Feel the Love

This is the Valentine's craft I did with Charis and Tobin. Arden wasn't interested, but I thought they turned out cute!



Poor little Kenna woke up sick on Valentine's Day, but I was determined that she would look adorable regardless! (Ski, did this outfit come from you??)



Arden enjoys the cookie he just finished decorating.



Charis and I at the home school elementary Valentine's Day party.


We had a nice Valentine's Day. Ted and the kids had gotten me a bunch of pink roses the Sunday beforehand, so we enjoyed those all during the week. I never did get a picture of them, and unfortunately they are trashed by now. In the afternoon the kids and I went to church for the home school group's elementary Valentine's party, where the kids all received way too much candy but seemed to have fun with the games and projects provided. Kenna was fairly high maintenance here, so I was relieved when the last station was finished and we could head home and put her down for a much-needed nap.

We had taken a family vote and decided to have a nice dinner at home instead of battling the crowds in a restaurant, all the better since Kenna wasn't feeling well. I made a family favorite, Parmesan Ranch Chicken, with broccoli-cheese rice (a mix that we all like very much) and vegetables. For dessert I made a Decadent Peanut Butter Pie, but as the kids had had SO MUCH sugar during the day, Ted and I saved the pie to eat by ourselves after they were in bed. (Don't worry, we gave them pieces the next day!) Charis helped me set the table with our nice dishes and linen napkins, and we lit candles and played nice music. Ted read 1 Corinthians 13 while I dished up the kids' plates, and we had a scrumptious meal.

Tidbits

Hmmm. I've wanted to update our blog for awhile and have lots of things I want to share...for now I will give you random snippets of life around here.

* Tobin lost his second tooth a couple of days ago. Actually, he YANKED out his second tooth.

* Our house remains intact despite winds of 67 miles per hour last night and today.

* Charis has finished her AWANA Climber book twice and needs only to say a few verses in the "Climber Plateau" section before getting her review patch.

* Kenna seems to be holding fast to her trend of getting sick on Thursdays. Not sure if it's the time spent in the nursery Sunday mornings or what, but just as she gets over one illness she turns around and gets another one. At least she naps great on Thursdays and Fridays!

* Tuesday afternoon I learned it is possible to experience enough pain in a small part of one's body (right-hand pinkie) to nearly vomit. Thankfully the door in which said pinkie got stuck did not even break any skin, let alone bones, and although there is some stiffness yet today, I can use all 10 digits with a fair degree of success.

* I've given in...we're becoming PBS junkies. In addition to our once-a-week program, Word Girl, I've been allowing the kids to watch Super Why and Cyber Chase. Reading and math skills for the kids, a half-hour of peace for me...it's a good trade-off. Now, if I can just figure out how to alternate programs and computer time so they aren't in front of a screen all the time...

* I'm realizing that the above bullet probably sounds strange to some people whose children regularly watch multiple hours of TV every day, but when you go from having ZERO TV time to watching several 1/2 hour shows per week...well, that's not very typical for our family. All things in moderation though, right?!

And now it's time to pick up Charis and Tobin from PE. I will have to continue this riveting account of our family life at a later time.

Tobin Lost a Tooth!

Saturday morning Tobin gave his loose tooth a mighty yank and pulled it out! It must not have been a big deal to him, because he didn't even tell me about it--I found the tooth on the counter after returning home from church activities that morning. He was pleased with himself but forgot to put the tooth under his pillow that night, so the Tooth Fairy didn't come until the next evening. After receiving his dollar, Tobin immediately began working on his next loose tooth.

Home School Update

It's been awhile since I actually wrote much about home schooling, so I'll take some time for a little update before I have to go work on dinner.

We are in Week 24 of Sonlight Core C, and it's going great. The kids are absolutely loving our current read-aloud, In Grandma's Attic, which I highly recommend. There are follow-up books which I hope to get for the kids for a birthday or something like that, because the stories are just too good! Ted is also thoroughly enjoying these chapters. I love hearing him laugh out loud with the kids.

Science has been a big hit these days. We just finished the Usborne First Book of Nature, ending with the chapter on moths and butterflies. We ordered a butterfly habitat and caterpillars from Insect Lore, and this has been GREAT! We all love watching the caterpillars--they grow noticeably each day. Any day now they will be crawling to the top of their little jars and morphing into the pupa stage. Then we'll carefully place them in the butterfly habitat and watch eagerly for when they begin emerging as butterflies! Hopefully we'll be able to capture some on video. I'm taking pictures daily so we can see the changes. It will be fun to go back through and see the slide show, which I will be sure to post.

We've also enjoyed "Science in the Kitchen" experiments. Fridays seem to be our experiment days, which works out well. Overall, science is probably one of the favorite things to do and read about around here.

In history/social studies we are going through the Usborne book Wild Places and are nearly finished with the jungle section. I had to suppress a giggle when Charis commented that the ladies drawn in various jungle life activities "weren't very modest." We did have a little discussion about how cultures vary in what is the norm!

