theory, no food on the table. Somehow, they didn't think that sounded like a very good idea! Ha.

We read about "work," and how the scientific definition of work is the action of forces on things. I showed them how hard I could work by poking Emma in the leg several times. She didn't find that nearly as amusing as I did.

We also read about level 1, level 2 and level 3 levers today, and found them a bit confusing. We're going to make real levers tomorrow so we can see how they work. A level 3 lever is something like a fishing pole. It really makes no sense looking at the pictures in the book, but we could imagine it better when we thought about how a fishing pole works. I have a feeling we may need to involve Todd with this lesson. They are supposed to be "simple" machines, and I'm sure we can make the levers. I guess I should be thankful we're not to the math part yet. Bleah.

Another Confessions of a Homeschooler Giveaway!

2011-04-11T07:41:00.000-05:00

Well, I didn't win the nifty geography curriculum, but I'm going for the new giveaway! Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler has a really fun, inexpensive preschool curriculum, Letter of the Week. I'm getting it ready to use with Isaac, mostly as a way to keep him busy while the girls are doing school. I think he's going to love it!

Erica just came out with her K4 Expansion for the LOTW curriculum, and is giving away a copy to one lucky winner! Go check it out. She has made some great activities for an older preschooler. (Is that possible? An older preschooler? LOL.) There are beginning math, reading, and writing activities. Isaac already knows most of his letters, so we are going to move ahead with beginning reading. He will love the colorful, fun activities in this curriculum

Go over and enter now! You know you want to. :-)

Expedition Earth Giveaway!

2011-04-05T15:20:00.000-05:00

Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler is giving away a copy of her Expedition Earth geography curriculum! I've enjoyed reading about it on the blog. It looks like a lot of fun.

Here is the blurb from her blog:

Get ready for an exciting voyage across the world! Come along as we walk on the Great Wall of China, wander through the Amazon Rainforest, and climb the Egyptian Pyramids! Within this curriculum you'll discover the sights and sounds of 31 countries across the globe. You’ll get hands-on with fun activities, crafts, recipes and more! So grab your passports, and get ready to go! It's time for Expedition Earth!

CLICK HERE to enter - there are lots of ways to get extra entries, too! I believe it's targeted at K-3, since she has younger children, but we all know you can make of it what you want when you homeschool. :-) Head on over and enter to win!

Look what I found!

2011-04-03T17:54:00.001-05:00

Today, since we finally have some sunshine, I was outside trimming some bushes. It's probably not the right time, but they have been ignored for a long time (since before we moved in a year ago - eek) and some of them are out of control. Actually, Abbie did a lot of the trimming for me last week, but she didn't do the Giant Holly Bush or the Rose Bush Trying to Take Over the World (RBTTOW).

I decided, after attempting to trim the RBTTOW a bit, that it needed a good whacking off down to about 24". I should have done it earlier, and it's showing lots of lovely new growth, but the thing is immense and needs to be brought back under control. As I was trimming, though, I found this:

It's a cardinal's nest! Of course, I immediately stopped trimming the bush and cleaned up, to get away from there as quickly as possible. That poor mother bird must have been having heart palpitations. The RBTTOW looks a little, shall we say, interesting at this point, half trimmed, but I'd rather have the baby cardinals.

Isaac was very helpful yesterday. He picked up branches for me in his little red wagon, and dumped them on the edge of t he yard - almost in the "natural area." He also used his wagon to clean up after the lawn mower.

He is so cute sometimes, I can hardly stand it.

Update: The mother cardinal was back on her nest this morning when we came home from church! I'm hoping to get some pictures of the babies as they grow.

Toyboxes & More Giveaway!

2011-03-28T19:59:00.000-05:00

Be sure you head over to the Crafty Classroom blog and checkout the Toyboxes & More Giveaway!

Here is a little info from the Toyboxes and More website:

ToyBoxesandMore.com offers high quality, affordable Wood Toy Boxes that are perfect for children of all ages; All of our products are built for real kids in the real world. The furniture and toys featured in our store are built to pass on for generations and make fantastic gifts and keepsakes. Our goal is to inspire children with the power of their imagination through unique and creative heirloom-quality wooden toys and room furnishings.

All you have to do is register an account with Toyboxes & More, and leave a comment on the Crafty Classroom blog telling her that you'd like to enter the contest and that you've created your account. Of course, if you already have one, just mention that. There are a couple of other things you can do for extra entries - like blogging about it! :-D

One lucky winner will receive a very cool Wooden Bead Maze. I know my little guy will enjoy it, and so will the many smallish visitors that come to my house. Make sure you go over and enter to win!

Aquarium Update

2011-03-15T10:10:00.000-05:00

Abbie told me at the beginning of the school year that she wanted to study aquatic plants. I had no idea what we were going to do to accomplish that, until my mom reminded me that we could set up a fish tank. We still had a 20 gallon tank left from all the fish tanks we used to have, so we got that set up using Diana Walstead's "el Natural" approach. Basically, you put down a layer of potting soil (we used Miracle Gro Organic Choice, at the recommendation of our local fish guru), then tuck the plants in, and then add a layer of gravel on top. You can see a blog post about it here, and someone else's step-by-step instructions here. There's also a forum about it here, I've gotten lots of great help from the folks at Aquatic Plant Central.

To date, we have a breeding pair of dalmation lyretail mollies, and 4 of their babies are now about an inch long. We've recently seen at least one brand-new baby, so that's exciting. Here is a picture of what I'm talking about:

We recently added two golden wonder killifish, and they are a lot of fun. I think they are helping with controlling the molly population, which is good. I believe we have two male fish, so we won't be getting any killi babies.

We also added two creamsicle lyretail mollies. Here is a picture of someone else's:

They are so pretty! Abbie loves them. The female is pregnant, and we currently have her in a little breeding tank until she has her babies. She has figured out how to escape said tank, so we've had to re-capture her several times and put her back in there.

We also added some peppered cory catfish and an algae eater. We have a lot of algae in the tank, and our one little algae eater isn't making much of a dent. I don't think our planted tank plan is working out quite like it should. We shouldn't really need a filter, but we had a BioWheel mini running on it (I believe they are now called BioWheel 100), and it wasn't enough. The water was cloudy, and it just wouldn't clear up, even with frequent water changes. We ended up putting our Eclipse system on the tank. The Eclipse is an awesome system, but it's for more than our tank should need. I don't think the tank is getting enough light for the plants. We're supposed to install two fairly high-powered compact fluorescent lights over the tank specifically for the plants, but we haven't gotten around to doing that, so I think we're going to have to keep the Eclipse in place for now. The water is clearing up nicely. Unfortunately, part of the tube on the filter portion was cracked. Todd repaired it with some electrical tape, but it's LOUD. We ordered replacement parts and I hope they will be there this week. I don't think the fish like the noise.

On a very happy note, I called a fish store in Charlotte called Fintastic, and they are going to find me some julidochromis ornatus!

Todd and I had a breeding pair of them when we lived in Michigan, and we loved them. They had 21 babies, and we had to sell them back to the pet shop. I think they are my all-time favorite fish. We have a little 5.5 gallon tank, and it's all set up and waiting for the julies to come home. I can't wait!

Guidecraft Giveaway!

2011-03-15T08:19:00.000-05:00

Head on over to Granola Mom for God for a giveaway for Guidecraft Block Mates Farm Animals! They are very cute. I think Isaac would have a blast with them.

Guidecraft also makes dinosaurs and safari animals. They are all cute! I can't decide which ones I like best, but I think Isaac would prefer the dinosaurs. :-) If we don't win the giveaway, I will have to put them on his wish list!

I am not having fun today.

2011-03-02T12:19:00.001-05:00

I decided to give up Facebook for Lent. I spend a lot of time online playing games and such, and as a homeschooling mom, I really don't have time to do that. Also, I should really focus on finding some friends I can hang out with in real life. I do love my online friends, and am going to miss them terribly for the next few weeks, but it would be fabulous if I could spend time with some folks face to face.

Since I never look at a calendar, I assumed that Lent started today. I was wrong - I could have had another entire week of Facebooking! Rats! However, I know myself, and I know that if I waited until next week to stop, I would have lots of reasons why I shouldn't really have to give up FB. I decided to go ahead and be done today.

I am struggling. Isaac has been having one of "those" mornings. Before I even got up this morning, he'd clogged the downstairs toilet with an entire roll of toilet paper.

While I was having breakfast, he soaked his shirt trying to play with his toy coffee maker, so we had to take it off. Then, he wet his pants, and left wet footprints behind him through the living room as he walked in his wet socks, pants around his ankles, to find me in the kitchen and show me his conundrum.

Shortly after I got him dressed in his second set of clothes for the day, he came downstairs again with no pants on, and told me he'd gone to the bathroom (poo this time) upstairs. He managed to do quite well for himself and didn't even clog the toilet! Good for him.

Next, he found a jar of Nutella that I had clearly not put up high in the pantry, and proceeded to eat it with his fingers under the dining room table. When he was finished, he wiped it on the back of his shirt. Actually, I was glad to discover that it was Nutella on his shirt rather than poo, which I'm sure you understand after reading the previous paragraph.

And then, he got his Cariboo game and decided to fill it with water. The base of the game is a cardboard box which didn't respond favorably. It's currently drying on the front porch.

It's only noon. The girls are supposed to be doing school; their math is taking an inordinately long amount of time and it's all we're going to get done today. We have piano lessons this afternoon, then Emma goes to Girls on the Run, and then we have kids' choir and I have adult choir this evening.

I WANT to go play on Facebook and ignore all of the chaos around me. However, I decided to come share my morning here, which has given me a few moments of peace, and will now go make lunch for us so we can leave for piano. I have been picking up around the house, and trying to get some laundry done. I did not get on Facebook and play games, so I count it as a success! Woo hoo!

Baby Ladybugs!

2011-02-24T13:56:00.001-05:00

Have you ever seen baby ladybugs? I had not, until today!

We've had a ladybug problem since we moved into our house. Well, not really a problem, because we have high ceilings and they like to hang out where we don't really notice them - except in the master bathroom. They seem to congregate in there. Whether it's because they can find water in there, or because of all the windows, I'm not sure. I know they seek out the water because when we're in the shower they like to drink tiny drops of water from the glass door. I had never seen ladybug footprints before I saw them walking through the steam on the glass. That was pretty cool too.

This morning, I was taking a bath when I should have been educating my children, and I noticed BABY ladybugs on the side of the tub! I have a fondness for most tiny things, and thought they were terribly cute. And, guess what? I took pictures! I knew you'd be thrilled.

Here is a picture of a traumatized adult ladybug near a baby ladybug - look closely at the molding if you can't see the baby. The adult was traumatized because as I tried to pick it up to move it near the baby, it fell a few times due to struggling with me. Apparently it could not sense the vibes of peace and goodwill I was projecting at it.

There is another baby on my razor:

And here is a picture of the adult and a baby on my hand. I thought it was interesting to see that the baby's back is patterned in brown and white - good camouflage for the great outdoors! Hence, the reason I had not seen them before they showed up against the white in my bathroom.

I did call the girls in to look at the baby ladybugs. They thought they were adorable. Look at that - we did science!

Note my amazing photography skills in that last picture. I was holding the "big" camera myself and took the picture one-handed. It's not as easy as you might think.

Fun At The Cat Show

2011-02-20T18:46:00.000-05:00

If you know me, you know that I am a cat person. I love animals, generally, but I am partial to cats. I have five of them and am open to more (although I do not believe my husband shares that sentiment). There is nothing better than a purring cat!

A couple of years ago, when Isaac was a baby, we went to a cat show in Raleigh. There are two different cat clubs there that host shows, and I'm not sure which one we attended. We had a great time, and met several people who were just there showing their pet cats. They told us it was a lot of fun and we should try it. I was sure there was no way we'd ever do that. I love my cats, but I like them at home, you know? They all hate to be groomed, and you have to groom show cats a lot. And clip their nails - that's a whole 'nother barrel of laughs.

Apparently the girls have had the idea of showing a cat in the backs of their minds since then. We got a kitten from the local animal control in September 2010, and it didn't take long for them to start talking about showing her. They mentioned it a couple of times, and I said helpful things like "Mmm hmm" and tried to pretend I hadn't heard them, hoping they'd forget about it.

My children are nothing if not persistent, however, and they began to ask more specific questions regarding when, exactly, we might be able to take the kitten to a cat show and what we needed to do to get there. So, I sighed in resignation and began to do a little research in January. I learned that there was, indeed, a cat show in Raleigh in February, but we were a little late in signing up (not impossibly so, but enough that I could use it as an excuse to wait until the next one) and one in the town where we live in October. I made a deal with them that we'd go to the one in Raleigh and check it out, to see if they thought they really wanted to continue with their cat show plan, and then sign up for the local one if they thought it still sounded like a good idea.

Off to Raleigh we went on Friday afternoon, to stay with some dear friends, have pizza, and then see some cats. Todd and I decided that it would probably be best not to take Isaac to the cat show, as his window for being quiet is quite limited and there were too many opportunities to hide, as he is wont to do these days, or otherwise run amok. Todd stayed with Isaac at our friends' house and they played while the girls and I headed off to the fair grounds and the cat show.

We had such a good time! There were so many beautiful cats to see, both pets - many rescued - and purebred. I would have been willing to take home one of everything. There truly is something special and fun about each breed. There were also two local rescues present, which I thought was fabulous. I have to try not to get too close to them though because I always want one.

I was going to try to list all the breeds we saw, but I didn't write them down and I'm not sure, looking at the list on The International Cat Association's website, if we saw some this year or the last time we went. I'd say my favorite cats this time around were the Bengals. They are lovely, active, friendly, playful SHORTHAIRED cats. They are a lot of fun!

The most beautiful cat I saw there was Zabbie, a shaded silver British Shorthair. Her website is here. She's a kitten, and her mom wants to breed her, and is in the process of finding her a suitable mate. I adore silver cats. My Gabe, best cat EVER, was a silver tabby exotic shorthair. The British Shorthair breed was developed in Britain, and there are most certainly Persians in their origins. I think that's what I loved about Zabbie, besides her amazing color: her short nose. It's not squashed like a Persian's or an exotic's, which I love, but still short and cute.

Abbie fell in love with the Maine Coons. She thinks she would like a silver classic tabby, if she likes showing cats and we get her a pedigreed cat to show. That's a big IF, but Todd is quite partial to Maine Coons, so I think it would be fairly easy to sell him on the idea. Here's a picture of a kitten:

:-D

And here's a picture of an adult:

I think I could live with a cat like that.

I have to say, though, that the BEST cat I saw all weekend was a rescue named Deacon, a cat who was rescued from a trailer park with several others where they were being used to train fighting dogs. That is a soap box for another day, so I won't get started. Marley's Cat Tales was one of the rescues there, and they had cages for 3 cats. The first time we stopped by, there were only two - Deacon and a lovely red Persian male named Sparky (I think). Sparky was lovely, but as much as I love my Persians, I am done with their crazy coats and especially Dory's weepy eyes and cat snot. (I am sure that's TMI, sorry.) Anyhoo, the very nice woman who was minding the cats let me hold Deacon, and I was instantly in love. He is a cuddler. There are not many cats who relish being held and petted, but Deacon positively reveled while we were bonding. He curled up on my chest, tucked his head under my chin, and proceeded to purr loudly and make happy feet. When he got tired of one position, he readjusted and we resumed our love fest. He is a solid cat - much heavier than you expect when you pick him up - and the most loving cat I've ever met. If I'd been allowed to take him then and there, nothing would have prevented me from doing so. However, there is an application process, and Todd is pretty sure we're not adopting him. I'm pretty sure I'd like to at least consider it, though, so I am going to contact them and find out if anyone else figured out how wonderful he is and adopted him first.

This might be the longest post I've ever written! It has very little to do with homeschooling, except that the girls are possibly going to pursue showing cats, so I suppose I'll sign off and go make some dinner.

Guidecraft Giveaway!

2010-11-12T19:33:00.003-05:00

Go check out the Guidecraft Giveaway on the My Life on a Taffy Pull blog! Mrs. Taffy has reviewed Guidecraft's Animal Train Sort and Match toy, and will be giving one away to a lucky winner! I know it looks like something my Schmooey would enjoy. I poked around at their other toys, and there are LOTS of fabulous things on their site.

Walking with My Boy

2010-09-27T13:36:00.002-05:00

Isaac and I took a walk around our neighborhood this morning. Our street is a circle, and it makes a nice walk, about 3/4 of a mile. It's been raining here, so there were lots of puddles. Thankfully, they were mostly small ones. He made sure he stomped in each puddle at least once.

On our last leg, there were several leaves in the road. He had to pick up each one and put it back on the nearest lawn, because, he said, "The weefs need to be with their fam'wies."

