Marlayna Turns 15!

Our sweet girl turned 15 this week. She is still adapting to the colder weather and asked for these warm boots for her birthday. We shopped till we dropped to find the right style in her size...she has small feet and boots fly off the shelves here as soon as they come in...and were rewarded with the perfect pair!


Only a few more months before this girl starts tearing up the streets learning to drive. Tonight is her party with 10 girls RSVP'ing so far. Should be a full house! She has tons of friends here and the girls all seem to get along fairly well. I'm so glad we found such good friends.

Her health has been really good this year. I'm so glad! I think we have found most of the things that trigger her Fibromyalgia problems. The Guaifenesin treatment helped the most and she has not been on it this whole past year. I think that when you catch Fibromyalgia early, you may not need to take it for the rest of your life. She also limits her dairy (including ALL milk proteins) and sugar intake, which she says helps a lot. I also read something recently linking immunizations to kids with Fibromyalgia, so we are not doing any more immunizations for her except tetanus.

Busy and Feeling it!

I'm tired...big surprise, huh? Well, I'm just beginning to feel that life is getting TOO busy...so what should I drop if I want to do a Six-Month Inventory and drop the least necessary items off my list?

This week's madness:

• Marlayna's Birthday (Big 15! Only a few months before teaching this sweet girl to drive! AAHH!)
  
• Pediatrician Well Visits with Shots
• 2-Hour Guitar Workshop
• Three Days of Visits for our Littles with their Mom (Someone else takes them, I just have to be here and have them ready. It's like meeting the Kindergarten bus.)
  
• CPS Home Visit for Littles
• Marlayna's Birthday Party (13 girls!)
  
• Temple Youth Trip (2 hours away)
• Youth Dance
• Grocery Shopping
• Clothes Shopping
  
• Rotating the van tires at Discount Tire
• Daily Education for All Our Children
• Organize Service Project for November for Homeschool group
• Homeschool monthly meeting (Same time as Marlayna's Party)
  
• Weekly Library Trip
• Weekly Homeschool Friends Outing (coincides with one visit for Littles with Mom - leaving me running back and forth between events)
• Prepare Sunday's Primary Lesson
• Arrange Visiting Teaching appointments
• Daily Cleaning
• .....what else?

...And our 16th Wedding Anniversary that we don't have time or money to celebrate!

I do love my life, but there is a time to cut back when life gets too busy. I'm just not sure what I can cut. All these things are important and some are VERY required.

November '09 - Week 1

:: Daily Lessons ::

• Devotional: "Let Him Ask of God" daily inspirational readings.
• Read A-Loud Book: "By the Shores of Silver Lake" book 4 of Little House on the Prairie series.
• Core Phase "Littles": Right and Wrong, Good and Bad, and True and False. - We are working on learning our colors, counting to 5, shapes, and learning the "ABC song" and "Wheels on the Bus", "Once there was a Snowman".
  
• Math: Chris - Math-U-See: Delta - Marly - Math-U-See: Zeta - Celeste - Math-U-See: Algebra (review for mom...again!)
• Journal Writing
• Guitar Practice
• New Era and Ensign Reading
• Scripture Reading
  

:: Weekly Lessons ::

• Monday: Grammar Lessons - "Winston Grammar" - Chris: Adjectives - Marly: Prepositional Phrases.
  
• Tuesday: Guitar Lessons, Government Lesson, and Weekly Library Trip - "The 5,000 Year Leap" - Principle 5.
  
• Wednesday: Mutual/Scouts and History Lesson - "Story of the World", Vol. 2 - Chris: Chapter 6 - Marly: Chapter 39.
  
• Thursday: Homeschool Friends Outing - At our house this week.
  
• Friday: Science Lesson - "Concepts and Challenges in Physical Science" Chapter 2.8 "Air Pressure" - "Usborne Science Encyclopedia" Pages 142-143.
  

:: Individual Readings ::

• Chris (Love of Learner) - "King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table", "Fables of Aesop"
  
• Marly (Project Scholar) - "Airborn", "Star Wars: Hostage", "Star Wars: Jedi Quest", "Skybreaker"
  
• Celeste (Mentored Scholar) - "Jo's Boys", "Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood" (I refresher for me on the 0-6 ages)

:: Projects ::

• Chris - Book Report on "Robin Hood" and a Descriptive Paper on how to make a bow and arrows.
  
• Marly - Book Report on "Catching Fire" and writing her own book.
  
