Creativity and Fun!

The other day Brenna decided to get creative with styrofoam plates. She made a bunch of masks and wrote a play using them. I took a few pictures to share. She had such a great time!

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Today Rhiannon is over here playing. Those girls are so crazy and so silly when they get together. Tonight Brenna is having a sleep over at Rhiannon's house. You would have thought they were going to Disney World when Mieree told them. LOL

Livestock Show

We went to the livestock show yesterday and had such a great time. Brenna went to her very first rodeo and saw bronc riding, barrel racing, calf roping and bull riding. The whole thing lasted about two hours and apparently Brenna was not all that impressed. LOL I loved it and so did Brendon but she did not think that grown men riding crazy, wild animals was all that impressive. After the rodeo we went to the carnival and of course that was more her thing. We always get her a bracelet and she rides whatever she wants. They had lots of fun houses there and Brendon and I just kinda hung out while she went through them over and over and over.
I took a bunch of pictures and posted a few of them. There are not any pictures of animals because it was the last day and most of them were gone already. The last day is terrible for most of the kids because they have to get rid of their animals. I remember having to load up my pigs and my steer on the big trucks and I bawled my eyes out every single time - especially with my steer. You try not to get attatched to them because you know you can't keep them but sometimes you just can't help it.

Anyway, here's a few pictures....

Spring Break

This past week was pretty fun and we did some cool stuff. Brenna had her friend from basketball over on Tuesday and she was here all day. They had such a great time and got along wonderfully. I talked to her Mom and I think we will start picking her up from school one day a week so that her and Brenna can play for a couple hours.
Thursday Brenna and I went to the museum with Mieree and Rhiannon. They had the "Grossology" theme and I tell you what - it was disgusting! They had fart machines, name-that-smell (yep, use your imagination! I'm sure what you're thinking is right on! LOL), a rock wall that looked like skin with moles and pimples and warts as the 'rocks' you climb on. They had a play area for the kids that looked like the digestive system. The kids went through the mouth, up a ladder, then slid down the esophagus slide, into the stomach and then had to crawl through the large and small intestines to get out. LOL Oh this place was GREAT! Brenna learned so much too. They had things written everywhere and even had a pretend game show set up that asked questions about the stuff there. We are definitely going back with Brendon! Of course I forgot my camera - realized it as soon as we got there. I will remember it for next time and post some then.

Anyways, I have not posted any pictures of my garden! Brenna and I worked on it yesterday and laid some mulch down. The mulch helps with weeds and keeps the dirt from drying out so fast and it also prevents the vegetables from laying in the dirt and rotting. It really helps around the basil and the thyme because my herbs aren't touching the dirt at all. Right now we have 4 cucumber plants, 5 tomato plants, 2 zucchini, 5 pepper, 3 garlic, basil and thyme. I also bought some marigolds and planted them because they are natural insect repellents and they also look pretty and add a bit of color.
I took a picture of Brenna laying some mulch. It was evening so there were lots of shadows. (You can click on the pictures and make them bigger.)
Tomorrow Brendon, Brenna and I will be going to the livestock show so I'll post about that this week and hopefully have some good pictures.

Video

I found these videos on YouTube.com that this unschooling mother of three has made. They are all very good and I thought I would post one. Might post more later.

Busy Week Ahead

We have a busy week this week - I absolutely love seeing my calendar with things written on it!

