2011 Year End

Ah, the phrase "Year-End" makes me sort-of-sentimental and sort-of relieved that it doesn't mean spending the holidays in a cube closing the books and preparing for auditors :-)

As promised here is our 2011 Year-End Highlights!

Here are my beautiful children on Christmas Eve.  I left Chris and I out of the photo because we are not so beautiful from lack of sleep and I don't have time to touch us up in Photoshop :-) 

This year lance officially started his love of baseball. In the spring dad helped coach. In fall Chris was the head coach of his team. Chris really enjoyed coaching. Currently Lance's favorite position is catcher, but I adore this shot he took of him pitching. For his birthday, Chris, Grandpa Harv, Jared and Matthew went to a real RedSox game at Disney's Wide World of Sports, if that gives you an idea of the severity of baseball fever in our house. When he wasn't playing baseball, he was running in the "Smile Mile" or swimming with a team of friends all summer long. All this work culminated in August when he successfully competed in his first Triathlon. In short, Lance likes sports and he's very athletic.

Jared is my beautiful thespian.

He loves to talk to people.  He frequently sings for people at the park and enjoys playing his piano.  Jared celebrated his birthday at the Fountains Resort again this year with friends and family.  After his birthday, he started up karate again and it has gone very well and he is now a purple belt with black stripe. 

Jared's cardiac conditions are part of the reason we studied anatomy in detail this summer.  We wanted to finally explain to him what his conditions were.  We had no idea how important that would be in the fall when one of his conditions started acting up again, after being inactive for two years.  He had three SVTs this fall/winter and has progressively become braver with each occurrence.  I think it helps that he intellectually understands what's going on.  Unfortunately, because of his conditions Jared found out he is not allowed to play baseball or any contact sport.  It helped that he was the bat boy on Lance's team in the fall but he was disappointed at the news.  But rather than focus on the negative we thought of alternatives and one I came up with was riflrey.  Grandpa Bob is an expert marksman and was happy to help start this focus.  He not only gave him a BB gun for Christmas but took the time to explain to him this really is a sport he can compete in at in the Olympics. If this doesn't work out I think he'll make a great sports announcer some day.

Then there is Titus.  His name and personality lend itself to so many nicknames and theme songs; "We are the Titus, the mighty, mighty Titus" is still the favorite.  He wants to be in on EVERYTHING his big brothers are doing, physical or age barriers be darned.  He's been talking like a five year old since the beginning of the year and I wish I'd kept a list of some of his incredible statements. He jumped into the pool fearlessly all summer long and became a pretty good swimmer.  He ran the nursery at CC and wooed all the teachers at church, one even called him a "genius" (Hee Hee).  Chris suggested a blurry picture, since he's always moving but I chose these instead.

Super Hero Titus or Disappearing Titus

I did not pose him he did this himself :-)

Titus in charge on his "Wee HOO"!

The biggest event of the year was the arrival of little Amber Elizabeth.  I'm not sure little is the best way to describe her. Our chunky monkey weighed in at 11 lbs. 12 oz. at her two month checkup and 23 inches.  Each child seems to grow up quicker than the previous. She is so alert and interested in the world around her, and what a world it is.

That wraps up the year.  Safe tiddings to you and yours!  May the New Year be filled with God's blessing upon your families.

Love the Otto Clan! 

Next Right Thing

I have kept a journal since I was a young girl. As a child, it was my way of venting.  After I married Chris, I got rid of all those old journals. I decided my journal should be a way to record everything good in our lives. I've done a decent job of keeping a journal over
the last 15 years - until January of 2010. The last two years have been rough on many levels.  I've had a hard time seeing the sun through the clouds and my journal reflects that by having very few entries.  It fills me with guilt all the wonderful moments with my boys I never recorded and have already forgotten. We can't change the past and as our pastor says: "all we can do the next right thing". 

This last week hasn't been any easier, new challenges pop up and life is still tough. But if I keep waiting for life to improve, I'm going to keep missing the rays of sunshine that make rainbows in the clouds.  From now on, I'm going to do things differently.

I'm going to use my nice new hot pink iPhone to capture those special moments so I'll have them to write down later. My blog is going to change from a homeschooling resource, to a journal of my family's adventures through life. And I can post lots of pictures. Yay! "They" say a picture is worth a thousand words, but sometimes no words can do justice to what happens in the lives of my boys. 

I want to change how we live life in order to increase the chances of having more happy moments to record. I will change homeschooling to being just one part of our life, not it's main focus.  To do this, I plan to continue our gravitation towards a more Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling.  I am going to plan more field trips and have the boys experience what they have learned. 

I want to bring FUN back into our daily lives and enjoy the simple moments to play when the moment strikes us.  I've done more of this lately and I already see a difference in the boys. Finally, I plan to remove the burdens we have inflicted on our lives.

My next entry starts this journey and I will include a little catch-up on the highlights of 2011. Stay tuned!

Back in the Saddle Again....

I've been spending as little time as possible on my computer lately, partly because its been bugging my eyes and partly because I simply don't have the time.  We are starting our third week of nearly full-time school again.  I say nearly because there are a few things we still need to add back but all in good time.

THE BUCKING BRONCO

The biggest challenge we have to getting things done is not Amber but my very active two year old Titus.  He's the cutest thing in the world (which is how he became a terrorist), extremely smart (he knows all his letters and their sounds) but he doesn't do tricks (only counts when playing hide-n-seek) and he has the attention span of a gnat.  Here's how me trying to integrate him into our day and honor his requests of "I do work too!" goes:

The scene is him on my lap with the alphabet in front of him (consonants in red, vowels in blue) a picture of a cat and three blank spaces after.

"Titus point to the letter that makes the /k/ sound"

    Titus points to "c" and we start to spell the word.

"Nicely done, now which letter makes the /a/ sound"

    Titus points to "m" and starts spinning it around.

"Not /m/, /a/, its a blue letter."

    "Not blue, I like red"

"Okay, point to /t/ then"

   Titus then starts twisting multiple letters.

"Titus point to the letter that makes the /t/ sound"
I repeated this a few times till he gave me a sly smile and said...

