haven't felt much like bloggin

I've been tired, and the babies have started walking, so I've been more tired. And they are still teething so I don't get much sleep at night.
Haven't felt much like bloggin, but we're all ok here. just tired.

Here's what we've been up to:

math: on to Beta. We've done the first three lessons including inequalities, sequence and review of last year.

spelling: finished lesson 9, 15/15.

Reading: almost done the last reader in the series. She's reading really well now.

grammar: memorized the months of the year, our address, phone number and 2 new poems. Learned about action verbs and pronouns. Label nouns and verbs in sentences.

science: finishing up our unit on the forest.. almost done a lapbook.

History: haven't done much this month... been focusing on science instead.

religion: making a handmade prayer book for her morning prayers from CHC.

art: finishing up projects from her weekly art class. art show coming up soon.

Music: fall concert was a success, practicing for the Christmas concert and the downtown concert hall. Church choir ongoing each weekend.

Trying to put five kids to bed by yourself...

... is very scary.

baby #1 is acting tired and fussy, so I take him to his bedroom, turn out the lights and try to nurse him to sleep. Baby number 2 is happily playing in my bedroom with my battery-operated flashlight-alarm clock (probably changing the timezone on me again so I become very confused the next morning). Toddler, preschooler and 7 year old are supposed to be cleaning their room and getting into PJs.

Baby #1 is almost asleep, when a crack of light seeps into the room, and grows brighter, carrying with it the noise of the other four kids. In walks the 7 year old looking for me. I hastily wave her away, trying not to talk so my noise won't wake up the sweet angel who is almost asleep in my lap. She leaves without saying anything, (smart girl) and the door doesn't latch behind her. Now back to baby #1... oh no! What is that pit pat pit pat I hear coming down the hall way?

The crack of light seeps into the room again, followed by a smiling talkative baby #2. I quickly pick up the almost asleep baby #1, put him in the crib, grab the crawling noisemaker and exit the room. Phew! That was a close one... Baby number one is quiet. He must be going to sleep.

Down the hall, into the kids room, "Why did you come into the baby's room E?"

"oh, I just wanted to tell you I was done cleaning my room".

"What?" I'm surprised, since the room doesn't look any cleaner than when I left except for 3 pieces of clothing that were picked off the floor. "Don't come find me for silly reasons when I"m putting the babies to bed!!".

Not really listening to me, she replies "mom, did you put that other baby in JPs room?"

I'm too focused on my baby-sleep mission to think about what she just said, so I give her 'the look' and take baby #2, settle in the rocking chair and start nursing him to sleep.

"Funny," I think to myself, "I think that baby was just sucking his thumb... that's odd, JP sucks his thumb, not P...."

Then, it dawns on me that I have just put P in JPs crib, and was about to do the opposite in this room. Now how did that happen, I wonder... I take a moment to wonder how far back it was that I had them mixed up, trying to remember who was wearing what PJs and which one was crying through mass that night. Classic sleep-deprived mother of twins moment. Or maybe I'm the only one who does this?

Anyways, I had two options:

A) Leave the status quo, put JP in Ps bed as he was almost asleep anyway, and hope that I didn't get all confused in the middle of the night, like getting a sleeping baby in the middle of the night instead of a crying one, thus waking up both at the same time. That could result in a very sleepless night... or

B) Somehow switch P into his real crib without waking him up, and keeping JP sleepy enough to go to bed in HIS real crib when I could get back to putting him to sleep. The danger in this option is that they both wake up ready to go , refusing to go to sleep because the 3 min 'nap' they had just had was good enough for another 3 hours of playtime.

I opted for option B because a late bedtime is always better than being woken up for hours on end in the middle of the night. I gently picked up JP from my lap, carried him into the bright light of the hall, left him with the kids who were still supposed to be cleaning their room and getting into PJs,

"Why didn't you TELL me I was putting P in JPs bed??" I say to E.

She gives me 'the look'.

