Rock Star Preschool

This week we have started a wonderful curriculum that I just happened to stumble upon while looking for some resources for teaching Bible class. We had been doing some simple theme units manipulatives that I was checking out for the Johnston County Partnership for Children (click to check out their stuff!) It's so nice to have a place to check out tons of things for the girls, even Sydney! This group has a membership fee which is pretty minimal. While we are still doing theme units we have added some simple, yet powerful, curriculum called Raising Rock Star Preschool. You must check out this site! She has so many tools not just for preschool, but for toddlers and early elementary. We have been having a BLAST this week and I, for once, feel like I can actually do this homeschool thing!

To start off we needed some Popsicle sticks for one of our activities. The girls were so glad to be able to assist me in my quest for Popsicle sticks. They humbly and happily ate some Popsicles for me :)

Here is Makayla working on some letter tracing for the letter Ll that we are learning about this week. I have our worksheets in page protectors so we waste less paper and I can use the same sheet for all 4 kiddos! We use dry erase markers and wipe when we're done. This is a technique that I picked up while tutoring at Huntington Learning Center.

Caroline is concentrating very hard at cutting out our Ll words for the week. I had to reprint this page since she is still working on her cutting technique :), but it was good practice! The website recommends putting the word cards in a baseball card pockets, which I happened to have from my couponing days. It makes it easy to save and flip through each letter!

Here is Caroline working on a puzzle during center time. Thanks to some generous folks that Josh works with for donating some homeschool supplies to us! I don't know what we would do without them!

Sydney is learning how to be a lady by balancing a cup on her head at dinner...ok, not really, but it was pretty funny so I had to snag a picture!

Posing pretty to show off our Calendar Time. Our friends from church gave us the magnetic calendar. Since my background is in teaching I have a fun little routine we do almost each day to work on months, days, seasons and such. I was blessed to have a great Kindergarten student teaching placement.

Each week there is a new sight word to learn. I was soooo impressed at how quickly the girls grasped the concept of a sight word! This week we learned the word "See." This picture shows Caroline reading our "I See" book.

Here is Makayla reading. Notice she's in Jammies! Isn't homeschool life great!

Each week there is a verse to memorize that starts with the letter of the week. This week it was, Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven. Matthew 5:16. It's nice to help me learn new scripture as well as placing those seeds in my girls hearts. This picture is the girls coloring their verse.

Our theme unit this week has been the Food Pyramid. I wish I had more pictures of the fun we have been having with that. The girls say we have a "fun house" with all the posters and toys we have for this unit. On this day we studied the fruit group so we made some fruit smoothies for lunch. I think they enjoyed them!

She might not look happy, but Sydney enjoyed hers too!

To practice our verse and cutting skills, the girls cut out our verse and taped it together and used the verse to measure things around this house. This week our verse was longer than Caroline!

Makayla really enjoyed the measuring and had fun going around the house measuring just about everything.

Some things that don't have pictures

Since there were so many resources available for this weeks theme unit, I was able to do centers with the girls after our lessons. We had sorting baskets of food by color, food hand puppets, a Food Pyramid chart where the girls got to put the right foods in the right part of the pyramid. We moved the toy kitchen out of their room and the girls could play with tons of food as we learned about each section of the pyramid. I also made some sorting activities in file folder games, not as popular, but still fun. We listened to some silly food music that came with our kits from the Partnership for Children while we played.

Another perk of the Partnership is once a month they do a story time and activity. It is sponsored by Target and they provided a copy of the book for each family. The girls had a great time meeting new friends, hearing the story and making a craft. Since the story was about a Hen, the farm and her chicks we decided we needed to go and visit the chicks for sale at the local hardware store. They loved it! Although, I was disappointed that they added a "No Touch" sign that was not there the time that I went to check things out. We also took some time to wander through the plants, as I am trying to teach them the names of different flowers.

Non-school Activities

"The Bean" aka Sydney has cut one of her top teeth. The second should be coming any time now. She has also been able to pull herself up at least two times that I have witnessed and crawled on her hands and knees across the room!

We also got the call that Makayla's T-ball season starts this Saturday, so we are gearing up for practice!

Phew...what a busy week!

