July 1, 2012 Renovations and Homeschooling

I'm so excited, I could almost...well, y'know.  We're finally getting some rooms finished in this house after working on them for two-plus years.  I think I'll take pictures of our hall bathroom this coming week to share. Just for the fun of it, I'll dig out the before pics as well.  We still have a lot of little projects to finish up, like painting closets, a little drywall and tile patch work, painting a couple of single walls, and hanging a few lights, but we're finally wrapping it up on the interior house renovation.  WOO HOO!!!!  Of course, at this point, we could probably lose a child in the weeds that have overtaken the back yard, but we'll get to that soon enough.

We're now starting into the next phase of child rearing-school.  E and I have been dabbling a little with Sing, Spell, Read, and Write for about 5 months now, and she's now on lesson 19 of 36.  I'm amazed at how fast she's soaked it in.  She doesn't care for rote spelling exercises, so I've decided to put that off for a while.  She's now reading mid-1st grade level books with little help, and seems to remember words after having read them only a handful of times.  I figure if we focus on reading first, it will help her learn in all other subjects, even if the learning is self-directed.  I raided our local library on Thursday to stock up on homeschooling reading material.  I've been reading a book called "Homeschool Open House" that gives a glimpse into the typical day at each of 55 families' homeschools.  It's interesting to see the broad range of ways to homeschool.  Some homeschools use a scripted curriculum, some take on a thematic unit approach (where you focus learning in all subjects around a common theme), and some use a style called "unschooling" which, from my understanding, allows the student to guide learning around his or her own interests.  I have a little more studying to do to determine what route we will start out with, but I'm getting so excited to moving on to science and math, especially.

Homeschooling, etc. April 2, 2012

Like strawberry milk through the sippy cup of our son...so are the days of our lives.

A lot has happened in two years; therefore, I don't care to write the novel to describe it. :-) Still working on the house renovations. Some trim, a little paint, a couple of shelves and we're close to finishing the interior. One day, I'll have the pleasure of posting before and after pictures. A lot of backerboard, spackling, and tears (and a little blood from where Dad smashed his finger in the laundry room) have gone into this place!

Lately, we've started dabbling in the homeschool arena. I say dabbling because I still feel like we're in limbo. Not sure whether to call E a kindergartener or a first grader. I've caught a lot of grief from different people over the homeschooling decision, but it just seems to make sense for us. Why homeschool? Well thank you for asking. The main reason we've decided to start homeschooling is because of all the junk that kids are exposed to these days in public school. We could send the children to private school, but let's face it, I'm too cheap for that. After paying for a K-8 Education degree, we may as well use it! In addition, homeschooling allows us to move along at our own pace, slowing down when necessary and skipping the lessons we know the kids already have a handle on. It's hard to beat a 1:1 student to teacher ratio!

We started by just learning letter sounds and reading simple books, but then I figured it would be nice to have some kind of actual curriculum to provide a more structured framework on which to build our own curriculum. Right now, we're using the Sing, Spell, Read, and Write first grade program. E seems to be catching on very easily. I'm trying to stress fluency at this point with reading. I find the little controlled phonics books VERY boring, and I think E does also. I plan on sticking with their plan for a while to see how it goes.

To make the learning experience a little more fun, we're going to start a unit of study on birds. Tomorrow I plan on taking E to the library to pick out bird-related books. Shane thought we were going to be feeding the little stinkers that like to roost (and defecate) on our back porch. He breathed a sigh of relief when I told him I had looked up what those flying pests eat and bought seed without it. Sorry, no cracked corn, millet, or milo here! Three types of feeders will go up and we'll try to document in a journal what kind of birds come to eat. I bought thistle seeds and a sunflower seed mix today. We also have some hummingbird feeders we will put up. I'm hoping we didn't miss our little dive bombing friends!



Little A-girl is rolling over now. She rolls in no particular direction at this point, but it's obvious that the little blob stage is now coming to an end. The last couple of weeks, she's been crying when strangers or someone she hasn't seen in a while make faces at her or try to pick her up. She could sleep a little better at night, but does better than J did when he was her age. She's a pretty happy baby overall and loves when E and J give her attention. Emily loves to do her silly tongue waggling, and J makes goofy faces and likes to dangle toys for her to grab. He's been known to make her cry then try to shove the paci in to get her to stop before I notice.

