Swim Meet and Summer Update

Seems I have fallen into a slow pattern of just once a month updating here, I can't seem to let it completely go yet life has taken me in so many other busy directions. Right now it seems we are constantly in the car or at a sporting event of the kids, tis the season I suppose. Someday normalcy whatever that is will resume.

Tonight I write after a long weekend of early mornings and hours at a swim meet. It was Maria's first competitive swim meet against other swim squads in the state. She had a great first meet. She swam in 5 individual events and one relay. In her individual heats she placed 1 in the 50free, 2 in the backstroke and butterfly and 3rd in breaststroke in 100free, each race had 8 swimmers. We are still awaiting her overall placement after all the heats were added up for all 30 or so swimmers in her level. For a first meet she could not have done better or had a better experience. It was so great to be a part of. Even her grandfather from NY was in to watch her performance.

As a mom it was a bit nerve wracking for me to sit in the bleachers and wonder how it would all turn out. After her first race (2nd in her backstroke heat) she relaxed and was all smiles after being a ball of nerves and worries nearly all week. When the meet was over it was wonderful to see how pleased she was with her results and all the work she had put into this sport in the few months she has been swimming with a swim team. Her final results will not be as high as her heat scores as she was swimming in an easier heat than others at her level and their times were better than hers, still she set some great initial times for her to work from and move forward with swimming.

One thing was clear as we left the meet, she is now hooked and has felt a taste of competition and reward for all her hard work and she intends to build on this and work hard moving forward to improve. It will be great fun to be along for the ride.

In other kid news Ciaran is winding down a great baseball season, 3 games left this week and then playoffs while Grandma and Grandpa from Maine visit. It has been a great year of learning for him, the improvements from last year to this are remarkable. He hit into the outfield last game and was very excited, he plays infield more than outfield now even with the even rotations his coaches try to use and he can easily make the 3rd to first throw consistently and strongly. Considering last year he did not want to stand in the batters box for fear of getting hit and struck out almost as often as he grounded to the infield the improvements are amazing. He is older and more mature and also more interested in playing, but he is out there practicing every day with me, Serona, or anyone who will have a catch with him. I am glad he is loving baseball and has such a great coach and fun team this year.

Sirah is starting swimming lessons again. She is taking private lessons this time around and is loving her instructor. Our goal is to have her independently swimming by the end of the month so it will be a more relaxing summer for us all. She loves being in the water and is doing well but needs to gain more confidence. When asked about what sport she would like to do next she runs the gammet from karate to Irish step dancing to swim team or rock climbing. It will be fun to let her try out all the things that interest her and see what she settles into.

Life is very busy right now and I feel like we live at the pool, baseball field and in the minivan but I would not trade it for anything, life is wonderful and I love doing all these things with my kids. I am glad we have taken a break from school and can settle into relaxing this summer.

First Swim Meet

Maria had her first competitive swim meet tonight. It was an in house meet and she did great. She raced in three events 50 fly, 50 free and 50 backstroke. Her first event was the fly and her nerves got the better of her but she stuck out the event and finished last. The next two events saw her gain her confidence and she finished 3rd in both events.

She just just started training about 3 weeks ago so this was a great first step. It was fun for us all to be there along the side of the pool cheering her on. This was a fun day for her once she got over her initial nerves. It was rewarding to see her hard work and practice pay off.

She looks forward to competing in more meets and beginning to race against other squads as she grows as a swimmer. As her mom I am glad she finally found a sport or activity that she really enjoys and excels at.

I have to say a thank you to Michael Phelps for getting her interested in swimming and motivated to try competitive swimming herself. After watching the summer Olympics and all of his races she really became interested in swimming and has started her journey gradually but at a good pace for her. Here is to many more years hopefully of such a healthy sport.

I am proud of you and your hard work Maria.

Happy BIrthday Ciaran

Ciaran is 8 years old and we had a great birthday party! 8 little boys here for a baseball game, Mario Kart Wii, Star Wars Monopoly, Lightsaber battles, marshmallow spitting contests, and watching the Phantom Menace. They had such a great time and were so good!

For his birthday we bought him fire bellied toads - he has wanted a frog or toad since he was 3 years old. We told him he could have them when he was 8 honestly thinking he would no longer want them. Well here we are with 2 fire bellied toads added to our family number. He was so excited he could not stop hugging us. He literally ran from one to the other back and forth for a few minutes just so very thankful. He also received a lot of great little boy gifts that he can hardly wait to use, water guns, scooter, legos, skateboard and an eyeclops among others, he was so blessed and so very thankful.

For the first time ever one of my kids seemed sad to be getting older. He just kept telling us "I will never be 7 again" on the verge of tears. We were baffled by this reaction but he simply loved being 7, it was his favorite age and a great year and he will miss it. Interesting guy my Ciaran.

Baseball is around the corner, he can hardly wait to find out his team and start practice. Of course we are expecting a snowstorm tonight so the white stuff may be on the ground again, last year it cancelled opening day once and then snowed on our second opening day. Only in Minnesota does baseball range from 20 degrees to 98 degrees. I don't know which is worse, but I will vote for the cold, snow and freezing rain. Why we don't wait to start until late May is beyond me.

Ciaran is a sweet boy, he has such a generous heart and spirit and is so giving and loving. He is especially tender with me and for the past few months just runs up to me to give me big hugs and climbs on my lap to snuggle still. Of course he also enjoys playing Monopoly, Risk, Wii games and doing anything outdoors. He really is going through the growing out of a little boy stage but I love where he is right now and will hold on to it as long as it lasts. Enjoying his hugs and tenderness and desire to simply be near to me.

He is looking forward to summer when the frogs return, he can swim all day, skate, scoot, bike, play ball and have water fights. I am looking forward to the freedom of those days too. We are hard at work here now trying to finish up school so we have the freedom to start our summer earlier. We typically finish school in early May enjoying one of our favorite months in MN school free, May and September are hands down the best time to be in MN, no bugs, perfect weather just wonderful days for being outside and hiking and loving God's creation.

Ciaran had a great year - he became a proficient swimmer, learned baseball for real and found a passion for it, he got better at biking, scooting, skateboarding and roller blading, he became very creative with Lego's and K'nex and he still loved frog hunting, and geocaching. He improved in school and really advanced in his reading, books he recently read include: Prince Caspian by CS Lewis and Coraline by Neil Gaiman. We have watched his faith develop and him flourish in his bible verse memory. He grew more protective of his sisters and even took a punch in the nose for one of them as he defended her. Mostly though he had a wonderful fun and busy year filled with all the things that make a little boy's life fun and interesting.

I am thankful to be his mother and even though some days I am exhausted from his nearly endless energy he fills my days with joy and laughter, smiles and tenderness and that more than makes up for the challenges along the way. I love you Ciaran thanks for being such a special little boy.

Time to Be Mom

One of the unique struggles of a homeschool parent is finding time to just be mom or dad as well as teacher. In my mind after I have spent the better part of my day with my kids doing things like reading, math, science, history, art projects, home economics, PE and handwriting I am ready for a break. The thing is my kids are not ready for a break from me, they are in fact ready to spend time with their mom and have simply felt they have been with their teacher for the past few hours.

