The Big Catch Up Post

Sorry - we have just been so, so busy around here!  And not taking a lot of photos.  Which makes for less blogging!  But I will attempt to catch up a bit here.  

We have started our school year.  All of the kids are home this year, and they are not attending the Chinese school at all.  It was just taking too much time - even though they only went until lunch time.  By the time they came home and had lunch, it was hard to switch gears in order to complete all of the other subjects.  It has been soooo nice to have a change of pace.  No more rushing out the door with half eaten cereal and spilt milk all over the kitchen table in the mornings.  We are still easing into getting a good routine going, but I am optimistic.

"Roamschooling" at the car wash.  Doesn't Nathan look cute with the pencil behind his ear?

Yes, my little Aarbear is in kindergarten this year!  Yikes!  He is doing so well.  He is very apprehensive of learning new things.  In fact, when I told him we would learn to read this year, he started crying :-(.  I think it is hard for him having two older brothers who seem to be able to do so much more than him.  In actuality, he can hold his own with the "big boys," and he certainly has more experience than many kids his age dealing with older kids.

I love my new beach chair from Costco!  And so do Nathan, Aaron, Lily, and her babies.

We are studying ancient history this year.  We read together about the Egyptians and papyrus.  We decided to make paper out of paper pulp from scrap paper.  You can see everyone is getting into it - even Lil.

We put radish seeds in the purple paper so that the recipient of a letter written on it can plant the paper afterwards and have radishes!

Matthew's (top shelf) and Nathan's (second shelf) school books for this year.  That is not even all of them.

The daily report, dictated every day by Aaron.

Nathan doing a front kick.

Jumping front kick combination.

Woohoo - and Matt and Nene tested for purple belts!!!

They are high fiving their class mates after receiving their purple belts.

I am also going to list here the curriculum choices for the year, even though I know that this will be pretty boring for everyone who is not homeschooling.  This is for posterity, so bear with me :-).  Also, I am including (totally non-affiliated) links - just in case you want to check out what they are studying this year and where to find the materials.

Matthew (6th grade):
Math - Singapore Math 5B, 6A and hopefully we can get to 6B later in the year.
Sonlight Core G reading list
Social Studies - Story of the World Volumes 1 and 2, Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
Language Arts - Matt is participating in the Classical Conversations Essentials program which covers
     grammar, spelling, and uses the Institute for Excellence in Writing for writing.
Science - Matt is participating in the Virtual Homeschooling Group which will be using Apologia's Exploring Creation with General Science for the textbook.  By the way, this is an AMAZING resource if you have older kids (middle to high school).  It is completely free.
Mandarin Chinese - Rosetta Stone online

Nathan (2nd grade):
Math - Singapore Math 3B, and then I think we will do Teaching Textbooks 4
Social Studies - Story of the World Volumes 1 and 2
Language Arts - Rod and Staff 2 Phonics, Rod and Staff Spelling 2, Writing With Ease Level 2
Science - Studies Weekly and Hands-On Science Fun! Microscopic Explorations, Insects, and Light
Mandarin Chinese - Rosetta Stone online

Aaron (K):
Math - Houghton Mifflin California Math workbook, and then we will move to Singapore Earlybird
Reading - Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
Language Arts - Daily report (see above), lots of being read to, Rod and Staff Preschool Curriculum
Science - Studies Weekly and tagging along with Nathan with the science kit

Lily (toddler):
Be cute
Bother brothers
Get into everything
Hang on Mama's legs

I am also including this scripture memory system (which is ingenious by the way) with the kids (and myself) in addition to our usual morning devotion times.

Wow - if you made it through this far - thank you!

I am trying hard to be more critical of where to spend our time and energy and have more margin in our lives.  It seems like we are always rushing around, and I do NOT like that.

Man Shall Not Live By Bread (Donuts) Alone

This week we had a trip to Krispy Kreme.  All the kids had a blast picking out their donut, and watching the conveyor belt carry the donuts under the glaze waterfall and onto the racks to set.  Even though Lily undoubtedly never had a donut in China - she loves them!  Matthew loves them, too.  They are probably his most favorite treat.  Last year for his birthday, that was his request - and we actually found a mom and pop donut shop that makes a giant donut that can be served as a cake.  It was about 1 foot in diameter, and we put candles on it and served it up as his birthday cake when he turned 10.

