Oh Candy Cane, O Candy Cane

I organized a recent trip to Logan's Candy Cane making Store in Ontario for our Homeschool Group.  It was so fun!  We saw the candy canes made from start to finish, got to eat hot pieces of candy cane and they were just great, real people.  I am not one for big cheesy symbolism as many do with candy canes.  But in his candy cane making presentation he did the stripes for the blood of Christ and the white for his purity and the J for Jesus along with the history of Candy canes as candy invented to keep the kids quiet during the big Christmas pageant at the cathedral.  He was just so fun and honest about his faith and love for the process of making this traditional Christmas Candy that it made it beautiful.  I guess the cheesiness can be broken by being transparent.  I gotta remember that.  Watch the video for yourself here and read an articlehere and here .  Aggie is writing the process out for schooling today...ah unschooling!

Buenos Dia de los Muertos!!!

We had such a great day today! We learned about the Day of the Dead and had the most wonderful party! We remembered Grandpa Ron Lugg, Grandma Verna Irwin, Gammy Betty McIntyre and our friend Karissa Ashley. Everything just seemed to fall into place for learning.

We colored sugar skull designs like they sell in Mexico and talked about Mexican use of color in art.

We made this family memory tree with traditional marigolds and skulls for our table. At dinner we all told memory stories about our loved ones.

We dressed skeletons in bright, fun colors as they do they for the celebration to remember the happy memories of loved ones.

I found these authentic papel picado at a local shop and they looked beautiful. Aggie pulled out her pink sombero from our Mexican vacation.

We went shopping at a local Mexican Supermarket and bought a full dinner with Carne Asada, tortillas, black beans, Mexican sodas, sweet bread and Mexican candy. It was so yummy!

Over Mexican coco we played Loteria (Mexican Bingo) with our bottle cap collection as the place covers. Aggie won and shouted out Loteria!

We also made traditional Pan de los Muertos in the shape of Skulls. We each made our own-Gwyn, Agatha, Adam and mine. We found the recipe online and a Mexican Neighbor stopped by and was so excited we were making it.

We had an amazing day remembering, praying, learning, and just having fun with The Day of the Dead! And we have a whole other day-tomorrow we are attending a learning day sponsored by the city on this holiday and a celebration tomorrow night sponsored by a local museum. So fun!

The History of the Jack-o-lantern

I love to play dress up and I love to dress up on Halloween. Can you tell? We had a great, quiet night at home eating chili, trick or treating the neighborhood, visiting with family, friends and neighbors. Gwyn was so fun when she caught on that people wer giving candy away!

I also love Jack-o-lanterns. We have a pumpkin party every year to carve with friends and today Aggie counted 72 jack-o-lantern decorations as we cleaned them up! For a homeschool project this year Aggie learned the history of the Jack-o-lantern and lo and behold it is Irish-yea McIntyre! Here is her report:

The Irish used to carry turnips carved out with faces on them on All Hallows Eve as lanterns. They went out on this night to beg for money and food because the next day was All Saints Day. People would give money because they were remembering their family who died. The Irish people came to America because of the potato famine and we changed turnips to pumpkins because America had alot of pumpkins at Harvest. The Irish told a story about a mean, mean man named Jack who did not share. He didn't love Jesus so he couldn't go to Heaven. The Devil felt sorry for him and gave him a hot coal that he put it in his pumpkin lantern to light up his way. Now we call then Jack-o-lanterns because of the story of Jack and the Irish!

Fall Fun

Fall is a fun time to be a kindergartner-or maybe a kindergarten teacher! There are so many fun themes to teach on and since we are homeschoolers-so many fun field trips. We have gone on sooo many but these two were really fun and Fall picturesque.

We went to Tanaka Farms pumpkin patch and I love the big black wheelbarrows you get to take through the patch. We all got the perfect pumpkin and are going to carve them tomorrow night at our annual pumpkin party while sporting out tye dyed jack-o-lantern tees from Family Fun.

We also went to an educational farm called Centennial Farms on the OC Fair grounds. They had all the traditional animals, crops and red barns. We saw a cow get milked and pet chicks. It was GREAT!

I hope you are getting out there in the community this season. As much as the short days and change of weather bring on my seasonal sadness, I do love the outings and colors and walks of autumn. Having a 5 and 1 year old are a fun time to be a mommy. I will cherish these memories forever.

I know...where have I been?

I really hate that my blog has said "I have so much to do!" since August 16th! It is just that with homeschooling a 5year old and taking care of a 1 year old I have little time to sit like an adult at the computer. And what time I do have I am working...for River Springs. I barely get my personal email checked or glance at facebook. But, I love blogging and reading so here I am.

We have been up to so much fun stuff with homeschooling! I figured it out and we are doing like 8 field trips a month! And with regular outings we are out in the community alot. We have gone to Disneyland with cousins, gone to football game fore Adam's cousin at which Agatha was invited on the field to cheer with the cheerleaders (so cute), Legoland with the Foors (we sorted over 1000 legos and graphed them by color and type for a follow up to that one-whew!), a Family village festival on cultures, the San Bernandino Museum with the Foors, the Huntington Library/Art Galleries/Gardens with the Speirs, a pumpkin patch trip with The Grove Homeschool Group, the Riverside Museum for dissecting owl pellet and making clay scat (poop-yes it was fake) of types of animals, Riley's Farm for apples and colonial farm life tour with The Grove group again, the Chinese Moon Festival and Chinese Food (the pic), and on and on. We are having so much fun.

