It's a Boy's Life

Decking Screw Art

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:30:01 PST

Last week Paul left a box of decking screws on the floor from a shopping trip the day before. The boys found them in the morning....

They are in an X-Men kick so these first 3 are depictions of those characters...

This one is by Lakin, it's Beast. He's in a bathtub with lots of toys.

This one is Cale's. Wolverine.

And Cohen- this Gambit.

And a goat (by Cohen)

A pizza (by Lakin)

And a man (by Cohen)

And Cale's masterpiece:

Who knew a box of screws could provide so much entertainment?

The Goat's Pallet Barn

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:19:22 PST

We have a couple of buildings in the plans here at our new homestead and first up was for our existing goats. Currently there are 5 and our 2 girls are *hopefully* expecting. Eventually this will belong to the boys of the farm- our Buck, Thor, and our 2 wethers Scooter and Scout. So here's what we did:

Step one- collect lots of pallets. We got most of these from Paul's work and also from around town from various businesses. Most places welcome people to take these off of their hands.

We connected the pallets using lag bolts- here is Paul and Cale working on the lower level of pallets. The shed is approximately 10 x 10 and used 3 pallets on each side.

Moving up. We connected the second level of pallets using boards from our knocked down barn and 4x4s in the corners. We were working with a pretty big hill too, so a lot had to be done to get it level.

Because of the hill, the building ended up being a lot taller than the expected 8 ft. It is closer to 10 ft in most places.

We used a lot of blocks and bricks to set the foundation aswell as using stakes to anchor the corner posts into the ground.

Getting ready for the roof...this is as far as we got before we moved.

We used a tarp for the roof for the first 2 days, and then this past Friday it was sunny and 60 and the perfect day to quit unpacking the house and get to working outside.

My dad and stepmother came over to lend a hand on the roof.

Annika spent lots of time with the goats. These 2 are small and really gentle- perfect for her.

Rylan especially liked being up high on the roof while Paul and my dad finished the supports. We got all but one roof panel hung before we had to call it a day.

We were blessed again on Saturday with another beautiful day. Rylan sat up on the tin roof to help with fastening the last panel.

Then we moved on to siding. The boys were all eager to help with the drilling.

But eventually they had to hand over the drill in order for the work to get done a little quicker. Though Rylan stayed and helped to fasten the siding the entire time.

Annika took an extra long nap, so my stepmother and I took over the sawing. And I realized that the saw wasn't so scary after all.

We got 2 sides done before it was time to call it quits for the day. But here is the progress so far:

Bertie and Bella went right in to lay down as soon as we started the 2nd side. They hadn't really liked their new quarters before with the holes in the sides and the tarp roof. They are much happier now.

And we finished it just in time to shelter them from the cold rain and possible snow that might come tonight.

Linked to the Barn Hop and Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways

Valentine's Day and Good-byes

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 18:39:25 PST

Our co-op fell on Valentine's Day this year so we spent the day doing various Valentine's crafts and activities.

Like sorting and graphing candy hearts.

And making sun catchers by drawing on paper with baby oil.

Then the kids all handed out their Valentine cards to each other

This was also our last day with our friends...we were moving the next day...

They surprised us with this picture- the kids had made their hand prints at the co-op the week before but I hadn't known what they were for. I love it and know perfect spot for it on the wall of our new school room.

We loaded up the moving truck on Wednesday- so now we are in a sea of boxes, trying to get everything set up. We have been blessed with beautiful weather- 60s on moving day and today and yesterday. So we have been trying to finish up the goats' shed before the colder air and rain moves in. We still have to go back for a couple of our cats and our chickens, as well as a few more boxes, but for the most part we are all moved in and about half unpacked.

Cale Cooks: Crock Pot Lasagna

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 18:38:45 PST

I had the boys write out a list of goals for the year last week. 10 of them. When they handed me their lists I saw some fun and easy goals and some really good long terms goals to work toward. One of Cale's was to make dinner 5 times a month. He already knew what he wanted to make:

Lasagna.

When Annika was born we received 2 from friends delivering meals. Cale was in love. And to tell the truth- I have never made one. It seemed like a lot of work and preplanning- when I could just make spaghetti. (Cale likes baked spaghetti too, which falls under the same category for me...and he made that earlier this week for the Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet)

So he got all the supplies we lacked at the store and today he made dinner. Earlier in the week I came across a recipe for Crock Pot Lasagna and thought that it would be the perfect for him.

