Eli and silliness

I could write a novel on the silly things he says and the way he acts.  But I recorded one yesterday that was so funny - to me anyway.
Dave was heading out to run an errand.  I was sitting on a chair near the table and holding Eli.  Dave says to Eli "now you take goooood care of mommy while I'm gone, ok?"  Eli thinks for a moment then says "No, I can't.  She's too big and heavy."  He must have been thinking he couldn't pick me up and carry me around, haha!
Then he gets all silly saying he is too hot, and wants to put on a cape and fly to another planet then he won't be hot.  I got an audio recording of that conversation on my phone somewhere.

He saw a bottle of face wash in my bathroom the other morning and found "Eli" in the word.  His thumb is pointing to the beginning of the word "eliminating".  He knows his name pretty well!

Adding to this post on 1/6/2016...

He opened a larger tootsie roll (about 2 inches long) and said "how did this tootsie roll GROW!?" because he is used to the small bite size ones he is awarded after each gymastics lesson!  haha!

And tonight, he said, "i'm a spider web!" by doing this:

Eli's OHCP Christmas Program

Eli participated...and by this...I mean he stood and was part of the group of his class in front of the crowd during the Orchard Hill Church Preschool Christmas Program.  Eli had woke up from a rare nap on this day SO grumpy and I changed him into clothes (he wears his swim suit 100% of the time when he's home now) AND I had to wet his hair and take out the tangles.  He had a quivering lip when I dropped him off to join his class before the program started.  Oh my...but he had a cute face and recognized us immediately, and was either staring blankly (and NOT singing a single song he knew so well at home) at his teacher, or waving at us enthusiastically.  Can't expect much else out of a 3 yr old!  Here's some photos from the event.  In the group photo he's in the front row closest to us.

Calvin likes to repeat this experiment

How many drops of water can fit on a penny's surface?  Water tension and hydrogen bonding at its best.

Violet and Calvin posted these notes on the inside of my bedroom door

Sweet kiddos.  I am loved.

Pics from a visit with Jay, Stella, and Theo

One of the Christmas crafts...musical notes

Luke 1:46-56 - Mary was so excited to see Elizabeth during her pregnancy that she began to sing praises to God.  

Calvin asked me if Mary was a Christian.  I pointed him to the verse when Mary says "God My Savior".

Random conversation in the kitchen

Eli: "My heart is beeping in my tummy."
Vanessa: "That means you are alive.  If it stops beeping, then you're dead."
Eli: "I need to cut out my heart and see it."
Vanessa: "Then you are dead."
Eli: "Batman don't have curly hair.  Superman don't have any hair too."
Vanessa: "Yes he does."
Eli: (topic switch, holding the little plastic ring that opened the top of a new milk jug) "if I drop it down there (behind oven down a little hole slot), it will start a fire."

RANDOM conversation.

"Old World Christmas Market" at Czech-Slovak Museum - Dec 5, 2015

On Saturday, we picked up Rachel and went to Cedar Rapids to meet my parents, Jay, Stella and Theo for a little Christmas adventure.

The Czech-Slovak Museum put on a "Old World Christmas Market" which consisted of a lot of little booths set up inside where you could buy almost anything, an indoor market, face painting, and rides on a "carriage" drawn by two horses that jingled and wore santa hats. :D We were there from 10-noon and ended with lunch at Village Inn.  

A few pics!  

selfie on the horse trailer

proof that daddy and the girls were there too!

Calvin chose a cool spider for his face painting

Eli sat so still!

"I have a web on my face!" he said

A reindeer created by the artist on the fly.

of course, Vanessa chose a sparkly purple butterfly!

an ice sculptor was making a sleigh cutting away at a big block of ice using a mini chainsaw.  Dave enjoyed making "cool" jokes.

Eli and Rachel always have fun together!

Eli was most excited about lunch.  He first ordered noodles but then when the waiter got around the circle of taking orders, Eli had changed his choice to pancakes.  The waiter never changed the ticket, so he brought out both!  Eli ate both, and was as happy as a clam polishing off both plates.

Got Eli new blankets

Risky business, this is. In fact, so risky, I've never tried it! Replacing a child's precious blankie or blankets. Eli is the only child of mine that had multiple.
They were his favorite as a newborn and were magical when used to calm him down. They've traveled everywhere with him and because they are thin muslin fabric, they're all ripped, dirty, and very thin.
The other night he actually told me this: "mom, I need new blankets." which is why I ventured out to replace them. Originally it was a four pack of these blankets gifted to me when he was born, so I searched eBay, and found the exact same four pack (with the same prints, two stripes, one elephant, and one giraffe).
It has been a huge success!
Washed and dried, these new one are soft puffy mountains compared to what his blankets had dwindled down to before. He absolutely loves them. I had to sneak the old ones away.

Violet learns about silk

Her history unit is covering China and its history with keeping silk making a secret and trade routes became established when the Romans and others wanted it.