I quietly walk into JPs room and pick up the sweet P who is half asleep and carry him into the bright hall (why didn't I shut out the light??), and into his own room. Placing him in his own bed causes him to start crying sorrowfully, so I sit back in the rocking chair and nurse him back to sleep again. Phew!!

Back to JP who is wide awake and having fun in the messy room... I take him into his right room this time, and try to settle in the dark to nurse him, taking time to quietly pray for the grace to make it through the night and the following day.

Bang!

What was that? Those noisy kids.

"MOMMY!!" the preschooler yells...

"Have you seen mommy?" he asks his 2 year old sister. "Where's mommy?"

"MOOOOOMMMMMMYYYYY!!!!" She yells for him.
"MOOOOOMMMMMMMYYYYY!!!" again, louder this time.

"MOOOMMMMYYYYYY!!!" She is very good at yelling.. I wonder how she learned that?

At this point I cover the baby's ear, and bite my lips stopping myself from yelling at them to be QUIET ALREADY!! because of course that would defeat the purpose of telling them.
Finally, I give up, put the baby in his crib hoping he'll just go to sleep and open the door (letting the bright light stream into the crib again... why didn't I shut that off?) to deal with the kids.

Turns out, it was very important that I come into his -dark- room and see his glow-in-the-dark batman PJs. urgh!

Amazingly both babies are now asleep, the bedroom is almost clean and everyone is in PJs except the two year old who is almost always naked anyways. I'm about ready to go up and read them some stories, brush some teeth, say prayers and put them to bed (about 6 times in the 2 year old's case).

Say a prayer for me tonight -- goodness knows I don't have time to.

How are those twins anyways?

For all you twin-curious folks: here's how the boys are doing lately: (they are 13 months old, 11 1/2 months adjusted, around 18 pounds)

P took his first steps last month. big boy!! He will walk two steps at a time, but preferrs to crawl everywhere as he has perfected the 100 metre dash with crawling. JP is a little more cautious, and will only walk while holding someone's hand.

Both of the boys have gotten their top two teeth and bottom two teeth and are now working on a molar in the back. Strange, I know, but just another clue to me that they are indeed identical and not fraternal. They get the same teeth in the same wierd order. This has made for some very sleepless nights for mommy.

JP has joined his brother in the mischieviousness contest. He has the grin to go with it, and they both get into loads of trouble now. They spend their days pulling books off my shelves, unrolling toilet paper, unloading the dishwasher, climbing stairs, chasing each other around, sneaking into bathrooms and eating anything they can find on the floor, and not much of what they find on their highchair trays. "you little TURKEY!" is a common phrase heard throughout the day at our house.

Thier favorite foods are frozen blueberries, frozen peas, raisins, corn, almond butter and jelly on toast, and french fries... oh, and don't forget mommy's milk. You can imagine that with a diet of frozen peas and almond butter, they get pretty messy. Especially since I don't have time to feed them carefully with a little spoon. The ammount of laundry I do in this house is crazy. But that's a whole other story... (in fact anyone want to come over and help me out? Just think of the nice blog post I could write about your thoughtful service)

At church, they are becoming quite the handfuls. They can be distracted for a few minutes with a board book or two, but then it's back to talking loudly to the priest or the reader, singing with the choir, or singing their own solos after the choir is done, trying to escape onto the floor and under the pew behind us, or just making cute faces at their adoring fans all around us. We are well known I am sure, as we sit in the second row. Good thing there are two grownups in this family!!

There are so cute movies of the babies (you might have to click through to my website http://www.catholicmom.blogspot.com/ to see them, if you are reading this somewhere else).

PIctures from halloween

This is a slide show of the fun night. You might have to click through to my blog if you are reading this in a reader.

The kids had a great time, it was just mommy who was tired and overwhelmed :-)

We had a little St. Margaret of Scotland, St. Adelaide (a princess), and St. Michael the Archangel. Funny thing, there were many princess saints and knight saints at the party. All the boys were sporting swords. It would be fun to make a book of knights and princesses for Jesus. I"ll get right on that LOL.

