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Events, Joshua, Project 365

Sleepovers, Sick Kids and Tolkien

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Joshua celebrated his birthday this weekend. Pay no attention to the fact that his birthday is in October and it’s November. Nothing like stretching birthdays out, I always say. Especially when it’s MY birthday. Oh yes, and I’m famous for it. Joshua is normally not as birthday obsessed as his mother but the college reunion trip to VA threw his party off by a few weeks.

Friday night Tim gathered Joshua and three of friends and took them out to the Duckabush for a Lord of the Rings movie fest. They met up with a Duckabush friend and spent the evening with Sam, Frodo and their cohorts. I hear they even went to bed at a decent hour.

Well, decent for a sleepover.

boys in the bush

Joshua and his friends, missing Austin, who had to leave early.

They managed to fit in two of the three Lord of the Rings movies, which I think is impressive. Grandma provided a delicious cake and there was plenty of food for meals and snacking.

In the mean time, back at home, Rachel was hosting her own little sleepover. Hearing that Joshua would be out of the house, she decided it would be the perfect opportunity to invite some friends over. Unfortunately, she was hit with the stomach bug that is going through our family. Daniel and I had it two weeks ago, Tim and Joshua suffered through it this week. It’s mild (no vomiting) but painful.

Early in the morning, or maybe it was late in the night, Rachel woke me up saying she was in pain and couldn’t sleep. Poor thing. Her friends were downstairs peacefully resting while she writhed in pain.

Not a pleasant way to spend the night hours. Needless to say, we won’t be posting any pictures of her time with Sarah and Jenny.

Argh!

Daniel expresses the family’s sentiments toward this little stomach flu with a hearty Argggghhh!

Praying that the little ones and all of the assorted sleepover guests don’t catch any nasty flu germs.

Kathy
Project 365 – Day 307

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Daily Life, Musings

Hard to Be Home Again

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Back to school, laundry, meals and dishes. Thankfully each of those chores come with amazing blessings – children with eager, learning minds; a busy full life; plenty of food in the cupboards and on our table; a purpose and ministry of discipleship.

The work isn’t the problem. I’m glad to be home. I missed the children and love being a mom again. It was a bit strange to be pseudo college student, plus I don’t think I really fooled anyone. Fifteen years are a little hard to hide. :)

student or alum?

How’d I end up back in class and where are all the other students?

No, my difficulty right now is staying focused on my healthy eating and exercising. I don’t WANT to go to the Y and workout. I don’t WANT to stick to my eating plan and record my food. Frankly, I’m SHOCKED that I was so disciplined for an entire month. Who was that person? Surely not me. I’m lazy. I want to stay home and read my book. Pass the chips and salsa, is what I have to say.

Sigh. I definitely didn’t get on the scale this morning for my Friday weigh in. Gulp.

However, I had a great talk with Holly (my “keep your food clean” friend) today and will connect with Julee (my “Jillian, biggest loser trainer” friend) as soon as possible so I hope to get back on track. I’m really, really close to my goal and would HATE to blow it at this point.

Which means, although this afternoon was very hectic with 10 children in the house for dinner, I FORCED myself to go the Y in the evening for a workout. I got in a full hour on the elliptical, while watching Invincible. There’s nothing like a sports movies to keep a person motivated and running hard. By the end of the evening, I felt great and found it easy to resist any late night snack cravings.

what's for dinner?

Time to empty the fridge and rearrange everything. No snacking!

If there are others of you on this weight loss/healthy living/exercising and training journey, I just want to encourage you. Keep Going! Take steps today to be disciplined with your food and fitness. Be strong! Make sure you have people in your life praying for you, supporting your dreams, and pushing you on to work hard and succeed. Communicate clearly with your family your needs for exercise time and healthy foods. You can do it!

Kathy

P.S. A real college reunion/memory lane blog is coming soon. :)

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Daily Life

Thanksgiving Ideas

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I’m passing along two fantastic ideas from a friend of mine. De’Etta is an Air Force chaplain’s wife, living in Texas, with 9 children. She is a constant source of wisdom and encouragement as she homeschools her children and shares her life openly with other moms.

Thanksgiving Tablecloth – Every year each of the people joining De’Etta and her family for Thanksgiving write their names on a table cloth. After the holidays, one of the girls embroiders the names onto the table cloth. Over the years she not only has a record of the children’s signatures as they change and mature, but also remembrances of loved ones who celebrated with them. What a wonderful memory maker!

Thanksgiving Tree – another rich tradition. A basket of leaves sits in the entryway, throughout the season people are encouraged to grab a leaf and jot down something they are thankful for and then add the leaf to the tree.

