"Tell him 'Hi' for me, okay?"

This was a conversation I heard tonight as I took the kids to the Awana church program. We passed by some decorated houses and Owen exclaimed, "Santa!" Rachel then informed him that it wasn't the real Santa, it was a pretend one. Apparently, she's not a Santa fan:

Rachel: Owen, do you like Santa?
Owen: Yes.
Rachel: Oh, okay, then you tell him "Hi" and give him a hug, okay?
Owen: Okay.
Rachel: 'Cause I don't like him so I don't want to.

At least she's got someone to stand in for her!

Elk, swimming, bat factory - but not at the same time

The promised, much-anticipated vacation pictures

Can you imagine seeing this out your back window?

The elk just took over this driveway.

Waiting for the paint to dry

Sanding the bat

The trick or treaters ready to go!

Rachel is a "toes in first" kind of girl.

Owen is a "watch out world, here I come!" kind of boy.

A break from the every day

After two intense months of school, football, irish dance, gymnastics, and awana, we took a week off. It was awesome.

We left Saturday after Brendan's last football game and drove about 6 hours to Pennsylvania to stay in a condo. My parents, sister and her little boy also went with us. We each had a two bedroom, two bath condo with a kitchen and living area. There was an indoor pool a short walk away that we had to ourselves every day. Owen only had a near-drowning once. We slept in, played games, went swimming and enjoyed the luxury of two bathrooms. :) Seriously, it's a luxury.

We toured a baseball bat factory and watched them make a wooden bat in 2 1/2 minutes. We got to see elk very close up - crazy close up. I have pictures but they won't be put on tonight. I don't think I'd like to have elk walking through my backyard and laying in the middle of my driveway but it was neat to see them.

Now we're home and I haven't started laundry yet or cooked a meal. I think tomorrow will be a big adjustment. It was good to come home but I haven't quite gotten out of the vacation mindset yet.

Creative use of space

If I haven't mentioned this before, our house is on the small side. It's about 1200 sq. ft., plus the basement. The upstairs is about 220 sq. ft, about a third of which is hallway and attic space. That's not a lot of space left for 4 small people, especially when one of those is getting closer to adult size.

Last year, I started trying to figure out how we would rearrange the rooms to fit Rachel and Tori in one and Brendan and Owen in the other. There was a bunk bed in Brendan's room that fit okay. Because of the sloped ceiling, it was pushed against the closet, which meant only half the closet was really accessible but it worked. I hoped we could fit a twin bed with a trundle in the other room but when we measured, we realized there would be no space for toys or a dresser if we did that. It would literally take up the whole room.

We talked about making an L-shaped bunk bed specifically for that space and then I came across this in an Ikea catalog:

It's a loft bed that is just the right height for the ceilings in our rooms. We put them together in August and we now have a room for the girls and a room for the boys. I was going to buy new bedding for them but was debating about getting matching bedding. My mom made a comment when she was helping me put sheets on the beds (not an easy feat) and jokingly said that maybe I should just let them use a sleeping bag every night.

I started thinking about it and realized that there was no room on top or bottom bunk for a comforter to hang down. It would be a lot nicer if there was a blanket that was the same size as the bed. A sleeping bag wasn't a bad idea but hard to find really cute ones. I decided to make the no-sew fleece blankets for each of them. They're heavy enough that they tend to stay in place fairly well and easy to straighten out in the morning and keep the beds looking neat. It was also easy to find fleece that they would each love.

I bought matching fabric for Tori and Rachel. Besides the fact that they like matching, I was worried that they would like whatever the other had better.

This is Tori's bed. We bought these cute cubbies to give her more space for some things of her own. I actually bought a set for Rachel and Owen, too, but then decided maybe putting some of their favorite things right next to them in bed would encourage playtime and not sleeping. So those will be taken back. Or used in another spot.


And Rachel's cute little bed. I did not realize the outlet was right there until I took this picture. There will be outlet covers on that tomorrow.

Brendan's bed - he went with the U of M fleece. And again, he has the nifty cubbies to hold books and cd's and his mp3 player. Everybody needs a space to call their own.

