Friday, January 24, 2014

Our Life the Last Two Weeks in Snapshots


This is what much of our days were like the last two weeks.  My kids never nap,  so I knew they felt bad when I kept finding them on the couch fast asleep.  Note:  That is an original 1970's couch we were gifted from my mother-in-law.  It is discolored, saggy, and terribly comfortable and probably should not be in our front room.  But darn it, I love that old couch!


They played a bit on the piano.  If you look closely you can see Imp waving his rubber-band gun around and on the lower right you can see one of their Nerf guns.  I am in a house surrounded by toy guns and errant Nerf bullets and rubber bands…


The boys watched Star Wars, Part 4 (I still call it Star Wars 1) with us for the first time.  I honestly was surprised how well it has held up.  Han Solo was quite handsome.  :-)  The kids don't watch many movies so this was a huge deal for them and I was so happy they loved it.


Am I the only one who has children that hoard Costco boxes?  They built this elaborate multi-story "battleship", operated by penguins.


The penguins invited a few friends.  The tiny mouse and cat look thrilled to be a part of everything. Actually, the mouse looks terrified, I think he would rather be back at home in the toy box.


We started reading The Hobbit: Illustrated Edition (one of  my favorite books and I was so excited to find a version with illustrations) and also discovered Tangram Puzzles .  They look so darn easy but they frustrate the heck out of me.  I couldn't even get them back in their little box without cheating and looking at the instructions.  I finally did two of the puzzles in a row (rabbits) and thought I was finally a genius, but then couldn't do any others.  My kids find them as difficult as me, but they have more patience (and don't cheat).


We started learning some Latin. This is the best Latin book, so easy and fun and the author has posted lessons online that you can listen to for free so you can pronounce everything correctly.  The boys are enjoying learning a new language, especially since each lesson only teaches one new thing.  I also purchased the Spanish version.


Duke did a lot of reading with his lovely eye patch.  Poor kid, he only has to wear it a few hours a day but it makes me feel like I am torturing him…  He is pretty patient, and we finally found some eye patches that didn't pull so much when he removes them.

I am so excited that he is a reader like me.  One of my less-offensive school nickname was "Read-a-Book" because  I was the nerdy, quiet kid who always sat in the front seat of the bus with a book.  The bus ride was one hour each way, so I was able to catch up with all of my reading.

It is strange that my boys have never been in a school bus.  But honestly, I don't think they are missing much if it is anything like I remember.


Here is Imp working on his journal entry for the day.  I ask him the daily question, he tells me his answer, and I write it down for him.  Then he transcribes it into the book.  I do the same with Duke since he gets overwhelmed writing unless he knows he can spell every word correctly.


Imp says there are no aliens because "they have not detected them".


I am a firm believer in getting out in the sun each day.  There were a few days recently where it was warm and very beautiful, so I dragged the kids to the park for an hour or so.  The house gets so confining when you are sick.  Imp brought Tintin along to "read" at the dog park.  He still refuses to read for real, but assures me he will learn when he turns seven.  I don't think he realizes that his seventh birthday is just around the corner.


I wish we lived off a lake, but at least we have one 10 minutes away in the park.  I love water.


Finally, the boys spent some time "working" on the new neighborhood they are building behind us.  I am still mourning the loss of the trees (I just said this in my head with the voice of the Lorax), but the kids had so much fun sitting on the big construction equipment.  They are putting in a large grassed drainage area that will have walking trails around it, so that makes it a bit less depressing.  I am just thankful our neighborhood is older and we have trees.

I don't have any photos of the many hours I was hiding in my room watching Netflix on the iPad with my headphones on while the boys were napping.  I caught up with Sherlock and Bones.  It was nice to have the sickness excuse so I could just stay in bed and watch unlimited television without feeling like "Bad Mom".

I have a new action coming out this weekend and plenty of new stuff ready for posting next week.  I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Stay warm and well!!!

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5 comments:

  1. I hope you are all feeling 100% soon! This winter has been terrible for sickness in our family too...I don't think we've all been well at the same time since early December. I had to laugh about your comment about the Nerf guns...our boys are younger than yours, but the swords and bows/arrows seem to be everywhere. : )

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  2. I know where we live this would be the time to be sick since it's too cold to do anything else anyway. Prayers for a continued recovery.

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  3. I am sorry you are sick. I hope you feel better soon. I also homeschool my children. Thank you for sharing the Latin information.

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  4. Although I couldn't have kids I enjoy reading about you homeschooling
    your two boys. I was interested to see that you are going to start them
    on Latin. I never regret having learned Latin, it has proved very useful in later life when I started adding other languages to my repertoire. I was wondering if you had come across the British children's classic, Winnie the Pooh books and poems by A.A Milne. I mention this because there is a Latin version of the same book (Winnie Ille Pooh). In the story where Piglet is
    chased by a heffalump the heffalump 'heffalumpfabat' after Piglet and I
    think this might raise some smiles for adults and kids alike.
    I am also always thankful for the freebies you provide on such a regular
    basis.

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  5. My daughter loves those tangram puzzles! Her teacher gives the class one a day to solve, and the group that solves it first gets to help the teacher for the day.

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Rita