Snow Monster

Outside

On the Second Day of Christmas

December 26, 2012

Outside my window....It is cold!  Dry and cold.  We have a blanket of snow that's been on the ground for a few weeks. 

Inside the house...Let's see.  There is currently a couple of kids playing Wii, one is sleeping, one is learning how to use her new telescope, and one is getting into everything that was left under the Christmas tree. 

In the kitchen...Leftovers.  We stayed home for Christmas (as opposed to "going home").  It was delightful.  Brett's parents are here, and it was good being with family for Christmas.  Several of us were sick so our Christmas Eve plans had to be cancelled, and not every one was well on Christmas Day, but we did our best to have a great day.  We had cranberry pork and turkey for Christmas Dinner along with salad, potatoes, and rolls.  Yummy!

I'm going...Nowhere.  We are having a great staying-out-in-the-country day.  We went in for Mass yesterday morning and today it feels great to just stay home.  We have no agenda, nothing planned, just chillin'.

Living the Liturgy....Merry Christmas!  We had a wonderful Christmas, despite being sick.  I think the hope that comes with the birth of our Savior was just what we all needed!  We woke up, passed out cough medicine, said prayers, opened presents, then headed to Mass.  Mass was beautiful, the oldest two served and our Bishop presided.  We then headed home and had Bishop over for Christmas dinner and we all enjoyed each other while the kids explored their gifts. 

Plans for the rest of the week...We are heading into town tomorrow to get some groceries and run some errands.  We'll go down to the harbor although with the recent cold snap the ships may be frozen in for the winter.  On Friday we are having a second party to celebrate Aidan's black belt in karate since we didn't have any family in town for his actual test. 

Some pictures...

Christmas Fortress

Aidan and Brett's mom made this from scratch. Aidan created a 3D model of it first, they baked gingerbread and then construction began.
Not bad for a first attempt.

School's Out!

Brett is currently finishing up his very last final of the semester, and the kids have finished most of my "must do before I set you free for your Christmas break" list.  I'm mostly ready on a physical level for Christmas, and trying to be ready on a spiritual level as well.

A couple of nights ago we went to a light display that the city nextdoor holds.  It was a great night.  Not too cold, not too windy.  My absolute favorite part of the evening however was watching the 3-year-old.  She was taking in every moment of our evening out.  Of course there was a bit of joking about how she was just amazed to be "in town" now that we are country-folk, but the enjoyment on her face was simply priceless.  She lit up (pun intended) at the manger scene.  I've tried to take her attitude and marvel at the beauty of it instead of be an adult and gripe that it was the only religious scene in the whole display.  How far are we going to go here?  Christmas!!!  It's CHRISTmas.  Holidays, HOLYdays.  I mean, people, there are so many things to get offended about, but removing Christmas from Christmas?  I just don't understand.

Okay, I seriously did not mean to turn this post into a rant.  My intention was to explain the irony in my sweet daughter's love for the manger light display.  You see, not a week before we were talking about Christmas with the kids and what they were looking forward to.  Most of them (good parenting award) were excited about the secret gifts that they've been working on for parents/siblings.  The resident 3-year-old redhead however exclaimed, "I'm excited for all of the gifts people are going to give me".  Lovely.  The true meaning of Christmas, fail.  

I hope to have some pictures up soon.  My camera was on loan some good-looking percussion professor and I just got it back.  In the meantime I'm holding my kids extra close, extra long, and that's all I'm going to say about that.  You get it. 

2nd annual!

Last year the first big snow coincided with deer rifle-hunting season and so began the tradition of night sledding at our house. We are not on a lot of land ourselves but we have about 80 acres behind us that hunters frequent. So, no playing outside for the kids and when anyone is outside he/she is covered in blaze orange.

Ironically enough we just had our first real snowfall last night and so tonight the 2nd annual night-sledding night was held!

Felicity was forced to stay inside mainly because I was not completely ready to be outside and Brett is having a "brewfest" night with our beloved Fr.Andy!

Buck hunting or...

Duck hunting?

Our neighbor's ducks woke up this morning, took one look at the 3 inches of snow covering their pond, tried to fly south, made a circle over our house and most of them found themselves at the bottom of our hill.

One, however, thought he's pay us a little visit. Classic!

