Hamster Woes

**WARNING : Graphic verbal images contained herein **

We've been having gruesome hamster issues. Maggie chewed on Eatey late this spring and she went blind in one eye. We woke up this Saturday morning to her other eye almost falling out of her head after an obvious fight with her sister in the cage. We separated them so now we have 2 cages on the buffet.

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Ds#3 (who owns the hamsters) begged to call the vet. A $35 office visit didn't seem right for a free hamster, but it also didn't seem right to just let her suffer. On Monday, he asked if he could pay for the vet out of his allowance. We said, "yes" and got her in to the vet this morning (so much for school this morning). The Dr. handled her pretty roughly for her injured state and when we got home, her eye that went blind in spring time just fell out (I haven't told Drew, yet). So, $50 later, the Dr. gave us antibiotics to give her 2x/day with the warning that she may not make it through. I am quite rattled by it all. Drew is incredibly optimistic and appreciative that he was allowed to do all he could to care for his charge.

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(A blind hamster with one eye that just fell out and the other swollen with puss & infection and my little boy praying so confidently) His prayers and optimism are almost heartbreaking considering what bad shape she is in. I keep thinking of all the suffering people in the world and the fact that my prayers are all for a hamster....

1st day of school, 2007

What a great start to the year...I'm sure this will be typical of our days!

We got up for morning Mass and everyone was good. Our priest gave us a blessing for our first day of school. We stopped at the store for eggs and came home to make pancakes, sausage and fruit for a big healthy breakfast. At 10am we started our full-day of school.

At 10:30 I woke up in my chair with the kids laughing at me that I couldn't stay awake. As I stumbled upstairs and mumbled something about them trying to do some independent work while I tried to take a nap...they were laughing at me, again.

Finally, at 12:45, I woke up (feeling SOOO guilty!) and the kids honestly had done much of their seat work (and a craft and a science movie from the library I had onhand). So, we had lunch and did some chores and started school at 2pm. We had to work until 7pm, but we got almost everything done for the day including our chores....whew!

I'd like to THINK that our days won't be that disjointed and I won't be out of commission that much...but we'll just have to wait and see. I think I need to read some more about homeschooling while pregnant. This is tough!

Schedule

I cover this in-depth on the "schedule page of my website", somehow I can't get tables to bring well on this blog....(just putting the finishing touches on what we "should do" for tomorrow.) I think if you click on the link above, the schedule should be more readable on the website. This helps me "feel" organized and make sure I'm not trying to pack too much into my schedule (which obviously, I am). Remember, that we only do school 4 days a week, so I want those 4 days to really count for something. The kids laughed at me today and told me I'd do 2 days of school and be so tired from being pregnant that I'd give them a week off -- it's possible!

Last Day of Summer

We had a pow-wow. The kids like those. We make indian noises and everyone meets in the same room on the floor (well, I sit in a chair). The topic was what do for our last day of summer. Everyone suggested ideas and they got written on our list no matter how crazy or impossible - 16 ideas. Then we went through the list and eliminated the ones that were not going to work and we discussed which ones to keep on the list and why. We voted on the remaining 8, each kid got 3 votes and I could override all votes if I chose (I rarely do that -- I just don't call a pow-wow if I need something to happen in a certain way). That narrowed the list down to our top 5. We revoted and each kid got to vote for 2. The kids chose to have friends come over for the day. We voted on who. We called them, but they just had their 6th baby and the mom was on bedrest. So, I read to them and we cuddled the rest of the evening until we could try more friends tomorrow. By the end of the evening, all the kids revoted and asked if we could have a fun day at home with just us. This is what we chose to do with our last day of summer....

We cleaned our rooms...(mostly).




We read to the kids and let the kids read to us who needed to finish the library's summer reading program that ends today.








We made music.









We baked cookies and a cake, well Dd#2 baked it -- Ds#4 just made a mess.

We visited the midwife for a prenatal appointment (but all the kids know that this was really a play-date with the midwife's kids.)

We turned in our sheets at Barnes & Noble for their reading program.

We turned in our summer reading program sheets and books at the library -- and got more books!

Start School

We start school in 4 days!! Next Monday, in spite of a sleepless night, I plan on starting school. I'm a little anxious (I always am) and a little excited (each year I'm less excited, but after 6 years of the first day of homeschooling, I'm just thankful that I can still muster excitement each year -- I wonder what I'll be at my 16th year? That's a little daunting to think about.)

Taking the summer off does wonders for my eagerness to start school in the fall.

This year to start school, I :

• bought new books
• filled out the kids' new student planners
• cleaned the schoolroom
• got a new recliner to sit in (for me)
• put up new posters (Astronomy -- I took down the Greek gods poster)
• cleaned the house
• bought a few new school supplies (we didn't need much)
• had the kids clean out their desks

I wish I would have:

• gotten a coat of paint in the room we'll do school in
• did a 30-day cooking session

but, those things were not to be.
I think we'll go out for Pizza and do school in our pajamas the first day.

What do you do to make the start of school special?

Student Planners

As an update to my previous planner post, we found a new one this year.
This year, I'm switching to Good News Planners which are a Catholic student planner that has saints per day and a list on the last column of the week for spelling words (I LOVE that part!). It also reinforces the gospel for the week on "empty" days. I even ordered one for Ds#4, who keeps trying to take his off the shelf to start school. They have 3 versions - primary, elementary & jr. high. I ordered the elementary version for all 4 kids - it'll just work better for the way we do school.

The kids are getting more excited, so I think I'll try to start the first full week in August. I'm a little anxious, but also eager. (I love it when I've had enough of a break that I'm eager, again.)

Cleaning Day

Usually Saturday is our cleaning day, but we're having our priests and seminarian over for dinner tonight, so we're cleaning today. Everyone has been very helpful and are all earning alot for their allowance today. They're doing jobs like washing the dog, picking up the back yard, vacuuming & doing dishes. We've had to scrape dried cereal off diningroom chairs so grown-ups can sit on them, wash baseboards & walls & windows & doorknobs (always a sticky job).

Some kids are more excited about their individual jobs than others....

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Pork Chops were on sale, so that's what we're having. Here's my recipe :
Pork Chops Use the following as a rub on the chops - 1tsp salt 1/2 tsp pepper 1/2 tsp sage 1/2 tsp thyme bay leaf pinch allspice 1 clove garlic, mashed then, for the crockpot add - 1/2 cup water Crockpot for 8 hours on low and enjoy!