Random October-ness

Beside all the excitement in October

you have already read about,

we stayed busy doing all sorts of stuff.

Cleaning & Organizing & Purging

With a house full of 6 people,

5 of which are home

all day

every day,

our house is very lived in

and 

rarely "tidy".

Certain rooms are in better shape than others.

The schoolroom,

however,

is not one of them.

It can get out of hand REAL QUICK!

How in the world can we work in there? - you ask.

Easy, just step over stuff...

but school always takes priority...

cleaning, not so much.

Til I finally just took a day off from school

and did it!

Whoa!  What a difference a day makes! - you say?

I know!!!

While I was at the cleaning and organizing thing...

I decided to clean and purge our playroom.

A pre-Christmas ritual around our house.

Then,

I took on our entertainment center 

turned playroom storage unit.

It houses all of our games.

I really wish I had taken a before picture.

But you will just have to use your imagination.

All of these game and such...

Were 100% in here!

With a 3 yo, 4 yo, 7 yo & 9 yo

in this house...

yes, you can imagine what it looked like.

And it was seriously a hazard to attempt to retrieve

a game out of here.

OSHA would have fined us BIG TIME!

After a quick trip to

the local home improvement store for some 

premade,prepainted shelves.

Then telling my husband what I wanted...

He whipped out his handy dandy drill 

and a handy dandy drill bit adapter thing.

And drilled some holes for me

so I could have adjustable shelves!

Then I put all of the games back.

Now the kids aren't scared to get games out!
(I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing!)

 More Football Games

 As per our norm during the fall season,

we trekked to Carter-Finley to 

watch the Wolfpack play.

We noticed this billboard

Our seats are below the "CK" in the word Wolfpack.

So we decided to take a closer look,

just to see if we could find ourselves.

Low and behold,

we see two little boys

perched in their "game day" locations.

No one else knows they are there...

but we do.

And that is all that matters.

My babies are famous!

(sort of)

We got to hang out with Wolfie

for a whole 20 seconds.

But it was the best 20 seconds of that game!!

Cheerleading

 Never, ever, ever, 

in my wildest dreams,

did I think that

I 

me 

this girl

would be fluffing 

POM-POMS!

For anyone!

But there I sat,

fluffing pom-poms

watching my one and only daughter

practices her cheerleading.

Co-op

Just a few quick pictures of 

finger painting in co-op.

Mr. T had fun, 

but like any 3 yo,

enjoyed the mess

more than the concept.

Ms. Priss,

on the other hand,

I was SHOCKED

at what she came up with.

They just gave the kids colors,

cool colors,

and let them go.

This is what she came up with...

at 4 1/2!

And what is finger painting without getting a little on you.

How, I have no idea.

And off...

Mr. T also got to burn off some energy 

during PE.

He did toe touches and jumping jacks like a champ!

 Health & Wellness

Then the big boys had 

a push-up competition

and Rico is pretty good!

Mr. T had to jump in and give it a shot.

He has great form!!

Got to start them early!

I did not participate in the push-up

competition.

I just watched.

But,

when thinking about what we could do to be healthier...

especially after single handedly eating 

my entire birthday cake...

by my self.

I selfishly did not share ONE BITE!

Lucky for me,

Tony's cake was still in the fridge,

so when the kids asked for some of mine,

I kindly and gently steered them to his cake.

It was twice the size of mine, afterall.

I realized that

I did need to find a way to drink more water.

It dawned on me that I hardly drank anything all day.

I had gotten into a rut 

where I nursed a cup of coffee most of the day,

then switched to a single glass of wine at dinner.

And that was it!

I found one of these nifty things.

My step-sister-in-law (?)

Has one and I loved the idea!

I got lucky and found one

on sale at TJ Maxx!

It is a diffuser!

I don't fill it full of fruit or herbs yet.

We are starting inexpensive and slow!

Right now we put one tea bag (whatever we are in the mood for)

and a little bit of fruit.

I had purchased a bunch of lemons,

so we hit the lemon flavored water hard for a while.

Then they started going bad before we could use them all.

So I frozen them...

in ice cubes.

Well, ice.

Now they are frozen and ready to go into our diffuser!

The kids like this water too,

anything to get us drinking more water

and less juice!

It has worked!

For everyone!

Score!

Recipe Corner - JacApple Pie Milkshake

The hubs and I enjoy partaking in spirited beverages

every once in a while.

We would probably partake more often if it weren't so expensive

and didn't seem to disappear so quickly!

We don't ALWAYS have liquor in our cabinet.

The hubs went on a "business trip" in October.

While he was gone, 

he made a quick trip to the liquor store

to keep him warm at night since he was sleeping solo

(at least that's my logic).

