We are starting a new school study unit, and I'm so excited!
I think I went overboard on the book department.
We are going to read King Arthur and Sword in the Stone (which we already started), among a few other fun stories.
I'm super excited about this one! I mean it's knights and castles, what could go wrong?
I had to work today.
Yes, I do work on occasion. The military transfer season has begun (a little early this year) and I am contracted by those moving to do their “moveout cleans”. Basically, clean it to white glove checkout inspection.
But it’s Sunday, which is our new Family Day, and I wasn’t about to miss it.
So I took a two hour break from scrubbing an oven, came home and made a Game Night dinner board. Obviously it had to be something quick and easy today. The menu? hot dogs, chili, cheese, potato wedges and veggies. Not only easy but a massive hit with the kids.
Game of choice was also quick and easy, playing two rounds of Keys to the Castle, and then catching up on our daily RPG calendar.
I had to run back to work, but it was worth taking the time to put family first
Today was the last regular season hockey game of the year. After this is all State team practice, which includes Cam, but this is the last big hurrah for the entire 37 man squad.
Cam and I got up early and bought donuts for the team as a good sendoff. I felt like a fatty buying 50 donuts at once. No they’re not all for me. No, no one actually asked that but I felt like I needed to defend my donut eating honor.
We had to seat belt the boxes into Calen’s empty seat, there were so many.
Cam, sporting his newly appointed “C”, played two games, was rock solid defense and got a beautiful sniper goal.
It was a great day
A big, big day for little Cam.
His State team coach named him CaptaIn of the State B travel team.
Considering the adversity he’s had to overcome this season, this is a HUGE deal. He’s taking the job seriously, and is working hard to be a great leader out on the ice
There's something to be said about going to bed and poking your head out of the laundry room window to see if the Northern Lights were out (because there's an app for that and the app told me that there's a good chance), and there they were, BOASTING with color.
Teenagers are so weird.
Not necessarily in a bad way, though sometimes yes. Just weird, like inviting an alien to live in your house.
If you’ve spent five minutes with Calen, you know he’s obsessed with cars. Like, actually obsessed. This isn’t new, he’s been infatuated with them since he was six months old (literally, I have photo proof). There are worse hobbies, so I entertain it.
On the way home from Swim Club today, Calen pointed out a car in the parking lot. He BEGGED me to pull over so he could identify the make and model. I told him, “I’m not letting you creep into someone’s car to check out what kind it is!”
His argument: “I’m not creeping IN the car, I just want to walk around it.”
Me: “that’s still creepy.”
But I relented, and pulled over, and announced that he had exactly 30 seconds to inspect the car.
Calen launched himself out of the car, walked around, soaked it in, and did some “hmmm and hawwww” faces.
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| Literally hmmming and hawwwing |
He gave me the full report, but honestly I wasn’t listening that much. He said Pontiac, and I zoned out after that.
Like I said, there are worse hobbies.
We went to the library today! It’s been a LONG time since we’ve gone, and we were overdue.
No pun intended.
The kids spent a looooong time picking their books, and it was the quietest ride home and afternoon afterwards.
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| Cam's picks. He wiped out the graphic novel section |
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| Calen's picks. A lot of chapter books, which I'm proud of him for. Also "Sisters" has been one of his favorites for years |
Why don’t I do this more often.
The best thing about homeschooling is being able to work around my own schedule. And also, making literally everything a teaching moment.
For example. I needed to get potatoes peeled and in the oven for dinner, but I still had to finish school.
So, I set Camden to work peeling potatoes while I read Sword in the Stone.
Learning a life skill while getting our Language Arts in.
Bonus lesson: multi tasking.
Well the good news is that the boys survived their campout.
I mean, this is their 183rd campout, so of course they did. But they came home well rested and not in the least bit grumpy, which is a change.
I'm going to say it's because they agreed to actually pack extra layers and warm socks, for once.
It pays to listen to your mother.
The boys for the most part were off the hook today. A campout means that you get to come home, unpack, do laundry, shower, and be left alone to play video games for the rest of the day.
Hard work means high rewards, after all.
I did tell Calen he was required to cook dinner tonight, because I had the recipe and ingredients ready. His Raddish Kids cooking box this month was Mardi Gras/New Orleans, and we had gumbo on the menu!
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| We don't even know what we're in for. |
Saturdays are crazy.
I wonder what it's like to have a lazy Saturday like other families have without 482 activities.
I guess I'll find out someday.
Camden had two back to back hockey games this morning. I'm not complaining, I love watching this kid play. Cam and I had to go by ourselves, though, because Brad and Calen had to pack up and prepare for the Boy Scout campout that starts immediately (and I mean, immediately) following the hockey games.