All Saints Day

As Catholics, we celebrate All Soul's eve, better known as halloween, on october 31st. The whole idea of the holiday is great, especially when you combine it with All Saints day that follows the next day. We learn about the saints, have a party with our friends, get dressed up, and eat candy, stay up late...

However, having experienced this whole 'halloween' thing for seven years and counting with my own little kids, I have realized that this holiday could never have been created by a mom... or if it was, she was certainly sorry the day after. Let me tell you, for those of you without kids, that little children, lots and lots of candy, dark, and a late bedtime are not the best ingredients for happy well adjusted children.

Sure, the tv shows and commercials that show beaming kids going from door to door paint a rosy picture, but they don't show what goes on in the moments before and after.

Before the whole event, there is the mad rush to put on the costumes, find all the necessary pieces, whine about having to eat real food when there is a perfectly good bowl of candy right by the door, and cry because their jackets make their costumes look 'dumb'.

Then at each house there is the shyness that erupts from some of them who refuse to say 'trick-or-treat', walk up to a door all by themselves, and the sheer terror that ensues when said door opens to a view of a very excited dog (who has been worked into a frenzy by each new doorbell). The party goes over well, until it's time to go home of course, and then the 'go to bed and eat your candy tomorrow' battle goes on and on into the wee hours of the night.

Unbelievably, my two year old greeted me in bed this morning at a lovely time of 6:45 am to let me know it was morning and she was ready for her candy!! And now, all day they eat candy, get hyper generally make a mess with chocolate, candy wrappers and fight over who has more of this candy and that candy.

Uh-oh, they are all here begging me for breakfast so I can drag out the bags... wish me luck!!

Learning adventures this week

I am trying to remember to post a weekly update of all the school work we have done each week. We are doing so many things, and I want to be able to keep track of it more regularly.
So here it is! Our week in Grade 2:

Math: Completed up to Lesson 28 in MUS Alpha (learning up to the minus 6 math facts), and did a daily fast math fact practice.

Religion: Chapter 4 in Faith and Life, Chapter 3 in the more workbooky Treasure of My Catholic Faith, Read stories of many saints in preparation for the upcoming All Saints Day.

Spelling: Completed Lesson five in My Catholic Speller A. She only got 11/15 so we'll be reviewing it again on Monday.

Grammar: Finished memorizing Singing by Robert Louis Stevenson, talked more about nouns and learned that ideas can be nouns too. (The love I have for my dog is great!). Started learning the names of the months, and practiced copy writing.

Phonics: Read 4 stories out of Little Angel Reader C, reviewing -ir, -ur, and -er sounds. She did great!! Read the entire Little Bear's Visit story.

Science: Finished our Butterfly and Moth unit in Biology, did a narration on how butterflies hide from enemies.

History: Learned about Ancient Egypt, Joseph and his brothers, and what life was like back then. Drew a map.

Social Studies: Learned about North American landmarks: Golden Gate bridge, Statue of Liberty, Ste. Anne de Beaupre shrine, Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls.

Art: She's just about finished making her puppet art class. Can't wait to see the finished product. We also attended an art seminar for homeschoolers and did some drawings.

Music: Weekly choir practice for Girls choir, and church choir. One more week before the fall concert!

The Gift of Art

We were privileged to attend a beautiful seminar put on for Catholic homeschoolers in our area called the 'Gift of Art'. The afternoon consisted of two guest speakers, lots of beautiful religious art to look at, and many projects to try our hands at afterwards. Of course our resident artist (age 6) was inspired, and she spent the entire hour and a half after the presentation patiently drawing the following two pictures. She didn't even stop to play or chat with her friends which is very uncharacteristic of her. She was inspired!!

The first is a drawing of the nativity, looking at the Holy Family from inside the barn. You can see through the window and door in the back that it's night outside. I love the use of perspective to show depth of field.

