New Year, New Grades

About 6 weeks ago, I explained to each kid what they had left to finish out the grade level the were currently in and what (exactly, specifically) they needed to do to finish the grade level and move up. We are at the deadline time. 1 child has finished. 1 child has made a half-hearted lazy attempt at throwing a pen at it and isn't even close to being finished. Is what I expected the lazy child to do hard? No. Is it time consuming? Not really. In all honesty, it could all be done in a matter of a few hours if they actually tried. 6 weeks. Not done. Not only is it not done. 1 of the 3 items that needed to be completed hadn't been started as of this am. The actual shocker - it's The Girl who has made no attempt to do the assignment! The Boy has completed his.

I made them both a clear, concise sheet of instructions. A clear time frame. A book of instructions for if they instructions *I* gave them were somehow unclear. Time and reminders DAILY of their assignments. Asked them frequently how it was coming along and if they needed help.

They had to finish their math books.
Pick a topic and complete a short research paper on that topic
and
Complete a book report on a new book or one they've already read.

She's in 4th grade for all purposes. These are not unrealistic goals. They were the last remaining items she needed to complete to show the skills needed to move up. *sigh* I brought up the need for her to finish her work this am, she starts stomping her feet saying she's not going to. I can't make her. She doesn't have to. Really??? You're right. I cannot MAKE you write a research paper. But there will be consequences for every behavior either good or bad. You pick.

The Boy's assignment was exactly the same, though I took into consideration he is working to complete 3rd grade. He had some grammatical and spacing issues that needed help - BUT - he finished his work.  His was on level for his grade. I let them both type their work since they have dysgraphia so it's just a matter of him going and making corrections. It's no big deal.  It's clear he's read through it.

I'm clearly doing something wrong. I just don't know what. I guess some would suggest catering to her more to make it *funner*. Honestly, I don't care if she has *fun*.  She needs to learn to get off her lazy bum and do what she needs to do in a timely manner. I know I'll get less resistance if she has *fun*, but last time I tried *fun* she pick and chose the parts she liked then became a mule on the rest. 

I am going to attempt to put her on a more rigid schedule. She does do better with that. The holidays always screw with scheduling and she settles nicely once things are more routine. I want to try to plan out the pacing better, they both took WAY too long on this last set of books. It took them almost a full year on each of their math books and this stuff isn't even hard. It's frustrating because they're just both so smart, but The Girl is so darn lazy! She even admits it's not hard, she just prefers to sit on her rump not doing it. She's got to figure out how to beat the lazy, procrastinator, messy demon living inside her now or she's going to have continuous problems.

OH My! Look Whose 9!!

This Girl:

She's come soo far from this tiny little thing:

See?? What happened to my wee baby girl! She got all big!!


Happy Birthday to my Princess!!

Happy Halloween and school update!

We had a very low key Halloween! We went to a friend's house and went around their neighborhood with some friends. I have to admit I love watching the kids dress up in costumes. It's really sad that the kids are starting to get old enough to start thinking about not *wanting* to go trick or treating. (Ok, not mine - they'll probably go until they're 23, but a friends kids are getting there.) I adore watching the kids get excited about.. Well.. SOMETHING. These 2 almost never jointly get excited about something so thoroughly. We've gone to this particular friend's house every year (except one when we were in Seattle) since the kids were.. 4ish? maybe earlier... She is always saying she isn't having anyone, but inevitably she has the BEST neighbors and the safest neighborhood!  (Plus, she's way cooler of a mom than I am - Just ask my girl!)

This year the kids picked 2 costumes. (Mostly, because I found the second one 40% off weeks before it was even time for them to be on sale and I say "Ok, sure if ya promise to let me dress you up and take silly pictures.")

The Boy:

 

The Girl:

 

   These two are about a grade ahead of their same-aged peers. They have both gotten a little lazy about school here lately - this is partially my fault, I haven't been pushing them like I should have been - but the laziness is over. I've set a deadline for each to finish their current grade level work (The Boy is in 3rd, The Girl 4th) by the end of this year. That gives them almost 6-7ish weeks to complete everything they've got left. It's completely do-able. Basically what each has to do is complete their math books, write a research paper (The Girl's is longer and a bit harder), and complete a book report (The Girl's is also a bit more in depth). Writing is difficult for both so they tend to slack in this area. Not understanding language arts, but the actual DOING of the writing. If they had to give a book report orally, they could do it instantly, but they need to be able to learn to overcome their inability to write well. Mean? Perhaps. But the *real* world doesn't care. I have told them they can type it if that's easier.

 Honestly, the whole issue with Common Core may make homeschooling easier because it will have common goals and have them clearly laid out. The books will all have the same goals, just formatted differently. It could be an easier thing than trying to figure out *which* curriculum is the right one. It could always come back and bite us all in the butt, but..



