School plans for 2012-2013

Since we started this school year late, at the end of Sept, due to bringing home Brendan, we are still going strong in most subjects, though I'm getting a bit weary and ready to plan for next year. I am thinking we may move to a year-round model of school, though we kind of do that now. I really like the options given for year-round school here. I'm not sure how we will do it exactly--3 weeks on, 1 off; 6 weeks on, 1 off; or possibly just taking natural breaks when we need them to enjoy the weather or get well or just rest. I do like the idea of schooling through the heat of the summer and then taking more breaks in the fall and spring, when we WANT to be outside.

Next year I will have 1 in 3rd grade, kindergarten, and preschool. I have most of our curriculum figured out and purchased, and we are making some big changes this year.

Iona--preschool:
I will be working through Sonlight's P4/5 curriculum with Brendan and Iona.The reading time should be lots of fun, and it will encorporate Bible, world cultures, and science as well. I'll be starting Iona through the Developing the Early Learner workbooks--I'm not sure if she is ready yet, but we'll try. I may also add Get Ready for the Code since she is showing some interest in learning to read. And I'll start her on the preschool handwriting book with Handwriting Without Tears. I bought Math U See's Primer book just in case, but again, I'm not sure if she will be ready for it. I'm planning to track her learning along with Brendan, but I don't want to throw too much at her at once. I do have the K4 program from Confessions of a Homeschooler, but since the Letter of the Week stuff was so time-consuming, I'm not sure if I'll do the next level. I may instead just pull the pieces from it I want to highlight. Iona does not like me to just give her work to do and walk away to help her siblings...she will act out and run away and refuse to try most of the time when I do that. I need to take the time next year to sit with her more and help her build confidence in her abilities and show her she is loved through my time.   

Brendan--kindergarten:
Brendan will also work through Sonlight's P4/5 curriculum at the same time as Iona. I expect he will be more interested in the workbooks than she will be. Since Brendan has learned to write his name and is very interested in learning to write his letters, we may even start the preschool HWT book this summer. I also bought the kindergarten workbook for him. And he is definitely ready to start Math U See's Primer book. Brendan is a hard worker and often is the first one done with his workboxes, so I want to strike a balance with challenging him and getting his caught up with also just experiencing the easiness of kindergarten. He will continue with speech therapy--he understands so much of what we say, but he can't communicate with us as well because of his speech delays. I am going to slowly work through Sonlight's Language Arts K to teach him to read, but I'll admit I'm nervous that I won't know if he is getting the reading down if I can't understand what he says. I'm heard Sonlight's learn to read program is very gentle, and I think it will work much better for Brendan than the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, which I used with Aidan with complete success. Brendan loves to sit and "read" a stack of books to his stuffed dog, so I think it's worth a try to teach him this next school year.

Aidan--grade 3:
We are making a big shift this year in curriculum to Sonlight Core D, American History Year 1 of 2.
We did use Sonlight for his kindergarten year, but we've dabbled with it here and there since, just not using the full program. Every year when I get the Sonlight catalog, I pour over it. I LOVE the choices they make for junior high and high school especially. Since we use their booklists anyway, I decided to make the complete switch and allow them to plan out the year as well! Thankfully, I was able to buy the IG AND Language Arts 3 used for very cheap, and I've been able to get a hold of all the books separately. This was a huge shift for us because it meant we needed to step away from Story of the World for history, which he LOVES. What we ultimately decided was that he just loves history in general, not just SOTW, and with Sonlight, we will revisit SOTW in middle school. It also means we will stop the scope and sequence of using Peace Hill Press for grammar and writing and instead use Sonlight's program. I think it will be a good fit for us. And I love that Sonlight includes a list of age appropriate chores and skills they should learn.