   "How 'bout "p"?"
Game over he wins.

He knows very well which letter is "t" but lost interest in the game that quickly and that's how all our teaching lessons go.  Then because he's "done" in his mind, his brothers should be too and free to play with him, thus the challenge of my days.  The worst part is I really feel for him.  He's only two.   He should just be playing his days away.  I envy the homeschool mom's that have the option to put their littlest in preschool, it seems like such a win-win plan.  However, for us preschool is a petri dish and we can't mess with that.  I'm hoping to find some way to create a mini-preschool at my house with my friends daughter.  We are trying to find someone to play with them a few hours a week while we teach the older ones.

LOW TECH SOLUTION

I wasn't going to let my eyes stop us from starting school the other week, so I went low-tech.  I took a 5x8 index card drew some lines and called it a schedule.  Strangely the new system is working better than any other system we've used the past.  Here's how the last week and the current week looks:

To the untrained eye (which is anyone other than me and the boys :-) ) it looks like a bunch of gibberish but here's what it means to our days.  I have this on the front of a three ring binder for the boys to view anytime during the day, certain things they can do on their own and other things require my help.  That said it means we do NOT do these things in order we do then as the opportunity arrives during the day.  Inside the binder are all the worksheets/supplies they need to complete the work for the week.  They can work ahead if they want (hasn't happened yet) but if they do not complete their work during the week they will have to do it over the weekend (that motivates them to do it during the week).

BIBLE:  For right now its just me reading bible stories from the "Jesse Tree" book and them making their new links for the "Thankful Garland".  Next week we will go back to reading "Matthew" with narration and discussion.  On the weekends Chris does the CLE Bible curricula with them.

CHORES:  This isn't a subject but my children claim they just cannot remember on their own, to vacuum their rugs and brush their teeth each morning.  The "LF" you see I added this to stop the discussions over who is vacuuming which rugs, which days since they switch each day (Oyeevey!)

PIANO:  Is practice four days a week and lessons on Thursday, details of which is all determined by their wonderful piano teacher.

CC REVIEW:  Involves reviewing the first 12 weeks of Classical Conversation Memory work, three weeks each day.  Most days it means watching three weeks of the videos I created, but some days it involves me quizzing them.  I'm happy to say that based on the quiz days my videos have really done their job.

DRILLS:  These are our "Calculadder"(CL) and "Alphabetter"(AB) drills.  Between the two it only takes 6 minutes a day.  I am extremely pleased with the "Calculadder", I can see the boys truly gaining mastery in math and staying fresh with their math skills till we start-up their full curricula again.

HISTORY:  This is where we spend most of our day.  Its not just history but also reading, science, penmanship and art.  I have decided to go really deep with our history this year instead of going wide.  I want the boys to truly understand history from a providential standpoint, how it all relates and the details of the people and the events.  In addition to various living books, I'm using all the tools mentioned in my previous posts (Post 1 and Post 2) to teach the boys history and recently one more I found from Brandy called "Adventure Tales of America" (ATA).

I use the "Mighty Works of God" (MW) as our backbone curricula and then work off it with the others. For instance with the Pilgrims we started with MW reading and worksheets.  At the same time we were also reading "Squanto: Friend of the Indians".  Then we went over the same period in the ATA and "The Light and the Glory" (LG), doing worksheets out their Activity Books, while reading "The First Book of Indians".  In addition I have them draw two related pictures and corresponding penmanship from the "Draw Write Now" Series each week.

In the evenings they watch the "Drive Thru History" DVDs (I can't say enough good about these) and other supplemental DVDs I have found at the library.  My latest cool find was a DVD called "Lost at Sea: The Search for Longitude".  After watching it this weekend I have decided that Harrison is the inventor the boys will be using for their Inventor Speech at CC in week 15.

SCIENCE:  I asked Chris to take the lead in this subject.  They have started the Mr. Q Chemistry curricula and I can't say enough good.  It is easy, thorough and fun.  In addition, we will start reading from the "World of Chemistry" book this week and plan on using a number of the awesome resources Brandy recently posted on her "Half-a-Hundred Acre Woods" blog.  Dad and boys are having fun.  Here's the boys and their first experiment the "Rubber Egg".

READING:  This we are still keeping light and have not started up their full Language Arts curricula yet.  I figure they are doing so much reading on their own and with history, we can wait a little bit to get back into curricula.  For now I am simply having them read from the "Christian Liberty Press Science Readers" and narrate back to me what they have read.  For Lance, I did have him start-up his Easy Grammar Daily Grams and Student Book but just one page a day for now.  I'm also trying to get him to practice typing and cursive but its been off and on.

Finally, we are also working on an adaptation of file folder game called "Passport to America" with some living history books.  I've been searching the library for books about each of the landmarks.  We are slowly reading our way through.  When we are done I'm going to use the game as a final quiz, having them match everything up and tell me what they know.

Here's a quick list of what we've read so far:

• "Sky Boys:  How they built the Empire State Building" by Deborah Hopkinson
• "The Hover Dam" by Jeffrey Zuehlke
• "Lakes" by Geoffrey H. Nash
• "What is Mt. Rushmore" by Laine Falk
• "Story of the Lincoln Memorial" by Tom Dunningham
• "You Wouldn't Want to be a Worker on the Statue of Liberty" by John Malam
• "You Wouldn't Want to Work on the Brooklyn Bridge" by Thomas Ratliff
• "A Capital for the Nation" by Stan Hoig
• "The Story of the Liberty Bell" by Natalie Miller

We try to do some craft and art projects during the week but most days we choose to go play at the park instead, the weather is just too wonderful this time of year to resist!  In fact some days we even take our reading to the park.

Christmas Traditions

One of the things that our family lacks is a strong sense of tradition.  Early this year I bought this book to help:

Mrs. Sharp's Traditions by Sarah Ban Breathnach is a really neat book with all kinds of Victorian ideas that are neat to revive.  We had fun earlier in the year, starting some birthday traditions; like making a special hat for them to wear that day but then my energy puttered out and so did starting new traditions... till now.

