New Job

I left my job at Teleperformance on Sept 13, for it was literally making me go nuts.  Thank goodness that on Sept 8, I got word that I was hired at America First.  So a new job was waiting for me. 
So far, I really love it here.  I feel more freedom.  The thought that I actually look forward to coming to work is a feeling that I haven't had in a very long time.  I can get paid more than $14 an hour as long as I put in the work.  Who knew that I could feel like this?
What is the best thing ever is that the kids have noticed that I have been coming home happy.  That never happened at Teleperformance.  Bree has never experienced a happy daddy coming home from work in her life.  Things are improving!

New Year's

It has been a traditon for us to spend New Year's at the Swenson's for 5 years.  This year was a little sad because things happened where we could go, but tha t didn't stop us from having some fun.  This year we played at the Scherbel's.  The kids get to sleep over, but not Shelly or me.  I have to work in the morning.  First time that I've worked New Year's Day at Teleperformance.  I will not go into how disturbed I am about that.  However, we had fun.  I cannot win a game, but I had fun nonetheless.

Sledding

Audrey's knee didn't allow her to join us today.  Besides that, we had a blast.  I was most impressed with Bree.  She went up and down the hill all by herself. Marissa and Trent made me go down.  The hill at Orchard Park is most impressive.

My Little Utes

Last month I was able to get hooked up by my friend Brad Bateman with 3 tickets to see the Utes and the Cal State San Marino basketball team.  It was a preseason game.  I took with me Bree and Trent.  We had a fun time together.  They got to see me act a little weird.  We shared a soda.  We heard the band.  I clapped along.  But what I was most impressed with was I was able to get a picture of the two with the U 😀

It was the "triplets", in the Kitchen, with the Table

Ben saw this in the draft.  If Shelly posted it, great.  The story bears repeating.  If not, that's OK.  This story happened back in December of 2009.  

I know, you're just DYING to know what THIS one is about. LOL. First, let me set the scene. I was headed out to ward council meeting. Ben agreed to watch our friends kids (1 preschooler, and 1 set of twins). Ben was the only adult.

The Culprits: Do not be deceived by their innocent looking faces. They are guilty as charged. Meet the "triplets" as I call them when I watch the kids. Trent (11 months old) Tyler (13 months old) and twin Jason (13 months old).

The Weapon: This picnic table resides in our kitchen. It facilitates in seating children when we have friends over. IT became the weapon of mass destruction last night.

The Crime: Micheviousness and general Upheaval.

So, here's what happened. The "triplets" were alone in the kitchen. The cat food was up and the floor was swept. What damage could they do? Well, the little boys somehow pushed the picnic table over against the dining room table. Don't ask how, nobody is quite sure how they did it. Whereupon, Trent proceeded to climb onto the picnic table. He did not stop there though. I'm sure he was being routed on by Jason while Tyler stood by saying "uh-oh", which I have determined is his favorite word. However, Trent did not stop there because there were higher places to climb. Trent then climbed up onto the dining room table and into.......this.

Yes, that is last night's left-over lasagna. It was still on the table at the time. Ben found Trent sitting IN the lasagna!!! He pulled him out, but his pajamas were a mess. And all of this AFTER Ben had just gotten him OUT of the bath from cleaning him up from his OWN serving of Lasagna!!! Oh, those boys....what will they come up with next.

Easter 2013 (I know it's late, but still)

I'm using the blog for ideas for the final.  I found some Easter pictures that I don't think have been posted anywhere yet.  I just added my first picture on here and holy cow, I thought I was going to have to find a computer with Photoshop.  Luckily it worked!  :)  I'm liking this.  Anyways, if I use these pictures, I'll be able to make a background and story this up. 

Audrey and Marissa Easter 2013

These first few pictures are actually on Easter Sunday taken after Church.  They were Easter egg hunting.

Breanne Easter 2013

Trent Easter 2013

The next few pictures are celebrating Easter at Shelly's parents house in Provo.  That was one monster Easter egg hunt.

