What we read in May 2014

I've been working my way through a few ebooks that I got from the Ultimate Homemaking Bundle in April.

Advanced Penny Pinching had a lot of good ideas...most of which I already do.  It did make me think about trying to buy nonfood items at Walgreens to see if I can get them cheaper.  It also inspired me to activate my Upromise.com account that we started clear back in 2002!  Of course, the registered credit cards were all expired.  Maybe if I really use it...it will help pay for some college expenses for these kiddos!

Another one I read was The Busy Homeschool Moms Guide to Daylight.  It was a good book about organizing time and space but geared specifically for a homeschool mom.  I am already a pretty organized person who always has a routine/schedule...so most things in this book were not new ideas for me.  I did appreciate the reminder about the main reason I am homeschooling...and that is the relationships we have with one another in our family.

Steady Days:  A Journey Toward Intentional, Professional Motherhood had
some great reminders for me about the example that I am setting for my children and how my attitude affects them.  Enthusiasm is something that I would like to work on...it seems that too often in my blessed and busy state I don't show much excitement and contentment about my job as a mother.

Honestly, I skimmed through most of The Pursuit of Motherhood, but I did enjoy the chapter about the healthy mom. It helped to reinforce in my mind the changes that I am trying to make to be healthier.

I also read a "real" book...Smart Money Smart Kids by Dave Ramsey and his daughter Rachel Cruze...excellent book.  I borrowed it from the library, but I would love to own this one!






Kessiah finished the Seekers series by Erin Hunter...the next one doesn't come out until next year. After looking around on the internet, I made a list of books/series that I thought she might like.  She choose to try the MYTH series by Robert Asprin.  She is enjoying it even though...as she pointed out....it was written a long time ago (in the late 70's!)  Later...Kessiah decided to stop reading this series as she felt like there were some morally inappropriate things going on.





Jenessa enjoyed a nonfiction book called the White House Kids, she found it interesting to read about the children of the presidents. She also finished the Divide series by Elizabeth Kay.













Sienna has enjoyed the Blast to the Past series (I like these because they are history related) and 3rd Grade Detectives this month.



The boys have enjoyed every book that has been read to them!  And I have been better about reading to them before bed...which they love and it makes me feel good too!

We are well into the summer reading program at the library and our family summer BINGO program.

Funny and Tender Moments in May

There are so many funny, cute, and tender moments that happen in our home...here is my attempt to capture some of them from the past month.

1.  Logan during one of his personal prayers prayed that a force field would be put around our house to keep out any bad guys!...not sure why he is concerned about this.

2.  Mason and I were coming home in the car and he asked if there was a portal we could take to get there faster (how does a 4 year old even know what a portal is?)

3.  When I was asking Jenessa what her favorite book was over the past school year, she looked at me with disbelief and said "Asking me what my favorite book was last year is like asking you who your favorite child is!"  (Ummm...I can see why that is a difficult question!)

4.  Every time the girls go out to see the chickens, Corbin asks if he can go to the chicken poop too.  He means chicken coop put it always comes out chicken poop.

5.  When Mason graduated from preschool, I explained that he wouldn't be going there anymore.  He excitedly said "Do I get to go to co-op now?"   It made me so happy that he didn't care about going to kindergarten (he probably didn't even realize what his teachers were talking about when they mentioned it)...he was excited about going to co-op with Logan and Sienna.

6.  A Little Red Riding Hood cape made it's way out of the dress-up box.  Mason put it on and was pretending to fly...then he came up to me and asked "If I put on a real superman shirt, can I really fly?"

7.  Logan said after playing with some new kids at an end-of-school-year party, "I'm going to make lots of friends so I can go to lots of birthday parties!"  (That makes sense...more friends=more birthday parties!)

8.  Logan was telling Mason to do a lot of things for him on a particular afternoon.  Mason came to me and complained.  I said "Are you Logan's servant?"  Mason said, "No, I'm Jesus' servant"  He then asked what Jesus wanted him to do...to which I responded "Be obedient"  He seemed to like that and went off to continue playing (not as Logan's servant)

9.  When we were in the library, Corbin found the statue of a dragon (he hadn't noticed it before because it is in a corner that we usually don't go to), he was impressed...it made me laugh when he asked "Will it eat me?"

