The Little Things

When I was younger I counseled at a camp and someone there had a book.  I think it was called 14,000 Things To Be Happy About.  I'm not quite sure that's the same book I saw way back when, but I googled a description of it and that's the book that came up.  It does look sort of familiar.  Anyway, it's a very long list of, well, things to be happy about.  Things like flannel sheets, tobogganing, and sun burning off the morning fog. 

Today I've got my own little list of random things to be happy about, because today I'm feeling very content.

1.  Being all set up for the new school year.  All of last year's schoolwork has been sorted and put into portfolios, desks were scrubbed, and new supplies were put into place.  Everyone even got their own scissors.

2.  A husband who comes home with surprises.  Yesterday Mike got me Eclipse, by Stephanie Meyer.  It's the third book in the Twilight series, which I'm LOVING!  Reading these books is a reason to be happy all by itself.  I was number 170 of a 600 person waiting list at the library, and now I have my very own copy.  Bliss.

3.  A boy who's so cute you can hardly stand it, and who's going through a baseball cap wearing stage.

4.  Kids that on their own decided to decorate the school room for a "back to school celebration." 

5.  The movie The Wizard of Oz.  I mean the old one with Judy Garland.  We watched it as a family the other day and I smiled pretty much the whole way through just remembering how much I adored it as a child and how special it was because it only  came on TV once a year.  It was an event paralleled only by the once a year appearance of The Sound of Music.

6.  Little girls with tousled hair, still in pajamas, who call their grandmas and smile.

Incidentally, as I was downloading pictures from our camera I found something that doesn't make it into my personal happiness book:

Huge hairy spiders walking across kitchen floors like they own the place.

Sue

Mancala

Our family was given the game Mancala by a friend.  Have you ever played it?  It's really fun!  It's an Egyptian game that dates back to the time of the pharaohs.  It only takes a few minutes to learn, but there's quite a bit of strategy involved in playing.  The only thing is I cannot beat my 7 year old child.  I don't know if she's a Mancala savant, or if I just suck.

I think I suck.

Sue

A Heart Overflowing

Pride isn't even the right word.  The word is joy.  The kind of joy that makes you cry.

Today Zach was given the "Student of the Summer" award at the clinic.  His teacher told him it's because of his attitude and willingness, and she said she's never given one out before to anyone.  It was such a cool surprise, partly because we didn't even know they did that, but mostly because Zach's come such a long way on a lot of levels.  It's almost like he's a different person.  Not only is he making strides in reading and writing, but so much of the anxiety and anger is gone.  He's calmer and more sure of himself.  He's funny and thoroughly enjoyable to have around.  He makes me laugh every day.  He's also become more outwardly aware and willing to help when he sees a need.

This time at the clinic has been a true gift from God.

Sue

 

Comings and Goings

This has been a weekend of comings and goings.  Mike and Zach left on Saturday night for a hiking trip to Mount Church with their buddies.  They were gone until Sunday afternoon.  Meanwhile, on Sunday Baylee left for a three day visit to Grandma's house.  Oh my excited.  Right before she left I teased her by saying I was going to miss her so much that maybe it would be best if I just came along.  I told her, "I'll carry you around everywhere you go.  You'll hardly know I'm there!"  She graciously told me no, but that she'd call me every night.  LOL  I'm sure she's having a blast.

Here's pics from Mike and Zach's hiking trip.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Sue

Faulty Filter

You know that feeling when you say something you think is pretty hilarious, but immediately afterward you wonder if maybe you pushed it a hair too far?  I sometimes visit the blog of a man who used to teach Bible and theology classes at the college I attended.    He doesn't teach at the school anymore, but he's still in ministry.  He pastors a church now.  Anyhoo...the other day he was talking on his blog about how he's going to be preaching from the book of Habakkuk, so I commented to the effect of:

You don't still insist on pronouncing it Hab-uh-kook, do you?  Because back in school when you did that I couldn't help but think, "Yeah, we hab a kook, all right."  Grin.

Now I just can't help but feel that perhaps that's one that got past the filter.  I hate it when that happens.

Sue

Entrepreneurs

I was so proud of my kids today.  Baylee and Trinity decided they were going to "sell water"  for a dollar a cup at a stand made out of a Rubbermaid container.  Well, Drew and Zach couldn't let them go out there and fail so spectacularly, so the two boys set the two girls up in style.  Drew went to the store by our house and bought them some Country Time powdered lemonade, while Zach got them situated with a card table and two patio chairs.  Then when Drew got home Zach made the lemonade and let them borrow his little safe box for the money they earn.

Here they are very hopeful and just starting out:

Much to my surprise because we live on a small dead end street, it wasn't long before they started getting customers!

