Sunday, January 30, 2011

For the Birds

When we lived in California, we had quite a little zoo. A turtle, parakeet, hamster, and multiple fish lived with us....oh, and a wild lizard we caught at school. (Never did get used to lizards running around everywhere!) Some friends of ours had a need to find a new home for their English parakeet. They loved the bird....and so did their cat.

We decided to give it a weeks trial, mainly to make sure Anna's allergies are not affected by the bird. It shouldn't be, but you never know. And we also want to make sure the kids can handle a pet. So far they are enjoying him, and so are Rob and I. We have both sorely missed the sounds of a bird in our home. I am not a dog or cat person by any stretch of the imagination, but I just love birds. Hopefully this week will see our children treating the bird nicely and Anna not having a stitch of allergy trouble. As long as we're okay with all of that, the bird is ours and we'll buy the big cage our friends have so that he has lots of room to fly.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Now We're Cookin'!!!

Our new oven arrived yesterday and it was so nice (and yummy) to be able to bake again. We had breakfast pizza this morning and Rob's homemade pizza tonight (catching a theme here?) We opted for the glass-top model which has the option of a convection oven AND is self-cleaning. We're so happy with it! I can't wait to bake some cookies, but that will have to wait until I am caught up with a few stamp projects. So why am I blogging???

Rob has Monday off next week so we will be heading into Milwaukee to visit the museum there. The kids have been begging to go to the "dinosaur" museum again. They have a mummy exhibit there and I thought about taking Matthew since we just finished studying Egypt, but it looks a little scary for him yet and the youngest they recommend seeing the exhibit is nine. We'll just look at the one mummy they have in the little Egypt exhibit that is always on display.

Otherwise we're just plugging away around here. I had a touch of the cold Rob had this week, but I'm feeling much better today. I tried ignoring it for a few days but had to give in on Wednesday and stay home from church. I think I'm in fighting shape now. Rob and I had a date Friday night and the kids played with some friends of theirs.

I think I'll call it quits and get back to stamping now!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

A Surprise Visit

Friday afternoon, we were going about our day and planning to make some trips out. Rob answered a phone call and I heard him say, "Nuh-uh, you're not here....Really?....Penni, go to the window and look out!" Lo and behold, my mother was walking up the sidewalk! I called the kids to the window and all of us looked out, jaws dropped, as my parents came up the walk. This was their anniversary weekend and they decided to come spend it with us. They had already checked into their hotel room and were coming over for a visit.

The kids enjoyed having Grandpa and Grandma around and we all visited for a few hours. Then they took off for supper while we went out and grocery shopped. They came back and sent Rob and I on a date. Our sitter had cancelled on us, so it was nice to get our date anyway. We went out to eat and did a little shopping before coming home to put the kids to bed. Mom and Dad left then for the hotel.

We didn't see them again until Saturday afternoon, as they had a full day of shopping and relaxing planned. Anna was rather tired, but she was determined to see Grandma. As soon as they arrived, Anna climbed up on her lap and fell asleep for well over an hour. They left again around dinnertime. They joined us for the morning service the next day, ate lunch with us, and then headed on home. It was nice to see them again and the kids really enjoyed some grandparent time.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Rob's Birthday

Thursday was Rob's 33rd birthday and we did a pretty low-key celebration. He decided not to take a vacation day since he already had Friday off. We planned to go on a date Friday night and take the kids out for dinner on Thursday. The kids and I had a few surprises we prepared while Rob was at work. The kids made cards for Rob and each thought of one way to bless him. Matthew cleaned up the living room and vacuumed it, Ben straightened his room, made Anna's bed, and vacuumed hte dining room. Anna let me put her hair in pigtails, Daddy's favorite little girl hairstyle. We also hung up the birthday banner for him.

Rob was pleased to see a clean house when he came in and the children handed him their cards. He had picked up some lunch out for a small treat and ate while opening the cards. He decided we would eat out at Perkins for his birthday supper. The kids were very well-behaved and ate well.

