Happy Labor Day Weekend

It's beautiful today and we found a killer deal on a slip 'n slide. Need I say more?

A miracle!

Wanna know what happened to our baby squirrels over night? They turned into BABY RABBITS!!!! Yes, that's right. We have baby rabbits living in a hole in the middle of our yard. This makes so much more sense than squirrels living in a hole in the *ground*. I could never quite figure that one out and I just blamed it on stupid parenting...lol!

This mystery is piecing itself together slowly. The babies do not look like rabbits yet because their ears are pinned back, their eyes are not opened, and they hardly have any fur. I did some more research online though, and they are definitely baby rabbits! Wild rabbit mommies will often build a nest in a hole in the middle of some body's yard to protect it because it's not as obvious to predators. She's out there right now fixing up her nest yet again since a lot of it was washed away by the rain last night.

This is getting quite interesting!

New Friends

We went out walking yesterday afternoon (this is right before we discovered our squirrels), and while we were out I noticed another mom out with her three kids. A boy who looked about Aidan's age, a girl who looked about Emma's age, and another boy who looked about Gianna's age. This is not a normal occurrence in our neighborhood. I know there are kids in the neighborhood, but we never see them. We waved to one another and then I decided to bite the bullet and I shouted a greeting across the street.

It turns out that this family lives four houses from us! And they homeschool!!!!! Why we've never met? I don't know. The boy is nine, so a little older than Aidan, but they have really hit it off. The girls took to each other immediately and the little ones play with whoever will take them. They came over this afternoon to look at the squirrels and ended up staying for a couple of hours and the kids played and played.

We have great friends here, but I've really longed for a neighborhood like the one I grew up in. The kind where the kids can go and knock on the door of their friends' houses and play in the afternoon, the kind where you can go from house to house and get popsicles at each (our mom's caught onto that one *way* too quickly...it couldn't have been the red lips and tongues). The kids are very excited about having kids their age 4 doors down! Me too!

How long will they last?

That is the question on my mind tonight in regards to our little friends in the backyard. It has rained hard the past two days. At the end of the storm this afternoon I went out to investigate and the squirrel's hole was full of water and three of them were sticking their little noses out to breathe. Tonight they were all breathing and moving (5 is the latest count) and the water had receded, and then it dumped on us again. I'm not sure how much of that they can take. I'm hesitant to come to their aid in fear that I would mess something up and end up making their little lives harder. It just seems awfully late in the summer (it's practically fall up here) to have just been born. I'm not sure there is much of a chance of them surviving the winter, but we'll see.

Another update on our squirrels

It rained all night last night and we were a little concerned about what would happen to our little baby gray squirrels. The kids and I got ready this morning and headed out to the backyard to see if we could see anything. As you can see, the little ones were up and moving about. We counted four of them crammed into that tiny little hole. They are quite cute...for baby squirrels. We will definitely be checking on them daily (probably more if I know my kids), and updating when necessary!

Update on Squirrels

They are indeed squirrels. Two of them for sure, placed in a nest in a hole in the ground by an obvious first-time mom who does not realize a shallow hole in the ground is not the best place to raise a family of squirrels. We saw the mom checking on and chattering at her babes after Brett got home. It will be extremely fun watching these little squirrels grow up and move out (I especially like the last part). Note to self: Pick up books on squirrels while at library on Friday.

I tried to upload a video, but after 45 minutes I gave up. Ya'll just have to believe me that they were moving around in there.

We have babies!

Baby squirrels. Living in our backyard in a hole by our garage. Not okay! Updates to follow!

Happy First Day of School!

Brett went back to work on Monday so I thought that would be a perfect time to start school. We technically do school year round, but not really. We learn year round, but the "academics" are reserved for a regular school year that starts sometime in the fall and ends sometime in the spring.

I'm not sure why I had this vision in my mind of my children waking up joyfully and putting on the cutest outfits they had in their closets to start the school year fresh and new! Ha! Emma came down with an over sized sweatshirt and some fleece pants that could almost be classified as capris, Aidan put on some sports shorts and a Star Wars t-shirt, and Gianna was dressed in a matching sweatsuit because it was 40 degrees that morning and we were all cold (okay, I admit...she was cute). They may have brushed their hair, I'm not sure. Apparently that standard of wearing and looking your best on the first day of school has never been ingrained into our kids. :-) Of course I just chalk this up to one of the beauties of homeschooling, but it sure does make for a silly "first day of school" picture.

