Wednesday, October 29, 2014
A New Angel in Heaven
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
He's Growing
Caden finally had his new patient appt with our new doctor today. My little guy who has always been in the 5th percentile for height and weight is now is the 15th percentile and the 49th percentile for height!!! He's growing.
Allie is pushing the 70th percentile for height and weight.
And then there's Jaelyn still squarely on her 5th percentile growth curve.
Sent from my iPhone
Allie is pushing the 70th percentile for height and weight.
And then there's Jaelyn still squarely on her 5th percentile growth curve.
Sent from my iPhone
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Narratives
We are starting a narrative series in our writing book. Today's assignment was fun. We had to make a list of 4 unrelated things and had 10 minutes to write a story that connected them. I wrote with the kids. I've learned they are more motivated when I "school" along.
Our 4 things were
Here's my story.
It's a beautiful day to sit and draw the scene in front of me with my blue crayon. I gaze out my window at the gentle waves on the lake. I wish I could sit here forever, but I must get up and fix my crazy kids their lunch. As I'm grabbing a jar of pickles out of the fridge, I am startled by a loud wack. I drop the jar when I jump, covering the floor with pickles and glass. The smell of dill quickly fills my house. When I look out, I see a little brown bird laying next to a dead butterfly. The bird shakes his head and flies away, but I'm sad because the butterfly never will.
Here's Caden's. I might need to take his crayons away.
Woosh! I threw my blue crayon at the little brown bird which landed in my jar of pickles. It was attracted by my dead butterfly on the ground by my jar of pickles. I picked up the crayon and poked the bird making sure it was dead. It was. The bird was twitching and there was a blue mark from were I hit it. There was a blue mark on the butterfly too. (at this point in his reading, he gives me a sly grin.)
Jaelyn's is along those same lines. What am I doing wrong???
One day when I lived in the forest, I found a blue crayon. I went home and got paper so I could draw something with it. I drew a beautiful blue butterfly. Then it was bedtime so I went to bed. In the middle of the night, I heard some ruckus and decided to go check it out. I saw my paper and it was plain white. Then I went outside and my blue butterfly was flying. I quickly dashed inside to get a jar. It was filled with pickles I dumped them out and left. Once I caught the butterfly I went back to sleep. The next morning I woke up I grabbed my butterfly and went down stairs to where I dropped my pickles. I murdered the butterfly and put it in a glass show box. I went outside and saw a little brown bird. I went to the garage and grabbed a butterfly net. I caught the little brown bird and murdered it with my last pickle. Than I put it in a little glass box. I decided to become a person who collects things with wings and put them in glass cases.
Allie didn't put the full 10 minutes into hers and it shows..
The little brown bird brought me a dead butterfly. It dropped it in a jar of pickled for some odd reason. But then I got a piece of paper and a blue crayon to draw a picture of the sunset that day.
Our 4 things were
- a blue crayon
- a dead butterfly
- a jar of pickles
- a brown bird
Here's my story.
It's a beautiful day to sit and draw the scene in front of me with my blue crayon. I gaze out my window at the gentle waves on the lake. I wish I could sit here forever, but I must get up and fix my crazy kids their lunch. As I'm grabbing a jar of pickles out of the fridge, I am startled by a loud wack. I drop the jar when I jump, covering the floor with pickles and glass. The smell of dill quickly fills my house. When I look out, I see a little brown bird laying next to a dead butterfly. The bird shakes his head and flies away, but I'm sad because the butterfly never will.
Here's Caden's. I might need to take his crayons away.
Woosh! I threw my blue crayon at the little brown bird which landed in my jar of pickles. It was attracted by my dead butterfly on the ground by my jar of pickles. I picked up the crayon and poked the bird making sure it was dead. It was. The bird was twitching and there was a blue mark from were I hit it. There was a blue mark on the butterfly too. (at this point in his reading, he gives me a sly grin.)
Jaelyn's is along those same lines. What am I doing wrong???
One day when I lived in the forest, I found a blue crayon. I went home and got paper so I could draw something with it. I drew a beautiful blue butterfly. Then it was bedtime so I went to bed. In the middle of the night, I heard some ruckus and decided to go check it out. I saw my paper and it was plain white. Then I went outside and my blue butterfly was flying. I quickly dashed inside to get a jar. It was filled with pickles I dumped them out and left. Once I caught the butterfly I went back to sleep. The next morning I woke up I grabbed my butterfly and went down stairs to where I dropped my pickles. I murdered the butterfly and put it in a glass show box. I went outside and saw a little brown bird. I went to the garage and grabbed a butterfly net. I caught the little brown bird and murdered it with my last pickle. Than I put it in a little glass box. I decided to become a person who collects things with wings and put them in glass cases.
Allie didn't put the full 10 minutes into hers and it shows..
The little brown bird brought me a dead butterfly. It dropped it in a jar of pickled for some odd reason. But then I got a piece of paper and a blue crayon to draw a picture of the sunset that day.
The Craziness that is our Life
So we got back from our first Florida trip mid-September. It took us a week or so, but I finally felt like we were getting back into our routine. The kids started our co-op and really enjoyed it. I'd filled the fridge up with food and unpacked our suitcases. Then, I decided to turn around and head back to Florida for a week and a half with the kids. Craziness, I tell you.
