Summer Came

Summer came . . . Agent H and Papa doing a little fishing.

35

Somewhere in the last 3 months I turned 35. My husband brought me to the only restaurant that could sooth my belly into a few hours of peace (Noodles & Co.) so we could enjoy a concert at Orchestra Hall. It was a beautiful night.

It also happened to be my first night away from LE Babe (LE Babe and I both survived).

1/11/11

It's only been three months since my last post . . . but really I have a very good reason. A ten itty-bitty fingers and ten itty-bitty toes kind of reason. A "I feel really sick, so only the bare essentials are getting done" kind of reason. Due 1/11/11.

Our wormery

Today we took advantage of the rain and scooped up some worms and made a wormery. I followed the instructions at Hillbilly Jillies. I think I see some fishing in our future. (That is if Agent H doesn't get too attached.)

It started out as a simple "panning for gold" activity as we talk about the CA gold rush in history.

It became a goggle-wearing, head-dunking, swim suit-wearing, surf board move contest kind of morning. I think all these grey days and rain are going to their heads. :)

The boys in their glory . . . .

Rocket Pops

These rocket pop molds have been on my wish list for a couple of years. I took the plunge and added them to my curriculum order on Amazon. Good ol' Amazon. I had some left over spinach smoothie so in the molds it went. The boys were very happy with the results. LBabe got a smaller ring pop version. That way his won't always end up in the dirt or melted. Happy kids. Happy mamma!

I heart CVS

Are any of you doing the CVS point thingie? I've heard about it for a couple of years but have been mostly intimidated by it. It is shocking to hear what people get for such little money actually spent!

I gave it a try. First I checked out iheartcvs.com to find out what the specials were, wrote myself a plan, then I hit the store. Here are my results. I spent under $6 for over $20 worth of product. Admittedly I think the items are over-priced BUT, I think I came out spending less as a total. I only bought products that were on my list of stuff we could use right now. The store employees were very helpful and patient. I think they get a kick out of seeing people do it.

LE Babe

Anyone else smell that?

Window + Markers = Chalkboard

We've been doing more school at the kitchen table than down at the desks lately. I was in need of a chalkboard one day and using the Crayola window markers on the patio door worked well. Agent H ended up doing his copywork on it too.

Note: The markers left smears all over the windows when wiped up with regular cloths. When wiped up with my Norwex cloths my windows sparkled. Dry erase markers work in place of window markers.

Spinning

When you're studying how thread/cloth is made it sure is handy to have an auntie who has a spinning wheel and will travel.

We

love

you

Auntie!

Pagoo

I was looking for a book to read to the boys when I remembered that there was a recommended reading list in the back of our Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory (Agent H's 1st grade curriculum). I ordered two books from our library.

The boys were gifted a couple of hermit crabs recently so in honor of them, we chose to read Pagoo by Holling Clancy Holling. I believe this book was first published in 1957, it's a gem of a book. Beautiful illustrations and words that tantalize your reading senses as this little pagurus finds his way in the big ocean and around the tide pool.

There are a lot of scientific words in this book (most with a phonetical spelling so you know how to pronounce it - thank you very much!) The sentences were big and I don't know that Agent H understood 1/3rd of it but he sat spell bound by the beauty of the words and the adventures of Pagoo. Agent E was fidgity as we read but he also would clamor for "One more chapter please?" There were probably two or three occasions where I rewrote as I read in regards to the age of our Earth.

In my naturalist's wanna-be opinion, this book was naturalist's dream story book. I feel a bit wiser and more well rounded for having read it. I love books that way!

The second book I reserved is The 21 Balloons by William Pene du Bois. We're about to start that adventure this afternoon.

The Hunts 2010

This was the best we could corral the boys for a shot after their egg hunt at my parent's. After all they had eggs to break open!

Agents H & E race to find the eggs that Papa hid around the backyard at our place.

LE Babe was a little more interested in climbing and playing than in hunting eggs.

Easter 2010

Here's our little Easter observance.

My brother asked if it was a pet cemetery or an Easter decoration. Based on our pet track record this month it could be either.

Here's an Easter craft that we did.

- We used white paper place mats.

- I cut out an oval template and taped it over the the placemat, then we used blue tape to make the white spaces on our eggs.

Sometimes I cut the blue tape in half lengthwise before we put it on because I only had the 1 inch tape (easier for detail work). I helped put Agent E's on but Agent H made his by himself.

-Apply the paint and remove the tape before the paint is dry and there you have it.

I've seen lots of tape painting on blogs and have wanted to give it a try. I'd like to do a less planned painting sometime too. Click here for my SIL's version.

Easter morning we spent some time looking over the lapbooks we made last year and cracking open and discussing our Resurrection Eggs.

Tabbed organizer still in process

The little tabbed box over on the right there is not functional yet but I'll keep working on it. If I can figure it out it should be a nice space saver. There's a nice tutorial at Confessions of a Homeschooler.

HTML Editing = Major blog Issues

If you should happen to be passing through, I can explain the formatting mess. It's just that HTML and I don't get along very well. I have hopes that our relationship will soon be reconciled.

Sick

A recap of the first 3 months of 2010 to the current date:

Child one: sick for about one week (yucky cold)

Child two: sick the next week (yucky cold and croup)

Child three: sick the next week (yucky cold)

Momma: sick the next week, a trip to the Minute clinic reveals it to be strep

Child one: the next day a trip to Minute clinic reveals sick with strep

Child two: the next, next day a trip to the Minute clinic reveals sick with strep

Child one: a week later sick with stomach flu

Child three: same day child one has stomach flu he was diagnosed with strep

Breaking news

Papa: sick with strep

Child three: sick with cold

Momma: sick with cold

This is the first time child two and three have ever had an experience with modern medicine (antibiotics). Though I feel discouraged that they had to put it in their systems I am encouraged that they were able to be this old before they "had" to. You just don't mess with strep.

