What started with just a simple picture of Benedict playing turned in to this.
Crazy Times!
Filed under: General Stuff
Benedict’s Personality
Picture it, a fight erupting among three siblings. The fourth is siting quietly on Mama’s lap, enjoying a bottle.
Fighting turns to screeching and crying and wailing. The sound of 1000 toes being cut off emanates through the living room.
Benedict takes his mouth off the bottle for a second, smiles at his Mama then goes back to eating. That”s Benedict.
Under the weather….over the moon…
…in love with this little boy:
I will get back to posting when I am feeling a bit better. In the mean time, can someone tell me how to take care of the kids and the house and be sick at the same time?
The Homeschool Mother’s Journal – II
In my life this week…Was nuts! We were here, there and everywhere. No, really, we had lots of things to do and seemed to be in the van quite a bit. Good things though!
In our homeschool this week…was more of a student lead program this week. This is what I love about homeschooling. When things get crazy and we aren’t able to sit down and do school work, we are still able to teach and my kids are still able to learn. Karol spent a lot of time out side this week, with Margaret at his side. He also has been reading on his own. I will often times find him sitting with a book sounding out words to himself.
Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…this week we will hopefully be calmer. I think I am going to schedule a field trip to the fire department. We may also do story time at the library if there is one available.
My favorite thing this week was… watching the two older kids putting their artistic skills to work by drawing all over the driveway.
What’s working/not working for us…working for us is afternoon/evening schooling. Wow, what a difference it makes when we work on things when Caecilia is down for a nap. She is a great kid but wants to be in the middle of everything, including schooling. We do a lot of make believe games in the morning, before lunch to engage her.
Homeschool questions/thoughts I have…none…just that I am so glad we homeschool and are able to do things when we are on the go!
A photo to share…I don’t have one this week, but I promise one for next week….er, next week.
For more Journals, check out Sue, The Homeschool Chick.
Firetrucks are cool!
Today, the kids were playing in the backyard and I was putzing around the house, when I heard a truck outside. I peeked out the window, wondering if I was the delivery I am expecting, and saw a firetruck. The firemen got out and started walking toward the house, so I peaked out the back window at the kids, still there, still drawing with chalk so back to the firemen. They stopped at the hydrant on the corner and opened it. At that point I called the kids in to watch and they were thrilled.
The best part though was when the firemen went back to the truck, saw the two kids standing in the window, and waved. The kids waved back, then the firemen put on the lights (no sound, just lights) and the kids thought it was great!
Thanks, City of Valdosta Fire Department, you guys are awesome!
Monday Musings – Last Day of January
Right now…it is 11:45, overcast and 62 degrees out side. Inside it is loud and crazy and the oldest boy is being mean to his siblings and has been sent to his room 4 times this morning.
This weekend was…lonely. Joshua was at the FOCUS Conference in Nashville and I was all alone. Well, I had the kids, so I wasn’t all alone, but I certainly missed my helpmate. Joshua left on Friday and came back late last night. He got to have a Catholic Family Reunion with members of the Fathers of Mercy, Sister Lois from the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration, some guys from Seminary, and Joanie Watson. In addition to that, he got to stay at the Opryland Hotel.
I, on the other hand, spent time chasing the kids around and learning about new cartoons on Hulu. The kids spent a lot of time outside, a lot of time, which was nice. Normally if Joshua is out of town, dinner via a drive-thru is a given, but not this weekend, I made all of our meals, which was actually pretty nice. I started a new mystery novel this weekend and am about 1/3 of the way through it. I looked up some homeschooling conferences and am trying to decide which ones I want to attend. Tampa? Atlanta? Jacksonville? Decisions! I think for some of them, I will have to wait for the schedule to come out and see who the speakers are.
I also looked up the Spring Training schedule for the Detroit Tigers. Since Lakeland is only 4 hours away, I hope to go. The Wings are playing in the area soon and I would love to go to a game, maybe next year.
We had made plans to go to Mass here in town and sit with the wife of Joshua’s boss, but I needed to go out to Moultrie to pick up ground beef for our parish spaghetti dinner this week. (We are one of the families making the sauce) So we went to Mass by ourselves and the kids were great! I mean, okay, well…. We got to Mass on time, with enough time to participate in the rosary before Mass. We sat in the back pew, in the event that I needed to make a hasty exit. That hasty exit happened after Communion, when C thought it would be fun to lay in the center aisle. We went to the cry room for the rest of Mass then headed home.
After Mass the kids played outside until lunch was ready, then Michele (Sam’s wife) dropped of her son so I could watch him while she went to their daughter’s ballet recital. He sat on my lap for a long time, then sat on the couch next to me, holding my hand, until he discovered the trains.