Bible--I'm don't think we'll use the exact Bible Sonlight recommends because Aidan already has one we want him to use. The 3 kids also do AWANA, so we may or may not also do Sonlight's scrupture memory program. We will continue to read missionary stories, and with this core, since we will be studying American History, we will be praying for different American Indian tribes. We may still continue to work on some hymns. I also have a devotional for kids that focuses on animals and character building and God's character that we may try out. This area is one of the areas I'm still a little up in the air about. I do know we will include all the children in on this.

History/Literature/Readers/Geography/Language Arts--Sonlight Core D. We will use the Readers D Advanced, 5 day, since Aidan is such a voracious reader. I like that the LA is tied in with the history and literature.

Math--Math U See Gamma

Spelling--All About Spelling Level 3

Handwriting--Handwriting Without Tears Grade 3, Cursive. I have the books for grades 3 and 4. We tried this in Grade 2 and he wasn't ready, so we shelved it for a year.

Science--Apologia's Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day and the notebooking journal. I may pull in the littles for some of the activities for this.

Art and Music--Harmony Fine Arts Grade 3. Aidan will also take an outside art class, since he's really interested in art.

Latin--Prima Latina

PE--We will continue with the co-op we are in, which includes PE, art, and nature classes, along with periodic field trips and community service opportunities. Sonlight also has some PE ideas in the IG.

Review of school plans for 2011-2012

Brendan and Iona, Preschool:
Their main curriculum this year was the Letter of the Week curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Next week is Z week, so we're almost done! I loved a lot of things about this curriculum, but it did take a lot of grunt work to get the pages printed, laminated, and cut each week. It was a good basis for me to work on colors, numbers, letters, patterns, etc. with the littles. I am definitely ready for a break from it, though!

We also supplemented with Sonlight's P3/4 reading. We didn't always keep to their schedule...we went through spurts with the reading and we are still planning to finish it up this summer. We didn't get to many of the activities with it, mainly just the reading. But the reading is excellent, and I think we will be returning to these books again and again!

Aidan, Grade 2:
Bible: We are finishing reading through the gospels and Acts using a study guide (Foundations 2) from Homeschooling Bible. Honestly, we abandoned the study guide partway through and have just been reading the bible and talking about it. We've also been reading a few missionary stories and working on memory verses for AWANA. This bible time is not just done with Aidan; the others kids are there too. I meant to also work through teaching the kids 6 hymns, but that never really got accomplished like I wanted. And we were going to be praying for unreached people groups around the world, but that also went by the wayside as we got busy. I'm hoping to work on some of those things with the kids this summer.

History: We are continuing to plug away at Story of the World 2: The Middle Ages. This is one of Aidan's favorite subjects. Since we didn't start school until end of Sept due to bringing Brendan home from China, we still have a ways to go until we are done with SOTW. While we love a lot of things about SOTW, we will be using a different curriculum next year.

Science: We are close to done with Apologia's Zoology 1. We used the Zoology 1 notebooking journal with it, and it has gone very well. Aidan has loved our study of flying creatures. We've taken things a little slower than my planned schedule because he's having lots of fun with it. We didn't do as much nature study as I would have liked, especially after the weather got colder, but we hope to spend sometime nature journalling this summer.

Language Arts--Grammar: We used First Language Lessons 2 this year and finished it already. I like how short the lessons are, and Aidan has seemed to retain it.

Language Arts--Spelling: We have loved All About Spelling Level 2. I feel like it's been a lot of review for Aidan, but I also feel like he knows the spelling rules a lot better. He really likes spelling and he's good at it.

Language Arts--Writing: We have finished Writing With Ease 2 this year. It got pretty repetitive and we were both bored with it, so we just did the lessons left that I wanted to make sure he understood. We will be trying something else next year.

Language Arts--Literaure and Readers: We've pulled from Sonlight's read aloud (core C) and readers (grade 3) list. We are very behind in our read alouds, but we have all summer still. Aidan has gotten through all of his readers and he's working through the Geronimo Stilton chapter book series now..basically anything he can get his hands on. The boy loves to read!