I found a pure silk scarf in my closet and she loved feeling it and wearing it while she learned how silk is made...from the unraveling of the cacoons of silk worms!

Vanessa makes Eli feel better

Eli got a rug burn... Vanessa's solution to help him feel better by piling on him pillows and toys. Vanessa said to me "Eli likes me now."

Homeschool - Units 7, 8, 9, and 10

This will give a more brief overview of what the kids have been learning.  I'll preface this by saying all the kids are doing math work daily....and I might just write what thing they're working on.

Vanessa:
She has nearly finished her first handwriting book!  I ordered her the next one and we'll take it slower.  She has finished book A of her math book and is onto book B of kindergarten level, and there is an emphasis on saying "one ten" and "2 ones" for the number 12, and "one ten" and "6 ones" for 16, and so on.  She is adding numbers like 1+4 and 2+5.  She can easily count to 100 by herself and counts by 10s to 100.  She counts by 5s up to 20.

Her history is going through The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes and units 6-10 covered:
-God took care of Joseph in prison
-The king had a dream
-Everyone obeyed Joseph
-Joseph helped his brothers
-Joseph forgave his brothers
-Jacob blessed Joseph's sons, Ephriam and Manassah
-Israel's people cried out
-God saved baby Moses, taken care by Egyptians
-God spoke to Moses
-Moses warned the king
-God sent the last plague
-The king was sorry
-God led his people
-God parted the sea
-God gave the people of Israel food and water
-The 10 Commandments
-The people prayed to a calf
-God's people brought gifts to the tabernacle.
-God watched over tduhe tablenacle (cloud by day, fire by night)
-The people were afraid
-Joshua led the Israelites
-Rahab helped the spies.  (Vanessa was very bothered that the lady's name was Rahab, she didn't think that was a very pretty name for a girl)
-God made a path through the river
-Jericho's walls fell down
-The sun didn't set

Various activities, crafts, and "acting out" of these stories happened.  Some days they didn't because I didn't have time.

Vanessa has continued to learn new words to read.  She reads stories like this:

"Rub dub dub. The man is in the tub.  Man has fun. Man sat in his tub."
"Bob is on the bus.  Tim is not.  Bus is gone.  If Tim runs, Tim can catch the bus."

She has taken an interest in reading and tells me what words start with through the day, and learns to read some Biscuit books too.

Calvin:

The history continues the true story of the Pilgrims, and unit 7 begins with the Pilgrims and the Dutch dressed and worshiped differently.  They were kind to each other and lived peacefully.  The thing that made the Pilgrims want to leave was to have their own place to worship God freely.  Their children were becoming "too Dutch" after 12 years in Holland.
Miles Standish was a brave soldier who had a sword named Gideon.  He wanted to go to America too.  Preparations were difficult, Dutch helped them.  It was hard for them to leave their Dutch friends but trusted God to watch over them as they went to their new land.  The original ship meant to take them to America was the Speedwell, which couldn't make the trip because it leaked.  They boarded the Mayflower because repairs could not be made in time to leave before hitting storm season.  The Mayflower was packed.  A disobedient person, John Howland, almost drowned during a storm when he was on the deck of the ship.  Two new babies were born on the ship, one named Oceanus.  9 weeks on the ship.  The first place they saw land was not a good place to settle.  They went ashore to wash things and return to the ship.  Pilgrims continued to find a place to settle, came across Indians who wanted nothing of the gifts the Pilgrims tried giving them. Pilgrims found deserted indian village and found wigwams.  Pilgrims found buried corn and took it.
God called Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem's walls - it was hard to build a wall when under attack.  Pilgrims had to find a place to build their houses in fear of indians.  Francis Billington was a trouble maker boy who almost set the ship on fire by playing with gunpowder.  thankfully that did not happen.  They finally found a place to settle in Plymouth Bay.  The rock they stepped on is still on display in Plymouth today.  Psalm 40. The pilgrims waited patiently!

Poetry:  Mother's Jewels, Where Lies the Land?, Maker of Heaven and Earth, and What Are Heavy?

Calvin finished reading his Early Reader's Bible (500 pages!) and moved onto Owl at Home.  Owl at Home was SO entertaining, he looked forward to reading it every day.  He's gaining a broader understanding of what he is reading, comprehending more.

Memory Verses:  Psalm 119:1, 1 Thess 5:11 (build each other UP! imagine what the Pilgrims went through on the ship.  A cheery face would have done them good, Colossians 3:23 (do all things heartily to the Lord!, just like the Pilgrims), and Psalm 40:1 (wait patiently, God will deliver!)

Storytime: We read Sarah Witcher's story, a historical fiction book.  One chapter a day.  Then we moved onto Little House in the Big Woods.  Another historical fiction.  They love the read-aloud story times. Violet listens in too.

