Battle For The Bouncy Chair

We purchased a bouncy chair for William before he was born.

It turns out we almost never used it when he was a baby.

I took it down to storage and thought to myself

"What a waste of money".

Fortunately we have a new little nephew who can use it now.

I fetched it out of storage for him a few weeks ago.

Liam noticed how much "fun" the baby was having in the

chair and thought he'd try it our too.

He loves it!  It turns out Caspian loves it too!

They have an ongoing battle for who's territory this chair belongs to.

Liam likes to turn the vibrating feature on and

then sit in the chair and just laugh.

Liam also like to bring snacks, blankets, pillows and toys

to the chair and have a little party.

He stole this pillow from Grandma's house.

Caspian will spend the entire day in the chair if William doesn't

come and toss him out.

Sometimes William just pulls the cat out and drops him on the floor.

Sometimes the chair tries to become Switzerland and

both parties can stay.

I find it strange that the cat doesn't mind when Liam sits on him.

Sometimes I catch Isabelle in the bouncy chair.

That's when I have to remind her yet again that she isn't a baby

or a cat and therefore cannot be permitted to stay.

In the battle of the bouncy chair there can only be 1 ultimate champion.

My money is on William.

Refridgerator Art

There was a time in my life not too long ago when

I swore that my fridge would NEVER look like this...

I used to think,

"That makes houses look so trashy,

what would posses someone to put all of

their kids' pictures on their fridge?!? 

 Weird people."

I don't know when it started, but somehow

works of art just keep appearing on the fridge.

1 or 2 new art pieces appear almost daily.

I have a love/hate relationship with this art phenomenon.

It's fun to see what Isabelle will come up with next.

I'm amazed at how engrossed she gets when she is being creative.

I love having little reminders of her after she's gone to bed when

I am trying to sneak some ice cream out of the freezer.

On the flip side there is still that voice in the back of my mind that says

"Tsk, tsk, tsk.  That is so unorganized.

A fridge should be sparkly clean and free from any debree.

Honestly what if Martha Stewart suddenly drops by for a surprise inspection?

Or worse what if the Bishopric just pops in?"

I have a history with the Bishopric and Relief Society presidency. 

Every time they just stop by, my house is

the most dirty it has been for an entire year.

I shouldn't acknowledge this to the public, but last time they came

not only was there a stinky diaper on my living room floor

 (among a mountain of toys),

there was also an almost black banana peal on my couch.

I bet they left and said

"Mental note, never eat anything from her house!"

Okay now I am running off track.

To finish making a short story long, I have decided that

since I have sacrificed other things for my children,

such as my hips and sleep,

what is one more thing going to hurt?

I am turning the fridge over to the kids for at least the next 15 years.

May it always be covered with fairies, sparkles, and glam!

It's going to look just fantabulous!

1st Day Of Nursery

Today William is exactly 18 months old.

(This picture looks a little too much like a mug shot - 

 with the stripes and wall behind him- oops)

It is a little hard to believe that time could go by so quickly.

It marks a monumental and long awaited for day. Anyone who is a

 member of our church understands this well.

18 months is when you can toss your little one in nursery

and just leave them there for 2 hours.

They get to play with toys, eat snacks, and have books read to them.

You get to go blissfully off to your class without

 someone hanging off of your arm.

That's the idea anyways.  That's the way it happened with Isabelle.

I knew that William would be a little different.

He is my shy little guy.  He's not much of a momma's boy at home,

but when we get around strangers he turns into Super Glue Boy

(the newest superhero, watch for him at a theater near you).

I took him into class and he immediately stuck on my leg. 

 I sat down with him and started to play with a toy. 

He was doing pretty good. Right up until I decided to leave him there.

He completely lost it.  I could hear him screaming all of the way down the hall in the library.

I went back into nursery and he sat on my lap for the next hour. 

If I even thought about leaving he would cry. 
If anyone looked at him, he would cry. 

