First of all, I am not pregnant. In yesterday's post I mentioned nausea, and the radar went up. I even began to wonder (there were other minor symptoms), but no, this isn't the case. Today, I am feeling quite a bit better.

I am a couple weeks away from burying Explode the Code. Its just not working. My daughter isn't learning phonics. So, we are going to move on. We will try "Teach Your Child to read in 100 easy lessons) and we'll see how that goes.

Math is going so well! She loves it and is quite skilled at math.

Handwriting overlaps reading. She isn't really spelling many words on her own, because she isn't sounding out words, but her penmanship is good.

Social Studies, Science, Health, Bible, Music, Art, Games/Puzzles, Fitness- well, at the age of 6, how do you measure these anyways? She likes these subjects and is learning.

My son, he is identifying numbers 0-10, usually forgetting one number. He can count objects 0 -5, and write a 1 and 0, so he can write 10 also! He knows all his upper case letters, and we are working on the lower case. He is still working on his grip for holding a crayon and scissors. But, he is making stuff, coloring stuff, and interested in it all. He knows his colors and shapes. We added hexagon today :) We played a matching game today too.

Both kids love to listen to stories (son- picture books, daughter- chapter books) and my daughter can read most level 1 books with a little assistance.

I don't know how to organize our day with the eye patch, so today we started after it was time to remove it. DH suggested teaching our son first, and then adding our daughter into the schedule when the 3 hours is up. I don't know.

Little books

Today, I felt ill. I think it was a stomach thingy, but I didn't get sick really, I just felt nauseous, and my stomach was noisy. My husband has a horrible cold, and I thought I'd be taking care of him, but the opposite ended up being true.

My daughter wanted to make me a get well card. She taped together a little book with paper and stickers. Then, she really really wanted tape. So, I helped her tape together a book and spell the words to the story. She wanted me to write author and illustrator on the cover too :) And she signed her name. It was about how she made a house, and three friends came over, and everyone went to sleep and dreamed about her. There were two thought bubbles with her name in them, because the friends were dreaming about her.

My son, wanted to make a book about trains. Only, I had to draw all the trains. He drew a self portrait. He alternates between hands, while using the pencil. I don't know what hand to have him hold scissors, a pencil or even a baseball bat. He holds a fishing pole in his left hand and reaches across to reel it in with his right. But, he asked me to write various letters on each page, "Make a B, make a Y" and then made up a story to go with the "words". Very cute!

Both kids had Daddy read their books, and both took their books to bed with them. I love it when they initiate this stuff!

I want to do school tomorrow, and hope that my tummy settles. My poor daughter has to wear an eye patch again (lazy eye), for three hours a day. We did this 1 1/2 years ago, and it worked, but there is a slight regression in her left eye. Friday she wore it during school, and it was horrible. So, I am going to try to move easier tasks to the morning, so she doesn't have to read or write with it on. She holds her hand over the patch the whole time, it must be uncomfortable. But, three hours goes fairly quickly, so we will endure.

We signed up for dance class, and will try ballet and jazz/hip hop this year. I don't know what I think of the hip hop part, but tap is kinda getting too hard for her. She doesn't get the "tap" part, so her legs go through the motions, but never actually tap. Dance is sooooooooo expensive. But, it is worth it, I think. She will be with a small group of kids who are nice, most who were class last year, and the teacher is wonderful. And, she loves movement and dance so much.

I am off to bed, so that I am well rested for school tomorrow!

Perhaps another year?

My husband just go picked up for student engineering! He has wanted this so badly! He is a Coast Guard Aviator and this is the career path he was desiring to pursue. We found out last night, and will have to celebrate :)

It could be that we stay on here in Northern Michigan for an extra year. There is no word on that yet, but it is very likely. Student Engineering begins next September, so we are on a very different track for or next PCS. I would like to stay here another year, but I would still like the house to sell. We would like to move into Traverse City, a bit closer to everything.

So, Coldwell Banker Schmidt came by today - all their local realtors, to see the house. They noted the vast improvements since they last sold this house (to us) in 2006. No kidding :) No suggestions though. But, now they are familiar with the property, so maybe we will get a showing. Here's the thing, in the last year, 5 properties in Kalkaska have sold in our price range. The year before, it was 16, and the year before that, 24. Who wants to buy house number 6? Anyone? Anyone?

Today, I found out that my daughter must wear an eye patch again. 3 hours everyday. She is not happy about this, but the patches are kinda cute. We got ones with Dalmatian spots on them. She had a horrible 2 hours with it on. Its been over a year since we thought the lazy eye was corrected, but I guess she still needs a little more time with this. So, for the next 3 months, she will be a pirate for a few hours each day.

And, finally, I babysat for my friend's kids last night, and got to bed at 1 AM. I am so tired. I am eating pasta with shrimp and asparagus (frozen meal) and drinking some Pinot Grigio. It is not as good as White Zinfandel. No where near as good. Soon, the kids will get ready for bed and I won't be too far after them.

I relaxed a bit

I just went for a walk in the rain. I looked at everybody's house and yard to get ideas. I decided that with all the rain we are getting, most everyone's lawns are overgrown, and flowerbeds/shrubs need attention. This is because we really didn't get summer here in Northern Michigan. Several days of hot weather were scattered throughout the summer, but mostly cloudy, rainy, cool weather. And, my yard (although we need to mow tomorrow) not too shabby :)

I took this walk alone. It was a nice quiet time away from everything. My husband is downstairs with the kids, and he has fallen asleep on the couch. The kids are trying to avoid taking a bath/shower, so they are still playing downstairs instead of climbing all over me.

