The Who Cares What We Did This Week the Semester is Over, Weekly Wrap-Up!

Don't get me wrong, it has been a great semester.  Back here when we were just starting school this moment seemed so very far away!  There have been ups and some downs, but for the most part we've been on an even keel. 

There were a few things I wanted to note about this week.  First, #2 had to have an ingrown toenail cut out at the podiatrist office.  Mainly because it had been infected for about 3 weeks before Hubby or I actually happened to look down at her foot and saw how bad it had gotten.  We worked for about 3 weeks to try to get it taken care of at home, and it would get better for a while, but then she would have to put a shoe on and it would get worse again.  So we finally decided to take her to an urgent care hoping they could cut it out for her.  They couldn't.  So off to the podiatrist we went.  Actually, Hubby and #2 went.  When I called to make the appointment and the guy told me that the shot to deaden the toe was painful enough that they have had adults screaming in the office I told Hubby that I didn't think I could handle that.  So he took her in and said she didn't even shed a tear.  In fact, when I talked to her on the phone afterward she told me that they cut her toe off.  I asked if she meant her toenail and she was like, "No, Mom.  My whole toe."  She thinks it is hilarious every time I mention it.  And I also want to note that between the two office visits we spent within a few dollars of what we had saved for medical expenses not covered by our major medical.  I really think that God shows Hubby and I through moments like that the He cares about us.  The costs could have been significantly higher, but God gave us just what we could handle.  It is such a blessing to know God cares about every aspect of our lives!

While Hubby was taking #2 to the doctor, I took the other three to a program we put on at a nursing home with our speech and debate group.  It was a little crazy, but it was also a blessing for us to be able to interact with the people living there.  #4 finally got to get up and sing with her sisters which she thought was really cool.

And as far as school, I actually had the older two take a test for history.  I'm not a big believer in tests.  I see the need for them when a teacher has 30 students and can't necessarily keep up with where each individual child is with their comprehension of a subject.  But that's not an issue for me.  I know exactly where my girls are at in each of their subjects.  If they don't understand something we don't move on until they get it.  I know each homeschool family does it differently, but this is what works best for us.  But this time the curriculum had the test built in to it so I figured we might as well try it and see how it goes.  And I'm also aware that #1 needs to start taking tests just so she can learn how to take a test.  I was pleasantly surprised with how well they both did.  They didn't get all the answers right, but considering it covered everything they had learned this year and they didn't get to use notes or the book I thought they did awesome.  Their comprehension of what happened, when, and why is greater than I expected.  So our first major test was a success.  WooHoo!

And so now we're done with school for the next three weeks or so.  Hubby picked up my Grandpa at the airport last night and my parents are coming in to town on Saturday so we get to spend Christmas with some family after all.  And we're going up to Oklahoma after the first of the year to have Christmas with all of my family.  It's going to be a great break!  Hopefully when it's time for it to end we'll be ready to start the next semester strong!

Weekly Wrap-Up: ONLY ONE WEEK LEFT TILL BREAK

I might be a little excited about the fact that Christmas break is almost here.  Just a little bit!  Actually the semester has been a really good semester, I'm just ready to have some time off.

Sunday was one of those days where is was cold and rainy and you just want to stay indoors.  That didn't happen obviously, but it was a little harder to get out of bed that morning.  We were supposed to go with some friends to see a house that gets all decorated for Christmas, but we were rained out.  We were also supposed to hang Christmas lights that afternoon.  Much to Hubby's lasting sorrow we weren't able to do that either!

Tuesday I hosted the Mom's Christmas Party for our homeschool group.  Thankfully the deep cleaning that happened for the church party last Saturday lasted until Tuesday so that we just had to do a surface clean.  And I'm very thankful to have older girls that can actually help with the cleaning instead of just making the mess!  Because of that I was actually able to hang our Christmas lights myself Tuesday after we got done with school.  Hubby would have done it this weekend, but I wanted them up for the party.  So I got the ladder out and did it myself.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to use that to my advantage when it comes time to take the lights down!

 The party was a lot of fun.  I enjoyed getting to know the moms a little better and being able to share a time of fellowship with them.  I was also thankful again with the home the Lord blessed us with.  I love that we can pile a bunch of people in here without it feeling claustrophobic. 

Today we went on a field trip to a historical site that hosted a colonial Christmas presentation for us.  The kids were able to learn a little bit about what life would have been like for children living in colonial times.  We learned about firearms from that time period, had a little bit of taffy to pull, and learned about some Christmas traditions.  For instance, did you know that way back when having a wreath on your door meant that travelers could stop and get a cup of something hot to drink and a sandwich to eat?  Also poinsettias are poisonous to animals. 

