I Went To A Soccer Party, Everyone Was There

Last Friday we hosted a get-to-know-you party for Alyssa's soccer team.  It was our first garden party in our yard, and I love it!  We worked so hard making our yard pretty in the Spring, but then we spent the hot summer days swimming at my parents' house, plus we thought we had more work to do until we had a party, so we didn't really enjoy all that hard work as well as we could have.  So when I was thinking that someone should have a party so the girls could get to become friends, I then thought, "Why not us?"

Brian's mom came over on Friday while Brian was at work to help us clear some extra weeds and dead head the rose bushes, and Alyssa and I strung white lights on the pergola.  It actually didn't take a whole lot of work, and it turned out so pretty.

The girls played Do You Love Your Teammate? and did a team building hula hoop activity, then they filled their plates with food and answered get-to-know-you questions while sitting under the twinkle lights.  After a while the twinkle lights were getting to me, because they were twinkling so fast, so I fiddled around with them, trying to find a slower setting.  The girls took advantage of this to start dancing under the crazy lights, and we ended up taking them inside for an impromptu dance party.  They danced for 40 minutes!  No breaks, just dancing.  It was so fun to watch, and it looked like everyone had a great time.

In other news:
1. Soccer is going great.

2. We celebrated Oktoberfest on Saturday.  Lots of brats and root beer, with some German red cabbage and German chocolate cake.

3. Becca broke her arm yesterday.  I gave her a graham cracker in her high chair booster seat, but I didn't strap her in, because she can climb up and down out of it.  Then I went upstairs to switch the laundry to the dryer, heard her crying, and came downstairs to find her waiting for me, still crying.  When she didn't settle down, and even kept whimpering when I tried nursing her, I knew something was wrong.  I called my mom, and she was luckily in the neighborhood on her way to my sister's house, so she came over and we isolated the pain to Becca's left arm.  I called the orthopedic office (I've learned to bypass the emergency room and just head straight to them - much faster and cheaper) and took her in that afternoon.  She has a splint on it now, and then they'll put a cast on it next week.  It's so sad, but she is feeling better now that it's immobilized.  And I've learned my lesson; we'll be strapping her into her high chair for a long while yet.

First Day of Mid Columbia Partnership

Did you notice how much Ethan loves him new backpack?  Last year I did the most brilliant thing ever: I ordered their backpacks online during the middle of the school year, without telling the kids.  This was great, because 1) They were super cheap - I think about $7.00 each, and 2) I got to pick cute backpacks that I thought they would like, instead of taking them to the store and waiting for an hour while they went through all the options.  I got the backpacks out last night while Brian gave us all father's blessings, and they were so excited.  Marcus isn't in the picture, but he has a super cool Batman back pack.

Holy cow, the kids were so excited to go to MCP this morning.  Alyssa's classes are Archery, Magic Tree House History, Diggin' Dirt, Big Messy Art, and Type to Learn.  Ethan's are Tomie de Paolo Books, Wonderful World of Weather, Big Messy Art, Sensory Investigations, and P.E.  The Big Messy Art classes apparently get better with each trimester, because the second trimester's class is called Bigger Messier Art, and the third's is Biggest Messiest Art.  The Tomie de Peolo class turns into Seussology during the second trimester, and If You Give a Child a Book for the third. I think the kids will have a great year!

In other news:

1. Alyssa and Ethan both had their first soccer games on Saturday, and they both played great.  At least that's what Brian tells me.  I was at a stake Activity Days activity all day, so I missed the games.  I'm looking forward to watching them both play next Saturday!

2. Alyssa and I went to the stake Activity Day Girls Activity, which was so fun.  We had a couple of Orton girls (Brian's second or third cousins or cousins once removed or something like that) in our group that we've gotten to know from various family activities, and they were excited to see Alyssa, and Alyssa was excited to see them.  We also had a girl from Alyssa's soccer team in our group, and she was so excited to be with her. 