The Girl also had 2 more teeth pulled about a week ago. The dentist has hopes of being able to avoid braces if the teeth stay semi aligned because of the pullings we've had to do since they don't line up. She's does so well at the dentist. The Fairy leaves her some pretty good prizes too!

Pictures! At last!!

*SQUEE* I finally got the kids to hold still long enough to get some picture of them! Ok, I may have bribed them to hold still long enough. Whatever. I even got the Girl to brush that nasty hair of her so she doesn't look like a stow-a-way squirrel!

 The Girl. Looking relatively gorgeous even! 

The Boy. Playing with an ant. What else *would* he do??

Then, then I tried to get them to take a few pictures together and this is what I got:

 

 The Boy eating The Girl's brain. 

 The Girl thinking that The Boy being a Zombie is HILARIOUS..

 MORE hilarious laughter as the Zombie farted while eating The Girl's brain. (I kid you not, a loud deadly toot caused more laughter than a toot should EVER cause!)

All was giggles and grins until I said "Hey, can you stand NEXT to her and smile?" I *thought* it was a harmless request. I then got THIS gem:

Then this:

Oh and then this one where it looks like he's holding his breath. I think this time SHE tooted. Yeah. They're gassy. 

My favorite though?? This pearl. I should change their names to *Eye Roll* and *Stink Eye*  because that's what they've mastered here. I'm going to save this picture until they're about 15 &16 and want to go out on a date then pull this out when the boy or girl comes over. Because. Wow.  But look! They're both making eye contact with me AT THE SAME TIME! That never happens :p 

What a Weekend..

This weekend was wicked. Both kids have been puny. The animals have been wacky. It's the first day of Autumn.

Morely:

Monroe is *probably* in heat and we've had to separate her and her Adams which is turning out to be a very loud (ie they are barking in their sadness) endeavor. We do NOT want puppies right now - we are aiming for spring - so a necessary task.We've had to completely rearrange ALL the birds. They are currently all in the front chicken yard now, Adams is in the water fowl yard with Lambie, and Monroe is in the dog yard (since the inside dogs are both fixed). It's not ideal, but doable for the couple of weeks to make sure we don't have more babies right now.

We discovered about 5-6 ingrown pieces of rock/gravel/dirt/goo in The Boy's belly button that I had to physically remove with tweezers and actually DIG, dig out. It was NASTY. Only to find out he had *never* ever washed his belly button. Ewwwwww. Actually ingrown into the skin folds inside his belly button. I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to dig them all out. What an embarrassing thing to go to the doctor for! We had a lesson on how to bathe as well.

I got some fascinating news via Facebook that made me feel really fantastic about myself and my life choices as a person. I do enjoy watching other people's train wreck life choices to realize I am no longer required to be part of them. Ahh schadenfreude..

Both kids have been running a low grade fever for about 4 days now. I'm fairly sure it's just a long virus since my mom had the exact same darned thing and decided it was "an allergic reaction to the flu shot", but it's still no fun since they're super grouchy.

I managed to finally get some pictures taken of the kids.

I've been behind this year on pictures and they were both good sports about posing for me.

Oh Possum!

The house is all awake and a tizzy tonight from this:

This thing had snuck up to the house looking for tasty snacks. The outside puppies were doing their job and trying to get at it and kept barking at it - which they never bark - and we kept going out to see what was wrong. The first time the goat had jumped over to the duck yard but the second and third times we didn't see anything. The fourth time we saw Mr. Kitty (the stray that won't let us touch it) walking circles around this and this fella. Yeah. Eww.

Now, all 4 dogs are up and antsy, the kids are both up (because 1 was already up and I think she woke him up), my mom woke up with the in and outting and barking and rooster crowing.. And there are 2 roosters in the garage who think it's waking time. *sigh*

*My* method was to shoot it, but C said to just scare it off. He said gun shots at 4 am near town were *bad*. He never lets me have any fun. Unfortunately, I think it's come back (since the puppies are barking again)  and we're going to have to trap it and do something with it. I have no idea what you do with them after you trap them though.

School Continues

The kids are still taking swimming lessons and both have decided they really like taking martial arts classes at the local Rec Center on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Unfortunately, they are in the evenings. I hate evening classes. They make my life longer. BUT. It seems to be working out well so far. I figured out how to get the hotspot to work and can get a crap-o-matic movie to play on my laptop and VIOLA! and extra 1 1/2 two times a week to get paperwork, update this, the animal tracking done and all those other tasks I never seem to get to done. The instructors keep pestering me to *join* to which I just laugh almost hyena like and the never going to happen chances of that. Not only would I be the *oldest* my joints would literally fall apart. Literally.

I intended to get a few pictures of the kids here before too long, but there's no way to get that done without being too conspicuous. 

Other than that, there's not much new going on. They eat and grow. I've been lousy about pictures lately too. Really lousy.

