Our Vacation Rental

Back in August, after we had decided upon a home to buy, the next hurdle I needed to cross was finding us a place to live for six to eight weeks while our new home was completed. It needed to be furnished and affordable.  The best option we found was a vacation rental online.  It seemed to have the necessities and was as cost effective as anything we could find.  So, we landed there, sight unseen, in late September.

I don't know about you, but when I think 'vacation rental' I picture either a quaint cabin near snow-capped Yosemite or the quintessential beach house with 'seaside art' on the walls and sand for a front yard.

I can tell you very decisively: this was not that idyllic home I just described.  No ma'am, this was some dude's extra townhouse: a stone's throw from a massive intersection and under a flight path for the 6th busiest airport in America, with a serious ant problem and a broken couch.  But hey, it had a roof, beds, a kitchen, a laundry room, and a couple of toilets.  And it was only six weeks.

Our kids did their school on TV trays that we took along as we knew we would need a few more 'surfaces'.  Three people ate their meals on folding chairs we had also brought along.  I baked Ryan his favorite pie on his birthday in a 9x9 glass dish as there was no pie plate. S slept in a sleeping bag in a corner.  The other kids "learned" how to share a bed.  I shopped 2 or 3 times a week for groceries as the frig was very near a dorm size frig.  This was such an adventure.

I empathize very deeply now with families who live in apartments or town homes.  Not only is it difficult to be in small quarters with energetic children, but it is hard to keep them quiet!  It is exhausting!  Seriously, it feels (and is, at many times) quite futile.  We demonstrated elephant feet vs kitty feet time and time again.  I think the only thing we accomplished is that now (six months later) our kids will call each other out for walking with elephant feet.

This strange time of our lives resulted in many great consequences.  Primarily born out of our need to escape from our vacation rental!

We discovered many great places to hike.  We hiked to waterfalls at South Mountain State Park.  But Crowder's mountain became a family favorite. We did that hike twice during out eight week stay.  The fall colors were beautiful and we truly enjoyed being comfortable outside, in November!  (Something we could not have said in WI)

It is strenuous, and the last climb is quite fun, but it is worth it in the end. Yes, that is our littlest, scaling the mountain all by herself!

We also discovered some of the Greenways that the city of Charlotte has created for recreation.  Oh, how we were missing our bikes (99% of our belongings were being stored by the relocation company).

Overall, it was a long eight weeks but we are grateful for the chance we had to acquaint ourselves with some of the excellent outdoor activities in our new city.

Oh, how glad we were to sleep in our own beds and all fit together comfortably in a dining room or living room once again! Onto our new home!

An Unforgettable Trip

One Wednesday afternoon in August I stepped out of a plane in Charlotte, NC to find our family a new place to call home.  Ryan was working there that week and it was great to be with him in our new hometown.  But I had four days and had never been to Charlotte before, other than a layover, which does not really assist in one's understanding of a city and its areas.

Yes, I did a lot of research online.  But all the research in the world gets a bit blurry when it comes to getting in a realtor's car and seeing 30 houses in two days spanning across an area containing four counties. I have never had such fitful sleep as those nights.   

Long story, short: in the areas we wanted to live there was (and is) a lot of growth happening.  Tons.  So, most of what was on the market was new construction.  At the end of two days looking I had to narrow it down to what Ryan and I should go see on Saturday and Sunday.  Some were easy eliminations: one that shared its lot line with a massive power line tower and any that smelled like smoke.  But it was very hard to find a good size backyard and we really didn't want to budge on that. We narrowed it down to three by Sunday morning.  

In the end, we went with the house that was the cheapest, but with the largest yard and house. It just made sense.  There was one drawback, though.  It wouldn't be ready until around Nov 1st.  Hmmm....

After we returned to WI, I got to work trying to find us reasonable accommodations in the Charlotte area for the six or so weeks we would be 'homeless'.  Hotels were out of the question.  We needed to be able to cook, do laundry, keep a dog with us, and generally function as a family.  After a few weeks, I stumbled upon a vacation rental that ended up being available.

We made our journey to the Carolinas and I have zero pictures of it.  Yup, major life change with the entire family and no pics.  Let's just say that if we had driven with barrels on our vehicle's roofs we would have collected enough water to drink for the next two years.  Our windshield wipers ran from moderate to high for all 17 hours of driving.  I will never forget Louisville.  I really thought I was going to take myself, our car, and my passengers to our end and not be able to see it through the rain.  As I went over a massive bridge at night in a torrential downpour, hydroplaning, a semi splashed in a massive puddle across the median and I couldn't see for what felt like an eternal minute.  It was terrifying.  Then we had to continue driving that night onto Lexington.  By God's grace we all fell into bed in one piece.

Really the trip was not what most people think of when they think of a family road trip.  There was the unrelenting rain, a small collision of our car and a rented UHaul trailer, dogs barking at night in our hotel rooms, and more.  But we did enjoy listening (over the rain) to the original Winnie the Pooh series and Focus on the Family's Anne of Green Gables on CD.  Honestly, the Winnie the Pooh series is hilarious and is appreciated more by adults than young children.  Look for the recording with Judy Dench and Stephen Fry.  We highly recommend it.

So, we land in Charlotte and it isn't raining!!!! We had finally outrun the storm.  What a relief.  As we settled into a hotel for one more night the rain begins to come down.  The kids were put to bed and I went to take a shower while Ryan took the dogs outside.  Next thing I know the power goes out.  Seriously, this has got to be the most ridiculous ending to a relocation trip, ever. Fortunately Ryan returned and turned on his laptop for some light to shower and get ready for bed by.

I remember waking in the morning, seeing clear blue sky, throwing open the hotel curtains and earnestly waking all the children up with joyous cries of, "its not raining!".

Good thing I didn't marry Noah four thousand years ago....

A New Season

Over the last two years some of Ryan's travels had been to attend conferences on Lean Manufacturing systems, held in Charlotte, NC.   His company had a presence in Charlotte and he happened to know the HR manager for that facility.  As you can probably piece together, this is where God had in mind for us.  But it unfolded slowly.

Ryan was encouraged to apply for a position there in April of last year and that ended up not panning out about the time that another one opened up which turned out to be a better fit. That was in late June.

