Success!!

I am so glad that my idea to help Princess Belle understand rounding helped. It was really simple, I made a chart. We would look at the number on the chart, understand what rounding is and suddenly, she just got it. She did the last few on her own! This after two days of struggle with it. I am so glad I was able to make a visual learning aid for her!

In the light of day . . .

Okay so after my midnight ramblings, I thought I would update you on my night (and how so many of my nights are going lately). Princess Snifflefritz finally deigned it a good time to go to sleep at almost 1 am, she woke up crying at 4 am and was up for the day at 7 am. It was a long night and I have a feeling that as tired as I am (and with this headache and this cold), it will be a long day.

I think they are trying to drive me crazy

My children have decided that when you are a good mommy, you don't need to sleep EVERY night, every other night should do just fine. And so for the last week I average something near a full nights sleep followed directly by a night with somewhere between 2 and 5 hours sleep (Yes I had a night with TWO HOURS sleep!). And tonight, Princess Snifflefritz has decided she is allergic to sleep and my every attempt to put her to bed is met with screaming rages that leave the neighbours wondering what horrible atrocities are happening in here.

And then an exhausted, sick, sleep-deprived mommy is required to get up before the sun to greet the day and the children with smiles, hugs, and songs. I am left to try to come up with creative solutions when Princess Belle looks at me explaining such an abstract idea as rounding. As I talk, her eyes glaze over and she looks for all the world like she is watching pretty little birdies fly through the air as some strange language comes out of my mouth. Now since I had all this not sleeping time on my hands tonight, I did come up with a solution to help her visualize rounding and how it works. So my time wasn't wasted. My idea to help her understand alphabetizing was a huge success. (As a child with high-functioning Autism, she is very visual and has issues with abstract ideas, so sometimes I have to be creative and think outside the box to help her get it.)

Sorry, I have no idea what I am saying here, it is late, I am tired and there is no end to my night in sight.

Sunday Sillies

Plans

As I organize my girls rooms, I come up with ideas for things I want to reuse in different ways. To that end, I have a kids coat rack by my door that I am going to move into the girls' room. It is like the one below but it is a little shorter and only has 4 pegs. I am going to go to the thrift shop and pick up a couple of purses and scarves for them to play with and hang them up on this.

On her table, I am going to put a mug tree that looks like the one below and I am going to put dollar store and thrift store necklaces and bracelets on it. The girls love to dress up and they will have so much fun with it and I like the creative play that develops when they dress up.

I told Princess Belle that I have some bigger items (I got them a play table and an easel at the Thrift shop) that are going into her room and I want her to help me go through her stuff to make room. She has promised to go through all her dolls and limit them to 6 dolls for both her and her sister (not including barbies and teddies, they are to be worked on another day).

I found an Anne Geddes Print at the thrift shop that I just fell in love with that I am putting up on their wall as well. It looks like this one.

So while Princess Snifflefritz's room is coming along, we are making plans for the big girls' room too.

GREAT Homeschool site

I just came across this great homeschooling blog that is going to be so much fun for me to wander around in when I have a chance. If you go through her sidebar there are boundless links to homeschooling resources including unit studies and lapbooks, craft ideas and so much more and as far as I can tell it is all free!! I can't wait to get back there and explore some more!

http://homeschoolblogger.com/jaminacema/

I have a secret

I have a little secret. And if you promise keep between you and me (and the hundreds of readers I have here LOL) , I will confess. Now that I am making this house mine, now that I am changing things, and reworking things, I am starting to fall in love with my home. I sit in my living room with all that light shining in all those lovely large windows and watch as the changing leaves turning to red slowly creeps across the Maple tree right outside my window. I watch the birds and squirrels outside my kitchen window. I am excited as Princess Snifflefritz's room comes together. I am excited by the plans I have for Princess Belle's room. It is starting to feel like a place that I am really starting to make mine.

After all that time I spent hating this house, it only took a pro-active approach and a little action to fix the problems in my house and turn it into my home.

Here are some pics I took the day I moved in and a pic of Princess Belle on the walkway up to our door.