This took me a little while to figure out and I am still trying to figure out how best to meet their needs without overstretching myself as well. Realizing that they do need to just cuddle on the couch with me, play a board game, bake cookies or simply talk and spend time with me is important. I have to learn to build in times for this in our daily life. In addition it is true that I need some down time and alone time to recharge myself and also get done the work and responsibilities like house cleaning, cooking, laundry, bill paying, volunteer work, writing, appointments and the small details that make our household run.

Lately while acutely aware of my need to balance these roles I find myself at a loss for a successful method to do so with. How do I be homeschool teacher, household COO, wife, mom and keep my sanity? For many years now I have just been juggling all the balls in the air and living according to the tyranny of the urgent, dealing with what needs to be done as it arises. But as my laundry piles into 12 loads, packages go unmailed for several weeks, I can't find time to call loved ones on the phone, I have not taken sanity time for myself, and my kids and husband feel like they never spend time with with just me I am realizing there must be a saner way. There must be a way to better manage and balance all of these roles and still be just one person.

I have significantly cut back on my computer time which has helped. I put an internet timer on each computer I use and it tracks my minutes online. This has been a good reminder and accountability tool for me. I try to avoid using the computer as much as possible during school time. Allowing myself a short time in the morning before school, some at lunchtime and then after all our other responsibilities are done. Yet many of my jobs use the computer too so I am also trying to limit my free or fun time on the computer since my kids see me use it so much already for things I need to do as part of my job of household COO and homeschool mom, not to mention volunteer work I do. While this helps it also leads me to feel like I am limiting myself so much that I am not meeting my needs either.

Some of this is because we are coming out of a long cooped up winter here in Minnesota and everything gets better as the sun comes out and the weather warms up. Still it is reality right now and for my kids sake I need to make time to just be mom. To cuddle and love them, to listen to and encourage them, to play games and be silly with them, to have time that is not about me telling them what to do next whether it be school, chores, sports practice, or enforcing reading times. My kids need to be able to remember that part of me too. I worry that they are going to grow up and just think of me as a drill sergeant or a teacher they either loved or hated. How do veteran moms balance this? How do you still be mom, and how do you enjoy that time without thinking about all the other things that need to get done?

Off to be mom, read some books and play some Wii.

Where's my head again?

Every once in awhile I really over schedule our lives without even realizing what is happening until I am in the thick of it and can not turn back. We are smack in the middle of one of those weeks! It creeped up on me, I committed to things one at a time even after checking my schedule and seeing the other items there. It was not the calendar as much as it was a lack of planning and lack of honesty with myself about what exactly was involved and how much time each thing would take and more importantly how they would interact with each other.

Monday was our first glorious day of the year. We still managed to complete a very full school schedule, doubling up in anticipation of the rest of the week. Then we took a long walk outside and ran errands at the same time, had an easy quick dinner, bedtime and then my moms bible study. It was a good day the kids even built outdoor forts on our deck and did school outside.

Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day and we added in some Ireland and St Patrick history study on top of subjects, it only comes once a year and we are very Irish. We listened to Irish music and cleaned and cooked and did party prep. The kids also had their regular weekly art class, when the party started I wondered how many hours there were in a day? I did enjoy myself and was able to relax some even with playing the role of hostess. Still it was another long and full day and I crawled into bed entirely too late for the second day in a row.

Today began with a late start, dropping Serona at work and heading to the Mall of America for our annual Scavenger Hunt. This year the group size was small, just two groups. The kids had a good time and we stayed for lunch as well. After running around the mall for an hour looking for various things and taking crazy pictures I was tired but somehow their energy level seemed even higher. We got home and I gave them an hour outside while I caught up on bills and emails then we resumed work on our homeschool fair projects. It was then I started to feel the pinch and realize I had done this too myself and had no one to blame.

Each of the kids is doing a seperate project and I thought it would not be a huge deal and left the bulk of the work until this week, they had done much of their research and planning already all that was left was putting the boards together and some supply gathering. I did not realize that given their ages 9, almost 8 and 5 they were all going to require my help for a lot of what they did. Maria had done all of the research on her own but needed help with sizing font, text formatting and figuring out how to best fit all her information in a logical and aesthetic way. Ciaran needed help with typing, deciding what to include, teasing out his ideas and putting it all together and Sirah needed help with nearly everything she did. It was a busy day for all of us and they all seemed to want me at the same time. We worked on it straight for about 3 hours until dinner and then heading to church. Everyone made great progress but no one is finished and the fair is tomorrow night. This means tommorrow will be regular school work, finishing this and then heading to the fair. I am thinking a crock pot meal will work best, hope I have what I need here since a trip to the store is not in the plans for tomorrow.

Friday somehow I managed to get myself in another overburdened schedule. I have set up, clean up, snacks and am teaching all three hours of homeschool cooperative! Another early morning after another long night. All of these things are good things, all of them are worthwhile and good for my kids and none of them individually would be too much, even a few in this week would be fine. It was more the combination of them all together, trying to coordinate driving schedules with Serona and getting everything done well. Not to mention cleaning, laundry and meals.

I fully acknowledge this was a me problem, this was a poor planning problem but now I am in the thick of it and tonight - the night before the homeschool fair I am out looking for a shadow box for mice bones from an owl pellet and a stuffed owl. After running to more stores than I care to recall we found both and we have checked off the last of the supplies needed for tomorrow. Thankfully Maria had all the rocks, minerals and gems she needed here for her project and Ciaran has more frogs then anyone can imagine. No live animals are allowed and he does not have his yet, though a new pet addition to our family is not likely long off in the future.

I need to remind myself to avoid the problem of good and plan more sanely next time.

Kids projects

The kids presented their semester long Astronomy projects this week. Each student created a slideshow presentation utilizing Google Docs Slideshow software (similar to PowerPoint). They did a fantastic job of doing their own research, image gathering, slide development and then presenting it to an audience. Very proud of the work they accomplished in just 2nd and 4th grade. It was fun to teach them the technology and watch the way they made their projects their own.

For science we are studying Geology now and we just began our Science in a Nutshell rock and mineral kit. For rockhound Maria she could not have found a more interesting topic, Ciaran is a bit less convinced and has been working along reluctantly so far. For texts this semester we are just emptying the local library of all childrens books related to the topics we are studying. Also getting ready to start our botany study at the arboretum, this year we will follow the life cycle of an apple tree.

By the end of the year it seems science and history will once again top their list of favorite subjects. For history the younger two are studying about ancient Rome and learning about how elephants were used for soldiers. I am continually amazed at how much Sirah picks up and remembers at just age 5. The other day she told me about Phillips son Alexander the Great and about the caste system in ancient India. Maria is moving into more modern history and just finished up the end of the slave trade and is ready to move into her last book of Story of the World.

Programs like Digging for the Truth, Rough Science and MythBusters seem to also further their interest in these subjects as do all the museums and hands on activities we tend to do. I am looking into finding a year of science experiments for next year, a nice pre made kit with everything I could possibly need to do 4 experiments a month for the year? Any great experiences or ideas?

A good week

Last week felt like a great homeschool week. We went on nature walks, visited the nature preserve, did some sketching, hiking and even some sledding. The kids were very interested in history and science and book work went off fairly well with the usual groans about handwriting or math depending on the assignment.

