Monday, January 26, 2009

Quick...someone hit the pause button!


So much to do, so little time to blog about it!! This is going to be a quickie, I am determined to get to bed before midnight for once.

So....let's see. Science Spectacular! This is an event that the middle school Patrick goes to (a science and math magnet school) puts on at Chelsea's elementary school. It's basically a marketing ploy - to get the kids interested in science and in their school. Patrick goes as a student volunteer, Andy goes as a parent volunteer bringing Matthew along with him, and of course Chelsea is there at school as a participant(they all did this last year as well)...so everyone in the family ends up there except me! I guess someone around here has to earn a living, right? Matthew and Andy got to man the Coke and Mentos experiment station (pretty good gig!!)



We got new carpet in our family room. Matthew and Chelsea had some fun on the dollies that we moved the furniture around on. Then, the day after it was installed, I was doing the breakfast dishes and Andy said to me, "Stop what you are doing right now, and go get a picture of this. The boys are playing a video game together happily, without fighting - on the new carpet. You'll need this for your blog!" LOL...now that's the spirit!!

The couch and drapes will be going shortly too, don't worry ;-)

Lots of sports going on these days. Matthew is playing basketball and getting ready to start another baseball season. Patrick had his first soccer game playing for his middle school team, and is also playing in a recreational flag football league on the weekends.





No pictures of this yet, but Chelsea very recently started taking a gymnastics class again. She broke her arm 2 years ago at her first competitive gymnastics event, and hadn't gotten back on that horse since. She was suddenly ready to give it a go again, and she is loving it :-)

Okay, midnight is fast approaching. To bed.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Evening Fun and Morning Cold



Here are some random things that were happening around the house last night. Matthew was making a helmet from a cardboard box and some duct tape (he got duct tape in his stocking - I guess this is why!)


We made Patrick's birthday party invitations, and printed approximately a gazillion copies because he is apparently inviting everyone he's ever met.




P&C snagged some snuggle time with Tess.











Then we awoke to temps in the low 20s. We don't really have the wardrobes here to accommodate that, but Chelsea did her best! She wore 7 layers of clothes when she took off this morning to man her patrol post at school.




Lucky me got to work from home today, so I didn't have to brave the cold. But tomorrow morning I'll be up and out before 7am....brrrrrrrr!

Monday, January 19, 2009

The Cottage

My mom (who lives across the street) has a detached garage that has been turned into a little one bedroom apartment. We call it 'the cottage' because, well, it sounds a lot classier than 'the garage apartment' and because the previous owners left this sign behind on the door.
So, one of the ways the kids like to add some novelty to a sleepover, is to have it in the cottage. Sort of like camping out in the backyard - but with indoor plumbing. Not to mention a microwave and refrigerator! We've decided to keep the cottage sleepovers unisex...call us prudes ;-) The boys each were invited to a friend's to sleep over last night, so the girls got the cottage this time.
They made some microwave mystery meat for dinner.

AND, most importantly, helped me test the new setting I found on my camera that allows me to shoot people that are moving without turning them into ghosts!!!


You may have pieced together the fact that this left Andy and I alone in the house for the night. DATE!

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Sleepy


Too sleepy to blog, but figured I'd share a sleepy photo before heading off to bed. So, the camera isn't all bad. I think I just need to learn how to use it. Just now in about 5 minutes of internet research, I already discovered a setting that I think fixed the problem of major blur and ghostly effects when there is any kind of movement. So, I guess I just need to stop whining and invest a little time in learning to use it. But, not tonight!

p.s. Matthew is faking, Andy is not.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Confession

I hate my new camera!! It takes crappy pictures. I guess you get what you pay for? I've only ever borrowed digital cameras, have never shopped for one. But, I've never used one that I had trouble getting decent pictures from. Maybe because I always borrowed them from people who weren't cheap like me. I thought I didn't need anything fancy. I didn't care about bells and whistles. I paid attention to the mega pixels and the brand name, and that's pretty much it. Its a Sony Cyber-shot. The worst part is that two days before Christmas my mom's camera broke while in my possession. The lens just suddenly wouldn't close. I read all over the internet about what everyone referred to as 'the dreaded lens error'. Tried every goofy fix I read about online, but to no avail. So now what do I do?? Here I thought we would now have 2 nice cameras on the block and instead we have none. I guess I need to look into having my mom's repaired. The only reason I haven't done so yet is that everything I read online implied that they were prohibitively expensive to fix - hence the suggestions to whack it around in an attempt to fix (as in, it's already broken, so don't worry about damaging it)

On the bright side...we're having another fun sleepover tonight!


