Curmudgeonry

The Reason I Usually Keep Markers on the Top Shelf

2012-01-25T17:07:00.001-06:00

While my back was turned...

Quick Takes

2012-01-13T11:38:00.000-06:00

--1--

Just in case you all got the mistaken impression that I have it all together, the other morning, I found my 18 month old sitting on the kitchen counter, munching on an apple he'd helped himself to as well as a leftover pancake I hadn't put in the refrigerator yet, whilst spooning the sugar out of the sugar bowl into a dirty teacup (with a generous helping for the counter).

--2--

Further evidence? Look what is still sitting on my front porch greeting visitors?

At least the Christmas tree is down and out of the house.

--3--

But in good home management news, my husband (note that it was not me, who deserves the credit here) did a massive cleaning of our bedroom and we've managed to keep it clean for two whole weeks. When something has been a mess and is finally clean, I practically want to throw a party just to show off the lovely clean space. This might have something to do with the facts revealed in the first two quick takes.

--4--

We started our school back this week after Christmas break. Monday was difficult. My seven year old told me it was all my fault that she'd forgotten how to do everything, since I had chosen to give them such a long break. Tuesday went much better though. This week has been the last week in our second quarter. I'm still in the process of writing the plans for the next quarter. It is a slow process which always makes me envy those people who buy a set of plans, buy the books to go with those plans and call it good. But whenever I look at the plans I could buy, nothing quite suits me, and so I go on writing my own.

--5--

By the way, I've uploaded a few more things (mostly last quarter's plans) to my St. Bede's Academy page.

--6--

If you are wondering, I still haven't found a new doctor or midwife. What? I still have a pumpkin on my front porch and you expect me to get in a hurry about these things?

--7--

Currently stuck in my head, thanks to children replaying it and then singing raucously around the house:

Thai Lentil Soup, or I would have taken a picture, but the locusts ate it all

2012-01-06T07:30:00.000-06:00

My original plans for dinner didn't appeal when the time came to cook them, and yet the children keep insisting on being fed multiple times per day, whether I want to cook or not. So I had to figure out what did sound good to me, and I decided on Thai lentil soup. Only, I've never cooked such a thing and had no recipe. A bit of Googling didn't yield quite what I was looking for, so I had to start inventing -- and fortunately for me, my pantry was well stocked with strange food items. Here's the recipe, for posterity and because I've been told I need to make it again soon, so I'd better remember it. This makes a lot, but my family ate every single bit (not that my family isn't on the large side) -- even the 3 and 5 year olds asked for more than one helping.

Thai Lentil Soup

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2-3 carrots, peeled and diced
1 lb. French lentils
10 cups chicken broth
1 can coconut milk
2 teaspoons Thai red curry paste
dash of fish sauce
salt and red pepper flakes to taste
2-3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
chopped peanuts or cashews to garnish

Heat oil in large soup pot over medium heat and saute onions until very soft, about 10 minutes. In the meantime, place lentils in a heat proof bowl and cover with boiling water for 15 minutes.
Drain lentils. When onion is softened, add garlic, ginger, lemon zest and carrots. Saute for 5 minutes.
Add lentils, broth, coconut milk, curry paste, fish sauce, salt and pepper.
Cover and bring to a boil. When boiling lower heat to a simmering temperature, uncover, and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, stirring occasionally.
Add cilantro. For a thicker soup, blend part of the soup in a blender or for a few seconds with an immersion blender.
Garnish with peanuts or cashews.

WWJD?

2012-01-03T15:55:00.001-06:00

"Shhhh..." I leaned over to silence my chatty three year old during the consecration at Mass.

"Jesus is here," I whispered.

"Really?" She glanced around. "What car did he drive?"

WWJD? What would Jesus drive?

Doctors, Nurses and Quandries

2012-01-02T18:53:00.001-06:00

I hate change. As long as something works, I'm loathe to change it, even when something better comes along. I don't even like making changes when things really don't work. You might say I'm a natural conservative.

And thus I find myself in the midst of a dilemma. My OB has delivered all 6 of my children. I think he is great and I really like him. I've been going to see him for 13 years. But, over those 13 years his practice has radically changed. It used to be a small 4 doctor practice where they rotated you through the doctors so that you knew everyone.

Now? They've moved to a maze of offices you could get lost in. I'm not even sure how many doctors and midwives they have. You never meet most of them and have no idea who will be there at delivery. At least one of the receptionists can't even pronounce my doctor's name. So, it is neither friendly, nor small. And my doctor? He now sees patients one afternoon per week. Meaning that in the next 6-7 months, I can actually see him 3 times. Have I mentioned I don't like most of the other doctors?

But my dislike of the doctors is surpassed by my dislike of the nurses, who seem to see their job as keeping patients away.

This pregnancy has been difficult and different. After this many pregnancies, I had certain expectations about what my normal would be. When this pregnancy felt very different, I called asking for either an earlier appointment or at least an earlier blood draw, to check certain things which run in my family and fit some of my symptoms.

No. The nurse told me everything was normal. Since I wasn't bleeding or in severe pain, I didn't merit any early visit, and I didn't need any extra or early blood work either, but that what I wanted checked would be looked into in the normal course of things when I came in. I was too tired to pursue it and just waited.

When I finally had a check up, I found the blood work I wanted wasn't on the typical panel, but based on family history the doctor added it. And it came back a bit off. I also found out that it is something that given my circumstances should have been pursued as soon after I found out I was pregnant as possible. Thank you helpful nurse.

So though I like my doctor, I'm not going to see much of him. I don't like the practice. But I do want to deliver at the hospital where this practice delivers, and there aren't that many others that deliver there. I hate making changes. I don't want to go interviewing doctors or midwives, but I'm afraid the handwriting is on the wall and the time has come.

And so I keep putting it off, but I suppose I have some phone calls to make.

The Mysterious Disappearance -- Explained

2011-12-29T22:19:00.002-06:00

I suppose there are probably one or two of you out there wondering where I've been for the past months. I shall now explain.

My classy children picking Einstein's nose.

It all started with a family trip to Legoland. I'm not sure what got into us. We never say yes to anything, but when the kids asked if we could go to Legoland Florida when it opened, we agreed. It was a lot of fun and when we went, in the off-season and when the park was in its second week, it wasn't jam-packed, lines weren't too long and the rides were fun.

When we got home after a week of Lego-ing and hanging out with my inlaws, I meant to write several posts, but I was exhausted. And then there was Halloween.


A monkey, Legolas, Snow White, Arwen, Hermione, and a Little German Boy -- in case you were wondering.

And then I found out why I was so exhausted.

Indeed. And thus far this has been the most miserable pregnancy I've ever had. Up until now, I've been the perfect pregnant lady in the first trimester. No nausea. Minimal exhaustion. Hah. The rules change when you get old and are on your seventh baby. Now, compared to my friends who spend weeks and months actively hanging over a toilet, I have still had it relatively easy, but I spent many uncomfortable weeks feeling constantly seasick. The exhaustion has really done me in though. I've been falling asleep extremely early and longing to sleep late whenever possible. I can't seem to focus on much of anything, and that, coupled with an early bedtime, is the real reason my blogging has become non-existent.

I'll try to be back soon though, if I can just wake up a bit. I have much to say.

The Days are Long

2011-10-20T17:27:00.001-05:00

Although, I have recently been trying to remind myself that the years are short, too often I find myself stuck instead in the long days.

Last night my husband and I found ourselves awake at midnight putting our bedroom back together after a hard struggle with an awesome and gigantic wool rug, I'd snagged before it headed to the dumpster, because it was too big for the spaces in which people needed a rug. So I didn't start off the day with a full complement of sleep.

Naturally, the baby has a fever and doesn't want to be put down. The oldest is mad at me for not buying him the math program he really wanted to use, and the kids in between are all really loud.

I long for peace and quiet. I hear that some day the kids grow up, move out and you long for a little noise. Right now I could just do with a nap.

Instead I'll just keep repeating,"Bedtime isn't so far away."

That's Not Quite It

2011-10-18T15:45:00.001-05:00

Moments after the five year old pounded the three year old for trying to erase his drawing and she pounded him back in retaliation, I overheard the following from the five year old, "You should remember the Golden Rule. It says, 'Do unto to others what they do to you.' So if you hit me, I can hit you back."

Back to the religious and general kindness education drawing board.

Beautiful Butterflies

2011-10-18T11:52:00.000-05:00

Our caterpillars are slowly emerging from their chrysalises as big, beautiful butterflies*.

*Spot the allusion.

Quick Takes -- Meet the Bloggers Version

2011-10-14T06:33:00.000-05:00

One of the best things about blogging, in my opinion, is the chance to meet really nifty people, whose paths might never have crossed mine otherwise. There are a whole lot of people I'd love to meet that I haven't yet gotten to, but I have had the pleasure of meeting many awesome ones too. Yesterday, I got to hang out with the Darwins and Betty Duffy on their way to New Orleans and in honor of their visit, I present seven cool bloggers (or former bloggers) I've been lucky enough to meet and hang out with.

--1--

Meredith. Not currently blogging, as far as I know, but even her archives are wonderful. When we first realized we lived in the same city, we met up at the library and then she, always the lovely hostess, invited me over. Since then we've done many things together, even going to the same parish church. Happiest for me, my husband and I were honored to become Godparents to her youngest.

--2--

Robbo. Living all the way over in Virginia, I didn't figure I'd get to met him, but my family spent a day in Virginia on the way to England a few years ago and got to hang out with one of the original Llamabutchers. My children still call him Mr. Llama, I think.

--3--

BusyMom. I first met her back in 2004 or so, when blogging was newish and all. We don't hang out often, although we also live in the same city, but she's such an interesting blogger and she's been at it a long time.

--4--

Angie. The force behind Catholic Mothers Online and other projects, I got to meet her and chat and pray the rosary at Blissdom a few years ago. She's a lot of fun in person and has many great online ventures.

--5--

Terry Oglesby. His blog may be mostly dead or pining for the fjords, but in its day it was my favorite stop on the internet. He's got a way with words and a perfect sense of the ridiculous and his commentors were their own little special group. We got to stop and have lunch with Terry, bring him a stuffed toy possum and meet his Volvo project car one time on the way through Alabama. It was awesome.

--6--

Betty Duffy. I just got to meet her this week. Yay. Made me happy!

--7--

Mr. and Mrs. Darwin. Instrumental in a weird, blogging way for our conversion to the Catholic Church, they've dropped by on their way through town twice now. Once with many little Darwins and once this week. Nashville was a good stopping place to have a flat tire fixed and fortunately, we have a tire place down the street. They were nice enough to give me time to hide the dirty laundry and clean the bathroom, which is always good.

--Extras--

There are many other bloggers I've gotten to meet, particularly at Blissdom, and then there are the people I have known before I knew them online in blogging -- Jo-Lynne, Tertium Quid, and Nadja.

Then there's the time my daughter tripped over Glenn Reynold's laptop bag at a Panera in Knoxville, but I don't think that counts as a blogger meet-up.

Honeymoon in Chattanooga

2011-10-12T12:03:00.000-05:00

When my husband and I got married, I was in the middle of grad school and he was a senior in college. Needless to say, we didn't have a lot of money to spend on a honeymoon. We also had no intention to go into debt for a fantastic destination honeymoon either, because let's face it -- our honeymoon priorities didn't involve a whole lot of site seeing.

We married in December near our college campus of Sewanee and had our reception in the student union building. For our honeymoon, we stayed close by and drove down the mountain to Chattanooga.

Our hotel reservations were for a modest room in the a fancy bed and breakfast, now known as The Mayor's Mansion, though at the time it bore the name Adams-Hillborne. When we walked in, still in our wedding finery, the owner of the hotel was at the desk. She took one look at us, and upgraded our reservations to the honeymoon suite, which was full of lovely antiques and a giant soaking tub.

We spent the next day walking around the art district, drinking coffee, and visiting the local Indian restaurant. The following day it snowed and made the whole place a bit slippery, but beautiful. On the third day, it was time to pack up and drive to my tiny grad student apartment in Tuscaloosa and begin the real work of married life.

I think our brief honeymoon was a preview of how things would continue on. We still rarely travel far from home. We still like antiques, Indian food, and just hanging out together. And my husband and I have frequently recommended to friends getting married, when they've asked for our opinion, that they take into consideration what they really want out of a honeymoon, because often it isn't really about the amazing destination, but the start of a life together.

Linked up with Betty Beguiles' honeymoon discussion.

The State of the Garden

2011-10-06T10:34:00.001-05:00

The state of the garden is pathetic. Actually, my garden is supposed to be like a reverse mullet -- party in the front (flowers) and business in the back (veggies). The veggie part is mostly pathetic, but the tomatoes and some of the herbs carry on. But the front yard? I've given up -- at least for this year.

No doubt to my neighbor's dismay, the milkweed, hackberries and crepe myrtles are trying to take over and doing a pretty good job too. However, even in the chaos, there is beauty -- not in the plants, of course. They just look terrible.

But butterflies have been hiding in the weeds (and in my dill) and now their eggs have become caterpillars. We've collected a whole host of black swallowtail caterpillars munching on my dill.

I found a monarch caterpillar in amongst all the milkweed yesterday and most beautiful and special of all, I actually found a monarch chrysalis hanging out in the weeds too.

Much more exciting than an overpriced butterfly kit and a lovely gift from my neglected garden.

Homeschooling Meme

2011-10-05T12:13:00.002-05:00

If you get tagged on the internet and it takes you almost a month to catch on, does that make you a doofus? As the lovely and talented Kimberlee of Pondered in My Heart notes, there's nothing like a meme to help pull one out of the not-blogging slump, though it does take noticing the tag to make that happen.

A brief background to our homeschool -- this is the sixth year I've been homeschooling. My oldest went to preschool and Kindergarten at a hippie, German (ie Waldorf) school. None of the others have ever been to school outside of our house. I'm fully schooling three of my sixth children this year and slowly adding in my almost 5 year old with reading and math lessons.

One homeschooling book you have enjoyed:

Limiting myself to one book is always terribly difficult, but although there are several books, I love and find influential, the book I turn to first, last and most often is The Well-Trained Mind. Honorable mention probably goes to Elizabeth Foss's Real Learning.

One resource you wouldn't be without:

The internet. I use it for research both of new curricula and things we want to learn more about. Youtube videos on history, architecture and science help us round out studies and there are wonderful science resources out there to add to the kids' understanding of all sorts of topics, making them clearer than just our simple experiments or my explanations.

I also find the friendships I've developed to be instrumental in keeping me going, when the companionship of 6 short people begins to wear me out at times.

One resource you wish you never bought:

There are various products that haven't worked out all that well for us. One science curriculum that I thought sounded lovely with lots of books to build and hands-on crafty projects, that I tried twice and both times my kids begged me to stop and never do again. My one venture into Catholic spelling and grammar books was kind of a wasted year in those subjects and everyone was grumpy. But most things I've used have worked out pretty well at least for someone. Sometimes the perfect program for my oldest has been a dud with my next child, but I don't think there has been too much I regret greatly.

One resource you enjoyed last year:

Last year, we had a lot of great hits. My oldest daughter went from hating math to loving it with Teaching Textbooks. We loved studying language, poetry and writing with Michael Clay Thompson's books. My daughter's got a fun introduction to Latin with Song School Latin. And I loved, loved, loved the simplicity of teaching writing to my girls with Writing with Ease.

One resource you will be using next year:

I'm not really ready to consider next year yet. This year everyone seems pretty happy with just about everything, at least most days. Those things which will be appropriate for use again next year, I'll definitely reuse and now that I've tried my hand at putting together my own history plans, I may do that again (although I've had to revise these several times as we've gone along, already).

