I am just about done with shopping for next school year, and I have officially sent in my notice of intent to homeschool for the very first time. So, since hubby is very sick of hearing about the deals I got on school books, I thought I'd list them here again.
Math:
Math U See Primer complete set, I got a great deal on an old comb-bound edition $17 CathSwap
Last 5 lessons of Alpha, carried over from last year.
Math U See Beta, teacher pack $30 MUS Swap
We had been looking for a price break on the MUS student materials for Beta, but haven't found any, and the shipping cost from MUS directly is insane (they need to learn about media mail for sure!) I ended up looking at Teaching Textbooks some, to see if maybe it was something we would like better for 3rd grade (since they now have 3rd grade materials) and when I looked at the placement test, it looked like something Eva could do, so when she barged in on the demo (she loves computer stuff) she was very excited that she might be able to do the math program. I gave her the placement test, and she got 14 out of 15 on part one, and 9 out of 15 on part 2. Teaching Textbooks says that a score of 10 and 8 respectively is sufficient to do the program. So, after we finally finish up the last 5 lessons of Alpha, we may end up switching to Teaching Textbooks (which will put me slightly over budget...bummer!)
Cost (so far): $47
Savings (so far): $43
Handwriting:
Handwriting Without Tears
preschool workbook and wooden pieces(carryover from last year)
Letters and Numbers for Me (Kindergarten) $5 CathSwap
Printing Power workbook and instructor's guide $12 CathSwap
Cost: $17
Savings: $5.50
Speech Therapy (for Charlotte):
Super Star Speech $18.95 Amazon
Cost: $18.95
Language Arts:
Primary Arts of Language - Reading $69
Extra Phonetic Farm $19
Primary Arts of Language - Writing Package $98.75 (I bought this partway through last school year, and it included the shipping costs and the DVD "Teaching Boys and Other Children Who Would Rather Build Forts All Day" although in my house it would be "Children Who Would Rather Play Princess All Day")
All About Spelling Level 2 $39.95 Sacred Heart Books and Gifts
Fantastic! Wow! Unreal! $6.99 Amazon
Behind the Mask PBS (Paperbackswap)
Mine, All Mine! PBS
Many Luscious Lollipops PBS
Up, Up and Away PBS
A Cache of Jewels PBS
Kites Sail High PBS
Merry-go-Round PBS (it took a couple of years to collect most of these via paperbackswap, but I think it was worth the effort since I only had to buy one)
Eats, Shoots and Leaves (children's illustrated edition) $6.18 Amazon
The Girl's Like Spaghetti $6.80 Amazon
Twenty-Odd Ducks $6.80 Amazon
Cost: $253.47
Savings: $85.42
First Communion Prep (Eva):
King of the Golden City (used for school last year)
The Weight of the Mass $7 CathSwap
Patron Saint of First Communicants: The Story of Blessed Imelda Lambertini $5 CathSwap
Study Guide for Patron Saint of First Communicants $3 CathSwap
Saint Joseph's First Communion Catechism (borrowed from Church library as they have several copies not in use)
What I See in Church Faith Folder (bought several years ago and lost in our move)
10 Commandments Faith Folder
Holy Eucharist Faith Folder
Confession Faith Folder 3 for $25 summer conference special
Cost: $40
Savings: $20.35
Music:
Music for Little Mozarts (lesson, discovery, workbook, flashcards, CDs and teacher's guide) $30 CathSwap
Additional workbook $7.95 Amazon
Alfred Piano All-in-One Book Level 1 (free from Amazon with the 4 for 3 promotion)
Cost: $37.95
Savings: $31.65
Art:
How To Use Child-Size Masterpieces PBS
Steps 1,2 and 3 Easy $10 CathSwap
Intermediate $10 CathSwap
Advanced $10 CathSwap
(We also have 4 Draw Write Now books from last year)
Cost: $30
Savings: $32 (bonus, all the cards were already put into the folders, so I don't have to do any prep work!)
Spanish:
Learn Spanish with Grace complete set $35 CathSwap, which included more workbooks than I needed that I was able to resell to other people, bringing the actual cost down a little bit.
Cost: $35 (plus some white out, paper and tape)
Savings: $60
Science:
Noeo Chemistry 1 instructor's manual $20 CathSwap
Young Scientist Club Set 1 $17.52 Amazon
Young Scientist Club Set 2 $18.73 Amazon
Young Scientist Club Set 3 $18.51 Amazon
Young Scientist Club Set 4 $17.55 Amazon (these include 7 extra experiment kits for future years or just for fun)
Ein-O's box kit Molecular Models $9.99 Amazon Used
What's Smaller Than A Pygmy Shrew? $6.99 Amazon
Marie Curie's Search for Radium $5 CathSwap
Super Science Concoctions PBS
How to Think Like A Scientist $6.61 AbeBooks
Simply Science Atoms $8.94 Amazon Used
Simply Science Solids, Liquids and Gases $6.66 Borders
True Books The Periodic Table $5.25 Rainbow Resource
True Books Hydrogen and the Noble Gases $3.46 Borders
True Books Calcium $3.46 Borders
True Books Carbon $5.86 Borders
True Books Oxygen $3.46 Borders
A Drop of Water $5 CathSwap
How We Use Plastic $5 CathSwap
DK Eye Wonder Rocks and Minerals PBS
Cost: $167.99
Savings: $25.18
History:
Connecting With History Volume 2 Syllabus $20 CathSwap
St. Valentine PBS
The Man Who Never Died - St. Peter PBS
Usborne Time Traveler (carrying over from last year)
A Life of Our Lord for Children $9 CathSwap
Land of Our Lady Founders of Freedom $20 CathSwap
Once Upon a Time Saints $8.50 CathSwap
More Once Upon a Time Saints $8.50 CathSwap
The First Christians The Acts of the Apostles for Children $10.17 Amazon
Mary My Mother $1.39 Sacred Heart
St. Patrick (Tompert) went out of print right before I ordered, so ended up getting it used $3.97 Abebooks
St. Peter the Apostles $1.39 Sacred Heart
Spend the Day in Ancient Rome $11.00 Sacred Heart (due to a small bend in the corner, I got a further discount)
The Apostles of Jesus $1.39 Sacred Heart
The Story of King Arthur (dover thrift) $1.70 Sacred Heart (on backorder...urgh!)
Vikings Dress, Eat, Write and Play Like the Vikings $6.95 Rainbow Resource
Ben Hur - A Race to Glory DVD $13.62 Sacred Heart
The Blackbird's Nest St. Kevin of Ireland $12 CathSwap
Caedmon's Song $11.50 Borders
Celtic Treasures CD $11.50 Rainbow Resource
Good King Wenceslas $12.20 Borders
King Arthur and His Knights CD $10.91 Amazon
Leif the Lucky $8.50 CathSwap
Mary Mother of Jesus (Joslin) $11.47 Borders
Miracles of Jesus (de Paola) $5.89 Borders
Pompeii Buried Alive PBS
St. George and the Dragon $5 CathSwap
St. Meinrad Coloring Book $3 CathSwap (was supposed to get St. Philomena coloring book, but got this one instead)
The Adventures of Saint Paul $8.45 Sacred Heart
We're Riding on a Caravan $6.69 Borders
Who Were the Vikings? PBS
Brendan the Navigator $6 CathSwap
Parables of Jesus (de Paola) PBS
Christopher the Holy Giant (de Paola) $4.99 Amazon Used
Cost: $237.07
Savings: $110.62 (not including 4 out of print books that I got used)
Misc. Books and Supplies:
Lessons in Responsibility for Girls Level 1 (carrying over from previous years)
Lessons in Responsibility for Girls Level 2 $13.75 Rainbow Resource
Choreganizers $17.75 Rainbow Resource
Battery Operated Crayon Sharpener $5.25 Rainbow Resource
Shipping on Rainbow Order $7.28 (everywhere else except IEW had free shipping, and I only bought 1 thing from IEW, so the shipping cost per item was way easier to calculate)
Reading/Thinking Skills B (I bought this over a year ago for $1 in clean condition)
Maps, Charts and Graphs B $6.50 CathSwap
Reading for Comprehension B $7 CathSwap
Cost: $58.53
Savings (on reading and maps workbooks): $11.95
Total Cost: $942.96 (currently under my $1000 budget!)
Total Savings: $425.67
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
7 Quick Takes Friday
Well, it has been forever since I did a quick takes-but since I should be doing any number of last minute things before leaving town, quick takes seems like something I should be able to accomplish.