Some highlights. They learned to use Google SketchUp which they were very excited for and made a few first 3d sketches each. Maria made an audio recording of all she knew about the different types of rocks we are studying in geology. I recorded Sirah learning how to solve the Rubiks Cube. Ciaran mastered writing creative stories all on his own. Sirah and Ciaran really enjoyed our history studies as we finished off Greece and Maria discovered she really enjoys decimals more than fractions. Serona took the kids on an Owl Prowl where they saw a barred owl up very close, dissected owl pellets and went for a walk in the woods. Ciaran mopped up what was left of me in a near three hour game of Risk. We discovered some good documentaries on Netflix streaming and got into a new season of Digging for the Truth and Rough Science, next up will be MythBusters and of course some Wii was played. Current favorite games of choice in the house: Dance Dance Revolution, WiiFit and Star Wars Lightsaber Duels.

This week is already feeling full and it is just Monday. Art class, homeschool cooperative, having a new homeschool family over to get the kids together and have her look at all my supplies, dinner guests and somewhere in there we will get school done. The weather is supposed to improve again as well so I anticipate some more outdoor adventures will be on the docket as well. Just enjoying Minnesota in March and trying to ignore everyone else saying "Lion or Lamb?" because in Minnesota we don't ask that question until April - yes we still get snow in April sometimes. Enjoy your March wherever you are.

Our day

Yesterday was a lovely homeschool day. We started with book work and the younger two created a historical puppet show of Sparta Greece with paper bag puppets they created and a stage they made from our couch and a white sheet. They chose to reinact the story of the young Sparta boy who lets the fox chew his stomach rather than admit to the soldier he is in pain and the story began and ended with the boy and his mother, reminding us that he was to come home with his shield or on it. They were very proud of their work and reenacted it that night for Serona.

The older two had an art class we recently started, several families have joined together and the moms take turns teaching a drop off art class each week. Yesterday they worked on clay sculpting and studied how to have appropriate facial proportioning. They both seemed to enjoy it but we will not see the work from that class until next week as it is still drying. I will teach nature sketching to the class when it is my turn.

Sirah who is 5 read to me from her current book and we painted some signs for an upcoming stand we plan to have. We enjoyed our brief time outside in wonderful 40 degree weather hardly remembering it is winter in MN.

It was a nice day filled with good homeschool moments.

Maria's First Poetry

These poems were written by Maria Age 9

Who? By Maria

Who judges the judge
Who judges wrong
The sentence too weak
The sentence to strong
The trial too quick
The trail too long
Who judges the judge
Who judges wrong

Hidden Beauty by Maria

A diamond in the ruff
A pearl in the bluff
These are hidden beauties
Not as pretty as the soul
But it is good
To have an inside of gold.


Amelia Rose by Maria

Amelia Chelsae Rose
Had no manners
Or so it goes
Thus when her mother said
Amelia Rose don't use your fingers
So in obeying her mother
Amelia Rose she used her toes

When the Chaos Hits

My children showed their very generous side this week as we had some friends staying with us so their parents could have a vacation. In addition to our 9, 7 and 5 year old we had a 4 and 2 year old. It was busy but thanks to my children and Serona all chipping in and helping out the days went by quickly and smoothly, as smooth as possible with that many kids between those ages. Maria often read to the younger kids or helped supervise them if I was making lunch, she even pitched in and helped make meals. Ciaran played nearly constantly with the 2 year old who just looked up to him and wanted to do everything with him. He was very patient with him which made me very happy and Sirah played with the other little girl and for her it was great fun as it was like a never ending playdate and sleepover. The little girls played dress up, kitchen, dolls, ponies, lincoln logs, puzzles and anything they could think of. Overall everyone got along very well and it was wonderful to see that serving part in my children. We are back to normal for the time being though I inflamed my back injury and injured my neck while the kids were here so it will be some slow going to my recovery, good thing we are headed back into the -30's, no one will want to go anywhere.

School has been fluid this week as we finish up math books and wait for our new ones to arrive next week. We are planning on finishing up our Astronomy study and slide shows this week so we can move forward with geology. After spending two weeks looking for our missing history text book I have ordered a new copy as I value my sanity more than the cost of the book. In the meantime we are spending our history blocks working on geography, playing a fun online geography game and competing against one another in different regions of the world.

Maria seems to be gaining interest in computer skills wanting to have more and more time online, which is putting our current one functioning computer system to the test, may drive me to figure out how to cannibalize those 5 unusable boxes into at least one functioning kids computer so I can regain the family laptop and decrease the amount of bickering over whose turn it is next.

Ciaran has taken to reading the Great Illustrated classic novels. I remember reading these as a child too, I think they are wonderful introductions to the great classic works, after reading these transitioning to the full unabridged versions seems much less scary to my children. Maria has read nearly all the classics in the illustrated format and now many of them unabridged. Ciaran likes them because the font is large, there are many pictures (typically one whole page picture for every one page of writing) and the stories are actually engaging and interesting. He is currently reading War of the Worlds, recently he read Swiss Family Robinson and the Time Machine, next up is Dr. Doolittle.

Sirah is reading Hop on Pop and excited to be reading a "real book" in her mind. She has finished her handwriting book and we have moved on to skip counting with her now that she has the basics of addition and subtraction down. She also has an envelope she carries with her of her "special words" which are flash cards with words she can sound out on her own to practice reading with. This week she lined up all her animals and dolls and taught them school with her special words. This month for her book club we read Pinocchio outloud, which is a favorite read aloud in our house.

We also finished up The Great Brain as our family read aloud this week. While I love this story and my kids could not wait for more there are some heavier topics and time dated topics that young kids may need help with that is why we choose to read them aloud. I also enjoy watching my kids engage with the story and laugh out loud. The Great Brain is very over the top and there are many teachable moments in them, and now we have some fun family jokes from our reading of this. We did skip a few pages in the last chapter as there was a discussion of a boy trying to help another boy kill himself to put him out of his misery (he has a peg leg). We were able to skip that part without taking much away from the story as what follows those pages is the important part. Still if you are looking for a fun family read aloud you may want to give the Great Brain a try.

We had a few warm days (high 20's, low 30's) where Ciaran and Sirah simply did not want to be in the house, they spent most of their freetime in the yard sledding, having snowball fights and just running around and playing in the snow. Maria was sad she was unable to be outside with her cast, but is happy she will have just a few more weeks of the cast. We had some of her friends over to watch the new Chrissa movie from American girl, she also received the doll as a gift from her grandparents recently. The movie was a great opportunity to discuss topics like bullying, teasing, when and how to get parents involved, and there was even some mention of homeschooling in the film. The girls watching it with me range in age from 9-11, also the ages of the kids in the film and we had some good discussion following the movie. Being homeschooled for most of the time these girls had different experiences than what was in the movie but we were able to talk about things like teasing and what makes a good friend, important topics for girls in that age group.

I enjoy spending time with Maria and her friends and getting to know them. This "tween" age group was the one that most scared me as a parent, that I felt would be most challenging. Young babies, toddlers, preschoolers and early elementary have all been fairly natural ages for me, teenagers also come very natural to Serona and I and our favorite ages are generally from around 13-23. It is this in between that has been interesting to me to learn along side them. I think I just had very little interaction with this age group in general so I don't know quite what to expect. So far the friends she has chosen have been great kids and I simply enjoy being around them, I pray that continues and that this age group goes well when my other two are in it as well.