Here's what we are doing for Christmas this year:

  

First, I'm proud to say we actually got our tree up and "the deer" on Thanksgiving weekend.  The deer serve as a beacon light for the airport runway two miles away :-)  Clark Griswold would be impressed.  

At first we were going to use a few of our regular ornaments but after four were quickly broken we re-grouped and decided to go a less delicate route.  Works better with our FP Little People Nativity Scene too (Ours doesn't look quite like this. The sheep keep flying into the tree, along with "the cowboy with the funny hat", as Titus calls Joseph :-).

I decided it would be neat to make "Jesse Tree" ornaments, one each day till Christmas Eve.  I looked at some sites for templates and then just decided to let the boys create their own ornaments based on the story we read each day.  The book I chose to read to them this year is "The Jesse Tree" by Geraldine McCaughrean.  I chose this book mainly because it was available at the library.

The was a wonderful idea and I think we'll really do it next year, but it was a bit too ambitious this year; we made it to day two before the boys lost interest in making ornaments.   However, we are still reading the story every night and they are enjoying it.  The story has an interesting twist in that its told by a old church carpenter to a boy that at first really annoys the carpenter but then starts to grow on him.

Which brings me to our final new tradition that we have been keeping up with.  Along with the daily readings we have been making a "Thankfulness Garland".  Its the traditional construction paper garland we all made in school with a little more added.  We have the boys each write something they are thankful for each day and we add that loop to the chain.  By Christmas it should be an impressive 75 loops long.  The boys are enjoying this and sometimes they decorate their loops, depending on mood.  Lance is even talking about plans to keep it so we can add to each year.

Lastly, here is something to add cheer to your Holiday Season!

Beauty: One Month Old

It is tradition that we take a photograph each month of the boys with their "Ragedy Andy" doll, for the first year of their lives.  So thankfully my MIL was able to find a "Ragedy Ann" doll and bring it with her before Amber's one month photograph above.  How precious is that outfit?!  We are thinking of framing it, my friend brought it back from Puerto Rico with her, it's just too adorable.

I thought of calling this photo "Beauty and the Beasts" for fun, but my boys are certainly not beasts, active "yes" but not beasts.  "Beauty and her Beauties" is a better caption :-)

Amber is a healthy growing girl.  At her official two week check-up, they expect them to gain between 8 and 14 oz, my healthy girl gained 21oz, which means her feedings are not in vain. I always worry my milk supply isn't enough and Chris always points out the proof is in the proverbial pudding.  We also found out that day that me eating eggs does not agree with her.  She was up screaming for about twelve hours 9pm to 9am the next day.  Unfortunately, that has really limited my protein sources, so I'm back to eating meat, which is both inconvenient and expensive.  Also for fun that night I messed up my wrist carrying and patting her and had it in a brace for a little over a week.  Boy, am I old and falling apart.

Back to Amber, after she was born everyone agreed that she looked just like Jared but already after only a month she has changed to look more like Titus.  So I'm sure it won't be long till she'll only look like Amber.  She is already trying to keep up with her brothers, holding her head up very well, smiling and enamored with each of them.

The boys are just as interested in her.  Lance is her protector, Jared tells everyone he "can't keep his eyes off her" and Titus said before anyone else when we dressed her above "She looks like a princess".  Titus is really interested in her, wanting to constantly interact with her, which is both adorable and dangerous.  For instance, we brought out the swing last weekend and he instantly tried to send her into orbit, so we quickly put the swing away :-)

We welcomed Grandma Elaine and Auntie Susie for a 10 day visit ending the Monday before Thanksgivng.  It was helpful having extra hands around to hold Amber and play with the boys, and let me do my own thing for a minute or two.  Thus why its taken two weeks to get this post up since they left.

While they visited we celebrated our 15th Wedding Anniversary on November 16th.  Needless to say we didn't do anything special.  Amber has me on a very short leash both time wise and what I can eat, so even going out to dinner was out. But our family is gift enough and we'll have plenty of time alone together when we are old, right? 

Since they left I've trying to figure out what our new routine will look like and how to make it happen. 

For Titus it means convincing him to sleep in his brothers' room.  At first he was sleeping through her nightly feedings but now he seems to have become very sensitive to her waking up.  Cute as he is, a two year old with little sleep is not the most pleasant thing, especially since he won't take a nap.  I'm setting up a bed in the boys room for him today, he seems excited, we'll see what he does tonight.

As I first started typing this I was going to say:

"For Lance and Jared, it means moving most of our school day to the afternoon.  Amber seems to like to sleep from 1pm to 4pm.  The boys of course have traditionally been unable to focus after 2pm in the past.  Hopefully if they can play hard in the morning, do some "Move to the Groove" and/or "Tae Bo" so we can make it work."  

Of course Amber's "schedule" has already changed.  I guess the key will be flexibility on everyone's part.  One thing I've learned is I need to be prepared when those teachable moments happen.  I can't waste her precious sleep time preparing their school work and I don't have time to prepare at night either if I'm to get any sleep.  So I will need to get the schedule for the whole week and supplies all lined up over the weekend.  I failed at doing that last weekend, we'll see how things go today and tomorrow.

There just isn't enough time in the day to treasure each of my four wonderful children the way I would like to each day.  To sit and talk with Lance, play out fantasy games with Jared, to play games with Titus and cuddle/nap with my little girl trying to imprint her image in my mind.  I have consciously been making the choice to spend time with my boys and let the house work fall behind, its obvious.  I just keep remember a quote from an older wise woman "No one remembers how their mother kept their house as fondly as those special moments she devoted herself and time to them."  Hopefully our new iphones will at least help me to capture and remember those special moments....like Titus' telling Lance yesterday "Oh, that stink is me!" :-D  

Happy Holidays to everyone, may the reason for the season bring you great peace and joy!

Helpful Reading

As I was typing yesterday's post about "memorable moments", I realized how much I've changed in how I handle those moments.  Even a few months ago, I probably would have at least ranted and raved at the kids in the car after we left the library.  Yet yesterday I found myself staying calm and even laughing with Chris about when I got home.  The difference can in part be attributed to a book Chris and I have been re-reading.

