Seven Quick Takes

1. I got up this morning and instead of plopping my big butt in my recliner and surfing the internet I made my bed, got out the fall decorations and quickly decorated (not hard since I only put stuff on the piano and one little shelf), and did 2 loads of laundry. NOW, I've plopped my big butt in my recliner. I've got just a few minutes before time to start school. I've been too tired to blog at night so I thought I'd try some morning blogging.
2. I haven't had coffee or tea yet (a must in the morning these days or I'll get a major headache) nor have I had breakfast. I've been in a really bad routine the last few weeks. I get up and have coffee or hot tea and then start our daily reading (about an hour), from there I go right into work mode--overseeing chores, hanging out laundry, starting assignments with the kids, etc. I forget to eat and sometimes it's almost noon before I get a good chance to stop and eat. By then I'm hyped up on caffeine and starving and jittery. I then tend to eat a lot of something that's fast, easy and not healthy. This is a cycle throughout my day--wait too long to eat until I'm starving and then eat too much of something that's not good for me. I've got to quit this but even as I write this I know that after I finish this blog post I'll make coffee or tea but eat nothing and off I'll go. Maybe I'll try to have some peanut butter toast before starting...that's an idea. Fast and easy.
3. I really hate the words cuddling and snuggling--not the action, just the words.
4. My kids are hardly reading on their own at all. Reading for pleasure I mean. We are doing Sonlight this year and it is super reading intensive. Hannah reads for at least an hour if not more a day, and I am reading aloud almost 2 hours a day. An hour to all 3 and the other hour to Grace and Joe. Grace does some reading of her Sonlight reader every day but I can't get Joe to read anything on his own. He says that he'll read in the winter. As an avid reader I don't like that my children aren't reading much for pleasure but I'm also unwilling to MAKE them read. I want them to choose to read (I would make them read if they weren't already reading so much for school). So, I do the next best thing. I'm going to bribe them. I think I'm going to start paying them $1 per book. It's not much but if you don't have a way to earn money every dollar counts. I've also thought about creating coupons that they get for reading so many pages or for a certain amount of time that can be traded in for movies or extra computer time. Any ideas?
5. I made Harvest Muffins the other day and then made Pumpkin Pie Dip to go with them. They were to die for. Pumpkin Pie Dip is super easy--8 oz. cream cheese, a can of pumpkin, 3 Tbsp. sugar, some cinnamon to taste, and a dash of nutmeg. I also love the dip with apples and pretzels. I'll post the muffin recipe later.
6. Opening night of Cinderella is tomorrow night!! Super excited!
7. In all my spare time I'm helping direct/produce (not sure what you'd call it) a Christmas pageant at our church. We had auditions last Sunday and are working this week to tweak the script and cast the show. I think it's going to be really cute and a lot of fun and more work than I bargained for. It'll all be worth it in the end...at least it better!!! :0)

Seven Quick Takes

1. Truly can't believe that tomorrow is Friday. Where has the week gone??? Time seriously flies and I'm just holding on for dear life. We have had a great week. We've done some school (more than I thought we'd get done), got a 3rd Orthodontist opinion for Grace, visited with some old friends, had a beach day, and did some more school. Tomorrow Grace has a dentist appt., we will work in some school, and the girls will do some more visiting with Hannah (our old friend). Our days are packed but I am blessed. Blessed to be able to stay home with my kids and homeschool them and blessed to have the freedom to have these crazy weeks.
2. I discovered today that one of my kids (and probably all of them) becomes much less upset and agitated when learning new math concepts if I just lower my voice and talk quietly. We haven't done math since last Thursday and I'm again reminded of why you just can't take math breaks. The kids forget everything so fast!
3. We've decided not to wait for braces for Grace. It will be best for her to go ahead and get them on soon while she is so young. So, she has an appointment on Tuesday to get braces and she is so excited! She is hoping to be able to get colored braces. That's my girl.
4. Grace thinks she has found what she wants to do when she grows up. She wants to train seeing eye dogs and/or other animal companions. I was reading a book last weekend and one of the characters was going to college for a degree in animal companionship. I immediately thought of Grace and thought that this would be just the thing for her. So, I told her at dinner the other night and she said, "that is so weird--I just read 2 articles in The Bunk Room about seeing eye dogs and in my Wordly Wise today there was an article about seeing eye dogs. I was already thinking that I might like to do that." I looked online and there are colleges that offer degrees in this. I am hoping to plan a field trip soon to a place in Orlando that trains animal companions.
5. On that same note...Hannah is thinking of starting a photography business. Right now her plan is to scope out some locations around our town and do some photos for a portfolio. She has already lined up a friend and her daughter to do a mother/daughter shoot. She will also use her siblings as models as well. She then plans to try to get some business photographing families for their Christmas pictures.
6. I think I am going to be even busier as I encourage and play taxi driver to my children as they pursue these hobbies and interests.
7. My kids got their parts for their next theatre performance. Hannah will be playing Fifi, one of the stepsisters; Joe is Herbert--the prince's dad (this should be quite funny as his wife is older and bigger than him and he is 8); and Grace is Babette, a french poodle who hangs with the mice a lot. They are all happy with their parts and I think it's going to be a great show. If you are local you should come and see it!