One resource you would like to buy:

More bookcases? I have a very hard time resisting the purchase of good and/or beautiful books when I find them calling to me from thrift store bookshelves. Our house may some day collapse from the weight of our library and even my homeschooling friends, who have a lot of books themselves, are impressed by the number of books we have lying around.

One resource you wish existed:

Hmmm...children-safe bottom and lip glue? My days would go so much more smoothly if they stayed in their seats when they needed to do things and didn't chat all day long when they need to concentrate. On the other hand, our days would be a lot less interesting and far too quiet.

I suppose I would settle for an automatic assignment grader. Or a 28 hour day.

One homeschool catalog you enjoy reading:

It's funny, but some of my favorite catalogs to flip through are ones I order nothing from. I love the Timberdoodle catalog and the Catholic Heritage Curricula catalog is so lovely and makes it all sound so nicely planned, I want to love their materials, but much of what we've tried hasn't been a big hit.

Tag six other homeschool bloggers!

I can't think of 6 others who haven't already been tagged, but here are the ones I'll add (and anyone else who feels inspired that I've forgotten):

Marcia from Mother Wonders Why
Angie from Many Little Blessings
Mrs. Darwin from Darwin Catholic

Funnix Math for the Short Set

2011-10-04T14:22:00.004-05:00

Back in the summer, I downloaded Funnix Math to use with my almost 5 year old. They offered it for free for a month as an introduction to their new program and that's my favorite price, so how could I resist?

My pre-schooler has been slowly working through the lessons and there are many things I like about the program. I like that it is slow and incremental. It doesn't assume any prior knowledge and starts with number recognition, counting and other basics, but builds nicely up to addition and subtraction. I also really like that since it is on the computer, my role is to cuddle the little one, move the mouse and click a button now and then. What's even better is that when I'm cuddling someone else or teaching someone else something, one of my older kids can do math with my son, which the big kids love and so does their little brother.

I hate to complain about a free product, but I do have one big one; a complaint that almost makes me want to ditch the whole thing. It's the language. No, there isn't any &@^*@^#!! There are several instances where I hear the teacher make subject-verb agreement errors (usually when a prepositional phrase falls between the subject and verb). They use the term box instead of square, which drives even my other children crazy, and seems like an odd way to teach shape names. But the thing that really, really, really makes me psychotic is the constant less/fewer confusion. How is a child going to master this basic English when the program always asks things like, "Does the top group have more lines or less lines?"

Just in case any of you out there are confused and don't know that the above should say "fewer" and not "less," I found The Grammar Girl, who has already explained it all.

So, while I recommend the math part of the program, I have serious reservations about recommending any program with such egregious English. Just in case you were wondering. As to our own continued use, so far, we carry on and correct the man in the computer every time I hear him.

Leader of the Resistance

2011-09-19T08:48:00.000-05:00

The Oldest child is holding the Youngest on his lap. The little guy is wiggling to get down. His sister demands that he be let go, but the Oldest categorically refuses.

"That's it!" she declares, "I'm starting a Baby Brother Liberation Front!"

What I did on My Summer Vacation

2011-09-17T12:17:00.000-05:00

Labor Day is long past. The kids are finished with their seventh week of school and I still am wishing for that summer vacation that never happened. I feel like I lost the summer of 2011. Not that it wasn't swelteringly hot, but I never seemed to get into the swing of things this year. Why not? Here's the count.

Children with pneumonia: 3
Children in the hospital with pneumonia: 1
Various other unrelated fevers in the children: 6
Mastitis: 1
Flea infestation (due to caring for sick people and forgetting to give the dog his medicine): 2 rooms
Lesson plans written: 4 kids worth
Sprained ankle: 1

That last entry happened last weekend. On Saturday morning, my husband and I got up early and went for a walk. Something we'd started doing last spring and in the craziness and illness of the summer had given up in June or early July. After our lovely walk in the cool morning air, we came home, drank coffee and my husband cooked breakfast. I busied myself around the house and got up on a chair to push back the curtains and let the light in. Then I stepped off the chair. Wrong. I hit the floor, the piano, and everything felt like my ankle was on fire.

Fortunately, it wasn't broken, but a week later, it is still bruised and swollen and when I spent yesterday morning helping 12 young girls in the kitchen to make angel food cakes, I had to spend the rest of the day on the couch with plenty of ibuprofen and ice.

You probably wonder why, with all this extra time on my hands to sit around, I haven't been blogging more. I'll just claim that the dog ate my homework.

Theology According to My Four Year Old

2011-08-17T15:32:00.000-05:00

My three year old and four year old got into the clean laundry and decked themselves out in my t-shirts. Then they started dancing and spinning while chanting, "Alleluia."

I was mostly ignoring them, but semi-watching the dancers with amusement, when my four year old son pulled out a book and started "reading:"

"Once upon a time, St. Jesus went to the Cross. They screwed him onto it. Then he went to a bed in a garden and he never ate or drank anymore, but now people eat him and drink his blood. Amen."

Then the two went back to dancing and singing. Alleluia.

We'll work on teaching them about the evils of liturgical dance another day.

The One Year Old

2011-08-05T13:31:00.000-05:00

The one year old's Godfather demands to see pictures of him wearing his new birthday onesie. Note: he's been very cranky this week, since he's cutting several molars. Mostly, I've been seeing this side of him:

When he isn't screaming and/or clinging to my leg, he's usually doing this:

I'm sure you cannot imagine why we call him "The World's Worst Baby."

Quick Takes: Can I Dip the House in Bleach? Edition

2011-08-05T09:42:00.000-05:00

--1--

All my happy thoughts that everything was better...Hmph. Since posting last, my oldest got pneumonia too. The youngest got swimmer's ear, though he hasn't been near the water. Wednesday my three year old got a 102 degree and was still running it when she went to bed on Thursday night. This summer shall be known in the family annuals as The Summer of Great Pestilence and Divers Maladies.

--2--

We started school anyway, doggone it. I am happy with the things the kids are doing, but I have chosen rather a lot of Mom-intensive materials. Which means the days are long, simply because they have to do a lot of things with me. My oldest also remarked today that while he so far likes the history program I laid out, it is in his words rather "rigorous." I did wonder as I was creating it if I was putting too much into some of the days, and now only a week or so into it, I can categorically say, "Yes." Revisions will follow.

--3--

The one year old, who could climb before he walked, now can climb on the dining room table, my very high bed, and really any place he decides to climb. Nothing is safe.

--4--

As part of history, I have been reading a children's version of Beowulf to my second and fourth graders. My 4 year old son has been listening in. I asked the girls to illustrate a scene from the book and they both drew Beowulf ripping off Grendel's arm. Gruesome much? Then the four year old got out some paper and colored pencils and drew his version too. I'm not sure whether to be proud or worried that I've psychologically warped the children.

--5--

My three year old has fewer potty accidents than her almost five year old brother, and she's only been potty trained for a week and a half. What's up with that? Is this a common boy thing? My oldest child is a boy too, but being the oldest and just being who he is, these issues did not come up. My four year old just doesn't care all that much, and mostly gets ratted out by his siblings for smelling unpleasant, rather than being appalled by his own wet or stinky underwear.

--6--

Have a wonderful weekend and please throw in a prayer or two that my family will get out from under the cloud of disease eventually.

More Quick Takes at Conversion Diary.

Fourth Grade Booklist 2011-2012

2011-07-26T11:12:00.001-05:00

Since I am ~~nosy~~ interested in other homeschoolers plans and booklists, I thought I'd go ahead and share mine. I hope all you find it interesting/useful.

Math

Teaching Textbooks 4 (and moving on to 5 sometime next semester) This program took the fight out of math for us, which was great last year.
Life of Fred: Apples (While my oldest has used Life of Fred for a few years, this is the first year that there is a new set of books for younger kids. We're going to begin at the beginning, because a little fun review never hurts.)

Language Arts

Michael Clay Thompson's Island series for grammar, vocabulary, poetry, and some writing
Writing With Ease 3 I was very happy with this program last year and love the downloadable .pdf workbooks where all the lessons are planned out. Although one can also buy The Complete Writer book as a guide and choose your own lessons, which is cheaper, but not simpler.
Spelling Workout D
Various literature related to history, good books as well as some reading comprehension based on the Father Brown Reader and questions.

Science

The kids will all be doing physics, using the Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia, Handy Physics Answer Book, Basher Physics, Gizmos and Gadgets and various other experiment kits.

History & Religion

History of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation (This is the lesson plan I spent a month or so writing for my kids)
It uses a lot of different books (probably too many, but we'll see how it goes). The main spines for my fourth grader will be Story of the World, vol 2 and The Old World's Gifts to the New. Why two spines? I really like the Story of the World, but there are simply some things in the study of the Middle Ages and Reformation that are not covered very well if one is Catholic.

Latin

Latin for Children, A

Geography

Maps, Charts, and Graphs C

She'll use this for the first semester. In the second, I want to get into more specifics of where things are, but I haven't decided how to teach that yet.

Art & Music

The Phonics of Drawing and piano lessons

I had planned on just using our collection of art books to do a little art history, but then I found this site and this site, which I may well use instead.

How will all this fit together? We'll also do circle time in the morning, which I have yet to map out for next year and here's a link to my first quarter lesson plans.

Sixth Grade Booklist 2011-2012

2011-07-25T22:34:00.001-05:00

Since I am ~~nosy~~ interested in other homeschoolers plans and booklists, I thought I'd go ahead and share mine. I hope all you find it interesting/useful.

Math

Chalkdust Pre-algebra (which if you are gasping at the price, I did not order new, but rather one piece at a time used, making the total cost about $35)
Life of Fred: Pre-algebra 1 with Biology (Probably the only math book I have ever heard someone giggling over.)

Language Arts

Michael Clay Thompson's Voyage series for grammar, vocabulary, poetry, and some writing (We used the Town level last year, and it was the first year that my oldest truly loved grammar. And he wrote some good poetry too.)
WriteShop (We haven't tried this one before, but so far I like the looks of it, once I figured out how it worked.)

Science

The kids will all be doing physics, using the Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia, Handy Physics Answer Book, Basher Physics, Gizmos and Gadgets and various other experiment kits.

History & Religion

History of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation (This is the lesson plan I spent a month or so writing for my kids.)

It uses a lot of different books (probably too many, but we'll see how it goes). The main spine for my sixth grader will be A Light to the Nations.

Latin

Latin for Children, A

This may be too easy for him, but since we did take a year off from Latin and since my brain can only handle scheduling one Latin class right now, he's going to be doing with his sisters. If it is way too easy, we'll either reconsider next semester or he can teach it for me.

Logic

The Art of Argument

"Mom, why'd you get a book to teach us how to argue?" As if they needed any help...

Geography

Maps, Charts, and Graphs F

He'll use this for the first semester. In the second, I want to get into more specifics of where things are, but I haven't decided how to teach that yet.

Art & Music

The Phonics of Drawing and piano lessons
I had planned on just using our collection of art books to do a little art history, but then I found this site and this site, which I may well use instead.

How will all this fit together? We'll also do circle time in the morning, which I have yet to map out for next year and here's a link to my almost completed first quarter lesson plans (I haven't yet scheduled in logic, since the book arrived just today).

Quick Takes in July

2011-07-22T10:23:00.002-05:00

--1--

Yesterday morning, my newly minted three year old came down stairs and announced that she wanted to learn to use the potty. I hate potty-training, but I'll be happy to only have one child in diapers -- and she is three -- so I jumped on that. Though two pairs of wet underwear immediately after sitting with her on the potty for long stretches made me doubt myself. So I did what any ~~lazy~~ brilliant mother of many would do -- offered to pay my 8 year old $5 if she takes her sister to the potty for me. I'm getting off cheap, and we've actually started making progress, because the 8 year old is far bossier than I am.

--2--

In the midst of pneumonia, potty training and the such like (I just love that Southernism), I've been in full school planning mode. First I decided to write my own history plans, which took over a month. Then I started planning the first quarter's schedule for the oldest, which took weeks. Yesterday, I started the schedule for my 4th grader and was done in hours. Does that mean when I get to the 2nd grader and preschoolers, the timing will drop to minutes and seconds? Some how I doubt it. I'll be posting lesson schedules for this year, as they develop.

It was so helpful to me to have them last year. We stayed on track, even when we got off schedule, and since I typed the schedule, rescheduling wasn't all that daunting a task.

--3--

Speaking of which, look in the links above for the name we finally decided on for our homeschool. The children are fine with St. Bede, but they disagree that they are wayward. We have wanted to pick a saint for our school name for a while now, and nothing quite seemed to fit, until we finally remembered St. Bede. We are very fond of all things English. We are very fond of St. Benedict (and St. Bede was a Benedictine). I think he picked us. Now to make a good t-shirt design.

--4--

Have I mentioned that he's The World's Worst Baby? He's been walking since he was 11 months old and even before that climbing. He already can climb my very high bed, all chairs, etc. Fortunately for his head, he seems to be pretty decent at climbing down too. Even the pediatrician noted the wicked gleam in his eye as he grinned at her. And everyone thought my 4 year old was the wild one.

--5--

From early in the spring

My garden is terrible this year. It looks beautiful. My husband built lovely raised beds from our scrap lumber and has mulched everything well. But nothing is growing well. My tomatoes are doing terribly. The okra is growing, but not producing like usual. I got not a single zucchini before the squash borers killed the plants. It's been a frustrating year, and now it's so hot I don't even feel like tending to such recalcitrant plants.

--6--

When it is so hot outside or when your kids are really sick, I have been very glad to have Netflix. I'm very annoyed that they are raising their rates so dramatically, but it's been such a good thing to have at times -- and we aren't big TV watchers around here. That said, my kids love Inspector Gadget cartoons, Andy Griffith, Dick Van Dyke, and, of course, The Addams Family tv show -- so they always have something they actually can agree on watching, when I let them have video time.

--7--

A good friend of mine started a new blog about her preparations for a home atrium. So nifty.

Better Things Ahead

2011-07-19T22:09:00.000-05:00

My oldest daughter is home from the hospital. Her lungs are sounding much clearer and she's full of her usual energy. Actually, by the time I got to see her in the hospital on Friday, I could already tell she was feeling much better. We went for a walk around the hospital and she posed for the picture above with dancing statues. Other than the hospital bracelet on one wrist and the IV heplock on their other, you'd never have known she was sick. She told the nurse that she'd taken a vote and that, "the disease lost." Although coughing a lot at that point, her snarkiness was back and I knew she was recovering.

All those prayers certainly helped, as well as the albuterol, oxygen and antibiotics they filled her up with.

As for the rest of the crew -- my oldest never got sick, my middle daughter got pneumonia as well, but not as bad, and the other three all got fevers but it didn't attack their lungs.

In the midst of all that, the radiator on my husband's car blew and our air conditioning went out, but everything is fixed now. We certainly got a big dose of misery all at once, but it is nice to be out from under the cloud for a few days and with the hope that the sun will shine for a while.

Two bright spots -- birthdays for my two youngest, who are now three and one! I say it every year, but where does the time go?

Missing My Girl

2011-07-14T22:49:00.001-05:00

I'm a pretty hands-on Mom, most of the time. I'm here with my kids all day long. I take them places and see that stuff that needs doing gets done. I teach them. I feed them. I take care of them when they are sick. I try to anyway.

These last several weeks have been a struggle, because I haven't been able to do much other than dose child after child. Hardly anyone is hungry. No one has energy for more than watching TV. Life has slowed way down and not in the pleasant, old-fashioned way.

