Spotlight On 2nd Grade

Before.  (See what I mean?)

After.  (Way better!)

Confession:  Organizational tools make me giddy.  It was actually fun working in my school closet today adding the rest of the kids' school stuff in their boxes.  And you wouldn't believe the difference it's made in the closet.  Before .... huge mess.  After..... Awwww.

This is my 2nd grader's box.  Wanna know what he's doing this year? 

Well for 2nd grade I like to focus on the basics and weak areas.  Science, history, grammar type things take more of a back seat and will get more attention later.  For now, he needs to work on his reading, vocabulary, writing, and math.  He's a fairly strong reader and can do most of his math on his own with me just checking and guiding his work.  I will spend most of my school time with him listening to him read, going over his writing, and helping him with his vocabulary.   Most of the other stuff he will do on his own.

In his folder he has a checklist of all he needs to do everyday.  Nothing fancy, just a list I typed up and divided into 5 for each day of the school week.  I use the same one for all the little boys.   

Bible - We do this all together in the morning.  I read.  And we work on our memory work and/or catechism.  Right now we're reading through John and then we watch that chapter on the Gospel of John movie.  We save them up and watch several chapters at the same time. 

Later they all do some sort of copy work from the Bible.  For the younger kids I print it out on the computer in a larger font that's easier to copy than from their Bibles.  I keep these in a 3 ring binder separated with tab dividers for each book of the Bible.  The thought behind it is that by the time they graduate they'll have the whole Bible in their own handwriting from the time when they are little bitty to when they have pretty penmanship.  With my boys, I'm not sure the pretty penmanship will ever happen.  :-)

History - Lane is teaching all the boys history this year.  She'll take about 30 minutes a day working with them on Abeka history and asking questions or working on projects.

Science - Abeka.  He will do most of this on his own.  Just reading with probably no experiments unless something just catches his eye.   However, he will participate in the Apologia experiments that his brothers are doing. 

Saxon Math- He can do most of this on his own.

Flash cards with Mally and ZBoy.   He'll spend 15 minutes working with his younger siblings teaching them sight words and math. 

Wordly Wise 3000 - vocabulary.  This is new for him and he'll probably need some help at first.

Spelling Power - Everyone does this.  Different words of course.  It takes me about 30 minutes to do 6 spelling tests. 

Various readers - I haven't put together his reading list yet. 

Grammar - We do this all together.  Mostly b/c I HATE grading grammar.  So I use Easy Grammar and copy selected sentences to the white board.  Then I use the question-answer flow from the Shurley method to label all the parts of speech.  A lot of times I will copy the Scripture we're memorizing and do that instead.  Anyway, I don't consider this a big deal in 2nd grade. 

Writing - I don't use a particular writing program but I like using Write Start as a guide.  I have them write whatever they want.   I  check it, correct it, and have them re-write or type it.  They usually choose to write about something fun that happened recently.  If they can't think of anything, I sometimes pick a picture out of a magazine and have them make up a story about it.  This year I'm going to encourage them to mail out their writings to bless others. 

That's it for 2nd grade around here.  Depending on how diligently he works, he ought to finish around lunch time.  I hope.  Diligence is something that we're working on though, so we'll see.

PS:  did you notice I have 2 pictures on here now?  Both from my phone!  I can't take the credit though.  Honey had to show me.   Thank you Dear!

First Day Of School!

OK, before we start let's just pause to be impressed.  I took this pic on my new phone.  But then I didn't know what to do with it.  Like how do I make it go from my phone to my blog?  Well Honey very matter of factly told me that he'd hafta set it up for me.  But nooooo......I want to learn to do it myself.  So guess what ya'll? 

I FIGURED IT OUT!!  I know!  Without help.  None.  Just me. 

What I didn't figure out was how to upload more than one pic at a time to the same post.  Maybe later. 

Ok, back to the First Day Of School!!

Kinda weird b/c we school year round so there's never been an official first day.  Until now.  I got the idea from Teri Maxwell who always starts the new year with new school supply surprises. 

