1-
This week MIL had her monthly doctor's appointment with her neurologist, and so the girls and I drove her to the appointment. The morning of the appointment, FIL got frustrated with all the change on his dresser (which, to the best of my knowledge is put there by him...) and told MIL to give the change to the girls. Well MIL found her giant box of change and added FIL's change to it...we went into the bank and had the coins counted...in the end, there was $34, so each girl had $17 to spend on our trip.
2-
Eva, being my little frugal shopper, and I found a 3 1/2 ft tall prelit pink Christmas tree on sale for $5 (originally $20) and thought it would be fun for their room, she also found a $10 barbie movie, and bought some candy with the rest of her money. Charlotte found a really great deal on a barbie doll at first ($10, originally $49) but I vetoed it based upon the 15 barbies currently in her collection (at our house...that's not counting any at grandma's house or her aunt's house). In the end, we found princess dresses, shoes and purses for barbie dolls at a reasonable price, so she got two dresses, 6 pairs of shoes and 6 purses, as well as a sticker book and some candy.
3-
My big exciting purchase was a hanging bar for the girls' closet. Charlotte can't reach the high bar (Eva just barely can) so their dresses always ended up all over the floor. I found a bar that hangs from the higher bar, and it works great! Most of Eva's dresses fit above the bar (with the exception of her two traditional Austrian dresses) and Charlotte's all fit on the bottom bar. They have a much nicer closet now.
4-
Yesterday was Charlotte's feast day - the Feast of St. Angela Merici. Yesterday was also a pretty crazy day. So, for lunch, we had frozen pizza and salad from a bag, and we lit her baptismal candle (we light them every year, but Charlotte's never gets lit on her baptism day, because she was baptised on Christmas). In the evening I had bible study, and everyone else went to hubby's aunt's house for a birthday party for his cousin. I guess there is video of hubby playing Wii Dance Party with Eva and dancing to "Girl's Just Wanna Have Fun" I must see if I can get this video from SIL.
5-
Today is "Charlotte and Mommy Day". A few months ago, Eva asked for a mommy daughter day, so Charlotte stayed with grandma, and Eva and I had a day together. Well, Charlotte requested one now, so after I am done with my tea, I will be taking Eva over to grandma's house for the day (and then she will ride in the feed truck some this afternoon with daddy) and then I will have a day full of princess games and barbie dolls (where she gets all this girliness, I don't know...it clearly didn't come from me!)
6-
I finally have collected 9 milk jugs...for a home school project for Eva...if I wanted to do two of this project, I would have needed to collect 18 milk jugs...that is a lot of milk jugs lying around. Since Eva is going over to (crafty and fun) grandma's house today, I think I will be packing up 9 milk jugs and an instruction book marked with several projects that she could do with Eva.
7-
Last week while I was in the public library, one of the librarians asked me how our Christmas was, and I told her it was fine, the girls got way too many presents. She asked if I got everything I wanted, and I told her that I got a Kindle. She was a little skeptical of the whole idea of e-readers, so I showed her what a book looked like on it, and she was very surprised. So, this week when I went in, the main librarian was also there, and so the librarian I had talked with the previous week asked me if I had my kindle with me (of course!) and asked me to show it to the head librarian. She was also impressed, and really loved the way you can change the font size. We had a discussion about electronic resources and libraries...it was a pretty interesting conversation.
More quick takes at Conversion Diary!
Friday, January 28, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Small Successes
Gotta celebrate the little things, right?
1-
We taught our second virtual NFP class this weekend, and all went well. We even managed to figure out the technology that allows both of us to talk at the same time in time for class two. Our second class series is already full, and I've gotten another inquiry about it...I'm starting to wonder how many couples is too many to teach virtually (since in the real world, we've never taught more than 2 couples at a time!)
