Stuff...just stuff

I've been really busy lately.  So here's the latest

My Mama:  Mama's still sick.  She's some better.  We do have some big praises--all tests for really scary stuff came back negative, and the CAT scan was normal!  Her mono test was inconclusive as well as some of the others.  The doctor packed up all of her test results and sent them to an infectious disease specialist at one of the university hospitals.  I don't know whether or not anything will come of it.  The case has to be interesting enough for them to take her.  In the mean time,  please continue to pray for continued recovery and rest.  Also pray that my grandmother will stop telling Mama stories about one of her friend's nephew's third cousins having some mysterious ailment and dying.  It doesn't help.

Me:  I'm teaching at the college again.  I have one class this semester.  It's the same math class I taught last year, so I don't have much prep work to do.  The scary part is that I think the Crafter could almost handle class.

Home school:  We are plugging along and getting work done.  We haven't been doing anything fun lately.
Bible:  Put aside Explorers, reading the book of Joshua
Math:  Singapore 4A chapter 2
History:  Read the chapter about Galileo in The Story of the World.   I'm too lazy to go look it up right now.  Side tracked into reading Galileo for Kids by Richard Panchyk from the library. (Don't tell anyone, but I took my husband's card since I'm not allowed to check out any books).  It has some neat activities.
Spelling:  Continuing with Spelling Power.
Grammar:  Writing Tales this week.
Science:  Working on ch. 3 in Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry.
Spanish:  I finally decided to break down and get Rosetta Stone.  It was really $$, but hearing from some moms who had tried other curricula and ending up frustrated convinced me-that and the $100 off code from The Old Schoolhouse.  The Crafter did one lesson.   She had a hard time speaking loudly enough for the voice recognition to kick in.  We'll try again next week.
Art and Music:  Who am I kidding?  I think she practiced piano twice this week and drew some pictures from a Draw Write Now book.

The coming weeks are going to continue to be busy.  AWANA starts tomorrow.  New Sunday school classes start the first week of September.  The Crafter starts Christian Youth Theater the second week of September and we are working on her audition.  I'm ready for things to slow down, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards.

Mama--Please pray

My Mama is very sick.  She has been sick for almost 2 weeks.  She called last Thursday and said that she was sick with chills, fever, and headache.  I was told not to worry, but she wasn't up to keeping Sweetie for the weekend.  The doctor said it was just a virus that was going around, and they were checking for Lyme disease just in case.  Fast forward 6 days and 4 more doctor visits.  Mama is much worse.  Her fever stays between 101 and 103.  Pain medication hasn't had much effect on her headache. 

The biggest shock was when my Daddy called and left a message on Sunday.  Daddy has NEVER called me.  Even when Mama had some minor surgery a couple of years ago, he didn't call.  He doesn't talk on the phone.  Even if he picks up when I call, the conversation is "Hey.  How are you?  Love you baby.  Here's your mama."  So you can imagine what's going through my mind.  He doesn't know what to do.  He has told my sister and me to stay home.  Really, there isn't much I could do if I went there. 

Yesterday, they redrew Mama's labs and they are testing her for everything they tested for last week plus a bunch of other stuff including Yellow Fever, West Nile Virus, and Legionnaire's disease.  She is on a strong antibiotic, a steroid, and sedatives to help her sleep.  She is in danger of developing pneumonia.  She is scheduled for a CAT scan of her brain on Thursday.

I am restless.  I'm having trouble concentrating on the day to day stuff.  I can't do anything for Mama except pray. 

Please pray for Mama if the Lord leads.  Thank you.

2008-2009 School Year Report 1

The Crafter and Wild Thing started school July 7th.  We started very slowly.  This is the first week with all core subjects.   I hope to add in some art and Spanish in the next few weeks.   I like to get a couple of months of school in while the weather is so miserable.  We'll take a week or two off in October when it cools off.

Wild Thing has finally taken an interest in schoolish things.  We are working on very basic phonics, math, and some preschool workbooks from Rod and Staff.  So far he has been doing Starfall for phonics.  He really enjoys doing anything that involves the computer.   The Historian made him some math blocks that he enjoys.  Wild Thing recognizes his numbers up to 12 but falls apart after that.  He's only 4 1/2, so I'm not rushing.  He's mainly doing school to keep him occupied while the Crafter works.  He likes to tell Sweetie that he can't play with her because he has to do his school work.  All in all his formal preschool pursuits take less than 30 minutes.