So that's what I did.  I bought everybody stuff they needed plus fun stuff they didn't need.  

I put a big note on the white board announcing that tomorrow (today) would be our First Day Of School.

Of course the kids were surprised.  And confused.  And asked me what it meant.

But I told them to wait and see. 

This morning I set out all the surprises at their places at the table and called them out.  SURPRISE!!!

I would like to show you everybody's happy faces but I haven't figured it out.  Didn't I already talk about that?

Well trust me, it was fun. 

Some of the new things....

~rubbermaid boxes for the younger kids to keep all their school stuff contained.  Last year I used laundry baskets.  Big mess always.  Too much space and the holes in the basket let pencils escape. 

~color coded folders, pencils, sharpeners, erasers, everything for the boys.  This way we'll always know whose is whose.  And if you lose your pencils or break them or sharpen them too much you can buy a pencil from mom for a quarter.  Can you tell that we had pencil issues last year? 

~flip flops for Eldest.  What could I get her?  Her scholarship pays for all her stuff and I didn't wanna leave her out.  (I have better ideas for next year though!)

~Josh has his own calculator to check his math work.  Happy boy!

~Socks and underwear.  Zboy is thrilled with his Lightening McQueens.

~A few school books that they haven't seen yet. 

And after all that we didn't even use them.  I told them today was like "registration" day and we'd just look at the new stuff and talk about our plans for the upcoming year.  Even that was fun b/c they weren't expecting new plans!

Miscellaneous Monday

~I got a box! A present! For me!! Do you wanna guess what it was?

Well it's a big present....but small.

Handy

Sleek

Portable

Pretty

And fun.

Give up??

OK it's a (drum roll please.......)

iPhone 4!!

~So now I can text. And tell you what the temperature is. And make a grocery list on my phone. And read my Bible without having to carry it to church. And, and, and......

~Today is my little Shadiamond's b-day. My sweet one and only in my Awana class. She is still away from her family and I'm praying for her. I sooo hope they will come back when all this is over.

~Tomorrow I go for my first localized injection. I'm praying it's my only one.

~For those of you who live in FSM, did you know that the cheap movie theater is back down to $2.50? Maybe it's been that way for a long time though. I think the last movie Honey and I went to see was Ice Age. And we were late and the guy only charged us a dollar! Anyway, on our anniversary we went to see Mr. Popper's Penguins.

Don't bother. It's clean and has some funny parts but there is the OMG issue as well as some disrespectful jokes about elderly ppl.

But we did see a pretty good movie we got from the library called Keeping the Promise. Sweet family movie.

~We got a piano! For FREE! And we love it. Jes has hardly been off it since we got it. We are so thankful.

~The Escape is wrecked. Again. Not as bad this time though. I'm wondering how we'll ever survive 7 more teenage drivers. Honestly I hafta say that driving has been the scariest thing we've faced as parents so far. Potty training, screaming fits, sleepless nights are nothing in comparison.

~Don't forget to place your Azure Standard order tomorrow! I hope I don't forget.

~I'm working my way through 1 Chronicles and I'll leave you with this verse..

"Now set your mind and heart to seek the Lord your God." 1 Chron 22:19

New Jurisdictions!

This summer has been a good opportunity to do some re-org. The first was fixing up our chore list...or jurisdictions as we call them. It was a bit lopsided as some ppl had too much and some had too little. Also there has been a lot of growth since I assigned them last time and some kids are ready for some heavier work.

So here's how it looks now (in addition to their usual room and groom).......

Lane (17yo) - living room, mowing, pets, history with little boys, big trash cans, making salad dressing, kitchen work Tues & Sat w/Jes.

CT (15yo) - school closet, pool maintenance, larger yard chores, game closet, making salad, emptying Wall-e (trash compactor), kitchen work Wed & Sun.

