Good morning

Apparently today I am 33 years young.   I have a brand new coat to prove it.   My hubby got a overtime, and hid the money away for it.  Its beautiful. 

My kids have all sang me happy birthday.   And I'm feeling loved.  *grin*

A e-card from my longest online friend also was wonderful.  Plus her tribute on her blog.  Thanks Kayte.  I needed those words this morning. 

Oh yes and the right to tell Rainee "Go have daddy go dress you, I'm on vacation."  *snicker*  I'm so bad. 

This is the first year I've gotten smart about my birthday.  *snicker*  I gave Rob my favorite clothes catalogue with a bunch of things circled in it.  I told him "These are what I like, their ranged from $10-$100 you pick."   Much more successful that way.  *snicker*   And a catalogue of clothes that are guaranteed to fit me. 

So gonna go peruse the boards.  And see if Berelath likes me...it hasn't much this week.  It takes me like 7-10 tries to get in.   And then *shrugs*  maybe I'll back to bed.  It was after all a long night.

Rainee's sleep apnea has taken a downward spiral.  She's been on it for almost two weeks.   Last night was the worst.  She alarmed 7x.   We kept getting up looking at her...her oxygen was in.   Plugged in, on right.   Wiggle her a bit, and go back to sleep.    It was loverly.  (not)   Tonight I don't have to do it...my mom does.  Aren't I cruel??????????????    

Have a good day everybody. 

Good morning

Todays gonna be better right???   Actually tonight about 7:15 I had a wee break through.  I was surfing to find a new Reader for Zeria...and found this site  Its online animated stories to read.  Very simple reading.  Zeria loved it and read six of them.  And ROFL was mad when I told her it was bedtime and she couldn't read anymore tonight.  If you have a new reader I highly recommend this site.  SUPERB!    Shoot a little bit more advanced reader will probably think its fun.  But specifically designed for 1st grade readers. 

I think that will be school today. 

Rob is on his way to the doctor.  Unless something drastically goes wrong he gets to start putting weight on his leg today.  Can you all hear the cheering???  Trust me we will be.   And then the making him take it slowly is gonna kick in.  Oy thats gonna be a pain in the neck.   This from  the guy that wanted to walk two-miles on crutches to increase his strength.  Cause wouldn't any normal person do that???   His brother informed him no, he was an idiot.   Rob was just so suprised that that wasn't normal.  *giggles*

Rainee actually had a mostly good night's sleep last night.  Only one desat and only for a few seconds.   Of course it woke her up for the morning....at 5:45.  EWWWWWWWWWW

She's had a rough week oxygen wise.   It was part of the reason I melted down.  Her brand new pulse ox broke.  And I knew we have been needing it every night.  Quite often it will take the home care place a week to get a new one.  Fortunately they *gasp* actually had one in stock.   So that made sleeping last night a little better then I thought it would this morning.

It doesn't appear I'm going to have to buy a reader for Zeria.  I was looking online and found one I remembered my sibs using.   I called her and asked if she still has it.  She *thinks* she does.  So gonna go look at her readers today.   And going to see if I can find any more excellent sites like the one I found last night.  Anything that makes Zeria get mad she CAN'T read is definitely a good thing. 

My birthday is tomorrow.   And it appears that unless something goes which I realize is entirely possible.  We are going to spend a night without kids.  *cheers madly*    My parents are going to take them for the night.  We're providing dinner for all.  (Papa Murphy's ROFL)   And then we're gonna go find a local motel and a nice restaurant and relax.  *YEAH!!!!*    

I finally admitted to Rob yesterday that was what I really wanted.  (In tears---all part of mommys major meltdown)  And I also said I know its impossible as mom is just too busy.   He begged....what a nice hubby. 

Other then that I'm gonna desperately try to get the laundry a little bit more caught up.  Which is tricky as our well is extremely low.    Have a day all.

Meltdown...

I had several of those today.    It would be because of the  doughnut, and candy bar I ate yesterday.   Man did I pay for it. 

And when am I going to learn that it just isn't worth the consequences???

Zeria had a meltdown this morning as well.  It was apparently contagious.    At which point I left the kids with Rob and went and hid in town for an hour.  Didn't get accomplished what i wanted.

But came back less likely to meltdown...(I think)

I'm really, really, really tired of this cold.    (teensy whine)

Zeria decided this morning she hated reading.  And so on and so forth ad nauseum.     This afternoon she voluntarily brought a  book to me and we read it quite successfully.     Talk about a bi-polar moment.  