I LOVE a great deal

We went out yesterday, sick children in tow and $25 in pocket to try to find a coat for Princess Snifflefritz. It is getting colder here and Princess Magpie was this age in the summer, so we have no coats to pass down. Well we stopped by the Thrift shop and we hit the jackpot! By the time we left we had spent $20 and had not one but TWO snowsuits for Princess Snifflefritz, one for now and one for after she outgrows this one. We also got the cutest pair or a new pair of pink plaid shoes for Princess Belle, an adorable little wooden basket with teddy bears on the end of it, and a pair of sconces that are decorated with kids blocks for Princess Snifflefritz's room. I was pleased as punch. I got some things off of my things to buy list and a couple of things to decorate the kid's rooms with. It was a good time, even if most of us were sick and tired while we were out.

I even took the extra $5 and went next door to the farmers market and bought some cabbage and yellow squash!

Hmmm . . . Did that make any sense to anyone else?

This is me, fumble finger typing with 2 1/2 hours sleep and way to much caffeine in my system. As I sit here contemplating some wonderous and amazing thought to share with you, all I can hear in my weary mind is the gratitude that all my sick kiddies are sleeping and the echoes of prayers that tonight they let this very sick mommy get a little sleep.

Maybe tomorrow, I will have some weird and amazing story to share, but today you'll have to accept my apologies and the ramblings a very tired, very yucky feeling mommy. I'd sing some song for you but my throat hurts to bad. Don't you just love when every one gets a cold at once??

Ah this is more like it

We seem to have turned a corner with Princess Belle lately. She is much more motivated and excited in her learning. Whether is just because she is happier in general or something else, I am so happy with her. Homeschooling on the whole has been a lot more fun with her. She has fun and participates and shares more. This is so much more like what I envisioned when I imagined our homeschooling journey.

GREAT Homeschool site

I found a wonderful site ( TeAchnology) for getting homeschool worksheets for Princess Belle. There are sheets there on every subject and they are really great worksheets. It is a great resource that I will be coming back to again and again.

UPDATE: I continued to work on homeschool stuff for Princess Belle and I tried Lesson Pathways (which is now FREE!) and they were amazing! They had everything I needed. I search by subject and grade and they had lists of stuff for me to use! I was so excited I had to share that here as well.

Mornings

I wake up before the sun does most days. But I am not a person to jump out of bed with a smile and a cheery "goodmorning sunshine" song. I need a few minutes to wake up, nurse a cup of coffee, and wake up quietly.

So, I crawl out of bed, make my way to the computer and let Princess Magpie and Princess Belle watch cartoons and eat peanut butter sandwiches, put Princess Snifflefritz on the floor beside me and steal a few minutes. Now these few minutes are filled with interruptions, children who need hugs, food, attention, to be told to behave, and other miscellaneous objections. So this is not the most relaxing few moments in the morning, but they are mine and I guard them fiercely.

When I am ready to actually face the day, I get up, get on my fit for the public clothes, put up my hair, wash my face and greets the day and my children with the smile they deserve.

I sometimes feel guilty for this time, like I am taking it away from my kids. But I need these few time to myself. The whole rest of the day, the children have my undivided attention. I spend the whole day taking care of them, taking care of the house, taking care of homeschooling, running them where they need to go, being mom. I think a few minutes first thing in the morning to just be me and to wake up slowly is not to much to ask.

Wow sometimes she is really TWO

Most of the time, Princess Magpie is all sweetness and giggles, but sometimes she wakes up from her nap all full of sour apples and lemons.


She woke up from her nap today and she was CRANKY! It took her a good hour to get back to her normal happy self and even then you couldn't look at her funny without her dissolving into a little puddle of tears. There are some days when she is most definitely TWO and other days seems like she is TWO going on EIGHT and her best friend in the world is her big sister.

Tired

I am feeling extra tired today. Princess Snifflefritz got me up way to early today and too often last night. So, today I am feeling overwhelmed.

I feel like I have NO TIME. I feel like I am never caught up, like I am always running to catch up with some aspect of my household (dishes, laundry, etc) that needs to be done. Thanks to my 8 month old daughter, I never have enough sleep. And I feel like no matter which job I am doing (housework, homeschool, cooking, laundry etc) there is a child at me needing my attention, usually two at a time.

