I Keep Saying I'm Going To Post More....

...and then I totally forget to. Been crazy busy a lot of the time around here. Heck, sometimes I get sidetracked just going to get a cup of coffee. We've been doing pretty good, no major issues. Getting things done and doing school and all that.
Gabe is working on the book "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons," we had started this book part of last year, and it went well for the first few lessons, and then he wanted nothing to do with it. This time is going much easier and he seems to remember a few of the sounds. He's been recognizing words on the tv, and on dvd cases and books, things like that. We're also doing some of the BrainQuest things that I picked up over the last couple years. We have the 2-3yo all the way up to the 1st and 2nd grade ones. And we just picked up a phonics one usable for ages 2 and up.
Caleb is reading more and more, and seems to be thoroughly amazed every day when he can read something new off the tv or newspaper. Still can't seem to spell, but we're working on that! He's shown an interest in the phonics stuff that I picked up for Gabe, and has asked a few times if he can do them. I'm more than happy to let him, it will help him make more progress. Now I understand what people were talking about when they said that one day it just clicked for their kids with reading!
Caitlin is doing great school-wise, of course she's pretty much always been easier to teach than Caleb or Gabe. Her biggest issue is her attitude and it seems to get the best of her pretty much daily. So, we're working on her controlling her mouth and her behavior.
James is doing well school-wise, and is getting a ton of practical life skills work. He's learning to do things in the garage with dad and grandpa, he's helped with taking beds apart, putting things together, measuring space to make sure things fit. He knows how to do laundry in grandma's front loader now, and is also learning to cook! So far he can make eggs, and of course he's learned to read the packaging on pretty much everything else. He can microwave, make toast, etc. Knows how to make mac and cheese too. It's amazing to see how he changes and matures. Hard to believe he's 13 already!
Mike's doing good at work, he's been working in the smokehouse the last month or so. I think he likes thins job a little better. It's been 2 months since he hit the deer and totaled the car, and just under 2 months since he got the truck. And 2 months since I got my tongue re-pierced. Kind of funny that he called with the news of hitting the deer when I was at the Tattoo Shop.
Myself, I've been pretty laid back about what I've been doing. I gained back about 5 lbs, mostly because I went back to drinking pop again for a while and because of skipping my walks for a couple weeks. But I've already lost 2lbs of that just by cutting out the pop and coffee again. The weather has been up and down lately, and with it getting darker earlier it makes it more difficult to get my walks in. But that's really no excuse, so I'm getting back in the swing of things and even picked up some weights that I can use without even having to leave the house. Can't wait to be down another 60lb!
It's great to be able to measure my loss by what I used to wear as opposed to what sizes I can wear now. I've gone down 2 band sizes and a cup size bra-wise, 3 underwear sizes, 2 shirt sizes, and I can wear jeans now! I used to not be able to fit my largest jeans, which were a size 26-28. Now I can fit a 22 stretch with a little room and a regular 24 with no spandex at all and not have to lay down or suck it in to fasten them. My size 24 skirt that I so wanted to be able to fit into is now WAY too big, and a lot of the other skirts that I couldn't wear are fitting so much better! I even wore my size 20 capri's this summer! I haven't worn them in at least 5 years!
Since the kids are awake now, and it's time to start our school day, I'll have to update more later.kids

Been Soooooooo Busy!

Here's a peek at some of what I've been up to!

Took A Little Hiatus...