The Day

We had a monumental day a couple of weeks ago. The magnitude of the day keeps showing itself, so I figured I should share with the world the positive side effects from "The Day." A couple of weeks ago we had finally set up a playdate with one of our new homeschool friends, well really, it would be the first time that the girls had really met these new friends. It had taken some effort to coordinate and I was a little nervous about having new people in to our home. So I went all out, as in, I cleaned my house! I offer that courtesy only to first time visitors. After that, you get to see how we really live. The girls room was a MESS!! You couldn't even walk through the floor. So I set them about the task to clean it. They actually volunteered to clean as soon as the finished breakfast; they were so excited to have a new friend come over to play. We had until 1:00pm, so we had PLENTY of time! The girls asked for my help so I helped them designate tasks and break chores into steps. It awful hard not to get sidetracked when you're putting away all those fun toys. Let's just say the girls focus was challenged. After an hour and a half of work, the room didn't look much better. They were starting to get tired and come up with all sorts of ailments that would prevent them from cleaning their room. Time was ticking! I let them know that if their room wasn't cleaned, they would not be able to have their new friend over. Humph, they didn't really like that! After one more hour their room still wasn't clean. It was now noon. I knew that with as long as it takes for them to eat lunch, there was no chance of the room getting cleaned before our company came over. I made a tough choice, but knew it was the right thing to do. I picked up the phone and called the mom. I let her know that my girls were not behaving today and that it would not be a good day for a playdate. She surprisingly understood and said her kids weren't in that good of a mood either. The girls were upset. I expected as much and honestly would have been disappointed if they weren't. But really, they made the choice, not me. So now it's nap time. I encourage them to rest because they are in a bad mood, informing them that it would help give them a more positive attitude. For some reason, they did not heed my advice. The played all during naptime, interrupting the nap that I should have gotten. Mommy was NOT a happy camper. Naptime generally ends around 4pm. Some might stop with punishment after the canceled playdate, but that wasn't the point was it? I told them to clean their room and they didn't. It was time to learn a lesson! I let them know that they were to finish cleaning their room before they could have any dinner. But surely I couldn't be serious? I wouldn't deprive them of dinner? Try me! We don't live in the third world, they aren't starving. They will survive! And, their room will be clean! They huffed and puffed testing the limits. I set about making dinner and playing with Sydney. By the time dinner was ready at 5:30, they were still not finished. Sydney and I had a lovely dinner together. It just so happened to be bath night as well, the girls favorite. I let them know that if they didn't clean their room in time, not only would they miss dinner, but also bathtime. Once they saw me eat dinner alone, I think they were starting to get the point that I was serious. Oh, but once I started the bath water for Sydney they really got the point! By 6:30pm they finally had a clean room! By this point they were VERY proud of their accomplishment. They realized that they really could clean their room all by themselves! Their food was waiting for them at the table. I didn't even hear them complain about what I made! I put Sydney to bed and then gave them their bath and got them ready for bed. Even if the story ended there, it would have been a good one! But no, it goes on! The next day was prayer group day, which means a few moms and their kids come over and the moms talk and pray while the kids play. The kids had a great time and when they left, the room was still clean! They had picked up after themselves, a first! Ever since that fateful day, the girls have been able to reasonably keep their room clean. They even voluntarily clean it up on their own. It makes a mom proud! That day was not a fun one. As a mom it can be hard to follow through with consequences. Now that my girls have such a since of accomplishment and responsibility, I'm glad I stuck to my guns.

