Wordless Wednesday

"Ice Storm."

Learn more about Wordless Wednesday, and find the blogroll of others who are participating here.

We are heading away for vacation so I won't be allowing comments this week, since I won't be here to moderate them.

We are leaving...

for vacation! Tomorrow night we take off for West Palm Beach to visit Grandma (my mom) who has a condo down there, for two whole weeks. B will stay at home and save up his vacation time for something more "exciting", although two weeks in the sun is sounding mighty good to him now. Plus it will likely get lonely for him while we are away. I'm sure we will all miss him too, but at least we will be a bit more distracted.

In the meantime, here are a few photos:

Here is E with his new pal, Connor the cow. The cow is the pet of the month in February, so E does not plan to register him on the Webkinz website until we return home, since registering your pet on the month he's the star supposedly means lots of fun extras. Connor came from ebay.

R also has Webkinz on the way from ebay, but unfortunately his will not arrive until after we are away. He's got a seal and a cat coming.

The boys got so much money for Christmas that they went a little berserk on the Webkinz. I told them this was the end though. They seemed fine with it and probably realized it was getting a little excessive.

It's very rare to "catch" E in the act of doing a puzzle; he's never really enjoyed them. However, R recently decided to clear out some of his easier ones, so E thought he'd give a couple of them a try. Last puzzle he did that I was aware of was a 35 piece thing. This was over 100 pieces and he flew right through it! He was quite annoyed though that there were two pieces missing - R got an earful. Check out the cool 3D glasses. Yup, a 3D puzzle. Maybe that's why he wanted to do it - just to look through the glasses? Whatever his motivation, it worked. The kiddo can do puzzles.

The boys all went to play some indoor miniature golf yesterday. They invited me but I thought they could all use some "man time" before we head out tomorrow. So I stayed home and caught up on some laundry and paperwork.

They all had a lot of fun, and each one got at least one hole-in-one. I was glad B brought home lots of silly photos to remember the day with.

Well everyone, have a fun two weeks without us. We'll be having fun where we are!

A "boring" day at home

The boys give me such a hard time when we stay home all day, and they spend a lot of time complaining that they have nothing to do. So I thought I'd present some of the "nothing" they were up to today. For those of you who are still somewhat new here, click on the photos to enlarge them.

Making window clings.

Cars.

Blocks.

Action Figures.

Legos.

Sequence, on top of a car town rug.

A game Grandma and Grandpa gave the boys (with its own action figures) when they watched them a couple of weeks ago while B and I went to the theater in New York to see Spring Awakening - which was great, by the way.

Playing Battleship via Webkinz with Aunt Debbie during her lunch hour.

Finding a box of cookie mix in the cabinet which I had bought months ago to keep for a "rainy day". Then making them without any assistance from me whatsoever (except of course for the request that they move everything into the dishwasher when they were done). Yes, R read the instructions all by himself.

Finishing the day with a game of Blokus which we all played together and ate our dinner around.

We absolutely need more days with nothing to do. They are my favorite.

Lots of errands

The last couple of days we have been doing lots of running around. Yesterday we went to the library, picked up B's shoes at the repair shop, went to Kohls so I could use my 20% off everything coupon to buy myself some sneakers, exchanged the "boom box" E had bought himself at Walmart and which had mysteriously died after about a minute and a half of play time, bought fabric at JoAnn's for new curtains for his room, went to the dollar store for our jugs of water, and went to playgroup. Wow, it's exhausting just typing it all out! We also picked up our milk at Thyme and Season, but skipped E's soccer practice. During all our fun sledding on Tuesday he had hit the concrete at one point and bonked his knee pretty good, and after all the running around he wasn't up to playing soccer. I was disappointed that he wanted to skip it since he will be missing it the next two weeks due to the fact that we will be in Florida (woo hoo) but he really did resist, so I didn't push it.

Playgroup at our new location went really well. I brought my camera but unfortunately forgot to use it. It's a great indoor space and the boys had lots of fun, while the moms continued the conversation from the night before about hopes for the group. I also had the chance to chat with two women who I had only met casually before, and who relocated here from New Orleans after that tragedy. I got a small glimpse into the transition of one family who made it out O.K.

