First Day of School

Today was our first day of school. The boys were rather mixed as to whether or not they really wanted to start. Well, actually, Ben wasn't sure, Matthew knew for a fact he didn't want to do school stuff! We had still been loosely working on our MOTH schedule I had set up back in May, just minus the school stuff. I tweaked it over the past few weeks to eliminate a few things and add a few others in an effort to curtail much of the TV/Wii time that had crept into our day. Last night, I went over their studies for the week and felt pretty ready to go.

According to the newly revised schedule, I was to get up at 5:30 am for my time with the Lord. At one point in time, I used to be a morning person--that ended after I had kids. Rob was good about making sure I got up and had a cup of coffee waiting for me. Then I had my own chore time before it was time to make breakfast. Kind of odd for me, but my personal chore time only fit in early in the morning. I had made cards for the kids while at my mom's, so they had a nice little surprise waiting for them when they awoke. We had a yummy breakfast then it was time for Ben's preschool hour.

Ben and I had a wonderful time together going through his preschool work. He is doing Core 4/5 from Sonlight with kindergarten-level language arts, the Primer book from Math-U-See, and working through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. He really enjoyed doing his work and did a great job. He has been working on writing letters on his own, but it was neat to see how well he can write his name for his age. I was impressed with how carefully he printed and how close he came to the proper size for his letters. He also finally breeched the wall we had hit in his reading lesson book. The picture of Ben above is after his school time. The green thing on the wall behind him is this year's skill list, which is supposed to be jail bars. They have to "free" their trip to Toys R Us. Ben just completed his first one this evening--vacuuming!

We took a short break, then it was time for first grade with Matthew. It felt a little like same-old same-old as we started, but there are a few changes this year in Core 1. For one thing, we have a scripture reading each day. We took turns reading the verses and it was a nice start to our time. Our first read-aloud is Charlotte's Web, which is one of Matthew's favorite movies (the Julia Roberts version) so he was hooked from the beginning. I've decided to continue with the Explode the Code series for phonics instead of the suggested books b/c it's hard to switch Matthew mid-stream. We're doing language arts 2-intermediate and it seems to be just right for him. He enjoyed his first reader, which he polished off in no time last night. I'm making him write properly this year, so for copywork we worked on the lowercase letters. Turns out he CAN write them properly, just chooses not to :) Then we finished with the Alpha book from Math-U-See and he did well.

So what was Anna doing at that time? Here's the list: lurking around during Ben's school with Matthew, pulling things out of the boys school boxes, pulling pages from Ben's school binder, helping herself to three packages of fruit snacks (leaving Ben with none), climbing up in the shelves in the pantry, climbing up onto the kitchen counter and breaking my ice cream dish (and cutting herself), jumping on my bed, and for a fraction of time, playing nicely in the living room. Supposedly, the boys are taking turns playing with her, but Matthew kept saying he was bored and wanted to watch TV. We have established a "no TV when someone has schooltime" rule but I broke it at about 10:15 in a desparate attempt to keep Anna occupied. We'll have to have a different strategy tomorrow.

After lunch, we had playtime with Mommy. Today we explored an art wheel that Grandma Litwiller found on clearance somewhere. The paints were dried up (you were right, Grandma!) but the rest of it was pretty neat. The kids and I had a great time making pictures. I had fun coloring with chalks, something I don't think I've done on paper before. Then Anna dumped Matthew's paint water all over Ben's creation and the crayons and I decided we were done.

Anna went down for a nap and the boys and I had science. They are both doing Science K from Sonlight, which we had originally bought for Matthew but never finished....or got past week 4. Planning science into the day should work much better than trying to randomly fit it in :)

We did not finish the schedule for the rest of the day, as it was too hot to send the boys outside to play. They are now having fun with some friends of theirs we're babysitting tonight. All in all, not a bad day, but there is loads of room for improvement :)

Weekend Trip

This past weekend, we trekked down to Illinois for our last trip of the summer. It was filled with quite a few highs and lows, so to speak.

Rob took Friday off, so we travelled down in the morning. I must admit that I much prefer the morning trips as opposed to the afternoon ones! We had lunch with my parents, then Dad went back to work. Mom and I played with the kids while Rob took a nap and prepped himself for what was to come, which was he and the kids leaving me! My mom hosted an SU workshop that night and I had planned to stay overnight with her for some extra stamp time and rest.

