Learning about Rocks & Minerals

We recently learned about rocks and minerals in science.  Potato really loves science, especially when we do hands on experiments.  We used Quizlet.com to learn rock and minerals identification.  We also did two experiments and went on a hike to a local granite quarry.

New journey, Homeschooling, how we got here

Potato and I have started on a new journey, homeschooling.

Potato is in sixth grade this year and has really been struggling.  I've shared many of our struggles on my personal facebook page.  Trouble started within the first week of school.  We live within a mile of the school, which means he has to walk.  Originally he was very excited, but walking and carrying a heavy backpack for my tiny guy (52 inches, 54 pounds and hypotonia) was just too much.  I thought no problem I'll just drive him to school, which worked for about a week.  Then he started refusing to go to school.  Every morning was a battle.

End of and Era

Mom and Grandma at the Relay for Life June 2012, 2 years ago

It's not an actual era, but it feels like one.

About a two years ago, my Grandma was very sick and survived her congestive heart failure and pneumonia.  She hasn't really been the same since then.  Her body has gone down hill.  She was not eating enough calories to keep herself going.  She needed constant care, which my amazing mom and our amazing home care woman gave to her.  In the past six months she has been admitted to the hospital for a collapsed lung twice.

Last month she had her last night with us.

Happy Eostre

Our family had a great time together on Eostre.  (Minus my husband who was at work and Duckling who is with her mom)
It started off as any other school day.  The kids got up and left for school.  I then proceeded to fill their baskets with goodies and hide about 42 eggs through out the house.  I also left a note saying to leave all eggs where they are until I got home.  Then it was time for me to head off to work.

When I got home all was normal, Boys watching tv and Ladybug playing on her Ipad.

New House, New Home

We just bought our first house a few weeks ago!  It's so exciting to be home owners!  We had been in the process of buying this house since August.  Our closing date kept getting changed because of lots of little things, but we are finally in our new home.

The past few weeks have been incredibly busy, and the time just seems to fly by.  My husband spent several days packing everything up from our apartment.  I can't believe how much stuff we have.  We did donate quite a bit of stuff.  I have spent the last several weeks unpacking everything at the new house.

Blessed Solstice and Merry Christmas

The boys on the beach with the sun rising

Our family enjoyed a very wonderful holiday season.  We celebrated Yule and then enjoy Christmas with our families.  This year we were very lucky to have beautiful weather for the Solstice.  We woke up at 6am and the children checked out their stockings from the Yule fairies.  Then we all headed out to the beach to watch the sunrise.
Thanks to the weather being so nice and almost warm (60 degrees), we spent much longer enjoying the beach and sunrise.  We wrote

How do you say goodbye?




My Grandmother had her 96th birthday last month.  She is an amazing woman.  She has survived cancer, a heart attack, and losing the love of her life to cancer.  She has eight grandchildren, 10 great grandchildren, one soon to be two great, great grandchildren, and a great granddog.  My Grandma helped raise me so my parents could work. She took me to school, and sat outside my classroom because I cried and wanted to go home.  She drove me to my after school activities.  She is like my second mom.
My Grandma is a woman I aspire to be.  She's strong, speaks her mind, courageous, stubborn, and not afraid of doing anything. 

Fun on the Fourth

We've been very busy and I almost forgot I was working on this post about our fourth of July fun.

Despite the clouds and possible rain, we headed out to the beach like we do every fourth of July.  Unfortunately we didn't make it to the beach in time to enter the sand castle contest.  The kids were a little sad, but they got past it.  I think it helped that I decided to get in the water with them, which I rarely, if ever do. 

Crafting with the kids ~ napkin rings & cloud dough

Duckling's napkin ring

We decided we needed to make some new napkin rings for our cloth napkins.  Several of napkin rings we made almost nine months ago have seen better days.  Which makes sense since we used paper towel rolls and yarn.  Because the kids have really been enjoying painting, I decided to go with painting wooden napkin rings. 

Crafting with the kids ~ Seashell critters

Ladybug's seashell people and cat

With summer already going I've been planning many craft activities to do with the kids. 
We have started a non-electronic time period during the middle of the day.  This helps me make sure the kids are spending time unplugged and are playing.  But to help with the "I'm bored", I have a craft or outing planned for almost every day of the week.
We just started yesterday, and I'll be sharing all the fun stuff we're doing.

Working towards #1

A few weeks ago I posted about how I'd like to make 2012 a better year.  Here's how I'm working on achieving want #1.

I don't have very much free time.  It's just a fact.  3 kids (full time), homework, kid activities, my jobs, and house work all take up a significant portion of my day.

2012 I'm ready for you

Now that it's a New Year I've been thinking about what I'd like to have more and less of in my life.

1. I want to spend more quality time with my children.  I say this every year, but I just never feel li

DIY Napkin rings

I made the decision to go with cloth napkins!  Of course I did have the problem that my kids would argue about which napkin belonged to which person.  So we decided to make some napkin rings. 