For math we did geometry and double and triple digit recognition.   Whenever mommy found a number on a sign she asked Zeria what it was.  She got pretty good at it.  Its the first time we've worked with hundreds so I was pleased.     We did this this afternoon on our errand trip.

Rainee's pulse ox had quit working and we had to go get a new one.  Also stopped at the farmers market and grabbed some more zucchini.  (MMMMMMM zucchini bread )   And Safeway to get the ingredients for mommys birthday cake.   Unfortunately Samuel managed to get in the van without shoes.  (GROWL!)  So he stayed in the car with daddy while I shopped.   

At the grocery store I had Zeria read all the prices for butter.  And tell me which one was the cheapest.   She did very well.   I was tickled.   Gonna have to do this more.   Its practical math!

Oh Wommie...I'd love to hear your ideas on math.  I'm always open to more suggestions.        I'm having a lot of fun finding ways to teach math without my kids realizing it.    

Bereleth is one of my role-playing boards.  It does NOT like me today.   But I did finally get in for a few minutes without it rejecting me.   Beats it!!!

Other then that I continue to milk this respitory bug...and pray that it departs.    I hate the albuterol shakes. 

Well...

I  was gonna post at Bereleth.   But apparently not.  i can get into Cag, and Diirlathe, but no Bereleth.

*screams*  pitches temper tantrum.

Goes and finds a life.

A brief blog this morning about Unschooling should probably be done. 

I homeschool (obviously)  But there's about as many options in homeschooling as there are colors in the color box.  *snicker*

As any well rounded person will tell you the best option is to pick and choose and use what works and gets the best results. 

I graduated from homeschooling in 1989.   My mom did a lot of textbook education.  And a lot of hands-on-learning.   The learning that stuck with me was the hands-on stuff.   Or self-initiated learning.  For example we'd watch one of our many classic movies based on a period of history.  When I was done watching I'd want to know what parts were true and what weren't.   On my own without prompting  I'd go to the library, encyclopedias etc and find out.   This stuff I still remember to this day.

The stupid history book my mom tried to pass off on me for awhile...oh that was the most boring thing in the world.   The first time I took the standardized test's to evaluate where I was at I tested at college level.  (This in the 8th grade.)  My mom ditched the history text book and let me continue to research on my own.    I probably had a masters level in history by the time I was done highschool....and never opened a history text book.  Just read voraciously because history fascinated me.

This kind of learning is deemed unschooling.   Its deemed that because the child choose what they wish to learn and pursue's it until their satisfied.  Some how my knowledge for history will never be sated.....so I will always be in school.   

A lot of parents ONLY unschool.  It works well for them.   They take teachable moments (like my kids catapault.)  and run with them.   According to their standardized tests, and teacher evaluations they are exactly where they should be grade wise.   

I'm not completely sold on unschooling.  I have reservations.   I.E. who in their right mind would voluntarily learn math????    Can you tell what I hated in school????    This being said I've spent the last several weeks researching how one *would* unschool math and found it fascinating.  Maybe I wouldn't have hated math, if my mom had used a few more teachable moments, and a few less "You will do this, because I said so, and if you don't here's the spanking stick."     I learned math...but it was definitely unwillingly.

Now the math I do remember???  I'm awesome with fractions.  I'm a music major of course I am.   Fractions are an integral part of music.  I'm also a reasonably good cook, cooking and fractions go hand in hand.    I can go to the grocery store bimonthly, keep a running total of what I've spent in my head, and always come out of the grocery store having spent no more then $180.     Leaving me $120 to spend on diapers, etc at Walmart.   So I do math...just never did under stand why two negatives make a positive.  

My sil on the other hand who is an accountant...can NOT do math in her head.  Period.   That's what the calculator is for.   So as an adult I've learned I *am* good at math....the math that is practical for ME.   The rest of it can go be hanged.  ROFL  I can even balance my check book these days....though freely admit I don't enjoy it

Maybe unschooling math will work.  I'm still thinking on that.  

I guess my fears would be what if my kids miss something?  This is why I voraciously research, and evaluate, and I can steer them gently into a direction if we miss it.  For example Zanzivou venting about her niece not counting to 100.  I hadn't ever sat down with Zeria to do that.   Although she *has* done curriculum math all year.   I was rather curious if she could.

I asked her...she can.  So can Sam.   Neither of them learned it sitting down and doing it in a book....

So I'm not a true unschooler, because I *will* be teaching my kids to read, rather then waiting for them to ask.   And I will be gently steering them.    But more and more I lean that way...as I find my kids learning so much...without me having to make the process a miserable experience.