That being said, I know that this is what I need to be doing for my girls. They need me and it is rewarding seeing them make new accomplishments and given the opportunity, I wouldn't change how I am doing things. There is no resentment, just guilt when I worry that I am not doing it all good enough and exhaustion from lack of sleep.

Better

As I work on my house and making it more suited to our needs, it is growing on me. I come up with more and more ideas of things we can do to make it better. And I have little list in my head of things I want to accomplish. I am getting excited as I see the changes.

• My latest idea is to take a corner of our ginormous bedroom and turn it into a family closet. All of the dressers will easily fit there along with 2 large hampers. That way I can do laundry bring it upstairs and fold it and put it away. If the laundry corner is only for actual washing, it will be better. That will give the girls more room their room and it will put to practical use an unused part of the house.
• I am going to get a large area rug to cover up the beautiful but impractical floor in the living room
  
• Prince Charming has promised he is going to do his part to make our financial situation better.

homeschooling update

homeschooling is going well. Princess Belle was really motivated yesterday and really worked hard to get through her stuff.

I am finding it difficult to balance the small kids needs and the homeschooling needs but I do know that after they are no longer as small it will be easier to include them. I plan to include Princess Magpie next year, mostly letting her sit with us and color and do preschool fun things but I know she will like to be included and it will be good for her.

Pyramath - I SEE Cards

As part of the TOS Review Crew I had the privilege to receive a deck of cards from I See Cards of their math game Pyramath.

Pyramath is a card game to reinforce basic math facts and help children gain speed on their knowledge of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

This is a great math game that can be addicting, you really have to check out Pyramath by clicking here. Each deck comes with 54 math learning cards numbered 0 to 9. The cards also have 6 different numerical translation to other languages. It also came with an instructions page and a booklet with ideas to use math games to help your child succeed in math.

You deal 5-7 cards in a row, then players take turns trying to build their pyramid. You can play a card in between two adjacent cards if the card is: the sum of the two numbers; the difference of the two numbers; the result of one number divided by the other; the last digit of the product of the two numbers

Basically if any operation that you can think of amounts to the card you have to play, then you can play it. The first player who completes their pyramid, wins.

THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS

• basic 2-player game
• online Pyramath
• speed Pyramath
• Pyramath war
• Pyramath solitaire
• Quick-play
• Pyramath target
• Pyramath super-division (advanced)
• Pyramath puzzles

I have to say that Princess Belle is a huge fan of anything that makes learning a game. She had the package ripped open and was reading the directions before I even had a chance to get to them. She really loved these cards!

If you are looking for a new way to review math facts without having to use flashcards, this is it! You can't go wrong with this game. It is so much fun and parents can join and enjoy as much as kids. AND it is only $6.95 per deck!

To purchase Pyramath go here.

You can also play Pyramath online for a chance at winning a free deck! Check it out at Pyramath online. To see other great math games this company offers check out their main site page here.

Also check out what other families are saying about Pyramath at the TOS Homeschool Crew site.

Just to let you know: I received the product free of charge for review purposes but my opinions are my honest thoughts on the product.

Wordless Wednesday - Princess Belle's Photography

Click the pic above to get to other Wordless Wednesday Participants.

For more Wordless Wednesday go check out 5 minutes for mom and 7 Clown Circus!

Good Morning!

A good morning. As I sit here at 9 am watching the rain fall from the sky, I listen to the sounds of silence in my house. Princess Snifflefritz has gone back down to sleep and Princess Magpie and Princess Belle have both slept in. And the best part is that they both fell asleep by 9 last night. So they are finally getting used to their share room. It is great to start the day knowing that your babies got their rest.

Busy

IT has been a good busy couple of days. I changed around the living room to make it more suitable to our needs. I sold my dishwasher and then put my freezer in my kitchen where it was. That made me able to put my freezer in the little dining corner where it goes. It was a lot of work but at least it makes this place more livable until we can find one that we can better afford.