My Grandpa and his wife, Doris, moved into assisted living while we were at Disney. There house is reverse mortgaged and they had 60 days to turn the house back over. I knew the house was packed, but I had no idea how packed it was. There was a lot of stress on my parents in the first few weeks after the move. They were over-whelmed by the situation and my dad's blood pressure was up. I'm so thankful for homeschooling, because for once, I was able to say I'm coming and stay as long as I was needed. My mother in law agreed to keep the kids and try to school them (poor Joanie...she had no clue what she was agreeing too :p). We drove back down on the 28th, stopping over in Atlanta with Uncle Cliffy Wiffy :).
I was in no way prepared for the work that was ahead of us and I won't air my grandpa's dirty laundry. Let's just say, they hadn't thrown anything away in 30 years. Actually, I found junk mail from Doris' first husband from the 1960's. That's 50 years. It took 5 days of 3 of us working and a 6th day with us plus my brother and nephew, but we cleared the trash, sorted, and prepared for the estate people to come in for a sale.
We've been home a week now and I feel like we are finally getting back into the swing of things with school. In addition to that, I've had a couple of projects and some cleaning out of my own to do. I brought back an old dingy dresser that was buried in my Grandpa's garage. I cleaned it up, sanded it down, and repainted it a pretty tuscan red (thank you mom). It's so pretty. I also ripped the pad on my ironing board one night and then ripped the whole pad off in frustration. I ended up buying plywood to attach to the top and covered it with batting and material. I love my new huge ironing surface. Our couch cushions collapsed years ago during a move. I finally found a place here that sells foam big enough; so in addition to all of that, I also redid our couch cushion. They are so much nicer. I highly recommend it. I spent $200 and I'm happy with my couch again rather than $2000 on new living room furniture.
The biggest thing I have in common with my Grandpa is his love of pictures, but what I realized as we dug through his box is most of the pictures didn't matter. So many of his pictures were from his travels with his civic organizations. I was shocked at the pile of those compared to family. It's a lesson in what's important. They also had cards...cards anyone had ever given them that unfortunately went straight in the trash. I came home and pulled out my 5 under the bed boxes and 3 shoe boxes of pictures, cards, and keepsakes. I still have some organizing to do, but if I couldn't tell you who was in the picture, it went in the trash. If there were a lot of landscapes of one place, I kept one and threw the rest away. I couldn't believe the doubles I had. I filled 3 trash bags with stuff, and have my boxes down to 3 under the bed boxes and 1 shoebox.
Jaelyn helped me in our storage closet today. I don't have piles and piles of stuff, but the anti-hoarder in me wants to keep cleaning out after experiencing their house. Thankfully, I'm busy with school and projects for Christmas. Hopefully the itch to clean will go away soon :).
My Grandpa and his wife, Doris, moved into assisted living while we were at Disney. There house is reverse mortgaged and they had 60 days to turn the house back over. I knew the house was packed, but I had no idea how packed it was. There was a lot of stress on my parents in the first few weeks after the move. They were over-whelmed by the situation and my dad's blood pressure was up. I'm so thankful for homeschooling, because for once, I was able to say I'm coming and stay as long as I was needed. My mother in law agreed to keep the kids and try to school them (poor Joanie...she had no clue what she was agreeing too :p). We drove back down on the 28th, stopping over in Atlanta with Uncle Cliffy Wiffy :).
I was in no way prepared for the work that was ahead of us and I won't air my grandpa's dirty laundry. Let's just say, they hadn't thrown anything away in 30 years. Actually, I found junk mail from Doris' first husband from the 1960's. That's 50 years. It took 5 days of 3 of us working and a 6th day with us plus my brother and nephew, but we cleared the trash, sorted, and prepared for the estate people to come in for a sale.
We've been home a week now and I feel like we are finally getting back into the swing of things with school. In addition to that, I've had a couple of projects and some cleaning out of my own to do. I brought back an old dingy dresser that was buried in my Grandpa's garage. I cleaned it up, sanded it down, and repainted it a pretty tuscan red (thank you mom). It's so pretty. I also ripped the pad on my ironing board one night and then ripped the whole pad off in frustration. I ended up buying plywood to attach to the top and covered it with batting and material. I love my new huge ironing surface. Our couch cushions collapsed years ago during a move. I finally found a place here that sells foam big enough; so in addition to all of that, I also redid our couch cushion. They are so much nicer. I highly recommend it. I spent $200 and I'm happy with my couch again rather than $2000 on new living room furniture.
The biggest thing I have in common with my Grandpa is his love of pictures, but what I realized as we dug through his box is most of the pictures didn't matter. So many of his pictures were from his travels with his civic organizations. I was shocked at the pile of those compared to family. It's a lesson in what's important. They also had cards...cards anyone had ever given them that unfortunately went straight in the trash. I came home and pulled out my 5 under the bed boxes and 3 shoe boxes of pictures, cards, and keepsakes. I still have some organizing to do, but if I couldn't tell you who was in the picture, it went in the trash. If there were a lot of landscapes of one place, I kept one and threw the rest away. I couldn't believe the doubles I had. I filled 3 trash bags with stuff, and have my boxes down to 3 under the bed boxes and 1 shoebox.
Jaelyn helped me in our storage closet today. I don't have piles and piles of stuff, but the anti-hoarder in me wants to keep cleaning out after experiencing their house. Thankfully, I'm busy with school and projects for Christmas. Hopefully the itch to clean will go away soon :).
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