Not necessarily something from colonial days, but good to know none the less.  Also, "The Night Before Christmas" has been around for a couple hundred years.  I had no idea it was that old.  The day started off a little chilly.  We were thankful for the fire pits they had at some of our stops!  It was a really fun field trip.

I also got my Christmas present this week.  Yay!  I bought my own Christmas gift this year.  You know, because Hubby isn't really up on all the latest sewing machines!  And I'm not waiting until Christmas because I have stuff to make!

Did I mention that we only have one week left before we have a three week break? 

I made a huge mistake that I won't be apologizing for

It is currently 5:30 in the morning.  I've been awake since 2.  Why?  Beats me.  But I figure if I'm going to be wide awake I might as well get something done.  Since this doesn't involve waking Hubby up to sort and start laundry or banging around in the kitchen and waking the girls up earlier than usual, I'm going with catching up with a couple of posts. 

So my huge mistake.  I know you're shocked that I make mistakes.  But I try to keep it real.  This mistake involves #2.  The one I've started having problems with slacking off on her independent work.  So way back before we took the week off for Thanksgiving I looked at the rest of the IEW book we're working in for #2 and decided that since the grandparents were already in town that we would make that week a little easier and just work through getting a rough draft finished.  Then we would come back after Thanksgiving and revise it and write the final draft and then have two weeks to write two more papers and we would end exactly where I wanted to.  It was a great plan!  Too bad I didn't remember that plan of action when we started the week last week.  So for the rest of the story, keep in mind that I thought she was supposed to have written both a rough draft and a final draft before Thanksgiving.

When I opened the IEW book at the beginning of the week I had a passing thought of, "Wait a sec, I thought I had it planned out to where we would be ending at the end of a section, not have a week off at the end."  But I was in full-on school mode and didn't think anymore about it.  So as we're getting ready to start a brand new lesson I asked #2 if she had put up the final draft from her other paper.  She didn't remember if she had so she got out her "work in progress" folder.  Which is when we discovered that not only did she not have a final draft (please note that neither one of us actually remembered that there wasn't supposed to be a final draft), but she also had not finished writing her rough draft like she was supposed to.  So, slightly in my defense, she didn't finish the work that she was actually supposed to do.  The thing is, if I had remembered that she was only supposed to do the rough draft I would have just shrugged it off as a side effect of having family here and we would have gone on with a mild reprimand.  That's not the way it went down though. 

I am happy to report that I kept my cool through all of this.  There was no yelling and I didn't make her cry or anything.  But I immediately latched on to the idea that this was going to be an excellent teaching moment for her.  We were not going to skip the current week's paper.  She was basically going to have to write two papers in one week.  I would be working with her on the new paper, but only editing the former paper.  So to cut the story down a little bit, she did nothing but school work Monday and Tuesday.  It is the first time in the 7 years I've been homeschooling that any of my children have had so much work.  Normally I wouldn't even allow that to happen, but I was teaching a lesson so I stuck to my guns.  She had to write 2 rough drafts for the old paper.  With major editing having to be done on both.  By the time Wednesday rolled around and I started reading her "final" draft I was ready to be done teaching that particular lesson and just ignore the mistakes I saw and let her be done.  Except that the last half of it had some major mistakes that I knew would not be a good idea to ignore.  When I told her that she was going to have to write it again she burst into tears.  And I honestly did feel bad for her.  She had had no time off that week and I hated that she had to write it again.  But I used the moment to really drive home the point that she had brought this on herself by not completing her assignments.  That it's not my job just to teach her math and writing, but that my job is to also teach her responsibility.  I'm pretty sure I had a good line in the speech about there not being anyone around when she was an adult to hold her hand and make sure she got everything done that she was supposed to, she would have to do that on her own.  It was a good speech.  And at the end of it I suddenly remembered my brilliant plan from two weeks ago.

So I was faced with a dilemma.  Come clean, admit how horribly wrong I was, and apologize profusely to my child who I had made work so hard because I couldn't remember my own plans and undo all the teaching about responsibility that I had instilled so well in her.  Or I could continue on faking like I knew exactly what I was doing and leave her with a lesson she isn't likely to forget any time soon.

