And counting.........

There's always a count down running at our house.

You can find them recorded on our classroom white erase board or chalkboard -sometimes written on scraps of paper laying around the kitchen and often announced by someone at dinner. They vary with the time of year and the longing in someone's heart.

The two main countdowns that I hear about lately are-

104 days till the beach -This countdown although exciting always makes me want to exercise and shave my hairy winter legs!

and

26 days till the adoption - Count down number 2 is for Emma (11), Ezra (7) and Samuel (5). This incredibly wonderful sibling group came to us in May of last year as a temporary foster care case. Within a few days of arriving Emma asked me to pray with her each night that Jesus would let her stay here forever and happily, next month will be their adoption day!

1 Million days till the snow melts - And this is my personal count down.

Testing..1,2,3...Testing

This school year I am homeschooling 3 of the girls but the boys are all in public school, because West Virginia has enacted a policy that does not allow foster parents to homeschool any foster kids. And that's a shame, because many of the kids would do so much better if they could have the one on one that you can give at home.

So we have nice quiet days at home as soon as the bus rolls away with the very loud, very active boys.

Because of the more than 3 feet of snow outside, there has been no public school since last Thursday. The days are no longer quiet and frankly I started to get tired of the lack of routine. All of this drove me to try something extremely frighting....homeschooling all 8 of the kids together!! Yesterday was trial day #1 and everyone loved it. Even me! Day was day #2 and it was still fun. We did everything with a Valentine's Day theme and I adjusted the work for the different ages.

Now I'm not naive enough to believe that it would always run as smoothly as it has, but it has made me consider trying it next year. Someone needs to come over here and talk some sense into me!!

Better Than I Should Be

You would think that I would have lost my mind by now. You would think that I'd be climbing the walls - that cabin fever would have surely set in. We've had 3 feet of snow come down in the last week and it's started again today with another 20 inches predicted.

But here I am - calm, content and enjoying every minute of being stuck in the house with 8 kids.

I haven't accomplished much of anything. I have spent the better part of each day happily doing nothing. Oh I'm doing stuff - just not anything that needs to be done. I've changed all the music on my Ipod and browsed for hours in the Itune store. I've played with my pictures on the computer and have read about a million blogs and spent hours watching what you're saying on Facebook.

The kids have been in and out of the house at least 43 times each day and I've happily dried their snowsuits and gloves and by the way, how exactly do boys manage to destroy the lining in their boots?

I don't know what's wrong with me. I wouldn't care if this went on for another couple of weeks.

It's like I'm on snow crack.

Well....off to do nothing!

Super Hero Down the Hall

I know I'm going to sleep better tonight.

As I tucked Samuel into bed he showed me that he was wearing his Spider- Man suit under his pajamas and that if anything bad happened it wouldn't take him that long to save me.

Can I just have this one that never grows up?

Game Review

Our daughter, Kirsten, sent us a new game for Christmas called "Ticket to Ride Europe" and last night we gave it a try.
Although it seems complicated upon explanation, after a few rounds we were playing like pros.
The game involves crossing from one city to another on railroads that you construct with cards drawn from various piles. There's a lot of strategy and equal amounts of luck. Kirsten said her kids are able to play but I would think 10 would be a good age to really "get it".
It's a little lengthy of a game but nothing like Monopoly (which I hate) and can be played in under an hour.
We all really liked it and we give it 5 stars.

Go Outside and Learn Something

Homeschool Learning with a snow man:

Bible - Thanked God for the snow and no school.

Math - Estimated the circumference of 3 circles and placed in order of largest to smallest.

Science - Learned about the 3 physical states of water and how quickly the sun melts the snow mans head. Also experimented with properties of gravity while rolling snow balls down hill.


Social Studies - Developed social skills necessary to work together on a group project. Discovered that girls are inherently better at being the boss.

History - Remembered the last snow man they made and did a better job this time.

Music - Listened to me sing "Frosty the Snow Man" off key and didn't complain.

Nature's Perfect Lesson Plans!!

Games

I love my 5 year old but his choice of board games is boring to say the least. He will always choose "Super Heroes Memory Game". I'm really bad at all the memory games but remembering if the card is the good Spider man or the Black Spider man is so beyond my ability to focus. I basically suck at it and Samuel wins every game. I'm not the best loser and he can brag like no body's business. Fun.


Tonight I broke out Candy Land. He still beat me but the Licorice Guy and the Fairy girl with the candy canes was a welcome change. And best of all the teens all had this nostalgic thing going on and agreed to play Candy Land with him, leaving me to do really fun stuff like Facebook.