Embarrassment.

I finally gave in and did my exercise video when my husband was home. Something about doing all sorts of strange body maneuvers while trying to keep up with the lady on the tv who is pretending to talk directly to you is just awkward. I’ve held off, not caring to be observed in this strange ritual, but, with limited time yesterday, I finally just did it. Feeling embarrassed despite my gracious husband’s eyes being glued to the computer screen because he knew I didn’t want to be laughed at, I was glad when it was done. I got ready to leave the house, and headed out the door with bags and coffee in hand.

The steps looked wet. They were. Under the water was ice. I know this because down I went, four concrete stairs down, landing on my backside. Everything in my hands stayed there, but my coffee went splashing and I looked like I’d peed my pants.

Blaine saw the whole thing.

How is it that the man stood by me for six births, has seen me do countless stupid things in the ten years we’ve been married, forgiven me for all my faults, and this is so stinking embarrassing?

Purex Crystals for Baby

Purex sent me a bottle of Purex Crystals for Baby to try, review, and give away. (I won’t give away my bottle. Actually, you can’t have it. But I’ll give away three coupons for a 28 oz bottle, free.)

I thought “baby” meant baby powder, pink baby lotion… you know. Not so much. I don’t think it smells anything like any of those – but it does smell really, really good. I’d read of making detergent with Borax and adding Purex Crystals, so I tried it. Oh yes, this is good stuff. The homemade detergent with Crystals doesn’t smell as strong as adding it directly to the wash, but I’m rather hoarding them. It just smells so good.

I’ve tried Purex Crystals before, and I haven’t been disappointed with any of them. Hello, clean laundry smell. No static - impressive, considering we heat with wood and can typically play the static shock game anytime we desire to be mean. Try it, you’ll like it. (The Crystals, I mean. The shock game is kind of fun too… but not so nice.)

Want to try your own? Comment here, like this post on Facebook, comment on Facebook, be sure you’ve liked my Facebook page and I’ll tally the entries on Friday and make some non-biased child pick three winners for a coupon of your very own.

Exciting stuff.

Pajama Crew

That Tonka truck has provided more hours of entertainment,

more races around the living room, more “rides” than even my stroller, I think.

Silly children.

Dirty reflections.

I’ve always considered myself to be a non-procrastinator. I hate having things hanging over me. But today, my mop water told me I’ve been lying to myself.

I’d only mopped half of the kitchen floor when I took that photo. Ugh. Stark realities.

Today in short stories.

Certain to speed things along: A two year old knocking on the (only) bathroom door, announcing her need to relieve herself, being told to wait, and then hearing her song.

“I’m waiting, I’m waiting, I’m waiting, I’m waiting to PEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

Oh dear.

Ruby asked Sterling if he’d like to play house with her.

“Sure. You can just pretend I’m the dad and I’m at work.”

He’s learned to cater to Ruby and get what he wants too. It’s a valuable skill.

Sterling just realized that all these reading lessons have been valuable. He’s finally picked up on the fact that he can read anything – not just his reading books. And the world was opened up…

My nine year old rephrased for me yesterday when I called a nakey (rash-healing) Pierce “Mr. No-Pants”. She called him “Mr. Anti-Pants”. When did she get old enough to figure that one out?

Charlie’s decided she doesn’t want to take naps anymore. I tell her each day she can skip her nap if she’s obedient and sweet. She’s never walked the line more carefully in her life than now. She’s turned into the most helpful child between the hours of 1 & 4 pm. After that, it’s anybody’s guess. It’s like she knows that the hours for napping are over and I won’t put her down later for fear of bedtime being a bust.

How on earth can one child who’s so bent on disobedience when it suits spend 14 minutes studying a picture, trying to decide if it’s raining, when all it needs is a story to describe it’s contents? How does one thing get so much concentration and the next is forgotten 32.4 seconds later?! These children act like children.

Pierce was told not to color in a book. Next thing I know he’s ripped a page out of the book and is coloring on it. While I realize removing the page means he’s not coloring in the book and is therefore, in some strange world, obeying, that isn’t exactly what I meant.

Confession: I had to restart the fire in the wood-burning furnace today. Twice. I started it, checked to be sure it went. It did. Went down (too many hours) later and it was out. Started it again. It lit. Went down (too many hours) later and it was empty and out. Again. But I fed all five six kids twice three times today.

I went through kids drawers yesterday. Chucked clothes in a “give away” box with wild abandon. Today, we sorted, folded, bagged, and put away the few that were simply too small. Drawers close. It’s a wonderful thing. Ruby is down to five pairs of pajamas. She started with eleven. Who needs 11 pairs of pajamas?! (Who needs five either, really?)