Seven Quick Takes

1.  Tonight is opening night of Wizard of Oz!  The kids have their main parts tonight and Saturday night--Hannah is Oz, Grace is the Barrister (second to the mayor of Munchkin City), and Joe is Toto.  Hannah and Grace have another short part that they both do every night but I don't know what you would call it--they are the people who work in Oz and get Dorothy and friends ready to see the wizard.  I'm excited about the show and have been busily making lemon bars and chocolate chip cookie bars all day.  I am hoping to make enough to last the weekend so I can be done with the baking.  I also have to fix Hannah's costume sometime before the show.  Lots to do, lots to do!

2.  Of course, we are also trying to get school done around here as well.  Hannah is finished, Grace is mostly done, and Joe hasn't even started.  Let's hope he has a cooperative day...

3.  I have been regularly exercising and am getting in the habit of fitting it in to my schedule.  That has meant getting up early some days.  I got up very early yesterday and went to the gym and then got up even earlier today and walked with Ann Marie.  I am pretty much staying sore right now but hopefully my body will adjust to this foreign concept of regular exercise.  Now, if I could just do something about my sugar addiction that seems to ramp out of control when I am busy and feeling a little stressed.  Maybe next week?

4.  I am loving the Wally Lamb book I am reading, "I Know This Much is True."  It's been a while since I read a deep, well written novel and I am thoroughly enjoying it.  Unfortunately, it's 900 pages so it is no quick read.  I'm not even halfway done at this point...it's worth the time though.  For those of you who have read his books--are his others as good as this one?

5.  I wish I had time and I wish my kids had the attention span to listen to me read aloud to them for hours every day.  There are soooo many books that I want to read with them.  There's just not enough time.  Right now we are reading Wizard of Oz and the kids are really enjoying it.  Not sure what we are going to read next--a classic? or maybe some newer book?  Any suggestions?

6.  I am excited about dinner tonight--Chicken Cobbler Casserole.  I haven't made that in forever and I really feel like having a GOOD dinner before we spend the evening at the theatre.  Can you tell that I am in my industrious phase of the month?  That's the only time that I would even consider making a big dinner on a show night.  But--I'll take the motivation however I can get it.  I'm thinking my kids will be pretty happy...they love when I make a big, normal dinner since that happens so seldomly lately.  

7.  Hannah is only maybe a week away from finishing two of her virtual school classes and I couldn't be more thrilled!  She has learned a lot and I'm glad she's done these classes but I'm ready to have more hours in our school day.  It's time for her to start learning to take notes, outline, and write essays.  

Seven Quick Takes

1. Joe is obsessed, I mean seriously obsessed with Little Miss and Mr. books. He has a lot of them, continually checks out others from the library, and continually wants to go on Amazon.com to see which ones they have. He draws pictures of them, makes bookmarks, colors coloring pages, watches videos (thank you Youtube and Netflix!), and talks about them all the time. Today, Ollie asked him which character he most identifies with and he said "Mr. Nonsense." Ollie didn't agree and asked why Joe identified with that character and Joe said, "Because I say no to Mom even though I am going to do what she asked me to do anyway." I think it is this kid's life ambition to drive me to the loony bin!!!