It's Spring Break so tomorrow Brenna has a play date with one of her basketball buddies. BTW, Brenna is going to do basketball again in September and I am soooo happy about that! Her Mom is Brenna's coach and she is also a friend of mine, as well as my Mom's. We worked together when I was a pre-school teacher three years ago and her daughter was in my class. Natalie, the little girl, is a year older than Brenna and they get along so great. I think I am going to talk to her Mom and see if we can have a scheduled play date once a week. Natalie goes to school at the private school I used to work at and she is in day care after school from 3pm till about 4 or 5. I'm going to see if we can pick her up once a week from school so that Brenna and her can play. Anything to get them kids out of day care! LOL :)
Wednesday I will be going over to my sister-in-law, Lisa's, house to "lady-sit" while they go to the livestock show and they have graciously invited Brenna to go with them. I know that she will LOVE it!
Thursday Brenna and I will be going to the Children's Museum with my friend Mieree and her kids. Right now they have the theme of 'Grossology' there, which is all about your body (germs, mucus....disgusting stuff like that. You get the point). Sounds pretty cool to me! Brenna is really looking forward to it.
Friday we have a picnic to go to with the homeschool group. We have not done much with them for a couple months. The last few times they have gotten together we were either out of town, sick or had a dentist appointment. So we are looking forward to seeing everyone.
Saturday it's off to the livestock with us! Yea! I love, love, love the livestock show! In High School I was in FFA and raised pigs and a steer and we literally lived there all week. Seriously, my parents took the trailer and we lived there. LOL I have such great memories of that. It was so much fun! When Brenna gets a little older I would love for her to be in 4-H. It's kinda the same thing as FFA but FFA is through the high school and 4-H is through the city.

Anyways, hopefully I will have lots of pictures to post at the end of the week. I still need to get some up of our garden! My plants are growing rapidly and I can't wait to have fresh veggies. I have already used some of my basil for spaghetti sauce. I tell ya, it was pretty darn cool going out and picking some basil and coming inside and adding it to my food! Made it taste good too!! This week I will be making my apricot chicken and that uses fresh thyme so I told Brenna that I will "send her out to the garden to fetch some herbs". She looked at me like I was a nut and then laughed. LOL I'm always keeping that little girl on her toes. :)

Well, till fingers and keyboard meet again..... hope you all have a great week!!

Dissecting Sentences and Random Pictures

Last night Brenna got her "Silly Sentences" game out and played with it for a long time. It's a cool game that teaches nouns, verbs, prepositions, articles and adjectives. She's had it for a while and usually she'll just use all the words and see what kind of weird non-sense sentence she can make and that's pretty much it. Something along the lines of, "A green cow jumped over the spotty banana." :) You should see her laugh! It's great. I've never tried to actually teach her the parts of a sentence using it before. We have been getting into Mad Libs recently though so she has already learned what a noun, verb and adjective is using the stories.

So last night I decided to get on the floor and play with her. As I was making my sentences I started nonchalantly mentioning articles and prepositions to see if she would be interested at all. I would say things like, "Hmm, I need an article to start my sentence. Oh, here's one!!" It kinda peaked her interest a little and she asked questions and we made a little game out of it. We spent about 30 minutes dissecting sentences and then trying to make sentences better by adding more descriptive words. I also held up words and asked her what kind it was. I was so proud of her.

Apparently 30 minutes is about all she can take though (see picture below!).

"ENOUGH MOM!! No more articles and verbs and nouns!!!" LOL

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Here's a couple more pictures that Brenna wanted me to put on here. One is of a mermaid that she drew and the other of her ironing. I was ironing Brendon's shirts one night and she wanted to do it soooo bad. With a little help she completed one shirt by herself. She was very proud and made Brendon wear her shirt the next day. :)

San Antonio

Last week Brenna, Brendon and I went to San Antonio. Brendon had to go for work so us girls took advantage of the opportunity and tagged along with him. While he was working on Friday Brenna and I went to the zoo and the park downtown with Dea Jae. We rode the train at the park and Brenna thought that was the coolest thing ever.

Brenna and Grandma waiting for the train

Brenna Butterfly

Brenna on the train

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Saturday Brendon, Brenna and I went to Sea World. It was the first time that Brenna has ever been and she is now in love with that place! We saw all the shows, fed the dolphins and rode on a lot of rides. Brenna was amazed with Shamu as well as the dolphin show and the seal show. I have seen those shows sooo many times but when you go with a kid who's never been it really is pretty cool. Kinda makes it seem like you're watching them for the first time again too. It was a beautiful day and for it only being open for two weeks, it was not crowded at all.

We ended up getting season passes because Brendon will be going to San Antonio more often for his job so now Brenna and I can go with him and spend the day at Sea World! They have a big water park now so when it gets really hot this summer it will be nice to go and have a place to cool off for the day.

(Brenna and me on a roller coaster - she rode this three times!)

