Entries from January 2008 ↓

So I know I said that I’d be back to conclude School Woes before now, but life kind of got busy (imagine that), and I haven’t got to it until now. My apologies.

 Basically at the beginning of this year after a lot of mental agonizing, I decided to attempt doing a year of pre-school at home. Figured I could get a little better feel by actually trying it before deciding. Thankfully time was on my side and I had the luxury to do so. I bought a bunch of little work-books, flash cards, gathered up my art supplies, got a whole school room set up, was raring to go,  and…. got pregnant.

Having The Worst Morning Sickness in the world is a great de-motivator. We probably did ’school’ once a week.

Right about Christmas time I felt like I was starting to turn a corner sickness-wise, and decided that I needed to either get on the ball, or give it up. I wasn’t ready to give up, so I decided to get serious about it. What we were doing obviously wasn’t working [for me]. I think mainly because I was too tired and sick (and let’s face it - lazy) to create lesson plans. So I decided to buy me a curriculum that I could follow very closely. I wanted someone to tell me what to do, and how to do it.

Tuition Wise, I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going for. At first I debated a unit study that encompassed all the subjects with one theme and idea, such as Konos. Then I debated mixing and matching for each study. In the end I decided on Abeka pre-k 4 curriculum for everything. My reasons being:

1. I love how all of the subjects tie together.
2. My mom always used Abeka English for us and we were all always very advanced in our English and writing.
3. Abeka is known to be one of the most competitive and advanced homeschool and private Christian school curriculum.
4. The teacher’s book and instructions are very detailed with clear explanations.
5. If I desired to switch avenues in the future, Abeka has a virtual academy that is fully accredited that we could enroll in quite easily.

So we’ve been using this program for about a month now, and I can honestly say thus far I am very pleased. Forest is responding to it a lot more positively to sit down learning than I thought he would. (He is all boy - loves to be active, hates to sit still.) He seems to recognize the reward and joy of learning a new thing, which makes my heart sing.

Am I in this for the long haul? I can’t answer that yet. But I am quite confident that for right now, this is a good choice. I will do some soul searching at the end of this year, and take it year-by year. I really think that’s the only choice I can make.

He can leap buildings in a single bound!

I asked my husband why a stork doesn’t really deliver babies to us. He looked at me all seriously and said “Because there would be too many of them, because everyone would want them.” Okay, so I wasn’t really suggesting that, honey. Or maybe I was.

I feel like I’m trying to bend over with a rubber ball in my stomach. I don’t know about you, but last time I tried to bend a rubber ball in half, it didn’t really work. I have to bend over 752,158 times per day with two kiddos. This morning for instance, Warrior threw dropped his Jimmie Johnson die-cast car behind the radiator two times. So I was laying on my stomach with a ruler trying to fish it out, heaving and hoeing.

The rubber ball effect also makes it very difficult to get in and out of bed. Which I also do 752,158 times a night for various reasons. I have to pee, the kids are crying, the kids need to pee, I’m thirsty, I’m hot, I’m cold. If I don’t big puffy heart my new KING sized bed so much, I’d consider investing in one of those adjustable beds for my big ol’ belly.

 Also, every night after dinner I feel out of commission for the rest of the night. I think it is because I eat too much. Self control, Carrie, self control. But it all looks so good, and I don’t eat that much. I just eat normally, which apparently I can’t do anymore. Small meals are best apparently. Because I really feel like I can’t bend. And it feels that way up by my ribs. You are not supposed to feel super full in your ribs. It’s just ain’t natural.

Sometimes I feel like the babe might fall out if I sneeze. Especially after I’ve done a lot of errands and have been lifting kids in and out of carseats all day.

 Other than those things, I can’t complain. I just found out I was anemic, which I am very surprised about, as I feel fabulous energy wise. I feel the best this pregnancy (minus the hideous morning sickness) than I have throughout the other two pregnancies. I really don’t feel pregnant, aside from the complaints I’ve listed. And those things aren’t even constant.

I’m going to go now, and just pretend that ya’ll were just yearning for an update on me and that I wasn’t really just complaining. haha

   Have you ever started a big clean, and then half way through looked around at the chaos surrounding you, put your hands in your head, stretched your aching back, and thought “What the heck am I doing anyway???” Well, I just had one of those moments 5 minutes ago.

