Tuesday, February 3, 2009

"I think I'm gonna throw up,
I think I'm gonna throw up,
I think I'm gonna throw up my hands and praise the Lord!"

Yes, that is a real verse from a real song. John has even sung it at camps and Layton's children's choir sang it at church last Wednesday. We used to laugh hysterically when John would throw that verse out at some random time. But yesterday, during dinner, Layton just rolled her eyes and said, "That's not funny, Dad."

Since Layton, Elijah, Cheney and I spent the hours between 11 pm and 6 am on Sunday night taking turns throwing up every 30 minutes the song had new meaning to say the least.

All we did yesterday was watch movies, sip on liquids and sleep. We watched 3 classic disney movies I had recorded over the weekend. Thank goodness for the DVR.

Today they are back to their old selves pretty much. Layton has a slight fever but they are all eating and arguing with each other and playing. Praise God.

Guess we need to start school.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Another reason I love Homeschooling!!!


Ok...today we were tired of reading and math worksheets so the kids started the day out by swinging outside while still wearing their pj's. I am sure anyone driving by might have thought, "Aww, those poor little homeschooled kids." But when they came in we juiced oranges and made fresh veggie soup. And through it all we completed some science, social studies, Bible, math and phonics. We counted the oranges by 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's. We cut them all in half...so Layton and I reviewed her phonics rule about when making a word that ends in f plural you have to change the f to a v and add -es. She also figured out that since we had 20 oranges and we cut them all into halves, we had 40 peices of oranges. She quickly said 20, 40. Woohoo!

We talked about the parts of an orange- a seed is called a pip, the white stuff in there is called the pith and there is also pulp in the juice when you juice it. An orange is covered in peeling. I also discovered and orange is considered a berry. I didn't find out exactly why but I did think it interesting. I just made a worksheet for her to do tomorrow which will include fill-in-the-blanks using various facts we learned and will also include changing 5 singular (orange) words into their plural form and putting the parts of the orange into ABC order. The 4 we talked about all start with p so she has to look at the 2nd and 3rd letter in some of them. We threw in a little social studies by talking about how oranges are an important crop to Florida and the orange blossom is the state flower. We talked about how we can use the orange: fragrance, orange oil- a cleaner, vitamin C, juice, and eating it of course. Did you know that gardeners can use orange peeling to help keep slugs away? Layton does. We even threw a little Bible in there. We took 4 oranges and I poked holes in them in the designs requested by the kids and then they poked cloves in them. Smells so good in my dining room...oh, yeah, Bible...2 Corinthians 2:15 "For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing." Being of His aroma means we act like Him, love like Him, recognized as Christians as easily as an orange is recognized by its fragrance.

Layton then chopped all the veggies I needed for my Weight Watchers Cabbage soup recipe. While she did this, we discussed fractions- wholes, halves, fourths, eighths and how 1/2 = 2/4= 4/8. The equal fractions thing was a little over her head but she was introduced to it.

So every now and then I really enjoy "a fly by the seat of my pants and think of it as we go" kind of day. And I sure do love the internet...facts about oranges in an instant.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Haven't felt like blogging much lately. Busy, busy, busy!
I have revamped our school schedule...
Ideally this is how it should go...
Breakfast, clean up dishes and floor under dining room table.
Get dressed, make beds.
Have group devotional (mom and kids), calendar time, Review 21 rules of this home, and memory verse.
Then Reading time...about 45 minutes with Layton while Elijah and Cheney play upstairs with Nathaniel playing in the crib. Then about 25 minutes with Elijah while Layton and Cheney play on the front porch and Nathaniel falls asleep for his morning nap. Then about 15 minutes with Cheney while the E and L play. For me, It is really hard teaching both Elijah and Layton to read with distractions. They need this one on one undisturbed time.
Then snack time while they listen to books online. Old classics. They love it.
Math time with each...alternating each of them again while Nathaniel naps. Trying to alternate the activities with the others with things like playdough, water colors...not sure what else yet. Hopefully some kind of on-going craft they can do. Can't wait until they get a little older and can do the lapbook stuff!!!
Then Lunch.
Playtime outside. about 45 minutes.
Naptime for Nathaniel and Cheney. At least 30 minutes quiet rest time for EVERYONE... especially MOMMA! Then have Layton read aloud and finish up any Vocab and spelling work.
Then we are supposed to do some kind of Unit study where we do our Konos unit. We will be starting our Animal and Plant classification stuff soon. They are excited. I purchased kits for growing butterflies and a frog. I guess I will wait to start those until after our trip in the middle of February. I have to order the tadpole and crysalises (sp? LOL) We are going on two weekend ski retreats with John in N.C. and will visit John's family up there the week between.
Snack...
Kids either get to watch TV or free play inside or outside.
Then I cook dinner.
Then we clean up.
To be perfectly honest by this time of day, I am pretty much tired of spending time with my kids. I feel like I need space. We haven't exactly figure out how to handle this. John has been out every night except Thursday this week with events getting back after the kids are in bed. So the kids and I have spent a couple nights watching movies together. We watched the Sword and the Stone one night. I am glad we watched it On-Demand before I bought it. I didn't remember the whole story line when from when I was a kid and had been thinking I probably needed to buy it because it was a classic and all. Well, I changed my mind. Tooo much sorcery and stuff. All in good fun but still. I mean I suppose that sounds dumb to say when MERLIN the WIZARD is a main character. I should have thought that before. But I thought more of the story was about the boy and not how the wizard turned the boy into a fish, squirrel, and bird to learn lessons.