Conversations with Isaac, Who Is Very 3

2010-09-03T18:23:00.002-05:00

Mom: Isaac, will you hop up please?
Isaac: NO! I DON'T WANT TO HOP UP! I WANT TO HOP DOWN!

Mom: Isaac, do you want some dinner?
Isaac:: NO! I DON'T WANT DINNER! I WANT CAKE!

Isaac (to mom): Do you know my name? [Is this a trick question?]
Mom: I think your name is Orglesnork.
Dad: I think your name is George.
Isaac: I'm not a monkey! I'm a BOY!

(It took me a minute to catch on to that last one. Let me know if you need a hint.)

Horse Camp

2010-08-02T08:27:00.002-05:00

The girls went to horse camp this week, at a new stable for us that we found locally. Even though it was EXTREMELY hot, they were so happy to be back on horses, they had a wonderful time.

Emma rode a horse named Pilgrim, and she loved him.

Abbie rode a pony named Pepper, and had a great experience riding her, even though she was a pony. Prior to this week, Abbie took great offense at being asked to ride a pony when Emma was allowed to ride a horse. The thing is that Emma is adult sized, and while Abbie is tall for her age, she is still child-sized and can fit on a pony. Emma is really too tall for most ponies now.

Anyhoo, one of the neat things about this camp is that in addition to horse riding lessons, they were also exposed to driving. THey also got to do vaulting, which involves, I think, getting the horses to jump up onto something, and then back off. I *think* this is a precursor to actual jumping. They'd gone over some very low jumps in lessons at our old barn, crossed poles and the like, but this was a new experience.

Probably the best thing was that our new friend, Christina, was able to come to their end-of-camp performance and saw both girls ride. Getting to know her has made the girls' transition to our new home so much easier. It's wonderful to have a friend!

There's always a little...

2010-07-16T18:19:00.002-05:00

There’s always a little truth
behind every "just kidding,"
a little curiosity
behind every "just wondering,"
a little knowledge
behind every "I don’t know,"
and a little emotion
behind every "I don’t care."

Got this little poem from the Generous Husband websiteI was gate-crashing the man version of the Generous Wife site, from whom I receive daily email tips) and thought it was worth pondering.

If you want daily tips on how to improve your marriage, I can recommend The Generous Wife. Not being a husband, I don't know about The Generous Husband, but he seems pretty savvy too. :-) I've found that while not every tip applies to me, they are nearly always thought-provoking, and keeping your marriage in your thoughts is usually a good thing.

Captain Jack is really a Little?

2010-04-28T23:37:00.001-05:00

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Warning: Whining Ahead

2010-04-23T19:14:00.009-05:00

Well, here we are, in our new home in our new town. It's a nice enough town, at least as far as I can tell from Target. People keep asking me how I like Hickory, and I tell them, "Target is nice!" It's not a SuperTarget. I was spoiled by the SuperTarget in Apex, but as far as regular Targets go, it's fine. They do carry the new Liberty of London stuff, so I go there frequently to drool.

We have very nice neighbors. Our next door neighbors brought us peanut butter kiss cookies, the first week we were here. They have been wonderful when I need to find something - like Urgent Care, when the Snort had hand-foot-mouth disease and strep all at the same time, and a grocery store other than Food Lion.

I haven't found the school books yet, so the girls have had quite a long break from school work. I am going to make a concerted effort to find everything this weekend, and if not, we're going to start something next week.

We do find ways to amuse ourselves. We have a huge back yard, and a nice playset left by the previous owners. Everyone enjoys going outside to play. There is even a nice bench swing for the adults. The kids can ride bikes and scooters in the garage and driveway. I can let Isaac "scoot" in the garage while I'm making dinner, if the girls don't want to be out there with him, as long as the garage door is closed. That's quite handy.

We go to town a lot. As I mentioned, Target is a frequent destination. We have also found PetSmart and Petco. We have been to the mall a couple of times, for sheets for Isaac's new bed and in search of things to put in our new house. Sometimes we even go for ice cream!

This week was quite productive. We found a preschool for Isaac right near our house, and he can start next week if we want him to! That's very exciting. My homeschooling friends will think I've lost my mind, but you know, it will be good for him. The classes are small, the teachers are wonderful, and he will get to play with some children his own age. I'm pleased about that.

I also stopped by the local hospice facility and picked up a volunteer application. I should be able to take the training in the middle of May, and then start working with patients.

We went to the library and got library cards today, the girls and I. They are excited to have their own cards! The librarians were really nice, and it looks to be a good library. They have lots of audio books, as well as movies and computer games. Their children's area has Legos, a fish tank, and lots of tables for small people. Isaac loved it, and when I caught him running around barefoot and asked him to put his shoes back on, he said "No! I just walkin' in the libraries!" Hard to be stern in the face of such cuteness.

After the library, I took the kids to Barnes & Noble. We can't check books out at the library yet, due to the red tape requirements, and I was in dire need of reading material. I have lots I could read to improve myself, but that's no fun. I didn't really know what I wanted, but managed to have a nice conversation with the young woman working in the children's books.

You know what, though? I'm lonely. I believe I have reached my quota for loneliness. Being here every day with only the kids for company is starting to take its toll. They are fabulous, but I crave some adult company. My heart says I can't take too much more. This either means I am stronger than I think I am, or God is about to bring some wonderful friends my way. Here's hoping it's the friends option.

See, I told you there would be whining.

Junk Posse Giveaway at Into the Streets of Ethiopia!

2010-04-22T17:41:00.003-05:00

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted! Since Todd accepted his job offer from Apple in December, I've been pretending we weren't moving, then looking for houses, then pretending we weren't going to move, then buying a house, then pretending we weren't moving, and then finally saying goodbye to friends and moving over to western North Carolina! Well, more western than we were, anyway; I think there is a fair amount of NC still to the west of us.

Anyhoo, my friend Susan brought this lovely giveaway to my attention, and I would like to enter, and you should too!

First, take a look at Into the Streets of Ethiopia. The Portilla family has started this mission to help street children living in Ethiopia. My dear friend Susan and her family adopted the most fabulous little boy from Ethiopia, and since then have been working to educate everyone around them on the needs of the people, specifically the children, there. The motto of Into the Streets of Ethiopia is "Tackling poverty and loneliness one child at a time." After just the briefest of glimpses into what life is like in Ethiopia, thanks to William and Susan, my heart goes out to the people there and I would love to be able to help them. I hope you will take a little time and read about Into the Streets of Ethiopia.

Now for the giveaway! Tracy at JunkPosse sells a lot of beautiful adoption and Africa-related original silver creation on esty.com. After reading about Into the Streets of Ethiopia, she has donated $80 in credit toward a necklace (your choice!) with FREE shipping for Into the Streets of Ethiopia to give away so that they can get people looking at the site and HELPING these kids! (I completely plagiarized Susan's paragraph.)

So, click on over and take a look at the jewelry! It's lovely stuff. What a great conversations starter, eh? My favorite is this one:

It's called Circle of Hope. It's lovely. Go enter the drawing! You know you want to!

Simply Sweet

2009-12-09T10:41:00.002-05:00

Check out the fabulous giveaway at Kari Gibson's "My Crazy Adoption" blog!

The Grand Giveaway Winner will receive-

* 2 Simply Love T shirts (you choose!)
* 1 Free Pass (Courtesy of Disney) to the NEW Princess and the Frog movie.
* Autographed copies of the Best Seller Redemption novel series (5 book set) with Karen Kingsbury & her dad, Gary Smalley.
* Kisses From Katie handmade Ugandan beaded necklace (extra-long & beautiful)
* Her 2 Children’s books- Mookie Series
* 1 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts (Zoie’s favorite)
* Sugar Cookie mix & mit for kids.
* Chick Flick- Julia & Julia (Meryl Streep rocks in this DVD)
* $20 Starbucks Gift Card

You win a value of $180 in gifts! This is a wonderful blog of encouragement and support for families considering adoption.

This is fun!

2009-10-24T10:39:00.002-05:00

Homeschooling with a 2-Year-Old

2009-10-08T09:06:00.004-05:00

You know, I thought our homeschooling experience last year was interesting, with Isaac being mobile and all.

It had nothing on what this year is turning out to be! Last year, he was fairly content to play by himself with is cars or whatever I had out, as long as I was in the same room. Sometimes I'd find him, say, standing on the dining room table, if I hadn't been paying close enough attention, but for the most part, it wasn't so bad.

Fast forward to this year, and it's an entirely different ballgame! He is not happy to play with his toys when his big sisters are doing something that is clearly much more interesting. In fact, he seems to think he can do a better job of teaching than I can. He seems to be particularly fond of math.

He does an outstanding job with the story problems, too.

Truthfully, I believe the appeal lies in the white board and markers. I finally gave him his own little white board, and that keeps him busy for at least a little while. It's not easy to keep him contained when he can climb out of the Pack n' Play and pull the baby gates open. Good thing he's so cute.

U2 360° Concert!

2009-10-04T17:15:00.001-05:00

My friend Micki and I went to the U2 concert last night! We had a great time.

A band called Muse opened for them, and while I had never heard of them and couldn't understand what they were singing, I enjoyed their set. To tell you how clueless I was, I had no idea there would be an opening band, and had a discussion with Micki about whether Muse was the title of U2's latest album or not. I insisted that they did not have an opening band and it must have been the name of the album. She showed me our tickets and wondered why, then, it was called the 360° tour. I told her it was because the stage was set up in the round. I do like to be right, you know, and I can make things up effortlessly. Come to find out I was wrong on all 3 counts and had to ADMIT IT, too, because Micki also likes to be right.

The stage was really interesting. I had no idea what it was supposed to be until Bono explained that it was a rocket ship and they were going for "intimacy on a grand scale." Sure enough, the four green legs looked like a launch pad and the rocket was on top! It lit up and everything. They also had a ramp all around the circular stage (playing on the whole 360° thing) and then mobile ramps that went from the stage to the outer circle, so the band could get closer to the crowd. I've seen concerts in the round before - Def Leppard comes to mind - and it's really a cool thing. We were sitting on the side of the stage, but we got to see everyone in front of us at some point in the show (although we were up so high, it didn't matter, and we were dependent on the screens).

U2 did some really neat stuff with the crowd. Bono pulled a young man, probably around 12 years old, up on stage with him while he sang... something. I can't remember. But he ran around the outer ramp with him, and gave the boy his Cyborg glasses, and I'm sure that young man will remember that for the rest of his life. Bono also gave the microphone to someone in the audience and let him sing a verse of "People Get Ready." I read another review that panned those parts of the show, but I thought it made for great crowd connection - seeking that intimacy.

Micki and I were fortunate enough to sit by a dedicated U2 fan who did know all the words, and she answered my questions a time or two when, say, I wasn't sure if they were actually singing a U2 song. She looked at me a little strangely, but she was very nice. I felt like a goober for not knowing what was going on but my curiosity got the best of me and I had to know.

The set list for U2 is as follows, which I snagged from this site:

1. Breathe
2. Get On Your Boots
3. Mysterious Ways *
4. Beautiful Day* / C Moon (snippet)
5. No Line On The Horizon
6. Magnificent
7. Elevation
8. In A Little While
9. New Year's Day*
10. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For* / Stand By Me (snippet)
11. Stuck In A Moment
12. The Unforgettable Fire
13. Mofo (snippet) / City Of Blinding Lights
14. Vertigo
15. Crazy Tonight / Thank You (Falettin Me Be Mice Elf Again) (snippet)
16. Sunday Bloody Sunday / Rock The Casbah (snippet) / People Get Ready (snippet)
17. MLK
18. Walk On* / You'll Never Walk Alone (snippet)

Encore(s):
19. One* / Amazing Grace (snippet)
20. Where The Streets Have No Name*
21. Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
22. With Or Without You*
23. Moment of Surrender

I have to confess that while I normally spend a lot of time listening to the right music to gear up for a concert, I didn't do that this time, and I do regret it. I love to know all the words and be able to sing along, because that lets me really connect with the music. The songs with asterisks in the list above are the ones I actually knew - a total of 7. The acoustics were awful, which I suppose goes along with it being held in a football stadium, so I couldn't understand what they were singing and frankly they sounded like a grunge band (which was my first indication that something might be up with the acoustics).

I couldn't find a list of songs for Muse, which is too bad, because I liked them too, and they sound a lot different on iTunes! A woman I spoke to at the concert, who really likes Muse, told me their sound is like Queen meets... she was at a loss for words. They sounded nothing like Queen at the concert and I thought perhaps it was her beer talking, but when I listened to some of their stuff after I got home, I could see what she meant.

All in all, it was a great concert. I'm glad I went, and I'm glad I can say I saw U2! My only regret, like I said, is that I didn't spend more time listening up before the show. Lesson re-learned.

Crash, but not Burn

2009-09-22T09:12:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I was in a car accident. Someone pulled out in front of me, I swerved, missed her vehicle... but rolled my car into the ditch. I know the van only tipped over onto its roof, but it felt like long enough for it to roll several times. Those slow-motion scenes you see on television do a pretty accurate job of representing how things seem to your brain, I think, during highly stressful situations.

While this was not an experience I would care to repeat, the hand of God was on me the entire time. I have never felt like a walking miracle before, but I do now! Let me tell you why.

First of all, my children weren't with me. Since we homeschool, this almost never happens. I am so, so grateful that they were not hurt, and don't have to suffer any of the psychological after effects of being in a car accident.

I can only guess that the other driver was picking up children from the school near our house. Since I didn't hit the other car, no children were involved in the accident at all. And, since I didn't hit the other driver, she wasn't injured, either.

I got to experience my first ride in an ambulance and first visit as a patient to the emergency room, but I could have walked away from the accident. I have "whiplash," a black eye, and some cuts and bruises, but that's it. As my friend Ginny said, there are many people who have experienced a lot less accident and received a lot more injury.

The other driver took full responsibility at the scene. This may not seem like a big deal, but in the world of insurance and liability, it really is.

Poor Ariel Mermaid didn't survive the crash, I'm afraid. I don't think most cars do, when they end up upside down.

She even had some guts hanging out, poor thing.

The girls are so sad that we lost our van - we really did like having her! We're on the hunt for a new car. Used or new? Honda? Toyota? Who knows?

Three Children's Books We Love

2009-09-20T20:13:00.007-05:00

I have a passion for children's books. There, I've confessed. The primary reason we have so many, aside from homeschooling, is that I love them. It's a bonus if the kids like them, too.

I've been reading two books to Isaac lately that I wanted to share. The first one is called Hush, Little One.

Grammy and Papa gave Abbie her first copy when she was a toddler, and we went through two of them. The girls and I were even in a magazine add for Concordia Press after I sent them an email telling them how much we enjoyed the book. It presents the Gospel to children in such a sweet, gentle way, and you can sing the rhyme to the tune of "Hush, little baby, don't say a word, Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird." Remember that song? Of course, you can read it, too, if you don't like to sing. Sometimes the girls would ask me to sing it, and sometimes they wanted me to "talk it." Emma used to say, "Emma's prayers by Jesus are heard!" It just melted my heart.

I will tell you that I prefer the hardcover version, published in 2002. That's the one Abbie had. I found the board book for Isaac at Lifeway, and while I love being able to share the book with him in a format that he's less likely to change the story, the rhyme has been revised somewhat and I don't like it as well. I'm sure it's primarily because I expect the first version, but I do prefer the way the first version refers to Jesus rather than Christ as they do in the board book; it seems more personal to me. I think it was rewritten to fit better with the rhythm of the song, as I look it over, but I still prefer the original.

Another book that Isaac and I love is Where is the Green Sheep? It's a fun little book by Mem Fox. (I am partial to Mem Fox. Another of our favorite bedtime stories is Time For Bed.)

This little book shows lots of neat things. It has opposites, colors, shapes, and familiar activities. Isaac's favorite is the "slide sheep." He always says "Whee!" and traces the path of the slide with his finger. He likes "sheepies" right now, anyway, so I make sure we take this book when we go out and always have it ready at bedime.

Last, but not least, I must tell you about one of my all-time favorites.

I found this wonderful little book in Borders in Ann Arbor (the first Borders, ever, by the way) and bought it for my niece when she was little - she's now a sophomore in high school. I try to give it to everyone I know when they have children. I have read it more times than I can count, and I still love it! It's called Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw. It is so funny, and so fun to read, if you haven't read it yet, you should at least get it from the library.

There you have them - Book recommendations by Beth. I just thought of some more, but I'll save those for another day.

Hedwig Sock #1

2009-09-05T16:17:00.005-05:00

This is the sock that Beth knit.

This is a foot, cozy and warm, wearing the sock that Beth knit.

