Beachy Friday

My dad is coming to visit! Hooray! The kids and I are so excited. I am already working on what to cook for him since his diet has to be carefully managed since his procedure and I want to make sure we stick to it while he's visiting.

Yesterday, Brenda and I started our "fridays at the beach". We went to the lagoons and it was beautiful. The water was perfect. Thea went in and didn't cry at all. She really loves the water. The boys mostly played in the sand, but liked to get their feet wet, too. I'm glad they are afraid of the water. I was able to teach A about the undertow while we were out. He could feel it and I explained that it can be dangerous.

This trip was not stressful at all. Brenda and her children helped out so much with carrying stuff and watching the little ones. I can't wait to go back next friday!

My evening routine and laundry tip

Being a navy wife means that more often than not I find myself doing all the chores around the house on my own. It's forced me to come up with a system so that I don't constantly find myself out of cups, no dinner ready, gross counters, etc. Here is what I do as soon as I put the kids to bed.
1. Take out the trash
2.empty the dishwasher
3. prep dinner for the following night (take out meat to defrost, put out crock pot w/ non perishable ingredients next to it and the recipe book open to the corresponding page, chop vegetables, etc.)
4. prep laundry for the following morning

I want to start adding a number 5...organize lesson plans for following day...onto the list. I know that would be a HUGE help for making my day run smoothly.

Prepping laundry = put powder soap in bottom of washer, put clothes in (pretreat stains with shout), set dials to correct setting. If dh is home I put a note on the door for him to press start when he leaves for work. If not I can just press one button in the morning and my wash is started. It saves me so much time in the mornings.

Getting better

Landon recovered pretty quickly after his ER trip, but T and A got sick a few days after. They were coughing and barking when they cried so we went to the doctor Monday morning. Dr. felt like they had all gotten sick at the same time, but Landon just got it the worst. Thankfully, A and T did not need to be treated. While they still cough randomly, they seem to be over the worst of it. Praise God.
Q is off visiting his mom. They flew to CA last night to see Mimi and Q's new baby cousin. I am trying to use the time when he is gone to really work on A and L's behavior. They had gotten a little wild and were being quite mean to each other. Now that Q is away I can really focus on them. It's only been 2 days and it's already getting better. I'm enjoying being able to spend more time with them reading books and playing outside. We even played Hi Ho Cherry-O together...and got through the game without anyone throwing the cherries.

A trip to the zoo

We went to the zoo this morning. It was such a beautiful day for it! Unlike most days in Waikiki, the sky was a little cloudy and we had a perfect breeze. The boys really enjoyed looking at all the animals. Landon liked looking at the digger making a hole to plant a palm tree.
This evening we rented Swiss Family Robinson and ate pizza. The boys LOVED the movie. I scared Landon in the kitchen roaring like a tiger in the movie and he went into the cabinet, got out my rolling pin and said, "you a tiger, I shoot you with this!" It was so funny. Then he pretended it was was a clarinet. Later as he walked off to the kitchen again I heard him saying, "I put this away, I not shoot you anymore."
A has caught the bug that Landon had. He has had a fever for about 24 hours now and is saying his throat hurts. I pray he feels better tomorrow. He was feeling well enough to play pirates with Q not too long ago so hopefully he's getting better.

Thea got a new hat

Today has been so wonderful! Dan is on leave until Sunday and today he took the boys hiking while Thea and I got to go shopping. We hit the Goodwill first where we found some great books and then we went to Waikele, the outlet mall. I didn't buy much (just did a return), but I found this cute hat on clearance at the gymboree outlet and couldn't pass it up. When we got home the boys were still gone and the house was SO wonderfully quiet. We went outside and had a mini photo shoot and got these cute pictures.