We changed it up just a bit, so here is the altered recipe:

4 cups tomato sauce ( I used our frozen Roasted Tomato Sauce from the summer)

8oz block of mozzarella cheese

15 oz container of ricotta cheese

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

uncooked lasagna noodles (he used more than half of a 16 oz pkg)

Mix all of the cheeses together in a bowl
Place 1 cup of sauce at the bottom of your crock pot
Layer noodles on top- break them up to cover the entire surface
spread 1/3 of the cheese on top of the noodles
Repeat these layers 2 more times
Top with the final cup of sauce
Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours. The original recipe said 4, ours was done much sooner. I turned off the crock pot at about 3 hours and just let it sit until dinner which was 2+ hours later.

Serve and enjoy!

From the Camera of Rylan

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 18:38:19 PST

Last week I shared some of Cale's photographs, today I want to share some of Rylan's. He is my realist. He is also my one who is actually interested in photography and spends a lot of time looking for the right shot and erasing ones he doesn't like or turn out different than he wanted.

His photographs consist mainly of portraits-

And snapshots of his everyday life- like walks in the neighborhood

Or his brother all decked out with a duct tape sword, mask and cape. (Later they decided he was Zorro)

And pets...this is our clown knife fish

And Bandit and the cat attacking each other. Bandit looks really mean here- but I think he's actually yawning.

This kitten gets a lot of attention with the camera

And landscapes....

Of course not all are like this- he's taken numerous videos of Cale and Cohen's after dinner dance-a-thons. And Random pictures of toys but I think he's got a good eye for photographs.

At Home- New and Old.

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:48:18 PST

Our move is getting closer- Paul's final day at his job here in TN is February 10th. So sometime in the week after we will load up a truck and the animals and make our new place a home.

But there is a lot to be done still before we can move. Mostly involving the animals. Slowly we have been making progress on fencing a yard that will initially be home to our 5 goats.

Sometime between now and March we will fence and build a second shelter for the girls- who we hope are pregnant, but we haven't confirmed it- and their babies to move into. A larger place in the more permanent pasture with an area for milking. Scooter, Scout and Thor will stay in this first yard. I am so happy to finally be able to separate them- Bella, and Bertie especially, are huge bullies to the little boys- who are not at all very assertive. So it will be nice for them not to be attacked while they are trying to eat or get treats.

We also have to find a place for the chickens. There is an old coop on the property- which is leaning off it's foundation and has a tree pushing it over as well. Paul, Rylan and Cale are over there today working and on their list is to see what we can do to salvage this building. (So far I think he has managed to jack it up and reset the blocks under it). It will need some work to make it safe against predators, but hopefully it will be sufficient until we get a big barn built and a coop within.

Our main project right now is the shelter for the goats. Our building material of choice are wood pallets we have rounded up from around town and from Paul's work. We started it a couple weeks and Paul and the boys are over today trying to finish. Although it is slow going with only one adult. The end result will be 10' x 10' and about 8 ft tall.

The weather this winter has been really mild- the boys took a break last week to do some driving practice. Rylan received a set of golf clubs for Christmas (Thanks, Uncle Billy!) and they lined up and hit the many, many golf balls they have found all over the yard.

Annika enjoyed 'helping' with the building.

And here at home, we've been slowly getting things packed up. Annika, who always steals crayons, has been coloring on all of the boxes.

Again, the weather has been really nice...I wouldn't mind at least a little snow, but since the daffodils are about to bloom that might not be a good thing.

And school...

Chinese New Year writing assignment

and craft...

Today I am home with my 3 littlest. They are enjoying being in charge for once- and enjoying the house of boxes we built in the corner.

linked to the Homestead Barn Hop and Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways

Beans, Beans are Good For Your Heart....

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:01:48 PST

We've been experimenting a lot lately. With less grains in our diet, less refined sugar, more protein. The kids have actually really surprised me with their willingness to try my creations. This past couple weeks the star ingredient has been beans.

It started when I was searching around for new recipes that were grain-free friendly. I came across Diet, Dessert and Dogs. And while browsing the posts and links and all of that I found a recipe for Chocolate Bean Butter. The day before I had made a bunch of chickpeas for veggie burgers (and no-meatballs) and there was a bunch left. So I decided to try it. I altered the recipe a bit to use what I had on hand, but it was really, really good. The boys had it with peanut butter and waffles for lunch. They begged for more. And I will admit to eating it straight from the bowl as well.

Then last week I made a big batch of navy beans- intending to use them for dinner. Then I got roped into a game of Monopoly- which you know is never quick, even playing with the quick game option. So about 2 hours later when the game was over I realized the beans were way past done, and way past being used as actual beans in any dish. So they went into the refrigerator until I could figure out what to do with them. The next day we had bean-waffles. Basically milk, mashed beans and eggs. It tasted a lot like cornbread actually. Then I added a bit of flour and baking powder and they tasted very similar to my normal waffles.

