Better Day

Yesterday was a much better day for Monkey. He was behaving normally again and the medicine helped his face quite a bit. He was also able to focus and do a good amount of his lessons. I am very relieved.

One bad day

Today has been one of the worst days ever of having children. It started out on a bad note with news that a relative had passed away. Which wasn't quite so bad since there are currently 3 closer ones on the "watch" list. This was a great Aunt that my husband barely knew. But the hardest part of the entire day was Monkey.

Monkey had been complaining about his face burning. I waited it out since he has very dry skin and we had Santa Ana winds yesterday. I dutifully put on lots of lotion and hoped it would take care of its self. But last night he didn't sleep. He became compulsive about putting cold water on his face during the night. Which of course made his skin even drier. So I finally made him a doctor appointment but he couldn't be seen until the afternoon. In that span of time he completely "lost his marbles." He began sneaking into the bathroom when ever I left the room. We went to a friend's house for Spanish where he decided to lock himself in her bathroom, scream deafening screams all for cold water. I tried to carry him out, then he ran back into her house and lock the bathroom door again. So finally I walked out the door so I could move my car into her driveway to get him out of there easier. He hears me leaving and bolts out of the house thrashing and screaming the whole way. I had become so hysterical at this point that I was laughing because otherwise I would have been screaming as loud as him. She has to think we're all nuts. Plus she was crying because she is so empathetic that she couldn't help herself.
So, then a bit later we are waiting at the local drug store to fill his prescription from the doctor. (He's apparently having an allergic reaction to something, my guess is all the gunk floating around from the winds.) He again proceeds to flip out with the screams because I allow the other two children to walk home and go take the dog for a walk. He was screaming so bad that I thought for sure someone was going to accuse me of kidnapping him.
Once we're finally home again he gets put on Mommy lock down. I make him lay on the couch next to me and pretty much not move. It took about an hour for the medicine to start to calm him down. But he was still trying to sneak off to the bathroom. So in the end Daddy came home and he lost a whole lot a stuff for all the outbursts. He has finally just went to sleep and maybe I can calm down. If I was a different person I would so be whipping up some margarita's right now! Instead I'll just go watch AI with the other kids.

Life in Pictures

My little "slacker."

Puppy play date. Baxter loved his new friend.

Monkey took this of me. I normally don't like pictures of myself but this one isn't so bad. Especially, since I have been sick again today.

Monkey's self portrait. You can see how irritated his skin is from all the winds. He's the only one of the kids with dad's hazel eyes, I love how green they look here.

Being sick and other musings

The dreadful cold has finally caught up to me. I've been fighting it off all month long but now it is here in full force. If only I had the time to go with it. Nope today I'm still going to see the House of Blues Gospel Brunch anyway. I can't take cold medication, they all make me sicker rather than better. I used to take children's medication but I don't even bother with that anymore. Something about being a red head screws with how different medicines affect me. (Believe it or not this is actually a clinically proven thing!)
Here are a few things from this week:

~Bug got braces. Boy has she milked the pain. After three days she is finally eating "solid" food again.

~We had a huge discussion with Monkey about how Daddy isn't a slacker but actually works all day on his computer.

~Frodo got together with a friend that he never will again. The use of language was totally inappropriate between the child and parent.

~Bug is already planning her birthday party that isn't until May!

~She plans on Not including the "mean" girl.

~I am frantically trying to spend all of my kids charter school money by the end of next week.

~Monkey had a playdate with his best friend D.

I think that covers about most of it. I am off to get ready for my brunch!

Slacker?

Tonight in the car Monkey gave this peach of an announcement:

Monkey: When I grow up I not going to work. I am going to play video games all day. I am going to be a slacker.

Our response (after some serious muffling of hysterical laughter): Are you sure?

Monkey: Yeah, that's what Dad does. He's a slacker. So I'm going to be one too.


The things your kids say while sitting in the In-N-Out drive through are priceless.

