I owe a lot of thanks to my friends over at Learning Life with 3 Sons for again setting up this week's Winter Bucket List Link Up! I got so busy doing other things today that it just slipped my mind!!!
Monday, January 27, 2014
Mysterious Green "Goop"
We're joining up again this Monday with Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday!!
And while our menu isn't exactly crazy and out of the ordinary, our deserts this week are definitely thinking "outside of the box"!
We like to read certain books around here ... I wonder if you can guess who "he" is when you see our deserts...
Sunday - Kielbasa "tacos", kielbasa with onions/peppers/and cheese, and corn
Monday - Turkey lasagna (sorry, secret recipe ;-) ) and homemade garlic bread with "green goop" for desert
Tuesday - Pork ribs with BBQ sauce, baked potatoes, and green beans with "green jiggles" for desert
Wednesday - Beef stir fry (something beef night) with "green slime" for desert
Thursday - Baked chicken legs (half marinated in Dale's sauce half not), collard greens, and mashed potatoes with "green smoothies" for desert
Friday - Tuna casserole with "green goop" for desert
Saturday - Leftover buffet (if there's any leftovers, if not we'll eat turkey tacos)
Our lunches this week are a bit different! We had strawberry muffins for lunch on Sunday. Our regular lunches on Monday. Tuesday we're planning on having "fake" ravioli for lunch. While Wednesday is going to be a surprise because Noni is coming out at lunch time! The rest of the week after that is probably going to be our old stand by's or soup.
Find us on Facebook here or subscribe to the blog for tips on homeschooling, book reviews, how to get your children helping out in the kitchen, and to see many pictures of the cute kiddos, plus much more!
And while our menu isn't exactly crazy and out of the ordinary, our deserts this week are definitely thinking "outside of the box"!
We like to read certain books around here ... I wonder if you can guess who "he" is when you see our deserts...
Sunday - Kielbasa "tacos", kielbasa with onions/peppers/and cheese, and corn
Monday - Turkey lasagna (sorry, secret recipe ;-) ) and homemade garlic bread with "green goop" for desert
Tuesday - Pork ribs with BBQ sauce, baked potatoes, and green beans with "green jiggles" for desert
Wednesday - Beef stir fry (something beef night) with "green slime" for desert
Thursday - Baked chicken legs (half marinated in Dale's sauce half not), collard greens, and mashed potatoes with "green smoothies" for desert
Friday - Tuna casserole with "green goop" for desert
Saturday - Leftover buffet (if there's any leftovers, if not we'll eat turkey tacos)
Our lunches this week are a bit different! We had strawberry muffins for lunch on Sunday. Our regular lunches on Monday. Tuesday we're planning on having "fake" ravioli for lunch. While Wednesday is going to be a surprise because Noni is coming out at lunch time! The rest of the week after that is probably going to be our old stand by's or soup.
Find us on Facebook here or subscribe to the blog for tips on homeschooling, book reviews, how to get your children helping out in the kitchen, and to see many pictures of the cute kiddos, plus much more!
Friday, January 24, 2014
The Arctic Blast Returns
Good grief it is freezing cold outside! It'd be great to try to blow bubbles and have them freeze the temperatures are so darned cold, if the wind would stop we just might try. But, the high wind gusts are placing us at -20's with the wind chill factor and I doubt I could have gloves off for the few moments it would take to blow the bubbles.
The Polar Vortex thing has returned and Michigan is freezing. The weather is more suited to Penguins than campers. After having spent last winter in KY this winter is absolutely frigid and every single one of us are talking about going back south even if we don't exactly have the money for it right now. Daddy's talking about moving down there permanently and selling our Michigan home, as long as the home we buy in the south has air conditioning. Even the dogs aren't wanting to go outside for the few minutes it takes for them to do their business (we're insistent of course, but they don't like it).
So, needless to say, we have not spent even half an hour outside this week playing. ECJ spent about 15 minutes doing some shoveling at our house and two neighbors, just to get the inch or so of snow off of steps and walkways.
Monday I woke up a bit late and when Daddy and I walked into the rest of the house it was to find that ECJ hadn't done most of his chores. Needless to say this didn't make for a good beginning of the day. Daddy and I spent about an hour sweeping, cleaning mirrors, and generally cleaning out of irritation. Lessons were late in starting and about five pots of coffee were drank between Daddy and I before supper. Mondays are always difficult for us because, well, because they're Mondays I guess. No one seems to want to do their lessons, I never want to get up with the alarm (this isn't just on Mondays though), and there never seems to be enough coffee to make it through the day. Daddy also spent a good portion of the day re-wiring the front porch, entry to the house, and one of the campers bedrooms this day ... all because we wanted a working front porch light! By the end of the day all of the wires had been re-run and every switch had a purpose. The scary plug in area for the wiring of the bedroom was eliminated, and our front porch finally had a working light!
Tuesday I blogged the entire day of our lives. The whole post for this day can be seen here. And when I say I blogged about our entire day I really mean it.
Wednesday, ah, you know sometimes I really love Wednesdays. This was not one of those Wednesdays, however. You see although our lessons were going well and even Peanut was not frustrated at all (mostly I'm sure to at that point being almost a full week without a migraine) we did run into one "little" problem. There was a tiny bit of flooring in the hallway that was lifted up at the edge, making for a possible trip hazard for both Peanut and Daddy. Daddy gamely went to fix it and managed that spot with no issue, the other side of the same board had another lifted spot we'd all been aware of for over a month but it's placement was such that no one was likely to trip over it. Daddy, decided to fix it while he had the tools out and he was already down on the floor. Yeah. Not fun. It turns out that our resident "not want to do my chores right because I have better things to do" kid had decided to sweep leftover bits of drywall and dust right under that little section of floor. This caused the area of the floor to lift and refuse to be tacked back down without the debre being removed, problem being to remove the debree a large section of floor had to be pried up ... meaning that now a six foot by three foot section of the hallway floor has been torn up. There's another two layers of floor underneath where it was but to fix this problem we now need a section of wood that will cost us about $30 to purchase. Fun... Our only real bit of fun all day was the fact that Peanut insisted in doing her lessons while being a princess, which meant Mommy and YCJ had to talk in bad accents and refer to each other as Princess and Queen in very polite tones. This did lead to a discussion about "the good days in palaces" and what it might have been like, which somehow led to a discussion on chamber pots (nope, I don't really get it either hehe) and the looks of disgust on the children's faces were priceless.
However, if Monday and Wednesday were a pain in the neck Thursday was a different type of day all together. Peanut had come into Mommy and Daddy's room late at night with a small headache and the fact that she was awake at all with the medicines in her was mildly unsettling. So, we'd given her a half dose of the pain medication prescribed by the neurologist and quietly settled her back in bed. When the sun was up it was apparent that she had a migraine. A full dose of the pain medication was given and she was snuggled back into her bed, excused from class for the day. Sometime after 1 PM, after a bout of nausea which resulted in a mess to be cleaned up, she felt good enough to play quietly in her room. For the most part this meant that the Cracker Jack's and I had uninterrupted lesson time. YCJ managed to get all of her work finished for the day without any issues and went to spend some time with Peanut with a very low playing movie. ECJ spent some time working on his research for his Michigan project...