Thea woke up about 4 hours early to nurse last night. As I was feeding her I thought I heard something coming from Ashton and Landon's room. I listened for a little while longer and then woke up Dan and told him that I thought Landon was crying. I thought he would come right back and tell me I was hearing things but he didn't. After I finished feeding the baby I went into their room and could hear Landon's breathing from out in the hall. He had been crying and Dan was calming him down. He was still struggling to breath so Dan told me to call the doctor. I put the phone to Landon's face so the doctor could hear him. After asking who was home with me, Dr. said, "Go to the ER immediately, don't waste any time. " That freaked me out! I quickly changed his diaper and got into the car. I thanked God that we have a hospital very close to our house. On the way Landon would try to talk and kept choking. It was awful. My doctor had called ahead to the ER so they were expecting us. As soon as the nurse heard him she said it was croup. When the doctor came in and listened he said the same thing. Apparently they get kids in all the time with it. Croup causes the airway to constrict making it hard to breath and causing the seal type bark. Landon sneezed and instead of ah-choo, it was bark-choo, bark-choo. I really liked the doctor. He was very kind to Landon. Right away they gave him a breathing treatment. When that didn't seem to do much they gave him a steroid shot. That wasn't seeming to work so they wanted to do a chest x-ray to make sure he hadn't swallowed something. I was so glad for all the reading we do because I was able to rub his back and recite his favorite books and sing his favorite songs to him and it seemed to calm him down. All of the sudden, he perked up. He started talking without choking and when the doctor came in Landon informed him that "our God awesome God" which is one of the songs we'd been singing. The doctor agreed and said, "Praise God for Tylenol and steroid shots". (they gave him Tylenol because his fever was getting higher while we were there). They decided not to do the x-ray because he was looking so much better and sent us home.
Landon slept until 11 this morning and after having some oatmeal he's watching Rescue Hero's. He feels like he has a low fever so I'm going to try and get him back down for a nap soon. He's also very horse and I can hear his breathing a little.
I thank God that our visit went so well. I prayed the whole way there that we would get a good doctor and that they'd be able to help him. Don't you just love answered prayer?? Praise God!! oh...and thank you God, for Thea waking up early. Who knows when I would have heard Landon if she hadn't.

Quiverfull and co-teaching

This article briefly addresses FAQ's about the quiverfull movement for anyone who wonders what it is.

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Story?id=2767898&page=1

I am so excited! My next door neighbor (who also homeschools) and I are going to be teaching each other's children. Brenda is going to teach history and I am going to teach Science. The first history unit is going to cover explorers. Quintin is going to have a blast. There are projects with knot tying and dehydrating foods that he will really get into. I am going to use the Jonathan Park study guides that go along with the radio dramas for my first unit. www.jonathanpark.com
All our boys just love to listen to them and the pro-creation science is very interesting. I think I will be learning a lot myself. However, it's scary thinking that I will be teaching other children. Hopefully I won't be too boring or unable to explain the material.

No pictures today. My camera batteries are currently serviceing our new bubble machine.

Mama's Curriculum

Yesterday I realized that it's been a long time since I read anything! I actually don't even have any desire to read which is very strange, because normally I love to read. Perhaps it's because every time I sit down and try to read (or sew, or scrapbook, etc.) I get interrupted and it's so frustrating! However, I decided to start reading again anyway. The past several mornings I've gotten up early and done my bible reading which has really been a blessing. Today I sat down and read a chapter of 2 different books- "Don't Make Me Count to 3" by Ginger Plowman and "Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit" by Teri Maxwell. I was shocked to discover that I actually really enjoyed reading them!!
Now my plan is to make a curriculum for myself to finish this semester. Subjects included will be...
relationship with God
Loving my hubby
Raising my children
and perhaps some fun fiction.

Now I just have to decide which books!

Thea's 6 month pictures

Here are some that I really like. If you want to see all of them they're at http://web.mac.com/ritasfotos/iWeb/Rita%20Lawrence%20Photography/Lil%20Ms%20Bond.html

Got a lot on my mind today, but I'm not quite sure how to write it down. It's about family planning and family size. However, I suppose it doesn't especially matter how I feel about it if my hubby doesn't feel the same way! Guess I should let my brain think on things that are more prevalent.

Edited to add...

PICTURES!!! I posted below this, but wanted to add these. We went to the botanical gardens in Kailua last weekend and have been having fun taking pictures of these cute kids.

Our Day

We are working hard to get our master schedule up and going with the MOTH system. It's no easy task and really takes awhile to complete. After spending an hour on it last night I woke up this morning and decided while brushing my teeth that I wanted our day to go quite different than I had planned the night before. Instead of spreading out school throughout the day and inserting recess 3 times I decided we should try to start school at 8 and be done by 11:30, which is when I begin lunch prep. It actually worked out well this morning. This is how it went.

7:00 -mama wake up and get ready(should have been 6:30, but we're easing into this whole thing)

7:10 -7:40 -Prayer and bible reading

7:40 - Check email and various business on the computer while eating breakfast - Have Q get up and start getting ready

8:00 Wake A, L and T, Get them dressed and make breakfast. Q does his morning chores

8:30 Breakfast. I read a book about Native Americans while they ate and then clean up.

