Posts

Showing posts from 2013

Birthday in Heaven

Today would have been my father's 85th birthday.  Unfortunately, he's been gone from us for almost 20 years.  There isn't a day that goes by that I don't miss him.  I told my nine year old today how much fun he and his grandfather would have had playing jokes on everyone and being ornery.  They have a very similar personality in that respect and both my sons have my father's blue eyes. My dad adored his grandchildren.  My sisters' kids got the pleasure of knowing and loving him.  They were teenagers and young adults when he passed.  My girls......it's painful for me to even think about how close they were to him and at five and eight, when their beloved Pop Pop was just gone.....it took them years to get over it. My father kept them whenever they wanted to visit, picked them up from school, took them for treats, brought them donuts, loved them with a passion.  My girls idolized him and he saw them each and every day. My oldest son was just a year old whe

Merry Christmas!

Image
It was hard to get into the Christmas spirit this year for some reason.  We did alot less as a family in terms of Christmas shows and pagents etc, but alot more in terms of cold nights under warm blankets watching movies and being together.  We were happy, just not jolly, I guess you could say!  Two days before Christmas we decided to head out with our boys and have dinner.  This turned into a very nice holiday outing with dinner at Ruby Tuesdays, walking in the mall, seeing an old friend, hanging out and watching a holiday train garden and seeing some lights on the way home.  Christmas Eve was spent playing games, watching movies and I wrapped while my husband took the boys out for last minute mom shopping.  I baked lots of cookies and about 8pm we got our houseful of guests, including MomMom, both daughters, our son in law, both granddaughters and my daycare baby, along with her mom.  We all waited excitedly for Santa to come by on the fire truck, going out too early and freezing to

Up for Review

Today we had our first homeschool review of third grade.  The county reviews do not stress me out like they do alot of my other homeschool friends.  I have never had a bad experience in the thirteen years I have been doing them so I don't find them to be something to dread. We got to the library around 9:15 with my daycare child and my son.  I had decided to leave my granddaughters with their other grandmother because they can be a bit of a handful, plus lugging all my gear for school and 3 little girls didn't seem like a lot of fun. Our review was with a new gentleman and it ended up taking 30 minutes, about 20 minutes longer than it normally does.  Everything went well and he got a good review.  The gentleman was kind and engaging and my son was polite. After the library we picked up the girls and they were both crying by the time I drove the 2 minutes home.  The next hour was hectic, getting 3 kids fed and the baby a bottle and all I managed to inhale was a bowl of 3 m

Add One and Stir

Today we added a new friend to the mix. Brooke joined us for daycare and she is six months younger than my oldest granddaughter.  We took my before/after care child to school and then when the granddaughters arrived we took 45 minutes to feed and settle everyone before starting our day.  It was really, really nice outside, so while Dakota did his morning work I let them go out on the deck after sweeping off most of the wet leaves.  Dakota and I did our math and spelling out on the deck....probably for the last time before April.  That's a sad thought. When it was reading time and Koda went inside to read Mr. Popper's Penguin for our book club, I read Curious George and the Dinosaur Tracks to the girls and then we used magnifying glasses and followed our own dino tracks out to the picnic table on the deck and got to make their own dinosaur tracks by pressing their toy dinosaur feet into Play Doh. Dakota and I were able to get our language arts done and he read a short factual

They're Back!!

Today Dakota and I are back to homeschooling while doing daycare, but with a twist.  Not only do we have 2 1/2 year old Natalie, but we also have 6 week old Rebecca.  And next week we get 23 month old Brooke! This morning the girls arrived just as we got back from taking our M/T before and after care friend to school and we all had some waffles before sending my daughter back to her job with the Howard County School System.  I put the baby in the swing at my feet and Natalie went to play with her toys while Dakota and I started our day.  He did his morning work and wrote in his journal about his playoff experience this weekend.  He did some spelling, math and language arts and then, while Natalie ran in and out from the deck, we started our I Survived:  The Sinking of the Titanic book.  We talked about plot, conflict and resolution, figurative language and flashbacks in a story.  We have the book downloaded on our Kindles so we read the first three chapters, stopping to discuss thing

