Half way through already!

I was tossing some bread crumbs out for the birds and enjoying a pretty sunrise with tea in hand this morning. And I started thinking about how lucky I feel to get to stay home with my kids and teach them. There's no rushing off to work, rushing out the door to school, rushing, rushing, rushing in the mornings. I was watching some of my neighbors as they scurried out their doors, jumping into cars, running down the sidewalk to the bus, etc... and I just felt overwhelmingly blessed all of a sudden. It's not a perspective I view often enough. Too often I'm feeling sorry for myself, caught up in the every day mundane of repetitive chores and the feeling that I have to "do everything around here". I often feel overwhelmed by the fact that since my husband works long hard hours, usually six days a week, I'm often raising our four children, seemingly alone. But. But when I step back and see it for what it is. The beauty in all the little moments. Really getting to watch my kids grow and change before my very eyes. The relatively relaxed flow of our lives. Well then I feel a wee bit ashamed of all the feeling sorry for myself that I do in my head sometimes. Because honestly I should be walking around with a dang smile on my face 24/7!

So now, a glimpse into our every day school schedule. :) I was going to take pictures through out one day and write a blog post about it... but I only remembered to pick up the camera a couple times, ha ha! So these pictures are spread out over the course of a week.  History and science we are mostly covering with books, science journals, some science projects and a few craft projects. I wish that I was better at having them do more craft projects for history, but I always think about it after the fact. Maybe I'll be better at that next year.

My mom came down so the kids could show off what they have been learning to her, and she took this sweet picture of us all. :)

Tea while teaching is a must. :) The tag said herbal wisdom in a cup, so fitting for the moment. 

This made me giggle, can you tell what Spike was trying to spell?

Reading! He's really improved a lot this year. Hardly any tears any more. :)

Spike snuck this picture of me teaching, while he was waiting for his turn to read.  See that big binder, curriculum gold right there. :)

Creative writing poems.

Squeezing in some swimming lessons. The boys are going to take turns with these, easier on the pocket book. :) I want to find some other activities for the kids as well to add into our schedule. But they have to be affordable, and I also want to me mindful not to make our schedules too hectic. We are an active family anyways, with hiking, bike riding, exploring the great outdoors, so I'm not too worried about whether they are getting enough physical activity. :)

This is the program Atty is using to learn to read, and he really likes it. I'm amazed by how far he's come!

Time for some math! Notice that piles of book on the table are a regular theme through out the day. :)

Ira's turn. Most of our school work seems to be done at the dinning room table after all. It just works better that way. Then the rest can keep playing in the playroom, and there's less distractions for the ones that are working. Plus I can sometimes sneak some chores in while they are working. Multi tasking as always. 

Little math whiz. :) Jumped into first grade math no problem and is rapidly catching up with Bubu.

Of course we had to fit in some Valentines day craft time...

Atty working on a large floor graph. Part of his math work for the day. Saxon math is pretty hands on and uses a lot of manipulative. My kids seem to respond pretty well to this.
{On a side note, those high heel gray ankle boots are my new favorite. I bought them on a whim, something way out of my usually comfort zone, and I absolutely adore them!} :)

Nice thing about homeschooling, you can read where every you are most comfortable, wearing pj's if you feel like it. 

Reading machine! :)

Food prep in the kitchen. Home economics, a little math, hey it all counts. ;) This particular time they were helping me make fermented cabbage, so good for you! Good for the gut. :) It's sauerkraut the way it's suppose to be made. :)  The kids love helping in the kitchen, they actually bicker over it, which can get a tad annoying. Might need to start a kitchen helper schedule. :)

The boys busy working in some of their workbooks. 

Our current books, the reading changes constantly changes depending on the topics being covered.

So there you have it, a week in the making and I still feel like I missed a bit. But it's down and documented, so I'll stick with that. :) Today we had some nice {as in sun shining, but still cold} weather and I am itching for spring. We cut our school day a bit short and opted for sunshine instead. I think I have a harder time staying indoor and doing schoolwork on a sunny day then the kids do, ha ha! They helped me garden, and we talked about this, that, and the other. Still learning in my book. :)

Sickness, birthday parties, more sickness, and birds!

So I have a very good reason for being behind in blogging about Atty's birthday... we had some sort of nasty virus sweep through our house in the last couple weeks, and it was awful! Atty and I got sick at the same time, and my husband had to work... so not only was I super sick, but I had to take care of all the kids on my own and deal with a girl that was just starting to get better. I was so afraid that Atty's high fever was going to trigger a seizure! I'm happy to report though that it did not. :) At the same time our hot water tank died, and in order to get feverish kids into a luke warm bath I had to warm water on the stove, rustic style. It was ridiculous. I'm still exhausted, because of course I didn't really get to rest and recoup... I'm a mom.