Back in May, Ryan and I had taken on the project of changing out all the siding and windows on our 60 year old house.  It was a lot of fun and a great work out.  The kids spent many a day playing outside while me, Z, and the crowbar demolished old, nasty, moldy, rotten, MDF siding.  We would tear it off of a side or two toward the end of the week and take it to the dump.  Then on the weekend Ryan and I would house wrap, install new windows, and put on new siding.  The next week we would do it all over again on another side (we had a detached two car garage so this made for many sides).

One day in May my dad came for a day and helped out! You can see the old vs new siding if you look  closely.

It was such an adventure!  The wind forever picked up when we had a 30 feet of house wrap cut and ready to put up.  And we lived for two weeks with just house wrap on the front of our house covering our main window to our living area while the custom window was made.  Then we had to hoist a 9 foot long window up into its spot! And the many hours where Ryan was perched on our neighbor's extension ladder to nail in the peak siding pieces, were some of intense prayer for myself.

We finished during Ryan's July 4th break.

Within a week Ryan had an offer letter.  God timed it all perfectly.  While the project really did not help us gain anything monetarily on the house it did set our house apart from the others in the market.  When we listed our home there were over 200 homes for sale in a city of 11K people. And for us, a long time on the market would have been very costly and difficult with many weeks of separation.

Ryan started flying back and forth, doing two jobs, in August.  His company paid at the beginning, but in mid-September he was to start full time in Charlotte and any travel or hotel stays were on us.  We all arrived, together, in Charlotte the third week in September on a Sunday and our house officially closed on that Tuesday!

Our next 8 weeks in a strange new city was a unique adventure all its own.

Changing Seasons

In case you missed it....this is a continuation of the prior post.   You may feel a bit out of the loop if you don't read that first. Or you can just read on...

I strongly believed that God had another place in mind for us.  I just had this feeling that there was going to be this gate of relief and blessing opening up in time.

So I would encourage Ryan by telling him it was just a season.  His awesome response which I will never forget was, "That's nice.  Have you talked to the Israelites?  Their season was 40 years." (Remember, he was working in a 5am-6pm job in which he was the punching bag: it didn't necessarily breed optimism)

But I really did believe that God had plans for our family to blossom in the outdoors, fellowship, work balance, and much more.  All areas where we were not flourishing.

It took about eighteen months until we saw the light appearing at the end of the tunnel.  That was a long time.   I remember going inside to put on another jacket during a family bonfire in the backyard (in June) crying because I was so weary of being cold.  Look, I cry like twice a year. I was tired of feeling bone chilled for eight months.   Really tired.  It is a feeling that is hard to explain.  And I remember comforting crying kids who had said good bye to their dad for a week for the second time in three weeks. It was a long haul.

All the while Ryan and I did not feel right about him looking for a new employer.  He was (and still is) working for a company that is very large and rather good to their employees as well.  We knew there were lots of options for him being possibly promoted or transferred to one of their other locations (in most of the 50 states and even worldwide).  But it was going to take the right combination of his networking connections and God's hand.

The wheels began to turn in Spring of 2013.

By August he was working in a new position.

And in September we all packed up and traveled for two full days.

Our Previous Season's Trials

As I left off blogging two years ago, life was a lot different than it is now.  I had two children in diapers.  I had three nappers.  I had only a kindergartener and a second grader to teach.  And we lived in the frozen tundra (err, on top of it, technically).

It seems strange, but it is true in our family that our seasons of life seem to ebb and flow around where Ryan works and in what kind of job and environment.  It makes a big impact on our family.  I think it makes a big difference in a lot of families.  I personally believe that the demise of the strong family unit in our country is largely due to our corporate culture (but that is an entirely separate post).

Anyhow....back to two years ago...Ryan was working a crazy job in materials management. For about two years he worked in this position where all of the problems in that facility (which was large and made the company a lot of $$-which means more stress, by the way) were pretty much laid at his feet to fix, yesterday.  Ryan is not an A-type, in your face guy.  He was aging a year every month.  He traveled away from home almost 25% of the time. He wore burdens heavier than any wife wants to see on their best friend.  He was nearly being forced to become someone he was not.

We buckled down at home and I worked hard to be the soft landing place for him.  I painted walls, updated and remodeled rooms, sewed girls' dresses and boys quilts all during the nights when Ryan was traveling (I don't sleep well solo so I fire up the productivity jets until I can't do anything but sleep).  And Ryan tried daily to maintain all of his integrity and love at a work place that rarely valued those qualities.

Meanwhile, I began to struggle with the long Wisconsin winters.  They were depressing for someone from sunny CA.  When we had first moved to WI, five years prior, I had babies and they kept coming (and yes, we do know how it happens).  With babies in the house I just put one foot in front of the other, tried to stay sane and didn't really notice or care what the weather was.  I shoveled snow and learned to appreciate the beauty of the white landscape and then would go back inside to change a diaper and prepare baby meals.

But then the kids grew older.  We wanted to bike ride more than three months out of the year and wanted to not freeze on a June evening walk.  We desired to have a more active family lifestyle.

And really, buying vitamin D supplements??? Didn't God create the sun for such a purpose?

To add to our feelings of "get me out of here" was the sense of darkness all around us.  Where we lived lacked life, joy, and spiritual enthusiasm everywhere. Liturgical, robot like 'religion' was common.  Alcohol flowed like water.  Smoking was not what a fire did, but 'what most people Dad worked with did'.  Rough language was par for the grocery store.

This was not the place we wanted our kids to grow up and call home.

So we prayed.  And we prayed.

Returning to the Blogosphere

So it has been nearly two years.

I could use the next few paragraphs to explain the absence, but that would not really be much fun for any of us.  Let's just say that life had larger priorities.  As I look back I see that it was a time where God wanted me to intensely focus on what was happening in our home and take care of the needs of my husband and children.

Life definitely goes in seasons, in my opinion.

We just left behind a three year long season and have begun a new one.  More on that to come.

Essentially, I am setting out to revive this blog to, hopefully, some of its former glory.

While my children and husband do still desire to eat and have clean clothes it does seem that there is a bit of breathing room in my schedule now.  In addition, we now are living further away from all of our family (as a result of the previously mentioned new season).  Thus, this is a good instrument for giving them a window into our family from afar.

So, stay tuned for posts to come in the none too distant future.