First, a little background on how we found the book.  A couple years back, we were listening to an online lecture by "Mark Hamby" founder of "Lamplighter Publishing".  In his lecture, he highly recommended a book called "Families where Grace is in Place" by Jeff VanVonderen.  As we re-read this book this year, Chris summed it up with the comment "This is a book we need to re-read every year."  This is not a "How-To" parenting/living with others book, but more of a "Why" and "What's the proper mind set" book.  It sets the stage for the "How-To" book referred to by this book; and this is the book we are currently reading.

The book is called "Self Esteem A Family Affair" by Jean Clarke.  This book goes through how to deal with children at each developmental stage to help build self-esteem.  One of the many things I like about this book is that it gives you two different ways to do things; Nurturing or Structured, and both are fine.  It's not an "only do it this way or you'll fail" type book.  It also gives examples in each situation of the two ways NOT to parent; Marshmallowing and Critical.  I have to admit my default is Critical, but that's another thing I like about the book - it really reinforces grace.  Just because you've not been an ideal parent or person during certain stages, you can re-do those stages and get back on track.  The three key tools of the book are: Affirmations, Strokes and Visualization.  They have specific affirmations to use at each stage.  For instance, the affirmation "Your needs are okay with me" for the 0-6mo. stage has really helped me not get frustrated during the late night cluster feeds.  Each chapter takes time to digest and often I need to re-read them to really start to own what they discuss.  I literally have read dozens of books on parenting, some I gleamed a little from, some I totally discarded and others we tried because "everyone" said they were the way, but they never felt right so we quit (sometimes for good reason).  Everything about this book feels right and when you start to implement the ideas (some are a bit awkward at first), it really starts to feel right.  The approach is all positive but not wimpy, there are boundaries but without accusations and shame.  When I have a conflict with the boys, even with my two year old in the library, I come out feeling effective and not regretting what I said as I replay the event in my head.  The ideas are 180 from how we were raised and certainly don't come naturally.  We really have to work at finding affirming ways to say things sometimes, occasionally look at each other to see if we are saying it right, and help as needed.  And of course we still fall back into our old habits occasionally, in which case we do what we've always done; apologize to the boys for how we handled things, explain what we as parents should have done, then let it go and try to do the next right thing.  I would highly recommend this book. I believe the longer we use it the more apparent the fruit will be.

Two Year Old Memorable Moments

Chris and I had to explain to Lance and Jared today why we were laughing at something they definitely didn't find funny yesterday.  We explained that in life sometimes you just have to laugh because its better than the other emotions the situation logically calls for.  It was one of those memorable two year old moments, Lance and Jared have had them, and now Titus officially had one.

Lance's memorable moment happened at Target.  I was shopping for some maternity pants and he was right at my side, then he was suddenly gone.  I panicked, I started yelling his name and them moving about frantically looking for him.  A Target employee quickly came up to me and asked if I'd lost my son, when I affirmed she declared a "Code Blue" into her walkie-talkie and asked me to describe him.  A few minutes later he came out from inside the clothing rack I'd been standing near.  Apparently he had gone inside to poop in peace.  He always went somewhere to hide to poop in his diaper, and I guess he was too busy to answer my calls.  I later found out a "Code Blue" locks down every exit from Target, no kids can leave till the missing child is found.  I was impressed with the program, though a little embarrassed at the inconvenience it caused.

Jared's memorable moment happened at the Central Florida Zoo.  We were all walking together in the butterfly garden.  The boys asked to go around a short loop by themselves.  Lance came back but he was missing Jared.  It was a loop, so Chris went one way with Lance and I went the other, we still don't know how Jared got past us.  Of course the garden was near a muddy creek that was deeper than normal due to heavy rains.  When we couldn't find him on the path we split up and started to search the zoo. I kept going back to the creek terrified he was in the muddy water somehow.  Unlike Target, the people at the zoo had no interest in helping us find him.  Chris eventually found back by the monkeys we had been watching earlier. Apparently, he'd heard the Howler Monkey howl again and wanted to see.  We had lost a few more years of off our lives and gained more unneeded grey hair.

So that brings me to yesterday.  I will preface this story with the reminder that Titus still insists on sleeping in our room and therefore has not gotten enough sleep the past four weeks.  I had just fed Amber and decided that I wanted to take the boys to the library instead of Chris.  We were on a short timetable (we had an hour max before she wants to feed again), so I stayed out front to return the books due today (the return machine is outside the front door), and sent the boys in to start looking at books (kids section is right inside the front door).  I reminded them to stay together, as I have many times before without incident.  It should have been fine, I was standing near the only exit to the library.  Of course, one of the books wouldn't scan so what should have taken me 30 sec. to do dragged on a little longer.  When I entered the library Lance was practically tackling Titus, Titus was screaming and the library manager was standing near by.  I quickly went and took Titus and sat him in timeout, tried to remind him to use his words but screaming continued to be his chosen form of communication.  The library manager then came up to me and told me they were concerned he was being kidnapped and basically asked us to leave.  I had Lance and Jared gather up their books, we checked out and left.  To Lance and Jared's credit they took it very well.  I explained to Titus he would not be allowed back in the library for a while.  He asked "why" and I explained how he needs to be quiet and use his words at the library.  The upside was we made it round trip in less than 30 min. so Amber was still asleep when we got home.

Wonder what Amber's memorable moment will be?  Do your kids have any "memorable moments"?

Homeschooling Lite

It was in "The Plan" to take off a few weeks when Amber arrived.  However, it was not in the plan that we would start that time off two weeks before because I injured my back or that we would have family visiting three weeks after she was born.  Thus a few weeks has turned into more than a few.  However, I am calming myself by reminding myself we live in a state where the only standard is that my children "show progress", not that we finish every page of their curricula by year end.  

