Shhhh...Craziness has slowed down a bit!

Well things finally feel like they are getting back to an even pace, of course an even pace around here still means we are going at warp speed most days, but hey we will rest when we are dead - right?

KM and the other kids from the coop did an UNBELIEVABLE performance of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" on Monday night! We were all blown away by their performances. Hopefully I will have some pics by the end of the week, as of course I forgot my camera and our camcorder died out about a minute and a half into the performance. There were lots of others taking pics and video though, so we should be able to get a copy soon. The kids were so proud of themselves and had a fabulous time, but it was EXHAUSTING!

The weather has been gorgeous this week and finally feels like spring is here to stay so we will be spending a LOT more time out and about in the warm sunshine!

Well I am going to go enjoy the quiet for a few minutes before we head outside to finish reading The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White.

Be sure to find some time to enjoy the day!

Revamping the blog -

Spring is all about rebirth and renewal and I think that over the last year my blogging has lost it's way a little bit and I am going to get it back on track. I am going to be focusing only on our homeschooling and life as it pertains to learning around here! Of course their maybe some parenting along with it as this is all a part of learning and growing together.

I have been debating starting another blog for all of the other stuff, fitness goals and such, but I am not sure when I will be getting around to that. For now our focus HERE will be on our educational pursuits!

I will be continuing with our crazy holidays as KM really likes them and I have gotten a lot of feedback about how useful they are! If there is anything that you all would like to see here - let me know! I would love the input.

Finally....

I am home!!!

Just wanted to post a quick note to let everyone know that I am finally home safe and sound!!!
I don't even want to get into the ridiculousness of what went on today...I am just going to head to MY bed!!!!

Thanks for all the well wishes and though we did really have a great visit, it was such a wonderful relief to walk through my front door!

STILL in Maine...

...waiting for my car to be fixed! It hasn't all been bad, by any means, but I would like to go home at some point! The dealership got the part to fix my car on Saturday and it was broken - OF COURSE! - and since there is no mail service today they have to have the part over-nighted tomorrow, to arrive on Wednesday morning. The killer part for me is the fact that the part will literally take less then 20 minutes to put in.

Of course KM is having a wonderful time and even had her first successful skiing experience. Here are some pics...

Hopefully I will truly be leaving Wed - they are expecting 12-18 inches of snow and I would like to avoid that if possible!!!

Friday the 13th

.....UUUUGGGHHHHH

KM's best friends -twins who live two states away - were born on 2/14. I received a phone call about 2 weeks ago BEGGING me to bring KM for their birthday party. We had not seen them in quite awhile and it worked out that I did not have SC on the weekend in question, so to quiet the squealing tweens I agreed to make the trek.

Since the sleepover was being held on Friday, I figured I would be able to be back by late Saturday afternoon to still spend Valentine's Day with CJ. We left right on time and everything was going great! We made it through Boston with no traffic, Rt 1 was clear sailing, and we made it to the Burger King just in time to not have to wait in line. I thought for sure everything was going to be fine! Then suddenly as I was coming to the crest of a hill, the car felt funny. It was as if I had hit the cruise control off, but I could not accelerate. I pulled to the side of the turnpike and my car died!

I must interject here to state that my ride is not really fancy, it is a Land Rover Freelander that I have had for just over 5 years. I have NEVER had ANY problems with it. Other than regular maintenance I have not had to spend a penny. It has under 50,000 miles on it, as most of my driving is within a 10 mile radius.

Now back to the story - I swear I thought my head was going to explode!!!!! What do I do? I am in another state. I barely know where I am. The neurotic over packer, only packed one change of clothes and one set of pj's for each of us, as we were only suppose to be staying overnight. I did not pack extra snacks or drinks as I knew we were going to be stopping at the same rest area we always do. So here I am the one who is always prepared for everything, TOTALLY UNPREPARED FOR THIS!

I call CJ and of course immediately start FREAKING out! I have no idea what I am going to do. I am not unfamiliar with the workings of a car, I took mechanics in high school, my grandfather was a mechanic, CJ is obsessed with Jeeping, my brother-in-law is a mechanic, and my father drag races and has been featured in several racing magazines. Yet here in this situation, where I have no control and there are HUGE trucks and cars whizzing by me at 80-90mph I can not think of what I am suppose to do! CJ of course is also freaking out at the thought of me broken down on the highway, but he talks me through checking everything as best as he can. This is no use as everything that I can check is fine!