The Day My Kids Flew Away

Sometimes my life is so eventful that I just can't wait to write about it...but then life keeps coming and I never get to it.  Although, it is really much closer to the truth to say I simply don't place blogging at a very high priority.  I hope you don't take it personally, but I do put potty training, laundry, and scrubbing showers before sharing my thoughts with all of you....

See, J had those staples put in her head somewhere around two months ago and today I sit here, finally,  writing about the absolutely ridiculous day we all had when we went to the hospital to have them removed. 

I recall it being a blustery Tuesday in which I had a number of errands on my list with the hopefully quick ER visit last.  We accomplished the other errands without incident and headed to the hospital (I would have happily gone to our pediatrician, but then I pay more because the ER kindly includes the removal visit in their nominal fee when you go there, in the first place, to have them installed). 

As I get out of the car I notice that my door closes on its own with quite a bit of gusto.  I make a mental note to carry M, as he does not like wind, and S as she is probably too small to withstand the wind (although she thinks it is great fun).  I proceed around my SUV opening the doors (and trunk-as two children enter and exit there) to let everyone out.  Yes, I do often feel like a flight attendent, in case you were wondering.  I hear some protests about the wind, but very sympathetically point out that the entrance is "right over there" (about 50 yards).

I begin walking toward the doors, shielding my youngest two from the wind when I notice I am alone.  I look around and find Z, carrying a bag of books, has made a beeline for the door with his head down and has severely missed his target and obviously has no idea of his misfortune.  However, that quickly becomes no big deal as over the wind I hear T and J screaming at the top of their lungs.  They are literally being blown across the parking lot. 

Time out: Have you ever watched the Weather Channel during a severe hurricane?  Well, if you are as dorky as Ryan and I and you have then just picture those poor weather reporter people who continue talking while they are nearly horizontal and holding onto a light pole, but much shorter, cuter, and helpless.

This is what I saw except that every two seconds one of the girls would actually fall to the ground and try to get up only to be swept FARTHER away from the door.  Meanwhile, I am completely incapacitated.  I can't set a child down (let's not imagine what would happen to a lighter person), but I don't even have a hand free. I have one child on each hip, one child blindly heading off to who knows where, and two girls nearly rolling across the parking lot.  I quickly decide that I have to get Z to come back, if he can hear me, to sit with M and S in the ER lobby. 

I wait for a brief break in the gusting and holler with all my might to get Z's attention.  It worked!  He looks more than befuddled as to how he ended up where he was, but now heads in the right direction.  I can now focus on the girls who are screaming as they have managed to find solace in a parking lot island and are CLINGING to a poor two year old tree.  However, this island happens to have small rock as its ground cover and they are continuously crawling or falling on this material. Thus, more reason to holler...other than being helpless. 

I attempt to tell them my plan, but it really isn't worth it.  I make a beeline to the door and get through the first set of sliding doors, set down M and S, tell Z to "watch them" and RUN back outside.  I rescue my two girls who are still trying to claw their way across the rocks on all fours, but keep ending up back at their beloved tree.  As we go in I notice that T is particularly upset.  Come to find out her headband blew away.  Deep breath...deal with that in a bit. 

As I walk through the second set of double doors, with all of my children safely in tow, I am now in a very crowded waiting room for the ER.  I feel fifty thoughts a second rushing to my head.

Something like this: This waiting room is full.  We are going to have to wait a long time.  It is almost lunch time.  I can't wait more than an hour.  Wait, they are all staring at us.  Are you serious? They must have just watched us fall all over the parking lot.  Wow, that is fantastic.  Glad my family could be of some entertainment.  Hold on people...really? None of you abled bodied people could have helped me?  Really???  Oh well, I will look straight ahead.  We are all OK.  I will be the composed mom of five and smile. 

I go to the counter and this kind woman looks at me sympathetically.

What? Did they have a running commentary going on in here?

She now informs me, almost sheepishly, that the wait is over two hours long; they have just been very busy today.  "OK, maybe my husband will bring her this evening", I say with a fair amount of resignation.  She kindly offers me the nurse station phone number which we can call later to see if the wait is shorter.

I take my brood through the first set of doors to many fearful protests and tell them to wait on the small bench that is in this small area before actually going outside.

As I run out to my car to pull it up to the doors I realize my keys were gone!!  I climb in the car to empty my purse and it dawns on me that I can hear the engine running.  I had never turned off our car!!!  I take another deep breath and place one child at a time inside the running car.

We all made it home safely. 

And I found the headband!!!

They really must be twins...

Often when I am out with the kids, T and J are assumed by most to be twins.  They are the same height, have the same hair and eye color, and generally look quite a bit alike.  The two of them have developed all sorts of responses to this question/comment (many people don't ask, but simply assume).

Just today, the mom teaching their coop class was introducing them to another mom who was visiting, and said, "And this is T and this is J; good luck keeping them straight!"  And their poor swimming instructor...they have matching swimsuits and both have hot pink goggles.  One can often hear her trying out both names for one girl just to see which gets their attention.

I don't try to encourage this 'twin-like' behavior.  But I don't discourage it either.  I hope they are the best of friends and love each other's company dearly all the years of their lives, but they are two individuals who are really not much alike, underneath, at all. So I do my best to allow them to be however 'twinish' (or not) they desire on any given day.

However, on Monday this idea of occasionally being twins became a bit over the top.  Not to mention dangerous and expensive.

See, there was this post about 13 months ago: Our first trip to the ER.  For the sake of demonstrating just how absurd this is: T and J are almost exactly 13 months apart.

Well, we repeated that incident once again on Monday.  Only this time with J.  Yup, she has four staples in the center back of her head.

She was sitting on a small, low wooden stool using a side table to do her handwriting (she is known for finding odd locations and configurations in which to do most tasks) when she lost her balance and fell back.  It would have been a small bump on the carpet except that a chair had been pushed back and she came back on a corner of the chair leg.  I was in the kitchen (around a corner) making bread when she hollered. 

I will never get over the amount of blood that comes with head injuries.  Dripping all over the floor, down all of her hair, etc. She even had managed to cover a bit of her face with some.  Oh, the amount of ideas one's head suddenly has at a moment like this is rather staggering.  Anyhow, it was a mess, but once I washed her up a bit I saw that it was just like T's and knew we were in for the same treatment.  I also knew I could wait twenty minutes for Ryan to come home and watch the rest of the little ones.