If a kid walked by him, he would cry.

I had to teach class the 3rd hour so Soung Sik came and rescued him.

We will continue to try and hopefully he will warm up to the idea.

If there were a bunch of dads in there he would be fine.

He'll go up to strange men with no problems.

It's the strange women he has a problem with.

Not that the women in nursery are strange,

they are all incredibly nice women.

He really doesn't know what he's missing.

Youth really is wasted on the young!

Congratulations on making it to a another

big milestone in your life William.

I know you won't be in nursery very long,

so I hope you will learn to love it while you have the chance!

Glorified Errand Run

I wasn't really looking forward to today last night.

We had game night and stayed up way too late.

I had received a call earlier reminding me that I had signed up to help clean the church.

It wasn't the idea of cleaning that bothered me, it was the idea of being to the church by 8:00.

Have I every mentioned that I am not a morning person?

At any rate I had to pry myself out of bed at 7:00 and Isabelle out of bed at 7:50.

We got the job of cleaning all of the blackboards in the building.

It's probably the easiest job. 

Once we were there working I quickly became thankful for the opportunity.

Isabelle said "We are cleaning Jesus' house.  That means we are giving him service, huh?"

It 's a good lesson for kids to learn to be respectful of our church building, but it was an even better lesson for me to learn not to be so selfish with the time that Heavenly Father has graciously given to me.

After cleaning Isabelle and I had to rush off to our Korean class.

Today's class was pretty fun all things considered.  I understood a good portion of what we were talking about and I think I only got laughed at twice!  That is a huge improvement!

Once we got home mom was kind enough to watch the kids so that Soung Sik and I could go out on a date.  I remember when dates with Soung Sik were actually dates and not just glorified errand runs.

I guess that is what happens when you get older.  But even the glorified errand runs have been few and far between for us.  We are making an effort to get back into a dating schedule.

Today we ran to some banks and then Soung Sik bought a gun. 

I honestly have no idea how many guns we own now. Some people would say "wow, you people are gun crazy" while others might say "your gun stash is pathetic".

After we got the gun thing taken care of we went to Fashion Place mall and walked around.

Again I started thinking about our pre-kid phase of life. 

I remember walking around the mall and actually buying something. 

It's much funner that way.

There also seemed to be a lot of strange people there. I felt like such an old foggie. 

I don't know when I became an old foggie, but we decided to celebrate this transition by going to dinner at 4:00.  We didn't split a meal - I mean we aren't  super old foggie's yet.  Dinner was great and my company was even better.  Date night is definitely going to have to become a permanent fixture in our marriage again!

Imaginary Friends vs. My Self Esteem

Isabelle has a few imaginary friends right now.

These are not the first, and I doubt they will be the last.

Her first imaginary friend was Kennedy from "South Jordan, Florida".

Kennedy gave me the creeps.

Isabelle would say things like
" Mom, she is standing right behind you.
Can't you see her?  She looks mad". 

I would then hear the "Jaws" theme in my mind.

Luckily Kennedy hasn't shown up for a few months.

I understand that children have imaginary friends - I guess.  I never had one.

Last night as I was tucking Isabelle into bed she told me

"Guess what? I have friends that you can't see.  McKinnley is 15 and her brother Jake is 17.  Jake is sooo nice to me.  They have an older sister named Sarah. Sarah is so beautiful! 
She has long blond hair, wears makeup on her eyes,
and has long eyelashes and rose red cheeks. 
She also has the prettiest pink gown.

Oh I wish you could be that beautiful mom!"

It's amazing how quickly a child can deflate any
self-esteem you may have left at 9:00 at night.

Feeling resentful I just flatly said "Go to sleep or I will close your door."

She responded enthusiastically "Sure thing mom!"

I don't like looking at real women and
comparing myself to them only to fall short.
Falling short happens a lot when you are 5'2".