1-
As soon as hubby is done with work this morning (hopefully in the next 30 minutes or so) we are off to the Rocky Mountain Catholic Home Educators Conference for our 36 hour retreat (gotta love farm life!) I'm looking forward to buying some more school books and hearing some talks - not to mention getting away from home and staying in a nice hotel.
2-
The girls are staying with their aunt for two nights (we will be getting back pretty late) and they are super excited about it...although they are a little worried about the whole "Aunt doesn't have TV service" thing.
3-
In the "I don't actually take care of my kids anymore" department, the beginning of this week the girls stayed with my parents in the mountains. I had MIL take them up to the front range and meet my parents, who had them for 3 days. They went to a day camp and had an awesome time (they are still singing all their camp songs!) and they pretty much exhausted my mom, I think, who seemed to think that they needed 20 different activities during their short visit.
4-
Eva had her first trail ride at day camp, and she was the only kid that had ever been on a horse before. When the counselors asked her if she had been on a horse before she said "Of course! I live on a farm!" They also had to go back and get her a medium sized helmet, since they assumed a group of going into 2nd graders would all need size small.
5-
Next week we have Totus Tuus, which the girls are very much looking forward to. MIL is DRE, so she is in charge of organizing everything (not her strong suit) and the local priest announced a few weeks ago that he was going on a long vacation, including the week of Totus Tuus, so MIL has called around to all the priests in the area, and we have some coming every day for Mass. The furthest are traveling 2 hours for daily Mass, which I think is really cool.
6-
My house is a pit - so bad right now. I really prefer to leave a clean house when we travel, but it is not happening right now. I have done a lot of cleaning (I did 7 loads of sheets yesterday, I just finally got around to washing the sheets in our basement from about a month ago.
7-
Hubby thought it would be fun to try to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 tonight at a city megaplex theatre. I looked it up the other day, and one theatre still had tickets available, but to buy them online, it would have been $11.50 EACH - I couldn't believe it! No wonder so many people don't go to the movies. I think our local theatre is $6 for adults, so for about the same price we can see it at home (I'm thinking maybe on our 12th anniversary on Tuesday!)
More Quick Takes at Conversion Diary!
1-
As soon as hubby is done with work this morning (hopefully in the next 30 minutes or so) we are off to the Rocky Mountain Catholic Home Educators Conference for our 36 hour retreat (gotta love farm life!) I'm looking forward to buying some more school books and hearing some talks - not to mention getting away from home and staying in a nice hotel.
2-
The girls are staying with their aunt for two nights (we will be getting back pretty late) and they are super excited about it...although they are a little worried about the whole "Aunt doesn't have TV service" thing.
3-
In the "I don't actually take care of my kids anymore" department, the beginning of this week the girls stayed with my parents in the mountains. I had MIL take them up to the front range and meet my parents, who had them for 3 days. They went to a day camp and had an awesome time (they are still singing all their camp songs!) and they pretty much exhausted my mom, I think, who seemed to think that they needed 20 different activities during their short visit.
4-
Eva had her first trail ride at day camp, and she was the only kid that had ever been on a horse before. When the counselors asked her if she had been on a horse before she said "Of course! I live on a farm!" They also had to go back and get her a medium sized helmet, since they assumed a group of going into 2nd graders would all need size small.
5-
Next week we have Totus Tuus, which the girls are very much looking forward to. MIL is DRE, so she is in charge of organizing everything (not her strong suit) and the local priest announced a few weeks ago that he was going on a long vacation, including the week of Totus Tuus, so MIL has called around to all the priests in the area, and we have some coming every day for Mass. The furthest are traveling 2 hours for daily Mass, which I think is really cool.
6-
My house is a pit - so bad right now. I really prefer to leave a clean house when we travel, but it is not happening right now. I have done a lot of cleaning (I did 7 loads of sheets yesterday, I just finally got around to washing the sheets in our basement from about a month ago.
7-
Hubby thought it would be fun to try to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 tonight at a city megaplex theatre. I looked it up the other day, and one theatre still had tickets available, but to buy them online, it would have been $11.50 EACH - I couldn't believe it! No wonder so many people don't go to the movies. I think our local theatre is $6 for adults, so for about the same price we can see it at home (I'm thinking maybe on our 12th anniversary on Tuesday!)
More Quick Takes at Conversion Diary!
Monday, July 04, 2011
Homeschool Speech Therapy
Charlotte, my 4 year old (isn't she cute?) has some speech articulation issues. Actually, I think it might qualify as a lot of speech articulation issues - I had her evaluated by the local school's speech therapist and she had 42 errors out of a possible 77. I guess it clearly could be worse, but I feel like I've got my work cut out for me over the next few years. For next year, she will be attending 2 -2 1/2 hour days per week at the local preschool, and we will be moving on to Kindergarten work at home (I did Eva's kindergarten over 2 years, and I am planning on the same for Charlotte.)
Obviously, the goal is to make as much progress as possible over the next year, as she will not continue to qualify for speech therapy services unless I enroll her in the school district (I am looking into alternatives like virtual charter schools, just in case I still need a lot of help!) So, I am looking for any advice or resources from anyone who has been there and done that with a child in speech therapy. Here are some things that I am aware of - I would love opinions or reviews of these, or any other programs/books/curricula/games you know of that might help with speech articulation issues.
Speech Tails - online speech learning program at a cost of $25 per month. Looks like it is mostly speech therapy videos, there is a week free, so it might be something I try, but at $25 a month, it could get pretty expensive to use!
Heads Up Now! - Has materials for all sorts of special needs. The speech articulation workshop was recommended to me at one point, but the shipping cost for just that is super high (workshop is $5, shipping is $12.58...seriously???) They also carry Speechercise level 1 and level 2, which are both significantly cheaper at Amazon. I'm never very sure about the whole CD with printables thing, so I wouldn't buy those without a firm recommendation.
Super Star Speech - These look the most promising to me, books to give me ideas of how to train speech that don't cost an arm and a leg, and don't have a monthly cost.
Speech Buddies - These look pretty cool, as most speech problems are related to incorrect tongue placement. I like the idea of something to help feel where the right placement is, but at about $300 for the professional set (includes all the speech buddies, and with Charlotte's speech issues, we would need all of them, plus would need to work on other sounds as well) it is quite a bit more money than I would like to spend. It is cheaper than a private speech therapist, though (and since we don't have any of those in our rural area, more convenient, too.)
Thoughts? Recommendations? Thanks!
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Native American Unit Study
The girls and I recently got home from a 7 day, six night trip that covered the Great Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde, and the Grand Canyon. Earlier this year we saw Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Memorial. Since many of our trips have been to places that have or had Native American tribes, and since I have a problem with books (and National Parks have such good bookstores!) I purchased several books to do a study on Native Americans - not sure how in depth we will get, but here is a list of the items I have so far. I think this will be a summer project, as I already have history planned for next year.
More Than Moccasins by Laurie Carlson
We have both Old Testament Days and Classical Kids Activity Guides from our study of Ancient History this year, and Eva LOVES doing all the fun activities in them!
Southwest Indians Coloring Book (Dover) - Peter Copeland
I couldn't really decide between this one or a book of Native American Patterns, so I let Eva decide which one looked better.
Anasazi Coloring Book by Sandra Stemmler
This book has fairly simple pictures, and tells a story, so it was my choice for Charlotte.
Corn is Maize The Gift of the Indians by Aliki
Oh Aliki, you never disappoint me! I hope I like this book as much as all the others we have read. It is nice to find books that are fun and educational and at an easy reading level.
I is for Indians of the Southwest by Judy Rosen and Biff Baird
This one is a really cool Alphabet book - it has the usual "A is for Anasazi, B is for Baskets" with a short paragraph about each letter, but it also has whole pages explaining some things in greater depth. For Charlotte, I'll probably read just the Alphabet part, but Eva will love all the extra information.
Life in a Pueblo by Amanda Bishop and Bobbie Kalman
Very informative book about what the Pueblo people did - about food, fun, clothing, art, beliefs, etc. I am thinking that Eva will be able to read this one with some help.
The Goat in the Rug by Charles I. Blood
This is a very cute book about Navajo weaving from the perspective of a goat. I think both girls will get a kick out of this one.
The Unbreakable Code by Sara Hoagland Hunter
I am very much looking forward to reading this children's book about the Navajo Code Talkers in World War II. Honestly, I only really know the vaguest amount about the Code Talkers, so I am excited to learn with my girls.
What other books would you add? Obviously, most of my books deal with Native Americans of the Southwest, should I expand further, or leave that for another time?
More Than Moccasins by Laurie Carlson
We have both Old Testament Days and Classical Kids Activity Guides from our study of Ancient History this year, and Eva LOVES doing all the fun activities in them!
