Mathletics

This week Ryan is participating in the American Math Challenge with kids all over the country ages 9-14 where he gets points for every right answer to math problems. He broke the top 100 yesterday and is working hard to stay there. He has been as high as spot 53. He has spent probably 6-8 hours a day, maybe more, working on math problems-- and even decided to come straight home after scouts instead of going to basketball with Stephen so he can do more problems and earn more points. I guess he inherited my competitive streak. Stephen would NEVER have chosen math, or anything academic, over basketball.

It is only for this week and next week, so I figure he can do as much math as he wants and is excited about during his free time. I'm still having him do his writing and other school work. He will go do one of his assignments and come back to do more math. He was marking off his assignments and I told him he could count this for math this week and he was totally excited. It was pretty funny-- This doesn't seem like schoolwork to him, even though he has done over 1000 problems in the last 2 days. (His regular assignments have 22). He is already planning to get up early on the last day because it ends at 7 am our time and the kids on the east coast might slip ahead of him. It will be interesting to see if his enthusiasm holds.

I wish the contest was for a scholarship or something like the high school level of MathCounts (the program sponsor). The top prizes for this one aren't as cool. The top 3 kids, nationwide, get a medal and the top 25 get a certificate. Not nearly as good as money for college. But, he is motivated and is working so hard I told him if he ends in the top 100 either of the two weeks, or both, I will buy him a half gallon of ice cream to share with the family and he can have a "free" day to just read instead of doing regular school-- he'll have earned it.

Going on a Cruise

Stephen and I are going on a cruise in December to Catalina Island and Ensenata, Mexico. We leave from San Diego. It is for our 10 year anniversary, which was actually last May, but Lincoln was too little to leave-- he'll be just over a year. I am super excited. Ryan is going to fly down to Utah to stay with grandparents there and is counting down the days. The other kids are going to the other grandparents or Aunt Karma's. They all think they are getting the best deal. We had planned to go in January or February, but I found a good deal on plane tickets ($150 RT from Boise to San Diego) and then the price of the cruise for this week dropped to $149 per person for an oceanview room. That will leave me more money in my budget for excursions or shopping! If anyone has been on a Carnival cruise to Catalina or Ensanada, let us know what you recommend.

October Update

October was crazy and busy. I gained a huge appreciation for Relief Society as I tried to help my friend whose husband had passed away. She is not LDS and didn't have that built in network to call on. Then my in-laws came to visit and we had a fun weekend Christmas shopping and driving around the area and just relaxing at home. Soon after they left, we got hit with the dreaded swine flu-- and it was MISERABLE!!!! Lincoln and I got it the worst, but no one had serious complications. We had to alternate Tylenol and Motrin round the clock to keep his fever down and I would have coughing fits so hard they would bring me to my knees. It was NOT fun!!!! The other kids all got it for a few days, and by the time it ran it's course, I hadn't left the house for 2 weeks.

On a positive note, the boys are in a Christmas showchoir and Ryan was selected to sing the solo. He is very excited! He loves to sing. The older kids all had a wonderful Halloween with lots of candy and fun dressing up. Lincoln slept through most of it-- he's fighting another cold.

Life is short, treasure it

Thursday night I had taken the boys to 4-H and spent the evening visiting with my friend and watching the kids have fun. I came home to my husband and kids, she went home to find out that her husband had passed away unexpectedly from a massive heart attack. She is just older than me, 34, and her husband only a few years older than that. They have 3 young children.

I was up all night that night thinking of how easily our places could be switched. She had no warning, he wasn't sick or ill or anything. People aren't supposed to die young. (I'm sure it's hard later in life too, but this just seems unfair.) I kept thinking how much I take my husband for granted. I cannot even imagine her pain and sorrow right now. She is an incredibly strong person and I know she will deal with everything, simply because she has no choice. Although I am sure it would be tempting to just find a cave and hide. I talked to her yesterday morning and again this afternoon and my heart just breaks for her and her kids. What do you say, how do you bring comfort to someone in this situation? Flowers, food. . . . it all seems so. . . . . simple.

So, if you are reading this, get up now and give your loved ones an extra hug and tell them you love them. And next time they do something that annoys you, think of Dave and the big picture, and let it go. Life is so fragile and death is so final. (I mean final in that you can't undo words you've said in anger, you can't say "I love you, " you can't tell the person what they mean to you, you can't go back and spend more time with them.) I know that death is not the end and that we can be with our loved ones for eternity, but we can't undo or "fix" it here on earth. It has made me think about how easily I take for granted that I can go somewhere for the evening and come home to everything the way it was when I left.