I got a special treat- hubby was suppose to be in Fargo, but the trip got canceled. It was for an air show. So, he is home with us this weekend :) He was on duty, standby and the ready every day this week. He did ground runs every night till late, and there were a bunch of SAR cases (Search and Rescue) so he was busy. They didn't find anybody, but they flew around a lot.

I bought a couple Bible Study books, we are going to start doing a Bible study together. I am looking foward to that! And I bought a couple books for myself. I am in need of some distraction from this house. This beautiful clean house that no one has yet called to see. *Sigh* Patience!!!

Boring?

I just got my first negative response to my blog. Nice. You won't see it here, because I received it under my FB notes, and now it is deleted (as is my former FB friend). I like writing in my blog, but if what I write is dull, boring, offensive, etc. by all means, don't sit around and read it! Honestly, I write to sort out my thoughts, and if you want to join me, I love that you are here. If you are going to insult me, please find someone else's blog to read.

The cleaning plan

So, this sale is gonna take time. I have a plan. My house will stay squeaky clean all year if it has to!

6:30 AM - Get up and shower, dress, make coffee
7:00 AM - Kids up (they just do this, I don't wake them), make breakfast and eat, unload dishwasher, one load laundry- wash, fold laundry, put away, put laundry from bedroom in basement, re-load dishwasher, kids chore list (dishes in sink, get dressed, pajamas in laundry basket, brush teeth, make bed), wipe counter, wipe sinks, make my bed, put away random clutter.
8:30 AM- Weekly rotating chore: Monday- clean bathrooms, Tuesday- wash floors, Wednesday- Vacuum entire house, Thursday- wash interior windows, Friday- dust, collect/take out trash.
9:00 AM- Homeschool Schedule till 2 PM :)

The kids already follow the toy rule - put away your toys before you get a new set of toys, all toys cleaned up before bedtime. And, keep the toys downstairs.

And they follow the coat/shoe rule- take your coat/shoes off when you come in and put them in the front closet.

I am loading the dishwasher as soon as we finish a meal, and then wiping out the sink. I am using the broom when the floor gets gritty.

This is working!! It has worked for 3 days so far. My house still looks nice, and it gives me time to play outside with the kids, water the flowerbeds, look for ripe green beans in the garden and track the pesky mole that showed up Friday when we stuck the "FOR SALE" sign in the ground!

We had a playdate today, and I even served lunch, corn muffins! Corn muffins are very messy food for kids. After lunch my kitchen was spotless again, and before our friends went home, the toys were back in their places- even the ones from the garage!

I LOVE having a clean house. It feels wonderful!

Random question- now that there is nothing to get into, and Scotty is behaving, should I lock him up tonight in his crate, as usual, or let him sleep on the floor of our bedroom where he is contently sleeping right now? DH rises at 5 AM, I don't know if puppy will have to go out if he gets up at this point. Will he let me sleep till 6:30? Hmmm what to do, what to do?

Wait, wait and wait

So the house is all over the internet now. I forced myself to take the kids out today. Nobody called to see the house. This is why we put it on the market a year before we want to move. It will take time.

So, we went to the Imagination Station. A playground in our town. It wasn't something I really wanted to do, but the kids love it there. Last Spring, some ladies started a screaming fight and one of them pulled out a knife. My girlfriend, kids and I left very quickly. Today, it was an adult with a dog running around the climbing equipment and pot smoking teens. Smoking pot in public at a children's playground?? REALLY? We are never going back. I should have called the cops.

If you want to smoke pot in the privacy of your own home, be my guest. Go ahead, kill some brain cells. But, next to little kids? Why? That is so stupid. Perhaps they are stupid from smoking too much pot.

My daughter was angry. She told me that I ruined her whole day, by making her leave the playground early. Her anger lasted about 8 minutes. It must be nice to be 6, she really doesn't stay mad for too long.

My house is clean. Its so very clean. I am getting a bit bored. I need to find a good book. I think I am very ready to start back to homeschooling next week.

House for sale

The house is for sale, it went on the market today. It has been an exhausting amount of work to get to this point. My husband and I worked like crazy to update everything. So, wanna buy a house in Northwest Michigan?

Homeschooling will start next Monday. I took most of the summer off. It wasn't possible to follow my plan. My in-laws visited, we camped, my mother visited, and we worked on this house. But, my school room is ready, and I have tested out our materials, since we did 3 weeks of school in June already.

I wanted to go to Waukegan with my husband this September, but its not going to happen. Sorry Therese, if you still read my blog. We have no dog sitter. I don't know how we can afford it. I wanted to see you too, Tina and Tim. But, I don't know how we can afford to board the pup. It was going to be the first week of September. Boo Hoo :(

So, here I sit, anxious because all day long the realtor was suppose to list our house. It didn't happen till after 2 PM, and evidently it won't be listed on any national sites till 24 hours later. I took lots of nice pictures. We don't have a carpeted kitchen/dining room anymore!

Now I have to leave it in God's hands and remember that He knows how this is suppose to work in a nearly dead housing market.