January 1 Merry Christmas!

I am sitting at the kitchen table with a homemade chai latte and plate of cookies. I need to get all the cookies and Swedish Fish eaten by Monday, so I can get back to logging calories and nutrients.

We celebrated Christmas with my parents and brothers family yesterday. We did the same last year (different reason,though)
I think I like having Christmas spaced out like that. It's less overwhelming.
I had made sock puppets for my 2 yr old nephew. Whenever I watch him, we always wear socks on our hands and make them talk, so I thought he'd like some sock puppets.

And for his mom... A box with easy lid for storage of the puppets on his toy shelf.
In addition to hot glueing the embellishments, I tacked them in place with needle and thread. It seemed for "Toddler Friendly" that way.
Here is a quite visual guide:

I spent News Years Day (morning) charting out my revolving garden. Those parts of the garden I plant to rotate crops for a more year round harvest. I have 5 garden areas for this,  my 3 boxes to the left of the back porch, a box on the right side of the back porch, and a section in the ground I will rotate winter carrots and summer bell peppers. I have sowing dates for all 10 crops, along with dates to prep the soil between plantings. I put all pf the dates into my smartphone calendar with a reminder set for a few days before. 

I felt Quite Accomplished. Too bad I can't devote this much effort to cleaning the kitchen.

HEALTH NOTE: on the first day of the year, I took my vitamins, drank my 2L of water, and met my Fitbit goal! 

my 21 yr old son found an app for my smart phone called HABITRPG. I earn gold by meeting daily goals and tasks (that I list) and can go on quests and buy new armor and swords with my earned coins!

Catan by Ki

Ki made a new Catan Map. He fashioned it from the picture on the back of the card. I added a 3-tile island under the dessert region. At first I wondered if it would be too difficult with the resources clumped, but it turns out, if you build at a 2:1 port for your Main Resource then it works pretty well. Since the only ship route was to that 1 small island we didn't bother with the pirate.

We also had a change in rules; which made the game interesting, but got Ki to participate.

See Ki up there? He played the Robber and the Banker. So we called him the IRS.

When someone rolled a 7 they placed the Robber marker. Then Ki (robber/banker/IRS) took a card at random from one of the players on that hex tile. When we were losing 1/2 our cards on 7, Ki got those cards.

We were doing play testing. We found that people were getting so many cards after a while and Ki seemed to always choose Gavin when he could and Ki used his resources for development cards- So I had a turn, the Robber got a play (but no roll), then it was Gavin. We decided that the player before the Robber should instigate "Special Builds". So after I took my turn, I called "Special Build" and the players could build with their resources one last chance before the IRS swooped in and devastated them.

They asked to play to 15 VPs, but it was too long that way. We ran out of Cities and stacked settlements on boats- as a City. Then I ran out of roads and used boats. SO- 13 VPs should have been the limit.

All in All, it was fun. Next Time:

-only 13VPs

-Start Special Builds earlier

Our other rule was if the robber got up to half the settlements/cities as the players, he had to become a player. Ki just built 1 settlement on a GOLD. Actually in the beginning we said if he got to 2 Settlements/2 Roads- b/c that is about what we had. But I think the rule for that is when the Robber has 1/2 the Settlements/Cities as the players (the least)- then he becomes a player.

In order to get to play games we have to do crazy things like this- let him change everything all around with future options.

**Actually, Connor made our first 'made up map'. In the Seafarers, he took all the tiles (land & water) in the normal game map, but shuffled them and put them out randomly. That was fun!

hit by another wave while trying swim ashore

As I swim closer and closer to shore, the undertow is stronger and stronger and the next wave crash over my head before I can recover from the previous wave. Yet I enjoy swimming and the beach and ocean are just lovely.

That pretty much wraps up my life right now. and all sea water crashing over my head is making me a bit loopy. (loopier, at any rate).

My husband seems to work late a little more often. Not bad. But when h e wants to watch TV (online) with me, I want to spend time with him even if it's 10:30 and I should be asleep, I'm willing to stay up and spend time with him.