The Perils of Being the Baby Sister

One thing we have to watch in our adventures with Princess Snifflefritz, is her two year old sister's enthusiasm overflowing and landing on top of her. LOL It kind of goes like this, Princess Snifflefritz is laying on the floor, rolling around and having a good time and Princess Magpie sees her, come running over to her at full tilt. But Princess Magpie's enthusiasm overrides her braking ability and she comes tumbling down on top of Princess Snifflefritz and they both end up crying. There are no bruises and everyone is slightly frightened but fine.

Princess Magpie also tends to give Princess Snifflefritz things to play with; things like toys, random bits of paper she found, stuff she saw on the couch or the table, or whatever other things she thinks will entertain her and I have to be sure that these things are actually safe for Princess Snifflefritz.

Princess Magpie likes to feed her sister and I catch her giving her empty baby bottles or pushing empty baby spoons into her mouth, trying to copy mommy. It is cute, but Princess Snifflefritz has no desire for food that has no actual food in it. LOL

Holy Cuteness Batman!

There is no cuteness greater than watching my two year old dance around the living room with her eight year old sister. They put music on the television and dance up a storm and I just sit and smile at them. It is adorable!

I have to say a close second in cuteness is the 101 ways that my two year old also tries to help with her baby sister: hushing her when she cries, making faces to make her laugh, giving her toys, telling me her bum is "poo stink". She is just 20 pounds of adorable in a 10 pound package.

Survived

Well we made it through the night. It started out BAD with a capital B! She is soo obsessed with routine and things not changing that putting her in a different room, a room that she wasn't alone in to go to sleep just freaked her out. I knew it would. Eventually, I got her to settle by putting a movie on in her room and getting her and Princess Belle to lay in their beds and watch it. She calmed down and fell asleep that way. It was probably not the best way to do things, but it was nearly midnight by the time they fell asleep. I am hoping that tonight will go a little better.

Princess Snifflefritz did fine in her room and it was a blessing to be able to turn over in bed for the first time in 8 months without waking her up.

Wish us Luck

We just moved Princess Magpie into Princess Belle's room. She has never slept in the room with another kid, but we decided it was for the best. Princess Belle's room is big enough for the two of them and a play area too. The only hitch is that she is SOOOO rigid in things not changing that this could be a bumpy ride. I am nervous that there will much screaming over the next couple of nights.

Princess Snifflefritz is in the small room across the hall from us in a room of her own.

Unexpected Blessings.

One change that I have noticed in Princess Belle since we started homeschooling is a genuine love of learning. She loves to dig into the "Learning Books" we have and sit there pouring over them. She loves to get learning videos from the library and come running out to tell me what she has learned. She pays attention to shows she is watching and asks questions. Since we started on this homeschooling journey, I have seen her quest for knowledge blossom and grow. It warms my heart to watch her.

(sidenote: I may have sold our dishwasher. The person is supposed to come pick it up Saturday, which leaves a free space in the kitchen to help me on my quest to make this place more useable for me.)

Not Back to School Day (Finally!)

We had a great day. It was rainy so our plans changed, but it was a fun day anyway. Princess Belle felt excited and special all day. She had a wonderful time at the Boys and Girls Club this afternoon. When we walked in, she had an attack of the nerves and held onto my arm so tight. And, when I was leaving, I saw her sitting in the crowd looking nervous and I found it so hard to leave here there. But I knew that she wanted this and that she had been in a similar program before and really enjoyed it. When she came home, she was bubbling over with stuff to tell me and I knew she had a great time. Princess Belle and the others had their Turkey Enchiladas, which she instantly declared were, YUMMILIOUS!, she said this was the best day ever, and then she trotted off to pick out her clothes for tomorrow afternoon.

And me? While she was gone, both babies were sleeping and do you think I took advantage of those two hours by sleeping? Relaxing? Reading a good Book? Surfing the Internet? Nope, not me. I cleaned the kitchen and made a pot of turkey soup and Turkey Enchiladas. I got it all done just in time to pick her up again. LOL

Not Back to School Day

I decided to do a new post for our Not Back to School plans. I am still working on what I want to do tomorrow, but I have a loose idea (which usually works well for us anyway).