Aggie is really learning to read and write and I am so proud. She reads to Gwyn all the time and Gwyn can't get enough of books. Aggie is doing great things at Gymnastics and did a flip on the uneven bars that even I was impressed by! She is so curious and really becoming a lifelong self lead learner which is a big objective with me for homeschooling. She and Adam especially dive into subjects with such fervor and have done projects on pee and volcanoes and other fun ideas.

Gwyn loves Farm animals and says more sounds than words at this point. She is a non verbal communicator and has no problem getting what she needs with grunts and facial expressions! She starting using the sign for thank you and it is so cute. She is kinda potty training and is so proud when she is successful. She has starting smiling like this picture when we say "say cheese" and is really becoming a little person. I love to watch her bouncy little trot as she pokes curiously around the house. She is very meticulous about art and already draws her version of the family and dogs (which she loves).

Life is good-but I am really trying to find a balance. I have so many hats at this point. I know I should get rid of one-but which? I like each one in its own way. I just wish I was slower. I wish I had more time-but don't we all?

SOOO much to do...

So I work for this school and we start attendance days on Tuesday the 19th. My daughter starts schooling at home for K through them that day as well. I have spend 4 of the last eight workdays (I work 4 days a week from home usually) in meetings away from home. And I still have SO MUCH TO DO for my first meetings with my families on Thursday and Friday next week. I know it will even out...but man, if only I could just be mommy right now. I know I like (and need) the money. I know I don't want to be dirt poor. I know I paid all that money for a credential that we are still paying off. I know I want to do this so we can stay in ministry and my husband can be the Pastor he his extremely called to be. I know I kinda secretly like having some adult thoughts to think and a career to develop. But, I look at my cute, precious kids and just wish I were playing games on the floor and creating this euphoric childhood of memories. I wish my house were cleaner and I was doing chores instead of work during nap. I wish it were less hectic. I hope I am making the right choices. I hope their memories of me are not of stress, but of love. Don't we all hope that? I mean look at them. Who would ever want to stare at an email computer screen rather than these two?

(Don't you love their matching shoes? Gwyn is so excited when she is like Aggie-and she LOVES shoes right now. That's my girl!)

Easter...

Lest I repeat myself...I love holidays. So here is what Easter held for us.

We dyed eggs and Gwyn kicked over the blue-our butcher block now has a permanent stain! All of Aggie's were pink I think. Go figure.

Aggie counted, estimated, sorted and graphed a bag of 95 jelly beans for homeschool. She is really getting good with numbers and her concentrations-or maybe it is because I told her she could eat jelly beans when she finished!

We went to a Easter Egg hunt at the park with another church. It was so fun and everything was free! It was interesting being at another church's neighborhood outreach event...


We hunted for Easter basket's on Saturday night (because there is no way all us girls are getting up before Daddy has to get off to service on a Easter morning). To make it special we started a tradition of hiding the baskets and hunting for them with clues. Aggie (as you can see) was pretty excited! She hid mine and was my "Easter bunny". She and Adam worked out this great clue, but she told me "Mom, don't look in the dryer" and posted a "NO MOM" sign across it. I didn't really need the clue :) And we discovered in the morning that Gwyn had a earache. She gladly ate the candy in her basket even though she looks miserable.

After church on Sunday we went to my Mom's new place and had a BBQ with the family by the pool. We had an egg hunt and Gwyn would only take eggs within grabbing distance cause she din't like the grass on her legs. But they had goldfish in them so she caught on fast! We had egg races and a wonderful day.

It is nice to have family time and traditions. What a wonderful holiday...can't wait till Earth Day! Did I mention I loved holidays?

Easter has begun

Steve and Karen came over to watch LOST last night (frustrating episode for me-how many questions can my brain hold before it explodes?) and I was rushing around getting the last of my Easter decorations in place-3 days before Easter! The leap year and moon have made this a VERY early Easter and it won't happen again for 152 years! It definitely feels weird and rushed for a girl who loves holidays, homeschools and is married to a arts pastor. But, here we are!

Aggie had her Easter parade at preschool and we spent the whole morning doing room mom stuff at the school. She is so cute-her costume has "an egg on the front so it can hatch and a chick on the back that came out of the egg" I was informed. I love her mind.
Gwyn in teething or sick-I can't figure-but, she has had a fever for 3 days and this was her take on all the festivities.

We went to Eggstravaganza at the library with a homeschooling buddy. Aggie is so charismatic that all the librarians know her by name now! They did crafts, dyed eggs and ate cupcakes. Then Aggie read THREE readers with me while Gwyn played...and earned a reading certificate from the librarians. She was so proud and so am I-she is on the cusp of real, independent reading and we both feel the excitement!

