Summer updates

It has been a long time since I have written, and that is all fantastic. You see, I realyl and truly have begum this whole soul-searching/new lifestyle thing in deep earnest, and my daytime-freetime is GONE daddy, gone. Which is how I want it.

I want to TAKE CARE OF MY KIDS, like I used to. Not get through the day, not keep them alive, not get 'em outta my hair, not takin' a breather, not angry, not hectic, not bad. The amount of things we do now, as a five-some when Daddy is at work is mind boggling. By the time he comes home for lunch at 11am, we have had a full, full day! And I feel so, so good and proud again.

I will go days without making or receiving a phone call. I have gone days without blogging, emailing, or logging on to the internet whatsoever. I am busy! Seriously! This house cant run itself, and time is money and I am working so hard to conserve and parcel out both precious commodities. The children are already amazed that by just doing the right thing, and following somewhat of a schedule (in its beta-testing phases for fall) all of a sudden, BAM! Mama has time to play games with them, time to wact shows with them, time to come see things with them, dinner coooked and served at 5:10 pm, lunch eaten with daddy at 11:10 am, grocery stores with lists and menus, clean bedrooms, clean kitchen, happy pets, books on the shelves, cups in the cupboard (4 sippies, all clean and ice water-filled in the door of the fridge for bedtime--hasnt been the case since 2002 oh does any of this make sense to anyone or is this all private milestones for me???)

Dare I go on? Shoes not lost? Bathing suits and sunscreen not lost? WE HAVE A FIRST AID KIT THAT WE MADE AS A FAMILY!!!

We have also made a few important decisions regarding the 2007-2008 school year already. We will be using the literature-based curriculum Five In A Row for Casey, Mickey, and Greta in conjunction with advice and recommendations from the book called A Literary Education. Cost to us: $19 for the 5th grade level book. (we already own the little kid one and the medium kid one) Cheap, huh?

The other things still up in the air for us are how our home will run, meaning schedules and charts, and what we will commit time and money to in the way of extra-curricular activities.

We have been getting up early (like 5 am! yuck! ) and playing outside alot. We are in a summer book club through the library that we go to with our homeschool friends, and we go to homeschool park day once a week. Pictures soon---
Bye for now

hi

Sorry I havent written in so long. Happy to say I have been too busy! I even need to keep this one brief, if it is to ever get published!

Greta's birthday last Saturday was an enormously fun day. We started out with a trip to a Reptile Show held at a VFW type of hall. They had mammals and rodents there, to our surprise, and we bought THREE baby bunnies!

We built them an outdoor play area which we supervisedly play with them in at least twice a day, and we keep them away from KITTY by keeping them in Greta's (closed door) bedroom.

She also bought a White's Tree Frog who is her dream, a frog you can handle and play with. He is really, really cool, even to me--just dont want him to jump on me quite yet, but I am working up my nerve.

Mickey got to go to Jungle Java, his favorite place in the world for his birthday, and we had a blast there on Wednesday.

Tomorrow we are going to a "Children's Festival" in our town which is a kick off for the summer reading program at our darling tiny library. We have tried to do one of these before but it proved to be a nightmare, going to the library with 1 year old Casey and me very pregnnat with Charlie in the burning summer heat everyweek ended up, well, we didnt go, ok? But this time we are committed. Plus I think the magic day you have to go and do the craft and get your stamp and all that is on a Saturday. Genius. Charlie can stay home with Dada if need be. Phew.

Today we are going to the park with our awesome homeschooling friends in the morning, and then Daddy has a half day of work so we will do stuff with him. I might work on clean-laundry-mountain, which really will be fun. We have 100% conquered having any kind of Dirty-Laundry-Mountain, so a clean one does not make me have bleeding ulcers, just rays of hope for eventual clothing to be in the actual drawers! WACKY!

I need batteries for my camera--sorry no pix today.

NEWBORN BABY BOY IS SEVEN!

Ok, I know every mom thinks this, but seriously, we JUST GOT MICKEY! My baby! Seven!? that is BIG! I remember thinking those kids who were seven were huge, threatening, menacing monsters on the playground--they arent!

They are just someone's little baby who got born before yours did.

Happy Birthday, precious Mickey Holland! Thank you for making me into a mom of "kids" and we love you eternally!