We made a similar tree in 2003, using handprints as the leaves. We had many people coming in and out of our home that year and it was very meaningful to see the different shapes and sizes of the hands on our Thanksgiving Tree.

thanksgiving tree
Okay, so it doesn’t really look like a “tree,” but we loved it.

If you have a Thanksgiving tradition that has blessed your family (or read about one you are eager to try), please share. I’m in the mood to begin warming the home for the holidays.

Kathy

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Events, Project 365

Happy Halloween

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What a great day! The best costume all day? Our local Christian radio channel dressed up as a Christmas station for the day. Very creative. Although it was a bit odd to listen to Christmas music on Halloween.

heading to church

As we head to church for the Harvest Carnival, Daniel worries about proper Cape Etiquette.

Has anyone else pulled out Christmas cds yet? Tim and my brother, Thom, usually have a race to see who can start listening to Christmas music the earliest. Our competitive spirit reveals itself in strange ways.

Although the children could have dressed up very convincingly as college students, they chose something else for tonight’s Harvest Carnival.

college kids

My friend Jodi surprised us with a bag of William and Mary t-shirts. Five shirts, all different! What a fun reunion gift.

Joshua and David went as Civil War soldiers. Ask Joshua how many years he’s donned some version of this costume for Halloween.

david's soldier pose

brothers in arms

Sarah was beautiful in a Belle costume. Rachel went as a black kitty and Daniel dressed in a Zorro type costume. Rachel wasn’t sure about being a cat this year but David convinced her.

“Rachel, you look so cute as a kitty. I love it when you dress up like a kitten.”

Who could resist those sweet words from a little brother?

meow

The church carnival was a great success. Tim was one of the photographers – the church mails out each group a family photo and an invitation to attend one of our services. Joshua worked at a Clothes Pin Drop booth while Rachel helped deliver candy and took over games as necessary. The younger children mainly went around gathering treats.

let's go get some candy

Gathering energy before hitting the game (aka candy) booths.

The children had a fun time at the carnival. Rachel and Daniel went out and did some trick or treating along our street after the church party. Tim had David and Sarah help him deliver candy to the trick or treaters who came to our house.

A busy Halloween.
Kathy
Project 365 – Day 304 (Notice we are racing to the end of Project 365)

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Games, Works for Me Wednesday

WFMW – Educational Computer Games

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WFMWIt’s been so long since I’ve blogged, I feel quite out of practice. Is there such a thing as Dead Air on a blog? We were traveling yesterday and completely missed posting our weekly Parenting Tip. Some people would have blogs in reserve and wouldn’t let something as trivial as flying across the country cause a slip in posting.

Those people don’t live in this house.

I’m also drawing a complete blank on today’s Works for Me Wednesday post.

Educational computer games.

With five children, a programmer husband, and several computers in the home, you can be sure we have invested money in educational computer games.

Some of Our Favorite Educational Computer Games

Crazy Machines – In this game you build imaginative machines, turn cranks, rotate gears, pull levers, create unique contraptions. You also experiment with gears, robots, explosives, and more in your own virtual lab. The early levels are fairly easy but the game gets progressively harder. All the children have taken a turn at the game, although Joshua is the one who truly enjoys it. He received Crazy Machines 1.5 for his birthday.

crazy machines crazy machines 1.5

Jumpstart Typing – We have gone through several different typing programs in an attempt to master those oh so important typing skills. Joshua and Rachel agreed that the Jumpstart version (although we have a much older one) is their favorite.

typing

Cluefinders – The Learning Company makes a 4th, 5th, and 6th grade level of the Cluefinder game as well as some other versions. The older children especially enjoyed Cluefinder 5th Grade. Amazon describes the game: The adventure begins with the ClueFinder kids shipwrecked on a mysterious island. Two of their teammates are trapped in an underground hideaway, and the ship’s captain and crew are missing as well. It’s up to the rest of the gang to find their friends and get off the island- all before a monstrous volcano blows its top. To solve the mystery and save the day, kids help the ClueFinders complete activities and collect the strange CrypTiles that will unlock the island’s secrets. The ten activities cover math, social studies, reading, critical thinking and science. Sounds like fun to me.
cluefinders

Reader Rabbit – there are probably dozens of Reader Rabbit games, and I think we’ve accumulated almost all of them over the years. We’ve played preschool, phonics, math, 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, etc. As the computers advance (shifting from Windows 95 to 98, XP and beyond) we occasionally update our stock of Reader Rabbit games. Recently I had the older children go through our EXTENSIVE collection of computer games, weeding out the ones that don’t work on our current computer or are dull and rarely played. The Reader Rabbit cds remain consistent favorites.

Do you have an educational game your family enjoys? Leave a comment and share titles. After all, Christmas is right around the corner and I need all the help I can get. :)

For other great ideas, go to Rocks In My Dryer

Kathy

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