This image quacks me up.
When I bought this duck tub for Johanna a few years ago I hoped we’d use it for a Ducky one day. ♥ Marie had told me eons ago if Mommy ever had another baby we would call him/her, “Ducky.” So glad it all came together. Oh. SO glad.
Homeschool 2013-1014
I haven’t said much about this year’s homeschool. Frankly, it’s because I have barely had a moment to post the occasional photo on the blog, much less offer much information or text about our family.
Things…Are…Intense.
It’s the amount of work represented by grades 8, 6, 4 & 2! At least two days a week we’ve been doing school from 8:30 AM to after dinner. It’s the meaty curriculum we use, yet I know God has totally directed what we do.
So. We persevere. That includes time to do corrections & rewrites, etc. They have so much writing. John helps me support Stewart with science b/c it is physical science (not my thing and it’s totally John’s). But we are limited on what we can do weekends because of my working.
I’m still in the middle of totally accepting it and searching for ways to improve things.
I know this year was a huge jump from easy to hard partly because I had Stewart doing WAY too much on his own the last two years (through miscarriages and pregnancies and a generally self-focused season). Although Stewart’s abilities are right-on-track, I was convicted last winter to get back to more oversight for him and it seems to be yielding good things — BUT taking a lot of time. I also haven’t given Nigel the freedom I gave Stewart in 6th grade. He’s getting way more oversight. So my checking up, plus Mommy-directed language and Mommy-corrected math keeps me so crazy busy. (John tries to correct the math a few days a week, but I prefer to do it so he can do other fun things in his limited time home). I am seeing good things with this already and just trusting God will use this period of training for His glory. It hurts, but it will be good.
Add a vivacious 3-year-old and an ever-changing 7-month-old in the equation, and you have a very full day. (This doesn’t mention the most basic chores necessary to keep a home running.)
All in all, we wouldn’t have it any other way. I am so happy to have my kids home with me. But we work HARD HARD HARD. Every single day. Feel free to pray for us. I’m clinging to God’s Word. It’s a good place to cling.
Scenes from a high chair
Katriel enjoys two meals a day in her high chair. Or sometimes in the exosaucer… She loves to eat and is doing really well with everything. I still believe she has reflux, but it doesn’t stop her.
These are from different days. I love her expressions.
Firestation field trip
It was a rainy Saturday that Mommy DIDN’T have to work. Our local fire station had an open house and we enjoyed our first fire station tour in years. Frankly, I don’t know if Johanna has ever been to one, and Tabitha was quite little the last time around.
The boys even made the most of it.
The kids got a tour of the Fire Safety house with tips on keeping your home protected, etc.
When we got home Tabitha created some of her own Firefighter gear and recruited some help along the way.
He would have been 70.
September 20, 2013 would have been my dad’s 70th birthday. He will always be 53 in my mind, though. Seventeen years is a really long time.
If time allowed, I could fill many pages with things I remember about him. His crazy sense of humor. His penchant for safety. His strong singing voice. His affection for pets.
I would tell you about all the times I got to dance with him, at parties at the ELKS club or at the weddings of family members and friends.
I would tell you about my 16th birthday when he took me to get my driver’s permit and then stopped at Present Co. and let me pick out a necklace and earring set.
I would tell you about the roller coasters we conquered, and the late, late nights in my college years where we would play Super Mario Bros. 3 on the Nintendo he won at the TOPS grand opening.
I wish I had more photos scanned.
I wish he could have met his grandchildren.
I wish I made more of an effort to tell my kids about him.
Hmmm – I have time for the last one, don’t I? I’ll start tonight.
Best. Toy. Ever.
Another bathroom project completed…
You may remember this post from June – Master Bathroom Cosmetic Update.
After the successful updating of that room I figured, “What’s another bathroom? Another month?”
When we first moved in in 2007 I promptly did the bathroom in this child-friendly motif. The room had recently been painted off-white so I did the blue sponge painting to compliment the sweet shower curtain and wallpaper border I bought. There also had been cute little bug appliques on the walls around the room on the white. We also put in a new light fixture to replace the college-dorm room style light that had been up. But that was all we’d done. You can see the previous owner had painted the once-oak sink cupboards off white, too; they did not paint the wall cabinet.
I also put these cute pictures on the wall circa. 2007 with each of them displaying their teeth. Get it? Brush your teeth?
Um. Nope. It actually took almost three months to complete the kids’ bathroom. Actually – the walls and repair work were done in less than two weeks. It took us months however to get the wall cabinet and cupboard drawers painted in the basement. We’d get a coat on, let it sit to dry, get busy, find it covered in mars from the cats. Sand it. Re-prime them. Forget them. Add another coat. Find new scuffs.
Rinse.
Repeat.
I picked the wall color out from the get-go, having no other plan in mind. That’s often how I work. If you are wondering how many green-toned rooms I have in my house the answer is 4.
We repainted the vanity cupboard and the wall cabinet in the same brown that is now in all the bathrooms. (One gallon goes a LONG way. Anyone need some? I still have half-a-gallon left!)
We got a new mirror (same as in the master bathroom) from Lowe’s. I bought a valance at Walmart.com. I grabbed some cheap CHEAP frames at KMart and put photos taken at Seabreeze in them. I had them printed in sepia by Snapfish. I bought a cheap wooden towel bar and toilet paper holder in a set from Walmart. We put the other pieces that came in the set in a box for Goodwill. The mirror cost more than ALL the other things put together. (Not including the light fixture I bought in 2007.)
I love the way it turned out.
I have ordered a shower curtain from Walmart, but I think I will take it back. I like the plain-ness of this small room.
I have no projects on the docket right now. We are schooling some days from 8AM to 8PM with breaks only for meals.
I’ll post about that sometime… I think. 🙂
More science experimenting…
Doing a game from Nigel’s science book. Seeing how an area of land can only support so many deer and so many cougars.
Doesn’t homeschool look like FUN. We have FUN all day and all night around here. Heh. Um. Well. We have a lot of fun. I’ll post about our LONG days, soon.
Dayspring Disciples 
