Day 180--Field Trip

                   

Yesterday was my birthday, and we spent the whole day playing around. We went to a state park nearby and looked for fossils in a rock bed that used to be under water years and years ago. Eliza Jayne would have loved it, because rocks are her favorite things. So we sent her this picture of the kids each holding a big rock for her. Sam looks like a giant at that angle!

Then we looked at some log cabins that were actually lived in by early settlers of the area. This is the oldest one they know about.

We found this big old kettle they used to cook in, and the kids thought it looked like a cauldron so they gathered around to make some evil brew.

It was completely perfect weather too. So relaxing. After that, we went and got my parents some treats for their 60th anniversary (which was also yesterday--isn't that cute?) We got my dad salt and pepper pistachio nuts and goat cheese for my mom. We hung around at their house for a while, and then came home and watched a movie. It was such a nice day.

Today, some of us had headaches and we didn't do much academically again. That's ok. Some days I just feel like I don't know what to do for school. It's like I have no idea what they need to learn or work on, and then the next week I'm full of ideas. I guess it's cyclical.

We get to spend this weekend watching General Conference. It's a worldwide conference for our church, where the leaders speak to us; and I love it! It actually started last Saturday night with a women's meeting. Then tomorrow (Sat 10/2), there are two sessions for everyone and one in the evening for the men. Then we get two more sessions on Sunday. They're two hours each. It's my favorite. I listen to the talks over and over while I jog on the trampoline each morning for the next 6 months until we have another conference.  

Here's a link in case you're interested in checking it out. 

General Conference

See you next time!

Day 179--Just when you think you have it right

Today Sam declared he couldn't understand any of his science. I don't think he dislikes the book, and I think he was understanding it before. I just think he's lost his focus for it. Maybe he's not getting enough sleep, and I know he's not getting enough physical activity lately. I've been so tired, and we've all been kind of sluggish. I'd love for it to be more fascinating to him. He really is quite willing to be interested in tons of things. If I could boil science down to statistics, he'd have no problem focusing on it.

I looked through the Great Courses list of classes to see what could take the place of his book, and there are several. I just don't know if that's the way to do it or not. I'll have to watch a few. Some of them are just not that exciting for a 14 yr old.

I think I need to do something different with his math too. He insists he has to take Algebra 1 this year or be behind. (I don't believe in "behind") It's hard for him to remember what to do at all. Algebra is so abstract. There doesn't seem to be any reason to do the things you do. And I can't get him past, "I'll never need this in real life." or "What good is it anyway? Let's just get it done." Ugh!

Rachel won a poetry contest today! She wrote a poem about learning about having faith like Esther in the Bible. It's called As Esther Saw. It's going to be published in an online magazine that's aimed at encouraging teenage girls in their faith. The poem was really great! I'll put a link to it when it comes out. I think it'll be two or three weeks. She won a gift card to a modest online clothes shop. They have some pretty cute stuff.

I'm thinking seriously about starting an online magazine about homeschooling. I'd love to get a few other moms to help me do it, and have other people writing posts regularly. I think it would be totally fun, don't you? Maybe even do some podcasts. I'm not sure about facebook live though. I always get so nervous when I'm live. I like recording things and then being able to edit. Editing is my thing, you know!

See you next time!

Day 178--Tennis in the Dark

I was too tired to write a blog last night after we went to play late tennis. It was only 9:30 when we got home, but I've been wiped out lately. We've never played in the dark before. Well there were lights on the courts.

But it was definitely dark out! After we pulled into the parking lot, a police car came in and parked not far from us as we were walking toward the courts. I thought we should slow down in case they wanted to talk to us. After all, there wasn't another soul there. (The sign says you can play tennis until 10:00) So we slowed down a bit, and the policeman hopped out of the car and went directly to the bathroom! Kind of a relief for all of us.

Since I didn't write about yesterday yesterday, I can't remember much of what I would have written if I had written yesterday. Isn't repetitiveness fun? 

We started reading An Old Fashioned Girl together. It's been a long time since I've read it, and both the girls have read it. I think Sam will like it though; he seems to identify with the 14 yr old fun-loving brother. Imagine that.

We got Rachel's Happy Light, and she's been sitting in front of it for a while each morning. I wonder if she needs to increase the time just a little. I'm not sure she's noticed much difference yet. It had started to get cold and she felt like her SAD was setting in, but then it got hot and sunny again so she's not so bad. 