We went to a few classes on modesty and manners and health, then had lunch, and then the girls got to shoot bows and arrows and bb guns, make a friendship bracelet and a necklace, then do a service project.  Alyssa made a lot of comments in the manners class, and I was very proud of the things that she said.  She's growing up!  Alyssa and I had to leave before the service project, so we missed it and I don't even know what it was.

3. Alyssa tried out for the Nutcracker for the first time.  I was so proud of her!  Up until Saturday morning she kept saying that she didn't want to do it, but then on Saturday morning she gathered up her leotard, tights, and slippers, and sounded excited to try out.  Fast forward to 3:15, when we were waiting for her group to be called - I have never seen her so excited.  Take Alyssa's normal happy, bouncy self and multiply it by 100, and you will get the Alyssa before her Nutcracker auditions.  She was literally (and I do mean literally) bouncing off the walls.  We went to Baskin Robbins afterward to congratulate her on her bravery, then headed home so Brian could go fishing with his dad. It was a busy Saturday.

Day 2

I think all my posts for the next little while need to be titled, "Adventures in Homeschooling, Trying to Figure Things Out, and Getting a Lot of Practice but Not Always Succeeding at Using Patience."  I guess this is where my blog truly is journaling, because I'm sure a lot of people don't care to hear about all our day to day craziness of homeschooling.

Yesterday was busy.  Between school, sewing patches on Brian's Scout uniform, making a visit with the Primary president for Activity Days, making phone calls for Activity Days, running to Target to get plastic tubs, and setting up our work boxes for today...it was just packed.  I was actually quite impressed that we got as much done as we did, even if the laundry didn't get folded.

 I'm really excited for today.  Each night I need to go through the kids' work boxes and set them up for the next day.  On Tuesday we didn't do work boxes, because I didn't know the order to set them up in, then Tuesday night I took what I learned through the day and put the boxes together, then yesterday I made notes of what needed to be changed, then I made those changes last night.  One of the changes I needed to make was to have a few bigger tubs for the hardback books to go in.  The little plastic shoe tubs weren't big enough for that. 

I also wanted to make some cards to go in the work boxes so that I know which subject to prepare for and which books are needed, and so Alyssa knows which course to open on the k12 website when she's doing her lessons, which should put her in charge of her education a little bit more.  K12 has changed the formatting for their courses a little this year, and it means that I've been checking the computer, trying to find the right books for each lesson.  For instance, there's three or four Literature books with student pages, a few Literature books with lesson guides, and they all look the same, and then there's other books that go along with the Literature courses.  I was going crazy trying to keep them all straight on the book shelf.  Now they can just live in the work boxes.  My sister also gave me the tip to not rip out the student pages, and I'm really excited to not have to keep track of loose pages.  (That was kind of a DUH moment for me.) 

I don't know why it's sideways.

I'm really curious to see how today goes with the way I have things set up.  Alyssa will have more control over her lessons, and I think it will help her to see that she doesn't need me to sit beside her and tell her what to do.  I think that right now she's scared to do it on her own, but once she sees that it actually gives her freedom and power, instead of leaving her lost and confused, then she'll be a lot better student.  Yesterday she spent the entire morning crying over one page of Math that was review!  She wants me to sit beside her and walk her through each problem, but I just can't do that.  I need to remember to give her the confidence she needs to be able to do it on her own, instead of getting frustrated at the work she's not getting done.  (That's where learning patience comes in.)  Last night as I was doing the work boxes, I went through and graded everything she had done through the day.  It was so fun to see what she had done, and I really was impressed with the quality of her work.  I made sure to put in lots of positive notes with my red pen, so she knows that she's doing a good job.

First Day of School

 We started school yesterday, and it was crazy.  We didn't use our work boxes, because I didn't quite know what order to put the kids' assignments in with them sharing the computer.  So we spent the morning with me running around like a crazy lady, back and forth from the computer to the bookshelves, trying to get the kids sorted out.  Today has gone a lot smoother, since I put the work boxes together this morning before we started.