2-
We are just over two weeks away from being done with the first half of the school year! YEAH! I even went over what I had hoped to accomplish in the first semester to figure out where we are behind. Mostly in phonics...I've been taking it more slowly than necessary, so we are doubling up for the next two weeks, and we should be close to halfway done. We were also behind in history, so I've been doing some crafty-type projects with the girls. Also slightly behind in Eva's Catechism book, but we should be able to catch up next quarter.
3-
We've been super busy the last two weeks (and it looks like we'll be pretty busy next week too) but the laundry is mostly caught up on and the dishes are mostly done, and meals have mostly been cooked at home. I even got down most of the Christmas decorations. Of course, I haven't vacuumed in longer than I'd like to admit, and it looks like a library threw up all over the house with the number of library books scattered on the floor...not to mention that I can't find some of my counters under the piles of stuff...and I won't even go into the explosion that appears to have happened in the school cupboard.
More small successes at Faith and Family LIVE!
1-
We taught our second virtual NFP class this weekend, and all went well. We even managed to figure out the technology that allows both of us to talk at the same time in time for class two. Our second class series is already full, and I've gotten another inquiry about it...I'm starting to wonder how many couples is too many to teach virtually (since in the real world, we've never taught more than 2 couples at a time!)
2-
We are just over two weeks away from being done with the first half of the school year! YEAH! I even went over what I had hoped to accomplish in the first semester to figure out where we are behind. Mostly in phonics...I've been taking it more slowly than necessary, so we are doubling up for the next two weeks, and we should be close to halfway done. We were also behind in history, so I've been doing some crafty-type projects with the girls. Also slightly behind in Eva's Catechism book, but we should be able to catch up next quarter.
3-
We've been super busy the last two weeks (and it looks like we'll be pretty busy next week too) but the laundry is mostly caught up on and the dishes are mostly done, and meals have mostly been cooked at home. I even got down most of the Christmas decorations. Of course, I haven't vacuumed in longer than I'd like to admit, and it looks like a library threw up all over the house with the number of library books scattered on the floor...not to mention that I can't find some of my counters under the piles of stuff...and I won't even go into the explosion that appears to have happened in the school cupboard.
More small successes at Faith and Family LIVE!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
It's my favorite time of the week
Well, at least for the dorky home school mom in me...it's Tuesday afternoon, the girls are having their rest time, and the Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Alasandra's Homeschool Blog!
Monday, January 17, 2011
A Blast from the Past...with Blue
Charlotte is now finally getting to the point where she wants to do more school. We've been doing Little Saints Preschool program this year with Charlotte, and we are now getting into the alphabet as well by doing a "letter of the week".
With Eva, I basically just did a letter of the week for preschool. I didn't really have much idea of what I should be doing with her since I was new to the whole homeschooling thing, and we enrolled her in Kindergarten through Seton right after her 4th birthday.
Charlotte, being the younger one, gets a little better put together preschool, though clearly not as much one on one time with me. She's done tot school, a preschool coop and this year we are finishing up preschool, I think. I am looking forward to starting Kindergarten work with her next year.
We aren't too far into our letter of the week portion of school yet, as last week we did the letter B. It took me back to when I was doing preschool with Eva, because both girls made Blue from Blue's Clues for the letter B.
Here is Eva's "Birthday Blue" and letter B - looking back I wondered why I didn't take a picture of her holding her crafts. Well, I vaguely remember that I had a plan to make an alphabet scrapbook with Eva...I never got to it, partially because we ended up starting Kindergarten earlier than anticipated, and partially because scrap booking is relaxing for me, and crafts with kids are stressful...why ruin my relaxing hobby by trying to do it with a preschooler??
Here is Charlotte with her "Winter Blue" - we were doing the theme of "Winter Fun" in Little Saints, so I decided to go with the winter themed Blue. I love the different types of hats available for this craft! If we were on the letter B this week, we could use the police hat (Safety Friends) or we could use the Chef's hat for "Let's Eat Out" or the USA Hat for "My America". Lots of great options there! With Eva, the obvious choice was Birthday Blue for the double B. These weren't around when Eva was a preschooler, but Charlotte is getting some of her alphabet crafts from Catholic Icing - Catholic ABC's.