That said here is what we've been managing to do:

• Classical Conversation Video Review - I have the boys watch the most recent week and two other weeks each day.  Creating those videos has been a life saver, not sure they'd know any of their memory work otherwise.
• Christian Liberty Press Nature Readers - I have the boys read to me each day from these readers and then I have them narrate back to me what they read.  They don't even realize its school work they are both so excited about reading these books and they are retaining all they learn.  I have Jared (Age 6) reading from Book 1 and Lance (Age 8) I started with Book 2.
• Piano - After over a year of trying I have finally found the way to motivate my children to practice on their own....."Peer Pressure/Competition".  My children started out their piano lessons about four months before their two best friends started joining us for lessons on Thursdays.  However, their friends are practicing daily and are starting to catch-up with them in their books because my children were not practicing.  When I pointed this out last week, bingo they've practiced five days this week :-)
• Logic - The i pads are serving their purpose of educational entertainment.  The "games" provide both CC geography review and logic/problem solving practice.  I try to limit their use to an hour or so a day.
• Typing - When I asked my friend who is teaching CC Essentials this year, "If you could do anything to prepare your son for Essentials next year, what would it be?" she said "Teach him to type."  I had tried to do this before but neither of us were very motivated, this was the motivation I needed.  I am using two online programs.  The first is a traditional approach, the same way those of us who learned on type writers were taught.  I like this approach because I think it best ingrains the muscle memory.  After three lessons, Lance was at 21wpm on the home keys.  Here's that link:  http://www.powertyping.com/qwerty/lessonsq.html  The second program Brandy from Half-Hundred Acres mentioned she was using "Dance Mat Typing": http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/  This is a fun site.  I let Lance do this site after finishing a lesson on the "traditional" site, I think its a great reinforcement and motivation to practice.
• Various Reading and Art projects - A friend gave us an old set of Children's Encyclopedias that Lance has been devouring.  Both boys have enjoyed gathering up books with Daddy on Saturday at the library too.  My plans to start formal art program have fallen by the wayside (again) sort of like my continual attempts to start daily devotions (we never make it past Monday with my "new plan" each week).

Next week I hope to add two more things:

• Calculadder and AlphaBetter - 2 min. Math Mastery Drills and 4 min. Alphabetizing Drills, its amazing though how hard it is to find 6 min in my day. 
• Penmanship/Bible Memory Work - For Lance I have "Pentime 3" to practice his cursive.  For Jared I will probably mirror Lance's lessons but make the worksheets myself, because I want to use the D'Nealian Script with him till he's ready for cursive.

Two Week Update

Two weeks after having a fourth baby at 40, I'm starting to see a glimmer of hope, that it is conceivable that I will survive.  I wasn't seeing any hope a week ago :-P

Her first week was full of the normal stuff: hormonal overload, physical exhaustion and breakdowns.  Thankfully, Chris was around for most of it and my friends the rest of it.  I was engorged at day three, brought a cooler upstairs that night and spent the night alternating cabbage and ice packs between feedings. Amber got a clogged tear duct, luckily due to previous experience with Titus, I was able to take care of quickly.

See playing dress up is not just a girl thing.

Amber has been ruling the house with her appetite.  Titus has been running the house by going over, under, and through it at mach 2.  He's been incredibly excited and sweet with Amber, but he's also been screaming whenever he gets frustrated instead of using his words. Lance tries to be a benevolent dictator and has also been an incredible help.  Jared prefers to do his own thing.  He has a tough time with change, but he came around to really like Titus and I'm sure he will with Amber too....in time. There is nothing like a drastic change to reveal the "holes" in parenting. The shoulda-woulda-coulda's are piling up and new challenges come and go.  Chris and I, above all, need to set the example to our children. It's sometimes extremely difficult, but slowly, surely, a new normal will emerge.

This week, now that I'm more mobile, we've been taking walks after lunch each day.  On Monday, the boys went on a hunt for rocks to hold down their "ant habitat" on the sidewalk. Yesterday, we actually made it to the park for a little bit.  Being outside in this cool weather has been great for everyone.

Chris commented the other night that "Amber really completes our family."  I have to agree, despite my little fit at the original shock, I'm so glad we are finishing out our family with a little girl.  I just wish everyone would stop assuming that we were "trying for a girl", I find it so insulting to our boys.  It's like they are saying we never wanted boys and they were mistakes we got stuck with till we had a girl.  I love my boys and I'm so glad they all came as they did.  God always knows best.  Someday I'll learn to just trust him from the beginning.

Help me! My auto-ship is out of control! Oh, and the rest of my life too!

A friend came over to help out today, so I was feverishly working on the computer to fix a problem with my "Amazing Grass" auto-ship.  They, of course, don't wake-up for another three hours, so I was trying to send a detailed email.  They have a new website and its just not working very well for me.  I'm typing against the clock (i.e. little Amber's clock) and check my email.  It was an auto-ship notification from Amazon.com that I wasn't expecting and did not want: 24 boxes of Mac & Cheese.  We still have 8 boxes from the last order, when the boys were eating it a lot and their buddies came over before practice last spring. It is a bit too much.

That sort of sums up the last week, life is a bit out of control :-)

Despite herculean efforts to convince baby Amber she needed to make her appearance on October 14th (because it was Chris' birthday and he wanted to share it with her) or at least over the weekend (because my OB was on call).  She had no interest in our time table, not one contraction.  We had cleared the calendar of baseball games and everything else, we were ready for her but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  I had two OB appointments on October 14th to "stir things up" and our friend was at the house for the day to take care of the boys.  My husband and I ended up having two dates, one for lunch and one for dinner and a lot of time spent together in-between.  I can't remember the last time we had even one date.  During our day we really got a chance to re-connect, talking like a married couple, not just a mom and dad on furlough.  Instead of welcoming our new little girl to our home over the weekend, we had some great family time and got the house totally in order (including catching up on laundry!).