Grocery Bargains

I need a positive post, and still haven't had Stephen pull of the pictures, so I thought I would share my most recent coupon adventure. It mostly used catalinas, those receipt like things that print out at the end of your order at Albertsons and rebates.

I bought 12 Tombstone frozen pizzas, 10 packages of Chips Ahoy cookies, 4 packages of Planters Trail Mix, 4 Velveeta single serving mac and cheese, and 6 mini Hagaan-Daaz ice creams. My total was $55.80 and it will cost me $1.76 to mail them in, but I have $10 in coupons for my next Albertsons shopping trip, and I will get $70 back in rebates. SO, I will end up making $22.44 on the deal!!!! Pretty sweet!

Not Chosen

I just heard and we were not chosen to adopt Trish. They said we were "in there right until the very end" and "our training and background would have been a good fit, but. . . " like that's supposed to make me feel any better. Anyway, we're pretty disappointed. It's just frustrating not to be able to do ANYTHING and to have the decision made by "the committee," a bunch of people who have never even met us.

Adoption Meeting

Since my last adoption update, we've submitted our homestudy to several states, mostly on younger kids. We also read about a 16 year old girl, Trish, who was featured on Wednesday's child and both Stephen and I felt completely at peace and that she would be a good fit for our family. Out of all the kids we've sent our paperwork in on, she is the one who we haven't been able to stop thinking about. If you want to read her profile it is here.

Anyway, we are one of 3 families that they are considering for her and we had the chance to meet her this past Monday. Because of her age, they are letting her meet each of the families and have some say in the decision. I can't imagine being in her shoes right now and how hard that would be. I know how nervous and excited Stephen and I were to meet her. We went out to lunch with her and a couple of social workers and I think it went really well. She seemed very sweet and both of us left with a strong feeling that she would be a great addition to our family.

The committee of state workers who will make the decision is meeting on August 12.

It will be a long 2 weeks. We're praying they will make the right decision for her, and hoping it is us!

Watch out!

Nothing is safe! Lincoln has figured out how to crawl and he is fast! He also loves to put things into his mouth, so we are picking up about 50 times a day it seems. He also finally started eating rice cereal and loves it. It took him until about 7 months to figure out how to swallow, but now he can't get enough. As a result he's getting quite chunky. He is wearing some of the same clothes as Adam and is almost as big. He is still so loved, I thought the novelty of having a baby would wear off, but all the kids still love to hold and play with him. He is quite spoiled and has all of the kids at his beck and call.

Who Scoops Poop?

My boys are outside and I just heard them arguing over who gets to scoop up the doggie do in the yard. Both of them are WANTING to be the scoopers. I'm getting ready to water the lawn and when I asked them to clean it up, they started whining about whose turn it was. So I said whoever cleans up the most dog poop will get a treat. Next thing you know I'm hearing, "I found it first, I get to scoop it up." and "I had the shovel first." and the best one, "Mom, he's not letting me clean up the poop?" I just had to laugh.

A modest Swimsuit-- Finally

I hate swimsuits! It has always been impossible to find a modest swimsuit, and even ones that are "modest" leave me with plenty of skin showing to feel uncomfortable and get sunburned. I finally found a swimsuit I am excited about. It is from OhanaSwimwear and is modeled after a shorty wetsuit. It not only covers all the "trouble" spots, it will keep my shoulders from frying! It's not the cheapest swimsuit I've found, it's $80, but I've decided it is worth putting my money out there for modesty! This is the cutest, most modest suit I've found. I won't look like everyone else at the pool, but different is good!

What I needed today!

Have you ever had a day when you feel like a hamster running and not even making it anywhere? I needed this reminder today. Enjoy!

Van Accident and New Van

Two weeks ago I dropped the boys off at the start of their race and was driving to the end with the little ones and got in an accident. I tried to change lanes and a little black car was right in my blindspot. We were only going about 10-15 mph, and nobody was hurt, but the van didn't survive so well.Luckily we had comprehension and collision insurance on it.


Then, because it wasn't worth a whole lot anyway, the insurance company decided to total it out. And because our family will hopefully be too large for a mini-van anyway, we are now the proud owners of a monster van! It is a 15 passenger full-size van with lots of room inside. It rides really high, like a truck, and really does feel like I'm driving a bus! This is a picture of it parked out front. My roses are deceiving, it is taller than I am.