Still, business wasn't quite as booming as they would've liked, so eventually they packed it all up and moved it down the road to Trinity's house.  She lives on the corner where there's more traffic.  Suddenly, they were really making money!  People were even stopping their cars to buy lemonade.  Zach helped them quite a bit with the pouring, and he went with me to buy them more cups at one point.  In the end they made a decent little sum of money, which they split several different ways with brothers and sisters.  It was a fun day for them all.

Sue

Book Worm

Baylee's been doing the library's summer reading program.  She read for 1000 minutes!  At 500 minutes she won a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut, then today she won the "Finishing Prize."  It's a very nice set of binoculars.  She also had her name put in a drawing for a personal computer.  We're not holding our breath on that one, though.  Well....maybe Baylee is. 

Sue

Weekend in Review

Man.  It's hot here.  I mean really hot.  Like, the 90s.  And the thing is I'm totally spoiled and not used to it anymore, and around here nobody has air conditioning in their home, including us.  I'm sick and tired of sweating.

Despite that, we did all sorts of stuff outside this weekend and I basically melted through all of it.  The only thing I didn't do is my walking routine, because on Friday I cut my foot on a nail.  It hurts to put on a shoe, much less walk several miles.  It's a bummer, too, because I'm only a hair short of a hundred miles. 

On Saturday I took Baylee and Drew to karate, while Mike and Zach got ready to be in our town parade.  As soon as karate was over I rushed home with the two kids I had, they changed clothes, and we hurried to the parade, hoping we were in time to see Zach and Mike.  We were.  Here's Mike:

No, I'm totally kidding.  Here's Mike and Zach:

Zach was passing out candy and Mike was handing out fliers with information about our church's different programs.  They were following our church bus:

Kidding again.  But wouldn't that make a fun church bus?

After the parade we went down to the local elementary school for a carnival, and Baylee surprised the heck out of us by climbing this rock wall:

It's a terrible picture because Mike took it with his cell phone.  Still, it was a pretty tall wall and she's tiny!  She was like a monkey!

Then, because it was SOOOOOOOO hot, when we finally got home the kids played in the sprinkler.  Now, I'll show you the next picture, but only if you promise to focus on the kids and their inventive use of patio furniture.  Do NOT, I repeat NOT, look at the grass.

You looked at the grass, didn't you.  You can't be trusted.

Then today was church, a few hours of playing with Saryn and Rory in the afternoon, and a sleepover with Jacob tonight.  That is, Jacob's at our house with the boys, holed away in Zach's room, and they're all eating junk food, watching a movie, and playing video games. 

I think it's going to be a bit of a shock to the system for a certain group of kids when summer ends and school starts again in a couple weeks.

Sue

Another "You Know You're A Redneck..."

"Mom, wouldn't you love being rich?  You could live in a mansion and have lots of maids, you could drive around in a sports car, you could get one of those Orthopedic Sleep Number beds..."

~ Zach

Fun at Matthew's Beach

I want to post a few quick pictures of our day today before the season finale of The Mole comes on at 10pm.  Because once The Mole comes on, forget it.  That's all I care about.  And by the way, I predict it IS that friendly guy in the glasses.  He knows too much for someone as bumbling as he is...or would like us to believe he is. [cue me rubbing chin knowingly]  Anyway, where was I.  Oh.   A bunch of us went to the beach today.  I took my three kids and Drew's friend Alex, and Candace took her two youngest, Saryn and Rory.  This is the second time we've all done this together this summer and it's been fun both times.  And both times I've gotten totally fried.

Matthew's Beach has been the crown jewel of our summer.  It's a beautiful little place on Lake Washington with a park, a concession stand, and a swimming area that includes a floating dock with diving boards.  The beach also has lifeguards.  Oh, and across the lake there's the requisite snowcapped mountain range, of course.  No Washington experience is complete without it.  In the end, though, I like this place because, unlike the Puget Sound, it has fresh water and it's more than two degrees above freezing.

Sue

Ridin' the Bus

Today Drew was saying that since he's home schooled he's never had a bus riding experience.  Then Baylee piped up, saying she's never ridden a bus, either, and gosh darn it she wants to!  So Mike replied that maybe someday we'd all take the metro bus system into Seattle.  You know what he was thinking, right?  "Someday," meaning "Some long, far off day in the future that never actually arrives because hopefully you kids will forget about it."

Can you see where this is going?  Yup.  We all got to ride the bus today. 

Here's a little slideshow of our day and the weekend in general.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Sue

School Plans

I'm really excited about our curricula for school this year, especially since a lot of it came in the mail yesterday.  I love that first peek, when you take it out of the boxes and look it all over.  That's the best part of homeschooling!

Zach gets to do some really fun, cool stuff at the recommendation of the L&L clinic.  They said to get him working as independently as possible by using things like books on CD, tape recorders, voice recognition software, etc.  At the same time, though, he's making strides with reading and writing, so there has to be a balance.  I think it'll be a process, but here's what his year looks like right now:

~ Daily Grams (Quick and fairly painless daily review of grammar.  I want to do this on the whiteboard every morning.)

