Just a little something that made my (and my kids') day today :) We were in the grocery store, I was preoccupied with something, I don't remember what, when an elderly gentleman came up to me and said something that I couldn't understand while handing me 2 $5 bills. When I asked him to repeat himself, he told me to use the money to let each of the girls pick out "something special" when I thanked him profusely, he just smiled and said "I love doing it". AWWWWW . . . each of the girls chose a small bag of candy (goodness knows we don't NEED candy around here with all the "loot" from trick-or-treating at Sea World, but still . . . ) and a donut, and we'll put the rest of the money in their piggy banks for future treats. They "gushed" about how nice the man was the ENTIRE time we were in the store, and all the way home. And frankly,while more quietly, I "gushed" too :) Not because we needed the money (or they needed the junk food) but because it's a reminder that there are people in the world who like to give just for the sake of giving, and not for what they will get in return (other than the knowledge that they made someone happy).
I'm reminded of a day when I was pregnant with the girls, I don't remember how far along I was, but far enough to be big and uncomfortable (which happens early w/ twins LOL). I'd stopped at the grocery store after work and that particular grocery store didn't have any cart returns in the parking lot & the whole parking lot was a rather steep hill. As I unloaded the groceries into my car I was dreading having to walk the cart all the way back down the hill to the store, and then walk all the way back UP the hill to my car (not a huge distance but when your feet and back and belly ache w/ any movement, it seems like 100 miles LOL). As I finished up a man came from a nearby car and offered to take the cart back for me. I thanked him, assuming he was going into the store to start shopping anyway, so, while a nice thing to do, it wasn't any extra "work" on his part. It wasn't until I was pulling out that I realized that, after returning my cart, he'd come back to his car, where his wife (I assume) was waiting, and was getting in, ready to leave. He'd been LEAVING not coming, and had taken the cart out of the goodness of his heart (no doubt realizing that at my size, the extra walking would be tiring). It was a small thing, but it meant the world to me, to the point that 6 years later, I still remember it.
So this is my reminder to all of us (including myself), to practice random acts of kindness!!!
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
Menu Plan Monday
I'm scrambling abit since we just got home, but here is, at least, a tentative menu for this week (see other links here)
We're Home!!
After almost a week and a half away, it's good to be home! We had a mostly good trip (dad's car being broken into in the hotel parking lot (didn't take much but broke a window, messed up the paint & leather seat, so it's a huge hassle to repair, and we had to drive home yesterday w/ cardboard covering the window) was definitely the "low point", though the girls were thrilled to have a couple extra hours to swim in the hotel pool while the guys vacuumed up all the glass and such).
We went to Jamestown, the most blatantly educational part of the trip LOL. I think it did help the girls picture what we've been learning about though.
Then spent a day at Busch Garden's Williamsburg. Then the LONG drive to FL. We got to our hotel early enough on Sunday to run over to Sea World and catch a Shamu show and let the kids ride a couple kiddie rides, and get some candy (Sea World does "trick or treating" on weekends in Oct, and Halloween). The rest of the week was long days at Disney or Sea World. We spent one day at Magic Kingdom, one day split between MGM (now called Hollywood something-or-other) and Epcot, 2 days at Sea World, and one day at Animal Kingdom.
Some highlights, in no particular order . . .
We went to Jamestown, the most blatantly educational part of the trip LOL. I think it did help the girls picture what we've been learning about though.
Then spent a day at Busch Garden's Williamsburg. Then the LONG drive to FL. We got to our hotel early enough on Sunday to run over to Sea World and catch a Shamu show and let the kids ride a couple kiddie rides, and get some candy (Sea World does "trick or treating" on weekends in Oct, and Halloween). The rest of the week was long days at Disney or Sea World. We spent one day at Magic Kingdom, one day split between MGM (now called Hollywood something-or-other) and Epcot, 2 days at Sea World, and one day at Animal Kingdom.