I chose the latter.  Not for myself.  I would have willingly 'fessed up to this one.  I felt and still feel bad about it.  But she really needed the lesson.  And I'm not willing to undo everything she learned from this particular episode.  I did confess what had happened to Hubby.  He agreed with me.  And one day I'll tell #2 about it too.  But probably not until she is a fully-functioning, responsible adult!  Until then the secret is safe here on my little blog.  On the internet.  Where technically anyone could find it.  But since she's 9 and doesn't get online much I think I'll be OK for a couple of years!

On the plus side, we don't have a paper to write next week.  We are officially done with IEW after this week for the rest of the year for #2.  I think we're both happy about that.

Weekly Wrap-Up: The week I finally realized that I can't just skip school because I want to

Don't get me wrong.  I'm still very flexible when it comes to our school schedule.  But in years past I've been known to wake up and be like, "Meh, I don't feel like doing school.  No school today!"  And I really wanted to do that this past week because we were pretty busy, but school with the older two has gotten to the point that if we skip a day that just means more work later on to catch up, and it's not really worth it as much anymore.  Don't get too excited though.  As I sit here and realize that we still have another two weeks to go before our Christmas break, I'm working hard to figure out what I can push to next semester so that we can finish a day or two earlier.  Purely for the girls of course, they deserve the break!

There was a lot of shopping, cleaning, and baking going on last week.  Shopping because we got a paycheck and thus the groceries for two weeks needed to be bought.  But also the kind of shopping that happened online because IEW had their clearance items 50% off.  I didn't get everything I wanted, but I still got some awesome deals.  No Christmas shopping though.  I've got everything for everyone except Hubby who won't tell me what he actually wants (hint, hint Baby!)  and my sister-in-law whose name I drew for my family's Christmas that isn't happening until after the first of the year.

This is what happens when the 6 year old want to help.  Red sugar on the floor.  Thankful for tile floors!

The cleaning and baking were happening because we had our open house for the church here on Saturday.  I didn't take a single picture, which I'm really bummed about because I had an awesome spread!  We had about 30 people in and out of the house and we enjoyed all of it.  I couldn't have done it without Hubby of course.  I may make all the food, but he takes the bulk of the cleaning and child care so I don't have to worry about it.  And I think while everyone was here he filled more cups with cider and coffee than I did.  In retrospect, I could have baked a little less and saved myself some time by having some fruit and veggie trays, but that didn't occur to me until the day of.  Maybe I'll remember next year!

One picture of my decorations.  Christmas is the only holiday I decorate for so I do it up well!

We were also able to go to one of the girls' friend's choir performance Friday night.  It was very impressive.  Exactly the sort of experience I want for my girls.  I'm still working towards starting a homeschool choir, but if that doesn't pan out I'm thinking this choir is the one we would pick for the girls to be in.  And we enjoyed spending time with our friends as well.  So much so that we didn't leave their house until 10.  We probably should have left sooner, but we lost track of the time.  We were enjoying ourselves! 

School wise we're got ourselves on track to finish where we need to at the end of the semester.  We were one week behind in history so we shelved geography for the rest of the semester and we're doubling up on history so we can get it done.  I gave the girls the option of only adding a couple lessons more for the next three weeks and then having their semester test at the end of a full week or doubling the lessons so they would have the entire last week to study and take the final test.  They chose to work harder for the first two weeks so they didn't have to stress about the test.  A decision I think they will be very happy with next week!

I also want to say that math finally seems to be clicking with #1.  Very rarely does she struggle with understanding her lessons anymore.  She still has a hard time with getting all her answers right when she does her lesson set, but that is more from the way Saxon sets up their problem sets to be a review of previous lessons.  She knows them all, but switching gears from problem to problem is hard for her.  So we focus a lot on reading each problem twice so she knows what she is supposed to do and checking her answer to make sure it makes sense before she writes it down to turn in.   When she remembers all that she does very well.

#3 is reading excellently now.  She is resisting my prompting to read harder books though
.  She likes the nice easy ones she's been on for a while.  But this last trip to the library I made her go to the older section and picked out most of her books for her.  I still let her get the easy ones, but she also has to read the more difficult ones as well.  I love seeing her get a book out and read it without any prompting. 

Speaking of the library, all that deep cleaning last week lost us two library books.  #4 is getting better about putting the books back in the library bag when she gets them out, but when she "helps" clean there is no telling where she'll put a book.  I estimate that we've donated about 5 of our books to the library because I didn't check the ones we were turning in well enough.  So hopefully those library books are at the bottom of the toy box.  Exactly where they should go according to her!