Southwest Indians Coloring Book (Dover) - Peter Copeland
I couldn't really decide between this one or a book of Native American Patterns, so I let Eva decide which one looked better.
Anasazi Coloring Book by Sandra Stemmler
This book has fairly simple pictures, and tells a story, so it was my choice for Charlotte.
Corn is Maize The Gift of the Indians by Aliki
Oh Aliki, you never disappoint me! I hope I like this book as much as all the others we have read. It is nice to find books that are fun and educational and at an easy reading level.
I is for Indians of the Southwest by Judy Rosen and Biff Baird
This one is a really cool Alphabet book - it has the usual "A is for Anasazi, B is for Baskets" with a short paragraph about each letter, but it also has whole pages explaining some things in greater depth. For Charlotte, I'll probably read just the Alphabet part, but Eva will love all the extra information.
Life in a Pueblo by Amanda Bishop and Bobbie Kalman
Very informative book about what the Pueblo people did - about food, fun, clothing, art, beliefs, etc. I am thinking that Eva will be able to read this one with some help.
The Goat in the Rug by Charles I. Blood
This is a very cute book about Navajo weaving from the perspective of a goat. I think both girls will get a kick out of this one.
The Unbreakable Code by Sara Hoagland Hunter
I am very much looking forward to reading this children's book about the Navajo Code Talkers in World War II. Honestly, I only really know the vaguest amount about the Code Talkers, so I am excited to learn with my girls.
What other books would you add? Obviously, most of my books deal with Native Americans of the Southwest, should I expand further, or leave that for another time?
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Small Successes
Well, I feel like I don't have very many successes this week - the house is a mess, the girls are spending most of their time watching TV and playing Wii games, but I am calling this spring break, so I guess that's okay. I think we all need a break around here!
1 -
I have been frustrated for some time with Eva's phonics program (Seton), and I decided that for the last quarter of the school year, we will stop with phonics and move to PAL writing and All About Spelling (from The Institute for Excellence in Writing) - so my biggest success this week was the prep work for All About Spelling. I assumed that the magnetic tiles would come as, well...magnetic tiles! However, they come as two laminated pieces of card stock and sticky backed magnets. So, in about three hours, I got all the tiles cut out, magnetized, and organized. Also in that time I broke apart all the cards for the program (I am so thankful those were scored pages and I didn't have to cut all those, too!)
2 -
I have had magnetic primer and chalkboard paint sitting in our school closet since we moved into the house, basically. But now, my magnetic chalkboard closet door project is underway. The closet doors are down, and I am just about done with sanding the old finish off - I have to pick up a couple of foam smooth rollers for the paint application. Originally, I was going to get them yesterday, and spend today doing the painting, but I didn't get to the general store in town before it closed. That's probably just as well, because there needs to be seven hours of drying time between the five coats of paint - and with girl scouts this afternoon and bible study this evening, I don't know that I could have finished the project. I have a good incentive to get the project done, because I can't park in our garage until I am finished.
3 -
Hubby hasn't been feeling well, and when I suggested that maybe he needed to see a doctor, he agreed. So, I made him an appointment (gotta love his job, I made it for 11:30, so he went to work early to get the cows fed, then we went into town, and got back in time for him to feed in the afternoon, too.) While he saw a nurse practitioner, the girls and I made quick trip to the grocery store, and played at the park. I think that going to the park is probably the only thing about living in town that the girls miss - we used to go often, but when you are 16 miles out of town, it makes it hard to just go in for a park trip, and we usually have so many errands to run in town that we just run out of time.
More small successes at Faith and Family Live!
1 -
I have been frustrated for some time with Eva's phonics program (Seton), and I decided that for the last quarter of the school year, we will stop with phonics and move to PAL writing and All About Spelling (from The Institute for Excellence in Writing) - so my biggest success this week was the prep work for All About Spelling. I assumed that the magnetic tiles would come as, well...magnetic tiles! However, they come as two laminated pieces of card stock and sticky backed magnets. So, in about three hours, I got all the tiles cut out, magnetized, and organized. Also in that time I broke apart all the cards for the program (I am so thankful those were scored pages and I didn't have to cut all those, too!)
2 -
I have had magnetic primer and chalkboard paint sitting in our school closet since we moved into the house, basically. But now, my magnetic chalkboard closet door project is underway. The closet doors are down, and I am just about done with sanding the old finish off - I have to pick up a couple of foam smooth rollers for the paint application. Originally, I was going to get them yesterday, and spend today doing the painting, but I didn't get to the general store in town before it closed. That's probably just as well, because there needs to be seven hours of drying time between the five coats of paint - and with girl scouts this afternoon and bible study this evening, I don't know that I could have finished the project. I have a good incentive to get the project done, because I can't park in our garage until I am finished.
3 -
Hubby hasn't been feeling well, and when I suggested that maybe he needed to see a doctor, he agreed. So, I made him an appointment (gotta love his job, I made it for 11:30, so he went to work early to get the cows fed, then we went into town, and got back in time for him to feed in the afternoon, too.) While he saw a nurse practitioner, the girls and I made quick trip to the grocery store, and played at the park. I think that going to the park is probably the only thing about living in town that the girls miss - we used to go often, but when you are 16 miles out of town, it makes it hard to just go in for a park trip, and we usually have so many errands to run in town that we just run out of time.
More small successes at Faith and Family Live!
Friday, April 15, 2011
Quick Takes Friday - April Snowstorm Edition
Well, it is 7 am, and we've had power for about 30 minutes, so here's to hoping the power doesn't go out again before I finish my quick takes. I've decided to do a themed quick takes today, because basically everything quick take-able happened in the last 13 hours!
1- Yesterday morning it was drizzling and overcast. I had plans to take Eva into her Girl Scouts meeting, go to the bank, and go to the grocery store. At lunch time there were a few flakes of snow. By two fifteen, hubby called to tell me not to take the girls into town (we were planning on leaving at 2:30) because the show has heavy and very wet, not to mention that there was almost no visibility. Since the girls were disappointed about not getting to go to town, we drove over to grandma's house (a little over a mile away) and stayed there most of the afternoon and evening.
2- Our poor exchange students were on a school bus that slid off the road into the ditch for two hours. We thought most of the time that they would be home any minute (seriously, they both have cell phones, but neither one called - we heard all the details from a cousin who's kids ride the same bus!) Finally, we got a call from the same cousin telling us that our students were waiting at a farm site in some random guy's pickup (I guess he might have been in hubby's class in school, but still...you'd think the exchange students or the bus driver would have called us to come get them!) So, after FIL picked them up, I got a call from the guy with the pickup to tell me that our student left her Trig book in his vehicle. So, he said he'd have it taken into the school office.
3- They finally got into the house, where MIL and I were trying to get dinner made before the power went off (it was flickering) and we got the noodles boiling and a package of hamburger defrosted before it went out. Then I had the fun experience of learning how to brown a pan of hamburger on the grill out in the garage. We also thought about taking the show on the road to our house (we have a gas stove), but we hadn't filled the bathtub with water for toilet flushing purposes, and since MIL had a full bathtub and a big pitcher of water (for drinking) we figured we might as well stay there.
4- After dinner, we came home. It took me 8 minutes to drive about 1 1/2 miles - the roads were not fun (my BIL tried to put us in a ditch when we came over earlier to put my 1/3 beef in my freezer), when we got home and found candles and flashlights, we all sat around the kitchen table and told "popcorn" stories (I guess in Eva's Religious Ed class they do "popcorn" reading, where when one kid wants to stop they say "popcorn *another kid's name*" and that kid has to take over where they left off.) Charlotte mostly had the princess marrying the prince and living happily ever after, I had to keep coming up with trouble for the princess. Then the girls went to bed a little bit early.
5- I spent the evening playing solitaire - it's been long enough since I've played it with real cards that it took me a long time to remember the rules. For quite a while I was using the layout for one type of solitaire, but using the rules for another - that didn't got very well. Then, after I finally won a round, I got out my kindle, changed the type to much larger and read by candlelight for a while.
6- It was very cold by the time we went to bed (no power, no heat! No fireplace!) so I ended up wearing slipper socks and gloves to bed. Even hubby broke down and got out extra blankets.
7- I discovered that hubby's alarm goes off even with no power - it started beeping, and for a minute I was so excited that we had power, but no power, I guess the battery backup that allows it to set itself also allows it to keep track of an alarm and beep a little bit. Hubby called around trying to find out about school, and right about the time he called the dispatch office (who said that school was still on to the best of her knowledge, but that both highways out of town were closed, so she didn't know how the buses were going to pick people up!) our power came back on. Our living room thermostat said it was 52 degrees when the power came on. Then, shortly after that, we got a reverse 911 (that's what the school calls it, but then they use it for things like "Remember the Partners in Education Carnival tonight!" At least this was a legitimate use!) that school is on a two hour delay. So, our exchange student was happy to have power and two extra hours to take a shower and get ready, and the little girls are still sleeping (not that they aren't usually still sleeping at 7:30 in the morning!) I am just happy to have heat, and Internet and a cup of hot tea!