But things are on the mend. Five of my children are not feverish, do not have sore throats, and aren't coughing either. Unfortunately, my oldest daughter is not in that number. She's the child of 105 degree fevers and a cough that has had me worrying a lot. Today I took her in for a recheck of her lungs, and all was not well. We went for a chest x-ray, and all was not well. They checked her oxygen levels, and all was not well. They did a breathing treatment and checked her oxygen again, and all was not well.

She's in the hospital. I'm here at home. I know she'll be fine. Her dad is just as capable as I am to watch her in the hospital, but it pains me not to be there. It seems wrong not to be. What kind of mother am I? But my other children need me too. I tried several times to get out the door to be there with her, but something always seemed to stop me -- even with two friends in the house to watch the other kids and allowing me to go one little thing after another came up. Then I discovered the air-conditioning upstairs had come to a complete halt, and as I called and waited for the repairman, I had a feeling that the hospital was not where I was needed most.

My little girl is at the hospital, and I'm not there, but she's in good hands. I want to hold on to her, watch her take easier breaths and get better, but not tonight. Tonight, I pray at home, but her father and her Father are watching over her.

In the House of Pestilience

2011-07-12T12:55:00.001-05:00

The good news:
Today is my youngest daughter's third birthday. She's adorable, and not currently feverish. The oldest isn't yet sick and is very helpful. We have a good pediatrician. We have a car to get us to the doctor. We have insurance (crummy insurance, but insurance). We have wonderful friends; one baked a birthday cake and another brought us dinner.

The bad news:

My oldest daughter is still (8 days and counting) highly feverish. She has pneumonia and, based on the fact that the doctor heard both crackles and wheezing, may have asthma as well.

My middle daughter, who started it all, developed a new high fever yesterday. She and my middle son, who has been feverish since Sunday, are complaining that it hurts to eat or swallow anything. I think I might see white spots in the back of their throats, so I'm thinking strep.

My baby son also is feverish, and we noticed on Sunday night that one of his ears smelled as though something had died in it. He has a burst ear drum. He also woke up last night at 11:45 and nursed all night long.

Now I'm waiting for the pediatrician to reopen after lunch, so I can call about those throats.

Quarantine

2011-07-07T11:05:00.000-05:00

I'm not planning on killing the old blog, though appearances might suggest otherwise. It's simply that I have not one, but two children with pneumonia at the moment -- and the second child, being prone to one-upmanship, is running a fever of over 104 every time the ibuprofen wears off. We were trying to finish up our school year (done, finally!). And I am busy writing my own Medieval history plans for 3 kids, which is pretty much taking up any unused brain cells. Add to this an almost 1 year old who walks and climbs, and you have a recipe for little time to blog.

Sarcasm Becomes Her

2011-06-07T15:28:00.000-05:00

Overheard snippet of conversation from the backseat of the car, between the eight year old and the six year old, "That's where you're wrong, my friend. That's where you're so wrong."

2011-06-03T07:38:00.001-05:00

Looking at a picture of Adam and Eve, the four year old noted that they weren't wearing any clothes. Now in our family, we have had to emphasize that certain body parts are rather germ-laden and should not be touched more than necessary (and I don't just mean fingers in noses). So looking at those unclothed people, the boy was a bit concerned.

"But mom, they aren't wearing any clothes. They'll get the Garden germy!"

Snippets

2011-06-01T14:45:00.000-05:00

The husband and I have been dragging ourselves out of bed early and going for walks the last few mornings. It's hard to believe how hot and humid it already is before 7 a.m. It's going to be a long summer.
You know you heard too much end times theology recently (curse you NPR for talking about this so much) when you hear yourself explaining regrouping in addition by saying, "See, the ones get left behind, while the tens are carried up."
Why does something like, "Get your toe out of the yogurt!" even have to be said?
The baby has taken as many as two steps at a time. He's only 10 months old. This does not bode well.
The eight year old cracks me up. She decided to take her oral spelling test the other day with a different accent for each spelling word. It might have made me slightly twitchy after a while, but it was funny too.
I'm heading to Kentucky for a homeschooling conference this Saturday and then coming home to hosting 3-5 Totus Tuus missionaries for a week. It's going to be crazy and I think I might need to clean house.

Conversations, Unedfiying but Amusing

2011-05-18T08:06:00.002-05:00

Conversation #1
Location: Target walking past the undergarments

My two year old daughter points and shouts as we pass the particularly bright, colorful and skimpy stuff: Mom, you have some of those!!!

After hearing her shout it out a second time, since I tried to ignore the comment and keep moving, I respond: Yes, but not in those shapes or colors.

Two year old: Oh. But they are pwetty!

Conversation #2

Four year old: Mom, how old are you?

Me: I'm getting really old.

Four year old suddenly looks as though he's about to cry: But Mom, when you get old, you die. If you are old, you're going to die. Who will take care of us?

I reassure him that I'm not planning an imminent demise, and let him know that several people would be willing to take care of him should that unlikely event take place any time soon.

Four year old, still looking sad, but somewhat less upset: Well, I don't think you're old anyway. Your hair isn't gray. When you have gray hair, you are old. And then you will die.

My apologies to all of you who went gray early, the four year old says you're doomed.

Strawberry Tapioca

2011-05-17T07:40:00.004-05:00

Remember the stuff my husband calls "Pink Stuff" that appears at every potluck? It's made from strawberry jello, cottage cheese and fluff (or something like that -- I've never actually made it). It tastes pretty yummy, although I've always been a bit weirded out by the ingredient list. So when I found a delicious looking recipe for strawberry tapioca in one of my Amish cookbooks, I wanted to try it.

Unfortunately, the recipe, if followed exactly turned out an end result that has earned this dish the name of Oobleck in our house. So, I have rewritten the recipe so that it doesn't quite glue everything in its path together. It's not really all that much like "Pink Stuff" although it resembles it in looks, but it is delicious, doesn't have a weird ingredient list, and is an excellent use of all those strawberries that are currently in season.

Strawberry Tapioca

2 cups strawberries, washed and hulled
1 cup sugar
3 cups boiling water
1/2 cup quick cooking tapioca
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons butter
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
3/4 cup whipping cream

Mash strawberries with 1/2 cup of sugar; set aside.

Combine boiling water, tapioca, and salt in a large saucepan. Allow mixture to stand for 5 minutes. Then cook, stirring frequently until tapioca mixture boils. Remove from heat. Stir in remaining sugar, butter, lemon juice and almond extract.

Then stir in strawberries, mixing until well combined. Chill for several hours. For an almost fat free dessert, you can serve this way. For ultimate creamy deliciousness, whip the cream and stir into the chilled tapioca. Garnish with mint leaves, if desired.

Whadda Ya Mean You Don't Eat No Meat?

2011-05-15T12:59:00.001-05:00

So the English bishops are bringing back meatless Fridays. A sensible thing to do, in my opinion. When, after having been Catholic for a year or so, we discovered that Fridays were supposed to still be penitential and you were still supposed to abstain from something, we implemented meatless Fridays in our family. Actually, we often have meatless Thursdays as well, so as to have meatless Friday leftovers for lunch.

Knowing that giving up meat was the longstanding practice of the church made going meatless an obvious choice. I think that not only do a whole lot of Catholics not even know we're supposed to still practice some sort of Friday abstinence, but with the variety of possible choices open to everyone, it's hard to know what to give up. If meat goes back to being the standard, the discipline actually becomes easier -- and it is nice knowing that all your fellow church-goers are doing the same thing along with you.

Although, one also should probably remember that even though an excellent pan-seared salmon meets the meatless criteria, it might not actually be penitential.

Beginning Readers or the Trouble with Phonics

2011-05-11T12:10:00.000-05:00

I've taught three kids to read with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. As one friend of mine noted, however, although it will teach your child to read and contains 100 lessons, the easy part is subject to interpretation. It's never been exactly easy, and my fourth child to go through the book -- now on lesson 50 -- is making me think there has got to be a better way. At the very least, this child needs a break from this particular book. He's been alternating between hiding and tears when the reading book comes out.

I don't want him to forget what he has learned though, so I was excited to discover a blast from my past on the web. (I could tell you about the other blast from my past to pop up this week when someone I did not go to high school posted on Facebook that a high school physics teacher I had for one semester was marrying her boyfriend of 40! years -- but that's another story). It really shouldn't surprise me as much as it does that so much great educational stuff is out there free on the web; that so many people have devoted time, effort and money to putting so many resources up. Sometimes it is surprising though to find things I haven't seen or thought about in 30 years -- like the I See Sam books.

The originals are probably in my parents' basement in Ohio some place, but in the meantime I've printed out several. My son is enjoying the books and unlike the dreaded reading lessons he hides from, he actually asked if I would print out another book this morning.

There are many choices for beginning readers, of course. Bob books, CHC Little Stories for Little Folks, etc. We have those too. But if you want to go old school and/or free -- the Sam books are a fun way to start.

Home Improvements

2011-05-10T17:23:00.000-05:00

When we bought a 99 year old house a few years ago, I somehow thought it would be more or less renovated eventually. What was I thinking? It's 102 years old now and though quite livable nothing is every really finished around here. Or if one thing gets finished, some child whacks a hole in the plaster.

Mostly, I vacillate between dreaming up projects and bugging my husband about why he doesn't take them on in all his spare time. I'm not nearly as handy as I like to pretend that I am. Painting on a little shellac on some trim now and then probably doesn't qualify.

Recently, our home improvements have actually been outside -- building new garden beds, moving plants, planting new plants and all that. But I really hope that the summer can bring about some other projects -- the installation of a new dishwasher, fixing windows (for heat retention and lead abatement purposes), and maybe, just maybe, we could get around to giving the kids some closet doors. If I get really motivated, I might even get around to painting our laundry room or something -- although the window and door trim has never been put up.

Or maybe...

Maybe I'll just sit back and ignore all the stuff that could be done, it sounds like too much work.

Cooking with Jordana

2011-05-02T22:12:00.000-05:00

And these are just the cookbooks I keep in the kitchen...

If you came to my house, you would see that I have a lot of cookbooks. Although I do look up recipes on the internet, not infrequently, I still prefer a well-edited cookbook. Naturally, amongst the all the books I have, there are those I turn to almost weekly and those I use less often, but can't bear to part with either. Here are my current favorites. What are yours?

1. Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day
I love bread, but I've been a yeast-o-phobe for years. I couldn't even make good bread in a bread machine consistently. Then I found these books and I bake stuff all the time. You can find the basic bread recipe on-line, but there are so many wonderful recipes in these books -- broccoli cheese bread, whole wheat brioche (which I used as the base for the hot cross buns), pizza dough, naan, pita bread, Volkorn Brot, panettone. I've liked everything I have made.

2. 660 Curries
I cook Indian food almost every week and I have several good cookbooks, but this is my new favorite. My husband got it for my birthday a year or two ago and I turn to it more often than any of my other Indian cookbooks. Favorite recipes include: chana masala, mattar paneer (my oldest son's very favorite Indian dish of all), aloo ghobi, and lentils with garlic and bay leaves.

3. America's Test Kitchen: Family Cookbook
You won't find any more thoroughly tested recipes than those from America's Test Kitchen. Though I occasionally complain that some of their recipes are fiddly or a bit too complicated, they always turn out very, very well. There are so many recipes in the book, from exotic to comfort foods and I always pleased. I love their recipe from Indian-spiced Lentils (again with the Indian food, I know!), German apple pancake, tuna noodle casserole, Mexican rice and many others.

4. Ken Hom's Foolproof Chinese Cooking
My husband grew up as a missionary's kid in Taiwan, so he has fairly high standards for Chinese food. He always seems to enjoy the things I've made from this book and although I tend to stick to the same favorites, everyone gobbles them down. I love the simplicity of the fried rice (although I add a few extra vegetables to it), the kung po chicken is always a favorite (okay, I add some carrots to this one too) and the broccoli and green bean recipes are absolutely awesome.

5. Marcia Adams' cookbooks: Cooking from Quilt Country, New Recipes from Quilt Country, and Heirloom Recipes
I got one or two of these cookbooks from my husband's grandmother. I can't remember where I picked up the third, but I love them all. Maybe because I grew up in the heart of Ohio Amish country or maybe because the recipes are just fantastic and hearty. The pies are especially wonderful, although I have to admit that I didn't exactly love the sauerkraut chess pie all that much. I make the cornbread muffins from the Heirloom recipe book almost weekly and the strawberry tapioca pudding makes my children cheer.

6. The Barefoot Contessa cookbooks
Although I grew up cooking and messing around in the kitchen, I think these books were part of my growing into a much better cook. It doesn't hurt that she uses a pound of butter in most of the baking recipes, of course. Yum. The pan seared salmon and lentils in the French book? So simple and so delicious.

7. Twelve Months of Monastery Soups
Especially in the winter, I cook a lot of soup. I love soup and always have. However, growing up, good soup came from restaurants and at home soup came from a can. I never knew as a child that you could make soup -- let alone broth. What a revelation that was when I finally, as a teenager, figured out that soup didn't have to come out of a can and be reconstituted. When you love soup, what could be better than a cookbook of soups? Not much. And this one is full of delicious, simple, often vegetarian soups. Perfect for Lent or Friday meals -- especially when paired with a loaf of crusty bread made from the cookbook at the top of the list.

So, those are some of my go-to cookbooks. As I asked before, what are yours?

Quick Takes

2011-04-29T15:00:00.000-05:00

--1--

I'm back! Did you miss me? Besides not perusing blogs during Lent, I sort of fell head first off the blogging bandwagon. But the kids and I did finish their third term of the school year, take a field trip week to the Parthenon, Tennessee State Museum, and Cheekwood (Nashville's botanical gardens). We made it through the long, late nights of Holy Week, whilst my husband and his schola sang beautifully. Now we're on spring break. School starts back next week (I just need to finish writing the plans!).

--2--

Our parish does not have a deacon and so, for the past three years, my husband, as chief Schola geek, has had the job of singing the Exsultet on Easter Vigil. You can hear him here. He's done a great job every year, but I think this was the best yet.

--3--

What kind of mother forgets to take any photos of her kids on Easter? Um, that would be me. However, it's still the octave of Easter. Maybe I'll get the kids all dressed up tomorrow. We did dye Easter eggs with our own natural dyes (which we've done for several years now -- boiling up batches of cabbage, beets and onion skins doesn't smell so great, but the colors sure are beautiful). I also made hot cross buns for Good Friday. So the kids aren't totally deprived, even if they'll look back some day and wonder why their mother took more pictures of food than of them (hint: food stands still and poses nicely).

--4--

The world's worst baby continues his reign of terror, stuffing every bit of dog hair, stale Cheerio, piece of paper or Lego in his mouth. I have become far more vigilant about sweeping, vacuuming and picking up bits of child detritus than ever before. Of course, when he can't find stuff on the floor, he has taken to pulling books off the shelf and ripping and gnawing them to bits.

In spite of the penchant for eating and putting things in his mouth, he seems to be following his two closest siblings in not growing. He was almost ten pounds at birth, but is now only 17, which puts him in the 4th percentile for 9 month old boys.

In those rare moments when he isn't choking, gnawing or trying to climb things and plunge to his doom, he's awfully cute and I seem inclined to keep him.

--5--

We've entered a new era in the family. Our oldest can mow the lawn without any help from me or his father. Sadly though, this isn't working out quite as well as I would like, because April and May bring out horrible seasonal allergies for the boy and he spends those two months with swollen, itchy eyes, a runny nose and a cough. So I had to mow the front yard yesterday. As I posted on Facebook, "I used to think that there was something soothing and meditative about mowing the lawn. Today I had to mow the lawn myself for the first time this summer, and I have changed my mind. It is much more soothing and meditative to sit on the front porch and watch your oldest child mow the lawn."