Art and Music: We are usin the lesson plans from Harmony Fine Arts for Grade 2. Aidan loves art but not music so much. Brendan, however, always joins us for music and LOVES it. I really like this material. Aidan probably wishes we could go a bit faster with the art lessons, but we supplement with an outside co-op art class.

Math: We love Math-U-See's program after switching from Saxon Math last year. This year Aidan is working through the Beta book, and I assume we will work through it all summer to keep math facts straight in his head. Math is hard for him, but I've seen such an improvement in his ability and confidence since using MUS.

Doing better...it's been a while!

Yes, we ARE doing better since my last post in October. That, my goodness, was a difficult season. We are receiving therapy from The Baby Fold, our local homestudy agency. A therapist comes over once a week to work with the kids together and especially help Brendan to settle into a closer attachment to our family.

Since that post:

• Aidan turned 8! We had a fun family day + grandpa at Legoland in Schaumberg. Aidan loves all things Lego Ninjago and has recently discovered Angry Birds.
• We had our first Christmas with Brendan home. Fun times!!
• We were all really sick between Thanksgiving and Christmas...lots of sharing of germs!
• I've had numerous injuries to deal with since New Years...my knee, my foot, and my neck. Tried physical therapy for my knee, and when that didn't work I went to my wonderful chiropractor. He used a high-powered laser on my knee for a while and it's much better. My foot seems to be fine now, and my neck is better but not 100% yet. Gotta work on that posture!
• From Feb-May, we averaged 5 doctor appts/week. It has been a very expensive spring for us.
• I got the privilege to travel with my dad and sis to the Hamptons in New York for my second cousin's wedding! It was SO nice to get away for a few days, even if it was a whirlwind trip. I want another cannoli....
• Last weekend Iona turned 4! We took the family to the circus and had a family party at our house the next day. Our little princess is in love with the Disney princesses and dress-up and at the same time loves to be uber active.
• I just had sinus surgery yesterday, so I actually have a bunch of down time to blog a little! I can't do much for the next 2 weeks. I hope to have some time to sleep, price clothes for our garage sale, plan for school next year, and read, not in that order.

Coming up this summer:

• Another adoption garage sale in June. We are THRILLED at all the wonderful donations we have received. We finally got our tax return, so we're trying to pay off the last $4000+.
• Brendan's 6th birthday in June, and his first one with our family! Our sweet boy loves all things Cars and crafts.
• Finishing up this school year and planning for next...not sure about our start date yet for fall. Curriculum post to come...

Home from China FAQ and a plea for help

I have had zero time for blogging since we've been home. Once we got back, we dealt with health issues for all three kids and I sprained my ankle. I still don't have time to blog, but we are desperate to get this information out. Thank you to all who have been praying for us.

How is your family doing?

We are equally struggling and doing well. We love having three kids and the transition to that has been very smooth. However, each individual child has been struggling with the changes, and that has been exhausting for us. We've been overwhelmed at the immensity of our kids' personal challenges.

How is Brendan adapting?

We are past the honeymoon period. He and Aidan get along great. He doesn't like Iona much yet. Brendan has been attached to Daddy from day 1, and that has not changed. When Pete went back to work, Brendan would not look at me at all by the afternoon. That has gotten better, but even tonight Brendan got very upset at me wanting to put him to bed...he definitely wanted Daddy. We have the biggest power struggles with him at meal times. He is learning that we love him but we are also in charge. I am learning patience.

Has he learned any English words?

Brendan understands a heck of a lot more than he can speak. We've been home just over six weeks, and we've seen more confidence in him in the words he says. He is speaking a little louder, where before he would barely even whisper to us when speaking English. He can say hi, more, please, please may I be excused (with help), Aidan, Iona, Daddy, Momma, apple, cars, book, the ABC song, amen,

Is Aidan feeling better?

