lifeismessy

We are builders

The boys have been busy building and playing during the afternoons after school.  Here are some pictures from this week:

Alex has been buliding castles out of these wooden blocks that Sam got for Christmas. Actually everyone has been enjoying these blocks! I don't think they've been put away for even a day since Sam opened them Christmas morning. They make a great backdrop for Alex's knights and trolls lego battles.

Henry is playmobil crazy and is continually building castles and setting up scenes and battles. He's really into the knights right now.

Jack splits his time between his gladiator playmobil and his lego sets - he likes to build his own things with the legos.  I think this is supposed to be some sort of ship.

and just a cute one of Sam. :)

52 books - week 2

This week I read the Jodi Picoult novel My Sister's Keeper. I've actually read this book before but not recently.  Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite fiction writers - I really enjoy her work and this novel was no exception. The basic storyline centers around a 13 year old girl that was conceived to provide cord blood for a much needed transplant for her older cancer-stricken sister. It starts in present day with the girl filing for medical emancipation from her parents after learning that her sister now needs a kidney. It travels between present day and the history of her childhood telling the story of being both a sister to a cancer victim and also a continual donor to that sister. Now - when I recapped that storyline for Scott he just stared at me blankly for a minute and then made some sort of comment about how he reads "happier" books.  But honestly it's a good read.  This next week I've got a mystery novel from my mom and a homeschool theory book that I plan to read so I might be 2-for-1 next week. :)

Enjoy them while they last....

This post is dedicated to my wonderful husband Scott.  I told Scott this morning before work to be SURE and check my blog today because I was planning to post something special.  Well this is it honey!  Guess what today is???????????  As of today you are in:

Yes that's right. 100 days from today you will turn 40. *sigh*  It must be really hard looking old age in the face like that - brutal really.  I, of course, being YEARS younger have no idea the angst you must surely be feeling...but trust me honey, I am *there* for you.  smooch.

I'll close out by posting a picture - just for fun - of your last landmark birthday. 

Enjoy those last 100 days honey-bun! And keep checking my blog, I might have some more surprises for you along the way!  :-D

52 books

I participate in and enjoy a popular homeschooling message board sponsored by the author of The Well Trained Mind. I have been a bit of a message board / internet junkie for years (more on that another time hmmm) and currently my favorite place to check in is the board at WTM. I find much inspiration in mothering, homeschooling, and life in general there. Recently one of the members suggested a 2009 challenge to read a book a week - 52 books in 2009 - and I decided to participate. Of course it took like 2 days of hemming and hawing over the whole thing before I could really commit but I'm there now - I'm committed!  So, I've cleared out the books list on the left sidebar there and am going to add the books I'm reading in 2009 as I go.  

As you can see I started easy.... *smile*.  The description under Big Russ & Me  basically says it all.    Tim Russert grew up in a different era of America than I did or my kids will. The memories he shares are priceless and the description of his childhood is really thought provoking for me as a parent. I am really enjoying it and would highly recommend it - it's a fairly quick read and so gratifying. :)  This book is one I gave my Dad last year for Christmas (actually it's one that both my brother and I gave my Dad last year but I digress...) and he enjoyed it and then passed it back to me. I've been a fan of Tim Russert for many years so I was really glad to get to know him better through is book. In case you don't know, I will comment that Tim Russert died of a heart attack last year at the age of 58. He was an extraordinary person and I'm so glad he wrote this book as a legacy to his father, his son, and growing up in America.

Going back to my reading challenge for 2009 - I have several books waiting in the wings that I plan to read in January - some fiction, some homeschooling related - but I don't plan to count any of the books that I'm reading to the kids for school in my total. I've never actually kept track but honestly I don't think 52 books is going to be that much of a stretch for me - I guess we'll see. 

I love this photo

and I love these 2 guys. :)

First day back

Well, we survived. :)

Actually - it was a really good day *overall*, we just had a bit of a rough start and some of us (coughcoughthe6yearoldcoughcough) had a tough time setting toys aside in favor of school. But really, the afternoon went beautifully, so I have little of which to complain. Alex loved Latin - I am so excited about that! Actually Alex rocked the whole day - he loves everything right now and was definitely ready to get back in the groove of school. He is working on learning his multiplication facts and you know that's tough stuff - but we are using this really awesome resource called Times Tales.  It is really wonderful and he is sailing through them with such ease I can't believe it. If you have a language based kid (like Alex) I would highly recommend checking them out, whether you are homeschooling or not. 

Everybody loved history - we started on what will be an abbreviated study of the middle ages using Story of the World 2.  Today we covered the fall of Rome and talked about the barbarians. Barbarians are very big in a house of 4 boys. :-)  Alex and I did grammar, which - I have to be honest - completely flummoxes me. I remember going to school as a child but I don't remember ANY of this. Today we covered predicate nominatives.  YAWN.  Oh sorry, I'm the teacher, um yes, it was scintillating.  Alex told me today that grammar is his favorite subject EVER. I tried not to stare in disbelief for TOO long. I'd hate to give him a complex.