--6--

I've been planning next year's school curriculum and books. I've even bought a few things. Every year I think how nice it would be to just buy a whole package from someone and have one big box arrive with all the books and plans neatly laid out in front of me. I still that would be nice, but I can't imagine actually doing it. What do those of you who homeschool do? Do you buy it all in one place or piece it together?

--7--

Pray for everyone in Alabama. I lived in Tuscaloosa for a year while I got my master's in library science from the University of Alabama. I haven't been back in years, but from the looks of this video and the angle from where it was shot, I'd be very surprised if my grad school apartment was still standing, and I know there was no place in that apartment to hide from a tornado.

Achoo. Pardon the Dust.

2011-04-04T22:14:00.000-05:00

You don't sit down to blog for a few days and suddenly weeks have gone by. I have been mostly off the computer during the day and when I get on at night, I've been working on planning my curriculum wish-list for next year. I have learned to start planning early, because a lot of the good sales run in April or May, and I need to know what I want to buy in order to find those sales. Add to that, that with time away I've felt like I've lost whatever little bit of a writing voice I had.

Life fills in all those "usually on the internet" spaces. Kids turn out to be far-sighted.

Toddlers dress themselves.

Lego competitions are carefully built for and entered, if not won.

Add in Stations of the Cross and other extras, and the days truly are full. The kids are finishing up their third quarter of the school year this week, next week will be field trip week, and then we'll take a spring break until after Easter.

I'll keep searching for my lost voice and perhaps be back sooner than you'd expect.

Foodies

2011-03-10T21:12:00.001-06:00

I like to pretend I'm pretty average in my tastes and preferences. I like to imagine I'm not part of the cultural elite or a self-parody straight out of Stuff White People Like, but then again I do have an unhealthy attachment to NPR despite their recent antics -- and then there are my children.

Sure, I have enough of them to make most sane people blanch, but I'm not sure even that makes me nearly "of the people" no matter how many Duggar references it might inspire. But back to those pesky little children -- it is their eating habits that really mark me.

I'm not a hard core enforcer of any particular food craze. My kids eat whole grain bread baked by me (sometimes), whole foods, organic foods, ethnic foods, and all that jazz, but they sometimes drink soda and eat a Happy Meal. We follow the everything occasionally and Indian food a lot diet, but I may have just introduced them to a few too many foods and turned them into elitist foodies.

I became aware of the problem several years ago when we blithely shipped the oldest off on a church outing only to find out upon his return that he'd informed the parents cooking breakfast that he preferred his eggs sunny-side up and runny and his orange juice to include mango as well. I laughed it off as one oddball kid (and besides I was used to him).

I was sure my children were perfectly normal, after all they pick the tomatoes and mushrooms out of everything I cook. It is probably not really them.

Or maybe...

Today I was chatting with the four year old about things that are red. "What fruits are red?" I asked. He thought for a minute and then said, "Pomegranates." Later when we'd moved on to green things he offered, "Edamames are green."

I didn't think we were so far off the beaten path, but maybe we just eat weird around here.

Nope

2011-03-09T21:43:00.000-06:00

I haven't given up blogging for Lent, although I am going to be away from the internet during the daytime. I'm just busy doing real life. Too many coughing sickies, visitors, reading lessons and times when a four year old wants to sit down and "talk 'bout aminals." I'll be around when I can.

Quick Takes

2011-02-25T11:55:00.001-06:00

--1--

We had a big wind storm blow through Nashville last night. We lost our big, very old plum tree. I'll miss the blossoms in spring, the plums in the summer and the kids climbing in it and swinging on it, but I sure am glad it didn't fall when we were outside playing around it. Judging by the roots, it wasn't as sturdy as we had thought.

We also lost our small patio table, but it was pretty inadequate for a family of eight, so I'm not lamenting it too much.

My eleven year old is so torn up about his climbing tree and that his chance at a tree house is now gone, that if he doesn't stop wailing soon, I'm going to start calling him "Dogmatix."

At least this is a good time of year to get new trees. I'm thinking of a couple of new plum trees and maybe a few apple trees for good measure. Perhaps we will even consider a playhouse or something for climbing purposes.

--2--

My eight and six year old girls are off on an adventure with their grandmother, great aunt and my younger brother in Atlanta. They sound like they are enjoying the trip. I miss them. Who knew it could be quiet in a house with only four children?

--3--

He tries to keep it from being too quiet and dull though. Can you believe he's over seven months old? His current accomplishments include: crawling, sticking everything he can find in his mouth, pulling up, falling down and babbling.

--4--

I've been busy thinking about next year's school curriculum. I've been pretty happy with how things are going this year and with the books we have been using, so thinking about next year hasn't been as involved and overwhelming as last year. Even though I'm pretty content with most of my choices this year, looking forward towards next year is always more exciting and interesting.

I can't believe I'll have kids doing sixth, fourth, second and pre-K work. Yikes. We'll be combining a lot of subjects -- as many as I possibly can. I'm also looking at several things that come with DVD or computer lessons.

Sometimes, I wish I could be happy with a prewritten schedule and a preselected curriculum. It would make my life a lot easier, but I never have found something that uses all the books I want to use, so I'm on my own.

--5--

Lent is almost upon us. Have you figured out what you will be doing? Last year I turned off the computer during the day, allowing myself computer time only at night. It helped me focus on my family and remind my children that my face wasn't a computer screen. I've never quite gone back to the previous bad habits, but I could use a refresher, so I'll probably do that again. Our family usually gives up meat, as well.

The kids track the days of Lent on a calendar and do special tasks to earn money for the poor. We don't do a lot of lapbooks around here, but I won a CD of Lapbooks for Catholics last year at a homeschooling conference, so we may try to do the Lent lapbook.

--6--

My six year has learned to ride her bike. A little over a week ago, my husband go her out in the back yard and started teaching her. At first, he tried the drill sergeant tactics which worked to teach my oldest (a boy). They didn't go over well with my dramatic, grumpy daughter. She claimed he was "murdering her" and she started a flailing, kicking, screaming fit.

New methods were required. Putting her on a slightly undersized bike and offering a bribe of extra Wii time for feet traveled on the bike, she was suddenly much more motivated. A week later, she is zooming all over the place and learning tricks like riding "side saddle" and pedaling with one foot.

It's cool to see them learn something.

--7--

My two year old the nipple nazi. When I sit down to feed her brother, she likes to bring a doll over and tell me she's "noorsing" her baby too.

More Quick Takes at Conversion Diary.

Things I Like

2011-02-14T15:21:00.000-06:00

Some things I like and am using these days. Note that nothing is a paid endorsement, since I don't take remuneration for anything around here.

My iPod Touch.
Especially useful to me (which shows what a dorky housewife I really am) I really love the free OurGroceries app. I can create separate lists for Aldi, Kroger, Costco, and (belying the name) Home Depot, etc. It remembers things I have put on the list before and makes adding things, transferring things between lists and such other necessities very easy. It also has a recipe feature that I have never used, but I could imagine being a good tool for some people.

I also am rather fond of e-readers. I haven't tried out the Nook, but I have the Kindle app, Overdrive (which lets me check books out from my library) and Stanza (probably my favorite of the three in terms of looks -- I'm a sucker for the pages "flipping" when you tap them.)
Goody Hair Styling thingies (I believe that's the technical term). I was bemoaning the fact that I am hair incompetent (barely even managing a decent ponytail to keep my hair out of the mouth of my grabby baby) to an acquaintance, and she told me about the "spin pin" and the "updo maker." The other day when I was at Target I remembered to look for them. I'm still not managing the spin pins quit right, but it didn't take long to manage a perfectly decent updo with the other thing, which is sort of like a bobby pin on steroids. Cool!

Leap Frog videos. My friend Meredith recommended these to me years ago, and I was skeptical. I saw them recommended again on Wildflowers and Marbles, and remembering Meredith's recommendation, I put the Letter Factory video on my four year old's Christmas list. He loved it and within a few watchings had memorized most of the letter sounds. Another friend lent us the sequels -- Code Word Caper and Talking Words Factory and my four year old started quickly to grasp sounding words out. Now I'm using them as a bribe -- one video after one reading lesson in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and he's making quicker and easier progress than any of my other children (though he's also older than most of the others were when we started doing reading lessons).

Amazon's Subscribe and Save and as a subset a free trial subscription to Amazon Mom. So far, I have subscriptions for pull-ups for my children who still wet the bed and diapers for the little ones, which at a 30% discount are a very good price (15% off for the subscription and 15% off for Amazon Mom). I also have signed up for a subscription for coffee and maple syrup. You can tell where my priorities lie. Keep the kids dry, the coffee cup full and the pancakes sweetened.

Teaching Textbooks. I love having removed myself from math battles with my 8 year old. It's made a world of difference.

Michael Clay Thompson's Language Arts Curriculum.When I read about this last year, it sounded like a great program for my 11 year old, who has always found such programs rather boring. He's excelling with this curriculum -- getting a great grasp of grammar, expanding his vocabulary and writing some funny poems.

What kinds of things have you found lately that are useful and interesting?

Out of the Fog?

2011-02-09T11:49:00.000-06:00

I feel as though I have been floating through a fog of busy-ness recently. First came the great stomach bug, then I spent a crazy week getting ready to go across town to Blissdom and then spending parts of two fun days chatting with a bunch of interesting women at the conference (which involved getting the kids to a very kind friend's house early-ish in the morning), and then for the past week and a half I have been madly writing my third quarter lesson plans and printing all the million sheets of paper my kids need for various lessons.

The plans are now written and I have linked them to my lesson plan page. Most, though not all of the papers are printed.

It feels as though a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I can't believe I'm in the second half of the school year finally.

Substitutions

2011-02-01T14:16:00.000-06:00

Just because some parts break, doesn't mean one should have to do without the morning brew.

Annoying People Without Even Trying

2011-01-26T15:41:00.000-06:00

Dear Lady at the Phlebotomist's:

Yes, I was sitting there in the waiting room with 4 small children (you missed the two I didn't have with me). Yes, the four year old boy was sitting in a chair back-to-back with mine. It made it difficult to follow his every action, since I was also nursing a baby, chatting with a six year old and being climbed on by a two year old. They were all sitting quietly -- no screaming, no running through the aisles. I thought they were being rather lovely (and I've seen them being rather unlovely).

And then, there you were. Glaring. Shoving a small piece of paper at me and saying, "I think this is your child's." I said, "Thank you." Although your rather belligerent attitude was odd, I thought you were returning to me one of those precious doctor's office stickers that my children cherish so much. Then I flipped the paper over and realized it was blank. Stripped of its stickers. The stickers were on the arms of my four year old.

Ah ha. He must have dropped it on the floor. The vicious, nasty little litterbug. How could I have missed that with my back to him and a million things going on? I'm so glad you directed my attention to it. After all, if you hadn't interceded and pointed it out, my children would have spent their entire lives thinking that dropping garbage on the floor was ok and some day we'd be buried in sticker papers. It certainly would not do to ignore such outrage and quietly pick up and throw something away for a busy mom.

Or perhaps my presence with part of my horde was annoying in and of itself. Was it that obvious that I was a neglectful and negligent parent? I sure fell down on the job when I missed that falling sticker back. What else must be wrong with a woman who has so many children in tow.

I thank you for making me aware of my miserable failures, my lack of care for my children and clear ignorance of social mores. In future, whenever the children mess up and drop something on the floor, I will remember your outrage and take proper measures. Just in case you were mostly outraged by the sheer size of my brood (and you only saw 2/3 of them), I'll try to keep you annoyance in mind next time I look fondly at my husband and he gets that gleam in his eye.

Yours fondly,
The Crazy Woman with the Litterbug Son

Netflix, How I Love Thee

2011-01-20T14:50:00.000-06:00

I have been trying to convince my husband for at least two years to sign up for Netflix. He resisted. He demurred. He ignored my pleas. Somehow the cumulative effect must have gotten to him though, because while I was at the doctor the other morning, and the children were puking their guts out, he signed us up.

Life in the midst of a stomach bug was the perfect time to discover the joys of instant streaming videos, and our first DVD arrived this morning as well.

I rarely let my kids watch anything at all on the TV, and I rarely watch that much myself. I have no shows that I follow. However, Netflix is still pretty awesome and I see a lot of potential there, despite our general ban on too much screentime (she says as she sits in front of the computer blogging). I am sadly disappointed that The Mouse That Roared isn't available for instant play and they don't have Condorman at all. I'm not sure what it says about me that I spent some time yesterday looking up silly Cold War movies.

Not That Kind of Sharing!

2011-01-19T12:01:00.000-06:00

Monday morning the six year old came downstairs to tell me that there was "brown stuff" on her bed. Then I saw the dried vomit in her hair. Blech. She felt a little off in the morning, but by lunchtime she was up and wanting to eat. Now, on occasion I have had a child throw up once for unknown reasons and never display much of any other illness. Usually on these occasions, no one else gets sick.

Sadly, this time she shared. The next morning at 5:45, as I was getting up early to head to my own appointment at the allergist, the eight year old came in to tell me that she felt sick. We just got her to the toilet in time. She couldn't keep anything down and finally I had to take her to the doctor. Zofran is amazing stuff. She's still feeling off, but she's keeping down liquid.

Then the two and a half year old crawled up in my lap, got very quiet and puked all over me. She was miserably pathetic and helpfully determined not to throw up anywhere but all over herself or me, no vomit bowls for her!

Currently we have no active vomitation, but I am still wondering when the next one of us will succumb. Terrifying thought.

A Belated Christmas Letter

2011-01-14T12:53:00.000-06:00

There are several people I probably should have sent Christmas cards to, but lost their address. Others out there, I never had an address for, and a few of you might still get a card. However, in the meantime, here is Justin's 2011 Christmas masterpiece.

****************

In keeping with ancient custom, kept since time out of mind, we have taken keyboard to hand to write only now that it is too late to mail our letter before Christmas. Herewith the desired statistics:

The 5 month old. Greeted with customary cacophony on July 18. Suitably fat, unsuitably gluttonous: eats, rather than sleeps, through the night. Appreciates kindly ministrations of the two oldest endures with stoical resignation the somewhat less kindly ministrations of his two immediately older siblings.

The 2 year old (aka Cindy Lou Who). Mastered several skills this year, including double-handed thumb-sucking and, more impressively, the simultaneous one-handed thumb-sucking nose-pick. Agile and verbal, to our constant sorrow. Has mastered, with the assistance of elder siblings, a fine repertoire of insults, taunts, and invitations to brawl. Loves shoes more than life itself.

The 4 year old. Began the year by undergoing a “minor urological procedure,” regarding which he expressed his understanding, or perhaps hope, thus: “It will make my _____ bigger.” He quickly recovered from the surgery (and disappointment at the absence of the hoped for result) and resumed his usual posture of cheerful aggression toward his siblings, his parents, and pretty much the whole world. He returned to hospital in the spring, having smashed his thumb in the door (he endured the stitches with occasional manly grunts and scowls), and again in the summer, having inserted a perfectly sized Lego piece up his nose. His older brother is happy to report that the Lego was recovered safely.

The 6 year old. She announced to us early this year — by an illustrated manuscript slipped under our bedroom door: “I’m mad and bored.” We feared it was an ultimatum of some sort, but she made no demands. She seemed, rather, to think it important to express this painful emotional state in the sort of simple, robust prose that is so refreshing in this Post-Post-Modern age. Her older brother, thinking this emotional state of hers was more or less perpetual, helpfully suggested she should adopt it as her motto — he thought it could be translated sum fura et taedio afficitur — and incorporate it in a coat of arms. She remains our most reliable informant on household affairs, so reliable, in fact, we have considered paying her to report less frequently. When not mad and bored, she loves to read and draw.

