When you home-school you learn to PROVIDE distractions...the littlest people get VERY bored during spelling or math...especially fractions...the littlest people care NOT for fractions...and leap pads, mp3 players and laptops are very VERY handy for keeping little girls busy while bigger girls learn...especially if used judiciously.
However, when you home-school you also learn to MINIMIZE distractions...the bigger people have a very hard time concentrating on reading or spelling or diagramming or fractions when these lovely electronic distractions are buzzing and chirping and singing. Add to that the tendency to repeatedly poke the exact same spot, creating a cacaphony of persistent repetition, it is enough to drive all of us insane. Ergo, we all have earphones.
I have taught my children the proper storage of the earphones...the proper earphones for each of them (did you know that those ear bud things are just TOO big for certain people's ears?)...and the proper placement of the earphones on each child's head.
It seems, however, that I forgot just one thing. Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans...
See ya around...
Monday, March 29, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Sick and Busy!!!
Well, look at that, 15 days from my last blog post...for shame.
I'd tell you that I'd been sitting here wracking my brain trying to think of something intelligent to write for your pleasure, dear reader, but then I'd be lying. See, the real deal for me is that I write when A) I have a cute picture and a few minutes or B) the wild-eyed muse hits me and won't let me go. Recently (end of February, beginning of March) that muse had me writing 2-3 posts a day. True, you didn't see a lot of them...but I did write them...and most of them were not fit for happy eyes. One or two of them you may see later. But the major point here is, the muse left. I got all my emotional stuff OUT and then like the crying, the writing kinda petered out. I was actually glad. I didn't like feeling like I couldn't do anything else except sit here and write.
So, thankfully, life has started back up again. Now, I am STILL coughing. I think that my first facebook post about being sick and pitiful was on February 26th or 27th so that makes this day 23 of coughing and officially the longest illness I have personally ever survived. (yes, I'm still assuming that eventually I'll survive.) About 2 weeks ago, I decided that at some point I must not be "contagious" any more and I REALLY needed to get out of the house...so I braved the store with the girls...coughed too much and headed back home again.
This last week was spring break for the kids in our area, so Bear's soccer organization threw a camp. From Monday through Thursday we all headed out to the field by 8 am. Now, make no mistake, I LEFT her there...but it did start our day much earlier than it usually starts.
Having early mornings and one less girl was a very good thing because we are in the process of RE-DOING the house. And by re-doing I mean switching the furniture of AT LEAST 5 different rooms...honestly the only rooms NOT affected will be my master bedroom suite and the kitchen/nook. So the earlier mornings made it easier to start the-girls-that-I-had-left on school and then get tossing and organizing.
The impetus of this drastic move is twofold. The first being that Grandma is coming to stay with us for the summer (WHEEEEEEEE!). By moving our guest room downstairs she will have a bathroom really close and a much quieter little cubby to hide in...plus it's a little more private. The second falls simply under the "IT IS TIME" category. You know, you live in a house long enough and the stuff simply piles up, until you are not sure what is really in that cabinet/bookshelf/closet/pile anymore.
So the PLAN is to...
1) Move the guest room from the current game room to the current school room
2) Move the stuff we are keeping from the current school room into the current play room.
3) Move the stuff from Bubbas office into the current game room with MY craft stuff so we have one big crafty/office-y room for Bubba and I.
4) Move the little girls from their current bedroom into Bubbas current office moving stuff from elsewhere in the house to complete the room, keeping the dressing room intact in so much as it relates to their stuff.
5) Leave Beanie in the girls current bedroom and gather other bedroom stuff from around the house to complete her room...ie dresser from the dressing room, nightstand and desk from the gameroom, stereo from her Daddys office (she doesn't know yet, shhhhhh)...
Now throw in there a recent couch and TV purchase that actually happened in January and the fact that Bubba wants to paint EVERYTHING, you put the whole house in flux.
Here is some of the progress so far...
The old school room as I tore it down...and the blank wall that became apparent once I moved the book shelves...