After they left, I was planning on ordering Chinese, had the order ready then saw that they place was closed on Sunday. The other delivery place in town doesn’t have an menu on line, so we scratched that idea and had hot dogs, carrots and potato chips.
I let the kids stay up late, so they were up when Joshua came home and I think he really liked that. I really liked that. I love how much these kids love their Papa! He is such a good Papa (and husband).
Some plans for this week: School, Parish Fundraiser and that is about it.
If I have some time to myself, I want to…read more of the novel and avoid the laptop. (This is getting easier and easier, oddly enough)
Prayer intentions for this week: For patience, acceptance of God’s Will and for Mothers.
Something that makes me smile: Joshua stopping at the Lodge Cast Iron Outlet to pick up a 2 qt serving pot for me to bake bread it!
For more musings, check here!
Tanning
I know the sun is a great source of Vitamin D and according to the Mayo Clinic: “The sun also contributes significantly to the daily production of vitamin D, and as little as 10 minutes of exposure is thought to be enough to prevent deficiencies.” That is just 10 minutes a day, in natural sunlight, outside.
However, I have to ask:
What is up with people tanning? Why, why, why are they putting their health at risk? Do they actually think they look good? Wasn’t there a big deal made out of cancer and tanning in the 80s and that is why we all slather on sunscreen and most beauty products have a sun protection factor?
Also, is it a regional thing? In Georgia people are tanned, but they aren’t orange, they have a natural looking glow. However, Ohio had its fair share of orange people.
Stop the madness, step away from the tanning booth people.
Prayer Request
Could you spare a few prayers for a young woman named Alyssa Hichborn? She had an aneurysm burst on her kidney and is in surgery right now. They had to removed her kidney and may have to amputate her leg. Also, she just gave birth to her third child on Thursday.
Saint Benedict, ora pro nobis.
Springtime in South Georgia
Yes, it is springtime here in South Georgia. Here is a snippet of the 10 day forecast:
This past week was a bit cooler, highs only in the low sixties, but the kids have been out every single day, for hours playing and playing and playing. Margaret got a jump rope from my sister for Christmas and loves using it. Karol rides his bike or climbs trees, then do things to show off to his sisters or his mother. Yesterday was chalk drawing day. They spent two hours in the morning and another one and a half in the afternoon writing and drawing on the driveway.
Six months of humidity and six months of this. I think I really could get used to it.
The Homeschool Mother’s Journal-I
Nancy over at Be Not Afraid posted her first “The Homeschool Mother’s Journal”. She got the meme from Sue, The Homeschool Chick. I figured I would participate too, as I would like to keep a journal in our slow homeschool journey, as well as to get ideas from other homechooling families out there, so here it goes:
In my life this week…was a bit crazy, I think. I have such vague memories of it. I remember cleaning, teaching, and taking care of the kids, of course. We did not go out to eat this week at all. I made pork chops on Monday and they were pretty darn good, and I loathe pork chops (or any form of pork that isn’t bacon, sausage or ham).
In our homeschool this week…we started a new math book for Karol. He can count items up to twenty now and rocks at figuring out which numbers are missing in a sequence…he did that one his own. For reading, he is working very hard and reads all the time. Margaret read her first word “me” yesterday. Her eyes lit up like I have never seen before when she did. We are using “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons” and for both kids, it works beautifully. Art class was coloring both outside, with chalk and inside they drew angels along with a million other pictures. Margaret is working on identifying numbers and is up to 7. She can count up to twelve without messing up but doesn’t know what the numbers look like, yet.
Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…we have spent a lot of time outside this past week, but haven’t gone anywhere. They have a lot to explore back there and the backyard is like a huge sandbox, so they have many things to occupy their time.
My favorite thing this week was…Hearing Margaret read her first word and seeing the look on her face! Also having kids who BEG to do schoolwork. Tonight Karol asked if he could work on a poem we have been reading together. He read it all by himself with two mistakes only; “behave” and one other one. You have to admit, “behave” is a hard word.
What’s working/not working for us…I will admit I am very bad at lesson planning and keeping on track. Some days I just don’t want to do this either. I know I am called to do this, so Joshua and I have discussed it and have decided to go with a much more detailed program for First Grade. We are pretty settled on Kolbe Academy and will purchase the curriculum soon. What is working is doing school work either at two in the afternoon, while the younger two are napping or in the evening when Papa is home. He does the reading lessons with them and I do everything else.
Homeschool questions/thoughts I have…
How do you deal with discipline issues when a child doesn’t want to do his work? We don’t come up with this often, yet, but sometimes Karol or Margaret get frustrated or distracted or just want to do a different kind of schoolwork and I am not too sure how to handle it.
A photo to share…I don’t have one this week, but I promise one for next week.