Now look what I did...

I was messing around with some of my settings and blew out my links. So I figured why not go ahead and change the background. Can't really find anything that fits, but that is another story.

Anyway I am having to recreate some of my links and my reading list. So if you come by to visit and are normally on my list and don't see your name - don't get mad or anything. I am working on it as quickly as I can, but it is midnight and I am bushed. So sometime on Monday I will get back to it.

Peace,

Amy

YEAH! I am wireless again

It has only taken a year, but we finally got around to having our old laptop fixed and it cost us much less then expected. Double yeah!

Thanks to a friend I have a working laptop with all upgraded systems and programs. We can finally put our wireless network I invested in to use and I don't have to work on the computer away from the girls unless I want to.

I am a happy camper. We have been digging in the dirt and finishing household chores all weekend. I am sore from pulling out some ground cover plant that was starting to choke plants that I actually want. I also yanked out three bushes that kept growing over and blocking the walkway. I figured I was done with the constant trimming and just took them out.

The house, exterior at least, is starting to look better. We have someone coming by tomorrow to give us an estimate on painting the house. We are finally moving along. Of course all I have to do is get in some manic mode and bring DH along with me.

MB is back from her visit with my mother and a lot of fun. It is nice to have all my babies at home again for a little while. Although I just got a call from my mil and they would like MB to stay up there with them following our trip next weekend to visit - so we will be without MB for 3 more days.

I better get back to working on my bible study - no more excuses now that I have my laptop back.

Peace,

Amy

My gross tick story

Tis' the season for ticks as I can see in my recent blog run and by the fact I have removed ticks from almost every member of my family. Since I have lived in tick land all my life it generally does not gross me out. I knew that this summer was going to be a bad one for mosquitoes and ticks because we never really had a cold snap.

This week I had to remove a tick on myself from the most unlikely of places: between two of my toes. It went easy enough, all the tick came out and it obviously had not been on me very long.

Well, over the past couple of days I have developed an infected abscess where the tick was. Okay now I am freaking out, what horrible disease do I have...

I have researched it and have come to find out that it was not a result of the tick, really. That the webbed area between a persons toes has one of the highest concentrations of bacteria on the body, no matter how clean you are. And the tick bite allowed a point of entry of said bacteria into my skin.

So tonight my poor hardworking husband who is now, in the dark, applying a protectorant to our newly washed deck will be helping me solve my toe problem. And next time I will know to triple disenfect the area between my toes.

That is my gross, ugh, disgusting tick story to add to blog land.

Peace,

Amy

"An Energy Burst, Captain"

I do not know what is up with me but I have been riding an energy burst. This week has been really productive and I keep looking around and trying to figure out what other projects I can do.

In the past couple of days I have completed:

Heavy, clorox cleaning of two bathrooms
Rearranging/Cleaning of MB's and K's room (Considered ripping up the carpet to expose the hardwoods underneath but figured I could not complete that job before MB came back this time)
Powerwashed more of the deck that DH had not finished and all deck furniture
Cleaned and reorganized kitchen, then stood around and tried to figure out what color I should paint it when we have the new countertop exposed. Still not sure.
Normal cleaning and laundry
Played, fed and loved to little girls.

I am not bragging, but just wondering where this energy is when I really need it. Like when all three of the girls are home, it's 90 degrees and they want to go to the park.

I have made up a list of the "big" projects for the house that dh and I need to do. Unfortunately I can't do any of it by myself...I have to wait on others...painful...painful. Can you tell I am one of those that makes a plan and is ready to go and get it done.

We go and pick up MB tomorrow. I have missed her this trip. We talked on the phone daily and she has had a lot of fun at the daycamp. Today my mom took her to a local museum for a special program they had on snakes. She was able to hold a corn snake and my mom said that she asked lots of questions so I can't wait to really hear about it.

Tomorrow we are meeting at another nature museum that is about half-way between our two towns. It should be fun. I have never been there but mom says that it is very centered on the wildlife along the Neuse River (Eastern NC wildlife) and that it is a very interactive museum.

Looking forward to having MB home again for awhile as this is her last scheduled trip until August.

Peace,

Amy

Rearranging and Sick Kiddies

Yesterday morning little EM woke up with a fever and then by mid-day K was also hot. I could have blamed the red faces and dripping sweat on the weather, but no, DH insisted that I turn on the AC the night before. I can't understand, it was only 91 degrees and 93% humidity in the house.