One of the things I have enjoyed as an added benefit of homeschooling is the varied friendships my children develop with both genders and a variety of ages. All of my childrens "best friends" are not their age, they get along with both genders and a variety of age groups. I know as they get older this will change and we are already starting to see some changes in Maria, though she is saddened by the push back she feels from some boys and the teasing she gets from some girls who don't believe her that she is just "friends" and does not "like" the boys she spends time with. These situations have provided us with many teachable moments and we have had great mother/daughter discussions that I believe build the relationship and trust we will need for those future harder mother/daughter heart to hearts.

Clearly I am writing this post at 2am as I am a bit rambling and jumping from topic to topic but at least I am back blogging! May you enjoy a peaceful and blessed weekend.

Schooling at the Art Museum

We woke up to windchills in the -40's, and it really does feel that cold, once it hits about -20 you really start to feel a difference. Note I was not always a Minnesotan having lived in New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon and Georgia before moving here, so I can attest to different climates. Despite the temperature and all the frostbite warnings, we decided to head out anyway, that is what a car heater, gloves, hats and coats rated down to -50 are for. I packed a mobile school bag with some school books, sketch books, interesting reading, pencils, crayons, camera and video recorder and we headed out. I decided the art museum would be a good destination today and we were off.

The kids worked on their math books, history and science reading on the drive there, which made for a nice quiet drive except for the occasional question they needed help with. They even tried to help one another when possible as they realized how much I needed to focus on the drive. The quiet was much appreciated as I navigated roads filled with black ice and over confident drivers. I am still amazed that people forget they need to slow down even when it is not snowing as the black ice is more dangerous to drive in and comes up unexpectedly.

Our time at the art museum was great and it made for an interesting school day. Each child picked an area of the museum they wanted to explore and we took time in each area and allowed ourselves to examine whatever peaked our interest. The kids also got lessons in patience as they needed to wait for one another, sometimes spending much more time in an area then they would have chosen. They are fairly well behaved kids so I give them a bit of freedom to explore anywhere I can see them all, which often means they head in 3 different directions and I stand in the center wherever I can maximize my view of all of them. It was a school day so other than the occasional school group there were not many kids in sight, though it was busier than I would have expected given the weather.

We visited all three floors of the Art Institute and spent considerable time in the Greek, Chinese, Indian, African and Native American exhibits. Highlights of the day for them included the Greek marble statues, African masks, Chinese Jade exhibit, the Silk trade route video and exhibits, and comparing the Chinese and Egyptian sarcophagi.

Over the course of the day we alternated between free exploration and me discussing works with them. Sometimes I would ask pointed questions, other times let them just point out what they noticed and explain what they thought the art meant or represented, sometimes we shared how a piece made us feel or what else was going on in history at the time. As part of our day each child needed to choose one artwork or artifact to sketch in their sketchbook. In addition they had to give a narration about an exhibit, artwork or artifact which I recorded on my voice recorder.

The historical links seemed to be very meaningful to Sirah especially in the Greek and Chinese exhibits which we just studied in Story of the World. To see hieroglyphics, sarcophagi and statues of Amenhotep which we just studied was exciting to her. At one point in the China exhibit she was talking to me about the horses being important because they carried the silk on trade routes and about how silk was made, the gentleman standing next to us raised his eyebrow at me and looked amazed. I suppose it is not every day you hear such things from a 5 year old as you walk around the museum.

It reminded me of being at the Body Worlds exhibit with Ciaran last year and getting dirty looks from people (as if they were thinking how could I expose and torture a child in this way) meanwhile it was him who dragged me there (I had no desire to see something this graphic) and he was listening to the extra details on the headset tour he asked me to purchase (not the simple explanation that most normal people would listen to but the very detailed one that I can only imagine medical students are interested in). Sometimes this happens to us and I remind myself to be thankful.

We spent 4 hours in the museum straight over lunchtime without a single complaint or request for food. I must admit my amazement, I kept thinking soon they are going to tire of this but they never did. Maria's cast started to hurt her and we decided to leave and head home.

If you have never taken young kids to the art museum I encourage you to do so, it is very interesting to visit with them. My kids notice details I would have overlooked and have such interesting views on what art means and how it makes them feel I am truly blessed by their views each time I go. For a long time I was nervous about taking young children to the art institute though we often go to all the other museums. The art museum just seems such a quiet place with little for them to do or interact with so it made me nervous. Yet they adapt well and realize they need to be quieter, just like when we are in a library, they are amazed at certain things and bored by others. I find my kids enjoy things like masks, statues, weapons, artifacts and even china, furniture and room displays, it is the paintings that typically bore them. When we enter the 1700's or so they lose interest and want to move rapidly through the rooms pausing rarely, but bring them back to the ancients and they could spend half a day in a single room looking at how different things were. I love having them explain to me what they notice first about a subject and then to explain their thoughts and emotions about what they are looking at, I find I walk away looking at things differently. The art institute also provides many teachable moments and great links to show the relationship between history, art and culture. We have been going several times a year now for the past few years and while I do not believe they have ever asked to go to the art museum the way they will the science or history museum they always want to stay and explore and walk away having had a great day.

On a side note I find it useful to park far away from the museum as the walk there and back is a good way to let off steam for young kids before and after. Even today in very cold weather we parked two blocks away and the memory of Ciaran barreling out of the door as if his body was saying "I am free!" made me smile. He immediately started running down the sidewalk and I did not stop him, typically I would. He carefully moved out of the way (still at a good speed) from a woman coming up the walk way, she looked and me and I smiled and said "Pardon him, he was just inside for 4 hours and needs to release some energy!" She smiled weakly at me and I wonder what was going through her head as I watched him run up the sidewalk and thought I am just fine with him running now. I could not possibly have asked for better behavior and attention in the museum and he is outside now he should burn his energy, I just wish I had his energy to burn!

On the car ride back they read from their current books and Maria colored on her portable desk. All in all I must say it was a great day and by the time we got home from our day it was 3 degrees above zero, which felt warm to us! It was nice to get outside of the house we have been in for nearly the whole week. Now for a lovely 3 day weekend and rumor has it we will reach the 30's next week, I think ice skating, snowboarding and sledding will make their return.

The Creativity of Sub Zero Weather

We had another great day, sometimes I think the colder it is outside the better school week we have. We are too cold to go anywhere and outdoor exercise is challenging which makes my mind work more creatively to keep everyone getting along and stimulated.

I started the day with history which is always a good subject for us, it has almost universally been my kids favorite subject through the years. We use Story of the World and really enjoy the story, the map work, the activities and even the coloring sheets. Today we were learning about the Assyrian empire. The kids did narrations which I record and save on the computer, they reenacted the fighting strategy of the Assyrians first against each other and then against me. They engineered and built a mobile siege tower out of k'nex and wooden blocks. They had to figure out how to build a wheel base that would support the blocks and allow them to create a battering ram. They used baskets (for shields like the Assyrians) and buckets and created a reenactment of the Assyrian strategy for destroying a walled city. They built up walls of dirt (pretended on this point I am not crazy) in front of their city wall (built with more wooden blocks) and drove their functioning mobile tower to the city walls and up the hill to use the battering ram to knock down the wall and overtake the city and its king (Maria happily played that role). I used a video recorder to keep a record of their reenactment which of course made them ham it up even more. We finished the lesson with me reading more about the fall of the Assyrian empire while they finished a coloring sheet and map work.