The Fork Incident

After finishing her dinner yesterday, Emily got down from her usual spot at the table. I asked her if she could please put her fork in the sink. She told me "no" and proceeded to throw the fork onto the floor beside her. This angered me a bit, so I reprimanded her for fork throwing and proceeded to pick the fork up and place it in the sink. I then told her that since she did not put the fork in the sink, she could not have any Nerds. The angry eyebrows magically vanished and her hands dropped from her hips. She then responded, "OK, I'll put the fork in the sink, Mommy!" I then informed her that I had already put her fork in the sink and that she missed her chance to get the nerds by not doing what I asked. Figuring the conversation was over, I went back to eating dinner.

As I was about to take my next bite, I heard the silverware drawer open. Glancing over to see what Emily was into, I witnessed her take a fork out of the drawer, prance across the kitchen, toss the clean fork into the sink, and declare "Okay, Mommy, can I have some nerds now?"

Emily and Elvis 5-4-2010

Counting the Days; House of Pain

Diggin' fer gold. 2-12-2010

"Hey, buddy. What's happenin'?" 2-12-2010

Taking a little ride. 1/32 horsepower engine. 2-12-2010

Emily wanted "five" ponytails. She got four, but who's counting? 2-21-2010

Josias taking a picture of himself. 2-21-2010

Emily with crazy hair after piggy tails 2-20-2010

Shane doing taxes. Hee haw! 2-20-2010

Well, it looks like we'll finally get to move to the permanent house in about 18 days (March 18). I'm just a little excited. Not looking forward to going through all the "stuff", but I am a little giddy over getting our printer, crockpot, and stroller back. I'm also excited about purging out all the stuff we haven't used forever and no longer need. We should be hosting a huge yardsale around the end of April, if you'd like to come buy our treasures (i.e. junk)!

For now, we'll continue renting off of some friends of ours. We've been staying in a 3 bedroom/ 2 bath house with a living room and den. It's been a good setup as they had some furniture and cooking utensils in the house already. Shane's been walking to work, and the house is also close to the church. I think I've filled up the gas tank on the van once in the last month :-) The price of gas for the house is a different story. The kids have taken over the living room with toys (no furniture, just toys and a rug), but for some reason every time I look down, they are running around my legs. I sometimes feel like a small planet with two very loud moons.

The largest toy in the living room is a pop-up tent that Mamaw and Papaw bought the kids for Christmas. It's a pink princess tent, but it has come to be called "House of Pain". It seems that every time the kids get in there together, someone is getting bludgeoned or getting their hair pulled out.

A Man, a Pregnant Woman, and a Barn

One dark evening, a man and a woman trudged over the desert ground, the woman perched upon the family donkey, the man walking closely beside. The burrow stumbled, throwing the woman off balance. "If we hit too many more rocks, this baby's coming tonight!" the woman blurted. "Can we please stop for a minute? I really need to go to the bathroom."

The man, a little irritated, replied, "Honey, can you wait until the next big rock? You've already gone every half hour today. I was really hoping to get there tonight. We've been traveling a week already. The rest of our group is probably already there." Nevertheless, the man stopped to let her relieve her discomfort. Eventually, they trailed into town. Finding no vacancies in the local hotels, they made their way to the stable to spend the night. The rest, as they say, is history.

Have you really ever thought about why they had to stay in the barn? :-)

Image from www.thecoloringspot.com

Little Update

Just a little note to let you know we're finally in New Mexico. We're renting a house from some friends while we look for a place of our own. Praying God will show us where we need to be. We miss our friends in Alaska, and we're so thankful for the friends God has given us here as well. They have made the transition back so easy for us.

At the moment, we are watching the Buckeyes win against Oregon in the Rose Bowl. Fourth quarter and we're finally pulling ahead a little. Go Bucks!

We pray you have a wonderful 2010!

The Test

Woo hoo! Shane passed the test today!

