Friday Fun Day: Living History

This morning, I took the boys along with some friends to Living History Days. Vision Heirs puts it on each year in the Spring and in the Fall. At first, all the boys insisted that they soldiers were pirates, I think we convinced them otherwise by the end of the day.

I'm not sure how much was absorbed, but I think they were shown, at least a little bit, of how life was in the 1700's here in America.

Another free digital slideshow by Smilebox

This Is The Stuff

We have been in our new home for 1 week. In that time frame we have had:

- a busted garage door

- bought 3 packages of batteries for the garage door opener (none of which have worked)

- a front door lock that won't work without the help of a butter knife

- killed ginormous grasshoppers that science would speculate eat steroids for breakfast

- realized that we have a permanent resident in the crawlspace - until he finds our plate of tummy yummies we have left out for him/them

- hired not one but two cleaning companies to clean our apartment, only to realize that we were meant to clean our own apartment because either a) they don't call you back to schedule or b) they clean the wrong apartment and can't reschedule you in time to turn your apartment back in

- hire a carpet cleaning company who has an innate desire to clean the said wrong apartment only to get an earful of a stressed out mama yelling, "GET OUT OF THERE AND CLEAN MY APARTMENT! I'M NOT PAYING YOU TO CLEAN SOMEONE ELSES!!!"

- figured out that when the weather man says First Day of Autumn only means 83 degrees and not 84 degrees and thus needs to buy a new furnace so that we can get our ducts cleaned and properly prepared so that we can run the AC because, really, sleeping in an 82 degree house at night is no fun, and of course NO ONE SELLS FANS ANYMORE...IT'S AUTUMN people!!!

- ignoring the fact that Tank may actually want something to eat and instead let him eat foreign berries off of the bush (not really letting him, more like not knowing) only to freak out if they are poisionous or not, and getting intimately acquainted with Poison Control - they will be getting a Christmas card in the mail (berries were not poisonous; only will give tummy aches)

- realized that Tank adores bees and wants to be friends with them. However, he is failing to realize that picking them up in his little hot sweaty hand is not something they want - bee sting number 3 this summer

- failing to have baking soda on hand so that I can make a paste for said bee sting; only to visit my neighbor twice within 5 minutes asking to borrow baking soda. Having to have her son translate from English to Spanish and vice versa. (I had previously visited to ask if she knew the name of the plant that Tank snacked on...only to have a translator present again)

- to say that we need to learn Spanish is an understatement

- revamped our school year with Turbo and Tank because "FUN" isn't in our lesson plan...apparently

- visited a Tae Kwon Do class for Turbo only to hear... "I don't like all the running; it wears me out"...(Master Andre...I will gladly pay any fee for this to continue)

- Pulled said foreign bush berries out of the ground so that I don't have to relive my horrible nightmare of berry eating-bee stinging nightmare again for at least another week or two.

- found a library only to find out that my boys enjoy going there because there are trees that "decorate" the children area but really are an invitation to my boys for them to climb...really? a tree in a library? REALLY?

....all this to say, the stuff that HE is choosing to use is wearing on me, but only to show me how BIG I AM BLESSED to have:

- a home

- a yard

- two healthy boys + one amazing hubby who can pretty much fix anything with a craftsman wrench and a WD-40.

- the ability to stay home with my kids

- neighbors who are friendly and helpful - and have offered to tutor my family in Spanish in exchange for help with their English

- a God who cares more about how I handle things in big messes rather than how clean my house looks or if the pictures on the wall are crooked

This is the stuff that drive me crazy, this is the stuff that is getting to me lately. In the middle of my little mess, I forget how big I'm blessed...

Morning Plan

As always, our life is run by plans. This time, we are implementing a morning plan. Our mornings are pretty chaotic. Only because hubby and I go to bed late and our kids get up early. Fault?: ours.

This morning was no exception. We know we need to have a morning plan, but we never seem to have enough "UMPH" to make it work. Today, out of desperation, and lack of supplies (they are all packed due to the move next weekend), I found an example on the web and adapted it to our family.

Supplies:
corrugated cardboard (check - have plenty!)
drinking straws
kabob spears (miraculously I had them. Hmmm...wonder why those aren't packed yet)
paper
marker

Should have had cardstock, pretty paper, and solid color straws, but hey, when desperation is born out of a crisis, you make due.

