Last year I dove right in to the 48 Hour Book Challenge for the first time ever. I did ok – I think my total goal between reading and networking was 15 hours. Not too shabby for a mother of 4 boisterous children. So this year I decided to give it another go. My goal is to read for 15 hours, beginning at 9am today and ending at 9am on Sunday.

I have a big stack of books I’m working my way through (and it keeps growing as I add new books!) as I plan our American History lesson plans. So you may notice a theme in my reading.

Just a glimpse of the ever changing book pile.

Once again, my daughter will also, unofficially, be participating. She enjoyed it last year, but gave up when her friends wanted to play. I expect the same to happen this year, but her goal is to read for 10 hours. (She started with 2o hours as her goal, but decided 10 would allow her more play time.)

Now I’m going to eat some breakfast, take a shower and dive into my reading!!

Update 1

So far, I’ve only read for 3 hours and finished one book – Walk the Worlds Rim  I’m going to try and squeeze in a few more hours before the family makes me stop to fix dinner…maybe I can talk them into take-out?

Update 2

It is now 9pm so I’m 12 hours into the challenge. My current stats:

• Hours read – 7
• Networking – 1
• Books finished – 1 3/4

My goal was to get another 2 hours in tonight, but I’m feeling sleepy – I’m not much of a night owl. Plus, no matter how late I stay up reading, my kids are going to wake me up at 7:30 am. I’m hoping to at least finish the book I’m currently reading – The King’s Fifth.

Update 3

It’s just about 9am, so I’m halfway through the challenge. My stats thus far:

• Hours read: 8
• Networking: 1
• Books Read: 2

I’m pretty pleased with my progress so far – I am more than halfway to my goal – I might even manage to beat my goal!!  I’ve been reading historical fiction so far, which I love, but I’m in the mood for something different, so I think I’m going to read Rules next.

 Update 4

It is now 6:45 pm, and I feel like I’m nearing the finish line, despite the fact that I have many hours left to go. Here are my stats thus far:

• Hours read – 14
• Networking – 2
• Books read – 4

I finished Rules this afternoon. I think it was probably one of the best YA books I’ve read this year. I really loved the main character and how she felt that needed to protect her brother. Then, this evening I read The Fighting Ground 25th Anniversary Edition. I really wanted to love this book – it’s Avi after all. I don’t know why, but I just didn’t connect with it. Maybe it was because I read it following Rules, I don’t know. I definitely think I’ll pass on having my boys read it this year – the German lines alone would have them throwing the book on the floor in frustration.

Ok, I’m going to try and get some more reading in this evening and I’ll update tomorrow morning when I’m finished!

 Crossing the Finish Line!

It is now 9:00 AM and my 48 hour challenge is over! I finished up my last book this morning – Sees Behind Trees which I really enjoyed. I think my boys will love it as well.

Here are my finishing stats:

• Hours read – 16
• Networking – 2
• Books finished – 5
• # of pages read – 888
• Total combined hours – 18

I am very pleased with my results – I did better than I thought I would, and I stayed caught up on laundry too! I made a decent sized dent in my reading pile, which was my main goal.

I was very inspired by Sarah’s end of year folders, and while I’d love to do something similar, I’m under no delusions that I could be as creative. I thought this year I would wrap up our year (though honestly, we’ve been wrapped up for a couple weeks now) by doing a little interview, similar to what Sarah did for the cover of her folders. Nothing terribly fancy, I just wanted to get an idea of where everyone was at and what I might want to work towards next school year.

Here are the results:

Annie:

What was your favorite subject this year?

History

What was the hardest thing you learned or did?

Grammar and writing essays

What was the best field trip or out-of-the-home activity?

The girl scout trip to Salem, Mass to see the Salem Witch museums.

What is the best book you read this year?

The Great and Terrible Quest

What are you most looking forward to next school year?

Learning physics, cause I’ve never done that subject before.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Teacher/novelist/mythologist

Dino-Boy

What was your favorite subject?

Science

What was the hardest thing you learned or did?

Grammar

What was the best field trip or out-of-the-home activity?