Mom of the Year

Just when I feel like I am getting life somewhat under control..... This past week has been filled with some quite humbling mommy experiences. Here we go ladies, time to de-cape Super Mom! Award Number 1 Let me begin with a simple trip to the Doctors office. Caroline needed some forms filled out and since we had never done a well check-up with our Dr. in Clayton and since it's soooo close to her 4th birthday, we just went ahead and scheduled her 4 yr. check-up. For a last minute appointment in order to get our paper work filled out as quickly as possible we got the marvelous time of 10:30, right in the middle of Sydney's nap. What are ya gonna do? These appointments generally don't take very long and there are typically toys in the examination room. I leave the diaper bag in the car... All four of us ladies wait together for Caroline to be called back. We wait, and wait...and wait. I had worked really hard at prepping Caroline for the examination since she typically freaks out at the slightest thing. She did excellent getting weighed and measured. Then we get our room. No toys, bummer. That's ok, Makayla and Caroline are great at entertaining themselves. Until the Dr. chair bumper derby starts. We wait, and wait...and wait...and wait... for the Dr. to come in. My arms are getting tired and Sydney is getting cranky, I finally give in and let her play on the floor. GROSS! The Dr. comes in, I give him the forms and we start the examination. I guess he didn't understand me correctly because he did a 3 yr. check-up, really? It's less than a month from her birthday...work with me here! She does great, Sydney eats the paper from the examination table, no crying or shots involved this time! We leave the office at Noon! That's an hour and a half at the dr.! We get out to the car and find it running. How odd! Did I leave the car running the whole time?? I check my purse for the keys and they are there; I must have hit the automatic start fumbling to get everyone in the van, phew! I get everyone buckled, the luggage and stroller stowed and shut the truck. Why did the van turn off, and didn't I just hear all the doors lock? All the doors LOCKED. With my kids, my purse, my cell phone, the keys, everything but me inside the car! GREAT! I try to get Makayla to unbuckle herself and open the door. Good for the car seat company, bad for me, she can't get the bottom unbuckled. As I'm telling the girls to sit tight while I go back inside to make a call a loving mom asks if she can help. I borrow her cell phone and call 911. As I wait Caroline is screaming and Makayla is looking at me like I'm dumb. Sydney is peaceful which is a relief. The cop arrives and provides little assurance. He can only bust a window and the fire department is at a house fire, but someone should be on their way soon. He starts encouraging the kids to unbuckle themselves to no avail. He walks around to Caroline's side and talks to her and then pulls to sliding door handle....and it opens. Boy do I feel dumb! Lucky for me we have one faulty door that does not always lock with the others. I really wish I had tried all the doors before I called the cops! Good thing I pay taxes! I thanked the cop and went home (one block away mind you) and cried to Josh. He brought me flowers home that night. Award Number 2 One of the other weird things that Josh and I do is have our kids sit with us in church. We really enjoy getting a chance to worship as a family and answer questions as they arise about service. It can be really challenging some Sunday's, but well worth the effort. Sydney joins us, in the hopes for her to join us full time, but understanding that the nursery is always an option for her. Since she is doing so well at sitting up, we often let her sit and play with toys in the pew (she is the only one allowed to play during worship). Josh and I typically split kid responsibilities. One with the older, one with the baby. For some reason Josh was really engrossed in the sermon and I was controlling all three at one time. I turn to tell the girls something and out of the corner of my eye see Sydney starting to make a head dive off of the pew! My cat-like reflexes come into play and I have just enough time to catch her by the back of the dress and pull her up to safety. After the many gasps from the pews behind us (we sit in the very first pew, so I can only imagine how many people witnessed this event) I was mortified and decided it was time for Sydney to join her friends in the nursery! Award Number 3 And finally... mommy mess-up number 3. So the reason that Caroline had to get this Dr. form filled out is because she was undergoing sedation to get a tooth pulled. My baby! She's only had the tooth for 2 years and it's already rotted enough to have it pulled! After talking with my Hygienist friend I was lovingly shown that people aren't born with rotten teeth, it's improper care that causes the cavities. I rotted my baby's teeth! Oh, the guilt! And to have to be sedated on top of all that! Caroline started off well, but since she decided to spit out half of her sedation medication, she came to when they were putting the gauze in to absorb the blood. She was NOT a happy camper about that and threw a royal fit. Luckily Josh was there and he was able to maintain control while I showed Makayla around the dentist office (she had never been to this office before). Since they removed a baby tooth and since it will be such a long time before the permanent tooth grows in they have to insert a spacer to keep the room for the new tooth. Which will be placed at the end of April when she get the other FIVE cavities filled. So my sweet Caroline has a huge gap in her mouth where a molar used to be. I can't believe the Tooth Fairy had to come and visit a 3 yr.old. She was very nice and gave Caroline two packs of stickers. One pack she stuck all over her body within the first 5 minutes of waking up. Hey, after seeing that big ole' tooth, she deserved to do whatever she wanted with those stickers! Thanks for the dose of humility, Lord.