Then on her actual due date, October 18th, things started to pick-up speed.  None of my children have come within three days of their due date, one was late by 10 days, so I totally didn't expect anything to happen for another week.  My contractions were strong and five minutes apart around 12:30pm and would slow down a little by 5pm, but by 7pm we were on the way to the hospital with them between 1 and 3 minutes and increasing in strength.  I've never been in the hospital for more than 90 minutes before delivering and the fourth baby is suppose to come quicker right? Wrong!  Apparently she didn't want to come on her due date either.  After 14 hours of labor she finally made her appearance at 2:19am on October 19th.  When she did decide to come out, she came so fast, the doctor didn't make it in time, and with one nurse only having one glove on to catch and another nurse just putting on two gloves in time to "block", she basically slid out onto the bed. :-)

Isn't she beautiful?!  Right out of the oven.

The boys came by later that day to visit and well these pictures says it all - chaos!

She's over a week old now and "no" we are not settled into a routine and I never thought we would be this soon anyway.  We did our school work all summer long to have our break now and that's what we'll probably do for a few more weeks.
Here are a few pictures of our beautiful girl from her first mini photo-session with her Daddy.

Bountiful Blessings

Friday, September 30th was one of those days that feels like a year packed into 24 hours.

OUR DAY

It started out with a heavy duty dream early in the morning.  Basically the dream was this: a man kept going ahead of me fixing everything from potholes in the road (smoothing my way) to things around the house.  Yet I was either ignoring him or giving others credit for all he was doing for me, without me ever asking this person to do anything.  Strangely my behavior didn't anger him, he just kept running ahead fixing my way, until finally, at the end, I realized what was going on, the man was God and I started crying "I love you" over and over. 

I was able to sleep in a bit because Chris had taken the day off work to go with me to my doctor's appointment and help prepare for our Michaelmas Party.  When I came downstairs, all the boys were all heading out the door to go on a bike ride "through the woods" per Jared's request.  It was odd for Jared to propose such an outing.  They had a great time and I stayed home catching up on odds and ends and enjoying the quiet time alone.

Shortly after they came back, our friend Christina arrived to watch the boys and I left them with the task of making a poster for "Pin the Tail Feather on the Goose" for the Michaelmas Party that night.  They made that and three "other" posters as I later found out. We then left for my doctor's appointment.

Chris came along on my doctor's visit because it included a sonogram to see how big Amber was.  They couldn't get a clear profile picture because she was moving and grooving so much.  However, they did notice that she has hair and hair on a sonogram is rather funny looking :-)  The estimate from the sonogram was 7lb 2oz but my OB said that had to be low.  The only thing strange about the appointment was for the first time in my life I had high blood pressure.  Chris thinks it was all the talk about putting bows in Amber's hair :-).  However, in a really cute, loving way, he wasn't taking it lightly and would have me sit and relax as much as he could the rest of the day.  He really wants her to make it to his birthday, and he worries about me enough as it is.

After the appointment, we took advantage of being alone and went out for a quick lunch date at Tijuana Flats. No hot sauce for me, too risky, as hot sauce is known to induce labor.  When we got home the boys had eaten lunch and completed their art projects.  Christina stayed around to help me organize (or at least I directed her and Chris in organizing) all the clothes issues; ie. find Lance's clothes for Jared, Jared's for Titus, get down Titus' clothes to find neutrals for Amber; get all of the other baby stuff for Amber out of the attic; put all the clothes Titus' had outgrown up in the attic and finally find someplace to put Amber's clothes. You get the idea, right? whew...  By the time all this was done, it was time for everyone to get ready to go to the Michaelmas Party.

Michaelmas is historically one of the four days in Europe in the past when servants were paid, and it was often combined with a harvest festival.  I came across it reading Jane Austen books, and it always seemed Michaelmas was the time of the year when characters in the books looked for something good to happen.  It has a lot of interesting folklore associated with it, but for us, it is just a great time to be with all of our friends in a time of fun, fellowship and food. 

When we arrived to setup the room, Chris sat me against a wall with my back to the door and my feet up, only allowing me to supervise the setup process.  Our friends started rolling in and good times were had by all. I adore Michaelmas, its so nice to see all our friends in one place together.  They are all so unique, and in most cases have no connection with each other beside being our friends.  It is amazing to watch how both the adults and kids mingle as if they were old friends.

Shortly after dinner, I moved to another table to talk with some friends, when Chris walks up behind me and announces he needs everyone's attention.  I look back and say "I'm about to be embarrassed aren't I?".  His simple reply with a wry smile was "Yes", and he continued on. He had gone into cahoots with a couple of my friends to combine Michaelmas with a Baby Shower for Amber.  It had been sixteen years since he has successfully pulled off surprising me.  I was totally clueless, didn't notice any of the near misses throughout the night and was impressed what they had done to pull it all off.  It was wonderful, I had all I could do not to cry by the kindness of the act by everyone.

After the shower, I needed to get up for a while and walked outside with a friend to see the kids and pass out the souvenir kites.  I ran into Jared and something seemed odd, so I put my hand on his chest and was a little concerned he might be having an SVT.  He is a-symptomatic when this occurs so its sometimes hard to tell without the monitor.  It was near time to leave, so we all packed up and headed home.  When we got home I asked Chris to run upstairs and get the monitor.  I was crushed to find out I was right, his pulse was 180.

One of Jared's cardiac conditions is called "Wolf Parkinson White Syndrome" which is what causes him to SVT.  SVT is simply a neuron misfiring in the heart muscle that causes the heart to beat too fast, if left untreated, the condition can be fatal.  The key is to catch it early in order to stop it (the longer it continues, the harder it is to stop) and decrease potential damage to the heart.  I asked Jared if he noticed when it started and we ascertained it was probably around 7pm.  So we called his cardiologist and began trying all the "tricks" in ours and our cardiologist's bag.

