Is Anybody Out There???

Yeah, it's been two whole months since I've been here.  It's more than a little dusty.  Coincidentally, the blog drop-off and the start of baseball season have a significant correlation...

This is what late April and May looked like:

Softball practice, softball game, keep smalls engaged without getting into poison ivy or falling off bridge into creek or blowing $30 at the snack stand or losing my mind, softball practice, softball game, run into field after bolting toddler, redirect, redirect, redirect.   Repeat.  Girls' Minors' Coaches were awesome, they all learned a lot about the game and true sportsmanship.  Softball players are boisterous, cheering, chanting little ladies and it is a joy to watch their togetherness.  I love when everyone cheers for everyone.

And our First Year Majors Player, "Bulldog."  Some of the kids' games were at the same fields, at the same time, or only an hour overlap.  Some games were at the same fields, but hours apart (which in parent terms, means your whole day is F'ed anyway, because you're either getting ready for baseball, waiting for baseball again, or recovering from baseball).  And some fabulous-o games were at DIFFERENT fields at the same time.  These were terribly fun.  Chase made some great plays in the outfield this year and enjoyed being on the White Sox with a super-fun coach.  Majors Baseball Players are serious about their game, they have mad skills (most of the just-for-fun kids have dropped out by now) and make some really awesome plays from all angles of the game.  At the end of the season, the team went to one of the coach's Karate studios, and Roger drove them all in the bus, which either made us the Cool Parents, or the Really Weird Parents, we're not sure...

But the crazy baseball season was worth it....

Because, in June:

"WE.... ARE..... THE...... CHAMPIONS.... MY FREH-END..."  Sing it, Freddie!  

Yeah, both teams won big.  Very exciting stuff.

A few other things happened in May:

 Our peas and other things started to grow.  This made us very happy.  We watered them everyday, since none of that stuff was coming down from the sky at all... 

We tried (and tried and tried and tried) to patch our animal-in-the-shed-eaten pool.  The kids enjoyed the 10 inches of water for a while before we gave up.

We grilled.  Until the grill caught on fire.  Then we nabbed another one out of someone's trash.  Then we caught that one on fire, too.  There's usually a reason when people throw their grills out.

There was some of this.  I would tell you what "this" was, if I knew... 

We played in mud.  Okay, correction, THEY played in mud.  I just got stuck with laundry duty.  For the ones wearing clothes, that is.  That RJ, he's just so thoughtful...

This one pottied his heart out, and his pee and poop out.  He's completely independent some days, and doesn't care at all on other days.  All this time I thought that was a hat on his head, it appears to be a pair of underwear... I have no explanation.  

And in early June (besides a shit-ton of play-off games and bringing home 2 championship trophies): 

We supported by brother's non-profit by participating in the 2nd Annual Glo Run in Harrisburg, which raised money to replace street lights in the city.  It was a late night for us with the race starting at 8:40 (so we could all GLOW, duh!).  Riley at 4 was the youngest runner and got a time of 66 minutes.  She ran some, she walked some.  She stopped to watch the fireworks three times.  She stopped to watch the band play.  She stopped to make it echo under the bridge.  I guess we'll have to work on continuity... 

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!

Warm, Warm, Warm!

72

 ...It was actually 72 degrees yesterday and it was FLIPPIN' WONDERFUL.  Since there is no official Spring Break in our Homeschool, and since the district kids ended up having ONLY Good Friday off this year (whoever heard of kids going to school on Easter Monday?!?) we just mustered through most of the week last week, until Wednesday.  Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were all in the 60's and Gosh Darn It, we were gonna enjoy it!!  After our run at the YMCA Wednesday morning, I announced that it was OUR Spring Break and we were outside for what felt like eons.

The kids and our homeschooling neighbors who are also studying Colonial America used our half-taken-down trampoline frame to construct their own Colony, and we adults were quite impressed with their creativity.  They had watch posts on the perimeter, multiple locations for firepits, caged animals for food, many weapons (thank you, Nerf Gun collection) and were even using sticks and long leaves to weave.

Pink duck for dinner, anyone?

We Easter Egg-Hunted on the weekend at my grandfather's house.  It was windy whipping cold... brrrr!

The Easter Bunny left some instructions and hid 74 eggs and some other prizes.  Fun was had by all.

The Bunny sure knows what these kids like, Indy and her new accessories say...

Things are growing everywhere.  Our last frost date is around May 15, so, so far away... but indoor herbs and salad mixes are thriving in the front-of-the-house sun that comes in through the arch window in the foyer.  

The upstairs landing is still waiting for us to get motivated to paint some more.  The foyer, living room, and new bathroom and laundry area all got painted recently, but the landing is still green.

With our awesome neighbors homeschooling now, too, we've found that traveling anywhere with the 9 of us is a pain in the butt.  Two moms and 7 kids have two options, take 2 cars (we both own Excursions, which annoyingly only seat 8), or squish the two smallest children who don't require carseats into one seatbelt.  It's way too boring to take two cars, so we've been sticking two kids in one belt.  Which we don't like to do.  We've been joking for months now that we need a bus.

Meet my new Homeschool Mobile.

Be careful what you wish for when you have a Roger around.... somehow he manages to find the best possible deal EVER, that also happens to be 15 minutes away, and being sold by a guy who lives in our neighborhood.  

Perhaps we've finally crossed over to the weird-homeschooler category now...