Some highlights, in no particular order . . .
- The sting rays were THE hit of Sea World. I don't even remember seeing this last year, not sure if we missed it or it wasn't there, but it's a tank full of sea rays that you can touch, or feed if you're willing to pay their prices LOL. The first day A refused to touch them, but L spent significant time with them. The second day we were there, A decided to touch them too, and then BOTH kids spent as long as we let them touching them and getting soaked w/ all the splashing LOL.
- Animal Kingdom does a really cool "kid activity" (I don't remember what it's called) where each part of the park has a "station" where kids do an educational activity (scavanger hunt, puzzle, touch & identify, etc) and then get a "passport" type thing stamped, if they collect all 6 stamps they get another stamp & a little activity book, prize. (Epcot does a similar, but IMO, not nearly as well done, and non-educational, thing)
- It was too cold all week for the girls to swim the evenings. But made for more pleasant weather in the parks.
- Kids started the week thrilled to have fruit loops at the hotel breakfasts (not a breakfast cereal we buy around here, since it has ZERO nutritional value LOL), but after about 3 days, they must have gotten tired of them, and switched to eating waffles (still not overly healthy, especially w/ A having fake (as opposed to maple) syrup on hers every day), though L ate hers w/ just butter.
- Mama (or Papa) had the brainstorm, one evening when the girls were bouncing off the walls in the hotel room, to bring in the quilt we had in the car & use it, draped over the table in their hotel room, to make a "tent" the girls had fun w/ that the rest of the week.
- While I love the concept of Animal Kingdom overall, the main Disney movies/shows that are represented there all movies shows that the girls haven't seen (and for good reason, IMO). On the positive side, it meant we didn't have to schedule our day around a bunch of shows. Perhaps the most amusing aspect of the day for us grownups was when we saw Rikiki (sp?) from The Lion King, meeting kids, the girls didn't have any idea who he was, beyond "a monkey", but wanted their picture taken w/ him anyway. So, after hugging him and getting their picture taken w/ him, as they were walking away, L said "goodbye whoever you are!" he did a great job of pantomiming shock that they didn't "know" him, it was quite amusing LOL.
- After meeting Pooh, Tigger & Eyore, we were walking out & Eyore was going on break or something so he ended up walking out of the meet and greet area, holding hands w/ one of my kids and another little girl.
- I'm sure I'm forgetting things, I'll add them as I think of them LOL.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Our Week
We had a week of wrapping things up this past week. It was our last week of studying the solar system. I think we'll wait to add some more science until after the Holidays, and spend extra time on Holiday stuff between now & then.
We also finished the Really Reading Curriculum. I want to spend some more time reviewing some of the concepts, but we worked through the whole curriculum. We're doing review work now, and reading the easy reading books & continuing with the phonics worksheets.
And finally, we finished our study of Jamestown and moved on to Plymouth. One of the books I'd planned to use hasn't come in at the library yet, I'm HOPING it will come in sometime this week so we'll have it ready to use when we get back from our trip, if not, we may end up skipping it, we shall see . . . In the meantime we read another book, Three Young Pilgrims , and started Squanto. I was nervous, since Squanto was another chapter book, that it would be above the girls' head like the Jamestown one was, they got into Jamestown as we moved through it, but had trouble following it. But it's written at a younger level, and when I finished reading 2 chapters, L asked that I keep reading, so it was a hit. I'm hoping to read a bunch of it to them in the car on our trip, it should pass time driving and help us keep moving forward with the curriculum at the same time. We also started our first History Pocket book. When I first looked into this curriculum, the library system shows that they have all the History Pocket books, but when I tried to actually reserve one, it wouldn't let me, so apparently they're considered a reference book or somesuch at the library that actually has them. So we've skipped the History Pockets up to this point. I did want to try at least ONE though, and determined that the Plymouth one was used extensively & is geared for the younger kids, so I bought this one. I think it'll be a hit. We made the first pocket yesterday, and the girls thought it was great fun :)
I'd planned to take this next week off completely, since we're getting ready for our trip, but we have a good momentum going, so I think we'll try to go ahead & do Bible, Reading & History the first 2 or 3 days this week. But I reserve the right to change my mind if I start stressing about getting everything else done LOL.
