Busy and dizzy.

Those 2 words totally should not rhyme, but we have an odd language, a hodge-podge of other languages with their own spelling and pronunciation rules. My 11-year-old who is not a good speller, gets frustrated with it. Anyway, that's what I've been, a little bit busy and a lot dizzy. Last night we went to Walmart to get a couple of things and when I was putting the bags in the car, I felt dizzy and started stepping sideways. I was very, very dizzy for a couple of hours after that, even after taking one of my Dad's prescription dizzy pills (Antivert). I was still dizzy when I went to bed, but now I'm doing okay. The trouble is though, I took a pill that "may cause drowsiness" and that made me sleep until almost 10:00 a.m. There's no way I can get my list done today before noon, since I haven't started yet and I don't feel all that energetic, so maybe there's no school today? Unless I can thing of a loophole in THE RULE. I'm thinking ...

My youngest son just woke up and the first thing he said was "Hey, it's Thanksgiving eve, eve, eve, eve, eve, eve, eve, eve, eve, eve, eve, eve, eve, eve."

Well

We spent the day Sunday doing screen and clean which is just about my best inspiration ever.  We clean for an hour and then we get an hour of screentime.  I spent my screen times yesterday watching old episodes of Whose Line is It Anyway.  Laughter always helps when you are cleaning.  Our dogs have had fleas which have been driving us CRAZY and we have been spraying and powdering and fogging and washing all the stuffed animals and all the afgans and pillows, basically everything in the house.  I stacked up a pile of laundry in the bathroom yesterday that was literally 5 feet high, Mount Washmore is what Flylady calls it.  I'm not sure why, after 4 years of having Max, and having no trouble, all of the sudden we've got problems?  Maybe the damp weather we've had outside has made them get in the yard?  Anyway, now the yard has been sprayed too.  Sigh.

Good news from the weekend- I picked up a kitchen island at a yard sale for 25.00!  Cool, huh?  I'm not sure if I'll leave it the way it is, which is pine, or paint it or something to make it fit in more in the kitchen which has oak cabinets.  Anyway, my daughter and I are making pizzas today, side by side, one with gluten and one without, using the island and we feel like we're on a cooking show.  We keep laughing and we're having such a good time.  I think occasionally, that if she were at school, I'd be missing this.  We never seemed to be able to create much of that kind of fun after they got home from school because they were so tired and had so much homework.  So, I'm thankful for homeschooling today. 

I changed up the schedules a little today too.  See, I implemented THE RULE a few weeks ago, the one that says that mom has to get all her stuff done in the morning or the kids don't have to do school ... but I didn't actually mention it to the kids until today.  Today, I gave them a schedule that said "Check Mom!" so they checked me today at noon and I was done.  I'm not sure if the gluten-free is making me feel better.  I do feel like I've had less aching in my muscles so maybe.  Could be a coincidence though.  We'll see.  It's not proving too difficult now that I'm into it more so I'm going to give it some time.

Still here.

I had hoped to go on a little mini-vacation this weekend, maybe just overnight somewhere to recharge our batteries, but that didn't happen and we are still running on nearly empty around here. The kids and I are facing an unprecedented week of very little planned. This is the most blank week on my calendar since I got the calendar in July. It's weird. I'm not sure how that happened. :-) I'm going to try and get a lot of things done, some fall cleaning and winterizing. I'm hoping to feel more energetic this week as I've been doing pretty well on my gluten free diet. I've managed to be gluten free (as far as I can tell by reading labels) for 3 days. So far I feel pretty good - not fabulous or anything, but I do think my muscles are aching less. That's good.

Since I wasn't able to take a real vacation (none at all for this WHOLE year) I've read a lot this week. I was going to take a picture of the books I've read this week but my cameras are not working so here are pictures I've listed from Amazon. (If you want these books shop there!) . Anyway, here they are, the books I've read this week. Keep in mind, I don't watch TV and I read very fast. .