We usually do our morning devotions together over breakfast, so we brought our stuff to Krispy Kreme to do it there.  You can see how Lily has scribbled all over  decorated our record of Bible readings.  We are going through the Psalms now - one a day.  We are also reading Egermeier's Bible Story Book.  Do you have any resources or routines you have used for devotions for family or kids?  Another one we absolutely LOVED and have gone through many, many, many times is The Jesus Storybook Bible.  It is wonderful!  I would love to know how you do family devotions.  Always looking for more inspiration!  We have done other things in the past, too, like Keys For Kids, Discovering Jesus in Genesis, Leading Little Ones to God, The Picture Bible, Read-n-Grow Picture Bible through the years.  

To keep it real, it is a struggle to get through our devotions most days.  Lest you think that my kids sit quietly while I read to them - a typical morning involves me corralling them back to the kitchen table (my kids love to eat and run, even when they are eating, they are only sitting on their chairs halfway), and then we are interrupted by Lily flipping the pages of the Bible or book to another place, or Aaron asking me if he can have another egg, and then finally by me giving them a lecture about how we should only interrupt if it is an emergency and defining what constitutes an emergency (blood or fire).  But we get through it - and they are improving.  Every time we have added a new baby though - things definitely are very hairy for a while.  Anyway, I would LOVE to hear any tips, resources, books, etc. that have worked for your family!  Have a blessed day :-).

Just For Fun

Wearing Mama's sunglasses!

Aaron likes them too!

And oh - my favorite - strawberry season!!! One the best snacks evah - strawberries with a yummy dip that a friend introduced me to. It's sour cream with brown sugar.

And as you can see. . .

The kids all love

strawberries, too!!!

Around Here

Thank you for your prayers. Matthew is doing SOOO much better. We are so thankful to the Lord. We were actually very worried about him for a few days. He was just not able to keep much down and had no desire or energy to eat or drink. Being married to a doctor, I had to decipher comments like this. When Dave felt Matthew's pulse, he said, "He feels tachycardic." What that meant was that Matthew's heartrate was very fast because he was getting dehydrated. We were worried that he would have to be admitted to the hospital because he was so dehydrated. But thankfully, he started to drink more and the nausea passed. When he went to see the pediatrician, she said that he could stay at home as long as he could still drink. We are grateful that he is now drinking normally, and even getting a bit of his appetite back. In the thick of all this, I was quite stressed. Being here in the Bay Area with no family around, well - my thoughts started racing. I don't want Matthew to have to be in the hospital by himself. I want one of us to always be with him. But Dave works! And I can't leave the rest of the kids! What's going to happen to us? It made me miss my family a lot. Yes, we have lots of wonderful friends and church family here, but I know that if my parents or sister or my in-laws were here - it would have been more of a non-event to leave the other kiddos. I had offers to watch the kids in the event that Matt did have to be admitted. I am grateful that it did not come to that and he is much much better! Although he has been doing a lot of this:

Which of course, he needs. I have heard it can be months before you regain your strength after mono. Although this afternoon we did get outside and prepare our bed for our seedlings.

We have been homebound. So we have had a lot of homemade fun. Actually, it has been a welcome respite - to have permission to just cancel everything and rest up. I have learned, too, that there are not that many things that are important. I am happy to enjoy this slower pace with all of my chicks at home and not rushing around taxi-ing them to various activities and classes. More fun at home: Lily on her "phone" which is actually the barcode scanner on her cash register.

Nathan's chalk drawing.

Just hanging out.

And with being at home more, some yummies we have made. And just so you have no delusions that it is easy at all to cook or clean or do really anything with Lily around, I have to tell you that I have to hoist Lily on the counter to "help" me with baking and cooking. Or I have to wait until she is asleep. But I always like getting new food inspiration and recipes from friends. So I thought I would share. These are really yummy muffins. You use leftover cooked oatmeal (I tend to make too much), and they are so soft and moist and delicious. You can halve the amount of sugar and they are perfect.

And our dinner the other day - quiche. Yummy! One has spinach and bacon, and the other broccoli and cheese.

Slice of Life

I have to admit that Aaron has been getting pretty left at the wayside sometimes :-(. Being number 3 of 4, poor guy doesn't get a lot of activities or time that is designated just for *him.* When Matthew (and even Nathan - though less) was his age, I had us signed up for Mommy and me music classes and an art class for him, etc. Aaron usually gets to be in tow while we shuttle his older brothers around. Sigh. He is pretty introverted so it is not as if he is *wanting* to do any classes, but I sometimes wonder if I am not encouraging him to go out of his comfort zone by default.

Anyway, I have been spending more time with him recently with some preschooly fun stuff we have been doing at home.

Some reading and writing readiness.

He has been working on writing and identifying numbers. Here is a cool playdough activity that helps kids learn their numbers.

I really want to focus more on Aaron. He just eats it up when I spend quality time with him. It's been hard for him these past 6 months - contending with a new sibling, being bumped from the baby position in the family, having two older brothers who seemingly are capable to do so much more than him. He has been really vying for attention. He really needs some TLC. I am trying to carve out more time for just him.