They have a active sense of curiosity that I hope they never loose.  I hope I never make them loose it, by force feeding them when their not mature enough to handle it.  

And now we return back to my normal mom type blogs.  *grin*   But feel free to ask questions.....I love to gab homeschooling. 

Today ended up being a good day.  Went and bought my "legal" sudafed.   And albuterol.   Makes one function much better.  *beams*

Kids had a lovely school day.

For Science we learned about simple machines... i.e. the lever, catapault, and scales.   Wanta see???    This really was a lot of fun.  We worked on it for over an hour.    We had a long board, and two sand buckets.   We found out how many *games* we could play using these toys.    This afternoon we got the boards out again, and made a few more.     This all started from Sam jumping on the board a few times cause it was wobbly.  I suggested he put a toy on the other end and see what happened.  He did.   Zeria was fascinated by the toy flying.   So then we got more creative and put the board up on a bucket.   And we REALLY made them fly.   (25-30 feet in the air.)  

We also discovered it made a pretty good teeter-totter.   A balance beam, a slide (off the play ground equipment you see in the back of the pictures.)   Oh lots of things.   Definitely science...unschooling science.  But science.  And they learned the "proper" scientific names for each of these things...........i.e. lever, scale, etc.  and didn't even know that it was school. 

The next 3 or 4 pictures are our lever/catapault pictures.    I circled the flying toys so you recognized what that blur in the picture was.  *snicker*   Do you think the kids will ever forget what a lever can do????

         

This is getting ready to jump on the catapault.  (Sam just finished jumping thats his toy coming back down.   Several times Sam jumped so hard the board *just* missed hitting him in the face.  *snicker*  And several times they landed on their rumps.   But they were having so much fun they couldn't care. 

Sam *ahem*  also tried to catapault Zeria.  They both landed on their rears that time.  *snicker*

And I'm not telling you that they tried to catapault the kitten.  That would be cruelty to animals wouldn't it???   Cat ran fast...it wasn't intrested in being catapaulted.  (shades of Galen Zanzivou??)    Besides said cat pooped on my favorite chair.  And I sat down on it before I realized it....seven hours later I'm still grosed out.   *sigh*   Stupid feral cat.

And here we have Zeria just jumping, and Sam in process of jumping.   It was fun to experiment to see which flew higher lighter or heavier toys.  And things flew higher when there was less board on the "jumpee's" side then the flyer's side.   All and all it was a satisfactory Scientific experiment....

Even if my kids just thought they were having a ton of fun.

Oh and here's one more teeter-totter picture.  Just cause my kids are cute.    The irony of all these pictures...is my kids have played much longer with these two boards, then the "quad" I bought this weekend.  *snicker*   It figures.

           

Question out of the blue.  Does ANYBODY's kids dolls actually HAVE clothes on them???  Stares at the nekky doll laying on the ground beside the teeter totter.   I keep trying to dress 'em.  My girls disagree about that whole thing.

Oh yes...for math today we did fractions.  (All of us.)  I cut the sandwiches into 1/4's.   And we did addition and subtraction with them.    1/2 +  1/2 = whole.  1/4 + 1/4=1/2   "What would happen if we put them in 6 pieces?"  (From Samuel.)  Etc.   It was a good math lesson.

I didn't open a math book for that either.  We also practiced (Rainee included)  Counting to 30....and sorting cars into colors.  (This while on the road to get mommy meds.  Rainee was quite fascinated with the numbers and repeated each one at least three times.  

For phonics today we read signs.    Reviewed all of the sounds Kaylin and Sam have learned...and added the h sound.   Jamari was very excited about the h sound.  Cause he knows horse has a h sound, and horses are his FAVORITE thing in the whole entire world.  

All and all we had a wonderful school day.   And that wasn't the book part of school.

Zeria actually read two books to me.  One was a bit long for her, and she got rather fed up with it.  The second one was a cinch and she thought it was funny.  I'm gonna pick out a bit shorter ones for awhile so as to not to get her hating reading.  And slowly introduce longer ones.  Her reading is doing very well................except she has the attention of a gnat.

I knew this already.    She is more then likely ADD.  I KNOW Sam is.   *sigh*   But because we homeschool I can do a lot of compensating for it.   Its all the joys of them both being drug babies.   And a big reason we homeschool.    I can avoid the label!

They are both capable of sitting through an hour of Sunday school.  And will sit and listen to Rob read a book for 30 minutes.  I think at 7 and 6 thats quite good considering their background.    Currently Rob is reading Treasure Island--a abridged version.   They just finished The Pink Motel.   

