Cupid Should Take Notes

My husband got me pens for Valentine's Day. Seven nondescript ballpoint pens. A lifetime supply of pens for this stubbornly digital, phone in hand, kind of girl. Pens, as you know, are the antithesis of romance, and though they came packaged in a wooden box he stained himself, with the requisite card (more on that later) and a bar of my favorite dark chocolate to be stashed away in the freezer for later emergencies, I can't quite get over the idea of pens as a Valentine's gift.

I kind of want to feel offended. But I can't, and I won't, because I know that each quirky part of his bizarre, but personal expression of love reflects the reasons why I married him and we enjoy a happy marriage.

You see, I (not so) secretly love office supplies. Sharpies, notebooks, a new box of crayons... My heart is always a flutter during back to school season. I haven't bought pens in awhile because, well, I'm a stay at homeschool mom. My current favorite medium is ultra-washable Crayola markers. I've got a pen or two that I like and have managed to not lose, so I'm pretty much set in the ink department. But my love knows that I adore the practical and I know that he actually stood in front of a pen display testing each one until he found the clearest, smoothest writing. Because he loves me. And when I'm using one of these pens, to write a check to pay a bill (can't use washable markers for that!) or jot down a grocery list, I can be doubly appreciative, not just for a pen, but for a husband who works hard to provide for us so I can do things like pay our bills and buy food for my always hungry kiddos.

In my new wooden box, I'll keep my Valentine's cards, the ones purchased from the Dollar Tree and translated from Spanish to English. The very first note Matthew wrote me, way back when we were college freshman, was in Spanish. After graciously explaining that "uhm, I'm Japanese" he translated with what I assume was flawless accuracy. So even though he picked this card because the message was very sweet, it still reminds me of that funny, romantic moment stolen away in the UCF Student Union almost half a lifetime ago.

And as for the chocolate, well, chocolate is almost impossible to get wrong. I'll be saving that for a day when our two biggest blessings drive me to it.

I love that my husband is thoughtful. He's creative. He is true to himself. He is patient with me when I'm grouchy, and he gives me time to figure out why it's okay to get a box of pens when everyone else is getting jewelry and teddy bears. He remembers details from so many years ago, when our love was new, and finds a way to keep them going. I love him lots, and I'm glad he's mine.

Even better

Everyone keeps saying the first year of homeschooling is the hardest. Maybe it will be. But for now it's downright delightful. I haven't quite figured out how to keep The Bean busy (safely) in a way that doesn't involve binge watching Batman, but we've had a couple of surprising moments where he's sat contented at his Lego table while I work with The Bug.

Breakfast of champions. We've eaten a lot of doughnuts since I started blogging.

I went to Walmart to buy this.  That's LOVE.

The Bean gets to participate too.

The entire student body.

I'm also still nervous that our curriculum isn't rigorous enough, but then I have a bit of chocolate and remind myself that my kitchen table is a safe haven from meaningless common core buzzwords. Sure, our first week was a bit of review. The Bug got a pretty good head start in VPK last year, and even in public schools they don't jump into challenging new material right away. We are at least saved from having to teach classroom management guidelines: she already knows where the bathroom is, she works with a bottle of water right at her seat, and doesn't have to worry about finding the right bus to get home because she's already there. Besides a slower first week gives us the flexibility to set up our day and see which routines work for us without the pressure of having to get to all the very-very-important-things-right-now.

Our delight-driven curriculum is a lot of "create as you go."

So this week we've been using the LifeWay devotionals provided by our church to start our morning. We pray and update our calendar and then practice our memory verse (Psalms 119:11). We created a prayer lapbook and talked about when and where to pray and who and what we can pray for. We've got a Books of the Bible lapbook in progress to learn about the Old and New Testaments and how to use scripture references to actually find things in the Bible. We'll try to memorize the order of the books (using the "right song" from Matthew's childhood via YouTube) which is something I failed to do as a child.  I did however master the slow page flip which is good for searching without looking totally clueless.

We've done a Pop Bottle Science experiment everyday. A la Sid the Science Kid, she's drawn the experiment in a journal and then dictated the process step-by-step for me to write down. She's suddenly seeing molecules everywhere and I learned that a cup of rubbing alcohol added to a cup of water takes up less space than two cups of water. (I also need to buy more rubbing alcohol.) We took a field trip to the zoo which I failed to document because it was SO INCREDIBLY HOT OUTSIDE and all I could think about was getting donuts after we finished sweating off every last vestige of body fat.

See? It was educational!

I swear we learned stuff even if I just took pictures of them being cute.

We reviewed phonemic sounds and writing letters A-X in preparation for beginning reading lessons next week. We checked out 30+ books from the library, including two on The Bug's very own card, with no discernible theme except that the kids seem to like them. We've read the first two chapters of Little House in the Big Woods and pondered life before electricity ("but how did they watch TV?!?") and made ourselves a Lincoln Log cabin, a wonky little rag doll named Emma, fresh homemade bread, and "churned" sweet cream butter. 