And so, we come to Friday. The day my children look forward to all week long. Spelling tests aren't the favorite thing for the day, however both Cracker Jack's managed to pull of A's. YCJ got her first 100% on a spelling test ever and ECJ missed two on his test for the first time in over a year. Peanut finished both Thursdays and Fridays lessons while YCJ managed to finish all of her work for the week. ECJ did not fair as well (more on that in a minute). Daddy had let Peanut and I sleep in for a couple of extra hours, Peanut had crept into our bed last night as she was chilled and wanted warm snuggles and for the first time in a long time she slept with us all night. Daddy started the day's lessons almost exactly on time and his only complaint when I wandered out of the bedroom with Peanut was that today's assignments were almost all English (for a man whose brain is better working with numbers than letters this can be a minor irritant). I managed to get all of the lesson plans for next week finalized and part of ECJ's grading for the week finished. Almost as soon as both girls were finished with their lessons they wandered off to YCJ's room (goodness that bed is messy!) to watch a movie together.
PreK/K is still moving along at a great pace. After looking at the amount of work left for Pre-K, Peanut should be ready to move on to mostly Kindergarten level work the first week of February. She is already into Chapter 3 of her K science book from ABeka and completely enjoying it. She only had one migraine all week long on the new medication which is much better than three a week or so. She did end up with another dose of the pain medication before bed on Thursday as her head was still hurting, but woke up without any pain to complain of. She's almost completely finished with her Caillou computer learning game for preschool, just needing to finish out her letter games as we focus on that letter each week. And she has reached a point in her Caillou kindergarten learning game for the computer where she's finding it a little more challenging because of the memory games, so we're adding more memory games to play for "fun". She's gotten more rest this week and it seems that it's improved her mood slightly. I doubt she'll ever be a happy go free type of gal every day simply because she's very oppositional, but I'll take even a few days a month of her relaxed and happy at this point. She also finished her Michigan state flag this week (yes, by herself) and will be doing the Kentucky state flag next week. She enjoys hearing stories about the states we're doing and although I'm doing these as part of our state history studies (for only MI and KY) I may just do something similar next year for part of her United States History work.
3rd grade has suddenly seemed to start making sense to YCJ. Spelling, which before she dreaded, is suddenly "clicking". Math isn't driving her as batty and English (though still far from her favorite subject) is getting finished at a relatively steady pace. If I were following the lesson plans that I could purchase with her ABeka Language Arts materials she'd be a few lessons behind, but with her dyslexia she's better at the pace she's going by far. She's finally getting a chance to study her favorite animal: the penguin and has requested that we study each species of penguin which I am more than happy to do with her. She's also agreed, after some reading in her health book, that she's not a very good looser when she's playing games and that she doesn't like to take turns. She spent a good deal of time this week playing with our animals and helping Daddy feed the dogs.
And 6th grade. ECJ can sometimes surprise me with the things that pop out of his mouth. This week one of those things that popped out was during his health chapter 3 review ... "Udderus ... Mom, I can't find the definition for udders!" Imagine the look on my face. "Well, son, that could be because you're supposed to be looking up the word UTERUS. You do know what that is right?" This led to a discussion about what animals have udders and that human females do NOT carry their unborn children inside of udders. He also had to look up the word placenta ... which caused another discussion that he appeared highly uncomfortable with. He also apparently wants me to have more gray hair than I should as when I was grading his weekly work today (he's the only child I grade weekly as I'm trying to show him that he should be able to be trusted to have his work done on his own) I discovered that no work was shown for any of his math for the past week (a no no), he'd skipped some of his creative writing assignments ("because I didn't think you'd notice"), and I'd completely refused to look at his English work because of this. He also discovered that we meant what we said when it came to the homework policy. This coupled with his "anything I want to do is more important than my chores" attitude have me dreading when he becomes a teenager in 12 months.
Next week, Thursday, I'll be sharing how our homework policy is working for us. And in the main it is working as it should, encouraging the campers to do their work on time and correctly without too much hastle. I'll show you the steps we've taken to make this more concrete for the children and what type of reward system we've put in place if they manage a month without homework.
And now a few words of wisdom from Peanut: "To be smart you have to think about being smart and then let your mind go wild!"
A few photos just for fun: These are of our new addition Squeeks cat, who apparently cannot stand to wait for the can to be opened to attempt to get to the tuna inside!
And I am going to set one of my posts this week apart from the others. It is a subject that is very close to me, and it means very much to me to have as many people read it as possible. It is my sincere prayer that it will help shed some light on an issue that CAN be helped.
Other posts you may have missed this week:
Finding Foot Prints
Week 3 Winter Bucket List Link Up
Maybe We'll Stick to the Menu
5 Little Blessings
Just Another Day (Tuesday's post)
Drowning Out Noise
This week we're linking up with:
Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers
Homegrown Learners
Faithful Mom of 9
and
Great Peace Academy
Find us on Facebook here or subscribe to the blog for tips on homeschooling, book reviews, how to get your children helping out in the kitchen, and to see many pictures of the cute kiddos, plus much more!
The Polar Vortex thing has returned and Michigan is freezing. The weather is more suited to Penguins than campers. After having spent last winter in KY this winter is absolutely frigid and every single one of us are talking about going back south even if we don't exactly have the money for it right now. Daddy's talking about moving down there permanently and selling our Michigan home, as long as the home we buy in the south has air conditioning. Even the dogs aren't wanting to go outside for the few minutes it takes for them to do their business (we're insistent of course, but they don't like it).
So, needless to say, we have not spent even half an hour outside this week playing. ECJ spent about 15 minutes doing some shoveling at our house and two neighbors, just to get the inch or so of snow off of steps and walkways.
Monday I woke up a bit late and when Daddy and I walked into the rest of the house it was to find that ECJ hadn't done most of his chores. Needless to say this didn't make for a good beginning of the day. Daddy and I spent about an hour sweeping, cleaning mirrors, and generally cleaning out of irritation. Lessons were late in starting and about five pots of coffee were drank between Daddy and I before supper. Mondays are always difficult for us because, well, because they're Mondays I guess. No one seems to want to do their lessons, I never want to get up with the alarm (this isn't just on Mondays though), and there never seems to be enough coffee to make it through the day. Daddy also spent a good portion of the day re-wiring the front porch, entry to the house, and one of the campers bedrooms this day ... all because we wanted a working front porch light! By the end of the day all of the wires had been re-run and every switch had a purpose. The scary plug in area for the wiring of the bedroom was eliminated, and our front porch finally had a working light! |
| We found where someone had literally wired the whole bedroom into a plug inside of one of the walls!! Scary, fire hazard type stuff!! |
 |
| A nice five or six foot section of wire in one wall that went absolutely no where! |
 |
| Our working front porch light! Yes, Daddy had to open part of the entry way ceiling to reroute some not very well done wiring. |
 |
| A working light for the bedroom, in the right spot in the ceiling (wires no longer running across the ceiling either), and the light actually turns on inside of the bedroom instead of from the entry way. |
Tuesday I blogged the entire day of our lives. The whole post for this day can be seen here. And when I say I blogged about our entire day I really mean it.