We've also read some bios of Christian heroes, including William and Catherine Booth, Adonirom and Ann Judson, and Hudson Taylor. In our Bible story book we just finished the Old Testament and are moving on to the birth of Jesus. AWANA keeps the kids busy memorizing verses, but we also have at least one home school verse per week that we work on together. Charis is actually finished with her handbook and will likely earn her review patch in the next week or two. I'm not sure what she'll do after that for the rest of the year! Tobin will also start working on his review patch before too long.

In math, Charis is on lesson 18 out of 30 in her Math-U-See book (Beta). I need to order the Alpha book for Tobin and the Primer book for Arden, but I'm trying to decide whether it's urgent or if I should wait a little longer and just order Charis's Gamma book at the same time. She is working on column addition now, adding such things as:

509
493
687
+215
-----

She does quite well at it when she takes her time.

Tobin's handwriting continues to improve, and he's much more willing to do written work these days than he was even a couple of months ago. Charis struggles with writing assignments, mostly because they aren't her idea and I think they overwhelm her a bit. Once she gets going she usually does all right, but this is the area where more tears are shed than any other!

Arden is on lesson 78 in his reading book. He's at the transition part where they are trying to wean the students from the markings over the letters, and it's proving to be much more of a challenge than it was for the older two. I'm not too surprised, though, because he IS quite young. I'd be glad to shelve the book for awhile, but he wants to keep plugging away. He's not doing too badly, but he's definitely not going to be ready to make the leap into other books when we finish this lesson book. I may pull out Phonics Pathways, which I used for awhile with Charis, and see if that helps him some more.

Charis and Tobin continue to enjoy their weekly PE class, which lately has included archery, volleyball, and tennis. They come home each week full of stories of all their friends, which include the teens in the group! I love that they get the chance to interact with all different ages of kids. I suspect that Charis has a little crush on one of the older boys, but she doesn't even know how to voice it. She just keeps saying that he is her friend and he is so nice. He's 15. :-) I know the mom, and the family is so neat. I'm generally impressed with home school kids anyway (why else would I be home schooling, ha!), and watching the older kids look out for the younger ones and be good role models for them really warms my heart.

Arden and I enjoy some special time while the older kids are at PE. We usually read and play some games together, and then I give him a TV treat while I get some extra work done around the house or on the computer. Kenna is usually napping during that time anyway.

And speaking of our youngest home school student, Kenna has been battling sickness for almost a month straight. She had finally gotten over whatever virus she had previously when she got hit last Thursday morning with a terrible fever that lasted for over 2 days. She mostly slept and thankfully did take quite a few liquids. Saturday afternoon she broke out in a horrible rash, and after much research, we concluded that it was roseola and we didn't need to take her to urgent care after all. The next two days she didn't want to sleep at all, but once we got past the Super Bowl party, she slept great that night and is back to her normal schedule, praise the Lord. The rash is all but gone, but she is obviously still recovering. Her voice is scratchy and pathetic-sounding, and she isn't quite herself. But at least there is no fever, and her appetite is slowly getting back up to speed.

A Home School Family

A lady in our home school co-op posted a link to this great video about a home school family. If you're in home school circles at all or know folks who are, you'll get a kick out of it!

I shall return later with a home school update of our own, but for now this will have to do, as it's time for lunch!

Baby in the Bubble Bath

I couldn't resist snapping some pictures the other night when Kenna was enjoying her bubble bath. Unfortunately, the lighting made the background look yellowish. So I converted the pictures to grayscale and LOVE the results. I can't wait to scrapbook these photos!

Definitely Related

It's been awhile since I posted some pics. I'm in the middle of a rather complicated dinner--I've never done twice-baked potatoes before, and they sounded yummy, but I've been in the kitchen for over 2 hours working on those, the meatloaf, and the "Walrus Salad," so I'm taking a quick break after putting Kenna down for a catnap.

I need to download the latest pictures, but I took this one of Tobin and Kenna just a week and a half ago. Tobin decided Kenna needed to have her back scratched. They were so cute together, and I thought it would be interesting to get comments from other people: What do you think, do they look alike? I think Kenna most resembles Tobin, but some people say no, definitely Arden. I'll put a picture of Arden below Tobin and Kenna, and you can see what you think. And just for kicks, I'm also posting a picture of Charis at approximately the same age. No matter which sibling you think Kenna resembles most, I bet everyone agrees that all four are definitely related!

Pinkeye Update

I forgot to mention in the last post that Charis's eye is MUCH better! And praise the Lord, no one else in our family has it. I'm still supposed to be putting eye drops in for a total of one week, and I'm realizing now that I forgot to do that this afternoon. Oops.