Family and Food

I don't know about y'all, but that about sums up our Thanksgiving week!  And it was awesome!  I'm so happy that we able to be around family for Thanksgiving.  It's one of those holidays that we don't usually travel for since we're saving vacation time for Christmas, so I was happy to have family come to us this time!

Hubby's parents, Gran-Jan and Papa, were expecting Hubby's brother and his three kids to come on Tuesday.  I didn't know they thought that and I had put it on the calendar that they were coming on Sunday night.  Hubby then told me that they had decided to surprise the grandparents and come on Sunday instead of Tuesday.  So the event was erased off the calendar and we very carefully explained to the girls that as long as they didn't flat out say that their uncle was coming on Tuesday that they weren't lying.  It didn't come up that often, but when it did the girls cleared the room so they wouldn't have to talk about what day the rest of the family was coming in.  I thought for a while that Papa had figured it out.  He made several comments wondering why they couldn't come earlier in the week.  But when they opened our door Sunday night, Gran-Jan and Papa both had looks of shock on their faces.  It was awesome! 

Unfortunately, Hubby had to work on Monday and Tuesday, but he did take some time to go bowling with us on Tuesday.  We weren't going to go bowling.  Have you been lately?  It is expensive!  But being the smart consumer that I am I decided to check their website and see if they had any coupons.  You'll never guess what I found!  Coupons!  We were able to bowl 2 games each plus shoe rental for $7.  A very reasonable price.  We all had a really good time.  We laugh at each other too much for anyone to take the game too seriously!

I had planned for Wednesday to be a stay at home and finish baking and making everything I could for Thursday kind of day.  But we ended up buying a pumpkin and pecan pie because I don't have any long standing family recipes for those, and Sam's pies really are good.  Then Papa brought home a chocolate pie from the store and I figured between those pies and the pumpkin roll I already had made in the freezer that we would have enough desserts.  And I changed my mind about the rolls I wanted to make, so I had nothing left to make on Wednesday.  So we spent the day at home just relaxing while Hubby worked.

Breakfast!

Thursday Papa made breakfast for us all.  I was really happy about that!  Way less work for me.  And I really didn't have all that much to do for lunch.  We bought a fried turkey.  There was no way we could even fit a 20 lb turkey in my little oven, much less cook it and anything else.  The ham went in my new crock-pot that Papa bought for me due to the lid on my old one cracking like a windshield. 

We were blessed with friends from church giving us a cooked sweet potato casserole so I took that off my list of things to make.  Gran-Jan handled the stuffing and gravy.  Good thing too cause I don't like it at all, much less want to make it!  So that pretty much left me with rolls and green bean casserole to make.  Yipee for not having to kill myself making a bunch of food!  Unfortunately, the one thing I was really looking forward to, my pumpkin roll, was thrown away.  Hubby thought it was something else and tossed it, I don't even know how long ago.  He felt terrible.  I was sad, mainly because I felt like I wasn't really contributing anything noteworthy to the meal, but I got over it.  As for Hubby, I'm enjoying bringing it up every once in a while.  That will probably continue for at least a year, with the possibility of it becoming a family joke.  And if you don't think that is that big of a deal, ask my youngest brother how he likes eggnog creamer.  That happened over a decade ago and we bring it up every Christmas!

Thankful for a school table so we had enough seats for everyone!

Friday we decided to go see a movie.  Hubby's brother and his kids went to see Catching Fire since they are all older and didn't want to see the Disney movie with the rest of us.  We invited friends from church to come see it with us.  Silly me thought that since it was Black Friday that there wouldn't be that long of a line for Frozen.  Yeah, we got there 30 minutes before the show we wanted to see and it was sold out.  Luckily, we didn't have anywhere to be so we just bought tickets for the next show, went and ate some fries at McD's next door and then stood in line for 45 minutes to get good seats.  Normally I wouldn't enjoy myself standing in line for a movie, but we were with family and friends so the time passed quickly.  By the way, Frozen is officially my new favorite movie!  The best part was at the end when they kissed and Baby Girl #4, who was sitting on Hubby's lap said very loud, "But they're not even married!"  That's right baby, you just keep on thinking along those lines!

9 kids total

Saturday the brother and his kids had to head home.  I heard he made some sort of comment about us not fixing breakfast for them before they left.  All I have to say is that I have been a member of his family for over 13 years.  He should have known better!