Then I have to wake up and get the house going, laundry, food, school, showered, etc and be out the door by 9:20 to get to the DMV. I got there and forgot stop at the bank, so I just walked to the bank, got money, walked back to the DMV, took my written test (bombed it- too worn out maybe? Different laws here? dehydrated- the sun was hot today- who knows)
I walk home. It's 11 by now. I check on school, help a couple kids, hear the gardener and run out back to get the clothes off the line I forgot shouldn't be hung on 'Gardener Day". I come back in, recheck school, flip the laundry, grab lunch (make sure the kids eat, ride to the Farmers Market because I promised to meet a friend there that I have been too busy to see lately. Get home. I'm tired and hot and thirsty. I drink and rest and then do Ki's Missionary Story with him. Made a phone call, realized I have to leave at 5 and need to feed the kids before that.

and I'll leave here at 5, get home around 7, be too tired to clean the kitchen or finish laundry, but I'll get some of it done. Then I'll collapse into bed.

Tomorrow I have Connor's ortho appointment for braces (reminder- give him Motrin before going) and then I just have to have the boys at church by 5 and the adult class starts at 6:30, home by 9 maybe tomorrow.

Yesterday I was gone all day. Moday I was home but had evening events. Friday is just one thing- The boys election class on base. I may come home at 1PM and change into my PJs and be DONE until Monday.
wait, no. Sat the boys have a Bowling event and Sunday is church.

How do people do it- People who are busy all the time. People with lots of kid stuff to go to all the time. How does the rest of life get done? I just need too much sleep to get up 5 AM. I'll cease to function if I don't get a good solid 8-9 hours of sleep. I wake at about 7:30 daily. When I try to get up early I am a zombie until it's almost 8, so it's not worth it, nothing gets done.

Something has to change. Maybe new routines, new housework assignments... I dunno. Of course in a couple weeks Connor won't be having 1-2 appointments a week and I'll have my Driver's Licence and Base ID. that'll help

I am behind on groceries, too.

I am seriously losing focus and getting confused about everything.

ALBINO & ASYMMETRICAL

Albino Snakes and Asymmetrical Necklace. 2 of my topics. We attended a Family Day City Picnic at the Main Park here. They had a "Zoo to You" presentation. It's a shelter for abandoned Animals- but not domestic animal. They had a Sloth, a Spider Monkey, a toucan, hissing cockroaches and an Albino Python. Connor was selected to help hold the Python.





They had kinds of booths and freebees. And Selling booths. It was more like a mini fair. Brian and I got registered to vote, I found a Pampered Chef Lady, I was given a Free Energy Saving Lightbulb, Brian entered a contest to win a Free Lasik Surgery and I bought a Necklace.






Which brings me to my 2nd WORD. It is an asymmetrical necklace. Part of it really bugs me- being asymmetrical and yet I was strangely drawn to it's un-symetrical-ness.
Most necklace have their main midpoint bead (or whatever) and then they beads extending on the sides are the same on each side. This isn't. But it is slightly off center in this picture.
Brian asked if I was really his wife. I am never asymetrical about anything. I had been looking for the perfect necklace to go with this dress. It has upside-downAfrican Ladies on it. This seemed to be the perfect necklace for a dress with upside down people on it.

Yes, I like dresses and sometimes a necklace. I like to 'look girly' but not act it. Like yesterday I was wearing my India Outfit and climbing the tree. I'll wear a dress and dissect a bumble-bee.
Dresses are just way more comfortable. But I can't go hiking or rock climbing in a dress.

GOT MILK?

Wow. It is the 21st already. It’s going to be February soon. And Friday is Connor’s Birthday.

As a kid, I always thought MLK day was MILK day. My brain makes up words where there are none.

Still no news on the California position. Hopefully by February we will have our answer.
Considering the HIGH temp here has been in the high teens, Vandenberg sounds nice this week. It may not get much about 75, but it doesn’t go much below 40 either. I am getting too old for the cold. I love to watch the snow from the warmth of my house or even car, but it’s too cold to play in for me. Of course it might help if I wore SOCKS!

Brian is off today. Because it is MILK day. He doesn’t drink milk though. So I had some for him. We are cleaning today.