LB (13yo) - dining room (Mon and Fri), kitchen work Thurs & Sun, ironing, matching socks, vegan cereal, girls' bathroom, daily bread baking

Josh (10yo) - laundry (we all help fold and put away), dining room, pantry, recycling cans, kitchen work with Meg

Jes (8yo) - cereal, dog poop, table duty, boy's bathroom, recycling cans, kitchen work with Lane

Nate (7yo) - laundry room, table duty, dog poop, kitchen work with LB

Mally (5yo) - music room laundry, halls, emptying dishwasher

ZBoy (4yo) - entry way, back tile, small trashes, emptying dishwasher

Many hands make light work! And I've noticed that we're getting a lot faster at pulling the house together when it is a wreck than we used to. Gone are the days of doing it all myself with little bitties pulling at my legs. Not that I did all that myself....I seem to remember it being more like the bare minimum back then!

23 Years!

I'm a blessed girl!

Thank you Honey for being the most amazing husband ever. And for being MINE.

I love you.

Living Today

"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." Matt 6:34

I'm working on this.

I tend to like to plan ahead, schedule, and organize. I can't tell you how many times I've been disappointed when something doesn't come about like I had it planned in my mind, and on paper.

RA has helped to to think on this Verse. My symptoms seem to change rather quickly sometimes and I no longer *count* on being able to do this or that. Most days I can....but sometimes I can't. And I find that when I am focused on what I can't do, or might not be able to do tomorrow, then I have no joy in what I CAN do.

I want to be thankful for whatever comes in the day without worrying about what might not be tomorrow.

Miscellaneous Monday

And it's actually a real Monday this time!

~Well it looks like my nephew can't come spend a couple of weeks with us as planned. Huge disappointment. It would've been FUN. But school starts too early now. Where has the summer gone?

~Speaking of school. This year I'm doing some new things. For one, I'm gonna have an official first day of school...just for fun. Schooling year round never has a *first* day ya know. But I'm planning some fun surprises and a party too! I guess it's time to get out the calendar and actually pick a first day.

~Baby boy fell asleep on the couch about 5:30 and is still out! What to do? Carry him to bed or let him sleep on the couch?

~My anniversary is this week! 23 years. I love you Honey.

~Before school starts in the mornings I've been having everyone report to the kitchen for a quick cooking job. This has made things so much easier. It may be cutting carrot sticks or cantaloupe. It may be sorting beans. It may just be freezing leftovers. Little things, but it's making the kitchen run smoother and we're all working together.

Today's meals...
Breakfast - cereal and strawberries
Lunch - pb sandwiches and carrot sticks
Dinner - I haven't re-named it yet but it was a new recipe that has pasta with chickpeas and tuna. Pretty good. But I noticed Honey pushing the tuna around on his plate and mumbling something about chicken. So I say, "no it's tuna!" And he decided it was better than he thought. Funny thing is that it was leftovers from last night's date night and he thought it was chicken then too!

It's ON!!

Oh Jes is excited! He's been talking about this for days.

Today!! 1pm.

FIFA Woman's World Cup

USA vs Japan

Seems like I should've done some game food or something.

There will be lots of yelling and cheering and coaching from this living room while a certain little girly girl sits on the floor in her butterfly dress and works her cookie monster puzzle.

Love the balance.

Miscellaneous Monday On A Thursday

Because it feels like Monday to me! It's really not Monday??
Well it's the first work day after vacation and that just always means Monday doesn't it?
But we'll work with a Thursday I suppose.


~The laundry is almost entirely caught up already! Did you know that if you keep your same towel for the whole week it cuts your laundry in half?! Surprise!! Now I've tried the ol' keep-your-towel-and-cup thing before but we've never been able to stick to it. Since we had to do it in Branson I know it can be done. Soooo guess what we're learning this week?

~If you only use 11 cups a day instead of 33 you don't hafta run your dishwasher as much either. Imagine that.

~Our tadpoles grew while we were gone. You should see them swimming all over the place. They have tiny little eyes that you can see now. It's been a fun summer project so far.

~I'm making more pickles today. I'm almost out of dill and well...I guess most everybody is almost out of dill since it's so hot. But I think they will be pretty good without it. I'm hoping to actually get some canned. We've been eating 2 gallons of homemade pickles a week and there have not been enough to can yet.