The second picture is her copy of an old painting of Mary. (notice she couldn't help but add in a crown for Mary).

The preschooler was also inspired to draw, and he produced 5 drawings!! The first is of Noah's ark (see the rainbow on the top?) and the second is of Mary also. I was amazed at how his printing is developing.

preschool mania

It seems like everyone is having fun with preschool this year. Kim at Starry Sky Ranch is posting a weekly feast of ideas at her Friday Funschool, and Elizabeth and Katherine are taking a trip Along the Alphabet path with Waldorf inspired activities at Serendipity. Beautfiul! I love the Apple pie with the As all over the crust.

I didn't really have any plans for preschool this year. With the twins here, I was going to take things very casually with the littles and just let them explore their new house and yard, playing most of the day.

Apparently they have other plans! I have been overwhelmed with requests for more schoolwork from both of them each and every day. They love doing work, can't get enough of it, and are actually learning things. The four year old is writing letters, numbers and starting to draw, and the 2 year old is counting, learning her colors, and matching shapes.

Being the second time through preschool here, I am enjoying their curiosity and natural desire for learning without the stress of wondering if am I doing it 'right' or messing them up for life by trying to school at home. It turns out, this is actually fun :-)

Here are some of the things we have been doing (and we are planing more to come):


File Folder Games:



These are the best invention.. They store easily, the kids love doing them, and they are cheap and easy to make:

You start with an empty file folder, open it up and glue on the 'game', then cut out the pieces and place into an envelope that is glued onto the front. They take the pieces out and match them to the places on the 'game board'. When they are done, they put them away in the envelope.

So far, we have made an ABC matching one, a number 1-20 matching one, and a butterfly color matching one. Now I want to buy a laminator so they will last longer.

You can purchase these online, to print off yourself, or you can find some of the free ones out there. You can even try your hand and making your own from scratch. (I don't have time for that)



Here are some good links:



Childcareland.com : free printables.. we used a few of these and like them.

Preschoolprintables.com

Enchanted learning.com I love their ideas of using yarn as lines to match shapes.

Phonics file folder games: some great ideas using pockets where you place pictures with the same sound.

MyFileFolder games: these cost $$ but look really good.

Handwriting

We really love Handwriting Without Tears around here. Some of the manipulatives they sell are these wooden pieces that can be laid out to make letter shapes. I haven't had the time or money to go out and buy them so I decided to make my own. I cut the pieces out of craft foam, and made some templates to lay them on from card stock.


Both the 4 year old and 2 year old like this game.

If I had that laminator, I would laminate the card stock mats and then they could also use them to roll out playdough into the letter shapes too.

Guess I know what I'll be asking for Christmas.

lessons from crabapple jelly

This past week I have been so busy getting ready for thanksgiving that I forgot to write about our jelly-making adventures!!

My neighbour has a big crabapple tree in his back yard, and kept offering them to us, as long as we picked them ourself. One crisp fall day at the tail end of apple season, I headed over there to do just that.

On his advice, I brought a big king-size bed sheet along, and carefully spread it on the ground under the tree. My plan was to shake the tree, watch as all the beautiful, crisp, red apples fall onto my sheet and happily carry them back home to process into sweet, apple jelly.

Well, if you know anything of my past adventures in new things, you'll know that things don't always go the way I am expecting. This was no exception, as the tree proved to be too solid for me to shake, the brances, too high for me to grab easily, and the apples that I could reach, too soft to use. So I hopped, and swung my arms at the branches, I climbed the fence beside the tree and tried to shake them off, and I got my toddler to help me pick up the ones on the ground that looked ok. In the end, we resorted to picking a bunch of them off the brances we found out back that he had just pruned off the tree the day before.