The girls only symptom seemed to be the fever and a general lack of energy. So they had a quiet day around the house. I took advantage of the energy lull to do some rearranging between cuddles.

Recently I found a rug (finally) for our family room to go over the laminate floors so there is something to cushion our rears when we sit on the floor. I had also been paid by Wally World to take home a play mat that I found on the clearance rack. One of those neat carpets that have roads, stores and houses printed on them. I thought it would be perfect for K to play with her "Little People" on.

About a year ago we moved the two older girls and ALL of their toys into a shared bedroom. There has never really been enough room for everything to stay neat. Plus the girls do like to play in the family room. So I succumbed to the natural instinct of our family and yesterday I rearranged an area of the family room to accomodate a play area where all the "Little People" toys could be stored for easy access and the little playmat to play on. So far it has been great for K. Because she didn't have to go back and forth between the family room and the bedroom she was easily able to clean up and put away the toys.

I was able to put a small table back into the girls' room to accomodate MB's writing and art work that she likes to go to her room and do. I still need to get in there and organize the room a little better from the shuffling.

I also organized the two little 3-shelf narrow bookcases to stand up on the fireplace which holds current kiddo reading books and puzzles. These are two more bookshelves in addition to the two in their bedroom and the two large built-in shelves in the family room, two large bookshelves in the den and a bookshelf in my bedroom. And we still have books in baskets and boxed up in storage.

I even tried my hand at making tortilla shells thanks to mellinium hippies. They turned out alright, edible but not very pretty. It seems I am incapable of making anything resembling a circle out of dough. But rectangle-like shells do okay for making cheese quesadillas too. :)

It was a pretty decent day yesterday, all things considered. This morning little EM woke up without a fever and seems very happy. K is still warm and kind of cranky, but she also came down with it later. I plan to spend another day cuddling and seeing to whatever I can get to. My level of expectation is fairly low. Which is fine because there is absolutely nothing I HAVE to do today.

Peace,

Amy

Classical Unit Studies

My mom and I were talking earlier today about how we are starting to see MB's brain working. Both of us commented on how we notice that MB takes in the information she is told or discovers, but is generally unable to immediately put it to use. Instead she takes that information and mulls over it for awhile. It may take just a couple of hours or a couple of weeks, then she will come back totally understanding the information or ready for more in-depth study. She likes to concentrate on one area until she is suddenly through with it.

Both she and I have enjoyed the 'unit' studies we have done this Spring. But I also really like the progression of the classical method. So I was thinking that I may try to do unit studies with science and history/literature next year. I was thinking a science unit (2-4wks depending on interest) then a history unit (2-4 wks) and then science again. Her other subjects would continue like normal, most of which would be combined some way into whatever we are studying at the time. I was thinking this would give her time to process what she is learning before we move on, without also feeling like I am repeating myself until "she gets it," which would pretty much send both of us up the wall.

Has anyone ever tried something like this? Any suggestions?

Peace,

Amy

Bigger isn't Better

Saturday night DH, the little girls and myself went to a birthday party for the wife of one of DH's longtime friends. We had been out of touch with them for awhile, partly because they had been busy for the last two years building their new house.

Their house is beautiful. Old brick and curved lines. It is also big. And I feel very sorry for them. I can look at their house and realize how in debt they probably are. The rooms are filled with expensive furniture, all brand new. Their only daughter (age 7) has a large suite and another large playroom, all designed to be as far away from the parents as possible. The husband has an office and a large den and the wife has her own rooms. They are rarely home as they are either working all the time to pay for this or shuffling the daughter around to all of her activities.

Yet, as DH and I were catching up wth his old high school friends I kept getting comments like, "baby making machine" and "aren't ya'll busting at the seams in that little house?" and "Will you be going to work when the girls are in school?" I actually just began to zone out. It stopped being worth my time to try to explian.

But I will let all of you in on a secret I have learned, Big Houses are not better. I look at their house and admit that yes it is a beautiful house and the decoration is also very nice, but it looks like a lonely house. A show house.

My 1500 sf house on the other hand would never be described in that way. But I like to think that it is a happy house. We don't separate and go off to our own space very often. We have to do things as a family, we have no choice. The girls have to grow up learning to respect each other's personalities and need for time alone, like they will eventually have to do.

