Month: October 2011

Breakfast for Dinner

/ Jeanette / Leave a comment

Some days are absolutely crazy in a large family.  Some days I am trying to get so much done that I forget about dinner, or to read the recipe and make sure I have all the ingredients and also how much time it takes to cook. This is me scatter brained (but what’s new).

I hate when I get home from my bus run (some days 3:45pm and some days 4:15pm) and listen to the question what’s for dinner! When I am in a pinch like this I try (and fail) not to do the whole fast food thing. Well this past week I ran into one of those days. And what did I do? Take a look at the picture……

 

I made breakfast. Homemade pancakes which only take a few minutes. And defrosted some bacon and fried it up! Yum Breakfast for dinner is Heaven! By the way I make 30 pancakes with the hopes of having some left over for another breakfast for my 2 youngest kids. This day I walked away with 7 left over. THAT’S ENOUGH FOR 3 KIDS!

Homeschooling with a toddler part 1

/ Jeanette / Leave a comment

Homeschooling a middle schooler while having a toddler at home can be VERY challenging. My son would very happy watching Toy Story 2 (has to be 2) or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse all day long but it makes me feel guilty! So I decided that there has to be some kind of compromise on homeschooling my older child while homeschooling my youngest. I needed to be organized, not my strongest area. But it was the only way to quiet my guilt and make me feel like a supermom.

First was getting my daughter on a set schedule. This way she knew what to expect and I knew what was coming next. I sat down wrote out all the subjects and then wrote out our timeline. Because we do have 2 other kids in Public School we have to finish by the time I go on my afternoon bus run. Now this is our second schedule, I had to some tweeking. I originally had math as our first subject because this is one she struggles with and I thought that if it was the first subject of the day she would feel refreshed and understand it better. But after many weeks of stressing because our schedule was being thrown off I moved it to our last subject of the day. This gives her the whole rest of the day to work on it ( if need be) and I am not stressing her out saying we need to move on.

At first we had Mondays off but my hubby didn’t like that. Another long story…..

One these days I promise I will tell all my long stories.

Okay back to Mondays. So on Mondays we do a review of what we learned the week before. Which makes sense to me more than Friday reviews because chances are they are going to forget over the weekend not from Monday to Friday when you have been working on for 5 days straight. Plus my youngest daughter gets out an hour early from public school.

Tuesday and Wednesday we wrap up everything as far as me teaching by 2:30 pm. I go for my bus run and my daughter stays working on math if need be.

Thursday and Friday, my youngest has tutoring so I don’t have to leave until 3 pm to get my oldest. That gives us and extra 1/2 hour so we try to fit in Music, Art and Clickschooling.

Then I factored in when my son would take a nap and also when lunch would be so I could schedule the more hands on lessons during that time. I also put a more hands off subject the hour before lunch which would give me time to make a healthy lunch (no sandwiches here, well maybe once in a while).

Yes I still have to stop and give the assignment and possibly teach a lesson or two but I am not sitting here dumbfounded going UMMMMMM when asked what’s next. We both had the schedule right in front of us and could easily look ahead of time and prep.

Part 1 accomplished!

Are you just having one of those days?

/ Jeanette / Leave a comment

Well I am having one of those days my entire life! My mom’s side of the family (long story) sees these as moments for them to make me the butt of the joke. But I look at as living my life. What if I did everything exactly as everyone else. Wouldn’t I be boring then? So I say it is what makes me unique or special.

Like the time I decided to pop popcorn in a pot instead of buying microwave. I decided that it would be neat for my kids to watch the popcorn pop. Now just for a moment take in the word POPcorn. Well there was a mess everywhere, but the kids got a great laugh and my cocker spaniel had a yummy treat.

Then there is the time where I was wearing a necklace with my grandpa’s ashes in it. Sitting in the car, waiting for hubby to get done pumping gas, when I felt something land in my lap. My first thought was that he threw something at me and was getting ready to yell at him, but decided to look down. HMMM what’s all this white stuff on my black shirt? Then saw the locket in my lap. I freaked at first and then I stopped and laughed and said very funny Grandpa because this is something he would have done.

OR the time I decided to walk back to my pond to feed the fish and turtle. Just walked up to the pond (this was when we first moved out to country from the city) when I hear rustling in the grass and up the tree. Look over to my right and a huge green iguana is sitting in a tree! I mean who has an iguana living in her back 40? That would be me! Though I think I scared him to death because he has never been seen again.