10.  Tender Moment:  One of our chickens died...we don't know why.  It was sad to see tears as our children said good-bye

One of my heroes...My Grandpa

I have a few heroes in my life...one of them is this man.

This picture was taken 2 years ago at his 100th birthday party!  Yep, that means he is about ready to turn 102 years old!  The amazing part is that he lives by himself in the same home that he raised his children in.  Thankfully, my parents live just a few blocks away...but he does almost everything by himself.  He still even walks to the grocery store when the weather is good...much to my parents' dismay!  He has always had a huge garden...and still gets out there when it's his water turn.

Happy Birthday Grandpa, I Love You!

Memorial Day Weekend 2014

I am grateful for the men and women who serve our country and protect our freedoms. 



Ryan and I (mostly Ryan) spent most of Friday getting our playset put back together.  He finished it on Saturday and then we stained it...(most of it...we ran out of stain).  It will be nice for the boys to have that back up again.

Ryan took the girls to the Y to go swimming on Saturday afternoon.

On Monday Ryan and the girls went kayaking in the morning.  Sienna came in the door when they got back yelling to me that she needed stitches!  She had cut her foot on a rock, we cleaned it up...it did not need stitches...just some neosporin and a bandaid!

If you look closely, you can see Jenessa and Sienna in the background

 After a lunch break, Ryan took Sienna on her "free date" for finishing the Book of Mormon (when our kids finish a book of scripture they get a free date and a paid date with a parent).  They went on the bike trail to the library.  We enjoyed a hamburger dinner when they got home.


I stayed home with the boys during these excursions because I was focused on getting Corbin potty trained!  He is being stubborn!  On Friday, we went through 8 pairs of underwear.  On Saturday, Sunday, and Monday I let him go bare-bottomed (totally grossing out his sisters).  He refuses to go pee in the potty...but he will sometimes go on the tree in our backyard!  He has great control...he hasn't had any accidents while being bare-bottomed.  BUT he waits until I put a diaper on him at night, then he pees in it, takes it off, and puts one of Mason's pull-ups on!  

Summer Routine 2014

We are in our summer routine!  It is nice to move a little slower in the mornings and have a more carefree attitude.

As much as some of my kids would like to sit around and watch TV all day...their mom has different ideas!  I have created a basic routine that I tweak just a little every year.  We do swimming lessons at the Y on Tuesday and Thursday late afternoons, Tuesday morning is the library reading program, and Friday mornings in the summer movie program at the theatre. I include physical activity, reading, and some extra jobs in their daily routine.

Each child has a check off sheet that they use each day to help them follow the routine...I say routine instead of schedule because I don't have specific times on anything except our morning devotional.  I didn't have a check off sheet for Mason or Corbin.  But on Monday Mason insisted on having one as well...so I quickly adjusted one and he now has one taped to the wall next to the others.  Everyone has to do certain things in order to earn screen time (TV, computer, kindle, etc.)  And there is a limit to how much screen time they can do each day...plus it can't be done until the afternoon after quiet reading time and mommy reading time.

Last year I made up our own summer reading bingo with prizes and the kids really liked it...so, of course, I had to do it again!  Jenessa had fun redoing the prize chart this year...everything is pretty inexpensive (plus I have some Culver's coupons for when everyone gets a blackout!)

This year I made the BINGO charts empty and gave them a list of books they could choose from to fill in the spaces.  It will be fun to see what books they choose!  Especially since the books that Kessiah and Jenessa choose will likely be the books that I will read as well...so I made sure to put some books on their lists that I wanted to read!  We have all the reading BINGO charts and book lists on a wall in our office.  Kessiah's book list is a little short but she can also choose books from Jenessa's list...I just didn't want to retype them.  I don't have a chart for Logan yet...but I have given him the same prize options for progress in his Hooked on Phonics book.

A Day in Our Life

This was really interesting for me to do...I kept track of what we did yesterday...with a few pictures along the way.  We are starting our summer schedule...which means I didn't go to gymnastics with the 4 youngest like I do during the normal school year.