I need to get the kids to get behind a picture day and then remind me to get my camera out several times a day.

Our school revamp seems to have worked really pretty well. If you discount the few days of cheating that is. They both decided that they should *only* have to do the work on the new Easy Peasy they WANTED  to do. Oddly, this didn't sit as well with me as they thought it should. The going back over the entire months worth of days and REdoing it all was a bit of a learning experience for them I suppose. I am now double checking all their work daily. They are still making the same amount of progress in Math, Science, English and Spanish but without complaining because of the added variety - which was the intention.  I've noticed a BIG difference in The Boy's abilities in time and money skills too - which his textbook works don't honestly focused much on (and neither had we..)  So they are learning something in it all.

School Revamp

We homeschool year round. The kids are about a grade and a half of where they are supposed to be in pretty much everything except handwriting. They are MASSIVELY behind there - and will probably never ever catch up. They both have dysgraphia and we've even been sending The Girl to occupational therapy (OT) to learn ways to strengthen her hands, learn new ways to teach her, typing programs, and other ways to help her circumnavigate this. We've been working with  The Boy on these things as well because you can't read either of their handwriting STILL. Well, come to find out (and I had a suspicion) a couple of weeks ago as I was asking Girl some questions about what she was doing in OT because the report from her therapist had been rather vague. That "it's SO fun" but she wasn't *learning* anything we weren't already doing at home and HAD NOT been the entire time was what I gleamed from the conversation. I asked her about several aspects of things that she could be missing. Nope. She wasn't missing them. They just weren't being done. Our insurance doesn't cover OT really at all so we've been paying out of pocket for it. Which, if they are teaching her things and is beneficial, I don't mind one single bit. BUT. I do not want to pay $120 a week for a glorified babysitter to play games with my kid to teach her jack shit. I can pay myself to play with her. I love the OT we use. She has helped us a tremendous amount where it comes to The Girl's sensory issues, behavioral issues, stimulation issues. But this is clearly NOT her best work. So, as of this week, we are again therapy free. And I broke up with them over email because I am a complete and utter pansy. So, instead of leaving my house every Wednesday at 2 to get home at 4:45 to 5 for a 1 hour appointment. (Yes, 3 hours for a 1 hour appointment.) we are now freeeeeee.(And $120 per week less spent.)

Both kids have also had medication changes within the last month. The Boy has gone from not talking to *anyone* but people in the family, to most people he knows. I'll take it! He'll actually go off and play with other kids almost like a real kid now.  The Girl stopped sleeping again so we changed her sleep meds and found out she grew and out grew her dosage levels of other medications so we upped that slightly. It's only been one day on that so hopefully she won't go all wonky and turn into the Poltergeist child permanently. 

But one of the biggest changes is their school. I keep wondering if I'm leaving something out of what I've assembled for them. Whether on accident or by my own biased and preferences. So we're trying an alternating schedule of what we had been doing for the last while - just dividing the full schedule up into slightly smaller bites, not even dividing the days in half - and adding in Easy Peasy Homeschooling in too. Because the work, even at their accentuated grade levels, is too easy for them on the Easy Peasy. But, from what I've seen so far, it focuses on some folk lore, story telling, and game playing so it teaches in a different method than what I normally use. It's a religious based instruction, but since it's online we can take and leave the parts we don't want.

The Boy spend his time on the math online puzzles today instead of Lego Star Wars on the Xbox. *shrug* I figure religiously based or not, I'm ok with it. Plus, I don't feel like I'm going to be leaving SO much out if they are getting things for another source as well. It all goes back to the inadequacy we all tend to feel this time of year when people all talk about *planning* and *curriculum* and such. They do SO well with what we've got set up, I don't see a reason to screw with it much. But they LIKE the computer a lot I figured we would give this a go. I don't want all their stuff on the computer. That seems... like a bad idea.. but if they'll do MORE because some of it's on there.. Ok.

The Blue Whale!

Yesterday we drove out to the Blue Whale on Route 66. I had never been, the kids had never been, and I kind of thought C was a little bit insane when he kept mentioning it. So, off we went. Ok, it really took us all of 25 minutes to get there but still. And Look:

A Giant Blue Whale. Seriously. I know right?

It used to be a sightseeing thing for Route 66. A swimming hole. Now it's a little bit creepy, but still.

 Of course The Girl thought it would be hilarious to be *eaten* by the whale. As you can see The Boy is a bit unsure about this whole thing.

 There were slides people used to go down, a diving place off the tail, climbing ladders up the side of the whale. Basically an embellished pier. There is fish and turtles in the pond now, but the water is kinda ewwy looking.

The banks are overgrown, but you can see where an old dock/pier is. I can see how this would have been a popular roadside stopping place during the Route 66 hayday. It's rundown now, but if it were upkept and busy it would loose that *creep* factor. 