Starting Fresh

We had a wonderful weekend of new beginnings. Frodo went on his first camp out this weekend since going back to scouts. We were a little nervous about his state of mind when he returned. He used to be a wreck when he came home, full of negative energy and sleep deprived. He came home yesterday happy and surprisingly full of energy. He of course wanted to tell me about all the bad things that happened. I stopped him short and had him tell me one good thing for every bad thing. This worked really well because it kept him from focusing on the bad and to remember the great parts.
Bug had friends over all weekend. On Saturday she had a new friend over and their time went really well together. Bug was a little nervous since she hadn't spent time alone with this friend. She had only played with her with another girl who is not nice and very controlling. They had a great time together and are making plans to hang out again.
I forgot to mention that Bug was actually grounded from the controlling friend. I also asked her to reflect on her friendship with this girl. She feels confused because she recognizes how unkind and controlling she is but says that sometimes she is nice. But it seems that she recognizes that the nice days are few and far between. It also hurt Bug that this girl has repeatedly been mean to a few little ones that Bug tends to have trailing her. She adores really young kids and gladly gives her time to them. I have tried to talk to the girls mom but it was useless. She thinks her daughter is a perfect angel.
I really shouldn't babble on about such drama. This situation has been driving me a bit batty lately. The last thing you wan to see is your child being controlled by another. But I think we have finally made progress which is making me feel much better.

Finally.....Pictures

The store I wish I could go into!

Monkey being well a momkey

But the eyes...

Bug's latest painting: watercolor and pen

Today we finally finished moving some furniture around. This meant that I had access to my computer again (I've been using the kids which is fairly useless) So here are a few pics enjoy!

Where is my Valentine?

So I am going to be a bit of a bah humbug here. We had such a bad Valentine's day! Our day started out okay. I made gluten free pancakes with heart sprinkles. The kids tried to wear something red. So far so good. Then Hubby tells me that he actually got me something this year. (He is the anti holiday person, hates almost all holidays citing them as just a way for retail to make a buck with no real value.) The bad part is, it was supposed to be delivered on the 12th and never showed up. So I spend my day hoping it might show up. Then we go to a craft class at Michaels and Valentine's exchange with one of our home school groups. This turned into the biggest three ring circus ever! I was on the fence before about leaving this group. Now I will, I just want to fulfill a few commitments then I'm so out. I won't go into the details of what happened but I had a crying child almost the whole time and a few very upset friends. We then had lunch with a friend, which was probably the highlight of our day. Next the kids had writing class and Monkey and I took Baxter to the beach for a while. Then I got a monster migraine and had to go to bed at 5pm! Out went all my plans of chocolate cake, and a nice dinner! Oh and the gift never showed up! Oh well maybe next time...

Arts

I am so happy! I found an art mentor for Bug. Some of our very best friends are moving here from the Bay area and one of them is an artist. She is very excited about teaching Bug and Bug loves her work so it should be a great fit. She'll still continue with her formal lessons at the studio but this will give her some great one on one feed back and technique. C is an animation artist, she does a lot of story boards and comics. But she is also a great realist as well. She'll also take over as Bug's Spanish tutor as well. Its also a great excuse to get to see our friends much more.

Agenda

Frodo and Bug made some interesting choices for what they want to study this week. Frodo chose Architecture. He checked out a bunch of library books and I am trying to think up a project for him. He needs more than written work. He generally needs something a little more hands on so I may have him draw up some plans. Bug chose The Underground Railroad. I think this subject may take at least two weeks if not three. She has lots of books and historical fiction to read. I'm also going to get a few movies for her. She is definitely mature enough to handle the meatiness of the issue so I think this is my chance to push her without her knowing it. For her project I'm going to have her write a journal as if she were a slave heading toward freedom. I'm also going to have her map out the routes and figure out exact times of travel.
We'll continue on with our Greek myths. I'll finish The Trojan War and The Book of Greek Myths. They will read The Children's Homer. We're also going to map out a family tree of the gods and they can pick one to illustrate or paint. They can pick some science topics on Brain Pop and hopefully our new Math program will become available this week. (We're waiting on our charter school to start). The Monkey just wants to do math all week. I think it's a good time to indulge him on that subject. All of this should keep everyone plenty busy this week.