For those who didn't hear, Aidan was having chronic diarrhea that started about 2 weeks before we left. It was not bad while we were gone, but then returned just as we came home. We could not keep up with it and he was losing weight. The doctor ran a bunch of tests, and we discovered that he had too much yeast in his gut. He is now dairy-free, sugar-free, and white flour-free. He is taking a strong probiotic each day, and now he can tolerate some of the above foods in small amounts. We will be doing this for the next few months and then see what he can take.

How is Aidan doing with his new brother?

Aidan has adapted really well with all the changes. He shares a room with Brendan and has been willing to share all but one set of his toys (including the ninja turtles!). He loves having Brendan in the bunk beds. He has been a great leader, helping Brendan with some of the day-to-day routine. And he does it happily. We have seen an increase in anger in him, and a few more tears than usual. Just before we traveled we had to stop his occupational therapy for his sensory processing disorder (he is sensory-avoidant) due to insurance changes. We've realized that his anger comes when he is in "fight" mode, and we need to work on helping him self-regulate. We need to find a new therapist (probably out of town) who is covered by our insurance, does specific sensory therapy, and will allow me in the room so I can learn. Until then, we're trying some things with him around the house.

How is Iona doing?

This could be a whole post in itself. Iona had a difficult time with us leaving her to get Brendan, and we didn't realize just how much for a little while after we had been home. We are working to rebuild trust and felt safety with her and disarm her fear. She has been over-the-top defiant, screaming and laughing at inappropriate times. She does seem to enjoy Brendan, and sometimes they play together so beautifully. We've learned to decode Brendan's squeals to know whether he's happy or not, and usually she is involved. We've had to change most of our parenting strategies, and it's been a hard but good exercise to unlearn what isn't working or helpful. I just went to a conference with speaker Karen Purvis, author of The Connected Child. I'm not going to rehash the conference, because I think Karen, Jennifer, and Angela each summed it up in amazing ways, and I just don't have time. It was SO worth it for me to go, and we bought some videos to help us learn and process the material and parenting method. I had already read most of the book before the conference and had started some of the technique the week before, and we were seeing some progress. Then I went away and got some awesome information and encouragement and rest. This last week has been incredibly difficult, and we started school on top of it. We've wondered jokingly at various times if Iona has SPD but is a sensory-seeker, and at the conference I became even more convinced. When we find an OT for Aidan we plan to get her tested as well.

How are you two doing?

We are having fun with our newer, larger family. Nothing major has caught us off-guard. However, we are exhausted at the end of each day and don't know how we are going to get done what we need to in the evenings and wake up and start all over again. Only with Jesus. We are thankful for Purvis' book and the new strategies we are learning. We are also on a waiting list with our home study agency to receive play therapy in our home for our kids for free...we should be able to start in the next couple of months. We are excited to get some new parenting tools from that.

How can we help?

We are thankful to all who have asked this. I have not really known how to respond, because, due to attachment-building, we can't really leave the kids with a sitter and go out. Here are some other ideas:

• Come over and hang out with one of us here with the kids. Bring your kids if you want (as long as they are healthy!). The other one will get out for some respite time. We will not ask you to parent our kids, but we'd love it if you could hang out with the others when we have to hunt one down. If you educate at home, maybe we could work out some combined school time.
• Help us clean our house. This is very difficult when we are cooking, teaching, and dealing with orphanage dust.
• Pete will be on a business trip for 4 days in Oct. I could use support especially on those days!
• Invite us out to a park. We would rather not go to other people's homes just yet, but a park would be delightful, especially with the weather so nice.
• If you have another idea, please offer it up!

We would call YOU personally, and we really want to hear how YOU are doing, but life is a bit exhausting at the moment and the mental energy to do that has disappeared.

Please call me (home phone preferred, but you can try my cell) or email me. I am barely on Facebook right now, and since they've made all their changes I don't get email notifications of new messages.

the realization

I remember the moment like it was yesterday. When Aidan realized he was going to share us with a sibling. He was four.

We had driven to the library and parked across the street in our little two-door coupe. Aidan was chatting with us about his sister coming home. He got all sad and weepy and said, "But you're MY mommy and daddy!" At this point we were all crying. We got into the back seat with him (no small feat) and held him and told him how much we loved him, but that we loved his sister too.

