February 2014

As it turns out, I hadn't made a rule about taking frozen blueberries to my bed as a TV snack. I knew things were too quiet around here.

For "homeschool PE" we spent much of the month acting out the Winter Olympics. The kids' favorite thing to act out was the ice dancing. They even tried to lift each other, but that did not go so well. I had high hopes that the frantic speed skating in place would wear them out for a good night's sleep, but to no avail.

During our first snow of the month, the kids were playing in the backyard. Elijah ran in yelling "Caitlyn fell! Ovah! She fell ovah!" She had stood on a chair, leaned over to throw a stick to the dog, and fallen off the deck! By a miracle, she grabbed the side of the deck and hung, landing just beside our brick sidewalk. I took her in for a warm bath, and she did not even have a bruise! It was the scariest miracle ever.

On a less stressful day, we took a field trip to the Scheile Planetarium. We explored Native American dwellings, learned about animals, and caught a show about the moon. The crazy weather lately led me to quip while leaving the parking lot, "Let me turn on the AC before I drive around these snowdrifts."
 
Another time I was not prepared for the weather we ended up at Caitlyn's very cold tennis practice in t-shirts. Elijah tried unsucesfully to convince me that the mommy says "I want to go to the playfrowned." But no, the mommy says, "I'll watch you play on the playground from the comfort of my warm car.

After spending some story time with Elijah, I had to post this to social media:

Apparently "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" is traumatic reading for 4 year olds. Elijah keeps making crushed faces and asking sweetly and sadly, "But why?" every time something bad happens to Alexander. Time for a dose of real life, kid. #GoodbyeBubble

We're in it to end it! I've talked to my children about the slavery issue, so of course we had to put red x's on our hands for the end it movement. Caitlyn said "Why are there slaves anyway? Can't they just do things themselves? But people do have slaves, even though it's wrong." Elijah said, "I want a 'O'."

We're a work in progress.  :)

More pictures from the month: click here

Some videos from the month.
My "Facebook lookback" video that turned out great
Caitlyn making a snowman movie
Elijah's happy dance on a date with Mommy to Mexican
Caitlyn on slavery

January 2014

All the kids except Elijah stayed up until midnight. Then the 3 oldest piled into my room to "sleep" on the floor while I shared a full sized bed with Elijah. Jamie slept peacefully on a twin bed in his own room. Such is life.

The next day's trip back to NC was the WORST CAR RIDE EVER. I kid you not. It was so bad, that the kids lost access to all their Christmas toys. They can earn them back one day at a time with good behavior. This could take a while.

During arts and crafts, Caitlyn's word choice prompted my to post this status:

In an effort to celebrate MLK weekend, my children argued over the injustices of pancake division and whose turn it was to sit at the head of the table. I've got to read more of Jesus' teachings to them!

If you'd been at my house around the middle of January, you might have heard this conversation.

E: Hey what are you doing?
Me: I'm putting up the Christmas ornaments.
E: No! I like Kissmas ornaments.
Me: Honey, Christmas is over honey. I'm sorry
E: I want it not be over. I like Kisstmas. (unpacks some ornaments and hangs them back on the tree.) Here we go! On the tree. It Christmas now! I like Christmas.

At that point there's nothing to do but pull out the video camera and wait to make the tree disappear after bedtime. His sister can also bring out my chuckling eyeroll - like when I cut off her nails because they were dirty and she thought it would look better to cover her short nails with Transformers band-aids.

One night we realized that all the water on the floor was from a leaking washer. It flooded the hall, wash closet, the kitty's room, some of our bedroom, our bathroom, and our closet. At least it is forcing us to declutter. I also discovered C's career path as well as the fact that I am a sarcastic mom. (Well, we already knew that.)

We were pumped about the snow, even though it was very powdery and tough to play on. Daddy wanted to go sledding in the dark on a hill near C's gymnastics. I came along to document and be available to drive everyone to the hospital. But what do you know? I ended up going down once myself. See kids? Mommy is fun, too.

Click here to see more pics.

Click below for videos of:
The Happy New Year crowd
Elijah riding a horse at Chuck E Cheese
Elijah in a cowboy hat
Elijah redecorating the tree
Elijah trying to sled on the couch
Caitlyn sledding down the driveway
Mommy sledding down the driveway
Caitlyn sliding into the snow