Today and tomorrow.

Today was very uneventful.  It was math Monday.  The youngest son did not get done on time to have screen time, which is pretty typical.  I worked and didn't do a whole lot else, although I had a ton of stuff I could have worked on.  Basically it was one of those completely uneventful days that you long for when something bad is going on.  Tomorrow, when my oldest son is having his wisdom teeth taken out he'll probably be wishing for another day like today ... 

Beginning of a new week.

I'm not really looking forward to the new week.  My oldest son has got to have his wisdom teeth out on Tuesday and I just hate when the kids have to endure pain.  Later this week, the 2 younger kids will have to go for well child checks and vaccinations - always fun for my needle-phobic kids.   The good news is that my oldest son seems to be getting over the flu in time to get his wisdom teeth out.  He might even have 1 day where he actually feels pretty decent, before he has to feel terrible again.  Hey, it's good to look on the bright side, right?

On the subject of school, we've been reading/listening to the Chronicles of Narnia for a month.  We finally are on the last book, but no one wants to finish it.  One night, the night we'd watched the movies, my youngest son asked if we could read/listen to Ranger's Apprentice that night and we did.  We've been listening to Ranger's Apprentice every night since then.  We discussed it and none of us wanted to listen to Narnia and all of us had been dreading listening at night.  I'm not sure what that says about the books, or us, but we just aren't fans.  Even after reading the books and watching the movies, we all have a lot of questions about the stories and feel that they are disjointed or something.  It's hard to explain, but I feel like large parts of the stories are missing/not explained well.  Anyway, we're listening to Ranger's Apprentice right now.. 

Also in school news, the kids have all finished the assigned reading that I had given them and I need to assign something else.  I haven't decided what that will be yet.  Technically I have until Thursday to decide.  Just reading one day per week on the assigned reading, we'll need to keep it for several months, so it can't be a library book.  My older son has to read a book before he goes to camp this summer and we might make that the book that everyone reads. I'll do a little pre-read and see if it is suitable or I may let that be it for him and give the younger kids something else, like for example do a little notebooking or something.  Don't you love the way I have everything planned so far in advance?   Hey, if I can homeschool, anyone can! 

Mom's night out.

I had a wonderful Mom's night out tonight with my homeschool mom buddies.  We went to Tumbleweed and had a very tasty dinner and had a great talk session.  It is nice sometimes just to get out with the girls. I am so glad that the homeschool group that I found is so laid back, fun and helpful.  I could not have asked for a better group or better friends.

Thursday.

I like Thursdays because it's my day off, but I would prefer to be a wealthy person who can get someone else to clean her house, because that's what I usually get to do on Thursday.  So I cleaned a little today and the 2 younger kids did school and the older son whined about the flu and his wisdom teeth which are paining him.  He gets his wisdom teeth out next week. I'm sure for a few days after that he's going to be doing some serious whining.  I would, but interestingly enough, I only have one wisdom tooth and its 1/4 the size of a regular tooth and so I never had to have mine taken out.  He got his tooth pattern from his Dad and his eyesight from me, instead of the other way around which would have been so much better.  Genetics can be interesting.  At least he seems to have gotten some of his Granddaddy's musical ability.  That's a gift.


I'm not sure what we're going to do about his number of school days.  He graduates this year and there are simply some things he needs to finish, so I guess when he's done, he's done.

My weird doctor's visit.

I do not have a cast or a boot on my foot.  They called me after the MRI and I went in yesterday to get one, but they didn't have any.  They said they'd call me and have me come in another day (with no co-pay next time.)  Also, when the doctor was reading the MRI report, she said that I had a tear in the tendon on the outside of my ankle (not the inside where it has been hurting) and that I had an ankle sprain.  I said "Really?" and she said "You haven't sprained your ankle?"  and I haven't, at least not recently.  I did hurt this ankle really bad on my oldest son's second birthday, so 16 years ago.  I wonder if this tear occurred then and they can't tell on the MRI?   I'm starting to wonder if doctors really "know" anything or if it is all 100% educated guessing.  Anyway, at some point, I'm going to be wearing a boot for a little while to see if it helps.  Who knows?