9:00 Read to A, L and T while Q does his writing assignment

9:30 - Dance to a few songs to get the blood moving and sing some preschool songs such as ABCs, days of the week/months of the year and counting songs. Then Q reads aloud to me while I nurse Thea, A colors and L plays with blocks on the floor

10:00 - Bible lesson at the table with all boys, T napping

10:30 - Q does his math lesson on the computer (we're using Switched on Schoolhouse) while I play trains/blocks/Lincoln logs with A and L on the floor and help Q as needed.

11:00 - Wake Thea, have A and L pick up and get ready to leave, fix snack. Q is still working on math

11:30 - Get in the car with snacks in hand. I chat with a neighbor for several minutes and then we're on our way to the Goodwill. Q reads "The Pilgrim Fathers" while in the car.

1:00 -Lunch and cleanup

1:30 - nap

I feel like we've managed to mix things up enough that they're not feeling bored or overworked. Q loves doing his math lesson on the computer and feels like it's a game. It's a big relief to me to know that he can do it almost independently. I'm planning to wake Q up from nap around 3 to do some "homework". Writing his spelling words, finishing coloring a picture for his grandpa and doing a drill sheet for addition facts. I'm hoping that if we can get the core subjects out of the way in the morning we can use the afternoons and evenings for fun science projects and history read alouds.

One cute story...we were doing our bible lesson at the table (I let them color a picture related to what we were learning) and was reading from the bible to "love one another." I started to go on talking, but Landon was singing. When I listed to what song it was I was so happy. He was singing "This is my commandment that you love one another that your joy may be full". I was amazed because I really didn't think he was paying attention to what I was reading. It sure is great that they can pick up so much from just listening and being close by. However, that does warn me how careful we have to be about the radio and TV and what they hear when we think they're "not paying attention".

Thea didn't cry when she went to bed for her second nap. PTL!!! We've had to let her cry a little (or a lot) at nap time because for two days she did not nap...AT ALL...and then crashed when I was holding her at dinner time. Talk about a fussy baby! I'm trying to be consistant with nap time and I pray that it's paying off. She's doing great at night time. Except for last night, she's slept until 6am every morning and then gone back to sleep until 7:30 or 8.

If anyone has any Christian book suggestions for studying the Native American/Pilgrim/Mayflower/Colonial life subjects please let me know! Q loves this topic and I'm hoping to do a lot with it.

Baby Radar

It's nap time. Hooray! That means mama has some quiet time to herself. PTL!! I get out my new fabric and patterns I got yesterday on a crazy trip to Walmart with all the kiddos. I pick what I want to make, find the fabric, iron it and start to pin. This is getting exciting...but wait...oh no...Thea starts to cry. Why is she crying?? She just went to bed! I try to ignore it, maybe she'll go back to sleep (yeah, right). The crying continues and gets louder. Finally, I put down my pins and go pick her up. So much for sewing. These babies have radar. They sense my excitement and it wakes them up. What's that? Mama's doing something for herself? I need to put a stop to that right now! And as soon as I get Thea back to sleep...i mean the SECOND I tip toe out of her room. I will either 1. hear Landon asking to get out of his crib or 2. see Ashton walk out of my room ready to get on with his day. How do they know??
OK...Thea's back to sleep...for now.

Thea is 6 months!

I cannot believe that my baby is already 1/2 way to a year. It is just flying by. Yesterday we went to her well baby check and she weighed 17 lbs. and was 27 inches. Landon was 19 lbs. 10 oz. at 6 months and 27 inches...I didn't remember him being so huge, but he must have been! No wonder he wasn't sitting up at 6 months. That's a lot of weight to hold. Ashton was 16 lbs. 13 oz. at 5 months, I guess he didn't have a 6 month appointment. The doctor says her growth is great. Rita came and took pictures of her on Thursday. Thea was fussy, though, so we weren't able to get very many. There are a few great shots though! I'll post some when I get the CD.

Thea is also sitting up on her own. It seemed to happen overnight. I still have to sit close to her just in case she decides to take a dive for the floor, but for the most part she has great control for just turning 6 months.

Quintin is visiting with his mom for labor day weekend and Dan has to work today and tomorrow..YUCK! At least he will have Monday off.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!