And rest I did! I think I stayed put on the couch for about two hours, resting and reading (and eating supper!) Mom had two other people attend her workshop, one being my sister, but a good amount of outside orders. We had a ball stamping together. The next day, Mom and I pulled out the stamp stuff and had some fun making cards and teaching/learning some new techniques. I made cards for the kids for their first day of school. I'll post pics on Facebook once I take them :)

Mom treated me to Dairy Queen for lunch, finalized her order, then we took off for Normal. Rob was pretty happy to see me, but the kids seemed fairly indifferent. I'm sure being distracted at Grandpa and Grandma's made the difference. Mom took off for home and Rob and I got ready for another funeral and to take the kids to my sister's house.

I've been pretty silent about this on FB and the blog, but Rob's cousin's husband was killed in a motorcycle accident last Saturday evening. I guess I've just been processing alot and haven't known what to say. We had just met him at Grandma's funeral four weeks ago so we didn't know him too well, but we do know Holly. He was only 29 years old. It's hard to know what to say at a time like this, but the song that kept popping into my head was, "God never moves without purpose or plan....give thanks to the Lord for the testing seems long, in darkness he giveth a song. Oh rejoice in the Lord/ He makes no mistakes/He knoweth the end of each path that I take/For when I am tried and purified/I shall come forth as gold."

It was pretty tough week for Rob's family and the healing process will be long, but God is here and He hasn't abandoned anyone.

After the funeral, we ate out with Rob's parents, Great-grandma Litwiller (GG), and Grandpa Keen. Anna hadn't napped that day, so she was pretty grumpy at supper. As we were leaving, Ben had to use the bathroom. He took a wrong turn and went back into the restaurant. Rob went to check on him in the bathroom and here he came with a waitress, crying his eyes out! Poor guy!

We went to church with Rob's parents the next day, had lunch, and then left for home. We made good time and had a pretty good trip. Today was our first day of school, which gets it's own blog later...pictures included!

How to Catch a Bug

I took the kids outside to play this morning and Miss Anna wanted to ride Ben's old tricycle. Her feet are just not long enough to pedal efficiently, so she gave up and scoured the front porch for something to play with. She found Ben's bug catcher and I asked her if she wanted to catch some buggies. She said yes, took it off the porch, opened the hatch and yelled, "Hey, buggies! Get in here!" Then she looked inside and said, "They're not in here!" Guess yelling doens't work on bugs :)

Tuesday Morning

Anna and I had an intersting conversation this morning. I was brushing her hair and started asking her questions.

Me: So, do you have any plans for today?
Anna: I'm going to Yoda's house.
Me: Oh, that's interesting. What do you plan to do there?
Anna: I'm going to play with the people there.
Me: Who's going to be there?
Anna: Jamie, Julian, and Kenzie. (Her cousins)
Me: What else do you plan to do?
Anna: I'm going to use the guns.
Me: Are there bad guys at Yoda's house?
Anna: No....

The boys were playing Star Wars this morning, so I think that's where she got her creative inspiration from. Thankfully, we have NO guns in the house (save colorful waterguns and Lego guns) so I'm not too worried.

Tuesdays we've decided to make our outing days. Rob has been getting a ride to work and we take off for the Farmer's Market/park. We didn't have any money this morning, so Matthew got some change from his piggy bank and treated his siblings to a honey stick. We took a nice stack of bread to feed the ducks, who were more than happy to have a nice treat. Anna still won't get too close, but Matthew had them eating right out of his hand...or at least snatching from his hand. We did see one duck with a bent bill, and Matthew prayed that the duck would be okay.

We'll be starting school on Monday. I want to keep our school year close to our church's school calendar so the boys' friends are off school same time as them. I'm fully ready to go (I think) and we're just going to have a bit of a vacation week for the rest of the week.

Friday we take off for Illinois. I'm doing a workshop for my mom and am spending some time with her on Saturday...alone!! I'll have my new stamping tote with me (Greenhouse Gala...for those who care) and I'm going to fill it up with fun goodies to play with. Can't wait!

Couponing it through Our Date

Rob and I went on our anniversary date today, one week late. I was too sick last week to enjoy some time out, so we rescheduled our sitter for today. After reflecting on the date, I realized how funny it was that we used a coupon at nearly every place we went.

After doing one event for my upline (I am now her assistant) I realized I needed a better pair of shoes. So we went to our local shoe store for some good, quality shoes that will hopefully keep my heels from hurting. And I had a $15 off coupon for them. We then went for lunch at Perkins (we have the #1 Perkins in the nation here...even the Dali Lama visited once!) and I had a coupon. Then we headed for Lane Bryant where I found a nice shirt....and used another coupon! Not bad! I've been wanting to start wearing jewelry again since I no longer have little ones that will rip things out of my ears or off my neck, so we headed to the Claire's outlet. No coupon there, but I did catch a sale :)

So it was a pretty nice lunch date and the kids behaved for their sitter. She had recently gone on a missions trip to Uganda, so she brought her laptop and showed them her pictures. They were very impressed! And they behaved well....always a good thing to hear.