An acquaintance told me she used to work for an opthamologist, and she said that since pinkeye is a virus, eyedrops don't do a thing. It just has to run its course. I'm not sure whether I believe that, because her eye has shown such obvious improvement. But if it cleared up so quickly on its own, then hey, I won't argue the point.

I Need Another Weekend!

It's not even 5 p.m. Saturday and I'm ready for bed! Yesterday we had a good morning focused on school, and the rest of the day it seemed I was either cleaning the house, prepping stamping projects, or prepping food for today's lunch for my class. I'm pleased with the results--the house looks great (if you don't go into my bedroom or bathroom, LOL), and 8 ladies thoroughly enjoyed the Birthday Bonanza card class. They stamped 12 cards, 3 each of 4 different designs, and they were very sweet and complimentary of the class as well as the food I served them. (Sarah J, your crockpot recipe for beef stew was a HIT!)

Since Ted is at a men's snowboarding retreat this weekend, I ended up shuffling kids to and from church for Sparks-a-Rama practice from 10 to noon. A friend came early to the class so she could be here to let the ladies in as they arrived, so we hustled to church, dropped off Charis and Tobin, made a stop at the potty for Arden, came home, and then did the whole process all over again about an hour and a half later. I think the last guest from my card class left around 2 p.m.

It was such a gorgeous day outside that after everyone was gone, I quickly packed up all the kids, leaving the mess until later, and headed for the park, where we spent a glorious hour and a half, soaking up the sunshine. Tobin made friends with a boy who was maybe 7 or 8 and was an absolute joy to watch. You could tell he was the firstborn in his family! Definitely a leader, but he was sweet to let the younger boys choose their roles. They were playing some kind of Star Wars scenario and ran all over the equipment on their "space ships" or "escape pods," depending on what was happening. It was so fun to watch them playing and see my kids interacting with complete strangers, yet acting as if they had known them their whole lives. Kids are so great that way! Kenna didn't do a whole lot. She crawled very little but seemed to enjoy watching the commotion. I really hated to leave...I could have stayed and watched the kids a lot longer, but I knew Kenna was going to NEED her nap after being awake for over 3 hours.

So now we're home. I got the stamping stuff put away, after making up the rest of the cards. (I had one lady not show up, and she didn't let me know in advance, either, sigh.) I cleaned up the kitchen, folded a huge load of whites that I left in the dryer yesterday, and got the last load of the week started in the washing machine.

Now it's almost 5:00, and I can't stand the thought of going down to the kitchen and coming up with something to eat! The kids barely even had lunch...they munched homemade French bread but weren't interested in the beef stew, unfortunately. They also had fruit and chocolate chip bars. Nice balanced meal, eh?! I'm really tempted to head to McDonald's and let them play on the playground. But that would involve letting Kenna crawl on the filthy floor. The McD's over by our old house did have a nice toddler play area, so if I want to drive half an hour, I suppose we could go there...but it's also Saturday night, bath night, and I don't relish being out very late and having to wrestle hyper kids through the bath routine.

Calgon, take me away!!

The Best Laid Plans...

It's 2:30 p.m. and I am EXHAUSTED! This day did not turn out at all like I was planning--PE in the morning, with a grocery shopping trip after we dropped off the big kids so I could have my afternoon free to prep for my b-day card class. Instead, Charis woke up with what I was pretty sure was pinkeye (turns out it is). Poor thing looked so pathetic. Her eye had been completely crusted over, and it was so puffy she could hardly open it. I spent a good amount of time on the phone trying to get through to the pediatric appointment desk. Finally someone picked up the phone, and we were able to get an 11 a.m. appointment on base. Since Kenna desperately was needing a nap, I ended up telling Tobin that he would not be able to go to PE. I had thought about letting him go with a friend, but I felt I didn't know any of the other moms well enough to call up and impose, especially since I didn't know how long we'd be on base and I wouldn't be able to say when I could pick Tobin up.

So, to make it up to the kids, I played games with them here at home while Kenna napped, then we all left the house a little before 10:00 to make the 40-minute drive and have time to park and get inside 15 minutes before appointment time. Thankfully Kenna did great the whole time we were gone. We had the appointment, getting in and out in record time, got the eye drops from the pharmacy, then went to the ATM and Burger King on base to pick up lunch. Then to the commissary to get my groceries, filled up with gas, came home, put Kenna to bed, put eye drops in Charis's eyes, unloaded the van, put away the groceries, discovered people in my back yard taking pictures...!!! Turns out they are from the HOA, and thankfully we aren't in trouble. :-) They just need to catalogue the plant life in our yard since we border the outside part of the community. In case of water damage, etc., and in the event the HOA would need to replace the walls, they need to know what kinds of trees and bushes they would need to replace in the yard.

Anyway. Kenna is sacked out, and the kids are playing quietly, so it's time for me to do some card-stock cutting! I'm excited about my Birthday Bonanza card class this Saturday morning. If all ladies come who signed up, I'll have 8 people here stamping away!