~My man has a big project at work that has kept him pretty busy. This week he will work 8-10pm from home. We decided that would be a good time of still getting work done without interferring with family time. I love that I can sit by him and read and blog or whatever while he works.

~Some of my kids have finished the library summer reading program, some are almost finished, one isn't even close. We'll continue to work on some of that this week too and maybe cash in on some prizes!

~Did you know that if you go into a dark bathroom and shut the door and light a candle and say "Bloody Mary" and spin around that a woman will jump out of the mirror?

That's what my little church kids told me last night. I laughed out loud!! SERIOUSLY guys??
Oh yes, they were serious. All 5 of them.

So I looked at them and said very slowly .... I PROMISE THAT WILL NOT WORK.


Ask me how I know.
I can't believe after 30 years that same stupid thing is still going around in 5th grade.

~Last night was the last Bible study until Awana starts next month. :(
I enjoyed getting to talk about my little peeps to our CO friends in Branson. Love them!

~LB spent the morning sewing with one of my friends. LB loves spending time with her and Becky spoils her with a Sonic drink. They work on their sewing projects or cook or decorate or whatever. I am thankful for the time Becky invests in her.

~Today I had 3 younger kiddos peel 8 heads of garlic. They knocked it out in no time! The garlic press is too much for my hands right now and having peeled garlic in the fridge is a blessing.

Today's meals...
Breakfast - cereal
Lunch - veggie soup
Dinner - Josh's green pasta and bread, salad and hummus.

I'm Back!

Did you miss me? You didn't even know I was gone, did you? Oh well.....

We went on our first ever with 9 kids vacation! 3 whole days in Branson MO with friends from Colorado and some super friendly folks from Young Life. FANTASTIC time!!

We had this wonderfully spacious and clean cabin with 2 bedrooms, lots of bed space, a full kitchen, and 2 bathrooms. LOVED it.

We spent quite a bit of the 3 days at Silver Dollar City riding rides, eating, walking, and just being together. We haven't seen our friends in 2 years so there was a lot of catching up to do in person. It was the first theme park for most of our kids and just about everybody loved the roller coasters. Even Mally Bird.

The weather was nice and the porch was just right for reading and watching my guys play basketball. The pool was perfect.

We also got to participate in Young Life's family night and sing some worship songs. A sweet time for me after missing 2 weeks of church in a row.

It was so much fun being with my whole family...away from home, no dogs, paper plates, and no distractions. And can you believe we survived 3 whole days without doing laundry?

A huge thank you to our friends and the folks at Young Life for being so generous and hospitable. It was a GREAT 3 days!

Our Herd

Aren't they cute!?

Meg worked all morning making these great masks and costumes for free meals at Chick-fil-a.
I love all the red bows for the girls and the horns for the boys.

I call ZBoy my little bull calf. And the dog was just the finishing touch.

Ramblings Of Recently

~Happy Birthday to me! Yesterday that is. And what a great day too. Sweet family, lots of smiles, thoughtful presents, pineapple custard, shopping, lunch with my man, and I even got to see some Immanuel peeps. Good day!

~Frog eggs in the swimming pool! Lots of them. My son went to do some pool maintenance and there were eggs everywhere. So now we have containers of water sitting around the house waiting for little tadpoles to make their appearance. Honey suggested dumping them into the goldfish pond....free fish food right? But it didn't fly with the kids.

~Still not feeling too great. But I can walk in the evenings again. I really don't know what I'd do without my kids. Nothing would ever get opened that's for sure! It has helped me to think through some organizing tips in the kitchen. Today I had Lane juice 8 lemons for me in the blender and we have a quart of lemon juice in the fridge. That will be a lot easier for me than squeezing lemons one at a time when I need them. Meg has done all the grocery shopping for the past week or so. What will I do when school starts??! I'm getting spoiled.

~We just ordered Eldest a Discover card since mine always seems to be in her purse. I got a new design while I was at it. Pink monogrammed! Why doesn't every credit card let you customize? Now I can't wait for it to come in the mail. Of course now I need a new wallet to match! Just kidding Honey.

