EATING!!

Learning to eat with a spoon = a much higher water bill

 

 

 

 

 

school room!

I can not begin to tell you how blessed I feel to have an entire room to dedicate to school. In my researching homeschool I was finding a lot of families that just did school at the kitchen table. I was envisioning never being able to eat dinner at the table again! Then we found this house and I was over the moon! Not only did I get the playroom I wanted for the kids, but I got a craft room AND a school room! I feel like everything is sort of falling into place for us to be successful at this adventure we're heading into.

Here's a glimpse of the diy projects we've been working on. Everything is turning out great! 

 Melody and Katie did a great job helping Dad add some fun color to the room. I am in LOVE with this blue! That wall to the right is where we want to put a cork board. We're probably going to have to buy a couple of rolls of the roll out cork and mount it on MDF. Then of course we'll frame it out like the white board :)

Here's the girls desk complete with their almost computers! We mounted the screens, but Jared's still working on formatting the computers he has for them. We're going to put another five cube cabinet on the wall above the screens where we can stash the wireless keyboards and mice we found for a steal. The cute little hanging cups will hold markers, crayons, pencils, glue and scissors for each of them. I have plans to use dark red vinyl to put labels or maybe monograms on them to add a little color.

The fabric looks AH. MA.ZING. against that blue! I liked it when we bought it, but once we got the benches put together and against the wall I was in love!
 

Our $30 white board. It's shower board from Lowe's that comes in 4'x8' pieces for around $15. We had them cut it down for us and then Jared put up the trim. That blue you see is painter tape. We're planning on painting the trim a green.

On that wall to the right of the white board we're going to put book shelves. We had thought about doing the spice racks, but then we found an amazing idea where they took a wooden crate, cut it in half and mounted it to the wall. Jared's going to make them longer so they fill up the the whole wall. We'll probably do two or three, we haven't decided yet. Next on the list is valances for the windows. Color suggestions?

We have a few more things to do, but they'll have to wait until the next check. That and we're all a little burned out on projects for now. I'll post more pictures once we get the room finished!

Allie videos!

HaPPy BirThdAy to ME!!

First of all, YAY FOR BIRTHDAYS!! Second, YAY FOR FUN CREATIVE HUSBANDS!!

Ok, now that I've got that out I can move on :) Jared is the most infuriating, impish, frustrating, hilarious man that I have ever met. This is why I married him. One thing I love about him is how hard he has tried to embrace my love for holidays. All holidays. I simply love a reason to celebrate. However, birthdays are my absolute favorite! I love decorating even if no one is coming over. I love making that day all about how happy we are that that person is part of our lives. I'm not gonna lie, though, I'm mostly in it for the cake :)

Since he has come to embrace my love for holidays he has gotten increasingly clever in the things he does. For my 21st birthday he surprised me with a road trip and a fun day in Columbus, OH where we got to see an awesome performance of Phantom of the Opera. Then there was the birthday that he spent all morning making a cake with our one and two year old helping (hilarious!). Then handed me this elaborately wrapped gift. Upon opening it I found a 20oz MtDew. My favorite, however, might be the year we were dead broke so he pulled together the parts he had and got a working computer out of them. Then he put it up for trade on Craig's list and managed to get me a kitchenaid mixer!

This year, I have to admit, was pretty creative. And the kids got a kick out of it too. First he took the day off which is kind of a treat in itself in my book. Then while I was sleeping in he got me flowers and had the kids help make me breakfast in bed. I've never gotten breakfast in bed before so it was very special to me as my babies sat on the bed and explained all the things they had helped with. Then he and the girls had put together a treasure hunt to guide me to my gift. It was adorable. Isaak got involved and since he's one of those roll playing geeks he found things around the house and he and the girls dressed up like...well I don't really know what. Katie looked like a Nephite, Melody had her ninja mask on and Isaak was wearing a lamp shade and talking in a cryptic voice. Whatever they were it was super entertaining!

First Isaak read me this poem:

Sad to say, but I swear it's true! 

The treasure goblin has stolen your present...oh poo. 

But, all is not lost because you see...

treasure goblins love all sorts of trickery. 

He's hidden some clues around the house 

that may point to your presents whereabouts. 

So, without further au due 

let's get on with your very first clue...

Then Katie the Nephite handed me Clue #1. It said:

I'll give you an easy one since it's your very first time,
and I've not yet thought up a really good rhyme.
Your next clue is hidden behind
a memory that will last throughout all time,
and if that's no good...I'm sure you can guess
the place where you had your most memorable sunset.

 One of our very first dates was watching the sunset at the Bountiful Temple, which is why we were sealed there. Which also explains the throughout all time clue. The next clue was hidden behind our picture of the Bountiful Temple.

Clue #2 said:

Hooray you did it! So onto the next clue!
This one's a tad harder. There's no need to stress,
because the rest are the ones that will put you to the test.
Your next clue is hidden in a 'belle'...
one that I can say kisses quite well.
Her curves so smooth and voice so fair,
but no worries, she doesn't compare!

 Ok, I admit, this one had me stumped. I had NO idea what this was talking about. Then Jared gives me the hint that he kissed her all the time in high school. I was totally shocked. I mean, really! It's my birthday and he's talking about a girl he kissed in highschool! After a few more hints it dawned on me. His Saxophone! He always referred to his saxophone as his 'baby' in highschool so I guess that would make it a girl, right? lol! Clue #3 was rolled up in the bell of his sax.

Clue #3 said:

So that wasn't as bad as I thought you might think,
but hey we're only coming up on clue #3.
Look at the time I hope it's not too late...
so let me just throw this clue into this crate!

