Friday Fritters

--Baking a cake and talking on the phone at the same time - not a good idea. Thankfully, I had extra batter that saved the day. I wouldn't say the cake was burnt, just a little extra crispy.

--Looked up online how to get rid of scorpions. Cleaning out leaves/debris from around your foundation is apparently a good idea since they like cool dark places. Also found out that cracks and crevices in your foundation and doorways are favorite entry spots. That'll have to be Todd's job, I reckon. Also found out you can spray pesticide around your house and up to a foot above your foundation. Apparently, cracks/crevices in the attack are a no-no, but looking at the attic in our rental house, this is probably not going to be a feasible part of our "kick the scorpions the heck outa here" plan.

--Pondering whether or not it was a good idea to tell my dear offspring that their grandparents are coming to see us today. I think surprise is going to be the order of the day from now on. They are wound up tighter than a who'da'thoughtit, and the grandparents from MS aren't coming until late tonight. UGH.

--Wondering why on the day you have a TON to get done your children can't seem to be in the same room together.

--While I was on the front porch swing on the phone letting the cake burn, uh, I mean get well-done, Aubrie swiped the scraper from the batter bowl, ran upstairs with it, and had a chocolate mask facial.

--I love that a family of mud swallows has their nest on our front porch (Can I blame them for the cake?), and I am fully enamoured with them. They are so big now that I'm not sure how they all fit in their fairly tiny nest. Also, I'm trying to prepare Emma for the inevitable - the birds will leave the nest. She's adopted them, named them, and I'm sure there will be mourning when they leave. If we're lucky, they'll set up housekeeping on our porch, too!

Two Posts in One Day...But For Good Reason

I know this is rare, but I'm just now learning how to upload pics to my loaner computer, and I didn't want to do this post without a picture. Just wouldn't be the same. Trust me.

First, and most importantly, I want to celebrate the birth of Jessie Claire. She was born May 17th of 2004, and is shockingly five years old. Have no idea where that time went.

Now if you know Emma and Aubrie, we could switch their baby pictures around, and no one, and I mean no one would be the wiser. Even Aubrie has convinced herself that pictures of Emma are her. Anyway, Jessie Claire has been her own individual since day one. While Emma's and Aubrie's hair was/is curly, Jessie's is stick straight. She was a hefty 9 lbs. at birth (w/nothing but Stadol, I might add) and is now a petite flower of a little girl.

She is a thinker, organizer and has one of the most tender hearts I have seen. She is so needed in our rough and tumble family, and makes me want to be more tender, too. She is our resident gymnast and is still torn between that and dance, and since we only have time, energy and wherewithal for one activity per kiddo, she must pick. It will be interesting to see which way things go. She also will be officially added to our little home school this fall although we've been easing her into things throughout the year.

I cannot fail to add that while she is, for the most part, a delicate flower of a child, she is also a Williams and has no problem in standing up for herself when she's just plain had enough. She actually used to get pretty physical ...okay, she was a biter. The upside was that she would only bite Emma (that sounds bad, doesn't it?). From my selfish perspective it at least saved me some embarrassment! The only exceptions to that were Reece Gibson and a kid at the YMCA. You didn't mess with Jessie's toys. Gladly, we've left that behind, but the tenacious attitude lingers. I hope we're the kind of parents that can help shape that attitude into perseverance and never-let-go faith.

Happy Belated Birthday, Jessie Claire!!



One last thing, if this post, you remember my encounter with the scorpion and my hope that he would NOT invite his friends to our house. Well, no such luck. Just discovered another live one in the girls' room as I'm putting them down for nap. 15 minutes ago. Ughhh! Going to have to find out how to get rid of these things. These pictures are of the first DEAD scorpion we found (also in the bathroom). I am so glad to say that the other two aren't quite as hefty as this one, but that only slightly eases my freaked-out-ed-ness.

A Little Homeschooling Stuff

I just sent this email to a friend of mine who is thinking about homeschooling her daughter when she starts kindergarten next year. I realized that I was talking her poor ear off, and so we decided I should email her some things so she could do some digging on her own. I thought that someone else might want to find out about our homeschool life so I'm posting my email to her on the ol' blog. Most of the websites I gave her are also on the right-hand side of the blog, but I went into a little more detail so she could pick and choose what she wanted to read. Hope this helps anyone who's considering this option.

