A Hot Mess

It has been so hot here the past few days, so we decided to break our normal routine and have outside play time in the morning.  I was watering flowers and Maggie decided to fill her watering can up, too.  Within a couple of minutes, she was standing ankle deep in a "pool".

Neither of our girls like to get dirty unless it is their idea.  We encourage this kind of play!  They are happy to rub sand all over each other in the sand box at home, but not at the beach.  And they are more than happy to dig a hole beside of their swing set to create a "pool".  This part of North Carolina has red clay, so both girls had red clay mud covering their feet...and hands...and somehow Ellie had some on her cheeks too.  Maggie said it made sense why some animals covered themselves in mud to stay cool because her feet were "just as cool as they could be".  We stayed outside for a couple of hours and then came inside for baths and lunch.  It was a great day!  (They also made pyramids out of the mud and they were thrilled to go out and look at them last night and see that they had dried and looked like they were made out of modeling clay.  Can you tel that we talked about ancient Egypt last week?)


We are going on a bit of an adventure next week.  Big Daddy needs to be out of town all of next week and since July 4 is on Wednesday, we are tagging along!  I'll be spending all day with the girls while he is taking care of business and it's not something that I've ever had to do in a new town.  So...I'm hoping that the hotel is close to something fun, but they have a pool, a t.v. and also telephones that we will be unplugging so the girls can do their thing.  They usually have the best time just playing around in the room, but we have never been in a hotel for this long with them.  I would greatly appreciate your prayers that we have safe and happy travels!

Once again...

Once again it's been a long time since I posted anything.  We have been busy with homeschooling stuff and just daily life.  Big Daddy has been out of town a lot, (this is the third week in a row) but he's home every weekend.  We have been playing in the sprinklers, and going to Nana and Paw Paw's a lot in the evenings.  It just seems like more fun to play outside when there's more people around.  And my brother-in-law made these:

(pictures are sideways but I don't know why!)

a tire swing

and a big 2 person swing !

 My parents (and sister) live on family land that once belonged to my great grandparents.  The house that my dad grew up in is right next door.  My grandmother passed away nearly two years ago and my dad bought the house recently.  There are several old maple trees, so my brother-in-law fixed swings for the girls (Callie, Maggie & Ellie) in one of them.  These swings are in the tree that my grandparents used to sit under all the time...and my dad probably played under them when he was little too.  This is now our evening hangout!

Big Daddy and I celebrated our twelve year wedding anniversary this past weekend.  I still can't believe that I've been married that long or that I was so young when I married!  We had an all day date that lasted about eight hours.  We had a light lunch, saw a movie, shopped, walked around, had dinner and then walked around before wandering home.  Maggie and Ellie spent the day with my sister and my mom. Since they live next to each other, the girls just sort of float back and forth.

And that is a little bit of what's going on around here!

The most unintentional of breaks

I made the decision a few weeks ago to document a little more of our daily lives and it has been harder to find the time than I could have imagined.

We were looking forward to having last week as a "Spring Break" and taking a trip with Big Daddy. He was scheduled to be in Pennsylvania and have time off, so we were planning to take the girls to New York City (one of Maggie's dreams) and to the Pennsylvania Amish country and a few other sites. Big Daddy's mom was hospitalized on Wednesday, April 4 and he came home the next evening. We visited her in the hospital and I discussed her condition with her nurse and we knew that the situation was not good. After several bad days and a couple of good ones too, she passed away last Tuesday. Thankfully, we were all able to visit the night before and Big Daddy and I , his brother and father were all able to be with her when she passed away.

Maggie understands and is doing very well. She has never been around Big Daddy's parents on a daily basis, so I think the loss doesn't seem as real. Ellie knows that Grandma is gone, but of course doesn't quite understand. When I told her that we were going to see Grandpa last Wednesday, she said "and Grandma will be there too". I reminded her that Grandma was sick and in the hospital and that she had died. Maggie took it upon herself to explain everything to Ellie, which helped quite a bit. Ellie casually mentioned that Grandma was in heaven yesterday.

Little ways that say I Love You

To say that parenting has it's ups and downs is an understatement. To say that "single"-parenting while your spouse is away for weeks at a time has it's ups and downs is even more of an understatement.

