lots of things

Things have been kind of strange here for us lately.  Lots of spiritual attacks have been aimed at our family, and things haven't gone so well with that.  First, Lydia broke her foot on top of all the illness and other stuff she had going on.  This kid has been cursed it seems like.  Since July, she had mono, then a sprained ankle, then the flu, then broke her foot, and finished it up with what we thought was the mumps but it turned out a cold with her seasonal allergies flaring up horribly. *sigh*  This year is not being kind to her at all.  For the broken foot, we discovered that she has an extra bone in each ankle/foot and that extra bone was what broke.  This extra bone means that she can't go into a traditional walking cast too, we had to have an AFO made for her to wear instead as a walking cast.  I should be getting the call sometime this week to schedule to bring her in to get it, as we've already done the casting for the mold and it has been sent out and all that.

Which brings us part 2 of spiritual assault.  The day I took Lydia in for the casting to make the mold for her AFO, the back brakes on my SUV locked up completely.  I was meeting Scott at the orthotics place so we could swap vehicles and he could take the other kids home, so I had to limp it there with all 6 kids and then he babied it back home (all of 5 minutes drive thankfully).  That repair cost us just shy of $600 that we didn't really have, but we made it happen.

The SUV repair meant that I pulled the boys' car seats out of my SUV and put them in his car until it was repaired.  No issue, the brakes locked on a Thursday and the truck was fixed on Monday.  However, I forgot to get the car seats out of his car again and 2 days later (this would be last week) he was rear-ended on his way home from work.  It gets even better, the other driver had no car insurance.  There was no major damage to his car, just a dent and a couple creases along with paint transfer, so he didn't even bother and sent the guy off on his way after yelling at him for several minutes.  Yes, that means we get to pay out of pocket for new car seats.

Which brings us to now.  I'm selling stuff to try and get up some money so that we can cover that repair on my SUV and fix our seriously damaged budget and to replace 2 car seats that were in his car when he got hit.  I've almost got enough money to replace the car seats, which is great because I'm not comfortable using the seats at all right now (it was a very minor incident but I've done way too much research to be comfortable using them unless I absolutely must).  I'm making it easy on myself and buying this two pack of Evenflo Titan 65 seats for the boys, and I've already gotten most of the money I need to buy them just from selling off some of the curriculum I have that we won't be using. (stay tuned for a detailed post in the next few days of all the things that I'll be selling on here!).

And to top it off, Scott has been watching my lesson plan book and is concerned with a few things he's seen.  He requested that I consider enrolling the kids in a virtual academy because of what he's seen.  We discussed it, I've prayed about it, and I sent in enrollment paperwork this week to Quaker Digital Academy for all four girls.  I have a feeling that this is a long term solution to the issues that he brought to my attention, and we are going to do it period.  I'm done trying to figure out how to teach my kids, what to use for curriculum, and how we will afford the curriculum.  QDA offers the Calvert curriculum as an option for students along with online options, so I'm going to be using Calvert with a couple kids and online options with a couple.  We're going to just jump in and do it.  Hopefully enrollment happens quickly with no major bumps.  This allows me the ability to sell off all our curriculum that I can to get our budget on track again, and whatever doesn't sell I am donating to The Book Samaritan for them to pass to families in need.

It has just been a crazy busy time here, and I'm beyond ready to get back to life as usual.  But before I get back to it, here's a little Nathaniel cuteness just for your pleasure.

Yes, my 5 month old is starting to figure out how to get on his hands and knees.  Looking at him now, you would NOT guess that he was born 3 weeks early with a medical induction and was my smallest baby.  He is just eager to get moving so that he can keep up with his 4 big sisters and 1 big brother.

I love impromptu science stuff

Yesterday I called this week a wash for academics.  Well, that changed this morning.

When I logged onto my Facebook this morning, the first thing I saw on my feed was a post by local channel 10 meteorologist Chris Bradley.  He said that the aurora borealis (also known as the Northern Lights) will be visible as far south as the Ohio River tonight.  Of course, the forecast for here in central Ohio is a lot of cloud coverage so chances of seeing it are low.  I took the opportunity to tell the kids about it and we looked up pictures of the lights online, learned about the science of it happening, and we are planning to stay up late tonight to try and catch a glimpse through all the clouds.

