Slacking again!

I will keep up with this blog!!

Today was such a wonderful day! We were at the Batavia Quarry swimming from 11:30am to nearly 5pm. We sponsered our group there this week and everyone had a wonderful time! That makes me feel good :-)

I got tons of pitcures. We may go back soon though I'm a little hesitant. Aaron hates it! BBetween the sun and the cold water, the poor kid would rather be at home. Maybe I'll let Mack take the big kids again like he did on Frankie's birthday.

After a day of swimming the kids hung out while we got dinner on the table. They had 15 minutes to eat and they were out the door again. I was just too tired to go so Mack took them to the Curious Critter presentation at the library. I stayed home with the little boys. I got no rest. Nicky was in a mood, I wish I'd just gone. The kids said they had fun and got to see all sorts of neat critters.

I love days like this. Now it's my night and how do I spend my free time? Soaping. It's an addiction, I swear! I made 6 pounds tonight. I'm trying hot process in the oven in the mold. I know there is an easier way to say that but I can't think of it. I am not loving cold process, the soap won't look the way I'd planned but it's done and we'll see how it all works out. I better get to bed.

Therapy dogs and SOAP!

Today started with girls going to the library for the "Read with Rover" program. They had fun though they weren't gone as long as I hoped they would be. I had all sorts of soap making plans. I decided to make a cold process soap today. What a disaster. I'll stick to my hot process thank-you-very-much. The one I made yesterday was great. So nice, it had the whole house smelling of apple pie! Today I made a decision. I really like making soap. I think it's so much fun! The farmer's market is going on. I'm giving myself until September(or maybe mid August) to get really good with soaping then I'm getting a space at the farmer's market to sell. I'm soooo nervous. I just hope I have fun and that I enjoy it, maybe I'll even make a few bucks :-)

The kids had a day of fun today. We haven't done much. They've been playing outside. Fun stuff. I've been thinking soapy thoughts. That seems to be the case lately. Now I will think about scents. Hmmmm.

.::Yawn::.

I guess Aaron hasn't outgrown his breathing spasms. I was up a nice chunk of the night watching him breath and listening to my husband snore. I'm so very tired. I hope I can take a nap today, it is much needed. I had fun at game night last night but after seeing how upset Aaron was that I wasn't home to put him to bed, it may be a while before I go out again. I think it was a bit much for him, this was the second night this week. He's okay now but still, I can't help but worry.

I'm brave...well, Dee was for me.

Today I took soap to group. I gave a couple bars to Dee but was not brave enough to give them to anyone else. Dee did it for me and I was so grateful. There was no way I'd have done it myself. Now that I see no one said, "Ew, these smell weird and I'm not using your dumb soap" I have a lot more courage for the next time. Two days until I have supplies! I can't wait. Next time I give soap it will be pretty and smell pretty too!

Aside from that, we had a great day the park. The day started out weird, I woke up at 9:50!! I was out until 11 having dinner with friends and then watched some TV and boy, was I tired. I got up and Mack made a mad dash to get Zachary to the library on time for pre-school pandas. The topic was the ocean and he had a great time. I packed what parts on lunch we had, Mack dropped us off at the park and went to get the rest of lunch. At least they ate, lol. I had planned to take Chris to the show to see Harry Potter with a couple of his friends but by the time I tried to buy tickets, they were sold out. Maybe next time. We took a walk around the neighborhood and then had some pizza for dinner.

I'm off to bed soon, Aaron is not happy with me and I need to do some extra fun stuff with the kids tomorrow to make up for taking to Mom nights this week. We have game night tomorrow! I can't wait.

History

We've slacked on history. Not that the kids aren't learning any, I'm just not being a very good facilitator lately. It seems as though when we start talking history it turns into an all day event. We put a few things on our time line today, if it weren't for the need for the house to stay tidy until 4pm there would have been books all over the floor as usual. We talked about nomads and they wanted to keep going into the topic of the first farmers. I hate appointments when we get in a learning groove like that. Maybe we can get back to the happy place this evening. I already put dinner in the crock pot so that frees up an extra couple hours of prep, cooking and clean up time.

Totally random

I need to add this so I'll have a record. On June 18, Aaron had his 4 month check up. I forgot to blog about it so here it is! Everything went great. He weighed 17 pounds 7 ounces and was 25 1/4 inches. Ped says he's perfect and he's growing great on the boob juice. Nothing else to report.