Yes. I do realize I have a book addiction. I need to work on that! I may have to see if the library will put me on a 3 books a week ration or something.

Thankfully,

I'm not grouchy, like I was yesterday, today. Going to the skating rink and having the night off last night helped me I suppose. Whatever. I'll take it. The only thing is, my back is doing one of those things that it does sometimes, just to remind me that I'm middle aged. I stretched yesterday afternoon and my back kind of went into a spasm and now I can't really turn my head or look down ... it's so fun and interesting.

We're doing school today I guess. We've got one more item from the Freshwater Fred lending library to look at/listen to then we'll be done with those and I'll send them back. (and get some more!!) The copywork thing is going well. He's doing really good with it. Unfortunately, he's still reversing his numbers on math. I may have to make him do another problem if he reverses numbers in the one he's on. I don't know. That may take his concentration away from the math problems and just make it overwhelming. Any ideas?

Youngest son's word of the week this week is "menacing". It's not an official thing, I've just noticed him using that word a lot this week. He told me that when he gets up and sees his list of things he has to do with no marks on it yet, it's menacing, but then later after he gets a few things done, it's not so bad.

I'm reading a lot of fiction this week. I had a lovely browse in the Young Adult section of the library the other night. There weren't any young adults around so it was free and clear. I'm reading a book now called, believe it or not, Fat Cat. So far, it's pretty good. ;-)

Awfully crabby today

I got up on the right side of the bed this morning, but in a crabby mood anyway. I'm doing my stuff this morning, working, cleaning and teaching math. I made a pot of gluten free chili and it's pretty good. I need to try and get in a better mood for the afternoon and evening activities, so I won't be whiny at the skating rink tonight.

Field trip!

We had a field trip yesterday to the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft.  It's a very cool place in my opinion.  We did a tour and looked at some amazing quilts and other art and then the kids did a polymer clay workshop.  They seemed to have a good time.  After the workshop, we went to Target.  We don't have a Target in our hometown ( unfortunately), so we love to go in and look around.   On the way home, we were getting tired and the kids were getting sleepy.  The younger 2 were stretching in the middle seat of the van and had this conversation, which I thought was funny.

Kid 1 - You know, when you stretch, you've got to make some kind of noise.

Kid 2 - Right!  Otherwise, it's just not satisfying.

Kid 1 - You've got to at least grunt.

Kid 2 - Yeah.

Love it!

We got our materials from the Freshwater Fred Lending Library today. Excellent. All free and it includes a list, when it is due back to them and a postage paid shipping envelope to send it all back. No cost to us. How cool is that? Since I'm teaching the 4H science class on birds, we got Eyewitness videos about birds, video, computer games about birds, a complete unit study curriculum about aeronautics from NASA, which looks like it would cover a few weeks of science. I probably will add some of the experiments in it into the 4H classes, if we get time.

Wow, November 1.

It will be Thanksgiving before we know it.  I'm starting to crave turkey and stuffing and also starting to feel the urge to get started on my Christmas shopping.  If this hadn't been such a financially difficult year, I'd be looking forward to it more.  I'm really not enjoying this recession.   Also, I'm tired of working on Sundays.  Blah.  I have managed to be gluten free for the last couple of days though.  That's good. 

Except, shoot, I just ate a couple of pieces of Halloween candy my daughter shared with me, a KitKat and some Whoppers and they aren't gluten free.  Maybe tomorrow?

A mystery solved.

