Homeschool Life

Sick for too long.

2012-03-08T12:16:00.000-05:00

I am finally starting to feel like myself again after being sick for a grand total of 13 days! I have never been sick for that long and hope to never experience it again. Now to start putting life back together. All the progress I had made for staying on a schedule and keeping house went out the window, so I am starting over.

I hadn't even turned on my tablet for about 4 days and the to do list was a mess since I hadn't been checking anything off. Erased it all and started filling it back out again today. Checklists are a must for me to stay on top of things anymore. After having the girls my memory is shot and I have always been a procrastinator, so I have to be able to "see" what needs to be done and when.

3yr Old's View of Pregnancy

2012-02-19T19:39:00.000-05:00

We've talked with Kyla before about how Raye was in mommy's tummy, and for some reason she brought it up again today and it was a funny little conversation.

Kyla: Momma, when Raye was littler she was in your tummy.
Me: Yes, that's right.
Kyla: And you were sick.
Me: No, mommy wasn't sick. I was just pregnant.
Kyla: Pregant?
Me: Yes, when mommies have a baby in there tummy it's called being pregnant.
Kyla: Well....how did you get that way??
Me: um, How did I get pregnant?
Kyla: Yes, how did you get pregant?
Me: Well.....(thinking)...mommy and daddy decided we wanted another baby, so mommy got pregnant.
Kyla: Oh, you mean me?
Me: We already had you, and we wanted another baby, so we had Raye.
Kyla: Oh, right (giggle) you wanted Raye.

And that was the end of it....for now, lol. She is so curious about how everything works!

Talking soon

2012-02-01T00:11:00.000-05:00

For nap time this afternoon we put the two little ones in the bedroom to sleep and had the big girls sitting on the couch with a movie. Kyla was pretty grumpy this morning and wanted me to hold her so I ended up nodding off on the couch with her for about an hour. Apparently Raye woke up before Ayan so my sis went and got her. I woke up to Rae asking if I was awake and turned to see her with Raye. She told me that "somebody is poopie" and then Raye goes "I went poopoo" clear as day,lol. We both looked at each other and looked back at her. Then one of us asked "what did you say?" and she replied again "I went poopoo". She doesn't say much that is very clear yet-I know she will be soon, she babbles all day long- but that was the most distinct phrase she has said so far. The other words/phrases I've recognized are "drink", "all done", "I stuck", "Ayyaa"(my parents dog), and "Kyyaa"(Kyla). She has said "mama" and "dee"(her version of daddy) for a long time. Hearing her scream "DEEEEEE" accompanied by excited pointing and dancing when Dave gets home from work is adorable. I'm sure there is more that I'm just not picking up on mixed in with the babble and she will be talking nonstop very soon.

Schedule:day 1

2012-01-30T23:42:00.001-05:00

Did pretty good following my schedule today. Got up before 7, did school with the girls, did chores, cleaned the kitchen, did some stretches : ) didn't manage to fit in a workout but, oh well, at least I stuck to my diet. Having my schedule all written out for the day and a checklist for the things I needed to get done helped a lot. The biggest thing I have to remember is just because I might miss one or two things is no reason to throw out the entire day. I am a perfectionist so if I do something I am "going to do it right", and if one thing gets thrown out of whack I end up feeling like "well that's it! there's no point in finishing now" and I know that is the wrong response. So I'm focusing on all of the things I am getting done, and the things I did follow the schedule for. Going to try and keep that attitude from now on.

Back on Track- Again

2012-01-29T20:54:00.000-05:00

Ok, I haven't been doing much of anything lately and that is going to change. I am going on a diet, getting back on top of chores, and making myself a schedule that I AM going to stick to. Part of that will include blogging again, as I do enjoy it and I am not even sure why I haven't been doing it. So, time to give in to some OCD tendancies as go with it.

I got a Lenovo tablet last wk-like an I pad or Kindle- and put some great apps on it : ) A calendar, to-do list. shopping list, and access to Google Docs. Not to mention I can check my mail, facebook, other sites; play some games on it; and get Kindle books as well. So in addition to prepping this wks school stuff for the girls I am also filling out my to-do checklist and the calendar on my tablet for all the things I need and want to do.

School bttw, is going good. We are up to the number eight for visual recognition and in addition to their vowels they know five consonants (they know all of the letters by sight, but we're following the schedule for working on sounds).