 I actually got this one really fast, which is funny since it makes no sense! I was going to look in the crate I have as a stool in the bathroom, but then Jared commented that apparently goblins might call other boxes crates. Isaak is turning him into a roll play nerd! Then I remembered the clock we have yet to hang up is on top of my hope chest and that's a box right? Sure enough Clue #4 was in my hope chest.

Clue #4 said:

I hope you've enjoyed our little game of riddles,
but my head is really starting to hurt a little.
So, let's wrap this up, and finish our game...
because I have other things I wanted to do today.
Your present is hidden in front of your eyes...
surrounded by villains and heroes alike.

 We've been going over the stories about Wicked King Noah,  King Limhi, Alma and Abinidi with the girls this last week so I immediately thought of the scriptures. I don't know about you, but we have several sets of scriptures in our house. Jared had to guide me a little, but eventually I figured out he was talking about the book shelf in general. He had bought me a book I had been wanting and put it on the bookshelf. Unfortunately the cover looks just like the covers to the other books in the series so I didn't even notice it! Jared finally had to tell me. He then tells me that my final clue is in the book.

It said:

It's simpler than you imagine, but harder than you think.
This is only part of the puzzle that you happen to seek.  

After that is eight rows of numbers, then...

...when untangled and deciphered I'm sure you'll agree
these words mean more than the pages you see.

All those numbers were page numbers. He had highlighted words on each page number her gave me. After putting it all together it was a really sweet and slightly quirky love letter. I love that man. 

Our homeschooling adventure: The Beginning

Yes I am still alive, I just haven't had much time to blog with the craziness that has become my life! Allison was such an easy baby I didn't really feel like I was being pulled three ways. Now I definitely feel it! Not only do I have to keep three kids entertained, but I have to keep a close eye on all three. She listens pretty well, but when your not looking she gets up to all kinds of mischief. Case in point she has emptied out the book shelf no less than five times in the last four hours. I finally just left the books on the floor. She can't pull them down if they're already down, right? But I digress.

My purpose for this post was to share the beginning of our homeschool story. Recently I've been really focused on putting together my curriculum for our first year of home school at the Meakin casa. I have talked about the fact that we're going to do this, but I hadn't gone too much into why. I have a sweet, unbelievable talented, sister that I visit teach. She has home-schooled all of her kids and has sent two off to college already. I was visiting with her one day and just to make conversation asked about her homeschooling adventure. I don't think I could tell you exactly what we talked about that day, but I can tell you all about the over whelming feeling of rightness that I just couldn't shake. Believe me I tried to shake it. I mean anyone who has met my kids would think I was nuts to even entertain the idea of homeschool. But it was like a seed was planted and I HAD to know everything I could. I checked out every book I could find on the subject. The pros, the cons. It's almost like I was looking for a reason to not do this, but a reason never came. And the more that I prayed about it, the more I knew this was what I needed to do for our family. I also knew that Heavenly Father was on my team and would help me through the tough stuff. I've always known He was there, but I could literally feel the Spirit pushing me along; encouraging me to keep going.

Jared was unbelievably supportive right from the beginning. He had mentioned homeschool before Melody even started kindergarten, but it wasn't even something I would think about at that point. After she started school I was so wrapped up in a newborn, that it took me a few months to realize that while she was excelling academically, she was struggling in every other way.

We had more than one issue come up that there was no solution for.
Issue #1:She only got one recess a day and it was not nearly long enough for her. She's a very active child and if she's not given the opportunity to take a break and get all those wiggles out once in a while she starts getting into trouble. Thankfully she had a teacher that was very understanding of this and tried to help her cope.
Issue #2: She was putting so much pressure on herself to be as perfect as possible at school that she would come home and fall apart. I'm mean screaming on the ground tantrums multiple times. Every. Single. Night.
Issue #3: Her school started at 8:00, her bus came at 7:00 (am I the only one that sees how ridiculous that is). If she didn't catch the bus I spent almost 45 minutes sitting in traffic or risked everyone's lives to walk her there. She is NOT a morning person, so it was taking almost two hours to get ready some days. Not only that, but she NEEDS 11-12 hours of sleep a night in order to have a good day the next day. So that would have her going to bed at around 6:00 in order to be to school on time. Jared doesn't get home until after five so she would go days only seeing her dad for about an hour a day.
Issue #4: Because Melody is so active she's not terribly interested in playing what the girls want to play, but she really wanted to be friends with these girls so she tried. Turns out there was a ring leader in her class that insisted all of the girls play a game called 'Hottie'. In this game you wear hot clothes and walk around like a model and be 'hot'. Unfortunately if this particular girl didn't think what you were wearing was 'hot' you didn't get to play. Melody desperately wanted to be friends with this girl for some reason or another, but this girl was totally mean to Mellie. Melody would come home in tears some day because she had had no one to play with at her 15 minutes of recess. She got one break in her eight hour day to play for 15 minutes and she couldn't even find friends that would play games that five-year-old's should want to play.

Now if she were an adult you would say learn to cope that's life. However, she is not an adult, she is 6 and too young to have too little sleep with not enough activity and too much pressure. Thus our decision to homeschool.

I've already kind of laid out our school year schedule. It's going to be four weeks on, one week off. That way we can all get a break and I have a chance to reevaluate my curriculum. I think I've pretty much settled on what books we'll be using this year, I just need to get them bought. I have this loose schedule put together, but it's with the thought in mind that it may change at any time. That's why we're doing this, so we can learn at a pace and in a way that works for everyone.
 
I am so incredibly excited for this new adventure in our lives and I'm sure you'll be hearing more in the near future!