Going to the SEE Science Center with Pappy.

What was your favorite book?

The Water Horse

What are you most looking forward to next school year?

More art

What do you want to be when you grow up?

A Paleo-artist / Drummer

Gamer-Boy:

What was your favorite subject?

Geography

What was the hardest thing you learned or did?

Grammar  (Obviously I need to take another look at grammar curriculum for next year!)

What was the best field trip or out-of-the-home activity?

The Cub Scouts chess tournament that I won!

What was your favorite book?

Tales from the Odyssey, Part 1 (Trade Bind-up)

What are you most looking forward to next school year?

Using Teaching Textbooks for math

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Video game designer

Yesterday we had our first Screen-Free Wednesday. I admit, I was a little nervous at how it would go. Like I said, we’re all a bit addicted to our screens. I was surprised when I woke up and came downstairs to my twins playing with legos. I haven’t seen them play with them for years.

I had made the kids chocolate banana muffins for breakfast, so we all ate and talked about how we would spend out day. The boys ran off to play with the legos some more, Annie went to her room to make a summer reading list, and Cutie and I colored for a bit.

Later in the morning the boys practiced their instruments. They’ve been taking lessons for a few months now. Gamer-boy plays guitar and Dino-boy plays the drums.

Are you ready to rock?!

While the boys practiced, the girls had a doll tea party. Annie has two American Girl dolls – one is a junior version called Logan, and she has the historical doll Kit. She gave Cutie the Logan doll recently and she likes to carry her around and take off her shoes.

At this point in the day, I figured I should get some work done, so I did some laundry, cleaned the kitchen, started some dinner in the crockpot and cleaned the upstairs bathroom.  I went and check to see what the kids were up to when I was finished.

For some inexplicable reason, Annie chose to read an old American History textbook I had kicking around. She said she felt like playing school.

Cutie was playing with her toys and the boys were back to playing with their legos. We decided to have lunch, and then after lunch I read a chapter of our current read – aloud, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

Then Annie went upstairs to clean her room, the boys drew pictures and Cutie chose her brainquest cards to read with me.

She's so silly!

Then Cutie went down for her nap and since the weather had cleared up, the big kids headed outside.  I chose to get some reading done and then I headed out to see what the kids were up to.  They decided to build an obstacle course and needed a bit of help reaching some things to set it up.

Noodle fight!

They also ran a race - Dino-boy won.

Part of the obstacle course. It involved hopping on one foot, walking on the balance beam, going through the tent, walking through the revolving noodles, hopping from square to square, dodging bubbles and riding a tricycle.

When they came inside, we had snacks and the kids all went off to read for a bit. I think after the obstacle course and races everyone needed some quiet down time. I did some more reading, and cleaned up the kitchen again. Then we decided to work on some stained glass window coloring pages we had. Everyone picked a picture and we all sat and colored together. I then taped up the finished pictures in our front window.

By this time, Cutie woke up from her nap and decided to take advantage of the markers that were left out from the stained glass windows.

Cutie's Masterpiece

The kids all played in the living room for a bit and I got dinner ready. We had Chicken Chili over rice with garlic cheddar biscuits (all gluten free, of course.)

Later, I gave Cutie a bath, Rob went down to the cellar and found some of his old lego kits for the kids to play with, he exercised and then after I got Cutie to bed we decided to play a board game. The kids picked Harry Potter Diagon Alley board game. It took us a bit to set up and teach the boys how to play, but it was tons of fun. This is probably one of the most fun board games we’ve played.

Photo bomb - Dino-boy is the master photo-bomber.

Getting a little silly cause it's way past their bedtime.

When the game was done (Gamer-boy won), we all went to bed. It was past 9 and everyone was good and tired.  I talked to the kids throughout the day about what I noticed about going screen free and I asked them what they thought.  The kids said they didn’t really miss the screens at all. They were surprised at how much stuff there was to do!  I noticed that no one said “I’m bored.” Not even once, which is surprising, because normally I hear it at least five times a day. I noticed everyone was better behaved and Cutie didn’t get into as much mischief.

