Monday, August 23, 2010

Diary of Motherhood #2

Monday August 23, 2010-




I got up much more rested today and I enjoyed the serenity of the top story of our cozy new mountain home. I sat having my coffee reading Pocketful of Pinecones, but it was hard to concentrate because there were so many beautiful blue jays out talking this morning. I was interrupted so many times, I finally gave up reading and sat watching out the open window while 2 large blue jays got into a bit of a squabble. They flew and dove at each other, actually crashing into each other a few times. It was rather fascinating to watch. I had to wonder what the fight was all about. Soon thereafter, messy-haired babies started coming up the stairs to give me morning greetings one by one.



Grandpa brought up lots of veggies from our old garden at our last house as he is the landlord and it still is not rented out. My mom also sent several bags with him from her garden filled with tomatoes, green beans, squash, zucchini, nectarines, apples, peppers, and corn. So today, I figured lots must be done in order that we do not let any of these delicious veggies go to waste. I got to work making and freezing 3 batches of spaghetti sauce with a zucchini pureed and hidden in the sauce for some extra vitamins. Next, I prepped tomorrow nights side dish which will be a crock pot full of green beans with garlic, onion, 2 slices of bacon, several tomatoes cut up and thrown in and a smidge of olive oil. By that time, my feet were swelling from all the standing and I reheated last nights veggie lasagna for lunch.



After lunch we of course worked through our lessons. All the while, Tanner kept running around disrupting our reading because his tooth was really loose. The big kids were trying everything to coax this tooth out for him. Lessons turned into a pretend dental office with Tanner as the patient. It was rather funny so I let it continue. We did finally finish what we set out to accomplish this afternoon though. As we were finishing up, the kids and I started daydreaming about Jesse and Everett mentioned what it would be like when Jesse was 3. I casually said, “Well that is 3 years from now, you will already be 10 and Wyatt will be 11 and Kayla 13!” The strangest thing happened, Kenna walked over and mentioned, “Mama, I be 6 then.” Ummm yes, she was correct. Either it was a very lucky guess or she is picking up much more than I realized by listening and playing alongside us during home school times.



Evening took a long time to get here today as the heat was causing me mild suffering and swelling. It reached 81 in the house today, which is a very hot day for these mountains. We do not have a/c, which is a luxury I rarely miss, but I missed it today. After dinner, Tanner finally asked me to help him with his wiggly bottom tooth. I wrapped a little floss around it and gave a good yank and out it popped. Everyone laughed in delight. Its so funny how fascinated everyone was with him loosing this tooth. Kenna seemed rather horrified that Tanner’s tooth was no longer in his mouth and to boot was bleeding a tad. She is not one to be able to stand even a drop of blood…….she is a very girly, self-proclaimed princess.



I am sitting here in peace typing as all the kids settle down and watch some television, winding up a long summer day. Its still warm tonight, the air is completely still and the birds have all gone for the evening. The setting sun is peering quietly in orangey purple hues through all the pines and I can barely make out the faint line of the horizon between the trees. I pray for a cool night so the swelling can go down some. Overall, I know summer is coming to an end pretty soon and so is the pregnancy so I remind myself daily that I should be grateful for each day I hold my sweet baby Jesse within me alive and kicking. God will see me through to the end and it is His strength I must rely on more and more each day as discomfort grows along with my belly size.



Nate just called and is working late so I suppose I will head off and sneak in a few more chapters of my book before tucking little toes into beds. Goodnight-

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Diary of Motherhood: Homeschooling, Homesteading, Homeloving

Trying something new. I added a new label for my diary entries. I plan to keep a diary this year about random happenings of motherhood and I was thinking I would post the entries here as well. I am just keeping the diary in my Word Processor, but after typing it, I thought....hmmm why not add these entries to my blog. I will sometimes need to change things a bit in order to keep privacy as I obviously did not want to post the name of our small town, but otherwise it will all be true to life records of our lives.

Diary of Motherhood:


Homeschooling, homesteading, home loving



Sunday August 22, 2010-



It was a late night last night, however, with Grandpa having stayed overnight for a visit in the house, it was an early wake up. I took a few minutes to get going this morning under the haze of only 6 hours sleep in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy. I sat drinking a small cup of half-caff coffee while reading from Pocketful of Pinecones by one of my favorite authors, Karen Andreola. I have gained so many wonderful insights about Charlotte Mason home schooling through her works even though I do not follow ALL her ideas. This book is a lovely, refreshing book about enjoying nature and note booking it with your kids. It has really livened our passion for the outdoors especially since moving to the mountains where we are surrounded by so much beauty and nature.