That moment happened tonight with Iona.

She was sitting up in bed, well after lights out. I walk upstairs to find out why she is calling me. She looks really sad.

Iona: Mommy, why is Brendan living in our house?

Me: What do you mean, Iona? He's not here yet, but he's coming soon to live with us.

Iona: But you're not HIS mommy. You're MY mommy!

Me (hugging her): I am Aidan's mommy and Iona's mommy AND Brendan's mommy.

We went round and round about this for a little while and then she got all goofy and got herself into trouble.

I'm so blessed by my kiddos, and I'm so honored that Iona sees me as her mommy, no questions asked. I know the questions will come one day, but I'm thrilled at her attachment to me and her starting to think through having a new member of the family.

Meanwhile, Pete and I are reading through Ann Voscamp's One Thousand Gifts, and we've both just started our "gift lists." I'm excited to see what God will do in our hearts and in our family as a result.

Spring break!

We are on spring break this week and enjoying the rest. This week we have a bunch of doctor appts, but I hope to spend some time at local parks, spring cleaning, going through the kids' clothes, and just generally goofing off and having fun with the kids.

The kids and I have started seeing a chiropractor. My neck has been in a lot of pain for a few weeks, and I've aggrevated an old injury that never fully healed. We've been sick so much this winter that I thought it would be good for all of us to go, and we have some pre-tax medical money we need to use up before we lose at the end of the fiscal year. The kids like going to the "popcorn doctor" and are responding very well to treatment. The doc also thinks he can work with us on Aidan's sensory processing disorder, so we shall see. And my headaches are gone. I still have a lot of pain, but I'm slowly getting more range of motion. We've only had 3 visits.

I'm starting to think through next year's school plans. We will continue with some curriculum and change a few things. The biggest change is that we will add Brendan and Iona into our school time. And I'm considering switching to a year-round model. But, for now, I'm making my supply lists and saving up money for new curriculum.

Definitely will use: Story of the World Vol 2 (history), Math U See Beta (math), Apologia Zoology 1 (science), First Language Lessons 2 (grammar), Handwriting without Tears gr 3-4 workbooks (handwriting), Writing With Ease 2 (writing), Harmony Art Mom grade 2 (music and art), and a literature list of books from Sonlight/Ambleside Online/other sources, Confession of a Homeschooler's Letter of the Week curriculum (for Brendan and Iona).

Considering: Spelling Workout C/Spelling Power/Sequential Spelling, Veritas Press Gen-Joshua (Bible), character and hymn study resources on Simply Charlotte Mason's site.

Pete and I are planning to go to our first homeschool convention in June, so we're hoping for some ideas and clarity and a little getaway!

reunion!!

In early September we took a family vacation to Branson for the AWAA Ethiopia reunion. How special it was to put faces with names and people with blogs!! We were gone almost a week and were able to meet many dear friends face to face for the first time!!

Next year's reunion will be in Nashville. We really hope we can make it to that one midst moving into a new house and all.

Above are photos from day 1. Will get the rest up soon...

pictures

These were taken on Aidan's first day of school.

Me and Iona with Kristen Lunceford and Selah in the Chicago suburbs.


My mouth waters just looking at this plate. This was our Ethiopian meal in Evanston on Sunday.

Danielle Black and Selah, me and Iona, and Karen Bowman and Natalie. I love how the moms look excited and the kids couldn't care less.

first week

We've completed our first week of homeschooling. Whew!

We fell "behind" in the middle of the week due to a last-minute field trip to Sugar Grove Nature Center, but by the end of Friday we were almost completely "caught up." Not that it really matters, especially this early in the year. Some of my highlights this week were seeing Aidan "get it" with writing some of his numbers and watching his excitement when we did a few science experiments.