Football

For my family, football is more than a game....it's a way of life.  Since 1999, when my oldest son was six years old, we have spent most fall evenings at Lake Waterford, watching the boys go from green and inexperienced, to fierce competitors over a course of a few months is nothing short of amazing.  We have had our share of mediocre seasons as a family, but we have also experienced some spectacular seasons where alot of hard work paid off in a championship run. This was, for all intents and purposes, Dakota's first real season of football.  He had played when he was very young (3-5), but he didn't like it and really had no part in the game other than standing on the field.  Now, at 9, he has accomplished so much. He is playing under his father's coaching and he has gone from scared and timid to an aggressive, intimidating offensive lineman who is a force to be reckoned with.  I am really excited to see what the future holds for him. This season we went undefeated

Last Monday Just Us

Today is the last Monday of just Dakota and I.  Next Monday my 2 1/2 year old granddaughter and my 6 week old granddaughter will be here from 8:30 to 4:30 and the following Monday, 23 month old Brooke will join them.  We will have lots of fun and find a new normal, but while I plan to enjoy these three little girls completely and totally, I also know there will be much more chaos and tears and shrieks of joy and shrieks of anger lol.  Newborns cry.  Two year olds cry and throw tantrums.  But they also give the best snuggles and say the cutest things. Dakota and I got in a great Monday.  He did his morning work and then had a complete Social Studies lesson from Time for Kids on The Battle For Bats.  He read the magazine, did the work pages that went with it, watched a video off the website and took a quiz.  He started a new book called A Dog on the Titanic in preparation for our Titanic unit that will start tomorrow and run for about 2 weeks.  We will be using the I Survived series fo

All Hallow's Eve

Koda and I had a productive day today, the last day before Halloween.  We did all the regular schoolwork, did a biography on Brad Paisley and listened in on my oldest son's new radio show, featuring that country music artist, that Brian is doing from Towson.  After lunch Dakota couldn't wait to read the rest of Haunted Castle on Hallow's Eve (Magic Tree House) and as promised, it was one of her best books.  In the beginning, the sorcerer, Merlin, writes his message to Jack and Annie on a leaf so after reading the rest of the book and answering the comprehension questions, we went outside and got our own big leaves and Dakota wrote messages on them.  Then we took them downstairs and laminated them so they would keep for awhile.  He even wrote a message to his brother on one, telling him how proud he was of his radio show. We finished the day with history, which tied in with our Greek Myths class.  We read the story of Zeus, Aphrodite and the golden apple and I was happy to

Music Takes You Back

Today I felt the need to declutter....fall cleaning I suppose you'd call it.  I found my old LP's and some of my favorite old CD's and I dusted off the player my kids gave me a few years ago and put on Barry Manilow.  Barry KNEW me back in the day.  He sang to my teenage heart.  His love songs swept me through heartache and teen dreams and his sad songs would see a melancholy young girl with tears in her eyes, singing along, petting her poodle, Kandi, and hugging a stuffed Pooh. The power of music is so strong now, just as it was then.  "I can't smile without you..." used to mean I missed my first love, a beautiful blond haired, blue eyed Michael.  Or maybe it was tough and scrappy Kenny.  Or Rodney.  Or Ed.  I thought my heart was breaking then, but now I know, as a forty eight year old woman, that I had no idea what heartache really was.  I thought I was in love over and over, but now I have my husband of twenty four years and again, I had no idea.  I drea

Monday Funday

Today was an absolutely wonderful Monday for me.  My husband was home most of the day working on his college paper and my son and I had a fun day of homeschooling.  Usually when dad is home there is rebellion and chaos from Dakota, but today was so nice. We started out the day with spelling and then climbed in our recliners to read The Magic Treehouse Haunted Castle on Hallow's Eve.  Dakota doesn't like to read very much, so we were partner reading and when we finished the four chapters alloted for today he asked for one more!  Love that and of course I said YES!  Then he did some comprehension questions and chose one of the three challenges I had for him related to the book.  He decided to make a diorama of a haunted castle and he went into his room to watch his Halloween movie, Hotel Transylvania, while he worked.  After the movie, he had a Monster Math packet to do that went along with the movie and then we learned about bats for Science and did our History for today, lear

TGIF!