12-13-09 Brookings Inn Resort Motel Fire

Well, the blog did not get posted last night because there was a little “incident” as I was getting ready to post it. To keep it succinct (times are estimations, of course):

11:30 pm Uploading pictures and checking email on computer
12:40 am Shane rolls over and asks the time
12:50 Hear distant but loud banging outside. Check to see what it is. Police officer banging on door of motel room on the other end of our L-shaped building. Look to see woman in parking lot motioning me to come out of room. Think it is weird, write it off as domestic dispute, and wake dear husband.
12:53 Shane arises, peeks outside. We see smoke billowing out from under eave of roof on other end of building. Suspect it’s on fire. Decide to get our junk together in case of evacuation. Wake up inlaws.
12:55 Peek outside the window again to see open door and flames starting to roll out of entire length of eave of the other end of the motel. Start moving a little faster. Quickly decide it’s best to evacuate the building. Mona drops suitcases over side of railing to lower level. Decide not to do the same with the children.
1:00 Pull vehicles away from building. Stand in awe as firefighters drench the building with water and check the building for trapped inhabitants.
3:00 Finally get to bed for the second time.

Praise God that nobody was hurt! Our room was not touched by the fire though it did get a little smoky as we were exiting. We finally got to bed around 3 am. The motel moved us to the far other end of the complex in a separate building. Complimentary lodging and breakfast. It was definitely enough excitement to last the next few days.

Things we learned from this experience:
1. First floor is better for evacuating a building.
2. Motel is preferred over hotel in case of fire, so you do not have other people blocking the exit.
3. Check the smoke detectors.
4. Prayer for God's protection during travel is wonderful. God is good!
5. Keep the phone connected even if the 15-month old likes to play with the buttons because you may want to get the call telling you there’s a fire in the building and you need to evacuate. Oops.

Yes, that's fire on the top right. This is after the firemen had already doused the building with water.


The Aftermath:

I guess they had just replaced the roof.

12-12-09 Traveling the Oregon Coastline

We started out in Seaside, Oregon, today. Slightly overcast in the morning leading to clear skies around noon followed by rain, rain, and more rain into the evening. The rocky and mountainous coastline provided stunning views of the Pacific and all the little inlets and rocky crevices that we sped by today. We saw moss-covered trees, sand dunes, volcanic-looking rocks, and sandy beaches. Even the bridges were fascinating. There were several concrete-looking bridges that reminded me of the old West End Bridge in Portsmouth, OH. The difference being the ones here had a concrete exterior not metal (though I suspect the concrete may have been hiding the bones of the bridge). We crossed a drawbridge, and saw an interesting spinning-type bridge from a distance. The center of the bridge could spin 90 degrees on a central axis to allow water traffic to cross.

I was pleased that one of our first stops was the Tillamook cheese factory in Tillamook, Oregon. For those of you who really know me, you know my love for cheese. It was a good stop-cheese samples, cheeseburgers, and Emily especially loved that Santa had decided to stop by. She cracks us up. When Santa (or anyone else for that matter) asks her what she wants for Christmas, she doesn’t ask for doll babies or Barbies, she always answers “a candy cane” instead. Josias was absolutely terrified of Santa. He lasted about two seconds on his lap.

Yesterday we noticed that Emily was singing “She’ll Be Comin’ Around the Mountain”. We realized she was singing her own modified version as we overheard, “she’ll be comin’ around the monkey when she comes…”

Mona started the movie “Up” for her yesterday morning. She watched it all day yesterday and all day again today. (Yes, I know that most of you are thinking that is a little excessive.) The crazy part is that we think she watched the beginning about 87 times and the ending only once because every time we would stop for gas, to look at something interesting, or to get something to eat, it would start the movie over from the beginning. Mona said it was kind of like the movie “Groundhog Day” modified for toddlers J

Last thing of mention is that I got pulled over by an officer in one of the little towns along US 101 today. Speeding. Forty-one in a thirty. Thankfully he had pity on us and just gave me a warning. I don’t know if it was the screaming kids in the back of the van or the revelation that the rest of our party was miles ahead of us. Of course, there’s always the possibility that he was just a nice guy.