Ethan is all about school and learning.  It's still new to him, and he's excited to do it.  I say. "Do a worksheet," and he says, "Okay!"  He's also very excited to do K12 on the computer.  It's 11:15, and he has finished everything for the day, except for Math, which he needs the computer for.  The K12 website seems to have frozen, though, so he's waiting while I blog while I wait for it to connect.

Alyssa, on the other hand - wow!  Over the summer she was doing great at the work boxes, and she would do all her work happily, without much help, then be out the door, playing.  But now she's spent the past two mornings flailed across the couch, moaning, "I need help!  I just can't do this!  I don't know what to do!" and I'm like:  "Alyssa, you did this in second grade!  You're fine!"  Actually, yesterday she did pretty good.  It's more this morning that she's having problems.  Mostly, she's having a huge problem staying focused on her work, and every time I redirect her to it, she starts the moaning and the wailing.  Oh, and she's also spending most of her working time singing songs, which isn't very conducive to Math.  I think she's going to be a little surprised when Ethan and Marcus get to play after lunch, and I go fold laundry, and she'll be stuck in the school room, finishing her work.  I hope if she takes all day long to get things done today, that tomorrow morning will go better.

Alyssa doing her Math lesson

Marcus working in his activity workbook

Becca, being carried around

Ethan working on his Math lesson

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Grilled Apples and Peaches, and Silverwood

Sometime this past summer we were having grilled cheese sandwiches with apple slices for lunch, and the kids wondered what the apple slices would taste like if they were toasted on the griddle.  We tried them, we loved them, and now we can't have grilled cheese sandwiches without the kids asking for grilled apples.  Today we tried some white peaches along with them, and they were super yummy.

We're just taking it easy today.  I take Fridays off from running, to rest up for my long run on Saturdays.  So today we slept in, had smoothies for breakfast, cleaned the school room to get it ready for school to start next week, then had lunch.  For the most part, the house has been quiet, which has been really nice.  Alyssa's been in her room reading, and the boys have been doing various activities that involve couch cushions, which they had to put away before lunch.

Brian got Rebecca when she woke up from her nap, then he fell asleep with her.

Brian has Fridays off from work, so he's home today as well.  I'm very thankful for that right now.  With our busy fall schedule, combined with evening meetings and visits for church that he has to go to, we're not going to see much of him for a while, so I'm glad that we get to see him on Fridays.  I also feel blessed that we'' be able to at least eat dinner together as a family each evening.  Some days are going to need crock pot meals, so they'll be ready the minute we walk in the door so we can eat and kick Brian out the door, but even if dinner might be rushed, we will at least be together.

Brian also took Wednesday off so we could use Alyssa and Ethan's Silverwood tickets they earned through a reading program at school.  We wanted to go on a Wednesday to avoid the weekend crowds, but it turns out that Spokane's schools haven't started yet, so everyone was there trying to get their last fill of summer.  It wasn't too crowded, though, and we had fun.

We did a few of the rides, but then spent the rest of the time in the water park.  The kids loved the wave pool, and they ended up loving the slides.  Ethan and I were the first to give the slides a try, and when we reached the top of the platform, Ethan said, "This is high.  I'm not so sure about this," and wanted to go back down.  After a few minutes of watching everyone else go down the slides, he said he'd give them a try.  By the time we reached the bottom, even before our inner tube hit the water in the pool, he yelled, "Let's do it again!"  Becca slept on Brian's lap for most of the afternoon, then we took turns playing with her while the others went on the slides.

Tilt-a-Whirl

Alyssa, Marcus, Brian, and Ethan.  They came off this ride soaking wet.

Alyssa, with a new friend, Ava.  This ride needed two people, and they both needed a partner.  They ended up spending quite a bit of time together throughout the day.

Almost Over

Holy cow!  Where has the summer gone?

