Day 95--You Just Can't Say Anything!

It's 11:15pm, and the kids are very talkative tonight. We have a family prayer every night in our bedroom (mine and Jeff's) and after we pray, we usually have some ridiculous conversation. In fact, most of the time we have to get a bunch of talking out of our systems before praying. It was that way tonight, and they were being silly afterward. Sarah and Rachel were putting their heads together and I noticed Rachel's is bigger. So Rachel started talking about having wondered if her head was big. Then Sarah looked in the mirror and started asking if her head was small and if it would grow. You just can't say anything around here.

Rachel was researching the Mozart Effect for her project and decided not to do that, but she found some interesting things about writing and stress. We were sitting at the table doing math when she said, "Writing gives you a higher IQ."
To which Sam replied, "Then let's stop doing math!"
Ha!

Then Rachel went on to say that any writing you do helps reduce stress, not just writing about the thing that's bothering you. She told me I ought to write some fiction. I said, "I'm no good at it because I never let my characters do anything, break any rules or have any problems."
She thought for a minute and said, "The people in my new book have problems. Somebody's about to get kidnapped. But it's ok."
I can't wait to read that one!

I was thinking about having written twice as many blog posts as last year when I tried this every day thing, and I was wondering what makes the difference. I thought back to how I felt by the time I stopped last year. I had this pressure to do it every day and put pictures in and tell everything we did, blah blah blah. This time I'm willing to miss a day or so if I have a migraine or something and I just don't have to put in pictures. I know it's a little more fun with them, but I haven't been pressuring myself to have it be perfect. And I'm so much more able to do it.

I think it goes that way in life and in homeschool too. Pressure for perfection leads to burnout and quitting. I gave that up in my homeschool a long time ago. I may have even overcorrected, but at least I haven't been burnt out for a very long time. If you're finding yourself discouraged about educating your children, look to see if you're putting too much pressure on yourself or your kids. And then relax! It's worth it.

See you next week!

Day 94--Small and Simple Things

Kamille decided to start a new
youtube channel called SmallAndSimpleThings. She made the cutest trailer for it. I asked her exactly what her videos would be like, but she said I'd have to watch and see. I guess she's starting it next week. I'm excited to have more videos of her and the baby to watch. I've been wanting to put more videos on my channel, but life has been so crazy lately. I think it's probably been 4 months or more. Here's Kamille's trailer.

I decided to award Rachel's required 1/2 credit of personal finance for what we've taught her so far just in life plus the things she's done lately. She has opened checking and savings accounts and set up online banking, and she set up an Etsy shop and an amazon self-publishing account. Now her biggest worry is finishing Geometry and Algebra 2 in the next 22 weeks. She'll have to pack it in a bit I think.

We went over to the old house today to put some metal cover plates on some electrical junction boxes in the basement. That only took a few minutes, and now I think all the rest of what's left to do will be done by other people. There's one electrical thing and the tub needs replaced. I think we're hoping to close around the 13th. It's strange each time we go there, to not be living there any more. There are things we miss like being close to a decent grocery store, and having extremely low house payments. I guess we can decide what to do after the sale is final--whether to keep renting or find a house to buy. But I do know the kids will be so relieved to stop going over there to work. It's crazy how much work it's been.

See you tomorrow!

Day 93--Back to School

What a fun week we had with Wilson, Kamille and Eliza. We did the t-shirts together since there was no way I could get it done without everyone knowing about it. I thought it was more fun for us to each pick our own font and color anyway. Isn't this the cutest picture? The camera's flashing timer light did a perfect job of putting Eliza in a trance.

On Monday we had to get up before 4:00am to take them to the airport an hour away, then when we got back home we dropped into bed. We were like zombies. We were just laughing about how we didn't even know where each other was--whether the others were in their beds or not. After a few hour's sleep, we got up and rushed to take Jeff to work at our usual airport just half an hour away.

On the way back from taking him, we went to the old house to put up an ugly railing on the back stairs. I feel bad about having to drill holes in the steps, but the loan won't be approved for the lady to buy it without a railing. By the time we were done putting it in, I had the worst headache. That was Monday around noon, and my head just started feeling better after about 5:00 this afternoon. So we hadn't really gotten back to school yet.

We did do a little math and some science today, and Rachel set up her book cover on Amazon. It looks so great. She wrote a summary for the back cover and chose a quote that adds a little mystery to the description. We are so excited! I hope we can get finished editing it in the next couple weeks.

While Rachel was looking up some things for her research project today, she found a website that has tests for IQ, personality, and career preferences. So we spent some time doing that. They were pretty accurate for each of us. Sam's said he could be a designer (which he wants to do for Lego), Rachel's said she might like to be a therapist or teacher, and Sarah's said pharmacist or organizing type job. Mine came out to be social science research assistant or something like that. I honestly thought it would say teacher.

More school tomorrow. See you then!

Day 92--They're here!

Wilson and Kamille and Eliza got here Saturday night late, and we didn't go to sleep until 3:30 that morning! I think we're still tired. After church, we went to my parents' and visited with them and some more family that came. Then Monday morning we got up and drove 4 hours to Jeff's parents. It's the first time any of them have ever met Eliza. Right now, the kids are taking turns playing piano and singing for Grandma Kay. It's her favorite thing. Always concerts when Grandma's around.