The 8 year old. She blossoms. Her sense of high fashion, like the six year old’s sense of high dudgeon, rarely goes awry. Has a fine sense of drama, as we discovered once again when she sprained an ankle last month; the performance was worthy of a double amputation, at least. Living in an almost nineteenth century house, she decided this winter to acquire a nineteenth century disease: chilblanes. (The doctor had heard about if from reading Anne of Green Gables, as opposed to medical school.) Even Viking warrior-goddesses must wear socks, it turns out.

The 11 year old. Has almost broken the five-foot mark and is fast losing his baby cheeks. He, with the oldest girl, studies piano, and is a leading expert in the field of Lego Star Wars Studies, despite the frequent set-backs caused by his younger brother’s destructive tendencies. His great love is serving at the altar, especially in the older form of the Mass, in Latin. He is cheerful, oblivious, and sweet.

Jordana & Jordana. He’s still a lawyer, she’s still a homeschooler. Their motto as parents is: Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station. (The oldest is working on the Latin translation.) We’re each a year older, and we may have posted a net increase in wisdom as of year’s end, but who knows (whatever the indicator of wisdom may be, it is a lagging indicator)? We live, love, sin, repent, rinse, and repeat, and remain grateful for the friends and family of whom we are most unworthy.

Puer natus in Bethlehem, alleluia!

Legos All Year Round

2011-01-13T07:48:00.002-06:00

Sometimes the best motivation is to relate an assignment to a child's interests. Therefore, I got a lot better reaction when I assigned the oldest to write four short poems about Legos (to study various meters) than I would have had I asked him to write about flowers or butterflies. I present the results:

Seasons of Legos, in four parts

by GTA

Spring

The Lego Chicken said angrily,

“I was born in spring, in a factory!

Go away, ye odious Megablok, you,

Or I will make you smell my shoe!

Summer

Summer, oh Summer, oh Summer sublime,

For Legos this is a prodigious time,

Prices and shipping go down quite a lot,

Your countenance brightens as you see the jackpot.

Fall

Lego turkey,

Most lovely,

Nice little shade of brown,

Orange and Yellow,

Not getting mellow,

Lego leaves falling down.

Winter

Christmas tree, Lego Crèche,

Wise Men of three,

Santa’s hat goes to a pirate matey.

Sleeping It Off

2011-01-12T15:03:00.000-06:00

Sure he's cute now, but you should see him at 3 a.m.

I have come to realize that six months post-partum is about my tolerance limit for lack of sleep, and let's face it -- six months post-partum actually means I haven't slept a full night in at least ten months. I'm all for co-sleeping, but unlike some moms and kids who keep it up for ages, eventually I want my bed back. I always swear I'll never let the wee one cry it out and then I find that I can't function any more. Every night as my eyelids drooped shut, the baby stirred and then wailed, ready to nurse and then party all night long. A few days ago, I hit my limit.

All I could think about was my desire for some sleep -- just a little sleep with no nursling attached. I wanted to be able to go into my room, turn on my bedside light, read in bed and fall asleep all without waking any sleeping midgets. My sleep-deprived mind felt as though it was going just a tad bit crazy.

Thus, I found myself telling my husband that if he could find the baby monitor, I would put the baby in the crib. Even feeling desperate for sleep, it's something of a sucker punch in the gut for me to move the baby out of my room and lose that midnight connection. However, the monitor was found and hooked up. The baby was moved out of my bed and bedroom and he did fuss and object -- for a few minutes.

And then, miracle of miracles, I didn't hear from him again until 4 a.m. The next night it was 1:30, but I still got a few hours of good sleep. Since then, the wake up calls have been coming between 5 and 7. Full nights of sleep!

So kick me out of the attachment parenting club, if you must (though my membership was probably always in doubt). My son is sleeping in his crib, and we're both getting more sleep. I miss the cuddling a little bit, but mostly I am loving the sleep. I'll cuddle during the day.

Snow

2011-01-11T21:56:00.001-06:00

We've been having fun in the snow for the last few days. Nashville doesn't get several days of snow in a row very often, so one has to play in it when it comes.

Hope you all are having fun in the cold, white stuff too.

Adventures in Emergency Home Repair

2011-01-05T15:59:00.001-06:00

"Mom," said my six year old as she pointed her flashlight at the floor, "I don't remember the vent being so far down."

I peered in, blinking rather unbelievingly at the sudden depth of the bottom of the in-floor heating vent. Why was it so deep? That dime sure is visible down there. Is that a dirt floor and a chair I can see? Wait a minute. I'm looking straight into the basement. It isn't supposed to look like that.

I wasn't thinking too quickly at first, obviously, but once it dawned on me that we'd been heating the basement for who knows how long, I moved a bit faster and hauled tape and a step ladder down to basement to reattach the living room heat to the first floor.

The taping job was pretty easy, although actual duct tape and not the stuff we call duct tape probably would have been preferable. What was most amazing was the amount of stuff that had spilled out of the duct as it fell. Legos, coins ($3.15), poker chips, lots of missing pencils, and plastic beasts by the dozen. I half wondered whether the weight of all the treasures stuffed down there was what sent it crashing.

No wonder my often frigid house has been a little extra chilly and now that extra large electric bill makes more sense.

Back to the Routine

2011-01-03T17:13:00.000-06:00

We've been out of our routines for several weeks now. And for the past week, we've had much feasting and far too many late nights. Feasting and hanging out with friends and family are lovely, but this morning it felt rather nice to return to normal. Even if we returned to our routine even later than our usual late morning start. Ahem.

At one point in my life, I would have denied that I was a creature of habit, that I craved the ordinary and routine, but whether or not I was ever really as spontaneous as I liked to imagine myself, I am no longer thus. A well ordered day is comforting. Consistency makes my life easier.

I suspect this is true for most of us and I suspect that this is why rhythms such as the liturgy of the hours and the liturgical calendar are so perfectly suited to us humans. We like to know what is coming. We like to have a cycle to live by. Order makes the large messy world seem navigable.

It is this order that is one thing most human and most divine that I have discovered in becoming Catholic. In my past, prayers were to be spontaneous and from the heart. A pre-written prayer would never have been considered to be of any value. Of course, those spontaneous prayers often all sounded the same from years of repetition -- and oddly enough, having having the order and routine of prayers prayed through the ages has given me the nudge to actually pray for these past several years.

In my old communion, there was no liturgical calendar other than Sunday services. The weeks and years brought no particular order or variation. It's restful to discover a calendar that leads one annually through the story of Christ. As Catholics we dwell every year on the same events, but through this annual routine, we can hope that we will grow in understanding and closeness to Christ. If you never know from week to week what the preacher will be thinking about, it is hard to have this same kind of reflection.

So as I ease back into my school plans, remind my kids to practice piano and sit together for morning and evening prayers, I am thankful for routines. Routines that even when one falls out of them for a while, can be re-embraced, rediscovered and picked back up. Just as I need to do this with my family life, isn't it these routines that drag me back to Christ and the Church when I slip and slide?

Quick Takes

2010-12-31T15:43:00.001-06:00

--1--

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

The last few weeks of the year always get away from me, with all the stuff that goes on.

--2--

There's an anniversary to celebrate in there. Thirteen years ago, the husband and I looked like this:

Now, my hair is longer and I weigh, um, more. Justin looks about the same though.

--3--

I got to meet a blogging friend, her husband and their adorable baby.

--4--

We spent a couple of days with my husband's grandparents and mom and dad. They hadn't met the littlest one yet. We hadn't seen them in a few years, since our conversion to Catholicism. It's been a difficult time, but the subject didn't really come up for discussion while we were there, so it was a pleasant time.

--5--

The baby?

He's not too fast yet, but look out world...

--6--

On an unrelated note, I hadn't planned on going, but I will be getting to go to Blissdom again this year. It's a lot of fun, although my friend Meredith, who knows everyone, won't be there, so who will I tag along with? I know no one, no one knows me, and I really, really am an introvert. Even so, I'm looking forward to it.

--7--

And speaking of Meredith. She's having a baby soon and like all moms-to-soon-be (again), I know she needs plenty of prayers to carry her through the last few difficult weeks of pregnancy and the weeks of newborn haze. So please remember her.

--Bonus Round--

Go read Betty Duffy. She's awesome, and generally says stuff I wish I had said.

Preparing

2010-12-23T21:02:00.001-06:00

Preparations are underway. In between getting bronchitis and having a child with a severly sprained ankle, we've baked some Christmas bread and Mexican wedding cookies and wrapped many presents. We've read stories that leading us toward the big day. My husband's Schola is practicing carols and Gregorian chant.

I think we're almost ready.

A happy Christmas to you all.

What Will Jordana Break Next?

2010-12-16T10:46:00.001-06:00

This blog is a hobby and when life gets busy, it falls by the wayside. I wish I could tell you all about the wonderful baking, creating and all I've been doing, but I haven't. Mostly I have been just barely keeping up and prying my eyes open, since the almost five month old has decided he rarely wants to sleep at night and when he does sleep it is only held by and attached to me. I don't get my best sleep that way.

Perhaps it is the lack of sleep that is causing a rash of breakages around here. It all began with my Panasonic Lumix, which I dropped lens down onto a tile floor. It has since failed to work. Then my almost brand new iPod Touch decided one morning to give me the white screen of death and turn super hot in one corner. Nothing I've done seems to have any effect and guess who lost the receipt? Guess who was keeping her Christmas shopping list on it? D'oh!

So I'm sleepy and breaking things. I hope nothing else crashes, smashes or starts pining for the fjords, but while I wait to see if everything else keeps working for a while, I have a shopping list to rewrite or the kids will be getting leftover Halloween candy for Christmas.

Saints and More Saints

2010-12-06T14:23:00.001-06:00

Happy St. Nicholas' Day! Growing up we didn't celebrate Christmas, saint days or anything of the sort, but when I started taking German in seventh grade, we always put our shoes out and found chocolate in them. It was probably my first experience with the Saints, and although my children hear about the Saints frequently a sweet reminder of St. Nicholas is always welcome.

At the end of October and beginning of November, my oldest three children and I made art trading cards of various saints and sent them off to Kimberlee for her ATC swap. I was in such a rush at the time with one daughter's birthday and then our trip to Ohio that I forgot to copy the pictures we made, but they are out there somewhere and we've seen a few online.

A few days ago, our new cards arrived in the mail, which called for a break from school to examine and compare all our new art. We got cards from England and Norway and perhaps most surprising, my six year old got a card from her best friend (I suppose we could have saved postage and just traded cards after Mass, but how much more fun to have a surprise from your friend show up via Pennsylvania instead!) Here's what showed up in the mail:

Bl. Teresa of Calcutta by Marcia, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Constantine and St. Helen, St. Anthony and St. Andre of Montreal by Josee

My 11 year old's cards: St. George, St. Damien, St. Patrick, St. Peter Claver?, and St. Michael by one of this blogger's children


My eight year old's cards: St. Lucy, St. Patrick, St. Elizabeth of Hungary by Marcia's daughter, St. Rose of Lima, and St. George

My six year old's cards: Bl. Kateri, St. Faustina, St. Bernadette, St. Christopher and St. Clare

Many thanks to Kimberlee and her family for hosting and sorting this enormous swap. It's been so much fun.

Becoming Mom

2010-12-02T10:25:00.000-06:00

Eleven years ago, yesterday, I began the journey of motherhood (outside the womb, in a more tangible way). My little boy, who looked like a cross between an alien and a grumpy old man, has turned into a big boy complete with stinky feet and thoughts devoted to Legos, books and computers.

My first born was first in a much larger brood than I would ever have imagined. He's glad to be first, thrilled to be the leader of the pack, but always happy to make room for one more sibling's arrival.

Although he sometimes makes my eyes glaze over at obscure facts about Star Wars or Legos or Harry Potter, he's interesting, funny and a good companion. I'm still rather proud of him and glad for the chance to be his mom.

Sick

2010-11-30T14:20:00.001-06:00

I must have been precient when I had the kids memorizing Shel Silverstein's "Sick" last week. I thought was just bringing up old childhood memories as they recited the words, "I cannot go to school today, said little Peggy Anne McKay..." but apparently I was actually summoning the sniffle fairies, who arrived Thanksgiving evening.

The four year and the two year old started with drippy noses first, and then JH began running a fever and snot, all after our friends arrived for dinner. By the time our guests left, I started feeling worn out and sick and my husband had lost his voice. We're still sniffly and drippy, and I wish I had a neti pot for every family member.

It could be worse though. Some of our friends had a stomach bug going around just before Thanksgiving and failed to mention it before showing up at our house for dinner last Thursday. We've been waiting and hoping and now I'm feeling fairly sure that we would have been throwing up by now, had we acquired that particular hostess gift.

Quick Takes

2010-11-19T15:39:00.000-06:00

--1--
It's mouse time once again in the Big Purple House. Ugh. Saw two or the same one twice last week. We set out traps, but apparently we have smart mice. I hate mice. I hate them more than most spiders and probably as much as snakes, which usually leave me alone. Cockroaches might be worse, and I am thankful I haven't seen any rats in the house.

--2--

Maybe it's PPD or maybe its SAD, but this past week of cold, grey weather has been really hard for me. When it all gets overwhelming, it is hard to get anything done. And yet kids still need to get their school done and they still demand to be fed. For some reason this is always when the tasks I must perform seem to expand and relatives start complaining all at once that I have been terrible at keeping in touch.

Fortunately, in the last few days the sun has come out and my husband shoved me out the door and made me go to my homeschooling friends Mom's Night Out. The last days haven't felt quite so much of a slog, but I'm still not very good at keeping in touch with people, because all the things that need to get done are still there. Sigh.

--3--

Thanksgiving's next week. Ack! Talk about things to get done. I think we're going to have a house full of people, which I love, but which means I need to get the place marginally clean. And I need to buy a turkey or two. And make pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce. I hope everything else is being brought by someone else.

--4--

I think there must be a four month growth spurt going on, because JH is wanting to party all night long at the Milk Bar. Not getting sleep isn't helping my mood either, and that whole, "Sleep when the baby sleeps" thing doesn't work when you have six kids at home, and the four year old and two year old would think nothing of destroying the house while you slept.

--5--

I'm way more excited than you would imagine that my husband bought paneer last week, so that I can make Mattar Paneer for dinner tonight. Does going meatless on Fridays count, when it isn't particularly penitential? I'm making lentil curry, naan and mango lassis too.

--6--

Unlike some years where I'm organized, this year I have no idea what to do about Christmas. Urgh. Nothing like leaving these things until the last minute. At least, I do have some nice plans in place for keeping the season of Advent -- poems to memorize for circle time, a few cookies to bake, and we'll read either Jotham's Journey or Destination: Bethlehem. The former we've read before and the kids love it, even if it is somewhat trite and poorly written. We haven't read the latter, but I bought it last year, so I'm thinking about trying it out this year.

--7--
It's very important to know how to have "the talk" with your kids. You know -- where you explain to them that Jar-Jar is evil and that Greedo didn't shoot first.

More Quick Takes to be found at Jen's place.

2010-11-15T15:30:00.001-06:00

I'm trying to keep my head from exploding with kids who seem to remember nothing, crying toddlers, fussy babies and a dark, dismal day. But in the midst of it, this video from my brother brightened my day and entertained the kids -- since they love both Harry Potter and Tom Lehrer.