We got a dog!

As if things haven't been crazy enough around here with our house falling through, again (water coming up in the basement after a rain storm is a BAD thing), looking for the right child to adopt, and wrecking the van, we decided to get a dog. The kids have been asking for one for quite awhile and we had finally figured out what we were looking for.

This is Bella. She is a 2 year old beagle. Very overweight, very obedient, and very loved. We got her from a lady who had started traveling a lot for work and didn't have time to play with and exercise her. She hasn't lacked for company or exercise since. She is a super sweet dog and is learning to get along with Lucy the cat. She will even obey Adam's commands, which he thinks is great.

Giveaways

Just wanted to put a note here that I have some novel giveaways on my review blog right now. I enjoyed doing the homeschool reviews and as that ended I've been able to start reviewing for book companies like Thomas Nelson, Random House, NavPress, Zondervan, and others. Several of them also give me free books to use as giveaways for my readers. So if you are interested, the link is at the top right or you can click here.

Cover your eyes!

GameHouse.com has a "free" computer game download everyday. The only catch is that about every 20 minutes, you have to watch a 20-30 second commercial. We've downloaded several and enjoy them. Last night the boys were playing a hidden picture computer game in the kitchen. Then I hear Ryan telling Tyler, "Cover your eyes, cover your eyes."

"Oh, great," I thought, "What popped up on them?" I hurried over to the computer to see and had to smile. The ad was for shaving gel and it was showing a women's naked leg--- from about the knee down. The commercials repeat, so I stayed and made sure that was all the ad showed when it played again, and then told the boys they could go ahead and keep playing and just to cover their eyes if a commercial came on that they even thought MIGHT be bad. I also made sure, again, that they both knew how to turn off the monitor. I was quite happy that covering their eyes was their first response and that the "bad stuff" wasn't something worse!

And for what it is worth, we have enjoyed the free games we've downloaded, especially the hidden picture ones. Our virus software has always shown them as okay.

Adoption Update

The homestudy visit went well and our homestudy should be complete by next week. At that point, we start looking for kids on the foster care waiting child lists that we would like to be considered for, we submit our info, and the committee narrows down the applicants and gives the top 3-5 more information. At that point we decide whether we think that child is a match for our family. We've been told to plan on submitting our info on 10-15 kids/sibling groups that we are interested in. We will primarily be looking in Texas, Oregon, and Washington because those are the states our agency has worked with most in the past. It's similar to job hunting and connections can make a huge difference. As far as time goes, it's kind of "hurry up and wait." We get our info out there and watch and wait. Could be 6 months, could be a year, only God knows. But we both feel like this is what we should be doing and that NOW is when we needed to be ready, so as long as we do our part, it will all work out.

The kids are super excited. As we looked through the profiles Jeanisha kept pointing to different kids and saying, "Can we buy that kid?" "What about that one?" Tyler then responded, "It's not buying, it's adopting" in his, I'm older and wiser voice. Then he said, "Mom, can we maybe get enough to kids to play Red Rover?" :) I guess it depends on the size of the teams, technically you can play Red Rover with 5 people, so we are already there, right?

As part of the homestudy, our social worker talked to the kids and asked what they thought. When she asked Ryan why were wanted to adopt, he said very matter-of-factly, "Mom and Dad prayed about it and know it's right." She then told him it was great to trust his parents, and then told him he could pray about it too. He responded, "I know. I already did."

We have some friends that have 9 kids, 8 of whom are adopted. My kids think that family is SO lucky because "there would ALWAYS be someone to play with, even if some kids have to stay in and finish homework."

Catch-up

I haven't posted in forever and now I feel like I have so much catch-up to do. We've had 4 birthdays, Adam turned 2, Jeanisha is now 4, Tyler is 7, and Stephen is. . . old. Older than me at least.

We have been working on getting our paperwork together to adopt through the foster care system. We are almost done with our home study. The home visit is next Tues. YEAH!! This is something we've planned to do since we got married, at some point. . . . And we started feeling like the time was right and doing our classes and paperwork last fall. They want to know EVERYTHING!!!! But, all of the paperwork is in and we're on the final steps of that, then we will be able to start submitting our information for waiting children. Who knows how long it will take at that point before we are "matched" with a child/children. It could be anywhere from 6 months to 2 years, give or take. Once we do our part, it is in the Lord's hands. We have both felt strongly that this is what we should do and that now is the right time, so I am trusting that He knows what He is doing and what child/children should be coming to our home.

