More Homeschool Updates

I've posted a few more entries on my homeschooling blog.... for some reason unable to post pics here on blogger? Not sure what that's about : (

Check out inspiteofme.webnode.com

If You're Willing To Put Up With Me....

SO occasionally I feel like I have nothing of interest to offer the world, or at least nothing blog-worthy to say, which is why I thought I'd start my own separate little homeschooling blog to have something to specific to scribble about but occasionally random thoughts come to me, and I feel like jotting them down.  When the random bug hits me, I'll post here.  When I wanna write down what this whole crazy home school thing is all about, I'll post on inspiteofme.webnode.com
If you care, well, I can barely believe it, but thank you.  Read on for some randomness:

      1. I'm not good at styling hair, and yet I have been given 4 daughters.  When curling bangs in Jr. High was cool, I was the only girl that couldn't do it.  When french braiding was the rage, I kept my hair straight, and now I'm practically bald due to a severe laziness in the area of blowdrying, conditioning, and otherwise making any effort at all to do my own hair.  So where does that leave my 4 little girls?  Unbrushed and scraggly..... enter youtube tutorials.  Yep, my kids have me watching strangers demonstrate how to create beach-like waves in your hair overnight.  Could someone please remind me what it was like to live in a world without the internet?

       2. ARGO was a reallllllly good movie, and so scary, and so historically informative for those of us were only 3 in 1979, and we remember hearing our parents complain about Carter, but we never really got around to finding out what their beef was with him.... Oh, now I get it.  Who says movies can't be educational? (disclaimer: the movie's got some major language in it, so if your ears are squeamish, refrain from seeing it)

       3. My sister's kind of awesome.  I know I've said it before, but really she is.  This Wednesday, she took the day off and brought us cupcakes and homemade pumpkin cream cheese, and she did a homeschool PE routine for the girls, and then we all decoupaged pumpkins.  It was so fun.  And that night when the girls went to bed, they found packages of stickers and candy under their pillows.  Seriously?  Who does that?  Auntie Bethie, that's who.

       4. On the flip side, TMJ, which refers to issues of the jaw, and the discs connecting all that stuff, NOT SO AWESOME.   Apparently I grind my teeth a lot while I sleep, and years of doing this is bringing on some truly antagonistic headaches.  The only good thing about it is I have a newly increased compassion for my friends (and sisters in laws) that get migraines.... not fun at all, and truly debilitating for moms who have so much to get done all the time!

       5. Lastly, Dan & I are the last people in the world to have finally finished watching season 1 & 2 of Dontown Abbey.  I'm so getting a "Free Bates" T shirt after this, and I can't wait till season 3 in January.  I truly missed my era, I would've been so good at being independently wealthy, and if I had had servants to assist me, I would never have had to do my own hair, or watch tutorials on you tube about how to do it!

Movin' On

So recently I got a text from one of my only 3 blog followers asking me when I'm going to post again... no pressure (you know who you are).  Well here's the deal, I've been working on a little site I'm doing chronicling my first year of homeschooling so that everyone knows at what point exactly I needed to be put into a straight jacket.  I know if you're not into kids or schooling or homeschooling or any of those things, (which ironically, I'm not that into any of those things either, but they seem to have all been put upon my present plate) this site may seem a little dullsville, but I was hoping it would encourage other moms out there.  They could read about my 1st year homeschooling and think to themselves, heck, if she can do it, surely I can too!  So check it out, my new blog.... http://inspiteofme.webnode.com/

Bad Dreams

My girls are all at that precious stage where they are all older and sleep all night on their own, so it is now becoming very rare that we have our night's sleep interrupted (for which I am extremely thankful, by the way).  But occasionally, there's an exception to this rule.

4:30 AM this morning.....

I hear sniffling, and Maylin's voice coming from Dad's side of the bed.

"Daddy, I have bad news." Half asleep and mumbling, Dan says,

"What's wrong?"  Then insert a heart-breaking bout of crying.

"I had a bad dream that someone came and stole me."  At this point, I was about to get up and do the mom comforting thing, because she sounded so sad, but no need.  Instead Dan replied,

"I'd break their face.  Nobody can steal you because if they tried, I'd break their face," and then he hugged her. 

Okay, so not the approach I would have taken, but a classic Dad moment nonetheless.  