~ Easy Grammar:  Plus  (More in depth study of grammar.)

~ Weaver's Learning to Love Literature  (Love this!  It's very, very good.  We'll both learn from it.  Zach's reading will be done with books on CD as much as possible.  He'll be studying several different types of literature, including non-fiction, fiction, poetry, fantasy, tragedy/comedy, and realism.)

~ Writing Strands  (Great writing program.)

~ Teaching Textbook Math (Math class on computer.)

~ Story of the World  Volume 1:  Ancient Times and Volume 2: Middle Ages  (I'm excited about this.  It'll be sort of a whirlwind trip through history from ancient times to the end of the Middle Ages.  He'll listen to a chapter a day on CD, read by master storyteller Jim Weiss, then he'll answer questions in writing.  Next year I want to have him do the other two volumes, which will bring him up to modern times.)

~ Apologia General Science CD-Rom  (Another great find.  It's the regular Apologia General Science, but on the computer, which means it includes related videos, animated examples, etc.)

~ Typing

~ Guitar lessons

Drew does great with Accelerated Christian Education, so that's his plan.  He's very motivated to get through his schoolwork each day so he can pursue his own interests, which makes a program like ACE perfect for him.  I tell him how many pages of each subject to do, teach any new concepts, and off he goes.  He'll be studying:

ACE Math
ACE English
ACE Word Building
ACE Literature and Creative Writing
ACE Science
ACE Social Studies

And because he needs a little extra in the grammar department, I'll have him do Daily Grams at his grade level.  Also, he'll join Zach in guitar lessons, typing, and he goes to karate.

As for Baylee, I'm going to have her try ACE this year, too.  The Washington Virtual Academy worked fine for her last year and really taught her a lot.  The thing about a kid like Baylee, though, is that she was often willing to learn more than I had time to teach her.  That's why I think a more student-directed approach will be good for her this year.  She doesn't know this and I'm not going to tell her, but she'll be a 2nd grader doing all 3rd grade work.  Within reason I'll just let her go at whatever pace she wants.  Added to that will be typing if she's interested, and her weekly karate lesson.

Next semester I hope to enroll the kids in at least one class each at a homeschool co-op. It'll be a good experience for all of them.

Sue

This post is rated PG for boy humor and mild underwear situations.

I went out to run a couple errands tonight, and when I got home Zach and Drew practically mowed me over in their excitement to show me how they'd perfected a trick they learned from watching Mr. Bean.  And not only that, they wanted it all on video for posterity.  So, without further ado, I give you...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Sue

Camp pics. Sort of.

I got Zach's film from camp developed today.  It was an interesting collection of black shots, headless people, and floors.  However, he did take this one of his cabin that turned out nice if you ignore the finger.

Sue

Still Alive

I've had a couple different people ask me when the heck I'm going to post on my blog again.  Oops.  Sorry for letting it go so long.  I could say I've been terribly busy and blah blah, but the truth is I've just been lazy.  A couple years ago I didn't post at all in July, November, or December, though, so if you look at it that way I'm doing great!

Let's see.  We have been keeping active, but not in a hectic, crazy way.  Zach went to camp and loved it.  He came home with tons of stories about how much fun he had and all the things they did.  He also took a roll of film, which I need to get developed one of these days soon.  Maybe some of the pictures on it will be worth blogging.  Zach's really growing up and coming out of his shell in such a cool way.  It's like suddenly he's very at ease with himself.  On a possibly related note, his sessions at the L&L clinic are going wonderfully.

Baylee made a new friend named Trinity.  She lives down the road right next door to Drew's friend, Alex.  (Speaking of Alex, he did accept the Lord into his life at our church's VBS!  He was one of a handful of children who made that decision, and the only unchurched child.  I'm going to have Drew invite him along to Awana in the fall.)  Baylee and Trinity have been pretty much attached at the hip these last few weeks, which has been great for our little girl.  She's wanted a neighborhood friend around her age for quite awhile now.

Drew's enjoying his summer to the fullest.  I think he spends more time out there riding his bike, skateboarding, and playing basketball than any other kid around. 

Umm...I think that's about it.  I did start ordering curricula and I'm very happy with what I've chosen so far, but I'll talk about all that another day.  Oh, and I'm up to 85 miles in my walking.  I had to cut it short and limp home last night, though, for the first time ever.  My left knee was killing me.  I'm going to give it a couple days to rest and hopefully heal.  And...drum roll...I've gone down a size in jeans!  Okay, now you're all totally caught up.  lol

Here's some recent pics:

Zach dressed the cat in a sweater from one of Baylee's stuffed animals.  The cat didn't seem too impressed.

Here's Trinity and Baylee.  Trinity has a twin brother (They're 6.) and 4yo sister, which Baylee is also excited about.  I guess "when it rains, it pours" is true of friends, too.


Flowers inside and out


Miss Cool

Sue