After church today, we opened our home schooling up as we usually do with our Scripture CD and then our Geography CD which we all love. Kenna and Madelynn enjoy dancing so much and we love watching them swirl and shake to the music. Then we moved on with lessons which consisted of Bible, an Aesop Fable, 1 page from Dinosaurs Unleashed(the most fascinating book about humans walking with dinosaurs from a new earth Christian perspective), Chapter nine of Little House in the Big Woods, writing about our favorite things that happened this week, 1 lesson from Rays arithmetic, character and spelling copy work from queenhomeschoolsupply.com, reading, and finally we looked up the trees the kids drew in their nature notebooks yesterday so they could put labels on them.



As silly as it is, I searched almost 30 minutes trying to figure out the name of the tree Wyatt drew and finally I realize it is the name the town we live in……..SURPRISE it was a (name of town we live in)! We got a pretty good laugh from that one. I must say too how much Wyatt’s drawing is improving from keeping a nature notebook. He’s never been into drawing as his fine motor skills aren’t as refined as most 8 year olds so he lacks the confidence to take on drawing for pleasure, but as time passes and he makes more entries into his nature notebook, he is beginning to develop confidence and refine his fine motor skills. I can actually tell what he is drawing now and truly admire beautiful details he adds. Kayla drew a Bur Oak, which we found much more quickly, however, I am realizing the benefit it would be for us to have Anna Comstock’s Handbook of Nature Study more and more each day. I may splurge for the twenty five dollar book soon. Back to her drawing, it was gorgeous. She is my little artist. The leaves looked more lifelike than the actual tree. Everett also drew the Bur Oak tree leaves. He is only 7, yet he is quite the perfectionist and though he enjoys drawing, he prefers to do it from imagination so doing real-life nature objects has been a good stretch for him to push him to develop new skills and techniques. The kids are currently baking cupcakes from their new kids cookbook that my mom picked up for them. The house smells yummy and like home usually does here. Its time to go put the leftover taco soup in the freezer and pop in the veggie lasagna for our dinner.



I look forward to this school year so much as we will be welcoming a new baby, experiencing snow and cold like never before, enjoying lots of indoor activities this winter like baking and cooking and having friends and family come up for a meal of warm spaghetti and garlic bread or soup with crusty bread instead of BBQs which can be done year round where we used to live. It will exciting to follow nature in these mountains and watch everything turn white and crisp. For now though we are enjoying the last bit of summer by heading to the local lakes each week, hiking, walking, taking the dogs for day trips, BBQing, and being outdoors as much as possible.



Okay, off to put away the leftovers and start that dinner! More yummy smells headed our way, I am actually surprised the bears haven’t broken in because of all the homey, delicious aromas that come from here :0)

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Where He Guides, He Also Provides

I am overflowing with gratitude today. I posted on facebook last week asking if anyone had baby boy clothing they no longer needed because this move has hit us a bit hard financially and I still had not a thing for this baby boy who is coming in 9 weeks. A friend messaged me and told me if I wanted to, to come by her house today while we were down for my prenatal visit because she had some clothing and things from her son that she no longer needed due to her husband recently having a vasectomy. I went down today and what do I show up to find? 2 HUGE bags of clothing, 1 entire one is all brand new with tags still on, a brown printed matching swing and bouncer in almost new condition, an almost new saucer, a bumbo, a walker, a floor gym, a brand new carseat comfy, and little shoes and other accessories. My suburban was literally stuffed with baby items all of which I do not have! I had a bouncer from Maddi, but its pink. I cannot believe the kindness of her to give me all these things. I literally think about the only thing we now need is socks for Jesse. I was really stressing out being that we had nothing for our lil guy and now here we are overflowing with luxury items I haven't had in several kids like a swing and walker and saucer. Its amazing that God not only provides, He showered us in more than we could have ever asked for. Then, Nate's dad had someone from his work who's baby just potty trained and she no longer needed her diapers so she gave him about 300 size 4 diapers to give to us. This was amazing also because we were low on diapers and on money and I was needing to grab diapers as well. Seriously, generosity was pouring out to us today and I feel so full of thanks to God. I know He knew our needs and saw to it that they were not only met, but exceeded!

On another note, my prenatal visit went well except that I was in a mild case of SVT(heartrate wouldn't come down from 160's for several hours) this morning while at the drs( I think the trip down the mountain did it, but I am not certain) and he said at this point we will be planning for steroids at 34 weeks and then he will tap me(amnio) to check lungs at 35 weeks and we will deliver between 35-36 weeks so it looks like the 37 week delivery we hoped for is no longer. That is okay though. I want baby and I to both stay healthy and if my dr feels that is the best plan of action, I fully trust him as he is also a close family friend and Godly man. I know where he seeks wisdom from and I always rest in that peace in having him as my dr. :) God bless and I hope everyone else is having a wonderful day.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Our Interest-based discovery plans

So this is a breakdown of all the types of things the kids want incorporated into school for right now. I only went 5 weeks in because we change interests constantly. So far though, our school year is looking like a very fun one! We start this week.Note:For Bible and read alouds and whatnot, those are weekly plans so they look like a lot, but they aren't at all. We have been reading Bible and started the Little House series this summer. Rays arithmetic is seriously short and fun and VERY real life, manipulative oriented that is why we picked it. Lessons will take 5-10 minutes a day!

