Funny Micah Sayings

One day, Micah was fussing about eating his oranges, which he usually likes. Here is one excuse he came up with: "I only eat them on Saturdays!!!" We all just started laughing!

After church, we usually go out to eat with a group of friends. One of my friends was suggesting that Micah get up off the floor and eat his lunch at the table, to which Micah responded, " My mom is talking to her friends, so I can do this." Doesn't that say a lot about my parenting? :)

Tonight, he did not like what was being served for dinner: "but it will give me cavities!!!" I had said this to him earlier when I found him sucking on yet another Halls lozenger.

It is lots of fun being Micah's mom :)

School Review

In our Creation to the Greeks curriculum, we are having a really great time this year reading through Genesis, although I do have to edit out quite a bit of material :) They know that when I have them shut their Bibles so they can't read along with me that it is something inappropriate for children to read! Today, we were discussing Jacob's twelve sons and filling out a sheet for their history notebooks on all the sons...Zeke noticed that along with the two wives of Jacob, two servants were also listed as moms! We did not focus our attention there, however! We have been learning a lot about Egyptian art over the last week, and this year, will turn our attention to Egyptian homes and home life. Aren't these pictures amazing, by Eli and Abby?! I have been tempted on many occasions to cut out the art portion of the curriculum, but I am glad that I have kept at it. However, we have been failing miserably with Vivaldi!!!


And this is Zeke's tomb painting.
In other subjects, Zeke is stellar at fractions! We've been focusing on mixed numbers for the last few lessons. He is, however, less than stellar at his English this year. The writing is actually going ok, but the grammar lessons are more of a challenge for him than they ever have been! I'm not exactly sure what is going on...we have decided to give him an extra English sheet as homework every night. He was not happy about this at first, but now that he sees that it is really not that much work, he has a good attitude about it. He also gets some math problems every night.

Abby is doing just fine in everything. She has been less than excited when we have a coloring sheet for our history notebooks, which I find very odd. She will sit and color many other things all day long...but balks at these sheets, for some reason. I could probably be pushing her a little more in math, she only does 2 sheets a day from the Beta Math U See book. I could add some drill work for her and that would probably be good.

Eli is flying through math; I still haven't found one thing to be challenging for him...sigh...a good problem to have, I know. He sits and reads SO MUCH when I am busy instructing the other kids. I'm trying to be better at fitting in our Five In A Row lessons. This week, my goal is to make an apple pie with him! He has been getting a little too much negative attention lately and needs some positive!

Micah is still loving any school work I have for him. He hates his naps, which he reminds me very loudly and says that the other kids "get to do so much more fun school and I get to do nothing". I don't agree :) I wish I would remember to pull out the play-doh more often for him, though. We did play with FLOAM one day, and he insisted that this hanging lantern was actually a birthday hat.

Awesome Field Trip!

We took a field trip to U of M's Museum of Archaeology last week, which my grandma has been asking me to do for about a year now! It was so perfect! It is not too huge and overwhelming, but they had a great collection of things from ancient Egypt and the Mesopotamia area...it was fun to see and read about things and actually know what some of the things mean!!!! I plan on going back when we are studying ancient Greece at the end of the year, and then next year for ancient Rome. They had a great little gift shop where I picked up a kit to make your own papyrus! And they have "Civilizations in a Box" that you can rent from the museum for $20 for 2 weeks. I got to see an example of one...it comes with lots of books, artifacts, videos...I might get one for Greece or Rome ( I do NOT need anything more for Egypt!).



Eli recognized the cartouche in this display and the kids were remembering what some of the hieroglyphs stood for...

Birthday Girl

On November first, Abby turned seven! She is a joy-filled little girl with a great grin and giggle! She is a wriggle-worm, creative, brilliant, compassionate, amazing little girl! Hope you had a great birthday, Bee-Gee! We celebrated with a dinner at Red Robin, then home for cake and presents and a friend tea party on Saturday! Too much fun! (yes, I'm exhausted, but loved getting everything ready for her party...if I had to choose a career, I would become a birthday party organizer--do those exist?)

Welcome to the family, Kit!

Halloween!

Airheads were a big hit for the trick-or-treaters!

Here is what Micah thought of pumpkin carving ;) More specifically, seeing all the guts come out of the pumpkins. I guess I could have been more compassionate and offered a hug instead of snapping a picture...but this child just cracks me up! I mean, look at him posing as Buzz!!! What a hoot!




Pumpkin carving was so much fun this year (not for Micah...) because the kids actually did it themselves! Micah did draw his own face for his pumpkin at least...the square eyes and big jagged mouth were his own ideas! I just love their creations!


And here we are on our annual stop at great-grandma's to trick or treat with her!

The Soccer Players

Eli had a great season this fall on his soccer team! We discovered that he is a pretty physical player, already using his arms and shielding. He got to score lots of goals this year, which is always fun!

Micah had a great time being an orange Tiger and Steve did a great job as the coach of their team, focusing on just having fun out on the field!


Zeke's team finished their outdoor season and immediately moved to their indoor season. They were amazing in their opening game last Saturday! This is his second year on this team, and we feel that it is a really good group of kids...but we are always praying for guidance on what the best thing for Zeke is. This experience is offering him many chances to deal with some difficult "life" situations, gaining life skills and maturity along the way. His mom likes the easy way out, but dad hangs right in there with him through it all!

I can't do it!!!!

Whew!

I just can't do it this year. What can't I do, you ask? Everything!!!! Laundry, dishes, laundry, school, training, meal planning, grocery shopping, cooking, read alouds, did I mention laundry?!?!?

I am more overwhelmed this year than ever before, I think! Two out of three soccer teams have ended, perhaps that will help a bit...Two birthdays and four parties have come and gone...a broken down car has been replaced...but I really don't see things slowing down for the next...oh...15 years?!

Really, I wouldn't have it any other way. I have the life I always dreamed about, I am so incredibly blessed! I just get tired sometimes! And overwhelmed. I start desiring my own time and selfish agendas. I'm sure most of you have been there too...

I hope that sometime before Christmas I have time to sit down and actually write down a weekly grocery list, and make it to the grocery store for that week!