Because of course it does.
Camden rocked his games, of which I'd expect nothing less. Being bumped down to the B team has been a difficult transition for him, as he's used to playing at a higher level, but his confidence is growing as a leader, and he's putting WAY more effort in to prove to everyone that they were wrong in dropping him.
Maybe that's the whole point of it, then.
I was soooo sick today.
Not like in a fantastic "oooh, I have a sniffle, I think I'll spend the next 12 hours in bed" kind of sick like certain husbands do. Like a "I. Am going. To Die." sick.
Further diagnosis have determined it's most likely food poisoning.
So here's a photo of my dog doing the sploot on the floor.
You've officially hit the age of "old" when you don't understand how your kids are dressing, and they think your music is "retro."
Example A: Calen's wardrobe.
Let's break this down. He's wearing blue jeans, Pizza Planet socks, a video game sweatshirt (Sora from Kingdom Hearts), a bandana around his neck, a bandana around his head, aviators, and his signature fingerless gloves.
Also, the hair.
It's like Rambo met Rufio.
He did NOT appreciate me bursting into song with "I WEAR MY SUNGLASSES AT NIGHT." (Mom!!!) "SO I CAN...SO I CAN!!"
Sorry kid, I gotta get you while I can.
Later today, I heard him announce to his echo dot: "Alexa! Play '80s and '90s rock!"
In which a playlist of Queen, Nirvana, Guns and Roses, 311, Maroon 5, Sound Garden, and Foo Fighters (to name a few) came on.
Of course secretly I'm like "YES", because this is my jam! But I can't sing along or even show that I like it because that's the fastest way for a teenager to decide that they dislike something (I mean we can't have parents approval, can we?)
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| Rufi-ooooooooo! |
This winter for school we've been doing a big study unit on Vikings. Naturally the kids are big on this, learning about how they lived, fierce conquering leaders, weapons, etc.
Today we finished a multi-day art project that involved painting, designing, and layering their own Viking ship into a rolling sea.
The sunset backdrop and ocean waves were painted with watercolors of varying colors and tints.
The ship, shields and mast were designed with markers and cut out.
And then they tore the ocean waves and glued them on the sunset in layers, feeding the ship in with it to give it an almost 3D effect.
I'm delighted with how cool these turned out.
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| Camden's viking ship on the rolling seas |
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| Calen's viking ship on slightly calmer seas |
Valentine's Day really isn't that big of a deal around here.
I mean, sure, it's cute and mushy mushy and whatever. But my kids aren't into the pink and red crafts anymore, and Brad and I just honestly don't care about Valentine's Day. Not enough to make it a big red letter day or anything.
So to speak.
But, I like any good reason to celebrate or do something special. So I dug through my "box of fun" hidden in the closet (full of random little things I might find on sale, Lego figures, sets, etc), and pulled out a Lego mystery figure for each kid, a Disney "Doorable" figure (Remy for Calen, Eve for Cam), and a Disney pin that I had bought this past trip and completely forgot to give to the kids.
It's the thought that counts, right?
I mean, every holiday deserves Death Star waffles to celebrate with.
This evening, we made spaghetti and meatballs and watched Lady and the Tramp, a Valentine's Day tradition in this house.
Not super exciting, but still fun in it's own right.
Monday's are INSANE.
At 5:00pm Calen has his Kingfishers swim team practice. At 7:00pm, both boys have Boy Scouts. And as with every week day, Calen has his paper route.
Generally, Brad comes home from work, scoops up both boys and their newspapers/swim stuff/scout stuff, and takes them to each activity in order, and gets home around 9:00pm.
Which means we dinner at like, 3:30pm.
Such is the life of parents with kids involved in everything.
I tried to make something fun happen today, so for art today we did Draw and Disney! I threw Youtube on the TV and we learned to draw one of the 101 Dalmation puppies (Lucky). I added a patch to mine, because Patch was always my favorite.
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| Cam's on the left, Calen's on the right |
It's the best day of the week!
Which is funny, because some days I'm like ugh, game night, I just want to sit on the couch and be a slob!
But it's one of those things where you are happy to be doing it once you are actually doing it, you know.
The boys begged, begged, for a breakfast snack tray for tonight's game night dinner.
Disclaimer: I strongly dislike breakfast for dinner. It's easy, and like the idea of it, but it does nothing to satisfy me. But okay fine, let's do it. It brings them joy.
I'm also pretty convinced their main argument for wanting a breakfast tray was because Pop-Tarts were involved.