• Celeste - Linux networking, super cleaning the 2nd half of the house, organizing kids bedrooms and my record keeping area.
• Family - LEAVES! LEAVES! and more LEAVES!

Fawns Without a Mama

We first noticed these fawn standing in our front yard about 9:30 this morning. Then the neighbors came out and scared them over to a vacant house across the street. They have been hanging out there in the shade almost all day because they saw people in the direction they wanted to go. One of the fawns can't jump over the fence, so the other has stayed with its friend/sibling(?) all day. Our neighbor called the Game and Fish department, but they said eventually they will find their way somewhere else, mostly likely tonight when it gets dark.

Unfortunately our dog, Maggie, got out and chased them. We hope they are heading back towards the forest. I hated to see that poor fawn smash into the fence while trying to get away from Maggie. So sad!

Halloween 2009

With the addition of our new little ones, nicknamed "Jabber Jaw" and "Big Boy" for Internet purposes, many of our daily interactions take on the perspective of young ones again...especially holidays like Halloween. This has been really good for my teens, helping them to learn more about caring for little children, sharing their lives with them and sacrificing a few things in service of others.

Here are some pics from our ward's Halloween Party...we have some good lookin' kids around here!

Secret Agent Man and the Good Witch


Jabber Jaw as a Fairy Princess

Big Boy as Tigger

October '09 - Week 5

:: Daily Lessons ::

• Devotional: "Let Him Ask of God" daily inspirational readings.
• Read A-Loud Book: "By the Shores of Silver Lake" book 4 of Little House on the Prairie series.
• Core Phase "Littles": Right and Wrong, Good and Bad, and True and False. - We are working on learning our colors, counting to 5, shapes, and learning the "ABC song" and "Wheels on the Bus".
  
• Math: Chris - Math-U-See: Delta - Marly - Math-U-See: Zeta - Celeste - Math-U-See: Algebra (review for mom...again!)
• Daily Journal Writing
• Daily Guitar Practice
  

:: Weekly Lessons ::

• Monday: Grammar Lesson - "Winston Grammar" - Chris: Interrogative sentences - Marly: Prepositions.
• Tuesday: Guitar Lessons and Government Lesson - "The 5,000 Year Leap" - Principle 4 (part 2) - The role of Religion.
  
• Wednesday: Mutual/Scouts and History Lesson - "Story of the World", Vol. 2 - Chris: "Monks in Caves" - Marly: "Elizabethan Times"
  
• Thursday: Homeschool Friend Outing - it's getting too chilly for Park Day anymore so we meet at a home to enjoy each other's company for a few hours.
  
• Friday: Science Lesson - "Concepts and Challenges in Physical Science" Chapter 2.7 "Pressure" - "Usborne Science Encyclopedia" Pages 123-133 - Chemistry for Every Kid - Experiment 10
  

:: Individual Readings ::

• Chris (Love of Learner) - "Robin Hood"
  
• Marly (Project Scholar) - "Erec Rex: The Dragon's Eye", "The Wolves of Aam"
  
• Celeste (Mentored Scholar) - "Jo's Boys", "Catching Fire"
  

:: Projects ::

• Chris - Making a wooden bow and arrows set from oak.
  
• Marly - Working on her Young Women's goals - Crocheting - Practicing better note taking skills - Writing a book
  
• Celeste - Learning Fedora (Linux), Lesson Plans for the rest of this semester, Reorganizing the kids rooms, super cleaning the house after everyone being sick for SOOOO long.
  

My Baby Turns 13!

I'm sure Chris will not like being referred to as "my baby", but he is my youngest and is now a teen! All my kids are teens, and Sam is now officially an adult. For his birthday, he begged for an Airsoft Sniper Rifle...

Well, he got one!

While Chris was out trying out his new sniper rifle, our neighbor came out and stood staring at him for some time. I'm sure she was trying to figure out if the gun was real or not. It does look real...except that little orange plastic piece at the end. I wondered if the Sheriff would be coming by and talking to us. It is all legal, even if he had a real rifle we would still be legal since we live in the County.

For each person's birthday we have a tradition of allowing that person to choose their favorite meal for dinner. Chris told me early that week that he wanted Spaghetti and Meatballs. However, Mike brought home a ton of Schwan's food a couple days before and Chris changed to a smörgåsbord of Schwan's foods for dinner. So we had Chicken Nuggets, Pot Stickers, Sausage, Eggs (of course since we have dozens!), Rocky Road Ice Cream, and Lemon Cake.