Prior to six weeks ago (August 18th), Jared had not had an episode in over two years.  Though the EKG said differently, as a mom I was starting to feel confident that God had made it go away.  When the episode happened six weeks ago, I was a little crushed but we were able to convert him at home.  The conversion process isn't fun, but in my eyes its always better than the ER.  Conversion is basically finding a way to get the heart to "reset" to a natural rhythm.  When it had happened two years ago, all we had to do was put him to sleep.  It had been many years since we had to do more.  However, when the SVT occurred on August 18th, it was in the middle of the day.  Thankfully, it was during a day when my good friend Mae was over with her kids for our joint piano lessons; beside being a great friend she's also a nurse.  First we tried to get him to rest, and per the doctor's instructions double-dosed him with one of his drugs, and when that didn't work we had to start a Vagal maneuver on him.  During all this time, Chris was biking home as fast as he could.  I HATE Vagaling.  I know we shouldn't say we hate things but in this case I have no other word to use.  One of the Vagal maneuvers is putting your child's face in a bucket of ice water for 4 seconds.  Jared was too young to remember the last time we'd had to do this, so I tried to sound cheery, and told him what we needed to do.  I told him to pretend he was a Penguin from Diego hunting for fish in a bucket of water.  He was all game until his head hit the water, then it was all over.  He was rightfully scared and resistant.  I hugged him and told him I understood but we had to do this.  Eventually I told him I would put head in at the count of three and I had to shove my sons head under water against great resistance.  Then I cuddled him close as he cried and I tried to comfort him.  Chris ran in right then and when we checked he had finally converted.  We had avoided the ER, but after the boys were in bed there was a lot of crying from the adults in the house.

So here we were again only 6 weeks later in the same position.  However, this time Jared knew what was up and he wanted nothing to do with putting his face in an ice bucket. Lance being a great big brother even put his head in once to encourage Jared to try.  Jared was not willing but nothing else had worked so Chris had to force him.  Chris was breaking his own heart in the process as he had to repeatedly push Jared's face into the bucket with Jared crying, screaming and trying to squirm away.  I sat behind the door praying and crying for both of them.  Unfortunately, this time to add insult to injury, even Vagaling did not work.  He fell asleep in our bed after this and I was hoping he might convert when he went to sleep. In the mean time, Chris called the doctor to report back our lack of success.  The doctor said we were out of time and tricks we had to go to the ER.  Waking your sleeping child to take him to the ER was just as heart wrenching as the Vagal maneuver.  Before we woke him, I called a few close friends to ask for prayer and I was nearly hysterical. Being only two weeks away from delivering, I'm sure my hormones were not helping any.  I then got it together, we woke him and headed to the hospital.  My father-in-law who had been away on vacation had arrived that evening for the Michaelmas party, so at least the rest of the boys could stay sleeping.

When we arrived at the ER, people kept assuming we were there for me and at the wrong entrance. I wonder why? ;-).  When we entered, the place was packed and there was a line at a registration desk with no one even there to help and no one at the triage desk either.  Chris took one look at this, saw the signs for the "Children's ER", said "I am NOT waiting for this", and walked right through security and up to the nurses desk carrying Jared the whole way.  He told the nurse his son was in SVT, which caused everybody to jump into action.  I had waited in the lobby, just in case we had to wait in line, but after Chris didn't come back for a while I worked my way back too.  When I got there Jared and Chris were in a room with about six other medical people, they were hooking him up to monitors and starting an IV line.  Jared was very brave and didn't get upset about the line at all.  Then Nurse "Ines" looks at Chris and I and recalls details about us being their about five years ago with Jared, Doctor "Jan" starts to recall it as well.  Sure enough this was the exact same doctor and nurse that had treated Jared the last time he was in the ER almost five years ago, and they remembered how things had proceeded.

Before trying the Adenosine, they wanted to try some Vagal maneuvers again, starting with some of the easier ones, but then having to move on to the ice water. They were all so calm and reassuring, but the ice water scares Jared immensely.  They tried it a few more times in trade for some ice cream, but the only results were a very wet bed and a very scared Jared. Jared is a very strong kid and recovered quickly. I think he realizes everyone is trying to help him. The stubborn part of him will only allow some things to be tried and nothing else. This left Adenosine as the next option.

Last time we were there, the drug did not work, and as they were preparing for using the paddles, when Jared fell asleep and his heart rhythm converted to back to normal (or God converted him, however you want to put it).

My understanding is the drug, has to make it to the heart in less than six seconds to have a chance at working and they can only try the drug a limited number of times.  On Friday night, they were down to the last try again.  This time they put a split-cock on the IV and Nurse Ines and Dr. Jan pushed through two doses back to back.  Chris was holding Jared's hand this whole time and everyone was saying encouraging words, while we stared at the monitor to see if it had worked this time. Their was a sigh of relief and lots of smiles around the room when the heart monitor showed an interruption in his heart rhythm and his pulse went progressively down from 180 to 90.  Jared was crying too at this point, apparently when it works it hurts.  He was so brave. Adenosine, when it works, causes the heart to flatline for a few seconds. This can be disconcerting to a conscious patient, and is associated with angina-like sensations in the chest.

They kept him in the ER for monitoring for another 90 minutes, during which time the doctor had kept her word and brought him some ice cream. We were discharged and arrived home around 2am.  When he converted, there are no words of thanks enough to God, the medical staff and the people all over the country we knew were praying at that moment for our precious little son.  That brings me to the blessing part of this post.

