School

We're starting school tomorrow, not only here at Swede Farm, but those in Hempstead as well. :D Mom and dad figured that the day dad had to start getting up to drive the bus would be the perfect day for us to start school as well.

So, last week we bought the school supplies and today I sorted them out between kids, extras, and 'teacher' supplies. :D The kids from Chris down to Judah had fun buying the supplies and the toddlers were way too happy when I told them that they could use their crayons tomorrow during 'school' time. :D

But, for some reason I always seems to forget the amount of work that goes into getting school stuff ready. For the past few years I have been teaching the toddlers and first graders. It's been really easy. We work on numbers, alphabet, a hymn, a fun song (or silly song, all depending on how old you are), I'll read a history book from the time frame that the older children are reading from, and believe it or not we do a wee bit of geography, as there is a song on the continents that they LOVE!

Well, this year I only have Noah and Judah, both of which are already pretty good with their numbers, know all the silly songs I can remember (it amazes me how easily I can forgot those stupid songs!!), and are always chomping at the bit to learn more.

So, I have to mix things up a little bit. Instead of doing the normal point to letters while we sing the alphabet song, chant 1-2-3, and the days of the week. I have decided to do an alphabet, color, shape, and number match. They both love those types of games and I can multi-task while they are working on the 'game'. The only thing is I need to get this all ready and it always seems like I can't find what I need to do it or the time to do it.

Right now it's cutting and pasting things to poster board, making sure I have all the letters, colors, and shapes I'll need, while enjoying the work. I don't need to be burnt out before we even start!

Oh, and my favorite thing to do.....History work. Print, organize, highlight, and pass out history papers for the next week. Get the history books for this week on the reading shelve, and decided what I want to do ''school'' wise this week.

I enjoy school so much! Not only doing it myself but teaching the younger children, it is such a pleasure to teach them and see them do things later on knowing that I was able to help them learn to do that.

Yes there are trying times. Like the time Timothy got tired of doing his math and decided to do an entire page incorrectly. I kid you not, he sat there and just wrote down whatever number he felt like writing down, didn't get a single problem correct. When I asked him about it he replied with "I was bored with it". Or the time Liberty spent singing the alphabet instead of the numbers we were working on. But when those times past and I get past the frustration and have a few minutes to think about it, it is all fun and something I can keep the memories from for a long time. :D

I am very thankful that God has given me these siblings to teach! :-)

Just a few Thoughts

• Turkeys are the stupidest animals on the face of the earth!! I just had a turkey sit outside the window for five minutes, pecking at the window trying to get the fly that is on INSIDE of the window, while it had a dozen flying all around him.

• Chickens have got to be the second stupidest animal on the face of the earth!! Yesterday while I was at the computer I heard something hit the window, I check on what it is before I start yelling at a toddler for throwing something at the window and realize that was a chicken trying to get away from another chicken!

• It's slightly depressing when I am happily sewing away and realize that I need my glasses to thread my needle!

• Here is an 'interview' I did for another blogger; I have greatly enjoyed reading her blog the past few months. :D

• The Astros won the rubber game last night, 4-1; Wandy went 8 innings giving up only 4 hits, ending the Marlins streak of ten hits in each of the last 15 games (A record that had stood since 1937!). Now if the Astros can keep winning and all the teams ahead of them would kindly start losing. lol

• It's Friday!! That wonderful day of the week that has us all running around like chickens with our heads cut off. You know, the day when we have to get everything ready for markets, hopefully by noon, but 4 at the latest (if all goes well).....Make sure the market buckets and bags are packed, pack all three cars for market, ice chest ready to go, ice all frozen, clothes laid out, product all labeled, etc. On top of that, to make this an even busier day, we are trying to get ready for school next week and preparing to get back to our school schedule.

Taking In A Baseball Game

For those of you who do not care for baseball, this post is one that you will probably find boring. :D Sorry, but outside of reading baseball is my favorite thing to waste time on. :D

Thanks to Stub Hub, I was able to get some tickets to last night's Astros vs. Marlins game. Only six of us went--Dad, Mom, Grace, Timothy, Noah and myself. For two reasons 1)Dad only wanted to drive in one car and 2)Everyone else doesn't really care baseball and were fine with being left home. :D

We all enjoyed it, the seats were great, the game was well played, in all it was a nice relaxing night out. :D













Train full of oranges----->
















I enjoyed watching the Astros play small ball. I can't remember the last time I saw five bases stolen, and a triple in one game.

<-----Carlos Lee in the 7th Inning. He grounded out to second (I had to cheat by looking at my score card to remember that).









Valverde in the to his last batter----->

The only draw back to the game was the fact that the Astros used 6 pitchers, (Would have love to see that number at least cut in half!) And Jose Valverde ended up throwing over 40 pitches in the ninth, would have loved for that to ba a 1-2-3 inning!

Here were the totals at the end of the game. It was really nice to attend my second game of the season and have them win this one as well. As opposed to the past two years were I went to four games each and they lost all 8 games!!

Now, to watch tonight's rubber game on TV, if I can convince the girls that I don't want to watch National Treasure tonight. lol

Oh, and to let you know...The back seat of a '94 Volvo Station wagon was not meant for a 21 year old, no matter how much they want to sit next to their little brother!! lol

Wasting Away My Evening.....