 I was sick right up until the day before Atty's birthday. And of course I had to go shopping and make all of his magic food from scratch. I was not feeling it. But I forced myself to get it done because there really wasn't any other option {Or honestly I would have took it, I was feeling that lousy.} 

 Radar was worried about us. :)

 Everything worked out though, Atty felt better by his birthday {just barely} and we had a wonderful celebration. 

 He is still very much into birds, and loves getting things for his ever growing bird collection.

 The cake was a huge success, best one yet. {I've made many flops with his magic diet food.}

So the rest of that week after his birthday Bubu and Spike took turns being sick. Poor things. Poor mommy! It seemed to last about three days for each kid and they all took turns, so it seemed never ending to me! But thanks to lots of supplements, home made broth, and homeopathic meds, and steam tents, they bounced back as good as ever fairly quickly. In comparison to so many people we know who have become ill this winter. In fact, thankfully, they were all better by the weekend and we got to go to the Sardis Raptor Center for some more birthday fun.

 Atty was in awe. There were all sorts of beautiful regal birds of prey there.

 This one was my favorite. Apparently this smart bird still caught his own live prey by placing strips of his meat that they feed him in his wire cage. When a bird would land to investigate, we would snap their necks. Crazy! He also "talked" to us for a long time, the kids loved that. :) 

 This bald eagle had quite the story! She was part of a rehabilitation program {I think she was rescued as a baby} and when she was  release into the wild it was a big fat fail. She found a family up in the woods and demanded that they feed her. When they didn't she ended up attacking the man and he ended up in the hospital with a bunch of stitches in his head. So she had to be recaptured. They couldn't figure out how to trap her because she could fly, so they set out a rubix cube for her. She was super interested in it and then someone just walked up and captured her while she was distracted. So they named her Einstein. :) 

I guess she's pretty dangerous because she's not afraid of humans at all. All of the kids were warned not to stick their fingers into the cage. Yikes!

 We were lucky because we know some one who works there {and his mom owns the place}, so we got to go on a special tour to see some very pretty birds. These birds are not part of the normal tour. Atty was so excited! But wow was in noisy in there!

 Well hello gorgeous! The kids got to feed some of these birds peanuts, and they thought that was pretty neat. :)

We ended the trip with a picnic next to the eagles, even though it was cold out. Pretty cool! I'd love to take the kids back in the summer when it's much warmer out... :)

So there you go, busy, busy, busy, even when I'm sick. My husband got sick as well over the weekend, but guess what... he got to sleep all day Sunday. Stinker. {That said he did work on Saturday even though he didn't feel well, and went right back to work on Monday. So I'll try not to be too jealous of his day of slumber.}This was the first time we all got sick all year, so I hope it stays that way! I am so ready for spring. I really dislike January and  February, I wish it went straight from Christmas into spring. Plus we didn't get ANY snow this year, what a dreary winter. I hope the rest of February and all  of March goes by in a wink, because my garden is calling to me! :)

Up next I am going to attempt a blog post update on our school year. So exciting! ;) 

Through the eyes of the littles...

So every thing settled back down again. :) I finally got my first full night of sleep and it was awesome. Of course the last few days I've had some awful insomnia, but I made it into a good thing by reading some great books. :) Now if I could just make these giant bags under my eyes into a good thing. ;)

We survived the awful sickness my girl and I, thankfully no one else got it!

A picture where I prove that yes indeed I do have giant bags under my eyes... ;)

So lately little munchkins have been getting their grubby little hands on my camera. They absolutely love taking pictures! I use to be really strict about them leaving my camera alone, but I let them go crazy with it the other day and it was actually sort of awesome. Seeing the world through their eyes. Of course I did have to delete a ton of pictures, close ups of carpet and such things. But well I'll let the others speak for themselves. :)

I think La took this one. :)

There we a ton like this, just stuff around the house, but something about the angle and what they focused on made it cute to me. :)

This must be a survival show, a new favorite around here. :)

Dinos on the march!

Rio at his finest, ha ha!

For some reason there were also lots of pictures of them eating and close ups of their food, not sure what means. 

This little dude is pretty good at self portraits. :)

This one made me laugh so hard!

So did this one. One of the best pictures, ever!