Wednesday, ah, you know sometimes I really love Wednesdays. This was not one of those Wednesdays, however. You see although our lessons were going well and even Peanut was not frustrated at all (mostly I'm sure to at that point being almost a full week without a migraine) we did run into one "little" problem. There was a tiny bit of flooring in the hallway that was lifted up at the edge, making for a possible trip hazard for both Peanut and Daddy. Daddy gamely went to fix it and managed that spot with no issue, the other side of the same board had another lifted spot we'd all been aware of for over a month but it's placement was such that no one was likely to trip over it. Daddy, decided to fix it while he had the tools out and he was already down on the floor. Yeah. Not fun. It turns out that our resident "not want to do my chores right because I have better things to do" kid had decided to sweep leftover bits of drywall and dust right under that little section of floor. This caused the area of the floor to lift and refuse to be tacked back down without the debre being removed, problem being to remove the debree a large section of floor had to be pried up ... meaning that now a six foot by three foot section of the hallway floor has been torn up. There's another two layers of floor underneath where it was but to fix this problem we now need a section of wood that will cost us about $30 to purchase. Fun... Our only real bit of fun all day was the fact that Peanut insisted in doing her lessons while being a princess, which meant Mommy and YCJ had to talk in bad accents and refer to each other as Princess and Queen in very polite tones. This did lead to a discussion about "the good days in palaces" and what it might have been like, which somehow led to a discussion on chamber pots (nope, I don't really get it either hehe) and the looks of disgust on the children's faces were priceless. However, if Monday and Wednesday were a pain in the neck Thursday was a different type of day all together. Peanut had come into Mommy and Daddy's room late at night with a small headache and the fact that she was awake at all with the medicines in her was mildly unsettling. So, we'd given her a half dose of the pain medication prescribed by the neurologist and quietly settled her back in bed. When the sun was up it was apparent that she had a migraine. A full dose of the pain medication was given and she was snuggled back into her bed, excused from class for the day. Sometime after 1 PM, after a bout of nausea which resulted in a mess to be cleaned up, she felt good enough to play quietly in her room. For the most part this meant that the Cracker Jack's and I had uninterrupted lesson time. YCJ managed to get all of her work finished for the day without any issues and went to spend some time with Peanut with a very low playing movie. ECJ spent some time working on his research for his Michigan project... And so, we come to Friday. The day my children look forward to all week long. Spelling tests aren't the favorite thing for the day, however both Cracker Jack's managed to pull of A's. YCJ got her first 100% on a spelling test ever and ECJ missed two on his test for the first time in over a year. Peanut finished both Thursdays and Fridays lessons while YCJ managed to finish all of her work for the week. ECJ did not fair as well (more on that in a minute). Daddy had let Peanut and I sleep in for a couple of extra hours, Peanut had crept into our bed last night as she was chilled and wanted warm snuggles and for the first time in a long time she slept with us all night. Daddy started the day's lessons almost exactly on time and his only complaint when I wandered out of the bedroom with Peanut was that today's assignments were almost all English (for a man whose brain is better working with numbers than letters this can be a minor irritant). I managed to get all of the lesson plans for next week finalized and part of ECJ's grading for the week finished. Almost as soon as both girls were finished with their lessons they wandered off to YCJ's room (goodness that bed is messy!) to watch a movie together. |
| I keep using this photo because it is one of the cutest ones I've ever snapped of her! |
PreK/K is still moving along at a great pace. After looking at the amount of work left for Pre-K, Peanut should be ready to move on to mostly Kindergarten level work the first week of February. She is already into Chapter 3 of her K science book from ABeka and completely enjoying it. She only had one migraine all week long on the new medication which is much better than three a week or so. She did end up with another dose of the pain medication before bed on Thursday as her head was still hurting, but woke up without any pain to complain of. She's almost completely finished with her Caillou computer learning game for preschool, just needing to finish out her letter games as we focus on that letter each week. And she has reached a point in her Caillou kindergarten learning game for the computer where she's finding it a little more challenging because of the memory games, so we're adding more memory games to play for "fun". She's gotten more rest this week and it seems that it's improved her mood slightly. I doubt she'll ever be a happy go free type of gal every day simply because she's very oppositional, but I'll take even a few days a month of her relaxed and happy at this point. She also finished her Michigan state flag this week (yes, by herself) and will be doing the Kentucky state flag next week. She enjoys hearing stories about the states we're doing and although I'm doing these as part of our state history studies (for only MI and KY) I may just do something similar next year for part of her United States History work.3rd grade has suddenly seemed to start making sense to YCJ. Spelling, which before she dreaded, is suddenly "clicking". Math isn't driving her as batty and English (though still far from her favorite subject) is getting finished at a relatively steady pace. If I were following the lesson plans that I could purchase with her ABeka Language Arts materials she'd be a few lessons behind, but with her dyslexia she's better at the pace she's going by far. She's finally getting a chance to study her favorite animal: the penguin and has requested that we study each species of penguin which I am more than happy to do with her. She's also agreed, after some reading in her health book, that she's not a very good looser when she's playing games and that she doesn't like to take turns. She spent a good deal of time this week playing with our animals and helping Daddy feed the dogs. |
| ECJ when he learned that he had to re-do chapter one and two review for health as he hadn't done them correctly. |
Next week, Thursday, I'll be sharing how our homework policy is working for us. And in the main it is working as it should, encouraging the campers to do their work on time and correctly without too much hastle. I'll show you the steps we've taken to make this more concrete for the children and what type of reward system we've put in place if they manage a month without homework.
And now a few words of wisdom from Peanut: "To be smart you have to think about being smart and then let your mind go wild!"
A few photos just for fun: These are of our new addition Squeeks cat, who apparently cannot stand to wait for the can to be opened to attempt to get to the tuna inside!
Other posts you may have missed this week:
Finding Foot Prints
Week 3 Winter Bucket List Link Up
Maybe We'll Stick to the Menu
5 Little Blessings
Just Another Day (Tuesday's post)
Drowning Out Noise
This week we're linking up with:
Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers
Homegrown Learners
Faithful Mom of 9
and
Great Peace Academy
Find us on Facebook here or subscribe to the blog for tips on homeschooling, book reviews, how to get your children helping out in the kitchen, and to see many pictures of the cute kiddos, plus much more!
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Drowning Out the Noise
Yay! It's time to let all of you know what's been working in our home! So, let's all join Our Busy Homeschool in sharing what works!!!
Lots of things are still working around here and some things we've had to give up for now, like our nature walks. I mean it's completely freezing outside where just walking from the front door to the car hurts my hands so there's no way we're going to do that until it warms up. And, I should say, that Peanut is VERY upset over that fact right now. She claims that the birds are the smartest because they go "back down souf for da winter where it's not fweezing."
However, since we returned from Christmas, the one thing that it working for all of the campers are their new headphones. Oh the blessing of silence in my home during the day. Well, at least while they have those headphones on. It's a blessing to me not to have to hear several different songs playing at once, or online lessons going through speakers that I have to then attempt to talk over while another child is trying to listen to me.
It's a blessing for the children as well because these headphones are so good that they muffle ALL outside noise, which means they're less distracted from their work. They're also pretty comfortable to wear, unlike all the other ones we've tried in the past, which means the campers are more than willing to put them on. They have discovered, of course, that while these are on if they're listening to music at a certain volume they can't hear when we call for them either... Not such a blessing, but definitely a familiar scene from my younger days.
