Apparently my site was down. I post so infrequently these days that I didn’t notice but my 3 avid readers did. The last couple of months have been exhausting. In November we had some water damage in our kitchen due to some pipes coming apart. I don’t remember if I actually discussed that here or not. Well, when all was said and done we ended up getting a new kitchen floor, replacing one cabinet, getting a new countertop and getting rid of the stinking raised area. Oh how I loathed the raised area. The project seemed to go on forever. I found that I have no use for general contractors, despite ours being a nice enough guy. I just can’t get into having someone drop by and if we’re not home, they don’t work. Seriously? I have a cell phone on me most of the time (well, not now, but I might elaborate on that later) and can be home in like 20 minutes from anywhere in town. That type of thing added about a week to our total time. Our cabinet guy flat out lied to me and said it would be “about a week” to get the cabinet in that was supposed to match our other cabinets. It took a month. It doesn’t match and it’s mis-hung. As much as I like to patronize the local guy, I totally can’t recommend Hull’s after seeing what we got from them. I need to get the receipt from our contractor and I’ll be very curious to know how much this cabinet cost us.
After seeing the whole room put together, I’m very very pleased with it. I wish we would have just gotten a new countertop ages ago. I can’t believe what a difference it makes in the room. Actually we should have just done this whole project (minus the cabinet and water damage, of course) ages ago. In the grand scheme of things it really didn’t cost that much and it’s made a world of difference. Two months ago I loathed my kitchen. My appliances were ok but everything else was horribly 1980’s. Now I even like my cabinets well enough.
We need to replace the outlets and switches since the contractor painted on all of them…. another bone, seriously, I paint just as well as they do. And finish getting everything put away which so far has taken 2 days. I’m cleaning and sorting and purging and relocating. It’s a really good feeling. Having a kitchen is a good feeling. Going 6 weeks without one really really sucked. A lot. I’d like to phrase that better but I just don’t have it in me. But, after I get that done and put batteries in the camera, I’ll get pictures posted. I won’t make you wait on my finding window treatments, promise 
My birthday was last week. One of the less exciting ones I’ve had in my life. So far my birthday date with my husband has gotten cancelled twice. Once because of the weather and then Jeremy’s sick now. My phone broke last week and I’m not eligible for an early upgrade until tomorrow. The people at best buy wouldn’t even try to let me upgrade a few days early. Stinky them. Tomorrow I’ll be ordering my new shiny iphone online so that the stinky best buy people don’t get commission on it. Also, this way I don’t have to drive all the way back out there since they’re the only ones in town that sell the iphone. Whatever that’s about. I did get to spend Saturday out shopping by myself. I would rather have been joined by a friend but they were all busy. See, really, just a stinky birthday. Then that night Zedekiah got sick, like nasty puking sick all over our beds. Eww. Twice. Double Ewww.
We did our “soft start” to our academic year yesterday. Michael’s starting 3rd grade and Joseph is starting 1st. They’re such big boys now! This week we’re focusing on working on their independent workbooks while I’m around so that I can help them, hopefully making them more independent by next week. We’re doing ALL of their workbooks everyday when usually they’d only have 1 or 2 of them to do per day. I want them to be comfortable getting them started though.
Well, I’m off to look into window treatments and what to do with our giant blank walls here in the kitchen.
As always, the holidays seem to have snuck up on me. I keep dreaming of a year when we can spend the entire month of December just learning about Christmas and doing fun Christmas things. That wasn’t this year for sure! I’ve already got my sights set on it for next year though.
Craziness has consumed our household.
In mid November we had a pipe leak and spray into the kitchen for hours while we were gone. By the time we got everything cleaned up we needed a new kitchen floor, a (singular) new cabinet, countertop, and dry wall behind the sink. Since the kitchen was already torn up, Jeremy went ahead and ripped out the horrible raised area we had in the kitchen. No more children falling out of their chairs at dinner and plummeting to their death for us!
We’ve been making lots of compromises on what we wanted to do when we remodeled the kitchen vs. what we can afford right now. Being in the middle of a lawsuit doesn’t help the finances at all. I’m definitely excited to have a new look in the kitchen.