I like this one because Atty would hold that cat all day if he could. :)

This happens a lot, apparently Rio needs to be snuggled in when he takes a nap. :)

My little frogger. :)

 So there you have it. Through the eyes of my children, mostly just Spike and La. :) I'll have to hand the camera over to Bubu and Atty soon and see what they come up with.

On another note... La had her first sleep over! At her best friends house, which happens to be all of five minutes away. {Which made it easier on me!} I had a really hard time with it, but she was totally fine. It was her friends fourth birthday and all she wanted was a sleep over with La for her birthday. So how could I say no? Because I trust the mom {who is a friend of mine} I let my little girl go, and I'm glad I did because she was beaming when she got home. She was so proud of herself and really had a great girly time. :) You would think that after having four kids I'd be a bit more relaxed about this stuff, but I'm not. In fact I can count on one hand how many times my kiddos have gone on a sleep over. 

Doesn't she look so big! All ready for her sleep over. :)

And now so that no one in the family is left out, I'll end this post with a picture of the monster that use to be a cute little puppy. ;) Well lets face it he's still cute, just not little. His head reaches the table top now!

So regal. :)

This is the week that never ends... I think I've said that before. ;)

So this has been a long couple weeks... Don't even know were to start! First off the kid I nanny for got sick and it was a miserable week with a sad little guy. A struggle to keep homeschooling {and everything else that needs to be done} and balancing that with a sick one. It can be so emotionally taxing! Not to mention exhausting. Then that weekend my friend came over to spend the weekend at our house, she has been going through some major life changes {I've written about it before on here} and she's really come amazingly far in 6 short months, I'm so proud of her. But it's still rough, and can be emotionally overwhelming for me at times, trying to support her and be there for her, especially in the really needy times. Well this last weekend was one of those times because her dog, who she loves dearly, had cancer and she was having to come to terms with the fact that he needed to be put down. He was old and in pain and throwing up non-stop, among other gross and sad things. So right when she got to my door she was sobbing, who can blame her? She left an abusive husband of 14 years, started her whole life over again with her young daughter and her dog, her best friend through it all, is dying. It was harsh. It's one of those two steps forward, ten steps back moments. We talked about it that night and I could see the difference in her dog, and I had a feeling that she was right, it was time. Well that next morning I woke to puke all over my house, that poor dog vomited all night long! And there was blood in the vomit... I had a sobbing friend cleaning up dog puke on my floor, and it stunk so bad I wanted to puke and I hadn't even fully woke up yet. I was at a loss. We both decided it was time, she needed my help with that, a second opinion, because it was so hard for her to let go. We went that day and put her dog down and it was one of the hardest things I have done in a long time. I can't even fathom what it was like for her. We cried hard. I tried not to, because I could tell she needed me to be the strong one, but I just could stop some tears from sliding down. She whispered to him that her and her daughter were safe now, that it was okay and he could let go. That every thing was going to be okay, that he was the best friend she ever had. She thanked him, and comforted him and hugged him until he passed on, and then she sobbed right there on the floor holding her dead dog. The thing is this amazing almost 12 year old dog had hung in there for 7 years after being diagnosed with cancer... Seven years! Then right after she left her abusive husband he started going down hill, and when they finally got their own place last month it's like he just let go. He knew they were safe and he didn't need to guard her any more. It broke my heart seeing those two as she said goodbye to him. He was truly her best friend. Makes me tear up even now thinking about it. What a loyal and loving dog.  We barely made it out to the car before falling apart. I desperately pulled out every encouraging thing I could thing of to keep her centered. I was afraid she was going to have a panic attack again. But she made it through, crying off and on for the rest of the day. Then that night I was afraid again because she started to get really worked up once more, but I had her do a foot soak with super warm water, bath salts, and lavender, then made her some sleepy time tea, some chamomile and lavender tea, and gave her some naturally relaxing stuff like Magnesium and Motherwort tincture, and she got sleepy and went to bed. Emergency averted. :) Sometimes it pays to know that natural stuff. Anyways during all this my girl got sick with the same thing that the boy I nanny for had. It's some awful virus that comes with a off again on again fever, body aches, and sores on the inside of the mouth as well as a painful and red throat. Just ugly. And it lasts for like 10 days! She is still getting over it! Not sleeping worth a lick. So of course neither and I. Urrrrggggg! She crabby, irritable, and super sensitive about everything. She doesn't want to eat, she wants to be held all day long, I could go on and on. And the thing is I know she doesn't feel good and I am trying so hard to be sympathetic, but I'm exhausted at this point. I want to run away! Thankfully no one else got this nasty thing, so that's one good thing. Except my dog did randomly get sick during all this and was up all night as well with diarrhea and vomiting {he got into something, it's the lab in him that makes me eat all kinds of nasty}. That was awful, and just figures since I'm already not getting enough sleep. That night it alternated between cries from Lala, and desperate barking from the dog. At least he didn't go potty in his crate, that would have been a mess I don't ever want to have to clean up. So anyways last night I waited patiently {not really} for my husband to get home from work, and then I was off to visit the library. By myself. I dreamed about it all day long, the quiet, the excitement of new books, wandering around in the grown up section with out any grabby little hands. With out having to say shush over and over again. ;) Mostly just having a moment to myself. But when I got there the library was closed. I cried all the way home. Ugly cried. All. The. Way. Home. That's how you know you've had a long couple weeks. I couldn't hide the fact that I had been crying, so when I got home my husband looked at me all worried. I choked out that the library was closed, and he asked me if I had been crying, to which I responded by starting to cry all over again {I hate that}, then he asking if I was crying because the library was closed, to which I shook my head yes. Instead of making fun of me or belittling it, he took me in his arms and said he understood that I just wanted a moment to myself and I deserved one and he was sorry. That meant the world to me in that very moment and made every thing okay. Weird I know. I'm just so thankful for a wonderful man who knows me so well, and loves every little bit of me regardless of my many flaws, and my ridiculous emotional outbursts. :) Sigh. So even though my girl is still sick, I think she's headed in a good directions and I am hoping against hope that there will be a moment of reprieve this weekend.
This is the week that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friends... I don't know why I still look forward to the weekends as if they were days off, I have four kids and a house to clean and food to cook... but dang it it's hard to let go of that thank God for Fridays feeling. :)