Tonight we had muffins. Peanut butter muffins. Which my boys decided to call Bean-nut Butter Muffins...

They turned out really good. I think I actually prefer them to my normal peanut butter muffins and they have a ton of protein in them- which is really good for Cohen- who won't eat eggs, meat, plain beans, etc.

And on to the recipes....

Bean-Nut Butter Muffins

2 cups mashed beans ( I used navy)

4 eggs

1/4 cup honey (more if you like sweeter muffins)

1/4-1/2 cup natural peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup almond meal (bought, self ground or you can use whatever flour you want)

Mix the first 5 ingredients well. Add the almond meal and baking powder and combine. Pour into muffin tins and bake at 375 for about 15-20 min until a toothpick comes out clean. I used my muffin top pan- which is why they are flat, the ones baked in the standard pan rose just like any other muffin.

And if you want, top it with Chocolate Bean Butter.

Chocolate Bean Butter

2 cups mashed beans (I've used chickpeas and navy- both were good)

5 T cocoa powder

1/4-1/2 cup Maple Syrup (add a little add a time until it is as sweet as you like)

3 T melted coconut oil

optional: 1/4 cup peanut butter

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until very smooth.

disclaimer: all measurements are approximate. I didn't actually measure anything at all when making these recipes- but based on my experience in eye-balling ingredients these should be pretty close)

The Chaos of Cale

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:46:22 PST

All of the boys got their own cameras for Christmas. And they absolutely love them. I find it amusing to upload their pictures and find out just want they have been capturing. A lot of them are videos of car rides, dancing sessions or the fish tanks, which are too long to share here. But here a just a couple of Cale's more than 500 pictures...

Some are nice and normal...

Lakin at our new house

The view from the field.

The boxer that came to visit us

Lots and lots of the barnyard-

Scout

White

Thor

Lots of Annika

And the kitten

The "snow"

Grampy

But the majority are more like this one...

I think Cohen is dead here....attacked by Zombies if I remember correctly. Probably 25% of Cale's pictures are of Cohen doing something odd.

Then there are staged photos like this....

Poor Diego...he looks a little like he's being tortured...

But by far the majority are of this:

This one is tame. I've got all sorts of strange self portraits. Including one of straight down his throat.

The Group Picture Project

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:26:00 PST

This week's art co-op art project:

Each of our 12 kids completed one piece of the picture.

I printed out a picture and cut it into 12 pieces. The kids were each given one square to reproduce onto a larger square and then color however the wished.

Once most were done we started to assemble the pieces.

For a moment they thought it was the USA, but then the butterfly came through.

I thought it was really neat how some of their lines matched up completely, even though each of them drew their lines free hand.

(project idea credit)

Fuzzy, Furry Alpacas

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:47:01 PST

Paul has a couple customers at work who run an alpaca farm and when he expressed interest in the animals they invited us to come and take a look.

We went over this past Sunday to tour their farm and learn more about Alpacas.

Aren't they cute!! The animals were very shy, but very curious and followed us up and down the fence rows as we walked.

A couple were even brave enough to come up and see and smell the boys up close.

The farm was huge- with many more animals then I expected to see. There must have been at least a hundred of them- probably more.

Above are some of the expectant mamas- a couple due any day now. 11 and a half months these mamas have to wait for their babies!

Then we wrangled up some of their show quality babies.

And they showed us how to inspect their fiber for quality.

And answered any questions we had about care, breeding and fiber harvesting.

And of course all of the boys came home with major alpaca fever.

The Anxiety Wars

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:31:28 PST

Genetics. It's sort of interesting having kids and watching them grow- you start to see more and more of yourself in them. Sometimes that is a good thing. They share your eyes, your talents, your loves. But then there are those not so good things passed down. It's in their genes. It's like in middle school science class drawing out punnet squares to see what the chance is of having a blue eyed boy as opposed to a brown eyed girl.

I've mentioned a time or 2 about my own struggles as a child and as an adult with anxiety and depression. I have always been a worrier. Struggled to meet new people. Struggled in being the center of attention. Struggled with the unknowns of everyday life. And when I became a mother, I worried. I worried that I would pass on all of this to my children. That they would feel like I did as a kid. That's the job of an anxious person isn't it? To worry?

So I was on the look out for it. Determined to help them fight it. To give it a name for them. To not let them suffer, thinking they were the only ones who ever felt like they do. But then it happened.

It took us all by surprise. Out of nowhere something happened. To cause my anxiety to swell and the anxiety waiting inside one of my boys to pour out. And the thing is, even though I have lived this. I have felt this. I am sort of, some what, most of the time able to contain and control my own anxious brain. I have no clue how to help my child.

