Woodworking

I've heard about the kids' workshops at both Lowe's and Home Depot for a couple years, but we hadn't tried them out until Daddy-o took the kids to build a Lowe-bot.

The kids had fun, even if 30 kid hammering at once was a little loud. And they got to bring home the apron and safety goggles as well as the finished project, so they were very happy about that.

What a Night!

Bugaboo: I don't love Daddy--he's not a real girl like you.


You know your kids are still young when you have to referee fights over who's turn it is to do dishes, because they BOTH want to do them.

Bean: "Mommy, I want to see if Santa comes again. I'm putting out graham crackers and milk."

Things you want to hear: "Mama, I love you so much! Give me some more lovin'!"

Things you don't want to hear: After your kid has climbed all over your lap and rolled around and slid up and down your legs, "Mama, I peed on my pants.

A Day of Unschooling

Just a peak into what we call school around here: A little playdough time while I clean up from breakfast--Bugaboo made lots and lots of cookies,

Bean made a microraptor. I thought it was an archeopteryx, but she was quick to correct me. She's very specific about her dinosaurs.

Then we did a little "What word starts with ___?" Then a few worksheets--I've tried to avoid worksheets because they aren't really "unschooling" materials, but Bean likes them. And I don't push her to finish them, just print out a few and let her do what she wants. So she did a little handwriting, a little telling time, and then some coloring. Bugaboo decided he was more interested in coloring and cutting the paper into little, tiny pieces. Now if he can just learn to sweep. . .

Then it was time for a science experiment. We learned about why we sweat by blowing on dry skin and then wet skin. I checked out a book that is full of these types of experiments, which I love. It reminds me of why I liked Physiology so much in high school

--all these hands on things we can learn about our own bodies. After lunch, we decided to make some banana bread with our overripe bananas. Good opportunity to practice our reading and fractions. It's fun to watch Bean try to guess her way through the words that she doesn't know, but she has a pretty good handle on the basic ingredients in most baking recipes, so she's making educated guesses.

To help with the 3/4 fraction, we cut up a tortilla--I figured its an easier visual than measuring cups of sugar or liquids. Especially since I don't even have a 1/4 measuring cup--kind of silly how much baking I do without it, but both mine have gone AWOL.

Mix in some playing, reading stories, fighting, whining, coloring, organizing, and then TV (but not until just before dinner, so that's a big improvement over last week), and that's a fairly typical stay at home day.

Speaking of stay at home days, we have now been home for 7 days straight and I am starting to go a little crazy. The walls are closing in, the whining is over the top, our heater downstairs broke a couple days ago (thanks goodness we have a split system so we could still use the one upstairs, and it got a lot warmer this weekend, so it hasn't been too awful except for those first couple hours in the morning), and I don't see any end in sight. Bean is starting to cough and get the runny nose now and Daddy-o will be working late every night for the next 2 weeks, so its really expensive if we keep the car (he has to take a cab home at night).

I am already counting down to Saturday when I am going to spend the entire day gone--a woman's conference at church for a few hours and then I don't even care where I go, just as long as I'm on my own.

I Think the Fever Has Affected His Head

"I forgot to go pee pee! Write that on the computer, Mama!"

"Let's go downstairs to the kitchen and explore. I'll open the low cupboards and you open the high ones." (Funny thing is, as soon as we got down there, he pulled a chair up to the counter and climbed up to check the top shelves.)

"Put down your hair. I don't like you like that!" (Seriously, this has got to stop!)

"Let me count: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 40, 1, 5, 10, 50" (Actually, this is the best I've heard him count. He got the first 5 numbers, and then the next 3 were at least in numerical order.)


My little Bug has been sick this week. His croupy cough that came out of no where turned into actual sickness--fever, running nose, glazed over eyes, and way too many requests for TV. I don't even like to think about how much TV we have all watched the last three days. It's bad. Really, really bad. I just hope Bean doesn't get it next because she's already been right there on the couch with Buggy almost the whole time. That screen is like a siren for her, even if its stuff she doesn't really like.

At least Daddy-o has been able to take the car all week without disrupting our plans. And he's needed it. The express buses don't run until 9 p.m. around here. And I'm only going a little crazy being cooped up. I've kind of just resigned myself to it, haven't tried to be overly productive and have spent plenty of time watching TV and movies on Netflix. Squeezed in a little cleaning here and there, but not much else worth mentioning. I'm just glad I'll be able to go grocery shopping tomorrow and maybe even do a couple fun errands. TGIF!

Lent

Another Pancake Tuesday is gone--we actually missed our morning pancakes beause Bugaboo had woken up at 11 pm with a croupy cough and he and I were up most of the night and then overslept. But we made up for it at dinner with two types of pancakes--regular and a German pancake, which the kids didn't like, but Daddy-o and I did. And the kids have been snacking on leftover pancakes today, so we've gotten plenty.

And now we're in another season of Lent. As much as I've gotten out of my computer fasts last year and the year before, I just don't see that as being a possibility right now. We are spending way too much time stuck at home without a car and in freezing weather so we can't just go outside to play and I would honestly go crazy without the computer. Plus, I'm trying out a new organization system for my daily "to do" lists and its all on the computer, so I need my computer.