Then I saw on my feed further down that a friend made a "naked egg" with her kids.  I looked it up online and thought it sounds fun so we have an egg turning naked now.  Tomorrow we'll take the naked egg and put it in colored water to show how the water flows through the egg's membrane, and then we'll put it in corn syrup if I have any to shrink it and discuss what happened with that.  Lots of science fun on a whim, I love doing science like this.

Week in Review

Yes, I'm doing a week in review post on Thursday.  That should tell you what this week has been like for us.  First, we had it 100% confirmed that Lydia has mono and even which specific strain it is (yay for modern medical technology!).  That was on Monday morning.  Wednesday we had Nathaniel's 4 month checkup and shots, which shot our afternoon in the foot.  Plus, this week Scott started a new schedule at work so he's now working 5:30am-4pm every day so we are adjusting to that as well.  Did I mention also that Scott and Preston both are sick as well?  We are pretty sure Scott has bronchitis and suspect that Preston either has mono as well or he caught that respiratory virus that is going through the midwest and putting kids in the hospital.  Either way, he's recovering slowly, sleeping a lot, and just a little beast to deal with between the grumpy attitude, horribly gross runny nose, and the fact that when he's awake he isn't slowing down much at all.

Needless to say, this week has been a bust for us academically.  We did manage a couple days of math,bible, and English but that's about it really.  I give up, we'll try again next week.  I started our school year 3 weeks before the local school started specifically so we could be flexible like this, but dang I didn't expect to need it this soon.

I'm also getting really tired of 3 different math things going at once.  So I'm taking the scope and sequence of the 2 formal curricula we're using to create an outline for me to follow, and then using the third thing (Khan Academy) as a supplemental thing for "math games day" that we'll do once in a while.  My plan is to push forward with the outline until each kid is ready for algebra, then we'll pick up formal curriculum at that level.  This should give us what we need there as far as meeting needs for my math whiz kid while also working for my average kids and giving the extra support my struggling learner needs.  I'm hoping to work on my outline tonight after the kids go to bed, when it is quiet so I can focus and think.

Week preview 9/8 to 9/12

We've been pretty busy here the last few weeks.  Jordan turned 7 last week, Nathaniel hit 4 months old the same day, and Lydia has been sick for the last month.  Several doctor appointments to figure out what is going on with Lydia has been the name of our game here, and tomorrow at some point I'll be getting a call with lab results from our latest appointment to rule out mono.  Lovely, isn't it? *sigh*

So, I'm going to try and look ahead and be positive.  We do have appointments on Monday and Wednesday plus a picnic and club meetings on Friday (thank goodness all are the same location and host otherwise I would be frantic trying to pull THAT one off) so things are going to be a little different for us I think.

In history, we're going to start our explorers unit study.  I got this lapbook from Hands Of A Child to do this month with the girls, and am going to be reading some good books to go with it.  We're just easing our way through it and enjoying where it takes us, as is my goal for history this year.  I have some library books to go with it just for a little bit of fun, and we'll probably hit up Pinterest for some ideas of fun projects to do with it if we feel a desire.

Science, we're going to keep going in our God's Design book.  This term we're studying the human body, so we've got a lot going with that alone.  I'm also adding in some experiments from the Apologia elementary anatomy and physiology book as we desire to do some hands-on, so we're pretty heavy in science for now.

In art, we are going to learn a bit about DaVinci and his art and inventions.  There is actually a bit in our science book about him, which is what we're going to read Monday, so this is going to be a bit of a crossover lesson for us.  I'm going to have to spend some time searching for a site to view some of his art, inventions, etc. with the kids because I got overwhelmed trying to pick a book at the library for this purpose.

