Weekly Wrapup - Sept 6-10

This week's Bible lessons focused on various stories throughout the Bible where God made and kept his promises. Of Course we spent a lot of time on Noah.
We sang "Who built the ark?" A LOT.
We listened to Jungle Jam and Friends "Nermal and the Ark"
We floated around the kitchen.

But the favorite activity of the day was when I broke out the watercolors and the paper to paint a rainbow. And only gave them primary colors. Ooooh! Aaaah!
You can ROYGBIV your kids all day long but nothing compares to them being able to create the effects on their own. It was beautiful! Jakob has since requested that we paint with the watercolors on a more regular basis.

I must say though that working with watercolors did come with its own frustrations. Neither the kids or I had ever worked with then on watercolor paper before and Jakob grew increasingly agitated that the color didn't stay where he wanted it to but chose to run and bleed together. Patience was not our virtue that day. And although he wasn't totally pleased with his work I think they are beautiful. (his are the top 2)

Afterwards the kids went outside to experiment some more with mixing colors.

And then came inside to experiment with the recycling bins :)

We had a birthday party to attend this weekend and I have been trying to focus on hand (and heart) made gifts for everyone for budgeting purposes and to learn the value of doing your very best. Since our birthday friend is very much in to Pirates we decided to make him a special shirt using a batik process. (for tutorial go here)

We watered down the paint and sprayed it for our special effects.

Of course since this was so much fun Jakob made one for himself to wear as well.

Apparently this looked like loads of fun because a Praying Mantis decided to chill at our window for a while (following 3 pictures taken by Jakob)

This was a little window art that we did just for fun... and mom's sanity. *grin*

Love

I have not been formally doing much with Hazel at this point. Her cubbies seem to be more of a distraction to myself and Jakob than an entertaining aspect while I work with him. I have some ideas in the works to help that along but haven't put them in place yet. Right now we are just clinging to what does actually work and trying to be open to personal interests in the meantime.

She did however choose 2 of her Tot Books that we had completed a few months ago. I found them at this site.

Lots of exploring going on and tons of "boring" formal stuff as well. We are still reading The Box Car Children, and our Reading program of choice is Progressive Phonics.
We went to the zoo but again I have no photos. My friend Keli is the photographer and I am the nerd who reads all the signs. Together we make a pretty good team but doesn't help me out much when I'm blogging. Maybe I can get her to teach me a thing or two.

Well that's our week in a very small nutshell. Off for more adventure!!

Confessions... I'm fat!

LOL....
No, seriously!
Sometimes being a mom and a wife (I won't even limit this to military) and a full time student and an occasional basket-case causes you to forget to take care of something...
YOUR HEALTH!!!
I have been on a weight rollercoaster now for about 5 years. I have never really "liked" my body per se' but the past 5 years have been harsh.
I really do love to work out... with certain conditions. It has to be the same time everyday and totally uninterrupted and NO RUNNING EVER!!!
I'm sure you can easily spot where my hangups are.
My friend in S Florida has been running for oh about 2 years now that I know of and she looks great. I will be totally honest here and say I have rolled my eyes many of times at how she claims that running is her sanity. I mean seriously? Have you ever seen a runner smile while running? Ever?
I love you Ang I truly do :-)
A strange twist of fate had us purchasing a treadmill before we left, I gave it a go a couple of times but really this was for Mike. He HAS to run for his PT tests, so this would help him be at home for his workouts instead of leaving me home with the kids for two more hours (cause you know when the guys go workout its never quick)
So.. here we are in Rhode Island my tail is ever widening and I am NOT happy about it. So reluctantly VERY reluctantly I hop on the treadmill and give it a go. Ok there I did it. My knee hurts, are you happy? I'm a bit of an all or nothing type of person.
Then I went to the library and as I was trying to find a knitting book I stumbled across a self help meditation book. (Turns out I was in the wrong section....or was I)
I can't remember the name of the book nor did I read the entire thing, but one part really stuck out to me. It said to ask yourself everyday...
"What am I going to do today to better myself and my health?"
and then at the end of the day,
"What did I do today to better myself and my health?"

You know what? I ran 10 miles this week! 2 miles everyday at different times of the day with my kids sitting right there. I didn't finish in great times, right now I'm averaging a 15 1/2 min mile but I'm doing it. You see I'm running to Boston, and once I run those 38 miles on the treadmill it takes to get to Boston, then I get to treat myself to a little train ride SANS KIDS. Just me and my knitting and a day of walking around. Sweet huh? I thought so. Mike thought it was a good idea too but couldn't help but jibe me a little with,
"So you just felt like running?" In his best Gump voice ever.
LOL So yeah I just felt like running and here's a special little video I found in tribute to my new found sanity. Please enjoy....