This event in his life caused this gate inside him to open. A gate that had previously held back this wealth of worry and distress. I knew it was there in him somewhere, but now all of a sudden it was thrust in all of our faces and we had to sink or swim. And for months we have been trying to stay afloat. And it is getting harder and harder.

I have a child so worried, about everything, that he feels sick near constantly. Then he worries about why he's feeling sick. I have a child who suffers from anxiety attacks that can last hours. Who suffers from insomnia. Who is terrified of the unknowns in life.

And I feel like I can't do anything for him. I talk. I listen. I give advice. Which usually helps for the immediate time- but not long. I am at a loss most of the time for what to do for him, as I see him sink farther and farther. It is so incredibly hard to watch your child in this kind of pain and not be able to do anything to ease it. So I search- for advice from others, available programs, a doctor that may actually help and not ignore the problem- and hope that someday soon we can find a way to help him to learn how to control his anxiety, how to turn and fight his fears instead of letting them win, how to live his life to the fullest without fear.

I went back and forth over whether or not to publish this post. It's a very personal issue, but I also think it is one worth sharing- for all of the people in the world who suffer in silence, who pretend to be fine. And for all other children who feel different, who want their life to go back to normal, who are scared of the world around them. It's important not to feel alone- and know that somewhere out there someone else is going through exactly the same thing as you. It's also important not to bottle things like this inside and allow them to grow and eventually explode in an unhealthy way. And although those who know me and my family personally will know which of my boys I am talking about, I do not plan on disclosing that here.

This post is linked to Things I Can't Say- Pouring Your Heart Out

A Review of K5 Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:05:57 PST

We were given the opportunity to try out the K5 Learning program for 6 weeks. In case you aren't familiar with this program, K5 Learning is an online reading and math program for kids in Kindergarten through 5th grade. Its purpose is to help kids learn math and reading skills as well as build independence in their work. Their program is personalized through assessments, so that your child will be working on their personal level, not just their grade level. Parents can also assign lessons to their child if they feel their child needs extra practice on a certain subject.

Once you've signed up it is easy to set up your account- and I signed up all 4 of my boys, so I could get a good feel for the program at all levels. Assessments are the first step- so that they can tailor the program to the individual child. I requested reading assessments for all the boys and math assessments for Cale and Cohen (Lakin was starting at the beginning and Rylan currently works in a 7th grade curriculum). I found the assessments a good length and all of the boys completed them independently with no help from me. And once they were done I could immediately go in and see the results. As a homeschooler who rarely (or ever) gives tests in subjects is was kind of nice to see where they landed when compared to national standards. The assessment report was broken up into different categories such as phonics, comprehension, sight words and vocabulary and the student was rated exempt or high/low/mid grade level.

The older boys worked for 30 min each day on their K5 Reading lessons. They enjoyed them, they learned a lot and didn't mind doing them (aka no fights about that part of school)- all good signs. The lessons are short- with many stop or go on points throughout so that you aren't forced to do an really long lesson in one sitting. They are visually appealing but not too distracting and game-like. We used the K5 Math a little less often since I preferred to spend most of their math time with their current curricula, but my youngest learned a lot- ordering and numbers id- the math fact portion was a great help for both my 8 yr old (multiplication) and my 6 yr old ( add and subtract).

Some Good Things:

The lessons are taught and not just quizzes. This is very helpful when the topic is something unfamiliar.
Immediate feedback. They know if they got the question right or wrong immediately.
The reading assignments are informational and educational too. (This one came from my 10 year old- he liked that he learned other things from the comprehension paragraphs he was reading, not just fluff fiction)
Reports for me. I can see exactly where they were having trouble, so that I know where we might need to add a little extra practice in our school day.
The ability to assign. I assigned lessons a couple times- especially with my youngest who needed to start at the very beginning and repeat some lessons.
Independence. I hardly ever needed to help my older boys. And only occasionally with my 4 yr old. So this freed me up to work with other children.

Some Not-So-Good Things: (not bad, just things I noted and some are probably due to personal taste.)

Repeating lessons. This happened multiple times with 2 different kids- they had to repeat they lesson they had done last the previous day before they could move on. I am not sure though if this was a glitch in system or something my kids did wrong
Slow paced. This is one of those personal taste things, I (my oldest too) found the program a little slow when answering questions- as in it was annoying to us to have to wait and listen to "yes the correct answer is ......." over over. Maybe we need to be more patient....but I found myself looking for a "skip to the next question" button. This didn't bother my younger kids in the least.
Some of the vocabulary and spelling words were hard to understand. This frustrated my 8 yr old- who was the one testing out this part of the program. Sometimes it was because he was unfamiliar with the word itself, but sometimes I couldn't even figure out what word they said until I had a few letters as a hint.

