A Day of Science
Well today was supposed to be the day of change around here..new routines, some new curic..well that was all put to an end when at 7am my washer broke ( Eric looked at it at lunch and it’s an “ez fix”..but still..days with no washer and a family of 6..ack!), then one of Declan’s Flame Gobi’s was dead. I figured Eric would be tinkering with the washer after work so I got myself and the kids ready and did our grocery shopping early..instead of while the kids were at dance. We are no sooner done and in the van when the school calls..Noah is sick..body temp was 95.6…Nurse told me all the kids with the same symptoms had the low body temp. So off we went to get him. His temp is up to 98.2 so I’m not as worried as I was.. he’s in bed..as he should be.
So that brought us to 11am.. our day was pretty much shot ( Eric comes for lunch at 11:45 and is home for the day at 2:35)..and I had told Declan he could have a day to mourn his fish. BUT I wanted to do something with the kids..we went into science mode.
First off was Borax snow flakes:The kids were not told what would happen so they had to “guess”… Taejan thought the pipe cleaners would disappear ,Ziah had no guess and Declan thought they would become fluffy.
after not even 2 hours we have crystals!!

Next I decided to take the lightbulb I blew up cleaning and make it educational..lol

Then we broke out one of the Myth Buster’s science kits I got the other day..

Up first was learning about how the gas in our bones really can predict the changes in weather…our “diver” sank and floated depending on how much air pressure there was:

Then we grabbed the tornado connector thing I bought a few weeks ago and made lots of tornado’s. We even added rice so the kids could see what happened to objects in a tornado:

After that one ( we only did that about 30 times..lol) we tried to blow a balloon up inside a bottle. We learned it wouldn’t work because there was already all the air the bottle could take:

Then we learned if we put holes in the bottle the balloon would indeed blow up:

Then the kids had fun trying to blow it up thru the holes I had put in the bottle:

then I should them that if I blew the balloon up ,covered the holes with my finger, added water to the balloon then let go something cool would happen ( it’s at the end of the video).
After that we brought out the Dangerous Book for Boys Chemistry set:

We made some solutions and used a 9volt battery for some cool reactions:

Prussian Blue ( detects the presence of Iron)

and we also dissolved copper in a test tube and then we dissolved the copper in a penny ( Declan loved all 3 of these!!)

can ya see the copper on the paper towel?

it wasn’t the best start of the week but we made it great don’t ya think? ( and shhhh don’t tell my kids they did a ton of school today..lol)
The Me Time Myth
I found this blog post a long time ago..agreed with it whole-heartily. Here’s a bit of it:
Or what about the countless nights I stayed up WAY too late so I could be ALONE, many times hoping my husband would fall asleep so I wouldn’t feel guilty for spending time doing my OWN thing? I dreaded going to bed because it meant waking up the next morning to start the whole thing over again.
I found myself continually lamenting the fact that my husband got time off from his job, while lil’ ole me never got a break. There started to be a trend in my weekends–one full day of doing whatever I wanted to do no matter what fell apart while I took “time off” led to two full days, which soon led to the weekends creeping into the weekdays.
The more we indulge the thought that we are somehow owed this time away, the more we will seek after it. The more we seek after it, the more every little opportunity afforded us to take a break will seemingly end too quickly. The everyday life of being a mother will become drudgery. We will dread every aspect of this role. We will snap at our children any time they try to draw us out of our precious time alone. Not getting this time will ruin our day, and if we do manage some time away, we will despise the re-entry.
Then I somehow fell back into that me time myth…
I have found myself taking any chance I can for a few minutes alone… Eric going to workout at night..score..me alone on the couch doing nothing, instead of me taking that time to workout, or play a game with whatever kiddo is still awake. Eric takes the kids with him to clean ( his 2nd job) score.. me doing nothing instead of doing the stuff I should do so that my time with my family is better spent.
I am now very aware I have spent too much “me time” and not enough we time.. I can already feel the need for me time dwindling.. the less I get the better I feel.
I will still go out with friends occasionally when the opportunity arises…have no fear of that..but my screen time and do nothing time is going to continue to lessen…
Tiny Tag Along 2/6/10
Another relatively quiet week for Taejan…( 53 months)
He used his erector set to make his letter :

and he used the clothes pin counting:

He spent an hour on the couch with our biome books:

and used this great new book I got at Walmart:

he helped me make a bazillion muffins and such for Noah’s meet:

That’s what my Tiny Tag along did this week.. to see what more tag Alongs did click here:
Long overdue catch up post…
I have been so bad about normal blogging.. I am just no feeling very bloggy lately… sorry.. Since the kids are all sleeping in ( yeah!!) I went thru the last months pictures and grabbed a few to post.. they are in no particular order…
The kids have had a lot of time with friends… some pictured..some not..lol
There was a trip to Build a Bear:

Noah’s school had an open house for incoming students.. he was asked to be in the shop working so we went to see him:


and we won this that his teacher made:

We went to Yankee Candle and they played:

Mommy’s getting her butt beat by Jillian Michaels:

The kids finished their Solar System unit:

and of course we’ve done some book work:


Ziah is still working her way thru her phonics..slowly but surely she’s getting there:


Declan continues his research on The Liberty Bell and The Statue of Liberty:


Ziah is of course being crafty:

They all went with me to vote:

We’ve had a great month and hope for another great one!
Unplugging..
I’ve decided my kids need a week unplugged.. they don’t watch a lot of TV but the DS’s and Wii have taken over their days.. Declan especially will be very angry in the morning when he finds out..but he is the one affected the most by too much screen time..
So I’ll be back in a week or so.. I don’t want to be a bad example… plus I spend too much time on this thing and texting lately..so I am taking a week off both!










