In math, that is just going to keep on going.  Melissa is almost done reviewing skills that we've needed to brush up on, Lydia is going to continue drilling her multiplication facts, Kim is getting ready to graduate to multiple digit multiplication, and Jordan is drilling basic addition and subtraction facts plus working on measurement and telling time.  All is working perfectly in the math department, and I am very happy with where we are at there.

In English and language arts, Lydia is working on writing a book just because she wants to.  Melissa is learning the parts of speech, and the other girls are working on reading a passage and retelling what the passage was about.  We are also doing cursive lessons with the 3 oldest while Jordan fine-tunes her manuscript writing and we correct some reversals that occur regularly.

For music, I have no clue yet.  I'll figure it out later.  Melissa is working on learning to read music, which is going about as well as trying to teach me how to be patient.  In other words, we may just kill each other before she finally gets the hang of reading music.  We'll keep plugging along though, and maybe I'll see if there are any YouTube videos that I can use to try and help with this.  She so wants to learn to play piano and several other instruments, so she needs to learn to read music so she can develop that skill for real.  She can pick up music by ear, but reading music is going to really get her moving if she's serious about playing something (even if it is just for fun, like with me and piano)

That is about all I can think of right now for our look ahead to this week.  After all, it is close to midnight here and I'm starting to get tired.  Being sick recently, taking care of sick kids and husband both, and taking care of everything while Scott works 70+ hours a week the last few weeks has drained me pretty good.  Hopefully this week's new work schedule for him brings him home before the kids go to bed each night like management says it will.

Have a great week folks!

Week in review

We started schooling this week.  OK more like we attempted to start this week.  I managed to get in a full day of schoolwork on Monday, go me, but then on Tuesday I declared "fine arts day" and we watched Robin Williams movies in his memory and just couldn't get back to it again.  Oh well there's always next week.

Scott also started working some crazy hours on the job.  A person in his department just up and quit on them Monday, so with no warning at all we got thrown into 14-16 hour shifts.  He got more than 30 hours of overtime just this week alone, and it will continue for a few more weeks while he trains a new person in his department.  I admit that the extra income is rather nice, but it is frustrating to have it only for a couple weeks and then gone again.

In other news, we started renovating here.  We are replacing all the carpet with linoleum tiles, and repairing the subfloor at the same time.  We've gotten the entry done so far, and this weekend are going to take on the hallway.  It has been an experience, fixing up this place.  We also had to replace the kitchen sink and faucet, which turned into a major plumbing job as we replaced half the drain pipes so that it was done correctly.  Nothing in this house was done properly, so we are repairing it all as we go.  Good thing Scott and I are pretty handy, otherwise we'd be in trouble.  We should have the flooring all completed shortly after we get the tax refund next year so that we can move on to the next project.

Now I need to wake up a sick kid and an infant so that I can get both ready to go to the pediatric clinic at their doctor's office.

preparing for fall

I know I've posted recently-ish about what we are covering this fall in our homeschool.  That pretty much hasn't changed, except for science and math mostly.  I'm making life easier on me and the girls will all do Khan Academy for math this next couple years while Scott is in college full time (Lord help me, this is going to make life insanely busy for me) and for science I am doing Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology and then Apologia Botany.  We are taking a science-centered focus for a while, learning and experimenting as a family this year to try and make up for my serious neglect of the subject.  I don't like science and have never been very good at it, with the exception of human anatomy and physiology.  Preston even gets some simple lessons, using the free lesson plans from ABC Jesus Loves Me.  I'm going to pick and choose, based on his interest and how much time we have.  No pressure, just some fun and games with a little coloring and simple activities.

That leads me to the place I'm at now.  I'm pre-reading my first science book for the year now, and enjoying it.  I'm trying to be mindful to make notes in a Word document so that I know where I feel good stopping points are in the chapters to break it up into shorter lessons, as well as noting when there is an experiment or when I want to add in a notebooking page from the free extras that I can access at the Apologia site (they have a code in the introduction to each book that I've used so far).  Once I finish this stage, I plan to do a little looking online to see if I can find some coloring pages to pass out while I'm reading the text to the kids.  I have a couple girls who listen much better when they have a quiet activity like coloring to keep their hands occupied.