Pop and GG (Mona and Larry)

This one's for Mamaw Karen

Behold: The Power of Cheese :-)

Emily and Shane

GG and Pop

Emily and the Man in Red

Josias was terrified of him.

Carrying on the family tradition.

Crazy hair!

Father and son. Larry and Shane.

Lighthouse

A little closer look.

Alaska Marine Highway-Day 3

Well, today was Day 3 of our Alaska Marine Highway ferry experience. We saw a couple more lighthouses today. One of which the steward announced, “Shortly, there will be a beautiful lighthouse coming up on the starboard side.” Emily and I were in the theatre watching Snow Dogs, so we rushed outside to take a picture. It didn’t take long for me to drag her out onto the deck (figuratively kicking, literally screaming), but the ship was already way past the lighthouse. I’m not sure what ship the steward thought he was on, but it was obviously not ours!

This reminds me that as GG, Emily, Josias, and I were returning from the cafeteria at one point in the day, Josias was walking while looking down to watch his feet go. He had picked up a little steam when he suddenly rammed his forehead into a post that was sticking out into the hallway. He hit it so hard that he lost his balance, and fell flat on his back. Thankfully, he’s the type that can take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’, so after a little cuddle he was back on his feet again. I personally think he gets the hard head from his father :-)

Today, the steward asked that we conserve water because apparently the freshwater pipes had burst in Bellingham, WA, so they would not be able to refresh their water supply there. I told Shane about the water restriction and he replied, “Eh, we’re getting off, what do we care?” My thoughtful husband.

Today was slightly overcast, but it was better than yesterday. We saw a little more rough water today. Thankfully a majority of it was around naptime, so I gave the kids Benadryl and we all laid down for a nap. The glories of modern medicine!

Lunch and dinner were of the inexpensive variety. We ate whatever we could find in our food boxes and cooler. Emily and Josias had chicken “muggets”, and Shane and I had chimichangas. Cheese and crackers, bruised apples, chips, and bananas were also on the menu. I’m not sure what GG and Pop had, though I think GG may have skipped lunch due to the swaying of the boat/Anavert combo. Dinner consisted of canned pears, mandarin oranges, and hotdogs for the midgets. I choked down some Spaghetti-Os that they refused to eat. Guess our kids are weird. I figured at least one of them would like them. Wrong again!

This evening, we followed the kids as they did laps around the ferry. The longer we stayed in our cabin, the more trouble they got into, so to save our sanity and to stop playing the “no game", we wandered the halls. Josias loves going up and down the stairs, and Emily likes pushing the buttons on the elevator, so we did a little of each. The toddlers’ play area onboard is pretty horrible, so they spent about five minutes there stacking and knocking down the sponge-filled blocks. Josias likes sweeping the floor with the little automatic broom thingy. I think Emily has as much fun going around talking to people than anything.

At the end of the day, we made a car run. At several times throughout each day, the crew allows the passengers to go to the car deck to trade out luggage and feed/water/walk their pets. Shane and I had already taken a load down and I went up to get another load. When I returned, Shane was at the CR-V, but I needed in the van. I thought maybe he had left the van unlocked, so I tried opening the back hatch of the van. What the heck was I thinking? My anal retentive husband leave a vehicle unlocked for five minutes-yah, right! So there I stood giving two thumbs up as our car alarm blared, all the dogs barked, and everyone stared. Just call me Slick.

Tomorrow morning we are due to arrive in Bellingham. From there, we’re back to driving 6-8 hours a day. The ferry was fun while it lasted. It sure beat driving through Canada all cooped up the in the car, driving snow covered roads at high speeds. Geez, this was like a mini-vacation.

Alaska Marine Highway-Day 2

Disclaimer: I cannot find my USB cord, so I'll have to post pics later. Sorry :-(

This is a copy of my (Olivia's) journal entry.

Well, today is our second day aboard the Malaspina ferry. As part of the Alaska Marine Highway system, it runs from Haines, Alaska, to Bellingham, Washington. Emily keeps asking when we can drive our car off of the boat. She’s also been asking to go see the “cathin”. We keep telling her it’s pronounced “CAP-ten”, and she’ll pronounce it correctly if she repeats it after us, but she goes right back to pronouncing it wrong. She thinks the captain is playing in his room though we keep telling her that he's probably driving the ship.