Books, birds and c-section awareness

Today was a really nice day. I woke up early to sneak in a batch of soap. I made two pounds and was a little disappointed. I had no blue dye to make the purple I wanted. I underestimated the mold I used. It could hold three pounds but I only made two. The kitchen was a horrible mess so it took way longer than I wanted. I won't be making anymore soap until I get my dyes and fragrance in the mail. That won't stop me from obsessing about the perfect recipe though! I spent a ton of time writing in my soap journal and messing around on soapcalc today.

We spent a nice portion reading and doing learning related things today as well. The girls are on a worksheet kick so I spent a nice chunk of my morning 'doing' math with them. We've been reading like crazy this summer! The summer reading program seems to have kicked it off but we have all taken off. We recently finished Sign of the Beaver. We're now working on Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox. The kids heard some of this book while I was reading this series now we're reading it to them. Chris is reading Elephant....something about an Elephant, lol. It's for a library book discussion and it's late so my brain is broken until I get some sleep. The girls are starting to read one of the Magic Tree House books for their next discussion. Zach is really enjoying his Miss Spider books. One thing I love about Zachary is his complete disregard for boy stuff vs. girl stuff. He is rough and tumble, loves bugs and sister bugging and can play barbies and dress up with the best of them. A kid after my own heart. We had a book exchange at MRU next week and I need to go through all those books. We got quite a few and while the kids have been reading them, they are all over. I need to make space for them. I have 5 book shelves in my living room and we'll be looking at a 6th soon.

Back to today! We all headed out to the library this evening. The children had a Birds of Prey presentation. The big kids had a blast. I wasn't there but I got to see some nice pictures of the birds. What beautiful owls. One looked exactly like a big piece of tree bark, wonderful camouflage. While the kids learned about birds, I went to my c-section awareness meeting(ICAN). I'm so glad Mack mentioned that I should go. I'd totally forgotten and had once again convinced myself that we meet on Tuesdays instead of Mondays. I really need to remember to put meetings on my calendar. It was a nice meeting, as usual. I really need to learn to come out of my shell with this group. There are two ladies there I really like but this stupid shyness, ugh! I did get up the courage to invite one to my homeschool group. I really hope she comes. I ended up with super toddler for some of my meeting. He was running around too much so Mack brought him down to me. He was good for a while. Then he got bored. Nicky should never get bored, it's not pretty. He started pushing the stroller into the wall. So, my little star baby got passed around a bit while I nursed Nicky and he went to sleep! I was so happy for that. He can be pretty bad at the library. This is one of those times I thank God my toddler is still nursing strong. It could have gotten ugly.

Tomorrow should be MRU. We're meeting at a park and I really don't want to go. It's just so far away! I wish I lived somewhere exactly between the two groups so I had easier access to MRU. If we don't go to group tomorrow we'll head over to one of these nature places in the area to get a passport stamp.

Well, I'm off to bed! I need to be well rested. I must get these children out of the house for some fun tomorrow. I'm also going out tomorrow night! I'm so excited. I love meeting with good friends.

Excuse any mistakes, I'm too tired to proof read. I barely remembered to spell check.

Rainy days

Rainy days are best shared with friends. I was so close to staying home with the kids since it was so gray and wet but we ventured out to the park to be with our Wild Indigo homeschool friends. They played in the park until everyone was cold, wet and hungry and were off to Panera. I generally don't care for groups at Panera but I must admit it was fun and I love the food! Frankie followed her new crush around for at least an hour. It was kind of cute. Nicky had a great time sharing a cookie with Rylee. Aaron got to share his smile and impress everyone with his sweet, chatter box nature. I'm very happy to have gotten out of the house.

I will blog!

Again, I have neglected my blogging responsibilities. I will improve! The summer is rushing by so fast it's hard to keep up! We've been so into our books. We've read several this summer, 4 or 5 chapter books and several smaller books. The library reading program started 2 weeks ago and we're almost done! We've made a trip to Red Oaks nature center and have many more trips planned for this summer. I love field trips! The situation with the rats has improved. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be okay with rats running across my bed or computer table. I hate that these wonderful little creatures have such a short life span. I will miss them dearly when they aren't here. I have taught myself to make soap and it is my newest obsession. Though I'm only three batches in, Chris is to be my new apprentice. I'm working on perfecting my recipe and have all sorts of wonderful ideas in my head. I can see myself making all sorts of neat creations. The baby is getting bigger and bigger! He's up around 18 pounds of pure love :-) We had a wonderful Fourth of July. We BBQ'd and had a nice day at home followed by a night of fire works. Nicky, Aaron and I stayed home as Nick is just a little frightened if the 'boom boom' in the sky. Maybe next year. I'm secretly happy I got to stay home. We caught a partial show the night before and I felt like a mosquito buffet! That is all for now. I will be updating as often as I can.