I did get a picture of Eva with one letter - Q is for Queen and Quilt (she was so little then!) Since it made more sense for the Queen's crown to be worn I guess she got to be in the shot! Of course, she looks younger than Charlotte in the picture because she was! I was so ambitious in the early days of homeschooling (and I'm probably still more ambitious than I will be in a few more years...) Pretty much all of Eva's ABC crafts came from DLTK-teach Alphabuddies section.
Of course, just to show you how time flies, here is Charlotte, while Eva was doing preschool...my little baby is getting all grown up!
Okay, last picture, because they are so cute...Eva, Charlotte and Daddy this morning with Charlotte's fire truck picture. (Yes, we do a lot of school in our PJs these days...we live 16 miles out in the country, it's not like we have a lot of people stopping by!)
With Eva, I basically just did a letter of the week for preschool. I didn't really have much idea of what I should be doing with her since I was new to the whole homeschooling thing, and we enrolled her in Kindergarten through Seton right after her 4th birthday.
Charlotte, being the younger one, gets a little better put together preschool, though clearly not as much one on one time with me. She's done tot school, a preschool coop and this year we are finishing up preschool, I think. I am looking forward to starting Kindergarten work with her next year.
We aren't too far into our letter of the week portion of school yet, as last week we did the letter B. It took me back to when I was doing preschool with Eva, because both girls made Blue from Blue's Clues for the letter B.
Here is Eva's "Birthday Blue" and letter B - looking back I wondered why I didn't take a picture of her holding her crafts. Well, I vaguely remember that I had a plan to make an alphabet scrapbook with Eva...I never got to it, partially because we ended up starting Kindergarten earlier than anticipated, and partially because scrap booking is relaxing for me, and crafts with kids are stressful...why ruin my relaxing hobby by trying to do it with a preschooler??
Here is Charlotte with her "Winter Blue" - we were doing the theme of "Winter Fun" in Little Saints, so I decided to go with the winter themed Blue. I love the different types of hats available for this craft! If we were on the letter B this week, we could use the police hat (Safety Friends) or we could use the Chef's hat for "Let's Eat Out" or the USA Hat for "My America". Lots of great options there! With Eva, the obvious choice was Birthday Blue for the double B. These weren't around when Eva was a preschooler, but Charlotte is getting some of her alphabet crafts from Catholic Icing - Catholic ABC's.
I did get a picture of Eva with one letter - Q is for Queen and Quilt (she was so little then!) Since it made more sense for the Queen's crown to be worn I guess she got to be in the shot! Of course, she looks younger than Charlotte in the picture because she was! I was so ambitious in the early days of homeschooling (and I'm probably still more ambitious than I will be in a few more years...) Pretty much all of Eva's ABC crafts came from DLTK-teach Alphabuddies section.
Of course, just to show you how time flies, here is Charlotte, while Eva was doing preschool...my little baby is getting all grown up!
Okay, last picture, because they are so cute...Eva, Charlotte and Daddy this morning with Charlotte's fire truck picture. (Yes, we do a lot of school in our PJs these days...we live 16 miles out in the country, it's not like we have a lot of people stopping by!)
Friday, January 14, 2011
Quick Takes Friday
Why is it that I think of things all week long that would be great quick takes, but when it comes to Friday, I can hardly think of anything at all? One of the great mysteries of the universe, I am sure.
1-
We watched "Ramona and Beezus" last night, it was a very good movie. This girls are going to watch it again tonight with our exchange student before we send it back. I really loved Beverly Cleary's books when I was little, but I have to admit that until watching this movie, I wasn't so sure that the Ramona books were something I would introduce to my girls.
2-
I really need to take down the Christmas decorations before too long, but the task just feels overwhelming...I think overwhelming describes January pretty well. I'm behind on dishes, behind on picking up, behind on school, and really don't have a lot of ambition at the moment.