Iona gained 3 lbs and 2 inches in the last 3 months. And the doc confirmed she's getting her molars. That explains a lot from this week. But she was a real trooper with the homeschooling goings-on around here...I even got her to sit at the table and eat a snack and play with some small toys for quite a while when we did art yesterday. We do a lot of the school time when she is sleeping, but she enjoyed watching the art process.

Yesterday we watched Randy and Amy's daughter Kiri for the morning as we thought Amy might be having her baby, but alas, no go. It was really a good situation all around, but we just want to meet the new little princess. Even with our visitor for the morning, we got SO much school done yesterday and had a ton of fun with it.

This afternoon we're going up to Chicago for a whirlwind trip. Tonight we're having Chicago pizza with the Luncefords. Tomorrow for lunch we will be in Racine, WI for a baby shower for my second cousin, also known as a big family reunion on my mom's side where everyone will get to meet Iona. Then for dinner we'll be back in the suburbs for an Ethiopian dinner with the Bowmans and Blacks. Then back home that night. We're excited to see our friends again. Today is also our 11-year anniversary, and while this will be a fun family trip to celebrate, I think we'll do a date night by ourselves sometime soon. :)

I'll try to post pictures next time...

first day of school--kindergarten

Today we started homeschooling Aidan. It went remarkably well! I think I learned a lot as well. I felt like we rushed through this morning...I think I was really concerned with how to fit everything in and how long each subject would take. All and all, we were done in 1.5 hours, but we split that up a bit. I hope I will be a little more relaxed tomorrow! But we both had fun, and I even got to play with his playmobil castle with him a bit before Iona woke up. I'll post photos sometime soon...

I was disciplining ALL day though. I think both kids had time outs before 9 am. Iona melted down all day, though. She even took 2 naps. I finally determined she must be teething something awful...she was drooling MUCH more than usual and was very clingy and crabby. We go for her 15-month appointment this week, so I wonder if we'll discover more teeth by then, or maybe the beginnings of molars...

referralversary and cloth diapers

One year ago today we got "the call." We had waited 9 months and 5 days for our referral. It was such a happy day here! Iona was almost 3 months old in these photos.

Iona's getting so big!! Almost 15 months old now.

She is outgrowing some of her cloth diapers (just the ones that are sized S-M-L; most of them are one-size), so today I took the kids to my favorite local diaper store to make a purchase. Fun!

We got two more one-size diapers and three size large diapers. One for nighttime and four for day. And we got a really fun wet-and-dry bag in pink swirl. Now I don't have to carry the big diaper bag everywhere! And maybe I can go more than two days between washes...we'll see.

In Iona's diaper wardrobe are: Swaddlebees, Blueberry (including a couple minkys), Knicker Nappies, and Tiny Tush. Tee Hee!

our family's favorite books

This is one of Iona's absolute favorite books:

The Belly Button Book by Sandra Boynton.

I was going to post a pic, but alas, it's out of print!!

Iona laughs and laughs when we read this or other Boynton books. Be bo!!

We are super excited that Mo Willems has a new Elephant and Piggie book out, called Elephants Cannot Dance! We adore ALL of his books--Pigeon, Elephant and Piggie, Knuffle Bunny, Naked Mole Rat, and Leonardo are all part of our family. And Time to Pee! is a classic. :)

some fun links

We enjoyed sitting around the computer and looking through these this morning...



Last week at a local park we got to see a turtle laying eggs. We went home and looked up videos on you tube of turtles laying eggs, and we laughed and laughed at this video.




Like legos? We adored the use of legos here and here.

Aidan is the family inventor, and it was so neat for him to see what can be done with drawing and inventions and some of his favorite toys.

children's music

Our library's summer reading program tonight had a FREE concert with Jim Gill. We found one of his CDs at the library a few weeks ago and we've really enjoyed dancing around the house and singing along. We were SO excited that he performed a bunch of songs from that CD at the "family room concert."

LOVE IT! If you haven't heard of him, please look for his music at your local library or music store. Did I say he's also an author? He performed "A Song Opera" for the crowd tonight, and it was hilarious. Even Iona got into it!