DH and I have considered finishing off the garage and making another room out of it. To use as a playroom or maybe another bedroom. We have even gone as far as having estimates done. But when it came down to it we realized that right now the girls like to play where we are and that means the family room. We could build them a room, but if it was away from the other family happennings they would not use it. So we have put it off.

We talked about moving since DH is now working in another town and has a fairly long commute. But we looked around, and even though we could probably get something a bit bigger, we could not find anything we liked as much as our little house - warts and all.

Other reasons bigger isn't better:

that much more space for the kids to wreck
that much more space for me to try to keep clean (5 bathrooms - 5 toilets to clean)
imagine the power bills as the cost for power keeps rising
property taxes
big house - itty bitty yard

I did come back with a little envy though. Her house was so clean and my house has not known the true definition of cleaned and organized since before EM was born. So yesterday DH and I went to work.

I cleaned an organized the toys and books in the family room. Cleaned off the kitchen table. Added casters to a cedar chest that serves as a coffee table in the den (it has to be moved when the sofa bed is opened), and put away all winter clothes.

DH borrowed a power washer and went to work on the outside of our house. It looks so good. He plans on finishing the deck this week.

Today I hope to clean out a built in bookshelf that serves as a resting spot for everything that doesn't have a home and clean the kitchen. If I can still move after that I may start tackling the girls room again.

Have a blessed day,

Amy

I'm Dreaming

After the past two days I am dreaming about finding a house, any house, out in the middle of say 4-10 acres. I am so tired of living in a neighborhood, especially my neighborhood right now.

I feel as though I live in a glass house right now when it comes to the neighbors. We are pretty much the only family left living here with young children on a full-time basis. I am constantly asked why I let my children do some of the things they do, like it was any of their business. I am asked about MB riding her bike, and so often I want to ask them to repeat to me the bicycle safety list because I am sure they can't but MB can. It is not like we live on a busy road, the only place safer would be at the end of a cul-de-sac. Where am I when they are outside, why I am either outside with them or sitting just inside the house with total view of them.

I am totally expecting all heck to break loose next year when they see that MB doesn't climb on the yellow chariot. Because they will notice, the nosy buggers.

Truthfully, I don't really care what the neighbors think. But what bugs me is that they feel as though they must tell me.

Then there is the time of year. School is out and children are visiting grandparents and non-custodial parents. In the case of the children visiting parents, these children are being left home alone during these visits. Lonely elementary-age children are finding their way to our house to play because I am one of the few adults around and we have toys. Unfortunately I have become so wary of their play I have to be on top of it every second they are around and I get nothing done.

I feel bad that these kids are alone and have nothing to do, but call their parent every hour to check in. I have tried to be friendly and helpful because I have been there. But I am over it now. When MB returns from her trip at the end of next week we are just going to put the kabosh on the whole thing. I am worn out mentally and MB is stressing out again. It is just too much for the two of us.

Sorry for the vent, I am just at the end of my rope. We did not get the card made for my grandmother that we are going to see in the nursing home tomorrow and I am still trying to do laundry so that I can pack MB's suitcase. I have to fill out the medical forms for her day camp and I really need to do some household bookkeeping. At least I do not have to worry about dinner, my in-laws before they headed out of town gave us four tickets for the BBQ fundraiser their church was having today so I headed over there this afternoon and picked up our plates. Eastern North Carolina BBQ a true delicacy, with hush puppies, german coleslaw and boiled (buttered) potatoes. A heart attack waiting to happen - but so good.

Just fyi in North Carolina "barbecue" is a noun and you have a "cookout" when you cook outside.

Have a nice evening.

Peace,

Amy

A lesson learned the hard way

There is no doubt that my 5 yr old must learn by doing and experiencing, She has proven it over and over again. When MB was around 3 years old she burned herself twice. She remembers both of them and will tell me all about them to this day. She burned her hand on a humidifier after we had told her over and over again to not touch it, then one night she snuck out of her bedroom and into the nursery where she promptly but her hand over the steam vent. The second time was on the stove. It was one of those split second things, but she had burned her finger by trying a burner after I had told her HOT, stay away.

