[Book a Week in 2014 - BW22]

So tell me what the 5/5/5 challenges are. Fill me in!
 

I'm going to have to go through the steampunk book lists because I wouldn't even know where to start there. This could get quite interesting!

[Today's Useless Poll: How do you like your eggs?]

Scrambled or in an omelette. I do like deviled eggs too but not for breakfast.

[Indoor group activities that are NOT sports related, for a barely 5 year old boy?]

I'd aim for a music class of some type like a choir or Kindermusic. Possibly an art class? I know Lowe's often as a build a project class on Saturdays. 

[What different things do you keep in your car?]

Other than the usual first aid kit, double stroller, Beco Butterfly II carrier, and diaper bag, we also have an emergency potty that everyone laughs at when they see it. That's about it for us though, we have our van full of kids so I try not to have much else in there. Oh, other than my flip flops that pretty much live in there because I'm barefoot 99.9% of the time.

[Too Many Kisses]

I will firmly push her muzzle down and say, "No lick." to get our husky/German Shepherd mix to make her stop. My kids, however, love Annie kisses so she's allowed to get some licks in.

[Anybody else live in a musical? :P]

Absolutely. There is someone singing at almost every point in the day here... including me. ;) 

[Are you outdoorsy?]

I am very outdoorsy. I love, love, love being outside because there's only a short period in the year that I can do that here without freezing my butt off. We had snow from October-April this past winter. *wince* So now that it's sunny and beautiful, I try to spend a ton of time outside.

[Who's going to tackle Thursday with me?]

Eight loads of laundry to fold. *shifty eyes*

Unload dishwasher and put in breakfast dishes.

Grocery shopping that may or may not happen due to a screamy toddler.

Water the gardens.

 

That's about it today! 

[Book a Week in 2014 - BW22]

Thank you for linking those, Jane. I often peek into this thread and then am off until I have more time to sit and browse the forums so I had no idea.

 

 

[FRIENDS OF JFSinIL : status update]

Thank you for the update. Praying for healing for everyone involved.

[Book a Week in 2014 - BW22]

Hehe, I love that it noted that readers and thinkers are not lazy people. Not even when they have a machine holding their books for them so they can lay down.

 

I came home from the homeschool partnership to find a box of books on my doorstep. Woohoo! Denise Schipani's Mean Moms Rule, Kay Wills Wyma's Cleaning House, Sally Clarkson & Angela Perritt's You Are Loved, and Michelle DeRusha's Spiritual Misfit. All non fiction which I have been avoiding but I couldn't resist! They all looked so good plus I love anything that Sally Clarkson writes.

 

Aunt Dimity is fun. I want to read her while it storms outside and I'm curled up with a cup of tea. I have nooo idea why but the style of it makes me want to do that so badly! 

[Read Aloud- how long?]

30-60 minutes a day. I don't have much time for more with everything else in life. I should look into audio books to see if my kids would listen to them.

[How old will your son be/was your son when he graduates/ed?]

Both sons will be 17 when they graduate. My husband was as well. September birthdays and Kindergarten starts at 5 normally. 

 

My daughters will be 16 because they started kindergarten at 4. I wasn't going to do that with my youngest daughter but she was looking over her brother's Kindergarten work and answering before he could. ;) 

[To Have or Not to Have? (Homeschool Room) --and if so, dream room descriptions?]

I have a school room because otherwise I wouldn't have any place for the books, art supplies, random materials, etc. Most of the time the kids use the table in there for art projects and we do the actual schoolwork at the dining room table. If we had a bigger room to work with, I'd just have a giant table in there and we'd do school like that. But it's the smallest bedroom in the house that we use for the school room and it's difficult to squeeze five of us in there to work.

 

I'd personally love a huge room with bookshelves around all of the walls, an art closet, a huge white board and a cork board for art display, lots of windows for natural light. I love my shelves that I had DH put that are maybe a foot and a half from the ceiling because I can stick books up there too and not worry about them being destroyed by little hands while the toddler safe ones are in baskets. I should take a picture of my school room because I'm not sure if that made any sense... haha.

[What Am I Getting Into (Kitten-related)]

That's pretty much all you have to do with a cat. Well, litter box if it's an indoor kitty.

 

I'd keep one for the boys and ship the rest off to the shelter. 

[How do You Clean out a Platypus?]

Very, very carefully. :p

 

I'll have to ask my friend how he cleans his out. He carries one everywhere in the summertime.

[*vent* Came home to catch neighbor digging up my hostas]

That is completely crazycakes. I'm glad you're friends with the chief of police and he's willing to come speak to him about this!

[Book a Week in 2014 - BW22]

Heather, I am cringing for you. That sounds horrendous.

 

Jenn, what instrument do you play? I love Into The Woods so I'm all giddy over here for you.