Sunday we enjoyed spending one last day with Gran-Jan and Papa.  Lunch was an amazing pork roast that was given to us by friends again.  It was such a huge blessing to not have to worry about cooking!  I hope I'm able to emulate that kind of thoughtfulness and caring to others.  Well, to others besides my whiny brother-in-law!  After dinner Hubby took Gran-Jan and Papa to New Orleans to stay at a hotel since their flight left early Monday morning.  #1 and #2 had a hard time saying good-bye; they are starting to realize that it is no fun being away from family.  But we're thankful for the time that we did get to spend with everyone.  I'm not going to lie, having an extra 6 people in the house for a week was stressful at times, but I'm just glad I actually like all 6 of those people.  And I would rather be stressed having extra people in our home than be sad because we weren't able to be around any family at all!

Annual Camping Trip

Hubby and I both really like to go camping.  Right now all we have are tents.  We can't justify the money involved to get any kind of camper to just go once or twice a year.  Maybe eventually, but right now we're sticking with the tents.

Ready to go!

So we try to meet up with our friends from Houston once a year to go camping together.  Since neither one of our families celebrate Halloween we've decided that it is easier to just be gone over that particular holiday.  Plus, the weather down here has generally at least started to cool off by the end of October so that we're not completely miserable in our tents. 

Some of the worst weather we've ever driven in.  That wad of brown is napkins put there to block the water leaking in under the windshield!  Thankful Hubby was driving.

We made our reservations a couple of months in advance and the menfolk had already taken time off, so when the day arrived for us to actually leave we couldn't do anything when a huge storm blew in except pray that God would move it through quickly.  We did leave a little later than originally planned in the hopes that the rain would have stopped by the time we got there.  And it had let up almost completely by the time we arrived.  After dumping 5 inches of water on our campsites. 

It's hard to tell, but this was actually really wet.  This is where we would have been

However, we were very blessed that this particular KOA site had cabins to rent.  They were originally going to let us rent the cabins for a discounted price.  Still more than what we would have paid for a tent site, but the cost was worth it to us at this point.  We would have been miserable in tents with all that water.  However, their computers wouldn't let them give us a discount so they ended up letting us stay in the cabins for the same price we would have paid for the tent sites.  That was such a huge blessing for us.  It was still muddy outside, but we had invested in some rain boots for all of us so we didn't have to worry about wet, messy tennis shoes.  The cabins had a bathroom with a shower, AC/Heat, a microwave, and a little fridge.  The only down side was that since we had packed to be cooking and eating right next to each other we had to make several trips back and forth to where we set up to cook and the cabin.  Other than that, it was absolutely perfect!

Deck from our front porch

The cabins were right next to each other and we had a little pond literally off our front porch.  We spent a large part of the day on Friday fishing.  All of us caught a fish, including yours truly!  I've been fishing so many times in my life and never caught a thing.  I caught two fish within 5 minutes of each other.  It was awesome!

Look close, it's there!

We took a couple of walks, played on the playground for a while, ate, talked, and laughed a lot.  We had a fire pit right in front of the cabin and had fun both nights sitting around the fire.  So what could have turned into not so much of a fun trip turned out to be a blast for all of us.  We got to spend time with good friends and take a break from real life for a couple of days.  We're already looking forward to next year!  Even if we do have to go back to our lowly tents!

The "Who does school when family is in town" Weekly Wrap-Up

We actually did do school this week.  We're taking off all of next week so I knew we needed to plow through and do our school work, even though we didn't want to.  We didn't do anything on Tuesday because Hubby and I were at a funeral that took up almost the entire day so #1 and #2 were supposed to take that time to finish all their extra school work so they didn't have to worry about it for the rest of the week, but that didn't happen.  I wasn't upset.  Who wants to do school work when you can hang out with your grandparents?  So they had a little bit extra to do Wednesday and Thursday, but we got it all done. 

  Thursday afternoon was our bi-monthly meeting with Hilltop Speakers.  We had a big friends and family event to prepare for on Friday.  The rehearsal was pretty much a disaster.  However, the actual event last night was fantastic.  The skits all the girls were in were funny and worked out as well as they could.  And I am so proud of the three oldest girls for the individual speeches they gave.  I don't think anyone besides her mother could tell that #1 was even nervous when she gave her speech.  We joined Hilltop mainly for #1, to give her more confidence being in front of other people, but I wasn't sure how well it was working.  Last night showed me exactly how well it is working.  She spoke with confidence and poise and made eye contact with the audience.  I was trying to play it cool, but I had the biggest grin on my face when she was done.  And #2 said a poem that she came up with her own facial expressions and hand motions that added so much to the poem.  She had the audience rolling.  #3 also quoted a short poem.  She did an excellent job speaking loudly and clearly and making eye contact.  All in all, although the lack of organization at Hilltop kind of makes me twitch almost every time we go, I am very happy with the results.  And I'm also glad that we actually had family to bring to our friends and family night!