Weekly Wrapup Aug 30-Sept 3

This week we desperately tried to stay on "schedule", but just as our previous homeschooling semester had proved we are leaning a bit away from the lesson plans I have worked so hard on and more towards what the kids are showing me that they want to do and learn. This week showed me that I truly do need to allow this to happen more often.

Using the magnifying glass to help each other with an I Spy book. Jakob read, and Hazel would find (mostly). Daddy even got in on the fun!
We are reading "The Boxcar Children" and this week's discussion led us to how the children made beds out of pine needles. So we went outside to see how comfy that might be.
We filled a pillowcase with leaves that are ALREADY falling in our yard.

Jakob claimed the pillow was comfy and great for scratching your back (I'm not sure that would be my definition of comfy).
Hazel just like posing for the pictures and then talking to the people walking up and down our street.

We continued talking about Egypt and how hot it was there and so they would make cool dishes to eat. We made an "Egyptian Day Salad", which was mostly cucumbers and yogurt and decided that we will pass on any future "Day Salad" adventures.
We checked on the Mummy....
Hazel was the "hands on" person this week. I thought I had totally lost Jakob as he wasn't right there at the "mummy" but then I turned around an saw this....
He was recording all the information as Hazel and I were discussing it. This is HUGE as this child resists writing of any kind (other than his Sonic movie script) and more often than not the death nail to any activity would be for me to ask him to write something down. So.. YAY!!

My favorite part of the week was this.....
I taught Jakob how to play GNU this week and he REALLY liked it. Since this is a spelling game I figured this would be a one on one game for he and I, but here he has found a way to include his sister.
He brainstormed first some of the words they should try to make and wrote them on the board for Hazel to see and a reminder to him as to what letters to look for. Wonderful!

First week

The rest of the week was fun for all of us. We are trying to get figured out what works and what doesn't. I am trying not to test out every homeschooling schedule known to man and stick with just one thing. I joke quite often that I am just like a fish and can be so easily distracted by anything. And with homeschooling my kids its the same thing. There are such wonderful subjects and activities out there its hard to choose and stay on track. But we will try. This week this is what we chose to do:

A little Penny polishing... this was suppose to be just for Hazel but Jakob thought it was cool and joined in for a few cents.

I taped pennies in Hazel's journal and she used her crayons to rub out the shape. Apparently Circles were going to be our shape for the week. She loved it and helped me tape the pennies, a double treat.

She wanted me to take a picture of her writing like her brother... H is still her letter of choice

We started our ministudy on Egypt and the Pyramids. After reading a couple of books from the Library I printed off some lapbooking stuff from Homeschoolshare and we talked about how the Egyptians believed in many Gods and magic and how the Nile flowed North instead of South. Jakob thought that was very cool which lead to some discussions on gravity and how the world spins etc.

The winner of the day was this:

Its a stamping book with hieroglyphics. Both kids loved making secret messages and then have me try to decode them. This was Jakob's

It says, "Love the Lord in your hart". Yes hart not heart. *grin* Took me about 15 minutes to decode because the glyphs not only mean letters but sounds. Super fun.

For science we mummified a hot dog. The kids had a blast and we hammed it up as this was in the afternoon and we were all kinda sleepy.


Spreading the "mummy dust"



Measuring the before length
Recording info
The Mummy
The VERY dramatic closing of the tomb ceremony....

And some spells and stories to help the mummy on his journey to the underworld
We also went to the Boston Museum of Science this week for their free Friday. Since we were taking some friends along and we hadn't cleaned the car out since (shamefully) the move, we worked on that and Jakob decided the car needed a good wash down. Hey, its handwork right? ;-)


Unfortunately I don't have any really good pictures of us at the Museum. It was packed and I was trying to focus on the kids. But they had a ball. This week I am going to try and focus on staying home a bit since our week was cut short with swim lessons, and our trip to Boston. I hope to move into more of a rhythm soon.

First Day of School!!

Today we started "school". And because the first day of school requires a special breakfast, I made crepes. They were surprisingly simple, but I had never made them before so this made them super special. And the fact that the recipe came out of Jakob's Ratatouille cookbook made him grin from ear to ear.

I should mention that I am notorious for only reading the ingredients to a recipe and not paying attention to the directions, so yeah I was totally caught off guard when I came to the part that said, "Put mixture in refrigerator for 30 minutes to over night." Opps!
Thankfully this wasn't one of those days where my daughter was HUUUNNNNGARY (Yes just like that) so we were able to go ahead and do our Bible lesson on Creation before breakfast. I had gone through this lesson before with Jakob a long time ago, but since we haven't really found a church here I figured starting at the basics for Hazel wasn't gona kill us.
We played with goop and sang our songs and talked about how God made everything. Sorry no pictures. I was eyeing my camera the whole time but it was out of reach and I really needed to stay in the moment.