Even the bathroom is whale themed. 

It's worth a visit since it's not very far from town. We spent maybe 10-15 minutes there, but the kids were in awe that it existed because it's just so weird. You can still walk out in the whale and look out in the pond and feed the fish and catch and release them - if you want. (We didn't.) But there was a lady with her little boy there who had brought some fish food and was feeding the fish and shared a bit with The Girl and she's been going On and On about it since.

And for your Monday Laugh:

Love that silly Boy..

 

Parenting Fails OR Why I hate Summer..

Today I was reminded several times of why I hate Summer Vacation for most schools. It brings out the general public. The mouth breathers. The ignorant parents who just don't care. The parent FAILS. I LOVE vacations for the people we like. We get to see them more - but for the rest of them. *Shudder*

• There were 5 screaming, fit throwing PARENTS at Wal-mart. They were yelling at the kids (who in turn were yelling things back) such as "Shut UP" "If you don't do what I say.." "I Said NO". Now, these things could ALL have been said in *nice* ways. But. No. 
• One particularly awesome mom left her 5 year old standing up in the front part of the shopping cart. You know, where the kid is supposed to be sitting, snapped in? STANDING UP. And walked off - while yelling how horrible he was. Winner. 
• We went to the Aquarium. It was busy. We ran across a completely unattended 18 month old sobbing uncontrollably.  Another mother also noticed this rather odd child and we both asked all the other people with in sight if the child was theirs. Nope. I went and got an employee (I like to make this kind of problem someone else's problem). Turns out, 18 month old was in time out, but mommy thought it was *ok* to leave boy alone in a SUPER crowded public place while she was 2 rooms away. Surely, it would teach him a lesson. 
• A group of about 5 kids and 2 adults were at the Aquarium. One little girl was very clearly ill. She was coughing a very hacking, juicy, constant cough.  Never ONCE did that child cover her mouth. She had to have been AT LEAST 7. Never once did an adult suggest she do so. You could almost see the germs land on everything. She just stood and coughed on every single surface she came close to. I get it. You're on vacation and your little precious comes down with a cough. You give precious Sally some Motrin and carry on with your planned trip. Great. COVER YOUR DAMNED MOUTH. Teach her to do so. Wash your hands. No one else wants Precious Sally's nasty germs. Never ONCE did she even raise her arm, hand, sleeve - anything- to cover her face. It's gross! At least pretend to be socially appropriate.

And these fine examples of parenting were in just 1 day with only 2 outings. We didn't run a slew of errands. We went 2 places.  I may need to be bailed out of jail at the rate this is going so far. It's not the small stuff that's irritating. I don't care if your kid is awesomely clean, has nice clothes on, has perfect grammar, whatever. But basic manners of not screaming in the store and YOU not screaming back? Teaching your child basic hygiene of covering their mouth or at least reminding them? Not openly insulting your kid in public? How are these things *hard*? Heck, just being NEAR your kid so people know they are yours... Yes, I've given my kid a timeout in public. Just flat out sat their little rumps down and had them sit. Sure have. I'll bet I have to do it again at some point to. BUT, I stay with them. They are MINE. Fit throwing, embarrassment giving joys of joy. I don't get to walk off because they are naughty. I'll sit and wait right there with them for as long as it takes. We all will wait if I'm by myself with both kids.

Some randomness!

 An Angry Bird Cake. The birds far out gathered the pigs, but they all tasted delicious!

 A certain wee girl is going to sit RIGHT HERE and eat ice cream.. 

 I'm BORED..

The boy is always on her. And she lets him. She doesn't let ANYONE touch her. BUT him. 

CAKE!

Homeschool Gym

Right after we moved to our new house in January I started taking the kids to a free homeschool gym class that the community center offers. The boy likes it because they play dodge ball - thusly he has permission to throw balls at other people. The girl likes it because it's running and chasing and there are other girls her age there. I like it because I steal their Internet. It's a winning situation.

But, on the way here today (we come from swimming lessons - you'd think they would get tired, but no) I was thinking of all those Facebook rants (for lack of a better word) about summer and how parents need to put down their iPads, phones, books, whatever's and "play" with their kids more. Every time I see that particular posting, I get irritated. Yes, there ARE a good half of the population of trashy parents who suck and never spend time with their kids. But what about that other half? The half that are fantastic parents? That are purposefully ignoring the incessant pleas of their child? *I* do at the park. The entire point of going is to teach them to play nicely with others, to come up with their OWN games, resolve their own conflicts, develop their own physical skills, build confidence, burn off energy, improve skills with people they don't know.... *IF* I am playing with them, when will they do these things? Of course it's easier for mommy to push the kid on the swing, but kids can do if for themselves. Sure, I can come up with a cool game to play - but I rather they meet some random kids they've never met and invent some goofy ruled game of tag.

