The Pool

Posted on September 29, 2009 by Abbie

Now we come to the scene of the crime…I was a little late getting to the pool. Basically, all our friends and family went to the pool while Ceili Rain got in a good nap. So, I walked up a hill, down a hill, up a hill to get to the pool. By the time we got there, everyone was getting out of the pool. I was determined, after my workout, to get Ceili Rain in. So, in we went.

Not sure what Uncle R was cheesing it for but he was.

All the kids went on the deck with the BDs and the next thing I knew Zoe was screaming. I turn around and see Liam’s little rear running back and forth on the deck. I about lost it. Mark thought it was quite funny too…but he had more composure and told him to clothe himself.
They sure are cute in their towels!

The next day, we were getting ready to go to an indoor water park and Liam informed me, “Mommy, I’m not going to take my swimsuit off again.”

“Great! Liam that’s a great idea. Why did you do it yesterday at the pool?”

“I just wanted to be naked.”

Lovely!!

The Great Smokies

Posted on September 27, 2009 by Abbie

Here come our pictures from our vacation. After finishing up a homeschool conference from Titus2.com, I’m refreshed and recharged and focused and ready for the next week. I think.

So, we traveled up to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge for our vacation. This vacation is a sequel to a vacation we took two years ago. A sequel in that we met up with Mark’s college roommates and their families for “Bamapalooza 09.” The weather was a little wet, but we all enjoyed our time together and exploring the outdoors and the towns. Not to mention a girls’ shopping trip!

On the way up the mountains, this was a view Mark, the kids and our borrowed daughters (two teens who agreed to come with us and ~~be attacked~~ help out. I, however, was waffling through cigarette smoke and listening to motorcycles roar by while trying to get Ceili Rain to pay attention enough to nurse. We got to spend about 45 minutes in Cherokee in a car, in traffic while looking at every kind of motorcycle known to man (apparently there was some kind of convention going on there).

On Monday, we hiked. You just got to click on the picture to read the sign. It’s enough to make a mama paranoid. Very grateful for our borrowed daughters (oh, we’ll just call them BD for short) then!

I love seeing the sun through the trees and since this was one of the few days we saw the sun, I’m glad I got this picture.

A nice big rock for my boys to climb on!

One of our friends.

Zoe enjoyed the climbing too but was never too involved to not stop and pose for the camera.

The BDs themselves!! Such beautiful and responsible young ladies! Except they hiked in their Converse. Which looked cool but I don’t think was that comfortable.

Sorry, I forgot to turn J rightside up. Not one of mine but he was adorable in his hiking gear.

Made it! To the top of the rock. Not the end of the hike.

A view of on eof the mountains. Some of the leaves are starting to change too…as can be seen by the picture.

The Great Smokies Part 2

Posted on September 26, 2009 by Abbie

Still hiking, but Liam, being ever so cute, bummed a ride from this beautiful lady (one of the wife friends).

At the falls! This was a fairly moderate hike. And, even though Ace didn’t want to hike, it was a great one to do. I don’t think he complained much on it…which is a surprise. And the reward of a cool breeze and pretty waterfall was great. Josiah kept pointing at it saying, “Wa wa fall”

A man pointed out this salamander before we left. Slimy, no? Thankfully, there was a barrier to keep my little gooey ooey boys (and girl) from touching it.

On the way back down, taking a rest.

Yes, it took two to walk with Liam. I’ll admit that.
Liam kept waffling back and forth trying to decide if was going to marry one or the other.

And the big reward was we got to see a bear when we got back to our car!! One of our friends said she saw two small bears. We were trying to figure out where the mama was as this bear was quite small in black bear standards (I think). At any rate, we had talked about paying about $10 per person to take the kids to see a bear and other animals but free was waaaay better. He was very high up in the tree just chomping at the branches. Very cool!

Antioxidants…Yumm!

Posted on September 11, 2009 by Abbie

Grow your own pomegranates!!

Our tree was getting a bit droopy and while most of the pomegranates still are not ripe, we needed to get some off the tree in hopes they’ll ripen off the vine and to get the others a chance to grow. This looks to be one of our best “crops” this year. As we’ve never really done much to cultivate or help them grow, I use the term “crop” loosely. We do cut back from around the tree and Mark prunes the branches back.

One is the loneliest number…

I’m thinking Josiah thought we were doing some sort of weird Easter egg hunt.
Pick pomegranates. Check.
Bury pomegranates to make more trees. Check.
Unfortunately, plastic buckets do not make fertile ground for pomegranate trees!

Eat Your Vegetables and other Sayings

Posted on September 4, 2009 by Abbie

Zoe, Ace, Liam, L & J talking a couple of weeks ago.

L (or J or Zoe…can’t remember which): Is your mom older than your dad?

Zoe: Yes.

Ace: Cuz she ate her vegetables.

***

Liam’s decided he wants to be bigger than Ace and he told Ge while visiting Granddaddy in the hospital. She told him that he would be. Ever since then, two weeks later, that Ge said he was going to get bigger. He’s holding on to that hope and eating more vegetables and fruits! Whatever it takes.

Zoe’s Famous…well sort of

Posted on September 2, 2009 by Abbie

Zoe was mentioned on Jelly Telly this week. She drew a picture of Buck Denver (the news puppet) jumping rope, behind his desk. Mark and I got a kick out of it.

You should be able to get to it by going here. It should also run on Friday.

Pretty neat…not only did he mention it but he also cracked jokes about the picture too!