Marissa at Grandma's

Audrey at Grandma's

Breanne and Momma at Grandma's

Trent at Grandma's

I think I can work with this one for the next little while.

Little did Shelly know....

Thank you to Shelly for giving me, Ben, an idea for his final in Intro to Scripting.  And, oh my gosh, I just totally hacked into the Stephen Family Insane Asylum! I think that I'm going to have fun with this :).   Let's see, I'll need the home computer to have access to the photos for sure.  I need to make 4 "web" pages and I think the story about Breanne will be just perfect.

Extend a Helping Hand

Today my post is short and sweet.  Please help this family!!! 

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/immediate-action-requested-romeikes%E2%80%94grant-permanent-legal-status-persecuted-german-homeschool-family/06vqtgCp

Sign the petition for them so they will not be persecuted for simply homeschooling their children.  If you would like to read a wonderful post on WHY this is so important to me, go here. 

http://www.latter-dayhomeschooling.com/2013/03/is-homeschooling-human-right.html

The end. 

Good Intentions

I have been reading Chalotte Mason's works over the last couple of months.  One of the things I have learned while reading her works is that, just as "the road to hell is paved with good intentions," my life is full on good intentions but very little execution. 
I am WONDERFUL at making plans, writing lists, and coming up with new ideas for my life.  EXECUTING those intentions though is a completely different matter.  However, if I never put my intentions into practice I don't get anywhere.  I am still sitting idly by, writing lists and making plans rather than LIVING them. 
Charlotte Mason stresses habit building a lot.  She talks about how to build good habits in ourselves and in our children.  One point that hits dead center to my life, is that if we are not actively cultivating GOOD habits we are, by default, cultivating bad ones. 
Oh, I have so many bad habits!!!!  So many things that need to be improved in myself so that my children can improve their own bad habits.  It is so very true that the faults you find in others are most likely faults you have yourself.  The bad habits that my children exhibit truly are a mirror of my own bad habits. 
There is hope though!!!  If I can just work on one habit at a time over the course of a few weeks to months I can build at least 6 good habits in a year!  I can build these in myself and my children, starting with habits that we all struggle with.  I must improve myself as well if I hope to improve my children. 
So, here's to building better habits and becoming better people!

Pluggin' Along

Life over here has just been pluggin' along.
1.   Our tweaked cleaning system is working fairly well, but there are still some kinks to work out of it. 
2.  School has been normal.
3.  I have been reading and am being inspired by Charlotte Mason's series  (6 volumes) on homeschooling which I purchased the Kindle Edition of for $0.99. 
4.  Now my thoughts are turning to next year's curriculum.  I am happy with most of our curriculum choices but I am having thoughts about changing our Science curriculum.  I love many things about Elemental Science, but I feel that there isn't enough time to go into depth in areas my kids are interested.   I feel like that information presented is very shallow.  I know it should get deeper once we hit the next rotation of sciences in 2 years but I don't know if I want to continue with it until then.  So I am contemplating 3 options:  A) Stick with elemental science and do Chemistry next year which looks like a lot of fun.  B) Just spend our Sciene time researching areas of interest to the kids (topics mentioned so far are jungles, lightbulbs, and horses).  C) Try a different curriculum like the ones suggested at Milestones Academy. 
5.  I can't wait to try out many of the ideas I have gotten from Charlotte Mason's series.  I have ideas for Penmanship, Nature Studies, Math, Reading, Narration, and other things. 

Life is moving right along.  I am very blessed to be able to stay home with my children and homeschool them even though it has meant a lot of sacrifices and big chunks of humble pie.  I am grateful for the life the Lord has given me. 

What? We did school this week?!?

First a little humor....Bree had decided to emulate Scar from "the Lion King."  Apparently chocolate chips work well as face paint. 