Flu, Narnia, Cookies, Work and School.

We're trying to prevent the spread of the flu amongst our household members.  We're using a lot of hand sanitizer around here, but if it keeps one person from getting it, it will be well worth it.   Yesterday, the youngest kids did school, but the oldest didn't.  The girl, who spent a couple of days lying around and feeling "tired" apparently was just tired, because she hasn't started with a fever or anything (knock on wood).  We've been fortifying ourselves with gluten free chocolate chip cookies (you, know, to keep our strength up) that taste just like the real thing.  They are made with this mix Bloomfield Farms  These mixes are reasonably priced and they have free shipping.  I'm expecting another shipment today as a matter of fact.

We had kind of a Chronicles of Narnia movie marathon last night and watched the movies, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian.  Then at bedtime, we just were Narnia-d out so we listened to Ranger's Apprentice as our book selection.  At that point, it didn't make much difference to me as I knew I'd sleep through whatever we listened to.  So that's our life right now, flu, Narnia, cookies, school and work.  I sincerely hope I don't get the flu since I don't have paid time off.  Eeek.

My kids went to a youth retreat and all they brought back was ...

the flu!  The oldest has officially got it.  He got swabbed today and the strep was negative, but the flu was positive.  Joy.  The daughter spent a lot of time on the couch resting today but insists that she is not sick, only tired.  I hope she is correct.   I don't even know if anyone did school today.  Let me say that again.  I know my older two kids did not do school.  I need to check with the youngest and see if he did.  He is a day behind them from when he took a snow day and they didn't so it will work out fine if he did.  If he didn't, there will be consequences, because he's responsible for this and he is not sick.  At this moment, anyway. 

Okay, I just talked to him and he did.  It's so nice that my 12 year old goes ahead and does his work while I'm running folks to the doctor.  His Dad probably nagged him a bit, but still, I'm proud.  Now the days are all evened up again.  

Back to normal?

The retreat is over, everyone's home, the dogs can relax now and we can get back to normal.  The only problem is that one of the kids came back from the retreat with a temp of 101 and now needs to go to the doctor to make sure that it's not strep.  Both of them were worn out and lobbying for an early bedtime last night.  No one wants to just go to bed earlier than everyone else, because that means they don't get to listen to our read-aloud book, so we all have to agree on a bedtime or I guess I should call it "booktime".  Were on the last book in the Chronicles of Narnia now.  After this, I think we'll listen to "A Wrinkle In Time", one of my childhood favorites.

Visit.

I went up to visit my teens today at their youth conference, just for a minute.  My oldest gave me a slight wave, I think.  I'm really not sure if he saw me across the crowded room.  He seemed to be having a really good time with his friends.  My daughter gave me about 40 hugs in 5 minutes, but assured me that she is doing fine.  I kind of think she's ready to come home though.  I'm sure it's fun but tiring.  My youngest is having a fine old time at home with the computers, the DS and the TV all to himself.  He's actually spent a lot of time outside today, walking around, poking things with sticks and listening to a book on CD.  I saw him out the window today and thought how much I would have enjoyed that as a kid, walking outside while at the same time enjoying a favorite book, which is to say that I have not yet limited his book-listening time in any way, other than making him stop for school and outings.  I have a feeling that this is just a phase and will pass, but if it doesn't pass in a couple of weeks, I'll have to do something.. Speaking of walking around,  Tuesday is when I go in about the torn tendon in my foot and I might get put in a cast, so only 2 more days of my foot being free.  Hopefully, though, whatever treatment I receive will make it all better and I won't have to have surgery.  This injury happened in 2010, at the Kentucky State Fair and so I'm blaming it on my 2010 horrible year and hoping (praying) that this year is better and it will be fine now.  .

Quiet.

It's quiet here today.  The older 2 kids are gone to a youth event this weekend, leaving just 3 of us.  As soon as I said that, my husband started up some kind of drill or something so I guess the home renovating is going to go on this weekend despite the fact that the best helpers are gone?  My younger son is going to be thrilled to suddenly be the #1 helper.  We'll see I guess.  I am getting ready to go to work as usual, so I guess I'll find out when I get home.  I'm not feeling all that perky and have my finger's crossed (not literally or I couldn't  type) that I haven't picked up the strep.  Blah.  I hope not! 