She has been very helpful and safety conscious when she has been helping me in the kitchen lately, so I left her alone cutting hot dogs (with a table knife) while I changed EM. I heard the scream.
MB: K bit me! K bit me!
Mom: Let me see!
I take a look and see a blister forming.
Mom: That is not a bite, its a burn.
MB: Sobbing K pushed me and my finger touched the burner.
Mom: Trying to console and get MB to the bathroom to run cool water over it. Its okay, Its okay. Take another look at the burn and it is on the pad of the index finger, realize the only burner on was in the back of the stove. Obviously she had to reach out with the finger to test what I said. Even as she kept blaming it on her sister she kept saying I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

I know she is lying about it because lately that is her thing. (She told me she killed a rattlesnake last week at mom's house) But she is in pain so all I can do is comfort her and hope that three burns may finally convince her that when I say don't touch - DON'T TOUCH.

Peace,

Amy

Nature Walk today

Today we had our nature walk with the local hs group. We got ready to go and it started to rain, the spitting, drizzly type of rain and MB started to become upset thinking that we were not going to be able to go on the walk. I told her that it was not raining that hard and often times it may rain in one area and not in another so we hopped in the van and headed over to the lake.

It was still doing the half-way rain thing, but I figured that I wouldn't melt and we all had hats. So we meet the rest of the group. I figure we had about 15-20 children there with there mothers. The guy who did it is a homeschooling dad who has advance degrees in ecology or environmental science. It was very informative and fun, even for me a parent. Three things I learned today:
1. Virginia Creeper can be used to neutralize poison ivy if you end up in a patch. And Virginia Creeper can almost always be found near poison ivy.
2. You can tell how old a fish is by looking at the underneath of their scales and they have rings like trees do.
3. No matter how much your 2 1/2 yr. old begs you not to take the stroller, take it anyway. My shoulder is killing me between carrying little EM in the sling, my backpack with everyone's paraphernalia and K for half the trip. I could have put one of those three things in the stroller.

The weather ended up being okay. It never rained hard enough that we felt it once we were in the trees. It also stayed really cool and did not have to worry about being overheated.

I ran into my old friend and got to catch up with her. MB hit it off with her son, so we will definitely be getting together again.

When we came home we took it easy. We had lunch and the girls asked to watch Jungle Book for quiet time today, and since my shoulder and back were begging for a lie down I gave in. K and little EM promptly passed out, while MB sat there for the entire movie. It was nice and quiet.

Tomorrow will be a rainy, messy day so I am trying to decide what interesting thing to throw at them so I don't set myself up to be driven to distraction.

Menu for tonight
Salad
Italian Sausage Spaghetti
Cheesy Garlic Bread

Have a nice evening.

Peace,

Amy

Mother Nature is being kind

Mother nature is being very kind in our current study of reptiles. Blue-tailed skinks are very common around our home. We daily see the juveniles around but rarely the adult males who are very different in color. I am guessing it is mating season as we have recently come across two different adult males in our yard with what I am guessing are females. Today we finally managed to take a picture before he disappeared.


Juvenile and female blue-tailed skinks (or five-lined skinks) are generally dark in color with several yellowish lines running down their backs and ultra-blue tails. The younger they are the brighter the tail will be. But adult males turn brown with these reddish-orange heads. Very scary looking when you come across it unexpectedly.

Upon reading on them I found that it says that they do well in captivity for studying. But I don't know if I am quite ready to go that far. Plus they are quick little things.

Tomorrow we go on our HS nature study around one of local lakes. It looks like the rain is going to hold off long enough, yeah! I am looking forward to it.

Peace,

Amy

Picture of Moth

Here is a picture of our moth before we release him/her to the wild.



This has been a wonderful experience and we are looking forward to studying the cocoon later.

Peace,

Amy

My daughter has expensive taste

On our way home from being grocery shopping today I pulled into a fast food drive-thru (so they could eat while I put away the food) and in front of us was a beautiful red convertible porsche. MB pipes up with "Mom, that's a hot car. I am going to have one like that."

This morning MB and I sat down and made up a menu for the rest of the week. I also had her tell me some of the meals that she would like to have later in the month. I printed off the new food pyramid and talked to her about why we can't have alternating chicken nuggets and hot dogs every night. Then she helped me make a list for our bi-weekly shopping trip.