We're a little picky about our kid music around here. Ok, we're music snobs to some extent. Jim's music is just pure fun.

He reminds us in many ways of Dan Zanes, who is a big family favorite.

We let Aidan pick out one CD and got Jim to autograph it for Aidan and Iona. So fun!!

teeth and taekwondo

Iona seems to be getting more teeth coming in. I can't seem to tell where they are coming, but she's chewing on her hand and drooling buckets. And she's started BITING. Never went through that with Aidan. She's been wrestling on the floor with Aidan and biting him on the back. He runs around with wet spots on the back of his shirt. She has only hurt him one time, but now, of course, we are on the lookout for it more. She did bite me once today, but she learned pretty quickly that it wasn't appropriate. Thanks to a friend's suggestion, I gave her some crunchy food with dinner. She got to try a frosted mini wheat and thought it was amazing!

She also is learning to climb on the furniture. She can climb on the chair with no problem--we've had to move some of the things we kept out of her reach over there. She can ALMOST get on the couch and gets REALLY mad if we don't help.

On the plus side, she has learned to say "hug" and "hi" recently. She'll go around and say hi over and over again--so cute! And she will come up to us and hug and kiss us pretty often. She and Aidan play together so well for the most part. She hates to see Aidan in time out--she tries to either sit with him and hug him when he's crying or keep peeking at him.

Aidan has been taking taekwondo at this wonderful local gym. This Saturday he will be testing to move up to the next belt--white with a yellow stripe. He has to do the star form and also will get to break a board. It's so neat to see him progress in this. He loves it so much because he gets to be like the ninja turtles. He's really growing in his coordination. We are so excited for him! We've also had Iona in a mommy-and-me gymnastics class and she is doing very well in there. I think she's the littlest one, but she amazes us with what she can do there. We think we're going to keep her in it through the school year to give her some one-on-one time with us.

We're gearing up for school starting in a couple of weeks around here. I can't believe the summer is going so fast! We haven't spent as much time this year in the water or at the park, but it's been hard with Iona's 2-nap schedule. As of this week, I lay her down for an hour in the morning but she usually doesn't sleep. It's good for her to have some time by herself, though. But what's nice now is that if we have something going on in the morning, we can go out and do that and not interrupt the nap-she-never-takes in the morning. And when school starts, I'll have an hour of uninterrupted time with Aidan to work.

We talked with Aidan tonight a little about how school may not always be in the morning for us. On certain days, when we have something big happening that day, school may be in the afternoon or evening or not at all. He had a rough time with that info, but by the end he seemed to come around. We've learned he needs to be mentally prepared for changes like that...just like his mommy! We specifically mentioned the day we readopt Iona, which will happen in the morning. On that day we'll probably do some school in the afternoon. Or skip it. We'll see.

Speaking of homeschooling, I just came across this WONDERFUL site, and I'm excited to dig into it more.

We're starting to get the itch for a bigger house. We need a fenced yard for our kids--living on the corner next to train tracks with no fence isn't the most ideal, although after visiting Ethiopia we are so blessed and thankful for what we have. We're also looking for more bedrooms as we think of adding to our family. We'd like to pay off debt first and put on a new roof and maybe fix a couple of other things around here, but we'll see what happens. We had talked about moving away from the area at one point, but we have no leads at the moment. I guess we'll see what God wants to show us when He is good and ready for us to move.

My strong Iona

When we first picked up Iona from Ethiopia, we knew she was a strong little one. Very malnourished (11 lbs at 6 months old), but very strong. She was crawling, pulling up, and holding her own bottle. We thought we would be bringing home a little blob of a baby, but we had to babyproof immediately. By 9 months old she was walking. This last month she did some other amazing things--my little gingerbread baby.

Iona is now 1 week shy of 14 months old. This is what she did tonight.




I think I see a crib tent or some sleep sacks in our near future.