Good day.

We had a good day today.  We cleaned the house somewhat (hard to do with it being a construction zone, but we tried).  Then we worked on school.  The kids made macaroni and cheese for their cooking class (hey, pasta making is a valuable skill!) and finished sanding and started painting the chair that has been our woodworking project this year.  Yes, it's taking a long time, but they only have 1 woodworking class a week and it's been so cold and snowy all winter that the "class" has been 10 quick, cold minutes of sanding each week.  Then we had skate night tonight.  I usually don't enjoy skate night all that much because it's cold in there and the benches are not comfortable, but I had a really good time tonight talking to all the other moms.  It was nice to be out.  It would be even nicer if the skating rink would build us a little quiet room with a window, heat and decaf.

Back to school.

The youngest started back to school today.  Antibiotics are wonderful, wonderful things.  Now I'm starting to feel kind of bad tonight in one of the ways that he was feeling bad a couple of days ago and I really hope that I am not coming down with it too.  I just don't have the time or the patience for anything like strep throat.  Especially the patience.  I don't seem to have the patience for much of anything lately.  Fortunately, the kids pretty much do the work on their own in our self-service homeschool,  I do have some support type things to do, looking up some paragraphs to edit and printing out a couple of things, but that's really it.

And the verdict is...

strep throat for the youngest son.  I did not even think of that, since he didn't have a sore throat at all, just a headache.  Then, this morning, his neck was sore and that, of course, made me think of meningitis and I took him immediately to the pediatrician's office.  Our pediatrician was not in today so we saw the nurse practitioner who said that in almost all of the cases that she's had lately of strep throat, the kids do not complain of a sore throat, just a headache and/or a backache.  Weird, huh?  I wonder if the disease causing strep bacteria has mutated or something?  Anyway, he had to have the throat swab for strep and the nasal swab for flu and that just doesn't make anyone happy, but he's home now and I am blogging while waiting for his prescription to be filled.   He's off school, but his high school age brother and sister are not excused.

This reminds me of when he had strep throat when he was in kindergarten, twice in a row and I kept him home and sent a doctor's note to school both times, but then apparently one of the notes got lost (by the school) and we ended up in truancy court.  I told the truancy officer that if my child was sick, I was keeping him home.

PS:  Edited to add another verdict. The verdict on the MRI of my foot from last week is that I have a tear in the tendon on the inside of my foot.  Joy.

Happy Valentine's Day.

I got my present today ... my husband washed dishes and worked on the house.  This is my version of chocolate and flowers.  :-)   The house is a construction zone right now and I have the laundry room floor to ceiling shelves in the middle of my living room, but I don't care.  It's getting done.  Due to work and other things, I was gone most of the day and came home to my youngest with a fever of 101ish.   I let my homeschooling group know that we won't be coming to the field trip tomorrow and there were several other people in the group that were sick, so it ended up being canceled.  Oh well.  We were hit and miss with school today.  The oldest 2 kids did their assignments, but the youngest took a sick day.  I guess 2 out of 3 isn't bad?  I've made a note of his missing a day in my planning book/calendar but I don't know if I'll make him make it up.  It's just one day after all.  Everybody takes a sick day every now and then.  I just hope no one else in the house catches it! 

And in other news, we got a new cat.   My brother's cat was having some behavior-in-the-house issues and so now he is going to live with us, but outside, since we live far away from busy roads and have cat allergies.  :-)   His name is Abner.  So far, he's settling in pretty well but we'll see, I guess. 

Random Saturday Thoughts.