We are definitely going to keep Wednesday’s screen free from now on. I don’t know if we’ll ever do more than one day a week – I’ve never been one to think screens are bad. They have their purpose and are fine in and of themselves. It’s when we start to mis-use them that they become a problem.  I’m hoping that we’ll all start using them less overall and find better ways to spend our time.

Lately I’ve been thinking that we all spend way too much of our time sitting in front of screens. We’re either on the computer, watching television, or playing video games. I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with those activities when they’re done in moderation, but when our days are spent staring at screens, and that’s all we do, I think it’s a problem. Especially when we have a gorgeous yard, a pond right beside our house, tons of board games, books, art supplies, a fully stocked kitchen, plenty of toys…we have a FUN house. But everyone is missing out on that fun because we’re all addicted to our screens.

My original plan was for a screen free week, but everyone freaked out and my husband suggested a weekly screen free day. So, from now on, Wednesday’s are screen free at our house – for everyone, even my husband and I. I have a feeling it’s going to be hard the first few weeks, but I’m hoping that after seeing all the other ways to spend our time, we’ll spend less time in front of screens during the rest of the week. I plans to strew lots of fun things around for the kids to discover, and hopefully our first screen – free day will be a huge success!  I’ll report back on Thursday with how our day went.

Now that school is winding down for the year, I’m starting to hear that old familiar tune again…

“Mama, I’m bored, what can I do?”
“Can I use my computer, there’s nothing else to do!”

So, in order to keep myself sane, and find the children ways to entertain themselves without zoning out in front of the computer/DS/Wii all day, I created the “I’m Bored List.” I brainstormed a bunch of ideas and I put it on the fridge where everyone can easily see it. If anyone comes to me and says they are bored, I direct them to the list. Another fun idea would be to make an I’m Bored Jar and cut the list into strips. Then when someone is bored they can randomly choose an activity from the jar.

The I’m Bored List

1. Watch the birds.
2. Ride your bike.
3. Read a book
4. Read to someone.
5. Put on a puppet show (make your own puppets too!)
6. Play a board game.
7. Paint a picture.
8. Learn something new and tell about it.
9. Help in the garden.
10. Draw with sidewalk chalk.
11. Watch a movie.
12. Take nature photos
13. Make a collage about a favorite thing.
14. Write a story.
15. Invent a new game and teach it to everyone.
16. Practice your musical instrument.
17. Invent a fantasy world and populate it. Make a map of your world.
18. Paint with water.
19. Play dress up.
20. Make a field guide about something.
21. Cook with Mama.
22. Build a fort.
23. Put on music and dance!
24. Paint some rocks to decorate the garden.
25. Make up a scavenger hunt and have everyone compete.

 

I recently received a copy of Rediscover Lent by Matthew Kelly to review. I am always on the lookout for simple devotion books to use during Lent, so I was excited to check this one out. Several months ago, my mother-in-law gave us a copy of Rediscovering Catholicism also by Matthew Kelly, and I thought it was a fabulous resource. Even though I’ve been Catholic for nearly 12 years, I learned so much. So, when I saw he had a lenten devotional book, I had to read it.

Each week of Lent is divided into the 7 Pillars of Catholicism (which are confession, daily prayer, the Mass, the Bible, fasting, spiritual reading, and the rosary). Then each day has scripture passages to read along with a reflection based on both the week’s pillar and the scripture.   There is also a thought or question to meditate on and a prayer. Matthew Kelly’s writing is clear and practical, helping readers to see the beauty and genius of the Catholic faith.

Overall, I really have enjoyed using this book for my Lenten devotions. I think it could be especially helpful to new Catholics or those coming back into the church.

The Catholic Company is also a great source for a Catechism of the Catholic Church or a Catholic Bible.

Outside my window… It is absolutely GORGEOUS! Clear blue sky, warm, it’s distracting I tell you! How can we do school work when the beautiful spring weather beckons to us?

I am thankful for… an early spring! We would normally still have snow on the ground this time of year, so for it to be in the 80′s right now is insane! I grew up in the south, and it almost feels like I’m home again. I love early spring time.