Book work was next, nothing really exciting or interesting to report here though Sirah has been into making up stories about pictures, coloring the pictures, copying the story she narrates to me and then making them into little mini books, todays was the story of a heart. The older kids also worked on their science presentations, today's topics were black holes and constellations.

A much needed PE break after lunch and the remainder of book work. PE is challenging in dangerous windchill weather. The kids are begging to go outside and sled and play in the snow (normally sufficient) but not possible today even I have standards and -13 with wind chills in the negative 30's is a line I am not willing to cross. So it was stair climbing circuit training: 10 times up and down our split level staircase 16 steps, then 10 pushups, 10 jumping jacks, 10 sit ups or crunches, back to the staircase, repeat. Maria was excused on account of a broken arm which Ciaran thought was unfair, she did opt to walk the stairs on her own later when they were finished.

Reading and free time during which they created an elaborate Ponyville play set which kept them busy for a long time and they built K'nex including creative wands that control whatever word you whisper into them (snow, dog, etc) that lasted until I whispered their names into one with a big stack of laundry nearby suddenly the wands were broken :) Maria chose to work on her book and play a geography game on the computer. She was very proud of the fact that she could beat both Serona and I at labeling the countries of the Middle East, she labeled 17 countries in 44 seconds with no mistakes, Serona and I each missed 3 and took more time. Try it yourself.

Now I have 6 loads of laundry to fold. I do know it is easier if I do it as it comes out of the dryer but I never seem to get to it, atleast it is all clean. Ciaran and Sirah are making brownies and Maria ran off to hide and read lest she be put to work folding laundry. Another great day, this is why I never stress in December when we are not schooling as much because I know January and February are wonderful months for getting stuff done.

Living the Good Life

I am very spoiled and I can admit it. I am so blessed with a good life that I thank God and my family for it each day. Today was one of those days when I was acutely aware of how very blessed I am. We woke up to -20 degree weather but I was hot under all my blankets in a well heated home. I rolled back over and snuggled up to Serona until the second alarm went off and he got up, then Sirah came down and joined me in bed where we chatted and snuggled for a bit. I went upstairs to find my other two children up and in good moods as I had freshly baked scones waiting for them (that I baked at midnight last night when I could not sleep). We all enjoyed breakfast and prayed with Serona before he headed off to work. As I watched my husband get into the car and head off in subzero weather I was so thankful that he does that every day for us, even though he does not love his job he goes every day to provide such a good life for our family.

The kids and I gradually got out of PJ's and picked up the house a bit before we started school. We have house cleaners come in and do all the heavy cleaning for me twice a month and today was the day. I thought about how blessed I am when I was downstairs listening to Sirah read to me while someone else was upstairs cleaning our home for us. The kids and I had a great school day and Ciaran was even excited to read his new book Coraline and he sat on the chair nearby and read for over a half hour without any complaint. Maria made a video about mythical and magical creatures, her first attempt at a video based assignment and it turned out fantastic, and she had fun while she did it. Sirah wrote a story about whales and was very proud of her first attempt at reading Dr. Suess Hop on Pop.

After school the kids had some quiet time and I caught up on bills and news for a half hour until our groceries were delivered. Another moment when I knew I was spoiled. This morning I decided we really needed groceries, we were completely out of fruit, soy milk and bread, true essentials in our home. It was -20 degrees outside and Serona had our car (we are a one car family) so I was thinking we were stuck when I remembered one of the stores provides same day delivery for online grocery orders, 4 hours after I ordered the groceries from the comfort of my couch someone arrived to deliver me all my groceries and I never stepped foot outside in the cold.

I spent some time playing "my little pony" with Sirah on the floor of her bedroom, we celebrated the ponies Christmas, held a concert, had a gymnastic contest and watched the ponies ice skate, have a concert and make new friends. While we were doing this Ciaran was playing Shaun White on Wii and Maria was finishing reading her new Chrissa books. Then we played a few hands of the card game Blink that we all enjoy while dinner (stuffed shells) was cooking. Sirah and Ciaran and I made dinner together and enjoyed playing the game while we waited. The kids practiced their bible memory verses for church tonight and we enjoyed dinner.

Serona came home after a hard day at work, he quickly ate dinner and got ready to head back out less than a half hour after he arrived home to get the kids to church. I realized how great of a man he is to be willing to do that for us. To be able to not have to go to an office every day to work is such an amazing gift, to be able to homeschool my kids is a blessing and privilege I treasure, to have someone come in and clean my home and deliver my groceries while I stay in the comfort of my home reading good books to my kids, well that is a treasure that goes beyond anything I could ever ask for and why I say I am spoiled and blessed beyond what I could have ever dreamed of.

Homeschool dads (or moms who work outside the home) do so very much to make this lifestyle possible for all the rest of the family and they hardly ever get the credit that the stay at home educator does, yet without them nothing would be possible. I am truly thankful for Serona and very aware that it is his willingness to go to work every day and his hard work that makes this special lifestyle all possible. Thank you Serona for all you do for us!

I am also very aware of the hand of God in our lives and how His blessing on us makes this all not only possible but wonderful. By God's grace I am able to stay home full time with my children, educate them and just be with them. Not only do I have that privilege but I have been granted other blessings to make that a bit easier. To often this past year I have focused on the negative, the difficulties of living and home educating with chronic pain and a traveling husband, the time demands of three young children and being together all the time. Yet these very things are such amazing gifts and blessings that make my lifestyle and all its gifts possible. I am truly thankful to my Lord and to Serona and my kids for giving me the privilege of living the good life I do.

Enjoy your life and its many blessings today
Tenniel

Jumping Back In

We are back into the swing of school. History seems to be the current favorite subject around here, Ciaran and Sirah have been into reenacting the battles of Story of the World as we read them. Maria just asked for a biography on Abe Lincoln for her pleasure reading????? We learned about purple dye from snails and now the kids want to make dye and dye things, we won't use snails don't worry. Tomorrow we are building a tower siege out of Legos and maybe making some fake stained glass. History is always good to bring their interest back into school and get over the drudgery of fractions and division and the general unhappiness that comes with a return to writing instruments. Sirah does not enjoy her crafting time being interrupted and Maria has been so used to all her free time reading that I am finding using those habits to ease back into school has been useful.

We have been rounding things out with field trips and activities. The Physics Circus was also a big hit this week as they learned about and watched all the fun things Physics can do. This was my fourth year in a row but the kids still seem to enjoy it and this was the first year that Sirah seemed interested and to really get a lot out of it. We are doing an Art Adventure program through the Minneapolis Institute of Art that is very interesting and the kids seem to get a lot out of this program each year.

Unfortunately winter sports are on hold after a burst of activity between Christmas and New Years ended with a broken arm for Maria while she was ice skating. Sirah was very excited to learn how to ice skate for the first time and Ciaran and Serona hit the slopes and took snowboarding lessons. The broken arm has limited ice skating, skiing, sledding and even swimming (indoors) opportunities for a few weeks. Maria had just joined an area swim team and is sad for the hiatus but we will resume once she has the all clear from the doctors. In the interim the bright blue cast and her new doll (Chrissa a MN swimmer) from her grandparents will have to assuage her. Besides who really wants to be outside in negative 18 degree weather?

