Our Family Project

It's been almost a year since I started keeping track of all the books I've read.  When it's all in a list ... by date ... it really makes me realize how much I read!  I burned through almost a book a day in the month of January: 24 books total ... the greatest number of books in one month!  After compiling the list, I figured I may as well share it with all my friends!  I've organized them by genre/topic ... and now I realize I need to branch out more!  Books I read multiple times this year have asterisks. REGENCY/HISTORICAL ROMANCE The Apothecary's Daughter, Julie Klassen Edenbrooke*, Julianne Donaldson The Girl in the Gatehouse, Julie Klassen The Heiress of Winterwood, Sarah Ladd The Maid of Fairbourne Hall, Juie Klassen Lady of Milkweed Manor, Julie Klassen Short Straw Bride, Karen Witemeyer The Silent Governess, Julie Klassen The Tutor's Daughter, Julie Klassen CLEAN ROMANCE Bah, Humbug!, Heather Horrocks The Cubicle Next Door*, Siri L....

Just in case any of you wondered whether we love each other over here: Yes!  Yes, we do!

Monday we got our new history curriculum in the mail.  I've been waiting and waiting to get this curriculum.  I wanted to purchase it at the homeschool convention in July, but none of the vendors there had it.  So, I decided to wait until after we finished our old history curriculum, and then also our new science curriculum before getting the new history curriculum.  (Make sense?) I spent some time introducing the method of this curriculum to the children today at lunch.  This curriculum is written for grades 6-12.  So, my littles will probably have a hard time really getting into the curriculum without some help from me.  But, we'll see. This specific curriculum spoke to me two years ago when I first starting researching curriculum for homeschooling.  I loved its approach.  I still do.  Only, last year when we started homeschooling, I went with a different history curriculum with a focus in ancient civilizations.  Which was fin...

I feel like the best way to describe this little boy is: clown.  He is forever pulling something funny and crazy at our house.  He runs around at warp speed just about all the time.  On this particular day, I had the camera out and was taking pictures of our daily life and the fun things the children were doing.  At the time, Adam wasn't doing anything really, just sitting at the kitchen island.  But, he really  wanted his picture taken.  So, I snapped a few of him ... while he pulled funny faces the whole time. In case you weren't sure, he is happy most of the time.  This is the face we see everyday.  Although, most of the time he is looking at us.  Don't know what he was looking at in all of these pictures.  He's so much fun to have around.

After a few years of piano lessons, Eliza has really started to take off!  I love it too.  I can always tell when she is bored because I will hear her playing through her lesson books. It has taken a few years, but she's now loving piano lessons and playing the piano.  Back in September our piano teacher took a break because she had a baby.  Eliza decided she wanted to go back to piano lessons in November knowing how to play all the songs in her performance book.  So, she frequently practiced them without my nagging.  And, that habit has continued ... I rarely have to remind her to practice her piano.  The only thing I wish she would learn is when  to play.  Many times Jon and I are in the kitchen trying  to have a conversation and she will be playing every.single.song as loud as possible.  It's so hard for me to ask her not to play when she has the desire to play.  But, alas, sometimes we do.  She's pretty good ...

I have my own little soux chef.  Yes, indeed.  Well, maybe she isn't a soux chef, but more like my substitute chef.  Frequently, Kate will get up and make breakfast for everyone.  Which has really helped me out recently. You see, recently, I have been having a hard time with fatigue.  It's crazy.  I will go to bed at midnight, and sleep until 8 (so, yes, 8 hours of sleep), then I'll be yawning at 10:30 and ready for a nap at around 12:30 p.m.  I have hardly any energy during the day, but then at about 7 or 7:30 p.m. I will have a ton of energy and want to just get going and do everything I didn't want to do earlier. So, because I am so tired all the time, Kate has been such a blessing.  She'll get up with the littles and play with them, or make them pancakes for breakfast.  It's so reassuring to know that she is up with everyone and taking care of them so I can get a little bit more sleep.  And, frequently, I can say, "...

This last Saturday was our homeschool group's science fair.  Andrew decided to make a lava lamp.  He actually made it at the beginning of January, but didn't have his presentation put together until Saturday right before the fair. Jon sat down with Andrew in the morning and helped him to understand why his homemade lava lamp works: the oil not mixing with the water.  So, Andrew brought our kitchen scale and measured water into one water bottle, and the same amount of oil into another water bottle.  He put them on the scale to show that the same measurement of each liquid had a different weight or density.  Andrew's was the first presentation, and he did such a fantastic job!  You never would have thought that he was nervous. Eliza's and Kate's project had to do with what we've been talking about for science.  We've been studying plants this year, and they prepared a presentation about the parts of plants: the roots, stem, leaves, and flo...

Today as I was sitting in the dining room helping children with their schoolwork, I heard this little voice say, "Mama, I'm going to make sandwiches for everyone." I walked into the kitchen to find my Maryanne standing on a stool, and using my HUGE cake decorating spreader to make herself a sandwich. The best was when she put the honey on the sandwich.  Check out that little smiley face she made on her bread!  It matches the smile on her face as she finished up her sandwich.  Man, she's growing up too quickly!

Tonight, Jon had just come downstairs from taking a shower after getting his hair cut.  He was sitting on the couch near me reading when this little four-year-old came downstairs with slightly damp hair.  I recalled that earlier she asked if she could take a bath and I told her that she would take a bath tomorrow.  It was apparent that she had decided to take matters into her own hands.  Here's what our conversation was like: Me: Looks like you decided to take a bath. M: Yep. Jon: Ah, that's where all my hot water went. M: No.  I had my own. Me: What Daddy means is that you used all the hot water so he didn't get any. M: Oh. (with a little smile on her face) Yep. Me: (to Jon) It's hard to be mad and that, right. Jon: (chuckles) M: (pointing at Jon) Yeah.  Try! Needless to say, we had a hard time being mad at all.  It was more like amused at her cute little personality.  So glad we have her around to tell us how things r...