Nathaniel, well he will just remain cute and cuddly and spend a lot of time hanging out on my chest in my beloved Action Baby Carrier on a daily basis.

Happy Independence Day

Or should I say, "Happy go to a parade to see politicians and businesses give out flyers and candy to win customers/votes day."  That sums up the parade we went to this morning, although we did get coupons for some free tumbling classes and karate lessons.  I'll take advantage of those when we have the extra room for gas to do them.

And just for fun, here's a picture of me holding Nathaniel last night as he got to see his first fireworks on his month-day. :)

How on earth did he grow this quickly into a 2 month old?  It is going so fast.

Sorry no pictures of the kids were taken today, we opted to spend the majority of today without technology and ended up out back all day after the parade, grilling hot dogs and burgers and just having fun as a family.

Overwhelming week

This has been a really rough week for me emotionally, and I've just been failing at the mom gig totally.  In a nutshell, my husband's family was struck by tragedy yesterday when two of my kids' cousins were in a car accident.  Three passengers in back (also related) were killed and the two kids up front are both in the hospital.  On top of it, my father is back in our lives and playing games already with us to where I'm ready to cut contact permanently.

Of course, it didn't help that we also have been tight financially the last couple months and now on top of it my Kindle Fire is no longer functional.  I need chocolate, large amounts of chocolate and maybe a glass of wine.

Hopefully next week is better for us.

Curriculum plan 2014-15 school year

A lovely lady I know is doing a "let's share our 2014-15 curriculum" link up and I decided to try joining in on this one.  I was working just last week on my notification for the school year, so I do actually have some clue what I'm going to be doing this year (for once!).

A little background if you are coming here from the link up.  I have 6 kids and this is our 7th year homeschooling.  This fall I will have 4 that I'm teaching (ages 11, 10, 8, and almost 7) along with a two-year-old tornado and our newest who is just 6 weeks old right now.  In the past, we've pretty much always used Sonlight because I like having everything laid out for me so I can just open and go with things, no thinking required.  However, the last 2 years we've used other materials and ventured away from pre-packaged stuff.  I've started to embrace and enjoy doing our own thing that isn't dictated at all by someone else's opinion of what should be taught and when.

***** WARNING: this could get a little bit long, I ramble at times.  I'll try to control this though. *****

As a group, we have plans to study American and Native American history.  This means we will be definitely studying the less pleasant parts of our nation's history, and I don't sugar-coat things so they are going to learn a lot of things that likely are no longer taught in public schools.  I don't have an actual curriculum for this.  Instead, I will be heavily depending on the local public library, purchasing books on my Kindle Fire, and using online resources as the majority of our curriculum.  I do have a few unit studies that I'll incorporate into history, and we'll be putting a timeline up on the wall for important dates.  I plan to incorporate our music and art into this year's history.  We'll do projects such as weaving, making pottery, building models of different things, sewing costumes, etc. along with learning songs about our nation and learning traditional dances and such.  I have a lot knocking around in my mind with this, and it will likely take a couple years to really finish up all of it.

We also have science planned as a family study.  If I have the financial excess, my plan is to purchase Winter Promise's equine science curriculum for the girls.  They are all horse-crazy and would LOVE this.  It also will go well with our history studies since horses were a primary means of transportation in early America.  If we cannot purchase this curriculum for science, my backup plan is to do Apologia elementary astronomy.  I already have that textbook on my shelf, so it won't cost us anything.  Apologia isn't my favorite though, as I am not a young-earth believer.  I have a child who is, but I am most definitely NOT. (not looking to open a debate here, so just leave it be as it is).

Individually the girls will read good books, write stories, learn cursive, and all sorts of little things.  Then there is math.

In math, I have 3 different curricula going on based on individual needs.

Melissa is doing Math-U-See.  It works very well for her and I have no plans to change it.  She's been working slowly through Gamma this last year and a half, and should be finishing it sometime this fall.  FINALLY.  I didn't expect Gamma to be such a struggle for her; this book caused us both a lot of headaches as she slowly worked to master the material.  I have Delta waiting for her already so the plan is that she'll finish the current level and then go straight into the next one.