We are finishing up our Astronomy unit study from the fall and the kids are getting their final presentations ready. This year I had them each do a slideshow presentation on all they learned about Astronomy incorporating pictures, writing notes, videos and anything else they wanted. We used Google Docs to pull it all together and they will present it as their final project. Then we begin our studies in Geology which will probably focus on gems and other pretty rocks if I was to guess, though they may want to explore caves some more too. Another big slide show project, a rock collection and some video documentaries will be on tap for next semester.

Soon we will pick our next Arboretum project too I am thinking this year we will study the life cycle of an apple tree. We visit the arboretum and record our visits and the plants progress with video, camera, sound recordings, sketches and notes and put it together at the end of the year to show the plants life cycle over the course of a year. Since I have nothing near a green thumb I figure we might as well put our membership to good use and rely on the experts to do all the hard work.

Maria is working on some secret writing project she will not let anyone see. She is writing a book complete with illustrations she is sketching, she works on it for a half hour every day and I still have no idea what it is about or when it will be done. I am not going to mess with a good thing, I figure it worked for Christopher Paolini and Nancy Yi Fan and it is a great project and all her idea, who is going to say no to that?

Sirah is learning to read and I am very happy with her progress though she is not. She wants to be able to read "real books" as she tells me. She is working through her Primary Phonics and Bob books at a good rate and has graduated to reading the words in her head before saying them out loud. She reads us a page of a Fancy Nancy reader every night before bed because she wants to read a real book. She is part of a book club (I am reading the books to her) and is the youngest but seems to enjoy being with them and the books we are reading. She can be found crafting hands in paint, glue, scissors, anything she can get her hands on for any possible free moment she has. Thankfully we have a craft table and carpet I could care less about underneath.

Ciaran is working steady on reading, he is still in search of books he will actually enjoy reading as he tells me he still hates reading, even though he knows it will not get him out of it. He devoured the Star Wars Boba Fett series and has been searching for something captivating since. Recently he started reading the Great Illustrated Classic series and he read two this week so I am hopeful! He still wishes playing Wii or Snowboarding was a school subject. His favorite subject is science with math in a close second, anything that requires writing comes in at the bottom, even below reading. Still I woke up this morning to him making me coffee and oatmeal, he even used the coffee pot, he is growing up so fast and is such a sweet boy!

Those are the highlights of the past few weeks as we reenter our homeschooling world after a nice long vacation, complete with Serona home for 2 weeks, wonderful! January is always a very full school month for us as it is just too cold to want to be outside. Think I am a whiner, come live in -18 weather BEFORE the windchill and see how quickly you decide sitting inside with some hot chocolate and a copy of The Great Brain (our current family read aloud) or even a 2 and a half hour game of Monopoly (how we started our day today) are better options!

I Used to Know a Blogger

That blogger was me. Then life happened, an election that is still not fully resolved here in MN, a book I have been writing, a child joining swim team, three kids in school this year and a husband who traveled more than he was home in the past few months. I have spent my computer time and my writing time elsewhere. Now I am spending my free time making chocolate and cookies and Christmas presents with my kids. Maybe I will resume in the new year, everything in life has seasons and this has been a quiet season for my blog.

This year was a busy year filled with many ups and downs, challenges and great joys, it was a full year. I will try to do my annual review though it may be shorter this year than in the past, of course many of you will probably be thankful for that :)

January - We began the month with a wonderful and very relaxing trip to visit the family in Maine, we stayed through Christmas, New Year's and Serona's birthday. The kids played basketball in a church league and continued through the year with their Awana and homeschool cooperative and Rhiannon was part of Keepers at Home, a girls group. We did some field trips to the Art Institute, nature center and physics circus. Our outdoor activities were more limited by my back and health problems that would continue throughout the year.

February - We entered the world of politics that would dominate much of our schedule this past year with the caucuses and beginning of campaigns. Serona headed off to Singapore, Shanghai and other exotic locations and missed us terribly, I think he especially missed winter in MN. The kids and I headed to the arboretum, science museum, an indoor air jumping facility and several plays to pass the time.

March - Political conventions, a moms retreat to a lovely cabin up north, and a trip to Portugal for Serona. Ciaran turned 7 and we had a great party at the local bowling alley. We took the homeschool teens to a Christian rock concert and I discovered that cell phones are the new lighter. By the end of the month I found it hard to be in any position for more than 15 minutes and we began to investigate surgical options for my health.

April - I had surgery on my abdomen and what was supposed to be a 3 day recovery turned into a 6 week recovery and more bedrest than expected. We had loving support of our homeschool friends to bring us meals and help with our kids and laundry even. Baseball started with a warm 32 degree opening day (after being cancelled twice on account of snow) with snow on the grass and all around the fields.

May - I turned 34, Sirah donated 10 inches of her hair to Locks for Love (she spent the whole year prior growing it out), Serona headed to California and we finally ventured outside as I began to heal more. The kids enjoyed a pioneer school day at the Cahill school house, trips to the nature center and arboretum and some more theater, along with resuming service to Feed my Starving Children. Mostly this month was dominated by baseball schedules though as we watched Ciaran blossom as a player and become a second baseman fitting his nickname of duece.

June - We celebrated our 11th anniversary with a trip to Hawaii. I was so excited to be there! Only 7 more states to go to reach my goal of all 50 before I am 40. We had a wonderful time and stayed on the island of Oahu as Serona needed to be there for work. Our generous friends took turns with the children at their house so we could sneak away for a week. What more can I say than on the beaches of Hawaii with Serona - wonderful!

July - Maria turned 9 and we celebrated with a trip to the water park. Grandma suprised her by flying in from New York to spend 2 weeks with us. Serona flew to Maine to surprise his parents for their anniversary party. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit with Grandma and the relaxation of baseball being finally done. We also took an exciting and crazy camping trip with major storms passing through our camp sites and kids up until nearly 4am! Ciaran also broke his arm when Maria launched him off the couch with her feet, the rest of the summer in a non waterproof cast, not fun!

August - Little Sirah turned 5 with a special tea and princess birthday party. Serona headed to California and Bangkok and we spent time watching the Olympics and along with the rest of the world enjoyed watching Michael Phelps win 8 gold medals. He inspired some swimmers here at home to join the swim team in the fall.

September - Most of the fall became a blur for our family as schooling 3, politics, swim team and other activities dominated our days. I worked on finishing writing a book I started in the summer and am still working on final edits for, hey you never know. I started teaching a civics class and homeschool activities resumed including theater, field trips and coop.

October - Began a cycle of travel for Serona that lasted until mid December, I can't even recall all the places he went or in which order he went to them. October was also a very busy campaign time with the kids spending much of their time at headquarters with me as well doing what they could. We toured the capital, met with our representatives and candidates we were campaigning for and many other things along those lines. The kids dressed up as ninjas and a cat and we tried to get to the rock wall and swimming each week. Sirah was very proud she could climb up several of the walls she has been waiting to climb.

November and December - More travel, the election, the recount, swim team, Dr's appointments, Christmas prep, Christmas parties and the many other things that keep our days busy. A highlight was the horseback riding Maria got to do with girls group and her dad and best friend.

It has been a year of challenges and victories, blessings and hardships, as I am sure it has been for many of you. May this next year be a fulfilling one for you and one that brings you many joys. Take time this season to love those around you, make cookies and sing songs with your kids and kiss your loved one under the mistletoe.