Today was another busy day. Nagy Papa (pronounced Nudge Papa, and meaning Grandpa in Hungarian) needed a ride to a doctor's appointment down at the VA in West Haven since his car is temporarily unavailable. After that we all went to Hometown Buffet for lunch in Milford, before heading to Trader Joe's in Orange. Dropped off our stuff at home and headed over to Wallingford to exchange my sneakers at a different Kohls, stopped into Aldi to get some tilapia and let my dad check out that store, and then over to Shop Rite in Meriden, which my dad was curious about since they always have such great sales in their flyers. Each night at dinner we all contribute what our favorite thing of the day was, and we all agreed that it was having my dad spend the day with us. (B's favorite thing was "coming home" [from work], the way it is every weekday.)

B and I finished disc 5 of Season 3 of Lost last night, and we didn't have the next one from Netflix for tonight, so I went to the video store to pick it up and that disc was out! So I popped over to the library to find something else for us to watch, and what did I find? Lost...The Complete Third Season. Yay! Now I can watch the bonus features too! Well, we finished it off tonight and I came down to blog after tucking B in. I'll have to watch the bonus features tomorrow, and wait another whole year to watch Season 4 :-(

I'm looking forward to a day at home tomorrow!

Wordless Wednesday

"It's time for sleds, anyway."

Learn more about Wordless Wednesday, and find the blogroll of others who are participating here.

A nice calm day

We had a quiet day today; not too much fighting, no major meltdowns. Seems like that's the best I can ask for these days.

I got a couple of loads of laundry done. The boys and I played some Blokus. E got upset that R always wins. But on the other hand I lost too, so he wasn't alone. Then they actually convinced me to put on my snow pants and sled down our hill a few times.

We ran out to the post office. I "found a place" that will take back a toy that Santa left which R didn't feel was well made. He is looking forward to getting the cash for it. That is if they give us cash and not a store credit. Since it came from Santa and not this online store, we are not sure what we will get in return ;-) We'll have to wait and see.

I let myself be talked into going down to the next town to get clothes for Fred. They even had free gift wrapping. So when we got home E sang Happy Birthday and let Fred open his gift. Then he immediately went online to use his code for a shirt for his cyberspace Fred too. He left all his Webkinz watching TV. Here's a screen shot (click on it to enlarge it) so you can see how cute they all look. He has Pip the penguin, Belle the reindeer, Fred the frog, and Pepe the chihuahua. The boys are both getting carried away with these things, but it is their money after all. And there are worse things they could be doing online. For Christmas we got Aunt Debbie a Webkinz too, and they spend lots of time playing online with her. It's been really great for them to spend that time together.

I managed to make dinner early today before heading out for R's soccer which was from 5:00 to 6:00 pm. After that I pretty much dumped them off at home and headed out for an organizational meeting for our homeschool support group, which is growing in leaps and bounds. Here's a photo of playgroup last week. Yowza! there were about 15 families there, which translates into at least 30 kids. R is really psyched that there are two new boys his age.

Anyhow there was an "organizational" meeting to check in on what people want to see happen with the group. Lots of people are envisioning classes and field trips; the typical stuff. I had asked R and E if they had any interest in me setting something up and they both agreed that they don't. They did ask me though, to request that events not be planned for during playgroup, and that that time be sacred for playing only. Not surprisingly people can't resist using an indoor space for "more" than just free play, so we're probably looking at a choice between a craft or some other project and free play. There was even some talk about using the space for some instructional sports (ack!). Hopefully the boys will be happy with how it turns out. We have another playgroup tomorrow, in our new indoor gym location, so we should find out soon enough.

What is it?

Well to the unenlightened, it might simply be an empty candy cane. You know; garbage.

But to a seven year old boy it has been absolute treasure:

• A cane to bend over and walk with
• A gun
• A sword
• A conductor's wand
• A telescope
• A Quidditch broom
• A megaphone
• A guitar
• A banjo
• A trumpet
• A bass violin
  
• A microphone

Snow Day

This morning when we woke up and saw the view out of our front window, E immediately asked if schools were closed.

"Yes", I answered.

