Life

Oh my.  It has been way to long.  but, I think we are finally back into a groove and I hope there is space for these posts to continue more regularly.  Actually, I need to make sure that there is because this is such a wonderful record of my life with my kids.  The first 2 years were published in book form.  Looking back at the posts we had forgotten some of the antics the kids had gotten up to.

So what have I been doing.  Really, I have been finding our rhythm once again.  Now that we are registered with a Distributed Learning school, I have to complete weekly reports of our learning for the week.  I am trying to be thorough, positive, and a bit of a relaxed-super-mom in these reports because I still hope to get a job with this school for the coming year.  Also, I enrolled in their parenting course which involves bi-weekly reflections and journaling.  Much of what the course involves I spent the past year thinking about anyway, but it is nice to refresh because some of the inspiration gets lost as time rolls on.

Much of the harvesting and preserving is over so our daily focus has shifted from outside to inside.  Now we are trying to find our rhythm in the house as BW is transitioning away from napping. This rhythm is a mix of exploration experiences, rest times, and outside play.

Of course, there is still all the home maintenance stuff that needs to happen.  I am finding that I really needed to let go of some things in this area.  I have a must daily must haves: dishes, laundry washed and put away, cooking, kitchen floors, main bathroom, and cleaning one extra in the house.  The rest has to wait for our official cleaning day - Tuesday.  The kids all help out on this day, picking one thing to help with.

We have added some scheduled activities: soccer on Saturday mornings, Art class on Thursday, home school co-op on Friday.  Our calendar feels full at the moment.  When soccer is over we will add swimming.  Then in January we have committed to Sunday Nancy Greene Ski League where I will be one of the coaches.  eeek.

The house is starting to wake up.  Time to get moving.

Hawaii

Yes, we have been places.  So busy.  Too busy to post.  Life keeps going, though.

Loose Teeth

Builder and Animal are growing up, or at least their mouths tell us so.  They both have loose teeth.  Animal has 2 and Builder has one.  Also, they announced they were ready to start reading.  So we got started.  They are a bit unsure of this, but are giving it a go because they want to do it.  Finding time for each of them to have one-on-one time with mommy and a book is sometimes challenging, but we persevere.

BW is getting into everything.  The freezer is constantly being left open and a trail of frozen cheese, nuts, carob chips are left behind.  There is no safe place to hide anything anymore.  Just when I thought I had entered a bit of a sweet spot, she has changed it up for me.  I can't even have a shower without her climbing up on the counter, plugging the sink and watching the water over flow.  HMmm.  Oh and she is even tall enough to open doors.  So, out the door she goes and hello world. 

Did I ever mention that my children are very independent thinkers!!

Happenings

We had a great weekend at the "Big Golf Course" as the kids like to call it.  We have gone every year for years, but missed last year because of scheduling issues with work.  This time was the best so far.  Beefcake and I didn't even attempt anything on our own (golf or spa treatment) and instead played with the kids.  We hiked and geocached, we swam, we hit golf balls and putted, we relaxed, we ate take out, we visited a nature discovery center.  All in all, it was awesome.  The sleeping situation was a bit lacking, but we have a plan for next year.

 After an initial attempt to jump in the hot tub and swim on his own, he decided a life jacket was a good thing =)

 I am trying to incorporate more pictures of myself, even if you cannot see me very well.

The twins are turning into quite the swimmers.  They spent most of the time diving for spoons.

Annual Visit

We had our annual visit with my best friend from across the country.  They stayed 2 nights.  As per usual, the weather did not cooperate.  Still, we managed some outside activities and introduced them to geocaching.  We filled the remainder of our indoor time with a play, and many board games.  The kids got along really well this time, too. 

The Phone

I am always complaining about my husband's phone, or rather, about him being distracted by and attached to his phone.  However, his attachment does have some benefits.  He always has it when a picture opportunity is presented.  Here are some pictures taken from his phone over the last year - 6 months.

Did I mention that this girl loves to dress up.

I have no idea when this was taken.  Perhaps in February when we visited the local science place.

Ah yes, the tree.  We came across this tree when trying to find a place to eat.  This is located at our favorite beach town, which also boasts our favorite toy store and is somewhat mid way  to my sister.

This was is May of 2012.  I believe this is the week of our 10 year anniversary.

LBB laceration after falling from his bike.  He required on stitch.  The nurse suggested that my husband and I should sit down in case we felt faint.  Ha.  I do not think this will be our last stitch in this guy.

And here he is all sewn up.  He was very brave, until the nurse told him it was okay to cry.  Then it was hard to stop him.  I mean he is the middle child and has fully learned how to scream and cry from attention.  Our family doctor phoned several times to schedule a time to remove the stitch.  Ha.  I have had enough stitches myself to know that it is a simple thing.  We sterilized our equipment, called all the kids to around to watch, and together removed the stitch without him knowing it was over.

Our local story time had some old fashioned games.  These two managed to get in the local paper with this one.

Builder was not interested in participating.  Animal was game, though.  He had a great time.

Water Rocket

After finding inspiration from a book, we checked out some You Tube videos on simple water rockets.  By 8;30 am, we were launching water rockets int he backyard.  Fun.  With all sorts of science talk added in.

Life

The crank level around here lately has been at an all time high.  The three boys have been fighting like crazy.  Full on hitting, kicking fighting.  They were arguing with me and just being all around nasty.  I was trying to empathize and reason with them.  Nothing was working.  So, what is a momma to do.  Ha.  Cut out TV.  Yup.  Within a day, the fighting decreased dramatically. They would still disagree with each other and argue, but the hitting and kicking is almost gone.  The twins are now including LBB in their play.  Oh and the play has increased of course.  I had a couple of medieval craft books sitting on the craft table for 2 weeks.  They were still untouched.  They finally looked at them and started creating.  They made catapults and a kings tent.  They decorated.  We visited the library and took out even more crafting books: origami, clay, felting.  Fun, fun.  Several times a day, they still ask for TV and melt down when I say no.  They have their pout session.  Then they ask me to help them sew a teddy bear, or read a book.  It is nice to have my little people back.  The transformation is amazing and well worth the few meltdowns over no TV.  I much prefer this way of life to the none stop fighting.

They even helped LBB make a blow gun.

The kings tent, which later turned into a circus tent with juggling ferocious tigers and venomous snakes.  Eek.

Oh and hear is a random cute picture of this little girl.  She is now climbing everything.  She climbs up the toilet and plays with the taps at the sink.  She was very happy until her brothers insisted on her turning off the taps just before I took the picture.

Museums

We visited our first local museum about a month ago and the kids have been asking to go to another.  This one was really neat with a tent city to show various Gold Rush Scenes.  The kids are really into this and patiently listen to the guides and even ask questions.

 I sent them to jail!!  Look.  They were even happy to go.

 Of course, even BW got in on the action.  The kids are great about not touching and respecting the old artifacts.

 We even got to gold pan.  The kids struck it rich and took their finds home in vials.

Previously in the week, Builder had found some metal on the side of the road that he insisted was really old and needed to be taken to a museum.  I thought it was a car part.  We showed my husband and he said it wasn't a car part.  So, to the museum we went.  We asked the guides if they thought it was an artifact.  They said that they didn't know, but they could ask their historian and let us know.  They graciously took the metal piece, Builder's info and will get back to us.  What a great experience for him.  Lets hope we hear from them soon.  We will definitely be back to this museum.  And the next time, they will pick up some other information.  This is the way learning should be.