We also finished the Really Reading Curriculum. I want to spend some more time reviewing some of the concepts, but we worked through the whole curriculum. We're doing review work now, and reading the easy reading books & continuing with the phonics worksheets.
And finally, we finished our study of Jamestown and moved on to Plymouth. One of the books I'd planned to use hasn't come in at the library yet, I'm HOPING it will come in sometime this week so we'll have it ready to use when we get back from our trip, if not, we may end up skipping it, we shall see . . . In the meantime we read another book, Three Young Pilgrims , and started Squanto. I was nervous, since Squanto was another chapter book, that it would be above the girls' head like the Jamestown one was, they got into Jamestown as we moved through it, but had trouble following it. But it's written at a younger level, and when I finished reading 2 chapters, L asked that I keep reading, so it was a hit. I'm hoping to read a bunch of it to them in the car on our trip, it should pass time driving and help us keep moving forward with the curriculum at the same time. We also started our first History Pocket book. When I first looked into this curriculum, the library system shows that they have all the History Pocket books, but when I tried to actually reserve one, it wouldn't let me, so apparently they're considered a reference book or somesuch at the library that actually has them. So we've skipped the History Pockets up to this point. I did want to try at least ONE though, and determined that the Plymouth one was used extensively & is geared for the younger kids, so I bought this one. I think it'll be a hit. We made the first pocket yesterday, and the girls thought it was great fun :)
I'd planned to take this next week off completely, since we're getting ready for our trip, but we have a good momentum going, so I think we'll try to go ahead & do Bible, Reading & History the first 2 or 3 days this week. But I reserve the right to change my mind if I start stressing about getting everything else done LOL.
Friday, October 17, 2008
They're Constantly Changing
I'm amazed at how something the girls weren't interested in a few months ago can now hold their attention so completely. Last fall we got a couple Nest videos to take with us to watch in the car on a trip, the girls weren't interested in them (on that same trip, I also introduced them to Mary Poppins, they weren't interested in that either). We tried the Nest videos at various times during last winter, and then kind of set them aside since they continued to not be a hit. Then a month or so ago dh discovered that there's a TV station here that plays a whole bunch of religious kids programs on weekend mornings, so he set the DVR to record a bunch of them, including NEST videos. And the girls love the Nest videos! So I thought, perhaps they just didn't like the particular video we'd tried watching before. Tonight I went back into the DVR list & chose a NEST video for them to watch (and it doesn't tell me which one is which, so it was just whatever was recorded last weekend) and it's John the Baptist (the one we have, that they didn't like). They did mention, as it started, that they'd seen this one before & I asked if they wanted to watch a different one but they didn't reply, so I left it on. They're completely engrossed in it!! So I guess they just weren't old enough for it (or something) last winter. Along the same line, Mary Poppins is now one of their favorites and they watch it probably at least once a month on trips to & from the grandparents' houses.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Doing a Happy Dance!!
I'm so excited!! One of the many blog giveaways I entered recently was for the complete set of Liberty's Kids DVDs. For those who don't know, Liberty's Kids was a PBS series a few years ago set during the Revolutionary War. Great history in a kid- friendly format! The series has been cancelled, but they did re-play at least some of them on one of the Discovery Channels a year or so ago, I recorded them and watched one or two with the girls but they were still abit too scary (war is like that LOL) for the girls at that point. I think I did keep them on our DVR in case we wanted to watch them later, but then we moved, so that kinda ruined that LOL (and even if I'd known how to record off the DVR, there was way too much chaos at the time of the move to think of recording a show we might someday want to watch). Now we're studying American History and I'd been thinking what a great resource that would be when we get to that period in history. And I THINK they would be less scared now, especially if we were also reading about it at the same time (we used to have to ff through the scary scenes in The Little Mermaid and Beauty & the Beast, and now we don't). So anyway, I was excited when I found the giveaway for the DVDs, but figured chances were slim that I'd win, but I got the e-mail this afternoon, I DID win them!! So we'll have them to watch when we're studying it & if they ARE still too scary, we can save them to watch when the girls are older (obviously even if we watch them now, we'll likely pull them out in the future when we cycle back around to studying that period in history). Yay! I can't begin to tell you how much this made my day (and yes, I realize it's a little thing, it doesn't take much to make me happy LOL).