------------------
And in the above story, I mentioned being my upline's assistant. Don't think I mentioned that in the blog before, but I was teasing her one day that she needed an assistant to keep her organized. She agreed and I was hired! I help at her major stamp events, craft fairs, and with prep stuff behind the scenes. I also make her deliveries, which I love doing in the new car. And I'm gleaning knowledge that I can use in my own stamp business. I love it!

Fun times with Anna

Anna has been cracking me up lately just being herself. She's such a silly little toddler and so much fun! I don't know if it's because I get to enjoy her toddlerhood without having to care for a baby as well, or if it's just a girl thing, but she's too much fun. She giggles and jumps around and just enjoys life.

Today I was prepping for this next school year and she sat down with me at the table. She then said, "Daddy is at work. Daddy is super happy! He's a good boy." Her new phrase is "I'm super happy!" which she picked up from Ni-Hao Kai-Lan, of course. It does fit her, though, because she's usually super-happy!

This morning, the boys were fighting over who got to play with Anna. It all started when Ben refused to play with Matthew, so he chose Anna instead. Then Ben wanted to play with Anna and it just snowballed from there. Anna didn't care, because she was getting loads of attention from her big brothers!

After her nap today, I got down my two jewelry boxes and gave her one of them. It had been a gift from my grandmother when I was a girl, so I wanted to pass it on to her. She loves jewelry and does pretty well wearing it. I pulled out a few necklaces, rings, and a bunch of dead watches. She had a great time going through it all and chose a fun Pooh Bear necklace to wear for the rest of the day. I love having a girl!

In other news, I decided to give Matthew and I a small summer break from school. We've only being doing history, read-alouds, and phonics anyway, so I'm just going to finish the phonics in first grade and we'll read the other books as time permits. Rob and I each chose a read-aloud to read to Matthew in the afternoon/evenings. He has a few readers of his own to finish that he reads at night. I think we just needed to take a breather before plunging into a new core. Good thing too, because I didn't realize how much prep I had to get ready for the next school year! Much of it is due to over-organization, I'm sure, but we'll get it done. I do have our schedule finished as well and I think it's going to work out well.

Ben is not too excited to be starting K-4. He does not want to learn to read. I think it may be from trying to teach him earlier this summer out of the same book I used for Matthew. We may just change tactics on the reading and let it come a little slower and more naturally for him. I want him to love learning, not dread school time. I know he loves math and he's eager to get into his math work. We're trying Math-U-See this year for both boys.

My Creative Little People

Due to a lack of interest in cleaning up after themselves, the boys have had most of their toys locked up in the toyroom. Ben got to keep a few for at least assisting Rob in cleaning up his room, but Matthew has lost all of his toys for the week. That leaves them with Anna's toys, which consist of a large collection of baby dolls and accessories, a pink Little People house, and purses. So I guess it shouldn't have been too surprising to find them playing "Newborn" this morning.

Rob and I were attemtping to ignore the fact that it was time to get up when the kids came into our bedroom with a baby doll wrapped in a blanket. Matthew explained to us that Anna just had a baby and they were taking care of it. Anna was supposed to be laying on her bed because she was sore. Dr. Matthew and Nurse Ben informed us that they cut the baby out of Anna's tummy and she's too sore to get up (but assured us they didn't use a real knife). The "new" mommy then came into the room and the medical staff scolded her about being out of bed. She then informed them that she didn't want to play anymore, so Ben offered to be the mommy instead. Matthew said he wasn't a girl, so he couldn't be the mommy, and I think at that point Anna agreed to play again.

After they left the room, Rob and I looked at each other. Rob said, "Oooookay....what do we do with this one?" "Easy," I replied, "we blog about it!"

(Just so you don't think my kids are knife-weilding maniacs, they know I had c-sections and just saw a friend of ours with her new baby in the hospital, and she had a c-section as well. That's all they know about how babies are born and I think we'll keep it that way for awhile!)

What I Did to Survive the Heat

This week has just been gross, weather-wise, as I'm sure my mid-western friends are more than aware. We have one air conditioner in the downstairs (for which we are thankful) and that's it. In heat like this, it cools down the study and living room, makes the dining room and kitchen bearable, and makes the upstairs feel like a furnace after all that wonderful coolness. I spent the first two yucky days with a fever, so I was actually fine going upstairs. Rob stared wide-eyed at me as I covered myself up to go to bed Tuesday night, but when your temp is 102.5, a hot room is chilly!!

