Homework and the Yard

Mr. A did so well with his school work today he actually had time to go play outside twice woot.  Somedays are more of a drag and he takes forever to do any of his work but today I think he finally realized that he would get to play outside if he got it done fast.  We did some work and then I sent him and Monkey outside to play.  They were down in the horse arena playing in the sand until lunch time when  I called them up for toasted PB&J's.  Pumpkin ate two of them and then wanted more I couldn't believe it!  Is he growing or what?  After lunch I sent the little ones down for a nap and they went so easy.  Mr. A got back to work and then was done for the day so when his brothers got up we all went outside in the backyard.  I got out our new gardening gloves and we pulled the grass and weeds out of the yard...you might be wondering at that I know it might sound weird but part of our yard is covered in rocks I'm not sure why but I think it's because of the rattlers and other pest we have out here.  It makes it easier to see them anyways.  We didn't get to far though because the children kept getting distracted and then I began cutting the rose bushes we have out there.  I got one stuck in my arm where the thorns were each spread out so I had to stretch my skin to get it out and that hurt Pumpkin came to my rescue and yelled at the thorns saying "bad choice, no, don't hurt my momma!!"  It was very cute and then he asked me if I was ok I love that kid.  Soon after that we went inside and Hubby made us a turkey meatloaf.  It was very different and good. 

Thats most of our day in a nutshell.

P.S. Yesterday after Mr. A's choir class we stopped by a natural store and got some pineapple-strawberry dried fruit (it looks like red pineapple I don't know how they do it unless they soak the pineapple in strawberry juice) they are so good I am getting addicted!  I can't wait to get some more.

P.S.S. I found some really good ideas at another homeschool blog and I can't wait to get to a store and buy a poster board I'll show you what I mean as soon as I make it it's going to be a great addition to our school days :) and I'll provide the link to her blog!

Roses and Horses

A rose from our garden

Ahhh the sunshine was so nice yesterday.  I began with a sweater on as my mother and I began hacking into the roses, we want them to be shorter and less bushy so we have been trimming them a lot, and a little into it the sun warmed me up so well I was down to my t-shirt.  Note to self-do not wear t-shirts to trim rose bushes ouch.  We found some interesting things in the rose bushes.  Mixed with two of them was an old dead tree.  We trimmed the bushes back and then worked the rotting tree out and staked the bushes up they look so much better now!  I checked on my sis's compost and found lots of worms gross and yet yeay!  This however is where I  got upset.  I broke my camera!  I was stirring up the compost to see what was in there and the stick barely tapped my camera sceen and it cracked!  I am so upset.  I am so careful with my camera it is really small yet I keep it in a big cushioned hard carrying case and I only take it out for a few pictures and put it right back but yesterday I was thinking that I really should take more pictures to put on my blog so that I can show you more than tell you what is going on and what I am seeing.  So here I am in big time regret at my thinking.  I have decided that my next camera is going to have to have a back that can close.  my mothers has a screen but you can twist the back and it closes.  That is what I am going to have to go with as this is my second ruined camera.  Wait what?  You might be asking.  Well this is why I was so careful with my camera you see I was at a parade and set my purse next to and kind of under my chair and yet somehow someone managed to step on the screen.  I was very upset and yet had no one to blame but myself for putting my purse on the ground (that was probably disgusting to boot!) so I pouted and got this camera that is now broken too.  So no more pictures for a little while this is where I yet again insert my plea for tax time to come soon as everything is breaking around me lol.               

                                                   A nasty critter by a rose bush

                                                                                                       This is a picture of Baylee

Big Al our new horse was lying down a lot yesterday which I hear is not normal for them so we have been asking around.  We have gotten a list of possible things that could be wrong with him and no assurance that its probablu nothing so we will have to have him checked out.  So the list is that he could be grinding his teeth so much that they are no longer able to chew his food properly so he needs to have them filed down, he could have worms, he could have a blockage of some sort, and he could be stiff.  So lots of fun stuff right?  Our other horse, Bailee, is doing fine her winter coat is nice and thick she looks so fluffy.  Big Al is looking better on that end he finally has a winter coat coming in.  He is still really thin though so my mother got him some horse thickener.  They are telling us that quarter horses are really hard to keep the weight on especially in the winter.  So he now gets three flakes of hay a day, grains with vegetable oil and the thickener.  Hopefully that helps him gain weight and we will be trying the wormer on him also.  The goats are doing fine also.  The baby goat got in Bailee's way (he was trying to eat her hay) and she rolled him with her head and kicked at him he limped for a minute but then seemed fine after that.  She has been getting an attitude since we got Big Al but I think that it's getting better now that he has been here for a little bit.  The chickens are loving the bugs that have been creeping out the past few days with the sunshine.  They are put away at night and then during the day they freely roam about the yard which is usually fine unless they get on the porch and poop all over it then we shoo them away and have to deal with a mess.  I wonder if there is a way to keep them off of it with out hurting them or leaving them locked up I might have to google that one later.

                                                               Momma Goat

Some of our Chickens

I think I have found a spot for my garden I just need to get all the supplies now and get it going soon.