Trip to the Children's Museum

Brenna, Rhiannon and I went to the Children's Museum a few weeks ago. It is such an amazing place and the girls had a blast! We stayed for about four hours and when it came time to leave, they definitely were not ready to go.
There's all kinds of things for kids to do there. They have a pretend farm, kitchen, boat, weather stuff and a doctor and dentist area with real x-rays! I took so many pictures but had to narrow it down to a few for the blog.
There's another Children's Museum that we are going to go to pretty soon. It's a little further away than this one but from what I've heard it is worth the drive.

Why do I Homeschool?

Someone asked me today WHY I homeschool my daughter.

Wow, what a very broad question with so many (too many!) possible answers. Got all day? (that was my answer to this person! LOL)

Ok, so you don't want to sit all day and read a long extensive post, I get it --- and believe me, I could write all day on this but I will spare you. LOL I'll TRY to make it short. :)

So this question has been in the back of my mind and I've been pondering this pretty much all day. I think my reasons have changed some since I started. Well maybe my top three reasons have changed a little or they have become a little more important as the years go by.

Okay, to the point now.....

My main reasons for homeschooling:

-my daughter is already going to growing up WAY too fast - I can't believe that she's going to be 7 next month. Seems like she was just a baby a couple years ago. I don't want to spend the rest of the time I have with her at home just during the evenings when everyone is tired from a long day (Brendon working, me working a paying job (cuz I would if I wasn't doing what I am) and Brenna at school), trying to get homework done, dinner made and get to bed at a decent hour so we can all wake up at 6 AM and do it all over again. Sorry, doesn't sound fun at all - I don't care HOW much money we would have with two full-time workers - not worth it, at least not to us.
I don't want our quality time together to be only on weekends and vacations. I have so much QUALITY time with my daughter every day. I'm sorry, but to me quality time does NOT happen during busy evenings and you don't get as much as you need with your child on weekends. Everyone knows weekends go by super quick. I refuse to fall into that rut. I will absolutely cherish and be so grateful for all the time that I have been able to spend with my daughter when she is grown and out on her own. And I'm sure she will too.
You only get one shot and I'm not wasting mine. Time is too precious.

- socialization. Yes, you read that right. Socialization is one of my top reasons for wanting to homeschool.
But isn't that the main reason why most people think homeschooling is bad, because of the supposed lack of socialization? *big eye roll* Pleeease......
I don't think children get very good socialization at school at all. Yeah, they GET it but what kind of quality? Isn't quality better than quanity? Why do I want my child hanging out with "Joe's" kid who goes and sees rated R movies with his parents on weekends and comes and tells my 6 year old all about it? Yeah, you've all seen the little kids at those movies, don't say you haven't. If their parents are letting them do THOSE things then no telling what else they are being exposed to. I'm not going to put MY child in jeopardy and have her learn things that she shouldn't just because some other parents are complete and total idiots and have no common sense (everyone knows exactly what I'm talking about). I'm not going to let my child endure the effects of bad parenting when I've tried so hard to raise her the right way with morals and values, right and wrong, manners and respect, ect... That's just way too much for me to have to correct over and over again. Things have become so much worse from when I was a kid - just read the paper or talk to parents of public schooled kids. Now you got 2nd graders in the bathroom (at a private school no less!) showing their friends their mother's thong under ware (true story I heard from a teacher! I kid you not!). Seven year olds! That is soooo screwed up. There is usually one teacher per about 20-25 students. That is not acceptable supervision to me.
Socialization at school is way over-rated and if people just actually took the time to stop and really think about it they would realize that kids do not benefit at all from the "almighty school socialization" ---- the "your-kid-won't-be-normal-unless-they-go-to-school". Yea, whatever. I'll risk it. Gladly. But it's totally not true. One of the myths of homeschooling.
School socialization actually is not that great (*gasp!* who would've thought??). Like I said before.... waaaayyyy over-rated. If I would lock my child in a closet all day and let her have no interaction with other people then you could tell me that she wasn't socialized. Not happening -- never going to.

-quality of education. My third reason. And a very important one to me. Not so much at the beginning but it is now becoming a lot more important as our homeschooling journey broadens and as she gets older.
Do I want my six year old spending all day at school doing table work and learning from text books and worksheets? Do I want her having an hour of homework every night after being at school all day? Do I want her going to school just to learn how to pass a government test?