Now back to Thursday.  Back when Uncle and Noni were here from India, we went with a group from church to a Hibachi place to eat.  It was seriously the best Hibachi we've ever eaten.  We've been wanting to go back ever since, but it is pretty pricey.  So we decided to wait and take Bryan's parents when they got here.  We went Thursday night because we don't get home from Hilltop till about 4:30, and I knew I wouldn't want to cook anyway.  We had a lot of fun.  The guy cooking for us had a lot of fun messing with the girls.  We laughed a lot and ate until we were almost miserable.  And then took the leftovers home! 

Some mutual friends had mentioned to Hubby's Mom that she needed to go to New Orleans to eat some beignets.  We were told by several people that there is a place here that has beignets that are just as good as New Orleans.  So off we went to Coffee Call.  Turns out, everyone was right!  They were really fantastic.  And they had hot chocolate and cafe au lait already made up so you literally went through the line, filled your coffee mugs, and ordered the beignets.  There is currently one left that we brought home.  It will be eaten soon!

Today Hubby and I took advantage of the free babysitting and went to the movies.  Sweet and sour chicken is currently in the oven for dinner.  And after we get the girls in bed we're going back to see another movie.  Because we're still young and there is no way we're going to fall asleep in a movie theater, even if it is a late night show!  And tomorrow is worship.  All in all, a pretty fantastic week!

The "I'm so late I should almost wait till the end of this week" Weekly Wrap-Up

I had no idea I was so far behind on writing.  I knew if I didn't get caught up now I wouldn't get caught up until after the first of the year so here we are.

Last week school was school.  #3 is doing a little bit better in Math.  She gets the ideas separately, but when you put them all together she has a hard time remembering how to do them.  I have decided that she just needs more practice.  So we've moved on and she'll continue to practice these problems with the review that is written in the curriculum.

#2 is not going to get through the IEW book by the end of the year.  I knew that when I decided to break up Language Arts and IEW into different semesters, but as I was thinking about it this last week it was really starting to bother me.  I started trying to figure out what it would take to continue IEW into the new semester and play catch up with Language Arts until I finally had to remind myself that I didn't have to finish the book each time.  It really bothers me to leave books unfinished, but I'm going to deal with it.  My plan is a good plan and I'm going to stick with it.  For this week at least....

We actually did not do school work on Thursday because our homeschool group was having our Thanksgiving get-together.  Of which Hubby and I got exactly zero pictures.  Fortunately, the Mom who puts all our field trips together has a blog all about our adventures, and she took lots of pictures!  You can see them here.   We had an amazing time!  They had different booths for the kids to go to.  The girls got to lean how to make butter from whipping cream, make a ship and "sail" it, make their own candles, learn to tie different knots, learn a little bit about navigation skills, and make a picture of a ship from their hand prints.  After all that, we got to play and visit and eat.  The weather was perfect and we had an amazing time.  This homeschool group has been a real blessing for myself and for our girls.

Pizza and a movie first!

Our friends who have the girls who match up in age perfectly with our girls are also part of this group so they were all excited to see each other.  The other Mom and I were pestered questioned many times about when they were going to be able to get together to play and have a sleep over.  We determined that the only time we were really going to be able to get them together was that weekend so we had their three girls come over Friday and stay the night.  I'm very happy to say that these girls are ones that having all three of them over wasn't any more work than having just one over.  All of them are polite and well-behaved.  All the girls got along all night long, no fighting or ugliness or exclusions.  I was very thankful for this since Hubby had to go visit a church family who lost a loved one that night so it was just me with them for the most part.  No one got a decent amount of sleep that night, but that is what sleep overs are all about.  And also why we only do them on Friday nights and not very often at that.  They all had a great time.  And now I am happy knowing that the next sleep over happens at their house!  :)

After their "dance routine"

So that was last week.  Two more days and I'll be writing about this week.  And I'm eventually going to write about our awesome camping trip.  Hopefully this week.  We'll see.

Weekly Wrap-Up: Triumphs and Tears

One of these days we will make it through a week without someone crying, either myself or the girls.  One day!  Until then, we plod along.