Back into the car I go and we begin thinking. Okay I have a Land Rover, hey they have this really good roadside assistance program which is the reason why I do not have AAA. So we call them up and I am told that the nearest dealer - which is the only place that they can tow me to, is 58 miles away and they will only cover tows if they are under 50 miles. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!

Okay next option - have the computer limited CJ look up a local tow service in the town that is listed on the only sign that I can see on the highway. NOT GOING TO WORK - I love him, I truly do, but he is just not computer savvy AT ALL. I think for a second and as I turn my head to the right I spot my GPS - DUHHHHH. I pull up the menu and locate the closest gas station - I love my GARMIN!!! it even listed the phone number! I called and they were only a gas station, but the attendant was sooooo helpful. He gave me the name of a station right around the corner and even looked up the phone number for me!

CJ was of course very leery of me going to some totally random auto shop to have my car worked on - see above mentioned reasons as to why this maybe so... - but I was very optimistic, when the man who answered the phone new right off the bat that they need to send out a car carrier to get me as my vehicle is AWD!!! Most mechanics don't even know what a Freelander is - they only made them for 3 years and as I mentioned they RARELY break down!

----Homeschooling Side Note---- KM was in the back of the car during this whole panic attack inducing affair with her headphones on and doing her SCOPE magazine assignment. She didn't even realize that there was anything wrong until I got out of the car before the tow truck got there!!!

So they came in no time to rescue us. When we walked into the shop, the very nice man behind the counter said "What were you thinking trying to travel on Friday the 13th!" Well gee thanks!!! I began to state how I am not superstitious and I don't think that the date had any relevance to the events of the day, but stopped myself mid sentence when the tow truck driver came up behind him with a not so happy look on his face. "It doesn't look very good!" Great, I thought, I am just going to hold off on my speech as to not tempt any further aggravation of the gods - hmmmm maybe I am a little superstitious. I sit down and wait for them to run the diagnostics.

Minutes later they come out to tell me my fuel pump is junk! FANTASTIC!!! I know that on a "normal" car this would run about $300-400. The man calls around and finds one that is $975 - are you KIDDING ME! Well I don't really have a choice now do I. So the man gets back on the phone and goes about getting the parts and I go about trying to find a way to get out of this place!

A few minutes later the man calls me into his office. He says he has called several locations and not only do they need the part, but they need a special tool because it is a Land Rover - OF COURSE THEY DO!!! - they could do the work and it would cost me about $1480. I swear I thought my head was going to explode!

He then says, "but today is your lucky day! I called a friend of mine at the Land Rover dealership and apparently there is a recall on your fuel pump!" I could have kissed him! I swear I almost reached over the desk and kissed him! So my car was off to the dealership and will be fixed Monday.

At about this same time I get a phone call that the grandparents of the aforementioned twins we are going to visit are about 20 minutes away and would be more than happy to swing by and pick us up on there way! Yippeee!!! Rescued again!!

KM is very happy that she gets a few extra days with her friends and I get a few days of doing, well not much of anything, but hanging out really. Guess Noni thought I needed a break!

I truly don't feel that I am superstitious, but I think Noni was looking out for me today! Friday the 13th was always a running joke in our house when I was growing up because my parents got me on Friday 10/13/1978! I used to tell Noni that she should have known right then to send me back because I was going to be a handful!!! THANKS NONI for letting me know that you are still there keeping your eye on us! I guess I do believe the date played into the events of the day, but next time Noni, you truly could do something a bit more subtle!!!

Utterly Exhausted -

There is no other way to describe how I feel right now! I awoke at 1:30a to complete blackness in my room, no idea why I woke up, but there I was laying there wide awake. Suddenly there was a huge flash of green light - honestly I thought I was dreaming that they aliens had arrived - then there were three power surges and another HUGE flash of light. The transformer blew three houses down and the power was out for our grid of the neighborhood.