Image
Today is Friday!  Hooray!  We got a late start after a somewhat lazy morning, but Dakota and I had a good homeschooling day.  We started our new energy unit in Science with a Disney Energy video that features lots of cool rides and talks about the energy it takes to move them.  He read some, did his math, played on SpellingCity.com and took 3 spelling tests.  He is doing well with spelling so we took the words he got wrong on 3 pretests and made up one unit to use next week.  We read his Halloween edition of National Geographic for kids, commenting on the fun pictures and articles and doing the MadLib together.  We learned about the Spartans in Story of the World and promised each other that we would make homemade applesauce tomorrow afternoon.  For art we made a monster door...super easy and very cute!  I think we will make this a yearly tradition! Tonight Dakota has football practice for 45 minutes and then we are going to Big Vanilla with some friends for a pool party Halloween st

Kindness Never Hurts

Lately I have been having alot of talks with my nine year old about kindness.  It seems that he lacked kindness at co-op last week and someone noticed and told me.  He was made to apologize, but it has brought up the fact that too many people in our life and in the world in general are just not kind.  And why not?  It never, ever hurts to be kind, but a lack of kindness can hurt someone deeply.  In my opinion, there is rarely if ever a reason to be downright rude and nasty to someone.  "Kill them with kindness" is more my style and I want my youngest son to practice what I preach. I have three grown children and I am proud to say that they are all kind.  Each one of them can be trusted to say what's on their mind from time to time, but they are all well mannered, polite and kind adults.  My little son....well, he is the hot tempered one.  That is no excuse, however, to vent on someone else. I have taken it upon myself, as a veteran home educator and parent, to use the

Keeping it All Together

Image
It is still incredibly busy around here, but I am trying to stay close to home to give myself a center from which to revolve. My computer is still down as far as wireless internet, so I am tethered to a small area with an ethernet cord, but at least I have it.  My mom had surgery yesterday and, because she is 81, I was pretty worried.  She is in excellent health, however, and breezed through it and is home already.  We are in our last week of regular football practice before the playoffs, so that has stayed the same.  I have cut back a bit on homeschooling activities outside the house except for every other week Mine Craft Club at the library and our weekly Co-op.  Our pumpkin farm trip had to be cancelled due to lack of interest, but since we have been going every year and Dakota has pretty much outgrown this one anyway, he wasn't upset.  He has two big pumpkins already and that seems to be all he really needs. Monday and Tuesday were good school days.   Tuesday we continued o

Back to Homeschool Blogging

October is here and almost gone and I feel like I have missed most of it with the crazy goings on that we have experienced.  From the birth of our second granddaughter to Science Center days to a crazy contract at work, I have been a whirlwind....but it's time to refocus. Today we eased back into our routine with a low stress approach.  We took the little girl we watch on Monday and Tuesday mornings to school and then went to Walmart and got a few groceries we needed, another huge pumpkin (at $2.97 it was a GREAT deal) and Dakota got to choose his Halloween night costume.  We came home and his sister, who is still on maternity leave, switched with me and took Dakota and Natalie to the park and I kept new baby Rebecca.  During the hour they were gone, Rebecca and I got a visit from MomMom and enjoyed some snuggles.  When Kris returned with the kids we did lunch and then it was time for Dakota to buckle down for some work.  He is NOT an afternoon worker, but we managed a fairly goo

She's here!

Image
Time has gotten away from me again, but for good reason this time!  On September 30th at 10:01pm my daughter gave birth to my second granddaughter, Rebecca Leigh.  She weighed 7lbs, 5oz and was 20 1/2 inches long.  She had wide eyes, a head full of brown, soft hair and an incredibly pink color. My daughter was induced in the morning, but Rebecca had other plans.  By evening, it was clear that things were not progressing as they should and by 9pm my daughter's doctor decided to take the next step and do a c-section.  It was scary for my daughter, but she handled it with grace.  I am surprised it didn't stress me more, but I guess after four of my own, I knew what she'd experience and thought she would be fine. I knew the nurse on duty in the OB OR and she bent the rules so I could go back in recovery and wait for the birth.  I could see the doctor's and nurses' heads through the window in the door, but not my daughter or son in law.  As I waited anxiously, watchi