This is a foot, sad and forlorn, out in the cold and suffering scorn, for it has no sock that Beth knit.

This is the yarn, ready to go, wishing to cover the other toes, and match the sock that Beth knit.

Birthday, Beeps and Books

2009-08-31T20:59:00.003-05:00

Today, my baby turned 2 years old. I don't know where the time has gone!

We actually started his birthday on Saturday, when Daddy put together his nifty John Deere tricycle from Grandma and Grandpa. He loves it! He doesn't really get how to pedal just yet, but he will walk it around, and put things in the bucket for dumping later. I learned that day that his favorite things to put in the buckets are flowers picked from our neighbor's mailbox flower bed, and that his sister seems to think it's fine to let him pick them...

We were supposed to go to the beach today. Isaac LOVES the beach. He's been asking to go to the beach with Grandpa for several days now, in fact. When we looked at the weather forecast for Wilmington last night, it showed a fairly nice morning, but thunderstorms for the rest of the day. We thought we'd still chance it, and even if we spent the afternoon at the aquarium, it would still be a good day.

However, when we got up this morning and checked again, it looked like thunderstorms had already started, with no sign of letting up all week. Todd and I decided we needed to revise the plan. Three hours is a long drive for the aquarium, when all a tiny boy wants is to go to the beach.

We started off with Hopper's House, a nifty jumping place in our neighborhood. All three kids had a blast, and Isaac was not interested in leaving when it came time for lunch! However, once we got to Moe's, he ate his lunch, part of mine, and some queso and chips. Then, it was off to A.C. Moore with a coupon for a new "Thomas." Isaac does love his "too-tooch."

After making our final Thomas selections, we headed home for a nap. I got in a little knitting time and Todd got to play with his new Mac software. :-) I was able to take Abbie to gymnastics and watch her, which was a big treat for me! Todd stayed home and played trains with the boy, and even took him outside for an hour or so, which was another big treat. Isaac loves to be "outside sunshine."

Abbie and I brought home the pizza and the cake. Isaac at a little bit of his pizza, but he was really holding out for "cake-cake." I don't know why he likes to say it twice, but it's pretty cute. I think he blew the candles out twice before Todd wised up and held him back so we could sing and take a video.

After cake, we gave him his presents, which were comprised of books and "beeps." Isaac has called vehicles of any type, really, "beeps" since he started talking a few months ago. He does call buses "b-bus," airplanes are "air p'dane," and boats are "booooot" with a lovely U.P. accent. In general though, they are collectively known as beeps. Anyhoo, he got enough beeps to keep him busy for a good long while, I think.

The one thing we didn't get out was his new scooter. If the weather holds tomorrow, we will get that out and play "outside sunshine."

The New School Year

2009-08-25T21:15:00.003-05:00

Well, we were supposed to start school this week, but we all have colds, so I'm putting it off until Sept. 1. My birthday was today, and Isaac's is next Monday, so I think we will just wait until all the celebrations are over and then buckle down.

I'm excited about our curriculum for this year! We're using Living Books Curriculum Year 3, which covers Ancient Greece and Rome for world history, and Westward Expansion for U.S. history. The girls will also learn Bible, storytelling and science from our LBC materials. We will do picture studies of ancient Greek and Roman art, as well as art in early America. We will do composer studies of ancient Greek music, Palestrina, Vivaldi, and Bach. They also start Shakespeare this year.

Since Emma is in 4th grade this year, I have to teach North Carolina history. I would rather teach Michigan history, but I suppose there will be time for that after we meet the requirement for NC. It will be good for us to learn about North Carolina, since I've lived here for 11 years now and the kids are natives. :-) I have a North Carolina history textbook, as well as some other, more fun things to use. I'm also hoping to include a few field trips.

We will still use Math U See, and I think it will be a lot of fun. We're going to spend a lot of time on math this year, so that we can get caught up. The girls are both good at math - time for the mama to stop worrying about it so much!

We will use Simply Grammar for language arts, and I'm thrilled with that. It looks excellent. It includes everything I would want to teach them, but wouldn't know where to start. They should be able to do it independently, too, which is great. I need them to start being a little more independent so I can keep an eye on Isaac and still get some school done.

We're also still using All About Spelling. I love this program! The girls do really well with it. It's funny to see that they do so well when we're specifically working on spelling, but when they're writing on their own, they forget to apply what they've learned. It's also pretty funny that Emma looks at Abbie to spell words for her! Emma just doesn't want to think about it herself, I think. She's such a perfectionist.

We're going to start Latin studies this year, using Lively Latin's Big Book of Latin I. It looks like a lot of fun, and will go along nicely with our studies of ancient Rome.

My plans include a lot of language arts, and we may end up backing off some of them. I'll have to see. We could probably let go of other grammar and stick to Latin, for example, but I hate to do that. Anyhoo, these are the plans as they stand today. I hope the girls are as excited for school to start as I am!

Great Board Book!

2009-08-18T12:16:00.003-05:00

I found this book yesterday at Borders in Apex for $2.99:

Isaac LOVES it, and it's very cute. Anything that makes noise is good in his world. The little frogs stand out of the book similarly to the ladybugs in Ten Little Ladybugs, which the girls both loved at this age. Additionally, the frogs have little levers on their back which you push down to make them croak! I'm fairly certain that was the big selling point for the Snort.

For those of you who are, shall we say, more educationally inclined, the book takes the frogs and other pond critters through the seasons, and it rhymes. I love rhyming books. It makes the reading go faster, which is important when you read the same books over... and over... and over...

I would like to get the other book by this author:

I don't remember seeing it on the bargain books rack, though. Maybe I will go back and check - it would be an inexpensive birthday present for my almost-2-year-old! In fact, I may go back and get copies of the frog book for all my toddler friends for Christmas. Just wanted to let you know it is there - it's a great little book! If you happen to have a small child to whom I am likely to give a gift, please don't buy it. :-)

I love this picture!

2009-05-23T12:14:00.002-05:00

They have a lot of funny cat pictures, too. Actually, if you can stand the bad spelling (which is on purpose, but still REALLY bugs me), they have a lot of funny pictures. For instance:

And this one:

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

It's possible that I am easily amused. So what? You're laughing too. So there!

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T20:52:00.003-05:00

I hope you had a lovely day! I did. My children, even Isaac, all made me cards. I got to go shopping (for groceries) by myself. And, Todd gave me a wonderful blue Googles Webkinz, which I love. I took Abbie to the doctor for some awful bug bites, and then took their beds all apart and cleaned them and changed the sheets to try to get rid of whatever is biting her. I suspect spiders. It was, all in all, the day of every mother's dreams. :-)

My inlaws forwarded me this sweet video. Enjoy!

Cool Duck Story!

2009-05-01T08:33:00.002-05:00

My inlaws forwarded me this story about ducks in San Antonio, TX. It's really, really neat. I hope you enjoy it!

Isaac At 18 Months

2009-03-19T17:35:00.004-05:00

Isaac had his 18 month checkup last week at the pediatrician's office. He weighed in at 31 pounds, and measured 36 inches tall. He's the size of your average 29 month old child. They decided to call his breathing issues "asthma," and we will be using inhaled steroids with him for the foreseeable future, but other than that, everything is great!

Apparently in honor of this grand proclamation, he decided to start climbing out of his crib. I was not in the least prepared for him to do that, I have to tell you. The first time he did it, it was the middle of the night. I heard him cry out, then a thud, and then he started to scream. When I rushed to his room to get him, he had the lights on and he opened the door for me.

The next day, my good friend Jeni gave me her toddler bed. I had Todd take the crib down and I got that set up for him. He would not stay in it. So, I had Todd put the crib back up and hoped he'd scared himself well enough when he fell out that he wouldn't do it again. We considered ordering a crib tent.

The next morning at around 5:30 am, I heard his sweet little voice chattering away as he came wandering into our room. Clearly, my hopes were in vain that he would voluntarily stay in his "cage" once he'd figured out how to set himself loose.

At this point, I was in a dither. I knew he couldn't stay in the crib, but wasn't sure I wanted to go the tent route. Friday night he stayed in without incident, so my hopes were renewed - until he fell out Saturday at nap time and hit his head on the floor, giving himself a nice bump and a rug burn on his forehead. Clearly, we could not leave him in the crib, but Todd was not excited about taking the crib down again, either. We ended up taking one side off and putting up a bed rail, left over from when the girls transitioned into twin beds. I put a doorknob cover on the inside, both to keep him from escaping and also to prevent him locking the door, so that I don't have to search out that rotten little key in the wee hours of the morning.

It took a couple of nights of him waking up to play in the middle of the night, but he did start sleeping through again. He's still getting up much earlier than I would like, but the lack of screaming is wonderful.

Today, while I was telling some friends about our escapades with Isaac, he came trotting down the hall. I prayed that I had just left his door the tiniest bit open and went down to check how he'd gotten out. He had taken his little stool over to the door and taken the doorknob cover off. Bless his little pea-pickin' heart!

I feel like I should call professional baby-proofers, but at least he's sleeping again. We decided against the crib tent, because he's so tall, I think he would be able to unzip it. I'm still having a difficult time wrapping my brain around having an 18 month old child who is no longer contained in a crib, but I suppose I will eventually get over it. :-)

One More Word About Wednesday

2009-03-18T20:23:00.003-05:00

Well, not really about Wednesday, per se, but you know.

Today the girls and I saw a Northern Flicker at our bird feeder! It was the first one any of us had ever seen. I'm nearly certain it was a female, because the males have a distinctive black stripe on their cheek that this one didn't have. It was only there for a moment, but I thought it was a funny-looking Red-Bellied Woodpecker until I looked it up in the bird book. I'm also fairly confident that it was of the yellow-shafted variety, because after reviewing the bird book, it's highly unlikely that there would be a red-shafted one this far east.

Isn't it fun when you get to add a new bird to your life list? Whee!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-03-18T17:23:00.006-05:00

Wordy Wednesday

2009-03-18T14:17:00.008-05:00

I am supposed to be using the 30-day trial of the Simply Charlotte Mason online planner, but I decided to blog instead while all the kids are sleeping.

We had a fun school day today. We've been reading Peeps At Many Lands: Ancient Egypt by James Baikie to go along with our history lessons, but I couldn't find it this morning. So, we got out The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt (Landmark Books) by Elizabeth Payne, which we are supposed to be reading, instead. It was a good chapter on the turmoil that occurred after the Pharaoh Cheops died, and the priests and nobles decided to rewrite the Egyptian religion.

One thing we read that piqued our interest was their idea of what happened to souls when they went to the underworld. They had to face judgment before Osiris, and if they were found guilty of any of 42 mortal sins, "...a great beast would pad forward from the shadows, fangs bared - a beast part crocodile, part lion, part hippopotamus. The guilty man would be devoured on the spot, and that would be the end of his hopes for a life everlasting."

Kinda makes you grateful for Jesus, doesn't it?

Anyhoo, the girls and I thought it would be fun to draw a picture of such a monster, because we were having a hard time picturing a combination of those three animals that would work. I did a little Googling, and could not find anything on this creature. In fact, most of what I saw said that the beast was Babi, a baboon, who would come out and eat the guilty souls. I found pictures of the three animals instead and took them down for the girls to use in their pictures.

Naturally, by the time I got back down there, they were well into their drawings so I let them have at it. This is what they came up with. I think Emma and I had the same issues trying to come up with a viable version of this creature. Hers is named "Bestey" (a creative variant of Beastie):

Abbie had a better idea of what she thought it would be. Hers is named "Bessy the Very Scary Beasty," and has the head of a lion, body of a hippo, and bumpy back and tail of a crocodile:

Isn't homeschooling fun? I love this stuff!

Bird Sightings

2009-03-13T14:33:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I had a fun bird experience. We've had this one bird hanging around that does not seem to be as afraid of us as the rest. When I let Toby out, and all the other birds fly away, it looks around and seems to say, "What? I don't see anything!"

When I let the dog out, the bird stayed on the feeder and I realized I couldn't see its face. It was asleep, and it didn't notice the door opening or the big, black dog thundering down the deck stairs. I was able to go back in and get my camera, and take some pictures. I even got to pet it, and it didn't wake up.

Here it is asleep:

And from another angle:

It did eventually wake up and look at me a tad suspiciously, but it still didn't fly off.

Finally, it decided to go eat some more and ignore me again.

I tried to take a picture of my hand petting it, but I'm not that coordinated. It was a cute bird, though. I think it might be a young pine siskin. I hope it's not sick, but I don't suppose I will get to know that definitively.

Such Drudgery for Ones So Young

2009-03-12T14:28:00.003-05:00

One of the girls' jobs is to unload the dishwasher. They've gotten a pretty good system down by now, although I still hear occasional arguments about who is going to do the top vs. the bottom. I don't care, as long as it gets done.

They get to do this most every day, and apparently this has placed a great burden upon their dear souls. Emma expressed her displeasure to Abbie, who took it upon herself to take action. I found this stuck to the kitchen cabinet where we keep our glasses:

Then, I guess Emma decided she could take responsibility for her own displeasure, and I found this one the next morning:

Always good for a laugh, they are! And, yes, we are working diligently on spelling during our school work.

Spelling Silliness

2009-03-11T14:55:00.002-05:00

If you know me at all, you know that I have a great fondness for fun and silliness. I love when we can have fun with our school work!

This morning, I was watching "The Golden Girls" on the Hallmark Channel while I was getting ready for the day. We don't actually have cable, but for some reason, the television in our bedroom gets the Hallmark Channel and one other station - go figure! Anyway, I love "The Golden Girls." They are always good for a laugh.

This morning, the girls were trying to put together a funeral for Old Lady Claxton, who lived next door to them but died of a heart attack when Rose took her to court for threatening to cut down a beautiful old tree on her property - just because she knew it would make other people unhappy to have it cut down. Rose felt guilty, of course, because no one had liked this woman so there was to be no funeral and she was to be buried in a Potter's Field.

So, they go to the funeral home, where the proprietor introduces himself as Mr. Pfizer - and the "p" is not silent. After a brief pause, apparently trying to decide if he is serious, Dorothy says, "Well, Mr. P-fizer, we are here to plan a p-funeral. I mean, funeral."

I don't know why this struck me as so funny, but I was still giggling about it when I went downstairs to start school with the girls. They asked me what was so funny, so I tried to explain it to them, and bless their sweet hearts, they decided it was funny, too. We spent much of the day incorporating vocalized "p's" into our p-words, even in our p-spelling p-work. You will p-see that they p-learned some p-truly exceptional p-spelling p-skills today. They wanted me to be sure to blog about it. The spelling rule for today was that I and o followed by 2 consonants may be long.

I hope you have at least a little p-chuckle from this post today.

Can anyone identify this bug nest?

2009-03-06T14:39:00.001-05:00

I found 3 or 4 of these in my Spanish lavender (Lavandula stoechas) plants as I was pruning them today. I have no idea what it is. It resembles a lightly toasted marshmallow. If you have any ideas, I would love to know. I'm going to ask my dad, fondly referred to by my children as "the walking, talking encyclopedia" when he comes in a few weeks. I hope he can tell from the picture because it smelled a little oddly and I didn't want to keep it.

If you'd like to grow lavender in North Carolina, by the way, this is an excellent variety for the hot, humid weather we have down here. The other kinds don't like it as well. Believe me, I tried.

Training Up The Boy

2009-02-27T14:44:00.001-05:00

My girls love horses. They spend a lot of time at home pretending to be horses, creating "jumps" indoor and out that they either jump over themselves, or try to get the dog to jump. Poor, sweet Toby is a good sport. Emma has made several sets of "tack" for him from yarn, even including a martingale. It's quite impressive, actually.

Lately, we've had some cold, wet weather, so they took my Swiffer and made a small jump with couch pillows in the living room downstairs. You can run all the way around the first floor of our house, from the front door, through the dining room, kitchen, on to the living room, so they would run around the loop and do the jump.

Here is Abbie:

Here is Emma:

And, never one to be left out, Isaac had to play, too.

I kept hearing Emma say, "Abbie, don't help him!" I finally had to tell her that while is trying very hard to learn to jump, he really can only get one foot off the ground at a time just now, so unless they wanted him to keep knocking down the jump, they'd have to help him.

It takes a lot of effort for Abbie to lift her brother, who is more than half her weight, but by golly if she can't do it!

It's a little easier for Emma.

Then, they both decided to help him because I was taking pictures. :-) Here they come around the corner!

First one way:

Now the other:

I have to say that Isaac enjoys this a lot more than Toby does. You'd never know we were in the hospital with Isaac 5 days ago, would you?

