A Real, Live, Actual Farmhouse Update...

... is coming soon.

Sorry to amp you for so much unfiltered excitement.  But, I have to round up my pictures from the last couple of months.  My farmhouse pics are tiny dots in a sea of kid pictures.

Check back shortly!

Summer's OVER??

Well, the calendar says it's not.... but nature seems to disagree.  It's cooling down, leaves are beginning to change, the bugsound is different, nature knows.  Even if humans can't keep up.

So.  Here's our summer in pictures:

Happy 14th birthday! 

We got busted drawing rocket ship goggles on self and brother. 

So, we had rocket ship goggles in our birthday pictures!

Happy 7th birthday!

We went to the pool!! 

We went to STEM camp!  

And preschool camp.

And Bible Camp.

And another Bible Camp.

And another Bible Camp.

And Kindergarten Camp.

And Theater Camp.

We taught another kid to mow the lawn. 

We discovered this tiny dude loves piano. 

We yelled for all kinds of good reason. 

We did OT in the house with a wee little supervisor watching. 

We harvested the gardens.

We learned chores.

We worked with Dad at the Farmhouse.

We harvested some more. 

Happy 5th Birthday!

We ran out of counter space for cucumbers... time to make pickles!

We made Sweet & Spicy Pickles.

We looked cute at the Farmhouse.

We explored some creeks.

We are just such a big girl!

We watched the eclipse with our pinhole projection viewer.

We stole our Mom's clothing and looked so cute she let us keep it.

The farmhouse got a facelift!  She's looking fantastic!

We have a Marching Viking.   He rocks.

We eat cherry tomatoes from the garden in our breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and dinners...

Riley was in a musical... she's Sleepy the Dwarf, lower left front.

And there's our favorite trombone, front and center!  Go Chase! 

Don't forget to check out our homeschool blog in the next few days for our Back to School post!

That's It! We're Done!

So to get totally convoluted here... I'm talking about Homeschool.  On this blog.  We're done school... for now.   The Homeschool blog will get a proper, more-informationy update soon.  No, really.  It will.  Because I'm transferring all of my phone pics now.  And that always makes it easier.

Sitting down in front of a computer has really just not been my thing, hence the gap in posts.  Also, Shelby doesn't allow me much time, since she can tear apart the office in 30 seconds flat by going after the envelope drawer and pulling wires out from everywhere.

The weather has been great.  Meaning we get outside and DO things.

Like this

And this.  It's just dirt.  But, you know.

And just hangin' around.

Shelby is a toddler who can stand up to get dressed and put her own little arms in the armholes on her shirts and fetch me a diaper when asked and do other listening-type stuff.  Which means my head is starting to pop up and finally bob above water, which means we are once again becoming functional in society.

Yeh, she's cute

And trouble

Big trouble

But cute

And adorable

The gardens are planted and fenced and GROWING.  Which is considerably different than last year, when we had lots of IDEAS.

I have zero pics of those yet!

The actual Farmhouse that this blog is named after is starting to look damn good because my husband is awesomely fantastic.

Right?!?

We are at T-Ball.

Wait!  T-Ball is over.... 

And school is DONE.

Portfolios and summaries are DONE

So we took a picture to remember it by

But we still have educational play

And someone still asks to spell, like, a million words a day

Some new play items conveniently double as Occupational Therapy.. since we have several weeks off during summer

 

We had our "Absurd Awards" ceremony with our Homeschool Group.  Since public schools whittle away their end days by awarding for all sorts of nonsense, so did we! 

Look!  A rare picture of Chase!!  

Yeah, we'll start back up sometime after July 1.  After it gets so hot we'd rather be inside.

 And after we've had some time to just chillax.

 And after we've friended a bunch and gone on hikes and splashed in creeks and hit some faraway cool playgrounds.

Tiny Creeker

 But just a little.  Just enough to keep our brains turned on.  Not too much.  'Cuz some people are big ole' high schoolers now with a pretty intense course load and some Credits a-comin'.

I'll give you a hint... it's this guy....

So I just dropped in to say "Hi."


"Hi!"

The real Homeschool recap is coming soon... as soon as I sort those pictures.  Stop by The Homeschooled Goobers blog soon for that.

They Just Wouldn't Understand...

All parents have this feeling every now and then, some more often than others.  The one where they stop and think about something that just happened, and ultimately determine that people who don't have children just wouldn't understand.  These feelings occur when something goes down in your house that is usually less than socially acceptable, perhaps gross and disgusting, and probably involves your younger children but may or may not also involve your husband and older kids.  And it is definitely something that you KNOW your childless friends, either those by choice or those who just haven't procreated yet, would absolutely be shocked by.