Big Daddy left on Sunday, February 12. We decided that he would leave for the airport at the same time that I left with the girls for church. We were going to take him to the airport, but then Big Daddy and I decided that it might be too much for me to try to carry two crying, kicking, heavy girls to the car after he had boarded his plane. Goodbyes to Daddy can be hard.

Maggie had her first "I just miss my Daddy" episode on Sunday night. She completely lost it when we finished our phone call with Big Daddy and then she said, "I just can't do anything without him here. I can't do anything at all without him during the day". It was like looking at myself some 14+ years ago when I would finish a Sunday night phone call with Big Daddy. I explained that I used to feel that way when we were dating, but now I had two little girls to make me feel better and explained that being apart was hard on all of us. To make matters worse, we were getting sick, too.

We stayed in all day on Monday and Maggie even asked to miss dance that evening. We were snotty and coughing and all feeling a little lethargic. At some point during the morning, I found an envelope with our street address written on it and opened it to find this:

I might have melted! I never want her to feel like Mommy can't handle things when Daddy's away, but I always want her to know that this is hard for me too. I had written her a little thank you note a couple of weeks ago because she had folded all of the towels, wash cloths and cloth napkins (nearly a full load of laundry) without me knowing. She was obviously touched and then wrote me a thank you note to thank me for the card. She loves the written word.

We woke up on Valentine's Day and Maggie was thrilled to finally give me my present. She had wrapped it (a David Crowder*Band cd) a couple of weeks ago and had been giving me hints about what it was. I opened it and then fixed the girls chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Ellie was playing with static cling hearts on the french doors and then spit all over the door because he heart wouldn't stick. (Yes, it sticks if you use spit!) I scolded her, she apologized and then I got the cleaner and a cloth and she cleaned up her mess. A few minutes later, I had a "delivery" in my bedroom.

And then found this on the easel in the living room.

No day would be complete without some sort of accident. On Valentine's Day, poor Ellie couldn't get her bathing suit (long story, don't judge) down in time when she went to the bathroom. You can imagine what happened. This is the note that I received:

Heart melting again.

We needed more tissues and I really needed VapoRub, so we had to go out and my mom asked us to come by her house so that she could give the girls their Valentine gifts. They each had a snowglobe in their bag. Of course, Ellie decided to put her snowglobe in her backpack once we got home and then she jumped up and down on it. Of course, it broke. Of course, Maggie wrote ANOTHER note.

The rest of our Valentine's Day was spent making homemade pizza and then delivering treats to our closest neighbors. (Both girls started out in bathing suits, but Ellie likes to change clothes A LOT. Maggie was trying on a new suit, but the bottoms were way to big, which explains why she doesn't match. Not that she normally matches!)

Lots of other stuff happened, but we'll just fast forward to this past Sunday. Maggie always has at least three art projects from her Sunday School class and this was one of them:

This is now framed and sitting out where I can see it!

There are SO many days that I feel like the worst mom and I wonder if anyone appreciates anything that I do or if they hear anything that I say. I am so thankful for these little reminders.

You Are Amazing

We started out our week with a trip to IKEA on Monday. It's a two hour drive, so we talked about leaving you girls with Nana, but we wanted family time. Your dad had phone meetings, but we were able to have some nice family time.

We went to Bass Pro Shops first and you two loved playing on the boats that they had inside. You can make anywhere into your personal playground.

And Maggie, you wore one of my favorite dresses. Forget that you had slept in it from when you wore it to church on Sunday. You decided to change it up a bit and paired it with dark brown leggings and your brown cowboy boots. You looked beautiful and I wish I had taken a picture of the complete outfit. I let you pick out your clothes and I can't help but smile even when you embarrass me.

We walked just inside of the big mall and after one store, I decided that I couldn't do the big mall and IKEA with you two! Of course, we walked right by a chocolate shop and someone wanted a candy apple. That would be you, Maggie.

$10 later, we walked away with a nice dessert (caramel, covered in chocolate with a strawberry drizzle)for after lunch. And Ellie, you met a new friend.

We had Mexican food for lunch and then pulled into IKEA around 12:45. The two of you could totally live on the second floor. You jump from "room" to "room" and are just do excited to look at everything. It wasn't crowded like last time, so you had lots of space to roam.