Heck no.

These are facts. I have friends I talk to who's kids go to public school. The public school that she would be going to has 23 bench-mark tests per year for the government tests that schools have to pass. Twenty-three! That's crazy! I refuse to let my child go to school just to learn how to pass a government issued test.
I want my 1st grader learning things that SHE is interested in and I want her to keep her strong desire for learning. That's how you retain information. Do you think that if schools are shoving that many tests down my child's throat that she's going to love learning? I think not. After a while it's going to become monotonous and so robotic. Learning is going to become a chore instead of a "I-want-to-learn-this-because-it's-cool".
Brenna gets to experiment and do things that SHE loves and is interested in. Everyone by now has heard the story of Brenna learning to read. I'm not going to repeat it so here's my post on our schooling style. We are extremely relaxed and for right now that is the best thing for my child. She is getting so much more out of that then if she were going to public school.
I've written so much about our schooling and my approach and reasoning, that I'm not going to even go there right now. My daughter is flourishing and learning plenty.

Ok, so those are my top three reasons for homeschooling. I'm always trying to find intersting things to post about and when I was asked that question today I just thought that I would re-visit that topic on my blog.
I really didn't think that it would be that long but of course I tend to ramble on. LOL :)

Another thing I found on the Internet.... thought it was interesting (and very true)

DECLARATION OF NON-PARTICIPATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOL FORM FOR HOMESCHOOLERS

OUR RIGHTS 101

HOME SCHOOL MOMS QUESTIONAIRE FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Can the school board guarantee my child’s safe return home from school each day? This includes the time that they are entrusted to your care during school hours. This includes but is not limited to safety in the rest rooms, in the hallways, on the stairways, in and under the bleachers, in the lunch room, in the class rooms, on the playgrounds, or on any school property.

COMPLIANCE

Can the school board guarantee that a member of it’s faculty including but not limited to teachers, principals, aides, janitors and any school official, will not fall in love and attempt to sleep with, marry, fondle, molest, and sexually mishandle my children in anyway?

Can you guarantee me as a parent that my child will get a top notch education from a top notch school with verifiable records to prove it? Can you provide me with at least 50% of your current years students, verifiable records of above average success on all academic levels? With the exception of your hand picked students, can you provide me with a high level of excellence in academic records for at least 300 students that are above the national level for a period of 3 years?

Can you provide me with medical proof that all of the students that your school district has deemed autistic, ADD or ADHD are indeed suffering from these clinical deficiencies? Can you prove that the person, or persons who made these medical diagnosis are qualified to do so? Can you guarantee to me that the school board has a real interest and concern for my child’s education and is not only interested in getting state or federal monies for my child’s presence in their school district?

Can you guarantee that my child will not be bullied, beat up, abused, fondled, molested, or turned out by other students?

Can you guarantee that my child will not be exposed to drugs or alcohol as a result of going to your school? Can you guarantee that my child will not be racially discriminated against in regards to students of other races? (Whether Black, White or other race depending on the student) Can you guarantee that my child will not be killed on school property during school hours while in the care of your faculty?

Can you prove that your school will not be one of those that helps students cheat on test to raise statewide test scores for the purpose of improving it’s image? Is your school one that accepts responsibility for children not learning or do you blame the children for the failures of the schools? Can you give a realistic account of America’s failing schools or do you consider teachers and school administrators to be completely blameless?

Can you help me to understand why schools are typically not held liable for the injury or death of a child while in it’s care and many times are not even investigated but the same rules don’t apply if this happens while in the care of parents or other relatives, friends and non school officials? Can you give me a legitimate reason why I should entrust my children’s lives into your hands when you don’t have to protect them from hurt, harm or danger? Can you explain to me why my rights as a home school parent are always questioned or challenged when home school students have consistently proven to be well educated? Can you explain why public school officials feel the need to interfere with home schoolers who are giving their children a safe viable education while the children under their very care are failing miserably? Why is that? Do you want more children to be given to you so that they can fail miserably too?

