Peanut Turns 6!

It's not every day that you have a birthday, and you only turn six once! Peanut turned six just this past Saturday and we attempted to make it as perfect for her as possible.

Peanut woke up to a giant surprise ... talk about becoming a princess over night!!

We used some temporary pink and purple hair coloring that you just comb in and kind of reminds me of crayons. Even ECJ and Daddy got into it. ECJ opted for stripes and Daddy had a streak of pink on either side of his beard for the day (no staining and it all washed out rather easily). The girls also were allowed a set of press on princess nails each for the day (these ended up coming off right after cake and ice cream).

 Peanut helped to make and decorate her cake: white cake with real strawberries sliced up into it before baking, shocking pink frosting with sprinkles decorated with more strawberry halves.

Grandma and Papa came out and some close neighbors came over to with her a happy birthday and give her gifts.

Clothing and a coloring set from Grandma and Papa...

A movie from the neighbors...

A tambourine, play dough Ariel castle and doll, giant princess pen, and a dollar from Mommy and Daddy...

Then of course cake and ice cream and visiting!!!!

Afterwards they played, had a junk food dinner (whatever they wanted to snack on they could as we'd eaten a huge late lunch), and then bedtime!

The next morning Peanut came out of her room dressed like this:

And a few days ago (Wednesday) Peanut celebrated her birthday with Noni!

Noni bought her a lot of Strawberry Shortcake items for her birthday and a few other things.

So, this month's (September's) day in a life post is for September 13th.

Previous Months Posts:    
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August


Check out what's going on in everyone else's lives (or link up a day of your own life) over at Our Busy Homeschool on the 20th of every month!

And for those of you who have yet to look us up on Facebook you can find us there by following this link . As yet it is the only social media account we can be found at.

Reordering the Schedule

With recent new developments here we're in the middle of figuring out how to reorder our schedules. I just started a new job, which is starting out part time but could be full time shortly. On top of that I have several orders for crochet items that I must get finished within certain time frames. We also have our first full week worth of our Fall session beginning on September 8th, which means that our lessons will be taking longer each weekday to complete than they have all summer.

So, for this month's "Day in the life" post that will be joined up with not only be linked up to Our Busy Homeschool but also I Homeschool Network's "Not Back to School" blog hop.


I've chosen to highlight August 21st for our Day in the Life, and here's what happened:

This was Peanut at 11:45 PM the night before, we'd walked out to check on them
and we found her sleeping on the couch...

8 AM- My alarm went off, instead of hopping directly out of bed since the children were still silent (meaning they were either still sleeping or resting in their beds before getting up) I said my morning prayers, did my rosary, and quietly talked to Daddy about our plans for the day.

9 AM- We heard the first faint stirrings of our children beginning to get their breakfasts and do their chores. Out of bed I went, dressed and did all my other morning things before heading out into the main part of the house. All of us having taken our showers the night before we didn't need to worry about taking care of that. We did sneak in a few smoothies this morning so that Mommy had something in her stomach before work.

9:45 AM- I left for a quick two and a half hour session at work, where we were all spoken to about what will be expected of us during the next few weeks. While I was at work our plumbing basically broke, having most of our drains back up and a plumber to be called while I was gone. The children spent that time crocheting, coloring, or otherwise engaged since it's kind of hard to walk through lessons with them (even review lessons) while you're responding to a plumber's questions every two minutes.


12:30 PM- Saw Mommy home again from work, the plumber steadily working on the clogs in the lines, and Daddy working right along side the plumber.

1:30 PM- LUNCH TIME!!!! On today's menu we had pulled pork BBQ sandwiches, string cheese sticks, V8 Spicy Mango vegetable juice cocktail, and sliced apples.

2 PM- Afternoon chore time. This includes feeding the dogs, cleaning the bird cage and feeding the birds, cleaning the cat boxes again, straightening up loose books and toys, and lunch dishes. 

2:30 PM- We were able to do our family Bible readings and discussions during this time. Normally we do them first thing in the morning but right now Mommy is still trying to figure out how we'll get everything done with all the new things beginning.

3 PM- One hour was spent here doing lessons. We currently have one hour scheduled Mon - Fri this week and next week for our review lessons before we take a week off and then begin our Fall session. We're reviewing math, language arts, and phonics. 

4 PM- We head out to an event two towns north of us...

6 PM- A quick stop at the grocery store to pick up something for supper (Daddy and I both forgot to lay anything out last night and this morning) and we're home and cooking.

6:30 PM- SUPPER TIME!! On tonight's menu we have fresh from the garden sliced cucumbers, seasoned boneless porkchops, and sauteed peppers with squash and zuccinni as well as some maccoroni and cheese! And these campers ate every bite!!

7:00 PM- Quiet reading time. We do not skip this on any day, and if the children are at Grandma's house they're expected to read for at least half an hour each day that they're there. Most days this happens in the afternoon (to give us parents a bit of quiet time to gather ourselves) some days, like today, it happens in the evening. Peanut is also given her migraine medicine at this time.