On to the ER J and I went.  The nurse even remembered our family from when we all had come in for T to have her staples taken out.  I suppose there aren't too many groups of six people (only one of those persons being an adult) piling into an ER room with school books and pencils to have staples removed... 

Fortunately for J, the Dr decided to use a topical numbing gel.  T had no anesthetic with hers, but she is a much tougher cookie.  Four staples and a special teddy bear later we were on our way home.

I still can't decide on one thing: Is it simply sad or a blessing from above that we finished paying off our last ER bill (for T's broken finger) this month, just in time to begin another payment plan....

Oh, and did I ever tell you?  T named her bear, which the ER gave her last year, "Staples".  Seriously.

J's bear's name? "Fancy Jane"....don't ask; I don't know...but its things like that which go to show that they really aren't twins.

Homeschool Update-History & some great reads

We are in a season of life that consists primarily of putting one foot in front of the other.  Ryan is working long, stressful hours.  The weather is still cold.  Cabin fever has come and not gone.We have had more than our share of colds, stomach flues, and 'fluky' bugs.  But this time of year is also, 'buckle down and make some serious head-way with school' in our family. 

As I seem to have a tendency to modify curriculum, I have settled on the best way to adapt Heart of Dakota's Bigger Hearts for His Glory for our family. We primarily use the history, language arts, and science reading along with the hymn study and some of the geography and vocabulary.  I have abandoned the Bible study and poetry study.  Instead, we decide as a family what type of Bible study we want to do when we finish one.  This time the kids really wanted to do a simple study on Mark.  I wasn't about to turn that down!  Our last study was using the book, Leading Little Ones to God.  To read more on how much I liked that book, go here.

Our history curriculum has taken us through a biographical study of the American Revolution time period.  Z is an avid reader and particularly likes history.  Seriously, he reads his Bible, a fun book (such as Little House on the Prairie or the Fairchild Family series), and a history book at his rest time.  I finally started a list for him so that he knows what to pull off the shelf (nearly every three days) when he finishes his latest historical biography or nonfiction. 

I acknowledge this is a great problem to have (yes, I know this is not necessarily common and no, I do not expect this to continue through all of my children so please don't feel bad if your kid isn't devouring every history book out there; you are welcome to consider us the weird ones), but it keeps me on my toes looking for age appropriate and 'non-dry' (living) history books.  My primary resource is the Childhood of Famous Americans series.  And when that resource runs dry, I wait until a library day, go to the history section with him, grab a two foot high stack of books covering the time period we are studying and sort through them.  I hand him my 'yes's' and let him pick what he would read from those.

When beginning to plan out this year, last summer, I added some history books to enhance our studies. See, I know that whenever I pull out a good living history book to read for Z and T's history time two things usually happen.  One, I quickly gain a larger audience.  And second, they all complain when I stop.  So, while HOD included some great old living history books I wanted to add a bit of meat for our style.  For this task I browse the catalogs of other homeschool publishers and weed through some reviews of the books on Amazon. 

The best book so far is actually a rather short, more picture book style piece that is included in Beautiful Feet's history curriculum.  A More Perfect Union  by Maestro is an excellent read for younger elementary students learning about American history.  If you want to teach the story of the Constitution and begin a dialogue regarding the basic structure of our government, this is just the book.   The illustrations are very pleasant, the text simple, but the teaching of our founding fathers' endurance is never insignificant.

Other good supplements for American history are Jean Fritz's books.  The kids giggled all throughout Why don't you get a horse, Sam Adams? and they were intrigued by the story of Where was Patrick Henry on the 29th of May?  Understand, these are good for additions to a American history curriculum, particularly in a biographical approach, such as we are doing this year.

Two series which I keep an eye out for at library booksales (they seem to be commonly sold for a quarter or two around here) are the "If you lived..." and "If you grew up..." books by Scholastic.  These are great little paperbacks which transport the reader back to being a child in a particular time period.  There are illustrations on nearly all of the pages accompanying text that flows in a question and answer format.  Such as, "What did boys and girls where during the time of....?".  I find these books great for when we are beginning to study a new time period or person (there are books such as, If you grew up with Abraham Lincoln).

So, how in the world do I afford all of these books?  First, I talked a lot about that here.  Second, I have a new wonderful resource.  Thriftbooks.  You can find a ton of books for 3.99 with no additional shipping.  And if you find multiple books coming from the same warehouse then you save .50 on each of those additional books!  And...search for coupon codes.  I ordered once in Jan and once in February and both times found that they had active coupons going.  One was for a free book and one was for 10% off the whole order. This can make Charlotte Mason schooling seriously affordable!  And of course, the library.  I only buy books that I intend to use for all five children or I hope they would read many times for enjoyment.

That is our history update, folks.  Literature, art and music to come.  Just don't hold your breath.  I only wrote this post over three days!

How our children do work

I have taken an intentional break from blogging.  The holidays were filled with some serious game playing, a Kutless Christmas concert where Ryan and I volunteered, baking, a trip to see the Nutcracker, and simple days.  It was awesome!  Ryan took about a week and a half off and we all really just enjoyed life together.

And then we rang in the new year with everyone at the Dr.'s office and many on a much needed antibiotic.

But here I am, back to writing, and healthy (except for a serious calf muscle strain-long story...let's just say patience is not one of my strong suits)!

I am going to wrap up the series on kids and work today. To find part 1 go here.  For part 2: here.

Our family has a designated chore time five days a week.  It happens M,T,Th,F,Sat.  Wednesdays are a busy day for us outside of the house and chores just don't make sense that day.  Currently, I have the kids doing their weekday chores after lunch.  This allows us to have a solid morning to get school done.  On Saturdays, chores are first thing. Sundays are a day of rest.

We do pay our children a bit for chores.  This consists of a couple of quarters a week.  We don't want to make this a large money making ordeal.  However, we want to give a small opportunity for them to begin learning some money managing skills.  In addition, it is a way to introduce the concept of working to earn a paycheck. 

We do not pay all of the children equally.  Our oldest two earn a quarter more than J does and their assigned jobs reflect that difference.  M and S do not have chores nor do they receive any income.

Our children usually begin doing chores when they are between 3 and 4.  This begins with simply putting away their own clean laundry, making their bed and maybe helping dust or wipe down counters or feed a pet.

