My brother...

...is a great writer, as evidenced by the first few posts on his blog.


"T" is 11 years my junior. I spent most of my teenage years revelling in his cuteness and rescuing Mom from his constant mess-making by scooping him up each afternoon on my way to my room after I got home from school. There, I would wrestle with him, tossing him on my bed, tossing pillows on top of him, and just tossing things around in general. I even wrote a poem for him as one of my English assignments, expressing my wish that we would always be close.

He's a great guy, and an awesome uncle to my kids.

And his writing career is off to a great start.

Enjoy.

What NOT to ask...

...your Mama after coming home from a grueling 3 hour co-op to breakfast dishes and starving children, ready for lunch....


DS #2: Mom, do you know what we're having for dinner tonight?

Rules, Rules...

Overheard in the Livingroom:

DS #1: (after DS #2 lost his tooth and was unable to find it for the fourth time today) Don't worry, the Tooth Fairy knows you lost it and will still leave you a dollar.

Mom: That rule only applies when your younger sister swallows it, not when you lose it, baggy and all, by yourself.



Yes, we have had a tooth-swallowing incident here, a few short years ago.

I'll give you one guess which younger sister up-ended the bottle we were keeping it in, and swallowed the dang thing whole.

One guess.

Second (or Fifth) Thoughts....

And so, one of our homeschooling co-op mates has elected to put her eldest in school. It's actually the same school that DS #1 attended last year! It's an excellent school, with a rock-solid administration, and amazing teachers. The families are very supportive and I couldn't think of any reason not to send one's kiddos there! Except $$$$, of course. Which is one reason why we decided to homeschool this year.

Here's the deal.

I'm being hit with the "not-enough" syndrome again.

When I see my ruffian boys sprawling in the dirt, swords swishing in the air as they roll over each other in a pirate dance, at 1pm, I think....surely they're missing something in their curriculum? Surely there are a few more worksheets I could drum up from somewhere, so I'll feel like they're accomplishing something?

When I see my eldest perusing the NASA website, or constructing a building in the dirt (using mud as cement) I wonder if I should haul him over to the homeschool table for more flashcard work, or math drills.

I worry about the boys when they spend so much time listening to books on tape (Little House series are the favorite right now), thinking they need to be doing something more academic, like writing their dissertation?

:)

Just joking about the dissertation.

But not about everything else.

I really do worry that my (our) choices for this year aren't up to par. I try so hard to create a learning environment in the home, so that when the kids aren't doing formal schooling, they are still learning something.

But, I still get hooked, and caught up in what we do versus "real, serious" school.

Thoughts....
Answers....
Hope....?

Prayers... *updated*

...for my beloved alma mater.

Because of the enormous fire located in the Los Padres National Forest (of which the campus is a border) the students have been evacuated.

I haven't heard from my sister, who is a freshman, but I am not too worried, since she knows so many people, and is probably already in either a fellow student's home, or a professor's home. Of course, I'll feel better once I speak with her!

The campus is absolutely beautiful, and it would be heartwrenching if it were lost...

Please pray for the campus, the homes, the firefighters, and all who have been evacuated!

Thank you.

**updated to say, that I just spoke with CA sis, and CO sis is with her, safely away from the fires, and having a smashing time (literally, since they are now about to play a rousing game of croquet whilst sipping aged vintage.....I asked if I could evacuate...)**

The Good News is....Nothing's Broken (or, how to waste a couple of hours at the ER)

Seems that DD #3 needed something a bit more official than just strawberry cupcakes to commemorate her 2nd birthday....

I know, I know, how about a trip to Children's Hospital!

Yessiree.

Little Mae-love decided that the 18"x18"x2" cement block Papa had set upright on the ground really needed to be laid down, directly on top of her very own pudgy foot. While she screamed bloody murder, her two oh-so-helpful big brothers ran around the house with their hands over their ears (more from fright than the noise...I know, it's weird, I don't know where they get it from!) screaming, "her foot! her foot!"

I dashed outside and heaved the 10 ton block off her squished toes.

We gave her ibuprofen, and a cold washcloth, and thought we should bring her in. I couldn't imagine that her little foot could have weathered that crash.

She was a trooper throughout the whole ordeal, the x-rays, the probing, the blood pressure taking, the pulse-rate monitoring...(why does every person within a ten foot radius of the child have to listen to her heart??)

As noted in the title of this post, nothing is broken. But she will be sore for awhile, and I will feel like I have a newborn, since she prefers to be carried rather than limp along eveywhere....

It's about time for a newborn around here, anyway, right? (no, I have no. news.)

;)

Grumpy Birthday to You!

Well, it's DD #3's birthday today.

And you know what that means.

Grump-a-rama!