I have started keeping a paper journal of h/s stuff.   I will try not to bore everybody to death every day with what we do.  Unless its not boring ROFL.   But today was so much fun I had to share.  *grin*

Have a good day.     I'm gonna go for a hike with my kiddos before bedtime.

Cause guess what????  I haven't had contractions in almost 3 weeks.  I've started going for short 1/4 to 1/2 mile walks, and am still avoiding them.   This is MAJOR!!!!!!!!!  And a huge praise. 

Good morning,

Today is brought to you by....

cough

sneeze,

hack,

sniff.

Aren't you glad you asked???

I skipped church cause I didn't wish to share.     I was in bed basically 24 hours.  Feel quite a bit better.   At least I'm not dizzy now. 

Rob has to work today...which is fine its time and a half.  *grin*   And I have no vehicle.   We lent it to go pick up the church Alaska Work Crew.   They were in the Aleutian islands helping some missionarys fix there house etc.   

Theory is the van should be back about 11 or so.   But I probably shouldn't go share my germs anywhere.

Was gonna go visit my grandma, but I *know* thats out.  So probably we'll stare at each other today.   Or the tv.  

After all summer of letting the kids open the door...its now officially fall.   I have this sad feeling I will be spending the next 3 months saying CLOSE THE DOOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its already been said 10x this morning and its not quite 8:30.      Don'tcha love seasons changes????

I think I'm going to take DH's vehicle and go get me a Dew....it'll be a long day without one. 

And I think I need to breathe away from my children for a few minutes....

*nods*  Yup.   Cause their annoying me.

Of course that might be because they all wanted their world problems solved while I was trying to used the biffy.   I didn't want to solve their world problems while whiping my derriere.   *whine*

Yup I'm whiney.    Probably cause I'm 29 weeks preggers and can't take anything to stop, cough, hack, sneeeeeze.

I'll return when I can think of one nice thing to say......

it

may

be

awhile.

Good evening

Tried several times to get online today...but my provider didn't think that was necessary. 

Had a truely lovely time garage saling this morning.  Left everyone at home and went alllllllllllllllllllllllllll by myself.   Actually had the energy to enjoy it.   And it was fun!

Got a few pieces of clothing for each of the kids except Sam.  (Including 2 things for bebe in mommys tummee)    So found Sam some dinosaur books and he's equally happy. 

Found a kids pottery wheel with extra clay for all of $2.00.    I'm gonna play with it first    

And after 6 months of watching...Rainee has a "big" girl bed.  This means the crib is now stored....for a short while.  And she's sleeping in a cute white toddler bed with bars.   As Rob pointed out.  The first nights its a novelty and she'll do awesome.  For the next 6 years of her life after tonight we'll be reminding her WHERE her bed and bedroom is. 

The toddler beds that served Zeria and then Kaylin.  And Jamari, and then Sam.   Have died.   Actually Mari is still in his.  But the other one just got jumped on one too many times....

And then there's ummm the splurge.   Justifying it?  Well I wanted it.  (so there )   *snicker*    I found a cute Barbie hot wheel car.  Ya know the kind with a 6 volt battery that you can "really" drive.     It was *ahem* "only" $50.   We've priced them for three years at Walmart.  That was a good buy.  It appears to be lightly-used.  It won't be after my kids get done with it.....

It jumped into my van......*Sniggers*    The kids used it a bit with whatever charge was in it and now its charging waiting for them to love it tomorrow.  Their very very excited about the "quad"  Cause that's rather what it looks like.   

Moved "gramma's" bed back to my moms house tonight.   One guy on crutches, one woman 8 months pregnant, 5 kids "helping"  It got done...but it was all rather hysterical.   I lifted it on to our red wagon.  Kaylin, Jamari, and Sam kept it upright.  While Zeria pulled it to the van.   Rob lifted it into the van.      And then we did the same for the box springs......We really really shoulda had a 6th person video cameraing

Man the red wagon has been used for a lot of umm unique jobs.

I also did a Goodwill run.  And sat on the floor looking through kids books for over 30 minutes.  I can never do that with kids.  LOL.  So have some lovely kids classics to add to the collection.   Bought almost 30 books and spent $12   *grin*     I'm gonna have to do that again.

Oh and just a cute book called "I'm a monkey."   "I'm a monkey,   My father is a monkey,  My mother is a monkey,  My sisters are monkeys,  My brothers are monkeys.  (and so on.)  Zeria loved reading it to me.  *grin*     We've always called grandpa B an orangatang...so we think she should read it to him.....