We have been on the hunt for some FANTASTIC

Canadian Whiskey that someone shared with us

while we were in Texas.

It was in a mini bottle and apparently

our friend acquired it while he was traveling

and we have not located this particular brand

ANYWHERE

except the internet!

So he has been on the lookout and I guess he thought

that maybe a small town in NC might carry it,

since no one the gigantic city of San Antonio did!!

While he was on the hunt,

he stumbled upon this...

Lemme tell ya...

this is a new favorite!!!

We introduced my sister and brother-in-law to it.

Then apparently we all "got in trouble" for not 

introducing my dad to it!

(haha)

My sis and her hubby mixed into warmed apple cider

for a Halloween adult beverage.

Haven't tried that one,

but they said it was a HIT!

After the hubs returned home from his trip,

he immediately headed out for a camping trip

with our oldest two and their scout group.

Leaving me at home...

alone...

with two preschoolers...

and 

a bottle of apple whiskey

a container of ice cream

homemade super chunky cinnamon applesauce/pie filling/smoothie additive

(made from remainder of the apples we picked while in the mountains in August)

milk

and 

a can of whipped cream...

I had made apple pie smoothies with the

homemade apple stuff.

The healthy kind

with greek yogurt, 

vanilla protein powder

and 

milk.

Then it dawned on me...

I can kick this up a notch.

So while the little people were napping

I decided to have a liquid early dinner.

And at 4:30pm 

on a Saturday afternoon,

I whipped up a

JacApple Pie Milkshake

 

I just happened to have one of these fancy glasses in my cabinet.

I have no idea what the quantities were of 

each ingredient...

I am guessing it was something like this:

1 c vanilla ice cream

1/2 c skim milk

1/4 c apple pie filling

1 shot of Yukon JacApple Whiskey 

Throw all ingredients in your blender.

Adjust to get it to your desired consistency.

(add more whiskey if desired)

Pour into your fancy glass.

Top with whipped cream.

Add a dash of cinnamon 

and a reserved apple piece.

Sit on your couch

and 

ENJOY!

Homeschooling - Its All About the Money, Honey

As any homeschooling parent

with multiple children knows...

Each child is different!

Each child learns differently!

Oh if that isn't the truth in this house!

I am blessed and my children are all

extremely bright!

I am not just saying that because they are mine,

I am not putting on my rose colored glasses.

They are truly bright children!

But they are crazy different!!

My oldest, I swear, could teach himself

ANYTHING

from a book!

My second child,

needs a different approach.

I can't just plop a book in front of him

and expect him to get it.

Sometimes,

no matter how I explain a concept,

no matter how many ways I show him on paper,

no matter how I try to explain in with words...

he just flat out won't remember the next day,

sometimes not even on the next page!

I try to find ways to "show" him,

things for him to touch,

things for him to "play" with.

He is definitely my 

"hands on" learner.

He loves doing things with his hands,

always has.

I also don't want 5000 manipulatives 

all over my house/schoolroom

because I just can't keep up with them.

Period!

Money has been a sticking point for this child.

We discuss it,

we draw pictures,

we look at the pictures in the book,

I have let him look at some real money.

Then I stumbled upon 

some fake money at Target

on the dollar aisle.

(but it wasn't $1, it was $3)

I debated getting it...

do I really need it?

are we really going to use it?

can we do without it?

no

maybe

yes

But I bought it anyways,

and threw it in a drawer in the schoolroom.

Then,

one day...

I needed it!

We were going through another page in his 

math workbook,

a money recognition question came up.

Coins!

And a roadblock came with it!

Didn't we just discuss this yesterday?

Didn't you seem to get it yesterday?

What in the world child?

So I said "hang on!"

We put closed the book and put it to the side.

I rummaged through my school drawers

and found the money!

Then I pulled out the silicon cupcake cups,

that I received years ago as a gift,

but have only been used to make cupcakes

ONCE!

Since then,

they have been used as a part of 

many homemade preschool activities!

They make GREAT sorting "bins".

So I dumped the coins out on his table in front of him,

then dropped a stack of the cupcake holders.

His first objective was to sort the coins!

 Easy enough!

While he was sorting,

I grabbed a note card and wrote out 

the names of all of the coins he was sorting

and their values.

He had one set of labels that had the names on one side.

Then he had another set that had the values.

I put one way to write it on one side ($0.10)

and the other way on the the opposite side (10¢)

So after he had sorted them,

he had to match

the name 

AND 

the value 

to each set!

That was the hard part!!

Some he knew and could get easy...

Others were a bit of a struggle.

But eventually he got them all right.

Then just because,

I had him count all of it!

Eeek!