~I am re-doing all the kids' jurisdictions and making school plans for the fall. Right now I'm just jotting down whatever comes to mind in the back of my planner. I've already filled up a whole page.

~Get this. For months, I've been trying to make a gluten free bread or cracker that does not have yeast, eggs, or potato starch. I've failed every single time. LB gets in the kitchen and whips one out the FIRST time!! And it's a sliceable kind of bread too! Amazing.

~I just finished 2 Samuel and now I'm reading 1 Chronicles. I realized that for the most part I've been reading my Bible in a study sort of way and less devotionally. :(

~I'm packing up the coffee pot. Since Honey's kidney stone, he's given up tea so that means the coffee pot has nothing to do. I plan to clean it up and store it in the boys' closet until somebody comes over who drinks coffee.

~This summer I'm trying to work on my Flylady routines.

~We get to see some friends from CO next week!! OH I'm excited! It's been way too long.

Today's meals...
Breakfast - cereal. Now we make 2 different ones. Jes makes the regular granola and LB makes a gluten free vegan one.

Lunch - Wordless bean soup and cornbread. Heads up to my VBS friends who haven't made your's yet...the spice packet is too sweet! Bean soup should not be sweet. Dump it out and use the beans for something else.

Dinner - Burgers for kids and a new bean burger recipe from Amy. I'm excited about this one. Oven fries, broccoli, and salad.

Snack - popcorn! I just re-discovered popcorn. There have been so many years that we either had babies or kids with braces that couldn't eat popcorn and I kinda forgot about it. But it's super easy and cheap and everyone likes it. Besides it's fun watching it pour out of the hot air popper. Portion it out in coffee filters and there's hardly even a mess to clean up. Most likely this will become a little boy's newest jurisdiction! :)

VBS Round 2

Our church just finished up our first vacation Bible school. 5 nights of presenting the gospel using 5 different colors. We didn't use pre-packaged VBS material for our first go round. It was sort of a homemade kind of backyard style VBS. I was a bit worried about that at first but it seemed to go off just fine.

It started months ago when the ladies of our church used our monthly craft morning to cut, glue, measure, and craft all things in preparation. That made everything so much easier.

A few families from the church got together to grill hamburgers for some nearby apartment complexes inviting the folks to a free lunch and VBS. We did this twice, passing out fliers, food, and drinks. We only had 1 family from the apartments come this year. But I'm hopeful that maybe in the future that will grow.

My goal for VBS was for it to be an outreach. We had around 28 kids every night and 4 of them were unchurched. It was nice for me to get to know the church kids a little better since I'm never around them much. But my heart really went out to those 4. One in particular who only came twice. He lives at the apartments and I'm praying about a way we can reach out to him again.

Every night was fun music, lesson, crafts, games and......CLOWNS! And the clowns really took our VBS over the top. Fun In The Son is a Christian clown ministry and they did a tremendous job all week long. Such fun. So many smiling kiddos.

That's it. I'm done VBS'ing for another year. It was a wonderful experience working with our church and watching it all come together. I loved all the happy faces and the willing hands.

And I'm already thinking about next year......

A Big Day For These Two!

Mally comes to me this morning and tells me her teeth itch. And she just doesn't know why....with her arms out in that question mark style of hers.

Itchy teeth? So I say she should go brush them again. She runs back minutes later and exclaims, "I figured it out! I have a wiggly tooth!"

Really? But she's only 5. And besides, she's my baby girl. And baby girls don't have wiggly teeth right?

It was TRUE. And ohhhhh is she delighted! She just couldn't wait until her Dad and siblings came home from TKD to show it off. And then there's this guy. My oldest son asked permission to take him out in the pool without his floaties to teach him to swim. Ooooo....hmmmm.....huge responsibility. But then again he can touch the bottom with his tippy toes, so ok.

In no time we were gathered around the pool cheering him on as he swam from one thing to another (minus the floaties) and even dove down to touch the bottom! Way to go ZBaby! And way to go CT. I hope they both remember this always. Sweet to have one brother teaching another something so big and important.

My littles are growing up.