Overall though, I found K5 Learning to be a great addition to our homeschool. It really helped to expose the kids to some of the topics I might have skimped on over the years or that they just needed extra practice and review on. I think it would be a perfect and easy option for reviewing during the summer months.

K5 also offers a free 14 day trial, if you want to try it out for yourself and see if it is a good fit for your child. And if you are a blogger, you can sign up to write a review of the program and get a 6 wk free trial!

Christmas 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:08:43 PST

Today the boys were having an argument- about where our Christmas tree was located the year Cohen got his first bike. They like to argue about thing like that- you know the things that really matter. Anyway- the solution to ending the argument? Right here. Lucky for them I document just about everything so a simple trip to the archives of December 2008 revealed that Cohen was right and Rylan was wrong.

So just in case a couple years from now I need to know some little piece of information about Christmas of 2011....here's the rundown.

We spent Christmas Eve with my dad- where Annika thoroughly enjoyed a singing and dancing snowman...

The boys spent a lot of time with their pastels and paints the week before Christmas making gifts for their grandparents.

Thanks to Pinterest, I had plenty of options to give them.

I absolutely loved all of their artwork and have put in orders for them to make me one as well.

This one in particular- I think turned out so nice. Cohen painted it. I can see a set of 4 with all the seasons represented on my wall.

This next one with the 4 trees was Lakin's. It is one of the first pieces he's ever done that he completely painted. He usually doesn't have the patience.

He also made this snowman- which he enjoyed most because he got to use my special, fancy watercolors and not just the tempra or crayola watercolors.

I also made some of the gifts this year. Starting with these Ribbon wands for some of the little girls in the family and a few for friends.

Lakin asked for one too...so he and Annika got one on Christmas morning.

And of course I made treats too....

Cookies and Cookie Dough balls.

Then it's Christmas night and everyone is asleep-

On Christmas morning here at our house- the kids wake up one by one and they come into our room and watch movies on Netflix on the computer until everyone is awake- or until we say it is okay to go wake the last sleepyhead.

Then it's stockings and presents.

Some of this year's favorites?

Klutz books- pipe cleaner critters and monsters.

The pedometer. Now they don't have to share the one we had and can constantly one up each other in number of steps.

Cameras. My mom got them each their own REAL camera. They have taken so many pictures in the past week and tons of videos.

Hats.

Lakin and Annika got their own cowboy hats. Lakin has been wanting one since Cohen got his for his birthday.

Cohen had to show him how a real cowboy face is supposed to look.

And one of my favorites from my camera. I have a whole series- where she walked up to Cohen- who was working in a dot-to-dot book- sat down, climbed on his back and pushed his head down. But this one looks like she's sweet and hugging him and not at all like she was screeching and attacking him for fun.

Merry Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 18:26:00 PST

Merry Christmas!

From It's A Boy's Life!

A Fairy, a Princess and a Little Girl's Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 10:21:16 PST

My little girl turns one year old this Thursday

It hardly seems like a year has gone by since she joined our family. She is such a wonderful addition. Her personality is coming out so much these days and I can't wait to see who she becomes in the next year.

Since next weekend is Christmas, we celebrated this past Sunday.

A small party with just family...and lots of balloons.

I got to make my first girly cake. I've had this idea for awhile and although it didn't turn out completely like the picture in my head, I still think it's pretty cute. It was also a little experimental- I didn't want to use any food coloring in it so with the exception of the black dots on the princess's eyes it is all naturally dyed. I used avocado for the green, strawberry for the pink, cocoa for the brown and lemon curd for the yellow.

Annika was a little unsure about the whole singing and cake thing.

She liked the cookie on top best of all.

Eventually she got into the frosting and made a mess of herself. She didn't eat too much of it though.

She actually got into opening her gifts too...

Helping to unwrap and pull them out of the bags.

Her doll collection is growing already!

Happy [early] Birthday, Annika!

Fun. Life. Holidays.

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 11:13:56 PST

Miss Annika will be one in 12 days. A couple of weeks ago she finally decided walking wasn't so bad. Still not her favorite mode of transportation, but she's getting there.

We had a Christmas craft get together with friends. We made cookie mix in a jar. Which a couple kids cleverly gifted to each other so they could eat the cookies. We gave one to a friend and one to the mail carrier and one is earmarked for Santa.

And painted gingerbread ornaments. They smell really nice, Annika has to carry hers around and smell it at least a couple times a day.

And time capsule ornaments.

Annika's scrunchy face. This is a mellow, happy version. When she doesn't get her way she scrunches it up completely and pouts. Apparently she gets this from me. Leave it to Paul to point that out. He said she gets it from me and I turned and said she did not....accompanied by my own scrunched up face. Guess I proved his point....