More quick takes at Conversion Diary!
1- Yesterday morning it was drizzling and overcast. I had plans to take Eva into her Girl Scouts meeting, go to the bank, and go to the grocery store. At lunch time there were a few flakes of snow. By two fifteen, hubby called to tell me not to take the girls into town (we were planning on leaving at 2:30) because the show has heavy and very wet, not to mention that there was almost no visibility. Since the girls were disappointed about not getting to go to town, we drove over to grandma's house (a little over a mile away) and stayed there most of the afternoon and evening.
2- Our poor exchange students were on a school bus that slid off the road into the ditch for two hours. We thought most of the time that they would be home any minute (seriously, they both have cell phones, but neither one called - we heard all the details from a cousin who's kids ride the same bus!) Finally, we got a call from the same cousin telling us that our students were waiting at a farm site in some random guy's pickup (I guess he might have been in hubby's class in school, but still...you'd think the exchange students or the bus driver would have called us to come get them!) So, after FIL picked them up, I got a call from the guy with the pickup to tell me that our student left her Trig book in his vehicle. So, he said he'd have it taken into the school office.
3- They finally got into the house, where MIL and I were trying to get dinner made before the power went off (it was flickering) and we got the noodles boiling and a package of hamburger defrosted before it went out. Then I had the fun experience of learning how to brown a pan of hamburger on the grill out in the garage. We also thought about taking the show on the road to our house (we have a gas stove), but we hadn't filled the bathtub with water for toilet flushing purposes, and since MIL had a full bathtub and a big pitcher of water (for drinking) we figured we might as well stay there.
4- After dinner, we came home. It took me 8 minutes to drive about 1 1/2 miles - the roads were not fun (my BIL tried to put us in a ditch when we came over earlier to put my 1/3 beef in my freezer), when we got home and found candles and flashlights, we all sat around the kitchen table and told "popcorn" stories (I guess in Eva's Religious Ed class they do "popcorn" reading, where when one kid wants to stop they say "popcorn *another kid's name*" and that kid has to take over where they left off.) Charlotte mostly had the princess marrying the prince and living happily ever after, I had to keep coming up with trouble for the princess. Then the girls went to bed a little bit early.
5- I spent the evening playing solitaire - it's been long enough since I've played it with real cards that it took me a long time to remember the rules. For quite a while I was using the layout for one type of solitaire, but using the rules for another - that didn't got very well. Then, after I finally won a round, I got out my kindle, changed the type to much larger and read by candlelight for a while.
6- It was very cold by the time we went to bed (no power, no heat! No fireplace!) so I ended up wearing slipper socks and gloves to bed. Even hubby broke down and got out extra blankets.
7- I discovered that hubby's alarm goes off even with no power - it started beeping, and for a minute I was so excited that we had power, but no power, I guess the battery backup that allows it to set itself also allows it to keep track of an alarm and beep a little bit. Hubby called around trying to find out about school, and right about the time he called the dispatch office (who said that school was still on to the best of her knowledge, but that both highways out of town were closed, so she didn't know how the buses were going to pick people up!) our power came back on. Our living room thermostat said it was 52 degrees when the power came on. Then, shortly after that, we got a reverse 911 (that's what the school calls it, but then they use it for things like "Remember the Partners in Education Carnival tonight!" At least this was a legitimate use!) that school is on a two hour delay. So, our exchange student was happy to have power and two extra hours to take a shower and get ready, and the little girls are still sleeping (not that they aren't usually still sleeping at 7:30 in the morning!) I am just happy to have heat, and Internet and a cup of hot tea!
More quick takes at Conversion Diary!
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Small Successes
Well, I am buried under a wave of clutter, but here are my small successes for the week:
1-
I cleaned out the school closet - it took longer than it should have, because I hadn't dealt with it in a long time. I didn't take a before picture, but here's an after (there was one large kitchen bag full of trash, about a dozen things for the thrift store, and about another dozen things I listed on CathSwap) The crates at the bottom hold the girls books, the next couple of shelves games and craft supplies, up higher craft supplies they need permission for, and completed work. The other side of the closet holds some kids games, coloring books and about 100 or so books currently listed on paperbackswap!
2-
We made it to Ash Wednesday at church, even though hubby didn't get home until 5:36, had to feed and water the calves, and had to shower (you don't what to know how much manure was on him!) and we live 16 miles from town, our dirt roads were very sloppy, and we had to park a block away from the church - AND we made it into the church before the first reading was over. MAJOR accomplishment for us!
3-
I baked a cake last night (here's a tip - don't bake a cake on a day of fast and abstinence, or if you must, offer it up for the poor souls in purgatory!) and frosted it this morning for the girl scout swim party this afternoon, which will celebrate the end of cookie season, and hopefully get all the moms to drop off whatever cookie money they have left.
Finally, a prayer request - please pray for our town. In the last two days or so, we had one high school student killed in a car accident, a classmate of Bret's died unexpectedly (in his mid 30s), one of the girl scout moms lost a baby at 8 months pregnant, the house of a family with a high schooler burned down, and it has just been a hard week for the town. Please pray for those who have lost loved ones, for the souls in purgatory, and for all of us in the town that we might respond to the needs of these families. Thank you!
(and just because they are so cute, here's a picture of the girls with their faces painted after Family Fun Night at church a couple weeks ago)
More small successes at Faith and Family!
1-
I cleaned out the school closet - it took longer than it should have, because I hadn't dealt with it in a long time. I didn't take a before picture, but here's an after (there was one large kitchen bag full of trash, about a dozen things for the thrift store, and about another dozen things I listed on CathSwap) The crates at the bottom hold the girls books, the next couple of shelves games and craft supplies, up higher craft supplies they need permission for, and completed work. The other side of the closet holds some kids games, coloring books and about 100 or so books currently listed on paperbackswap!
2-
We made it to Ash Wednesday at church, even though hubby didn't get home until 5:36, had to feed and water the calves, and had to shower (you don't what to know how much manure was on him!) and we live 16 miles from town, our dirt roads were very sloppy, and we had to park a block away from the church - AND we made it into the church before the first reading was over. MAJOR accomplishment for us!
3-
I baked a cake last night (here's a tip - don't bake a cake on a day of fast and abstinence, or if you must, offer it up for the poor souls in purgatory!) and frosted it this morning for the girl scout swim party this afternoon, which will celebrate the end of cookie season, and hopefully get all the moms to drop off whatever cookie money they have left.
Finally, a prayer request - please pray for our town. In the last two days or so, we had one high school student killed in a car accident, a classmate of Bret's died unexpectedly (in his mid 30s), one of the girl scout moms lost a baby at 8 months pregnant, the house of a family with a high schooler burned down, and it has just been a hard week for the town. Please pray for those who have lost loved ones, for the souls in purgatory, and for all of us in the town that we might respond to the needs of these families. Thank you!
(and just because they are so cute, here's a picture of the girls with their faces painted after Family Fun Night at church a couple weeks ago)
More small successes at Faith and Family!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Small Successes
Does participating in small successes count as a small success?? I'm just asking...
1-
I have not lost my mind with girl scout cookies - I have gotten half of Eva's cookie orders delivered, I have been the parent helper for two cookie booths (both at the local grocery store, both an hour each) I have not lost the several hundred dollars in cash from cookie sales, booths. etc (hopefully I can make it a few more hours until Eva's girl scout meeting when I can turn it in!) Eva has now sold about 160 boxes, and her goal we set was 200 boxes, so we are almost there!
2-
I did our finances for the first half of the month. I found a free yearly budgeting template titled "Family Budget Planner" at this site. We sat down at the beginning of the year and figured out what we wanted our budget to look like for a year. Hubby got a raise of a little over $100 per month (take home) and we decided to save $300 per month in IRAs and College Savings plans ($100 per month each for retirement, and $50 each for college savings) - it has been going amazingly well! I don't really even come close to the amounts I budgeted at the beginning of the year (I budgeted too little for groceries, and too much for eating out/entertainment stuff) but we were under budget for January overall, and doing great for February. With a part of our tax refund, hubby and I are going shopping for a new dining room table set tomorrow - I am unbelievably excited about having a better table...probably because I serve 2-3 meals per day on it, and spend about 2 hours on school work at the table each weekday.