I think everyone but me got up today around 7 am. I think I rolled out of bed a little later. Seven thirty, maybe. Oooh, just felt a swell. How fun :-P

Pop and GG took the kids down to eat some breakfast while I finished getting ready. They chowed on blueberry pancakes, hashed browns, and biscuits and gravy. I decided to eat cheap, so I put some oatmeal in a bowl, grabbed a bagel and o.j., and headed down to join them after I got dressed. Emily’s been wearing her winter boots because I couldn’t remember where I put her tennis shoes. Anyway, the only microwave available to the public is at the extreme other end of the boat in the cafeteria. I ended up feeding half of my oatmeal to Josias, ate half the bagel, and devoured the rest of GG’s hashed browns and ¾ of a blueberry pancake. Pretty good eats.

After breakfast, I figured it’d be kind of nice to take Emily to see a movie. Bolt was supposed to be playing at 9 am, so we trekked down the hall to go see it. It sounded like the movie was playing, but the door was locked, so we knocked on the door. No answer, so we asked around to see what the deal was. The Purser’s desk person acted all bothered because the door was locked and was freaking out a little because she thought they’d have to start the movie over. I explained that it wasn’t necessary because we’d already seen it twice and that Emily didn’t know any different anyway. It was only about 15 minutes in when they finally let us into the room. She really seemed to enjoy it (i.e. she stared at the screen as if she were in a trance).

Following the movie, we headed back to our cabin. It’s a 4 berth cabin with 4 bunk beds and a sitting room. It’s pretty small, but at least it has a bathroom and sink of its own. Josias keeps trying to eat the soap and escape through the door. Emily likes trying to climb up the ladders to the upper bunks. She likes just sitting up there playing like she’s going to sleep. (Mona’s snoring like a freight train right now.)

Josias took a nap shortly after we returned to the cabin. GG took Emily to go watch movies on the laptop, so I decided to read a book. Haven’t been able to do that forever. I only got through about 8 pages, but it was fun while it lasted. I ate a sandwich, some chips, an apple, and some crackers and cheese for lunch.

At some point in the day, I took Josias upstairs to the forward viewing deck. He had a blast walking up and down the ramp that goes up to the room. What a view-180 degrees. We passed by two lighthouses today on our journey. Talk about secluded. They were out on little islands in the middle of nowhere. I thought of my aunt, Linda, when I saw them. She likes lighthouses and is pretty much a hermit.

We ate in Ketchikan this evening at the Best Western. The food was alright. I ordered two kids platters for me and the kids. Shane had chicken fried steak, Mona had some Mexican dish, and I’m not sure what Larry had. It was smoky in there, which did not help my almost-headache I had before departing the boat. Josias was being silly at the restaurant as he asked for food. He kept squealing “Bi!” for food (meaning "bite"). He would squint his eyes really tight as he was saying it. He started signing “Please” as rubbing his tummy with both of his hands. I guess it works since 99% of the time he would use “please” because he’s asking for food. Ha!

Drugged everyone this evening with Benadryl or Dramamine. Baby had the former, Emily & I had the latter. Shane took nothing, so I hope he’s not barfing on me at midnight. I’m hoping the rest of our ferry voyage goes smoothly.

12-08-09 Pictures from AMHS ferry

Emily in front of the "big boat"

The Ferry

The line of cars behind us waiting to board the boat.

All kinds of vehicles boarded the boat including monstrous recreational vehicles (RV) and U-Haul trucks. They even drove a small semi truck off of the ferry before we entered it.

The city of Haines as we left.

Sorry, I had to include this misused apostrophe at the gift shop onboard. Just for you, Mr. T ;-)

The view from aft.

Our first lighthouse sighting.

12-07-09 Pictures of Historic Ft Seward in Haines, Alaska

An upclose look at that chimney just for Ed :-)

Olivia, Emily & Mona (GG)

Here are some pics I took of the Historic Ft. Seward area of Haines, Alaska. The houses were gorgeous as was the view of the inlet.