Don't forget to laugh

The other day I was playing with Cadence in my bedroom. I started tickling her feet, and tickling Cadence is always a good time. Her belly laugh quickly changed to a cry for help, "Boys, mommy is getting me! Boys, come help me!"

She kept calling and the boys didn't come. I started laughing at Cadence because she often forgets to be nice to her brothers... "Maybe if you were nice to them once in a while they would come and save you!"

Just when I was sure it was safe, the boys came bounding into the bedroom to save the day. Jacob wrestled his sister free, and Gabe used my stomach as a trampoline for at least five minuets. In the end, we were a heap of bodies, all laughing hardily.

As I called off the attack and sent the kids on their way, I realized that we don't laugh enough. It is so easy for me to get caught up in the daily grind and forget to truly enjoy those three treasures that God has given me. When the house is full of laughter, everyone is happier. The things that stress me out seem smaller, and it seems like the kids behave better. I should cut loose more often!

Field Trip!

My sweet husband took a day off of work yesterday because he knew that I needed a day of fun. We decided to take the kids to the Rochester Museum of Science for the day. We picked it because we knew we could get in free with our MOST pass, and Strong's (the other great kids museum in Rochester) would have cost us almost $50.

I have to say, that this was the most productive, fun field trip/museum outing we have ever done. Jacob is finally getting old enough to want to learn about the exhibits instead of just running around like a wild man. And Gabriel, being more studious by nature, took an interest in some things as well. Cadence didn't really learn much, but she is happy doing whatever her brothers are doing.

The first lesson of the morning took place at the giant sand and water table. We talked about erosion, and then Jacob got to see it in action as we built a path for our river and watched the water flow through it.

That kid the long blond hair next to Jacob is a boy. I made him cry. Todd told me I was a bad person.

We learned about the Mastodon fossils that were uncovered right in the Rochester area. The boys were especially fascinated by all the fossil exhibits.

On the second floor we explored "Flight to Freedom: Rochester's Underground Railroad". I took the kids through the story of the young slave girl, Imani. They got to imagine being chained up, hiding in the roots of a giant tree, rowing a boat, and hiding in a wood shed. They were anxious to hear what would happen to Imani next.

The thing that amazed me most about our trip was that even though we were there until 2:00, not one of the kids ever uttered the words "I'm hungry"! Usually the chorus of "I'm hungry"s starts around 10:30 at home. They were so engrossed in everything the museum had to offer, they didn't even notice the time. It was a great field trip.

The Polar Bear Paper

First, thanks for voting! Hook #1 was the clear winner both here and on the message board frequent. The report is finished, and since we are basically "sabbathing" (I think I just made up a word) today, I have time to post it to the blog.

I will correct the few spelling errors that he didn't fix, but other than that - here is Jacob's polar bear report.

Most people think polar bears are white but they aren't. Their fur is hollow and when the sun reflects it makes them look white.

Most of the time they live on the ice. When they catch a seal, They find a seal's house (or hole) and wait for the seal to come up and the polar bear springs on the seal before it can escape. They do not always eat seals. Sometimes they will eat dead whales, geese, grass and fallen berries.

They will make dens on the ice and get ready to have babies. They are mammals so that means they have babies from their tummies.

Polar bears are strong. They can swim 60 miles without rest but polar bears have been seen 100 away from shore. Sometimes they even swim under water. They also can run up to 30-35 miles per hour. They love to play with one another.

Polar bears are becoming endangered. Man humans go and kill polar bears for their skin. Scientist have been trying to save polar bears for a long time.

So, there you have it. The writing process was a little painful at times because Jacob hates writing. But in the end I think that he enjoyed it - he certainly learned a lot. And there has been significant progress in his writing style over the course of this project.

Now I think I'll go play XBox...

The Incredible Shrinking Woman

This past weekend, my sister and her family came to town! We went to the place they were staying for dinner Friday night. The family they were staying with has 11 kids! Only 5 still live at home, but most of the married ones live near by, so all of them (and all of their little kids) came over, too. My kids were excited to have so many playmates for the night.

As we were walking in the door, Jacob looked at my 15 year old niece, Nicole, and said, "Nicole, have you been shrinking? It looks like you shrunk." He was very serious, perhaps bordering on concerned. His big cousin was looking pretty small. Now, mind you, it has only been a month since we saw them.

We told Jacob that his cousin wasn't shrinking and he, in fact, was growing. He kept looking at her saying "But it really looks like you got smaller, Nicole. Are you sure didn't shrink?"

Our hostess, who has 9 boys, shook her head and said "That sounds like something a boy would say..."