I had told the boys in advance that sometimes restaurants will do something funny if you tell them it's a person's birthday. Ben was the brave one and told the waitress it was Daddy's birthday. She brought out a slice of pie and the waitresses all sang to him. Rob does not like a lot of attention, so he was a little embarrassed. To tell the truth, Ben was as well! He decided he didn't want that ever done to him! I still think it's not as embarrassing as having a Japanese song sung to you while being expected to dance to it....

We did a little shopping afterwards and came home to put the kids to bed. It was a nice evening and a low-key birthday...just perfect for Rob.

Our date was cancelled for the following evening b/c our friend's daughter was sick, but we had some unexpected babysitters show up....and that's the next post :)

Monday, January 17, 2011

Surprise, Surprise

Today it is snowing penguins and polar bears (an arctic version of cats and dogs.) It started pretty early this morning and I think we've gotten about five inches so far with no signs of stopping. I knew our G6 was NOT going to make it into the driveway, so it was up to me and the boys to shovel out the driveway so Rob could get the car in. Well, mostly up to me :)

I informed the boys at lunch that we would go out at 1:30 to shovel (close enough to Rob returning home that we wouldn't have to reshovel). They both stopped and stared at me. Matthew said, "YOU are going to shovel?" I told him yes. Then Ben asked, "Do you know how to shovel, Mom?" Believe it or not, I do know how to shovel! I'm not surprised they were shocked, seeing as I do not play in the snow....ever....and we have pretty defined boy/girl jobs around here. Shoveling snow and trash are boy jobs for sure!

Matthew then proceeded to give me snow shoveling lessons to remind me how to shovel. I then reminded him of the times I had to shovel around here when Dad was in school. I didn't think much had changed. I told him, "I know how to shovel...I scoop and then throw it on you!"

We got all geared up and went outside. The boys attempted to help, Ben being more helpful than Matthew, but their idea of helping is shoveling exactly where I am. I sent them to various areas to "help." Matthew lost interest pretty quickly and left to make snow angels. I did dump some snow on him, which made him cry and head inside, Anna on his heels. Ben stayed out with me and we cleared the drive (twice, since the snow plow went past) and then headed inside for some homemade hot chocolate.

And that counts for my excercise today!!

Friday, January 14, 2011

Half-way point!!

This week marks the half-way point for our school year. I thought it only appropriate that I do an update at the end of our first "semester." Rob asked if I was giving exams...he suggested Ben's exam be: Read the directions. You can read them? Good, you pass!

Matthew has been so much fun to teach this year, overall. He is for sure my history/language arts child. We're studying ancient history right now and he just eats it up. I love that I can add my own tidbits in from my years of teaching history, but even I'm learning a few new things! He loves our read alouds as well. We just finsihed a series of Greek myths and he enjoyed the stories thoroughly...well, the ones that involved adventures and fighting anyway. He "let" me read the love stories, but kind of made a few faces at them. He does quite well with his story writing, although I admit the stories he comes up with outside of school are far more elaborate and interesting than the ones he is assigned. I can't wait for the day that he's confident enough with handwriting to grab a notebook and write away! He is reading chapter books this year and doing quite well with them. Math is going along nicely, although the program is getting a little too easy for him. He will start subtraction in a week or so and hopefully that will be a nice challenge.

Ben has become a joy to teach since we decided to stop the reading lesson book. That book gave us so many fits and I'm glad we just ended it. His reading is coming along just fine and he is on book 20 of a 27 book series that goes with the kindergarten level language arts. I think he's actually doing BETTER on his own. He has a good foundation from the lesson book, but he needs to move a little slower than his brother did in picking up sound blends and the like. I know he'll get all he needs from the Explode the Code books as we move along. Ben is more of my math/science kid anyway. He just loves his math! I'm so glad I started him in the Primer book this year instead of waiting for kindergarten. He's zipping through it. He started addition recently and has picked it up very quickly. He just learned skip counting by 2's and that was his first major challenge. We watched the video that accompanies the program just so he could get it from another source and he got it right away. The man who designed the math program teaches each lesson on the videos, and the fact that Ben "got it" right away from him just adds to my theory that men should teach math to boys and women to girls. But I digress....