Normally most people wouldn't have a problem with a power outage in the middle of the night, but you see it was 23 degrees out and we noticed that it was still snowing - it was suppose to stop that hours ago - We look out in the driveway and their is a good 4 more inches on the driveway that CJ had plowed before he dropped himself into bed last night - he had been plowing all day -

Of course the first thing I thought of was I am hungry - don't ask, I am always starving when I wake up in the middle of the night - so I go out to the kitchen and I hear this faint humming noise coming from KM's room, she had also woken up and was listening to her MP3 player with her battery powered speaker. She jumped right out of bed when she heard me in the kitchen - she gets that hunger trait from me - so I made her, CJ and I PB&J sandwiches, we lit some candles and had a picnic in our bedroom.

As we were sitting their, CJ's phone rang and he was off again to plow some more. He decided to get a fire going as we had been without power now for a little over an hour. He also got the generator ready before he left in case I needed to hook up the oil burner to it. Our oil tank is outside and exposed to the elements so he gets very nervous about the line coming into the house freezing. So I sat down in front of the fire with the Brian Jacques book I have been reading - Mossflower, the sequel to Redwall - and made sure it stayed going.

140 pages later, I realized I should probably close my eyes for a bit. So I put the book down, but within minutes - OF COURSE - the lights came back on. Now there were multiple things beeping and going off around the house that I needed to fix. I finally got everything quieted and made sure the heat was working properly, before I headed to bed.

So now I am sitting here, drinking coffee, waiting for SC to come...hopefully I will get to take a nice long nap with her this afternoon!

First Art Project of the New Year and updates on older projects!

We have been getting antsy around here with holiday things slowing down so we decided to work on a project today. KM got this incredibly cool book for Yule and so we thought today would be a great day to try some of those marked pages - can you see how many she has marked off, there are more tabs coming out of the bottom that you can't even see!
KM picked "Past, Present & Future Picture Show" - but of course, as with everything around here, we had to tweak it a little, so we did past, middle and present.

These are the three pictures that she choose to work with:

We used butcher paper instead of construction paper, as we didn't have any big enough for all three pictures across - she measured the 1/2 inch increments diligently.
Since she was pressing into the soft top of the card table while she was drawing the lines it actually made it easier to make the creases.

The hardest part was making sure that the picture strips were in order and right-side up as they were glued onto the paper.Final product - even front view

View tilted to the right:

View tilted to the left:

There were some other things that we thought of to try for next time, like leaving a small amount of space between each for the fold, so that it comes out with cleaner lines. We also thought the if we had used bigger pictures and stuck to close ups it would look more even and clean, but I kinda like the differences in the context of the three that she chose.

As far as the update on the other projects, I have been a bit side tracked with them lately, but I have converted all of our VHS videos to DVD. I have not as of yet burned them to DVD, I have them backed up though as AVI files for now. I also got HP SimpleSave for some of my families members and myself for christmas and after hearing multiple stories over the last few weeks of people losing ALL there pics from computers crashing, I have all the photos backed up and stored safely away! Yippee!!!

I also had a sudden urge - or I guess it could be a realization of sorts - when I was putting the Christmas decorations away, to put out some new pictures. I realized that I hadn't printed any new pics in quite a while and didn't have any pics of SC up anywhere - of course she is here sooo much do I really need pics of her up? (JK) So I went in search of pics to hang up, I also had CJ bring up a box of frames from the garage that I had left over from Noni's stuff. Of course a lot of the pictures that she had were duplicates to those that I already had up, so I thought I could reuse some of the frames. Well as I began taking pictures out, I realized that she had been reusing these frames as well, and I found some HYSTERICAL pics of MC and I when we were young. They are sooooo bad I can't even post them here as I would have to fear for my life - really her hair was just soooo big! I don't know how they didn't realize that something that could hold your hair up that HIGH was not good for the environment. So that was a good little chuckle I had going through all the old photos, half of which I had forgotten about or thought were gone forever!

Now that I have all the older photos that are already digital backed up. I am going to start, over the next few weeks, going through the older baby pics and scanning them into the computer. That is going to be the time consuming part, but I figure that computer and scanner are in our Play/School room so I can work on it while KM is doing her independent study stuff and I can still be within reach if she needs me and if SC is here I can stay contain in the room with her. I think it will work out, I just have to get it started!