We have also been watching for/looking at houses. We found one we like, it's bank-owned, and we are just waiting for the price to drop again. It's been on the market quite a while. They didn't take our offer a month ago, but they are currently fixing the well and septic, the 2 concessions we had in our offer, and their realtor called ours yesterday to let us know and see if we might be interested in making another offer. Maybe after I get the homestudy taken care of. It's out in the county on 5 acres with 6 bedrooms and an office. We love it, but the current market makes me nervous, so we have to get a killer deal on it. And really, I like where we are at, so I'm not in any big rush. Although this house is getting full and will get more so once we adopt.

So that is the short version of everything we've been working on lately. I will try to post pictures later, but I figured a short, quick update while I feed the baby is better than nothing since Feb.

Ryan's story

This is a story Ryan wrote today. He used the StoryBuilder cards I'm reviewing and drew boa constrictor, daring, forest, and learns to fly. Here is the story he made with those.

King Boa Constrictor
by Ryan Cox

Once upon a time in a land far, far away in the forest there lived a boa constrictor, King Boa to be exact. He had many, many servants. He had sorcerers, he had slaves, he had knights, though he hardly ever needed them. One day he was very bored, so he called his sorcerers and he said; "Do any of you have a way to get me having fun?"
"Yes," said one, "I have found a way to let you be able to fly."
The king was relieved and said, "Make me be able to fly, now!"
The sorcerer said in a big, powerful voice, "Hoko Moko Vroom Vroom Zoom, make him be able to fly from his room!"
And the king was able to fly, then he was never bored again.
The End.

Lincoln

Here's some recent photos of our little guy. He is such a sweet heart. He's even sleeping great at night. Last night he did 8 hours! Yeah!

Teaching kids to work

I was reading on a friend's blog how she tries to balance teaching her older kids to work without making them feel like they are ALWAYS cleaning up after the younger ones in a big family.

I thought I would post what we do. My boys do quite a bit of cleaning, Ryan sometimes complains, but Tyler just jumps in and does it. Usually 10 minutes before breakfast/school, 10 minutes before lunch, then about 5-20 minutes at the most before dad comes home/dinner. There's a scripture (2 Thessalonians 2: 10) that says you must work or not eat, and since it's in the scriptures, they don't argue. :)

We tie it to their allowance. They get $1 per year of age on the first fast Sunday of the month minus some if they didn't do their jobs good-- they tell me how much to subtract. We switch jobs then if needed too. They pay tithing and then can save it or spend it over the next bit. They can't buy candy at the store, but I keep candy bars and Gatorade here that they can buy for $1 or sometimes they buy other treats-- yes, I inflate the prices on those too. But if they choose to buy something healthy, I will split the cost with them if they agree to share it. Last week Ryan bought a big thing of pretzel mix, Tyler bought a bag of rolls (white bread is a treat), and Jeanisha bought a bag of pears. They are really good at sharing with each other too. I think half the fun is that they get to "control" the sharing. Jeanisha has me cut one pear at a time for her to divvy out and loves to remind the boys that SHE bought it.

They rarely ask for me to buy them something because they know the answer will be, you can buy it with your allowance, and they usually don't want it if THEY have to pay for it. They also know that if they wear out their clothes by mistreating them-- like running around outside with just socks on, they have to buy replacements, because mom only pays for things once. I don't think they thought I was serious, until I bought a bag, figured out the cost per pair, and charged them. They haven't even had to buy all the pairs in that package yet and are being much more careful-- and reminding each other. As Ryan puts it, "Mom pays for needs, we pay for wants."


Oh, we also pay them interest on what they save at the rate of 10% per month until they turn 10, then I'll have to reevaluate. Ryan is starting to become a pretty good saver. His goal is to earn more each month through interest then his allowance. :)

Our system works pretty good. Tyler just asked if he could be responsible for picking up the 3 main rooms (kitchen, living room, and family room) and vacuuming the whole house--his favorite job and he is very meticulous about it. He wants to do the work of a 7 year old, so he can earn more even though he's not 7 until April. I was fine with that. :)

Ryan puts away the clean dishes, cleans the bathrooms (his choice because they don't get as messy as the rooms Tyler chooses. Tyler doesn't want them because they are the "gross" job, so it works out great), takes out the trash, and puts away folded laundry. He also picks up the kids bedroom which doesn't have much because they don't have any toys or clothes in there. Their clothes dresser is in the living room and the toys are in the family room or in bins in the storage room, so most of the time there is only one bin out in the bedroom.