This afternoon she is going to help me separate the bulk packages down to meal-size packages and prepare the vegetables for the freezer.

I found a neat sausage at the store: chicken, asiago cheese and spinach. My mouth is watering. I believe we will try it tomorrow night with corn on-the-cob.

Tonights menu:

Spinach Salad, Grilled Shrimp & Veggie Kabobs over roasted potatoes (mom & Dad)

Reg. Salad, Fish Sticks, Grilled Veggies and Fruit Kabobs (Girls)

I just love this time of year with all the fresh fruit and veggies, not to mention it is wonderful to be able to use the grill almost every night so I do not have to heat up the kitchen.

Peace,

Amy

The Moth emerged!!

I came into the room this morning where we have been keeping the coccoon and the moth came out sometime in the night!! It did it. and I didn't kill the poor thing!!

MB will be so excited when she wakes up!!

Peace,

Amy

Nice Holiday

We enjoyed a nice holiday, although we did not do too much holiday stuff and a whole lot of normal stuff.

Little EM started off the day at 5:30 am by rolling over on her tummy in her sleep and realizing that she did not like that. I managed to get her back to sleep for a little while longer, but it was a restless sleep.

Dh did find a place to play golf today so when he left I decided to make it just another day for the girls. We started off by talking about what Memorial Day is. As MB is at that age that is preoccupied by death it became a long discussion about death (always my favorite). Then we started Cursive handwriting. MB's handwriting is horrible. This is due in part to the fact that she races through everything she does, but also because in her preschools she has had very little good handwriting instruction. Very rarely have they done any instruction in lowercase letters. I have been trying to work on it with her and she is getting better but I noticed that she would often lose her place when she was writing and had to pick up her pencil. So when she expressed an interest in cursive writing recently I decided to give it a try with her. Today we started with A and B, upper and lowercase. I told her that I wasn't concerned with how fast or how many she did, but how well she tried. If she did not do them well we would erase them and keep trying until they were correct. This she took surprisingly well and did give it a really good try and only had to do over two or three. We will keep working on these two letters until I am satisfied.

After that we moved into her new science unit - Reptiles. This she asked for so it was easy. We hung the Reptile poster I had picked up last week and had her dictate back to me the characteristics of reptiles that we had talked about last night. I had her copy the list over as her copy work for the day and we will include that in her reptile book. I had her choose which reptile we would start discussing first and she chose snakes. So we pulled out the reptile identification book and read about snakes then she chose to draw and color a green snake.

While we were working together, K played with the pattern blocks. K is becoming really good with them and can almost fill in a pattern by herself. Mainly, though she likes to bring them to me to name the colors and shapes. Then she played with her little people for awhile.

After MB and I finished up the reptile work, MB wanted to play with the pattern blocks herself so while she did that I read to them "The Ch'i Lin Purse" a chinese folk tale with a moral ening similar to Aesop's.

We ended about 12:30, which wasn't too bad considering we did not start until 10:00. MB wanted to go out and play after lunch, and since school is now out for the public schools she had playmates around to play with. She played for a couple of hours while I spent some time with K and little EM.

Around 2:00 she came back with a blue jay feather she had foun and wanted to try writing with it like the 'old people' did. So we pulled out the paints so she could try. It worked, somewhat, so that she could see how they did it. Of course that moved into a creative painting fest for her and K. They had a wonderful time. MB talking about the colors she was mixing and what colors she was getting. K just having fun painting her 'shapes.'

Then they headed out to clean-up in the wading pool. An spent the rest of the afternoon outside.

It was really a wonderful day. We had almost no blow-ups and the shifting from one thing to another went very easy. I am really trying to remember to use the techniques I have learned recently in working with them. Mainly to not come right out talking about what MB is doing wrong, but reminding her the correct way to act, or talk. Then giving her a choice to either change her behavior to the correct way or to do something different. Discipline isn't tied so much to a certain punishment (ie timeout) but inside is directly related to whatever she is doing at the time. I am also working on keeping my tone of voice steadier and not moving into yelling as much as I used to. Just be firm. I am finding that as long as I act certain and sure, MB is not arguing back as much with me. All of this is more of a change in my behavior and it really seems to be making an improvement over the last four-five days. Each day the pushing the boundaries gets a little less. I am also finding that as MB improves, K is also more willing to listen and obey which is great because she is going through that whole 2 yrs old I am independent phase.