The suspense of what we were doing on the first day of school was killing the eldest in our family. You know, the 6 3/4 year old who needs to have control of everything?! He thought he would make me spill the beans the night before when asking sweetly, "So, mommy, what are we doing tomorrow? I can't wait to find out about Ancient Greece. Maybe we're doing that tomorrow." "You'll just have to find out I guess?" Muhahahahahahahahaha!

The kids were pleasantly surprised when they found their school boxes packed full of new school supplies. Gianna received a brand new school box with her very own set of supplies. She set to work cutting the paper I had put in her folder. She loves to cut! Then she was done with school. That was interesting!

Emma is my prized student this year. I know teachers aren't supposed to have favorites, but they all do...we know they do. Emma is the most obedient, cheerful, hardworking little student! She is so excited to officially be in Kindergarten (she wouldn't start K in the school district...she misses the age cut-off by 9 days), and loves to do school. She tells me she wishes the day would start over so she can do school again (we do the majority of our stuff in the morning).

Aidan is excited, but he doesn't exactly get an "A" for attitude. Learning has always been easy for Aidan...I take that back...knowing has always been easy for Aidan...the process of learning has never been easy. He doesn't like not knowing, therefore he is afraid that somewhere along the lines of learning something he might, oh dear, be, don't say it, wrong! AHHHHH!!!!! He's a super intelligent kid who wants to know everything about everything and this year is going to be fun. His reading is ridiculous and that alone opens many, many doors for him.

I would say our first few days have been successful. It's amazing how much more productive everyone is when we all get up and get going. I truly do love homeschooling! I love spending this time with my kids. I love knowing what they are learning. I love that I don't have to take anyone to school in the morning which would mean getting everyone ready to take said child to school. I love that the kids get to spend this time together, getting to know one another. I love that we all get to see "daddy" when he comes home for lunch. Please note that this is a list of all the reasons why I love homeschooling. Not a list of the reasons why I don't like other forms of schooling. I don't think homeschooling is for everyone. I don't think public/private school are evil and only spawn evil children. I happen to know a certain Kindergarten teacher who I would absolutely LOVE for my children to have...Si? Anyway, I just wanted to make that clear.

Hearing things...

Things like A HEARTBEAT!!!!!!! :-)
I had a doctor's appointment this morning and I got to hear this precious baby's heartbeat. I don't care how many times I've heard one of those fast little beats, I will *never* get sick of it! Yay for a healthy baby!!!!!!!!

Tradition!

Brett and I have started a new tradition around here. Sunday night "date night". This came about after a 12+ hour car ride and, uh, shall we say "discussion". Yes, we'll call it a "discussion". We don't have many of these "discussions" so after 8 years of marriage we were probably due for a good "discussion". Anyway, we came to the conclusion that we really aren't taking time out for one another. There are plenty of marriage groups around here that we can utilize, but they are just not our style. However, Sunday night "date night" is our style. It consists of putting precious children to bed a little earlier while Brett is whipping up a fantastic creation of some sort in the kitchen, and then we eat after the kids are in bed and we have some time to focus on each other. Two weeks down! So far, so good.

Okay, where's Emma

As I was tucking Emma into bed tonight she said, "I just had a marvelous time hiking today, I wish we can do it again, and again, and again." ????????? Okay, what child is this again? Well, I'll explain.

Our hikes as a family are slower than we would like and filled with more whining than we would like...mainly coming from the 4 (almost 5) year-old. The hikes we do are generally more kid-friendly. Some are very long, but not difficult by any means. Emma is happy for about 43% of these hikes.

Today we went deer scouting again. Brett is really trying to become familiar with the area so we can hopefully have a freezer full of yummy and "free" meat. In the past we have driven around and Brett looks out the window and then we find a path of some sort in the woods to hike. Not a well-worn path, but a path. Well, today we found a great patch of public land and a place to park, but no trail except for a very thin one made by the very animals my husband hopes to shoot this winter...yummy! :-) We were really hiking...bushwhacking if you will....and Emma was loving every minute of it! Stepping on branches, falling in holes, getting whopped in the face by a tree limb that "escaped" the grip of her brother! We all had a fantastic time. So, it isn't that Emma doesn't like hiking...she's just tougher than we thought! Those trails? For wimps...she wants the real deal.