"So can we invite E and A to come play in the snow with us?"

E spoke to their dad on the phone, who said he'd drop them off about 12:30. The next question: "Can you please take me to the toy store to get Fred a present for this birthday?"

So off we went to the toy store to get a present for a Webkinz who had a birthday (and got a piece of cake online) the day before yesterday. E has tons of money from Christmas and decided that Fred needed some clothing.

Well they didn't have anything E liked, so he bought another Webkinz instead; a Lil'kins penguin he named Pip. And off we went to a store the next town down to look for clothes. Unfortunately that store was closed on Mondays, so we finished up at Hallmark back in our town. No clothes there, but R fell in love with a turtle which he bought and named Phillip. The photo above is one of the eight Webkinz who now reside with us. R can't wait to get them all down to Florida to show Grandma what she started.

E and A arrived promptly at 12:30 and the four kids spent the entire afternoon in the snow. They rode down our front lawn several times before heading into the backyard to make a really awesome fort with a snowman standing guard. It really is incredible.

I'm so glad the boys had friends who could join us on this awesome snowy day. Snow is always more fun with friends.

What did I do today? I cleaned the kitchen stove which I was supposed to have done a couple of days before my mother arrived for Christmas. It was beyond gross.

Okay, so I changed my mind

Thanks to the several of you who responded to my request for comments. Most of you seem to think it's my blog and I should just do whatever I want. One of you though, pointed out that I started this blog for myself, as a record of our daily unschooling activities, and that if I couldn't find time to blog on the other site, what made me think I'd be able to find time to do it here? Too true. However I read some of my older stuff as I contemplated deleting that blog, and thought some of it isn't bad and that I really do want to continue with it.

So I've decided to go ahead and keep the other blog. This one will continue to be a record of our daily stuff, and the other one I will make an attempt to post to weekly. I've changed the name of it and so the location. It's now The Weekly Muse From Love 2B Homeschoolers. I also had a lot of fun finding templates out there to use for it. It's upbeat and happy looking, and hopefully will inspire me to write down some of the thoughts that are constantly floating around. I often find myself composing essays in my head, and I really would like to get some of them down.

Several weeks ago as I was writing a list of things I needed to do around the house, I also wrote out my hobbies, thinking I would like to get them into the "daily schedule" too. And blogging was right up there. So I'm going to put it on the schedule...we'll see how it goes!

Letting go of my other blog

Okay my other blog is dead. I never post to it, and am going to let myself not think about it anymore. I really enjoy blogging and would like to do more than just a "what we do" diary, but can't commit to two separate blogs. So I'm thinking about sharing more than just events on this blog, and making it a place to share my thoughts as well.

For a while my womyn's circle did something called a Weekly Muse, in which a question was thrown out to us and we all shared our thoughts. Perhaps a Weekly Muse is what this blog needs? Perhaps if those posts are titled that way, my readers who are strictly looking for a "day in the life of unschoolers" can skip over my musings.

Most days I enjoy reading The Thinking Mother. She comments on things she's read and experiences she's had. I'm thinking about going a little more that route. Maybe I'll give it a try and see how it goes. I think I'll start by simply transferring some things from there over here.

I do write this thing for people to actually read though, and not just for myself, so readers, what do you think? Please leave me a comment.

Wordless Wednesday

"Learning Math"


Learn more about Wordless Wednesday, and find the blogroll of others who are participating here.

The longest cold in the history of the universe

Okay, so that's what it feels like, anyway. I tried to get on with things...
Wednesday we went to The Children's Museum (formerly the Science Center) with some friends. E enjoyed making a giant bubble around him and his friends and R and I enjoyed controlling light intensity while looking through a window to combine our faces. They had an enjoyable couple of hours being out with friends in a place they like to go. And it was pretty easy going for me.

Afterwards we came home and had some dinner before heading off to soccer. That was fine too, since E was busy using up some energy and R also has friends from his team who he plays with to keep busy during E's practices. So I got to sit and quietly read. The building wasn't even as cold as it usually is, which was great since the Dunkin' Donuts I usually go to on the way is closed for renovations.