I went with Christina and Tallia today to the Learning Plan meeting at Mid Columbia Partnership, then came home and started filling out the learning plan forms on the MCP website.  I also sat down with my planner and wrote down all of Alyssa's ballet classes, Ethan's gymnastics classes, mostly so I know which days are vacation days when I don't have to take them to those classes.  We've heard from Alyssa's soccer coach, so we know she's on a team, but we're still waiting to hear about Ethan.  The last we heard, they didn't have enough coaches, and if they didn't get enough, not all the kids would be able to play.  I sent an email saying, "I know next to nothing about soccer, but I'm willing to learn IF no one else volunteers."  After pushing send I immediately thought, "Why did I do that?!?"  I haven't heard back from them, so I'm hoping they don't want me, but I also haven't heard from Ethan's coach.  I don't know.  So this fall we're going to have MCP on Mondays, ballet, gymnastics, soccer, and piano lessons.  It's going to be jam packed!

I've meant to blog a lot more than I've ended up actually blogging, so there's a lot of summer that I have to catch up on.

Brian's Grandpa Jacks and his Grandma Orton both passed away this summer.  Grandpa Jacks in July, and Grandma Orton just a couple of weeks ago.  They are both greatly missed, but it's nice to know that they are now free from pain and with their spouses again.  When Brian and I went to visit Grandma Orton at the end, I kept wondering if her husband, Jim, was sitting beside her, just waiting until they could be together again.

We went to the Oregon Coast for Brian's family reunion, which deserves a whole post of its own, but we all know that at this point, that's not going to happen.  One of my favorite things about the reunion was running on the beach.  I had signed up to run my first 10k the week after the reunion, so I knew I couldn't take the week off from running, but at first I wasn't brave enough to run down on the beach.  I had planned on just running along the streets like I do at home, but once I saw how hilly the roads were, I opted for the flatness of the beach, and it was beautiful!

The week before, right after Grandpa Jacks' funeral, we were visiting with Brian's reletives, and Ethan rode a horse for the first time.  The whole time he was on top of that huge horse, he kept saying, "I"m riding a horse! I'm riding a horse!"  The first morning of the reunion, when I woke up and went down to the beach, I kept thinking to myself, "I'm running on the beach!  I'm running on the beach!"  I was just so peaceful and invigorating at the same time.  I loved it!

We've spent a good portion of our summer at my parents' house, playing in the back yard and swimming.  The girl cousins have played Egyptians, Last Air Bender, Olympics, fairies, goddesses, Indians...you name it.  The boys have mostly ran around the yard, laughing and yelling.

Alyssa had an Ancient Egyptian birthday party where we played Pin the Beard on Tutenkamen, musical chairs to the song, "My Mummy and Me," ate River Nile Silt Cake (dirt cake), and went swimming.  She invited a few friends from school and the cousins her age.

I was going to put up a bunch of pictures, but it looks like I need to do some unloading of my camera.  I guess I'll just end the post by saying: Next week is our last week of summer, and right now I'm stuck between being sad that summer is over and being excited for the fall.
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You Think I Would Have Learned By Now

We didn't have summer school during all of July.  It started when Brian's grandpa passed away, and I started cleaning my house like a mad woman to be prepared for out of town visitors.  While I cleaned, the kids played and made messes, so I would clean upstairs while they played downstairs, then the next day I would work downstairs while they messed up their rooms, and it went back and forth until I caught up to their madness.  Yes, I did have the kids help me for some of it, and they aren't exactly the tornadoes I make them out to be, but you have to admit that kids are very good at making messes.

Then came packing for the Jacks Family Reunion.  The funeral was on Saturday, and we were leaving for the reunion Tuesday morning.  Then came the reunion itself (a whole week!) then recovering from the reunion while keeping up with the normal housework while the "tornadoes" were still running around.  Yesterday I just barely put away the suitcase we used for Becca .  It had been sitting on the floor of her room, open and halfway full, this whole time.