I am watching my children the entire time, by the way. It may appear that I'm *ignoring* them, but I see every single thing they do. I see that YOUR kid kicked them, that my kid isn't running off like a loon, that mine isn't begging for candy... My kids are staying in the area I said to. They are using their  mostly polite words and ignoring the rude kid instead of being mean back. I can be proud of them and not interrupt their play. They know. I'll smother the with kisses and list every good thing they've done. And I'll continue to use my iPad, phone, and book when I go out.

The Boy Turns 7!!

The boy is 7 tomorrow!

He's my little genius boy who - when he wants to be (which is most of the time) - is the kindest little guy ever.

I just love snuggling his little smoogly oogly self!

The Boy..

 He's having the BEST time ever making his own "fancy" birthday cake this year. He's actually pretty pleased it's turning out small, his social anxiety is literally killing him right now. So, we're going with it and letting him decide what we do. He's rolling the rice crispy bases The Girl helped make in colored fondant (which he colored). We're going to work on the facial details for the Angry Birds tomorrow. A party is what you make of it. HIS idea of a party - apparently - is eating cake, junk food, getting a few presents, and playing some weird games. Nowhere in his description of what a party should be did it include "people". Anywhere. He wants friends to play, but not the chaos I guess? So, a very small party (which is what was ending up happening anyhow..) it is. I don't feel compelled to make things "pretty" for just the one family coming because they've already seen my dirty laundry. And if the kids want to help make the cake and play fondant birds... Ok. I have some little figurines as back ups, lets roll with it. We're gonna set up a big sling shot and shoot the crap out of some stuff looking like piggies - because - well, it sounds fun. The kids want to blow bubbles at the ducks and goats. Because that's REALLY fun. No, it really is. It's hilarious. So, bubbles it is. I forget how simple 6 (7 whatever) can be. If he's not worried about people (he's actually seeming somewhat calmer knowing people aren't coming), why should *I*?  We're still gonna have a damned good party!

I WAS Going to Title This Post.. AssHats..

But, I'm not.. I've just reached that frustration point of not being able to "fix" things and want to blame other people. I want to blame all the AssHats in the world for everything being broken, since I can't fix it. When, in reality, it's just broken and *they* really didn't break it (ok, except for the one person at the bank who really DID break it, but still).


So instead we shall focus on all the positive features:

Wee boy is almost 7!

The wee little guy there, isn't my baby anymore. But that certainly IS what they still do! (Mental note, take picture tomorrow morning of exact same pose while they are watching their show.)


We're having a "party" for him, assuming anyone shows up for it. This is where it gets complicated and screwy. He's been having massive panic attacks about "people". Bad, bad, bad panic attacks. All kinds of reasons - they may touch something and move it, they may look at something of his, someone may break something..Then he panics that no one will show up.  Well, it turns out only 1 family may show up out (assuming they don't get sick - which knowing our luck, they will)  of 9 we invited. I had 4 today alone say things like "Oh, sorry, such and such came up.." Well.. Ok.. I'm torn at this point, mostly because he's an uncommunicative little boy, at what to do. How to explain to little kid that literally EVERYONE had something better to do?

My self-esteem isn't so shotty that I'm worried about people suddenly don't like us, we're talked to all these people in the last weeks and have no reason to think that. I honestly think they have had things come up. It's old parental ideal to make things great for their kids. But, I'm not sure he even cares as long as *someone* shows up, he said he'd rather just have playdates later with anyone who can't come - cause he just doesn't care. Whether or not that's the uncommunicative boy talking - I just don't know.

Think Outside the Box.. Or.. Eating Witches.

You know you spend too much time around little kids when there is no  : BOX:  when you think of ideas. I was babysitting for a close friend the other night and the girls were talking about Saint Patricks Day and Leprechauns (all mythical creatures get a capitol in my grammar book, BTW). They had made a catcher for their naughty Leprechaun and came THIIIIIIISSS close to catching it.  As the conversation progressed, I realized I was going to have to explain to their parents that I *might* have given the kids new ideas for Leprechaun catchers. I did not come up with the originals, just improvements.. A nice floss trip wire with a laundry basket drop never hurt anything..

The younger of the 2 girls, as I was leaving their room from tucking them in, asks what I'm going to do with the Witches - should they show up. Having been horrified for a little while of the witch in The Wizard of Oz I went with a suitable age appropriate answer.  " I'm feeling a little bit snacky, I'm gonna catch the, and eat 'em." I had to explain how I would catch flying Witches (by the ankle of course), cook (roasted by the fire), and serve them (with a smidgen of cinnamon and sugar), but the wee girl was no long worried the witches were going to get her. I also told her that the flashlight the older girl has was a Witch Deflector Shield. Surely, not a flashlight so the older girl could read that book I just handed her.  I must admit I do love those two little girls almost as much as my own two, they're such great kids. 