Wordless Wednesday

2009-02-25T15:29:00.000-05:00

Home From The Hospital Again

2009-02-23T21:34:00.002-05:00

Poor Isaac had to go to the pediatric ER again yesterday afternoon. I noticed on Saturday that he was coughing more and had green snot. By Sunday morning he was wheezing, so we started albuterol treatments again, but by the afternoon not even back-to-back albuterol helped so we were told to take him in.

It was a little scary, actually. He had retractions that were quite extreme, and it took a lot to get them under control. Several breathing treatments and about 4 hours of constant albuterol later, he was finally nearly done wheezing. We ended up in the PICU for a few hours, but we were moved pretty quickly to the regular pediatric floor, because by the time we were sent to the PICU he was much, much better and didn't really need to be there. They think he might have a touch of pneumonia, which probably exacerbated the problem. We now have oral steroids, antibiotics, inhaled steroids and albuterol in an inhaler with an aero mask, because it is much faster and more effective than a nebulizer.

He was doing very well at the hospital, but by the time I was taking him out of the car at home, he was wheezing again. The inhalers did help, and we have a follow-up appointment with our pediatrician tomorrow, so we'll see what they have to say.

I am very, very tired. The ER does not allow for much sleep for a mama, especially one who's in charge of keeping the albuterol properly aimed at a moving target.

Abbie told me tonight that her chest hurts. I didn't particularly want to hear that. I gave her some medicine and we'll see how she is tomorrow. I'm wondering if some allergy medicine might not help her.

One more thing.

2009-02-20T09:04:00.003-05:00

I miss Gail so much. I really do. I have still not quite wrapped my brain around not seeing her again in this life.

However, I did want to share one thing from the funeral. One of Gail's sisters got up to speak, and she shared that her 6 year old son had been very concerned for Gail's salvation. She finally told him to call Aunt Gail, so he did. He asked her if she knew Jesus, and he led her through the prayer for salvation.

What a beautiful, sweet child. He did what I was never quite brave enough to do. I don't know if she did it with him just because he called her and was so sweet; she talked a lot about God and I know she went to church sometimes. What I do know is that I will be seeing her in heaven and I am so thankful for that.

All this to say, every day, every moment is important. Don't waste a single one. And don't be afraid to ask someone if they know Jesus. God could use you to be the reason they make it to heaven.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-02-18T14:34:00.002-05:00

The Day After

2009-02-18T14:20:00.003-05:00

Gail's funeral was last night. It was a beautiful service. The pastor read several Psalms and other Scriptures, ending the readings with Proverbs 31 - The Excellent Wife. I'm sure that was for Bob.

She was cremated. I was glad. I did not want to see her in a coffin. I have a hard time remembering people as they were in life after I've seen them in death. I am so thankful that I will be able to remember her as she was when I knew her.

The girls and Todd came to the funeral with me. She was dear to all of us. It's the first funeral the girls attended, and it was hard for them. They both wanted to come, though, and both say they are glad they went. I think it was important for them to share in the end of her life. They loved her.

There were a lot of people at the service, but I wouldn't call it packed. The thing is, though, that Gail treasured every person who was there. We all knew how much she loved us. I would like to be the kind of friend she was - someone who spends her life loving other people and doing it well.

Today, I'm still trying to accept that she's really gone. When I last saw her, she was doing pretty well. It's hard to believe she went downhill so quickly. Once the doctors told her there was nothing more they could do, she was gone within two weeks. I can't express how much I regret not trying harder to at least talk to her. Isaac was sick and I was sick and there are lots of reasons, but now... she's gone. I suppose I was in denial too - I thought there would be more time.

I can't believe I will never hear her voice or see her smile again. She won't be at stitching anymore. I have to help her husband go through all of her cross stitch stuff. I'm sure it sounds silly, but it breaks my heart just to think about it.

If you're inclined to pray, please keep Gail's husband, Bob, in your prayers. He loved Gail with complete devotion, and feels like he has no purpose now that she is gone. Please pray that he will feel the love and the peace of God and that he will find a reason to keep going on. I'm very worried about him.

I'm sure I could ramble on for a while about Gail and how much I miss her, but I won't. I will go back to figuring out the next thing to do and keep on living. I will try to remember to live each precious moment the best way I can.

I was listening to Steven Curtis Chapman on my iPod the other day, and I heard this song, from his "Speechless" album. I will end with these lyrics. They've stayed with me and I find them more significant today than ever.

Five Minutes

I can reminisce about the already
I can worry and fret about the not yet
But when it all comes down, and
It really, really comes down to the right now,
So right now

I'm living the next five minutes
Like these are my last five minutes
Cause I know the next five minutes
May be all I have
And after the next five minutes
Turn into the last five minutes
I'm taking the next five minutes
And start it all over again

Every morning God is given is precious
Every heartbeat, every breath I take
I'll never have them back once they've left us
There will never be another right now,
So right now

This is the day
This is the hour
This is the moment God has made

I'm living the next five minutes
Like these are my last five minutes
Cause I know the next five minutes
May be all I have
And after the next five minutes
Turn into the last five minutes
I'm taking the next five minutes
And start it all over again
I'm starting all over again
Gonna start it all over again

One Year Ago Today. . .

2009-02-14T16:54:00.004-05:00

. . . Gail was babysitting for us, so Todd and I could go out to dinner.

This morning, around 2:00 am, she passed away.

Go in peace, my friend. I'm glad your suffering has ended. I'll be seeing you.

She'll Be Leaving Us Soon

2009-02-13T17:06:00.000-05:00

My very dear friend, Gail, was sent home from the hospital with Hospice last week. She's been fighting breast cancer for the past few years. I spoke with our friend Connie this evening, and she told me that Gail is in and out of consciousness, and that the end will be very, very soon.

I met Gail when I moved to North Carolina, 11 years ago this July, when I found my cross-stitch group. She's been a wonderful friend to me. When I was pregnant with Isaac, and couldn't go to stitching because it hurt too much to sit in the chairs, she came and spent Thursday evenings with me. She said she thought I needed her more than they did. Sometimes she brought dinner, and sometimes I cooked. She helped with the baby when she could. She adored my girls. We had such a good time.

When she told us she had breast cancer, all of us were very worried, of course. Gail did everything her doctors recommended, had every treatment, every follow-up, dotted ever "i" and crossed every "t." There wasn't much cancer when they found it, so we thought she was good to go.

The next year, though, her cancer returned, and it was already stage 4 when they found it. If you know cancer lingo, you know this was not good news. She still fought it, though, and has endured every treatment her doctors could come up with. She was able to get in with an excellent doctor at Duke, who specializes in pre-menopausal women with breast cancer. They would continue each treatment as long as it made a difference. When it stopped working, they changed tactics.

I knew she wasn't getting better, exactly, but I thought she was holding her own. Then, when we had our stitching group's Christmas party, she told us that she'd intended to give us all what she thought we wanted most for Christmas - babysitting for me - but she couldn't do it. She'd been blacking out, she said, and couldn't watch the kids, not knowing what would happen. Then we learned that the cancer had spread to her liver, and then to her spleen.

My friend Connie and our other friend Sandy went to see her a few of weeks ago, and she'd told me that Gail looked really good then. When I spoke with her last night, though, she said that Gail's abdomen had been very swollen from the cancer in her organs.

Last week, I had to call and say I couldn't come to stitching because Isaac was still sick. Connie told me then that Gail had been in the hospital, and had been sent home with Hospice. She told me that meant she'd probably be gone within 6 months.

Last night, I had to call and say I couldn't come to stitching because I am sick, and Connie told me that Gail has been in and out of consciousness, thrashing around some when she started to wake up or her pain meds started to wear off, so the end was getting closer.

I just called Gail's sweet husband, Bob, and he told me that she's likely to pass away tonight or tomorrow. He said it's all right for me to come see her, even though I have a cold. When I asked him if there is anything he needs, he broke down. Crying, he told me he just needs his wife back. He loves her so much. I don't know what he will do when she is gone.

I'm going to miss her so much. I guess I thought there would always be more time. I didn't think this day would really come.

Go in peace, my friend. Heaven will be a more beautiful place with your sweet soul in it.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-02-11T15:23:00.000-05:00

Playing Outside in February - Crazy!

2009-02-11T15:13:00.001-05:00

We've been having the most amazing weather - high 70's in February. Who would have thought? Actually, we often do have warm spells in February in North Carolina. It's just a teaser, though, and we will have some more normal, cooler spring weather soon.

In the meantime, we're taking advantage of this fabulous weather and trying to spend lots of time outside every day. The kids have a blast on the playset that the grandparents helped us buy a few years ago. I didn't think we needed one, initially, because we have a great park in our neighborhood. Once we started homeschooling, though, having our own playset in the backyard has been a tremendous blessing.

Emma and Abbie are such awesome sisters! They are always ready to help Isaac - maybe a little more than he needs. Emma was very cautious with him as he climbed up to slide down the slide:

He LOVED sliding! Don't you just love the tongue action?

Abbie loves to help him swing on the "big boy" swings, too. She never pushes him high at all, but he thinks he is big stuff.

Farewell, Dear Friend

2009-02-10T17:14:00.002-05:00

My dear friend, Faith Vlcek, was killed in a car accident this morning on her way to work. I received an email this morning from another friend in Michigan. We both used to work with Faith.

The article I found online said the roads were slippery, she lost control, and ran into a fence. A piece of the fence struck her in the head.

I haven't seen Faith in several years, though we've kept in touch with Christmas cards and such. We used to work together at the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan. She was a sweet, kind, caring person. She was always willing to lend a hand and step in where she could.

I know her daughter, Beth, and her 2 granddaughters will miss her terribly. I feel like this must be happening in an alternate reality. Surely my friend isn't really gone, you know?

Rest in peace, Faith. I will miss you. The world was a better place with you in it, dear one.

My Budding Sous Chef

2009-02-02T15:25:00.004-05:00

One tried and true toddler entertainment method is to give them a pot and a wooden spoon and let them bang on it. Isaac used to love to do that. Now, for noise making purpses, he prefers to crash two pot lids together. When I give him a pot, he gets vey excited.

Emma likes to put an apron on him. He's very serious about his cooking.

He's sure to taste his creations before offering them to the rest of the family.

This Week In Review

2009-01-30T22:08:00.004-05:00

This was a pretty good week! I threatened the girls with losing horse lessons for 2 weeks if they didn't shape up, and amazingly, we got a lot of school done. My goal is to have school be a drama-free zone. [Insert hysterical laughter]

We started subtraction in math this week, after much deliberation about moving on before addition facts were mastered. We're still working on the facts, but they understand how to add, and it's just time to move on. Both girls told me they think subtraction is way more fun than addition. I'm confounded by this, but hey, if they think math is fun, I'm all for it!

We've also been working on our alphabet books for the girls' class with Mrs. Crane. They were due last week, but I didn't realize that in addition to their rhymes and pictures, they were also supposed to write a paragraph of information using the research they did on their animals. I helped them work on writing them. Actually, I wrote the paragraphs, and then decided that it would probably be pretty obvious that they didn't do them on their own - heh - so now we're working on them again. Abbie and I got her American Avocet paragraph done - probably a little more mom-like than it should be, but we got everything in there she wanted to say. Tomorrow we will do her Indigo Bunting paragraph, and Emma will finish hers so we can get them typed and they can draw their pictures.

We did some fun physics experiments with air this week. Next week I need to remember to have them draw some stuff for their science notebooks.

The Snort is feeling much better this week, thankfully. He's still working on cutting molars on top of having a cold (2 down, 2 to go) so we still have copious amounts of snot flowing around here, but no more fevers or scary breathing. He still wheezes, but my understanding of this RSV thing is that he could potentially wheeze for up to 6 weeks. Have nebulizer, will force him to sit and take breathing treatments.

I finished my first toe-up sock this week - that felt like a major accomplishment! Sadly, when I bound it off, it was too tight to get onto my foot. My very good friend and fellow sock knitter, Melissa, told me of a niftier and stretchier cast-off, so I undid mine. However, when I read the instructions, they are written for a K1 P1 rib, rather than a K2 P1 rib like I had knitted. I have not one clue how to adjust the technique to suit the rib I knitted, so I took it out and am in the process of knitting the K1 P1 rib so I can do the tubular bind off.

And, last but not least, I got a new cell phone! It is very cool, and very purple. I downloaded "Drift Away" by Dobie Gray to be my ring tone. Todd is working on getting the rocked out version of "Hedwig's Theme" for me - it's on the phone but we can't figure out how to make it a ring tone yet. I had a lot of fun playing with my new phone today, and the Snort even managed to make a call with it.

That's about it for us! I hope to get pictures of our snow days up soon. I am such a slacker blogger...

All The Pretty Little (Imaginary) Horses

2009-01-25T21:51:00.001-05:00

This afternoon, the girls were out playing with our neighbors, having a grand time, I thought. At one point, Abbie came stomping up the stairs, obviously not pleased with the way things were going. I asked her what was wrong, and she informed me that she was being TORTURED outside. When I asked her what was going on, she told me that Emma had been yanking on her shirt and yelling at her, because they were playing something Emma didn't want to play. I opened up a window and asked Emma what was going on. Here is a record of our conversation.

Me: Em, why were you yelling at your sister?

Emma: I told her she can't ride any of my imaginary horses!

Me: Are you really telling me that you were hitting your sister because she was pretending to ride your imaginary horses?

Emma: I love horses! What's your point?

Me: Do you know how silly it sounds when you tell me you're upset with your sister for riding your imaginary horses?

Emma: SHE CAN'T RIDE THEM!

Me: If you can't play nicely with your sister, Sydney can go home and you can come in and take a nap. Do you understand me?

Emma: Sulky look, nods.

Me: You will say, "Yes, Mom, I will be nice to my sister."

Emma: (grudgingly) Yes, Mom I will be nice to my sister.

Me: (Still wondering if I am actually having this conversation)OK then.

After I finished this interesting discussion with Emma, I told Abbie that she should stop trying to ride Emma's imaginary horses. I suggested that she make up her own horses to ride, since we both knew she was doing it to push her sister's buttons. She grinned at me and went back outside. That was the last I heard on the issue.

Trip to the ER

2009-01-23T20:50:00.002-05:00

Poor Snort has had a tough couple of weeks. Two weeks ago yesterday, we were at the doctor because he had a cold, and was wheezing with retractions. They loaned us a nebulizer, and we got some Albuterol, and he was better in a couple of days.

Then, Wednesday, the snot production went up exponentially - not much like a tiny boy getting over a cold at all - and his eyes had green goo in them. Back to the doctor we went, because he'd been waking up at night too. They didn't find anything wrong. Yesterday, though, there was more wheezing and retractions, and lo and behold, the doctor found an ear infection, too. This time we got to purchase a nebulizer. Thank you, God, for good insurance! And, the doctor said we get to come back next week and talk about an asthma plan. She said people who wheeze when they get colds are called asthmatics. To quote one of my very favorite children's books, "This did not make his mother happy at all." I don't want my boy to have asthma.

But, I digress. That evening, I'd laid him down to sleep for a while. He woke up around 9 pm with a 104.7F degree fever, breathing very quickly and his poor little heart was beating like a drum. He woke up crying, "All done, all done!" It just broke my heart. A breathing treatment and ibuprofen didn't improve the situation, so after a couple of calls to the after-hours nurse line I took him to the pediatric ER.

Naturally, when we got out into the cold air, he perked right up and chattered all the way to the hospital. He was still having pretty good retractions when we got there, though, so we got in to see a doctor pretty quickly. They gave him acetaminophen, oral steroids, and another breathing treatment. Withing minutes, he was jumping on the bed and using the raised head as a slide, saying "Whee!" On the other hand, I could barely keep my eyes open. I was glad to see him feeling better, though.

The ER doctor diagnosed him officially with RSV. We were there for quite a while, because even though he looked and acted better, his blood oxygen levels just wouldn't come back up. Finally, the nurse put the little monitor thingy on his other toe, and the levels came right up so they released us. He was much better today, no more scary fevers. Phew!

The Eagles - Long Road Out Of Eden Tour - Greensboro, NC, January 17, 2009o

2009-01-18T19:42:00.006-05:00

Todd and I went to see the Eagles in concert last night. The show was FABULOUS. I have to say that I was struck by how old all the guys looked - they are all 60 or 61 (I looked it up). I asked Todd if he could picture our dads up there rockin' out, and we both giggled at the mental picture. It made no difference to the performance, though.

The band came on stage wearing dark suits and ties. It was not what I would consider typical concert attire, but they did look sharp and it was perhaps appropriate for men in their 60's. After the break, they did remove their jackets.

Here is the playlist. I had to Google it, because I didn't have anything to write on. Here is the link to a pretty good blog review of the show I found (aside from some spelling errors and the fact that Don Henley announced the break, not Glen Frey).