 We actually DID school this week.  It was awesome!!!!  All was well until Friday (today) when Audrey got sick.  Luckily everyone else has had it. 
We have been studying rocks in science.  My parents, unknowingly, provided us with a perfect science experiment for our current unit.  They gave the kids a crystal growing kit for Christmas.  So we grew our crystals this week and this was the result.  The crystals grew on rocks provided in the kits.  Trent's, the yellow on the left, lost most of it's crystals from the rock while extracting it from the container.  Luckily we had some stuck to the bottom of the rock!!!  Marissa's, the blue in the center, worked the best.  It has crystals all over it!  Audrey's, the green on the right, grew a few crystals on the rock, but the whole bottom of the container got covered with crystals that came out with the rock.  It made a whole sheet of crystal.  Pretty cool.

 In history we learned about George Washington's young years.  So of course we learned about the story (true or no, it's still a good story) of the Cherry Tree.  Here are my kids with their trees. 

We also did our other subjects that aren't so fun to take pictures of.  Math, English, Reading, Geography, ect.  All in all it was a good week. 

2013 is off to a.........start

I would love to regale you with all the wonderful things we have been up to over the last couple of weeks.  Unfortunately, we have done diddly-squat.  We have been battling illness in our house now for over a month!!!! 
First Bree got RSV on December 17th.  She ended up being hospitalized for it, and over Christmas to boot!  While Bree was in the hospital Ben, Trent, and I all picked up a cold (I assume it was RSV).  The cold wreaked havoc on my asthma. 
We were just getting over the colds when we got ANOTHER bug.  This time a flu-type bug.  I was the first to get it, followed by Marissa and Trent. 
Needless to say we have been hacking, and sniffling, and shivering something fierce over here for weeks on end.  My asthma got so bad I had to break out the nebulizer, only to realize it was broken!  This was at 10:30 at night.  Luckily for me I have friends with nebulizers that generously shared with me so that I did not have to make a trip to the ER with no insurance!!!! 
So, here's to hoping this madness finally ends and we can become productive and resume normal life once again. 

Back to Reality

After such a crazy Christmas, including our 18 month old spending it at Primary Children's Medical Center, things are slowing down.  Our New Year's celebration was fun, spending the night at our friend's and playing games for hours.  I am now ready to get back into the normal swing of things though. 
Monday will mark our first day back into reality. 
Ben will be going back to full time work and night school 4 nights a week.  It makes for a crazy week for mom, but luckily I have some sanity savers to help until Ben is done with schooling. 

The kids will be hopping back into full time schooling.

I will be trying to use my spare time more productively.  Our goal is to have no media (unless it is a school assignment) until after dinner every day.  I am not cutting it completely out, because with Ben at school most nights, being able to sit and watch TV or play the computer in the evening is helping me keep my sanity. 

Here's to a new year and the improvements that will (hopefully) come with it!!!!

My New Year's resolutions:
Teach Bree and Trent to be more obedient by being consistent.
Build a better relationship with Marissa to inspire honesty and confidences from her.
Teach Audrey to sew.
Use my free time more productively.
Attend the Temple at least 4 times.

What are your goals for the coming year?

We're still alive

We're still alive over here. We have just been enjoying the holiday season.  We went to Thanksgiving at my parent's house in Provo.  We came home on Thanksgiving night due to hubby needing to work Friday.  Since then we have gone to a Christmas parade, visited Temple Square, watched lots of Christmas Movies, listened to lots of Christmas music, decorated the house, made a couple of goodies, and a few other things.  The kids have made an advent chain, some ornaments, paper snowflakes, and a few other decorations. 
For our Christmas School we are doing the countdown found here at Chocolate on my Cranium.  We also have a family Advent calendar with a scripture and song for every night.  Oh, and we also started using Sundays and Mondays to do the devotionals found in A Christ Centered Christmas. 
We have been enjoying our holiday and have a lot more fun plans for the next couple weeks before we celebrate Christmas Day!!!!!

