Lego House

Levi built this Lego house and cars.
Benjamin told me today that he didn't want big wegos, he wants widdle wegos. Oh my, why must they want to grow up so quickly.

Living Math

I decided to do something a little different for math today. M&M math, we estimated, sorted, counted and found the mean, median, mode and range.

North Pole

Here in North Pole even our snowmen, or should I say icemen, read. This is the ice sculpture outside of our library.

What a Weekend, and Not in a Good Way

So, if you are a facebook friend sorry for the redundancy. If you are a IRL friends, the same to you. If you have been around our family in the past fourteen days, I deeply apologize as we did not know we were carrying around and sharing strep throat. Wowsers, that strep throat is some nasty, horrible stuff and I could go my entire life without experiencing that ever again. To my knowledge I have never had strep before.
Last weekend, I had had two kids that had cold like symptoms but they had rebounded within twenty four hours and seemed fine. We went about our merry way Monday to decorate Valentine's Day cookies and on Tuesday we had Valentine's Day plans with friends (a post will follow after we finish with house recovery) and church Wednesday night. I did take a long nap Wednesday but I thought I was just tired from not sleeping well the two nights before. Thursday I didn't feel well but I trudged through the morning and took two of the Blessings to an afternoon meeting while the rest of us went to the grocery store. By the time we got home I was exhausted though I still attempted to get the family room in order. My eldest daughter, Elisabeth, took the vacuum out of my hands and begged me to lay down saying that she and her sister would vacuum and mop the floor. I was thankful that I had made a hearty breakfast and we had had a pretty good lunch because there would be no dinner made that night. Elisabeth made a plate of leftovers for Benjamin and got him bathed and ready for bed. Levi helped with bedtime for Benjamin and I went to bed when the Blessings did. Friday morning I felt worse and ached from shoulders to toes, thankfully my head never hurt, I took a  warm bath and spent the rest of the day on the couch trying to get warm. Benjamin started looking a little sickly and felt warm to the kids so Benjamin and I went to the clinic, we both tested positive for strep and I opted for the shot. That was a good choice. Elisabeth woke up miserable sometime during that night and we were back to the clinic with everyone else Saturday morning. Antibiotics for everyone, not what I love but necessary for this us at this time. We spent Saturday and Sunday resting and watching way too much television and movies. Monday was much of the same with just less television and little spurts of energy for beginning the cleaning up and sanitizing process. Tuesday we all felt much better and even though I am not back to full energy I feel much better and look forward to a good nights sleep tonight.
Why do I feel the need to share my sickness saga? I will tell you. The days often seem long and the teaching, training and parenting seems to be bouncing off the walls and out the door, never landing inside the brains and hearts of these Blessings. There is always something to be thankful for, even on sick days. I learned that my teaching is not in vain, I needed this glimpse into the hearts of my children as I have been very discouraged of late and second guessing every Now to help them realize that they can do this even when I am not sick....

Part Five: It Ain't All Pretty

I received a text from a new home educating friend of mine asking this question:

My veteran homeschooling friend, is it NORMAL to sometimes feel like you are dooming your children to being garbage collectors or burger flippers?!??

So? What sayeth ye?

My response:

Absolutely. I feel like that every day and twice on Mondays. (I received this text on Monday)

Today I sent back this text:

Three times on Thursday, just sayin'

First of all, my friend means no ill will towards burger flippers or garbage collectors.

Secondly, I am not attempting to discourage my friend, I truly mean to encourage. Really.

One problem I find with blogging is that the blogger shares the parts of their life that they want to share and readers like that for the most part. We like to read about the good, the clean and the organized. I mean seriously, who wants to read a negative blog for the long term? I don't. Funny, I can handle but not negative.

That brings me back to it ain't all pretty:

• Every day will not be story book or blog perfect.
• Some days will be absolutely wonderful.
• Other days will be the NORM, stuff gets accomplished, people get fed, laundry gets done and somewhere in the day there is laughter and enjoyment.
• Some days will be great educational milestone days.
• Other days will everyone will be glad when the day's work is finished.

So, why do I continue to educate my children at home? I continue because even though the days are not all pretty days, in the end this will be a journey that we will all be the better for taking. My children will know that their Momma is a real person and that even though she is not perfect she loved them, even when it wasn't all pretty.



Valentine's Day Cookies

It is so much fun to get together with other families for fun times of fellowship. Monday we decorated cookies with two other families with Blessings from 3-13. This is one of the great things about home education is the integration of family in everyday living. Life in our home doesn't revolve around each child's separate social calendar. There are times when something occurs that involves only one child, but that is not our norm. We are a little different from many families and we are fine with that. I think our children are the better off for our choices as well.
Onto the pictures, we visited the Queen of Brussels Sprouts and her crew and her neighbor. I need a neighbor.

Where have we been?

Life has been moving right on by...school, piano, church, etc. I just haven't taken much time to blog about life.
Two Weeks ago we were forty below and today was thirty seven ABOVE! How crazy is that?
We all went outside this afternoon and the Blessings slid down the trailer ramp and then they cleaned the snow off of the trampoline. Fun times!
Pictures:

1. Benjamin playing outside
2. Shoveling off the trampoline
3. Playing with blocks and cars during school
4. We are flat land dwellers, so this is our "sled hill"

Catching up and birds at the feeder

I finally downloaded the blogger app for my phone as I use that more than the computer these days. Yes, we took the plunge into the world of smart phone.
Our winter has been beyond frigid, -58 two mornings this past weekend. We have warmed up a little and are enjoying these birds coming to the feeders again.