Typically by the time they are 4 they are ready to take on some more independent light cleaning.  It is better to begin this process early rather than late.  Just don't overwhelm them; you want this to be a positive, helpful experience.

As a practical matter, how do we handle kids and chemicals?  We don't.  I use all natural cleaners.  You can make some of your own.  You can look to buy some 7th Generation at the store (not really my favorite, but convenient). 

We purchase through Melaleuca (I use all of their cleaners and laundry/dish detergent) and through Frontier (I buy Citra-Solv and all of our personal products from them).  Team up with like minded friends and family if you wish to do an account on Melaleuca as it requires a monthly commitment that I find is typically beyond what one family needs.  Or contact Frontier to see if they have a buying group in your area. 

Honestly, long-term, you will save piles of money with these two companies if you become committed to natural products. I don't sell for either of them.  It is just my honest opinion.

My last bit of advice is to be consistent, but flexible.  Keep chores going despite any whining or complaining.  Better yet, inform your children that income is only given out when their jobs have been done well and cheerfully. 

But if a child is not feeling well or it has been a particular stressful day I may declare that there are no chores, but that everyone needs to work together to get a particular two or three things done.  Sometimes this is simply emptying the dishwasher or picking up the living spaces.  This helps everyone enjoy a bit of grace, but work together to keep our home functioning.

No matter what, make chores and working together a priority.  It will instill work ethic, personal responsibility, and a sense of belonging to each young one.

Why should kids work?

I promised a few weeks ago, when I shared our fantastic chore system, more writing on kids and work. 

Hopefully, you subscribe to the 'better late than never' philosophy...if not, well, um...I'm moving on.

So, the question today is, 'why should kids do chores?' or 'why should children work?'.

Really, I could simply say to refer to the book of Proverbs.  There are more than a few nuggets on how God created our bodies to work.  But that wouldn't be necessarily super helpful so I suppose I shall expound a bit more.

It has surprised me, over the last few years, to discover how many parents do not think their kids should have to do jobs around their home.  Possibly, these parents felt over-worked as kids, themselves and fear they will do the same to their children.  Maybe they don't want to put in the effort to teach their kids how to do some tasks. And there are even more adults who simply believe 'kids are kids' and shouldn't have to do more than their schoolwork.

We don't believe in any of that. Period.

God made all of us to work.  And parents were given children for many reasons and one of the purposes of childhood is to learn how to be a productive adult and the parents are the teachers in this endeavor.  And last time I checked, productiveness requires a fair amount of effort, or work.

So, I hope my children learn to be comfortable with working their bodies physically in many ways, including with tasks that can feel meaningless and redundant, although necessary, around the house (really...who likes to vacuum up a floor only to see it dirty a few hours later). 

In addition, our daughters need to learn to be good keepers of their future homes and chores are a first step in that direction.

We also believe that required work helps produce a certain amount of character and attitude improvement. 

Ryan works in middle management.  I could write for hours (except that I have work to do) about the stories he comes home with which demonstrate an adult's lack of determination to simply suck it up and go get the job done.  How sad would it be to carelessly develop a worker like that under our own roof? 

I am not saying that by having my children do chores they will turn into future five star employees.  I am simply saying that chores are a beginning step in developing the 'work' part of their character.  And we find that to be Biblical.

"Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth." Proverbs 10:4

"All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty." Proverbs 14:23

"One who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys." Proverbs 18:9

"Laziness brings on deep sleep, and the shiftless man goes hungry." Proverbs 19:15

Everything is good in moderation and with consideration.  Requiring children to work is no exception.  Next time I intend to tackle how we have our children working.

Heart of Dakota Science

As some of you may remember I used Apologia Science last year.  While I was very impressed with their curriculum and intend to return to it in a few years, it was not for us this year.  I wanted a more visual science curriculum with a bit more variation. 

Also, I wanted T and J to be able to join in and understand what was being taught.  Apologia spoke to a much older audience, used hard vocabulary, studied one topic all year, and the experiments were much too complicated for my style.

So, after deciding to use Heart of Dakota for Z's history this year I gave their science a look.  I researched the books they included for science and read through the teacher manual.  I liked what I saw.

Now, after about a quarter, I am very pleased with that decision.

The first unit (the first four or five weeks) in Bigger Hearts for His Glory focused on the seashore.  We primarily used One Small Square: Seashore.  The kids loved this book and I thought it was simple while also being fun.  I did add Pagoo to our reading, which turned out to be an awesome educational supplement to this unit and an enjoyable story that went very well with our study.

But what I was very impressed with was how great the experiments and demonstrations were.  I could pull the necessary items together within a couple of minutes and there was virtually no prep work.  However, the lessons taught were still very essential concepts that I wouldn't have necessarily thought of demonstrating in a hands-on format.  The simplicity has allowed the kids to remember what we did and what it taught and it has kept my four and five year old's attention.

For example we used sugar and water to demonstrate how the water (in the form of rain and waves) can change the seashore over time.  In addition, we used glitter and lotion to demonstrate germs on our hands and how it takes warm soapy water to remove the bulk of the germs.

In both of these cases I have seen my children imitate the experiment to some degree and I have heard them repeat the essential lesson to one another after many days have passed.  This is successful learning in my book!
We also do a notebook page once or twice a week about something we read.  I appreciate that Heart of Dakota includes an applicable verse with nearly every notebooking assignment.  And the assignments themselves allow for creativity and are simple enough for J to do her own version.

The book we are using currently, in the eighth week, is Science in Colonial America.  This book is much less of a 'living book' and the kids are not all that enthralled with it.  However, the hands-on part continues to impress.  And while I don't like this book quite so much, it is not long, and I know that we move on to much better materials soon. 

All in all, Heart of Dakota's science curriculum has been a great fit for our family this year.  We will continue on with studying the ecosystem of the woods, Thomas Edison, and science as it relates to Colonial and Early America.  And I am looking forward to it.

All in a Week's Time...

Some of our most memorable moments from the last week:

Double fisted talking!

Apparently either Mom is on the phone a lot or this youngest child has a lot of conversations that need to be had!  You can bet it is the second!

Just no one tell her those are business calculators (which had a very important role in the dating life of her parents and a much less significant role in the passing of our corporate finance class)!

