humor

Back to School~ schedule

/ Jeanette / Leave a comment

Homeschool is in session. We have been back to the grind for the last 4-5 weeks. It has been a slow start up process. But we are definitely making head way. Though a little slower with a 3 year old wanting to get in on everything, but we are on the right track.

With having 3 kids at home on 3 different levels, we decided to try a block schedule. For the first 3 weeks, we had subjects 1-5 on Monday and Wednesday, subjects 6-10 on Tuesday and Thursday, and all subjects on Friday for a review day. But I started thinking about Bri’s learning disabilities and realized reviewing on Friday does no good if you have 2 days off right afterwards. So this is our new schedule for now.

Monday is our review day. We cover all of our subjects and just review and go over what we learned the previous week.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are subjects 1-5. We usually take about an hour on each.

Wednesday and Fridays are subjects 6-10.

Spelling is done everyday because if not my kids will get confused and lost.

So here is the basic set up.

Monday~ Writing, Spelling, History, Reading, Geography, Science, Art, PE, Math

Tuesday & Thursday~ Reading, History, Science, PE, Spelling

Wednesday & Friday~ Writing, Geography, Spelling, Art, Math

Our school starts at 8:30am. We get an hour and half for lunch from 11-12:30. And usually finish up between 1:30-2:30. I always leave Math for last because that is my kids longest subject. Meaning sometimes it takes them a while. And my kids are the type that don’t stop unless its done or I tell them too. So this more relaxed for me and them as we aren’t worrying about the subjects we still need to do because it’s last. I may switch Art and PE. That way they get their juices flowing with PE right before Math. I think and hope that is the last change I need to make. So far it has worked out for us.

Next up~ what we are covering in each subject.

Mommy’s little helper

/ Jeanette / Leave a comment

I spent most of the weekend cleaning and entertaining and cooking.

HA what’s different between this past weekend and everyday of my life? Well we had more adults than kids for a change.

But I also had a little helper…..

This was Sunday morning. He loves to be a cooker as he calls it. We were making waffles. We were the only ones awake and it was so nice. Being the 4th he doesn’t get as much one on one time. But I love how he finds ways to get his Mommy and me time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like sweeping the floor. Everything I asked his sisters to do he would come yelling I do it.

 

 

 

 

Then it was time for the fun. Our friends brought their 4 wheeler and I was talking to my mother in law when I looked out the window and there was Dakota zooming past with our friend, Dave. Luckily he wasn’t going as fast as my hubby was when I looked up and barely recognized the streak of man that was my husband.

Don’t worry I checked, the life insurance is paid up.

 

Then it was pool time! Let me tell you after this weekend of crazy fun, he was so tired.

Momma Let’s her hair down

/ Jeanette / Leave a comment

Last night I had a rare night out with no kids and no hubby. I went to the Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan concert with my grandma, aunt and cousin.

The night started off with me getting into an argument with a bunch of drunks. And I was really worried that I was going to be miserable because drunk and crazy is not my scene.

But once the music started playing and all of my favorite songs came on. I loosened up and actually felt like a 30 year old. Which is extremely hard when I have a daughter going into high school and I feel like I have to set that example for her. But last night I was with my younger cousin and just acted like a young woman who loves music and dancing and having a good time.

That is me in the teal! Shaking my ass, singing and having a good time. And though I didn’t literally let my hair down (it was HOT), I did let my guard down and relax.

Something I think every mom needs once in a while.

Jeanette

M.ADD~ Mom’s Attention Deficit Disorder

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Everyone has heard of Mommy Brain or Pregnancy brain. This is the common excuse for forgetfulness.

But by a certain point you really can’t use that excuse.

Like if you kid is 15, you can blame your forgetfulness on Mommy Brain or Pregnancy Brain because IT”S BEEN 15 YEARS.

But what you can blame it on is M.ADD~ Mom’s Attention Deficit Disorder. This is when we have so much going on and our to do list is as long as The Nile River that we begin to forget things.

Like let’s say your on Facebook and you see it’s your Uncle’s birthday. You think to yourself that Oh I need to wish him a Happy Birthday. BUT then the kids wake up and the phone rings and the dogs need to go out and the kids want breakfast and then there is a dirty diaper to change and your girls are pulling each other’s hair out over the bathroom. And then it is 3am and your in your quiet comfy bed when you sit straight up and realize you never went back to the computer to say Happy birthday.

I would have to say that every Mom suffers from this and it has come a time to put a name on it other than Mommy Brain.