Lydia is doing Saxon math.  She's not too terribly math-minded, but she learns fast and independently for the most part.  I'm guessing we have about a year and a half left before she hits algebra 1 with the pace that she's currently going in math.  She'll be starting 6/5 this fall at some point.

Kimberly and Jordan are doing Horizons math.  This is a no-brainer for me, we just work in the book and buy the next one when they are almost finished.  Right now Kim is in book 2.2 and Jo is in book 1.1 and they both are progressing nicely.  This is one of those more accelerated math curricula, so I'm not too concerned about them being a bit "behind" in math right now.

For English/Language Arts we are going to focus on grammar.  I have made some mini-posters already for the parts of speech (this is where we are starting) and then we'll go into punctuation and capitalization rules and eventually by the end of the year we'll dabble a little into diagramming sentences.  This subject is obviously aimed at the oldest kids, I don't expect Jordan to actually pick it all up with mastery (nor any of them really, I plan to do a couple sentences daily with them together as a group for a LONG time to help them master all that I'm introducing this year).

Miscellaneous resources I'm *planning* to use with these kids are:

Handwriting Without Tears to teach cursive
The Writer's Jungle to help guide me through teaching them writing
a couple units from the 3 volumes of KONOS curriculum sitting on my shelf
crap-tons of art and craft supplie

Oh, and I almost forgot.  The dreaded OUTSIDE ACTIVITIES.  This year we are looking at Upward cheer for the girls during basketball season.  That's going to be the big thing.  I also am going to take advantage of where I live to plan a few field trips, as we live within an hour of a lot of great places to visit.  The only limit to where all we can go for field trips would be the fact that I drive the biggest SUV in the universe and it gets like 6mpg right now (I have to rebuild the rear passenger brake system, it is locked up engaged slightly, good thing I am really handy with vehicles so I'm going to save some money right there)

What's happening this week

We've been pretty quiet here, I know, and for good reason.  We took the last two weeks off completely from everything here.  I had a baby on March 3rd.

At 35 weeks I was told that I again had pregnancy-induced hypertension, just like I did with Preston.  Fortunately, this time it was much later that it developed, so I didn't spend several weeks doing extra lab tests and bedrest to keep my blood pressure in the "safe" zone.  Instead, I watched how I was feeling and had extra labs for 2 weeks.  Then at my 37 week appointment my blood pressure was 150/100 so I got sent to labor and delivery for monitoring and testing, and possibly to be induced if things didn't look right.  Immediate labs looked ok so they sent me home after a few hours to do the 24 hour labs a third time.  However, between my appointment and getting to the hospital for monitoring, I developed a headache and Tylenol did nothing for it.

So I got home and did the 24hr stuff, and that evening noticed a few new things.  Mainly, my ability to pee seemed to be almost completely gone.  This is kind of important, as the main part of the 24hr labs is collecting urine for 24hrs straight and taking it in to be tested.  My urine output over that 24hrs was about 1/4 of what it was when I did the 24hr labs a week earlier.  The headache also started getting worse the morning after my appointment, so I put in a call to my midwife and ended up sent back to the hospital.

Anyone who has kids knows that being sent unexpectedly like that can be a bit of trouble to find a sitter on a whim, so I ended up having to wait until Scott was at lunch break to get him on his way home to drop me off at the hospital and watch the kids.  I wasn't thinking too clearly at that point, as the headache was getting in the way of that, or I would have called one of a couple people I had lined up for this birth.

I was monitored less than an hour while the midwife on call (my midwife was out sick the last couple days) looked over my chart to see what this pregnancy and the one before had done and she waited on labs.  I got 3 high blood pressure readings in a row, 15 minutes apart each, and she decided to induce me.  So, Pitocin and antibiotics for me and then 4 hours later the lovely epidural (I knew what Pitocin does to me already and chose to take the wimp route with NO regrets).  A total of 8 hours after the induction started, little Nathaniel was born clocking in at 6lb 6oz and 20" long.  He was perfectly healthy, though TINY for us after having three 8lb newborns before him.