Needed some time to figure things out and get my mind straightened out. It's been a long month. Been busy with the kids and life in general.
Our houseguests have finally moved on. They were with us for 6 months, and have now moved on to stay with some other friends in Chicago. I miss Adrian terribly. He was my little shadow, always following behind me when they were here. They've been gone nearly a week. I'm not sure if they're coming back before she has the baby or not. I can't wait to see him again.
Dad's younger brother died the 13th, he was 51. We were told it was a heart attack, but I can't help thinking that the stroke he had this past year didn't maybe have something to do with it. Got to meet his daughter at his memorial service. She seemed nice, we talked for a little while, and I showed her a picture that mom had found when she was going through her photo album. It had Russ and his wife (her mom), Rick and his wife, Dad and Mom, and Peggy and her husband. It was a nice service, with about 50 or so people.
The kids are doing good. We've been taking it easy with some of the school work, and doing a lot of outdoor things. The have gotten to go to the parks, and be in the yard and see things growing and blooming. They got to help paint bedframes, and we'll be doing the boys' walls soon. It's been staying fairly warm during the day, with highs in the 60's and 70's. But night time it still gets down in the 30's and 40's. We've had a little rain, and even a couple thunderstorms. Nothing too bad though. And we're supposed to get more rain this weekend.

Guess I'll update more later. Just so busy right now, what with Spring being in full swing right now and all.

Long Weekend

Long long weekend. I'm so glad it's done and over. Saturday was the first day of spring, and it snowed. Not surprising, and it was all melted by mid day yesterday. We left the kids with the grandparents on Saturday, and took a rather long trip down to the Chicago area. Spent all day with them at a seminar, and didn't make it home til after midnight to collect the kids and go home to sleep.
Yesterday was our anniversary. Didn't do a whole lot, just cooked out and spent time with the kids. And today did more running around and took them to the park for a while.
Right now I'm sitting here listening to them fight over a video game, and wondering what we should do for dinner. I'm sure it's not going to figure itself out, so I guess I'm going to have to start thinking about it.

Been Gone For Nearly A Month.....

Wow, didn't realize how quickly that flew! In the last month, I've rearranged our room, painted the bathroom, painted most of the living room, cleaned and cleaned and cleaned some more. It's been super busy around here. We also got some new furniture and appliances with our tax refund. That took most of our refund, but we really needed them. And scratch-and-dent is cheaper than you'd think! We now have an oven that actually preheats! And a fridge whose shelves aren't falling out every time we open the door. Amazing how little things like that really make a difference.

As far as schooling goes, we've backed down a little on the pressure that Gabe was feeling. He has voluntarily started to do lessons with me out of the "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" book. Easy? Yes for a regular child, but not so much for mine. It's not pretty, but he's trying. He already knows the letters, but not so much the sounds that they make. So this book teaches him the sounds and helps him to learn how to sound out words. Since the 5th, he has been working on the beginning lessons, and he can now recognize am, mat and sat. But we've also noticed that he's now reading more sight words without our prompting (mostly on games!). Words like "infection" and "slayer" and other game-theme related words.
He's also consistently falling asleep but 10 (most nights, we have had a few bumps), and is drawing more pictures. He wants to draw nearly every day now, faces, people, things. Always with pencil, always what he wants to draw, always when he wants to draw.
Caleb and I are working on his reading, as he can do it, but lacks confidence. We skimmed through the same book I'm doing with Gabe, and I just had him do the words. He knows the sounds the letters make, and knows how to sound them out. It only took him maybe 20 minutes to go through all the words in 23 lessons. And he had them all right. Granted most of them are simple easy words. But it's gotten him to realize that it doesn't matter how big the word is as long as you sound them out.
James and Caitlin are reading well, and we've been trying to really make sure that they are engaged in what they are reading. She's been reading the Junie B. Jones books, and is enjoying them immensely. He's reading Artemis Fowl, and has already listened to all the books on CD, and checked out a lot of them from the library before I bought him the first set that he wanted.
Our main focus the past few weeks has been their reading, because I feel that with reading, anything else is possible and will fall into place.

Aside from the early spring cleaning we've been doing, that's pretty much it. Hopefully I can remember to keep posting and not let there be that much of a break!

1/2 Way Thru Our School Year...

And time to review our goals that I made at the beginning of the school year.