The boys do their science lessons together and enjoy learning along side each other. I have been less than impressed with Sonlight's science cirriculum, so Rob and I have decided we will unschool science next year. We'll just get what library books we need and we have enough science experiment books on hand to hold us over for years.

Anna has started a mini-school time with Mommy since she no longer naps. We mainly just cuddle on the couch and read books while the boys are playing Wii. I checked out a collection of Madeline stories and that is her new passion right now. Even the boys enjoy them! There's just something about a fiesty red-head... :) She is also working through the cards in Ben's old Busy Bug set, a pre-math manipulative. She loves it and is doing quite well.

I really enjoy homeschooling the kids and especially this week have been struck by how much FUN they are! I can't imagine sending them away all day long and not being the one to see their discoveries in education. I also love how close they are to one another. They are such good friends! Ben and Matthew have been using various boxes and canisters from around the house to build Gotham City upstairs (which includes a Kai-Lan and Little People house). They even let their sister play, although she usually plays house with the Joker and Batman. Right now they are all downstairs building birdhouses with their daddy.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

The Coin

Matthew's assignment this week in creative writing was to write a story based on a coin. The following story is based on a bicentennial quarter Rob gave him. And it's heavily influenced the the Lego Batman game. Any spelling mistakes are mine.

Two-Face, a guy with his face half-damaged, stared at a coin all night long. He was wondering what to do with the coin--give it to the Riddler or keep it for himself? He decided to buy something with it.

Two-Face was walking to spend it at the bad guy pet shop. He wanted to buy a poisonous dog so if Batman wasn't in a poison suit, he would die. Two-Face lost the coin when it dropped out of his pocket. Then Batman found it.

Batman lost the coin, then found it again, then he bought a new green suit to protect against poison. The store owner was Daddy, and that's how he got the coin.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Early Morning Ramblings

Up late last night doing inventory at the Calvin Klein outlet, up early this morning because I couldn't sleep, and now I'm posting something on my blog. This should be insteresting :)

Matthew had his Mommy and Me workshop on Saturday and it was a great success. We had five moms and ten kids coming originally, not including our own family, so we knew the house would be hopping. It was open house style and we hoped that the visitors would be staggered in their attendance, which thankfully they were! We got a phone call late morning that two of the boys invited had stomach flu and their mom was disappointed, but we may get together with them later in the week.

The kids were so excited to have friends over and were very good hosts. Ben and Matthew hung up coats and helped get their friends settled. To have some semblance of order, I borrowed a long table and chairs and set it up in the living room. Rob supervised the children, who were making a candy bar holder with the Make-A-Monster stamp set. The moms went into the dining room to make a card of their own. Most of the moms were thankful they got to craft in peace! The youngest child in attendance was Anna, so Rob didn't have it too bad, but our own boys were a little too helpful at times. I'm so thankful for their excitement and enthusiasm, though. We get that channeled in the right directions and we'll have two amazing young men!

Matthew was so thankful for his party and kept thanking us all night long. He even cuddled up to me and told me he thought Rob and I were the best parents ever. I'm thankful that he recognized the amount of work that went into something like that. It was fun work and we'll do it again...a year from now so Rob can recover :)

Church on Sunday was wonderful for several reasons: We all went and are healthy and Rob and I are not on the nursery committee anymore! We even got an "I won't be there" phone call before church and I cheerfully told the person who to call and report to! So nice. I was also able to be in choir again...I missed it so much. Sunday night was rather humorous, as Anna fell asleep on me and kept drooling all over my shirt. She'd shift, and the drool spot would move. And then she snored.

Last night I did inventory for Calvin Klein, which was fun but different from Bass. It is a little easier to do CK inventory since I don't like any of their clothes and I'm not mentally shopping while I count and scan :) I did have to drive home in a bit of a snowstorm, but I kept Rob on the car phone the whole time and made it home with no problems. He thanked me for cleaning off the car for him in advance (ha, ha) but I think it snowed some more last night, so all I did was get off the first layer.

That's enough rambling for now. Time to fix breakfast and start the day!

