Happy April Fool's Day!

Well I looked over my posts in March when I did a couple of updates and realized that I have been neglecting my poor blog- part of it is trying to figure what I want to do exactly with my blog- have you checked out any of them?!!! Some have specific themes and can be quite the learning experience- some are humorous or well written insights into different lives/families- some have a lot of visitors. Blogging can be a little intimating but really I am just going to do it for the fun of it!

Second reason why I haven't been posting much is because I have been researching and dealing with the changes and upcoming changes. It should be duly noted that I am a scheduler- I love making schedules [lists too!] and I am a Planner so everything is scheduled out in advance- several months- oh why haven't I just learned to go with the flow because life [especially little kids] requires more changes than my schedules can keep up with?!

So back to the point- what changes and what schedules?

First are the changes of my darling husband- his job has him in training right now and he is currently away during the week for the next 4 months. A rotating schedule when he is done with that- which shouldn't be too bad. Then he would like to work the afternoon schedule for work which is 4 days 10 hours starting at 4pm and going until 2am. Plus overtime here and there because my man likes to work [very good work ethics] and the job can be demanding. So I started thinking about how that would work with our family and its [wait for it...] schedule?

Second is my older son's school experiences: the first half of the year at this one particular school was a very poor fit for our family. We switched to our neighborhood public elementary which is a fine school [even has those high ranking marks you would want to see in a school even though I question the method of how we rank each school...] and it is going better but I don't love it. So I started thinking about homeschooling more and more- yes I thought about it when Solomon was 3 years old- put those thoughts away with an awesome Preschool when he was 4 years old and now I am convinced. I got to be crazy after being around nearly 24/7 the kids- my first one for 5.5 years and with two for almost 4 years that I don't want a break from them. Yeah I do, but I miss them even more when we're apart. A big issues is that I hated school and so far Solomon doesn't love it and it doesn't offer his favorite subject- Science. In fact science is almost absent in our area's elementary schools [don't argue with me- I checked out 15 elementary schools and time away from Blog equals time to do school research]. We are trying to get him by lottery luck into the one school that I would be thrilled to have him attending [it even has science] but we don't know yet if he got in or not [those things take time] so in the meantime I have been thinking about another plan, another schedule!

So I have been reseaching homeschooling, subjects, how to, socialization, how I have a small life too, etc I am really excited about this opportunity and I feel bad that Solomon is my guinea pig but we all have to start somewhere and with someone. Solomon likes this idea because we'll be studying things he likes: volcanoes, castles, dinosaurs, answers to why questions, along with reading [him and me to him], writing, art projects [never to young to start with Photography], those very important math skills [Solomon likes Math already so that is a great start!], storytelling, theatre, Geography, History, more time for physical education [Solomon loves being active], our Foreign Language will be Sign Language [perhaps Arabic in 2 years], music [lessons on something somewhere], Nature, and of course those important life skills like good manners, cooking, and doing work out in the community [we already donate our time at Oregon Food Bank].

Just a friendly reminder to brush your teeth 2-3 times a day [I try to brush with just water after lunch if I am home] and floss at least once a day.

Happy Belated Easter

Easter wasn't very good this year which is why I didn't post about it- Dan was working, it was horribly cold and raining outside. I didn't even make my Easter dinner until the next day, on Monday. The boys did enjoy their Easter gifts from Mimi- Thank you! And candy of course but what good is it to eat sugar if you can't run it off?! So I made the Easter dinner of Ham, potatoes, salad, steamed carrots on the Easter Monday. Tuesday morning- the boys were having toast and ham for breakfast when Solomon sees a hidden rabbit in his toast so we took a picture and here you go! The Easter bunny comes in mysterious forms.

On other Easter news- we don't talk about the Easter bunny in our home. The boys are very confused when people ask "What did the Easter bunny bring you?" And when we were walking past the Easter bunny in the mall- where you can get your photo taken and Cyrus points and says "Look, Rabbit!" And you know what- just being a rabbit is cool enough!

March 20th

March 20th was Dan's big ceremony at his job along with several other people who were being promoted so it turned out be a nice event! We were there as well as Dan's favorite professor to cheer him on. The picture is Dan with his professor after the whole ceremony:

Spring Break

We live in Portland, OR and Oregon just had their Spring Break- the last full week in March.
Say the word Spring and what comes to your mind?
sun shinning
plants growing
yeah some rain because we do live in Oregon
So what did we get?!!! Snow, snow, and hail- some nice gusty winds too and completely cold week- I think the high was 45 degrees last Tuesday and the rest of the week in was in the low thirties!!! I had to turn our heat back on.
Now a decent snowstorm would have been okay but usually we have snow then it'll melt and either be raining/hailing or cold and sunny in the afternoon!
The picture is the biggest hail fall we had- it looked like it was snowing [taken Sunday afternoon]!

Quote

"When we honestly ask which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not-knowing, not-curing, not-healing, and face with us the reality of our powerlessness...makes it clear that whatever happens in the external world, being present to each other is what really matters." --Henri J.M. Nouwen

Rice

I found this great website:

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

Basically it is a vocabulary challenge one word at a time and each time you guess what other word out of 4 means the same as the given word- you donate 20 grains of rice through the UN World Food Program to help end hunger...

20 rice grains a correct answer meaning adds up fairly quickly! So click on the link:

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

and use and expand your mind power while giving rice out to those who need it!

Dinosaurs!!!

Dinosaurs came to OMSI! They had skeletons and dinosaurs that moved to be more realistic- pretty cool! I forgot to take a picture of the Rex- next time...

Baby Fever

Well now it is offical- the baby fever has spread from Mom to her darling boys... Cyrus wrapped up a little purple stuffed dragon into one of his blankies- a perfect swaddle- and was playing "Dad". Then Solomon says that he wishes to be a baby again and be cute! In the meantime I took pictures of the moment to share with you future husbands and fathers!
[Solomon's pose is his "cute" pose- the one that supposed to get him anything right?! Is it working?]

[Cyrus has an owie on his lip from a fall the other day at the park...]