Next we did Yoga. I found a little 10 minute video on fitnesstv.com and the kids and I really enjoyed the little workout. I have read in various places how yoga and certain inversions increase bloodflow to the brain and help jumpstart the thinking process. Plus who can resist seeing cute little downward dogs all over your livingroom?

Alright we did basic lessons. We are "following" Pathways Learning Curriculum which I really like because A. it's FREE and B. I can customize the program to Jakob's level(s) which vary greatly from subject to subject.
I had PLANNED to get all our lessons in before lunch but apparently not. I'm not sure if Jakob was too distracted or if Thesaurus work was really that difficult but he took his time.
Since Lunch was quickly approaching I wanted to get in a fun activity so he didn't totally hate me his first day back to homeschool.
So we fingerknitted a necklace. You can youtube fingerknitting and finger crocheting and get the general idea but it was something completely different than what he was use to and although it was tough for him, he totally fell in love with his work and wants to make more. (Success!)

He did a really good job and stuck with it much longer than I expected.

Afterwards we lunched, rested and worked with $$. A skill that I fear will be a longtime subject for us. He did well and we played a long time with making amounts and change but it was a slow go. Of course practice makes perfect so I believe I will go and download some of Homeschool Creations calendar time printables that include making the date out of money. That was Jakob.

Hazel did well. I have taken the, "I'm gona try and keep you entertained." Approach for now and will implement actual curriculum later. To be honest I'm still trying to find all of my stuff from the move and now that its cooled a bit I can get back up in the attic. *shutter*
So Inspired by a few places and mostly from what worked last year at Preschool Co-op, I made her some activities.

Bottle cap matching (she matches the letters of the word/name) Right now we are doing family members. This was by far her favorite.

Here's my artsy shot of our bottle caps and salsa jar :-)


Pattern matching. The pieces to match are in the tub to the right.
"Jewel" counting. She did this last year and loved it but was very uninterested today. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow. *fingers crossed*
This was a mutual Favorite. Her Journal.

I got this idea from Preschool-daze and plan to have her a little activity in it each day. Today she colored the circles red. Tomorrow I think we will do coin rubbings. I'm totally winging it with her since my main focus is Jakob right now and she's... she's 3
I like the idea of keeping it all in a notebook so I can see her process. Plus it gives her a space to go to when she wants to feel included in the lessons. Although I will have activities for her to do, she will be totally free to mark it up with her inspiration. A little Montessori meets Waldorf.

So there. Our first day. Now I have spent way too much time on here and my children have fully met their max on being friendly to one another time. I will don my referee hat and see you next time!!

This week

I have been reading... well actually I have been reading practically the moment the wonderful librarian slapped my cool Pawtucket Library card into my hot little hand. I love reading. I was the nerdy kid who instead of watching T.V. was reading Nancy Drew Mysteries, The Hardy Boys, and for a brief moment of insanity I read the Babysitter's Club.

Reading has always been an escape for me. I have always been the one with the chores and responsibilities in the house, so a good book is my chocolate. Well a good book AND some chocolate never hurts but I am trying to be good to I will focus. HMMMMmmmm.

LOL OK. In recent years I must confess that reading has been a bit burdensome to me. I have been going to school for about a million years and reading every teaching textbook known to man on the subject along with every how-to book on child rearing, special needs facilitating, living life, etc. For some reason one my son was diagnosed as a Sensory Seeking Child I lost all ability to think for myself and had to validate anything I did with... a book.

After a while that gets old, only reading the how-to's. Long story short I actually checked out a couple of books this summer just for fun. First was Animal Vegetable Miracle which is an awesome read cleverly disguised into a how-to (the recipe's are super yummy), I read all of the Twilight series (and imagined as my hubby came home from the office, cold from the A/C that he WAS in fact my Edward), a couple of Rudolf Steiner's Essays (which are nice but very how-to) and finally Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I'm still reading it but this book has taken me away to a whole new place. As you might be able to tell from my last post, I get a little depressed from time to time. This book hit home on soo many levels. No I don't want to leave my husband but there are times I am not sure who I am is the person I wanted to be or the person expected of me. Deep right? Scary Deep.

For some reason this book has given me permission to slow down, relax and not stress (as much) about the future. I feel a yearning to keep my voice calm, my thoughts calm, my children calm. Its a working progress and the past 24 hrs have been well, not calm but I am seeing now how to let go of the things I can't control, work on the things I can, and forgive myself for the things I haven't done right. Like I said its deep. The results are that I find myself smiling A LOT more. I feel a peace and a happiness I haven't allowed myself to feel in a while. Now I'm not saying one book did all of that, but Someone out there sure knew I needed the door of compassion in my heart opened a little bit and threw me a lifeline. I'm not sure what you call this person but to me he is simply God. My friend.