I've been feeling so tired ever since Sam and Sarah have been getting a ride to Seminary each morning. I think I worry about it in my sleep. You know, about them getting up on time and being ready when they get picked up. When it's just them leaving with Rachel, I guess I don't worry about that. So I've been waking up at 5:30 before their alarm goes off and again at 6:00 when they leave and 7:00 when they get back. It kind of wears me out. Rachel has to take them a few times next week; so I'm hoping with the Happy Light, she'll be better and she can continue taking them. Then I can sleep all the way through. Because you know, I like to stay up at night writing or reading. I can't give that up.

See you next time!

Day 177--Ramblings

We were looking through some free photo websites today to find a picture for Rachel's next book cover. We found one possibility. I don't know if she'll decide to use it, but I like it.

She still has to write the synopsis for the back. She always waits til the editing is finished, in case anything changes about the story. We're about a third of the way through the editing. The story's pretty exciting so far.

In our church we're each asked to visit a few people each month to get to know them and see how they're doing. It's called Visit Teaching because we also usually give a little spiritual thought while we're visiting. So I have a new visiting teacher and she came today and brought me sunflowers.

Aren't they cute? 

One more picture from today.

It's bean cake. Sounds gross doesn't it? I don't love beans, but my family likes to eat a lot of them. So a few weeks ago, we decided to make "bean cobbler" which was beans on the bottom of the pan with cake cooked over the top. People say our cakes taste like cornbread because of using spelt flour instead of wheat, so we make cake with beans since we can't eat corn. Anyway, we thought it would be easy to cook them together. It's really yummy! Even to a semi bean-hater.

I'm thinking Sam would like geometry better than algebra this year. He doesn't seem to want to change what he's doing though. He's afraid he'll forget the algebra that he has learned. I say it wouldn't hurt.

See you next time!

Day 176--Real Life Day

I ordered Rachel a Happy Light! I'm excited to see if it helps her. It's also supposed to help you sleep better (reset your circadian rhythm) so I'm hoping it will help Jeff sleep too. 

We couldn't do too much in the way of academics today because we had a lot of real life instead. The missionaries from our church came over for a little bit after lunch, which meant cleaning up the house. I don't usually keep the house in such good shape that I want someone coming over without doing a little work first. Or sometimes a lot of work.

After they left, we had to plan for helping out with an activity for some families that are spending the night in a shelter. We talked about how everyone's important and how Heavenly Father wants each of us to feel good about ourselves and about others. We also taught a few of the kids a song that kids in our church sing called We Are Different. Here are the words:

I know you, and you know me. 

We are as different as the sun and the sea.

I know you, and you know me, and that’s the way it is  

     supposed to be.

I help you, and you help me.

We learn from problems, and we’re starting to see.

I help you, and you help me, and that’s the way it is 

     supposed to be.

I love you, and you love me.

We reach together for the best we can be.

I love you, and you love me, and that’s the way it is

     supposed to be.

It's pretty bouncy and I love the words. So there was a mom there that had been having a hard time not getting frustrated with her kids; but while we were singing, she came up and gave one of them a little snuggle on the cheek. I know that good music can make a huge difference in the way we feel and act. I guess she couldn't help but feel better about her kids while someone was singing "I love you and you love me" with them. It was a nice change. Here's a link to the music if you want to hear the tune. It's just a music player, so it doesn't have much feeling; but you can see what it sounds like. 

https://www.lds.org/music/library/childrens-songbook/we-are-different?lang=eng

We had to do several things to get ready for the activity. We cut out circles from stiff paper and punched holes in them for necklaces that said, "__________ is important" and we put their names in the blank. We took markers and stickers to decorate them and yarn to put them around their necks. We also made a beanbag to throw around and have each person talk about what or who is important to them. It was like craft day, even though crafts aren't really our thing!

Sarah drove in the dark for the first time tonight. She said she felt like it was the first time she had ever driven at all. It's so different driving in the dark. Rachel gave her helpful things to think about. I hadn't even thought of some of those things since I'm used to it. Like your depth perception is a little different and you have to remember not to stare at the headlights coming at you. She did fine, but she said her shoulders were all bunched up.

See you next time!

Day 175--Shooting Guns

Sam had a young men's activity tonight. And it was shooting guns! He had so much fun. He said he hit the target 17 out of 25 times! Impressive! He used a pistol and a shot gun. Also there was some kind of ridiculously huge gun that sounded like of cannon or something. He could feel it in the ground and all through his body, even when he wasn't the one shooting.

We got to go see my niece Rebekah and her new baby today. They named her Ansley Jayne. Jayne with a "y" is a family middle name. My mom is Carole Jayne, my sister is Amanda Jayne, Her daughter is Rebekah Jayne (Ansley is Bekah's daughter), my Sarah is Sarah Jayne and my granddaughter is Eliza Jayne. It started with my great grandmother. Wait! I just looked up on my family history chart and saw that my great grandmother's middle name didn't have a "y" in it! It was Amanda Jane. I guess my grandparents added the "y" when they had my mom.