2. On another note, when asked what character he thinks I am most like he said, "Little Miss Busy." I couldn't agree more.

3. Speaking of busy, I have managed to procrastinate school prep for weeks and now I have one day to pull it all together so that we can start school on Tuesday. This evening I went through a lot of stuff and sort of organized the school area and separated out each child's books. Tomorrow I need to do some planning for the first few weeks and think through my expectations for each child each day. I also need to update chore charts and make some copies and put together some notebooks. This is the kind of stuff that I really, really hate doing. I have asked Ollie to go far, far away for most of the day and take our precious angels with him. Maybe, just maybe I can pull it all together and feel somewhat ready to start come Tuesday. Maybe.

4. The kids got their parts for Wizard of Oz. Only Joe got the part he wanted--he is going to be playing "Toto," and he is thrilled. Hannah really wanted Dorothy and Grace really wanted Glinda. Neither one of them got the parts they want, Hannah is Oz and the Doorman in Oz and Grace is the Barrister (the guy who hangs with the mayor) and the Masseuse (sing with me--clip, clip here, clip, clip there, and a couple of tralalas). They were both disappointed but not devastated and I know they will take their parts seriously and do thehttp://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6516955414390074761 best they can. Hannah already has some fun ideas to run past Ms. Amanda about being a girl Oz.

5. Remember how just a couple of days ago I basically vowed to exercise for a half hour a day? Well, I have only succeeded in fitting in a half hour of exercise one day out of the last four. My days are slap full but I can't use that as an excuse. This can't be an option. I'm considering joining one of the local gyms as motivation. The idea is that if I'm paying for it I will do it. We'll see...if you are a praying person, please pray for this to become a habit in my life.

6. I'm getting into a new series of books, The Yada Yada Prayer Group by Neta Jackson. I'm only on book 2 so far but I'm really enjoying it. If you're looking for a book to read you should check it out.

7. I got the DVD of pictures from Gabi from our trip to Madeline Island. I'll try to get some pictures up tonight. I have a whole slew of new terrible pictures of myself. Definitely enough for a new post!

Seven Quick Takes and Pics!

1. Landon and I will be spending a lot of time together this summer. My kids are in theatre camp five days a week from 9 to 2 and I get to keep Landon three of those days. For anyone who knows me at all you know that this is thrilling for me. I love babies and I'd have had a dozen if my hubby and my bank account would have allowed. Our first day yesterday was a busy one.
2. Grace didn't get to go to the first day of summer camp because she was sick. I am assuming she has/had the same thing Hannah had our first days of vacation. She had a fever all day Sunday and most of the day yesterday and a sore throat. Today the fever is gone, the sore throat is minimal and I'm expecting the snot to start flowing. I sent her to camp with a pocket full of kleenex. I tried to make her a smoothie and our blender broke so we were forced to go to Sonic. Hate when that happens. :0) She enjoyed her tropical smoothie while watching hours of "Suite Life on Deck," on Netflix.
3. We also had a visit from Anna Grace and Jack Henry, they came over for an hour or so while their momma went to work. Landon thought JH was pretty cool. I'm not sure what JH thought, he's a little young yet but he's smiling in the picture below so I'd say he was pretty happy. Have I mentioned how much I love babies? And I got to have two yesterday! Again, if you know me you probably know that my lifetime dream is to have twins. I tried it out yesterday--piece of cake! :0)