The First Week Of Autumn

This week the heat disappeared and cool mornings and evenings and glorious afternoons replaced it.  It has hovered in the low 70's with blue skies and clear air.  I have spent less time on the deck than I would have liked, but I have enjoyed my time at home very much.  Our truck was down again and we had three drivers and one car, so I was the odd man out, staying home every day but today, when my daughter took us to co-op.  I actually wish it could be this way every week.  I love my home and being here during the day.  I love homeschooling and working on the deck, hearing my granddaughter chatter as she plays, putting her down for a nap with a light blanket over her to keep off the chill.  My son has been working well and getting finished before 2, sometimes as early as noon, and this has been a welcome change. This week we started delving into Ancient Greece.  We are reading the Magic Tree House Hour of the Olympics in Literature, doing Greek Myths and reading about Ancient Gre

A Very Busy Couple of Days

Friday started out a very busy couple of days.  We had our annual field trip to the Anne Arundel County Fair Kids Day and enjoyed time with my granddaughter, Natalie and some homeschooling friends. Dakota, Natalie and friends enjoyed seeing the livestock, watching the pig and duck races and riding the rides.  I particularly enjoyed my granddaughter this year.  She was so much fun and really loved every minute.  She would say "Run, piggy, run!!" and when they ran back into the trailer after a race she would say "Oh no!  What wrong?".  Way too cute!  She and Dakota and I rode the merry go round at least four times.  She was terrified and clung tight, but loved it, asking for "more horsey!" each time it was over.  I got her a Dora blow up toy and we had lemonade and snacks and Dakota got to ride with his girlfriend and her sisters too.  It was over by noon, which really wasn't an issue for me at all. Another exciting event this Friday was the news that

A Matter of Perspective

Yesterday I tried to teach my son about 9/11.  We have talked about the subject before and watched just small snippets of TV coverage specials in documentaries, but I am not ready to show him the human terror and carnage that is depicted.  He is nine, so he understands more now and we are reading the I Survived series currently, focusing on the 9/11 attack.  The memory for those who lived through it will never dull and even though my other three kids were not grown, with my older son only being eight at the time, they all remember the fear as the country virtually shut down as a result of the unknown.  What would happen next?  Were we safe?  Never before had our country ever feared outsiders.  Never before had war been on our soil.  Now we were afraid and we hugged our loved ones closed and dared to think...what if, and not in a good way. My nine year old is a fairly empathetic person.  He feels bad for others when he sees them hurting or in pain, yet he seems to see 9/11 as "ju

First Two Days

Yesterday was our start of Dakota's third grade year and my thirteenth year of homeschooling.  It was the first year, however, that I didn't cram in work for the first several weeks....too much for any one child to do...then stress over not getting it done.  He started the morning in his pjs doing a Lego Star Wars kit he got for his birthday (art).  The we had an awesome day out on the deck, doing his new routine for morning work, playing addition math war and remembering how to write in cursive as we practiced our spelling words.  He did the first half of a getting to know his science text activity, a math review sheet and we read a book and did a close activity on Amelia Earhart.  He read a couple of back to school themed books, did half of a Meet Me packet and we were finished, including a 45 minute lunch bread, before 2:00.  Very, very nice.  PE was football practice from 5:30 to 8:00pm. Today, Thursday, is the Baltimore Ravens opener and Dakota asked that we do some foot

My Baby's Nine

Image
On Tuesday, September 3, 2013, my little man turned nine.  He officially went from being a "little kid" to a "tween" or "big kid" and he is the light of my life.  He has spunk, swag and plenty of sass, but I wouldn't trade him for anything in the world.  We celebrated all weekend, but on his special day (after a trip to New York and a big dinner the night before) we went to breakfast at Bob Evans, ordering extra bacon, and then to Walmart, where he used his birthday money to buy a video game and two Star Wars Lego kits.  After football that night, we had cupcakes for everyone. While I am nervous about raising such a strong willed young man through his teenage years, I am also excited about all the fun times ahead.  My boy has a great sense of humor and a plan for the future and I look forward to going along for the ride.

New York, New York!!