And while ECJ enjoys his headphones (which are black) for listening to his portable CD player with he still uses his ear buds during his computer lessons because his computer causes some feedback to happen with his new headphones. These were purchased at a store near us called Five Below and cost all of five dollars each.
Other than that one of our major things that is working for us is the use of flashcards and memory games. We use flashcards for the alphabet, number recognition, beginning words, and math facts. We have memory games that are just for "fun" (helping build memory) and some for the alphabet as well. We also found a wonderful ABC go fish game featuring the Sesame Street crew at Dollar Tree.
Find us on Facebook here or subscribe to the blog for tips on homeschooling, book reviews, how to get your children helping out in the kitchen, and to see many pictures of the cute kiddos, plus much more!
Lots of things are still working around here and some things we've had to give up for now, like our nature walks. I mean it's completely freezing outside where just walking from the front door to the car hurts my hands so there's no way we're going to do that until it warms up. And, I should say, that Peanut is VERY upset over that fact right now. She claims that the birds are the smartest because they go "back down souf for da winter where it's not fweezing."
However, since we returned from Christmas, the one thing that it working for all of the campers are their new headphones. Oh the blessing of silence in my home during the day. Well, at least while they have those headphones on. It's a blessing to me not to have to hear several different songs playing at once, or online lessons going through speakers that I have to then attempt to talk over while another child is trying to listen to me.
It's a blessing for the children as well because these headphones are so good that they muffle ALL outside noise, which means they're less distracted from their work. They're also pretty comfortable to wear, unlike all the other ones we've tried in the past, which means the campers are more than willing to put them on. They have discovered, of course, that while these are on if they're listening to music at a certain volume they can't hear when we call for them either... Not such a blessing, but definitely a familiar scene from my younger days.
And while ECJ enjoys his headphones (which are black) for listening to his portable CD player with he still uses his ear buds during his computer lessons because his computer causes some feedback to happen with his new headphones. These were purchased at a store near us called Five Below and cost all of five dollars each.Other than that one of our major things that is working for us is the use of flashcards and memory games. We use flashcards for the alphabet, number recognition, beginning words, and math facts. We have memory games that are just for "fun" (helping build memory) and some for the alphabet as well. We also found a wonderful ABC go fish game featuring the Sesame Street crew at Dollar Tree.
Find us on Facebook here or subscribe to the blog for tips on homeschooling, book reviews, how to get your children helping out in the kitchen, and to see many pictures of the cute kiddos, plus much more!
Monsters Always Stay With You
Usually I try to put a little bit of humor (dry or not) into my posts. This is not one of those posts...
To get the full impact of this you must place yourself in the mother's shoes throughout the entire story...
Mom (in her early 30's) watches as her five year old picks at another meal. Her daughter loves this meal and there's no reason for her to be picking at it. Mom begins to think of how many meals lately this has been happening during and she slowly puts her fork down. "Sweetheart, is something bothering you?" she asks, half dreading the answer. "No, Mommy." is the reply and for several more minutes she picks at her food...
The next day at lunch Mom makes her daughter's favorite thing to eat. A baby spinach salad with tomatoes, mushrooms, cheese, dried cranberries, and raspberry walnut vinaigrette. Again the girl picks at her meal and Mom notices. Very calmly, even though she is shaking inside, she asks again if there's something bothering her daughter and this is the reply:
"Mommy, so and so has been calling me fat. So, if I don't eat I won't get any fatter. It's not your cooking it's OK." The little girl is close to tears and Mommy takes a deep breath. It was the answer she never wanted to hear out of her daughter's mouth. It takes over an hour to convince the girl that she's not fat and should eat her salad, that indeed the salad is healthy for her and doesn't contain much fat at all.
Monday morning rolls around and Mom goes up to the school. She confronts the principal, she confronts the teacher, and she confronts the aides. They don't seem to understand that this goes far beyond bullying. This is bigger than a few missed meals. This wasn't a one time thing, her daughter had told her that it'd been happening since the first day of school and now it is the end of November. They don't see how it can bother the girl (or the mother) because the girl is obviously NOT fat. Mom gets angry and finally stomps back into the principals office and relays this story to her:
When I was fifteen years old my father told me one day at the beach that I looked like a beached whale. I was the height I am now and barely 120 pounds. That comment coupled with several I'd been hearing from the more popular kids at school convinced me that I was indeed fat. From that day on I skipped most of my meals and those meals that I did eat I ate very little of. I exercised before school and after school to videos and without them. I jogged, I ran, and did almost everything else I could think of to help me lose weight. My breakfast was usually a cup of coffee, my lunch a tic tack or on a good day an apple, and my dinner wouldn't have filled up a toddler's stomach. I weighed myself constantly and even when I reached a goal it was never "good enough". I studied myself in the mirror looking for "flaws" that one ounce of fat that hadn't come off yet, and constantly saw myself as fat. I dropped weight quickly. I went from being near 120 pounds to being almost 70 pounds within just a few months. My mother, a nurse, didn't notice until it was almost too late because our schedules (she worked midnights) made it so that we barely saw each other. My friends didn't notice because I seemed happy and healthy and of course we were all just out to have fun, after all we were teenagers.
One morning I woke up and I could not lift my hand off of my bed. My mother had to rush me to the hospital. I was severely under weight, anemic, and dehydrated. I was in that hospital bed until they'd managed to put seven pounds on me. Then it was daily weigh ins at the doctors office for several more weeks. Which then dropped down to weekly, then bi-weekly, and finally monthly weigh ins. I was required to be in therapy once weekly for nine months where I had to talk about "why" I felt fat and if I'd managed to get over those feelings. At the end of nine months I weighed 99 pounds, had convinced the therapist that I didn't think I was fat any longer, and had managed to allow myself "almost" the minimum daily requirements for calories. I was pronounced cured. I was far from that.
After my first marriage ended I dropped once again down to 100 pounds, justifying this loss as stress and work related. I barely ate while I was at work because I was "too busy", I barely ate when I wasn't at work because I was drinking too much. I refused to see it for what it was, after all I wasn't weighing myself and exercising all the time. I was fine. It was only after meeting the man who is now my husband that I realized I was too skinny, and then only because he'd barely even hug me for fear he'd hurt me.
No, I'm not skinny now. I'm far from skinny now. I know this. Yet, let me tell you something. I still refuse to own a scale. I don't look at my body in the mirror. I skip a lot of meals even though I'm not supposed to. My daughter went from a happy little five year old girl to being on the border of stepping over the cliff of anorexia. And let me explain something to you. That monster never goes away. You never see yourself as skinny enough again. You never can look at a scale or a plate of food the same way again. It sticks with you long after they claim that you are cured. THAT is the problem with what is going on! Those are the reasons I am so damned angry with what has been happening! AND that is why I want actions taken NOW!
The principal had listened and as the Mom finished she stood slowly from her chair behind the desk. "Mrs. So and so, I can assure you that I will never allow such bullying in my school again. I will speak with the boy and his parents today. I'll be talking to my boss about an awareness on eating disorders informational meeting being done with the teachers so that they understand why we don't allow this ever. I am so sorry that I made light of the problem before."
The Mom left, feeling only slightly better. It took several months for her daughter to eat right again. It took almost as long to convince the older brother that he didn't need to work out at every lunch period instead of play, they'd found out he'd been being picked on for being puny right around the same time.