Politics, Pop Culture, and Printed Pants

Politics: Go Republicans, go.... so far the national convention's been interesting enough that I haven't turned the channel during any of the big speeches.  I wish I could be on the panel of commentators after the speeches are over.  I'd say, "Yes, Britt, I agree, and I found Paul Ryan's boyish good looks added a certain likeability to him.  Not that his looks are going to determine my vote... but a nice face doesn't hurt the cause does it?"

Pop Culture: This summer's television highlight for me has been Amy Sherman Palladino's new show, Bunheads on the family channel.  She was the writer for Gilmore Girls, and her same hilarious wit and eccentric characters create fun escapism into the idyllic coastal town of Paradise.  The term bunheads refers to a group of ballerinas and their instructors.  The protagonist's quest for coffee in one of the episodes made me ridiculously happy, as did the campy cameos made by her former GG cast members - example: Zack the rocker, was now the one-eyed plumber. 

Printed Pants: And then there's the printed pants.  It seems every magazine I see insists that printed pants are the must have fashion item of the season.  Here's the thing, when I was in 6th grade, I got a really rockin' pair of floral guess jeans from a bag of hand me downs from my much taller friend.  I loved those jeans, when I wore them, I felt like I looked 13, not 11.  But now 20 some years later, I'm feeling a little reluctant to embrace this youthful trend.  I'm thinking the only floral jeans I'll be buying will be for my daughters.  You know what I mean?

PS
I love alliteration.... school must be starting soon!

50 YEARS!

                                       All of us - Above!  Grandma & Grandpa 50years together below!

                                           The grandkids, in order of course.

                                       Half of the group exploring the Lava tube caves, while
                                  us moms went shopping in Bend, Oregon.

                                    Below are my true peeps - the 6 of us that married in to the
                                  Leaman clan! 

So I've been gone for over a week in Sunriver, Oregon, celebrating Dan's parent's 50 year wedding anniversary.  This was no ordinary family gathering, because in Dan's family, there were 6 kids, and now those 6 kids have 6 spouses, and between all us we've had 26 kids, and now even 2 great grandkids!  So you can imagine the magnitude of this event.  Spending this much time with the in laws made me realize how incredible they are as a group, where I fit in I'll never know.  They are actually superior to me in most ways.  Here are a few examples:

                          Leamans: They are all incredibly athletic, they spent the week volleying volleyballs,
                    riding bikes, & rafting down rivers. 
                          Me: The closest I got to participating in an athletic event was when I sat and watched
                     the Olympics in the evenings.  I almost broke a sweat worrying about China having
                     more medals than us.

                         Leamans: They have an uncanny ability to stay up till all hours of the night, partying.
                   They go to bed at 1 am, and then are ready to attack the day at 7 the next morning.  
                          Me: I was having anxiety attacks because I was not getting my 8 hours, and at
                      one point, I thought I'd have to be hospitalized for exhaustion, like Lindsay Lohan.

                        Leamans: They love and embrace small children, loud noise, and hard work.  I am
                   not kidding, they run around scooping up grandchildren, throwing them in the air, while
                  simultaneously cleaning the kitchen. 
                          Me:  I sit on a couch, feeling all worn out from sitting by the pool, and praying that
                   no children talk to me, including my own.

                        Leamans: They are happy, carefree, and fun people.  They laugh on the river rafts,
                   they play games until the wee hours of the night, and they go hot tubbing at midnight.
                         Me: The entire time I was on the river, I was convinced someone would drown, and
                   throughout the week I started having my annual back to school nightmares that it's the
                   day of the semester final, and I forgot to go to class all year.  I have a huge fear of being
                   unprepared, so I literally have these dreams every August. 

In all, I would just like to say this, opposites do indeed attract.  And 15 years of being around Dan's family, I am still in awe of their cheerful demeanors, their ability to be content wherever they are, and their hard-working heartiness.  I am so grateful that their genetics mixed with my frail, worry-ridden, nutty ones to produce hopefully balanced children.  And above all that I was grateful that we really do have one thing constantly in common - a love & a committment to Christ.  Listening to the history of their testimonies and the testimonies of the grandparents before them was absolutely an awesome reminder of God's goodness and His grace.  What a legacy of generations of godliness.  And for that I am truly thankful.....
       But now, now that I'm home, I'm going to get some sleep!