I guess it sounds like I'm spinning a ton of tall tales for someone else's kids. And I am, in a way. But they're little kids. They're hearing the horrible news in Boston, Texas, and everywhere else and still having to deal with bullies, and horrible bad things. If I can make the Witches and Leprechauns go away while their parents are away for a much needed night out by a Witch night light and a tale of me eating them? Heck yeah! I do it for mine kids daily. I'll chase monsters away like this for as long as I can, because before too long - they won't go. They'll creep in and hide in the shadows and then stay and be real. They have psychologist, specialists, psychiatrists and every other specialist out there telling us how to help our kids. This is how I help mine. I chase the monsters that are HERE away. I can't do anything about Boston. My 6 and 8 year old just needs to know that bad people have and will do bad things and we will keep them safe with every thing there is. But worrying about it won't fix it. So, put up your Witch light and your Leprechaun catchers because it'll be ok.

An Ayslum!

Today has been absolutely insane! The highlights:

•  The Girl was systematically peeling her finger and toenails off at bedtime.  After telling her she "didn't have permission to do that", she stopped and fell almost instantly asleep. Huh??
• The Boy threw a FIT. Epic fit because the bread loaf (that HE tore previously) was not straight. He cried, screamed, stomped, yelled, and carried on until I took a knife to the same piece of bread and made the end straight. Same piece, same bread only smaller and straight suddenly became edible and perfectly fine. Huh??
• We found out and have fully grasped JUST how young the newest addition to the farm is. The newest little guy was "supposed" to be 8 ish weeks old and fully weaned and eating solid food great. He's maybe 6, not eating hard food well, and LOVE goat milk. We named him Adams. He's so cute though! It makes me so mad the irresponsible things people do because they're lazy. The people who gave him to us said they were going out of town that night, it's obvious they were just done with puppies. I feel really badly for the people who have no idea what to do with the other 11 puppies that these dumbasses gave out. 
• The Boy has a fairly important to get his eyes dilated tomorrow. He is horrified, compliments of his sister. So I've been trying to convince him he's gonna be a good boy, that it doesn't hurt, and it's really no big deal. Plus, if he's super good, he may get a prize and what would he want? He wants "5 pounds of ice cream."  Ok. I can probably work with that. It's actually really important we get him to cooperate with this appointment because of the previous findings of his eye socket/congenital defect issue. So. A large vat of ice cream to get what we need done. Heck yeah. I think I can do that.
• I ordered 12 guinea eggs. 12. TWELVE. Somehow, we have 32 in the incubator. This is after 2 broke. So there were 34. I ordered 12. How did 34 get here?? I STILL haven't figured that out! I double checked everything and I only ordered 12.  I so do not want even a 50% hatch rate with that many. I was aiming for like.. 4 guineas total. EEK! 

 He's so Fluffy!

Unwrapping and settling of the Guinea eggs.

Hey Look!

This may come out a bit awkward, I'm on the iPad - stealing Internet while the kids do Homeschool PE, but it seemed ideal since I had about 20 minutes of unused time (which never happens).

The other day a friend posted about a car wreck that killed the mom on site and injured the kids. She knew this woman and her daughter is friends with the kids. To make it more complicated, the driver of the other car knew the people too and they were all headed to school (or so this is my current understanding). Today,  I find myself having issues of what would happen if we ( as adults) just.. Died.   Instantly. Most don't. Most get that moment to say goodbye or whatever. What would happen to your kids? We have Wills that dictate who will *get* them, have life insurance. But the bigger: What would happen? Right now, neither of mine (even at 8 and almost 7) they can't remember to go to the bathroom before we leave the house or change their underwear daily.

Realistically, statistically, and logically this is a non-issue. There was probably something that happened causing such a tragic accident, but still. How do you balance the mortality of it with the logic of it?

Words

I hate words. Mostly, I hate not being able to USE my words the way I want to. Because I have some great words for people lately and I can't use any of them. I can even choose words that are "polite" to fill in the bad ones. Biting my tongue is one of the hardest things I have yet to learn to do sometimes. I just.. Can't.. Sometimes yet. Email helps because then I can edit my *tongue* to be more appropriate, but the words they just want to come out.

For example to our Realtor who screwed the pooch the last week of our house sale. He sent a "Survey of How I Did". Really? You send a survey 2 days after your screw the pooch? Why?