Image
This weekend we had our first trip with my new travel company, Sun and Sports Travel.  We loaded a bus at 6:30am and were on our way by 6:35.  I had gone around the parking lot before boarding talking to the people I had previously only "known" through email and found them all to be kind and friendly.  Our trip down was uneventful.  We got to know a few of the people sitting closest to us and we all watched the Oriole's highlight video from last year.  Dakota and his friend Logan were the only children aboard, but they were well behaved and excited to get to the stadium.  As we got to New York there was a heavy downpour, but it had stopped by the time we parked the bus and everyone disembarked and headed over to Yankee Stadium.  We took pictures and walked around a bit and then the gates opened at 11am and we went inside.  We headed up to the Malibu Rooftop Deck for our luncheon and got to know a few more people while we munched on hot dogs, hamburgers and

Weekend Warriors

This weekend we were again very busy.  We left the house at 11am for southern Maryland and arrived at Southern Middle School around 12:15.  Our 90lb Charger team had their first full scrimmage, complete with referees and a full field. We got warmed up and started at 1:00 and the other team ran the first play back for a touchdown.  Not good.  However, we came back with one of our own before long and then trounced all over them, winning 32-14.  It was a blast, cheering for the boys, and I was so proud of them.  My son in law was out there coaching with my husband and my daughter, granddaughter and I were on the sidelines cheering them on.  Love that it's a family thing. Afterward, we went to dinner with our daughter and her family and our friends, the Webers, to the Rod and Reel in Chesapeake Beach.  It was a fancy restaurant and we surely weren't dressed for it, but the food was excellent and the boys (4 of them!) behaved well, as did my granddaughter, who is much more likely

Alternate Plans

Today we were all set to go to Chesapeake Beach Water Park to use our Groupon passes and I went online to look up directions and realized they are no longer open on weekdays since last Friday.  BUMMER!  We were all looking forward to it and the weather was hot and sunny and perfect for the lazy river.  So alternate plans were needed.  Since neither my daughter or I had much money, we opted to go downtown and use her membership at the Port Discovery Children's Museum.  This is not my favorite place in the world, but the kids can run around, get rid of energy and get out of the house, so off we went. The trip wasn't anything extraordinary, but it did what it was intended to do and we left at 12:30 with two hungry, tired kids.  We got everyone fed and my daughter put my granddaughter in her room here for a nap and went home to get some things done.  I got some paperwork done and had a visit from my younger daughter.  Everyone left around five; my husband and son for football; my

Counting Down

Today is my next to the last day of summer daycamp and I am ready for it to be over.  By this time of the summer I am swearing I will never do this again each and every year.  I had my three regular campers, one little sister camper, my son and my granddaughter today.  I had little sleep last night.  I am grumpy and tired.  I don't want to do anything. Try telling six kids that! So the first two arrived at 7:30 and will not leave until 6:10.  Ugh.  The second arrived around 7:40 and will leave at 5:15.  Ugh.  The third arrived at 8:00 and will leave at 4:00, getting better.  My daughter will get off work shortly to come help with my granddaughter, but I am having a very early birthday dinner for my mother in law (because of football practice and my son's work) so instead of thinning out the crowds, we will have twelve people here at 4:00  Double UGH! I let them play in Dakota's room this morning until 9:15 while Natalie and I sat on the deck.  I stepped on a push pin an

A Weekend at the Beach

Image
Saturday morning saw us leaving for Ocean City and excited to be leaving our hectic schedule behind.  Dakota, Brian and I made only one stop and it was to grab breakfast sandwiches at McDonalds.  We got snagged up briefly by the drawbridge, but arrived safe and sound around 11am.  We hit the beach and Dakota really enjoyed hanging out in the water with his Dad, being thrown around by the rough surf.  They both thought this was great fun and while I laughed like crazy at the two of them, I knew things must be rough when the lifeguards kept gathering people around and warning them of the dangers.  We took a break, got Thrashers french fries and hit the bathrooms and then spent another hour or so on the beach.  Around 2pm we got into our room and spent the next couple of hours relaxing and catching up on our computers.  Around 5, I took Dakota up to the beach and there were lots of kids playing in the pool the high tide had left on the beach so I let him go back up and get his swim trunks