I feel good about today. We didn't push too hard, had a lot of fun and still got things accomplished.

Peace,

Amy

Reptile Food Day

For our current reptile unit I want to do a reptile food day with MB and K. I do not actually want to eat alligator or snake :). I would like to have kid-friendly, easy dishes that could look like various reptiles. I have looked online, but I may not have been looking in the right places.

Has anyone ever done anything like this or are there any creative folks out there that might share an idea with me? I am all ears.

Peace,

Amy

A quick peek of our reading pile

I noticed today that the pile of books on top of the worktable in the family room was becoming quite unstable. Although we read many books thoughout the day and week, this is the spot where books go when they are in the process of being read or are re-reads. So here is a quick snapshot of what is in our pile this week.

Setting Limits With Your Strong-Willed Child, Robert J. MacKenzie, Ed.D (mom)
In The Time of The Dinosaurs, William Wise (MB)
Grandmas At Bat, Emily Arnold McCully (MB & K)
Elizabeti's School, Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen (MB & K)
Henry and Mudge And The Long Weekend, Cynthia Rylant (MB&K)
The Butterfly Seeds, Mary Watson (MB)
Curious George, H.A. Rey (MB & K)
Black Bears, Marcia S. Freeman (K)
A Kiss for Little Bear, Else Holmelund Minarik (MB & K)
Nate The Great and The Pillowcase, Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and Rosalind Weinman (MB)
Mr. Putter and Tabby Fly the Plane, Cynthia Rylant(MB & K)
Sally, Dick and Jane, First pre-primer (MB Read Aloud - Completed in one night)
Turtle and Snake at Work, Kate Spohn (K)
By The Shores of Silver Lake, Laura Ingalls Wilder (Family Read)
The Ch'i Lin Purse; A Collection of Ancient Chinese Stories, Linda Fang (MB)
The Grape Jelly Mystery, Olive Blake (MB)
Little Toot (Board Book Adaptation), Linda Gramatky-Smith (K)
Little People Cars, Trucks, Planes and Trains Pop-Up, Nancy L. Rindone (K)
A Generous Orthodoxy, Brian D. McLaren (mom)
The Fellowship of The Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien (mom)

There it is a quick look at the books we have read and/or handled in the last two days.

Peace,

Amy

Unrelated Things

We have been having a nice weekend back at home. Trying to get settled in again with MB being home, although she leaves again either Friday or Saturday. Both girls have gotten summer haircuts this weekend. MB's mainly to try and fix the self-imposed mullet that she cut and K because she looks so cute with a little 'dutch boy' style cut. As much as I like long-hair I have to say that they do look better with the shorter hair and so much easier to take care of.

________________________________
Here is a picture of the girls that I took last week. This is at a beach on the sound. MB and K had found a piece of seaweed and were showing it to my mother and myself.



This next visit that MB is going on she will actually be attending a daycamp for 5yr olds and studying the sealife in the area.
____________________________________

With MB's success at RV camping with my dad last week it got me to thinking that it is about time for us to start doing some camping. My family actually only went on one long camp trip growing up. It was a car trip from NC to Maine to take my step-brother and step-sister to a summer camp up there and visit my step-father's parents in Maine. This was 22 years ago this summer. I can remember the miserableness (not a word - but really describes the trip in some parts) of setting up camp in pouring down rain, tire blow-outs in the middle of nowhere, heat and bugs. But it was also a wonderful trip. I had an opportunity to visit places and do things that I have never had since. It was a long time ago and many would have thought that I was too young to enjoy the experience. Unfortunately that was the only time my family ever camped out. My step-father was too busy with his business in the summer and I spent most summers at summer camps. I am glad that I have that memory.

My husband on the other hand, camped his entire young life. His family criss-crossed the US a few times. He has a lot of memories. Some of which have not gotten better with time. But we agree that camping is something that we want the girls to experience.

Where we live now we have several wonderful and inexpensive state parks within 30 minutes of our house. And we have decided that we are ready to start camping. So this weekend we picked up this:


Tents have become so much more since I camped. This thing is huge. Large enough for dh to stretch out his 6'5" frame in. In a few weeks we hope to go on our first 'expedition'.