Emma!

Our tasty little loaf of bread! 

We created a passport and started learning about our world: the names of continents and the cardinal directions. She's learned how to log on to Little Passports and play some of the games, though she still needs help reading the questions. We've read about four of our seven continents and made corresponding crafts and dinners based on the least offensive stereotypes I could find. The Bug can find them on a map and knows her cardinal directions. 

Learning about Asia

Learning about Europe.

Creating necklaces for Africa.

A Mexican sombrero for North America. 

We've made math as hands on as possible with collecting and sorting and classifying shapes, colors, objects, and sizes. We've worked on sequencing and ordinal numbers and competed two weeks of worksheets in our first five days and blazed through three "chapters" of Brain Quest worksheets during week two.  (Really, matching?  How does this count as math?)

But my very favorite had been starting her memory book, a way to document the wonderful person she is as we begin this school year.

For the most part I feel pretty good.  Exhausted and doubtful of whether I'm doing enough and doing it right, but we're having fun. My kiddo is asking to do school work and enjoying most of what we do together. It feels small, these little lessons, for just a few hours one day at a time, but I'm trusting someone much bigger to bring it all together. Today I'm enjoying the kids and this adventure which is even better than I had hoped for.

So Long Summer

As a kid I could always count on two nights a year when I would get no sleep: Christmas Eve and the night before the first day of school. Now that we’re a homeschooling family (we had orientation this week so it’s official), I've been looking for ways to make start of our school year extra special for my own kiddos.

Even though I still feel a certain amount of freedom that comes with doing school at home, I still felt like this was our last week to squeeze in some summer fun. We had an impromptu library trip and picnic with our neighbors and spent the day at SeaWorld with my mom. 

Grammy is the best teaching assistant. Also, it was brutally hot... how does she always stay so put together?

This kid loves whales.

Not so put together. But The Bug is beautiful.

That's my daughter, hugging the KILLER whale. 

To celebrate the end of summer we hosted a Back-to-School Party for The Bug and some of her friends.  We've been blessed to be part of the First Years Preschool at our church for the past two years, but kindergarten means our friends will be going in different directions. We ate lunch and played a few Minute to Win It style games, all courtesy of my friend Pinterest. All in all it was a nice opportunity for The Bug to play with her friends and for the moms to sit and catch up before we get back into a busy school routine.

Invitations courtesy of Pinterest.

We used our new school supplies as decorations.

I painted the box to hold our favors (which is impressive because when I draw apples they usually look like tomatoes) and made pencil shaped boxes (again, Pinterest) and filled them with Smarties for the kids.  The moms got lunch box notes (Pinterest, see the theme?) to use for their kiddos.

Lemonade and fresh apples. You know, for the teacher.

 

Managed to fit all seven kids around my table.

Apple plates! Do the cups look like chalkboards? I hope so.

School lunch: PB&J, Cheetos, applesauce, and string cheese.

And cupcakes, of course.

The games were so fun to watch, especially as five-year-olds raced to eat a donut hanging from a string, but my phone was playing DJ so pictures of the actual party will have to wait until they get emailed to me. The Bug loved it though, declaring that throwing parties are her favorite part of school.  Who says homeschooled kids aren't socialized?

EDIT: I got a few pictures of our party guests! No game pictures yet, but that's what happens when (a) they only take a minute to play, and (b) the moms are too busy laughing/cheering on their kids.

Hey there, Samantha! How do you like that apple plate?

And that's a McCutchen face.

And now, with lessons planned and resources organized and printed, I feel like we're ready to start the year.  I'm excited about the opportunities ahead and the time I'll get to spend with The Bug and The Bean. So long summer, this teaching mom is ready for the school year!

Our Disney Cruise - Day Three

I've started writing this so many times, the first draft pecked out on my phone while the kiddos splashed away during a swim lesson.  A month has passed since my last publication, and while I've filled my time with useful things like taking care of sick kids, a trip to the beach, and teaching a home-based summer preschool program, I’m wondering why I felt like a blog was a good idea in the first place. Surely we've all lost interest, right? (Audible sigh.)

But I’m not a quitter, at least not today, and I do want to chronicle the rest of our cruise before it's forever lost in the mommy fog. I need to check it off my list, close the Sticky Note list of pictures that has been driving me crazy, and make space in my brain for new concerns, like lesson plans for the homeschooling that starts in LESS THAN TWO WEEKS.