The kids and I left the house about 3:00 p.m. today, went to my parents house and had cake and ice cream for my brother's birthday, then we headed out for some Halloween festivities, leaving my husband at home, but sleeping. In case he woke up and had trick-or-treaters (not too likely in this remote area but sometimes we get some), we left a bowl of Kit Kats and Milk Duds on the bookcase in the entry area where he couldn't miss it. When we got home my youngest son went to check and see if any candy was missing, just to see if we'd had any trick or treaters. Sure enough, about 5 or 6 boxes of milk duds were gone. Oddly though, my husband was still asleep. Maybe someone came by and walked in and helped themselves? No, the door was locked. Maybe my husband did some sleep eating? I've never known him to do this but who knows. Maybe Freckles and Max got into them? I said no to this one, knowing that there'd be milk dud boxes all over the floor and there weren't. Then, I opened my bedroom door to put my sweater away and I saw them. Six milk dud boxes beside my bed - chewed in such a way that I was pretty sure my husband hadn't done it. :-) (He tends to open boxes with his hands instead of chewing them open.) Apparently, one or both of the dogs had gotten a milk dud box in the entry way, carried it through the living room, the kitchen, the laundry room, the bathroom and into the bedroom and chewed it up, then repeated it 6 times. Hopefully, whomever it was won't have a tummy-ache tonight!

Happy Halloween.

Can ya'll believe October is over already?  This year has just zipped by!

Updates - Two things I'm not doing well. Okay. Three.

1.  I'm not doing well on my gluten free diet adventures, although I'm doing pretty good losing weight.  I really want to go gluten free to see if it helps with my chronic fatigue.  I guess you could say I'm in the research stage.  I've been working on having a few meals that are gluten free.  I'm looking at ways to modify all my recipes.  I've printed out a list of gluten free foods by brand name that hopefully I can use tomorrow to grocery shop and maybe, possibly this week will be the week.

2.  I'm not doing well on getting the kids to bed earlier and getting up earlier.  Last night, I took my son to a youth event and then didn't get home until 8:00 pm so I had to work later to make up that time and since the kids didn't get to sleep until after midnight I let them sleep pretty late this morning. 

It's always something.

3.  I'm not doing well with my exercise routines, even though it's only a 3 minute routine.  I've been skipping it the last few days.  Pitiful.   Sad really.  The kids are doing the 90 second fitness routine thingy and have been doing well with it, so I guess that's something.

School notes.

Okay, sorry about the whining about my job yesterday.  I'll try to keep this homeschooling blog a bit more on subject today.  You may remember my youngest son has trouble with handwriting.  His handwriting is messy and he reverses letters.  I was looking around for some kind of dysgraphia remedial program, getting the library to get me some books on dysgraphia, etc. when one of the people on a yahoo groups list told me to just make him copy something out of a book each day and if he makes a mistake, make him do it over.  Very simple.  Very inexpensive since we already have books, pencils and paper!  We've been doing this for a few weeks and it seems to be working pretty well.  The writing is messy but getting more controlled and he's really reducing the number of reversals that he does.  Most of the time he catches them himself.  The whole having to write it all completely over is really a motivator for him!

Frustrated.

I shook off my inertia today and got a few things done including repainting the front door where the stray dogs had scratched the paint off and painting the kitchen arches (I guess they're not arches because they're rectangular, but they are entryways into the kitchen from the living room and they are door shaped, but have no doors in them. Arches? Rectangles? Doors?) Anyway, we'd decided not to do them originally, but my youngest thought we were and painted part of one of them, so now they're painted the same color as the kitchen which is the same color, just a couple of shades darker than the living room. Anyway, it looks better now. I also have been working off and on and now on for the rest of the evening. I really hate my job now. There is no other way to describe it. If I had known we were going to lose my 3 primary accounts that I had been on for 8 years in May, I wouldn't have quit my hospital job 3 days before we lost the accounts. As much as I didn't like that job, I hate this one more with the new hospitals that I'm on. The main one I'm on is so, so, so, picky, and the other one I'm on is also picky, but in a completely opposite way, so that if you're doing something right for one, it's wrong for the other and I'm constantly being switched back and forth, so I'm trying to deal with no abbreviations on one account, but abbreviations are fine on the other account (even expected), lists okay, but not okay, bold or not bold, capitalized or not capitalized. It's seriously driving me crazy and I think we all know that is not a long drive.

Also, since the accounts that I had before were some kind of premium accounts with bonuses and now I'm no longer on them, I'm making less money too.