Here We Are

Apparently I have something against writing a blog post without a picture to go with it which is why I haven't written in a very long time.  My "computer" (you can hardly call this machine a computer) has been sitting, uncharged, and I haven't loaded any new pictures on it lately. 

1.  For the first time in my "memory" I can see without any glasses or contacts.  I got my first pair of glasses in second grade with a fairly hefty prescription and I truly have never been able to function without some sort of correction.  Until now.  Last week I had LASIK done on my eyes as a belated 25th birthday present from my very generous parents (very belated since I will be 32 in a week).  When it was first offered I was either pregnant or breastfeeding a small infant and the timing didn't work out.  We've had a little window and I jumped on it, and now I can see.  What an amazing technology.  I'm self-admittedly hard on modern medicine, but this procedure is one I can get behind.  Wow!

2.  This probably doesn't surprise you, but I was disappointed in the results of the big election we just had.  Bummer.  Too much to say, and haven't really found the best way to explain.  I admit that regardless of what "side" anyone is on, we all want what this country promises us.  We just don't all agree about how to ensure that happens.  The goal with discussing politics is to do so with love.  Just love.  Sometimes loving means saying things to get someone to think more deeply about a situation, but sometimes it means to just shut-up (which is a swear word in our family and I have to laugh as I felt a little edgy typing it just then). 
P.S. I'm grateful that I can disagree with some of my family members on these issues and still love them to pieces.  

3.  We have a wolf living in our woods.  Aidan happened upon him while playing, they looked each other in the eyes, Aidan backed out, and now we have a trail cam set up in our-campsite-before-we-knew-we-had-a-wolf-living-there.  I can relate a little to Laura Ingalls when she could hear the wolves howling outside of her house in the Big Woods (uhmm....yeah, that's pretty much here).  He howled the other night and it truly sends shivers up and down the spine.  Creepy.

4.  My kids rock.  There, I said it. No particular reason, they are just fun to be around.

5.  Brett built a deck this fall and just in time for the snow to fly.

6.  Veronica is not a little kid.  Whenever I have the two youngest with me and say something about the two "little ones" she loudly corrects, "I'm not a little one.  *I'm* a big sister".

7.  Felicity is growing up.  She is a constant reminder of the great blessings of this life. 

8.  We took last week off of school, and I wish I could say that I used the whole time to plan for the next handful of weeks.  Nope, I didn't. 

9.  I wish I lived closer to our families.

10.  Have I mentioned on here that in a couple of years we are taking the crew to Scotland for 3 weeks while Brett teaches in an exchange program?  I'm just starting to believe it, and getting really excited about it.  I'm afraid as the time gets closer you all will be sick of hearing about it.

It's About Time

No, really.  It's all about time. 

It dawned on me a couple of weeks ago as I was pouring over some of my favorite blogs that there was a consistent theme.  How we spend our time as mothers.  Post after post it seems someone was always writing about how to balance the time on the computer (specifically) and the rest of our motherly duties, especially those of us who homeschool.  The conclusion I came to?  Don't.  Don't try to balance it.  Eliminate it. 

Truly.  No, not the kids, the computer time. 

If the computer and all the pinterest, facebook, blogging temptations knock you off track of the main purpose of your vocation, get rid of them. 

I never signed up for Pinterest because I'm simply not crafty, and when I am, there are plenty of resources available (google anyone?) so I didn't feel the need to add that to my "computer time".  Facebook?  I've been off for awhile, other than to post a link for my brother-in-law, and I don't miss it.  My blog reading has been knocked down as well.  I added my favorites to my little reader thingy and that's it.  I've limited my blog time to when kids are asleep, and if you know anything about our youngest you no know the reason I've been absent on my own blog.

I contemplated getting rid of this blog all together as well.  Someday, I might.  I do enjoy writing, and as much as I can say I write for myself, I also really hope that someone, somewhere is finding what I write either helpful or enjoyable or both.  I do hope also that if my blog is burdensome in anyway that my little group of followers would not hesitate to give me the boot.  I never want to be a source of frustration or discouragement.

And so, there ya go.  And here's a little teaser of how our fall pictures went.  My life, I love it.