Thank you Irene

It's been a long five days.  We've had no power and no hot water.  What we do have though is wonderful family and friends.  My family has a well, so our amazing neighbors hooked us up to their city water.  In turn we hooked their fridge up to our generator.  I have had so many offers from friends who have power, to come over.  It's times like these that make you really cherish the people in your life.

Going DEET free!

I am a bug magnet, if it bites or stings, it finds me.  Not only am I a magnet, but I'm highly sensitive to bug bites, I get Huge welts.  This pretty much means I have to wear bug spray when I'm outdoors.  I've never been a big fan of DEET

Celebrating Lammas

Just like almost everything in our hectic lives, we celebrated Lammas late.  (It's even taken me over a week to finish this post.)  But that is ok.  I've learned to accept that fact and move on.  What's most important is that we celebrated and enjoyed two awesome days together as a family.  (part of our family was gone one day)

The kids and I made spiral cookies.  I really enjoy baking with my kids.  It's one of the few times when I slow down and let go of the control. 
Everybody gets to read the recipe, measure out ingredients, pour ingredients into the bowl, and st
 ir/mix everything together.  And lets not forget about the best part licking the spoons!  We chatted

July Garden Update



We replanted at the beginning of June.  Instead of starting again from seeds, we cheated and bought plants.  I felt it would be easier and the children would be see the garden growing right away.  It's been fun going out with the kids to check on the garden's progress.  They loved seeing how big the plants are growing.  And when we saw the first signs that veggies were growing they exploded with excitement!  I'll admit that sometimes I am the one most excited about the garden.  

Cake Bake

We made our first Dirt cake last night.  My youngest needed to make a cake for Cub Scouts' Cake Bake auction.  All the boys make a cake, the cakes are auctioned off, and the money goes to a charity.  We decided on a Dirt cake, because it was easy enough for a seven year old to make and would be fun to make/decorate.  It was also a messy project, and what boy doesn't like making a mess!  I supervised while my husband and son worked together on the cake.  We all had lots of fun and enjoyed the special time one on one time with just the Potato.
Here's how to make your own Dirt Cake:

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
2 (3.5 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
3 1/2 cups milk
1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
32 ounces chocolate sandwich cookies with creme filling

Directions

1.Chop cookies very fine in food processor. The white cream will disappear.

2.Mix butter, cream cheese, and sugar in bowl.

3.In a large bowl mix milk, pudding and whipped topping together.

4.Combine pudding mixture and cream mixture together.

5.Layer in flower pot, starting with cookies then cream mixture. Repeat layers.

6.Chill until ready to serve.

7. Enjoy!

~Your Earthy Mom

Earthy Mom vacations With Out the kids



Us on a boat in Jamestown 
The tree line is the original Jamestown Settlement

 As some of you may know, we became Mr and Mrs on Saturday April 30.  My parents' wedding present to us was the honeymoon (we are staying in their time-share) and childcare for the week.  It has been an amazing experience!  As a couple we have never vacationed with out the kids, and separately only once or twice.  The resort is beautiful.  It's like a condo and we have our own balcony.  Everything we could ask for in a place to stay.
We have walked around Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, and Yorktown.  I've truly enjoyed seeing these historic places and being able to take my time to look around.  It's been great to sleep in till noon or head back to the resort early just because we want to.  I have to admit though, while enjoying my adult time, whenever I saw something cool I always thought "would the kids like this?"  You see I am truly a Mom at heart.
We are at the end of our vacation.  I am sad and happy at the same time.  The time I've had here to spend just as a couple is over.  Lazy days and late nights have come to an end.  But tomorrow morning I will be home with my children, for some special Mother's day fun.

~Your Earthy Mom

Gardening an Family affair





Dumping the dirt

Our family decided at Ostara to grow a garden in our backyard this year.  I haven't had a garden since I was a young teen.  This has been a great experience for us as a family.  We started with finding the right spot and arranging boards into a rectangle shape.  Even Poppy came out to help with the project.  They boys love digging up the dirt inside the garden area, to get it ready for our plants!  We have an over abundance of tomato plants started.  Also ready for planting the cucumbers and zucchinis.  In a few week the peppers my sister asked me to plant and the green beans should be ready to move outside too.  I'm hoping the kids will stay interested in gardeing and continue to help out and have fun. 

They certainly have lots of plans.

• Monkey wants to build a fence to keep the deer out.  (Not happening this time, maybe next year)
• Potato has informed me that "We have to pull the weeds from our garden mommy."
• Ladybug and Duckling are looking forward to helping pick the veggies.



Ready to go!



  

Hope you enjoy the pictures of our labor.  And we hope to enjoy the fruits (rather veggies) or our labor later.

~Your Earthy Mom

Tiny tomatos