I have been putting books on the bookshelves. I just love when the bookshelves are neat and orderly. I love to just look at the bookshelf with the books sorted by size or reading level or in sets or actually all of the above. I put books for Ki to read in a basket that fits on the shelf. This makes it much easier for him. He gets overwhelmed with choices. So I just put a few in his basket. So at reading time he doesn’t think about which book to read for 30 minutes.

I am keeping a good part of the books on the packing boxes due to the fact that we will be moving the shelves next month to lay new carpet. So the book shelf doesn’t look AS nice as it could, but it’s okay.

update

we are on vacation again this week. It was originally going to be a school week, but I came down with pneumonia last week and am just now feeling better.
I was pretty ill for a while. Can't remember being that sick, though I was when I was really little.

The boys went to the local water park on their own yesterday ansd today. 2 came home burnt today.

Brian took all four to King's Island all by himself Friday! While I lay in bed delirious.......

You guys aren't spreading the word about my homemade cards for sale quite well enough.......LOL. I think I might give Ebay a try.

Next week I think we'll do math, history and science experiments. The boys are suppose to be choosing their summer school projects. Ki is thinking of making a Lego Roller Coaster. I need to figure out what I can do with that. I have Gavin's Roller Coaster unit study from last year, a lot is too advanced for Ki, but I can use parts of it.

After a school week next week, they'll have off for a week while I pull together their summer projects. Hopefully we'll have those started the next week.

Out for a Walk

We went for a walk at the nature reserve place . Lots of nice pics. The boys skipped rocks, caught insects, looked at fossils, climbed trees and swang on vines. I locked my keys in the van. Brian's dad had to come take us hone, I got the spare, then drop me off at the van. I took the boys to lunch. everyone wanted Panera except Manuel. So we went to Panera (because we almost always go where Manuel wants and I think it's not fair to my own kids if Manuel is always chosen instead of them and it's not good for Manuel to always gethis way)

So he sat and pouted the whole time and refused to eat. Kids are kids no matter what country they live in....Ki is like that, too when we don't go where he wants.

Now he is crying. Poor kid.Conor was reading in the bedroom and I didn;t think I should always kick Connor out of his room everyday. He's been getting upset and sad that we always kick him out of room 2 times a day to do Manuel. So I let him stay and did Manuel's massage and therapy on the sofa. I told the boys to make sure they didn't come into the room. It's turned into abad afternoon for Manuel.

This tree had long thin roots that were just drapped across the path!

I think I might enlarge this one for Mother's Day....

SHELF fungus put to use!

A big, fat lightening bug That craled on Ki for half of our walk. He had a little green inchworm on his face after this.

There was some large shelf fungi at this place!

Swinging on a vine

A better vine !!

Connor had wiped most the blood from his finger already.. Manuel and Connor got cut skipping stones...

A cool tree!

I have had to remind and correct Ki 5 or 6 times now. He is doinf double digit multiplication. He loves to use Dice. We have dice that is one dice inside another- so it works as rolling a double digit number. I explained it to him, showed him an example, made sure he rememver about carrying.... as soon as I leave he asks "Am I adding or timesing??"After I took 5 minutes making sure he KNEW i5t was TIMES/MULTIPLICATION.. I come back and he has done SINGLE times SINGLE (5 of them) so I had to remind him DOUBLE DIGITS... then he asks "Am I adding or timesing?"

... then a little later..he calls out "I forget- am I adding or timesing?"

we did tyhis another round... is it really THAT hard to remember, the problems he had already done were TIMES....

--Kimberly

First Impressions-

This is a two part blog- the first is a journal of our school day- the second an entry about new blogger friends.

I woke up on time today, but felt brain dead. The boys were up on tim and Manuel got up, but fell asleep on the couch. My boys asked to dig outside this morninf. So they worked on their current school project- digging a hole in my backyard. Whenever they choose to do something like this, Ki calls it a school project- so I'll let him do it 'instead of schoolwork'. It's cute. So I then ask him what he is learning with his project and get to hear all kinds of reasons....

The did reading and spelling before lunch. For lunch we went to a greasy fast food, fried chicken joint next to their school (where they take once a week clases). It's called Chicken Louie's. Manuel enjoyed saying the name. We ate at the school. the food place is just carry out. Connor found over 60 cents under their pop machines. This is what he does everywhere we go. He's even found foreign currency on occassion!