Now, three years later that little girl is eight and she eats her meals without too much fuss. Daddy and Mommy watch her carefully and will continue to do so, at the first signs that there's a problem they'll be right there to catch her before she falls...
I tell you this because I am that Mom. I suffered, and still suffer with some of the mental parts, from anorexia. I still do not own a scale nor do I often study my body in the mirror. My husband makes sure I eat most days as often I do forget to. When I told my children's principal that story three years ago I was the biggest I'd ever been at a size 22, within a year I'd dropped down to a size 16. Within another year I was a size 14/12. And now I'm a size 10 hoping to be a size 8 before the end of this year. I am taking it slow, I am striving to do this the healthy way.... Not only for myself but for my children who watch my every move. I do not plan on going below a size 8 as that is the last point I remember having healthy energy and not being as pale as the paper the rough draft for this post was written on when I wake up. It is a struggle.
Some of you may wonder how a person who suffers from anorexia goes from being too skinny to being obese (and let's face it at a size 22 and only 5'4" tall I was obese). I love food, it tastes great ... But, I hate food because it makes me fat. After marrying my husband and our having two beautiful daughters within three years of each other I was up to a size 14. No big deal. But, I'd had an emergency C-section with our youngest which delayed any exercising that I may have done. Five months after she was born my husband began having unexplained seizures almost daily. For two years it was several doctor appointments a month for Daddy trying to figure out what was wrong, worry over our youngest who had been born a bit over a month early, who had vision problems just being discovered, and at that point was non-verbal. She spent a year in physical and speech therapy classes sometimes only once a week and sometimes three times a week. This is the same year that YCJ tried to stop eating. I grabbed fast food on the go, I ate lots of fatty or sweet snacks all of the time (but especially at night), and other than running to appointments did very little outside of the home and certainly didn't exercise. In less than two years my cholesterol was out of control and I was obese. One day I realized this after I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and I began the long, hard, slow journey back to being healthy again.
Yes, we homeschool now. But, that doesn't mean that my children are kept in the house away from people who may call them names or cause them discomfort. Eating disorders are considered a teenage and young adult problem, they're considered a female's problem, and they're considered to be "cured" once the person begins to show signs of weight gain again. None of these things are true. Children can develop these disorders just as easily as anyone else can! Boys fall prey to this problem every year as well, and their numbers are climbing each year! And, hardest to think of of them all ... You are never really cured from an eating disorder.
The things you taught yourself to be able to lose weight so quickly stay with you. The habits you formed stay with you. The mental struggle with your self image is always there. And the knowledge that you can always take the "easy" way and lose any extra weight is a constant battle you face.
I tell you this because this problem is still with me, I still struggle with it, and I do not want my children or YOUR children to ever have to do the same.
To get the full impact of this you must place yourself in the mother's shoes throughout the entire story...
Mom (in her early 30's) watches as her five year old picks at another meal. Her daughter loves this meal and there's no reason for her to be picking at it. Mom begins to think of how many meals lately this has been happening during and she slowly puts her fork down. "Sweetheart, is something bothering you?" she asks, half dreading the answer. "No, Mommy." is the reply and for several more minutes she picks at her food...
The next day at lunch Mom makes her daughter's favorite thing to eat. A baby spinach salad with tomatoes, mushrooms, cheese, dried cranberries, and raspberry walnut vinaigrette. Again the girl picks at her meal and Mom notices. Very calmly, even though she is shaking inside, she asks again if there's something bothering her daughter and this is the reply:
"Mommy, so and so has been calling me fat. So, if I don't eat I won't get any fatter. It's not your cooking it's OK." The little girl is close to tears and Mommy takes a deep breath. It was the answer she never wanted to hear out of her daughter's mouth. It takes over an hour to convince the girl that she's not fat and should eat her salad, that indeed the salad is healthy for her and doesn't contain much fat at all.
Monday morning rolls around and Mom goes up to the school. She confronts the principal, she confronts the teacher, and she confronts the aides. They don't seem to understand that this goes far beyond bullying. This is bigger than a few missed meals. This wasn't a one time thing, her daughter had told her that it'd been happening since the first day of school and now it is the end of November. They don't see how it can bother the girl (or the mother) because the girl is obviously NOT fat. Mom gets angry and finally stomps back into the principals office and relays this story to her:
When I was fifteen years old my father told me one day at the beach that I looked like a beached whale. I was the height I am now and barely 120 pounds. That comment coupled with several I'd been hearing from the more popular kids at school convinced me that I was indeed fat. From that day on I skipped most of my meals and those meals that I did eat I ate very little of. I exercised before school and after school to videos and without them. I jogged, I ran, and did almost everything else I could think of to help me lose weight. My breakfast was usually a cup of coffee, my lunch a tic tack or on a good day an apple, and my dinner wouldn't have filled up a toddler's stomach. I weighed myself constantly and even when I reached a goal it was never "good enough". I studied myself in the mirror looking for "flaws" that one ounce of fat that hadn't come off yet, and constantly saw myself as fat. I dropped weight quickly. I went from being near 120 pounds to being almost 70 pounds within just a few months. My mother, a nurse, didn't notice until it was almost too late because our schedules (she worked midnights) made it so that we barely saw each other. My friends didn't notice because I seemed happy and healthy and of course we were all just out to have fun, after all we were teenagers.
One morning I woke up and I could not lift my hand off of my bed. My mother had to rush me to the hospital. I was severely under weight, anemic, and dehydrated. I was in that hospital bed until they'd managed to put seven pounds on me. Then it was daily weigh ins at the doctors office for several more weeks. Which then dropped down to weekly, then bi-weekly, and finally monthly weigh ins. I was required to be in therapy once weekly for nine months where I had to talk about "why" I felt fat and if I'd managed to get over those feelings. At the end of nine months I weighed 99 pounds, had convinced the therapist that I didn't think I was fat any longer, and had managed to allow myself "almost" the minimum daily requirements for calories. I was pronounced cured. I was far from that.
After my first marriage ended I dropped once again down to 100 pounds, justifying this loss as stress and work related. I barely ate while I was at work because I was "too busy", I barely ate when I wasn't at work because I was drinking too much. I refused to see it for what it was, after all I wasn't weighing myself and exercising all the time. I was fine. It was only after meeting the man who is now my husband that I realized I was too skinny, and then only because he'd barely even hug me for fear he'd hurt me.
No, I'm not skinny now. I'm far from skinny now. I know this. Yet, let me tell you something. I still refuse to own a scale. I don't look at my body in the mirror. I skip a lot of meals even though I'm not supposed to. My daughter went from a happy little five year old girl to being on the border of stepping over the cliff of anorexia. And let me explain something to you. That monster never goes away. You never see yourself as skinny enough again. You never can look at a scale or a plate of food the same way again. It sticks with you long after they claim that you are cured. THAT is the problem with what is going on! Those are the reasons I am so damned angry with what has been happening! AND that is why I want actions taken NOW!
The principal had listened and as the Mom finished she stood slowly from her chair behind the desk. "Mrs. So and so, I can assure you that I will never allow such bullying in my school again. I will speak with the boy and his parents today. I'll be talking to my boss about an awareness on eating disorders informational meeting being done with the teachers so that they understand why we don't allow this ever. I am so sorry that I made light of the problem before."