Back the in the kitchen, we dump all the apples into the sink and inhale the sweet smell of ripe fruit, and start to sift through all the leaves that had fallen from the tree onto my sheet with the apples. You see, when you shake a tree to get apples to come off, they aren't the only thing that falls... I had oodles of apples, leaves, and ladybugs all over the kitchen. What a mess! We tried to catch the ladybugs before they escaped into the cracks and corners of the kitchen to do who-knows-what, and we sorted through all the mushy apples and leaves.

In the end, we decided to phone grandma Sonia for help, as she is the absolute expert in anything related to the finer art of housekeeping. I need to just plug my brain into hers and download all of the amazing facts and information she has stored in there.

She came over two days in a row and we cut up the apples, boiled the juice down, made the jelly, canned it and picked some more apples to start over again. Here are some of the lessons that I learned:

1. Don't shake the apples out of the tree. You will also get all the just-about-to-fall-off-becuase-they-are-so-rotten ones, dried up leaves, ladybugs, and even a few caterpillars if you are really lucky. Also, the apples that do appear usable, end up getting bruised by landing on the ground.

2. Send your husband with a ladder and a bag to pick the apples.

3. Phone your grandma at the first sign of trouble.

4. Especially if you are thinking of substituting icing sugar for real sugar.

5. Don't use icing sugar in jelly, because it has cornstarch in it, which will thicken your jelly before it is done, making you think it's done, and leaving you with lots of cloudy, runny, sweet crabapple juice.

6. Cloudy, runny, sweet crabapple juice apparently makes good pancake syrup, and can possibly be spread in between cake layers or poured onto bread pudding. (or at least so says my grandma).

7. cooking with grandma is lots of fun, and very educational.

8. cooking without grandma is risky, and very scary.

9. Google has no search results for 'substituting icing sugar for sugar in jelly'. There! Now they should. :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I am again amazed at how fast my year has passed by. Last thanksgiving, we were rejoicing that the babies were out of the hospital in time for us to celebrate all together with our whole family. The thought of eating a turkey dinner at home while the babies were alone in the hospital broke my heart (as did the thought of leaving my 3 other kids so I could be at the hospital with the babies). I am so thankful that that ordeal is over, and we are all healthy and together. Family is the biggest blessing of all, isn't it?

This year, we hosted a family dinner at our new house. It was fun, really. We've made more than a few turkeys over the past 7 years of marriage, and have begun to enjoy hosting these dinners. It must be the daily chaos of having five kids under 7 that made a turkey dinner seem like nothing!

Our Menu:

FreeRange Fresh Turkey (16 pounds)

Organic mashed potatoes

Organic steamed carrots

Organic steamed green beans

Cornbread-sausage stuffing with apples

Sesame twist rolls (homemade)

Parker House whole wheat rolls (homemade)

Organic Gingersnap cookies

Pumpkin pecan pie (homemade by sean's parents)

Rhubarb crumble pie (homemade by sean's parents)

It was so yummy!! We moved our big table into the family room, so we had lots of space, and ate by the warmth of the fireplace beside us. The table was decorated with three little mini pumpkins carved out with a tea light resting inside of each.

Most importantly, however, was the company. We enjoyed visiting with our family, watching the antics of the children, writing down what we are thankful for on our 'thanksgiving tree', and watching the birds out the window with the babies. I am always, without-fail, exhausted when everyone goes home, but fall asleep with a smile on my face, and a feeling of warmth in my heart.

Thank you God for all your blessings.

Fall photos

We spent some time outside on monday taking pictures and playing in the leaves. Living in a community with big, old trees is fun in the fall when they all start to blow around and land on the ground.


The kids played outside for a long time, enjoying the fresh air. It sure is hard to get a good group shot of five kids under seven though :-)

It's good to be one!

We took the babies out to dinner on their birthday to a real restaurant (not McDonald's). They were such big boys, sitting up in their highchairs, eating chicken nuggets and french fries like the rest of the kids. For desert, they shared an apple tart and they liked it very much. Then we went to mass to celebrate their birthday and get blessed by the priest. In the morning, they enjoyed watching birdies and squirrels out the window for a long time, giggling with each other while playing with a puzzle, and having leisurely naps. It's great to be one!