The old play room and the new school/play room...sorry they aren't from the same angle...my before shot from the same angle is terribly blurry...meh!
The old couch...and love seat and old tv...
The kids WAITING for the new couch watching the new TV...can you tell what show they are watching??? Click to get a bigger picture the second one SHOULD give it away...
And here is the new couch being used as we use couches...it all it's messy glory...Poor Bean REALLY needs a carpet...
This last one is one small part of the process...a pseudo-organized part of the chaos that has enveloped my house...
So that is a part of what we've been doing. Stay tuned for further updates as they are completed. I'm getting so excited because this project ACTUALLY has an end (I think)...Grandma is supposed to BE HERE sometime the last week in April and it SHOULD all be done by then...that doesn't seem too long, does it?
See ya around...
I'd tell you that I'd been sitting here wracking my brain trying to think of something intelligent to write for your pleasure, dear reader, but then I'd be lying. See, the real deal for me is that I write when A) I have a cute picture and a few minutes or B) the wild-eyed muse hits me and won't let me go. Recently (end of February, beginning of March) that muse had me writing 2-3 posts a day. True, you didn't see a lot of them...but I did write them...and most of them were not fit for happy eyes. One or two of them you may see later. But the major point here is, the muse left. I got all my emotional stuff OUT and then like the crying, the writing kinda petered out. I was actually glad. I didn't like feeling like I couldn't do anything else except sit here and write.
So, thankfully, life has started back up again. Now, I am STILL coughing. I think that my first facebook post about being sick and pitiful was on February 26th or 27th so that makes this day 23 of coughing and officially the longest illness I have personally ever survived. (yes, I'm still assuming that eventually I'll survive.) About 2 weeks ago, I decided that at some point I must not be "contagious" any more and I REALLY needed to get out of the house...so I braved the store with the girls...coughed too much and headed back home again.
This last week was spring break for the kids in our area, so Bear's soccer organization threw a camp. From Monday through Thursday we all headed out to the field by 8 am. Now, make no mistake, I LEFT her there...but it did start our day much earlier than it usually starts.
Having early mornings and one less girl was a very good thing because we are in the process of RE-DOING the house. And by re-doing I mean switching the furniture of AT LEAST 5 different rooms...honestly the only rooms NOT affected will be my master bedroom suite and the kitchen/nook. So the earlier mornings made it easier to start the-girls-that-I-had-left on school and then get tossing and organizing.
The impetus of this drastic move is twofold. The first being that Grandma is coming to stay with us for the summer (WHEEEEEEEE!). By moving our guest room downstairs she will have a bathroom really close and a much quieter little cubby to hide in...plus it's a little more private. The second falls simply under the "IT IS TIME" category. You know, you live in a house long enough and the stuff simply piles up, until you are not sure what is really in that cabinet/bookshelf/closet/pile anymore.
So the PLAN is to...
1) Move the guest room from the current game room to the current school room
2) Move the stuff we are keeping from the current school room into the current play room.
3) Move the stuff from Bubbas office into the current game room with MY craft stuff so we have one big crafty/office-y room for Bubba and I.
4) Move the little girls from their current bedroom into Bubbas current office moving stuff from elsewhere in the house to complete the room, keeping the dressing room intact in so much as it relates to their stuff.
5) Leave Beanie in the girls current bedroom and gather other bedroom stuff from around the house to complete her room...ie dresser from the dressing room, nightstand and desk from the gameroom, stereo from her Daddys office (she doesn't know yet, shhhhhh)...
Now throw in there a recent couch and TV purchase that actually happened in January and the fact that Bubba wants to paint EVERYTHING, you put the whole house in flux.
Here is some of the progress so far...
The old school room as I tore it down...and the blank wall that became apparent once I moved the book shelves...
The old play room and the new school/play room...sorry they aren't from the same angle...my before shot from the same angle is terribly blurry...meh!
The old couch...and love seat and old tv...
The kids WAITING for the new couch watching the new TV...can you tell what show they are watching??? Click to get a bigger picture the second one SHOULD give it away...
