Family Update

My my, it has been far too long since I updated!

In October, we soaked up the last of the sunshine we'd be seeing for a few months, had a lot of fun on Halloween, and also enjoyed our first kid-free night in almost 4 years.

In November, we enjoyed a little dusting of snow...

and Brooklyn got her first "hair cut".

December brought a special day for me.  I got to be present for the labor of a dear friend (although ultimately not the actual birth because it ended in c-section).  It deepened my desire to become a doula someday, and it was such an honor to be there to greet a new, beautiful life. 

Later, December brought a sprained ankle for Hubby, a broken Suburban, and the loss of his job.

But of course it also brought Christmas, wonderful times with family, and a phone call announcing a new, much better job that is supposed to begin in January (but we don't get have an exact starting date, so it's still a tad stressful).

Charlotte and Brooklyn each got new bikes, and look forward to the warmer, dryer days when they will get more use out of them!

Another favorite gift was a double-sided pink easel and a plethora of art supplies.  The girls just LOVE to draw and paint!

On New Year's Day, we made a trip into the mountains with my mom, 4 our of 5 of my brothers, and their families, to play in the snow.

It was Charlotte's first time seeing REAL snow, not just the little bits that we get down in the valley.  She LOVED it.

Brooklyn did too, of course!  We made snow angels...

went sledding...

made a snowman...

enjoyed a fire...

and watched the valley begin to glow orange...

and then pink as the sun began to set.

We wrapped up the day at my brother Jason's house...

where we met a very friendly and fluffy little friend.

Then my mom whooped everyone's butt at air hockey...

and showed the girls how it is done.

Brooklyn gets extremely enthusiastic about winning...

AND losing, lol!!!

Today, we ended our winter break from home school, to Brooklyn's great relief!  She'd never have a day off if it were up to her, lol!  Brooklyn has been learning American Sign Language, using Signing Time as our primary resource.  Although my mother is an interpreter and fluent in ASL, she just doesn't have the time to teach the kids.  However, she has seen the Signing Time videos and says they are absolutely perfect.  I've got to agree, because the kids find them endlessly entertaining, and have been learning heaps.  Charlotte is even picking up on it too, and it's thrilling to see them learning and loving a 2nd language.

I've been staying extra busy with babysitting our neighbor's 7 year old daughter for the past 3 months.  She is approved to get state assistance with her child care costs, but that process takes a long time and I haven't gotten my first payment yet.  We're hoping that happens soon, since Forrest's been out of work for 3+ weeks now and still hasn't gotten unemployment or a start date for his new job.  That is currently a heavy weight on our shoulders and the waiting game is getting tiresome.  Other than the financial stress, everything is going wonderful, and we're all doing fairly well (aside from Forrest's ankle, but it does seem to be on the mend).

I hope you're doing well, and stay tuned for more :-)

Too Cool for School

I have been pleasantly surprised to discover that our neighborhood children don't have the same stereotypical ideas about home schooling as it seems some adults still do.  When a handful of them were at our house the other day, and one of Brooklyn's friends happily announced to the rest that we home school, I will admit that I held my breath for a moment.  That one friend had been so cool about it before, but I was worried that the rest of them might not.  There was no need.  Their reactions were not just of acceptance, but they literally gushed about how cool it is and how jealous they all are.  She is suddenly the luckiest kid they know, and our house is THE place to be.  Whoda thunk?!  

Brooklyn beamed and the last of my silly doubts fell away.  These kids didn't pop immediately into the "but how will she socialize?" gear.  Obviously, since they are her friends and they see her regularly, they know we don't lock her up in a closet or something, lol.  Although I know the past generations may be a bit tainted by biases and stereotypes and we're bound to run into that eventually, I can rest assured knowing that the children she sees most often are wonderfully accepting and open-minded about it.  One even asked if she can do school with us!  It was Brooklyn's "weekend" so instead we settled for making play dough and decorating cookies with her yesterday evening.  

The kids had a blast mixing and kneading their own dough.  Even little Charlotte helped out.  That is, until she got a hold of the red dye and made herself look like a homicidal maniac.  -Insert bath time and frantic floor mopping here-  My hands look like tie-dye, and Charlotte's arms are still hot pink, but after it was all done they were occupied for quite a while with their dough.  I took advantage of the relative quiet and got some dishes done, only to go on and dirty some more, lol!  Play dough and cookies in one night... I am the coolest mom in the world!

(Brooklyn, her friend, and Charlotte)

I typically use a recipe for play dough that involves "cooking", but I found one in her school lessons that is much simpler! 

Then later that night we prepared for our weekly "LiveLesson" with Brooklyn's teacher.  All the kids were to share a photo of themselves and could include their sibling(s), pets, favorite toy, etc.  So we took some pics of the girls and their rats:

(you can see some of the pink on Charlotte's arms here, lol)

A LiveLesson with Connections Academy is basically a virtual conference with the teacher and her students.  Ours are once a week and take about an hour.  She went over the alphabet, and all the kids helped think of words that start with each letter.  Easy peasy, but a cool way for the kids to connect and hear ideas from others.  

We look forward to getting through our first 30 days.  After that, Brooklyn will be able to choose an elective as long as she's on track with the rest of her subjects.  That shouldn't be a problem at all.  The Kindergarten curriculum is easy and fun.  We're considering adding either Spanish or Sign Language.  Other than that,  we're just keeping busy with family and friends, and are looking forward to my cousin's wedding coming up.