Last Week's Wrap-Up
We had a productive week last week, stayed on track for "school", the girls are definitely picking up the reading, and after a slow start, are into the Jamestown book now (& we'll finish it today or tomorrow). We also figured out to fit a visit to Jamestown into our upcoming Disney trip (had planned to stop in Williamsburg for Busch Gardens anyway), and I think it will help alot for them to SEE what we just read about.
As already mentioned, we went apple picking, we also had a rather applesauce filled week, with making 2 small batches here at home (the apple corer/peeler/slicer is pretty cool!!) and then yesterday at my parents' house we made & canned 9 1/2 quarts (and the girls & I probably ate at least another pint while we were there LOL). I'm so excited to have those all sitting on my shelf for this winter :) I still have probably a bushel & a half of apples sitting in my basement too (some of the empires still, most of the staymens we picked, and then I got a half bushel of yorks (YUM!! My all-time favorite!!!) while we were at my parents. So will have to keep an eye on them & may make some more applesauce &/or dried apples &/or apple leather w/ some of those.
We were at my parents' this weekend and spent a good part of Friday at a pumpkin patch, corn maze, etc. near our old house. I'd taken the girls last year & we'd enjoyed it, but had gotten horribly lost in the corn maze, so we attempted it again this year with more adults along. We didn't get lost but it confirmed for me that it wasn't any great lack of directional ability on my part that got us lost last year, this year we did lots of one adult stay at a crossroads w/ the girls while the other 2 check out 2 of the options and then take our best guess, and even then we went in circles a few times. We had found 6 of the 10 clues when we came to a lookout tower & discovered that we were still about as far from the beginning as it's possible to get and it was approaching sundown, so rather than risk having to find our way out in the DARK we abandoned the maze & followed a straight line (through the rows of corn) to the hay wagon path that ran around the outside of the maze and followed it back to civilization LOL. Besides that the girls had a great time jumping on a huge moonbounce type pillow (they especially enjoyed it when Papa got out & jumped w/ them LOL), going down huge slides, seeing the farm animals (they had some itty bitty baby pigs that were ADORABLE!!!!), playing in a big bin of shelled corn, and racing rubber duckies down chutes that you pump water down. And of course the hayride to the pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins. L found a "peanut pumpkin" and was/is quite proud of it.
The girls amazed me with how well they did learning the Lord's Prayer this week. I wasn't 100% happy w/ either version of the song that I bought (but at $0.99 ea it wasn't a great loss & did help them learn it). Soon after we moved here we had a longish (nowhere near this long, but longer than most) memory verse & I found it odd (but assumed it was just a coinicidence) that L seemed to learn it faster than she does she shorter ones, but again this week, she had the Lord's Prayer down to needing one or two prompts by TUESDAY!! It is often Thursday before she can say the typial one line memory verses w/o hearing the whole thing first. I just don't get it! But by the end of the week both were saying it to my satisfaction to be able to tell Teacher Cindy next week that they said it.