The Crafter is in 4th grade.  How that happened, I don't know.  It seems like yesterday when we did the first page of Phonics Pathways.  Here's what she has done:

• Bible:  Explorer's Bible Study Lessons


• Math:  Saxon 65 through lesson 45  We skipped a bunch of lessons.  Now we are working on Singapore 4A since I finally bought the books.


• Grammar/Writing:  Alternating weeks of Writing Tales 1 with Rod and Staff.  We do a lot orally, so we can move faster through the easy stuff and then we won't feel behind when the tough stuff hits.  I am debating letting her have her own blog for her final drafts of her Writing Tales projects.
  


• Spelling:  Spelling Power plugging along with level C.
  


• Reading:  The Story of Martin Luther from Google Books
  


• History:  Story of the World Lessons


• Science:  Started Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry 1.  I love chemistry.  The Crafter has therefore decided that she hates chemistry and will whine incessantly while doing chemistry.  Nice.  I'm not sure about this curriculum, but then again I am very picky.  This seems like too much too soon.  We'll see.  She's finished chapter 1 and is almost done with chapter 2.  Maybe the marshmallows for the next experiment will help.

So far so good.  Our biggest problem so far has been Sweetie (that's just a code name) who is becoming less sweet all the time.  She is two in every way.  She will scribble or play with play dough for a little while, but during school time, she seems to want constant mama attention.  The Historian is home for the first part of our school day, so he keeps her entertained.  That helps a lot.

Another obstacle is a lost library book.  We can't check out anymore books until it is turned in or we pay for it.  That book has to be in this house.  Any ideas for new places to look?  

Last Year's Vacation

We will not be taking a major trip this year.  Work schedules and needing new gutters make it difficult.  So I thought I would post some pictures from our visit to the Creation Museum last August.  It was our first family road trip.  We enjoyed the trip, but it was exhausting.

 

I highly recommend the Creation Museum.  It is very well done.   I wish I could add some music to this one.  A chorus of "Billions of Dead Things" or "Behemoth is a Dinosaur" would be a nice touch.

A Day at Fantasy Lake

Here are some pictures from our day trip to Fantasy Lake on July 3rd.  It was hot, but not as humid as normal.  The water park wasn't crowded at all.  A good time was had by all. 

 I changed this one to black and white because of my sunburn.

Fourth Grade Curriculum Choices

You've waited and now they're here! This is what I plan on using for the Crafter's fourth grade year.

Bible:  Explorers Bible Study-God's Perfect Plan

Reading:  Novels from Ambleside Online, Veritas Press, Sonlight, and other Great Books lists.  I want to add a few book reports this year. 

Grammar/Writing:  Rod and Staff Level 4 and Writing Tales 1

Spelling:  Spelling Power

Handwriting:  Italic E

Math:  Singapore Primary Math 4A/4B supplemented with Saxon 65 as needed

Science:  Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry Level 1, Exploring Creation with Botany

History:  The Story of the World 2 (finish up) and 3 with Activity Guides

Music:  Piano Lessons, Listen to classical music tapes

Art:  Drawing with Children and Visual Manna

Logic:  Reading Detective, Math Detective, puzzle books

Foreign Language:  Undecided here—maybe Latin with Children or Latina Christiana; maybe some sort of Spanish

Wow! That looks like a lot, but we don't do every subject every day. Now all I have to do is work out some kind of weekly schedule.

A Midsummer Night's Whine

I believe the heat and humidity has sucked the life out of me. I don't like summer. My apologies to those who love summer, but summer holds no magic for me. The average summer day here is over 90 degrees with high humidity. The mosquitoes are thick and hungry. The only relief is in the water. We are fortunate to live near a lake, but we can't swim all the time. It looks we are headed back into a drought this summer. Water restrictions are soon to come.

The children aren't dealing well with all of the inside time. Sweetie and Wild Thing keep fighting (any suggestions?). The Crafter whines “I'm bored” all day long, but she's starting school again in a couple of weeks. Wild Thing needs more outside time to get out his boyish energy. If he doesn't get his running time, he is nearly uncontrollable. I would take them on more outings, but we are trying to stay home to save on gas. It cost $70 to fill up the mini van today. I need for a tank to last longer than a week.

I haven't been sleeping well lately. I feel tired and lazy. I need to get my act together and order the rest of the Crafter's curriculum so she can go ahead and start 4^th grade. I need to purge books and clutter. I need to get back to meal planning. I need to stop neglecting the housework. I need to work out a homeschool schedule for next year. I just can't seem to get enough motivation to do anything beyond the necessities for survival.