Saturday, January 8, 2011

A Busy Week

We've had a fairly busy week around here, and thankfully we've been well enough to enjoy it! Anna has developed a new cough, but it's not keeping her down so I'm choosing to ignore it. We're also all on Vitamin C now so hopefully that will help keep us from getting any sicker this winter.

On Tuesday I did inventory at Bass...my semi-annual job. I worked for five hours and had a grand time with the other workers. We ended up straightening the store at the end...something I had never done before, but it was fun. The kids were excited to see me home before bedtime. They had a great time with Daddy making tacos for dinner, playing Wii, and going to the library.

Wednesday night our Truth Trackers program started up again...sort of. Ben's group ran a normal program, but Matthew's group was missing the college student helpers, so the youth group ran an alternative program. He said it was fun, but he'd rather have a normal night. Miss Anna thought she got to go to Tiny Trackers since she sits in the service on Sunday nights now, but didn't fuss too much when she had to go to the nursery. And I finally returned to choir after a long break due to "the-cough-that-would-not-die."

Thursday morning was Morning for Moms. Our leader had gone through three speakers who all cancelled, so she asked me at the last minute to come up with two papercrafting projects. I had the ladies make a small Valentine's gift bag and a pocket card. We had a great time, even doing an after-Christmas white elephant. I got a jar of peanut butter (Jiff, even!) which is good b/c we are almost out! In the afternoon I had a meeting to prepare for a three-month craft workshop for our ladies missionary fellowship at church. There are two other ladies involved, one a fellow demo, and between the three of us I think we could supply the craft nights for a few years!

Friday I worked for my upline for just over three hours helping her get some things out of the way before she leaves for the Leadership conference next week. Then it was home to grocery shop and prepare for Matthew's Mommy and Me workshop this afternoon. We have five moms and ten kids coming, open house style, and I have one project for the kids and one for the moms. Matthew is excited to have them over!

Back in October, we had a book-a-thon to book workshops. Matthew wanted to help me out and have one of his own. He had project ideas, snack ideas, and a few other ideas and he was so serious that I went ahead and booked it! He doesn't even know that if there are enough sales he gets to pick something out of the catalog. It's officially my workshop, but he does enough card making on his own that I'll let him get the benefits. I even gave him my booking incentive and he made all of his own Christmas cards with it. With markers and multiple colors on the stamp...I was impressed with his work!

And the next post will probably be all about the workshop...hope it goes well!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Happy 2011!

Happy New Year to all of you! We had a fun day on New Year's Eve cleaning and straighting the study--seems like a never-ending job! We did play some Clue with the boys that afternoon, as we bought the game with the remainder of the Kmart gift card. I always loved that game growing up and I do believe that I never once beat my grandmother at it. I had the best game-playing grandma--she always played to win! None of this pampering the grandkids stuff for her...I think she even knocked my ball in the neighbors garden during a croquet game once.

Enough of that rabbit trail...anyway, we went to our church's New Year's Eve service that night and Anna did pretty well in the service. Rob had to take her out one time and she shaped up after that....and fell asleep. Afterwards we came home and Rob made Chex Mix and hot chocolate. We ate, played Wii, and then settled down to watch a Star Wars movie around 10:30. By then Anna had conked out, so we had the boys get into sleeping bags, hoping they would fall asleep as well. Nothing doing...they were determined to make it! Rob left us for bed around 11:15 and the boys and I made it until midnight, when we went upstairs for bed.

The next morning, we groggily got up around 7:30 and then I was headed out the door to work for my upline's Birthday Bash. I had a great time chatting with the ladies and helping out while Rob went nuts with the kids. For some reason, staying up late made them wired! Rob was begging to get out when we got home, so we went to a mall that had a Macy's so I could spend my card. The last time we went to that mall I was pregnant with Anna. The boys enjoyed it, then we headed for a Sears so Rob could spend his gift card, then came back home. I was pretty beat by that point, so I just relaxed for the rest of the night.

It's back to our regular schedule this week and I'm excited to get some normalcy to our days. The boys are NOT so excited to start up school, but I know they love learning so I don't believe them one bit when they complain :)