__________________________

DH is off tomorrow! This is the first Memorial Day he has had off in something like 15 years. We are trying to decide what we want to do. He wants to play golf (snicker, snicker) like he can find an affordable, decent tee time at this point.

Wednesday I want to take the girls to a nature hike at a local lake with the HS group. That is the only thing planned at this point. I might actually get all her clothes washed and put away before it is time to pack them again.
_________________________

I believe our Moth is getting close to emerging from the coccoon. Keep hearing it bounce every now and then. Will have pictures if anything happens.

Off to do bedtime.

Peace,

Amy

We're Back

We have returned from our mini-vacation. It was very nice and we are all glad to have MB back. The one who is happiest is our dog. We were afraid that she was very, very sick while MB was gone because she just kept moping around and would not eat. DH and I were really afraid that we were going to have to take her into the vet. As soon as we walked in the house and she heard MB, she began to wag her tail and has been peppier than anytime during the last week. I don't know what we are going to do with her when MB is gone for 2 weeks later this summer.

MB's trip went extremely well. She had a lot of fun and has caught the camping bug. I am hoping that we can do at least a couple quick camping trips to our local parks this summer to aquaint the girls with camping. I have been wanting to do it, but have been waiting for MB to become older and then to not be pregnant during the summer. So I believe we are good to go, at least to the campgrounds that are only about 30 minutes from home.

K's potty training is going very well and we even made it down to the beach on Wednesday without an accident. Since MB has returned to the family unit we have had a few more accidents, but K is still trying and I refuse to give up.

All is good. Now I just need to catch up on my reading.

Peace,

Amy

Wow

I had a lot of hits yesterday, of course on a day with a negative post.

Today I am feeling better about everything and I have to step up and say that part of the issues are on my side of the fence. MB is my daughter in oh so many ways. I can become just as intense and locked-in as she can which I believe cause part of our stress. So the first thing I need to remember is for me to step back when things get tense. I need to work on my reactions and understand better that what she does are not done to aggravate me (although it feels that way sometimes) but because it is her temperament. When I don't let it become a her vs. me personal thing, then I can focus easier on how to reach and teach her.

It has been easier for me to sit down and think through new strategies while she is gone. And I have some plans. First of all MB and I are going to sit down and create some Family Rules. I have been wanting to develop this for a long time, now I think is the time. She can understand right versus wrong and this gives her a chance to be actively involved in creation of a document that both of us can refer too. Not to mention it will help to reinforce the rules rather than just posting them one day.

Second I want to do more inclusion of MB and K in preparing meals. Both the girls love to help in the kitchen and while I am preparing dinner can sometimes be the most stressful time of the day. Unfortunately with a kitchen the size of a walk-in-closet it can be difficult and stressful for all of us to try and work in there. I need to be more proactive and really keep up with a family menu. I tend to do this for a few weeks then drop off the menu for awhile and then try again. But with a family menu I can schedule meals that the girls can easily help with and know ahead of time what needs to be done and decide who is able to do it. I have also thought that I can schedule K and MB each days to be kitchen helper. Granted K is all of 2 1/2, but she gets in there anyway and I tend to have to find ways for her to help - so if I plan for it I can prepare myself better and not become so annoyed when she is in there anyway. Last night K totally helped me with dinner. We made Sloppy Joe Casserole. She helped me mix up the beef and sauce, pat down the biscuits and spread the cheese. There is no reason I could not find other ways she could help. And of course MB already does well in the kitchen. They want to help, so I need to find the way for it to happen without them squabbling and possibly getting hurt or driving me nuts.

I know that some sort of schedule needs to be incorporated into our day. It will make homeschooling and life in general easier. I am just leery of schedules. We have never seemed to find one that focuses us without getting in the way, or one that will reflect our day in a general way, day-after-day. Sometime they lead to more stress, at least on my part. We have always been irregular people - all of us. And we are gradually adding in more regularity, especially with night activities. I just need to do the same thing for the rest of the day.

The last thing I need to do is just remember the positive things and be more positive in general. This is easier for me in the beginning of the day, but by evening my energy and tolerance levels have dropped and I can handle a lot less button pushing then.

I leave tomorrow to get MB. I am looking forward to having her back. I miss seeing her and talking to her. We will spend some time with family before we come back.

Peace,

Amy