Yesterday morning brought shattering news. A dear friend lost her husband unexpectedly when he passed away during the night. He was my age.
Now S. is a widow with 3 heartbroken children to care for. The children range from age 8 to 12. The girls are close friends with our girls.
I've been praying for them so much over the last 24 hours. It reminds me again that life goes on day to day and then something happens and we realize that so many of the problems in life are quite trivial. It reminds me to hug my husband and my children more, and not get so uptight about the little stuff.
Please pray for S. and her family.
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Cuteness Personified
My mother made this matching blanket sleeper and hat for Rose. And she made another one in yellow. AND she made a Christmas stocking for Rose to go along with the other 10 she's made for the rest of the family. Yes, I am GRATEFUL for a generous mother who sews!
Isn't Rose just the cutest thing?
Friday, December 12, 2014
Our Sweet Baby
Our darling Rose has outgrown this little reclined seat and now is sleeping in pack and plays and cribs in various places in the house. I moved this seat out of our room, which means (sob) that she's really gotten (sort of) big since she was born. But on the good side, we have room for the gifts flowing in from Amazon and other online stores this week. Christmas is less than 2 weeks away, and we have 3 kid birthdays in the next 3 weeks as well!
Rose continues to be very popular. She loves her big sisters and brothers too. Naomi, Lydia, and Isaac are particularly good with her.
Sarah is BANANAS about Rose, and BANANAS is the operative word. Sarah has been "blessing us" with a high pitched squealing lately. It is very loud and a bit much in a family that is already heavy on the noise. We finally figured out that she's trying to imitate Rose's high pitched squealing. But Sarah is louder. All in all, the volume of sheer exuberance around here is intense sometimes. But I am very thankful and delighted that everyone loves our little lady. She surely is lovable.
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Hitting a Wall on Homeschooling
This was a week when homeschooling just felt like too much. I decided last weekend that we wouldn't do "normal" school so I could catch up on schoolwork, deal with some organizational requirements, and battle some paperwork.
Kevin was home on Monday and observed one of our kids having a "math meltdown". I was working with this child individually as I knew some extra work was needed. Kevin had some very helpful input into the situation. Sometimes as the children's primary homeschool teacher, I am too close to the situation to really see what needs done.
So Kevin's conclusion is that this kid needs a more "public school approach" to math. I am a math "person" and it drove me NUTS in public school that we were drilled and drilled and drilled on stuff I knew COLD. I was so bored much of the time. So in teaching our children, I've gone with a relatively low drill approach as I don't want the kids to be bored.
This has worked well with several children who are gifted in math. The child in question is NOT gifted in math. And drill is necessary. Another insight from Kevin is that the child needed instruction in a variety of skills because combining them all was too much. So we practiced erasing. Seriously! Because sometimes the error was erased plus other parts of the problem. We practiced writing numbers in columns. We had this child speak out loud what was going on in the head while doing problems. The end result was that after a few days of work, there was great improvement. So that is encouraging. I'm sure more work will need to be done, more REVIEW will need to be done, but at least this kid is feeling encouraged and is able to do subtraction with borrowing consistently.
Earlier today I was working around the house and had Isaac bring a bunch of K'nex to the main table. 4 kids gathered around and worked vigorously on putting together K'nex structures. It was great -- fun and educational. I love that!
I am not sure what next week will bring in terms of homeschooling. I think I'll go with some formal school but not as much as usual. The following week we'll definitely be "off" as we celebrate 2 birthdays and Christmas.
Kevin was home on Monday and observed one of our kids having a "math meltdown". I was working with this child individually as I knew some extra work was needed. Kevin had some very helpful input into the situation. Sometimes as the children's primary homeschool teacher, I am too close to the situation to really see what needs done.
So Kevin's conclusion is that this kid needs a more "public school approach" to math. I am a math "person" and it drove me NUTS in public school that we were drilled and drilled and drilled on stuff I knew COLD. I was so bored much of the time. So in teaching our children, I've gone with a relatively low drill approach as I don't want the kids to be bored.
This has worked well with several children who are gifted in math. The child in question is NOT gifted in math. And drill is necessary. Another insight from Kevin is that the child needed instruction in a variety of skills because combining them all was too much. So we practiced erasing. Seriously! Because sometimes the error was erased plus other parts of the problem. We practiced writing numbers in columns. We had this child speak out loud what was going on in the head while doing problems. The end result was that after a few days of work, there was great improvement. So that is encouraging. I'm sure more work will need to be done, more REVIEW will need to be done, but at least this kid is feeling encouraged and is able to do subtraction with borrowing consistently.
Earlier today I was working around the house and had Isaac bring a bunch of K'nex to the main table. 4 kids gathered around and worked vigorously on putting together K'nex structures. It was great -- fun and educational. I love that!
I am not sure what next week will bring in terms of homeschooling. I think I'll go with some formal school but not as much as usual. The following week we'll definitely be "off" as we celebrate 2 birthdays and Christmas.