Lily has been getting into playdough, too. Though honestly, this girl has such a short attention span! She can do playdough *maybe* for 5 minutes, then it is off to find something else to do. Or if I am not ready to switch activities yet, she will proceed to throw the playdough and then become boneless and wail. No photo of that today!

Oh, but this girl is also so sweet. Here she is right next to me after we woke up from our group nap.

And she does like helping me bake. Her favorite thing is sitting on the counter and helping me whisk. When she whisks she gets batter all over the place. Fun, but messy. If I try to make things less messy then things are a lot less fun for her. . . and then as a matter of course, for me as well because again I have to deal with a boneless heap of screaming toddler while trying to finish our baking project. Trust me, I have tried it before. Here we are baking pumpkin bars.

Yes, we are working on having Lily learn to wait and be patient. It is not going too well right now :-(. I think part of it is a communication problem mixed with a very low frustration tolerance from Lily.

After baking we went to Serra Park. Lily insisted that she walk the dog.

The boys ran.

I brought the pumpkin bars to snack on.

And I love this picture of Phil. He looks so noble!

I love these photo filter apps on my iPhone. They make everything look so beautiful and fun, don't they? These little slices of time make all the chaos and mess of daily life seem to fade into the background :-).

Vasona Park - Family Outing

Dave took the day off on Good Friday, and we got to go on a family outing! One of the best parts of living in the Bay Area is all of the beautiful places nearby. Vasona Park is a very pretty park that has a lake, and a bike trail that is flat and miles long. Perfect for kids and families.

We had such great time! And the weather was as if we had ordered it - sunny, clear, and neither warm nor cool. Perfect. Aaron and Lily rode in a trailer that Dave pulled, and Matt and Nene rode their own bikes. It's been a while since I got to go on a bike ride - very fun and cannot wait to go again!

Afterwards we went to Quizno's for some sandwiches. You can see Lily thinks that her brother literally is all that and a bag of chips :-).

Haircuts

The very word brings groans and drama from the boys. We have cut our boys' hair about 90% of the time. Last summer when cousin Kevin got married, we took the boys to a barber shop to have it done and have gone back a few times, too.

Dave still waits until we visit Los Angeles to have his dad cut his hair. Usually one of the nights that we are staying at my in-laws' home, Dave and his dad will whip out a folding chair and put down a drop cloth in the kitchen, and take turns cutting each other's hair. If I am in the next room, I hear the clippers humming, the sounds of the shears snipping, all the while with their conversation in the background. While the cutting is happening, they catch up and fellowship. Dave has never paid for a haircut for all the time that we have been married. He now knows how to do it himself (he had to learn since we are farther away from his parents), but I know he prefers to have his dad do it.

I also remember that a college friend of mine told me that his mother was a professional hairdresser. He also balked at the thought of going elsewhere for a haircut. He said simply that he wanted his mother to do it because "I get a haircut, and I get love from my mom."

Nice, right?

So despite the boys' protestations and the mess it makes, I think that Dave and I are persisting with this home cutting thing. Well, at least until one by one they become teenagers and probably won't want us to do it anymore. We'll see.

But I have photographic evidence here that proves it is not that bad once you get in the chair.

You get Daddy's love and skill.

Aaron volunteered to be first :-).

Matthew reading one of the books from the Jedi Apprentice Series (thank you, Debbie, for the recommendation) on his kindle to pass the time.

And hey - Dave even got a smile out of Nathan. I love those tummy wrinkles!

We had a bit of a scare when Dave found two nits on Nathan's hair during the haircut. If you have been following along, you know that the boys have had lice twice in the last few months, with our last infestation just a month or so ago. To our relief, those two nits were flat indicating that they were old and had hatched already (and their spawn eradicated in the last round of medicated shampoo). They also were a bit further out from the scalp as the hair they were attached to had grown out a bit over the last couple of weeks. Phew! I don't know if I could handle another round of lice!

Oh, and this is the alligator that spends time in our sink. I can't remember where Aaron got it (birthday party?) but it's one of those things that grows to be 3 times its size when you soak it in water. It has been grown out and shrunken many times already. Aaron loves that thing. Dave doesn't like it because when it is in its "growing phase," it occupies a much needed sink. Daddy never remembers it's there until he is ready to spit out his toothpaste and has to move to another sink!

No - not brave enough to cut a girl's hair! Lily spent the time in the bathtub (her favorite past time), into which Aaron plopped in after his haircut. She was delighted to be able to have her bath and have the whole family bustling about in the bathroom and keeping her company.