Here are the goals I made:
Gabe
1) Gabe will learn to consistently make all the sounds of the letters. Not met so far, but working on it.
2) Gabe will learn to consistently write all letters. (at this point I dont care if lower case or not) Not met yet either.
3) Gabe will consistently copy and say all letters to 20 (he repeats up to 20, sometimes even higher depending on motivation, but has only written to 10) Not met.
4) Gabe will learn to put letters together into words. (ideally, i'd like him to learn at least 1 word a week, but i don't know if that's pushing to hard or not yet) Sort of met, he's been reading some sight words, even though he swears he can't read anything.
5) Gabe will learn to do simple chores (without having constant hand-over-hand to make him) This goal is met! He's started helping with simple chores, and started taking turns better!

Caleb
1) Caleb will learn 5 new words per week (and still be able to spell previously learned ones) Not quite met, as far as learning that many per week, but we are reviewing words that he used to know, and learning new ones as we can. So I'd say 1/2 met.
2) Caleb will write on the lines with correct spacing so it can be read About 1/2 met as well.
3) Caleb will control his body ( a BIG one, he has no concept of personal space!) Not quite met, but working hard at it. His mouth keeps getting him in trouble....
4) Caleb will rotate chores and learn to properly do them Met!
5)Caleb will raise his reading and comprehension level by practicing reading at least 20 minutes each day. Met, for the most part. He still resists reading unless its a book that he wants to read.

Caitlin
1) Caitlin will learn at least 5 new words per week (see above) Pretty well met, but I want to continue to work on it.
2) Caitlin will write on the lines with correct spacing so it can be read Met! But could still use improvement on neatness.
3) Caitlin will sit quietly when doing schoolwork (constant chatter, kind of like Caleb's lack of concept of personal space) Met about 50% of the time. Still needs reminding and redirection.
4) Caitlin will rotate chores without complaint and learn to do them properly Met! And she does a great job when motivated. Otherwise a simple chore, while done properly, can take her 5-10 times as long as it should.
5) Caitlin will raise her reading and comprehension levels by practicing reading at least 20 minutes each day. Met!

James
1) James will learn to write paragraphs with correct punctuation and grammar. Not met.
2) James will work on his handwriting skills and improve them. Improving, but still needs more work.
3) James will stay on task and complete things in a timely manner. Met for the most part, but definitely an area to continue working on.
4) James will rotate chores without complaint and learn to do them properly. Not quite met, but I'm confident that it will work itself out.
5) James will raise his reading and comprehension levels by reading at least 20 minutes each day. Met, and he can read much better than he was at this time a year ago. His math has improved as well.

All in all we have met quite a few goals, and even met some goals that I didn't list because I thought they weren't quite school related.
1) Gabe has started sleeping thru the night, by HIMSELF!!!! Not with dad and I.
2) Gabe has been taking turns! Not always willingly, but its a great start!
3) Gabe has been having fewer and fewer accidents!
4) So has Caleb! 2 accidents in 3-4 months is great!
5) The kids have been learning to help with the cooking.
6) We've been having weekly library trips where the kids can pick out their own choice of books to read and journal about, as well as movies to watch. Gabe has a real fascination with old 80's cartoons.
7) The kids are learning about respecting other people's space and things.
8) We've been helping Grandma and Great Grandma with things that they need done. And having dinner at grandma's at least once a week, using our manners and being polite.

I get down sometimes, and keeping track of our goals like this helps me to realize that even though it doesn't always seem like we are getting things done, we are accomplishing things everyday! It's slow work, but we keep going.
Now I just need to figure out which goals are the most important for us to work on the next few months.

So far, we are working on flashcards (math, words, numbers), and our reading and writing skills. We are continuing with our goals for chores, and sharing and such. They seem like such small goals, but slow and steady works for us.