Yes, I may be a mom but I think I still qualify as a
woman at least 20% of the time, so comparisons are bound to happen.

It is very unfair to have to be compared to a 19 year old imaginary girl! 

At the very least it should be the 19 year old me and not the
31 year old me that has to compete.

Here's to hoping that Isabelle's next imaginary friend is a
wart covered troll named Imgren.

And They Call It Blankie Love...

When Isabelle was a baby I changed the blankie and

stuffed animal in her bed nearly every day.

She never got very attached to anything.  I thought this was normal. 

I am learning now that most children do have "lovies". 

William was given this blanket by his Aunt Jenny.

It's about 15 times bigger than him, but that doesn't stop

him from carrying it all over the house.

"Bankie"  is probably his closest friend right now.

He likes it so much that when I needed a bedspread for his big boy bed

I bought the same fabric and made his bedspread out of that.

Luckily for me it goes perfectly with his jungle themed room!

It wasn't until a couple of days ago that a realized the depth of

William's bankie love.

I needed to wash bankie, which is not uncommon, however this time

William watched me put it in the washing machine.

He started sobbing.  Alligator tears.  He pulled bankie out 3 times before I

 managed to get the door closed.

Our washing machine is front load and William just stood in front of the

glass door sobbing and saying

"bankie, bankie, bankie...." over and over again.

I had to physically force him from the laundry room.

It was his bedtime, which is a really dumb time to wash a child's bankie.

Luckily I had the backup bedspread, I think it saved me that night.

In the morning when I pulled bankie out of the dryer it was like

I had brought an old friend back to life.

William truly thought he would never see bankie again.

Bankie has been the best of friends the last

2 days since William has been sick.

It's not easy to find a friend who will hug you when your sick or stinky.

A friend who is soft and warm no matter what the weather. 

A friend you can take anywhere and not hear any complaints.

A friend that never judges when your clothes

don't match and your hair is not done.

I have decided to let William have bankie for as long as his heart desires.

If he wants to take it with him to college I am not going to say a word.

I will continue to wash bankie, but I think I will need to become

007 laundry mom to get it done with no tears!

Long live bankie!

Friday Night Fun

Most Fridays Keith, Camille, Nathaniel, and Jenny come over for game night.

We usually have a lot of fun.

Nathaniel and Jenny bring their kids and they all

 like to watch a movie before bed.

This was a rare moment of intense movie watching

by all 4 kids at the same time.

I wonder if you can guess which kids go with which parents?

I should have taken pictures of us playing games,

 but you should know by now that I am

pretty bad with that!

By the way this rare moment only lasted for about 3 minutes.

But the important thing is that it did happen.

Our School Work Boxes

We have started using a work box system in our homeschooling.

Its not extremely different to how I was doing things before,

but it is going to help greatly in the areas of 

 planning, organizing, and creativity!

I was so excited when my "work boxes" arrived in the mail.

Its really just a scrap booking organizer.

First Isabelle and I had to figure out how to put them together.

It didn't take us pro's very long to get that out of the way!

Here's the finished product including her daily progress "stickers".

Here's what our school was like the first day of "work boxing".

We start off with a devotional - which for us right now is just a

quick scripture story.  We follow that

  with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Box #1 - Science.  We read about Armadillos. 

Did you know they can hold their breath for up to 6 minutes and they

 walk on the bottom of stream and rivers?  I didn't. 

That is one great thing about homeschooling,

I get to learn and re-learn right alongside Isabelle.

Box #2 - Math.  We discussed calendars. How many days are in a month. 

 Days of the week and months of the year. 

Each day for math right now Isabelle also counts by 5's and 10's.

Box #3 - Spelling.  This is not one of her favorite subjects,

but she is pretty good at it.

Water Break - Yes this is scheduled. 

Water breaks don't happen at other times or they

would be happening ALL the time.

Box #4 - History.  We read from "The Story of the World." 

Today we read about hieroglyphics. 