I do have to admit, when I saw Jacob standing next to Nicole it did look like she shrunk! He is getting awfully close to her. The more I thought about this, the less I liked it. You see, two years ago my Nicole got taller than me. She celebrated by buying me a shirt that said "shorty"! Yesterday I measured. He is only around 4' 7", and come in around 5'2". I think I should have at least one more year of being taller than my firstborn.

Happy Birthday, Gabriel

Yesterday, Gabriel turned 5! He helped me bake some snowball surprise cookies for after his birthday dinner. We will be having cake at his party at the MOST next weekend. My parents came over for dinner and presents, and Gabriel was the life of the party.

Every time he opened a gift, he stopped and smiled this big silly smile at the camera.

The other day when I went on a "date" with Gabe, I was thinking about what a unique kid he is. I composed a little bio about him in my head...

Gabriel enjoys playing chess, listening to jazz, and reading. His goals including becoming president and racing for NASCAR. He sometimes dances around the house with underwear on his head.

On the one hand, it is hard to believe that 5 years have passed. On the other, sometimes I forget that he is only 5. He is truly a joy and we are so blessed to have him as our son.

2nd Place

Last weekend, Jacob competed in AWANA Bible quizzing. This was his second year quizzing, and it something that he really enjoys. Him and his partner competed against 9 or 10 other teams from area churches. They started studying before Christmas, and Jacob missed many Giants games for quiz practice.

Last year, our AWANA club took first place in every bracket. They did really well this year, but I think that there was a little disappointment that they didn't sweep like last year. Jacob and his partner tied for first place with another team. According to the rules, a tie is broken by giving 5 extra points to the team who scored highest on the written portion of the quizzing (each kid takes their own written quiz and the team's score is a combination of all written/oral quizzing). Unfortunately, Jake's team did better on the oral stuff :(

So his team took second place. That was especially disheartening as our club took second on a tie breaker two or three times this year! I really don't like that rule, but I guess there isn't a much better way to settle a tie. And as I pointed out to Jacob, that rule would have been just fine if he had gotten the first place medal. And I am still really proud of him. It was exciting to watch all his hard work pay off!

Please Vote!

If you are reading this, please vote. Even if you don't usually comment or don't know us or whatever. Jacob, my 4th grader, is writing a report about polar bears. Part of his writing process was to write two or three good introduction sentences or "hooks" and then ask people to vote for the best one. So here they are:

1. Most people think polar bears are white, but they aren't.

2. Here are some facts about polar bears.

3. Polar bears are big yellow bears that live in the Arctic and are close to extinction.

This will help make the writing process more fun for him, which we need because he really doesn't like to write. Just leave a comment telling us which number you think is best. Thanks!!!!

School Thoughts

I have spent the better part of my afternoon pricing curriculum options for next year (when I should have spent it writing my 2nd quarter report for THIS year). And it seems that, just like everything else, these kids get more expensive to educate the older they get!

What I dream about doing is ordering a complete curriculum from Sonlight, so I don't have to make library runs all year for school books... but our library has so many of this years books that it would double the cost of my core curriculum. Grrr! I know, I should be grateful for all the books that are available to us. But I know that most of them are really, really good books that Jacob would read over, and over, and over if they were on the shelves of our house.

It strikes me as odd that while I am feeling burned out about this year, I am all excited about next year. Why is it so much fun to by new school books???

Actually, I guess I am a little excited about what we're doing right now, too. We are breaking from the curriculum to do a more in depth study of the French and Indian War. Of course, I thought a field trip or two would be in order, since much of the battles happened within a days drive of us... but wouldn't you know that most of the forts in the northeast (including the one we have a membership to) are closed until mid May, by which time we will be well past the Revolutionary War.

And speaking of bad timing, I (and, consequently, my children) totally missed what will probably be one of the most significant historic events of my lifetime yesterday. I was shopping for running pants while the rest of the world watched Obama take his oath. Ooops! Can you believe they let me homeschool my kids????

A taste of my life...

I realize I have once again gone far too long without a post. It's just that this whole parenting/homeschooling thing can be rather draining. But I thought you might like a little taste of what my days have been like lately, so here you go.


My little ones have been trying to kill each other all morning. Unfortunately, this is becoming rather common. Every few minuets one of them comes down and tells me about the injury received at the hand of an evil sibling. But sometimes they tell on each other for other things, too. I tolerate tattling, because most of the time someone needs to know what Cadence is doing - the child is super devious.

At one point this morning, Gabe came down and announced "Cadence had something in her mouth and she says it's candy."