Since we knew what we were going for, we picked out the two pieces of furniture for your rooms and I picked up a few other things. Your dad and I have looked at furniture for your rooms for so long and finally decided that this was what we want and we really couldn't be any happier. I want to get some cute antique headboards or something, but I like to look until I find exactly what I want. We were back on the road a couple of hours later.

You were both thrilled when Daddy started putting the new furniture together on Tuesday. Both of you are quite handy with a hammer and a screwdriver. You treated your dad like a king and were quick to give him any tool that he needed. The best part was that you were able to help again on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Daddy quit the work at home stuff and went back to the office. Both of you were sad, but we needed to do a little school work, go the library and get the house in order. "We" worked on Valentine stuff and were excited about our homeschool group's party in Friday.

Some of our friends from church are part of the big group now, so Ellie, you played in the toddler area with Kamrynn. The two of you had lots of fun and were so funny trying to sneak off and get into trouble with the big kids. Maggie, you loved decorating cookies, playing games and doing a cake walk. We ended the party with snacks and a puppet show.

Daddy decided that it was time for a certain five year old to get her first gun. A rifle, to be exact. I was (hoping) for something child-sized and pink, but got this instead.

A big, black Ruger.

When I asked you about it, Maggie, you said that you really like black anyway. Then you asked if we could go out and shoot at trees. Your Daddy has already taught you a lot about gun safety and you are anxious to learn how to shoot.

Now, it is Sunday. We are finally getting our first colds of the season. It started with me and I think it's moving to you Ellie. Maggie, you tucked your sister into bed, read her a story and prayed with her tonight. You two can be SO sweet and then sometimes, you're not.

But every single day, you are amazing.

The Year So Far

I feel like the first week of the new year was so busy, yet so lazy. Big Daddy was out of town, so the girls and I watched a few movies in the middle of the day...while wearing our pajamas. We jumped back into schoolwork and I would say that it took most of last week to get our groove back.

My diet efforts resulted in a loss of five pounds. I am beyond thrilled! It comes from finding a plan that is restrictive, but easy to follow, I think. I sort of feel good when I deprive myself of things. At the end of the day it feels nice to know that I've stuck with my plan for another day. I still have a lot that I'd like to lose, but I am on the way.

I have started planning for Maggie's second grade year. I must say that we are moving a little faster through first grade than I want to. I want to follow Maggie's lead, but we're not moving into second grade until I'm ready too. Homeschooling is not about getting ahead for us. We only did a month of kindergarten work (which is satisfactory for our state) and that was due to the fact that she could read well, write, was very good at phonics and had completed an entire year of kindergarten math. I get excited, nervous and worried when looking at new curriculum, so we'll be sticking with what we have liked for another year.

We are slowly saying goodbye to so many "baby" things. Diapers, sippy cups and all that stuff. I thought I would be sad and while I am just a little, I am more excited about where we are and where we are going. Maggie & Ellie are at ages where they have so much fun with each other and they want to be together most of the time. It won't be this way forever, so I think we are really enjoying it.

I'm feeling the need to do some sort of family album starting with this year. I feel overwhelmed if I think about trying to dig through thousands of pictures from the past. If I start something now, I think it's still early enough in the girls' lives that it would be very special to look at as they grow up.

Happy New Year!

We have had such a happy New Year's Eve today! We had a somewhat lazy Saturday morning. I did Big Daddy's laundry and packed his bags for next week (he'll be gone again). I cooked mini burgers for lunch, we did some fun shopping and then ate Japanese food and went to red mango for frozen yogurt. We ended our day of family fun by watching Toy Story 3.

Maggie and Ellie had a hard time this week after having Big Daddy home for six whole days. They have soaked up every bit of time with him today. We had a very happy day and I can only hope that 2012 holds many more days like this.

Tomorrow will start another attempt at a better lifestyle for me. Eating better, moving more, trying to be more patient and present with the kids, being a better wife and trying to make a little more time for me. I'm going to try to take everything day by day and just try to make it through the day at hand knowing that it will make all of the tomorrows that are coming, a little bit sweeter.

For the past couple of years there has been lots of talk about choosing "one word" for the coming year. I couldn't even come up with one word last year, but it was so easy for me this year.
Patience.
I want to be more patient with Maggie, Ellie, Big Daddy and myself. Doing this will help a lot of other things fall into place.

Monday we will start a few new things in our home school and I'm really excited about that. We took a little Christmas break last week and I feel like I haven't had school in months! Of course, teachable moments are found each and every day.