Isabelle thinks they are very cool.

Box #5 - Isabelle's reading.  She reads a small story and then from our

Hooked on Phonics workbooks. 

 She is currently working on the HOP 2nd grade workbook.

Box #6 - Story time.  I read to her out of a book. 

We are currently reading the 2nd book in the

American Doll series "Meet Kirsten".

 This book is called "Kirsten Learns A Lesson." 

 She loves these books and so do I!

Potty Break - Also scheduled, but this one I will allow anytime!

Box #7 - Korean language practice. 
She is learning to write the alphabet and

then we went over some vocabulary cards. 

 She thought is was hilarious

when she learned "fish" in Korean. 

Fish is pronounced mul golgi. 

In Korean mul means

water and golgi means meat,

so it is literally meat in the water.

Box #8 - Logic Links and Pattern Blocks. 

She would play with these all day if I let her.

Box #9 - Journal.  Isabelle draws a picture of anything she

wants and then writes anything she wants about what she has drawn. 

It is always interesting to see what she will come up with. 

It usually involves unicorns, birthdays, Christmas, butterfly's, ect.

5 minutes of stretching or wiggling - WHATEVER!

Box #10 - Art project. Today she started a paper mache "mulgolgi". 

 3 days later it still isn't finished, hmmm.  That is unusual.

Here's what William was up to while we did school.

If we don't do school while he is sleeping then he gives us

lots and lots of assistance!

I have to add I only have about 3 pictures of him sleeping

ever.  He wakes up if you even think about opening the door!

Well that's a sample day for us. 

Each day changes a little as I put different things in each box. 

She has loved doing this. 

She asks me everyday "when can we do school?"

I hope that she feels the same way for a long time to come.

We chose to home school before we even had kids. 

We knew we at least wanted to try it.

It has been so fun. 

So far I have not had one day of regret in our decision.  

 Homeschooling may not be for everyone,

 but it is PERFECT for us, for now and hopefully forever!

Korean Language Class

Isabelle and I started Korean language classes last Saturday.

One of my new years resolutions is to learn better Korean.

I was super excited to go to class. 
I have missed being in a classroom setting as a mom.

I was excited to have a teacher and my own little school book.

Yes I know this sounds pathetic, but still it's the truth.

All of this excitement vanished around 9:30 the night before class.

Excitement was replaced with nervousness.

"Wait a minute" my brain said.

"You like Korean people, but have you forgotten that they are very scary.

Have you forgotten the stories of getting hit with rulers when you get an answer wrong?

Have you forgotten that according to every Korean on the planet Korean is the easiest language to learn,
 and only a truly idiotic person wouldn't be able to do it?

Have you forgotten that you dropped out of Japanese in high school because your tiny brain couldn't handle a language from the East?

Do you even know how to get to the building?

What if they refuse to speak any English at all?

Aren't you aware that you will have to get up very early
EVERY Saturday morning? Just give up now."

These are all of the things the mean little
voice in my head kept whispering.

I refused to listen...this may have been a good or bad choice,
I am still undecided on that.

I woke up bright (not really) and early Saturday morning.

I really wanted to go back to bed.

I showered and tried to make myself pretty, assuming this would
somehow help me learn a new language.

Well at least it might curb some of the
laughter that would surely be coming my way.

I loaded Isabelle into her car seat and waved to my proud husband bidding us farewell at the door,
at least someone was still happy about this decision.

I discovered that when I am very nervous
I might have just a touch of road rage.

I apologize to anyone I may have nearly ran over.

When we got to the building, a Christian center, I saw lots of Korean people walking in.

"What are they doing here?" my brain started up again. "Don't they already speak Korean?  Where are all of the other American wives of Korean men?
Shouldn't they be here too if I have to be?"

When we got inside my hopes got dashed even more.

There weren't even any mixed kids like Isabelle. 
I was actually a little more surprised about this, but what is a girl to do?