St Pat's at the McIntyre's

We had a wonderful St. Patrick's Day with yummy Irish food (Adam made bangers and mash Sunday and I had a Ruben-cornbeef and cabbage-sandwich at Kilarney's on Monday) and lots of homeschooling about the story of St. Patrick (Agatha wrote a wonderful 3 sentence story about how he loved GOD, told people about God's love and used the shamrock to tell about God's 3 parts-I was impressed!). She finally can spell her last name on her own too-fitting with the holiday (McIntyre...Irish...just in case you didn't follow my rabbit trail). We spent the evening with the Reid family eating almost all green food, 4pt. (wieght watchers reference) cupcakes and letting the girls play. It was lovely. I am ordering Adam a kilt with the McIntyre tartan and next year he can wear it-that would make it REALLY lovely! :)

We had some homeschool friends over for graphing Lucky Charms marshmellos and it was great to see Agatha work in a group setting instead of just with me.
And went to Killarneys to see these awesome Irish dancers. Aggie of course wants to be one. I thought about it cause of the heritage point, but they announced that the costumes cost 300-5000 bucks! Shot that one down. I thought of Annie as I watched and hoped she danced a jig this holiday. We are going to see the Osbornes and Risingers next week! Ahhh...vacation. If Adam and I can just get there with all we have to do before Easter!

Shoutout to Grove Homeschool Group

Does anyone remember Kryn Burton? I love her. She influenced me so much in my femininity and mothering when she lived her. I miss her. But, I always thought she lived on the edge of normalcy. Now I realize I do too. When did that happen. I always feel normal-but I don't think I am when I try to look at me from the outside. Weird?

Anyway-I am realizing that homeschooling is on the edge of normalcy. I am watching all of my friends send their kindergartners off to public school and I am not. Who will she play with when they are at school all day? Other homeschoolers. Where do I find them? At the Grove Homeschool group! I love them. We went to the Riverside Philharmonic with them, we had a Valentine Day party with them and we went to Living Desert this Monday.

We saw a Cheetah out and about, giraffes, zebra, ostriches...we are doing a report on Meerkats...and a butterfly landed on Aggie! But best of all are the wonderful friendships we are forming. And we can all hang out on the edge of normalcy together!

where have I been?

I have this little saying that I say when I sit down at my computer- "I need to make money before I spend it"...so I seem to have work stuff to do rather than blogging...esp. because my time is more and more limited with my 9 1/2 month old who hates it when I stare at the screen instead of her and who is also sleeping less and less nowadays. Ahh...being a working mom! So I have to catch up with all I missed! Here is a pic post (that took me over 48 hours!!! see what I mean?) about the last month of my life. Then I can post meaty things again...

Gwyn loves the sandbox-don't worry we have a CatScram to keep out the cats...but I think she eats more than she digs.

Agatha and I have taken to tea for Snacktime. It is so fun.

We went to Disneyland with the Foors. They are so easy to be with. I love them!

We are getting involved in the Grove Homeschool Group. What a wonderful group of women and kids! Aggie and I have made new friends and connected with old ones. I am so excited to connect with families that will be around when our other friends go off to school all day.

I made name cookies for the preschool class party. Not exactly sugar free (nice job with the rules Room Mom)-but I felt like SuperMom in my daughter's eyes.

Adam and I ran together in a 5K. Not an impressive time-35:10-but we ran with no real stops. I loved running beside my hubby!

And we ran a 1K with Aggie. She was amazing and I think sucked up the time with just Mom and Dad. Gammy was with Gwyn-thanks Mom!

My mom got her own place. I miss having her around daily and so do my girls. It is a great next stage for all of us, but we are all excited when she drops by to borrow the clothesline.

We met Baby Audrey Rodriguez. A little ball of blessing. They are quite a beautiful, new little family and making great, concious parenting decisions!

Mike helped me get Adam into a sling. Gwyn loves them and though he uses other baby wearing carriers well, he neverfelt comfy in these. Yay!!! Isn;t he a cute Daddy?

We have been outdoors with the beautiful weather, hanging clothes and swinging. Gwyn has gotten so she expects it...pointing and grunting if it does not come!

Date night with just Agatha! It was amazingly easy with just a 4 1/2 old! Whew-life is different with two and a baby. I felt like I was missing an arm half the night! (And I carried a purse instead of a diaper bag!)

We attended a ChuckECheese party! That place overwhelms me-and my quiet little Gwyn. She lost it at one point and would not come out of the sling. Aggie (the extrovert) had a blast, but did comment that it was loud. We have such a quiet life.

All in all, life has found a bigger kid rhythm. The girls are playing together a bit more. Gwyn is crawling up on things and standing. She wants to walk with our hands everywhere. She is showing interest in the potty so we are experiementing-with great success. I think her love language is Words of Praise-cause she will pee and/or poop everytime for a clap and a YEY!...She has pooped almost everyday for a couple weeks! We are getting out more and getting more schoolwork done. Agatha is maturing so much I see the changes daily. Kids are so beautiful. I love being a Mommy. God gave me the most precious girls. They make me smile.