3-
I've started thinking about Lent - haven't figured out what I am going to do or give up for Lent, but at least I've started to think about it! Plus, I still have almost two weeks to figure it out! (Much better than my usual start thinking about it on Ash Wednesday plan!)
More small successes at Faith and Family!
1-
I have not lost my mind with girl scout cookies - I have gotten half of Eva's cookie orders delivered, I have been the parent helper for two cookie booths (both at the local grocery store, both an hour each) I have not lost the several hundred dollars in cash from cookie sales, booths. etc (hopefully I can make it a few more hours until Eva's girl scout meeting when I can turn it in!) Eva has now sold about 160 boxes, and her goal we set was 200 boxes, so we are almost there!
2-
I did our finances for the first half of the month. I found a free yearly budgeting template titled "Family Budget Planner" at this site. We sat down at the beginning of the year and figured out what we wanted our budget to look like for a year. Hubby got a raise of a little over $100 per month (take home) and we decided to save $300 per month in IRAs and College Savings plans ($100 per month each for retirement, and $50 each for college savings) - it has been going amazingly well! I don't really even come close to the amounts I budgeted at the beginning of the year (I budgeted too little for groceries, and too much for eating out/entertainment stuff) but we were under budget for January overall, and doing great for February. With a part of our tax refund, hubby and I are going shopping for a new dining room table set tomorrow - I am unbelievably excited about having a better table...probably because I serve 2-3 meals per day on it, and spend about 2 hours on school work at the table each weekday.
3-
I've started thinking about Lent - haven't figured out what I am going to do or give up for Lent, but at least I've started to think about it! Plus, I still have almost two weeks to figure it out! (Much better than my usual start thinking about it on Ash Wednesday plan!)
More small successes at Faith and Family!
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Small Successes
I can't believe that Small Successes at Faith and Family is already at the 100th volume! It doesn't seem like that long ago it started! On to my successes for the week.
1-
I cleaned the toilet. Honestly, I am not really sure how many weeks it had been since I cleaned it - I really do mean to clean it once a week, but that hadn't been happening...and it got worse and worse until Monday when the do in "Small Steps for Catholic Moms" was "When you see something that needs doing today (laundry to put away, a bed to be made, a table to be cleared, etc.), don procrastinate and make excuses. See God's will for your day in the sight of those tasks and just do them." Thus, I finally got around to cleaning the algae ring in our toilet (gotta love well water!)
2-
I finally finished planning Eva's history class for 3rd quarter...and while I was at it, I knocked out 4th quarter planning, too. We started quarter 3 on Monday. I finished planning for it on Saturday. I procrastinated planning it since August. Of course, I currently have a ring of craft stuff around my chair in the living room because in all the planning for 3rd quarter (and doubling up on phonics so that we could catch up to where we should be) I completely forgot about all the prep work for Charlotte's Little Saints preschool stuff - so I have gotten two weeks worth of prep done, and am hoping to get 8 more weeks of prep done before I put everything away!
3-
I ordered "Learn Spanish with Grace" from someone on CathSwap, and remembered (after I paid, but before she sent the materials) that my stupid paypal account kept changing my address back to the house we sold over a year ago. So, I emailed her with the correct address, and finally (after about a half an hour of tinkering with the dumb thing) managed to change the address and delete the old address. Apparently, my problem was that in order to delete the old address, I couldn't just go in and change it (which I had tried before), I had to first go into my credit cards (of which it appears two that were listed were debit cards from our old account in our old town, so I just deleted those) and change the address there before it would let me change the address on the main page. So, when I start to get serious about buying books for next year, I won't have a problem like last year when my package was mailed to our old house, the post office in that town intercepted it, and forwarded it to our p.o. box here, and then we had to pay again for the shipping (because technically it should have been returned to sender, not forwarded...)
More small successes at Faith and Family Live!
1-
I cleaned the toilet. Honestly, I am not really sure how many weeks it had been since I cleaned it - I really do mean to clean it once a week, but that hadn't been happening...and it got worse and worse until Monday when the do in "Small Steps for Catholic Moms" was "When you see something that needs doing today (laundry to put away, a bed to be made, a table to be cleared, etc.), don procrastinate and make excuses. See God's will for your day in the sight of those tasks and just do them." Thus, I finally got around to cleaning the algae ring in our toilet (gotta love well water!)
2-
I finally finished planning Eva's history class for 3rd quarter...and while I was at it, I knocked out 4th quarter planning, too. We started quarter 3 on Monday. I finished planning for it on Saturday. I procrastinated planning it since August. Of course, I currently have a ring of craft stuff around my chair in the living room because in all the planning for 3rd quarter (and doubling up on phonics so that we could catch up to where we should be) I completely forgot about all the prep work for Charlotte's Little Saints preschool stuff - so I have gotten two weeks worth of prep done, and am hoping to get 8 more weeks of prep done before I put everything away!
3-
I ordered "Learn Spanish with Grace" from someone on CathSwap, and remembered (after I paid, but before she sent the materials) that my stupid paypal account kept changing my address back to the house we sold over a year ago. So, I emailed her with the correct address, and finally (after about a half an hour of tinkering with the dumb thing) managed to change the address and delete the old address. Apparently, my problem was that in order to delete the old address, I couldn't just go in and change it (which I had tried before), I had to first go into my credit cards (of which it appears two that were listed were debit cards from our old account in our old town, so I just deleted those) and change the address there before it would let me change the address on the main page. So, when I start to get serious about buying books for next year, I won't have a problem like last year when my package was mailed to our old house, the post office in that town intercepted it, and forwarded it to our p.o. box here, and then we had to pay again for the shipping (because technically it should have been returned to sender, not forwarded...)
More small successes at Faith and Family Live!
Thursday, February 03, 2011
Small Successes
Well, it's Thursday again, so it is time for small successes! There are a lot of things that haven't gotten done around here recently (like the laundry I've been putting off for three days, and the toilet cleaning that I have been putting off even longer than that...) but today I will focus on the successes.
1-
I survived two snow days...not for the little girls (they still did school), but for the exchange student. I like having her around, but early on in the snowstorm our exchange student was disappointed that we weren't going to MILs house (her exchange student had been sick) which when I pressed further wasn't because she wanted to see their exchange student, she wanted to play Super Mario Bros on their Wii...so I had hubby borrow it from his mom. Well, in two days (one day with just our exchange student and Eva playing, for the most part and the second day with both exchange students and Eva playing almost ALL DAY LONG) they got to level 8, which I guess is the highest level. They haven't beaten Bowser to save the princess yet, but they got further here in two days than they have gotten in several weeks at MILs house. When hubby and I drove to town to get pizza last night, I swear I could here the coin collecting noise rattling in my head. While they played on and on, I read all 5 Percy Jackson novels...probably should have cleaned, but oh well!
2-
I finished our taxes! (YEAH!) And we will be getting a pretty massive refund (thanks mostly to hubby's former employer's buyout that we got in this calendar year, which they withheld a huge amount from, given that we don't pay much in taxes being relatively poor with two kids. Now we just need to decide what to do with that money. I know that some of it will be going towards a new dining set (and we will say goodbye to my great-aunt's set that was made in Yugoslavia) and I know that some will be going into our emergency fund....but we are tempted to replace the carpet in our kitchen. I don't think we'll be able to afford to replace it right now, since our kitchen is huge (not well laid out or anything, but a lot of square feet of flooring involved).
3-
We got our cats spayed and neutered. In fact, I need to figure out when I need to pick them up from the vet's office. Tigger, our loud tom cat, had wandered over to the neighbor's house. She had girl kittens she was planning on taking in to get spayed. She called MIL to ask if it was her cat (MILs cats are not at all friendly) and she told the neighbor that she had a yellow and white cat, but she didn't know the gender, and good luck catching it. The neighbor mentioned how sweet and loud the tom was, which made it clear to MIL that it was our annoying (but kinda cute) cat. Well, the neighbor's son brought him home, and then offered to take him to the vet for us. In the end I had hubby call, because I wanted both cats taken care of, and I wanted them to get rabies shots as well. So, in the end our neighbor's son took both our cats to the vet for us, and I need to pick them up today.
There are more small successes over at Faith and Family LIVE!
1-
I survived two snow days...not for the little girls (they still did school), but for the exchange student. I like having her around, but early on in the snowstorm our exchange student was disappointed that we weren't going to MILs house (her exchange student had been sick) which when I pressed further wasn't because she wanted to see their exchange student, she wanted to play Super Mario Bros on their Wii...so I had hubby borrow it from his mom. Well, in two days (one day with just our exchange student and Eva playing, for the most part and the second day with both exchange students and Eva playing almost ALL DAY LONG) they got to level 8, which I guess is the highest level. They haven't beaten Bowser to save the princess yet, but they got further here in two days than they have gotten in several weeks at MILs house. When hubby and I drove to town to get pizza last night, I swear I could here the coin collecting noise rattling in my head. While they played on and on, I read all 5 Percy Jackson novels...probably should have cleaned, but oh well!