It seems that, without fail, the birthday girl (or boy) is the grumpiest on their birthday. The day that Mama and Papa want to celebrate their birth and spoil them a little extra, the little princess decides to be a tyrant.

So far today, she's had 4 temper tantrums, bitten her sister, and taken away approximately 23 toys. It's been so bad, she even put herself into the corner....




And so, she is officially two years old!

A quick question...

Is it just me, or does anyone else spend countless minutes of every day putting Mr. Potato Head's hind quarters back on him? What is it about that part of him that none of my children are able to manage replacing it independently?

Showering themselves? Dressing themselves? Feeding themselves?

All overrated.

I just want them to able to put Mr. Potato Head's butt back on!



Just thought I'd share.....
:)

Out with the Old, In with the New

Just doing a bit of clean up on my side bar.

Nothing against anyone over there, but I have deleted some links, and added some. The blogs I deleted never visit me anyway, and do not link to me either, so no love lost.

The new blogs are mommy blogs, new ones to me, and these mommy's have visited me and since I have visited them, I thought I would add them.

So, do go enjoy when you have a few spare moments.

Which leads me to a related topic.....meeting fellow bloggers.

I am NOT a hardcore blogger. And the thought of meeting other mommy bloggers seemed so remote that when I heard that other bloggers would set up these "meet-fests" I would smirk and shake my head.....I am so NOT a hardcore blogger!

And now I have been invited to meet a bunch of awesome Christian mommy bloggers in my hometown next month. I am really really nervous. Because I am super super shy around people I don't know. And I am trying desperately to "get to know" these 24 other women by reading their blogs....and I'm noticing that they all comment on each other's blogs all the time!! AACK!

I'm feeling a little out of the loop.

Anyhow, that's next month. I need to get through this month.

And, I almost didn't!

Here's that story. At my soccer game on Sunday, I got bit by a Black Widow spider.

Obviously, it's Wednesday, so I didn't die or anything. But isn't that crazy?? And boy, did it hurt. I didn't know what bit me, just that it hurt, and then I just kept running around trying play my game. We tied, no thanks to me or the torrential downpour, but my leg was starting to seize up by the time I got home. I called the doctor on call, who told me to go to the ER, but I figured since my heart had been pounding all during the game (due to me being out of shape) surely I would be dead by now if there had been a fatal dose of anything venomous in my system. So, I took some Benadryl and went to bed.

Three days later, and I finally get to the doctor, since now it's white on top, surrounded by red and starting to streak. My doctor says it definitely looks like a widow bite, and that I was lucky it was, and not a brown recluse spider bite....since those are really really nasty looking.

So, now I'm on Zyrtec, for the itching.

Any weird stories out there from you guys today?

Teaching Kids to Read

Teresa had a great question about teaching kids to read.

Of course, I have my opinions and thought I would share.

I am currently using a program that was designed to teach kids how to read by using phonogram cards and having the kids "memorize" the sound each letter makes. The kids learn all 70 sounds, and once they have them down pat, they then begin to form words with them. I am using this method with my 2nd and 3rd grader for spelling only. My personal opinion is that when kids want to read, they want to read. And the sooner they have their own book to read (book 1 of the Bob books, for example) the more excited they are about reading.

And so, I used an eclectic approach when teaching DD #1. (my boys learned to read in the Montessori school they had attended) Hooked on Phonics had sent me a little "teaser" set that included phonogram cards (blech) 5 little books, (yay) and a drill book that listed short 'a' and short'i' blends. Like: at, bat, hat, mat, sat, etc. Each page featuring a different blend. Once DD could master a few of those pages, she was ready for the first book. Oh! She was super proud!

After her success with the short 'a' sound, I picked up with the Little Angel Reader series available from Emmanuel Books. They start with the short'a' sound too. We are currently working on the last sound of Reader A, the short 'o'. And then she will move to Reader B. I think we may be a tad bit behind, but I'm confident she knows it and will pick up the pace on her own. DS #2 has read all the Readers, but still needs to finish the workbook pages. He loves to read, but isn't thrilled about doing the work!

On a related note here, I noticed that DD #1's handwriting had a lot to be desired. And so we went through the Handwriting Without Tears program. It just gave her a set explanation of how to form each letter. There are other programs, to be sure, I just chose one that had some manipulatives and a catchy cd....(yes, I'm a sucker for those things)

I think I will do the same thing for DD #2 next year. It just seemed to work better, to go slowly at first, to let them form the words, to show them what to do with these sounds they are learning. The purpose of the letters is the sounds they make in a word, after all. And I think that making them memorize all the sounds at once might confuse the kids, and they may end up thinking that the means to the end is the end...

My two cents......anyone else?