There were more good moments than tearful moments at least.  For starters, #1 is flying right along in math.  I really like the way that Saxon has so much review of concepts that have come before, adding just enough of something new in so that they are constantly learning, but enough review that nothing ever really gets rusty.  It is exactly what #1 needs.  She has confidence when she looks at a lesson and already knows and understands 90% of it, which goes so far in her attitude about completing the lesson.  I'm so thankful that her being the oldest and all my experimenting with different math curriculums didn't set her back at all!

Another huge triumph was #2 writing a paper completely on her own, and having it actually be a really excellent paper.  Up to this point we have brainstormed together and then she has dictated to me what she wanted to write and I would type it up for her.  We would then go over it together and make any corrections and she would write the final draft by herself.  This time we brainstormed together and then I told her she was on  her own for writing her rough draft and then we would go over it together to make any corrections.  She asked a couple of questions as she was writing her rough draft, but it she wrote the whole thing on her own.  I was kind of dreading reading it wondering how much correction there would have to be.  Imagine my delight when there were just a few grammatical errors that needed correcting.  She had added all of her dress ups as she was writing, she didn't have to go back and add anything.  I was one happy mama!  I could see the mechanics of IEW finally starting to click in her brain.  First you do this, then you do that, followed by that, and when you've done all of it you'll be ready to write your paper just like you planned.  So awesome!

Our tears this week come to you courtesy of #3.  I don't know if it's because we've had several weeks lately that have been short because of travel, or if she never really grasps the concept before we moved on, but she is really struggling in math.  I can not get her to understand these two concepts.  Individually she understands them, but put both kinds of problems on the page and she is at a compete loss.  Adding manipulative into the mix just seems to make it worse.  She can't remember how she is supposed to build one or the other.  Thankfully, Math-U-See has online resources so we've completely stopped working in the book and are going back over the material until she is ready to move on.  And part of it is my fault.  I really dislike teaching the younger grades of math.  Honestly, sometimes I feel like if I have to say, "Nine wants to become ten" one more time!  Well, you get it.  But next week is another week!  Hopefully with no tears!

Today #1 had a mock tournament for her speech and debate club she is a part of.  She just did the speech part this time.  I'm not crazy about the debate topic: "Bio-surveillance is better at fighting bio-terrorism than bio-security."  Yeah--that's what I thought too.  I judged a couple rounds of debate and I had to watch myself so I didn't go cross eyed just listening to it.  So #1 was prepared to go in and give her speech that she had prepared.  Turns out she also had to do impromptu speaking as well. Something she wasn't prepared for at all.  #1 doesn't do well with things suddenly sprung on her.  But she handled it very well and the feed back she got will help her improve.  She and I are exhausted after our long day, but it was worth going to!

Lastly, I have finally started moving forward with trying to organize a homeschool choir.  We got a lead about another choir in the area, but they are even more expensive than the first one we looked in to.  If we only had one child interested in choir we could swing it, but since we have three right now it just isn't an option.  I put the question out there with three different groups as to whether there would be any interest in a homeschool choir.  There was enough interest for me to start seriously looking in to it.  I'm actually really looking forward to this challenge.  I know there is going to be a lot of work involved, but it's about something I'm passionate for my girls.  It'll be worth it in the end!

My weekend is not over yet.  I still have three dishes to make for the luncheon tomorrow at church.  Hubby promised to help though so hopefully it won't take long and I can sit down and do nothing for a bit before falling asleep!   And then we'll start all over again with a new week.  At least we get to start with the Lord's Day!

Half Week Wrap-Up

I don't know what week we're supposed to be on anymore.  I'm pretty sure somewhere between 7 and 9.  It would take too much effort to figure it out, and since I don't really care because none of our curriculum is counted by weeks I'm just going to let it go.  We're on track, that's all I care about right now!

We only did school 2 days this week because we were traveling back from OK Monday and Tuesday.  I suppose that technically we could have done school on Friday as well.  But I don't see the need for that.  We're getting done what we need to get done.  Having Fridays off to spend with Hubby and Daddy are more important than making sure every science lesson is completed.  I did manage to learn a couple of things this week though.