Happy 2012!

Christmas Recap

The past few weeks have felt like a bit of a roller coaster with all sorts of "exciting" things going on, but I'm going to skip right over to our Christmas.

For the past several years we have visited Big Daddy's family on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas Day with my mom, dad and my sister and her family. My extended family (mom's side) gets together on Christmas Eve, so we miss that. I don't mind too much because we see them all on Thanksgiving and throughout the year as well. It's fair to say that I do not enjoy spending Christmas Eve at the in-laws house for a variety of reasons, but this works best for us. (It would no doubt blow your mind if I told you just a few of the things that she "attacked" us with this year, from homeschooling to church all the way to what I do and do not eat.)

Every single year, my mother-in-law waits until a day or two before Christmas and asks what the girls would like. She always waits until my mom, my sister and I have done all of our shopping and most of the Christmas lists have been checked off. This year, I ordered a present for each girl (Disney Princess baby dolls) and gave it to her so that she could give it to them. Therefore, our "Santa" gifts were scaled back by quite a bit.

My mom and dad bought both of the girls "horses on a stick". I had ordered boots for both girls and my mom needed one more gift to give them, so she took the boots. Maggie & Ellie both have new horses, new boots and a new cowgirl hat, as well as a few other things from Nana & Poppy.

After we had opened Christmas gifts on Christmas morning and were getting ready for church, Maggie asked if she had received everything on her (very long) list. I reminded her that we never get everything on our list and as if she wanted to prove my point, she said, "You're right. I really wanted a horse on a stick and I didn't get that." She was very happy to open that gift from my parents.

I wrapped the Santa gifts a day or two before Christmas Eve and realized how little we had purchased for the girls. Big Daddy and I both had the same reaction: go buy more gifts. We didn't and everyone was still happy. While we know and celebrate the true meaning of the Christmas holiday, it's hard not to go all out for the kids. On Christmas morning, Maggie & Ellie each had four gifts and a stocking full of fun things. They also received a (giant) easel to share. They have enjoyed the easel SO much already and we are looking forward to using it when school resumes on January 2!

Our church was only offering one worship service on Christmas morning and there are normally three. They were offering childcare for preschoolers, but the older children were not having children's church or Sunday school. We made it to church plenty early, but it was a full house! We chose to take Ellie into the service with us. She did okay and managed to make it an hour. We missed the last fifteen minutes, so we were pleased.

Now, the pictures!

Maggie & Ellie's stockings and gifts.

Maggie with her new Barbie and her Barbie "styling head", as she calls it.

Ellie loved her new "buggy" and was excited to push around the Snow White that Grandma & Grandpa gave her.

This is the extra large easel. I was reminded that objects inToysRUs appear smaller in that big store. When Ellie starts more homeschooling, we will be turning the bonus room (currently Big Daddy's man cave) into a school room and the easel will live there. Until then, it's happily residing between the living and dining area. Ellie is quite obsessed with Toy Story, so she likes to pretend to be Cowboy Woody or Cowgirl Jessie. The girls love that movie and received several (7) Toy Story books and a couple of Woody and Buzz Lightyear figures too.

Our First Trip to Disney World

I could go on and on and on about the details of our trip or helpful hints that we have to pass along on how to save money while having the time of your life, but I'm not going to. If you want to plan a trip to Disney World I'd love share our travel agent and a few tips. (Email me!) I completely planned everything, but she booked it. Using a travel agent is a free service and it gave us one person to contact if we had any problems. Thankfully, our trip was perfect!

Big Daddy wanted to go for his girls, but he had a great time too! I had prayed that he would enjoy it since he used a week's vacation and financed our trip. Our only complaint was that we were SO tired at the end of each day. Our hotel had a Disney movie each night by the pool and that was a great time for a little rest before bed. Big daddy watched the movie with the girls while I showered and organized our stuff for the next day.

We arrived on Sunday and departed on Thursday and spent two days in Magic Kingdom and one day in Animal Kingdom. I'm thankful that we didn't stay any longer! Due to the age of our children, three days was about all that we could handle! I'm delighted to say that we are planning another Disney World trip in the not so distant future! We'll probably stay longer the next time.

Now...picture overload!!