The Mom left, feeling only slightly better. It took several months for her daughter to eat right again. It took almost as long to convince the older brother that he didn't need to work out at every lunch period instead of play, they'd found out he'd been being picked on for being puny right around the same time.
Now, three years later that little girl is eight and she eats her meals without too much fuss. Daddy and Mommy watch her carefully and will continue to do so, at the first signs that there's a problem they'll be right there to catch her before she falls...
I tell you this because I am that Mom. I suffered, and still suffer with some of the mental parts, from anorexia. I still do not own a scale nor do I often study my body in the mirror. My husband makes sure I eat most days as often I do forget to. When I told my children's principal that story three years ago I was the biggest I'd ever been at a size 22, within a year I'd dropped down to a size 16. Within another year I was a size 14/12. And now I'm a size 10 hoping to be a size 8 before the end of this year. I am taking it slow, I am striving to do this the healthy way.... Not only for myself but for my children who watch my every move. I do not plan on going below a size 8 as that is the last point I remember having healthy energy and not being as pale as the paper the rough draft for this post was written on when I wake up. It is a struggle.
Some of you may wonder how a person who suffers from anorexia goes from being too skinny to being obese (and let's face it at a size 22 and only 5'4" tall I was obese). I love food, it tastes great ... But, I hate food because it makes me fat. After marrying my husband and our having two beautiful daughters within three years of each other I was up to a size 14. No big deal. But, I'd had an emergency C-section with our youngest which delayed any exercising that I may have done. Five months after she was born my husband began having unexplained seizures almost daily. For two years it was several doctor appointments a month for Daddy trying to figure out what was wrong, worry over our youngest who had been born a bit over a month early, who had vision problems just being discovered, and at that point was non-verbal. She spent a year in physical and speech therapy classes sometimes only once a week and sometimes three times a week. This is the same year that YCJ tried to stop eating. I grabbed fast food on the go, I ate lots of fatty or sweet snacks all of the time (but especially at night), and other than running to appointments did very little outside of the home and certainly didn't exercise. In less than two years my cholesterol was out of control and I was obese. One day I realized this after I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and I began the long, hard, slow journey back to being healthy again.
Yes, we homeschool now. But, that doesn't mean that my children are kept in the house away from people who may call them names or cause them discomfort. Eating disorders are considered a teenage and young adult problem, they're considered a female's problem, and they're considered to be "cured" once the person begins to show signs of weight gain again. None of these things are true. Children can develop these disorders just as easily as anyone else can! Boys fall prey to this problem every year as well, and their numbers are climbing each year! And, hardest to think of of them all ... You are never really cured from an eating disorder.
The things you taught yourself to be able to lose weight so quickly stay with you. The habits you formed stay with you. The mental struggle with your self image is always there. And the knowledge that you can always take the "easy" way and lose any extra weight is a constant battle you face.
I tell you this because this problem is still with me, I still struggle with it, and I do not want my children or YOUR children to ever have to do the same.
- Watch your children for sudden lack of interest and appetite in their food intakes (this can be a symptom of an eating disorder or something else)
- Talk to your children regularly about what's going on inside their heads.
- Don't stop asking the hard questions no matter their age or how hard they fight you about it.
- If you suspect that there is a problem confront them gently but firmly on the issues.
- If there is a problem do not just laugh it off, it may be more serious than you think.
- If you need to please seek professionals to help your child (or yourself), this is not something that can be "cured" but it CAN be "helped".
If you feel the need to share my story it's OK. Until now very few people outside of my family and a few close friends were aware of it. I chose to share this now as I felt that perhaps my struggle might be of help to someone out there. That this story may shed some light onto a subject no one is comfortable with. It is my prayer that in telling you this story that no child ever suffers from an eating disorder again.
I owe thanks for the title of this post to my younger sister, may she provide courage to all those girls who are now as I once was. She's a pretty strong, intelligent, young lady who tries to always stand up for what's right.
I also owe a debt of gratitude to a dear friend of mine (she knows who she is) who graciously read over this post before it was published and caught my spelling mistakes (that spell check hadn't caught) and gave some much needed editorial advice.
I owe thanks for the title of this post to my younger sister, may she provide courage to all those girls who are now as I once was. She's a pretty strong, intelligent, young lady who tries to always stand up for what's right.
I also owe a debt of gratitude to a dear friend of mine (she knows who she is) who graciously read over this post before it was published and caught my spelling mistakes (that spell check hadn't caught) and gave some much needed editorial advice.
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Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Just Another Day
Tristan, from over at Our Busy Homeschool , had another one of her great ideas and came up with a monthly link up about a day in the life of...
A few minutes after 9 AM finds most of us dressed, I've had my first cup of coffee, and a few of us are actually eating breakfast. Not one of our "fancier" breakfasts, just cold cereal. By the time I remembered to snap a picture Peanut was at the table and YCJ had finished her cereal. Those cupcake cups were picked up at a local restaurant on ECJ's birthday and are one of the favorite choices around here now. I like them because they're pretty hard to spill! I've even gone around and opened curtains to let in daylight by this point. Second cup of coffee in hand I give them a few minutes to "get it together" while I check my e-mails, finish unloading the dishwasher of the things that ECJ can't reach to put away, and reload it.
Around 9:30 (wow, only half an hour off of my planned start time) the morning binders are gotten out. I gather the other school supplies for the girls and get YCJ's English binder ready for her. It's helps her when I get her organized in the mornings. I remind ECJ that he never did his copy work from yesterday and so today he has to write it out twice. As you can clearly see Peanut still doesn't look all the way awake.
With everything in place, including our supervisor Moragon, I begin our morning Bible readings just as Peanut starts her work on her play dough.
While I read to them ECJ worked on his copy work for today and yesterday: 2 Hail Mary's, 2 Our Father's, and 2 Apostle's Creed's. YCJ works on her cursive handwriting lessons for the letter D and Peanut makes me a heart for God. Informing me happily that "God loves us all.... even the sad people who don't love him."
By a few minutes after 10 we've moved on to our book lessons. The Cracker Jack's begin with spelling and follow it with the rest (in no real order): Language Arts, Creative Writing (6th grade), Health, Science, Social Studies/History, and Arithmetic. And as you can tell from the look on YCJ's face, she's begun to get tired of the camera.
Peanut gets most of my attention for the next hour or so as we work through her Phonics, letter of the week ( which is "o" ), counting, and her Social Studies project which is a copy of the Michigan state flag. Sometime in here she finishes her cereal and I finish loading the dishwasher. On it goes before I forget and I pour myself another cup of coffee.
Then it's snack time while Peanut moves on to her online lessons and computer lessons. Which at this time consists of a mixture of Easy Peasy, Starfall, and some educational Caillou games that I purchased for her. Today's snack is a string cheese and an apple. ECJ helps YCJ out with her Arithmetic once he's finished with his book work while I make Daddy something to eat. Daddy's not feeling well today at all, but thankfully the day is going well other than that. I think about grabbing myself something to eat at this point but forget to right after I pour Daddy and myself another cup of coffee.