Resolutions

2012-01-02T09:18:00.000-05:00

I don't normally make New Years resolutions. I usually feel like if I decide to make a change I will just do it anytime. But this past year it has been very hard for me to stick with thing, so I plan on starting 2012 out with a few resolutions and keeping them. Not anything special, your standard get organized(and stay organized), eat better/healthier, and lose weight. With four kids at the house regularly I need to keep it clean and organized and get all of us on a schedule. I'm tired of the house getting messy so quickly. The eating better/healthier and losing weight are separate but also together. I want to start eating more fruits/veggies, and eat less junk/fake food. That will help with losing the baby weight but I also need to eat less and work out more. Plus working out does wonders for my attitude. All the adrenaline helps me be much happier and more motivated. So good luck to everyone with your resolutions and stick with it : )

SWTOR!

2011-12-28T15:29:00.000-05:00

I am a Jedi!....and a Smuggler, and a Trooper....I also plan on being a several Dark side characters as well. I love this game, Bioware has done an amazing job making an MMO that is story driven. The quests are never boring, I can't wait to complete each one and see what happens, and then move on to the next part of the story. I often don't notice when I lvl up, and have ended up behind on training my char several times, lol.

I haven't been doing much gaming while waiting for SWTOR to come out, nothing was able to hold my interest with Star Wars on my mind, and part of me was worried that it wouldn't live up to expectations. But it has and it's hard to drag myself away from the game to go to sleep at night, missing those days when I was physically capable of pulling an all night gaming marathon, lol. But after midnight my brain starts to shut down.

I knew from the start I would love my Jedi Knight, but I was unsure about the other classes. After playing them I love them all equally for different reasons. Plus being in an RP guild I have made backgrounds and stories for the characters and like each of their personalities as well. I plan on doing the same thing when I make Empire characters but don't know how well the roleplaying will go...I have a really hard time making the "bad" choices in the game, lol, to out of line with my personality.

No need for Santa

2011-12-28T07:54:00.000-05:00

My hubby and I decided long before we had kids that we weren't going to do Santa with them, actually we kind of decided it separately and then agreed on it. He says he doesn't remember believing in Santa, that he played along with his parents when they talked about it but he thought it was weird. I on the other hand remember believing in Santa(and the Easter Bunny) and being devastated when I found out my parents and Everyone had been lying to me all that time.

So we are not telling our kids "yes, there really is a Santa" because there isn't. We don't want to lie to our kids for no reason. And we want them to be thankful and appreciate the gifts they get, from us. Growing up the "big, fun, awesome" presents were from Santa, and my parents didn't get the credit for it that they should have. I appreciate now that they bought all of those things for us, but I don't understand wanting to let "Santa" be the hero, I want my kids to know I paid attention to their likes and dislikes and got them the one thing they really wanted, for whatever occasion it is that I give it to them.

I've heard that not doing "Santa" takes the fun out of Christmas and that isn't true. My 3yr old had a great time with my husband's side of the family, thanked everyone for the gifts they gave her, and has been enjoying the toys she got from her family members. I do not regret our decision in any way.

Potty Trained, Finally!

2011-12-27T10:04:00.000-05:00

We have been having a hard time getting Kyla potty trained. She has never cared if she had a wet or dirty diaper, so that didn't work as motivation. When she turned three I decided to try just going diaper free and making her use the potty. Didn't work. She had so many "accidents" those three days and did not care at all so I gave up on that. Next my sister suggested telling her she couldn't do big girl things if she didn't go, like playing with play dough, sitting without a booster, playing on the computer. That worked for a few days, but then she started only going on the potty right before asking if she could do a big girl thing. Even though she wasn't getting to do the things she wanted she still wouldn't go on the potty all the time and even started pooping in her diapers again(which she hadn't done for alomst a yr). When I would ask her why she didn't tell me she had to go potty she'd say "I didn't want to." That was when I had enough, we were going to put her in underwear again and stick with it. Starting one morning I put her in underwear and explained that she wasn't going to wear diapers anymore, that she was a big girl and had to use the potty or she wouldn't get to do big girl things. I made sure to ask her all the time if she had to go potty that day and she only had two accidents, and she was sorry when she had them. I kept asking her frequently if she had to go potty for a few days and she was having fewer accidents and started telling me when she had to go. One day she did poop in her underwear, which she got in trouble for, and she told her daddy that "I won't go poopoo in my underwear again" and she hasn't! We have now been accident free for three days, I haven't had to remind her at all, and she wants to do it all by herself. So now she is even going into the bathroom by herself when she has to to : ) I am so proud of her and make sure to let her know it every time lets me know whe needs to use the bathroom.