The Year in Review

As I went along my merry route through my blog list today, I noticed that quite a few people were reminiscing of happenings from the past year - of course this led me to think of all the things that have transpired during 2008.

I would say that here at GCK Homeschool the word for the year would have to be:
revelations - an enlightening or astonishing disclosure

The first revelation would have to have been how wonderful homeschooling can be! We began our jaunt into Homeschooling in January and we will never turn back! She really has blossomed over the last year. Of course we have had some challenges, but that has generally been more about getting our rhythms and schedules in order, than any kind of reluctance or lack of interest in learning - in fact her love of learning has been reignited! She gets truly excited about what we are investigating and experimenting with. Anything hands-on is better than sitting in a classroom reading about what you could be doing - right! The favorite experiment would have to be the growing crystals:

The second revelation would have to come from the fantastic local resources that we had been missing out on while KM was in PS. We have had some wonderful field trips with our local homeschool groups and on our own, for that matter. I have been trying to think of what my favorite would be if I had to choose one and I would have to say that there were 2 favorites. The first one would be our trip to Concord's Orchard House - to see the home where Louisa May Alcott grew up - and Walden Pond - where Henry David Thoreau went to the woods -

Running a close second would be our day going to the Big Top Circus and the GIANT Build-a-Bear Store in Faneuil Hall!
The third revelation is one of our familial codependency. Our family has become extremely close during the last year and though we have had some sadder moments, the trials and tribulations have brought us to realize how important we truly are to each other. We lost some wonderful family members during the year and had some close calls with some others. I tried to stay on the lighter side of things here, but I felt I should mention it so that no one thinks it is all just sunshine and textbooks around here. Real life events and experiences can be so much more intriguing than anything you could read about in a book. We have had a lot of anatomy lessons come about from some simple explanations of illnesses!

I have never really been big on New Year Resolutions, as I have seen so many get forgotten within days - sometimes hours - of the ball dropping. However this year I am resolving to put our family's true beliefs into practice, to create our own traditions, and to be a united front against anything that stand in our way! We have become a better family and we WILL continue to keep moving in this direction!

My Favorite New Years Quote :

This bright new year is given me

To live each day with zest

To daily grow and try to be

My highest and my best!

By: William Arthur Ward

Best Wishes for a Bright and Happy New Year!

A Fantastic Holiday Week in Review

With such a multifaceted family structure our Solstice/Christmas Holiday lasts at least a week. With the visits slowing down I thought I would share some of our favorite pics from the week!

Matching aprons to help with the baking!

Playing with Grampa!


Some favorite presents:SC's was a box and...

& a new step stool!

KM's was her Nintendo DS - she was VERY surprised!

Mine was my new mixer!!! - Life will be sooo much easier!

Hope you all had a wonderful Holiday!!!

Almost there -

Things have finally gotten back to a bit of a more normal rhythm around here, so I should be back to more of the usual "homeschooly" postings that are normally around here.

We will be using a lot of the leftover and extra construction materials and packaging for some really cool art and science projects so I will be sure to share those as they happen!

Thanks to all who have been patiently stopping by during this slow blogging, but chaotic family time!!!

Time has gotten away...

and I am just not sure where to start at the moment. Lots of things have been going on and we have had to put a lot of others on hold, but I believe we will be able to get back on track this week.
I don't know how to explain the magnitude of the situations that have been going on without it sounding completely ridiculous - so I will just say that I should be able to get back to my regular homeschooling mom blogging habits.

Thanks again to all who have sent the wonderful well wishes and to all who have been patient with me over the past few weeks!

Another one done!!!

Thanks sooooo much again for all the well wishes over the weekend. DD's surgery went extremely well yesterday and she will be coming for a few days respite at our house tomorrow (Wed) to recuperate. 2 for 2!

You are all great!

Thanks so much for all the wonderful emails, notes and prayers!
LP made it through her surgery fabulously and without a hitch!
One down - one to go!
Your support and well wishes are appreciated more than you can know!