2-
I finished our taxes! (YEAH!) And we will be getting a pretty massive refund (thanks mostly to hubby's former employer's buyout that we got in this calendar year, which they withheld a huge amount from, given that we don't pay much in taxes being relatively poor with two kids. Now we just need to decide what to do with that money. I know that some of it will be going towards a new dining set (and we will say goodbye to my great-aunt's set that was made in Yugoslavia) and I know that some will be going into our emergency fund....but we are tempted to replace the carpet in our kitchen. I don't think we'll be able to afford to replace it right now, since our kitchen is huge (not well laid out or anything, but a lot of square feet of flooring involved).
3-
We got our cats spayed and neutered. In fact, I need to figure out when I need to pick them up from the vet's office. Tigger, our loud tom cat, had wandered over to the neighbor's house. She had girl kittens she was planning on taking in to get spayed. She called MIL to ask if it was her cat (MILs cats are not at all friendly) and she told the neighbor that she had a yellow and white cat, but she didn't know the gender, and good luck catching it. The neighbor mentioned how sweet and loud the tom was, which made it clear to MIL that it was our annoying (but kinda cute) cat. Well, the neighbor's son brought him home, and then offered to take him to the vet for us. In the end I had hubby call, because I wanted both cats taken care of, and I wanted them to get rabies shots as well. So, in the end our neighbor's son took both our cats to the vet for us, and I need to pick them up today.
There are more small successes over at Faith and Family LIVE!
Friday, January 28, 2011
Quick Takes Friday
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!
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!
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!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Quick Takes Friday
1-
Christmas was exhausting around here...maybe I'm a wimp, but three solid days of family celebrations was a bit much. On Christmas Eve we hosted both sets of parents and both sets of siblings, plus hubby's grandpa and great uncle. I made German food and our exchange student made wienerschnitzel (which was eaten much faster than my sauerbraten, so maybe next year I'll switch) then we had my family's (Norwegian side) tradition of hiding an almond in rice pudding. The person who finds the almond gets the prize, which then must be shared (I'm sure that's just something my grandma insisted upon...) This year hubby's brother got the almond. Then, for Christmas, my parents came to our house in the morning and we did our gifts and their gifts, then we went over to MILs house, where we did more gifts and had a Christmas dinner of prime rib, then in the evening, the girls and I went up to my parents hotel (an hour drive away...they are kinda nuts!) to swim, and then had sandwiches at the hotel restaurant. The next morning we went to church, then started to get ready for hubby's extended family Christmas. Fortunately, the girls and I got to go home for several hours in the middle of the party because hubby had to feed the cows, but after a good long nap for the girls and some down time for me, we headed back into town for the rest of the party.
2-
Between the three Christmases, our house kinda looked like Christmas threw up all over it...(well, parts of it still look this way!) Charlotte got 15 barbie dolls (okay, two of them were boys, and most of them were Disney princess barbie type dolls). Eva got a ridiculous amount of stuff, too. The playroom was messy enough that I didn't want them to take all their new toys in there until I got it cleaned out. Well, it took me more than 3 hours with a tall kitchen bag worth of trash and an overflowing tall kitchen bag worth of giveaway, but it looks beautiful now! (I should have taken some before pictures, but I couldn't bring myself to do that!)
3-
I won a copy of the book "Smart Martha's Catholic Guide for Busy Moms" by Tami Kiser over at Catholicmom.com and that book was definitely my inspiration for getting the playroom taken care of...I thought a few of her ideas were just mindblowingly good, so I'll list a couple here. I am only halfway done with the book, and it is just awesome. I highly suggest you buy it (or at least get on the paperbackswap list for it!) I took all of the girls puzzles out of their broken boxes. I cut a small picture out of the box, I took sharpie markers, and for each puzzle I put a certain color mark on all of the puzzle pieces, the picture of the completed puzzle and the sandwich bag the puzzle is in. This way, if the girls dump together two or more puzzles it will be much easier to separate them into the right package...plus the sandwich bags (our biggest puzzle right now has 100 pieces...with bigger kids it might make more sense to use gallon size bags) take up far less space. I took this a step farther and got rid of all the nice wooden boxes that Melissa and Doug toys come in, and packaged the toys in gallon zip top bags. For instance, we had three different sets of lacing cards, and the cards hardly ever made it into the boxes, and the strings were just all over. All three sets plus the strings fit in a gallon zip top bag. So do all our viewfinder discs and view finder, etc.) I am also implementing the tip that if I tell the girls to clean up, and they don't do it, or leave stuff out, I will put it in a special basket in my closet, and they will have to do chores to get them back (she has her kids pay for stuff, but mine are still kinda little for that, so I'll just make them do more work!) An idea that I haven't implemented yet: Keep a trash can or hamper lined with a trash bag in your closet for giveaway items. Then when the bag is full put it in the car and take it buy the thrift store (of course, it's not quite as easy as that when you are as far away from a thrift store as us, but I love the trashcan with liner idea!)
4-
We are planning on having family over tonight for new year's eve. I had originally intended to make appetizers and call it good enough, but before I knew it, my MIL had talked me into making prime rib instead (the farm was given 3 by a vendor, so each household technically should get one...of course, I have never made a prime rib before, so I am crossing my fingers that it's not too hard!) We are planning on ringing in the New York new year this year...since the girls have been going back and forth between being sick and healthy.
5-
Speaking of sick kids...I didn't make it to Mass for Christmas. Charlotte started throwing up a couple of hours before midnight Mass, and so someone had to stay home with her, and then hubby had to work Christmas morning (the cows don't take a day off) so I might have been able to leave our exchange student at home with both little girls and gone to Mass in the morning, but I thought that it would probably be better if I were to stay home and make sure the girls were feeling okay before we started going to even more Christmas family stuff. They are still not at 100%, but they seem to be taking turns on who feels the worst (yesterday it was Eva, today it is looking like Charlotte is feeling worse.)
6-
The kids weren't the only ones that got way too many Christmas presents...hubby and I did, too. My favorite gift was a Kindle from MIL...I have been having too much fun finding free books for it. Currently I am reading The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. I haven't bought any kindle books yet, because I am trying to figure out what I would like most. Any suggestions?
7-
I really, really, really need to get to cleaning the house since I am having people over tonight, but part of me is saying "eh...they're family!" so they know what my house looks like. But, I guess it would be nice to start the new year with a clean house, so I guess I should go get started!
More quick takes at Conversion Diary!
Christmas was exhausting around here...maybe I'm a wimp, but three solid days of family celebrations was a bit much. On Christmas Eve we hosted both sets of parents and both sets of siblings, plus hubby's grandpa and great uncle. I made German food and our exchange student made wienerschnitzel (which was eaten much faster than my sauerbraten, so maybe next year I'll switch) then we had my family's (Norwegian side) tradition of hiding an almond in rice pudding. The person who finds the almond gets the prize, which then must be shared (I'm sure that's just something my grandma insisted upon...) This year hubby's brother got the almond. Then, for Christmas, my parents came to our house in the morning and we did our gifts and their gifts, then we went over to MILs house, where we did more gifts and had a Christmas dinner of prime rib, then in the evening, the girls and I went up to my parents hotel (an hour drive away...they are kinda nuts!) to swim, and then had sandwiches at the hotel restaurant. The next morning we went to church, then started to get ready for hubby's extended family Christmas. Fortunately, the girls and I got to go home for several hours in the middle of the party because hubby had to feed the cows, but after a good long nap for the girls and some down time for me, we headed back into town for the rest of the party.
2-
Between the three Christmases, our house kinda looked like Christmas threw up all over it...(well, parts of it still look this way!) Charlotte got 15 barbie dolls (okay, two of them were boys, and most of them were Disney princess barbie type dolls). Eva got a ridiculous amount of stuff, too. The playroom was messy enough that I didn't want them to take all their new toys in there until I got it cleaned out. Well, it took me more than 3 hours with a tall kitchen bag worth of trash and an overflowing tall kitchen bag worth of giveaway, but it looks beautiful now! (I should have taken some before pictures, but I couldn't bring myself to do that!)
