How Random!

Sorry it has been a bit since I had anything to say. It isn't that I haven't wanted to write some witty posts. I just haven't had time or energy to put thoughts together. So here is another of my random thoughts posts. I guess I could have just picked one to write about but that just wouldn't be as fun. So bare with my rambling.

It is hard to do school in December. At least it has been this week. After having a number of days off last week and all the excitement of playing with cousins and traveling to Grandma's house my kids didn't want to jump back into "doing school" on Monday morning. We got in just about everything but it was with tears over math and lots of breaks between. Tuesday wasn't much better but, luckily, Wednesday and today have gone more smoothly. Not perfectly and smoothly but when does it ever go exactly as planned?

We put our Christmas tree up Monday night. Maybe that has something to do with the craziness. The kids are very excited about all the holiday decorations. They have had such a great time rearranging the ornaments each day and the nativity that sits under the tree is getting well played with. Ian and Henry have had their knights and pirates there at the stable paying homage to the baby Jesus. Sometimes they even kidnap Mary or Joseph. Sophie is a little more reverent with the figures and acts out the story. The shepherd usually stands in as the inn keeper to show Joseph where they can stay. So far nothing has gotten broken, but we have a long way to go before Christmas.

Be careful when reading Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Even the children's versions are a bit "frothy". I didn't preview the stories and have read only a few of the original tales so I didn't remember them being quite so "earthy". I sat down with my kids to read this version of the tales and made it through a few of them but was glad when they said they had read enough for that time. I didn't pick it up to read again either. The book made it's way back to the library today. We did enjoy Chanticleer and the Fox which is one of the tales. Maybe we will revisit Chaucer's tales the next time around. The bum kissing and bed swapping was just a little too much for me when reading to my 3,4 and 7 year old. They thought it was funny but even Sophie said "this is crude".

Our Rainbow resource order arrived today. I ordered Ian his new math books. I decided to just start him in the Singapore Math 1A book. He was doing the earlybird math and it was so easy for him so I figured we will just move slowly through the first grade stuff. He didn't waste any time and broke out a pencil to do the first assignment. I was really surprised that he could read the number words which was the first lesson. He is doing much better at reading then I had previously thought. But then those may be just memorized words and not something he is sounding out.

Along with the math books Sophie got some new books as well. A few weeks ago she mentioned that she wanted explode the code books too. I ordered Ian the next books because he is almost done with get set of the code and will fly through Go for the code in just a short time. When I looked at the Explode the code site for what I thought Sophie's level would be. I decided to order her Beyond the code. She is a great reader so I knew she didn't need the phonics. Since she expressed interest in having something like Ian's, I got her a Beyond the Code workbook. She grabbed the first one out of my hands as I unpacked the box and set to work. The first few pages were pretty easy and not much of a challenge but it does require her to read a passage and answer questions about it. I don't think it is going to be something we do everyday. I still want to do our language lessons The lessons, dictation and reading have been going well, for the most part. So the workbook will be something we do once or twice a week and see how it goes.

Yesterday we saw some of Sophie's Cranial Facial team and they told us we should go ahead with braces and surgery next year. This is the big surgery where they do a bone graft and upper jaw adjustment. It scares me a little, since I have been told the grafting is very painful. I need to call her orthodontist and schedule an appointment so we can get started on the braces and spacers that she needs in order to make room in her mouth for the bone they are going to harvest from her hip. On a happier note the speech therapist said she speaks very well and still doesn't need any therapy sessions or surgery for her speech.


Settlers of Catan is one of our families favorite's games. I bought the Card game version for my husband a few years ago. It is for two players so I figured it was something we could play together. Well we finally broke it out the other night and played it. It has a lot of the same elements of the original game but some added dimensions. We took a lot of time just figuring out the game and know that the next time we play it will be much easier. The next morning my husband said "that was a lot of fun. We should do that more often". We used to play games and even read books together but lately we have become lazy and often just end up watching movies at the end of the day.

Do you need some food storage items? I found a great site. I have been looking to round out my food storage with items that I can't buy at the store and that our church's cannery doesn't carry. Honeyville has just about everything; powdered eggs, dried fruits, veggies and a bunch of grains. The shipping price is great and they ship FAST. I placed an order on Monday and it arrived today, Thursday, along with my Rainbow Resources order. That is quick! I put together an order with some friends to take advantage of the price on cases rather individual cans and have been pleased so far. I haven't tried the ordered items yet so I will have to let you know how they are. But give the site a look if you need or want food storage items.

I could keep going with these random topics but I think I will stop now. Unless you really want to read my thoughts on Primary, Band, juggling Christmas activities and all the other things flying through my head. If you made it this far and haven't been bored out of you mind thanks for coming with me as I wander through my thoughts.