4. Here's Landon's makeshift crib. I check on him constantly for fear that he'll wake up, start scooting, and hurtle himself over the pillow "wall."
5. With three weeks of my summer looming ahead and I can hardly decide what to do with myself. I have a great puzzle, I need to catch up on scrapbooking, and of course, there's always another book to read! These days fly by though. Yesterday I accomplished nothing. Today I got the bathrooms cleaned. My plan is to clear off the school table and set up a scrapbooking table. I mostly make photo books online now but I have some albums that I need to catch up on the old fashioned way. I also plan to do one cleaning project a day. The whole house needs a good scrubbing so maybe if I work for an hour or so a day by the end of three weeks it will be mostly clean. Or all dirty again as often happens! :0)
6. I'm reading a great book right now that Melissa recommended, it's "Winter Garden" by Kristin Hannah. By the way, I know that grammatically speaking I should underline the title but blogger doesn't offer underlining as an option. The last book I read was a book written by a man who has Asperger's (a high functioning form of autism) and it was really interesting to see life from his perspective. It was called, "Look Me in the Eye."
7. I bought myself a new pair of shoes last night and I am so excited. They are Keen sandals. Here's a link if you care--Newport sandals. I've wanted this type of shoe for a million forevers. They are expensive but I have to spend about that much on shoes anyway because of my plantar fascitis. I buy a new pair of Birkenstocks about every two years and I've been wearing Birks for about 10 years or more now. I wanted something different and I did the research and I think the Keens will be safe to wear on my needy feet. I am especially excited that they are green! I love color and in all honesty-a little bit of tacky. Like, I can't wait to wear these sandals with a skirt or sundress. Weird and silly I know but true. Shutup Sis! I already know what you are thinking.

Seven Quick Takes

I actually have some time to blog this morning.  We are taking the day off of school to go to Disney Quest but it doesn't open until 11:30 so we don't have to rush out this morning. 

1. We have had a busy but productive week.  Our schedule has changed considerably and we are adjusting.  I have taken a tutoring job that is every day from 8 to 9 am for seven weeks.  I am tutoring a friend's son in Pre-Algebra.  The bonus of this job is that my friend is a retired teacher and works with my kids helping them through their schoolwork while I tutor her son.  So, we are up and dressed and ready to start school by 8--we haven't been this on the ball since October.
2. My kids are really, really into the "Little Miss" and "Little Mr." books right now.  We've exhausted our library system's choices as well as all of the books in Ollie's library.  I've read them over and over and over and the girls have read them to themselves, Joe has even read some of them, and they have traced and colored every single cover.  They absolutely love these books, especially Joe.  We actually bought a lot of 19 on ebay last night--it was a great price and after my kids have gotten tired of them we will pass them on to all of my little neices and nephews.  It was weird to buy books, I never buy books anymore--we have soooooooo many and we use the library but this was a special exception.  Joe is so excited that he might make me seriously crazy.  It's only 9 am and he's already asked me if the mail is here yet.  We ordered these last night, and they are coming media mail, it's going to be a long week... 

3.  I saw on FB this morning that there is a website, spokeo.com, it is an online phone book that shares tons of personal information including your address, pictures, credit score, etc.  You can remove yourself by going to your page and clicking the privacy button at the bottom.  Of course I had to go check it out and it's true.  My name came up--and I clicked on it.  It has my address and lots of other information--some accurate, some not so much.  It says that my occupation is professional/technical and that I live in a million dollar house.  It also says that my million dollar house is in a below average neighborhood.  It says that my hobbies are sports, outdoors, travel, and gardening.  The only one of those that is remotely accurate is the traveling.  Even that though isn't really a hobby.
4.  I am loving Pandora on my iPod.  Right now I am listening to "The Weepies" station.  I am hearing all sorts of songs that are alternative and remind me of my college days.  I keep waiting for a Smithereens song to come on.  Maybe I'll change my station to a Smithereens station for old times sake, going to do that now...
5.  Our plans may have changed...Hannah is not feeling well.  Joe had a stomach bug last weekend, Ollie had it on Wednesday, so far the girls and I have been spared--I hope.  Just because Hannah doesn't feel well doesn't mean it's a stomach bug though.  She often doesn't feel well in the morning.  She's got a weird stomach.  We still have at least an hour or more before we have to leave.  Hoping and praying it's not the stomach bug...she has theatre tonight and needs to rehearse...
6.  "Alice in Wonderland" is in two weeks!  I watched a run through on Tuesday and I am so proud of Hannah.  She is a great Alice--she has come so far in her acting skills and confidence.  I can't wait until opening night!!  I can't forget Grace and Joe though--they both have smaller parts and it will be so fun to watch them all.  Grace is a flower and Joe is a lobster and a Royal Cardsman.  I know I'll be taking tons of pictures and video.  I wish I had a good video camera to video the whole thing.  I'm sure someone there will video though and I'll get a copy. 
7.  The other day Joe got all dressed up--shirt, tie, khakis, belt, and a hat.  Oh my, he was cute.  I'm not sure what got into him and why he wanted to dress up but he did and then wore the whole outfit to the park.  He ended up changing when he wanted to play by the creek though.  Anyway, I didn't know how to tie a tie and Kris was here at the time and suggested we find a Youtube video to learn.  So, I sent Hannah to do that and she learned to tie a tie, much better than I ever could.  Here's a picture, I had to get it while Joe was trying to get away from me and my camera.  He said that he will wear the same outfit when we go to Williamsburg and I can take a picture then. 