Bedtime-not going as planned

2011-11-30T14:37:00.000-05:00

I am not sure what is up with the girls lately but they have not been going to sleep as well as they normally do. Kyla doesn't want to go to sleep, "I don't want to do this", "No , I don't want the light off." And if she doesn't lay down then Raye keeps running in circles around the room. Kyla can now reach the light switches so after we leave she'll get up and turn the light on. I've talked with her about it a couple times and from what I've gathered she's been having some bad dream : ( Being chased by bears or monsters from what she will tell me about them. So we started praying that God would help her to sleep and not have bad dreams. I also reminded her on the "God is bigger than the Boogie Man" Veggitales and that seemed to help her calm down a lot. The last two nights have been better so maybe that will work for us. She did join us in bed last night, had another bad dream, but she went right back to sleep. This is one of those times I wish I could read her mind and know exactly what is bothering her. I don't normally ask her about her dreams until she's been awake for awhile in the morning-I don't want to ask in the middle of the night and upset her more- but I'm not really sure how much of her dream she actually remembers, especially later in the day.

Random Statements

2011-11-29T21:37:00.000-05:00

It always amazes me the things kids decide to talk about. While we were eating breakfast this morning Kyla looks at me and asks, "Mommy, did you know flowers can grow?" To which I respond, "Yes, they do don't they." Then she continues, "And did you know that people grow?" Me again, "That's right people grow to." "And hair too," while patting her head,"Hair can grow, did you know that mommy?" "Yes, I did." Then she declares, "Hair can be cut too, we have cut hair." I nod,"Yes hair can be cut, but your hair has never been cut." She then points at Raye and I say, "No Raye hasn't had her hair cut either, it's not long enough yet." She stops and thinks for a moment, "But yours has" pointing at me and smiling. "That's right, I have had my hair cut." Then she smiles and laughs...and goes back to eating her cereal.

Numbers and counting

2011-11-26T14:42:00.000-05:00

Since both of the girls could already count to ten before we started doing school they are still doing great in that area. We've worked our way up to seven know for recognizing the written number and they catch on to each new one quickly. The one thing we are spending more time working on is putting the numbers in the correct order. Asking "what comes after three?" had them a little confused for awhile but they are getting alot better at counting that out to themselves and figuring it out. Laying out our number cards and having them put the numbers in the correct order is also a little challenging. They end up "1,2,4,3,5,7,6" and it takes awhile to get the correct adjustments made. But they do better each time and focusing more on it will help them catch on quicker.

SWTOR Beta

2011-11-25T22:23:00.000-05:00

I was finally able to play the SWTOR beta today and loved it. Besides having amazing(Amazing!!) graphics the gameplay is great. I'm playing a bounty hunter on the Sith side for beta, but will be going on the Republic first when early access starts, and I am enjoying the story very much. It is so much better than WoW in that you don't feel like your just a lvl 1 character doing menial tasks. All of your actions contribute to the storyline and have consequences. You can chose to follow through on the bounty and kill the person, or you might be able to say you killed them and actually help them get away. You can make choices in what path your character takes and how they respond to situations; it is very story driven as Bioware said it would be. I made it to lvl 7 today- played for about 5hrs total- and have my first companion character. *sigh* too bad I lose this toon after the wkend : ( But early access will be starting very soon and I will be making my trooper and Jedi Knight, YAY! And with two more days of Beta it is going to be a very good wkend.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T20:32:00.000-05:00

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, although at this point I am not sure I am happy anymore. As usual I ate waayyy to much, but with so much good food how do you stop? This is one of the few meals the adults in our family appreciated more than the kids. For some reason none of the children finished their dinner, and it was things that the would normally eat. So, now after turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and more, followed by pie and ice cream; I don't want to move for a few days and have eaters remorse. At least with buyers remorse you can return the purchase and get your money back; with eaters remorse there are no returns and you know that a few pounds are going to appear on the scale. All in all a good time spent with family. The children played well long enough for us to play a game together and have some adult time.

For those of you crazy enough to go shopping tonight/tomorrow have a good time...I will be sleeping.

