J's 6th Birthday

My baby boy turned 6 on March 25th but since his granny's birthday is the 28th we decided to have a joint birthday party on the 27th.  On his actual birthday we went to Gatti land for some pizza and playtime.

Here is J enjoying his pizza

I

S

M

Here are a couple of J Enjoying the rides and games!

PARTY AT GRANNY'S

Potato Lasagna MMMMM!

So, in my lifetime I have never really been a great cook and have always been a re-heater.  You know..  Fish Sticks, Chicken nuggets, Frozen Lasagna, ect. ect.  I am now attempting to cook nearly everyday of the week and have been trying out some yummy new recipes.  I thought I would start sharing them here when they get at least a 4 out of 6 thumbs up or better.  (6 people in the family i.e. 6 thumbs total...lol).
So, yesterday it was a recipe for Potato Lasagna that I found on a Lovely blog entitled Thy Hand Hath Provided  you can find the recipe here Thy Hand Hath Provided Blog Potato Lasagna  While you are there you should really check out her blog it is fabulous!  Anyway, Potato Lasagna got a 4 1/2 thumbs up out of 6.  I think it should have gotten at least a 5 1/2 but my middle son who is very picky would not even try it.  My husband said it had to be added to the recipe notebook permanently (this note book is simply a green 3 ring binder I bought and put a pack of those see though note book paper protectors in and when we like a recipe it gets added to the notebook).  This did not surprise me as he is a huge potato lover and lived on potatoes before we were married).

Anyway, to me it didn't really taste like actual Lasagna but it was very good!  I did go a bit heavier on the cheese than the recipe recommended but we are just cheese lovers.  Doesn't this look Yummy!!!

Finished Product all cheesy and bubbly...

Recipe Notebook

I am CLOTH DIAPER ready!!!

So, this seems a little late in the game since our new addition will be baby #5 but I recently decided to cloth diaper our new little one.  The last time I looked into this was before the twins were born over 11 years ago it just seemed like too much trouble and I didn't know enough.  The only cloth diapering I knew of involved a diaper service which was nearly as expensive as buying the disposables.  With that said I have ALWAYS felt very guilty for all of the disposables we were throwing away and the huge amounts of trash that hit the street every week.  Our first 4 children were all so close together that those early years seemed to kind of blur by and I never even thought about researching cloth diapers again.  Now here we are 6 years after the birth of my last child and we are expecting #5 in less than 3 short months.  This time I started to ask do I want to throw all of these diapers away?  Is there a better way?  Lets look into cloth one more time.. I was amazed by what I found, Cloth diapers that are built EXACTLY like a disposable so they are easy to use and many of them are SO cute.  So I started researching and researching and researching some more.  I asked questions, joined cloth diapering boards, and then bought just 4 diapers in 4 different brands and types.  I loved the way they looked and felt but how would they work?  Our baby was still months away from being born.....  What to do?  What to do?  I called a friend up who had a baby and we played baby dress up or rather I did..lol.  They seemed to fit great and were easy to use.  I did have concerns that a newborn would be swallowed up in the All in one type diaper so I researched and decided to invest in a few prefolds with covers for the newborn days.

Anyway, here is my stash in preparation for Baby B.....

The entire contents of my cloth diaper collection.

12 Newborn Prefolds, 10 Small Fitted Prefolds, 2 Newborn Bummis covers, 2 Small Bummis Covers, 1 WAHM cover and 2 snappies(not pictured)

16 All-In-One Diapers for 10-35 lb babies and 24 Micro Fiber inserts ( I plan to sew more instead of buy )

Aren't these simply Adorable?!?!?

And...  here is a picture I have thrown in of my 6 year old wearing a All-in-one diaper for bedtime. I was quite surprised that these fit him as he is over the 35 lb weight but they fit quite well.  He still has some trouble with wetting the bed a few nights a week and instead of spending the money on the disposable Good Nights we tried these.  They work very well..  No leaks and he doesn't have to worry about washing his blankets and sheets everyday.

Now, you might ask..  How much did all of this cost?  My calculations put us at right at $234 Wow that's a lot of money you might say but I looked it up, first my kids have always had bad reactions to generic diapers so we have ended up using name brands such as pampers or huggies.  Second, a box of 160 diapers in my area is about $40.  Say a newborn uses 12 a day, this would probably be a minimum 12 divided into 160 comes to just under 14 days.  So every 2 weeks you would spend another $40 so in less that 3 months you would spend more than the $234 that I have spent but now after 3 months we will have broken even.  I have even found that the smaller prefolds that I bought for the newborn stage can be resold and I will get most if not all of my money spent on those back and can use them towards large sizes if needed.  Also I will be keeping several thousand disposable diapers ( that it has been estimated will take 500 years EACH to biodegrade ) out of the landfills.  That all by itself makes me feel good about the cloth diapering decision.

BTW-  I didn't believe it at first but Cloth diapering can be quite addictive  ;)

Baby B! 28 Weeks!!

Ok... so I have a little catching up to do for B so here goes..

Baby Bean at 8 weeks!

Baby Bean at 12 weeks when he still fit in one frame.

ITS A BOY!!  20 Weeks

B 20 weeks!

And Now...  B at 28 Weeks...

Side Profile

Facing the ultrasound..

Sweet little baby foot...