Our Day

We have had a very strange past two weeks. I have been looking for new inspiration and in the mean time not feeling very motivated. I have also not been feeling very happy with our homeschooling group situation (I'll save that for another post). So overall I have been feeling like I'm in a bit of a rut.
Yesterday, things started looking up. I feel like I'm slowly getting a grip on the new direction were taking and feeling confident enough to really start implementing it. My plan is to give them a directed lesson with me in the morning on one or two subjects each day. Then in the afternoon they can explore what they are interested in. Each of them will have discussed with me what they'll be studying beforehand and they will have activities planned to work on that they have chosen. This will be in addition to the classes they are taking. I'm still trying to work out the kinks so we'll see how this goes.
The current classes include: Shakespeare, Civics, Spanish, Creative Writing and Bug has Art.
Yesterday we did begin my part of the arrangement. We will be studying the Greeks for a while so we began reading some Mythology and The Trojan War. They are also individually reading Tales from The Odyssey. It's way to easy for them but they can finish each book in about 40 minutes. I'll move them up to something meatier next week.
The Monkey just listens in on what I'm reading aloud. He has also been choosing a subject a week to study. The past two weeks have been Dinosaurs. We just finished all of our reading so on Sunday I'm going to take him to the Natural History Museum to see the fossils. He still does a little math. I haven't been pushing him on reading lately. This seems to be working to my advantage because now he is more interested in it than ever. He's a child that tends to resist if I push to much. He also has an amazing memory. He can tell you everything he has heard. It's just a matter of what he decides to share with you.
In other news, Frodo had a check up yesterday and we now need to see an endocrinologist. I knew this was coming but I was hoping it wouldn't be for a while yet. Sadly, he is still growing at a snails pace. He hasn't bounced back as much as he should have since the Celiac diagnosis. So I agreed to have a consultation and to explore the possibility of growth hormone. I haven't done enough research yet to have an opinion on the matter. But the thought of it scares me a bit.

She Can Sew!

I did it! Today I finally got the new sewing machine to work and I won the battle that ensued getting it there!
The new machine is technically Bug's. It was a gift from my mom for xmas '06. Only she just got it a month ago. In that amount of time Bug lost interest in learning how to sew. So I figured the best way to get her interested again was to get back into sewing myself and her interest would follow.
Now I used to be able to sew. I was actually quite good too. When I was a senior in HS I sewed a lot of my own clothing and was set to go to FIDM, until fate intervened and had me end up at UCSB instead. From then until now I had a crummy machine that I never had the patience to get to work right. I eventually gave it back to my mom to do with as she pleased. So when the new machine finally showed up I was quite excited to resume my old passion.
But as luck would have it I couldn't remember how to work the machine! I spent an entire day last week pouring over the manual trying to get the darn thing to work right. Of course I couldn't let my pride down and actually call a friend (or gasp! my mom) for help. So after a little blood and sweat I got everything figured out and was sewing again.
But then I let the machine sit there staring at me for a week. So today I pulled out Frodo's scout uniform to sew some badges on. The machine almost won, but I did triumph! And boy was it great not hand stitching those babies on! Now I finally feel comfortable enough to finish "the doll." The big plus is that Bug is coming around. I think seeing me get frustrated and get through it helped my little perfectionist realize that she might be able to as well.

The Nature of Things

This morning Frodo and I have a meeting with the new adult leader of his boy scout patrol. Frodo has been on leave from scouts for almost 3 months. One of the biggest reasons is because the old ASM moved away and a replacement was not found quickly, thus causing a few of the boys to think they could run the show their way. Frodo already has a very fragile self esteem and this sent him over the edge. He also seems to need a little more help than the other boys because of his sensitive nature and lets face it his small size. So he decided to take a break for a while even though he loves scouting so much.
When I was informed a few days ago who the new ASM for his patrol would be Frodo wanted to join again immediately. This adult really went the extra mile for Frodo last summer to make sure the camp would accommodate his food needs. He has also been there consistently when Frodo needed an adult to goto. He expressed to me that he feels like he can trust this adult to make sure things happen the way they should.
I do hope things work out today the way Frodo would like. As much as I could do without boy scouts my son happens to love it. He's also good at it and it gives him something to do on his own. I have my fingers crossed.

New names

Okay, since I am tired of referring to my children as C,J and S (mostly because I'm beginning to confuse them) I am hereby giving them new cyberspace names. J shall now be know as Bug, S as Monkey and C as Frodo. Whew, I feel better already. ;)

The Color Purple?

This has been a rather slow week here. I have needed a little down time and time to recover from Baxter the sleepless dog wonder. I am happy to say that we have worked out the kinks of the sleeping problem but now I still need to get the potty training under control. He's so close yet just not there yet.
So today I allowed my daughter to do what my mother never let me do. She dyed her hair purple. Before you think I'm mad, it's temporary and washes out after 8 washings. She's been asking about it for months and I kept saying no. Hubby thought I was being a little too strict about it and wanted me to let her try it so she could get it out of her system. So finally after lots of thought I relented. She wasn't allowed to bleach her hair first so has had to live with the color it turned out. With her dark brown hair, It's more of an eggplant color, not quite the true purple crayon look she wanted. But she is happy nonetheless. Luckily C thinks she's nuts so that means I don't have to worry about him wanting to do anything to his hair. I simply couldn't allow his red hair to be touched. Perhaps that's why my mom never let me. I'll be sure to post a pic of the new do tomorrow.