At least she's not doing this:

library photos

We completed the library reading program this last week and went to the library to claim our prizes. Aidan was delighted that the theme this year was on wild animals. Here, he got to meet the gorilla statue in the library.

Here is Aidan with the snake at the library.

And here, Aidan told us he was the gorilla's baby. We laughed so hard!

family time

It was so nice to have Pete home today with no major agenda on our schedule!

We decided to take the kids after naps today to our local zoo. We got there just in time to see the big cats get fed. We saw the sun bears, gibbons, leopard, and tiger get their dinner. So cool. We walked around the zoo until closing time and then went over to the nearby playground and sprinkler park. The kids were in their regular clothes, but they sure didn't mind! We took off Iona's shorts and let her run around in her onesie and cloth diaper. She boldly walked up to the sprinkler area, got her feet wet, and then slowly walked toward the sprinkler itself. What a surprise!! She immediately ran toward daddy with her arms up and a look of "what the heck!" Her princess side came out--not wanting to be a part of it at all. However, she watched for a while and then got back down and did it all over again. :)

Aidan boldly ran right in the middle of the sprinklers and got soaked, laughing wildly. What a change from a few years ago! He would have never done that when he was younger. He went back and forth between the playground and the sprinklers. And for the first time, when I announced that it was time to go home and eat dinner, the little stinker ran away from me right into the water! Let's just say we had a little talk about that on the way home...

I feel guilty that this was the first time this summer that we've gone to one of the local, FREE sprinkler parks. I think we'll be back soon. Maybe even this next week.

On another random note, I just finished reading Lisa Samson's Embrace Me. It's by far the best Christian fiction I have read this year. And that is saying something. Wow. Highly recommended!

Aidan's bug friend

Remember yesterday's post about Aidan and his fly friend?

The madness continues.

We have spent the last 1/2 hour here in the house chatting about his fly friend. I found a dead fly and threw him away, and Aidan was really upset that it might be his little bug friend. I told him there was probably plenty of other bug friends in the house after the garage sale today. We talked about the chance that Raphael, his fly, might die or disappear, but if that happens he could always find another fly. The new fly could be Raphael II. Aidan thought he would name it Leonardo. I asked him how he would tell his multiple fly friends apart, and he said they would wear headbands that were different colors!! Now the boy wants to make headbands for his fly friends and hand it to them so they can put them on.

Oh brother.

I think we need a pet. And not a fly, either.

garage sale and update

So I've been quiet because I've been getting ready for a garage sale this week. Today wasn't as busy as I expected at the sale--I think the heat is keeping people away. We'll see how things go tomorrow and Saturday. We're hoping to get enough money to get these shelves from IKEA for our homeschooling supplies. We have some other things on our wish list, but we'll see what happens. :)

There were so many funny conversations with the kids today. Aidan is just hilarious! Pete posted about it here in today's post. We've told him he can have the money from the toys of his that sell at the sale. He's excited about getting to buy new things, but he's coming out to the garage every few minutes asking if his things have sold. Then he's either sad because they haven't or sad because they have.

All this going in and out has given us a nice family of flies in the house. Aidan caught one between his fingers today and brought it into Iona's bedroom to show her, letting it fly away. He named it Raphael. Nice. It's not the first time he's caught flies in his hand.

We went to see a presentation this week given by Wildlife Prairie Park in Peoria. It was here in town thanks to the library reading program. They had a toad, a skunk, a snapping turtle, an albino snake, and an owl to present to the kids. Aidan's favorites were the snake and the turtle. Of course. Exactly the ones momma DIDN'T like. The snapping turtles mouth still gives me nightmares.

We've enjoyed having Pete home this week from work. Iona got strep throat earlier this week and had a very high fever, but she's doing much better. We've been doing some fun free activities around town this week. On Sunday Pete is DJing a wedding up by my dad's, so we're going up with him and I'll take the kids to visit a friend. We may even get to go to IKEA to get the shelves...we'll see.