Michael and Joseph are in the home stretches of Kindergarten and 2nd grade. Michael actually only has one more assignment to do before I deem him “done.” He’s been trying to figure out what it means that he got a “c” on his math final. I don’t grade him. But next year we’re going to start doing grades for math. Michael understands his math just fine when he stops to think about it, but he doesn’t like to stop and think, he likes to breeze through math without his brain. He would have gotten a high B if he would have checked his work. I’m quite fine with that for now. Joseph just started reading words with silent E on the end. I’m happy with that for the end of K.
We’re trying to work out a new sleep routine for Zedekiah. He has taken to staying up *very* late at night. A couple of nights ago he was up until 11. Not my idea of fun. Yesterday we had a much more successful night and got him to bed at 7:30. In January we’re going to be starting a very serious sleep routine overhaul so that we can make something around 8 a more steady bedtime.
We also bought the kids new bunk beds Thanksgiving weekend. There is now a set of bunk beds and a futon bunk bed in the kids bedroom. Big Lots had $50 off each set which were very already $70 cheaper than Walmart.com plus I got $110 in “bonus cash” to spend at Big Lots later. It turns out i had to spend each $10 separately. It was a bit crazy. I got a crazy amount of stuff for $17 the other day. Anyways, the kids love the bunks. I can’t wait until the boys figure out how to actually go to sleep with the older kids in their respective top bunks. Can’t. Wait. Michael’s been a bit of a bear since he needs more sleep than a newborn.
I believe that’s enough of an update for now. I’m going to go stare at my counter top samples that we picked up before church tonight. I’ve already vetoed a couple after seeing them away from the store lighting.
If you’re a homeschooling mom, you know how it feels when you think what you’re doing is just not working with your kids. I’ve been feeling that way lately. Back in September I was super happy with everything we’d chosen for this end of the year (we run calendar years but started a lot of new stuff in August). Then as September turned to October I started worrying that none of this stuff was working for us. Michael was not having the retention I’d hoped for and Joseph was always being ornery.
Usually we just open our books and start where we left off (except history which actually requires advance planning) but this week I decided to try something different. I wrote out every little thing I wanted to accomplish this week. So far it has worked spectacularly. Everything I wrote down for the last two days we actually got done. Everything. That never happens to us.
The big surprise was the change in Joseph I saw this week. I laid the independent work on him thick. I brought out an old workbook that I’d decided not to use and undecided to not use it. I also found this sweet little workbook for the boys to work on about a year ago and finally brought it back out for them to work on. It’s just a simple book that has things they like, things they remember, things about themselves etc so that I can keep it for all of eternity and remember how cute they were. Then, because i *am* the meanest mom in the world, I also tore some pages out of some Kumon workbooks that have mazes, dot-to-dots, and cut and paste puzzles and put them in a file folder for him. Apparently what Joseph needed was more work! He has had 2 fabulous days. Today he skip counted for me without any help, read his reading book without pretending he didn’t know really really easy words and did all of his addition all by himself. Oh my gosh, I was wearing my happy pants!
Michael’s major achievement this week was more of an epiphany on his part. He suddenly realized that he actually *doesn’t* have that much work to do on any given day. He found out that when he sits down and works on his homework and doesn’t spend 20 minutes complaining about everything that he gets done and gets to go play. I’m sure the good weather helps. I’ve sent the boys out to play for a loooong time the last 2 days. I would love this weather if it didn’t cause the swarming bugs. Eh. So gross. I should take pictures.
I’m really excited about getting back into the groove of schooling. Sometimes all the field trips and grand fun we have gets in the way of doing bookwork. We’ve gone to Rockhome Gardens, the apple orchard, the pumpkin patch, the Bloomington children’s museum, and grandma took the boys to the Opera one day. That on top of our normal stuff has kept us very busy. Next week the boys are going to take horse classes where they learn all about horses and apparently get to ride one at some point. I can’t imagine Joseph being calm enough for this class but I know they’ll both love it.
Well, I believe that is the end of my monthly update. I have good intentions of getting the diapers in the wash and fixing our lunch for tomorrow before I go to bed tonight. First I have to watch 15 more minutes of Gilmore girls. I’ve decided to watch the whole series since I never did get to see the ending of the series.