We can check this one off the 'did your child ever do that' list

Our experimental four year-old decided to discover 'what would happen' if she put popped popcorn up her nose....

fortunately she wasn't very fond of the feeling...and we were able to help her blow it out!

The popular fellow!

T and J recently visited an assisted living facility with their homeschool co-op group and their teacher referred to the residence as an 'old folks home'. 

One night, this week, after a dinner in which we had all been talking about the outing,
Z (who has never been to such a place) asked T, "what was the place called where you gave those cards out to all those girls?"

Without waiting for a response he asked again, "wasn't it called the old fellow's home?"

Oh dear...I don't know if we ever got that one straightened out.  I wish I could see the mental picture he has of this place...

The Naked Warrior

M has taken to a new habit.

One evening I was changing him for bed.  As I took off the day's clothes and began to remove his diaper (fortunately only wet), before I even knew what was happening, he immediately slithered quickly away, giggled, and took off running at top speed around the house completely naked! 

As he ran he raised his right arm straight up high and began yelling HIIIII-YAWWWW.... down the hallway, through the kitchen, through the school room, and back to where I was sitting, hysterically dumbfounded....

Now, it seems, that if I am at all mellow about the changing process this whole scene will repeat itself at least once a day.  And seeing as this whole scene is highly entertaining I must admit that I don't necessarily try to avoid it (you know you wish you had this much entertainment every evening).

No pics of this one people.

The quickest chore system for the cleanest house!

Do I have you sold by the title? 

Can you tell I really like how we are doing chores lately? 

I had heard of various systems using chore cards, chore charts, lists, etc.  And we had tried a few different kinds, but they always had their drawbacks.  Usually there wasn't enough flexibility built in or not enough variation for the kids. 

For example, Z would have dog poop pick up on every Tuesday and Thursday.  But then what happens when it is pouring buckets on Tuesday morning and then Wed is bright and sunny.  Is he now supposed to do two days chores on Wed, but nothing on Tuesday?  And no, I do not put him in a rain suit and send him outside...that was not one of the options.

Or let's say vacuum the family room was on Friday, but we decide to go somewhere on Friday.  Now the family room ends up super dirty all weekend (not a good plan, if you ask me).

What was I to do, you ask?

Here is my awesome solution (or at least, I think so):
1. Buy different colored magnet clips (one for each of the children you would ask to do chores). For us this is three.  I might be a rather driven mom and all, but no, my one and two year-olds do not have assigned jobs. 

2. Take a stack of 4x6 cards and cut them in half (because I am cheap and didn't need the size of the whole card).  Make a list of all the jobs you have ever had the children do. Be specific: it works better in our house if I break up the rooms for vacuuming.  So I have about five vacuum cards-dining room, school room, upstairs, etc.  And there are cards for the specific bathrooms: upstairs and downstairs. 

Don't forget to help your sanity out by including what I call 'half jobs'.  These are to maintain the cleanliness, but not take as long as a full cleaning.  For example: my older two kids can clean the bathrooms (everything except the showers-those are still my duty).  However, the counters get messy in between once a week cleanings.  So, I have a card labeled for wiping off both bathroom counters.  All three of them can do this job and it keeps things decently clean and allows for J to begin learning how to clean the bathroom.

3. Write these jobs on the cards.  If it was a job that they all do on the same day sometimes (like put away their clean laundry) then write that job out on three cards.

4.  Assign each color clip to a child. 

5.  The next morning, before chore time, glance around the house and decide what needs to be cleaned.  Is the bathroom beyond presentable?  Are your floors collecting dog hair like crazy (like mine)?  Or is the dust able to be measured?  Pick out those cards.  Decide who should do which job.  Put those cards on the appropriate clip.  Around here there are days when everyone has one large job and there are other days when they may have up to three smaller jobs.  On our homeschool coop/errand day and on Sunday nobody has chores....here in lies the beauty of flexibility.

Note: I am a bit strategic here about a few things.  You learn as you go along.  Each household will vary as to the best strategy, but here are some of mine:
1) I only have one caddy for bathroom cleaning so I will not ask for both bathrooms to be cleaned on one day.
2) Vacuuming upstairs does not go as smoothly when I also have someone trying to clean the upstairs bathroom.
3) I only ask one child to do a chore that I know I will need to assist them with to avoid mass frustration.
4) Think ahead: do you have company coming in the next couple of days?  Are you going to be gone tomorrow? Etc...

6.  When the child has completed their job they bring me their cards and I can check their work at this time if I didn't earlier.  Now the cards go back in my master pile.

During chore time if I am not needed for assistance I may move the laundry along, put away Ryan and my clean clothes, wash the dishes, deep clean the kitchen, make bread, or prep for school that day. 

Although my kids do help with a lot of the cleaning around here (and I am very grateful) there is still plenty for this mom to do!

For more details on how our kids pitch in around here...stay tuned.

What a difference ten days makes!

About ten days ago this was our Saturday fun:

And this was the weekend work on that same day:

Three truck loads later we were ready for winter to come in a month...or not...how about today?

I got the older three kids up early from their rest time today to go play in this:

I love the absolute thrill on their faces with every first snow...

T even went and drew candy canes and made snow angels, but do you notice how everyone of them decided they needed a bit more clothing???

And the snow was so wet that Z had his very own snowman made in about ten minutes

And since it was blowing at least twenty degrees outside I was especially surprised that they all lasted about an hour. 

But then what else was I to do except put them by our wonderful crackling fire (thanks to a local gentleman for the wood and my own hard-working guys) with some good hot chocolate.

Our Fall Books

While I may not have been blogging much, we have been reading plenty these last two months. 

We read our devotional at breakfast for our Bible study, we read our history and science mid-morning, and we do some literature and fun reading in the afternoon.

This week we wrapped up our devotional we have been using for the past six months.  Leading Little Ones to God has been a fantastic morning read for the kids and I.  This book was a baby shower gift about five years ago and I have nothing but good things to say about it.  We have all discussed angels, Satan, demons, the Holy Spirit, and much more.  T can explain the trilogy, J likes to talk about Jesus being the shepherd and us His sheep, and Z has a good grip on the end times.  I highly recommend this book to families with young children who want to discuss the basics of our faith. 

Now I have to decide what to do next...I am looking at Our 24 family ways by the Clarksons or Hero Tales by Dave and Neta Jackson.  Anyone have any thoughts?