Yesterday we had a big party for them with lots of family and a few friends. I made them two ducky cakes and a bunch of chocolate cupcakes. Yummy!! They played with their little friends Evan and Adelyn, enjoyed opening their presents and seeing all their new toys and clothing, and charmed all the relatives with their sweet demeanours. I am so blessed to have such adorable little babies. I don't want them to grow up!!


Today daddy and the kids are off to the local historical park to attend Train Days, and I am enjoying a quiet afternoon cleaning up the house and playing with the twins without all my 'helpers' running around. The smell of fall is blowing through the open windows, and I'm about to start a second batch of crab apple jelly.

It's amazing how one can be so happy and feel so blessed with so little sleep. God gives me so much grace to be able to live my life with such fullness. Thank you, thank you.

Happy Birthday Babies!!!!

Many would say the events around the birth of our surprise twins one year ago were miraculous... and I would be the first to agree, but the real miracle here is that I have lived to tell the tale, one whole year later!!

Oh babies, you add so much joy to my life. You have taught me to slow down. You have shown me that I am capable of so much more than I thought - especially when I have people helping me, you have given me a chance to truly give of myself, even when I feel I have nothing left to give.

You are miracles, and we love you. Thank you, dear God, for blessing our family with such an abundance of new life. I'm not sure how I will survive the next few years through toddlerhood, but I'm willing to try, one day at a time.

For a memory of that exciting day when the babies were born, here is the email announcement my dear husband sent out when they were born:

Greetings Friends and Family,

I finally had 5 minutes to send you a note about how our lives have changed dramatically in the past 48 hours.

I'm sending some pictures along as well...hopefully they make it.

Mel and I had really no idea that there were two little
boys inside, but fortunately our midwife did - but only when Mel started
measuring bigger than she should have about 2 weeks ago. So, we were
slated for a "rush" ultrasound, which we ended up getting done on Monday
night.

When the ultra-sound tech told us the news, all I could do was laugh -
mostly out of Joy for how much God wants to Bless us with life, but partly out
of shock.

My next thoughts were why didn't we listen...

About 2 days after finding out we were pregnant for the
fourth time, I was riding home on the bus with much joy in my heart and a smile
on my face...God then put the idea of twins in my head, and I remember chuckling
quietly to myself "That's a good one, God.".

Easy enough to pass off, right?

Mel did the same thing when I told her, though with a little more
"trepidation" (sp?) In her voice. However, we should have at least
investigated when that night at the dinner table we were sharing the news with
our other kids and asking what sex they thought the baby was - I think Elizabeth
went for a girl - I thought a boy...but imagine our wide-eyed wonder when Zach
said with all confidence: "I'm having two brothers!".

Again, we nervously laughed and looked at each other with wide eyes, but, silly us, chose to ignore it.

Now, fast forward to this Monday night when we are we
are scrambling to come up with another boy's name (we knew at least 1 was a boy
after the ultrasound). I go to bed trying to calculate how best to fit all
the car seats in the Van about 11:30. Then the fun began.

Mel taps my shoulder at 2:30 in the morning saying that she is having mild
contractions that were enough to "keep her awake". So, we call the
midwife, who is just coming home from another birth. The contractions
seemed mild enough at the time, but based on previous experience, I started
packing for a trip to the hospital, called the Grandparents and got them going,
and then Mel got up. Contractions started to kick in hard, and within
about 3 minutes, she had the urge to PUSH!

After calling Joy (the midwife) again, she changed direction from going to the hospital to coming to our house, and said call 911.

So, Mel went back to the bed, I had 911 on the horn and went to unlock the door.