So...trying to figure out how to keep the house clean, feed the kids, about 6 times a day. SEROUSLY they eat 3 meals and 3 snacks a day. And I am supposed to lose weight in all that eating. I am going to have to get better about getting out my celery sticks and fat-free dressing.
Tonight we finished up the chapter book...The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White (he also wrote Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little). It was lots of fun piled on the couch together with our popcorn and drinks under a blanket with the kids in their pajamas. They really loved the book and even asked when we could read it again. We had to finish going online to look up the meaning of the word "crepuscular" because the boy in the book was trying to figure out what it meant while reading about rabbits. It means...of or having to do with twilight...then we looked up twilight...the time as the sun is just going down or coming up. Don't you just love reading? It was soooo much fun. Reminded me I need to keep up with the chapter books. Our next unit of study with plants and animals uses the chapter book, The Secret Garden. I read it a few months ago to get familar with it again. It think the kids will be sooo inspired to grow things and learn about plants and animals.
Oh, well, better get some laundry done. Football season is over so I am not sure if my dear sweet hubbie will be keeping up with all the folding like he did when he was watching the games. Oh...Yea!!! Timmy Tebow!!!! He is such a God's guy!!! I pray God uses him greatly and that God protects him from temptation and attacks while he is in all this limelight.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Blogging again

Well, I am blogging again. I have realized that I have to have an outlet for all these cute things that happen in my family. And I want to be able to share them with my family and close friends but not EVERYONE on the internet.
For instance here is something funny from today. While watching John and Kate Plus 8...My children figured out we needed to have four more children to catch up to them. I asked where we would put them. Elijah said one could sleep with him and one could sleep on the mattress that is currently under his bed. Layton rolled her eyes and Cheney said, " A hotel."
That's my girl!!!!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Praising God

After yesterday's post, I just want you do know I am praising God for His grace and love. I am so thankful for His provision. 3 months of samples of meds that help stabilize the craziness in my body. Praise God.

I had such a sweet time with my girls this morning. Hubbie took the Dynamo to the office with him. While the baby napped, the girls and I put away last nights load of dishes and started today's load. We folded towels and put away a mountain of clothes that had accumulated in their room from our trip and the never ending weather changes here in Florida. I believe it was 80 here today. It was freezing here around Halloween and today it is near 80???
Anyway, we are striving to incorporate the kids into our daily chores. Yes they are 7, 5, and 3 but they are a part of this family and should help. So this morning we talked about how we can have a good attitude while doing anything...even folding laundry every day and doing dishes EVERY DAY...emphasis there because I am the one that needs to remember this and I hope to teach it to my girls BEFORE it is burden like it is for me. We read 1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
Encouraged by a recent blog from A Holy Experience I was inspired to think about all these things that we do as mother's...things that won't make a difference in eternity but somehow I am supposed to do them for the GLORY of the LORD!!! So my 7-year old and I talked about how to do that today. How to fold clothes with a good attitude or even praying. We talked about how we could pray and thank God that we had the clothes (most of them given to us as hand-me-downs or as gifts) or pray for the people that had given them to us or we could pray for the people that would be wearing them. It was such a sweet time. I hope my daughter will catch this vision in life before she is 36. It will serve her well!!!