This time with some of Patrick's school friends. No school here tomorrow. They had the longest injury and argument-free tackle football game in the front yard on record to date. Now playing virtual football on the PS2. There have also been nerf gun wars, laser tag and a bizarre amount of cereal eating.

Meanwhile, Chelsea is stacking and unstacking solo cups and has a drawer full of cards on the kitchen table sorting them.
The other day she was arranging V-8 cans in the pantry and when Andy questioned her about it she said, 'It's your fault for sending me to Montessori!'

Monday, January 12, 2009

Tales of a Random Sleepover



Sleepovers are pretty much a standard part of our weekends. They vary in size from small - 1 or 2 guests, medium - 3 or 4 guests, big (but not uncommon) 5 to 8 guests, and what we officially deem a "BIG Sleepover" which has to date been as many as 15 guests. A BIG Sleepover could be for a birthday, to mark the beginning or end of summer vacation or Spring Break, or just because we haven't had one in a while. Patrick is lobbying to have the mother of all big sleepovers for his next birthday coming up in February.

This past weekend, one of Chelsea's friends came Cosmic Bowling with us and spent the night Friday night, but that hardly counted, so we had four friends here on Saturday night - which makes for more of a party atmosphere. There are three neighborhood brother/sister combos that are part of the regular cast of characters - two of these pairs were with us Saturday night.

There was dinner, flashlight tag, wii fit, Age of Mythology, fun with glow sticks in the front yard (they made a jump rope out of them!), some interesting poster art, a cool little percussion jam session


A few rounds of Mafia,


and eventually settling in sleeping bags and believe it or not watching The Notebook?? Go figure!

Saturday, January 10, 2009

If a Tree Falls in the Forest...

So, there were at least two really fun outings yesterday that I forgot to take my camera on! So, how am I supposed to blog about them without any pictures? I'm not even sure they really happened.

Well, I'll give it a shot. The first was a bike ride Matthew and I took to the duck pond. We brought our Story of the World book, some bread for the ducks and some water and snacks for ourselves. We alternated reading about English knights and Japanese samurai with playing follow the leader, climbing trees and feeding the ducks. The weather was fabulous and we had a wonderful time :-)


Earlier, when he and I were working on Life of Fred Fractions at the kitchen table, Matthew told me "I have un-motion sickness." Took me just a second to figure out that he was telling me he had been sitting too long and needed to move! So, he ran around the house a couple of times, grabbed his nerf dart gun, snuck up on me and shot me with it, then sat back down to finish the chapter. I love that he was self-aware enough to figure out exactly what he needed and I really love the way he so aptly put it into words. Okay, I guess I just think he's cute ;-)

The other fun outing yesterday was dinner and Cosmic Bowling with friends from the River City Unschoolers group that we are a part of. This is a fairly new group and has been our first opportunity to meet up with other unschoolers in real life (as opposed to in cyberspace!) The group is relatively small, but we have really been enjoying the get togethers. It is the first home school group we've been involved with that Matthew always looks forward to meeting up with regardless of the activity. Andy and Matthew hang out with them on Thursday afternoons, but there are also occational weekend outings like this one that the whole family can participate in. We just plain enjoy each others company, which is a real find! I'm very grateful to my friend Keti for establishing the group and facilitating the gatherings.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Our Education Journey


Since I'm sure my interest (bordering on obsession) in alternative education will come up in my ramblings here, I thought I'd post a little synopsis of the education journey we've traversed with our kids to date. This will, for the most part, be a cut and paste of a post I wrote on a home schooling message board where people who had kids both at school and at home were discussing the challenges of having a foot in both of those worlds. For those of you who don't frequent message boards...DS= Dear Son, DD = Dear Daughter, DH = Dear Husband