We were there, and there they  were. 
Many Korean people speaking Korean,
and writing in Korean, and staring at me like I just walked off Mars.

"This is going to be a fun two hours" sneers my brain.  "Shut up" says one of the other voices in  my head.  They quickly make me pay for may class and brain says "You are actually paying to be humiliated? HA HA!"  After paying they whisk Isabelle off to her torture.
She looked at me like I had just sold her for $5.00.

I had to hang out in the foyer for a few more minutes to let people stare at me.  By this point I had decided that showering and getting pretty was the only sane idea I had that morning.  Then a lady says "come with me". I follow her up a staircase into a small classroom with a blue wall, a red wall, and one of the ugliest crosses I have ever seen. 

"Hey an American!" my brain yells!  It was true there was an American man in my class.  He is older than me and his name is Steve - this couldn't be bad if he has the same name as my Dad. This is what I thought up until the minute he informed me that he lived in Korea for 6 and a half years.  The only other student in my class was a college student girl named Stephanie who is half Korean and she speaks Korean with her mom all of the time. 
So one of my worst fears has been confirmed, I am the only beginner.

Our teacher seems nice enough and
I don't see any rulers for her to hit me with, so that's a big relief.

I can read, a little, in Korean.  My teacher thinks this means I should also be able to write full sentences in Korean after she reads them to me. You have got to be kidding me.  We wrote a lot in the first hour of class.  I misspelled about 70% of my words and another 10% of the words were completely omitted from my work.  My teacher starts to think I need some help.  She brings in a boy who I guess is a college student to help me.  She tells him to help me with my writing.  They both must have thought that laughing at me while I was trying to write was very helpful.  He just sat there and was like "Nooo, you silly lady.  How OLD are you anyways?  Maybe you should just give up."  He didn't actually say that, but I can read in between the laughs. 
Of course it could have just been my brain speaking up again. 

I was happy to find out that I do know more vocabulary than I thought.  Sentence structure - not so much.  Then the teacher had us play a memory game where we go around the circle and name a fruit and then the person next to you says one and then adds on and so on and so forth.  I am doubtful I would be good at this game in my own language.  I got up to about 15 which was not bad I thought. 
 When it would have been my turn again
I would have had to say about 20 fruits.
My teacher mercifully stopped before my turn.

I was literally sweating when we got our break time.  I never realized learning a language was a new sport.  Another shower would be in order if I made it out of this church alive. During break time I went to check on Isabelle. If it was this bad for me,
it must be just horrible for her.

Then I saw it.
My daughter sitting at a table with about 10 other children. 
Drinking juice and eating cake and getting ready to watch a cartoon. 

"Hold the phone!" my brains excitedly yells.  "How much more money would you have to pay to be in this class?  THIS is totally the level you are at. Quick find out before they make you go back to the red/blue room."  They didn't let me stay, I think they thought I was crazy.  Maybe by this point I was, I have blocked it from my memory.

Back at my class we moved from writing - Hallelujah -
 to speaking - bummer.

Also 2 more Korean people came and sat behind me, to observe.  I am thinking to observe me, that's just great!  That won't make it harder for me at all to concentrate.

I survive one more hour and after my teacher tells me my writing is "really....really"..."bad" I say.  Uncomfortable silence. "No, no," she says " you just need a little me practice.  Try to catch up on the last 13 chapters by next week.  Have a nice day!"  I got to leave then.

I went and picked up Isabelle from her class.  She asks if we can come back every day.  I shoot laser beams from my eyes.  We head downstairs to see if I can get the workbook I need to "catch up" on. Of course they are sold out, but she politely says she'll have one for me next week.  Super, I guess then I'll have 14 chapters to "catch up" on.  I need some air.

I pretty much ran out of the door to the car. 

As I am loading Isabelle in she starts doing the potty dance.

"No" my brain says. "You just escaped from that building, once a prisoner breaks out, you should never go back."