For Literature studies (primarily in the genre of Fantasy this quarter) and for fun we have read:
Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates: Next time I will wait till all the kids are at least eight for this one.  It was fun, very educational, and delightful.  But my, oh my, is it a bit more thick and meaty than we are used to around here.  A hundred pages on Dutch history and culture was a lot more than I had bargained for.  We all persevered, learned a lot about Holland, and really enjoyed the ending. But it was a long haul, although worth it.

Charlotte's Web: A classic.  It has been a couple of decades since I read it and found myself very annoyed with Mr. E.B. White for throwing in the theme of a young girl becoming a bit boy-crazy.  Oh well...my kids are none the wiser thanks to a bit of quick editing.  But really?....seriously unnecessary in a story about a self-less spider and a humble pig.

Chester Cricket in Times Square: A quirky fantasy story with slightly goofy characters.  Harmless and sweet.

Winnie the Pooh: I don't know who thinks these are funnier: me or T.  A.A. Milne wrote classics and I am so glad we are on this series right now.  I love the light heartedness, unexpectedness, and pure innocence of these books. 

History reading (other than our core spines) has included:
George Rogers Clark: Boy of the Northwest Frontier: A simple biography which kept anyone over the age of three engaged, and was a good overall intro to colonial America

If you lived in Colonial Times: I highly recommend the books in this series for young elementary children.  There are simple pictures, an engaging format, and tons of information that kids can easily digest.

Stories of the Pilgrims by Pumphrey (we have read many portions of this over the years): Probably one of the best living books on the time period for elementary grades, but can be a bit long-winded at times.  It does work well to pull out portions.  Reading the Thanksgiving chapter on Thanksgiving can be very poignant.

Who's that Stepping on Plymouth Rock: Z actually read this one to me.  As with most of Jean Fritz's history stories, there is some humor mixed in along with some good historical perspective.  Not meaty, but interesting.

Science reading:
One small square: Seashore: I really like this series of books with the abundant pictures and simple scientific information.  Be careful: they are not written from a Christian viewpoint, but the evolution references appear to be very rare (like one page per book). 

Pagoo: A new family favorite.  I am so glad I decided to buy this one!  I had read of some families adding this book to Heart of Dakota's science for the seashore study.  It was fantastic!  The kids were sitting on the edge of their seats, nearly biting their nails over what would happen to Pagoo next, all the while devouring information about new creatures and their habits.  And it was all about a simple hermit crab!  This was a book that has me on the lookout for anymore of the very talented Holling C. Holling's books.

That's what we have been reading...how about any of you?

Has anyone else ever....???

Have you ever had to shop vac out a dishwasher entirely full of soap suds??? 

And I mean, the entire tub full of bubbles!  Twice!

You can't even imagine the horror running through my mind at the possibility of a dishwasher out of comission.  I detest hand-washing.  I would rather pick up dog poop or scrub a shower...you get the idea.

Anyhow...here's how it happened:

See I washed the dinner dishes while Z and T put them into the dishwasher.  When we were near completion T took out the soap to start the dishwasher (which she has done probably 50 times) and closed it up. 

It never crossed my mind that we had recently finished up our old container of automatic detergent and I had purchased a new kind.  It also didn't cross my mind that I had also recently purchased new dishwashing soap (for hand-washing) which looks quite a bit like the old automatic detergent.....

Thus, as the last bit of tidying was done Ryan and I began to wonder why the DW was sounding like it was trying to churn ice-cream (although, now that I think of it, that would be a wonderful feature in a DW although there would be a slight temperature issue...but I digress).

When we opened it up, bubbles were EVERYWHERE!  They came out on the floor, covered the now open lid, and filled the entire DW tub.  It was rather like the dishwasher was growing into the kitchen before our eyes (remember my horror)!

Ryan put towels on the floor, pulled out the bottom rack of dishes, and revved up the shop vac.  Once it was empty of suds we started up the DW again and then very shortly repeated the process over two or three more times.

Fortunately it seems we caught the whole mishap in the early stages and we have a happy, non-bubbly dishwasher again.

As for T...well, she recovered after a while.  She takes mistakes (even innocent ones) rather hard, but is very comforted that all is back in working order (as am I). 

Falling off the blogging wagon...intentionally

I think it has been something like six weeks since I wrote.  It really can't be October already, can it???

These past few weeks have been very full of possible blogging titles.  We have been camping, started school, rolled out a new chore and reward system, started music classes, moved in a free piano we were given, wiped our computer completely clean, painted the girls' room, painted the Master bedroom, and had many more exciting adventures, I am sure.  I just can't recollect them all right now.  And of course, you can be sure, S has never taken a break from her special way of life.

But really, I decided that blogging was not a high priority.  This page does not bring in any income nor move any mountains, for our family, so to speak.  However, my job as a mom and housewife were given to me by the Almighty.  Blogging needed to take a backseat.  Consistent devotions and exercise were a must for me as we began our fall school schedule.  Those items are beginning to find a comfortable home in most mornings so hopefully blogging will pick back up a bit.

However, this fall has definitely been a time of shifting my paradigm.  Last year I thought that homeschooling my children was a big responsibility.  This year I would second that and add that it is a huge, and I mean HUGE, time commitment, err...uh...a full-time job!  I am essentially teaching a 2nd grader, 1st grader, and Kindergartner while I try to keep an eye on a mellow (thank you , Lord for that!) two year old and an absolute loose cannon of a seventeen month old. 

I am simply trying to get to the end of my day with school complete, some laundry done, S in one piece, and dinner eventually appearing.

Thus, if I get a blog post written it is simply icing on the cake. 

Thanks for still reading and here's to more days with icing!

Crazy Busy S!

It has been a little while since I did a 'S update' post.  And seeing as how she rides the freight train through life I have a lot of catching up to do. She is now nearly 16 months, but I feel as if she is at least a year older than that!

Her vibrant red hair catches many admirers and I personally adore the curls.  She is tall for her age and is the only one of our five kids to receive the green eyes that both Ryan and I have.

She has moved from fast walking (she never really did the toddler thing) to a marching run like she is heading for the white house and is going to run the place (which might not be a bad idea...). 