Being a Coastie Wife this week....

is hard. We are here in Rhode Island, the weather is a crisp 57 degrees in the mornings and a muggy 84 degrees in the afternoons. And just like the weather, my emotions have been raging back and forth. You see this month we were suppose to be having a baby.

I have never really put this all down in words and in the hopes that this helps me on my road to healing I am going to tell my story. I am not sure how its going to end up but this is so heavy on my heart right now I feel it has to go somewhere. Even if no one reads it.

It was after Thanksgiving that we told my family that we were expecting. We had known for weeks but this time Mike and I wanted to revel in our secret for a bit before alerting our world. Thankfully we never told the kids. Everyone was excited for us, we were excited thrilled even as we began to map out OUR birth plan and had definitely decided on a home birth and picked out a doula and a midwife.

Dec 1st was the day of my first Dr's appointment. It was just a routine, "Here pee in this cup so we can see if you are right." I obliged and noticed a little bit of bright blood when I finished. Not a ton, barely even noticeable, but I had had some spotting a few weeks earlier and was on the lookout. The test was positive and my OB wrote up my referral. I told her what I had seen, and was hoping for words of reassurance that this was all normal. She gets a big fat "F" in that category. I was told that what will happen will happen and either I will carry full term or not, its really out of my hands. Not totally what I wanted to hear but the truth.

On my way home I called my new Dr. to schedule my first appt. It was to be that next Tuesday at 9am. Since I was at least 10 weeks along I was gonna have an ultrasound, have some blood work done so bring some crackers if I felt it necessary, and my husband. I got home and felt really crampy on my left side and went to check and see if there was anymore blood. Just a little pink.

I lay on the couch on my left side like all the websites said and spent the afternoon frantically searching for all the symptoms of a miscarriage hoping to eliminate them. As the cramps worsened I started looking up more info on dealing with miscarriages and it was just too much to bear. All this saddness, all this emptiness, there's no way this could be happening to me. My husband came home early and went and collected Jakob from school. He ordered out. There was no way I was moving.

That evening, I think around 7 my water broke. I had never felt my water break before with my other 2 but I knew in an instant what had happened. I screamed, ran for the bathroom (which unfortunately was the kids') and it was horrible. It really looked as though I had been murdered. I went to try and clean myself up a bit and when I pulled my hand away... Oh GOD! There was my baby!! So tiny and so helpless, lifeless, but definitely my baby. I was really amazed that I could see my child's eyes. It was terrifying. Mike stuck his head in ( I think I was screaming) and I showed him. He wanted to help, wanted me to tell him what he should do next but I couldn't. This was unfathomable. This was not happening.

I came to my senses a bit as I realized the amount of blood and tissue still comming from me and asked him to call the hospital. I wasn't sure if they could do anything but I still needed him to call. He did and we were instructed to wait and see my Dr. in the morning and if they could not see me then come in then. I spent the next hour sitting there in the bathroom while Mike gathered the kids and went to the local Drug Store for pads and such as there wasn't anything in the house. I called a friend to ask her to cover for me at my daughter's preschool co-op the next day as I was to teach. She took care of everything. Even Hazel. I called my mom because I couldn't sit there alone feeling like the life force was literally draining from me.

That night was horrible. I got up the next day and Mike took Jakob to school and dropped Hazel to Angela for Co-op. He called the Dr's office who immediately told him that since I had not yet been seen by them they could not take me and anyways they don't take walk-ins. I'M NOT GETTING MY FRICKIN HAIR DONE PEOPLE! MY CHILD JUST DIED! We went to the hospital and after an entire day of adult diapers, ultrasounds, and waiting they confirmed that I had indeed had a Complete miscarriage. Since my blood flow had not decreased they were worried so I was sent home with some medicine to rectify the issue and a sheet of paper telling me what I might be feeling over the next course of time. It was done. We were no longer having a baby. Get back to life.

I still see my baby's eyes every time I close mine. It's haunting. I don't think that I am anywhere near healed enough. Luckily I found a Share Group in the area while in Florida and although I was only able to go twice, it helped. She told me I should commune with my tragedy, not dwell on it but respect it. That has helped a lot until now. See there are no Share Groups in my area now and I am literally without a friend up here save my husband and my kids. This is not a pity party. I knew this would happen. I knew I would crack. Again. And Again. So after a day of fighting off tears and not wanting to bring the subject up with my husband for fear he might admit he didn't realize the timing, I decided to put it out here. I feel better. I have sobbed through this whole post but I have respected my baby and told the story. It won't be the last time I am at this place but for now I have exhaled.