Daily Homeschool Schedule



Play scripture and geography CD

Bible

All literature Read A-louds

Science Read A-loud

Writing

Lesson Languages

Copywork

Math

Quiet reading time or kids read to me

Read A-loud story book to little ones

Lesson Languages with Tanner

Nature Notebooks 1 day a week

Week 1

Scripture CD-Track 3

Geography CD-Track 25

Bible-1 Samuel 17 and Bible facts p.36-37, 1 Samuel 18:1-6; 20:27-42, Psalm 23 and Bible Facts 38-39, 1 Kings 3:5-15, 4:34; 5;3-5 and Bible Facts 40-41

Literature- Little House ch.6, 7, and 8. Aesop 4 stories

Science- Dinosaurs Unleashed, The True Story about Dinosaurs and Humans- foreword and p.1, p.2-3, p. 4-5, p. 6

Writing- Your choice, a letter to Daddy or Momma, the best thing that happened this week, prayers and goals for the future

Lesson Languages- 1 lesson

Copywork- Spelling or character copy work

Math-Oral textbook, Real objects, textbook lesson on own, enrichment with baking(everyone measure something for a baked good)

Kayla-Rays intellectual-p.45 XX and XXI…..2 lessons a week, orally and then written on day 2, orally then written on Day 4 (Key p.82 week 1)

Wyatt and Everett-Rays Primary p.41, 42 and 43 orally day 1 and 2 and written lessons on their own day 3. Key(p.47 week 4)

Reading-Kayla: Flicka. Wyatt and Everett: Beginners Bible.

Read A-Loud to little ones- Their choice

Lesson Languages with Tanner- 2-3 lessons a week.



Special Things:

Day 3-Corncob dolls from Craft book

Day 4-Little House Cookbook-Ch.1

-Bake for Math, each child measure something

-Nature Notebook….go to hang glider area, draw view

Week 2

Scripture CD-Track 3

Geography CD-Track 26

Bible-1 Kings 16: 29-30; 17: 1-7, 1 Kings 17;8-16, 1 Kings 18: 16-40, 2 Kings 2: 1-14

Literature- Little House ch.9, 10 and 11. Aesop 4 stories

Science- p.7, p. 8, p. 10-.5 of 11, p. rest of 11 and 12

Writing- Your choice, a letter to Daddy or Momma, the best thing that happened this week, prayers and goals for the future

Lesson Languages- 1 lesson

Copywork- Spelling or character copy work

Math-Oral textbook, Real objects, textbook lesson on own, enrichment with baking(everyone measure something for a baked good)

Kayla-Rays intellectual-p.48 XXII and XXIII…..2 lessons a week, orally and then written on day 2, orally then written on Day 4 (Guide p.82 week 1) Manipulatives if needed

Wyatt and Everett-Rays Primary p.44 Guide(p.48 week 5)

Reading-Kayla: Flicka. Wyatt and Everett: Beginners Bible.

Read A-Loud to little ones- Their choice

Lesson Languages with Tanner- 2-3 lessons a week.



Special Things:

Day 3- craft p. 12 straw hats

Day 4-Little House Cookbook-Ch.2

-Nature Notebook….Take notebooks to Lake Gregory and draw/write about a duck/bird/whatever







Week 3

Scripture CD-Track 4

Geography CD-Track 27

Bible- 2 Kings 4:1-7, 2 Kings 4:18-17 and Bible facts 44-45, 2 Kings 5: 1-14, 2 Kings 22 and Bible facts 42-43

Literature- Little House ch.12 and 13. Prairie Ch. 1 Aesop 4 stories

Science- p.13, p. 14, p. 15, p. 18

Writing- Your choice, a letter to Daddy or Momma, the best thing that happened this week, prayers and goals for the future

Lesson Languages- 1 lesson

Copywork- Spelling or character copy work

Math-Oral textbook, Real objects, textbook lesson on own, enrichment with baking(everyone measure something for a baked good)

Kayla-Rays intellectual-p.51 XXIV and XXV…..2 lessons a week, orally and then written on day 2, orally then written on Day 4 (Guide p.82 week 1) Manipulatives if needed

Wyatt and Everett-Rays Primary p.45 Guide(p.48 week 6)

Reading-Kayla: Flicka. Wyatt and Everett: Beginners Bible.