What's in Store

For the last couple of years we have taken a "break" from school for all of December.  Instead we do "Christmas School."  I love Christmas time and I love the fact that I can take the entire month of December and focus my kids on the Reason for the Season!!!  While we do away with History, Science, Spelling, English, Geography, and so on, here is what we DO do. 
Our Christmas School Traditionally looks like this:
1.  Christmas Devotional:  We focus on studying and learning about Christ.  In past years we have focused on all the aspects of the Nativity beginning with Prophecies about Christ's birth and going through his birth and the events that happened in America (from the Book of Mormon).  This year we are branching out and doing this unit study from Chocolate on my Cranium. 

2.  Singing Time:  We take turns choosing both secular and sacred Christmas songs and singing them around the piano while I play and sing with the kids.  This is always a favorite part of Christmas School. 

3.  Reading:  We read Christmas books together on the couch and have a wonderful time feeling the Spirit of Christmas.

4.  Project:  We then do a project of some sort.   These consist of crafts, making gifts for neighbors and/or grandparents, wrapping presents, Christmas worksheets, baking, or other fun seasonal activities.

5.  Family Activity:  When Ben gets home from work we take the opportunity to do family activities.  Some of the things in store for this year are:  Caroling, Willard Bay lights display, Temple Square, sledding, watching movies, going to the city Christmas Parade, visiting Santa, and making Gingerbread Houses. 

Audrey will continue doing her regular math in the month of December as it will be necessary in order to keep her on track.  Other than that, all typical school is out the window. 

We have a great time and my kids really look forward to their Christmas Break because of the deviation from the norm.  What special things do you do for Christmas?

How NOT to Make Rock Candy

1.  Decide to make Rock Candy in the fall, on the week the weather decides to turn.
2.  Put 8 cups of water and 8 cups of sugar into your second largest pot.  Realize that it is already fairly full but refuse to pour it into the largest pot on grounds of dirtying another dish. 
3.  Bring your mixture to a boil, then attempt to add 8 cups more sugar.  Run out of space and decide it is sugary enough and be done with it.
4.  Pour your syrup into jars and add food coloring.
5.  Prepare your skewers by wetting them, rolling them in sugar, then allowing to dry.
6.  Place your completed jars in a window.
7.  Realize there isn't enough sugar in your syrup, and try adding some by just stirring it in.
8.  Realize that is not working and microwave each jar to help the sugar dissolve better.
9.  Put your skewers back in, but don't roll them in sugar again.
10.  Realize that the skewers have NOTHING growing on them.  Take them out and reroll in sugar, but put them back in before they dry.
11.  Have the same problem as in setp 10.  Pull them out, wipe them down, and wait for them to dry.  12.  Put the skewers back in, with high hopes that NOW it will all work.
13.  Wait for days, and realize your candy really isn't going to grow. 

In other news....Audrey finished her 100 picture books/chapters challenge and is moving on to her second one.  This time her challenge will be to read 100 Chapters.

And blogger has been crazy on my computer for the last week and refusing to let me even SEE my new post page, so this is all you get for this week even though I had grand plans of posting pictures, and doing multiple posts. 

A week off isn't all it's cracked up to be.....

The title says it all.  We are only 3 days into our weeklong fall break and I am ready for school to start back up!!! 
Don't get me wrong, we needed the break to avoid burnout.  It's just that our days seem so much LONGER, full of so much more TIME to fill!  There is more whining about boredom, and constant asking if friends are home from school yet.  The kids get into more trouble....like taking Trent's mattress off the bed, dragging it over by the bunk beds and jumping off the top bunk onto the mattress.......yeah. 
There have been some great things about this week though.
I appreciate how much faster our days go when we are schooling. 
I was able to learn about essential oils and get help with my asthma thanks to them. 
I was also able to do a playdate with one of my favorite friends, a fellow homeschool mom, that just had a baby. 

So....it hasn't been a BAD week, just a LONG one.  I will be very ready to start school back up on Monday.  I just need to survive the next 2 days!!!!