I had the foresight to take off that week from lessons because I just didn't feel good at all, and I was induced on Friday afternoon (he was born at 12:20am Saturday) so the kids and I had a week of me just feeling yucky and resting.  Then we took off on baby break so I could obviously recover, as an epidural is one of those things that just takes a little time to recover from.  He is now 9 days old and my back still aches a little once in a while where it was done, but it is much better.

We picked up schoolwork again today.  Yes I said today.  We needed the routine back in our life, that normal feeling.  We started with just math, science, and literature (science and literature is me reading to them and then on weekends they do the experiment with Scott maybe, but he doesn't know that detail yet heehee).  Later in the week I'll add in reading some of "A Child's History of the World" to cover history with a little about the middle ages while I pull together a few resources to finish an Ohio unit that we had started just before we went on break.  Next week, we'll add in some electives.

And now, enjoy a little bit of tiny new baby cuteness.

this week

This is a busy week in my home.  I only have a few minutes, so bear with me.  I'll come back later hopefully to edit and add some pictures since I'm on my laptop and have no pictures on here.

Today is Melissa's birthday, she's 11 years old now.  Crap where did the time go?  I have to bake her a cake, she chose a strawberry one with purple icing, so I need to do it soon to have ready for tonight.

Scott is working double shifts all week, yes I mean 16 hour days on top of his 1 hour commute each way.  We won't see too much of him until Saturday, and then he'll likely spend the weekend sleeping off this week at work since this is his scheduled full weekend off.  We obviously are NOT making plans for the weekend that involve going anywhere major because he'll be too tired.

I'm 35 weeks pregnant as of today, and still baking away happily.  I go in Thursday for my regular prenatal appointment, and Scott has specially arranged to have the morning off so that he can take over with the kids instead of me taking them with me.  My appointments just go faster if I'm not taking them along, so he does that once in a while.  We will likely be starting weekly appointments at this point, as my last baby was born at 37 weeks gestation.  I'll also be asking about possibly inducing to make sure I can actually make it to the hospital on time with Scott's commute time.  I am concerned that this time will be faster than my last birth (I was in labor a total 1 1/2 hours last time around, we were lucky that I was already at the hospital for hypertension to decide if they were going to induce me right then or wait for the next day to do it when that started) and that my dear daddy-to-be will possibly miss the birth of our last child (and I possibly not get to the hospital and end up with an unplanned unassisted homebirth, I don't want to do that thankyouverymuch).

Kim started Horizons math today.  I got her book 2 of second grade math, figuring that it would be about her level.  I've heard that Horizons is about a year ahead, and she's ahead in math so right on level would be good for her.  Yup, too easy.  Oh well, I used the AOP sale they do every April to get it so it was only $15 and free shipping.  She can zip through it at her speed and we'll teach whatever she doesn't know already, and I'll call it "adjusting to a new curriculum style and layout with review" before she starts the third grade books I plan to buy this upcoming weekend for her to do next.  Problem solved.

Full moon/ blood moon/ lunar eclipse tonight.  I'm hoping to stay up and get some pictures of it that I can share with the girls tomorrow and then set up an experiment with a flashlight and some balls to simulate an eclipse so we can talk about why and how it happens.  However, if I can't stay awake (which I know is possible at this stage of pregnancy) I know that I'll find a lot of pictures online for this.  So that is on my list for science lessons this week.

We started an Ohio study to meet the state history requirements for our state this year.  Just covering the basic information on the state at this point, then we'll dig in and learn historical events, people, places, etc. as we go along.  This study is going to last until Nathaniel is born, and we're doing a lapbook to go with it.  I have no clue how much is going to end up being covered, but it will be enough to meet the state requirements easily.

I think that covers it for now.  So now I shall go bake a cake and figure out supper for tonight.

mid-week progress

Well, we are halfway through the week.  Literally, it is lunchtime on Wednesday here.  It has been one BUSY week here so far.