Throughout the past two weeks, sometimes this little voice in the back of my mind would say, "We should start summer school again," but then I would think, "As soon as I have things under control, we will."  I really felt discouraged this last weekend, because the kids and I made sure that our bedrooms and the family room and kitchen were clean before we went swimming at my parents' house each day, but I still came downstairs on Saturday morning to what I felt was an absolute disaster area.  I said to Brian, "If we cleaned each morning, then spent the entire day away from the house, how on earth did it get so messy?!?  It's so frustrating!"  That's still a mystery I'm trying to figure out.  I know part of it is that even though I was doing a good job of washing the laundry, I wasn't folding and putting clothes away, and that made for baskets of clean laundry in random places around the house.  Then Saturday was pretty jam packed with a long run in the morning, then making a quadruple batch of dirt cake for Alyssa's birthday party and not cleaning up after myself, then heading to run errands and such and have the birthday party, then coming home and collapsing in bed.  So maybe it was a bunch of little messes and then running out the door before cleaning them that made things get out of control.  I really do wish we had a robotic maid or something, because keeping the house clean is such a pain!

So here's the lesson I learned...AGAIN!  I know I keep blogging about this, and everyone's probably tired of hearing it, but I'm hoping that if I keep writing it down, then maybe it will finally stick in my head.  When we have summer school and follow our routine, the house stays clean, I spend quality time with the kids, and we finish with plenty of time left over to just have fun.  Why do I keep having to learn this lesson over and over again?  I think it's something that I just need to drill into my brain before school starts. I also think that if a lot of people knew about this cycle ( I am now going to call it the Cycle of Productivity) that they wouldn't be so intimidated by homeschooling.  I've had a lot of people tell me that they would love to homeschool, but they knew they couldn't because they had such a hard time keeping up with just the housework, let alone throwing teaching their children into the mix.  I think if more people knew that if they followed the routine, not only would their kids get a quality education by someone who loved them, but the household chores, for the most part, would just fall into place.

And it's not like we're skipping school for frivolous things.  It's not like I'm saying, "Oh, let's not have school this morning.  I'd really like to read my book."  Or make crafts.  Or watch t.v.  What I keep telling myself is:  If we just take the morning off from school, then I can get things put away.  Or catch up on the laundry.  Or scrub the kitchen.  In reality, it's when we have school that I seem to have more time to get those things done anyway.  It's like that object lesson we get a million times at church.  You put the rocks in the jar, then the sand, then the water...and it all fits!  It really does!  Maybe that's why we have that lesson so often - it's true!  And I need to stop learning it the hard way.

So here are my goals:

1.  Keep the school room clean, so that even if we get behind on the house, we can just shut the school room door and have a clean place to work.  The sub-goal here is to bring down some crafting supplies for the kids, like glue and paper and such, and having them do their fun projects downstairs, so we don't have paper clippings and broken crayons strewn about their desks.

2. Have school every weekday, no matter what chores need to be done.  Every day!  No talking myself out of it!

3. Make sure things are under control during the weekend.  I have the tendency to not do any cleaning during the weekends.  Sometimes it's because I want to relax, and sometimes it's like this last weekend where we were running around too much to clean up after ourselves.  That should not be happening.  Usually it would just put us behind five minutes or so if we would just stop and clean up our mess before running out the door.

There.  Rant over.  I promise I'll stop talking about this.  And just to let you know, please don't think my house is sparkling clean.  It's not, but it is under control, which is nice.

Have My Cake, And Eat It, Too

Today, Becca turned one!  I sang her "Happy Birthday" when she woke up this morning, and she seemed to like it.  We unpacked from our family reunion (more on that in a later post) a bit, frosted her cake, straightened up the house, and then spent the afternoon swimming at my parent's. Then we came home and had a quick dinner and cake before Brian had to take off for mutual.