Paul graduated yesterday. The first in his family.

After the ceremony...

Wearing Daddy's hat...

Can you tell who is turning into a Daddy's girl?

We stopped for a Christmas tree on the way home.

We've gone to the same farm down the road from our house for the past 8 years. The boys already have asked about finding a tree farm in NC.

Decorating at home

We have collected a ton of ornaments over the past 10 years. The tree is so full, but each one has a story and a memory attached to it and I can't leave any out.

The boys have gotten into playing around with the webcam and all it's weird effects. It's like the house of mirrors distorting their faces. I like this effect though-

Annika was napping during my attempt to get us all in one picture....

Now I just have to get every one happy, dress and smiling at my camera so I can get Christmas card pictures.

Family and Fences

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 18:07:34 PST

The week of Thanksgiving....

We spent the week in NC, with my brother and his fiance and my mom, step-dad and little sister who were in from Oklahoma.

The bulk of the week was spent just hanging around the land...and building a fence for our dogs.

The weather was sort of all over the place, but for the most part really pleasant. We had a couple colder rainy days, but also a few in the 60s and sunny. Which was really nice for late November.

The boys all helped with the fence in some way- fetching tools, refilling the trench, holding posts, etc.

There was firewood cutting- taking it from the forest to the trailer and down the hill to the house. Rylan and Cale spent some time splitting the logs.

And visiting. Annika had never met her Aunt Amy before, and they spent a lot of time together.

Thanksgiving morning was spent in the kitchen....

making bread

and pie

and whipped cream

and finally fixing the clogged sink....

doing a little work while the food was cooking

and finally Thanksgiving dinner. On the back deck, surrounded by the mountains and my family- including my dad and step-mom, who came up for the day. It's been so long since all of us have been in one place.

Enjoying her first Thanksgiving meal- she particularly liked the stuffing.

And finally, an early morning good-bye on Friday

My mom headed back to Oklahoma, us back to TN and later this week my brother heads back to Colombia

Hopefully it won't be quite as long before we are all in the same place at the same time again.

K5: Online Reading and Math Program

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 10:31:40 PST

K5 Learning has an online reading and math program for kindergarten to grade 5 students. I've been given a 6 week free trial to test and write a review of their program. If you are a blogger, you may want to check out their open invitation to write an online learning review of their program.

Since I have kids ranging from 4 to 10 (not including the baby of course), I am always open to trying new programs that might enhance our homeschool experience. I'll let you know in 6 weeks what I think of their program!

Bringing Down the Barn

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:07:00 PST

This old barn had been deemed unsafe and unstable, and it needed to come down so we could build something more inhabitable in its place.

Sunday was the day.

Phase 1: The center support

Phase 2: The Front Corner

Phase 3: The 2nd Corner

This is when Paul's brother just sort of pushed on the side and it all came crashing down

And the first floor is gone....

Phase 4: Crowbar, sledge and axe

Paul and his brother spent a couple hours and reduced this half barn to...

A pile of sticks.

Next up, salvaging any usable barn wood.

Watching it all go down.

Cale spent a lot of time with the saw this weekend. Helping to cut up wood for the stove. I think it was about this time on Sunday he got into some type of briars and one ended up in his eye. For which he ended up at the eye doctor this morning getting it removed. 24 hours with a thorn embedded in your eye is no fun, neither is getting it pulled out with tweezers. He is left with a very red, scratched left eye.

Cohen and Rylan did their share of pruning and sawing too. Collecting firewood, cleaning up fence rows and brush piles, and helping to resuscitate the old apple tree.

And they all came home exhausted Sunday night.

linking to the Homestead Barn Hop
and

Shutterfly Holiday Cards- Giveaway!

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 06:21:44 PST

The holiday season is upon us, the countdown to Thanksgiving and Christmas has started. And although usually I really procrastinate on the whole Christmas card thing, I do love to send them out and share pictures of my family with all of our friends and extended family.

Some say that the sending and receiving of holiday cards is a lost art, and in someways that might be true. Hand written notes have been left behind, but to me there is a good trade off. While I might not hand write all my cards with ~~the same words~~ a personalized greeting anymore, I do get to share pictures of my beautiful kids with people who don't often get to see them and they get to watch them grow each year through these cards.

I mentioned last year that I usually use Shutterfly for our holiday cards. Over the years their selection of cards has grown amazingly. You no longer have to pick just one picture for your cards, you can choose to add as little or as many as you want.

They have a variety of styles- from folded greeting cards to flat stationary cards to flat photo cards. You can choose Christmas Cards, Holiday Cards, Hanukkah Cards and many more. There is definitely something for everyone.