Housekeeping

2010-11-12T20:34:00.000-06:00

It came to my attention that perhaps I should add the latest Adams child to the header. I don't like to rush into anything, but since we are pretty set on keeping him, I guess it was time for a change. Not that I changed things all that much. I like to be conservative in my changes.

Remember

2010-11-11T15:41:00.000-06:00

Today, I'm thinking about my grandfather and all the other men and women who have served this country.

It Ain't All High Brow Around Here Folks

2010-11-11T08:34:00.001-06:00

I have two kids in diapers. One who needs help after using the toilet. And the rest of them think scatological humor is the best.

My two year old, who is still in diapers, has decided that when she's sleepy and feeling belligerent, it is good to go around insulting people by saying, "You poop in your diaper!" Thanks to her siblings, she's also learned lovely phrases such as "Poo-poo head."

My older, classically-educated children, have been thoroughly enjoying their Latin class. Especially when they learned that boy was puer. Or as the girls like to say, "Puer. It's like poo-air. Therefore our brother is really flatulence."

I suppose that's what I get for keeping a copy of Everybody Poops in the house.

Lesson Plans: Phase 2

2010-11-10T12:10:00.000-06:00

I'm sure you've all been waiting with bated breath wondering when I would post my second quarter lesson plans. No? Well, why not? Anyway, I've uploaded the plans we started using at the beginning of this week and added a bunch of useful links as well. You can find them up at the top of the page under the appropriate tab. Carry on.

Home Again and a New Family Member

2010-11-09T10:10:00.001-06:00


Photo by Patrick Hoban

We're home after a whirlwind trip to Ohio, in which I gained a new sister, who was in fact already a sorority sister and my best friend from college. Long, long ago, I asked my senior year college roommate to be my maid of honor. Also at the wedding was my older brother.

Being the clueless type, it never dawned on me that in the ensuing almost thirteen years, that there might be any particular reason why my friend would ask me how my brother was doing. Nor did I particularly find it weird when my brother asked for my friend's phone number so that he could call her up whilst at a conference in her city.

I only seemed to get a clue when my friend called me a week or so after that and mentioned that she and my brother had been talking a lot since then. After that, the rest is history. Less than a year later, they are married and I couldn't ask for a nicer sister-in-law.

And don't you think the above picture is an awesome family photo? I know you may not all know my children as well as I do, but I think their personalities show clearly through this shot.

Rainy Day

2010-11-03T15:01:00.000-05:00

Although these days it sometimes seems as though I never leave the house, I did have to go out this wet, grey morning. I'm always surprised, although by this point I should no longer be, by how many people don't turn on their headlights when it is raining. People this is a no brainer. Do you remember nothing from driver's ed? Turn on your lights. It's hard to see you when the rain is pouring down.

Book Recommendations Welcomed

2010-10-28T12:25:00.002-05:00

Not too long ago, Robbo mentioned reading Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop. I'd never read it and probably wouldn't have appreciated it in my non-Catholic youth anyway, but when I was at the library and happened to walk past the C's on the shelf, I nabbed it, read it and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I was a German literature major in college. I have an MA in it too, and yet I haven't taught my kids German and I seem to read very little literature these days that doesn't have pictures on every page. I know that Joshua and Prudence have many nice and useful parts. I've got The Big Red Barn down pat. I have been rereading some of my favorite L.M. Montgomery books lately, but I doubt they'll be on the great literature lists any time soon.

However, what I liked about Death Comes for the Archbishop was, in some ways, what I like about books Montgomery's Blue Castle or Tangled Web. They are about life and not always beautiful or perfect lives, but at the same time life is worth the living. In other words, they aren't like the German books I spent my early adulthood reading. One reason I decided not to get a PhD in German lit (besides discussions like this) was an ever growing weariness with a feeling that all great literature seemed focused on misery and death.

Sure death comes for the Archbishop in the end, but it isn't the kind of tiring, romantic death that someone like young Werther seeks. It isn't the painful, pointless, frustrating death of Gregor Samsa. If Cather had focused the story on Magdalena and her misery, the book would have seemed more like the German literature I spent so much time reading. Instead, Fr. Latour's and Fr. Vaillant's small and large sufferings seem to have a purpose and bring them through long lives to a worthy end.

I appreciated the book, because it was a good story; one I wanted to stay up late reading. It wasn't a slog to get through. Not a book I had to spend time analyzing to understand and enjoy, but one that later on, I am still thinking about.

Of course, this means that I am now back to entertaining myself with One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and need to figure out what to check out next time I'm at the library. Fun reads. Fine literature not necessary, although certainly welcome as long as it isn't on the German model. Suggestions?

The Year of the Butterfly

2010-10-27T09:24:00.000-05:00

My whole childhood, I read about caterpillars forming chrysalises and metamorphosing into butterflies. I wanted to see it, but I never did. Caterpillars never seemed to survive in my youth and in recent years, it seems all we ever find are ugly caterpillars that turn into ugly moths.

This year we got wonderfully and amazing lucky. First, I plucked a fat squishy caterpillar off my carrots and brought it in. The first day the kids marveled at how much the caterpillar pooped, and we identified it. The next day we saw it tie itself onto something and slowly over the course of a day turn into a chrysalis. We were surprised to find it still wiggled when bumped (or poked and prodded) and in about two weeks we had a beautiful butterfly.


A black swallowtail

Even more butterfly luck came our way. A few days after the black swallowtail flew away, I was cutting dead plants out of my flower bed and into my hand fell another chrysalis. Totally different from the first one. Small, green with gold on it. It would have made a beautiful piece of jewelry. I couldn't identify it by the caterpillar, but Google helped. We had a monarch chrysalis! About two weeks after I found it, we came home from the grocery store to another lovely butterfly.

We may be studying chemistry in our homeschool this semester, but I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful chance to admire butterflies up close. And I finally, after all these years, got to see some actual examples of the metamorphosis of a caterpillar.

Four Years and a Couple of Weeks

2010-10-26T20:56:00.001-05:00

I've been mostly not-blogging these days, it seems, but my kids are getting educated. I'm cooking real meals, and the house is moderately clean. However, I do need to show my face around here too. For instance, my adorable, sweet, sometimes belligerent second son turned four a few weeks ago.

I can't believe he's four already. The years have flown by, at the same time they dragged every day. When he was still in utero, we first looked at the big purple house. We sold our tiny, comfortable, non-drafty house when he was still a tiny baby. Now he's a full-blown super hero.

Several weeks in advance, the four year old to be told me he wanted a monkey cake. If you've seen some of my other cake decorating attempts, you might know that I'll try just about anything, but the results are generally not all that pretty. I like to tell people that while I am a good baker, icing is my downfall. Sometimes I even just buy icing out of a can, and I still can't seem to pipe it properly. This time I tried chocolate marshmallow fondant. Much better results (even if no one will ever hire me as a professional cake decorator, I think it's better than some of the professional cakes I've seen) and it tasted good too. What's on the inside? A banana layer cake, of course. What other kind of monkey cake would one make?

All Saints' Art Trading Cards

2010-10-22T15:02:00.000-05:00

Back in May, the kids and I made tiny pictures of the Blessed Virgin for a fun art trading card swap hosted by Kimberlee at Pondered in My Heart. We had fun making our cards and even more fun getting new ones in return.

Now Kimberlee is hosting an All Saints' swap and we're participating again. Please join in the fun.

Homeschool Planning, Again

2010-10-21T09:09:00.000-05:00

I've been working writing our second quarter lesson schedules in between trying to actually school the kidlets. This year has gone well so far and I'm happy with the resources I've chosen, but I see now both why people buy a full package of school materials and why people charge a lot of money for such things.

Those Kinds of Days

2010-10-20T17:14:00.001-05:00

It started off just fine. We were taking my visiting aunt to the local botanical gardens to see the Chihuly exhibit since she's rather fond of his art and we hadn't seen it.

I got the kids fed. We were on time to pick her up and everything seemed to be going smoothly. Admission paid up, we set out on the path. At the second stop, I noticed my eight year old sitting on the ground looking at the sculpture, but I also noticed her lips were white. She claimed to feel fine though and set off at her usual quick pace. But a few minutes later she declared her stomach to feel weird and then she leaned over and barfed all over the grass, which I thought awfully considerate of her -- the kids usually choose to vomit on me.

We headed back toward the exit. The four year old fell and scraped his knee and was dripping blood. Of course, he also needed to visit the bathroom again. The two year old refused to hold my hand in the parking lot and screamed herself into a full blown tantrum when I picked her up and carried her.

By the time we got back to the van, the queasy one was feeling sick again, but couldn't seem to bring anything up. Finally, I had to let her in the vehicle and not having anything to catch vomit, I gave her my sling to puke on, should she need it (fortunately, she didn't!).

My aunt, who never had children, was treated to the full family experience. Vomiting and bleeding children, excessive potty breaks, and on the trip home blood-curdling screams from a two year old that waken both the dead and the sleeping baby, who decided to get in on the screaming contest.

Needless to say, I was glad my family did not run into any curious strangers and by the time I got home, I was ready for a strong cup of tea and a nap. At least I got the tea.

Warning! Breeder Alert!

2010-10-15T20:42:00.000-05:00

I have been blessed through my years of parenthood to run into very few nasty or rude people. I've never been told I can't nurse a hungry baby in public. Most people who see me out and about with my entourage either say nice things or make the stock, "You've got your hands full!" comment, to which I can only agree. There was the one fellow at the library one day who suggested that I needed to get a TV, but generally, I don't attract too many shocked looks or strange comments when the whole gang is with me.

Today I was out shopping at my local, teeny health/organic food store, where I buy spices in bulk, as well as steel cut oats, turbinado sugar and green lentils among other things. Now, I don't live in the suburbs where all my Catholic mom friends with their mega-sized families live. I live near downtown in one of those hip, trendy, urban neighborhoods, although I am not and never have been hip or trendy. What kind of people mostly live in hip, trendy neighborhoods? Singles, confirmed bachelors (if you know what I mean) and young-ish couples who might have one or two kids. Not women who drive 12 passenger vans and regularly cart around half a dozen children. But there you have it, I live amongst those who are not like me. But we occasionally shop at the same stores.

So here I was shopping in the hippy store (let's face it, that's what those stores are and they have the patchouli to prove it), and we ran into a friend with her son along. So even though my oldest happened to be off on a camping trip and not in attendance, I was still surrounded by six children when a woman came into the store looked at me with shock and said, "Please tell me these aren't all your children." Well, they weren't, so I didn't claim them all, but my friend's son was quick to point out that my children weren't even all there. More shocked looks. But the woman regained her composure, told me I had a beautiful family and after I thanked her, I thought we were free to move on.

She could not. Five seconds later, she followed me around the corner to ask me how I managed to take care of them all. I told her one at a time and day by day. I'm never good at snappy comebacks.

When we got to the yogurt section she was still trailing behind, still shocked and still discussing the size of my family. When we got to the checkout line there she was asking, "So did you wait at all before popping them out? Are they all 9 months apart?" And then addressing my five year old, "How old are you?"

It was starting to get a little weird. I don't expect not to be something of an oddity. There aren't many families with a million children out there, especially not in neighborhoods full of urban hipsters, but I do like to eventually be left in peace and I really hate discussions about my children that involve the expression "popping them out" -- especially conversations carried on in front of those same children.

In the end, after following us out to her car parked next to ours and gawking at what she had probably assumed was a delivery van, the woman left us alone and drove away. I knew I was going to have to head over to my blog and write about the encounter, and I can only wonder if she headed home to do the same.

"I saw a woman at the store today with, like, a zillion kids! What the ^(&@!!@ is she thinking? Doesn't she care about the environment? Do you think she hasn't heard of birth control? Man, was she ever surrounded by kids! And you should have seen her van. O.M.G. It was huge!"

Quick Takes

2010-10-08T16:23:00.000-05:00

--1--

For the first time in about a year, I started weeding one of my flower beds. It is now apparent to me that I can grow children or flowers, but not both. Does anyone know where to buy Agent Orange?

--2--

In the spring, gardens are so full of promise. The weeds haven't grown out of control. The bulbs come up and bloom all on their own. It seems so beautiful and so easy. By mid-summer, even when I'm not pregnant, I tend to feel worn out and the weeds creep in. By fall, everything seems to be in an impossible shambles and in the winter it will look dead no matter what I do. But spring always comes again. There's something philosophical in there, but I'll leave it to you all to tease it out.

--3--

JH went to the infant development lab at the local major university, where almost all of my kids have been taken in for experimentation. They've mostly done studies on language development, but this one is looking at how kids learn to grasp at things. Or something. Mostly I like being able to say, "Kids, we've decided to sell you for scientific experiments."

--4--

Since I'm already doomed for posting that last clip, I might as well go ahead and post my other favorite song poking fun at Catholics.

--5--

One of my grade school teachers just asked to be my friend on Facebook. Fortunately, it was the one grade school teacher I actually remember and liked. It's still weird though.

--6--

Of course, if you really want to discuss weird -- my best friend from college is marrying my brother. I'm happy for them. I am totally supportive of having a sister-in-law that I like. However, I still think it may be crazy and it's definitely weird.

--7--

Moving back to further media related randomness, when Tony Curtis died last week, everyone mentioned Some Like It Hot, which is a great film. However, no one mentioned my all time favorite Tony Curtis movie -- The Great Race. It's awesome.

Visit Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes.

Oatmeal Fruit Muffins

2010-10-05T09:30:00.000-05:00

I stayed up way too late last night, but we had muffins for breakfast this morning. Not muffins from a box either. Real muffins. I did all the prep work last night, so this morning all I had to do was heat the oven, mix everything together, and wait for the muffins to bake. Yum.

It's a filling recipe, and even pretty good for you. I've modified it quite a bit from wherever I originally got it, so I thought I'd share.

Oatmeal Fruit Muffins
makes 12 regular muffins

2 large eggs
1/3 cup maple syrup
3 tablespoons orange juice
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
zest of one orange
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 to 1 cup dried fruit (I use cranberries, cherries and chopped apricots)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin tin thoroughly with oil.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk eggs and add maple syrup, orange juice and milk. Continue whisking and add vanilla, the spices and orange zest. In another bowl, mix together oats, flour, baking powder and salt. Stir flour mixture into egg mixture with a spoon. Fold in fruit.

Fill the muffin tin with batter (each cup about 2/3 full) and bake for 15-20 minutes, until muffins are firm in the center.

But what's even better than a tasty muffin? A smiling baby, of course.

Eight Years

2010-09-29T21:07:00.000-05:00

My oldest daughter turned eight this week. It's been quite the wild ride with her in the past eight years. As we like to say -- she sounds like a pack-a-day smoker with her deep, gruff voice, has the attitude of a teenager, and a flare for the dramatic like you wouldn't believe, but we are crazy about her anyway.

She's an amazing person and full of energy and life. Our on-going job as her parents has been and continues to be to teach her to use all that energy, power, drama and the rest for good. She can be the absolutely best toddler watcher or the meanest sister in the house, all in the space of thirty seconds. She can throw together a stunning outfit complete with accessories that I never would have thought of, but she's also the one who tries to dress her sister in blue stripes, pink spots and tie-dye all at once.

She's quite the kid.

Friday Quick Takes

2010-09-24T08:23:00.001-05:00

--1--

You have eight children in the house (not counting the baby), they are all begging for food and pretending that starvation is imminent. What do you feed them for a snack? I opted for popcorn. I made two batches in our popcorn maker (similar to this one) -- one with butter and one with sugar. Happy children all around.

