Saturday, February 27, 2010

Pinewood Derby

Today is Pinewood Derby Day. Wonder Boy came in 7th out of 13 cars, but his was so great! He made it all by himself (both Charlie and I work really hard to make sure that this is true) and he had a great design.

I am so Proud!

This one's for you Grandma---

Both boys have recently completed a sewing project. And not just a small one. No. They each made a pair of pajama pants! As a matter of fact, Wonder Boy did not want my help at all. I think all i did was insert the elastic into the waist and sew it together, then sew the channel closed.

For those of who don't know me, my mom was a home ec. teacher and I refused to learn to sew from her. This caused no small amount of tension and strife. Sorry, Mom. I learned to sew this past summer when we decided to take up the hobby of Civil War re-enactment. I put myself through a six week sew boot camp where failure is not having clothes to wear or looking like you are re-enacting the life of someone whose clothes all burned up in a fire. Since then I have really begun to enjoy sew as well. i believe when i have a little bit more spare time I'll even learn to knit and crochet.

Apart from a little fun and novelty (what 5 and 7 year old boys can say that they made their own pajamas?-- and just the way they wanted them, too.) my other goal was to actually to begin to teach the kids to sew. Wouldn't it be great if by the time they were in their early teen they could make their own Civil War clothes? Charlie also helps make the clothes, but I'd love to spread it out and make them responsible for their own clothing and research.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Milestone

Wonder Boy had his First Reconcillation last night. He was very nervous before, even though we assured him that the preist would be very nice, but when he was done he looked very happy. Praise be to God!

He lost another tooth yesterday, too.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Truer Words

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

No way to win

I have a neighbor who needs help, and I have no idea how to help her. She is an older lady and has no family close by. Although she's always been a little . . . um . . . different, her behavior is becoming quite alarming. She is forgetting things like the date or where she put things or that we homeschool (something that she definitely knows because we're talked about it many times. She is worried that she will be put in a mental treatment center and will nod off during conversations. I think she could be suffering from from some sort of mental condition like depression (almost certainly), paranoia, or dementia. I'm so worried about her because as with many older people she has a lot of medication and I'm not sure she can remember what she has taken.

I have asked people what I should do and the consensus is that I should contact her family that has a responsibility to help her out. The problem is that I don't have those numbers and I can't get her to give them to me.

I'm really at a loss. Over the past few months I've been seeing her more and more. It's kind of like being sucked into a situation I don't want to be in. Honestly, this neighbor and I have very little in common (religion, views about relationships, philosophy of life). On the other hand, she is sad and lonely and very much needs someone. I feel called to be that person, even if I don't really want to.

If anyone has any ideas, please leave a comment.

Friday, February 19, 2010

You won't believe it

Everything is fine, but . . .

We got a call last night from Jeny, our case worker at Kids to Adopt. She sounded so concerned that for a brief second I was terrified. I had a flashback to that day in September when we got the news that we could not adopt Sweet Pea. The judge is requesting more documents. We need medicals for Charlie and I (I am so embarrassed to even ask the doctor to see us again. I have seen this man every two to three months for nearly a year and a half and I've only been sick once is that time: stress induced hives shortly after we lost our referral.) and a couple of other things. Jeny feels that this is probably the last thing that they will need-- of course I'm sure that she thought that the last time.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Combatting the February doldrums

February is burnout month for students, teachers and parents all over, and we've definitely been feeling it. It's really too cold to go out for very long, so we aren't getting the fresh air that we need. That combined with the stress of waiting for court dates is really getting to us.

To combat this burn out we've had some changes around here.
1. I reorganized the schedule so that we go to the gym in the morning and don't go to school until after lunch. While this is untraditional , it lets we not only workout, but it also give me a chance to work with each child one on one.

2. I just reorganized the playroom/ classroom. As the children get older their need change and so we have to rethink the spaces that they spend time in. I separated the library and school work area. In the last I have sat in the library on the sofa and gone over work with the kids, but there was too many distractions. Now they have a whole area for quite work.

3. We decided to slow down the schoolwork that Wonder Boy is doing. He has always been one grade level ahead of his age. While he is very able to do this level of work from a cognitive standpoint, I think emotionally it was too much for him. In my opinion that is what has caused so much of the school resistance in the past. Now Wonder Boy is working with new materials. We have pared down is school work and will pick up with the second half of Mother of Divine Grace's Third grade at the semester break of next year. He has definitely been fighting me less in regards to school work. I think the quantity of work was just too much for him.

4. Wonder Boy and I have started a huge research project about Superman. It's been really fun and I'm really hoping that Wonder Boy learns that school can be great.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Updates are headed to Russia

All our updates are headed to Russia. Jeny said that we should hear about a court date in the next week or two. We are crazy impatient to get our little man home.



I'm so glad that is done. working on the updates has mentally worn me down. If I have to ask one more person for paperwork, . . . well I don't know what I'll do, but it won't be pretty.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day


I have a cold. (Snuffle) I didn't want to work out. (Decided to workout anyway) Then my workout gear was dirty. (I scrounged around and found something. ) My shoes were in the car and it was like 17 degrees outside. (Brrrr) Then I found out that my last document wasn't really done. The court won't accept it in the form it's in. (Sidebar-- if all the information is on the document, what does it really matter? We've already been accepted. Why make us jump through hoops?) Pookie and Little Bit need boosters for their chairs in the dining room, and they didn't have the one I like at Target. (Of course not.) It's off to the city hall to ask the assessor for a letter from them- for the third time. (I'm really tired of asking people for stuff.) It's been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Some days are like that.




One Room Schoolhouse







By definition my kids go to a one room schoolhouse, or maybe their school has infinite rooms. I don't know. I do know that for fun this fall I took the kids to Greenfield Village and let them go to school at the McGuffey schoolhouse. Although this happened a while back, the pictures were just down loaded and they are so cute I had to share.
To make things more fun I let them dress in their 19th century clothes. (I did not.)
It was a great day and when it was done the kids asked to go to school at Greenfield village every week. Uh, no.