Seven Quick Takes

1.  Wow, what a week!  I'm worn slap out.  I have been in my industrious mode and boy have I ever been industrious.  I have cooked, cleaned, schooled, visited, and lots of other various small tasks.  At this point I feel like I could go to bed right now (it's 7:45) and sleep until morning.  You would think that after all my industriousness there'd be nothing left to do but no, the kitchen and living room are trashed and the bunny hutch has been calling my name for weeks.  But, for today I am done.  Hit the wall.  Stick a fork in me.  I'm hoping to stay awake during family movie night.  We are planning to watch that movie that is on tv tonight.  Something about a mountain. 

2.  We had a birthday party for Grace today.  If you weren't invited I apologize--I tried to keep the invitation list narrowed down to girls about her age and their siblings.  If we invited all of our friends it would be just way too many--we definitely do not fit the stereotype of unsocialized homeschoolers.  As it was I made two cakes and a pan of brownies and only had a bit left over.  I really stink at birthday parties.  I keep it super duper simple--a park, some cake and tortilla chips, and pretzels, and water and kool-aid.  I didn't even bother to bring candles today, the wind always blows them out anyway. 
3.  So, blogger has done something new and I am having a hard time with my pictures.  I can't seem to drag them where I want them.  That's annoying...
4.  We are listening to Ramona the Pest on tape in the car.  We are all into Ramona books right now since we are going to see "Ramona Quimby" on stage in a couple of weeks.  The cool thing is that at the same time I checked out the tapes I also checked out the book and Joe has been sitting in the back seat following along as the tape is going.  Since he is a sight reader and learns by seeing as opposed to sounding things out I am thinking that this is going to boost his reading skills big time.  I sure hope it is.  He is actually doing really well with reading and knows more than I realized he knew.  It's so exciting to be so close to being done teaching reading!  Teaching my kids to read has been hugely rewarding but hugely frustrating and intimidating as well.
5.  Speaking of reading, I still haven't had time to do my cool book post.  Maybe this weekend...
I plan to spend plenty of time with my nose in a book, my favorite way to relax, maybe that will inspire me to blog about my latest library finds.
6.  I really need some new recipe ideas for vegetarian meals.  I am so uninspired in the kitchen right now.  What I want to find is about 10 easy, tasty, healthy meals that I can rotate without much thought.  I made fried rice and sauteed vegetables this week and it was oh so good.  I went to a Japanese steakhouse this week and really watched how they made their rice and then I copied it.  It is not lowfat but it is tasty--butter, garlic, soy sauce, and egg.  Yum!  I did the veggies on the side and everybody loved it.  That will be one of the recipes for sure.

7.  Wal-mart is sponsoring this family movie night and the kitchen is full of "Great Value" products.  No subtlety there.  So far the movie is pretty good though.  Okay, commercial time is over...

Seven Quick Takes

1. I'm having a girl's weekend with my sister. I'm not going to reveal our whereabouts but I will say that we are either in Las Vegas, Tifton, New York, or Valdosta.
2. We've started our weekend off with dinner at a Japanese steakhouse and dessert at Dairy Queen. Now we are chillaxin' and watching "Devil Wears Prada."
3. I'm very happy.
4. I can't wait for breakfast...looks like an awesome breakfast bar in the lobby.
5. I love that hotels have wireless internet.
6. We also went to Dollar Tree where everything's $1. It's amazing what all you can get for a $1. I didn't need anything when I went in but came out with a Multiplication tables poster, Charlie Brown kids kleenex packages, Alice in Wonderland coloring book, and a secret gift for a friend.
7. That's all I've got peeps! Peace out...