Poor editing...sorry.

I don't remember what posts exactly, but there were a few recent ones that were really pathetic as far as editing goes. Sorry about that. I'm not going to change them, but I will try to remember to read through my posts before, well, posting.

I might even use the "I-have-an-English-degree-so-I'll-form-sentences-or-not-form-them-and-misuse-words-and-leave-out-words-and-make-run-on-sentences-by-using-inappropriate-punctuation-if-I-want-to" excuse.

Decluttering makes me happy!

This summer has felt like a whirlwind. It started off with our trip to Texas, then with relatives here for 2 1/2 weeks, then a trip to South Dakota. All of this fun and coming and going has taken it's toll on our poor little house. So much so that we declared this "morning" CLEAN- THIS-HOUSE-UNTIL-IT-NO-LONGER-MAKES-MOM-CRABBY morning. We took a small break for lunch and then finished up around 1:45pm. We threw away stuff, reassigned spots for other stuff, and it feels so good to be rid of stuff that we don't know and have everything organized that we do.

The only thing left is the loads and loads of clean laundry I have to fold. I was running downstairs all day throwing in load after load and load of laundry. I am very thankful for these machines. We hardly "do" when doing laundry.

Official

After living here for over I year I finally got my Wisconsin driver's license...yay me!

Gigi pics.

We have been pretty bad about getting the kids "birthday pictures" taken each year. I always have the best intentions, but I just never get around to doing it. My mom diligently had us in a picture studio within days of turning another year and I have some great pictures to look back on because of it.

While we were "home" (which actually means South Dakota) I gave Brett the camera and told him to get some pics of Gigi that we could use as her two-year-old pictures. He got some great ones and they had a great time doing it.

New bikes!

We bought Emma a new bike for an early birthday present. She's been using Aidan's old, old bike which has been fine, but something has just pulling at my mommy heart that made me want to get her a pretty bike. In my defense she has completely grown out of Aidan's old one.

While we were at it we decided to get one for Aidan to. Poor unfortunately kid who has a birthday at the end of November when it is way too cold to even consider riding bikes. So we just explained that we were getting him his birthday present now too. He was more than okay with that. We had to get Gianna some pretty streamers for the bike of Emma's/Aidan's that she has inherited so she wouldn't feel left out.

We're back!

We've actually been home for a few days, unfortunately. We were supposed to go and spend time with some of our very favorite people in the whole world, but as my previous posts pointed out the girls got sick. We decided not to push it this time and came home instead of stopping for our scheduled visit.

It has been good to be home. We've enjoyed some great time together as a family and I'm on a mission to get everything squared away for our first day of school which is Monday! The girls are invited to a birthday party this afternoon and Brett will have Aidan so I think I will take myself over to the library to finish up planning our first history unit (Ancient Greece and the History of the Olympics) and pick up some books for the kids.

Yesterday we went deer scouting/hiking and had a great time (most of us did anyway). We saw a lot of "sign", and a ton of indication that we were walking a path that wolves enjoy strolling along as well (yikes).
We also saw:
-more "hoptoads" than we could count
-a dead porcupine
-a beautiful blue feather
-several monarch butterflies
-4 fox dens
-lots of wolf prints
-lots of wolf "scat"
-a humming bird that attacked me
-some beautiful wild flowers
-a white tail deer

After our hike we went over to an old logging area and spread out our blanket to have some lunch. We saw deer prints everywhere! Hopefully Brett will have some success this winter...if not, at least we had fun and the kids even learned something about why there were so many toads on our swampy/marshy path.

Not Funny!

Since I have no access to email I have no choice but to use my blog as a communication medium. There happens to be an individual who reads my blog who we were/are planning on seeing. However, as is tradition when visiting with these friends, we have two fevering, coughing, sick kids. Now, all of you who are not affected by this need to know the extremity of this situation. This has happened every.single.time we have gotten together with these dear friends. They graciously say, "ya'll come" and we proceed to get their precious children sick. It's gone from "ha ha" funny to downright infuriating!
So, dear blog reader (you know who you are), we will keep you updated as to what our condition is.

My bed!

I'm ready to sleep in my own bed! :-)

Emmaism

"Mom, I had a pirate dream last night. Aidan and I have talked about it and we think that God made dreams to make sleeping more interesting!"