Garden Casualty, Numero Dos

Nicholas picked blueberries for me yesterday. Except that they were still green. And he picked about 4 dozen.

I should probably fence the whole garden in, but the boys do enjoy exploring there. And what a learning opportunity! We have had a fabulous time, finding (and relocating) caterpillars, trying to identify them and even little experiments to see which leaves are their favorites.

I may not have much of a garden come June (the Houston summer will probably do it in by then anyhow), but I can definitively say that we have enjoyed the process!

Happy Birthday!

And speaking (below) of that awesome husband of mine, he celebrates his birthday today! Happy birthday honey! We all love you very much!

The cake for today - Yellow cake with chocolate chips topped with chocolate fudge icing!

Tis the Season

Have I fallen off of the face of the Earth lately? Judging by the (lack of) phone calls to family and the absence from this blog, you might think that I have! But alas, I am here. Between the prep work for next school year and baseball, things have been hopping.

Did I mention the baseball? The last several weeks have seen us at the field an average of 5 nights a week. That's only with a 7 and 5 year old! Next year, Philip gets to start. I used to joke that with four boys, we should really look into those houses across the street from the baseball/soccer fields. I am still saying this, only I am no longer joking.

Although it may sound like I am complaining, I am not. Really. I LOVE sports. Especially baseball. I grew up attending baseball games left and right. Spring break often times found us traveling to someone's spring training camp in either Florida or Arizona. And the most memorable date that Colin and I had was a Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley field. We were headed to Virginia to visit my Grandma, and he planned to trek out of the way to Chicago because I had always wanted to attend a game at Wrigley. How awesome is he!

So I don't mind all of the baseball this time of year brings. And besides, with needing two uniforms cleaned several times a week, I might even get my laundry caught up!

Thoughtful

I am so glad that my young, almost 2 year old wants to share. And I am hungry. But the pretzel with all of the salt licked off?

I think that I'll pass.

A Job Well Done

People who work in Marketing really know what they are doing. Especially when you work for the big guys.

Disclaimer: My kiddos watch oh so little TV. We don't have cable, and 99% of what they view is on DVD. So what gets through to them is pretty good.

Brennan and Nicholas were playing in the toy kitchen today. Brennan informed me "We got hungry for a snack, so Nicholas and me(I) decided to have a happy meal."

McDonald's should be proud.

Eclectics are us

This weekend, I attended our Catholic Homeschoolers conference here in Houston. The key note speaker was none other than Laura Berquist. Wow! Talk about inspiring! It almost made me rethink our dismissal of the Classical method. Almost.

I agree with her principles and many of her goals. I even bought and attempted the Kindergarten lesson plans with Brennan last year. Attempted I say, because we made it through about 12 weeks. That's it.

Our problems seemed to be in every subject (well, almost). Math, I was using Horizons because I thought the Golden Step Ahead workbooks would be too lax. Looking at her curriculum down the road, I struggled with the notion that the kiddos would not have any Calculus in high school, much less the two years of it that I had received. And Science seemed weak. We were taking the 100 Easy Lessons book way faster than she had stated. I thought she went straight to Writing Road to Reading (I was wrong, BTW). And after the fourth week, Brennan cringed every time I told him that it was time to draw the Bible story. This from the kid who loves to draw.

So this year we went all Charlotte Masony, with a little of this, a little of that! Things went much better. We incorporated some of the Mater Amabilis curriculum (Science and Literature - the rest didn't work out). We kept with Horizons and took up Handwriting Without Tears. For Phonics, I finished out Little Stories For Little Folks - Brennan dislikes them too, however. Before you believe him not to be a reader, let me clarify. Brennan loves to read. He just loves to read what he deems interesting. Everyone keeps telling me to let him go at it. So I have. This month he has read : Titanic: Lost and Found, the entire Usbourne Time Traveler book, Magic Tree House:Revolutionary War, Amazing Sharks, Amelia Bedelia, and Birthday Ban in Munchkin Land. He is reading.

The dilema is that I feel rather crazy, bouncing around from curriculum to curriculum. And even though Elizabeth Foss's fabulous book tells me otherwise, I cannot help but feel I need a curriculum. Something to give me a general direction with the freedom to tweak here and there. As a result of my crazy search, I (think) I have made a decision to go with Sonlight next year. I worry a little about it not being Catholic, but hey, what better way to learn our faith than to see the differences between Catholic and Protestant beliefs.

Until I change my mind again next year! They'll just have to label us Eclectic, I guess!

Quiet

I was so inspired by Elizabeth's post that I have not posted in two days - and why? Because I am finally going to get the wallpaper off of the rest of our master bath and get it painted.

I've been saying "but the master bath is just for us - no hurry". That is why it has been like that for almost a year - enough!

It is for us. And that is just enough!

This should also count for my new month's resolution.

So glad that our Math program is working

Happy Birthday to me! The boys get excited about each family member's birthday, mostly because it means something fun and exciting will happen. Last night we had my Baskin Robbins Ice Cream cake, which followed everyone's favorite dinner, Chicken Divan with Rice. Present number one: No one complained about dinner last night!

And today, the actual day, we will go to our favorite seafood restaurant for dinner. I am so excited! This is where my husband and I would eat every other Friday night before we had kids. Now it is more of a once a year thing. It is especially nice since we really gave up on eating out about 9 months ago. We now only dine out once a month, and it is almost always fast food or the pizza or chinese buffet. I cannot wait for dinner tonight! And present number two: No kitchen to clean tonight! I am on a roll...

In the boys excitement at breakfast, they talked about when their own birthdays would be arriving. And they discussed how old they each will be. At which Brennan popped up with "Hey Mom. How old are you today?".

Not feeling too down about it, I promptly replied "I'm 32 today.".

Brennan thoughtfully chewed on his toast, and then responded "That's a lot older than 7!" Present number 3: My son's Math skills are growing.

I cannot wait to see what my day brings next!

I Never Learn, Do I?

You might think that after last week's unsupervised backyard adventure, I would be out there with Philip and Jonathan for a little while. But alas, Nicholas needed a little more help finishing up schoolwork, and so I turned the other three loose into the wild outdoors (aka our backyard). When Nicholas and I rejoined the group, I discovered this lovely sight.


Philip was so thoughtful as to "help a brother out" and run the hose to make this delicious looking muddle. Such the go getter!

Actually, I prefer this surprise to last weeks. After all, this all comes out in the wash. I still have not located the rest of my cucumber seeds to do some replanting.