Preschool Theme: Snow

Just like it says, it is SNOW week! All Agent E has to say about it is "when will the snow be gone?" He would be speaking for me as well in years past, but now I keep hoping I can get one more ski run in before it's gone.

The temperatures have been in the 30s and even 40s this week. Watch where you stand outside or you will get dripped on.

Our book this week is The Snowy Day. I purchased it through our local Usborne consultant - me :-). I just love Anna's Milbourne illustrations.

Bean Bag Kick

We're on a bean bag kick around here. We use them the most for spelling quizzes. For every word spelled correctly Agent H gets to throw one at the world map and you know that counts for geography because then he calls out which continent he hit. Double whammy!

>

Here's a batch that I sewed up. They are made of recycled denim and flannel. I stitched the letters

T-R-U-C-K (one on each bag) in red on the denim side. I hope to add to the alphabet.

So with all this bean bag love around here I was inspired to try some rice bag minis.

I stitched some up to post to my Etsy shop. They are so hard to keep your hands off of. They are palm size and just fun to handle. Agent H was all over them at once and bummed to find that they were for the shop. I made up some in his favorite fabric right away. I love being able to create things that my family loves to eat, use, or play with.

A Reusable snack bag

I received these reusable lunch bags for Christmas. I love using them! They are beautiful and functional. Always a good combination. We have used them for EH's lunches, snacks for the kids, and honestly I could very easily see them traveling from the food world into the home organization world that I love so dearly.

From Plum Creek Mercantile

Some day I plan to increase our stock by sewing some and once I can make them look good I'll send some to EH's sis who introduced them to me in the first place. Thank you!

I knew it was too quiet

"Oh, hi momma."

"What's this? Well I was just curious how this color of mineral make-up would look on me . . . and the bathroom."

"See my hand here, I'm not really sure it's my color."

"Aaw, thanks for the bath mom, I don't usually get one until bedtime. You're the greatest!"

A Mom Just Like You

I'm convinced that the best way to get yourself to read a book is to borrow it from a friend.

I mean you don't want to inconvenience a friend who was nice enough to lend you a book (kindly overlooking your recent comment about surmounting library late fees), so it goes right to the top of the stack (and I mean Stack).

I didn't even really waaant to read it, but she's a dear friend and if she recommended it, it's worth a try. Once started, I was hooked.

The book: A Mom Just Like You by Vickie Farris and Jayme Farris Metzger

It's a soothing book for a stretched homeschool mom. She is one who has seen the fruits of her labor in her grown children and is still "in the business" (ten children will do that).

That brings me to another point. Don't read this book if you don't want to be at least slightly swayed by the positive elements of having a large family. I've been pondering this issue and this book really brought home the heart of the issue for me. Hmmm, I think this is a touchy issue. If you're interested check out these podcasts by familylife.com.

Once you get beyond the above issue, there is plenty of practical advise for the homeschooling mom. Now I just wish I had my own copy.

A winter cap

LE Babe gets lots of attention from strangers with this cap. Everyone seems to love it, including LE. Today, he insisted he wear it around the house (with his winter boots of course because they make such a wonderful clomping noise). It even tagged along to nap time, it was still on when he woke up.

Thank you mom for making him this happy cap.

Grumpy Day Frogs

These little froggy fellas look like they are longing for the pond to thaw. Now if only we had a pond.

My mom and I went to a local quilt shop and learned how to make chenille. These frogs were the results of our labors. I consigned an herbalist friend to make me some scented packets to fit inside my frogs. So now these frogs are good for the grumps and bad days. Snuggle up with one of them and let them work their happy wonder. Now that I think of it, I should send one of these to naptime with a certain four year old, maybe it would help with the wake-up crabbies.

Happy Love

Oh happy Love!

Valentine's smoothies from The Sneaky Chef (cherries, strawberries, juice & honey . . . mmmmmm good!)

Little boxes of candy conversation hearts.

A little Michael O'Brien on the iTunes

Some felt love for my Love (littleacorn)

Hanging, twirling paper hearts

Calzones for dinner.

Since the sickies kept us from attending our co-op Valentine's party here's what we did for last years party (I never did get it posted as I had intended). Mucho thanks to one of the coordinator of this year's party who collected valentines in specially decorated bags for my boys. They were overjoyed!!

The few valentines that we did get

passed out his year were of the

smoochy lips and mustache variety,

so much stinking fun!

Papa!

It's LE Babe's new favorite word!

Super-hero

Did someone say they need a super-hero?

Legos in the workboxes

Lego and Family Fun have these great little sets of building instructions (they are free downloads). I've added them to Agent H's workboxes a few times with great results.

Agent E's Day & Party

Birthday tradition says that we go to EH's work and have lunch at SoHo. This year, predicted slippery roads turned our birthday lunch into a birthday dinner. At Chuck E Cheese no less.

It looks like he may be getting a head start on raising our car insurance premiums.

We gave him a sleeping bag for his birthday. The picture kinda says it all. I think he's been sleeping in it ever since.

I thought I had pictures of his cake in my iPhoto but I don't so I'll do some checking with the mister and update this post with them soon.

A new post to Etsy!

Yes my profile shot is desperately outdated, and yes the children are about a year older than those photos over there on the right. BUT, if you scroll down past all that, past the text, there is something new there. Do you see it? Aren't they so February? Who sees the piles of snow out the window or feels the chilly temps outside? I see bright red hair clips with fresh white hearts stitched on them. They are newly posted to my Etsy shop, along with about 10 other items.

Note: I have since updated our photos, yeah! And, if you want to see the red clips you'll have to go to the shop. :)