Sister Time

2011-11-22T21:16:00.000-05:00

I love watching Kyla and Raye play together, they are way to cute. Raye likes to sit right next to Kyla and snuggle with her if they are watching a show or going to bed. Sometimes it is a bit much when she sits on Kyla when she is trying to sleep, but overall they do really well together.

Today Kyla took a late nap and I had to go wake her for dinner and I had Raye come with me. After telling Kyla to wake up and giving her a kiss on the cheek she opened her eyes but stayed laying on her pillow. That's when Raye ran over to her all excited and chattering, so I told her to give Kyla a kiss. Raye gave Kyla a nice kiss on the cheek, "MMMWWAA" is the sound she makes when kissing. Then I was able to steal a kiss for myself- Raye is very stingy with her kisses and only does it when she is in a kissy mood. Without any prompting from me she gave Kyla five more kisses...and wouldn't give me any : ( They love each other and it is so sweet to watch, I am excited for continuing to watch them grow and play together.

Skyrim!

2011-11-15T15:34:00.000-05:00

I pre-ordered the new Elder Scrolls game Skyrim several months ago and received it through the mail on Friday. The first Elder Scrolls game that I played was Morrowind and I loved it. There is so much you can do in the games; besides the main quest line there are tons of side quests and so much to explore. The graphics in Skyrim are amazing, but it's the game play and storyline that makes it so good. I've heard that there are 30+ hrs of game time for the main quest line alone so it will be keeping me busy until The Old Republic comes out in Dec. One of the things I like the most about the Elder Scrolls games is how many things you can collect and gather, and you can buy a house to store it in. Buying a house is always my first goal and I accomplished it last night. So now I have a place for all the books(I love collecting and reading all the books in the games), food, ingredients, weapons and armor I want to hold on to so I can use it later. I'm looking forward to more of the story tonight.

Back on Track

2011-11-14T09:30:00.000-05:00

With everyone feeling better we are finally getting back into our schedule. I did school this morning with the girls and decided to do it all in one straight shot instead of splitting it up. They did pretty good till the end, which is normal even when they were split. By that time they can't seem to focus anymore, lol. We're doing most of their school at the dining room table, and going into the living room for some of the learning games, but I want to get more of a "School" area set up for them soon. I need to make room for and get some kid size tables and chairs. My mom thinks she still has the one piece school desks from when we were little so I need to see if I can find them in the basement/garage this week. I've also been catching up on laundry and cleaning, soooo glad to be feeling better!

Finally feeling Better!

2011-11-13T16:12:00.000-05:00

After a week of feeling like crap I am finally feeling like myself again. I can't remember a time when I was sick for more than two days in a row, being out of it for a week felt like forever. Amazingly the house didn't fall completely apart, hubby at least did some cleaning : ) but I have tons of laundry to do and a bunch of organizing and sorting to get ready for winter. I need to find time this week to go through the totes of hand-me-downs and find the next size up of winter clothes for both girls.

Silver Lining

2011-11-10T09:48:00.000-05:00

So I have been sick all week. I am tired, sore, and have had a constant headache for 4 days and I am ready to be better. The kids have had the wk off from school since I and my sister are both not up to running class, and the kids are grumpy and under the weather a bit as well. The one bright side, the silver lining to not feeling well? I am losing weight again and this will get me back on track so I'm not over eating. The bonus to not eating much for about a week is that the stomach shrinks a bit so I'll feel fuller faster when I do feel like eating again. Still, I am ready to feel better and get things done around the house. My hubby cleaned the kitchen last night(it was a disaster) and I think all of our clothes need to be washed today. That's on the to-do list while the kids nap today. I am feeling "slightly" better than early this week and hope it is on it's way out of the house.

Long Night

2011-11-03T18:39:00.000-04:00

We put the kids down for bed at 8 and most of the time they both sleep through the night. I'm not sure who woke up first but at 1am Kyla was crying because Raye was crawling on her so they both needed diaper changes and Kyla wasn't feeling good. "Momma, I no feel good" accompanied by some coughs, poor girl. She wanted to lay on the couch so I let her lay there while I put Raye back down in their room. Kyla was half asleep on the couch when I got back so I gave her a little to drink and then let her sleep there while I went back to bed. I woke up again at five to Kyla crying that she wanted to sleep with me, so she spent the rest of the morning in bed with me.(Dave had to leave at 4am for work so at least she had 1/2 the bed) No matter how well they are sleeping though I can never sleep well when lying with one of the girls. And apparently I lay funny too since I always get up with a headache and sore neck. She's kept the cough all day but it hasn't slowed her down at all so hopefully it's just an allergy thing and will pass quickly.