1. “How Long”
2. “Busy Being Fabulous”
3. “I Don’t Want to Hear Anymore”
4. “Guilty of the Crime”
5. “Hotel California”
6. “Peaceful Easy Feeling”
7. “I Can’t Tell You Why”
8. “Witchy Woman”
9. “Lyin’ Eyes”
10. “Boys of Summer”
11. “In the City”
12. “The Long Run”

Intermission

13. “No More Walks in the Woods”
14. “Waiting in the Weeds”
15. “No More Cloudy Days”
16. “Love Will Keep Us Alive”
17. “Take It to the Limit”
18. “Long Road out of Eden”
19. “Somebody”
20. “Walk Away”
21. “One of These Nights”
22. “Life’s Been Good”
23. “Dirty Laundry”
24. “Funk #49”
25. “Heartache Tonight”
26. “Life in the Fast Lane”
27. “Rocky Mountain Way”
28. “All She Wants To Do Is Dance”

Encore
29. “Take It Easy”
30. “Desperado”

What a show! It was 3 hours long, and we still felt as if they'd just gotten started when they were done. I missed hearing "Wasted Time," "Best of My Love," and Don Henley's "Heart of the Matter." Todd and I also thought it was interesting that Glen Frey didn't do any of his solo stuff. In the past, we've heard "Smuggler's Blues" and "You Belong to the City."

The Eagles are known, I believe, for their amazing harmonies. They didn't disappoint last night, particularly with their acoustic set - they sang five songs beautifully, as only they can: “No More Walks in the Woods,” “Waiting in the Weeds,” “No More Cloudy Days,” “Love Will Keep Us Alive,” and “Take It to the Limit.” Interestingly, Glen Frey sang "Take It to the Limit," so they had to change the key for him. How do I know this? I really like to sing along to that song, and I had a hard time - the key wasn't low enough for me to take it up an octave, and it was too low for me to sing comfortably along with them.

For some reason, we don't yet own the album for this tour, "Long Road Out Of Eden." According to our program, it's the first album they've released with new content in 28 years. Doesn't sound like a big deal, perhaps, but I really like to be able to sing along and there were several songs I didn't know due to this oversight. Todd ordered the album today and I will be learning the lyrics shortly. (This is important so I can sing along when we see them next time - you know, when they're all about 70. Heh.)

One of the most fun parts of any Eagles concert is Joe Walsh. When he came up to sing "Life's Been Good," he said to the crowd, "This is the song your parents played all the time when you were growing up. It's why you're a little bit odd. Wanna hear it again?" The whole crowd laughed. He likes to make up new lyrics, too, and this time he sang, "I have a limo, ride in the back; My rubber duck, it doesn't go quack!" Good ol' Joe.

I did have a new experience for me at this concert. It was the first time I saw a crowd of people whip out their cell phones rather than their lighters for a song - I think it was "Desperado." I have heard of this phenomenon, but had not experienced it previously.

I took some pictures with my cell phone, and Todd's, and I'm working on getting them off to see how they look. I hope to post a couple. I know I got a pretty good shot of the "Hotel California" stage background, and I think some pretty good ones with Todd's phone. His phone has zoom, but I did not know that until he gave it to me for the second half of the concert. My phone does not, so my pictures are a bit questionable. We shall see.

Finally, I would like to make a suggestion to those folks sitting behind us last night. If you're thinking about coming to another rock concert expecting to sit down through the entire thing, you should consider staying home and renting the DVD when it comes out. At the very least, try to get tickets in the "old fart" section, because that's where you should sit. My mom assured me today that if she and my dad had not had me to educate them about rock concerts, they would not have known that people like to stand up, dance and sing and that expecting the audience to sit through everything is just silly. You have been duly informed.

Update!

2009-01-09T22:01:00.002-05:00

Wow, it's been a long time since I blogged about anything! Audrey made my beautiful new blog, and everything, and I've been ignoring it. I need to finish posts about Emma's ballet performance, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, among other things, but I haven't organized the photos yet. I will just post a quick note about what's going on this very week.

Last Sunday after church, our van decided to die in the BJ's parking lot. We were just turning into a row of parking spaces when the van seemed to go spontaneously into neutral. Todd had to get out and push it into a parking spot - or, at least as close as we could get to one. Nothing we did made any difference - it would not go into 2nd, or 1st, or reverse. We tried turning it off and on several times. After many phone calls to see who might be available to rescue us, my Tonna came and took me home to get the Mountaineer, while Todd waited with the kids and the BJ's haul for the tow truck. Once they came and took the van, he walked over to Moe's Southwest Grill, where I met him for lunch. Come to find out, the transmission pump shaft failed. After a week at the Ford dealership and much discussion about whether we wanted a different car altogether, Ariel Mermaid (our 2003 Ford Winstar) is safely back in the driveway. Emma is relieved, because she was traumatized at the thought of getting a different car.

The girls had 3 days of a creative writing class this week, under the expert tutelage of Mrs. Carol Crane, who taught their previous class. They enjoyed it very much, and are excited to work on the A is for Animal book the class will be writing together. They have to decide which animals they want to use for their letters (Abbie has A and B; Emma has O, P and Q) and research them over the next week when the class doesn't meet. When they get back together, they're going to put together their book with rhymes for each animal, including illustrations. I think it will be a wonderful project.

Isaac has contracted some kind of nasty virus. We were at the doctor's office twice yesterday. He has had fevers, and sounds wheezy, and has generally been cranky and not at all like his sweet little self. At our first appointment, the doctor checked his blood oxygen level, and it was fine. He told me to watch for retractions, which would indicate he was having trouble breathing, and sent us home. Not too much later, I noticed said retractions, and when I called the office, the nurse told me to bring him right in. His blood oxygen level was still pretty good, but they gave him a nebulizer treatment, and sent us home with the nebulizer and a prescription for albuterol. The breathing treatments have really helped the wheezing, which makes me feel a whole lot better. He seems to be better today, with much less feverishness and slightly better spirits. He did throw up twice this morning, thanks to copious amounts of snot and a sensitive gag reflex, but overall, I think he's on the mend.

I am working on my very first sock knitted from the toe up. I am using the Widdershins pattern from Knitty, without the cables for at least the first sock. I may try the cables on the second one. I had a heckito of a time getting the first sock started, and after a snafu with the cables, I decided to just figure out the toe-up sock thing and not get fancy this time. I'm still looking for the perfect patterns for my Harry Potter sock yarn, my very favorite Christmas gift from Grammy and Papa! Many of the patterns I like are knit toe-up, and it is a good way to make sure you knit a sock that works with how much yarn you have. I have, however, found some top down patterns that I like as well, and given how much angst as this toe-up sock has caused, I may stick with top down. We will see.

That's about all the scintillating news from our house this week! Hope you're all doing well! I will try to get some new pictures up - I have some great ones of the Snort and noodles.

Recitation and Tea

2008-11-17T23:02:00.005-05:00

This year, we're taking part in a wonderful co-op based on Charlotte Mason's principles of teaching. We meet twice per month, and each time one of the mothers presents a lesson on their chosen topic in a child-friendly way. It's been a lot of fun.

Today, we had our Recitation and Tea presentation. First, each child presented a piece of their choice, and then we had a lovely tea party with all kinds of treats brought in by some of the moms.

The girls each chose to recite one of the Psalms we've been memorizing for school. Emma did Psalm 1, and Abbie did Psalm 134. I'm going to try to post the videos of them. They both did an excellent job. Neither one seemed nervous when we talked about what they were going to do, so we just practiced a lot and I thought everyone was ready to go.

When it came time for Emma to recite, however, she looked at me with huge, terrified eyes and told me she wasn't going to do it! We had a brief, intense, whispered discussion, ending in the compromise that I would stand up with her. I thought she was going to faint, or cry, or throw up; possibly all three of those things. However, in true Emma fashion, she came through with flying colors. She clung to my hand for all she was worth, but once she started speaking, she said her piece perfectly. She didn't even falter when someone's cell phone started ringing. I am so proud of her!

Abbie went up by herself to recite, but you can probably tell from the video that she was quite nervous, too. Her face was very pale. She did a fabulous job too, though. I am proud as can be! Abbie is an amazing kid. First of all, when I told her she needed to select something to recite, we'd just started working on Psalm 134. She looked at it, told me that's what she was going to do, and then proceeded to have it memorized in less than 5 minutes. Also, she's my introvert, and she gets *really* nervous about anything involving being in front of other people. She never complains, though, and somehow knows how to get through it and do what she needs to do to get the job done.

Check out my Halloweenies!

2008-11-03T13:34:00.008-05:00

The kids had a great time on Halloween, I think. We ditched school for the day, because we were all so excited that Todd was coming home, and also we were SO over staring at each other, it wasn't worth it. I did take them to Learning Express, where they chose to spend their gift cards from Grammy and Papa on what else but new Webkinz? Isaac got some magnetic gears with his.

I had to do a little work on Isaac's costume, even though we bought it at Target. The elastic in the hood was so tight, it squished his poor little face!

He did not think he should have to wear it.

Once I got it fixed, though, he was cute as could be!

The trick-or-treaters started coming before we even turned on the porch light. I was still finishing up sewing on Abbie's cloak. It wouldn't be Halloween if I wasn't sewing until the girls were walking out the door, you know. Emma got Isaac into his costume, and he toddled around while the girls were getting ready, fully expecting to be included in the plan, whatever it might have been. Needless to say, he was NOT impressed when they left without him!

After a little while dealing with the kids at my door, I decided to put the candy on my porch and take the Snort on a little trick-or-treat adventure of his own. He was so happy to be outside walking like a big boy. We started out next door with Papa Louie, who was visiting from Ohio, and was handing out candy for our neighbor, Dave. He was appropriately adoring of my tiny punkin and spent a lot of time telling me how cute he is. I do love Papa Louie! We went on to a couple more houses, and Isaac was sure each time that we were going inside for a visit, rather than just collecting loot and moving on. It was pretty funny. We ended up sitting and chatting with a couple of neighbors at the 4th stop we made, until the boy was too tired to take any more, and then we headed home. My candy bowl was empty - woo hoo! - so we went inside, turned off the porch light, and went upstairs for a bath.

Todd and the girlies went out with our neighbors, Mike and Terri, who also have 2 girls around Emma & Abbie's age. Todd has a much better time when he can talk to other adults, and the girls, of course, love anything involving friends. Todd got comments on wearing his Redwings jersey again - who knew people would remember what he wore out last year? He wears it as a jacket, but clearly it's a handy excuse for a costume, too.

Here are the girlies in their costumes:

Emma was a traveling princess, and Abbie was the fairy Silver Mist from the Disney fairies. I made Emma's entire costume, and Abbie's cloak.

Here is Emma at the Halloween Parade in our neighborhood:

Here is Abbie with her wings on, which she refused to wear after this one time because they "dig into her pits:"

They got more candy than they will ever be allowed to eat. I believe a good time was had by all!

Oh my goodness!

2008-10-30T09:50:00.002-05:00

I have begun knitting in the last couple of years - I've posted a couple of projects here and there. I did try knitting socks this summer, and was delighted to finish one... only to be faced with knitting the other one. It didn't do much for me, I must confess. I've knitted a couple of pairs of baby socks, and those were fun. They were quick to knit up and so cute when they were done! My Norah Jane got one pair that was too big for the Snort, and my Joshua got the other pair that were too small for him. One of these days, I will manage to knit a pair for him that will fit.

My lovely friend Melissa is addicted to knitting socks, and recently told me about a nifty pattern on Knitty called Widdershins, which is a toe-up, gusset-heel pattern that sounds like it would solve some of the inherent issues I've had with knitting socks.

And... I found THIS.

You have to go look. Really. It's so worth your time.

Harry Potter sock yarn! Yes indeedy! I love all the colors, even Draco (and I really hate him). I've been listening to the audio books again, from the beginning, and I'm up to book 6. That's probably why I feel inspired to knit HP socks. I thought about knitting them for other people, but you know, I can't think of anyone who would truly appreciate them and I want them all.

Phew.

2008-10-29T20:53:00.003-05:00

I might qualify as a slacker mom this week. With Todd in San Jose, I had thought we'd do lots and lots of school, so that we'd have something to do and be distracted from missing him. Instead, I find myself hiding upstairs a lot playing Safari Scrap on Facebook. I've made them do math and handwriting, we did read a little history, and we even did spelling today. Woo hoo! Tomorrow and Friday, we will be getting out THE LISTS so we make sure we get to everything. I can't ignore school just because I miss my sweetie.

Isaac has been so funny this week. As I watched him in the bath last night, he reached for his bar of soap. I said "No, no!" because I didn't want him to eat it. He didn't pick it up though. He just rubbed it, then rubbed his hands together. He rubbed the soap again, and rubbed his tummy. He was washing himself! It was adorable.

Also, when I unpacked the big box o' diapers and put the extra packages under his crib, he dragged the box over and proceeded to pull them out and put them back into the box for me. Wasn't that nice of him? He's so helpful.

He also likes to play with the dishwasher. If one doesn't pay attention while one has the door open, one might find him standing on said door. He loves to get his little spoons from the silverware basket, and lately has taken to pulling the entire basket out so he has better access to it. He loves to put things into and out of it.

And, wonder of wonders, he's started saying "Mama" all the time! He has been able to say it for a while, just wasn't terribly interested. He is so not a show-off yet. He *can* say lots of things and has several cute tricks - he just won't do them on demand. It's no fun to be able to tell people that he can High 5 when he won't play!

Last week and the week before, the girls took a creative writing class with author Carol Crane. She is such a neat lady! First of all, she is from Michigan, which makes her fabulous from the get-go. Also, she has an amazing way with children. She helps them see how much fun it is to put their words in writing, and really encourages them and makes them feel so good about their work. She spent a lot of time with each of them, and gave them each a book she'd chosen out for them at the end of the class.

I'd wanted Emma to take the class, particularly, because she is my perfectionist who doesn't want to write anything down ever in case she makes a mistake. I hoped that working with Carol would help build her confidence. It really did! She got to write about the things she loves - horses and ballet - and found it to be fun, too. She's been willing to write in her "journal" - one good thing each day. I have to remember to remind them to do that, come to think of it...

Abbie took the class too. Originally I didn't think she would, because it was supposed to be for ages 8 and up, but really, she's the one who loves to write. She's already written a book about a snooty butterfly who got turned back into a caterpillar for being snarky. She *loved* the class, wrote copiously, and was so proud when I typed out her story and poem that she was to read at the presentation. Interestingly, she was quite sad after the readings. She felt that she didn't write as much as some of the others and didn't think Mrs. Crane called on her to read as much as the other kids. I tried to explain that she was one of the youngest in the group, and of course the older kids wrote more! She did excellently for a 7 year old and I'm so proud of her! I am not sure what the sadness was about. Maybe just letdown from the class ending? She did tell me she wished it could be all the time.

We're looking forward to Halloween. Emma's costume is finished and I need to get Abbie's cloak sewn in case it's cold. Isaac's costume is snuggy and warm so he should be good, if Daddy is brave enough to take him out for a bit. We'll see.

All right - I am DETERMINED to make it to bed on the early side tonight so I'm going to sign off. May the force be with you.

Audrey gave my blog an award!

2008-10-26T21:36:00.006-05:00

Isn't she the sweetest? Not only did she fix it up all pretty-like with sunflowers, she gave it a prize.

Here are the details of the award: “This blog invests and believes, in ‘proximity’ [meaning, that blogging makes us 'close' - being close through proxy] "They are all charming blogs, and the majority of them aim to show the marvels of friendship; there are persons who are not interested when we give them a prize, and then they help to cut these bows; do we want that they are cut, or that they propagate?" Then let’s try to give more attention to them! So with this prize we must deliver it to eight bloggers that in turn must make the same thing and put this text.”

So, here are my nominees:
1. Susan - because she and William are making the world a smaller place by bringing Benaiah home from Ethiopia.
2. Leslie-Jean - because she is nifty cool, and also has brought two girlies home from China.
3. Anj - because she's so much fun.
4. Melissa - because I heart her! And she knits the coolest socks.
5. Sarah - because she can knit anything, work on her doctorate, and STILL homeschool.
6. Jessica - because her blog is an inspiration to homeschoolers.
7. Remudamom - because I love her horses (and my girls do too). And she's FUNNY. And fun.
8. Jill - because she's a hoot!

Creative Writing Class

2008-10-24T21:52:00.010-05:00

The girls had a wonderful opportunity over the last two weeks to take a creative writing class with Mrs. Carol Crane, an author for Sleeping Bear Press. She is a lovely woman. She's from Michigan, so that wins her some cool points right off the bat. She also writes wonderful children's books. She was so good with the kids - very encouraging, and knew just how to critique their writing so that they would want to fix it instead of feeling hurt. Anyone who can accomplish that with my girls is a miracle worker in my book!