Homeschooling is keeping us super busy right now. It is the month of field trips. Today we went to Rockhome gardens and had a good time hanging out with friends. They have big plans for their park next year so I’m curious to return again next year. This year wasn’t too impressive though. Next week we have all our regular stuff (Playgroup on Mon, PE,visit with mom, and church on Wed, and Co-op and Christmas musical practice on Thursday) we also have a trip to the apple orchard on Wed and to the pumpkin patch on Friday. Craziness.
Today we were on the front page of our local paper. The boys have been taking a PE class led by Millikin students and it’s been well publicized around here for some reason. The print version actually had pictures of my boys in it, but we were all quoted in the article.
I’ve posted quite a few pictures on facebook lately. They have made a super easy way to upload straight from iPhoto so I’m keeping up pretty well right now. So in pictures, this is what we’ve been up to:
Joseph went to his Honor Rainbows ceremony in Mundelein. Zedekiah, Joseph and I went up the night before and I spent my first night ever being the only adult in a hotel room. We made it through all right.
Joseph took my camera for a few minutes. These are the results.
Our biggest news recently is that my baby turned ONE! Oh my gosh, I have no idea where that year went. We also had a birthday party for Z and Joseph, who turned 6 on Thursday.
We almost didn’t make it to the party due to a little incident at church that morning requiring a trip to the doctor for stitches, followed by a trip to the ER to get glued back together since we wouldn’t cooperate for stitches. It was a good time. Joseph has since picked the glue out and is now taped back together.
Today we made a trip to Rockhome gardens. We all had a good time.
Here are a few more random photos.
Here’s a picture of Joseph’s infamous head wound.
I have 1 little one still awake and chattering away. I’ve had him asleep 3 times tonight and he’s just not staying asleep. Now he’s playing and has been for almost an hour now. A while ago he took his pants off and walked around with them for a looong time.
Which leads me to another update….He has started walking I put him down a couple of weeks ago and he just stood there, then took a few steps. I thought it was still going to be quite a while before he took his first steps. I was wrong. Silly boy.
In the last day or so Zedekiah has started doing some fun things. Last night I stood him up instead of just sitting him down and much to my surprise he stood, then walked 3 steps before falling. He managed a few more steps like that over the course of the evening. He’s also started putting on my clothes. There’s a laundry basket of towels with a few shirts that need hung up thrown on top of it sitting in the living room. Zedekiah keeps going over to it and taking out two of my shirts and putting them on. He’s actually rather good at it. I would be more impressed if I didn’t know that this skill really generated from taking off his bibs. He never puts those back in. He’s also started mimicking what we’re saying. He’s managed to say some funny things that way. He doesn’t actually say much of anything on his own. Well, except “brothers” we were having a fascinating conversation at Target the other day that went something like this:
Me: Say ‘mama’
Z: Bru-ber
Me: No, not brother, say ‘mama’
Z: Bru-ber
This went on for a while. He’s showing me who is boss. He’s such a stinker.
We are off to the apple orchard to day with Jamie and Rachel so that will be lots of fun!
(I wrote this last night and am just not posting it.)
Jeremy’s sisters are visiting Illinois this week. It’s a rare treat. I don’t think we’d seen them since Rachel’s wedding last year. They’d never even met their newest nephew….who they’ve had their fill of by now.
We’re on our way home from Iowa as I type this. We visited Jeremy’s grandparents who we haven’t seen since Zedekiah was about a month old. We miss them living in Decatur. Grandma is one of the best cooks and we ate more than our fill of her yummy yummy cooking. The boys loved getting all of that special grandma love. They got to hang out with their great grandparents and great great grandma as well as their aunts.
I think my favorite memory of this trip will be playing “The book game” with Jeremy’s sister, Jamie. It’s a unique combination of chutes and ladders and bible trivia. We had to make up the rules since the instructions were long lost. As you play the game you can “backslide” or “bring your grandma joy” as well as many other Christian faults and blessings. Then right before the end there’s a space called “The Joy of Giving” where like 6 spaces before the end you give your spot at the end to another player. Seriously. I’m sure you can imagine how well this went. Michael landed on the space, cried, threw a fit, proclaimed that he didn’t have joy for sharing his space, etc. Then Joseph started crying because Michael didn’t share with him. Oh it was great. What’s even funnier is that they seem to love the game anyways. Later Michael played the game again and landed on the “joy of giving” space again. He didn’t like but he didn’t cry. He did say with a very sassy attitude “Well, I definitely didn’t have joy about it!”
