It's a boy

Welcome home Baby T! Delivery and recovery were a bit rough, but I will not bore anyone with the details.  Instead, we have this perfect little miracle to focus upon.  I am honored and most delighted to care for this precious baby boy.  Thank you Jesus for such a beautiful gift!

The boys are quite enamored!

Family Night

This is how we spent our family Night.

 

Learning how to play Chicken Foot.

 

 

We loved it!

 

Although, the double-blank domino is scary!

 



 

 

 



Enjoying Story of the World - second time around!

Big T has already read through all the volumes of SOTW and enjoyed them immensely.  We never possessed the accompanying activity book before now though.  As a family, we used to act out scenes from the texts that the boys chose themselves.  It was dubbed as "family acting" or more like "family comedy" night.  They still talk about those "fun" nights, so I plan to implement this again in the near not so far off future.

In the meantime, we have started the series once more with Little T and my God-daughter K.  Big T is assisting and taking part in some of the latest activities that have been inspired by our newly acquired SOTW activity book.

 

This time around, my students are reading from the text & following along with the audio disc, which was checked out from our local library, along with additional books to enhance our

first chapter. 

My pupils loved making their own cave paintings!  This particular scene was motivated by hunting, but I was impressed to see a farmer's shaduf in the upper right hand corner.

 

Big T also made a fantastic hunting scene!

 

 

 Big K was moved by aliens!

 

 

Big T in teacher assistant mode.

 

 

Bring Them Up Gardening

We are very fortunate to have connections with some wonderful homeschooling families in the area.  Yup, we struck it rich with this bunch!  My boys are not only socialized too death, but they have opportunities to learn, experiment, & do amazing things with homeschoolers like themselves.

A huge learning, experimental, & amazing thing they get to take part in is community gardening.  There are 8 families, including us, working side by side growing our own food.  It has been highly successful in both production and learning how to set up a large garden.

We have tilled the land, planted seeds, collected seeds, harvested, controlled bug invasions, and so much more.  Right now we are in the process of readying its second growing season.  I am not quite sure that Texas has more than two seasons, but when our pumpkins start getting big and orange, it will certainly feel like Fall.

some of our garden harvest



Little T & his buddy M planting seeds.

                                                      




Our youngest working in the garden for the first time.  She watched the others & quickly caught on. See, she's patting the dirt.

Big T getting the rows ready for planting.  His dad did a great job tilling beforehand.

I'm helping K with the harvesting...shhh, it's one of the best jobs. And another K is behind us watering.

Big T & K prepare the veggies to be weighed and washed.  Math is everywhere!

One of my favorite parts of our last garden group day was when the littlers wandered off & created their own garden.

Apologia - Excellent Experiments

Big T is really liking his new Science course this year.  I decided to try out Apologia and thus we journey into the world of Physical Science four times per week.

 

I like to preview before I purchase curriculum, so I examined the course at a homeschool convention and ended up acquiring the text and student notebook/workbook.

 

 

What do I like about using Apologia so far?  The first thing that I find helpful is the course layout itself in the student notebook.

There are 34 weeks already planned out & ready to go! One could jump right in or do what I did and amend it to suit your own schedule. It is definitely handy to have as a quick reference.

I also like the fact that the experiments do not have me running to the store a zillion times in search of various materials. So far, I have found everything we need right in our own home...big plus!

Another note regarding the experiments is that the student does them as he/she reads along. There is no need to wait until the end of a chapter and they do not seem to be a hindrance to include in a lesson.

Now, what does Big T like about Apologia? He is all about the experiments of course and enjoys playing "Mad Scientist" with his brother.

 

One of his favorite experiments that he performed recently was titled, "Oxygen and Fire." The boys were so excited to strike matches. And I was more than happy to once again talk about fire safety and chaperone the monumental event.

 

Hydrogen Peroxide + Yeast = Oxygen trapped in balloon topper

tea light candle under glass jar 

 

 





My story of 4 + 1 = 5

I guess I am "one of those bloggers." It has been quite a while since I last posted... not very consistent, I know.  So, what has happened? Besides my computer being zapped by lightening (truthfully), we are expecting a precious baby.  It is exciting, wonderful, and such a blessing, but this pregnancy has been a little different from my previous two.

After my first trimester, I was experiencing some pain where my left leg connects with my pelvis.  Initially, I thought nothing of it because I taught fitness classes and aches and pains, plus some injuries were normal in my case.  This particular pain felt like I had pulled a muscle, but one night as I studder stepped in the hallway, narrowly avoiding a collision with my husband, I felt the pain shoot through my entire leg.  It felt unquestionably strange and within minutes, my leg was bright red like a sunburn and swelling.

I am not sure why "blood clot" skated into my brain immediately.  It is not like I had any experience with this sort of thing before, but I calmly called for my hubby to come into our bedroom & told him that I was pretty sure I had a blood clot.  I remember feeling faint and just not well in general.  My poor husband was at a loss for a moment before he started scooping the children out of bed, but what stood out the most was an unrecognizable fear I saw in his eyes.  I became fearful too, because the nearest hospital was about an hour and a half away.  Lots of praying ensued that night and continues most readily.

We called my OBGYN before heading out and once on the road, Dr. K was on the phone talking us through things.  It was decided (because of proximity) to head to our small town ER. Our doctor was concerned that we would need a larger hospital to accommodate my needs and he was right.  We checked in, got into an exam room and then the on-call doctor indicated that they could not scan my leg because that particular machinery is only available during the day. We wasted a good hour, but headed towards downtown Austin, Texas (which took another hour and fifteen minutes) to meet my doctor at the hospital.

This was my first trip to the ER ever and that was interesting in itself.  By the time I got myself situated in an exam bay, I could no longer stand on my leg & the pain had intensified immensely.  The last thing I did was to stand on a scale, so they could get my weight for upcoming medication dosage purposes.

My husband and boys were allowed to stay with me until my monitor started beeping and five nurses rushed in to witness my blood pressure going way down.  I started having a Vasovagal Response (kind of like a fainting spell) and managed to relay this information to the nurses before the room started spinning and I felt like I was in a tunnel.  The staff seemed relieved and after 10 minutes, it was over. 

Dr. K came in and we discussed safe treatments for myself and the baby.  I was moved into ICU for a day and then into my own room on the maternity floor for several more days.  It was determined that I had a full DVT (deep vein thrombosis) and the course of treatment would include two abdominal injections daily for the rest of my pregnancy.

So, the blood clot has been kept at bay and I am currently 32 weeks pregnant.  Our baby boy is doing great and I have learned to adjust to a little pain every now and again, plus the injections.  I still remember that scary night like it was yesterday and have flashes of my oldest son's tearful and scared face as we left the little town ER to make our way to the larger hospital.  It is not a night I would ever like to repeat!  However, I am grateful for that experience and not another.

Someone had asked if I regretted this pregnancy and the answer is NO!  I can not wait to hold our new Baby T in my arms.  We are readying our home and hearts for this new little miracle to enter our lives.  My boys and husband are ecstatic and talk to my belly every chance they get and Baby T responds in kind with thumps, turns, and kicks. 



Baby Reveal Day for the boys!

Photos credit and courtesy of Jessica Reynolds of Portraitique Photography

Painted boomerangs

The boys are still playing around with their tri-bladers! They look great all        painted up too!