Letters from Pemberley

Homeschool Field Trip at Underwood

Nov 1st, 2014 by ECM

Yesterday we joined our CBS homeschool playgroup for a field trip to Underwood. This time it was much less about the pumpkins and much more about all the fun with friends.

Tommy, Jackson, and Jonah were pretty much inseparable.

Despite the frowny faces, the girls all enjoyed the wagon ride…

Picking out pumpkins always takes forever.

five families, 21 kids (Janie was the only one who refused to be in the picture…)

My girls LOVE the gang of girls…

And as usual, we took over the playground.

Elizabeth’s under-50 BFF, Noa. Family, here is the girl you always hear about!

And once Janie was done, we had to go home.

Posted in California, Elizabeth, Friends, Homeschooling, Janie, Susanna, Tommy | Comments Off

Beatrix Potter Halloween

Oct 31st, 2014 by ECM

Peter Rabbit with Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail!

Batman came along, too.

(Note Tommy’s bunny tail–I totally forgot to get a rear view of their costumes, but it was super cute.)

Posted in Elizabeth, Friends, Janie, Susanna, Tommy | 1 Comment »

The Chicken Mummy

Oct 29th, 2014 by ECM

It’s a classical homeschooler rite of passage, right? The dreaded chicken mummy. What mom in her right mind wants a raw chicken sitting around her house for 40 days?

Last week was crazy, but I waited until Sarah brought her boys over and figured it would be fun for James to join in, too. We rinsed the chicken in alcohol, stuffed him full of salt scented with cardamom, covered him with more salt mixture, and doubled bagged him. All week, we made sure he was covered with dry salt.

Then we checked him today and refreshed his salt covering. Picture courtesy of Tommy.

33 more days to go…

Posted in Elizabeth, Friends, Homeschooling, Susanna, Tommy | Comments Off

Overheard this afternoon…

Oct 27th, 2014 by ECM

In the car, on the way home from dropping off Derek’s dry cleaning,

Tommy: Mommy, Daddy is so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so funny!

Later, as Elizabeth is aggressively loving Jane-bug with hugs and kisses before bed,

Me: Who is your favorite person in the whole wide world?

E: You!

Me: What about your second favorite person?

E: Jane-bug, because she’s so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so cute!

Posted in Elizabeth, Tommy | Comments Off

more pictures of Susie’s haircut

Oct 25th, 2014 by ECM

She resists having her hair brushed or put up just as much as before, but in my humble opinion, she looks way less scraggly.

Posted in Susanna | Comments Off

Wednesday

Oct 23rd, 2014 by ECM

In addition to the normal school-and-grocery-shopping, we started the mummification process on a young chicken (salt makes an unbelievable mess when you have a 3, 4, 5, and 7 year old helping you), Tommy sliced his finger open cutting pre-sliced bagels and I realized we’re out of antibiotic ointment and almost out of bandaids, I tried to cough up a lung throughout the day, Janie fell off her high chair (while I was changing poopy diaper 3 of 8 for the day by Susie who doesn’t care that she’s back in diapers full-time), Janie woke up from her nap covered in vomit, I bathed her, the pediatrician’s office told us to go to the ER because the fall+vomiting was concerning, the ER doc told us she needed a CT scan and then changed his mind after observing her for an hour and sent us home, the car died in the parking garage but I was able to get it going again, we rescued my rather over-done beans and rice and went off to community group, got home late and all of Janie’s and our sheets were still in the dryer, I realized we were all out of cough medicine, and Derek is flying to NM tonight.

Please pray that the next few days are smoother so that I can go home and be there for Peter and Cammy without leaving too much drama behind!

Posted in Janie, Susanna, Tommy | 2 Comments »

Just Another School Day

Oct 22nd, 2014 by ECM

Janie wanted to color a map of Ancient Egypt, too.

And everyone got out their colored pencils when we went to Gardens of the World to sketch with the Boyds.

Posted in Elizabeth, Homeschooling, Janie, Susanna, Tommy | Comments Off

Silent Too Long

Oct 21st, 2014 by ECM

I thought Bug was playing with the tupperware while I ordered a bunch of household things from amazon subscribe and save. (Because, you know, Target is too hard to get to between homeschool, naps, and soccer practice.) Then I realized it was too quiet. Someone had left the jar of sunflower seed butter open. And she’d pushed a chair over and helped herself.

Posted in Janie | 3 Comments »

Janie at 19 months

Oct 20th, 2014 by ECM

She is still not saying a ton. A whine and a point, and siblings or Mommy will get her what she wants. We need to work on making her speak more. She does babble quite a bit, so I’m not too worried yet. And her favorite words are NO!, shoes, and cheese. Lately she’s been sortof on a hunger strike, refusing all the favorites and just picking the almond butter off the sandwich and leaving the bread. Fortunately, she drinks a LOT of milk (and yes, I try to feed her first and only give the milk as a last resort). I did get a couple cookies down her the other day (desperate times call for desperate measures!), and then I left the kids with Josh and Sarah Saturday afternoon, and she wolfed down turkey bacon for dinner! Sarah always gets my kids to eat things they’d never eat for me. This week she’s also eaten lasagna, pears, and a bagel at church. Hm. Definitely a fourth child. I would never admitted publicly if Tommy’s 19 month diet had been this bad!

Janie pretty much only took one nap all week, so I think that the morning nap is officially gone. That makes life easier, schedule-wise, but is a little tricky for homeschooling. As you can see from yesterday’s pictures, she really just loves participating in whatever the big kids are doing–pattern blocks and coloring with markers or colored pencils are her favorite activities. And pulling toilet paper off of tubes.

She loves baby dolls and carries one around all the time. She is fascinated by legos and seems to be putting them in her mouth less of late. She can entertain herself happily outside for a nice long bit (like the whole time I’ve been typing this since coming in to upload her pictures). All four of her first molars are all the way in, so she has 12 beautiful teeth!

She’s been really clingy this weekend, but with all the grieving over Beverly Rose, I don’t mind holding my baby all day long.

Posted in Janie | 1 Comment »

The Kids

Oct 19th, 2014 by ECM

I haven’t wanted to put up pictures of the kids the past couple of days because it seems like it would make it harder for Peter and Cammy. But today my mom said she wished she could give all my kids big hugs, and the loss reminds us again that we are so blessed that four of our children are alive and healthy. So for Grandma and Grandpa especially, here are pictures of Susie’s last day with curls, Janie doing math with the big kids, and the big girls’ matching haircuts.

$math morning$