Thoughts of upcoming weeks ---

My blogs may be short or far between over the next few weeks as we will be spending lots of time visiting and helping out with medical things in our "outer" family circle. I say "outer" family in reference to those who do not live under my roof. My family has so many layers, twists and combinations that it can get a bit confusing for those of us in the family never mind anyone on the outside looking in. I love all aspects of my family and of course want to be there to support them as much as I can.
On top of all the medical things going on, we still only have one car! Hopefully by Tuesday CJ's truck will be out of the body shop and I will be able to drive his little "BIC" car ~ we call it the disposable car, because he bought it last spring when the gas prices hit their peak for $600 and it paid for itself in gas savings over the truck in about 3 weeks time ~ which will make life a bit easier so that I won't have to keep juggling to borrow MC's car.
Speaking of MC, she is newly pregnant and moving on Halloween! So I am sure that you can only imagine what a stressed out ball of who knows what she has been as of late!

Okay - Enough with my ramblings!

We will be juggling our own - and others - doctors' appointments, 3 birthday parties, having SC nearly everyday, clubs and coop classes, our normal everyday stuff, and anything else that comes our way over the next few weeks!

BUT WE WILL MAKE IT!
We always do!
We will breathe through it...
and we will make it!

Week in Review!!

Lots went on this week...

here are some pics!First day of coop - busy busy!

A day with my nieces! OR will be 2 in about 2 weeks and SC is 16 mo.
They had a great afternoon playing together

Then my brother got home from school and all h@@@ broke loose!

SC learned how to use the stool to help with the dishwasher...
she has been fascinated by it since she could crawl -
don't know why, but I am not going to complain!

CJ had Monday off due to rain, so he had time to make an awesome gate
to keep the dogs off and SC on the back porch!
This will help with my sis's fears a bit!
(not of the dogs, but of SC running around the house and out into the street!)

Since it has been so wet in the mornings we also decided to put the house on the deck for the season, this way it will dry quicker and we won't have to deal with the soaking wet grass in the morning either.

Although our trip to the zoo started off with a bang...
or it was more of a crash really...
none of us were hurt and KM and I got some great shots of the animals.
The gorillas come right up to the windows and start posing as soon as they see flashes going off!

KM took this one of the wildebeest.
I absolutely love the lighting through the trees!
When we came out of the gift shop this peacock was just strolling around.
The leopards were a bit tricky to get and I am surprised, due to the lighting that these came out at all.
I had to share this one because we never knew that the giraffe's had to spread their legs like this in order to eat from the ground.

So my thoroughly exhausting week is over and done with - nearly, of course MC will be over in a bit to take KM out to get her nails done and go for dinner (part of her bday present), so CJ and I will be going out to eat as well, I still have to go to the insurance inspectors tomorrow to have pics taken of the car, we never got to our election studies or music theory for this week so we will have to do catch up on those tomorrow, KM has her best friend sleeping over for the weekend, I have lesson plans to get done for next week,.... and about 50 other things I can think of off the top of my head - does it ever really stop? Does the "To Do" list ever really get completely finished?

Well, none the less, I will be taking it at a bit of a slower pace as we will be down a vehicle and since CJ's truck is still in the body shop from his accident last month, we will actually only have one drivable car! We haven't had this happen for years! Oh well things happen for a reason. I am most thankful that there were no injuries and we have insurance to cover everything. KM's only concern after the accident was whether we were going to still get to go to the zoo! Gotta love the minds of kids!

Project Update - 2

I have made a lot of progress on getting the pics in our main PC more organized, but I still have a LONG way to go and therefore have not even started to scan KM's baby pics that we don't have in the computer yet. I have been making moving right along with the VHS to DVD conversion though, because I can get it started and then I can walk away and do whatever while it uploads, it is SO easy!

I have converted about half and then I will start to edit, compile, add and take out sound and hopefully get it all onto one or two DVDs with different chapters and such.
I have done this before with pictures but never with video so it will be interesting to try it out.

Scary moments

Though I have tried to stay as positive as I can lately, it seems as though every time I turn around another scary moment is smacking me in the face. DD and LP have been spending many days at the doctor's as of late for various things, while some more serious than others it is very nerve wracking to wait for consultations and test results for loved ones.

