A Rare Princess, Syllable Game, Science Experiment Discovery, Sweaty Brow

Ellie loves playing with Polly Pocket toys, and she has a Disney princess set. Her favorite is “Sleeping booty.” Theron calls it the princess who sat too long.

With my in-laws moving in soon, I’ve been organizing everything. It feels so cathartic. If you ask me where anything is upstairs—I will be able to tell you! That kind of thing only lasts as long as things get put back where they’re supposed to, which may not be long at all. But I am enjoying it for now. This is a picture of our school room. Mandy came rushing in this morning asking where her backpack was—I told her exactly where it was without even leaving my bed. Ahhhh. (In case you are thinking I got to sleep in—no such luxury--I was feeding the baby).

My neighbor took Mandy, Adam and Solomon to a Rogue Valley Opera Field trip. Three singers showed this homeschoolers group what opera sounds like. They sang songs from Romeo and Juliet. Solomon rolled his eyes at the love songs, but I think they all enjoyed it overall.

I find traveling in the van one of the best teaching times. We’re all strapped in, I don’t turn on the radio, and we start talking. Last week I started teaching Ellie and Seth about syllables. By the end of the van ride, I thought they had it down. I was showing Theron what Ellie learned. Ellie was doing great until she suggested a word with 3 syllables: Ellie said, “Math-uh-ew.”

Matthew is crawling all around, digging in trash cans when I forget to put them up high, and pulling himself up to the bathtub and wanting to go in and get wet. He has started to sing. Whenever we break out in song (which happens mostly in the car to stop any fighting or crying or complaining) Matthew starts to sing along with a hummmmm.

Our master bath needs a remodel. We haven’t fixed up anything in it except for rolling out a path of leftover glueless vinyl flooring to cover the ugly/broken floor so we can walk on it barefoot. After a while, we didn’t even notice the exposed parts of the floor that we avoid walking on. Glueless vinyl is amazing stuff—it can be cut with a knife and then laid in place without anything to hold it down. And we had some leftover pieces. So, I did what I’ve been wanting to do for two years—I cut up the pieces and fit them and now our bathroom floor looks so much better. It’s an amateur job—but it is covered. And every time I walk into that bathroom I smile. I wish I had a photo of the before. Just picture ugly and you'll get the idea.

We have two birthdays next month. Adam turns 10 and Solomon turns 8. They’re going to be Narnia themed (it’s a friend birthday party year). It looks like Solomon will be baptized on February 28^th. Without pressure to attend, you are all invited.

Mandy did a Science experiment for the Science Fair. She compared name brand cleaners with homemade substances with very interesting results. Vinegar made all the stains worse. Can you believe it? Normally I add vinegar to smelly towels to help kill the smell—but I won’t anymore. With blackberry stains nothing got it out—but I think I already knew that. And grape juice lifted up easily, which I didn’t know, I thought the opposite.

Seth now loves primary. His new teacher, Sister Adams, took him on a treasure hunt last week—and he loved it! Now putting on church clothes isn’t such an ordeal, although going to church at 12pm instead of 9am makes a difference too.

We’ve been starting each homeschool day with a fitness section. It fulfills a WeBeLos requirement for Adam, and it’s good for all of us anyway. Yesterday we were doing situps. Adam said, “Sweat is glowing on my brow.”