PROGRAMS

Can you explain to me why your policy states that if a child goes on a field trip with your school that the parents must sign a letter stating that the school board can not and will not be held responsible for the death or injury of a child while in the care of school officials. Wouldn’t it be more feasible to say send your child with us on this trip at your own risk? Can you give me a reasonable explanation as to why some public schools don’t report sexual abuse of children on school property, during school hours while in the care of the public school system? Can you explain why some parents have to wait months or even years to find out that their child has been sexually assaulted by other students? Can you help me to understand why the school board is more interested in protecting it’s image than it is the safety of our children? Can you tell me why many school officials oppose home schooling over public school when the school system is full of violence, threatening behavior, immoral activities, delinquent behaviors, and so on and so on?

Can you tell me why many teachers question the social ramifications of home schooling when the children that they would socialize with if they attended public school are the very ones that would subject them to lewd acts, homosexual behaviors, teen sexual promiscuity, alcoholic pressuring, drug pressuring, peer hazing, bullying, racism, hatred, name calling, and so much more? Can you assure me that my child will not be the next victim of an oversexed sexual predator be it a teacher or another student? I know that I have already asked this question but since this seems to be a constant occurrence on the rise, I felt the need to say it one last time.

As I read through the articles on the HSLDA (Homeschool Legal Defence Association) site of current and archived cases that home schooler’s have been faced with around the country, I felt the need to address some issues we home schoolers may have had that forced our decision to home school. I read cases of social workers not knowing the law and overstepping their authority. I see good honest loving parents being accused of criminal behavior all because they protectively home school their children. I see school officials making unnecessary demands on home schoolers to violate our rights and humiliate us as if we are criminals. It seems to me with all these petty cases that the public school system is policing home school families and no one is policing them. They act as if they really care about our children yet, they don’t. They show up at the doors of families ready to remove children and place them in broken, hostile, violent, foster care systems that abuses children, all in the name of public school dollars. They tote perfectly good parents off to jail because of their brutal policing of home schools. It sounds as if we are living under a dictatorship when I read some of these cases. Yet the national headlines always seem to protect parents with drug problems, stating that with the proper help they can be good parents. That may be true and I’m not knocking this, however, how can you basically do that yet put home schoolers under a microscope as if we are some type of alien clan of sub-human species? So many think this decision is weird but yet they are battling teen pregnancy issues, along side scents of marijuana coming from their child’s bedroom.

My last statement is, Get off our backs. Thank you.

Source of the Article: HomeSchoolVoices.com

Garden... FINALLY!

Today I finally got my garden in order and we now have greenery! YEAH! No more brown soil in empty boxes to look at. LOL I have some seedlings and I planted some seeds as well. Right now I have garlic, basil, thyme, tomatoes, yellow squash (seeds), zucchini squash (seeds), green peppers, sweet orange peppers and cucumbers (seeds). I still have a few empty spots and I'd like to plant some carrots, just because I think they would be fun for Brenna and she LOVES carrots! I did not plant any corn because there was no room but maybe tomorrow I'll get a wild hair and dig another ground bed for Brenna's corn. That is a lot of work though. It will more likely happen IF she helps me do it. So far I have not had much help from her. I told her that I better not be like The Little Red Hen and have her only help to EAT the fruits of my labor. She has promised to help me water as well as weed so we'll see what happens there. I'm very close to MAKING her do some good, hard manual labor. No quitting from her. It'll be good for her. LOL Maybe I will teach her a good lesson and NOT plant corn this year if she doesn't help. Maybe she'll want to help a little more next year if I do that. HAHA!
Tomorrow I will take some pictures of my garden boxes and post them. It will be fun to post them every week to see the progression IF I remember.

Today I said a little prayer after I planted everything. My Grandpa, who just passed away, was a master gardener and had a HUGE garden when I was a little kid (well, up until about 6 years ago). He grew THE BEST tomatoes, okra and green beans. I remember being a kid and going to my Grandma's house and eating his homegrown veggies. To this day fried green tomatoes remind me of him -- my Grandma made the best!!
I prayed and asked my Grandpa to please help me with my garden and to grow good, good vegetables. :) I'm sure I won't have plants as good as he did but maybe he'll lend a helping hand. I might have some good luck though because I did ask my Grandma if I could have this old wooden sign that he used to have in his garden that says, "Grandpa's Garden" and she said of course.
I really, really miss him A LOT.