And while you at Shutterfly picking out your cards, you can also pick up some great gifts too. Photobooks are big in our family- we buy them for ourselves as well as for gifts to grandparents.

And in the spirit of giving, I have teamed up with Shutterfly to give away 25 Free Holiday Cards to 3 lucky readers! All you have to do is leave me a comment on this post to be eligible to win! Please leave an email address if you don't have a blog linked to your comment.

Contest closes next Tuesday, November 15th at midnight.

WINNERS:

Claire

Sparklee

Sara

Untitled. Random Pictures and Words.

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 19:53:59 PDT

These pictures are all from last week. I don't think I have had the camera out since Halloween on Monday. But it's our life nonetheless.

My baby girl. Who is now 10 (!) months old. She took her first 2 steps about 2 months ago. Then decided that was all she wanted to do and would take one step and slowly lower herself down and crawl. Tonight she took 5 steps. She had a very loud audience cheering her on.

We went to a birthday party last week at one of those big inflatable places. My boys love those places. Except for Lakin who was tired since it was an evening party. He threw fits instead. But it was fun for everyone else!

Penelope. Cuddled up on my dad's dog in NC last weekend.

And Annika playing on the stairs.

Spending time with my brother and his fiancee. Who are here visiting from Bogota, Colombia for a whole month.

A walk through the woods. I love this picture and the color of all the leaves. What's even better is that this is my [new] back yard. Literally.

Rylan, Cale and Cohen are helping to clear a trail all around the property. They LOVE this time with their grandparents and using their pruning shears as much as they want.

Lakin usually stays with me, this time with his little pruning shears.

And now I should unplug my camera from the computer and put it to use. We've been homebodies the past few days. Paul is in Kansas City for 4 days at a conference that I am very proud of him for being chosen to attend. But I don't much like being here alone- with or without 5 kids. He gets home late tomorrow.

Cluck, Cluck

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:03:00 PDT

We've had chickens for almost 5 years now and we are on our 3rd flock. We always go for a variety of breeds just to keep it interesting and we never have less than about 25 birds at one time. Between the eggs we keep for ourselves and selling the excess eggs the girls pay for their own keep, and the goats most of the time too.

Their coop isn't too fancy. Just an old premade metal shed that was on our property already. Add roosts and nest boxes. We cut a hole out of the side for a chicken sized door, but it has since been closed up and now we just keep the people sized door open for whoever wants to enter- be it chickens, people, goats or dogs.

My boys took to the birds right away. They LOVED the chick stage and they love the adult birds as well. Our birds are very well loved to say the least. They are named odd names ( the yellow one above was Saddlebag and the brown one is Brownie, both from our first flock) and held and played with daily.

When we first introduced our chickens to the back yard, we had a whole area fenced off for them in the dogs' yard. We had a very flighty group that first go round. And were often seen chasing chickens down whoever jumped the fence. Unfortunately we had 2 chickens jump fence the wrong way- into the dog's yard. First up was Phoenix the rooster at 10 wks old. He was a little standoffish so no one was too upset. But next up was Shadow- and that was a sad day.

We had a 3rd chicken jump ship- a turken named Turky Lurky. And luckily we caught her in time and she escaped with a gash in her neck and a hurt foot. But nothing neosporin and a couple nights in the house couldn't fix. And the dogs got a severe "talking to" on that day. And they haven't touched a chicken since. And today it is not uncommon for me to look out the back door and see 4 goats, 4 dogs and a bunch of chickens sunning themselves on my their deck.

We've let our broody chickens hatch out eggs once. We had 2 go broody and we gave them each about 8 eggs. The entire ordeal was a lot of work, from flooded nests to a chick getting pecked to death by it's mother. The good mom hatched one, the bad mom hatched 3- one good, one severely pecked and one pecked to death. The bad mom was booted out and the good mom took in the orphans. Of course all 3 were roosters and soon went to a new home.

This is one of my all time favorite chicken pictures, I just love the fluffy cheeks!

That is Muffy, the Araucana. She lays blue eggs. Muffy had a hard start to life. She was on the bottom of the pecking order. And the rooster of the group, Sage, didn't much care for her. He pecked her tail completely out until it was no more than a bloody stump. The others started to peck on her as well. After a week in the house, We introduced her back into the flock and Sage went with the older chickens to, well, you know...get eaten. But Muffy has always been tame. She used to run to me at night when she was getting picked on and flap onto my shoulder. In fact, a couple months ago when it was time for her and her flock to move on so that the up and coming egg layers could have more room in the henhouse, we let her stay, just so we could have at least one blue egg. And she has thanked us by laying ZERO eggs since then.