Violet:

History overview:  Moses leading people out of Egypt (finished Tirzah book), finish Egyptian section, researched about Pharaohs, The Lord kept his covenant with Abraham. giving of the 10 commandments, God providing for them, Joshua chosen to lead Israelites after Moses died, (studied 12 tribes and where they settled, she made her own map), Idol worship began, Ruth and Naomi, first king Saul (bad king), next king David (good king!), moving onto Greeks in the time of David, studied the legends that tell of how some Greek cities were conquered (Troy, Trojan war by knowing Homer wrote about this in two poems, Odyssey and Iliad), she made a "scytale"! message - VERY cool.  king Solomon, what he was known for (building palace and temple, dividing kingdom by his death into Israel and Judah), Spartan army and what they valued (strength, winning), Athenian people and what they valued (art, beauty), beginning of olympics, founding of Rome is a legend, king Ahab was a terrible king and did the worst evil in God's eyes.  Jezebel was just as bad, introducing the worship of Baal.  Elijah and how he stood for God and created a "contest" of the Gods - GOD won.  Even burnt up a soaking sacrifice alter.

Studied Psalm 34: 1-7 for 4 weeks.

Poetry:  Foreign Lands, Looking-Glass River, Autumn Fires, My Shadow (all by Robert Louis Stephenson).

Language Arts - going through daily english lessons, pronouns, nouns, apostrophes, what gets capitalized.  She's also reading through two Adventure Books for her reading program (Riding Freedom and Phoebe the Spy)

Daily Dictation.

Research on all sorts of things related to history, including vocabulary words.

Science:  finished desert work, started "Great Dinosaur Mystery" book, animal cell parts (vacuoles, mitochondria, cytoplasm, cell membrane, and nucleus"... made a  cookie with toppings to represent these.

A few recent pics.

one of Violet's written narrations about the legend of how Rome began.  (Romulus and Remus being found by a wolf...)

project Calvin did to illustrate how white Francis Billinger's face must have been (scared!) when the gunpowder exploded on the ship!  Red peeled back oval says "BOOM"

Life. November 6, 2015. Pumpkins, costumes, candy, and tiredness.

This post probably won't be the most encouraging, nor will it be the most organized.

I just realized I'm 4 units behind blogging about kids school stuff.  I'm not sure I can keep up the detail of work they're all into ... it takes a couple hours to go through everything!  I'll give a recap...probably a different day.  Perhaps I'll sit down tonight.  Right now it is time to get supper going.

I've just been incredibly busy and I am having a hard time squeezing out time in life for anybody else than my "main 5" in the house.  Laundry is taking me 4 days to cycle through...and by the time everything is put away, the dirty baskets are full again.

Cooking a healthy and fresh dinner is a rarity these days.  Need to figure out a way to change this.  Shopping for food is like being an escape artist...have to sneak away by myself when Dave is available to keep kids at a decent hour is a challenge.  When I do go shopping, I just "get stuff" with no plan...that in it self is a source of anxiety.  Cupboards are full...what to make?  I have no idea.  Who wants oatmeal again.

Kids have been waking me up SO early and fighting so much that it puts a sour taste in my mouth from the beginning of the day.  Eli is awake until 10 most nights in bed and then gets out saying he needs to use the bathroom.  He wakes me up at 6:30 and says he's so, so hungry.

Eli drops his fork and cup every single meal.

I stopped doing school once this week and the kids helped me clean.  De-clutter, organize, vacuum, toss things they didn't want to keep, deep clean their rooms, wash floors, put toys away.  I couldn't work in the disaster zone, it stressed me out too much.  I am not one to demand perfection but I also expect them to help clean their own messes, and they just don't.

Eli said something funny to Vanessa that only Dave heard so I need to ask him what it was.  Something about Eli recalling a time when he fell down the stairs.  Vanessa asked him what he wanted to do, and he described the time he fell down the stairs, then said, "let's not do that" to her.

There are high points in raising kids.  We've had plenty of those!  This week, however, has been a "downer", which means it can only get better. :D

I read a friend's facebook post this morning and it encouraged me.

"Before you give an inward sigh, groan or eyeroll,
Set the mood of your day right now: gratitude.
[I will thank You forever,
because You have done it.]"

I like ending that way, because it is what He did for us that we always have the opportunity to thank Him for.  No matter what!

tooth fairy and tooth

Anna and Olaf

Um. An angry bird (is that ME!?) and Dave's disturbing face.

the candy mash

he calls this his spider trap.  Red lines.

Legos are everywhere.  I love how creative the kids are with these.  But they are everywhere.

thankful for Mama Row taking the kids to the library and getting them excited about books.  It has really helped.

OH yeah. Halloween happened.  Rachel came to the rescue with some costumes.

that kitty mermaid took me way too long!

Violet carved her own this year.  Calvin wanted Dave to carve him a classic pumpkin face.