Going Green

Amidst all the stress of the last three months, Josh and I have made a few big attempts at going green. For this pregnancy we have decided to use a midwife instead of an OB. There are many different reasons and we are enjoying the laid back family atmosphere of the Birth Center. In the same building as the midwive there is a cute baby boutique that sells tons of cloth diapers. After an appointment one day we took the tour and got a good tutorial on all the many different types of cloth diapers. We went home and did a little research of our own and made the decision to do cloth. Do you know how much money we saved? The average person spends $3000 on diapers for each child. Our cloth diapers plus accesories have cost us $300. I'm not good at math, but that's a REALLY good savings, especially since we get to use the same diapers for Julianna. We are even going as far as using cloth wipes. I LOVE my cloth diapers. I don't know why I didn't start this sooner, I guess I was scared of the "work" involved, but it's really not that much and well worth it!
Another change we've made is adding a compost pile in our back yard. You would be amazed at how much organic trash you throw away every day! Especially now that we are eating more fresh fruits and veggies, we are getting quite the pile started. I have plans to start a tomato garden later this spring, although the compost won't be ready until next year. I hope to be able to add more veggies next year. Josh lovingly removed some of the dead shrubs from the front of our house to give me a little bit of garden space. I'm excited about the possibilities.
When Sydney was first born and Josh was still enjoying his paternity leave he spent a lot of time doing some online shopping. His goal was to make purchases and then sell for a profit. One of his deals was an immersion blender which I have been wanting to make baby food. With a little encouragement from him and a huge dose of gumption I have finally gotten into a good baby food making routine. It's actually very easy and I enjoy giving her natural foods with no preservatives. The girls have enjoyed (and myself) the educational experience of digging into each fruit and veggie and seeing the different seeds. A few months ago I wouldn't have been able to tell you the difference between a Mango and a Papaya, but now I am well educated in more unique fruits and veggies.
One of our goals for our girls is to provide organic, all natural education (AKA Homeschool). We have been doing different preschool activities and last week we enjoyed Green Week in honor of St. Patrick's Day. And yes, we enjoyed green eggs and pancakes :) See, we are going green all over the place!
I am really enjoying trying to find ways to be more natural and environmentally friendly. I have been working on increasing our recycling to decrease the amount of items we just throw away. Although I'm far from green and all natural I feel so much better nowing I'm doing just a little big to help the wonderful earth that God has blessed us with!

Peace

Since I haven't updated the world in about 3 1/2 months, I thought now would be a good time to let everyone know what has been going on in the Bradley world. Be prepared, our camera is not working well, so there will be no adorable pictures in this post, but you will be well up-to-date once you've endured all the reading :)

December
We had a wonderful Christmas holiday with family. We had a simple gathering at my folks house before we left for Minnnesota. I love our traditional Lasagna dish for Christmas dinner, even though it's not the conventional one, it sure makes this preggo happy! Sydney got her new stocking this year at my mom's house. She hand makes everyone's stockings. The mantle is getting pretty full let me tell ya! Next year there will be two more, one for my new niece, Anna, and one for baby Julianna (did I tell you we decided on a name?)
Josh was able to get a full week off around Christmas, so we packed everyone, even the dog, and started the trek to MN. We stopped first in Ohio. It was a loooooong day of traveling. It was snowy on the roads starting in Virginia, so at every stop everyone got all dirty from the snow and salt on the roads. West Virginia was the worst! It was like they used coal to melt the ice on the roads. And try getting a dog to pee on the snow! What should have been at max a 10 hour trip ended up taking 13 hours. We opened presents with Josh's folks and then had a family meeting. Tomorrow's trek to MN would be a minimum of 10 (but more than likely 12, but at our rate at least 14). My head was starting to spin. I really wanted to see Josh's family. They are a fun bunch to be around, especially at Christmas, there are many traditions that I enjoy. But the thought of being on the road another full day, and then two more full days on the way back was stressful. After some prayer and discussion Josh decided it would be best to stay in Ohio for our Christmas. It was a tough decision, but I think the best one for our family right now.
We ended up with a new family member by the end of the trip. Josh took me to the mall to look around and lo and behold they have pet stores right in the mall that actually sell puppies! My heart was stolen the first time I saw him, the most adorable little Cockapoo you have ever since, just this tiny little ball of fluff. We made a wonderful compulsive decision to add him to our family. So Sammy joined us for the ride home as well.