Or the spouse who goes over the top on how retched I am because he reads a comment on Facebook wrong. Ohh How Horrible I Am.. yeah. I'm pretty sure we all know *I* may not be the problem here. Even after I apologize he STILL tears into me? Right, pretty sure we know it's not me at that point. A simple "Hey. That comment hurt her feelings" would have induced such a more sympathetic response. When, in reality, the girl is just depressed. Really, really depressed. The attempt (and clearly failed here - I admit THAT) was that things COULD be worse and she really had no real reason to be down and about this particular issue (I was in a hurry and the kid just broke the other kid's nose - so proof reading would have been good I know but blood was splattering..). But it does clear up several other frequently complained about issues. I do love that about Facebook though. I just edit the settings and.. Viola. Gone. All gone. Issue resolved. I'm pretty sure she doesn't want me to explain to her why she has "family communication issues" (though it's pretty damned clear now) nor why she's depressed (though she really should go see someone about that). But If.. You are going to post things about Zombie Jesus on Easter. Get thicker skin. Really. Seriously. Thicker skin. Even *I* know not to do THAT.

Oh look. I want to rant without people making comments I don't like? Ohh look. I have a blog for that! If I don't like the comment I have a delete button.  *sigh* Oh wait. Facebook has that too.

Or how about what words do you use with your child when she literally bounces onto the other child's face and rebreaks his nose?? I used loud words. Really, really loud words. Mostly, I just put her in timeout until we got to Urgent Care and then made her clean up the blood that was all over the house. But still.


*sigh* This could also be called "The Angry Rant Post" I suppose. I'm mad at my kid (for the obvious indiscretion) , I'm mad at the other kid for not following directions and then being a little whiny bitch about it, I'm mad because I strongly suspect that the boy has more anxiety that we originally thought and am going to have to address that, I'm mad at the dipshit spouse for just being a dipshit instead of just normal - really who does that crap? (Oh wait my ex spouse did that shit.. Oh wait.. That's why he's an ex.. D'uh!), I'm mad I still have goats in my entryway, I'm mad I had to pay the taxes today, I'm mad we have this stupid cat in the shed that stinks to Holy Hell and back but C thinks he can "Save Him", heck. Right now I'm pissed I need to lose 10 pounds.

My Wee Boy!

So The boy and his infamous headaches has led us to a visit to the pediatric ophthalmologist. Turns out he is farsighted and "Only a little" colorblind. I'm not sure "only a little" is a technical term, but he CAN see most colors, just not.. all the colors, all the time together. Yeah, I have to claim that one. *Shrug* 


But, he did a fantastic job answering the questions! He almost never talks to anyone.

He's still getting used to them, but even admits he sees a LOT better with them on. Now if only he would stop trying to come up with reasons to take them off. They make his eye itchy, he needs to pee (what that has to do with eye wear????), he needs to take them off while he eats, he surely doesn't need to wear them while we snuggle... The list is fairly limitless so far.

Hopefully it'll just take him a few days to get used to and then we'll notice some difference in his headaches. We've got to get those managed somehow.. :(

Change!

So, ever since we moved in the middle of January (yes, I'm slow) our homeschooling has been progressing - albeit slowly - but needing a new routine and *some* kind of change. The Girl is no longer needing to go to therapy for 2 hours a week but we've added things like weekly swimming so our whole schedule has rearranged but we've never really evolved formally WITH it especially with the addition of the Farm. This week is going to be ugly, I admit it, but I'm going to attempt to introduce a more firm schedule. I *think* it will ease 2 wee people's antsy-ness as well as make us all more productive than "gee, what should be we doing".  I've left ample playtime in, as well as scheduled time in there for errands and doctor appointments and the extra travel time to and from these things. I hope anyhow. We'll see. I've got a few slightly larger projects that the kids want to do - but we keep not getting to - that hopefully we will get to this way.

The tentative basic daily schedule looks like this:

6:00-7:45  wake, breakfast, dress, meds (you know all that morning stuff)
7:45 - 8:30 Animal feeding and cage clean outs. I'm going to attempt to come up with a rotating mucking schedule for this too so we aren't cleaning all the rabbits, goats, ducks etc on the same day.
8:45 - 11:00 School. (With play breaks built in.)
11:00 - 12:00 Lunch
12:00 - 2:00 Errands or School Project. A baking project, building the educational K'nex, a geography project, a trip to Target or Sams.. Whatever.
2:00 - 4:00 Errands, School, Projects, Cleaning (like if company is coming the next day), free play is everything is already done, cooking projects, ect.
4:00 - 5:00 Bath, room clean time, play.
5:00 - 5:15 Animal feeding
5:30  (ish) Dinner
6:45 Meds, get ready for bed
7:00 Snuggles and bedtime (which usually doesn't actually start until 7:15 after they negotiate for being "good", but still).

I'm also starting printing off a school list for them so they can try to organize their own school better and not say "But I don't know what to dooooo". Cause they do. They just have to think about it and they get lazy.

So, we'll see this week how that works out. It could fail epically. Or it could work splendidly. Or it could fall somewhere in between. I never know.

Chick-y!