Another new "thing" we started today was having a somewhat productive (ish) free learning time in the afternoons. We've been limiting tv and wii to weekends only for a while now but I decided that I wanted our afternoons to be more richly spent as well. So I made up a list of activities that are "ok" for free learning time (basically from 2 to 4 at our house) and posted it on our wall next to the school schedule. Today Henry chose to spend time with his new circut set and Alex spent time with his microscope. Both of these were Christmas gifts from my parents and have that "new toy" factor going for them - so it was an easy transition.  Henry built 3 or 4 projects by himself and Alex learned to prepare slides on his own and proclaimed at least 475 times that "this microscope is SO cool!". It was a good day.  I'll close with a couple pictures and a promise to mention the other 2 kids in a post later this week.

Henry with his first circut project of the day:

Alex with his microscope:

It's almost time for school....

Christmas break is coming to an end. We've rung in the New Year, slept in for days on end and put together all our toys. We've stayed up late, played the wii, enjoyed playdates and lounged to our heart's content. It's been good but it's time to get back to "normal". Time for a routine, time for bedtime and alarm clocks (ok I'm kidding on that one, I haven't used an alarm clock regularly since 1998). It is time for school. :-)

For some reason our kids tend to go through these maturity growth spurts at the end of the year and I face January with kids that are older and wise and ready for more in terms of academics. After seeing this pattern the last 2 years, I both expected and planned for it this year. We are adding some new subjects for Spring semester (Latin for Alex, Writing and Spelling for Henry) and will be ramping up others (Writing for Alex, Narration for Henry, Science for everyone I hope!). I'll be incorporating Jack into school a bit more in preparation for his kindergarten year this fall and I'll be making sure Sam gets his reading and coloring time too. We've purchased a new math curriculum that will be an exciting add in (or possible replacement) to Math U See. It should be a busy and fun semester. I'm really looking forward to it.

This was really a make or break year for us in terms of homeschooling. We've enjoyed and thrived on homeschooling the last couple years but struggled to maintain any sense of order to our home - think piles of laundry, stacks of school papers,  and on-the-fly meals that typically involved $5 pizzas or other less than appealing takeout. We really believe in homeschooling for our family but also really believed we couldn't continue on as we were...so we entered the 2008/2009 school year thinking this was IT. We needed to figure out if we could make this work for us - or not. Happily I can say, we are figuring it out.  Now don't think you can stop by and ask to inspect the bathroom on any given day of the week....but honestly it's much improved and we are figuring it out. Scott has been an amazing help to me by taking on some of the household responsibilites. Alex has become a more independent reader and able to do some work on his own. I have become a more confident relaxed teacher.  Sam has stopped hanging on me like a tree monkey 24/7......really, it's much much better. :-)

Which - of course - leaves me wondering....where is God leading us with this? Are we still fire fighting? Homeschooling until we can move to a school district we are more comfortable with? Or are we homeschoolers. You know, in for the long haul (or at least until high school *wink* I can't IMAGINE homeschooling high school).  We're not sure - I guess we'll find out.  At any rate - it's almost time for school and I am ready and excited to dive into books, practice math, learn Latin and explore art, music and science with my boys - it's going to be great. :-)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone!  We included the link to our blog on our Christmas cards this year so I hope we'll have more family and friends checking in with us in the months to come.  We had a really lovely Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. My parents came over on Christmas Eve and spent the afternoon with us - it was great! We ate yummy holiday food and visited and my mom helped the boys wrap their gifts to each other. We went to Christmas Eve service at church and the boys did very well thank goodness!  After church we came home and had birthday cake for Jesus, hung stockings and put the kids to bed.  It was a perfect day  and I'm so glad my parents were over to enjoy it with us. Christmas Day was all out craziness around here - 4 little boys over the top excited over gifts sugared up on candy and doughnuts - what can I say?  It's very intense but very fun!  We do Christmas in a very kid friendly family focused way.  We stay in our jammies all day (yep, you read that right), help the kids put their toys together and just play all day. This year was no exception and we enjoyed a long day of family time putting together lego sets, setting up playmobil and enjoying being together. More fun pictures to come but for now I'll just include this family picture that my Dad took on Christmas Eve - it's a WORLD better than the pics on our christmas card (which aren't even mailed by the way in case you are reading and wondering why you didn't receive one!).  I hope you are having a wonderful holiday filled with family time!

My darling angels.....

ha!  We decorated the tree this last weekend - yes on the 14th I believe. There are many I know that would be shocked we do it so late...but you know what?  It's the best we can do.  We still get a live tree and we specifically choose to not put decorations up until after Jack's birthday (Dec. 5th).  I'm actually quite proud because we put the tree up a full week sooner than we did the last 2 years. 

So we decorated and the kids were wild and crazy and I wanted photos of course. Of course it was dark out by the time we were decorating so the lighting was poor and the kids were about as cooperative as 4 monkeys......this is actually the reason we didn't send a card last year and I don't know if we'll send a card this year.  I keep thinking I'll get a nice pic of the kids and no luck.  I might try again this weekend. For now, here's one of the better ones that I edited in photoshop within an inch of their sorry little lives. :) Unfortunately I can't edit the scowly look on my baby's face!

Thanksgiving 2008

We had a great Thanksgiving with lots of food and family.  My parents and my Uncle Jim and Aunt Cinda came to share dinner with us - the kids loved their company and talked at them nonstop while they were here!  The bad news is that I didn't take any pictures! In the hectic rush to get food on the table and organizing who was sitting where I forgot to step back and take a picture of the table or the food or our guests!  So this is all I have - a slightly out of focus picture taken with the timer on my camera after everyone left.  I love it anyway. :)