Busy Day Yesterday

Every time I get ready for a trip back and forth to Milwaukee (or more precisely, several in one day!) I forget how tired I am by the end of the day. Wow was I wiped lout last night. Got home about 7:30 and was asleep by 9:30, finally woke up about 7:30 this morning.
Left home yesterday about 9 in the morning to go and get Dad and Colleen. Had Gabe, Caleb, and Adrian with me for the trip. There was a lot of construction on the way up and back. Finally got back with them about 12:30 or so, between the construction and potty breaks on the way there and back.
Went to David's birthday party and had a great time! Cake, ice cream, presents and pinata. Lots of chatter and playing. Catching up on what all had happened in each others' lives since we last saw each other on the 2nd. Left to take them back up about 3:30 because there was a game Dad wanted to catch last night. Pretty uneventful trip back, aside from the construction.
Took a side trip before I went back home. I drove by the school I used to go to, our old house and my grandma's old place. Just remembering how things used to be. I never missed a visit with her, every time I was up I went to see her. Usually at least once a month, sometimes more often, we'd make the hour trip to see her and spend the day in Milwaukee. I spent most of the month up there when she was in the hospital the last time. I'd leave work on Thursday or Friday depending on my schedule, I'd stop back home and grab one (or more) of the kids and grab mom and we'd all head up there. We'd come back sometime Monday morning. I'd grab a power nap and be ready for 3rd shift and do it all over again. I'm glad we got to spend all that time at the end with her. I think about her every time I go to Milwaukee. The way I would take to her house, the way to the hospital, to Kevin's work. The way grandma would laugh when the kids were goofing around.
Makes for lots of memories on every trip. Not all great memories, especially the ones about the last few days of her life, but a majority are great ones.
I'm planning our next field trip for October and I think it's going to be a few-day-trip to Milwaukee to see the Museum and the Domes, and of course Dad and Colleen. Maybe we can even catch a fall festival or something. All I know is if things work out the way I hope, we can have a lot of fun and enjoy our few days up there.

A Very Busy 2 Weeks

There's been a lot going on in the last couple of weeks. We went as a family and saw dad, staying overnight at a hotel in Milwaukee. It was a good visit, with dad getting to see all of the kids, and the kids and Mike getting to see him again for the first time in several years. We had an outrageously priced dinner, and got to relax and hang out for a while. That was also the weekend of our anniversary.
Then last weekend, we had our anniversary party, and dad and Colleen came down for it. There were about a dozen or so people, all family, there at the party. Dad and Colleen got to see Jaime and meet her kids for the first time, and see the rest of the family. The trip back up to drop them off was interesting, we had a bit of snow and freezing rain to navigate through. I only went like 40-45 all the way up and back on the highway. Got to meet both of Colleen's sons when I dropped them off.
Gabe has now mastered all but 4 letters, and knows with total certainty all numbers to 10, and is learning 11-20 now!!!! He also is wearing underwear more reliably during the day, and we have noticed can stay dry upwards of 8 hours at a time (when he pays attention!). He's had 3 days in the last 2 weeks where he has NOT come into our bed during the late night/early morning hours! Lots of good news there, and things are going well as far as school and sleeping and potty training.

All in all it's been a very long 2 weeks, and feels more like 2 months. Hoping to keep caught up on here in the future. I'd like to, at minimum, start posting once a week or more. Ideally, I'd like to post every day or every other day. We'll see though how it goes. Teaching Gabe is hard work, and keeps me busy!

Gabe counted today! And Added!

Yup! For the first time EVER, not including the one time that his teacher got him to count to 3, my boy counted! Not to 3, not to 5, but to 10. We used M&M's and raisins to accomplish this magical feat. Told him if he could count them he could have them. And he counted all 10 M&M's. Then later, to make sure we could duplicate it, we did it again with raisins and mixed fruit. I'd put 2 in his hand and say "how many?" and he'd say 2, then I'd add 1, and say it again, and he'd say 3. On and on til 10. He mixes up 7 and 8. But he's trying! And he was sooooo thrilled that he did it (or maybe thrilled cause of the treats?).
Caleb wrote his first ever paragraph in his own words. He decided that he would write about teradactyls. Below is an excerpt, not spell corrected (yes he did ask how to spell some things):

"I think Birds was alive wen dinosaur was alive. A Bird is telodados (teradactyls). Telodados are big birds and thay die off. And now telodados are fostois (fossils). But because thay are istec (extinct) was a big firey rocks hit ever weir (everywhere) and Now thay are telodados fostois (teradactyl fossils) in the guon (ground)."