Then today at lunch we had one rather scary moment, here in our own house. KM, SC, CJ, and I were all having lunch together when suddenly KM said, "What does it mean if I can't see right here?" and she pointed to her left side. Upon further questioning it seemed that she was having throbbing pain over her right eye, as well as loss of left peripheral vision. To avert the panic that was rising in my stomach, I immediately called her doctor's office, spoke with a nurse, made an appointment and had her go lay down until it was time to go. She was asleep within minutes -while I sat trying to not panic - and when I woke her up an hour later to go to the doctor, her vision had cleared. When we got to the doctor's, KM was very thorough in answering all the questions herself - she can be so mature when she needs to be - and the doctor felt incredibly certain that it was a textbook migraine attack. She suggested lots of rest, documenting all attacks, and ibuprofen to help when one hits. Since KM will be seeing her primary care at the end of the month for her yearly physical, we did not need to schedule another appointment before then.

So now we sit and wait to see if another one hits her...I am soooo not good at waiting.
I feel like this is all I have been doing lately. Waiting to hear back about someone's something!

New Project Update 1

Thanks to DD, I got my new audio video toy! It is a VHS to DVD converter and I LOVE IT!!!
Although I have not gotten around to scan the pics yet, I have taken advantage of this very dreary, rainy afternoon and the fact that CJ took KM to the movies, since he can't paint in the rain, to begin this long process of converting VHS to DVD! The only down fall - which of course would be the same as with any other product like this - is that you have to have the video playing the WHOLE time. I have like 60 hours of tapes to go through! The other problem with this in our house is that we only have one VCR left and it is in the playroom, so I have to be picky about when I can use it. I will figure something out though to get it done! Wish me luck!

We are back from our WONDERFUL trip!!!

We arrived home last night and thank the heavens had a wonderful flight both ways and very little bad weather while we were there! We had some great adventures and learned some pretty cool stuff along the way!

Saturday we went to Pine Island and had a wonderful afternoon on the beach. As you can see it was a bit cloudy, but the most amazing thing happened. Gustaf was passing over the Gulf at this point and as we were sitting on the beach we looked out and saw these things that kept popping out of the water - then we realized they were dolphin fins! A pod of dolphins was swimming less than 50 ft off the shore! It was the most amazing thing! Of course we couldn't get close to them, but still - KM technically got to swim with dolphins!!! How cool is that!
You can't see them in the picture above, but they were swimming just past the landing near the signs.

KM has ALWAYS loved to make sandcastles and dig at the beach, but she decided to turn herself into a mermaid instead!

Sunday we went to the MOSI - in Tampa!

KM, my dad and his wife played a very large game of operation!

We played a few rounds of a great game show!

KM got to experience what it feels like to be in the center of a twister!
The wind speeds went up to 85mph!

We ended our day in their HUGE hands-on activity section called Kids-In-Charge!
This was the greatest kids section of a musuem I have EVER seen. It covered everything from magnets to air pressure, optical illusions to logic puzzles and everything in between!

Monday we hung around the pool area and didn't do much of anything - you just need those days sometimes!
Tuesday we were off to the Lowry Zoo for some close encounters with some amazing animals!

and lots of babies!

The meerkats were so cute!!! It seemed like their was always one watching you!

The lemurs have always been my favorites - I think because we watched soooo much Zoboomafoo when KM was little!
We fell in love with Manatees on our last visit and still think they are amazing creatures! We had the whole Sting Ray pool to ourselves! KM wouldn't touch one, but grampa did!

There were sooo many baby animals. It seemed like every turn we made there was another sign saying "New Arrivals"

All and all it was a great day at the zoo!!!

On Wed we went to do one of Grampa's favorite things - Bowling!
We are used to candelpin, but they don't even know what that is in the south,
so it was off to the big balls - Ten Pin Bowling!

Then we played in the small arcade for a bit!
Thursday was our last day in the tropics! (It was HUMID) so KM wanted to try some Shuffleboard! She did really well.
On the flight home Thursday evening I asked KM what her favorite part of the trip was -

Here response was playing the funny piano at the MOSI - turn on your sound:

Instead of playing different instruments, this keyboard played different bodily functions!

All and all it was a very good, relaxing, enjoyable trip! Just what we needed!