Now we’re tired and we’ve been on the road wayyyyy too long. Unfortunately I like to get out of the car a lot…. sometimes it makes a trip take twice as long as it should. Today was one of those days. On the bright side, we got to eat at Bennigan’s today. Ours closed down unexpectedly while I was pregnant. I had such a craving for their pineapple dip they use on their appetizers and it has went unfulfilled for far too long. Oooh that dip was yummy! Zedekiah cried for a long time…. too long in the car and too many days of too much stuff. He’s ready to spend some time at home.
I’m ready to spend some time at home. I have a renewed desire to spend time at home. I think I’m finally ready to spend quality getting our house cleaned and organized as well as getting back into the swing of cooking our meals again. I miss eating food at home. I miss not spending tons and tons of money eating out. Hopefully I manage to stick to it this time.
Facebook has made it way too eassy to upload pictures there now. Here’s our last two months worth.
I know I haven’t posted pictures in 2 forevers. I don’t even know where our camera is right now…but I have a suspicion that it’s at church. Michael and Joseph both graduated from their respective Wednesday night clubs. Joseph is no longer a Missionette for Jesus. Ok, no one is a Missionette for Jesus anymore…but he’s not in the new and improved Mpact club either. He finished up his Rainbows career becoming an Honor Rainbow. He couldn’t care less, I am really excited. He and Zedekiah are the only honor kids I’ll ever have and only at the Rainbow level since you have to be a girl to move above that. We’ll be going to the statewide award ceremony later this year. Michael has moved on to “Discovery Rangers” where he’ll learn lots of scary things like building fire and other caveman accomplishments.
Zedekiah has been finding a new skill just about everyday. His most recent accomplishment of note is de-capping markers. I was allowed 3 happy homeschooling days where I could just hand him a marker like the boys had and he was happy. Then, on day 4 he uncapped the marker. In reality he’d uncapped like 7 before I noticed what he was doing. I’m an awesome mom like that. He also gave himself a fantastic Hitler mustache. He’s cruising around things, and starting to let go of one thing to get to another thing to cruise around. He can climb a flight of stairs, he can move his firetruck, or a chair or a box to a strategic location so that he can climb and get stuff that’s even higher up. I think my point is that he really likes to climb. He has developed an intense love of balls. I’m pretty sure he said ball earlier today.
His language skills aren’t picking up very quickly. Sometimes he’ll say something resembling “bru-bru” to indicate his brother. He never says mama and may or may not say da da. I’m not sure. He makes fantastic faces when his nose is a little stuffed up. I think he gets that from me. We have nights where he only wakes up once to nurse. We have nights where he wakes up way more frequently than that as well. He still has just the 2 bottom teeth. I’m wondering if the last time I thought he was teething if it was really an ear infection. Either way, he’s feeling better now. He’s also crawling like a normal baby now. He learned at the pool since sliding along on your belly isn’t really all that great on concrete. Plus, you get more wet.
Thursday night we went to Pony Express Days to enjoy armband night. Joseph was excited to find that he’s tall enough for a lot more rides this year. We rode our bikes as we often do, forgetting that it’s like another 1/2 mile from where we park our bikes. Next year we’ll pay to park our bikes closer. It’s only $2 for parking so totally worth it if the 4 bikes only count as one car. This was my first time back on my bike since I was a few months pregnant with Z. This was Z’s first time in the trailer ever. He is not a fan. His helmet made his head sit all funny and it was really uncomfortable looking. I’m going to be trying to figure out what to do about that. It was really nice to get out and ride with the family again.
Time to get back to work.
I’ve bought a lot of curriculum to add to the 2nd half of our year but we didn’t need *ANYTHING* in the way of school supplies this year. That’s taking into account that they’re not going to be this cheap again for a year. Nothing. I was excited to get the opportunity to go “back to school” shopping to donate but it’s just not the same.
Well, today Joseph gave me something to be shopping for. He wrote on our dry erase board with something we call a “permanent marker.” Funny thing about those is that they’re pretty permanent. So, I get to buy some new small marker boards. We use them all the time so it’s convenient to have a few located in different areas of the house. I could be a spokesperson for dry erase boards
Uncategorized | nozwmn | 
January 13, 2010 3:45 am | 
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