Now we're home, ready to fit in our last week of school before our Disney trip (taking some time off either side of the trip to keep from stressing me out too much LOL). This week we have friends coming over this morning, books to pick up at the library, a new source for raw milk to find (the farm we've been going to put up a sign a week ago saying they were moving, sigh . . .), I'd really like to find some new shoes for Disney, but am beginning to resign myself to just wearing my crocs, they look less that lovely w/ skirts & dresses, but they're comfortable . . . still hoping to check a couple stores this week though. . . so it's a busy week. I also need to reserve videos from the library to take w/ us on the trip.
I'd planned to get corncobs from my parents' house to use to make corncob dolls this week, but realized halfway home last night, that I forgot, so we'll be skipping that in this week's school . . . and try to remember to bring the corncobs home after our disney trip.
As already mentioned, we went apple picking, we also had a rather applesauce filled week, with making 2 small batches here at home (the apple corer/peeler/slicer is pretty cool!!) and then yesterday at my parents' house we made & canned 9 1/2 quarts (and the girls & I probably ate at least another pint while we were there LOL). I'm so excited to have those all sitting on my shelf for this winter :) I still have probably a bushel & a half of apples sitting in my basement too (some of the empires still, most of the staymens we picked, and then I got a half bushel of yorks (YUM!! My all-time favorite!!!) while we were at my parents. So will have to keep an eye on them & may make some more applesauce &/or dried apples &/or apple leather w/ some of those.
We were at my parents' this weekend and spent a good part of Friday at a pumpkin patch, corn maze, etc. near our old house. I'd taken the girls last year & we'd enjoyed it, but had gotten horribly lost in the corn maze, so we attempted it again this year with more adults along. We didn't get lost but it confirmed for me that it wasn't any great lack of directional ability on my part that got us lost last year, this year we did lots of one adult stay at a crossroads w/ the girls while the other 2 check out 2 of the options and then take our best guess, and even then we went in circles a few times. We had found 6 of the 10 clues when we came to a lookout tower & discovered that we were still about as far from the beginning as it's possible to get and it was approaching sundown, so rather than risk having to find our way out in the DARK we abandoned the maze & followed a straight line (through the rows of corn) to the hay wagon path that ran around the outside of the maze and followed it back to civilization LOL. Besides that the girls had a great time jumping on a huge moonbounce type pillow (they especially enjoyed it when Papa got out & jumped w/ them LOL), going down huge slides, seeing the farm animals (they had some itty bitty baby pigs that were ADORABLE!!!!), playing in a big bin of shelled corn, and racing rubber duckies down chutes that you pump water down. And of course the hayride to the pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins. L found a "peanut pumpkin" and was/is quite proud of it.
The girls amazed me with how well they did learning the Lord's Prayer this week. I wasn't 100% happy w/ either version of the song that I bought (but at $0.99 ea it wasn't a great loss & did help them learn it). Soon after we moved here we had a longish (nowhere near this long, but longer than most) memory verse & I found it odd (but assumed it was just a coinicidence) that L seemed to learn it faster than she does she shorter ones, but again this week, she had the Lord's Prayer down to needing one or two prompts by TUESDAY!! It is often Thursday before she can say the typial one line memory verses w/o hearing the whole thing first. I just don't get it! But by the end of the week both were saying it to my satisfaction to be able to tell Teacher Cindy next week that they said it.
Now we're home, ready to fit in our last week of school before our Disney trip (taking some time off either side of the trip to keep from stressing me out too much LOL). This week we have friends coming over this morning, books to pick up at the library, a new source for raw milk to find (the farm we've been going to put up a sign a week ago saying they were moving, sigh . . .), I'd really like to find some new shoes for Disney, but am beginning to resign myself to just wearing my crocs, they look less that lovely w/ skirts & dresses, but they're comfortable . . . still hoping to check a couple stores this week though. . . so it's a busy week. I also need to reserve videos from the library to take w/ us on the trip.
I'd planned to get corncobs from my parents' house to use to make corncob dolls this week, but realized halfway home last night, that I forgot, so we'll be skipping that in this week's school . . . and try to remember to bring the corncobs home after our disney trip.
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