Meet the Burb...

See these 

 Happy

 Shining 

 Faces?

Can you guess why?

Yep... We finally found the one.

Our new Burbie, as the kids call it. :) Burb for short.

I love it! The dealership that we got it from is simply amazing, and they worked a Christmas miracle for us!  They are a family own business, and they have great customer service and admirable business practices. I was blow away! {Hinton Chevrolet in Lynden for anyone whole lives in the area.} In fact the very day we purchase the Burb we heard some sort of sound when we got close to home, so we called them. {I'll admit I was thinking, great here we go again, bought it from a dealership and it's going to be nothing but a head ache after all. Too good to be true and all that.} Long story short, even though we signed at least three paper stating that we did not have a warranty, they fixed what ended up being a very expensive problem... for free, with out any hassle, they were so sweet and caring about it! I've just never experienced anything like it. It was always nothing but hassle dealing with the Kia dealership when we had our car and then our van, and anytime I've ever stepped onto a car lot. So this has been very refreshing! The kids are happy, the grown ups are happy, and we are so glad to be able to roll again. :)

I'm still in denial about the cost in gas though. 

;)

I wish they made more environmentally friendly big family cars... that we could afford. At least we won't be driving it around all that much. My husband carpools for the most part, but I think as soon as we can we are going to need a small commuter car for the trips without kids. That will make me feel a little less guilty.

So anyway a month without a vehicle has come to an end! Yay!

Happy New Year!

Midnight kisses, looking forward to another year with my love. :)

So like usually we headed up to the mountains on new years day. It's quite a drive, but it's so worth it!
Lucky girl got pulled on the sled almost the whole entire time...

We had some fun sledding together, I loved hearing her shout "Woo-Hoo" as she flew down the hills.
That's her new thing to shout, usually followed by "Party!" Makes her daddy nervous for what the future might hold. ;)

It's the walk back up that tires you out. :)

Of course Spike wanted to go the highest and sled the farthest and be the fastest... and he was. 

Atty only sled for a little bit, then he wanted to hang out with his Neenee. :)  He climbed all the way up this steep slope to get to her.

Head first is the way to go...

Bubu was so excited to finally play in some snow! He told me it made him sad to leave...

They saw their favorite Auntie for a moment before we had to head home. 

It was a fun day spent in the snow, a great way to start out the new year. And to top it off our Suburban that we just got {I think I mentions that I totaled the van} was a dream to drive up in the mountains. We had it packed to overflowing with our family and two friends, and we still had room to ride comfortably. Love it!!! My husband was glad to report that the four wheel drive worked just fine. It's a used vehicle, so he was afraid we might be in for a nasty surprise... but so far ever thing has just been wonderful with it. Don't know how I ever survived without one. ;)