Here they are with Santa!
Avery 10, Connor 8 and Ella 4.
I now have 9 years of Santa pictures lining the top of our piano. How I love to unwrap the frames every year and look at how they have grown.
This year was amazingly easy to get a good photo the first time. No one squirmed, cried or frowned.
Ella did promise to be brave and she was. She was rewarded with a ride on Clifford the big red dog at the mall. It was the best 75 cents I ever spent.
I have been making soap and bath products everyday in preparation for my Christmas shows. My house smells like a soap factory and I find myself airing it out a few times every day (it stinks!). The neighbors all compliment me on how nice my house smells but I just can’t wait to wrap up whatever I am making, stick it in a Rubbermaid box and air out my smelly house. I have hundreds of bars of soap curing downstairs in the basement and boxes and boxes of other stuff labeled, organized into boxes and stacked (somewhat) neatly in my entryway. My first show this year (the pie show yum!) is November 7th & 8th and I can’t wait to get some of this stuff sold and out of my entryway!
We have also been running through the swine flu over here. After 16 days, we are all pretty much feeling better except for Ella. She is just getting sicker and sicker. She now has post-influenza bronchitis and the doctor prescribed an inhaler for her. Have you ever tried to give a 4 year old an inhaler? Well, let’s just say it’s not pretty. After two days of meltdowns though, she is starting to figure it out. I think she might even be getting some the medicine into her lungs. I can see pneumonia in the future if we don’t get this under control so I am really hoping the inhaler does the trick. The swine flu is really scary for little people because of its longevity. She is doing the same thing many little kids are doing with it, which is to get partially better and then to get much worse. I have a prescription for antibiotics waiting to get filled if she gets a fever again, so now we are just waiting to see what happens.
The leaves are falling and the misty cool mornings have returned to this part of Northwest Washington. Ella was heading off to preschool this week and exclaimed at the mist “Mom, it’s so dusty out here!” Such a little comment just made my day – little people can turn the ordinary into something new and fresh, a fun new perspective.
We basically started school last week with the rest of the neighborhood. We had been trying to sneak some in here and there over the summer, but every day at 10:00 am there would be a knock at the door revealing at least two friends wanting to play. The kids would then spend all day playing - hopping from house to house in the neighborhood and having a great time. Summer sure is fun for them around here! I was really excited to get started though and was counting down until Tuesday Sept 8th when we would have quiet from 9-3 and we could work on all the stuff I had planned!
We got in two days of school, and then inexplicably Wednesday night Avery fell a little funny off his scooter right outside our house. He freaked out ...... but he always freaks out when he hurts himself so it was hard to tell if anything was really wrong. I brought him into the house to calm him down and get him an ice pack when I began to notice his arm looked a little funny. Concave where it usually is not and slightly bulging in another area. I had him stand up and lift both his sleeves to compare both arms front and back and realized we needed to head into the ER.
A couple pictures of the X-rays:
After we had the x-ray done and we realized it was broken, they called in an orthopedic surgeon to set his arm and to stick a cast on it. Thankfully, they put him to sleep while they did this. Avery was very frightened about the entire thing - and very brave. He is a kid who doesn't like the unknowns - so he was worried about being put to sleep, worried about getting x-rays, worried about getting a cast and just basically worried. Of course all of that is just amplified by sitting in a room with nothing to do but worry for four hours.
When it was all done though? Avery said "it's all done? That wasn't bad at all."
Here he is at Connor's soccer game last Saturday showing off the cast:
He was the neighborhood celebrity for the first few days.
Other kids were overheard by their parents saying things like "I wish I broke my arm."
Avery's comment to me about school?
"Well Mom, I guess I can't do school for the next 4 weeks."
Nice.
Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.
Henry Ford This summer I spent months devouring homeschooling books. I read "beginning" homeschooling books, "how to" homeschooling books, "organize" your homeschool books and "what homeschooling looks like in different families" books. I have been homeschooling now for almost 5 years and yet I was able to learn so much from each of these different kinds of homeschooling books. The main thing I have learned is that although I love to plan and organize things, my plans are not as detailed and thorough as is necessary for our homeschool. If I don't have a detailed list every day of what we are doing I tend to: 1. wake up feeling overwhelmed - like I hardly know where to start 2. give up halfway through the day out of frustration 3. get annoyed at my kids when they ask if they are done - because we are never done 4. feel like I am doing a poor job This was a great revelation for me! I have always considered myself very organized and I am in so many ways. This is not a reflection of my poor organization or planning skills, it is merely a wake up call that I have to be more intentional with my homeschooling and create detailed weekly plans for us. It also means I get to hang out at the coffee shop every week and spend a couple hours drinking coffee and going through what our plan is for the coming week. The key to our success this year hinges on my weekly coffee date with a bag full of books. I simply can't concentrate or focus enough to do my planning at home and for an introvert like me, it is a nice little break to be by myself for a little bit. I started to plan this coming year over a month ago. We have spent some time testing out different curriculum's and creating and organizing a schoolroom in a spare bedroom upstairs. Here are the results:
It's not painted or decorated much yet but it is organized and promises to be a distraction-free space (except for a certain loud 4 year old).
Here is to a great 2009-2010 school year!
A couple highlights from our fun (and perhaps over too soon) July.
A little aside: I have just tons of pictures from the last couple of months and I have been blogging regularly in my brain (please tell me other people make up clever and interesting posts in their head and never write them down? It's not just me right?)
Of course there was the hot tub which has been THE MOST FUN EVER!
The boys played summer baseball and really had a great time. The team is comprised mostly of kids from our neighborhood which means they all know each other pretty well and love to cheer each other on.
This year for the first time, the boys and Dave went to Cub Scout Resident Camp at Fire Mountain (which is near Mount Vernon.) It was a 3 night camp that was themed "the Pirates of Cultus". They really had fun fishing (they actually caught fish!) and working on badges.
they shot BB guns:
did archery:
played soccer with a giant soccer-ball while crab walking (they sure know how to wear these kids out!):
gambled:
and hung out with pirates:
Ella and I went on long walks, ate cupcakes, painted our nails and watched Tinkerbell, The Little Mermaid and any other girl movie I could find.
It was a lovely time had by all.
Did you wonder where I went? What I was doing? Why I didn't answer my front door?
Now you know EXACTLY where to look for the kids and I.
Just come around back next time..........and bring your swimsuit!
.............but look what arrived at my house yesterday!!
And look at our wonderful neighbors that came over to navigate this huge hot tub through our yard (riddled with obstacles) to our deck!
(p.s. I did promise margaritas and unlimited hot tub time to anyone who helped so I hope that makes up for the backaches today)