You should try explaining this to a five year old.  They don't get it.

So back in we went.  Nothing bad happened.

I drove home listening to Isabelle tell me how cool her class was and how she had no idea what the other kids were saying to her and "Isn't that funny, they kept talking to me, but I had no idea what they were saying."  I am still trying to find out where the humor is in that.

Tomorrow I am due back there. 
The people were so nice and my teacher was nice.

I just hope they understand I didn't have my workbook to get "caught up" as if that's even possible in a week anyways. I won't give up.  I hope that I will actually learn the language after going through this!

Internet Fix

I hate to admit it, but I think I may be becoming an addict.

My internet hasn't worked for about a week and it made me crazy.

I never realized how much I actually do on the internet.

I couldn't update my blog, sad.

I couldn't check my emails, annoying.

I couldn't spy on my friends lives on Facebook, missed laughs.

We had to watch our Korean drama on a super slow computer, frustrating.

And many other inconvenient things each day.

It's pretty pathetic how dependant I have let myself become.

It may sound like I spend all day on the computer, this is not the case.

I do however enjoy my time each day catching up with the "outside"word.

This is another reason why I would have hated living at any other time in the world.

For now I am happy to be back up and running again.

I have got my much needed email fix, and I am off on my blogging again!

I have a lot to catch up on and may not get much else accomplished around the house in the next couple of days!

C'est La Vie!

Meet the Kitty and So Long Kitty

We have had a couple of kitties for a few months now.

A flame point Siamese and a seal point Siamese.

They are brothers.  We thought getting 2 kitties would be a great idea.

They coud play with each other and each of the kids

would have a cat to torment.

We named the kitties Aslan and Prince Caspian.

Isabelle and I are big Narnia fans.

Here's a picture of Aslan.

Here's a picture of Prince Caspian, or Caspian.

It didn't take Soungsik and I long to figure out that we have a 1 cat limit.

Were you  aware that

1 cat + 1 cat = 3 cats fur and 4 cats poop?

I wasn't either.

We also discovered that when you have 2 cats, you will never see them.

That is unless you are feeding them or cleaning up their business.

That kindof takes the fun out of having a pet.

It only took us about 2.5 seconds to decide which cat to keep.

Prince Caspian.

Aslan really lived up to his name. 

He only came around on his terms, and very rarely.

Caspian is pretty lovable and nice to a fault with the kids.

William loves to lay on him like a pillow.

 William is actually pretty gentle with him, this picture is a little deceiving.

This picture shows the most common situation.

William follows the kitty everywhere.

Up stairs and back down again.

Into dark basements and up on furniture.

Under tables and inside nooks.

They make a great pair.

Isabelle also loves him, but Caspian kindof seeks out William.

Maybe he is a suicidal cat?!?

I hope Caspian is part of our family for a long time to come.

The Return of the Hermit

The inevitable has happened. 

This happens to me every year.  It usually hits me around January 5th,

so I would say that making it all the way to the 12th is amazing progress!

Every year without fail I start having the same emotions.

I transform into a hermit.

I don't want to set one foot outside of my
house until at least the end of March

and possibly longer.

Some people would go stir crazy but I am here to tell you that

as long as I had my health and a good supply of
life necessities I would be in heaven.

It may be that I have that "seasonal mood disorder", but if I go to a doctor to get diagnosed with it then he would probably find many other brain "disorders" as well.

That's a chance I am not willing to take.

I know that I have some Indian blood in me. 
Probably from those Indians that came from Southern Florida. 
I know I couldn't be from Canadian Indians.

I think my Indian name would be "Sleeping Bear". 

There are many reasons why this is a fitting name for me.

Not only could I hibernate, but I also enjoy napping even when the weather is perfect, I also love fish, get cranky for no apparent reason, protect my young to a fault, and I like fur coats.

I have pioneer ancestors too.

My pioneer name would be "dead".

There's just no way I would have made it.