I'm a bit depressed. My 35^th birthday was last week. The Historian had his days mixed up and thought that it was the next day. I've gained some weight and my summer shorts are tight. I'm in the midst of a full blown pity party and I need to snap out of it now.

I know that I have nothing to complain about. I know that I am blessed beyond measure. My children and parents are healthy. My husband has a decent job. The vehicles are running. We can still afford to put gas in the cars and food on the table. The air conditioner works.  The house needs some repairs, but God will provide. I have to remember to count my blessings and not my problems.

Whine over.

Wordless Wednesday

This is an email I received a while back.  It is really cool.

See the baby?

  

A Nice Anniversary and Some Random Comments

My husband and I just celebrated our 15^th anniversary.  We had an absolutely wonderful time.  Some friends agreed to babysit overnight for us. We went to Fayetteville which is about an hour away.  We enjoyed some child-free meals and a nice hotel room.  We ended up going to the local mall Thursday night because it was too smoky to walk outside due to a forest fire near the NC coast.  I haven't been to a mall in a long time, and now I remember why. 

Friday, we went to the Cape Fear Botanical Gardens.  It was beautiful.   I highly recommend a trip there. I want to go back when the camillias are in bloom. The weather was breezy and surprisingly comfortable.  We had a nice hand-in-hand stroll.

On these excursions, I observed a lack of fashion sense among the late teens/early twenties crowd.  Granted, I am no expert.  You may laugh at my "mom uniform" of jeans, a T-shirt, and tennis shoes, but I can assure everyone that nothing is showin' that shouldn't be.  I would now like to address some of those young people.

To the young men with your pants falling down to the point you have to use one hand to hold them up:  Congratulations on your weight loss!  It is a great accomplishment to lose those 50 extra pounds.  I think you should all get together and write a diet book. Then maybe you can afford some pants that fit or maybe JUST USE A BELT!  I do not want to see your underwear!

To the young ladies with the low, low rise pants or shorts:  I don't want to see your underwear either.  If someone walking behind you can tell that you are wearing a thong, your pants are too low.  

To those wearing mini skirts:  BE CAREFUL HOW YOU BEND OVER!  Enough said.

To the mothers-to-be with the exposed bellies:  Congratulations on your expected bundle of joy.  I know that you are excited and want everyone to know, but most people can tell that you are pregnant without full flesh exposure.  If I was mistaken about you being with child, my apologies.

To the tube top wearers:  If you choose to wear one, please be aware that your bra straps will show at the top.  Yes, even the flesh colored ones show.   If you chose not to wear a bra, gravity is taking its toll and I could tell.

To the lady wearing 3 inch white heels at the botanical garden:  What were you thinking? I know they matched the rest of your expensive white outfit, but you were touring a garden.  Gardens have dirt and grass.  High heels sink.  I know you suffered.  Sorry if you saw me giggle.

I hope I have the sarcasm out of my system now.

Blood, Sweat, and Tears

It's hot here in NC.  We have had 100+ temperatures with high humidity since Saturday.  It's typical weather for late July, not early June.  My children are cranky and bored.  They are constantly fighting among themselves.  I would throw them out, but they are not very heat tolerant.  They have red, sweaty faces after a few minutes outside.  The mosquitoes are also horrible in our yard this year.  I have to coat them in Off before I can let them out or they come in covered in bites.

I had intended for us to take a real break from school until July, but that's not going to happen.  We need to do something.  We are continuing on with history and a bit of math for the Crafter.  I'm working on getting a bee unit study together for everyone.  I have a Hands of a Child lapbook from a free download that I hope to use.  It will be our first lapbook.

Yesterday, I tried to keep the kids happy by letting them play on the Slip and Slide for a while.  I can't let them use it everyday because I don't want a huge water bill.  They played  peacefully for about 30 minutes, then I had to turn the water off.  I told them to come in for baths.  I had started running a tub when I heard screaming.  Wild Thing came in with his face covered in blood.  I put my screaming child in the tub and started looking for the source.  He had a half inch cut right in the center of his forehead.   After a few minutes of direct pressure, it stopped bleeding, but the tears didn't.  It took him a while to calm down.  Wild Thing was pretty scraped up.  He was running away after antagonizing his sisters when he tripped in the gravel driveway and face planted on the rocks.  Thank God he wasn't hurt worse.  He's fine now.  It's amazing what a couple of Band Aids can do.