The kids had to drive the van here while Jeff and I had the little car. It was like an all day date. It was strange to get out of the car after getting here and see the kids getting out of another car. The baby has been so painfully cute! She really likes Kamille though, so it's hard for anyone else to hold her very long before she cries for Mommy. I guess it was bound to happen.

Some more family members are driving in tomorrow before we leave to go home, and then all my family will be at my parents' on Christmas Eve. Then on Christmas Day after church, we're going to make t-shirts for ourselves. We're going to get one for everyone and put "I'm the baby" on Eliza's and then everyone else's will have their relationship to her. Like "I'm the grandma" on mine and "I'm the daddy" on Wilson's etc. We thought we might put "I'm the awesome mommy" on Kamille's since Eliza's so attached to her--she must be really awesome! Well, I knew that.

See you next time!

Day 91--Blast from the Past

I didn't want to write about my day because Sam's still pretty sick, and that's not much fun. So I went looking for some old newsletters from a website I had years ago, before blogs. I thought I'd just insert one here. It's probably from about 2008, so pretty old.

Here you go:

"Have you ever gotten to the end of something hard, and been amazed how far you had come?

Today, my husband and I took our kids on a field trip to hunt fossils. We went to a dried up lake bed with a ton of rocks and waterlife fossils. There are four or five kinds commonly found there, and you can take anything home that's smaller than the palm of your hand. It was so much fun for all of us.

After gathering our fill of fossils and hearing "Look Mom!" no less than a million times, we went to the "gorge" side of the dam by the lake. We drove down to the bottom and trudged up to the top on foot. It was very high and steep. Our 6 year old didn't think he could make it, and I didn't think I could either.

We took his hands and his older brother told him not to look up at how far he had to go. If we watched our feet we'd be there before we knew it.

When we finally got there panting, with sore legs and pounding hearts, we turned around to see how far we'd come. It was a gorgeous valley with a gentle stream and trees all over with fall colored leaves.

Our young son realized how happy he was to be at the top and said sighing, "That's the most beautiful sight I've ever seen!"

Having an 11th grader, I'm almost at the top of the home schooling hill for the first time. I've got to say, it's the most beautiful sight I've ever seen! You know what else? It's been worth the sore legs, panting, and pounding heart."

I remember that day. Now I look at that 11th grader with a wife, baby and bachelor's degree and it's even better.

See you tomorrow!

Day 90

Well, we didn't get any school done today. We have a list of things we're trying to do before this weekend to be ready for Christmas, and those will have to be learning experiences I guess. We decided to go to the grocery before lunch today, and we thought we'd have school when we got home. But while we were there Sam started feeling bad. He got a headache, which only means one thing for him--he's sick. We hurried through, and we had a ton of stuff to get!

We got home, sat him on the couch with a blanket and some oranges and water; and by that time he was shivering. He didn't actually feel feverish for a while, but he's pretty hot now. He just went to bed, and I think I'll sleep in his room in Wilson's bed that's still there. Nobody ever gets a fever except Sam, and he always gets one. I guess it's better than it was; he used to throw up every time too. Wilson was that way growing up--always a fever, always throwing up.

So the kids didn't go caroling tonight, but it was too cold anyway. We all served Sam instead. I don't think going to help my mom tomorrow will happen either. Maybe if Sam felt terrific--which is possible, and maybe if it was summer. But I don't think I'm taking him out in the freezing cold. Hopefully Friday, since we canceled the plumber for Friday. We're thinking of something like Bath Fitters to fix the tub if it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I really don't want to break apart that old cast iron tub!

I guess there's nothing more to tell.

See you tomorrow!

Day 89--Six Inches of Snow!

Yesterday was one of those unreasonably hard days, and that's why this is my first post this week. Today was much better, however. Everyone did their independent reading first today. That's when they read the books they pick. They did that for quite a while, actually. Then Sam and Sarah went on to their Uncle Eric books and Rachel to The Making of America. She has kind of a bad attitude about it, but I'm having her read it anyway. She's having a hard time with winter already, and especially because it snowed 6 inches today.

We were going to go to the grocery after school for a huge load of stuff; but since it was snowing all day, we decided to go early. We got started and my wimpy minivan started slipping around, so we just came home. We're dying to get to the health food store too, to get our white spelt flour. Some of us can't eat wheat, so we use spelt. We have the whole grains and we grind our own flour from them, but sometimes you just need to lighten it with white flour. We also make our cookies with it. So yummy.

We got the crib set up for baby Eliza today. I'm so excited! Just 4 more days. We had to put the mattress on the lowest setting, because yesterday she pulled herself up to standing in her crib. Crazy. Then we put together bed frames for the girls' beds. They had been on the floor, but I'm not sure that's good for the carpet. So we put them up. Rachel doesn't think she'll like it. We've never had the beds on frames, but this year we decided to get everyone's off the floor. I love my bed on a frame; we're not getting any younger and it was feeling like a lot of work to get up. I'm 46 and Jeff is 10 years older. He was really getting tired of it.

I guess putting up the crib was our service for today, and tomorrow the kids are going caroling and giving out fruit baskets with the teenagers from church. Thursday, we're helping my mom some more. I'm not sure I can count Friday's plans as service. See what you think. We have to fix a couple plumbing issues at the house before the buyer's loan can be approved. Is that service? We can't sell it without taking care of it, but that also means she can't buy it if we don't. And she's very excited to buy it. I guess that could be service. I'm glad it's someone that really wants it. The realtor says she's just a nice person too. That makes me feel good about the neighborhood staying nice and quiet like it is.

See you tomorrow!