If you've been a Mom for a while, you're not phased by these things at all, in fact, you respond to them in the same tone and manner that you respond when someone tells you it's 11 o'clock, or the coffee's ready, or the trash is full (again).  

Here's some recent examples from our house:

Riley to Mom - "Look Mom!"  I made a birthday cake for you!"  She holds up some collection of food-style toys with pride.
Mom (while chopping veggies for dinner at the counter) to Riley - " Oh, wow!  It's so... wait.... why don't you have pants on?"

Mom to RJ - "Can you PLEASE get your head OUT of the toilet??"  For the zillionth time today.  I'm not really sure why.  And of course, it's usually not one of our toilets at home I'm talking about, it's some other really interesting toilet out in PUBLIC.  Ewwwww.

Roger to Mom, after chugging the nearly-full glass of water on the kitchen counter - "Was there something in this water?"
Mom to Roger, after turning away from whatever it was she was doing to analyze the situation - "Oh. Yeah.  Chase's Mirilax....."
I nearly died laughing.

Mom to RJ, who appears to be chewing and is not at the table - "What are you eating?"
RJ flashes Mom a goofy grin.
Mom to RJ, as she bends down to inspect - "Are you eating your boogers?"
RJ bats his eyelashes, smacks his lips, and runs away.

Children are in the yard watching an ant family try to move their stuff after being disturbed by a rock that moved.  RJ is trying to catch ants. He gets one on his arm and is uber excited.
Riley to Mom - "Look, Mom, RJ got an ant!"
Mom to Riley - "Great, hon."
Riley outloud - "Wait, not anymore."
Mom to Riley, trying to make conversation - "Did he hop off?"
Riley to Mom - "No, RJ just ate him."

Mom to kids - "Why are the pretzel rods mushy?"
Riley to Mom - "Because I only like the salt, so I put them back."


So as I'm writing this, I realized that I should mention that these 6 examples are just from the past 4 days.  I just had to write some of them down.

FARMHOUSE UPDATE

Beyond that, we've been at the farmhouse a wee bit, making slow, steady progress.  Now that it's almost fully enclosed, it should pick up pace soon.

Roger's been working on modifying the bus, so that the kids can hang out in it when we start spending evenings and weekends over at the farmhouse to get the inside done.  More than 16 passengers means one of us had to get a CDL, so we took out ten seats.  We created storage space in the back for when we're road-trippin', and flipped some seats around, Roger made tables to go in between for hours of games or hours of school.  A visit to the junkyard is in order to pick up seat belts, not required but Mom-requested.  Back-up cameras are in transit and one of our spare monitors will become a TV screen for movies on long drives.  The auto tag place apparently doesn't stock Omnibus license plates (who knew?) so we're still waiting for the state to come through on that one, even though it is technically legally licensed and registered.

HOUSE RENO UPDATE

The trim in the new hall bath got a coat of paint, and it looks AWESOME!  I have photos to share another time.  

HOMESCHOOL UPDATE

School has been happening for 9 months.  9 months!  Whoa.  Crazy, right?  It's been kind of a whirlwind.  We added pieces slowly into our routine over the course of it, and now have a generally regular list of Phonics, Reading Comp, Daily Journal, Creative Writing, Spelling, and Math on most days. Phys Ed is at least twice a week formally at the YMCA and more often informally with bike riding, running around with friends or throwing a ball outside, Science and Social Studies (including Geography) happen a few times a week or sometimes for days in a row when we're really into something, iCivics.org has been influential especially for Chase who has taken a real interest in the Constitution and Civil Rights.  Creative Writing was a struggle to get in the habit of.  Neither older kid seemed to have come away from public school with a general know-how for writing fluently, so we had to backtrack and work on that before we could really start producing anything.  Art is different for everyone, Chase prefers more hands-on mediums and Indy has been doing a lot of sketching with different types of chalk and charcoal.  Music is lessons at school, and spring concerts are in a week or two.  Somehow it has all come together, and it's not weird anymore.  Warmer weather days are sometimes a blessing, as in, motivation to get done and get outside, but sometimes a curse, as in, no one can concentrate because that strange-thing-that-was-gone-for-SO-long-called-the-sun is shining brightly and beckoning to everyone to forget school and enjoy it.  We have 16 "official" more days to log before, in the eyes of the state, we can be "done."  This works out great, in that I'll have plenty of time to have my evaluator review our little homeschool and get her letter into the district with plenty of time to spare.  It seems to have gone by so fast!