--2--

Why had I acquired extra children? Or did you not notice in the previous quick take that there were 3 unaccounted for kids? Well, extra children arrived yesterday afternoon, because my friend was headed to the hospital to act as a doula for another friend. I haven't heard yet about a new baby arrival, but I'm praying that all went well.

UPDATE: A new baby boy for my friend. Deo gratias!

--3--

I have greatly enjoyed reading the discussion on pants in the Blogosphere. Sometimes I wear pants. Sometimes I wear skirts. I have a few friends who only wear skirts. I knew a few women in Fairbanks, Alaska who only wore skirts (or wore skirts on top of their pants). No one has yet shunned me for my lascivious pants-wearing, but now, after this discussion on the broader internets, my husband has derived a lot of pleasure from saying, "Woman. Cover yourself and stop tempting me with those pants!"

--4--

We've almost finished our third week of school. Unsurprisingly, I suppose, all my planning has actually helped us manage our days better. Also unsurprising -- my staying off the computer helps the day run more smoothly. But it does cut down on my goofing off/blogging time. Hmph.

--5--

Does anyone have any brilliant ideas for breakfast? I'm tired of eggs. I'm tired of cereal. I'm tired of oatmeal and I'm tired of pancakes/waffles. I'm also just plain tired in the morning.

--6--

This guy has a lot to do with my sleepiness.

--7--

He's two months old now and weighs almost 14 lbs. If he continues on this growth pattern and doesn't drop off sharply like his closest two siblings did, he'll weigh as much as my two year old in no time.

More Quick Takes to be found at Jen's place.

An Anniversary

2010-09-16T16:42:00.001-05:00

Three years and two cradle Catholics later, today is the anniversary of our reception into the Catholic Church.

The Best Laid Plans

2010-09-13T12:31:00.000-05:00

My homeschooling plans are going fine. Now if the rest of the moving parts could stop causing problems, I'd be grateful. On Friday morning, I sent the three year old upstairs to get dressed. A bit later, he came down in his birthday suit, crying and with a Lego up his nose. I could see it, but it was soon evident that I couldn't get it out. So, I got him and everyone else dressed and out the door and we headed off to the pediatrician. She couldn't get it out either.

So we headed from there to the ENT at the Children's Hospital. On the way there, whilst getting into the turning lane, I scraped the side of another car and broke his taillight. I've never been in an accident before. No one was hurt. I was moving very slowly and the damage to both cars was minimal, but I was still shaken up and crying.

My husband came and took the little one to ENT, while I got the accident and dealing with the police taken care of. The Lego came out with special teeny ENT tweezers.

On Sunday, we went to Mass, had a lovely chat with friends. One person gave us a belated new baby meal and another gave us a cobbler (they must have known life was not so smooth). We got in the van to go home and it wouldn't start. The battery was fine. The starter motor had died.

And this morning? My e-mail account started sending spam hither, thither and yon. And now that it's sent so much spam out into the world, Gmail won't even let me send messages out explaining, apologizing or anything else.

I think I need a hole to crawl into -- preferably with copious amounts of merlot.

The First Week of School

2010-09-09T21:45:00.001-05:00

Where the learning happens...(and no, I didn't chose the paint color)

Pencils scratch across paper. Pages flip. Science experiments, Latin songs and watercolors start becoming routine. It's been a busy week in the house. Usually, I begin our school year at some time during the summer when it is hot as blazes and no one wants to go out any way. This year, I didn't have the energy to even think about it -- I had a baby in July, if you recall, and we went on a long trip in August.

I decided to wait until Labor Day to begin (and we actually began on Labor Day, so as to get in a full week's work). However, although we didn't begin school until this week, I spent a lot of time over the summer getting ready for this year. First came the planning stage, which involved considering what hadn't worked and what had worked and why, figuring out what I wanted to cover and researching curriculum, mostly over on the Well-Trained Mind Forums and talking to friends. I made lists and checked them twice, reviewed them, and dithered.

Whenever possible, I tried to review curriculum items that sounded good either in person or on the web, before ordering something blindly, but ordering came next, whether blind or not.

After actually getting my hands on the books, I took the bold step of actually flipping through everything, considering how long I wanted our days to be, what I wanted to teach when, and making notes about the length of books and how long I wanted them to last -- also taking into consideration the fact that I have one child who speed reads (with excellent comprehension), one child who dawdles over everything and one child who complains that all assignments are too long and too hard. I started creating lesson plans and schedules for the first quarter, including typing in books that just require you to do the next thing. I know after four years of doing this, that if I don't write it all down, I won't remember even those things. I would have loved to plan the whole year at once, but things change. People get sick. Books are reviled. I didn't want to make that much commitment to anything, so I stuck to a quarter and will carry on planning as I see how things are going. In the spirit of sharing, although these will probably be too particularly specialized to be valuable to anyone but me -- here are my mostly finished grade 5, grade 3, grade 1 and Morning Circle Time plans.

Besides planning everything and putting it in writing, I also got each kid a three-ring notebook divided into nine sections with their weekly lesson plan inside as well as all worksheets to be completed each week. In the past, I have often spent time every morning finding, copying and printing worksheets or other necessary paperwork. This year, I did the work beforehand, so there is no more searching around. And to further save time during the school day, I bought each child a milk crate to keep all their particular books in. Books are returned to their place in the crate after they are used (or when I find them lying around the house in strange locations) and the hunt for missing math books seems to be some what tamed.

Finally, to get ready for the year, we cleaned, edited and rearranged our school room (which is also our family room). Thus far, I am much, much happier with the new arrangement of things.

So far, so good. I hope the rest of the school weeks continue to go so smoothly.

MIA

2010-09-07T07:24:00.008-05:00

Where have all the Adams gone? Long time ago...

Sorry, channeling my inner Peter, Paul and Mary...

It's never the most auspicious start to a family road trip of a thousand miles, when -- an hour from home -- the five year old yells, "Ewwww, [the two year old] has wet stuff coming out of her mouth!" Sniffing the air confirmed rather quickly what that "wet stuff" indeed was, but after stopping to clean up the child and her car seat, one more vomit episode, another stop to clean up again and to buy towels, Lysol and Febreze, things proceeded less eventfully for the rest of the trip with no more "wet stuff" spewing (although there were a few unexpected naps that moistened a few other carseats along the way, so the Lysol and Febreze saw a good bit of action until we could get home and really wash things).

But where, you might be wondering, did the Adams family go?

Our first stop was here:

Recognize that? My war-like almost four year old ran up to some strangers on the battlefield and shot them with his finger-guns. This may be reason number 5,687 why I homeschool, some of my children would be expelled from public school before they even got started.

Another long bit of driving and we arrived at our actual destination, where we toured a nuclear sub, saw a Supreme Court case in action (we'll call in professional development for my husband) and visited this fort below. Steve-o, were he still around, would I'm pretty sure be able to figure out exactly where we'd been hanging out.

We also got to take the kids on their first trip (for most of them) to a beach.

We were actually on our East Coast tour to acquire a beautiful God-daughter (picture shamelessly swiped from said Godchild's mother). And then we drove home a different way. Introduced the baby to some of his relatives in Ohio and finally arrived back in Tennessee, where I've been spending every available minute getting ready to begin the new school year and rearrange the school room to make it less of a constant disaster and more of a usable space.

School is upon us now and life is busy.

Care to Rephrase That?

2010-08-19T10:48:00.000-05:00

On the List of Things You Don't Want Said Outside the Home:

I'm sitting in the rocking chair, rocking JH and patting him gently on the bottom. My three year old walks by and asks, "Mom, why are you hitting the baby?"

On a side note: I can't believe he turned one month old yesterday.

Live or Let Dye?

2010-08-19T09:44:00.000-05:00

A serious question facing many women of a certain age these days: when the grey hairs start arriving in droves -- to dye or not to dye?

It's not like there is any guarantee that your hair will look like Emmy Lou's:

You might look like this instead:

Broken

2010-08-18T09:48:00.004-05:00

In my thirty-sixth year, I discovered I was not going to be around forever. Certainly, I'd known for much longer than that that I was mortal, and I hadn't received any specific sentence dooming me to an abbreviated existence. Simply, my body has reached the point where I know I'm not as healthy as I once was and I am not as young as I once was either -- and it's not just the long white hairs I recently found taunting me amongst what had until recently been all dark, glossy browns.

This past pregnancy has been harder than any that came before it. It would be untrue to state that I "bounced back" from any of them. My body never returned to "normal" when I had my first son and after each baby, long bouts of depression would leave me feeling like my mind was a wreck. As this past pregnancy went on, it was this depression I feared the return of most and it does come and go, but I gave no real thought to physical changes and problems. Other than the long slog back to a pants size that didn't make me weep too much, my post-partum struggles hadn't been too bad. This time though, it is the physical which has been at least as hard for me as the mental. I'm not going to spend too much time listing all the ailments. Someone else could top my list with much worse problems to be sure.

Not that long ago, I read a piece on Building Cathedrals and this paragraph really resonated:

I still remember sitting with our first daughter in Mass a few weeks after she was born. As the priest raised the host and said, “This is my body, broken for you,” the words took on new meaning for me. I suddenly realized that, as a new mother having just given birth to my daughter, I understood and experienced this body-sacrificing love in a new way. As mothers, in pregnancy, childbirth, nursing and child-rearing, we really do give our bodies for our children. Sometimes this gift comes at a great cost to us, sometimes it is just full of little crosses. Either way, what an honor and privilege it is to participate so intimately in the Lord’s work. As mothers, carrying out our vocations in love, we truly stand on holy ground (Exodus 3:5).

I'm either slow, because it seems to have taken me until my sixth baby for this to really make sense, or I'm forgetful and have to relearn these lessons of brokenness and weakness after every baby, but I understand broken right now. I understand both my own sacrifices and the gift of the Body of Christ in new ways every day. I'm learning to make peace with my own sacrifices, the ones I never really planned or thought I was choosing. I am beginning (note I said beginning and not that I'm good at it) to learn to bow my head and catch the meaning of, "Thy will be done," and to remember that the work I do every day, when I drag sore and tired body out of bed, is a privilege and sacred trust.

Now if I can only fix my mind on these thoughts as the slog gets tough.

Quick Takes -- The Very Random Edition

2010-08-13T10:14:00.006-05:00

--1--
I'm just now looking at and downloading pictures from my camera, but we Christianized the heathen baby almost two weeks ago. He wasn't exactly happy about that water being dumped on his head, but he'll appreciate it some day.

--2--
Speaking of heathens (and perhaps more technically heretics) despite what has been reported in the comments section on Creative Minority Report when discussing a certain priest in my diocese, we are not all heretics in Middle Tennessee. My parish has all sorts of strikes against it, when judged by the statements in the video the CMR guys posted. We have a foreign priest, a married convert priest and we're orthodox! Terrible, ain't it?

--3--
Actually terrible, my brother-in-law and his family lost their home to a fire a few days ago. They aren't sure of the cause as of yet. They are pretty upbeat about it considering the loss. I'm not sure I would take it nearly so well. I probably need to work on a greater detachment from stuff. If you get a chance though, please say a prayer for them as they go through the frustrations and annoyances that are sure to come.

--4--
On a happier note, there is great luxury in having a child who is old enough to mow the lawn. Even better, half the time he'd rather take his payment in game playing time.

--5--
Yes, indeed. We caved in and allowed JH to buy his siblings a Wii as his gift to his new brothers and sisters. And we let the oldest buy the Lego Harry Potter game. Clearly, we've lost it in our dotage. Though it's still not like I let them sit around like dullards all the time, and as I said most of the oldest's game time is hard earned by sweating along mowing the yard in the August heat.

--6--
With public schools and a lot of homeschoolers starting their new school years and since we've usually started by now, I feel behind. However, I don't feel ready to get this show on the road either. I think our school year will just have to wait a little while longer.

--7--
And now a web page for discriminating Winos and those who aspire to be such: BumWine!
More Quick Takes to be found at Betty Beguiles.

Pious? No. Honest? Yes.

2010-08-10T13:08:00.002-05:00

Says my husband: We're going to church for the beginning day of a parish novena.

The five year old: I hate novenas. They take too long.

The seven year old: I'll pay you $100 if we just have to say two Hail Marys instead.

The ten year old to the seven year old: You haven't got $100.

Devotions

2010-08-09T16:18:00.003-05:00

I never get tagged for anything any more (It's not that I try to be antisocial, but the kids bring it out in me. Kidding. Mostly), but here I got tagged twice (by both the lovely and very pregnant Hallie and by my real-life Nashville blogging buddie Amy) for a meme making its way around the Catholic blogosphere.

One of these, suggests talking about your three favorite Catholic devotions and the other five. I'm still getting used to the idea of having devotions at all. I think some things don't come as naturally to some of us converts.

When we were first in the process of becoming Catholic, I felt a very strong pull to pray the rosary. At the time, I didn't even really know what a rosary or praying one entailed. But I was convinced I needed to pray it. Right about that time, Elizabeth Foss posted about her favorite rosary CD, which I bought and have really loved praying with. I don't pray the rosary all the time -- certainly not every day, and not always with the CD, but I love the CD and I do love praying the rosary.

Almost every night as a family we do pray Compline. If it were up to my husband, we'd be chanting the whole thing, probably in Latin. Some of us appreciate chant, but are perhaps not quite as enchanted (har har) as others. We only chant parts of Compline. Chanted and/or spoken, it is a lovely end to the day. We have booklets for Compline and everyone who can read takes part in the Psalm and even some people who cannot read have begun to learn the hymn and prayers.

Another nightly tradition for our family, after Compline, is ask our family patrons to pray for us. As a convert, praying to saints sometimes still feels weird. I could easily ignore the saints as something I'm just not used to, if not for this nightly invocation and reminder of their existence. The good thing is that not only does this prayer serve as a great thing for me, but none of this will feel so weird to my kids. It will be part of what they simply know.

The baby is starting to get fussy, and so I'll opt for the choice of three rather than five devotions. And now to pass the buck on to someone else: Kiera, Robbo (when he returns from vacation), Mary, Kimberlee, and anyone else reading this who wants to join in.

I Haven't Run Away From Home

2010-08-05T12:12:00.003-05:00

The day after my last whiny post, a very good friend lent me a teenager, I got a nap, did some laundry and felt a lot better.

Some days are good. Some days are hard. That much isn't so different from any other time in life.

The differences post-baby are that I have to get used to a tiny, helpless, demanding person, deal with physical pain and healing (more this time than ever before), fight through depression, and still do all the regular stuff.

Right now I'm having an extra hard time, because in my last trimester I developed carpal tunnel syndrome as I got swollen and the extra fluid pinched the nerves in my arms. I lost feeling in the fingertips of my right hand and gripping a steering wheel, a knife (to cut up vegetables) or a pen (to write thank you notes) leaves my whole hand both numb and painful at the same time. My left arm and wrist are even worse. I have a wrist brace, but I'm in constant pain and the littlest stuff hurts.

Although it is laughable, because I never achieve perfection in anything, I suppose I do have perfectionist aspirations. Not being able to do the things I want to do is very frustrating and depressing. I already have a tendency to suffer from post-partum depression and feeling helpless doesn't help.

I'm taking vitamins and fish oil, which seemed to help some with depression last time around and my husband is helping me get used to assigning more tasks and figuring out what I can do. So far it's going ok. I know we aren't guaranteed easy, but I find myself wishing it could all not be so dang hard either.

One of Those Days

2010-07-29T13:21:00.003-05:00

My husband went back to work on Monday. The first few days were okay. Not great, but we made it through. Today, I'm not so sure we're all going to make it.