3-
I won a copy of the book "Smart Martha's Catholic Guide for Busy Moms" by Tami Kiser over at Catholicmom.com and that book was definitely my inspiration for getting the playroom taken care of...I thought a few of her ideas were just mindblowingly good, so I'll list a couple here. I am only halfway done with the book, and it is just awesome. I highly suggest you buy it (or at least get on the paperbackswap list for it!) I took all of the girls puzzles out of their broken boxes. I cut a small picture out of the box, I took sharpie markers, and for each puzzle I put a certain color mark on all of the puzzle pieces, the picture of the completed puzzle and the sandwich bag the puzzle is in. This way, if the girls dump together two or more puzzles it will be much easier to separate them into the right package...plus the sandwich bags (our biggest puzzle right now has 100 pieces...with bigger kids it might make more sense to use gallon size bags) take up far less space. I took this a step farther and got rid of all the nice wooden boxes that Melissa and Doug toys come in, and packaged the toys in gallon zip top bags. For instance, we had three different sets of lacing cards, and the cards hardly ever made it into the boxes, and the strings were just all over. All three sets plus the strings fit in a gallon zip top bag. So do all our viewfinder discs and view finder, etc.) I am also implementing the tip that if I tell the girls to clean up, and they don't do it, or leave stuff out, I will put it in a special basket in my closet, and they will have to do chores to get them back (she has her kids pay for stuff, but mine are still kinda little for that, so I'll just make them do more work!) An idea that I haven't implemented yet: Keep a trash can or hamper lined with a trash bag in your closet for giveaway items. Then when the bag is full put it in the car and take it buy the thrift store (of course, it's not quite as easy as that when you are as far away from a thrift store as us, but I love the trashcan with liner idea!)
4-
We are planning on having family over tonight for new year's eve. I had originally intended to make appetizers and call it good enough, but before I knew it, my MIL had talked me into making prime rib instead (the farm was given 3 by a vendor, so each household technically should get one...of course, I have never made a prime rib before, so I am crossing my fingers that it's not too hard!) We are planning on ringing in the New York new year this year...since the girls have been going back and forth between being sick and healthy.
5-
Speaking of sick kids...I didn't make it to Mass for Christmas. Charlotte started throwing up a couple of hours before midnight Mass, and so someone had to stay home with her, and then hubby had to work Christmas morning (the cows don't take a day off) so I might have been able to leave our exchange student at home with both little girls and gone to Mass in the morning, but I thought that it would probably be better if I were to stay home and make sure the girls were feeling okay before we started going to even more Christmas family stuff. They are still not at 100%, but they seem to be taking turns on who feels the worst (yesterday it was Eva, today it is looking like Charlotte is feeling worse.)
6-
The kids weren't the only ones that got way too many Christmas presents...hubby and I did, too. My favorite gift was a Kindle from MIL...I have been having too much fun finding free books for it. Currently I am reading The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. I haven't bought any kindle books yet, because I am trying to figure out what I would like most. Any suggestions?
7-
I really, really, really need to get to cleaning the house since I am having people over tonight, but part of me is saying "eh...they're family!" so they know what my house looks like. But, I guess it would be nice to start the new year with a clean house, so I guess I should go get started!
More quick takes at Conversion Diary!
Friday, December 17, 2010
Quick Takes Friday
1-
Last night, my bible study had our Christmas party. It was a ton of fun, the hostess did fondue, we did an informal cookie exchange, and we opened secret sister presents. Well over a year ago, we tried to do an absolutely horrible study titled "Praying with Women of the Bible" by Bridget Mary Meehan (I would link to it, but I don't want anyone to think that I am recommending it...I do notice it is available on Kindle now, though...) we made it through two chapters, on the day we were supposed to do chapter 3, I pretty much was willing to beg them to do something...anything else! I felt fairly responsible for the book, because I had suggested it...I hadn't read it, but one of the women who used to be in the group had gotten a copy from someone in her family who thought it was great...she suggested it, we decided we didn't want to do it then, and I put the book on my paperbackswap list. Well, it is very well known how much I hate this book. Last year, at Christmas, part of my secret sister gift was a copy of this book wrapped up with a note and some money so that I could go buy a book (she said I was an intimidating person to buy a book for!) Well, this year, my current secret sister ALSO wrapped up her copy, and it was part of my Christmas gift. I am pretty much figuring I am doomed to see two more copies of the book before everyone has run out of copies.
2-
Tonight (hopefully) hubby and I are going on a date, out for dinner and then to see the new Harry Potter movie. Our religious anniversary (the date of our church wedding) is tomorrow, so it will be his anniversary present to me. I have to say hopefully because he ate the last little bit of cookie dough raw that I didn't roll out and bake...AND that cookie dough had been in the fridge for more than a week...maybe two...so, he's paying for his really dumb move and not feeling to great. He is at work though, so I guess hopefully he will be well enough to go out tonight (although he may not want to eat!)
3-
Today is going to be our last official day for school this calendar year. I am way behind on crafty-type projects in our History curriculum, so we'll do some of those over break. We've already stopped working on Seton Religion, Math U See, and Handwriting without Tears. I'm looking forward to a nice long break (three weeks) and some time to get the house all clean again (okay, it's not too bad, but getting pretty cluttered, and I haven't really vacuumed the commercial door mats in the mud room or mopped out there in a while, and our bathroom could really use a cleaning!)
4-
I am working on our Christmas letter. I swore off Christmas letters a couple of years ago, when one of hubby's relatives started bad-mouthing me because of my Christmas letter from the previous year. But, since I didn't send out any Christmas cards last year, and we've had so many changes, I feel as though I owe an explanation to those people who we don't see very often. So, I'm working my way through writing one that will go to friends and my side of the family only. It is in a newsletter format, and I am trying to make all of the subheadings song lyrics, because deep down, I am a giant dork!
5-
Okay, it's been a while since I posted a youtube video on this blog, and I already shared this on Facebook, but I just think it is pretty hysterical (not quite as funny as the turbotax rap, but I think I am one of the few who rolls around on the floor laughing during that one!)
6-
In the "our local school district is dumb" department...our exchange student found out that she doesn't have to take final exams because she hasn't missed much school...so if we were okay with that, we had to sign a form (that came in the mail yesterday) that had to be turned in today. Now, I personally thought that final exams were supposed to show how much the kids had learned or hadn't learned. But instead, it is based upon how much school you attended or didn't attend. Of course, it appears that any absences from class for school events (like sports) don't count against you, even though you were clearly not in class. Our exchange student missed several class periods 7 to 9 times during softball season, but she still qualifies for skipping finals. But, if someone had a sickness that took them out of class for even half that many days, they would have to take finals because they missed class...never mind sports kids missed WAY MORE actual class that the kid that was ill...Maybe dumb policies like this are another good reason to homeschool.
7-
Well, it seemed like there was something I thought would make a great seventh quick take. I should have just typed a number 7 and written it out, because now I can't remember what it was...oh well!
More quick takes at Conversion Diary!
Last night, my bible study had our Christmas party. It was a ton of fun, the hostess did fondue, we did an informal cookie exchange, and we opened secret sister presents. Well over a year ago, we tried to do an absolutely horrible study titled "Praying with Women of the Bible" by Bridget Mary Meehan (I would link to it, but I don't want anyone to think that I am recommending it...I do notice it is available on Kindle now, though...) we made it through two chapters, on the day we were supposed to do chapter 3, I pretty much was willing to beg them to do something...anything else! I felt fairly responsible for the book, because I had suggested it...I hadn't read it, but one of the women who used to be in the group had gotten a copy from someone in her family who thought it was great...she suggested it, we decided we didn't want to do it then, and I put the book on my paperbackswap list. Well, it is very well known how much I hate this book. Last year, at Christmas, part of my secret sister gift was a copy of this book wrapped up with a note and some money so that I could go buy a book (she said I was an intimidating person to buy a book for!) Well, this year, my current secret sister ALSO wrapped up her copy, and it was part of my Christmas gift. I am pretty much figuring I am doomed to see two more copies of the book before everyone has run out of copies.
2-
Tonight (hopefully) hubby and I are going on a date, out for dinner and then to see the new Harry Potter movie. Our religious anniversary (the date of our church wedding) is tomorrow, so it will be his anniversary present to me. I have to say hopefully because he ate the last little bit of cookie dough raw that I didn't roll out and bake...AND that cookie dough had been in the fridge for more than a week...maybe two...so, he's paying for his really dumb move and not feeling to great. He is at work though, so I guess hopefully he will be well enough to go out tonight (although he may not want to eat!)
3-
Today is going to be our last official day for school this calendar year. I am way behind on crafty-type projects in our History curriculum, so we'll do some of those over break. We've already stopped working on Seton Religion, Math U See, and Handwriting without Tears. I'm looking forward to a nice long break (three weeks) and some time to get the house all clean again (okay, it's not too bad, but getting pretty cluttered, and I haven't really vacuumed the commercial door mats in the mud room or mopped out there in a while, and our bathroom could really use a cleaning!)