M. ADD  just sounds perfect to me.

By the way the story told in this post was not exaggerated or made up by me but happens daily in the chaos of my life with 4 kids, 3 dogs, 2 old ladies (a cat & a Grandma) and 1 hubby (thank god, could you imagine me with 2?!?) SOOOOO…..

Happy Birthday Uncle Gary! LOL

Lazy Cat Days of Summer

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Summer is here and so our the long lazy days. Or at least I had hoped. But as usual life has thrown me a curve ball and I had a slew of unexpected events that hampered everything I wanted to do with my kids.

The only one who got to relax was the cat!

 

 

 

 

See she is too lazy to even stand to get a drink!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here…well I’m not sure but I thought it was funny and strange.

 

 

But I don’t know if its the weather, but I have felt like doing nothing all summer.

The heat has been unbearable. Or we have very high chances of severe storms.

Everytime I tell myself we are getting back on track something happens:

My dad came to stay for almost a month.

Then I was planning 4th of July, then the kids and I all got sick, then I went into planning birthday parties and throw in another round of unexpected houseguest.

And I am still fighting whatever this is that I got, but also wondering if it’s my body saying SLOW DOWN AND RELAX!

I now am preparing for oldest to start high school. And at the last minute Hubby wants her in braces before school starts. Plus my youngest daughter has started Speech Therapy so that is a standing appointment every week.

Then Hubby decides he wants to go to his class reunion in the middle of all this chaos.

UGH…. This momma needs a vacation!

I can’t wait for school to start so we can have a routine again.

Jeanette

Wrapping up our homeschool year (pun intended)

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I wanted to finish this post a month ago but life got in the way. Anyways better late than never, Huh?

 

My kids have busted their butts these last two months. And they have hit almost every goal I have set for them and I couldn’t be more proud of them. (Beaming Momma moment) Technically they have about 3 weeks left of school and I am trying my hardest to stretch their lessons to last. But I have to say I am having a hard time. So what do you do if you start going a little crazy coming up with ideas. You go crazy and plan a party and a field trip. WHY NOT? The kids have earned it! So that is what we did.

We finished up our project of comparing our Egyptians scrolls and clay tablets. Unfortunately our experiment had opposite results. Our scroll last and our clay tablet just fell apart. Apparently it was the wrong clay and some darn good paper we used. So this was our end result.

Terrible picture, I know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we wrapped up our chicken mummy ( HAHA~get it). It has been 6 weeks and we were ready to wrap it up to gross out  show everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also went on a field trip to our local Science Museum where they had a special exhibit about Mummies around the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We really liked this exhibit. It is not for the faint of heart I might add. There were a few moments that I had vision of mummies attacking. But I kept a cool head and the kids never knew.

In the end we manage to “wrap up” our mummies unit and the rest of our lessons early so we took two weeks off instead of just one!

Jeanette

 

 

 

When your words bite you in the butt

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This week I have heard my own words come out of my toddler’s mouth and hit me right in the face. The worse part is he is using them in the correct context.

First, Hubby and I were taking advantage of a few spare minutes, while dinner finished up, to cuddle in the recliner. My lil man looked over at me and said “Mommy, you sitting with Daddy?” I said “yup, I’m sitting with Daddy.” He looks my hubby right in the eyes and said “disgusting.”

Then when I was giving my lil man a ton of kisses, he yelled “Stop Mommy, your annoying.”

And then there was the time my youngest daughter was antagonizing her brother, he got so mad that he yelled “I’m tired of this!”

This weekend I thought my aunt was going to die laughing when she was trying to give my baby boy a hug and he looked at her with the look of sarcasm and said “Do you mind?”

These are all things say or have said.

And they have now come to bite me in the butt in the form of my precious two year old.

This is what happens when you wait 10 years between kids. You forget all the things your not suppose to say and do.

Our week in homeschooling~

/ Jeanette / Leave a comment

This week has been full of hands on activities. Which my kids have really enjoyed, I think I may continue it for our summer learning camp. We finished up our yearly testing a couple of weeks ago and are now just coasting through the last month of “real” school.

Science~

We are learning about Birds. This has been a very exciting lesson for my girls as we have set up a bird feeder area in our yard. This week we learned about bird wings by doing a dissection of a chicken wing. I just bought a pack of chicken wings from the meat department. The girls got to see all the muscles and tendons. They thought it was interesting to see how the joints worked. This was a favorite in the house. We also learned about the different types of nest and the girls had to try to create their own nest. Needless to say this was a messy activity and required showers afterwards.