Newsflash! Baby turns 10!

How can Greta be turning TEN tomorrow??? T-E-N! Ten! My newborn baby? "It's a girl?" and all that stuff that just happened so, so recently? Ten?

Happy birthday, sweet angel face! Thanks for turning me into a mom, and us into a family!

Beach day

Today we got to go to the beach with my mom, and the kids. It was sort of chilly for swimming but gorgeous for us Mamas who get to pack the car and lug the equipment and the little ones all over the metropark, trails, etc. It was 66 degrees which I have this thing that so many times in my life, too many to really ignore, when I am having a wonderful, special day, I find out later that it was 66 degrees out. cool, huh? I am loving summer vacation so far.

a name at long last

We have a name for our homeschool. After 10 months of debate, the kids wanting something having to do with where we live and not too babyish, etc, it is going to be:

Maplelawn Home Academy.

We have maples on our property. We also have a cherry tree, alot of Cardinals, and wanted to encorporate other things like the number 4 and stuff, but Maplelawn Home Academy it is. now I have to save up to buy shirts on cafepress!

Breakfast with Mozart and books

I popped in this CD from the library, called "a concert for little ears".

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I set out a bunch of books on the table and told them to sit wherever they saw a book they liked. We even had healthy food, Mighty Bites cereal with bananas and rice milk and tropical smoothies.

This was a really pleasant way to start our day. Mickey slept in, (a rare, rare event, and so I did not disturb) but the kids seemed quite charmed to come to this set-up today. The Cd is gorgeous, as we have all heard Mozart a trillion times, (I would hope) this different take is made with very soothing sounds and very pleasing, is the only word I can think of. Like when you turn the treble way down. ( ? ) I recommened it to adults as well.

So far I have had 4 days of homeschool and lifestyle questing but no time to blog about it yet. June 2nd DID start my newfound journey, and I have already learned alot about all of us. Hope to write more soon.

ByeBye broadcasts, hello to a new frontier

I do not like TV. It flashes and bosses and sells and is coercive and compelling and is, for the most part, a complete tool of the corporations. Every single thing I have enjoyed or learned from TV that was good or necessary, I could have learned somewhere else.

I do like movies. I think they are works of art, complete works, and an experience. I like NetFlix and whoever invented it. I like the idea of movies because, like books, you are sitting down to a whole story. Even the dumbest movies are a complete work made by the same people, and you are not being mostly swindled or sold something besides the occasional Coke spot or what have you.

I like video games. Both my 9 year old and my 6 year old went from early readers to avid, skilled, soild speedy readers from video games. They also went from C-A-T to writing little stories through their prospective video games, both at age 5 to 6. Video games can create scenarios and story lines that you or your child would never be able to "experience" otherwise: driving a racecar, flying in space, winding through a jungle maze, defying gravity, solving mysteries, riding on the backs of animals, battling creatures made from their own creation, slamdunking with Jordan, skating with Gretsky, getting Par on a golf course that rides the rim of the Grand Canyon, saving the world...

The opponents of video games say that kids are sitting still too long, but when I say kids are sitting still too long in school, I get puzzled looks...has anyone heard of the Nintendo Wii? you hardly sit still playing this one, our kids and friends were dripping sweat the last time we played this wonderful new system.

We are going to be getting rid of TV soon, or at least pay-TV. Our satellite contract wears out soon. We get free antenna tv in the kitchen, which includes PBS and that is nice for lunchtime. Mister Rogers is about the gentlest show I ever saw. I use TV as a babysitter far too much, and this summer, weaning off of it will be good. I want my kids to watch movies, and they can play video games and CD-ROMS, too. but money is tight, tight, tight and I will be ecstatic to stop paying The Man 60 or more dollars a month to program us all.

Yes, I like Survivor, and I will watch plenty of other stuff too once I plop my lame self onto the couch and am magnetized with my bag of chips or what have you. But I don't LOVE it. What I do LOVE is freetime, my time back, to do all the other things I think I don't have time for. Like reading, writing, thinking, walking, biking, cleaning, playing music, listening to music, dancing, jumping, talking, debating, blogging! :)

NetFlix also has tons of TV show compliations. For some of the quality programs we could always watch them as concious choices, as a set.