Daddy's breakfast, two bagels, is ready just as the campers are ready to eat their lunches. Peanut has her standard American cheese sandwich without anything on the bread (I added a few slices of leftover turkey bacon on the side for her today) while YCJ enjoys a lettuce salad (also with added leftover turkey bacon) and ECJ makes himself his standard peanut butter sandwich. Daddy has the peas soaking for the split pea soup for Thursday night's dinner already and after a quick check of his Facebook while Peanut is behind him on the couch doing this ...
with her security blanket we all call "Comfy", Daddy goes back to lay down again. He really isn't feeling well. YCJ finishes looking at art online so I set her up with her Keyboard Classroom typing lessons while ECJ works on his Apalogia General Science course online, and I read to Peanut. Which of course is quickly followed by some flash cards with Peanut for the alphabet and her numbers. She's not really interested in the reading part today and I'm not really interested in being kicked while she's being goofy. But, we make it through.
As soon as YCJ is finished and I've trimmed Peanut's bangs it's time for the girls to get a bath. If it was warmer outside it'd be outside play time, but we opt for a warm bath instead. ECJ keeps researching for his Michigan report and I get a chance to check Facebook, catch up on some blog reading, and play a few computer games while the bath goes on. It's now two 'o clock. I jot some notes down for this post, help the girls finish their bath, and unload the dishwasher just to put the lunch dishes inside of it. Peanut makes her bed, after a gentle reminder that she can do it. Then the girls enjoy a movie together in Peanut's room while ECJ works on his book report for The Hobbit. It's during this time that I do my personal Bible readings. Sometime around three I realize I still haven't eaten and I pop in microwave dinners for both myself and Daddy for lunch.
By four PM all of our books are put away and everyone pretty much does as they wish while I prepare for dinner, which tonight is chili dogs and french fries. I got to try out my new gizmo for making french fries! I love how it works but I didn't like how my fries turned out ... Certainly need some practice there!
6 PM finds the Cracker Jack's pouring drinks for the kids and placing every one's forks on the dining room table. Everyone sits, we say prayers, and eat dinner together. At 6:30 Peanut has her first migraine medication (a little over a week and she'll be off of this one YAY!!). Tonight we finish by quarter to seven and Daddy and I clean up the kitchen.
7 PM means it's time for Peanut's new migraine medication, which we add to some juice in a cup to make it easier for her to take. The Cracker Jack's clean up Peanut's room, since it's been destroyed yet again and as soon as her medicine is gone Peanut begins telling me all about birds. How they take care of their eggs, why the eggs have to be kept warm, why they fly "down souf" for the winter, and other interesting tid bits. While she's doing this she's placed penguins on Moragon so she doesn't feel left out and gives me snuggles. Daddy takes the opportunity to snap a few photos.
By eight 'o clock we've had our desert (tonight it's chocolate pudding cups), done our evening Bible readings, and ECJ has begun to read to Peanut. Peanut gets some melatonin around this time as well. YCJ has opted not to be read to nor to read to herself but to enjoy a DVD quietly in her room before bed, she's out by 8:20. ECJ reads two chapters of a different book to Peanut before she goes to bed and he jumps in the shower.
9 PM - Bathroom being cleaned up by ECJ and dishwasher turned on again by me.
10 PM - ECJ in bed, Daddy relaxing in the bedroom, girls asleep, and I'm writing this.
11 PM - Dishwasher has finished it's cycle once again. I'm about to reload it, clean up the kitchen, set up the coffee pot for morning, and take a shower before I head off to bed and say my rosary. The only one's awake in the house right now (including animals) are Daddy and myself. Barring a child waking up within the next hour my day is basically finished.
Wow! I think I was trying to write a book based on one day of our lives!!! Sorry about how long it turned out, and I even left some things out! Like the paragraph and a half I wrote about YCJ leading the campers in a decade of the rosary right after I finished our evening Bible readings. This is a peaceful day in our homeschool. A day where everything went pretty much as it should, even if I did burn a batch of french fries and Daddy wasn't feeling well. We never did do any of those science "kits" of ECJ's because the campers were just enjoying their day too much to be bothered. I may get some more reading in (this time Dean Koontz) before I go to sleep, or so crochet work done, maybe even watch some TV with Daddy. I doubt I'll be in bed before it's officially tomorrow in any case.
The morning comes quickly around here where I'll be again greeting with a rooster crowing, thanks to my loving husband discovering that it'll actually break through my sleep unlike the buzz of a regular alarm. I might actually get up on time. I promise that my post next month won't be as long but I certainly enjoyed telling you all about our day!
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So, being one who absolutely loves great ideas I decided to join her for January's edition! And, to confess, I'll probably be doing this again each month that she has it all year long.
So, sit back and watch just one of our days here at Homeschool Camper unfold before your eyes.
I am very tempted to start this just like a ship's log for Star Trek but in deference to those of you who do not like Star Trek (though why you don't I'll never understand) I'll just say that the day that follows is dated: January 21, 2014.
12:05 AM finds me just getting off of the computer for the night. I straightened up the kitchen, started the dishwasher, set the rest of the dishes to soak until morning, looked at ECJ's science "kits" to see if we might feel like doing them after lessons, and then went to check on Peanut. It's still a very new thing for her to be asleep before midnight any night.
12:35 AM rolls around and I decide that a half hour or so of reading should have me finished with my current "bathroom book" Star Trek: Enterprise The First Adventure. So, I finished it.
After having crawled into bed next to Daddy a few minutes after one I began to drift off to sleep. Within minutes Peanut's at the edge of the bed. She's cold and wants to snuggle. So, into bed she gets placed and I get chilled to the bone. I ask if her bedroom's chilly and she says, "Nope, just me." OK then. I drift in and out of sleep for the next hour and a half before she nudges me and asks to be taken back to her own room. Slowly and surely we make our way to her room at the other end of the house. You do not rush a legally blind person when the only light is nightlights and they aren't wearing their glasses. Plus, if you try to rush her when she's tired the whole next day is just chaos! I helped her back into bed and then went back to my bed, but not before she asked me to get the camera so I could "keep a kiss forever". I'm glad she did...
3 AM - 4 AM I spend getting in and out of bed trying to figure out if Shadow dog is checking the house because he's nervous or just wanting to lay on the couch because he keeps going in and out of our bedroom (he learned how to open the door a few months back). Each time I check all the doors and each of the kids before going back to bed. Sometime right after four I fall asleep.
COCKA-DOODLE-DOO! cocka-doodle-doo! COCKA-DOODLE-DOO! Mutter, mutter, grumble, glare at phone and hit the snooze button. It's 6:30 AM. This is my goal time to get up. Nope, not happening today. I roll over fully intending on getting up in 15 minutes when the alarm goes off again. Nope. Instead I realize I'm chilly and I snuggle Daddy, planning on only a few minutes of snuggle time but waking up about two hours later!
