More things I should not have to say.

"Why did you wipe lipgloss on the television?" was followed about 5 minutes later with the classic question "Did you just wipe a booger on my cat?". If you don't believe me I have witnesses to verify these comments. Yes, both quotations were said in front of company.

My children are the funniest people I know, and apparently we need to work on our manners. Are ALL boys like this?

Never give an angry mother peanut butter.

Once upon a morning, five year old Trystan woke up in a delightful, cereal eating type of mood only to discover upon his mother's remark, that indeed, quite shockingly, he had gum stuck in his hair.

At first this completely unlooked for surprise brought on fit after fit of giggles and wiggles, and was the subject of much laughter and mirth at the breakfast table.
Trystan wondered how ever he would remove the gum from his hair. He and his brother Isaac thought perhaps they could pull it out. This idea was ALMOST immediately discarded, and replaced with the theory of BRUSHING IT OUT.

Sadly this idea, too, was found to be without merit, and although many more theories were forthcoming, Mother stepped in to the fray. She said words along the order of NOT and TOLD and REASON, but being relatively uninteresting, the connecting words have been forgotten by all parties involved.

Unfortunately she brought with her several things, including a bit of a twinkle in her eyes and a bit of a glower on her face. She also brought peanut butter, a comb, and a roll of paper towels.

This was met with peals of laughter and some dancing of the feet. Mother grinned a strange grin. Someone asked mother whatever she was planning to do with the peanut butter, seeing as how we had only finished breakfast and were clearly not at all hungry enough for sandwiches. Quickly, however, her intentions became evident.
There was much fussing, and sticky parts abounded everywhere. Someone had to hold the paper towels, and someone had to hold onto the peanut butter, and mother had to hold on to Trystan, who's attitude became full of scowls and growls the stickier he became.
Poor Trystan. At one point the jolly little man even begged to have his head shaved along the order of his Uncle Jake's. We think that mother entertained this idea for a while. Not only did she indeed SAY that she was entertaining the idea, she LOOKED as if she was entertaining the idea. Then, SQUISH, in just the right moment before drastic things would begin to occur, the last of the gum came free from Trystan's hair!! There was much dancing, laughing, and checking to be absolutely certain that there was no more gum hiding on his person.
So, quite luckily, Trystan attended his preschool graduation in much the same hairy state in which he had cutely spent the year. However, though he may have looked the same, he was much wiser. He learned a great lesson.

Never give an angry mother peanut butter.

Wordless Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Up went the pool.

If I ever need to write another resume, I can now add pool assembly to my experience.

Mom, Christina, Latisha, and I spent the weekend assembling Mom's new 18' pool. Wet denim, sarcasm, sore fingers, a twisted kneecap, great amounts of handwringing and billions of gallons of water were involved. There was also a little hair raising part where the men had to get involved with a sledgehammer while the women hid their eyes and prayed.

One of my favorite parts was where three tired women gave up trying to stay dry, only to remember that Mom's clothes dryer was, um, out of order.

But the fruit was endured by all on Memorial Day. We braved the icy depths and watched each other's purple lips tremble in the rain and thunder as the children splashed and swam and made us nervous wrecks with their fearlessness. Isaac was obsessed with swimming under water. Alyza was so very excited about anything pink that was floating in the water. Trystan repeatedly dodged any and all safety devices. The adults laughed like crazy that the rain was warmer than the water we were swimming in, and watched for lightning.

Wonderful fun!!

in which nothing and much happened...

I love the things that come out of the mouths of mothers everywhere. Things you simply should not have to say. Words that should not, in a sane world, be put in the same sentence.

"...So who glued the rocks to the patio?"

I should not have to ask. It sounds absurd once it comes out of my mouth, and indeed, I know the answer. But the why is always entertaining, even though for safety reasons I MUST NOT SMILE.

What things have you had to say lately?

Spring fun 2009

Easter 2009

Wordless Wednesday May 13, 2009

Choices...

I know I am behind in posting. I will get Easter pictures up sometime soon.

Jeff is out of town with a church event; I was gone last weekend. This week was my little brother's birthday - Happy Birthday Jake!! He got a new house for his birthday, so he is finally big enough to receive old person birthday gifts like weedeaters and hoses!

I've been looking at our homeschooling materials and choosing what we would like to do next, and praying about whether or not to send Trystan to Kindergarten this fall. I am so torn about this!! I really like the kindergarten program we sent Isaac to a few years ago, but I hate that Trystan will be gone from our routine EVERY morning during the week. I like all of the scripture memorization they have poured into them, but I kind of feel like REAL homeschooling is on hold until we are ALL home to learn together. I really like the Tapestry of Grace program, but when I envision it in my mind, we are all doing it together... It feels like planning a party without him being home.

So in the meantime, I'm looking at other options and evaluating where we are. I like the language arts portion on Time4Learning.com, and Isaac loves that he just blows it out of the water on tests. Everyone needs an attaboy, and he likes it. The math part, he hates. Of course he hates math workbooks, too, so this is not unfamiliar territory. He can not tolerate missing a question, and to him 4 out of 5 correct is just the end of the world and the beginning of self recrimination. We are working on this. I'm looking into MathMammoth books to add a little skill mastery over the summer, and if we like them we might continue them next year. They are extremely affordable! We are also considering MathUSee, it sounds like a great program, although it is more expensive. If Math Mammoth can't help us stop the pencil grinding, perhaps a change in format like Math U See might be in order. I really like the theory of a mastery approach, and I think Isaac will respond to one.

For Science we are planning on adding Apologia's study on astronomy. It is so affordable! Isaac and I discussed the different options available through apologia and he immediately gravitated to this one. We will be finishing up our current book of Backyard Scientist this summer with our friends, the Thompsons, and are looking forward to a summer full of experiments. Boy fun!!

I like the Weaver curriculum we have been looking at, but finding all of the books for each unit is time consuming. We enjoy the books, but having to choose substitutes for most of the titles looses the coherency in a unit. I feel like I am stretching it to make connections between the books we have available and the information in the guide. I am torn about this one, because we really do enjoy the incredible variety of books. We may use it a little more over the summer...

We like the looks of Start Write for handwriting. I can use it for each child and make their handwriting lessons go hand in hand with scripture memorization or anything else that needs reinforcing. It works with print and cursive, and depending on our choices for next year, may be in our budget at around $40.

For Alyza I would like to start Little Hands to Heaven. I like Heart of Dakota, and I think this would be fun for Alyza. She is always wanting to do school and coloring... They also publish Drawn into the Heart of Reading, which I may add in for Isaac. Especially if I go with booklists from Ambleside Online or other similar Charlotte Mason booklists for next year. If we send Trystan to Kindergarten we will probably go this route and save Tapestry for the next year, starting as soon as he graduates.

For the summer, at least, I will keep Isaac on Time4Learning's site. Since we will have company several days a week, this is an easy way to keep Isaac moving forward. I just don't know about long term, but it is serving it's purpose for now!! I'm still getting the hang of how many assignments to give him each day, and how to implement this effectively. It is geared towards use in schools as a supplement, and takes a little digging to figure out how to use it in homeschool.

Oh yeah, and Latin. Affordable!! Prima Latina and it's sister programs are pretty affordable!! If Trystan goes to kindergarten, we might wait on this for a year so I can teach them on the same level. That would be so much easier for all of us.