It's Chicky update time! One of the 6 we got (from the Tractor place of all odd places) met an untimely demise. We *think* it may have been loved to death in combination with being too cold. We don't know for sure, because I'm not doing an autopsy on a chick, but the girl played with it for AT LEAST 3 hours the day before and THEN she told me she thought it was getting "tired". Humm yeah.. Less than ideal. But by golly that one day it was LOVED. A lot. More than any other little chicky any where else.

Poor Lucy. (Yes, she even named it and wore an all purple outfit for it - because surely the chick MUST love all purple sparkly outfits.) So, we insisted a new rule of just a few minutes at a time and no loving them to death. Literally.

We also got 2 wee little ducks. Mostly because she was sad and crying and well ducks make everything better. And I wanted 2.

They have been named Black Foot and Goldie. Yeah. I know. I didn't do that either. It's better than Daffy and Daisy though. C is a little displeased about the ducks, I figure it makes up for the chicks we have in over abundance and my grand displeasure in those.

The kids are giddy about both. They like any kind of animal in pretty much any shape or form.

The boy is even holding Black Foot without dropping it and screaming.

I must admit I was originally a little concerned about the cats attempting to eat the birdies. And while this would please me a *smidge* it would probably cause mass amounts of trauma. So far the only kitty trying to get at them is Squirtle. He's only really go at it half heartedly even..

We've got a chicken wire lid over them all while we aren't in direct attendance and the cat - so far - has completely avoided it..

Still, best science experienment ever. Something doesn't work, we just have to try again - which with today's technology isn't always how it works. Especially when the time frame is weeks and months not hours and minutes to accomplish a task. To hand hatch, raise, and everything chicks is one of the better long term project ideas I've ever thought of!

Randomness!

Holy Randomness Batman! There are a billion things that keep happening delaying posts. So, for a quick rundown instead of more delays:

1. Our chicky's have not hatched anything as of yet. If I'm guessing correctly *IF* anything were to hatch it *should* hatch by Friday. We've started another batch of eggs incubating on Sunday, that should have better luck since we have better over all temperature and humidity control and let them sit properly after receiving them in the mail.We're probably going to go ahead and get a couple of chick, chicks from the Tractor place for the kids to play with because they have been SOOO patient with this whole experiment in hatching..

2. Rupert, the puppy, now outweighs both kids. Not combined but is at 55 pounds. He's 5 months old. He's gonna be a big boy.

3. An asteroid is coming and the kids are sooo excited. It's not going to hit the Earth or anything, but you can almost never see those things.

4. The boy had the flu for the last full week and was miserably sick. He lost over 5 pounds and is now under 50 pounds. A year ago he was about 60. That boy is looking emaciated for how tall he is.

5. It's SNOWING!! Hoping there will be enough for the kids to FINALLY get to go sledding tomorrow morning. They are finally old enough and we have a decent hill at our new house! Neither puppy has seen the snow either and are having the best time ever tonight.

6. Our other house is STILL NOT DONE and ready to be on the market. Guesstimates are putting it at up to another 2 weeks, but hopefully less. It's always one thing or another. I just want this crap done with. At least enough to put it UP for sale, we've already had a couple of people interested in it, but can't show it to them with it not being DONE.

7. I need to get my camera out and take more picture of the kids and growing Rupert. I have been HORRIBLE about it so far this year and the guilt is setting in. I want to aim for taking it out once a day for a while and just catch them doing something for a while.. I did that last year and ended up with some really great pictures by the end of the year.

8. I have decided that we need to rename our Bunnies. We have the 2 boys. And we should name them Hoss and Phepher. And we're going to get a girl before too long and we should name that one Anne. Hoss,Anne,Phepher. Yes, yes I did.

I'm going to Attempt to elaborate on these.. But well. Clearly not doing so well lately.

The Ultimate Science Experiment

As part of a new, ultimate science experiment we are hatching some chicken eggs. Well, attempting to hatch anyhow. We've built our own incubator, the kids are watching the temperature and humidity levels, we're rotating the little eggs. Honestly, this round I don't expect a high survival rate - if for no other reason than we have NO idea what we're doing - hence the experiment part. We have 2 different kinds of eggs: 18 Bantams and 12 Silkies. I figured we would start super small with my expected non survival rate.

We are currently on day 2, so somewhere around Valentines Day or a little after or before we *may* have some hatching.. It's sort of primitive looking, but it'll work for after they hatch too - assuming we get any hatched. The kids are excited to look into the eggs each day with a bright flashlight and see if any changes can be noticed so far we've compared the dark blob inside these with the lack of one inside regular eating chicken eggs. These, even though they are smaller, appear to be heavier - we don't have a scale that small - and the kids have read about 3 books each about chickens and how to take care of them and what to do next.

Hopefully, they will continue to be as interested as they are now, but what better way to learn how cells divide, and grow, and all those things!