Keep The Balance Right

The past few weeks have been overwhelming at times. We are about to start what will be our "everyday schedule" for fall. I feel like we have fallen into a nice rhythm with first grade schoolwork and I have managed to get Maggie weekly work binder put together in an hour (or an hour and a half) on Saturday afternoon and now we're going to shake things up a bit!

Monday-dance class for an hour in the evening

Tuesday- Maggie's sign language through music class in the afternoon, Ellie will be in a preschool class and I'll help out where needed (these classes cut into ou school time and Ellie's nap, so we may not take them again in January)
Wednesday- Awana- I'll be teaching Cubbies again, Ellie will be in Mission Friends and Maggie and Callie (she's coming along this year) will be in an Awana class
Thursday- Storytime at the library in the morning

Even though the activities only last for an hour or so, I feel a little overwhelmed. I decided that it may be best if Maggie doesn't do children's choir at church on Sunday evenings,but I'm thinking that she'll be doing it in January. If we hadn't already signed up for the sign language and preschool classes through the homeschool network, we'd do it. It's a Christian homeschool network, so the songs that Maggie does will be faith-based. I already have a list of things that we'll be doing or not doing after the first of the year. I want to mix fun and educational things, so Maggie may take a children's literature class or something like that through the network. We'll see how our schedule looks.

Big Daddy and I have always wanted Maggie (and Ellie) to be involved in extra curricular activities, but we have seen too many children that seem to be over-scheduled. I want to have a good balance of fun, educational, free time and family time. I'd like to have a little free time too, but I feel like that will come later. Even though I have only two children and really only work at homeschooling one of them, it takes quite a bit of planning, commitment and time. When things seem so busy, I remember that this is only a season in my life...or maybe two.

I'm going to try and put together a post of Maggie's weekly work binder and our curriculum choices soon. I'd like for her to look back on what we did one day and it may be of interest to someone else that's homeschooling.

Birthday Wishes

So, I thought my birthday was this coming Tuesday, but it's Monday.

Much to my surprise, Big Daddy brought home birthday gifts Thursday night and he wrapped them with the help of Maggie and Ellie. I can't wait to see what they are since Maggie had no idea what they were even after she had seen them!

After the kids were in bed Big Daddy told me that he didn't get me what I had asked for (a CD) because Maggie had just told him what I wanted. I have been telling her for at least a month so that Big Daddy would have an easy, inexpensive gift idea.

One of the sacrifices I made when I became a stay at home mom was my income which allowed me to buy what I wanted, when I wanted it. Big Daddy always tells me to buy what I want or need, but I have a hard time buying stuff unless it's needed. Everything seems so expensive these days and seeing how much money I spend on things that we need makes it hard to buy things that I want.

One thing that I didn't want for my birthday was another full week of single parenting. But that's exactly what I'm getting. We are planning to go out for breakfast to celebrate my birthday before Big Daddy leaves for his trip and then the day will proceed as normal.

Playing Catch Up

The past couple of weeks have been challenging. I have had daily headaches, Maggie has been VERY Maggie, we had bible school and Big Daddy was out of town.

This week has already been so much better. I went to the doctor yesterday for my second spinal manipulation and I really think that Dr. M has magic fingers. I woke up this morning without a headache and had the housework complete before 9 am
.
Next week we have three special activities during the week and one on the weekend. We also have a special visitor coming to town. Of course, my birthday is next Tuesday, but we'll be celebrating with my family this coming weekend.

Our week of bible school was wonderful! Our church calls it "Week of Wonder" and it's open to everyone. They also do Preschool Summer Day Camp in June for preschoolers and Camp SONshine in August for K-5th grade and an overnight camp for middle school and an overnight beach trip for the high schoolers. Maggie will be attending Camp SONshine next year, Ellie will go to Preschool Summer Day Camp and both will go to Week of Wonder- it looks like I'll be busy for one week in June, July and August!!

I'm still working on Ellie's big girl room. She has her bed, comforter and one set of butterfly sheets that make me want to puke. I have been looking for more sheets and fabric for curtains and pillows, but haven't found exactly what I have in mind. I have several ideas for wall art, but I'm still waiting on fabric so that I know what colors to use.