Oh yes got 6 Paddington Bear books,  a Nancy Drew, a Hardy Boys, and a Trixie Belden book.  Lots of treasures.  I love kids books.  I actually prefer reading them over adult books 3/4's of the time.  No brains required

On that note.....I've read *some* classics.  But I'm trying to broaden my horizon a bit.  But read for enjoyment.  So recommend some classics that you actually enjoyed "PLEASE?"  

Its 12:30 at night.  The sheriff's department, and EMT's just left.  My grandma woke Rob and I up at 10:30 screaming at us.  "Stop throwing apples!  If your gonna throw apples at me, I'll throw them back."  And then she hucked something at us.

That answers all my questions.

I called my dad.  They told us to call 911.  We did.  

I don't ever want to deal with a situation like that again.

Although in the midst of it all my sense of humour kept coming out.  "Doug"  (Rob)  was very bad.  My grandma threatened to switch him.  "She (his mom)  had taught him to behave better then that."  

Doug btw is my grandma's favorite nephew.........

My brother was the paramedic on call tonight.  My grandma told him.  "I hope some day you have grandchildren and you get treated the way your treating me."

The cop was a teenage girl throwing apples...........in my grandma's eyes.

She was involuntarily admitted to the hospital.

When reality hits I'll start crying.

In the meantime....my baby in my tummy is safe.  (Where she was aiming.)  And Rainee is sound asleep.  And amazingly my big kids don't even know that any of this went down.

And so paradise continues.......

 

Good morning. 

I'm almost done editing pictures.  Found some really nice ones of my dad, that none of us knew existed.   And some lovely family snap-shots.  My grandparents were very poor, so I was suprised how much there was available.   If not in the worlds greatest condition.

Although some of the titles were quite funny.  "About 17 years ago."  says one.  Doesn't say who it is.   Or what year it was 17 years ago.   Those ones my dad can stare at if he doesn't know...then I guess we'll delete 'em.    Didn't copy everything.  Only stuff that was relevant to our family.  There were pictures of missionarys, my least favorite uncle, things like that.   Hopefully I guessed right. 

As it was a lot of them have the title baby I don't know.  or who cares on it.  I was getting tired when I did that one.  *snicker*   After breakfast I'll return them to my moms.  And man I can't believe how many hours I spent working on the wretched things. 

Rainee woke up this morning in fine form.   This after her having a bad oxygen night.  We finally had to wake her to get her into a different sleep pattern.  We made this decision after her satting in the 80's for over five minutes.  Fortunately she didn't wake completely....just enough to start breathing again.  I laid there and watched her with the light on.  She was breathing once every 12 seconds.  Not exactly enough with the lung compacity she has.       That's the longest she's just stayed down in the 80's which of course doesn't make me happy.  Usually she'll bump down for a few seconds, and then bump back up to at least 90.  Not last night.  *sigh*   One step forward two backwards....

And go figure she had a 2.5 hour nap yesterday, so that doesn't explain it.

Anyhow Rainee.   She was nursin' and snugglin with me before we got out of bed.   And we started talking about the baby in mommys tummy.  "Baby in tummy?"  "Yes."  "Baby come out of hole?"  "Yes, but not yet."  "But, not button hole."  she added.   Mommy started snickering.  "No not out of button hole."   (belly button.)    "Hole down there,"  she says pointing to the nether regions of my body.  "Yup, baby come out of that hole."

Oh dear...no stork in this house.   *snickers*

And then "I have owie."  "I'm sorry."  We examine the owie she got from the blackberry vines on our walk last night.   "Yup, there's a owie."  (small scratches.)  "Need band-aide."  "No, I don't think so."  I answered.  "NEEEEEEEEED band-aide."  "Okay, go get one."  We keep the band-aids on Rob's side of the bed as we use them for Rainee's oxygen cannula.  "Can't monsters over there."

Where did a 2 year old find out about monsters????  "No, there's no monsters over there."    "Mooooooooooooonsters, can't go, you do it."

Cuddle time is officially over.  Mom must go slay monsters.   "See no monsters,"  "oh, no monsters only kittys."

Apparently I'm a good monster slayer. 

And the last funny for this blog comes from Zeria.  "Mommy, my breathe hurts."  (Well it was hurting me, man she needed to brush."  "Umm, breathe doesn't hurt, the lungs that make the breathe hurt."    *snicker*  Must be time to get the childrens anatomy book out again.