Wish me happy gardening!! :)

Lazy Day

Today was pretty lazy and very uneventful. Don't even know why I am posting - guess out of boredom. The house is very quiet - Brenna is in bed and Brendon is with a friend at a concert in Corpus Christi. Brenna went to bed pretty late last night because she stayed at my Mom's house so she's in bed early tonight. We were all sick over Valentine's Day weekend, so Brendon and I had our night out last night. Not much of a night out though - just to a movie. We went and saw "Twilight" which I had been wanting to see since I read the books. There are four 700+ page books and I read them all in one week. Best books I think I have ever read. I just could NOT put them down! I read while I cooked, I read while I cleaned - I read every minute that I possibly could. Poor Brendon and Brenna saw Mom doing nothing but having her face in a book. I noticed that Brenna did a lot of reading that week too. It is true about kids doing what they see their parents doing. Nothing better then my kid mimicking my reading though. LOL She sure does impress me with all the words that she can read.
My garden beds are still brown and empty. No green in them yet. I did plant some garlic cloves yesterday so we'll see what those do. On Monday I am getting some plants from my friend, Mieree, as well as transplanting our tomatoes from the pot that they are in. Brenna is insisting on one of the boxes being just hers so we'll see how much I can get away with planting what I want to in both boxes. She has her heart set on planting corn. That girl LOVES corn! Corn is kinda a pain though because their root system is so shallow (they blow over easily). And you don't get that many ears per stock. I think I will make another place along the fence for her corn. At least we can tie it up on really windy days and it won't take up so much space in our small beds.

Anyway, today Brenna and I did a lot of math stuff. She got out her math curriculum that I hastily bought last year and we did a few pages in her book. She did really good and thought it was a lot of fun. She made up a few games using her Littlest Pet Shop pets. She tried that once when I was in my "school at home" mind frame and I knocked it down. Today I realized that she learns just as much doing it HER way and by playing then she did doing it MY way and sitting at the table all serious-like. But it is sooo much more fun! I have come such a long way. LOL

Ok, I'm getting tired of sitting at the computer. I'm off to play Guitar Hero and pretend that I'm a rock star!! :) LOL

Gardening Time

Sickness is finally winding down in our house. Brenna got over her flu surprisingly fast and was much better by Sunday. Brendon was sick during the time that Brenna was so I had my hands pretty full for a couple days. By Sunday I was completely down and out. I got it much worse than the two of them and am still fighting off head stuff today. I slept ALL DAY Sunday and had not felt that bad in years. Thank goodness Brendon was well enough to take care of me and Brenna. Hopefully tomorrow I will be better - that's what I've been saying for three days though so we'll see.

I can't wait to feel 100% again because Brenna and I need to get started with our garden. Last week I made two 4x4 raised beds and got some compost/soil mix delivered. I spent a good two days hauling that stuff from the front to the back. We are going to do square foot gardening. We've already started our tomato plants in a pot and they sprouted about 4 days ago. We are going to grow those as well as cucumbers, yellow squash, basil, garlic and carrots. We are looking forward to it and can't wait to get started.

Here's some pictures I took last week.