Missa is plugging away in MUS Gamma as she has been.  She's about halfway through the book now, so we are finishing up the basic multiplication facts with her.

Lydia took a Saxon math placement test on Monday and then on Tuesday started 5/4.  She only needs part of the book before she can go into 6/5, but we decided to start at the beginning to make sure that she gets used to the different program with good review of things she knows already.  Saxon is definitely a different animal from the Everyday Mathematics garbage they teach in the local public school, she's going to need a little time.

Kimberly is just working on her multiplication and division facts, then she too will start Saxon 5/4.  I figure she'll start it about the same time her sister moves up to 6/5, so we're taking our time and working on things.  I'm also having to re-teach her how to do some things that are basic concepts that the public school totally screwed up teaching her.  No big deal really, although I do find it mildly annoying that I have to undo the damage from a poorly written math curriculum.

Jordan this week is working on greater than and less than in Math Mammoth.  She is doing really well with this curriculum, and will stay with it until further notice.

Yes, I'm doing 4 completely different things with 4 kids in math.  Mildly annoying that I've got so many different curricula going, but it is what works best so I juggle it.

We also started Apologia elementary Astronomy this week.  I'm reading 1 or 2 sections out loud daily to the kids, as the youngest girl doesn't seem to have the attention span at this point for more.  No biggie, we'll work up to longer time reading out loud as we go.

History is on hold until after Nathaniel is born at this point.  I'm trying to be realistic in what our workload is with this pregnancy.  Things are 100% textbook perfect for me with it, but I know how fast things can change in this area.  I don't want to go from full speed to a dead halt suddenly because of hypertension issues again like we had to do last time, so we're going a slower pace.

The girls are also reading daily for a little bit.  They pick the book, but they MUST read daily.  It is working really well for us at this point.

finally!

I think it is safe to say that we are all 7 well on the road to recovery from this horrible illness we had.  Thanks public school..... That was not a fun ride for us, but after a diagnosis of strep for Missa, Jordan, and Preston complete with antibiotics, I'm pretty sure we got it on its way out of here finally.

Do you have ANY idea how difficult it is to keep track of antibiotics for 7, prescription antihistamines for 2, cough syrup for 4, fever/pain medication for 6, and breathing medications for 2 with the dosing amounts and times?  I was about to borrow a trick for a lovely lady I know who creates a chart to log it all with, by creating one in Word and then printing out a few copies so that I could just get it going on.  I think that the next time we have a major run of illness like this one, I will do just that.  Maybe I should create a generic chart soon to keep on the computer, one that I can just open up and add medication names/categories to then print off.

Not the week I was expecting

So this is the first week of all the kids homeschooling again.  I knew there would be bumps but this is just ridiculous.  We are ALL sick.

It started with just Kim, and I took her in on Saturday morning to get looked at.  She has bronchitis, joy and delight.  I have her taking steroids, 2 different nebulizer medications, allergy medication, all the usual stuff to keep it from getting worse.  I have to call the pediatrician tomorrow to get her in because the only difference so far is that her fever is gone.

The rest of the kids and myself, well we managed to catch the virus that she had that turned to bronchitis in the first place.   This stinks.

By the way, if you didn't know this already..... I learned last night that if you smear Vick's chest rub on your feet (a good amount, none of this eeeeewwww as little as possible stuff here) and then put on socks to protect everything just as you are going to bed, it will work a million times better than anything else I've ever tried with that stuff before to loosen up my chest and sinuses.  Unfortunately, Scott didn't appreciate sleep next to me last night, he said the room REEKED of that stuff.

A new beginning

Things have been pretty crazy around here the last couple months.  I'm finally in third trimester of pregnancy (will be 29 weeks the day after tomorrow) and the two girls have missed a decent amount of school due to weather.  It has been one heck of a winter here in central Ohio, that's for sure.  Currently the state is discussing if they are going to approve an additional 4 days that schools are allowed to close since the majority of districts have at least 1 or 2 days to make up now.  There is another storm coming in this weekend that will likely close the local schools another day or two in fact, and they already have done one make-up day by turning a teacher development day into a student day.  Yes, it has been busy times here.