Her haphazard ways lead to many a fall, but if you aren't watching closely you would never know it as she doesn't even grimace most of the time!  Her toughness comes in very convenient in regards to her newest sport: tackling her stocky and much stronger, brother M.  He will reciprocate and she giggles to no end.  It is kind of like watching two very tiny sumo-wrestlers.  They will roll around and then get up and make a run for each other!  It makes for great amusement...honestly, it is hysterical.

And this girl talks.  And you had better  listen (she will keep going until she is acknowledged).  If anything begins with the letter 'B' she says it.  Baby, ball, belly-button, bear...When she is hungry it is 'num-num'.  She calls mom and dad very particularly and  insistently.  S calls her sister J and says 'tickle' while trying to tickle your belly button or toes.  And yes, she has pulled my shirt up in public MANY times to find my belly-button.  And if she takes a liking to you, you had better watch out or your shirt will be next!

Climbing is her new favorite past-time.  Couches, tables, chairs, you name it!  Yes, she is even working on her crib railing.

She relishes  being the center of attention and her ability to ascend to new heights really enables her in this area.  We may all be comfortably relaxing on the couch when suddenly up goes S onto the coffee table for a round of dancing.  Or there is the pleasant game of Sorry on the dining room table in which no one notices her scaling a chair and progressing up onto the game table until pieces are flying off the game board.  I'm sure she just needed a better view (those pieces ended up in her mouth by mistake, of course)!

And now S has discovered the stool!  Isn't it just so cute!

Never mind, mom.  Back to work.

The stool climbing has been an awful development which makes me feel like I need eyes on all sides of my head and octopus arms!  Her current tally is two broken dishes, at least ten spilled cups of water, a few papers ripped off of bulletin boards and the frig, and many more things I am sure I have pushed out of my memory. And don't forget the knobs (much less the burners) on the stove!

Oh and lets not leave out how she found this new trick!!!!

What mom?  My hands were dirty!

"Honestly, I didn't cause a flood in your kitchen"

Don't get the wrong idea: she gets in trouble for these things.  MANY times.  Remember how she used to bob for apples or wash her feet in the dog bowl?  Well, it took a good, consistent two months of serious child training to kick that habit.  So, now we move on to new battles until she finally realizes it isn't worth it.

And if you don't truly feel scared for me and my sanity yet let me show you how little fear she has. 

Now, I have had four children prior to this firecracker. 

I tend to think my other children are rather normal. 

Typically, when a lawn mower is revved up in the presence of a young child they are at least a bit unnerved (sometimes, completely frightened).  At least that is (or was) my frame of reference...

Oh, no, not our youngest.  Why not run toward a running lawn mower? 

Of course!  Why didn't I think that sounded like fun?

Add in some outstretched arms with waving hands and loud calls of 'dada' and you have the complete picture. 

She loves lawn mowing day!

 Seriously, she will happily sit here for a whole hour grinning from ear to ear!  And yes, I go get as much done as possible in this precious, albeit bizarre, sixty minutes.  Ryan thinks this whole phenomenon is hilarious and great fun. Can you tell it scares me to death? It's not the lawn mower that terrifies me, but, rather, what it tells me about her lack of inhibitory tendencies.

I have a very hard time relaying the personality of S to people without inevitably giving the wrong impression.   Either they think I am over-dramatic or they look at me as if I don't know how to get my children under control.

But really, it is OK if people don't get it. 

What I  don't get is "really, God, I am supposed to protect and lead this one?  Me?  I'm the non-baby-proofing, let them eat dirt kind of mom."
As a friend said to me recently, "Isn't parenting crazy: We have no control over what kind of children we get, a lot of the choices they will make and so many other things.  And yet, we have so much responsibility!"

So, I run the race God gave me to the best of my ability with a lot of His help.  And right now it is a looooong SPRINT with many blind curves.

2011-2012 School Pictures

Welcome to this year's school photos!

A few weeks ago I gave our drowned camera a go of it.  The mantle and walls were still displaying year old pictures of the kids.  So, new ones were needed.  I think our camera is truly on its last leg, but it hung in there for this drizzly morning photo shoot.

Z-Our second grader. 

I am looking forward to an increase in school independence for him this year as his reading skills are miles beyond last fall.  And he is looking eagerly forward to our new homeschool co-op this fall in which he will get to spend some great time with some of his friends from church.  I hope, this year, to balance encouraging him plenty (he needs it and I am not the best in this area) while developing some consistent diligence in him.

T-Our five year old first grader

T is becoming a natural writer and it is very exciting.  She is the over-achiever in the family and demands perfection of herself.  Rules are her way of life and she sticks closely by them.  It is a delicate balance of challenging her while not overwhelming her young mind.  I am excited to see the world of writing and reading grow so much wider for her this coming year!  But then will come the challenge of finding her enough books that don't trouble her very tender heart.

J-Our four year old 'partial' kindergartner

First of all: Don't you just love the dimples!  J is our instinctive learner.  She reads by feel; you can almost see it.  Phonics rules are what got her reading, but not what keep her going.  She picks things up quickly if they 'make sense'.  In reading and writing I expect her to easily travel through the K material.  I am going to wait to see how her stamina for 'school' is before adding math in.  But I'm sure she will readily join us in great history and literature reading.  And hopefully Z and T will be able to make some scientific discoveries before J informs them of the 'logical' conclusion.

M-Our 2 and a half year old P.E. specialist

Fortunately M is excellent at entertaining himself.  Unfortunately this often involves some round projectile.  Thus, he adds many good P.E. elements (and unexpected laughs) to our school day.  He can be found coloring from time to time and hopefully tackling playing a great deal with S.

S-16 months and marching

If you aren't very familiar with our S I invite you to click on the very-commonly-written-about-category labeled S on the right.  Let's just say that when it comes to school this year she has a lot to learn and none of it can be found in a book.  We might begin with 'no dancing on the school table'.  During the second week I might tackle 'no climbing on top of Z's desk'.  The third week I am thinking she might learn that it is not kind (nor safe) to take her older siblings' pencils away and then run squealing around the house.  On the fourth week, well, we might have to have a spiral curriculum for her and go back to the first week.  You get my drift...

Those are the students in our school.  We will begin in about three weeks....

This post is linked up with HOTM's Not-Back to School Blog Hop.  Watch next week for a day in the life of our school (where I post my schedule which no one is allowed to inform S of)!