Addicted..hmm...Maybe

We have not had the internet in our house for not quite two weeks. We changed carriers and it just took longer than expected to get up and running again. I have to tell you those were a long two weeks. I am likening it to the last two weeks of pregnancy. So one would think that without the internet to distract me I did tremendous amounts around the house. I am sorry to inform you that my house is messier than it was before. I did not realize how much I really use the internet to lesson plan, manage my life etc (okay so maybe I am just trying to come up with all the positive things I do with it and not count all the ways it wastes my time.) I did have to go to other peoples houses twice to get worksheets for Erik's schooling. (Jeremiah's schooling was pushed to the back burner.) That took longer because we all know that when we go visit a friend even for a useful manner one cannot be rude and ignore them (and I do like to talk so that does not help either). All this just to say we are up and running here again and obviously I use/need the internet way more than I previously thought. Now am I addicted?? I will let you decide but I will tell you I am overjoyed to have it back.

Time-Out

Just to let everyone know that my mother-in-law is having surgery on Monday. Keep her in your prayers and I will be and already am super busy. I will probably not be updating for a little while since just keeping my own homes running will be hard enough.

Hooray for Grandparents!!

I sometimes think that Grandparents are not given enough credit. In our family we have a Papa, a Mam-ma, a Nana, a Grandpa (Great-grandpa) and a Grandma (Great-grandma). The kids, well, actually Erik, named them all (the joys of being first). I love watching the interaction between our boys and their grandparents. On top of this, Brad and I usually get two nights a week off. My parents take them(the oldest two) for one night and Brad's mom takes them another. Also, they will schedule permitting take them, some or all(the oldest three), for part of the day just to give me a break which is extremely helpful esp. around dinner time! As I am sure all you know, especially parents, that children can get into absolutely everything and destroy a house in a matter of minutes and two-year-olds only need seconds!! These wonderful people have saved my sanity more times than I can count. So if you haven't heard it recently from my mouth thank-you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to develop such wonderful relationships with these special boys and for allowing me to keep my mind!!

Gym

I have been going to the gym for the last week and a half now, Tuesday through Friday. A friend, Julie, and I go @ 5:45, in the morning, (Because when else would you go?) and then coming home and starting the day. Now while I am proud of going for the last two weeks, (okay I did miss on day) my legs are sore (40 lunges will do that to you) and I am very tired at the end of the day. I am getting myself though by knowing that soon my energy levels will raise. Although taking those prenatal vitamins helps tremendously; now if I can just remember to take them consistently! I also know that the more weight I take off the more energy I will have since I will not be lugging that extra fat around all the time. Then I will just have the extra 13 lbs attached to my waist! Thankfully my husband has been more than understanding about my going and the with me for barely being able to keep my eyes open as we put our children to bed. Julie and I(or I , at least) will keep it going by knowing that we are not just benefiting ourselves but our families too. We have both noticed that while we feel better about ourselves we are also more patient with our children (And we all know that while the Lord will give us patience for free we tend not to take him up on it nearly enough!) and have a better attitude throughout the day. So Julie, I will see you bright and early in the morning!

Play Doh the Second

Well, we made play doh. I have to tell you I still do not like the stuff esp. the texture. I did find out something very interesting. Since we had six kids making play doh, I gave them all bowls and had them mix the ingredients together. I had the two oldest (9 years and 7 years) measure out the ingredients, except the food coloring (Sorry guys, even with aprons, I was not about to go there.) and then the children stirred them all together. Now here is the revelation, when working with children do not expect the same out come from all the bowls. Let me explain this further, some of the bowls had too little water, some turned out fine, some had not enough oil etc. After cooking the dough, I also realized some of the dough balls were bigger than their counter parts. Looking back on this I am really not sure how this came as a surprise to me. Maggie and I laughed about it and moved on to the next project. We did some craft projects I found on the Internet and asked our pre-schoolers the colors and shapes and asked our grade schoolers about the fractions of the shapes. All in all it was a good first time. A little hairy at times (esp. when 3 children wanted to knead the blue dough at the same time) but that is what builds our character. In perspective, think how patient God is with us. I as a parent get upset with my children when they fail to follow directions, become distracted, fail to accomplish their responsibilities in a timely matter etc. and we are talking about children here. They are still learning to become responsible, God-fearing adults. How much more frustrated would you be if this was an adult who could not do these things. These are the times when I am so thankful for the infinite amount of patience and love our Lord and Savior shows us each and everyday.
I know I promised pictures but one camera failed to work so I grabbed the other one to take pictures. I came to the computer to up-load a few of them and lets just say it really helps when there is a SD card in the camera, oh well, hopefully next time.

Play Doh?

I am one of those un-fun moms who is not overly fond of Play Doh, or any of their following. I have deprived my children over the years by rarely letting them play with it. Yet, I have come to the conclusion that I just have to get over it. It is not about my aversion to the yucky feeling stuff but about my children's love fascination with it. Through many people (Do you really think that one person's opinion would be enough for this very stubborn person?) have I come to grudgingly accept the importance of this weird textured item. By way of this acceptance, I made a batch of this white dough. (I left all my food coloring at my mom's house.) Erik watched me make it and thought it looked like so much fun. (I will tell you about how I deprive my children from helping me cook in another post.) We are planning on making more (with the food coloring) come this Thursday with the help of Maggie and her children. (Hopefully, I will have lots of fun pictures to post then!) We are planing on using the dough to help us learn shapes, colors, and letters (and those are just a few of the school applications we have come up with so far!) While I accept that this stuff is important in the development of children, it does not make me like it all that much more. It feels weird, gets all over the place, is hard to clean up, etc. I could go on about all the reasons I do not have a love of the stuff but more to the point it is here to stay. I will use it and not too grudgingly since I am more concerned about my children having fun while learning than I am of it's oh so numerous shortfalls. All that aside, I do have a great recipe for it and love watching my three children play with it. During that time I was able to do quite a bit of research in order to start putting packets together for school. (The joys of home education!) I unfortunately did not get pictures of them playing since I was too busy looking for the right Preschool worksheets for Jeremiah but I promise to do better next time. Until then, here is one of the best recipes I have found so far.
1/2 c. flour
1/4 c. salt
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. oil
1/2 c. water
3/8 tsp. food coloring
Mix ingredients in saucepan and stir constantly. Cook over medium heat until dough leaves sides of pan. (This takes only a couple of minutes) Remove from pan and knead for a few min (or let your children do this cause, eww!)
HAVE FUN!! (This is on the instructions, trust me, this is not my addition.)

It makes about twice the amount than comes in a Play Doh container and has the best consistency and durability of all the homemade dough recipes I have found. It is probably the most similar to the actual brand name stuff and is way better than some of the off brand junk I have come across over the years. Now, I remember than after the food coloring is thoroughly mixed in; we did not have a problem with stained hands but I cannot remember how long that took. I will let you know on Thursday; (esp. if you see stained hands in what I am hoping will be great pictures from our craft/art/science project.)