Rebecca is our only child to not be a full walker before turning one, and it's not because she can't, it's really because she prefers to tease us when we practice.  Last week, though, she decided to start practicing on her own, and she's toddling around a little bit more.  She loves to pick up the phone and say "Ay-oh!"  She loves t.v. remotes. She loves playing in the water.  She's down to only waking up once or twice a night, which is nice.  I think her favorite thing to eat is bananas, but really, she puts everythying she can get her hands on in her mouth, so I really can't say what is her favorite.  She's sweet.   She is just such a sweet, friendly, happy baby, and we love her a lot.

Here's her cake eating progression.

Poking it.

Tasting it.

"This really is yummy."

"Seriously.  Leave me alone; I'm eating my cake."

All done.

Busy, Busy Weekend

Wow, it's been an action packed weekend!  On Friday the kids and I went to see the Reptile Man at the public library, then Brian and the boys went to the Father and Sons camp out at Teancum Timbers while Alyssa, Rebecca, and I went to see Brave and then headed to Spokane, to help my sister move, and last, we spent the afternoon at Brian's parent's house for after church dinner.

This was our first time seeing the Reptile Man, and it was really fun.  I was surprised that he talked in a calm, almost quiet voice, but the kids all listened to him and were interested in learning about all the different reptiles.  I touched an alligator!  I never thought I would ever do that. 

Brian and the boys had a fabulous time on their camp out.  I prayed the entire time that they would all arrive home safe and sound with all their limbs and appendages, and thankfully Heavenly Father listened to my prayers.

The girls and I had a fun time in Spokane as well.  We brought Sadie along, and she stayed with Kim's new across-the-street neighbor and their dog, Molly.  We were originally going to leave Saturday morning instead of Friday afternoon, because we couldn't leave Sadie at home for so long, so Kim's friend, Jamie, offered to have her stay with them, and it turned out great.  Sadie was so worn out from playing with Molly that she slept the entire drive home.  Alyssa also had a fun time with Jamie's kids. At first they were "Elijah's friends," but they soon became, "my friends."

We all met up back at home yesterday afternoon, cleaned out the cars, and spent the evening relaxing.  After church today the kids and I went to Brian's parent's house for dinner, then he joined us when he was done with his church responsibilities.  Aunt Karen made yummy enchiladas, and I burned one of the pans of corn bread muffins.  The were pretty crispy on the outside, but they were still moist and fluffy on the inside.  Over all, it was a good dinner.

As we were getting the kids in the car, Diane was telling me that Grandpa Jacks is not doing very well at all and that things might get bad enough to affect the family reunion next week.  She was trying to be discreet with her words in front of the kids, but Alyssa caught onto the bit about altering the family reunion, and she asked me about it as we were driving home.

The kids and I talked about how old Grandpa is and how he's been sick for a very long time.  We talked about the Premortal world, coming to Earth to gain bodies, and then leaving our bodies to go to Heaven.  (Imagine me holding up my hand as I'm driving and saying, "Now, pretend there's a glove on my hand...")  We talked about who is waiting in Heaven and must be excited to see Grandpa Jacks again.  Alyssa caught on real quick and said, "Great Grandma Jacks!" but we also talked about his parents and other family members.  Then we talked for a bit about things we remember about Grandpa Jacks from before he started getting Alzheimer's.  Ethan said, "He is so nice to us," and at that moment I could feel the love our Heavenly Father has for us, and how much He must love Grandpa.  I am thankful to my Heavenly Father for helping us to feel His spirit in those teaching moments - I hope my kids felt it, too!  I am also thankful that my kids only have good memories of their great grandpa, and that he's always been happy and optimistic every time we've visited with him.  I don't remember any of my great grandparents, and I'm so glad that my kids have been able to spend so much time with Grandpa Jacks, Grandma Orton, Grandma Yeats, and Grandma Harris.  I really feel that it is a blessing to their lives to have been able to feel loved by their elder relatives.

Family Pictures

Megan Anderson took our family pictures at Pacific University the week that Brian graduated, and then she was nice enough to move to the Tri-Cities so she could take our family pictures again, three years later.  I'm so excited to get them printed up and put on our wall!