After finding an open counter space, I set to work. Each straw represents a day. Each time he finishes the action of the plan, he moves the straw from "DO IT" to "DONE". Simple things, but it will help Turbo nonetheless. It makes me more on top of things, and hopefully we can figure out our mornings instead of our mornings figuring themselves out.





After I was proud of my thrifty handiwork, I went to show Turbo his new morning plan. This is what I was faced with.

The boys had completely destroyed my piles of boxes on the patio to make a fort. No wonder why I was able to do the MORNING PLAN craft without any interruption. They had plans of their own.

Lesson - cause and effect

When we chose to homeschool our boys, our reasons weren't necessarily considered the "norm".

A day in our homeschool consists of many things. Today, for one, we learned the many ways cause and effect cycles throughout every moment in our home.

First: A spoon, a letter block and a round cylindrical block make for a great catapult. Not necessarily a good idea, but creative nonetheless.

Second: Building a fort out of cushions, blankets and pillows is fantastic! But not so great when you are in it and your brother decides it would be a good landing place as he hurls himself off of the couch (Turbo inside; Tank doing the hurling).

Third: Finding an old Halloween costume that is a penguin and putting it on, although 2 sizes too small, is a great idea. An even better idea is to ride your scooter or bike around. The bad idea comes into play when you realize you are covered from head to fingers to ankles in a black penguin suit and it is 96 degrees outside.



Fourth: It being 2:30 in the afternoon and no one has yet to change out of their P.J.'s, (aka: underwear/diaper) yet. Going to a public school like that might be grounds for mommy having to come pick you up early.

Fifth: Being able to snuggle on the couch in your favorite blankets with your brother and mommy while reading 28 books is the best way to spend a Wednesday at your homeschool.

Sink Baby

There is a huge difference between Turbo and Tank. I know, I know, every kid is different, but really...this chasm between the two is GINORMOUS!

When we first gave Turbo a haircut, you would think that we were killing him. By the second haircut, he had sworn us off as the loving parents we are all together! I think that his third haircut was somewhere around his 3rd birthday.

With Tank, he could care less. His first one, he got to sit on the counter and play in the sink. A total no-no in this house. Only because his brother has found a way to plug the overflow hole so as to make a "waterfall" in the bathroom all over my bathroom floor.

However, last night, Tank got his second haircut. He was so content sitting in the sink drinking water from a small cup and eating his bowl of fruit that when it came time to get out, he wasn't having it! I finally convinced him to take a bath, but only because I offered a bigger "sink" to sit in.



Notice the pointy finger? He might be the most polished out of all of us yet!

Frogs No More

I'm sad to say that our frog-growing experiment is done. I've flushed the last one down the toilet. It's a bummer too as you could really begin to see where their little legs would have begun to grow. We could have had froglets instead of tadpoles!

With the kit came a water treatment, which I ran out of. I figured it wasn't going to kill them, just maybe "delay" them in their growing a bit. Unfortunately, I was wrong. They went belly up in less than 2 days. Guess the water treatment was kind of important.

Turbo, amazingly enough, has been okay with it. Dad and I decided that maybe we will just skip the "tadpole" thing all together and get him a frog or two at the pet store. But after researching it a bit, I'm thinking maybe we will just stick with the freak-of-nature crustacean, also known as "Spidey" the Hermit Crab. This thing is still kickin' after 18 months! I must be doin' something right keepin' him alive...which is NOTHING! Maybe if I buy one more crustacean, it might take the place of our tadpole loss...if it ever comes to that with Turbo.


***THIS JUST IN***
While I was writing this, I have not actually flushed the 2nd tadpole down the commode. I was planning on doing it once Turbo woke up and was out of his room. Suddenly, he come flying out of his room, EHEM! You were suppose to be sleeping! Mom! Hopper has hopped out of the tank! Come here! WHAT? He is suppose to be dead!!!!! Sure enough, Turbo had taken off the lit to look at him and that "think" hopped right out of the tank and was floppin' around on the table! We got him back into the tank and he began swimming around. Really? Turbo replied, he was sleeping mom! Um, I give him the remainder of the day to go belly up...

Swim, Bike, Shoes

This summer, Turbo had three goals, (with a little help from Mom and Dad):

1.) Learn how to swim (CHECK - although still working on)

2.) Learn how to tie his shoes (has no interest. would prefer to slip on shoes rather than tie - HEY! we still got time!)

3.) Learn how to ride a bike without training wheels - YAY!!! He did it!!!