BLESSINGS

1. My dream set the stage for the day, reminding me God is always with us and working for our good whether we recognize it or not. He loves us immeasurably.  An important thing to be remember later that day.
2. Chris' job has been in limbo for a year, while waiting on the government to make a decision on which company was going to continue the contract he has worked on the past 10 years.  September 30th they finally confirmed his company was going to keep the contract for another five years.
3. The above is a double-blessing.  First, having a job and second, being at the same company for 12 years, he has built up a lot of seniority and subsequently a lot of vacation time and that lets him take days off almost at will, like Friday.
4. Chris being able to spend quality time in the morning enjoying time with his boys on a bike riding adventure.
5. Having a high blood pressure reading at the doctor.  If I had not, I might have ruined the surprise baby shower by being everywhere and talking to everybody like I normally am.  Also, I would not have rested as much during the day and never had the energy to survive the night ahead.  Ironically my BP is now back to normal.
6. Having someone like Christina to watch the boys.  Not only did it allow Chris to come with me to the appointment, it also allowed us some time together to charge up our relationship.  This was also important later that night, to get though it calmly and in unity.
7. A friend's baby girl fell asleep at the party.  She said she knew that meant she would be up late that night.  However, she said she used to get upset about things like that until she realized its all part of God's plan and just tries to find something she likes to do when her babies are up late.  Knowing she was going to be up late that night, allowed me to call her and reach out to ask for prayers.
8. Being connected in such a loving manner at the Michaelmas Party with our friends is what gave me the strength to call and ask for prayers that night.  As it was revealed to us how many people had prayed for Jared that night, we were both greatly humbled and thankful knowing that only He can truly heal.
9. Not being able to convert Jared at home.  I think I had started to believe, after avoiding the hospital for five years, that we could control his condition ourselves.  This was a gentle reminder that only He is in control.
10. Having all the right people in place at the hospital.  This has been the story of Jared's life. What are the odds of having the same nurse and doctor and having them remember you and the details of your son's case after five years?
11. Having Chris for my husband and friend.  Chris is usually very, very easy going and unassuming but at the hospital he was taking no prisoners and presented a force to be reckoned with.  That allowed me to sit back, comforted in his love and leadership.
12. Jared having two SVTs recently.  It's a reminder what really matters and that we should never take a single moment in time for granted.  I find myself cherishing all my children more and taking the time to stop what ever I'm doing to respect them as the priority they should be in my life.

Why Buy an iPad...

I am not a Mac person, I like Excel too much. I don't believe Excel for Mac is even a real product. I have not been an Apple fan either. I do not like video games, I think they turn kid's brains to mush, are addictive and cause behavioral issues, plus I cannot justify the cost. I do not even like the boys to spend much time on the computer. They spend nearly no time on them other than watching the videos I've created for Spanish and CC Review.  All our curricula is still workbook/book based.

With that being said, our adventure into the 21st Century started last year. We bought a Kindle for one simple reason:  I rationalized that it would save a couple thousand dollars and the space of about 300 books.  Specifically, the entire collection of R.M. Ballantine and G.A. Hentry was available on Kindle for Free/$8 ($4 each collection in MOBI format) vs. thousands for the hardback versions.

The Kindle has been nice but it is only a book reader and only in black and white.  I really like how easy it is on the eyes but I'm starting to realize the limitations.

My father-in-law (henceforth known as "FIL"), whom lives with us, bought an iPad first.  My then 18 month old was enamored and quickly figured out how to use it and switch between a couple toddler apps my FIL downloaded for him.  He quickly started to monopolize my FILs iPad at night, so my FIL graciously bought one for him/us.  

I really didn't expect to find much use for it, but if my FIL wanted to get it to make his life easier that was fine.

Tip on Buying:  Go to the Apple Refurbished Store to save hundreds of dollars and they have the same warranty as the new ones.  Also 16GB iPad 1, is fine for 99% of people, which will save you even more.

So the two year old now has his own ipad and of course that did not go unnoticed by his two older brothers. At this point I started looking at the different apps available and I was amazed at the breadth of educational apps.  It has a color reader too, and a kindle app.  However, I will note here that I do have eye strain if I try to read too long on the iPad vs. my Kindle. It's easy to bring anywhere, weighs about the same as my Kindle.  We can prop it up on the table to watch a quick education video on youtube, and I plan on using it with the PDF based Chemistry Science Curricula I bought for the fall.  In short it is much more useful than I ever imagined and in the long run much cheaper than a Wii, DS, etc. since apps are between Free-$5 vs. $35-$50 for games systems that have little education value.

Here are some of our favorite apps:

Issac Newton's Gravity:  "Got Gravity? Challenge yourself with the amazing physics puzzles in Isaac Newton's Gravity HD! Arrange your objects to hit the trigger and win! Make as many attempts as you want, but cleverness and creativity are key".
In addition to learning to solve over 100 interesting puzzles, you can also create your own puzzles.  My boys particularly like this part and I think its great because it allows them to apply what they've learned about physics but solving the other puzzles.  My two year old will even mess with the easier levels, once he's seen someone do it.  However, we encourage not using the "Hint" button for the older kids. After many months my 8 year old has completed all 100 levels (with dad's help) but I have to admit, they have to wait for dad because I can seldom solve them :-)

Cut the Rope HD:  "A mysterious package has arrived, and the little monster inside has only one request…CANDY! Help get the candy to Om Nom, the lovable star of the game, in this highly innovative and addictive puzzle game. Combining outstanding physics, devilishly tricky levels, and bright colorful High Definition visuals, Cut the Rope is one of the most original and fun-filled games on the App Store."
This game is not only adorable but very educational using more angular physics than "Issac Newton Gravity".  I also like that there are no hints, so the boys can't "cheat".  This is a game I CAN do and enjoy it just as much as the boys.

Dinosaur Chess:  Learn to Play!:  "Dinosaur Chess is the fun way to learn and play chess: Learn how to play chess with 11 bite-sized interactive lessons.  Over 20 mini games and puzzles. Play simplified and full chess."
I remember having an electronic chess game when I was a kid, and frankly it cheated.  When the boys showed an interest in learning, I first looked at similar games and apparently they had not made huge advancements (i.e. some still cheated), they were expensive and took up a lot of space but then I found this.  They boys love it!  First it teaches how to move each piece then gets into some of the lesser known moves and strategies.

Monkey Preschool Lunchbox:  This covers all the basic preschool skill:  Colors, Shapes, Letters, Matching, Counting, Puzzle and Spot the difference exercises.  This is the game Titus started using, I was amazed how quickly he could manipulate the game all by himself.  In short its cute, educational and has enough variety to keep the little ones interested for more than 30 seconds.

Stack the States:  "Stack the States makes learning about the 50 states fun! Watch the states actually come to life in this colorful and dynamic game! As you learn state capitals, shapes, geographic locations and more, you can actually touch, move and drop the animated states anywhere on the screen. Carefully build a stack of states that reaches the checkered line to win each level. You earn a random state for every successfully completed level. All of your states appear on your own personalized map of the United States. Try to collect all 50! As you earn more states, you begin to unlock the three free bonus games: Pile Up, Puzzler and Capital Drop. Four games in one!"
This game is a great accompaniment to CC Geography this year.