I am thinking about… I have a project in the works. I’m not sure I want to talk about it too much….not trying to be cryptic, just don’t want to talk about something that I haven’t actually finished yet. Let’s just say that my disappointment in being able to find exactly the right curriculum has spurred me into a project of EPIC proportions. What is that saying? When you want something done right, you have to do it yourself….yeah…that.

Learning all the time… We are still plugging away, though I think spring fever has struck here. Like I said, how can we be expected to work in these conditions?

From the kitchen… I just baked a loaf of banana bread…man that stuff is delicious. I think the kids purposely don’t eat the bananas so they’ll start to rot in the hopes that I will bake banana bread.

I am creating… Notes…plans…more crypticness.

I am working on… Spring cleaning in teeny tiny baby steps. It’s HARD to spring clean with a rambunctious almost-three-year-old in the house. She literally creates chaos. Thankfully she still naps!

I am going… to cry…can you believe my baby is about to turn 3?! It seems just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital and she was oh so tiny. She’s still pretty tiny and yet so big at the same time. I’m getting hit hard with baby fever. I think  I need a puppy, lol.

I am hoping… to go see The Hunger Games sometime in the next week for my birthday. I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am over this movie. I am a huge fan of the books and the movie looks spectacular. Annie read the first book (actually I read it to her as a read aloud) and she loved it too. From what I’ve heard, the movie is going to be less gory than the book – they have to still have all the death and such, but it won’t be overly gory. I’m hoping it won’t upset Annie. While she enjoyed the book, parts were a bit hard for her. I have a feeling that seeing certain scenes may be upsetting.

I am reading… too many books right now. I am doing lots of pre-reading for lesson plans, plus, I have started:

Captive Queen: A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine (Random House Reader’s Circle)

Outlander (20th Anniversary Edition): A Novel

I am hearing… Gamer-boy practicing his guitar, geese down in the pond, random birds singing in the trees…the sounds of spring.

One of my favorite things… Watching my littlest chasing after her older siblings and trying to do whatever they’re doing. Today she was running around with a bat and ball totally frustrated that she couldn’t throw the ball and hit it with the bat like her big brother did. She wouldn’t let anyone help either of course, in typical “I can do it myself!” 3 year old fashion.

A few plans for the rest of the week… Enjoy this glorious weather!

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you…

First picnic of the year!

I haven’t done one of these for a while, so I thought I’d share what everyone here has been reading:

Annie:

Eldest (Inheritance Cycle, Book 2) (The Inheritance Cycle) by Christopher Paolini

I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade by Diane Lee Wilson

Warriors #2: Fire and Ice by Erin Hunter

Gamer Boy:

Monday with a Mad Genius (Magic Tree House, No. 38) by Mary Pope Osborne

Surtsey the newest place on earth by Kathryn Lasky

The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleishman

Dino – Boy:

Lions at Lunchtime (Magic Tree House, No. 11) by Mary Pope Osborne

Voyage to the Volcano (Magic School Bus chapter book) by Judith Stamper

Read Alouds:

With Annie: Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle

With the twins: The Door in the Wall (Books for Young Readers) by Marguerite De Angeli (we’ll finish it today) and then we’re reading: The Apprentice by Pilar Molina Llorente and we’re also reading selections from Around the World in a Hundred Years: From Henry the Navigator to Magellan by Jean Fritz for history as we study Explorers.

With Cutie:
Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3 (Chicka Chicka Boom Boom) by Bill Martin Jr. (over and over and over again…)

Happy Pig Day! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) by Mo Willems (and any other Piggy and Elephant book we can get our hands on, we love Mo Willems at our house.)

Mamasaurus:

The Lady of the Rivers: A Novel (War of the Roses) by Philippa Gregory (It’s taking me forever to read because I only get 5-10 min. snippets of time here and there to read nowadays.)

The Little Way of Lent: Meditations in the Spirit of St. Therese of Lisieux by Gary Caster (this is my Lenten reading, I did a review on it that  you can find here)

Has it really been over a month since my last post?! Don’t worry, if I have any readers (and I probably don’t since everyone gets bored waiting for me to post) you didn’t miss anything too exciting.