Carol had each child write a story about themselves, and a poem. If I have time and I remember, I will come back and put them in here for you. They were so cute.

On the last day of class, the girls got to give their presentations. They cracked me up with their choices in outfits for the occasion - pants, athletic socks and their church shoes. Bless them, they are so cute!

Here is Abbie showcasing her unique sense of style:

Emma had a good time reading her stories, too:

And here is a picture of my girlies with Carol. She did a fabulous job with the class.

Abbie was quite disappointed when the class ended. She told me she wished it could be every day. Both girls are looking forward to taking the next round of their creative writing class with Carol in January.

And, just for fun, here is a gratuitous Schmooey picture. He was so funny. Everyone looked forward to seeing him when he came to class!

El Greco To Velasquez - Or, Fun at the Art Museum with a Toddler

2008-10-23T21:04:00.004-05:00

We went on a field trip today to the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, to see the El Greco to Velasquez exhibit. The art is from the 1600's in Spain, during the reign of Philip III. It was during the time of the Spanish Inquisition, so the art is very Catholic and mystical. El Greco was known for painting his people tall and thin, almost ethereal.

But I digress. When we got there, I learned that I would not be able to take the stroller in for the baby, nor would they allow me to put him in the backpack. That discovery was a bit disconcerting. It had not occurred to me that I wouldn't be able to contain him in some fashion. (For the record, the museum does have this information posted on their website, and my friend Betsy who organized the trip also told us in her email. I did not read either of these pieces of information. The situation was entirely my fault and I do accept responsibility.) Oh well, I thought, I will just hold his hand, or pick him up when we stop to look at a painting.

When we got to the door, the very nice docent told us that there were lines on the floor that told us how far away we should be from the painting. Lines on the floor? Um - okay. We went in and sure enough, there were lines approximately 18 inches from the paintings. Some of them did have low, stretchy wire barriers around them to enforce the distance rule. Most of the paintings were not covered in glass. I had visions of priceless artwork covered in toddler slobber.

It quickly became apparent that Isaac was not interested in holding my hand. When I would try to grab his, he would flap his hands in the air and move away from me as fast as his little legs would go. When I tried to hold him, he said "NA NA NA NA NA NA!" in a loud, so-not-interested-in-quiet-perusal-of-fine-art tone of voice. He seemed to view the galleries as large, fairly open obstacle courses and took delight in careening around the other patrons, most of whom were older, child-free, and attempting to listen to the audio guide for the exhibit. When I noticed a (very kind) security guard following us, I decided it was probably time for Isaac and I to find something else to do.

Betsy, bless her, took her 2 boys (and her baby who still fits in a sling), my 2 girls, and our friend Neve's 3 boys through the exhibit. Neve and I took Isaac and her 2 little girls out to play in the grass and sunshine in front of the museum. I was delighted to have paid $15 for my ticket to play in the grass. Heh. Actually, I think it worked out to be a good thing. Betsy had done a lot of research about the exbhibit, because she'd presented on it to our co-op the previous week. And, I am not really a museum kinda gal (as you could probably gather from my cluelessness regarding the stroller situation). I did purchase the "book" - which has pictures of the art I missed plus a lot of history. We've enjoyed looking at it and discussing what we learned. Or, what they learned.

Changing Tradition, and Not for the Better

2008-10-22T13:16:00.003-05:00

My girls surprised me today by singing some alternative lyrics to "Jingle Bells." You remember the ones we used to sing, right? The version I learned went like this:

Jingle bells, Batman smells
Robin laid an egg
The Batmobile lost its wheel
And the Joker got away!

For some reason, Jingle Bells was in my head this morning so I sang the regular words, jingling all the way in a sleigh and all that. The girls serenaded me with this verse:

Jingle bells, Batman smells
Robin laid an egg
Shot a tree and made it pee
In 1983

Now, those words are clearly just wrong. I told them they are not allowed to sing it that way.

I made them change it to 1988 so the rhyme felt right. So there.

Check this out!

2008-10-22T09:23:00.004-05:00

Someone on the Well-Trained Mind board posted about this very cool tie chair. Here is a blog post where you can enter to win one - drawing is tomorrow, October 23! I think everyone with small, wiggly children should have one of these. It would make going out to lunch, dinner, etc. so much easier, wouldn't it? And Schmooey would love to use it at home, because it would allow him to sit in a big chair like his sisters. He thinks he's just all that when he gets to sit at the table with them. What a fabulous invention!

Just in case you live locally, and you don't happen to be the lucky winner of the drawing, The Green Pea Nursery in Apex sells them.

And you wonder why I want to move back?

2008-09-29T10:06:00.002-05:00

Congratulations, you are 95% Michigan!

Congratulations, when it comes to you and Michigan, you know your stuff! You must drink pop, vacation "up north", and enjoy the many special seasons Michigan has to offer. Maybe you should write your own Michigan quiz!

How Michigan are you?
Take More Quizzes

That last 5% is only because I don't live there anymore!

(Can you tell I'm avoiding school? La, la, la......)

What American Accent Are YOU?

2008-09-29T10:03:00.000-05:00

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
Philadelphia
The Northeast
The Midland
The South
Boston
The West
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Schmooey is WALKING!

2008-09-28T22:31:00.002-05:00

Fun with Snails

2008-09-17T23:11:00.002-05:00

This week for our nature study, we looked at snails. The girls and I went outside and dug around under rocks and things, and we actually found some! They were very small - you can see the penny on their plate for size reference. Two of them were probably about 1/4" in diameter, and the littlest one maybe slightly more than 1/8".

The girls really got into watching them! We read about them in The Handbook of Nature Study, and we enjoyed seeing them check things out with their eyes and do the things the book described. The tiniest snail had a clear part at the end of its shell, which I believe showed that it was adding onto its home because it was growing.

We put a little slice of very ripe nectarine in with them, because the book said to give them pulpy fruit. They all checked it out, but I'm not sure they ate any of it. One of them seemed to, but then it decided to check out more of the new surroundings.

It was interesting to watch them climb the glass. One of the larger ones crawled right over to the edge of the glass, twisted itself into some amazing contortions, and then attached itself to the side of the glass about 1/4" above the plate. The other "big" snail took a little longer to come out, but when it did, we called it the "adventurous soul," because it climbed right to the top of the glass and then all around inside it. The tiny snail took the longest time to come out, but when it did, it also made a thorough exploration of the glass.

School This Week

2008-09-12T15:48:00.003-05:00

We had a great week of school! The girls were MUCH better behaved this week. (It probably helps that I told them I'd get them the new Barbie movie as a prize if they behaved, but still.)

We got math done every day. Woo hoo! We're using Math-U-See this year, and they love it so far. The blocks are a lot of fun. We started with Alpha, which is technically 1st grade math, and we're already on lesson 8 (should be about 1 lesson per week). We were cruising through a lesson a day at first, but we've slowed down a bit now that we've reached math facts and such so we can get in extra practice. My plan is to get through Alpha and Beta this year, and hopefully start on Gamma during the summer.

We also got some grammar done. Emma is doing First Language Lessons 3, and Abbie and I are continuing with First Language Lessons 1/2. They both do well with their work.

We even did some science this week! Last week's science experiment was supposed to involve planting some dried kidney beans. We did it this week on Thursday. Also, this week we started reading about leaves. Our book showed an experiment we tried to replicate. First, we had to choose leaves; Abbie chose sassafras and Emma chose sweet gum (I think):

First, we had to boil the leaves:

Then they had to soak in alcohol, and be kept warm, so we put the bowl of alcohol into another bowl of hot water:

The chlorophyll was supposed to come out of the leaves. It did, a little bit. The leaf in the book turned mostly white. We used a sweet gum leaf, which definitely faded, and a sassafras leaf, which didn't look like it changed at all.

You can see that the alcohol did get a little green, though. So, we got some results and I think the girls thought it was interesting.

We've been having a little trouble with history. We're using Living Books Curriculum which is a Charlotte Mason-based curriculum. Charlotte Mason advocated living books (see how tricky that is - Living Books Curriculum uses living books). I got this definition of a living book from Simply Charlotte Mason:

What is a “living book”?

Living books are usually written by one person who has a passion for the subject and writes in conversational or narrative style. The books pull you into the subject and involve your emotions, so it’s easy to remember the events and facts. Living books make the subject “come alive.” They can be contrasted to dry writing, like what is found in most encyclopedias or textbooks, which basically lists informational facts in summary form.

We're supposed to be studying Ancient Egypt and the Revolutionary War. However, as we began to dig into our books, we were confused. For example, our book on the Revolutionary War jumps right in to Taxation Without Representation. There is no background information on the colonies or what was going on. It was frustrating and I could not explain it well.

After talking it over with the girls, we decided that we would like to study American history from the beginning. I came to the conclusion that we needed a history "spine" book, one that will present an overall picture of both our world history and our American history. I have several books that will work, and we started out with A Child's History of the World by Hillyer. It's a wonderful book. We read about Egypt and we read about the Vikings and Columbus. I have some other books that I'll be pulling in, as well. Even though I was frustrated at first, now I feel empowered as a teacher to make changes that will make the curriculum work better for us, and it's a good feeling.

We didn't start spelling yet. We're adding that in next week. We also need to add in art and music. We will be using All About Spelling again this year, which we LOVE. For art, we have Artistic Pursuits (K-3 book 1), and I'm really excited about it. For music and composer study, we will use The Story of the Orchestra, along with Themes to Remember from Classical Magic. Todd looked at Themes to Remember and thinks it is very cool. We also have Story of the Orchestra, which comes with a nifty CD - I think they will go well together.

Gnomes for Ethiopia - again!

2008-09-10T08:33:00.002-05:00

Here is a picture of a completed gnome. Isn't it cute?

After I posted asking for volunteers on the Well-Trained Mind board, I got lots of questions. I've tried to answer everything concisely for you.

1. Knit a gnome (or two)! The pattern I've been using is here. There is also a top-down pattern here.

2. Yarn: We'd prefer natural fibers, but we will take what we can get. This is a great scrap yarn project!

3. Since the gnomes are going to lovely chocolate-colored children, the faces should be tan or brown.

4. NO BELLS. These are for babies and the bells are a choking hazard.

4. My friends will tentatively travel around October 24. Please mail completed gnomes by October 17, to be sure they get here in time.

5. If you don't like sewing all those pieces together, either try the top-down pattern or send your pieces to me. Please send pieces by October 10 so I'll be sure to have time to put them together!

You can email me through the blog and I'll send you my address. I'm really excited that so many people are going to knit gnomes! Thank you!

Baby food or not: What to do, what to do....

2008-09-09T16:31:00.003-05:00

I went to Target today and bought some baby food, because they had it on pretty good sale. We usually get boxes of the stuff at BJ's, but I do like to give the Snort a little more variety than 3 kinds of veggies (2 orange kinds), 3 kinds of fruits, and then the little "dinners" he likes so well, which are orange veggies and meat of some kind.

When my grocery bill came out to be $115, and I'd mostly bought baby food, I nearly fainted! I probably did go a little overboard, but we go through it pretty quickly and I thought it might be the last time we needed to buy it.

After thinking about it though, I am going to return it. I feel like Schmooey doesn't feed himself enough that I can let him just have finger food, but my sister assures me that if I stop giving him baby food, he will figure it out soon enough. I'll still give him cereal, yogurt, and applesauce. Additionally, he will usually eat some of our dinner, whether it's just cut up into tiny pieces, or put through the food processor so I can give it to him with a spoon.

I suppose my great debate has been whether or not I want to wean him. On the one hand, he still seems so tiny (perhaps a 30 lb 1-year-old does not seem tiny to YOU, but when he's not standing next to anyone else's 1-year-old I can pretend). On the other hand, he occasionally bites me. Hard. He's drawn blood. I have a strong sense of self-preservation, and I have to tell you, each time he's done that I go through the weaning debate! If I take away baby food, he's going to nurse more.

I finally decided I'm OK with that, though. I don't really want him to wean. He's my last baby and I am happy to keep him that way for as long as possible. He's too busy to cuddle most of the time, so our nursing time is ever so precious to me.

The next great debate: Church nursery, or no church nursery? Stay tuned for late breaking developments.

Gnomes for Ethiopia!

2008-09-06T18:36:00.005-05:00

My very good friend Susan (and the rest of her family) are adopting a beautiful baby boy from Ethiopia. He will get to come home sometime in November, we think.

In the meantime, Susan and I are trying to knit a bunch of little gnomes for her to take with her. She'd like to be able to give one to the families they travel with, and we'd like to be able to send one for each child at the orphanage - around 100 gnomes in all, I believe.

We've been using this pattern at Knit Witts, and Cream & Sugar yarn (natural fibers and inexpensive). However, you could use scrap yarn - we aren't picky. We've been making the faces either tan or brown, because they will be going to lovely chocolate-colored babies.

I would love to enlist some other folks to knit a gnome or two. They really take very little time. Please let me know if you'd be willing!

They will tentatively travel around October 24th, so you'd want to mail them to me by October 17th, just to be sure they get here on time. And, if you get the pieces knitted but don't want to sew them together, send them to me a week or so earlier and I will sew them up for you.

First Day Of School

2008-09-01T17:33:00.003-05:00

Our first day of school today was a bit of a bust. I did not get up early - got to bed late, baby was up in the night, no alarm because it was Labor Day, you know. By the time I got a shower and was ready to roll, it was nearly 11 am.

We did have fun with math - we started Math-U-See this morning, and the girls loved using the blocks. Additionally, we started with a level that is below where they probably are, so that we can get used to the method. It's easy for them, and they like that. I'm hoping it will build Emma's confidence with math.

As we finished up math, it was lunch time. That was fine; we had sandwiches all around, and I read from our first read-aloud for the quarter, Where's Inky by Sam Campbell. You can read it online here, if you're interested. It's about a porcupine, and we like it so far!

When I tried to move the girls on to other things, though, school went downhill quickly. Emma could not seem to stop herself from complaining about every. little. thing. I reached a point that I had a nearly overwhelming urge to smack her, so I sent both girls to take a nap. That seemed to revive them somewhat, but then I needed a nap to fend off a rather bad headache. At this point, it's dinner time, so we're going to call it a day. I don't think I can take any more. Tomorrow, we will get an earlier start, some good exercise, and I will set some pretty clear expectations on behavior. I know the first 3 weeks will be rough as we get back into the swing of things, but I hope they can be better than today. I don't intend to battle with them all year like this, that's for sure.

A Year In Review

2008-08-31T15:33:00.008-05:00

Hard to believe, isn't it, that Isaac turns 1 year old today? I can't believe it, myself. A year ago today I was on some really good drugs, recovering from a c-section, holding this tiny punkin in my arms.

Of course, the nurses tried to tell me that he really was not tiny, being 9 lbs and all. But, he was tiny to me. I mean, look how wee he is in that car seat!

One month old - already holding his head up pretty well and looking around:

Two months old - already starting to fill in that car seat (and not too thrilled with the situation, either):

My sister-in-law, Jennifer, took pictures of my most adorable nephew Christopher in his car seat carrier every month so we could see how much he'd grown. I thought that was a fantastic idea. As you can see, I made it to 2 months. Wahoo!

3 months - such a serious face! I am pretty sure his expression is translated as "Woman, why are you over there when I am over here? Don't you know I should be attached to you at this time of day?"

We had his first formal pictures taken at 3 months. Wasn't he the most beautiful thing?

At four months, I made him lay in the fall leaves with his sisters. He looks happy in the picture, but that lasted for about 3 seconds. Good thing I snapped the picture at the right moment, eh?

He was 5 months old at Christmas time. He was the first baby I had who was still small enough at Christmas to fit into one of those cute little "Baby's First Christmas" outfits, so of course I put him in one, hat and all!

At 6 months, he already fit into his new duds that Grammy gave him for Christmas. The puppy hat made this little outfit, don't you think?

He learned to sit up around 7 months, and he sure did love a bath. Still does, actually. My sister-in-law, Jennifer, gave us this inflatable bath tub, and it was perfect for a boy who still tipped over every now and again.

He discovered the wonder of modern technology that is the balloon at 8 months old. We were in Michigan, and someone let him have one after my niece's confirmation. I must confess that I had not let him play with balloons prior to this, for fear of choking hazards. He had so much fun, though, that we get balloons a lot from the grocery store and let him play to his little heart's content (carefully supervised, of course).

We went to the ocean when he was about 8 months old, and he LOVED it. He didn't want to eat sand, until Emma brought him a bucket with lots of pebbles mixed it. He had a ball playing at the beach.