Okay, here are my favorites:

http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/v2/index.php?page=3

This website will give you a VERY in-depth overview of some of the main reasons we chose to homeschool. Todd was introduced to classical education when he studied at Focus on the Family. Two things to read further on this are: _The Lost Tools of Learning_ and _Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning_. I can help you find these...one is a book and the other is an article...we have both of them packed up "somewhere."

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/index.php

This is a website based on the book of the same name. This is kinda over-the-top, but follows the classical model (which I love) and has GREAT curriculum suggestions at the end of each grade-level chapter.

http://simplycharlottemason.com/home/

Charlotte Mason was an educator in England, and there is a book called _The Charlotte Mason Companion_ which condenses her 6-volume work into more understandable language. Also has some great child-rearing stuff in there. Her method is literature/experience driven and fits nicely with classical ed so I combine the two which I think lots of homeschool families do. Best of both worlds! This website actually provides a year-by-year curriculum guide which I consult. (I can show you how I combine all this later if you want.)

Now, when you've digested all that and are ready for curriculum websites let me know. If you want to go ahead and dig, I'll tell you that I use the following:

Saxon Math (going to use Singapore math with Jessie- tell you more later)
Handwriting without Tears
Winter Promise for readers
Ambleside online for read aloud material (it's free!)
Noeo Science (I've also purchased some stuff from Sonlight - they have an amazing catalog)
History Through the Ages for timeline figures
Mystery of History for their storybook (goes with the timeline - way cool)
I do a combination of things for phonics: Alpha Phonics, Explode the Code, McGuffy Primers, and one more book I just bought. I mainly use Alpha and McGuffy and fill in with the others if I feel E is getting bored. They're pretty old school so they aren't very colorful, but I LOVE how systematic and logical they are. If you watch Little House on the Prairie, you might notice that they are using McGuffy primers in the school, and they are really that old (which I also LOVE)! I know, I am so corny!!

Computer on Loan

Well, our dead computer still isn't revived yet, but the place where we're having it fixed gave us one until it is! I was super excited since life without a fast computer is just no fun.

We've had a lot going on and even more coming up. Here's a brief summary just to catch you up:

* Emma was bitten in four different places by a spider on Monday. By Tuesday her forehead looked like a golf ball had landed on it, and one of the bites on her arm had a ring around it making it look scarily like a brown recluse bite.

*Tuesday Emma's bites are worse so we go to the doctor and are so THANKFUL to learn that they are not brown recluse bites but still kind of nasty. We are given a topical steroid, and things are finally looking much better.

*Tuesday evening Emma falls down while getting ready for bed cutting her lip - lots of blood so I was glad Todd was handy to help the clean-up on this one! Today (Friday) her lip and cheek are still swollen so we tried to get her in to get an x-ray, but no luck. I'll save the health care situation in Bastrop for another day, but will say that we'll probably be driving to Austin for most of our needs.

*Oh, on Monday Aubrie had been complaining of a tummy ache, and after we finished our trip to Costco and WalMart, she proved that she was in pain. Just as we're backing out of our parking spot, she gets sick. I don't want to be gross, but we had to have the van shampooed the next morning. Thankfully, we were five minutes from Todd's shop and were able to get some clean-up help from Daddy.

*My girls are growing up. Aubrie has said good-bye to pull-ups, and she and Jessie are both dry through the night. I think I may have bought my last diaper/pull-up, and Todd says that's enough money for a boat payment! :-) More on growing up - Emma fixed dinner tonight. We had VERY delicious turkey melts with dip and chips. I feel like I'm entering a whole new era of Mommyhood.

*I had the BEST mother's day weekend I think I've ever had last weekend. Todd and our friend Ruel kept all five of our girls so Julie and I could go to Chili's and have dinner including a Chocolate Molten Cake...so yummy! Thank you, guys! That morning my friend Ashley and I walked for March of Babies in Austin and had lunch at Shady Grove which is really fun burger joint just down the street from the walk. My sweet family fixed a fun breakfast Sunday morning, and each of the girls had something special wrapped up for me. Later that evening we had a girls' night at the movies. Such a fun time!

* Highlights of what's ahead - Jessie turns 5 on Sunday, Judy and Jerry are going to visit next weekend for Jessie and Aubrie's joint b-day party, Todd is baptizing Emma the next day at church (our anniversary also), Monday Aubrie turns 3, and Tuesday Jessie graduates from preschool, cap, gown and all.