We had a good time at the valentine party yesterday.  It was very low key.  The kids played and talked and did Mad Libs while the mom's sat and talked.  It was good to be out and about.  After the party, I wasn't really going to make the kids do school.  I mean, according to one of the public school kids on Facebook, the public schoolers spent yesterday sitting in a circle talking about things they love (???) anyway, so I figured it wouldn't hurt my kids to miss the afternoon stuff.  I had to go back to my mom's house to finish my medical transcription for the day so I asked the kids if they wanted to just go with me or if they wanted me to take them home.  They said "We've got to go home so we can do school!" and what did I say?  "Oh yeah, that's right."  = D  After we got home yesterday they began working on American History, using the DVD "The Story of Us".  It's interesting so far.  They finished the biology DVD.  I need to find some good Biology printables to do a review and some history printables to reinforce what they are learning for the younger 2.  My older son already has an American History text that he is working through.

So today, I'm working on medical transcription and they are working on the house to get it ready for the refinance.  I'm very happy about that although it might not show.  I've been fighting a mighty battle with the blues all winter and I have been crabby as a baseline, not as an exception, which is my usual.  :-(     I do still have my sense of humor, thank God, because it helps.  Yesterday I got a good laugh out of my spellchecker wanting to change the word disease to daisies so that the sentence would read "An MRI was ordered by infectious daisies."  :-)

More Homeschool Stuff.

When we first started homeschooling, I kind of felt kind of overwhelmed.  How would we teach them everything?  But over the years, I've come to a realization, we can't teach them everything they need.  (I mean, I didn't come out of high school with every skill set I'd ever need, did you?)  So I decided to focus our schooling on the 3Rs to make sure that they can do math and express themselves well.  The main courses we teach are language arts and math.  Then we add in things we are interested in having the kids learn and we follow the Kentucky guidelines for what they need to know, which are very general.  Then, when that is done, we can let the kids follow some of their interests.  My 2 older kids are learning guitar.  My daughter is doing sewing, macrame, beading/jewelry making and art.  My oldest son does traditional art, plus computer art and has taught himself to use Blender and Gimp and is now working on teaching himself Photoshop.  He's interested in the computer language Python.  My youngest is mostly interested in books and wants to either read or listen to them on audio all the time, but also likes to watch science and history DVDs and is very interested in broadening his vocabulary.  He loves to try new words out on me to see if I'm paying attention; words like complacent and enigmatic.  The kids also have been learning some skills like car repair, home repair and woodworking.  We also love enriching our school with 4H activities, field trips and getting together with our homeschool group.  We're having a valentine party today at a pizza restaurant.  Is it any wonder we love homeschooling?

Too much of a good thing?

My oldest son got an MP3 player with his Christmas money (or his birthday money, can't remember which) anyway, he gave his CD player to his younger brother.  Now younger brother wants to listen to books on CD from the library all day long.  I mean, seriously, all day long.  Traditionally in our home, listening to things has been exempt from the screen time limits.  The kids sometimes like to listen to music while they do schoolwork and I have no objections to that.  But this seems a bit excessive.  Should we make a rule about listening?  Yesterday, he didn't finish his schoolwork on time but he has done this sometimes in the past, predating his listening to books obsession.  If he wasn't listening to books, he'd be reading books, just as obsessively and still not getting his work done every now and then.  So, what do my blog readers think? I would appreciate your words of wisdom.

Book Sneeze Review

I was sent a free copy of a book to review.  The book is called Same Life, New Story by Jan Silvious and the subtitle is Change Your Perspective, Change Your Life.  It is a 10 week bible study book for women, which I didn't know when I ordered it from Book Sneeze.  I think it would be better in a group situation, to discuss it on a weekly basis in order to be sure and extract every single bit of information.. Keep in mind that it is written from a biblical perspective, and uses examples of women in the bible who went though specific situations, however, I think that women who are not believers can also get a lot out of this book because it is compatible with all the advice I read on Psychology today as well.  There is so much wisdom in this book; how to let the past go, how not to participate in needless drama, how to let go of fear and how to bounce back.  Now that I've read it once, I'm going to read it again with a highlighter in hand and write a journal and answer all the questions.  Maybe I should get a group started?  Hey, maybe an online group would be good?  Hmmm.


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Our Mistake!