History~ 

We are studying World History and have been learning about the Egyptians. Which we have also tied in with Geography and started learning about the country also. Last week we made a replica of the Nile River. We then filled it until the water overflowed to represent the flooding of the Nile. And this is what we got after a week.

We also learned about the types of writing the Egyptians used. The girls made a paper scroll with hieroglyphics on it and a clay tablet using cuneiform writing.

Little Man even had to get in on the fun!

These came out SOOOO good! Proud momma moment!

We also read about mummies and decided to start our 6 week project of making a mummified chicken. The kids really liked this idea.

This is a very lengthy and involved project but it was something we all really wanted to do.

This is day 2.

The price of cereal! Outrageous!!!

/ Jeanette / Leave a comment

Yesterday I decided that I wasn’t going to cook. We had leftovers and plenty of things to eat. We little did I know that my kids were going to devourer a brand new box of Frosted Flakes that I just bought yesterday morning!

1 box of cereal + 4 kids= EMPTY

That was $5 they just gobbled up in one meal! I was shocked!

Shocked that my kids eat like they haven’t had a meal all day!

Shocked that my $5 was gone so quickly!

Shocked that I spent $5 on ONE box of Frosted Flakes, which if you ask me is pure sugar!

When I was venting to hubby, he says well use coupons! Seriously did you just say that to me!!! I questioned his sanity at this point, since he tells everyone I am the coupon queen. If looks could kill, Hmph!

I then informed him that a coupon that says a dollar off of 2 or 3, which seems to be the new cereal trend, isn’t saving a whole lot at $5 a box!!!

Even with BOGO sales it is still expensive when a whole box is gone in ONE meal!

Then it made me question why are we buying $5 boxes of sugar? Why am I buying them if they eat it in one sitting? Because if I don’t then I have to listen to complaining! I personally HATE cereal, always have and always will. But my hubby and kids~ obsessed and will eat 3 times a day if I let them.

So that is why I chose to keep buying $5 boxes of sugar.

And will continue to complain when it last 5 seconds after hitting my front door.

And complain about the coupons sucking.

But the prices of cereal are still OUTRAGEOUS!!

 

Extreme parenting~not for me!

/ Jeanette / Leave a comment

I just got done reading People Magazine from a couple weeks ago. Ya know the one with Princess Kate on it. And there was an article about Extreme Parenting. We are know celebrities are known for the crazy baby names, their drunk antics, their break ups, make ups and break up again stories. And I have to admit it’s a guilty pleasure of mine (Did ya hear Brad and Angie are engaged?!) But this article terrified me.

First there is the video that went viral of Alicia Silverstone bird feeding her 11 month old baby. She chews all the food up and then spits it in his mouth. Does she not realize that nothing leaves the internet? So one day when he is in middle school (AKA the brutal years) some bully is going to google his mom’s name and there will be the video.

Then the next celeb on the list was Mayim Blaynik. She is from the 90’s show Blossom. She is a firm believer in attachment parenting, which is great don’t get me wrong. She is still breast feeding her 3 year old! The first thing that came to mind while reading this was the movie Jaws as the shark comes out of the water with the mouthful of huge teeth. Except it’s coming right at my boobs! Let me explain my view… I love breastfeeding. It was the one thing I wish I did longer with Kodabear. But once the baby turns a year old that is my personal limit. But 3 yrs old! I can barely get my 2 1/2 year old to stay still long enough to change his diaper. Again though has she thought about the ridicule this boy will endure when people google his mom’s name!

Now this next one is the most disgusting in my opinion. January Jones stars on Mad Men, but I think it should be retitled as Mad Woman. After giving birth to her baby, she felt what all of us new moms feel tired, worn out, exhausted, emotionally drained. Us non-rich, non-celebs pull up our big girl panties and DEAL! But January (love her name!) decided to spend the extra money and get pills made from her dehydrated placenta! EWWWW! That thing was in me for 9 months trading nutrients for fetal poo! I don’t want to willing ingest it! I will stick to my 5hour energy drink or better yet coffee and soda!

My point is as parents we are our child’s nemesis when they hit about 12. We are uncool and stupid. We are also SOOOOOO embarrassing (with an eye roll). SO why, why, why on Earth would these celebrities put their child through more teasing and bullying.

By the way~ if I was a celebrity…

I would name my child Rose Moscato after my favorite wine, even if it was a boy! Take that Hollywood!