Homeschooling Maggie is my saving grace some days. She loves it and is always eager to "do more". She will be finished with her kindergarten math curriculum soon. It was the only kindergarten curriculum that we've been using, so I guess that she'll sort of be in first grade. I love that she can work at her pace on not have to wait on anyone before she moves on. She loves math and has really enjoyed our Singapore Math curriculum. The time that I used to have as "free" (relatively) I know spend teaching Maggie, reading to Maggie or looking up more homeschool ideas. I have found that many of the moms that can't believe I would want to homeschool my children feel that way because they don't want to be with their children all the time or they want that free time when their children are in school. Believe me, there are days where I want to ship Maggie & Ellie off to Nana's or drive Maggie to the nearest public school and put her out on the curb. LOTS of people seem to think that you have all the patience in the world to homeschool, but I promise that I have my moments. I have felt more fulfilled and useful as a mommy in the past six weeks. So...homeschooling works for us, for now.

We have a family trip coming up in August and we have decided that we will be going to Disney World (unless something happens) in the fall!

And then there's Pinterest. I received my first invitation a few months ago when I had NO idea what Pinterest was. I decided not to do it and I continued to rely on my memory, bookmarking and writing down the web address to things that I may want in the future. Time passed and I thought that I should jump on the Pinterest bandwagon and then I got an invitation from someone and the love affair began. You can request an invite from Pinterest, but I've heard that it takes a while to get accepted. I'd be happy to invite you if you want to leave your email address in the comments or email me.

Is it Friday yet?

I posted this picture on Sunday, but I really love it! It's also the only picture that I have of Maggie from this week. She loved the "Block Party" on Sunday and has had a great time every night this week.

All of the two year old classes are on the playground at the same time, so I've been able to see Ellie play with her friends.

I have to pick Ellie up (right next door to my class) and then go to another building to get Maggie. Then, I go to another floor of that building to get Callie. The "Worship Rally" was still in progress on Monday night so we joined in. Maggie loved it! Our church is quite large and it was nice to see that every seat was full of Kindergarten through 5th graders. Maggie loved the music and wants the set to stay there "forever"...especially the fountain.

Ellie is a huge fan of the slides on the playground!

We have had a great time this week, but the later nights and Daddy being out of town have not mixed well. Maggie & Ellie are both extra tired and missing their Daddy.

I Should Be Folding Laundry

I should be folding the three loads of laundry that are waiting for me in the laundry room, but I decided to make a list of the things that I've done today. Maggie and Ellie are "hunting for trash"with some cardboard boxes. I'm not sure what gave them the idea, but I think they are really trying to look for treasures, more than trash.

• 6:45-I woke up when Big Daddy woke up, but sort of dozed back off until Maggie came and got in bed with me at 7:00. Just as Big Daddy was coming out of the bathroom after his shower, Ellie woke up. He brought her in and we cuddled for 15 seconds before she told me to "gup", a.k.a. get up.
• 7:20- I fixed Ellie oatmeal and Maggie asked for cereal. While they were eating I put the dishes from last night away.
• Fixed the coffee pot and prayed that the coffee grinder wouldn't die because I'm pretty sure that it's on it's last leg.
• Helped the girls get a blanket, coloring books and crayons set up in the living room floor.
• "Worked" on the computer while the girls were coloring and I was waiting on the coffee.
  
• I ate breakfast in the living room so that I could watch Maggie and Ellie play.
• Brushed teeth, washed faces, dressed the girls.
  
• I made up the beds and Maggie fixed the pillows on them.
• Put in a "Signing Time" movie in per Maggie & Ellie's request.
  
• Cleaned all of the mirrors in the house, the front of the stove, front door, french doors and fireplace-basically everywhere that little hands like to leave prints.
• Cleaned the toilets.
• Started a load of laundry only to realize that there was a load still in the laundry basket and another one in the dryer. Uggh.
• Wiped off the counters in both bathrooms.
• Cleaned up Olivia's mess from last night.
• Put the movie up and told Maggie & Ellie to have a little play time.
• Wiped down (dusted) everything in the living room, dining room and all of the bedrooms with a micro fiber cloth. Declared the house as clean as it was going to get for today.
• Fixed homemade trail mix for Maggie & Ellie's snack.
  