And here is the new couch being used as we use couches...it all it's messy glory...Poor Bean REALLY needs a carpet...
This last one is one small part of the process...a pseudo-organized part of the chaos that has enveloped my house...
So that is a part of what we've been doing. Stay tuned for further updates as they are completed. I'm getting so excited because this project ACTUALLY has an end (I think)...Grandma is supposed to BE HERE sometime the last week in April and it SHOULD all be done by then...that doesn't seem too long, does it?
See ya around...
Friday, March 5, 2010
The Lucille Ball in me...
Well...I'm still sick...for crying out loud. Coughing to beat the band. It is somewhat better but gggggrrrrrrrrrr...
Because of that, I've not been terribly "chatty"...don't really wanna talk (makes me cough), don't wanna blog, don't wanna post stuff on Facebook...don-wanna, don-wanna, don-wanna.
But something happened to me yesterday that is the epitome of me and my clumsiness that made me laugh RIGHT out loud...and I know that you, dear reader, need a laugh from time to time...
We got a new vacuum yesterday. A fancy schmancy one. See we've bought three vacuums in the last three years...the cheaper ones...and they all died, tragic, stinky, dusty deaths. So we "invested" in a new Dyson. It REALLY sucks...and I do mean that in the best possible way. Well...I mean...look...this is a smallish rug that I vacuumed last week with my dying vacuum...check out what that Dyson picked up...A-MAZE-ING! (Oh, and GA-ROSS!!)
I was thrilled. I couldn't wait to vacuum EVERYTHING. I ran to the phone to tell Bubba how much this new vacuum sucked (yeah, I know, I'm still something of a sixth grader)...and decided that I would empty the canister before I moved on.
So I walked over to the trash can and pushed the button on the canister that must certainly unlock the LID of the canister so that I could tip it over and dump it INTO said trash can (just like my LAST THREE vacuums)...and imagine my surprise when the entire thing dumped onto the floor because there was no LID...the bottom flopped down...
To say I got the giggles would be a huge understatement. I laughed and laughed and laughed...and coughed and coughed and coughed...and then giggle snorted my way through putting the vacuum back together and sucking all that stuff BACK up. The idea that I would suck up all that stuff just to walk over and dump it onto the floor...it's making me laugh even now.
See why I'm feeling a little like Lucy, without the cute clothes?
See ya around...
Because of that, I've not been terribly "chatty"...don't really wanna talk (makes me cough), don't wanna blog, don't wanna post stuff on Facebook...don-wanna, don-wanna, don-wanna.
But something happened to me yesterday that is the epitome of me and my clumsiness that made me laugh RIGHT out loud...and I know that you, dear reader, need a laugh from time to time...
We got a new vacuum yesterday. A fancy schmancy one. See we've bought three vacuums in the last three years...the cheaper ones...and they all died, tragic, stinky, dusty deaths. So we "invested" in a new Dyson. It REALLY sucks...and I do mean that in the best possible way. Well...I mean...look...this is a smallish rug that I vacuumed last week with my dying vacuum...check out what that Dyson picked up...A-MAZE-ING! (Oh, and GA-ROSS!!)
I was thrilled. I couldn't wait to vacuum EVERYTHING. I ran to the phone to tell Bubba how much this new vacuum sucked (yeah, I know, I'm still something of a sixth grader)...and decided that I would empty the canister before I moved on.
So I walked over to the trash can and pushed the button on the canister that must certainly unlock the LID of the canister so that I could tip it over and dump it INTO said trash can (just like my LAST THREE vacuums)...and imagine my surprise when the entire thing dumped onto the floor because there was no LID...the bottom flopped down...
To say I got the giggles would be a huge understatement. I laughed and laughed and laughed...and coughed and coughed and coughed...and then giggle snorted my way through putting the vacuum back together and sucking all that stuff BACK up. The idea that I would suck up all that stuff just to walk over and dump it onto the floor...it's making me laugh even now.
See why I'm feeling a little like Lucy, without the cute clothes?
See ya around...
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