And that brings us to our current flock. They are about 6 months old now and have finally started laying eggs. And if I must say these birds are by far the most spoiled groups of chickens I have ever seen. We currently have 27- different breeds from Speckled Sussex to Brahmas to Columbian Wyandottes to Polishes.

My boys spend hours outside with them. They allow themselves to be toted around and crouch down for easy catching.

And the names....I don't even know all of them, but I don't think some should even be considered names. We have a Brahma named Fast Little Legs. A Polish names Piper Wrapping. A Houdan named Black Hat. A Turken named Turken Lee Jones. A Colombian named Swirl Tail. A rooster named Charlie Horse. And last but not least....Muh. Yeah....Muh. Sounds like Duh! We give the boys the most grief over that one.

And not to be left out...

There is Jill. She's a duck. Or a chicken. Or a dog. She's a little confused. Her flock-mate Bill died a year or so ago and since then she has made friends with the chickens and follows and lays with the dogs in the yard. She sits on the back deck and knocks on the door at night if I leave the light on. She is a Khaki Campbell and lays better than the chickens. In fact my oldest son wants to raise a whole flock of ducks after we move.

And I do realize this was a Hen House Hop and I didn't show any pictures of my actual hen house. If I could find my external hard drive I am sure there is one in there somewhere from when it was just set up, but really it is nothing special. Ugly but serves its purpose. I can however show you a picture of the old chicken coop at our new house. We plan on sprucing it up a bit and resetting the foundation.

For more Hen House fun visit the Dandelion House!

Trick or Treat

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 20:53:58 PDT

Annika's first Halloween.

A dinosaur joined us for school

So did Super Cow

And Spiderman

Posing before heading out to our Halloween Party

Lots of posing

He wanted to be duct tape man....but settled for Super Cow when we ran out of time and tape to make his costume.

But check out his cape....silver and black duct tape using a trash bag as a base.

Spider climbing

Obligatory group shot.

And another group shot once we got where we were going.

Party Time!

Lollipop spiders

Witches Stew contest

and race

Jack-o-lantern luminaries

Jack-o-lantern pizza

Bone pretzels

marble painted spider webs

and faux trick-or-treating

Happy Halloween!

Strengths of Character

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:56:25 PDT

Awhile back my dad sent me the link to an article. "What if the Secret to Success if Failure" from the New York Times. It was an interesting read on the importance of character. In the article the author referenced another book- Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification by Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman, which I decided to have Paul check out from the University library just to see what it had to say.

Now when I say book- don't picture a educational or parenting guide on character building in your children. You'd be way off base. This is an 800 page psychology study. It's not exactly light reading. But I've been making my way through. Thoroughly reading some sections and skimming some of the other sections- searching for the information relevant to my situation and needs.

So far it's been very interesting. The authors have narrowed the list of strengths down to 24- universal across culture and time- and categorized them into 6 groups. They discuss their criteria for narrowing down these traits before diving into the details of each of the 24 strengths.

They range from curiosity and creativity to gratitude and hope. From leadership and fairness to bravery and persistence. These strengths cover cognitive, social and emotional virtues.

We (the human race) all have a lot to learn, a lot to improve upon. We all could use a lesson on being virtuous. We could all use a little character building. To rearrange priorities and relearn the value of wisdom and humanity. But all I can control is myself and my family.I can give my kids the best chance at becoming the strong people we all have the potential of becoming. And this is where I am starting; with a book, a list of character strengths and time.

School. Life. Balance.

noreply@blogger.com (Sadie) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:57:30 PDT

I have been struggling lately. It's that pesky balance thing again. I have said before I am not an unschooler. We do have a "school time" and I prefer hands on, interactive activities. The thing is, that is not happening.

Life in general the past few years has thrown us off balance. Paul went back to school. He changed jobs a couple times, we added a baby. And now we are in the middle of a tight budgeted, stressful last semester, getting ready to move and all that comes along with that.

So where does school fit in? The short of it...they read, they do a page or two in their language arts books, they do a math lesson and we read a chapter in history. Sometimes I remember to do spelling. Sometimes we add in typing practice. It's boring. It's dull. And I miss science.

But then there is all that life we are living. The part where my boys feed and water our animals. They collect eggs. They chop wood and help build fences. They help each other fix breakfast and help me do the laundry. They watch their sister so I can make lunch or get the goats hay.

And all of that is so important too. There is just no room in my head right now for elaborate lesson plans, and maybe that is okay. They are young. They are exploring. They are learning. And later, maybe in the winter, when all these stressors start to fall away we will have more time. For art. For experiments. For fun learning together.

So for now I try and suppress my guilt. For not being the teacher *I* want to be. And let life happen.