This concerned me for two reasons. First of all, Cadence is forever putting little things in her mouth, and that could be dangerous. Second, Cadence is devious and has been known to sneak candy on several occasions. When I called her down to question her, she promptly explained herself to me.

"It wasn't candy, mom! It was a booger."

Oh, okay. Crisis averted. Carry on, then.

It is better to give

I came across these verses this morning as I was reading in Proverbs 11:

24 One man gives freely, yet gains even more;

another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty

25 A generous man will prosper;

he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.

These verses jumped out at me because we had just been discussing generosity and giving FREELY with our kids. Yesterday we had a chance (through Missio and Interfaith Works) to bring gifts to a refugee family from Burma. The kids are pretty good at being generous, and they were excited to meet the kids we bought gifts for. We knew that this family had next to nothing, and we never expected anything in return for the few small gifts that we brought...

The family we visited has been in America for 3 months. There teenage daughter spoke the most English, and even that wasn't much. But they invited us into their home and gave us their couch (while they all sat on the floor). The kids had such big smiles on their faces as we handed them the gift bags. And the mother was beaming.

The mother motioned for us to take our coats off. Then she said something about rice and ran to the other room. She came back and started handing out shirts to all of us. "Kopi shirt" "Kopi, Christmas, shirt" When we put the shirts on, she decided some of us needed different sizes and settled on a bag for Cadence since all the shirts were far too big for her.

Once she was satisfied with the shirt situation, the mother said something to her daughter and ran out again. This time she returned with a bowl full of food and two spoons. ?? Being an American, I wasn't quite sure what to make of this - but of course she motions for me to sit on the floor and hands me the dish. The light was broken in there living room and it was getting dark outside. I couldn't have identified what I was about to eat if I wanted to. And I wasn't sure I wanted to... if you know me at all you know I am a super picky eater.

Grinning and nodding all the while I grabbed a spoonful of what almost looked like bugs and took a big, smiling bite. I was kind of holding my breath while I chewed in hopes that I wouldn't gag. It was crunchy - really crunchy. I noticed it didn't taste too bad! It turned out to be some kind of nuts with some spices or something. It was really very good, and I was so grateful for that. I proceeded to pass the bowl around to my family and everyone but Cadence had a little.

As we were leaving, the mother kept hugging me and telling me "You make children very happy" "You come back here" "You are family now" "Thank you". It must have been nearly all the English she knew. I wish I had thought to bring the camera with us, but we didn't know how the outing would go. We were told these families normally won't open the door for anyone so we half expected to hand them the presents at the door and then leave. But I did get some pics of us in our gifts when we got home.

It's too bad you can't really see Todd's jacket behind the kids. He is planning on wearing it to church Christmas Eve, so maybe I'll get a better picture of it then.

Christmas Tree pics

We went out last weekend to get our tree, and got it decorated this weekend. This is always a stressful thing for me (I just don't like Christmas very much) but it went really well this year. The kids were all involved and excited about the whole thing.

It was snowing pretty hard when we got to the tree place, so once we found a tree we all liked the kids found shelter under a group of trees. They would have been happy to play there for hours.

After the decorating, we did some family pictures in front of the tree. This was my first ever attempt at using the timer on a camera. Not the greatest picture ever, but not the worst...

Then I got down on the floor to take some shots of the kids. The dog kept running up to me and licking the lens of my new camera!!! But when we tried to get her in a picture, she refused to sit and be photographed. I'm quite sure she has brain damage. At least she's cute.

But they are much cuter!!!

A poem by Gabriel

I was going to type it out here, but I thought it would be better to let him read it to you. He wrote this yesterday during quiet time. He didn't spell yeah right, he spelled it "ya" but it was good other than that.

I don't know what possessed him to write a poem, but he said he is writing another one today. Sorry it is sideways, I couldn't figure out how to rotate a video...

Accidentally Wonderful

This week we went down to spend some time with Todd's family. While we were there, we were lucky to be able to slip away for a night without the kids. We started our date by checking in to our hotel. Our original plan had been to stay at a bed and breakfast, but all the cheap rooms were gone... The hotel we picked had great reviews online, but the first thing we noticed was that there was a lamp missing - just the lampshade remained sitting on the floor. When Todd got the lights on I saw that there were 3 or 4 cigarette holes on the bed spread. I was starting to worry that this wouldn't be such a hot date.