By the time I got back, Peter was already on his way out! I caught him as Mel pushed him out with one contraction (he was tiny!). He was crying right away, so I wasn't worried about him.. He was on Mom's tummy right away, and I scrambled to find my shoes to get a shoelace to tie off the umbilical cord. By the time
I was back, John Paul was on his way - feet first. But, being as small as
he was, within two pushes he was out as well. He didn't cry right away so
I gave him a vigorous rub on the back and that got him mad enough to get things
started. Right about then, 2 paramedics and a fireman came into the
room. We wrapped them up quick, and then Joy our midwife came about 5
minutes later. All was well, though JP was having a little trouble with
the breathing. Grandpa and Grandma were on the scene, so Grandpa watched
the other kids while Mel and I and our two new bundles of Joy got a free ride in
the ambulance and Grandma followed us to the foothills.

And that is where they are. Peter came in at 4lbs 11oz, but is the more alert one (the word "scrappy" comes to mind) and JP at 5lbs 7oz is the more laid-back of the
two...but he's had a lot of work to do getting his breathing in order, so I'm
sure he'll be more energetic soon.

I want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for all your offers of help and assistance and your congratulations. Mel and I have a long road ahead of us, but are confident we can handle this fine with our friends and family surrounding us as they
have.

Please pray for a speedy strengthening for these two little tykes so we can get them home soon with their siblings who so dearly want to be with them.

For those who may not have seen yet, we are on the cover of the Sun today!!

Thank you for sharing in our Joy,
and God Bless you all!

To anyone who has helped us over this past year... for meals, prayers, clothes, diapers, time, love, cards, gifts, cleaning, holding babies in church, smiling at me in the mall... THANK YOU!!

preschool history

I have started a wall timeline for the kids. So far, it's pretty boring. A long line on the wall, with creation written at the beginning.

I guess Z wanted to make his own because I found him working very hard on this in the office this afternoon:

The world is at the beginning, and then the stick figures are as follows from left to right: Noah, noah's boat, Moses, David and Goliath. Cute!! (he told me he though that he was drawing Goliath first, and then david, but when he looked at them the second guy looked mean, so he is goliath.)

here's Es picture of the mystery bird

We think it's a house finch.. but we're not sure.

birds birds everywhere!

We've been enjoying more birdwatching as the days get cooler here in alberta. The kids will sit for 10 min at a time, silently watching the feeder out our front window. I love seeing their curiosity and attention span develop. They have even made their own birdfeeder (from a taco box with some pinecones rolled in peanut butter and birdseed... I asked her if she wanted to paint the box, but she said that then the birds wouldn't know it was for food because the taco picture wouldn't be on it)

Today, I was greeted with 'shhh's when I came downstairs because they were 'watching the nuthatches'. Sure enough, there were 3 nuthatches at the feeder. I'm so excited they are learning to identify the different birds.

Each day we've been watching the blue jay, the nuthatches (red breasted), the chickadees, some sparrows, a black squirrel and a grey squirrlel come and go. Today we were treated to a new suprise: a flock of new birds we've never seen before... the males had red heads and breasts, and the females were white and brown striped along their tummies.

Looking through our bird books, we think we have identified them as house finches, although my guide says they don't come this far north.... we showed them :-)

Last week, we were lucky to have a butterfly land on the windowsill to warm it's wings when the clouds came out. He sat their long enough for E to identify him on our butterfly poster, and then draw a picture of him. Beautiful! We even learned what the catterpillar looks like.

In science, we are reading about the desert, and E has been busy drawing pictures of desert toads and tadpoles (did you know that some of them hibernate for 11 months of the year and only come out during the rainy season?? now that is quality sleep!!).

I love all these extras of schooling. The spelling and the math are oh-so-necessary, but the science and the real learning that happens throughout the day are really fun.

I won! I won!!

If you see me walking about and don't recognize me, because I am wearing a sylish bag on my shoulder (instead of the clunky diaper backpack) I won't be offended. I am just thrilled to have won a blog contest from Amy over at Fresh Vintage. Thanks Amy!!

B is for...