The UPS truck delivered a package today. I behind in the air, back to the window in the door, bent over and vacuuming the floor with the vacuum hose. Turning around to a knock and strange man in a brown uniform was startling. For both of us.

A most effective way for something that needs my attention to get it has been found. Leave it in the middle of the living room floor. One way or the other, I’ll get to it, just to get it out of my way. I’ll not mention who figured out this little trick… but I got the project done as requested within 18 hours. Amazing.

Diet update: I’ve lost 8 lbs. so far. Pretty happy with that. Still working on it, but it’s a good start.

TOS Review: Flowering Baby LLC

For the last several weeks, as part of the Old Schoolhouse Magazine’s Review Crew, I’ve been using Flowering Baby, LLC’s Volume 3 and Volume 5. Volume 3 is for children ages 2 and 3, and Volume 5 is for 4 and 5 year olds. Charlotte and Ruby have been eager participants and have loved having their own “school” to do. Painting and coloring and reading and other “normal” household activities are abundant in this curriculum that can be purchased either as a download or as a CD with PDF pages that can be printed out. (I didn’t print it; using it from the CD worked well and saved my printer from 300+ pages of activities.)

Flowering Baby has recently developed curriculum for each age group, from birth to age five, to help your child to, according to their website, "develop his cognitive, language, gross motor and fine motor, social, emotional and self-help competencies". You can begin the program at any time, during any given year.

With several kids to homeschool, and several more to parent, life is pretty busy. My little ones are getting less formal “schooling” than my first few. I've felt bad about this often, but with limited time and the older ones requiring more and more of my time as they get older, (How is this? Aren't they supposed to become more independent? We’re not there yet.) this curriculum didn't require much extra time, and my girls loved it. Cooking next to me is one of the suggested activities. I can do that. I already do! There are often 4 little stools lined up during the supper prep hour, and two more children who are finally tall enough to stand on their own two feet. Being reminded to talk with them and discuss what we’re doing during that process was good.

We read books (and olders read them books when life got crazy) and made jell-o and discussed colors and shapes. Charlotte, I learned, doesn't know her shapes at all. She didn't get her colors right very often when we started, but now she’s almost always right. She really enjoyed all the time we spent together working on the activities. Making jell-o and eating blueberries and walking the sides of a square and putting toys above and below the chair to practice those concepts is quite thrilling when you are two! Music to listen to and books to read are all listed for the 20 lessons to do each month, separated by their age in months. (Charlotte is 28 months.)

Ruby worked with Volume 5 and worked on her penmanship and learning to assign one number to each thing she was counting was an improvement for her. When I asked her if she liked her schoolwork (Flowering Baby), she replied, “Yes, I liked everything. Except writing 2’s. I don’t like writing twos.” Well, then. We’ll work on those!

Ruby often feels like she gets left behind. As the oldest of the youngest, and the youngest of the olders… yeah, she’s stuck in the middle. Spending time with her working through the activities suggested (some, obviously, more fun than others!) was good for her. Since we were studying this while visiting my parents’ sheep farm in South Dakota, we picked the farm week to study. Talking about farm animals, getting some hands-on experience in the lambing barn, and discussing which animals produce which of our foods (Ruby’s hatred of milk became a full-blown discussion right about then! She agrees beef is good but milk is decidedly bad – unless chocolate is involved.) was part of that week. Charlotte and Pierce especially thought making animal noises was hilarious and even Blaine joined in our study, unknowingly, when he found videos online of cows and ducks mooing and clucking. What a world we now live in, now able to find videos for these noises instead of making complete fools of ourselves trying to sound like a cow. (Whether this really went on in our house that week, I’ll never tell…)

As with Volume 3, Volume 5 includes a great book list and also has website suggestions to go along with it’s themes and curriculum, which is sorted by month for Volume 5. Each month’s holidays are discussed and learning a bit of Spanish each day was fun for Ruby. Since Blaine speaks French, I’m tempted to switch that out a bit (since he’ll be able to take that farther than me and my one struggle of a semester of Spanish) but for now, Spanish is easy. I can count to ten.

All in all, as a fan of less book work and more life experiences, I was impressed with this curriculum. If you’re looking for ideas and suggestions to keep your young child learning in their play, this is a great (and economical, really!) way to go. I’m going to try to keep this up, since the girls have learned much and had a ton of fun with this. It took us about 20-30 minutes a day, and they begged for more. The book list is super, and the girls will be better prepared for formal learning when that time comes after making a habit of learning each day with Flowering Baby.

Volumes 1-3 are $30 each. Volumes 4 and 5 are each $38. The complete set of all five years can be purchased for $132.For a 10% discount on the curriculum, enter discount code BLOG10 at checkout.

To read other reviews from the Review Crew on this curriculum and the other age options available, click here.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of these materials through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions expressed in this review are mine and my family’s. I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC regulations.