We didn't really have a plan once we got into Charleston, and Todd kept saying "Just trust me." I don't know exactly why, but when he says those words it makes me want to turn tale and run! We walked around the historic district looking for a place to eat. Nothing really looked that good. We were accosted by Chris from the "Vacation Station" who wanted us to come to his sales pitch. The sun was setting and it was getting cold. I was wondering if trusting Todd was really such a good idea.

Then we stumbled upon Jestine's Kitchen. It looked charming, so we decided to give it a try. I think it is fair to say we were both a little apprehensive.




Todd ordered the fresh catch of the day and I ordered some fried chicken. The service was great, the food was great, and we loved the atmosphere. I thought that the desert was worthy of a picture. We felt more than a little silly busting out our camera to take pictures of pie, and were trying to be discrete about it. But the ladies behind us noticed, and then they took out a camera to snap pictures of the fried green tomatoes. It was very good. Todd was quite pleased with himself.

We finished our meal and came to the realization that it was dark (and cold) and most of the historic district was closed up but we still had time to kill. We didn't want to go bowling or catch a movie, since those are things that we can do anytime at home. But we couldn't really think of anything better to do. We headed back toward the hotel, and missed a turn. With the one way streets and us not knowing the area, we ended up more than a little off coarse and not exactly sure how to get turned around.

Todd pulled off to let an aggravated driver pass, and we saw that we were on S Battery Street. Todd's face lit up when he remembered his dad telling him that Rainbow Row was located in the part of town called the battery. We had been hoping for chance to check out this well known strip of houses. We parked the car and walked around. We walked a long time, down several different streets. It was beautiful and somewhat intimate (there was hardly anyone else around) but we weren't finding what we were looking for. Just when we were ready to call it quits, we found Rainbow Row. Since it was night time, the pictures didn't really come out well...

At the end of the night, Todd asked "Why can't you just trust me? Wasn't that a great date?" And I conceded, it was wonderful. Accidentally wonderful. I love you, Todd ;)

American History

Todd pointed this study out to me, and then told me to take the test myself. It is a test of your knowledge of American history and government.

From the story on 9WSYR's website...
Earlier studies focused on college students but this one included Americans with all types of educational, economic, and political backgrounds.71 percent earned an F on the test. 164 people included in the study have held elected office, their average score was 44 percent.

Of course, I scored well above the average elected official. Maybe I should run for president when I'm old enough. Do you know how old you have to be to run for president? I do. If you want to take the test yourself, you can do it here. Click the link that says "take the quiz" near the bottom on the right. If you have a PHD in American history(you know who you are), I expect you to get a 100. If you don't have a PHD, and want to take the quiz, leave a comment with your score. It will be fun, I promise.

Revolution '08

Last night, there was a concert at the Palace Theatre. Among the performers, my very own Missio worship band. I say "mine" because I am very possessive of them, even though I am just their sound tech most of the time. And I am especially partial to the lead guitarist.



Despite a lot of craziness, the show came off well. There were 4 rap artists, Missio, and a band from Buffalo called Relevant Worship. My favorite of the rap acts was Sonz of Thunda. Aside from putting on a great show, they are really sweet guys. I ran sound for a rehearsal for them and they the most polite, considerate guys you could ever meet. Relevant also put on a good show - lots of energy and they were really tight.



I tried to get some pictures of Missio's performance, but my camera sucks. It has no zoom and a lousy flash. So these pictures aren't very good. The first picture is Jim, our worship leader and Jeremy on the drums. They did a great job in spite of lots of craziness and very limited practice time.

And here is the lead player. He is really good, and he's cute too! Unfortunately we had to set up behind Relevant's stuff so I couldn't get a good shot of the amazing mirror finish guitar (yes honey, there is a little sarcasm in there). You can't really tell what Todd is doing back there but I assure you he was playing some face melting leads (no sarcasm here).

Video coverage from news 10 now is http://news10now.com/Video/video_pop.aspx?vids=81048&sid=1001&rid=1013here

Sensory Update

After a lot of back and forth, we decided to try a weighted blanket for Jacob as our first "big" investment. The thinking was, if he starts sleeping better it make lots of other things better, too! His therapist suggested we try a 10 pound blanket. And after lots of research, I bought one from eBay (affordable therapy solutions) that is weighted with poly fill pellets.

Jacob knew that we had ordered a blanket, but I didn't tell him anything else about it. I think he was expecting it to be very clinical - like the one at therapy. He was excited about it coming, but when he opened it and saw it he could hardly contain his excitement! I did snap a picture of his face as he opened the box, but my camera shut down on me and didn't save it. He really was more excited than he looks.