The Flu...and other dreadful things

So Brenna has her first case of the flu. Poor girl is feeling absolutely terrible. I took her to the doctor today and they tested her and confirmed it. She started feeling bad this morning and I just had the urge to make her an appointment - which usually doesn't happen for me at the first sign of illness but I just had a gut feeling I guess. The doctor is kinda the last resort because they end up telling me what I already assume or know (lots of rest, fluids, ect...).
So anyways, the test came back positive and the doc suggested that she take TamiFlu since we caught it early. I said okay because I love, love her doctor and trust everything he says. Big mistake. I never, ever recommend ANYONE to take that stuff - it is horrible!
I gave it to Brenna as soon as we got home and within 30 minutes she was feeling ten times worse and vomiting all in my kitchen sink (couldn't make it to the bathroom). Okay, yes, the side affects said vomiting may occur as the body adjusts to it but what happened was just ridiculous. Not only did she throw up about 6 times but she had excruciating stomach cramps for the rest of the evening. Any "medicine" that does that throws up a red flag for me.
After all that drama I sat down at the computer and researched this TamiFlu. I came across a web site (click to read) that had a forum on it and started reading what people had written. Terrible stuff. There was a lot that described exactly what happened to Brenna and then other stuff that was much, much worse. So no more of THAT crap! Too bad I paid $50 for it.....ugh! It's not like a "miracle cure" for the flu anyways - it only shortens it by about one day. To be honest - I'd rather have my daughter sick for one more day then to feel the way she did after taking that medicine.
Anyway, she went to bed pretty early tonight. She still has a pretty high fever of course but hopefully she'll feel a bit better in the morning. Nothing but rest and forcing down fluids for that little girl tomorrow. I already have the couch made up for her with lots of books, magazines, drawing pads and her colored pencils. I even hung big, heavy blankets on her windows in her bedroom in hopes that she will sleep in a bit. She's going to miss her basketball awards ceremony in the morning and I'm kinda bummed about that but what can you do?
Anyway, more tomorrow if I can get on here. Brenna and I are starting a garden and I have lots of pictures to share!!

Parenting

I have been reading a lot (no surprise there!) on what is called peaceful parenting. It makes a lot of sence to me and I love the whole concept of it. I found something that someone wrote and thought it was worth posting on my blog. Those of you who don't have small children will probably find no interest at all in this, but even if just one person reads this and gets something from it it will make it worth posting....


Stop thinking about changing "for good" and not just for days or moments. That is just another thing to overwhelm you and you don't need that!
Just change the next interaction you have with the kids.

Stop reading email right now and do something "preventative"— something that helps build your relationship with them. Fix them a little tray of cheese and crackers and take it to them, wherever they are, unasked. Sit down on the floor and play with them. If nothing else, just go and give each of them a little hug and a kiss and say, "I was just thinking about how much I love you."

Okay—so that is one good, positive interaction.

Again—just change the next interaction you have with the kids.
Focus on making the next interaction another one that builds up your relationship. If the next one is because the kids are fighting, STILL keep in mind that you want this interaction to do something positive for your relationship with the kids and stretch your thinking as to how you can make that happen.
In other words, you kind of think from their point of view about yourself. Consider what thoughts you want going through their head. Do you want them thinking: "She never takes time to even find out what the problem is?" Or "She always blames me?" Or "She's such a hypocrite, doesn't want to hear us yelling, but then she yells at us." "She hates me." And so on. What do you want them to be thinking—what words (articulated or not) do want tumbling around inside their head?
Maybe "She understands how I feel." Or "She really cares about helping us solve our problems." Or "She is trying hard to be fair." Or "She's calm even when I'm not." Or "Mom is the best listener in the world." "Mom loves me even when I'm causing problems."

And, eventually, you want them to think like this:
"Mom will help us find a solution."
"I can stay calm like mommy does even when I'm mad."
"I can listen carefully like mommy does when there is a conflict."
"I can recognize feelings, like mommy."
"I can come up with new ideas, like mommy does when we have trouble."

There is no substitute for being authentically "there" for them—for genuinely trying to help them resolve problems. For putting your relationship with them at the forefront of every interaction, whether it is playing together or working together.
None of us are perfect; we'll all have some regrets. But with my kids 19, 16, and 13, I can now say that I will never say anything like, "I wish I'd let them fight it out more," or "I wish I'd punished them more," or "I wish I'd yelled at them more." I will only ever say that I wish I'd been more patient, more attentive, more calm and accepting of the normal stresses of having young children.
One interaction at a time. Just make the next interaction a relationship-building one. Don't worry about the one AFTER that, until IT becomes "the next one."