Thrill Rides & Overpriced Sodas

 Magic Mountain is less than an hour away from where I live, and it's just minutes away from my sister's apartment.  It's a theme park that features insane roller coasters and occasional references to Warner Brothers characters.  Crazily enough, I won 2 tickets on the radio to go, and Lorelei earned a free ticket at school for reading.  So with 3 tickets paid for, we decided to embark on a summer adventure in the 100 degree heat with the girls.

 Funny thing is it made me feel a little OLD.  Here's why: I used to go to Magic Mountain a lot when I was a kid, it was our school's incentive for honor roll and perfect attendance, a bus trip to the park.  So I have memories of it that were somewhat different than my time there this week.

The Teenage Me: I LOVE MAGIC MOUNTAIN, roller coasters rock, briiiiiing it!
The Mom Me: Hmmmm, these lines are really long, I wonder if any of my kids are going to suffer from some kind of rare head trauma as a result of this really unsafe looking ride.  Why does man insist on testing the limits of gravity?  This is very unwise, we should be home right now on our couch, where it's safe.
The Teenage Me: My dad's so cool, he gave me two twenty dollar bills for the day, I AM RICH!
The Mom Me: If I buy each child one souveneir, we will not be able to get groceries at the end of this month.  Why is that giant lollipop $15?  Lorelei's teeth are going to rot if she eats that.
 The Teenage Me: I LOVE this hot weather, cuz it allows me to wear my halter top from Wet Seal and show off my super flat stomach.
The Mom Me: Why are the girls standing in front of me wearing such short shorts?  Don't they have mothers?  
The Teenage Me: I LOVE THEME PARKS, I've never had so much fun in my life, I never want to go home.
The Mom Me: If I touch that railing in line, I'm touching thousands of germs from all over the world.  "MORGAN DO NOT PUT YOUR FINGERS IN YOUR MOUTH!"

No wonder teenagers think their moms are such killjoys.

July Gets Juicy

                                July's been a juicy month.... as in beach days & playing barbies!
                               (I just noticed that all the barbies were naked, we were about to get them
                                all ready for a ball.  We're not weird, I promise).

                         July also gave us some Juicy burgers.... just discovered Umami Burger restaurant                     
                        with these little ladies below.  We may look dainty, but we ate like a pack of
                         football players after a game.

                                    Oh & did I mention I got to go to Vegas? Without my kids!
                               Got a pedicure there, and saw Circue de Soleil's Beatles show with
                                our friends Heather & Jon.  We were celebrating Jon's 40th birthday -
                                     Oh yeah!  Watching acrobats and trapeze artists really adds to my
                               inferiority complex about my lack of coordination.  Those performers
                              were agile & amazing, whereas I often find myself tripping on my own
                               flip flops.

                          So yeah, this July I went from swanky dishes in Vegas to teaching VBS
                       classes Monday morning for church!  VEGAS TO VBS?
                                                 How's that for a transition?
                          Here's Noelle giving it a go in the sack race.  I had 34 6 & 7 year olds in my group
                       today, and suddenly, I was wishing I was poolside back in the desert again!

Neighborly

Sometimes I just don't pictures.  But anyone who knows my neighbor, knows she ALWAYS takes pictures, and since my girls and I are with her quite a bit, she takes lots of pictures of my kids.  Check out her blog at http://somissurfergirl.blogspot.com/ to see pictures of our summer days!

Some Summer Stuff

                                       This summer we've gotten to hit the beach with friends,

                                                     get our hair done and eat doughnuts!

                                     We've purchased fake glasses, because you know if you're
                                  9, you've gotta have a pair. 

                                    We've harvested from our garden a plethora of summer
                                   veggies.

                                          Dan flew a kite, and of course....

                                          We've eaten ice cream.  (Thanks for the gift card
                                     Grandma Luci).

         Here's what I haven't done:

                      1. Dragged my children out of bed & yelled at them to get their shoes on.
                      2. Graded any essays.
                      3. Explained to angry parents that if their kids don't turn in their assignments, it's
                      difficult for me to grade them.
                      4. Driven back and forth to school 5 times in a day.
                      5. Felt guilty that I'm working, & not keeping up on my house.

So as far as I'm concerned..... after a crazy school year of working 5 days a week and trying to be a wife and mom to 4 kids, this has been the best summer EVER!