Aside from having a cool camouflage design, it is also very soft. And it is machine

washable. It's small enough that he can bring it down to the couch for school time but big enough that it will just about cover his body when he lays down.

Quarter Report

Well, we are now officially one quarter of the way through a new school year. The report has been typed up and sent off in the mail. And I'm still standing (yeah, yeah, yeah).

I have to say that my boys are loving early American History. Thank you Sonlight!!! Gabriel (my 4 year old) was reading a Junie B. Jones book about a Columbus Day play and he came to tell me that the book was wrong because it talked about Queen Elizabeth but spelled it wrong and Elizabeth didn't have anything to do with Columbus. Because he knows that she was the queen a hundred years later when Roanoke was settled. After a minute I realized that it must say Isabella, and reminded him that she was queen of Spain when Columbus sailed to the new world.

Not all subjects are going as well as history, but I think that we are off to a good start none the less. Latin is going fairly well. I am seeing improvements in Jacob's spelling even if they come slowly - I think switching to a true mastery approach for spelling has been a good thing. His writing has matured significantly this quarter.

It is math that really concerns me. He is good at math concepts. He understands new stuff quickly. But he can't remember math facts to save his life and he never works carefully through the steps of a problem. And so now, Mr. Math Whiz says he hates math! I am in the process of stepping back and trying to fix that, but I don't have complete confidence in myself here.

And lest I leave Cadence out, at three and a half she can finally count consistently to five, and sometimes even gets to ten. That is after us counting with her several time a day for months. She also has learned to recognize the letter "m". It is the only letter she knows, but knows "big M, little m". I think Super Why taught her that, 'cuz I decided to give up on letters until she figured out how to count.

I hate Sensory Disorders!!!

I just have to say that well therapy seems to be going well, and I am oh so thankful to finally have a diagnoses for my oldest and most troubling son, I HATE SENSORY INTEGRATION DISORDER! The last week or two has been rough. And with the weather turning colder, my options for appropriate therapeutic activities are dwindling. I have found that things like a long walk with Jacob pushing a stroller work well to calm him, but if it is cold Mr. Sensory will be flipping out the entire walk because it is cold outside.

Nothing calms him down and gets him focused like some intense swinging. You should see the kid when walks out of therapy. I wish I could bottle it and keep that boy all week long. We don't have a swing set and aren't sure that getting one would help... would he go out to swing in the cold? And a normal swing is no good. He likes to spin and twist (think tire swing). We could maybe mount a swing to the ceiling, but then he would likely destroy some walls or something because he is such a maniac.

I did fill an old pillow sized stuffed Bob the Builder with marbles for weight. He has been sleeping with that on top of him the last few nights, and he seems better rested in the morning (and he is sleeping later). At first Jacob was very resistant to the idea of a weighted blanket, but I figured out that the one at therapy is just too heavy for him (it's 20 pounds) and he is interested in a lighter one.

One other really great thing that I have found is that he loves to scrub walls and appliances. Any kind of scrubbing or cleaning is good proprioceptive input for him. One of the books I read specifically mentioned a spray bottle, and Jacob will use a half bottle of Windex in a day, but he happily goes around and cleans (sort of) off all the dirt that he put all over my walls. And after a wall or two, he is more calm but it isn't as lasting as some of the other activities. I think I will teach him to scrub the bathroom floor with a scrub brush next...

Happy Halloween?

You decide...

The Bible and Harry Potter...

are two of the books that I am currently reading. The other day I came across this passage in Luke that I don't ever remember hearing until this fall...
"Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat?' Would he not rather say, 'Prepare me my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.' " Luke 17:7-10

Jesus is telling his followers that service to him should not be done in hope of gaining status or reward. It is simply our duty to serve him. This parallels something that I have heard Jordan say over and over. "God is deserving of our worship because of WHO HE IS, not what he has done for us..." I have been challenged by that thought, as one who previously ascribed worth God primarily as savior (of myself and the world). We are to serve him because is the boss. We are to worship him because he is holy, perfect, true and just. God does not have to give us anything in return for our service to him. I think we forget that sometimes, at least I do.

But what has Harry Potter got to do with it? I'm glad you asked! I am nearing the end of the final book in the series, and Dumbledore says something to Harry that struck a chord in me...
"Perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who , like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well."

It made me think back to the passage in Luke. The best leaders are the ones who aren't looking to gain anything from it. Because if you think you have something to gain, you will lead selfishly.

So, that is where I am at. Trying to learn to have the heart of an unworthy servant. That means I have to be content in every situation, even I can't seem to see any gain for myself in it. Sometimes, that really stinks!