There was no way I was letting the kids outside to play and it was too hot for Rob to hook up the hose and stand out there for a slip-n-slide. So we got creative. They did go to church on Wednesday, so that helped, but Thursday was a tough one. We decided to give them each their own long, cool bath. Ben and Anna enjoyed theirs, but not Matthew. He prefers a sibling to splash. We also kept them up later so they weren't suffering upstairs. Anna didn't nap yesterday either, since it would have been impossible for her to fall asleep.

They were all up and going stir-crazy this morning, so we changed tactics. In an effort to get Anna to sleep at naptime and keep us cooler, I hunted on-line for the nearest Dairy Queen. I found one in Hartford, about 20 miles away, so we headed out for a nice country drive after lunch. We only had to make one turn, which was also nice, so Rob and I enjoyed a stress-free drive with both Anna and Matthew conked out for naps. Ben enjoyed some peace and quiet in the backseat as well. We had some ice cream treats, then headed back home.

Since then, we've had a board game/toddler game marathon going on all over the house. Matthew and I are in a Labryinth competition right now. It's a neat Discovery Toys game and it would take another post to describe it, but he has come close to beating me. There's alot of smack talking between us, which is just as much fun as the game. I was behind him by a considerable amount tonight, caught up, and then won the game with a big "EAT IT, LITTLE MAN!" coming out of my mouth at the end. He laughed so hard that he fell off his seat, but he said he'll get me tomorrow :)

So I think we'll make it through one more day of heat. It's storming right now, so there's hope that even tomorrow won't be too hot. Which would be nice, since Rob and I will be celebrating our 11th anniversary :)

Ni-Hao, Diaper Free-World!!

Potty-training the daughter has gone into overdrive. She has finally shown a real interest in it and even took herself potty yesterday with great success. Anna has a Ni-Hao Kai-Lan (Knee-how Kie-lan) shirt that she knows she gets to wear if she goes potty, but loses if she wets herself. She's had it on and off today, so we're struggling a bit, but she's getting it!

So here's the haul when this little girl is finally diaper-free: permanent use of the shirt, a Kai-Lan doll on the first completely dry/clean day, and a family trip to Chuck E. Cheese when she has proven to be completely potty-trained (okay, so I'm still trying to convince Rob on that last one). The boys also get 50 cents toward a stamp set they want (Make-A-Monster) each time they take her potty.

Overkill? Not a bit. Shoot, I'd add a trip to Disneyworld to celebrate a diaper-free life if I could afford it!!!!

(FYI--Ni-Hao is Mandarin for "hello" and Kai-Lan is a Chinese version of Dora that is far less annoying and more interesting. And cuter.)

A Long Update

I haven't written for awhile on here, but for very good reason. A day after my last post, Rob's grandmother passed away. She was a sweet lady and while we were sorry to lose her, we're glad that she's pain-free and in heaven now. She will be greatly missed.

Rob got two days off for the funeral, so we headed down to Illinois on the following Tuesday. The kids stayed with my parents while we went to the visitation and the funeral. They had a great time making puppets, cards, running through a sprinkler, going to the park, and other fun things. Grandma even played substitute teacher with Matthew and helped keep his schoolwork on track.

While the events of the two days were sad, we did have a nice time seeing relations we'd hadn't seen in years. After the visitation, Rob and I took his baby brother out for supper. Dan and his wife just had a baby a few days before the funeral, so his wife wasn't with him. We had a great time catching up with him.

The funeral service was beautiful, although I must say that I have never been in or seen a family procession at a funeral service. We all filed in after the casket and left after it as well. Rob's mother and aunt did a great job euglogizing and the message was good as well. The graveside service was interesting, as it was in a masoleum. I absolutely love to walk around cemeteries and study gravesites, so I got a bit too distracted looking around at the walls of the building, I'm afraid. But the short service there was nice as well.

After the luncheon, we headed back to pick up the kids and come home. It was an exhausting trip for sure, but made better by knowing the kids behaved themselves for my mom. :)

Since then, I have been busy with my stamping business. No huge workshops yet, but it's steady. I'm starting a class in September, so hopefully that will help things along. I am also my upline's assistant now and am excited to learn lots from her.

Matthew is finishing up his kindergarten material, quick style. I wasn't going to push things, but I decided to have him finish and start first grade at the same time his friends head off to first grade. He's aware of these things now, so I didn't want him to feel awkward around his friends. Ben will start K-4 at the same time Matthew starts first grade. He's not too thrilled about it yet, but hopefully it goes well :)

I am getting over a weird cold/fever thing, so I think I'll have to end this post. I had a temp of 102 for most of yesterday, so my body is rather weak today. And I'm noticing WAY more typos than usual, so time to go :)