Oh and did I mention that next year, I won't be returning to work?  Did I mention that I finally came to terms with the fact that unless I wanted to work 40 hours a week, sending 4 kids through private school wasn't going to happen?  Did I mention that in the fall I'm going to stay home and home school my girls because my oldest daughter is half way to 18, and I'm missing everything because I'm more invested in other people's 7th graders than I am in my own children?

Well in case I didn't mention that just yet to you, now you know.  More on that later..... but now I've gotta go, I've got another carefree, beautiful summer day to enjoy with my kids!
 

Crop It!

 I've had short hair off & on over the years, but at the beginning of June, I took the plunge & really hacked it off for the summer.   In my mind I wanted to look like one of the ladies up above.  But one must realize, they have professional make up artists, thousands of dollars worth of cosmetics, oh, and they've never had 4 kids, and don't have naturally dark circles under their eyes that they inherited from their dad.  (Thanks Dad).  So as much as I wanted to channel Halle,  sometimes with my short hair, I feel more like I look like an 18 year old boy, maybe even this one:

Here are some of my observations about sporting a pixie cut:

      1. Men pretty much hate it. This is okay because 15 years into marriage, I'm not really trying to attract the box out boys at the grocery store or the crossing guards at the intersections.  And fortunately for me, my husband kind of likes it, because he's a little bit rebellious, and it bugs him that everyone thinks girls have to have long locks to be beautiful.

    2. Women over 60 love my short hair!  Older women always come up to me and tell me how adorable my hair is.  I'm not sure how I feel about this actually.  See here I am looking confused.

    3. It fits my laziness, because it requires pretty much nothing every morning, & I love that.

    4. It does require full make up & feminine colors because sometimes, you feel a little butch.  Thank goodness neon pink is this summer's hot color.  See, here I am wearing pink. 

   5. In short, it's growing on me.... no really it's growing on me.



  

Gym Anyone?

My motto in life regarding physical exertion began in high school when my mom bought me a black t shirt that said, "I get enough exercise just pushing my luck."  From that point on I did everything I could not to sweat, not to exert myself beyond extending my arm from the bag of chips to my mouth.  But alas, those days are fading.... because my metabolism is no longer that of a 16 year old youth, and those 4 children that were ripped from my abdomen have left me with loose skin, and chub where once there were only bones. 

And so because I'm incredibly vain, I've realized I must succumb to the daily grind of painful workout DVDs, where Jillian Michaels yells at me, Brooke Burke shows off her ridiculous perfection, and Bob Harper loses count as I try to pull the kettle ball over my head one last time. 

So here's today's inspiration to get me out of bed:

Dara Torres, age 45, went up against little girls that could be her daughters.... and she qualified, yet again for the olympics.   So if this 45 year old chick, could do that, then this 36 year old better be able to do a half an hour DVD. 

(Disclaimer: Though I was motivated today, I will probably be disgusted by this post tomorrow, will skip my workout, and will take the girls to go get doughnuts - As the ancient Greeks once said: "Know thyself"). 

Happy Almost Birthday!

Morgan turns 5 Saturday, & I guiltily realized, I hadn't ever thrown her a party before, though my in laws gave her a few when we visited with her cousins, I, the mom, had never made the efforts to give her a little shindig of her own out here, so I put together a birthday picnic in our front yard today for some of her friends.  Here are my tips for keeping things low - key:

1. The dollar section at Target was my inspiration, not pinterest.  Here's why, pinterest is adorable & amazing, but it requires MAKING things.  Instead of slaving over a needle and thread, I found a bunch of red, white, & blue stuff for 4th of July & used that as our theme.

2. A kid party = kid food.  I made PB & Js, a few coldcuts for the moms, fruit, and chips, no time or $ for stuffed mushrooms & risotto, let's keep it basic.

3. Forget originality: I went old school and we had a ring toss, and pin the tale on the donkey, it was fun.

 4. Keep things moving.  A party with a bunch of kids under the age of 5 is bound to end with tears and tired tantrums so as soon as people get here, we eat, we sing, we play games, we keep things rolling, conscious of moms who have brief windows of time before naptime calls.

 5. Cupcakes rule, they are so much easier than slicing cake.  Can I get an amen on that ladies?

Okay, so now that you all are thinking I'm the laziest mom ever, I'll show you some pics.  Oh & one more thing, I had the party on a Monday afternoon, gives moms a chance to get out while Dad's at work, and it doesn't take up someone's precious Saturday, because let's face it we all have enough to do as families on Saturdays!