God's Gift

Save the Date!!!!

www.godsgiftcelebration.com

If you are local, or close to local, or are not super local, but wouldn't mind a little bit of a drive for a very big event, please consider coming!

I'll let you go and explore the website, but please come back and comment if you are planning on coming. 

If you can't attend, but have a means of spreading the word then by all means SPREAD THE WORD!!!!

Hope to see you next weekend!

(P.S. Childcare is available during the keynote on Friday night)

Take a Hike

Today didn't start off very well.  I'm starting to get a cold, the baby is as well, Brett and I were at odds (for? nope, still can't remember, which goes to show how silly it is to be grouchy with one another over nothing), and we had run out of coffee.  When did I become so reliant on coffee?  Grrrrr....

Anyway, I was a grump.  There, I said it.  It was me, all me. 

About mid-day I called Brett to share with him my grumpiness about my day, and he told me to go take a hike.  As in, "pack up those kids who you claim to not like and go hiking."  Ironically, I had already thought of cancelling school for the rest of the day and doing just that.  Naps were essential, as was a snack, but late afternoon we took ourselves to the state park which is just minutes from our home and went hiking.  It was wonderful.

A little soul-food is all we needed.  I have promised myself and the kids that we will make a better effort of getting out and enjoying this beautiful part of the world.

Birthday, birthday!

Emma turned 9 yesterday.  The report is that it was the "best day ever".  This year all the kids' birthdays are already marked as "no school".  Year after year I say, "I know it's birthday, but we are doing school", and every year, we don't.  So this year I decided to save myself the trouble.  We played all day, we adored the birthday girl, we made the day special, and it was.

Birthday Banana Bread

A couple of the posters I made of the birthday girl.

Waiting for our cake-eating guests

Posing with the cake that Aidan made and decorated for his sister.

Chocolate Cake for Breakfast!!!!

A'sailn' we did go

Our summer read-aloud for our annual trip back "home" to South Dakota was "Swallows and Amazons" by Arthur Ransome.  This book, which is the first of a 12-book series was recommended to me years ago by my biggest early homeschooling supporter, Amy.  Amy, who could have a whole post of her own, has been great at giving me lists of great books my kids have to have read to them.  Ah!  Too many tangents I could go with this post, but I'll get back to the point.  Sailing.

"Swallows and Amazons" is about 4 siblings who are having their holiday in the lake country of England.  They have been giving permission to man the little sailboat at the vacation home and have adventure after adventure.  Think "Boxcar Chidlren" meets "Narnia", but the only "magic/fantasy" that happens is in the children's imaginations.  Great read.  As a treat (for all of us) we just started the second of the series, "Swallowdale".

With sailing on our mind it was perfect when our Bishop dropped by unexpectedly, on his way to another part of the diocese, and invited us to his house to go sailing the following weekend.  So, during Labor Day weekend, we made the 2-hour drive up the South Shore of Lake Superior to go sailing.

I volunteered to be a land-lubber since in my old age I've been more prone to motion sickness, and I wanted the older crew to be able to enjoy a nice long adventure without having to turn back for me or for the two littles who would rather not be contained to a sailboat. 

The only disappointment to the kids was that Bishop Peter didn't say "coming about", but rather "watch your head." Since he is a true sailor, they decided they didn't need to correct him. 

Our 2012-2013 School Year

I never intended to homeschool.  In fact I was dead set against it.  I didn't want socially inept children even if they could recite all the state's capitols backwards while playing Chopin.  Brett first brought up the subject because of his undergraduate college professor who homeschooled their children.  I also started leaning towards the idea of homeschooling as our family grew and as I completed my degree.  Honestly, I wasn't too impressed with the future of education as I saw it in the individuals with whom I was taking classes.  But really, the main reason we decided to homeschool was so we could be with our children and learn as a family and instill the values we held dear to our hearts.

We continue to homeschool for much the same reasons.  My children are developing into people who I enjoy being around (most of the time, they aren't perfect nor am I).  We are a close family who has fun in the simple things.  

My approach to homeschooling has changed along with my children's needs.  While I would love to do only unit studies and spend our days on long nature hikes, my original homeschooler needs a little more structure and predictability. 