Oh, I forgot one more thing - I had a visitor in our bathroom this week...a live scorpion. I hope he doesn't invite any of his friends over! Those things give me the willies.

Comupter Dead

Our computer's mother board died last week. So sad. Not that I post just a ton, but it is really crimping other parts of my technical life. Thankfully, it looks like the issue we have has been covered by an extended warranty because the problem is so wide-spread. It may be a while before I'm back in action...

A Much-Needed Retreat

I know I’m posting out of order, but that’s just the craziness of my life! This trip actually took place the first weekend of April.

I have two dear friends from college who decided during one of the most difficult times of my life to drop everything and come to my rescue. Chelsea was living in Colorado at the time, Kris was in the Dallas area, and I was living with my in-laws and pregnant with Jessie Claire. Jessie was just a few months from arriving, my mother had passed away a few months before, and we still didn’t have a house. To say the least, things were pretty stressful and, quite frankly, dark for me. Anyway, these two precious people did something for me I can never forget. Chels flew from Denver to Dallas and then she and Kris drove to Clinton to basically deliver a baby shower on my front doorstep. They came with gifts, lots of laughter,and, of course, Kris had baked goods! We played, ate, and shopped together, and thus began our “tradition.”

Two summers ago we hooked up again in Jefferson, TX, which proved to be pretty convenient for everyone. Chels, by this time had moved to east TX so it was a quick trip for her and only about four hours for me. We stayed at a bed and breakfast, shopped, ate and laughed until the wee hours of the morning.

Since we’re all in the same state again, we (actually Kris who always gets the ball rolling) decided it was time for another retreat. She threw out the suggestion that we each bring our oldest daughters along for the ride. I have to say that while we didn’t get as much personal visiting done as in the past, I have no regrets! Our daughters LOVED each other and had the best time playing together. I may be dreaming, but how great would it be if their friendship continues to develop through the years? Kris’ parents have a time share at Canyon Lake so we shopped in San Marcos and slept at the condo for free! Now that’s a retreat.

Somehow, we always forget to take pictures of ourselves on these little trips (which we are going to HAVE to get better at), but we did manage to get some of the girls.

Emma, Reagan (Kris), and Alex (Chels) during a morning swim

Lunch at Johnny Rockets

Walking between shops at the outlet mall.

A Weekend in the Woods

Well, I don’t have pictures from this big adventure yet – trying to get my non-tech friend to send me the ones she took, but I couldn’t wait anymore to post. We all survived, had a blast and got a little bit of sleep to boot!

Sleeping in our tent: we did have blow-up mattresses which came in mighty handy as the ground is really hard! (Feel free to laugh at me here.) The girls used their sleeping bags on top of the beds...keeps them from fighting over the covers. :-) Todd and I were sleeping in luxury with our cotton t-shirt sheets. We actually needed a fan for a while the first night, but when I woke up for the millionth time around 1 am, I turned it off...definitely a little chilly by then. I think the first night Emma had to go to the bathroom, Aubrie woke up cold and out of her bag, Jessie took Aubrie's pillow, and our friends' little girl had night terrors right next to us, and that kept E and I up for a while as we had just returned from the potty. Glad to say that the second night was VERY calm in comparison. We did have some younger campers next to us that second night who decided it was a good idea to wash dishes around 2 am. I'm sure I would have thought that at some point in my life LONG ago, too. :-)

We had s’mores over coals because we're still under a burn ban so it took a while but was so much fun! We also had an Easter egg hunt and just about lost Aubrie on the "mountain" behind our campsite. We were packing up and lost track of her so I go to a neighbor's site to look for her. I see her coming down the mountain, and let's just say that I've not allowed myself to think of what would have happened had she gone down the other side of the ridge... thank you, Lord, for your protection even when we're not asking for it! (For those of you who’ve read The Shack, I can’t let my mind go there either.)

The pictures I’m waiting for are of our crew up the mountain and on our hike that we took, and I'll be sure to share as soon as I get them. We have proof, I mean pics, of our pastor leading the kids in pushing down a pine tree which we're pretty sure is against the rules in our state park. He's a crazy man. We had seven families and about 14 kids along for the ride...it was wild to say the least.