I am sitting here in my heated house with my sweater and

warm fuzzy socks on complaining about the cold.

When I go somewhere it will be to the garage to get into my heated car.

When I return home if I need to I can whip up a cup of hot, hot chocolate.

I know it's spoiled and selfish, but I still wish I could stay home for the next few months.

This too shall pass, it does every year.

The Princess and the Chicken

A bedtime story created in the mind of Isabelle Kim.

Once upon a time there was a Princess and a chicken.

One day the chicken came and asked the princess

"Do you have any chicken legs?"

The princess said "No".

The next day the chicken asked,

"Do you have any chicken legs?"

The princess said "NO".

The next day the chicken came back and asked,

"Do you have any chicken legs?"

The princess said "NO!!!"

On the fourth day the chicken came back and asked,

"Do you have any chicken legs?"

The princess said,
"If you ask me that one more time I am going to shoot you!"

Then the chicken said

"Do you have a gun?!?"

The princess answered...

"no..."

The end.

My review of this story,

funny and ironic.

What a smart princess.

 She knows the best way to get chicken legs!

I must admit our children are exposed to

guns at a very young age.

Education is power.

I am holding my breath that our children

won't end up too morbid!

Jinxed!

Last week I was so excited about getting back on schedule.

I was certain that nothing could stand in my way!

Boy was I wrong.

Monday started out just great, so it really got my hopes up.

William had a bit of a cold but he wasn't going to let that slow him down.

Our day went like this...

Exercise - check (for a whole hour I might add),

Clean rooms and make beds - check,

Do LOTS of school - check,

Practice piano - double check,

Reading practice - check,

Clean most of the house - check,

Catch up on laundry - check,

Scripture Reading - check,

Kids happily sleeping by 8:00 - check!

Pretty much a perfect day.

Then on Tuesday a water line broke at Nathaniel and Jenny's house.

I take full blame for this happening, it was my fault for saying

everything would follow "my schedule".

I guess the universe wanted to show me who was boss!

At any rate we got house guests.

It was much, much harder for them than for us.

The girls couldn't have been happier!

The rest of the week went like this...

Play - check,

Play dress up - check,

Watch movie - check,

Play house - check,

Snacks - check,

Play Wii - check,

Watch movie - check,

Color - check,

Read stories - check,

Watch movie - check

Run around - check,

Play Wii - check,

Giggle - check,

Fight - check,

Make up - check,

Watch movie - check

Play games - check

Kids to sleep at 8:00 - ha ha ha ha ha!

Kids to sleep by midnight - check, check, check, check, check!

Poor Nathaniel and Jenny couldn't go home until Saturday! 

When I told Isabelle they were going home she said

 "not all ready", in her whiniest voice possible.

Saturday morning Isabelle woke up sick.

This was the universes' way of making sure I

still didn't get back on schedule.

Here's a picture of my sickly little girl...

So very sad! 

All she wanted to do was sleep and lay on the couch.

She wouldn't eat anything!

This bowl was originally placed by Isabelle 

"just in case" she needed it for something.

It didn't stay by her for very long though.

William decided it made a great hat

and an even better drum.

You can fit a bucket load of toys in there too!

On Sunday I went to church and left the kids home with Soungsik.

It was so weird to have to sit still and not have anyone jump

on you or rip holes in your nylons.

I didn't have to take anyone out because they were crying or stinky.

On the upside I got to hear some great talks.

One the downside,

 church is longer and more boring without distractions!

We made it back to another Monday

and the amount of work I got caught up on today was

pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.

Don't worry universe I am not even thinking about planning

more than a day in advance.

Tomorrow will just have to be a surprise.

Please universe let my children stay healthy and my

families' homes stay in one piece!

BOOK REVIEW: A THOMAS JEFFERSON EDUCATION

Written By: Oliver Van Demille

Number of Pages: 141

Number of Stars I'm Giving It: 5

This book is basically a handbook for some homeschooling families.