Merry Christmas!
Tenniel

Teaching Moments from World Travel

Saying Hello To The World

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: globe travel)

Campaign Round Up

It has been a long few weeks and I thought by now I would be winding down and catching up on life. While it is true I have gotten several loads of laundry done today, caught up on the pile of paperwork and bills I was basically ignoring and got the upstairs of my home (kids rooms excluded) basically presentable I still feeling like we are living in chaos. The unexpected Senate recount is throwing a wrench into our plans as are some sick kiddos. Still we are slowly coming out from the whirlwind our lives have recently become.

The campaign work this year was fun, at time demanding, at times disappointing and at times encouraging, overall I am still glad we were as involved as we were. I really thought this year I would let politics go and we would have a lay low year. I should know by now that is not really possible for me, it must be in my blood or something. Then once it starts it builds and builds until we are at a whirlwind speed that takes us through the finish line.

This year we incorporated a civics class into our studies. Along with two other families the students 2nd-6th grade learned about our government structure and responsibilities, elections, campaigns, separation of powers, basic civics overviews and even concepts like the electoral college and presidential line of succession which are often difficult concepts and certainly not exciting ones to teach kids in that age group. They had fun though and learned a lot along the way.

As for campaign work this year with our own family we did our usual door knocking, voter identification and registration, lawn sign assembly and delivery, poster creation and added to that a lot of time at campaign headquarters. Maria even made over 100 phone calls this election cycle and they all assembled literature drops and helped around the office however they were able. Ciaran was quite disappointed that we were unable to do any sign waving on election day, one of his favorite things and Maria was excited I assigned less writing about the process and opted for more hands on and interactive lessons. Sirah was just thrilled to be able to design posters and craft every day and have a multitude of adults praise her work and be blessed and excited by it.

I ended up much more involved personally then I intended to be and even now still find myself continuing on with assisting in the MN Senate recount process. Yet for all its craziness I am proud of what we accomplished and please with doing it together as a family. The election results were mixed for us with several of our candidates being elected and some not, this provided good learning opportunities for the kids on dealing with both victory and loss after working so very hard to accomplish something.

I met some very interesting people from all around the country and in my own neighborhood, several whom I think will become life long friends. I encouraged friends and acquaintances and yes even complete strangers to me to get involved in the political process, some for the first time this year. I made more phone calls then I think I ever want to do again, but I know I will do it all over again in 2, 4, 6 and 8 years and on down the road. I knocked on doors, discussed issues and candidates with complete strangers at Starbucks, swim team, church and within my homeschool group. I did a ton of research and really learned a lot about a variety of individuals and subjects I never cared about before.

Overall the work over the past few months has blessed me and has really shown me how one person can make a difference and effect change. One day I was feeling particularly discouraged and decided to do the math. For every volunteer I brought to the office around 200 phone calls were made, often more over a typical 3 hour shift. If they came back or brought friends that number increased. Through relationships I had, cold calling lists and previous volunteer lists I called I probably made over 300 volunteer calls. While I do not know how many volunteers I actually got to come through the door or get involved in volunteering in some way I know it was over 50. Mathematically that adds up to somewhere around 10,000 calls - that was worth making 300 calls wouldn't you say? That does not even account for all the personal calls and doors I knocked in this cycle. I never did keep track, my goal was to make 3000 contacts and I think I came close to that but somewhere in the middle I switched to focusing on getting more volunteers. This does not mean we talked to 13,000 people - we left a lot of answering machine messages and got a lot of wrong numbers and some people hung up on us before we could speak. Still those are good numbers and in a state where the senate race came down to several hundred votes I feel like that made a difference. I don't take credit for all the volunteer calls made, the volunteers made them not me, but I do see how I personally and my family who helped and enabled me made a difference in this election. I am one person and each person who got involved made a difference.

At one point on a particularly crazy week Maria asked me why we couldn't be just like any other normal family which actually led to some really great discussions about "normal" and our family choices and lifestyle. I answered immediately and explained how important we see this election as and how we need to take responsibility and be good citizens. I told her that in 2 and 4 and 6 years (Congress, President, and Senate) I wanted to be able to say we did everything we could, win or lose we tried our best. I can honestly say that to my kids in 2,4 and 6 years whether we got the candidate we wanted or not. And in 2 years we will be doing it all over again. That is not to say we are not involved in between election cycles because we are.

One day while working at the campaign headquarters four representatives came in, the woman sitting next to me did not know or recognize them and I realized many of the volunteers in there had never met them before even if they recognized them. It was when I called the one by first name and he used my name that I realized - yes I really am involved. I got to know my representatives, local house and senate as well as US House through calling, emailing and visiting them and working on their campaigns. We are not friends but I feel comfortable calling them and letting them know how I feel on an issue or asking them to take my homeschool group on a tour through the state capital building. To one I said how are you feeling about the election and told him he didn't need to worry he had been a good representative and he thanked me and told me he appreciated hearing that and then said he doesn't hear that much at all. He gets re-elected by substantial margins which clearly means people like him but they don't take the time to say so. If you haven't recently send your local reps a thank you card or email or phone call - letting them know you appreciate the job they are doing. Then next time they run for office help them out with a literature drop or phone bank. In between get to know them and let them know how you feel about issues.

Democracy truly is a precious gift even when we end up with candidates we didn't want or don't agree with. We can always work for change tomorrow and work with our representatives to be accountable today. Citizenship is really important and as much as I am truly exhausted now and wondering where the stores are going to come from to help volunteer for a long likely unpleasant recount I know they will come and I know it is important. I know that my kids will grow up and remember all the things we did together as a family and remember that they have been involved their whole lives, I pray that will translate into lifelong citizen activism for them as well. Even when I am tired, not fond of the candidates, or absolutely disgusted and frustrated with the bureaucracy and system I still find myself pulled back into the world of grassroots politics. It is there you see heart and grit and passion, you meet great people, those who are doing it for the first time and those who have done it for the past 60 years. Together you affect change and make a difference. If our little family can help a chain of effects that led to over 10,000 phone calls so can you. Imagine how different our elections would be if that was the case.

If you made it through this post I am amazed as I feel like I am rambling on and on now without any clear direction. Still it was a good campaigning season and I am glad that I ignored my desire to not get involved this year and fell back into old habits and brought my family along for the ride and even grabbed some friends along the way.

How about you? Any good stories from this election season? Did you volunteer? Anyone for the first time? Good experiences, bad experiences?

That Kind of Day

"Mommy you are wearing your slippers!" Sirah tells me in the parking lot of Target around 10am. Sure enough she was right I was wearing my wool slippers. To my defense it could have happened to you too - they are cork based slippers and being a nearly full time Birkenstock wearer I really did not realize until we were at the store.

"Mommy you are still wearing your slippers" I am told at 2pm at campaign headquarters - we have not gone home yet, again at swim team practice and then on the way home from church at 9pm! It sort of became the running joke yesterday and I guess shows the kind of day we had that I intially forgot to put on shoes and that I never had time to go home and change into them until 9:30 at night when I should have been putting on my slippers.

I look at it this way - atleast I was wearing comfortable footwear on a crazy hectic day and I gave my kids something to laugh about. I don't know that anyone else noticed and no one said anything if they did.

I am taking the day off to enjoy the nice weather and just spend some time with my kiddos. Today I will remember to wear my birks instead of slippers. Tomorrow when I start running and don't stop until around 9pm on Tuesday I think I will be glad for my day off and maybe even for my test run of my slippers. If no one noticed them before maybe I can get away with wearing them all day while campaigning :)

Make sure you get out and vote!