3-
Hubby and I will be teaching the second class of our virtual Natural Family Planning series on Sunday night. I still need to figure out what to do with the girls...I haven't asked SIL to come over and watch movies in the basement with them. I guess we could probably get by asking our exchange student to watch the girls, but I'd feel a little bit bad about that...I don't really know why.
4-
I would consider having the girls spend the night on Sunday at grandma's house, but they stayed there for five days last week while hubby and I took a mini-vacation/went to a Knights of Columbus meeting. On one of our fun days, we went to a little gambling town. We agreed that a max to lose would be $40 each (which is pretty much double what we had ever agreed on before!) so we played penny slots most of the day, and I kept winning a little, and hubby kept losing a little. Towards the end of the afternoon, we both ended up winning on some penny slots, I got five dollars up, and hubby got twenty dollars up, so we decided to go crazy and each blow $15 on quarter slots before we left. Well, I lost mine pretty quickly, but on hubby's 3rd or 4th pull he won $400! So, he got paid, and we played a few more minutes on penny slots, and left with $400 more than we had come with.
5-
In the "my girls have spent to much time at grandma's house" category...I let them watch a movie one afternoon this week, and when I turned up the volume on the TV and asked if it was okay, Eva sighed and said "I wish we had Surround Sound!"
6-
Our exchange student is going to be in the musical this spring, and practices have started. Coming from a suburban area, I am used to the idea that kids have to choose between sports and theatre, but since that would mean no plays in a rural school, she has to wait in town until play practice begins at 6:30 in the evening. The good news is SIL has a house in town now, so she can go there and do homework during the sports time. She has to be picked up in town at about 9pm on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday for the foreseeable future. The bad news is, that is pretty late when you have little kids (so nights when hubby and I have meetings will get a little dicey) the good news is, hubby is home from work, so he doesn't seem to mind driving in to pick her up!
7-
Charlotte just brought me a Christmas ornament hanger that she fixed...maybe I should take that as a sign that I should wrap this up and get the girls started on another day of school...
More quick takes at Conversion Diary!
1-
We watched "Ramona and Beezus" last night, it was a very good movie. This girls are going to watch it again tonight with our exchange student before we send it back. I really loved Beverly Cleary's books when I was little, but I have to admit that until watching this movie, I wasn't so sure that the Ramona books were something I would introduce to my girls.
2-
I really need to take down the Christmas decorations before too long, but the task just feels overwhelming...I think overwhelming describes January pretty well. I'm behind on dishes, behind on picking up, behind on school, and really don't have a lot of ambition at the moment.
3-
Hubby and I will be teaching the second class of our virtual Natural Family Planning series on Sunday night. I still need to figure out what to do with the girls...I haven't asked SIL to come over and watch movies in the basement with them. I guess we could probably get by asking our exchange student to watch the girls, but I'd feel a little bit bad about that...I don't really know why.
4-
I would consider having the girls spend the night on Sunday at grandma's house, but they stayed there for five days last week while hubby and I took a mini-vacation/went to a Knights of Columbus meeting. On one of our fun days, we went to a little gambling town. We agreed that a max to lose would be $40 each (which is pretty much double what we had ever agreed on before!) so we played penny slots most of the day, and I kept winning a little, and hubby kept losing a little. Towards the end of the afternoon, we both ended up winning on some penny slots, I got five dollars up, and hubby got twenty dollars up, so we decided to go crazy and each blow $15 on quarter slots before we left. Well, I lost mine pretty quickly, but on hubby's 3rd or 4th pull he won $400! So, he got paid, and we played a few more minutes on penny slots, and left with $400 more than we had come with.
5-
In the "my girls have spent to much time at grandma's house" category...I let them watch a movie one afternoon this week, and when I turned up the volume on the TV and asked if it was okay, Eva sighed and said "I wish we had Surround Sound!"