4-
I am working on our Christmas letter. I swore off Christmas letters a couple of years ago, when one of hubby's relatives started bad-mouthing me because of my Christmas letter from the previous year. But, since I didn't send out any Christmas cards last year, and we've had so many changes, I feel as though I owe an explanation to those people who we don't see very often. So, I'm working my way through writing one that will go to friends and my side of the family only. It is in a newsletter format, and I am trying to make all of the subheadings song lyrics, because deep down, I am a giant dork!
5-
Okay, it's been a while since I posted a youtube video on this blog, and I already shared this on Facebook, but I just think it is pretty hysterical (not quite as funny as the turbotax rap, but I think I am one of the few who rolls around on the floor laughing during that one!)
6-
In the "our local school district is dumb" department...our exchange student found out that she doesn't have to take final exams because she hasn't missed much school...so if we were okay with that, we had to sign a form (that came in the mail yesterday) that had to be turned in today. Now, I personally thought that final exams were supposed to show how much the kids had learned or hadn't learned. But instead, it is based upon how much school you attended or didn't attend. Of course, it appears that any absences from class for school events (like sports) don't count against you, even though you were clearly not in class. Our exchange student missed several class periods 7 to 9 times during softball season, but she still qualifies for skipping finals. But, if someone had a sickness that took them out of class for even half that many days, they would have to take finals because they missed class...never mind sports kids missed WAY MORE actual class that the kid that was ill...Maybe dumb policies like this are another good reason to homeschool.
7-
Well, it seemed like there was something I thought would make a great seventh quick take. I should have just typed a number 7 and written it out, because now I can't remember what it was...oh well!
More quick takes at Conversion Diary!
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Small Successes
Well, we have been extra busy around here the past couple of weeks (like pretty much everyone else, I bet) but here are a few of my small successes this week:
1-
I hate that I always have to put this as a small success, but I went to confession at our parish penance service on Tuesday. It felt really good to do so, but I always dread confession so much...I really should do it more often.
2-
I made snacks for girl scouts last week. Banana muffins for 26 girls...and I managed to squeak 27 muffins out of a double batch, so Charlotte could have one too. The girls really seemed to like them. Disturbingly, it appears that I have not made muffins in quite a while, because I could not find my muffin tins, and thought perhaps I had gotten rid of them before our move (they are in rough shape), but it turns out that my MIL borrowed them long enough ago that I forgot that they were ever in this house.
3-
Went to a doctor's appointment that I have been putting off for about 9 months. I had a full blood workup done (which cost $1500, a big shock since our insurance now is an HSA plan, and we have to pay the first $6000 out of pocket, although we do get a reimbursement from the farm, but that's every 6 months) and I ended up cancelling my next appointment when we were supposed to go over the blood work...and then it took me about 3 months to get an appointment that would work out (Since this doc is about 3 hours away, I really try to get appointments coordinated with my MIL's doctor appointments, which is easier said than done!) So, I found out that most of my blood work is fine, but I am now on a OTC vitamin D, because my levels there were low, so here's hoping OTC works, or when we recheck my blood work in 3 months I'll be moved to a prescription vitamin D.
More small successes at Faith and Family LIVE!
1-
I hate that I always have to put this as a small success, but I went to confession at our parish penance service on Tuesday. It felt really good to do so, but I always dread confession so much...I really should do it more often.
2-
I made snacks for girl scouts last week. Banana muffins for 26 girls...and I managed to squeak 27 muffins out of a double batch, so Charlotte could have one too. The girls really seemed to like them. Disturbingly, it appears that I have not made muffins in quite a while, because I could not find my muffin tins, and thought perhaps I had gotten rid of them before our move (they are in rough shape), but it turns out that my MIL borrowed them long enough ago that I forgot that they were ever in this house.
3-
Went to a doctor's appointment that I have been putting off for about 9 months. I had a full blood workup done (which cost $1500, a big shock since our insurance now is an HSA plan, and we have to pay the first $6000 out of pocket, although we do get a reimbursement from the farm, but that's every 6 months) and I ended up cancelling my next appointment when we were supposed to go over the blood work...and then it took me about 3 months to get an appointment that would work out (Since this doc is about 3 hours away, I really try to get appointments coordinated with my MIL's doctor appointments, which is easier said than done!) So, I found out that most of my blood work is fine, but I am now on a OTC vitamin D, because my levels there were low, so here's hoping OTC works, or when we recheck my blood work in 3 months I'll be moved to a prescription vitamin D.
More small successes at Faith and Family LIVE!
Friday, December 03, 2010
Quick Takes Friday
1-
Eva lost her second tooth last night...and by lost, I mean hubby pulled it out. That's tooth number two where the adult tooth was growing in behind the baby tooth. Both Eva and MIL thought that she should have the second one pulled by the dentist, too. The "tooth fairy" (I tell Eva that Daddy dresses up in a tutu when he is the tooth fairy) left a bonus. Thankfully I had a little cash, or the tooth fairy would have to leave an IOU. So, Eva was happy to find $1.50 this morning...it was either that or a $5, and we thought that would be a bit much.
2-
Thanksgiving really messed up my library schedule (which is that I go in every Thursday and try to get books for the following week's preschool topic. I guess the good news is that SIL works at the elementary school library and is willing to bring me home books when I forget or can't find anything at the library. This week, I had her bring me some books, but she couldn't find enough books about nursery rhymes in her library, so on Monday I went to the public library. The librarian found me another book, plus a few collections of nursery rhymes, and put a book on hold for me that she thought would be good, but was out with a daycare family and was due at storytime on Wednesday. So, yesterday I dropped off the DVD we checked out on Monday(they are only good for 1 week) and the librarian had two books waiting for me. I also completely forgot to look for books for next week's topic (which to be honest, I haven't checked to see what it is yet...gotta be more organized at some point.)
3-
We've been trying to plug away at school, but getting back to a regular schedule is proving to be difficult after thanksgiving and while recovering from sickness. Eva had a reaction to her Amoxicillin, and so now she's on benedryl and has an allergy marked down on her chart. With all the calling and waiting for calls from the doctor's office (not to mention the Girl Scouts and errands in town yesterday afternoon) we didn't get any school done yesterday. We did car schooling on Tuesday to take MIL to a doctor's appointment, so we'll need to do some school today, and possibly might do some more school tomorrow. Our exchange student has the day off today for a teacher inservice, so my little girls have to do school, but she doesn't have to go. I don't think the little girls have figured out she's still here, which is good, otherwise Charlotte would probably go wake her up.
4-
Hubby and I are taking a mini-vacation as our Christmas gifts to each other. I booked the hotel yesterday, so there is no looking back. He has to go to a Knights of Columbus state meeting in January, so I booked a room in the same hotel for two nights before the meeting, and we are leaving behind the girls and the exchange student. Eva and Charlotte will stay with MIL and FIL. SIL will come over here to stay with our exchange student. It's not in the most exciting venue on the planet, but it should be fun to have some time away from the farm.
5-
Speaking of the farm...our bottle calves are being weaned right now, so before too long we will have no personal cows. Of course, one of hubby's uncles has a whole bunch of cows on the circle by our house, so we won't be cow-less. Our poor cats, who seem very attached to the cows, might be a little sad to see them go.
6-
On my to do list - call the vet to have the cats spayed and neutered. Take the car to the body shop (again). The day after I got the chips filled on the windshield (1 week after I got the bumper replaced), I hit a pheasant driving to bible study. It cracked the cover on my passenger side headlight. Well, the headlight has been working sometimes and not working sometimes. On our way home from church and seeing the movie "Tangled" last weekend, we got pulled over for a nonworking headlight. So, I guess I really need to get it taken care of...but I am a little afraid of what I might do to the car next if I take it into the body shop again...
7-
We are going to have a very busy Sunday this week. We usually go to Mass on Saturday nights, but Eva and Charlotte are going to sing the offertory hymn with the Religious Education program, I am substituting as cantor (and MIL is lector, both positions sit on the altar for the whole Mass here...so I really hope hubby and SIL are willing and able to come and sit with and help with the kids). Then, in the late afternoon the Religious Ed classes are having their advent program, followed by a dinner (and Santa...as much as I have pleaded that we don't need Santa at a church thing, no one listens...) Then, at night, hubby and I are teaching our first virtual NFP class online. It looks like we'll have one couple in California, one in Texas and us here in Colorado. I am really hoping it all goes well and that the technology isn't too much for us!
More quick takes at Conversion Diary!
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