Goodbye Crooked Finger...

A week ago today Paige had surgery to remove a bony tumor in her finger (technical name: osteochondroma). The surgery went well. She went to sleep happy (she told me this) and woke up happy (I was witness to this). It was a little nerve racking for her parents because the surgery was supposed to take 30 minutes and ended up taking 1 hour and 45 minutes because she's a tiny kid with a tiny crooked finger :) Jason and I know that God is in control and we know that anesthesia is generally safe (this is our fifth experience with a kid being put under). But its still a little tense while you are waiting to hear that everything went ok!

The biggest deal was going to be keeping Paige from removing her bandage. Harhar. Well, we didn't have to worry about that for too long because Paige removed it that very afternoon! I made a frantic call to the surgeon while Paige's incision dripped blood and she remarked at how it didn't hurt (poor kid--the nerve block was still in effect. The pain would come later.). Doctor's orders were to re-bandage it and use the fingers on either side of the affected finger as splints. Oh and to try to keep her from whacking her hand for the next couple of weeks. Hmmm. Real fun considering this is how Paige spends her days:



So we've been trying to stick to quiet games, like dress up.


And playing with rusty clippers.



Oh, this is the finger the evening after surgery. Yuck! It looked much more bruised the following day but I didn't manage to snap a picture.

Storm in the Night

Last we did "Storm in the Night" by Mary Stolz. Nice story and appropriate for our week because we actually had a few storms (and one was at night too!). We did a little lesson on weather, mainly focusing on thunderstorms. We read the thunderstorm book by Magic School Bus and that was a hit. We touched a bit on the five senses--the girls' favorite activity was when we all piled into my closet and turned off the lights and noticed how much better we hear and smell without our sense of sight.

We also talked about fear and our verse for the week was Isaiah 43:5 "Do not be afraid, for I am with you;". Once again, GREAT story for this past week as on a occasion we deal with a little thunderstorm anxiety around here!

A nice side note: the heavy rains we were blessed with gave us the largest amount of rainfall our area has received since July of 2007! Amazing! This drought has been so bad--our lawn was really suffering (not that this is the most important thing but its where the effects of the drought were most felt by our family). Now its all green and overgrown--gorgeous! A lawn in central Texas is really something worth preserving--locals know what I mean! Huge mushrooms sprouted up all over the yard. I have never seen fungi like this in Texas!

Photo session

So we decided to do a little photo shoot in our backyard since we have precious few pictures of all four girls together. Oh man. It was like...well...exactly like trying to get four little kids to all look at the camera at the same time (everyone's eyes open and no goofy faces or panties showing). I think we took over fifty photos. These are some of the best:






Looks like I'm about to flip Jason the bird.

Oh I almost forgot...

Last Friday we went to homeschool day at Pioneer Farms--a local historical site where you can see how the pioneers lived in Texas before the time of air conditioning, running water, electricity, etc. I can say with absolute certainty that I would have turned my wagon back east after spending a summer in Texas under those primitive conditions. I didn't get a lot of pictures because my camera battery died and then I used my iphone and only got a few pictures with that. It was really fun though--the girls loved and we can't wait to go back. Oh--we had rented "Old Yellar" the weekend before and so the girls recognized several things from the movie. They were wondering where the rabid animals were though.

Little girl dressed up in authentic "pioneer garb". The girls thought she lived here :)


Paige next to the "potty". Right after I told the girls this was the outhouse Paige decided to start stripping to try it out!



Big evil longhorn cow. This thing acted nice--was letting the kids pet it and then it started trying to gore people.


Hailey trying out the stilts.





Penny, good little baby that she is, slept a good deal of the tour.

Our first two weeks of school.

I'm so happy to say that our school year got off to a pretty good start! The first book of the year was "How to Make an Apple Pie and see the World" by Marjorie Priceman. What a fun book! We got to "visit" many countries so the first thing we did was to make passports. We got to borrow Jason's and the girls enjoyed examining it.

We ended the week by making an apple pie (of course). The two big girls helped measure the ingredients and assemble the pie. I don't really do a lot of baking and had never made an apple pie before either (if we are going to eat dessert then the girls and I prefer chocolate and Jason is not a huge fan of pies). It turned out to be so good I think we'll make one from time to time!




