7:30 PM- Quick cookie for desert, PJ's on, teeth and hair brushed... Quickly straighten the afternoon mess in our rooms and it's off to bed for the younger campers. Mommy or Daddy reads Peanut a Bible story, turns on her movie, and tucks her in by 8PM...

8 PM - 9 PM - ECJ spends this time reading or crocheting in his room. I caught up on my correspondences and then went into my room to get ready for Big Brother and to attempt to finish part of one of my crochet orders. Daddy is already resting and waiting for the show.

10 PM- ECJ goes to sleep, Daddy watches the news, I take a quick shower and then crochet some more.

11 PM- Night time prayers, quiet discussion about what we have planned for tomorrow and the weekend, and then I drift off to sleep aware that I start work tomorrow at 7:45 AM (GAH! I've never been much of a morning person and I'm not looking forward to being at work by that time to start unloading trucks full of merchandise.)

During the summer we're hardly ever awake before 8 AM unless it's Sunday and we're getting up for Mass. During the school year proper I usually wake up before 7 (barring those days where I turn off my alarm for more rest) and we begin earlier in the day. With this new job I know that once the 1st of next month comes I won't be required to be at work until 9 AM on any day. But, for the next two weeks while we set up the store I need to be up early and ready to go, this has never been an easy task for me and it's harder after several months of letting myself sleep in since we had less work to do and we relax over the summer. However, one finds that anything can be done when it must be and that we're more resilient than we think we are.

I'm not sure at the moment what our Fall session schedule is going to look like. I do know that Daddy will be doing the campers lessons with them while I'm at work on the days I do work. I'm still in charge of lesson plans and correcting papers along with record keeping and grading. And I'm sure that it's only a matter of time that it all becomes second nature to us. In the meantime I'm slightly stressed as I cannot begin planning out September's lessons until at least Monday evening, I'm not sure how many lessons need to be done each week to get us to where we want to be, I'm out of ink until the 3rd so I cannot begin to print off our morning binders or even our binder covers, and the list goes on and on...

*I finished this post up late Saturday evening after referring to my notes from Thursday. I'm still adjusting to working outside of the home and believe it or not muscles that I'd forgotten existed are screaming at me to take a long hot bath with some Epson salts.*

Just One More Story, Mamma

Many people do it no matter if their children are homeschooled or not. We sit down and we jot out schedules. Blocks of time we intend to do things. Trying to keep ourselves, our lives, and our things all organized. But, life is messy and schedules get messed up. Things get left undone in favor of other things that must be done. So, why do we continue to do it? It sooths us to think that we can map out our days, weeks, months, or years into organized slots. We make lists, fill calenders, and vow this time we'll do it all.

Well, I'm always making lists and schedules. Most of the time I even stick with them. Sometimes life gets in the way and I work the schedule around until it works again. That is how I deal with it. I used to stress out like nobodies business when things didn't get done... Now, I shrug and let it roll off of my shoulders.

So here is what our schedule "should" look like starting September 8th (our official start to the new school year).

7 AM - Wake up, morning chores, breakfast, daily Bible reading and morning prayers
8 AM- Change clothing, brush hair and teeth, get our daily binders
8:30 AM - Begin lessons in following order -
            Spelling and the rest of language arts
            Math
            History/state work
11:30 AM - Half an hour outside time, lunch, and music
1 PM - Science/nature walk
2 PM - Health, Art, or read along
3 PM - Independent study or quiet time
4 PM - Afternoon chores
5 PM - Supper time
7 PM - Medicine, showers, pajamas
7:30 PM - Bible stories, bedtime story (Peanut, though sometimes YCJ listens in), and snuggles
8 PM - Bedtime for the girls and silent reading time for ECJ
9:30 PM - Bedtime for ECJ (Sun. - Thurs.)
11 PM - Mom gets to go to sleep

OK, so that's how I'm hoping it will go. Chances are it won't go anything like that at all. We probably won't wake up until closer to 9, other that YCJ who wakes up with the sun. Lessons probably won't start until almost 11, lunch will most likely end up around 2 'o clock again, and we'll probably end up eating closer to 6 or 7 PM most nights. It's rare that I ever go to sleep before midnight and most often it's even later. Does that mean that I have to rewrite the schedule completely? Nope, and here's why...

We've kept the same basic schedule for over a year now no matter what time we wake up. Our lessons are always in the same order. We've found that doing language arts first works best for us (though many families do math first) and that history, science, art, health, and music are easier to handle if we work on them after math. Sometimes we get every subject done every day. Sometimes we alternate science and history, music and art, and sometimes we only do health once a week. 

Once catechism starts we'll have a late night on either Monday or Tuesday which always leads to a later start in the morning the next day. If we add in swim, ballet, and/or gymnastics we run into the same situation. We're contemplating adding co-op for the kids this year (at least for the field trips) and we all know that will wreck the schedule sometimes as well. Throw in doctor appointments, illness, allergies, and any other number of things and we're all out of whack.