A lady I know is a nurse and helped me re-wrap Manuel's legs to help elleviate his swelling. There been no change in that though. if you missed it- Manuel's Story

After lunch and Gavin's computer class, we did some more school here at the house. It didn;t seem to amount to much.

I decided to start going through summer clothes, with all this WARM weather! I love this time of year... when I get to look through their 'new for this season' clothes.

PART 2
I am new to blogspot. I homeschool journaled at a different place, but never got comments and found it hard to get to other blogs to read them.
Being new here and having found some great blogs- I thought I’d highlight some of the ones I read most. The names are clickable links to take yo to the blogs.

A room of my own—A mom to 3 feisty kids- by her own admission.
I love all the links to other bloggers. Her daughter (12) sounds like a wonderful child, full of love and compassion. Her little James reminds me of my boys….. all boy! sharks, cars, dirt! And her 3 yr old is adorable. I’d like to meet her skink. Her latest blog of Sunday Six… or was that Saturday Seven- is GREAT! I love the idea- it’s like a ‘mini carnival’. And being new here, I love all the links and intros to other great blogs to read.

dumb ox academy- I just found this blog. It looks as if she is raising a smart, thoughtful 14 yr old. Having a boy almost that age and 2 more close behind- it’ good to see that others are doing a great job raising teenage boys. It strengthens my resolve.

Enjoy The Journey- I enjoyed her thoughts on Double Standards of ‘Earth Day’. I have just started reading hers and don’t have a lot to say yet. But I have enjoyed all I have read so far! I like her simple truth/common sense thinking.

Get In Hang On- easy to read and thought provoking. And it’s her daughter’s birthday! This is another one I have only read twice. So- my review is short.

Home schooling Aspergers- a mum from Down Under with a fun little boy! I have thoroughly enjoyed reading her blog of homeschooling in Australia. It’s neat to see that kids are kids and just the same everywhere. And I have enjoyed reading her approach to home educating her Aspie Son. (having 2 or 3 myself…LOL) And she has nice photos on her blogs!


Homeschooling in the Garden State- a very PINK blog! LOL. She has a LOT of fun with her little girl, who often is clad in pink tutus or other frilly pretty costumes. I love the feather boa numbers! And the have lots of fun gardening.

In A Spacious Place- a first reader to this one- very well stated and thought provoking. With a loooong list of links to other bloggers!

Issues with Knitting- though I don’t knit and hate to wear sock- I have enjoyed this blog from the get-go. Her blogs are just enjoyable to read. And her knitting is very pretty, too. and colorful. I have enjoyed her review on Leak Brake classes…..

Kitchen Table Learners- also a first time reader here, but I already like it. Homeschool blogs about boys and nature are always among my favorites!

Little Acorn Trees- What is not to love about a fellow chart maker?? I so enjoy reading accounts of others’ homeschool days and gathering tips for organization and schedules!

My Little Wonders- a mom to 3 girls, a boy and a stepson. She is new here, too. And has my favorite type of homeschool blog--- just retelling what went on in their school lives!

Notes from a Homeschoolihg Mom- What a neat idea! A VIDEO BLOG! her blogs are not something you have to read, she video tapes herself talking to you about what is going through her head! I love the concept! (but am too shy to do it myself)

One Big Happy Family- just had a baby boy! They have that great, live and learn with outdoor nature thing going on there too!

Purple Puzzle Place- another blogger I am slowly getting to now. She has the cutest little girls! But I often feel a bit out of place amongst all little girls—like I don’t know what to say…LOL

Ragamuffin Studies- Fun, friendly blogs. And she thinks, too. I have just read a couple of her blogs- but I am enjoying them and look forward to her next.

ScrapLove- a single homeschooling mom in the Netherlands. She has a 13 yr old son and is another mom on my list of ‘moms who homeschool autism spectrum kids). Her blog has lots of photos and ranging from lovely flowers to cool cars! And is another of my favorite blog styles- the recounting of the day!

Sprittibee- She hosted the first Homeschool Blog carnival I posted… Her blog is fun and informative. I like stopping by to see what is new! Hey, maybe I’ll think of another carnival post entry…….. her blog does take a while to load for me, though.