9 Months - LOVE that wrinkled nose! He made this face at everyone and everything for a while. It was so cute.

He was still not crawling at 10 months, but figured out how to stand himself up. I really thought he might go straight to walking.

My 11 months, though, he'd figured out that crawling thing. I shortened my Swiffer broom for him, and he seemed to take right to cleaning the floor for me.

I also gave him a wooden spoon, which turned into a Mighty Stick with which he conquered the evil black pot!

You know, when Emma was a little over 1, I gave her a pot and wooden spoon, because that's what "the book" said to do. She turned the pot over and stood in it. I'm not sure what she did with the spoon. Isaac took that spoon and STABBED that pot until it was good and dead.

Also, as soon as he learned to crawl, he ceased and desisted with laying down for a nap and going right to sleep, angel baby that he was. He would pop right back up and start cruising in his crib, chattering away. He would eventually fall asleep, though.

Doesn't that look uncomfortable? It just tickles me that he can lean straight forward and fall asleep from a sitting position. Silly boy.

All that was one short month ago. Now, he's a very grown up 1-year-old. Here he is, the birthday boy in the tub with frosting on his nose.

A phrase I've heard a lot lately is, "The days are long, but the years are short." I've known that for a long time, but it speaks directly to my heart when it comes to my boy.

And on a really fun note...

2008-08-30T17:38:00.003-05:00

A virtual friend from the Well-Trained Mind Boards posted this fun site! Head on over and make yourself some sparkly words at Glitter Your Way. Come on, you know you want to!

Road Trip! (Or Not)

2008-08-30T17:28:00.002-05:00

Earlier, Todd and I loaded the children into the minivan (named Ariel Mermaid, in case you know about cars and names) and headed off toward Target (10% coupon and everything) to see if we could find a bike for me. It's what I requested for my birthday, along with one of those nifty bike trailers for the boy, and helmets for us both. The girlies really love to ride their bikes, and it's hard for me to keep up on foot, pushing a stroller. I know, I know, I'm usually cheetah-like, but for some reason, this is beyond me.

Abbie kindly shared a Cheez-It with her brother as we were pulling out of the driveway, and as we rounded the first corner, he gagged and spit up a little. Well, it was really more than spitting up but the damage wasn't catastrophic - his overalls could come off and he could shop in his onesie - so we continued. However, before we reached the next block, he'd managed to expel copious amounts of breastmilk and snot (still has the runny nose from his cold) all over himself and his car seat. There was no saving the trip, so Todd drove around the block - we didn't even make it as far as the Catholic church two blocks away - and came home.

Ah, well. Who am I to rail against such a clear message from the powers-that-be, that we did not need to go shopping this evening? Chances are we avoided being contaminated with the bubonic plague, or something equally heinous. It was worth a shot, though. Maybe tomorrow. (Note to self: Boy and Cheez-Its do not mix.)

Post-vacation drama

2008-08-26T22:49:00.005-05:00

You know, when you come home from vacation, there is laundry to be done. This is especially true when your infant decides to vomit on you the night you get home, because he doesn't feel like taking any medicine to help his teeth feel better. Even more so when he does it another time or two on subsequent days for good measure.

I threw a load in on Saturday morning, thinking I was washing the ick out of the clothes. Sunday, I changed it over from the washer to the dryer. "Hmmm," I thought, "these clothes are practically dry. I didn't remember this washer spinning them out like that." However, it's a new washer, and I had been gone for 2 weeks. What do I know? I thought the clothes had a certain... je ne sais quois about them; they didn't smell particularly fresh, but I thought perhaps they were on their way to mildewing. I threw a fabric softener sheet in with them.

I took out a pair of the Snort's pajamas from the dryer tonight, because he's either spit up or yakked on all the sleepwear he owns. As I was putting it on him, I noticed some schmutz on the sleeve. Looking more closely, I saw that the dirt on the knees (from crawling at my parents' house - he hasn't worn them on my floors yet) was still there. The lightbulb finally went on: the clothes were not clean! I must have forgotten to actually run the washer.

So, I went to take the dirty clothes out of the dryer and put the clean ones in that I'd washed earlier today into the washer. Lo and behold, the second load was still dirty too! I know I ran the washer today. I decided not to panic, and went in to see if Todd was actually sleeping. He was. I pondered waking him for a moment, but really, what was he going to do at this time of night?

So I went back to the washer to see if I could pray over it or something to convince it to work. It's brand new. It can't have issues yet. And then - another lightbulb went on. Could Todd have shut the water off before we went on vacation?!?

I tell you, there are no flies on me (whatever that means). I checked the shutoff valves and did indeed need to turn the water back on. I did, and my clothes are merrily washing away even as I type. PHEW!

Happy To Be Home

2008-08-23T23:01:00.020-05:00

We got back from Michigan this evening after two very long days of driving. We had a lot of fun seeing family but WOW is it nice to be home.

I didn't think we would be able to do the trip home in only two days, honestly. We'd planned on spending 3 days to get home, so that the baby wouldn't be overwhelmed in the car. Todd, however, had different ideas. He informed me a day or two before we needed to leave that he thought we should try to do it in two. I didn't think it was a very good idea, but he assures me that I've blocked from my memory the horrors of the 3rd day of travel. Long story short, we made it in two days and no one had to die.

After "the cottage," we went to the Shauver grandparents' house on Lake Superior. The Snort immediately came down with a cold, and refused to eat unless it was "Momma Chow," which ended any sleep progress we'd made. We had a couple of days to hang out and play in the lake before more cousins arrived. My sister and her husband came with their 4 children, ages 3 and under (7 month old twins). I have to tell you that 7 children in the house was a lot! A lot of chaos, a lot of noise, and a lot of FUN.

We got to go blueberry picking, play in the lake, take the boat to the "secret island" (a bay on Grand Island off Munising Bay on Lake Superior, part of the Pictured Rocks National Park), and play with cousins. The girlies went fishing with my folks on a small lake (Deer Lake) where they catch lots of small fish - Emma caught a 12-13" small mouth bass on her little Barbie pole! - and they stayed at the camp (the cabin we all bought) with my two older nieces. We also saw a VERY COOL concert by a group called Song of the Lakes - they were commissioned to write music to Paddle to the Sea! It was wonderful. They are going to make a CD of the music, this fall I think.

We did see something amazing: a bald eagle fishing in the bay in front of my parents' house! I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, but here they are. He would get right down into the water, and we thought there was something wrong at first, but he was just fishing:

I have never seen an eagle fish before!

He did finally catch something:

And then he flew away. Pretty cool, eh?

The nice thing about going to the U.P. in August is that Lake Superior is as warm as it's going to get. One day, there were big waves in the bay, so I convinced my family that we should go swimming. Emma said, "I'm risking my life to do this!" as we went down and got in the water. Silly girl. I have a lot of good feelings about being up north, but one of my specific memories is going out and playing in the waves like this. The air was cold, but the water felt warm (after a minute or two) and it was SO much fun. The girls really enjoyed themselves, and Emma stayed in the water with Todd for a long time after Abbie and I decided we were cold and went in.

Isaac liked Lake Superior, too. It was interesting - when I tried to hold him and walk into the lake, and maybe dip his toes, he cried and did not like it at all. My dad took him down, though, and put his feet down on the sand, and let Isaac decide to walk into the lake on his own power, and he thought that was fabulous. He waded right in, pretty deep in the water for a little guy:

And even sat down to play in the sand and water with Grandma:

He also learned to climb stairs while we were there, and he thinks he's hot stuff now. He also discovered that he can walk if only someone will hold his fingers. If you let him get ahold of yours, be prepared to get up and go, because he does NOT take "no" for an answer! I remember doing this with the girlies. My back hurt a lot for a very long time. I am so grateful to have the girls, who are at much better heights than I am, to walk him around. And around. And around and around and around...

The girlies really enjoyed playing with their cousins. Here is Emma sitting with Faithy and Norah Jane, watching tv:

And both girlies hanging out with the twins:

And, of course, all the grandparents, great and regular versions, were glad to have the kids there. We managed to get them all in a photo:

That's one for the record books, folks. It was pretty amazing to get everyone looking in almost the same direction at once for that picture.

I always feel a little homesick for Michigan when we get back. That will probably hit later. For now, it's nice to be back in my own bed and have the Snort in his own bed. One can only hope he will go back to sleeping now that we're home.

Fun at the Secret Island - Michigan Vacation, Part 3

2008-08-20T18:56:00.006-05:00

Jessie & Kevin and their crew went home last night, so today was pretty quiet since we were down 4 kids at the house. We decided to take a boat ride over to the "Secret Island." It's actually a bay on Grand Island, which is in Lake Superior off Munising Bay. It's part of the Pictured Rocks National Park. We went there a couple of years ago (not last year while I was pregnant) and the girls still talk about it.

The lake was pretty calm, and it was a nice day for a boat ride. It took us about a half hour to get to the bay. The girls proceeded to have a great time snorkeling, and looking at all the minnows in the water. There were lots, and Emma discovered that the liked to hide under things, so she poked at pieces of bark and such in the water and watched them swim frantically away. I wish we'd remembered the minnow nets, because the girls do love to catch minnows. Maybe next time.

Isaac enjoyed the water too! Initially, I forgot to put his swim diaper on, so he was cruising around with a regular diaper. I wish I'd taken a picture of it, all full of water - I had no idea they could get so big! He and Grandpa had a good time in spite of the silly diaper:

And he had the best time trying to put the lid from one of our thermoses onto a water bottle.

He's a funny little nut.

You know, when Abbie is done with something, she's done.

On the way home, my dad let them both drive the boat! Here is Emma:

And here is Abbie:

He was remarkably patient with them. Why, you might wonder, is this a big deal? Let me tell you - when I was a child, one did NOT look for opportunties to drive the boat. One was almost certainly guaranteed to do it incorrectly, and thus be the recipient of much yelling from Dad. The yelling increased the stress level and decreased the quality of the boat driving even further and... you see where I'm going with this. He seems to have gained some patience since the last time I had to drive, though, and the girls enjoyed learning how to do it.

Emma had decided on the way over that she was going to go inside the boat and organize all of Grandpa's stuff. Grandpa wasn't too keen on the idea, but he let her do it. I think what she really wanted was to be able to do this:

I felt seasick just looking at them in there. Bleah.

My sweet, sweet boy fell asleep both times on his Daddy's lap. He didn't care much for his life jacket, and couldn't move around in it very well. Between the noise and the motion of the boat, and the fact that he was pretty well immobilized, he snoozed for the ride.

It was a lovely afternoon on Lake Superior. I'm so glad we got to go and take Isaac, too.

Cousins! Michigan Vacation Part 2

2008-08-16T21:02:00.003-05:00

The best part of our trips to Michigan is visiting with family. We got to see all of the cousins this trip, except for Christopher. My brother and his family have a lot of travel starting in August, and they couldn't make it up. However, we had FOUR cousins come in one fell swoop when my sister and her family arrived!

Both girls had a great time playing with my sister's older girls, Faith and Norah. The little girls look up to the big girls so much, and the big girls adore them. Emma was trying to teach Faith (who is 3) how to read. Not that Faith necessarily wanted to learn to read, you know, but if Emma was going to teach her, it must have been the thing to do!

Several times, I saw Emma hold out her arms and invite the little girls to sit with her while they watched TV or whatever. Usually they would sit with her, but sometimes they would want to do something else, and that was OK too.

My girls loved the twins, too. They do so well with Isaac! He's getting big enough now that he prefers to move on his own steam, though, and the twins aren't mobile yet, so the girls had a great time playing with them. Also, they are quite a bit smaller than the Snort and thus much easier to hold and carry.

Aunt Jessie had a good time playing with Isaac. She would take him around to walk, and was even dancing with him at one point, which was adorable! I know I took a picture of the dancing, but I have no idea whose camera it's on, so I only have the walking.

They also played a cute little game. I don't know what the rules were, but there was a lot of giggling.

Isaac loved seeing the babies, too. He and Josh seem to know that they are the BOYS, and Isaac found him as soon as they arrived.

He didn't play favorites, though, and was delighted to pound Ashlyn on the head.

She didn't care much for that game, so we had to put a stop to it. I *think* he was trying to pat her head; we've been working a lot on "gentle" and "soft touching," and he does really well, for when he's patting the dog. Apparently our baby touches need a little work.

My parents, of course, were in heaven, with 7 of their 8 grandchildren all in one place. Joshy LOVES his Grandpa!

And that sweet Ashlyn is such a tiny thing, you could carry her around all day. She felt like a featherweight compared to my Snort, who was 28.13 lbs at the doctor the week before we left, thank you very much. I think Grandma was experiencing a tiny bit of heaven right there.

I, of course, never turn down a chance to spoil one of my nieces or nephews.

The best thing we did was to get a picture of all the grandkids with Great Grandma Shauver, as well as Grandma and Grandpa. It was no small feat, let me tell you!

From left to right, we have Joshua (wearing a pink onesie, poor boy; he got dressed in the dark), Abigail, Isaac, Grandpa, Emma, Great Grandma, Faith, Norah, Grandma and Ashlyn. I love pictures like this.

Last but not least, here is a gratuitous Snort picture, just because he's so very cute. He's showing off his musical prowess.

Michigan Vacation, Part 1

2008-08-12T18:58:00.002-05:00

Here we are in Michigan! We've been visiting Grammy and Papa at their cottage. As an added bonus, there are cousins here too! The girls had a great time making friendship bracelets, tubing:

paddle boating:

Bedazzling, and I think even riding on the jet ski. I am not a fan of water sports so I tried not to watch, and I'm not sure about the jet ski - but I did hear it on the lake so I'm guessing everyone had a ride. The Snort really liked the water, too! Daddy helped him walk in the water:

And then he was happy to sit and splash.

He had fun playing with everyone, especially Grammy. She got out blocks:

and a really fun phone:

If you said "Say hello!" he would put it up to his ear like that. So cute!

And, Jeff & Leigh's dog Baxter is such a sweet, long-suffering soul. Isaac really liked him! He was good for climbing:

and for building with blocks, too:

Baxter was a rescue lab, and he came from a puppy mill. He had a hard life before he came to Jeff and Leigh, but he's come such a long way! He is the very picture of why labs are such outstanding dogs to have with children. (Our poor dog, Toby, really does not care for itty bits and moves as quickly away from Isaac as he can, whenever there is the slightest possibility of contact.)

The Snort was teething during these few days, and hasn't slept much, but now that we're ready to leave (of course) he seems to be doing better. Tomorrow afternoon, we head up to the U.P!

I was going to whine, but.....

2008-07-10T20:57:00.004-05:00

I have to say, this has been "a week," if you know what I mean. Todd left for the week on Monday so I've been single parenting this week. Actually, it's not all that bad; since we homeschool I'm with the kids all the time anyway, and the girls can feed themselves if need be and can be pretty independent. I hadn't realized how much I depend on our few minutes of adult conversation in the evenings.

Sunday the Snort came down with some kind of bug. He started throwing up on Sunday, and then got a fever that went as high as 103 F. We ended up taking him to the doctor today, because his fever had gone away but now it seems to be creeping back, and he's still throwing up.

I am SO tired of being puked on.

And today, he had some lovely diarrhea. I went to swim team practice with baby poo on my shirt, which I happily discovered while I was sitting there. Ick.

You know what, though? He's fine, just has a virus - no pneumonia or anything else dire. He was not the baby being put into the ambulance we saw when we arrived at our pediatrician's office today. I am not permanently a single parent - Todd will be home tomorrow. We are fed, clothed, and sheltered.

I'm still a little crabby about all the yakking going on at my house, but I am mostly thankful that my family is safe and whole.

WIP Wednesday

2008-07-09T16:18:00.003-05:00

I started knitting my first pair of socks! I'm so excited. The yarn is Touché by Berroco, in Iris (cw 7933), and I love it! It's not only purple, it's very soft. I'm using the Beginner Socks #9728 pattern from Knitting Pure and Simple. What's nice about it is that it uses worsted weight yarn and larger needles, which makes my first pair of socks go much more quickly than regular socks on those tiny needles. Heh. I am definitely an "instant gratification" knitter, so I'm delighted to see how quickly my first sock is knitting up. The very nice woman at Loops and Links in DePere, WI showed me this pattern and said that it's great for beginners. I'm particularly pleased at how easy it is to follow, because I'm pretty much teaching myself how to knit socks!

And, here is a picture of Schmooey's sweater!