Blogging: I have really enjoyed keeping up this blog over the past few years. It has become a wonderful chronicle of our familie's life, and our homeschooling adventures. I don't have a lot of time to scrapbook, so this is my own version of the family album.



Babies: who doesn't love 'em? Cuddly, cozy, soft... and I have two of them all to myself! Their innocence and dependence always calls me back to God, and brings out the best in me. (it's the toddlers who bring out the worst LOL).



Bedtime: my favorite time of the day, besides early in the morning before anyone else has woken up...



Busy: My life since having kids. But, I love it. I am hardly ever bored.



Brown: my hair and my eyes. Well my eyes are more like hazel, like my daddy, and I do have a handful of grey hairs sprinkled throughout my hair, but who's counting?

Bread: My little secret-- I love baking homemade bread, and I've always imagined being able to bake all of the bread our family needs. I think I have about 4 bread cookbooks and I love reading them, and imagining the feel of the dough in my hands. Last week I actually made 3 loaves, but in this house, that only lasts about 2 days. I want to start learning how to bake sourdough because I like the texture better, but that's a whole other ball of wax :-)

Books: My favorite things, just about. I love kids books, encyclopedias, cookbooks, craftbooks, and fiction. I think I have paid the library enough fines to stock an entire row of shelves with books. Maybe an entire floor :-) (ask my mom and my husband.. they can tell you). Currently I am obsessing over which books to buy from the Usborne book party that I recently had. I love buying kids books. Come to think of it, maybe that's one of the reasons I love homeschooling so much.

the latest artwork

We are still moving along in our art curriculum that we started last fall. This past month we have made some clay tablets and carved pictures into them, made a clay cup and painted it with black paint like the ancient greeks, and then drew some profile pictures on the wall (shining a flashlight onto paper and tracing our shadows).

The first picture is E, (why an american flag in the background I don't know).
The second picture is of Z... he looks so cool!
The third picture is yours truly, drawn by the resident artist of the family, E. I think I look like some eighties rock star LOL. She certainly is creative.

I am amazed at her how long her attention span is for drawing, and how short it is for math. If I could only harness it!!

Nature notes

Now that we live in an established neighborhood (read: big trees) as opposed to our old fancy new neighborhood (read: barren wasteland sprinkled with lots of pristine green lawns and annuals), we are excited to be in the midst of a bustling community of critters. We have seen all sorts of them, and are having great fun learning to identify different species.


This month, we have been busy setting up some bird feeders and a bird bath outside our school room window so we can keep an eye on our new friends. Today we were treated to quite the show:

A black capped chickadee (we love these little guys)

A mystery bird that is probably another chickadee but has an orange belly and a black 'mask' across it's eyes like batman... maybe a nuthatch?

A big black squirrel

And, our favorite so far, A big blue jay. He is the funniest, because he pecks and pecks around in the feeder trying to pull out the peanuts. He also has a very loud call to announce his presence. He looks like a giant on the feeder compared to the little chickadee. I hope he sticks around through the winter. We are going to have to buy some more bird seed.



We hung the feeder in the big spruce tree that was planted waaay too close to the front of the house 30 years ago. I was contemplating cutting it down, because when you look at it with the eyes of one who is coming from a pristine new community, it's quite the eyesore.. but now that I have seen it in it's true light (a beautiful part of the habitat in this community of wildlife). I think maybe we can keep it. It provides a great hiding place for the birds, and lots of branches for them to perch on... and it hides the big mess of seeds and shells that the birds toss on the ground below the feeder.

-----------------------------

Speaking of nature and the fall time:



There is a lovely new online magazine that is available for free through September called Seasonal Delights. It's billed as a magazine for young ladies and their mothers, (although it could be enjoyed by anyone really), and it's filled with craft ideas, recipes with great photos to accompany the instructions, and poems. It's the kind of magazine you want to curl up on the couch by the fire with a blanket and browse through, dreaming of all the fun you could have with your kids this fall. I am looking forward to reading it myself.