That's all I got for now, except that I noticed when I view the page from a different computer, there's random words in the recent posts that are linked to ads, which is really pissing me off.  I don't know why it's doing it, and I haven't had time to look into it.  The next time I accidentally drink two cups of coffee at 7pm, I'll hit the 'net and find out why.  Except that wasn't fun the other night, being up until 2am not on purpose and being so tired at the same time.  I eventually got out of bed and completely cleaned out my side of the closet - which then led to a 3-day event of attic, kid-stuff and clothing clean-out.  Two trips to the thrift store with the back of the Excursion full... oh yeah, I feel a whole lot lighter!

Giving Thanks... for Railings!

This Thanksgiving we kept it simple.  We brought a few side dishes up to my moms, where 5 other adult family members joined us and had a lovely dinner.  Chase helped me make the sweet potato and green bean casseroles and was in shock at how much time it takes to cook something start to finish, without using anything pre-made or out of a can.  It all came out delicious tho and we had a great time.  

The boys reading early Thanksgiving Morning

A rowdy game of Battleship (with grapes in the center) after our return home

Roger decided that since he was home that morning, it was a grand time to start on the stair railing for the upper stairs, one that we've lived without for nearly 3 years now.  The kids are all so well-trained to "hold the wall!" that they still don't use the railing now that it's there.  

BEFORE - Good for little monkeys to swing on 

AFTER - "Aww Dad, now I can't swing on it anymore!"

Friday, when masses of people were out trampling each other for the best deal on something they probably don't need anyway, we cleaned up and got out our Christmas decorations.  Since we live very close to one of the biggest malls in this country, we choose to stay in and not go near any of the roads.  

The kids were chomping at the bit to get the tree up.  But I explained that FIRST we had clean up the toys in the living room.  Every one.  Not just some.  THEN we had to pull out the furniture and find the OTHER toys that were hiding back there, along with Dust Bunnies, random socks and one lonely lollipop wrapper.  NEXT we had to sweep and mop the floors.  AFTER THAT we had to decide where the tree was going.  AND THEN, ONLY THEN, could the tree come down from the attic.  

So we did all that.  Roger was out working and the rest of stayed in our PJ's and did all that in order.  'Till we got to the part about where the tree was going.  I just could not decide.  So the kids, poor kids, patient kids - they helped me move the couches this way and that.  They sat with their little eyes wide open while I pondered and "hmmm'd."  They humored me when I had them move things AGAIN.  And finally I said, "We're moving the TV."  

And now THAT took about an hour, there were even more Lost Pets back there, Dust Bunnies triple the size of the ones under the couch, because who really has time to clean behind the speaker that's behind the TV?  So we recovered that area, wrapped up all the random cords that went nowhere and used wire-ties to make everything neat and orderly.  Then we moved the TV, which is bolted to the cabinet (because of me) and connected (because Roger is Roger) to 2 side-speakers and a giant sub-woofer thingie. 

 We moved it to this corner, then that corner, then the middle of the outer wall, then to another corner.  Still the kids were patient.  Each time we moved the TV, I put the couches in a different spot.  The living room is not that big.  It's just a square with 2 sets of doors.  You would think there are not that many options for all of this. We had to consider certain things tho, like not leaving open access to the bay window, as one tiny hand could probably pull down our entire nutcracker collection that sits on a wooden structure on top of our fake snow.  But finally, we got it.  According to Chase, we had to move the TV "19 times."  

And then we put our tree up.  Only to realize that last year's lights had burnt out last year and we hadn't replaced them yet.  Aaaargh. 

2 little elves take a break from couch-moving to draw a picture.

Riley concentrates hard as she fluffs out each tree limb and hands it to Chase. 

Chase adds the top piece.  

RJ could care less about the tree.  He spent the whole time pressing the button on the vacuum, which I borrowed every 3 pieces or so to clean up the needles that were underfoot.

In other news, the Farmhouse got a new roof!  It looks great and makes the rest of the house look terrible - lol.  Now we can finalize our layout for the inside and get started on electrical and plumbing.  

Bare front.

Bare back.  Here's the addition, except we're moving the 2nd story windows now after changing the layout a thousand times. 

Here's our Sunday night, on the 3rd floor, framing out a window so the roof can get shingled on Monday.  

I had no other choice except to bring RJ up in his carseat.  He enjoyed the noise of the saw and the nailgun, but other that, he was not entirely happy with us.

Nice new roof!  

Totally random and exciting - 

My Christmas Cactus is in bloom!  More flowers than ever - so pretty! It seems that all my indoor plants thrive in the master bathroom, where no guests will ever see them.... bah.