I know you've been waiting with bated breath to see more pictures from our trip, so without further ado…

Our third and final day on the cruise was our last chance for tropical relaxation before returning to regularly scheduled life. The ship was full of activities, but my main goal was to play in the white sands and sparkling blue waters of Disney's island, Castaway Cay. (FYI, Cay is pronounced like "key" of course.) But we had to begin the day with food. We enjoyed the breakfast buffet at the Royal Palace dining room since the kids missed it for dinner. There weren't as many options as in Cabanas, but it was significantly less crowded too. Also, in the dining rooms servers bring drinks to your table which makes managing buffet plate logistics significantly easier when you're also making selections (read: choosing doughnuts) for two kids.

Breakfast selfie!

After breakfast we returned to our room to change into our swimsuits and grab water bottles, snorkeling equipment, and sunscreen. This is where packing a beach bag comes in handy. There is water readily available on the island, but it's a great idea to bring something (insulated and portable) to keep water by your beach chairs. According to our Navigator, we could meet characters on the gangway so we book-ended our beach day by meeting Captain Hook and Mr. Smee on the way out and Stitch on the way back. Captain Hook, though a man of few words, indicated that through some unspeakable act of mutiny he was now our captain. The Bug loves the idea of mutiny.

Our new captain.

Be patient! That's not sand!

In true Disney fashion, you take a short tram ride to the various beaches. We stopped at the first, and probably most crowded, family beach, but managed to find two unoccupied lounge chairs and an umbrella with no trouble. We rented a tube for floating and dragged our chairs down to the edge of the water. The water was so clean and calm that even The Bug, who is normally terrified of the ocean, was waking around chest deep. We built sandcastles and tried to catch fish with our dollar store buckets while Matthew took some time for snorkeling in the artificial reefs. When he returned, The Bean and I relaxed in the tube while The Bug explored the big kids water playground. The warm sun, cool water, and gentle rocking actually put The Bean to sleep and we transferred him to a chair under the umbrella, proving that vacation miracles do exist. If there is anything more relaxing than a two hour nap in the shade of an umbrella on a beach in the Bahamas, I don't know what it is. We ate in shifts at Cookie's BBQ while The Bean napped before heading back to the ship to meet Stitch.

Best nap ever.

Love this beach beauty.

I let The Bug try the camera. Not too bad!

The Bug was SO excited to meet Stitch.  Incidentally, I finally saw Lilo and Stitch for the first time right before our cruise.  I love it! Also, why do I look so freakishly tall?

We decided to make one last stop at the Mickey Mouse pool before our swimsuits dried out completely, enjoying a smaller crowd due to so many beach goers so off the ship. We also picked up more food at Flo’s V8 café since The Bean slept through lunch on the island. 

After we cleaned up and changed into regular clothes, I took The Bug for some one-on-one time decorating cupcakes with a genuine French pastry chef in the kids club. Again the Disney memory making magic was in full swing as we donned matching aprons and hats, and attempted to use a plastic knife and spoon to craft Disney inspired cupcakes. Given the lack of proper tools, I think we did a great job! On the way back to the room we ran into Pluto and Daisy for autographs and Pluto was even kind enough to sign the pillowcase she made during the pajama party.

So artistic!

My Belle inspired cupcake.  Would have been nice to have a piping bag.

Priceless! 

The parenting relay continued, and we switched off so I could get my shop on with The Bean while Matthew and The Bug played mini golf on the top deck. (Apparently she's very good!) They found us back in the stateroom watching Toy Story 2 and playing with his new set of toys before dinner at the Animator's Palate.

The Animator's Palate is a real treat, both in terms of the food and the atmosphere. Matthew looked up the menus because I had forgotten what I ordered, (I remember now: Black Truffle Pasta Purseittes, YUM) and I realized my dinner game has a long way to go. The restaurant is full of Disney memorabilia and there is a fun interactive show featuring Crush from Finding Nemo. The Bug joined the clean plate club and was rewarded by our servers with two desserts. You get the feeling that the cruise ship is staffed by young, single people who are completely unaware of the ramifications of two desserts at 10pm, but they do know how to make kids happy.

After dinner, we went back to the room and finished packing our large suitcases to be picked up for the morning. My last surprise for the kids had been delivered to our stateroom: two Disney storybooks autographed by Mickey and his friends and all the princesses.  Even though they were a really cool souvenir, they went hastily into the suitcases and into the hallway because no one wants to carry to heavy books through customs. We collapsed into bed (seriously, where do people find the energy for week long cruises?) because we had to wake up early for breakfast the next morning.

I was pleasantly surprised though to learn that the late dinner seating means you also have a "late" breakfast seating. We had one last meal with our much-loved servers, gathered our carry-ons and made our way through customs and back to the car.

Did we have fun? Yes. Was it worth the money? Yes. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. On the ship, it felt perfect. On the drive home, it felt perfect. Two months later, it feels perfect. We don’t take fancy vacations. We work hard, we find fun in the little things. But, boy, was it nice to spend time as a family enjoying new experiences, eating lots of new food, and making very special memories.