...and its still a boy... lol

So, at the 28 week appointment/ultrasound.  Little B looked great he is head down and they guessed his weight at 2lbs 9oz and said he was very long.  His fluid levels were great.  Heart rate was 140 and he is right on time measuring 28 weeks 1 day.  My oldest daughter went with me and was amazed at the images.  As for my doc appt. the doctor has agreed to let me attempt a VBAC as long as I go into labor before 39 weeks...so here's hoping..

All in all we can't wait to meet him!!!

Our Homeschool Day... 128 and some history....

Since I recently started this blog I have not said many things about our homeschool journey.  So with that a little history......

When the oldest kids started school I remember thinking "Wow.. I sure would like to homeschool but I wouldn't know where to begin and I don't want to mess up their education."  Little did I know that the public school system could do this as well....  Anyway, late in 2008 our pastor held a class for parents that talked about how it was biblically up to the parents to educate their children in the home.  Now he didn't necessarily mean you must homeschool he just stated that as parents entrusted with children from God is was our job to teach them in all things.  At this point in time we knew a few families who homeschooled and began to ask question.  What curriculum do you use?  How long are your school days?  How do you know you are doing a good job?  Our friends kindly and patiently answered our questions as well as they could and sent us a multitude of websites and book recommendations that we could use to learn more and see if this would be right for us.  In the last 4-5 months of 2008 my husband and I researched, talked and prayed about his decision.  Finally in early 2009 we made the decision to give it one year.  We went to the closest Homeschool conference in Indianapolis listened to speakers, looked at every booth that sold curriculum and that first night in the hotel room sorted out what we planned to buy and use for this first year.  We also decided to let the kids finish out the 2008 - 2009 public school year as I was still working full time and we planned to start our first homeschool year in July 2009.  From there it has been great and I cannot even imagine putting the kids back in public school.  


We did have a rocky start to our year as I found out just how FAR BEHIND the school system had let my oldest son fall.  I knew he was struggling but had no idea why.  Now I know, when a new skill was learned if he didn't understand they moved on with the rest of the students and here he was stuck not learning that skill and unable to learn the next skill.  I started the oldest two on a "5th grade curriculum" track but quickly learned that with my oldest son I would need to slow down and reteach some things for math and for language arts I had to move to a 3rd grade level and work my way back up.  My oldest son who would have went into 5th grade public school did not know what a plot was, a conflict, how to write a paragraph, use punctuation, where to find the publisher of a book, how to find a book in the library, how to determine the main characters, and reading out loud was just scary.  I went back to a 3rd grade level and in under a year I have worked him up to almost the end of 4th grade.  It is my hope he will be all caught up by the end of our 2010-2011 school year.


As for the younger two boys I have also made a few changes here and there.  We started the year using Rod and Staff for language arts but I have since switched to My Father's World and they are doing great.  I would say J is ahead of most Kindergartners and I is becoming quite a fluent reader.  They are actually starting to enjoy reading.  


After our most recent trip to the Indianapolis homeschool conference last month I began using a tip I learned from one of the speakers.  He stated that to help kids enjoy reading create a book basket.  Then appoint 15 minutes a day for book basket time.  There are only 3 rules for book basket at our house.

1. You must have a book in your hands the entire 15 minutes.
2. You must remain quietly in your seat for the entire 15 minutes.
3. There is no rule as to what book you have in your hands during this time.

Note:  There is no rule saying they must actually read the book during this time.
They absolutely LOVE book basket time.  

Here is our book basket.

Green Eggs and Ham is currently J's FAVORITE as he almost has it memorized and can "Read" it to everyone.  Its very cute.  We also try to have an hour of group reading time everyday where each kid reads for 15 minutes.  J with the help of me.

Group Reading Time

Here is S reading while M listens and waits for his turn.

Here are J and I listening

AND what every homeschooling parent likes to see...

Reading on their own after school time is over S is reading to herself and M is reading a story to his younger brothers.  This melted my heart.

So as far as our adventure in homeschool it has been a blessing and I have learned to have more patience throughout this year.  The kids are learning in leaps and bounds and they all LOVE homeschooling (they were skeptical at the beginning and begged to go to "real school" to see their friends for the first 2 months).

Here are some pictures from our class today..

US Geography  "Where is Delaware?  What is it's Capital?"

Our School Wall at the end of Kitchen Table

...and just because I thought this was funny and way cute and a good ending to the day.

Here is my 5 year old son J's interpretation of God resting on the 7th day..

He said "This is God just hanging out and resting on the 7th day"  lol

So much to say.. So much to do..

I have thought about starting a blog for a long time. I am not sure anyone besides me will be interested in reading what I have to say but that's ok. Just a little background info. My husband Tony and I have been married for almost 12 years and I am a stay at home, homeschooling mom of 4 beautiful children. The oldest M and S are twins and just turned 11, I is 7, and J is 5 but will be 6 in just a few short weeks. At this time we are also expecting our 5th bundle of joy B... he is due to arrive in late May and we couldn't be happier. J seems to be the most excited and talks to the baby so often that B has started to respond to J's voice.

With B even though he is our fifth there will be a first in our family upon his arrival. We have decided that for cost savings as well as helping the environment we will be cloth diapering for the first time. I have started to build up a nice little diapering stash and with sewing projects have created cloth diaper wipes and have purchased some PUL material and plan to sew wet bags for both the diaper pail and for my diaper bag.

As for homeschooling we began this journey last year and I wish I had known enough to start sooner. I love it and the kids love it. We will be finishing our first complete school year right before before little B makes his appearance. Well that is the plan I guess we shall see.

Well I guess thats it for now...