Yesterday (Thursday) we did some grocery shopping and the rest of the day was spent at home. We had plans to go to a gym day in Hartford, which we have not yet managed to attend, and I'm really disappointed to keep missing, but I pooped out. I did manage to make dinner again though, and afterwards went to my monthly womyn's circle. I'm glad I managed to go to that since next month I will be missing it; it lands on R's birthday.

When I came home my mom was here. She was passing through on her way down to Florida for her two months there. She has a 3.5 hour drive to here from Maine, then 6.5 hours down to Virgina where she picks up a train which can also take her car down to mid-Florida. It was nice to have another visit with her and hear about the Christmas dinner she had with all my siblings and their families in Maine. Sounds like it was very pleasant.

So anyhow, Mom and I visited last night and I apologized in advance for not seeing her off this morning. She had to be out the door by 7:30; she understood.

Today I threw up my arms and totally gave up getting on with things. We bummed around and I stayed in my pajamas all day. I watched some Waltons and did some reading and took a nap. It's so frustrating to wake up every day and still not have this cold over and done with. I probably have a sinus infection - my ears are so clogged I still can't taste anything and hear very poorly. But I feel like I'm so far along now that going to the doctor wouldn't speed it along, so there's no point. It's so exhausting though, and demoralizing!

Wordless Wednesday

"Incongruous"

Learn more about Wordless Wednesday, and find the blogroll of others who are participating here.

Happy New Year

For the past several years we have hosted a few families for New Year's Eve fun. The kids have had a pajama party, danced around, eaten mini pizza bagels and other fun appetizers, and watched a movie, while the parents snacked and drank and played games down in the living room. We'd all gather together around the living room TV to watch the ball drop, and everyone would be on their way by 12:10 am.

Well this year I had decided I needed a break from entertaining (good thing too, considering I was so sick). However, the boys were bummed to be facing an evening at home alone. So we invited some of their friends to sleep over, who unfortunately had already found other babysitters. And we tried another friend who was also not able to make it. So we were all pretty happy when we received an impromptu invite from some friends.

We had a wonderful time making our own pizzas and calzones. And the kids got to watch their annual movie with friends. We parents had a great time visiting and looking at beautiful photos from our friends' recent vacation to Guatemala. Another couple we know stopped by for I don't know how long. The evening was so relaxed and enjoyable. What a great time. And this time we were the ones to leave by 12:10 am after watching the ball drop, and sipping champagne and sparkling cider for the kids.

I have to admit to drinking a tad too much, but frankly it's been a long time since I've felt good. And I did. And it was fun. Thank you friends, for hosting us, it was a lovely evening.

This morning E did not enter our room till 8:48 am. Even he was in shock! We had an easy going morning which included a lip synced drum show to the Shrek soundtrack he got for Christmas. Tickets were six (pretend) dollars each, and worth every penny.

I was lucky to catch a nap this afternoon before we headed out. We had plans to spend some time with friends who were "home" for the holidays. They invited playgroup friends and a few others who we are lucky enough to know and like, for a fun-filled afternoon at their parents' home.

The kids all had a wonderful time. We've been having difficulty finding an indoor location for playgroup this year, and since the kids don't much like meeting at the library, it seems like forever since we've all been together as a group. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks we will get access to the location we've been trying to use for free, or go ahead and commit to the $25 per session we need to meet at the local Unitarian church we used last year. (For those of you who are new here, click on the photos to enlarge them.)

Our real concern though (for my family) is that playgroup is going to get turned into some "learning opportunity". People just hate to pay for space and not utilize it "productively". The group is already talking about using different rooms (in the church) with desks in them to use for crafts, and stuff like that. I've mentioned here before that we are just looking for a group of people to PLAY with once a week. Hopefully the rec center we are looking into will pan out since it's basically a big gym. That would be sweet.

For dinner this evening we ordered grinders. Those would be "hero's" to those of you in New York, and "subs" for the Maine-iacs in the family. I'm still not really up to cooking. Tomorrow I will though, whether I'm up for it or not. My ears are still really clogged to the point where I can't hear well at all, but other than that and some "productive" coughing, I'm doing better. Just waiting for the energy to return :-)