6-
Our exchange student is going to be in the musical this spring, and practices have started. Coming from a suburban area, I am used to the idea that kids have to choose between sports and theatre, but since that would mean no plays in a rural school, she has to wait in town until play practice begins at 6:30 in the evening. The good news is SIL has a house in town now, so she can go there and do homework during the sports time. She has to be picked up in town at about 9pm on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday for the foreseeable future. The bad news is, that is pretty late when you have little kids (so nights when hubby and I have meetings will get a little dicey) the good news is, hubby is home from work, so he doesn't seem to mind driving in to pick her up!
7-
Charlotte just brought me a Christmas ornament hanger that she fixed...maybe I should take that as a sign that I should wrap this up and get the girls started on another day of school...
More quick takes at Conversion Diary!
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Small Successes
Well, it really is January now, isn't it? I'm starting to feel the blahs of the season, so everything has felt like a struggle recently (though, on the plus side, I could come up with a ton of small successes!) So, here go a few of my small successes recently:
1-
I got my annual hair cut. Seriously, I think the last time I had my hair cut was last February, so it was a little early ;) AND, my new, much shorter haircut is forcing me to do my hair every day. I was getting into a really bad habit of wearing my hair in a ponytail all the time. But, since I can't do that, I am being a lot less sloppy in my personal appearance. Yes, I still have many days where I do school in my jammies, but I have been trying much harder to be showered, dressed, and hair done by the time hubby gets home for lunch.
2-
We are doing school...I'm not so sure I want to be doing it, Eva doesn't seem so sure she wants to do the not so fun parts of it, and Charlotte is finally getting to the point where she wants to do school (of course, most of her school is fun and crafty at the moment, but maybe she will be ready to start Kindergarten next year after all!) I honestly would rather be planning for next year right now, but since we probably need to finish this year first, I guess I'll just have to suck it up. The thing that is making me slightly crazy right now is that I didn't plan any breaks in school between now and Easter...and Easter is far later this year than it was last year. I may have to take a long weekend or something in there...maybe a field trip. Something to break up the really long months of solid homeschooling.
3-
I have been making the girls keep the playroom in order. After all the work I put into it, I just am not willing to let them mess it up again. I haven't even had to take away any toys from the playroom yet (I did have to take away Eva's Leapster because she was being mean to her sister, but not playroom related) and I have been making them play with their toys IN the playroom as well. I do have a basket, and if I tell them to pick up the playroom, and I go in and find something out of place or on the floor, it will be going into the basket, and onto a high shelf in my closet until they pay me back in chores.
More small successes at Faith and Family LIVE!
1-
I got my annual hair cut. Seriously, I think the last time I had my hair cut was last February, so it was a little early ;) AND, my new, much shorter haircut is forcing me to do my hair every day. I was getting into a really bad habit of wearing my hair in a ponytail all the time. But, since I can't do that, I am being a lot less sloppy in my personal appearance. Yes, I still have many days where I do school in my jammies, but I have been trying much harder to be showered, dressed, and hair done by the time hubby gets home for lunch.
2-
We are doing school...I'm not so sure I want to be doing it, Eva doesn't seem so sure she wants to do the not so fun parts of it, and Charlotte is finally getting to the point where she wants to do school (of course, most of her school is fun and crafty at the moment, but maybe she will be ready to start Kindergarten next year after all!) I honestly would rather be planning for next year right now, but since we probably need to finish this year first, I guess I'll just have to suck it up. The thing that is making me slightly crazy right now is that I didn't plan any breaks in school between now and Easter...and Easter is far later this year than it was last year. I may have to take a long weekend or something in there...maybe a field trip. Something to break up the really long months of solid homeschooling.
3-
I have been making the girls keep the playroom in order. After all the work I put into it, I just am not willing to let them mess it up again. I haven't even had to take away any toys from the playroom yet (I did have to take away Eva's Leapster because she was being mean to her sister, but not playroom related) and I have been making them play with their toys IN the playroom as well. I do have a basket, and if I tell them to pick up the playroom, and I go in and find something out of place or on the floor, it will be going into the basket, and onto a high shelf in my closet until they pay me back in chores.
More small successes at Faith and Family LIVE!
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