One More Reason to Love My Kindle
I do LOVE my Kindle. Dozens of good books in one small electronic device? It is like heaven to someone who loves to read as much as I do.
I started using a special feature a few weeks ago, and have been having much fun with it. If I carefully tap the screen and highlight a word, it'll pop up with a definition from some online dictionary.
I enjoy some of Georgette Heyer's romances and have read them over and over again. In spite of my large vocabulary, she uses many esoteric and unusual words for which I don't know the meaning. I have gathered from context what they PROBABLY mean, but I'm having much fun using the online dictionary when I run into a weird word. Interestingly, the dictionary doesn't know some of the words either! She definitely used a wide range of words and many of them were common during the period she is writing about (usually the Napoleonic War period) and aren't in common usage now.
So that's fun. Love the Kindle.
I started using a special feature a few weeks ago, and have been having much fun with it. If I carefully tap the screen and highlight a word, it'll pop up with a definition from some online dictionary.
I enjoy some of Georgette Heyer's romances and have read them over and over again. In spite of my large vocabulary, she uses many esoteric and unusual words for which I don't know the meaning. I have gathered from context what they PROBABLY mean, but I'm having much fun using the online dictionary when I run into a weird word. Interestingly, the dictionary doesn't know some of the words either! She definitely used a wide range of words and many of them were common during the period she is writing about (usually the Napoleonic War period) and aren't in common usage now.
So that's fun. Love the Kindle.
Friday, December 5, 2014
Cogitations on Food
There is a series of mystery books written by Rex Stout about a fictional detective named Nero Wolfe. The books were written for literally decades and then a new writer started writing them, so there have been Nero Wolfe's written off and on since the 1930's!
Wolfe is an extremely eccentric, very overweight detective who loves orchids and food, and hates work and leaving his house. The books are written from the first person perspective of Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's trusty assistant who runs around collecting the clues to take home to Wolfe, who is a genius and figures out the mystery.
A series of TV movies were made based on Stout mysteries and Kevin and I purchased the whole set. They are mostly very funny and lighthearted. (I should add there are some adult themes in the books and movies so I wouldn't just let a child watch all of them.)
One of the recurring characters is Fritz, Wolfe's gourmet cook. Wolfe eats all the time and eats well, and Fritz is a foreign cook who spends most of his time in the kitchen whipping up delicacies.
Usually when we watch a show, I whisper to Kevin, "I want a Fritz!"
Because wow, having someone to COOK around here would be awesome!
Well, I do have people that cook. I cook. Kevin cooks. Kevin is doing a cooking class with our 2 older girls and THEY cook. They cook WAY better than I did at their age. Ok, honest truth. I could hardly cook when I got MARRIED at age 27. I've learned.
Switching gears, there was a Facebook post from a friend who lives in Michigan whom I admire. She is (in every good way) a health food nut. She posted a picture of a child smoking a cigarette, along with a paragraph on the lines of "Yes, this is a horrifying image but WHY do so many parents give their kids refined sugar when it is more addictive than cocaine and just as bad as smoking."
The paragraph was a forward so she didn't actually write those words. I didn't delve into the whole "more addictive than cocaine" thing because that seems unlikely and I just want to focus on the main message, which is that lots of sugar is bad and parents shouldn't let their kids eat much of it.
Well, let me talk about WHY good, caring, loving parents give their kids quite a bit of sugar. Because I am a good, loving, caring mother who feeds her kids sugary breakfast cereal and lets them eat candy and cookies.
Time. It is All. About. Time.
We have a money budget and the reality is that I have a time budget as well.
9 kids. Homeschooling the older 6. Nursing a baby. Keeping a toddler from harming himself. Dealing with a cranky 4 year old. Staying emotionally connected to my husband and kids. Running errands. Dealing with paperwork. Grading. Preparing. Working a few hours a week.
That is the reality. Do I feel really good about the fact that my kids eat sugary cereal? Well, I don't. But when I think about the various options in my life, I am not finding the time to change our breakfast habits such that we never eat sugary cereal. I COULD do it, but I'd have to drop something else.
Lots of people say and believe that food is more important than almost anything in the sense that it has a huge effect on our health. I agree it is really important. But the reality is that while we can keep cigarettes and cocaine out of the house, we do need to eat early and often around here. The kids need fed! And sometimes sugary cereal is what works. Now as I've recovered from Rose's birth, I am finding time to do different things SOME days. We occasionally have muffins, fruit, french toast, and oatmeal. But often, we have sugary cereal.
I tend to be an all or nothing person but as I've gotten older, I have realized more and more that sometimes life will not be perfect in some area. We have to give up our ideals at times (in non moral areas) because we don't have enough time or energy or money to do something "right".
So for now, I'm going to reluctantly keep serving such cereals some days. Maybe as the kids get older and I am not so busy with the baby, and we have more cooks and bakers, we can improve breakfast even more.