Random Ramblings

1.  First off, don't hate me.  I forgot to take pictures of our Volcano!!!  I know, I know.  It was really cool though! 

2.  I had a very proud Mom moment this week.  Audrey accidentally broke a neighbor's car window.  That brave little girl, first went and confessed to the owners, then came home and confessed to Mom what she had done.  She was so heartbroken, upset, and embarrassed.  I felt so bad for her.  Since the neighbors only speak spanish we had to wait for Ben to return home to discuss reparations.  I am so proud of her for IMMEDIATELY doing the right thing!!!! 

3.  This was our last week of schooling before our fall break.  We get next week off.  We will use the week to have fun, deep clean, and relax. 

4.  Our General Conference bags were a HUGE hit.  The kids are loving the treats and activities.  I am loving how quiet they are being and how well they are listening to our church leaders.  This will become a new tradition for us. 

5.  I am baby hungry.  I am feeling jealous of all my friends that have just given birth, are about to give birth, or have just announced pregnancies.  I know there is another spirit that will join our family, I just don't know when.  I am anxious for the new little one to bless our family.  God willing, it will be soon. 

That's about it for this session of random ramblings.  Hope you enjoyed it.

Indians, Tornadoes, and Volcanoes....Oh My!

We had a good week, for the most part.  School at home went great, however we have some changes coming.  We received an email this week from our School partner, stating that starting in October homeschoolers will need to submit year long lesson plans for Science, Math, and English for each of their children.  In addition to that, our children would need to take monthly "quizzes" on those subjects to determine if they are "learning enough."  On top of that, every quarter we would be required to submit work samples for those subjects as well.  Needless to say, the cons outweighed the pros for staying in the program so we are pulling out.  Unfortunately, it means the girls will no longer get their once a week "fun classes."  They were involved in the decision and decided on their own that they would rather drop out than complete the new requirements.  It was a sad day, but after much thought, discussion, and prayers we have decided that dropping out is what is best for our family at this time.  Hopefully we will be able to fill the void with homeschool field trips, a recreational class for each child, and a smattering of all the other wonderful homeschool activities and groups going on in our conmmunity.  Enough of that now.....on to happier things!!!

 

This week we studied all of our basics (reading, writing, math, english, ect.).  May I just say that I am very proud of my girls right now.  They each have a challenge to read 100 books (picture books on appropriate levels for each of them) or chapters from an approved book to earn a reward.  Audrey is currently up to 60 books and Marissa is at 51!!!!  This plan is working AMAZINGLY.  Audrey's reading has improved greatly in the last few months.

 

We also had a wonderful time doing our science and history this week.  In History we learned more about Pocahontas and made Indian headdresses.  We also read the book "Sam the Minuteman."  Audrey was enjoying it so much that she took it off on her own on Thursday and read the entire book to herself. 

 



The kids with their Indian Headdresses....I may have cut them a little too small.

 In Science we learned about tornadoes and volcanoes.  We had a great time building our own tornado, swirling it around, and watching it go.  We also began construction on our volcano.  More to come with the volcano next week. 


Our Tornado.  If you look closely at the top water you can see it swirling.

It was a good week overall.  We are excited to make our changes and start with our new plan.  And I promise that my children do not look like such ragamuffins in the mornings.  I don't know what happens to them at lunch time!

What I learned this week

Homeschooling my kids gives me the opportunity to resdiscover lost interests, revel in things I loved as a child (and some that I still love...like science experiments), re-do those subjects I struggled with or did not like as a child, and learn new things alongside my kids.  Here are 3 things I learned this week while teaching my children:
1. The Americas were named after Amerigo Vespucci who was the first person to realize that this mass of land Columbus had found was not Asia, but a completely seperate continent. 
2.  The first hamburger in America was served in Connecticut. 
3.  Coca-cola and Peanut butter were invented in Georgia. 

Did you learn anything new this week?