Kids, not Babies

This summer, my four girls will turn 5, 7, 7, & 9 years old!  That means, I'm officially the mom of four "kids," not babies, not toddlers, not preschoolers, KIDS.

Here's what I'm discovering:

The GOOD: They all washed their own hair today!  I could have cried.  This newfound independence frees me up A LOT.  They can shower on their own, go to the bathroom on their own, wake up & go to sleep on their own.  This is AWESOME.

The BAD: They all can spell or sort of sound things out now.  This means Dan and I can no longer spell things out in front of them, and we really have to mind our P's and Q's.  Anything we say may be repeated by them to others, or will be comprehended by them.... Scary!  I miss the freedom of babbling on in front of them, knowing they still couldn't speak!

The GOOD/BAD: They are forming their own opinions.  This is sort of fun as I figure out their individual personalities more and more, but this is sort of bad, especially when their opinions differ from my own.  What  do you mean my outfit doesn't look good?  Why don't you love that book I gave you?  I loved it.  You're supposed to think all of my ideas are AMAZING.  Come on....

The GOOD: They're still not toooo big to need mom:  In the car today, one said something about pirates.  Another responded, "Pirates are real you know, right mom, there are such thing as pirates?"

"Yep, there are real pirates in the world."

"Well then, are mermaids real too?"

"Mermaids? Um, no, no mermaids."

Yeah, they're getting older, but it looks like they still need me around for a few years to come!

 

Think Julia Roberts

So in addition to the end of the school year, multiple birthday parties, and graduations, we thought we'd squeeze in a wedding!  My cousin got married to a beautiful bride in picturesque mountainside setting in Palomar Mountain.  It was a first for us, traveling with my parents and all the kids, and it all worked out pretty well.  It was a treat to see all of our cousins, and the food and weather were all perfect.  But the highlight was without a doubt, the fact that the bride entered on a horse!  Of course this reminded me of Julia Roberts in Runaway Bride, but without any of the silliness.  It was seriously a movie moment, she looked stunning.  I'm not much of an animal person, but it was impressive.  And the girls got to ride the horse after the wedding was over, I'm not sure any other wedding can compete with that for them!

"Poor People"

Yesterday, we spent a few hours in the the girls' bedroom doing a little "beginning of summer clean up."  This involved making a few different piles.... some clothes that are too small and can be given away, some stuff that just needed to be thrown out, and a bag of toys that we could drop at goodwill.  Sometimes the girls are a little reluctant to get rid of their things, and so I went through the whole explanation of what the purpose of the goodwill store was, and helping kids less fortunate, etc.  But it wasn't until today when I loaded one of the bags into the trunk of the car that I saw that one of my girls had labeled the bag, "poor people."

Um, I think I'll switch bags before I make my drop off.

Note to self: Our next mother daughter conversation will be defining and explaining the word "tact."

Mini Milestones

    June means graduations.  I thought a graduation for the twins from kindergarten, and
  then a graduation for Morgan from pre-k was a little much, but I must admit, for a mom
  of four, it was nice to have a few moments to reflect on my kiddos individually! (note: instead
  of graduation caps, Morgan and her peers were wearing fruit hats to represent the fruits of the
  spirit, and for their song, they sang, "I'm just a big bowl of fruit," pretty cute, I must admit.

         June for us also means birthdays!  Lorelei turned 9, and her birthday matched up
     up with the last day of school.  So on that half day, we invited her class to pizza & cupcakes!

And here are the twins singing the song their AMAZING kindergarten teacher wrote and had
them sing together at the end of each day.  This was a special year for them because of their vibrant
and talented teacher.

Eat Much?

For my birthday, I got spoiled.... and I'm starting to wonder if perhaps I have a preoccupation with food.
            To begin my birthday weekend, Friday my 7th graders decorated the whiteboard with Twix candy bars.

                                    And then Saturday, my husband took me to dinner...... seafood, my favorite!

                                        And then Sunday, after church,  my sister took me to tea (in Beverly Hills,   Thank you very much). 

                                     And there was a coffee stop in there Saturday morning (but I forgot to take a picture of that).  Instead of taking pictures of all the lovely people in my life, and all the sweet gifts I received, I just have pictures of food to share with you.  It makes me wonder if perhaps my priorities are out of whack.

Overall, I must say my birthday was delicious! Thank you everyone for feeding me with treats &  love (which is much less fattening)!