Not bad considering how hard he has to try to remember how to spell the words. He is in 2nd grade, doing reading and writing at a late kinder level. He's learning to capitalize and punctuate a sentence. He's also learning that sometimes you should look words up and not ask mom, cause she'll probably misspell it too (case in point: teradactyl. it looks ok to me, but blogger keeps underlining it, so I know I spelled it wrong. Just trying to get this post done before I get interrupted again!). That's all for now, gotta go chase kids!

It's been another busy week.

Wow, we're only 1/2 way through and it's been so chaotic that I wish it was Friday already! Well, not really, because when you homeschool, you don't necessarily get weekends off.
Sunday I picked up Adrian, he'll be going home tomorrow.
Been getting things ready for filing taxes, just need to get his W-2 forms. The mortgage company sent us our dreaded 1099-A form, which we're hoping won't screw up our taxes, plus we got his form from unemployment (from work being closed from the floods this past summer), that's another one that can get us, because they didn't take taxes out of it.

On another subject, it's been brought to my attention that February 8th is "Autism Sunday" and that apparently the second Sunday of every February is every year. Ok thats news to me, lol, but now I know, and am sharing the news with you all. For more information, please go to http://autismsunday.tripod.com/
A wonderful lady from the parenting_autism group on Yahoo was kind enough to share the website address with the group! (Thanks Tuna!)

The kids are doing well, and this week has been dedicated to learning about the past presidents, and all the activities that go on around the inauguration. Busy Busy Busy! We even watched most of the inaugural happenings yesterday.

On a side note, I stumbled across this blog, ( http://clusterfook.com/ ), and I think it makes a great read, and makes you really appreciate life and living it to the fullest. She's a 3 time cancer survivor, and her life has really been turned upside down as of late, and she is home on hospice care right now. Please, if you're the praying type, keep her in your prayers. If you're not, positive thoughts will help too! Now, go read her blog! Or else, lol.

Tired.

So today was spent retrieving passwords, and getting back at the other blog. I've edited a couple of the posts, and messed around a little bit, but not much else, since it's taken most of the day to just accomplish that much.
I also managed to clean the baby's room, and the bathroom and bathroom closet. Sent Caitlin up to clean her room, but she didnt do much of anything. Gotta tackle the boys' room, and get it straightened, and get some more laundry done. Take trash out, and clean up my room again. Adrian only had a very short nap today, and has been running full bore all day. His dr appt is tomorrow, so I'm taking him and his mom to it. Hopefully I can get the MIL to watch the kids for me, cause then I can go with, otherwise I'll be sitting in the van with 4 cranky kids.
On a really cute note, when I picked him up, his mom told me that he's been calling my picture "Mimi", and he's been calling me that since I picked him up. Guess I better get back at it, have a ton of housework to get done, and very little time before their bedtime to get it done.

Finally got the password to my old blog!

So you can visit me there! I'll be trying to post at both regularly.

www.crazymomofmany.blogspot.com

Come visit me!

Another Busy Day

Spent today rearranging the boy's room, and putting James' bed in there with them. He's been begging to have his bed in with them for the last month or so, and we finally gave in. Their room now has 2 twin beds and a queen size bed in it, and one dresser! I didnt think they would all fit, but they did. Gabe's dresser fits in the bathroom (large bathroom) against the wall by the closet, Caleb's dresser is in the bedroom, and James' is in his old room. Adrian's dresser is also in James' old room, along with the pack n play (with Adrian lol) and the futon. And FYI, a queen size mattress and box spring will fit on the futon frame! Ask me how I know...
Anyway! Been super busy today, and plus we got a few inches of snow between last night and today and its STILL snowing!
Other than all that, not much else today, did school with the kids, folded and put away 7 loads of laundry, and vacuumed. Got all that done in between chasing kids and mediating kids trying to kill each other.
Tomorrow's my day off!