I would love to see what jobs your kids do. So if you read this and write on your blog, post a comment and let me know.

Homeschool Reviews

I thought I would put a note about my homeschool reviews site: http://simplyschoolingreviews.blogspot.com/

I've done about 25 reviews now and been introduced to some awesome products! I'm working on putting some "quick links" at the top for my favorites.

Ryan went from hating spelling to loving it with All About Spelling. Tyler learned the 50 states with The Little Man in the Map. And Jeanisha is starting to read with Rocket Phonics.

This is what Ryan (remember, he's 8) reported to his dad after watching part of the Algebra 2 MathTutor DVD's I was sent to review:

Dad: "What did you learn today?"
Ryan: "I learned algebra. Well, actually Algebra 2. And it was easy."

He then had me write him some equations, like y=4X-6, so he could demonstrate how to graph a line.

Then, Ryan: "And there's only 15 parts on the movie, so I'll learn all the rest in, oh, about 2 weeks."

We just had to smile at his confidence!

Adam's baby

Adam refers to Lincoln as "MY baby."

I'll say, "my baby" and he says "No, MINE."

But then he will usually agree to share.

Last night at pack meeting, one of the kids in my primary class was sitting in front of us and kept reaching back to rock the baby in the car seat. Adam was quite concerned. He got down off my lap and stood by the baby. Whenever the boy reached over, Adam would push his hand away. Of course, the scouts sitting right around us thought that was funny and started watching. It happened 3-4 times and then Adam stood up and walked around the car seat so he was between Lincoln and the boy and GROWLED at him. ARRRGRRRRRRR!!! The scouts all thought that was REALLY funny!!!

So I moved Lincoln back over away from the boys and Adam was content to sit on my lap again.

January pictures

Lincoln had a well child check today and I got to take 5 kids to the doctor all by myself!!! They did really well, sitting there playing rock, paper, scissors and I spy. Lincoln is doing good, he weighs 13 lbs 2 oz. and is 23.875 inches long. He got his first bunch of shots too.

Here are several pictures of the kids earlier this month. It was nice and warm-- mid 40's and we had got lots of snow the night before so I went out and helped them make snowmen. Stephen took pictures when he came home. They were all bundled up while we were working on them, but somehow Adam managed to slip out for pictures without his coat. Whoops. Don't you just love the mismatched gloves though?































This is Jeanish's Christmas dress. It has glitter on the bottom part, so she leaves silver sparkles wherever she goes! She loves being a Sunbeam and is constantly telling me things Sunbeams can do. Like read, cut their own apples, go to bed late. . . But I can use it too. Sunbeams always obey the first time, stay in bed good, and always clean their bedroom, right?






These are at the Boise Zoo. The kids favorite part it the giraffe slide! It was a fairly warm day and I wore Lincoln in the wrap, and pushed Jeanisha and Adam in the stroller. It was nice because there was practically no one there-- so I didn't have to have the "you sure have your hands full" and "are they all yours" comments that I seem to get whenever it just me and the kids.

School today

We started a new science book today about Physics by Real Science 4 Kids. We talked about motion and physical laws and the scientific method. Then for the experiment part, the kids talked about their observations when you throw (or shoot) a ball, drew hypothesis trajectories on the chalkboard, then took their Nerf guns outside to test their hypotheses. Now they are recording their results and marking off the ones that didn't work (mostly ones I added). Fun stuff. :)

Lincoln

I've always thought the newborn pictures were so cute, but never got them taken with the other kids. Here is Lincoln at 2 weeks. Isn't he cute? He is such a good baby, so easy-going and sweet and calm. He puts up with a lot of loving from his siblings. None of the kids can get enough of him. They are always asking to hold him or lay by him and he is picked up by someone at the slightest whimper.

Poor baby has a staph infection right now though and has a rash all over his face. I have it too and it is itchy, itchy, itchy!!!! Little blisters from my knees to my ankles and from my wrists to my elbows. But we are both on antibiotics now, so hopefully we can get rid of it. (Things like this always happen over holidays too when it is impossible to see a doctor!)