• Sat down in the living room with Maggie and Ellie for about 15 minutes until Nana came to get Maggie for a "Nana Day" at 9:30.
• Walked outside to wave goodbye to Nana, Maggie & Callie. Told Ellie that she had free reign of the dollhouse in Maggie's room!
• Went straight to the kitchen and cleaned out the set of cabinets where Maggie puts all of her preschool, church and library art.
• Checked under Maggie's bed for more art and found a few pieces of construction paper.
• I needed to make a phone call so I let Ellie watch a Barney movie.
• Turned movie off and played with Ellie.
• Took Ellie out to the garage and we wiped down all of the surfaces in the van.
• It was SO hot outside, so we came in and played until about 11:20.
• Went to Nana's to have lunch and pick up Maggie.
• Came home around 1:20, put Ellie down for a nap, set Maggie up with a computer game.
• Mowed the little bit of the yard that needed mowing and did a little bit of weed eating.
• Came in and did a math lesson with Maggie and then set her up on another computer game.
• Did more weed eating and told the yard not to grow until after Daddy 's trip next week.
• Taught Maggie another math lesson and gave her beads and made up word problems using subtraction.
• Ellie woke up-2:30.
• Fixed snack, finished math and discussed our new curriculum that arrived today!!
• Ellie requested another "Signing Time" movie. Normally two movies per day is the max, but I let them watch it again.
• While they were occupied, I went over the curriculum and made out our revised lesson plan for the week. I also got all of my materials together so that I can prepare a few things for tomorrows lessons.
• Turned movie off.
  
• Washed collard greens and started cooking them for dinner tonight. Sniffed of cantaloupe and decided that I would cut it while preparing dinner.
• Maggie & Ellie found their cardboard boxes from the delivery and decided to get a blanket and crayons out so that they could decorate them.

And that brings us to right now!!

Today was a high tv day which is rare. We also had much less school time than usual. Since I needed to get the yard taken care of and it's so hot (like 100) today, we'll do a little more school work tonight. Maggie did double some of her work yesterday so that she could have less work and enjoy a "Nana Day". We usually read several books in the morning, but since Maggie was away I tried to let Ellie have a little time to do what she wanted to do: Barney movie and dollhouse play in Maggie's room...without a big sister to bother her.

Of course, I still have lots of stuff to do!

• Finish dinner: chicken in mushroom sauce, steamed broccoli, wild rice and collard greens. Cantaloupe for Maggie, fresh strawberries for Ellie.
• Clean up kitchen and wash dishes (I only use the dishwasher a couple of times a month-max) while girls play with Play Doh at the table.
• Clean up Play Doh, do school work, read and play.
  
• Big Daddy comes home (7-ish) and has dinner then we'll play outside and go for a walk,
• Bring kids in for bath, pajamas and brushing teeth. (7:30-8:00)
  
• Read and play until bedtime.
• 8:30-Put girls to bed, fold laundry, plan for tomorrow, check email and spend time with Big Daddy watching tv or playing on our separate laptops.
• 10-10:30- shower, watch tv with Big Daddy until 11ish and then go to bed.

The Adventure of School At Home

To say that I was nervous and stressed about homeschooling Maggie is an understatement. I was totally overwhelmed with information.

After the first few days of "formal" work I felt SO much better about our ability to make this work. I found out that Maggie is a bit of a work-hog and was able to double the amount of lessons that I'd planned for us to do. I decided to do weekly lesson plans so that I could plan to cover certain things over a weekly period.

One of the reasons that we like the idea of homeschool, is because you can allow your child(ren) to work at their own pace, whether it's fast or slow. Starting next week, she'll be required to do the amount that I've planned, but she'll also be able to do an extra lesson or two if that's what she wants, but she is required to do a certain amount of work. I'm not letting her run our classroom. Allowing her to work at her own pace will mean that I'll have to do lesson plan work on a daily basis, but that's okay. We really want to feed her love of learning when she's just starting out. I really think that keeping children engaged helps to foster a love of learning, hopefully for a lifetime.

Maggie often does her phonics and handwriting work shortly before Ellie's nap because she is eager to "get to work". During Ellie's nap we focus on math, reading, history and geography. She loves looking at maps and finding things on our globe. Next week we are doing lots of geography, thanks to a great book I checked out at the library yesterday.
Ellie is pretty serious about her work too!!

I didn't think that I would love doing this, but I do! I can truly say that I adore teaching Maggie math concepts and how to read a map and crazy things like that! I have felt more fulfilled and this adventure has been such a blessing so far.

