Middle of the Semester Exhaustion...

Anyone else feeling a little bit worn down??? I know I am! We have been staying busier than I ever wanted to be, but things are going well. Here are a few pics to keep the blog up to date.

A pic I took of Addie as we played "airplane", her laying on my feet and me lifting her up into the air.

All the kids at our first Book-It. Addie even got to participate and she had a blast! Carter, of course, had a fabulous time too, as he always does.

This is not a pretty picture but it shows the big ol' spot where a pipe burst between our bedroom and bathroom wall. We lost some sheetrock and some carpet padding, but thanks to fabulous neighbors who knew their stuff, the damage was minimized.

Addie ready to make further repairs to our room. She LOVES this ladder!

A salamander that has shown up twice in our house! The first time, it was hanging out in the bathroom, spying on me. Seriously. It would have scared the pants off of me had my pants not already been off! It blended in perfectly... THEN it showed back up in Carter's room and he thought it was a toy, picked it up and flipped out when it started wriggling. It has the same half-tail as the one that was being voyeuristic in my bathroom, so I'm guessing it's the same one. Next time he comes around, I'm buying a terrarium. I think he might want to stay...

Addie Can!

My baby.

When we first decided to homeschool, my concerns were mostly for her. In spite of all of the warnings that I wouldn't be able to give my intelligent son all he needs, I knew I could just get my hands on some great books and he would soar. I figured we would worry about high school sciences when we got there and if we had to do something different we would, but that was no reason to not bring him home now. But he taught himself to read when he was three. He went to school knowing most of what he needed to know, and he came home to school knowing most of what he needed to know. The rest is gravy.

But my little girl is a regular four-year-old. She didn't teach herself to read when she was three. She is incredibly creative and intelligent in her own right, and we celebrate her accomplishments every bit as much as we celebrate those of the one who bears the heavy and often burdening label of "gifted" (one that we, coincidentally, don't use often in his earshot).

I feared teaching from the beginning, from scratch. What if I shortchanged her? What if she was twelve and couldn't read because I did something dreadfully wrong?

Well, we started with a kindergarten curriculum this year, after hearing several times last year, "Mommy, teach me to read!" We have thus far covered the short and long vowel sounds, the sounds that each consonant makes, and the one and two vowel rules. She is blending well and knows 28 sight words. SO... I pulled out the first Abeka reader yesterday (we don't use Abeka but a friend gave us some old readers and these are as good as any others when it comes to sounding out short words and controlled vocabulary), Tim Can, just to see what she did with it. I sat with her and helped make letter sounds and reminded her of her rules, but she mostly did it on her own.

You know what?

Addie can! She can read a short reader! Now, I'm not saying she can read her Bible or any book, but that baby can sound out short words. My heart is swollen with love and excitement for her. She has come farther faster than I thought she would be able to. It's been hard work, but she loves to work hard, and she loves to measure her progress.

Just Life...

We have stayed too busy lately. I feel like I am having to work very hard to find the balance with this homeschooling life. You want to have friends, to play with others, to interact, sure. But friends are not the point of homeschooling for us. The point for us is to help our children develop into well-rounded young people who have a heart for God and a view of the world that is accurate but compassionate. Friends do come into that equation. I caught myself saying "yes" to a few too many things, and that rushed us with chores, piano practice and lessons, and schoolwork. I have now decided to not schedule playdates more than once a month, because our normal weekly routine has us interacting with others enough to not worry about development. I have begun to realize that this development I am referring to is really something that comes naturally anyway, and not something that can be orchestrated.

Well, anyway, enough rambling. Here are a few things we've been up to lately:


The kids having found the hidden treasure of new books and a few pieces of candy. We started reading some adventure stories and so we had an adventure of hunting treasure to kick us off.

Carter built a ziggurat out of Legos. We were talking about how the Tower of Babel was most likely a ziggurat in our history lesson. He proceeded to build one. I did help some but he had a set design in his mind.

Addie's "fake Uggs". She begged for a pair last year (we're not fashionistas, so I have no idea why she even knew or cared about boots) but we didn't get any. This year, as we were shopping for some fall clothes, there was money to buy a pair and so we did. Here she is, in new pajamas and fake Uggs. It's way to warm to wear them but in true womanly fashion, she loves shoes...

I tried my hand at making orange danish rolls from scratch. I don't normally brag on myself but these things were FINE! I figured it's still flour and butter and sugar, but at least there are no preservatives or chemicals in them. I won't make them TOO often but I'm glad to have found a substitute for the canned delights.

And then I tried my hand at cinnamon rolls. They were really good too... Above, they are pictured rising. Below, they are pictured finished and covered with gooey icing. I'll just say that my husband and children were happy...