Day in the Life of a 7 year old boy

Thought for something different I would blog today just about Ciaran and his day. He woke up well before the rest of us, got dressed, ate cereal, finished his Star Wars book and convinced his sisters to play a game of Blokus with him all before I even got out of bed.

Immediately upon waking he asked if he could play a video game, if I would play a board game with him or play anything with him. Not fully functional or awake yet he realized that was a hopeless cause and went to find someone else to be with and do something with.

We headed off to the local gym for weekly swim lessons. Unfortunately Ciaran could not finish his swim lessons as he has 10 stitches in his arm from last week. He was whittling a stick, missed the stick and whittled his arm with the knife instead. I took the girls to their swim lessons and Serona took Ciaran to a local pond for a nature hike. They had a really nice time together and Ciaran found a frog, a tiny peeper frog. Could he possibly have been any happier? Thinking they were all hibernating already he was very surprised and happy.

They picked us up at the gym and we headed to our local campaign office to meet and have a picture taken with Senator Coleman from Minnesota. There were a fair amount of kids in the office but we had prepped our kids ahead of time about the kind of behavior we expected. They were all very good especially Ciaran even when he saw other boys his age running around the office he stayed with us and was very good. Rewarded with candy from the office he was content.

We stopped on the way home to deliver a lawn sign and he preferred to run the two blocks home then to get back in the car. Upon arriving home he wanted to play again. He kept himself occupied in the backyard with swings and then hitting a wiffle ball and running after it. Next we had a catch together until he could catch and throw accurately 100 throws, he does love baseball. Next it was time for basketball - first several games of HORSE and then 3 one on one games. I was tired, he was not.

He kept playing basketball by himself for awhile, rode his bike some and then ended up in the backyard on the trampoline for awhile. He then told me how there was absolutely nothing for him to do since no one would do anything with him at that moment. Every suggestion made was denied for some reason or another until he realized I really was not going to get up and play with him (Sirah was asleep on my lap on the deck) and I was not going to let him have screen time while it was nearly 60 and sunny out (knowing there are precious few days left). He wandered off and convinced Maria to do something with him I think and then the two of them talked Serona into a game of The Hobbit, which lasted several hours.

I made one of his favorite dinners, black beans on a tostada with mexican cheese. Serona and Sirah had made brownies earlier in the day (while we were playing sports in the yard) so he enjoyed that treat. Bath time and now they are upstairs dancing to Soul Coughing all together. Likely he will do some reading before bed from either Encyclopedia Brown or the Capitol Mystery series.

There you have it Saturday as experienced by Ciaran our 7 year old energetic and very social son. Not a perfect day for him in his mind I am sure since he did not get to see friends beyond his family and he had no video game time. Still overall a good day I think.

Highlights of the Week

I used to blog every day and I miss it actually. But I accept there are seasons to everything and this happens to be an extremely busy season for our family. I feel like it is a never ending season but I know it will end one day. For starters it is going to get a lot easier in just 11 days. Why? Because the election will be over and my work will be done one way or the other, but for the next 11 days I am going to be very busy. Then it will be done and my kids will be glad of that to be sure.

Still even with politics in the mix we managed to have a really good week. Just the highlights. I will leave out the bickering, fighting, resistance to math, adult temper tantrums I threw and all the other things you don't want to hear about. I mention them just so you don't think I live in a fantasy world when you read the rest of the post.

Monday my nine year old daughter and I went horseback riding with several of her friends and one of mine. I have not been on a horse in 10 years and that was my first time other than pony rides when I was really a young child. While I am a beginner my daughter is not, nor were several of her friends. But I mustered up the courage to go despite my fear of heights (yes I am aware a horse is not that high off the ground) and even with my back issues. I am glad I went, it was a perfect fall day, the last of the fall trees were pretty to see and the ride itself was fun. I could not have done it without my friend Jen there though, she talked me through it when she could tell I was nervous - I was definitely worse than the girls even the ones who had little or no experience. But it was nice to share that with my daughter and her friends and a perfect way to enjoy a fall day.

Tuesday had a very rough start and led to everyone fighting with everyone else. I decided to change tactics and we all headed to the arboretum for school. I packed a bag of school books, sketch books, a jump rope, blankets and picked up Taco Bell for lunch. We headed to some of our favorite spots and took turns sketching, doing math and other subjects as well as collecting leaves, exploring and jumping rope. The memory of sitting under a canopy of fall leaves while my 5 year old read to me from her phonics readers is a memory I am sure will always stay with me. It really was a great way to spend the afternoon and we actually got more accomplished then I thought we would. We got some strange looks as my kids spread out all over the place but they were well behaved had fun and were learning what more could I possibly ask for? Oh and my G1 phone came which I was very excited for as I have been waiting for it for a long time and our house cleaners came so for the first time in nearly a month I had a clean house - truly a great day!

Wednesday was a rainy day we went to the gym and the girls went swimming with friends while Ciaran and I went rock climbing. Okay he climbed and I cheered him on - remember the whole fear of heights thing? That one I don't think I can get over as easily. Then they headed to a friends house while I went back out to the barn from Monday to pick up my wallet that had fallen out on the trail ride. Note to self - do not put anything in your back pocket while horseback riding. Praise God they found it. Church group that night followed by a treat of an ice cream shake on the way home.

Thursday we had a solid morning of school and then the kids all headed to their various homeschool book clubs, even Sirah is in one this year. I found myself in a very unusual position - I was alone in my house and it was clean I really had nothing I needed to do. Sure there were lots of things I could do: make campaign phone calls, laundry, writing, blogging, etc but I decided to do something I never do - I went for a walk. I put on my headphones and headed out on a crisp fall afternoon all by myself. I walked as fast or slow as I wanted and listened to music without any concern about if anyone else liked it or should listen to it. I looked at the leaves and took in the air and the blue sky and I was just thankful. As I walked past our local school I had the "Is this what I would do if they were in school?" thought. It passed by quickly but it floated through my mind the idea that all of them would be gone all day long now - too much to think about. While I enjoyed my few hours alone I was really happy to see their smiling faces and hear all about their book clubs. Last night the kids were all in bed by 8pm but I went from room to room reading to them I read the younger two a chapter or two from our current book (I always have a special book for each child which just I read to just them)which took about an hour and then Maria and I finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone last night. It was fun to read it with her and we talked about the book and the various characters, choices and events of the book together. It was fun to see her experience the book and world it creates for the first time.

Today was our homeschool cooperative. The kids are taking various classes. Maria is taking Managing Money, P.E, and Betsy Tacy. Ciaran is taking Clay Sculpture, PE and Reptiles and Amphibians (could he be any happier?). Sirah's class reads a Five in a Row book, does crafts and activities around it and then have PE. This year my contribution is playing games with 5th-9th graders and then talking about current events with the teens in our group, very fun and very easy for me. After coop the older two went to various friends homes and Sirah stayed home and watched Aristocats (her current favorite movie). I spent the remainder of the day until dinner (which we ate at 8pm) making campaign phone calls trying to get volunteers for Get Out the Vote in our area. The kids played Wii and when Serona came home we had family night Pizza and a movie.

We had a great week, lots of fun and even accomplished some good school this week. Hope your weekend is well.