So much fun.

So, How Do You Do It? Homeschooling

Posted on August 28, 2009 by Abbie

This is a good question. We’re still working on figuring it out but we’ve got the basics of it right now. Here’s a run down of our curriculum since that’s the first question I’m asked by other homeschooling moms:

Phonics/Language Arts: Zoe is in Abeka 2nd Grad phonics/language, Ace is K5 Abeka Phonics
Math: Both are using Saxon Math 1
History: Truthquest History Early American History for Young Students 1
Science: God’s Design for Life (Answers in Genesis)
Comprehension for Zoe: She started out with a workbook but now she’s using a software program called Reading Detective
Handwriting: A Reason for Handwriting (K for Ace; A for Zoe)

Now for all the non-homeschoolers: I’m writing this because I can not count the number of times that people have asked me if I have to report our curriculum/have it approved or use only what is issued. Each state governs public schools/education. As such each state has different laws as to what is required of homeschoolers. Some are more strict than others. I would consider our state’s laws medium to less strict. We have report attendance, sign a declaration of intent and keep annual progress reports. They will not supervise my teaching nor the curriculum Iwe choose to use…that’s part of the positives of being able to homeschool.

We could have chosen to use one set of curriculum which would have been easy but I know that not one set of curriculum will/can serve our needs academically and spiritually. Our goal is to raise up our children to bring glory and honor to God first and then the academics can follow.

As far as when I teach, we break it up. I’ve done a lot of tweaking but finally have a working schedule that I used based on Managers of Their Chores. Now, I have the times written down, but we have yet to hit each mark. Ceili Rain still is not on a workable schedule as she wakes up at different times during the night causing our daytime routine to not be set…so, we just follow the order which is what really works best for my kids.

The kids each have a pocket folder that I keep their worksheets in for the day. They each keep notebooks that we keep the completed worksheets in. We also journal and keep up with projects that we’re working on/studying. I love watching them flip through their notebooks and see what they’ve worked on and remember things that we’ve done. Tons of fun to see!

All the kids follow a schedule and I work with Liam for about 10 to 15 minutes on critical thinking skills. So, we have some blanket time for the youngers and playing with older siblings and sit time. It keeps the house to a minimal catastrophe at the end of the morning…on some days.

Super DAD!!

Posted on August 27, 2009 by Abbie

For the past six weeks (I think), we have had a friend come over with her four children to eat supper with us, once a week. Her husband is military and doing short time in Iraq. So, this was an adventure for all the kids to get together and for us to have “adult conversation” including all the interruptions and boo-boo kisses.

So, last night, Mark volunteered his Super Dad services and sent us packing. We left, with our wallets in hand (because our purses are our diaper bags…okay, I take that back, I actually have a small purse to transfer to if needed) and attacked the fabric store. We laughed and shopped until we spent all our money! And we found some absolutely adorable fabric for our sweet girls (and her boys…I’m not that brave yet).

Before I get to what my sweet husband had our kids do, I’ll just have this one little story:

I had to drop some food off to a homeschool association meeting before going to the fabric store. While driving all over town trying to find the place the meeting was, we did a u-turn and wound up behind this scooter. Not just any scooter a very tiny scooter. I mean Zoe’s dolls could have ridden it and stayed on (okay, maybe not that small but it was pretty close). And riding this scooter was a not so tiny man. He was pretty overweight. The road we were on was quite hilly and if my physics is correct: tiny scooter + large man+ large hills=put puttin’ along. And yep, that’s what we did. No joke, he had to bounce up and down to get it to go all of 10 mph going up the hill. I tried to coax my friend into going out and giving him a little push to keep him going. She tried to get me to slow down in case he started going backwards and we hit him (giving CPR while out is just not fun). Once up the hill, he had a red light. We were beside him and then we passed him…and then discussed how he was a glutton for punishment going down a major road.

So, while we were gone, what did one man do with nine kids six and under???

Here’s the answer:

Why I Love Mommy from justabunchofcharacters on Vimeo.

On another note: Granddaddy is home from the hospital and heading for a check up with his cardiologist today. He had only a minor, very minor, heart attack. PET scan on Monday showed adequate blood flow to and from the heart. Praise God!

A Plethora of Little People Parading

Posted on August 22, 2009 by Abbie

oh, and one gun. Zoe and Ace had friends over yesterday afternoon. For entertainment, we set up my camera on the coffee table and did a quick lesson on stop animation…here are the results:

Little People Making a Little People Movie 1 from justabunchofcharacters on Vimeo.Zoe and L’s first attempt…

Little People Making a Little People Movie 2 from justabunchofcharacters on Vimeo.And second, with me directing. Don’t you just love the little hand that appears and disappears…eerie huh??

Little People Making a Little People Movie 3 from justabunchofcharacters on Vimeo.Ace and J…after about five shots, they were done…oh, the attention span of five year old boys!!

Little People Making a Little People Movie 3 from justabunchofcharacters on Vimeo.Liam had to get in on it…he chose the gun as his subject. Fitting for him.

Super Wy!

Posted on August 20, 2009 by Abbie

We took supper over to Kevin and Tracy who you may remember from here. I had to bring my camera as I only had a few beautiful pictures of this sweet boy. He has this cute little head crinkle he does and he looks like a little old man…simply adorable.

Ceili Rain’s feet are on the right and big W’s are on the left. Yep, his feet are almost exactly the same size as my five month old. She has these petite little feet and he has these massively big ones!