I mean, that's a valid argument.
So Brad made his famous pancakes (of the blueberry variety), I made sausage and scrambled eggs, and we added sliced bananas, Trix cereal for some color, and the coveted Pop-Tarts.
Brad really wanted to play Jenga, which kind of makes me laugh because for a family game night, Jenga lasts like, five minutes. But I wanted to appease him too, so we played Tower of Terror Jenga (which has some bricks with fun rules like: "each player has ten seconds to remove a brick and place it on top"), and did maybe three rounds of it.
After that it was still only like 5:30pm, so we pulled out a family favorite, Uno, and played three rounds of that too.
And of course it was Disney parks edition, because almost all of our classic games are the Disney version.
We still had time to kill, so we made popcorn and watched The Lego Movie, which is also a family favorite.
I'm finding myself spending my entire week planning family game night, so I guess that's a good thing.
I have this problem, and it's called "saying no to people."
Mostly, I'm a helper. It's part of my personality. I'll always help someone and I have a really hard time saying no.
Not only have I been the team manager for Camden's hockey team for the last three years, I'm also newly appointed as the league's registrar, AND every Saturday morning I am the official scorekeeper for Camden's hockey games.
And if that isn't enough, I usually stay behind and scorekeep or run clock for the game after Camden's, because few people know to do it.
So that's what I did today. I was at the rink for 3.5 hours.
And for the record, Camden's team did great. He played center and scored four goals, which is rare for my defenseman.
He also got a tripping penalty, because as his defense coach says, "a good defenseman gets at least one penalty per game".
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| Cam's teammate gave me glasses to wear in the scorebox today |
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| Sunrise and shine for hockey! |
After Camden's game, I had an entire 45 minutes to be at home, drink a cup of coffee and get ready for the next round of volunteer hours. As part of the swim club, Calen is required to put in 10 hours of volunteer time. Today was the BIG day for volunteer hours, as it is the annual Kingfisher Fish Wrap night. The entire swim club gets together and makes hundreds (and I mean hundreds) of fish wraps. Calen and I volunteered together, which counts as double volunteer hours. We stayed for four hours total, and I made wraps while Calen was a runner - literally running from the drive-thru, collecting tickets from cars, running upstairs, turning in the tickets and running down the meals to the cars. In four hours, we made and delivered 609 fish wrap dinners, and we were exhausted by the end of it, but by goodness our volunteer hours are done, and it was good to be a part of something big for the community.
For the first time in what feels like months (but not really), it's a snow day! A proper snow day, with over six inches of good wet, compact snow, and, for once, not a drop of rain in sight.
Around mid morning I received a text from my back yard neighbor, asking if she could hire Calen to shovel her walk. I said of course, and sent Calen to work. I asked if he knew which house it was, and he said yes, he's mowed their house several times in the summer before. So I left him to it.
Calen came home absolutely exhausted, after shoveling two driveways now. He still had a job to do though, and I drove him to base to deliver his newspapers. While on base we ran into the neighbor that hired him, and she asked if Calen had found his envelope of payment taped to her door. Calen shook his head and said there was no envelope taped to her door. I said it probably fell in the snow, and we'd drive by and look for it on the way home. No big deal.
The sun came out today.
This is news because the sun doesn't come out much in the winter.
And sunny days + February = Bald Eagle mania.
This young (almost adult) guy spent about two hours hanging out on the roof of the house across the street from us, sun bathing, watching kids, probably plotting the deaths of all the dogs in the back yard.
Camden was obsessed with him, confiscated my phone and snapped a few shots of him.
His name is Doug.
Today in school, the kids learned about the Netherlands.
I for one, will probably forever be confused about the Netherlands. I want to call it Holland. I don't understand why they're called Dutch. Even though we researched the answers to all these "whys", I'm still confused. Maybe that country does it on purpose so that so many people are confused we all never visit.
Marketing strategy for the win.
Luckily for me, I had saved one of Camden's last Geo-Crates (a monthly subscription box based on geography for kids) on the Netherlands, stored happily in the board game closet just waiting for it's moment to arrive.
And here it is. Arrived.
The Geo-Crate comes with information on that country, a recipe or two, and two crafts to do. The two crafts were what we focused on today. Camden opted to build a replica windmill, while Calen recreated a really cool yarn art of Van Gough's Starry Night.
Did you know Vincent Van Gough was dutch? I didn't I thought he was Italian. See, we are all learning something here.
Fun fact: A common idiom spoken in the Netherlands is asking someone "Was your head hit by a windmill?" When someone appears confused or does something stupid. That might be my new favorite saying.