A quick caveat -- I know that obesity in kids is a serious issue and if our kids were dangerously overweight, we'd make necessary drastic changes. We've spawned a race of skinny kids. Almost all are on the thin side of normal. We also avoid fast food most of the time and eat moderately healthy lunches and dinners most days. I think we are doing ...Ok, where food is concerned. We could be doing better. I pray that with time we WILL do better. But I'm also not going to wrap myself in guilt because we're not eating as healthily as would be ideal.
Wolfe is an extremely eccentric, very overweight detective who loves orchids and food, and hates work and leaving his house. The books are written from the first person perspective of Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's trusty assistant who runs around collecting the clues to take home to Wolfe, who is a genius and figures out the mystery.
A series of TV movies were made based on Stout mysteries and Kevin and I purchased the whole set. They are mostly very funny and lighthearted. (I should add there are some adult themes in the books and movies so I wouldn't just let a child watch all of them.)
One of the recurring characters is Fritz, Wolfe's gourmet cook. Wolfe eats all the time and eats well, and Fritz is a foreign cook who spends most of his time in the kitchen whipping up delicacies.
Usually when we watch a show, I whisper to Kevin, "I want a Fritz!"
Because wow, having someone to COOK around here would be awesome!
Well, I do have people that cook. I cook. Kevin cooks. Kevin is doing a cooking class with our 2 older girls and THEY cook. They cook WAY better than I did at their age. Ok, honest truth. I could hardly cook when I got MARRIED at age 27. I've learned.
Switching gears, there was a Facebook post from a friend who lives in Michigan whom I admire. She is (in every good way) a health food nut. She posted a picture of a child smoking a cigarette, along with a paragraph on the lines of "Yes, this is a horrifying image but WHY do so many parents give their kids refined sugar when it is more addictive than cocaine and just as bad as smoking."
The paragraph was a forward so she didn't actually write those words. I didn't delve into the whole "more addictive than cocaine" thing because that seems unlikely and I just want to focus on the main message, which is that lots of sugar is bad and parents shouldn't let their kids eat much of it.
Well, let me talk about WHY good, caring, loving parents give their kids quite a bit of sugar. Because I am a good, loving, caring mother who feeds her kids sugary breakfast cereal and lets them eat candy and cookies.
Time. It is All. About. Time.
We have a money budget and the reality is that I have a time budget as well.
9 kids. Homeschooling the older 6. Nursing a baby. Keeping a toddler from harming himself. Dealing with a cranky 4 year old. Staying emotionally connected to my husband and kids. Running errands. Dealing with paperwork. Grading. Preparing. Working a few hours a week.
That is the reality. Do I feel really good about the fact that my kids eat sugary cereal? Well, I don't. But when I think about the various options in my life, I am not finding the time to change our breakfast habits such that we never eat sugary cereal. I COULD do it, but I'd have to drop something else.
Lots of people say and believe that food is more important than almost anything in the sense that it has a huge effect on our health. I agree it is really important. But the reality is that while we can keep cigarettes and cocaine out of the house, we do need to eat early and often around here. The kids need fed! And sometimes sugary cereal is what works. Now as I've recovered from Rose's birth, I am finding time to do different things SOME days. We occasionally have muffins, fruit, french toast, and oatmeal. But often, we have sugary cereal.
I tend to be an all or nothing person but as I've gotten older, I have realized more and more that sometimes life will not be perfect in some area. We have to give up our ideals at times (in non moral areas) because we don't have enough time or energy or money to do something "right".
So for now, I'm going to reluctantly keep serving such cereals some days. Maybe as the kids get older and I am not so busy with the baby, and we have more cooks and bakers, we can improve breakfast even more.
A quick caveat -- I know that obesity in kids is a serious issue and if our kids were dangerously overweight, we'd make necessary drastic changes. We've spawned a race of skinny kids. Almost all are on the thin side of normal. We also avoid fast food most of the time and eat moderately healthy lunches and dinners most days. I think we are doing ...Ok, where food is concerned. We could be doing better. I pray that with time we WILL do better. But I'm also not going to wrap myself in guilt because we're not eating as healthily as would be ideal.
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Pictures of a Random Nature
I don't like new computer programs. I like to figure something out and use it forever. But we got a new camera and the new camera doesn't work with Zoom Browser, our old photo manipulation program.
After some struggle, we found ACDSee. I'm figuring out how to export photos properly and voila, here are a few random pictures.
What can I say. She's cute, and has a handsome Daddy.
I'm part of a cleaning/decluttering book on Facebook and I take occasional pictures to encourage myself. Here's the kitchen -- not perfect, but not horrible either.
This was taken on one of the rare days when Daniel was being pretty calm. I don't know if he was sick or something, but THAT day he actually sat and quietly played with toys for a while instead of tearing around the house. It was nice. It didn't last.
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