   My husband and my father, lovely men that they are, are replacing our bathroom flooring today. There used to be carpet in there (can I hear a BLECH?). About 3 months after we moved in here I realized I couldn’t stand it one more day - it just smelled too icky. So they are replacing it with a remnant piece left over from a job. (Why spend money when we are just renting?) I can’t wait to show you the new pics. When it’s done that is.

   Anyway, that leaves us with no running water since they had to turn it off to remove the toilet and sink. So my kids went to the in-laws for the day. I opted to stay home and attack the upstairs.  We live in a cape-cod and currently we are just living in the downstairs section. The upstairs is two big rooms, one of which is a school room/toy overflow room, and the other half… well, that’s pretty much heck. It looks like stuff-city threw up in there. Scrapbook supplies, out of season clothing, outgrown children’s clothing, Nick-knacks, gemstone jewelry (NOT! Just seeing if you were really paying attention), wall hangings, guitar gear, amps, old printers, well…. you get the picture. 

   One of my goals before the babe comes is to get that room cleaned. At the end of summer we are going to install some insulation and make the space more heating/cooling friendly so we can move our bedrooms up there. But the space has got to be cleaned first.

   So today, sans kids, I decided to start tackling it. First line of duty was to go to the Dollar Store and buy 4 huge tubs. I am organizing the boy’s outgrown clothing by size and season. I have been working at it for um… about 5 hours now, and it looks a lot worse than it did when I started! At least everything was in bags before. Never-mind that that the sizes and seasons were all mixed up, and I had stuff in there I didn’t even need anymore…. at least it was semi-tidy. I know the end product will be SO worth it. It will be so easy to find stuff when it’s all sitting in big Rubbermaid bins categorized by season and size, but right now I just feel like leaving it there and running away. Does anyone have a house with a big comfy couch and a stiff drink for me? Oh wait, about the stiff drink… probably not. But I will take the couch!

My Gramma’s quirks make me giggle sometimes. Of course I am not making fun of her - I know that I will be doing the same things if I am blessed to live as long as her.

• She repairs holes in plastic grocery bags with masking tape.
• She puts her boxed food items, such as macaroni and cheese, in the refrigerator to keep them from ants and mice (that she’s never had.)
• She saves boxes, packing supplies, and receipts from everything she’s ever bought. Sounds like a nice idea until you realize she’s living in an apartment in an elderly folks complex that’s about the size of my living room. Saving every box you’ve ever owned gets a bit um, overwhelming.
• She goes to bed whenever she wants. Usually about 2am. And gets up whenever she wants. Usually between 12 and 1. She complained the other day that she had to be at an appointment at 10am and she said, and I quote “This is the wee hours of the morning! I am going to be SO tired later. I can’t believe I’ve eaten breakfast and it is only 9:45!”
• She eats Hunt’s individually packaged puddings like they’re going out of style. Only chocolate. And she would absolutely see nothing wrong with sending me to the store with my kids for just a box of pudding.
• She saves her junk mail. In the envelope. With the date written on it, along with the contents of what’s inside. Some of it, she puts in her purse. I found this out at the ER with her a few weeks ago. I was trying to find her list of medicines and all I found was junk mail!
• She often watches her TV with no volume whatsoever, just closed captioning service on. Not just the news, but actual TV shows.
• She loves free samples. (Okay, I do too.) She was so excited that I ordered her a free Pamper’s diaper the other day from walmart.com She felt so proud to give it to me.
• She eats the same thing every single day. Her shopping list always has about 10 things on it. Always the same things. Never different.
• She has a huge flashlight/lantern type deal in every.single.room. Even the bathroom and the hallway. Who cares that there’s emergency lights in every. single. room. You just never know.
• She has hearing aids. She’s probably used them 3x a year since she got them.
• She loves her family more than life it’s self. She re-tells stories we tell her over and over to anyone who will listen.
• The pictures we give her are her treasures. They’re all over the house.

Yeah, I’m pretty lucky to have her. I know it. (That is what Forest always says after making a statement he knows is true….. “Yeah, I have 150 gazillion Hot Wheels cars. I know it.”)

 PS. Can you believe she’s 85 and has never dyed her hair? Can I have that gene? Preeeetty please?