Woke up at 6:00...Logan was up to greet me...blog, email.
6:45...exercise with a Fit2B routine...Mason and Corbin got up during this time and Ryan left for work..had to intervene in a little boy fight
7:15...got the boys some milk and went to get myself ready for the day...showered, dressed, made my bed, folded some clothes...Kessiah got up during this time and played with kittens...Logan did his morning zone and played with kittens...Mason and Corbin played with each other.
7:45...went outside to turn on the water for the tomatoes and corn, printed weekly routine sheets for the 4 oldest kids and hung them up (after spending 10 minutes trying to find the tape!)...Sienna got up and played with kittens...I got kids moving on their AM responsibilities and breakfast...cleaned up a cup of spilled milk, sat down and cuddled with Corbin who wanted a Mommy Hug, Logan joined us, got up to put away a dog leash that Corbin started to hit me with, cleaned up kitchen island, told kids to put kittens away
8:30...morning devotional (after I get Corbin and Mason settled down from fighting over a toy...why do they always want the same thing!)...told kids they cannot hold kitten until their morning things are done... helped Sienna with math, cleaned up the front and back entry ways and downstairs hallway, dumped a bag of flour into a bucket, encouraged the boys (several times) to clean their room and assisted a couple of times, discussed summer goals with Jenessa, got Corbin dressed






10:00...snack time (although Logan and Mason didn't get a snack until 10:30 because it took them that long to clean their room and get dressed!), I did some decluttering in the office, decided what we were having for dinner and watered the rest of the garden, Kessiah and Jenessa finished their summer school work,  Logan and Mason did some PE games on the Wii (Corbin fell asleep on the couch while watching them), Logan did his morning zone and garden job, Kessiah went to play with Kurt's kittens, I printed a weekly routine sheet for Mason who decided he needed one, helped Logan and Mason do a couple of worksheets.  Sienna settled down with a book.  I even had a few minutes to sit down and read a conference talk from the Ensign.

12:20...Ryan came home for lunch...we ate and started quiet reading time.  Logan and Mason had a very hard time being quiet today!  Corbin informed me that he was stinky...so I had to stop and change him and discovered that he had leaked onto the carpet so I had to stop and get out the Little Green Cleaning Machine and shampoo the spot up!
2:00...Mommy Reading Time...we are reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory...I couldn't read as much as we would have liked because of a scratchy throat.  Kessiah and Jenessa worked on their coloring pages.
 2:30...Girls took the dogs on a walk, I continued organizing the office (we still have a couple of boxes that haven't been upacked!) and got dinner in the crockpot.  The girls and I watched the latest Granite Flats episode while the boys watched Wild Kratts on PBS.  We all did afternoon zones and got ready for the piano recital.
6:00...Jenessa and Sienna had a piano recital (which Mason and Corbin had quite a bit of trouble sitting still for), girls and Logan went with Ryan to Walmart to buy kitty litter and box, I came home with Corbin and Mason...got them dinner.
7:45...Ryan got home with kids, got kittens situated, ate dinner, got boys ready for bed, family prayer, Jenessa read 3 books to the boys since my throat was still scratchy, boys in bed...the rest of us watched Studio C and then we called it a night!



Thanks to Tristan at Our Busy Homeschool for inspiring me to do this!

Life in the Judy House this week

Wednesday morning when Kessiah went out to check on the chickens she found a surprise...3 kittens!  I'm sure someone had left them there (grrrrr) and of course my girls latched on quickly to those creatures...nice of them to leave 3...one for each girl...of course, Logan feels a little left out!  I'm not a cat person...and I don't want any more inside pets (we already have 2 guinea pigs inside and Diamond sleeps inside)...time will tell how this one ends up!

Corbin once again came to me with blood dripping down his face.  He had given himself a cut on the top of his forehead  with a bungee cord.  (In March he had given himself a gash in the head from the desk).  I had my phone in my back pocket so I took a picture...but first I made sure that he was really ok! (Ryan couldn't believe I stopped to take a picture!)

I love that my boys go outside more often now...here is Corbin talking to our neighbors horse.













We had some beautiful weather towards the end of the week...the kids got out the slip n slide that the previous owner left.  I can tell we will be using that quite a bit this summer!  Corbin kept going out to play with it long after everyone else was finished.

On Saturday, Ryan and Kessiah got to go the the temple with the youth...a great experience.  Kessiah wishes we were close enough to go more often.

While they were gone, the rest of us had a Primary activity outside with water, squirt guns, sponges, slip n slide, and more water!