The second week we did "Clown of God" by Tomie dePaola. Good story but kind of heavy--it dealt with a lot of social issues (orphans, mean people, homelessness, etc). We spent time talking about why some people feel like they have to be mean and how much it hurts others when they aren't treated with respect. We also made a list of things we are thankful for. We learned how to say "thank you" and "good bye" in Italian. And we watched a few videos of jugglers on youtube (we found a video of a teenager who could juggle knives while riding on a unicycle!!). The girls tried to juggle--each tried it exactly once before they decided that juggling was a lot more difficult than it looked :)

Our routine seems to be working pretty well. I decided that doing school five days a week is a little much at this time--especially for the new kindergartner. She loves her special portion of school ( phonics) but I noticed she was getting a little burnt out when we did three days in a row. In the future I plan on doing different lessons (besides Sing, Spell, Read, and Write and possibly Five in a Row) on Wednesdays and possibly Fridays. Hopefully this will keep things from getting monotonous. That is the last thing I want--for anyone to dread school. We've got several projects that I'd like to do this fall--raising butterflies/moths for example.

Oh this week we are OFF. Monday was lost to a holiday and Wednesday Paige had an afternoon of pre op stuff for her finger surgery next week. This morning we had to be down at Childrens Hospital for for Reese's check up with her gastro doctor. Plus the baby has had a bit of a cold and has been a bit cranky and needing more Mom time :) But next week we'll be ready to get back into the swing of things!

New Year

This summer is coming to a close. We are back into our school routine next Monday, August 24th. The girls and I are very excited! This third year of homeschooling will be unlike any other that we've had before. For starters, Ms. Reese is ready to begin kindergarten so I will be teaching two! I'm going to use "Sing, Spell, Read, and Write" with her like I did with Hailey. I am hoping it will work for her as well as it did for Hailey. Another new thing, well, is our new family member! Paige was 14 months old when Hailey officially began kindergarten. Penny will be almost three months old so this is the first time we've homeschooled with a little baby in the household. I probably shouldn't be as worried about Penny as I am about Paige. Our resident three year old is "challenging"--you know, the nice way to describe a child that absolutely drives you crazy and wears you out!

Anyway, I'm still mentally tweaking our routine--and will most likely continue to do so until things "work"--but so far I've come up with a daily schedule which looks like this:

7:30: Mom up, everyone eating breakfast, Mom checking e-mail, starting on her chores while the girls watch a bit of morning PBS
8:30: TV off, girls begin their morning chores, Mom spends time with Paige helping her do her chores and reading a story or two to her.
9:30: we gather together for our morning devotional
9:45ish: we have a snack as we read our "Five in a Row" book and then do the associated activities until lunchtime
12:00 Lunch
12:30ish clean up from lunch
12:45: reading time--Hailey reads to us (later Reese will join in), Mom reads from a chapter book
After reading we will take a break and clean up if needed (or just have some "playtime) until...
2:30: get the little girls down for their naps
3:00: work with Hailey and Reese individually
4:30-5: start dinner prep (I'm planning on having each of the older 3 girls taking turns helping me with dinner each night)
6-6:30 (whenever Jason gets home): dinner time
Kids play until 7:30 when we clean up for the evening and do baths
8:30-9: hopefully all the little people are in bed by this time!

Now I am not the most experienced homeschooler but I know that these times are not exact at all--when you are working with little ones things do come up (4 kids+1 mom= plenty of opportunity for character training haha)! Plus I never want to be so tied to a schedule that we don't have time to watch a baby bird hopping on the lawn or read an extra chapter of a book that we are all enjoying. And we certainly want to enjoy our own little baby and all the of growing she's going to be doing :)

Wanderlust

I am suffering from a seriously strong urge to travel. Not sure if its the hot weather keeping us indoors for most of the day, that I'm feeling incredible now that I'm not pregnant, or that I have not left the Austin area in over eight months (that I can think of...) but I have the urge to get the heck out of town! (Oh and everyone I know keeps going on vacation!) I've taken to perusing websites for cruises, vacation rentals, America's best beaches, and Expedia.com (great deals on last minute trips!!). But so far the furthest I've been able to go has been downtown to the Children's Museum.

Jason says I am this way after I have a baby. I wouldn't be surprised. Even at best, I feel only half way decent while pregnant. It doesn't hit me how difficult it has been until after I give birth and suddenly feel terrific!! I just want to go, go, go right now! Cram Penny in a sling and hit the trails or the beach!

Anyway, here are some pictures from our "trip" downtown. It was fun--the staff from a local vet clinic were there with some creepy crawlies (tarantulas, bearded dragon, turtle, and a python) so that made our visit even more fun! The girls had a blast even though the place was PACKED OUT!!




Future veterinarian?



Experimenting with pulleys, parachutes, and cows.


Penny slept the entire time!


Paige sawing cardboard.


Hailey "milking" a cow.