I found the free pattern on Lion Brand's website, except when I saw originally looked at it, it showed "boy colors" in the picture and showed a baby on his tummy. When I went back to find it again, it showed "girly colors" and a baby sitting up. Weird, eh? I was a bit confused and wasn't sure I had the same pattern. Anyway, I'm using Cotton Fleece yarn by Brown Sheep Company in Putty (cw 105), Teddy Bear (cw 025), and Wild Sage (cw 029). It's a cotton/wool yarn, and has a really nice texture. I started it on needles that are a little too large, so I'm going to re-start it on the right size. (I made a swatch and everything. It's a long story.) I really like the colors though, and I think it will be a wonderful sweater for most of the year in NC.

I had originally chosen a gray color instead of the green, but when I got back to Jessie's house and looked at it, I didn't care for it. The gray was a discontinued color and was a great price, hence my reason for choosing it, but it just wasn't working for me. I do love the green though.

Perhaps next week I will have made more progress on my cross-stitch piece for Schmooey's room. I will try to remember to put a picture of that on here.

Ponies, Trotting and Crops

2008-07-07T21:39:00.004-05:00

Tonight, I had the privilege of taking the girls to their pony class. Todd left this afternoon for Boxboro, MA for the week, so I am the only transportation available.

The girls told me earlier today that they needed riding gloves. Emma needed them in case she rode Vogue, a pony with a knack for pulling on the reins. Apparently, it's not good to have slippery hands when your pony is trying to pull the reins away from you. Also, Abbie was "told by her instructor that she has slippery hands." They were also quite sure that they needed crops, too, but I envisioned large amounts of money for those so we weren't planning on getting them.

We headed off early so that we could get to the M&M Tack Shop before they closed. We found some lovely riding gloves in an attractive shade of pink. Emma had hoped for the purple ones, but they were out of her size, so she settled for pink. Lo and behold, they had crops - pink and purple, no less - for under $10, so I let them each get a crop too. They were delighted! The Snort got a hold of one of them and said that they make good chew toys, too, so they are multi-functional! (We did have to discuss once we got home that the crops are NOT meant to be used on people or dogs. I'm sure you can figure out why we needed to have that discussion, so I won't elaborate.)

Tonight, Abbie rode Vogue, who is a pretty little pony. See? (This picture is from a previous lesson. My camera informed me that its batteries were dead when I tried to use it at pony lessons tonight.)

She needed her crop for Vogue, as the pony did not feel inclined to trot without a fair amount of encouragement. The instructor asked if she could use Emma's crop, since Emma didn't need it and hers was in the ring already, but Emma was adamant that she did NOT want Abbie to use her crop. So, the instructor came over to me and got Abbie's. Also, I noticed that although Abbie was riding Vogue, the pulling pony, she was not wearing her new riding gloves. You can see that I was feeling pleased that we'd made the extra effort to get to the tack shop, can't you?

Emma rode Bobby, who we thought was an Appaloosa, but in fact, turned out to be an Indian pony. I don't know what that means, exactly, but there you go. Here is a picture of her on Bobby, from a previous lesson:

Can you tell these pictures were not taken in July in North Carolina? They'd have been dead from heat exhaustion!

Bobby was in fine form tonight, and trotted both willingly and speedily. As a result, Emma did not get to use her brand new (purple!) crop, and she was quite disappointed. She was sniffling and sad through the whole lesson, but she kept going, and did very well with the riding. Their instructor (whose name escapes me because it was not their normal person) said that she was sorry to make Emma sad, and would have liked to give her the crop, but that Bobby would have run away with her. I am of the "get over it" variety of parent, so I assured her that it was all good.

Anyhoo, it was a pretty cool lesson, I thought, because the instructor laid out three poles for the girls to lead their ponies over. They also had to steer around orange cones before and after the series of poles. I'm sure there is a word for this type of activity, but I don't know what it is. They tried it first at a walk, and then at a trot, and then switched directions and did it again at a trot. I was impressed with how well they did! This was the first time I've seen them do anything like this, and it required them to pay close attention to their steering. They are not known for paying close attention to their steering, and often you will see a "pony party" in the middle of the ring when they need to turn around or ride a circle for spacing or what have you. They did well with the exercise, though, and only once did I see Emma veer off in the wrong direction a little bit.

They've certainly come a long way since last fall when they started pony lessons! Miss Laura, their regular instructor, said that if the class does a good job with their lessons, they may be cantering by the end of the summer block. Big stuff, that!

Scmooeyful Updates

2008-07-05T10:29:00.005-05:00

My (not so) tiny boy has been busy this week! He's officially 10 months old. He's now pulled himself up to stand at least 3 times all on his own. Check it out - he's very proud of himself!

Yesterday afternoon, for the first time, he pushed himself up to sit from his tummy. Today, Emma found him sitting up in his crib after his nap, and asked me if I'd laid him down when I put him to bed. She found him sitting up. I'm not sure how she thought he'd slept for two hours like that. Hee.

While he is not officially crawling, he does seem to be able to levitate. He can move himself several feet across a room without seeming to do so at all. I can be right next to him and not see him move. It's bizarre.

Last week, the girls went to Vacation Bible School at Peace Presbyterian Church, at the invitation of our very good friends, the Huffstedtlers. That's where Abbie went to preschool when she was 4, and we LOVED it. We will send the Snort there if we're still living here when he's old enough to go. I don't have any indication that we won't be living here, you know, I'm just hopeful that someday we will be living closer to family. But I digress. The reason I brought up Bible school is that I have the cutest picture of the Snort with his good friend Jack (of Huffstedtler fame), discovering grass together. Neither of them were particularly sure they liked it.

And really, for cuteness' sake, you must check out these pictures of the Snort and his fabulous 'do:

A couple of nights, he got these wacky curls going and they were just adorable! I think it fluffs up like that when I use hooded towels. I'm hopeful that his hair will come in curly. There are definitely waves happening! Isn't he just the cutest?

Back From The Land Of Cheese

2008-07-03T21:26:00.006-05:00

I got to spend last weekend in Wisconsin with my sister and her family, celebrating my niece Norah's birthday, my brother-in-law Kevin's birthday, my sister-in-law Jennifer's birthday, and most importantly, the baptism of Jessica & Kevin's twins, Joshua and Ashlyn. I flew up last Saturday morning, bright and early. Actually, it was so early that it wasn't even bright yet, but hey, it got me to Green Bay with most of the day left to play!

I have to tell you, if you must travel with a baby, the Snort is the one to take. He was an angel. He slept on all our flights, and entertained himself in the airport with:

A firewire cable, courtesy of his daddy! His favorite thing to do is get it behind his teeth and slide it back and forth. It's pretty funny.

We had a birthday party that was mostly for Norah, who turned 2, but there were presents and cake for Kevin and Jen, too. Norah liked the vacuum cleaner (with dust buster, even!) that we sent to her.

The Snort ate his first Dorito at the birthday party. I am not sure he liked it.

My mom and I did not let him eat a Dorito on purpose, by the way. We'd watched him try to grab one, and thought we'd moved far enough over that he couldn't reach the bowl. We were wrong.

The baptism was lovely. It was a special day! Kevin's parents, his brother, my parents, my grandmother, my brother and his family, and the Snort and I were all able to come. I didn't think much of it, because I wouldn't have missed it, but we had people come in from Florida, North Carolina, Illinois and Michigan - just goes to show that there are lots of people who love my sister and her beautiful family. Here is a picture of the whole gang:

Both twins were very good, and no one cried. I liked that the pastors carried the babies through the congregation so that everyone could see them. Here is Kevin with Joshy:

And here is Jessie with Ashlyn:

These pictures are not from the baptism. They were all dressed up so nicely - Kevin even wore a tie! These are candid, tired parent shots. Somehow I don't have any of the babies in their baptism finery.

Sunday afternoon we had a baptism party, which was lovely. Kevin's parents and brother left on Sunday. My parents stayed until Monday afternoon, so that Jessie and I could sneak out to a yarn shop. I got yarn for socks for me and a sweater for Schmooey, so I'm excited about that. The socks are going pretty well so far!

I did get the twins' afghans done, at 11pm the night before I left, of course. Here they are:

No close-up of the knitting, because it's not very pretty, but the afghans are soft and cuddly and will hopefully be useful. I know I love the afghan like these that our dear friend, Mary Robertson, made for the Snort. It's warm, yet it breathes, so it keeps him warm but he doesn't get too hot. And it's washable!

After everyone else left, I got to hang out with my wonderful sister and her four beautiful children (who, by the way, are all under the age of 4). She is amazing. I don't know how she maintains her sanity. I realized that it had been a long time since I'd been around toddler drama! I wouldn't have missed it, though. I hadn't seen Faithy and Norah since last summer, and it was my first time meeting the twins.

It was hard to come back to North Carolina, knowing that there would be no sister waiting for me, and also knowing that summer has hit full on here and it would be HOT. Actually, though, I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of humidity when I got home. Yesterday and today have been beautiful!

Fond Memories

2008-06-26T16:26:00.002-05:00

When the girlies were little, probably 2 and 3 or 3 and 4, they would say to me, "You're my best Mommy!" and give me a hug. I would say to them, "You're my best Emma!" or "You're my best Abbie!" and we would know that something precious had passed between us.

Yesterday, I said to Abbie, "You're my best Abbie!" as I kissed the top of her sweet head. And do you know what she said to me? "I'm the only Abbie you have."

Sigh.

Quick Update

2008-06-24T13:43:00.002-05:00

This week, the Snort has decided that playing Patty Cake is the coolest thing EVER. He will clap his hands at you, and then your job is to say the Patty Cake rhyme, roll his hands over each other when you get to that part, and make a big deal out of the "Throw it in the pan!" line. He giggles like a fool when we do that. It's great.

He can also blow a mean spit bubble. You know the kind, when a child says mmmmmwaaaaa and there is a bubble in their mouth? Very attractive, I must say. I had forgotten about this stage. It's pretty funny.

Still no crawling here, but boy, is he trying to pull up on things! I have informed him that I will in no way be encouraging his plan to skip crawling, but with little effect. He is a determined child.

Today, I was messing around with ring tones for my cell phone, not having been able to come up with anything better to do while driving, and decided that I should use the National Anthem for this week and next in honor of Independence Day. I told my girls that it was the National Anthem, and they said, "What, you mean the song they sing at hockey and baseball games?" Ahem. Yes. I even sang it for them, having been inspired by my new ring tone. Emma said I should be the one to sing it at the ball games because I sing better than most of the people she's heard there. Isn't she sweet? She earned some major cool points with that one.

Isaac Has Been Busy!

2008-06-09T16:50:00.002-05:00

At 9 months old, my boy is still not crawling - not that I'm complaining, mind you! He has certainly been learning new things, though.

On Friday night at our small group, he went from sitting to his hands and knees - getting ready to go somewhere, for sure! - for the first time. Woo hoo! The girls have been putting him on his hands and knees for quite a while, and he loves to rock, but he's been "fixing to get started thinking about" crawling for quite a while. I don't remember when Abbie started to crawl, but I know Emma was crawling by 9 months. We are, however, on Isaac time here, and that's quite a different thing.

If you ask him to say "uh oh!" he says "ah ah!" It's terribly cute.

At the doctor's office last Tuesday, they asked me if he was playing patty cake yet. I had to answer honestly that no, he was not, but I had not asked him to, either. Heh. Yet another thing I don't remember about babies.... but, I digress. Abbie taught him that afternoon how to clap his hands. Go, Abbie-sister! It is just adorable when a baby learns to clap their hands, isn't it? Now, of course, it's old hat, and he won't do it on demand anymore. I'm hoping to get it on video.

Busy Weekend!

2008-06-09T16:14:00.013-05:00

We had quite a busy couple of days. On Saturday, the girls had their end-of-year horse show at Macnair's Country Acres, where they've been taking riding lessons since last fall. WOW, was it hot. Miss Tonna came to cheer the girls on (and she did a fabulous job entertaining the Snort, too):

The girls got to give their instructor 3 ponies or horses that they wanted to ride, so that they had their best chance at doing well in the show. The girls normally ride ponies, but Emma did ride Babe, a horse, once, and that's who she got to ride. She placed first in her class! Here she is with Babe and her first place ribbon:

Abbie rode Vogue, a lovely chestnut pony. She was in the last class of the day, and those ponies were DONE being cooperative. I don't blame them a bit. Vogue was not of a mindset to do anything without a great deal of persuasion, but Abbie did an excellent job of using her voice and her leg (and finally a crop) to get Vogue to do what she was supposed to do. Abbie placed second in her class, but *I* thought she deserved the blue ribbon. Here she is on Vogue:

And here are the girls with their instructor, Miss Laura:

We had to wait about an hour in between the girls' show classes, and it was. just. so. HOT! The Snort was exceptionally well-behaved for a tiny boy who really probably didn't need to be out in the heat for so long. Emma helped keep him happy too. She's such a good big sister!

On Sunday morning, we went to church, and then had to hustle to make it to the girls' gymnastics show. We got to see them perform small routines on the bar, beam and floor, and "vault" - really a large piece of foam that they jumped onto, not an actual vault. Emma opted not to do the bars. Here is Abbie on the bars, her favorite:

Here is Emma on the beam:

Apparently the people at the gym had opted not to turn the air conditioning on - it was quite warm in there. They did turn it on about 2/3 of the way through the program, but still:

Phew!

The girls both got medals for participation. Here's Abbie:

And here's Emma:

For next year, Todd and I have decided that the girls need to limit their activities to horses and one other thing. It's clear to us that Emma should stick with dance, and Abbie should continue with gymnastics. Emma, of course, wants to do it all, but she's afraid of the uneven parallel bars, so unless we decide to let her do a "tramp & tumble" class, she won't do gymnastics anymore. I asked one of the coaches how many times per week Abbie should take gymnastics to give it a good shot to see if she'd be good at it. She told me that Abbie had caught her eye, and we could have her evaluated to see if she's ready to participate in a more advanced class! I'm so proud!

This has been a fun year, watching them improve in their dance, gymnastics and horses. I know if we limited them to one thing, they would choose horses hands down, so I'm really grateful that we're able to afford dance and gymnastics as well, thanks to the girls' very generous Grammy and Papa.

For the summer, the girls will continue with their pony lessons, and they've decided to try the Scotts Mill Swim Team - the Sea Dragons. They seem to enjoy it so far. It's great exercise for them, and I'm delighted that they're really learning to swim. Swimming was Todd's sport, so it's fun for him to watch them, too. So far Abbie is best at backstroke, and Emma looks like a freestyler. Their first meet is in 10 days or so - gotta go find those swimsuits!

Guess what I learned?

2008-06-05T09:50:00.003-05:00

Camy from the Well-Trained Mind forums posted the following recipe:

Directions on how to have a great lunch that is healthy, delicious, fairly simple, and inexpensive:

1. Place pinto beans in a crock pot w/ enough water to cover by 3 inches. I normally use about 5 cups of beans. Soak overnight.
2. When you get up in the morning, turn the crock pot on high (check to see if you need to add more water. Sometimes the beans absorb much of the water). Cook for about 3 hours. Check for doneness w/ a knife by breaking a bean in half. If tender, they're done.
3. Warm your tortillas. We do this by either wrapping a stack of tortillas in foil and placing in the oven on 375 degrees until warm (about 15 minutes), warming them one at a time on a hot cast iron skillet, or popping them in the toaster one by one for a more crisp tortilla. Make sure to watch them carefully in the toaster. They can burn quickly if you are not careful.
4. While tortillas are warming, drain cooked beans in a large strainer. Put beans in a bowl or back in the crock pot (turn on low). Mash the beans and add a shake of onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, & a dash of salt. You could also add a small can of chopped green chillies for more flavor. Take note to add more of the spices if you use more beans. Keep taste-testing to get flavorful results.
5. Prepare any desired toppings (i.e. lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, onions, peppers, sour cream, guacamole, salsa, etc.) . We stay very simple.
6. Serve mashed beans in tortillas and top w/ your choice of the above.

Sounds good, right? And fairly simple? Yes, well, here's where the learning part comes in.

I learned:
1. Five pounds of pinto beans doesn't look like that much when you put it in your slow cooker.
2. Five pounds of pinto beans comes dangerously close to overflowing said slow cooker, once they've absorbed the water you put in to soak them.
3. You can't keep enough water in the slow cooker to cook all five pounds of beans, beacuse the beans expand past the top edge of the basin.
4. The ones on top stay crunchy. This seems to hold true even if you stir the beans several times.
5. Five pounds of beans will NOT be ready for lunch time.
6. This many beans fits - barely - into my Tupperware Thatsa Bowl. I still managed to make quite a mess while squishing them up. I quickly gave up on the potato masher and got out my hand mixer, which worked much better.
7. This many beans makes approximately enough to feed lunch to our entire church, with leftovers.

The moral of the story is, if you find a bag of pinto beans in the back of your cupboard, it's probably not the best plan to try to cook them all at once.

Anyone know if you can freeze squished pinto beans?