Well, that’s not entirely true. Rob and I have been on a health and fitness kick this year. I did say it was one of my resolutions to get into shape. We started the P90X fitness plan about 31 days ago and we’re still sticking with it. I’m already seeing a big difference – my arms and legs are mega toned. I’ve actually gained about a pound and a half in muscle. Not losing though, which is the plan since I’m already thin to start with. If I could just get rid of this flabby-looks-like-I’m-4-months-pregnant belly, that would be fantastical. Since the plan is 90 days, we still have 60 to go, so hopefully by the 90 day mark my abs will be in better shape. I’m not expecting to rock a solid 6-pack, since I’ve got that awful twin-skin flabbiness plus the c-section I had with Cutie did a number on my ab muscles. But, if I can NOT look pregnant, I’ll be extremely pleased!  We’re also sticking to a fairly strict “diet.” It’s really more of a healthy eating plan. I have to adjust a bit to make it gluten free, but so far, so good. I do miss my treats though. I’m tempted to make something somewhat healthy for dessert tonight–it is Fat Tuesday after all!

Let’s see…what else can I share? School is plugging right along, this week we’re studying Volcanoes and working on lapbooks. I don’t know how much longer my big kids will do lapbooks. I know the grade level on some of the Hands of a Child lapbooks can go up to grade 10, but somehow I don’t see us working on them in high school. But, while I can get them to do it, I love having the finished lapbooks for them to show off.

I can’t believe we’re already halfway through the year–it blows by so fast! I’ve already started planning for next year…crazy, right? I figure if I start making my purchases now, I can spread things out so that we’re not plunking down $500 all at once in August. My first purchase for the 2012-13 school year is Joy Haikim’s A History of US. My plan was to do Core 100 with Annie and have the boys do a slower version going through the History of US over 2 years instead of one. But, I might just do my own thing. I don’t know yet. Good thing I’ll have the books nice and early so I can play around with lesson plans!

On another note–can you believe in just a tiny bit over a month, Cutie will be turning 3?! It seems like just yesterday I was bringing her home from the hospital. She’s about to finish up with therapy (through a 0-3 program) and I don’t know if we’ll explore other options for her or not. Since going gluten free, she’s improved so darn much, I’m not sure she even needs therapy anymore. I guess we’ll have to see how she progresses. She still only says the ending sounds for most words, but she’s able to put 2-3 words together, follow simple instructions, her motor skills are at age level…I think she’ll be just fine. She’s also got quite the flair for drama. All her pretend play games involve toys getting into great danger and needing to be rescued. I think she watches just a bit too much Pixar, lol. She continues to be the little princess, always making everyone do things for her–she’ll just look at her big brothers with those big brown eyes and they’ll do whatever she asks.

And now I need to go tend to Cutie–she’s been stacking toys all around me at the computer as I type, hoping I’ll pay some attention to her…off to go read her some Piggy and Elephant and maybe play some pretend…hopefully I don’t have to be trapped somewhere waiting for some brave toy to rescue me.

I LOVE Pinterest. So many great ideas in one place. A girl can easily get overwhelmed. Thankfully, Sarah at Amongst Lovely Things has started a way to ensure that I actually do something with all those great ideas.

Here’s one I actually already did a few weeks ago. I saw this idea and I knew immediately I wanted to make that for my in-law’s Christmas gift. I got to work straight away snapping pictures of the kids.

I took a ton of pictures, some with the letters spelling out LOVE and some without. The frame I picked out had 8 mini-frames so I wanted a few different pictures for variety. I prefer to do outdoor pictures whenever I can–I like the nature scenery and the natural light.

Here is my finished project:

It wasn’t perfect, but I like how it came out. It’s freaking miraculous that I got a picture of Cutie holding the E. That picture is the one and only I managed to get, because she thought it was hilarious to slam down the binder the letter was in the second the camera flashed. So every picture had the binder facing down. She’s a rascally little toddler.