Read A-Loud to little ones- Their choice

Lesson Languages with Tanner- 2-3 lessons a week.



Special Things:

Day 3- Draw and write facts, (weight and size and compare to another object), about your favorite dinosaur studied thus far.

Day 4-Little House Cookbook-Ch.3,make a menu and grocery list for all recipes we want to try

-Nature Notebook….Take notebooks to Grass Valley Lake

Week 4

Scripture CD-Track 4

Geography CD-Track 28

Bible- Daniel 1 and Bible facts 48-49, Daniel 3 and Bible facts 46-47; 24, Daniel 6 and Bible facts 52-53, Jonah 1, 2: 10, 3 and Bible facts p. 54-55

Literature- Prairie Ch. 2, 3, and 4 Aesop 4 stories

Science- p.19, p.20-21, p. 22-23, p.24

Writing- Your choice, a letter to Daddy or Momma, the best thing that happened this week, prayers and goals for the future

Lesson Languages- 1 lesson

Copywork- Spelling or character copy work

Math-Oral textbook, Real objects, textbook lesson on own, enrichment with baking(everyone measure something for a baked good)

Kayla-Rays intellectual-p.54 XXVI and XXVII…..2 lessons a week, orally and then written on day 2, orally then written on Day 4 (Guide p.82 week 1) Manipulatives if needed

Wyatt and Everett-Rays Primary p.46 XLIII Guide(p.48 week 7)

Reading-Kayla: Flicka. Wyatt and Everett: Beginners Bible.

Read A-Loud to little ones- Their choice

Lesson Languages with Tanner- 2-3 lessons a week.



Special Things:

Day 2- Craft, Ma’s Willow broom

Day 3- Play telephone from Rays teacher Guide, p.178(call home and cell actually using numbers from memory)

Day 4-Little House Cookbook-Ch.4,make a menu and grocery list for all recipes we want to try. Kids cook during week.

-Nature Notebook….go to a local park



Week 5

Scripture CD-Track 5

Geography CD-Track 29

Bible- Luke 1:26-38 and Bible facts 56-57, Luke 2: 1-7, Luke 2: 8-20, Luke 2: 21-38

Literature- Prairie ch. 5, 6 and 7 and Aesop 4 stories

Science- p.25, p.26, p.27, p.28

Writing- Your choice, a letter to Daddy or Momma, the best thing that happened this week, prayers and goals for the future

Lesson Languages- 1 lesson

Copywork- Spelling or character copy work

Math-Oral textbook, Real objects, textbook lesson on own, enrichment with baking(everyone measure something for a baked good)

Kayla-Rays intellectual-p.56 XXVIII and XXIX…..2 lessons a week, orally and then written on day 2, orally then written on Day 4 (Guide p.82 week 1) Manipulatives if needed

Wyatt and Everett-Rays Primary p.56 LII Guide(p.48 week 8)

Reading-Kayla: Flicka. Wyatt and Everett: Beginners Bible.

Read A-Loud to little ones- Their choice

Lesson Languages with Tanner- 2-3 lessons a week.



Special Things:

Day 2- embroidery from craft book

Day 3- Draw our house with our address on it. Try to memorize address.

Day 4-Little House Cookbook-Ch.5, make a menu and grocery list for all recipes we want to try. Kids cook during week

-Nature Notebook….take a walk anywhere, even in yard
View as you walk in the front door, VERY open floor plan, which I love
kitchen facing the front door
dining room
living room
view from living room windows, 3rd story up, we are literally in the treetops:) Beautiful birds up here
upstairs bathroom
our only flat portion of property!
The horses(looks flat, but they are actually on a pretty steep hill lol)
play area again
loft
Wyatts room(he got his own because the autism makes it difficult for him to share a room with others)
loft(messy sorry)
loft again
girls room
Everett and Tanners room(also a bit messy)

So this is the house for the most part. We are settling in nicely. If you looked and thought my kid's rooms were plain, you were right. We use rooms for sleeping and clothing only and maybe a few very special toys/books that each child wants to keep to themselves. I like it this way so rooms stay clean and tidy for the most part. We are starting to really enjoying living here now and the neighbors have all become much nicer since seeing Nate pull up daily for lunch in his cruiser. He has worked on several headline cases out here already as well so people really are begining to respect our family up here. Lastly, I am so proud and wanted to mention that at Nate's going away BBQ last week at his old station, he received "Deputy of the year nominee" for his station. We won't know if he actually makes deputy of the year for the entire county until years end, but either way it is a HUGE honor that his station nominated him. He really is a great cop, he works hard and I couldn't be more proud of him.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010