We do somehow manage to get it all in each and every day and usually with plenty of time to spare, plenty of outdoor time, and little whining (I'm including myself in that whining part). I've learned that while I'll always write down my "perfect" time oriented schedule it doesn't matter if I stick to it or not. I'm goal oriented. So, if I write out our lessons and decide that things need to happen in A, B, C order then that's usually how they happen.

Chores get done, lessons get finished, everyone gets clean and fed, and there's always time for "Just one more story, Mamma."

And for those of you who have yet to look us up on Facebook you can find us there by following this link . As yet it is the only social media account we can be found at.
           

In the Fields

Another month has gone by and it's time to join in with Our Busy Homeschool for another day in the life post. There will be one each month this year. You can find my posts for Jan. - June at the bottom of this post.

I chose July 21st to highlight this month because we spent almost the entire day at a local business picking berries!!

8:25 AM The house is quiet as I lie in bed and doze in and out. Noni just text to let me know she'd be at our house by 10:30. Peanut had actually slept most of the night, even YCJ wasn't out of bed yet. I spent the next hour or so dozing in and out and listening for the children to awake.

9:30 AM I get out of bed, dress, and do all the other things one does when they wake up to start their day. I go and wake up the children who are blessedly still asleep. The next 45 minutes is a bustle of activity as children do their chores, eat their breakfast, dress, and we say our morning prayers.

10:25 AM The children have been outside for about ten minutes when Noni pulls up in her big truck, having left the car home because the air conditioning in the truck works better. Within just a few minutes we're off!!

11 AM We arrive! Noni asks the attendant at the front entrance for ten pint buckets for picking. We find out there's no peaches thanks to the Polar Vortex and all of the apples are either late or stunted... this does not bode well for the fall. But, we're excited that there's tons of raspberries and black raspberries to pick!

We spend a little over two hours picking berries. There's a lot of the old "one for the bucket and one to eat" method going on and some of the campers get really into the picking process. I have to stick to the berries that I can see because early on I have a bee skitter down the length of my arm from my elbow to wrist on the inside. I have my epi-pen on me but prefer not to be stung if I can help it.

 I take opportunities to snap pictures as they come up. Noni and I are dressed almost identically only my shorts are a tad longer and the style of our tops is not the same. We hadn't planned it but it sure made for an interesting conversation. We both have a lot of the same style clothing actually. Also, we'd both thought about wearing a long skirt that day but decided against it for the same reasons... Long skirts and bees do not truly mix in a berry field ;-)

1:30 PM Having filled and paid for our buckets of berries we head into the shop that's part of the business. The children eyed the candy but were told they couldn't pick any out until after lunch. We stopped for a while to watch a gentleman fill some gallons of apple cider from the new cider press, the old one being in the building that is currently under construction...


2 PM We go into the restaurant that is part of the newer building that was finished up last winter for lunch. There's only one other customer in the entire place and he's more intent on working on something for the construction, he's one of the workers, than he's interested in what we're doing. The campers do almost as much dancing and singing as they do sitting and eating. I'm very pleased with how the restaurant turned out and find it very comfortable. I cannot wait to go back when we go to cut down our Christmas tree in December and sit near the fire in the center!

The children play outside for a little while and then we're off! One quick stop at the store on the way home and we're home at almost 4 PM. Grandma and Papa are there! We all visit for about half an hour before they have to leave, and of course we send them off with some fresh raspberries! Noni stays while the children ride their bikes outside but too soon she has to leave as well.


The campers played outside until nearly 6 PM. Only coming in with the promise of supper. Tonight we have soup, salad, crackers, and fresh raspberries.

Afterwards the children do their evening chores and Peanut gets the evening doses of her medicines. Tonight these include her migraine medicine, her antibiotics (for her ear infection), some allergy medicine (since her pollen allergies are acting up), and half a dose of Melatonin (to try to help her sleep).

They spend a few minutes goofing off and then Peanut gets a quick wash down with cotton in her ear so as not to allow water in. YCJ and ECJ take showers in the two bathrooms and then they're off to bed. YCJ spends a few minutes before her shower attempting to work through a page of one of the Boxcar Children books. I help Peanut through her evening prayers, listen at both ECJ and YCJ's door to make sure they are saying their prayers, and turn out the big lights in the main part of the house... I make sure that the nightlights are on in the hall and the kitchen and head into my room


By 9 PM all of the campers are settled in bed and two of them are asleep. ECJ spends about an hour reading and then falls asleep with his book in his hand, which I then move to his desk and cover him up while I'm checking to make sure that they're all asleep.


By 10 PM I've finished last week's square for a stitch along I belong to and am working in the bed on some squares for a competition I've entered for crochet. I'm not worried about winning anything, just glad for the inspiration for a Christmas gift for a family member.


Daddy and I both fall asleep sometime around midnight. Our day has come to an end and both of us have said our nightly prayers and gone to sleep hoping that Peanut sleeps through the night.

Follow the links below to see other days this year...      
Just Another Day (Jan.)
One Day in February
Project Days (March)
When the Order is Reversed (April)
A Day at the Zoo (May)
A Day of Summer School (June)

And for those of you who have yet to look us up on Facebook you can find us there by following this link . As yet it is the only social media account we can be found at.