I had taken a class on this at the homeschool convention

I attented in last June.

It has literally taken me 4 months to read this book.

That may sound like a contradiction since it is less

than 150 pages and I gave it 5 stars.

This book was a little hard to get into and seemed

quite repetitious to me. I just kept picking up other

books instead of finishing this one!

That being said I really agreed with the content.

It is a book that everyone should read

 because it will change the way you view education.

It had many worthwhile and memorable quotes such as:

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world"

Ghandi

"You were born with potential.

You were born with goodness and trust.

You were born with ideals and dreams.

You were born with greatness.

You were born with wings.

You are not meant for crawling, so don't.

You have wings.

Learn to use them and fly."

Rumi

And perhaps the one that hit me the hardest and made me think was:

"...the world's greatest civilizations have progressed through this sequence:

from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage;

from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance;

from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency;

from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependancy;

from dependancy to bondage."

Alexander Tytler

This quote is also in "The 5000 Year Leap" I believe.

Another book I highly recommend reading.

I believe as a people we are now somewhere

around the complacency in that sequence.

It is clear that education reform is desperately

needed in our society.

While I know that the method taught in this book in theory would work

amazingly well, in real life this is not something that would work for us.

I am sure there are many families who find great success with this method.

I am going to incorporate the classics heavily into our curriculum.

While it is a book used a lot by "homeschoolers" this method

could and should be applied, at least in part,

 in all schools and at all levels.

Our children need a return to virtue, honesty, mutual respect and

great expectations.  By choosing to homeschool,

I feel the weight of my childrens futures more heavily on my shoulders.

It is my responsibility to prepare my chidren for the

trials and joys this life has to offer.

It is both a burden and a blessing,

but I feel a sense of peace and

comfort in my decision.

I am so grateful to live in a country and at a time

where I have the freedom to make this choice!

Back To Normal

After basically three weeks of "vacation",
we started getting back to normal.

Well at least as normal as anyone in our household can ever hope to be.

Taking a break from school, taekwondo, gymnastics, piano, and

 extra chores was only planned to be two weeks,

but we checked out a week early this year.

We had a lot of fun but I was more than ready to get some structure back.

Three weeks must be my limit for chaos.

Isabelle was not so excited to get back to regular life.

Today she decided she hates all things associated

with her past life of 2010.

This was what she sounded like all day,

"Mom, I hate making my bed.  Why do we have to do school,

can't I just play the Wii all day? 

I like my hair messy. Piano?  I hate piano."

I understand that she doesn't actually mean any of those things -

except for possibly the hair and bed parts. 

 She is just lucky that we didn't have more
 "regular" stuff on the schedule today.

Liam went back to some kind of new normal.

I think a switch must have gone off in him again.

He has always been a climber, but he is starting to venture off into extreme sports.

He can't seem to go more than 30 seconds without getting into trouble. 

Soungsik's mom had to sew leather patches on the

knees of his jeans when he would get new ones because

 he would wear them out so quickly.

I desperately hope that isn't a heritable necessity. 

I left Liam in the kitchen for literally 10 seconds alone. 

When I had come back he was standing in the middle of the table. 

I had to run as fast as possible to catch him before he could

"run away" from me off the edge of the table.

He kept getting up on the ottoman and jumping onto the couch face first. 

He must have done that at least 50 times. 

He was also missing a lot today and I kept finding him in the

 pitch black basement hanging onto the cat by his tail.

As a side note he is also sick, with a bad cold. 

He has a sore throat, cough, and extra runny nose.

I am getting nervous about how much trouble he'll be able

 to get into when he has his full health.

Is it bad for a mom to pray to keep her child just mildly sick?

Today has gone as smooth as I could have hoped and
I got many things accomplished.

I wonder how long we will be on our normal schedule before

I am begging for another three week vacation.

I am hoping for one week at a minimum!