Our biggest challenge this year has been my two little ones.  Nica-3 (very, very, very 3) is feeling the absence of her playmates and although is willing to play with the littlest one of the group, doesn't always find that Felicity is quite as willing.  I've adapted my original plan of the year to include some time for just my little ones, right away in the morning.  Many a wise homeschooling mother has recommended this approach.  We shall see if it works. 

Almost every year I've changed almost every thing as far as curriculum is concerned.  I have finally arrived to a place where I am really, really happy with what we are using and other than adding a few things, we are continuing with much of what we did last year.

And so with that, I present our 2012-2013 homeschooling year curriculum choices.

Math- MathUSee.  We started this last year and everyone loved it.  I'm pleased with it as well.  

Spelling-  Spelling Power.  This book has daily (5 minute) tests and you only review the words that are missed.  You keep spelling them until they are learned.  No weekly tests with words that are automatically forgotten after Friday.

Religion- While at the homeschooling conference this year a friend ordered Family Faith Formation for her family.  I wasn't quite ready to commit then, but after doing some research went ahead and ordered it for our family as well.  This program look fantastic, and Brett will be able to be involved as well which will be awesome.  

Science-  NOEO Physics I and II.  We did their Biology last year and I can't say enough about this amazing program.  They make science fun and very homeschoolable (good word, huh?)  No more searching for a used car battery to perform some "101 household items" science experiment.  All materials are included and the kids are learning from a mix of hands on and real books.  

 Reading- Gianna is beginning the Seton Grade 2 readers.  Solid reading for a new reader.  I stopped formal reading for the older two awhile ago.  They read well beyond their "grade level".  They will be reading several literature books as part of our history program.

History- Connecting with History.  It's a living history, classical, and Catholic approach to history.  Not the cheapest option available, but the materials/books are amazing.  There are a lot of read alouds involved which our family enjoys.

 Writing/English-  The oldest two are beginning IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing).  I'm very impressed with this program.  My husband is a college professor and the papers he brings home make me want to cry.  These are high school graduates writing at a second grade level.  I'm not exaggerating a bit.  Brett is actually going to start incorporating some of the IEW methods in his teaching. 
                          All three of the kids will be working through some Seton English workbooks.  It's solid stuff, and sometimes ya just have to sit down and do a workbook.  There, I said it. 

I think that does it.  The preschooler is going to get a lot of books read to her.  That's my goal anyway.  We don't do formal preschool lessons (except I am going to try some stuff out of "Slow and Steady, Get me Ready", a recommendation from a dear friend who also has little ones who want attention, the nerve of those little ones), but reading we do, and I need to do more of it for the little red head and her trusty 2-ft companion.

The pictures are from our crab-apple picking adventure.  The crab-apples are most likely going to be turned into wine, what else right?  My husband and his wine making addiction hobby will have to wait for another post.

First Day

Like many families, homeschooling or otherwise, we went back to school today.  Although I've had everything I needed for this school year since last spring, I hadn't opened boxes or gathered materials so that they made any sense.  We've been so busy this summer and the littlest of our crew is busy, busy, BUSY which makes planning time non-existent.

Monday morning came around regardless of how I felt about it.  All in all we had a great day.  I'm trying to provide the flexibility that comes with homeschooling with my little ones while at the same time trying to instill responsibility with those older ones.  Alarms were set, routines were implemented, and every one was happy.  Well, almost every one.  The 3-year-old and 18 month-old were starved, STARVED I tell you, for attention.  I have a very wise friend who, although she homeschools, has sent her pre-schoolers to pre-school.  How very, very wise.  My pre-schooler is giving me a run for my money, already.  I entered this year with a workable "schedule/routine" and a pep-talk I'd given myself about welcoming interruptions because, after all, what amazing little blessings these "interruptions" were.  For the most part my trickery worked, however, I'm not quite as psyched for the rest of the year as I would like to be at this point. 

Coming in a following post is what we are doing for school this year.  You don't want to miss it.  Okay, really, it's no big deal, but I love reading what everyone else is doing.  I love it more now that I'm fairly confident in our approach and a blog-post at the beginning of the school year no longer sends me on an internet search for a brand-new curriculum because what I have is just not going to work, because so-and-so@somerandomblog.com says so.  :-) 

And with that, I present the ever-so-popular first day of school pictures!