And on a completely different note...
Today is the birthday of a very special young lady. On July 1, 1994 a sweet baby girl was born. Her mom had undiagnosed Vasa Previa, just like we had with Maggie. Unfortunately, Kayla wasn't born completely healthy like our Maggie was. Kayla has never spoken, never eaten and never taken a first step. Kayla's mom has been such a source of inspiration for me and Kayla is very loved and well-taken care of. Just a reminder to me that we are so very blessed.

Pictures From Our Week

I mentioned before that Big Daddy and I were changing cell phone providers and getting new phones. I finally have a smart phone and I'm enjoying it so far. Big Daddy has had lots of different phones through work, so it was easy for him to pick one that he thought would work well for us. We haven't had a land line phone since we moved nearly two years ago, so we use our cell phones quite a bit. Big Daddy loves for me to send him quick texts and random pictures during the day. He has been out of town all of this week, so these are a few pictures that I've sent him.

On Monday, we slept late and had an "at home" morning. After Ellie's nap we went to the library and ran in the grocery store for fresh fruit. We don't buy any canned fruit, so I find myself shopping for fresh fruit at least twice a week. Ellie wanted to wear her favorite shirt that just happens to be long sleeved. We had to run by the bank too, so they both had suckers. The race car shopping cart is my nemesis right now.
After our errands and cooking and eating dinner, we went to my mom and dad's even though my mom and Callie had visited during the day (and played with the kids on the swings and in the pool while I mowed the back yard). I don't mind being home in the evenings without Big Daddy, but Maggie was missing him lots.

I decided to have and "at home" day on Tuesday. I wanted to do the housework and just be at home. I saw an idea on a homeschool blog and decided that it would save us time and money and allow Maggie to work more at her own (very fast) pace if I implemented the idea immediately. We found ourselves at the not so supercenter to buy school supplies. The idea worked exactly like I'd hoped it would and has already made a big difference in our "schedule".

We found ourselves at my parents again that evening after dinner. My mom had something for me (more on that in a minute) and Maggie "needed" to play with Callie. Of course, Ellie really wanted to see her "Papa" too. We hadn't been at their house for long when the skies grew dark, the wind began to blow and the thunder and lightning started. Maggie didn't want to leave, so my mom asked if she'd like to spend the day with her on Wednesday. My mom made plans to pick her up at 9:00 the next morning and Maggie was happy. We came home, had baths and put our jammies on. Both girls are a little scared of thunder (thanks to Cousin Callie) so I built a little fort in the living room and they read library books for 45 minutes before bed.

Thankfully, we had an inch (to add to the half an inch from the night before) of rain in the rain gauge on Wednesday morning. Truly an answered prayer. It has been SO dry here.

My mom and Callie came to pick Maggie up and Ellie wanted her shoes because she wanted to go too. My mom told me to get the car seat and she would take Ellie too.
I found myself childless! I washed my cabinets, swept and mopped the hardwood floors and mowed the front yard. I went to my mom's, had lunch and then brought Ellie home for her nap. When she woke up, we picked Maggie up and fixed that special thing that my mom had for me for our dinner!

Ellie doesn't usually eat corn, but she really enjoyed it this time!

I've had lots of stuff on my mind this week and had planned to write several times, but it hasn't happened. Doing school work with Maggie has been wonderful (more on that later), but it takes up all of my "free" time during Ellie's nap.

Finally...

I don't like family pictures where the family is at the beach wearing khakis, white shirts and sitting near sand dunes. I like coordinating outfits just fine, but the match-y stuff gets me.
I LOVE pictures of kids in matching outfits! Finally getting a picture of Maggie & Ellie in their matching dresses (even if it wasn't the matching dresses I wanted) made me happy!!

These girls LOVE each other, but they aren't allowed to touch for pictures. It causes Maggie to scrunch down and Ellie to push her away and say, "no,no".

Ellie's official two year old picture.
Of course, Maggie had to wear her favorite American flag flip flops on the beach, but she'd had her nice sandals on all evening.


We have found that we take less pictures since we have two kids, so I think I only have a little over a hundred pictures of our four day trip. This was another one of those times where Big Daddy and I were amazed at how much our lives have changed since becoming parents. Watching Maggie and Ellie play in the sand and waves for a few minutes beats relaxing on the beach for hours without a care in the world any day.
Well, almost. It's a different kind of relaxing.