And Owen's bed. He was supposed to get John Deere fleece but they were out of that so I went with another favorite - Cars. And again, I didn't realize until now that there is an outlet right there. That will be covered tomorrow as well.

The new roommate situation has worked out really well. The boys now go off and play up in their room (or listen to music and look at football cards) and the girls will go up and play in their room together. I love seeing them interact like that. It makes me think that maybe this house is still perfect for us. At least for now.

The Cutest Little Cubbies!

I know, it's hard to believe they're the same kids, isn't it?

And all 4 of them, ready to go for the first night of Awana. They're a good-looking bunch. I'd say cute but I don't think a 10-year old boy appreciates that term.

Reminiscing about the cutest Thing 1 and Thing 2 ever

In case you couldn't tell, Rachel is Thing 1 and Owen is Thing 2.

They were about 7 months old in this picture.


Dr. Seuss booties! (not the sock kind)

Yup, that's it exactly

Have you ever read a book where the author just expressed exactly how you feel? I started reading a book called Joy School, by Elizabeth Berg. At one point, the main character, a 13-year-old girl, says "And anyway, even when I like a person there is a weariness that comes. I can be with someone and everything is fine and then all of a sudden it can wash over me like a sickness, that I need the quiet of my own self. I need to unload my head and look at what I've got in there so far. See it. Think what it means. I always need to come back to being alone for awhile."

I read that and recognized it, recognized myself. That is it, exactly. I love the phrase "the quiet of my own self". And this is why I read books. To put into words those feelings and bits of myself that I can't express.

Finding the balance - with finances

Last year, I wrote a lot about our finances and budgeting and groceries. I was reading a lot of blogs about those subjects. It was somewhat consuming. I've decided to stop obsessing. We still do a cash budget for some things because it helps me stay accountable. There are times, however, that I do go over budget. And it's no big deal. We live within our means, we save up for purchases, we limit miscellaneous spending. We don't budget each month to the dollar. We don't keep track of how we spend every dollar. We do keep our checking account balanced and we do allow for extra expenses. We have made mistakes but we've learned from those and we're trying to not repeat them.

And you know what? It's been quite freeing. I've given myself permission to do what works for us and to stop trying to do what works for everyone else. Some lessons just take awhile to learn.

Finding the balance

Although I love that we homeschool, there are things I miss.

I have lamented the fact that I don't get a parent-teacher conference with my kids. I am both the parent and the teacher so I don't get a pat on the back or hear what my child needs to work on; I only have my opinion to go by and frankly, I'm biased. Although I think sometimes I'm even more critical than a teacher would be.

I've also lamented the fact that my kids don't get to tell me about their day. I'm there with them. They don't get to bring home papers or art projects to show me.

But this year - we joined our local homeschool co-op and now, every Wednesday morning, from 8:30 until 11:45, my kids are with other teachers. They do art every week. I am so excited to have all these cool art projects to collect now!! They have a fun science class with a teacher who is excited about science. They have a challenging writing class and have assignments that I can help with and not have to worry about grading. And I get to see them in a classroom setting and see how polite and respectful they are and watch them raise their hands and answer questions correctly. And honestly, I get a little teary-eyed. I am so proud and so relieved that they're turning out okay. Somehow, in spite of all my inadequacies and fears and laziness and mistakes, they're doing really well.

It gives me confidence for the future. It helps me enjoy our time together at home. Just that one morning one day a week seems to fill the void perfectly and brings balance to our homeschool schedule.

Now THIS is why I homeschool

* starting our school year when I was ready to start, which happened to be a week before our public schools started.
* taking off after a half day of school today to go swimming
*making up the half day after we got back from swimming
* watching my daughter begin to DEVOUR books - and knowing it's because of me that she can read. (and now I'm wondering where on earth we will put more books)
* telling my son that if he wanted to go camping with his grandpa and grandma, he'd have to do extra school work before he left and then I got to watch in amazement as he finished a whole weeks worth of work in 3 days!!

I know it's not for everyone. But in just 3 days, I've been reminded of why we have chosen this at this stage in our life. And I have no regrets.