The three year old has been at his most obnoxious. The two year old is crying non-stop. At lunchtime, she was hiding in the laundry room wailing because I wasn't holding her in my lap while she ate. The little guy doesn't feel like sleeping much today and has therefore also been crying (especially when woken by screaming two year olds or prodding three year olds). The older kids are trashing the house. None of my clothes really fit. It started to rain on the clothes I had drying outside. My mother-in-law, whom I haven't seen since December, is stopping by tonight on her way through town, and I don't know whether my husband will be coming home at a normal time tonight or going to a meeting after work.

Complaining isn't obviously going to do me much good, but just in case you were wondering if life with six children is always peaceful and quiet -- it isn't. Some days do go relatively smoothly. Others -- not so much.

Still Staring at the Little Guy

2010-07-27T10:54:00.002-05:00

He may be the sixth baby, which is definitely not quite like being the first, but I'm just as crazy about him and his funny faces.

Baby Having

2010-07-22T10:24:00.004-05:00

Those of you squeamish types who don't want to read the gory details of having a baby, move along now.

***********************

Alrighty then, for the rest of you. Here's the story of JH's arrival into the outside world.

On Saturday evening, I had frequent, although not painful contractions. However, in my last labor I also had contractions that weren't painful, and didn't become painful until the last 17 minutes of labor and pushing. So frequent contractions alone are enough reason to be in a hospital, if I am planning to not deliver at home or in the car -- neither of which was in my birth plan -- and a good thing as it turned out.

All night long my contractions remained frequent, but irregular and not painful. When I arrived at the hospital, my doctor was on call and I had hoped to have him deliver, but as the night wore on, that looked less and less likely, since his shift ended at 7:00. However, for all I just complained about his practice, he's an awesome doctor -- and knowing that I wanted him to help me deliver, he stuck around after his shift for several more hours so that he could be there.

Anyway, back to the story. I contracted through the night, without great pain, but without great progress either. (My doctor and the nurse kept asking if I was in pain yet and seemed disappointed by my negative answers. Sadists.) I entered the hospital dilated to 4 centimeters and was only at 5 1/2 centimeters by morning. Though my fifth labor was my shortest, my sixth was the second longest (shorter only than the 25 hour marathon of my first).

At around 8:45, the doctor came in and asked again if I wanted him to break my water. I'd been resisting, because I was sure that my water not breaking until the very end was what allowed my fifth baby to arrive so easily and relatively painlessly and I was afraid breaking my water would make the baby arrive really fast and everything would get immediately horribly painful. However, by this point I was also ready to be done. I was strongly tempted to ask for an epidural before getting my water broken, but thanks to reminders from my husband and doula that I didn't really want one, I didn't do it.

With my water broken, things did pick up, but not immediately. Things didn't suddenly get crazy painful nor did contractions pile one on top of each other. They did get harder, stronger and closer together and definitely more painful as time went on. Actually, my contractions never did pile one on top of the other. They got longer and harder, but I think up to the end they stayed about 4 minutes apart (and never all that regular). I'm not sure what women in the other hospital rooms thought, but I have found during the end of labor I'm not at all quiet (I was moaning, bellowing and probably sounded like a dying cow. I am also a big whiner, alternatively complaining that there was no pain medicine they could give me and suggesting that the baby would never be born.)

The doctor checked my progress again and said I was at eight centimeters on one side and complete on the other. And then he removed his hand and my body started pushing and I remember yelling that fact out loud, "I'm pushing."

From this point on, I don't remember much except that I continued to be sure that I couldn't do it and insisting that the baby would never arrive. Also that I was having trouble focusing to push and that I pretty much let my body push down as it felt necessary. Although this part felt as if it took forever, I am told it all happened pretty quickly. I swear I was crowning for hours, but since the breaking of my water until birth was only an hour and 45 minutes, I guess that isn't true.

Eventually I remember them telling me that the head was out and to give a little push for the shoulders. They emerged just fine and I heard the news that I had another son. But then, instead of having a bright eyed newborn thrown on my chest, I remember the doctor shaking him and telling him that if he didn't perk up he couldn't come see me. I remember thinking he was terribly still and very big. I don't know exactly what was said next, but the baby was whisked to the other side of the room and a team of people surrounded him. I had nothing to do but worry and focus on the pain. I asked if he was alive and when reassured that the baby would be fine and was getting pinker by the minute -- as the doctors debated whether he got a 1 or a 2 for his first Apgar (he got a 2 because his heart beat was strong all the time) -- I asked for pain medicine, because I couldn't take any more and was getting shaky. That shot of Stadol was just what I needed.

Eventually, he came back to me, heplock in his hand and pink, too sleepy to even try nursing (but with an 8 for his second Apgar). Apparently, the trip into the outside world was too fast for a large baby boy and the squeezing action which pushes the fluid out of his lungs hadn't had time to work. Thanks to being in a hospital with a NICU team at the ready, he'd been suctioned, oxygenated and was doing fine. He was ready to go to regular care and didn't have to spend time in the actual NICU, where at 9 lbs 12 oz, he would have dwarfed the other guys.

After this point things were pretty normal. The last bit of labor without pain medicine is -- um, well, painful. I remember thinking at the time that if I ever had another child, I was scheduling a c-section. So why would I want to go through labor without pain medicine? Because afterward (even if I did need something to get me through the immediate hour after birth) recovery is so much easier. Epidurals involve catheters, numb legs and lots of swelling and discomfort. Without one, you can get up and walk. The swelling isn't bad and the general discomfort is much more manageable. I wouldn't begrudge anyone pain meds or think less of them for getting them. I've had four epidurals and two without. And in both of those without, I've spent most of transition complaining that it is too late to get an epidural. I'm certainly not superwoman. I've just found that the recovery period, which lasts longer than childbirth is better for me when I forgo the pain-free labor.

And thus baby number six arrived. With a decent labor and a scary arrival. We settled in for a day at the hospital and then came home a little over 24 hours later. His siblings are generally thrilled and fascinated by the new arrival, though since I haven't consistently been getting the two year old down for naps, evening meltdowns have come a little more frequently.

I'm still not sure how I'm going to survive life with six children. I need to get organized and I need to learn to delegate. Some how I hear one manages and gets by. We shall see.

Introducing...

2010-07-19T21:54:00.003-05:00

John Henry made his appearance on Sunday morning, weighing in at a whopping 9 lbs 12 oz. I'll provide more details later, but for now I'll just say that I'm glad he didn't cook any longer.

Quick Takes Friday

2010-07-16T11:31:00.004-05:00

--1--

My five year old walked in and handed me this paper this morning. I haven't exactly been the "fun mom" this summer. Okay, I'm never the fun mom, but I'm worse than usual.

--2--

At my last doctor's visit, another doctor in the practice told me that the stuff I'd been told was changing inside wasn't. That not much at all had happened really. Frustrating. I go in for another appointment today with my doctor. I hope things are more interesting this time.

I may also complain about the nursing staff, who when asked any question reply with a withering, "Have you checked the pink book we gave you?" And when told that I wanted to check something that isn't standard and/or mentioned in the book, they just refer to the book. It's not like everyone has a typical labor or that they can possibly mention everything you can or cannot take during pregnancy in one paragraph. And thus far, I have never heard one of them during this pregnancy say, "I'll check with a doctor and get back to you or if you are worried come in and we'll check it out." When I started going to this practice, it was small and I really liked the four doctors. I've recommended it a lot. Now it seems like much more of a big business with far more doctors and nurses. Hmph.

--3--

Damn you, Whole Foods, if I’d wanted to poison my baby, I’d have stayed conservative.

This essay that Robbo linked to cracked me up.

--4--

Belly shot:

You know you are huge when even your seven year old asks if it might be twins. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

--5--

My three year old was annoyed that I accompanied him to the bathroom instead of his father, so he told his two year old sister, "You stink." "I not stink!" she roundly declared. Being typically warlike and violent, she walked over and hit him. Naturally, he hit back. And the two year old walked over to me, batted her big blue eyes and declared indignantly, "He hit me!"

--6--

For reasons we are uncertain of, the two year old calls the three year old "Jo-Jo." His name contains neither J nor O.

--7--

I think I have a girl's name picked out, but not a boy's name. This practically guarantees that this baby must be a boy.

More Quick Takes to be found at Jen's place.

Mmm...Bacon...

2010-07-15T13:44:00.001-05:00

Pay no attention to the fact that I don't eat pork. This is still funny.

Lemon Squash Cake

2010-07-15T09:33:00.006-05:00

I like lemons and I had a lot of yellow squash around. I was also going through the 9 million recipes I had ripped out of magazines or printed out from the web. I did have a lemon zucchini cake amongst them, but as I recall, I didn't like it much. I also had a recipe from a long ago Williams-Sonoma catalog for lemon bread, but it was a little weird and didn't contain any squash. Time for something new and different (although relying heavily on the recipes at hand).

Although you could use zucchini to good effect in this recipe, the yellow squash, when seeded, blends in and looks just like the lemon zest. No picky eaters ever need to know you stuck a vegetable in the cake.

Lemon Squash Cake

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
4 ounces cream cheese
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
zest of one lemon
2 small (or 1 medium) yellow squash (unpeeled, de-seeded and shredded, with as much juice as possible squeezed out of it)

Allow butter, cream cheese and eggs to come to room temperature.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil and flour cake pan.
Whisk together flours, baking soda and salt.
Mix butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer. Gradually, add sugar; beat until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes). Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and lemon juice.
Reduce mixer speed to low. Add flour mixture to butter mixture, one third at a time, mixing until just combined.
Fold in lemon zest and squash.
Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean -- about 1 hour. Cool 10 minutes, remove from pan. Cool completely and top with a sprinkle of powdered sugar.

Cute two year old is not necessary for the enjoyment of this cake. (And for those of you paying very close attention, this was her second birthday cake of the day.)

Now that that Sports Thing in South Africa is Over...

2010-07-12T14:04:00.003-05:00

I'm not really into any sports. If I had to choose a favorite it would be baseball. I have fond memories of going to Dodger's game when I was a wee lass in Southern California. When the World Series starts, I might even watch part of a game or two.

Given that level of sports interest, I suppose no one will be particularly surprised that I managed not to watch even a minute of any of the World Cup. Soccer bores me to tears. But this article on "Why the World Cup Sucks" amused me greatly. (But take note, that there is some salty language [even more so than the title] should that disturb you).

The Privilege of Having a Birthday

2010-07-12T10:25:00.003-05:00

Cake for breakfast!

My littlest is two. I said I needed at least two years between these babies. I think the latest model can arrive any time.

Quick Takes -- Doing Stuff

2010-07-09T10:56:00.010-05:00

--1--

The growing belly isn't the only thing happening, even though I do feel quite discouraged some days. I present a a few of the things to be seen around here from the past week.

--2--

Our laundry room counters! Need a fairly cheap counter? Try plywood. Our kitchen counters at our old house were plywood covered in polyurethane. They served us well there and our current kitchen counters are a fancier take on plywood covered in thick bar poly. We didn't want that much trouble and expense for the laundry room, but we did want to finally get these repurposed cabinets from Habitat for Humanity covered in a counter (instead of just covered in junk and unusable).

These took a while to plan and measure and a day to install for people who haven't done this before. It took another afternoon to carefully measure and cut out the opening for the laundry sink. We already had the necessary tools, the stain and the polyurethane, so the counters will come in under $200. I will be so happy to have counters and a sink in there. My very first real laundry room! Even if I won't get around to painting the cabinets or walls for a long while yet, it's finally going to seem like a finished room.

--3--

There aren't any peaches in my garden, but I found a bunch on a good sale and since peach jam is a favorite around here, I made some. I have never learned how to can, but freezer jam is easy and tastes great. For freezer jams, I just reuse sanitized old glass jars (making sure not to fill them so full that they explode).

--4--

Today's haul from the garden. A few tomatoes (some green ones that my two year old "found"), okra, squash, some serrano peppers, cukes and one little zucchini.

--5--

I actually don't like pickles that much, although I don't find a dill pickle as yucky as a sweet one, but when one cannot give away or eat cucumbers fast enough, one has to do something with the excess. I can't find the recipe online anymore that I'm using, but it makes a nice Claussen-Style dill pickle and keeps in the refrigerator (meaning once again, I can reuse old jars and I don't have to learn to can).

--6--

My first quarter school notebooks for the three school aged kiddos are done (except for all the things I have forgotten). I have a few things left to order and a few changes to make to their lesson plans, but the largest part of the work is finished! Phew.

--7--

I can't think of anything else around here that's gotten done except cooking meals and washing clothes, so I'll leave it at that.

More Quick Takes to be found at Jen's place.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

2010-07-09T10:45:00.001-05:00

Being extremely cruel parents, we occasionally make our children read books they might not have picked up on their own. The oldest tends to dawdle like crazy about starting any new book, and then usually can't put the book down. (I won't discuss the seven year old who is even harder to make do anything she doesn't want to do.)

Last year I made him, after much convincing, read Journey to the Center of the Earth. He loved it.

Today I made him start Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, which has been sitting around waiting to catch his attention for weeks. His review thus far? "Mom, this book makes Journey to the Center of the Earth look boring and dull. It's wonderful! I was only going to read 100 pages today, but I had to finish the underwater hunt."

If only I could convince him once, without cajoling, that his father and I actually can pick good books.

Curmudgeonry

The Reason I Usually Keep Markers on the Top Shelf

Quick Takes

Thai Lentil Soup, or I would have taken a picture, but the locusts ate it all

WWJD?

Doctors, Nurses and Quandries

The Mysterious Disappearance -- Explained

The Days are Long

That's Not Quite It

Beautiful Butterflies

Quick Takes -- Meet the Bloggers Version

Honeymoon in Chattanooga

The State of the Garden

Homeschooling Meme

Funnix Math for the Short Set

Leader of the Resistance

The Oldest child is holding the Youngest on his lap. The little guy is wiggling to get down. His sister demands that he be let go, but the Oldest categorically refuses.

"That's it!" she declares, "I'm starting a Baby Brother Liberation Front!"

What I did on My Summer Vacation

Theology According to My Four Year Old

The One Year Old

Quick Takes: Can I Dip the House in Bleach? Edition

Fourth Grade Booklist 2011-2012

Sixth Grade Booklist 2011-2012

Quick Takes in July

Better Things Ahead

Missing My Girl

In the House of Pestilience

Quarantine

Sarcasm Becomes Her

Snippets

Conversations, Unedfiying but Amusing

Strawberry Tapioca

More Old School Reading

Whadda Ya Mean You Don't Eat No Meat?

Beginning Readers or the Trouble with Phonics

Home Improvements

Cooking with Jordana

Quick Takes

Achoo. Pardon the Dust.

Foodies

Nope

Quick Takes

Things I Like

Out of the Fog?

Substitutions

Annoying People Without Even Trying

Netflix, How I Love Thee

Not That Kind of Sharing!

A Belated Christmas Letter

Legos All Year Round

Sleeping It Off

Snow

Adventures in Emergency Home Repair

Back to the Routine

Quick Takes

Preparing

What Will Jordana Break Next?

Saints and More Saints

Becoming Mom

Sick

Quick Takes

Housekeeping

Remember

It Ain't All High Brow Around Here Folks

Lesson Plans: Phase 2

Home Again and a New Family Member

Rainy Day

Book Recommendations Welcomed

The Year of the Butterfly

Four Years and a Couple of Weeks

All Saints' Art Trading Cards

Homeschool Planning, Again

Those Kinds of Days

Warning! Breeder Alert!

Quick Takes

Oatmeal Fruit Muffins

Eight Years

Friday Quick Takes

An Anniversary