Rubbing my eyes I grumble my way out of bed. Take care of my morning hygiene, getting dressed and putting my hair, you know the normal things that people do when they wake up. Out I trudge into the kitchen and plug the coffee pot in, slapping the button over to on when my hand returns towards me. I do not function well without coffee. These are the *ahem* faces that greet me this morning:
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| YCJ may always be the first one up but she's not "awake" until at least 9 AM. |
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| Peanut didn't want to be up at all at all. |
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| ECJ was actually doing his chores when I walked out of the bedroom. No, he didn't do them all right but at least he was doing them today. |
A few minutes after 9 AM finds most of us dressed, I've had my first cup of coffee, and a few of us are actually eating breakfast. Not one of our "fancier" breakfasts, just cold cereal. By the time I remembered to snap a picture Peanut was at the table and YCJ had finished her cereal. Those cupcake cups were picked up at a local restaurant on ECJ's birthday and are one of the favorite choices around here now. I like them because they're pretty hard to spill! I've even gone around and opened curtains to let in daylight by this point. Second cup of coffee in hand I give them a few minutes to "get it together" while I check my e-mails, finish unloading the dishwasher of the things that ECJ can't reach to put away, and reload it. Around 9:30 (wow, only half an hour off of my planned start time) the morning binders are gotten out. I gather the other school supplies for the girls and get YCJ's English binder ready for her. It's helps her when I get her organized in the mornings. I remind ECJ that he never did his copy work from yesterday and so today he has to write it out twice. As you can clearly see Peanut still doesn't look all the way awake.With everything in place, including our supervisor Moragon, I begin our morning Bible readings just as Peanut starts her work on her play dough.
Today we learn about Saint Damien de Veuster who ministered to the lepers on Hawaii and eventually contracted the disease himself. We said our morning prayers, read Psalm 116, Sirach 51:1-2a,3, and said our intentions for ourselves and others. This month we are of course using our Holy Bible, but we're also using a publication called Magnificat. It's a beautifully put together text and I received this copy for free. I'd love to continue using it, or the children's version of it, every single day. However, I cannot justify it's cost and so won't be.
While I read to them ECJ worked on his copy work for today and yesterday: 2 Hail Mary's, 2 Our Father's, and 2 Apostle's Creed's. YCJ works on her cursive handwriting lessons for the letter D and Peanut makes me a heart for God. Informing me happily that "God loves us all.... even the sad people who don't love him."By a few minutes after 10 we've moved on to our book lessons. The Cracker Jack's begin with spelling and follow it with the rest (in no real order): Language Arts, Creative Writing (6th grade), Health, Science, Social Studies/History, and Arithmetic. And as you can tell from the look on YCJ's face, she's begun to get tired of the camera.Peanut gets most of my attention for the next hour or so as we work through her Phonics, letter of the week ( which is "o" ), counting, and her Social Studies project which is a copy of the Michigan state flag. Sometime in here she finishes her cereal and I finish loading the dishwasher. On it goes before I forget and I pour myself another cup of coffee. Then it's snack time while Peanut moves on to her online lessons and computer lessons. Which at this time consists of a mixture of Easy Peasy, Starfall, and some educational Caillou games that I purchased for her. Today's snack is a string cheese and an apple. ECJ helps YCJ out with her Arithmetic once he's finished with his book work while I make Daddy something to eat. Daddy's not feeling well today at all, but thankfully the day is going well other than that. I think about grabbing myself something to eat at this point but forget to right after I pour Daddy and myself another cup of coffee.Daddy's breakfast, two bagels, is ready just as the campers are ready to eat their lunches. Peanut has her standard American cheese sandwich without anything on the bread (I added a few slices of leftover turkey bacon on the side for her today) while YCJ enjoys a lettuce salad (also with added leftover turkey bacon) and ECJ makes himself his standard peanut butter sandwich. Daddy has the peas soaking for the split pea soup for Thursday night's dinner already and after a quick check of his Facebook while Peanut is behind him on the couch doing this ...with her security blanket we all call "Comfy", Daddy goes back to lay down again. He really isn't feeling well. YCJ finishes looking at art online so I set her up with her Keyboard Classroom typing lessons while ECJ works on his Apalogia General Science course online, and I read to Peanut. Which of course is quickly followed by some flash cards with Peanut for the alphabet and her numbers. She's not really interested in the reading part today and I'm not really interested in being kicked while she's being goofy. But, we make it through. |
| Showing off her wrinkly fingers. |
As soon as YCJ is finished and I've trimmed Peanut's bangs it's time for the girls to get a bath. If it was warmer outside it'd be outside play time, but we opt for a warm bath instead. ECJ keeps researching for his Michigan report and I get a chance to check Facebook, catch up on some blog reading, and play a few computer games while the bath goes on. It's now two 'o clock. I jot some notes down for this post, help the girls finish their bath, and unload the dishwasher just to put the lunch dishes inside of it. Peanut makes her bed, after a gentle reminder that she can do it. Then the girls enjoy a movie together in Peanut's room while ECJ works on his book report for The Hobbit. It's during this time that I do my personal Bible readings. Sometime around three I realize I still haven't eaten and I pop in microwave dinners for both myself and Daddy for lunch.By four PM all of our books are put away and everyone pretty much does as they wish while I prepare for dinner, which tonight is chili dogs and french fries. I got to try out my new gizmo for making french fries! I love how it works but I didn't like how my fries turned out ... Certainly need some practice there!6 PM finds the Cracker Jack's pouring drinks for the kids and placing every one's forks on the dining room table. Everyone sits, we say prayers, and eat dinner together. At 6:30 Peanut has her first migraine medication (a little over a week and she'll be off of this one YAY!!). Tonight we finish by quarter to seven and Daddy and I clean up the kitchen.
7 PM means it's time for Peanut's new migraine medication, which we add to some juice in a cup to make it easier for her to take. The Cracker Jack's clean up Peanut's room, since it's been destroyed yet again and as soon as her medicine is gone Peanut begins telling me all about birds. How they take care of their eggs, why the eggs have to be kept warm, why they fly "down souf" for the winter, and other interesting tid bits. While she's doing this she's placed penguins on Moragon so she doesn't feel left out and gives me snuggles. Daddy takes the opportunity to snap a few photos.
By eight 'o clock we've had our desert (tonight it's chocolate pudding cups), done our evening Bible readings, and ECJ has begun to read to Peanut. Peanut gets some melatonin around this time as well. YCJ has opted not to be read to nor to read to herself but to enjoy a DVD quietly in her room before bed, she's out by 8:20. ECJ reads two chapters of a different book to Peanut before she goes to bed and he jumps in the shower. 9 PM - Bathroom being cleaned up by ECJ and dishwasher turned on again by me.
10 PM - ECJ in bed, Daddy relaxing in the bedroom, girls asleep, and I'm writing this.
11 PM - Dishwasher has finished it's cycle once again. I'm about to reload it, clean up the kitchen, set up the coffee pot for morning, and take a shower before I head off to bed and say my rosary. The only one's awake in the house right now (including animals) are Daddy and myself. Barring a child waking up within the next hour my day is basically finished.
Wow! I think I was trying to write a book based on one day of our lives!!! Sorry about how long it turned out, and I even left some things out! Like the paragraph and a half I wrote about YCJ leading the campers in a decade of the rosary right after I finished our evening Bible readings. This is a peaceful day in our homeschool. A day where everything went pretty much as it should, even if I did burn a batch of french fries and Daddy wasn't feeling well. We never did do any of those science "kits" of ECJ's because the campers were just enjoying their day too much to be bothered. I may get some more reading in (this time Dean Koontz) before I go to sleep, or so crochet work done, maybe even watch some TV with Daddy. I doubt I'll be in bed before it's officially tomorrow in any case.
The morning comes quickly around here where I'll be again greeting with a rooster crowing, thanks to my loving husband discovering that it'll actually break through my sleep unlike the buzz of a regular alarm. I might actually get up on time. I promise that my post next month won't be as long but I certainly enjoyed telling you all about our day!
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