January
Life was pretty busy with two dogs, two preschoolers and a six months old. We begrudgingly said "goodbye" to vacation life and "hello" to the real world. I started helping with a new ministry at church, I had ended my career as a Children's Minister at the end of the year. Now I am helping with a group called "Appleseeds" for 8th grade girls. I am really enjoying the change of pace and not actually being the person in charge. It's nice to do ministry and not be stressed about it! One of the meetings towards the end of the month I was not feeling so well. I had called Josh on the way to ask for prayer because I was in some pain. It hadn't been unusual for me this pregnancy and I was trying to ignore it, but it was not going away. I had all three girls with me this night as well. I was looking forward to getting there because I knew that one of the ladies is a physical therapist and I thought she might have some recommendations for me to ease the pain. By the time I got to the church things were starting to take a turn for the worse. It was becoming very hard for me to hide the fact that I wasn't feeling good. The physical therapist wasn't able to help with the pain that I was having, especially since I am pregnant, but both her and another women made the suggestion to call the Dr., so that's what I did. Through tears, at this point, I called an OB and described my symptoms. The only things she could do was tell me to go to the ER. I called Josh, made arrangements for the girls and my parents picked me up to go to the hospital. The ER was PACKED!! I signed in and was seen by triage. I gave a urine sample which I embarassingly had to carry through the crowded ER waiting room. Josh left work and met me. I was relieved once he arrived, he was wearing scrubs, so I thought maybe he would have some leverage. I had overheard one man telling me his wife had to wait 4 hours to been since. I moaned at the thought of having to wait that long. I tried to remain decent, but the pain was getting too severe. I did the only thing I could think of, assume birthing positions. That's all I could think of to ease the pain. After 3 hours of waiting I was really starting to loose it. Josh took be back to triage in a wheel chair, at this point I couldn't even walk. I threw up all over the floor and started moaning, I just couldn't keep control of myself anymore. After 4 long hours I was finally given a room, and some pain meds. Life was good, for a little while. They did an ultrasound, gave me more meds and sent me home with an uncertain diagnosis. I suffered all weekend long! The pain meds had to be increased and I couldn't keep any food down. Monday I went in to see the OB. She admitted me to the hospital. Apparently I was dehydrated and in pain. I got more meds, oh the bliss! And they hooked me up to tons of fluid. I used the bathroom and passed something. I was starting to feel better. After three bags of fluid and constant urination life was good. I stayed over night and we concluded/assumed that I had actually had a kidney stone and passes it once I was admitted. Soda can be a contributing factor to kidney stones, and I drink A LOT of soda. Since I didn't want to be in that kind of pain again, I have not drank any soda since then.

February
I was discharged on Feb. 1st. Things were going well until that Sunday. Makayla fell asleep during church, which is very unusual for her and which we normally don't allow. We were meeting with my folks and grandma for lunch. We got to lunch and she was BURNING! By the end of the week Caroline and myself had the same symptoms. Caroline got tested and was positive for flu. Great. Not only did we have the flu, but over the next weekend I got a respiratory infection on top of it. With lots of meds and help from Josh and my mom we all revived in time for some company. My good friend Jenn flew in from California to visit for a week. We had a great time and I really enjoyed some girl time and extra help around the house. Josh took me on an awesome date night, probably the most thought out in our history of being together. I loved it!
Once we saw Jenn off Josh's mom came in for a quick weekend visit. Although it was fast, the girls had a great time! They each got to make their own Build-A-Bear (I think it took Makayla an hour just to pick out a bear!) and on Saturday Meemaw and Josh took them to Marbles, one of our favorite kids museums. I enjoyed some one-on-one time with Sydney and some much needed rest. I was still recovering from all the illness. We are all looking forward to Meemaw's next visit once Julianna gets here.

March
Josh and I celebrated our 7th anniversary this month. In order to do something a little different I researched the traditional wedding gifts and gave him a gift everyday for a week up until our anniversary. Although the gifts weren't much, it was nice having a special time each night to celebrate together. Josh made arrangements for some friends from church to watch the girls and he took me away for an evening. We stayed in a hotel. We had a great time having some fun together and enjoying a nice dinner at Outback without kids. It was a wonderful time and I couldn't be more thankful to be married to Josh.
Now Josh has been having some medical issues that we both felt was necessary to get checked out. So in a whirlwind of three days and lots of Dr.'s visits we found out that he has Ulceritive Colitis. Luckily his isn't the serious kind, but can pose many different issues, even getting worse. So we are now beginning to work on his medicines to see what is going to help reprieve his symptoms. He has a great attitude, but is still in shock by the diagnosis.
While all of this is going on, the weather has decided to change, which means the changing of the seasons in our house. With three little girls, this is not an easy task. Our bedroom has been full of buckets of clothes. We have been sorting and switching and sorting again for what seems like forever. I never thought I would see my bedroom floor again. But finally, last night, we finished the task. 7 rubbermaid containers! Our house has been such a mess and life has been so chaotic I have been pretty stressed lately. So after two full days of cleaning and organizing things are finally back in place.
Peace.
It's so nice.
Things have been crazy the past three months, but that's our life. I am thankful for this moment of peace I have been blessed with and use it to recharge for the next season of stress!