Instead of cleaning my room or sewing my dress I am watching TV with the kids. We flip back and forth between the Duggars and Food Network.

At one point we were watching Unwrapped and they said something the "Chocolate Season". Being Thanksgiving to Easter. They also mentioned something about Valentines day.

When they mentioned that Grace said..."I didn't do anything for Valentines day this year!!" After getting a raised eyebrow from me she amended, "Well, I did go to Verona, but nothing else."

At which point I had to laugh and roll my eyes at the idea of doing nothing but Verona on Valentines day. lol

Have you ever had one of those days where you have a list of things that need to been done but don't have the motivation to do them? Or a list of things you want to do, but just don't feel like getting up and doing them?

Well that is today for me. Its Friday one of our busiest day of the week (tied only with Saturday). And I feel like doing nothing. I slept in--9:30. (I’ll do another post at another date on why I did so). I then stayed in my room and read and now I have wasted time on the computer. And the more I think about it the worse I feel. I should be getting ready for market, pasteurizing milk, loading cars, printing labels, etc. But with each thing I seem to have a good excuse for why I am not doing it or can't do it at this time.

Pasteurizing milk--Dad has to get me some more bottles, which is why he and mom are in Conroe.
Loading cars--I only have one of the three cars that I need to load, currently on the property. I'll just have to wait for them all to get here.
Printing labels--I am waiting for my way to technical printer to calibrate the new ink cartridges that I just put in it.

Now for the other things, I have no excuses other then I am nothing but lazy and don't want to get up and work. Maybe if I type out the list of things I need or want to do I will feel more motivated to get up and do them. :D

• Print labels
• Pasteurize milk
• Freeze water bottles
• Clean my room
• Work on the dress I am sewing
• Read this week's chapter for Sunday school (I am not too keen on reading about pride.)
• Make sure all ice chest are ready for market
• Get books ready to return to the library tomorrow
• Do laundry, as I have fallen woefully behind in it and I think I might find myself in a world of hurt come Saturday or Sunday if no one has any clothes, due to my lack of doing it.
• Update Swede Farm Naturals' web page. As I have added new scents, would like to change the color on it, and have decided to down size so I have somethings on sale and would like to get that out there for the world ASAP.
  

There you go my list of what I need, want, or have to do today. And here the day is half gone. I need to get up and going right now. :D

I am off now, because I think seeing that list helped me greatly, because I didn't realize it was that long. :D

Girl's Day

So, yesterday I had some library books to return and needed to buy a zipper for a dress and thread for a shirt that I am sewing. :D

Seeing as the books needed to be returned in Magnolia (or two community colleges), and there was a fabric store in Magnolia that I have been wanting to go to for a good long while I decided to head into magnolia (the fact that it is closer might have also had something to do with it. :D ).

As I was thinking about what I had to do, I thought it would be fun to make an older girls day out of it. I would take Christin, Grace, and Sara we would go out for lunch, then go to the library and then check out the fabric store.

I asked mom, she said it sounded great to her, how about Wednesday?

As it turned out it was just Chris and Grace that I took with me, as Sara had a tooth pulled yesterday morning and wasn't looking nor wanting to go anywhere but bed.

We had lots of fun eating out at Taco Bell without having to watch for toddlers spilling water or dropping food on the ground. :D

The library was just as fun, since the library system that we use.--Has one of the best selection of books and the amount of books we can borrow at a time is almost unreal. lol

The fabric store was wonderful! We feel like we hit the jack-pot with it. It has a wonderful selection of fabric, more patterns then I have ever seen in one place, and other sewing items priced just perfectly for us, not to mention the people there were beyond nice. I will definitely be going back there when I need more sewing stuff. :D

In the end it was a wonderful time and we enjoyed the day out. Now, to see what I can do for Sara who had to miss out and the younger three girls. :D Something tells me another trip to the fabric store is in order, as Linnea has some sewing projects she wants to work on and Liberty loves looking at fabric. :D

Sometimes, taking the girls out isn't all that hard or bad. Just as long as they don't make me take them to get a manicure or their hair done! I think I would rather scrub dishes then do that!! But days like yesterday can be repeated as often as they or I would like, as it was very enjoyable. :D

And people think living in a large family is hard, no fun, and not enjoyable. They just haven't lived the life and have no idea. :D Wouldn't they be surprised! :D

RAIN!!

It just rained for a full hour and not just a little bit here and there, but a full fledged, out and out, soaking pour for over thirty minutes!! :D

I think the last time it rained this much at one time was back in early June! It sure was nice to see the puddles get larger, the rain keep coming, and to run through it and get soaked. :D

Oh, wait I guess at 21 I shouldn't be running through puddles. :-S Forget you read that.--That is until the next time I say that, as there are just somethings that I just can't seem to give up even as I get older. :D Ask my family, puddles are one of them. lol

Well, I need to go bottle chocolate. The gallons of some of the darkest, richest, best tasting chocolate milk you will taste is almost ready to bottled and I got distracted by rain. You would think I could grow up some day. :)