We watched another baking Great Course class today. It was about pie crust. They used so much butter! We love to eat butter, and we probably buy more of it that most people; but even we thought it was way too much. I'm sure it was extremely delicious though. And the texture. I could tell just by watching that the texture was perfect.

I miss real baking sometimes. I used to make some pretty incredible treats, but since we can't eat sugar or regular flour, we've had to change our expectations of how things are going to taste. We're pretty satisfied, but once in a while I just want some chewy cookies! Sometimes I make carmel out of pure maple syrup and put that in my cookies and they're pretty chewy. But if I don't eat them right away, they get hard. And it's a ton of syrup for just 4 cookies. Oh well.

See you next time!

Day 174

Some funny things happened today and I thought, "I have to remember that for my blog." Bad plan. I can't think of a thing now. Let's see. . . We folded every stitch of laundry in the house today. Go ahead and be impressed. I can't even tell you how many loads it was; and if any of you are looking for socks, they're here. I don't see how any socks are left in the universe.

We took a walk. Not very exciting, but the weather was nice. I can't take credit for this, but my niece had a baby yesterday. Total cuteness! I get to go see her tomorrow. Don't you love babies?

More reading, more math, more science. We watched a Great Courses class on baking. It made us all want dessert. We're easily influenced.

I got out an English textbook and opened it to a random page so we could learn some grammar thing nobody ever uses. It was about predicate nominatives. Do you know what they are? You should look it up. I told the kids they didn't have to remember it or worry about it at all. Bad homeschool mom! Really, I'm a writer, and I didn't know what it was. I bet English teachers have to look it up before they teach the lesson because of how little it matters.

I guess you'll never know about my funny stuff from today. I'll have to go back to taking notes!

See you next time!

Day 173--Stuff for Texas

I've spent the last 2 weeks sick. My sore throat turned on me. I spent some days with a terrible cough and that gave me a migraine. It's just about over (the cough and the migraine) after a week. I used some amazing essential oils for the cough, and it improved so much. I know it was going to be way worse and for longer. Everyone of us got sick. That never happens, and boy am I glad!

I ended up collecting a table full of stuff to send to Texas for some hurricane victims. Four or five people brought stuff to send. They were so nice. Some of them bought a bunch of kids clothes or giant packs of diapers. We even had some tools that'll be used in the cleanup.



We had a nice full school day today. It was refreshing after the last 2 weeks. We're doing a bunch of graphing of functions for math. It's kind of fun change of pace. The kids like using the graph paper because everything looks so tidy.

We've been reading Hattie Big Sky, and I think there's going to be some crying as we get further into the story. Sarah told me there are some parts that are going to upset me or make me emotional. I don't like crying while I'm trying to read aloud, you know?

We read about Devils Tower in Wyoming today. It's kind of crazy, just sticking up 865 feet in the middle of nowhere. I'd love to see it in person. The Natural Wonders of the World book is a fun way to study geography.

I've had to take a huge break from editing Rachel's book because of the migraine. I'm totally excited to get back to work on it tomorrow!

See you next time!

Day 172--Pity Party

Do you want to come to my pity party? No? Neither do I! But here I am.

Some of us have had some kind of virus for almost a week now. Today it hurts in a whole new way inside my throat. And I spent the day coughing and sniffling, which was new.

I'm trying to help victims of Hurricane Harvey, and I have a way to get some things to several families that have lost everything. I'm so excited about it! So I told over 50 people about it and said to bring stuff to my house this week and I'd get it to Texas. And only one person has brought some things so far. It really doesn't look like anyone else will be bringing anything.

So I'm having a bit of a self esteem crash. It feels like more people would have donated if someone more noticeable had been organizing it. People just don't seem interested in what I do. That's not generally too important to me, but once in a while it just gets me down.

Also, we're having a hard time getting Sam and Sarah to Seminary every morning. We've never had the kids go because of my fatigue and Jeff's job schedule and his inability to sleep. But this year, Rachel has her license and can take them. Except not. She had Lyme disease not long ago, and we got her cleared of it; but I'm wondering if she's having some kind of fatigue or something from it. Also, she has Seasonal Affective Disorder and she's starting to feel "wintery" already for some reason. I think I'm going to get her a happy light this year.

We did get to have school today, and we actually got some things done. We started the graphing chapter in Algebra. Fun. We did science, read a couple chapters of Hattie Big Sky,  Sam studied his architecture stuff and looked for info on a little report I'm having them do. Sam's been working steadily on his Danish, but Sarah's not too interested in a foreign language. I say don't do it then. Find something more interesting. Like piano. That's definitely more interesting to her.

See you next time!