It's very frustrating.

Inertia.

I really don't want to do anything today. Actually that's not true. I want to read and drink coffee while wrapped in a blanket. Do you think I could get by with that for an entire day?

Probably not.

ADHD but not the H really.

I sometimes think I have ADHD except for the hyperactivity part. I'm certainly not hyper, but my mind jumps from one thing to another so quickly sometimes it gives me mental whiplash. Right now, I'm typing my blog post, but I'm also listening to a song I downloaded yesterday (which is NOT Muskrat Love :-p ), browsing the Freshwater Fred library, thinking about participating in NaNoWriMo which is National Novel Writing Month next month, reading other people's blogs, keeping up with my email, thinking about the class I'm supposed to teach this afternoon while simultaneously thinking of T-shirt designs for my Cafepress store, even though they basically don't pay me anymore and thinking of opening another premium shop to sell dog T-shirt designs (It seems that I'm always thinking of new goofy shirt designs for dogs these days for some reason), thinking that I really should get going on my list, printing lists for the kids ... and procrastinating about cleaning. Talk about multi-tasking and yet, not really getting anything done ... it's a gift, what can I say?

I'd better stop the virtual multitasking and get started on the real thing. I've got a lot going on today.

Easy kind of day.

We did school today, but it was really laid back and easy. For group time we went out and tried to make a little fire and burn our pine cones we had dipped in different chemicals to make different colored flames. This was not much of a success because we couldn't keep the fire going. It has been really wet around here lately. Tomorrow maybe we need a lesson on how to build a fire. We did see some purple flames and some dark red ones but that's about it. The kids spent as much time as possible outside today because it was such a beautiful day. I took some outside time and worked on planting some flower seeds that I got from my mom. I've decided that perennials are the way to go. I keep buying and planting annuals every year and usually by the middle of summer, I've let them die from lack of water or something. After that, I spent a little time working on the 4H science class I'll be teaching tomorrow. Hopefully that will go well. I'm not too good at teaching in groups but I'll do the best I can. The materials are very good, Home Science Adventures, so that will help.

Back to busy tomorrow, I suppose.

The way we do it around here.

 

Since Carolyn asked what 'freebies" are in relation to our homeschool, I thought I'd take a minute, in a main post and explain what we do around here.  This is our sixth year homeschooling and at first we tried a variety of things that didn't work well for us, different schedules and finally we ended up with a list based system. 

Our list has each child's and mom's name across the top.  Then below our names, we each have our list of things to do.  All of my things involve housework and exercise at the moment.  Sometimes I get more creative and add something else to mine, but mostly, that's what I have motivational issues with; housework and exercise, so that's what on my list. 

For the kids, they've each got about 5 school subjects, 5 chores, exercise and personal hygiene, like brushing their teeth, which is something that they will forget if its' not on the list.   They each have 3 'freebies" each week and they can use those for anything but math and hygiene, so that means that they don't have to do it that day.   Also, they can't use it for the same thing more than one time each week.  Usually, the freebies mean they have a light chore day on Friday, pretty much.  Of course the pets still have to be fed, so they don't use them for that either!  We have 'group time" at some point in the day and we do our science/biology, grammar, notebooking and anything else that fits in at that time.  The rest of the time, it seems we kind of unschool.  We watch a lot of educational DVDs, play some educational computer games and they learn things from mom and dad like how to cook and how to change the oil in the car.  Last year we did an art class and a woodworking class through 4H and this year we're doing a science class and a cooking class through 4H.  We also do about a 45 minute read-aloud each night and no one ever wants to use a freebie for that.

I would like to add that all of the kids need a bit of nagging reminding to do their schoolwork from time to time.  The older 2 are good at getting it done before screen time, but the youngest does not always.  Several times lately he's been lucky to get it done by bedtime, much less screentime.  It's by far not a perfect system, but it mostly kind of works.  It's the best thing we've found for us, anyway.