Here are some ideas I have:

• Have an outing or two (library, park, somewhere fun for her)
• Do some crafts and coloring pages (she loves being creative and I have some for our Mexican theme we are doing right now)
  
• Go to the dollar store and let her pick out an education toy or two (there are a few there that she has her eye on)
• make a snack together (I have this recipe for Sopapillas which goes with our Mexican theme)
• Maybe have a picnic or something similar

Then she tops off her day by attending her first day at the Boys and Girls club Notsosnowwhite works at (which she is really looking forward too and has been doing a countdown by crossing the days off on the calendar).

Ramblings from a Mommy's Muddled Mind

It is amazing to me how every time one of my babies starts a new stage, I feel like I am doing this for the first time too. You would think that by the time I am on my third child, I would have this down pat, but I don't. I worry just as much that she is doing okay. I still worry about the big transitions, like from mushy foods to solid foods. And I worry about my toddler, how the heck to I start potty training her? Is she ready?

I want to do what is best by my kids and in a lot of ways, I am a lot more relaxed than I was with my older child, but in some ways I am less flexible. I find that no matter how much I think I have it down, my children throw me for a curve. They are all just so different and so the techniques I developed for one, doesn't work for the next.

Princess Snifflefritz has tongue issues and she is a PICKY eater. She spits out the foods that don't meet up with her approval and she has issues with working her tongue. She always has. We had to learn together how to work around it with bottles and we had to work around it with baby food, so will it make solid foods more difficult, or will solid foods be easier for her. I just don't know. I want to start her on softer finger foods to see how she does, but which ones do I start with. I just don't know.


I found my way through this before, I know I will again. I think motherhood is a journey you and your child go on together and together you find a way through childhood that fits you both.

Not Back to School Day

I am trying to come up with ways to celebrate "Not Back to School Day" with Princess Belle, on Wednesday. It is her first day of being in the boys and girls club in the evenings and I know she is looking forward to that. But I would like to make it a special day all day. Does anyone have any suggestions? I would love to hear them. I will come back to this post and post any ideas that I have as well.

Sunday Sum up

1. Princess Snifflefritz has taken to rolling round the floor and then scootching on her but to get where she wants to go. I know it isn't crawling, but I am happy to see her mobile and happy. It is cute because she can only go sideways or backwards. I can't explain it very well, but I do say that she can make laps around the room in no time.
2. We are working on something to improve our financial and living situation. So keep your fingers crossed for us that it all works out.
3. I am thinking today about the Hurricane Earl. I hope that everyone is safe and cozy in their homes.
4. Notsosnowwhite and her White Knight are coming for dinner tomorrow night. I am so glad that we moved here so that we can be near friends.
   

Sunny Saturday

It is a beautiful sunny Saturday and my best friend came over to do our weigh-in's together. It was fun. I made a big yummy breakfast for after we weigh in as a treat. I figure we may as well make it fun so I made cinnamon buns, tea biscuits, and pancakes.

In the meantime, Princess Snifflefritz woke me up last night and way too early this morning so I am sleep-deprived, but if I waited for the days I wasn't sleep deprived, I wouldn't get anything done.

I even managed to tidy up before Notsosnowwhite got here! If you know my house, you know that any flat surface quickly gets piled up with papers, junk and assorted clutter. It is a lovely trait that Prince Charming passed on to his daughter. But this morning, I did a clean surface sweep and cleared them all off! It looks good. It will probably last about 30 seconds but it looks good now.

PS. I lost 4 lbs. I am down a total of 21 lbs now!!!

Pictures from our trip to Gambo

My best friend was kind enough to share her camera with Prince Charming when we were on our trip to Gambo with her and her White Knight. Here are some of the pics that they took. There is a completely adorable video that was taken of Princess Magpie too but it is in a format that doesn't work on our computer so I have to see what I can to do to make it work first.

thoughts

My best friend brought over some clothes that I thought I wouldn't fit into yet and I did! I was really excited. I went down to my stash of clothes I used to be able to wear and went through them and was thrilled to find out that there were some things in there that I can wear.

I got my hair cut yesterday. I just had layers put it, but I like how it looks and falls. I just like feeling good about myself again. I like that even Princess Belle notices how much happier and more fun I am now.

Beautiful days.

We had a great day. We went for a drive to the next town with our best friends. We visited a museum there and went to a farmers market. It was a fun day and I am so glad we got out to enjoy the nice warm weather.