Then there was that time that hubby and I were clearing our property. This was my first encounter with country life. We were trying to get it ready for building. And I was clip trees while he was cutting grass. I went up to the banana tree started clipping, had a bad feeling, stopped clipping, looked up at the tree and saw the whole thing shaking!!! Lets just say I out ran my hubby who was on the riding mower and that tree was immediately removed from the property.

The latest it could only happen to me moment was when my oldest was assigned her bus stop for the new school year. Hubby and I drove by and saw that it was in front of a very bad neighborhood. Hubby went up to the school demanded a new stop. We went by the new stop and hubby says “this is much better”. I just look at him and say “really?!” It’s in a cemetery! So everyday I enjoy reading tombstones, wondering who these people were in their lives, oh yeah, and listening to my youngest daughter panic that they are going to reach up and get her.

The trials, tribulations and hysterical laugh fest I have living my life. Bet those family members don’t have as much fun living as I do. Who’s laughing now? OH yeah I am, uh huh I am! (crazy dork dance happening right now)

Jeanette

City Girl living a Country life

/ Jeanette / 1 Comment

I have been a city girl my entire life until I was 24. That year, Hubby and I decided we needed to move to a bigger house with a bigger property. 2.9 acres to be exact.  Now we are living the country life. But some things need some getting use too. Like remembering to buy softener salt for the well and Rid X for the septic because we don’t want that problem. But the things that take the most getting use to is things like this!

Yup right through Hubby’s workshop. This rat snake decided to pay him a visit and check out the cabinets he was working on. Hubby about had a heart attack. Needless to say I had an anxiety attack! Especially since snakes are my phobia. Now in the city, yes we have snakes (I guess) but we don’t see them very often if at all. But here in the country they are everywhere. Never did it cross my mind  that I would have to deal with snakes.

What is even better is the night before I was telling Hubby we should get chickens. I was begging him to let me get some chickens. Well these snakes are also known as chicken snakes! Guess what we ARE not getting?

Instant Grow~ Large Family

/ Jeanette / Leave a comment

ABOUT ME~

 

I did not acquire a large family the traditional way. First I had a child in my teens. Then I fell in love and married in my 20’s a man who had 2 kids. We adopted each other’s kids to make it legal. 6 years later we were pregnant with our first child together. 2 years later my grandmother moved because my grandfather had went into a nursing home.  So this is my Instant Grow Large Family. The kids ages range from 2-13. And we are raising all of them on a shoestring budget that my hubby brings in being self-employed. I am homeschooling 1 of my daughters and the other two choose to go to public school. And my little man is gearing up for his first year of toddler school as he will be homeschooled as well.

 

 

ABOUT THIS BLOG~

What do I hope you will find on this blog? A little bit of everything. Recipes, frugal tips, life learning lessons because we are all still learning, funny stories about our life as a large family, homeschooling activities and household management. So please have patience with me as I am new to this whole blogging thing.

Raising my kids…..

/ Jeanette / Leave a comment

Sometimes being around my kids can be very trying. I am not gonna lie. There are days when I am like that’s it; I have lost all sanity; why did I have all these kids? Okay most days are like that. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I have a boy who is a toddler just hitting terrible twos and testing the waters with his parents. I have an 11-year-old daughter who is special needs with ODD, ADHD, language and speech delays and sometimes acts worse than my 2-year-old. I have a 12-year-old daughter who is a peacemaker and honestly an emotional wreck. Say the wrong thing and the tears flow. Then I have a teen, my 13 almost 14-year-old daughter, who prefers to lock herself in her room with her TV than spend time with the family.

But like I said I wouldn’t have it any other way. AND the crazy part is I would like to have one more. We aren’t perfect like the Duggars with the best kids in the world. But they are MY kids and with all their quirks and craziness; I love them with all my heart!

Even the weeks where I feel like I can’t catch my breath, it’s 9pm and just realized there is no milk in the house and my kids are running around acting like I fed them sugar for dinner. Even when my sanity is gone, my patience is tried and at the end of my rope. I wouldn’t change a thing! And to those who say I don’t know how you do it? I say I don’t know how not to do it.

This is me….. This is my life….. and the rollercoaster ride that comes with it…….Hang on and Enjoy the ride!

Jeanette