Number one, I still have control issues.  I know, I know.  If you know me you're probably rolling your eyes.  I'm working on my control issues.  I don't feel bad about them anymore.  I get a lot accomplished on time and correctly done because of my personality.  But I also understand that I can be more relaxed about some things.  Our homeschool for example.  I was labeling the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers on our wall map yesterday.  As I was standing there labeling them and talking about the lesson, #1 pipes up and says that she thinks that is the fertile crescent.  Then #2 chimes in and agrees and they began to talk about what they remembered about it.  Instead of letting them talk it out and taking two stinking minutes to stop what I was doing and just go with the flow of learning, I jumped all over them for talking while I was trying to teach them.  No, the irony is not lost on me.  *Sigh*  In my defense, I did catch myself fairly quickly so there was no yelling involved, but the moment was lost.  One of these days I'll learn to let go of having to have everything perfect. 

I was also reminded of the tender heart of my oldest.  Her latest book study was The Bronze Bow.  I don't remember having read it myself, but the teacher's book sums it up pretty well for me.  One of the questions was if stealing was OK in God's eyes for any reason.  As we were talking about it we talked about how in many countries and even here in the US people steal because they are hungry and have no money to buy food.  And we discussed that even though those situations are extremely sad that God has said that stealing is a sin in any situation.  She was tearing up throughout this conversation.  When I asked her what was upsetting her she just said that is was so sad that people didn't have money for food.  My sweet, sweet girl.  If all of us had the compassion of an 11 year old, we could change the world. 

On a slightly funnier note, I got several comments from family members this last week that my comments about wanting to stab my eye out with a pencil while listening to #3 read seemed overly harsh.  I lovingly reminded them that none of them have to listen to her on a daily basis.  I will also mention that no one who has a 1st grader has taken offense to my comments.  I'll let you draw your own conclusions about that!  I will also state that listening to her is no longer quite the torture it was a few months ago.  It's almost fun.  Almost.

The time finally arrived that #2 had to be talked to about her independent work.  She was leaving it until later and later in the day to where she would be doing school work at 4 and then she would "forget" about her chores.  If things follow like they normally do, she'll probably have to be talked to a couple more times, but she'll get it eventually.  She's just got to find her balance between work and play. 

So that was our short week. Next week will be short too since we're going camping.  But learning about nature is so much more fun when you're out in it!  Can't wait!

Fun with family

 The many faces of children who were woken up at 3:30 to start traveling.

While we were going up to Oklahoma for Hubby to speak at a youth camp last week, we also got to spend time with some of my family.  The original plan was for all the girls to stay with my parents while Hubby and I attended the camp.  Unfortunately, some health problems I've been having off and on for the last couple of years popped up again so I decided not to attempt camp.  It was a good decision, even though I was really bummed to miss out on going.  However, next year #1 will be old enough to attend as a camper so we're making plans to go back next year. 

So while Hubby was at camp the girls and I spent time with my parents, grandpa, and uncle on Friday.  I made one of my better batches of salsa.  It's been a while since I made any so I was pleasantly surprised!  I played 42 with my Dad, Grandpa and Uncle Rick that night.  I'm happy to say I can now play with my Grandpa without feeling completely intimidated the entire time.  I'm not the best player, but I'm not horrible either!

Friday night my sister and bro-in-law came in.  I think they were originally coming to attend a party my brother and his wife were having Saturday night, but Sis wasn't feeling well and they ended up not going.  We stayed up late Friday night talking.  I love watching my sister with her husband.  I have three brothers who are married and I love all my sister-in-laws, but there is something different about my sister being married.  I am so happy that she found someone who loves her the way he does.  It helps that he fits in so well with our family! 

Saturday morning we headed to the zoo.  And we spent most of the day there.  It was an awesome zoo and we enjoy every time we go.  It was nice getting to spend time together.

Who doesn't love a baby elephant!

Love my Dad!

That's a baby chimp hanging there.  

Sunday we were able to worship with a congregation we hadn't been at for several years.  Hubby spoke there both services and we enjoyed getting to see several people who hold a special place in our hearts.  My youngest brother was also able to be there with his daughter and I was thankful to get to spend some time with them as well.  I'm attempting to teach all my nieces "Aunt Nita's cool!"  I got K, who is 6 months younger than #4, to say it for a while.  Then she turned ornery just like her Daddy and now the stinker won't say it.  I attempted to teach it to the other niece on Sunday.  She just looked at me.  She too takes after her father.  The awesome thing is that because I had kids so much earlier than my siblings I will be able to spoil their children and they can't do a single thing about it--my kids will be too old for them to retaliate with them.  I will be the cool aunt!

Monday we had lunch with my Grandpa and visited with him for a little while before getting on the road.  We stayed the night on The Farm and headed home on Tuesday.  We are glad to be back.  Until next week when we are going camping.  Can't wait!