He had to write down the name of each coin,

then both ways to write its value,

then count it and write down the total

both ways!

Whoa!

We did this a couple more times,

and you know what.

It stuck!

I haven't quizzed him on it lately 

(and we did this in October)

but it definitely helped.

Sounds like an activity for this week!  

Happy Homeschooling!

Homeschooling - Butterfly Garden

I have a confession...

I love getting my kids educational items:

craft kits

science kits (of all kinds)

art kits

The problem is...finding the time to do them!

I always have better things to do.

I hate the way that sounds,

but no matter how many times they ask me to do them

there is something else that gets my attention:

laundry

dishes

dinner

all of these things can wait,

but they don't.

My kids wait...

but at the same time,

I am with them 24/7

I cannot be "with" them every second.

Last Christmas,

actually it may have been Christmas of 2011

ack!

no way!?!

thankfully I can't remember

so just for my sake,

we are going to say 

LAST Christmas

as in 

2012...

Either Jackson or the boys

received a 

Butterfly Garden

You had to send off and purchase the larvae.

I was hoping to incorporate it into a butterfly unit,

so I seriously intentionally waited

and 

hoped that we could do a whole science unit

on it.

Never happened...

I could just never get my act together

and gather the materials

(meaning I didn't take 10 minutes to sit down

and find something on the internet that 

someone else had already done

and incorporate it)

BUT - 

I was hoping we would 

encounter it in our science books.

Sigh...

regardless,

I just never did it.

It didn't happen.

I finally got tired of telling 

my sweet child

"No, not right now"

and just ordered the caterpillars!

And I didn't tell him!

Here is how they looked when they arrived:

Day 1 - Oct 8, 2013

We put them on a shelf in our school room

and waited for them to attach themselves

to the top of the container

in their chrysalis.

 Day 6 - Oct 13, 2013

Once we noticed they were attached,

 We carefully transferred them,

 and the paper on the top of the cup that they had attached to,

to their habitat.

We put them back on a shelf,

and waited again...

Day 11 - Oct 18, 2013

We checked on them every day,

sometimes multiple times a day...

then finally on Day 11,

we saw our first butterfly had emerged!!

The excitement over these things emerging

was pretty surprising!

The rest of them emerged over the next few days.

We fed and kept them for a few days.

Almost a week.

Then after reading up,

I decided I didn't want to raise

butterflies for a living,

and I didn't want them dying

and the kids having issues with that.

So we decided to release them

when they were about a week old.

The kids really enjoyed that part,

and swore they wanted to stay with us,

since they weren't leaving.

But eventually they flew off into the 

great wide openness.

Then they found another pet

and tried to talk me into keeping it.

NOPE!!!

October Field Trip - Dudley Fire Department

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I am not sure I will ever post on 

"Current Events"...

I feel like I am always behind...

in just about everything!

Back in October 2013,

I can say that now since it 

is 2014!,

we visited 

the Dudley Volunteer Fire Department.

I was honestly not really excited about going.

I swear, once you have seen one fire

department,

you have seen them all.

They are strikingly similar...

imagine that!

We have now had the pleasure of visiting

fire departments in about 4 different cities

and you know what...

they are all pretty much the same.

But rumor had it that we would 

see a real fire

and

a smoke house!!

Whoo hoo!

We have never seen that before!

So we decided to check it out.

We arrived a little late cause I took a wrong

turn, so my big guys had to stand.

 Mr. T loved his fireman's hat!

Then the fun began!!!

They let the kids shoot the fire hose!

...and put out the house on fire.

(so this is what they were talking about)

Ms. Priss had a go,

and looked like a pro doing it!

No fear here!!!

Mr. T was a wee bit more cautious than the rest 

of his siblings.

He finally decided he would give it a try,

when he saw how all

the other children there

came away unscathed.

Then we got to visit a smoke house.

Well, kinda.

It was more like a smoke camper...

This apparently has made it way 

around the Wayne County area fire departments.

Someone did a major overhaul on the inside

of this thing.

They turned it into a two story "house"

complete with

a first floor living room and kitchen,

stairs,

and a second floor bedroom and balcony!

What???

For short people...

really short people.

The living room

Filling with a "smoke-like" substance.

The kitchen and stairs

The bedroom and balcony

Then each of the kids got to climb 

over the railing of the balcony

and 

down a ladder to safety.

Mr. T stayed firmly attached to me during this event.

Thankfully this was a little different than 

the rest of the fire station adventures we have had.

Hopefully this is the last fire station

we have to visit for a while though.

Once or twice a year for about 4 years straight

is enough for anybody!!!

But my kids definitely shouldn't be scared of them

IF we ever need them.