Year 1
Send oldest DS to neighborhood public school (with fabulous reputation) for Kindy
Have serious philosophical issues with the school and end up moving him to a private Montessori school at Winter Break
Years 2&3
Happy with Montessori school – over the next couple of years, younger sibs follow
Year 4
Yikes – 3 kids in private school!!
Doing lots of reading about unschooling – fantasizing about quitting work, having the kids quit school and living our lives freely together
Reality – I can’t afford to quit work – even with the savings on tuition
Year 5
DH – to the rescue – he’ll stay home with kids (he already an at-home parent at this point – but will agree to have them with him f/t)
DH attempting to live out my fantasy – me jealous, DH unenthusiastic
Year 6
I swing a way to do most of my work from home - to become more a part of the home life and to allow for more flexibility (not everyone has to go on every outing, etc)
Older 2 decide they want to try neighborhood public school – want to be a part of what ‘everyone’ is doing
So – we quickly go from 1 parent home with 3 kids to 2 parents home with 1 kid!!
Year 7
After a year home alone, youngest DS decides to try public school as well
He is less than thrilled with the PS experience and comes back home at Winter Break
Year 8 (the here and now)
Older 2 in their 3rd year of public school and still happy with their decisions
Youngest DS still at home and we are finally having more success developing a social network, and bringing along Dad’s enthusiasm. DS has a faculty of teachers! DH substitute teaches on Monday and Fridays – so my mom (a.k.a. Grammy) has DS on Mondays and I have him on Fridays. DH has him Tues, Wed, and Thurs.
With Grammy he does a lot of cooking, sewing, gardening and outings. With DH he goes violin lessons, golf lessons, PE class (DH leads this class for a homeschool group), field trips and get togethers with home schooling groups, does science experiments, woodworking and practices baseball and football.
With me on our Fridays together and sometimes in the evenings (when the others are either doing homework or in bed) we tend to get slightly more schooly. We are on the 2nd volume of Story of the World, he is doing Rosetta Stone Spanish, Life of Fred Fractions, we are doing a read aloud, we sometimes do spelling/vocab work – but always with plenty of sword fighting and youtube surfing (or whatever his passion of the day happens to be) in between. The more open I am to following his lead and joining him in his world, the more willing and open he is to following mine.

So, that is where we are. Enjoying the journey :-)

National Champs!

What a game, what a team, what a night!! I grew up in a family of Gator football fans, my husband, Andy, and I met at the University of Florida, and my kids are carrying on the Gator football fanatic tradition as well. So, we are one happy crew this morning.

We watched the game at my mom's house (across the street) as we do most big sporting events. Mom has cable and a decent T.V. (we have neither), so while the habit was born mostly from necessity, I really like the way it turns watching into a social event and takes on a party atmosphere.
There was LOTS of energy in the room and much running outside to scream and shout, wave the Gator flag and wrestle around between plays.
It was a rude awakening for everyone this morning after being up until well after midnight, but the big win boosted everyone's energy level this morning enough to compensate for lack of sleep.
Go Gators!!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

From Practice Baby to the Teen Experiment

I always called Patrick my practice baby. I am the youngest in my family and was never much of a babysitter growing up, so he was my first ever baby experience. I was clueless and terrified! I remember having a little panic attack one day when I was getting close to my due date that I thought....what if they send me home from the hospital with him before my mom can get herself to town?? Then, I immediately shifted to thinking OMG...what business do I have having a baby if I'm afraid to take it home?

Well, fast forward 13 years. In one month I'll be the mother of a teenager!! As a little early initiation into teenager-hood, Patrick got a cell phone for Christmas. Here is his reaction:




Now whenever he is absorbed in cyber-conversation via texting and ignoring the tantilizing real life coversations the rest of us are engaging in around him, we like to taunt him by singing this line from a favorite youtube video, "Your ipod's my ipod. No texting at the table!"


Oddly enough, I'm actually looking forward to the Teen Experiment. Maybe I'm growing up too!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Happy New Blog!

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but it was sort of a New Year goal of mine to start and keep up with a blog. Over the past couple of years, I've contemplated blogging for a variety of reasons. To document our home schooling, to allow for closer contact with friends and family, as a personal journal, or just for fun! So, now I've decided that I don't need to have a theme or focus, I'll just get started and see what happens.


Part of the inspiration for starting now is that I finally got my own digital camera for Christmas! It's nothing fancy, but I have always wanted one, so I'm very happy about it. I've had access to my Mom's whenever I wanted, but it isn't the same as having one at your disposal right when a kid decides to put together a funky costume, or looks particularly beautiful, goofy, or both!


A friend of mine recently pointed me to this website, which was the inspiration for the title of this blog: http://www.enjoyparenting.com/ It was a very timely read for me - meshing well with things I've been thinking and talking about lately.


Okay - since my camera is part of my blogging inspiration, I'll have to include a couple of pictures in my kick-off post.


I love this picture of the boys when they came out and saw their presents on Christmas morning.




And here is the one and only girl-child. Decked out for her starring role in her 5th grade school musical.




Guess that's it for now. My first post. Here's hoping I'll keep this up somehow.