But my biggest issue at the moment seems to be my chocolate (and junk food in general) obsession, so I'm going back to my traditional chocolate fast. I'm throwing soda in there too, because even though I don't drink that much, I still think I've drunk more soda in the last 2 years than all of my life before that. I seem to have let some bad food habits creep in and I'm missing the girl who never ate french fries, hot dogs, or drank soda, and was able to give up sweets for months at a time. Not sure if its the control I used to have, or just the healthier habits where I really did feel like I was taking good care of my body, but either way, I'm going to try to get a little of it back.

Quick Fun Craft

I saw a fun button activity for kids similar to this (and where it was, I couldn't tell you--thought I had it bookmarked, but maybe its on the other computer). I went for the simple version because I only remembered I needed to finish it at 8 p.m. Saturday, but I thought they turned out cute and fun for the kids to practice their buttoning skills. Just a bunch of felt hearts cut with small slits in them and then buttons sewn on to a rectangle of felt which I then folded in half and sewed up, hiding the back of all the buttons (so these are two sided, 6 hearts per one). The original version called for making the long rectangle into a book with a closure and the hearts would have been on the inside, but this works, too.

This idea could be adapted for any holiday--shamrocks for St. Patty's, eggs, for Easter, Halloween or Christmas shapes. My kids are probably getting a little on the old side, but it was an easy enough project that even if they don't play with them much, it was worth it to keep them entertained for awhile at church.

And of course we had to have a chocolatey dessert. I LOVE brownie sundaes, and these, made with mint brownies adapted from an Ina Garten brownie recipe, were really good.

And Daddy-o actually totally surprised me on Saturday when he handed me a box of my favorite See's Candy Bordeauxs. We don't have See's around here, so I thought my days of getting a box of these for special occasions were over, but Daddy-o knew how sad that thought made me so he ordered me a box. It's only half the flavor--the other half of it is the memories of having these after so many special occasions over the years. I just always picture sitting in our sunny bedroom, feeding my one month old baby, and eating my birthday candies that my awesome husband had bought for me and it makes me really happy.

Satisfaction

There is a reason why I don't do as much service as I used to. Everything with kids takes longer, and as I've come to realize, my current life is service. When I was single, most of my day revolved around me and my goals--go running, work to get experience in my chosen fields and make money to spend on me, and then play in the evenings with my friends. So the chance to do things for other people always felt good. And now, the tables have switched and sometimes I get a little selfish about any free time I scrape together. I try not to feel guilty about either time--just different stages in my life. But I have been wanting to do something with the kids that will help all of us to think of others more often.

We decided to make a few deliveries today. We baked cookies and bread yesterday with one of our friends (in a moment of slight craziness, I thought it would be fun to do a bunch of baking with three kids--they had a great time, and I at least managed to sweep up all the pink sugar before the water pitcher was tipped over twice.)

The day didn't go exactly as I had hoped or planned--we didn't get out of the house until after 11, we didn't find the people home that we were looking for at the first two houses, and we were gone until after 6 pm. But we did get to spend some time with a couple different friends today and at the end of the day, I just felt satisfied. I spent an entire day with my kids, laughing in the car, sharing our baked goods with people we've been thinking about lately, and most significantly, not fighting with each other or trying to defend our posessions or time.

Maybe we need more days like this.

Time to Read

I was really looking forward to Read in the Bathtub Day. We had a busy day, full of chores, craft projects, Bean's homeschool classes at a local church, and then a little "homework", so we were all ready for some relaxing tonight. I read the kids' bedtime stories while they were in the tub, which they thought was hilarious.

Then I planned to take my own bubble bath after they were in bed, only Daddy-o had to work late tonight and called for a ride home at 8:30, which meant I had to call my neighbor, who was incredibly nice about coming up for an hour so I didn't have to wake up the kids. There are times that riding the bus just doesn't work, like when your boss expects you to stay a couple hours past the last bus. Work has been taking up a lot of Daddy-o's evenings lately. I guess we can just be grateful that he's had the opportunity to see how several different areas of the bank work and will have a good idea what he's looking for when he applies for permanant positions in the next few months.

Groundhog Day

After watching the video clip of Punxstawaney Phil and his predictions for spring this year, the kids weren't very satisfied and decided to make their own proclamations.

Snowed In

We got snowed in this last weekend--2 days of everything closed/cancelled, so lots of playing outside, snuggling on the couch, watching movies, playing games. The kids and I had a third day on Monday since we just sent the car with Daddy-o so we didn't all have to drive on the icy roads(and its a lot easier to pay attention to your driving when the kids aren't in the backseat!)

Guess who loved the snow?

And guess who loved following the dog through the snow?

And guess who came to visit (only not while the snow-lovers were outside)? Sometimes, like when I look out into our snow covered backyard, I feel like we're living in the moutains, far from civilization, instead of in surburbia. It can be a nice little escape.