Today hubby and I had a mandatory appointment to go to and we had to pick my sister up at the airport as she just got home from Seattle so we did not get to go into the doctors we are hoping that my mother will let us use her car to go tomorrow.  Bri needs to go in and get his medicines changed around and Bren needs his eyes checked.  We need to make the all the boys an appointment of some sort within the next few days.  Aidan needs to see a dentist for his new teeth that are coming in (his adult teeth) and he also needs to be seen by an eye doctor.  Bren needs to see someone for his eye and get shots (oh joy right).  Oen actually doesn't need anything that I can remember suddenly although I would like to get the boys all tested for food allergies since they seem to have reactions to different things.  I hear that they don't like to test them all that much unless it's severe but I don't know what constituets severe for them.  Oen breaks out in body hives, Aidan vomits, and Bren breaks out in rashes here and there.  So to me they are enough that I would like to keep them away from the foods as much as possible.  I know that for Aidan it's barley he gets sick within a very short time, Oen I'm not so sure he had a mixed fruit and he really broke out but I can't figure out which one he was allergic to, Bren is more like everything seems to give him a rash mostly on his face so we will see.

And thats all for today we didn't do that much yesterday was really the best day since we also cleaned up the yard had a sword fight with the foam swords and my brothers used their sticks and homemade wooden sheilds against each other.  They also got out their bows and arrows for a little target practice.  Bri shot some B-ball and Bren tried it was quite comical.  Such a nice day.  Well I hope your doing well have a good night and a great day tomorrow :)

Character and Other Thoughts

Brennen's eye is still crossed what did we expect?  Nothing honestly although there are moments where I wish that bopping him in the head again would make his eye go back to normal.  Tomorrow the doctors will be back and we will go in for a check up and see what can be done about it.  I hope they don't tell me to wait until he's older.  I really believe that the sooner things are done the quicker and better they are fixed.  After all his body is still forming if he needs to do therapy or have the surgery now would be better before he gets it more set.  If they tell me to wait I think I might research some more and see what other doctors say and see if there's anything we can do at home to help it.  They say that it can cause blindness in that eye that is the thing I am most concerned about!

The other boys are doing fine we are all still getting over our colds but I am feeling a lot better today.  I think just a couple more days and I will be out there doing my walks again.  Today my mother wants me to help in the rose garden.  The roses are already blooming and need to be taken care of before they get out of hand.  There are a lot of roses here!  I can't wait for the plums to start growing again I want to make some plum jams and preservatives.  I would like to learn how to can.  I also want to plant a vegetable garden but  I don't know how.  A book I want to get on how to is called 'The Square Foot Garden'.  I'll keep you posted on that.

I can't wait for summer which is a new thing for me I hate to be hot!  I am excited because of all the things I want to do this year.  The gardening, the horses, the chickens might be old enough to start hatching, the roses, the plums, and so much more I really am excited!

I don't know if I mentioned the book Character Matters by Thomas Lickona.  I started reading it a few days ago and I am loving it.  One of the main reasons I am homeschooling is to build my sons character.  I believe that it is the most important part of any person.  What do you have without good character?  I am raising adults not children.  Yes they are children and they play and do childhood things but I am not saying 'oh boys will be boys' or 'oh that's just something kids do' no when they do something wrong or mean I let them know.  We talk about why it was wrong and what I expect of them.  They know what the difference between right and wrong are.  I am reading this book to give me ideas on how to build their character even more and by extension and maybe even more important is how to build my own character.  We are all works in progress and everything I do with my kids I am hoping to learn and implement myself so that I can be a better person.  This book says that the Greeks believed the most important virtue is wisdom because without wisdom how would you know how to use the other virtues?  How would you know what to do when the virtues sometimes contradict each other which does happen?  So I agree.  Wisdom, Lord I pray that I develop more wisdom!  I am a flawed woman.

Well the roses are calling my name!  I need to get busy I have lots to do today!  I hope you have a great day :)

This is the carrot cake my hubby made us last night.  Why?  He felt like it :)  I was so yummy.  He googled best carrot cakes and this one came out on top.  I have to agree it was very yummy!  Probably fattening too but once in awhile is fine.  http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/best-carrot-cake-ever/Detail.aspx This is the where he got the recipe.  We use allrecipes.com often.  I like it better than searching through a bunch of cookbooks.  I even have the app on my ipod. 

 This is Bren with his new crossed eye.  as you can tell it's pretty bad.  It is not all the time though it comes and goes today he doesn't seem to be having as much of a problem with it as he did the past few days.  I hope he can get it fixed an honest bad mommy confession: it freaks me out and is hard to look at.  No I don't love him any less it's just hard to see him struggle and how weirded out he is and on top of everything else it's just something else hard to deal with.  On the scale of what can be wrong with your children we are very lucky and I'm grateful it's not anything worse!  P.S. He is trying to potty train himself so he was in rubber underwear with regular underwear underneath.  He thinks the toilet is the most awesome thing in the world.  I don't think he is developmentally ready because he can't hold it but I don't mind letting him try it out.  His T-shirt says 'I still live with my parents' :)