Homeschooling Doesn't Necessarily Mean You're at Home All Day! LOL

We've had a pretty full day so far and left this morning at 10am and didn't get home until 4pm. I have a lot to do tonight like catch up on laundry, so I thought I'd take advantage of the quietness I have in the house and post real quick. Brenna is outside playing with Ben and William, the twins that lives across the alley from us. Sweet kids - very polite and very considerate. Brenna gets along with them soooo good.
Anyway, Brenna and I left this morning to meet with a few families from our homeschool group. The group will not be doing co-ops this Spring so a few of us have taken it upon ourselves to get together and do projects and play dates. It is a very small group with only 5 parents and about 10 kids. I kinda like it though because it seems a lot easier and a lot more personal. All the kids get along great and had fun playing today while the parents planned the stuff that we will be doing. We'll be going weekly for the next five weeks. If things go smoothly, which I'm sure they will, then we'll do it again after Spring Break.
After our picnic lunch with the group, Brenna and I went to my Mom's and took care of Keira while my Dad and her went to my Grandma JoJo's for a couple hours. Keira is in day care now but my Mom takes care of her every Thursday. She is such a joy to be around and is so cute and so smart. Brenna just loves her dearly and does a wonderful job taking care of her. She took her in the backyard and they played for quite a while. After we left my Mom's Brenna went to her last basketball practice of the season. Her last game will be this Saturday and then they'll have a little party at the park.
Well I better go get dinner started and put a load in the washer.
Hope everyone else had a wonderful day too!

Brenna's blog

Here's the link to Brenna's blog.

http://brennasblog09.blogspot.com/

I will also put it on the side bar under the "Links" section.

Fun Times (with Lots of Learning!)

What a fun day we had yesterday! Brenna and I spent all afternoon playing board games. You should have seen the pile of boxes that we accumulated in the living room. I think we brought out just about every game we own. Brendon was home from work and was at the dining room table on his laptop most of the day catching up on things that he missed while he was in Connecticut. The only thing he heard pretty much all day was laughing and giggling and squealing. I'm sure we were pretty distracting but I know he loved it. :)
Brenna learned how to play Monopoly yesterday and she was actually quite good at it. I never realized what a wonderful learning tool that game is. She counted out her money, first with a little help and then she progressively became better at it and she added the dice in her head to determine how many spaces to move (all of her games have only one die). She learned strategy and also how valuable it is to save money for important things and not be so frivolous. Very good 'life lesson'. LOL
We never did finish the game because she became a little bored after almost an hour but we determined that she won because she had the most money as well as the most expensive property. I guess one reason the game is marked for ages 8+ is because of how lengthy it can be. When we started it I did not expect her to finish. I thought she did pretty good for lasting as long as she did.
We also played Battleship (good at teaching rows, columns, strategy and grids!), Sorry!, Hungry, Hungry Hippos, Connect Four and Littlest Pet Shop. We didn't get around to playing all the games we pulled out (we have tons!) but we're planning another game day today at some point.


It was nice yesterday putting off any kind of housework and doing things that I thought HAD to be done. Guess what? It will still be there tomorrow. And it is. LOL I need to start doing that a little more often I think and not be so anal about my house always being perfect - there are more important things then that. I think I've come to the conclusion that there are 'good messes' and 'bad messes'. Good messes consist of Brenna's toys and games and art stuff cluttering our house and bad messes, of course, are dishes, laundry, ect... LOL Today though I DO need to get some dishes done. :)

Anyway, so far today Brenna has created, drawn and named her own animal species (very interesting and creative!) and we made a four generation family tree. She's also made a Barbie museum and set up little scenes with her Barbies along with labels such as "Cowgirl" (Barbie dressed appropriately riding a horse), "Bath Time Barbie", "Fishing Time"(she made a boat out of paper), "Where's That Skateboard?" (with Barbie searching in her closet) and "Your Majesty" (Barbie dressed as a princess in her castle with another Barbie bowing toward her). She had a lot of fun doing that and she says that she's going to do a lot more today.

Brenna's had a cold the past couple days along with a fever so today we're not doing much and will probably relax at home again. She does have her Musical Theatre class tonight that she will probably go to because she has not had a fever since yesterday afternoon. She really, really enjoys it and so far it's been her favorite thing that she has tried. Her last basketball game is this weekend but she has no plans on returning to it next season. She will do kickball starting in a couple weeks so we'll see how that goes. I'm just happy that she tries as many things as she does, even if she ends up not caring for it too much. So far she's been in gymnastics, ballet, tap, karate, soccer, basketball and musical theatre. At least we can never say she didn't try things. LOL :)
Okay, I'm off to play with Brenna!
Till fingers and keyboard meet again.....