School Frustrations

2011-11-01T13:38:00.000-04:00

Today was one of those days...nothing went quite right with school. The girls did not want to pay attention at all today and it was a constant struggle to keep their attention. Then in their phonics class we are starting to blend letter sounds. They know all of their vowels and the consonant "t", so we are going over making the "t" sound, then the vowel sound "a,e,i,o, or u", then blend the two together "ta,te,ti,to,tu". Simple enough right? Not today. I start by holding up the letter "t" and asking "What sound does this letter make?"....and I get blank stares. Ok, lets try again. "This is the letter "t", "t" says ........?" and I get "hmmmm.....uhhhh.....I don't know" Still, alright we'll just move on "This is the letter "a", "a" says ....?" and still nothing! They know all of this, not problem, but for some reason they are both feigning ignorance today. It is so frustrating when I know that they Know the answers, but they just don't want to participate and there is nothing you can do about it other than wait till they are ready to participate. We did get a late start and I am wondering if that had something to do with it. We didn't get to phonics until after lunch and normally we are all done before they have lunch. So, hoping they will want to do it more tomorrow.

Halloween

2011-10-31T23:41:00.001-04:00

We have not celebrated it since I was 7 and I am continuing that with my kids. I hadn't planned on addressing it with Kyla yet but the other girls in her dance class had been told they could wear their costumes to class so Rae and I had to explain to Lyssa and Kyla why they were not going to wear costumes. So we narrowed it down to the simple core explanation of "We are Christians. Halloween is a pagan holiday, so we do not participate in it." I think they understood what we were trying to convey and neither of them even mentioned that the other girls wore costumes.

Besides the fact that All Hallows Eve is a pagan celebration there are other things that I find unsettling about "Trick or Treating". First is saying "Trick or Treat" to get candy, they are basically repeating a threat "Give me a treat or you'll get a trick." We also spend so much time telling our children not to talk to or take candy from strangers, and then on this one day we go around to a bunch of strange houses and get candy. Doesn't make sense to me.

The joy of Bubble Wrap

2011-10-29T09:23:00.000-04:00

What it it about bubble wrap that is so much fun? We had a few sheets with a recent purchase and gave it to the kids to play with and it kept them busy for quite a while. The hard part about showing them what to do was not getting carried away and popping them all myself.

What a Day

2011-10-26T17:36:00.000-04:00

Had a long day out and about with the kids today. The kids and I met up with Rae and her kids at a fastfood place for lunch while Glen went to and interview-eating out with the kids is always an adventure. Actually they did really well but were very hyper when we left, you'd think we had given them straight sugar.

Then we all went to the petstore to look at the animals. I had promised Kyla that we would go to the pet store soon; she was asking for a dog last week. I explained that we're going to get a dog but not until she is older, and told her we could go to the pet store and look at some animals we might be able to get sooner. I'm leaning towards a guinea pig right now....personally I like dwarf hamsters(they are sooo cute) but I think something a little bigger would be better around the kids- less chance of the squashing it : /

Then Rae left with Lyssa and Ayan to pick up Glen, and the my kids and I went to Wal-mart to recycle some pop cans and looked at the toys with the girls. I picked up two small toys with the money from the cans: a small baby doll for Raye and a microphone for Kyla.

And then...we went to my hubby's Grandparent's house to visit with his mom and Grandma. Dave had some time inbetween jobs for his work and was able to stop by and visit for awhile to. The girls had a great time but started to crash after awhile. Actually, Kyla crashed completely and had to be carried out to the car. So we're finally home, had dinner, and are watching a Veggie Tales movie...and I am ready for bed, lol.

Reading Bug

2011-10-22T19:21:00.000-04:00

Kids are so funny in some of the ideas they have. Awhile ago the kids found a stinkbug on the floor and told me and Glen that they had found one. Glen had to get some paper towel to pick it up with and when he got back to where they were with the bug Lyssa told him that he couldn't take the bug because, "He's reading a book" Neither of us had noticed it at first but, she had propped a board book up on the floor in front of the bug for it to read.