This year after Christmas I didn't put up our Let It Snow wreath.  By the end of December I was already sick of snow, so I put up a little wooden snowman thinking that did not implore the weather for anything in particular.  This year, though, we've had more snow than I can ever remember.  It occurred to me that we usually wish for snow and don't get it and this year, we didn't wish for snow and did get it.  Anyway, I put the wreath up at 8:00 pm this evening, not before we had 2 inches today though.  :-(

Really, I'm not superstitious, I'm just kidding.

I'm not taking it back down until April though.

Or maybe May.

Homeschooling - My Advice.

I realize that I have not been homeschooling as long as some people and not the entire length of my kid's school careers.  I also know that I have not yet graduated a child, so take my advice with a grain of salt.  I think I'm onto some things though.

First of all, you do not have to spend a ton of money.  You can homeschool with paper, pencils and library books if need be.  If you don't own the books, you'll have to keep checking them out and that would be kind of a pain, but not impossible.  An internet connection, even a slow, cheap one like we have, is also helpful.  A printer is a wonderful homeschool helper.  There are tons of resources for free on the internet.  Currclick offers a free product each week.  Teachers Pay Teachers offers free products about once a month. 

Secondly, you don't have to have a dedicated room in your home for homeschooling.  We originally started doing the first part of homeschooling at the kitchen table but none of the kids do their schoolwork there now; it's usually the living room or their bedrooms.  They have also done school work in the car, at grandma's house, in doctor's offices, the library and outside in the yard.

Thirdly, you do not have to "do school" just like the schools do school.  They are running an institution and crowd control is a concern.  Homeschools are more like tutoring services than schools.  One on one individual instruction is more efficient and it does not have to take as long.  Your child does not have to wait while 15 others go to the bathroom, unless you have a very large family.  :-)

And last but not least, homeschooling can and should be as much fun as you can make it.  Even though you are running a school, you are still also a family and can and should enjoy each others company.  I realize that this is hard when someone is whining about math (trust me, I have been there!) but most of the day can be pleasant and even fun.  

An Award!

I received a blog award from :)De!  (I love her blog name!)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Upon receiving this award, I am supposed to:



1) Thank, and link back to the person who awarded it.
Thank you :)De!

2) Share 7 things about myself. (after this many years of blogging, I don't know if I'll be able to share anything original.  :-)
1. I took my daughter to a 4H needleworking class today.  She learned to do counted cross stitch.  Of the 7 kids there, 4 were homeschoolers.
2.  I am cold pretty much all the time.  Despite that, I eat ice pretty much all the time. I'm sure that the two are not related.
3.  I live on a part of my grandparents farm which bordered my husband's grandparents farm.
4.  My favorite board game is Upwords. 
5.  I love being a mom.
6.  Paulanne is my middle name.
7.  My daughter makes me go to bed at 10:00!  


3) Award 10 great bloggers.
You know I'm going to cheat and say you're all tagged!  I'm too lazy to look at blog lists. Besides, it's 10:00 and I have to go to bed.  :-P   All the blogs in my sidebar are great and should consider themselves tagged.  All other blogs that I haven't gotten around to adding to my sidebar because I'm a busy, working, homeschooling mom, should also consider themselves tagged.  Go!


4) Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award.
See above.

Okay, today's weather report.

It is snowing the biggest snowflakes I have ever seen.  Okay, they are not individual snowflakes, but big globs of snowflakes as big as maybe 2 inches across.  It's crazy.   

No Snow.

It did not snow at all.  It rained.  You'd think that people who make their living predicting weather would have more of a clue than they do.  I have to maintain 98% accuracy on my job.  I wonder what their accuracy ratings are?  10%.?  Of course, in all fairness, I don't have to predict what the doctor will say before he says it. :-P  That would make it kind of difficult.

Anyway, I feel bad that we made the kids miss the concert last night.  There's always next year, I guess.  :-(

Better.