However, we are entering a new stage now.  Remember that please while I ramble a moment about several things.

January brought a good amount of snow, ice, and frigid arctic cold.  That led to most of the snow days the kids had.  It also brought me into a season of illness, as my own asthma decided that it did not agree with the frigid cold weather and I began a fight with bronchitis at the tail end of the month.  I also started experiencing the first stages of the bile reflux that I always develop in third trimester, which has me now on prescription reflux medication and back on nausea medication. *sigh*  Yes, I take a lot of pills along with having to modify my diet to work with it.

February brought its own set of fun things.  I entered third trimester, which really helped to bring home that this is pregnancy is winding down.  I'm now at the stage where I am growing a little bigger each day, and it is not funny.  It also begins the stage that my husband enjoys most, that time when I start waddling and he gets a cheap thrill out of copying my waddle as it gets worse.  Not funny, dude.  It also brought us the tax refund, which is ALWAYS a welcome thing.  It was deposited in our account just 3 days after we celebrated my 32nd birthday.  Scott got me a new laptop as my gift, I'm totally loving it.  We also got to celebrate Preston's second birthday.  Yes, the little boy has managed to survive for a whole 2 years without any major injuries or killing himself or anyone else.  I also got to experience the joys of the one hour gestational diabetes test, which I managed to fail by 8 points.

I took the 3 hour diabetes test the following weekend and passed it with great numbers.  I figured I would, as I am hypoglycemic.

That brings us up to this past week.  Our district has had some interesting things hit the news this past week, involving a teacher who is now in jail after a little inappropriate extra credit he gave some of the girls in the band (he WAS the assistant band director for the high school).  As this case exploded through the week, Scott decided that it was no longer in the best interest of the two girls for them to remain in the local public school so they were withdrawn.  Their last day was Friday (that's yesterday) and we will pick up with homeschooling on Monday unless the school calls a snow day.  I'm going to honor the snow days and breaks of the district the rest of this year I think, just to keep up the schedule and routine that we've gotten used to this year.

Of course, withdrawing them was slightly interesting.  Thursday I was the responsible mom and I personally delivered my notification and curriculum outline to the district administration office.  The lady who handles homeschooling and attendance for the district was out that day for meetings, so the receptionist put the paperwork in her inbox to get it first thing the next morning.  Friday, which is the next morning, I got an e-mail from this lovely lady who handles attendance and homeschooling.  I had sent a note with the girls stating that it was their last day and thanking the teachers for a good year, and providing my e-mail address if they had any questions for me.  My cell phone had decided to malfunction on me and not work all day, so I was down to just having internet communication for everything.  No big deal really, and my phone is working properly again now.  Anyway, the attendance lady hadn't gotten my notification and was informing me that I needed to either have them enrolled in a school or have notification to her before I could withdraw them.  I replied with a simple, "I delivered notification yesterday to the administration office, it should be in your inbox there waiting for you."  Yup, the receptionist forgot to put it in the inbox and it was still sitting on her desk.  Got it tracked down, everything is in order now and she is sending out my excuse letters.

Hopefully there is nothing else interesting that happens with this.  I don't know that I have the strength to keep going with any sort of real drama.  I may just snap and tell people where to stick it and then let HSLDA loose on the district if anything else comes up.

So what is the plan?  Well I have some math stuff that I'm going to be looking through tonight and tomorrow to find the specific spot each girl belongs at, and they will start it Monday.  History, right now I'm going to just read daily from a history book I have here already and see if we can finish up the year that way.  Science, I'm going to do the same with an elementary biology book I have.  With both subjects, we'll also add in library books as desired, and I may add in some units from KONOS as I feel a need and desire to.  All other subjects that are required by law (language arts, music, art, etc) will be incorporated into science and history by having them do research, projects, crafts, etc. related to what we're learning about.

Hopefully March and April go smoothly with this plan.  I'll let you know on Friday how this week goes.