 

Onceuponatime, those are beautiful. Definitely my style. ;) 

 

I haven't picked up a book to read once today. It feels so bizarre but I spent the entire day decluttering and deep cleaning my house. I dug the school room out from last year's work and tucked it away because the kids unanimously wanted to keep it to look back on later. My husband had the kids outside for most of the day and dug out my strawberry patch then planted. My mother in law came in the afternoon to go perennial flower shopping with me so I could fill in my front garden again as plenty of the plants didn't make it through this particularly bitter winter. I also filled in a little garden on the side of my garage while my mother in law planted a few ground plants along the other side of my house. It feels like we're planting ALL the things this year because we did a veggie garden last weekend. I'm going to have to curl up in bed with one soon because a day without reading at least a chapter of a book is just too terrible to imagine. :p

[Book a Week in 2014 - BW22]

I loved Trixie Belden as a kid. We named one of our dogs Honey after Honey Wheeler.

 

Finished Down The Darkest Road. Now I'm going to crack open Aunt Dimity's Death! 

[Do you leave your smartphone behind at the park?]

I always have my phone with me but I don't use it constantly. Half of the time, I play with the kids and for the very last 10 minutes of the park time, do my least favorite thing ever which is pushing them on the swings. It's the only park equipment that I help them with so I guess I'm split with the leave 'em alone to figure it out and the help them do it all crowd. ;) The other half of the time, I'll sit with my phone and make appointments, check the calendar, text, and yes, use Facebook of all things. 

[Book a Week in 2014 - BW22]

Heather, that is awful. I hope you make a full recovery soon.

 

Funny, I downloaded the fairy books to read with my kids over the summer. We started Matilda last night so we're doing some Roald Dahl too!

 

I finished Amanda Blake Soule's The Rhythm Of The Family instead of cleaning my house. I had grand plans to declutter, clean, and put my school room back to beginning of the year status. Haha. Nope. The coffee wasn't kicking in for me so I read while my husband did a ton of yardwork. I should feel guilty buuut, I don't. However, part of me wants to learn how to knit after checking out the cool cowls in the book.

 

Hope to finish Down The Darkest Road tonight. It's an easy, fast read so it should be doable.

[Book a Week in 2014 - BW21]

Angel, it was the first two in the series because I'm a stickler for the rules and must start at the very beginning. ;) 

 

 

[Book a Week in 2014 - BW21]

Angel, now I want to pick up the Aunt Dimity books that I bought... that'll be next on my list!

 

Mom-ninja, my wedding dress was too big too. My mother in law made it for me and she kept yelling at me that I was losing weight. Except, I wasn't... *lol* Oh well. It was special for her and honestly, our wedding was more for everyone else than for us! We were the first to get married in both of our families and the first to add grandkids so everyone on the family gets ridiculously excited over our big life changes.

[Book a Week in 2014 - BW21]

I agree about strapless dresses, Amy!

 

I am keeping a sweet foster baby today who is two months old. I cannot even express how lovely it is to snuggle this sweet one and listen to the same folk songs that I used to listen to when my 2.5 year old was a newborn. I keep tearing up because it's just so wonderful. *laughs* I may be slightly hormonal. ;)

 

So far The Creative Family book has made me want to be, well, creative. I think we'll bust out the modeling clay and the cool idea books that I bought go with it. Funny, my 4 year old just came up from the playroom and asked to do art right now so I guess I should sign off here and get it out.

[Interesting letter from doctor about Medicaid]

Prescription medicine has gone up in price and fewer are covered after the ACA. Well child doctor's visits are the same as before. There aren't many offices who accept Medicaid here either. We go to a dental clinic because I haven't found one dentist who accepts Medicaid AND will enroll new patients. We also have two doctor's offices to choose from in a fairly large city, there's one more if you're willing to drive quite a while (over 30 minutes one way). Perhaps it's likely that I've noticed because my biological children have Medicaid as well and what was covered for them 5, 6 years ago isn't covered now for the baby who was in my care? It used to be I could pay out of pocket for a certain prescription if needed but now it's $130 and a fight to get Medicaid to cover it. 

 

And oof, sorry that the link wouldn't work. I googled it and could read the entire article. The gist was that a doctor was upset that he couldn't change the surgery game plan without having to fight with Medicaid to cover it and often, it wouldn't be covered. He wrote about a case where Medicaid wanted to cover a chest Xray but not a neck Xray and the child had a malignant tumor in his neck that was discovered only after he pushed Medicaid to allow him to do it. Often, doctors won't push the limits for Medicaid to cover something. I've been told many, many times that they couldn't prescribe a certain antibiotic for a child who needed something stronger than amoxicillin UNTIL he had a week's worth of the amox because Medicaid would refuse to cover it unless the other antibiotic had been tried first. A bio child of mine went without occupational therapy for six months until I could change his Medicaid plan because one refused to do more than 6 therapy sessions and another would allow the weekly sessions that were deemed necessary by a professional. It just seems to switch depending on who you are speaking with.