The day got better as it went on, thank goodness!!!  It's now 8:00 pm and I can look back with a better feeling about the day as a whole.  It did not start out well at all, I woke up not feeling well at all at 4:00 a.m. but some parts of that adventure, okay, all parts of it, are best left off my blog.  I finally got back to sleep at 6:30 and slept until about 9:15.  When I got up, my husband said that he thought the kids should not go to the concert with their friends that they had been looking forward to for a long, long time (Winter Jam)  I agreed that they shouldn't go, but it hasn't started snowing yet and if it doesn't some of us are going to be very angry with some meterologists in this area.  So anyway, I took youngest to the doctor and he was very brave getting his tetanus shot.  He's always been my bravest one when it comes to shots.  Then we went to get the prescription filled for an antibiotic in case the place where he punctured his foot gets infected, but I couldn't find my insurance card (again) and so they said that they'd call their sister pharmacy (the one nearer our home that we use all the time) and they said that they didn't have our card either (they do!) so we came home without the prescription.  :-(  When we finally walked in the door, instead of being greeted by 2 unhappy, grouchy teens who didn't get to go out with their friends, we were met by 2 wonderful, happy people who had spent the afternoon making cookies including chocolate chip gluten free ones that are incredible!  I asked where they got the chocolate chips and they said "Dad's secret stash".  I guess that secret is out!  They cut up Hershey bars to make the 'chocolate chips".  Yummy.

Yucky day so far.

I do not like days like this.  So far, we've had to cancel fun plans for the older 2 kids because of predicted snow and schedule a tetanus shot for the youngest son, so nobody is happy.  It's only 11:28 a.m. 

Or, not.

I thought I'd have that list of things to do done by Wednesday, but that didn't happen.  I only got 2/3 of them done.  It's been a frustrating week and I just haven't been able to think of what I need to have with me and it seems like things keep coming up that I need to do first ...

Sigh.

Maybe tomorrow?

Narnia.

We're reading The Chronicles of Narnia for the first time.  We've seen the movies, but none of us has read them before this.  At first, we checked out the audio CDs, but it was one big set and it was 31 disks and we couldn't listen to it all before it was due back at the library so then I started reading.  This has lead to some laughter because there are certain words that I just cannot, for the life of me, pronounce, such as usurper and bivouac.   Now whenever I see the word bivouac in the text, I say camped, which seems to be the meaning.  Another word that confused us greatly was the use of the word carbuncle as in this quote:   "Natural affection is stronger than soup and offspring more precious than carbuncles".  I'm not sure about the part about the soup (strong soup?) but I as a medical transcriptionist, I was really confused by the use of the word carbuncle as something precious.  Here's the meaning in my medical dictionary (and in my head).  Carbuncle:  a painful local purulent inflammation of the skin and deeper tissues with multiple openings for the discharge of pus and usually necrosis and sloughing of dead tissue.  The first night I read this word, I was very confused.   I had my older son google it since he was sitting at the computer.  Same definition.  Finally today I looked on Dictonary.com and found this definition.

Carbuncle:  

–noun

1.

Pathology . a painful circumscribed inflammation of the subcutaneous tissue, resulting in suppuration and sloughing, and having a tendency to spread somewhat like a boil, but more serious in its effects.

2.

a gemstone, esp. a garnet, cut with a convex back and a cabochon surface.

3.

Also called London brown. a dark grayish, red-brown color.

4.

Obsolete . any rounded red gem.

Much better.  Now I can, hopefully, picture a round, red gem such as a garnet when I'm reading the next part.  We're reading The Voyage of the Dawn Treader now and it is clearing up some parts of the movies that I didn't understand.  I'm still not sure how I feel about the series as a whole or if I'll ever want to read any of them again but I am glad we finally undertook reading them at least once. 

Fun Day.

I had such a fun day today.  A friend of mine from the homeschool group took me couponing.  We went to 4 stores and she helped me maximize my coupons and gave me some of hers, so that I ended up getting PAID by the stores to purchase over a hundred dollars worth of stuff.  The stores were all Rite Aid drug stores.  We went to 4 of them.  I spent 26 dollars and got back 35 dollars that I will have to spend in Rite Aid stores in the future and came back with a trunk full of stuff.  I love getting bargains!  I took a picture of all the items I bought but I can't find my camera cord, of course, so I can't share it right now.  I'll try and remember to share it later.